How Your Voices Are Making a Difference: Let us be serious and worthy of our people:

6/18 “Let us be serious and worthy of our people”

After the G7 summit in which Donald acted like the big man-baby he is, threw a tantrum, and then whined on Twitter because Justin Trudeau stood up to him, French president Emmanuel Macron finally abandoned all pretense of trying to humor the commander of cheese, stating publicly that “international cooperation cannot depend on fits of anger or little words. Let us be serious and worthy of our people.” Thank god there are adults in the room—too bad they all seem to be in other countries.

One of the few FOX News anchors who actually reports the news, Shep Smith, gave a scathingly honest breakdown of Donald’s concessions to the brutal North Korean dictator the mentally deranged dotard says he “trusts” and who is “very talented”: Donald gave up plenty to a murderous authoritarian and got nothing in return. “The United States made concessions in exchange for no hard promises….Kim Jong Un got it all…for actually doing nothing.”

Russia

Robert Mueller filed for 150 blank subpoenas in Paul Manafort’s VA case—meaning 75 potential witnesses.

Attorney Michael Cohen, facing serious charges by the investigation and abandoned by his former client Don John, has indicated to friends and family that he will cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. Sing it loud and proud, Robert. Perhaps influencing his sudden spirit of cooperation, investigators have so far pieced together 16 documents from Cohen’s shredder, seized by Mueller’s team last month, and obtained thousands of encrypted text messages.

Attorney (and husband of Kellyanne) George Conway wrote a long article in a prominent law publication refuting Donald’s assertions that the appointment of Robert Mueller was unconstitutional, and heartily defending Mueller’s investigation: “Additionally, Conway wrote, the scope of Mueller’s investigation is far narrower compared to the wide-ranging duties of U.S. attorneys. And although Calabresi argued that Manafort’s indictment is far beyond that scope, Conway said an appeals court already has rejected that argument. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last month that Mueller’s prosecution of Manafort on charges of money laundering, tax and bank fraud, and conspiracy was ‘an appropriate exercise of the Special Counsel’s authority’— and said that Mueller ‘would have been remiss’ if he ignored ‘such an obvious link’ between the Trump campaign and Russia. ‘So not only does Mueller have a boss, and not only is the boss keeping tabs on Mueller, but, according to this judicial decision, Mueller is also faithfully following his boss’s orders,’ Conway wrote. ’That disposes of Calabresi’s Appointment Clause contentions.’”

Republicans Against the Law

Paul Manafort is in jail for witness tampering. No more house arrest. No bail. BOOM. (That’s the sound of the hammer coming down, Donald and minions.)

New York has filed suit against Donald, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka for illegal misuse of his (allegedly) nonprofit charity organization, including using its funds to pay off his businesses’ creditors, decorate one of his golf clubs and stage a multimillion-dollar giveaway at his 2016 campaign events. The suit might involve the IRS, whose investigation could lead to federal criminal charges against Donny for tax fraud.

For the third time, Donald has tried—and failed—to have Summer Zervos’s defamation case against him dismissed. The suit will now move forward with discovery—which may require Donald to testify under oath about his treatment of women.

Former FBI Deputy Director Christopher McCabe—whom Don John fired hours before McCabe would have received his full earned retirement benefits—is suing the FBI, the Justice Department and its inspector general for refusing to turn over documents related to McCabe’s termination.

Meanwhile Michael Cohen made a bid to muzzle Stephanie Clifford’s (Stormy Daniels) lawyer, Michael Avenatti, but a federal judge refused to grant a gag order.

Multiple Texas organizations supporting and lobbying for abortion rights filed suit against the state for laws that restrict access to abortion and disadvantage low-income people, people of color, and other marginalized communities, stating that the laws allow providers to distribute inaccurate information, shame women seeking abortions, and create bureaucratic barriers to the procedure.

