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Senate Democrats Plan To Filibuster Judge Gorsuch Nomination For SCOTUS

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

The Washington Post is reporting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced Senate Democrats will filibuster the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch.

With a slim 52 member majority in the Senate, this move will make crossing the 60 vote procedural hurdle difficult for the Republicans.

Gorsuch “was unable to sufficiently convince me that he’d be an independent check” on Trump, Schumer said in a Senate floor speech.

Gorsuch is “not a neutral legal mind but someone with a deep-seated conservative ideology,” Schumer added. “He was groomed by the Federalist Society and has shown not one inch of difference between his views and theirs.”

The Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, was one of two organizations that provided a list of names to President Trump to consider for his Supreme Court nomination. One of the group’s top leaders, Leonard Leo, is on leave from the organization as he advises Trump on the Supreme Court confirmation process and other picks to fill vacancies on the federal appeals courts.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee became increasingly frustrated by Gorsuch’s bland answers. “You have been very much able to avoid any specificity like no one I have ever seen before,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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BREAKING: FBI Info Suggests Trump Associates May Have Coordinated With Russians

FBI Director James Comey

The FBI says the bureau has info that indicates Team Trump associates communicated with Russian operatives to possibly work with Russian operatives to release damaging Clinton info during the 2016 campaign.

From CNN:

This is partly what FBI Director James Comey was referring to when he made a bombshell announcement Monday before Congress that the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to one source.

The FBI is now reviewing that information, which includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings, according to those U.S. officials. The information is raising the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence investigators that the coordination may have taken place, though officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive and that the investigation is ongoing.

In his statement on Monday Comey said the FBI began looking into possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives because the bureau had gathered “a credible allegation of wrongdoing or reasonable basis to believe an American may be acting as an agent of a foreign power.”

The White House did not comment and the FBI declined to comment.

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Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn Never Signed Trump’s “Ethics Pledge”

Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn never signed the ethics pledge President Trump required of all his White House employees.

The pledge would bar Trump’s appointees from ethically questionable lobbying activities.

Via The Daily Beast:

The pledge, imposed by executive order a week after President Donald Trump took office, bars all federal appointees from lobbying their former colleagues for five years after leaving the administration and bans them from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments for life.

Confirmation that Flynn did not sign the pledge comes amid controversy over his lobbying last year on behalf of a company linked to the Turkish government. Flynn belatedly acknowledged that the work may have benefitted that government and notified the Justice Department’s foreign agent division months after the work took place, and after he had resigned from his White House post.

The pledge was part of President Trump’s “drain the swamp” promise.

A spokesperson for Flynn said he plans to honor the pledge “voluntarily.”

Uh-huh.

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Colorado: Conservative Radio Host Steve Curtis Charged With Voter Fraud & Forgery

Conservative radio host Steve Curtis speaking to reporter

It turns out there WAS voter fraud in the 2016 election.

And it was committed by a Republican in Colorado.

From the Washington Post:

The 2016 election was just a month away when Steve Curtis, a conservative radio host and former Colorado Republican Party chairman, devoted an entire episode of his morning talk show to the heated topic of voter fraud.

“It seems to me,” Curtis said in the 42-minute segment, “that virtually every case of voter fraud I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats.”

On Tuesday, Colorado prosecutors threw a wrench into that already dubious theory, accusing Curtis of voter fraud for allegedly filling out and mailing in his ex-wife’s 2016 ballot for president, Denver’s Fox affiliate reported.

Curtis, 57, was charged in Weld County District Court with one count of misdemeanor voter fraud and one count of forgery, a Class 5 felony, according to local media.

The case is the only voter fraud investigation related to the 2016 election that has resulted in criminal charges in the state, the Colorado secretary of state’s office told Denver’s ABC affiliate.

Curtis has not entered a plea. If convicted, he could face more than a year of prison time and a $5,000 fine. His attorney, Christopher Gregory, declined to comment on the case when reached by The Washington Post Tuesday night.

During his radio show about voter fraud, Curtis alleged there was “something about being a Democrat,” he said, that made people prone to criminal behavior. Kinda ironic now, huh?

Why is it always the ones who make the accusations that end up being the guilty ones?

Watch Curtis dodge questions from a reporter below:

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Wall Street Journal: Trump “Clings To His Assertions Like A Drunk To An Empty Gin Bottle”

Wow.

Op-ed from conservative newspaper, the Wall Street Journal:

If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world? We’re not sure, which speaks to the

damage that Mr. Trump is doing to his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.

Yet the President clings to his assertions like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims. Sean Spicer—who doesn’t deserve this treatment—was dispatched last week to repeat an assertion by a Fox News commentator that perhaps the Obama Administration had subcontracted the wiretap to British intelligence.

All of this continues the pattern from the campaign that Mr. Trump is his own worst political enemy. He survived his many false claims as a candidate because his core supporters treated it as mere hyperbole and his opponent was untrustworthy Hillary Clinton. But now he’s President, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything. As he is learning with the health-care bill, Mr. Trump needs partners in his own party to pass his agenda. He also needs friends abroad who are willing to trust him when he asks for support, not least in a crisis.

Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.

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Gorsuch: Same-Sex Marriage Is “Absolutely Settled Law” But Talking About It Would “Send Misleading Signal”

Slogging through Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s Senate hearing today, my ears did perk up on a bit of discussion on same-sex marriage.

While he acknowledged that the issue is “absolutely settled law,” he seemed to muddle the issue a bit when asked how his views on marriage have changed over the years.

Gorsuch dodged the question with a distinctively vague response, saying speaking on the issue “would send a misleading signal to the American people.”

He also said, “Any revelation of my personal views about this matter would indicate to people about how I might rule as a judge. Mistakenly, but it might. And I have to be concerned about that.”

Hmm….

I wasn’t the only one who found that disconcerting.

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Former Trump Campaign Chair Hires Crisis Communications Team Over Russian Ties

Paul Manafort, who was Donald Trump’s campaign chairman for several months last year before being dismissed over Russian connections, has hired a crisis communication team.

Via The Hill:

The move comes as Manafort faces scrutiny over possible ties to Russia centered on his past consulting work for officials in Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russia government.

Manafort’s new spokesman is Jason Maloni, a former vice president at Levick who formed his own firm, called JadeRoq, late last year.

“Paul retained me recently because he was getting a lot of media inquiries. Having some support in this area allows folks like you to get your answers faster and allows him to focus on other matters,” Maloni said in an email.
FBI Director James Comey on Monday confirmed publicly that law enforcement is investigating possible ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia. Manafort is widely believed to be among the targets of that investigation.

The White House, curiously, has begun to put some space between Manafort and Team Trump. Yesterday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer described Manafort as someone who “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”

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News Round-Up: March 21, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• It’s the first day of Spring! Fitness model Lony Pizarro (above) is ready, are you?

• Kentucky Governor signs new law that allows public schools and colleges that accept federal funds to discriminate against LGBTs wanting to join school clubs or activities based on religious beliefs.

• Deep in the heart of deep red Texas, Texas A&M, the third largest public university in the U.S., elects it’s first openly gay student body president.

• Apple announced new versions of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that will be part of the (Red) program, which funds programs that combat HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The new red phones will be available this Friday.

• The upcoming vote in the House on Trumpcare could fail thanks to Tea Party Republicans who don’t like the legislation.

• Alan Cumming says younger gay men “don’t care” about the AIDS epidemic.

• Now that he’s engaged, is Colton Haynes going to be a daddy? The newly-engaged actor recently changed his Instagram description to “Uncle. Soon to be father. Traveler. Actor. Goof.”

A post shared by Colton Haynes (@coltonlhaynes) on Mar 20, 2017 at 2:27am PDT