Why Won’t the Media Hold Trump Accountable for His Lies?
The president has now delivered over 10,000 false or misleading claims since taking office

President Trump is a liar. This goes without saying, but in case you’re still skeptical, the Washington Post has receipts. A lot of them. On Monday, the paper revealed that, according to their calculations, the president has now delivered over 10,000 false or misleading claims since taking office, good for around 12 a day.

Statistics aren’t necessary to demonstrate that the president is a pathological liar who harbors a fiercely adversarial relationship with reality. The more salient takeaway from Post’s tally is instead that his penchant for disinformation has intensified to an alarming degree in recent months. Or even in recent days. According to the Post, he spouted 171 false of misleading claims between April 25th and 27th, last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This was more than he lied in any single month in the first five months of his presidency.

The New York Times described the lie, one of the most disgusting and dangerous the president has made since taking office, as an “inaccurate refrain.” Several other news outlets failed to note the president’s rampant dishonesty, which also included lies about the trade deficit, job creation numbers, immigration, taxes, health care and more.

In other words, the president lies because knows he can get away with it.

He also does it out of necessity. The more time Trump spends in office, the more corruption there is to scrutinize and the more he feels he needs to lie to defend himself. ...

... Despite the overabundance of evidence that Trump is a serial liar, those charged with defending him refuse to acknowledge his penchant for false claims. The Mueller report made clear that the president has lied on multiple occasions regarding his handling of the special counsel’s investigation, perhaps most notably when he maintained that he did not instruct then-White House Counsel Don McGhan to fire Mueller. And yet, when CNN’s Anderson Cooper pressed Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley to at least acknowledge that the president has lied, he was unwilling to do so. “I’m not aware of him lying,” said Gidley. “He hasn’t lied to me. He’s coming through on all the promises he said he’d do for the American people, whether it’s building the wall or defeating ISIS.”

For the record, construction of the wall has yet to begin, and ISIS has yet to be defeated.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/po...s-media-828495/

Former US-North Korea envoy says Trump approved plan to pay $2 million to free American student
Joseph Yun, the former State Department Special Representative for North Korea, confirmed Monday that he signed an agreement to pay North Korea $2 million for the release of American student Otto Warmbier in 2017.

In an interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto, Yun said that he did so with the approval of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and that it was his understanding President Donald Trump had also signed off on the decision.
"As soon as North Korea side told me that this bill for $2 million would have to be paid ... I contacted my boss then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson," Yun said, noting that Tillerson "got back to me very quickly thereafter to say yes, go ahead and sign."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/...er-north-korea/

Grassley to Trump: End the Tariffs or We'll Kill Your NAFTA Rewrite
A key senator issues the sort of binary, transactional choice that Trump seems to prefer. Will the POTUS listen?

There's only one way for President Donald Trump to get his much-touted rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress: End the tariffs.

That's the blunt message that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) delivers in an op-ed that ran in Sunday's Wall Street Journal. Grassley's opinion matters more than most, given that he is chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which would likely have to give its approval to Trump's United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA) before it could face an up-or-down vote from the full Senate.
https://reason.com/2019/04/29/grassley-t...-nafta-rewrite/

Maryland elections company bought by Russian oligarch close to Putin
A company that provides key services for Maryland elections has been bought by a parent company with links to a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, state officials said on Friday after a briefing a day earlier from the FBI.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018...-oligarch-putin

Russia is skipping the hacking and moving straight to OWNING the companies that oversee our elections.

Trump took 601 days to top 5,000 false and misleading claims. But on April 26, just 226 days later,he crossed the 10,000 mark.
He basically trebled his prior "performance".

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein submits resignation letter
Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein submitted his resignation letter to President Donald Trump on Monday, setting an end date of May 11 for his storied and at-times tumultuous stint as the number two official at the Department of Justice.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/deputy-a...ory?id=62713322

"Das linksliberale Milieu der Westküste hat den Glauben an eine bessere Welt verloren. Man widmet sich den eigenen Befindlichkeiten."
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/kolu...ueste-1.4421264

Haha, die SZ. Die Milliardäre, die ihre Mitarbeiter ausbeuten, kaum Steuern zahlen - was allerdings der Fehler der Politiker ist -, haben also den Glauben an eine bessere Welt verloren. Ich muss zum Taschentuch greifen. Und natürlich ist alles Trumps Schuld. Wessen Schuld auch sonst?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SnLN8hBvBg

It WAS an attempted coup d'état. The empire stroke back.

Sie haben es Trump nie verziehen, dass dieser ausgelachte Trottel, den sie "The Donald" nannten, ihre Kandidatin für das Präsidentenamt geschlagen hat, und dass obwohl sich die Meinungsforscher mit Ausnahme eines Professors, der wohl immer richtig lag mit seinen Prophezeiungen, einig waren, dass Trump keine Chance hatte und in einem "landslide" geschlagen werden würde.
So hofften sie, sich des ungeliebten Präsidenten über der "collusion" entledigen zu können, und wer weiß, vielleicht hätte sich auch gegen Pence etwas gefunden, sodass die großartige Pelosi dann als "Reichsverweserin" in Erscheinung getreten wäre.
Pech gehabt, sie müssen sich wohl 2020 dem Amtsinhaber in Wahlen stellen, was bedeutet, dass ihre 30 oder 50 Kandidaten sich in den Vorwahlen erst einmal gegenseitig zerfleischen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSNosmQYPs0

Joe Biden hat die Weisheit gepachtet:
Die wirtschaftliche Lage wird nicht mehr mit dem GDP, nicht mehr mit den Arbeitslosenzahlen oder der Steigerung der Reallöhnen, geschweige denn mit der Börse beurteilt.
Nein, was alleine zählt ist die
"dignity of work""

House Judiciary Dem Calls For Trump To Testify Under Oath
“I think it’s the best way to get all of the facts out,” Richmond said. “I also believe at some point we have to hear from this president. Whether he’s lying to us or not, we need to hear from him under oath.”
https://theguardiansofdemocracy.com/hous...JjC1eF6zXR1xReg

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...562&oe=5D2F36D0

😂😂😂

Mueller Exposed Trump’s Biggest Betrayal
The most important line in the Mueller report appears in the introduction to Volume I: “The Russian government interfered with the 2016 election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” Our president’s response has fallen woefully short. And now we know why.

As with all things, Donald Trump made the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller all about him. But it is about so much more: our national security and the future of our democracy. Trump’s failure to protect our country from future attacks is his biggest betrayal.

Mueller has published a detailed accounting of Russia’s attack on our presidential election. His report describes how Russia conducted a social-media disinformation campaign and weaponized email messages to sabotage the election. Mueller’s description of the Russia attack makes it clear that information warfare is the new battleground.

And yet Trump continues to minimize the threat to our national security. Concerned more about the legitimacy of his presidency than the integrity of future elections, Trump still downplays the Russian attack.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/m...t-betrayal.html

Trump team sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to keep them from turning over financial records to Congress
President Donald Trump, three of his children -- Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka -- and his business are suing two banks to block them from turning over financial records to congressional committees that have issued subpoenas for the information.

It's the second attempt in court that Trump has made this month to thwart the Democratic-led House of Representatives from investigating his financial history.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/...it-capital-one/

Der Arbeitstag des 'stable genius' vorgestern.

Shannon Pettypiece@spettypi
President's agenda today;
6:49 - Condolences to shooting victims
8:18 - Attack Cuomo
9:23 - Attack NY state
10:32 - Attack unions
10:42 - Attack Biden
10:51 - Attack Biden
10:55 - Attack fire fighters union
11:06 - Attack Mueller
11:20 - Attack the NYT

Betsy Molloy‏@metsygirl203
Thank you Shannon— since it doesn’t appear that there will be daily press briefings anymore,
I think a member of the press should post a synopsis of his daily tweets at 2:00 everyday.
A roundup of his foolishness...
10:49 AM - 29 Apr 2019

Adam Schiff to make criminal referral for Erik Prince to DOJ
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told the Washington Post on Tuesday that his committee will make a criminal referral for informal Trump campaign adviser Erik Prince to the Justice Department.

The big picture: "The evidence strongly suggests that he misled our committee," Schiff told the Post's Robert Costa. During the 2016 campaign, Prince — the founder of private military company Blackwater and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — met with Donald Trump Jr., United Arab Emirates emissary George Nader and Israeli social media manipulation specialist Joel Zamel at Trump Tower. Earlier this month, Schiff said on "Meet the Press" that Prince did not tell the committee about the meeting during his testimony, despite claiming to Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan that he had done so.
https://www.axios.com/erik-prince-schiff...aaadf414d2.html

U.S. Farmer Income Drops Most Since 2016 as Trade War Losses Mount
Personal income for farmers fell by the most in three years in the first quarter, as losses to U.S. agriculture mount from President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

The Commerce Department on Monday cited the steep decline in farm proprietors’ income as a key factor weighing on the nation’s overall personal income growth in March, even though agricultural producers represent only about 2 percent of total employed Americans.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-trade-war-pain

Poll: 30% Of Conservatives, 15% Of GOP Say They Won’t Vote For Trump
Republican critics of the president say the numbers spell big trouble for his reelection bid.

