Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Tom Steyer's $110 million plan to redefine the Democrats
Politico | Edward-Isaac Dovere | 07/31/18

Tom Steyer has set plans to spend at least $110 million in 2018, making the billionaire investor the largest single source of campaign cash on the left and placing him on a path to create a parallel party infrastructure with polling, analytics and staffing capabilities that stand to shape and define the issues the party runs on in November.

Steyer is building out an operation that's bigger than anyone's other than the Koch brothers' -- and the billionaire and his aides believe the reservoir of nontraditional voters he's already activated could become the overriding factor in House and other races across the country. ...

... Unlike the $80 million being spent by Michael Bloomberg, Steyer will put his cash toward building out NextGen America and Need to Impeach, his two growing political organizations, as well as funding clean-energy ballot initiatives in Arizona and Nevada. Steyer has already doubled his initial $20 million investment in Need to Impeach to $40 million and has not ruled out adding more. ... Read more

Trump says "globalist" Koch brothers are "a total joke"
Axios | staff | 07/31/18

President Trump labeled billionaire GOP activist brothers David and Charles Koch as globalists and "a total joke in real Republican circles" in a series of tweets Tuesday morning.

The backdrop: Charles Koch told reporters this weekend that his political network would be moving away from supporting Trump's priorities -- especially on trade -- ahead of this fall's midterms, even signaling that he may be open to supporting Democrats who believe in free-market ideals over Trump's protectionism. ... Read more

Trump blocked push for limited Medicaid expansion
Axios | Sam Baker | 07/31/18

President Trump rejected a push to let states adopt a scaled-down version of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, The New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Senior health officials pushed the partial expansion as a middle ground for red states, but it was ultimately seen as too pro-ACA, the Times reports. Without that option, though, some conservative states are poised to adopt the full Medicaid expansion this fall. ... Read more

Trump Co-Author: He's Having A 'Catastrophic Internal Experience' | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 07/27/18 | 5:56

Storming Spain's Razor-Wire Fence: Europe Or Die (Episode 1/4) | VICE | older 2015 | 25:15

Rudy on Mueller probe: "They don't have a goddamn thing"
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 07/30/18

Rudy Giuliani told me that President Trump is fed up with Robert Mueller and wants him to "put up or shut up."

What he's saying: "Why don't you write a report and show us what you have, because they don't have a goddamn thing. It's like a guy playing poker. He's bluffing and he's only got a pair of twos." ... Read more

Giuliani says feds have 183 recordings made by Michael Cohen, Trump heard on 1
FaceTheNation | author | 07/29/18

President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani says that federal investigators have 183 "unique conversations" recorded by Michael Cohen, the president's former attorney and fixer. Mr. Trump is heard on one of those recordings, which has already been made public, Giuliani said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"We know of something like 183 unique conversations on tape. One of those is with the president of the United States. That's the three-minute one involving the McDougal payment, AMI-McDougal payment," Giuliani said, referring to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with the president. "There are 12 others, maybe 11 or 12 others out of the 183, in which the president is discussed at any length by Cohen, mostly with reporters." ... Read more

Rudy Moves Goalposts! 'COLLUSION Not a Crime'
HP | Hayley Miller | 07/30/18

Giuliani, one of Trump's attorneys, railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia interference in the election and whether Trump obstructed justice during two TV interviews Monday. "I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime," Giuliani said on "Fox & Friends." "Collusion is not a crime."

During an appearance later on CNN, the former New York mayor repeated the assertion. "Colluding about Russians ? I'm not sure that's even a crime," Giuliani told CNN's Alisyn Camerota. "The hacking is the crime. The president didn't hack." ... Read more

Trump Denies He Knew Of His Son's Trump Tower Meeting With Russians
HP | Marina Fang | 07/27/18

President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen claimed he had prior knowledge of his son's June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer.

In other tweets, he attacked "the Fake News" for asking "dumb questions" and again decried special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into his campaign's ties to Russia as "a rigged Witch Hunt." ... Read more

U.S. economy has best quarter since 2014
Axios | staff | 07/27/18

The U.S. economy grew 4.1% in the second quarter, the fastest growth since 2014. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting 4.2% growth.

Bottom line: The economy is booming (U.S. GDP growth last topped 4% in 2014), but growth is expected to slow later this year, Bloomberg reports, as benefits from the tax cuts fade and the Fed again raises interest rates. ... Read more
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National Writers Series: An evening with David Grann
NPR/IPR | author | 07/26/18/span>

David Grann is a New Yorker magazine staff writer and author of The Lost City of Z. His new book is called Killers of the Flower Moon, about the murders of Osage Indians in the 1920s. David talks this hour with editor and publisher Lucas Wittmann. Lucas asked David to tell him more about his new book. Read more

Killers of the Flower Moon, about the murders of Osage Indians in the 1920s by David Grann | NPR/IPR | 07/26/18 | 1hr

House Republicans Move To Impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
HP | Antonia Blumberg | 07/25/18

A group of conservative lawmakers on Wednesday filed articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), along with nine co-sponsors, introduced the impeachment articles in response to "the Department of Justice's problematic decision-making during the 2016 campaign and conduct surrounding the transition to President Trump's administration in 2017," according to a statement. ... Read more

The economics behind the demise of democracy
Axios | Steve LeVine | 07/25/18

Unforced by coup or war, one developed country after another has chosen an authoritarian style of democracy over the last two years, an all-but unforeseen shift that has left more mainstream leaders scrambling to understand it and turn back time.

