Sunday, October 6, 2019

Delle Donne Returns; Mystics Are on Cusp of W.N.B.A. Title


By BY HOWARD MEGDAL from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2IsfaLC

Trump scolds Romney over criticism about Trump's China words

Trump scolds Romney over criticism about Trump's China wordsMost Republican leaders were silent or supportive of President Donald Trump's public call for another foreign government, China, to investigate his political foe, while a handful voiced concern that the president was trying to enlist a rival power in his reelection effort. Several House and Senate leaders stayed mum as Trump escalated the controversy that has fueled an impeachment inquiry and plowed through another norm of American politics. The quiet continued as House Democrats released a trove of text messages showing U.S. diplomats conducted a campaign to push Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump next November, and Biden's son Hunter.




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Romney ramps up rhetoric on Trump, but what's his next move?

Romney ramps up rhetoric on Trump, but what's his next move?In the hours after President Donald Trump called on China to investigate his political foe — plowing through another political guardrail — Democrats and Trump critics looked for signs that his party would slap him back. Twenty-four hours later, Mitt Romney stepped in. Romney's delayed criticism seemed to capture the senator's continued discomfort with the role of chief Trump critic, and a possible reluctance to restart the kind of back-and-forth that revved up on Saturday as Trump took to Twitter.




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Second Whistleblower Has Given Evidence to IG on Ukraine Call

Second Whistleblower Has Given Evidence to IG on Ukraine CallYuri Gripas/ReutersA second whistleblower with first-hand knowledge of the allegations that sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump has already given evidence to Michael Atkinson, the head of the intelligence community’s internal watchdog office. Mark Zaid, the attorney for the first whistleblower, confirmed to The Daily Beast, that he represents both people. ABC News first reported that the second whistleblower had spoken to the inspector general. It is not clear if the second whistleblower is the same person described in a New York Times article published last week, or if this is a new, third, whistleblower prepared to collaborate with the impeachment investigation. That person was reported to have spoken with Atkinson, but he or she had not yet asked for protection under the official whistleblower program. Zaid told ABC that his newest whistleblower client, also described as an intelligence official, had first-hand knowledge of alleged wrongdoing by the president in his dealings with Ukraine over investigating Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.The attorney later told CNN’s Jake Tapper that his client has “not filed own complaint” and does not need to, and Zaid confirmed that his client has “first-hand knowledge that supports the first whistleblower.”On Sunday, Zaid confirmed on Twitter that his new client had first-hand knowledge of the call. “They also made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against,” he wrote on Twitter. “This WBer has first hand knowledge.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




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Hong Kong Plunges Deeper into Crisis as Protests Break Out for the Third Consecutive Day

Hong Kong Plunges Deeper into Crisis as Protests Break Out for the Third Consecutive DayMonths of unrest have plunged the city into a deep political crisis




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Five murdered in Austrian ski town of Kitzbuehel: police

Five murdered in Austrian ski town of Kitzbuehel: policeAustrian police are investigating the suspected murder of five people in the ski town of Kitzbuehel, police said on Sunday. The suspected perpetrator had been detained, Austrian press agency APA reported, citing police. The police spokesman declined comment to Reuters on the local media reports.




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Protesters in Ukraine rally against election in rebel east

Protesters in Ukraine rally against election in rebel eastThousands rallied in Ukraine's capital Sunday against the president's plan to hold a local election in the country's rebel-held east, a move seen by some as a major concession to Russia. Ukraine, Russia and Russia-backed separatists on Tuesday signed a tentative agreement on guidelines for holding a local election in eastern Ukraine, where a five-year conflict between the rebels and Ukrainian troops has killed more than 13,000 people. France and Germany, which help broker the talks, hailed the agreement.




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Portugal's ruling Socialists win election without outright majority

Portugal's ruling Socialists (PS) won Sunday's parliamentary election but fell short of an outright majority, meaning Prime Minister Antonio Costa will need to negotiate a new deal with one or both of his far-left allies in the previous legislature.


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Hong Kong protesters defy mask ban as city grinds to halt

Hong Kong protesters defy mask ban as city grinds to haltMasked pro-democracy protesters marched through Hong Kong in defiance of a ban on face coverings as much of the city ground to a halt on Saturday, with the subway suspended and many shops shuttered following another night of violence. Thousands of protesters staged unsanctioned marches and flashmob protests at multiple locations, a day after the city's leader outlawed face coverings at protests, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century. The latest acts of resistance came after a night of widespread chaos as hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalised shops, set fires and blocked roads.




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Everything we know about Hunter Biden's business connections in China

Everything we know about Hunter Biden's business connections in ChinaPresident Donald Trump has made multiple allegations about the global business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden's son.




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Chinese military issues warning to Hong Kong protesters amid clashes as tens of thousands defy face mask ban

Chinese military issues warning to Hong Kong protesters amid clashes as tens of thousands defy face mask banThe Chinese military issued an unprecedented warning amid another night of chaos and violence in Hong Kong on Sunday, as masked protesters risked tear gas and arrest to march in defiance of an emergency ban on face coverings. As the initially peaceful mass protest on Hong Kong island and in Kowloon spiralled into violent clashes with riot police, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army warned protesters they could be arrested for targeting its barracks with laser lights. The warning, the first of its kind during four months of escalating unrest in the global financial hub, was displayed on a yellow flag as hundreds of demonstrators shone laser pens at troops in fatigues. The soldiers responded with spotlights as they filmed the scene. The nearby Kowloon Tong metro station was trashed, its windows smashed into tiny pieces. The entire mass transit rail system, which has been targeted by protesters who believe it has colluded with the government and police against them, was suspended on Sunday evening. Wildcat protests sprang up and disappeared quickly around the city as bands of protesters played a game of cat and mouse with the riot police. The most radical among them threw Molotov cocktails at advancing officers, who responded with tear gas and arrests. A journalist was struck on the head, briefly setting his helmet on fire. An emergency law has criminalised protesters wearing face masks Credit: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images In one isolated moment of brutality, a taxi driver was badly beaten by protesters after he drove into them. It is not clear what sparked the incident. The day had started out peacefully as tens of thousands of protesters - including families with children and elderly people - attended two large unsanctioned rallies. It was a sign of the widespread public anger at a move by Carrie Lam, the city's chief executive, to use a sweeping Emergency Regulations Ordinance to enforce a face mask ban that many believe impairs their freedoms. “We are suppressed by the strong government. They suppress us through a law to threaten the people to stay at home. That’s why we have to come out to voice our opinions,” said a woman called Mrs Mak, as she sheltered under her husband’s umbrella. “I have to come out to fight for the youngsters, because I am nearly 60. I come out because I have to support them. The future belongs to them. I want the government to hear what people are saying,” she said. The crowd was visibly nervous, at times stopping and running backwards, after months of angry confrontations between police and protesters that have resulted in over 2,000 arrests, two live shootings and the firing over more than 4,000 tear gas canisters. Some protesters lit fires to block traffic in the city centre Credit: Vincent Thian/AP By mid-afternoon the police had launched tear gas at protesters erecting barricades along major routes, before pushing demonstrators back and making multiple arrests in the shopping district of Causeway Bay. Ms Lam had justified the ban as necessary to end the turmoil that began with a controversial mainland extradition bill but has since spiralled into a wider call for democratic rights. However, many in Hong Kong believe the move has only fuelled mounting public anger. On Sunday morning a group of pro-democracy lawmakers failed in a high court bid to seek an emergency injunction against the ban, arguing that emergency powers bypassed the legislature and contravened the city’s mini-constitution. Sharron Fast, a law expert at the University of Hong Kong, warned that the use of the emergency regulation had given the chief executive an “unlimited amount of power, in which she alone can enact laws”. She added that Ms Lam could use it to enact more draconian measures including censorship laws. Protesters who marched in torrential rain voiced their anger that the mask ban would not also be applied to the police. Demonstrators have included an independent investigation into police brutality as one of their key demands. Ms Fast said that granting that demand could help to calm the situation. “I think it is still not too little too late. It would take some time, but it would have a pacifying effect.”




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India clampdown hits Kashmir's Silicon Valley

India clampdown hits Kashmir's Silicon ValleyThe coffee machines have been cold, computer screens blank and work stations empty for two months in Kashmir's Silicon Valley as an Indian communications blockade on the troubled region takes a growing toll on business. The dozen software development companies in the Rangreth industrial estate on the edge of Srinagar bring tens of millions of dollars of crucial revenue into the region each year. Pakistan also claims Kashmir which the two neighbours divided when they became independent in 1947 and have squabbled over ever since.




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APNewsBreak: Evers issuing 1st Wisconsin pardons in 9 years

APNewsBreak: Evers issuing 1st Wisconsin pardons in 9 yearsDemocratic Gov. Tony Evers will issue Wisconsin's first pardons in nine years, invoking his constitutional power to grant clemency to four people. Evers plans to issue the pardons Monday, the first he's making as governor after he re-started the pardons board in June. Evers' predecessor, Republican Scott Walker, never issued a single pardon over his eight years as governor.




