Jennifer Rubin at the Post says it’s a stunt.

The move by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) marks a major escalation in conservatives’ challenges to the FBI’s credibility as the agency investigates whether any Trump associates committed crimes. Another Republican, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), joined in the letter to the Justice Department.

Their letter makes what is called a criminal referral to the Justice Department, suggesting it investigate the dossier author, former British spy Christopher Steele, for possibly lying to the FBI. It is a crime to lie to FBI agents about a material fact relevant to an ongoing investigation.

This is an outrageous political stunt, one with no legal ramifications and obviously designed to take the heat

In case we still haven’t had enough farcical distraction yet, here’s another installment:

More than a year after Republican leaders promised to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election, two influential Republicans on Friday made the first known congressional criminal referral in connection with the meddling — against one of the people who sought to expose it.

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate. The committee is

Don’s attempts to make that Wolff guy go away aren’t working out for him.

The author of a scathing new book about President Trump said on Friday that the president’s attempt to block its publication would not only help with sales but would also confirm the book’s key finding: Mr. Trump is unfit for office.

Speaking on the “Today” show, Michael Wolff, the author of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” called the administration’s attempt to block the book “extraordinary” and dismissed the president’s criticisms of him out of hand.

“My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than, perhaps, anyone who has ever walked on earth at this point,” Mr. Wolff said.

Or … Read the rest

Walter Shaub, former Director of the Office of Government Ethics, on Twitter this morning:

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/949260106314772480

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/949260595857158144

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/949260905174401024

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/949261034392641536

Then he went on CNN to talk about it.

"I don't have words I can use on TV this morning to describe how angry I am to learn this," says ex-Office of Gov't Ethics director Walter Shaub of reports Trump ordered WH lawyer to stop Sessions from recusing himself from Russia investigation https://t.co/hNuTwtVQBl

— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) January 5, 2018

… Read the rest

Barry Duke at the Freethinker tells us that Donnie sent a mash note to a risible prosperity gospel preacher a few months ago.

[Kenneth] Copeland revealed on Facebook at the end of December 2017 that he received a letter from the deranged Trump in August. Trump wrote:

Melania and I send our warmest wishes as you celebrate 50 years of ministry. For half a century, you have devoted your life to faith and humanity. Your enduring commitment to spreading the word of God has influenced the lives of people across the United States and around the world.

We hope your heart is filled with joy, knowing your efforts to spread a message of hope are an inspiration to people who

One item from the Times story on Bannon and the Wolff book needs to stand on its own.

The book presents Mr. Trump as an ill-informed and thoroughly unserious candidate and president, engaged mainly in satisfying his own ego. It reports that early in the campaign, one aide, Sam Nunberg, was sent to explain the Constitution to the candidate. “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,” it quoted Mr. Nunberg as saying, “before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.”

Not a child in school itching to go outside and run around. Not an undergraduate too hungover to pay attention. Not a random asshole on Twitter. A grown-ass adult … Read the rest

The Times says it’s all over between Don and Steve.

President Trump essentially excommunicated his onetime chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, from his political circle on Wednesday, excoriating him as a self-promoting exaggerator who had “very little to do with our historic victory” and has now “lost his mind.”

In a written statement brimming with anger and resentment, Mr. Trump fired back at Mr. Bannon, who had made caustic comments about the president and his family to the author of a new book about the Trump White House. While Mr. Bannon had remained in touch with Mr. Trump even after being pushed out of the White House last summer, the two now appear to have reached a breaking point.

The Post says the working class is protesting in Iran, to the alarm of the mullahs.

“The rebuke both from the urban poor and more religious cities in Iran should be a wake-up call” to the Iranian leadership, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

In the past week, there were echoes of the mass demonstrations that flared in 2009 after reformist political candidates were defeated in disputed presidential election: women pulling off headscarves, fist-pumping crowds, chants against Khamenei.

But unlike that earlier, largely middle-class movement centered in Tehran, the recent demonstrations are drawing heavily upon lower-income youths in religious cities and rural towns. In some cases, protesters have attacked

Originally a comment by iknklast on Aw, another rift.

forgotten men and women of this country

Honestly, I am so sick of this phrase. No one has forgotten these people; they would never let us. They make more noise, and get more attention than any other group. Bernie Sanders suggested putting up a pro-life Democrat to make these people happy. Every pundit across the spectrum has been saying for at least the past 5 election cycles that these are the people we should be pandering to, instead of “identity politics”, which means, in translation, we should be continuing to ensure that white midwesterners who are Christian and anti-feminist, who are pro-life and pro-Jesus, should continue to run the country … Read the rest

Frederick Crews, whose latest book is the wonderful Freud: The Making of an Illusion, has a review-article on a new book about “recovered memory” and a criminal trial.

Until now the work has been almost entirely ignored by reviewers. Yet it comes with the strong endorsement of a world-renowned psychologist and memory expert, Elizabeth Loftus, and a leading expert on coercive interrogation methods and false confessions, Richard A. Leo. If they are right, Mark Pendergrast’s 391-page The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment can erase the shame of both Penn State and Sandusky, who languishes in solitary confinement, for 22 hours a day, in a maximum-security state prison.

Pendergrast is an independent

The BBC is excited but brief.

Breaking News, it declares.

Former White House aide Steve Bannon “lost his mind” after he lost his job at the White House, US President Donald Trump has said.

The president disavowed Mr Bannon after he was quoted in a new book describing a meeting between Mr Trump’s son and a group of Russians as “treasonous”.

But where did he say it, when did he say it, to whom did he say it.

I guess the reporter is still typing; the Beeb says to keep refreshing the page.

Updating to add:

Oh, I see, it’s a press statement. You’d think the Beeb could have said that before pressing Publish.

holy WHAT.

Trump: "When [Bannon]