During "Meet the Press' interview James Comey dismisses report by House Intelligence Committee and suggests that Trump will lie under oath.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday dismissed the findings of a GOP report claiming there is no evidence President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election. He added that, as a former prosecutor, he has “serious doubts” about Trump’s credibility as a potential witness. 

Comey called the recently released report by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee “a political document” during an interview on “Meet The Press.”

“That is not my understanding of what the facts were before I left the FBI and I think the most important piece of work is the one the special counsel's doing now,” Comey added.

Asked whether the committee has served a good investigative purpose overall, Comey said, “not that I can see.” 

The former FBI director also said politicization has “wrecked the committee, and it damaged relationships with the FISA Court, the intelligence communities. It's just a wreck.”

Yeah it's hard to argue with Comey on this.

The House Intelligence Committee with Devin Nunes in charge was NEVER going to find anything problematic about Trump's interactions with Russia.

Comey also weighed in on Trump's seeming inability to tell the truth:

“I have serious doubts about his credibility,” Comey said of Trump, adding that he worries about whether the president would be truthful under oath or not.

“Sometimes people who have serious credibility problems can tell the truth when they realize that the consequences of not telling the truth in an interview or in the grand jury would be dire,” Comey said. “But you'd have to go in with a healthy sense that he might lie to you.”

In other words Trump will almost certainly lie under oath, and that will essentially be his undoing.

Which is something that probably EVERYBODY knows, with the possible exception of Trump himself. 

The National Enquirer, fervent Trump propaganda outlet, turns on lawyer Michael Cohen.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

The National Enquirer has taken a swing at President Donald Trump‘s embattled attorney, Michael Cohen. 

The tabloid has long had a reputation of serving as Trump’s media fixer, running salacious headlines such as “Hillary Framed Trump Family!” and “Proof! FBI Plot to Impeach Trump!” however, it is the first time it has turned on Trump’s legal fixer, Cohen. 

The publication’s parent company, American Media Inc., run by Trump-pal David Pecker, is also currently being sued by Playboy model Karen McDougal. She claims that AMI offered to buy the story of her alleged affair with Trump for $150,000, to then not publish it — known as a catch and kill agreement. 

The headline of the Enquirer’s latest cover, which reads “Trump Fixer’s Secrets and Lies!” also comes in the wake of Trump attempting to distance himself from his longtime attorney.

Make no mistake, if the National Enquirer has turned on Trump's fixer, that is because Donald Trump gave them the go ahead to do so.

Which means that Trump is tossing Cohen under the bus, and any loyalty that Cohen might feel toward his boss is completely misplaced.

So now we just have to wait and see how long it takes before Cohen and Mueller come together for their version of "Let's Make a Deal."

So while Michelle Wolf was pissing off conservatives yesterday, in Michigan Donald Trump was driving them into a frenzy.

Crowd chants "NOBEL, NOBEL, NOBEL" at President @realDonaldTrump rally. pic.twitter.com/zyPHp0gZqL

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 28, 2018

So yes that is Trump taking FULL credit for the North and South Korea peace deal, while his people chant "Nobel" at him.

I think it's pretty clear why he would rather be there, than to sit and listen to Michelle Wolf rip him  a new one.

After all it is the coward's way.

I of course did not watch hardly ANY of this rally (I was still bummed about the furnace.), but I did do some catching up online.

For instance Trump also said that if the Republicans failed to hold on to the House that he was probably going to be impeached.

President @realDonaldTrump: "We have to keep the House, because if you listen to @MaxineWaters, she goes around saying, 'We will impeach him, we will impeach him.'" pic.twitter.com/OQHcME4i16

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 29, 2018

Which proves that once in a while, Donald Trump CAN tell the truth.

But just when you might have been willing to give him a little credit for that, he turns around and suggests that the Russian lawyer only said she was working with the Kremlin to  "make life in the United States more chaotic."

