Donald Trump-- Enemy Of The People

In a column published by The Guardian this morning, Robert Reich noted that In fighting all oversight, Trump has made his most dictatorial move. He worries that Trump has gone off the deep end to make sure there would be "no congressional oversight of this administration: no questioning officials who played a role in putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census. No questioning a former White House counsel about the Mueller report. No questioning a Trump adviser about immigration policy. No questioning a former White House security director about issuances of security clearances. No presidential tax returns to the ways and means committee, even though a 1920s law specifically authorizes the committee to get them. Such a blanket edict fits a dictator of a banana republic, not the president of a constitutional republic founded on separation of powers."

All true. And the twin crime here is Trump's jihad against a free press. Hobbling Congress and hobbling the media leads to just one thing: tyranny. Trump needs to be removed-- by the people of the United States in November of 2020. Congress may go down in history as cowards for not doing their duty, but what we need to focus on now, as citizens, is doing our own.

Last night Trump was in Green Bay Wisconsin last night, rallying his fans by spewing bile about Mueller (who he claims cleared him of treason), spewing bile Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, and bile about the "fake news" media. "Can you imagine," this asshole babbled, "Sleepy Joe, Crazy Bernie. ... Can you imagine any of those people up here doing what I'm doing?" Frankly it's inconceivable that any American president, past or future, would "do what I do"-- stooping to the levels he stoops to when he addresses his low-IQ, predominantly racist fans around the country-- overwhelmingly men who hate their own lives and hate everything around them. Last night they chanted "CNN sucks" as their Hitlerian idol raged against them for daring to offer news independently of his own distorted vision.

Back in Washington, the "fake news" media was being enlightened and entertained by a decidedly higher-brow speaker, historian Ron Chernow, whose speech is embedded up top. Trump was too frightened to go-- or to even allow members of the Regime to attend.

Chernow broke the ice by quoting Will Rogers: "People are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke," adding "and that certainly describes our topsy turvy moment." But he talked more about journalists than about Trumpanzee. "We've seen past administrations threaten the press directly, whether it be Lincoln shutting down disloyal papers during the Civil War, or Woodrow Wilson stifling dissent with the Espionage Act in World War I. But what is happening today is perhaps even more insidious-- a relentless campaign against the very credibility of the news media. Even the smartest courtroom lawyers can't defend the press against such vague and sweeping attacks. You folks can only preserve that hard-won credibility in one way-- with solid, fair-minded, accurate, and energetic reporting... Now, you folks in the media write the early drafts of history and we historians the later ones. Your work gives freshener, and color, and immediacy to our sagas. I know how embattled you feel at this critical juncture as you combat the mistrust of a significant portion of the American electorate. I think you do noble work to preserve democracy at a time when a rising tide of misinformation masquerading as news threatens to make a mockery of the First Amendment... The press is a powerful weapon that must always be fired with reluctance and aimed with precision."

Samantha Bee's Not The White House Correspondents' Dinner was... less high brow:

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Watching and listening to all of the complaining and whining about comedian Michelle Wolf's performance at this past weekend's annual White House Correspondents Association dinner and roast gets real tired real fast. Personally, I could always take or leave her act but judging from the list of lowlifes doing the complaining and whining, I feel that I should give her another look and listen. The reaction by so many sub-standard humans indicates that she may be due some kudos.

So the fuck what if Michelle Wolf said crass, uncivil things. That still makes her better than her targets. It's a roast and her targets deserve roasting. Hell, most of them deserve roasting for real, on a spit. I could certainly go for that! But, the faux outrage is ridiculous. The whiners can't handle the truth. They also can't handle their own irony, for it is they who support and cheer on a stark, raving mad monster who calls women "fat slobs", makes fun of the disabled, brags about assaulting women, calls nazis fine people, calls football players "sons of bitches," insults war heroes, and constantly calls people who criticize him stupid names. They had a whole convention in 2016 where they wore shirts that used the c-word to describe Hillary Clinton as they chanted "Lock Her Up" and they think Wolf was over the top?

So the complainers and whiners can't take 15 minutes of having it thrown back in their faces? Karma really is a bitch, isn't it? 15 minutes of payback apparently is as well. For those who object to Wolf's remarks on Sarah Huckabee Sanders' appearance and say her comments were humiliating, that's rich. Sanders humiliates the entire country every time she opens her mouth and cynically lies and provides her ludicrous cover for her boss. There's nothing that Michelle Wolf said that even begins to approach the hurtful arrogance and idiocy that emanates from the mouths of the likes of Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway on a daily basis.

Former Republican Party Chairman and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus whined that Wolf made people in the room uncomfortable. Really? This from a man who has dedicated his life to the destruction of the American dream and the advancement of human suffering?

Many of the complainers and whiners are not just members of the Trumpanzee administration. They are press people, the very people who gave Trump untold millions of dollars in free air time. They normalized a freak and helped make him president as much as the Russian Bots. They got off easy. It's us who didn't. I can't help but notice that many in the press are siding with Trumpanzee on the issue of Michelle Wolf's remarks, in essence backing him once again. The real reason they objected to Wolf's comments and defended the White House was nothing but self-serving sycophancy. They want continued personal access more than they want a better country. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell tweeted that "an apology is owed." Yeah, Andrea, from you for every day that you haven't pointed out to your audience that our country is being lead by a madman.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer came out from behind the bushes long enough to call the whole episode "a disgrace." Maybe next year they can get Anthony Scaramucci. Better yet, how about Kathy Griffiin. Tell her to bring the bloody head.

How Closely Together Did The Kremlin And The NRA Work To Saddle America With Trump? Follow The Money

As we've reported for months, the Kremlin operations to saddle America with the most incompetent president in history included money laundering millions of dollars into his campaign through the NRA. The mainstream media is starting to sniff around a story that's been out there for quite some time-- the Putin-Torshin-NRA-Trumpanzee connection. CNN took a look on Friday evening, reporting that the NRA is collecting internal documents related to its role in Putin-Gate, at the request of congressional investigators, certainly pointing to the fact that Mueller has already been there.

The NRA has faced fresh scrutiny from congressional investigators about its finances and ties to Alexander Torshin, one of the 17 prominent Russian government officials the US Treasury Department recently slapped with sanctions. The gun-rights group has said it is reexamining its relationship with Torshin, who is a lifetime NRA member, in the wake of the sanctions.

The renewed attention has highlighted the close-knit if sometimes uneasy alliance between top NRA officials and Torshin-- a relationship that ensnared members of Trump's team during the presidential campaign, inviting further congressional scrutiny.

Those inquiries could shed light on the tightly held fundraising practices and political activities of the NRA. The political powerhouse shelled out more than $30 million in 2016 to back Donald Trump's candidacy-- more than it spent on 2008 and 2012 political races combined, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Vice President Mike Pence is slated to speak at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Dallas next Friday, an official told CNN.

The NRA recently found itself facing allegations that the FBI was investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money through the group to bolster Trump, according to a McClatchy report. The NRA has publicly denied any contact from the FBI and insisted it hasn't accepted illegal donations.

Despite the public denials, officials at the gun-rights group have been anxiously preparing as if they were already under investigation, sources said. Some employees have been tasked with preserving years of documents mentioning Torshin or his associate, Maria Butina, who runs a pro-guns group in Russia, a source familiar with the situation said. Privately, some officials have expressed anxiety about a potential investigation and the group's Russian ties.

The NRA's precautions could be little more than due diligence as the group faces inquiries from congressional investigators and the media about its relationship with Torshin. But the feeling among some officials internally is that the group appears to be readying for an investigation.

"True believers to the cause are getting very antsy," said a person privy to the NRA's internal deliberations. "They were definitely preparing, they were bracing themselves."

The NRA declined to comment.

Torshin, the deputy head of Russia's central bank who served for years as a senator in the Russian parliament, began making inroads into the NRA with the help of Tennessee lawyer G. Kline Preston. Preston, who said he has known Torshin for about a decade, said the Russian wanted to meet the leadership of the NRA, so Preston cold-called then-NRA President David Keene. In other media interviews, Preston said that call took place around 2011.

"I can certainly say without any reservation that Torshin's intent was purely about helping with the expansion of gun rights," Preston said. "Infiltrating to influence the NRA politically is a red herring."

But even some within the NRA viewed the partnership warily.

When Donald Trump Jr. arrived for a dinner on the sidelines of the NRA's 2016 annual meeting in Louisville, some attendees-- including NRA officials-- were startled to discover Torshin and Butina already present at the restaurant where the reception was being held, according to sources familiar with the event. Torshin and Butina weren't invited to the dinner, but they were asked to stay and speak anyway.

"Donald J. Trump Jr. was attending an NRA convention and having dinner when an acquaintance asked him to say hello to Torshin and made an introduction," said Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Trump Jr. "They made small talk for a few minutes and went back to their separate meals. That is the extent of their communication or contact."

The seemingly impromptu encounter left some officials at the gun-rights group wondering whether it was a setup by the Russians, sources said.

Throughout the campaign, a number of people made overtures to Trump campaign aides on Torshin's behalf. Those emissaries sometimes touted their NRA connections as they aimed to helped Torshin quietly facilitate a relationship between then-presidential candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In one such email, a conservative activist reached out on Torshin's behalf to say his goal was "cultivating a back-channel to President Putin's Kremlin."

The activist added, "Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump," according to the House Intelligence Committee reports.

The outreach efforts reached Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort, his deputy Rick Gates, then-campaign adviser Rick Dearborn and Jeff Sessions, then a foreign policy adviser and now the attorney general, according to emails reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee.

In at least some of the cases their overtures were rebuffed. Torshin was unable to schedule a meeting with candidate Trump at the 2016 NRA meeting, but ultimately managed to meet Trump Jr.

Trump Jr. told congressional investigators he didn't speak to Torshin about the upcoming presidential election, according to the House Intelligence Committee's Russia report.

In an interview with Bloomberg News nearly a year after the event, Torshin touted his dinner with Trump Jr. at the NRA meeting and claimed he had known Trump for nearly five years.

It's unclear whether the outreach to Trump aides attracted the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller. But he and his team have been delving into the possibility that Russians may have injected foreign money into the 2016 race to influence the election.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign declined to comment.

The skepticism among some NRA officials about the pair of gun-loving Russians may have been well-founded.

Torshin's years-long involvement with the NRA had all the hallmarks of a Russian influence operation, Russia experts said. Russian operatives often look to build relationships with polarizing groups -- on either end of the political spectrum-- to breed division and advance the Russian agenda.

"We could give them the benefit of the doubt and say this is just a natural interest and affinity; this guy Torshin and this woman Butina are just gun aficionados," said Alina Polyakova, a Russia expert and foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.

But given Torshin's stature-- a former Russian senator and now a deputy head at the Russian central bank-- that is exceedingly unlikely, experts said.

"To me this seems like part and parcel of an influence operation," Polyakova said.

Torshin did not respond to requests for comment.

Prolific on Twitter, he has tweeted that the report of an FBI investigation was little more than a rumor. Preston, the Tennessee lawyer, said Torshin was similarly dismissive of those reports when the two men saw one another on Preston's recent trip to Moscow.

"A lot of it, I think, he sees as comical," Preston said of Torshin's reaction. "It's absurd."

If some NRA officials were surprised to encounter Butina and Torshin awaiting Trump Jr. at that private event in 2016, one prominent NRA official was not: David Keene.

Keene, now an NRA board member, said there was a small birthday dinner for him that evening, which Torshin and Butina attended. It happened to take place at the same restaurant as the NRA gathering, he said, and someone brought Trump Jr. by to say hello.

Keene played a central role in fostering the relationship between Torshin and the NRA.

In 2015, Keene brought a delegation of NRA backers to Moscow for a flurry of events with Torshin and Butina, who had founded her own version of the NRA-- Right to Bear Arms-- in Moscow.

The group went sightseeing, toured a Russian gun manufacturer and met with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin -- one of the first Russians the Obama administration slapped with sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea. One of the members of the tour group, former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, rose to become a prominent Trump surrogate during the campaign. In an ethics filing, he disclosed that the Russian Right to Bear Arms group shelled out $6,000 for his meals, lodging and excursions on the trip.

Butina shared a photo of the group of Facebook, which described the excursion as an official visit from an NRA delegation.

That's exactly what the NRA's leadership was hoping to avoid.

Ahead of the trip, top NRA officials had expressed concern that the Moscow visit could invite political backlash, according to sources familiar with their thinking. They pulled the NRA president at the time from the trip, which he was slated to attend, and encouraged Keene to treat it as an independent excursion.

Keene declined to comment on the Moscow trip.

In a recent letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is examining the NRA's finances, the NRA once again downplayed its association with the 2015 Moscow junket. It insisted one of the attendees-- a top NRA donor-- traveled to Russia "in his personal capacity," rather than as a representative of the organization. The GOP-controlled committees have shown little interest in investigating the NRA, but some Democrats are clamoring for additional information.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee "refused to investigate whether Russian-linked intermediaries used the NRA to illegally funnel money to the Trump Campaign, to open lines of communication with or approaches to Trump or his associates, and how those approaches may have informed," Russian interference in the 2016 election, Democrats on the committee wrote in their rebuttal to their GOP colleagues' assessment that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Meanwhile, Russia experts said the Russian gun-rights group appears to mainly be a facade to build ties with the NRA. It has little influence in Russia, which has strict gun laws and little public support for loosening them.

"It doesn't exist really in Russia," Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an expert on economic policy in countries including Russia, said of the group. "This is the old Soviet fashion of operating through front organizations. The purpose is to infiltrate the NRA and, probably, also transfer money."

By 2016, both Torshin and Butina had become fixtures at the NRA's high-dollar donor events, according to attendees.



The pair has popped up at the Golden Ring of Freedom Dinner, an exclusive event for donors who have given $1 million or more, and hospitality suites for lifetime members. Butina has also attended the women's luncheon hosted by the wife of Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president. Tickets start at $250 a head, according to sources familiar with the event.

Sometimes the Russians attended as guests of other members or alongside corporate sponsors.

As for Keene, he said he was not aware of any donations to the NRA from either Torshin or Butina. He said he has not been contacted by the FBI.

The NRA has said that Torshin paid membership dues but said he has not made any additional contributions.

The NRA has also acknowledged that it accepts donations from foreign donors and entities, which it is legally allowed to do. The group would only run afoul of US law if it used foreign donations for certain election-related purposes. In the letter to Wyden, the NRA said it found "no foreign donations in connection with a United States election, either directly or through a conduit."

The NRA's general counsel also said no Russian nationals have ever been members of the Golden Ring of Freedom program for million-dollar donors, according to the letter to Wyden.

Wyden appeared unconvinced, peppering the group with an additional round of questions.

In its latest response, the NRA said it no longer plans to cooperate with Wyden's inquiries.

Was there ever a CSpan White House Correspondents' Dinner like this before Putin put Trump into the White House? This was last night... and pretty amazing and unique. Just watch it.

Samantha Bee: "Paul Ryan's New Intern Has Such A Pure Voice"

Certainly the biggest-- and most hilarious-- news out of Sunday's prestigious Screen Actors Guild award show came when Julia Louis-Dreyfus got up to accept her award (best actress in a comedy-- for Veep ). She eviscerated Señor el Presidente Trumpanzee. "My father fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France," she said. "I’m an American patriot, and I love this country. Because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes, and this immigrant ban is a blemish and it's un-American." The audience loved it.

I doubt Samantha Bee needed to see that kind of a reaction to come up with the idea for an Alt-Correspondents' Dinner. I suspect it will have way bigger ratings than Trump's official correspondents dinner the same night, the uncomfortable, untenable one with "journalists mingling with Trump administration aides who loathe them, celebrities decrying Trump White House policies, and an entertainment headliner grappling with the tone and boldness of jokes about President Trump himself." Samantha will be hosting an April 29 counter-event, “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” at the Willard Hotel.

