Well, it appears that Mr. Barr, the Attorney General Trump’s lawyer, has decided that there’s a limit to the contempt he’s willing to hold.

The Justice Department is trying to stave off an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr this week, making a rare offer to have the House Intelligence Committee review materials from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report if House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff agrees to back down.

So the Senate committee gets to see the materials from the Mueller report.

Chairman Schiff agreed to back-off the contempt citation if he gets what he wants.

Dude, Trump’s gonna flip.

Thanks to SGray for the heads up.

He’s upset, so he turned on his Twitter machine.

That’s exactly how I feel.  I feel totally harassed by this president, and I thank him for admitting it.

Okay, so today Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and part time brain surgeon, was testifying before the House Financial Services Committee.

It got weird.

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., was attempting to ask Secretary Carson about disparities in REO rates. According to Porter, Federal Housing Administration loans have far more properties that become real estate owned, than other loans from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

“I would also like to ask you to get back to me, if you don’t mind, to explain the disparity in REO rates. Do you know what an REO is?” asked the congresswoman.

“An Oreo…” replied Carson.

“R, no not an Oreo. An R-E-O.” shot back Porter.

“Real estate?” asked Carson.

“What’s the O stand for?” said Porter.

“E-organization?” asked Carson.

Not to brag or anything, but I’m not a brain surgeon but I know what a Real Estate Owned property is. Do I get extra points for that?

Porter also wondered if Carson thinks the D in HUD is for deportation.

Probably so.

Trump lost an effort to conceal his tax returns from Congress today in federal court.  U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta refused to issue an injunction to delay the order for Steve Mnuchin to release the returns, so Trump’s lawyers ran across the street to appeal that decision to the DC Circuit which hears these kinds of appeals.  I’ll give you one guess who is in charge of the DC Circuit.  It is…wait for it…Merrick Garland, the judge that Turtleneck McConnell unconstitutionally denied a hearing or vote on his nomination to the Supreme Court.

Karma is a bitch.

This is from the Republican National Committee’s monthly report to the FEC.

Now that’s what I call deep opposition research.

Because Mayor Pete’s great-great-grandfather might have been arrested once in the 19^th Century and we could make a 30-second commercial out of that . . . .

Or maybe they are using it to prospect for donors – give them your personal information and then they identify all of your living relatives to ask for money.  That will make you so popular at Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.

OK, this one is rich.  Trump’s latest excuse about not releasing his tax returns?  He’s being audited.  That’s right, that’s not new; his new reason is that he’s being audited because of his strong Christian faith and that the IRS is biased against Christians.  That’s right – he’s being audited because he’s Mr. Super Duper Christian now.

Jesus.  Literally.