Reply Private New

Replies (1) Next 10 Prev Next

Send PM Follow Ignore

Followers	59
Posts	34538
Boards Moderated	2
Alias Born	01/02/2003

Re: F6 post# 270110

Saturday, 06/17/2017 10:42:22 PM

Saturday, June 17, 2017 10:42:22 PM

6/9/17: Weekly Address

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by The White House [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYxRlFDqcWM4y7FfpiAN3KQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse , https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos ]

The White House

[no official transcript (yet) availoable at/via https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-and-remarks , https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings , or https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLj0IGLlvk8 [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132080039 and preceding and following]

*

and to note: the official transcript of "President Trump addresses Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference", included, YouTube with annotation, in the post to which this is a reply, now available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/08/remarks-president-trump-faith-and-freedom-coalitions-road-majority

--

Full Show - The Truth About Comey Hearing Exposed - 06/09/2017

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]

Friday, June 9th 2017[, with Mike Cernovich hosting the fourth hour]: Brits Threaten To Riot Over Election - Leftists have responded to the British general election results by threatening riots and assassinations if socialist Jeremy Corbyn is not installed as leader. Matt Dubiel of WCKG in Chicago joins the program to explain how advertisers are working to censor Alex Jones. Also, Mark Dice will discuss how the Comey hearing will change the course of Trump's presidency.

Bernie Sanders Was Wrong to Challenge a Christian Nominee’s Theology [the correct view/analysis]

June 8, 2017
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/06/08/bernie-sanders-was-wrong-to-challenge-a-christian-nominees-theology/ [with comments], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQowhuEcGSk [embedded; with comments]

Wheaton College and the Preservation of Theological Clarity

By Russ Vought
January 17, 2016
http://theresurgent.com/wheaton-college-and-the-preservation-of-theological-clarity/

Bernie Sanders Attacks Trump Nominee Russell Vought because He’s a Christian [(another) gleeful Christo-fascist response to Bernie's incredibly stupid buffoonery]
June 8, 2017
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markmeckler/2017/06/bernie-sanders-attacks-trump-nominee-russell-vought-hes-christian/ [with comments]

Bernie Sanders Blasts Trump Nominee For Being A Christian Extremist [the clueless Bernie Bro assclown view]
June 8, 2017
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/06/bernie-sanders-blasts-trump-nominee-christian-extremist/ [with comments]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVgs7Cmv-6U [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=039gYpW3cXU (additional text adapted from; with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131374857 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131376472 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131885362 and preceding and following , http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132063091 (and any future following)]

*

and here's a merry band of even more incredibly stupid fuckwits doing their bit to set the stage for folks on our side, and indeed both/all sides, to be attacked/brutalized/murdered:

Delta Pulls Out Of Trump-Inspired 'Julius Ceasar' Show With Assassination Scene
Delta Air Lines has pulled sponsorship of The Public Theater amid backlash.
06/11/2017 Updated June 11, 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-julius-caesar-showing-assassination_us_593d81c3e4b0b13f2c6b71f3 [with embedded video, and comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132193307 and preceding and following]

*

Newt Gingrich’s hypocritical comments on the Alexandria shooting

By Richard Cohen
June 15, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/06/15/newt-gingrichs-hypocritical-comments-on-the-alexandria-shooting/ [with embedded video, and comments] [id.]

--

FULL: President Trump And The Romanian President Joint Press Conference

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by FOX 10 Phoenix [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJg9wBPyKMNA5sRDnvzmkdg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJg9wBPyKMNA5sRDnvzmkdg/videos ]

Remarks by President Trump and President Iohannis of Romania in a Joint Press Conference
June 09, 2017
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/09/remarks-president-trump-and-president-iohannis-romania-joint-press [official transcript]

Trump Says Qatar Funds Terror. Here’s His Record Of Trying To Get It To Fund Him.
The president is allying himself with those blockading the tiny country, but he’s made attempts to secure Qatari investments in the past.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017.
06/11/2017 Updated June 11, 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-says-qatar-funds-terror-heres-his-record-of-trying-to-get-it-to-fund-him_us_593d6691e4b0c5a35ca06118 [with comments]

Qatar Buys U.S. F-15s Days After Trump Says Country Funds Terror
Jun 15 2017
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/qatar-buys-12b-u-s-jets-days-after-trump-says-n772691 [with embedded video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDAWKgjbZCo [with comments] [official White House upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPQBU-qcXCM (with comments)]

*

Donald Trump’s Son Inadvertently Backs Up Comey’s Account Of Conversation With President
While defending his father, Donald Trump Jr. seemed to lend credence to Comey’s version of events.
06/11/2017 Updated June 11, 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-comey-flynn-investigation_us_593d53cfe4b02402687a329d [with embedded videos, and comments]

*

Transcript: Sen. Chuck Schumer on "Face the Nation," June 11, 2017

June 11, 2017
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-senator-chuck-schumer-on-face-the-nation-june-11-2017/ [with embedded video, and comment], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3mPoOlSIVg [non-YouTube version embedded; with comments]

Schumer invites Trump to testify before Senate
06/11/17
http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/337319-schumer-invites-trump-to-testify-before-senate [with comments]

Face the Nation June 11, 2017 Transcript: Graham, Lankford, Schumer
June 11, 2017
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-june-11-2017-transcript-graham-lankford-schumer/ [no comments yet]

*

There's 'absolutely evidence' to begin obstruction of justice case on Trump: Bharara

Jun 11, 2017
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/absolutely-evidence-begin-obstruction-justice-case-bharara/story?id=47958033 [with embedded video, and comments], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyMye8Sn4J4 [non-YouTube version embedded; with comments]

Federal attorney says Trump’s contacts made him uncomfortable before he was fired

Preet Bharara is the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
June 11, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/06/11/bharara-says-trumps-contacts-made-him-uncomfortable-before-he-was-fired/ [with embedded videos, and comments]

Trump’s Personal Lawyer Boasted That He Got Preet Bharara Fired
Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s lawyer in the Russia investigation, has bragged he was behind the firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
June 13, 2017
Marc Kasowitz, President Donald Trump [ https://www.propublica.org/trump-administration ]’s personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, has boasted to friends and colleagues that he played a central role in the firing of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to four people familiar with the conversations.
Kasowitz told Trump, “This guy is going to get you,” according to a person familiar with Kasowitz’s account.
[...]
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-personal-lawyer-boasted-that-he-got-preet-bharara-fired [with comments]

