Funny how the Republicans decided late afternoon of the day before a mid-summer holiday would be the ideal time to release their report on the Russian interference with the 2016 election.

The report comes five days after Trump seemed to endorse Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial, in the face of US intelligence agencies’ conclusions, that Russian interfered in the 2016 election: “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

We know! Of course they do! People lie sometimes! Russia has been known to lie! The fact that Russia says it doesn’t make it true! Is this the way you did business, taking everyone’s word for everything?!

While Republicans in the

Your tax dollars at work:

The Trump White House is abusing a federal, taxpayer-funded Twitter account to launch false attacks against women senators who oppose Trump’s inhumane treatment of immigrants.

On Monday afternoon, the official White House Twitter account targeted Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris in a series of defamatory tweets accusing them of supporting criminals and gangs.

While Trump frequently uses his own Twitter feed to go after dissenters, this is the first time the White House account has been weaponized for such false and personal attacks.

In the first tweet, the White House targeted Warren, accusing her of “supporting criminals moving weapons, drugs, and victims across our nation’s borders.” The tweet also included a

That’s not normal.

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1013887684861804544

Individual US Senators of the wrong party.… Read the rest

The stories about Pruitt keep piling up.

Two of Scott Pruitt’s top aides provided fresh details to congressional investigators in recent days about some of his most controversial spending and management decisions, including his push to find a six-figure job for his wife at a politically connected group, enlist staffers in performing personal tasks[,] and seek high-end travel despite aides’ objections.

The Trump administration appointees described an administrator who sought a salary that topped $200,000 for his wife and accepted help from a subordinate in the job search, requested aid from senior EPA officials in a dispute with a Washington landlord[,] and disregarded concerns about his first-class travel.

The reason he’s still getting away with it is the fact that … Read the rest

… Read the rest

A senior editor at the Catholic magazine First Things tells us that we just don’t understand about Trump’s “family values.” Why don’t we? Because we’re the Koastul AyLeeet.

People I knew from college or had met in New York expressed distaste for Mr. Trump’s behavior. If they were religiously conservative, they stressed his infidelity while also objecting to his insults of women. If they were liberal, they objected to his treatment of women and viewed his infidelity as a sign that his religious supporters were hypocrites. Not a single peer of mine in New York — no matter how conservative or religious — publicly supported Mr. Trump.

In contrast, almost all of the people I know in my hometown in

God they are such grifters.

Since her husband took office Melania Trump has earned six figures from an unusual deal with a photo agency in which major media organizations have indirectly paid the Trump family despite a requirement that the photos be used only in positive coverage.

President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure reveals that in 2017 the first lady earned at least $100,000 from Getty Images for the use of any of a series of 187 photos of the first family shot between 2010 and 2016 by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux.

It’s not unheard of for celebrities to earn royalties from photos of themselves, but it’s very unusual for the wife of a currently serving elected official.

Huh. The gruesome Michael Cohen says nope he’s not going to fall on his sword for Donnie.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney who has found himself at the center of multiple legal issues in recent months, told ABC News he will “put family and country,” ahead of any loyalty to the president.

“My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” Cohen told “Good Morning America” host George Stephanopoulos in an interview that broadcast on Monday. “I put family and country first.”

Or football teams and lemonade flavors. Whatever, anything, as long as it’s not Don.

The FBI raid against Cohen has prompted speculation that he might cooperate with federal prosecutors

Speaking of Trump’s assertive racism, and Bears Ears / Escalante, wait there’s more –

While the Ancestral Puebloan people of the Southwest were building citadels like Chaco Canyon, the Fremont people were carving mysterious petroglyphs depicting horned, broad-shouldered triangular men and sweeping carvings of desert snakes. Nowhere is their legacy more apparent than in eastern Utah’s Molen Reef. Fremont artifacts dominate this cultural heritage site, but its rock art ranges from 3,000-year-old panels from the Barrier Canyon tradition to etchings by Mormon pioneers crossing the Utah desert.

They aren’t easy to see, but that’s not a bad thing. You won’t find these cultural treasures on a map, and Jonathan Bailey, a Ferron, Utah-based photographer and author of Rock Art:

The normalization continues apace.

Ron Paul, for instance.

Former politician and presidential candidate Ron Paul shared a racist political cartoon featuring stereotypical caricatures of people of multiple races Monday morning — only to delete it minutes later.

“Are you stunned by what has become of American culture?” Paul’s tweet read. “Well, it’s not an accident. You’ve probably heard of ‘Cultural Marxism,’ but do you know what it means?”

Attached to the original tweet was a Ben Garrison political cartoon featuring racist caricatures of Jewish, Asian, Latino and black people with their arms melding together into a single red fist emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle. The arm is seen punching Uncle Sam, and above it is a speech

Jeffrey Toobin says it’s important to spell out what Trump’s next Supreme Court pick is going to mean, because they won’t spell it out for us.

As with Gorsuch, the nominee will be supported with meaningless buzz phrases: he or she will be opposed to “legislating from the bench” and in favor of “judicial restraint.” Like Gorsuch, the nominee will rely on airy generalities rather than on specific examples. It’s all the more important, then, to articulate in plain English what, if such a nominee is confirmed, a new majority will do.

It will overrule Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions and to criminally prosecute any physicians and nurses who perform them. It will allow shopkeepers, restaurateurs,

More on the Portland street brawls yesterday.

From CBS:

Two opposing protest groups — Patriot Prayer and antifa —  clashed in downtown Portland Saturday, CBS Portland affiliate KOIN reports. Portland police said failure to leave the area could leave to arrests, calling the demonstration a riot.

More than 100 members of Patriot Prayer group gathered at Terry Schrunk Plaza for a “freedom rally,” while more than 100 counter protesters with an antifa group gathered across the street at Chapman Square for rallies before a march. Police revoked Patriot Prayer’s permit for the rally after the two groups began to clash.

From NPR:

What began in downtown Portland Saturday as a permitted march by the far-right group Patriot

In light of the slaughter of journalists in Annapolis the other day, this promo by the National Rifle Association’s Dana Loesch hasn’t worn well.

H/t Asha Rangappa

You literally made a video for the NRA called "We are coming for you, New York Times." https://t.co/JukE2p9d8p

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) June 29, 2018

… Read the rest