Hillary Clinton swatted back at President Donald Trump’s attempts to spread another conspiracy related to her popular-vote victory in the 2016 presidential election, this time claiming it was due to a search engine manipulation. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
If the economy goes south, as a lot of people are warning us it will, then it’s comforting to know that the president* already is only a baby step away from blaming the Gnomes Of Zurich. From The New York Times:
He has insisted that his own handpicked Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, is intentionally acting against him. He has said other countries, including allies, are working to hurt American economic interests. And he has accused the news media of trying to create a recession. “The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election,” Mr. Trump tweeted last week. “The problem they have is that the economy is way too strong and we will soon be winning big on Trade, and everyone knows that, including China!”
Despite repeated assurances from Trump administration officials that U.S. consumers are not bearing the brunt of its tariffs on China, a new JPMorgan analysis predicts that the average American family will shoulder $1,000 per year. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are lamenting President Donald Trump’s apparent about-face on enhanced backgrounds for firearm sales, with Schumer calling the move “not only disappointing but also heartbreaking.” Trump told reporters this weekend he will look “very strongly” at ideas from both Democrats and Republicans but said to remember that “we already have a lot of background checks.” Those remarks followed Trump’s Aug. 7 claim that “we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before.” Read the rest of the story at Politico.
The New York City Police Department announced Monday that it is firing Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014. The announcement comes more than two weeks after the judge presiding over Pantaleo’s disciplinary trial made a nonbinding recommendation for his dismissal. The choice ultimately fell to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, who said he made his decision in the last few days. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
A few hundred fascists once again invaded Portland for a much-anticipated rally Saturday, but this time were mostly deprived of the violent spectacle they crave, as a much larger group of anti-fascists made them know they weren’t welcome in this city. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
hite House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said there is cause for optimism about the state of the U.S. economy despite growing fears of a recession in the coming months. In an interview with Fox News’ Dana Perino, Kudlow, who serves as the head of the National Economic Council, claimed the economy is “in pretty good shape.” Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Authorities this weekend announced they had foiled three potential mass shootings after arresting three men in different states who expressed interest in or threatened to carry them out. All three cases were brought to authorities’ attention thanks to tips from the public. Here’s what we know about them. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
President Donald Trump is not waiting for the economy to go south amid growing fears of a recession to wage what could be the defining fight of the 2020 election. Trump is becoming increasingly nervous that the end of an 11-year expansion could scupper his hopes of a second term and is going on the attack as ill omens and recent stock market slumps haunt the global economy. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary hasn’t given a single press briefing since she was appointed in June, and the odds are she never will. No briefing has been held there in more than 150 days, as Trump moves to drastically cut off the fourth estate’s access. It’s just another example of how reporters are being denied a chance to keep watch over Trump and his team. And one of the desired effects, as Trump moves to eliminate transparency, is that reporters increasingly seem to have very little idea of what’s happening inside the White House. Permanently stuck in reactive mode as they respond to Trump’s catalog of bizarre and untrue pronouncements, journalists have largely become spectators. Just as importantly, they refuse to concede that a titanic shift has occurred at the White House. Instead, they cling to the illusion that they’re plugged in and have the pulse of the Oval Office. Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
A memo of talking points for House Republicans makes plain that the GOP has no intention of doing a goddamn thing about guns. The document, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, is one of those repellent but totally expected things that clearly define exactly how low these motherfuckers are. It reads, in part, “White nationalism and racism are pure evil and cannot be tolerated in any form…We also can’t excuse violence from the left such as the El Paso shooter, the recent Colorado shooters, the Congressional baseball shooter, Congresswoman Giffords’ shooter and Antifa.” Now, the “El Paso shooter” reference is wrong, according to a flak for some evil fuck of a congressman. They meant “Dayton shooter,” although, generally, leftists don’t keep a list of women they want to rape and people they want to kill. Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog.
Greenland has said it’s not for sale, but that didn’t stop top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow from adding fuel to the idea that the Trump administration wants to purchase the world’s largest island from Denmark. Speaking with “Fox News Sunday,” Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said the administration is “looking at” purchasing Greenland. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Democratic 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg has determined that people are making an approximate decision on racism when they decide to support President Donald Trump. During a broad-range interview with Jake Tapper, Buttigieg was asked about how he previous told the CNN hot that he considers the president a “white nationalist.” To that point, Tapper asked the South Bend mayor “Do you think that it’s a racist act to cast a vote for President Trump in 2020?” “Well at best, it means looking the other way on racism,” Buttigieg said. Read the rest of the story and see the video at Mediaite.
The 90-year-old grandmother of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has a message for Donald Trump on Saturday: “may God ruin him.” Muftia Tlaib made the pronouncement in response to the president Friday tweet, where he said that the senior Tlaib is the “real winner” because she doesn’t have to see her granddaughter. “Trump tells me I should be happy Rashida is not coming,” she said in an interview with Reuters. “May God ruin him.” Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
Police arrested at least 13 people and seized metal poles, bear spray and other weapons Saturday as hundreds of far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators swarmed downtown Portland, Oregon. Authorities closed bridges and streets to try to keep the rival groups apart. The city’s mayor said the situation was “potentially dangerous and volatile,” and President Donald Trump tweeted “Portland is being watched very closely.” Read the rest of the story at Politico.
On Wednesday, an alleged drug dealer named Maurice Hill barricaded himself for nearly eight hours in a Philadelphia rowhouse, blasting away with an AR-15 and wounding six of that city’s police officers. (The gun battle began in the afternoon when officers showed up at the house trying to serve a warrant.) Eventually, after lengthy negotiations and the liberal use of tear gas, Hill surrendered. One of the negotiators was Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner, and that is going to become important later on. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.
