Donald Trump announces that April is "Sexual Assault Awareness" month. Let's not all laugh at once.

Courtesy of Yahoo:

US President Donald Trump -- who has himself been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct -- on Friday designated April 2018 "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month" amid a national debate over the issue. 

"Sexual assault crimes remain tragically common in our society, and offenders too often evade accountability," said a proclamation from Trump released by the White House. "These heinous crimes are committed indiscriminately: in intimate relationships, in public spaces, and in the workplace." 

"Too often, however, the victims of assault remain silent. They may fear retribution from their offender, lack faith in the justice system, or have difficulty confronting the pain associated with the traumatic experience," it continued. 

"My administration is committed to raising awareness about sexual assault and to empowering victims to identify perpetrators so that they can be held accountable."

Well I for one did not even make it part way through that before I was banging my head on my desk. 

Trump announcing this is like Colonel Sanders announcing a "Be Nice to Chickens" month.

Alt-Right Paul Ryan challenger kicked off Twitter for being a racist. Show of hands, who didn't see that coming?

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Twitter has suspended the account of alt-right GOP candidate Paul Nehlen after he was accused of racism for a tweet about Meghan Markle, fiancée of British royal Prince Harry. 

Nehlen, who is seeking to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s November primaries, has not spoken out about the suspension.

In the tweet, he superimposed a picture on Markle’s image of the reconstructed appearance of Cheddar Man, an ancient Briton who experts now believe was dark skinned after conducting DNA tests on his 9,000-year-old remains. 

A Twitter spokesperson told Newsweek on Monday morning that "while we normally do not comment on individual accounts, I can confirm that we have permanently suspended this account for repeated violations of our terms of service." 

In recent months, Twitter has removed accounts that have spread racist or abusive messages as it seeks to make the platform more user friendly.

I know, you're probably thinking "An alt-right Republican is a racist, say it ain't so."

But of course it's so.

And we undoubtedly already realized that after this ringing endorsement.

Oh yeah, if you are ever in doubt as to whether somebody is a racist or not, just find out if Palin supports them.

That puts the whole question to rest.

As it turns out the guy now slated to replace the newly ousted FBI Deputy Director is also likely a witness for Robert Mueller.

David Bowdich

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

An FBI official who served as associate deputy director under James Comey and Andrew McCabe is replacing McCabe as acting deputy director, an FBI spokesman confirmed to Newsweek. Multiple outlets including Newsweek had previously reported the news, citing sources. 

As associate deputy director, David Bowdich was the third-ranking FBI official, according to the bureau's organization chart, and would now become No. 2.

Bowdich became associate deputy director in April 2016. In that role, he oversaw most of the bureau's nonoperational branches and divisions, such as personnel, budget, administration and infrastructure. Previously, starting in 2014, he was assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office. Before that, he led the counterintelligence division at that office, overseeing all international and domestic terrorism investigations in the region. He joined the FBI in 1995 and at various times was a SWAT team operator and a sniper.

Sounds like a no nonsense professional with unquestionable integrity, right?

Well the same could have been said about James Comey and Andrew McCabe.

But here's the kicker: 

But Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators who have called for a “purge” of the bureau’s Comey-era officials might be disappointed, given his former proximity to Comey and McCabe. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last June, Comey said he had spoken to senior colleagues including Bowdich about President Donald Trump’s allegedly asking Comey to have the FBI back off its probe into Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser. 

Because of that apparent conversation, and because he was the No. 3 official under Comey, Bowdich is a potential witness into whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey. Last June, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested that the committee interview Bowdich and other FBI officials as the panel investigated Comey’s termination.

That's right. This guy, just like the last guy, was informed by Comey that Donald Trump had attempted to bully him into dropping the Michael Flynn investigation.

So what does Trump do now?

Does he fire yet ANOTHER director or deputy director of the FBI?

Because even if he does, it will have NO effect on the various investigations, which I have to believe are now accelerating forward in the wake of these new unprecedented actions by the guy in the White House.

American cities suing the Pentagon for failure to share information that would keep military criminals from buying guns.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The cities of New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are suing the U.S. Department of Defense over its legal failure to report service member crimes to the FBI and national gun background check database, multiple outlets reported Tuesday. 

For decades, the Pentagon has defied federal laws intended to keep firearms away from criminals like Devin Patrick Kelley, The New York Times notes. The 26-year-old was convicted of domestic assault before he purchased a rifle and killed dozens of people in Texas in November. Felonies and domestic violence convictions legally prohibit gun ownership. 

The democrat-led cities’ lawsuit now seeks to prevent more “senseless carnage” by requiring the Defense Department to fix other “deadly gaps” in the background check database and comply with existing reporting laws under federal court supervision, according to Reuters. It was filed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said his city “relies on this reporting when making the crucial decision whether a license-to-carry applicant should be permitted to carry a firearm.” 

