The Tampa Bay Times announced that it would cut about 50 jobs after new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration dramatically increased the cost of newsprint.

Source

Of course Trump also has subtle ways to attack newspapers

The first step in becoming a dictator is to want to be one, and given the way he fawns over every autocrat he's met I think theres no doubt that Spanky wants to be one. I really hope the U.S. legal checks and balances are enough, I would previously have been sure they were until I saw how the Reps folded. Given that, all that remains is the hope that his stupidity is enough of a check.

President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has dropped his libel lawsuit against Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed, Cohen's attorney, David Schwartz, told Politico.

Cohen had sued the two entities in January over claims made about him in the so-called Steele dossier.

The document, compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, made (so far) unverified claims that Cohen had suspicious ties to Russian figures.

Source

If the FBI can persuade Cohen to cooperate with them then he is the person most likely to know if Trump has any "dirty laundry".

Trump and the GOP have described the dossier as false or "the Dirty Dossier" or "discredited and phony" so it is surprising that Cohen is walking away from this opportunity of making easy compensation money from defamation damages?

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It is naive to assume my posts are my own work

Poor old Trump seems to be drifting ever further away from reality!

Today
Trump called up the National Guard under Title 32 so they are under the governor’s command and control and the Feds have to pay!

The federal judge who presided over a case surrounding one of the FBI's most notorious scandals in recent years to protect the identity of Whitey Bulger, a former gangster and FBI informant chided conservative media personalities Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh for trying to tie special counsel Robert Mueller to the episode.

"I was unsparing in my criticism of the FBI and Justice Department officials who were responsible for this wrongful imprisonment. I named names where the record supported it," she wrote. "I resoundingly condemned the government in an unusual court session in which I read my conclusions."

"Mr. Mueller is mentioned nowhere in my opinion; nor in the submissions of the plaintiffs’ lead trial counsel, Juliane Balliro; nor in 'Black Mass,' the book about Mr. Bulger and the FBI written by former reporters for The Boston Globe."

Source

Sean Hannity has the title of opinion host for Fox News although he likes to pretend he is a journalist, he blasted the FBI for their search warrant on Trump's lawyer Cohen without mentioning he is a client of Cohen

Source

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It is naive to assume my posts are my own work

In court today Michael Dreeben, an attorney for the Justice Department, told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson that part of Mueller’s probe into Manafort is investigating whether the former campaign chair provided “back channels” to Russia.

Comey is being interviewed live on CNN. I can't stand Jake Tapper.

Busy day today

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a nationwide injunction that blocks the Trump administration from putting certain conditions on federal grant funding to force so-called sanctuary cities to comply with immigration enforcement efforts.

A three-judge panel on the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Chicago is likely to succeed in its challenge to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s mandate ¨

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It must be Friday:

Rudy Giuliani yesterday decided to join Trump's legal team (they are best buds). He says that he should be able to clean up the Meuller investigation in a week or two.

Great GIF about the news on The Daily Show's Twitter account (see the one with the skier).

https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/sta...81733173628928

Yup, Rudy will get to the bottom of all of this in no time at all. Or the top. Or the middle, or the side.

Now you are all being silly!

It is obvious!

Rudy will persuade Trump to confess and then the probe will be quickly closed.

It is definitely Friday

Now the US is an exporter of 1.5 million barrels per day of high grade oils you would think Trump would be happy?

I am sure the US shale oil producers welcome the high prices!

Trump sure has talent...for making some of the weirdest choices of people to be on his "best, the very best most amazing team EVER". Believe me.

Very definitely Friday
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I am desperately trying to think of a suitable comment!

I'll give it a go...

FFS! Doesn't the DNC have better things to do with its money and time? How about coming up with some viable candidates people actually want to vote for in November?

Anyone interested in reading the actual text of the law suit against the Trump campaign it is here, it runs to 66 pages so make yourself comfortable before starting.

How about Michelle Obama for President

So whatever Rudy manages to do to stop the Mueller probe, this story will run and run....

Hmmmmmmm... Shouldn't they wait for Mueller's report before suing Russia (just putting aside the ridiculousness of attempting to sue the Putin government over anything, let alone this); suing Wikileaks is like trying to catch flames off a bonfire; and as for suing the Trump campaign for winning, well, isn't that what political campaigns are supposed to try to do?

Maybe they should sue the American people, or just under half of them, anyway...

Yet again this week: it isn't still April 1, is it?!

They want to get under the big Don's skin. Stay tuned to see if it works. Should not be long.

"The Washington Post reported that Democrats filed a similar lawsuit in 1972 after Watergate, “The lawsuit echoes a similar legal tactic that the Democratic Party used during the Watergate scandal. In 1972, the DNC filed suit against then President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee seeking $1 million in damages for the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate building.The suit was denounced at the time by Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, who called it a case of ‘sheer demagoguery’ by the DNC. But the civil action brought by former DNC chair Lawrence F. O’Brien was ultimately successful, yielding a $750,000 settlement from the Nixon campaign that was reached on the day in 1974 that Nixon left office.”

"The lawsuit is a trap, and whether it is Stormy Daniels, James Comey, or the Democratic Party, Trump has shown that he lacks the discipline to stay away from the bait. After Trump gets off the golf course today, he will start tweeting, and will not be smart enough to leave this alone.

Trump is a dumber and more corrupt Richard Nixon, so it makes perfect sense that the same strategy that brought Nixon down stands a good chance of taking out Trump."

Source: https://www.politicususa.com/2018/04...onspiracy.html

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Do or do not, there is no try(ing). Yoda

More Friday!

Source

I am no lawyer but some of Trump's tweets about McCabe might well be considered defamation?
example;

Now I'm really pissed.

No parent should be so tortured.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/u...rtner=msft_msn