The 122nd Week of the Decline of the Republic

[JackLuis]

Barr has only one chance to stop release of Flynn’s ‘smoking gun’ phone call transcripts: Ex-Watergate prosecutor

During an AM Joy panel discussion on the bombshell revelations that former Donald Trump appointee Michael Flynn was reportedly in contact by phone with one of the president’s attorneys while he was under investigation, a former Watergate prosecutor said Attorney General Bill Barr only has one way to stop the release of the transcripts.

Speaking with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Jill Wine-Banks said that Barr can’t rein in the judge, but can make it difficult for the court order to be obeyed.

“This judge,” Reid asked. “Can William Barr somehow stop that?”

“He cannot stop a judge from ordering it,” former prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks stated, before adding, “Can he stop the production of it? Well, he is still the boss of Mueller and it is Mueller that is being ordered to produce it”

Yes, Bill Barr can try to stop Muller from releasing the tapes, by Obstructing Justice!

 

[KeithD]

Yes, Bill Barr can try to stop Muller from releasing the tapes, by Obstructing Justice!

And why wouldn't he? They already are doing this regarding the taxes and the full Mueller report. We already are in an executive branch coup attempt.

 

[JackLuis]

Progressives demand House Dems hold Mnuchin in contempt for defying subpoena for Trump’s tax returns

Progressive groups on Friday called on House Democrats to hold Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Last week, as Common Dreams reported, after Mnuchin repeatedly rejected lawmakers’ request for six years of Trump’s tax returns, the House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed both Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

Nancy should open the House on Monday with a motion to hold, Barr, Mnuchin, and Trump in Contempt of Congress. She should also get the Committee Chairs to file charges with a Federal Court, carefully shopped to get an Obama Judge, to rule that Barr and Mnuchin are GUILTY of breaking the LAW, and remand their Asses to a correctional institution for reeducation until they can be found GUILTY and sentenced to 5 to Life!

But, she won't cause she is no Progressive.

 

[KeithD]

Progressives demand House Dems hold Mnuchin in contempt for defying subpoena for Trump’s tax returns



Nancy should open the House on Monday with a motion to hold, Barr, Mnuchin, and Trump in Contempt of Congress. She should also get the Committee Chairs to file charges with a Federal Court, carefully shopped to get an Obama Judge, to rule that Barr and Mnuchin are GUILTY of breaking the LAW, and remand their Asses to a correctional institution for reeducation until they can be found GUILTY and sentenced to 5 to Life!

But, she won't cause she is no Progressive.

The IRS commissioner too. Put the smoking iron, whether the DOJ enforces it or not, to every official breaching his/her responsibility to the balance of power. Brand them all.

 

[JackLuis]

The Damn Dam breaks!

Republican Congressman backing impeachment praised as ‘the first crack in the armor’ for Trump

Kellyanne Conway’s husband celebrates the first Republican to back Trump’s impeachment

Republican Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan was praised on Saturday for being the first GOP member of Congress to back impeachment.

“While impeachment should be undertaken only in extraordinary circumstances, the risk we face in an environment of extreme partisanship is not that Congress will employ it as a remedy too often but rather that Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct,” Amash argued. “America’s institutions depend on officials to uphold both the rules and spirit of our constitutional system even when to do so is personally inconvenient or yields a politically unfavorable outcome.”

At last a Responsible Republican, who can read, with more guts than Nancy Pelosi.

Republican Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) on Saturday called for Trump’s impeachment.

“Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report,” Amash noted. “President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.”

“I offer these conclusions only after having read Mueller’s redacted report carefully and completely, having read or watched pertinent statements and testimony, and having discussed this matter with my staff, who thoroughly reviewed materials and provided me with further analysis,” Amash said.

“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” he added. “In fact, Mueller’s report identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”

The Republican congressman also railed against the strategy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refuse impeachment.

“While impeachment should be undertaken only in extraordinary circumstances, the risk we face in an environment of extreme partisanship is not that Congress will employ it as a remedy too often but rather that Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct,” the Republican argued. “America’s institutions depend on officials to uphold both the rules and spirit of our constitutional system even when to do so is personally inconvenient or yields a politically unfavorable outcome.”