“We’re not trying to supersede it,” she said in a telephone interview. “We just want to be there in case something happens-- or doesn’t happen-- and ensure that we get to properly roast the president.”

Ms. Bee said that she and her Full Frontal producers got the idea for their event after Mr. Trump’s election in November.

“We were talking out loud about whether we thought the White House Correspondents’ dinner would change during a Trump presidency, or if it would even exist,” she said. “And then we thought, Why don’t we just do one, just to do it in the way that we would want it done if we were hosting it?”

The “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” will probably be shown on TBS in some form; Ms. Bee said that those details were still being worked out, as was a lineup of talent.

“We have binders full of people, but we don’t have any specifics to offer yet,” she said. Ms. Bee said that proceeds from her event would go to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

...Given the open hostility that Mr. Trump and his administration have displayed for the news media, some journalists have wondered if the Correspondents’ Association dinner is a tradition worth preserving. Would Mr. Trump even attend this year, and what entertainer could make jokes about him without getting underneath his oft-demonstrated thin skin? Comedians have only started figuring out how to riff on Mr. Trump as president, and there is a wide gulf between what Trump supporters and detractors think is funny about him.

The Correspondents’ Association has not announced its entertainer for the April dinner, and Ms. Bee said she had no expectation of being asked.

“My assumption is that that invitation is not coming,” she said, “and I don’t blame them for that at all.”

Addressing the Correspondents’ Association, she said: “I honestly can’t imagine what they’re thinking, but I really wish them well. I think that’s going to be very challenging. Does 3 Doors Down do comedy? I don’t know, maybe they do.”

Maybe the White House Correspondents Association isn't going far enough in its efforts to limit access to on-the-road "news" to paying media players

A better model for access to "news" when the president travels?

You can't blame correspondents who are forced by their employers to travel to goodness-only-knows-where with Chimpy the Prez for resenting that some of their colleagues are getting literally a free ride thanks to the pool system set up by the White House Correspondents Association. Now, Dan Eggen reports in his column of political notes in today's Washington Post, the WHCA is trying to deny the freeloaders access to some of those reports:

Everybody in the Pool -- or Not

Warning: Media navel-gazing ahead.

A brouhaha erupted last week among the ranks of the White House Correspondents Association, the official club of reporters who cover the aforementioned building. The trouble centers on a move by the WHCA board to limit distribution of some pool reports, which are dispatches describing photo opportunities, Air Force One flights, and other doings not open to the entire press corps.

A dwindling number of newspapers and media companies are paying to send reporters with the president when he travels at home or abroad, leaving it to a few big papers (full disclosure: You are reading one) to pick up the tab. As a result, the WHCA decided to limit some reports to those traveling with the president.

The move set off a fevered debate via e-mails that -- reporters being reporters -- were quickly leaked to Mediabistro.com's FishbowlDC.

"The idea that pool reporting on the road with the president will be available only to those who travel and pay for it should be repugnant to our profession," wrote Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune. "I call it pay to play."

But Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times called the out-of-town pool system "broken" and wrote in an e-mail: "A system that called for pool duty -- let's not forget the word duty -- was set up so that we could share the responsibility for coverage, as well as the information gathered. Today only the information is shared."

So far the association is holding firm, but current WHCA President Ann Compton of ABC News has urged members to weigh in.

I think an opportunity is being missed here.

Why not convert all presidential briefings to a Wheel of Fortune-type format, where the content of each briefing point is reduced to the standard WoF format of a "puzzle" consisting of a familiar phrase, which the journalistic contestants compete to identify by guessing letters. Surely the NYT could afford, for example, to buy Ms. Stolberg the occasional vowel. And of course the kicker could be that only the correspondent who solves the puzzle gets, say, the single additional paragraph of information that the Bush regime is prepared to dole out for public consumption.

Press secretary Dana Perino would seem tailor-made for the Vanna White Wheel of Fortune role, but it shouldn't be too great a stretch to slot her into the Pat Sajak role. After all, she seems better suited to answering questions like "Is there a T?" than the ones she usually fields. Especially assuming she'll have an earpiece into which the answers can be fed.

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