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Egypt says talks over Ethiopia's Nile dam deadlocked, calls for mediation

Egypt says talks over Ethiopia's Nile dam deadlocked, calls for mediationEgypt said on Saturday that talks with Sudan and Ethiopia over the operation of a $4 billion hydropower dam that Ethiopia is constructing on the Nile have reached a deadlock, and it called for international mediation. Egypt relies on the Nile for 90% of its fresh water.




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Nazi Germany Had A Plan To Win World War II: Kill These 3 People

Nazi Germany Had A Plan To Win World War II: Kill These 3 PeopleA wild plan.




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US Supreme Court to review Kansas' lack of insanity defense

US Supreme Court to review Kansas' lack of insanity defenseThe U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to consider how far states can go toward eliminating the insanity defense in criminal trials as it reviews the case of a Kansas man sentenced to die for killing four relatives. The high court planned to hear arguments Monday in James Kraig Kahler's case.




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Thousands rally in Kiev to protest autonomy plan for eastern Ukraine

Thousands rally in Kiev to protest autonomy plan for eastern UkraineThousands of people gathered in Kiev's main square on Sunday to protest against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's deal with Moscow to grant autonomy to Ukraine's pro-Russian rebel-held east as part of efforts to end a five-year conflict there. In the first breakthrough toward a possible peace deal in years, envoys from Moscow and Kiev agreed at talks on Tuesday on an election schedule for the Donbass region and on legislation giving it special status. Ukraine also agreed to call back its forces from the current contact line with separatist fighters.




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State Department has responded to congressional request for documents: Pompeo

State Department has responded to congressional request for documents: PompeoThe U.S. State Department has issued an initial response to a Democratic-controlled congressional committee's request for documents related to the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee issued a subpoena on Sept. 27 for Pompeo, a close Trump ally, seeking to compel him to hand over documents concerning contact with the Ukrainian government.




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If the House Won’t Vote, Impeachment Inquiry Is Just a Democratic Stunt