“We’re joining in this suit because reporting these records is absolutely critical to those decisions,” he said in a statement. “The background check system only works if it contains the proper records.”

Kind of a shame that you have to sue your own government in order to force them to provide information to keep US citizens safe. 

But of course we are talking access to guns here, and the only thing more American than that is mom's homemade apple pie and using the Stars and Stripes as seat covers for your pickup truck. 

Ohio "family values" lawmaker resigns after engaging in "inappropriate conduct" with another man.

Rep. Wes Goodman

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

An Ohio lawmaker known for his devotion to “family values” has stepped down after allegedly engaging in “inappropriate conduct with another man” in his office. 

State Rep. Wes Goodman (R-Cardington) resigned Tuesday after a witness reported the incident to Ohio House chief of staff Mike Dittoe, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Specifics of the alleged incident are unclear. 

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) said he met with Goodman on Tuesday, and that the lawmaker “acknowledged and confirmed the allegations.” 

“I was alerted to details yesterday afternoon regarding his involvement in inappropriate behavior related to his state office,” Rosenberger said Wednesday. “It became clear that his resignation was the most appropriate course of action for him, his family, the constituents of the 87th House District and this institution.” 

Nothing wrong with being gay, nor necessarily anything wrong with a little hanky panky at the office  (I've certainly done my share.), however when you run as a "family values" candidate you simply cannot let your man parts touch another man's parts.

Hell if he had only molested underage girls or raped grown women apparently the fundamentalists would have given this guy a pass.

But simply put the "gay stuff" just freaks them out.

Your Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is a sleazy pedophile update.

Would a pedophile have such a precious little gun?

The feces really hit the old fan blades with yesterday's revelation that Roy Moore not only used to proposition high school girls while in his 30's but also attempted to rape one of them.

THAT revelation had the Republican rats jumping off the SS Pedophile in droves.

However Moore still has his supporters, which apparently include the reporters of Breitbart. (Seriously? You were surprised?)

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

Right-leaning news outlet Breitbart sent two reporters to Alabama for the purpose of discrediting the reporting on child sex abuse charges against Roy Moore.

Unfortunately these two reporters were unable to provide much cover as new disgusting information made its way to the internet.

Courtesy of Vice News:

Roy Moore’s inappropriate behavior with teenage girls was an open secret in his hometown of Gadsden, Alabama, where he badgered teens so often he was banned from the local mall, the New Yorker reports. 

“He would go and flirt with all the young girls,” Blake Usry confirmed to AL.com, adding that tales about Moore have been floating around town for three decades. “It’d seem like every Friday or Saturday night [you’d see him] walking around the mall, like the kids did.”

Yuck! How did this never come out before?

For his part Roy Moore is simply arguing that all of this is a hit job with evidence manufactured by his political enemies.

Alabamians will not be fooled by this #InsideHitJob. Mitch McConnell's days as Majority Leader are coming to an end very soon. The fight has just begun. https://t.co/unVysRKDKz

— Judge Roy Moore (@MooreSenate) November 14, 2017

Of course Moore's wife continues to stand by her man, because that is what good conservative women do.

Courtesy of AL.com: 

"After the accusations came out against Judge Moore his polling numbers did not change, so do you think they will let up?? We knew something was coming, just did not know what next. This is the same Gloria Allred that did the very exact same thing to Trump during his campaign. Going on two months now they've been on a witchhunt here in Etowah County and our state advertising people to step forward with accusations and we are gathering evidence of money being paid to people who would come forward. Which is part of why we are filing suit!"

Good luck with that.

As for those poll numbers that Mrs. Moore mentions, that is not quite accurate:

For the first time the Democratic candidate for the U. S. Senate, Doug Jones, is leading in a new poll. The numbers come in the aftermath of recent sexual misconduct allegations by multiple women against Republican Roy Moore. 

The polling was conducted before the latest accusation on Monday from a woman claiming Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16. Louisianna-based JMC Analytics shows Jones with a new advantage at 46-42. 9% of voters remain undecided. Both candidates experienced a six-point swing from the last survey. Of the 9% undecided, 48% say they are leaning towards Jones against 44% towards Moore.

Keep in mind this was BEFORE the new allegations of attempted rape.

No things are not looking good for Judge "Me like little girls" Moore.  

Stephen Hawking says that in less than 600 years this planet will be virtually uninhabitable.

Get out while you still can.

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

British physicist Stephen Hawking has warned repeatedly that Earth could well be doomed, but his latest warning gives us no more than 583 years before we get burned on Earth. 

During a video clip aired at the Tencent WE Summit on Sunday, the 75-year-old scientist said that humanity would have to deal with exponential growth in the centuries ahead. He noted that the world’s population has been doubling every 40 years. 

“This exponential growth cannot continue into the next millennium,” Hawking, who has been coping with neurodegenerative disease for decades, said in his computer-synthesized voice. “By the year 2600, the world’s population would be standing shoulder to shoulder, and the electricity consumption would make the Earth glow red-hot. 

