The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
@FAWFULFAN
Paul Ryan

Ex-Speaker Ryan: Trump 'Betrayed His Oath' And Is 'Unfit For Office'

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Fox News on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is unsuitable for another term in office — and that he believes the former president isn't loyal to upholding the Constitution.

"I voted for him in 2016, hoping that there was going to be a different kind of person in office," Ryan told host Neil Cavuto. "And I do think character is a really important issue. If you put yourself above the Constitution, as he has done, I think that makes you unfit for office."

"But what happened?" asked Cavuto. "What turned you off? Was it the whole January 6 thing?"

"That's a part of it, I think it's a contribution of factors," said Ryan. "But I think it really is his character at the end of the day, and the fact that if you're willing to put yourself above the Constitution, an oath you swear when you take office, federal office, whether there's president or a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution. And if you're willing to suborn it to yourself, I think that makes you unfit for office."

This comes as Ryan, who helped Trump pass his signature tax cut legislation in 2017, has gradually become more outspoken against him, calling him an "authoritarian" and a "narcissist." Ryan has also said he cannot vote for Trump this year, which has caused the former president to rage against the former speaker on social media.

In one such rant last month, Trump proclaimed: "Rupert Murdoch should fire pathetic RINO Paul Ryan from the Board of Fox. Ryan is a loser, always has been, and always will be. He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History. Fox will sink to the absolute bottom of the pack if Paul Ryan has anything to do with it!"

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Matt Gaetz

GOP Caucus Explodes With Accusations And Obscenities Over Shutdown

A House Republican caucus meeting went off the rails after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) attacked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for contributing $5 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee and key members to bolster their funding for re-election in 2024, Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman reported on Thursday.

"How much of that is from FTX or Sam Bankman-Fried?" shot back Gaetz, referencing the cryptocurrency trading platform entrepreneur who, after donating money generously to both political parties, was arrested and charged with stealing clients' money to funnel into his own personal investment schemes.

Rep. French Hill (R-AR), a close associate of McCarthy, then barked out, "Oh, f--k off."

Gaetz, a key figure in the far-right House Freedom Caucus has for months been escalating a fight with McCarthy, who was only narrowly elected Speaker over the initial objections of much of the Freedom Caucus after making a number of concessions.

Earlier this week, he said he's ready to call a motion to vacate the chair, a procedure that could strip McCarthy of the Speakership.

All of this is occurring against the backdrop of a number of disputes within the House Republican caucus, including whether and how to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, and how to pass the funding to avert a government shutdown, which now appears all but certain to happen on the weekend.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Bombshell Tape: Trump Boasted He Kept 'Secret Information' He Didn't Declassify

Bombshell Tape: Trump Boasted He Kept 'Secret Information' He Didn't Declassify

Former President Donald Trump admitted on previously unreleased audiotape that he did not declassify "secret information" in his possession, CNN reported on Friday. "'As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,' Trump says, according to the transcript," reported Paula Reid and Jeremy Herb. "CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript."

"Trump was indicted Thursday on seven counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents," said the report. "Details from the indictment have not been made public, so it unknown whether any of the seven counts refer to the recorded 2021 meeting. Still, the tape is significant because it shows that Trump had an understanding the records he had with him at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House remained classified."

The admission on tape is in stark contrast to Trump's public claims that he had the ability to declassify anything, and that he had a right to take whatever documents he wanted back to his private residence.

“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump said in the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.”

Trump is scheduled to appear for criminal proceedings in Miami next week to face seven felony charges.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Josh Hawley’s Vile Attack On Judge Jackson Blasted From Left And Right

Josh Hawley’s Vile Attack On Judge Jackson Blasted From Left And Right

As the Senate prepares to hold the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be nominated to serve on the Supreme Court, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has falsely claimed that she has argued that certain child pornography offenders are "less serious."

On Monday, writing for MSNBC, commentator Steve Benen observed how these attacks are quickly backfiring on him.

"The GOP senator’s line of attack did not go unnoticed, but fact-checkers quickly dismantled Hawley’s nonsense. The Associated Press said the senator’s claims 'don’t stand up to scrutiny.' Fact-check reports from the Washington Post and CNN came to the same conclusion," wrote Benen. "Others were even more direct in their denunciations. Vox’s Ian Millhiser described Hawley’s attempted smear 'genuinely nauseating.' In National Review, a leading conservative publication, Andrew McCarthy concluded that Hawley’s allegation 'appears meritless to the point of demagoguery.'"

All of this is beclowning not just Hawley but the entire Republican Party, Benen claimed, in light of GOP leadership's promise to be more high-minded than Democrats supposedly were with the sexual misconduct allegations against Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. "In reality, it’s rather easy to defend the ways in which Democratic senators handled the credible allegations surrounding Thomas and Kavanaugh. But putting that aside, the assurances about the GOP staying away from 'the gutter' and approaching Jackson’s nomination in a 'respectable' way look ridiculous in the wake of Sen. Josh Hawley’s attempted smear."

"But the fact remains that Senate GOP leaders have made no effort to follow Hawley’s lead; observers from the left, right, and center have been quick to shred his baseless smear; and by mainstream standards, Hawley’s attack backfired," concluded Benen. "The Missouri Republican meant to make Jackson look awful. He denigrated himself in the process."

You can read more here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Trump, COVID-19 misinformation

'Surprised' Trump Says He's 'Very Appreciative' Biden Credited Him For Vaccines

On Tuesday, Fox News reported that former President Donald Trump was "surprised" and gratified that President Joe Biden mentioned his role in helping to get COVID-19 vaccines developed.

"Biden on Tuesday afternoon announced increased testing capacity and expanded access to vaccines and support for hospitals across the country amid a surge in cases of the omicron variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week makes up more than 73% of new infections in the country," reported Brooke Singman.

"Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America is one of the first countries to get the vaccine," Biden said Tuesday. "Thanks to my administration, the hard work of Americans, we let, our roll-out, made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.'"

Trump proceeded to tell Fox that he appreciated Biden giving him and his team credit.

"'I'm very appreciative of that — I was surprised to hear it," Trump told Fox News. "I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy."

In his last year of office, Trump presided over "Operation Warp Speed," a federal plan that helped expedite the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines. However, he also came under criticism for his repeated efforts to downplay the virus, and for his refusal to publicize that he had been vaccinated, as well as the fact that he tested positive for the virus days before the first presidential debate with Biden and didn't disclose it.

Trump has subsequently received a booster, and urged his followers to do the same, but his announcement was met with boos from his own supporters, who have consistently polled as among the most vaccine-denialist group in the country.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

George Conway Tweets Trump’s Funniest Geography Blunders

George Conway Tweets Trump’s Funniest Geography Blunders

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

President Donald Trump’s circle is up in arms over a late-night CNN segment on Monday in which analysts joked that Trump — and his fanbase — are probably not smart enough to locate Ukraine on a map.

But on Tuesday, conservative lawyer and Trump critic George Conway pointed out that the president has indeed never shown any aptitude for geography — and listed some of his most well-known and mocked blunders:

Barr Hiding Full Mueller Report As Democrats Fight For Disclosure

Barr Hiding Full Mueller Report As Democrats Fight For Disclosure

[vc_row][vc_column]

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of the 300+-page report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian election interference is clearly not going to satisfy anyone. The summary — stating that Mueller did not “establish” conspiracy between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, and that he neither confirmed nor exonerated the president on obstruction of justice, demands greater detail. A new poll shows 75 percent of the public want the full report released.

Unfortunately, Trump’s Justice Department is unlikely to make the full report available voluntarily — not even to Congress.

Barr has told House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that he has no plans to release the report immediately, and that he will still be redacting large portions of it, including grand jury proceedings.

While this is allowed under special counsel regulations, and is in fact typical DOJ policy in most cases to protect the reputation of people who are not being charged with crimes, this is not an ordinary case — and the DOJ has historically been far more transparent about cases involving national political controversy.

For this reason, Natasha Bertrand writes in The Atlantic, House Democrats are planning to go much further and demand the report with no redactions — setting up a clash with the DOJ, and possibly a court fight:

The House Democrats’ position now is that “there is nothing stopping Barr from giving us the grand-jury material” that informed Mueller’s findings, according to another Democratic staffer who spoke with reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “If he doesn’t, then that amounts to a cover-up.” Another Democratic staffer said that, in a call with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on Wednesday night, Barr “would not commit to releasing the full report” — including grand-jury material — to the House. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not return a request for comment about the House Republicans’ position on seeing the full report. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, indicated on Wednesday that he will accept whatever redactions Barr makes, including of grand-jury material.

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

Between the withholding of grand-jury and privileged material and the redaction of classified information, the public could be left with a shell of the original report.

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

Democrats have specifically demanded that Barr transmit the full report by April 2 — a deadline that now appears all but assured he will not meet.

Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who wrote the special counsel law, has argued that Democrats would likely win a subpoena fight — but that the administration would assert executive privilege over some portions of the report, and that courts may urge Congress and the DOJ to negotiate rather than rule for one of them.

Whatever happens over the next few days, it is clear that the battle to reveal what Mueller found is just getting started.

[/vc_column][/vc_row]

Whatever Report Says, Looming Investigations Still Threaten Trump

Whatever Report Says, Looming Investigations Still Threaten Trump

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and President Donald Trump’s potential involvement in it, has reached its conclusion. While there are a few loose ends to tie up, including the sentencing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the trial of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, Mueller is finished issuing indictments, and his report has been delivered to Attorney General William Barr, who will soon be briefing Congress on the key findings.

While no one yet knows exactly what the report contains, the mere fact that Trump was never indicted is being sung from on high by the president’s supporters as proof that he has been exonerated. But that isn’t the case — there was never that big a chance Trump himself was going to be slapped in cuffs and hauled before a judge, and the finer points of the investigation could be damning for him politically even if Mueller lacked the authority or standard of evidence to prosecute him.

But just as important: Trump’s problems do not end with Mueller’s investigation. There are a number of other legal dangers for the president, in the form of federal, state, and congressional investigations that have not yet concluded — many of which have potential to criminally implicate the president, financially harm him, or imperil his re-election prospects.

Here are the biggest ones:

  1. The Michael Cohen investigation

In some ways, prosecutors with the Southern District of New York were always a bigger threat to the president than Mueller. The special counsel was limited byecutorial actions, whereas the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office has no such constraints. subject matter, and had to request permission from the Justice Department to take certain pros

Federal prosecutors have been investigating Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen’s hush payments to women the president allegedly slept with ever since Mueller referred the matter to them over a year ago — which has led to Cohen pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations. Cohen has asserted he committed these crimes at the president’s direction, and has suggested that Trump encouraged him to lie about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow, an issue about which Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. If any of this can be proven by prosecutors, it could put the president in legal jeopardy.

  1. The inaugural committee investigation

Cohen is not all the Southern District is looking into. They are also leading a criminal investigation into the Trump inaugural committee, and last month subpoenaed documents concerning its finances. The probe is scrutinizing whether the committee accepted illegal donations, whether donors sought a quid pro quo in return for their contributions, and whether the committee was used to enrich the president’s personal businesses. The attorneys general for New Jersey and Washington, D.C. have also subpoenaed the committee.

This investigation could theoretically also implicate Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who according to a ProPublica investigation, approved contracts between the inaugural committee and the Trump organization that charged an exorbitant amount for food and event space — thus potentially funneling inaugural money into the family business.

  1. The Trump Victory Fund investigation

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is also investigating a $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory Fund came from Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman who is on the run in the wake of the 1MDB scandal, in which a state-run Malaysian investment fund was allegedly used to funnel money into the personal accounts of corrupt government officials.

The Trump Victory Fund is joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, and while a 2014 Supreme Court decisionempowered these types of committees to take unlimited donations,

  1. The New York Attorney General investigations

At the state level, New York Attorney General Letitia James is also waging a multi-pronged investigation into the president’s side ventures. A lawsuit brought by New York against Trump’s charitable foundation, which will dissolve as part of an agreement reached last year, accuses the foundation of violating state nonprofit laws, using charitable donations to enrich Trump, settle legal disputes, and influence the 2016 election.

The attorney general has also issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, as part of a civil investigation into four projects by the Trump Organization and Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills football club in 2014.

  1. Congressional probes of Trump’s finances and business

While all of this is going on, House Democrats are gearing up to do what the president once promised he would do himself: release his tax returns. It is unclear what, exactly, is in Trump’s financial records, but whatever it is has made him desperate to keep them locked up. He is planning to do whatever he can to obstruct their release.

Additionally, Democrats plan a deep look into Trump’s business history, with an interview of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg already planned. In a recent hearing with Michael Cohen, Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) zeroed in on financial questions about Trump, like allegations that he inflated his assets to insurance companies, that merit further investigation.

The emoluments lawsuit
One of the longest-running legal questions about Trump’s presidency is the extent to which he is using it for personal profit, and particularly whether he has leveraged it to accept gifts from foreign governments, which would be a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which is the focus of an ongoing lawsuit brought by the Attorneys General of Maryland and Washington, D.C.

The essential problem for Trump is that he has hosted foreign diplomats at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, a hotel which charges far more than comparable hotels in the area. That raises two immediate legal questions: whether diplomats were essentially paying for access to the president, and whether the excessive price they were willing to pay for the rooms could be construed as a gift. If the answer to either of these is yes, the president could be in big trouble.

Trump would like the American people to believe that his legal problems end at “Russian collusion.” But it is clear that that is only where they begin.

Acting Defense Chief Shanahan Probed For Enriching Former Employer Boeing

Acting Defense Chief Shanahan Probed For Enriching Former Employer Boeing

On Wednesday, POLITICO reported that Patrick Shanahan, President Donald Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense, is under investigation by the inspector general of the Pentagon for allegedly using his office to enrich aerospace giant Boeing, his former employer of 31 years:

“The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has decided to investigate complaints we recently received that Acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan allegedly took actions to promote his former employer, Boeing, and disparage its competitors, allegedly in violation of ethics rules,” DoD IG spokesperson Dwrena Allen said.

“In his recent Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, Acting Secretary Shanahan stated that he supported an investigation into these allegations,” she said. “We have informed him that we have initiated this investigation.”

The investigation follows a complaint submitted last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in response to a January POLITICO report revealing that Shanahan, when he was Deputy Defense Secretary, promoted Boeing in Pentagon meetings and criticized Lockheed Martin, the developer of the controversial F-35 military jet program and one of Boeing’s largest competitors in the defense sector. Shanahan, who worked as a civil aviation engineer at Boeing, had previously signed an ethics agreement to recuse himself from decisions involving the company.

Shanahan has broadly denied misconduct, with his spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, saying the acting Secretary “has at all times remained committed to upholding his ethics agreement filed with the DoD.”

Trump’s administration has been plagued with ethics scandals from day one, with various members of his Cabinet accused of excessively spending taxpayer money on themselves, retaliating against employees, enriching family members, lying about financial conflicts of interest, and even obstructing ethics investigations into themselves.

March has not been a good month for Boeing in general, which has seen its new fleet of 737 Max 8 planes grounded around the world amid investigations into a pair of deadly crashes.