The big picture: Economics ultimately underpins the turmoil, leading scholars tell Axios -- a financial slide that has eroded the association of democracy with rising living standards and upward mobility, all while populists and partisan media have stoked resentment and promised better. ... Read more

The Making and Unmaking of a Right Winger | TRNN | 07/26/18 | 13:19

Excerpts from 2015 documentary, "The Brainwashing of My Dad" by Jen Senko (long trailer) | older | 5:16

The Brainwashing of My Dad Trailer by Jen Senko (trailer) | older | 4:59

The Brainwashing of My Dad Trailer by Jen Senko (paid $3.99) I can't find a free copy.

'Like a Soviet-type economy': GOP free traders unload on Trump
Politico | Burgess Everett | 07/24/18

Pro-free trade Republicans were already furious with Trump's escalation of tariffs against U.S. allies and China -- a multi-front trade war they say is hurting U.S. farmers and manufacturers. But the administration's response Tuesday -- announcing plans to send $12 billion to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs to ease the pain -- is the opposite of conservative, free-trade orthodoxy, they said.

"This is becoming more and more like a Soviet type of economy here: Commissars deciding who's going to be granted waivers, commissars in the administration figuring out how they're going to sprinkle around benefits," said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). "I'm very exasperated. This is serious." ... Read more

Trump asking advisers to weigh in on who should be chief: Mulvaney or Ayers
Politico | Nancy Cook | date

"Mick" is Mick Mulvaney, the former Republican congressman from South Carolina who now oversees both Trump's Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

A favorite of Trump's since last winter's federal shutdown and the earlier unsuccessful effort to repeal Obamacare, Mulvaney has emerged as one of the two leading candidates to succeed John Kelly as Trump's chief of staff, according to interviews with a dozen current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the administration. ... Read more

Trump claims Cohen tape on Playboy model may have been doctored
Politico | Louis Nelson | 07/25/18

"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?"

"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?" the president wrote on Twitter. "I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!"

Trump's social media post follows CNN's Tuesday night publication of a recording of him speaking with his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, about a payment intended to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had an affair with the president. Trump has previously denied the affair and being aware of any payments to McDougal. ... Read more

Microplastics Are Invisible, Scary, and Everywhere
MotherJones | Jessica Leigh Hester | 07/25/18/span>

Microplastics, which are shards measuring less than 5 millimeters in diameter, can take many forms--they might be pellets, foams, films, lines, or nurdles (the goofy name for plastics made to be melted down into other plastics)--but they're all pretty hard to spot with the naked eye. Increasingly, researchers are concluding that many waterways are host to a slurry of itty-bitty plastic pieces. Baseline data for microplastics in the Hudson River is pretty sparse, though, and mitigation tactics are still somewhat foggy. The surest way to track microplastics' sprawl and scope is to collect samples over time. So, we cruised up and down the watery corridor between the New York City and New Jersey skylines at a speed of around five knots, on a mission to scoop them up. ... Read more

Bad news for Trump: Rising GOP chance of losing House
magazine | author | date

Democrats now have their best shot at winning the House, according to Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball that just shifted 17 races in their favor.

Why it matters: It's the first time this cycle that the analysts at the University of Virginia Center for Politics are giving Democrats better than a 50% chance of winning the House. "[T]he Democrats now look like soft favorites to win a House majority with a little more than 100 days to go." Read more

The QAnon Conspiracy Has Stumbled Into Real Life, And It's Not Going To End Well
HP | Andy Campbell | 07/24/18

On June 15, when he packed his AR-15 and drove an armored vehicle onto the bridge near Hoover Dam, Matthew Wright had a mission. He'd gleaned it from a berserk conspiracy theory that circulates mainly online, and now here he was, offline, near a very real dam, with a not-at-all-virtual rifle.

As he blocked traffic, he held up a sign. "Release the OIG report," it read. He wanted the same thing that so many others that subscribe to the all-encompassing QAnon conspiracy theory want: some sort of proof of a "deep state" conspiracy, run by the liberal elite and Hollywood, to commit and then cover up an array of atrocities, from child sex trafficking to false-flag shootings. And they thought they would find at least some damning evidence in the Department of Justice's inspector general report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. ... Read more

QAnon, the Crazy Pro-Trump Conspiracy, Melts Down Over OIG Report
DailyBeast | Will Sommer | older, 06/19/18

... The sign the armored truck driver held up on the bridge appeared to reference the idea, promoted by QAnon, that Trump possesses another OIG report that would bring down his enemies once and for all. The second report supposedly proves the FBI, the Justice Department, and top Democrats broke laws in an attempt to stop Trump from winning the presidency. Now Trump just has to release it, QAnon says.

"QAnon" started last November, with a series of cryptic messages posted on the anonymous 4Chan forum. The clues, which QAnon believers claim depict a world where Trump is constantly winning, special counsel Robert Mueller is actually investigating Clinton, and a number of top Democrats are on the verge of being sent from Guantanamo Bay, come from the anonymous "Q"-- a reference to the high-ranking Q-level security clearance. ... Read more

Trump's "America First" becomes a global reality
Axios | Mike Allen | 07/23/18

President Trump loves to brag of doing the biggest, best, most never-been-before acts in history.

The big picture: In 35 days -- through five meetings, from Singapore to Helsinki -- Trump has rattled and reordered the world, throwing decades of order and common assumptions into chaos. Read more

In a typographical reflection of his diplomacy, Trump tweeted last night, responding to Iran's threat of "the mother of all wars" (Drudge banner: "TRUMP TWEET BOMB"): "To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!"

John Bolton doubles down on Trump's Iran tweet
Axios | staff | 07/23/18

President Trump's national security adviser John Bolton issued a statement to reporters reiterating the president's fury at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which was expressed in a late Sunday night tweet.

