Deportation Nation, Con't

So today's ICE terror sweeps have been postponed for the official reason that Dear Leader wants to give the Democrats two weeks to come up with a deal of some sort in order to prevent mass ICE raids.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Donald Trump Friday night and asked him to call off the Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation raids scheduled for Sunday, a source familiar with the call told CNN. 

Trump pulled back on the raids Saturday a matter of hours after he spoke in support of the coordinated arrests and deportations that were slated to hit 10 major cities. Trump announced via Twitter that he would delay for two weeks US raids to give Congress a chance to "get together and work out a solution" on the enforcement of his signature immigration policy. 

Trump and Pelosi spoke at 7:20 p.m. ET Friday night for about 12 minutes, according to the source. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere confirmed a phone call took place Friday night between Trump and Pelosi. 

A senior Democratic aide said Trump is "trying to create leverage in a situation where he has none," adding that "it won't work."

 The reality is Trump is conducting a mole hunt where everyone is probably guilty, including himself.

President Donald Trump suddenly canceled on Saturday a planned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation targeting undocumented immigrant families from across the country that was set to begin in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday.

The operation details, which had been reported by multiple outlets, including BuzzFeed News, had set off an unprecedented level of preparation amongst immigrant advocates this week.

But in a tweet Saturday, Trump said that he had “delayed” the plan at the request of Democrats to work on a plan to solve issues at the border, including what he believes are inherent loopholes to the system.

“At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” Trump tweeted. “If not, Deportations start!”

However, two senior administration officials told BuzzFeed News that those within the administration believe acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, or his staff, leaked operational details and that is what ultimately put the ICE operation in jeopardy.
“Leaking the locations and details to stop the operation from happening not only harmed operational integrity, but it put the safety and well-being of his own officers in jeopardy,” said one senior administration official. “The ICE mission is enforcing the nation’s laws and ensuring those who are unlawfully present in the country are removed if ordered by a judge; this will leave an un-erasable mark on his tenure.”

DHS officials did immediately not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

So we have our scapegoat for when Trump was the one who tweeted these raids were coming last week.   I said Friday that the wild card was how sanctuary cities would react to being given a week's heads up on this, and the answer is that without the cooperation of local police and the cities being able to warn people, the raids would have not been the "shock and awe" that Trump wanted.

The plan now is to blame McAleenan, who took over for Kirstjen Nielsen in April, and testified to Congress that ICE needed much more funding amid low morale and needed personnel.  Trump apparently doesn't think McAleenan can do the job.

Former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Homan on Saturday accused Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kevin McAleenan of working against ICE’s objectives.

Homan, whom President Donald Trump recently appointed as his administration’s “border czar,” made the comments during a weekend appearance on Fox & Friends; he discussed the administration’s recently leaked plans to launch mass raids targeting undocumented families on Sunday.

“You’ve got the acting Secretary of Homeland Security resisting what ICE is trying to do,” Homan said. “In the Washington Poststory, and numerous media outlets, [McAleenan] does not support this operation. And I tell you what, if that’s his position then he’s on the wrong side of this issue. You don’t tell the men and women of ICE a day before they go out there to do this operation.”

Homan also strongly implied that McAleenan was the source of the information leaked to media outlets regarding Sunday’s planned raids and accused him of putting ICE officers in danger.

Expect McAleenan's resignation shortly, paving the way for somebody worse I guess.

Last Call For Russian To Judgment

Convicted former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort apparently was getting advice for months from one of Trump's top aides during the Mueller probe, that adviser being one FOX News host Sean Hannity.

Court documents previously filed under seal with the government’s sentencing recommendations for Paul Manafort were made public on Friday.

The documents include a months-long text exchange between Manafort and a “Sean” who appears to be Fox News host Sean Hannity.

The texts show Manafort apparently complimenting Hannity on his coverage, with the Fox host telling Manafort to stay strong throughout the early stages of the Mueller investigation.

“I appreciate what you tried to do,” Manafort wrote in one August 2017 message.

“Mueller is trying to intimidate me,” he wrote. “The raid is just one example.”

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in an order that the exhibit was initially redacted due to privacy concerns.

In one late November 2017 exchange, Manafort appears to express interest in working on Trump’s 2020 campaign.

“Plus i plan on helping on the re elect !” he wrote.

Hannity repeatedly pleaded with Manafort that he should appear on the Fox News host’s show. Manafort complained about the constraints imposed on him by the gag order in his case, but according to the exchanges, Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing sought to provide Hannity with information on “what we are doing and how it connects to your reporting.”

Hannity reported back to Manafort that an apparent January 2018 call with Downing went well and said that he asked Downing to “feed me everyday.” 

The only reason why Manafort wasn't nailed for contempt of court for violating Judge Amy Berman Jackson's gag order was because they couldn't pin down a follow-up by Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing that actually showed where Manafort broke the gag request.

That's it.

Meanwhile, Sean Hannity is working for the Trump regime as propaganda minister and has been for years.

Our Little Domestic Terrorism Problem, Oregon GOP Edition Con't

Things are definitely getting worse in Oregon as armed white supremacist domestic terror groups are now openly siding with Oregon Republicans in shutting down the state legislature by any means necessary, including threats of deadly violence, in order to prevent Democrats from passing climate change legislation.

Oregon’s top lawmakers will shut down the state capitol after receiving threats from militia groups, who authorities say are planning to demonstrate there in support of the 11 Republican senators who fled the state to dodge a vote on climate change. 

State Senate President Peter Courtney (D) told his colleagues on Friday that Oregon State Police had informed him there was a credible threat to him, the rest of the remaining senators — all of whom are Democrats — and the building’s staff. 

“It was obviously a credible threat because Sen. Courtney wouldn’t close it down for no reason,” Courtney’s spokeswoman Carol Currie told The Washington Post.
State police confirmed the danger in an emailed statement. 

“We have been monitoring information throughout the day that indicates the safety of legislators, staff and citizen visitors could be compromised if certain threatened behaviors were realized,” wrote Capt. Timothy Fox. 

Friday night’s menacing escalation was the latest in a bizarre feud between the state’s Democrats and Republicans, who have clashed repeatedly during this year’s legislative session. 

Early Thursday morning, every GOP senator bolted, reportedly for the Idaho line, rather than sit idly in the chamber as their opponents passed a sweeping cap-and-trade bill. Gov. Kate Brown (D) responded by directing state troopers to corral the Republicans and return them to the state house. 

Democrats have a supermajority in Oregon, allowing them the rare opportunity to pass the legislation of their dreams — but without Republicans, they can’t achieve a quorum. No quorum, no vote. GOP senators said they had two options: allow a bill to pass that they said would devastate their constituents, or make a run for it. 

“We will not stand by and be bullied by the majority party any longer," Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr. said in a Thursday statement. “Oregonians deserve better.”

If Republicans cannot control the state, they will threaten violence against those who do until they get the political outcome they want.  This is the textbook definition of political terrorism, and sitting Republicans in Oregon are resorting to terrorist groups in order to get their way.

Here's a theoretical.  Flip the players around and imagine this was Alabama or Florida or Ohio or another state with a GOP supermajority in the state legislature and a GOP governor.  Imagine Democrats leaving the state to prevent a quorum to prevent the state legislature from conducting any business.

Now imagine that Black Lives Matter demonstrators planned a rally at the state capitol to protest the GOP agenda. Imagine state police closing the capitol because of credible threats against GOP lawmakers.

Would anyone in America hesitate to use the phrase "terrorism" there?  Would anyone doubt immediate intervention by Donald Trump, calling for swift and deadly force against both the protestors and the Democratic lawmakers who skipped town?  Immediate international news as National Guardsmen and federal agents descended?

That's the difference.  This story is maybe a page A10 at best.

You will either have a GOP government, America, or you will burn.

This is the Republican party.

Trump Trades Blows, Con't

Time to check in with apparently the only voters who actually exist in America, white red state farmers getting wrecked by Trump's trade wars.

Some rural residents are growing increasingly frustrated with the ongoing trade feuds and wonder how long Trump will call upon farmers to make sacrifices as the country’s “patriots.”

“People are starting to say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this,’ ” said [South Dakota farmer Ray] Martinmaas, who voted for Trump in 2016, but says he’s open to a Democrat like Montana Gov. Steve Bullock this time. “You know, we’re the ones taking the brunt of it in all these negotiations, so they need to be kind of helping us out right now.”

Martinmaas, whose family homesteaded this land in 1888, said his farm operation lost more than $700,000 last year. He’s had to put a moratorium on buying new equipment, and he’s stuck with grain bins full of soybeans, because China isn’t buying. Other farmers can’t pay their bills for the hay and grain they bought from him.

Martinmaas, 69, says he’s skeptical that Trump’s aid package will help, given the uncertainty about how much individual farmers will receive and who will qualify.

Trump’s 2016 victory hung largely on support from rural and small-town Americans like Martinmaas. His approval rating with them remains strong — 57 percent, far higher than the 39 percent of Americans overall, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll in late April.

But a survey of farmers released this month by Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture shows rising pessimism, with only 20 percent saying they believe the trade war with China will be resolved by July 1, down from 45 percent in March.

