Republican 2018 campaign ads to focus heavily on Hillary Clinton. I'm sorry, what?

And get this, they are STILL running against me.

Courtesy of the AP:

Almost 18 months have passed since Hillary Clinton lost the presidency. She holds no position of power in government. And she is not expected to run for office again. 

Yet Clinton is starring in the Republican Party’s 2018 midterm strategy. 

With control of Congress up for grabs this fall, the GOP’s most powerful players are preparing to spend big on plans to feature Clinton as a central villain in attack ads against vulnerable Democrats nationwide. The strategy, which already has popped up in races in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Dakota, illustrates the resilience and political potency of Republican voters’ antipathy for Clinton. As difficult as it’s been for Democrats to move past the Clinton era, it may be even harder for Republicans. 

“STOP HILLARY. STOP PELOSI. STOP LAMB,” read pamphlets circulated during the special election in Pennsylvania earlier this year. 

That’s just a taste of what’s to come as the November elections grow closer, say those who control the GOP’s strategy in the first midterm elections of Donald Trump’s presidency. 

“I promise you that you’ll continue to see it — Hillary Clinton starring in our paid media. She’s a very powerful motivator,” said Corry Bliss, who leads the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super political action committee ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to shape House races this fall. “It’s about what she represents. What she represents, just like what Nancy Pelosi represents, is out-of-touch far-left liberal positions.”

Don't you just love the smell of desperation in the morning?

I mean come on!

The GOP are still leaning on the vilification of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi to drive their voters to the polls?

And keep in mind that the reason is not because they are incompetent or a danger to the country, the reason is because they were TOO DAMN GOOD AT THEIR JOBS!

That is what terrifies conservative voters, competent Democratic leadership. 

And to prevent that they were even willing to send a twice divorced, habitually lying, reality show TV clown to the White House.

Well my advice to these desperate morons is to go for it.

You campaign against liberal competence, because I am sure you can guess what WE will be campaigning against.

That's right. Now let's see whose voters are more motivated to show up at the polls.

Yesterday a bunch of pro-gun advocates showed up at state capitols to protest gun control measures. And yes, they were armed.

Must have been a buy one get one free sale at the flag store.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Gun rights supporters — many carrying rifles and ammunition — gathered at state capitols across the U.S. on Saturday to push back against efforts to pass stricter gun-control laws that they fear threaten their constitutional right to bear arms. 

From Delaware to Wyoming, hundreds gathered at peaceful protests to listen to speakers who warned that any restrictions on gun ownership or use eventually could lead to a ban on gun ownership, which is guaranteed under the Second Amendment. 

“If you have a building and you take a brick out every so often, after a while you’re not going to have a building,” said Westley Williams, who carried an AR-15 rifle as he joined about 100 people braving blustery weather in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a pro-gun-rights rally in front of the state supreme court building. 

Dave Gulya, one of the organizers of a rally in Augusta, Maine, said about 800 people showed up at the statehouse — a gun-free zone — to make the point that “we are law-abiding.” 

Saturday’s protests were planned in dozens of state capitols less than three weeks after hundreds of thousands marched in Washington, New York and elsewhere to demand tougher gun laws after the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17. Organizers of those protests demanded a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and called for universal background checks on potential gun owners.

You know here's the thing.

If you want people to believe that gun owners are relatively harmless, perhaps you DON'T show up to a rally looking like this:

That is using your weapons in an attempt to appear intimidating, not to appear safe and protective of others.

As for these rallies, well Ammosexuals why don't you get back to us when you can actually demonstrate strength in numbers.

Boise March for Our LIves, March 24, 2018
3% Gun Rights Rally in response, April 14, 2018
Blue wave a'comin' pic.twitter.com/SaO5RMrBDm

— Sisyphus Idaho (@Sisyphus43) April 14, 2018

Because as of right now it appears you are greatly outnumbered.

Trump's attorneys are working overtime to keep the FBI from looking at the documents they retrieved from Michael Cohen.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Lawyers for President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, have told a federal judge in New York that they believe some of the documents and devices seized from Cohen during an FBI raid are protected by attorney-client privilege, and they want a chance to review the material before prosecutors get to examine them. 

