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.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

If you've been wondering when Mueller was going to make his move on Trump's longtime personal lawyer and bagman Michael Cohen, that day was Monday, and the move was a full out FBI raid on Cohen's home, office, and hotel room to seize documents pertaining to Trump.

Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case.

FBI agents on Monday raided Cohen’s Manhattan office, home and hotel room as part of the investigation, seizing records about Cohen’s clients and personal finances. Among the records taken were those related to a 2016 payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, according to a fourth person familiar with the investigation.

Investigators took Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records, including tax returns, as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, that person said.

In a dramatic and broad seizure, federal prosecutors collected communications between Cohen and his clients — including those between the lawyer and Trump, according to both people.

The raids — part of an investigation referred by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to federal prosecutors in New York — point to escalating legal jeopardy for a longtime Trump confidant who is deeply intertwined in the president’s business and personal matters.

I can't begin to tell you the level of criminality and probable cause needed to authorize an FBI raid on the personal lawyer of the occupant of the Oval Office. A federal magistrate signed off on this, Rod Rosenstein signed off on this, the US Attorney's office in Manhattan signed off on this, and just to make sure Rosenstein and Mueller referred this to the US Attorney's office rather than do this himself with his team.  The bar for going after a attorney in a federal case where attorney-client privilege must be broken because of probable cause of evidence of criminal activity is sky high.

1. Before obtaining a search warrant, investigators had to try to obtain the evidence in another way, such as by subpoena.
2. The authorization for the warrant had to come from either the U.S. attorney or an assistant attorney general. (Rosenstein is deputy attorney general, a higher position than assistant attorney general.)
3. The prosecutor had to confer with the criminal division of the department before seeking the warrant.
4. The team conducting the search had to “employ adequate precautions” to ensure that they weren’t improperly viewing privileged communications between Cohen and his clients.
5. The search team would have included a “privilege team,” including lawyers and agents not working the case, which would work to ensure that investigators conducting the search didn’t see privileged communications.
6. The investigators had to develop a review process for the seized material.

Even with those checks in place, the U.S. attorney wasn’t guaranteed a warrant. Search warrants granted to U.S. attorneys are approved by magistrate judges serving in U.S. District Court.

The question of what qualifies as privileged communication is complex. Not every communication between an attorney and a client is included. One type of communication that’s excluded: communications between an attorney and a client that might be predicated on committing or covering up a crime.

In a phone call with The Post, law professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford University Criminal Justice Center, explained where the lines might be drawn.

“There is a crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege,” Weisberg said. “The affidavits that went into the warrant application — and possibly direct conversations with the judge — would have had to give at least prima facie reason to believe that the communications, even where they were privileged, give some indication that Cohen was involved in committing or planning some kind of fraud.”

Needless to say, Trump is pissed.

If Trump's going to make his move on Mueller and Rosenstein, it's going to happen soon now.  Again, taking attorney-client communications only happens when there's probable cause that a crime has been committed and that those communications are evidence of that crime, and that probable cause involves Donald Trump.

It would not have happened if it there wasn't rock-solid indication that Cohen was covering up fraud.  That fact alone signals criminal activity by the man in the Oval Office, guys, and if you think that Trump has committed crimes in the last, oh, decade or so other than paying off hush money to a porn star using campaign funds, well the Feds have all of that now too.  Merry Christmas!

Needless to say I cannot overstate how bad this is for both Trump and Cohen.

But the FBI’s seizure on Monday of privileged communications between Trump and his private lawyer, Michael D. Cohen — as well as documents related to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who has alleged a sexual affair with Trump — was a particularly extraordinary move that opens a whole new front in the converging legal battles ensnaring the administration.

Cohen is Trump’s virtual vault — the keeper of his secrets, from his business deals to his personal affairs — and the executor of his wishes.

“This search warrant is like dropping a bomb on Trump’s front porch,” said Joyce White Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama.

Mark S. Zaid, a Washington lawyer, said the seizure of Cohen’s records “should be the most concerning for the president.”

“You can’t get much worse than this, other than arresting someone’s wife or putting pressure on a family member,” he said. “This strikes at the inner sanctum: your lawyer, your CPA, your barber, your therapist, your bartender. All the people who would know the worst about you.”

And yes, I believe Trump's people are making it very, very clear this means he's fried like a egg on a Baghdad summer sidewalk.  This is a breach of his inner circle, a hole drilled into the Trump bunker. He's shaken to the core, and Trump will lash out.