The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday issued subpoenas to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and a former White House official as it ramps up its investigation to determine whether to impeach President Donald Trump. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has been granted permission to enter Israel to visit her elderly grandmother on the West Bank. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had been denied access to enter Israel under pressure from President Donald Trump, who suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would appear “weak” if he allowed the congresswomen to visit. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has leapfrogged Sen. Bernie Sanders for second place nationally in the Democratic presidential primary, according to a new poll out Thursday. The new Fox News poll of registered voters who say they plan to participate in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state shows that although Warren still trails former Vice President Joe Biden, pulling in 20 percentage points to his 31, she posted an 8-point gain over the previous survey conducted last month. Sanders dropped 5 points in the poll, good for third place with 10 percent support. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
President Donald Trump made a rare move Thursday night — holding a rally in a state he didn’t win in 2016, with a stop in New Hampshire. Trump has spent most of his time as president in the key swing states of Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. But his advisers urged him to make a stop in New Hampshire, which he lost by less than 3,000 votes, despite having just four electoral votes. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Israel will bar two pro-Palestinian Democratic congresswomen from visiting the country, in a move that could strain relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Democrats in Washington, the deputy foreign minister said Thursday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
The three highest-ranking Republican leaders in the House took Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, to task after he questioned Wednesday whether humanity would exist if not for the rapes and incest that happened throughout history. “What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest?” he said at a speech in Urbandale, Iowa. “Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken place? And whatever happened to culture after society, I know that I can’t certify that that I am not a part of the product of that.” He also noted that “it’s not the baby’s fault” if a rape or incest occurred. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a drug warrant in Philadelphia, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the night, authorities said. Two other officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out but were freed by a SWAT team well after darkness fell on the residential neighborhood. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 800 points on Wednesday, as investors suffered their worst day of the year as new concerns arose over data on global economic growth. The tumble followed a series of concerning economic indicators from Germany and China, signaling renewed recession fears in the global economy. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.
An autopsy performed on Jeffrey Epstein showed he “sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday. People familiar with the autopsy report told the newspaper the bones broken in Epstein’s neck included the hyoid bone, which is near the Adam’s apple. This sort of break can happen when a person hangs themselves or dies by strangulation, forensics experts told the Post. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to drop out of the Democratic presidential race on Thursday, a source close to Hickenlooper told NBC News on Wednesday night. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Wall Street was set to open sharply lower on Wednesday, as poor economic data from China and Germany put the focus back on the impact of a bruising Sino-U.S. trade war which is pushing some major economies towards the brink of recession. The outlook for Germany’s export reliant economy was also grim and Chinese industrial output growth cooled to a more than 17-year low, adding to headwinds for U.S. multinationals that rely on global demand. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
The head of the House Foreign Affairs committee is directing the panel’s staffers to warn foreign governments not to patronize President Donald Trump’s businesses. Rep. Eliot Engel — one of about 200 lawmakers who sued Trump in 2017 charging he’s violating the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause by making money from foreign governments while in office — issued the memo to the panel’s Democratic staffers on Monday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday headed to a Shell petrochemicals plant being built outside Pittsburgh to give what was billed by the White House as a speech on “America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival.” But the hourlong address was light on energy policy and heavy on stump speech material and off-script riffs, as Trump touched on everything from his love of trucks to his assessment of his potential 2020 rivals. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Lawmakers and government officials across Washington, including some of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, are growing increasingly alarmed about the unrest in Hong Kong. One person, however, seems less concerned than most: Trump. As pro-democracy protesters clash with police and as China hints that it may violently quell the demonstrations, the events in Hong Kong have laid bare the tough choices facing the U.S. when it comes to dealing with the communist-led government in Beijing. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
The acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services in a new interview revised the iconic poem on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal to suggest that only immigrants who can “stand on their own two feet” are welcome in the United States. Ken Cuccinelli tweaked the famous poem from Emma Lazarus — whose words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are long associated with immigration to the US and the nation’s history as a haven — as part of a case for strict new measures pushed Monday by the Trump administration that could dramatically change the legal immigration system. Read the rest of the story and see the video at CNN.
The warden of the federal lockup where accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein apparently took his own life has been temporarily reassigned and two guards tasked with watching the financier have been placed on leave, Department of Justice officials said Tuesday. The move to reassign the warden, Lamine N’Diaye, came three days after Epstein was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
The New York City Fire Department is investigating to find out if a first responder posted about Jeffrey Epstein’s death on an internet chat board popular with white nationalists and alt-right trolls, according to Buzzfeed News. Around 40 minutes before ABC News first reported Epstein’s death to Twitter, someone posted the news to the 4chan message board. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
President Donald Trump is defending his retweets of baseless conspiracy theories attempting to link Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Speaking with reporters in Morristown, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Trump said he thought it was “fine” to retweet the conspiracy because it came from “a very highly respected conservative pundit.” But the president also appeared to try to downplay his actions, saying, “That was a retweet. That wasn’t from me, that was from him.” Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Americans suffer from frustratingly short attention spans and even shorter memories. Case in point: Following the dark ride of the George W. Bush years, during which there were two wars, apocalyptic terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, torture as national security policy, warrantless eavesdropping and the most catastrophic economic crash since the Great Depression, I was foolish enough to believe Americans would banish the Republican Party to the hinterlands of our politics for a good long while. Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at Salon.
Donald Trump has now made more than 12,000 false and misleading claims and statements since becoming president in January 2017, according to The Washington Post. Trump’s total of untruths hit 12,019 on Aug. 5, the newspaper’s Fact Checker column reported Monday. It means he’s made an average of almost 13 untrue claims on each of the 928 days of his presidency. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
One of Jeffrey Epstein’s guards the night he hanged himself in his federal jail cell wasn’t a regular correctional officer, according to a person familiar with the detention center, which is now under scrutiny for what Attorney General William Barr on Monday called “serious irregularities.” Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
FBI agents on Monday were searching the Virgin Islands residence of Jeffrey Epstein, an accused child sex trafficker, a bureau spokesman told NBC News. The search of Epstein’s private island of Little St. James comes two days after the wealthy financier died from an apparent suicide while in jail in Manhattan. Read the rest of the story at CNBC.
The Trump administration introduced a new rule Monday making it harder for low-income, legal immigrants who receive food stamps or other forms of taxpayer-funded assistance to stay in the country legally. The rule would require immigrants applying for a change in immigration status (like a green card) or those seeking to come here to prove that they are unlikely to ever need public assistance, and can bar immigrants who had received assistance above a certain threshold from being approved. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
For law enforcement officials, the first rule of dealing with victims of crime is to avoid re-victimizing them. In the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the Department of Justice failed. Epstein, the wealthy financier who was charged with sex trafficking of underage girls, was found dead in his New York jail cell early Saturday morning in what Attorney General William Barr called “an apparent suicide.” Read the rest of Barbara’s piece at The Daily Beast.