Prosecutors and the attorneys for Cohen and Trump appeared before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday in Manhattan. 

Cohen’s attorneys say they want a chance to review documents seized in the raid on Monday and specify items they believe aren’t relevant to the investigation. 

An attorney for the president, Joanna Hendon, told the judge that Trump has “an acute interest in this matter.”

Oh yeah, I'll bet.

Here's more: 

Federal prosecutors say in a court filing that the criminal probe that led them to raid the offices of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer this week is focused on his “personal business dealings.” 

In the filing with a court in New York, prosecutors blacked out a section describing what crime they believe Trump attorney Michael Cohen has committed. 

But they provided new details on the investigation, which they said has been going on for months. 

They said agents had already searched multiple email accounts maintained by Cohen. 

The filing said none of those emails was exchanged with Trump.

(Quick note, Trump does not use email.)

Ultimately the judge granted Trump's "right to intervene," a move that allows his attorneys to review the seized documents in order to protect Trump's rights, but demanded that Cohen show up for a hearing on Monday.

And she was not at all happy.

Judge isn't denying motion now. But she isn't pleased.

"If you don't have the answers by 2 p.m. on Monday, I’m likely to discount the argument that there are thousands or more privileged documents," she tells Cohen's attorneys.

— erica orden (@eorden) April 13, 2018

Part of the Fed's argument against the executive privilege claim is that Cohen is a fraud of a lawyer:

Michael Cohen is a fraud of a lawyer who works exclusively for President Trump, federal prosecutors charged Friday. 

“Cohen has told at least one witness that he has only [one] client — President Trump,” the lawyers wrote in court documents, challenging Cohen’s claims that records seized in raids on his home and office Monday should be protected by attorney-client privilege. 

And he’s barely doing any “legal work” for Trump, either, they claim. 

“[Reviews of the records] indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work, and that zero ­e-mails were exchanged with President Trump,” according to the brief, filed in Manhattan federal court. 

In fact, the criminal investigation into Cohen isn’t about his work as a lawyer, “but rather relate[s] to Cohen’s own business dealings,” the feds argued.

According to Michael Avenatti there is a "very good chance" that some of the siezed documents pertain to his client, Stormy Daniels, and he suggests that she might just show up on Monday to observe the hearing.

Sure, why not?

After all it really isn't a party until the porn star shows up, right?

Senate Democrats say they can find NO credible evidence that EPA chief Scott Pruitt received threats that justify his unprecedented security expenses.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Confidential security assessments in the Environmental Protection Agency show no evidence of specific, credible, physical threats against Administrator Scott Pruitt, despite claims that an “unprecedented” number of death threats justify his outsized security spending, according to a review by Senate Democrats. 

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wrote in a letter Tuesday that they have reviewed security assessments describing 16 purported threats against Pruitt. They include public protests, criticism of Pruitt’s policies and other activities protected by the First Amendment. 

The letter from Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged the committee’s Republican chairman to begin oversight hearings into Pruitt’s unusual security precautions. 

The Associated Press reported Friday that EPA has spent about $3 million on Pruitt’s security measures, which included flying first-class and using a full-time security detail of 20 armed officers.

Here are some of the "threats" that have been identified by HuffPo:

Here are some alleged threats against Pruitt that were investigated, according to reports: 

― The EPA inspector general in March 2017 investigated a postcard sent to the EPA that said: “Get out while you still can, Scott,” “You ignorant fuck,” and “You are evil incarnite,” according to a report obtained by E&E. EPA investigators discussed the message with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. But they couldn’t identify the author and concluded the message “lacked a clear threat.”

 ― Another postcard included “an implied threat that contained obscene language,” Sullivan told E&E. “It was not a direct threat.” The U.S. attorney’s office declined to prosecute, and the writer of the message apologized when contacted by federal officials, said Sullivan. 

― “Threatening tweets” against Pruitt and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were investigated in April 2017. The writer told investigators he wrote the “flippant comments” while drinking and watching “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and had no intention of hurting anyone. He apologized, and a U.S. attorney’s office declined to press charges. 

― The EPA launched a criminal probe in April 2017 into two female protesters who interrupted a speech by Pruitt. Officials submitted information for misdemeanor charges, but no action was taken. 

