Ooops

To be fair, Rubio's staff may have posted the tweet.

But here's somebody who DOES post his own tweets...

Also, to be fair, I myself wouldn't have noticed the error.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.



UPDATE:

Snub Mitch

That's reportedly Bobby Rankin, a pallbearer at Elijah Cummings' memorial. Check out the shared reactions of Schumer and McConnell.

UPDATE:  Bobby Rankin explains:

“When I saw Mitch McConnell, all I saw was my brother’s face,” said Rankin, one of Cummings’s pallbearers.

Rankin’s brother, Jerry, died last October from cancer after being exposed to contaminated water while serving in the Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Jerry did not receive the veterans’ benefits he was owed before he died, Rankin said — and he blamed McConnell in part for that family tragedy.

“Elijah Cummings reached across party lines trying to help my brother get his military benefits, and Mitch McConnell was one of the persons he reached out to,” Rankin said.

[...]

“I could not put my hands in the man’s hand who refused to help somebody who served his country,” Rankin said, later adding, “I couldn’t do it, because I was thinking about my brother.”

[...]

Multiple myeloma is one of 15 health conditions linked to Camp Lejeune’s tainted drinking water, which contained industrial solvents, benzene and other chemicals for roughly 30 years beginning in the 1950s, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans who were exposed to the water and later developed any of the conditions can qualify for benefits, including free health care and disability compensation, VA said.

  WaPo

The loss of Elijah Cummings from Oversight

Good words for Cummings

Now that he's gone.



The moment Donald Trump became presidential, right?

UPDATE:

Sad news

And as of Friday morning, there's not a word about it on Trump's Twitter account.

The last tweet he had mentioning Cummings was this nasty piece of shit:



The Guardian has a nice piece on Cummings' life/career.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nasty ass

"What?  I don't know what you're talking about.  I was being nice.  I said bad news - too bad."

UPDATE:



UPDATE 8/3:  Right on cue.

The tweet itself was just really a repeat of what I heard over the news,” Trump said. “I know his house was robbed and I thought that was too bad.”

“That was really just — that was not meant as a wise-guy tweet,” the president said “His house was robbed. It came over the news at a certain moment last night and I had just mentioned it.”

  Mediaite

Jesus wept

Soooo much wrong with that.





He has to keep attacking to stay alive, like a shark has to keep swimming.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Doubling down, of course

A disgusting prick and poor excuse for a human being.

UPDATE:



Touché.

P.S.re Baltimore

Well, well.

Oh, Snap!

Can I get an AMEN!?

The Baltimore Sun editorial board ripped President Trump as the "most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office" on Saturday in a scorching piece after Trump referred to Rep. Elijah Cummings' (D-Md.) 7th congressional district, which includes west Baltimore, as a "rat and rodent infested mess."

In a scathing column, the editors of one of the country's oldest newspapers wrote that Trump himself had more power to affect immediate change in Baltimore than Cummings does, who Trump also targeted for criticism Saturday, and urged him to use the power of the presidency to affect positive change.

  The Hill

Kudos to the Baltimore Sun.

Better to have a few rats than to be one

In case anyone missed it, the president of the United States had some choice words to describe Maryland’s 7th congressional district on Saturday morning. Here are the key phrases: “no human being would want to live there,” it is a “very dangerous & filthy place,” “Worst in the USA” and, our personal favorite: It is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” He wasn’t really speaking of the 7th as a whole. He failed to mention Ellicott City, for example, or Baldwin or Monkton or Prettyboy, all of which are contained in the sprawling yet oddly-shaped district that runs from western Howard County to southern Harford County. No, Donald Trump’s wrath was directed at Baltimore and specifically at Rep. Elijah Cummings, the 68-year-old son of a former South Carolina sharecropper who has represented the district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1996.

It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are “clean, efficient & well run," which, of course, they are not — unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector-general recently called “a ticking time bomb."

In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn’t hoping his supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins Hospital, perhaps the nation’s leading medical center. He wasn’t conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security Administration, where they write the checks that so many retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn’t about the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort McHenry. And it surely wasn’t about the economic standing of a district where the median income is actually above the national average. No, he was returning to an old standby of attacking an African American lawmaker from a majority black district on the most emotional and bigoted of arguments.

[...]

And given Mr. Cummings’ criticisms of U.S. border policy, the various investigations he has launched as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, his willingness to call Mr. Trump a racist for his recent attacks on the freshmen congresswomen, and the fact that “Fox & Friends” had recently aired a segment critical of the city, slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian way. Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his thumbs moved across his cell phone into action.

  Baltimore Sun

Mr. Asshole President doesn't deserve the respect Cummings gives him in this tweet.

Click here to show your love for the Baltimore Sun editorial and continue reading the piece.

Also: Impeach the motherfucker.

UPDATE:

Scared, but not speechless

House Oversight chair Elijah Cummings is making him stew.







That's the loudest dog whistle on the planet.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



Also, I thought his complaint about "The Squad" was supposedly because they talked bad about America.  Where is Baltimore?

UPDATE:

Now watch this

Watch it.  Representataive Cummings captures the right attitude.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What's Chuck mad about?

When I saw Chuck's comment and the picture of barbed wire and robocops at the border, I was ready to agree with him.  But then I read the synopsis under the picture, and if he thinks Border Patrol leadership should be censoring private Facebook posts, no matter how abhorent they are, I take exception.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection was aware of the inflammatory Facebook page where alleged Border Patrol agents posted racist, sexist and violent images — and the agency has investigated posts from the group on at least one occasion, an official said.

  WaPo

And I wouldn't be surprised if some of the top leadership has participated in that group.

The office carried out an inquiry and took disciplinary action, but the official did not say how many employees were involved or what sort of discipline was dispensed.

Now, if the disciplinary action wasn't firing, then I'll agree with Chuck.

Even though some in the agency have known about the Facebook group for as many as three years, CBP officials do not conduct regular monitoring of private pages, the official said, adding that it would potentially interfere with members’ First Amendment and privacy rights. Instead, CBP responds when it’s presented with reports of wrongdoing.

Which seems appropriate to me.

Officials have said they weren’t aware of the recent posts to “I’m 10-15” — which has reportedly been renamed America First — and Kevin McAleenan, acting secretary of Homeland Security, pledged “an immediate investigation” after the website ProPublica published an investigation revealing a bevy of offensive posts on the page.

[...]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was the target of sexually violent posts on the Facebook page, said on Thursday that CBP officials told members of Congress the agency didn’t know about the group.

“Looks like CBP lied,” she said in a tweet.

On Friday, another Facebook group of apparent CBP personnel surfaced, revealing even more posts containing insensitive, derogatory and lewd content. The page, called “the Real CBP Nation,” was first reported by CNN and has about 1,000 members.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Washington Post that the company had removed several posts to that group because they violated policies on bullying and harassment, cruel and insensitive content, and sexual exploitation of adults. Facebook did not ban the group.

In a Tuesday letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said the posts to the “I’m 10-15” group also appeared to violate the social network’s “Community Standards.” Cummings requested copies of all the posts and comments made on the group, including deleted content.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Go home, Nancy

According to a Washington Post report, Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has met privately with [Speaker of the House Nancy] Pelosi to recommend starting an impeachment inquiry but was reportedly rebuffed by the Speaker who argued the move lacks support among other caucus members and it could undermine other ongoing House investigations.

[...]

During a leadership meeting on Monday, Pelosi and allies in House leadership, including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), pushed back on calls from other Democratic leaders, including Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), to begin impeachment proceedings, Politico reported citing multiple sources.

[...]

After his meeting with Pelosi, Nadler, while he did not rule out impeachment, appeared sympathetic to Pelosi’s perspective, according to the Post, citing a Monday ruling from a federal judge upholding a Democratic subpoena as evidence other institutions could support oversight of the Trump administration.

[...]

Pelosi and her allies argued the dispute over impeachment is stealing oxygen from Democratic messaging on other political issues.
  The Hill

Then stop disputing it.

Raskin, a former law professor, argued that even if the House did not outright impeach Trump, an impeachment inquiry could allow the party to both make the case for removing Trump and pursue its legislative agenda at the same time, according to Politico.

Pelosi reportedly pushed back, asking Raskin if he wanted to “tell [Rep.] Elijah Cummings [D-Md.] to go home,” referencing ongoing investigations into the Trump administration by the House Oversight Committee chairman as well as four other committees engaged in similar investigations.

Cummings' investigations can't be integrated into an impeachment hearing?*  YOU go home, Nancy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UUPDATE:  Also, as noted in Judge Mehta's recent ruling saying Trump cannot block a House Committee subpoena of his financial records , the Oversight Committee, according to House Rules, may investigate anything, even if it's being investigated by another agency:

Elijah Cummings knows where to hit

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) sent letters Tuesday calling for eight current and former Trump administration officials to provide information for two of the panel’s investigations, cautioning that officials who block the interviews from taking place could see their salaries withheld.

"Please be advised that any official at the Department who 'prohibits or prevents' or 'attempts or threatens to prohibit or prevent' any officer or employee of the Federal Government from speaking with the Committee could have his or her salary withheld pursuant to section 713 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act," Cummings wrote in the letters.

[...]

The committee noted seven of the eight interview requests recently made related to the panel’s probes were either denied or remain unanswered.

  The Hill

That (overall depressing) podcast is here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Obstructing...and backing down

In an interview with The Washington Post, President Trump said he plans on fighting any subpoenas or requests for current and former White House aides to testify before congressional panels. “There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan,” Trump said. This includes the subpoena the House Judiciary Committee issued to White House Counsel Don McGahn, according to ABC News. In a statement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said, “the reports, if accurate, represent one more act of obstruction.”

  Preet Bharar

The White House said on Friday it will allow its former personnel security director Carl Kline to give limited testimony to the House Oversight Committee on May 1, Politico reports.

White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney instructed Kline not to testify for his original April 23 subpoena date, as the House committee continues its investigation into the White House security clearance process. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings moved to hold Kline in contempt after he failed to appear for his deposition.

  Axios

"[W]e understand the scope of the interview will be limited to White House personnel security policies and practices, consistent with our prior offers for Mr. Kline's voluntary cooperation with the Committee," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in the letter to the committee's top Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan.

The offer, pitched in response to a request from Jordan to avert an escalating confrontation between the White House and Congress, may not satisfy Democratic demands for testimony on some of the most controversial security clearance decisions made by the Trump White House. But it's the first move toward accommodation by an administration that has openly rejected submitting to most Democratic oversight requests. In addition, if lawmakers opt to interview Kline and find his answers overly restricted, the committee could still seek to depose him, according to a source familiar with the process.

[...]

Democrats have been demanding Kline's testimony following a whistleblower's complaint that Kline overruled career staffers to approve high-level security clearances for top White House personnel, even though their applications had been flagged as national security risks. But until late Friday, the White House had ordered Kline to refuse to appear, and Kline's attorney Robert Driscoll indicated that Kline intended to defer to his employer's wishes.

  Politico

By trying to limit his testimony to "policies and practices", I assume Trump is trying to avoid having Kline admit that Trump demanded he give clearances to specific people, and why those people were not approved by the process.

Cummings aides did not respond to requests for comment but it's unlikely he'll accept the terms offered by the White House. In addition to restricting Kline's testimony to general "policies and practices" of the security clearance office, Cipollone also indicated he expected to have a lawyer on his team present in the room, a demand that Democrats have not agreed to and that they've argued conflicts with the committee's past practice.

[...]

Democrats have raised concerns about the security clearance process at the White House for two years. They're particularly interested in how Trump's son in law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, obtained a clearance — especially following recent reports that Trump intervened to overrule recommendations that Kushner not be granted a high-level clearance.

[...]

Cummings has rejected complaints about his handling of the process, calling Republican criticism disingenuous and urging Kline to testify or face potential legal consequences.

"Mr. Kline’s attorney is trying to cast him as caught in the middle of a dispute between the Committee and the White House, asserting that Mr. Kline is ‘not a party in interest.’ That is not correct," Cummings said in a statement Tuesday. "Mr. Kline stands accused of retaliating against a whistleblower who reported serious allegations of abuse to Congress. As the Committee with primary jurisdiction over the Whistleblower Protection Act, we take extremely seriously our responsibility to investigate these allegations and to protect the rights of all whistleblowers who come before Congress."

We need action

"Special Counsel Mueller's report paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies and improper behavior and acting as if the law doesn't apply to him. But if you hadn't read the report and listened only to Mr. Barr, you wouldn't have known any of that because Mr. Barr has been so misleading," Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-Calif.) and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said in a joint statement Thursday.

  The Hill

You two need to put up or shut up. If the president is acting as though the law doesn't apply to him, then he needs to be impeached. And if the AG is "misleading", he needs to be charged with obstruction of justice as well.

“The special prosecutor made very clear that he couldn’t reach a determination on obstruction of justice basically because of certain Justice Department guidelines which didn’t allow him to do that but that he laid it out for Congress to do. Not for the Attorney General to arrogate to himself the power to do,” [HouseOversight chair Elijah Cummings] said Friday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Cummings said he intends to assist the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees with any upcoming probes related to the administration and the Mueller report.

Assistance in pressing Nadler to start impeachment proceedings would be a good start.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Not fully clear"

An attorney for Michael Cohen on Tuesday sent a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) seeking to clarify Cohen’s testimony before the committee about a potential presidential pardon.

Cohen’s attorney Michael Monico acknowledged in the letter that his client's testimony before the panel was not fully clear.

  The Hill

Beginning to sound like Roger Stone's lawyers.

Questions about whether Cohen may have perjured himself during his public testimony last month have emerged over his testimony that he “never asked for, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump.”

[...]

But [Monico] maintained that his client was telling the panel the truth when Cohen said he had not sought a pardon, because he was referring to the time since a joint-defense agreement ended with President Trump last June.

Monico said that Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and "fixer," had told his lawyers to explore the possibility of a pardon when it was offered by the president's legal representatives following the FBI raids on Cohen's home and office.

Maybe he could have mentioned that caveat when he testified.

“In retrospect, while the sentence could have been clearer regarding the time frames, the sentence is true, and Mr. Cohen stands by his statement,” the letter reads.

Actually, no, it wasn't true.

Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis said in a statement shortly after the testimony that the prospect of a pardon was raised by legal representatives for Trump after the FBI raids on Cohen's home and office, but that nothing came of it.

In other words, he got turned down.

“At no time did Mr. Cohen personally ask President Trump for a pardon or did the president offer Mr. Cohen the same,” the letter reads.

There's the key. Cohen was playing the technicality angle. Which he shouldn't have done. Asking through your lawyer is legally asking. He knew that.

Trump alleged last week that Cohen directly asked him for a pardon, a claim that Cohen immediately disputed.

And that, I can believe. While they're both liars, Trump will still be lying when he's put on the stand, when he's arraigned, and when he goes to his grave. If there are two different versions of a story, and Trump is telling one, count on his version to be the lie.

Cummings had promised to “be the first” to refer Cohen for prosecution if he made further false statements.

And Cohen has put him in a pickle.

Cohen will report to federal prison in May to serve three years on several federal charges, including making false statements to lawmakers.

[...]

Cummings said last week that he wants to examine the transcript from Cohen’s closed-door testimony with the House Intelligence Committee before deciding whether the president’s ex-fixer committed perjury.

I think he should go ahead and refer him. Cohen knew what was at stake.  He was so careful about his answers that it seems unlikely he didn't intentionally shade that one.  And why?  Stupid.  His lawyers should have nudged him.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More to come

Amen

UPDATE: