Hey there fellow newsies. Another week and another silver gold platinum diamond (not blood) mine of good news to dig out of the political landscape.
If you are new to the Good News Roundup, our purpose is to serve as a counterpoint to the gloom and doom view of the current state of the country (and world). It’s perfectly obvious to anyone with more than three functioning brain cells that democracy is under siege. It should also be obvious and reassuring that the resistance is strong and getting stronger. Is this space we choose to highlight the positive aspects of the daily deluge of political news. Sometimes that’s just a matter of shifting perspective. Sometimes it’s piling onto the ridicule train and riding it back and forth over the forces of evil. And sometimes it’s reporting outright victories (Alabama and PA-18). Please respect that intent and try not to pee on our parade. That’s tRump’s thing and we don’t want to promote any tRumplike behavior.
Don’t forget to check out oldhippiedude’s Tweets ‘o the Week later on today and tune in again tomorrow at 7AM when Jessiestaf brings us Monday’s Good News Roundup.
Yosef52’s Community resource for how you can get involved and help take the country back.
Resist. Vote. Indict or Impeach. Imprison.
The Cold Open
Last night’s SNL was a rerun, so we’ll improvise.
Breaking Good News
In the “Wouldn’t that be a slap in the face” section, The Hill is reporting Pompeo lacks votes for positive vote on panel. By the way it’s not breaking but, Jared Kushner holds the knife sticking out of Tillerson’s back in this exposé. But wait, there’s more: The CIA Says Mike Pompeo Didn't Fight in the Gulf War
CIA Director Mike Pompeo is officially short of the votes needed to clear the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week.
Democrats on the committee have yet to tip their hand about if they will allow Pompeo’s nomination to move to the floor with an unfavorable recommendation or if they will try to kill his prospects in the committee.
If they don’t help move him to the floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could try to discharge Pompeo’s nomination from committee, which could ultimately require 60 votes.
Fox’s Laura Ingraham sued by former personal assistant for pregnancy discrimination
On April 20, The Washington Post reported that Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle and her own eponymous radio show, is being sued by her former personal assistant Karolina Wilson for pregnancy discrimination.
Wilson’s is the latest of multiple lawsuits alleging either discrimination or harassment at the hands of Fox News or Fox Business personalities. In 2016, the network infamously lost its founder, Roger Ailes, after former Fox host Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment, prompting many more women to come forward with their stories. The following year, Fox fired its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, after reporting revealed he paid $32 million in hush money for a previously unreported harassment report, which was “at least the sixth agreement” that O’Reilly or Fox entered into to silence his accusers. Other Fox employees have been reported as having committed sexual harassment, assault, and rape. And Fox itself is also facing a lawsuit from a former employee who says she was terminated in retaliation for getting pregnant.
Esquire has a piece talking about how The Comey Memos Hurt Trump in Reality, But Not in the Fox News Vortex. You would think they’d all get dizzy from so much spin.
I think there’s a widespread misperception about the release of James Comey’s memos concerning his meetings with the president* in the immediate aftermath of the election and the inauguration. It took the Republicans in the House approximately thirty-nine minutes to leak the contents of those memos. (Maybe someone forgot where the copy paper was stored.) As soon as they became public, however, it became obvious to most people that this may well have been one of the greatest own goals in the history of American politics.
From Huffpost J. K. Rowling Mocks Donald Trump With Magical ‘Harry Potter’ Taunt
It looks like Maggie Haberman’s access to the White House is being reconsidered. NYT Reporter Hits Back At Trump, Says She Knows Who The ‘Drunk/Drugged-Up Loser’ Is. She also said tRump is afraid of Stone. tRump used to like Haberman, probably because she was so critical of Hillary back when it mattered. Now that she’s changed her tune, he’s decided she’s a total hack. tRump fluffing is a dying art. Pretty soon, it’ll be Hannity and one or two of the remaining White House staff.
Trump, infuriated by the story, slammed “third-rate- flunkie” Haberman in vicious tweets Saturday morning, and added the scathing “drugged up” insult about one of the sources, whom he didn’t name.
It had to be Nunberg, Haberman tweeted, because the president is too afraid of bombastic, rule-breaking Stone to “be that direct.”
I know you’ll find this difficult to believe, but tRump lied to Director Comey about not sleeping in Moscow in 2013. Whatever could he be trying to hide?
Memos by FBI Director James Comey reveal that President Trump repeatedly pushed back hard on claims that he once consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, claiming that he didn’t even spend a night in the Russian capital during his 2013 trip there." data-reactid="15">The newly released memos by FBI Director James Comey reveal that President Trump repeatedly pushed back hard on claims that he once consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, claiming that he didn’t even spend a night in the Russian capital during his 2013 trip there.
At a Jan. 27, 2017, private dinner with the president, Comey wrote, Trump was adamant that the claim about hookers in Moscow, made in a dossier compiled by a former British spy Christopher Steele, was a “complete fabrication.” He told Comey he had checked with associates and was reminded “that he didn’t stay overnight in Russia” on the trip, during which he presided over the Miss Universe contest. After flying into Moscow in the morning, he “departed for New York that same night,” Trump told Comey, according to one of the former FBI chief’s memos.
But there is abundant evidence that Trump’s account to the FBI director was false: Social media posts, photographs and the account of at least two associates — including Trump’s former security chief — indicate that Trump arrived in Moscow on Nov. 8, 2013, spent the night at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and didn’t leave the city until after the Miss Universe was finished late on the evening of Nov. 9.
The top-tier quarterback who can’t find a job, Colin Kaepernick Receives Amnesty International’s Highest Honor For Activism. Take that, you colluding NFL owners.
Amnesty International on Saturday named former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick its 2018 Ambassador of Conscience for his kneeling protests against racial injustice.
The award, given to Kaepernick in an Amsterdam ceremony, is handed out each year to “individuals and groups who speak out for justice,” Amnesty says on its website, with an aim to “create debate, encourage public action and raise awareness of human rights issues.” Past recipients include Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai and U2.
Smilegate in two images.
This Was the Week That Was
The burning train wreck that fell into a canyon when the bridge blew up named Michael Cohen got spanked by a judge, a lawyer, an entertainer, another lawyer, two clients and the news media all at the same time. He’s making Satan’s lawn ornament, Paul Manafort, look like a vestal virgin hesitantly attending her first bacchanal. The Atlantic published a cheat sheet to the scandal(s): The Michael Cohen Case: A Definitive Guide to Key Players. Our own GoodNewsRoundup did a great Cohen recap yesterday in case you missed it. Josh Marshall at Talking Point Memo has some insights into Cohen and Russia. Cohen is running scared. From Politico we have Cohen drops libel suits against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS.
The Guardian reported on one of tRump’s other lawyer’s legal problems. Authorities to investigate Jay Sekulow nonprofit after 'troubling' revelations. You just can’t make this stuff up.
And then there’s Rudy. He’s bringing some baggage of his own. Rudolph Giuliani’s Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job and Peas in a pod: The long and twisted relationship between Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. There’s also 1988: Giuliani Had FBI End Investigation of Trump Money Laundering - Trump raised $2M for Giuliani.
Everyone, except Faux Noise, is all up in Hannity’s grill about disclosure and also dickishness. Ari Melber had some fun with it (video link). Media Matters tells us about the 83 times Hannity did not mention that his pro-Trump legal guests also had done legal work for him. This is a guy who picked a fight with Jimmy Kimmel. Crooks and Liars has a piece on right wing conspiracy porn starring Hannity.
Alex Jones, the scum that floats to the top of the cesspit, is walking running back his Sandy Hook conspiracy theory, now that he’s been sued by parents who lost their children that have received death threats because of the spiteful shit he vomits out into the waiting mouths of his demented flock of brown-shirted asshats. He [Jones] is also losing his mind about tRump betraying him in Syria.
The World Champion self-deluder managed to produce another mountain of bullshit this week. His excretory talent is nothing to sneeze at. It’s not a good idea to turn your nose up at it either. CNN reported that tRump lied to get on the Forbes 400 list (video link). The Brookings Institute makes the case that tRump’s lies are corroding democracy. Remember, Washington Post has documented 2,436 false statements since tRump took office.
The Sanctions on Russia That Never Came
The Backlash Against Trump's Syria Strike
“This Is Not Normal”: James Comey Responds to Trump’s Jail Threat
AG Schneiderman Moves To Change NY Law Regarding Presidential Pardons/Double Jeopardy
The Republican "Tax Cut" Scam Is Crashing And Burning With American Voters.
All the new shiny things haven’t saved Pruitt. Scott Pruitt’s actions at the EPA have triggered a half-dozen investigations
Pruitt, Carson and Zinke have to be jealous. Trump’s trade rep spends $1M on new furniture, blames Obama
Deported U.S. veteran Hector Barajas-Varela returns home to be sworn in as a U.S. citizen
Huge sporting goods chain says it will be purging and destroying assault-style weapons.
The kids held another walkout/protest on Friday.
PHOTOS: The first gay pride parade in Mike Pence’s hometown was wild
Poor Laura had her fe-fes hurt on her own show. Laura Ingraham Kicks Guest Off Her Show After He Mentions All the Advertisers Boycotting Her
The DNC filed suit against the tRump campaign et al. Rachel Maddow Friday (video link). The Independent’s take is The DNC's lawsuit against Trump, Russia and Wikileaks is making the parallels with Watergate hard to ignore.
The Comey frenzy is a big deal regardless of what we think of Comey. He’s highly credible and he’s everywhere. When the news all week is about tRump not being morally fit to be president, it can’t be good for the Rezident. And the rush to delegitimize Comey as some kind of liberal sleeper agent only has traction with the brain dead lemmings tied to tRump in their race to the cliff.
The Comey Interviews (video links)
Musical Interlude
Mr. Mueller Goes to Washington
Ok, so he’s not James Stewart and he’s not a Senator, but you get the idea.
Since the ferret wearing racist descended that escalator in 2015, we’ve seen a waterfall (yellow) of credible accusations of wrongdoing by the despoilers of the republic. They’ve given Bobby Three Sticks a lot of things to investigate. There are so many potential crimes sitting in his queue, Mueller had to farm some of them out to the SDNY. Here’s a list of potentially chargeable offenses. Multiple counts of each crime of them have been alleged. Time pressure means I don’t have links for each of these alleged crimes. I’ll try to have that together in time for next Sunday.
- Obstruction of Justice
- Conspiracy against the United States
- Violations of Campaign Finance Laws
- Violations of the Emoluments clause of the Constitution
- Money Laundering
- RICOH violations (ongoing criminal enterprise stuff)
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations (cf Azerbaijan)
- Bribery
- Fraud
- Witness Intimidation
- Malfeasance in Office
- Misprision of a Felony
- Lying to the Special Counsel, the FBI, Congress
Sunday Comics
Resurrected from 2013, it caused an uproar from the ammosexuals at the time.
I usually miss Corden, because I’m watching Myer and there just isn’t enough time in the day.
Samantha Bee goes off
Full Frontal, Act II Sean Hannity is a Serial Killer (video link), Act III Medicinal Cannabis For All
John Oliver on Corporate Taxes (video link)
Patriotic poetry updated for the tRump era.
“Forward, the White Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the liar knew
Someone had blundered.
His not to make reply,
His not to reason why,
His but to lie and lie.
Into the valley of Deceit
Rode tRumpelthinskin.
Tweeters to right of him,
Tweeters to left of him,
Tweeters behind him
Lampooned and belittled;
Stormed at with snark and scorn
With truth and morality torn
Him who had lied at every turn
Came through the tongue of Deceit,
Straight from his senses shorn
All that was left of him,
Left of tRumpelthinskin.
sincere and abject apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson
Cats (and Dogs) Rule, tRump Drools
Today’s Quote
Bess Myerson was the first and only Jewish Miss America (1945). She ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate from New York in 1980. And, in 1988 Rudy Guiliani tried her on federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and using interstate facilities to violate state bribery laws. She was acquitted. Maybe El Estupido Naranja* wants Rudy help with his prosecution?
The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. — Bess Myerson
*The Stupid Orange [It sounds more disparaging in Spanish]
Brain Droppings
The criminal justice system is the meat grinder. tRump is the sausage casing. All those meadow muffins lying around in the pasture are what’s being ground up.
Cambodia had Pol Pot. Lots of places have tin pots. Here, we have a piss pot.
Every time I hear someone say “tRump is pissed,” I keep waiting to the “on.”
Barack Obama was our first African-American president. tRump is our first career criminal.
People are reporting ‘Donald’ has become one of the pariah names for babies. It currently ranks between ‘Adolf’ and ‘Genghis’.
Finale
Time to wake up and get woke.
Disclaimer: Any snark expressed above is deserved and intended.