Trump has lacked a permanent Defense Secretary since former General James Mattis stepped down in December, raking Trump over the coals as an irresponsible leader in his resignation letter. Shanahan, as Mattis’ deputy, has filled the role. Trump has so far not named any permanent replacement for Mattis, and it is possible — though unclear —that he wants to just keep Shanahan on indefinitely.

Trump Keeps Insulting Deceased McCain — And Lies About Helping Veterans

Trump Keeps Insulting Deceased McCain — And Lies About Helping Veterans

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump continued his bizarre vendetta against Vietnam War hero and former Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), despite the fact that he has been dead for seven months. He even went so far as to complain that McCain — who, again, is deceased — did not thank him for helping him get a proper funeral.

But amazingly, complaining that a dead man didn’t thank him might be only Trump’s second most ridiculous attack on McCain this week. He also trashed McCain for supposedly failing to deliver for veterans in the Senate — as opposed to Trump, who boasted about his claim that he created the Veterans Choice Program, which allows veterans to use their health benefits at community providers rather than V.A. hospitals.

“McCain didn’t get the job done for our great vets and the V.A., and they know it,” saidTrump during a visit to an Army tank factory in Lima, Ohio. That’s why, when I had my dispute with him, I had such incredible support from the vets and from the military. The vets were on my side because I got the job done. I got Choice … for many decades, they couldn’t get it done. It was never done. I got it five months ago. I got it done — Choice. Instead of waiting in line — a vet fought for us, fought in these tanks, fought for us.”

This lie, which Trump has told repeatedly, is completely brazen for two reasons. First, Trump did not create the Veterans Choice Program — he just signed a law last year that would streamline the V.A.’s Community Care Program. The Veterans Choice Program itself was created in 2014 as part of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, and signed into law by President Barack Obama. And second, the chief Republican sponsor of that bill in the Senate was … John McCain!

So in other words, Trump is falsely taking credit for creating a veterans program that was actually created by John McCain — and then citing his nonexistent role in creating that program as evidence of how much better he is for veterans than John McCain.

Even Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star, who has perhaps covered Trump’s speeches and documented his falsehoods more than any other journalist, was gobsmacked at the audacity of Trump’s lie:

Trump and McCain feuded for many years, with Trump claiming that McCain wasn’t really a war hero just because he was captured in Vietnam, and McCain criticizing the president’s fitness for office and casting a deciding vote against Trump’s health care repeal agenda in the Senate.

But any reasonable person would have let these petty grudges go — especially after McCain’s passing. The fact that Trump cannot, and even now insists on telling vicious lies about McCain to anyone who will listen, is a national embarrassment.

Suspect In Mob Boss Murder Displays MAGA and QAnon Messages

On Monday, Anthony Comello, the man accused of fatally shooting Gambino crime family boss Francesco Cali in Staten Island, appeared in court for an extradition hearing in Toms River, NJ. And while his motivations for the killing are unclear, the whole saga became even stranger after he showed his hands.

According to images, the 24-year-old Comello had scrawled a number of right-wing iconography on his hand, including “MAGA forever,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s slogan, and the letter Q, an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory:

https://twitter.com/lib_crusher/status/1107743150825717760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1107743150825717760&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alternet.org%2F2019%2F03%2Fmaga-forever-man-accused-of-killing-mob-boss-shows-pro-trump-and-qanon-messages-in-the-courtroom%2F

According to NJ.com, Comello’s lead counsel Robert Gottlieb says he did not see anything written on his client’s hand.

The QAnon conspiracy theory, named after an anonymous message board poster styling himself “Q” after the Energy Department clearance level and purporting to be an inside government source, holds that Trump is working together with special counsel Robert Mueller to uncover a world-spanning murder and sex trafficking ring run by high-ranking Democrats and opponents of the president, and that martial law is imminent to round up and arrest all of the co-conspirators.

And that’s just the beginning of the narrative — believers in the conspiracy have claimed that Kim Jong Un was planted by the CIA, that Democrats ordered MS-13 to murder party staffer Seth Rich, and that the California wildfires were triggered by government lasers.

