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.
Giuliani: No decision on Trump interview with Mueller until after North Korea summit
From The Hill
President Trump‘s lawyer Rudy Giuliani says in a new interview that any decision on a possible interview between the president and special counsel Robert Mueller would likely take place after Trump’s planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the former New York City mayor calls the unprecedented summit between a North Korean leader and an American president “far more important” than the Mueller probe.
Trump on Kim Jong Un meeting: ‘We’re not going to walk into an Iran deal’
From Politico
President Donald Trump celebrated a dizzying 24 hours of statecraft with North Korea at a rally in Indiana on Thursday evening, but refrained from any campaign-style bombast in describing his outlook for a scheduled summit with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
“I think it’s going to be a very big success,” the president told an energetic crowd assembled at North Side Middle School in Elkhart. “But my attitude is: And if it isn’t, it isn’t. OK? If it isn’t, it isn’t.”
Kushner-backed health care project gets ‘devastating’ review
From Politico
The first stage of a multibillion-dollar military-VA digital health program championed by Jared Kushner has been riddled with problems so severe they could have led to patient deaths, according to a report obtained by POLITICO.
The April 30 report expands upon the findings of a March POLITICO story in which doctors and IT specialists expressed alarm about the software system, describing how clinicians at one of four pilot centers, Naval Station Bremerton, quit because they were terrified they might hurt patients, or even kill them.
GOP has few takers for 2020 convention
From The Hill
Cities across the country are turning down the opportunity to host the 2020 Republican National Convention, where President Trump is expected to be nominated for a second term.
The cities that have rejected hosting duties insist Trump and today’s divisive politics are not factors in their decisions. They instead cite high security costs and disruptions in the normal flow of business and traffic.
But Trump is almost certainly a factor in some cities’ decisions to opt out.
The public case against Trump
From Axios
One thing is true of all major political scandals: What we know in the moment is but a tiny, obscured, partial view of the full story later revealed by investigators.
Why it matters: That’s what makes the Trump-Russia drama all the more remarkable. Forget all we don’t know. The known facts that even Trump’s closest friends don’t deny tell a damning tale that would sink most leaders.
A Saturday Bonus Note from the “Adult Day Care” file
Transcript: White House Chief Of Staff John Kelly’s Interview With NPR
A Bonus Bonus Note from the “Hey, That’s Stargate Command!” file
Things to know: ‘The most secure facility in the world’
From AP
A quarter-century has passed since the end of the nuclear standoff between the United States and the former Soviet Union, but the famous U.S. military command center inside Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain is still alive, tracking new threats from new enemies.
The U.S. blasted a warren of tunnels out of the mountain’s hard granite in the 1960s so officers of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, could survive a nuclear attack.
