Today in Politics, Bulletin 155.  Ron Filipkowski Jun 20 ∙ … Deranged Trump called for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the 2020 election: “Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a “LANDSLIDE!” Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the USA! Let the work begin!”  REMEMBER TO SUPPORT NPR FOR UNBIASED REPORTING SINCE TRUMP HATES TRUTH! Updates: 2020 Election Results NPR 2020 United States presidential election 59th quadrennial U.S. presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a presidential candidate in U.S. history. In a competitive primary that featured the most candidates for any political party in the modern era of American politics, Biden secured the Democratic presidential nomination. Wikipedia … Trump also told the media today that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: “They should give me the Nobel prize for Rwanda and have you looked at the Congo? You could say Serbia. You could say a lot of them. The big one is India and Pakistan. I should have gotten it 4-5 times. They won't give it because they only give it to liberals.” … This is especially insane considering that India’s Foreign Minister just felt compelled make a public statement that Trump had absolutely nothing to do with brokering their peace agreement with Pakistan. As for the other places - he couldn’t find them on a map. … Author Stephen King weighed in today with his analysis: “Deep down in his heart, I believe Trump knows he’s an incompetent asshole.” … Mob Boss Trump was asked about Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Sec of State Mike Pompeo making statements critical of his policy on Russia-Ukraine: "People have to be very careful with what they say. They got to be very careful with their mouth. Because their mouth could get them into a lot of trouble." … Daily Kos followed up on the story that the NY Post broke on Wed about Dir of WH Personnel Sergio Gor’s refusal to submit background check paperwork or even say what country he’s from: “Investigative cybercrime reporter Brian Krebs is a big deal in investigating cybercriminals, especially Russian cybercriminals. He found something very interesting by searching data breach records: Gor once used the rather unique and long password: 961649507273 for his email address, sergio.gor@gmail.com. Coincidentally, that same password was used with a few other email addresses, including: sgoryachev999@rambler.ru goryachev-sergey@yandex.ru sergio-gor@yandex.ru sergio-gor@qip.ru goryachev-sergey@ya.ru goryachev-sergey@list.ru goryachev-sergey@gmail.com. … “In case you don’t know, .ru means domains were registered in Russia. And the odds that someone with a very similar name would use the exact same and rather odd password is vanishingly small.” … Ukrainian journalist Igor Sushko: “While working for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, ‘Sergio Gor’ and Senator Paul took a week-long trip to Russia in August of 2018. Shortly after this trip, Senator Paul promoted him to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff in January 2019.” … Elon Musk, who hates Gor and clashed with him repeatedly during his time in the WH, replied to story: “The plot thickens.” … Trump was asked today about his latest TACO move - pausing US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities: “I’m giving Iran a period of time. I would say 2 weeks would be the maximum.” … Two weeks. … The Times (UK): “President Trump has stepped back from bombing Iran, giving Tehran up to two weeks to negotiate an end to the conflict with Israel. Trump is looking for an ‘off-ramp’ after advisers became concerned at Iran’s ability to hit US bases across the Middle East and kill American troops in retaliation for any military intervention, such as the targeting of nuclear facilities with bunker-busting bombs. On Wed, Tehran wreaked considerable damage against targets in Israel, including by using hypersonic missiles to evade Israel’s Arrow interceptor system.” … UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has jumped into fray to attempt to negotiate a deal: “Tomorrow, I will be heading to Geneva to meet with the Iranian foreign minister alongside my French, German and EU counterparts. Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.” … “Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has raised another stumbling block, telling Steve Witkoff that Iran wants a third party at the negotiating table and suggesting this could be China. Iran has indicated that it does not trust the nations presenting themselves as interlocutors for talks — the US, Britain and Germany — because of their hostile language about the regime in Tehran.” … Trump was asked about Europe getting involved in the negotiations: “No. Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help with this one.” … Reporter: Your intelligence community said they have no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Trump: “My intelligence community is wrong." Who said that?” Reporter: Your DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Trump: “She is wrong.” … Gabbard then posted this on social media right after Trump spoke: “The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly.” … Sure, it’s the media. … MAGA podcaster Laura Loomer: “There’s a new op running inside MAGA, led by the same RFK Jr. supporters who tried to sabotage Trump’s campaign with a contingent election scheme. Their new schtick is to falsely accuse Trump of being PRO WAR. Now Tulsi Gabbard is pushing rogue, provocative and inflammatory foreign policy videos featuring nuclear explosions without approval from Trump, his advisors, or US national security officials amid a conflict that surrounds Iran’s nuclear capabilities and threats. According to my sources, the WH was furious about the nuclear war video she posted and summoned her to the Oval Office.” … Former NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark on whether a strike on the underground Fordow nuke site would be successful: “We’ve obviously done testing on what the bomb is, but unless we’ve got the exact plans and know the composition of the earth that’s over that bunker, you can’t be positive of anything. You hear stories that it’s 200’ underground, other stories it’s 300’ underground, that it’s got reinforced concrete. You don’t know what’s actually in it, you’re not positive of anything.” … Clark: “If you really want to get rid of this Iran nuclear program, you’ve got to clean up these sites. It’s not just this Fordow site, but it’s the Natanz site - and there’s probably a dozen or two dozen other sites where material, centrifuges have been made, bomb parts have been fabricated. There may be unenriched uranium. All that stuff’s got to be policed up, some of it very carefully handled. It’s got to be extricated and that’s after the bombing, because otherwise the regime, if it stays in power, could go back and reconstitute.” … This is not what I have been hearing on Fox, where this is being sold as a quick and easy “one-bomb strike and it’s over” proposition. … Steve Bannon, who had lunch with Trump yesterday to talk to him about backlash from the MAGA base over war plans: “Last week’s strike felt rushed. It wasn’t just about nukes; it was a decapitation move. If regime change is the goal, be honest. Don’t upsell America into another war.” … Bannon also took another shot at Fox after Kayleigh McEnany said on her show that it would be easy to take out Iran’s nuke capabilities with one surgical strike: “Kayleigh McEnany is infantile, let’s be blunt. That is dangerous and that is on Fox all day long. Why would you not think they aren’t representing a foreign government - Hannity, Levin, the whole crowd. There should be an investigation.” … Fox reports that we are moving forces from Asia to the Middle East: “The USS Nimitz carrier strike group will arrive in the Middle East this weekend. The Nimitz left the South China Sea on Monday. The US will now have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time.” … Norwegian nuclear and missile analyst Fabian Hoffmann: “It's incredible how bad Trump is at foreign policy. He first dismantled the JCPOA, an imperfect but highly effective agreement that imposed unprecedented oversight on Iran’s nuclear program and significantly constrained its capabilities. Now, when there’s an opportunity to finish off that infrastructure, he refuses to act, all but ensuring that Iran will eventually become a nuclear power. … “I’m a deterrence optimist, I don’t believe a nuclear Iran will necessarily lead to catastrophe. But as a European, I don't need a nuclear-armed, personalist, theocratic regime in Europe's periphery. Trump dealt the cards, and he dealt them badly. Now he’s walking away from the table.” … Not to worry though, Trump’s former NSA John Bolton gives us some words of encouragement: “The National Security Council provides structure for methodical and thorough decision making in the Situation Room. As it stands, Trump’s chaotic approach has depleted the NSC staff, and broken the NSC process, leaving decision makers in the Situation Room at severe risk of making poor decisions.” … He’s got Hegseth though. What could go wrong? … Politico: “The WH recently nixed the Pentagon’s pick to head the country’s top spy agency and command its elite hacking force. The decision not to move forward with the DOD’s recommendation to nominate Army Lt. Gen. Richard Angle as NSA Director will extend a leadership vacuum atop one of the most powerful US spy agencies. Angle had the support of Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard.” … “It is not clear why the WH opted not to move forward with Angle’s nomination. Angle’s name being withdrawn from consideration comes after POLITICO reported that both Hegseth and Gabbard have dwindling influence over the WH’s Iran policy.” … Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): “Trump as a candidate promised to end US involvement in foreign wars. Now Trump is on the brink of pulling us into another Middle East conflict. I served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know where this leads. The American people don’t want another war.” … Sean Davis from the right-wing news site The Federalist: “The behavior of Tom Tillis and Mitch McConnell over the last week certainly raises a lot of questions about whether the Senate GOP is trying to blackmail Trump into war with Iran by refusing to pass his Big Beautiful Bill until he starts another war.” After a long winter and then 12 consecutive Saturdays of rain here in Maine, we finally have great weather in store for tomorrow on my day off for the first time! We are going kayaking in a beautiful salt marsh and then a new Italian restaurant in town for dinner. Next Bulletin will recap the weekend on Sunday night. Thanks again for supporting my work. Obviously without you I would still be in a courtroom doing jury trials, which I don’t especially miss. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Reuters: “At the end of last year, the economy was at full employment and steadily growing above trend, inflation was on track to fall to the Fed's 2% target, and the central bank expected to steadily ease  borrowing costs. ‘The US economy is just performing very, very well,’ Jerome Powell said after the Fed's Dec 17-18 meeting. ‘The outlook is pretty bright.’” … “It has dimmed since then. In projections issued this week, Fed policymakers' median outlook for gross domestic product growth had fallen to 1.4%, well below trend, from the 2.1% projected in Dec, with the unemployment rate projected to rise from the current 4.2% to 4.5% by the end of the year. That would be the highest level, outside of the pandemic unemployment spike, since early 2017, when Trump's first term was starting. … “Inflation that Powell said had been ‘grinding down’ is now anticipated to rise to 3% this year and remain nearly half a percentage point above the Fed's target through 2026.” … Today is Day 70 since Trump said 90 trade deals in 90 days. It doesn’t sound like a deal with Canada is especially imminent. PM Mark Carney: “As Canada negotiates a new economic and security partnership with the US, the premiers and I agree: we need to protect the Canadians impacted by unjust US tariffs. Today, we discussed the fed govt’s new measures to safeguard Canadian workers and businesses, and how we’ll keep reinforcing our strength at home by building one, united Canadian economy.” … On the evening of Juneteenth, Trump complained that there are too many federal holidays: “Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” … Trump advocated for the holiday during the 2020 campaign when he was pandering to Black voters. He even postponed a rally scheduled on that day in 2020 after some of his Black advisors told him it would be a bad look. … He also didn’t complain about too many holidays on the day of other holidays. Just Juneteenth. … For some reason. … The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump can maintain control over the CA National Guard, a decision that was challenged in court by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It is a temporary ruling until the case can be argued and decided, which would resolve a serious question of constitutional authority and would likely land in the Supreme Court if appealed by either party. … The court ruled that “it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority. Under a highly deferential standard of review, Defendants have presented facts to allow us to conclude that the President had a colorable basis for invoking 10 USC 12406,” since the activities of protesters “significantly impeded the ability of federal officers to execute the laws.” … Two of the three judges on the panel were Trump appointees, who will not necessarily be the same judges who end up deciding this at the appellate level. … Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has filed a bill to answer Trump’s call to sell off protected federal lands to developers. Of course, he is selling it like it will help provide more affordable housing: “Housing has become unaffordable for too many - especially in states where most of the land is owned by the fed govt. Congress can help - and it must.” … Right. These guys want to develop some of the most beautiful land in our country for affordable housing. I’m sure we all believe that. … The problem is that Lee’s bill leaves it up to state and local govts to decide which land to sell off and what to do with it. There are no restrictions whatsoever in the bill on their discretion to limit how to dispose of the federal lands. … Podcaster Tezlyn Figaro on Jesse Watters’ Fox show: “One minute you say Barack is too classy, the next minute you say Jasmine Crockett is too over the top. So which one do you want? Shouldn’t they meet you where you’re at? If you want to get ugly, let’s get ugly. If you want to be polite - then let’s go Obama. To be honest, I agree with you - the 2008 and 2012 strategies don’t work anymore. You need to fight fire with fire. You folks don’t seem to like Rep. Crockett because she’s meeting Trump right where he’s at with the same type of rhetoric.” … New data from ICE shows that only a very small percentage of the ICE detentions involved migrants with violent criminal records. … Spokesman (WA) Review: “The threat of fed immigration agents raiding orchards in central WA is causing a labor shortage that has compelled some producers to leave cherries unpicked or delay their harvests until the fruit over ripens and is worth less money. At least one cherry grower has already lost about 300 bins, each weighing between 350-400 pounds.” … Erik Zavala, director of field staff for a grower coop that includes hundreds of farms: “People watch the news. It’s definitely having an impact. I just know that this is affecting the growers directly whether they are Democrat or Republican or whatever. These growers will lose a lot of money and are risking losing their farms because of a lack of labor.” … “Zavala said orchards that typically host 100-120 pickers were finding that only 20-30 workers would show up. The few workers who did show up said many had heard through social media that ICE set up checkpoints on the WA-OR border and that agents were raiding orchards.” … Labor policy analyst Sam Peak responding to question on why farms can’t just hire Americans: “Farms do hire Americans. It's just that those Americans are working in sales, HR, Field Ops, accounting, and IT. Without foreign workers, these American jobs wouldn't exist. Especially since the farms have more workers than the surrounding towns.” … Trump flew to Bedminster today for a closed door fundraiser with high-dollar donors why typically pay $1 million per person to attend. That likely also means golf on Saturday, although he never announces those outings. We follow many of the people he plays with and who are members of his clubs, so if he plays we will get the photo from someone. … But the WH assures us that he will be receiving intelligence briefings on Iran throughout the weekend. Trump claims that even when he’s playing golf he always thinks about work so he’s really working on the golf course anyway. … Politico: “The Trump admin on Friday sent out termination notices to hundreds of employees at Voice of America. Included in that group are employees working for the network’s Persian-language service who were called back from admin leave just last week in the wake of Israel’s attack on Iran. Critics of the admin’s focus on VOA have said that the network has played a vital role in combatting disinformation abroad. But the administration says these cuts are in service of ‘cutting waste.’” … Kari Lake, who was appointed by Trump to oversee the agency: “Today, we took decisive action to effectuate President Trump’s agenda to shrink the out-of-control federal bureaucracy.” … 1,400 jobs were eliminated - 85% of the total workforce. … Statement from employees who are suing: “As our legal team fights for our rights under the law, we call on Congress to continue its long tradition of bipartisan support for VOA. Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the global information space with anti-American propaganda. Do not cede this ground by silencing America’s voice.” … U.S. District Judge John McConnell granted a preliminary injunction to block Transportation Sec Sean Duffy from withholding money from states for roads, bridges and infrastructure if they don’t actively assist ICE with deportations: “Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes.” … The lawsuit was filed by 20 states. … Duffy responded to the ruling: “I directed states who want federal DOT money to comply with federal immigration laws. But, no surprise, an Obama-appointed judge has ruled that states can openly defy our federal immigration laws. This is judicial activism pure and simple and I will continue to fight in the courts.” … MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell opened his show with this: “If Donald Trump gets dementia, how will we know? Trump’s mental decline, which is more and more obvious, started from such a low level of mental processing power that it’s hard to track his decline. It’s from low to lower.”