It's too hot for high drama, but nonetheless we persist (Trump cont.)

[illegitimateMortificadospawn]

I'm all out of inspiration here. The grind is getting us all down, interspersed with terrorist attacks, but we shall overcome. In the meantime, there's gin and camaraderie.

Previous thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2952694

Greg Sargent @ThePlumLineGS

Trump is now suggesting to Fox News that an effort to remove Mueller is a real possibility: t.co/2vob8b5FgZ?amp=1

House Speaker Ryan Punts on Tough Senate Sanctions Bill

Clinging to a procedural technicality, the GOP delays an agonizing choice on Russia policy.

foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/21/house-speaker-ryan-punts-on-tough-senate-sanctions-bill/amp/

The latest episode in "which of trump's previous employees is going to get official government held positions"

POLITICO @politico
White House names Trump hotel employee to be chief usher politi.co/2rMiWEZ

Hallie Jackson @HallieJackson
NEW: written response from White House to House Intel committee on "tapes" question; cites @POTUS tweet from yesterday -->

But in happier news, Sally Yates has joined twitter!

Sally Yates @SallyQYates
My first tweet as a private citizen. Read my op-ed responding to AG Sessions on the need for criminal justice reform

Making America scared again won’t make us safer
www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/making-america-scared-again-wont-make-us-safer/2017/06/23/f53d238e-578a-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html

Yes, Sally Yates popping up on Twitter is a cheering way to start the day.

The stats for incarcaration (especially for African Americans) in the USA are shocking.

Wow! Pain - So Trump's tweet is being cited as the official response to a congressional request to produce evidence? What's next? Legislation being signed off on the back of an junk mail envelope?

It's mind boggling isn't it? And I'm sure it's not been too long since the administration have claimed the tweets don't speak for themselves ("I am being investigated" does not mean he's being investigated), having spent the precious months parroting variations of "the presidents tweets speak for themselves". Slipperier than a slippery thing

I wonder if they are just confirming officially so that he can't wiggle out of it if it comes out he is lying.

Tweets mean nothing except when they mean everything, until the time at which they mean nothing again. Is that clear enough for you.

I just had to rush off to follow Sally Yates on Twitter. How exciting

bigly it is at least consistent with

• there are tapes until it might get me in trouble and then there are no tapes
• the Russians didn't interefere with the elections until it might get Obama in trouble in which case they did
• Obama conducted wiretapping until I was expected to provide evidence of it and now who can say what happened

Actually I'm not going to list them all because it'll start to resemble the list of the lies he's told as documented by the ny times

Yates' article on sentencing for drug cases is meaty and balanced - well worth reading.

This is not surprising:

www.independent.co.uk/environment/us-energy-secretary-rick-perry-climate-change-american-meteorological-society-a7804041.html

But, but........he clearly thinks he's among the ranks of the 'wise and intellectually engaged'.

Nor this:

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kris-kobach-donald-trump_us_594d72f0e4b05c37bb766e6e?utm_hp_ref=united-states

It's going to be the Golden Presidency for judges, isn't it?
I don't think the Judicial branch has ever been so much at the forefront of politics, although it could be because I'm paying more attention now.

Hoody Zooey. Part of Ms Maddow's 23/6 show.

Sorry. Hooey

It's going to be the Golden Presidency for judges, isn't it?

And lawyers! Wow, to be a lawyer in Washington right now must be a wonderful thing

Just another day in the White House ...

US to drop criticism of Burma and Iraq over child soldiers despite ongoing concerns of diplomats and experts

Three US officials with knowledge of internal deliberations at the department said Mr Tillerson overruled assessments on the use of child soldiers by his own staff and rejected recommendations by senior diplomats in Asia and the Middle East.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-secretary-of-state-rex-tillerson-burma-iraq-child-soldiers-list-state-department-diplomat-a7806186.html?amp

Follow the oil.

Group combatting KKK activities sees grant slashed. You'll note from this Newsweek piece that Reuters reported backaways that the administration were also considering changing the whole program's name.

Grant slashed

Amy Siskind weekly update:

t.co/qT0Sd9rv3G?amp=1

Make Attorneys Get Attorneys seems to be how MAGA is understood by some wags on Twitter.

Foreign policy and resolving conflict that has lasted for generations is no problem for the Trumps though:

www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Trump-may-exit-out-of-Peace-talks-after-tense-KushnerAbbas-meeting-497795?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter