Wednesday, February 20, 2019
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
- Justice Dept. preparing for Mueller report as early as next week
- Justice Department preparing for Mueller report in coming days
- Democrats are gearing up to fight for a public release of Mueller report
- Former FBI Chief McCabe Urges Mueller Report Be Widely Released
- Trump says release of Mueller report will be up to Attorney General Barr
- Angry White House Staffer: People Freaking Out About the Mueller Report News
- Thread by @AngrierWHStaff: “I feel like people are freaking out just a little too much over this… Thread by @AngrierWHStaff: “I feel like people are freaking out just a little too much over this Mueller news. Even if it’s true, and Barr exearly as next week, this really doesn’t change anything…. threadreaderapp.com
- Scott Stedman: From WaPo, and it’s spot on: “According to people familiar with the special counsel’s work, Mueller has envisioned it as an investigative assignment, not necessarily a prosecutorial one, and for that reason does not plan to keep the office running to [the end of prosecutions].”
- Mark Warner: A “summary” is not going to cut it. Congress needs to see the Special Counsel’s findings *in their entirety* and an unclassified report should then be released to the public.
Let’s all remain calm and see where this goes. I’m not sure what’s going on here and the sourcing is a little suspect on this story, but the timing does line up with what we’ve heard over the last several months. We’ll have to see what happens in the next few weeks.
One thing to keep in mind with the Mueller Investigation is that this is an investigation, not a prosecution. Ken Starr’s multiyear vendetta against Bill Clinton was a prosecution.
Another thing to keep in mind is the pace of the report getting released. Mueller’s team has been working this case for 21 months. They’ve had a long time to pull this together and perfect it. The question becomes how long until it goes from the Department of Justice to Congress, and then from Congress to the public? How long until we see unclassified report? Will the new Attorney General William Barr do anything to slow that down or obstruct it?
- Deutsche Bank reportedly planned to extend the dates of $340 million in loans to Trump Organization to avoid a potential nightmare of chasing a sitting president for cash
- Deutsche Bank was reportedly really worried Trump would default on his loans as president
- Andrew McCabe claims Trump wanted war in Venezuela because “they have all that oil”
- So much for the deep-state coup: Andrew McCabe told Congress he was investigating Trump
Keep this in mind when Trump talks about Venezuela.
- Trump news – LIVE: Investigation launched into ‘aggressive’ Saudi nuclear deal, as president scrambles to deny meddling in federal probe
- Instead of punishing the Saudis for Khashoggi, Trump wants to hand them nuclear technology
- Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on Saudi disappearances: ‘There’s a lot more here than people realize’
- James Clapper: Donald Trump May Be A Russian Asset ‘Whether Witting Or Unwitting’
- Microsoft says it has found another Russian operation targeting prominent think tanks
COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS
- A Former Trump Staffer Filed A Class Action To Invalidate All Of The Campaign’s Nondisclosure Agreements
- Trump White House Is Forcing Interns to Sign NDAs and Threatening Them With Financial Ruin
- NYT bombshell outlines Trump’s efforts to obstruct investigations
- Trump Seems to Have Made a Habit of Obstructing Justice
- Obstruction Of Justice, In Private And Plain Sight | The New York Times Makes the Case for Impeachment, Recounts Two Years of Trump’s Efforts to Stop Investigations
TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1
- Trump declares New York Times ‘enemy of the people’
- Andrew McCabe claims Trump wanted war in Venezuela because “they have all that oil”
- Donald Trump Bashes Washington Post Fact Checker, Gets Fact-Checked Back
- Donald Trump ‘Parrots’ And ‘Accepts’ Vladimir Putin’s Lies, Former Ambassador To Russia Warns
- Ethically challenged: Three scandals rock Trump administration in one day
- Trump apparently not familiar with his administration’s push for global decriminalization of homosexuality
- An “enraged” Donald Trump may fire his “not loyal” intel chief Daniel Coats, White House officials fear
- Trump grows frustrated with Coats, leading some to fear he might be fired
- Trump ‘says he’s done nothing wrong’ but seems ‘worried about people finding something he did wrong’
TRAITOR TOTS
- Shannon Watts: Law-abiding: At the age of 32, Matt had 16 traffic tickets, including driving 60 mph in a 35 mph zone. In 2008, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and refusing a breathalyzer test. The video tape of his arrest and detainment were destroyed, and the case was dropped.
- Mueller Biographer: McConnell “Aided And Abetted” Russia’s Attack On The U.S. – The Intellectualist
- Devin Nunes Was Trump’s Mole Inside the Gang of Eight
- Matthew Whitaker’s testimony about Trump trying to influence the Cohen inquiry was cagey. Now we might know why.
FIGHTING BACK
- Rick Wilson: It’s Wednesday, or as I like to call it, Roger Stone’s last 24 hours of freedom.
