Putin schedules Trump’s annual employee review

Vladimir Putin has scheduled the annual employee review for his useful idiot, Donald Trump, and thrown in a vacation in Helsinki as a bonus. I’ll bet Trump get’s a glowing review from his boss, and gets a recommendation for a pay raise. He may even get that Trump Tower Moscow he has always dreamed of.

The New York Times reports, Trump and Putin Choose Helsinki for First Summit Meeting:

President Trump plans to meet President Vladimir V. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16 for one-on-one talks, the White House said on Thursday, a politically delicate meeting that will take place while the special counsel continues to investigate the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

It will be the first formal summit meeting for Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, who have spoken together twice on the sidelines of annual gatherings of world leaders, and it will come at a particularly critical moment, with midterm elections looming in the United States.

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LD 12 Democratic Candidate Joe Bisaccia sees the 2018 Election as “A Campaign about the Future Versus the Preserving the Past.”

LD 12 Democratic State House Candidate Joseph Bisaccia

Over coffee and ice water at the Old Town Gilbert café Bergies Coffee, energetic and idealistic Democratic State House Clean Election Candidate Joe Bisaccia outlined his vision for how he would represent LD 12 if he won one of the two State House seats this November.

Bisaccia is one of many educators, inspired by the poor educational policies advanced by the reactionary Republican State Legislature along with the teacher-led Red for Ed Movement, who want to lead a pro-education campaign all the way to State House.

Arizona LD 12 includes parts or all of Gilbert, Queen Creek, and San Tan Valley. Eddie Farnsworth and Travis Grantham now represent the district in the State House. Mr. Bisaccia is one of three Democratic Candidates (the others being Lynsey Robinson and DJ Rothans) running to take one of those House seats. This is a great example of Democratic enthusiasm this election year because Democrats have not fielded candidates in the State House Race for this Legislative District in two out of the last three elections.

Bisaccia sees this race as “a campaign about the future versus the preserving the past” and is running on the issues of education, technology, jobs, and tax reform to advance a pragmatic liberal progressive agenda.

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Sen. Jeff Flake could save America, but will he demonstrate a ‘Profiles in Courage’ moment? (Update: No)

It has always been my experience that Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is all talk and no action. He has received undeserved credit for his speeches warning against the crypto-fascism of Trumpism, because he fails to take any concrete actions to actually do anything to stop it. He consistently votes with Trumpkin positions out of GOP tribalism.

Senator Flake has been completely ineffectual as a senator, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, if Senator Flake is ready for his “Profiles in Courage” moment, he is now in a position to demonstrate true courage, and that actions speak louder than words in the waning days of his Senate career by saving America from the crypto-fascist Trumpism that he decries.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) confirmed Tuesday that he plans to block President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees until Senate Republican leaders allow a vote on legislation aimed at restricting the president’s authority to impose tariffs. Jeff Flake: I Will Block Trump Judicial Nominees Until GOP Votes on Tariffs.

Tariffs?! That’s what gets your panties in a bunch? How about the good of the country and the preservation of our constitutional democracy? Big picture, senator.

“We need to vote on tariffs,” Flake told The Daily Beast. “I’m committed to getting a vote on tariffs. That’s all I’ll say.”

Flake sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the president’s judicial nominees. But Republicans only have an 11 to 10 majority on that panel, meaning that if Flake votes with Democrats to block nominations, the Senate’s calendar would essentially grind to a halt. It would also present a political headache for Senate GOP leaders, who have touted the record pace of judicial confirmations under Trump.

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Republicans complete their epic fail on immigration bills

In other news … Republicans completed their epic fail to pretend to pass an immigration bill on Wednesday when the GOP compromise bill on immigration failed in a worse-than-expected 121-300 vote, effectively ending a months-long GOP drama that had put the caucus’s internal politics on display.

Arizona delegation: Yeah: McSally; Nay: Biggs, Gallego, Gosar, Grijalva, Lesko, O’Halleran, Schweikert, Sinema.

The Hill reports, House rejects second GOP immigration bill:

The measure won far fewer GOP votes than a more hard-line measure rejected last week in a 193-231 vote.

Only 121 Republicans backed it, compared to 193 for the earlier measure. Two Republicans did not cast votes on Wednesday, while 112 Republicans voted against it.

Votes on the bill were twice postponed to give Republicans more time to win support for the measure, which was opposed by Democrats.

But conservatives never really warmed to it, and President Trump put down the effort on Twitter, at one point saying that Republicans should stop wasting their time since the bill was seen as dead on arrival in the Senate.

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