Asked why he had not fired Mueller, Trump left the door open. “We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters. “Many people have said, ‘You should fire him,’ ” the president added.

We're very close now to a seminal moment in history, and not a pleasant one.  Trump has already canceled his Latin American summit trip scheduled this week to instead monitor developments in Syria and around the world and VP Mike Pence will go in his stead. My guess?  Trump is firing a crapload of something in the next 48 hours, whether it’s DoJ employees or Tomahawk missiles. Maybe both.

More on that later today.

Last Call For Not Awful Enough

Here in Kentucky, GOP Gov. Matt Bevin says he will now veto the Republican budget and tax reform bills in their entirety because they basically aren't cruel enough to Kentucky taxpayers and state employees.

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said Monday he will veto the legislature’s proposed two-year state budget and a tax bill that generates hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund it.

“The whole thing is not as thoughtful or as comprehensive as it needs to be,” Bevin said of the tax plan during an almost 30 minute harangue about fiscal responsibility. “If we’re going to do tax reform — and we need to do tax reform — it needs to be comprehensive.”

The bill, which was introduced and passed on April 2 before it was available to the public, applies Kentucky’s 6 percent sales tax to 17 services, increases the cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack, and cuts the individual and corporate income tax to a flat 5 percent tax. It also cuts some typical tax deductions, including those for medical expenses, medical insurance, paid taxes and investment income.

Bevin received a letter last week from his state budget director, John Chilton, indicating that the money generated by the legislature’s revenue bill will be around $50 million lower than anticipated.

“There are many legislators who literally just don’t understand this. They don’t,” Bevin said. “They’re smart people, they’re intelligent people, they’re educated people on many fronts. They don’t understand finance, they don’t understand pensions. And yet they’re the ones who are going to have to make decisions.”

Much of the $486.9 million in revenue generated from the tax bill will be used to fund education as teachers across the state have held “sick-outs” and rallies that have closed down school districts. Bevin, who proposed a plan that would have cut state funding for school transportation and would have provided less money per-pupil than what the legislature passed, said he wasn’t concerned about how his vetoes would affect education.

“It’s illegal for them to strike in this state,” Bevin said. “I would not advise that, I wouldn’t, I think that would be a mistake. The issue is not the teachers, the teachers want to teach their children. The KEA (Kentucky Education Association) has been a problem, it really has. They’ve been very loud after refusing to be a part of the solution, even though in reality their members are going to the beneficiary of us getting it right.”

"These K-12 education cuts aren't deep enough, and don't punish students and teachers enough, so I'm going to veto the whole thing!" is a hell of a position to take, but that's life in Bevinstan for you.

Republicans in the state legislature will have the opportunity to try to override Bevin's veto this weekend, so we'll see what happens in a few days, but I'm not sure if they have time to come up with another bill or not.  Remember Kentucky is a state with line-item veto and Bevin trashed the whole thing.

Remember too that Bevin vetoed the pension measure that would have allowed city and local governments to phase in pension costs, and that's only going to make the austerity bomb all the worse.

Ball's back in the KY Legislature's court now.

Labor Wages War On Trump

There are two big facts when it comes to raising the federal minimum wage: $7.25 an hour works for nobody in 2018, and $15 an hour doesn't work for everybody.  The goal is how to find a happy medium for workers in the Trump era, and increasingly that's looking more and more like sector-wide labor boards like they have in Europe, in particular, Germany.

The Center for American Progress (CAP), one of DC’s most influential liberal think tanks with deep ties to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton campaign, has just proposed a big idea for raising Americans’ wages.

A new paper by CAP’s David Madland calls for the creation of national wage boards, tasked with setting minimum wage and benefit standards for specific industries. Fast food companies, say, would send representatives to meet with union officials and other worker representatives, and hammer out a deal that ensures workers get a fair shake. Same goes for nurses, or retail workers, or home health aides, or accountants.

“Bargaining panels would have 11 members—five representing employers, five representing workers and one representing the government,” Madland explains. “The government representative would be the U.S. secretary of labor or their delegate. Employers would choose employer representatives through the employers’ industry associations.” Employees would be represented by unions, or other worker representatives. The secretary of labor would create separate boards for different industries and occupations, and work with unions and other worker groups to enforce the wage rules once they’re adopted.

