The Morning Briefing: Climate-Truthers Get Hot

Great Friday Morning!

Here’s what is on President Trump’s agenda today:

In the morning, President Donald J. Trump will receive his daily intelligence briefing.
In the afternoon, the President will meet with Senator Lindsey Graham.<—what’s up with this?
The President will then sign bills.

Trump turns to SCOTUS on travel “ban”

The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the Trump travel “ban” after it was blocked by a succession of lower courts.

The Justice Department’s petition asks the high court’s nine-judge panel to rule on the legality of Trump’s order. In its May ruling, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals argued that the travel ban “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”

In its appeal filed Thursday night, the DOJ argued that the lower court’s ruling contained “several mistakes.”DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores asserted that the ban is lawful, and said it was structured in the interest of national security.

“We have asked the Supreme Court to hear this important case and are confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the Nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism,” Flores said in a statement.

Developing…

Climate change truthers turn up the heat

The fallout from Trump’s withdrawal from the politically-not-legally-binding-not-a-treaty Paris climate accord has driven the left batty. Rather, more batty. The Federalist has a nice round-up of OVER THE TOP reactions.

World buildings lit up “green” in support of the now irrelevant “pen and phone” agreement that was never ratified by the Senate. If you thought that climate change proponents would respond with offers of serious, environmentally helpful gestures to “do their part” to stop the purported man-made climate crisis, think again. There were no proclamations to stop using luxury yachts or private carbon-consuming jets and to start the downsizing of mansions/summer homes. Instead we have energy-consuming, superficial displays of solidarity. How much energy is used to light up these monuments anyway? No matter. If the correct, approved intent is there, the left will give you a pass on your hypocrisy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BU0iyTGhH8u/

Another response to Trump’s decision is a newly-formed super-duper alliance of states — a climate alliance. I applaud the left’s newly discovered respect for federalism.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement he will pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, the governors of California, Washington and New York have agreed to form an alliance aimed at meeting the U.S. climate goals.

The new coalition, called the United States Climate Alliance, will serve as a way for states interested in dealing with climate change to coordinate, according to a press release. The three states make up about a fifth of U.S. population and GDP. They also produced 11 percent of U.S. emissions in 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Guess who is taking the lead on this climate alliance? America’s favorite nanny-stater and crusader against large soda drinks and guns, former NYC Mayor Bloomberg.

Where does Bloomberg stand regarding federalism and, say, the Second Amendment?

When the climate debate turns ugly

https://youtu.be/ViO7l1Rp6Kc

Comey to testify

Ex-FBI director James Comey will testify next Thursday before the U.S Senate Intelligence Committee and chat about RUSSIA and the 2016 election.

In his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9, Comey will address the Senate Intelligence Committee in both an open session and behind closed doors, which would allow him to discuss classified information, the committee said on Thursday.

What can we expect from Comey’s testimony?

At next week’s hearing, Comey is expected to be asked about conversations in which Trump is reported to have pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose ties to Russia are under scrutiny.

Well, that’s odd:

https://youtu.be/o-dW59Fu1hg

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air notices:

Had Comey considered Trump’s actions to be improper attempts to politically interfere with his probe of Michael Flynn, then not only would he have been duty bound to report it at that time to Congress, but he would also have had to answer Hirono’s direct question in the affirmative. That doesn’t mean that Trump’s suggestion wasn’t inappropriate (if it happened as reports say) but that even three months later Comey didn’t see it as an attempt at political interference.

Stay tuned next week to find out what happens next.

Tag, you’re it

Moving right along, the latest target in the RUSSIA/campaign 2016 investigation is Nigel Farage.

According to The Guardian:

Nigel Farage is a “person of interest” in the US counter-intelligence investigation that is looking into possible collusion between the Kremlin and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation said the former Ukip leader had raised the interest of FBI investigators because of his relationships with individuals connected to both the Trump campaign and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder whom Farage visited in March.

“One of the things the intelligence investigators have been looking at is points of contact and persons involved,” one source said. “If you triangulate Russia, WikiLeaks, Assange and Trump associates the person who comes up with the most hits is Nigel Farage.”

“He’s right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.”

A Farage spokesman issued a denial: “Nigel has never been to Russia, let alone worked with their authorities.”

The Ukip honcho told Fox News: “I have to say, if ever there was a case of a fake news, this is it. What they have done is, they tried to join the dots together.” Farage continued: “I was involved with Brexit, I was involved with a Trump campaign, and 2016, therefore I must somehow be associated with the Russians.”

“I’ve never done business in Russia, I have literally no political connections with Russia whatsoever,” he said.

“The whole thing is a fantasy from people who cannot accept the fact that they lost badly last year,” Farage explained.

“It’s also damaging to accuse people in public, even anonymously, of a reputation-destroying act like collaborating with an authoritarian government such as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had political witch hunts in Great Britain, but we have here, and this looks like one of them to me.”

Who will be the next target the media elites tell us is being investigated? Put your guesses in the comment below.

Kathy Griffin to hold presser about Trump family “bullying”

~~Comedienne~~ Kathy Griffin will hold a press conference today to complain about getting bullied by the Trump family after she held up the fake, bloody head of President Trump, took a picture and circulated it. She will talk about the “bullying from the Trump family that she has endured.”

Proud to announce that I represent Kathy Griffin. We will be holding a press conference tomorrow morning. Here's the details. pic.twitter.com/1FejPNGzoV

— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) June 2, 2017