Donald Trump vomits forth another early morning Twitter tantrum. Target: James Comey.

Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Yes, the best way to secure a job with a new President is to announce there is an open investigation against them a week before the election.

If Comey were trying to curry favor with Hillary he would have announced that the FBI had been investigating the Trump campaign almost since its inception.

The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

That is a LOT of misinformation in just one tweet.

Comey throws AG Lynch “under the bus!” Why can’t we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill and Lynch? Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Loretta Lynch? Are we seriously dredging that up again?

I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His “memos” are self serving and FAKE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

They are also CONFIRMED by other members of the FBI and Justice Department that Comey talked to directly after his meetings with Trump.

Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Just in case you are thinking "WTF?" keep in mind that Comey's big interview with ABC is being broadcast tonight.

Apparently somebody is a little agitated.

But it was not all Comey all the time this morning, Trump had a few other things to bitch about as well.

Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past. I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken. All lawyers are deflated and concerned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

I did not even realize that lawyers came with an air release valve.

However of course not ALL lawyers are worried about being raided by the FBI.

Only the ones who lied, and paid off porn stars, for Donald Trump.

Then there was this tweet.

The Syrian raid was so perfectly carried out, with such precision, that the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term “Mission Accomplished.” I knew they would seize on this but felt it is such a great Military term, it should be brought back. Use often!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

I have only one response to this:

 All Trump did with that statement was to remind us that our last completely incompetent president was so much MORE competent than this one.

And he never tweeted like a middle school girl who just found out her best friend was making out with the boy she likes behind the gym either.

Just saying.

Darrell Issa, you may remember him from the sixth or seventh Benghazi witch hunt, is now threatening to shut down the government if Hillary Clinton is not indicted.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

In an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily, Issa blasted FBI Director James Comey’s decision as “simply choosing to ignore a law.” 

“We should be willing to shut down the government if the president won’t limit his power,” he said, noting that his party had repeatedly been “willing to shut down the government over ending Obamacare and these other things.” Those things, according to Issa, are “small points compared to the actual balance of our republic.” 

Issa said the leadership would agree to a shutdown only if there was a clear example, like this, where “we cannot enforce criminal charges against a criminal… because the people responsible are simply choosing to ignore a law.”

Always such a reasonable guy isn't he?

But he's not the only Republican in Washington completely overreacting to the news that Hillary will not be charged, get a load of Speaker Ryan: 

House Speaker Paul Ryan sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Wednesday requesting he deny any classified information to Hillary Clinton for the rest of the 2016 campaign. 

After FBI Director James Comey called Clinton's handling of classified material "extremely careless," Ryan argued in an interview on Fox on Tuesday that the Democratic nominee shouldn't be permitted to get top secret briefings, but the letter formalizes that recommendation. 

Ryan cites his own experience receiving classified intelligence briefings as his party's vice presidential nominee in 2012 in his letter, saying he understands Clinton is set to begin getting similar briefings after her party formally nominates her at the Democratic convention later this month. 

"There is no legal requirement for you to provide Secretary Clinton with classified information, and it would send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nation's secrets if you choose to provide her access to this information despite the FBI's findings," Ryan writes.

Clearly the Republicans see this is their last best hope of stopping Hillary Clinton before she destroys their disastrously unqualified candidate and ascends to the White House.

But in their furor to destroy this woman they have decided to ignore the facts. There is simply no way that she could have been indicted.

Courtesy of Slate:  

Did she commit a crime? Would anyone else—a lower-ranking official, someone who’s not a presidential candidate, someone who’s not named Clinton—have been charged with a crime? Absolutely not. And Comey said as much. “Our judgment,” he said, “is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” In the annals of the Justice Department’s history, he went on, “we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.” 

There are a few federal statutes dealing with the mishandling of classified information. Some are defined as misdemeanors, some as felonies. But all of them require the finding of an “intent” to mishandle information—and most of them involve an intent to share the information with people (usually, but not always, foreign agents) who are not cleared to see it. As Comey said of the Clinton case, “We do not see these things here.”

It is becoming abundantly clear that the Republicans REALLY did pin all of their hopes on Hillary being indicted over her e-mail server.

No charges against Clinton, says @LorettaLynch pic.twitter.com/5fPESOcaIV

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 6, 2016

Now that they no longer have that to cling to they care losing their minds over this, and reacting in a childish and incredibly unprofessional manner.

There is literally NO doubt that if this investigation had been directed at a Republican leader the GOP standard bearers would have poo poo'd  from the very beginning.

But when it involves Hillary Clinton......well for her the rules are always going to be different.

Donald Trump accuses AG Lynch of accepting a bribe to explain FBI decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Republican Donald Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of bribing Attorney General Loretta Lynch following a report that said Clinton would consider keeping Lynch if she's elected president. 

"It's a bribe!" Trump declared at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tuesday, hours after the FBI said it wouldn't recommend charges against Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. 

Trump was referring to a story in The New York Times that quoted "Democrats close to" Clinton saying she may decide to rehire Lynch. 

Trump says Lynch may have believed that, if she let Clinton off the hook, she'd have four more years on the job.

Damn Trump will literally say anything, and smear anybody's character, to win this election won't he?

And who couldn't have predicted that his response to the news that Hillary will not be indicted would be to roll out yet another conspiracy theory?

By the way there is a great article over at Think Progress which explains why it would have been impossible to indict Hillary Clinton.

Here is how it was summed up in the end:

Setting aside the bare language of the law, there’s also a very important practical reason why officials in Clinton’s position are not typically indicted. The security applied to classified email systems is simply absurd. For this reason, a former CIA general counsel told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, “’it’s common’ that people end up using unclassified systems to transmit classified information.” “’It’s inevitable, because the classified systems are often cumbersome and lots of people have access to the classified e-mails or cables.’ People who need quick guidance about a sensitive matter often pick up the phone or send a message on an open system. They shouldn’t, but they do.” 

Indicting Clinton would require the Justice Department to apply a legal standard that would endanger countless officials throughout the government, and that would make it impossible for many government offices to function effectively.

It should also be noted that in the actual FBI statement it talks about "e-mail chains" which refers to e-mails that were sent to Clinton and various others within the State Department, some also not using the State Department servers, which would have meant that if Comey had indicted Hillary he would have had to indict a large number of state department staff members who were sending supposedly classified information over, or to, unsecured devices and servers.

Doing so would essentially have shut down the State Department and rendered it ineffective for months, if not years.

But hey the REAL reason she's not being indicted is all because of bribery, right Donald?

So let's address the Bill Clinton/Lorretta Lynch kerfuffle.

For those who have not turned on their TV's for the past 48 hours: 

A meeting this week between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton is creating headaches for Hillary Clinton's campaign. 

Lynch and Bill Clinton met privately in Phoenix Monday after the two realized they were on the same tarmac, an aide to the former president said. The encounter took place ahead of the public release Tuesday morning of the House Benghazi Committee's report on the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya. 

The meeting is raising questions about whether the independence of the Justice Department, which is conducting an investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, might have been compromised.

Are you clutching your pearls yet?

Well if not then you are probably more intelligent than most.

First off for this to deserve even a scintilla of the news coverage that it is receiving you have to believe that Loretta Lynch, a woman that typically both Republicans and Democrats agree has impeccable integrity, would allow herself to be influenced by the former president.

Secondly you would have to believe that Bill Clinton would choose to meet Lynch in such a public venue in order to exert that influence, rather than to meet her in a more private location or to simply phone her at his leisure.

Thirdly people keep talking about "the optics" of this interaction considering the fact that Hillary in under investigation. But through WHOSE optics are seeing this interaction?