Despite the patently ridiculous and self-contradictory tangled logic of the conspiracy theory, it has found its way into the national spotlight. ABC sitcom star Roseanne Barr, who was fired after racist outbursts on Twitter, promoted it. And a S.W.A.T. officer from Broward County, Florida sported a QAnon patch on his uniform while posing with Vice President Mike Pence — after which he was demoted to another department.

Report: Real Estate Moguls Furious Over Trump’s Tax Bill

Report: Real Estate Moguls Furious Over Trump’s Tax Bill

After the passage of the GOP’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” in December 2017, President Donald Trump boasted to a group of wealthy supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club that “You all just got a lot richer.”

And there can be no doubt that Trump had given a stupendous gift to the mega wealthy. The tax law, which slashed individual, inheritance, and corporate taxes, funneled 83 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent of earners, and triggered such a huge explosion of stock buybacks that even some Republicans think it should be reined in.

But not every wealthy person is celebrating. In fact, according to Politico, the New York City real estate market is reeling from the tax law, triggering a decline in home prices, an exodus from the city, and even fears of a recession:

Under the new law, individuals can no longer deduct more than $10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal returns. The law also slashed the mortgage interest deduction from $1 million to $750,000.

Trump himself has gotten an earful from wealthy New York friends complaining about the impact of the changes on the high-end real estate market. “There are some people from New York who have been speaking to me about doing something about that, about changing things,” the president said at the White House last month. “I’d be open to talking about it.”

Politico notes that Republicans on Capitol Hill, for their part, have no interest in revisiting these provisions of the tax law.

More broadly, these provisions have been especially hard on Republicans in states where taxes are higher, and thus people stood to lose more from cuts to these deductions. Last year, the GOP lost key House races in places like California, New Jersey, and northern Virginia, where millions of affluent suburban voters claim the SALT deduction.

The irony is that, although the tax bill broadly was a massive gift to the wealthy and unpopular for it, the provisions limiting the deductibility of real-estate expenses are among the only part of the tax law that actually stand to increase taxes on wealthy people. And it is these provisions that have proven to be the biggest headache for Republicans.

New Photos Show North Korea Rebuilding Missile Test Site

New Photos Show North Korea Rebuilding Missile Test Site

On Tuesday, NBC News reported that researchers at Beyond Parallel have photos showing North Korea is pursuing the “rapid rebuilding” of a major rocket launch site, and evidence suggests they may be gearing up to resume missile testing:

Sohae Satellite Launching Station, North Korea’s only operational space launch facility, has been used in the past for satellite launches. These launches use similar technology to what is used for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“This renewed activity, taken just two days after the inconclusive Hanoi Summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, may indicate North Korean plans to demonstrate resolve in the face of U.S. rejection of North Korea’s demands at the summit to lift five UN Security Council sanctions enacted in 2016-2017,” the analysts said. As NBC News reported, Beyond Parallel, a project sponsored by the defense think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recently identified 20 undisclosed missile sites in North Korea.

The news is an extra humiliation for Trump, given that he failed to achieve anything at the summit, and given that he already decided to cancel annual military exercises with South Korea. He even excused Kim from any blame for the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who was tortured in a North Korean prison and never woke up from a coma after being returned to the U.S.

It is also a humiliation for Trump because, at last week’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he boldly proclaimed that “the one thing we have … is we have no testing, no missiles going up, no rockets going up. No nuclear testing.” The work being done to reconstruct Sohae suggests that they may have plans for more missile tests shortly.

In some ways, the world breathed a sigh of relief when Trump backed off from mocking Kim as “little Rocket Man” and threatening to meet North Korea with “fire and fury.” But his new approach of total acquiescence seems to be going just as poorly.