“This is untenable,” Hawking said as a planet-sized ball of fire blazed on the screen.

Hawking suggested that humanity's best chance for survival lay in the stars, and that finding other inhabitable planets may be our only hope.

Personally I am all for space exploration and have believed for decades that it is our destiny to someday leave this planet and explore the cosmos.

However 583 years is actually cutting it a little close.

If you consider the fact that we have yet to understand how to travel any great distance from this planet and survive, while adding to that the fact we have yet to identify a planet that we know for certain can sustain life, then just for fun let's remember that also need to be able to move not a handful, but potentially millions of people, and it's starting to feel a little doomy around here.

Of course we could all just stop having so many damn babies, quickly move to renewable energy resources, and start working together to repair this planet that we have all treated like our own personal landfill for thousands of years.

Nope, our best hope is to get the hell out of Dodge before the planet burns to a crisp.

Nevada father kills teen son for being gay.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

A Nevada father shot and killed his 14-year-old son because he couldn’t accept his son's sexual orientation, according to the son's former foster mom. 

On Thursday afternoon, 53-year-old Wendell Melton shot his son, Giovanni Melton, in the apartment where Giovanni lived alone. 

According to Sonja Jones, Giovanni’s former foster mom, Wendell caught Giovanni with his boyfriend before he pulled out a gun.According to the Henderson Police Department, Giovanni was initially transported to St. Rose Dominican Hospital—Siena Campus in critical condition. 

“As a result of their investigation, Henderson Police detectives determined that Melton discharged a firearm that fatally struck his son,” the police department said in a statement on Facebook. He was arrested at the scene on felony charges of open murder, child abuse, firearms possession and other various charges, and was booked into the Henderson Detention Center. 

"Giovanni was abused physically and mentally and spiritually for many, many years," Jones told News 3 Las Vegas.

Is it any wonder that so many gay teens are still so afraid to tell the world who they are?

It just breaks my heart that this pour kid never got a chance to learn that it gets better. 

Donna Braziles' new book has some serious problems.

One of the charges in Brazile's book is that an agreement which the DNC signed with the Clinton campaign gave the campaign control over who the DNC hired.

However Sam Stein with the Daily Beast sees a problem with that contention.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

From early June 2015 until mid-September of that year, the Democratic National Committee operated without a communications director. 

In normal years, this would have been a problematic, perhaps embarrassing, staffing failure—and nothing more. But the timing of this particular vacancy made it operationally catastrophic. Just as the presidential campaign was heating up, the party’s main political arm was understaffed in a key department. 

When the committee finally filled the void, it settled on Luis Miranda. 

Miranda had served in the Obama administration’s communications shop and was well liked among his peers. One thing he was not, however, was the first, second, or even third choice of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 

In fact, he hadn’t really been on the campaign’s radar at all. Clinton’s team had sent the DNC several other options for the post, top among them Jess McIntosh, who had been serving at the time as the communications director of Emily's List. But according to half a dozen sources, their requests were ultimately set aside by then Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was won over by Miranda’s pitch to emphasize her as the election year ramped up.

In other words Wasserman Schultz hired whoever the hell she wanted, and seemingly did not give two shits what the Clinton campaign recommended.

This does not sound as if the Clinton campaign had final say over anything.

But that is nothing compared to this.

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

Axios reported on Sunday that the book's dedication reads, “In loving memory of my father, Lionel Brazile Sr.; my beloved sister, Sheila Brazioutlanle; my fearless uncles Nat, Floyd, and Douglas; Harlem’s finest, my aunt Lucille; my friend and mentor, David Kaufmann; my DNC colleague and patriot, Seth Rich; and my beloved Pomeranian, Chip Joshua Marvin Brazile (Booty Wipes). I miss y’all.”

Now if the name "Seth Rich" leaps out at you it is likely because his death was part of the conspiracy theory pushed by Russian trolls, Alex Jones, and even Fox News, which claimed that Rich was the true source of those emails that Wikileaks was releasing and not Russian hackers, and that the Clintons had him killed in order to cover that up.

There was also this later in the book: 

Rich also appears elsewhere in Brazile’s book, as the Post reported earlier in the weekend. She wrote that Rich’s murder haunted her and that she installed surveillance cameras at her home and would keep the blinds in her office window closed so she could not be seen by snipers, according to the Post.

Now if Brazile accepted the official police report that Seth Rich's death was the result of an attempted robbery gone bad then why would she be so paranoid?

Look I know that people have great respect for Donna Brazile, and I have certainly come to her defense in the past, but there is something really off about all of this.

Russian trolls were directed to watch Netflix's "House of Cards" to help understand how to manipulate the American voters.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The Russians who worked for a notorious St. Petersburg “troll factory” that was part of Vladimir Putin’s campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election were required to watch the “House of Cards” television series to help them craft messages to “set up the Americans against their own government,” according to an interview broadcast Sunday (in Russian) with a former member of the troll factory’s elite English language department. 

