I’m not going to bury the lede—Michael Flynn rolled like a burrito, my friends, and has promised “full cooperation” with Mueller’s investigation. The former national security adviser was the highest of high-level advisers to Donald and the minions, and in exchange for one paltry count of lying to the FBI (despite the reams of incriminating info Mueller has on him), it sounds like he’ll be singing like the proverbial canary. Know what song I keep hearing…? “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” Bet things aren’t quite so merry in the White House, where Melania’s horror-movie holiday decorations now seem pretty spot-on. For more from a legal expert on why this is Very Big News, please enjoy this delightful read.
Meanwhile Donny Jr. has agreed to talk to the House Intelligence Committee. I wonder whether he has the sense of self-preservation to point fingers at Daddy or if he’ll throw himself on the grenade in accordance with Donald’s demands for loyalty at any cost.
A right-wing group that targets media and left-leaning organizations attempted to “sting” the Washington Post by hiring a woman to pretend to be an accuser of child molester, disgraced judge, and Congressional wannabe Roy Moore—but the effort backfired when the Post, following its stringent fact-checking policies, declined to run the story, and in checking on the woman and her story discovered (and published) evidence of her duplicity and the sting operation conducted by Project Veritas, a right-wing extremist organization that uses deceptive tactics and secretly recorded conversations in an effort to discredit its targets (and one that Donald himself donated $10K to).
As Donald reportedly denies his own voice on the Access Hollywood tapes, which the pussy-grabber-in-chief initially owned up to, the New York Times ran a well-sourced article revealing how many Republicans Donald has pressured to end the Russia investigations. Never minds separation of powers or ethics or, you know, the law.
Donald’s recurring and renewed attacks against the free press are escalating, and journalists are fighting back. He held out his propaganda station, FOX, for praise against CNN, saying, “FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” CNN whipped back within minutes: “It’s not CNN’s job to represent the U.S. to the world. That’s yours.” Donald then called for a boycott of CNN when the media organization decided not to attend the White House holiday party for news media.
Two media organizations are suing the White House for information on the federal government’s surveillance practices against journalists, and for which the White House has denied records requests.
One of the first things authoritarians do in consolidating power is attack the free press, and Donald’s constant war against the media and the First Amendment is one of the more alarming attacks on our democracy. You can help by supporting the outlets doing top-notch journalism and keeping this regime accountable and transparent despite their attempts otherwise: Subscribe to the Washington Post and NY Times; donate to NPR and the Guardian; and support the many other excellent media sources that deal in truth and facts and relentlessly bring both to light.
The Inspector general of the Treasury Department has launched an investigation to determine whether Steven “Moochin’” Mnuchin suppressed a Treasury analysis of the Republican tax bill—or even initiated one at all.
Donny John was also recently exposed for hiring undocumented laborers—without adequate workplace safety precautions—for $4/hour (less than half the union wage—for those who were paid at all) to raze the Bonwit Teller building in Manhattan where his gaudy gold Trump Tower now stands. Donald settled the class-action lawsuit in 1998 (despite his false claims that he never settles), and the terms were recently unsealed by a district court judge.
Twenty-three Donald-affiliated business have received subpoenas from Maryland and DC attorneys general instructing them to preserve records as part of a lawsuit against Don John for violating the Constitution—again, this time the emoluments clause intended to prevent presidents from personally profiting from their office, as Donald is.
Texas Rep Joe “Dick Pic” Barton announced he is retiring from the House after it was revealed that the hard-line conservative sent lewd photos to a woman he was having an extramarital affair with. In not-unrelated news, members of both parties are pressuring Congress to end the culture of secrecy around sexual harassment claims—and especially to unmask lawmakers who have used taxpayer dollars to settle harassment claims.