Posts on Friday, May 24, 2019

President Donald Trump directed the intelligence community to cooperate with Attorney General Bill Barr’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election. In a memorandum to his seven cabinet directors and the Attorney General, Trump asked that officials cooperate with Barr’s investigation and authorized Barr to declassify any information about the investigation into his campaign that he deemed necessary, provided that he consulted with the agency responsible. “Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions,”

An Army National Guard member announced Thursday that he will mount a primary challenge against Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) in the wake of the libertarian-leaning lawmaker’s remarks about President Donald Trump and impeachment. Tom Norton, who previously served as village president of Kent County, joins Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) in a bid to unseat Amash in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. “I’m running to restore the seat to its first constitutional duty, which is to represent the people, defend America’s borders, support fair trade for the American people, and support our allies, including Israel,”

Former Vice President Joe Biden was reportedly one of the few Obama administration officials who participated in secretive meetings during the early stages of the Obama-era intelligence community’s initial operations regarding suspected Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. That tidbit was contained deep inside a 7,700-plus word Washington Post article published June 23, 2017 in which the newspaper also detailed the highly compartmentalized nature of the original Russia interference investigation and the manner in which other U.S. intelligence agencies were deliberately kept in the dark.

Wednesday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she and her party “believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States. And we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.” The problem? Lying Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have spent over two years thwarting a duly elected American president while shielding actual left-wing Democrat coup plotters like Jim Comey and John Brennan from closer scrutiny.

Three people have died on Mount Everest amid scenes of overcrowding at the summit of the world’s highest mountain. The latest fatalities bring the number of people who have died on the mountain in the past week to seven. The three victims were said to have died from exhaustion while descending from the summit. In the last few days, a 65-year-old Austrian climber, an Irish professor and an Indian mountaineer have also lost their lives on Mount Everest. The deaths come amid traffic jams near the summit as record numbers make the ascent, despite calls to limit the number of

President Donald Trump may be guilty of many things, but a cover-up in the Mueller probe isn’t one of them. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attempting to appease forces in the Democratic party eager for impeachment, is accusing him of one, with all the familiar Watergate connotations. The charge is strange, not to say incomprehensible, in light of the fact that Congress is in possession of a 448-page report produced by the Trump Department of Justice cataloguing the alleged obstruction that Congress now wants to investigate. The report is so exhaustive that many members of Congress haven’t had the time to read it.

Some inexplicable things come out of our nation’s capital. Occasionally, similar puzzlements emerge elsewhere in the nation. A current one is the developing outbreak of preventable measles that’s become so serious now that federal officials have threatened some with unusually restrictive travel bans. Some of us were unaware that such a federal Do Not Board List exists for civilians who have nothing to do with suspected terrorism. But it does. And health officials in five states have contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about banning travel by some citizens suspected of being in the 21-day incubation period for

It was a circus the last time Sarah Huckabee Sanders answered questions in the White House briefing room. Hands shot up. Voices were raised. A younger gentleman in a blue blazer hung from the lectern with one hand, clutched his credentials with the other, and literally whooped at the top of his lungs. If the uncivilized gaggle had any excuse, it was that most of the participants hadn’t yet graduated from elementary school. The press secretary was answering questions from kids, the children of members of the White House press corps. What kind of ice cream does President Trump like? (Chocolate and vanilla.) Does he have a favorite dinosaur?

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s order allowing Attorney General William P. Barr to declassify any intelligence that sparked the opening of the Russia investigation sets up a potential confrontation with the C.I.A., effectively stripping the agency of its most critical power: choosing which secrets it shares and which ones remain hidden. On Friday, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said the agencies under his purview would give the Justice Department “all of the appropriate information” for its review. But Mr. Coats, a seasoned politician, also included a not-so-subtle warning that his agency’s secrets must be protected.