The interview, broadcast by the independent Russian TV station Rain, provides new insight into how the troll factory formerly known as the Internet Research Agency targeted U.S. audiences in part by posting provocative “comments” pretending to be from Americans on newspaper articles that appeared on the websites of the New York Times and Washington Post. 

A central theme of this messaging was demonizing Hillary Clinton by playing up the past scandals of her husband’s administration, her wealth and her use of a private email server, according to the interview with the agency worker, identified only as “Maksim,” with his face concealed. 

“Maksim” says he worked for the agency during 2015, the year before the election, when it was already focusing its attention on Clinton. 

“The main message is: Are not you, my American brothers, tired of the Clintons? How many have they already been?” Maksim says, adding that he and his colleagues were told to emphasize the Clintons’ past “corruption scandals.”

This Maksim guy went on to say that much of their focus was to stoke discontent among the American people and to increase partisanship.

I have to say that if one wanted to learn how politics works, and how to manipulate people, "House of Cards" is almost a master class.

However of course that was by no means the ONLY way that the Russians learned how to target their messages and spread divisiveness.

No that required help from Americans with real know how.

Gee, I wonder exactly who might have been willing to provide that?

Megyn Kelly's new show is already starting to bomb.

Why does everybody hate me?

Courtesy of Politico:  

Megyn Kelly’s new NBC hour following the “Today” show, in which the former Fox News star shuns political interviews for a softer, more lifestyle-driven focus, premiered on Monday to jeers from many critics. 

The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever was particularly cutting: “The debut was like watching a network try to assemble its own Bride of Frankenstein, using parts of Ellen DeGeneres, Kelly Ripa and whatever else it can find.”

CNN’s Brian Lowry allowed that, “It's absurdly early, of course, to draw any conclusions about the efficacy of the Kelly experiment.” Still, he continued, “After tepid marks for her prime time newsmagazine and now her addition to ‘Today,’ it's worth considering that NBC News brass leapt at the opportunity to snag a high-profile news star without having fully thought through how best to deploy her.” 

Jezebel also mocked the show, saying Kelly looked like “a HomeGoods catalog brought to life” and Newsweek was critical, as well.

This is how Time Magazine described Kelly's debut:

The host — a law school alum whose best-known skill has long been her prosecutorial zeal — served as her own defense attorney throughout the hour, pushing the case that she's not the person you remember from her years of political coverage. "The truth is, I'm kind of done with politics for now," Kelly said in a lengthy opening monologue that told her entire life story from childhood to TV stardom. "It's everywhere, everywhere, and I'm just like, it's over."

It's not just the sentiment that makes Kelly's case; it's the bearing. Kelly, a precise, crystalline wordsmith when in takedown mode, awkwardly sprinkled slang into her speech. She talked with her hands as though someone had said it was humanizing. When the cast of Today walked out with mimosas, Kelly declared, "O.M.G.!" A person who until as recently as last summer, during her Sunday-night newsmagazine show, sought to represent herself as deeply engaged in issues of the public interest now just thought it was over. Have a mimosa!

Can you say "disingenuous?"  Sure you can.

But done with politics or not, Kelly simply could not quite get that conservative stank off of her.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

The former FOX News correspondent welcomed the cast of "Will & Grace" onto her new morning show on Monday morning ahead of the hit NBC sitcom's revival, and a comment that she made while talking to a superfan of the show is garnering Kelly criticism on Twitter.

Kelly brought lawyer Russell Turner onto the stage to meet his idols saying, "Russell didn't know this was going to happen!" 

"Is it true that you became a lawyer -- and you became gay! -- because of Will?" she jokingly asked. 

After informing Turner that he would be getting tickets to a live "Will & Grace" taping and a behind-the-scenes tour of the set, Kelly turned to him and said her most head-turning statement of the morning. 

"I don't know about the lawyer thing, but I think the 'Will & Grace' thing and the gay thing is going to work out great," she said.

Well that "gay thing" may work out, but it very unlikely that this "new show thing" will.

How many attempts to repackage this Fox News turd does this make now?  

Barack Obama slams Republicans for trying to once again repeal Obamacare. Update!

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Former President Barack Obama mocked Republicans in a speech on Wednesday for repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his signature health care law also known as Obamacare. 

“The legislation that we passed was full of things that still needed to be fixed,” Obama said at an event hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New York City.

“It wasn’t perfect, but it was better,” he continued. “And when I see people trying to undo that progress for the 50th or 60th time with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with preexisting conditions — the cancer survivor, the expecting mom or the child with autism or asthma, for whom coverage would once again be unattainable — it is aggravating.”

“All of this being done without any demonstrable economic or actuarial or plain common sense rationale, it frustrates,” Obama said. “It’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents.” 

