Rudy Giuliani gets that sit down meeting with Robert Mueller. Is told that interview with Donald Trump is "essential."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s new personal lawyer dealing with the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, met with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday to reopen negotiations for a presidential interview, ­according to three people familiar with the talks. 

Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team last week, conveyed the ongoing resistance of Trump and his advisers to an interview with federal investigators, but did not rule out the possibility, the people said, adding that Giuliani pressed Mueller for clarity on when the probe is expected to end. 

In response, Mueller reiterated that he would like a chance to ask Trump questions about steps he took during the transition and early months of his administration, the people said. The special counsel emphasized, as he did in conversations in March with Trump’s team, that an interview is essential for investigators to understand Trump’s intent in making key decisions as they seek to wrap up the portion of the probe focused on potential obstruction of justice.

I actually think that Mueller WILL ultimately get his interview with Donald Trump, assuming that he is not fired of course, it is still to be seen whether the interview is voluntary or the result of a subpoena.

Kind of interesting that though these types of negotiations have been going on for some time, that we are just now hearing about them since Giuliani joined the team

It is almost like he is an attention whore or something.

Rudy Giuliani is joining Donald Trump's legal team, because hell, why not. Update!

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a combative former prosecutor and longtime ally of President Trump, told The Washington Post on Thursday that he has joined the president’s legal team dealing with the ongoing special counsel probe. 

“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview. 

Trump counsel Jay Sekulow said Thursday in a statement that Giuliani is joining the team along with two former federal prosecutors, Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin, a couple who jointly run a Florida-based law firm. 

“Rudy is great,” Trump said in the statement issued by Sekulow. “He has been my friend for a long time and wants to get this matter quickly resolved for the good of the country.”

Jesus, is that what you get when you scrape the bottom of the barrel, freaking Rudy Giuliani?

I think the last time that Giuliani practiced law he was chasing horse drawn ambulances.

It does not appear however that Giuliani is coming on board to do much legal work, but rather as a go between for Trump to reach out to the Mueller team.

just talked to Giuliani who said his role on Trump team is limited. He worked with Mueller at DOJ & as NYC Mayor (Mueller at FBI) He hopes knowing Mueller can help bring the investigation to conclusion, saying it "needs a little push." How soon? "maybe a couple of weeks"

— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) April 19, 2018

Yes, because that's how these things work.

You just need to find a friend that you and the investigator have in common, and they will convince them that you are a good guy and they should back off.

Besides isn't that kind of how Trump got into this mess in the first place?

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, "He is a good guy and has been through a lot." He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." I replied only that "he is a good guy." (Source.)

It is VERY unlikely that Giuliani is going to be able to persuade Mueller to wrap things up quickly or see his way clear to "let it this go."

In fact there are currently rumors that Giuliani is ALREADY under investigation by the Mueller team.

That seems a little awkward.

By the way also keep in mind that Giuliani is waist deep in this Russia collusion thing as well.

July 28, 2016: https://t.co/MI4BqmvBxE

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 19, 2018

Yeah, that was a lie.

And certainly not the first or last one that Giuliani has told on Donald Trump's behalf.

Just another clown added to the clown car.

Update: This Twitter thread makes an important point. 

Giuliani isn’t there to negotiate anything; he’s there as a conduit to rogue FBI agents looking to undermine probe. https://t.co/TWO2pLkfRa

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018

Giuliani’s 2016 scheming with rogue FBI agents is an essential part of this story and any reporter who doesn’t include it should be ashamed.

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018

Excellent point.

Stephen Colbert on Donald Trump's likely cabinet picks, “It makes sense: They’re exactly what I’d expect to find at the bottom of a drained swamp.”

Courtesy of People:

“Donald Trump is really going to be the next president,” said Colbert, 52. “For a while I was poking myself with a straight pin to try to wake up from this, but now I just keep doing it to feel something. It’s so real that Trump is now receiving the classified daily intelligence briefing known as ‘the book,’ making it the only book he owns that doesn’t have his picture on it.” 

“Today the transfer of power began when President Obama hosted Trump at the White House for the most surprising remake of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” he quipped, before launching into a lengthy analysis of how uncomfortable the sit-down between the two men might have been. 

