Mueller has concluded his investigation and turned in his report to AG Bill Barr. Nothing is known about except this: there are no more indictments to hand down. Conservatives are ecstatic and progressives not, except . . . well, the smarter ones on both sides know that the end of the Mueller investigation is not the end of the scandal. … Read More
New Zealand Gets It Done
Jacinda Ardern and her government are not fucking around: “In short, every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned in this country,” said Ardern. The ban on the sale of the weapons came into effect at 3pm on Thursday – the time of the press conference announcing the ban – with the prime minister warning that … Read More
Who Is Running The Show?
NY Times: As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them. For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to … Read More
Thank God For The Federal Courts
WaPo: Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration at least 63 times over the past two years, an extraordinary record of legal defeat that has stymied large parts of the president’s agenda on the environment, immigration and other matters. In case after case, judges have rebuked Trump officials for failing to follow the most basic rules of governance for … Read More
New Zealand Responds In A Way America Can’t
It is a little depressing watching New Zealand move quickly on gun control: One day after 28-year-old white supremacist Brenton Tarrant killed 49 people in a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that her country’s “gun laws will change.” Attorney General David Parker took those statements further, announcing at a vigil at … Read More
Christchurch Mosque Massacre
New Zealand Herald: KEY POINTS:• 49 confirmed dead in ‘terrorist’ shootings at two Christchurch mosques• Seven died at Linwood, 41 at mosque near Hagley Park• Four people initially arrested, including one woman• Man, 28 due in court tomorrow charged with murder• One of the gunmen livestreamed shooting at Al Noor Mosque in chilling 17-min videoForty-nine people have been killed and … Read More
NY Attorney General Looking Into Four Trump Projects
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued subpoenas on Monday for banks involved in financing four Trump Organization projects. That includes Trump National Doral golf course, his hotel in Washington, D.C., and his effort to buy the Buffalo Bills. The subpoenas are the next step in promises to “shine a bright light” on Trump that James made in both her campaign and her victory … Read More
Manafort’s Light Sentence Has Nothing To Do With Trump And Everything To Do With White Collar Crime
The 47-month sentenced former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort received yesterday in a Virginia courtroom drew wide condemnation for its leniency. Actually, it is less, because he gets credit for nine months of time served. Convicted as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations, Manafort faced 19 to 24 years per guidelines of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Criminal sentences … Read More
Trump Scandals: No Historical Parallel
Even without seeing Robert Mueller’s report, or knowing what prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have unearthed, or what congressional investigators will find, we already have witnessed the biggest political scandal in American history. Historians tell Axios that the only two scandals that come close to Trump-Russia are Watergate, which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, and … Read More
To Add To The List Of Trump Crimes: Insurance Fraud
With any other administration, this would be impeachable if it turns out to be true: New York State regulators have issued an expansive subpoena to the Trump Organization’s longtime insurance broker, the first step in an investigation of insurance policies and claims involving President Trump’s family business, according to the company and a person briefed on the matter. The subpoena … Read More
NC-09 Scandal Leads To Indictments
From the New York Times: The North Carolina political operative who oversaw a fraud-ridden voter-turnout effort on behalf of a Republican congressional candidate was arrested on Wednesday, a prosecutor said, after a grand jury accused him of a series of felonies. The campaign contractor, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., was among five people charged in Wake County, N.C., in connection with … Read More
“I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.”
From the Washington Post: A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a massive domestic terror attack targeting politicians and journalists. Christopher Paul Hasson called for “focused violence” to “establish a white homeland” and dreamed of ways … Read More
Trump Meddled Again With DOJ Investigation
Just out from the NY Times: As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New … Read More
McCabe Told Gang of Eight About Counterintelligence Investigation Into Trump
I haven’t written much, if anything about former FBI director Andrew McCabe’s series interviews promoting his upcoming new book, but the big reveal from it all is that McCabe ordered a counterintelligence investigation into Trump early in the presidency. Not surprising in one sense, given Trump’s firing of James Comey, etc. But there was an interesting wrinkle to the story. … Read More
Document Dump: California v Trump Complaint
Filed yesterday in US District Court in San Francisco, seventeen states joined to bar Trump for using an emergency declaration to prevent Trump from diverting military funds to build his border wall. Paragraph 160 is where Trump’s own words are used against him.