Meanwhile In Bevinstan, Con't

As if we didn't have enough news to process today, here in Kentucky things also took a turn for the worse, both ugly and bizarre.  GOP Gov. Matt Bevin vetoed the state budget, tax reform, and pension reform bills because they didn't punish state employees and Kentucky's poor enough earlier this week, so on Friday the state legislature overrode all three vetoes.

The Kentucky General Assembly on Friday voted to override vetoes by Gov. Matt Bevin on three key bills: the two-year, $22 billion state budget; changes to the tax code expected to generate several hundred million dollars in new revenue; and a measure that will give pension relief to local governments.

Although the House and Senate are overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans, lawmakers said they wanted to show their independence from the Republican governor, who early in the day criticized their budget and tax bills on Twitter.

“If you think siding with the governor and giving him the authority to control this budget is a good idea, then vote ‘No,’” Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, told his Senate colleagues, urging them to vote for the veto override on the budget bill.

Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Saturday for the last day of the 2018 legislative session. They said they expect to pass one or more measures to “tweak” inadvertent errors in their hastily assembled tax bill and deal with other problems brought to their attention in the past two weeks, including additional money needed for the statewide Kentucky Wired internet broadband project.

Bevin does have line-item veto power, but he scrapped all three bills in their entirely because his significantly deeper budget cuts, especially to education and infrastructure, were not included.  He sent the bills back this week and announced that unless his cuts were passed, he would call a special session and keep it open until he got his way.

When he didn't get what he demanded on cuts to education funding and teacher benefits and pensions, Matt Bevin showed who he truly is to the entire state, country, and world.

Gov. Matt Bevin, asked Friday about teachers leaving the classrooms to attend a protest rally in Frankfort, said, “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.”

Louisville’s WDRB-TV interviewed Bevin outside the Capitol Friday about the rally.

In the interview, Bevin said, “This is what’s crazy to me. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of children today were left home alone?

He then added that consequently a child in Kentucky was sexually assaulted. He added that he guaranteed a child was “physically assaulted or ingested poison because they were home alone because a single parent didn’t have any money to take care of them.”

Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler said Friday night she was appalled at Bevin’s comment.

“There are no words,” Winkler said. “My mouth was hanging open and I don’t even know what I can tell you." 

Lawmakers in both parties called him out after Bevin exploded in rage on Friday.

“The disgusting comments by Gov. Bevin insinuating that a peaceful protest by teachers would lead to sexual assault are reprehensible,” tweeted state Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville. “I don’t agree with these comments & I find them repulsive. I disagreed with his radio comments about teachers before & I disagree with these.”

In response to Wise’s tweet, Daviess County Superintendent Matt Robbins called for the Republican-led General Assembly — in Frankfort on Saturday for its last day of business — to censure Bevin.

“This is reprehensible and his own party needs to tell him enough is enough,” Robbins said.

Former House Speaker Jeff Hoover, who has been sniping with Bevin over his ethic hearing on sexual harassment had just two sentences on Twitter:

“Out of control. Unhinged.”

Another Republican senator, Whitney Westerfield of Hopkinsville, said on Twitter he was troubled, frustrated and disappointed by Bevin’s comments, “once again needlessly and unjustly demonizing a group of professionals who, like the eight I met with for an hour before we convened, were engaging with legislators peacefully.”

I've been telling people for years that Bevin is an asshole of the lowest order.  What Trump is doing to the country right now, Bevin's been doing since 2015.  If you still somehow had doubt that he wasn't a vile scumbag, now you know what Kentucky's had to deal with.

I expect that situation will be rectified next year.

 

Last Call For Wag The Dog

It was a devastating news day for Donald Trump today.

First, came the obvious message pitch across Robert Mueller's bow that Trump will reward loyalty with pardons, as he pardoned former Dick Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby.

In his decision Friday to pardon a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, President Trump telegraphed his open hostility to the criminal justice system and his desire to use the power of the presidency as a personal political tool.

As with his controversial pardon last year of a former Arizona county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who had been held in contempt of court, Trump effectively thumbed his nose at the judiciary by pardoning I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The Justice Department was not involved in either case, officials said.

Trump acknowledged Friday that he has no personal relationship with Libby, but the George W. Bush administration veteran has powerful allies in the conservative movement who lobbied Trump over many months. Trump concluded that Libby had been unfairly convicted in 2007 because of an overzealous prosecutor who investigated the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity and was deserving of a pardon.

When that's the lede in your story on the Libby pardon, you've already lost.  Trump knew it.  And the day only got worse for him when the cycle turned to his lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The FBI seized recordings President Donald Trump's attorney made of his conversations with a lawyer representing two women who had alleged affairs with Trump, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. 

The recordings could prove valuable to the government's criminal investigation of Michael Cohen. The President's personal attorney is under scrutiny in part for his role in seeking to suppress the alleged affair through a hush deal with porn star Stormy Daniels. The warrant sought information about that payment along with any information that connected Cohen with efforts to suppress disclosure of Trump's alleged affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal. 

The warrant for the raids also specified that Cohen was being investigated for bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance issues, CNN reported earlier this week. 

While Cohen has admitted to no wrongdoing, the intensity of the government's investigation will put significant pressure on one of the President's closest confidants. If Cohen chooses to cooperate rather than fight a potential case against him, then his knowledge about the President's activities could create serious problems for Trump as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation. 

The source said Cohen recorded some calls he had with attorney Keith Davidson, who at the time represented both Daniels and McDougal. Davidson no longer represents either woman. Their deals to keep their stories about alleged affairs quiet are now the subject of litigation, with each seeking to be released from their agreements. 

Again, Cohen is definitely under a major federal investigation and has been for months, and the FBI has pretty much everything as far as evidence.  Trump knows the walls are closing in.

It only got worse for him.

A major donor with close ties to the White House resigned on Friday as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee after the revelation that he had agreed to pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair.

The deal was arranged in the final months of 2017 by President Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen.

Under the terms of the deal, the Republican donor, Elliott Broidy, would pay the woman in installments over the course of two years, and she would agree to stay silent about their relationship, two people with knowledge of the arrangement told The New York Times. The deal was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The agreement with Mr. Broidy is the latest instance to come to light of Mr. Cohen’s involvement in efforts to suppress negative information. On Monday, as part of a wide-ranging federal inquiry into Mr. Cohen’s activities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the lawyer’s Manhattan office and hotel room. The F.B.I. was seeking, among other things, business records, emails and documents relating to Mr. Cohen’s role in paid confidentiality agreements during the presidential campaign with two other women, who said they had had sexual relationships with Mr. Trump.

