• Editor’s note: President Trump’s stand in not working with Congress will again catch-up with him as the results of the last government shutdown ended in an impasse over raising of the debt ceiling limit, and both the President and Congress “kicked the can” down the road to September. If Trump can/will not work with Congress, this is going to be a very difficult Autumn for America.

“DoJ refuses court order to release Flynn transcript”

“Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak”

“Federal prosecutors on Friday declined to make public transcripts of recorded conversations between Michael Flynn and Russia’s ambassador to the United States in December 2016, despite a judge’s order.

“In a court filing Friday, the Justice Department wrote that it did not rely on such recordings to establish Flynn’s guilt or determine a recommendation for his sentencing.

“Prosecutors also failed to release an unredacted version of portions of the Mueller report related to Flynn that the judge had ordered be made public,” by Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind Helderman, Washington Post. Read more

“Donald Trump Won’t Leave White House ‘Voluntarily’ If He Loses 2020 Election, Predicts GOP Candidate William Weld”

“Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld said Friday that he believes President Donald Trump will not willingly cede the Oval Office if he does not win the election in 2020.

Weld, who was the Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee in 2016 but has returned to his Republican roots in a long-shot bid to challenge Trump for the 2020 nomination, appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher Friday, where Maher asked the former governor directly, ‘If Trump loses, do you think he’ll leave?’

“‘Not voluntarily,’ said Weld. ‘He’ll have a run at saying, ‘It was a rigged game so I’m not leaving.’ I don’t think the military and indeed even the Justice Department — the rank-and-file, the investigative agencies — would stand for that in this country,'” by Chris Moran, Newsweek. Read more

“Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science”

“In the next few months, the White House will complete the rollback of the most significant federal effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, initiated during the Obama administration. It will expand its efforts to impose Mr. Trump’s hard-line views on other nations, building on his retreat from the Paris accord and his recent refusal to sign a communiqué to protect the rapidly melting Arctic region unless it was stripped of any references to climate change,” by Coral Davenport and Mark Landler, The New York Times. Read more

“GEORGE WILL: Protectionism is iatrogenic government”

“The cascading effects of U.S. protectionism on U.S. producers and consumers constitute an ongoing tutorial about what Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “iatrogenic government.” In medicine, an iatrogenic ailment is one inadvertently caused by a physician or medicine. Iatrogenic government – except the damage it currently is doing is not inadvertent – was on display last week.

“The Trump administration unveiled a plan to disburse $16 billion to farmers as balm for wounds – predictable and predicted – from the retaliation of other nations, especially China, against U.S. exports in response to the administration’s tariffs, by George Will. Read more