Shakesville: Roger Stone

Showing posts with label Roger Stone. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 764

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

A man allegedly caught researching acts of domestic terrorism and amassing more than a dozen firearms will spend at least two weeks in federal custody, a Maryland federal judge decided today.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was arrested on charges of firearm and drug possession, but Judge Charles Day said that Hasson's internet search history, as well as previous letters and emails he had allegedly written, were enough to warrant him a danger to the community.

Speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Jennifer Sykes said that the gun and drug possession charges were "just the tip of the iceberg" in terms of the extent of Hasson's alleged crimes, indicating that they may attempt to charge him as a domestic terrorist allegedly planning to launch a major attack.

According to court documents filed Tuesday, Hasson was described as someone who had "espoused extremist views for years." In a draft email from June 2017 he allegedly wrote, "I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth. I think a plague would be most successful but how do I acquire the needed/ Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax not sure yet but will find something."

...The defendant also allegedly compiled a list of prominent Democratic lawmakers as well as journalists from CNN and MSNBC. Names on that list include presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, as well as MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and CNN's Van Jones.

As I noted yesterday, this didn't happen in a vacuum. Donald Trump has been waging a campaign of stochastic terrorism, rhetorically putting targets on the backs of his "enemies" and hoping that shamelessly violent wrecks among his cultists will do the rest.

And he is hardly alone in this endeavor. Just in the last day:

Staff at Media Matters: Frequent Fox News Guest Tells Laura Ingraham "We Are in a Civil War"; Suggests Everyone Buy Guns to Prepare for "Total War". "We are in a civil war in this country. There's two standards of justice — one for Democrats one for Republicans. The press is all Democrat, all liberal, all progressive, all left — they hate Republicans; they hate Trump. So the suggestion that there's ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future in this country is over. It's not going to be. It's going to be total war. And as I say to my friends, I do two things: I vote and I buy guns."

Also on Fox News:

“The white supremacists are American citizens. The illegal immigrants are people who shouldn’t be here.” pic.twitter.com/OcL8QihQ4m
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2019

Conservatives, led by Trump, are amping up the violent and eliminationist rhetoric. And they are keeping silent on the men who take their words seriously enough to act on them. They're playing with fire, and they know it. Indeed, that is the entire point.

* * *

Sabrina Siddiqui at the Guardian: 'Even Nixon Wasn't Like Him': Trump's Bid to Upend Russia Inquiry Unprecedented, Experts Say. "From high-level firings to public misstatements, Trump's repeated steps to undermine the investigations that have clouded his two years in office paint a picture of a president who is his own worst enemy, legal experts say. 'It is quite clear from all the evidence that the president has had the intent to obstruct this investigation,' said Andy Wright, a former associate counsel to Barack Obama and the founding editor of the legal blog Just Security. 'It's been in plain sight. ...It's a fundamental abuse of power for the president to be trying to shut down an investigation in which he has a personal stake — both as a potential target himself and his political allies and family members,' he added."

Every whistleblower is being charged for exposing crimes that actually led to convictions yet Trump and his whole criminal Russian mafia cabal walks around free continuing to commit crimes https://t.co/X5dMTxewrA
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) February 21, 2019

[CN: Threats] Joshua Eaton at ThinkProgress: Judge Lights into Roger Stone over Threatening Instagram Post, Issues New Gag Order. "The federal judge overseeing former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone's criminal trial barred him on Thursday from speaking publicly about the case or anyone involved with it, just days after he posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to show her next to rifle crosshairs. His previous gag order only prevented him from speaking to press in or around the courthouse, but didn't prevent him from making media appearances." JFC.

William K. Rashbaum at the New York Times: New York Prosecutors Expected to Charge Manafort, Guarding Against Trump Pardon. "The Manhattan district attorney's office is preparing state criminal charges against Paul J. Manafort, [Donald] Trump's former campaign chairman, in an effort to ensure he will still face prison time even if the president pardons him for his federal crimes, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. ...The president has broad power to issue pardons for federal crimes, but no such authority in state cases."