But in tiny Orient — population 63 — farmers are beginning to voice disillusionment and frustration. More than a dozen farmers did not have their operating loans renewed for the coming year, according to a local lender, with at least one farmer losing it all and a land auction planned for the courthouse steps later this month. Agriculture exports from the state to China — a big soybean buyer — fell 40 percent in the state last year, part of a $10 billion loss nationally, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation analysis.

But they'll vote for Trump anyway.  Every single one of them.  Worst case scenario is that a state that Trump won by 40 points he only wins by 30 in 2020.

Bonus hatred for coastal elites:

Martinmaas runs his farm operation — including Angus beef cattle, corn, soybeans, sunflowers and hogs — with his three brothers. He was born and raised in Orient, in a tiny house with no electricity or running water, one of 12 children of conservative Catholic parents. Now he lives with his wife, Becky Martinmaas, in a cozy house decorated in a lodge theme, with a gun room, workshop, horse barn, skinning shed and a salt-lick pallet out front, which Becky hand-painted in the colors of the American flag and the words “Let Freedom Ring.”

Married 31 years, they share a commitment to hard work and family, a love of sport shooting and hunting, and a distaste for coastal elites.

“I always say the West Coast and East Coast can each be a country and the rest of us will be just fine,” Martinmaas said from his kitchen table one recent Sunday, as Becky made butter biscuits.

“But they’d starve!” she said.

“Here in flyover country, we have everything we need — food, oil,” Martinmaas said.

“Except voters,” his wife responds.

They hate, hate, hate the fact that city slickers actually matter more than their heroic farmer selves that feed an ungrateful nation, and they will lay down their livlihoods for the man who promises them that America will be run by farmers in South Dakota and not those people in South Harlem.

Oh, and they fully expect Trump to fix that "Except voters" problem.  That's why they elected him.  That's why they'll vote for him again.

Why is anyone expecting anything different?

Deportation Nation, Con't

It's been a busy June for Team Evil as Trump's promise earlier this week of mass deportation operations is coming to fruition on Sunday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pressing forward to arrest and deport families with court-ordered removals in 10 cities beginning Sunday, according to a senior immigration official, after President Donald Trump's tweet revealing an operation was imminent.

But acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan has been hesitant about elements of the operation, according to two sources familiar with his thinking.

ICE has said it was considering options to arrest and deport families who have gone through their legal proceedings but has refrained from publicly providing the scope and timeframe of the operation, which officials say could lead to a situation where a family is separated and could cause a backlash against the department. 

To that end, Trump's tweet Monday night that ICE, the enforcement arm of DHS, was preparing to deport "millions" of undocumented immigrants next week was striking, given the figure and the decision to disclose an operation prior to its execution. 

"If you're here illegally, then you should be removed," acting head of ICE Mark Morgan told reporters Wednesday during a call prompted by the President's tweet. "And in this case, that includes families."

ICE says it expects to target thousands of families, as a matter of fact.  And they're doing this for two reasons: number one, as always, Serwer's Maxim. The cruelty is the point.

Four toddlers were so severely ill and neglected at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, that lawyers forced the government to hospitalize them last week.

The children, all under age 3 with teenage mothers or guardians, were feverish, coughing, vomiting and had diarrhea, immigration attorneys told HuffPost on Friday. Some of the toddlers and infants were refusing to eat or drink. One 2-year-old’s eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was “completely unresponsive” and limp, according to Toby Gialluca, a Florida-based attorney.

She described seeing terror in the children’s eyes.

“It’s just a cold, fearful look that you should never see in a child of that age,” Gialluca said. “You look at them and you think, ‘What have you seen?’”

Another mother at the same facility had a premature baby, who was “listless” and wrapped in a dirty towel, as HuffPost previously reported.

The lawyers feared that if they had not shown up at the facility, the sick kids would have received zero medical attention and potentially died. The Trump administration has come under fire for its treatment ― and its alleged neglect ― of migrants who have been crossing the southern border in record numbers. The result is overcrowded facilities, slow medical care and in some instances, deaths.

Trump isn't denying these reports, because he wants them spread far and wide.  He wants migrants terrified.  He wants undocumented folks terrified.  And he wants them fleeing the country.

Reason #2 the ICE machine is shifting into high gear: Obama did a better job of deportations.

Trump won't stand for that.  ICE has its orders to beat Obama.

The wild card in Sunday's raids: law enforcement cooperation in the case of sanctuary cities like Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the Chicago Police Department “will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions.”

According to The Washington Post, President Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct a “mass roundup” of migrant families with deportation orders. The operation is stated to likely begin on Sunday in major U.S. cities.

In a statement Lightfoot said, “We are all aware of the threat from President Trump regarding raids by ICE, and in response, Chicago has taken concrete steps to support our immigrant communities.”

