In the News . . .

The Iraqi city of Mosul was finally liberated by the Iraqi army from the Islamic State, and the people of Iraq are justly celebrating.  But the fight isn't over yet: some pockets of Islamic State resistance remain just south of Mosul, and over in Syria, the Islamic State holds many square miles of land, as well as the city of Raqqa, the self-described capital of the group's declared "caliphate."  Nevertheless, Donald Trump will probably declare premature victory over the Islamic State, taking credit for a victory President Obama planned for when the Islamic State War began with the group's takeover of Mosul in 2014.   

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, Jr. is in trouble over a failed attempt to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton just before she clinched the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.  It seems he met with a Russian attorney who said she had the goods on Hillary, only for the effort to come up leaving Don, Jr. empty-handed.

Donnie, that was dumb, really dumb! You shouldn't have risked potential violations of intentional law just to get some information to hurt the Democratic presidential nominee.

Besides, why go to some Russian lawyer for damaging information on Hillary when all you had to do to get information against her was watch the Democratic presidential debates?  :-p      

This Just Got Interesting

The title is ironic.

The Justice Department has just appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling into the U.S. presidential election and helping Trump.  This is a positive step, but it's a baby step at best.  A independent prosecutor needs to take the reins of this investigation, and the White House seems unfazed by this latest development.  Trump maintains his innocence.

"As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know - there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity," Trump said in a statement reacting to the Mueller appointment. "I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country."

Gag me with a spoon.  Well, we'll see about that.

Meanwhile, things on Wall Street got really interesting yesterday - the Dow Jones average dropped over 300 points over more news about Trump's possible meddling into the FBI's Russia investigation.  And did I mention that he's beginning his first foreign trip as President?  

Out of Sessions

Everyone who thought that Trump had gained his footing and put Democrats on the defensive with his well-received speech to Congress and who feared  a successful, focused administration from that moment on can now relax.  They're in trouble again thanks to the Attorney General, Mr. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.

At his Senate confirmation hearing to become Attorney General, Sessions was asked by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) if he ever had any contact during the 2016 presidential campaign with the Russians, given the troubling suspicion that the Russians helped to rig the general election in favor of Trump.  Sessions said he did not.  Now it turns out he spoke to the Russian ambassador not once, but twice in 2016.

Did Sessions perjure himself?  Maybe not.  He said he met with the Russian ambassador as a courtesy due to his service on the Senate Armed Services Committee and does not not remember any "political" conversations with the ambassador.  Be that as it may, he's had to recuse himself from any current and future investigations into Trump's Russian ties, as many Republicans wanted him to do, but Democrats are calling for his resignation.

Let's make something abundantly clear: Sessions isn't resigning.  Democrats routinely call for Republican appointees to resign - I remember Jesse Jackson in the 1980s calling for the resignation of Chester Crocker, President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, that was based more on policy differences toward South Africa and Namibian independence than on any charges of malfeasance - and Republicans also routinely call for Democratic appointees to resign, provided they'll even let them take office in the first place.  So the Democratic response is pure politics.  And the Sessions affair may turn out to be nothing.  But I don't think so.  I think there's something to this, and it won't be long before Sessions finds himself in even hotter water.  But in the meantime, it's fun to watch Trump and his neanderthal White House twist in the wind again.

As for the charge from Trump that Obama taps his phones at Trump Tower . . . apart from having mentioned it, I'm not even going to dignify that with a comment.