Conway gave the Republican congressman props for his stance.

Well, that is a good sign.

 

[JackLuis]

CNN’s conservative S.E. Cupp reads on air all the reasons why a GOP congressman says Trump must be impeached

RNC chair absolutely freaked out after Republican congressman explained why Trump must be impeached

Conservative writer predicts first GOP lawmaker to back impeachment is also going to challenge Trump in 2020

CNN's report is at the bottom here.

Sundays Talking Heads may explode tomorrow!

 

[JackLuis]

Fox News viewers unleash furious attacks on GOP’s Amash for impeachment talk: ‘This chump is toast’

Responding to a suprise tweetstorm from Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) late Saturday, saying President Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses without directly calling for impeachment, Fox News fans lit up the comments section on the network’s website calling for congressman to step down — along with some racist insults.

Yes the reaction of the RWNJ's is what you would expect. Ignorance of the facts and racist insults. Sounds familiar.

 

[JackLuis]

CNN conservative backs Amash’s Trump impeachment talk: ‘Anyone who is intellectually honest would say the same thing’

Appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, GOP strategist Tara Setmayer backed up Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) for his tweets saying Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses by saying that anyone can see that Amash is correct.

Speaking with “New Day” host Victor Blackwell, Setmayrer was critical of other Republicans who have remained silent.
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“I think it’s clear that the Republicans have been cowards to the point they have debased themselves in unprincipled ways that I don’t think a lot of us ever thought was possible — to pledge to Trump because they are afraid of losing an election,” she remarked before adding, “Justin Amash is in Michigan where Donald Trump is not very popular.”

The Sunday explosions begin!

Chuck Grassley is not too happy with the Trumpster's Trade War and his Farmers are rightly PISSED! How many Farm Belt Repug's are in the senate? They could be the wedge that splits Trumps establishment support?

 

[My I]

Ever thought about changing your name to Chicken Little? Would be appropriate for you.

 

[JackLuis]

‘LIE LIE LIE LIE’: George Conway expertly eviscerates Trump’s attack on Amash point-by-lying-point

As one might suspect, the husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway is in his glory after fellow conservative, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) accused Donald Trump of impeachable offenses.

After praising Amash on Saturday night, attorney George Conway was back at it on Sunday and with a lie-by-lie breakdown of Trump’s tweets attacking the Michigan Republican, after first asking (tongue-in-cheek, as if he didn’t know), “You never stop lying, do you?”

Trumpski Tweets, George Laughs!

 

[JackLuis]

Conservative rains holy hell on ‘Republican grovelers and quivering sycophants’ who are fleeing Amash to defend Trump

Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin — as big a “never-Trumper” as there is — was quick to call out the colleagues of Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) who turned on him or remained silent after the GOP lawmaker made the irrefutable case that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report showed Donald Trump committed impeachable crimes.

In a quickly put-together column for the Washington Post, Rubin ripped into representatives of the party she once belonged to, calling them both “grovelers” and “quivering sycophants” — neither a term of endearment.

She could have called them, ass licking cum sucking bastards, but didn't.

 

[JackLuis]

‘Eric the Slack-jawed and Princess Ivanka’: Rick Wilson hilariously pummels the entire Trump family –and the GOPers who worship them

In a brutally funny and sarcastic column for the Daily Beast, GOP consultant Rick Wilson called upon Republicans to give up even trying to appear to be anything other than Trump yes-men and, while he was at it, Wilson also mocked the faux-royal family of the president.

Under a Game of Thrones-inspired headline “Trump Is on the Iron Throne, and American Democracy Is Dead,” Wilson wrote, “For Republicans eager for the next, inevitable step of Trumpism and tired of some musty 240-year-old Constitution getting in the way of rallies, rage-tweeting and lib-owning, I’ve got a modest proposal: Why not end this republic, and launch a glorious new era of royals and royalty, where a man who behaves like a king can actually be one and govern as he desires?”

Wilson then finished with a bitter and damning flourish.

“And so, my Republican friends, it’s time to embrace monarchy. Let your id be your guide, your past be a memory, and Trump be your King. Bend the knee. You’ve gotten quite good at it.”