Republicans Reconsidering

In direct defiance of Don John’s deal with Chinese telecom company ZTE after the company broke American sanctions on countries like North Korea and Iran, the Senate blocked Donny’s agreement, which would have kept the company in the U.S. market. Republican senator Tom Cotton says the move will likely put the telecom giant, which is said to be a mechanism for espionage by, in part, selling phones in the U.S. that can be tracked and enabled to steal intellectual property, out of business.

Republican senator Joni Ernst, a key member of the Senate Armed Services committee, openly questioned Donald’s concession to brutal dictator Kim Jong Un to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea.

Republican senator Bob Corker is uncorked now that he’s announced he won’t seek reelection. On the heels of Mitch McConnell blocking his Corker’s proposed legislation that would have blocked Donny’s ability to levy tariffs, Corker called the GOP under the very stable genius “cultish” and “fearful.”

“Draining the Swamp”

Are you surprised that we will lead this section, yet again, with Scott Pruitt’s shenanigans? This time he was revealed to havesolicited a top aide as well as wealthy donors to secure a job for his wife. As a reminder it seems Pruitt desperately needs, federal ethics rules prohibit public officials from using their posts for private gain or receiving free services or other gifts from their subordinates.

Of course Pruitt’s office is handling all this with Donald’s White House’s usual grace, calling one reporter from the Atlantic “a piece of trash” for asking questions, and using physical aggression against others.

Donald’s White House continues to hemorrhage staffers—latest departures, both announced and rumored, include Capitol Hill liaison Marc Short, deputy press secretary Raj Shah, and the liar-in-chief’s right-hand liar, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Having trouble keeping up with staff attrition? Here’s a comprehensive list from WTF Just Happened Today.

The 24-year-old campaign intern and former “drug czar” in Donald’s administration (head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy) was relieved of duty at the drug policy office as a result of Washington Post’s article exposing his six quick promotions despite a total lack of experience, and then subsequently fired. Now he’s speaking out.

Social and Civil Rights Advances

In a unanimous vote, the Austin City Council voted to pass a Freedom City policy, a measure that helps avoid racial profiling in arrests, requires full vetting and reporting on arrests requested of APD by ICE, and ensures that officers who ask detainees about their immigration status also inform them of their right not to answer, and fill out a report explaining the encounter.

Students who survived the school shooting in Parkland at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high have organized a bus tour called Road to Change, focused on getting young people to vote and keeping them politically engaged.

Target and Walmart are proudly flying rainbow flags all over their stores and online.

This week there’s another new section I’m simply calling:

WTAF

A propaganda video about North Korea that paints Kim Jong Un as the beloved leader of a grateful people, rather than the brutal dictator he is who imprisons, tortures, and kills his own people, was actually produced and released BY THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A cohost on the commander of cheese’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, Freudianly referred to Donald as a dictator on air, and then frantically tried to brush it under the rug as a slip of the tongue (instead of a slip of the truth). Neither Anthony “not trying to suck my own c*&k” Scaramucci, who was being interviewed by cohost Abby Huntsman when she let the subconscious truth bomb fly, nor, presumably, the wannabe dictator in the White House seemed to take offense nor even notice the comment.

There are actually staffers in the White House who painstakingly tape together official documents that Donald methodically shreds in his little man-baby tantrums, because they are legally required to be preserved under the Presidential Records Act. Let’s be clear—this happens because staffers felt it was easier to laboriously tape together documents sometimes shredded into confetti rather than demand the president of the United States obey the law, let alone act like an adult.

Your Feel-good Stories of the Week

ICE conducted a workplace raid at a small town in Tennessee, a state where Donald won 61 percent of the vote, and detained 97 immigrants—but the town spoke out and fought back.

Less than two weeks after a pilot whale died off Thailand with 80 plastic bags in its stomach, three major corporations—SeaWorld, IKEA, and Royal Caribbean Cruises—are banning plastic straws and bags in an effort to curb rampant plastics pollution in oceans. They join other companies, as well as cities like Seattle, which will ban plastic straws and utensils in restaurants as of July 1, and California, which is working to ban plastic bags; and all of the UK: Teresa May has announced a countrywide ban on plastic straws, stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton swabs.