Russian To Judgment, Con't

One piece of new information that Robert Mueller did provide yesterday was the fact that the Russians are still, right now, attacking US election security in order to sow chaos and damage the country. 

The biggest takeaway from Robert Mueller's appearances on Capitol Hill is not that Donald Trump may have obstructed justice, although that's what most people continue to argue about. 

It's that Russians are still interfering in US elections. 

"They're doing it as we sit here," Mueller told lawmakers of Russian interference. Earlier he'd said how that aspect of his investigation has been underplayed will have a long-term effect on the US. 

In his report, the former special counsel disclosed that Russian hackers compromised local election systems of two Florida counties in 2016, a development later confirmed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, although he said no votes were changed. And while Mueller did not bring conspiracy charges, it's been well documented that Russians in 2016 were doing their best to help Trump, not Clinton, win. 

Yet despite Mueller's testimony, the special counsel report and alarming statements from elsewhere in Washington, public urgency on addressing Russian interference for the 2020 election appears lacking.

After Mueller's testimony, Senate Democrats tried to get House measures passed that would strengthen cybersecurity measures protecting US elections.

Republicans blocked them all.  Again.

Democrats cited Mueller as they tried to get consent on Wednesday evening to pass their bills.

"Mr. Mueller's testimony should serve as a warning to every member of this body about what could happen in 2020, literally in our next elections," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He added that "unfortunately, in the nearly three years since we uncovered Russia's attack on our democracy, this body has not held a single vote on stand-alone legislation to protect our elections."

Warner tried to get consent to pass the Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act by unanimous consent. Under Warner's bill, campaign officials would have to report contacts with foreign nationals who are trying to make campaign donations or coordinate with the campaign to the Federal Election Commission, which would in turn notify the FBI.

"If a foreign adversary tries to offer assistance to your campaign, your response should not be 'thank you.' Your response should be a moral obligation to tell the FBI," he said.

But Hyde-Smith objected to passing his legislation. Sen. Marsha Blackburn(R-Tenn.) similarly blocked the legislation in June, arguing that it was overly broad.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tried to get consent to pass similar legislation that would require candidates, campaign officials and their family members to notify the FBI of assistance offers.

"It differs in some technical aspects [from the Warner bill] … but it is the same idea because it codifies into law what is already a moral duty, a patriotic duty and basic common sense," Blumenthal said.

Hyde-Smith also objected to Blumenthal's bill.

She objected a third time when Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to get consent to pass legislation he crafted with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that would allow the Senate Sergeant at Arms to provide voluntary cybersecurity assistance for personal accounts and devices of senators and staff.

"I don't see how anyone can consider what I have proposed to be a partisan issue," Wyden said.

Democrats still haven't figured out that Republicans want elections to be vulnerable so Trump can win.  There's no other explanation.

They know he will lose without Russia rigging the election.

Do we understand the stakes now?

Deportation Nation, Con't

The Trump regime's latest plan to stop essentially all refugees and asylum-seekers from entering the country has been blocked by a federal judge as the fight almost certainly heads for a SCOTUS showdown later this year.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in California issued the preliminary injunction blocking the new asylum restrictions Wednesday afternoon, just hours after a hearing where he grilled a government attorney over the new sweeping change to asylum policy.
The policy, announced by the Trump administration last week, would broadly end asylum eligibility for migrants who pass through another country on their journey to the United States' southern border with Mexico but do not attempt to seek the protection in those other countries first.

During a hearing Wednesday morning in San Francisco, Department of Justice lawyer Scott Stewart defended the new interim rule as “lawful” and “appropriately issued.” The government has said the rule is needed to “address the urgent, ongoing crisis” at the border.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights have challenged the policy, saying it violates domestic and international law and the right of migrants to seek asylum in the U.S.

“The court recognized, as it did with the first asylum ban, that the Trump administration was attempting an unlawful end run around asylum protections enacted by Congress,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said after the ruling.

During the hearing, Tigar questioned the ability of countries like Mexico and Guatemala to adequately deal with and process asylum-seekers.

“There’s some pretty tough stuff in there,” said Tigar.

