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Georgia Republican tries to move the goalposts when it comes to whether Trump said the n-word

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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“This is not where I expected this conversation to go, Senator,” said a shocked Victor Blackwell after Georgia state senator Michael E. Williams offered a rambling defense of Donald Trump’s rumored use of a racial slur. Williams, whose failed gubernatorial campaign made headlines this spring thanks to his appalling “Deportation Bus,” has long boasted of being the first elected official in Georgia to back Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. As such, it’s not particularly surprising to see the malignant millionaire bend over backwards to find a way to make blatant racism acceptable.

The mental gymnastics required to preemptively forgive Trump’s rumored hate speech are, indeed, baffling, but are consistent with today’s Republican branding. GOP politicians and pundits have been actively working to lower the standards of acceptable behavior for the entirety of Trump’s stolen presidency, it seems—especially when it comes to the Russia investigation.

The hypocrisy Williams displays, however, is still startling; Blackwell is

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Trump speaks out to defend hate speech, violence, and lies

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Donald Trump generally has less executive time on weekends—tee times come earlier than the start of Trump’s ‘business’ day—but Trump started early on Saturday by whining that social media sites are “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” This follows the removal of hate-site InfoWars and its founder, Alex Jones, from most sites, and a temporary suspension from Twitter. It’s not the first time that Trump has made claims that social media sites filter more right-leaning posts, despite consistent evidence that shows this isn’t true. In fact many sites, including Facebook, are much more likely to promote conservative news sites over more progressive information.

But Trump didn’t stop with whining. He also stated that “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let [the supposed discrimination] happen.” Which would seem to imply that Trump intends to press for some sort of law or regulation that would prevent sites for blocking hate

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Any port in a storm: Trump and McConnell (em)brace for the midterms

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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It started out a tad rocky between the tempestuous rager in the Oval Office and the calculating grayscaler from the stony halls of Congress. As the AP writes of the Donald Trump/Mitch McConnell saga:

This time last year, the two men were barely on speaking terms. Trump bashed the GOP leader on Twitter after the collapse of Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law. McConnell said Trump had “excessive expectations” for what was possible. The phone lines between them went quiet for days.

And publicly, Trump barked, “Mitch, get to work,” while on golf holiday at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Things got so testy, the two even held an awkward truce summit in the Rose Garden last fall.

But two pivotal moments likely tamed Trump. First, Trump got shamed last year after he placed his bets on serial sexual predator Roy Moore, the preferred

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Only the best: Judge says Trump campaign mangled wording of confidentiality agreements

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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The little-known case of a former Trump campaign staffer could have big implications for the legal battle taking shape between Donald Trump and former Trump aide-turned-wrecking ball, Omarosa Manigault Newman. On Thursday, a Manhattan judge, citing flaws in the Trump campaign employment agreement, denied a motion by the campaign’s lawyers to force the complaint of a former staffer into private arbitration. Jessica Denson filed the “harassment and sexual discrimination” complaint against the campaign last fall and, similar to the situation with Manigault Newman, Trump’s lawyers tried to keep the dispute from the public spectacle of open court by using the arbitration clause. But Judge Arlene Bluth of New York State Supreme Court found the wording of the agreement—ya know, the technical stuff that lawyers are paid to handle—failed to legally compel the action Trump’s lawyers were asking the court to take. Yahoo News writes:

Bluth’s ruling noted flaws in the agreement Denson was required to

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Impeachment: Some Republicans brace for it, others invite it, all are obsessed with it

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Impeachment has become such an important topic on the right that competing theories are emerging. One line of magical thinking holds that a House Democratic majority and Donald Trump’s eventual impeachment by it (potentially doomed in the Senate) would be a boon for Republicans and Trump in 2020.

“If they take the House, he wins big,” Barry Bennett, former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told Politico. “The market always overcorrects.”

The other “big idea” being pushed by former Trump campaign aide Steve Bannon is a midterm campaign to “Save Trump” from impeachment by a Democratic majority. In other words, if Democrats win the House this fall, all will be lost.

What both of those conflicting strategies have in common is an obsession with impeachment, something Democrats have taken pains not to talk about. It’s like Republicans are desperately groping around trying to find a way to spin Trump’s moral,

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Trump’s $12 mil military ‘parade’ to cost almost $100 mil according to U.S. Department of Defense

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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In order to feel a little more adequate, Donald Trump’s planned military parade needs to be bigly. Like really, really bigly. After early promises of keeping the costs of this fascistic display below $15 million, the early estimates were no less than twice that. Trump’s White House released estimates that put the number down to $12 million just this past month. Well, it’s looking like it might cost tax payers just a teeny weeny bit more to make Donald Trump believe he is a big boy like his buddies Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Sources inside of the Department of Defense told CNBC that there are some newly revised “estimates.”

The parade, slated for Nov. 10, is estimated to cost $92 million, the official said. The figure includes $50 million from the Pentagon and $42 million from interagency partners such as the Department of Homeland Security. An initial estimate

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Cartoon: Trump’s new Space Force: Pigs in Space!

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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FOR THE KIDS IN YOUR LIFE, AND THEIR SUMMER READING:  Get Ruben Bolling’s hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures.

“The funniest book about unbelievable kid mystery exploring I’ve ever read. The only real mystery is why you aren’t reading this book RIGHT NOW!”  -Elliott Kalan, former Head Writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

“The type of non-stop action and improbably hilarious fun that only a kid could dream up. … The EMU Club’s adventures perfectly capture the intersection of imagination and wonder – the crossroad that’s so often found in cardboard boxes, pillow forts and backyards everywhere.” -GeekDad

Get Book the First, “Alien Invasion in My Backyard,” here.  

Get Book the Second, “Ghostly Thief of Time,” here.

—

RESIST!! The temptation to not join Tom the Dancing Bug’s INNER HIVE!

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Democrats have nothing to fear but fear itself

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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The results of an Ohio special election last week that many viewed as a harbinger for November—and that should have been a gimme for Republicans—aren’t even final yet. And yet even as the GOP candidate in Ohio’s 12th congressional district, Troy Balderson, clings to a lead of less than one percent over Democrat Danny O’Connor, a Washington narrative is developing that the Democratic advantage could all fall apart under the weight of either longtime liberal Nancy Pelosi of California or progressive phenom Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, depending on which article you read. 

It’s preposterous. As has been widely reported, House Democrats need to win 23 seats to regain control of the lower chamber and they have some 69 target districts that are less red than OH-12 and ripe for the picking. And yet there’s some scary myth out there that Pelosi’s too establishment and Ocasio-Cortez is too progressive and their

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Trump’s immigration chief strikes ‘nation of immigrants’ from immigration agency’s mission statement

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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While the mission statement for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) used to be focused on ensuring “America’s promise as a nation of immigrants,” it has now replaced that pledge with the lofty goal of administering “the nation’s lawful immigration system,” among other things. But none of those things include the agency’s commitment to serving immigrants who, for centuries, have sought refuge and the chance for a better life on America’s shores.

In effect, the agency’s emphasis under USCIS director Francis Cissna has swung from serving immigrants to defending the nation from immigrants. Cissna justified the move, made earlier this year, at an event on Wednesday hosted by the SPLC-designated hate group Center for Immigration Studies. He said he “started from scratch” on the statement and argued the agency isn’t there to serve immigrants but rather the American people, writes The Hill :

“I think there has been a misunderstanding

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Illinois manufacturer says it will close its doors and move to Mexico because of Trump tariffs

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Donald Trump’s “big stick” the past few months has been the trade tariffs on China. Those “economically anxious” Trump supporters are getting the full con man treatment, as they serve to bear the brunt of the tariffs and their consequences. Consumer goods have begun to skyrocket, manufacturing unions have warned their members that these trades could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and Republicans have been working to give farmers welfare checks that will delude them into thinking everything is going just fine.

But while all of that happens, manufacturers like Stack-On Products, a storage safe manufacturer, begin to close up shop and head on down to Mexico.

“The operation is really not profitable,” Fletcher said. He said the decision to relocate operations to Juarez, Mexico, was made about two months ago when President Donald Trump announced tariffs on numerous goods and materials from China as

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This isn’t how judicial nominations are supposed to work

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Keeping Brett Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court is priority number one. But saving the appellate courts is nearly as important. Donald Trump’s managed to get 24 of his picks on the federal appellate bench. Another two are a sure thing, and he’s got 11 vacancies yet to fill. These vacancies are among the dozens engineered by Senate Republicans, who blocked President Obama’s nominees—including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland—to set up just this kind of judicial takeover.

Maybe 24 doesn’t sound like a lot. There are 179 federal appellate judgeships, after all. But it’s not about the number of overall seats or total Trump confirmations: It’s about where Republicans are planting their judges and what that does to the ideological balance of various appellate courts. On the smaller courts especially, Trump’s making an outsized impact.

Federal appeals courts make most law. Vanishingly few cases go to the Supreme Court. That means that the three-judge

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Cartoon: Crook!

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Trump is so bad at Twitter that he just keeps tweeting and incriminating himself, and his accomplices in his torrent of crimes.

