The Trump Thing: President Trump had a busy day yesterday, denying collusion with the Russians, denouncing the court system, trashing California Sen. Diane Feinstein, and calling for stricter libel and slander laws, even while libeling and slandering his enemies.

Russia first: Trump said it “seems unlikely” that he would give an interview to the special counsel’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The President said, “we’ll see what happens.” He went on during a joint news conference with the prime minister of Norway saying, “When they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.”

Repeating one of his themes, he tweeted, “The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues.” He went after Sen. Feinstein with a Twitter hatchet after she released Judiciary Committee testimony supporting the theory of Russian collusion.  “The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace.”

Trump was up ranting about it on Twitter again this morning.

He denounced the federal courts after one of them blocked administration plans to rescind work permits for young undocumented immigrants, insisting that Congress must create a solution for the so-called “dreamers.”

“It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.”

And last, still fighting back against the Michael Wolff book “Fire and Fury” that paints a dismal picture of the Trump White House, he told reporters, “Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values and American fairness.” He said, “We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that.”

Trump said he wants people who are the subject of false claims to have “meaningful recourse in our courts.” He said, “You can’t say things that are false — knowingly false — and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account”

This is interesting because Trump has a long history of libeling and slandering other people, from Rosie O’Donnell to President Obama, who he accused of not being born in the United States. Just lately he called Steve Bannon “Sloppy Steve” and of course, Hillary Clinton, “Crooked.”

If Trump succeeds in loosening laws about telling knowing falsehoods regarding public figures, someone else could end up owning his real estate.

Big Gulp: Immigration agents have hit 100 7-Eleven stores in 17 states looking for employees who are illegal immigrants. They arrested at least 21 people suspected of being in the country illegally.

The Trump administration is cracking down even harder on illegal immigrants.

“This is what we’re gearing up for this year and what you’re going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters,” Derek Benner, acting head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, told the Associated Press. “It’s not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry — big, medium and small,” he said.

Mudslide: At least 17 people are confirmed dead in the giant mudslide that hit Montecito, Calif. Twenty-four more people are reported missing. Authorities say 100 homes were destroyed in the disaster created by one inch of rain falling in about 15 minutes. Rescuers are looking for survivors and bodies in a debris field that covers 30 square miles.

Quitters: Long time California Rep. Darrell Issa, a major thorn in the side of the Obama administration, announced that he will not run for re-election this year. Issa is the richest man in Congress. The former chair of the House Oversight Committee won by only a couple of thousand votes in 2016, and he was a prime target of the Democrats this year.

Issa’s announcement brings to 29 the number of seats being abandoned by Republicans this year. While some will surely remain Republican, the high number presents Democrats with more leverage to take control of the House. They need to turn 24 seats.

Ripoff at the Ritz: Paris has been the site of some pretty clever jewelry heists in recent years. But it appears amateurs have entered the business, giving professionals a bad name.

At about 6pm, a group of five goons used axes to smash the windows of a jewelry shop on the ground floor of the Paris Ritz Hotel, some of them making off with millions of dollars’ worth of goods.

A Paris police officer interrupted the job and three of the five bad guys were arrested. Two got away on a motor scooter. So quaintly Parisien.

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