NEWS BULLETIN on PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk
Someone taunts dumified Donald
Trump before fake presidential seal
During a speech to thousands of cheering young supporters at the Turning Point USA conference, no one seemed to notice the slightly difference in the presidential seal that was being shown on the screen behind him. That was...
"Instead of the bald eagle that features in the official seal of the president of the United States, the image featured a double headed eagle, which bears a striking resemblance to the one on the official coat of arms of the Russian Federation."
Donald dufus wasn't aware that someone was making him look like the fool he is, again tying him to the Russians and their help in getting him elected in 2016. Turning Point USA said it had no idea where the image came from nor how it got on the screen. The problem here is that someone thinks so little of the president that he or she would do this. Read more...
July 25, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk
Did Robert Mueller say the "I" word?
GOP Rep. Ken Buck trashes Trump
A Republican, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), "asked Mueller if he could indict the president on obstruction charges."
"The former special counsel’s answer was simple: 'Yes.'"
This sent Republicans racing for cover since it was completely unexpected. This is why...
"Mueller’s position is that he didn’t consider indicting Trump solely because of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) ruling saying sitting presidents can’t be indicted. But Trump won’t be president forever, and Mueller’s view is that once Trump is out of office, prosecutors could charge him with obstruction if they believe the facts laid out in the report warrant it."
And that should send Trump's lawyer's running for cover, since the whole family is already overrun with litigation like the action of New York's southern district. Mueller's reply was completely unanticipated, that is if these people read the Mueller Report. But the former Special Counsel has been telling everyone so far that in his testimony, he would stick strictly to the report. Well, he didn't, and that will no doubt send shivers through Donald Trump's tweets.
Republicans did so before and continued throughout the morning questions of the hearing to expound "that Mueller’s report exonerated him [Donald Trump] (Mueller said at the outset that it did not) or that there was some kind of anti-Trump conspiracy involved in its production. It all came unraveled after that...
Congressman: "Could you charge the President with a crime after he left office?"
Mueller: "Yes."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) provided a similar surprise by asking Mueller...
"to confirm that the only reason Trump was not indicted was because that is prohibited by an opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel."
“That is correct,” Mueller agreed.
Raw Story has compiled a list of some reasons why Mueller's testimony was "devastating for Trump." Here are a couple...
"Trump has repeatedly claimed Mueller’s report found no evidence of obstruction of justice and completely exonerated him, but the former special counsel told committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) that was inaccurate."
"Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) asked Mueller whether the president tried to protect himself by ordering staff to falsify records, and the former special counsel agreed, and Mueller also agreed those actions were intended to hamper the investigation."
Mueller and his team were accused of political bias and the former Special Prosecutor's credibility was questioned, but the obvious GOP bias was easily explained. All in all, it seemed a good day for Democrats.
"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.