From my point of view this does not even come close to rising to the level of scandal, and if I read about it without all of the hyperbolic language I would think nothing of it. Nothing.

However if I am looking at it through the eyes of a conservative or Bernie-bot desperately scouring the internet for something to be outraged about concerning Hillary and her campaign, then "ding, ding, ding," apparently we have a winner.

But is it a winner?

Fuck no!

It is yet another tiny molehill, piled with bullshit until it appears to be a mountain.

(Hey, do you all remember the time that Bill visited that polling place in Massachusetts and stole the election for Hillary? Yeah, it's like that.)

So right around this part of the post is where the trolls start searching for that article which talks about Hillary's meeting with the FBI today.

Here let me save them the trouble:

"Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary," Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in an email Saturday afternoon. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview."

And then they will follow that up by also sending me a link to an article where Loretta Lynch says that she will do whatever the FBI recommends when they submit their report. (Here you go)

And then with what I would assume is a huge shit eating grin on their face the troll will sit back in that beanbag chair in their parent's basement and say, "There I told you she was screwed."

Except that of course she's not.

Let's take a moment to remind ourselves that the FBI answers to Attorney General Lynch, and that despite what she might say publicly she knows full well what they are investigating and what evidence that have accumulated.

Then let us remind ourselves that she was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, who is determined to see his legacy protected by the next President elected to office.

Now acknowledging those two things should we actually entertain the possibility that Loretta Lynch would publicly say that she will abide by the FBI's report if she did not KNOW for a fact that Hillary Clinton was going to be completely exonerated?

Of course not.

Like I said, molehills piled up with bullshit until they appear to be mountains.

President Obama says that new executive orders to tighten gun control legislation well within his legal authority.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

President Barack Obama said on Monday his new executive actions to tighten gun rules were "well within" his legal authority and consistent with the U.S. right to bear arms, a warning to opponents who are likely to challenge them in court. 

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Obama said his administration would unveil the new measures over the next several days. 

Obama is igniting a political firestorm by bypassing Congress with the measures, which are likely to redefine what it means to be a gun dealer and spark increased use of background checks. Republicans say Obama is misusing his powers. 

"The good news is .. these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch, but they're also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support," Obama said during a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other advisers.

As you might imagine this has caused a virtual meltdown among the Right Wing who now feel vindicated for accusing the President of coming after their guns for virtually the entire seven years he has been in office.

One headline over at Fox says simply "President Obama wants to disarm America," which of course is the overstatement of the decade.

GOP presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are claiming that on day one they will reverse this order, while their supporters run to the local gun store to stock up on bullets and add to their arsenal weapons.

Just another reason why we so desperately need to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next President of the United States:  

When I came out with my proposals for common sense gun safety measures, I did say that in the absence of Congressional action, I would use executive authority to go as far as would be possible under the law and I applaud the President for taking a hard look at that and I believe he will take some actions to require more gun sellers to do background checks,” Clinton said of the anticipated proposal. 

Clinton warned: “I know that a Republican president would delight in the very first day, reversing executive orders that President Obama has made, including this one that we expect him to make.”

If part of this 2016 campaign season centers around gun control, and I think we already know that it will, then you can bet the farm that we are going to see entirely new levels of ugly. 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch launches investigation into police brutality in Baltimore.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The Justice Department launched on Friday a pattern or practice investigation into the methods of the Baltimore Police Department, weeks after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. 

Calling police-community relations "one of the most challenging issues of our time," Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Friday the investigation, which will look into whether the police department has used excessive force and conducted unlawful searches, seizures and arrests, and discriminatory policing practices through the lens of civil rights and constitutional violations. 

She said she launched the investigation at the urging of Baltimore officials and community leaders, and with the support of the Baltimore police union. 

"Our goal is to work with the community, public officials, and law enforcement alike to create a stronger, better Baltimore," Lynch said at a press conference Friday. If violations are found, the investigation will result in a "court-enforceable agreement" to change the practices of the Baltimore Police Department.