*

Trump attorney [Jay Sekulow] won't rule out firing Mueller

06/11/2017
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/11/trump-mueller-special-counsel-239396 [with comments], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwr0RUAuZvQ [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128826613 and preceding (and any future following)]

*

Trump confidant Christopher Ruddy says Mueller has 'real conflicts' as special counsel

Published on Jun 12, 2017 by PBS NewsHour [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZFN9Tx6xh-skXCuRHCDpQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour , https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos ]

Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax Media joins Judy Woodruff to discuss how the Russia investigation and testimony from former FBI Director James Comey is affecting the White House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcndQxpTosU [comments disabled]

*

Newt Gingrich questions fairness of Mueller's investigation

Published on Jun 13, 2017 by CBS This Morning [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-SJ6nODDmufqBzPBwCvYvQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSThisMorning , https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSThisMorning/videos ]

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was one of Donald Trump's most prominent and outspoken surrogates in the 2016 presidential campaign. He's written more than two dozen books and his latest is called "Understanding Trump." Gingrich joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss President Trump's approach to governing, Jeff Sessions' upcoming testimony and why he thinks recently-appointed special counsel on Russia, Robert Mueller, will not be able to conduct a neutral investigation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yofAecxpv8o [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=123903644 and preceding and following]

*

Trump Stews, Staff Steps In, and Mueller Is Safe for Now

Robert S. Mueller III and James B. Comey at the White House in June 2013.
Jason Reed/Reuters

By GLENN THRUSH, MAGGIE HABERMAN and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
JUNE 13, 2017

WASHINGTON — Last month’s appointment of Robert S. Mueller III [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_s_iii_mueller/index.html ] as a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia enraged President Trump. Yet, at least initially, he holstered his Twitter finger and publicly said nothing.

But behind the scenes, the president soon began entertaining the idea of firing Mr. Mueller even as his staff tried to discourage him from something they believed would turn a bad situation into a catastrophe, according to several people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s interactions. A longtime friend, Christopher Ruddy, surfaced the president’s thinking in a television interview Monday night [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/politics/robert-mueller-trump.html (YouTube above)], setting off a frenzied day of speculation that he would go through with it.

For now, the staff has prevailed. “While the president has every right to” fire Mr. Mueller, “he has no intention to do so,” the White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters late Tuesday.

But people close to Mr. Trump say he is so volatile they cannot be sure that he will not change his mind about Mr. Mueller if he finds out anything to lead him to believe the investigation has been compromised. And his ability to endure a free-ranging investigation, directed by Mr. Mueller, that could raise questions about the legitimacy of his Electoral College victory, the topic that most provokes his rage, will be a critical test for a president who has continued on Twitter and elsewhere to flout the advice of his staff, friends and legal team.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who appointed Mr. Mueller, sought to assure a Senate committee on Tuesday [YouTube below] that he would not permit Mr. Mueller to be dismissed without legitimate reason, though Mr. Trump could order him to roll back rules that protect the special counsel or fire him if he will not comply.

“As long as I’m in this position, he’s not going to be fired without good cause,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “I’m not going to follow any orders unless I believe those are lawful and appropriate orders,” he added, emphasizing that the attorney general “actually does not know what we’re investigating.”

He said, “Director Mueller is going to have the full independence he needs to conduct that investigation appropriately.”

In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee [YouTube with transcript linked below] later in the day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to answer what he said was a hypothetical question of whether he would support Mr. Mueller.

The president, when asked by the pool of reporters covering a midday meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House [YouTube below] whether he supported Mr. Mueller, gave no answer, even though he often uses such interactions to make headlines or shoot down stories he believes to be fake.

That may have been by design, according to a person who spoke to Mr. Trump on Tuesday. The president was pleased by the ambiguity of his position on Mr. Mueller, and thinks the possibility of being fired will focus the veteran prosecutor on delivering what the president desires most: a blanket public exoneration.

For Mr. Trump, the line between whim and will is always thin. It is often erased in moments of anger, when simmering grievance boils over into rash action, exemplified by his firing of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, after a weekend of brooding at his resort in Bedminster, N.J.

Angered by reports in Breitbart News and other conservative news outlets that Mr. Mueller was close to Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump in recent days has repeatedly brought up the political and legal implications of firing someone he now views as incapable of an impartial investigation. He has told his staff, his visitors and his outside advisers that he was increasingly convinced that Mr. Mueller, like Mr. Comey, his successor as director of the F.B.I., was part of a “witch hunt” by partisans who wanted to see him weakened or forced from office.

But while the president is deeply suspicious of Mr. Mueller, his anger is reserved for Mr. Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia inquiry, and especially for Mr. Comey. Mr. Trump was especially outraged by Mr. Comey’s admission last week that he had leaked a memo with details of his interactions with the president in hopes of spurring the appointment of a special counsel.

Several senior Trump aides believe that Mr. Comey went public with his doubts about the president’s behavior and trustworthiness with the intention of steering Mr. Rosenstein toward appointing his friend Mr. Mueller, according to one longtime Trump associate who remains close to the White House.

The two men worked closely together in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks when Mr. Mueller was F.B.I. director and Mr. Comey was a high-ranking Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration. Mr. Comey endorsed Mr. Mueller’s appointment when he appeared last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, further angering Mr. Trump and his staff.

While the president’s aides have sought to sow skepticism about Mr. Mueller, whom they interviewed about the possibility of returning to the F.B.I. job the day before he accepted his position as special counsel, few have advocated his termination, reflecting the recognition that Mr. Trump’s angry reactions to the congressional and F.B.I. investigations now underway are imperiling his presidency.

The pushback also represented growing willingness among staff members to try to keep Mr. Trump from making damaging mistakes — an important internal change in a White House dominated by a president who often demands obeisance.

For all the talk of how no one in the West Wing tells the president “no,” many people do — though often unsuccessfully.

Among the aides most alarmed by the idea of firing Mr. Mueller, according to people familiar with the situation, was Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, whom Democrats mocked [YouTube below] this week for publicly saying [YouTube below] he feels “blessed” to serve Mr. Trump. Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, has also advised against firing Mr. Mueller.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, supported firing Mr. Comey, but he has been less pugnacious lately, administration officials said. Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, has adopted a more temperate tone, telling her husband that she believed the appointment of Mr. Mueller would speed resolution of the Russia scandal and expressing her view that he would be exonerated, according to two people with direct knowledge of her advice.

Mr. Trump’s allies maintain that Mr. Ruddy’s description in a television interview of Mr. Trump’s deliberations over firing Mr. Mueller represented a secondhand account that echoed comments by Jay Sekulow, a member of Mr. Trump’s legal team, on a Sunday TV show [YouTube above]. They suggested that Mr. Ruddy had committed the most grievous sin in Mr. Trump’s eyes: trying to get news media attention for himself on the president’s name.

