Congressional threats to DOJ for 1.2 million documents subpoenaed three months ago yield materials this week

From the story here:

"A small cache of documents was given to intelligence panel staff on Tuesday, followed by another tranche on Wednesday, a congressional source told the Washington Examiner."

Expect more excuses for why everything hasn't been provided by today.

The DOJ under Trump has been slow-walking and stonewalling just like every department under Obama did during his administration's attempts to thwart Congressional oversight.

The Swamp.

Michael Daniel testimony to Senate: Obama administration (Susan Rice) ordered him to stand down in Russian hacking investigation in summer 2016

The story here says

"The view that the Obama administration failed to adequately piece together intelligence about the Russian campaign and develop a forceful response has clearly gained traction with the intelligence committee."

No shit. 

Flashback: There's government indifference to your problems, and then there's Obama's indifference to your problems

The New York Times, March 8, 2009, just as Mr. Market was tanking, the discount window was lending trillion$, and millions of Americans were losing their homes, here:

"Well, I just think it’s clear by the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis."

Separating families is nothing new, has been policy since the Bush administration in 2005

From the Senate Judiciary Committee, here:

As a matter of procedure and policy, border agents routinely separate family members, including intentionally, as punishment—or “consequences”—through what DHS calls its Consequence Delivery System (CDS). These consequences are meant to deter future migration, often regardless of international protection or other humanitarian concerns. The CDS has been implemented systematically since 2005. ... [M]any parents and children arriving at the border and seeking asylum are subject to CDS to punish them for their flight to the United States. Deterring future migration is prioritized over concern for protection, access to justice, and family unity.

JP Morgan: US tariffs on China to have only modest impact on US economy

From the story here:

Investment bank JPMorgan estimated in a report on Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs on China would have only modest effects on the broader U.S. economy. It based its analysis on a 12 percent average U.S. tariff on $450 billion of imports from China, estimating that this would add just 0.4 percentage points to U.S. consumer price inflation if the additional costs of the duties were passed on to consumers in their entirety.

IG report did say there was bias while testimony of Horowitz and FBI's Wray contort this to no bias

But we live in an age where characterization matters more, saying something is such and so when it isn't.

Documented here by Sharyl Attkisson:

The IG report is rife with examples of bias, even if Horowitz hadn't explicitly said so. (But he did.)

Andrew McCarthy: IG report simply ignored the offence of the Hillary private server set up

Here:

[T]heir analysis left out the best intent evidence, namely, Clinton’s willful setting up of a private, non-secure server system for all official business.

They have to go back: Call 202 224 3121 and tell Congress to deport the illegals and Build The Damn Wall

202 224 3121

Manufactured crisis of child separations: Both Bush and Obama separated families by the hundreds of thousands

And there are lots of photos, here.

The "crisis" is being used to move poor legislation, and the president is its easy mark:

Representative Mark Meadows said Trump told Republican members of the House at a meeting on Capitol Hill that they needed to get something done on immigration "right away."

This is why conservative temperament matters: It isn't manipulated easily or hastily. Unfortunately Trump has no such temperament.

Hillary in 2014: "Just because your child gets across the border that doesn't mean your child gets to stay"

YouTube, here.

But now:

If it's a central tenet, you would think she could quote it correctly. Hillary means this about as much as she meant what she said four years ago.

Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican pussies can't build The Wall ANYWHERE, let alone over mountains

Laugh of the Day: Happy Birthday to you Tu Youyou

Ehhhh ... puto! In the race for most fines for anti-gay slurs, Hispanic soccer fans have everyone else beat

Well, Spain was ruled by Muslims from 711 to 1492 AD.

From the story here:

Homophobia and homophobic chants are not exclusive to Mexico fans. Fifa issued 51 disciplinary actions over homophobia during 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Of these, 11 were handed to the Mexican federation, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Peru also receiving multiple fines. Fifa additionally cited Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Greece, Hungary and Serbia once each for homophobic chants.

But there is no doubt the chant is most prominent among Mexico fans. “To call your opponent homosexual is definitely along a spectrum of machismo, whereby your opponent is weaker – less masculine,” says Joshua Nadel, author of Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America.

Free movement of peoples from foreign lands, a key tenet of libertarianism, is an ideology of Western suicide

Pat Buchanan, here, except he doesn't mention that's libertarianism (Pat defaults to "liberal democracy").

I can't think of a single public figure, except (maybe) Ann Coulter, to have made the explicit connection.

The real enemy is the ideological habit of mind, not the specific ideology per se. Its most characteristic failing is its inability to face reality, in all its intractability, but more than that, its revolt against reality. In its rage against the ugly facts of life which refuse to conform to its theories, libertarianism recoils and withdraws to the imagined safety of its gated communities, drawing up the bridge over the moat it has built around its citadels.

The worst ideologies until now have been armed and totalitarian. The current libertarian one, however, is just as deadly. Instead of actively killing people in the streets, it just stands by watching the video, when it's not making it.

Trump reestablishes the right tone about the US in space, recommits to exploring and taming the new frontier

Quoted here:

"My administration is reclaiming America's heritage as the world's greatest spacefaring nation," Trump said in the East Room, joined by members of his space council. "The essence of the American character is to explore new horizons and to tame new frontiers."

 

China accused of imposing exit bans on American citizens

From the story here:

It’s difficult to know exactly how many U.S. citizens have been affected. The State Department declined to confirm the number of cases, citing privacy concerns, but [John] Kamm said he knows of about two dozen cases over the past year and half alone.

“One of the problems with exit bans is that you don’t know that there is an exit ban on you until you actually get to the airport,” said Kamm. “There may be people in the country who have exit bans on them and they don’t know it.”

By surviving past May 30 and not resigning, John McCain has insured there will be no election for his seat until 2020

When he dies, as he surely will, the governor of Arizona is obligated to appoint a Republican to fill out the remainder of his term.

Another man might have given Arizona voters what they deserve under the circumstances, a fully-capable senator whom they themselves elected, but that man is not John McCain.

Democracy for me, but not for thee.

The story is here.

Edit:

Of course, not resigning but sequestering in Arizona for medical reasons brings a twofer: He stymies the advance of the Trump agenda in the Senate where the votes are razor-thin even when he's there. This makes the likelihood of success for "moderate" alliances between liberal Republicans and Democrates in the Senate even greater.

Trump's National Guardsmen at the border are busy shoveling horseshit and changing flat tires, not running razor wire

Way to go, Brownie!

Politico has the story here:

[I]n one assignment, soldiers are actually feeding and shoveling out manure from the stalls of the Border Patrol’s horses. ... Other soldiers, like Sgt. Jonathan Sanchez, 35, a cook, are performing maintenance on the Border Patrol’s heavily used vehicles. “We fix flats,” he explained on a steamy afternoon after completing his shift in the motor pool a few miles north of town. ... A few National Guard helicopters and crew have also been enlisted to join the Border Patrol fleet for aerial surveillance, but more troops are clearing vegetation, serving as office clerks and making basic repairs to Border Patrol facilities.

Our wizards of smart have hollowed out our country and run it straight into the ditch

Fake economic boom: Industrial Production went negative in May 2018

Compared to the 1950s, this economy might as well be sleeping.