"I spoke to the President over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before." --- John Bolton

Go deeper: The story behind Trump's tweet about Iran ... Read more

Trump Wants 1% to Give Millions to Politicians in Secret | TYT | 07/22/18 | 3:07

Steve Bannon Speaks At Delivering Alpha | CNBC | 07/18/18 | 17:58

The NRA Has Deep Ties to Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina
MotherJones | Mark Follman | 07/19/18

For decades, the National Rifle Association has promoted its hardline politics with appeals to patriotism, freedom, and the staunch defense of the Second Amendment. But now, the controversial gun lobbying group finds itself deeply caught up in a wide-ranging effort to sabotage American democracy by an enemy foreign power.

Federal prosecutors unsealed charges this week against 29-year-old Russian national Maria Butina, a self-styled gun activist with long-running ties to the NRA who worked for Alexander Torshin, a high-level Russian government and banking official from President Vladimir Putin's party. Butina, who was a graduate student at American University until this spring, began traveling to the United States in 2014 and operated as a "covert Russian agent," according to an FBI affidavit. She acted as an unregistered foreign agent and participated in a multiyear conspiracy to infiltrate conservative political groups including the NRA, federal prosecutors say, in order to "advance the interests of the Russian Federation." ... Read more

There's a growing threat of a full blown China trade war
Axios | Mike Allen, Steve LeVine, Erica Pandey | 07/20/18

The chances of a longer, wider, more damaging trade war with China are rising, top officials tell us.

Why it matters: President Trump is spoiling for escalation. And China is ready to retaliate and out-wait America. Here's why it could be even worse than you think.

1. If you are China, playing the long game with 2025 and 2050 strategies for world dominance, why not sucker Trump into a massive trade war now?
2. It would hurt both nations badly. But a state-run government can do more to artificially prop up its economy than a capitalistic one.
3. A true, full-blown trade war could cripple U.S. markets, sow more internal division in America, and throw the Trump presidency into chaos you can't cure with tweets or bravado.
4. If you are deeply calculating and cynical, the chances of Trump losing Congress rise if the economy tanks -- virtually assuring highly divisive impeachment proceedings. ...

Trade war shakes up Senate races in Trump states
Axios | Caitlin Owens | 07/20/18

President Trump's tariffs are introducing a new, wildly unpredictable issue into the midterm elections, thanks to their heavy impact on states with critical Senate races as well as their likely role in House races across the country. ... Read more
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Trump pulls the Federal Reserve into his trade war
Axios | author | 07/20/18

President Trump swiped at the Federal Reserve while criticizing China and the European Union in tweets on Friday, complaining that currency manipulation is "taking away our big competitive edge. ... As usual, not a level playing field."

Why it matters: The trade war between the U.S. and other countries is shifting into a currency war. This is the second time this week Trump has roiled currency markets with comments about Fed policy. The dollar fell shortly after Trump's tweets. Read more

White House morale tanks amid Helsinki fallout
Politics | Eliana Johnson | 07/19/18

Staffers are considering accelerating their departures in the wake of the president's equivocations on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump's disastrous performance since his news conference alongside Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has sent West Wing morale to its lowest level since the Charlottesville fiasco almost a year ago.

As happened last August, when the president refused to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrators, Trump's attempts to tamp down outrage have backfired. Stilted statements followed by ad-libbed remarks left even his allies feeling that while the president was technically acknowledging a mistake, he actually meant what he'd said on the first go-round -- that he believed Putin's denials of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. ... Read more

Poll: Huge GOP majority backs Trump's Putin performance
Axios | Mike Allen | 07/19/18

We told you yesterday why elected Republicans go so silent so quickly when they disagree so strongly with President Trump: They fear it's political suicide to speak up. Now we have an exclusive, new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll that shows why those fears are real:

This poll foreshadows the coming national drama. Every piece of data, and virtually every public action of elected Republican officials, shows Trump will have overwhelming and probably unbreakable party support, regardless of what Robert Mueller finds with his Russia probe. ... Read more

The consequences of the U.S. crude oil boom
Axios | Ben Geman | 07/19/18

U.S. crude oil production reached a new milestone -- averaging an estimated 11 million barrels per day last week for the first time ever -- and the surge will keep going as America has again become a crude powerhouse.

Why it matters: The number, which is from preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration, is a symbolic threshold that underscores the scale of the U.S. oil boom from shale resources. ... Read more

Former White House Stenographer Speaks Out About President Donald Trump | All In | MSNBC | 07/18/18 | 5:33

Growing Up in the USSR with Alexander Buzgalin, Part 1/12 | TRNN | 07/11/18 | 21:01

Success and Mutation in the Soviet Union Alexander Buzgalin, Part 2/12 | TRNN | 07/12/18 | 12:17

Communism and Consumerism with Alexander Buzgalin, Part 3/12 | TRNN | 07/14/18 | 18:47

Turning Power into Money, the End of the Soviet Union Alexander Buzgalin, Part 4/12 | TRNN | 07/15/18 | 17:19

"I Returned from Vacation to Find the Soviet Union had Collapsed" Alexander Buzgalin, Part 5/12 | TRNN | 07/16/18 | 17:00

Shock Without the Therapy: A New Russia is Born in Chaos and Plunder Alexander Buzgalin, Part 6/12 | TRNN | 07/19/18 | 19:15

A case study in Trump's GOP mind control
Axios| Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 07/18/18

Yes, almost every elected Republican we talk to privately thinks President Trump's warm embrace of Vladimir Putin was unexplainable, unacceptable and un-American. Yes, they wish they could say this publicly. No, they won't -- not now, and probably never.