If the House Won’t Vote, Impeachment Inquiry Is Just a Democratic Stunt‘The House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”It’s right there in black-and-white: In article I, section 2, clause 5, our Constitution vests the entirety of the power to call for removal of the president of the United States in a single body — the House.Not in the Speaker of the House. In the House of Representatives. The institution, not one of its members.To be sure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a very powerful government official: second in the line of succession to the presidency; arguably, the most powerful member of Congress. She wields decisive influence on the business of her chamber. She even has the power to induce the House to vote on whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry.But she does not have the power to impeach on her own.In the end, Speaker Pelosi is just one member, a representative elected biannually by one district (in her case, the 12th district of California, centered in San Francisco and not particularly representative of the nation at large). Sure, she enjoys primus inter pares status because she is chosen by a majority of the House’s 435 members. But like each of those other members, her vote counts as just one — in a body that generally requires 218 votes to get the important things done.She is the Speaker. She is not the House. She does not have the authority to call for the president’s removal. She can argue for it, like the other members. She can vote on it, like the other members. But she cannot do it by herself. Only the House, acting as an institution, can do that.The House acts by voting. It has never voted to conduct an inquiry into whether President Trump should be impeached. Consequently, there is no House impeachment inquiry. There is a partisan exhibition of synchronized dyspepsia.This exhibition includes strident letters from a cabal of committee chairs, all Democrats, falsely claiming that a refusal by Trump-administration officials to comply with their demands for information and testimony “shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry.”In point of fact, the House has no impeachment inquiry; congressional Democrats have an impeachment political campaign.Under federal law, the offense of obstructing Congress applies when “any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House.” Again, neither the House nor any of its committees has voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry. There is no formal impeachment proceeding to obstruct. Furthermore, the letters in question are not actually demands carrying the compulsory force of law; technically, they are just informal requests. No one is required to comply with a mere request, and refusing to do so is not evidence of anything, let alone obstruction.The House has issued some subpoenas. For example, the House Oversight Committee has just directed a subpoena to the White House, addressed to chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, reportedly demanding the production of a vast array of records (documents, communications, etc.) pertaining to the president’s conduct of relations with Ukraine.Typical of the Democrats’ legerdemain in this matter, the Oversight Committee has not voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry, nor did it vote to issue subpoenas (as, by contrast, the Oversight Committee voted to subpoena the White House just a few weeks ago for records germane to a suspected violation of federal recordkeeping laws). Instead, Chairman Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) strategically waited until the House closed for a two-week recess; then issued a memo on Wednesday, absurdly claiming that there was too much urgency to wait so a vote could be taken; then issued the subpoena late Friday, thus ensuring that no Republican could object and no Democrat would be forced to go on record supporting impeachment, which much of the public strongly opposes. Under House rules, the Oversight chairman has been delegated unilateral authority to issue subpoenas, so the subpoena is valid, but it is also pure gamesmanship.So is the explanation for the subpoena — offered in a letter that Chairman Cummings jointly signed with Chairmen Adam Schiff and Eliot Engel, respectively of the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. After a couple of pages of throat-clearing about the purported “impeachment inquiry,” the chairmen observe that, even without such an inquiry, the Oversight Committee has its own independent authority to conduct oversight investigations and issue subpoenas. In other words, information is actually being demanded under Congress’s routine authority to scrutinize executive activities. There would be nothing extraordinary about it . . . except that senior Democrats have decided to hang an “impeachment” sign on the exercise, hoping you won’t notice that the House has not voted to explore impeachment, and that its Democratic leaders are going out of their way to avoid such a vote.In their letter, Cummings, Schiff, and Engel give Mulvaney the Democrats now standard admonition about obstruction. It is nonsense. Even when a formal House committee proceeding is underway, such that the obstruction statute could clearly apply, there is no legal presumption that the recipient’s refusal to comply with a subpoena is evidence of obstruction.Obstruction happens when there is tampering with documents or witnesses. Presumptively, a person who refuses to comply with a lawful document demand is not tampering with the documents; to the contrary, the subpoena recipient is asserting a legal claim of privilege that excuses compliance. If I am a lawyer, for example, and a congressional committee subpoenas notes from my meeting with a client, my refusal to surrender the notes is not an obstruction of the House’s investigation. It is an assertion that the attorney–client privilege justifies my withholding of confidential communications. If I am right about that, the legal wrong is Congress’s issuance of a subpoena, not my refusal to honor it.But am I right about it? We won’t know until we go to court and sort it out. Until a subpoena is litigated, it is scurrilous to claim, as Democrats do, that noncompliance with it amounts to felony obstruction. And equally scurrilous is the Democratic chairmen’s extortionate claim that noncompliance creates “an adverse inference” against the president and his chief-of-staff. If a prosecutor claimed that a suspect’s refusal to answer questions created an adverse inference of guilt, Democrats would likely have the prosecutor brought up on disciplinary charges for flouting the Fifth Amendment. There is no adverse inference drawn against a person who, in good faith reliance on a lawful privilege that plausibly applies, refuses to comply with a government demand.Congressional Democrats are well aware of this. What do you suppose would happen if the Justice Department or a litigant in a civil case decided to issue a grand-jury or trial subpoena to a member of Congress, or a House staffer? Actually, you need not suppose, because the House has elaborate rules for this situation (they’ve been in place for years, with each new Congress essentially reaffirming them — see, e.g., here, pp. 5–6). The House prescribes a thorough review, with paramount consideration of all “the privileges and rights of the House” to withhold information from the executive branch, the grand jury, the courts, and the public. The demand is examined so that the House may make its own determination of whether the information sought is relevant and material to the investigation or proceeding in question (i.e., do they really need this information? Is the demand overly broad and intrusive?). And most significantly, the House weighs its constitutional immunity, particularly under the Speech or Debate Clause, to refuse compliance even if the evidence in question is critical. As any lawmaker will tell you, when the House relies on its privileges to tell an investigator to go pound sand, that is not obstruction; it’s the law.So, too, for the president. The conduct of foreign relations is a near-plenary power of the chief executive. We are not talking here about oversight of executive agencies created by Congress. The committees are aiming their subpoena demands at the place where the president’s constitutional power and privileges are at their most formidable. Of course the White House is not going to start surrendering records just because Chairman Cummings wrote a subpoena. This is going to be a protracted court battle, not because anyone is obstructing but because both sides have legitimate interests to protect.Now, let’s be clear about something.None of us should object in principle to the Democrats’ position that they are entitled to explore whether the president should be impeached. I do not agree that President Trump has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. But to the extent Democrats do, or at least say they do, they have the authority to make that case to the country.In 2014, I wrote a book called Faithless Execution, which explored the case for impeaching President Obama. Naturally, I was castigated in Democratic (and many Republican) circles for having the temerity to mention the I-word in connection with The One. But that was to be expected — which, essentially, was my point.The Framers designed impeachment as a political remedy, not a legal one. I argued not that President Obama was a bad person but that he was behaving as the kind of chief executive the Framers feared — i.e., defying, in several ways, the separation-of-powers structure of the Constitution. Nevertheless, because impeachment is political, it is not enough to have acts that arguably qualify as impeachable abuses of power; there must also be a public consensus that gives Congress the political will to remove the president from power.That will does not spontaneously appear. It is up to Congress to build a political case that convinces Americans. It must be a strong case that cuts across partisan lines, because impeaching a president is a profound challenge to national cohesion, and because the two-thirds’ supermajority vote required in the Senate for removal ensures that impeachment is reserved for only truly egregious misconduct.Therefore, if lawmakers have a genuine belief that the president should be removed, it is their obligation to make that political case to the public, and they must have the opportunity to do so. I concluded that it would be foolish to attempt to impeach Obama absent public support for his removal. If you’re really worried about abuse of power, an unsuccessful impeachment attempt is apt to encourage more of it. My point, though, was to stress how essential impeachment was in the Framers’ design — “indispensable,” as Madison put it. If congressional Republicans believed it would be too politically damaging to try to build the case for impeachment, that was a rational choice, but one that had real downsides — namely, if there is no credible threat of impeachment, a president has no incentive to modify his behavior; the president is free to ignore laws and constitutional restraints, limited only by his own sense of political vulnerability.While I don’t share their conclusions, I have a grudging admiration for the Democrats’ willingness to do what Republicans would not: Make the public case that a president they see as deeply objectionable should be ousted. Making the case does not oblige congressional Democrats to vote on articles of impeachment; they are entitled to explore whether there should be articles of impeachment.But the question is: Do the Democrats have a good-faith belief that President Trump has engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, or are they engaged in a political stunt, the objectives of which are to appease irrational elements of their base and to batter Trump for 2020 election purposes?If they have a good-faith belief that the president’s impeachment must be considered, they owe it to the country to vote on conducting an impeachment inquiry, rather than continue dodging accountability. Indeed, if Democrats really believe what they say — if they really believe there have been appalling abuses of power, rather than mere missteps or political disputes — then they should be proud to vote on it.Only the House can impeach the president. If there is to be an inquiry about invoking this most solemn and consequential of the House’s powers, the House must vote to conduct it. It is not for the Speaker and her adjutants to decree that there is an inquiry. If the inquiry is to be legitimate, the House as a whole must decide to conduct it.Members of the House are the representatives of the sovereign — the People. In November 2020, the People are scheduled to vote on whether Donald Trump should keep his job. If Democrats, who control the House, truly believe the president has committed impeachable offenses and is so unfit for his duties that we can’t wait just 13 months for the sovereign to render that verdict, then they should vote to conduct an impeachment inquiry. If they are afraid to vote on it, then they shouldn’t be doing it. And, as their committee chairmen are fond of saying, we should draw a negative inference against them.