* * *

[CN: Sex crimes; possible sex abuse] Staff at the Daily Beast: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Charged in Prostitution Sting. "Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, has been charged in a human trafficking and prostitution investigation. ...He is a close friend of [Donald] Trump, and frequent visitor to Trump's Florida estate Mar a Lago." Which is just down the road from the place where Kraft was allegedly videotaped "in a sex act at one of the spas." News is still breaking in this story, and it's not entirely clear as of this writing whether the sex workers were all trafficked young women, but there is a possibility they were, which would make this story far worse than a straightforward consensual sex act with a professional sex worker.

[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture]

Prosecutors — among them, Trump’s U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta — broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with Jeffrey Epstein

🚨https://t.co/qWyDuZIqk6
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) February 21, 2019

Would very much like to know what "complication" caused the current Labor Secretary while a prosecutor to favor the sex trafficker of 13-to-16-year-old girls above and beyond the interests of the abused. https://t.co/JWc7W1dhGl
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) February 22, 2019

One of the ugly facts laid bare in the Epstein plea deal is that many powerful people feel zero shame helping a billionaire who has molested girls as young as 14. Zero consequences. Crimes against kids happen not only because of the criminals but their support networks.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 22, 2019

* * *

Eliana Johnson at Politico: Trump Aides Worry He'll Get Outfoxed in North Korea Talks. "Donald Trump is eagerly anticipating his second summit with Kim Jong Un, touting his 'really meaningful' relationship with the North Korean strongman and insisting he's ready to give up his nuclear arsenal. In Washington, he's pretty much the only one who feels that way. Many, including several of the president's top advisers, are less excited. Some have expressed trepidation not only that the summit, scheduled to take place next week in Hanoi, may not yield big results. They worry, too, that Trump, eager to declare victory on the world stage, could make big concessions in exchange for empty promises of denuclearization." That's exactly what's going to happen, because that's the entire directive for the puppet whose master wants to destabilize the region.

Someone please make Mike Pence go on record about this. Does he agree with the head of the ticket he's on that there's no need to pledge not to use hacked/stolen materials against competitors? ATTACH HIS NAME TO THIS TRAITOROUS SHIT. https://t.co/uLotJyNqXg
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 22, 2019

Relatedly:

Trump is a Russian asset who routinely violates the *constitution* and Biden's big idea is to have him sign a "no more Russian propaganda" pledge?! https://t.co/wglUEoWHV1
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 22, 2019

Come on, Biden.

And finally... To be honest, I don't entirely understand this story (and the State Department is working very hard to ensure that none of us do), but it seems very troubling to me. Jacqueline Charles, David Ovalle, and Jay Weaver at the Miami Herald: Americans Arrested in Haiti with Arsenal of Guns Won't Face U.S. Charges.

The five heavily armed Americans arrested in Haiti earlier this week are back on their home soil and won't be facing any criminal charges in the United States — a decision already causing outrage among some Haitian leaders.

Federal sources told the Miami Herald that the men will not be charged criminally, but are being debriefed. They told U.S. authorities they were on the island providing private security for a "businessman" doing work with the Haitian government.

The five American citizens, who returned on a commercial flight to Miami on Wednesday night and were met by U.S. law enforcement, did not have any scheduled appearances in Miami federal court.

The U.S. Attorney's Office referred calls to the State Department, which said only: "The return of the individuals to the U.S. was coordinated with the Haitian authorities."

What promises the U.S. government made to secure the release of the men remain murky.

Oh.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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We Resist: Day 761

I’m returning from Munich, Germany where they understand that this is the language of dictators. 20 months to vote this guy out. Start organizing now. https://t.co/np31u9TzNo
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) February 17, 2019

Ken Dilanian at NBC News: Flynn-Backed Plan to Transfer Nuclear Tech to Saudis May Have Broken Laws, Say Whistleblowers. "Whistleblowers from within [Donald] Trump's National Security Council have told a congressional committee that efforts by former national security adviser Michael Flynn to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may have violated the law, and investigators fear Trump is still considering it, according to a new report obtained by NBC News. The House Oversight Committee has formally opened an investigation into the matter, releasing an interim staff report that adds new details to previous public accounts of how Flynn sought to push through the nuclear proposal on behalf of a group he had once advised." JFC.

Laura Jarrett at CNN: Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Expected to Leave Justice Department in Mid-March. "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave the Justice Department in mid-March, according to a Justice Department official who spoke to CNN Monday. The No. 2 official at the department has become one of the highest profile figures in the Trump administration given his oversight of the Russia investigation and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller in 2017. CNN had previously reported that Rosenstein was planning to step down after Bill Barr was confirmed as attorney general, but the precise timing was fluid. A departure next month could potentially serve as another signal that Mueller's work is coming to a close." Okay.

Natasha Bertrand at the Atlantic: Andrew McCabe Couldn't Believe the Things Trump Said About Putin. "Bertrand: Do you think we'll ever hear from Mueller? Do you think he'll come out and explain his findings once all this is over? McCabe: He'll explain his findings in the report, and then if he's called upon to testify about it, he'll certainly do that. But he is always the guy who will say less than more. He'll seek less attention than more attention. He is perfectly happy to do his job and to do it fully and completely. And then, when it's all said and done, he'll lock the door behind him and go home." Cool.

McCabe says the FBI, in the days after Comey's firing, told the Gang of 8 that the FBI had opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump.

GUTHRIE: Did anyone object?

McCABE: No one objected. Not on legal grounds not on constitutional grounds and not based on the facts.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 19, 2019

In case I haven't already said it ten million times, I'm really over these dudes who hold their tongues about Trump until they have books to sell.

[Content Note: Threats; stochastic terrorism] Ryan Mac and Zoe Tillman at BuzzFeed: Roger Stone Posted a Photo of the Judge Presiding over His Case Next to Crosshairs. "Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative and adviser to [Donald] Trump who was charged with lying to Congress, posted a photo Monday on Instagram of a judge presiding over his case in which she appears to be next to a crosshairs symbol. The post comes days after the judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, rejected Stone's effort to get his case reassigned to a new judge. Jackson also previously ruled that Stone couldn't talk to news outlets in front of her courthouse."

The judge was not amused. Andy Towle at Towleroad: Judge Orders Roger Stone to Court After He Mocks Her with Crosshairs Photo. "Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing Trump ally Roger Stone's criminal case, ordered Stone to court on Tuesday after he posted a number of Instagram posts about her, one of which featured the judge's photo next to a set of crosshairs. The posts have since been deleted."

Tanya Snyder at Politico: Emails Reveal Coordination Between Chao, McConnell Offices. "A trove of more than 800 pages of emails sheds new light on the working relationship between Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of the most potent power couples in Washington — including their dealings with McConnell supporters from their home state of Kentucky. Chao has met at least 10 times with politicians and business leaders from the state in response to requests from McConnell's office, according to documents provided to Politico by the watchdog group American Oversight. In some cases, those people later received what they were hoping for from Chao's department, including infrastructure grants, the designation of an interstate highway, and assistance in getting state funds for a highway project — although the documents don't indicate the meetings led to those outcomes." Oh.

Jessica Donati and Peter Nicholas at the Wall Street Journal: With Evangelicals Behind Him, Vice President Mike Pence Takes Prominent Role in Foreign Policy. That's a distressingly benign-sounding headline for what is, in reality, perhaps the most powerful vice president in the nation's history wielding U.S. foreign policy to entrench global Christian Supremacy.

In the first two years of the Trump presidency, Vice President Mike Pence has worked to put religion at the heart of key diplomatic efforts, steering hundreds of millions in U.S. aid toward Christians and other minorities who were victimized by Islamic State.

Among the measures he has favored, Mr. Pence pushed to redirect U.S. money that would have been distributed by the United Nations widely in Iraqi areas targeted by Islamic State toward Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities. He also advocated last year for the imposition of sanctions on officials in Turkey — a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally — over a detained U.S. pastor.

Both were causes championed by the administration's evangelical supporters, who represent a key constituency for [Donald] Trump. They view Mr. Pence as an important ally in the White House. His foreign policy actions — he also has played a leading role in the effort to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and criticizing Europe for helping Iran circumvent U.S. sanctions — contrast with the low profile he has kept on domestic issues.

...Underpinning Mr. Pence's aid prioritization is his own faith. He has famously called himself a Christian first, conservative second, and Republican third. Mr. Pence also serves, in effect, as a White House ambassador to evangelicals, many of whom viewed Mr. Trump's candidacy with skepticism but have embraced his policies and Mr. Pence's foreign priorities.

"He is a strong voice within the Trump administration who is concerned about the persecution of all religious groups — but particularly Christian religious groups," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C.

That last bit is, of course, a total lie. Pence is not at all concerned about "the persecution of all religious groups," including and especially people who are not religious at all and do not share his enthusiasm for using religion as a cudgel to deny people their agency, bodily autonomy, and right of consent.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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Things That Make Me Go Hmm

The latest on the investigation of Roger Stone, care of Tom McCarthy at the Guardian:

A court filing by Mueller on Thursday said prosecutors had seized "voluminous and complex" material including "multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information," material seized from search warrants executed on "Apple iCloud accounts and email accounts," "bank and financial records, and the contents of numerous physical devices (eg, cellular phones, computers, and hard drives)."

Given that Special Counsel Bob Mueller disclosed to Stone's defense attorneys as part of discovery that some of this material may be used against Stone, we can presume at least some of it implicates him in criminal activities.

So, the first thing I want to note (and I'm surprised that no one else seems to be making this point) is that Stone retaining so much potentially incriminating material is yet more evidence of confidence among Donald Trump's co-conspirators that he would be elected.

That is: Stone (and others) felt confident in keeping information that could be used against them, because they assumed that it never would be.

Stone is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them.

Which brings me to my next point: Mueller has been investigating for about 100 years at this point. It's one thing that Stone was evidently confident that Trump would be elected, but it's quite another that he has remained confident that this information wouldn't be used against him.

Stone is hubristic, but it's the sort of hubris that makes people do whatever it takes to get away with something, not to assume that they will get away with anything.

I'd certainly like to know what is underwriting Stone's confidence and apparent contempt for the Mueller investigation, because it isn't stupidity or hubris or a sheer failure to cover his ass. You don't last as long in the ratfucking game as Stone has if you're daft, arrogant, or careless.

I don't want to give Roger Stone too much credit here, but, at the same time, this strikes me as pretty damn curious.

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We Resist: Day 740

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: This F#@king Guy and Bill Barr Discussed Mueller Probe with Mike Pence and Newsflash: Warmongers Want Wars. And ICYMI late yesterday: An Observation About Bernie.

Here are some more things in the news today...

Danielle Paquette at the Washington Post: The Lowest-Paid Shutdown Workers Aren't Getting Back Pay. "Unlike the 800,000 career public servants who are slated to receive full back pay over the next week or so, the contractors who clean, guard, cook, and shoulder other jobs at federal workplaces aren't legally guaranteed a single penny. They're also among the lowest-paid laborers in the government economy, generally earning between $450 and $650 weekly, union leaders say. And even as they began returning to work Monday, they were bracing for more pain. [Donald] Trump's new deadline for Congress to earmark funding for his proposed border wall is Feb. 15. Agencies could close again if no deal is reached."

If Donald Trump is really the magnanimous "blue collar billionaire" he purports to be, then he should use money from his own goddamned pockets to give back pay to the working people who are getting stiffed because of his shutdown. Of course he will never do that, because he didn't even pay people who did work for him when he was a private citizen and because MALICE IS THE AGENDA.

Suzy Khimm at NBC News: The Shutdown Is Over, But the Pain for Low-Income Families Lingers. "[Candice Cluff] was among the thousands of low-income Americans across the country who were frozen out of the Section 8 voucher program during the shutdown, prohibited from accessing public subsidies to private landlords who rent to about 2.2 million families. When vouchers became available through turnover, many local housing authorities decided to stop re-issuing the vouchers to new participants because they couldn't guarantee they'd be able to pay landlords after February, according to Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group."