Another deal, this time a massive payout to cover for a major GOP donor and deputy finance chairman of the RNC.  The Republicans are neck-deep in a titanic campaign finance scandal, and it looks like everything revolved around Michael Cohen.

The Trump regime though has struck back, first, trying to discredit Andrew McCabe by choosing today to release the section of the Justice Department's Inspector General report on McCabe's firing.

The Justice Department inspector general delivered to Congress on Friday a scathing report that accused Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director, of violating the federal law enforcement agency’s media policy and then repeatedly misleading investigators about his actions.

The inspector general found that Mr. McCabe, 50, had lacked candor on four occasions when questioned by investigators and faulted his decision to authorize the disclosure of information to a reporter with The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 as self-serving.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the report, Mr. McCabe said that he had full authorization to share this information with the news media as deputy director and that he did not intentionally mislead investigators. He also argued that his decision to release information about an investigation into the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation was justified and in the public’s interest.

Mr. McCabe, a 21-year F.B.I. veteran, was fired in March after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected an appeal that would have let him retire with a full government pension.

At the time, Mr. Sessions said that Mr. McCabe had repeatedly shown a lack of candor under oath. Mr. McCabe disputed that, saying his firing was meant to undermine the special counsel investigation being led by Robert S. Mueller III, and to discredit him as a witness.

The report is brutal on McCabe, basically accusing him of leaking the details of the Clinton email investigation to the Wall Street Journal in October 2016 and crucifying him for it, serving him up as the Judas goat that ruined Clinton's chances (and neatly exonerating any Russian connection or Trump, according to the White House, anyway.)  The dastardly villain who wrecked the Clinton campaign with an October surprise was caught and fired, case closed, investigation over!

That Trump "victory" turned to ashes though this evening when an even bigger Cohen story hit the wire.

The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

It would also be one of the most significant developments thus far in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the Trump campaign and the Kremlin worked together to help Trump win the White House. Undercutting Trump’s repeated pronouncements that “there is no evidence of collusion,” it also could ratchet up the stakes if the president tries, as he has intimated he might for months, to order Mueller’s firing.

Cohen caught cold considering collusion!  My my my, this story certainly will be the headline tomorrow morning, won't it?  Trump knows the walls are closing in certainly now.  Mueller and Rosenstein are no longer the threat.

President Trump’s advisers have concluded that a wide-ranging corruption investigation into his personal lawyer poses a greater and more imminent threat to the president than even the special counsel’s investigation, according to several people close to Mr. Trump.

As his lawyers went to court in New York on Friday to try to block prosecutors from reading files that were seized from the personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, this week, Mr. Trump found himself increasingly isolated in mounting a response. He continued to struggle to hire a new criminal lawyer, and some of his own aides were reluctant to advise him about a response for fear of being dragged into a criminal investigation themselves.

The raids on Mr. Cohen came as part of a monthslong federal investigation based in New York, court records show, and were sweeping in their breadth. In addition to searching his home, office and hotel room, F.B.I. agents seized material from Mr. Cohen’s cellphones, tablet, laptop and safe deposit box, according to people briefed on the warrants. Prosecutors revealed in court documents that they had already secretly obtained many of Mr. Cohen’s emails.

Mr. Trump called Mr. Cohen on Friday to “check in,” according to two people briefed on the call. Depending on what else was discussed, the call could be problematic, as lawyers typically advise their clients against discussing investigations.

Mr. Cohen has publicly declared that he would defend the president to the end, but court documents show that prosecutors are building a significant case that could put pressure on him to cooperate and tell investigators what he knows.

The documents seized by prosecutors could shed light on the president’s relationship with a lawyer who has helped navigate some of Mr. Trump’s thorniest personal and business dilemmas. Mr. Cohen served for more than a decade as a trusted fixer and, during the campaign, helped tamp down brewing scandals about women who claimed to have carried on affairs with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump, Mr. Cohen and their teams were still scrambling on Friday to assess the damage from the raid early Monday morning. They remained unsure what had been taken, an uncertainty that has heightened the unease around Mr. Trump.

Trump is in the bunker, up against the clock.  And he made the only move he figured he had left.

For tonight, Friday the 13th of April, 2018, we just declared war on Syria.

The United States and European allies launched strikes against Syrian targets, President Trump announced on Friday, seeking to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus last weekend that killed more than 40 people.

Mr. Trump said Britain and France had joined the United States in the strikes, which he said were underway.

“These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead,” Mr. Trump, in a televised nighttime address from the White House Diplomatic Room, said of the chemical attacks that he blamed on Mr. Assad.

He said the allied strikes of precision weapons sought to deter the production, spread and use of chemical weapons as “a vital national security interest of the United States.”

“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” Mr. Trump said.

The strikes risked pulling the United States deeper into the complex, multi-sided war in Syria from which Mr. Trump only last week said he wanted to withdraw. They also raised the possibility of confrontation with Russia and Iran, both of which have military forces in Syria to support Mr. Assad.

And so, less than two weeks after wanting to completely cut and run from Syria, Donald Trump has played the "wag the dog" card in order to save his presidency.

Tonight, America and the world just became an exponentially scarier place.  All of this happened in less than 24 hours.

At this point, all bets are off.  Here there be dragons.

Godspeed. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.

So Fast It'll SNAP Your Head Back

Trump and the GOP are now turning to "welfare reform" after giving corporations their huge tax cut and wrecking Obamacare.  House Republicans want to start by imposing a three month limit and an 80-hours-per-month work requirement on all SNAP recipients, not just those without dependents.

Republicans controlling the House are proposing sweeping new work mandates on the nation’s more than 40 million food stamp recipients as they kick off debate on a politically-freighted election-year overhaul of the government’s food and farm programs. 

Legislation released Thursday would require able-bodied adults aged 18-59 to work or participate in job training for 20 hours a week in order to receive food stamp benefits that average about $450 a month for a family of four.

The measure, which ignored recommendations outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget proposal, has already sparked opposition from Democrats, whose support is generally needed to pass the measure through Congress. They say the tougher work requirements would drive millions of people off of the program.

