Last Call For Comey Chameleon, Con't

Washington has been eagerly awaiting the report from the the DoJ's Office of Inspector General as to the Clinton investigation, and amazingly enough, it hammers former FBI Director James Comey for his little October Surprise.

The Justice Department's internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter.

One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word "insubordinate" to describe Comey's behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term. 

In the draft report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz also rebuked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for her handling of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal email server, the sources said. 

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump complained of "numerous delays" in the release of Horowitz's final report, which is expected to run several hundred pages long and be released in the coming days. The sources who spoke to ABC News were willing or able to address only a portion of the draft report's complete findings. 

"What is taking so long with the Inspector General's Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey," Trump said on Twitter. "Hope report is not being changed and made weaker!" 

There is no indication the president has seen – or will see – a draft of the report before its release. Horowitz, however, could revise the draft report now that current and former officials mentioned in it have offered their responses to the inspector general's conclusions, according to the sources. 

Almost from the start, the long-awaited report was expected to chastise Comey for his handling of the Clinton-related probe. But in apparently describing Comey's defiance of authority, the draft report was criticizing a man who prided himself on his leadership style at the FBI and has since dedicated his post-government life to promoting a new generation of effective leaders. 

The draft of Horowitz's wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign. 

Before Comey sent the letter to Congress, at least one senior Justice Department official told the FBI that publicizing the bombshell move so close to an election would violate longstanding department policy, and it would ignore federal guidelines prohibiting the disclosure of information related to an ongoing investigation, ABC News was told.

A not-so-gentle reminder then that James Comey was largely responsible for Clinton's close loss, but I'm sure Republicans will ignore than part and just concentrate on Loretta Lynch.

We'll see where this goes, and who knows how much of the IG report we'll get to actually see, but if anything, this will be used for cover by Trump that he didn't fire Comey over loyalty reasons, and instead he just waited five months to fire him over "the Clinton thing".

I don't buy it, and Mueller knows the truth.

Pardon The Interruption

Looks like Donald Trump is moving on dozens of pardons, and soon.

The White House has assembled the paperwork to pardon dozens of people, two sources with knowledge of the developments tell CNN, signaling that President Donald Trump is poised to exert his constitutional power and intervene, in some instances, where he believes the Justice Department has overstepped. 

The administration has prepared the pardoning paperwork for at least 30 people, the sources tell CNN. One of those is Alice Johnson, the 63-year-old Tennessee woman who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering. 

Kim Kardashian West met with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Oval Office last week in an attempt to convince him to pardon her. Trump has not yet decided whether he will move forward with either a pardon or commutation for Johnson. 

While Trump has expressed interest in recent days in doing so, his chief of staff, John Kelly, has advocated against it, according to someone familiar with the negotiations. 

The Washington Post first reported that the White House had prepared the paperwork to pardon Johnson. 

Last week, the President pardoned conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza and told reporters he was considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He raised eyebrows on Monday when he stated his belief that he had the "absolute right" to pardon himself, but said he wouldn't do so because he had "done nothing wrong." 

In light of his recent pardoning spree, several of the President's outside friends and allies have begun advocating for people they believe should also be forgiven.

Now, this could be Trump moving on the request made by Kim Kardashian in her meeting with Trump last week, but if any of these pardons involve players in the Mueller probe, our current Constitutional crisis shifts into overdrive. And indeed, Trump did commute Johnson's sentence earlier today.

Trump could just be trying to get his name in the history books here.  Lord knows there are a bunch of posthumous and current figures he could grant clemency to or pardon in full.  But the real tell here may be the sudden urge to involve the WH Pardon Attorney's office.  So far Trump's pardons have been Trump being Trump and going around the office, but these possible pardons he wants to make very official.

That makes me think it could involve Mueller investigation targets.

We'll see.

Tired Of All The News

A new Pew Research poll finds more than two-thirds of Americans are "worn out" by efforts to keep up with the sheer amount of news in 2018, but it's Republicans who report feeling the most overwhelmed.

If you feel like there is too much news and you can’t keep up, you are not alone. A sizable portion of Americans are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news there is, though the sentiment is more common on the right side of the political spectrum, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from Feb. 22 to March 4, 2018.

Almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days, compared with only three-in-ten who say they like the amount of news they get. The portion expressing feelings of information overload is in line with how Americans felt during the 2016 presidential election, when a majority expressed feelings of exhaustion from election coverage.

While majorities of both Republicans and Democrats express news fatigue, Republicans are feeling it more. Roughly three-quarters (77%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents feel worn out over how much news there is, compared with about six-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (61%). This elevated fatigue among Republicans tracks with them having less enthusiasm than Democrats for the 2018 elections.

Feeling overwhelmed by the news is more common among those who follow the news less closely than among those who are avid consumers. While a majority of those who follow the news most of the time (62%) are feeling worn out by the news, a substantially higher portion (78%) of those who less frequently get news say they are fatigued by the amount of it that they see. (Most Americans – 65% – say they follow the news most of time, whereas 34% say they follow only when something important is happening.)

Those less favorable toward the news media are also the most “worn out.” Eight-in-ten of those who think national news organizations do “not too” or “not at all well” in informing the public are feeling this exhaustion. This is somewhat higher than among those who say the news media do “fairly well” (69%), and much higher than for those who think news organizations do “very well” – of whom 48% say they are worn out by the news and 51% say they like the amount they see. This relationship between attitudes toward the news media and fatigue holds even after accounting for Americans’ political party affiliation.

Americans don't like hearing news that bursts their news bubbles, and the more they think everything is "fake news" the worse that gets.  Republicans aren't ignoring news about the comically inept Trump regime, they're internalizing the disconnect and producing outrage and victimization from it and instead channeling that anger towards the messenger.

If there's a model frustrated news consumer in this poll, it's college-educated white women in their 30's and 40's.  Some 44% of white college women graduates voted for Trump but they had the least loyalty to his brand...and the most regret for doing so.

So yeah, I bet they are feeling pretty frustrated right now and don't want to hear about the news...especially the ones who voted for Trump.  The rest of us are pretty frustrated too...but we voted for the non-orange person.

StupidiNews!

• Package carrier UPS, which employs more than a quarter-million Teamsters, could be the largest US strikes in decades as 90% of employees have voted to authorize striking if necessary.
• In California Dem Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will take on GOP businessman John Cox, but candidate and former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says thousands of Latinos were left off rolls in LA County.
• The EU is set to move ahead on punitive tariffs on US goods starting in July as a global trade war between Donald Trump and US allies threatens to spiral out of control.
• More than three dozen women won primaries for House, Senate, and governor's races in eight states last night, the vast majority are Democrats, including 17 in California alone.
• A federal judge has ordered the EPA to disclose all science relating to climate skepticism to back up claims made by Trump EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Last Call For Trump Cards, Con't

Here in Kentucky a high school valedictorian made national news when he quoted the president and got massive applause.  Then he revealed to the audience that the president who actually said those words was Barack Obama.

Bell County high school student and valedictorian Ben Bowling wanted to share some words of wisdom with his graduating class, but there was a twist that no one saw coming.

"This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google," Bowling said in his speech. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.' - Donald J. Trump."

The crowd burst into applause.

"Just kidding," Bowling said. "That was Barack Obama."

The 18-year-old valedictorian said the crowd quickly went silent.

"The crowd erupted in applause and before they could even finish clapping I said I was kidding and the applause quickly died," Bowling said.

Bowling, who graduated on Saturday morning, told Courier Journal that he "didn't mean anything bad by it" and thought the moment was lighthearted and funny.

“I just thought it was a really good quote,” Bowling said. “Most people wouldn’t like it if I used it, so I thought I’d use Donald Trump’s name. It is southeastern Kentucky after all.”

Young Ben here is going to go far, I think.  And yes, he's headed for UK pre-med.  Good luck, kid.

