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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

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The NAACP has determined that its current path is too tame and that the group needs to be far more activist in its resistance to the President. To that end, it is firing its president and working on a “systemwide refresh," inspired apparently by the Black Lives Movement. The New York Times reports:

Mr. Sessions’s order to federal prosecutors to pursue the toughest charges and sentences against drug crime suspects crystallized the decision to press for change at the N.A.A.C.P. The order reversed efforts by the Obama administration to ease penalties for some nonviolent drug offenses and was a 180-degree pivot even for the Republican Party, which had warmed to changes in the criminal justice system.

LATEST NEWS

A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit against Irving, TX, and the local school district brought on by Ahmed "Clock Boy" Mohamed and his family after authorities arrested him in September 2015. From Fox News:
The lawsuit alleged that the city of Irving and Irving school district discriminated against Ahmed Mohamed at Irving MacArthur High School in September of 2015. Mohamed, a Muslim teenager who was 14 years old at the time, brought a homemade clock to school to show his engineering teacher. But an alarm on the clock went off in his English class and the teacher confiscated it. He was sent to the principal’s office.

A 25-year-old Turkish man, reportedly in the States on tourist and student visas, attempted to breach the cockpit of an American Airlines flight from LAX to Hawaii. Anil Uskanli was subdued by passengers, including an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, and duct-taped to his seat until the flight landed at Honolulu International Airport.  Pacific Command scrambled two F-22 Raptors, and the fighter jets escorted the passenger plane to Honolulu. Before boarding the flight to Hawaii, Uskanli was detained at LAX for trespassing when he went through a door from the concourse onto a ramp leading to the airfield.

OKC Thunder star Enes Kanter has tweeted out that Romanian officials have detained him at the airport after Turkey canceled his passport. Kanter has spoken out against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and voiced support for Fetullah Gulen, the preacher Erdogan has blamed for failed coups. From ESPN:
Kanter, who arrived in Bucharest from Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of his 2017 Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour, posted a video on Twitter in which police officers have "been holding us here for hours." "The reason behind it is just, of course, my political views," Kanter, who turned 25 Saturday, said in the video. "And the guy who did it is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey."

On Joy Reid's show this morning, MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance said that if the United States "were some third-world nation right now, we'd be watching the army to see if the tanks are getting ready to move for a coup. Or if a guy jumps on a plane and flies to Monaco with all the money from the state." Sounds like a "helpful" suggestion/wishful thinking from MSNBC. Nance, by the way, is the person who nominated a Trump property for an ISIS suicide attack. To date, there's no evidence online that he has apologized or been disciplined by MSNBC.

I'm so old, I remember when the breaking news was that James Comey was fired because he sought additional resources from the Department of Justice for the Russia investigation. The New York Times broke the story on May 10, 2017, Days Before Firing, Comey Asked for More Resources for Russia Inquiry:
Days before he was fired as F.B.I. director, James B. Comey asked the Justice Department for more prosecutors and other personnel to accelerate the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election. It was the first clear-cut evidence that Mr. Comey believed the bureau needed more resources to handle a sprawling and highly politicized counterintelligence investigation.

The last time we checked in on Colorado after it legalized marijuana, the intoxicant was raking in $1.3 billion worth of sales for the state. Yet, as predicted, there have been some unintended consequences of decriminalizing recreational marijuana use. Recently, the residents of Durango have noticed a change in the type of visitors the lovely Colorado resort town attracts.
The town suddenly became a haven for recreational pot users, drawing in transients, panhandlers and a large number of homeless drug addicts, according to officials and business owners. Many are coming from New Mexico, Arizona and even New York.

Regular readers are familiar with my disdain for Trump, having been a Never Trumper prior to the election. However, once he was elected, Trump became my president because that's just how life works. (My thoughts on that here.) I'm still skeptical of Trump's ability to do the job well, but I grow increasingly aggravated with the collective political media set who seem to be doing everything in their power to destroy this presidency. We don't have an opportunity to praise or criticize the administration and their efforts because the whole of our time is spent debunking misreported claims based on anonymous sources, none of which are favorable to Trump.

Another day, another series of NY Times and WaPo stories based on leaks. The NY Times reports that Trump told the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador that Comey was a "nut job" who had politicized the investigation, and that his firing relieved "great pressure". The report was based on someone reading a memo about the meeting to the Times reporter. Here is the White House's response, issued in Sean Spicer's name:

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stands by the memo he wrote which listed former FBI Director Comey's alleged offenses. The White House cited the memo as a reason for canning Comey. Rosenstein briefed both the Senate and House in the last two days.

Five years ago, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sought refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London after Sweden launched a rape investigation against him. Today, Swedish officials have dropped the investigation. From The Local Sweden:
In a statement on its website, the Swedish prosecution authority said that the "Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange".

When it comes to blocking President Donald Trump's plans for the Border Wall, the Democratic Party has displayed imagination, creativity, and enthusiasm rarely surpassed in the annals of human history.
Democrats opposed border wall funding in the latest government spending debate and the White House eventually backed off of its demand to secure the money this month. When the funding fight comes up again in September, Democrats are still likely to deem it a non-starter in negotiations. "I have said repeatedly and consistently, I will not support an omnibus that includes funding for a wall; not going to do it," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, at a recent press conference.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has passed Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which means it will finally proceed to the Senate floor. This is a major victory for us who despise too much regulation. From Reason:
Sponsored by Sen. Ran Paul (R-Kentucky), the REINS Act would require every new regulation that costs more than $100 million to be approved by Congress. As it is now, executive branch agencies can pass those rules unilaterally, and even though those major rules account for only 3 percent of annual regulations, they are the ones that cause the most headaches for individuals and businesses.

*UPDATE* Weiner has pleaded guilty and the judge said "he would have to register as a sex offender. Former Rep. Anthony Weiner has decided to enter a guilty plea in federal court for sexting with a 15-year-old girl. He might have to register as a sex offender. From NBC 4 New York:
Weiner surrendered to the FBI Friday morning, officials familiar with the matter said, and will plead guilty to one count related to transferring obscene material to a minor. Prosecutors are expected to recommend two years in prison, though Weiner's attorneys are likely to ask for probation.

I will never understand how the Republicans managed to screw this up so badly. And let's be clear, this is the fault of Republicans in Congress, not Donald Trump. The talk of repealing Obamacare started years before Trump was even a candidate. Their first attempt a couple months ago fell flat on its face. The second time, it passed in the House on a squeaker vote. Now, they may have to vote on it again. Billy House reported at Bloomberg:
House May Need to Vote Again on GOP Obamacare Repeal Bill House Republicans barely managed to pass their Obamacare repeal bill earlier this month, and they now face the possibility of having to vote again on their controversial health measure.

Joe Scarborough has painted a no-win portrait of VP Pence. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough said that Vice-President Pence "is either a sucker and a dupe for Donald Trump . . . or he's a liar. There is no middle ground." Giving Pence the dubious benefit of the doubt, Scarborough advised, "if it is the first, I think it's about time for Mike Pence to go to Donald Trump and say, as I think most of us would, if you set me up to be your liar again, I'm walking."