Month: May 2019

They knew too

by digby

Every once in a while I think of this story from 2017 when I see these Republicans a lining up behind Trump. They knew and they did nothing.

KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladi­mir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

The remarks remained secret for nearly a year.

The conversation provides a glimpse at the internal views of GOP leaders who now find themselves under mounting pressure over the conduct of President Trump. The exchange shows that the Republican leadership in the House privately discussed Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and Trump’s relationship to Putin, but wanted to keep their concerns secret. It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally.

The House leadership has so far stood by the White House as it has lurched from one crisis to another, much of the turmoil fueled by contacts between Trump or his associates with Russia.

They are accomplices.

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Tillerson says Putin outplayed Trump. Did anyone doubt it?

by digby

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson snuck in the back door of the Congress this week to testify behind closed doors with the Foreign Affairs Committee. The Washington Post reports:

Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Russian President Vladimir Putin out-prepared President Trump during a key meeting in Germany, putting the U.S. leader at a disadvantage during their first series of tête-à-têtes.

The U.S. side anticipated a shorter meeting for exchanging courtesies, but it ballooned into a globe-spanning two-hour-plus session involving deliberations on a variety of geopolitical issues, said committee aides, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Tillerson’s seven-hour closed meeting with the committee.

“We spent a lot of time in the conversation talking about how Putin seized every opportunity to push what he wanted,” a committee aide said. “There was a discrepancy in preparation, and it created an unequal footing.”

Tillerson, whose public remarks about the president have been sparse since his dramatic firing in March 2018, spoke to a bipartisan group of lawmakers and staffers Tuesday at the request of the chairman of the committee, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.).

Committee aides peppered the former oilman with questions about the 2017 session in Hamburg. Unlike in Helsinki last summer, when Trump met with Putin without advisers present, Tillerson attended the Hamburg meeting, giving him rare insight into the two leaders’ interactions. Experts said the disparity in preparation was unsurprising but risky given Putin’s depth of experience and savvy.

“Putin is a very nimble adversary who’s been at this for 20 years now,” said Andrew Weiss, a Russia scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The Hamburg meeting sounds like it was one of Putin’s wildest dreams: a freewheeling backroom-style conversation with a U.S. president.”

In the past, Trump has downplayed the importance of preparation, saying his gut instinct and ability to read a room are paramount for a successful summit.

“I don’t think I have to prepare very much,” Trump said ahead of his historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year. “It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done. So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we’ll know that very quickly.”

He’s clueless and would have no idea what Vladimir Putin wants. It’s clear, however, that he is very susceptible to suggestion from people he wants to impress and he obviously wanted to impress Putin.

That he would be unprepared is no surprise.Remember this from before the election:

He said in a series of interviews that he does not need to read extensively because he reaches the right decisions “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.”

Trump said he is skeptical of experts because “they can’t see the forest for the trees.” He believes that when he makes decisions, people see that he instinctively knows the right thing to do: “A lot of people said, ‘Man, he was more accurate than guys who have studied it all the time.’ ”

[…]
One day last month, Trump had a visit from a delegation of prominent executives in the oil, steel and retail industries, and one of the executives told Trump that the Chinese were taking advantage of the United States. “He said, ‘I’d like to send you a report,’ ” Trump recalled. “He said, ‘I’d love to be able to send you’ — oh boy, he’s got a lengthy report, hundreds of pages. . . . I said, ‘Do me a favor: Don’t send me a report. Send me, like, three pages.’ ”

Trump said reading long documents is a waste of time because he absorbs the gist of an issue very quickly. “I’m a very efficient guy,” he said. “Now, I could also do it verbally, which is fine. I’d always rather have — I want it short. There’s no reason to do hundreds of pages because I know exactly what it is.”

Apparently, voters like this about him. I will never understand it.

The Daily Beast had this little nugget from the interview:

In a more than six-hour meeting, he told members and staffers that the Trump administration actively avoided confronting Russia about allegations of interference in the election in an effort to develop a solid relationship with the Kremlin, a committee aide told The Daily Beast.

Of course he did. He wants them to help him win re-election.