Bernie Sanders dropped by the Iowa State Fair late on Sunday afternoon. He drew a big crowd. Not as big as the one he drew four years ago, and not as big as the one Elizabeth Warren had drawn the day before, but his crowd jammed the small area around the Des Moines Register’s “Soapbox” set and spilled over into the fair’s main drag and spread itself all the way back toward the Iowa pork producer’s booth. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.
As bad as it’s been for Texas Republicans lately, some members of the party are warning that 2020 could be even worse. The rash of recent House GOP retirements is just the latest sign of a state party in distress: In last year’s midterms, Democrats flipped a pair of longtime GOP districts, a Democrat came within striking distance of a Senate seat, and more than 50 elected Republican judges lost their jobs. Democrats also gained ground in state legislative races. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
The Department of Homeland Security officially published a change to what’s known as the “public charge” rule on Monday that would make it much harder to apply for a green card or earn a visa. The new policy, which is set to go into effect in mid-October, expands the definition of what would make an applicant likely to become a “public charge,” someone who the government has deemed would be dependent on it, thus rendering them ineligible for legal permanent residency status. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci on Monday accused President Donald Trump of having “gone off the rails,” comparing him to a “demagogue” and insisting the administration’s conservative policy agenda is not worth the damage Trump has inflicted upon America’s democratic institutions. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Seventeen Democratic presidential candidates joined gun control advocates at a rally in Iowa on Saturday and called for the Senate to vote on a pair of background check bills passed by the House earlier this year. A week after 31 people died in mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the 2020 hopefuls slammed Republicans for inaction as massacres involving guns become increasingly common. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.
Jail protocols requiring routine checks on the well-being of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appear to have not been followed in the hours before the millionaire was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, sources told ABC News on Sunday. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.
The New York City medical examiner’s office said Sunday that it had completed an autopsy of the financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein but that it needed more information before determining the cause of death. Multiple people briefed on the investigation told NBC News that suicide remains the presumed cause of death and that no sign of foul play has emerged in the day and a half since Epstein, 66, was found unresponsive in his federal jail cell in lower Manhattan on Saturday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Jeffrey Epstein — his perversions, and the perversions of justice swirling around his case — has lived for years on the margins of politics because of his association with two presidents, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, among others in a long roster of people with respectable titles who spent time in his disreputable orbit.
Epstein’s death by what authorities called suicide in a Manhattan jail cell Saturday morning moved his case to the center of American politics. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke criticized President Donald Trump on Sunday for sharing unfounded conspiracy theories about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing Trump of misusing the presidency to “attack his political enemies.”
“This is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories,” O’Rourke, who is running for president, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Obstructionist Republicans have been blocking common-sense gun laws for years, even as the laundry list of gun massacres continues to grow. The radical maneuver comes against overwhelming public support for Democrat-backed legislation. If ever there’s been an example of an entire political party in America completely out of step with the country, this is it. So why does the press constantly inform news consumers that “Congress” is to blame for the lack of action, instead of Republicans? Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
Check out this pair of fucking ghouls, acting like they just stole a baby to drink its sweet, young blood so they can live on for a few precious days before they suck another child dry. What you’re looking at is Donald Trump, a worn-out sack of lies painted orange and shoved into a terrible suit, and Melania Trump, a lamprey in human form, who happen to be the President and First Lady of the United States, smiling as they hold an orphan named Paul. Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his website.
A man accused of walking into a Walmart in Missouri equipped with body armor, a handgun and a rifle less than a week after a gunman killed 22 people in a Texas Walmart said it was a “social experiment” and not intended to cause panic, police say.
“I wanted to know if that Walmart honored the Second Amendment,” Dmitriy Andreychenko told investigators, according to a probable cause statement filed by Springfield police. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
The man accused of carrying out last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso confessed to officers while he was surrendering and later explained that he had been targeting Mexicans, authorities say. Patrick Crusius, 21, emerged with his hands up from a vehicle that was stopped at an intersection shortly after last Saturday’s attack and told officers, “I’m the shooter,” Detective Adrian Garcia said in an arrest warrant affidavit. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, 66, has died inside a Manhattan correctional facility, two senior law enforcement officials have confirmed to The Daily Beast. They said that it appeared he had committed suicide. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
After months of will-they,won’t-they, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nalder finally confirmed, to CNN’s Erin Burnett, that the his committee has begun an official impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump and that he has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s political blessing: “This is formal impeachment proceedings.” Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
This has been an objectively awful week. Far from a sleepy end to the summer, the country is reeling from mass shootings that claimed 31 lives in Texas and Ohio, not paying enough attention to an extremely deadly summer of violence in Chicago, having painful and not particularly productive conversations about gun control and about racism, and the government is rounding up undocumented immigrants in a way that leaves their children crying in parking lots on the first day of school. Read the rest of this analysis at CNN.
Some of President Donald Trump’s own aides conceded Thursday that his visits to two cities in mourning did not go as planned, as a new video revealed he bragged about crowd sizes while visiting patients at an El Paso hospital. “That was some, that was some crowd,” Trump said, according to cell phone video from one attendee. “And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, they said his crowd was wonderful.” Read the rest of the story and see the video at CNN.
The mother of the 21-year-old man accused of killing 22 people at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart called police weeks before the shooting concerned that her son owned an “AK”-type gun, the family’s attorneys said Wednesday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman is quite sure the White House thinks President Donald Trump behaved disastrously on Wednesday while he was supposed to be consoling the victims of the El Paso and Dayton shootings. Haberman spoke to CNN’s John Berman on Thursday to discuss how Trump lashed out at his political enemies while traveling to see the shooting victims in both cities. She began by noting how Trump gave a speech this week to call for unity and condemn white supremacy, and yet, neither the president — nor his campaign — is making any changes to their rhetoric. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
Equinox and SoulCycle responded to calls for members to cancel their memberships on Wednesday over their owner’s plans to host a mega-fundraiser for President Donald Trump. Equinox Fitness, which operates its namesake company in addition to SoulCycle and Blink Fitness, issued a statement amid outrage over Stephen Ross’s upcoming fundraiser for Trump, where tickets run as high as $250,000, according to The Washington Post, which first reported news of the event. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.