This may seem like an extreme idea, an unprecedented government and union intrusion into the free market. But it reflects a model already gaining steam in some liberal states (like New York and California), and which owes a lot to policies in Europe. It’s the latest sign that pro-labor voices in America are looking to counterparts in France, Germany, and elsewhere across the Atlantic for signs of how to revive the labor movement and get the working class’s wages rising again.

And while ideas like wage boards and giving workers spots on corporate boards may seem pie-in-the-sky today, they could easily become part of the next Democratic president’s agenda, or become law in left-leaning states even before 2020.

Labor unions in America today are in crisis. In the mid-1950s, a third of Americans belonged to a labor union. Now, only 10.7 percent do, including a minuscule 6.4 percent of private-sector workers. The decline of union membership explains as much as a third of the increase in inequality in the US, has caused voter turnout among low-income workers to crater, and has weakened labor’s ability to check corporate influence in Washington, DC, and state capitals.

The future for traditional unions looks so bleak that a growing number of labor scholars and activists are coming to the conclusion that the US model, which relies on individual workers in individual workplaces getting together and organizing on their own, is dead and can’t be revived. What’s needed, they argue, is a more national or industry-wide approach to supplement or replace the old model of individual workplace-level organizing.

“In 2016, we had the most pro-labor president since the 1960s, the most pro-labor secretary of labor since [FDR’s Secretary] Frances Perkins, an economy with shrinking unemployment and rising wages — and yet we lost a quarter-million union members in the United States,” says David Rolf, president of SEIU 775, a local union representing home care workers in Washington and Montana. “We need to be trying everything.”

Yeah, it's an admission that the union shop model is broken and dead.  But it's not working, either. A ruling blowing a hole in public employee unions is due from the Supreme Court by the end of June. Something has to replace the existing model, or organized labor in America is done.

The Blue Wave Rises, Con't

Publicly, Republicans predict they will hold the House and Senate and that the "blue wave" is a mirage, that the rest of the nation's Democratic strongholds will fall to Trumpism and that all the polls are wrong, just like in 2016.

In reality, they're already fighting over Paul Ryan's political corpse.

Two top members of Paul Ryan’s leadership team, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, have begun angling for his job in the event the speaker calls it quits after the election.

They’re closely monitoring the moves of the other and quietly courting Republicans who could help them clinch the top post, according to 20 GOP lawmakers and aides interviewed for this story.

Neither man is actively rounding up votes at this point, and both of them downplayed the possibility of a looming clash. Scalise said in an interview that he would not challenge McCarthy for speaker — “I’m not running against Kevin for anything,” he told POLITICO — while McCarthy said he’s focused solely on keeping the House in November and pursuing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

But Scalise also expressed interest in leading the conference someday — remarks that only intensified simmering speculation in GOP circles about his intentions. Adding to the intrigue, some of Scalise’s allies have urged him to be ready if McCarthy falls short for speaker, as he did in 2015. And some of McCarthy’s allies discount Scalise’s vows not to mount a direct challenge, noting Scalise’s willingness to attempt to leapfrog more senior Republicans in the past.

“Everyone is talking about this,” said one veteran Republican House member who asked not to be named of the brewing rivalry. “We’re sizing them up, seeing who would be a better fit. It’s the prism that we look at them through now.”

As Ryan’s No. 2, McCarthy has the clearest path to the speakership, though it’s far from a lock. Distrust among the conference’s right flank contributed to his failed 2015 bid, when Ryan was recruited as a white knight. McCarthy did not lose interest, however, and he is trying to forge new alliances as well as patch up a once-rocky relationship with the House Freedom Caucus ahead of a potential second run.

The House is a lost cause, apparently.  The battle is on to save the Senate.

Republicans are increasingly worried they will lose control of the House in the midterm elections, furiously directing money and resources to hold and potentially boost their narrow majority in the Senate.

To many, the Senate is emerging as a critical barrier against Democrats demolishing President Trump’s agenda beginning in 2019. Worse yet, some in the GOP fear, Democrats could use complete control of Congress to co-opt the ideologically malleable president and advance their own priorities.

Democratic enthusiasm is surging in suburban districts that House Republicans are struggling to fortify, causing GOP officials, donors and strategists to fret. They have greater confidence in the more rural red states Trump won convincingly that make up the bulk of the Senate battlefield.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies are seeking to capitalize on concerns about the House. He is leading an effort to motivate conservative voters by reminding them that his side of the Capitol has the unilateral power to confirm federal judges and Trump administration nominees.

