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

Courtesy of TPM: 

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

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

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

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

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

...Flynn also met with this guy?

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

Interesting.

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

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

friggin @TMZ 2.0 pic.twitter.com/L9cvfxdnKr

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

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

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleads the fifth, and the Donald finally admits that he represents him in the Stormy Daniels debacle.

Courtesy of TPM:

President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen said in a court filing Wednesday that he would plead the Fifth Amendment in adult film star Stephanie Clifford’s lawsuit over a nondisclosure agreement she signed in 2016.

In a court filing Wednesday, Cohen tied the criminal probe directly to his assertion of Fifth Amendment rights in the civil suit. 

“I will assert my 5th amendment rights in connection with all proceedings in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” he said in part. Cohen last week asked U.S. District Judge James Otero to delay the civil suit due to its overlap with the criminal probe.

So to be clear Trump's lawyer is refusing to answer questions in court because he is worried those answers will incriminate him in a criminal activity.

Well now, isn't THAT interesting?

Also today Trump called into Fox and Friends, and finally admitted what we have known all along.

Also courtesy of TPM: 

The President said Michael Cohen is mainly a businessman and only secondarily a lawyer. That at least undercuts his privilege argument. He says what prosecutors are looking at only has to do with Cohen’s personal business dealings, not with his representation of Donald Trump. He also said that he knows nothing about Cohen’s private business dealings. (“I don’t know his business… They’re looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.”) That’s almost certainly false.

That is also going to make it hard for Cohen to claim executive privilege to keep the Feds from  digging through the files that confiscated.

And then there was also this: 

Trump says explicitly for the first time that Cohen does represent him with Stormy Daniels: “He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”

Boom! There you have it.

I mean WE knew it all along, but Trump and the White House was working hard not to admit this.

I imagine that after this admission Trump's lawyers spent the morning banging their heads against the wall, but is certainly made at least one lawyer very happy.

Thank you @foxandfriends for having Mr. Trump on this morning to discuss Michael Cohen and our case. Very informative.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 26, 2018

Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen previously represented to the American people that Mr. Cohen acted on his own and Mr. Trump knew nothing about the agreement with my client, the $130k payment, etc. As I predicted, that has now been shown to be completely false. #basta

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 26, 2018

Outmaneuvered again.

James Comey has added former Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to his legal team.

 Courtesy of TPM: 

Fired FBI Director James Comey has retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as one of his personal attorneys, bringing in a heavy-hitting former prosecutor, close friend and longtime colleague to help him navigate his dramatic role as a potential witness in the investigation of President Trump’s campaign and potential obstruction of justice. 

Two Capitol Hill sources independently told TPM that Fitzgerald was serving as a lawyer for Comey. After publication, Fitzgerald confirmed that he “has been part of Mr. Comey’s legal team since May 2017.”

Damn! James Comey has chosen one of the best prosecutors in the country to assist him.

Comey and Fitzgerald go way back, and in fact Comey is the one who chose Fitzgerald to serve as a Special Counsel during the Bush Administration.

The target of that investigation was Scooter Libby, who Fitzgerald saw convicted, and who Trump just recently pardoned.

I have to imagine that Fitzgerald is not feeling terribly generous toward the man who erased all of his hard work, and Trump has NOBODY on his team who can go toe to toe with this guy.

Two former Trump aides are locked in a vicious custody battle over their love child. Because everything is a reality show these days.

Ex-Trump Aide Says Jason Miller Forcing Long Custody Battle For ‘Revenge’ https://t.co/NF57RV1oIp via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 7, 2018

Courtesy of TPM:  

Now, a year and a half later, Delgado is locked in a bitter custody battle with Miller over their son that began nearly nine months ago: A “no end in sight” series of expensive court proceedings that Delgado thinks is largely fueled by Miller’s desire for retaliation. 

“I think the motivation is revenge,” she told TPM by phone on Saturday. “He refuses to speak to me, we haven’t spoken since this came out. … He blames me for not terminating the pregnancy or not keeping it confidential, like how dare I not hide it? His wife obviously has a tremendous deal of resentment toward me and her family has attacked me on social media. This is their way of getting back at me, but it doesn’t make sense to spend this much time and money to do that.”