Nearly a third of self-described conservatives and 1 in 6 Republicans say they will not vote to give Donald Trump a second term as president, according to a poll released Monday.
The ABC News/Washington Post numbers are the latest evidence Trump will have a tough time remaining in the White House beyond January 2021, GOP critics of the president said.
“He’s hemorrhaging Republicans and conservatives,” said John Weaver, who ran former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 campaign for the GOP nomination and may do so again if Kasich jumps in the race to challenge Trump.

In the 2016 general election, 81% of conservatives and 90% of Republicans voted for Trump, and he still received nearly 3 million fewer votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and won only because of 78,000 votes spread across three key states that tipped the Electoral College balance.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-tr...4b07c9a4ce7bc8e

Facebook allows the Trump campaign to run false and misleading ads with impunity
Last week, Popular Information identified hundreds of Trump campaign Facebook ads targeting women in Texas that violated Facebook's ad policies. After I contacted Facebook, the company acknowledged those ads violated its rules and took them offline.
https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-the-trump-campaign

NRA has a huge mess on its hands
Since Friday, the NRA had President Trump speak at its convention and moved to oust its own president, Oliver North, after his bitter feud with CEO Wayne LaPierre became public.
Saying he was only acting in the best interests of the NRA, North tried to get LaPierre to quit, accusing him of massive financial mismanagement. LaPierre called North's allegations "smears" and accused him of extortion.
This occurred on the same day that an alleged Russian agent was sentenced, after pleading guilty to infiltrating the NRA as a way to influence US politics, among other schemes.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/opinions/...ts-hands-avlon/


The NRA’s big, bad financial mismanagement crisis, explained
The NRA is low on cash and embroiled in complex lawsuits.

NRA executives are making hundreds of thousands of dollars while the organization itself is allegedly $43 million in debt, no longer supplying free coffee at its Virginia office, and firing dozens of staffers.
According to comments made to the New Yorker by Marc Owens, former head of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, the “red flags” evident in the NRA’s finances could prove costly for the organization: “Those facts, if confirmed, could lead to the revocation of the NRA’s tax-exempt status.” Without that tax-exempt status, Owens said, the NRA might not survive.

Because the NRA is chartered in New York, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, has special authority to investigate it — and as the New York Times pointed out, a similar process led to the closing of Trump’s foundation last year.
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/30/18510946/n...ions-corruption

New NRA President Carolyn Meadows chairs the board of directors for the largest Confederate monument in America
Smithsonian magazine: “The Georgia landmark is a testament to the enduring legacy of white supremacy”

Carolyn Meadows, who is succeeding Oliver North as president of the National Rifle Association, is also the chairperson of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, an organization that maintains the largest memorial to the Confederacy in the United States.
Meadows is listed by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association website as chairperson of the organization’s board of directors. According to her site bio, “She has been actively involved in the Republican Party since 1964 and served as Georgia’s National Chairwoman for 12 years,” and she is also a board member of the American Conservative Union, the group that hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Stone Mountain is also closely associated with the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. KKK leader William Simmons “ushered in the modern era of the Ku Klux Klan, founding the Second KKK at the top of Stone Mountain on November 25, 1915,” in an event that included a cross burning and signaled “a new era of white nationalist terrorism,” according to Smithsonian magazine. Plans for the memorial were already being made at the time of the Klan ceremony, but the project ended up being shuttered for several decades and was only revived following right-wing anger over the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ending school segregation. The monument was eventually completed in 1972.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/0...-america/223588

America Under Attack by White Supremacists Acting Like ISIS
A widespread digital network is calling for people to carry out more terrorist attacks after Poway and Christchurch.

The alleged killer at a Southern California synagogue this weekend worked alone, according to law enforcement, but behind him is a sprawling, digital network of white supremacists spurring each other on to murder.

