All of Trump’s campaign statements just vanished from his website.
So here’s some links to some of the original content.
Acting FBI director contradicts White House on Comey
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe Thursday rejected assertions by the White House that FBI employees had lost faith in James Comey and that the bureau’s probe into Russian election meddling was one of its most minor concerns.
…He said Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, enjoyed “broad support within the FBI and still does to this day.” He added, “The majority, the vast majority of FBI employees enjoyed a deep, positive connection to Director Comey.”
…McCabe also contradicted another statement by Sanders in Wednesday’s White House briefing when she said that the Russia investigation was “probably one of the smallest things” on the FBI’s plate.
“We consider it to be a highly significant investigation,” McCabe said, but declined to give details of the manpower involved in the probe.
The acting FBI director also said there has been no effort to impede the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the election, but vowed to inform a Senate panel if the White House tried to intervene.
Acting FBI director contradicts White House on Comey – CNNPolitics.com
hmmm
Homo nadeli, just discovered in Africa, were walking around with humans
Homo sapiens had a rival cousin as recently as 236,000 years ago, according to discoveries made by a team of scientists in South Africa.
…Homo naledi also appear to have engaged in the relatively advanced practice of burying their dead.
…The discoveries have encouraged other scientists to rethink human evolution.
…the discovery should prompt people to question the familiar image of a stooped chimp-like creature evolving into an upright, modern human.
“We’ve had for so long this view that human evolution was a matter of inevitability represented by that march, that progress,” he told the paper. “But now that narrative of human evolution has become one of adaptability. There was a lot of evolution and extinction of populations and lineages that made it through some pretty tough times, and we’re the beneficiary of that.”
Homo nadeli, just discovered in Africa, were walking around with humans
It always boggles the mind that researchers have so much trouble entertaining theories based on what is in front of them, theories that make so much more sense than anything that came before.
Senate intelligence committee subpoenas Michael Flynn
The Senate intelligence committee Wednesday issued a subpoena to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for documents regarding his interactions with Russian officials.
The subpoena comes after Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, alerted the panel that he would not provide documents in response to their April 28 request.
Senate intelligence committee subpoenas Michael Flynn – CNNPolitics.com
hmmmm
Al Green: ‘Impeachable’ if Trump fired Comey to stop Russia investigation
Democratic Rep. Al Green said Tuesday evening that President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey would be an impeachable offense if it was done to stop the investigation into alleged ties between Russian and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Al Green: ‘Impeachable’ if Trump fired Comey to stop Russia investigation – CNNPolitics.com
hmmmm
Climate change: China vows to defend Paris agreement
The comments come amid uncertainty over whether the US will withdraw from the Paris agreement.
Climate change: China vows to defend Paris agreement – BBC News
New Orleans removes monuments to ‘lost cause of the Confederacy’
…“Three weeks ago, we began the process of removing statues erected to honor the ‘Lost Cause of the Confederacy,’ ” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D). “This morning, we continue our march to reconciliation by removing the Jefferson Davis Confederate statue from its pedestal of reverence.”
…[Some supporters of the statues’ removal] marched in a second-line parade to the traffic circle where Lee’s statue stands …to protest the monument’s place in the circle. …They were met by Confederate-flag wavers keeping vigil there, some wearing riot gear.
…At Lee Circle, there was some yelling between the pro-monument and anti-monument crowds and some icy stares. Much of the fury and the verbal challenges came from the monument defenders, who appeared to be outnumbered by the second-line participants by at least two to one.
~~~
…Davis was captured in the waning days of the war by Union soldiers after he fled the Confederate capital in Richmond.
“His cause went down in disastrous defeat and left the South impoverished for generations,” Smithsonian Magazine noted, adding: “Many Americans in Davis’s own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, if not a traitor.”
…As the Davis statue came down, a group of proponents for removal who had been largely absent from the area around the Davis memorial since a series of verbal clashes and minor skirmishes with monument defenders, chanted “Na-na, na, Naa-na, goodbye,” according to people at the scene.
The group stood behind police metal barricades, near the corner of Canal St. and Jefferson Davis Parkway, on an expansive grassy median known in New Orleans as “the neutral ground,” a reference to the way that the space once served as a conflict-free zone where the Spanish and French settlers who once battled for political, economic and social for control of this city engaged in trade.
Across the intersection, monument defenders watched in a state of sad disbelief.
