Good Monday morning to everyone. Lets get right to the news you all love to hear.
A former ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush said Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller is closing in on the "basic structure" of President Trump's family business, the Trump Organization, and suggested that Mueller may find "quite ugly" information in the president's unreleased tax returns.
Speaking on MSNBC's "The 11th Hour," Richard Painter told host Brian Williams that Trump must be getting nervous after the reported immunity deal for the Trump Organization’s longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
“Now we have the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization turning state’s evidence," Painter said. "I have to say that every white-collar criminal defense lawyer knows when the chief financial officer turns state’s evidence, everyone in the executive suite is in a lot of trouble because the chief financial officer knows exactly where the money is coming and going.”
If I may borrow from Hamilton:
It must be nice, it must be nice,
Follow the money and see where it goes
It must be nice, it must be nice,
The emperor has no clothes.
But yeah, last week felt like we were entering into the third act of this comedy of errors, come on Mueller, bring it on home.
CHICAGO — Democratic Party officials, after a yearslong battle between warring ideological wings, have agreed to sharply reduce the influence of the top political insiders known as superdelegates in the presidential nomination process.
Under the new plan, which was agreed to on Saturday afternoon in Chicago at the Democratic National Committee’s annual summer meetings, superdelegates retain their power to back any candidate regardless of how the public votes. They will now be largely barred, however, from participating in the first ballot of the presidential nominating process at the party’s convention — drastically diluting their power.
Superdelegates will be able to cast substantive votes only in extraordinary cases like contested conventions, in which the nomination process is extended through multiple ballots until one candidate prevails.
“After you lose an election, you have to look in the mirror,” said Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Dean had recorded a video message to committee members urging them to back the proposed changes.
Its nice ot see the DNC learning from the mistakes of the past. We wont be fooled again! (Another musical reference).
The untold story of rural broadband is that over the past seven years, independent broadband networks have proliferated. Today, some of the fastest, most affordable internet in the country can be found in communities like Oskaloosa, Iowa (population:11,500); Powell, Wyoming (6,400); Red Wing, Minnesota (16,500); and Springfield, Vermont (9,000). According to a 2016 Federal Communications Commission data release, more than 1,100 rural fiber broadband providers operate networks of various sizes in some of the most remote parts of America, and more than 230 of those providers offer symmetrical (both download and upload) gigabit speeds.
Rural broadband deployment isn’t easy, but the biggest barriers to better connectivity are not simply geographical. Twenty-one states currently have laws—largely manufactured by telecom industry lobbyists—that impede independent ISPs trying to deploy fiber. Wilson, North Carolina, for example, was one of the first municipalities to build out a network and show that fiber to the home was possible in a rural town. But in response, lobbyists forced through legislation to restrict municipal networks in North Carolina. The absurd result of this was that the Wilson fiber network has actually had to shutter service for some of its customers.
But despite small customer bases and razor-thin (or non-existent) margins, tenacious ISPs across the country are proving that especially when unencumbered by competition-stifling legislation, they can bring world-class internet to their communities.
Just how far and fast is rural gigabit-speed broadband being deployed? My organization, the Center on Rural Innovation, mapped it to learn more. Using the 2016 FCC data again, we found that more than 2,500 rural towns have access to fiber internet, representing more than 8.5 million rural Americans—a million more people than live in the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley. Of those, nearly 3 million have access to full symmetrical gigabit speeds. And though the gap between rural and non-rural fiber internet coverage is significant, it isn’t as overwhelming as many people think. More than 15 percent of rural Americans have access to fiber, compared with approximately 30 percent of people in suburban and urban areas.
This is really neat, bringing broadband to small towns is crucial in our fight for Net Neutrality.
A Democrat has no chance of becoming Wyoming's next governor, right?
Not so fast. Politics here is a lot more complicated than that, in part because a meaningful number of registered Republicans in this reddest of states are really — get this — Democrats.
And Democrats now are running their strongest candidate in a dozen years — Mary Throne, a politically moderate energy-industry attorney — for the state's highest office, which they've held eight of the last 15, 28 of the last 43, and 32 of the last 55 years.
After beating three little-known candidates in Tuesday's primaries, Throne faces Republican State Treasurer Mark Gordon for governor. Meanwhile, Gordon's nomination has some Republicans grumbling that Democrats have an outsized influence on Wyoming politics.
Once again the Blue Wave doing its thing, working that magic. Come on, we can do it!
Republicans on Capitol Hill are circulating a spreadsheet ahead of the November midterms listing investigations Democrats are considering launching if they take back the House, according to a new Axios report.
The document reportedly lists investigations Democrats have already called for but have been unable to move forward with due to Republican opposition.
The list includes probes into White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's ethics law compliance, the Trump administration's family separation policy, President Trump's tax returns, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, and more, according to Axios.
Democrats have a shot at taking back the House in November, and polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight predicts there is a 5-in-7 chance the "blue wave" will come to fruition.
The spreadsheet might indicate Republicans are seriously anticipating what a Democratic majority will mean for the future of the House, Axios reported. The sheet reportedly originated in a senior House Republican office.
It lists over 100 possible investigations, according to Axios.
That’s right fellas, take a long hard steamy look. We’re coming for you in November. And if you think Mueller is bad, wait till we retake the House. Then you’re gonna be in for it.
Anyways, that’s all for now, have a good morning.