Moments before allegedly opening fire at worshippers in Chabad of Poway on Saturday, white supremacist John Earnest previewed his plans on 8chan, just as his supposed inspiration did. Last month, a white supremacist in Christchurch, New Zealand used 8chan to share a link to a livestream of him killing 50 Muslims at a mosque. In between the attacks, the anonymous forum with a large fascist presence called for people to carry out more shootings. The calls for violence also spread across fringe platforms like Gab, and messaging apps like Telegram. It’s reminiscent of calls online for followers of ISIS and al Qaeda to strike out at the enemy, counter-terrorism experts said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/poway-syna...cting-like-isis

Trump Injures America 10,000 Times
Lying with such frequency and malice is alone worthy of impeachment.

The Post reported this morning that Donald Trump has stated, since taking office in 2017, more than 10,000 lies and falsehoods. While all presidents lie in one way or another, none has lied with such frequency and malice. This, I contend, is as much a threat to our republic as anything else he’s done. This alone is worthy of impeachment.

Anyone who knew anything about Trump’s business history knew he was a liar. Lying has been his “hallmark for years,” wrote Chris Megerian of the LA Times. “Whether it’s exaggerating the height of his buildings or claiming that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States,” Trump lies as if he’ll never be held accountable for them.

On balance, he’s been right.

Perhaps that started to change after the release of a redacted version of Robert Mueller’s report of his investigation. “While every administration is accused of dissembling or worse at times,” Megerian wrote, “the report makes clear that Trump leads a White House where falsehoods and misrepresentations are common practice.” White House aides lie to the president, to each other and to the press. Trump lies to everyone. He gets angry when aides don’t lie for him. They lie to preempt his anger.
https://stoehr.substack.com/p/trump-inju...ica-10000-times

Guide to the Mueller Report’s Findings on “Collusion”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report focuses only on whether crimes were committed. It addresses two Russian conspiracies to interfere in the 2016 election—one involving a social media influence campaign and the other involving the hacking and dissemination of stolen emails. The Report then addresses whether Trump Campaign associates knowingly entered an agreement with the Russian government to assist those conspiracies.

As many experts have noted, what’s missing from the Mueller Report is the Special Counsel’s counterintelligence findings. We don’t know what the Special Counsel’s Office or the FBI have assessed, for example, with respect to whether Trump associates engaged in reciprocal efforts with Russian agents without entering a criminal agreement to do so, whether Americans have been witting or unwitting Russian assets, and what leverage or influence Moscow may have over particular individuals.

As a shorthand, we may use the term “collusion” to refer to these kinds of activities, which would be implicated in a counterintelligence analysis—though, as Asha Rangappa and I have written, the more analytically precise issues to consider are whether Trump Campaign associates “coordinated with, cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support” to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities. Those are important questions regardless of whether such activities amounted to crimes, regardless of whether individuals’ actions and intentions can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, regardless of whether Americans acted as unwitting Kremlin assets in support of Russian operations, and regardless of whether individuals and organizations can be prosecuted without endangering First Amendment interests.

Although the Mueller Report does not squarely address these questions of “collusion” that fall outside the scope of potential criminal liability, it can be mined for substantive information that provides some meaningful answers.
https://www.justsecurity.org/63838/guide...s-on-collusion/

Far-Right Smear Merchants Try to Slime Pete Buttigieg with Bogus Sex Assault Claim
The mayor was briefly accused of assaulting a young man. A GOP source says right-wing operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman approached him to make similarly untrue accusations.

A pair of right-wing provocateurs are being accused of attempting to recruit young Republican men to level false allegations of sexual assault against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
The details of the operatives’ attempt emerged as one man suddenly surfaced with a vague and uncorroborated allegation that Buttigieg had assaulted him. The claim was retracted hours later.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-...x-assault-claim


Mayor Pete Assault Accuser: This Was All a ‘Despicable’ Set-Up
Michigan college student Hunter Kelly says smear merchants Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman tricked him into being part of a hoax.

Wohl is an infamous conservative provocateur who is known mainly for the inanity of the schemes he concocts. But the one he crafted with Kelly may have been the most absurd to date—a bizarre Coen Brothers-like plan that fizzled out right as it took off.

For a week, Wohl had been attempting to find gay Republicans who would levy accusations against Buttigieg, according to at least one Republican who was on the receiving end of the pitch and recorded parts of it for The Daily Beast.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-butti...ex-assault-hoax


Trump-endorsed One America News Network among right-wing amplifiers of Jacob Wohl's attempted smear of Pete Buttigieg
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/0...-attempt/223596

Schiff Hires Ex-Chief of FBI Financial Crimes Section as House Intel Probes Trump’s Finances
Patrick Fallon jumps from the upper echelon of the bureau to Congress as Democrats ramp up investigations of president’s finances.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/adam-schif...trumps-finances