Trump is showing a keen interest in the Senate landscape, raising money for a highly touted challenger, helping clear the primary field for an endangered senator and playfully engaging in an intraparty contest.

One, the odds of the Republicans gaining Senate seats still remains much higher than the GOP keeping the House.  In the Senate, Dems have to defend 12 seats, 10 in Trump states, while the GOP has to defend just six seats with only one, Nevada, in a Clinton state.

The good news: a blue wave scenario means that Dems now can pick up the net two seats they need to take control, as Arizona, Nevada, and now Bob Corker's seat in Tennessee are absolutely 100% in play.  If Dems can hold the line and pick up two of those three, the Senate is theirs.  And down the line, Tex Cruz in Texas, Deb Fischer in Nebraska, and Thad Cochran's seat in Mississippi will have to be defended as well.

But the Dems still have a LOT of states to defend even with their advantage: Indiana, Missouri, WV, ND, Florida, Ohio, Montana, and yes, Minnesota's special election for Al Franken's old seat, now held by Tina Smith, and Tammy Baldwin's seat in Wisconsin aren't sure things anymore, even now.

The saving grace for the Dems is that after a year of Trump, college-educated white voters are abandoning the GOP in droves as Trump's policies are wrecking their 401(k)s.

Older, white, educated voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Now, they are trending toward Democrats in such numbers that their ballots could tip the scales in tight congressional races from New Jersey to California, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll and a data analysis of competitive districts shows.

Nationwide, whites over the age of 60 with college degrees now favor Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a 2-point margin, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling during the first three months of the year. During the same period in 2016, that same group favored Republicans for Congress by 10 percentage points.

The 12-point swing is one of the largest shifts in support toward Democrats that the Reuters/Ipsos poll has measured over the past two years. If that trend continues, Republicans will struggle to keep control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, in the November elections, potentially dooming President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

“The real core for the Republicans is white, older white, and if they’re losing ground there, they’re going to have a tsunami,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who closely tracks political races. “If that continues to November, they’re toast.”

It's going to be tough.  We'll see.

Last Call For A Syria's Problem

If one of the bonuses of Putin's interference with our elections and the Trump regime is "getting away with literal murder in Syria" then the Kremlin has to be pretty pleased with itself right about now.

President Trump on Sunday promised a “big price” to be paid for what he said was a chemical weapons attack that choked dozens of Syrians to death the day before, and a top White House official said the administration would not rule out a missile strike to retaliate against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a tweet, Mr. Trump laid the blame for the attack partly on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the first time since his election that he has criticized the Russian leader by name on Twitter. Mr. Putin’s forces have been fighting for years to keep the Assad government in power amid Syria’s brutal civil war.

Mr. Trump also left no doubt that he believed the assessment of aid groups that Mr. Assad’s military had used chemical weapons to inflict the carnage on Saturday in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus. The attack left at least 42 people dead in their homes from apparent suffocation and sent many others to clinics with burning eyes and breathing problems.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Mr. Trump wrote. “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.”

“Big price to pay,” Mr. Trump continued in a second tweet. “Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”

Thomas P. Bossert, Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser, said he and the rest of the president’s national security team had been in talks with Mr. Trump late Saturday and early Sunday about how to respond. Asked specifically about the possibility of a missile strike, Mr. Bossert did not rule it out.

“I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” Mr. Bossert said on ABC’s “This Week.” “These are horrible photos; we’re looking into the attack at this point.”

That raised the prospect of a strike along the lines of one that the president ordered almost exactly a year ago after a sarin gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 civilians. In that strike, the United States military dropped 59 Tomahawk missiles on the Al Shayrat airfield, where the chemical weapons attack had originated.

Mr. Trump may be considering such a strike even as he has expressed his desire in recent days to pull American troops out of Syria, where they are seeking to eliminate the last vestiges of the Islamic State. White House officials said Mr. Trump would have a meeting and dinner on Monday at the White House with senior military leaders.

Nikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, announced an emergency meeting there on Monday to demand immediate access to Douma for emergency workers, urge an independent investigation of the massacre, and “hold accountable those responsible for this atrocious act.”

The assault on Douma and the president’s response also showed how Syria has bedeviled Mr. Trump just as it did his predecessor, repeatedly presenting them with grave challenges and few good options for confronting them.

Understand that if Trump responds with another Tomahawk missile attack, Putin wins.