The Post also reported that Tillerson reiterated his earlier criticism of Trump’s “values.”:

Committee aides said that Tillerson refrained from openly disparaging the president but that his inability to answer certain questions was revealing.

In one exchange, Tillerson said he and the president “shared a common goal: to secure and advance America’s place in the world and to promote and protect American values.”

“Those American values — freedom, democracy, individual liberty and human dignity — are the North Star that guided every action I took at the State Department,” Tillerson said, according to a person in the room.

Upon questioning, Tillerson clarified that although he and the president shared the same goal, they did not share the same “value system.”

When asked to describe Trump’s values, Tillerson said, “I cannot,” the person said.

“Just as matter of fact, he stated that he couldn’t or wouldn’t unpack the president’s values for us,” a committee aide said.

It was not the first time Tillerson declined to defend the president’s values. In 2017, Fox News host Chris Wallace spoke to Tillerson about the deadly violence in Charlottesville, after Trump said “both sides” — white supremacists and the people protesting them — were responsible.

“I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values,” Tillerson said.

“And the president’s values?” Wallace asked.

“The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said, a response that reportedlyinfuriated Trump.

Trump values Trump, period. And he believes that what’s good for Trump is good for America.

Trump and Tillerson sparred behind the scenes for months before Trump fired him in a tweet. But their public rapport took a dramatic turn in December when Tillerson told CBS that Trump did not read much and had issued directives that were against the law.

Trump responded in a tweet that Tillerson was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell.”

He’s not going to like this interview either.

Update: He didn’t

Rex Tillerson, a man who is “dumb as a rock” and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State, made up a story (he got fired) that I was out-prepared by Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany. I don’t think Putin would agree. Look how the U.S. is doing!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

Yes, just ask Putin how out-prepared I was! He’ll tell you I did great!

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QOTD: Dana Milbank

By Spocko

“People often describe [Trump] as ‘unraveling,’ but that implies he was once fully knitted.”

-Dana Milbank, May 22, 2019 Washington Post Trump seems to be transparently mad

How to knit a Trump doll instructions by @Jensalittleloopy

The most transparent administration in history

by digby

Actually, no.

Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan has mandated new restrictions on the way the Pentagon shares information with Congress about military operations around the world, a move that is straining ties with key Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

In a May 8 internal memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post, Shanahan lays out the criteria for when Pentagon officials may provide congressional offices or committees information they request about operational plans and orders.

The memo comes as lawmakers from both parties complain that the Trump administration has withheld information that prevents them from executing their constitutionally mandated oversight role. Some lawmakers are also concerned about whether Shanahan has allowed the military to be drawn too deeply into President Trump’s immigration agenda.

“Congress oversees the Department of Defense; but with this new policy, the department is overstepping its authority by presuming to determine what warrants legislative oversight,” Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), the chair and ranking Republican of the House Armed Services Committee.

The memo was shared widely inside the Pentagon but was sent to key lawmakers only after inquiries by The Post. It outlines a half-dozen guidelines, including requirements that military officials and political appointees evaluate whether the request “contains sufficient information to demonstrate a relationship to the legislative function.” The memo urges Defense Department officials to provide a summary briefing rather than a requested plan or order itself.

The memo appears to have been inspired by concerns that lawmakers, who have security clearances, will not safeguard military plans. It calls on officials to assess “whether the degree of protection from unauthorized disclosure that Congress will afford to the plan is equivalent to that afforded” by the Pentagon.

Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the memo “seems to be another way in which they can claim that they don’t need to respond to legitimate inquiry of Congress.” Reed received the memo Saturday, shortly after The Post asked the Pentagon about it.

“From what I can glean from the memorandum basically they can use any factor they want to say no and they can make a determination what they think we need to do our job,” Reed said in an interview. “I think we’re better positioned to determine what we need to do our job.”

The administration is stonewalling absolutely everything. You’d think at some point the Republicans would grow a little bit concerned but apparently they just trust Trump and his unfit D-list cabinet to do the right thing. They really shouldn’t be paid. They are completely AWOL.

And, of course, this is the official line:

Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said the new policy aims to increase “transparency and information sharing with Congress.”

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Rose Garden reality show

by digby

Those notes from his little Rose Garden stunt say “The Dems have no accomplishments” and “I’m going to keep working for the American people.”

He didn’t say that. Instead he whined, bragged, lied and threatened — as usual.

Usually, when President Trump is really steamed, he vents his spleen over a morning of disjointed tweets — a slow-mo meltdown. On Wednesday, it was the live-action movie version — on fast forward.

Trump, ever the director and star of his own White House movie, staged his outburst in two acts.

Act 1: Blow up a White House meeting with Democratic lawmakers that was over before the first handshake. Bye-bye, Infrastructure Day.

Act 2: Stride to a podium at a hastily arranged Rose Garden news conference to say he won’t work with Democrats on infrastructure or anything else while they pursue the “investigation track.”

What set the president off was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying earlier Wednesday that Trump has engaged in a “coverup” related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and other probes.

“I don’t do coverups,” Trump angrily told reporters who had been hustled outside with little notice and less information.

Trump — who with his allies is actively working to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats — called himself “the most transparent president, probably, in the history of this country,” and said he had been ready to discuss infrastructure and other priorities before Pelosi’s remark.

Trump had complained earlier Wednesday on Twitter that Democrats, dissatisfied with Mueller’s findings, are seeking a “DO OVER” through congressional investigations.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to reporters as she departs the White House meeting of Democrats with President Trump. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The mounting inquiries have angered the president for weeks, but those investigations had not stopped the White House from scheduling Wednesday’s meeting. The meeting was still on, with
the original agenda, as of midmorning, White House and other officials said.

But that was before news coverage of Pelosi’s meeting with other Democrats on Wednesday morning. Pelosi said Trump had “engaged in a coverup,” harsh criticism that came moments after she had tamped down talk of impeachment in her caucus in a closed-door meeting — at least for now. Trump was “livid,” said one person familiar with his mood, although some of his own aides have argued that a dead-end impeachment effort would be politically helpful to the president, since it would further his reelection narrative that Democrats are out to get him at any cost.

“Whether or not they carry the big i-word out, I can’t imagine that, but they probably would because they do whatever they have to do,” a still-seething Trump told reporters.

Let’s rewind.

Trump had decided, with buy-in from his staff, to essentially ambush Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and others, according to accounts of the events from White House and congressional officials. The Democrats had been invited for a sit-down on what both parties say is the pressing need for a funding plan for roads, bridges and so forth. Rather than cancel the meeting, the White House let Pelosi and the others walk into the trap. Shortly before 11 a.m., press secretary Sarah Sanders suddenly alerted the staff to prepare the Rose Garden for a news conference at 11:20 a.m.

Trump stage-managed events from there.

Democrats waited at a conference table in the Cabinet Room for about 15 minutes, said a person directly familiar with the session who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump’s name-card was on the table between those for Pelosi and Schumer.

“He walks in, goes to the head of the table, not even his assigned seat, doesn’t sit, doesn’t shake anyone’s hand. Stands there and begins a lecture,” one aide said.

It was textbook Trump, who has said that walking away from a negotiation is an effective tactic in business. In politics, it also changes the day’s headlines.

Trump, narrating the scene later, said he had walked into the meeting and told his guests, “You know what? You can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with” and then we’ll talk.

God this is dumb.

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He does not have a grand plan. He’s dancing as fast as he can to avoid any accountability.

by digby

This analysis by Alex Shepard at TNR reflects my feelings on the absurd notion that Trump is so very, very clever that he’s got a very complex strategy to get the Democrats to make him look innocent by impeaching him and then he and the Republicans will be super-popular and win in 2020:

The idea that Trump is playing “three-dimensional chess”—itself conventional wisdom before the president’s always obvious mix of idiocy and impulsiveness became undeniable for even the swampiest pundits—lives on in this narrative. Trump and Pelosi may very well have theories about what will happen politically if Democrats decide to impeach, but that doesn’t mean much. The politics of impeachment are complex, and if either Trump or Pelosi are certain that they know what will happen, they should use their superhuman powers of clairvoyance to do something more useful than whatever is happening in Washington—like betting on horses. It’s impossible to predict at this point what will happen if Democrats pull the trigger. It could look like Nixon in 1974, but it could also look like Bill Clinton in 1998.