Trump now claims that Natalia Veselnitskaya is only saying she's an "informant" with ties to the Kremlin because Putin realized how hard Trump has been on Russia and he wants to make the U.S. more chaotic. (via Fox) pic.twitter.com/NiZKeigPpO

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 28, 2018

That of course is completely illogical, but his crowd ate it right up.

In fact Trump got them so worked up that at least one of them verbally attacked the press.

This Trump supporter repeatedly yelled at the press, calling media “degenerate filth” and to get out of his country after the Michigan rally concluded pic.twitter.com/hbd8vhpVYc

— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) April 29, 2018

Gee, forced to miss the WHCD and now covered in Trump supporter spittle, it really sucks to have to report on a Trump rally.

Here is Michelle Wolf's entire White House Correspondents Dinner performance, because I think it deserves to be seen. Update!

I have to confess that I turned this off part way through last night because it just wasn't working for me.

However yesterday when I returned from the movies I discovered that my furnace was broken, and $247.00 later I just was not in the mood for comedy.

So I watched it all the way through this morning, and it was actually not bad.

Not all of the jokes landed, but then they never do.

Also if you dislike Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Michelle Wolf is your spirit animal.

Besides this performance pissed the conservatives off BIG TIME, which to me is really the only endorsement this performance needs.

Fox News' Ed Henry: WHCA Owes Apology to Sarah Sanders for 'Disgusting' Jokes https://t.co/FMzYgqmIKX (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/j9nHSZRsp1

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 29, 2018

P.S. I may be biased but in my opinion the very best WHCD comedian of all time remains this guy.

Update: This might have been Wolf's most cutting remark of the night. (And the most truthful.)

The last thing I'll say is that Michelle Wolf's bit about the media was objectively true—I include myself here and it sucks to have to reckon with that every day but the least we could do is not turn around and become apologists for a regime that wants to ruin people's lives pic.twitter.com/d6v70SxHTN

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) April 29, 2018

Perhaps this is why so many so-called "liberal" journalists are piling on the comedian along with the usual conservative snowflakes.

New poll shows that majority of Republicans have no interest in seeing a woman become President. Ever!

And this surprises you?

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Asked if they'd see a woman president in their lifetime, 20 percent of respondents said they "definitely will," while 43 percent said they "probably will." A total of 63 percent believed they would likely see a female president before they die. 

YouGov also asked, "Do you personally hope that the United States elects a woman president of the United States in your lifetime, or not?" Sixty-six percent of all respondents said yes, while 34 percent said no.

A comfortable majority of Republicans—59 percent—responded no, they don't hope to see a woman president in their lifetime, according to YouGov. In comparison, 89 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents responded that yes, they hoped to see a woman president before they died.

Well gee perhaps it wasn't Hillary's politics that made the Republicans hate her so much, but rather her lack of a penis.

Instead of having a Vajayjay running the country they looked for the very embodiment of a dick.

And that boys and girls is how you get this guy.

Virginia newspaper puts KKK recruitment flyer on front page. Oops.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

A Virginia newspaper has come under fire from its readers after it ran a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyer in full on its front page. 

The Westmoreland News ran a story on how KKK recruitment flyers and DVDs had started appearing in the town of Colonial Beach, Virginia. 

However, the paper decided to include a copy of the recruitment flyer, which included racist and anti-Semitic language, in full on the front page to illustrate its story. 

“They posted the whole flyer as if they were giving them free advertising,” Colonial Beach resident Betty Tate Thompson told WTVR. “It even had the number on flyer to contact the head of the KKK. Which I thought was totally ridiculous.”

Now I can see why the newspaper would do this as they are accurately relating events, and providing a visual example of what they are reporting. 

(I just did the same thing up above as well.)

However if you were the local chapter of the KKK, and you were having a devil of a time handing out enough flyers to really increase recruitment, just imagine how gratified you would be if the newspaper printed your entire invitation, including contact information, for their thousands of subscribers?