After a stroke felled Woodrow Wilson during his national tour to save his League of Nations, an old rival, Sen. Albert Fall, went to the White House to tell the president, "I have been praying for you, Sir." To which Wilson is said to have replied, "Which way, Senator?" (Snip) But the acid retort came to mind on hearing that Nancy Pelosi, hours after accusing President Donald Trump of "engaging in a cover-up," a felony, piously volunteered, "I pray for the president of the United States." For, by now, the hostile investigations of Trump by Pelosi's House are becoming too

A historic Second World War submarine has taken to the waters for the first time in nearly 50 years after heavy rains flooded its military museum home - causing it to refloat. The USS Batfish, a 77-year-old Balao-class submarine, was placed on display at the Muskogee's War Memorial Park in Oklahoma - a region that has experienced flash flooding and tornadoes this week - causing rivers to flood and banks to spill over.

According to the results of a CBS poll conducted between May17-20, the chances of president Trump getting elected look pretty strong, as the poll found 71% of respondents felt the economy was in good shape. 94% of Republicans and 66% of Independents agreed, and even an astonishing 60% of Democrats echoed the sentiment. (Video) Additionally, the poll found that as opposed to the beginning of 2018, when only 32% of respondents gave Trump credit for the strong economy, that figure has risen to 41%. Another 44% gave Trump partial credit for the strong economy.In the last four months, the percentage of

It was supposed to be part of the relaunch of Beto O’Rourke’s fading Democratic primary campaign to recapture the empty charisma he showed while live-streaming his dental cleaning. The hour-long town hall on CNN was more of a re-fizzle. The abysmal overnight audience ratings proved the ancient show biz adage about customers: If they don’t want to come, you can’t stop ’em. Nielsen’s study of the total audience showed that viewers were less than excited about watching the bland ex-congressman from El Paso smile and dance around questions. The town hall’s total audience was 30 percent smaller than a normal Tuesday evening audience. That’s enough to give the show

The Utah Supreme Court has suspended a city judge for making "shirty and politically charged" comments from the bench and posting "indelicate" criticism online about President Donald Trump. Judge Michael Kwan will serve a six-month suspension without pay for repeatedly violating the Utah Code of Judicial Conduct. In his two decades as a Taylorsville Justice Court judge, the Judicial Conduct Commission has issued Kwan two letters of education and two reprimands for various violations. "We note that previous endeavors to help Judge Kwan correct this behavior have not been successful. And we regretfully conclude that a sanction less severe than

On Thursday afternoon’s airing of CNN Newsroom, host Brooke Baldwin had on CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. The liberal media have been obsessively covering the recent jabs between President Donald Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Brinkley, rather than remaining an objective historian, couldn’t help but drool over Pelosi as a partisan mouthpiece and naturally Baldwin had no problem with it. (Video)

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, nearly collapsed while attending a Manhattan press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio Friday. Nadler, 71, put his head down at the conference around noon and grew pale.“Code blue in the gymnasium,” someone said over the PA system at PS 199 on W. 70th Street where the mayor was announcing new traffic safety measures.The New York congressman was seated to the mayor’s left when he started feeling faint. Doctors who were at the event rushed to Nadler’s side and an ambulance was called. Event organizers cleared the gymnasium of over 100 guests and reporters.

This doesn’t count as washing your hands before returning to work. An employee at a Wendy’s in Florida brought his home hygienic routine to the fast food restaurant, washing up in an industrial sink, a revolting viral video shows.The 93-second footage, posted Tuesday on Facebook, shows a Snapchat video of a shirtless young man without shoes or socks climbing into an oversized sink in the Milton restaurant’s kitchen. “I don’t suggest anyone eating at the Milton wendy’s again,” a caption accompanying the video read, complete with several vomiting emojis. Several people can be heard encouraging the unidentified employee to hop into the bubbly water on the video,

A lone Republican congressman single-handedly stalled a $19 billion disaster aid bill that lawmakers had expected to pass before the Memorial Day weekend.Texas Rep. Chip Roy took to the House floor late Friday morning to object when lawmakers tried to approve the legislation using a fast-track tactic, with many members of Congress already gone for the holiday.“If I do not object, Congress will have passed a bill with $19 billion without being here to vote on it,” Roy said. Railing against the "swamp," Roy objected to speeding the measure through a nearly-empty chamber,

President Donald Trump presented Ohio State University police officer Alan Horujko, a Fairfield native, with a presidential Medal of Valor on Wednesday for shooting to death a knife-wielding Somali refugee on Nov. 28, 2016, after the attacker had wounded 13 people on campus. During a White House ceremony to award medals to 14 public safety officers, Trump gave Horujko his medal, the highest decoration police officers can receive. Horujko shot Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a move university officials said prevented an even worse attack.

This video was in the New York Post. I saw it at Althouse. It shows a shooting of a suspect by a police officer in San Diego last year. The police officer is being approached on a street by a man who swings a four-foot chain. The officer tries to get the man to drop the chain. Ann’s comment is apt: “[I]t’s astounding how long the cop walks backward, warning the man that he will get shot.” The suspect says a couple of times, “Trump is the devil.” The officer tried to tase him, but the taser missed. At one point the suspect, steadily advancing

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that the Trump administration would give an additional $16 billion in aid to America's farmers hurt by the trade war with China. Farmers have been particularly hurt by Chinese retaliatory tariffs, and with more retaliation on the way, Trump decided to get out ahead of the problem and try to shield farmers from the worst effects of the trade war. (Snip) Trump's "false assertions" (lies) about the trade war are mystifying. Farmers know who's getting hurt. Farm income for the first quarter dropped to the lowest level since 2016, says Bloomberg: One-time subsidy payments from

Democrats seeking the White House are turning to Georgia Democrat Jimmy Carter, who occupied the residence from 1976 to 1980. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was born two years after Carter lost to Ronald Reagan, but pronounced the one-term Democrat “an extraordinary person.” For Cory Booker, 50, Jimmy Carter was a “guiding light and inspiration” but the most outspoken candidate was Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar. “Jimmy Carter is a decent, well-meaning person, someone who people are talking about again given the time that we are in,” explained Klobuchar, who was 16 when Carter was elected. “He won because he worked so hard,

The American people are sending a pretty clear message to Washington: They are sick and tired of the investigations into President Trump and don’t want Democrats in Congress to impeach him. But the Democrats aren’t listening.A Harvard-Harris poll finds that 65 percent of Americans say Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. Sixty percent agree with Attorney General William Barr that “the facts and public actions of President Trump did not amount to obstruction of justice, especially since there was no underlying collusion.” And 58 percent believe that “Given the Mueller report … we should turn the page on investigations of President Trump.”

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested the tornado warning that hit the D.C. area Thursday was part of the “climate crisis” she has previously said humanity only has 12 years left to solve. “The climate crisis is real y’all,” Ocasio said on Instagram Thursday, “guess we’re at casual tornadoes in growing regions of the country?” However, she was quickly fact-checked by meteorologist Ryan Maue, who pointed out that far from proof of a “climate crisis,” D.C.’s tornado warning was “just the weather.”

A new Tory leader and Prime Minister should be in place by the end of July, the Conservative party said today.Senior figures want the two-stage process of choosing Theresa May's successor, which begins on June 7, finished by the time Parliament rises for its summer recess - probably on July 26.In a joint statement today, party chairman Brandon Lewis and two senior backbench figures Dame Cheryl Gillan and Charles Walker, setting out how the next few weeks should pan out.After breaking down in tears o the steps of Downing Street today, the Prime Minister is set to face one final electoral humiliation before she steps down

A new report on Thursday says that the prolific anti-Trump Twitter personalities Brian and Ed Krassenstein have been permanently banned from the platform. The Krassenstein brothers made names for themselves on Twitter for trolling President Trump, GOP lawmakers, and other big-name conservatives as well as being two of the biggest cheerleaders of Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the #Resistance. Both Brian and Ed Krassenstein would make frequent appearances in the replies of President Trump's tweets. Well, just days after some noticed their accounts were inactive, The Daily Beast reports that they will not be returning to Twitter.

Shortly after President Donald Trump granted Attorney General Bill “full and complete authority” Thursday evening to declassify any and all documents tied to the Russia probe, investigative reporter Sara Carter provided a handy list of what all the public should expect to soon see.Speaking on FNC’s “Hannity” with guest host Dan Bongino, she specifically listed what she believes will be the most damaging pieces of information to be unveiled in the declassified documents.Listen: The first, she claimed, will be evidence that

In the days since Alabama’s passage of the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, national Republicans have tried to distance themselves from its most controversial provisions that would outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest. Now, there are clear signs that is changing. Secret talking points obtained by VICE News show national Republicans are preparing to defend the law, which has not yet taken effect, but will almost certainly be struck down by the courts.

President Donald Trump's order to declassify documents explaining the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation is "all nonsense," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House intelligence committee, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Thursday night. Nadler said there's no "basis" to examine the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation. He called it an "imaginary scandal." (Video) Maddow asked Nadler for his reaction to the breaking news that Trump has issued an executive order directing the intelligence community to "quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General's investigation

First Lady Melania Trump is breathing new life into some of her older wardrobe essentials with new dresses, thicker belts, and her favorite pair of shades.Throughout the past month and a half, Mrs. Trump has readied for summer by throwing on some of her old favorites — because, why not?! Earlier this month, Mrs. Trump wore an embellished white Prada A-line dress for a U.S. military mothers celebration at the White House. Avid Fashion Notes followers will remember that Mrs. Trump previously wore this dress with a pair of Christian Louboutin glittery pumps at Mar-a-Lago last year.

This week Rush Limbaugh repeated a quote from James Comey in a New York Magazine interview: “I’d moved from Communist to whatever I am now. I’m not even sure how to characterize myself politically. Maybe at some point, I’ll have to figure it out.”It’s hard to pin too much on that quote. Perhaps Comey was joking by calling his vote for Jimmy Carter a vote for a Communist, in mockery of his supposedly fellow Republicans. Joking about support for Communism is not all that funny in the Obama administration. Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan actually did vote for a Communist presidential candidate.

America’s indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act had barely been handed up than the press jumped right in with what it sees as the big news — that the case could endanger the press itself. Never mind the military secrets that Mr. Assange may have betrayed in the middle of a war. No, you can bet your last pixel that the story is first about us and the First Amendment. Our eyes, for one, are dry. We’ve spent much of a long newspaper life trying to get people to tell us government secrets. We

The progressives in her party are lining up to demand an impeachment spectacle. They hail from uber-liberal districts, their constituents want Trump’s scalp, and they fear inaction will earn them a primary challenge. Even Mrs. Pelosi’s wingmen—those who’ve had her fake-impeachment back—are starting to break. The Washington Post reports that Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is arguing for a formal impeachment inquiry, as are “five members of Pelosi’s leadership team.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, polling second among Democratic presidential candidates, will reportedly butt in on Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting, where he will demand the company change its policies to please him. Voters take note: This is how socialists operate. They believe all businesses belong to them. Sanders, who has long self-identified as a socialist, will “push for the retail giant’s workers to get

During a private dinner last week at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., I was taken to task by a Republican congressman after I pressed him on his lack of support for President Donald Trump’s proposed space force. The congressman is a war hero. His service is unimpeachable and I maintain a deep respect for his commitment to our country. Yet his responses to my questions were flippant, painfully uninformed, and dangerously rooted in a reflexive NeverTrumpism that is unworthy of the man.

Heads are exploding all over the beltway, as the unraveling of the biggest political scandal in American history enters a new stage. Make no mistake, there is a plan and a timetable designed for maximum dramatic impact. President Trump finally has taken the long-awaited step to lift the cloak of classification and uncover the weaponization of the federal government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies against his candidacy and then presidency. (snip) Barr almost certainly has seen or will see the IG Report before it is released. He can declassify information that the IG Report needs to reveal, even before the report is released.

The burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame — in the heart of Paris, in the heart of France, in the heart of Europe, in the heart of Christendom and Western civilization — was an absolute cultural catastrophe. In the fire's aftermath, there poured forth an avalanche of articles — penned by authors no doubt sincere and well intentioned — about resilience, about perseverance, about timeless truths, about rising from the ashes, about wake-up calls, etc.