Orange Flag On The Play

Trump's war against black athletes continues as he threw a tantrum last night over the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after the majority of the team declined his offer to visit the White House.

President Trump on Monday abruptly rescinded an invitation to host the Eagles at the White House, citing the “smaller delegation” that was planning to attend and again stoking a national debate by insisting that players “proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart.”

The celebration was canceled fewer than 24 hours before the team was scheduled to visit. 

“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow,” Trump said in a statement released late Monday. “They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country. The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better.

“These fans are still invited to the White House to be part of a different type of ceremony — one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem. I will be there at 3:00 p.m. with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus to celebrate America.” 

The Eagles were scheduled to be honored by Trump at 3 p.m. on the South Lawn. Fewer than 10 players planned to attend, a team source told the Inquirer and Daily News. Eagles representatives were in Washington on Monday preparing logistics. Owner Jeffrey Lurie planned to make the visit, the source said.

Trump instead will hold a rally for how great Trump is or something, because this was always about Trump and how everyone will worship him or else, and never about the Eagles, the NFL, or even really about black players in the league (other than they have Trump pegged as the racist asshole he is and aren't afraid of him.)  Remember, none of the Eagles took a knee during the season.  This is all about Trump picking up his ball and going home when it became clear that the Super Bowl champs weren't about to kiss his ring.

Mayor Jim Kenney praised the Eagles for how they represented the city in the Super Bowl and their activism off the field and attacked Trump’s decision. 

“These are players who stand up for the causes they believe in and who contribute in meaningful ways to their community. They represent the diversity of our nation — a nation in which we are free to express our opinions,” Kenney said in a statement. “Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.”

Democrats in Congress said they would instead invite the Eagles to the U.S. Capitol.

Jim Kenney already making a better mayor for Philly than Michael Nutter, that's for sure. Anybody who straight up calls Trump a fragile egomaniac in public is okay in my book.  Meanwhile, the White House is accusing the Eagles of "abandoning their fans" because of course everyone loves Trump and only monsters wouldn't, or something.

It's always about him.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

We now know what brought on the sudden burst of Trump being dead sure he can pardon everyone in sight, including himself, for federal crimes related to the Mueller probe (or for anything else, apparently) as Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now recommending former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort go to jail for attempted witness tampering ahead of Manafort's trial for tax fraud and money laundering.

Federal prosecutors on Monday accused President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, of attempting to tamper with witnesses in his federal tax and money laundering case.

In court documents, prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said that violated the terms of Mr. Manafort’s release while he awaits trial. They asked a federal judge to revise those terms or send him to jail until trial.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Manafort tried to contact witnesses by phone, through an intermediary and through an encrypted messaging program. One witness told the F.B.I. that Mr. Manafort was trying to “suborn perjury,” prosecutors said. Two witnesses provided the texts to the F.B.I., which also searched Mr. Manafort’s cloud-based Apple account, according to court records.

A lawyer for Mr. Manafort did not respond to a message seeking comment. Neither the witnesses nor the intermediaries were named.

Mr. Manafort served as Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman only briefly, but the relationship continues to haunt the Trump administration. Mr. Manafort is accused of violating federal lobbying, tax and money laundering laws as part of a complicated scheme in which he lobbied for a pro-Russia party in Ukraine and hid proceeds in foreign bank accounts.

The witnesses at issue in Monday’s court filing relate to allegations that Mr. Manafort secretly retained a group of former European officials to act as lobbyists on issues related to Ukraine. Mr. Manafort paid them 2 million euros in 2012 and 2013, according to court documents.

Manafort is pretty stupid.  Mueller naturally gave Manafort enough rope to hang himself with, and Manafort tied the noose for himself as his own associates gladly ratted him out to Mueller and handed over the text messages.

Prosecutors say that was part of a secret lobbying campaign in the United States. Mr. Manafort argues the lobbying was focused on the European Union — a key point in his defense.