I mean that would be the kind of gift to warm an old racist's heart.

So the criticism is quite valid.

The things you find on Reddit. Today's topic: Incels.

Here is the post.

Gee, no wonder these guys have a problem with women.

I first heard this term "Incel" when somebody used it to label me.

I quite literally had no idea what they were talking about, but I looked it up:

Incel: aka "involuntarily celibate", a person (usually male) who has a horrible personality and treats women like sexual objects and thinks his lack of a sex life comes from being "ugly" when its really just his blatant sexism and terrible attitude. incels have little to no self awareness; even when they see other "ugly" men with girlfriends, they consider these men to be tricksters who have somehow beat the system and can get women despite being cursed with unattractiveness (in other words, theyre respectful to women and women are attracted to their personalities, but incels cant comprehend such a phenomenon). they believe that women owe them sex, and many of the more extreme incels like to spend time in incel communities on the internet coming up with ways to make women have sex with them (often involving genocide of people of color, genocide of "Chads" (men who have sex), taking rights away from women, raping them, having sex with women's dead bodies, and other horrid, disgusting things. they cant understand that that is PRECISELY why women want nothing to do with them).

Okay, well there are plenty of derogatory things I could be called, that might actually reflect my character in some way, but this ain't it. 

Apparently that recent attack in Canada is being blamed on one of these losers.

Men hating on women is certainly nothing new, and this does nothing more than put a new label on an age old problem.

For the record nobody owes anybody sex, or even affection.

Those are things you earn.

And relationships, no matter how awesome they may begin, often end with hurt feelings and even outright anger.

I have certainly been there myself. 

But to hate on an entire gender just because you are unlucky at love, is certainly never going to convince that gender that you are worthy of their time or affection.

You have to try to be a better you, before you can expect others to be a better them.

MSNBC's Joy Reid apologizes for insensitive blog posts from the past, while also not taking full responsibility.

Courtesy Raw Story: 

Calling her comments “despicable and wrong,” Reid copped to writing some of the offense comments, but said she truly believed she did not write them all. 

“A community I support and deeply care about is hurting because of despicable and truly offensive posts being attributed to me,” the somber Reid began. “Many of you have seen the blog posts circulating online and social media. Many of them are homophobic and discriminatory and hateful. When a friend found them and sent them to me, I was stunned. Frankly I couldn’t imagine where they came from and whose voice that was.” 

“I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of the posts,” she continued. “I hired cyber security experts to see if somebody manipulated my words or former blog and the reality is they have not been able to prove it. But here’s what I do know: I generally do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me, but I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and I have written in the past, why some people don’t believe me. I’ve not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for. I own that. I get it. And for that I am truly, truly story.”

I held off writing about this situation because to be honest I was not sure what to make of it.

The posts showing up on the internet, and being attributed to Reid, did not really fit my perception of her at all.

I am still not completely convinced that it was her.

Besides that I also went through something similar myself, after this blog gained a little infamy.

After the Splitsville story the Right Wing trolls went through my old posts forensically and found some that, taken out of context, did not paint a very flattering picture.

In my case most of the content was misrepresented, but there were a few things that I wrote, back when virtually NOBODY visited IM, that were truly impossible to completely defend.

They were the type of musings that one might jot down in a diary with the expectation that nobody would ever see them, but that is certainly not a mindset which translates well to the internet, where everything lives forever.

So that should serve as a lesson to us all, that we need to consider that the things we write on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even the comment section of a blog, might one day be dredged up and used against us when we least expect it.

I think that Joy Reid is very admirable person, but there is a journey to arrive at the best version of ourselves, and sometimes those missteps along they way can trip us up even after we think we have already arrived. 

Hitherto unknown meeting between Michael Flynn and his son with Russian Ambassador revealed in House Intelligence Committee report.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The House Intelligence Committee’s report from its Russia investigation published on Friday revealed another meeting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had with the Russian ambassador before he joined the Trump campaign. 

Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn, Jr., met with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at his Washington, D.C. residence on December 2, 2015, according to emails reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee. Flynn’s son described the meeting as “very productive” in an email to the Russian embassy, according to the committee’s report. According to the report, “emails indicate that the meeting was arranged at the request of General Flynn or his son.” Neither Flynn sat with the committee for an interview, leaving congressional investigators with few details about the rendezvous. 

The meeting with Kislyak took place about a week before Flynn traveled to Moscow to speak at the Kremlin RT news organization’s annual gala. Flynn sat next to Vladimir Putin at the dinner and was paid by RT to attend the event. 

Flynn’s December 2015 meeting with Kislyak also came after he met with President Donald Trump for the first time, but Flynn did not formally join the campaign until 2016.

So between the time that Flynn met with Donald Trump for the first time, and this event took place...

...Flynn also met with this guy?

And that doesn't seem like collusion to the House Republicans?

Interesting.

Flynn's son certainly was quick in his attempt to play it down.

The #fakenews media is a joke.....

friggin @TMZ 2.0 pic.twitter.com/L9cvfxdnKr

— 🇺🇸MFLYNNJR🇺🇸 (@mflynnJR) April 27, 2018

You know I am not sure if these House Republicans could recognize collusion if it were delivered to them under their tree on Christmas morning.

The House Intelligence Committee led by Devin Nunes released the report on their Russia "investigation" yesterday, and guess what? No collusion!

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a redacted version of the Republican report on the committee's year-long Russia investigation, in which GOP members say they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and disputed the intelligence community's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Donald Trump. 

The committee released the report with redactions from the intelligence community, along with a redacted Democratic dissent. saying collusion exists and that there were key aspects of the probe Republicans failed to investigate. 

The report's release marks the conclusion of a yearlong committee investigation that devolved into a partisan brawl between Democrats and Republicans, fighting over the decision by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to step aside from the probe, the subpoenas that were and were not issued and dueling memos over a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign adviser.

The committee ended its investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling last month, concluding they found no evidence that Trump's team had colluded with Russians. 

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," (Rep. Mike) Conaway said when they submitted their report for declassification.

Of course Trump was also quick to jump on this. 

Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

However anybody who actually thought this Devin Nunes led investigation was interested in getting to the truth must have their head shoved so far up their ass that they can watch their food digest.

And as the Democrats on that committee point out, the investigation was nowhere near complete.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

The GOP report does address that Trump Tower meeting, allowing that it showed “poor judgment” on the part of the Trump campaign. As we learned from Trump Jr.’s emails, those top Trump campaign officials went to the meeting in the full expectation of receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton, supplied by the Russian government. But the GOP report brushes this off, concluding there was “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”

But the Democratic response fills in some extremely important context — and it may involve the president himself, though we cannot know one way or the other right now. 

According to the Democratic response, right after Trump Jr. set up the specifics of the meeting, he had two calls with a number in Russia belonging to Emin Agalarov. Between those two calls, the Democratic response recounts, Trump Jr. received a third call from a blocked number. Who might it have been? 

Democrats wanted to find out, but Republicans blocked it from happening, according to the Democrats’ response. 

“We sought to determine whether that number belonged to the president, because we also ascertained that then-candidate Trump used a blocked number,” Schiff said during our interview. “That would tell us whether Don Jr. sought his father’s permission to take the meeting, and [whether] that was the purpose of that call.” 

Schiff added that Democrats asked Republicans to subpoena phone records to determine whose number it was, but Republicans “refused,” Schiff said. “They didn’t want to know whether he had informed his father and sought his permission to take that meeting with the Russians.”

Okay exactly WHY would the Republicans stop the Democrats from accessing those phone records unless they already knew to whom the blocked number belonged?

But do you know who probably already has that information?

Robert Mueller that's who.