Nancy Pelosi is between impeach and a hard place. “You want to believe that there’s all this unease in our caucus,” an irritated House Speaker told the press on Thursday, a day when the barbs were flying between herself and President Trump, and when many House Democrats expressed impatience or even dissatisfaction with her leadership to her face. “That simply isn’t the truth

Over the weekend, Australians reelected their conservative government against all expectations. The race, like many that have taken place in the United States in the last 20 years, illustrated that voters’ very real concern for the environment doesn’t translate to support for environmentalists. Yes, everyone wants a clean environment. But that doesn’t mean they will accept the crazed policies of today’s green Left, which views the planet’s supposedly imminent demise as a good excuse to impose socialism. Australia’s Labor Party campaigned heavily on higher taxes and cuts to greenhouse emissions. Their program was typical of such a platform, involving higher energy prices, huge subsidies for unproven

Prince George’s County, Maryland, has been in the news of late because two male illegal aliens with reported ties to MS-13, along with a female companion, were arrested for the brutal, bloody, horrific murder of a 14-year-old girl — a murder that investigators say began in the woods with a baseball bat and finished with the final strokes of a machete. Prince George’s County is a sanctuary. And the two male suspects, Josue Rafael Fuentes-Ponce, 16, and Joel Ernesto Escobar, 17, illegal immigrants both, were coincidentally released from Prince George’s County custody last year — a custody that was due to their arrests for attempted murder charges. ICE,

Anyone remember Samantha Smith? Don’t run away to look her up on Google; I’ll come back to her in a moment and explain why her name occurs to me just now. Two large media meta-narratives prompt the title question here. First, Michael Avenatti. Finished laughing? Okay, good; to continue: Avenatti was entirely the creation of the media, right down to the idea, which CNN and MSNBC took seriously, that he could be a presidential candidate in 2020. It is emerging now that the media knew first hand that Avenatti is a first class jerk, from the outrageous and rude way he treated the low- and mid-level media people (producers, etc)

Dan Zadra once wrote, “worry is a misuse of the imagination.” In January of this year, after coming across a particularly worrying piece in the Atlantic, I misused my imagination. Sorry, Mr. Zadra. Titled “Young Trans Children Know Who They Are,” the piece focused on transgender children — those of whom identify as a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth. Ed Yang, the author of the piece, argues that, from an early age, children already have a strong sense of identity. He contends that some children as young as three already have a strong sense of their identity. If a three-year-old boy tells his parents

A U.S. House of Representatives attempt to block President Donald Trump from spending about $6.1 billion on a southern border wall ran into what could be a major obstacle of its own Thursday -- a skeptical federal judge. The Democrat-led chamber asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington to bar the administration from reallocating the money from other Defense Department projects in the wake of Congress’s outright refusal to give the president all the funding he sought for the project. But the judge -- a 2017 Trump nominee -- had reservations, opining at the outset about an apparent lack of legal precedent

Irony oozed out of a tweet sent by lawyer Michael Avenatti the other day. He was upset about a segment on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” discussing his latest legal mess, an indictment for allegedly stealing nearly $300,000 from former client Stormy Daniels. “How cowardly of @JoeNBC @morningmika @WillieGeist @emilyjanefox to sit around and take shots at me in my absence without inviting me on to defend myself. This is journalism? No, it’s a joke,” wrote Avenatti. Someone has been reading too much @realdonaldtrump. For a news program such as “Morning Joe,” there’s a lot to discuss when it comes to Avenatti. Not only is he facing the indictment

Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin? Such a scenario seems nearly ­inconceivable. Yet, it’s exactly the situation Sen. Dianne Feinstein created when hosting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for dinner a few weeks ago. Politico reported on the meeting, noting that it was “a bit unusual” for a former chair of the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate minority to dine out with the acting foreign minister of an adversary of the United States. And by “unusual,”

Amid Jimmy Fallon’s stunning loss in the ratings, Page Six hears that there’s turmoil at the top of the “Tonight Show” with one exec suddenly and mysteriously out and another tearing into boss Lorne Michaels as they struggle to fix the faltering show. Fallon’s “Tonight Show” has been steadily falling behind newcomer Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” and on Wednesday it was revealed that Colbert has topped Fallon for a full season for the first time. As Fallon’s famously fluffy show began to fall behind Colbert’s politically charged material, Fallon tried to ape Colbert by bringing in “Today” show vet Jim Bell as showrunner to inject some topical heat to the

