"In his report, Mueller laid out extensive evidence that President Donald Trump obstructed justice. But because the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel has determined that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Mueller said that his office didn’t make a prosecutorial judgment about whether to bring such a charge and that he would, in principle, refuse to say that he would have brought such charges under other circumstances."
Later...
"Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) asked Mueller point-blank: 'The reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?'”
This is something he has steadfastly refused to acknowledge. And yet Mueller answered without hesitation: “That is correct.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says no to DOJ
That was then...but not anymore
Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify before the House today and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer is telling him just how he wants it done. Or rather, what it is he doesn't want Mueller to say. And that would be anything that hasn't already been said in the Mueller Report. In other words, keep your opinions to yourself. But Rep. Jerry Nadler, who heads up the hearing, tells Weinsheimer he can't tell Robert Mueller what to say.
It seems that...
"Weinsheimer wrote in a letter to Mueller on Monday that the former FBI director’s testimony must remain within the boundaries of the 448-page special counsel investigative report the department released in redacted form on April 18.
He added...
"that some matters covered by the inquiry were covered by “executive privilege,” a legal principle rarely invoked by U.S. presidents to keep other branches of government from getting access to certain internal executive branch information. It generally is used to keep private internal discussions between the president and his advisers."
Nadler said, not so, and that "Mueller did not need to follow the instructions contained in the letter." Nadler stated...
“He does not have to comply with that letter. He doesn’t work for them. And that letter asks things that are beyond the power of the agency to ask even if he still worked for them.”
By the time this is posted, the hearing should be in its third hour and Robert Mueller should have committed one way or the other by then. Be sure and tune in.
Trump has deserted blue-collar Americans
Donald Trump got where he is today by...
"his appeals to blue-collar white workers in the Midwest with promises that included rebuilding America’s manufacturing industry, invest money in the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and using Medicare’s negotiating power to lower the cost of prescription drugs."
However, in what Brad Reed of Raw Story calls a devastating New York Times report, it is a fact that...
"the president has 'accomplished little' for these Americans and is instead relying on fueling culture wars to win the 2020 election."
Just another case of T-rump using people who, for some reason or other, don't realize how pitifully they are being had. Reed quotes more from the report...
“Since he became president, Mr. Trump has largely operated as a conventional Republican, signing taxes that benefit high-end earners and companies, rolling back regulations on corporations and appointing administration officials and judges with deep roots in the conservative movement. His approach has delighted much of the political right.”
But hasn't done a damn thing for these Midwest blue-collar white workers. The question is how many voters are there on the political right compared to middle-America?
Blue collar workers betrayed by Donald Trump
Are we a nation today of feeble apathetics? My term for no one cares anymore
Paul Waldman of The American Prospect asks, "This is not who we are — or is it?" He refers, of course, to the Donald Trump administration and its blundering through over two years now. He comments...
"Candidates say it. Ex-candidates say it. Pundits say it. It’s as much a desperate plea as it is an assertion. This is not who we are…is it?"
Waldman thinks this is also a question for each presidential election when the referendum of an individual can tell us who we are. We elected Barack Obama in 2008 and thought that defined us as a nation of "multiethnic and multiracial, open and inclusive, forward-looking and forward-thinking." And then Donald Trump was elected and it was open house for white supremacy and a reversion to Southern type racism.
Right after Obama was elected...
"But right away, Republicans said, 'No. That is not who we are.' They expressed their loathing for Obama in a hundred ways, but at its center was the belief that he was not Us—not born here, not a Christian like he claimed, with a worldview 'so outside our comprehension,' in Newt Gingrich’s words, that he could only be some sort of alien."
"Then along came Donald Trump," Waldman says, followed by calling T-rump a number of names like loathsome and stupid, while praising how he won the 2016 election. He did and that's the reason for the question, "This is not who we are — or is it?" Well...is it?
Donald Trump Jr. went unscathed in Robert Mueller investigation
Joe Scarborough of MSNBC would like to know why Donald Trump Jr. had not been questioned as part of the special counsel probe, a question, perhaps, that could arise in Robert Mueller's testimony tomorrow. Scarborough said...
“There are only three questions that most Americans want the answer to. Was there obstruction, was there collusion and would Donald Trump have been indicted had he not been the president of the United States?"
“There’s a recurring theme here about all of these investigations going on and everybody pulling back before giving Americans the answers that they need.”
