Picking on Don Jr is always punching down. Not fair.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Impeach the motherfucker
Let's hear The Honorable Barbara Jordan argue for impeachment of Richard Nixon and take notes:
I'll provide one (at 13:10):
Impeachment criteria, James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention:
If the president be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Good news for Trump, if true
But why didn't he just tell them that? Were the business associates a worse answer to the question than his father?
I'm going to have to say the answer to my question is "yes" - whoever those calls were to, he didn't want the committee to know. But I'm also guessing Mueller knows.Democratic lawmakers have zeroed in on Trump Jr.'s four-minute call that occurred between the two calls he exchanged with Agalarov on June 6, 2016, three days before the Trump Tower meeting. Trump Jr. then had an 11-minute call with a private number that same evening, and also another a three-minute call with a blocked number two hours after the meeting.
Trump Jr. told congressional investigators in 2017 that he did not know who the blocked calls were with. When asked if he told his father about the meeting or the underlying offer of dirt on Clinton, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee: "No, I did not."
CNN
UPDATE:
"His fther (me)." In case you didn't know who Donald Trump Jr's father might be.
UPDATE:
Any time. Which is why I think whoever the people are that Junior called are going to be just as bad for the Trump team when we find out who they were and what was said.
Why does anyone bother talking to him?
He hears what he wants to hear.
Sure. That's why...
What the fuck.
Sure. That's why...
Because they agree with the Intel agencies, not Trump. (Or maybe they just agree with the policy of perpetual war.)Senate Republicans joined Democrats in offering a direct rebuke Thursday of the administration’s Syria policy, marking the first time during the new Congress that the GOP caucus has formally broken with President Trump.
Senators voted 68-23 to end debate on an amendment that warns Trump against drawing down troops in Syria and Afghanistan. Senators still need to hold a second vote to add the amendment to the foreign policy bill, which will likely take place next week.
The Hill
How does this dildo get elected? The word "policy" should be his clue that it's political. I'm guessing he means "partisan".Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who argued that the Senate vote was not a "political issue," said he opposed the administration's policy because "it directly undermines one of the two pillars of our strategy and our policy in the region."
Looks like Trump has gotten his wall. Just not the one he's demanding.The non-binding amendment, spearheaded by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), warns the administration against a “precipitous” withdrawal of the U.S. forces in Syria and Afghanistan.
It also urges the administration to certify that certain conditions have been met “for the enduring defeat of al Qaeda and ISIS before initiating any significant withdrawal of United States forces from Syria or Afghanistan.”
[...]
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, characterized the GOP amendment as an example of Congress exerting itself on foreign policy after decades of gradually ceding control to the executive branch.
What the fuck.
Chalk up another one for the FBI
Well, we allow our president to distort perceptions of the trumped-up threat from caravans of asylum seekers.A domestic terrorism briefing the FBI gave to law enforcement agencies in 2017 warned them about the threat of “pro-abortion extremists.” That would be fine, except—as the FBI’s own briefing materials subsequently admit—violent pro-abortion extremists barely exist, and in no universe do they constitute an organized domestic terror movement.
[...]
Only one person could be fairly described as a “pro-choice terrorist” (he indeed described himself that way), and that is Theodore Shulman, who went to prison in 2012 for harrassing and threatening to kill two leading figures in the anti-abortion movement. (Shulman served 41 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.) The only known death of an anti-abortion protester is Jim Pouillon, who was shot and killed in September 2009 while holding a gory sign and protesting outside a Michigan clinic. Harlan James Drake, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, was severely mentally ill, according to his lawyers. He also killed a gravel pit owner the same day, reportedly believing both men had wronged his mother. According to evidence presented at trial, Drake shot Pouillon not because he was a radical pro-choice activist, but because he was offended that Pouillon was holding a disturbing sign in view of school children.
Anti-abortion groups, meanwhile, have harassed doctors and clinics who provide abortions for decades, leading to arson, constant death threats, a wave of bombings throughout the 1990s, and the murders of some 12 people between 1993 and 2012, all either clinic staffers or physicians.
[...]