That's the point, of course.  Can't find anyone to watch your kids while you work 20 hours a week in a minimum wage job?  Too bad, you're off SNAP and so are your kids.  Better hope school lunches fill in the gap...oh wait, Republicans want to trash that too.

Of course the whole point of criminalizing poverty is because our prison system always needs more bodies.

The latest proposal on food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would require states to impose stricter uniform work requirements for SNAP recipients between 18 and 59. 

Currently, adults 18-59 are required to work part-time or agree to accept a job if they’re offered one. Stricter rules apply to able-bodied adults without dependents between the ages of 18 and 49, who are subject to a three-month limit of benefits unless they meet a work requirement of 80 hours per month. Under the new bill, that requirement would be expanded to apply to all work-capable adults, mandating that they either work or participate in work training for 20 hours per week with the exception of seniors, pregnant women, caretakers of children under the age of six, or people with disabilities. 

The new work requirements would take effect in 2021, and increase to 25 hours per week in 2026. Each new SNAP recipient would have one month to comply with the rule. 

The measure also limits circumstances under which families who qualify for other poverty programs can automatically be eligible for SNAP.

So it gets even worse, especially for anyone new to SNAP.  Another massive recession, caused by say, an unstable narcissist sociopath and his terrible trade, economic, and housing policies, would drive millions of families to SNAP, where they would have to work or starve.  Sorry, no free lunch in America, citizen.  You can have your food, or your job and freedom to earn minimum wage so that you can't afford anything else, but not both.

Try feeding that to voters in 2020.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

Looks like the Mueller investigation will move forward without Mueller interviewing Donald Trump as the Trump lawyer Michael Cohen raid on Monday means the White House is now refusing to make Trump available to talk.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office and President Donald Trump’s legal team are now proceeding with strategies that presume a presidential interview will likely not take place as part of the Russia investigation, after months of talks between the two sides collapsed earlier this week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

On Monday Trump’s lawyers were discussing a possible interview with Mueller's team and had begun to hash out the final sticking points, including the timing, scope and length, according to people familiar with the discussions. One person familiar with the strategy said the president’s lawyers had over the weekend sought to expand his legal team to include individuals who would prepare him for an interview. Another person familiar with the matter, however, said preparations had not yet gone that far. 

But the prospects for a presidential interview dramatically dimmed once the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen on Monday, these people said. The president criticized the raid as out of bounds in Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump aides.

So, petulant, petty Trump is picking up his ball and going home.  That's fine, Mueller never really needed to interview Trump to make his case, especially now that he's holding all the cards from the Cohen raid.  But now that the White House has told Mueller to go pound sand, Mueller can just smile and say "Well, we gave Mr. Trump the option to present his side of the story and he refused to do so."

It'll make it all the more damning when the truth all comes out.  And that truth could come faster than expected with the Washington Post revelation that Michael Cohen liked to record his clients...and his only client right now is Donald Trump.

President Trump’s personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week.

Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant of Trump, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues, according to people who have interacted with him.

“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” said one Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? . . . Did they find his recordings?”

Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman referred a request for comment to Cohen and his attorney.

If Donald Trump wasn't seething before, he is now.  Again, Mueller is holding all the cards and Trump damn well knows it.

Somebody else who has quite a handful of cards?  Former FBI Director James Comey, whose tell-all book A Higher Loyalty is out next week.  The reviews and excerpts are out now, and dear lord, is Donald Trump going to be extra pissed this weekend.

Former FBI Director James Comey blasts President Donald Trump as unethical and “untethered to truth” in a sharply critical new book that describes Trump as fixated in the early days of his administration on having the FBI debunk salacious rumors he insisted were untrue but could distress his wife.

In the forthcoming book, Comey compares Trump to a mafia don and calls his leadership of the country “ego driven and about personal loyalty.”

He also reveals new details about his interactions with Trump and his own decision-making in handling the Hillary Clinton email investigation before the 2016 election. He casts Trump as a mobster-like figure who sought to blur the line between law enforcement and politics and tried to pressure him personally regarding his investigation into Russian election interference.

The book adheres closely to Comey’s public testimony and written statements about his contacts with Trump and his growing concern about Trump’s integrity. It also includes strikingly personal jabs at Trump that appear sure to irritate the president.

The 6-foot-8 Comey describes Trump as shorter than he expected with a “too long” tie and “bright white half-moons” under his eyes that he suggests came from tanning goggles. He also says he made a conscious effort to check the president’s hand size, saying it was “smaller than mine but did not seem unusually so.”

Now Comey's tale is self-serving to a point, as far as I'm concerned Comey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are about as responsible as it comes for putting Trump in the White House in the last 30 days of the 2016 campaign, and both men are searching for absolution that will never come.  But the revelations here are guaranteed to make Trump volcanically furious.

And now Trump will absolutely need to lash out and punish someone. Trump and company are now seriously going after Rod Rosenstein as the base is being tilled and seeded for his inevitable firing.

The White House is preparing talking points designed to undermine Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's credibility, according to sources familiar with the plan. 

The plan calls on President Donald Trump's allies to cast Rosenstein as too conflicted to fairly oversee the Russia investigation. 

The talking points are still in their preliminary form, and not yet finalized, people familiar with their preparation said. The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment. 

Already, a number of Trump's associates have called for Rosenstein's firing in appearances on television and in public remarks over the past few days, but not all of them did so at the request of the White House.

Again, there's no need to do this unless the plan is to put pressure on Rosenstein to convince him to resign or to prep the narrative for his firing.  Note that Trump did the same for pushing Jeff Sessions into firing Andrew McCabe.  Something similiar and much more sinister is happening here, as of course this is deliberately interference in the investigation against Trump and at worse, clearly obstruction of justice.

Efforts to undermine Rosenstein in the media come as the President is weighing whether to fire the top official overseeing the Russia investigation. 

Trump is still livid about the raid on his private attorney Michael Cohen -- "He'll be pissed about it until he dies," another source said -- and he and his allies are increasingly convinced that Mueller and Rosenstein have overstepped their bounds. 

One area of conflict the White House wants its surrogates to highlight: Rosenstein's role as a key witness to the Comey firing, sources said. Rosenstein wrote the memo justifying Comey's dismissal. It centered on his conduct in investigating Hillary Clinton's use of private email. 

The White House is also hoping Trump's defenders will paint Rosenstein and Comey as close colleagues and argue that Rosenstein is approving an ever-expanding investigation against Trump and his associates as retribution.