― The head of the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement told Politico in February that Pruitt’s safety was threatened when people yelled obscenities at him.

Jesus, I never realized it before but perhaps I need a bullet proof desk, because I have received way more aggressive threats than these.

By the way as it turns out Pruitt's predecessor, Gina McCarthy, received some ACTUAL threats of harm.

One of which said, “We will hurt you and your family.”

And yet she did not even bother to ask for a bullet proof desk, or even around the clock security.

Go figure. 

Cambridge Analytica is under siege. And that's good news.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

British investigators on Friday night searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica, the data-analytics company that harvested data from 50 million Facebook users to develop psychological profiles on behalf of political campaigns, including that of President Trump. 

About 20 investigators from Britain’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, descended on the company’s offices on New Oxford Street after obtaining a search warrant from the High Court. 

“We are pleased with the decision of the judge, and the warrant is now being executed,” the office of the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said in a statement. “This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes. As you will expect, we will now need to collect, assess and consider the evidence before coming to any conclusions.” 

Last Saturday, the same day The New York Times and The Observer of London published a detailed look at the company’s use of Facebook data, Ms. Denham’s office announced an investigation into “the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used.”

What is that passage in the Bible about reaping what you sow again?

If that were not enough bad news for Cambridge Analytica, they are also on Robert Mueller's radar.

Courtesy of the AP:

Special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing the connections between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which has come under fierce criticism over reports that it swiped the data of more than 50 million Facebook users to sway elections. 

Mueller’s investigators have asked former campaign officials about the Trump campaign’s data operations, particularly about how it collected and utilized voter data in battleground states, according to a person with direct knowledge of the line of inquiry but not authorized to discuss it publicly. 

The investigators have also asked some of Trump’s data team, which included analysts at the Republican National Committee, about its relationship with Cambridge Analytica, according to two former campaign officials. The campaign paid the firm just under $6 million for its work in 2016, according to federal records.

And there is plenty to go after here, as this company had connections not just to the Trump campaign, but also past and current members of the Trump Administration.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

In an interview with the New York Times, Wylie says that Bolton’s PAC was alarmed by polling trends showing that more and more Americans viewed war unfavorably — and it wanted to construct an advertising campaign aimed at reversing those views. 

“The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues,” said Wylie, a data expert who was a key figure in the founding of Cambridge Analytica. “That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview. That’s what they said they wanted, anyway.” 

Bolton’s PAC hired Cambridge Analytica months after it was founded in 2014, and the firm’s work with Bolton’s group became an example that it used to pitch potential clients about the value of its data harvesting model. 

Emails viewed by the Times suggest that former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon had some role in setting up contacts between Bolton and Cambridge Analytica, as an email from a Cambridge Analytica employee sent to Bolton specifically mentioned Bannon in its subject header.

 I am guessing that Cambridge is out of the data analysis business for the time being at least.

And this is a warning shot to any others who may want to adopt their business model. 

Even after he got him fired Donald Trump cannot stop attacking former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

By the way according to McCabe Trump was obsessed with his wife: 

McCabe also opened up about how the President appeared fixated on his wife's failed campaign, recalling at least four occasions in which Trump taunted him with it as a "mistake" or "problem" and calling her a "loser." 

Trump raised the issue with Comey "out of the blue," according to McCabe, saying things "like, 'What's wrong with that deputy director of yours?' " insinuating that he was somehow politically motivated against the President, which, McCabe says is "absolutely not true." 

"In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the President, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him," McCabe told CNN, emphasizing that he pushed back. "Of course, I disagreed with him. I don't see my wife's decision to try to enter public life to help her community (have) greater access to healthcare as a mistake or a problem."

Trump also asked McCabe who he voted for in 2016, apparently to gauge his loyalty.

These are the rantings of a VERY insecure and frightened man.

And perhaps he should be because McCabe has something else in common with his former boss James Comey. Copious note taking.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Andrew McCabe — the former FBI deputy director just fired by the attorney general — kept personal memos regarding President Donald Trump. 

That’s according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to discuss the memos publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 

This person says the memos are similar to the ones maintained by former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired last May. 