Gunita Singh, the staff attorney at Property of the People, told us, “It should strike any reasonable person as astounding, irrational, and even offensive to see the words ‘pro-choice extremist’ strung together. Yet, in this FBI document we see this configuration appear in an Abortion Extremism Reference Guide, juxtaposed alongside ‘pro-life extremists,’ as if they’re somehow two sides of the same coin.”
[...]
Shapiro also points out that the idea of violent pro-choice activists is a far-right talking point, promoted by groups like Human Life International and ultra-conservative outlets like The Federalist. Its appearance in a law enforcement document is worrisome, he says, and raises questions about how it got there.
[...]
For many years, the FBI referred to “anti-abortion extremism.” It’s unclear just when they started presenting the issue as one with two sides.
[...]
In a September 18, 2005 document, 266J was classified as “Anti Abortion Extremists.” By October 18, 2010, the same category was referred to as “Abortion Extremism.”
[...]
A report produced for Congress in 2017 is also vague about the date, noting only in a footnote that “In recent years, the FBI has switched from ‘anti-abortion’ to abortion extremism, thus including individuals who may commit crimes to protect abortion rights.”
[...]
But this law enforcement briefing clearly isn’t the only place where they operate as if pro-abortion extremists constitute an actual movement. The FBI also clearly and succinctly summarizes the various kinds of domestic terror it investigates, on, of all things, a website it created for teens. (Dubbed “Don’t Be a Puppet,” the teen site is meant to dissuade the youth from joining ISIS or domestic terror groups.)
There, speaking to the teens, the FBI claims there are abortion extremists on both sides.
[...]
Gunita Singh, POTP’s staff attorney, points out that it’s far from the first time the FBI has highlighted an apparently nonexistent threat. “The FBI has been propagating these false equivalencies for decades,” she says. “For example, Property of the People sued the FBI for records on a terrorist threat category called ‘Black Identity Extremism,’ which very problematically includes the Black Lives Matter movement.” (In an op-ed for the New York Times, two law professors pointed out that this looks very similar to the way the FBI treated the civil rights movement and other, particularly leftist, political movements in the 1960s.)
With the case of supposed “Black Identity Extremists,” Singh says, the FBI shows evidence of ignoring or downplaying an actual problem—the documented resurgence of white supremacist movements—to focus on a non-existent one.
[...]
In essence, the concern is that by creating this fictional category of terrorists, will law enforcement agencies begin to look for them, be primed for them, seek them out, and even identify them where none exist? What does this bode for the future of legal pro-choice activism, particularly in an era where abortion rights are being radically restricted?
“Pro-choice activists should not have to worry about being targeted as terrorist extremists,” Singh told us, “simply for advocating for bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to choose.”
[...]
“We cannot allow law enforcement to construct these false equivalencies that lead to distorted perceptions of the actual threats we face.”
Jezebel
Someone was prescient when they coined the term "trumped up".
Missing Molly
The Sundance Film Festival has seen a lot of unique introductions over the years. But director Janice Engel came up with a distinctive way to unveil a new documentary on legendary Texas political columnist Molly Ivins.
“When I count to three, I want y’all to yell ‘Raise Hell!,’ and I’m gonna take your picture,” Engel told the audience, which included a large contingent of Texans, at the world premiere of “Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins.”
The crowd eagerly complied with a ferocity that reverberated around the auditorium and seemed in keeping with the in-your-face attitude of the documentary’s main subject.
[...]
It’s been a dozen years since the firebrand columnist and author of such best-selling books at “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?” and “Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush” died of breast cancer, but the documentary’s creators are convinced that in the time of Trump, she’s more relevant than ever.
Houston Chronicle
And sorely missed.
“You can’t ignore politics, no matter how much you’d like to.”
Molly Ivins August 30, 1944 - January 31, 2007
Molly Ivins August 30, 1944 - January 31, 2007
They'll believe anything
States rights
And we believe you.The Department of Energy (DOE) secretly shipped about a half-ton of weapons-grade radioactive plutonium to Nevada despite the state’s opposition.
The Trump administration made the disclosure Wednesday as part of a federal court case in Nevada in which the state is trying to block the DOE from its publicly stated plans to ship radioactive materials from South Carolina.
“Because sufficient time has now elapsed after conclusion of this campaign, DOE may now publicly state that it has completed all shipment of plutonium (approximately ½ metric ton) to Nevada,” Bruce Diamond, general counsel for the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, wrote in a court declaration, noting that the action was previously classified.