“Can you imagine? Just put yourself in room, in that private room when they were together. Can you imagine? Awkward!” said Colbert. “The first African-American president sitting down with a president-elect who was endorsed by the Klan. A guy who spent five years, created his political career, demanding Obama prove where he was born, then denying he did it.” 

“What did they talk about? What was the tour like?” continued Colbert. ” ‘Alright, Donald, this is the Blue Room. This is the Red Room. Down that hall is the office I said you were fundamentally unfit for.’ ”

I think my favorite part of this monologue was when Colbert got to Trump's possible cabinet choices.

Which include Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Sid Miller (Who referred to Hillary Clinton on Twitter as a c*nt.), Ben Carson (For Education Secretary no less.), and of course....Sarah Palin.

That last inclusion sparked an incredibly humorous imitation of Snowdrift Snooki:

"How's that hopey changey stuff going? Drill baby drill. Forget about Yosemite Park, Yosemite Sam, Uncle Sam, Sam I Am, don't go bugging tree hugging bloggers, cause I'm calling the loggers. Fracking Old Faithful, you're going to be grateful, executions in sports stadiums, arrest your enemies, tie a typewriter around his neck, what the heck? Shoot'em he's gettin' away. Tag, Trig, Tripp, Knick Knack paddywhack, Tick Tock out of wedlock, give a dog a bone. ET phone home, snowmachine."

You know after eight years of transcribing Sarah Palin's speeches and interviews, I would say that Colbert nailed it. My only criticism is that it might have made a little TOO much sense.

I would suggest that something about this election has really brought out the best in Stephen Colbert, and currently he is running neck and neck with my current comedy crush Samantha Bee, as the very best commentators on these the end days.

Of course to be fair tonight Bill Maher gets to weigh in, and I would imagine that he has quite a bit to say about all of this as well.

Diving into why the FBI seems to have turned into "Trumpland."

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited. 

“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent. 

This atmosphere raises major questions about how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House. 

The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.” 

The agent called the bureau “Trumplandia”, with some colleagues openly discussing voting for a GOP nominee who has garnered unprecedented condemnation from the party’s national security wing and who has pledged to jail Clinton if elected.

As if that were not terrifying enough, it also appears that the FBI is using information gleaned from an anti-Clinton book and Breitbart news as the foundation for an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

Courtesy of Vanity Fair: 

Throughout her campaign, Hillary Clinton has battled accusations of fostering a “pay for play” culture at the State Department, giving undue access to major Clinton Foundation donors. So far, Republicans have failed to find a smoking gun, but the narrative has served its purpose: tarnishing the public perception of the Democratic nominee and her family’s namesake charity. For this, no one deserves more credit than Peter Schweizer, Breitbart editor-at-large and the author of Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. The controversial, mostly discredited book has been held up by many as irrefutable proof of wrongdoing, or at least common venality, by the Clintons. It also found plenty of eager readers within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times report, galvanizing a number of F.B.I. agents to launch an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, based mostly on assertions made by Schweizer in the book. 

On Thursday, the Journal reported that last summer, shortly after Clinton Cash was published, a number of F.B.I. agents began investigating claims made against the Clinton Foundation in the book, ultimately prompting an internal battle between the agents and F.B.I. and Justice Department officials. The agents secretly recorded conversations with two informants—both of whom were involved in separate public-corruption investigations—about the Clinton Foundation, and believed that they had enough evidence to build a case. Senior officials in the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, however, were skeptical of the evidence and the primary source, Schweizer’s book. Public-integrity prosecutors reportedly “weren’t impressed” and “thought the talk was hearsay and a weak basis to warrant aggressive tactics, like presenting evidence to a grand jury, because the person who was secretly recorded wasn’t inside the Clinton Foundation,” according to the Journal’s report.

Oh for fuck's sake, they're using the Clinton Cash book as a resource? Why don't they just have Alex Jones tell them what the voices in his head are saying about the Clintons?

That book has been thoroughly refuted by reputable sources, who are NOT paid by Right Wing agitators to attack Hillary and Bill.