This whole House Intelligence Committee "investigation" was nothing but a distraction to keep the public from focusing on the real investigation which is ACTUALLY looking for the truth.

And that truth is coming, whether Donald Trump and Devin Nunes want it to or not.

Does Donald Trump deserve credit for peace between North and South Korea? Not so much.

After this admittedly historic meeting, Donald Trump was quick to jump in and snatch the credit.

After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place. Good things are happening, but only time will tell!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

But is it credit that he deserves?

What do you think?

Courtesy of The Independent:  

In a historic and opulent ceremony, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to sign the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit and officially ended the war that began when the north and south split in a battle over communism and democracy that began on 25 June 1950.

Dr TJ Pempel, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley told The Independent while Mr Trump “deserves some credit but not as much as he’s taking”. While the United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang involved the US push from Ambassador Nikki Haley, that is “hardly the whole story”, Mr Pempel said. “China’s agreement to the sanctions was far more important,” he noted. 

The important point to note, he said, was that North Korea developed its nuclear programme considerably after Mr Trump took office. “The North is convinced that it has the upper hand in negotiations because of its nuclear and missile testing successes; the US thinks it has the upper hand because it believes Kim is negotiating because of the sanctions. It’s the combination that has triggered the North’s willingness to sit down”.

That is likely part of the explanation for Kim Jong-un's sudden cooperativeness, but this next story is likely an even bigger factor.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

North Korean president Kim Jong-un recently announced his country has halted its nuclear testing program. While it is unclear whether this is a political move in preparation for meeting with the United States president Donald Trump, recent evidence suggests the country may have been forced to halt testing. 

A recent study by a group of geologists discovered that the mountain used by North Korea for its nuclear bomb testing has collapsed as a result of the explosions. The collapsed mountain is raising concerns about radioactive fallout, which could make its way into China. 

Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China believe this could be the true reason North Korean President Kim Jong-un announced the halt of their nuclear testing program.

So Kim Jong-un is not negotiating because he is suddenly all reasonable and shit, it's because he realizes that he needs to change tactics before his bluff is called and his enemies recognize that he is not the nuclear threat that he has made himself out to be.

He's like a thief who attempts to rob a liquor store, realizes that he forgot to load his gun, and then suddenly says "Look, Just give me a bottle of vodka and I will leave without taking your money. Deal?"

Donald Trump has a history of taking credit for other people's work, and this looks like one more example.

Firing a Catholic priest, having teenagers arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, Paul Ryan just doesn't give a f*ck anymore.

I am blowing this Popsicle stand, so fuck all of you!

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for. 

The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In an interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary. 

“I was asked to resign, that is clear,” Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, “that is unclear.” 

“I certainly wasn’t given anything in writing,” he said. “Catholic members on both sides are furious.” 

Father Conroy said he received the news from Mr. Ryan’s chief of staff. “The speaker would like your resignation,” Father Conroy recalled being told. He complied.

Father Conroy does have a theory about why he was fired:  

Though Father Conroy said he did not know whether politics were behind his departure, he pointed to a prayer he had given on the House floor in November, when Congress was debating tax overhaul legislation. 

“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” he prayed. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”

Conroy says that he was chastised after that prayer for getting "too political," and not long after that he was out.

However Paul Ryan says "Nuh uh. that's not why I did it."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to quell the controversy Friday morning by addressing his decision to fire Father Patrick Conroy during a private GOP conference meeting. Ryan said Conroy's ouster wasn’t politically motivated, as some have speculated. He said it came after complaints from multiple members about how the Jesuit priest wasn’t meeting their “pastoral needs,” as several Republican lawmakers exiting the meeting put it.

Oh yeah, how many priests do we know that were fired for not providing enough Jesus juice to the flock?

(Actually this is the first time in history that a priest has EVER been given the old heave ho by the Congress.)

But Ryan's scorched earth policy did not end there.