This is what the White House wants.  Trump wants Rosenstein gone, and with him, Robert Mueller.  There should be no doubt that the move will be made in the next few weeks, if not days. Whether or not Congress or the American people act as a result, we'll see.

StupidiNews!

• Donald Trump is expected to pardon Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, convicted of leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence.
• Trump also wants to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but only if offered "substantially better" terms than the original agreement.
• As tensions between the US and Russia grow over Syria, Moscow lawmakers are working on a list of US imports that could be banned completely from Russia in retaliation for US sanctions.
• Miami's Fisher Island is the new king of bling, beating out Silicon Valley's Atherton, California as America's wealthiest zip code, Beverly Hills, 90210, is number 32.
• Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering charges related to the site's use to place ads for prostitution, the site will be permanently shuttered.

Last Call For Saving Privatization Ryan

GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan is retiring and his Wisconsin district is up for grabs, but Ryan may not make it until the end of his term before the Langoliers in the GOP fall upon his rotting political corpse and devour him.

Paul Ryan said he plans to remain as speaker and not call an early leadership election, but well-wired Republicans tell Jonathan Swan and me that Ryan may be forced out sooner. 

What we're hearing: One source close to leadership told us: "Scuttlebutt is that Paul will have to step down from speakership soon. Members won’t follow a lame duck, he’ll have no leverage to cut deals, and the last thing they need in this environment is 6 months of palace intrigue and everyone stabbing everyone else in the back."

A senior GOP House member predicted this about Ryan’s future: “He will be gone by the end of July.” 

Some big donors, who have given millions to Ryan this cycle, may not want him to stay on as speaker if the entire party is taking on water. 

This is not because he’ll struggle to raise money. Enough donors from the old Romney-Ryan world will write checks to Ryan to try to save the majority. 

It’s more about certainty and stability. Members need certainty and they don’t want to operate until November in a climate where every move from every member of leadership is viewed through the prism of jostling for the speakership. 

Our sources say that could pull an already divided conference even further apart. 

So we wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan reverses himself before August, setting an early election for the next speaker...

Two observations here.

One, I think the real issue is what happens in the next month with Syria and Mueller.  If Trump makes a major military push against Assad and/or fires Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein, you'll see the House GOP fall in line very, very quickly and Ryan will remain as the lightning rod. Trump's capricious petty vengeance has the added effect of focusing the mind of the problem of self-preservation for everyone around him. As long as Ryan stays around, the rest of the House GOP is off the accountability hook, and this could very well be why Ryan made the announcement now and is falling on his sword to preserve the gains the GOP has made so far.

Two, this is all dependent on somebody actually wanting to replace Ryan before the November election.  Does Steve Scalise or Kevin McCarthy want to be the new captain of the Titanic with the twin icebergs of Trump's unpopularity and the Democratic wave  in sight, or do they wait until the House GOP self-destructs so they can blame Ryan and start fresh in 2019 as the minority party?  Believe me, if Scalise or McCarthy take over the job now, they'll be the goat staked out for the T-Rex of Failure to come feast upon when the January election for leadership rolls around.

It's possible, but I'm betting the remaining players in House GOP leadership are going to suddenly discover that keeping Paul Ryan around as a human shield is much, much more preferable than drawing active fire from both the base and the Democrats, not to mention Trump spraying and praying.

We'll see.

Operation Comey Island

The Trump regime is mobilizing ahead of the release of former FBI Director James Comey's tell-all book A Higher Loyalty next week, with the intent of trashing Comey for several days leading up to the book hitting stores and e-readers. 

President Donald Trump's allies are preparing an extensive campaign to fight back against James Comey's publicity tour, trying to undermine the credibility of the former FBI director by reviving the blistering Democratic criticism of him before he was fired nearly a year ago. 

The battle plan against Comey, obtained by CNN, calls for branding the nation's former top law enforcement official as "Lyin' Comey" through a website, digital advertising and talking points to be sent to Republicans across the country before his memoir is released next week. The White House signed off on the plan, which is being overseen by the Republican National Committee. 

"Comey is a liar and a leaker and his misconduct led both Republicans and Democrats to call for his firing," Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to CNN. "If Comey wants the spotlight back on him, we'll make sure the American people understand why he has no one but himself to blame for his complete lack of credibility." 

While it's an open question how successful Republicans will be in making their case against Comey, given that Trump unceremoniously dismissed him last May 9, there is no doubt that many Democrats remain furious at how the former FBI director treated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Republicans hope to remind Democrats why they disliked Comey by assailing his credibility, shining a new light on his conduct and pointing out his contradictions -- or the three Cs. 

An old quotation from Clinton is prominently displayed on the "Lyin'Comey" website, with Trump's former Democratic rival saying that Comey "badly overstepped his bounds."

I assume it will be just about as "effective" as the Trump regime effort to discredit Michael Wolff before Fire and Fury hit the stands back in January, which is to say it will backfire tremendously and serve as a spectacular example of the Streisand Effect in action.

Speaking of Wolff, the little weasel takes to the Hollywood Reporter this week to make the case for his book and to attack the media again.

Donald Trump's standard operating procedure of conflict, insults, reversals and dismissals — fire and fury, if you will — is still reported by the news media with breathless surprise. The most obvious man on Earth is yet, to the media, always astonishing. Whose fault is that? Covering a train wreck requires different skills from covering politics. But political reporters continue to apply the hyper-rationality of political life and its heightened sense of cause and effect to Trump and his White House. Power, in this view, necessarily has logic and purpose. 

Earlier this year, The New York Times broke a story about how, in June, Trump tried to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. True enough — except that the Times story implied the culmination of a decision-making process and certain calculated intent. In fact, for most of June, Trump, in wounded-beast fashion, demanded every day that Mueller be fired. The difference, not at all fine, is between being in control and out of control, between a plan, however wicked, and a meltdown. Similarly, The Washington Post recently tried to explain Trump's legal team's worry about his testimony before the special counsel as having to do with "lack of precision in his speech and penchant for hyperbole." That's a significantly more comforting interpretation than that he has no ability to adapt to any standard measure of language and reality. 

By insisting that Trump merely refuses to conform or doesn't care to conform, the media misses the far more novel and alarming point: that he can't conform.

And while Wolff's relationship with the truth puts him firmly in the category of "opportunistic bastard" he's not wrong when it comes to Trump's trashing of norms: he can't conform to any because he's a serial narcissistic sociopath.

It's important to keep that in mind.

Three People Outside Jefferson City, Missouri, Con't

Missouri's GOP Gov. Eric Greitens is facing the very real prospect of impeachment after a scandal involving sexual abuse and blackmail of a mistress surfaced in January. 

It got worse when it quickly became apparent that Greitens wanted state legislators to protect his private texts from investigators, and when that failed police found ample evidence to indict the governor on felony charges in February as state lawmakers launched their own impeachment probe.

Now, six weeks after Greitens's indictment, Missouri state lawmakers have released the findings and testimony of their probe, and it is devastating to say the least.  The description of what Greitens allegedly did is graphic, fair warning.

When she tried to leave, sobbing after a non-consensual sexual encounter, she says the man who would be governor physically stopped her.

What happened next, she testified under oath to a Missouri House committee investigating allegations of misconduct against Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, is spelled out in graphic detail in a 25-page report and transcripts of testimony that the lawmakers released Wednesday.

It’s the first time the public has heard sworn testimony from the woman at the center of allegations of misconduct against the governor.

The woman told lawmakers that in March 2015, as she tried to leave the basement of his St. Louis home, Greitens grabbed her in a "bear hug" and laid her on the floor. Then he started fondling her, pulled out his penis and coerced her into oral sex while she wept “uncontrollably.”

The woman told the committee that Greitens had led her down to the basement, taped her hands to pull-up rings, blindfolded her, spit water into her mouth, ripped open her shirt, pulled down her pants and took a photo without her consent.

He threatened to make the photos public if she ever told anyone about their encounter, and called her "a little whore," the woman told lawmakers.

After her hands were freed, she said she felt she had no other choice but to perform oral sex if she was going to get out of the basement.

The woman and Greitens had several sexual encounters over the next few months in 2015, she testified. Some were consensual. Others were not.

On at least three occasions he hit her.

The explosive allegations were among the findings of the bipartisan investigative committee of the Missouri House that has been looking into allegations of wrongdoing against the Republican governor. The committee also interviewed two of the woman’s friends who say she told them a similar story at the time, as well as the woman’s ex-husband.

The committee – five Republicans and two Democrats – concluded that the woman's testimony is credible.

The calls for Greitens to resign were coming from Missouri Democrats before.  Now they are coming from Missouri Republicans as impeachment is now moving forward.

Republican legislative leaders — including House Speaker Todd Richardson and Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard — announced the report was enough to warrant a special session to consider disciplinary actions, including impeachment.

Attorney General Josh Hawley later issued a statement saying Greitens' alleged conduct detailed in the report "is certainly impeachable," and he called on the governor to resign.

Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said the testimony in the report "is beyond disturbing. He later added: "The power given to the Missouri General Assembly to take disciplinary action or remove elected officials from office is one of the most serious and consequential powers the Constitution grants the legislature. We will not take that responsibility lightly. We will not act rashly, but we will not shrink from it."

The full report is online here at the KC Star, and it is utterly astonishing.  Greitens is done, the only question is how he chooses to go out, with whatever minuscule shreds of personal dignity he can muster, or like a petulant child in the age of Trump's petulant childishness.

Again, when your own party has a near 75% super-majority in both chambers of the state legislature and a three-fourths vote is needed to call a special session, and the legislature basically has the votes to do that should it be necessary (the current session goes through May 18) with the only issue being the timing of when impeachment and/or your resignation takes place, then you're basically a walking political corpse.

We'll see what happens, but there's a very good chance that Greitens doesn't survive the month as governor, let alone the week.

StupidiNews!

• Russian military advisers in Syria say Assad regime forces have taken control of the Eastern Ghouta region after what the US says was a deadly bombing and chemical weapon campaign.
• Former Obama administration ethics chief Walter Shaub says he will support Americans "taking to the streets" if Special Counsel Robert Mueller is fired.
• China's Ministry of Commerce vows to fight back against the Trump regime's trade policies if Washington follows through with tens of billions in new punitive tariffs.
• A bipartisan bill in the US Senate is gaining momentum as Democrats and some Republicans want to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.
• Donald Trump has signed into law the controversial FOSTA/SESTA bill that Trump says will combat online sex trafficking, but critics say unfairly penalizes ISPs and endangers sex workers.

Last Call For Buckeye Bonfire

Seems the Speaker of the House in Ohio is retiring as well, and for more nefarious reasons as the FBI paid a little visit to Ohio Republican Cliff Rosenberger over the weekend, necessitating his sudden egress from the State Assembly.

Under investigation by the FBI for his lavish lifestyle, Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger resigned late Tuesday, effective May 1. 

"This inquiry has the potential to be very demanding and intensive, and could take months or even years to resolve," he said in a statement. "Ohioans deserve elected leaders who are able to devote their full and undivided attention to (lawmaking). ...

"I take this step with full confidence in my ultimate vindication." 

The FBI's interest in Rosenberger, one of Ohio's most powerful politicians, ranges from his worldwide travel to his use of a donor's luxury condo, several people briefed on the investigation told The Enquirer. 

As speaker, the Clinton County native has made the most of the perks of the office. An Enquirer review on Monday detailed his travel, ranging from Europe to Israel to Los Angeles to Boston. Often, his trips were paid for with other people's money, instead of out of his $100,798 salary. He often rubbed shoulders with lobbyists on the trips.

FBI agents are also looking into Rosenberger's cozy relationship with longtime GOP donor Ginni Ragan. Rosenberger, 36, of Clarksville, rented a luxury condo from her in downtown Columbus. The speaker did not say how much he paid in rent, and state law doesn't require he disclose it. 

Rep. Kirk Schuring, Rosenberger's No. 2, said he was not sure whether the FBI's investigation into Rosenberger included subpoenas of the House GOP or any of its members.

Rosenberger's meteoric rise to House Speaker at 36 was equaled only by his subsequent crash-and-burn routine.  I guess he wasn't wise enough to not tip off the feds but in the age of Trump, what do you expect from Republicans in any position of power in any state in the US?

For now, Schuring will take over as interim Speaker, and the race to replace Rosenberger's job will fall to either Ryan Smith, somebody tied too closely to Rosenberger himself, or to former Ohio Speaker Larry Householder, who himself faced scandal in 2004 over suspected vote buying.