This of course follows the DOJ's scathing report on what they found after investigating Ferguson.

I have a feeling that there will be similar findings after this investigation in Baltimore.

Personally I think that if the Department of Justice were to investigate police departments all over the country, that they would find racism brutality, and injustice, in varying degrees, practiced by virtually all of them. 

I did not use to think that was true, but that was before the evidence started showing up in video clips, witness accounts, and e-mails. Now only a blind man could say that he did not see institutional racism in every nook and cranny of our society.

Baltimore City riots. The day after.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Charred cars and buildings. Hospitalized police officers. Looted and damaged businesses. No school, because it might not be safe for children to go outside. 

That was the stark reality Tuesday after a night of riots, fires and heartbreak in Baltimore, parts of which looked more like a war zone than a place where people live, work and play. 

"Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who -- in a very senseless way -- are trying to tear down what so many have fought for," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. 

At least 15 officers were wounded in the unrest, six of them seriously, the city's police commissioner said. Getting them healthier is the first goal. Another is making sure that they're not joined in local hospitals by others -- be they more law enforcement officers or civilians -- in further unrest. 

There were nearly 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires and 15 structure fires in Baltimore during the unrest that began Monday, said Howard Libit, the city's director of strategic planning and policy. 

More than 500 National Guard members are in Baltimore on Tuesday morning with "hundreds more on the way," the Maryland National Guard reports.

The finger pointing and blame has already started with conservatives mostly blaming the mayor and liberals talking about police injustice and a community that feels desperate and enraged over the death, and the lack of information about the death, of Freddie Gray.

The violence and property destruction got so bad that even the Crips and Bloods got together to call for an end to the riot.

The riots actually erupted on the day that newly confirmed AG Loretta Lynch was sworn in, which means she has to hit the ground running it seems.

Her first response to the violence will of course be closely scrutinized by her conservative detractors:

Lynch met Monday evening with President Barack Obama to discuss the riots in Baltimore. The meeting was not called specifically as a result of the situation in Baltimore, the White House said, but Lynch told Obama she'd be monitoring the situation there. 

"As our investigative process continues, I strongly urge every member of the Baltimore community to adhere to the principles of nonviolence," Lynch said in a statement. "In the days ahead, I intend to work with leaders throughout Baltimore to ensure that we can protect the security and civil rights of all residents. And I will bring the full resources of the Department of Justice to bear in protecting those under threat, investigating wrongdoing, and securing an end to violence."

Today the President had this to say:

"There's no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday. It is counterproductive," Obama said at a press conference from the White House. "When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they're not protesting. They're not making a statement. They're stealing. When they burn down a building, they're committing arson. And they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities. That robs jobs and opportunity from people in that area." 

My feeling at this point is if the investigation into the death of Freddy Gray does not end with indictments of at least some police officers, that we will see more violence like this in the near future.

I think MLK said it best.

By the way here are some photos of white people rioting over really important things like sports.

Finally!

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

After one of the nation’s most protracted cabinet-level confirmation delays, the Senate Thursday approved Loretta E. Lynch to be attorney general. She is the first African-American woman to hold the position. 

Ms. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was confirmed 56 to 43, with 10 Republicans voting for her. 

Her confirmation took longer than that for all but two other nominees for the office: Edwin Meese III, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, and A. Mitchell Palmer, who was picked by President Woodrow Wilson, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

Republicans have found themselves in a quandary for months. They longed to replace Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., and they agreed that Ms. Lynch was qualified for the job. But they opposed her because Ms. Lynch defended President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. 

What’s more, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, had held up the nomination until the Senate voted on a human trafficking bill, a process that dragged on for weeks. The measure passed on Wednesday by a vote of 99 to 0.

I think the Republicans really showed their ass on this one.

The idea that they opposed her simply because she agreed with Obama's use of executive orders on immigration does not pass the smell test.