And it is not only that the FBI seems to be using Right Wing conspiracy theories as the foundation for their investigation, they might in fact be working in collusion with members of Trump's campaign.

Such as Rudy Giuliani.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

CNN’s Don Lemon suspects that Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani may have had inside information on FBI Director Comey’s announcement that he would be reexamining the Clinton emails. 

“I saw something, and when I saw it, it caught my attention,” Lemon said in an interview with filmmaker Michael Moore. “I didn’t think anything of it until two days later and this was two days before the Comey announcement. This was Rudy Giuliani, watch this,” he said before rolling a clip of Giuliani on Fox News. 

“I think he’s got a surprise or two you’re going to hear about in the next two days,” Giuliani said. “I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.” 

“I heard you say that this morning. What do you mean?” the Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked. 

“You’ll see,” Giuliani replied. “We’re not going to go down and we’re certainly not going to stop fighting. We’ve got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around.” 

Lemon noted that two days later the Comey letter dropped to Congress. “Do you think he could have known about it?”

Seriously folks, WTF?

But hey that's not even all there is to shake your head at.

Get a load of this:

William J. Clinton Foundation: This initial release consists of material from the FBI's files related to the Will... https://t.co/Y4nz3aRSmG

— FBI Records Vault (@FBIRecordsVault) November 1, 2016

That is from an FBI Twitter account that has been dormant for a year, that suddenly sprung to life to attack the Clintons.

This has now resulted in the FBI investigating itself over this Twitter account. 

So to sum up, we now have not only the Republican party and the Trump campaign working to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. We also have Wikileaks, the Russians, and the FBI working together to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

Deplorable Donald Trump supporter mocks the fact that he is considered one of his "deplorables." Which allows the media to prove why he belongs in that group.

I am so proud to be one of the Deplorables #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/IFD1hfC60w

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) September 10, 2016

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Now, just to review, Stone has, in the past, used phrases like “fat negro” and “stupid negro,” has used lots of other nasty language, once set up an anti-Clinton political group with the acronym CUNT, accused Khizr Khan of being a Muslim Brotherhood agent (before sorta walking it back), and questioned whether Clinton aide Huma Abedin is a terrorist agent. 

If only there was a word to describe that kind of behavior. Something that starts with a D?

Others who made the cut are Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Eric Trump,  Mike Pence, Pepe the Frog, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., Alex Jones, and Breitbart troll Milo Yiannopoulos.

(Not really sure how Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin failed to make the cut.)

Hopefully more of Trump's "basket of deplorables" will offer up reasons to describe why they also deserve their seat in the basket.

Rudy "9-11" Giuliani claims that "before Obama came along we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States." Um.......

Courtesy of TPM:

Speaking in Youngstown, Ohio ahead of Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York City on 9/11, declared that Islamic extremists hadn't carried out any terror attacks on American soil before Barack Obama's presidency. 

"Under those 8 years, before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the US," Giuliani told the crowd. "They all started when Clinton and Obama came into office."

He literally starts off talking about the attacks that happened before Obama took office, and then seems to forget them by the end of the clip.

It's made somewhat more ironic by the fact that the only reason that anybody really even cares about his opinion anymore is because Giuliani was the Mayor of New York during the 9-11 attacks.

However I am not one of those people and have never found Giuliani to be anything but a partisan hack.

Besides in my opinion NO politician with any real credibility would find himself in the role as a Donald Trump surrogate.

On radio talk show Rudy Giuliani blames President Obama for the cops being shot in Ferguson and suggests he should talk more like Bill Cosby.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

Host John Gambling sought Giuliani’s take on the vicious McDonald’s fight; the recent police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton getting booed Thursday at a City Council hearing by protesters. 

Giuliani said, “It all starts at the top. It’s the tone that’s set by the President.” 

The former mayor said he just returned from a trip overseas, and the United States is constantly derided there as a “racist state.” 

“It is the obligation of the President to explain . . . that our police are the best in the world,” said Giuliani. 

Obama is also not addressing the “enormous amount of crime” that’s being committed by African-Americans, Giuliani said. 

“I hate to mention it because of what happened afterwards, but (he should be saying) the kinds of stuff Bill Cosby used to say,” said Giuliani.