Obama said Wednesday that the people who worked on drafting the Affordable Care Act weren’t just politicians and “policy wonks” but parents “who had the experience of a sick child or crushing medical bills that threatened to bankrupt them.” 

“And for the first time, more than 90 percent of Americans know the security of health insurance,” he said. “Paying more for insurance or being denied insurance because of a preexisting condition or because you are a woman, that’s not a thing anymore. We got rid of that and people are alive today because of it, and that’s progress.”

“Those of you who live in countries that already have universal health care are trying to figure out what’s the controversy here,” he said. “I am too.”

I think that these are the strongest statements that Obama has made on this topic so far, but I hope they are only the beginning because I think he really needs to fight to protect the progress he made while in office, or it will be erased for good.

The good news for him is the the Left has been mobilized: 

The liberal activists roused into the streets by President Donald Trump are revving up for one last campaign to save Obamacare. 

The sudden resurgence of Republicans’ repeal push appeared to catch Democrats and their base by surprise. But ahead of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plans to vote next week on a new bill to dismantle the health law, the Democratic grass roots is on what one leading activist called “full war footing.”

From a new six-figure advertising campaign by the pro-Obamacare group Save My Care to a flurry of rallies planned on the ground, the left is throwing everything it can at the new repeal bill from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

 "The reality is that the progressive coalition has never been more unified or determined than they are right now,” Organizing for Action spokesman Jesse Lehrich said in an interview.

Well that is good news indeed.

If you yourself have not yet joined the fight then please try to find local groups to join, or at the very least send those emails and make those phone calls to Senators, both Republican and Democrat, and tell them how important Obamacare is to you and your family.

Somebody the other day mentioned that they did not think phone calls worked, but the reports from the Senate are that they are currently overwhelmed with calls, and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins both mentioned that phone calls and emails from their constituents helped to shape their votes last time around.

So yes, your voice does make a difference.

Update: It appears the Republicans are working hard to buy Lisa Murkowski's vote:

A Republican Senate aide told Independent Journal Review Thursday that Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) are attempting to buy Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's support through new changes to their controversial Obamacare repeal proposal before an expected vote next week. 

According to the aide, here is a summary of what the new draft of the bill entails: 

"This draft includes 3 separate provisions benefitting Alaska.

1. Alaska (along with Hawaii) will continue to receive Obamacare’s premium tax credits while they are repealed for all other states. It appears this exemption will not affect Alaska receiving its state allotment under the new block grant in addition to the premium tax credits. 
2. Delays implementation of the Medicaid per capita caps for Alaska and Hawaii for years in which the policy would reduce their funding below what they would have received in 2020 plus CPI-M [Consumer Price Index for Medical Care].
3.  Provides for an increased federal Medicaid matching rate (FMAP) for both Alaska and Hawaii." 

This is repugnant as it would have Alaska receive special treatment while other states do without.

The ACA was set up to benefit ALL Americans not simply those living in blue states, Murkowski cannot think this is a good idea.

Alaskans are known for their generosity, to do this would be undermine our very identity.

FBI now turns its attention to Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik to examine its part in the 2016 election.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

The FBI recently questioned a former White House correspondent for Sputnik, the Russian-government-funded news agency, as part of an investigation into whether it is acting as an undeclared propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). 

As part of the probe, Yahoo News has learned, the bureau has obtained a thumb drive containing thousands of internal Sputnik emails and documents — material that could potentially help prosecutors build a case that the news agency played a role in the Russian government “influence campaign” that was waged during last year’s presidential election and, in the view of U.S. intelligence officials, is still ongoing. 

The emails were turned over by Andrew Feinberg, the news agency’s former White House correspondent, who had downloaded the material onto his laptop before he was fired in May. He confirmed to Yahoo News that he was questioned for more than two hours on Sept. 1 by an FBI agent and a Justice Department national security lawyer at the bureau’s Washington field office. 

Feinberg said the interview was focused on Sputnik’s “internal structure, editorial processes and funding.” “They wanted to know where did my orders come from and if I ever got any direction from Moscow,” Feinberg told Yahoo News. 

“They were interested in examples of how I was steered towards covering certain issues.” 

It is not clear whether the agent and prosecutor who questioned Feinberg were acting as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s broader investigation into Russian efforts to disrupt the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign. “We are not confirming whether specific matters are or are not part of our ongoing investigation,” a spokesman for Mueller emailed. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the FBI did not respond to questions. 

But the inquiry comes at a time when members of Congress and others have pushed the Justice Department to strengthen its enforcement of the FARA, especially as it relates to the operations in Washington of two Russian news organizations, Sputnik and RT (formerly known as Russia Today). 

“This is incredibly significant,” said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent and now an associate dean of Yale Law School, about the bureau’s questioning of the former Sputnik reporter. “The FBI has since the 1970s taken pains not to be perceived in any way as infringing on First Amendment activity. But this tells me they have good information and intelligence that these organizations have been acting on behalf of the Kremlin and that there’s a direct line between them and the [Russian influence operations] that are a significant threat to our democracy.” 