President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling the commutation of the 14-year sentence of former Illinois Governor — and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant — Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2011 of 17 federal corruption charges after trying to sell off the appointment to the vacated Senate seat of newly-elected President Barack Obama. According to new report in the New York Times, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from visiting with victims of the El Paso mass shooting that Blagojevich’s crimes were minor transgressions and that “many” politicians have done the same thing. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
The issue of white extremism is taking on a new and important role in the American political conversation, and it is separate from the problem of guns and the people who will use them to mow down their fellow citizens. The two issues mix together after mass shootings carried out by racially motivated killers. But they are often distinct. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
President Donald Trump emerged from a Dayton hospital on Wednesday grieving — for himself. After visiting with survivors of this weekend’s shooting massacre in the mid-size western Ohio city, Trump took to Twitter to rage at Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. He was furious about a press conference in which Brown said some of the hospital staff had “showed respect for the office” even after having indicated privately they were “not great admirers” of the president. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Following the El Paso shooting and the growing concern about domestic terrorism in the United States, Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked the media concern and called white supremacy a “hoax” being used to divide the country. Carlson mockingly showed how the media wanted Trump to “denounce this supposedly existential threat to our nation” before showing media criticisms of the president’s speech Monday. Read the rest of the story and see the video at Mediaite.
Ivanka Trump has come under fire for a tweet Tuesday in which she appeared to try to redirect “national outrage” over two mass shootings in Ohio and Texas to Chicago’s “inner city” gun violence problem. In a series of tweets, Trump said: “As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its deadliest weekend of the year. With 7 dead and 52 wounded near a playground in the Windy City—and little national outrage or media coverage—we mustn’t become numb to the violence faced by inner city communities every day.” Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
As we look back at the twin massacres in El Paso and Dayton with fear, crushing sadness and mind-blowing frustration due to the helplessness of it all, including the usual political cowardice, a clear majority of Americans continue to support reasonable and obvious regulations to limit the supply of these deadly retail products.
But what about the demand? What about the uniquely American compulsion to own unnecessarily powerful firearms – specifically, the family of military-cosplay ARs and other semi-automatic weapons, not to mention their myriad accessories designed to augment their killing power? It seems as though simply limiting the supply will unintentionally spike demand. Knowing this, there has to be a concurrent national effort to address the demand side of this deadly equation. Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at Salon.
President Trump may face a cool reception Wednesday from local leaders in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, when he travels to each city in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings. Democrats in both cities have indicated they’re not crazy about the president visiting, particularly in El Paso, where the suspected gunman allegedly published an anti-immigrant manifesto that echoed some of Trump’s own language. Read the rest of the story at The Hill.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump after two tumultuous years on the job, two U.S. officials and another person close to the diplomat confirmed to NBC News. The former Utah governor has been in the job since 2017. His resignation, effective Oct. 3, comes amid widespread speculation in Utah that he might run for governor again. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
President Donald Trump condemned white supremacy from the White House Monday, but left Hispanics and Latinos out of his speech. It’s a significant omission and a stark difference from the document that has been linked to the 21-year-old man accused of opening fire on weekend shoppers Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The document mentions a Hispanic invasion, the increasing Hispanic population and a decision by its writer to target Hispanics after reading a right-wing conspiracy theory asserting Europe’s white population is being replaced with non-Europeans. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that “mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,” but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Top Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) issued a joint statement on Monday calling for a renewed focus on gun control legislation in light of the two mass shootings over the weekend in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
President Donald Trump spoke Monday in response to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, calling them a “crime against all of humanity.”
The president blamed white supremacy, the internet, video games and mental illness for the massacres. He did not blame guns or himself. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
U.S. stock markets plummeted on Monday following China’s move to devalue its currency, Beijing’s latest step in a tense faceoff on trade with President Trump. Read the rest of the story at The Hill.
Former President Obama on Monday called for action in response to back-to-back mass shootings over the weekend and urged Americans to “soundly reject” leaders who feed “a climate of fear and hatred.” Read the rest of the story at The Hill.
First of all, I’d like to send out my thoughts and prayers to the people of Toledo, because why the hell not? We all need some thoughts and prayers these days. On Monday, after a weekend of slaughter around the country, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago proved once again that he is incapable of rising to any occasion more serious than a ball he can kick out of the rough and onto the fairway. The Toledo gaffe was merely the most ludicrous illustration. His affect was flat. He was at SniffCon 4. His prepared remarks were back into the Grand Guignol American Carnage Mode: “twisted monsters,” “sinister ideologies,” “barbaric slaughters,” “monstrous evil,” REDJACK! REDJACK! Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.
Mexico on Sunday threatened to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after this weekend’s mass shooting in the border city of El Paso. Of the 20 people gunned down at a Walmart at the Cielo Vista Mall, at least seven were Mexican citizens, and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard promised Mexico City will act. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
As a high school student, the gunman in the Dayton, Ohio, massacre had a “hit list” of classmates he wanted to kill or hurt, according to four former students who said they were told by school officials they were on the list. Spencer Brickler said a counselor at Bellbrook High School told him that he and his sister were on Connor Betts’ hit list. Brickler said he was riding on a school bus when he saw Betts getting escorted off by officers who were investigating the threats. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
A growing number of Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel the chamber’s August recess so that they can take up gun control legislation in the wake of two mass shootings this weekend. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Republican leader to end the chamber’s break to vote on a universal background check bill after the two shootings — one in Dayton, Ohio,and another in El Paso, Texas — left at least 29 dead and 53 injured in a matter of just 13 hours. The Senate is currently in recess until September. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Doubling and tripling down on his bigoted commentary and racist tweets, Donald Trump is all but boasting that his re-election run will be fueled by hate speech and hardcore white grievance. Unlike anything ever seen before in American politics (remember, segregationist George Wallace didn’t have a Twitter feed), Trump’s re-election strategy is to basically spark a rhetorical race war. It would be nice if the news media had the courage to say so, but it’s clear that today’s overwhelmingly whitepolitical press corps is not up to the challenge. It’s a press corps that’s tentatively treating the ugly specter of tribal racism as if it’s just another wedge issue used to motivate voting blocs. Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at Daily Kos.