And the fact that she is the first African American woman nominated to the post, and they drug their heels this long, isn't going to do them any favors either.

Update: I forgot to mention that the Senate vote to confirm Lynch was 56 to 43, with only one Senator missing the vote.

That Senator? Ted Cruz.

And that was after he gave this impassioned speech accusing Former Attorney General Eric Holder of "lawlessness" and suggesting that Loretta Lynch represents more of the same.

Yep he was so worried about the "lawlessness" that he missed the vote and flew off to attend a fundraiser instead.

President Obama uses Weekly Address to shame Republicans for refusing to vote on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Obama lauded Lynch, the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as a “tough, independent, and fair” lawyer who has a distinguished career. The president nominated Lynch four months ago, but Senate Republicans are currently delaying her confirmation vote until the Senate passes a human trafficking bill, which has been held up while Democrats and Republicans argue over an abortion provision in the bill. 

Obama said the holdup is simply about politics, and that senators from both parties support her nomination. 

“Republicans promised that Congress would function smoothly with them in charge,” Obama continued. “Here’s a small chance for them to prove it. Congress should stop playing politics with law enforcement and national security.”

It is beyond obvious that the Republicans are delaying this confirmation purely for political reasons, and it looks like one of them is that the NRA is adamantly opposed and is applying pressure: 

As the Nations’ top law enforcement officer, Lynch would almost certainly have an impact on our Second Amendment rights. We know Lynch supports the Obama administration’s position to ban “assault weapons.” And, we know that the general-purpose rifles that gun control supporters call “assault weapons”--such as the AR-15--are the most popular rifles in the United States. We also know that the President’s previous choice for Attorney General--Eric Holder--clearly demonstrated the damage an Obama-appointed, agenda-driven, anti-gun Attorney General can do to our rights and freedoms as Americans. 

 NRA opposes the confirmation of Obama nominee Loretta Lynch for Attorney General of the United States. 

As we await Loretta Lynch’s confirmation vote in the Senate, it is important that you immediately contact your Senators and ask them to OPPOSE her confirmation as U.S. Attorney General.

I swear to the gods that these people would let the whole world burn, just so long and nobody took their metallic binkies away from them. 

I think that Eric Holder should announce on Monday that he wants to launch an investigation into gun shows, and watch Lynch get confirmed so fast it will make your head spin.

It seems that the Republicans are holding up the confirmation of new Attorney General Loretta Lynch simply out of spite.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The Senate will not consider the nomination of Loretta E. Lynch to be attorney general until it moves forward on a stalled human trafficking bill, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said Sunday. 

“I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again,” he said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” 

Mr. McConnell said on Tuesday that he would hold a vote this week on Ms. Lynch’s nomination, which is the next item on the Senate’s agenda and is otherwise unrelated to the human trafficking bill. 

The Senate reached an unexpected stalemate last week on bipartisan legislation that would combat human trafficking when Democrats said they had become aware of an anti-abortion provision in the bill. 

That provision would bar criminal fines collected in a victims’ fund from being used to pay for abortions. Democrats said they would block the bill until Republicans removed the restriction, which Republicans said was in accordance with existing law.

So the Republicans tried to sneak another anti-abortion measure in with a human trafficking bill, and the Democrats caught them. So now as punishment they are refusing to move forward with Lynch's confirmation.

I swear I have seen preschoolers with more effective negotiating skills than demonstrated by this Senate. Well half of this Senate.

So now the confirmation of Loretta Lynch has been delayed for four months now.

Which is really bizarre if you think about it because supposedly the conservatives despise Eric Holder the current Attorney General.

It is almost like they are cutting off their noses to spite their assholes. I'm sorry I meant faces.

When it comes to the Republicans I always get those two mixed up.

And people wonder why this President has now started to circumvent the Congress and to use Executive Orders. It's the only way to get anything done these days.