In court documents, prosecutors accused Mr. Manafort of trying to reach members of a public relations firm who could get word to the Europeans and help shape their story. “They should say their lobbying and public relations work was exclusively in Europe,” one of the public relations officials told the F.B.I. according to court documents.

Prosecutors provided the judge a summary of contacts that they said were made from February to April, while Mr. Manafort was under house arrest on a $10 million bond.

“We should talk,” Mr. Manafort wrote in a WhatsApp message on Feb. 26 to one of the people at the public relations firm. “I have made clear that they worked in Europe.” 

When that witness avoided him or hung up, prosecutors said, Mr. Manafort worked through an unidentified intermediary.

“Basically P wants to give him a quick summary that he says to everybody (which is true) that our friends never lobbied in the U.S., and the purpose of the program was E.U.,” the intermediary wrote in a Feb. 28 WhatsApp message, according to court documents.

Then in April, the same intermediary sent a message to another person. “My friend P is looking for ways to connect to you to pass you several messages. Can we arrange that,” the text read, according to court documents.

If Mueller somehow didn't have Manafort over a 55-gallon drum before, well, Manafort may not have a friend in the world now other than the Special Counsel and he knows it.

It’s long been believed that Mueller is approaching the Russia probe like the prosecution of a crime family, pressuring underlings to flip on the boss. Multiple former Trump associates have folded, taking plea deals and agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors. But even as prosecutors hit Manafort with more charges, flipped his longtime business associate Rick Gates, and struck a deal with his former son-in-law, he’s held strong.

There are all kind of theories about why Manafort hasn’t taken a deal. Perhaps, as his lawyer claims, he’s innocent and is confident that he’ll be acquitted. He might actually think he can get the case dismissed on the grounds that it’s outside the scope of Mueller’s probe. Or perhaps in his many shady business dealings he got mixed up with figures who are scarier than Trump.

There’s one more compelling possibility: Manafort believes that if he’s loyal to the president, he’ll return the favor. Trump’s former lawyer, John Dowd, reportedly broached the idea of a pardon with Manafort’s lawyer before he was indicted in October.

If that’s what’s kept Manafort from flipping all this time, recent events may have him questioning that decision. Manafort has yet to be charged with witness tampering, but federal prosecutors want a judge to revise the terms of his release; that means there’s a good chance he’ll wind up in jail before his trial. While there’s speculation that Trump’s cavalier pardoning in recent weeks was meant to send a message to associates caught up in the Russia probe, he can’t pardon them just yet, as it would create a major legal and political storm.

Plus, Trump’s been sending other signals to Manafort that don’t require much reading between the lines. The White House has been downplaying Manafort’s relationship with Trump since before he was indicted, and over the weekend the president randomly announced that he barely knew the man who ran his campaign in the summer of 2016 – and if he was up to no good, the FBI should have warned him.

"Randomly" my Aunt Angela.  Trump knew this was coming and made it clear that Manafort is dead to him for his failures.  He knows how much Manafort can damage him and that pardoning him won't help because one the cases Manafort is facing is a state trial in Virginia as well as a federal trial in DC, and Trump can't touch the state charges at all, hence the sudden shift to Trump pardoning himself.

Manafort is in a boatload of trouble and his only way out now may be to finally flip on Trump.  If he does, and the added pressure of ending up in jail before his trial even begins certainly makes that a possibility, then Trump is done.

And everyone knows it.

StupidiNews!

• As the Iranian nuclear deal continues to disintegrate after Donald Trump discarded it, Iran's Ayatollah Khamanei is ordering more uranium enrichment as a national security imperative.
• The US Supreme Court voted 7-2 in a limited ruling favoring a Colorado cake shop that was fined for refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding ceremony, setting up a larger civil rights battle.
• Several former USA Gymnastics officials will testify before a Senate panel today on the massive sex abuse scandal involving convicted former team doctor Larry Nassar.
• The Trump Regime is asking OPEC for an output increase as summer gas prices in the US are topping $3 per gallon and heading higher, OPEC for now is holding numbers steady.
• The Trump regime will send Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer's pick for the FCC to the full Senate for a confirmation vote to replace outgoing Democrat Mignon Clyburn.