- Reddit: Tweet from NBC Politics – a free press is essential
- Alec Baldwin interview: actor fears for family’s safety after Trump threats
EMERGENCIES, SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION
- GOP Sen. Collins says she’ll back resolution to block Trump’s emergency declaration
- House Democrats to Block President Trump’s Border Emergency Declaration With a Bill by Friday
- Pelosi: House moving ‘swiftly’ to block Trump’s emergency declaration
- Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Declaration Is Illegal
- Trump’s emergency declaration to pay for border wall faces a lengthy court battle
- Trump denied a trans woman asylum & deported her. She was killed when she returned.
- ‘You want a cookie?’: As families arrive en masse, border agents offer snacks and medical checks
RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM
- White nationalist coast guard accused of plotting mass terror attack against top Democrats and journalists
- Self-proclaimed white nationalist planned mass terror attack, government says. ‘I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.’
- Shannon Watts: Authorities seized 15 firearms, including long guns and rifles, and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from the white nationalist’s apartment. Over the past two years, the coast guard lieutenant made dozens of firearms purchases and thousands of visits to websites selling weapons.
- Joe Scarborough Unloads On Donald Trump’s Base For Sticking With Him Amid Racism And Lies
- Number of hate groups in US hits all-time high and Trump to blame: watchdog
- The Washington Post sued by family of Covington Catholic teenager
- ‘America first’ increasingly looks like America alone
SCOTUS & COURTS
- Supreme Court, in unanimous ruling, moves to limit state and local governments’ power to impose fines and seize property
- Supreme Court limits power of states and localities to impose fines, seize property
- The Supreme Court Just Stopped Local Sheriffs From Carjacking to Pay the Bills
- The Supreme Court Just Struck a Huge, Unanimous Blow Against Policing for Profit
- Clarence Thomas Just Joined Donald Trump’s Crusade to “Open Up” Libel Laws
#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS
COLD WAR 2.0
- NATO hits back at Vladimir Putin over his “unacceptable” threats to attack U.S. and allies
- Putin warns new weapons will point toward U.S. if missiles are deployed in Europe
- Somebody’s been forging Nobel Peace Prize nominations for Donald Trump. No, really
- US: Alabama woman who joined Islamic State is not a citizen
FIXING THE INTERNET
- New Bill Would Stop Internet Service Providers From Screwing You With Hidden Fees
- Can Washington keep watch over Silicon Valley? The FTC’s Facebook probe is a high-stakes test.
- Review | Password managers have a security flaw. But you should still use one.
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- CNN’s hiring of a GOP operative as political editor is even worse than it looks
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns CNN for hiring former Trump aide as a political editor
- The Shitstorm Surrounding CNN’s Hiring of Sarah Isgur Highlights Everything Wrong with the Network
- Historian who confronted Davos billionaires leaks Tucker Carlson rant
- The 2020 Presidential Race Is Going to Be a Disinformation Nightmare
- ‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates
- There’s already a ferocious, nebulous social media campaign to undermine 4 Democratic presidential hopefuls
TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that $3 billion in tax credits should be given to the public, not Amazon — and a new poll shows that nearly half of Americans agree
- Your friends’ social media posts are making you spend more money, researchers say
STUDENT ISSUES
- The student loan crisis is really an underemployment catastrophe
- GOP plan aims to take student loan payments from paychecks
GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Blasts Republicans ‘Screeching’ About ‘Socialism’ While Cheering ‘Authoritarian’ Trump
- Graham sums up how stupid the GOP has become
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
- ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett is suspected of filing a false police report saying he was attacked by men yelling slurs
- Jussie Smollett Charged With Disorderly Conduct Over Alleged False Police Report (UPDATE)
- A private detective, a mysterious witness and an alleged $100,000 cash drop: A widow’s desperate quest to find her husband’s killer takes a bizarre turn
PRIESTS & RELIGION
ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE
- Trump’s New Climate Czar: Carbon Dioxide Has Been Treated Just Like “Jews Under Hitler”
- Candy-colored explosions in the sky: The stunning phenomenon of the aurora borealis
- How a 7th-grader’s strike against climate change exploded into a movement
- MIT scientists are using lobsters to develop a new form of flexible body armor
ELECTIONS
- North Carolina vote fraud case takes a dramatic turn against Republican candidate
- Why doesn’t the ‘voter fraud’ crowd care about what happened in North Carolina?
- NC Congressional Candidate’s Son Just Blew a Hole Through His Cover Story
Mark Harris’ fight for his hotly contested U.S. House seat may have just been undone by his own son.
On Wednesday afternoon, John Harris was called to testify before the North Carolina state elections board for what was the third day of hearings into the claims of election fraud coming from the Ninth Congressional District. The younger Harris, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, told the board that he informed his parents as early as 2016 that his father’s campaign may have been engaged with a group using unsavory and illegal electoral practices. Mark Harris did not respond to Splinter’s request for comment.
