PROGRESSIVE DISCUSSION - Weekend Edition Fri-Sun

Good morning everyone and hope you're expecting a happy, sunny weekend!

So John Bolton is going to be the new national security adviser! How scary is that?!! Everything I read sounds like he will have us into a war as quickly as he can. May not even wait to unpack the boxes in his office. He seems to want to go to war against everyone. No wonder he's a good fit with the JA. Everyone else thinks he's a war mongering nut job.

Did any of you see Anderson Cooper's interview last night with Karen MacDougal the Playboy model? She certainly sounded very believable, and came across as poised and well spoken. Who knows what the real truth is? But, definitely she is either a very good actress or she was telling the truth about their relationship. If I had to wager on it, I'd say she's telling the truth. Not that it really matters other than it's just one more example of what a sleaze the JA is. I wonder if Melania watched? I think Melania most likely knew what she was getting into when she married him, and chose the money and lifestyle. He had already very publicly cheated on two wives. The only one I feel sorry for is Barron. But, hey Republicans, let's keep talking about those family values your party is supposed to represent.

I still wish Frankin hadn't been forced out of office. I didn't like what he was accused of & I know he did the right thing, I just wish he was still in the Senate being a voice of reason. To be honest, I still have questions about the woman who accused him of improper conduct. After seeing some pics of her & some videos of her engaging in same behavior as she accused Frankin, it makes me question her motives. But having said that, I didn't like the pics of Frankin either. Maybe I give him somewhat a pass because he's was a Comedian at the time. JMHO of course. Not sure if this makes sense.

Former U.S. Senator Al Franken
“Lack of candor.”
That’s one of the reasons that Attorney General Jeff Sessions used to justify his decision to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe last week, just two days before Mr. McCabe was set to retire from a distinguished 21-year career with the Bureau. Ironic, because, as you may recall, Jeff Sessions has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of candor – under oath – about his own interactions with Russians.
During his confirmation hearing, I alerted then-Senator Sessions to a breaking report from CNN that there had been an ongoing exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Russians. When I asked him what he would do as Attorney General if those reports were true, Mr. Sessions decided to answer a different question:
SESSIONS: “Senator Franken, I am not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have – did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”
That turned out to be false. Then-Senator Sessions had, in fact, met with Russian ambassador Kislyak at least three times during the 2016 campaign. I’d like to claim that I was three steps ahead of Sessions - that I knew Senator Sessions wouldn’t answer my question and would pivot to a lie that would ultimately lead to his recusal in the Russia investigation. I’d like to claim that but in all candor, I had no idea that was the moment that would lead to the Mueller investigation.
The Attorney General has a different version of this exchange. He said he was “taken aback” by my question and that in retrospect, he should have slowed down and been more forthcoming about his meetings. Now, I’m no lawyer, but it’s not a good sign if the man nominated to be our nation’s top prosecutor is so easily flummoxed by a straightforward question.
But in the weeks and months that followed, as Attorney General Sessions was called before congressional committees to explain himself, try as he might, he just couldn’t manage to set the record straight. His explanation of his own Russian contacts continued to shift – from “I did not have communications with the Russians” to “I did not meet with any Russians to discuss any political campaign” to the Justice Department asserting that Sessions “did not discuss interference in the campaign” with any Russians.
When I asked him in an October hearing whether he believed that other Trump campaign surrogates communicated with the Russians, Attorney General Sessions said no. “I’m not aware of anyone else that did, and I don’t believe it happened,” he said.
“And you don’t believe it now?” I asked, slightly slack-jawed.
“I don’t believe it happened,” he answered. Never mind that at that point in time, the public already knew about meetings between Russians and Michael Flynn, Russians and Paul Manafort, Russians and Jared Kushner, and Russians and Donald Trump, Jr. – all Trump campaign surrogates.
And never mind that Sessions attended a March 31, 2016 foreign policy meeting at which George Papadopoulos raised his connections with Russians and offered to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. Sessions first said he didn’t recall the Papadopoulos meeting, then testified that he “pushed back” on the Papadopoulos suggestion of Trump meeting Putin and now three sources have said Sessions didn’t push back on this suggestion. More candor problems.
Fast forward to this week, when ABC News reported that nearly one year before Attorney General Sessions fired Andrew McCabe – allegedly for a “lack of candor” – Mr. McCabe oversaw an investigation into whether Attorney General Sessions himself lacked candor when he repeatedly misrepresented his contacts with Russians when testifying before Congress. That investigation was opened after my former colleague, Senator Pat Leahy, and I wrote to the FBI last year and requested that the Bureau examine the attorney general’s false statements.
That the attorney general would fire the man who was tasked with investigating him raises serious questions about whether retaliation or retribution motivated his decision. It also raises serious questions about his supposed recusal from all matters stemming from the 2016 campaign. But the fact that Attorney General Sessions would claim that a “lack of candor” justified Mr. McCabe’s termination is hypocrisy at its worst.

Off to meet up with DD and DGD tonight and attend DGD's state gymnastics competition tomorrow. Just going to enjoy being a grandma for awhile, and pretend that everything is right with the world. Postponing all worry and problems until tomorrow night.

I watched the March For Our Lives with a lump in my throat. Talk about a wave of emotions.

On one hand I'm impressed and so proud of America's children. On the other hand they're only children. It's Saturday. They should be outside playing ball, hanging in the park with their friends, in the mall or at the movies. Instead they're in DC remembering their friends that were slaughtered in school, wondering if they'll be next, and demanding the adults in the room do something to change that!

The streets were full, as far as the eye could see, with people of every age. People demanding nothing more than common sense. Is that too much to ask?

I couldn't help but remember a bible verse from the OT about a day when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, a leopard with a goat, a cow and a bear hanging out side by side snacking on some grass, and a child will lead them.

A peaceful kingdom. I could do that.

I am so proud of those kids I could burst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The adults are not doing their job and the teens are taking over.......good on them. ^5

Dam I want to live long enough to see those kids grow up and clean up the mess that was (unfairly) left to them....

Those kids are pre-adults. They can do this!

Hi Girls. This is actually a few days old. Hard to keep up with the fire hose flow of news

An Ashamed Fox News Commentator Just Quit the “Propaganda Machine”
The following email was sent by Retired Colonel Ralph Peters to his colleagues at Fox

On March 1st, I informed Fox that I would not renew my contract. The purpose of this message to all of you is twofold:

First, I must thank each of you for the cooperation and support you've shown me over the years. Those working off-camera, the bookers and producers, don't often get the recognition you deserve, but I want you to know that I have always appreciated the challenges you face and the skill with which you master them.

Second, I feel compelled to explain why I have to leave. Four decades ago, I took an oath as a newly commissioned officer. I swore to "support and defend the Constitution," and that oath did not expire when I took off my uniform. Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.

In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts--who have never served our country in any capacity--dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller--all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of "deep-state" machinations-- I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.

As a Russia analyst for many years, it also has appalled me that hosts who made their reputations as super-patriots and who, justifiably, savaged President Obama for his duplicitous folly with Putin, now advance Putin's agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign. Despite increasingly pathetic denials, it turns out that the "nothing-burger" has been covered with Russian dressing all along. And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true--that's how the Russians do things.. The result is that we have an American president who is terrified of his counterpart in Moscow.

I do not apply the above criticisms in full to Fox Business, where numerous hosts retain a respect for facts and maintain a measure of integrity (nor is every host at Fox News a propaganda mouthpiece--some have shown courage). I have enjoyed and valued my relationship with Fox Business, and I will miss a number of hosts and staff members. You're the grown-ups.

Also, I deeply respect the hard-news reporters at Fox, who continue to do their best as talented professionals in a poisoned environment. These are some of the best men and women in the business..

So, to all of you: Thanks, and, as our president's favorite world leader would say, "Das vidanya."