Lightfoot said with her direction, CPD has “terminated ICE’s access to CPD’s databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities.”
The mayor said she has personally spoken with ICE leadership in Chicago and voiced her strong objection to any raids.

“Chicago will always be a welcoming city and a champion for the rights of our immigrant and refugee communities, and I encourage any resident in need of legal aid to contact the National Immigrant Justice Center,” Ligthfoot stated.

We'll see how this all plays out this weekend.

Last Call For Race To The Bottom, Con't

You can argue whether or not the act of opposing reparations itself makes you a racist, but when your reasoning for doing so is literally "We won, you lost, that's that" not only does it make you a racist, but an unrepentantly awful one.

Fox News star Laura Ingraham waded into the ongoing debate over reparations for descendants of slaves during her podcast on Thursday by proclaiming there are no “do-overs” after a “conquest.”

Talking to Kentucky State professor and ‘Hate Crime Hoax’ author Wilford Reilly about the recent House hearing on reparations, Ingraham played a clip of author Ta-Nehisi Coates taking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to task for saying reparations are unnecessary because Americans elected Barack Obama as president.

After praising McConnell’s remarks, Reilly stated that the logistics of paying reparations would be far too difficult before wondering if Native Americans would then be next to request compensation over their treatment.

“I mean, obviously both white and black soldiers, frankly, took this country from the Indians—the first people,” Reilly added.

“People would argue that the whole world, and I would, the whole world has been reshaped by people taking other people's land,” Ingraham weighed in. “It's called conquest.”

Mentioning past empires and how there was a “totally different map” in the past, Ingraham—whose own brother thinks she is a “monster”—then complained that “they want to live in a fake world,” presumably talking about liberals.

“As Trump always says, ‘You don't get do-overs,’” she declared. “No do-overs, that's it. There was an argument, sometime—I think it was the 1980s. There was a quote, you won, we lost, that's that. Describing world politics, we won, you lost, that's that. That's just the way it is.”

Seems the white supremacist lady on FOX (and there's quite a few white supremacists on FOX News these days, isn't there) doesn't like the idea.

Look, I actually do understand the argument of "Well *I* didn't enslave black people, why should I have to pay up for it?" but as Ta-Nehisi Coates said earlier this week:

The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct redress, but it is also a question of citizenship. In H.R. 40, this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism. To say that a nation is both its credits and its debts. That if Thomas Jefferson matters, so does Sally Hemings. That if D-Day matters, so does black Wall Street. That if Valley Forge matters, so does Fort Pillow. Because the question really is, not whether we will be tied to the “somethings” of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them.

At what point does America answer for its past and present so that it can have a real future?

Our Little Domestic Terrorism Problem, Oregon GOP Edition

Meanwhile in Oregon, Republicans in the state Senate have apparently walked out of the state legislature and are apparently threatening an armed insurrection along with domestic terrorist white supremacist militia groups in what could be a bloody standoff with state police.

Tensions were already smoldering in the Oregon Senate Wednesday, when Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, poured gasoline on the situation, suggesting he would shoot and potentially kill any state trooper sent to haul him unwillingly back to the Capitol. 

After Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. said Tuesday that his caucus was “prepared to take actions” to prevent passage of a major climate change bill, Gov. Brown announced on Wednesday that she was ready to answer Republican stonewalling by calling lawmakers back for a special session. 

Brown hinted that she would be willing to send state troopers to round up Republicans if they walk out in the final days of the regular legislative session, saying in a statement that she is “in close communication with Oregon State Police.” That’s an option Democratic senators and the governor did not use earlier this year, when Senate Republicans first brought the Senate to a standstill by walking out and preventing the necessary quorum. 

The governor’s hint that she would consider sending troopers in the event of a second walkout triggered an aggressive response from Boquist, which was captured by a KGW news team at the Capitol. 

“This is what I told the superintendent,” Boquist said, referring to OSP Superintendent Travis Hampton. “Send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”

And no, this isn't just some goober yelling "SPARTA!" before getting ganked at Thermopylae,  Social media accounts of armed militia groups in the state like the Three Percenters are saying they will "provide security" for Republican state senators who as of Thursday had fled the state completely and gone into hiding.

Oregon state police are downplaying the incident.

The Oregon State Police says its officers intend to retrieve the missing senators "in a peaceful, gentle, and process-supporting way." 

The official statement offers few details on what tactics troopers will use to fulfill the governor's order. "She has now given a lawful directive which OSP is fully committed to executing," the statement says. "OSP is utilizing established relationships to have polite communication with these Senators. While we obviously have many tools at our disposal, patience and communication is and always will be our first, and preferred, option."

