DAM BURST: Residents who live along two lakes and a river in Michigan urged to evacuate after dam fails following days of heavy flooding across parts of the Midwest. https://t.co/EwlVQl6Fdm pic.twitter.com/HfDKWkulDz

— ABC News (@ABC) May 20, 2020

Rice and her cohort in the Obama White House were and are rotten people

EXPLOSIVE RICE MEMO DECLASSIFIED:

We have known for more than two years that, on the day of President Trump’s inauguration and just minutes before she left the White House for the last time, Susan Rice, then President Obama’s National Security Adviser, wrote a memo to herself about “Russia.” Specifically, she documented the fact, presumably for her later protection should the matter become public, that on January 5, 2017, President Obama had directed her to lie to her incoming counterpart, General Michael Flynn, about the Russia investigation that was then ongoing, in which General Flynn himself was, unbeknownst to him, one of the targets. This deception violated all historic norms, but it was vital if the Obama holdovers (James Comey et al.) were to be able to continue their “Russia investigation,” a bare pretext for unraveling Trump’s presidency, post-inauguration.

Read the whole thing.

Flashbacks:

“I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today. And let’s back up and recall where we have been. The president of the United States accused his predecessor, President Obama, of wiretapping Trump Tower during the campaign. Nothing of the sort occurred, and we have heard that confirmed by the director of the FBI, who also pointed out that no president, no White House can order the surveillance of another American citizen.”

—“Susan Rice: The world wonders and worries if the White House can be trusted,” PBS News Hour, March 22, 2017.

“Rick Grenell is one of the most nasty, dishonest people I’ve ever encountered.” Fmr. National Security Adviser Susan Rice slams President Trump’s pick as acting DNI Richard Grenell, calling him a “hack and a shill.”

—MSNBC, February 21st, 2020.

Hat tip to Ed Driscoll who strung this together

NFL CONSIDERS OFFERING INCENTIVES TO DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE

Professional sports have done nothing to win back my viewership. They have done more to confirm the appropriateness of my decision to stop watching or participating in their business.

#BREAKING: Sen. Mitch McConnell: "Senate Republicans are taking steps to issue new subpoenas to a wide variety of Obama Administration officials." https://t.co/61CZraQnBb pic.twitter.com/BS8mEP9NCo

— The Hill (@thehill) May 19, 2020

Media Must Report Truth Of Anti-Trump Spy Operation Before It’s Too Late For Them

As facts about the Obama administration’s spying and leaking are spilling out, media have a brief window of opportunity to salvage some credibility.

Don’t hold your breath.

A 49-year-old man has fallen out of a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital for coronavirus patients and died, Russian media reports. https://t.co/i8TvxFfKRb

Three Russian doctors treating coronavirus patients also fell out of windows in recent weeks. https://t.co/qvaQOevRDq

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 18, 2020

Unanticipated headline of the day

Attorneys General from 15 states file brief in support of DOJ’s motion to dismiss Flynn case

Kenneth Frantz:

“…Just returned from 15 days on the border, from San Diego, Calif to Brownsville, TX. I droned and filmed all 23 new wall construction sites along the way. 50 hours of video taken onsite at over 80 locations. A huge undertaking. My video of entire Trump Wall will be published in one week on this channel.

During a trip to Arizona and New Mexico, I filmed the construction of new border wall being built east of Douglas, Arizona. An extremely impressive undertaking. This video hopes to remind viewers how incredibly innovative & productive our construction industry is. It reminded me of the Alaska Pipeline Project, in which I personally managed a small portion of. After the politics settle, our relationship with Mexico will dramatically improve, the environment will be just fine (as was the environment in Alaska post project), the word “illegal” immigrant will be gone, and in its place increased & rejuvenating legal immigration…”

Part 2 of Maria Bartiromo’s interview with the president.

The Treasury Department Spied on Flynn, Manafort, and the Trump Family, Says Whistleblower

Mobilization and weaponization of all branches of government for political advantage

“…Treasury Department regularly surveilled retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s financial records and transactions beginning in December 2015 and well into 2017, before, during and after when he served at the White House as President Donald Trump’s National Security Director, a former senior Treasury Department official, and veteran of the intelligence community, told the Star Newspapers.

“I started seeing things that were not correct, so I did my own little investigation, because I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was correct” she said. “You never want to draw attention to something if there is not anything there.”

The whistleblower said she only saw metadata, that is names and dates when the general’s financial records were accessed. “I never saw what they saw.”

By March 2016, the whistleblower said she and a colleague, who was detailed to Treasury from the intelligence community, became convinced that the surveillance of Flynn was not tied to legitimate criminal or national security concerns, but was straight-up political surveillance among other illegal activity occurring at Treasury. . . . This ruse was to get around using classified resources to surveil Americans, she said. Once the Treasury personnel had enough information about someone they were targeting from the black box, they would go to the white box for faster and more informed search.

It was routine for these searches that had no criminal nor national security predicate, merely a political predicate, she said…”

The Left Is What It Once Loathed

We warmly welcome the announcement of the formation of a new Government of Israel. We are extremely fortunate to have such strong and experienced partners in Jerusalem, and we will work together to advance the security and prosperity of our peoples. pic.twitter.com/M8KpYHbNFV

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 17, 2020

Peter Navarro:

“I’m glad Mr. Obama has a new job as Joe Biden’s press secretary. I know for the record that in his speech that I read there was no mention of manufacturing, no mention of China. As far as I’m concerned, his administration was a kumbaya of incompetence in which we saw millions of manufacturing jobs go off to China. His new normal was a flatline in terms of wage growth.”

Multiple clips here

2. It’s obvious. Romney is using the media’s hatred of the president to rebuild his legacy with the DC media. That’s his audience. He’s a shallow and calculating lifelong politician — a narcissist.https://t.co/tCJTeM0OMV

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) May 17, 2020