Rather than being a well-oiled trap, Trump’s actions speak to a baser motivation: He is absolutely petrified of Democrats conducting any oversight whatsoever. This is, broadly speaking, in line with his reaction to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Referring to other historical independent investigations, Trump reportedly told aides “I’m fucked.” He seems to have taken a similar view of congressional investigations, going to absurd lengths to protect any information about his businesses or administration from reaching the public. This obstinance has been interpreted by some as next-level political thinking, but it more likely speaks to Trump’s long-standing contempt for the law (or any organization that attempts to hold wealthy people accountable), and his pavlovian refusal to give an inch to any opponent.

For most of this year, this strategy has worked well for the president and his allies. Led by Pelosi, the Democrats believe they hold a strong hand heading into the 2020 election, and have been hesitant to take any action that could backfire politically. While House committees have cautiously poked at Trump’s misdoings, the administration has refused to let key officials—like former White House Counsel Don McGahn—testify before Congress, and have universally ignored document requests. Aside from the Mueller report, which was released last month, Democrats have made little progress in the fight to hold the president and those around him accountable. That, rather than inducing impeachment, is the president’s ultimate goal.

But cracks are appearing in the administration’s dam. Trump officials are having an increasingly difficult time explaining their refusal to cooperate with inquiries. As the week started, the fight over McGahn’s testimony continued, with the now-private attorney following a White House dictum to ignore Congress. “Our subpoenas are not optional,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said during his opening remarks Tuesday, the day McGahn was supposed to appear. “This committee will hear Mr. McGahn’s testimony even if we have to go to court.” Subpoenas issued this week to former White House officials Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson are likely to yield similar fights.

Also Tuesday, The Washington Post reported on an IRS memo that made it clear the agency must deliver Trump’s tax returns to Congress, unless the president can find a way to invoke executive privilege. This contradicts the administration’s current position, which is that such records shouldn’t be given to Congress because they “serve no legislative purpose.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, said that he wouldn’t release themanyway—to hell with black-letter law, the IRS finding, and the Constitution. “I’ve had no conversations ever with the president or anyone in the White House about delivering the president’s tax returns to Congress,” he said.

But this across-the-board refusal to cooperate appears to have shifted Democrats’ calculus on impeachment. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, the Democratic caucus seemed to be united behind Pelosi’s cautious approach. That consensus has splintered rapidly in the past two days. Unable to meaningfully proceed with any investigation, numerous House Democrats and many presidential candidates (the two groups are not mutually exclusive) have come out in favor of impeachment, viewing it the only investigative option at their disposal.

Things might be picking up in the courts, too. On Wednesday, a federal judge rejectedTrump’s effort to block subpoenas of his financial records from Deutsche Bank—where it was recently reported that Trump’s financial activities had set off alarms about money laundering—and Capital One.

This growing pressure led to a day of tantrums and hissy fits. “Everything the Democrats are asking me for is based on an illegally started investigation that failed for them, especially when the Mueller Report came back with a NO COLLUSION finding,” Trump whined on Twitter in the early morning. “Now they say Impeach President Trump, even though he did nothing wrong, while they ‘fish!’” He later stormed out of a meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, telling the Democratic leaders that he would not work on an infrastructure bill with them unless they dropped their investigations. (Given the lack of progress during the roughly sixty preceding “infrastructure weeks,” this can safely be assumed to qualify as an empty threat.) That walkout was staged, with Trump appearing soon after at a Rose Garden lecternfestooned with a placard advertising the (in federal government terms, modest) cost of the special counsel’s investigation. But that, too, was only more evidence of the White House’s growing concern that the walls are closing in—their best argument against Mueller’s investigation is its cost which, according to a study released on Wednesday, is dwarfed by that of the president’s golfing excursions. Unable to actually say “impeachment”—just “the i word”—Trump drew instant comparisons to Nixon when he swore “I don’t do coverups.”

As noted, if these were normal times, it might be possible to look at all of this as part of the president’s grand plan to provoke Democrats into impeachment. But examined in a more informed context, the picture looks quite different. Far from setting a trap for the other party, the Trump administration’s strategy of blocking every single inquiry—a strategy that, it should be said, has thus far been largely successful—appears to be catching different prey. Trump’s goal was never to make Democrats move to impeach; it was to avoid any level of accountability. That, at long last, started to change this week.

Pelosi and the Democratic leadership is not going to move toward impeachment unless the pressure remains from the caucus and the people.

If you believe this notion that he will benefit from impeachment is daft, you might want to call your Democratic Representatives and let them know. Other people are.

.@RepKatieHill: "We were getting about 2 to 1 in terms of the number of calls that were opposing impeachment and telling us to stop the investigations, and now we're getting 3 or 4 to one saying, 'we need to be moving forward, this is getting too out of hand.'" pic.twitter.com/SKUmw9YiP2— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 23, 2019

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Beltway Rock-Paper-Scissors
by Tom Sullivan

Democrats pressure Pelosi. Pelosi goads Trump. Trump throws rock.

With his preprinted placards and handful of notes, the sitting president used Wednesday comments by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he is engaged in a cover-up to bail on his own non-plan for spending $2 trillion on infrastructure. In a caucus meeting before she met with Trump, Pelosi tried to calm calls by Democrats for an impeachment inquiry into, among other crimes, Trump publicly obstructing House investigations. Then she visited the White House to discuss infrastructure.

Slate’s Jim Newell observes, “Democrats had suggested the president undo some of his signature 2017 tax legislation to pay for it, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately called this a “nonstarter,” and just about all Republicans agreed with him.” Not just Republicans in the Senate, but in the House too.

Thus, Donald Trump planned a Rose Garden press conference to blame Democrats. Pelosi’s comments made the trap a tantrum. Trump promptly walked out.

“I walked into the room and I told Senator Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it…but you know what, you can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with,'” Trump told the press corps. Trump refuses to do his job until Democrats stop doing theirs.

Wednesday’s events should add to the ranks of House Democrats already in the impeachment column. NBC News reports the number already stands at 31.

In a statement issued to the Baltimore Sun, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said, “We are confronting what might be the largest cover-up by any administration in history. The American people deserve to know whether their government is acting in their best interests,” Hoyer said. House committees must continue their investigations, Hoyer said, “and we’ll see where the facts lead.”

Fellow Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings complained Tuesday night the president’s stonewalling has rendered the House powerless on oversight. “The question now becomes: What do we do, do we allow this to continue, and where do we end up if we do that? I’m still mulling it over,” Cummings said. On impeachment, he added, “I’m getting there.”

For her part, Pelosi met the press again after the president’s tantrum, saying only Trump “took a pass” on an infrastructure deal and that she was praying for him. Paper covers rock.

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy writes:

It was a perfectly tuned sign-off. Anger seldom works against Trump; he owns the currency and can always issue more of it. In addressing the rogue President directly, or speaking about him in the third person, Pelosi usually adopts a tone that is more sorrowful than angry, while firmly reminding everyone—Trump included—that Congress is a coequal branch of government that won’t be run roughshod over. It is a measured strategy that worked during the lengthy standoff over Trump’s border-wall proposal. (The White House eventually capitulated.) And Pelosi has reasons to believe it is still working, despite the pressure she is facing.

Pelosi wants to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry only as a last resort forced upon Democrats by Trump’s criminal misbehavior rather than by pressure from her caucus. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee told Wednesday’s caucus meeting, “having an impeachment inquiry doesn’t change a darn thing.” Pelosi agreed.

That position is sustainable only so long as Democrats keep winning against the administration’s stonewalling in court. Trump’s mounting losses — two since Monday — build the Democrats’ case for impeachment on obstruction grounds even without hearings formally labeled impeachment. But there can be none without documents and witnesses. With court rulings in Democrats favor on obtaining financial records from Trump’s accounting firm and Deutsche Bank, the documents may be forthcoming. On Wednesday, the Justice Department agreed to turn over counterintelligence and foreign intelligence-related documents under subpoena to the House Intelligence Committee. Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) cancelled a planned meeting to discuss “enforcement action” against the department.