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Russia o’clock: Carter Page lied to the media and Papadopoulos was more than a coffee boy

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Posting two new Russia revelations here for discussion because, it’s Friday! And why not? Shocker: Carter Page lied to the media about his Russia contacts.

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Another shocker: Team Trump has been lying about ‘coffee boy’ George. 

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Discuss.

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With Sessions’ legal jeopardy mounting, the question arises: Will he turn on Trump?

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Campaign Action

Outside of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, no one in Donald Trump’s orbit was put in more immediate legal jeopardy by the special counsel’s revelations this week than Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is now once, twice, three times a liar.

  • Strike 1: He did have contacts with Russians.
  • Strike 2: He was aware that Trump aide George Papadopoulos was trying to coordinate with the Russians.
  • Strike 3: He did know that Trump aide Carter Page was communicating with Russians.

While Sessions’ repeated lies open him up to perjury charges, they also make him a prime target for Robert Mueller’s investigation. Even with what little we in the public know about his legal liabilities, Sessions is already practically begging to be interviewed about Donald Trump’s relationship with the Russians during the campaign as well as his actions as pr*sident. As Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin points

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Six times in 24 hours, desperate Donald calls for DOJ and FBI to investigate Hillary

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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Donald Trump’s working hard, but naturally it has nothing to do with serving the American people. He’s desperate to find a foil for the Russia entanglements that are beginning to strangle his presidency. Here’s the start of Trump’s Friday morning campaign:

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By “everybody,” we assume he means all his Russian bot followers, whose concerns warranted another seven tweets following that opening bid. Three of those tweets explicitly called on the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate Clinton for, well, everything: “New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus…”

It’s clearly driving the Don crazy that he can’t just order two of

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Six times in 24 hours, desperate Donald calls for DOJ and FBI to investigate Hillary

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Donald Trump’s working hard, but naturally it has nothing to do with serving the American people. He’s desperate to find a foil for the Russia entanglements that are beginning to strangle his presidency. Here’s the start of Trump’s Friday morning campaign:

x

By “everybody,” we assume he means all his Russian bot followers, whose concerns warranted another seven tweets following that opening bid. Three of those tweets explicitly called on the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate Clinton for, well, everything: “New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus…”

It’s clearly driving the Don crazy that he can’t just order two of

Continue reading “Six times in 24 hours, desperate Donald calls for DOJ and FBI to investigate Hillary”

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Three House Republicans try to oust Mueller over laughable uranium deal conspiracy theory

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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On the very week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe started producing evidence of problematic Russian contacts by the Trump campaign, three House Republicans suddenly want to kneecap Mueller. Who could have guessed it? The Washington Post writes:

Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post.

Now keep this in mind: While there is zero evidence that Hillary Clinton was involved

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Three House Republicans try to oust Mueller over laughable uranium deal conspiracy theory

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



On the very week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe started producing evidence of problematic Russian contacts by the Trump campaign, three House Republicans suddenly want to kneecap Mueller. Who could have guessed it? The Washington Post writes:

Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post.

Now keep this in mind: While there is zero evidence that Hillary Clinton was involved

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Sorry Sessions: Carter Page tells House Intelligence panel Sessions knew about his Russia trip

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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During a marathon closed-door hearing Thursday with the House Intelligence panel, former Trump aide Carter Page said he had told then-Senator Jeff Sessions he was going to Russia during the 2016 campaign. CNN writes:

Sessions’ discussion with Page will fuel further scrutiny about what the attorney general knew about connections between the Trump campaign and Russia — and communications about Russia that he did not disclose despite a persistent line of questioning in three separate hearings this year. […]

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who is leading the House intelligence committees Russia probe, confirmed to CNN that Page told the committee he had informed Sessions about his trip, though Conaway downplayed its significance. […]

“Back in June 2016, I mentioned in passing that I happened to be planning to give a speech at a university in Moscow,” Page told CNN. “Completely unrelated to my limited volunteer role with

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Trump administration recommends lifting ban on uranium mining in Grand Canyon

This post is by Jed Lewison from Daily Kos


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For 20 years, mining for uranium inside of the Grand Canyon has been banned. For that same amount of time, the Koch brothers have worked tirelessly to get the ban lifted.

Billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch are channeling money into an Arizona-based organization that’s fighting a plan that would include a permanent ban on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.

The arguments for upholding the ban are that it provides no public profit to allow private uranium mining and that by not allowing such, we relieve ourselves of the burden of worrying about the very real environmental damage uranium mining would open up.

This is exactly why the new USDA report by the Trump administration is both unsurprising and grotesquely craven. In it they have all kinds of great recommendations for how we can “streamline” things in our national parks. Lo and behold, one of them “could” lead to uranium mining.

Adoption of this recommendation

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