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

Donald Trump is on the Twitter warpath again, signaling his imperial presidency is about to take a very dark and authoritarian turn, and soon.

President Trump declared Monday that the appointment of the special counsel in the Russia investigation is “totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!” and asserted that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing probe. 

In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that he would not have to pardon himself because he had “done nothing wrong.” But he insisted that “numerous legal scholars” have concluded that he has the absolute right to do so, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. 

In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump’s position on his pardon power, an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling. 

Mr. Trump did not elaborate in the tweets about the legal basis for his claim that the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia case, was unconstitutional. In that tweet, he insisted that “we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!”

For many months after Mr. Mueller’s appointment last year, Mr. Trump avoided directly challenging the special counsel. His lawyers at the time argued that the best way to bring the probe to an end was to cooperate fully and avoid public criticism. 

But that strategy changed after Mr. Trump overhauled his legal team, and in recent weeks, the president and his new attorneys have become openly dismissive of Mr. Mueller and his team of prosecutors. 

Still, Monday’s tweets by the president went further than before in attempting to undermine the legal basis for the investigation into whether people on Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian meddling during the election, and whether anyone in the administration tried to cover up their activities. 

It's only a matter of time before he fires Rosenstein and/or Mueller.  I keep saying that November may be our only chance, but at this rate he's going to declare himself dictator well before the election.

The Jordan Rules

Massive anti-austerity protests in Jordan over the last week have resulted in King Abdullah sacking PM Hani Mulki and calling for the formation of a new government in an effort to tamp down tensions in the country.

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday asked Omar al-Razzaz, a former World Bank economist, to form a new government after Hani Mulki resigned as prime minister following the country’s biggest protests in years, a ministerial source said.

The move appeared aimed at defusing popular anger over planned tax hikes that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in the capital Amman and other parts of Jordan since last week. Razzaz was education minister in Mulki’s government. 

Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally that has a peace treaty with Israel, has remained stable through years of regional turmoil. 

Police chief Major General Fadel al-Hamoud said security forces had detained 60 people for breaking the law during the protests and 42 security force members had been injured, but protests remained under control.

“Rest assured, Jordan is a safe and secure country, and things are under control,” said Major General Hussein Hawatmeh, head of the Gendarmerie security department, appearing along with Hamoud at a news conference. 

Public anger has grown over government policies since a steep general sales tax hike earlier this year and the abolition of bread subsidies, both measures driven by the International Monetary Fund. 

Political sources earlier said Abdullah had summoned Mulki for an audience in the king’s palace.

In a sign the tax hikes could be shelved, the Petra news agency, citing the speaker of parliament, said lawmakers were on course to ask the king’s permission to hold an exceptional session, with a majority demanding the changes be withdrawn. 

Mulki, a business-friendly politician, was appointed in May 2016 and given the responsibility of reviving a sluggish economy and business sentiment hit by regional turmoil. The tax increases have caused his popularity to plummet. 

The protests widened on Saturday after Mulki refused to scrap a bill increasing personal and corporate taxes, saying it was up to parliament to decide.

The IMF fiddling with economies is not always a good thing, in fact, it rarely is.  King Abdullah is cagey enough to understand what's going on however and he's more than happy to throw his technocrats under the bus to save his own neck.  But Jordanian protesters know what they're doing in the post-Arab Spring age of social media, too.

Jordanians involved in the anti-government protests in opposition to the draft income tax law appear to be well-organized, mature in their approach and focused on specific goals. 

The demonstrations started on Wednesday in Amman, organized by professional unions against the draft tax laws required by the International Monetary Fund. 

But unlike in the protests staged in Jordan in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring, observers said most participants are not ideological and the protests are not limited to just men. 

Hiba Obeidat, who took part in the 2011 demonstrations, told Arab News that the current protests reflect a young population that has matured. 