But critical to solidifying public opinion for impeachment will be hearing appearances by special counsel Robert Mueller and former White House counsel Don McGahn. Trump has already refused to allow McGahn to testify under subpoena. Mueller is reportedly reluctant to testify voluntarily and may draw a subpoena as well. But like Pelosi, he may be waiting to be forced rather than appear willing or eager.

How long Pelosi can hold off her caucus may depend on how much and how soon her six investigative committees obtain the information they require.

How can I prevent abortion? A mansplainer video


by Spocko
As a man you’ve probably asked, “How can I prevent abortion?” Well, it’s easy! Watch this short video!

From my friends at the Benevolent Order of Nebraskans for Erection Reversal:
Keep It Limp for Life! (B.O.N.E.R. K.I.L.L.) For more info go to their website ProLifeNebraska.com

So we at Pro-Life Nebraska think it is of utmost importance for people with sperm to learn about the hazards of irresponsible ejaculation and to understand that just because they have a boner, it is not too late to reverse it.

If you don’t want your sex partner to be able to choose to have an abortion, stop ejaculating in vaginas. Ejaculate elsewhere or nip that erection in the bud.

Save a life. Kill your boner.

The case they make is that men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancies. “In other words, every unwanted pregnancy occurred because someone decided that they wanted to irresponsibly ejaculate into a vagina.”

You can download the PDF brochure at their website ProLifeNebraska.com

As a half-human half-Vulcan male I refrain from comments on human’s reproductive process, especially considering the Vulcan process.  However, it is more logical for men to control themselves first, when they have the opportunity to avoid the situation, than attempting to control women later.

He doesn’t do cover-ups?

by digby

He pitched this one very slowly, right over the plate:

President Donald Trump responded angrily on Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim earlier in the day that he’s ‘engaged in a cover-up.”

Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

“I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden after reporters were given just a few minutes advance notice.

Oh really?

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Join the Mueller Book Club

by digby

I like this:

Michigan Rep. Justin Amash last week became the first Republican member of Congress to announce that, in his view, the Mueller Report proves President Donald Trump should be impeached.

None of Amash’s GOP colleagues have signed on to his assessment. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, for one, said Amash “has reached a different conclusion than I have. … I don’t think impeachment is the right way to go.”

But Romney, an occasional Trump critic, did add that “every individual has to make their own judgement.”

To do that, it helps to have read Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report about Russia’s election interference and President Trump’s response to the various investigations into it.

That is what the Mueller Book Club is trying to get Americans to do.

The book club, sponsored by a collection of activist groups, offers free PDF and audio downloads of the report. It is establishing reading groups around the country and offering online forums and guides. The organizers insist that reading the report from “cover to cover … is incredibly important” and points out, with alarm, that a recent poll found that 75 percent of Americans “have opted not to read the 448-page document, and just 3 percent report having read the entire thing.” You can sign up on the website to be part of a local reading group.

The book club at the moment is a work in progress, with parts of the website still featuring “placeholder text.” But various Mueller Report readers — including Oregon’s senior senator, Ron Wyden — have gotten the ball rolling by using social media to highlight pertinent excerpts and their own analysis. In this form, the report almost reads like a John Grisham thriller. Check out some examples below:

This thread contains images with passages from the Mueller Report. I will add new ones as I create them.

If you want, share them on Facebook, Instagram, print on fliers or t-shirts or postcards.

I want to show America what’s in that report. pic.twitter.com/zN72JquFht

— Tami Burages (@tburages) May 12, 2019

President made just as jurors were considering whether to convict or acquit Manafort.”

From page 132: “Evidence concerning the President’s conduct towards Manafort indicates that the President intended to encourage Manafort to not cooperate with the government. …”

— Char Sachson (@charsachson) May 20, 2019

Let’s not forget that one of the biggest overlooked bombshells in the #MuellerReport was Russia’s 2016 infiltration of a voting technology company. https://t.co/GFQA4EiIVv

— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) May 13, 2019

Yes. I just read this page of the #MuellerReport on @cspan. Tune in as we make our way through volume 2. You deserve to know the truth ➡️ https://t.co/NPz5bgx4He pic.twitter.com/THOYBhVZWp

— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) May 17, 2019

Check out the Mueller Book Club, here.

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