Here is the latest insanity and nonsense in the ongoing Trump-Russia-Corruption-General Asshatery Timeline. You can also view previous updates from “Dear Leader” tribute to the aftermath of Comey’s testimony on June 12th, June 9th, June 6th, June 2nd, and May 30th.
In this installment we have the testimony of Jefferson Beuregard Sessions III which largely confirmed most of the key points of the Comey testimony particular the fact he was left alone with Trump and later complained about it only to be basically ignored. We also had the shooting at the Republican baseball practice only to have Donald Trump Jr. tweet that this is the fault of a new Trumpized version of Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar.
Republicans now are calling for a new “civility” in our general rhetoric, but what they clearly really mean is they’d like to stop getting bashed for potentially killing between 25,000-36,000 Americans per year with their draconian TrumpCare debacle because “Liberal Truths” are just so darn mean and angry.
Trump will not being firing Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, not without a massacre at the DOJ that leads right through Deputy AG Rosenstein. And surprising no one not currently working in the White House the Wapo announced that Mueller is investigating Trump for Obstruction, so everything Comey said about his not being “investigated personally” is now moot.
- June 13th —
- Right-Wing media freaks when they discover a Shakespeare in the park version of Julius Ceasar which has been updated with a Trump-like leader who is assassinated, even though there had been a similar version in 2012 with an Obama-like leader and no one cared.
- Rep. Sean Duffy rails that Mueller is a friend of Comey’s and is on a witch hunt to get Trump. “Why should we let this charade go on?”
- Speaker Paul Ryan says Trump should let Mueller complete his job so he can “clear him.”
- Rosenstein testifies to the Senate during an appropriations hearing that there is “no reason and no good cause” to fire SP Mueller and that “If he were asked to fire him without cause, he wouldn’t do it.”
- Golden State Warriors refuse to visit the White House after NBA Championship win.
- Gingrich urges Trump to fire Mueller over Kathy Griffin’s bloody head stunt and Julius Ceasar in the park — which makes no damn sense.
- Bloomberg reports that in 2016 Russia conducted a cyber attack that breached voting systems in 39 states, including an attempt to change and modify voter lists in Illinois.
- Oliver Stone tells Steven Colbert that Putin has been “insulted and abused.”
- GOP operative Rick Wilson has Epic Tweet Storm against ‘Trump fellators, fanboys, grunting MAGA mouthbreathers’
- Newsweek reports that Sessions will deny meeting Kislyak at the Mayflower under oath, which is funny because Politico’s Michael Crowley was there in the same room with them at the time although he doesn’t state that they spoke directly. The Atlantic also reports that Session was acting in his capacity as a Trump surrogate at this time, not as a U.S. Senator.
- Kasowitz, Trump’s personal lawyer, brags he got Preet Brahaha fired, which is weird for four reasons 1) his saying this should be a violation of attorney client privilege and 2) Press was fired weeks before he was chosen as outside counsel so um, why were they talking then and 3) since his reason was “this guys gonna get you” — isn’t that obstruction for Trump to fire him to protect himself and 4) what the fracks he got to hide that Kasowitz seems to know about?
- Judiciary head Grassley responds to Feinstein on looking into Obstruction of Justice by Trump, they plan to sit down and discuss it.
- Sessions testifies before Senate Intel with a masterful Mr. Magoo act of strategic and convenient “non-recall”.
- He again claims he answered Sen Franken’s confirmation question about anyone meeting Russians in the context of being a surrogate, even though that wasn’t the question. [Franken later blasts him — “Stop lying to the public”]
- He claimed he did go the Mayflower Hotel but he doesn’t recall meeting or talking to Kislyak who was also there. He didn’t include it when he revealed the other two contacts because he simply didn’t remember “meeting” Kislyak, although he may have “encountered” him.
- He says his supporting the firing of Comey was based entirely on his opinion of the handling of the Clinton email investigation — which completely contradicts what Trump told Lester Holt — and therefore it didn’t violate his recusal over the Russia investigation which was “only one among thousands.”
- He voluntarily began his recusal on his first day largely because he of his involvement in the Trump campaign, so he never asked or was ever briefed on anything related to Russia long before making it official. In fact he stated he wasn’t even sure that it even happened saying “If Russia had hacked us...”.
- He confirms that he did leave Comey alone with Trump, but he figured “He could handle himself”, and he was probably the last to leave the room but only — I guess — because he’s a slowpoke, not because he was concerned.
- He did respond when Comey confronted him the next day — although Comey’s recollection was very vague and unsure here — after Comey complained about being abandoned and asked for it not to happen again Sessions said he repeated DOJ policy back to him, which is not really responsive to his point or question at all.
- The most contentious part of his testimony was when Sen Wyden said he was stonewalling by not answering questions about his conversations with Trump, Sessions also got angry when he was asked to explain what was “problematic” about his relationship to Russia as Comey had mentioned. [IMO he had no way to answer that since he hadn’t had a single briefing on the subject]
- He also blew his stack when Sen. Heinrich said he was obstructing the congressional investigation by claiming some “DOJ inappropriateness” rule which allowed him not to answer questions when under oath the same way Coats and Rogers had done, although Burr chimed in the Rogers was fully forthcoming during closed session. [Reagan’s DOJ did have such a rule, but Reagan himself waved his executive privilege during Iran-Contra so everything about it could get out]
- John McCain tries to shutdown Kamala Harris questioning after Sessions says “she makes me nervous” then she blisters him on twitter for his non-answers.