The cold, hard reason: They see no upside in speaking out -- and fear political suicide if they do, numerous Republican officials tell us. ... Read more

Are we really safe from the next financial crisis?
Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff, right, said the rapid rollback of many protections in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law are unlike anything seen following previous major financial crises. | Rod Lamkey Jr./POLITICO Politico | author | date

"We are safer," Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff said in the latest edition of the POLITICO Money podcast, recorded from a panel at the POLITICO Pro Summit. "A lot of it comes from when the whole system has been traumatized -- consumers, investors, policy makers, regulators -- you are less likely to have something right away afterwards. People are very nervous."

But Rogoff said the rapid rollback of many protections in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law are unlike anything seen following previous major crises. "Usually it takes many decades before everybody says, 'Hey, things are going great. Why do we have all these regulations? Let's pull them back.' That's a very typical dynamic. We've kind of had that faster this time so maybe we could get in more trouble quickly." ... Read more

Fake news on WhatsApp is fueling mob murders in India
Axios| staff | 07/18/18

Murderous mobs have killed multiple innocent people in India after they were misled by fake news on WhatsApp, reports the New York Times.

The big picture: WhatsApp has 250 million users in India, many of whom live in rural areas and are new to technology. Those rural users are often susceptible to being fooled by false or fear-mongering information that's quickly forwarded or shared to large groups on WhatsApp. ... Read more

Trump Wonders Why U.S. Should Always Have To Defend NATO Allies
HP | Hayley Miller | 07/18/18

"They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you're in World War III," Trump told Fox News' Tucker Carlson when asked about defending Montenegro.

Trump expressed skepticism over the decades-old defense pact, which obligates member countries to defend any other member country that comes under attack, during an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson.

... "Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people," Trump said. "They're very aggressive people, and they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you're in World War III. But that's the way it was set up." ... Read more

Trump officials embarrassed by Putin show
Axios| Jonathan Swan, Mike Allen | 07/17/18

President Trump sucking up to Vladamir Putin after the summit in Helsinki yesterday was such an unbelievable, indelible moment that many deflated White House officials didn't even bother to defend or explain it.

Between the lines: The prevailing theory among Trump aides and alumni is pretty simple. "He can't separate meddling from colluding," said one source close to Trump. "He can't publicly express any nuanced view because he thinks it concedes maybe there's something he did wrong." ... Read more

Trump loses Fox (for a day)
Axios | Sara Fischer | 07/17/18

President Trump took heat from many Fox News anchors and reporters Monday after his performance in Helsinki next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Our thought bubble: Fox News defendants will likely point to today's condemnations as an example of Fox's journalistic credibility for months to come. ... Read more

CEOs vs Workers Town Hall with Bernie Sanders & TYT (starts at 3:11min) | TYT | 07/16/18 | 1:18:11

CEO Pay Is OBSCENE! | TYT | 07/16/18 | 10:55

Trump Tells Hannity: 'We're Doing Really Well With Russia As Of Today'
HP | Nick Visser | 07/16/18

President Donald Trump defended his statements after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, crediting himself with defusing tension between the two nations while praising his counterpart as "very, very strong."

Trump sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity for a softball interview following the summit in Helsinki. The president said he made great progress with Putin during their private meeting of more than two hours that day, but he said the Russian leader told him it was a "shame" that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into 2016 campaign interference had driven a wedge between the two countries. ... Read more

Hannity: Moving at the speed of Trump | FoxNews | 07/16/18 | 13:42

Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, "is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have."

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption.

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. The United States, which historically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates division and heaps scorn on democratic institutions. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s.

Trump's extraordinary press conference was not normal
Axios | author | 07/16/18

President Trump today, at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he didn't see "any reason" why Russia would interfere in the 2016 election, in response to a question on whether he believed Putin or U.S. intelligence agencies.

Our thought bubble from Jonathan Swan in Helsinki: "I just have no words. As press in this room, we are all sitting in here speechless and stunned. Trump cast doubt over the U.S. intelligence community and endorsed Putin's denial. Trump was given an opportunity to denounce the meddling and he didn't; he just pivoted to lines about the missing server and Hillary's emails. While Putin spoke forcefully, lying, Trump nodded along. There's no way of sugar coating or spinning this." ... Read more

Complete exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy and FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok | C-Span | 07/12/18 | 28:14

A handful of Big Tech stocks are rescuing the stock market
Axios | Dan Primack | 07/16/18

Recent stock market gains are being driven by a small number of large technology companies, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch saying in a research note that the S&P 500 would have been negative in the first half of 2018 if not for the so-called FAANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google).

"If you strip out a handful of outperforming tech stocks, the lack of breadth in the equity markets is troubling."
---BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to CNBC ... Read more

Trump struggles to answer question about Brexit | FoxNews | 07/14/18 | 2:32

Trump claims "tremendous" progress after emergency NATO meeting
Axios | author | date

President Trump called an emergency meeting of NATO leaders at the summit in Brussels on Thursday, then held a surprise press conference and said there was a "tremendous amount of progress today."

Why it matters: At the meeting, Trump threatened to "do his own thing" if member countries do not immediately increase defense spending commitments, the Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum and Phil Rucker report, citing officials briefed on the events. Some diplomats reportedly interpreted Trump's comments as a threat to withdraw from NATO. ... Read more

Trade talks between China and U.S. halted as trade war escalates
Axios | Michael Sykes | 07/12/18/span>

Trade talks between China and the United States have come to a halt following the Trump administration's announcement to move forward in the process of instating tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, reports Bloomberg.