When word of the affair and pregnancy surfaced in December 2016, Delgado left the Trump orbit and moved to Florida, where she did some non-profit legal work and focused on her pregnancy. Miller, who was on the cusp of moving into the coveted gig of White House communications director when the scandal broke, reportedly stepped away from the role, claiming he needed to focus on his family. (Delgado said she heard Miller did not initially accept the White House’s decision and had to be forced out.)

So we have gone from one of the classiest and dignified presidential administrations in recent history to one that appears to be a cross between Mad Max and the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Years ago when I was teased about using tabloid like reporting to cover the antics of Sarah Palin, my explanation was that I was simply going where the facts led me.

The same is true today, only now we are reporting on an actual president and the
damaged and unethical people that he brought into the campaign and White House with him.

Donald Trump, and his minions, cannot be covered as one might have covered administrations of the past.

They really need to covered as one would cover Hollywood gossip or still active crime scenes.

And if people complain that the press is not treating the president with respect, they need to reply that they are simply going where the facts lead them.

Devin Nunes continues in his attempts to obstruct the Russia investigations.

Courtesy of TPM:

In his latest round of anti-FBI shenanigans, House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is threatening legal action against the Justice Department for refusing to show him unredacted versions of materials documenting the launch of the FBI’s Russia probe. 

In an April 4 letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who’s overseeing the investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself) and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Nunes accuses the Justice Department of “arbitrary resistance to legitimate oversight.”‘ 

“Be advised that failure to comply in a satisfactory manner will result in the Committee pursuing all appropriate legal remedies, including seeking civil enforcement of the August 24 subpoenas in federal district court,” Nunes’ letter said.

Nunes is seeking an unredacted version of a document known as an electronic communication “related to the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.” The document falls under subpoenas issued by the committee in August, Nunes said, and his committee has only been able to view “heavily redacted” versions of the electronic communication.

I actually do not blame the FBI for keeping Nunes away from sensitive data.

The guy is clearly focused on finding information that he can use to obstruct the Mueller investigation and has no desire to perform the duties for which he was elected.

Fortunately for everybody concerned it looks quite likely that his days in office may be numbered.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to prosecute whistle blowers, while EPA chief Scott Pruitt is punishing high ranking officials who question his decision making.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asked her department’s Office of Inspector General whether grounds existed to prosecute employees who leaked budget data to The Washington Post and unclassified information to Politico, according to an internal department report. 

The response: It would be challenging, because the department has “little” written policy or guidance on how employees are supposed to handle information. 

“While evaluating the . . . incidents of alleged unauthorized releases of non-public information, we identified challenges to criminal prosecution or taking significant administrative actions against individuals responsible for the release of this type of information,” the report said.

Actually whistle blowers are supposed to be protected, and have provided a valuable service throughout the history of this country. (Remember Watergate?)

You would think that a person in charge of education might have known that.

However as it turns out this punish the dissidents idea is rampant throughout the Trump Administration.

Courtesy of TPM: 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reassigned or demoted at least five high-ranking officials who questioned his spending and other leadership decisions — including the purchase of pricey office furniture and Pruitt’s desire to use sirens to cut through D.C. traffic — according to a New York Times report Thursday afternoon. Four of the officials were career staff and one was a political appointee. 

The Times reports that the political appointee, Kevin Chmielewski, was put on administrative leave without pay after Chmielewski raised concerns about Pruitt’s behavior with the White House’s presidential personnel office. 

Additionally, Chmielewski and three of the career staffers are reported to have confronted Pruitt directly about his use of taxpayer dollars — particularly, a proposal to buy a $100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership that was eventually scuttled, and an effort to shell out $70,000 to replace two desks in Pruitt’s office. 

The sidelined officials also incurred Pruitt’s ire by pushing back on his desire to use sirens in his motorcade in non-emergency situations, including en route to dinner at the chic restaurant Le Diplomate, and were hesitant to approve his frequent first-class and charter flights, his unprecedented 20-member security team, and his request for a bulletproof sport utility vehicle.

So the real sin in the Trump Administration is not the wasting of taxpayer money, but reporting the wasting of taxpayer money.