Naomi is in high school, she just got arrested while peacefully protesting outside of Paul Ryan's office. Naomi has a message for @SpeakerRyan. Please retweet this and tweet out the link to make sure he gets it.@_naomi_abigail_ #DworkinReport #NeverAgainhttps://t.co/gWXJmCndr4

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 27, 2018

Apparently since Ryan has no plans to run for reelection he is not even going to pretend that he is not a festering pustule on the face of humanity.

I am one of those who has known that Paul Ryan is a hateful little prick since he first came on the scene.

Now with one foot out the door he no longer seems interested in hiding that fact.

A poll of Fox News viewers believes that the Mueller probe should continue, and that it will find impeachable offenses.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

Most voters think it is important to continue investigating whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia -- but more believe President Trump will fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller before he’s done. 

About two-thirds, 67 percent in the latest Fox News poll, say it is at least somewhat important the investigation continues, and 56 percent think it’s likely that Mueller’s probe will find Donald Trump committed criminal or impeachable offenses.

And those are FOX NEWS viewers.

The numbers are much higher for the truly informed.

Some members of the Senate are also concerned that Trump will fire Mueller.

Courtesy of the NYT:

The Senate Judiciary Committee fired a political warning shot at the White House on Thursday, advancing on a bipartisan vote long-stalled legislation to allow special counsels such as Robert S. Mueller III to appeal their firing to a panel of judges and possibly be reinstated. 

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has stated unequivocally that he will not bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. But with four Republicans, including the committee’s chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, joining Democrats to vote in favor of it, the measure sent a clear message to President Trump that there would be serious consequences to firing the special counsel. 

Even senators who voted against the legislation warned Mr. Trump against trying to dismiss Mr. Mueller. Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, said that “firing Mueller would cause a firestorm and bring the administration’s agenda to a halt. It could even result in impeachment.”

I think that if Trump tries to fire Mueller that even Republicans like Mitch McConnell will turn on him, and then his days will truly be numbered.

Your face when you start an interview with Donald Trump vs your face when you finish an interview with Donald Trump.

The start of the interview vs. the end of the interview. (The faces tell it all.) pic.twitter.com/BW7BfsOjKe

— Richard Hine (@richardhine) April 27, 2018

Watching these three try and fail to protect Trump from himself was pure comedy gold.

Russian lawyer involved in Trump Tower meeting admits that she was an informant for the Kremlin.

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election. 

But newly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm. 

Ms. Veselnitskaya also appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government ties. During an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but a source of information for a top Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general. 

“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”

Not exactly surprising news I know, but still nice to hear her finally admit it.

Veselnitskava also brought a certain memo with her to that meeting.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

The Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman last June at Trump Tower brought a memo with her to that meeting that contained many of the same talking points as one written by the Russian prosecutor's office two months earlier. 

The memo Natalia Veselnitskaya provided to the Trump campaign last year focused on banker-turned-human rights activist Bill Browder, whose reputation has become inextricably linked to the global human-rights campaign he launched in 2009 after tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian prison.

..........

The document's language closely mirrored the contents of a memo provided to Republican US Rep. Dana Rohrabacher by the office of Russia's chief federal prosecutor Yuri Chaika while Rohrabacher was in Moscow last April. 

The document is marked "confidential" but made the rounds on Capitol Hill upon the lawmaker's return to the US and was obtained by Business Insider.

Go ahead, act surprised that Rohrabacher is the one who received this memo.

So now it's confirmed that Junior, Kushner, and Manafort all met with a Russian spy during the campaign. (Well at least one that we know of.)

If you are looking for proof of collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign you really do not have to go much further than this Trump Tower meeting.

But of course it is by no means the only evidence of collusion.

Donald Trump is finally scheduled to visit Britain.

Just make sure there are no protesters. I hate protesters.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Donald Trump will make a “working visit” to the UK on Friday 13 July, the UK and US have both confirmed, with the US president set to meet the Queen during the trip. 

