Trump Attorney Jay Sekulow went on Sean Hannity’s show yesterday where he made the case for investigating James Comey based on the now infamous leaked memo of his private conversation with President Trump – the basis for FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the President and his team.
Sekulow pointed out that Comey was using government equipment to transport, store, and transmit his notes from his meeting with the President.
What’s the one thing we know for sure? James Comey leaked information that he got on a meeting with the President of the United States…
I want that to be very clear. He’s taking notes, he puts the notes in after and he gets into his car and writes these notes down. He takes those notes and puts them into his government car, into his government computer, into his government desk, which he then leaked from his government desk to his friend at the Columbia University law school.
Violation of the law, clearly… The investigation should be James Comey.
Comey has stated that his notes are personal property, not subject to rules pertaining to classified material.
Watch:
On Sunday, Sekulow told NBC’s Chuck Todd that President Trump is “not afraid of the investigation – there is no investigation. There is not an investigation of the President of the United States, period.”
President Trump drew applause at a Wednesday rally in Cedar Rapids, Ohio, when he publicly revealed plans to attach solar panels to his controversial southern border wall project. Trump had previously pitched the solar wall to congressional republicans in a June 6 meeting.
We’re thinking about building the wall as a solar wall, so it creates energy and pays for itself. –Donald J. Trump
While discussing the merits of the project, Trump mused:
Think of it – the higher it goes, the more valuable it is!
The wall – a core promise made by Trump throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, is intended to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigration into the United States. Candidate Trump repeatedly claimed that Mexico would pay for the wall, however when it came time to discuss details after the election, Mexican leaders pushed back fiercely. In response, Trump suggested that the United States would pay for the wall upfront and find ways of extracting payment from Mexico later.
Trump pointed out that by attaching solar panels to the wall, “Mexico will have to pay much less money – and that’s good, right?”
Marketing to Liberals 101- In what’s sure to keep left leaning fact checkers snarking away into the night, President Trump claimed the solar panels were his idea – a statement that’s pure bait for petty pundits like Rachel Maddow, who will inform her dwindling audience that plans for solar have ackchually been included in several designs submitted to the Department of Homeland Security by over 200 companies since the project was announced. Once Maddow fans smugly scoff at the incorrect statement, the fact that Trump is building a green, earth-friendly solar wall be the message which reaches liberal hearts and minds – especially in swing states – counteracting some of the outrage over the ‘injustice’ of forcing illegal immigrants to get in line and legally reside in the United States.
To that end – during the rally, Trump said he favored legislation which would block welfare benefits for new immigrants for at least five years.
“The time has come for new immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially, and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years”
House Democrats are gunning for Jared Kushner’s security clearance until the completion of the Russia investigation, citing concerns over contacts with Russian officials the Trump advisor and Presidential son-in-law reportedly failed to disclose.
Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote in a letter to White House chief of staff Reince Preibus;
“When there are credible allegations that employees may be unfit to continue accessing classified information, security clearances are supposed to be suspended while the allegations are investigated.”
“Mr. Kushner reportedly failed to disclose contacts with dozens of foreign officials on his security clearance application.”
Included in the letter is a demand by Democrats on the Oversight Committee for copies of Kushner’s security clearance application and for “all documents and communications referring or relating to Mr. Kushner’s contacts or communications with Russian government officials or business representatives.”
— House OversightDems (@OversightDems) June 21, 2017
Considering Kushner’s r0le as a senior advisor to the President and a key player in Middle East peace negotiations, he would ostensibly have access to highly sensitive information. And while FBI special counsel Robert Mueller hasn’t formally identified Kushner as a person of interest in his probe into Russian meddling in US Politics, the Washington Post reported that a ‘senior advisor’ to the President was under investigation – which was subsequently identifiedas Jared Kushner by New York magazine, GQ, and Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali.
As iBankCoin reported six days ago, Kushner may be in a sticky situation over meetings with Russian government and banking officials during a time in which the Kushner family sought financing for a $1.8 billion office building on Fifth Avenue in New York.
The White House has said that the subsequent meeting with the banker was a pre-inauguration diplomatic encounter, unrelated to business matters. The Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has said the session was held for business reasons because of Kushner’s role as head of his family’s real estate company. –WaPo
More recently, Kushner came under fire for reportedly trying to establish a diplomatic ‘back channel’ with Russia.
Hopefully Kushner will be cleared soon in Mueller’s FBI investigation… until then, it appears he’s a huge liability – as he seems to be the only remaining member of Trump’s team at this point who justifies the existence of the Russia probe.
Michael Moore has once again opened his proverbial pie-hole after Democrat Jon Ossoff had his clock cleaned by Republican Karen Handel in Georgia’s special election Tuesday.
Moore, whose infamous speech from his anti-Trump propaganda movie Trumpland accidentally helped Trump win the election, had harsh words for Democrats, who he told to ‘get a friggin’ clue.’
If u think the party who's won the vote in 6 o last 7 Prez votes but holds ZERO power &is now 0-4 in 2017 votes is going to win next year…
Days after North Korea released U.S. tourist Otto Warmbier with “extensive loss of [brain] tissue” who died shortly after his return to the United States, Kim Jong Un offered a conditional moratorium on his country’s nuclear and missile tests, reports Yonhap News.
Reaction to the death of Otto Warmbier
While it is unclear if Pyongyang’s offer to back off testing new munitions has anything to do with the death of the U.S. Tourist, the timing suggests the two are correlated.
As NBC notes: “The president is going to have to do something — and it’s going to have to go well beyond condolences that he gave yesterday and a condemnation of North Korea,” said Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast columnist and author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World.” “He needs to make clear to North Korea and other regimes that there will be a severe cost for harming an American.”
While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!
Kim Jong Un has said he will agree to a moratorium on North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing programs if certain demands are met – primarily, that the United States halt joint military drills with South Korea, which Pyongyang has called a ‘rehersal for invasion.’
South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in told CBS that Seoul has no plans to scale back exercises with Washington, despite a S. Korean advisor’s remarks in Washington to the contrary in exchange for N. Korea freezing it’s development programs.
Moratorium redux
Pyongyang’s offer to halt the development of weapons isn’t their first. In 2012, North Korea agreed to a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests, as well as freeze it’s uranium-enrichment facilities in exchange for 240,000 tons of food aid from the United States. Unfortunately, this agreement terminated less than two months later when N. Korea made an unsuccessful attempt to launch what it claims was an ‘earth observation’ satellite into space – a move which S. Korea and others called a cover for testing a ballistic missile.
As ZeroHedge reports, In recent years, North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests as it seeks to develop a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. Despite sanctions and pressure, North Korea has repeatedly vowed to further develop its missile and nuclear weapons program, viewing it as a deterrent against what it claims is Washington’s hostile policy against it.
Tuesday’s special election in Georgia to fill the vacant seat left by Trump’s new HHS Secretary, Tom Price, was the most expensive House election in history, coming in at around $55 million spent between the candidates and outside groups.
New York Times
In a race Democrats snarkily referred to as a “referendum on the Trump administration,” 30 year old Democrat Jon Ossoff spent over seven times what Republican Karen Handel shelled out for the race, coming in at $21,977,310 spent vs. Handel’s $3,132,009.
Ossoff received a significant amount of support from out-of-state donors. Itemized campaign filings reveal that Mr. Ossoff received most of his contributions from large Democrat leaning states such as New York and California, while only 14% came from Georgia compared to Ms. Handel’s 56%.
The New York Times notes that while Ossoff’s campaign far outraised Handel’s, she had much more outside support from party committees and ‘super PACs,’ which spent over $25 million on the race – primarily on advertising. In fact, an Atlanta TV station added a 7 p.m. newscast to take advantage of all that sweet, sweet advertising money.
Reactions:
Thank you @FoxNews "Huge win for President Trump and GOP in Georgia Congressional Special Election."
Stephen Hawking gives humanity 200-500 years to find a new home among the stars if our species is to survive global warming, the physicist told attendees at a science and arts festival in Trondheim, Norway.
When we have reached similar crises in our history, there has usually been somewhere else to colonize. Columbus did it in 1492 when he discovered the New World. But now there is no new world. No Utopia around the corner.
Shouldn’t we be content to be cosmic sloths, enjoying the universe from the comfort of Earth?
The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive. –Stephen Hawking
Hawking also slammed President Trump over his environmental policies:
‘I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, unlike Donald Trump, who may just have taken the most serious, and wrong, decision on climate change this world has seen,’
How to escape?
While Elon Musk has announced his plan to colonize Mars, starting with a visit in 2020 – Hawking suggests we escape to the vast reaches of space riding on beams of light.
Beams of Light?
In order to test this theory, Hawking has teamed up with fellow physicist and billionaire Yuri Milner to form a company called Breakthrough Starshot, which will be launching 1000 tiny prototype space probes into the void. Just a few centimeters wide, the data collectors will attach to a miniscule ‘light sail’ which will ride on beams of light provided by an array of lasers.
The probes could accelerate to speeds reaching 100 million mph (160 million km/h) – approximately one fifth the speed of light. This would be fast enough to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years, and theoretically send back images of what was found, Hawking said.
“Human colonization on other planets is no longer science fiction. It can be science fact. The human race has existed as a separate species for about 2 million years. Civilization began about 10,000 years ago, and the rate of development has been steadily increasing. If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before,” said Hawking.
The US State Department directly questioned the Gulf Arab States continued embargo of Qatar which has gone on for two weeks without progress – calling on all parties to ‘constructively resolve this dispute.’
“At this point, we are left with one simple question: Were the actions really about their concerns regarding Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism or were they about the long-simmering grievances between and among the GCC countries.” –Heather Nauert, State Dept.
Embargo
On June 5th, news broke that Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt had cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar over accusations of ‘spreading chaos’ by ‘funding terrorism and supporting Iran’ – shutting down all land, sea, and air crossings with the tiny energy-rich nation that has the highest per capita income in the world. Qatari visitors and residents were given two weeks to leave – while diplomats had just 48 hours.
Qatar was then given a 24 hour ultimatum to fulfill 10 conditions which were not made public – sent to Kuwait to arbitrate. One of the conditions is rumored to be Saudi Arabia’s demands that Qatar sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas – both considered terrorist organizations by international bodies.
Nine days later, on June 15th, the United States fulfilled an Obama-administration approved deal to sell Qatar $12 Billion in F-15 fighter jets.
What started this?
While Qatar has been friendly with Iran for years, the prelude to the embargo began after a broadcast which showed Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani speaking with no audio – and scrolling text at the bottom of the screen which stated his support for Iran and terrorist groups. Qatar claims the broadcast was ‘hacked.’
After the broadcast, Saudi Arabia and the UAE blocked Qatari news organization Al-Jazeera.
Amid Qatar’s denials, Saudi-owned satellite television networks immediately began airing repeated stories about the disputed comments. By early Wednesday morning, those living in the UAE and subscribers to local cable providers couldn’t access the channels of Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite broadcaster based in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Attempts to reach its websites brought up a warning from the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority saying the site “contains content that is prohibited.”
In Saudi Arabia, internet users also found Al-Jazeera websites blocked with a warning from the kingdom’s Culture and Information Ministry.
It seems like Saudi Arabia and Qatar were thick as thieves when Hillary was supposed to win… Then again, they were going to get that cool pipeline they paid the Clinton Foundation so much for.
A train station in Brussels, Belgium was evacuated today after an explosion – according to senior Belgian law enforcement officials.
Belgian military police ‘neutralised’ a suspect reportedly wearing an explosive belt following the incident, however it is unclear if the person who was shot is still alive. No other casualties have been reported.
“At the moment, the police are in numbers at the station and everything is under control.” –Brussels Police
Belgium has been on high alert for terrorism following a March 2016 suicide bombing which killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and a local airport. ISIS claimed responsibility.
CNN’s Jim Acosta is beside himself after (soon to be former) White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called for the media to turn off cameras and audio recording devices for a ‘silent’ press briefing. Acosta, apparently unaware that there was a time when the Press Corps used to take notes by hand, staged a silent protest by tweeting a picture of his retarded socks.
The Spicer off-camera/no audio gaggle has begun. I can't show you a pic of Sean. So here is a look at some new socks I bought over the wknd pic.twitter.com/wO9erspwYa
“If he can’t come out and answer the questions and they’re just not gonna do this on-camera or audio—why are we even having these briefings or these gaggles in the first place?”
STONEWALLED!
Acosta tweeted that he was ‘stonewalled’ by Spicer’s silent briefing.
Make no mistake about what we are all witnessing. This is a WH that is stonewalling the news media. Hiding behind no camera/no audio gaggles
Acosta then whined on air about CNN being passed over for questions. Looks like the White House’s war on Fake News is getting under Jim’s skin…
It’s like we’re just covering bad reality television, is what it feels like now.
How will the press corps ever recover? Will the ever-evasive White House confiscate pencils and paper next? Can Jim Acosta walk and chew gum at the same time?
Watch the anchor-socked anchor’s dramatic tantrum below:
