Wednesday, February 13, 2019
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
- Federal judge finds ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort lied to Mueller probe about contacts with Russian aide
- Manafort Intentionally Lied To Special Counsel, Judge Says
- Judge says Paul Manafort ‘intentionally’ lied to the FBI, special counsel and grand jury
- How Manafort’s 2016 meeting with a Russian employee at New York cigar club goes to ‘the heart’ of Mueller’s probe
- Angry White House Staffer: Manafort plea deal being voided means he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge Jackson ruled in Mueller’s favor on 3 of 5 counts
- MSW Podcast: Manafort is…. 🎶Fuuuuu 🎶🎶Fuuuuuu🎶🎶🎶Fuuuuuuu💥fucked 💥
- Rick Wilson: Manafort just learned where he will spend every single day for the rest of his life. P-R-I-S-O-N.
- Countercheckist: Paul Manafort will die in prison of old age. … He won’t be alone. 🙂
- Ming: It will be interesting to see how it play out for traitors held in general population. #ByeByePavel
- Ming: Protip; Manafort is heavy drinker, target the liver.
- Scott Stedman: I tweeted this a year ago, and it seems like the story is slowly becoming mainstream. Manafort and a Russian intel asset met secretly, Deripaska flew Kilimnik back to Moscow and then flew the Russian Deputy PM to his yacht in Norway for another secret meeting. We knew all of that a year ago. We have subsequently learned that Manafort (and Gates) gave Kilimnik private, detailed polling data at that August 2nd meeting.
- Ricky Davila: Since a judge has now ruled that Paul Manafort intentionally lied multiple times to the FBI and Grand Jury, let’s remember that… Mike Pence knew. Mike Pence lied. He covered it up. He is complicit. He was transition head. He was chosen by Manafort. Isn’t that right, @VP*?🤫
- Emptywheel: The Manafort Ruling
Effectively Amy Berman Jackson just ruled that, by a preponderance of the evidence, Paul Manafort lied about conspiring with Konstantin Kilimnik DURING the campaign and in early days of Trump Admin. https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.509.0_2.pdf …
But nbd. I mean Richard Burr, having not interviewed the most important witnesses, says he has no evidence of “collusion.”
Now to be clear: The prosecutors didn’t prove a conspiracy. They just convinced ABJ that Manafort was lying about what he was doing with the GRU-linked Russian right smack in the middle of the campaign.
HEY @nytimes!?!?!? Now that Amy Berman Jackson has ruled the version of that August 2 polling data handoff you reported was a lie, NOW will you issue a correction?
As a reminder: SCO says that Manafort lied about passing polling data to Kilimnik bc if he told the truth Trump wouldn’t pardon him.
Paul Manafort is guilty…again. His plea deal has been thrown out, and he’s been convicted of even more charges. He’s looking at another 10 years in prison in addition to the 10 years he was looking at for his tax fraud trial. How long will he be in prison? Let’s do the math.
Paul Manafort is 69 years old, and not in great health. 69 + 10 + 10 = Dying of old age in prison.
No matter what else happens today, take joy in the fact that this traitorous piece of scum will never be free again.
- John Brennan: Senate Intel Committee is doing good work, but it does not conduct criminal investigations. It is up to Special Counsel to charge those who criminally conspired with Russia. Don’t conflate collusion, which occured, with criminal conspiracy. Stay tuned.
- Mark Warner: The President is terrified about where Congress’ and Mueller’s investigations may lead. We’ll let the facts speak for themselves when the final reports come out.
- Jed Shugerman: Qatar’s bailout of Kushner’s 666 5th Ave disaster. Follow-up: How do we know if the Brookfield $1.3 billion deal for a 99-year lease (but without taking title!) was a sweetheart bailout for Kushner? The devil is in the 666 details. And they are secret. Analysis here 1/. THREAD
- More Questions about Kushner, Qatar, and Quid pro Quo (Brookfield + Apollo)
- Judge Orders Officials To Turn Over Lesin Autopsy Records
- Adrienne Cobb: You may remember this is the Russian who died “accidentally” from a series of drunken falls in his hotel room that caused extensive blunt force trauma. Christopher Steele wrote a report saying it was Putin’s oligarchs that hired thugs to kill him.