The visit, which will take place immediately after a Nato summit in Brussels, will include bilateral talks with Theresa May, according to Britain’s ambassador to the US.

It will not, however, be the full state visit the US president was promised when May visited Washington last year, meaning he will not be honoured with an official banquet at Buckingham Palace or a carriage procession up the Mall. 

Downing Street has insisted the invitation for a full state visit still stands, but there is no timetable for it to take place.

May invited Trump for a state visit when she became the first world leader to meet the president in the White House in January last year.

It was downgraded to a “working trip” after huge public opposition to the visit and MPs said Trump should not be given the opportunity to address parliament. He has clashed publicly with London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has said the president’s visit would result in mass peaceful protests and that Trump’s values were the polar opposite of Londoners’. 

I can only imagine how badly Trump will embarrass America when he visits the Queen.

There are already mass protests planned: 

Jeremy Corbyn-backing activist and commentator Owen Jones took to Facebook to urge Britons to join mass demonstrations against the visit. 

Writing on the 'Protest Trump's Visit' Facebook group - which has over 100,000 people interested in it, he wrote: 'It's official; Donald Trump is visiting the UK on 13th July. 

'Everyone out on the streets! Invite everyone you know to this event.'

Police have been bracing themselves for what could be the biggest protests the country has seen. 

So apparently this will go off like every other event planned by the Trump White House. 

Just in case you are still not aware of how badly Donald Trump crashed and burned during his Fox and Friends interview yesterday, I present this tweet as proof.

As a citizen you should know how much the president really lost it by the end of this interview today... pic.twitter.com/3cnueHZl45

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) April 27, 2018

Keep in mind that was just one small piece of a rambling 30 minute interview, during which Trump seemed to be purposefully committing political and legal suicide.

Here are some other highlights (Or if you prefer, lowlights.).

On his, at the time, pick to head the VA Ronny Jackson:

"(Jackson) has a perfect record. He's got this beautiful record unblemished."

Boy that worked out well didn't it?

Decision to fire James Comey:

"I did a great thing for the American people by firing him."

Uh huh.

On interfering with the Mueller investigation:

" I'm very disappointed in my Justice Department but because of the fact that it's going under, and I think you'll understand this, I have decided that I won't be involved. I may change my mind at some point because what's going on is a disgrace."

"And our Justice Department, which I try and stay away from, but at some point I won't."

So he MIGHT interfere. But then again, he might not.

Trump history lesson:

"If you go back to the Civil War it was the Republicans that really did the thing." 

Yeah, you know the Republicans did the thing, at that place, during, you know, the time.

Trump grades his own presidency:

"I would give myself an A+."

I have to wonder if after this bizarre performance even Trump's most staunch supporters would give his presidency anything but an F-?

Feds seized as many as 16 cell phones from Donald Trump's lawyer, who once bragged that he was part of the Russian mob.

Courtesy of The New York Post:  

Manhattan federal prosecutors seized as many as 16 cell phones when the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. 

Prosecutor Thomas McKay made the ​astonishing revelation wh​ile telling a judge ​Thursday ​that the feds are on track to hand over seized​ ​materials to Cohen’s lawyers by May 11. 

In explaining the process, McKay said the feds have already turned over the contents of four phones and one iPad. 

McKay said the feds will turn over the “remainder of the phones seized” on Friday — before adding that they have “about a dozen” left. 

Among the devices seized are two BlackBerrys, suggesting Cohen has been holding on to his electronics for many, many years. 

The startling revelation promptly attracted the attention of porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, who called Cohen’s phone hoarding “BIGLY bad.”

"Bigly bad" indeed. Because you KNOW that stored on those phones is information which will incriminate Donald Trump. Bigly!

Can you even imagine needing that many phones?

What could be the possible reason?