“Ruddy is nothing more than a journalist who doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, echoing the president’s sentiments, according to West Wing aides.

Mr. Ruddy has told friends that he went public with the Mueller story, in part, to prevent Mr. Trump from making a rash decision. He also lashed out at Sean Spicer, the administration’s press secretary, for suggesting he does not speak regularly with the president about important matters.

“It is a sad commentary that Sean Spicer spends so much of his time objecting to my comments at the same time he has done such a poor job in defending the president and promoting his many accomplishments,” Mr. Ruddy said on Tuesday.

Rebecca Ruiz contributed reporting.

© 2017 The New York Times Company

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-trump.html

*

If Trump tips into full-blown authoritarianism, will Republicans step up? Don’t count on it.

June 13, 2017
If President Trump took the drastic step of trying to remove special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, would congressional Republicans step up and act to constrain him?
In an interview with me today, Rep. Adam Schiff — the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — made the stark argument that there is no guarantee that this would happen, though he said he expected that they probably would. Reports today say Trump may be mulling this move [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/politics/robert-mueller-trump.html ].
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/06/13/if-trump-tips-into-full-blown-authoritarianism-will-republicans-step-up-dont-count-on-it/ [with embedded videos, and comments]

*

Mueller Chooses His Investigatory Dream Team

Aaron Zebley (left) and Robert Mueller (right) arrive for a court hearing at the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco, on April 21, 2016.
06.14.17
https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-special-counsel-investigation-team/ [with comments]

*

White House aides fret over Trump’s Russia probe obsession
The president can't stop talking about the expanding Russia probes, and advisers say they're worried he's making the situation worse.
06/15/2017
Donald Trump received three separate assurances from then-FBI Director James Comey that the president was not personally under investigation — but he may now be under investigation because he couldn’t let his obsession go.
The greatest threat to Trump and his presidency, say administration officials and outside advisers, comes from his own conduct and obsessive behavior after he took office. While congressional and FBI investigations may prove Trump or his team broke laws before he took office, his advisers say they’re more worried that the things he’s done since the inauguration may have left him exposed to obstruction of justice or other charges.
Trump, for months, has bristled almost daily about the ongoing probes. He has sometimes, without prompting, injected. “I’m not under investigation” into conversations with associates and allies. He has watched hours of TV coverage every day — sometimes even storing morning news shows on his TiVo to watch in the evening — and complained nonstop.
“You may be the first president in history to go down because you can’t stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that, if you just were quiet, would clear you,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last weekend.
Just as he has done publicly on Twitter, Trump has told friends and associates that the investigation is a “witch hunt” and that others are out to get him. “It’s basically all he talks about on the phone,” said one adviser who has spoken with Trump and his top aides.
Aides have tried to change the subject, with little luck. Advisers have tried to buck up the president by telling him to be patient, agreeing that it is a “witch hunt” and urging him to just let it play out — and reassuring him, “Eventually, you will be cleared,” in the words of one.
But none of that has changed Trump’s response.
[...]
Two people close to Trump note that his is an obsessive personality — whether about businessmen who wronged him over the years, his years-long and fruitless quest to prove President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States, to reporters who have written negative stories about him. One transition official said Trump lashed out at reporters over old stories within a day of winning the election in November.
Aides say they fear his incendiary tweets and public comments have spurred “countless” leaks of damaging information, in the words of one. Chief strategist Steve Bannon has told others that he believes the FBI is now out to get the Trump administration.
They have urged Trump to stop meddling — but he won't. ...
[...]
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/15/trump-russia-investigation-obsession-239614 [with comments]

*

Mueller, Known for Being Above the Fray, Is Now in the Thick of It

Robert S. Mueller III on Capitol Hill in 2013. Mr. Mueller’s moves as special counsel leading the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia are being called partisan.
JUNE 15, 2017
WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III managed in a dozen years as F.B.I. director to stay above the partisan fray, carefully cultivating a rare reputation for independence and fairness. But his appointment as special counsel overseeing the Trump-Russia investigation has thrown him into the middle of the most charged political brawl of his career — especially since his early hires include several prosecutors who have donated to Democratic candidates in the past.
“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history — led by some very bad and conflicted people!” President Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. The president’s supporters and conservative news outlets have echoed his message that Mr. Mueller’s investigation is unjustified and its staff biased against Mr. Trump.
Veterans of past Washington battles on the borders of law and politics said that the president’s pushback was to be expected, but that its ferocity and timing were unusual. Just one month into the job, Mr. Mueller has not yet finished hiring staff members or installing a computer network — deliberately segregated from the main Justice Department — in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown Washington.
“It’s early in the game to begin to impugn the prosecutors,” said Philip Allen Lacovara, a Watergate prosecutor and a Republican. “It’s a pre-emptive nuclear strike. If you’re afraid of what the prosecutors are going to find out, you try to debunk anything they might come up with in advance by attacking them.”
At least for now, Mr. Mueller is not responding to the president’s salvos or allowing his staff to answer them. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller, said his office had imposed “stringent controls to prohibit unauthorized disclosures that deal severely with any member who engages in this conduct.”
The office declined to make public a comprehensive list of whom Mr. Mueller has hired. But Mr. Carr confirmed several names that have trickled out.
They include three current Justice Department or F.B.I. officials: Andrew Weissmann, who had led the fraud section of the department’s Criminal Division, served as general counsel to the F.B.I. when Mr. Mueller was its director, and previously led the Enron task force; Michael R. Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general who specializes in appellate issues involving criminal law; and Lisa C. Page, an F.B.I. lawyer who was a trial lawyer in the Criminal Division’s organized crime section.
In addition, when Mr. Mueller left WilmerHale, the law firm where he worked after stepping down from the F.B.I. in 2013 until he became a special counsel last month, he took three partners with him: James L. Quarles III, a veteran litigator who was an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation early in his career; Jeannie Rhee, another experienced white-collar criminal litigator who was a public-corruption prosecutor and then worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; and Aaron Zebley, who was Mr. Mueller’s chief of staff at the F.B.I.
In all, Mr. Carr said, Mr. Mueller has now hired 12 lawyers, and several more are in the pipeline. A former federal prosecutor said Mr. Mueller was hiring rank-and-file prosecutors to fill out his office staff, and has been prospecting for detailees from several prominent United States attorney offices, including the Southern District of New York.
But prospective hires thinking about joining Mr. Mueller’s team are watching those who have signed up come under intense scrutiny of the sort that ordinary prosecutors and corporate lawyers rarely experience, as Mr. Trump’s supporters seek to discredit the investigation.
Mr. Weissmann donated to the Obama campaign in 2008, when he was working for the Jenner & Block law firm. Ms. Rhee represented the Clinton Foundation — alongside [ http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2015/06/clinton-foundation-toss-fatuous-racketeering-lawsuit-208595 ] the WilmerHale partner Jamie Gorelick, who now represents Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law — and donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Mr. Quarles has made donations to candidates of both parties — but on balance, he has given mostly to Democrats.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and an outspoken Trump supporter, said those hires were reason for serious concern. “Tell me if you were a Republican, you wouldn’t be worried,” he said.
Defenders of Mr. Mueller’s early hires point out that Justice Department rules, which he must follow [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/special-counsel-in-russia-investigation-raises-stakes-for-trump.html ], prohibit taking political or ideological affiliation into account [ https://oig.justice.gov/special/s0901/final.pdf ] when deciding whom to hire for career positions like those in the special counsel’s office.
Of Mr. Mueller’s initial choices, Mr. Lacovara said: “These are career professionals. Naturally some are going to have political affiliations. But I’m absolutely confident that Bob Mueller is not appointing people with these significant professional achievements because they’re Democrats.”
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel.html [with comments]