Again, what do you expect from the party of complete and utter corruption?

Maybe vote for the other guys?  Just saying.

The Blue Wave Rises, Con't

Millenials say they are heading to the voting booth in the annual Harvard Institute of Politics poll in higher numbers than the 2010 or 2014 midterms, which is good because they frankly couldn't get much worse.

More young voters say they’ll definitely vote in November than have in the last two midterm elections and they increasingly would rather have Democrats than Republicans in control of Congress, a poll released Tuesday by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics shows.

The survey of adults ages 18 to 29 also reveals younger Americans have greater trust in Amazon and Google than Facebook and Twitter. Those findings come as Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify at the Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday to answer questions about data privacy, fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech.

More than a third of young Americans eligible to cast ballots in November -- 37 percent -- say they’ll “definitely be voting” in the elections seven months from now that will decide control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That’s higher than the poll recorded at about the same point in 2010 and 2014, the two most recent midterm elections, when 31 percent and 23 percent answered that way.

“This generation of young Americans is as engaged as we have ever seen them in a midterm election cycle," said John Della Volpe, the institute’s polling director.

The good news: it's Democrats who are energized.

Young, self-identified Democrats are driving almost all of the increased enthusiasm, the survey found, with 51 percent saying they’ll “definitely” vote. That’s a 9 percentage point increase since November 2017 and is significantly larger than the 36 percent of Republicans who say the same.

At this point in the 2014 election, midway through Obama’s second term, 28 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans indicated that they would “definitely” be voting, while 35 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans held a similar interest in voting in the spring of 2010. In that election, Republicans took control of the House from the Democrats.

Millenials didn't show up at all in 2014 and it was brutal for the Dems.  The numbers are much, much better this time around, and I'm hoping it will pay off in a big way.

If 51% of Millenial Dems really do show up in November, the Republicans are screwed. I'm holding out hope here that Trump has turned a lot of people younger than myself into voters that show up.

But one thing I do know come January:  Paul Ryan won't be Speaker of the House, because he's bugging out, if Politico 2.0 is to be believed.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has told confidants that he will announce soon that he won't run for reelection in November, according to sources with knowledge of the conversations. 

Why it matters: House Republicans were already in a very tough spot for the midterms, with many endangered members and the good chance that Democrats could win the majority.

One of Washington’s best-wired Republicans said: 

“This is a Titanic, tectonic shift. … This is going to make every Republican donor believe the House can’t be held.” The announcement will help Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in his fundraising because “the Senate becomes the last bastion," the Republican said.

If this is a trial balloon, Ryan does have time to work with. Wisconsin's primaries are among the latest in the country (August 14th) and the candidate filing date is June 1st.  But as Axios's source says, if the most prolific fundraiser in the House GOP is hanging it up, then the money people absolutely are going to shift resources to the Senate.

Ryan was the most feckless Speaker in modern history, hands down.  And he'll be remembered most for enabling Trump, and then cutting and running in two years like a punk.  He won't go down as the worst however, compared to Newt Gingrich's fall from grace, Tom DeLay who went down on money laundering and conspiracy charges (later overturned by a Texas court) and oh yeah, convicted pedophile Denny Hastert.  Hey, at least Ryan made John Boehner look competent by comparison, right?

Maybe we should stop having Republicans in charge of the House?  Just saying.

Of course there's there theory that Ryan had a comfortable lead and bailed on not only the House Speaker's gavel but the House GOP as well, and that's because he knows something massive is coming.  After all, the best way to prevent any impeachment proceedings is to remain as Speaker and prevent anything from coming to a vote.  He's only 48, the guy had years ahead of him in the House.

He's looking for the exits though.

There's more to this story.

Stay frosty.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

Don't look now, but the Erik Prince/George Nader angle of the Trump collusion story just got a whole lot bigger with this astonishing piece from Erin Banco at NJ.com.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is examining a series of previously unreported meetings that took place in 2017 in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to two sources briefed on the investigation.

The sources said several of those meetings took place around the same time as another meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates (also known as "MBZ"). Details of that earlier meetingwere first reported by the Washington Post last year.

The sources requested to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The inquiry into the meetings in the Seychelles suggests there is growing interest on the Mueller team in whether foreign financing, specifically from Gulf states, has influenced President Trump and his administration.

The New York Times reported in March that Mueller's team questioned George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who helped broker the Seychelles meeting, about whether the Emiratis attempted to buy political influence in the White House.

That's what we knew: that Nadler and the Emiratis were the brokers and Erik Prince was Trump's point man, and that as a result Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, got the position of Trump's Secretary of Education.  Here's what we didn't know:

Documents obtained by this reporter, and interviews with those familiar with the probe, suggest Mueller is also looking at other foreign influencers, including individuals from Russia and from Saudi Arabia.

The meetings in the Seychelles are a key component of Mueller's investigation, sources familiar with the investigation said. The meetings connect powerful players from Russia, the U.S., the UAE and Saudi Arabia across the political, financial and defense worlds. The details of what was discussed in the meetings in January and in the following months, however, are scarce.

Flight records and financial documents obtained by this reporter over twelve months, as well as interviews with parliamentary and aviation officials in the Seychelles, paint a scene out of a Hollywood thriller.

Wealthy and politically-connected individuals from across the globe -- from Russia, France, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- land in the Seychelles for meetings that take place as a part of a larger gathering hosted by MBZ, according to an individual briefed on the matter, who also requested anonymity. Many of them fly in on private jets and several do not clear customs. Some check into the Four Seasons Hotel while others arrive and stay on their yachts.

Individuals connected to the Saudi financial system, including the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Arab National Bank, flew into the island the second week of January 2017, as did an aircraft purportedly owned by the former deputy minister of defense, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, fight records show. Other individuals on those aircraft held passports from Egypt and Singapore.

Dmitriev flew into the Seychelles Jan. 11, 2017 with his wife Natalia Popova and another woman with the last name Boldovskaia. Six other Russian individuals flew to the island just a few days after Dmitriev. The aircraft's ownership is unclear but it flew between Russia, Geneva and Cyprus in 2017.

Others on the island included Alexander Mashkevitch, an alleged financier of Bayrock, an investment vehicle linked to Trump, and Sheikh Abdulrahman Khalid BinMahfouz, according to flight records. BinMahfouz's father, before his death, was a billionaire and the former chairman of Saudi Arabia's first private bank.

