This is getting almost no coverage (update: okay NOW it is), but there is breaking news on another front. The DOJ just announced the arrest of an unregistered Russian agent, Maria Butina. Right now, the only charge is that Ms. Butina was an unregistered foreign agent, but the FBI was investigating her on the belief that she worked at the … Read More
Breaking: Senate Confirms Benczkowski to Justice Department And He Could Decide Fate Of Russia Investigation
On purely partisan lines (Manchin broke Dem ranks; McCain unable to vote), the Senate has just confirmed a top Justice Department official who could help oversee the Trump-Russia investigation, despite his own troubling connections to Russia and his close ties to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Brian Benczkowski, a former Senate aide to Sessions, will now lead the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, a job … Read More
Is Kavanaugh Really Bad?
Make no mistake about it: the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is bad news. But the bad news arrived on Election Day 2016, not yesterday. Kavanaugh was inevitable. I have been downplaying the fear and anguish that some on the left are going through. Quite often, I’ve been hearing and reading things like this: Kavanaugh has argued … Read More
Who Will It Be?
NY Times: Signaling he has not yet settled on his pick for the Supreme Court, President Trump on Monday morning worked the phones primarily seeking input about two judges who are apparently the finalists, Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman, people familiar with the discussions said. Mr. Trump appeared to be going back and forth between Judge Kavanaugh, the favorite of … Read More
Trump Administration Can’t Reunify Families It Broke Apart
NBC: The Justice Department asked a federal judge this afternoon to extend the court mandated deadlines for reuniting nearly 3,000 migrant children who were separated from their parents while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Attorneys for the U.S. government claimed the court mandate for returning all children under age 5 to their parents by July 10 and all other children by July 26 does not … Read More
Outing The Nazis
Pro Publica and Frontline (the PBS show) are doing some great work outing members of the extremist right who take part in rallies. Good for them. Today, they report on the discovery of another scum: For months, ProPublica and FRONTLINE have been working to identify the white supremacists at the center of violent demonstrations across the country, including the infamous Unite the Right rally … Read More
Abhorrent Actor Dropped By Agency
Fox News reports: James Woods has been dropped by his talent agent, and received the announcement in an email sent during the Fourth of July holiday. The Oscar-nominated actor shared a screenshot of the email with the subject line “Well…” on his personal Twitter account. The agent, Ken Kaplan, said that he’d come to the decision to no longer represent the … Read More
Breaking: Shooting at Annapolis Newspaper — Capital Gazette
A law enforcement source tells CBS News the suspect is male, white, in his 20s, no iD. Two law enforcement sources say the suspect used a shotgun. 4 dead, 5 injured/transported. — CBS News Radio (@CBSNewsRadio) June 28, 2018 The shooter, according to reports, is refusing to identify himself. NYPD sending police to news stations as a precaution. Maybe this … Read More
The Nation Despairs (Me Too)
This is the mood of the country (most of it) – defeatism and fear: A lot of anger (from myself among most) is directed at those who thought they would make a “protest vote” and vote for some loser third party candidate or stay at home. But THIS is what we warned everyone about. This is why elections matter.
We Are Fucked: Kennedy Is Retiring
NBC: Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that he will retire when his successor is confirmed, preparing the way for the most significant change in the court’s makeup in half a century. The vacancy will allow President Donald Trump to make the U.S. Supreme court a solidly conservative body for years, if not generations, to come — a … Read More
Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration To Reunite Famiiles
Last night, a federal judge in San Diego granted a preliminary injunction requested by the American Civil Liberties Union. Judge Dana M. Sabraw ordered that all families separated at the border by the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy be reunited within 30 days, 14 days for children under 5. Parents must be allowed to speak to their children by phone within 10 … Read More
SCOTUS Upholds Travel Ban 3.0 And We’re Never Going To Hear The End Of It
Third time is a charm. The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s most recent travel ban today in a 5-4 decision, ruling that it falls within the president’s traditional power to control immigration policy. The Court split was on ideological grounds, with Kennedy siding with the majority. The travel ban was Trump’s first big policy announcement, touching off first big policy-specific … Read More
Russia And The NRA
McClatchy: Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and an NRA source. The contacts have emerged amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member … Read More
Going After The Leakers: DOJ Gets Its First Scalp
Federal prosecutors announced they were indicting James Wolfe, the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, of lying to FBI agents in December 2017 about his contacts with three reporters, including through his use of encrypted messaging applications. According to the indictment, Wolfe made false statements to the FBI about providing two reporters with non-public information related to the … Read More
Giuliani: Trump Can “Probably” Pardon Himself
In an interview this morning with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Rudy Giuliani discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the president may have tried to obstruct justice in the probe of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. When Stephanopoulos asked if the president has the power to pardon himself, Giuliani … Read More