“This is different from the first Arab Spring. Participants want to make sure that the mistakes of 2011 are not repeated. 

“Participants want to be sure no external group hijacks the current protests, as happened in the Arab Spring when the Muslim Brotherhood benefitted from the protests of the largely secular participants.

And they got results, and quickly.  Would that the US worked that way these days.  Or ever.

The Maria Massacre: Los Olvidados Muertos

The shocking report last week that the true death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria last September exceeded that of Hurricane Katrina or 9/11 is something America is no longer being silent on, and if Democrats have any heart, they absolutely need to pound the Trump regime on its devastating failure that cost thousands of American lives.

Days after a new study from researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health estimated that the death toll from Hurricane Maria may be as high as 4,645 people, mainly because of delayed medical care, hundreds of protesters gathered on Saturday in the shadow of the United Nations to demand that the international organization audit the number of casualties.

The Puerto Rican government is reviewing its official death toll from the storm, which it said in December was 64.

“If it were 5,000 kittens, there would be outrage,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of Uprose, a Latino organization in Brooklyn. “If it was 5,000 dogs, there would be outrage. If it was 5,000 blonde-haired, blue-eyed women, there would be outrage.”

The protest was organized by the Collective Action for Puerto Rico, a coalition of faith-based and labor organizations. Protesters held signs saying “Puerto Rican lives matter” and “If you are not angry you are not paying attention.”

They took off their shoes as a symbol of the people who died as a result of the storm but who were not immediately counted, and called for more attention to be paid to the hurricane’s aftermath in the form of more assistance for people still struggling on the island as hurricane season begins.

“Sisters and brothers in this country forget that the people of Puerto Rico are our fellow Americans,” said Linda Sarsour, who was one of the lead organizers of the Women’s March in Washington. “They deserve to be treated just like any American in any part of this country.”

United Nations officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump failed Puerto Rico, and thousands died as a result.  Period.  And there's every reason to believe that the actual death toll could be higher.

Researchers behind the study, which was published on Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, visited close to 3,300 randomly selected households across Puerto Rico. They found that 38 people from those households died in the months after the storm.

Using their independent estimate of the number of deaths, researchers calculated the mortality rate after the hurricane and compared it with mortality rates from 2016. Researchers found a 62 percent increase in the mortality rate from Sept. 20, 2017, when the hurricane hit, through Dec. 31, 2017, compared with the same time period in 2016.

The study found that the official death toll of 64 was a “substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria,” and that the estimated 4,645-person death toll could exceed 5,000.

Puerto Rican officials said in December that they planned to revise the official death toll, counting direct and indirect storm deaths. The commonwealth commissioned a study on Hurricane Maria deaths from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, which is expected to release the first part of its review this summer.

No matter how you estimate it, the reality is that the "official" death toll of 64 is one of most mendacious government lies in existence. Los Olvidados Muertos, the Forgotten Dead, will not be forgotten any longer.

Especially in November.

StupidiNews!

• Dozens are reported dead after the eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano, President Jimmy Morales has declared three days of national mourning.
• California has banned state agency travel to Oklahoma over the state's new law that bans gay and lesbian couples from adopting.
• North Korea has replaced its top three military officials ahead of a proposed June 12 meeting with Donald Trump in Singapore, which for now appears to be still on.
• Donald Trump will face furious G7 leaders in Quebec this week over new American steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU, Mexico, and Canada, China is also warning against new tariffs.
• Apple's annual Worldwide Development Conference kicks off today with expected details of this year's versions of its iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV operating system upgrades.

Trump Cards, Con't

There are two political parties in the US, the Democrats and Trump.  Despite historically dismal overall approval ratings, ratings among the GOP find Trump to be second only to post 9/11 Dubya in approval from his own party at the 500-day mark.

So no, the notion that Republicans will turn on Trump even should Mueller or the Senate present evidence of conspiracy or worse is ludicrous.  They will defend Trump even at the cost of their own livelihoods.  The Republican party is nothing more than the racist, misogynist, bigoted cult of personality that worships Trump, and so are all of his voters.

I'm tired of being nice to them.  It's only made them love Trump more.

It's time to call these assholes out this November and throw them out of power for good.  Get registered, get ready, get friends, get to the polls.  At every turn President Obama's open hand was met by fist after fist.

Now it's time to fight.

Sunday Long Read: From Moscow To London

If you want to know why Putin and his oligarchs have been so successful at money laundering, and why Donald Trump is doing his best at emulating them to create a oligarchy where Trump is most powerful human being on the planet, the key has always been in Moscow's financial relationship with London, as Oliver Bullough of The Guardian explains in this week's Sunday Long Read.

In March, parliament’s foreign affairs committee asked me to come and tell them what to do about dirty Russian cash. As a journalist, I’ve spent much of my career writing about financial corruption in the former Soviet Union, but the invitation came as something of a surprise. After all, ever since I was at school in the 1990s, British politicians have welcomed Russian money to our shores. They have celebrated when oligarchs have bought our football clubs, cheered when they’ve listed their companies on our Stock Exchange. They have gladly accepted their political donations and patronised their charitable foundations.

When journalists and academics pointed out that these murky fortunes could buy influence over our democracy and undermine the rule of law, they were largely dismissed as inconvenient Cassandras warning MPs to beware Russians bearing gifts. But earlier this year, after the poisoning in Salisbury of the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, those little-heeded prophecies jumped straight into the pages of Hansard. “To those who seek to do us harm, my message is simple: you are not welcome here,” Theresa May told the House of Commons on 14 March, in a speech that blamed Russia for the attack. “There is no place for these people, or their money, in our country.”

Britain’s entire political class joined the prime minister in this screeching handbrake turn. MPs who had long presented the nation’s openness to trade as a great virtue suddenly wanted to be seen as tough on kleptocrats, tough on the causes of kleptocrats. Having allowing so much Russian money into Britain, these MPs were now seized with concern that Vladimir Putin might, through his power over his nation’s super-rich, be able to influence our institutions. Were we selling Putin the rope with which he would hang us, they wondered.

That is why, on 28 March, I took a seat in committee room six, a chamber high up in the Palace of Westminster, with heavy furniture, a view over the River Thames, and a carpet like a migraine. The foreign affairs committee exists to monitor the work of the Foreign Office – essentially, to keep an eye on Boris Johnson – but its members can investigate any subjects they choose. This time, they had chosen to look into the money Putin and his cronies hold in Britain and its overseas territories, with a view to exploring fresh opportunities for sanctions.

I had brought along a list of things I wanted to talk about: how we should improve our defences against money laundering; how we need transparency about who owns property; how MPs themselves must stop taking money from dodgy ex-Soviet oligarchs if they want others to do the same.

But the first question, from Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, threw me: “Can you give the committee a sense of the scale of so-called ‘dirty money’ being laundered through London?” she asked.

It is a vast question, worthy of a book in itself, and one that even the National Crime Agency would struggle to answer, let alone me. Then came her second question: “What assets has that hidden money gone into?”

I tried my best – I mentioned property, private schools, luxury goods – but I think she and I both knew I’d fluffed it. I should have brought along specific examples, with times and dates and names. The embarrassing truth is that, although I have written about Russia and its neighbours for two decades, during which I have increasingly specialised in analysing corruption, it had never really occurred to me to ascertain precisely how much stolen Russian money had found a home in the UK, or to chart exactly where it had ended up.

If someone like me had been this culpably incurious, it is hardly surprising that politicians with dozens of other priorities have had to scramble to understand what we’re facing. But for the past couple of months, I have belatedly tried to discover an answer to the foreign affairs committee’s questions.

It turns out that the situation is even more worrying than I had suspected.

It is far too late for the UK, facing Brexit and financial catastrophe of their own making, being sliced off like a cut of prime beef and served to Putin and Moscow.  The rest of the EU is barely holding on, and all indications are that Italy and Spain will be the next to fall.  Putin has all but won, and his absolute dominance of Europe through a new Warsaw Pact is now only a matter of time.