“Although the precise date that this occurred cannot be revealed for reasons of operational security, it can be stated that this was done before November 2018, prior to the initiation of the litigation.”
The Hill
Much good may it do you, Steve.Nevada sued the DOE that month to stop the shipments, arguing that the agency had not properly considered the environmental impacts of shipping the materials. The agency’s plan is to move a total of one ton of material to the Nevada site.
[...]
The department led the State of Nevada to believe that they were engaging in good-faith negotiations with us regarding a potential shipment of weapons-grade plutonium, only to reveal that those negotiations were a sham all along. They lied to the State of Nevada, misled a federal court, and jeopardized the safety of Nevada’s families and environment,” he said.
[...]
“I am beyond outraged by this completely unacceptable deception from the U.S. Department of Energy,” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) said in a statement.
GOP finally catching on
Trump has too much power.
Well, that's pretty rude. Can't he (or she) be named?GOP lawmakers are deeply concerned over President Trump’s reluctance to listen to his senior military and intelligence advisers, fearing it could erode national security. They say the Senate has lost too much of its constitutional power over shaping the nation’s foreign policy and argue that it’s time to begin clawing some of it back.
“Power over foreign policy has shifted to the executive branch over the last 30 years. Many of us in the Senate want to start taking it back,” said a Republican senator closely allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The Hill
Now stop supporting the war on Yemen.Trump stunned Republican senators Wednesday by lashing out at Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel after they contradicted some of his optimistic claims about the threats posed by North Korea and ISIS. The senior intelligence officials also angered Trump by testifying that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear treaty it signed with Western powers under the Obama administration.
[...]
Exasperated Republican lawmakers quickly pushed back against the criticism, urging the president to show more restraint.
[...]
They plan to send Trump a stern admonishment by voting Thursday afternoon on an amendment sponsored by McConnell warning “the precipitous withdrawal” of U.S. forces from Syria and Afghanistan “could put at risk hard-won gains and United States national security.”
The resolution also expresses a sense of the Senate that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al Qaeda pose a “continuing threat to the homeland and our allies” and maintain an “ability to operate in Syria and Afghanistan.”
It’s a pointed rebuttal to the claim Trump made on Twitter in December that “we have defeated ISIS in Syria.”
Net neutrality appeal hearing Friday
A panel of federal appeals court judges will hear oral arguments Friday in a lawsuit challenging the FCC’s deregulation of the broadband industry. The court date comes more than a year after the agency voted to roll back the rules requiring internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.
The Hill
"Worse than Afghanistan"
Well, you're the one who started that game, calling it a barrier. You and your cohort are the only ones who stopped calling it a wall.
Apparently, there is more than one humanitarian crisis on the border, as he's tweeted "crises". Worse even than Afghanistan. Jesus, what a dipshit.
He's watching Fox and live-tweeting (from his bed, probably) this morning again. Lou Dobbs is his intelligence advisor.
Well, they're wrong. Just ask His Lardship. He's going to call on his Trumpanzees to take to the streets armed to protect him in the White House rather than leave, isn't he?President Donald Trump on Wednesday unleashed a stream of insults at the nation’s intelligence officials after they published a report directly contradicting some of his most frequent false claims about foreign policy.
[...]
Trump’s string of tweets came after the leaders of the top national intelligence agencies on Tuesday released their annual report on worldwide security threats. The report challenged many false talking points frequently made by the president, who is known to not read his regular intelligence briefings, preferring to receive important information from Fox News, his favorite cable news network.
Dan Coats, Trump’s director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Tuesday that intelligence officials have no evidence to conclude that Iran is close to producing a nuclear weapon — contradicting Trump’s claim that Iran is “coming very close to the edge.”
Coats also contradicted Trump’s previous claim that the U.S. had defeated ISIS, telling senators that “ISIS is intent on resurging.”
The report also detailed Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, as well as the threat of climate change on national security.
HuffPo
UPDATE: 4-1/2 hours later...
All but one crisis has been averted.
UPDATE: State of the Union address 2/6/19...
"Chiberia"
Also, according to this article, global warming is likely what's causing the Polar Vortex to shift. That means we're going to get more of this kind of shit, doesn't it?