IMAGE: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends meeting in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang December 29, 2015. KCNA/ via REUTERS/ File Photo

Christie: ‘No Way To Defend’ Trumps On Kushner Security Scandal

Christie: ‘No Way To Defend’ Trumps On Kushner Security Scandal

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a former ally of Trump, did not hold back on criticizing the president for overruling protocol for his own family in a discussion with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, saying, “There’s no way to defend, and I’m not going to, the New York Times story” and that it “should be very disturbing to people.”

“This is the biggest problem with having family in official positions in the White House. Because it’s much harder to be objective,” Christie said. He noted that it looked particularly bad that then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-White House Counsel Dohn McGahn both wrote memos criticizing the president’s decision. “I could tell you something. As having been a governor, I never had a staff member write a contemporaneous memo about one of my decisions.”

“They don’t do that on a whim?” Cuomo pressed him.

“They just don’t,” said Christie.

“They do it to cover themselves in a situation that they’re worried about exposure on,” Cuomo agreed.

Another hugely problematic aspect, Christie added, was that Trump’s daughter Ivanka apparently lied to cover for it. “Ivanka went on ABC and said, directly, that her father had nothing to do with her clearance or her husband’s clearance,” he said.

Christie and Kushner have had bad blood for years. As a federal prosecutor, Christie brought criminal charges against Kushner’s father. Kushner returned the favor by personally making sure Christie never got a job in the Trump administration.

Watch below:

IMAGE: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks in a press conference at the State House in Trenton, New Jersey, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

 

Senator Alexander Warns ‘National Emergency’ Could Spark GOP Revolt

Senator Alexander Warns ‘National Emergency’ Could Spark GOP Revolt

On Thursday, POLITICO reported that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) delivered a message on the Senate floor on behalf of some of his colleagues, warning that if President Donald Trump tries to implement his plan to build a border wall under the guise of a national emergency, he could face defections within his party:

In a much-anticipated floor speech, the retiring senator declined to state whether he will become the deciding vote to block the president’s maneuver. But he signaled broad opposition to the emergency declaration and sought to convince Trump that he has other ways to collect $5.7 billion for the border wall — the precise amount of money he demanded during the government shutdown fight.

“He’s got sufficient funding without a national emergency, he can build a wall and avoid a dangerous precedent,” Alexander told reporters afterward, referring to billions from a drug forfeiture fund and anti-drug smuggling money at the Defense Department. “That would change the voting situation if he we were to agree to do that.”

Trump does already plan to use money from drug programs at the Treasury and the Defense Department to fund the construction of his wall. But his emergency proposal would also divert funding from military projects, which even some Republicans senators have registered discomfort with.

This week, the House passed a resolution 245-182 to cancel Trump’s emergency declaration under the National Emergencies Act, with thirteen Republicans breaking ranks to join the Democrats. Under the rules, the Senate is now required to take up the resolution within 18 days of the House vote.

Three Republicans have so far stated they will vote in favor of the resolution: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Thom Tillis (R-NC). Only one more Republican vote would be necessary to pass it.

More Than A Third Of Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Funding Is Already Spent

More Than A Third Of Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Funding Is Already Spent

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

President Donald Trump now plans to build his border wall under the guise of a “national emergency.” The declaration, announced last Friday, will theoretically empower the president to divert $3.6 billion from military construction projects, $2.5 billion from federal counternarcotics programs, and $600 billion from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund to start constructing a barrier at the southern border, on top of the $1.35 billion that was allocated for border construction in the compromise bill passed by Congress to avert another shutdown.

There’s a problem, though: Trump probably can’t spend all that money. That’s because, according to Congressional Quarterly writer John Donnelly, more than a third of that money has already been spent.

View image on Twitter

John M. Donnelly

✔@johnmdonnelly

BREAKING: More than a third of the federal 💰@realDonaldTrump wants to redirect to build a is not available. It’s been spent. Congress—including Dems—would have to approve making new 💰 available. That’s not happening. Time for a Plan B.

4,561

2,550 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

That means that, right from the start, Trump is working with billions fewer than he had planned for.