I hesitate to even say it but, is it possible, deep down, Robert Mueller was afraid of the wrath of Donald Trump's legal team and that may still be the case?
Michael Cohen on Donald Trump Jr. Trump Tower meeting...
The illiterate first family
Ivanka Trump is following in daddy's footsteps in keeping with stupid statements and an ignorance of the English language. She recently had to delete a tweet about Boris Johnson after repeated ridiculing of its misspelling. Boris Johnson was being named the next Prime Minister of the "United Kingston". The toofar site also came up with some T-rump goodies...
The POTUS is renowned for his Twitter gaffes, "Cheif Hostage Negotiator", "Hamberder", "Unpresidented", "Smocking" and the infamous "Covfefe" tweets among the more famous examples.
In another situation...
"Ivanka Trump violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from engaging in political activity, when she tweeted about her dad’s campaign in a Father’s Day post, a watchdog group says.
And finally...
"The watchdog group argued that Ivanka’s Twitter account, which has over 6.5 million followers, has been used continuously for official government purposes, despite saying it is a “Personal Pg.” and that “views are [her] own” in the bio, which also includes her “Advisor to POTUS” job title. Thus, Ivanka's partisan Twitter activity can easily be read as that of a government employee, albeit an unpaid one, using her official position to promote political campaign issues."
They may be illiterate but all of this Trump clan knows how to use the U.S. government to further their own interests.
Trump polls high but Americans Not sold on Trump or Democrats
T-rump's latest tirade against the four congresswomen of color apparently juiced up his popularity rating, which clearly indicates to me a following of racists. If it did come from a "mainstream opinion poll," it would further signify a racist tendency now in the general population. Or is it that the four are all of the female sex and the bubbas out there can't stand the competition? All of a sudden their masculinity is threatened and they feel they must put them in their place.
"52% of registered voters approve of his handling of the economy and two-thirds — 65% — of Americans think the economy is working well for them, including 62% of independents."
This would indicate to me that although Republicans got lucky on the economy, at the expense of the middle class, the voting public really doesn't want Donald Trump in the White House.
Robert Mueller requested guidance from the Dept. of Justice on his Wednesday testimony to Congress. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer answered stating whatever he said must be within the boundaries of the now public report. Weinsheimer added...
"matters within the scope of your investigation were covered by executive privilege."
In case you are interested, the hearing is scheduled to start at 8:30 AM ET, Wednesday, and several TV networks will cover it. The Democrats plan...
"to push Mueller on several aspects of his investigation as well as the question if he would recommend charges against President Donald Trump were he not the President."
As an observer of Robert Mueller's actions from the beginning to the end of this whole frolic in Donald Trump stupidity and incompetence, but more significantly at the end, I got the feeling Mueller secretly wants to testify, and hopes Democrats will ask some very pointed questions he must answer under oath. If I am wrong, the hearing won't be worth wasting your time on. The testimony starts where I live at 5:30 AM and at this point I'm thinking I'd rather sleep.
4 Congresswomen who could beat Donald Trump in 2020
Donald Trump is all about racism
The smug, pompous Oval office lunatic first defended those who chanted “send her back” to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Later, he even called Omar a "disgrace," then he attempted to renege on support for the crowd chants, next he returned to "a full-throated defense of the people who participated in it while talking with reporters in the Oval Office just one day later." Now this is the moron that was elected by his double-digit followers to run this country. Go figure.
He called these poor souls in No. Carolina "incredible people -incredible patriots.” Back to Trump attacking Omar...
“I’m unhappy when a congresswoman goes, ‘I’m going to be the president’s nightmare,'” Trump said, referring to remarks that Omar made during a town hall in Minnesota Thursday night. “She’s lucky to be where she is, let me tell you. And the things that she has said are a disgrace to our country.”
Well, not only has Ilhan Omar committed to making T-rump's life a nightmare, but so have her three colleagues, also racially violated by Trump. They are Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Talib of Michigan. It has been said by someone recently that the best way to bring down Donald Trump is to keep pushing his buttons until he finally breaks. Have a feeling these four women of color can do the job.
If only that could happen before the 2020 election. Proof that the White House moron doesn't learn, there is word that he will use racism as part of an election strategy to appeal to the same lowlifes that cheered him on in No. Carolina. But get this, by doing so...
"he is writing off 45.9 percent of the American population and implying that because they are not sufficiently white or native-born, they are not part of the “America” he represents."
Here's the breakdown...