Okay so in what way should the President talk more like Bill Cosby?

Should he tell young women, "Here drink this it will make it easier for me to rape you?"

I fail to see how that would be an improvement on anything he says now.

No of course Guiliani is talking about how Cosby used to lecture black men about being better fathers, because racist assholes like Giuliani love it when black people slam other black people, because then he can repeat it without sounding like a racist.

Or so he thinks.

Apparently Guiliani takes his cues about what is, or is not, racist from "The Office."

Oh by the way Giuliani is by no means alone in his blaming of Obama for the cops being shot in Ferguson, the entire Right Wing media network is right there with him.

Gee, it's almost like they coordinate with each other or something.

Bill Maher mocks the Republicans for suggesting that President Obama "does not love America."

I swear this bit was worth watching simply for the picture they used to represent Rudy Giuliani.

Here is more from Raw Story.

Rudy Giuliani claims that since he claimed that President Obama does not love America he has been receiving death threats. Okay, really?

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

CNN reporter Jim Acosta spoke with Rudy Giuliani over the phone earlier today and told Anderson Cooper that the former New York mayor claimed he’s been getting death threats after his controversial remarks about whether President Obama loves America. 

Giuliani, of course, said earlier this week that he doesn’t think Obama loves this country because he criticizes it so much, has a different worldview than past presidents, and rarely talks about the good things in America. And as Giuliani told Acosta tonight, “I don’t regret making the statement. I believe it. I don’t know if he loves America.”

Apparently Guiliani  claimed that "his office" had received "multiple" death threats, however CNN could not confirm that, and Guiliani did not say whether or not he had notified the police.

Call me a cynic, but I have a hard time believing this.

First off who exactly would be threatening Guiliani over these comments, and what would be the goal?

And secondly I have heard so many conservatives cry wolf like this, including our favorite Miss Quitty pants, that I have a very hard time taking it seriously.

Simply put I would not put it past the former mayor to play the victim card in order to gain a little sympathy after saying spouting his bullshit about the President.

Well it's finally happened. Sarah Palin has devolved into an online pimp for a business self help symposium.

Wow those are some impressive production values there.

Simply have the ex-Queen of the Teabaggers sit in her kitchen with the sun blinding one eye, and have her beg people to buy tickets to this sad little business sleep-away-camp. Nailed it! (Hey is THAT a dent in the right hand side door of that refrigerator?)

Apparently this booze fueled tax write off also features such luminaries as Rudy "9-11" Giuliani, Steve "Still living off daddy's money" Forbes, a bunch of people we have never heard of, and one "Surprise Special Guest." (You know what THAT means, don't you kids? Clint Eastwood is coming!)

I thought it was hilarious that even Palin seems to realize that she is scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one.  This is as enthusiastic as she could get while hawking this thing:

"We are going to have a good day on October 17th. Rudy Giuliani, Steve Forbes.....others will be there to....help...um...open up that next chapter of your life, again one day, being able to change your life. Let it be that day, don't miss this. I look forward to collecting my money for this bullshit being there with you. Thanks Idaho."

Jesus, I think our vet was more excited than this when he told us we had to put down our beloved family dog.

So what's next for Palin? QVC? Late night infomercials for Sham0Wow, or the Shake weight?

Hell why doesn't she just cut to the chase and stand on an Anchorage street corner with a tin cup and a sign that say "Will insult the President or say an incredibly stupid thing for a dollar?" Really not THAT much different from what she is doing now in my opinion.

P.S. Who else was struck by the irony of the fact that the first place we learned of this internet infomercial was off of a site called Palin-4-President 2016. If you want to talk sad, does NOT come much sadder than that.

Giuliani has surrounded himself with advisors who think the Bush Doctrine didn’t go nearly far enough.

It looks like many of the conservatives are not exactly warming up to Giuliani.

I don't really spend much time worrying about the Republican candidates for President. They seem like the crappy fighter that the boxing champion lines up so that his fans can see him beat the man into a bloody mess.

The Republicans are just not contenders this time around.

But if they were, have you ever seen a more motley crew?