- To his credit McCain catches Sessions in a big fat lie about why he met with Kislyak in his Senate Offices at all because they never even discussed the issues of Security that Sessions said the meeting was about.
- Dick Durbin calls for Sessions to step down if he can’t answer direct questions.
- Trumpster Jason Miller calls Harris “Hysterical” — Kirsten Powers cuts him into tiny bacon strips and grills them for his obvious bias and sexism.
- Trump started thinking he wanted to fire Mueller after hearing he’s a friend of Comey on Breitbart. [It took them this long to notice, I knew that in the early 2000’s?]
- Former Federal Prosecutor Julie O’Sullivan states that if Trump isn’t the subject of a criminal investigation — he soon will be.
- Huckabee-Sanders “Trump has the right to fire Mueller, but doesn’t intend to”. Actually he doesn’t have the power to do it, only Rosenstein — or his replacement if it comes to that — does.
- June 14th —
- 186 Democrats file suit against Trump for his violation of the Emoluments clause.
- An anti-Trump Bernie Sanders supporter fires shots at Republicans practicing for a celebrity baseball game, 4 are wounded included strong 2nd Amendment supporter and GOP House Whip Steve Scalise who is listed in critical condition, the shooter is killed. Trump responds quickly, and some immediately begins to call it “Terrorism”.
- Wapo notes this is the 154th mass shooting so far this year.
- Trump makes public announcement about the shooting, background checks for persons suffering mental/emotional issues are not mentioned.
- Don Jr. retweets an article that blames modern day Julius Ceasar enactment for Baseball practice shooting.
- Republicans who opposed gun background checks, suddenly concerned about Baseball practice shooter’s background and anti-Trump rants on social media.
- Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi call for America to “Come Together” something that didn’t happen after the shooting of Gabby Giffords after her office was vandalized following Sarah Palin putting a gun sight over her district, after Sandy Hook which Trump-pal Alex Jones says was a “false flag”, the Holocaust Museum Shooter who was planning to target David Axelrod, the Knoxville Unitarian Church Shooter which was an “attack on Liberals” inspired by a book from a frequent O’Reilly guest, Dylann Roof’s murder spree in Charleston in reaction to the trial of George Zimmerman, the attempted attack on the Oakland ACLU and Tides Foundation inspired by the rhetoric of Glenn Beck, the Las Vegas Cop Killers who were from the Bundy Compound, the attack on Planned Parenthood inspired by phony video by right-wing anti-abortion activists, the Alt-Reich Nation killer who knifed ROTC Cadet Lt. Richard Collins to death, the Sikh Temple Shooter who mistakenly thought they were Muslim, the Terrorist in Portland who killed two bystanders with a knife after harassing a pair of Muslim girls or the over 1,000 Hate crimes that sparked up immediately after Trump’s election. So I’m not holding my breath that things are suddenly gonna get all unity-like because Scalise was shot in the hip.
- Bernie Sanders responds and condemns shooting. “Violence of any kind is unacceptable.” Yeah, no kidding.
- Newt Gingrich blames the shooting on vulgar Democrats.
- Right wing radio host says Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown should be hanging from a rope, to which their righty Pastor guests says “Amen.”
- SP Mueller gives a classified briefing to Senate Intel Chairs Burr and Warner on his investigation.
- Wapo reports that Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice by beginning to interview high level intelligence officials. Trump as stated by Comey wasn’t being personally investigated, but after the firing his worst fear came true.
- NYTimes confirms Wapo report and adds that Trump associates are also being investigated for illegal money laundering.
- WSJ reports Trump literally does not believe Russia hacked the DNC and Podesta, and tried to push NSA director Rogers to publicly deny any “collusion” reports just before Comey’s testimony — because he’s a gol darn idjit.
- Scalise apparently suffered organ damage and needs more surgeries.
- Trump along with Melania takes time off his birthday to visit the hospital, stories differ on whether or not they spend time in Scalise’s room.
- Senate votes 97-2 on a bill to tighten sanctions on Russia. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Business Insider. “People in the White House, we hear, are making calls in the House to try to stop it, slow it, weaken it, dilute it.”
- Pastor who suggested Obama might be the Anti-Christ now decrees the political Demonization of Republicans.
- Senate Judiciary committee opens investigation into Trump’s firing of Comey.
- Two Dozen Democrats send a later to WH Counsel McGahn about the digital security holes in Trump organization properties discovered by ProPublica.
- NBC and the Daily Beast report that the shooter had a history of violence against women, but was still able to access a gun.
- Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) told Fox News that “the media is complicit” in acts of violence like the mass shooting targeting members of Congress “if they keep inciting, as opposed to informing.”
- Trump tells a supporter on an island threatened by sea level rise, not to worry about sea level rise.
- Daily Beast reports that some WH aides think Trump “shot himself in the foot” by firing Comey, triggering the selection of a special prosecutor. [Yep.]
- RNC releases fresh talking points claiming there is no basis for an obstruction investigation, the only real crime is “the leaking” and asks why no one is investigating Loretta Lynch for obstructing the Clinton case [Because calling it a “matter” vs “investigation” didn’t actually change anything — so she didn’t that’s why.] Kasowitz also makes a similar lock-step complaint about leaks and denying obstruction.
- Federal Ethics Office cancels Steven Bannon’s unsigned and undated ethics waiver.