This could get ugly, and fast.  To recap, Oregon Republicans are willing to resort to deadly, lethal force by working with domestic terrorism groups in order to try to nullify the Oregon state legislature.

These assholes are committing seditious conspiracy as elected lawmakers.

Stay tuned.

The Drums Of War Just Got Very Loud

Last night we almost went to war with Iran.

President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions. 

As late as 7 p.m. Thursday, military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.

The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been the president’s third military action against targets in the Middle East. Mr. Trump had struck twice at targets in Syria, in 2017 and 2018.

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump simply changed his mind on the strikes or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy. It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward.
Asked about the plans for a strike and the decision to hold back, the White House declined to comment, as did Pentagon officials. No government officials asked The New York Times to withhold the article.

Two scenarios on this:  Scenario One, this is Trump's super ham-fisted attempt at screaming "Hold me back" while motioning at his guys to do so before taking a swing at an MMA fighter at a bar. Occam's razor, and we'll be at war the next time Iran so much as breaks wind.

Scenario Two however makes a lot more sense.

Amid increased tensions between Iran and the U.S., Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. that a military conflict with Iran would be “catastrophe” and said that Iran was observing its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal.

Speaking during his annual phone-in event, Putin said that he was concerned by the shooting down of an American drone by Iran this week and worried that the U.S. had no ruled out using military force against Tehran in the ongoing crisis between the two countries.

“I will say it straight, it would be a catastrophe, at a minimum for the region,” Putin said, adding it could lead to a new mass exodus of refugees.

What is far more likely is that as with Venezuela, Trump was talked into this but the Russians, having compromised the hell out of us, responded immediately on the hotline and Trump's boss Vlad told him no as this was going down, and in order to save face, Trump concocted this pullback story and leaked it to the press so he can be the big hero.

Our incoherent and dangerous foreign policy that very nearly started a shooting war with Iran was short-circuited last night because the one goddamn person Trump listens to is one of the worst autocratic crooks on Earth, and it's bad for business when one of his client states is bombing another.

That's it.  That's the answer to the mystery of the "sudden pullback".

But there's one more mystery...the leaks for this story landed quickly enough and were confirmed quickly enough that the NY Times dropped this story last night, maybe a few hours after this was all called off.

Did Trump leak this himself all in order to save face after Putin's warning, or did Bolton leak all this in order to force Trump's hand?  Or did somebody else leak this, like intelligence agencies? Or maybe it was Russia?

Or maybe it was more than one of these, which is why it got confirmed and published so quickly.

That's just as much the story as Trump's "pullback".

We deserve to know both stories.

StupidiNews!

• GOP congressional leaders are calling for a "measured" military response to the downing of a US drone by Iran as Congress was briefed Thursday by the State Department on the attack.
• Senate Republicans are begging former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to run for his old Senate seat as former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore has thrown his hat into the ring.
• Demonstrators in Hong Kong took to the streets again on Friday as a deadline to scrap an extradition bill to China expired and Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam remains in power.
• The Senate has voted to block US an arms sale package to Saudi Arabia as the Trump regime vows it will veto the measure and proceed with the military transaction.
• Only about a quarter of Americans say they are interested in NASA missions to the moon or Mars, two-thirds say the space agency should concentrate on scanning for possible asteroids hitting Earth.

Last Call For The Road To GIlead, Con't

A three-judge panel at the 9th Circuit ruled that the Trump regime can begin cutting Title X family planning funding while Planned Parenthood's lawsuit against the government plays out, a sign that the appellate court sees the Trump regime prevailing in its quest to harm women.

A federal appeals court this morning said the Trump administration's family planning rules can take effect nationwide while several lawsuits play out, delivering a major blow to Planned Parenthood and states challenging the overhaul.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration's request to lift national injunctions ordered by lower federal courts in Oregon and Washington state, as well as a statewide injunction in California.

A panel of three judges, all appointed by previous Republican presidents, said the administration will likely prevail in the legal battle over the Title X family planning program since the Supreme Court held up similar Reagan-era rules almost 30 years ago, though they were reversed by the Clinton administration before taking effect.

"Absent a stay, HHS will be forced to allow taxpayer dollars to be spent in a manner that it has concluded violates the law, as well as the Government’s important policy interest in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not go to fund or subsidize abortions," the judges wrote in a 3-0 opinion.

Barring further court orders, the Trump administration can enforce a rule finalized this spring that strips federal Title X funding from any clinic that provides abortions or abortion referrals. The administration and anti-abortion movement have celebrated the rules for blocking tens of millions of federal dollars to Planned Parenthood, which serves a large portion of the 4 million low-income patients receiving family planning and health services through the program.

Provider groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have called this a "gag rule" and warned that it will interfere with sensitive conversations between doctors and patients.

For the first time in the Title X program's decades-long history, the new rules also allow funding to faith-based clinics opposing abortion and contraception and to promote "natural" family planning methods, including abstinence. 

The plan to criminalize safe abortion procedures (or to effectively eliminate access to them) and to then start pulling funding for contraception and education for low-income women is being done on purpose, to make women having sexual independence so costly that only wealthy white women can afford it.

For the rest of America, (and for migrants too, let's not forget the Trump regime is literally putting migrant women in camps and taking their kids from them at this point) the goal is to trap them in the underclass.  Gotta have that private prison pipeline, you know.

And the Road to Gilead continues.

Good Ol' Boys Club, Con't

It wouldn't be Kentucky politics unless Jerry Lundergan was in trouble with the Feds, and even in the era of Democrats coming under assault by Bill Barr's Justice Department, Lundergan has been dirty for decades.

Federal prosecutors want to present evidence that Kentucky Democratic Party stalwart Jerry Lundergan funneled corporate contributions to his daughter, Alison Lundergan Grimes, in her 2011 and 2015 races for Kentucky secretary of state as they try to prove he illegally did the same thing in her 2014 U.S. Senate bid.
However, Lundergan has not been charged in connection with alleged illegal contributions in the state races, and his attorneys have asked a judge to bar prosecutors from giving jurors evidence about them.

The new information about Lundergan allegedly making improper corporate contributions to Grimes’ two state campaigns was included in a document filed Tuesday by federal prosecutors.

The document was to provide notice that prosecutors intend to use the information against Lundergan and Dale C. Emmons, a Democratic political consultant, if a judge lets them.

The notice alleged that Lundergan, through companies he owns, spent a total of $325,602 for work on such things as campaign mailers to benefit Grimes’ 2011 and 2015 races. More than $260,000 of that total went to a person identified in the notice only as Person C.

Information in a separate defense motion indicates Person C is Jonathan Hurst, a Democratic political consultant who helped Grimes in her state races and managed her unsuccessful 2014 bid to unseat Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Lundergan’s payments to Hurst included $170,849 in October 2011 for a campaign mailing he ordered and paid for to help Grimes, according to the prosecution motion.

Lundergan paid Hurst and Emmons through companies he owned such as S.R. Holdings Co., the notice said. That is the same company Lundergan allegedly used to make contributions to Grimes’ 2014 race.

The motion prosecutors filed Tuesday also did not identify Grimes as the candidate Lundergan was helping, but other court filings make clear she is the Candidate A referred to in the case.

The motion said Lundergan made the payments during times when Emmons was helping Grimes’ campaign.

Prosecutors said they need to tell jurors about the 2011 and 2015 payments to show Lundergan’s intent to break the law by making corporate contributions to Grimes’ campaign in 2014 without reimbursement from the campaign.

“This evidence is relevant to prove the defendants’ intent, plan, preparation, knowledge, and absence of mistake concerning the crimes charged in the indictment,” the motion said. “Evidence of Lundergan’s prior conduct will establish that he knew and intended to use these same methods to contribute corporate money to Candidate A’s 2013-2014 federal campaign, and that Emmons knew and intended to facilitate these contributions by receiving the corporate payments.”

This is a major reason why Kentucky Dems fail, it's always the Beshear family baggage, the Lundergan family baggage, or both.  Meanwhile Mitch McConnell remains the most unpopular Senator in the country and nobody can beat him here.

The Drums of War, Number 18 Edition

We're witnessing the run up to the Iraq War being used to get us into a shooting war with Iran, and 18 years after 9/11 the time frame isn't 18 months like it was in 2001-2003 but more like 18 weeks.

Administration officials are briefing Congress on what they say are ties between Iran and Al Qaeda, prompting skeptical reactions and concern on Capitol Hill that the White House could invoke the war authorization passed in 2001 as legal cover for military action against Tehran.

As tensions between the United States and Iran have surged, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon officials have told members of Congress and aides in recent weeks about what they say is a pattern of ties between Iran and the terrorist group going back to after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said.

They have stopped short of telling lawmakers or aides in large group settings that the 2001 authorization for the use of military force from Congress, which permits the United States to wage war on Al Qaeda and its allies or offshoots, would allow the Trump administration to go to war with Iran. President Trump has said he does not want a war, but he ordered 2,500 additional troops to the region in the last month in response to what American officials said was a heightened threat.

Statements tying Iran and Al Qaeda by Mr. Pompeo and other officials point to the potential for the administration to justify invoking the 2001 authorization, some lawmakers say. And when asked in recent weeks by lawmakers and journalists whether the administration would use the 2001 authorization, Mr. Pompeo has deflected the questions.

“They are looking to bootstrap an argument to allow the president to do what he likes without coming to Congress, and they feel the 2001 authorization will allow them to go to war with Iran,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia.

Mr. Kaine, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, declined to discuss details of classified briefings, but said senior administration officials had “talked about Iran providing safe haven to Al Qaeda.”

Mr. Pompeo, a West Point graduate and former C.I.A. director, visited United States Central Command in Florida on Tuesday to talk about Iran with military commanders as acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan announced his resignation.

In a classified briefing that Mr. Pompeo gave on May 21 with Pentagon officials to the full House, “he discussed the relationship between Iran and Al Qaeda,” said Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan.

She said Mr. Pompeo’s talk of that relationship in both public and private settings and his refusal to answer questions on a potential use of the 2001 authorization “raises the specter that to him, the relationship between Iran and Al Qaeda gives the administration that authority.”

Using the 2001 AUMF to justify military force in 2019 is insane, and yet that's exactly where we are headed.

The Trump administration and its domestic political allies are laying the groundwork for a possible confrontation with Iran without the explicit consent of Congress — a public relations campaign that was already well underway before top officials accused the Islamic Republic of attacking a pair of oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman.

Over the past few months, senior Trump aides have made the case in public and private that the administration already has the legal authority to take military action against Iran, citing a law nearly two decades old that was originally intended to authorize the war in Afghanistan.

In the latest sign of escalating tensions, national security adviser John Bolton warned Iran in an interview conducted last week and published Monday, “They would be making a big mistake if they doubted the president's resolve on this.” Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan announced on Monday evening that the U.S. was deploying an additional 1,000 troops to the region for “defensive purposes.” And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo jetted to Tampa, Fla., home of Central Command, on Monday evening to huddle with military officials to discuss “regional security concerns and ongoing operations,” according to a State Department spokeswoman.

The developments came as Iran announced it was on course to violate a core element of its nuclear deal with major world powers, exceeding the amount of enriched uranium allowed under the agreement in 10 days unless European nations intervened to blunt the economic pain of American sanctions. And they came as U.S. officials promoted video footage and images showing what they say were Iranian forces planting explosive devices on commercial oil tankers.

All it will take is one "Remember the Maine!" moment with an "Iranian mine" crippling a US naval ship near the Strait of Hormuz, and it's on. It might not even take that much.

War with Iran is Trump's 2020 reelection platform.

StupidiNews!

• Both Philadelphia and St. Louis have taken dozens of police officers off duty after identifying their racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic social media posts exposed lat week.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is resisting the Trump regime's contention that he can be removed from the nation's central bank at will as Trump is blaming the Fed for economic woes.
• The Trump regime is threatening sharp cuts in H1-B work visas as India is demanding that US companies in the country store all data locally in order to protect Delhi's economic interests.
• New Zealand police are opening the country's assault weapon buyback program as the country is set to ban many types of firearms in the wake of the recent deadly Christchurch mosque massacre.
• The Trump EPA is rolling out its plan to replace Obama-era power plant emissions rules, giving energy companies far more leeway to keep polluting coal, gas, and oil plants online for decades.

Last Call For Russian To Judgment, Hope Less Edition

As expected, today's closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by former Trump regime adviser Hope Hicks was a bust as she refused to answer questions about her time at the White House, claiming immunity via executive privilege.

House Democrats erupted Wednesday at what they said was the White House’s repeated interference in their interview with Hope Hicks, a longtime confidante of President Donald Trump who was a central witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation.

Several House Judiciary Committee members exiting the closed-door interview said a White House lawyer repeatedly claimed Hicks had blanket immunity from discussing her time in the White House. They said she wouldn’t answer questions as basic as where she sat in the West Wing or whether she told the truth to Mueller.

“We’re watching obstruction of justice in action,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).

“It’s a farce,” added Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who said Hicks at one point tried to answer a question about an episode involving former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski only to be cut off by the White House counsel.

“She made clear she wouldn’t answer a single question about her time unless the White House counsel told her it was okay,” an exasperated Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said in an interview. “She couldn’t even characterize her testimony to the special counsel.”

Deutch added that the White House was not formally asserting executive privilege to block Hicks from answering certain questions; rather, the lawyer was referring to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s Tuesday letter claiming that Hicks was “absolutely immune” from discussing her tenure in the Trump administration.

Lieu said the White House lawyers were “making crap up” to block Hicks from testifying. He said she answered some questions about her time on the Trump campaign that provided new information, but he declined to characterize her comments.

Jayapal said lawyers even objected to Hicks discussing episodes that occurred after she left the White House — and that Hicks went along with it.