Drain the swamp my ass!

Donald Trump is thinking of publicly fighting the Stormy Daniels allegations. Yes please.

Courtesy of TPM: 

President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling over whether to maintain his silence on his alleged pre-presidency affairs with porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday. 

WSJ reports that Trump, who has previously denied the allegations, privately discussed with his advisers about the possibility of “publicly” fighting the allegations “on Twitter or elsewhere.”

Trump’s advisers reportedly assured him that “there is no sign the allegations are hurting him with voters” and that fighting back publicly “would look inappropriate for the President to engage in a public spat with.”

Please, what do lawyers know?

They should just let Trump be Trump.  Right?

Trump is also apparently telling people behind the scenes that this whole Stormy Daniels thing is nothing more than a political hoax. 

For his part Daniels' attorney is ready to throw down hard.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

“The president may be able to fire Mr. [Robert] Mueller and others who may challenge him, but he cannot fire me, or my client. We will not be going away any time soon,” Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, told The Daily Beast. “If they [in Trumpworld] are upset about what has transpired over the last two weeks, they are really going to be upset when they see what is going to transpire over the next few months—because the last two weeks haven’t been a warm-up lap.”

And Trump is actually very worried.

Inside the chronically chaos-driven Trump White House, Stormy Daniels is a high-profile hassle and headache that now must be managed on a daily basis. According to two sources familiar with the situation, the White House press operation has at least one person whose job it is to monitor the latest developments on the Daniels front.

As well he should be.

Note: (a) not all of our evidence will be mentioned/displayed tonight – that would be foolish; (b) we are not sure what CBS will include but we know a lot from the full interview will have to be cut bc of the time allowed; (c) tonight is not the end – it’s the beginning. #basta

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 25, 2018

Now THAT is the kind of lawyer Trump wishes he could get on his Russia legal team.

Still if Trump is such a bad ass then let him tackle this thing head on.

After all if he is going to be such a pussy about it then perhaps he will have to start grabbing himself.

All I know is that at around 6:00 PM Alaska time, I am going to be watching a certain porn star screw the president of the United States on national television.

If you do not want to wait that long here is a transcript of what she will say.

Figuratively speaking of course.

Here is a key portion:  

Anderson Cooper: He was showing you his own picture on the cover of a magazine. 

Stormy Daniels: Right, right. And so I was like, "Does this-- does this normally work for you?" And he looked very taken-- taken back, like, he didn't really understand what I was saying. Like, I was-- does, just, you know, talking about yourself normally work?" And I was like, "Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it." (LAUGH) And I'll never forget the look on his face. He was like-- 

Anderson Cooper: What-- what was his look? 

Stormy Daniels: Just, I don't think anyone's ever spoken to him like that, especially, you know, a young woman who looked like me. And I said, you know, "Give me that," and I just remember him going, "You wouldn't." "Hand it over." And-- so he did, and I was like, turn around, drop 'em." 

Anderson Cooper: You-- you told Donald Trump to turn around and take off his pants. 

Stormy Daniels: Yes. 

Anderson Cooper: And did he? 

Stormy Daniels: Yes. So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little -- you know had underwear on and stuff and I just gave him a couple swats.

Oh that is not going to go over very well with his base. 

Federal authorities charged three Trump supporters with bombing a mosque in Minnesota.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Federal authorities on Tuesday charged three men from rural central Illinois with the bombing of a Minnesota mosque last year and said one of the suspects told an investigator the goal of the attack was to “scare” Muslims out of the United States. 

A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield, Illinois, says the men also are suspected in the attempted bombing of an abortion clinic. The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, was bombed just before morning prayers on Aug. 5, causing a fire and extensive damage although no one was injured or killed. And there was an attempted bombing of the Champaign, Illinois, Women’s Health Practice on Nov. 7. 

One of the men, Michael B. Hari, 47, described in an April 2017 Chicago Tribune article how he drafted a $10 billion plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico, citing President Donald Trump’s call for such a wall. Hari drew up the proposal after launching a security company, Crisis Resolution Security Services, the newspaper said.

