Good Thursday Morning.
Here’s what is on President Trump’s agenda today
- The President will drop by the Governors and Workforce of Tomorrow roundtable.
- Later in the morning, the President will give remarks on the Apprenticeship and Workforce of Tomorrow initiatives and will sign an Executive Order.
- In the afternoon, the President and First Lady Melania Trump will depart the White House en route to the United States Supreme Court.
- The President and the First Lady will then participate in the Investiture Ceremony for Justice Neil Gorsuch.
- Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will return to the White House.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges
Some words about the attempted GOP congressional massacre yesterday: If you believe that those who hold opposing political views should die or deserve to be hurt or must be silenced, there is something gravely wrong with you. If you work in the political industry and use words in your trade craft that are violent in nature, refuse to report on violence against your political opponents, or make excuses for political violence carried out against your political opponents, then you are part of the problem. And if you are a citizen and do the same things on your social media, at the PTA meeting, or at coffee house gatherings with your political comrades, you are also part of the very serious cultural crisis we face today.
That is because our culture is supposed to keep bad behavior in check with social disapproval but instead we have moved toward a paradigm of legislating “good behavior,” with proposed speech codes or laws restricting freedom to keep bad actors from acting out in an undesirable way, and that undesirable way is determined by those in positions of power or the elite. And, the elite say, people who don’t conform to the proper behavior should be criminalized. Instead of society looking disapprovingly at destructive, outrageous behavior and discouraging it, we have the politically correct set who want to make sure no one “feels bad” about their attitudes and actions and who think that we must legislate against those who make them feel so. And we have those who believe it is politically expedient to gin up their team against their opponents any way they can, consequences be damned.
In other words, if you are attending some social justice march and you want to carry a sign or chant about a certain group’s death, that’s a problem. Or it should be. And just because it’s legal to do so, doesn’t mean it should be done. Will anyone ever say “that’s over the line? We don’t want anyone dead”?
We do not need speech codes and restrictions on the First Amendment and we don’t need to curtail Second Amendment rights. We need some common sense and a society that rejects the “by any means necessary” political mentality promulgated by Hollywood stars, media denizens, and political heavyweights. Just stop it before the people rise up and fight back against this elite-sanctioned persecution and stop you.
Trump visits critically injured Scalise, Capitol Police officers in the hospital
Last night, President Trump visited critically injured Congressman Steve Scalise in the hospital.
Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape – but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
Mr. Trump’s motorcade made an unannounced trip to the hospital, according to the White House press pool, after a rare emotional and unifying day in Washington, D.C., as members of both parties came together over the jarring incident. The pool reporter was told first lady Melania Trump accompanied the president to the hospital. Trump aides brought two large bouquets of large white flowers.
According to the WH pool report, the president and the first lady met with Scalise, a hospital administrator, doctors and his wife Jennifer. Melania brought the family a bouquet of white flowers.
The Trumps also met with officer Crystal Griner and her wife and also gave them a bouquet of flowers. Sean Spicer told the pool that the first family met with the other police officer wounded in the attack yesterday.
And, it’s time for our regularly scheduled leak from the hostile forces embedded in the Trump administration
According to anonymous sources (Comey friends and Obama symps),
The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.
The WaPo describes that “five people briefed on the interview requests, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly,” have told them that “Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’s recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week.”
And the WaPo laughingly tells you that “the investigation has been cloaked in secrecy.”
All questions about the “Russia investigation” are being directed to Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz.
“The FBI leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Kasowitz.
Judiciary Committee will investigate Comey firing, Clinton emails
Don’t these senators have better things to do? The long national series of congressional hearing nightmares continues on yet another topic.
According to Politico:
The Senate Judiciary Committee is launching a wide-ranging probe into the circumstances behind James Comey’s firing as FBI director, as well as any attempts to influence FBI investigations under the Obama administration.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), laid out his plan in a letter made public Wednesday in response to requests from Democrats to investigate potential obstruction of justice surrounding Comey’s dismissal by President Donald Trump last month.
I’m skeptical this will go anywhere near the Obama administration or Clinton emails; instead it will most likely focus closely on the Comey firing. And there will be leaks from Senate staffers, of course, only regarding the Trump side of the investigation and never on the unlikely other investigations.
“The Judiciary Committee has an obligation to fully investigate any alleged improper partisan interference in law enforcement investigations,” Grassley wrote to his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. “It is my view that fully investigating the facts, circumstances, and rationale for Mr. Comey’s removal will provide us the opportunity to do that on a cooperative, bipartisan basis.”
Your tax dollars at work. Trump can fire the director of the FBI for any reason or no reason, a fact confirmed by the fired former director of the FBI.
“There should be no improper interference with FBI investigations to favor any elected official or candidate of either party,” Grassley wrote to Feinstein. “The Committee has an obligation to pursue all evidence of such misconduct.”
Why is the GOP giving into the Democrats’ agenda? The Democrats would never, ever give in to the Republican agenda, which as it happens is looking more and more like the Democrats’ agenda.
Here’s the scoop on Qatar
Over at another publication, Lee Smith lays out what’s really going on with the split of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The diplomatic crisis splitting the Gulf Cooperation Council isn’t really about Sunni extremism, or Qatar’s easy flirtation with Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Thus it has nothing to do with the larger issues shaping American foreign policy and the role of our GCC allies in implementing it. No, it’s just Abu Dhabi waging political warfare against Doha with a specific goal in mind—to get the United States to move its military base from Qatar to the UAE.
He continues:
President Trump in turn has sided with the Saudis. After eight years of an Obama White House that downgraded traditional American alliances in favor of realignment with Iran, the Trump administration has wisely reaffirmed the strength of the longstanding American relationship with Riyadh. Thus, Trump has singled out Qatar for censure in both tweets and statements—even though Doha hosts a major American military base at Al Udeid, which serves as regional headquarters of CENTCOM and a staging point for American operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the region. And that’s the crux of the matter—the Emiratis want the base.
Read the whole thing. No point in me summarizing Lee — he’s that good.
Other morsels:
Complaints about airlines rise 70%
Georgia voter database breached
Jeh Johnson to testify on RUSSIA probe
Fox News drops “Fair and Balanced” motto
200 Iraqi immigrants deported in immigration sweep
Rodman gives NorK dictator Trump book
Active shooter at Travis Base was just a training exercise
And that’s all I’ve got, now go beat back the angry mob!
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