Okay well this is great news. 

And the fact they got their hands on internal e-mails is especially delicious.

I also hope that at least one of these ongoing investigations has their sites set on Russia Today, as that was where the majority of links attacking Hillary and promoting Bernie Sanders that showed up here on IM originated.

I actually stopped allowing links to either RT or Sputnik fairly early on in the process, once I identified the patterns.

I just wish Facebook at Twitter had done the same. 

Ousted White House adviser Stephen Bannon threatens war against moderate Republicans, but they dismiss him as "some guy with a website."

Courtesy of GQ: 

Bannon apparently has decided that his absence from the White House means that the White House is now, functionally, a Democratic one, and that he is duty-bound to either bring it to heel or, if it won't cooperate, grind it into a fine red-white-and-blue dust. It's not difficult to see why he thinks this, if you adopt the mindset of a paranoid lunatic who viewed the job he just lost as a suicide mission to see how deeply he could embed his Breitbartian worldview in this administration's DNA before being forcibly expelled by his marginally less delusional counterparts: Jared Kushner was a Democrat. Ivanka Trump was a Democrat. Gary Cohn was a Democrat. Hell, even Trump himself was a Democrat for a while, until he figured out that pandering to simmering racial resentment and unvarnished xenophobia was a more tenable political strategy than running for office on the merits of his policy positions, to the extent that any such positions exist.

Bannon is bloviating like he has the power to end careers and shape Washington politics, but that is certainly not how the rank and file Republicans view him.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

The ousted senior White House adviser may be back guiding Breitbart’s right-wing reactionary bomb-throwing, but he’s likely to find himself in the same position that left-wing sites like Daily Kos and Huffington Post occupied when Barack Obama became president in 2009, several Republicans told Yahoo News. 

“These kinds of oppositional websites are much more potent when the movement they represent is not in the White House,” said one Republican close to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “Kos became irrelevant and HuffPo basically transformed itself into a mainstream news site. The reality was that Obama had a bigger megaphone than those sites. And Trump as president has a bigger megaphone and a more loyal following than Breitbart. 

“I haven’t heard any congressional Republican leaders express concern about Bannon going back to Breitbart. He’s a guy with a website. How much of a problem can a guy with a website actually be? He was much more of a problem when he had daily, hourly, access to the Oval Office,” the Ryan ally said.

Alex Conant, who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, said that “Breitbart has targeted [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and Ryan for years, with very limited impact. They’re both still their caucus leaders, and their support has never been stronger. 

“I don’t know what changes, except Bannon has less power today than he did a week ago,” said Conant.

Breitbart once referred to IM as a "defunct website."

That might actually soon hold true for them now as well.

Currently Breitbart is identified mainly as the home of the same kind of white supremacists that ran down a counter protester in Charlottesville, and they have now lost the thing that provided them with any real relevance, which was their editor-in-chief's White House gig.

Those are some serious currents through which to swim back to prominence and influence.

However it will be fun to watch Bannon rage against the machine, and turn on the man who brought him onto the national stage in the first place.

That second part has already started.  

The election of Donald Trump is bad for business, well the gun manufacturing business at least.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The Obama years were a great time for the gun business. 

But since the election of Donald Trump as president and the resulting decline in fears over increased gun regulation, sales in the industry have plummeted. 

On Thursday, shares of gunmaker Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR) were down as much as 9% after reporting results Wednesday afternoon that missed expectations. In the second quarter, sales for the company were down 22% against the same period last year while profits fell 53%. 

In its earnings release, Sturm, Ruger cited, among other factors weighing on results, “Decreased overall consumer demand in 2017 due to stronger-than-normal demand during most of 2016, likely bolstered by the political campaigns for the November 2016 elections.”

Cabela’s (CAB), an outdoors retailer which sells guns, was also down about 1% on Thursday after it reported second quarter retail store sales declined 6.7%. 

“Since the fall election, we have continued to see a slowdown in firearms and shooting related categories,” said Cabela’s CEO Tommy Millner.

Aww, let's all shed a tear for the death merchants.

All those years of scaring their customers into believing that Obama was going to take their shiny metal penis extenders away helped to elect Donald Trump and now they are comfortable that they can kill people that piss them off with impunity.

Which is why the NRA is now apparently attempting to start a civil war.

Yep, everybody needs guns to fight in a war, and the gun manufacturers and gun sellers of America are there to help.

Leading Psychiatry group give its members permission to publicly say that Donald Trump is a crazy person. Because...well Donald Trump is a crazy person.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

A leading psychiatry group has told its members they should not feel bound by a longstanding rule against commenting publicly on the mental state of public figures — even the president. 