Comey’s series of notes detailed interactions with Trump that Comey said unnerved him. 

The person with knowledge of McCabe’s situation says McCabe’s memos include details of interactions with the president, among other topics. 

It’s not immediately clear whether any of the McCabe memos have been turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller or requested by Mueller.

Well Mueller certainly has them now.

It's a damn good thing that Donald Trump does not accompany his children when they go hunting. Because he would definitely shoot himself in the foot every single time.

Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker takes out restraining order on another Republican lawmaker after he pulls a gun on her. WTF Pennsylvania?

Courtesy of AP: 

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker who says a fellow lawmaker pulled a gun on her and threatened to kill her has gotten a restraining order against him. 

State Rep. Tarah Toohil alleges that fellow Republican Rep. Nick Miccarelli pointed a gun at her in 2012 and on another occasion, when the two were in a car, warned he would crash the vehicle while speeding 100 mph on a highway, The Citizens’ Voice reported . 

A Luzerne County judged granted the restraining order Friday, barring Miccarelli from contacting Toohil and prohibiting him from possessing firearms. 

He has not been charged with any crime and denies the allegations. He called them “complete fabrications” in a March 1 Facebook post.

Toohil also claimed that Miccarelli pinched, kicked, and hit her, and even forced himself on her sexually.

Apparently the two had an affair at one point and this Miccarelli guy just got married, so this could just be a lover's spat and Toohil is making it all up.

Or it could simply be that Pennsylvania mating rituals involve a lot of domestic violence and gun play.

This, plus that Saccone guy, just insured the Pennsylvania gets added to my "Never going to visit" list.

We almost had another mass school shooting the other day, but the young man decided only to take one life. His own.

Since Parkland, there have been two school shootings. One, a teacher had a gun. Two, a 7th grader had an assault rifle. The teacher hit no one, the 7th grader, at the last second, killed himself instead. Just FYI @Emma4Change, @davidhogg111 Words of the 7th grader below: pic.twitter.com/nRiuysiwUt

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 2, 2018

Courtesy of the AP: 

A seventh-grader who shot and killed himself inside an Ohio middle school restroom last week was planning to shoot others at the school before changing his mind at the last second, a police chief said Thursday. 

The boy, 13-year-old Keith Simons, came out of the bathroom holding a semi-automatic rifle just before classes began and then abruptly went back inside and shot himself in the head, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink. 

Police don’t know why Simons didn’t carry out the attack and probably never will, the police chief said. “We should thank God every day, whatever made him change his mind,” Brink said. 

Investigators found messages on his cellphone that showed the teen had been planning an attack for at least a week at Jackson Middle School, near Massillon. He also showed admiration for the two students who carried out the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado nearly 19 years ago. 

“I’d hurt and destroy something bigger but my schools an easy target,” Simons wrote in one message found on his phone. 

“I want to leave a lasting impression on the world,” he said in another message written days before he took the.22-caliber gun to school on Feb. 20. “I’m going to die doing it.” 

The messages indicating he was planning a school shooting began a week earlier, the same day that 17 people died in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Brink said.

That tweet up above is beyond chilling, and it reminds us that these school shooters often have no expectation of surviving their attack, so the idea of having armed teachers, or even more police, on site does not indicate that it would deter any of them.

I think it is hard for any of us of a certain age to remember what it was like to be an adolescent, but since I work with them all of the time I can tell you that they experience EVERY emotion more profoundly then we do as adults.

So crushes can quickly turn to obsessions. Depressions feel like the end of the world. And anger is all encompassing.

Most of us will navigate these emotional extremes without doing anything too disruptive to our lives.

But provided access to a deadly firearm, and suddenly a momentary emotional crisis can metastasize to an explosion of violence which can end multiple lives.

I hate when people call these shooters "evil" or "crazy."

No, they were likely mentally unstable or emotionally upset. Or a combination of the two.

In other words they are treatable just so long as you do not have to navigate a hail of bullets to reach them.

So this happened on Wednesday.

Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles and some wearing bullet crowns, participated in a commitment ceremony today at World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, in Newfoundland, Pa. The event led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. Photos @jacquelinelarma pic.twitter.com/GXzrZeK41z

— AP Images (@AP_Images) February 28, 2018

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Women dressed in white and men in dark suits gripped the guns, which they had been urged to bring unloaded to the church in the rural Pocono Mountains, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Philadelphia. Many celebrants wore crowns – some made of bullets – while church officials dressed in flowing bright pink and white garments to go with their armaments. 

A spokesman for the church, now headed by the Reverend Hyung Jin Moon after the death of his father and church founder, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, said the marriage blessing ceremony had been planned long before a man with an AR-15 massacred 17 students and school staff in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. 

Students from an elementary school near the church were relocated for the day to distance them from the gun-toting couples at the ceremony, according to the Wallenpaupack School District website. 

Moon said in a statement that the staff of the Florida school should have been armed, an option President Donald Trump has said should be explored nationwide and which teacher unions have criticized.

Every once in awhile you see a story for which you almost cannot form the words to express your utter dismay.

This is one such story.

Cults are terrifying on their own.

But a cult that also exalts assault weapons, well that is just an entirely new level of terrifying.  

Early voting in Texas sees large turnout for Democrats.

Courtesy of AP: 

Democrats in Texas are early voting in large numbers ahead of the first primary elections before the 2018 midterms, stoking party optimism that backlash to President Donald Trump won’t escape the biggest conservative state in the country. 

More Democrats have cast ballots than Republicans since early voting began this week in Texas, according to state election figures released Thursday, and turnout among Democrats is up 46 percent over the last midterm elections in 2014. For Republicans, meanwhile, turnout is basically flat. 

Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016 and so dominant are Republicans that they haven’t lost a statewide race since 1994. Political strategists cautioned against reading too much into early turnout totals and said a relatively dull slate of GOP statewide primary races isn’t energizing Republican voters like four years ago. 

But the numbers still encouraged Democrats whose best hopes in Texas for 2018 are flipping a few congressional seats as Republicans defend their majorities in the House and Senate. GOP U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is also up for re-election but is a heavy favorite to win another term. 

“It definitely says there was a large number of Democrats who couldn’t wait to get out and vote,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.

Democrats are killing it in the special elections around the country, so the idea that Texas is out of reach for Dems is not exactly a given.

Personally I would LOVE to see that mealy mouthed little POS Ted Cruz go down in flames.

Easily one of the most despicable individuals on the planet.

And he is behind in fundraising.

Jesus, even George W. Bush is capable of understanding that the Russians hacked our election.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Former President George W. Bush said on Thursday that “there’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled” in the 2016 American presidential election, forcefully rebutting fellow Republican Donald Trump’s denials of Moscow trying to affect the vote. 

While never mentioning President Trump by name, Bush appeared to be pushing back on Trump’s attempts to have warmer relations with Russia, as well as his comments on immigration. 

The White House did not immediately comment on Bush’s remarks. 

“There’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled,” Bush said at a talk in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. “Whether they affected the outcome is another question.” 

Bush also said that “it’s problematic that a foreign nation is involved in our election system. Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results.”

Remember this guy?

I must have said every single day that he was in office that he was the dumbest son-of-a-bitch we had ever elected to lead this nation.

I truly believed that once he was out we would NEVER make a mistake of that magnitude again.

And here he is recognizing the evidence that our current commander-in-chief refuses to even acknowledge.

I would really like to say that after Trump is dragged from office that we will never be stupid enough to elect such an incompetent, unqualified, traitorous leader ever again.

But now that I understand just how critically stupid many people are in this country, that would just be a waste of my breath. 

Same Russian hackers from the 2016 election are now targeting companies involved with developing military technology.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft, an Associated Press investigation has found. 

What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification to victims. 

The hackers known as Fancy Bear, who also intruded in the U.S. election, went after at least 87 people working on militarized drones, missiles, rockets, stealth fighter jets, cloud-computing platforms or other sensitive activities, the AP found. 

Employees at both small companies and defense giants like Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., Boeing Co., Airbus Group and General Atomics were targeted by the hackers. A handful of people in Fancy Bear’s sights also worked for trade groups, contractors in U.S.-allied countries or on corporate boards. 

“The programs that they appear to target and the people who work on those programs are some of the most forward-leaning, advanced technologies,” said Charles Sowell, a former senior adviser to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who reviewed the list of names for the AP. “And if those programs are compromised in any way, then our competitive advantage and our defense is compromised.”

But remember we don't need to implement further sanctions against Russia because "sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent."

I guess somebody need to inform Fancy Bear of that "fact."

We are so fucked.

Steve Bannon blows off subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee, but plans to sing like a canary for Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of CNN:

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon won't appear before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, escalating a tense standoff with the panel. 

Bannon was not planning on showing up ahead of a Tuesday deadline because the White House and committee haven't reached an agreement over the scope of the questioning, a source said Monday. 

The House Intelligence Committee confirmed Tuesday it was giving Bannon another week to comply with its subpoena. 

"The House Intelligence Committee's interview with Stephen Bannon has been postponed at the Committee's initiative until next week," Emily Hytha, spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican running the committee's Russia probe, said in a statement. "We look forward to having him before the Committee once we can assure that he will be able to thoroughly answer all our questions without concerns regarding the scope of executive privilege." 

This is the third extension on this subpoena that this committee has provided to Bannon, which kind of makes them appear completely toothless right now.

It could simply be that Bannon, like most of America, simply has no respect for Devin Nunes, the chairman of that committee, because he has another date to testify that he is supposedly taking much more seriously.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, is scheduled to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators next week as they probe possible obstruction of justice by the president. 

That’s according to two people familiar with Bannon’s interview. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about details of the interview. 

One of the people says Bannon plans to tell Mueller “everything” he knows.

I actually get the feeling that Bannon is eager to share what he knows with Mueller. 

And we know from Michael Wolff's book that he certainly loves to talk.

While in Jerusalem Mike Pence calls Stormy Daniels allegations "baseless," and then goes on to defend Trump's "shithole" comments.

#ArtOfTheDeal pic.twitter.com/kUVEF2X0Vd

— BlueVotr (@BlueVotr) January 22, 2018

Courtesy of CBS News:  

Vice President Mike Pence says reports that an adult film star had an alleged affair with President Trump are "baseless allegations." 

Pence spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He said he was "not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president."

Okay, has Mike Pence read the In Touch article yet?

I'm sorry what was I thinking? Has Mike Pence's wife read him the In Touch article while Pence gripped a Bible and muttered "Away with thee Satan" over and over again, yet?

And does he also know that Trump's attorney opened an LLC specifically to funnel money to Daniels in order to buy her silence right before the election?

Because once you know all that, it makes it VERY hard to call these allegations "baseless."

There are enough facts available for a watchdog group to feel they have sufficient evidence to launch a complaint with the federal elections committee that the payment to Daniels violated campaign finance law.

But clearly Pence is not going to let a little thing like facts stand in the way of his adoration of Donald Trump.

In that same interview, Pence also defended Mr. Trump over his disparaging comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti. 

Pence told the AP that he "knows the president's heart." He says Mr. Trump is determined to implement a merit-based system that encourages immigration by those who will "contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities" and one that does not take into account the immigrants' "race or creed."

Once again that is an absolute denial of what Trump has tweeted, stated publicly, or been quoted as saying in behind door meetings.

Besides it is too late for Pence's revisionist history, the American people already know exactly what is in Donald Trump's heart.

Stormy Daniels: “We had really good banter. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter.”  

Yes that, big dollops of McDonalds saturated fats, and overriding racism. Those are the things inside Donald Trump's heart.

Since Donald Trump is abdicating his responsibilities, the Democrats have released a report on Russia's continued interference in Western democracies around the world.

Today I'm releasing a #RussiaReport documenting Vladimir Putin's 20-year attack on democratic institutions in his own country and Europe. To protect against what the Kremlin did to the U.S. in 2016, we need to first understand Putin's pattern. https://t.co/93mMMbGEgV

— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) January 10, 2018

Courtesy of the AP:

A new report by Senate Democrats warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, President Donald Trump has offered no strategic plan to bolster their efforts or safeguard the U.S. from again falling victim to Kremlin meddling. 

