Let’s face it, the news has been kind of a bummer. The crazy orange blowhard will just never stop being a crazy orange blowhard and his minions will continue to either provide complete cover for “it”, legal or not, or they will whine in public while they drink the Kool Aide in private.
Sorry but barrstard and tangerine tool win. I loved this diary if you don’t I am ok with that. It made the diaries of the week by Carolyn Fiddler.
I just feel it is so true, “it” wants to stoke fear in our hearts but what stokes fear in “it’s” dark soul is being thought of as the clown that “it” is.
Thank you EagleOfFreedom for letting me share.
Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee requested information Tuesday related to President Donald Trump’s reported offer to pardon a top border official if he acted illegally to block asylum seekers.
Multiple media outlets reported Friday that Trump earlier this month told Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan he'd pardon him if he broke the law to deny migrants the ability to petition for asylum.
In a letter to McAleenan, Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats asked the new acting secretary to turn over a list of all DHS employees present during a meeting with Trump in Calexico, Calif., where the pardon exchange reportedly took place. The lawmakers also said the list should include individuals McAleenan told about the encounter.
Nadler, along with Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), wrote the reported pardon “follows a troubling pattern of conduct.” The lawmakers said the alleged conversation suggests Trump “views the pardon power as a political tool, or even worse, as an expedient mechanism for circumventing the law or avoiding the consequences of his own conduct.”
House committees subpoena Trump's bank records
Two House committees have issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions for information on President Donald Trump’s finances.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said they're pursuing the information as part of their investigation into "allegations of potential foreign influence on the U.S. political process," adding that the committees issued a “friendly subpoena” to Deutsche Bank, which has longstanding ties to the president.
House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said: “The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern. The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the President and his associates, as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us."
In my opinion it is only a matter of time. I know they are pulling their rethug actions and they can try and continue to hide but the seekers will win in the long run.
Speaking of opinions, this piece at the Daily Beast gives me hope that the end of times for the clown will be nigh.
Here’s How the House Can Finally Nail Trump
President Trump may complain on Twitter or Fox News that congressional investigations are a “partisan witch hunt,” “presidential harassment,” and a “disgrace,” but few judges will want to hear it.
House Democrats need not ask meekly for information about Trump’s finances and the Mueller report and accept whatever Trump voluntarily provides. The power of the House and of the Senate to compel the disclosure of documents and testimony to inform the exercise of their constitutional powers is very, very well-established. “The power of the Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad,” the Supreme Court said in Barenblatt v. United States. “It encompasses inquiries concerning the administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possibly needed statutes.”
House Democrats need not have particular legislation in mind to investigate Trump’s finances or the Mueller Report. It is not at all difficult to imagine legislation that Congress might consider to remedy “defects in our social, economic or political system” that the investigations might reveal.
Trump and his political allies promise to fight congressional investigations tooth and nail, and say that their legal challenges will block any disclosures until well after the 2020 election. Trump argues that any supposed legislative purpose is a “pretext,” and House Democrats just want to inflict political damage.
The courts recognize a “presumption of the validity of government proceedings,” so that “When a committee of Congress is engaged in a legitimate legislative inquiry and the questions propounded are relevant and material to the inquiry, the courts will not question the motives of the questioner.”
In other words, if Congress has a valid legislative purpose for an investigation but also has political motives, then so what? When does Congress not have political motives?
Trump’s “pretext” argument is legally flimsy, and maybe frivolous. It’s all he’s got.
Some good old fashioned snark from Wonkette
Trump Lawyers: Trump Accountants Will Sleep With The Fishes
Donald Trump's attorneys are freaking the f*ck out. We're not sure what's in those financials, but the president's lawyers are currently threatening to sue his accountants if they comply with a congressional subpoena and hand 'em over. Probably just because Trump is a modest, retiring man, loath to brag about his net worth and extensive philanthropic giving. Right? Well, it looks like we may be about to find out, since three House Committees dropped subpoenas yesterday, and a fourth appears poised to go to court with the Treasury over Trump's tax returns.
Let's start in the Ways and Means Committee, which has already told IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig to cough 'em up. In reply, Trump's newest lawyer on the block William Consovoy sent this batshit letter to the Treasury Department, mansplaining how complying with the plain language of the law is actually ILLEGAL, so giving Trump's returns to Congress is just like pissing on the flag while taking an oath to al Qaeda!
Lotsa luck suing your accountants for "illegally" abiding by the law fellas. Which is more or less what Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings said in a memo Friday, announcing his intention to issue Mazars a "friendly" subpoena -- i.e. requested by the recipient to give him legal cover to breach whatever professional obligation he has not to disclose. The company has indicated it intends to comply with the request for 10 years of Trump's financial documents relating to his businesses, taxes, revocable trust, loan applications, and charitable foundation. Which will totally exonerate the president, you bet!
Bahahaha! Is there a real live brain cell in the drumpf world? Yeah I know I have the answer.
This. Is. Hysterical. Anyone feel fees fees for them?
White House officials concerned about being exposed by Mueller report
Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller are worried that the version of his report expected to be made public on Thursday will expose them as the source of damaging information about President Donald Trump, according to multiple witnesses in the investigation.
Some of the officials and their lawyers have sought clarity from the Justice Department on whether the names of those who cooperated with Mueller’s team will be redacted or if the public report will be written in a way that makes it obvious who shared certain details of Trump’s actions that were part of the obstruction of justice probe, people familiar with the discussions said. But, they said, the Justice Department has refused to elaborate.
Of particular concern is how Trump — and his allies — will react if it appears to be clear precisely who shared information with Mueller, these people said.
