No. Just, no. There was no FBI plot to “take down” the Trump administration, because the FBI isn’t a 1980’s action movie villain. This is a pernicious claim put forth by bad faith actors such as Devin Nunes, a Republican US Representative from California and the then-chair of the House Intelligence Committee. So, wait –…
All posts in February 2020
Did ABC Plan to Fire Joy Behar for Criticizing Vice President Mike Pence?
Who are the key players: Joy Behar, host of ABC’s popular daytime talk show, The View Vice President Mike Pence Brent Bozell, President, Media Research Center, a controversial conservative media watchdog group with a track record of viewing the media “through a funhouse mirror that renders everything–even the facts themselves–as manifestations of insidious bias.” What…
John Bolton speaks in public at critical moment… to deliver a commercial for his unpublished book
That Bolton’s manuscript continues to be held by the White House on claims that it includes highly classified information is itself news. And it’s an issue of genuine concern. Of all the mistakes that Bolton might make, mishandling classified information seems highly unlikely. That the pages have been parked somewhere in a White House sub-basement for this long…
Federal judges call emergency meeting to address ‘deepening crisis’ in the justice system
As USA Today reports, the politically independent Federal Judges Association has called for an “emergency meeting” to address issues generated by Barr’s interference and Donald Trump’s continued threats to the judiciary. The president of the group, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush, said that the judges could not wait for their normal spring meeting.…
Bloomberg qualifies for Wednesday debate, will face Democratic rivals for the first time
Bloomberg’s careful avoidance of anything resembling an unscripted moment doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be a debate pushover. In 2009, The New York Times reported that in his last mayoral debate, Bloomberg showed “the ferocity of a bulldog” and “turned almost every question put to him into an attack on his rival” (via Tom Watson). This time around, Bloomberg will…
There are either 65,000 cases of COVID-19 or 47,000. It’s down to WHO you trust and how you count
So the sharp increase in overall deaths on Wednesday, the exact thing that made the huge spike in total reported cases look like it was more than just a reclassification of existing cases? That never happened. And that’s not the only confusion this morning. When the information from China’s Hubei province rolled out for Feb.…
William Barr is not ‘pushing back’ on Trump. He’s just pushing another lie
The Washington Post is one of … possibly all … newspapers in the nation this morning running with the line that Barr’s statements represent some kind of declaration of independence of the judiciary. But this “remarkable public rebuke” of Trump is nothing of the sort. Barr has already admitted that he personally intervened to soften the sentencing…
Morning Digest: Republican Darrell Issa escalates from homophobia to racism to beat his GOP rival
Campaign Action Issa’s ad once again argues that DeMaio is on the wrong side of Donald Trump when it comes to immigration. It begins with a clip of Donald Trump at the State of the Union proclaiming, “Tragically, radical politicians provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens.” The narrator then declares that DeMaio said that…
Virginia lawmakers pass bills expanding driving access, in-state tuition to undocumented residents
Because undocumented students are ineligible for federal financial aid, changes to in-state tuition policies could make all the difference to the estimated 2,000 undocumented teens who graduate from high schools in Virginia annually, and who face additionally uncertainty depending on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “In my neck of the woods, I’ve…
U.S. is ‘not a banana republic,’ Trump official says, but his boss is determined to show that it is
The Vindman brothers did not try to “get together and decide what the policy is.” One of them testified before Congress, under subpoena. That’s it. But while some Senate Republicans are very concerned about the firing of Gordon Sondland from the post as ambassador to the European Union that he bought with $1 million in…