*

Democratic Party says special counsel needs full control of Russia probe: statement

By Susan Heavey
Fri Jun 16, 2017 | 12:54pm EDT

The special counsel appointed to lead a probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election should be granted full control of the investigation independent of Justice Department officials, the Democratic National Committee said on Friday.

The DNC, in a statement, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has authority over special counsel Robert Mueller, needs to recuse himself from the Russia probe and control of the investigation should not be given to another Trump appointee.

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

© 2017 Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-dnc-idUSKBN1972CT

*

There's a theme emerging in Mueller's Russia probe that could prove damning for Trump
Jun. 16, 2017
• Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Trump-Russia probe, has moved to hire an all-star team in recent days.
• The hires suggest he is employing a follow-the-money approach to the investigation.
• The developments will raise new questions about Trump's and his associates' ties to Russia.
• 'Russian organized crime ... will be right at the center'
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-russia-probe-follow-the-money-mueller-2017-6

*

Newt Gingrich, on book tour, declares special counsel the 'tip of the deep state spear'
June 15, 2017 Updated June 15, 2017
Washington (CNN) — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has had a busy two days elbowing his way into the national conversation as a defender of President Donald Trump with rhetorical eviscerations of the "deep state" he says is out to get the President and the organized left, which he claims is fomenting violence against conservatives.
Subtext: He's also selling a new book, audaciously titled, "Understanding Trump," released Tuesday, and newly the spouse of a Trump administration nominee -- his wife Callista has been nominated to be the US ambassador to the Vatican. So it behooves him to stand up for the President.
[...]
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/politics/newt-gingrich-bob-mueller-special-counsel-book/ [with embedded video]

*

Gingrich says presidents can’t obstruct justice — but accused Bill Clinton of doing just that
Former speaker voted for impeachment article charging Clinton with obstruction
June 16, 2017
With President Donald Trump blasting reports that he is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice, Trump ally and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said any charge wouldn’t stick for one simple reason.
“Technically, the president of the United States cannot obstruct justice,” Gingrich said Friday during an event at the National Press Club. ...
[...]
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gingrich-says-presidents-cant-obstruct-justice-but-accused-bill-clinton-of-doing-just-that-2017-06-16 [with comments]

*

One of the most alarming moments of James Comey's testimony has gone [largely] overlooked
• Former FBI Director James Comey testified last week that President Donald Trump seemed exclusively concerned with Russia's election meddling as it related to him personally, rather than its impact on national security.
• Trump's focus on how the FBI's Russia investigation is affecting him politically, and his lack of interest in holding Moscow accountable, fits a pattern dating back to at least January.
• Experts say Trump's unwillingness to better understand whom Russia is hacking and how it is weaponizing information to influence voters increases the probability [sic - makes even more certain] that Moscow will continue to meddle in future local and national elections.
Jun. 12, 2017
http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-testimony-moment-trump-russia-2017-6 [with embedded videos]

*

for reference, the report based on which some have claimed Mueller said the investigation would wrap within about three months:

Bob Mueller will close Russia investigation in three months, fmr. FBI Asst. Director Coulson says

June 08, 2017
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/06/08/bob-mueller-will-close-russia-investigation-in-three-months-fmr-fbi-asst-director-coulson-says.html [with embedded video], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOkPUaC7r_I [non-YouTube version embedded; with comments]

--

Goldman Sachs CEO tweet-trolls Donald Trump
Lloyd Blankfein
@lloydblankfein
Just landed from China, trying to catch up.... How did "infrastructure week" go?
4:17 PM - 9 Jun 2017
[ https://twitter.com/lloydblankfein/status/873288013224267776 (with comments)]
Lloyd Blankfein, not a known Twitterer, mocks the president's infrastructure week. And then former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gets in on the Trump-trolling act.
11 June 2017
https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/goldman-sachs-ceo-tweet-trolls-trump/ [no comments yet] [and again, see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132080039 and preceding and following]

*

Ex Twitter CEO says meeting Trump is like 'drinking a bottle of gin and waterboarding yourself'
dick costolo
@dickc
dick costolo Retweeted Ryan 2.0 [ https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/873332124924821504 ]
If you don't get invited to this meeting and want to know what it was like, just drink a bottle of gin and then waterboard yourself.
8:36 PM - 9 Jun 2017
[ https://twitter.com/dickc/status/873353133040193536 (with comments)]
• Dick Costolo, 53, was CEO of Twitter from 2010 until 2015
• Costolo was commenting on planned tech summit at the White House this month
• President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to host a number of tech CEOs
• 'If you don't get invited and want to know what it's like, drink a bottle of gin and waterboard yourself,' Costolo tweeted
• In March, Costolo called [ https://twitter.com/dickc/status/845844219122003968 ] Trump a 'wimp' and a 'coward' [and a 'two-bit punk']
• The effort is being led by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner
10 June 2017 Updated 11 June 2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4592342/Ex-CEO-Twitter-says-meeting-Trump-akin-waterboarding.html [with embedded video, and comments]

--

Infowars Nightly News LIVE - Top Highlights From Comey's Testimony

Streamed live on Jun 9, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6qkgM-STSg [with comments]

--

Rep. Maxine Waters: The president is a liar

All In with Chris Hayes
6/9/17

The California Democrat says in a credibility contest between James Comey and President Trump, there's no contest at all. Duration: 5:20

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rep-maxine-waters-the-president-is-a-liar-964337219674 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8tXrahsYDU [with comments]

*

New here? Not so much.