The big picture: An impasse makes it unlikely that the implementation of additional tariffs and retaliation between two of the world's largest economies will cease anytime soon. ... Read more

Kellyanne Conway makes the case for Brett Kavanaugh | TYT | 07/11/18 | 15:55

Kavanaugh's STAGGERING Hypocrisy | TYT | 07/11/18 | 16:35

Trump: I'm Not Captive To Russia, Germany Is! | TYT | 07/11/18 | 18:02

Ivanka Magically Exempt From Trump's China Tariffs | TYT | 07/11/18 | 8:32

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok full opening statement | C-SPAN | 07/12/18 | 5:09

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok on 2016 Investigations (full) | 07/12/18 |

No One Loves Donald Trump More Than Vladimir Putin
MotherJones | author | date

Here are 10 actions taken by the US president that boost long-held Kremlin goals.

With his efforts to help Donald Trump become president by meddling in the 2016 election, Vladimir Putin has already done more to advance Russia's foreign policy goals and worldview than anything he could have imagined in his wildest dreams as a longtime KGB agent. He has succeeded in sowing discord in the West without firing a shot, at low cost and with relatively few consequences (save for some limited sanctions against Russian oligarchs) as the Kremlin continues nefarious cyber and propaganda activities around the globe.

"One of Putin's chief aims," says Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, "is to weaken and divide the West. Trump is playing right into the Kremlin's hands, doing Putin's job for him." Or, as human rights activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov says, Trump is "ticking every box on Putin's wish list."

Trump unwinds the 20th century
Axios | Steve LeVine | 07/11/18

As President Trump meets other leaders of NATO in Brussels, the backdrop is his role in tearing at the post-World War II order.

The big picture: But a future is taking shape of a 21st century United States without many of the basic institutions that many consider key 20th century advances. Just some of the pieces of this riptide:

1. Unions: A decimation of the 120-year-old union movement, most recently with last month's Supreme Court ruling weakening the funding of public unions.
2. Black voting: In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act, and last month the court decided that counties can purge voter rolls of people who don't regularly vote.
3. Women's rights: A primary conservative goal is the invalidation or weakening of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion.
4. International order: Trump is part of a wave of leaders challenging the post-war order, established to avoid another world war.
5. Many, many, many more

Brett Kavanaugh Ruled Against Workers When No One Else Did
HP | Dave Jamieson | 07/10/18

WASHINGTON ? In 2005, a group of workers at a meatpacking plant in Brooklyn voted to join a union. Their employer, a kosher meat wholesaler called Agri Processor, fought the organizing effort as best it could. Once the workers were unionized, the company refused to bargain, arguing that most of them weren't covered by collective bargaining law because they were undocumented immigrants.

Ultimately, neither the National Labor Relations Board nor the majority of judges on a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with Agri Processor. The only one who did was Brett Kavanaugh, the circuit judge who wrote a dissent in the case and is now President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. ... Read more

A Guatemalan Family Faces Endless Obstacles as They Struggle to Recover a 9-Year-Old Boy From U.S. Custody
TheIntercept | Ryan Devereaux | 07/10/18

THE COUPLE WALKED into Emily Fanjoy's office carrying a shopping bag full of receipts and scribbled paperwork. Fanjoy, a social service provider in the coastal Oregon city of Tillamook, knew the pair. She has worked with the couple off and on for a while, informally linking them up with local immigration and health services. The man has lived in the United States for more than 40 years; the woman has been here for about 26. They arrived after fleeing Guatemala amid one of the most brutal civil wars in Latin American history. They are legal U.S. residents, but experience has taught them to be cautious with authorities nonetheless.

The two originally gravitated to Fanjoy because, owing to a stint in the Peace Corps a decade ago that landed her in the couple's corner of Guatemala for two years, Fanjoy is part of a small population of people able to speak the Mayan dialect of their native region. The walk-ins were normal, Fanjoy told The Intercept recently. It's easier that way. "They never call me on the telephone if they can avoid it," she said. "It's too hard. They need to be able to be in person."

In a mix of Q'anjob'al, Spanish, and extremely limited English, the couple explained that the woman's adult nephew and his 9-year-old son had disappeared crossing the border a month ago. Nobody had heard a thing from them. Then, one day, the nephew called. He was in U.S. immigration custody in the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico. He was alone. More than a month after being apprehended, his aunt and uncle told Fanjoy, the man still had no idea what the U.S. government had done with his child. ... Read more

Trump Says White Supremacist Terror Is Fake News. These Chilling Cases Prove Otherwise.
MotherJones | Mark Follman | 07/11/18

Four days after a homemade bomb blew through the window of a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, in August 2017, Sebastian Gorka, then a national security aide to President Donald Trump, commented about the attack. Though the culprits were still unknown, Gorka suggested that the bombing may have been a "fake hate crime" ginned up by leftists. He also scoffed at journalists who had raised questions about right-wing domestic terrorism: "It's this constant, 'Oh, it's the white man. It's the white supremacists. That's the problem.' No, it isn't."

Seven months later, federal prosecutors charged three suspects in the bombing. The accused, all white men who belonged to a militia group called the White Rabbit 3 Percent Illinois Patriot Freedom Fighters, allegedly hoped to "scare [Muslims] out of the country" by telling them, "You're not welcome here -- get the fuck out." ... Read more

Trump's most powerful, durable move
Axios | Mike Allen | 07/10/18/span>

President Trump wanted a walk-off home-run win with his Supreme Court pick, so when confidants raised doubts about Brett Kavanaugh over the past week, according to Axios' Jonathan Swan, Trump brushed them aside and offered the simple retort: "He's got the votes."

