• image from JP Mann@ThreeDayCondor
• https://twitter.com/ThreeDayCondor/status/1184860222566866945

‘As our beloved Chairman, Elijah Cummings, and Oversight Committee Chair, our North Star, said when announcing support for this action, “When the history books are written about this tumultuous era, I want them to show that I was among those in the House of Representatives who stood up to lawlessness and tyranny.”

‘When we are dancing with the angels, the question will be, did we – what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?’ 

“We did all we could, Elija. We passed the two articles of impeachment. The president is impeached.”

Melania Trump Is Booed While Addressing Students in Baltimore

The first lady, who was speaking at an event for youth opioids awareness, rarely elicits such a visceral crowd reaction on her own.

www.nytimes.com

A vocal crowd of middle school and high school students erupted in a mix of loud boos and some cheers as the first lady strode across the stage at the B’More Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness.

Rep. Cummings Lies in State, Trump lies in lynching slime: Darcy cartoon

The same week Rep. Elijah Cummings becomes the first black statesman to Lie in State in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, President Trump compared the impeachment inquiry against him to a lynching. In American history, thousands of African-Americans were targeted for lynchings, brutal public hangings carried out by mobs of people.

www.cleveland.com

Cummings is the first Black lawmaker to Lie in State and only the third African-American to do so. Rosa Parks was honored in 2005 and in 1998 the honor was bestowed on Capitol Hill Police Officer Jacob Joseph Chestnut, who had been killed in the line of duty.

Elijah Cummings Funeral: Bill and Hillary Clinton Urge Defense of Democracy

Comparing the congressman to a biblical prophet, the former secretary of state said Elijah Cummings “stood against the corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.”

www.nytimes.com

“Like that Old Testament prophet, he stood against the corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel,” Mrs. Clinton said, to a roar of applause from the congregation. “And he looked out for the vulnerable among us. He lifted up the next generation of leaders. And he even worked a few miracles.”

“Toward the end of his life, he said, ‘I am begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on, because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children’s children, and generations yet unborn, we have got to guard this moment,’” she said.  “‘This is our watch.’”   

She added: “‘When we are dancing with the angels, the question will be asked,’ he said, ‘In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?’”

“He pushed back against the abuse of power. He was unwavering in his defense of our democracy. He had little tolerance for those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth.”

“No matter how hard he fought or how passionately he argued, he tried to treat everyone the way he wanted to be treated. The way he thought Americans should be treated. You can’t run a free society if you have to hate everybody you disagree with.”

“I love this man,” Mr. Clinton said, gesturing toward the coffin. “I loved every minute I ever spent with him, every conversation I ever had with him. I loved his booming voice. But we should hear him now at the quiet times of night, when we get worried, and we get discouraged, and we don’t know if we can believe anymore.”

“I want to send a message that we have one life to live, Mr. President,” he replied. “This is no dress rehearsal. And that the American people simply want to live their lives without fear of their leaders. 

And we, as leaders, have a duty and a responsibility to keep our promise to them when we ran for office and won — and that is to make their lives better. While we’re all on this earth, that’s my message.”

My favorite men!! @BarackObama  and the late great #ElijahCummings #ObamaHadAHeart

— Chris Michael Ward @ChrisMichaelW 

I'm begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this moment…this is our watch. 

— Elijah E. Cummings @RepCummings

‘I only have a minute, 60 seconds in it, forced upon me, I did not choose it, but I know that I must use it, give account if I abuse it, suffer if I lose it. Only a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.’

— Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat and Civil Rights Leader

The president’s restaurants, resorts, and golf clubs have all been cited for extensive health-code violations, including the presence of rodents.

Health inspectors have for years turned in stomach-churning reports of rats, mice, cockroaches, and other pests in the kitchens and food-preparation areas at Trump properties in New York, Florida, and Las Vegas. One infestation in the main kitchen of Trump’s Doral golf club in 2015 was so bad that health inspectors recommended that the place be temporarily shut down.

As late as last year [Feb. 2019], health inspectors in New York reported a likely rodent problem at the restaurant in the president’s flagship Trump Tower property. 

• The inspection turned up “evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas” and “conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.”
• In 2017, inspectors found “filth flies” buzzing around the food in the Trump Tower kitchen. Employees, sported “soiled” garments and were not wearing hair nets.
• IN 2016, inspectors found live roaches.

• Florida authorities reported 524 health-code violations from 2013 to 2018
• In 2015, they found “approximately 20-25 live roaches... on the walls, baseboards and floors in the kitchen food prep area and behind a utensil table inside a wall crack.” 
• They also reported between 20 and 30 “live, small flying insects... in the kitchen and dishwasher room.”
• ordered to shutdown  —  temporarily

• health inspectors also reported potential vermin problems. 
• The restaurant, they reported after a 2012 inspection, did not have “effective pest control measures.”
• Expired food, including yogurt and caviar, were also among the 51 health-code violations inspectors found during that visit.

Health inspectors have cited its

• main clubhouse kitchen for 51 health-code violations since 2013
• its “beach club” kitchen for another 30.
• employees who don’t wash their hands 
• poultry stored at dangerously high temperatures
• Rust, mold, parasites: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cited for 78 health violations in the last three years
• World Leaders risked food poisoning at president’s Mar-a-Lago club,  The Times - April 14 2017   

• Heath Department Investigates Salmonella Outbreak at Trump Restaurant in  the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, AP July 23, 1991

House Democrats Demand Information From White House About Security Clearances

After the revelation that President Trump had ordered that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be granted a top-secret clearance, two committees are now seeking documents and interviews with officials.

www.nytimes.com

The chairman, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, who leads the House Oversight and Reform Committee, accused the White House in a new letter of stonewalling his requests for information and implied that if it did not comply voluntarily, he would issue a subpoena to compel its cooperation.

He said the report, published by The New York Times, added new concerns that Mr. Trump was lying to the public about his role in the clearance process to existing and broader questions about irregularities surrounding who should have access to sensitive government secrets.

“If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets,” Mr. Cummings wrote in a letter to Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel. 

The letter went on to ask about “why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee.”

The Times also reported that Donald F. McGahn II, then the White House counsel, wrote a memo of his own documenting concerns raised by the C.I.A. and other officials about Mr. Kushner.