CNN) President Donald Trump, amid questions about his campaign's ties to Russia during the 2016 election, will meet with Dana Rohrabacher, a California congressman so well-known for his pro-Russia views that he has been referred to as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "favorite congressman."

Trump, according to his public schedule, will meet with Rohrabacher in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon.

Ken Grubbs, a spokesman for Rohrabacher, declined to disclose the focus of the conversation, calling it "a general conversation at the President's invitation."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/04/04/politics/donald-trump-dana-rohrabacher-putin/index.html


In the middle of an international scandal for his campaigns coillusion with Russia.

I give Trump an "A" for arrogance.

Here's more...

"On September 8, 2008, at a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, Rohrabacher argued that the Georgians had initiated the recent military confrontation in the ongoing Russia–Georgia war.[85][86][87]

In April 2014, he supported the idea of Alaskans rejoining Russia if a majority voters in Alaska wanted to.[88]

According to a 2015 article by Politico reporter Luke O'Brien, Rohrabacher is known for his long-time friendship with Russia's Vladimir Putin and his defense of "the Russian point of view."[89][90]

After Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Rohrabacher defends his approach to improve the U.S.-Russia relations and to cooperate on the settlement of Syrian crisis among other strategic and regional issues. He believes defeating radical Islam and deterring China is more urgent priority.[91][92]"


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rohrabacher






?1469557913

The embattled chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence came under more intense criticism on Sunday — this time from his own predecessor. Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) told CNN’s State of the Union that he would have handled the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election “completely” differently.
Noting that he had presided over one of the eight Congressional investigations into Benghazi, Rogers noted that his investigations were far more bipartisan than the current Nunes debacle.
“We came to some common ground rules on how to do this investigation that was gonna be facts and facts-based only,” Rogers recalled. “We didn’t have press conferences about it and didn’t run out every time we got a new document saying this or that happened.”
Nunes, after three Trump administration officials reportedly provided him with information the White House believed “somewhat vindicated” the president’s definitively debunked claim that President Obama had “tapped” Trump Tower, held a bizarre press conference announcing his findings.
Rogers said that with people’s character — and possibly their freedom — on the line, “it is no place for sharp-edged partisan politics.”



https://thinkprogress.org/former-gop-house-intelligence-chairman-slams-devin-nunes-investigation-81263dcfd73a


Pretty bad when you turn republicans stomachs.

"Scrutiny has now turned to a visit made to Cambridge University by Mr Flynn in February 2014 when he was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, a US intelligence service.

Mr Flynn, a former lieutenant general in the US army, struck up a friendship at a Cambridge dinner with a Russian banker turned academic whom he then sought to enlist as a translator on an official trip to Moscow.

Mr Flynn continued an unclassified email correspondence with the woman, Svetlana Lokhova, occasionally signing off his emails “general Misha”, using the Russian nickname for Michael.

The Wall Street Journal claims Mr Flynn, 58, should have disclosed his interactions with 36-year-old Miss Lokhova under US intelligence rules but failed to do so.

Mr Flynn was giving a talk at the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, an academic forum, which itself has been open to claims of “unacceptable Russian influence” because of funding it received from a Russian backed publisher."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/01/cambridge-university-dragged-row-donald-trumps-ex-spy-chiefs/


"General Misha".


Sweet Mother of God.

As questions swirl about the contact members of President Trump’s campaign had with Russians throughout the 2016 election, a majority of Americans favor an independent investigation, a new poll has found.

Fifty-two percent of Americans support such an inquiry, while 23% are opposed, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Saturday. Meanwhile, 22% said they neither favor nor oppose an investigation.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-russia-...

Republicans serve the interests of the Trump class of billionaires and Russian oligarghs, not the American people.

From "Pawn Sacrifice", the Bobby Fisher story...

We can beat them now.

"A man sentenced in May 2016 to 30 months in federal prison for conspiring to act as a secret agent for Russia will receive early release on Saturday and will then be deported, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has spokesman confirmed to CBS News.

Federal Bureau of Prisons documents obtained by CBS News cite good behavior in the agency’s decision to grant early release to Evgeny Buryakov, who collected intelligence for Russia while working for a Russian bank in New York City.

A spokesman for ICE confirmed that the agency will take custody of Buryakov on Saturday upon his release....

Buryakov worked at the New York office of Vnesheconombank, a Russian government-owned bank, before he was arrested in January 2014 and accused of being part of a spy ring that collected intelligence for the S.V.R., Russia’s foreign intelligence agency. Buryakov and two Russians with diplomatic immunity were recorded by the FBI allegedly conspiring to gather economic intelligence and recruit sources in New York City.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Vnesheconombank made headlines earlier this week when it confirmed to Reuters that in 2016 its representatives met with then candidate Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is now senior advisor to the President. Senate investigators plan to question Kushner about the meetings as part of a probe into Russian meddling in the presidential election."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/banker-who-worked-as-russian-secret-agent-to-be-released-early-deported/


How blatant does this have to get before Trumpco gets charged?


Big thanks to DUer lostnfound for the lead on this!

(CNN) As the White House scans Washington for a bounce-back win after the Obamacare imbroglio, the political forecast is promising only heavy weather.

An unappetizing list of looming congressional showdowns, complex, months-long legislative challenges and intractable threats to President Donald Trump's standing threaten to make the failed health care push look like a small setback.

Approaching sagas of a potential government shutdown, raising the debt ceiling and a moment of truth in the Senate over the potential "nuclear option" confirmation of Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch will severely test the political alacrity of a White House already exposed by the busted bid to repeal Obamacare....

... Throw in the corrosive impact that the thickening cloud of intrigue over Russia's alleged election meddling is exerting on the White House, and add the challenges posed by the President's own habit of detonating political explosions that damage his own standing, and it's tough to predict the administration's first big political win -- or how much that victory will cost. ...

...At the top of the list of political messes for the Republican majority and the White House is the possibility of a government shutdown that could occur on an inauspicious date, April 29, Trump's 100th day in office.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/trump-outlook/index.html


Shut him down, along with massive national protests.

Let them get some of what they're giving.

Nunes said the plan was to further question FBI Director James Comey and NSA director Mike Rogers instead, but then postponed that hearing as well, citing scheduling issues. A series of additional meetings were postponed as well. Democrats say that explanation doesn't add up and want the hearings immediately rescheduled. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the intelligence committee, told MSNBC on Wednesday that "no future hearings for the Russia investigation are on the books."


https://www.google.com/amp/www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/amp/4-unanswered-questions-about-rep-nunes-russia-n740231



This is completely, unacceptable.

Democrats should be raising holy hell.

Was doing some digging and reading on Southern African American folklore (translation - I have a fascination with folk magic, pagan origins and beliefs from all sources), and ran across the writings of the amazing Zora Neale Hurston.

I saw the wiki entry, and searched for the article, which I could only find in pdf form. Started reading, and my jaw dropped as I was delighted and deeply respectful of her insight and talent.

"High John the,Conquerer" is the personification of hope, unbreakable spirit, and laughing in the face of oppression.

The power is very real.

An Adolph Hitler or a Donald Trump is no match for such power.

I intend to read as much of Zora's writings as I can absorb. I feel blessed as I read her, and you might also.




"In "High John De Conquer", Zora Neale Hurston reports that:

like King Arthur of England, he has served his people. And, like King Arthur, he is not dead. He waits to return when his people shall call him again ... High John de Conquer went back to Africa, but he left his power here, and placed his American dwelling in the root of a certain plant. Only possess that root, and he can be summoned at any time.[citation needed]

This is from Hurston's published article in American Mercury magazine in 1943. In this article she relates a few stories about High John, enough to define him, but not an exhaustive survey of the folklore. The purpose was to present the nation with the hope-building and the power of this inspiring figure during the darkest days of World War II. The article ends with:

So the brother in black offers to these United States the source of courage that endures, and laughter. High John de Conquer. If the news from overseas reads bad, if the nation inside seems like it is stuck in the Tar Baby, listen hard, and you will hear High John de Conquer treading on his singing-drum. You will know then, that no matter how bad things look now, it will be worse for those who seek to oppress us.... White America, take a laugh from out of our black mouths, and win! We give you High John de Conquer."

— The American Mercury, October 1943, pp. 450-458[1]


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Conqueror