And that assumes he will be allowed to spend it at all. On Thursday, House Democrats released a resolution to block Trump’s declaration under the National Emergencies Act, and Senate Democrats have their own version in the works. If either of these passes, the other chamber is required to take it up, and it is not clear whether Republicans have yet whipped the votes necessary to affirm the president. Meanwhile, 16 states have banded together in a lawsuit to block the emergency declaration in federal court.

The upshot of this is that the only money Trump is absolutely guaranteed to have for construction at the border is the $1.35 billion he received from Congress, which theoretically would pay for just 55 miles of fencing. And even there, Democrats put heavy restrictions on how Trump can use that money: only existing designs, no construction in five sensitive areas including the National Butterfly Center, and the Department of Homeland Security must consult with local governments before any new barriers can be built.

All things considered, Trump’s hopes of using a national emergency as a shortcut are looking shakier by the day.

Former Clinton Aide Slams Times’ Stealth Correction On Uranium One

Former Clinton Aide Slams Times’ Stealth Correction On Uranium One

On Tuesday, tucked into a paragraph of an article on how President Donald Trump had battled investigations against him for the past two years, The New York Times made an astonishing, seemingly accidental confession about a massive failure in their coverage of the 2016 presidential election.

“Using Congress’s oversight powers, the Republican lawmakers succeeding in doing what Donald Trump could not realistically do on his own: forcing into the open some of the government’s most sensitive investigative files — including secret wiretaps and the existence of an F.B.I. informant — which were part of the Russia inquiry,” said the article. “House Republicans opened investigations into the F.B.I.’s handling of the Clinton email case and a debunked Obama-era uranium deal indirectly linked to Mrs. Clinton.”

It is remarkable that the Times casually mentioned the Uranium One deal as a “debunked” scandal, noted Nick Merrill, a former State Department official and adviser to Hillary Clinton, because it was the Times that promoted that story in the first place:

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill
Replying to @NickMerrill

For those who don’t recall or have appropriately suppressed all 2016 election memories, this story came in April of 2015, 12 days after HRC announced she was running for President.

1,126

Twitter Ads info and privacy
271 people are talking about this

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill
Replying to @NickMerrill

Because the NYT ran it, it carried enormous weight despite it being the result of a deal struck between the NYT & a book project funded by Steve Bannon.

1,349

Twitter Ads info and privacy
401 people are talking about this

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill
Replying to @NickMerrill

It was incredibly problematic for the campaign as the right pounced and we worked to debunk it. Only much later through a lot of hard work educating people on the facts was it more widely accepted that Uranium One was complete crap.

950

Twitter Ads info and privacy
229 people are talking about this

One of the saddest parts of the story, notes Merrill, is that all of this drove donor funding away from the Clinton Foundation, as it tried to do life-saving work distributing medications and funding global development.

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill
Replying to @NickMerrill

Worst of all, it had lasting damage on the @ClintonFdn, diverting resources from programs that quite literally save lives across the globe.

1,049

Twitter Ads info and privacy
232 people are talking about this

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill
Replying to @NickMerrill

As frustrating as all of this was, thankfully the Clinton Foundation & the incredible people there are committed & resilient, so they have continued to do remarkable work. Here’s a recent piece about CF’s comeback & it’s work in Puerto Rico.https://www.axios.com/clinton-foundation-bill-hillary-puerto-rico-hurricanes-2df82398-5a9e-4574-97e3-4a219257f112.html …

1,154

Twitter Ads info and privacy

The Clintons’ “Comeback Foundation” aids hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico

It has expanded its work worldwide with fresh momentum and more support.

axios.com

339 people are talking about this
The New York Times has faced criticism for its coverage in the 2016 election. For example, a review of the paper’s coverage found that they “ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton’s emails as they did about all the policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election.” The Clinton Cash saga is a major chapter in how the Times‘ editorial process fell short — and it arguably deserves more attention than a passing reference buried in an article on Trump.