The other two men charged in the mosque bombing with Hari were identified as Joe Morris, 22, and Michael McWhorter, 29. All three are from Clarence, a rural community of less than 100 residents some 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Champaign-Urbana. A fourth man was charged with a gun offense, but he was not identified as a suspect in the bombing or attempted bombing.

Boy these Trump supporters seem like a nice bunch, don't they?

Screaming obscenities at brown people, bombing mosques, attacking people on social media, they are just brimming over with hostility for those who are not just like them.

Of course the worst thing they do is to vote.

Which is how we get so many ignorant, anti-science, xenophobes in positions of power.

The Stormy Daniels/Donald Trump legal agreement, may not in fact be legal, because it was never signed by a notary.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The Texas Secretary of State’s office is investigating the notary who stamped her approval on an adult film star’s non-disclosure agreement regarding an alleged fair with President Donald Trump, the Dallas Morning News reported Monday. 

By now, that agreement is well known: Porn actress Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, received $130,000 to stay mum about the alleged sexual relationship. Clifford has argued forcefully in recent weeks that she has the right to tell her story because Trump didn’t sign the document, and she’s launched a publicity tour reportedly to include a “60 Minutes” appearance. 

But the News reported Monday on yet another complication with the agreement: According to a letter from the Texas Secretary of State’s office obtained by the paper, Erica Jackson, the notary public whose stamp appears on the non-disclosure agreement, did not sign or date it. Jackson also failed provide a required notarial certificate confirming that the people signing the document were who they claimed to be, the letter said.

So Donald Trump never signed this document, and it was never legally notarized.

Well now, I'm no lawyer, but that sounds like somewhat of a problem. 

It's kind of like there is a race on to see whether Robert Mueller, or Stormy Daniels will be the first to take Trump down.

And yes, I think there is something that Daniels knows which might very well accomplish that very thing.

Don't worry that Donald Trump is upset about all of the negative press he is receiving. The only person who matters to him thinks he is doing just fine.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin lavished praise on President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been “eating itself up.” 

Speaking in an interview with the Russian state television, Putin described Trump as a great communicator. 

“I have no disappointment at all,” Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. “Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.” 

The two leaders met on the sidelines of international summits last year. Putin praised Trump as a “balanced” man, who easily gets into the gist of various issues and listens to his interlocutor. 

“It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin added.

Yeah I think that last line is Russian code for "The little bitch will do exactly what I fucking tell him to do."

Vladimir Putin famously does not like to compromise, and with Trump in the White House he does not feel he has to anymore.

Oh by the way in case you have not picked up on it, Trump does not work for us, he works for the Kremlin.

And EVERY SINGLE DAY that fact is reinforced by Trump's actions, as well as Putin's supportive comments.

Senator wants more information about the NRA's ties to Russian banks and Russian mobsters.

Source

Courtesy of TPM: 

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has sent a second letter to the NRA asking for details about the pro-gun lobbying group’s finances. The letter zeroes in on the group’s ties to Russian banker and accused mob boss Aleksandr Torshin, a longtime confidant of several consecutive NRA presidents and a “life member” of the group. 

The FBI is reportedly probing whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the NRA to help Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

The Wyden letter asks about the now-notorious trip to Moscow taken in 2015 by a number of NRA executives and supporters, including then-Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, as well about the NRA’s “Golden Ring of Freedom” program, reserved for million-dollar-plus donors. 

In one of the pictures tweeted by Torshin’s Russian gun-rights group, Right to Bear Arms, the head of the Golden Ring of Freedom program, Joe Gregory, can be seen in attendance. 

“Please identify the purpose of Mr. Gregory’s December 2015 trip to Moscow and confirm whether he attended in his capacity as the individual who runs your organization’s million dollar donor program,” Wyden wrote.

You know what, I'd like to know the answer to these questions as well.

But for right now I will simply assume that the NRA is a terrorist organization who receives financing from Russian mobsters.

And unlike what the NRA promotes, I bet this is not simply a conspiracy theory.

Armed Right Wing militia members planning to hang around schools to "protect" them from lunatics with guns. Umm......

Courtesy of TPM: 

Imagine if every school campus in the United States had its own volunteer security officer: a former police officer or military veteran equipped with an assault rifle. 