All In with Chris Hayes
6/9/17

Paul Ryan says President Trump just doesn't know the ways of Washington, so couldn't have obstructed justice. But the record suggests he knows plenty. Duration: 2:19

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-here-not-so-much-964344899738

*

'Total disaster' for Trump ally as UK election goes bust

All In with Chris Hayes
6/9/17

Lord Buckethead, Mr. Fish Finger and Jeremy Corbyn's enthusiastic, if misplaced, high-five. All the news from the shocking British election, where Donald Trump's ally lost her gamble to gain more support. Duration: 2:14

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-total-disaster-for-trump-ally-as-uk-election-goes-bust-964331587970 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M4UR4BD6iE [with comments]

*

No hearings, no discussion on the Senate healthcare bill

All In with Chris Hayes
6/9/17

Senate Republicans are crafting a healthcare bill but nobody else has seen what they are coming up with. Duration: 5:57

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/no-hearings-no-discussion-on-the-senate-healthcare-bill-964354115680

--

Senate Judiciary Committee poised to probe Trump obstruction

The Rachel Maddow Show
6/9/17

Rachel Maddow reviews the latest developments in the Trump-Russia investigations, including indications that the Senate Judiciary Committee will issue subpoenas to investigate Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. Duration: 22:49

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/senate-judiciary-committee-poised-to-probe-trump-obstruction-964383299996 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_Lt2havjA [with comments]

*

Angry voters produce another suprprising election result

The Rachel Maddow Show
6/9/17

Dan Rather, president of News & Guts Media, talks with Rachel Maddow about broader lessons that can be drawn from the unexpected result of the UK snap election. Duration: 8:09

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/angry-voters-produce-another-suprprising-election-result-964446275722

*

Rather: US suffers for Trump scandal spectacles

The Rachel Maddow Show
6/9/17

Dan Rather, president of News & Guts Media, talks with Rachel Maddow about current global political instability and the whether the instability of Donald Trump's presidency is making the United States unstable and weak. Duration: 5:30

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/rather-us-suffers-for-trump-scandal-spectacles-964388419893

*

Trump lawyer bullying of Comey could backfire

The Rachel Maddow Show
6/9/17

Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether Donald Trump's lawyer's threats against James Comey could backfire as witness intimidation. Duration: 4:20

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-lawyer-bullying-of-comey-could-backfire-964395075694

*

Sessions scheduled for Tuesday testimony

The Rachel Maddow Show
6/9/17

Rachel Maddow alerts viewers that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to testify once in the House and once in the Senate on Tuesday, which could include some important follow-ups to James Comey's testimony if he doesn't back out. Duration: 0:34

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/sessions-scheduled-for-tuesday-testimony-964395587884

--

Comey, Trump Offer Conflicting Statements

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
6/9/17

It's a case of "he said-he said" between President Trump and James Comey. Duration: 1:39

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/comey-trump-offer-conflicting-statements-963595843986

*

Lawrence: 'The president cannot learn'

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
6/9/17

Trump is in trouble because he never took time to learn the history of DC politics. Lawrence O'Donnell says Trump's ignorance of the Nixon scandal is dooming his presidency. He says Trump's claims about tapes and accusations that Comey is lying are out of control. Duration: 8:01

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-the-president-cannot-learn-964379715895 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1LP0_wRE4 [with comments]

*

Watergate lawyer: If Trump tries to fight subpoenas, he will lose

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
6/9/17

Fmr. Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman says it's likely special counsel Robert Mueller will likely depose Trump and the wheels may already be in motion for Trump to testify about his role in the Russia probe. Peter Baker and David Frum also join Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 8:44

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/watergate-lawyer-if-trump-tries-to-fight-subpoenas-he-will-lose-964381763793 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFyfEherBt8 [with comments]

*

Few Republicans defend Trump after Comey testimony

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
6/9/17

The cloud over the Trump White House is darkening – and looming over the GOP in Congress. Are they joining in attacks on Comey, or is it only Trump's inner circle who dare to use Trump's talking points? David Cay Johnston and Ana Marie Cox join Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 7:33

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/few-republicans-defend-trump-after-comey-testimony-964380739930

--

Trump: Didn't tell Comey I hoped he'd let Flynn investigation go

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

Back on Twitter and in front of the White House Press Corps, a defiant Pres. Trump accused Comey of lying under oath to Congress and said he'd be willing to testify under oath himself. Our panel reacts. Duration: 9:47

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-didn-t-tell-comey-i-hoped-he-d-let-flynn-investigation-go-964409411922

*

Sen. Al Franken: Donald Trump's 'devalued the presidency'

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

Responding to Trump's latest comments after James Comey's testimony, Sen. Al Franken doesn't mince words saying Trump is doing damage to the office of the President. Duration: 1:40

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/sen-al-franken-donald-trump-s-devalued-the-presidency-964414531815 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCHyTsPEVro [with comments]

*

Trump White House staff knows 'this is not going well'

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

While Trump sounds defiant, reporters are hearing something different from White House staffers who say they know things aren't going well. Matthew Nussbaum and Shannon Pettypiece discuss. Duration: 1:42

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-white-house-staff-knows-this-is-not-going-well-964414019967 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvaxlrko_DI [with comments]

*

Is Trump showing enough concern about Russia's 2016 meddling?

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

MSNBC's Brian Williams talks to MTV News' Jamil Smith & POLITICO's Matthew Nussbaum about Trump's reaction to the consensus Russia is interfering with America's democracy. Duration: 6:09

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/is-trump-showing-enough-concern-about-russia-s-2016-meddling-964402755889

*

141 days in, Trump's still talking about his election win

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

Often when asked about completely unrelated topics, Pres. Trump has now a 141 day history of randomly bringing up his 2016 election win. Here are some highlights. Duration: 1:28

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/141-days-in-trump-s-still-talking-about-his-election-win-964401731818 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX3IzvvDGas [with comments]

*

Defiant Trump's Comey testimony comments draw Nixon comparison

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
6/9/17

MSNBC's Brian Williams discusses the Nixon-Trump comparisons that are being made with NBC News Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss. Duration: 4:56

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/defiant-trump-s-comey-testimony-comments-draw-nixon-comparison-964420163936

--

Monologue: Too Stupid to Be President | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by Real Time with Bill Maher [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6kyFxaMqGtpE3pQTflK8A / https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime , https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime/videos ]

Bill discusses former FBI Director James Comey's testimony and the GOP's attempts to defend President Trump in his Real Time monologue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLUO2vTJ3Yw [with comments]

*

A Conversation with Michael Eric Dyson | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by Real Time with Bill Maher

Georgetown professor and author Michael Eric Dyson joins Bill to discuss the N-word and the depth of racism in America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqKtRbEM2WM [with comments]

*

Ice Cube and Symone Sanders on White Privilege | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by Real Time with Bill Maher

Actor, producer and rap icon Ice Cube joins Symone Sanders, David Gregory and former Rep. David Jolly on the Real Time panel for a discussion about race, white privilege, and policing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnwiYdFaRfk [with (over 17,000) comments]

*

New Rule: Save the Rich Fcks | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by Real Time with Bill Maher

Bill calls out overprivileged schmucks like Jared Kushner who don't recognize that they're the product of "rich guy affirmative action."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahpp27WAT2M [with comments]

*

Prison Reform, Political Fundraising, Evolution of Rap | Overtime with Bill Maher (HBO)

Published on Jun 9, 2017 by Real Time with Bill Maher

Bill and his Real Time guests – Michael Eric Dyson, David Gregory, Symone Sanders, David Jolly, and Ice Cube – answer viewer questions after the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmBE3n09F8o [with comments]

--

The Dramatic Conclusion To Trump's Infrastructure Week

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos ]

The Trump administration's 'Infrastructure Week' was overshadowed by drama unrelated to 'infrastructure' and felt like much longer than a 'week.'

[originally aired June 9, 2017]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFXSJG-VAek [with comments]

*

He's Building A Wall And The Sun Is Going To Pay For It

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The President is enlisting the help of another intense, orange ball of gas.

[originally aired June 9, 2017]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hqmco7Sp4k [with comments]

*

Lawyers Are Avoiding Trump At All Costs

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Some of the guiltiest criminals in American history were more attractive clients than our 45th President.

[originally aired June 9, 2017]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TIX-RLrCLs [with comments]

--

May’s election battering may strain relationship with Trump

British Prime Minister Theresa May with President Trump walk along The Colonnade at the White House on Jan. 27. May was ridiculed for holding hands with Trump during the awkward White House stroll, a meme that resurfaced during the campaign as proof that she had been naive.
June 10, 2017
President Trump may have just lost the best friend he had in Europe.
British Prime Minister Theresa May emerged from national elections damaged and without the mandate she sought. Her efforts to align with Trump may have hurt her, and she now has less leeway to cooperate with a leader that a majority of Britons recently labeled a threat to international security.
She also has less leverage. May’s Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament in the election Thursday, and she must govern in a coalition — if she keeps her job at all.
Britain’s relationship with the United States was far less important as an election issue than domestic economic and security concerns, but some voters appear to have punished May for cozying up to Trump and elements of his populist agenda.
May is left weaker both in her dealings with Europe and the United States, U.S. and British analysts said.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-mays-tumble-trumps-european-allies-not-faring-well-at-the-polls/2017/06/09/ea69e67c-4c7c-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]

*

Little England and Little America to the Rest of the World: Sod Off!

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
[ https://epeak.in/2017/06/10/sod-off-%E2%8B%86-epeak-independent-news-and-blogs/ (no comments yet)]

After a catastrophic British election the once great Atlantic alliance is left with two leaders who are increasingly isolated from their former allies—and reality.

By Clive Irving
06.10.17 12:01 AM ET

Seismologists have detected an ominous humming sound somewhere below the subsoil of Britain, and it could gather in strength and suddenly erupt into the form of a giant bestriding man smoking a large cigar aglow with fury. Winston Churchill began spinning in his grave early Friday morning and his stirring is already widely felt—and feared.

What the hell just happened?

That’s a polite way of saying what Churchill’s reaction would be to the worst electoral cockup in recent British history [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/theresa-mays-election-gamble-backfires-british-exit-poll ] that has left the country looking like a banana republic.

After a disastrous performance in the election Prime Minister Theresa May is clutching to power by making a squalid and unprincipled deal with a bunch of racial atavists in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/theresa-may-hooks-up-with-northern-irelands-hard-right ]. The Tory party, the party of Churchill, is now the party of small-minded lunatic isolationism. Wrapping themselves in the Union Jack they have, in the crude British argot they use, told the rest of the world to “sod off.”

This, remember, is the party that from the onset of Churchill’s wartime premiership in 1940 stood steadfast as the founding partner in a glorious Anglo-American alliance.

Under this partnership Europe, ravaged by war, was repaired and defended, first against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and later against Putin’s Russia. Of course, in terms of power the partnership was always unequal if judged only by relative power and resources, but it was always morally a mission of equals, leading Western Europe to create a framework of progressive democratic institutions and an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

Now Europe is on its own.

Donald Trump, behaving like a tourist made irascible by customs he did not understand, languages he did not speak and civility he did not share, would rather play a swordsman in Saudi Arabia than be a statesman in Brussels.

And in Theresa May [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/conservative-party ] he has a fawning partner. For the British, having designed their own fate a year ago by voting to leave Europe without having understood the consequences, it was a natural instinct to look west in the hope of finding a sympathetic collaborator—and, hopefully, a trading partner. Bearing in mind how capricious Trump is, that is probably delusional.

The so-called special relationship is seldom easy to manage. Barack Obama never seemed really devoted to it. The only time in recent history when it rose to a truly devotional level was during the Margaret and Ronnie Show—the improbable but warm embrace of Reagan and Thatcher. However, if a British prime minister got too close to a president they could end up with a shattered reputation, as Tony Blair did after playing poodle to George W. Bush in the Iraq war.

May invited the same fate by rushing unwarily into Trump’s embrace as soon as he took office, the first foreign leader he saw. They looked an extremely odd couple. She resembled the headmistress of a classy but impecunious college greeting a wealthy but somewhat vulgar parent in the hope of inspiring some generous philanthropy.

She has continually pandered to Trump. Unlike other European leaders she refused to directly attack Trump when he quit the Paris climate agreement and she failed to defend London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party from Trump’s despicable attack after the London Bridge terrorist atrocity.

Nonetheless, it remains true that regardless of who occupies the White House and Downing Street, the intelligence and national security relationship between the U.S. and Britain remains unique in the world and mutually essential.