There's no reason to believe at this point that Trump won't declare victory over ISIS in Syria and complete the withdrawal of troops, either.  It's easy and fashionable to pin all this on Obama too, but the reality is that the US has been outmanuevered by Putin for some time now in both Europe and the Middle East dating back to almost two decades.  Putin can afford to play the longest of games, and he's been winning for some time now.  I don't see any way to stop him at this point, either.

There's enough chaos in the former Baltics and Eastern Europe now that the buffer between Russia and the European Union is non-existent, with several Eastern European countries now firmly under the sway of virulent nationalism. In the Middle East, propping up Syria and winning over Iran has been Putin's crowning achievement. And there's every indication that Trump is doing all Putin's heavy lifting for him and is clearing the decks to get the last obstacles between the Kremlin and Russian hegemony in the Middle East out of the way.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess, but my gut tells me Trump is going to do something catastrophically stupid and soon.

Sunday Long Read: Vacate The Premises

Ten years ago the Great Recession destroyed the black middle class, wiping out 85%+ of black net worth and more than 50% of wealth in the United States, what little we had.  Black and Latino household median net worth is headed for zero now and that's before his trade wars and disastrous economic policy move up that timetable from 2053-2073 to much, much sooner.

We already know what that future looks like today: the massive eviction machinery in the South in states like Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia that exists to put an increasing number of black renters out on the streets to disappear into the black hole that is America's criminal justice system.

Before the first hearings on the morning docket, the line starts to clog the lobby of the John Marshall Courthouse. No cellphones are allowed inside, but many of the people who’ve been summoned don’t learn that until they arrive. “Put it in your car,” the sheriff’s deputies suggest at the metal detector. That advice is no help to renters who have come by bus. To make it inside, some tuck their phones in the bushes nearby.

This courthouse handles every eviction in Richmond, a city with one of the highest eviction rates in the country, according to new data covering dozens of states and compiled by a team led by the Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond.

Two years ago, Mr. Desmond turned eviction into a national topic of conversation with “Evicted,” a book that chronicled how poor families who lost their homes in Milwaukee sank ever deeper into poverty. It became a favorite among civic groups and on college campuses, some here in Richmond. Bill Gates and former President Obama named it among the best books they had read in 2017, and it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

But for all the attention the problem began to draw, even Mr. Desmond could not say how widespread it was. Surveys of renters have tried to gauge displacement, but there is no government data tracking all eviction cases in America. Now that Mr. Desmond has been mining court records across the country to build a database of millions of evictions, it’s clear even in his incomplete national picture that they are more rampant in many places than what he saw in Milwaukee.

Mr. Desmond’s team found records for nearly 900,000 eviction judgments in 2016, meaning landlords were given the legal right to remove at least one in 50 renter households in the communities covered by this data. That figure was one in 25 in Milwaukee and one in nine in Richmond. And one in five renter households in Richmond were threatened with eviction in 2016. Their landlords began legal proceedings, even if those cases didn’t end with a lasting mark on a tenant’s record.

For landlords, these numbers represent a financial drain of unpaid rent; for tenants, a looming risk of losing their homes.

In Richmond, most of those evicted never made it to a courtroom. They didn’t appear because the process seemed inscrutable, or because they didn’t have lawyers to navigate it, or because they believed there is not much to say when you simply don’t have the money. The median amount owed was $686.

Inside the courtroom, cases sometimes brought in bulk by property managers are settled in minutes when defendants aren’t present.

“The whole system works on default judgments and people not showing up,” said Martin Wegbreit, director of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. “Imagine if every person asked for a trial. The system would bog down in a couple of months.”

The consequences of what happens here then spread across the city. The Richmond public school system reroutes buses to follow children from apartments to homeless shelters to pay-by-the-week motels. City social workers coach residents on how to fill out job applications when they have no answer for the address line. Families lose their food stamps and Medicaid benefits when they lose the permanent addresses where renewal notices are sent.

“An eviction isn’t one problem,” said Amy Woolard, a lawyer and the policy coordinator at the Legal Aid Justice Center in town. “It’s like 12 problems.”

I know it's fashionable to lay all this at the feet of Obama in an effort to strip the black and Latino vote away from the Democrats, but considering Trump destroyed what Obama was able to accomplish in a matter of months without a peep from the usual suspects tells me all I need to know.

We saddled Obama with a GOP House in just two years and kept making it worse for 99% of us because they promised to rectify the "error" of electing a black president.  Now we're all surprised that the most suffering is once again brought upon the black community.

This is what America voted for, though.