Trump Tweets about Mueller

President Trump kicked off the week with a battery of tweets aimed at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, calling his investigators “Thugs” and accusing them of trying to tilt the midterms, ratcheting up his attacks amid speculation over White House Counsel Don McGahn’s cooperation with the probe. 

The New York Times reported over the weekend that McGahn has cooperated extensively in the special counsel probe of Russian election meddling and potential collusion with Trump's 2016 campaign. 

Trump has countered that he allowed McGahn and others on the White House staff to "fully cooperate" in a bid to show there was "no collusion" and "no obstruction." But the Times followed up with another report saying Trump’s lawyers do not know how much McGahn told investigators during months of interviews spanning 30 hours. 

Trump referenced those interviews in his tweets Monday morning, accusing investigators of “looking for trouble” while maintaining that McGahn cooperated with his imprimatur. 

“Disgraced and discredited Bob Mueller and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs spent over 30 hours with the White House Councel [sic], only with my approval, for purposes of transparency. Anybody needing that much time when they know there is no Russian Collusion is just someone … looking for trouble,” he wrote. “They are enjoying ruining people’s lives and REFUSE to look at the real corruption on the Democrat side - the lies, the firings, the deleted Emails and soooo much more! Mueller’s Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!”

Op-ed from the Media, Bashing the Media

In an op-ed published by Nolan Finley from The Detroit News, titled “Media Must Look to Itself to Restore Trust,” Finley says that while President Trump is partially to blame for the media bashing him, the press is also going a lot tougher on him than past presidents.

The editorial says, “Donald Trump is not responsible for the eroding trust in the media. He lacks the credibility to pull that off. The damage to our standing is self-inflicted. The independent press was built on a foundation of objectivity. Through a tradition of conscientious commitment to telling all sides of a story we convinced our readers, listeners, viewers that we were the source of fair and balanced coverage. We were equal opportunity scourges of scoundrels on both sides of the political aisle. 

“Now, too many of us are following the websites, cable networks and blogosphere into point-of-view journalism that presents the news with equal parts fact and opinion. We’ve infused our reports with commentary and call it context. 

“Journalists once kept their personal views personal, lest anyone challenge the motives behind their reporting. Now reporters post their opinions on Facebook and Twitter. They sob in newsrooms over the results of an election. News meetings and editorial boards are often indistinguishable. 

“Respected journalists openly question whether remaining objective in the Donald Trump era is a sell-out rather than a virtue. Some have joined the resistance movement, blending journalism with activism. 

“No one in our profession can say with a straight face that we cover Donald Trump the same way we have past presidents. We are not only giving him more scrutiny — rightly so — but we are making more mistakes in our haste to discredit him. Our accuracy ratings have fallen as we turn to poorly vetted anonymous sources and repeat every rumor that fits the narrative that Trump is a disaster.” 

Netflix Scraps Comic Michelle Wolf's Series

Comedian Michelle Wolf had her Netflix show, “The Break with Michelle Wolf,” canceled just months after it debuted. In a statement, a representative for the company confirmed “we are not ordering additional episodes of the series.” 

Ahead of the show's launch, the comedian quipped it would bring “the types of jokes my former bosses would tell me we couldn’t do on TV,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

In addition to “The Break with Michelle Wolf,” which kicked off in May, Netflix confirmed they severed ties with “The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale.” Viewership numbers were apparently behind Netflix’s decision to drop both shows, sources told Deadline. 

Wolf grabbed headlines in late April due to the jokes she made during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C. The jabs she made during the event, aimed at President Trump and several members of his administration, reportedly caused some attendees to sit in silence while others left.

Chicago Weekend Shootings

As of Friday evening, a total of 61 people have been shot in Chicago, leaving 6 people dead and 55 wounded. 

In the latest incident, two teenagers who had been reported missing were found shot to death in a field on the Far South Side. The two teenagers, 16 and 17-year-old, were found dead at about 11:57 p.m. in a field on East 131st Street between Eberhart and Rhodes avenues after being reported missing days ago. 

No one is in custody. 

So far, in 2018, there have been 355 homicides in Chicago and there here have been 1,876 shootings in 2018.

Harvard Professor: Universities Should Not 'Respect' Trump Officials

A Harvard University professor says universities should not give “respect or deference” to Trump administration officials. 

Harvard professor Dani Rodrik, in an op-ed for The Boston Globe, calls Trump’s “shameful presidency” a “stain” that universities should reject honoring, declaring that administration officials “should not be accorded the degree of respect or deference that their seniority and government positions would normally merit.” 

Professor Rodrik concedes that universities should “be open to diverse viewpoints,” he has an issue with normalizing and legitimizing…an odious presidency.” 

“Trump violates on a daily basis the norms on which liberal democracy rests.” Professor Rodrik claims. “He undermines freedom of the media and independence of the judiciary, upholds racism and sectarianism, and promotes prejudice. He blithely utters one falsehood after another.”

The professor cites the controversy over the University of Virginia’s appointment of former Trump advisor Marc Short to a senior fellow position, Professor Rodrik criticizes UVA for expressing positive sentiments about anyone with ties to Trump. 

The economic professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government goes on to identify the “illiberal” political agenda of Trump and his supporters as a “stain” which “covers economic policy makers.” 

Researchers Ask: ‘Can There Be Capitalism Without Racism?’ 

The University of California-Davis Humanities Institute is running a multi-year research initiative regarding “Racial Capitalism” but has yet to actually define the term. The program is one of four ongoing “Mellon Research Initiatives” at UC-Davis sponsored by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. 

“Each of the four receive a generous multi-year funding package that supports a two-year postdoctoral fellow, three years of event programming and recruitment and research awards for graduate students,” according to the university. 

The initiative as originally launched in Fall of 2017, but the UC-Davis Humanities Institute has highlighted it as a main focus of research this year.

“The historical relationship between race and capitalism is one of the most enduring controversial debates in the U.S. histography,” it states on the initiative’s website.

Mail Time!

• Bill, I am not sure I totally agree with your analysis of Cuomo's comments that "America was never really great" based on left-wing ideology. I interpreted his remarks more political in nature. As you pointed out, the comments made came on the tail end of a speech regarding stricter sex trafficking laws in New York, so he tied in the inequality of the sexes. The point is, his comments were based on a liberal agenda for certain combined with political motivations in my humble opinion. In conclusion - it was an untrue, ill-advised statement no matter what prompted it.

• My stepson works for the mayor of Chicago. I told him yesterday I did not think he would get reelected because of all the murders and that trump might move in the national guard suddenly someday to stop them. He laughed and said those people do not vote so his people were not worried about them. I thought that was rather sad to say but what are your thoughts? 

• You are correct about the gravity of the atrocity which has occurred in this Catholic Church scandal and cover ups. It is totally unacceptable, and the Church must forcefully respond to rid this plague once and for all. You also correctly defend the tenets of the Catholic faith which are not the problem. You are mistaken, however, that the Church is "on the ropes." I have it on high authority the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. This is a severe blow but the Church will persevere. Keep the faith.

Word of the Day: Unctuous