Patrick Crusius has been identified as the suspected gunman who attacked a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, a senior law-enforcement source told The Daily Beast. Crusius’ identity was first reported by CNN. Crusius apparently foreshadowed the attack online almost an hour beforehand, according to postings reviewed by The Daily Beast. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
At least nine people have been killed and 26 people injured after a shooting early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, police said. The suspected shooter, who is believed to have acted alone, is also dead. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
A gunman opened fire Saturday in a Walmart and around a nearby shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, leaving 20 people dead and 26 injured, law enforcement officials said. In delivering an updated number of deceased, Gov. Greg Abbott called it “one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas.” Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
A food festival in Gilroy, California. A busy Walmart in El Paso, Texas. A popular entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio. All three were sites of deadly mass shootings in the past week. At least 32 innocent people are dead. Two shooters were killed and one is in custody. The carnage never seems to end and it’s left many in America grappling with how to react, how to heal and how to change things for the better. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
With the second debate wrapped up, the third Democratic debate hosted by ABC and Univision will happen during the second week of September. The candidates are still working to qualify and have another month to reach the polling threshold and grassroots fundraising thresholds as laid out by the Democratic National Committee. See the full list at CNN.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, called 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) a “commie” during a Twitter spat Friday. “No surprise commie Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned in Soviet Union, is ok with U.S. getting attacked first,” Cheney wrote to Sanders after he came to the defense of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) nuclear policy. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
After years of decrying deficits and debt, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a massive $2.7 trillion budget plan, 67-28, that will suspend the debt ceiling for two years and increase spending to both domestic and military programs. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
The Justice Department inspector general’s office referred former FBI Director James Comey for potential prosecution over his handling of memos that the FBI later determined contained classified information, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Thursday. Read the rest of the story at CNN
The only black Republican in the House of Representatives announced he would not be seeking re-election Thursday evening, the sixth such announcement in little over a week. Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who was first elected in 2015, said that he would be leaving Congress to work on issues “at the nexus between technology and national security.” The former CIA agent assured that he would stay involved with politics, but wanted to leave in order to aid the intelligence community “in different ways.” Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure. Read the rest of Natasha’s piece at Politico.
Following a contentious debate among Democratic White House contenders Wednesday, a number of party leaders aren’t thrilled that some of the candidates focused on attacking former President Barack Obama’s legacy as a way to challenge Joe Biden. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a shot at Jared Kushner on Thursday as she defended Rep. Elijah Cummings after days of attacks from President Donald Trump. Pelosi, a Baltimore native, said that, instead of focusing his ire on Cummings, Trump should look within his own family when it comes to deteriorating housing conditions in the city. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Ronald Reagan was the governor of California in 1971 when he phoned the White House to vent his political frustration to President Richard M. Nixon and, according to a newly released audio recording, called African people “monkeys” in a slur that sparked laughter from the president of the United States. Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.
The House GOP has been smacked by a wave of retirements over the past few weeks — but some Republicans fear the worst is yet to come. With the GOP relegated to the minority for the first time in eight years, a mix of veteran and vulnerable members have decided to call it quits instead of sticking around to see whether the party wins back power in 2020. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Two senators, a governor, the mayor of the nation’s largest city and even a member of the same presidential administration Biden served in took turns squabbling and sparring with Biden, the leading candidate in the polls. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro both landed solid hits against the onetime Delaware senator on issues like criminal justice reform and immigration, but it was unclear if the damage to Biden was severe enough to knock him from his front-runner perch. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2008, citing concerns about the global economy and muted U.S. inflation, and signaled a readiness to lower borrowing costs further if needed. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
President Donald Trump lambasted CNN’s Don Lemon as “dumb” and “stupid” after the Democratic debate moderator asked questions about the president’s “bigotry” on Tuesday. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
After Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fended off repeated attacks from moderate competitors, the next 10 presidential primary contenders take the stage Wednesday for second night of the second Democratic debates. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.
CNN’s first Democratic debate went down in Detroit on Tuesday night, to much fanfare. The network wheeled out all the stops to make the event a showstopper from the moment it kicked off at 8 p.m.: a sleek stage in an ornate theater, a minutes-long opening sequence mimicking an early-2000s action movie, an absolutely electric rendition of the national anthem, and then a commercial break. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
In the interest of big-picturing the past week or so, we learned from the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee that Russian hackers successfully infiltrated election systems in all 50 states during the 2016 election cycle. We also learned that the accused felon who was installed as commander in chief as a likely consequence of that cyber-attack spent all weekend blurting racist gibberish on Twitter while cable-news talking heads wonder how it will play among the Midwestern diner crowd. Meanwhile, the Republican Senate majority leader refuses to pass any legislation safeguarding future elections. Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at Salon.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a controversial bill Tuesday that would all but force President Donald Trump to give in to longstanding demands that he release his tax returns. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
Donald Trump’s new pick for director of national intelligence played a role last year in popularizing what briefly became one of the right’s most easily debunked conspiracy theories about the investigation into the president and Russia, offering what he presented as evidence of an anti-Trump “secret society” operating within the FBI. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
President Donald Trump’s attacks on Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummingshaven’t gained as much internal support at the White House as his earlier attacks on the “Squad,” according to administration officials. But there are no signs Trump believes his strategy is wrong or is planning to pull back his attacks on the African American lawmaker from Baltimore. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
A former software engineer from Seattle has been arrested in connection with a massive data breach that potentially puts over 100 million Capital One credit card applicants at risk. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Hours before President Donald Trump announced him as the pick to be the new director of national intelligence, Rep. John Ratcliffe was on Fox News saying the Russia investigation may have been tainted by a criminal conspiracy. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Don’t let anybody fool you: We are engaged in an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors,” to quote the Constitution. The inquiry began on Friday, July 26. No fireworks, no fanfare — omitted for fear of frightening the natives. But the message was loud and clear in the House Judiciary Committee’s court petition for access to redacted material in the Mueller report, and its intention to compel testimony from relevant witnesses. Read the rest of Laurence Tribe’s piece at USA Today.