Tigar added that in Mexico, while “applications are up dramatically” there was no indication that Mexico would be able to handle the volume of asylum-seekers and process all of their claims.

The judge added that neither in the rule nor in the government’s administrative record was he able to find a “scintilla of evidence” about the adequacy of the asylum system in Guatemala.

Again, the Trump regime's plan is to start mass deportations and dumping millions of people into Guatemala arbitrarily, some of them almost certainly will be US citizens born in the US, but nobody will care and they will be disappeared anyway.

For now, the plan is being blocked, but the Trump regime will almost certainly want expedited rulings on this when SCOTUS's term begins in October.  They want that deportation train rolling in time for the 2020 campaign.

StupidiNews!

• Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak has won the World Swimming Championship's 200-meter butterfly, the 19-year-old shattered the long-time world record held by American Michael Phelps.
• Legendary actor Rutger Hauer passed away this week at the age of 75, the Golden Globe-winning Dutchman was featured in movies like Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, The Hitcher and Blind Fury.
• Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello has resigned after weeks of protests and pending impeachment proceedings after leaked text messages revealed his disdain for constituents.
• Donald Trump has issued promised vetos against a bipartisan measures that would have blocked the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
• The Federal Trade Commission has nailed Facebook with an unprecedented $5 billion fine for privacy violations, but critics say the deal doesn't hold CEO Mark Zuckerberg accountable.

Last Call For The Reach To Impeach, Con't

To sum up how today went in Washington DC, Robert Mueller testified for five hours in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu asked if the reason Mueller did not indict Trump was the Justice Department’s long-standing policy against charging a sitting president. Mueller replied: “That is correct,” but in his appearance before the House Intelligence Committee later, he corrected himself.

“We did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” he said.

Asked whether the report exonerated Trump on the question of obstruction of justice, Mueller said: “That is not what the report said. “The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed.”

Asked if Trump wanted Mueller fired for investigating possible obstruction of justice: “That’s what it says in the report, yes.”
Asked if the president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office, Mueller said: “True.”

Democratic Representative Val Demings mentioned people who were charged with lying to Mueller’s investigators and asked if there were lying witnesses who had not been indicted.

“I think there’s probably a spectrum of witnesses in terms of those who are not telling the full truth and those who are outright liars,” he said.

When she asked if lies by Trump campaign and administration officials had hindered his work, Mueller said: “I would generally agree with that.” 

Asked about Trump’s comments on WikiLeaks, including “I love WikiLeaks,” after it released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, Mueller said: “‘Problematic’ is an understatement in terms of what it displays in terms of giving some ... hope or some boost to what is or should be illegal activity.”

As for communication between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks, Mueller said, “Disturbing and also subject to investigation.”

After the Mueller testimony, Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders held a press conference covering what Mueller said and their plan, or lack thereof.

Following former special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional hearings, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on Wednesday that she still isn’t ready to begin impeachment proceeding against President Donald Trump.
“My position has always been whatever decision we made in that regard would have to be done with our strongest possible hand, and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts,” Pelosi said at a press conference alongside Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MA). “It’s about the Congress, the Constitution and the courts. And we are fighting the President in the courts.”

When reporters pressed her on impeachment a few minutes later, Pelosi said Democrats have “several considerations,” likely referring to Democrats’ lawsuits on obtaining Trump’s financial information.

“It’s about what information is there,” Pelosi said. “And this isn’t endless. This isn’t endless.”

Thus, we have CNN boiling the day down to a five word headline:

And that's that.

Hungry Hungry Hypocrites

The Trump regime's new SNAP program rules will kick over three million Americans off the program, mostly in blue states.  Surprise!

The proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture comes after Congress initially failed to come to an agreement on the issue in the 2018 farm bill, and looks to limit access to SNAP benefits by not automatically enrolling individuals who are also receiving minimal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF.

On call with reporters, Acting Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps said the proposed rule would result in saving an average of $2.5 billion per year.

The department in a press release on Tuesday said the move closes a “loophole,” and said that the program should provide benefits “with consistency and integrity to those most in need.”

“For too long, this loophole has been used to effectively bypass important eligibility guidelines. Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in the news release.
(MORE: Trump's new budget resurrects controversial 'harvest box' proposal for food stamps as part of broader welfare reform )

“The American people expect their government to be fair, efficient, and to have integrity – just as they do in their own homes, businesses, and communities. That is why we are changing the rules, preventing abuse of a critical safety net system, so those who need food assistance the most are the only ones who receive it,” he said.

The top Democrat on Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, called the move "yet another attempt by this Administration to circumvent Congress and make harmful changes to nutrition assistance that have been repeatedly rejected on a bipartisan basis."

"This rule would take food away from families, prevent children from getting school meals, and make it harder for states to administer food assistance," the Michigan Democrat said in a statement. "The Administration should stop undermining the intent of Congress and instead focus on implementing the bipartisan Farm Bill that the President signed into law.”

And which states automatically enroll families who are receiving TANF benefits in SNAP?  40 states, plus DC do, but the largest numbers in that category are in California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts, plus DC.

Even worse, the kids who get kicked off of SNAP over this -- and there will be millions of kids, mind you -- will lose their free or reduced price school lunch benefit.  There was no appetite, even among Republicans in Congress, to make these kinds of arbitrary and draconian cuts to SNAP in the Farm Bill last year.

So Trump is doing it anyway.

The cruelty is the point.

An In Defensible Position

Yesterday the GOP-led Senate quietly confirmed Raytheon VP and lobbyist Mark Esper as Defense Secretary, with nary a whimper from Senate Dems...save Elizabeth Warren.

Mark Esper has received enough bipartisan Senate support to be confirmed as the next secretary of defense — the first to permanently serve in that role for seven months.

Esper was President Donald Trump’s second choice after the first, Patrick Shanahan, decided not to seek confirmation due to a sensitive family matter. That opened the door for Esper, previously the Army’s civilian chief and later acting defense secretary, to get the official job.

Esper’s background concerns some people. Although he served as an Army infantryman — giving him a good understanding of everyday soldiering — he later worked as a Raytheon lobbyist for seven years before joining the Pentagon in 2017. That’s potentially problematic as the defense secretary has immense sway over which weapons the Pentagon buys. He may have to recuse himself from any decision related to Raytheon — a major defense firm — vying for contracts.

What’s more, the Trump administration is in the middle of a massive diplomatic spat with Turkey over its decision to buy and use Russian-made missiles instead of Raytheon-made ones.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a top Democratic candidate for president, grilled Esper on his Raytheon past during last week’s Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing last week — providing the only truly uncomfortable moment in an otherwise uneventful appearance. Warren wanted Esper to recuse himself from all Raytheon-related matters, but Esper said he didn’t need to after conferring with ethics officials.

And he sailed through 90-8.  Ninety.  To Eight.  If there's one small bonus to all this, it's that Esper has a hard-on for dealing with China and not Iran.

None of that concerned the administration, it seemed, and there may be a few reasons why.

First, Esper was a former classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s at West Point, class of 1986, and Pompeo and Esper reportedly have a friendly relationship. That gives the secretary a likely ally in deliberations on foreign policy against National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Second, Esper has long pushed for the US to take a hardline stance against China. “We may be a little bit late — we are late — coming to the recognition that we are in a strategic competition with China,” he told Reuters in April.

“The issue of China, competition with China, China’s capabilities, is not a new one to me,” said the former combat veteran who served in the first Gulf War. “That is both the foundation and the shaping of my views on these various issues, because I’ve watched this evolution for 20 years now.”

That means Trump now has a like-minded person in the Pentagon when it comes to confronting China, although the president has not shown any appetite for a military fight with that country.

Maybe Esper will stop John Bolton's mustache from taking us to war with Iran, but if newly-minted UK PM Boris Johnson has his way, we'll be joining the Brits very soon in a very stupid war.  Or maybe two if Esper decides China is a threat and convinces Trump as such.

StupidiNews!

• Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he wants an explanation for Donald Trump's remarks that he could "end the Afghan War" but Afghanistan "would be wiped off the face of the Earth"
• Former Chinese premier Li Peng, the so-called "Butcher of Beijing" for his hardline practices against dissidents, has died at the age of 90 according to Chinese state media.
• Automaker Nissan says it will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, up from the 4,800 job cuts announced in May after 2nd quarter numbers came in well short of expectations.
• US trade negotiators are headed to Beijing next week for another round of trade talks as China and the US continue to butt heads over Trump regime tariffs.
• Attorney General Bill Barr says Silicon Valley must put back doors in encryption protocols for law enforcement and national security reasons.

Last Call For Deportation Nation

Meanwhile, the Trump regime is expanding ICE's "expedited removal" authority to include all of the United States, meaning make sure you carry ID with you everywhere, or you now risk deportation.

The Trump administration announced on Monday it is expanding fast-track deportation regulations to include the removal of undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. continuously for two years or more.

The change dramatically expands the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to quickly deport certain immigrants without any of the due-process protections granted to most other people, including the right to an attorney and to a hearing before a judge. It is set to go into effect Tuesday and is the latest escalation of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
"The effect of that change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations," DHS said in a notice.

Additionally, DHS stated part of the purpose for the policy revision is to "harmonize" existing regulations to apply equally to undocumented immigrants who arrive by land and sea.

Currently, undocumented immigrants who cross into the U.S. by land can be deported without an immigration hearing if they are arrested within 100 miles of the border during the first 14 days after their arrival. Those who arrive by sea can be deported without legal proceedings if they are unable to prove they have been living in the U.S. for two years or more.

But under the latest proposal, all geographical limitations would be lifted and rapid removal proceedings would be applied to all undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years. 

The move is also designed to mitigate a massive court backlog of immigration cases "and will reduce the significant costs to the government associated with full removal proceedings before an immigration judge." DHS said that as of June there were 909,034 pending immigration cases. It estimates the average removal proceeding for an undocumented immigrant not being held in detention "has been pending for more than two years before an immigration judge."

In early 2017, days after taking office, President Trump issued an executive orderdirecting DHS to expand the use of expedited removal. The order designated recent unauthorized arrivals as a top priority for deportation.

"We plan on challenging the change ... speedily," Anand Balakrishnan, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project told NPR.

Balakrishnan called the policy shift "extremely sweeping," and said it authorizes any Customs and Border Protection officer to determine whether a person has been in the U.S. the requisite amount of time to trigger legal proceedings.

"The only way out of that is for the person to affirmatively prove that they've been here for two years or more. To have that evidence on them at all times," he said. "It puts the burden on every noncitizen to prove their continuous presence."

He noted, deportations could happen within hours of a person's arrest.

"From what we know about the way expedited removals have been administered in the past, it's been rife with errors," Balakrishnan said. "U.S. citizens have been ordered deported" and in other cases, people who have lived in the country for more than a decade have also been ejected, he said.

Let that sink in.

"US citizens have been ordered deported" already and could now be "deported within hours of a person's arrest", and an "extremely sweeping" policy shift that "authorizes any Customs and Border Protection officer to determine" citizenship status.  We already know that ICE is arresting US citizens.

An 18-year-old Dallas-born U.S. citizen has been in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than three weeks, his attorney says.

Now his family fears he may be deported. 

Francisco Erwin Galicia was detained at a CBP checkpoint in Falfurrias on June 27, said Claudia Galan, his attorney. 

Galicia was traveling with his 17-year-old brother Marlon Galicia and a group of friends from Edinburg where they live to Ranger College in North Texas for a soccer scouting event when they came upon a CBP checkpoint, said Sanjuana Galicia, his mother.

It was about 8 p.m. Marlon, who was born in Mexico and lacked legal status, had only been through a border checkpoint on school trips and had never been pressed to provide travel documents.

But this time was different, Marlon said. He had only a school ID. His brother was carrying only his Texas ID, which can only be obtained with a Social Security number. 

“We were confident that we’d be able to pass. We were going to do something good for our futures,” he said. “I didn’t imagine this could happen and now I’m so sad that I’m not with my family,” Marlon said by phone from Reynosa, Mexico, where he is staying with his grandmother. 