…Hours after the statue was removed by crane, the Times-Picayune reported that crews were still at the site, “attempting to [re]move the pedestal on the statue sat. … It appears [getting rid of] the pedestal is turning out to be a difficult task.” [emphasis: mine]
hmmmm
Jefferson Davis Statue Gone From Its Pedestal In New Orleans
As workers slung a strap around the statue’s waist and lifted it off its pedestal, “at least 100 people cheered from across the street, outnumbering the few dozen protesters, some waving Confederate flags.”
…”We would have preferred it to be in the daytime,” monument opponent Malcolm Suber told Kaplan-Levenson, “so everybody could see it in the light of day. But we’ll take this.”
Like an earlier removal, this one was performed in the dark because, …of “death threats against city officials and contractors.”
Before the monument could be removed, police had to clear the immediate area of demonstrators — both supporters of the monuments and those who want them taken away. [In a perhaps uniquely New Orleans fashion,] barricades [creating a “neutral zone”] were used to keep the sides separated.
Jefferson Davis Statue Gone From Its Pedestal In New Orleans : The Two-Way : NPR
Go, go gadget, good citizens of New Orleans.
With protesters at Jefferson Davis removal: Neutral zone divided Confederate monument camps
Incendiary words flew back and forth across the divide, but basically peace reigned.
Go, go gadget, New Orleans.
Sessions to Toughen Rules on Prosecuting Drug Crimes
In contrast to Mr. Sessions’s views on drug crimes, the Obama administration pushed for more lenient and flexible sentencing laws and presided over the first decline in the federal prison population in a generation.
…Mr. Holder has said his policies were intended to reduce taxpayer spending on prisons and other public safety costs and to ease inequities in the justice system by scrutinizing the circumstances of each case rather than applying one-size-fits-all punishments of the toughest variety.
Mr. Sessions has argued that the Obama administration’s less aggressive approach toward prosecuting drug cases has inspired other crimes.
…Should Mr. Sessions push for a uniformly strict posture in prosecuting drug crimes, it would mark a significant shift in tone.
“Many advocates think there are too many mandatory minimums, and that federal charging in general is still too harsh, even after the shift in policy under Holder,” Ms. Starr said. “But this isn’t especially surprising given what we know about the attorney general and the president and their view on criminal justice.”
—-
Meh, a lot of totally-not-at-all-rooted-in-fact bullshit justifying his actions when Sessions just wants to put more black people in jail.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions Interviewing Interim FBI Director Candidates
There is an acting FBI director in place, but the president is seeking to appoint an interim director. The attorney general was conducting interviews for that replacement already.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions Interviewing Interim FBI Director Candidates : NPR
hmmm
Fact-check: Sessions omits info on prosecuting noncitizens
Some prosecutors do offer alternative sentences or pleas, but say that’s not unequal treatment.
Fact-check: Sessions omits info on prosecuting noncitizens
hmmm
Donald Trump hires lawyers to help defend him over Russia allegations
Donald Trump has hired a legal team to help defend him against allegations over his links with Russia, the White House has announced. The US leader has asked the unnamed Washington law firm to send a letter to a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee making clear he has no connections to the Kremlin, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.
Donald Trump hires lawyers to help defend him over Russia allegations | The Independent
hmmmm
More inconsistencies found in ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn’s consulting work
Michael Flynn is at odds with his former Turkish client over two unusual payments totalling $80,000 that Flynn’s firm sent back last year to the client.
Flynn’s company, Flynn Intel Group, told the Justice Department in March that the two $40,000 payments were consulting fees for unspecified work. But Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin has told The Associated Press that the payments from Flynn’s firm were refunds for unperformed lobbying.
…The Senate intelligence committee said late Wednesday it issued a subpoena to compel Flynn to turn over documents related to its investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election.
…In March, Kelner said in a statement that Flynn had a “story to tell,” but said no reasonable person would agree to be questioned by the committee without “assurances against unfair prosecution.”
…Flynn and Alptekin have, at times, provided inconsistent explanations of the work.
Alptekin said last fall that his company paid only tens of thousands of dollars, but later acknowledged that the $530,000 in payments listed in Flynn’s foreign agent filing was correct.
Alptekin’s contention that Flynn didn’t carry out any lobbying also appears to conflict with Flynn’s filing with the Justice Department since the firm reported lobbying activity. It registered with Congress as a lobbyist in September, and Flynn Intel and a contracted public relations firm disclosed lobbying a House committee and an Arkansas state official.