The statement, an email this month from the executive committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association to its 3,500 members, represents the first significant crack in the profession’s decades-old united front aimed at preventing experts from discussing the psychiatric aspects of politicians’ behavior. It will likely make many of its members feel more comfortable speaking openly about President Trump’s mental health. 

The impetus for the email was “belief in the value of psychoanalytic knowledge in explaining human behavior,” said psychoanalytic association past president Dr. Prudence Gourguechon, a psychiatrist in Chicago. “We don’t want to prohibit our members from using their knowledge responsibly.” 

That responsibility is especially great today, she told STAT, “since Trump’s behavior is so different from anything we’ve seen before” in a commander in chief. 

An increasing number of psychologists and psychiatrists have denounced the restriction as a “gag rule” and flouted it, with some arguing they have a “duty to warn” the public about what they see as Trump’s narcissism, impulsivity, poor attention span, paranoia, and other traits that, they believe, impair his ability to lead.

As I have mentioned before I work in the mental health community, it is indeed frowned upon to just start calling people retard, crazy, or a psycho. Even IF those labels perfectly describe them.

However in all seriousness, Donald Trump is a crazy retarded psycho.

This is a guy who once pretended to be his own spokesperson.

He sits in trucks and does this.

THAT'S not normal.

He has the lowest approval ratings in the history of approval ratings, and he seriously seems to think that we should consider putting his giant head on Mt. Rushmore.

There are people currently in rubber rooms with less psychotic thinking than that. 

So yes, we need the psychiatric community to weigh in and explain why Trump does what he does, thinks what the thinks, and is potentially capable of doing or thinking next.

Trump to Manafort: "Am I a baby to you?"

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

A new book details a fight that it says led Donald Trump to oust Paul Manafort, who served as chairman and, for a time, manager of his presidential campaign. 

The book, "Devil's Bargain" by Bloomberg Businessweek correspondent Joshua Green, was previewed in the Daily Mail on Monday. 

According to the Daily Mail, the book says a New York Times article led to the fight that precipitated Manafort's removal from the Trump campaign. 

The Times article noted that Trump's aides used TV appearances to get their messages across to him because they found that more effective than communicating face-to-face. 

The day after the article's publication, apparently at the urging of Rebekah Mercer, a Republican donor who threw her weight behind Trump during the election, Trump reportedly called a meeting with his top staff at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. The meeting, the Daily Mail said, included Manafort, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York, former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, and Manafort's deputy Rick Gates. 

When everybody was assembled, Trump reportedly shouted at Manafort, "How can anybody allow an article that says your campaign is all f----- up?" 

"You think you've gotta go on TV to talk to me? You treat me like a baby!" Trump added, according to Green's account of the meeting quoted in the Daily Mail. 

"Am I like a baby to you? I sit there like a little baby and watch TV and you talk to me? Am I a f------ baby, Paul?" Trump reportedly continued.

I think we all know the answer to that is "Yes."

According to the book the next Times article which revealed that Manafort had been paid millions by a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party sealed his fate.

Jared Kushner actually did the firing, but clearly Trump was humiliated by the first article and that was why Manafort had to be punished.

I have the feeling that this is only one example of the kind of turmoil that took place during the campaign, and now happens within the White House on a daily basis.

Hackers tried to access South Carolina's voter registration system almost 150,000 times on election day.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Hackers tried to access South Carolina's voter registration system almost 150,000 times on Election Day alone, a new report from the state's Election Commission has revealed. 

The report plays into a larger pattern of attempted hacking in the 2016 election, in which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says more than 20 US states were targeted. Intelligence officials believe much of the election meddling was carried out by Russian hackers.

They keep using the phrase "tried to access" but I am starting to think that they almost had to have been successful at least a couple of times.

One does not attempt 150,000 times unless you managed to penetrate a security system somewhere using the same or a similar approach.

And if they were successful just how many votes might they have altered for Donald Trump?

Not that they needed to do much since the Republicans had already managed to purge as many as 22 million eligible Democratic voters from the system before the election:

In the name of voter fraud, 1.1 million voters were removed from the registration lists through voter purging in the months before the 2016 election, and 21 million eligible voters were removed from the polls through voter ID restrictions. 

22 million eligible voters from Democratic voting blocs were removed from the registration lists and polling booths in the name of voter fraud. 

22 million.

Go ahead, tell me again that the Russians and Republicans were not working together. 

Mitch McConnell attempts to bribe Alaskan Senators into supporting Trumpcare.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The latest version of the Senate health care bill has a host of provisions designed to woo hesitant lawmakers — but perhaps none is more blatant than a change targeted at Alaska’s two GOP senators. 

Both Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have not committed to supporting the proposal, and Murkowski has been one of the harshest critics of the bill’s closed-door drafting process.

Mich McConnell cannot afford to lose any more votes, so this is how desperate he has become:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., apparently hopes to appeal to Murkowski by slipping in a provision that could allow her state to access more than $1 billion in federal money. 