After two days in detention, Marlon signed a voluntary deportation form. 

“I signed because I wanted to talk with my mom. Now, we just have to wait and see and hope that they release my brother,” Marlon said.

That's why the Trump regime wants a deal with Guatemala for asylum-seekers so badly.  ICE picks you up, you don't have ID on you...or you do, and ICE just doesn't like you, you get disappeared to Central America and nobody knows you're gone. 

You think a regime that separates kids from families and shrugs its shoulders when people point out thousands of these kids have no paper trail to get back to their families is somehow above "expedited deportation" of political enemies who are US citizens right out of the country and saying "Oh well, guess they're somebody else's problem"?

Needless to say, know your rights.

Suger Coats-ing The Problem, Con't

Over the weekend I noted that Donald Trump was moving to get rid of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats for the crime of protecting America's voting systems from Russian hackers:

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has installed a new czar to oversee election security efforts across the spy world, he announced on Friday. 

A veteran agency leader, Shelby Pierson, has been appointed to serve as the first election threats executive within the intelligence community, or IC, Coats said.

"Election security is an enduring challenge and a top priority for the IC," said Coats.

"In order to build on our successful approach to the 2018 elections, the IC must properly align its resources to bring the strongest level of support to this critical issue. There is no one more qualified to serve as the very first election threats executive than Shelby Pierson, whose knowledge and experience make her the right person to lead this critical mission."

That was apparently too much for Trump as he's now actively looking for Coats's replacement.

President Donald Trump recently spoke to top House Intelligence Republican Devin Nunes about replacements for the country’s intelligence chief — the latest sign that Dan Coats’ tenure may be short-lived.

Nunes, who grabbed national attention with his controversial allegations of Obama administration surveillance abuses, met with Trump and other senior White House officials last week to discuss who could take over for Coats at the Office of Director of National Intelligence, according to three people familiar with the get-together.

Coats has run ODNI since early in the Trump administration, but his job security is the subject of constant speculation, especially after he gave public testimony on North Korea, Iran and Syria that divergedfrom Trump’s prior comments on the issues. The ODNI chief oversees the government’s intelligence agencies, coordinates the country’s global information-gathering operation and frequently briefs the president on threats each morning.

The meeting between Trump and Nunes has only fueled more chatter about Coats’ departure. The pace of Trump’s discussions with allies about potential replacements has ramped up in recent weeks, the people said.

Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who served as national security adviser John Bolton’s chief of staff, has been discussed as a possible ODNI replacement. Fleitz left his White House post in October 2018 to serve as president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, a far-right think tank that has been sharply critical of “radical Islam.”

Some within the intelligence community have also promoted the ODNI’s current No. 2, Sue Gordon, as be a logical replacement for Coats. Gordon is a career intelligence official who is generally well-liked within the organization.

Fleitz is one of Bolton's anti-Muslim warmongers who would almost certainly get us into war with Iran, and Gordon has made it clear she believes Silicon Valley should be collecting data for the US government.  But the real danger may be Nunes himself getting the job.

Trump and Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, are closely aligned on intelligence issues. Both have pushed accusations that career officials — particularly under the Obama administration — have been misusing their power to target political enemies and manipulating intelligence findings for political purposes.

Because of these similar views, some on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community think Nunes himself could be in the mix for an intelligence post, even if it’s not at ODNI.

“The president would certainly consider Devin Nunes for the director’s position and I eventually see him serving in some capacity in this administration,” said one member of Congress who speaks to Trump frequently. He noted, however, that he sees “all of Devin’s efforts being directed towards a reelection effort in Congress.”

Such speculation has provoked some anxiety at the top of ODNI, according to one person with direct knowledge.

Nunes, who served on Trump’s presidential transition team, made national headlines within the intelligence community in early 2017 when serving as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Nunes made a much-discussed “midnight run” to the White House in March 2017 to obtain what he described as classified information. He later said that information bolstered accusations that the Obama administration had improperly “unmasked” the names of Trump associates whose conversations were vacuumed up by intelligence agencies monitoring foreign agents’ communications in 2016. Normally, the names of U.S. citizens who show up in intelligence reports are kept secret unless there is an overwhelming national security need to expose them.

Let's not forget Nunes has already helped Trump obstruct justice.  Now he may end up as America's top spymaster as a reward.

Regardless, if Coats is replaced, and it seems more a matter of when and not if, expect the new DNI's first act to be rolling back that election threats czar.

We can't have anybody dedicated to stopping Russia's manipulation of Trump's re-election, can we?

The Sad, Sad State Of Statehood

The vast majority of Americans remain against DC statehood in a new Gallup poll with 64% against and only 29% for, even the majority of Democrats are against it, as are self-described liberals, voting rights and representation for the District's mostly black residents be damned.

The latest results are based on a June 19-30, 2019, Gallup poll, conducted in advance of congressional hearings on a bill to make Washington, D.C., a state. Although the Constitution does afford Washington, D.C., electoral votes in presidential elections, the district does not have a voting member in the House or Senate. Moreover, Congress has the ability to review and to block any policies passed by the Washington, D.C., mayor and city council.

A 1978 proposed constitutional amendment to grant Washington, D.C., voting representation in Congress failed, and in 1993 the U.S. House of Representatives voted against legislation to make the nation's capital a state. In 2016, D.C. residents approved an advisory referendum supporting statehood. Earlier this year, the House included a nonbinding endorsement of statehood for D.C. among various good-governance proposals. A separate bill proposed by Washington Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton to grant the district statehood will be taken up by a House committee later this year. Even if successful in the House, the bill has little chance of being considered by the Republican-led Senate.

No major subgroups of Americans voice support for D.C. statehood. However, support is higher among left-leaning political groups than right-leaning ones. Self-described liberals (40%) and Democrats (39%) are among the groups showing higher support. Republicans (15%) and conservatives (14%) are among the subgroups least supportive. Thirty percent of independents approve of making D.C. a separate state.

Given Washington's strong Democratic leanings, making it the 51st state would almost certainly add one voting Democrat to the House and two to the Senate, and that likelihood may underpin Republicans' reluctance to make it a state.

There were modest party differences in 1992, when 24% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans favored making Washington a state, according to the Yankelovich survey.

DC statehood has never been popular for a number of reasons, but there's no conceivable way Republicans would ever allow it anyway. Besides, the DC statehood hearing in the House this week was postponed to clear the decks for the Mueller testimony on Wednesday.

I figure it'll probably be postponed indefinitely.  It's a political loser in an era where all the House Democratic leadership can produce is political losers that don't get Senate votes.

Not even Democrats want to fight for it.

StupidiNews!

• Marine researchers have found the lost French naval submarine Minerve, which disappeared more than 50 years ago off the French Mediterranean coast with 52 hands aboard.
• Iran says it has captured 17 CIA spies sentencing several to death, according to state media, this following an announcement last month that Iran had broken up a US spy ring.
• UK voters took to the polls Monday and have elected Boris Johnson as the country's next Prime Minister, Johnson will take over for Theresa May on Wednesday afternoon following her resignation.
• Venezuela's Information Minister is blaming saboteurs for a nationwide power blackout on Monday, the government says an "electromagnetic attack" has crippled the power grid.
• Legendary NASA flight director and engineer Chris Kraft has passed away at age 95, Kraft was NASA's first flight director and ran the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

Last Call For It's Still Mueller Time, Con't

Ahead of Wednesday's scheduled testimony by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Trump Regime is warning that anything not in the unredacted text of the Mueller Report is either classified or protected by executive privilege, and that Mueller cannot speak a word of it.

In extensive discussions since the former special counsel was subpoenaed to testify on June 25, department officials have emphasized that they consider any evidence he gathered throughout the course of his investigation to be “presumptively privileged” and shielded from public disclosure.

The Justice Department is “taking the position that anything outside the written pages of the report are things about which presidential privilege hasn’t been waived,” the former U.S. official said.