“She is making a choice to follow along with all the claims of absolute immunity,” Jayapal said, adding, “Basically, she can say her name.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) took a more forgiving tone, saying Hicks did answer some questions and said a transcript of her testimony released in the next few days would reveal what she said. 

My guess will be it's not much, but what did Jerry Nadler and the Democrats on the committee expect?  Remember that "absolute immunity" means whatever at least five Supreme Court justices decide it means.

On the other side, Nancy Pelosi outright said today that censure of Trump is not going to happen.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially shut the door on censuring President Donald Trump Wednesday but plans to view a minimally redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report this week, her latest attempt to juggle the competing impeachment factions within her caucus.

Pelosi initially rejected an offer from Attorney General William Barr in April to view the less-redacted report, rebuffing Barr’s demands that only top congressional leaders have that access. The speaker’s course reversal on the report comes days after key House panels secured agreements to give more lawmakers access to the evidence underpinning the special counsel’s conclusions.

“We will be having access to a less redacted version of the Mueller report,” Pelosi said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday morning. “I accepted that because I’m afraid — I really don’t trust the attorney general of the United States.”

Pelosi told reporters she has made the request with the Department of Justice to view the report. A Democratic aide later confirmed that is expected to happen this week.

The California Democrat remained firm in her opposition to opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump right now but quashed the notion of censure — a less severe reprimand for public officials. Pelosi’s censure comments are significant because she is leaving the House with one option if they want to punish Trump — impeachment.

“I think censure is just a way out. If you want to go, you gotta go,” she said. “If the goods are there, you must impeach. Censure is nice, but it is not commensurate with the violations of the Constitution should we decide that’s the way to go.”

So, impeachment or nothing.

Your guess as to which one happens.

The Juneteenth Papers

It's no accident that today's House hearings on reparations came today, on Juneteenth. Ta-Nehesi Coates responded in today's hearing to Mitch McConnell's dismissal of reparations yesterday, and it was amazing.

This rebuttal proffers a strange theory of governance: That American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations. But well into this century, the United States was still paying out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers. We honor treaties that date back some 200 years, despite no one being alive who signed those treaties. Many of us would love to be taxed for the things we are solely and individually responsible for, but we are American citizens and thus bound to a collective enterprise that extends beyond our individual and personal reach. It would seem ridiculous to dispute invocations of the Founders, or the Greatest Generation, on the basis of the lack of membership of either group. We recognize our lineage as a generational trust, as inheritance, and the real dilemma posed by generations is just that: a dilemma of inheritance.

It is impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery. As historian Ed Baptist has written, enslavement “shaped every crucial aspect of the economy and politics of America,” so that by 1836, more than 600 million, or more than half of the economic activity in the United States, derived directly or indirectly from the cotton produced by the million-odd slaves. By the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America: 3 billion in 1860 dollars, more than all the other assets in the country combined. The method of cultivating this asset was neither gentle cajoling, nor persuasion, but torture, rape, and child trafficking. Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could have extended its hallowed principles: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all regardless of color. But America had other principles in mind. And so for a century after the Civil War, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror. A campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.

It is tempting to divorce this modern campaign of terror, of plunder, from enslavement. But the logic of enslavement, of white supremacy respects no such borders. And the God of bondage was lustful and begat many heirs, coup d’etats and convict leasing; vagrancy laws and debt peonage; redlining and racist G.I. bills; poll taxes and state-sponsored terrorism. We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox. But he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney. He was alive for the blinding of Isaac Woodard. He was alive to witness kleptocracy in his native Alabama, and a regime premised on electoral theft. Majority Leader McConnell cited Civil Rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing, and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for the redlining of Chicago, and the looting of black homeowners of some $4 billion. Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. I am sure they’d love a word with the Majority Leader. What they know, what this committee must know, is that while emancipation dead-bolted the door against the bandits of America, Jim Crow wedged the windows wide open. And that is the thing about Sen. McConnell’s “something”: it was 150 years ago and it was right now. The typical black family in this country has one-tenth the wealth of the typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women, and there is of course the shame of this land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet, of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share.

The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct redress, but it is also a question of citizenship. In H.R. 40, this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism. To say that a nation is both its credits and its debts. That if Thomas Jefferson matters, so does Sally Hemings. That if D-Day matters, so does black Wall Street. That if Valley Forge matters, so does Fort Pillow. Because the question really is, not whether we will be tied to the “somethings” of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them.

As I keep saying, the white supremacy of the Trump regime is merely America returning to form.  It's becoming more and more obvious that the Civil Rights era of the last 50 years was not the direction of America's bright future, but an aberration diverting from America's dark past, and Donald Trump is the figurehead of the violent reversion to the mean.