Classic films now face the wrath of perpetually enraged social justice warriors. Last weekend’s "Watters World" on Fox News Channel analyzed the impact of this politically correct phenomenon. Exhibit A was Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” the single funniest motion picture ever committed to celluloid. Jesse Watters’ guest, Cathy Areu, publisher of Catalina Magazine, responded to a clip of the comedy-Western in which Brooks himself portrays a Yiddish speaking American Indian chief. After securing safe passage for a family of black pioneers rolling West in their stagecoach, the feather-headdress-clad Indian bids them, “auf wiedersehen.”

Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers. “This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union

Another front is opening these days in the eternal battle of the sexes. Only this one in the workplace is not about equal pay or equal job opportunities. It’s about the thermostat. A new study reveals what a lot of couples already knew: Women like their living spaces a lot warmer than men do. In fact, women’s brains work significantly better in warmer work temperatures. Men prefer cooler room temperatures. Perhaps because they rarely wear sleeveless dresses and shirts or skirts on the job. The issue is likely to be an

Ashley Parker, White House reporter for the Washington Post, whined online Thursday night about her “sad life” having to cover President Trump. Parker complained that her smartphone buzzed every four minutes and instead of it being a message from her husband it was (tweets by) President Trump.(Photo) “Snapshot of my sad life: Approx. every four minutes, my phone buzzes. And I think, Oh great, it’s my husband texting that he’s heading home from work. But nope, it’s just the president. -30-“ (Tweet)

President Donald Trump directed the intelligence community to cooperate with Attorney General Bill Barr’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election.In a memorandum to his seven cabinet directors and the Attorney General, Trump asked that officials cooperate with Barr’s investigation and authorized Barr to declassify any information about the investigation into his campaign that he deemed necessary, provided that he consulted with the agency responsible.“Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions,”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D.-Minn.) sent out two successive tweets on Wednesday night, the first celebrating the fact that she had served that day as Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives and the second calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. “Such an honor to preside over the House Floor tonight,” Omar said in the first Tweet, which featured a screen capture of her at the speaker’s podium. “Every day I am humbled to serve the people of my community.”

A line must be drawn. No longer can the phrase "obstruction of justice" be allowed to mean something obscenely different from what any fair-minded, free person knows it was intended to mean. In the minds of most, the phrase refers to blocking the discovery of truth, truth being the only legitimate basis on which appropriate redress can be made for some wrong that has been suffered.

Bill Weld conceded in an interview this week that Republican voters have little appetite for his insurgent primary bid to block President Trump from renomination in 2020. The former Massachusetts governor did not dispute Trump’s high approval ratings with self-identified Republicans, nor claim a silent groundswell for his long shot campaign. But Weld predicted Trump would grow vulnerable to a primary challenge in the months ahead, insisting his campaign was a key element in softening the political support the president enjoys inside the GOP.

When members of your own political party invent a slogan to block your rise to power, it’s likely that you pose a threat to the status quo. In America three years ago, that slogan was #NeverTrump — establishment conservatives’ call to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination. In Britain now, it’s “Anyone but Boris,” establishment Tories’ rallying cry as they try to stop Boris Johnson from becoming the next prime minister. And like the #NeverTrump movement, their efforts look destined to fail. The two men share several obvious qualities. Both make an art out of chaos, packaging dishevelment and disarray into box-office entertainment.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said tornadoes are the latest climate change threat after a tornado warning was issued for Washington, D.C. “There's people stuck outside. We need to get them out,” the New York Democrat said Thursday in an Instagram video after the city was placed under a tornado warning. “This is crazy.” [video] After her brief video, Ocasio-Cortez discussed how tornadoes were part of the threat of climate change. “The climate crisis is real y’all,” she said. “Guess we’re at casual tornadoes in growing regions of the country?”

The federal appeals court in the District of Columbia will fast-track proceedings in the fight between President Trump and House Democrats over a subpoena to the president’s accounting firm, the court said Thursday. In a two-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit set a July 12 date for a three-judge panel to hear oral arguments in the president’s challenge of the subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm.