Finally, it’s Friday.
TOM PRICE RESIGNED FROM CABINET AMID CORRUPTION SCANDAL. OTHER MEMBERS TRAVEL UNDER INVESTIGATION.
Drain the Swamp. That was the campaign slogan Donald Trump used to describe his choices for his staff.
“I only hire the best people.” Trump said this back in 2016, and repeatedly since.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned today, after it was reported that he wasted over a million dollars of taxpayers money on chartered flights.
He wasn’t alone.
VA Secretary David Shulkin took in a vacation to London on the taxpayers dime, right after telling his staff to curtail unnecessary travel.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke chartered flights from Las Vegas to Montana, on jets owned by oil companies, then charged us taxpayers for it.
EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt chartered flights, and is charging taxpayers $25,000 for a privacy booth in his office. Maybe he’s looking for a safe space to rub one out during the work day.
Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin chartered military flights for his honeymoon.
This is, by far, the most corrupt administration in American history. Between Russia, good old fashioned corruption and cronyism, and this, 10 out of the 15 cabinet positions are involved in something.
NALVANY ARRESTED AGAIN IN RUSSIA.
Alexei Nalvany was arrested again on his way to a rally against Vladimir Putin.
This isn’t the first time he’s been arrested this year, and Russians do not have the right peaceful assembly. These men and women are risking their freedom, even their lives, to speak out against the corruption of Putin’s government.
HOW AN ANTI-DOPING DOCUMENTARY IS CONNECTED TO THE ELECTION SCANDAL.
Here is a great article from Lawfare about a documentary about doping in bicycle racing, that morphed into a tale of Russian corruption.
Icarus. It’s on Netflix. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list.
RUSSIA WARNS OF RETALIATION IF RT IS FORCED TO REGISTER AS FOREIGN AGENTS.
Russia warned against sanctioning their news outlets and said they would retaliate if needed.
The Information War might finally be hitting the mainstream.
FAKE ACCOUNTS USED ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK, INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN CONTINUES TO THIS DAY IN REAL TIME.
One of the tricks used by the Russian Trolls in the disinformation war is to impersonate legitimate groups, and spread disinformation , or dezinformatsiya in Russian. Deza for short.
In the last couple of days, stories have broken about Russian Trolls impersonating multiple Blacktivist groups during the election to stoke anger among different groups of Americans, and I believe that I reported yesterday from Vice that the Boston Antifa twitter account was posting from Russia.
Did this stop during the campaign? No, it continues to this day. Even today, Trolls are picking fights from both sides of every argument. Including the NFL protests.
Pro Tip: Do a ICANN WhoIs Search for each news story domain that you’re not familiar with. Check to see who owns the domain, and where they’re located. I’ve been sent more than a few stories on Facebook from Russia or Ukraine that claimed to be Americans.
That’s it for the check-in today. I’ve got another story in the pipeline from today, but I think it’s a little too big and weird for this article.
Did Pence flip on Trump?
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
Thank you, and have a good one.
None of this is Normal 