That’s the dream of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. 

In the wake of the February 14 massacre at a Parkland, Florida high school, Rhodes is calling on members of his far-right anti-government militia group to serve as unpaid and unaccountable armed school guards — whether teachers and students like the idea or not. 

One Indiana Oath Keeper has already deployed to a local school, even though the school district says there’s no need for him to be there. 

Rhodes wants the military and police veterans who make up Oath Keepers’ membership to volunteer for unpaid, rotating shifts at schools of all levels, and colleges, throughout the country. He and two other representatives of the fringe militia community will hold a webinar Monday night where they plan to encourage Oath Keepers to station themselves at schools “to protect the children against mass murder, and to help train the teachers and staff.” 

“I think it’s essential,” Rhodes told TPM in a Monday phone call. “It’s part of our responsibility to do what we can.”

Of all of the extremely bad ideas I have heard this week, this might be the worst.

Some of these Rambo wannabes are just about as unhinged as the school shooters themselves, and having them racing into a school building full of children with their weapon drawn every time a car backfires is a terrifying thought indeed.

And can you imagine the police showing up and finding TWO assault weapon carrying individuals in the building decked out in camouflage clothing? Who would they shoot first?

No the answer is LESS guns, not MORE assault rifle toting idiots.

NRA claims they will participate in tonight's town hall discussion on gun control. Really? Update!

"I’m not a crisis actor. I’m somebody that had to witness this and live through this and I continue to have to do that," says Florida student David Hogg in response to conspiracy theories being written about him https://t.co/JruN0GWMRD https://t.co/j8VoIwj4ma

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 21, 2018

Courtesy of TPM: 

The National Rifle Association will participate in a town hall discussion on gun laws and last week’s Florida school shooting, which will be hosted by CNN on Wednesday evening. 

The NRA’s national spokeswoman Dana Loesch will represent the organization at the discussion with parents and students, CNN reported. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), as well as Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), have also told CNN they will be in attendance. The discussion will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday. 

Loesch said she decided to attend because she’s “always been about more discussion, not less” and she hopes to be able to “offer some solutions as to what people can actually do to prevent these things from happening in the future.” 

“I just hope that people are respectful and that it’s a civil discussion,” she told NRA TV. “We’re not going to get anywhere in this country by screaming at people and impugning their characters simply because they believe as they do. … I hope we can be respectful and have a civil debate without anyone screaming murderer at me.”

Wait, they're sending Dana Loesch?

THIS Dana Loesch?

Is that really the MOST rational person the NRA can find to represent them?

Well she better pack a lunch because this is who she will be facing off against.

Delaney Tarr, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student: "We've had enough of thoughts and prayers... so this is to every lawmaker out there... we are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action, demanding that you make a change." (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/5CLQTyJPDu

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 21, 2018

As I a rule I do not bet, but if I did I would be putting the whole pile on that young lady.

Maybe she is not armed with military style weapons or armor piercing bullets, but she clearly has a conceal carry permit for the truth.

Update: My favorite part so far.

Marco Rubio and Trump are called pathetic and weak by father who lost his daughter in Stoneman Douglas shooting. #Rubio pic.twitter.com/g9Jp5CeZfJ

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 22, 2018

Rubio is getting filleted out there. 

Update 2: Changed my mind, THIS my favorite part so far.

Student to Rubio: “Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?” Audience at CNN town hall erupts in cheers. #StudentsStandUp

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) February 22, 2018

I think Rubio peed a little at that question.

It turns out that the Florida school shooter received some of his training from the NRA.

Cruz wearing his beloved MAGA hat in his backyard.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The troubled teen authorities say killed 17 people at a Florida high school excelled in an air-rifle marksmanship program supported by a grant from the National Rifle Association Foundation, part of a multimillion-dollar effort by the gun group to support youth shooting clubs. 

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was wearing a maroon shirt with the logo from the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when he was arrested Wednesday shortly after the shooting. Former JROTC cadets told The Associated Press that Cruz was a member of the small varsity marksmanship team that trained together after class and traveled to other area schools to compete. 