CNN is hosting the second set of Democratic presidential debates Tuesday and Wednesday, taking place in Detroit. Find out who’s debating and how to watch by going to CNN.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) should visit Somalia, where she was born, to gain a better appreciation for the United States, calling the Muslim lawmaker “ungrateful” to be an American. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
Not too long ago, John Ratcliffe was the mayor of Heath, Texas, a town of less than 8,000 people that was incorporated in 1959, largely because they were in the process of building Lake Ray Hubbard and every lake needs a town where folks can buy suntan oil and flip-flops and build a yacht club. I mention this because, unless god or common sense intervenes, John Ratcliffe, now a member of Congress, is going to be the new Director of National Intelligence. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s story by going to Esquire.
At least three people were killed and 15 other people injured in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, authorities said Sunday night. A suspect was also shot and killed. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said Sunday that he will leave the Trump administration in mid-August. President Trump announced in a tweet that he would nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) to replace Coats. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Stephanie Miller takes on John Cox in this debate on “The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson.” Video of the debate is at this link. Miller is a progressive radio icon. Cox was the 2018 Republican nominee for Governor of California. They square off on the Mueller report, Impeachment, and the 2020 Democratic field. They also offer grades for California Governor Gavin Newsom…and surprisingly…they are very different. But, in the end, music does bring this unlikely pair together. “The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson” airs Fridays at 10:30pm on FOX 11 Los Angeles and Saturdays at 6:30am on KTVU FOX 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating President Donald Trump to determine whether to file articles of impeachment against him, members of the committee said on Friday. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
President Donald Trump slammed one of his leading congressional opponents, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in a Saturday morning Twitter rant calling him a “brutal bully” and berating his majority-black Baltimore district as a “rodent infested mess.” Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.
In preparing articles of impeachment, the House would be acting consistent with its overriding obligation to establish that no president is above the law. Read the rest of Laurence Tribe’s op-ed piece at The Washington Post.
Forever committed to shining a constant, glowing spotlight on members of Donald Trump’s political base with a series of endless updates that closely examine their unwavering support, The New York Times has carved out a completely new political beat during the past two years. The Times’ white voter obsession (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) remains baffling and absurd as a form of political journalism. The paper has never explained why it considers Trump loyalists remaining loyal Trump to constitute big news. Instead, these soft profiles seem to be a way for the supposedly liberal and biased Times to show conservatives that it’s willing to present their best side. Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
Yesterday’s congressional hearings with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed the profound cowardice at the heart of our nation’s leaders right now in dealing with Donald Trump (himself a coward of the lowest order) and the crimes that he has so blatantly committed and continues to commit on a daily basis. Anyone who has actually read Mueller’s report or paid attention during the hearing who doesn’t believe that Russia interfered with the 2016 election and that Trump panicked and attempted to cover up any involvement would have to be a genuine fool or a willful idiot. The report says that Trump did so. It just doesn’t say that he committed a crime, although it walks right up to that. Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s story at his blog.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released the first section of its report on 2016 Russian interference, which found that hackers likely tried to access election systems in all 50 states, confirming widespread fears that America’s election system may not be secure from attack. Read the rest of the story at Vox.
Attorney General William Barr directed the Justice Department on Thursday to adopt a new rule for carrying out the death penalty, which would restore executions in the federal system for the first time in 16 years. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked two election security measures on Thursday, arguing Democrats are trying to give themselves a “political benefit.” Read the rest of the story at The Hill.
Donald Trump’s disdain for the law is no secret. Since becoming president, Trump has expended a large amount of energy trying to discredit the FBI, the special counsel, our nation’s intelligence agencies, state attorneys general and other law enforcement officials I’m probably missing. Read the rest of Rep. Lieu’s Op-Ed at USA Today.
The partisan war over Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election reached a messy and contentious climax on Wednesday as lawmakers spent hours grilling Mr. Mueller about his conclusions but extracted little information beyond what he had written in his voluminous report. Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.
Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Trump, said Wednesday that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s daylong testimony validated the claims of the president and his allies and revealed “troubling deficiencies” in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Read the rest of the story at The Hill.
Americans’ confidence in the fairness of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has never been higher — even among Republicans, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday, the day Mueller testified before Congress. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Free Speech TV is thrilled to announce the addition of The Randi Rhodes Show to its weekday lineup from 3-5pm Eastern daily beginning Monday, July 29, 2019.
The Randi Rhodes Show delivers smart, fact-checked, forward, free-thinking, entertaining, news and opinion that challenge the status quo and amplifies free speech. The show is impeccably researched and infectiously funny. Rhodes’ pursuit of justice is like a heat-seeking missile. Watch her beginning Monday, July 29th on the Free Speech TV app for AppleTV or Roku, or at FreeSpeech.org.
Since he was first appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller has been a unique foil for President Donald Trump — the kind who doesn’t clap back on Twitter, issue press releases in his own defense or go on television to accuse the president of committing crimes. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
House Democrats are preparing an all-out messaging blitz over the next three days to refocus Americans’ attention on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, hoping to channel the intense focus on Mueller’s congressional testimony Wednesday into a public outcry against President Donald Trump, as well as the prospect of future foreign interference in U.S. elections. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
President Donald Trump is going to court to prevent House Democrats from getting his long-hidden tax returns from the state of New York. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
The White House and congressional leaders have struck a budget deal that would suspend the debt limit until mid-2021, President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders announced Monday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.
Two police officers in Louisiana were fired Monday after one wrote a Facebook post suggesting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be shot and the other liked it. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
The Department of Justice has sent a letter to Robert Mueller warning him that he should not go beyond the “scope” of his report when he testifies in front of Congress on Wednesday. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
See the video of Jill’s answer in a video at her blog.
We should get the fundamentals out of the way first: whenever Jane Mayer writes anything for The New Yorker, attention must be paid. On Monday, she hit print and the pixels with a long piece on the defenestration of Al Franken. This is going to roil things up on the Intertoobz and across the electric Twitter machine for a while. Mayer paints a fairly damning portrait of a sadly typical Democratic bail-out on one of its own—not quite at the level of what happened to ACORN or Shirley Sherrod, but not dissimilar in those aspects in which the party flinched before it was hit. Mayer, who co-wrote a book that fairly well blew the whistle on Justice Clarence Thomas, never quite gets to why Franken resigned without the Senate Ethics Committee hearing that was his right, and that he had requested, but she does a good job establishing the political context within which the events unfolded. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.