At the operational level it can survive the occasional outrage like Trump sharing some ISIS intel with the Russians. But at the level of the principals it’s more vulnerable. For example, British intelligence chiefs are reportedly aghast at Trump’s tendency to bad mouth his intelligence chiefs, disregard their briefings and blow up sensitive partnerships with imbecilic tweets.

But, in theory, May still holds in her hands an ace card. She presides over a prize that Trump must lust for—the planned state visit to Britain later this year. She issued the invitation just seven days after Trump took office—an unprecedented step.

Details are not clear, but the normal protocols of a state visit imply the promise of a meeting with the Queen. In Riyadh Trump obviously relished the gilded opulence of the Saudi royal palaces but compared to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle that’s all ersatz, just Mar-a-Largo writ large.

For sure, some of the Windsor family history is as racy as Trump’s but the venerable and venerated Queen is above all that—so much so that she must be choking on the prospect of having to host such a vulgarian.

After Trump’s attacks on London’s mayor there were renewed calls to cancel the visit but May ignored them. She is in a far more fragile parliamentary position now, and might not want to be distracted by the popular protests that would surely follow allowing the visit to go ahead.

Sometimes in politics a figure appears who rises without ever being really known—until they are exposed as being not at all as advertised. May was not put into Downing Street by the country in an election but by the Tory party, on the resignation of her predecessor David Cameron after the Brexit fiasco.

There were people who believed that she might turn out to be another Iron Lady—another verbally emasculating martinet like Margaret Thatcher, able miraculously to cow and whip the country into finding its spine again. Or, more importantly, that she would be able to instill confidence in her people that she would somehow be able to negotiate a painless exit from Europe.

Instead, the election exposed her as stubborn, imperious and an appalling campaigner. She doesn’t like having to explain herself to the people. She refused to debate the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trump-helped-jeremy-corbynand-normalized-the-worlds-most-radical-leaders ]. Her efforts to explain policy read like bureaucratic drivel. In the words of one Tory quoted anonymously by the Financial Times, “the campaign has exposed not so much the prime minister’s hidden depths as her hidden shallows.”

But to be fair to May, she wasn’t responsible for creating the country’s descent into bitter disorder.

Overhanging this whole election was the influence of an invisible man: Nigel Farage, creator of the U.K. Independence Party, UKIP, but no longer its leader. In the year since the Brexit referendum Farage, has behaved like someone hastily leaving the scene of a major accident, content to know that his toxic role in whipping up anti-immigrant fever probably tipped the balance in the narrow 52-48 pro-Brexit vote.

The way Farage himself explained it was more respectable, “My achievement was to take an issue that was considered to be completely wrong, perhaps even immoral, and help to turn it into a mainstream view of British politics.”

Because Brexit was a referendum, not an election, party loyalty was less a factor in 2016 than the xenophobia and bigotry that coalesced as Farage’s “issue that was considered completely wrong, perhaps even immoral.”

UKIP pushed that sentiment way beyond simple Europhobia: they aroused from dormancy the dream of a Little England [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-rise-of-hateful-little-england ] purged of miscegenation and all other impurities of nationality. In this UKIP gave expression to the delusion that the country no longer needed to belong to a far bigger idea, the post-war alliance of progressive democracies.

Shortly before the U.S. presidential election Farage aroused derision when he predicted that Trump would win. By then Farage had been hanging out with the Trump crowd for long enough to see that Trump was tapping into the same resentments that he had exploited. It turned out that there was a Little America, too. Trump was the perfect face to lead it, grabbing a slogan for long discredited for its fascist associations and renewing its appeal, America First!

According to The Guardian, Farage has become “a person of interest” in the FBI’s probe into links between the Trump election team and Russia. Farage dismissed the story as “fake news” and insists that he has not been contacted by the FBI.

But Farage was an early and eager member of the Trump entourage, appearing occasionally at rallies with Trump as a cheerleader although few in the audience seemed to know which planet he was from. He visited Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has appeared on the Russian media propaganda station, RT, and has hung out with Roger Stone, the earliest of Trump’s spiritual guides.

In the meantime, UKIP has been wiped out as a political party. Its supporters have dispersed back to either the right wing of the Tory party or the similarly reactionary cells of the Labour Party. Ironically the Northern Irish Democratic Unionists who have saved May (for the moment) are even more rabid nativists than UKIP.

In the end, the sad message from events in both Britain and America is that you can’t have a coherent world view if you have no knowledge of the world—or any interest in acquiring it. The inhabitants of Little England and Little America don’t care about anything that smacks of a collective responsibility, like saving the planet from a man-made calamity.

And there’s a particular strain of misanthropy that Trump and Farage both revel in—leaving “the other” to a fate they deserve, whether it’s Middle East refugees supposedly consuming an undeserved share of British social services (Farage) or cutting off the funding of birth control services for poorly educated Africans (Trump).

The election result has reinforced the polarity of the Brexit vote. Neither May nor Corbyn, had any interest in seeking support from moderate centrists. Indeed, the progressive center that gave Tony Blair three successive election victories from 1997 has apparently evaporated. Perhaps it was a coalition that only Blair had the political skills to create and sustain.

Those who yearn to see that constituency return but realize now that it will not do so any time soon are left looking wistfully across the Channel to France where the new president, Emmanuel Macron, with Blair-like energy, is promising an alliance of reason and progress with Germany’s Angela Merkel.

As long as Britain was in the European Union it offered a third voice and a check on the power of that Franco-German axis, while at the same time being constant to its American ties. Keeping that careful balance was one of Churchill’s most ardent wishes as post-war Europe took shape.

It’s a new European order now. Little England and Little America are excluded.

© 2017 The Daily Beast Company LLC (emphasis in original)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/little-england-and-little-america-to-the-rest-of-the-world-sod-off

*

Trump May Not Visit U.K. This Year as Planned

President Trump with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain at the White House in January. She said at the time that Queen Elizabeth II had invited him to make a state visit.
JUNE 11, 2017
BRANCHBURG, N.J. — President Trump is considering scrapping or postponing a planned visit to Britain later this year amid a billowing backlash over comments he made after the recent terrorist attack in London, two administration officials said.
Over the past week, Mr. Trump has expressed increasing skepticism to aides about the trip after coming under intense criticism for a misleading charge he leveled against London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan. A day after terrorists killed eight people in the British capital, Mr. Trump went after Mr. Khan on Twitter, saying the mayor had played down the danger to citizens in the wake of the assault.
The visit was originally scheduled as part of a trip to Europe next month. Then it was tentatively penciled in for the fall. National Security Council and State Department officials were working on the details but had not undertaken the usual “preadvance” trip to work out the specific logistics of joint appearances, said a person familar with the situation.
Mr. Trump, who was visiting his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., over the weekend, has not definitively ruled out going, the officials said. But he has told his staff that he wants to avoid a marathon overseas trip like his nine-day trek to the Middle East and Europe, which he found exhausting and overly long.
One other factor leading to his reluctance, said one of the officials, is his preference for having foreign leaders visit him — not the other way around.
But optics and politics are major considerations, too. Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in Britain, and any visit by him — let alone a state visit with all its pomp — would probably be met with widescale protests. Recent polls have found that more than half of the British public views Mr. Trump as a threat to global stability.
At the same time, his poll numbers at home are hitting historic lows. The president has avoided trips to his home in New York, in part because of the potential for disruptions, several people in his orbit have said.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/us/politics/trump-uk-visit.html