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AP Explains: How the ground shifted on Trump impeachment

AP Explains: How the ground shifted on Trump impeachmentAfter more than two years of jousting over President Donald Trump's conduct, the ground has shifted in Congress and a move toward impeachment has broken free of constraints. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who for months had been a powerful brake on restive Democrats wanting to impeach Trump — launched a formal inquiry toward that end, accusing the president of "betrayal of his oath of office," betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of American elections. Six House committees are investigating various aspects of alleged impropriety by the president, with the intelligence committee taking the lead in examining Trump's actions with Ukraine.




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Problematic relatives: A true American political tradition

Problematic relatives: A true American political traditionJoe Biden is the latest to navigate this tricky terrain. President Donald Trump has sought, without evidence, to implicate Biden and his son Hunter in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father, then vice president, was leading the Obama administration's diplomatic dealings with Ukraine.




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Four killed, five wounded in shooting at Kansas bar

Four killed, five wounded in shooting at Kansas barAuthorities believe the suspects had been at Tequila KC Bar, a private club, earlier in the night and left before returning around 1:30 a.m. with at least one handgun and started shooting, Kansas City Police Department spokesman Thomas Tomasic told a news conference on Sunday. "We do not have any specific suspect information yet," Tomasic said.




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Impeach Trump, Repeatedly


By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2MjYAhZ

Guardian identified for small child found wandering Sunday morning by Fort Myers police

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