“You have a whole bunch of former White House officials and current White House officials, but especially former White House officials, who were told to cooperate,” the former White House official said. “So people went and did that, and now the uncertainty is just how much of that information is going to be in that report and how identifiable to individuals is it going to be. And nobody knows.”
Awww, let’s all have a sad, not.
Moving on.
I have to admit after attending Catholic schools I really took myself away from organized religion for some time. Then when I had children I tried to be the “good” parent and did all the right and expected things. As my children grew up and made their own decisions, so did I. But watching the news of Notre Dame yesterday still affected me.
France’s Macron Pledges To Restore Notre Dame Within 5 Years
French President Emmanuel Macron told a grieving nation that he aims to restore the Notre Dame cathedral within five years after a monstrous fire tore through the historic monument on Monday.
“We will rebuild Notre-Dame because that is what the French expect,” Macron said of the more than 850-year-old Gothic icon in his Tuesday afternoon address, adding that it will be “even more beautiful.”
“We can do this,” he vowed. Notre Dame took around 180 years to build after the original foundation was laid in 1163.
I certainly hope so.
Small steps for environment but still good news.
Plummeting battery prices to make electric cars cheaper than gas cars in 3 years
Batteries have been getting smaller and cheaper so much faster than expected that the experts at Bloomberg... have had to revise their own projections for electric vehicles every year.
BNEF projected in 2017 that “the crossover point when electric vehicles will be cheaper upfront than a combustion vehicle” would be 2026 (nine years), BNEF energy analyst Nathaniel Bullard tweeted last week.
But things have changed quickly since then and the timeframe has narrowed significantly: in 2018, it was 2024 (six years), and now, in 2019, BNEF projects the crossover point will be 2022 — just three years away.
That’s because EVs are already superior to gasoline cars in many key respects: they have faster acceleration, much lower maintenance costs, zero tail-pipe emissions, and a much lower per-mile fueling cost than petrol cars , even when running on carbon-free fuel.
Very cool.
This is a long read but plastics are such a environmental problem and this is an amazing potential solution.
The race to save the planet from plastic
Sometime between 2010 and 2015, a tiny organism with an unusual appetite made a home in an industrial site near a bottle-recycling plant in Sakai, Japan.
The site, located by a bustling port in one of the most urbanized, densely populated regions in the world, wasn’t exactly hospitable. The soil and water were contaminated with a complex unnatural substance only humans could have created: polyethylene terephthalate. Also known as PET, it’s one of the most common plastics in the world. PET is used to make soda bottles, space blankets, blister packs, food containers, magnetic tape, shirts, and dresses. It’s cheap, durable, and flexible, but it can also linger for years.
Amid this plastic wasteland, a new bacterium species, Ideonella sakaiensis, took root. Scientists prospecting for traces of life at the recycling facility named it after the city where it was found. And in 2016, they reported that the hot dog-shaped microorganism wasn’t just surviving; it was thriving.
The bacterium had figured out how to do something that humans have struggled to do for decades. Ideonella sakaiensis could break PET down and use the plastic for energy.
Is this the ultimate answer, no, but at least we are trying to fight and this helps to make us more aware of our habits, bad and good.
This has been hovering around the net for several days but I still had to share it here.
3 Captivating Bald Eagle Co-parents Are Raising A Family Together
An intriguing threesome of two male bald eagles and one female are raising a set of eaglets together to the delight of admirers.
Eagle trios are rare, but they do happen. The two males in this case, Valor I and Valor II, had previously been part of a trio with a female named Hope. But she went missing in 2017, and the two Valors partnered with a new female, Starr, later that year.
Now the three of them are dutifully raising their three eaglets in a wildlife refuge in a tree along the Mississippi River in Fulton, Illinois, NPR reports.
The entire affair has been captured on live webcam (above) by the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge.
Want a little more good news:
Student 'loves her neighbors' by helping Kentucky classmates celebrate birthdays.
Therapy dog cheering on Boston Marathon runners
Teens hailed as 'hometown heroes' for picking up elderly man who fell and taking him home to clean his wounds
And now for something completely different...
Yesterday was Fosse/Verdon again, you should watch it, really.
This is amazing…
Your to do’s from Indivisible.
- Tell your MoC to co-sponsor and vote for H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act. Nearly every House Democrat has co-sponsored this critical legislation, which would provide permanent relief from the threat of deportation to Dreamers, TPS holders, and DED holders. (You can see if your MoC has co-sponsored using this link.) Make sure that your MoC knows that you expect them to vote for this bill, and against any Republican motion to recommit.
- They should also co-sponsor and vote for H.R. 2214, the No Ban Act. Introduced on April 10, the No Ban Act would fully repeal Trump’s Muslim and Asylum Bans, ensuring that families from affected countries and asylum seekers from Central America won’t continue to face unconstitutional discrimination. Check here to see if your MoC is a co-sponsor; if they aren’t, use our script to call and tell them you expect them to sign on in support.
- Record a video and tell everyone you know that you #StandWithIlhan. Denounce the hateful threats and Islamophobia directed towards Rep. Ilhan Omar and demand that your members of Congress publicly speak out against these horrific attacks. Record your video here and share widely.
- The Mueller report is coming. Well... a redacted version is likely on the way this Thursday (read more here about the latest update). Keep calling your MoCs and demand they make Mueller’s findings public and continue investigations to hold Trump accountable. We’ve got everything you need to know here. And as we’re waiting for the report, make sure to share your thoughts on impeachment in our quick survey.
- Sign up for our May National Call! Join us on Thursday, May 2 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT for our monthly national call. More details on the call coming soon, but for now, make sure to register here so you don’t miss out!
I will be around at 8:30ish. I will try to participate as much as I can depending how the workday goes, otherwise you all know, bring your great input, local, national, and feel good news! Most of all let us all take care of each other here in the GNR sphere.
Peace!