The report commissioned by the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the first from Congress to comprehensively detail Russian efforts to undermine democracies since the 2016 presidential election. It wastes no time in calling out Trump personally for what it describes as a failure to respond to Russia’s mounting destabilization activities in the U.S. and worldwide. 

“Never before has a U.S. president so clearly ignored such a grave and growing threat to U.S. national security,” the report released by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland warns. 

Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the committee, didn’t sign on to the report. But even without formal GOP backing, the recounting of Russian operations in 19 European nations foreshadows the still-unpublished findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan inquiry into Russia’s role during the U.S. election. 

Cardin said the roughly 200-page report is built on both Republican and Democratic ideas, and he commissioned it to show Americans the scope of efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine democracy.

And yet Donald Trump does nothing.

Gee, it's almost as if he were working for the Putin agenda, instead of the American agenda.

But that can't be right, can it?

EPA chief Scott Pruitt may be the king of paranoia.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security. 

The spending items, totaling nearly $9,000, are among a string of increased counter-surveillance precautions taken by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who also requires around-the-clock protection by an armed security team. 

The EPA’s Office of Inspector General is already investigating Pruitt’s $25,000 purchase of a custom-made soundproof privacy booth for his office to deter eavesdropping on his phone calls.

An accounting of Pruitt’s spending for the bug sweep and pricey locks was provided to The Associated Press by an EPA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns of retaliation.

Does Scott Pruitt realize that he works for a government agency that deals with the environment and is NOT in fact working with the CIA?

Kind of makes me wonder if Donald Trump chooses his cabinet members based on the number of voices they hear in their heads.

The Pope calls the spreading of "fake news" a "very serious sin." Seriously?

Courtesy of the AP:

Pope Francis is criticizing journalists who dredge up old scandals and sensationalize the news, saying it’s a “very serious sin” that hurts all involved. 

Francis, who plans to dedicate his upcoming annual communications message to “fake news,” told Catholic media on Saturday that journalists perform a mission that is among the most “fundamental” to democratic societies. 

But he reminded them to provide precise, complete and correct information and not to provide one-sided reports. 

The pope said: “You shouldn’t fall into the ‘sins of communication:’ disinformation, or giving just one side, calumny that is sensationalized, or defamation, looking for things that are old news and have been dealt with and bringing them to light today.” 

He called those actions a “grave sin that hurts the heart of the journalist and hurts others.” 

Look I totally agree with the Popester here that the spreading of fake news is a bad idea.

However does he really want to talk about "disinformation, or giving just one side, calumny that is sensationalized?"

Because I am pretty sure that his entire religion depends on much of that.

For the record there is very little in the Bible that is backed up by actual facts or secular historical documentation.

The entire religion depends on the continued spreading of disinformation and calumny ( the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone's reputation; slander.) Just ask those who have been tortured and killed for heresy or accused of witchcraft.

Yes fake news is bad.

So how much longer will the Pope and his fellow Christians continue to spread it?

Donald Trump fires Omarosa. Update!

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

The White House said Wednesday that Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former “The Apprentice” contestant turned political neophyte, is leaving the administration next month. 

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told The Associated Press that Manigault Newman’s resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump’s inauguration. 

Manigault Newman’s departure was rumored back in September following a number of controversies. 

A month earlier, the 43-year-old endured a chaotic trip to the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in New Orleans. 

Her appearance at an event during the convention was described as confrontational and hectic as she aggressively insisted reporters “Ask me a question about me,” while sidestepping inquiries about the administration. 

The two-time “Apprentice” villain turned senior White House official also ruffled feathers when she reportedly brought members of her 39-person bridal party to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for an extended wedding photo shoot. 

The unannounced April visit to the White House in her bridal attire caught fellow senior aides and some security officials by surprise.

"Ask me about me." That right there was probably enough to get a megalomaniac like Trump to fire her.

Omarosa is just one more of Trump's closest confidants who is now being ushered out the door.

That leaves this unhinged and volatile lunatic even more isolated and alone than before.

I certainly hope that somebody is keeping those nuclear codes well hidden.

Update: Well this is delicious.

H/T to Raw Story.

The FBI failed to notify scores of Americans that they were being targeted by Russian hackers.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The FBI failed to notify scores of U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their personal Gmail accounts despite having evidence for at least a year that the targets were in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, The Associated Press has found. 