Occasionally, the vortex can become distorted and meander far further south than normal. The phenomenon became widely known to Americans during a particularly frigid spell in 2014, when the media first started using the term “polar vortex”. It was also a factor in the “bomb cyclone” that battered the US east coast last year.
This time, the polar vortex has broken in two, bringing the coldest conditions in decades to the midwest US. On Wednesday, Chicago was 10 degrees F colder than Antarctica.
[...]
Scientists also point to a complex sequence of events involving sea ice, which is rapidly diminishing in the Arctic. As the ice retreats, summertime heat is absorbed by the dark ocean that lies underneath. This heat is released into the atmosphere during winter, spurring winds that can disrupt the polar vortex.
“We aren’t entirely there yet but there’s more and more support for this concept,” said Francis. “It’s a new and developing hot research topic.”
Guardian
Nah. It's god punishing Chicago.
Don't think I can take it.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Hands off Venezuela
I worry for these people. I was in this barrio in the early days of the Chávez administration, and they were making such great strides in education, democratic participation and cultural arts. Hard to believe it was 15 years ago. At the same time that I could see some seeds of corruption in the new government already, I hoped things would keep improving for the people. They had such optimism back then.
The same thing happened in the 2002 coup. There was one state-owned TV station and eight private ones owned by opposition elite, and yet they loudly proclaimed that Chávez controlled the media.
Another admonition to Stone's lawyers
What happened to Buschel?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Lindsey is needing some more attention
Is there anyone on the planet who could not answer those questions for him? Come on. Even he knows the answers.
Do you suppose Lindsey is going to stage a primary challenge against Trump? He's ranting on about something every time we think he's settled down.
Or is he just excitable because he's been taking Russia-tainted money from the NRA?*
UPDATE:
Are they double-teaming Wray?
It's unbelievable and disgusting that these people are covering for Roger Stone.
*UPDATE 2/4: It's more than that; he's taken some money directly from Kremlin-connected donors.
Dear God
Yes, and for the Republicans to get trounced in the mid-terms.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Maybe they gave them some nice polar fleece for under their jumpsuits
OK, that looks bad. Surely there's an explanation.
Besides, shoveling snow warms you right up.After a dozen days of snow hit Chicago and temperatures began their swift descent to below zero, a photo of inmates shoveling snow outside Cook County Jail with what the poster said was “no real winter gear” went viral.
Now, the sheriff’s office is trying to clean up the backlash — and set the record straight — and activists are pushing for greater awareness of challenges faced by incarcerated people during dangerous weather.
“The situation was entirely and intentionally misrepresented,” said Cara Smith, chief spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.
[...]
The people in the photo were provided with insulated jumpsuits from the office, along with gloves, hats and boots, Smith said. There was also a van on-site for warming.
“And we work very hard to get these young men jobs when they graduate from the program,” Smith said. “I think our track record for caring about the people that are in custody is pretty solid, and we take that responsibility very seriously.”
[...]
Smith said the workers were paid “nominally” — $2 for the work assignment — but that’s “not really the purpose of the program.”
[...]
Workers in RENEW, along with workers in the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, do not work if temperatures dip below 20 degrees, Smith said.
Chicago Tribune
The City could probably put them on the rolls. At something slightly above $2. "Nominal" might be understating it.Sharlyn Grace, co-executive director of the Chicago Community Bond Fund [...] said she [...] learned the inmates were working under the RENEW program. As part of RENEW, a vocational program for essentially nonviolent offenders, detainees spend six months in custody and then eight months out in the community.
[...]
Grace questioned how shoveling plays into the program.
“I don’t think that anyone is seriously suggesting that shoveling snow is a skilled form of labor that’s going to lead to job opportunities upon release,” she said.
No, friends, Mueller isn't near the end
I haven't been reading all this Internet Research Agency (IRA) stuff. I can't even keep up with the other stuff we've gotten so far. I'm so behind on it that when I saw "the IRA and Russian collusion," I thought the Fenians were somehow connected.
US v. Concord Management and Consulting, LLC
UPDATE:
CNN article
In a nutshell:
Dragging their feet
Where's Nunes?
Dems were named last week.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
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