At precisely five minutes before the crack of ass, or stupid o’clock, as it’s known in these parts — which is to say a sylvan street of houses perched regally near the entrance to Griffith Park — a Lululemon-clad whirlwind with a spinner-sinewed frame clatters downstairs two steps at a time. Uggs bumping carpet, she makes her way toward the hothouse warmth of a brightly lit, dorm room–sized basement space, a cup of coffee cantilevered in one hand against a page freshly printed with Donald Trump atrocities in the other, two polar bear–white Great Pyrenees lumbering behind her like a furry snow front. Read the rest of the story at L.A. Weekly.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he still believes President Donald Trump could be indicted after he leaves office, saying “the president is not above the law.” Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
Trump on Friday defended the rally-goers as “patriots” while again questioning the loyalty of four Democratic lawmakers of color. His comments marked a return to a pattern that has become familiar during controversies of his own making: ignite a firestorm, backtrack, then strongly reaffirm his original, inflammatory position. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
George Nader, a man who served as a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, faces new charges of child pornography, sex trafficking and obscenity. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
After Donald Trump ignited a firestorm by launching a racist attack on four Democratic members of Congress, the Beltway press last week temporarily revised a time-honored journalism tradition of forcing members of the president’s party to respond publicly to controversial behavior. The results were utterly predictable, of course, with most Republicans refusing to criticize Trump’s latest bout of open bigotry. But even the recent media questions for the GOP seemed muted, given the stunning and historic nature of Trump’s racist behavior. Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
At least now Democrats can stop fucking pretending that there is any reasoning with Republicans or anyone on the right at this point. By refusing to condemn President Donald Trump’s blatantly racist statements as “racist,” by continuing and expanding on Trump’s attacks on four non-white Democratic congresswomen in saying that they should leave the United States, by getting outraged that racism is being called racism, the GOP has ripped its mask off in the clearest way possible and gone all in on attacks on non-whites. At this point, Donald Trump could yell, “Nigger!” on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose any voters. And Republicans would blame whichever black person it was directed at. Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s post here.
The Trump administration has quietly dismantled or cut back multiple programs that were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help detect and prevent terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Read the rest of the report at The Los Angeles Times.
President Donald Trump claimed Thursday he “was not happy” with the crowd at his campaign rally for chanting “send her back,” after he had goaded the North Carolina audience with a fiery attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Read the rest of the story at Politico.
CNN’s two-night Democratic primary debate will offer a rematch of former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris, whose clash over race became the most closely watched moment of the first round of debates. Biden and Harris will debate in Detroit on Wednesday, July 31. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
It must be hard being William Barr, the White House’s pet Attorney General. He must look like the hero comic of some silent film. He’s running around from pillar to post, turning off investigations at every turn. Most recently, it appears that the whole Stormy Daniels affair is going to come down to only Michael Cohen in the sneezer. In ordinary times, however, it would be remarkable to find out that the President of the United States was intimately involved in paying off the porn star with whom he was messing around shortly after the birth of his fourth child by his third wife. But these are not ordinary times, and this is not an ordinary president*, and I’m not entirely sure anything ever will be normal again. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s story at Esquire.
Has any recent president snatched political defeat from the jaws of victory quite the way Donald Trump has done over the last few days? Watching the Democratic Party become ensnared in a nasty civil war being fought among House leaders and insurgent freshman congresswoman, Trump inexplicably entered the fray over the weekend by posting blatantly racist tweets about how the congresswoman of color should “go back” to the countries they came from. (Three of the four were born in America.) . Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, delivering a major, though mostly symbolic, victory to the Fight for $15 movement. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Documents unsealed in federal court Thursday lay out the beginning of a federal investigation into Michael Cohen that sent the Donald Trump fixer to federal prison, and further indicate that Trump was closely involved in hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
In a moment of unrestrained demagoguery, President Donald Trump presided Wednesday over a crowd chanting “Send her back! Send her back!” about an American Muslim congresswoman who he targeted with racist attacks. Read the rest of the story at CNN.
The House of Representatives voted to hold Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress over their refusal to comply with subpoenas related to the effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
If you, like a shockingly large number of celebrities, recently downloaded FaceApp to predict what you’ll look like in old age, you may be unsettled to learn what you agreed to in the app’s terms and conditions. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
In response to President Donald Trump telling four congresswomen to “go back” to their original countries, Democrats offered a resolution condemning the president’s words as racist. But the House descended into even more chaos than expected Tuesday as Republicans objected to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling Trump’s comments “racist” ― technically a violation of House rules ― and Democrats upheld House rules in one instance and ignored them in others. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
When White House reporter Andrew Feinberg posed a question to Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday about the president’s racist tweets against the four congresswomen known as the “Squad,” he found himself taken aback by her response. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.
The decision to not prosecute NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner’s death was ultimately made by Attorney General William Barr himself — because of “insufficient evidence” in the case, Brooklyn’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday. Read the rest of the story at The New York Post.
Radio host Stephanie Miller is in the vanguard of the cutting-edge comedy currently attacking Donald Trump through humor. Interestingly, the lefty Miller is the daughter of Republican royalty. Born 1961 in Washington, Stephanie’s father William Miller ran for vice president on the GOP ticket with ultra-conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1964. The openly lesbian Stephanie was honored as one of the LOGO30 LGBT icon/artists/activists across Logo TV’s platforms featured for pride month and nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame. Read the rest of Ed Rampell’s piece at The Progressive Populist.
Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that the NeverTrumpers — repentant Republicans and conservatives — have been offering up lots of advice for how the Democrats can win the next election. Their jackhammer advice has basically been limited to urging the party to disavow its activist, progressive members in order to secure the contrarian swing voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama twice, then switched to Donald Trump in 2016. Read the rest of Bob’s piece at Salon.
White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday defied a congressional subpoena, refusing to show up for testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee about her violations of the Hatch Act and prompting House Democrats to threaten to hold her in contempt of Congress. Read the story at Politico.