--

‘Donald Trump’s presidency is a cancer on this nation’

AM Joy
6/10/17

Joy Reid and her panel discuss whether Trump really taped Comey, Comey calling Trump a liar, and the critical role of the special prosecutor in resolving what is being called a Nixonian investigation. Duration: 16:05

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-donald-trump-s-presidency-is-a-cancer-on-this-nation-964618307876 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1cpVdKh5b4 [with comments]

*

Rep. Ellison: Trump is ‘chief cheerleader’ of intolerance

AM Joy
6/10/17

Rep. Keith Ellison joins Joy Reid to decry Saturday’s anti-Muslim marches, linking the president’s rhetoric to the increase in bias incidents since Trump began dominating the conservative landscape. Duration: 8:15

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/rep-ellison-trump-is-chief-cheerleader-of-intolerance-964621891766 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hpvyt_8Zr0 [with comments]

*

Trump: Very close to obstruction charges?

AM Joy
6/10/17

An all-star legal panel debates whether enough aspects of the obstruction of justice statutes have been satisfied to implicate the president, particularly based on Trump’s personal statements. Duration: 11:07

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-very-close-to-obstruction-charges-964627523847

*

‘I was honestly concerned that he might lie’

AM Joy
6/10/17

Is Trump becoming the architect of his own demise by allegedly trying to keep certain secrets covered up? Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] discuss. Duration: 13:51

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-i-was-honestly-concerned-that-he-might-lie-964634179568 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK1FaP0ezYE [with comments]

*

‘Donald Trump cannot learn’

AM Joy
6/10/17

Lawrence O’Donnell, host of The Last Word, joins Joy Reid on whether Donald Trump will be impeached, why in his opinion Trump has one of the worst attorneys in D.C., and the Comey testimony aftermath. Duration: 10:18

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-donald-trump-cannot-learn-964636227695 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W6WMMwHMaA [with comments]

*

Republicans defend their former tormentor, Trump

AM Joy
6/10/17

Marco Rubio, John McCain and more are jumping to Donald Trump’s defense regarding Comey, after severely critiquing him during the election—and vice versa. Joy Reid and her panel discuss. Duration: 9:51

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/republicans-defend-their-former-tormentor-trump-964636227981

--

U.S.-Led Forces Said to Have Used White Phosphorus in Syria
JUNE 10, 2017
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Images and reports from witnesses in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa suggest that the United States-led coalition battling the Islamic State there has used munitions loaded with white phosphorus, the use of which in populated areas is prohibited under international law.
Photographs and video clips posted online showed blinding spots of light spreading outward on Thursday night over what residents said was eastern Raqqa. By day, the images showed low white puffs trailing tentacles of white smoke. Both are typical visual signatures of white phosphorus, which can be loaded into artillery shells.
Residents reached by text message reported similar bombardments on Friday.
The images were distributed by the Aamaq news agency of the Islamic State [ https://twitter.com/FazelHawramy/status/871331640630530050 ], as well as a monitoring group called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. The Islamic State has made claims of use of white phosphorous by United States-led forces before as part of its efforts to discredit its enemies.
White phosphorus, along with other incendiaries, has been used by Syrian government forces [ https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/12/increase-incendiary-weapon-attacks ] battling insurgents in Aleppo and elsewhere.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/middleeast/raqqa-syria-white-phosphorus.html

--

Anti-Sharia Rally In Austin Spotlights Brain Dead Left

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

Saturday, June 10th 2017: ACT for America, led by global Islamic terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel staged roughly 30 anti sharia rallys in cities across America to bring average Americans face to face with those that would support honor killings, female mutilation, and a creeping non conformist sharia law into the final holdout known as these United States of America.

Lauren Morris, a victim of female mutilation spoke in solidarity with the victims of sharia law already affecting females in the United States.

As expected, the Soros shill patrol known as Antifa was in full effect. Offering zero topics for a rational debate. Their mind numbing teenage shrills a reverse of the intended effect of dividing the Americans that gathered to question their moronic subversion. Actually bringing average tax paying Americans on their day off together to focus on the tide of extremism threatening the Country’s future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46nVD-NnDEs [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132078524 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132088301 and preceding and following]

*

Antifa Swarms Reporter When He Attempts To Video Tape Them

Published on Jun 13, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

During the Anti-Sharia Law rally at the Austin Texas capital [on June 10, 2017], Infowars reporter Rob Dew is swarmed by hoards of shrieking LARPing [Live Action Role Playing] millennials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y5CktIU4Ro [with comments] [id.]

*

Watch This Guy Call Out A Trendy

Published on Jun 11, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

During an interview at Saturdays [June 10, 2017] Anti-Sharia law protest at the Texas Capital a debate broke out where a 6th generation Texan argued that the protest was much ado about nothing. He then gets an epic dress down by Texas veteran.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1FfEkFCT6Y [with comments] [id.] [a must-watch]

*

Founding Oathkeeper Says Civil War Is Imminent

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

One of the founding members of Oathkeepers claims that the way things are going that their will be civil war in America. Not if but when!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j6IrGR-cFg [with comments] [id.] [a must-watch]

*

Former Democrat [sic - Berniecrat (voted for Jill Stein)] That Didn't Vote Trump Explains Why She Now Supports Trump

Published on Jun 10, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel

via YouTube Capture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQvnuGRFjpU [with comments] [id.]

--

Roger Stone speech to Citizens for Trump 6/10/17

Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07

"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790

F6

Keep Last Read

Replies (1) Next 10 Prev Next

Join the InvestorsHub Community

Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.

Volume
Day Range:
Bid Price
Ask Price
Last Trade Time:

Boards:

Quotes:

Boards

News

Market Data

Markets

Discover

Discover

Boards:

Quotes:

Join the InvestorsHub Community