States with high premiums would receive access to a $182 billion fund designed to stabilize their insurance exchanges. One percent of that money would be earmarked specifically for states that have premiums more than 75 percent higher than the national average — and Alaska is the only state that would meet the standard. 

This means the state could get more than $1.8 billion over the next decade. Alaska has some of the highest health care costs in the nation because of its remoteness and lack of medical facilities in many rural areas. 

Sullivan said that the program, dubbed the “Kodiak Kickback” or “Polar Payoff” by pundits, would serve as a big boost for his state.

Dan Sullivan is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch brothers, so he will vote as they tell him to.

Murkowski on the other hand at least has some semblance of independence, though she will vote in what ever way will ensure her reelection.

So I guess as Alaskans we need to pressure her into doing the right thing, for all of her wrong reasons.

Personally as an Alaskan I do not want to be singled out so that we are protected from a policy that hurts millions of my fellow Americans. And I was raised to believe that Alaskans were kinder and more giving than those living in other parts of the United States.

That may not be as true anymore, but back in the day when all we had was each other to survive in one of the harshest climates on the planet, nobody sat in a broken down car on the side of the road for more than a few minutes without somebody stopping to help.

And nobody went hungry in the winter without the community coming together to help their family get enough to eat and warm clothes to wear.

THAT is who we used to be, and THAT is how many of us still would still like to see ourselves.

We cannot have while others have not.

So Lisa Murkowski needs to vote NO on this bill, and then needs to lead the GOP to work together with the Democrats to fix Obamacare and make it work better for ALL of us.

THAT is how she ensures her reelection.

New reports suggest that Vladimir Putin was directly involved in attacking our democracy, and that the Russian cyber attacks were quite successful.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides. 

Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race. 

But it went further. The intelligence captured Putin’s specific instructions on the operation’s audacious objectives — defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump. 

At that point, the outlines of the Russian assault on the U.S. election were increasingly apparent. Hackers with ties to Russian intelligence services had been rummaging through Democratic Party computer networks, as well as some Republican systems, for more than a year. In July, the FBI had opened an investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. And on July 22, nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee were dumped online by WikiLeaks.

So as you can see the Obama Administration knew almost immediately that the attacks were directed by Putin, and that they were designed to not only damage Hillary's chances of winning the election but to directly help Trump emerge as the victor.

The article goes into great depth about all of the conversations that went on behind the scenes as to how best to respond to this information but in the end it came down to Obama warning Putin directly to back off, and to release a declassified report to the public about the hacks before the election.

Obama also deported 35 Russian diplomats, closed two compounds, and approved the implantation of cyber weapons into the Russian computer system that can be activated at a later date if Russia continues these attacks on our democracy.

The only problem with those cyber weapons is that it is up to Donald Trump to utilize, or not utilize them, and of course we know what his choice will be.

The article goes on to call this attack the "crime of the century," and I find that to be a completely accurate statement.

Here is an article from Time Magazine to tell us just how accurate it is:  

The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful attempt to alter voter information, and the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like partial Social Security numbers, current and former officials tell TIME. 

In one case, investigators found there had been a manipulation of voter data in a county database but the alterations were discovered and rectified, two sources familiar with the matter tell TIME. Investigators have not identified whether the hackers in that case were Russian agents. 

The fact that private data was stolen from states is separately providing investigators a previously unreported line of inquiry in the probes into Russian attempts to influence the election. In Illinois, more than 90% of the nearly 90,000 records stolen by Russian state actors contained drivers license numbers, and a quarter contained the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, according to Ken Menzel, the General Counsel of the State Board of Elections. 

And get this:

Congressional investigators are probing whether any of this stolen private information made its way to the Trump campaign, two sources familiar with the investigations tell TIME.

I think we already know what that probe will find if it is not obstructed by the Trump Administration.

The White House by the way has FINALLY acknowledged that the Russians interfered in our election.  Well kinda: 

The White House Thursday addressed the joint intelligence report that found Russia had attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, more than five months after the report’s conclusions were made public. First, on Twitter, President Trump dismissed the concerns about Russia as a “big Dem HOAX” and suggested that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, did little to confront the problem. White House aides then clarified Trump’s remarks and said he believes there was Russian meddling but is certain it did not affect the outcome of the race.

I think we are all learning that the last part of this statement is likely untrue.

As for that allegation that President Obama did not do all that he could to "confront the problem" I disagree completely. 

I think the President was in an untenable position and knew full well that if he came out aggressively to say that the Russians were trying to get Trump elected and revealed all of their methods for pulling that off, the folks supporting Trump would never have believed him, and if by some chance Hillary had pulled off a victory her presidency would have been forever tainted by what would have been seen as interference by the Executive branch.

No he did all that he could really do, but in the end Vladimir Putin decided who would sit in the Oval Office.

All we can do is help determine for how long.