The White House and the Justice Department, meanwhile, have signaled they don’t intend to place lawyers in the room during Mueller’s highly-anticipated testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday.

Without a presence at the hearing, administration officials would have little recourse to prevent Mueller from going off-script and revealing details of his investigation that the White House considers off-limits. They are poised instead to rely on Mueller to self-police his remarks, indicating that they are confident the former special counsel will stick to carefully planned comments that mirror the public results of his investigation.

Their stance cuts against President Donald Trump’s own protestation that Mueller shouldn’t be allowed to testify, which he reiterated on Monday. “Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple,” Trump said in a Monday morning tweet.

The president has accused Democrats of trying to conduct a “do-over” of Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — a probe that he has falsely claimed “exonerates” him.

Mueller’s posture will likely deprive Democrats of an opportunity to get a clear answer from Mueller about whether he would have charged Trump with obstruction of justice if he were not the president — a reference to Mueller’s adherence to a Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president — and other burning questions.

But some Democrats have said that even if Mueller simply reads from his report word-for-word, it would help educate the American public about Trump’s attempts to thwart the Russia probe.

Jim Popkin, a spokesman for Mueller, said he was unsure whether Mueller was in contact with the Justice Department about aspects of his investigation that the administration believes would be off-limits during his testimony.

“In terms of DOJ and the Hill, there have been discussions for purposes of scheduling and clearly … to understand what the expectations are,” Popkin told POLITICO. “But they have not seen the [opening] statement. They’ve not provided the statement to either DOJ or anyone in the House.”

Popkin emphasized that Mueller’s opening statement “will stick to the four walls of the report as much as that is possible.”

Mueller himself has stated that his congressional testimony would not go beyond what is contained within his report.

Considering 90% of America has no idea whatsoever what's actually in the text of the Mueller Report, it's not a bad idea to read the best parts to America live on TV.  But the second Mueller does that, House Republicans are going to scream bloody murder and try to interrupt or even end the hearings outright, and if House Republicans can't end the hearings, I fully expect Trump Regime lawyers will show up with US Marshals in tow to escort Mr. Mueller out of the building.

In other words, I don't expect much Wednesday other than a comic mess of House Republicans acting badly on TV, and we know for a fact that Americans simply don't care about that.

Finally, it was Mueller himself who asked for clarification from Attorney General Barr and the DoJ, and they gave it to him.  He never planned on going outside the "four walls" of the unredacted Mueller probe, but most likely the GOP will act like he did anyway, especially when he refuses to answer GOP questions about Peter Strzok texts or Carter Page.

We'll see what goes down, but I would keep expectations low.  America has made up its mind that Trump isn't worth getting rid of.

She Has A Plan For That, Too

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is openly warning of an economic disaster headed our way (something I definitely agree with her on) saying that legislation is needed now in order to stave off the worst of the coming recession's effects.

“Warning lights are flashing. Whether it’s this year or next year, the odds of another economic downturn are high — and growing,” Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in a Medium post entitled "The Coming Economic Crash--And How to Stop It."

“I see a manufacturing sector in recession. I see a precarious economy that is built on debt — both household debt and corporate debt — and that is vulnerable to shocks. And I see a number of serious shocks on the horizon that could cause our economy’s shaky foundation to crumble,” she wrote.

Most of Warren’s proposals to head off the crisis are policies she has called for recently on the campaign trail such as forgiving over $600 billion in student loan debt, enacting her “Green Manufacturing Plan”, strengthening unions, providing universal child care and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

It is almost certain that President Donald Trump will not sign and the Republican-led Senate will not pass these policies, meaning that Warren’s prediction of a crash will likely be tested over the next two years.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s forecast of economic tumult flies in the face of much political conventional wisdom stating that Trump’s biggest re-election advantage is the economy. Unemployment levels recently hit a 50-year low, the majority of Americans think the economy is “good” or “excellent” and that it‘s a good time to find a job according to Gallup. The stock market continues to break records every few months.