Rick didn't call Trumpites, Cum Sucking Ass Lickers, either!

 

[JackLuis]

Deutsche Bank analysts recommended Feds investigate possible Trump and Kushner money-laundering in 2016: report

The reports states, “The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.”

According to the Times, higher-ups at the bank that was deeply in bed with the two to the tune of billions of dollars in loans rejected their employees’ advice and the federal government was never alerted.

If only they had alerted the Treasury, G-Men!

Democratic lawmaker serves notice to Mnuchin that she will be coming after him when he testifies on Tuesday

Appearing on MSNBC with host Alex Witt, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) — a Harvard and Yale-educated attorney who recently taught law at UC-Irvine — said she will come prepared to put Mnuchin, who is refusing to turn over Trump’s tax returns in defiance of the law, on the spot.

Will there be Handcuffs?

 

[bodysong]

Jennifer Rubin points her readers in the direction of Rep. Justin Amash

(article title- "Why Justin Amash stands alone")

(He twittered the fuck out of the subject matter. I only included a few of them.)


Staunch libertarian Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Saturday said —
or rather, tweeted — what no other Republican member of Congress
has yet had the nerve to utter:

Justin Amash Verified Account
@justinamash

Here are my principal conclusions:
1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.
2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.
3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.
4. Few members of Congress have read the report.

12:30 PM - 18 May 2019


Justin Amash Verified Account
@justinamash Replying to @justinamash

I offer these conclusions only after having read Mueller’s
redacted report carefully and completely, having read or
watched pertinent statements and testimony, and having
discussed this matter with my staff, who thoroughly
reviewed materials and provided me with further analysis.

12:30 PM - 18 May 2019

Justin Amash Verified Account
@justinamash Replying to @justinamash

Our system of checks and balances relies on each branch’s
jealously guarding its powers and upholding its duties under
our Constitution. When loyalty to a political party or to an
individual trumps loyalty to the Constitution, the Rule of Law
—the foundation of liberty—crumbles.
12:30 PM - 18 May 2019

"They consider Republicans who’ve resisted Trump such as the Weekly Standard’s editors and writers, who refused to imbibe the Trump Kool-Aid and in the process lost their publication, to be fools, saps and fusspots upset about a few tweets, dumb lies and crass language."

- Jennifer Rubin

tRump's brand of "conservatism, " is not traditional Republican Conservatism.
People that cave in, and praise tRump, suddenly find available cash handed to them.
Publications find that there is an ocean of investors and supporters available for them.
Independent thoughts, and thinking for yourself, is not popular.

“The murderers are Philip Anschutz and Ryan McKibben. They could have sold the Weekly Standard. They refused to. Nothing like this has ever happened in my half-century of experience with publishing. There were buyers. Potential buyers… In September, Clarity Media told those looking for buyers to stand down. Why would a company not wish to entertain a potential sale? Because it wanted to kill the magazine and harvest it.”

Hayes—who has been the Standard’s top editor for the past two years, having taken over from Kristol when he became editor at large—predicted the Standard’s demise and partially blamed it, by implication, on the magazine’s persistent critiques of Trump.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-anti-trump-conservative-weekly-standard-bit-the-dust

 

[JackLuis]

‘They are nervous and they should be’: NYT reporter says Trump can’t afford to lose any more voters

President Donald Trump managed to win in 2016 due to some white voters who were willing to switch from voting for President Barack Obama to Trump. With the lack of results, many of those voters are turning to another candidate.

New York Times politics reporter Jeremy Peters, explained while talking about former Vice President Joe Biden, that Trump is likely the most afraid of that campaign in 2020.

The largest problem for Trump, according to Peters, comes from Pennsylvania and the new numbers that shows he’s struggling to maintain his 2016 support.

“Because Trump’s support with the kind of voters that allowed him to win Pennsylvania, these so-called Obama voters who voted for Obama twice and then Trump has declined,” he continued. “It’s still strong, at about two-thirds, but it was up near 85 near 90 percent right after the election. In an election that was decided by 77,000 votes, basically a hair, he can’t afford to lose any support.”