Nader travelled to Seychelles Jan. 7, 2017 and again on March 24 on an aircraft with the tail number VP-CZA, flight records show. The aircraft is registered to Gryphon Asset Management, an aviation consulting company based out of Dubai.

Prince and Nader were putting together a series of meetings to sell the Trump regime to the highest bidder, with some of the richest people on Earth in the hunt.  These are the people Trump owes allegiance to.  It's not just Putin, but multiple people from multiple countries.

And Mueller knows it all, guys.  With the raid on Cohen, Trump is 100% exposed on this.  The scope and size involved in this influence peddling will be utterly shocking.

But will Mueller be allowed to continue at this point?  The NY Times is reporting that Trump not only tried to fire Mueller in June, but again told his advisers that Mueller had to go last December when the Mueller subpoenas of Trump-related finances from Germany's Deutsche Bank became known.

In early December, President Trump, furious over news reports about a new round of subpoenas from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told advisers in no uncertain terms that Mr. Mueller’s investigation had to be shut down.

The president’s anger was fueled by reports that the subpoenas were for obtaining information about his business dealings with Deutsche Bank, according to interviews with eight White House officials, people close to the president and others familiar with the episode. To Mr. Trump, the subpoenas suggested that Mr. Mueller had expanded the investigation in a way that crossed the “red line” he had set last year in an interview with The New York Times.

In the hours that followed Mr. Trump’s initial anger over the Deutsche Bank reports, his lawyers and advisers worked quickly to learn about the subpoenas, and ultimately were told by Mr. Mueller’s office that the reports were not accurate, leading the president to back down.

Mr. Trump’s quick conclusion that the erroneous news reports warranted firing Mr. Mueller is also an insight into Mr. Trump’s state of mind about the special counsel. Despite assurances from leading Republicans like Speaker Paul D. Ryan that the president has not thought about firing Mr. Mueller, the December episode was the second time Mr. Trump is now known to have considered taking that step. The other instance was in June, when the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, threatened to quit unless Mr. Trump stopped trying to get him to fire Mr. Mueller.

So Trump lost his marbles over this because he thought Mueller might have had the goods on him in December.  What happens now that Trump's lawyer has been raided and Trump is really, truly screwed?  Obstruction of justice doesn't matter if nobody's left to hold Trump accountable.

The Saturday Night Massacre may be on.

President Donald Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, multiple people familiar with the discussions tell CNN, a move that has gained urgency following the raid of the office of the President's personal lawyer. 

Such an action could potentially further Trump's goal of trying to put greater limits on special counsel Robert Mueller. 

This is one of several options -- including going so far as to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- Trump is weighing in the aftermath of the FBI's decision Monday to raid the office of Michael Cohen, the President's personal lawyer and longtime confidant. 

Officials say if Trump acts, Rosenstein is his most likely target, but it's unclear whether even such a dramatic firing like this would be enough to satisfy the President. 

Trump has long been angry at top Justice Department officials, who he feels have not done enough to protect him from Mueller's ongoing probe. But two sources said the raid could mark a tipping point that would prompt the President to take more aggressive action against the special counsel.

All indications are that he's off his rocker at this point.  If Trump has somebody in mind to replace Rosenstein and/or Sessions, nobody knows.  Either one could fire Mueller, or simply greatly curtail the investigation.  That could maybe satisfy Trump.  I bet it won't.

Don't count on Republicans in Congress to lift a finger to protect Mueller either. They'll say that Trump won't fire him right up until it happens, then say he always had the right to do it.  The White House is already taking that stance, and Trump is meeting with GOP leaders later today to make that clear.

Stay tuned.  We're at the breaking point, and something's going to give way, but keep in mind should Mueller actually be fired, he does have the option to make public everything he's found so far.

At this point, that might be what stays Trump's hand.

StupidiNews!

• An Algerian military transport aircraft with over 100 on board has crashed near an airbase southwest of the capital of Algiers, the number of casualties is unknown at this time.
• The London headquarters of FOX News head Rupert Murdoch were raided by investigators from the European Commission, FOX says it is "cooperating fully" with the investigation.
• Moscow is warning that any US missiles fired at Syrian targets will be shot down by Russian defenses, Donald Trump is considering military action against the Assad regime.
• California's state air quality board says a deal with the Trump regime on auto emissions and fuel economy can be reached if Washington is willing to work with Sacramento. 
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces a skeptical day of House testimony after being grilled by the Senate on Tuesday over the company's data privacy failures.

Last Call For No Trial Of Any Century

America's criminal justice system is 100% broken, and there's no greater evidence of this than the permanent detainment of US citizens being held indefinitely in county jails across the country.  In Louisiana alone the number is in the hundreds, some who have been waiting on trails for years.

The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association says around 1,300 people have been in local jails for four years waiting for their trials, and 70 people have been held for five years without having their case heard, according to the group's informal survey.

"I think the number is actually higher," Michael Ranatza, executive director, said after a budget hearing before state lawmakers in the House Appropriations Committee on Monday (April 9).

Last month, the sheriffs' association tallied up how many people were sitting in jails without going to trial or receiving a sentence, Ranatza said. The problem is so pervasive that it is eating into sheriffs' budgets to house the accused for so long, he said.

"I want you to understand that there are people in the state of Louisiana who have waited over five years to be tried in criminal court," Ranatza told the committee. "There's a higher number at the four-year level, about almost 1,200."

Jay Dixon, Louisiana's state public defender, said he was surprised the sheriffs' count of people waiting for years without a trial was that high. Public defenders have a system that automatically alerts them if nothing has happened in a case for six months.

Dixon said he didn't have an easy way of verifying the sheriffs' association numbers, explaining that the people counted aren't necessarily represented by public defenders. There could be a number of factors that force someone to sit in jail awaiting trial, including the ability to afford bail, he said.

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the accused the right to a speedy trial. A defendant can file a motion for a speedy trial, which in Louisiana would have to commence within 120 days for someone held in custody charged with a felony -- or 30 days for a misdemeanor -- unless a judge determines a delay is justified.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is troubled by the long waits reported by the sheriffs, though they said people being held too long before trial is a widespread problem. "This is huge problem in Louisiana and it is a problem nationally," said Bruce Hamilton, a staff attorney for the organization.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune has asked the sheriffs' association for a list of where these prisoners who have been in jails for over four years without a trial are located according to their survey. The association hasn't sent a response yet.