More inconsistencies found in ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn’s consulting work | Toronto Star
hmmm
Palestinians and settlers talk about peace in a shack in “The Field”
So about three years ago, he built a small shack on a plot of land owned by his family in Gush Etzion, one of the large West Bank settlement blocs, and invited some settlers to join him in a new grassroots initiative. They would look each other in the eye for once, talk about their fears and dreams, pray together, plant crops together, share meals together, hike together, and start thinking out of the box about how to live together. He gave the space this unpretentious name: “The Field.”
…In the fall of 2015, barely a year after the initiative was launched, Gush Etzion was targeted in a series of bloody terror attacks. The fresh wave of violence challenges the bonds that have been painstakingly forged between the Palestinian and settler peace activists.
In a particularly charged scene, following the stabbing to death of a 25-year-old Israeli woman at the Gush Etzion junction, Abu Awwad tries to explain to a group of agitated settlers gathered in his shack why it is difficult for most Palestinians to sympathize with them. The two sides in this conflict, he cries out, are not equals.
“After we leave this place, you go back to your nice settlements, and we go back to our refugee camps,” he says. “You call us murderers and criminals, but you are sitting on our places of livelihood, you are sitting on our homes, and you are sitting on our hearts – not as partners, though.”
hmmm
Kosovo government loses no-confidence vote, coalition fails
PRISTINA, Kosovo – Kosovo’s government on Wednesday lost a no-confidence vote, setting the scene for an early election following months of political deadlock over a border demarcation deal that critics say would mean a loss of territory for the tiny Balkan country.
Kosovo government loses no-confidence vote, coalition fails – NEWS 1130
hmmm
‘Stark choices’ for 450,000 civilians trapped amid fighting in Mosul’s Old Town
As many as 450,000 civilians are trapped in Mosul’s Old City, caught up in house-to-house fighting between Islamic State and Iraqi government forces and cut off from aid, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.
sigh…
Donald Trump’s Approval Rating In The Sh*tter
Key among those declines were groups that strongly advocated for his election. Approval among white voters with no college degree fell 10 points from 57% to 47% since April 19. White men went from a 53% approval to a 48% approval in that same time.
Donald Trump’s Approval Rating at Near Record Lows | Time.com
hmmm
Behind Comey’s firing: Trump, fuming about Russia
Trump had grown angry with the Russia investigation — particularly Comey admitting in front of the Senate that the FBI was investigating his campaign — and that the FBI director wouldn’t support his claims that President Barack Obama had tapped his phones in Trump Tower.
…In his letter dismissing Comey, Trump said the FBI director had given him three private assurances that he wasn’t under investigation. The White House declined to say when those conversations happened — or why Comey would volunteer such information. It is not the first time Trump has publicly commented on an ongoing investigation — typically a no-no for presidents. He said earlier this month that Comey had done Clinton a favor by letting her off easy.
Behind Comey’s firing: An enraged Trump, fuming about Russia – POLITICO
hmmmm
Merriam-Webster Schools Trump
In the tweet, which has since been deleted and corrected, Trump misused the word “counsel,” writing “council” instead. If you’re a little rusty with your spelling, have no fear. Merriam-Webster’s Twitter master made sure to be very clear about proper usage after calling out Trump’s mistake.
Merriam-Webster Schooled Donald Trump When He Tried To Criticize Sally Yates | GOOD
Heh
Trump administration wants evidence of Haitian immigrants’ crimes so it can avoid providing humanitarian aid
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is taking the unusual step of hunting for evidence of crimes committed by Haitian immigrants as it decides whether to allow them to continue participating in a humanitarian program that has shielded tens of thousands from deportation since an earthquake destroyed much of their country.
...The request for criminal data for an entire community is unorthodox. The law doesn’t specify it should be a consideration for Temporary Protected Status and the government has never said it would use criminal rates in deciding if a country’s citizens should be allowed to stay under this program. Introducing new criteria is likely to cause consternation among law-abiding Haitians who may feel they are being penalized for the wrongdoing of their compatriots.
Trump administration wants evidence of Haitian immigrants’ crimes – NY Daily News
Grrrrrrrrr
Trump’s actual letter firing FBI Director James Comey – WTF???
President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, 2017.
Trump’s letter firing FBI Director James Comey – CNNPolitics.com
Again…. Not the Onion. Real life.
What tha faaaaa?
“Three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation,” -huh? whaaa?
???!
Sean Spicer ‘spent several minutes hidden in the bushes’
The chief spokesperson for the president of the United States hid in the bushes, only to emerge after journalists agreed to talk to him in “near darkness.”
After Spicer spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets, Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so. Spicer then emerged.
Sean Spicer ‘spent several minutes hidden in the bushes’ | MSNBC
Just to be clear, this is NOT The Onion. True Story.
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