"14.1 percent of Americans are either black or mixed race, including African-American, like Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar. 18.1 percent of Americans are of Hispanic descent like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. And 13.7 percent of Americans are foreign-born, like Ilhan Omar."
Either Donald Trump can't count, or his ego has grown so big that he believes he can regularly debase people of color and they will forgive all and still vote for him. I think it is a little of both. The No. Carolina rally consisted of mostly white, elderly people but T-rump thinks...
"he’s looking at the United States of America. He’s wrong. As apparently everyone but Trump knows, the population of this country is getting browner, blacker, younger, and more foreign, in the sense of being from recent immigrant stock."
Here's a depressing statement by Lucian Truscott of Salon...
"The kind of racist hatred that used to be hidden away in backwaters like Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana and practiced by the likes of David Duke is now part of our national conversation."
I moved away from that years ago when I left the South. Not in a million years did I ever think it would come back to haunt me right out of the White House.
Many in the media and groups like So. Poverty Law Center have warned of Donald Trump inciting violence with his racist targeting of women of color in Congress. Jim Cavanaugh, a retired ATF special agent-in-charge was interviewed by Anchor Joy Reid on Friday evening’s “The Last Word.” She asked...
“So those threats beginning about two years ago, increases in white nationalist activity. Have you ever heard of these kinds of increases in hate and potential hate crimes being tied to a president of the United States?”
Reid answered, “No,” he replied. “That’s very, very unusual, Joy, to have that happen.” Reid added...
“You know, when you get more power, your words carry more weight. When you get into this undercurrent of the Nazis and the white nationalists and the klansmen, they feed off of this. They feed off of public figures — on the regular media, in the government, congressmen, senators, the president — saying the things they always say,” he explained. “It bolsters them. It gives them strength and power.”
You can't get much more power than that of the President of the United States, so it is safe to say the white supremacists have the capacity of the greatest nation on earth. And that is very, very scary. The Oval Office lunatic has even primed these Nazis recently with his attacks on the four congresswomen, and there appears no abatement for Trump's racism. This country may be doomed to relive the race wars of the 1960s.
Stephen Miller is a far-right political activist who serves as a senior advisor for policy for President Donald Trump. He took over as the chillingest member of Trump's team when Steve Bannon left. Although I don't consider Fox New generally credible, I do think Chris Wallace, because of his father Mike, to be honest and believable. Wallace adamantly shut down Miller as the latter repeatedly tried to defend T-rump's racism.
Here's an example from Think Progress...
"Wallace also pointed out that Trump has criticized the four lawmakers for comments he deemed critical of America, yet attacked the nation, and Obama, with comments that were far more negative. President Obama is ignorant, this country is killers, on and on.'”
"Miller attempted to spin a 'fundamental distinction' between 'people who think we need to lean into and strengthen American’s core values' and 'people who think we need to turn America into Venezuela.' But Wallace again responded with Trump’s own quotes that were explicit attacks on America."
Chris concluded the interview with...
“I’ve never called any of his tweets racist,” Wallace admonished Miller. “But there’s no question he is stoking racial divisions.”
The Hill says Trump has nothing to fear from Robert Mueller testimony
There are disagreements with this statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who is convinced that Robert Mueller's report "presents very substantial evidence" that President Donald Trump "is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors." There is no reason to ask who is right since there can be no real right or wrong until a court, probably eventually SCOTUS, interprets sections of the report.
Here's what Mueller said: “The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.”
Here's what House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said: "Democrats on the committees plan to get around this reluctance by having Mueller read from his report, and by asking him for commentary about what he’s read."
It may even be a strategy welcomed by Robert Mueller.
Jeffrey Epstein with Little St. James island of underaged girls
It is a scenario that I am sure the Royal Family did not want to get involved with, but Jeffrey Epstein's tentacles have apparently crossed the pond and all of a sudden Buckingham Palace is right in the middle. This is how Maureen Callahan of the New York Post portrays Prince Andrew, the Duke of York...
"The Queen’s favorite son has always been useless at best, a liability at worst — boorish, piggish, entitled, greedy and often quite stupid, consorting with oligarchs and strongmen for personal profit."
And then he met the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein but was protected by the Queen. Now, "the Second Circuit has ruled that 2,000 pages from a 4-year-old defamation suit filed by one of Epstein’s and Andrew’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), are to be unsealed." Callahan reports...
"It’s likely that names will be heavily redacted. After all, extremely rich and powerful people are contained within, including, said the court, 'prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders' — all now implicated in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operation."