Wait, this next story might clear that up.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's embattled personal lawyer, once bragged that he was part of the Russian mob, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to The Journal, Cohen once told someone at a former friend's wedding that he belonged to the Russian mob.

Now the Business Insider article also contains a quote from a friend of Cohen's who doubts the veracity of this story, which brings me to this Rolling Stone's article:  

Cohen joined the Trump Organization in 2006, and eventually became Trump's personal lawyer, a role once occupied by Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy's heavy-lidded hatchet man during the Red Scare who advised Trump in the 1980s. Michael Cohen's bare-knuckled tactics earned him the nickname of "Tom," a reference to Tom Hagen, the consigliore to Mafia Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. He grew up on Long Island, the son of a physician who survived the Holocaust in Poland, and like Tom Hagen spent a childhood around organized crime, specifically the Russian Mafiya. Cohen's uncle, Morton Levine, was a wealthy Brooklyn doctor who owned the El Caribe Country Club, a Brooklyn catering hall and event space that was a well-known hangout for Russian gangsters. Cohen and his siblings all had ownership stakes in the club, which rented for years to the first Mafiya boss of Brighton Beach, Evsei Agron, along with his successors, Marat Balagula and Boris Nayfeld. (Cohen's uncle said his nephew gave up his stake in the club after Trump's election.)

So to be clear, the Feds found more than a dozen phones in Cohen's possession, who clearly has ties to the Russian mob, and whose only real client is Donald Trump. a man who is under investigation for Russian collusion during the election. 

Does anybody else see pieces falling onto place here?

Jill Stein refuses to fully cooperate with Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Hmm.

Courtesy of The Intercept:

The Jill Stein campaign is refusing to comply fully with a Senate intelligence committee request for documents and other correspondence, made as part of the committee’s probe into Russian activities in the 2016 election, according to a letter to be delivered Thursday to the panel by an attorney for the campaign. 

The Green Party campaign will agree to turn over some documents, but raised constitutional objections to the breadth of the inquiry, which was first made in November 2017, arguing that elements of it infringe on basic political rights enshrined in the First Amendment. 

In the letter responding to committee chair Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., Stein’s campaign has now said it will refuse some of the requests, calling them “so overbroad in reach as to demand constitutionally protected materials.”

The article goes on to say that the Stein campaign did provide documents pertaining to communications between them and "Russia media outlets."

However they are balking at providing the campaign's policy discussions regarding Russia, claiming it infringes on their First Amendment rights.

Personally I think that having access to those documents could prove very enlightening, and hope that both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Mueller investigation get their hands on them.

I have not trusted Jill Stein from the word go, and I would not be at all surprised to learn that she was deeply involved in the Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson proposes tripling the rent for the poorest Americans.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday will propose tripling the amount the poorest households are expected to pay for rent as well as encourage those receiving housing subsidies to work, according to the administration’s legislative proposal obtained by The Washington Post. 

The move to overhaul how low-income rental subsidies are calculated would affect more than 4.5 million families relying on federal housing assistance. The proposal legislation would require congressional approval. 

Currently, tenants generally pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent or a public housing agency minimum rent -- which is capped at $50 a month for the poorest families. The administration’s legislative proposal sets the family monthly rent contribution at 35 percent of gross income or 35 percent of their earnings working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage. Under the proposal, the cap for the poorest families would rise to approximately $150 a month, three times higher than the current minimum. 

The Trump administration has long signaled through its budget proposals and leaked draft legislation that it seeks to increase the rents low-income tenants pay to live in federally subsidized housing.

Okay well I would essentially expect this kind of thing from Donald Trump, after all he made his bones by evicting poor black folk from their homes.

But Ben Carson is a self described Christian who also happens to be black.

Carson's mother also took a job as a domestic worker for a time and he was forced to share a home with his extended family when things got tough.

It boggles my mind that people like this do not seem to have the capacity to empathize with others once they become Republicans.

It is as if the price for joining the GOP is to surrender your compassion.