The Trump administration and Republican allies in Congress often point to the economy’s performance as evidence of the president’s good stewardship even in the midst of self-created controversies and divisive policies. Trump himself often brags about the economy as well. Just last week on Twitter, he said the economy was “the best in our Country’s history” with the “Best Employment & Stock Market Numbers EVER”and that he has led the United States to the “Greatest Economic BOOM in the history of our Country.”

But Warren has long been arguing that the economy is not as strong as the toplines suggest. “The overall numbers about GDP or the stock market are great but they don’t reflect the lived experiences of most Americans,” she told reporters in May after a town hall in Nashua, N.H. “Go around a room like this. For most people, wages haven’t gone up in a generation and yet the cost of housing, the cost of health care, the cost of childcare, the cost of sending a kid to college have all gone through the roof. The middle class squeeze is real and it has gotten tougher for people over the last few years.”

Warren is correct on both accounts, and the warning signs in the bond and corporate lending markets are screaming alarms that we're in a 2006 scenario ahead of another 2008 meltdown.  And of course, the Trump regime's lax regulation of banks have only made this much worse.

Either way, we'll see if Warren is correct, because the Trump regime has no intention of passing anything.

The Aftermath Of Maria, Con't

Things have gotten so bad in Puerto Rico that Gov. Ricardo Rosello has left his party and will not seek re-election as the island calls for his resignation amid massive protests.

Puerto Rico’s governor on Sunday said he would not seek re-election next year but refused to resign as the island braced for more protests by demonstrators demanding he step down over leaked chat messages.

A day before a planned general strike and street demonstrations in the bankrupt U.S. territory, Ricardo Rossello, 40, said he respected the wishes of Puerto Ricans and would not seek a second term in November 2020 elections.

He also said he would resign as head of the New Progressive Party (PNP) but would remain as governor until the end of his term in January, 2021.

“I know that apologizing is not enough,” Rossello said in a video posted on Facebook. “A significant sector of the population has been protesting for days. I’m aware of the dissatisfaction and discomfort they feel. Only my work will help restore the trust of these sectors and lead the way to real reconciliation.”

His comments drew outrage from the many Puerto Ricans, with videos on social media showing San Juan residents leaning out of apartment windows banging pots and pans in a third day of so-called “cacerolazo” protests.

The July 13 publication of offensive chat messages between Rossello and top aides has unleashed simmering resentment over his handling of devastating 2017 hurricanes, alleged corruption in his administration and the island’s bankruptcy process.

“‘#Resign Ricky isn’t just a call for him to resign from the party, but from his seat as the top official,” tweeted Linda Michelle, an industrial engineer and Puerto Rico radio personality. “Whoever wasn’t sure about going to the march tomorrow has now made up their mind to go.”

Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative to the U.S. Congress, as well as Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers have called for the governor to step aside after nine days of sometimes violent protests.

“Once again: Rosselló must resign,” tweeted U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in response to his video.

But Puerto Rico’s Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, a member of the pro-statehood PNP, said Rossello’s actions “put an end to part of the controversies and trauma hitting our people” and his ruling party now had to rebuild confidence in their leadership.

In the online chats revealed by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism, the center-right governor and his top allies referred to politicians, celebrities and ordinary Puerto Ricans in misogynistic, homophobic and offensive terms.

The speaker of Puerto Rico’s house of representatives appointed an independent panel on Friday to investigate whether the chats warranted impeachment and gave it 10 days to deliver a report.

And my only question is where's the general strike in the US?  Where's the massive protests?  Where's the impeachment inquiry here stateside?

Why aren't we treating Trump like Rossello?

StupidiNews!

• British swimmer Adam Peaty has beaten his own 100-meter breaststroke record with the world's first time under 57 seconds.
• Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong once again to demonstrate against Carrie Lam and her government as China considers much stronger crackdown measures.
• House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says that the Mueller Reports "presents very substantial evidence" that Donald Trump should be impeached ahead of Wednesday's Muller testimony.
• In the wake of national elections, Philippines President Duterte says he will focus on "killing drug lords" as he wants to mandate the death penalty for convicted drug dealers.
• New York has passed a Green News Deal package of energy jobs and alternative power sources, including a major push for an offshore wind farm.