“He was a very good shot,” said Aaron Diener, 20, who gave Cruz a ride to shooting competitions when they were part of the same four-member team in 2016. “He had an AR-15 he talked about, and pistols.” 

The JROTC marksmanship program used air rifles special-made for target shooting, typically on indoor ranges at targets the size of a small coin. Records show that the Stoneman Douglas JROTC program received $10,827 in non-cash assistance from the NRA’s fundraising and charitable arm in 2016, when Cruz was on the squad.

Well gee that is very helpful.

Not only is the NRA working to put more guns in the hands of the mentally ill, but they are even training them to be more effective killers.

P.S. By the way for all of the people who are unconvinced that Cruz was a Trump supporter, Snopes has you covered.

And if you remain unconvinced of his racism, well this should put that to rest. 

It is always been about abortion.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Republicans who control a majority of the nation’s statehouses are considering a wide range of abortion legislation that could test the government’s legal ability to restrict a woman’s right to terminate pregnancy. 

The Mississippi House passed a bill Friday that would make the state the only one to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In Missouri, lawmakers heard testimony earlier in the week on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. 

The Ohio House is expected to consider bills, already passed in the Senate, that would prohibit the most common type of procedure used to end pregnancies after 13 weeks and require that fetal remains be buried or cremated. 

Abortion is a perennial hot button issue in statehouses across the country. Republican-controlled states have passed hundreds of bills since 2011 restricting access to the procedure while Democratic-led states have taken steps in the other direction. 

The early weeks of this year’s state legislative sessions have seen a flurry of activity around the issue. It comes as activists on both sides say they expect the U.S. Supreme Court to soon consider a question that remains unclear: How far can states go in restricting abortion in the interest of preserving and promoting fetal life?

If you have been banging your head on the wall trying to figure out how in the hell the Evangelical community could possibly still support a thrice married pussy grabber, who screwed a porn star right after his third wife gave birth to his son, this is your answer. 

The holy grail for religious conservatives is to do away with Roe vs Wade.

To that end they will literally excuse ANYBODY'S behavior.

Are you a womanizer? No problem if you are "pro-life."

Are you secretly a spy for the Kremlin? Not our business so long as you think abortion is murder.

Are you a tax evader, a wife beater, or accused of a Federal crime? Hey, only God can judge all of that, so long as you believe that a woman's greatest role in life is as breeding stock for white Christian babies.

Nothing else, and I mean NOTHING else, really matters.

In the wake of the government shutdown Trump campaign releases ad which accuses Democrats of being complicit with murderers. Because you know, that's helpful.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The Trump campaign on Saturday released a new campaign ad calling congressional Democrats “complicit” in all murders committed by undocumented immigrants. The spot seems unlikely to ease tensions on Capitol Hill as the Senate tries to negotiate a compromise on the fate of the 700,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children in order to reopen the shuttered federal government. 

“Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants,” a narrator says, as images of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) appear on the screen. 

The 30-second ad blames Democrats for endorsing these acts of “pure evil” by refusing to allow President Donald Trump to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

WTF? No, seriously WTF?

How is there any hope of negotiating a deal to keep the government working when you accuse one side of supporting murder?

By the way in 2017 there were 15,582 gun related deaths in this country.

Many of which may have been prevented with stronger background checks, and stricter gun laws.

Does this mean the party of the NRA, you know the Republicans, are complicit in all of those murders, suicides, and accidental shootings?

Because you know if we're going to start pointing fingers.

Trump's first year in office saw 3.2 million more Americans without health insurance.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Over the course of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, the number of Americans without health insurance increased 1.3 percent—with 3.2 million more people uninsured, according to Gallup-Sharecare’s latest tracking report published Tuesday. 

It’s the largest one-year increase in the uninsured population since Gallup-Sharecare began the survey in 2008. 

The study noted “several factors” swelling the ranks of the uninsured, from increased premiums caused by insurance companies dropping out of the individual market to uncertainty around whether the Trump administration would enforce the individual mandate’s penalty for forgoing health insurance. Exacerbating both factors, the GOP-controlled Congress repealed the individual mandate in December, which is expected to hike premiums by an additional 10 percent or more. 

Premiums also went up significantly in 2017 when the Trump administration cut off cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies, though the vast majority of people on the individual market were shielded from the increase by a bump in their federal tax credits. 

Though the uninsured rate remains well below the high of 18 percent—the year before the Affordable Care Act went into effect—the increase in 2017 is the first reversal of several years of decline. And Gallup-Sharecare predict that the trend will continue, with more people dropping or losing their insurance coverage in the years to come.

Gee, who would have thought that constantly attacking Obamacare without having a better plan to take its place would have such a negative effect?

Oh that's right, the almost 66 million people who voted for his opponent.

Russian social media giant cooperating with the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning communications between Trump campaign and Russian nationals.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The Russian social media giant Vkontakte has given information to Senate investigators about contacts between an executive at the company and the Trump campaign, TPM has learned. 

The Russian tech firm appears to be cooperating with the Senate Judiciary Committee by providing documents related to communication between Russian nationals and Dan Scavino, a Trump campaign staffer who now works as the White House social media director. 

Vkontakte, a social network similar to Facebook, ranks as the most popular website in Russia and is owned by the publicly traded Mail.Ru. 

The nature of the documents obtained by the Committee isn’t clear, but previous reports in the press have detailed emails exchanged in 2016 between Konstantin Sidorkov, VKontakte’s director of partnership marketing, and Scavino.

Apparently Vkontakte is the Russian version of Facebook, and it is huge over there.

That sound you hear is the noose tightening even more.

Men accused of plotting to blow up a mosque in Kansas want to make sure that there are trump voters on the jury.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Three men accused of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali refugees asked a federal judge Friday to include prospective jurors from rural western Kansas because they are twice as likely to have voted for President Donald Trump.

A defense motion argues that plans to only summon citizens in the more urban counties closest to the federal courthouse in Wichita is a discriminatory practice that excludes rural and conservative jurors. The trial begins March 19.

Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights for allegedly planning to detonate truck bombs in the meatpacking town of Garden City the day after the November 2016 election. Wright also faces a charge of lying to the FBI. 

The three men, who were indicted in October 2016, have pleaded not guilty.“This case is uniquely political because much of the anticipated evidence will center around, and was in reaction to, the 2016 Presidential election,” defense attorneys wrote. 

They also argued the case will require jurors to weigh whether the alleged conduct constitutes a crime or whether it is constitutionally protected speech and assembly and the right to bear arms.

So to be clear the argument here seems to be that they want Trump voters on the jury because they believe that they are more likely to see a plan to blow up a mosque full of innocent Muslims as not so much an act of terrorism, as a simple use of their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights.

And the truly troubling part is that they are probably not wrong about how those Trump voters will see this.

P.S. Yes you have read about this case before.

It's official, Senator Al Franken is resigning. Update!

"For a decade now, every time I would get tired or discouraged or frustrated, I would think about the people I was doing this for, and it would get me back up on my feet... I would do it all over again in a heartbeat." pic.twitter.com/wEI4EkMQ9s

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 7, 2017

Courtesy of TPM:

After eight women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment over the past few weeks, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) took to the Senate floor Thursday morning announcing his resignation from his Senate in the “coming weeks.” 

“Serving in the United States Senate has been the honor of my life,” Franken said, choking up as he read his remarks, and vowing to stay active in public life. “I may be resigning my seat, but I’m not giving up my voice.” 

With his staff lining the wall of the Senate chamber, waving at him in support, and several of his Democratic colleagues watching his remarks with grim expressions, Franken noted that “all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously,” but claimed that “many” of the allegations against him are false. 

“I know who I really am,” Franken declared. 

In a brief speech that swung between contrition and frustration, the Minnesota senator noted bitterly that accused abusers in the Republican Party, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and President Trump himself, have yet to pay a political price. 

“I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said, seconds after announcing his resignation.

I am heartbroken about this.

Even though I recognize that there really is no choice here. 

Update; The most important part of Al Franken's resignation speech.

"There is some irony in the fact that I am leaving" while Trump sits in oval office, and Roy Moore has support of GOP - Sen. Al Franken resigning from office pic.twitter.com/1YHkMc7veU

— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) December 7, 2017