But Putin has already gotten his hooks into the US with Trump, a willing agent who has worked out for the Kremlin apparatchiks beyond their wildest dreams.  Putin is carving up London Broil right now, but he has our country on the menu, and the knives are already out. Trump still thinks he can be Putin, and he'll destroy our democracy to get there.

And that's when Putin will take the reins.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

The NY Times drops a copy of a Trump regime memo to Special Counsel Robert Mueller written back in January that asserts that Mueller has no power to subpoena Donald Trump, and that Trump has absolute power over the investigation into his own malfeasance.

President Trump’s lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.

In a brash assertion of presidential power, the 20-page letter — sent to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and obtained by The New York Times — contends that the president cannot illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia’s election meddling because the Constitution empowers him to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”

[Read the Trump lawyers’ confidential memo to Mr. Mueller here.]

Mr. Trump’s lawyers fear that if he answers questions, either voluntarily or in front of a grand jury, he risks exposing himself to accusations of lying to investigators, a potential crime or impeachable offense.

Mr. Trump’s broad interpretation of executive authority is novel and is likely to be tested if a court battle ensues over whether he could be ordered to answer questions. It is unclear how that fight, should the case reach that point, would play out. A spokesman for Mr. Mueller declined to comment.

“We don’t know what the law is on the intersection between the obstruction statutes and the president exercising his constitutional power to supervise an investigation in the Justice Department,” said Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who oversaw the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration. “It’s an open question.”

Hand-delivered to the special counsel’s office in January and written by two of the president’s lawyers at the time, John M. Dowd and Jay A. Sekulow, the letter offers a rare glimpse into one side of the high-stakes negotiations over a presidential interview.

Though it is written as a defense of the president, the letter recalls the tangled drama of early 2017 as the new administration dealt with the Russia investigation. It also serves as a reminder that in weighing an obstruction case, Mr. Mueller is reviewing actions and conversations involving senior White House officials, including the president, the vice president and the White House counsel.

The letter also lays out a series of claims that foreshadow a potential subpoena fight that could unfold in the months leading into November’s midterm elections.

“We are reminded of our duty to protect the president and his office,” the lawyers wrote, making their case that Mr. Mueller has the information he needs from tens of thousands of pages of documents they provided and testimony by other witnesses, obviating the necessity for a presidential interview.

The problem with such an argument is that it assumes the Executive cannot be checked by any power in the Executive, only by the Judicial or the Legislative, and that describes a country where the president is above the law.  Trump is now resorting to not only attacking his critics openly on Twitter, and at rallies, but now he's using the Oval Office's weekly address to attack Democrats directly.

In his weekly address, Trump blamed Democrats for slow-walking many of his nominees through the confirmation process, saying that Senate Democrats had "shamelessly obstructed" hundreds of qualified picks.

"Senate Democrats call it 'the resistance,' " he said.

"From day one, Senate Democrats have shamelessly obstructed, stalled, and filibustered the confirmations of hundreds of talented men and women who are eager to come to Washington, D.C., to make a difference," he said. "They want to serve our country."

Trump also blasted the party's opposition to his hard-line demands on border security and immigration. He said that Democrats were withholding support for his policies because the party is "afraid it’s going to make me and the Republicans look good."

"They have blocked every effort to close deadly loopholes, to keep out vicious criminals, and to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs," Trump said. "They are a disaster at the border."

"These actions are endangering our citizens, threatening our communities, and undermining our national security," he continued.

Pay very, very close attention to that last part.  In just the last few days, the President has declared that foreign trade practices by our closest allies like Canada constituted a national security threat that required action through punitive tariffs.  His EPA has determined that solar and wind power are national security threats that require America to force utilities to buy coal and nuclear power.

Now he has determined that Democrats are "undermining our national security" along with critics, and he has asserted absolute power over the investigation into his campaign.

He will soon take action against those critics.  Very soon, I fear.