It’s a busy Sunday. WWWendy is due in half an hour, and we have lots to do, including the dreaded task. With the return of the heat, the TomCat is fouler than normal. It’s a little slow for news, but I was able to find enough material. Sunday hugs!
Wendy left a few minutes ago, and I’m pooped!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:24 (average 6:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From CNN: As President Donald Trump’s legal team continued its will-he-or-won’t-he dance this week on a sit-down interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, a federal judge in Washington issued a tome on why Mueller’s appointment was rock-solid in the first place.
Chief Judge Beryl Howell’s decision is not entirely novel; it falls in line with two other district court judges in DC and Virginia who have rejected challenges to Mueller’s appointment. But her robust analysis guts a potential avenue for Trump’s defense team at a critical time, as the President calls for the probe to end, his lawyers continue to negotiate over the scope of an interview, and speculation mounts about whether Mueller will ultimately serve Trump with a subpoena to testify.
Legal experts say that while Trump’s legal team still has other arguments to make on why he should not have to sit down with the special counsel, the door on challenging Mueller’s legitimacy appears to be nearly closed.
Anything that tightens the Fuhrer’s noose is fine with me. Click through for details about the decision. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Think Progress: A federal judge slammed the Trump administration’s foot-dragging in reuniting parents and young children separated under the government’s harsh immigration policies, calling the slow progress in reunifying families “unacceptable.”
Judge Dana Sabraw rejected the administration’s efforts to pass the task of reuniting immigrant parents and children to the American Civil Liberties Union, saying in a hearing conducted by telephone late Friday that the government is “100 percent” responsible for bringing back together the families that it ripped apart with its “zero tolerance” policy.
What nerve! Racist Republicans want ACLU donors to pay for the effect of the Republican hate crime, so they can spend the money on welfare for billionaires. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Axios: President Trump tweeted Sunday morning [Liar delinked] about the now-infamous June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and Trump campaign officials, including his son, Donald Trump Jr.
"Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"
Why it matters: Trump and his son have repeatedly changed their stance on the purpose of the 2016 meeting. In a statement to The New York Times last July, which investigators now know was dictated by President Trump, Don Jr. said the meeting was primarily about Russian adoptions. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has also claimed that the president approved the meeting ahead of time. [emphasis original]
There WAS collusion! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/5/2018”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
So the door on challenging Mueller’s probe is nearly closed. That is one door that needs to be slammed shut and locked, and a chair put up against it.
No good government cruelly separates children from their parents just because they are immigrants. What’s worse is, greedy communication companies are charging parents as much as $8 a call when parents talk to their kids. That is THEFT!
The Orange Ogre isn’t fooling anybody. He’s in with Russians up to his armpits. The only way to save this country – at least by legal and peaceful means – is to make sure that the Blue Wave materializes. Only a massive sweep of Congress will give Hoi Polloi back at least some of their voice in Congress. Make sure you are registered to vote, make sure other Progressives are registered, and above all, cast an informed ballot in November!
CNN: Yea…things aren’t looking so rosy in the WH these days, now are they? Justice will prevail !! YAY!!
PR: I can’t even fathom the agony and desperation of those parents, and the children separated. Shame on the Republicons for doing this in the first place. Absolutely horrible
Axios: How in the ‘sam hell’ can he keep track of all his lies?? Says one thing, says another. What a schmuck!
Cartoon: Yep, he wasn’t. “Such a nature was admirably constituted to direct an heroic struggle on the part of a people proud enough to prefer a guide to a leader, a man commissioned to execute the popular will but, as in his case, strong enough to enforce his own.” The Marquis de Chambrun
HI, WWWendy! Hope that you get a chance to sit and relax this evening. Take care, and Thanks, Tom.
7:00 Succulent, but probably not that tasty.
CNN – Good for Judge Howell. Gee, this might be a good time to share a piece of satire I’ve been saving [from the PEN]:
TP – Actually the ACLU might be the most competent body in the nation to get the job done … but the regime should be required to pay for it twice over.
Axios – Riiiiight. Is that the most lies in one tweet that has yet been achieved? It couldn’t have been done in 140 characters, I suspect. lucky for him it’s up to 280.
Cartoon – I’m not going there.
Question 1 alone could take two hours, couldn’t it.
It could take until 11/2020
CNN: Sounds good to me. Sadly, for Donny boy, the laws and regulations appear to be firmly set up in such a way as to avoid their being gamed.
TP: What Joanne said!
Axios: That’s the problem with lying, one must recall every single lie, in order to not show oneslf up as an a**hole!
Dear Twitler:
Whatever you do – PLEASE keep Tweeting!
You’re making Mr. Mueller’s job SO MUCH easier!
CNN: Really? Miller has dared to argue (again) that that Mueller was not nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to conduct an independent investigation into collusion with the Russians and that same president’s obstruction of justice? They actually argued that because it is an independent investigation Mueller was therefore unconstitutionally appointed as a “principal officer.” How desperate must Drumpf’s legal team be to sink so low? They’re not grasping at straws, they’re grasping at single hairs and their arguments, meant to delay Mueller’s investigation even further, are becoming an affront to Chief Judge’s like Beryl Howell.
But for posterity’s sake, Judge Howell took this just as serious as two of her colleagues before her and slapped Miller’s argument down with 92 pages of solid juridical reasoning. Kudos to you, Ms. Howell.
TP: Another judge slaps the government on the wrist for further delaying and trying to pass off reuniting parents and young children separated under the government’s harsh immigration policies it was and remains solely responsible for. Great. But what are the consequences of this slap and the ones before it? The government just keeps dragging its feet and trying to make someone else responsible. What does it take to make heads roll over this?
Axios: Let’s hope his legal team keeps convincing Drumpf that he, his sons and his co-conspirators did nothing illegal as long as they keep calling it collusion, which never happened either of course, and let Drumpf keep spilling the beans in tweets until Mueller slaps a number of indictments for conspiracy and treason on him. Drumpf’s stupidity is truly boundless.
Puzzle — 6:49 These look like what we call hen and chicks, a succulent. If they aren’t, they are likely from the same family. My grandfather had some in his garden.
CNN — Kudos to Chief Judge Beryl Howell for declaring Mueller’s investigation righteous! Enough of this horse pucky of negotiating the scope etc of questions! It has gone on for far too long, I am sure on purpose by the Diaper Don legal team. Issue a subpoena! Nobody should be above the law! Nobody should be exempt from testifying, including the WHROTUS, although I am sure that Diaper Don’s legal beagles will argue he is above the law as WHROTUS. So much for DD’s claim that the US is a nation of laws. Yet another lie? WHROTUS, prove that the US is a nation of laws by letting Mueller complete the investigation unmolested AND answering his questions! [Rant over!]
Think Progress — Kudos to federal Judge Dana Sabraw for calling out WHROTUS for trying to pass off the responsibility for family reunification to the ACLU. The unmitigated gall of Diaper Don to pass on HIS responsibility is totally unacceptable. I am sure that the ACLU could and would do a better job, but it is not their responsibility. If they have the resources needed, they should be contracted by the régime to complete the task and paid accordingly, including all out-of-pocket expenses, although we all know how DD pays his contractors. It needs to have the backing of the Congress.
Axios — Collusion, thy name is Diaper Don!
Cartoon — No, not by current standards, but there had to be a way to pay for the Civil War brought on by the South which today is largely Republican. Unlike today’s Republicans ie Baby Bush, Lincoln was not going to engage in civil war on the country’s “credit card”. Three per cent is so much lower than today’s rates.
It is a statutory holiday here today so no doubt, a lot of people will be at the beaches or out on the ocean in their boats. It is hot again . . . ugh!!! Stay well hydrated everybody!
Thanks all! Hot as
Hugs!