You have Giuliani, and his constant banging of the 9-11 drum.

Then there is Mitt Romney who simply cannot tell the truth, whether it be about his NRA endorsement (Did not happen) or his recollection that his daddy marched with Martin Luther King (Also did not happen).

Or Fred Thompson who seems to plan his press appearances around his rigorous napping schedule. (Perhaps having a hot young trophy wife and running for President is a little too much stimulus for a man of his age.)

John McCain who without a doubt has the best resume of any other candidate (On both sides actually), but whose unwavering support for the Iraq war has crippled him beyond all possible hope.

Mike Huckabee, who apparently has the endorsement of God, is currently enjoying a surge in Iowa. But I think that after anointing George Bush in 2000, God's judgement is seriously being questioned. And as I have said before, President Huckabee? Really?

Then we have Duncan Hunter, who claimed that it was impossible that we were mistreating the prisoners in Gitmo based on the great menu selection they enjoyed. "Here is your Fillet Mignon with a side of waterboarding. Would you like to see the wine list?"

Last but not least we have Ron Paul. Ron Paul raised the most money EVER in a single day. I love to watch the pundits act like they just don't understand how Paul gets so much support. Could it be because he is the MOST outspoken opponent of the Iraq war? On either side? Fortunately he is a little too "Ross Perot" to be taken seriously.

But none of this matters one little bit since not one of the Republican candidates has a snowball's chance in hell of being elected. Quite literally the Democrats could run a ticket of Mickey Mouse and Goofy and walk away with this one.

Unless we totally screw up and nominate Hillary. She is our weak link.

Karma takes Giuliani out of the Presidential race.

Earlier today, Mayor Giuliani experienced flu-like symptoms campaigning in Missouri. The symptoms worsened as the day wore on and shortly after taking off from Chesterfield, Missouri for New York the Mayor became uncomfortable enough that our plane returned to the airport in Chesterfield. To be on the safe side, the Mayor consulted with his personal physician in New York and made the decision to go to the Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for routine tests.

"The Mayor will spend the night in St. Louis and we will provide another update in the morning."

Giuliani's poll numbers have been falling fast for the last several weeks. I am pretty sure allowing a simple flu to send you to the hospital is not the kind of tough guy image that Rudy was hoping to represent.

Let's face it, he had a one note campaign and the note turned out to be flat.

Good bye Rudy.

Armed Forces Journal condemns Giuliani and Mukasey for their support of torture.

For their tacit support of waterboarding. In an interview, Giuliani was asked for his views on using “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding. He responded that in a hypothetical scenario that assumed an attack, “I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of.” Prompted again on the specific use of waterboarding, he repeated “every method they could think of.” Mukasey said he found waterboarding to be “repugnant,” but he wouldn’t answer whether it amounted to torture.

Let AFJ be crystal clear on a subject where these men are opaque: Waterboarding is a torture technique that has its history rooted in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II.

Waterboarding inflicts on its victims the terror of imminent death. And as with all torture techniques, it is, therefore, an inherently flawed method for gaining reliable information. In short, it doesn’t work. That blunt truth means all U.S. leaders, present and future, should be clear on the issue.

It is important to note that this comes from the Armed Forces Journal. These guys could certainly not be accused of being soft on the enemy or non-patriotic. But they do know what right from wrong is and they are certain that waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong!

And anybody who agrees with those tactics is agreeing with criminal behaivor and has no right to be running for President or serving as our Attorney General. Period!

Rudy Giuliani charged taxpayers for the cost of his extramarital affair. Oh he was just born to be President, wasn't he?

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

The documents, obtained by Politico under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.

At the time, the mayor’s office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, citing “security.”

The Hamptons visits resulted in hotel, gas and other costs for Giuliani’s New York Police Department security detail.

You know I kind of thought that Rudy was all puff and no substance, but I was wrong! This guy has cajones the size of bowling balls!

He charged the people of New York for his booty calls, that is fucking gangsta!

I can hardly wait to hear how the Moral Majority people are going to respond to this happy news! Let's see, he might keep us safe from those Muslim terrorists, but he breaks half a dozen Commandments before breakfast each day. Hmm decisions, decisions.