Agents unearthed a “pile of cash, diamonds” and “a passport from a foreign country” in a safe belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors told a judge Monday during a bail hearing for the wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker. Read the story at NBC News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced plans for a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s racist Twitter rant in which he said four Democratic congresswoman ― all of them American ― should “go back and help fix” the “totally broken” countries they came from. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
And another week in hell begins. The president* is demanding an apology from the members of Congress at whom he directed his racist slanders. He also has a new way to save us all from the “invasion”—one that is going to get him sued. And Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross woke up to find himself at the top of the well-used Cabinet slip-and-slide. It’s always something. To read the rest of the story, head over to ESQUIRE.
In his first public comments since he leveled racist attacks on Democratic congresswomen , President Donald Trump defended his tweets in a press conference on the south lawn of the White House. To read the rest of the story, head over to Mediaite.
CNN and the Democratic National Committee will determine the lineups for the second Democratic presidential debate this week — finalizing the roster of which candidates will qualify and how they’ll be split among the two-night event starting July 31st. Read the rest of the story at Vox.
Republicans have no real plan to establish a new health care system if the courts strike down the Affordable Care Act before the 2020 election. But plenty of them are rooting for its demise anyway — even if it means plunging the GOP into a debate that splits the party and leaves them politically vulnerable. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Former ICE Director and Fox News contributor Tom Homan appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to discuss the emotional and contentious House Hearing he testified before late last week. The hearing focused on the controversial zero-tolerance immigration border policy that has included separation of families and has also seen the death of numerous children in U.S. custody. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
Vote for Steph NOW to get her into the Radio Hall Of Fame! Text the message 70 to 877-370-VOTE (8683) and vote at www.RadioVote.com – one vote per cell phone number and one vote per email. Sexy Liberal Army UNITE!!
President Trump said Sunday that four minority, liberal congresswomen who have been critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” prompting other Democrats — including Pelosi — to leap to their defense. Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.
Britain’s now former ambassador to the U.S. was convinced last year that President Donald Trump scrapped the Iran nuclear pact in part simply because it was forged by Barack Obama, according to another leaked diplomatic memo. Read the rest of the story at Huffpost.
With the revelation this week that Fox News helped Russian intelligence agents spread the vulgar conspiracy theory about Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich’s murder in 2016, we have entered a dark and dangerous place. Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at DailyKos.
Yesterday, Donald Trump, who I occasionally feel nauseated remembering is still the president of the United States, hosted what was billed as a Social Media Summit at the White House. Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s post at his blog!
In a report on a gathering of conservative national security experts at a gathering at a private Reagan Institute retreat in Beaver Creek, Colorado, the Washington Post reports that many of those attending who might provide counsel to Donald Trump are being iced out for the crime of opposing his election in 2016. Read the rest of the story at Raw Story.
A Michigan couple is facing a mix of praise and pushback on social media for hosting a wedding themed after Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan ‘Make American Great Again.’ Read the rest of the story at Fox 5, New York.
Attorney General Bill Barr has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA was correct to determine that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Donald Trump during the 2016 election. But that question has already been asked and answered at the CIA’s highest levels — by Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, according to three people familiar with the matter. Read the rest of the story at Politico.
Fox News’ Todd Starnes told Rep. Ilhan Omar and other immigrants who find America “just doesn’t meet their standards of living” to take a “one-way plane ticket back to whatever third world hellhole you came from.” Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
Politico’s Tim Alberta has a book coming out titled American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump, and it’s already making waves in Washington (details about Paul Ryan and the behind-the-scenes account of the Trump campaign when the Access Hollywood tape dropped). Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.
On July 2, Kensli Taylor Davis shared a Facebook post with a picture of a 25th birthday cake that her mother had ordered from a Georgia Dairy Queen. The green-and-white confection featured a marijuana leaf and a stoned “My Little Pony” smoking a joint with bloodshot eyes. It was, however, supposed to be a “Moana” cake, a movie Davis loves. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost early this month criticized comments by agents who were members of a secretive Facebook group that derided immigrants and posted sexist memes. Now The Intercept is reporting that Provost was also a member of the group. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein attempted to pay $350,000 last fall to two potential witnesses, federal prosecutors alleged in court on Friday. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is reportedly mailing letters filled with Islamophobic rhetoric about his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, and two Muslim congresswomen to voters in his Southern California district. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Almost 400 migrant men were so severely packed into detention cages at a Texas border facility Friday that they could not lie down on the concrete floor at the same time to sleep, according to a report from a pool of reporters traveling with Vice President Mike Pence. There were no cots, mats or pillows for them to sleep on, and several men said that they had been in the cages, largely unwashed, for 40 days. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.
Despite public outcry, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) re-signed a proclamation Thursday declaring July 13 as Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in the state, honoring the Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and former Confederate general. To read the rest of the story, visit HuffPost!
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday described the abysmal conditions she and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other House Democrats saw after visiting two immigration detention facilities in Texas, and said she’d learned that Customs and Border Patrol officers told detained women to “drink out of the toilets.” Read the story at NBC News.
President Donald Trump said Monday that this year’s Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital would feature military tanks. Read the story at NBC News.
Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have made steep gains after the first Democratic presidential debate, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. shows, with former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead over the field shrinking to a narrow 5 points. Read the story at CNN.
Gaslighters/narcissists create an enemy and crisis, then “solve” that same crisis. They then demand accolades after that crisis (that they created) has been resolved. Why do they do this? It creates support within their base. And with 2020 elections right around the corner, Trump knows the importance of manufacturing an enemy and then portraying himself as the only person who could “conquer” this manufactured enemy. Read the story at Forbes.
Months after the public release of the Mueller Report, former special counsel Robert Mueller finally agreed to testify before the House Judiciary and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on July 17. Although Mueller’s testimony before Congress has been routinely called for by Democrats, President Donald Trump’s Republican allies in the House appear just as eager for Mueller’s testimony as it will provide them with an opportunity to discredit the former FBI director in front of the American public. Read the story at Law & Crime.
President Donald Trump is fuming that his various business organizations are still under scrutiny. Read the story at Mediaite.
A video encounter between Ivanka Trump and world leaders that went viral over the weekend has liberals and conservatives up in arms. Read the story at Mediaite.
California Senator Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren outclassed the competition at last week’s Democratic presidential debates by several country miles, according to a pair of new HuffPost/YouGov polls. Read the story at Mediaite.