Nearly 80 interviews with Americans targeted by Fancy Bear, a Russian government-aligned cyberespionage group, turned up only two cases in which the FBI had provided a heads-up. Even senior policymakers discovered they were targets only when the AP told them, a situation some described as bizarre and dispiriting. 

“It’s utterly confounding,” said Philip Reiner, a former senior director at the National Security Council, who was notified by the AP that he was targeted in 2015. “You’ve got to tell your people. You’ve got to protect your people.” 

The FBI declined to discuss its investigation into Fancy Bear’s spying campaign, but did provide a statement that said in part: “The FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of potential threat information.” 

Three people familiar with the matter — including a current and a former government official — said the FBI has known for more than a year the details of Fancy Bear’s attempts to break into Gmail inboxes. A senior FBI official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the hacking operation because of its sensitivity, declined to comment on when it received the target list, but said that the bureau was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attempted hacks. 

“It’s a matter of triaging to the best of our ability the volume of the targets who are out there,” he said.

The AP did its own investigation and identified 19,000 lines of targeting data and over 500 organizations and people who were in the cross-hairs.

It might have been helpful for these people to know that they were being targeted, as they could have taken precautions that might have helped to curtail the attacks.

I consider myself to be a low level target, yet I have been inundated with phishing attempts for well over two years, and they continue today.

Donald Trump cannot even make a condolence call to the family of a deceased soldier correctly.

Courtesy of AP: 

Relatives of people who died in military service have recounted varied interactions with President Donald Trump in the difficult days and weeks after their loved one’s death. Despite Trump’s boast that he reaches out personally to all families of the fallen, interviews with families members did not support his claim. Some never heard from him at all, and a few who did came away more upset. 

The Associated Press reached out to the families of all 43 people who have died in military service since Trump became president and made contact with about half the families. Of those who would address the question, relatives of nine said they had heard from Trump by phone or mail. Relatives of nine others said they haven’t. 

Several spoke of being comforted by Trump but at least one call went awry: Cowanda Jones-Johnson told the AP that Trump spoke disrespectfully of her fallen nephew, Sgt. La David Johnson, when he called family members Tuesday. Johnson was among four servicemen killed in Niger earlier this month.

Of course the story that was tearing through the internet yesterday was this one.

Courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said. 

Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge, said that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were fatally shot by an Afghan police officer on June 10. Their phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed — shot by someone he was training. 

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’ ” Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.” 

Trump’s offer of $25,000 adds a dimension to his relationships with Gold Star families, and the disclosure follows questions about how often the president has called or written to the parents or spouses of those killed.

When reporters started trying to get an answer from the White House as to why Trump did not actually write this check, this happened:  

President Donald Trump sent a $25,000 personal check to the family of a fallen soldier the same day that The Washington Post reported that he had promised the soldier's father a personal donation during a June condolence call but never followed through. 

A White House official confirms to CNN that the President sent a personal check Wednesday to the family of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge Wednesday. Baldridge, 22, was killed in June by an Afghan police officer.

Now to be fair a president is NOT expected to volunteer his personal money to the family of a fallen soldier. But when you are trying to convince the country that you are better at this than your predecessor, well then let the mocking begin.

However before we turn to such frivolity we need to remember that there are those who will go to great lengths to defend the Orange Fuhrer.

Courtesy of CBS Miami:

Rep. Frederica Wilson’s office claims multiple threatening phone calls directed at congresswoman came into her D.C. office on Wednesday. 

Her staff told CBS4’s Carey Codd the calls were directly related to the phone call from the president to the wife of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. 

The congresswoman’s staff said they alerted the Capital Police, Miami Garden Police and the threat division of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Codd was told she is safe and that she is being protected at this point.

It must be remembered that this entire thing was self inflicted.

Trump was the one who bragged that while other presidents before him, President Obama in particular of course,  were a little hit and miss when it came to reaching out to Gold Star families, he was talking to ALL of them.

And then when called out on that lie, and confronted with his lack of empathy, he started to attack those who criticized him.

This is why we are not supposed to allow a thin skinned lunatic into the White House.