And let's remember the only reason this is even being mentioned is because county sheriffs don't have the money to detain people in county jails for years like this.  They still have to clothe and feed these folks and it's eating up their budgets.  State courts are flooded and the backlog is so bad people are getting lost in jails for four or five years now. 

It's a massive violation of the Constitution, and it's happening in basically every state.  And surprise, the victims of this are most often black and brown, and the least likely to be able to afford cash bail.

My guess is that this is happening to tens of thousands across the country, if not far more.  Nobody will lift a finger to correct the problem, either.

The Drums Of War, Con't

With Trump reeling from the FBI raid on his personal lawyer, Michal Cohen, the move for a "wag the dog" style distraction is now in 110% overdrive.  Trump wants cover to fire Rosenstein, Mueller, and anybody with them.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the veteran Republican prosecutor handpicked by President Trump to serve as deputy attorney general, personally signed off on Monday’s F.B.I. decision to raid the office of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal attorney and longtime confidant, three government officials said.

The early-morning searches enraged Mr. Trump, associates said, setting off an angry public tirade Monday evening that continued in private at the White House as the president fumed about whether he should fire Mr. Rosenstein. The episode has deeply unsettled White House aides, Justice Department officials and lawmakers from both parties, who believe the president may use it as a pretext to purge the team leading the investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.

Searching a lawyer’s files is among the most sensitive moves federal prosecutors can make as they pursue a criminal investigation. Mr. Rosenstein’s personal involvement in the decision signals that the evidence seen by law enforcement officials was significant enough to persuade the Justice Department’s second-in-command that such an aggressive move was necessary.

Mr. Trump’s advisers have spent the last 24 hours trying to convince the president not to make an impulsive decision that could put the president in more legal jeopardy and ignite a controversy that could consume his presidency, several people close to Mr. Trump said. The president began Tuesday morning with a pair of angry tweets, calling the raids “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!” and venting that “attorney–client privilege is dead!”

Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Mr. Rosenstein, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and now oversees his investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president. In his remarks Monday night, the president lashed out at Mr. Rosenstein for having “signed a FISA warrant,” apparently a reference to the role Mr. Rosenstein played in authorizing the wiretap of a Trump associate in the Russia inquiry.

Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order, The New York Times reported in January. Mr. Trump is now again telling associates that he is frustrated with Mr. Rosenstein, according to one official familiar with the conversations.

That distraction and cover is already being set up. Trump has already canceled his trip to Latin America this weekend for the Summit of the Americas and is sending VP Mike Pence in his place. 

President Donald Trump is scrapping his plans to travel to Lima, Peru, later this week to attend the Summit of the Americas, instead staying in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria," the White House said Tuesday.

Vice President Mike Pence will take Trump's place at the meetings, while the president will "monitor developments around the world," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The news comes a day after Trump said the United States had “a lot of options militarily” to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria over the weekend. He said Monday that his administration would decide how to react in the next "24 to 48 hours." No response has yet been announced.

The suspected poison gas attack on Saturday in the suburbs of Damascus killed dozens of people. After a similar chemical attack a year ago, Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base. Before the weekend attack, however, he had said he wanted “to get out” of the civil-war-ravaged country.

Yes, before this weekend he wanted to get out of Syria.  Now he realizes just how much he needs the US in Syria to rally the country around the flag. And if the trip cancellation wasn't a dead giveaway that major military action against Assad is imminent, the sudden resignation of homeland security advisor Tom Bossert should be.

President Donald Trump's top homeland security advisor, Tom Bossert, is stepping down, the White House announced Tuesday.

The White House did not give a reason for Bossert's departure, which came as a surprise while the president pushes to ramp up border security.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNBC that the move "seems like a natural turnover with a new [National Security Council] director." John Bolton, a foreign-policy hardliner, started as Trump's national security advisor Monday, replacing H.R. McMaster.

A Bloomberg News reporter, citing a source, said Bossert resigned at the request of Trump's new national security advisor, John Bolton.

Just two days ago Bossert was on the Sunday shows saying "all options were on the table" as far as a military response to Syria.  My guess is that Bolton's mustache wants a massive military response as the chief option on this table and Bossert objected. He's gone now as a result, and in less than 48 hours.

Things are moving very, very quickly towards something ugly in Syria.  Tomahawk missiles aren't going to cut it.  This is going to be something more. We know this because Israel has already attacked a Syrian air base in response.

Syria and its most powerful ally, Russia, blamed Israel for striking an air base in the war-torn country on Monday, following a suspected chemical gas attack that drew condemnation from world powers.  

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed two Israeli F-15 warplanes launched eight guided missiles from Lebanese territory, targeting the T-4 base in central Syria. The Defense Ministry said Syrian defense units destroyed five of the incoming missiles. 

The Lebanese Army issued a statement alleging a number of violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli aircraft between Sunday and Monday. The statement stopped short of accusing Israel of being behind the attack on the T-4 base. 

Syrian state media said that a number of people were killed or injured in the strikes and cited a military source blaming Israel for the military action. 

Israeli officials have not issued any response to reports of the strike, but its warplanes hit the same facility in February, after Israel said an Iranian drone had infiltrated its airspace. Israeli officials said Iran, a key backer of the Syrian government, was using the T-4 facility as a command center.

As I've long been saying, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political life, facing multiple bribery scandals and calls for his resignation.  He needs a major escalation in Syria as much as Trump does right now and he's playing his part to get back in the good graces of the international community after scrapping a migrant relocation deal that still remains in limbo.

Taken separately, the sudden Trump reversal on Syria, the Cohen raid, the Latin American trip cancellation, Bossert's firing and the Israeli strike all would be disconcerting.  All of them happening in rapid succession is a screaming air raid siren that considerable military action will be taken this week.

It's possible that this is all a feint, but a betting man would put his chips down on a major series of attacks and soon (within days), by the US and possibly by more than one ally in the region, on Assad's forces.  Whether that will be the cover Trump needs to also remove Rosenstein and Mueller, I can't tell you.  Remember, he has already tried to fire Mueller once before.

It gets hairy and scary from here. The question was always going to be when he was going to try again, and now all indications are that this is coming.  Maybe Mueller and Rosenstein will be spared by bloodlust in Syria, but at this point I rule nothing out.

Stay tuned.