“We don’t win anymore.We don’t beat China in trade. We don’t beat Japan, with their millions and millions of cars coming into this country, in trade. We can’t beat Mexico, at the border or in trade.We can’t do anything right. Our military has to be strengthened. Our vets have to be taken care of. We have to end Obamacare, and we have to make our country great again, and I will do that.”

Feeling kind of Boris The Spider.

So I have my flaws one of which is being addicted to a certain type of reality television including Gold Rush and The Curse of Oak Island (been there, have the hat, yes I wear it during premiers just like my Mets Cap during playoff games). My advice to Marty is call Parker and say, “I want you to dig a hole.” Parker would chew on his toothpick and respond “How deep?”

Or he can get Rick.

Anyway, in North Lake where I will soon be to escape the Stars Hollow heat (being a Gilmore has perks) they have a law that only bodies of water unconstrained by artiface constitute a “Lake”, everything else is an Amelia. It is of course grandfathered because flood control is everywhere but because we were early adopters we’re labeled. With the additional 8′ it’s 98′ at its deepest and there’s a 12″ Bass that’s taken residence off our dock who is just as stupid as he is big since he’s already been caught 3 times. Not by me, I’m hopeless and believe in cooking what you kill. Emily’s beef is the neighbor with the seaplane is buying a bigger one.

We pity the people the next “Pond” over who have a flat bottomed 30′ bullldozed pit.

Newspaper brutally fact-checks Trump after he falsely claims his North Carolina golf course lake is the ‘world’s largest’
by Noor Al-Sibai, Raw Story
31 Aug 2018

During a GOP fundraiser in a town that hosts one of his golf courses, Donald Trump claimed Lake Norman is “the largest man-made lake in the world” — and got brutally fact-checked by a local newspaper.

The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that Lake Norman, the ritzy lake and town located just north of the large banking city, is “by far” not the largest man-made lake in the world.

The reservoir managed by Duke Energy is the largest artificial lake entirely within the state’s borders, the report noted.

Though there is some disagreement about which of the world’s man-made lakes is the largest, NASA confirms that Lake Kariba, which runs on the border of Zambia and Zibabwe, is one of the largest at 2,150 square miles. Lake Norman, meanwhile, does not even make the top 10 in the world, the report noted.

The Observer added that Trump likely “thinks well” of Lake Norman because it’s home to one of his golf clubs — a fact he admitted in audio the newspaper acquired from the fundraiser.

“I actually have investments in Charlotte,” Trump said, adding that “fake news” will call his decision to attend fundraisers in an area where he does business “fake news.”

“You know where my club is, right?” the president asked the crowd at the Central Piedmont Community College on Friday afternoon. “Trump National. It’s a very big success on Lake Norman. Beautiful. Largest man-made lake in the world by far, right?

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Nazi Germany invades Poland, start of World War II; Beslan hostage crisis begins in Russia; Bobby Fischer beats Boris Spassky for world chess crown; Boxer Rocky Marciano and singer Gloria Estefan born.

We’re not going to have the America that we want until we elect leaders who are going to tell the truth – not most days, but every day.

Ann Richards

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Y’know. If you’re Brown.

Still separated: Nearly 500 migrant children taken from their parents remain in U.S. custody
By Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post
August 31, 2018

More than a month after a court deadline passed for the government to reunite families divided by President Trump’s border crackdown, nearly 500 children remain in U.S. government-funded shelters without their parents, according to court papers filed Thursday night.

Advocates and government officials say it could be weeks, months or longer before they are together.

Nearly two-thirds of the 497 minors still in custody — including 22 “tender-age” children, who are younger than 5 — have parents who were deported, mostly in the first weeks of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

Their lawyers are locating parents in their home countries to ask whether they want their children sent back, or would rather have them remain in the United States to pursue their own immigration claims. At the same time, the lawyers are trying to bring some deported parents back to seek permission to live in the United States — a decision that might end up with U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, who issued the reunification order.

