canflam

Did you see Rod Rosentein get grilled by House Republicans today? It was intense as far as Rosentein can get intense I suppose. There was 1 question where Jim Jordan asked Rosenstein if he threatened to subpoena calls & emails & Rosenstein replied: ''No Sir. There's now way to subpoena phone calls.'' Ha! Ha! Republicans didn't get what I think many of them in the House want though which is for this Mueller investigation to end anytime soon.

sunnykerr

I work 9-5 and don't have C-SPAN, so I never see the U.S. committee sessions. I did read about it, though, and it sounds like Rosentein made the GOP look like morons who don't know what they're talking about when they cry about witch hunts.

Of course, I've been operating under the impression that the real, historical witch hunts resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, whereas the Mueller investigation has already resulted in 20+ indictements and a handful of guilty pleas, without even getting into how Don Jr revealed everything all over Twitter. Oh, and that it turns out Manafort was even more tied up with Russia than we realized.

So, if this is a witch hunt, then witches are real.

canflam

Well if you had C-SPAN they do re-air their coverage generally. You probably didn't miss much though unless you like Republicans complaining about this Russia & investigation & of course Hillary Clinton.

White House confirms prank-call to President Trump |

Wow, though I wouldn't be surprised if Trump actually would like to talk to Stuttering John. I saw this yesterday on MSNBC & it was incredible.

sunnykerr

It would be strange for anyone living outside the United States to have C-SPAN, no? I mean, wouldn't that time be better spent looking at my own government?

Well, I hope the Harper visit to the White House turns out to be nothing but a terrible prank.

canflam

Perhaps it would be strange for some to watch how other countries legislate on TV, but in this case with Trump as the U.S. President I think more people care about U.S. politics & what congress is doing than in the past. For example Roe V. Wade in theory could get overturned & there was the worldwide protests of Trump's immigration policy this weekend.

Nearly 600 Arrested in Washington #WomenDisobey Protest

So that was in D.C. & here locally we've of course had our of share protestors in Portland in the past week where a I.C.E. facility was shutdown by protestors, though it's back up & running at this time. At lest 8 people were arrested. Here is the story on that:

Authorities finally stop protester shut-down of ICE facility |

Portland man accused of attempting to bribe ICE officer to deport ex-wife, daughter | KATU

BlondieLeigh

The EU committees voted for that terrible internet crushing legislation, but it's not a sure thing yet, now it goes to the European parliament. There's a petition here trying to stop it. You don't have to be in the EU to sign it. It probably won't achieve much, but it's worth a shot.

sunnykerr

OMG. They "finally" shut down a protest against ICE? Well, I guess which way that source leans, politically, huh? I mean, down with democracy!!!

The United States is becoming such a dystopian nightmare under this administration.

Speaking of, Leigh, being active in democratic institutions is never a waste. The problem is we take those institutions for granted.

canflam

Unfortunately when protestors such as this group in Portland called ''Antifa'' protest then it tends to brings out ''anti-protestors'' or White Nationalists some are known as. That happened & then a riot occurred.

Dueling protests clash in downtown Portland, police declare even

It shouldn't be this hard to have a peaceful protest, but oh well.

Anyway. Found some good news today:

Thailand youth soccer team missing in cave found by rescuers not safe yet

Wow. Hope everyone involved is OK of course.

sunnykerr

Well, I know that people protesting brings out all the crackpots. I was just shocked to see a newspaper side with the crackpots, that's all. Usually, genuine news organizations at least try to be unbiased.

But, back to the crackpots for a second. They're precisely why having a peaceful protest is difficult. The people who protest may be as peaceful as can be, all you need is some third party to come in and stir up trouble and the conflict is on. And because that third party is not often easily identified as "the cops," it usually gets lumped in with the protesters. Because these events are usually viewed in strictly binary terms.

canflam

Trump to revoke Obama policy using race in school admissions

Ugh. Not surprising this administration would this though as they do have Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education.

sunnykerr

I kinda doubt that having race on school admissions began with Obama, but okay...

Meanwhile, no one's talking about how the Mexican elections are likely to affect this whole NAFTA re-negotiations: Mexico election: Trump and López Obrador discuss 'development deal' I mean, that makes it sound like everything is right with the world... but AMLO's a proper crazy bastard and he doesn't just lean left. He's full-on "eat the elites" leftist. Like, it tells you something that he kinda pledged not to nationalize the country's leading industries. Because that's something he's run on before. He wants amnesty for (some) drug criminals. And he wants to amend the Mexican constitution to make it possible to try Mexican presidents on corruption charges. Does it sound likely that he's going to get along with the current POTUS?

The current POTUS who's busy doing this: Trump defends tariffs despite signs of trouble in global markets I still think he's got 2020 in the bag both because he's the incumbent (and there's still plenty of time for him to declare a war somewhere) and because the U.S. economy is doing well right now. But, over the long term, this is about as stupid a plan for economic growth as you can expect from a man who's declared professional bankruptcy four times.

There You'll Be

Mexico's elections...yeah, he and POTUS are going to get along terrifically. Right wingers here are having a hissyfit over it. I'm not sure what will happen, but I don't see it helping negotiations with Mexico.

Yeah, the economy is doing well, but the tariffs are already crushing farming industries in the US. It seems to be hurting his voters the most, but the ones they're interviewing are still saying "In the end, it's in our best interests." I doubt he'll live till 2020 with his Big Mac and KFC consumption. He's not looking well these days. If not, Russia will make sure he stays in power-unless he's finishing doing their bidding-destroy the G7, the EU, the WTO, and then NATO. He's well on the way.

Walmart didn't want to lose their MAGA crowd shoppers, do to a boycott. They had Impeach 45 apparel on sale on their website. Still, they removed it, but kept pro-trump items. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44703873

Poland purges Supreme Court judges. 27 of 72 have been forced into retirement. It says that Poland was more on the side of embracing values of the West, but it swinging the other way now, and moving towards Hungary's movement. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/w...T.nav=top-news

The Second Civil War is starting today, according to Alex Jones, the leading conspiracy theorist. The Liberals are bringing it today. Which, reminds me, I need to get going. I promised I'd bring potato salad and raspberry sherbet. My rainbow colored uniform is ironed. 2 birds, one stone, with that.

sunnykerr

The only thing that AMLO and Trump have in common is they both have an interesting relationship with reality, only it manifests in very different ways. For instance: Mexico president-elect rejects bodyguards: 'The citizens will protect me' Meanwhile, Trump has no problem having Secret Service personnel accompany all his children on their personal trips, keeping Melania and his son in New York City for six months, etc. Oh, and AMLO says he won't live in the fancy official resident of the Mexican president. Again, not something I think Trump would ever do, although he does consider the White House to be a dump, so what do I know?

I mean, it remains to be seen how AMLO will turn out to fare as a leader. Juan Peron came to the Argentinian presidency (in the first half of the 20th century) on a campaign of running for the poor and the working class and he turned out to be a Nazi-sympathizing fascist dictator. I'm just saying, I don't see AMLO and Trump getting along.

Walmart, I have to say, always comes off as a right-wing place in the Canadian media. I mean, not massively ala Chick Fill-A or Hobby Whatever that didn't want to pay health insurance for its workers if they used it to go on the Pill, but it stopped a program to hire people with disabilities, it used to sell ammunition in the freaking "sporting goods" section... I think they were the first to ban the Dixie Chicks album back in the day... So basically I'm not surprised they'd take back the "Impeach 45" stuff and keep the MAGA crap.

This is the stuff I always think of when people on the far right keep bringing up the liberal elites and media... Which elites? Republicans get tonnes more money for their political campaigns and I know of no corporation that's ever even risked alienating the GOP. But I digress... .

Trump-Russia: more election meddling evidence found, says Senate panel This came out as there's apparently a big GOP delegation in Russia, right now, schmoozing with politicos over there. Yeah, I think they're done pretending not to know about this. They're not even being subtle about it either.

So, who knows, Alex Jones may be right. (Words I never thought I'd ever say.) But, if so, from where I'm sitting, it's not the Democrats who fired the first shots.

There You'll Be

Wow. They both sound crazy, in their own way.

Yeah, Walmart was afraid of the MAGA boycott, even though there are more who are not MAGA-the normal GOP, Independents, and Democrats.

Yeah, ironic they slid that report in in the evening, where they thought it wouldn't be noticed. Then the next day the GOP heads to Russia (no Democrats allowed), to assure Russia they aren't there to accuse them of anything, nor hold them accountable.

The Summit, even translators will not be allowed in the meeting between the 2 leaders. So, sure, nothing to hide there.

Well, the Civil War never materialized. Yet another MAGA failed conspiracy theory. Along with Qanon, Release the Memo, the 30,000 sealed indictments, the damning IG report, the GOP HIC report being true...you'd think they'd stop.

Meanwhile, I'm still awaiting my check from Soros.

canflam

In 2011 Obama's policy was more of a guidance which was that while race shouldn't be the primary factor in an admission decision, schools could lawfully consider it in the interest achieving diversity. What Trump is doing is taking it backwards to when George W. Bush was president & affirmative action programs were discouraged in favor of ''race-neutral alternatives''. Trump's Justice Department this year has already sided with Asian-American students that sued Harvard for unlawfully limiting how many Asian students were admitted there.

Scott Pruitt resigns as EPA chief, Trump announces

Pruitt is of course blaming others for him having to leave this administration.