Demo's should do better in 2020 without their Hillary handicap in blue collar states. Trumpski has a problem in the farm states, the Tech States and the intellectual states. He has to win with Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Idaho.

 

[JackLuis]

News from Not-America

Saudi Arabia calls urgent summit with Gulf and Arab League leaders

Saudi Arabia has called for urgent meetings of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to discuss escalating tensions in the region, the kingdom’s official news agency said on Saturday.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said King Salman had invited Gulf leaders and Arab states to two emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss recent “aggressions and their consequences” in the region.

Saudi's about to Wag their Dog, Trumpski!

 

[JackLuis]

Trump freaks out over Deutsche Bank money-laundering bombshell in early morning tweetstorm

President Donald Trump lashed out against reporting about his suspicious transactions flagged by Deutsche Bank as potential money laundering.

The president attacked the newspaper that reported the concerns raised in 2016 and 2017, and denied that he had trouble getting loans from U.S. banks.

“The Failing New York Times (it will pass away when I leave office in 6 years), and others of the Fake News Media, keep writing phony stories about how I didn’t use many banks because they didn’t want to do business with me,” Trump tweeted. “WRONG! It is because I didn’t need money. Very old fashioned, but true. When you don’t need or want money, you don’t need or want banks.”

Oh Sure, Donald.

 

[JackLuis]

Mike Pence and his ‘Indiana mafia’ are reorganizing important safety net programs to push their religious agenda

Vice President Mike Pence and some of his longtime allies have been reorganizing the Department of Health and Human Services to promote their deeply conservative religious agenda — much to the delight of anti-abortion and anti-LGBT groups.

Pence and his “Indiana mafia,” according to one HHS official, have been working behind the scenes to defund Planned Parenthood, which he was unable to accomplish in Congress or as governor, reported Politico.

Two Words, Fuck Pence!

 

[JackLuis]

And in the other Corner!

Here’s how the Dems could cripple Trump in 2020 — even without impeachment hearings

In a column for the Daily Beast, longtime political analyst Michael Tomasky said senior Democrats may be right that impeachment hearings would be fruitless with a Republican-held Senate unlikely to proceed against Donald Trump — but suggested there are other hearings that could be used to boot the president from the Oval Office.

As the columnist projects, “So they open impeachment hearings, and… the Trump White House puts up the same stone wall it has already erected with regard to answering subpoenas and so on. So no documents are procured, and no one shows up to testify. Judiciary Committee Republicans boycott the whole thing.”

Tomasky suggested a three-prong approach that could force Trump out via the ballot box in 2020.

“First, they absolutely have to get Robert Mueller up there as soon as possible. It seems that Bill Barr is somehow delaying his departure from Justice Department employment, and that Mueller is being passive about this. They really need to work Mueller to get him to close down his office and leave the department and get up there,” he wrote.

“If they can’t get any witnesses from the administration to come before them, produce expert witnesses of their own,” Tomasky advised. “Get a parade of legal and constitutional scholars up there.”

“They need common talking points that emphasize that Trump has obstructed justice and is subverting the Constitution right now in refusing to answer subpoenas. Nancy Pelosi shouldn’t pooh-pooh impeachment. I happen to agree with her politically under present conditions, but even so, she is the leader of the House Democrats. She (and others) shouldn’t say things that depress the base,” he wrote, before concluding Democrats should not hope for help from the courts anytime soon.

“At some point, the Democrats are going to need a court, ideally the Supreme Court, to say that Trump must honor their subpoenas. Then they get to question Don McGahn and others, and it’s a new ball game,” he wrote. “Until then, there are going to be a lot of frustrating weeks. But Democrats have a big power: the power of the gavel. They need to use it.”

Okay Nancy, the ball is in your court, Hold the All the Ass holes in Contempt of Congress already, Send out subpoenas by the truck load and send your lawyers to court to engage the Judiciary, send the Sgt at Arms to arrest the bastards if they don't honour the subpoenas.

Just start DOING IT!

 

[JackLuis]

More News From Not-America

Tehran says Trump’s ‘genocidal taunts won’t end Iran’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday the “genocidal taunts” of US President Donald Trump will not “end Iran”, as tensions spike between the two countries.

“Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. Economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran’,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

US media reports say Trump’s hawkish national security advisor John Bolton is pushing for war with Iran, but others in the administration are resisting.

Zarif’s tweet said Trump is being “goaded by B Team,” a term he coined to refer to Bolton as well as Israel’s prime minister and the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates who are all pushing a hard line on Tehran.

Bolton is Revoltin'!

 

[JackLuis]

How Deutsche Bank covered up for Trump and Kushner

As the LSM continues to beat this horse, with click bait, The do pointout how DB and DJT are alike. They both down play their fuckery.

Deutsche Bank was aware of potentially suspicious financial activity from the accounts of President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner but did not draw attention to the transactions, according to a new report.
-
[As the Times reported in March, “Deutsche Bank officials have quietly argued to regulators, lawmakers and journalists that Mr. Trump was not a priority for the bank or its senior leaders and that the lending was the work of a single, obscure division. But interviews with more than 20 current and former Deutsche Bank executives and board members, most of them with direct knowledge of the Trump relationship, contradict the bank’s narrative.”

"Trump? we hardly knew him."

MFG, do they expect us to believe that the man they loaned hundreds of millions to was not on their radar?

 

[JackLuis]

Former GOP governor blasts Trump for gutting policies just because they belonged to Obama

President Donald Trump has made it his central mission to gut signature Obama-era policies, from the Affordable Care Act to the Iran-nuclear deal. The Republican leadership has largely embraced the president’s efforts to undo the accomplishments of his predecessor.

Speaking on CNN Monday, Ohio’s former Republican Governor John Kasich, chided the GOP for its attacks on good policies just because they’re associated with Barack Obama.

“There was no violation of the Iran nuclear agreement,” Kasich said. He noted that America’s European allies were making sure Iran sticks to the terms of the agreement.

“The president ignored the whole thing,” Kasich noted.

“Now we withdrew and it’s possible that they’ll restart their program,” Kasich said, visibly fired up.

While I'd never vote for Kasich, I do agree with him that the Iran Deal was better than the No Deal that Trump has left us with.

 

[JackLuis]

Federal prosecutors are combing through a massive treasure trove of Trump inauguration documents: CNN

Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York are combing through a giant stash of documents related to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, reports CNN’s Kara Scannell.

According to Scannell, prosecutors in New York have obtained “tens of thousands” of inauguration-related documents, which she describes as “a sign that the investigation into the committee’s finances is advancing.”

As someoneyouknow reported, Trump Org's Finances are going to the House
Federal judge sides with House Oversight Democrats on subpoena for Trump financial records

The New York has offered Trumps State Tax records to Congress so Lumpy has totally, biggly LOST his ass.

How long before Trumpski goes completely bizzaro and starts the war that the Saudi's are pushing him for?

 

[JackLuis]

Trump holds MAGA rally in Pennsylvania as polls show his numbers collapsing in the state

President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday as polling shows his support collapsing in the key state he needs to win in 2020.

Of concern to Trump is a recent poll showing that former Vice President Joe Biden holds a stunning 11-point lead in a head-to-head matchup should Biden become the Democratic nominee.

‘You’ve got a thing called the sun’: Trump whines the lights are too bright at his Pennsylvania campaign rally

Trumpski gathers his MAGAts and then says the lights are too bright, you can see what he is doing to the country!

 

[JackLuis]

‘I never want to be called a loser’: Trump reveals his politically insecurity at Pennsylvania rally

Trump traveled to the state for a special Congressional election, campaigning for Republican state representative Fred Keller, who is facing Penn State professor Marc Friedenberg, the Democratic nominee.

“Get out tomorrow, it is a little bit of a referendum, you know people are watching the race,” he said.

“We have to get Fred in there tomorrow,” he argued.

“If he wins they won’t report it, if he loses, it will be the greatest story in the history of our country,” Trump worried. “We don’t want that.”

“You’ve got to make sure he wins, please,” Trump said.

“Do you know, what they will say? ‘President Trump came to Pennsylvania and he went back home — a loser,'” he warned.

“I never want to be called a loser,” Trump said.

Get ready for disappointment, LOSER!