Other parents are still being vetted, or are ineligible for reunification because they are in custody — in some cases for minor or years-old offenses.

Government officials say they are moving as fast as possible, despite legal challenges and complicated logistics — including dozens of children who officials say want to go home to be with their parents, but have not been sent because of a temporary court order that prohibits their deportation.

The government expects to reunite all the families eventually, unless parents pose a safety threat or decide that their children should pursue asylum in the United States. Children in those circumstances probably would have relatives or other sponsors they could live with, officials say. If not, they could end up in long-term foster care.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which fought for Sabraw’s reunification order, suspects the children are agreeing to leave the United States only because they miss their parents, and not because they feel safe in their homelands, ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said. Lawyers are trying to bring some deported parents back so families can apply for asylum together instead.

Experts say the months children spent apart from family members can cause them permanent emotional harm.

“I’m really concerned about the longer-term mental health and well-being of the kids,” said Christie Turner, deputy director of legal services for Kids in Need of Defense, which provides lawyers for migrant children. “How much damage is being done to them?”
…
The Trump administration says dozens of separated children have made clear to immigration judges that they want to return home to their deported parents, but immigration officials have been delayed in sending them because of a court order barring deportations of children involved in litigation over the forced separations. The government is asking Sabraw to make clear that officials do not need additional court permission to allow such children to leave voluntarily.

At the same time, the ACLU says it continues to investigate reports that some parents were coerced into waiving their right to seek asylum, to be reunited with their children.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the federal contractors that care for the children in shelters, says the goal is to find a parent or guardian for every child in U.S. custody — not only those who are still separated, but also the tens of thousands of teenagers who cross the border on their own each year.

Wolfe said the separated children are treated the same as the rest of the more than 11,000 minors in ORR care, many of whom have relatives in the United States waiting to take them in. They get three meals a day, snacks, schooling, sports, medical care, access to lawyers and regular phone calls with their parents.

“For our purposes, the services are identical to the others,” Wolfe said. “Once we’re referred a child, the child is sent to one of our shelters just like a minor who crosses the border alone.”

What’s your problem with that?

Nafta Talks Between U.S. and Canada Turn Tense as Deadline Looms
By Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson, The New York Times
Aug. 31, 2018

Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada turned tense on Friday morning, as both countries struggled to reach agreement on several key issues and President Trump continued to disparage Canada and its trade practices.

The sudden rocky patch came after days of optimism from negotiators in both countries, raising the prospect that the last-ditch talks to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement could falter.

The Trump administration had set a Friday deadline to strike a deal with Canada, threatening to move ahead with a bilateral trade pact with just Mexico if an agreement between the three countries could not be reached. After several days of marathon meetings that seemed to presage a deal, the chances of such an agreement by the end of Friday began looking doubtful.

Talks between the United States and Canada remain deadlocked over several contentious issues, including Canada’s dairy sector, its rules governing movies, books and other media, and a mechanism for settling trade disputes between the two countries, people briefed on the talks said.

On Friday morning, the United States trade representative put out a statement saying that Canada had yet to make any concessions on dairy products, which has become a source of ire for Mr. Trump.

“The negotiations between the United States and Canada are ongoing,” a spokeswoman for the United States trade representative said in a statement. “There have been no concessions by Canada on agriculture.”
…
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, said repeatedly this week that Canada and the United States had agreed not to discuss the details of the talks in public while negotiations were taking place.

Arriving for a meeting with Mr. Lighthizer (Trump’s trade negotiator) on Friday morning, Ms. Freeland said that she was looking forward to hearing what he had to say after a night of reflection. But after a meeting that lasted more than an hour, it appeared that the two sides were no closer to a deal.

“We are not there yet,” Ms. Freeland told reporters outside of the office of the United States Trade Representative. “Canada is a country that is good at finding win-win compromises — having said that, in trade negotiations, in this negotiation, we always stand up for the national interest and that is what we’re going to continue to do.”

She added: “We’re looking for a good deal, not just any deal.”

The talks were further complicated by a report in the Toronto Star on Friday that quoted off-the-record comments Mr. Trump gave during an interview on Thursday with Bloomberg News. According to that report, Mr. Trump said he had no plans to make concessions to Canada and that any agreement would be “totally on our terms.”

Asked about the authenticity of the quotes, Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, did not dispute them.

“The Canadian and American negotiators continue to work on reaching a win-win deal that benefits both countries,” Ms. Walters said.

Ms. Freeland said that she did believe that Mr. Lighthizer was looking for a win-win agreement, but took a long pause before answering when asked if the United States was negotiating in good faith.

At a rally in Indiana on Thursday night, Mr. Trump expressed his frustration with Canada and its dairy protections. The president accused Canada of not treating the United States fairly and said that if negotiations failed he would punish Canada with car tariffs.

“If it doesn’t happen, then we’ll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that’ll be even better,” Mr. Trump said, complaining about the unfairness of Canadian dairy tariffs. “But I think it’s going to happen, and we’ve really developed a very good relationship.”

The important thing about my writing is that it amuses me.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Britain’s Princess Diana killed in a Paris car crash; Poland’s Solidarity labor movement born; Jack the Ripper’s first victim found dead in London; Violinist Itzhak Perlman and singer Van Morrison born.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

Aretha Franklin

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Move along.

What is this Game of Thrones thing? Oh… well, you know, new episodes of American Pickers.

‘Winter is coming’: Allies fear Trump isn’t prepared for gathering legal storm
By Philip Rucker, Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey, and Ashley Parker, Washington Post
August 29, 2018

President Trump’s advisers and allies are increasingly worried that he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible Democratic takeover of the House, which would empower the opposition party to shower the administration with subpoenas or even pursue impeachment charges.

My goodness Mr. Howard. I do believe I have the vapors.

Within Trump’s orbit, there is consensus that his current legal team is not equipped to effectively navigate an onslaught of congressional demands, and there has been broad discussion about bringing on new lawyers experienced in white-collar defense and political scandals.

The president and some of his advisers have discussed possibly adding veteran defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who currently represents Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to Trump’s personal legal team if an impeachment battle or other fights with Congress emerge after the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Trump advisers also are discussing recruiting experienced legal firepower to the Office of White House Counsel, which is facing departures and has dwindled in size at a critical juncture. The office has about 25 lawyers now, down from roughly 35 earlier in the presidency, according to a White House official with direct knowledge.
…
Trump recently has consulted his personal attorneys about the likelihood of impeachment proceedings. And McGahn and other aides have invoked the prospect of impeachment to persuade the president not to take actions or behave in ways that they believe would hurt him, officials said.

Still, Trump has not directed his lawyers or his political aides to prepare an action plan, leaving allies to fret that the president does not appreciate the magnitude of what could be in store next year.
…
If Democrats control the House, the oversight committees likely would use their subpoena power as a weapon to assail the administration, investigating with a vengeance. The committees could hold hearings about policies such as the travel ban affecting majority-Muslim countries and “zero tolerance” family separation, as well as on possible ethical misconduct throughout the administration or the Trump family’s private businesses.

White House officials defended Trump’s lack of preparation by saying he is focused squarely on helping Republicans preserve their majorities in the Nov. 6 midterm elections rather than, in the words of one senior official, “panicking about something that could happen.”

Any Democratic salvos would not happen until new members take office in January, which Trump advisers said seems like eons away in an administration juggling so many immediate problems. As a result, preparing for possible impeachment proceedings is not at the top of Trump’s to-do list.

“I don’t know if he’s really thought about it in depth yet,” Giuliani said.

One source of growing anxiety among Trump allies is the worry that the president and some senior White House officials are not anxious enough. Although Trump sometimes talks about impeachment with his advisers, in other moments, he gets mad that “the i-word,” as he calls it, is raised, according to his associates.

“Winter is coming,” said one Trump ally in close communication with the White House. “Assuming Democrats win the House, which we all believe is a very strong likelihood, the White House will be under siege. But it’s like tumbleweeds rolling down the halls over there. Nobody’s prepared for war.”

Trump has told confidants that some of his aides have highly competent lawyers such as Lowell, who represents Kushner, and William A. Burck, who represents McGahn as well as former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

“He wonders why he doesn’t have lawyers like that,” said one person who has discussed the matter with Trump.
…
“The next White House counsel needs to be prepared for a lot of interactions on the Hill,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “If the Democrats do take back the House, you can expect the White House counsel to be center stage in answering subpoenas and really in the middle of it all.”

White House officials said Trump is working hard on the campaign trail to prevent Democrats from winning a majority in either the House or the Senate.

“We don’t expect Democrats to take over,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “Democrats have no message other than to attack the president. . . . If they want to go backwards, they can vote for Democrats. If they want to continue moving forward under President Trump, they should vote for people that support his policies.”
…
One adviser recalled recently telling Trump, “They will crush you if they win. You don’t want them investigating every single thing you’ve done.”

Another concern is that the White House, which already has struggled in attracting top-caliber talent to staff positions, could face an exodus if Democrats take over the House, because aides fear their mere proximity to the president could place them in legal limbo and possibly result in hefty lawyers’ fees.

“It stops good people from potentially serving because nobody wants to inherit a $400,000 legal bill,” said another Trump adviser.

Trump allies privately worry that the West Wing staff is barely equipped to handle basic crisis communications functions, such as distributing robust talking points to key surrogates, and question how the operation could handle an impeachment trial or other potential battles.
…
“What he really has to get ready for is an onslaught from all of these committees,” Giuliani said of congressional inquiries. “Because what the Democrats want is death by a thousand cuts.”

I understand there’s now an electric razor designed to take off skin by the swipe. In China they’d wrap you in metal mesh tight enough the skin would puff out and use a straight steel. Deployed with sufficient restraint you might linger for years, even decades.

If G.O.P. Loses Hold on Congress, Trump Warns, Democrats Will Enact Change ‘Quickly and Violently’
By Michael D. Shear, The New York Times
Aug. 28, 2018

President Trump warned evangelical leaders Monday night that Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently” if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Speaking to the group in the State Dining Room of the White House, Mr. Trump painted a stark picture of what losing the majority would mean for the administration’s conservative agenda, according to an audiotape of his remarks provided to The New York Times by someone who attended the event.

“They will end everything immediately,” Mr. Trump said. “When you look at antifa,” he added, a term that describes militant leftist groups, “and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people.”
…
The blunt warning — delivered to about 100 of the president’s most ardent supporters in the evangelical community — was the latest example of Mr. Trump’s attempts to use the specter of violence at the hands of his political opponents and to fan the flames of cultural divisions in the country.

In the wake of racial violence last year in Charlottesville, Va., Mr. Trump said there was “blame on both sides” and equated liberal, anti-fascist protesters with Nazis and white supremacists. In spring 2016, the president warned of violence by his own supporters if he did not get the Republican presidential nomination, saying “I think you’d have riots.”

Mr. Trump acknowledged to the evangelical leadership that his conservative base may not turn out at the polls in big numbers for Republican congressional candidates because he is not on the ballot in November.

“I think we’re doing very well, and I think we’re popular, but there’s a real question as to whether people are going to vote if I’m not on the ballot,” he said. “And I’m not on the ballot.”

My Soy Latte Defies You! I shall not rest until Camembert, nay, Limburger, est le fromage de la terre!

Any news from the Titanic?

Trump falsely claims NBC’s Lester Holt ‘got caught’ faking interview where he admitted to firing Comey over Russia
by Brad Reed, Raw Story
30 Aug 2018

President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a bizarre tweet in which he accused NBC’s Lester Holt of “fudging” an interview in which the president admitted he fired former FBI Director James Comey over the Russia investigation.

“What’s going on at CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks – with NBC News being the worst,” the president wrote. “The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!”
…
During an interview with Holt in 2017, Trump said of his decision to fire Comey, “when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’”

Since Trump admitted to having the Russia probe on his mind when he fired Comey, many legal analysts have said that this could be used as evidence against him in an obstruction of justice charge.

Trump offered no evidence that Holt actually “fudged” this section of their discussion and it’s unclear why the president believes that Holt did anything to alter the contents of their conversation.

Oh. Icebergs. Winter Is Coming. It all makes sense now.

The walls are closing in. And Trump’s lawyers know it.
By Greg Sargent, Washington Post
August 30 2018

It is now becoming inescapably clear that President Trump and his lawyers firmly believe that he’s seriously vulnerable to the charge that he obstructed justice.

While the chances that Trump will be indicted are virtually nonexistent, should Mueller conclude that Trump did commit obstruction, it’s also becoming inescapably clear that many people around Trump firmly believe that he might well be impeached for it.

This morning, Trump appeared to suggest — for the first time, according to that storehouse of collective knowledge and reasoning otherwise known as political Twitter — that he believes NBC News’s Lester Holt somehow fudged the video of Trump admitting back in May 2017 that he fired James B. Comey as FBI director over anger at the Russia investigation.
…
Trump and his own lawyers have repeatedly argued that Trump cannot commit obstruction of justice by definition. As that memo from Trump’s team put it, Trump is the “chief law enforcement officer,” and as such, anything he does toward the investigation “could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction,” meaning that “he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry.” If so, firing Comey over the Russia probe would not constitute obstruction, either.

But Trump’s lawyers have now concluded that Mueller likely does not agree with this. Politico reports that Trump has been privately lobbying GOP senators to support him if he fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Previously, Trump’s lawyers had advised him that this could add to an obstruction case, since he’d be doing this to install a loyalist who would protect him from the probe. But now, Politico reports, his lawyers have changed their minds.
…
if this is an accurate depiction of the Trump legal team’s thinking, it means the team believes that Mueller already thinks he has a strong case, based on what Mueller already knows about Trump’s designs toward Sessions, that Trump committed obstruction of justice. (Which undermines the theory that he cannot do this by definition.) Otherwise you’d think Trump’s legal team would be wary of allowing Trump to give Mueller more fodder by firing his attorney general.

Meanwhile, The Post reports that Trump advisers and allies worry that the White House isn’t prepared for the legal onslaught that could hit Trump next year, if Democrats take the House. And one of their main worries is impeachment.
…
Put this all together, and here’s what you get. Trump’s own lawyers believe that Mueller thinks he has already got enough for a strong obstruction case. While there won’t be any indictment, they believe Mueller will issue a damning report to Congress, and given their own fears about obstruction, that (in their view) will likely be what makes the report potentially so damaging — helping to supply grounds for impeachment.

Trump may sense the rising likelihood of this as well, which might be why he’s suddenly distancing himself from the Holt interview. But even if so, while Trump has talked about impeachment with his advisers, they don’t believe he is sufficiently mindful of the danger all of this poses.

How does this end? All of it perhaps makes it more likely that Trump will fire Sessions. If Mueller already has enough for an obstruction case, and putting in a new attorney general could perhaps limit what Mueller investigates further or what he puts into his report, then why not? Even if so, it’s hard to see how that would derail the case for impeachment — it might add to it.

Provided, that is, that Democrats take back the House. But what if that does not happen? Then what?

“Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.”

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

The Civil War’s Second Battle of Bull Run ends; Thurgood Marshall confirmed as first black Supreme Court justice; First black astronaut blasts off; Ty Cobb’s baseball debut; David Letterman moves to CBS.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

When a country wants television more than they want clean water, they’ve lost their grip.

Lewis Black

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Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Hurricane Katrina blows ashore in southeast Louisiana.

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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