Apparently the Queen can't help her favorite this time, and who knows what else will eventually come out of the Jeffrey Epstein debacle.
“The girls were just so young,” the prey of Jeffrey Epstein
The rest of the above headline is, "The Horrors of Jeffrey Epstein's private island," in Holly Aguirre's Vanity Fair piece in an update on the pedophile's 70-acre private island in the Caribbean. This is Little St. James but on nearby St. Thomas...
"locals say Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the island as recently as this year—a decade after he was forced to register as a convicted sex offender—and that authorities did nothing to stop him."
In one case the girl(s) looked no more than 16 and were being flown in on one of Epstein's two Gulfstream jets. In 2018 and 2019 published flight records...
"the jets were airborne at least one out of every three days. They stopped all over the world, sometimes for only a few hours at a time: Paris, London, Slovakia, Mexico, Morocco. When they left St. Thomas, the employees say, they returned to airports near Epstein’s homes in Palm Beach and New York City."
So, we're talking a world-traveling pedophile that apparently takes advantage of weaker or non-existing laws against sex-trafficking in other countries. And there were repeated observations of Epstein's illicit activities, in one case by a former air traffic controller, which is yet another example of simply looking the other way when the wealthy are involved. Witnesses say the pedophile tipped heavily so apparently no one felt the honor of these girls was more important. Pathetic!
Pushing Donald Trump's buttons could be the key to bringing him down
These are the ones who could supply the meltdowns that push Donald Trump off the cliff. Called "The Squad" by the Oval Office lunatic, they are the four congresswomen that have literally gotten under T-rump's skin. He rankles over anything they say and exclaimed, "I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country," calling them "weak" and "insecure." These four ladies have not only shaken up the Democratic Party, they now have Trump in their sites. The four women are...
Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
The Washington Post picked up the story with this reaction from Trump...
"the Post story contained 'phony sources who do not exist and is Fake News."
The Post report, in fact, was based on interviews"with 26 White House aides, advisers, lawmakers and others involved in the response," who said...
"Trump had posted the tweets after watching an episode of "Fox & Friends." He wanted to elevate the four congresswomen, telling his advisers he thought they were good foils, the newspaper reported."
As I see it, if each of the four congresswomen take a shot at Donald Trump each day, by 2020 he will be babbling in the wind, harmless and mostly forgotten.
It is certainly woeful when an article asks the question, "Are Democrats too stupid to beat Donald Trump?" Is it really stupidity or simply a party that has miserably lost its way and needs an overall revamping? Perhaps some of the old hands like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are, shall we say, a bit out of touch with the party constituency. Like hanging so firm in the middle when a majority of voters are headed further left.
Bernie Sanders, God love him, started it and we should all be thankful there was someone with the integrity of this man to show us the way. I don't give a damn if you like Socialism or not. We've already got it and it will become even more prominent in the future. So, live with it! What we should be striving for is a country that caters to 100% of the population, not just 1%. Martin Longman of Washington Monthly says...
"the Democratic Party is not currently the default majority party in the country and it is not coming apart at the seams or circling the drain. If anything, the Democrats are about dead-even with the Republicans and have the wind at their backs, as demographic trends (in both youth and ethnicity) heavily favor them to make advances in the near future."
Like it or not, it looks like prosperity for the Democrats. And to confirm this Ted Cruz just commented that Democratic voters would come out in "staggering" numbers in 2020.
Are Democrats doing enough about Donald Trump's racism?
Meltdowns will send Donald Trump to the showers
Dr. Brandy Lee, the Yale psychiatrist who has said repeatedly that Donald Trump sitting in the White House is a national emergency, recently stated that T-rump is headed for ‘disgrace and downfall.’ Can't remember exactly where but recently heard that the way to get rid of the Oval Office maniac is to keep pushing his buttons until he goes over the edge. His recent meltdown from the Washington Post article about his racist tweets apparently sent him reeling.
"Echoing his standard smear of news stories that are unfavorable to him, Trump attacked the story as 'Fake News' with 'phony sources who do not exist,' despite its reliance on on-the-record quotes from key supporters."
Psychology also tells us that when a person begins to repeat a phrase, like "fake news" repeatedly, there is an uncertainty in their actions, which has now replaced confidence. Science is not clear on just how many meltdowns are necessary to blow a gasket, but it would appear that Donald Trump is on the verge.