Why it matters: So many reluctant Republicans voted for Trump because of the Court. They got Justice Neil Gorsuch, and now they have Kavanaugh, validating and institutionalizing their ideology for 30 years to come. ... Read more

Trump Insists No Other Americans Allowed Into His Putin Meeting
NYMag | Jonathan Chait | 07/03/18

At the recent G7 meeting, Donald Trump kicked off the proceedings by urging the group to let Russia rejoin, made a series of derogatory comments to the assembled leaders, then left the meeting early in a huff. His planned meeting with Vladimir Putin later this summer appears to be friendlier. Trump, CNN reports, plans to meet with Putin one on one, with no advisers or staff.

"Without official note-takers or other witnesses," CNN notes, "one-on-one meetings lack any official record, making it difficult afterward to determine whether agreements have been reached." Huh, that's weird. It's almost as if Trump has some kind of secret relationship involving money or blackmail with Russia he wants to discuss without fear of being revealed to his own country! ... Read more

Trump: Meeting Putin Might Be Easier Than Meeting Theresa May
NYMag | Benjamin Hart | 07/10/18

Ahead of what promises to be an ultrafraught NATO summit, President Trump offered a preview of the kind of gentle diplomacy he'll be bringing to Brussels.

First, he tweeted his usual litany of misleading complaints about the alliance.

He then contrasted the summit ahead to his very private meeting with Vladimir Putin, which is set for July 16 in Helsinki, days after the NATO summit. "So I have NATO, I have the U.K., which is in somewhat turmoil, and I have Putin. Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all -- who would think?" ... Read more

Judge rejects Trump request to alter agreement on release of immigrant kids
Politico | Josh Gerstein | 07/09/18

A federal judge has turned down President Donald Trump's request to alter a decades-old legal settlement to allow long-term detention of children who entered the U.S. illegally with their parents.

Los Angeles-based U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as "tortured" the Trump administration's legal argument to get out from under the so-called Flores consent decree agreed to in 1997, dictating that children in immigration detention not be held more than 20 days. ... Read more

The World's Worst Industrial Disaster Is Still Unfolding
TheAtlantic | Apoorva Mandavilli | 07/10/18

n old bhopal, not far from the small Indian city's glitzy new shops and gorgeous lakes, is the abandoned Union Carbide factory. Here, in one ramshackle building, are hundreds of broken brown bottles crusted with the white residue of unknown chemicals. Below the corroding skeleton of another, drops of mercury glitter in the sun. In the far corner of the site is the company's toxic-waste dump, shrouded in a sickly green moss. Not 15 feet away, a scrawny boy of about 6 tries to join a game of cricket. A few skinny cows graze next to a large, murky puddle. Strewn on the ground are torn plastic bags, yellowed newspapers, stained paper cups. And in the air, the pungent fumes of chlorinated hydrocarbons.

On December 3, 1984, 40 tons of a toxic gas spewed from the factory and scorched the throats, eyes, and lives of thousands of people outside these walls. It was--still is--the world's deadliest industrial disaster. For a brief time, the Bhopal gas tragedy, as it became known, raised urgent questions about how multinational companies and governments should respond when the unthinkable happens. But it didn't take long for the world's attention to shift, beginning with the Chernobyl nuclear accident a little more than a year later. ... Read more

The high-profile Trump White House departures
Axios | author | 07/06/18

The Trump White House has had more first-year departures than any other president in at least 40 years -- and the departures haven't stopped with their latest resignation: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Why it matters: The revolving door of Trump's highest Cabinet officials is not normal.

Trump criticizes NATO members ahead of summit
Politico | Louis Nelson | 07/09/18

President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his long-standing concerns with NATO, complaining that member states do not spend enough on their own defense as he prepares to attend the mutual-defense organization's summit later this week in Brussels.

"The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable," the president wrote on Twitter Monday morning. "While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more. Germany is at 1%, the U.S. is at 4%, and NATO benefits Europe far more than it does the U.S." ... Read more

Joe: Rudy Giuliani Made President Donald Trump Look Foolish | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 07/09/18 | 11:11

Is The President Donald Trump Scared To Sit Down With Robert Mueller? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 07/09/18 | 10:51

Exposed: Betsy DeVos's Record Of Dismantling Student Protections | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 07/09/18 | 6:40

Trade-war's eve
Axios | Mike Allen | 07/05/18

Just after midnight tonight the Trump administration is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, escalating a global trade war that has pitted the U.S. against trading partners around the world.

1. "Businesses are bracing for disruptions in sales and supply chains," the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription), as a Chinese response could hit U.S. producers of "automotive products, farm crops and other goods."
2. China warned that the U.S. is "opening fire on the entire world, including itself" while at the same time promising that it wouldn't use the 12-hour time difference to impose retaliatory tariffs first (per the Guardian).

What's next: Already, several U.S. sectors are freaking out -- soybean farmers losing business in China, aluminum metal companies hit inadvertently by tariffs, and GM, worried about soaring supply costs. Manufacturers fear the tariff war will prematurely cut short a renaissance triggered by low natural gas prices and tax cuts, reports Ed Crooks at the FT. Read more

Why is Trump's staff turnover higher than the 5 most recent presidents?
Brookings Institute | Elizabeth Sablich | date

ny president's first year is rife with optimism, but often fraught with missteps. Incoming staff members often find that their new jobs bear little resemblance to their campaign roles. Running the government requires aides to be well-versed in policy details, skilled in negotiation and compromise, and sensitive to the mores and demands of the Washington community (including interest groups, members and staff of Congress, the bureaucracy, and the media). Over the course of the first year, it is not unusual for presidents to fire poor performing or ethically compromised staff members. Some staff members receive promotions because of these departures, and a small number voluntarily leave. As explained below, while some turnover is expected and possibly beneficial, excessive turnover portends problems.

In this paper, I examine staff turnover in the first year of the Trump White House, compared to his five immediate predecessors. I find Trump's turnover is record-setting, more than triple that of Obama and double that of Reagan. In looking at why Trump has experienced such high turnover, I argue he has valued loyalty over qualifications and suffered from a White House that has functioned in a chaotic manner. Both features have made it difficult to retain staff and have contributed to the governance difficulties he has encountered. If history is any guide, staff recruitment and retention during his second year could prove challenging as well. ... Read more

These Are The Scandals That Brought Down EPA Chief Scott Pruitt
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 07/05/18

It's true that Pruitt has stoked the ire of scientists, taxpayers and several of those who worked under him. Here's a look at the controversies that brought him down.

BIG List!!! Read more

Trump Admin. Officials 'Destroyed' Records of Immigrant Kids Separated from Their Parents: Report
AlterNet | Cody Fenwick | 07/05/18

The administration seems to have no idea how to reunite the families it tore apart.

As the Trump administration struggles to clean up the mess it created when it started separating immigrant children and parents apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, a new report found that records that could help reunite the families have vanished, and some have even been destroyed.

The New York Times' Caitlin Dickerson reports that much of the confusion has been driven by the fact that multiple agencies -- the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services in particular -- are responsible for detaining the children. With the children moving between departments, documentation has proved a challenge. ... Read more

Obamacare Sabotage Is Working, Trump Administration Is Outraged To Learn
HP | Jonathan Cohn and Jeffrey Young | 07/04/18/span>

The Affordable Care Act has real problems, but Republicans don't have the solutions.

The Trump administration is so concerned that the Affordable Care Act is failing that it wants the program to fail even more.

On Monday the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on insurance coverage trends for people who obtain coverage on their own rather than through employers. Although the report provided a broad overview of enrollment trends, as previous agency reports have, this brief focused much more heavily on one group: people who buy private plans without the help of federal tax credits that the Affordable Care Act has made available. ... Read more

China says U.S. is "opening fire on the entire world" with tariffs
Axios | Erica Pandey | 07/05/18

Beijing is maintaining that it will not back down in the face of President Trump's trade war. The Trump administration's tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, and the Chinese have said their retaliatory measures will go into effect immediately after.

"U.S. measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains. To put it simply, the U.S. is opening fire on the entire world, including itself ... China will not bow down in the face of threats and blackmail and will not falter from its determination to defend free trade and the multilateral system."
-- Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng

Go deeper: The winners and losers (mostly losers) in a U.S.–China trade war. ... Read more

The battle for Iran: Policy or regime change?
TRNN | James M. Dorsey | 07/04/18

Iran, in the latest of a series of incidents on its western and south-eastern borders, said it had disbanded a Pakistan-based cell of ant-Shiite militants in a clash this week on the Iranian side of the border.

The clash, shrouded in mystery like similar past incidents in the ethnic Baloch province of Sistan and Baluchistan and Kurdish areas in the West, occurred amid mounting speculation that the Trump administration, backed by Saudi Arabia and Israel, is striving for regime change in Tehran. GOOD ARTICLE and HISTORY LESSON ... Read more

Does Trump Know What ICE Does?
TheAtlantic | David A. Graham | 05/04/18

In his comments about combatting MS-13, the president fudges reality about both the agency and the gang.

The image suggested by President Trump's tweets is dramatic. One can almost see the swarms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, decked out in tactical gear, pouring out of armored personnel carriers and rappelling from helicopters. They sweep into towns and cities overrun by gang members, blowing through barricades and rounding up criminals like special operators taking out ISIS.

You might think it would be weird for anything like that to be happening in the U.S. without it being huge news, and you'd be right. These images, like the presidential tweets that conjured them, are fantasy. The president's statements about both ICE and MS-13 over the last few months have consistently fudged the facts on both the role of the agency and the magnitude of the gang. ... Read more

By the numbers: The heat records broken across the world this week
Axios | author | 07/04/18

Across the Northern Hemisphere, several regions saw some of the hottest temperatures on record this week, according to information compiled by the Washington Post. Apart from the U.S. and Canada, these temperatures were not the result of one single heat wave, but rather several different weather systems.

Our thought bubble, from Axios Science Editor Andrew Freedman: "July is typically Earth's hottest month, so heat records falling now is not unexpected. But so many rare milestones being set or tied worldwide does point to the influence of a warming world, given that the link between heat waves and climate change is robust, according to scientific studies." ... Read more

Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week
Washington Post | Jason Samenow | 07/03/18

From the normally mild summer climes of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week. Large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures.

No single record, in isolation, can be attributed to global warming. But collectively, these heat records are consistent with the kind of extremes we expect to see increase in a warming world. [KEEP READING, GOOD INFO]... Read more

Go deeper: Scott Pruitt's growing list of bizarre scandals
Axios| Haley Britzky | 07/03/18

Former treasurer of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's political action committee, Elizabeth Beacham White, was put in charge of the EPA's Office of the Executive Secretariat, which oversees FOIA requests, Politico's Emily Holden and Anthony Adragna report.

The big picture: This is the latest in a string of ethical controversies surrounding Pruitt's spending and management decisions, which have resulted in a series of federal probes. Despite his questionable behavior, Pruitt continues to have support from the President. ... Read more

Scott Pruitt appealed to Trump to get Jeff Sessions' job | CNN | 07/03/18 | 3:16

Scott Pruit Caught Stealing RIDICULOUS Amount Of Money | TYT | 06/03/18 | 10:12

Why a new chief of staff wouldn't change Trump's White House
Politico | Annie Karni | 06/29/18

"I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back." For months, White House chief of staff John Kelly has often departed the West Wing with that pessimistic sign-off as he strides out the gate, according to colleagues. It's a dramatic shift since he reluctantly accepted his job a year ago -- when he told people around him that, driven by a sense of patriotism, "I'll stay until the bitter end, whatever that is."

... For current White House officials, a new chief will mean a realignment of power centers in the White House. But in terms of the preparedness of the West Wing, as well as its ability to coordinate and roll out its signature policies, many people who have spent time working for or studying Trump no longer expect the personality or background of the next chief to have any noticeable effect on the presidency. ... Read more

Trump on trade: The EU "is possibly as bad as China, just smaller"
Axios | Erica Pandey | 07/01/18

President Trump slammed American allies in Europe on trade, telling Fox News' Maria Bartiromo during an exclusive interview on Sunday morning, "The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller. It's terrible what they do to us."

Why it matters: It's conventional wisdom among economists that the U.S. needs allies' support to take on a powerful -- and growing -- China. Read more

By the numbers: Trump's White House has unprecedented staff turnover
Axios | Khorri Atkinson | 07/02/18

By the numbers:

1. 141 staffers who worked in the White House as of June 30 of last year have left.
2. 138 employees have been hired since then.
3. 61% of Trump's senior-most aides have departed.
4. At 42%, Bill Clinton is the only president in the last five administrations to have similar senior-staff turnover rate, reports the AP.

This Week Is off to a Hellish Start and It's Not Even Because of Politics
MotherJones | Nina Golgowski | 07/02/18

Thermometers are expected to soar 10 to 20 degrees above normal through Monday, with record highs potentially recorded from the Great Lakes region to New England, the National Weather Service said.

On Sunday, temperatures in parts of New York and Connecticut, were forecast to hit up to 100 degrees but appeared to settle in the high and mid-90s by the late afternoon. Monday is expected to see the searing heat and high humidity continue, with temperatures again nearing 100 in New York's capital of Albany.

"Temperatures have not reached 100 F in Albany since 1953," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Zartman, "but the city will flirt with that mark both Sunday and Monday." ... Read more

'I'd like to kill 'em': GOP takes on Trump tariffs
Politico | Burgess Everett | 07/03/18

Republican lawmakers are losing their patience with the president's trade war, saying it's hurting their states and the party's chances in the midterms.

"I'd like to kill 'em," groused Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a close Trump ally, referring to the administration's expanding list of tariffs.

... But Republican senators say they can't get the president to comprehend that his tariffs offensive could upend all of that progress in short order. Commodity prices in the heartland are sagging, U.S. allies are retaliating with tariffs of their own -- and GOP leaders are fretting that the booming economy is about to go into a pre-midterms nosedive. ... Read more

They Reached In and Tore Out a Piece of My Heart'
Politico | Julia Preston | 07/01/18

On the border a father must choose between fighting for a new life and seeing his son again.

LOS FRESNOS, Texas -- The first day after they were caught hiding in tall grass near the Rio Grande, before they were separated, the Honduran father and his 7-year-old son were detained in an air-conditioned Border Patrol station. After a night in the thick heat of borderlands summer, the boy was shivering, and he asked his father insistently to hold him to keep him warm.

That was what the father, Mauricio Posadas Andrade, recalled in the days after border officers pried his son away from him on June 12, and after he was confined with dozens of other migrant parents in a detention center near Brownsville. For 10 days he had no communication with his namesake son, Mauricio, and no idea where he was. Seized with insomnia, Posadas imagined that the boy had been taken back to the Border Patrol "icebox" and was freezing there without him. ... Read more

Exclusive: A leaked Trump bill to blow up the WTO
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 07/02/18

Axios has obtained a leaked draft of a Trump administration bill -- ordered by the president himself -- that would declare America's abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules.

Why it matters: The draft legislation is stunning. The bill essentially provides Trump a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will, without congressional consent and international rules be damned. ... Read more

The big picture: Trump's war on globalism
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 07/02/18

This leaked WTO bill is part of a much larger story, Trump's war on multilateral, global institutions and agreements. Some of these, like the World Trade Organization, form the core of the post-World War Two international order.

The big picture: Trump has expressed skepticism, and in some cases outright hostility towards NATO, the European Union, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the Group of Seven (G7). He's already withdrawn the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Iran deal, announced his intent to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and has seriously contemplated terminating NAFTA. ... Read more

Intercepted Live From Brooklyn with Sy Hersh
TheIntercept | Jeromy Scahill | 06/27/18

DID PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON really take a shit in front of reporter Tom Wicker? This week on Intercepted, live in Brooklyn: Legendary reporter Seymour Hersh shares what he thinks of Donald Trump, his analysis of the Trump-Russia story, and some wild stories from his new memoir, "Reporter." ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt recounts the latest on the immigrant families that are being ripped apart and separated indefinitely, and shares personal stories of the victims he represents in a nationwide class-action suit against the Trump administration. Activist Mariame Kaba explains the historical foundations of the American carceral state and calls for the abolition of ICE and the prison-industrial complex. ... Read more
Intercepted | Jeromy Scahill
Intercepted Podcast: Donald Trump's 'Stache Infection | TheIntercept | 03/28/18 | 1hr

Gene Editing | John Oliver | 07/01/18 | 19:38

Michael Cohen: I Am Putting My Family And Country Before Donald Trump
AlterNet | Elizabeth Preza | 07/02/18

"I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone's defense strategy," Trump's Fixer, Michael Cohen, said.

In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Saturday, Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, sent the clearest signal yet he's prepared to flip on the president, telling the host he's putting his family and country first.

Cohen sat down with Stephanopoulos at a Manhattan hotel he's been staying at for several months, teasing the interview in a tweet posted Sunday night. According to the ABC News host, Cohen said he'll defer to his counsel, Guy Petrillo, once he understands what charges might be filed. "To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty," Cohen said. ... Read more