News from the note…
A round up of the day’s news that might be of interest to you.
Consider this an OPEN THREAD, folks. Chat about any of the stories listed, share links to stories that caught your eye today, and generally have a good time discussing whatever you want.
Trump policy shop filters facts to fit his message
From Politico
President Donald Trump’s appointees in the health department have deleted positive references to Obamacare, altered a report that undermined the administration’s positions on refugees and added anti-abortion language to the strategic plan — part of an ideological overhaul of the agency’s research office.
While every administration puts its imprint on the executive branch and promotes ideas that advance its own agenda, this one has ventured several steps further — from scrubbing links to climate change studies from an Environmental Protection Agency website to canceling an Interior Department study on coal mining risks and suppressing reports on water contamination and the dangers of formaldehyde.
Inside the Health and Human Services policy research shop, staffers say the political pressures to tailor facts to fit Trump’s message have been unprecedented.
Giuliani: Trump tweets have ‘laid out his defense very clearly’ against obstruction claims
From The Hill
Rudy Giuliani suggested Sunday that President Trump may not have to testify in special counsel’s Robert Mueller investigation because of his tweets.
“A lot of his tweets have been very helpful. The reason he may not have to testify is that he’s laid out his defense very clearly,” Giuliani said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Giuliani, who is Trump’s lead attorney in the Russia investigation, was responding to a New York Times report that Mueller is reviewing Trump’s tweets as he pursues an investigation into whether the president obstructed justice.
Sen. Ron Johnson hopes $12 billion aid package for farmers “never gets implemented”
From CBS News
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says that the Trump administration’s $12 billion bailout for American farmers hurt by tariffs would be a “mess” to implement, saying it’s his responsibility to convey to constituents “the harm” caused by ongoing trade disputes. But Johnson said he’s “encouraged” by the president’s latest round of talks with the European Union, which he said shows Mr. Trump is “moving forward.”
“President Trump is trying to shock the world trading system because ever since World War II America has been very generous. Our trading partners have taken advantage of our generosity,” Johnson said on Sunday. He said he welcomed a commitment by the U.S. and EU to halt imposing new tariffs while negotiating a new trade deal.
“In terms of a truce on the trade war, let’s start negotiating that deal. That I would, you know, certainly provide a united front against China, which is the main problem when it comes to trade,” he added.
Johnson’s criticism of the president’s trade policy was much softer in tone than it was earlier in the week. In a letter to the White House, Johnson wrote that permanent damage had already been done and a $12 billion aid package to farmers was reminiscent of a “Soviet-era economy.”
Pressed on Sunday whether he supports the president’s bailout package for farmers, Johnson replied: “No, no, no, no. Hopefully it never gets implemented.”
5 metrics that suggest Democrats are poised for big wins 100 days to the midterms
From CNN
We’re now just 100 days away from the midterms, and the big question on everyone’s mind is whether Democrats will net-gain 23 seats and gain control of the House of Representatives.
A look at five different metrics suggests that Democrats are favored to take back the House, though each of them suggest a different level of confidence.
The national indicators suggest Democrats are in a good position, while a race-by-race examination finds them in an even better one. In all cases though, the margin of error is wide enough so that Republicans have a real chance of maintaining control.
Trump faces long odds in avoiding big spending bill
From The Hill
The House has left for recess, July is turning to August and Congress is again facing the prospect of having to prevent a shutdown by passing a massive end-of-year spending bill.
President Trump vowed after signing a $1.3 trillion omnibus earlier this year that he’d “never sign another bill like this again.”
But the prospect that he’ll have to at least sign a big package of spending bills is growing.
While the Senate is staying in Washington for much of the August recess, in part to work on appropriation measures, some think a big year-end spending package will be tough to avoid.
“The longer this takes, the more likely it is that it’ll be an omni, which everybody hates,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), an appropriator who has served 16 years in the House and seen his share of massive spending bills.
A Sunday Bonus Note From The “Trump Country” File
How white supremacists split a quiet Rust Belt town
From Washington Post
The traffic sign that greets visitors on the south side of Ulysses, a tiny town in rural far north-central Pennsylvania, is suitably quaint — a silhouette of a horse-drawn cart reminding drivers that the Amish use the roads, too. But on the north side of town, along the main thoroughfare, is a far different display: a home dedicated to Adolf Hitler, where star-spangled banners and Nazi flags flutter side by side and wooden swastikas stand on poles.
White supremacy has had a continuous presence in Ulysses and surrounding Potter County since the Ku Klux Klan arrived a century ago, giving the town — with a population today of about 650 — improbable national significance. In the mid-2000s, it hosted the World Aryan Congress, a gathering of neo-Nazis, skinheads and Klan members.
This year, after a sting operation, federal prosecutors charged six members of an Aryan Strike Force cell with weapons and drug offenses, contending that they had plotted a suicide attack at an anti-racism protest. A terminally ill member was willing to hide a bomb in his oxygen tank and blow himself up, prosecutors said. The group had met and conducted weapons training in Ulysses.