After beating sitting U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger in last year’s May primary, Harris, a Republican and a controversial pastor, appeared to narrowly defeat Democrat Dan McCready in the November general election when all of the ballots were tallied. That was before the validity of the election victory slowly unraveled, and local reporters revealed that political consultant Leslie McCrae Dowless and the firm he contracted for, Red Dome Group, almost certainly committed widespread election fraud by collecting absentee ballots en masse and stuffing the box. The testimony and emails provided by John on Wednesday contradict Mark’s prior claims of total ignorance, and confirm a December report from the Washington Post alleging that Mark was alerted to Dowless’ tactics as early as 2016.
…
Following a ten minute break, John returned to testify that his father and Dowless spoke regularly; he added that after John raised the issue of the Red Dome Group’s methods, Mark never mentioned him again in their talks. John told lawyers that he believed Dowless was lying to his parents and that he wrongly assumed his father’s campaign was closely monitoring Red Dome Group’s actions. As the 2018 election passed and the results were heavily scrutinized, John said that he slowly whittled down contact with his parents for legal purposes. According to John, he didn’t alert them that he would be appearing at the hearing on Wednesday.
Testifying against your parents—even when it’s becoming clearer and clearer that they maybe, probably at least knew about sloppily committed election fraud—has got to be tough as hell. But given the receipts, it’s hard to deny that John did just about everything in his power to help Mark out. Maybe next time his dad will listen to reason and…not employ someone committing blatant election fraud.
THINKING AHEAD
Deza Campaign
- The 2020 Presidential Race Is Going to Be a Disinformation Nightmare
- There’s already a ferocious, nebulous social media campaign to undermine 4 Democratic presidential hopefuls
- ‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates
- It Sure Looks Like Trolls Are Weaponizing Call-Out Culture to Weaken Democrats
- ‘Operation Divide the Left’: Analysis Shows 2020 Online Disinformation Campaign Already Well Underway. “It looks like the 2020 presidential primary is going to be the next battleground to divide and confuse Americans.”
- Countercheckist: I keep warning you, patriots. Don’t fall for it. Stay above the fray. “One of the objectives of the activity, they say, is to divide the left by making the Democratic presidential primary as chaotic and toxic as possible.”
- Bernie Sanders Raises $6 Million After Announcing Presidential Bid
- Bernie Sanders responds to Trump’s revived nickname for him: ‘What’s crazy is that we have a president who is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and a fraud’
- It’s Bernie’s world. The Democratic party is just living in it. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 candidacy rewrote the rules by which the Democratic party operates. If Democrats win in 2020, it will be largely thanks to him
- ‘Unprecedented’: Bernie Sanders Campaign Says It Raised $6 Million From 225,000 Donors in First 24 Hours
RUMOR MILL
- Ming: Reminder: We will write this history. ❤
- Louise Mensch: I haven’t been worried since December 2016 and I’m still not worried today. If anything changes I’ll let you guys know. #ComeyDay
- Greg Olear: 60 pages into the McCabe book #TheThreat & it’s GREAT. Not just the Trump stuff, but background on Russian OC, RICO, etc. (That a former FBI deputy director corroborates stuff I wrote in #DirtyRubles is nice after Russo-Bernie bots gaslighted me & trashed my work all weekend).
- Spicy Mic: This seems very contrived like forcing a narrative. Think about the timing, NYTs bombshell yesterday about his 2 year obstruction campaign. Leak shit that’s not real to change the topic That’s Trump’s MO hence why I’m reluctant to believe it but I’m also a docket hawk /the end
- PostimusMaximus: Irony of our current situation is many of the “Why is Mueller taking so long” people are asking “Why is it ending?” I’m in a weird situation of being a bit of both. Has to end eventually, and Trump’s guilt seemed obvious from the start, but this seems odd until we know more.
- Ming: Reminder: McCabe and Strzok interviewed traitor Flynn and hvae been under vicious attack by GOP This was the plan MAGA was told to trust to hide GOP treason
- Dr. Dena Grayson: LOTS of hedging in this story, but even if Mueller delivers his report soon, his investigation likely will NOT end soon. Mueller recently extended his grand jury for *another 6 months*.😎Plus SDNY, DC, and others have MULTIPLE ongoing probes.😉
That’s it for Wednesday. I’m running low on time, so I’m wrapping things up here.
I’m not sure what to make of the reports of the Mueller Investigation ‘wrapping up.’ There’s still a lot to do, like their Supreme Court case against Company A, but there’s also a lot they’ve done behind the scenes. After the report comes out, things will now be in the hands of the courts, law enforcement, and Congress.
Something else to keep in mind is the timing of things. Trump and Pence are both out of the country next week at the same time. The tin-foil hat part of me thinks they’ll try to make a run for it, but that’s pretty absurd.
Then again, we have a failed Reality TV host with a long criminal past as President. Nothing is too absurd anymore. We live in the timeline of weaponized craziness.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 
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