- Russian Firm in Election Hacking Case Loses Bid to Check Mueller
- Mueller is just the beginning: House Democrats plan their own vast Russia probe
- Mueller just caught a fourth Trump aide lying about contact with the Russians
COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS
- Dems ask FBI to probe if Trump Org is ‘criminal enterprise’
- Dems ask FBI to probe if Trump Org is ‘criminal enterprise’
- Report: White House Aide Dan Scavino Knew About Undocumented Hires at Trump Golf Club
TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1
- Trump shields the Saudi crown prince
- Trump’s DHS Guts Task Forces Protecting Elections From Foreign Meddling
- Trump’s Russian Interpreter May Be Subpoenaed by House Democrats for Details of Private Putin Meetings, Report Says
- Trump claims Democrat wants to ‘execute a baby’ then lies about El Paso border wall in wild rally speech President also wrongly claims Democrats’ environmental proposals would mean ‘you’re not allowed to own cows anymore’
- White House is “hiding” something about Donald Trump’s physical exam, says Dick Cheney’s cardiologist
- President Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at White House
TRAITOR TOTS
FIGHTING BACK
- Rick Wilson: I’m not being flippant when I say there’s nothing that tells me more about his character than that he hates dogs.
- Christopher Titus: The news is fake. Fact checkers are lying. Don’t listen to your teachers. There was no crime. Even if there was it’s no big deal. Stay stupid and uninformed, believe only me, not what your eyes see or your ears hear, and it will all work out. Maga.
- Adam Schiff: Trump as businessman: Stiff contractors. Trump as president: Stiff contractors. Who could have seen this coming?
- ‘Whistleblower’ seeks protection after sounding alarm over White House security clearances
- White House security specialist files whistleblower complaint after reports Kushner received special treatment
- An artist famed for using his own urine just bought Trump’s wedding cake. His plans are a mystery.
- Sports store to close after removing all Nike gear in Kaepernick protest
CONGRESS
- House Democrats plan vast Russia probe
- Rick Wilson: You know why Pelosi didn’t take the bait and go all-Green-New-Deal-All-The-Time? Because she knows Mitch McConnell is across the street. Never hand a smart opponent a weapon with which to cut of your head.
- Nadler Threatens Whitaker With ‘Formal Deposition’ Over ‘Unsatisfactory’ Testimony
- Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to wait in line for them. She’s not pleased.
SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION
- Lawmakers line up behind bipartisan border deal to avert shutdown, as Trump signals he may sign it
- As Trump rallied for border wall Monday, migrant families arrived in record numbers
- Former DHS chief: There’s no security crisis near the southern border
- GOP rep: Border deal is ‘worse than we had before the shutdown’
- Trump aide Sarah Sanders ridiculed for suggesting Mexico border wall would have stopped El Chapo
- Trump intends to sign border deal to avoid another shutdown
- Trump Again Caves, This Time for Even Less Wall Money Art of the Deal, Folks
- Trump blocking contractor back pay in gov’t funding deal, lawmaker says
- Trump Is Refusing To Pay Contractors For Work During The Shutdown: The president has a long history of stiffing people who work for him.
- Trump will likely agree to $1.3 billion in border funding. He rejected $1.6 billion last year.
- Trump suggests he’s open to border deal as lawmakers scramble to resolve late snags
- Refilling prescriptions and no more date nights: How government workers are girding for another shutdown
- 26 percent of federal workers used retirement funds during shutdown
- Lawmakers rush to resolve last-minute snags in spending bill as shutdown looms
RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM
- WH Struggles To Explain Trump’s Silence On Steve King Amid His Omar Critiques
- Bishop Talbert Swan: Calling a Black POTUS married 25 yrs to 1 wife with 2 children, no mistresses, affairs or scandals, ‘the antichrist’ but a white POTUS married thrice, 5 kids by 3 women, mistresses, affairs & scandals, ‘God‘s anointed,’ proves your religion is white supremacy.
- FBI: Planned Parenthood clinic fire is possible hate crime
- Arkansas white supremacist gang arrested in string of violent crimes
- Investigation finds no evidence of ‘racist or offensive statements’ by Covington Catholic students during Lincoln Memorial incident
- Six California police officers fire shots at rapper asleep in car, killing him
AIPAC & OMAR
- Ilhan Omar is right about the influence of the Israel lobby
- Ilhan Omar Was Dead Right About Lobbyists for Israel
- Like many Jews, I’ve experienced anti-Semitism. But the Ilhan Omar backlash deeply troubles me
- Omar responds to Trump calling for her resignation: ‘You have trafficked in hate your whole life’
- Omar rips into Trump after call to resign: ‘You have trafficked in hate your whole life’
#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS
- Ryan Adams Dangled Success. Women Say They Paid a Price.
- The glass ceiling is even higher in the penthouse. Among the 1 percent, women are scarce.
- Vanessa Tyson speaks about the #MeToo movement in first public appearance since accusing Justin Fairfax of sexual assault
- The NFL deserves cynicism. But Kareem Hunt deserves another chance.
COLD WAR 2.0
- Bill Browder: From my U.K. parliamentary testimony today, I explained that any Westerner doing business in Russia would end up getting shaken down and have to make the choice of either becoming a criminal to survive or becoming the target of a corrupt regime.
- Tom Tugendhat: This is quite a warning on doing business in Russia from @Billbrowder in today’s @CommonsForeign.
- Bill Browder: This is remarkable. The EU blacklists Saudi Arabia for money laundering, but NOT Russia. This is after the $234 billion Russian money laundering scandal at Danske Bank. Some serious and disgusting Putin appeasement going on in Brussels.
- EU Blacklists Saudi Arabia in Fight Against Money-Laundering and Terror Financing
- The odd tale of Britain’s wall — a hedge — across a swath of India
- Former Air Force Intelligence Agent Charged With Spying for Iran
- Former Air Force intelligence specialist charged with conspiring to reveal classified information to Iran after defecting there
- Mike Pompeo warns Vladimir Putin is threatening democracies everywhere, says West took its eye off Russia
#NEVERAGAIN
- 14 Children Died in the Parkland Shooting. Nearly 1,200 Have Died From Guns Since.
- A Florida school’s answer to campus shootings? Combat veterans with semiautomatic rifles and Glocks.
- After Parkland, everything is different: NRA’s in decline and gun control is possible
- David Hogg: Thank you for all the kind words and support in this difficult time for many famlies in Parkland. I will be taking a break from Twitter for the next 3 days. Please remember the people we’re stolen from us that day; they are why we fight for peace.
- Shannon Watts: Add “the dentist” to places Americans can’t go without the fear of being shot. Police are responding to reports of an active shooter in Colonial Heights, Tennessee. #tnleg
- Sheriff’s office: 2 people shot at Colonial Heights dentist office
- Shannon Watts: Just two gun extremists who dabble in racism and bigotry having a chat on NRATV – one is a @NRA gun saleswoman, one is a lawmaker, but both are paid by gun manufacturers to endanger Americans. Totally legal, totally cool.
- Parkland school turns to experimental surveillance software that can flag students as threats
- Pittsburgh lawmakers tried to get guns off the streets. Now, they’re being treated like criminals.
FIXING THE INTERNET
- Facebook removes over 100 adverts for Donald Trump’s businesses
- People love Facebook so much they wouldn’t quit unless we paid them — a lot
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- Roger Stone calls conservative CNN contributor Ana Navarro a “little piglet,” lashes out at “leftist retards”
- Ana Navarro: It’s a badge of honor to have Stone insult me and call me names. I enjoy knowing that I’ve been getting under his skin and an object of his obsession for so many years. I do wonder what the big boys in his cell-block will be calling him?? You guys got any suggestions?🤔🤔🤔
- Katy Tur: It’s been unacceptable since 2015. The President’s own rhetoric causes this. His words. What’s deeply demoralizing is how his own party hasn’t condemned him into stopping.
- Acosta on Trump rallies: Worse than what you see on TV
- LAFFERTY, ERICA Et Al V. JONES, ALEX EMRIC Et Al
- Infowars’ Alex Jones ordered to undergo sworn deposition in Sandy Hook case
- Judge rules Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist must submit deposition
- Shannon Watts: BREAKING: Alex Jones will likely be deposed under oath in Connecticut. The defamation case, brought by families of Sandy Hook victims, may have significant implications regarding the consequences of participating in conspiracy theories in public forums.
- Maria Ressa, Philippine Journalist Critical of Rodrigo Duterte, Is Arrested
- ‘Fox & Friends’ tells Americans it’s their fault their tax returns are smaller this year
- Donald Trump has said 4350 false things as U.S. president
- Kremlin Behind Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Campaign As Measles Cases Explode – The Intellectualist
- The Deadly Anti-Vaxxer Movement: Started in Britain, Co-opted by Trump, Boosted by Putin
- Caroline Orr: Why did the Kremlin invest in anti-vaccine disinformation operations? For the same reason it invested in Trump: to undermine the health of our democracy by eroding trust in government, institutions, and shared knowledge.
WHITE HOUSE CHAOS
- FEMA administrator William ‘Brock’ Long, who faced questions over his use of his government vehicle, is resigning
- Daughter and son-in-law of AG nominee leaving the Justice Department
TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY
- Mark Warner: Just introduced the Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act, which would block the Trump Administration’s attempt to promote “junk” health care plans that raise costs and lack protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
- Black mold, rats and lead: Survey of military families paints slum-like picture of housing on U.S. bases
- Military survey finds deep dissatisfaction with family housing on…
- Bernie Sanders wants to save Social Security by raising taxes on people making more than $250,000
- ‘For Billionaires, Things Are Already Fine’: Ocasio-Cortez Pinpoints Why Howard Schultz Has No Serious Tax Plan
- Despite his pre-election hype, Trump’s piling on the debt as president
- Gazillionaire senators push to make it harder for non-rich people to serve in Congress
- McCarthy: Yeah, We Tried to Kill Protections for Preexisting Conditions
- National debt tops $22 trillion for first time in U.S. history
- Surprise, no tax refund for you! What not to do if you owe the IRS.
- The glass ceiling is even higher in the penthouse. Among the 1 percent, women are scarce.
- Trump said he’d cut the national debt ‘very quickly.’ It just hit a record $22 trillion.
- Walt Disney’s Great-Niece Among 200 ‘Patriotic Millionaires’ Demanding Multimillionaires Tax: ‘They Will Not Have Fewer Private Airplanes’
- The great Equifax mystery: 17 months later, the stolen data has never been found, and experts are starting to suspect a spy scheme
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
- Apple lawyer who oversaw insider trading policy charged with insider trading
- Former Air Force Intelligence Agent Charged With Spying for Iran
- Former Air Force intelligence specialist charged with conspiring to reveal classified information to Iran after defecting there
- ‘Cupid of Chaos’ bigamist duped at least three wives in three states to steal their money, police say
PRIESTS & RELIGION
- Christian student challenged a school history lesson on Islam and lost in court
- Secret files opened by 1st N.J. diocese reveal the names of 63 priests and deacons accused of sexual abuse
ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE
Opportunity Lost
- Opportunity, NASA’s record-setting Mars rover, is declared dead after 15 years
- Thread by @JacobMargolis: “Sad news. Mars rover is probably done. Sometime tonight, a team @NASAJPL will make their final attempt to contact . If the […]” #Opportunity #Oppy
- Jacob Margolis: Sad news. Mars rover #Opportunity is probably done. Sometime tonight, a team @NASAJPL will make their final attempt to contact #Oppy. If they can’t, they’ll likely call the mission. Here’s what happened… THREAD
- Kremlin Behind Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Campaign As Measles Cases Explode – The Intellectualist
- The Deadly Anti-Vaxxer Movement: Started in Britain, Co-opted by Trump, Boosted by Putin
- Caroline Orr: Why did the Kremlin invest in anti-vaccine disinformation operations? For the same reason it invested in Trump: to undermine the health of our democracy by eroding trust in government, institutions, and shared knowledge.
- Behind the failure of the first U.S. uterine transplant
- Bill ‘effectively killing the solar industry in Kentucky’ zips through Senate
- FDA recommends approval of ketamine for patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression
- Heaviest rain, strongest wind and lowest temperature: Snow in Hawaii follows a year of extreme weather
- In a world drowning in trash, these cities have slashed waste by 80 percent
- Ocasio-Cortez suggests Trump ‘can’t read full sentences’ after he attacks Green New Deal climate change plan The president frequently questions whether man-made global warming exists
- You want to know how your city will feel in 60 years? Head at least 300 miles south.
ELECTIONS
THINKING AHEAD
- Bill Browder: Very interesting. Tulsi Gabbard, the only Democratic presidential candidate who has full Kremlin support and who praised Syria’s Assad, has hired Chris Cooper of Potomoc Square Group, the same DC fixer who the Russians hired to smear me and Sergei Magnitsky in 2016. Coincidence?
- Christine Garlow: Tulsi Gabbard claims she’s the victim of a conspiracy of war-mongering corporate journalists. But that wouldn’t explain why she hired DC fixer Chris Cooper of Potomac Square Group to discredit me, an independent journalist & special ed teacher in HI. @pplswar @joshrogin @RVAwonk
- POLITICO Investigation: The 332 people connected to the Russia probes
- Thread by @realchrissyg: “Tulsi Gabbard claims she’s the victim of a conspiracy of war-mongering corporate journalists. But that wouldn’t explain why she hired DC fix […]”
- Elizabeth Warren receives standing ovation at surprise visit to Native American conference: report
- Elizabeth Warren: ‘Everyone Should Have Shot at American Dream—That Means Fighting for #GreenNewDeal’
- ‘You can feel it now’: New Democrats push party, and 2020 candidates, to the left on divisive issues
IN OTHER NEWS…
- An unlikely Washington love story: Debbie Dingell on her 38-year marriage to John Dingell
- Hollywood brightened Lady Gaga’s star. Las Vegas will protect her from oblivion.
- Top dog? It’s King, a wire fox terrier that won best in show at Westminster.
RUMOR MILL
- Countercheckist: Paul Manafort will die in prison of old age. … He won’t be alone. 🙂
- Ming: It will be interesting to see how it play out for traitors held in general population. #ByeByePavel
- Ming: Protip; Manafort is heavy drinker, target the liver.
- Ricky Davila: Since a judge has now ruled that Paul Manafort intentionally lied multiple times to the FBI and Grand Jury, let’s remember that… Mike Pence knew. Mike Pence lied. He covered it up. He is complicit. He was transition head. He was chosen by Manafort. Isn’t that right, @VP*?🤫
- Tea Pain: Trump’s strategy is simple. He’s willin’ to lie more than the press is willin’ to correct him.
- 911corlebra777: Uh huh. I’m pretty sure these guys are looking for a war with Iran, Bibi, Bolton, Trump and all the other merry band of assholes. Talk about wag the dog
- Tea Pain: The Senate Intelligence Committee proves what Republicans can accomplish when they permit perjury and ignore primary witnesses.
- Ming: Have Brian Kemp and Nick Ayers been arrested yet?
- Melissa Kester: Nor are they brave unless they think it will get them some significant adulation & they are damn sure they won’t be hurt badly. Narcissists NEVER put others before themselves. Trump will throw his children under the bus to save himself. Watch.
- Ming: Which NAVCONBRIG will @LindseyGrahamSC be held at before transfer to US disciplinary barracks for the needle?
That’s it for Wednesday. I’ve had a hard time keeping focused the last few days. The grind of keeping up with everything for the last couple years has been just that… a grind. I might take it a little easy over the next couple days. Of course, that means that we’ll get every indictment unsealed and the pee tape published on PornHub.
The next couple days might be light. Except for Parkland. Thursday is the one year anniversary of the massacre and the beginning of the movement. I want to talk about that more tomorrow.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 