Liam Stack at the New York Times: Joshua Trees Destroyed in National Park During Shutdown May Take Centuries to Regrow. "The partial government shutdown ended last week after 35 days, but conservationists have warned that its impact may be felt for hundreds of years in at least one part of the country: Joshua Tree National Park. The Southern California park, which is larger than Rhode Island and famed for its dramatic rock formations and the spiky-leafed Joshua trees from which it takes it name, had only a skeleton crew of workers during the shutdown. With most of its park rangers furloughed, vandals and inconsiderate guests ran amok. Gates and posts were toppled, new roads carved through the desert by unauthorized off-road drivers, and a small number of the park's thousands of Joshua trees were outright destroyed, conservationists said."

Burgess Everett, John Bresnahan, and Sarah Ferris at Politico: Republicans May Block Trump from Another Shutdown. "Though House Republicans aren't ruling out supporting the president should he choose another confrontation over his border wall, the Republican Senate majority — which actually has governing power — has another view. 'I did not love the shutdown. I wouldn't think anybody would have another shutdown,' said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), one of the key negotiators trying to strike a deal on border security. ...But while White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that Trump 'doesn't want to go through another shutdown,' she declined to rule it out if Congress doesn't come up with a border security plan to Trump's liking. Neither did House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a close Trump confidant."

So, presumably, Senate Republicans will keep rolling over. Or strategize how to throw Trump under the bus so they can finally get their President Pence and go back to sliding into authoritarian rule behind someone who people insistently believe will be "better" than Trump just because he is less vulgar.

* * *

Joshua Eaton and Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: Roger Stone Pleads Not Guilty to Lying to Congress About Russia Collusion. "Stone faces one count of obstructing a proceeding, five counts of lying to Congress, and one count of witness tampering. ...After the reading of the charges was waived, [one of Stone's attorneys, Robert Buschel] entered the not guilty plea on Stone's behalf. ...Judge Robinson imposed similar conditions for Stone's release to those put in place Friday in Florida. He can travel only between Florida, D.C., and New York, and he agreed not to contact any other witnesses in this case." Oh, well as long as he promises! I'm sure we can trust him. Roger Stone would never lie.

ROGER STONE's ludicrous conspiracy theory: "They're trying to criminalize free speech... I honestly believe they're going to try to charge POTUS & VP on hokum. That way they can make Pelosi president. She can make Hillary vice president & then step aside. It's a nightmare." pic.twitter.com/I46yDYTTLm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 29, 2019

If only.

Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast: How the Proud Boys Became Roger Stone's Personal Army. "On Tuesday, Stone was arraigned in a Washington, D.C. courthouse on charges he lied about dealings with WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign in 2016. Stone has spent the past two years as the most outlandish character in the Trump-Russia saga, with his colorful quotes and flamboyant wardrobe. At the same time, he's grown tighter with the violent ultra-nationalist group, hiring them as security and participating in the group's videos — even repeating its slogan." For fuck's sake.

* * *

At threats hearing, DNI Dan Coats contradicted @realDonaldTrump by saying that ISIS is not defeated and that North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons. And in other news, U.S. intelligence says Russia and China are working together against us. Have a nice day.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) January 29, 2019

Also from the threats assessment hearing, via the Daily Beast: Kremlin and Other Enemies Will Target 2020 Election.

America's enemies will "almost certainly" use online influence operations to try to weaken its institutions, undermine its alliances, and cause unrest during the 2020 elections, the Director of National Intelligence has said.

In its 2019 threat assessment, released Tuesday morning, the DNI said that the country's enemies are "probably already are looking to the 2020 U.S. elections as an opportunity to advance their interests." Specifically focusing on Russia, the report says that the Kremlin's disinformation campaigns online will try to "aggravate social and racial tensions, undermine trust in authorities, and criticize perceived anti-Russia politicians."

...In his opening statement on the report to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats emphasized that China "is the most active strategic competitor responsible for cyber espionage against the US Government, corporations, and allies."

CNN's Jim Sciutto also notes that the assessment contradicts Trump's claim that North Korea will denuclearize, noting that "the IC continues to assess that it is unlikely to give up all of its WMD stockpiles, delivery systems, and production capabilities."

And while foreign adversaries try to subvert our democracy from the outside, the Republican Party will continue to try to subvert our democracy from the inside.

Addy Baird at ThinkProgress: Kentucky Leads the Country in Disenfranchising African American Voters, Report Finds. "One out of every four African American voters is disenfranchised in the state of Kentucky, a higher rate than any other state, as a result of the state's law barring people with felony convictions from voting, according to a new report from the Kentucky League of Women Voters released Tuesday." Emphasis mine.

* * *

Interesting choice by Schultz to kick off his campaign by calling his critics “as un-American as you can get.” pic.twitter.com/z6bd2aPG4n
— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) January 29, 2019

Howard Schultz has already called these things un-American:

• Ocasio-Cortez's tax on the wealthy
• Kamala Harris' Medicare for All proposal
• Critics of third-party campaigns
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) January 29, 2019

Seriously. This fucking guy.

With her permission, I'm going to share SKM's earlier comment here on the main page:

Please note also that Schultz has naught but the vaguest objections to GOP (general "division is bad" hand-waving) yet he's johnny-on-the-spot in attacking right-wing anti-Dem straw men (e.g. AOC's mention of a 70% marginal tax, as though that's a universal Dem position, and as though it's not a very old idea).

He is running against the Democratic party but NOT against the GOP, simple as.

Correct.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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We Resist: Day 736

Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the 800,000 federal workers who are facing a second missed paycheck at the end of this week should essentially borrow groceries to get through what has become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

"Local people know who they are, when they go for groceries and everything else," Trump said of federal workers during a meeting on trade at the White House. "And I think… that they will work along. I know banks are working along."

"And that's what happens in times like this," Trump continued. "They know the people, they've been dealing with them for years, and they work along."

Trump's apparent suggestion that local grocery stores will let furloughed federal workers take food on an IOU was offered as an explanation for comments made Thursday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who questioned why federal workers who aren't getting paid would need to turn to food banks for help. Ross, himself a millionaire, said workers should simply take out emergency loans to cover their living expenses.

These fucking jagoffs have no idea how the world actually works. JFC.

That is not the job of the Senate Majority Leader. https://t.co/fPOYzLlzQ2
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2019

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: The Ways the Government Shutdown Is Impacting Workers' Health and Well-Being. "It's hard to fully grasp the toll this partial shutdown is taking on the country. For one, it's of unprecedented length. But its effects are immediate and sometimes dire depending on other life circumstances like income or health. ...'The emotional stress is overwhelming,' said Bony King-Taylor, a psychologist in D.C. Many of her clients are federal workers and so she's hearing firsthand how the shutdown is making daily tasks, like paying for groceries or child care, excruciating."

GOP Senators and Mike Pence definitely want us to *believe* GOP Senators were reading Mike Pence the riot act anyway.https://t.co/kcKuMXNzL6
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2019

I would be amazed if some of those "irate" senators weren't actually having some important closed-door communications about Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell right about now.

In related (even if it doesn't seem like it) news... Josh Dawsey and Michelle Ye Hee Lee at the Washington Post: Koch Network Tells Donors It Plans to Stay out of 2020 Race, Once Again Declining to Back Trump. "The conservative Koch political network has told donors that it plans to once again stay out of the presidential race and will not work to help reelect [Donald] Trump in 2020, a move that sidelines a major player that has been pivotal in mobilizing voters on the right for more than a decade. ...The network's plan to stay out of the 2020 race was quietly relayed to major donors in recent months, according to people familiar with the conversations."

* * *

Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: Fox & Friends on Roger Stone Indictment: 'Where's the Russia Collusion?' "'Where is the Russia collusion?' an incredulous Steve Doocy asked on the Fox & Friends couch early Friday morning as news broke that the president's longtime adviser Roger Stone had been indicted. The trio of co-hosts tried their best to put a positive spin on the bombshell document, which laid out how Stone had been directed by the Trump campaign to communicate with WikiLeaks about emails stolen by the Russians."

Relatedly: I've seen a lot of folks issuing totally trenchant reminders that Stone is "innocent until proven guilty," which, sure, but also that's kinda rendered inoperative when the guilty parties are basically like "yeah, we did it, but who even cares."

Laura Strickler, Ken Dilanian, and Peter Alexander at NBC News: Officials Rejected Jared Kushner for Top Secret Security Clearance, But Were Overruled. "Jared Kushner's application for a top-secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News."

I mean, it's great to have confirmation of this, but that was definitely what I already assumed, given that it was publicly known at the time he was issued his permanent security clearance that he'd broken federal law multiple times by lying on his financial disclosure forms.

Priscilla Alvarez and Tammy Kupperman at CNN: White House Preparing Draft National Emergency Order, Has Identified $7 Billion for Wall. "The White House is preparing a draft proclamation for [Donald] Trump to declare a national emergency along the southern border and has identified more than $7 billion in potential funds for his signature border wall should he go that route, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN. Trump has not ruled out using his authority to declare a national emergency and direct the Defense Department to construct a border wall as Congress and the White House fight over a deal to end the government shutdown. But while Trump's advisers remain divided on the issue, the White House has been moving forward with alternative plans that would bypass Congress."

Trump has been and remains our most pressing national emergency.

* * *

Tom Phillips and Julian Borger at the Guardian: Venezuela Crisis: U.S. Pulls Out Staff and Tells Citizens to 'Strongly Consider' Leaving. "The U.S. state department has urged its citizens to 'strongly consider' leaving Venezuela and ordered out non-emergency government staff as the head of the country's armed forces warned of a civil war sparked by a U.S.-backed 'criminal plan' to unseat Nicolás Maduro. In a live address to the nation on Thursday, the defence minister, Vladimir Padrino, accused the Venezuelan opposition led by Juan Guaidó, the United States, and regional allies such as Brazil of launching an attempted coup against Maduro that risked bringing 'chaos and anarchy' to the country." Fucking hell. What an ungodly mess. I have friends in Caracas, trying to get out, and I am so worried for them.

Greg Andrews at the Indianapolis Business Journal: Decimation of Daily Newspapers Sets Stage for Potential Star Sale.

Days after Gannett Co. agreed to buy Central Newspapers Inc., parent of The Indianapolis Star and The Arizona Republic, for $2.6 billion in 2000, then-Gannett CEO Doug McCorkindale toured the Indianapolis newsroom and declared, "It's going to be business as usual, for the most part."

It was the last four words that worried Star staffers — who were all too familiar with Gannett's reputation for cutting staff to boost profits. But no one at Central Newspapers or at Gannett's headquarters in Virginia foresaw the economic forces that have devastated the daily newspaper business over the last two decades — and whittled the size of The Star's newsroom from 280 people at the time of the deal to about 80 today.

The cuts could get substantially worse if Digital First Media prevails in its quest to purchase Gannett. The Denver-based company on Jan. 14 unveiled a $1.36 billion, unsolicited offer for the publisher of more than 100 newspapers in the United States — including USA Today, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and Detroit Free Press — and more than 170 in the United Kingdom.

All newspaper companies have cut costs as they struggle with the decline in what had been their cash cow — print advertising — and simultaneously scratch and claw for digital advertising — a far more competitive realm and one that's far less profitable.

But rather than investing in initiatives that could create a brighter future, Digital First, controlled by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, has been unabashed in minimizing expenses to maximize profit — seemingly with little concern over how cuts would affect newspapers' ability to fulfill their missions of covering news and serving as a watchdog in their communities.

So, this is very bad news for a whole lot of reasons, but I want to highlight that, if the Indy Star goes away, so does most of the journalistic record on Mike Pence's time as governor of Indiana. Even if the paper is merely digitally rebranded, all the old links get broken. You kill the Indy Star, you kill the public record on Pence.

And finally, speaking of Indiana... Ian Graber-Stiehl at Earther: The Wild Dunes of Indiana Are in a Fight to Survive. "According to findings Powell and the park have made, the Dunes' growing season will kick off earlier and stretch a month longer by 2050. Rising temperatures and an increase in 'extreme heat days' above 90 degrees Fahrenheit will stress many insects (such as bumblebees) and allow southern tree species, warm-weather grasses, and invasive reeds to encroach, potentially pushing out cold-weather boreal pines and grasses, said Powell. Precipitation has already increased by 18 percent over the last century. By 2050, it could jump another 22 percent, falling increasingly — in the dead of a formerly frigid Great Lakes winter — as rain. 'We're going to have floods, and droughts, sometimes right next to each other,' Powell said." Sob.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Open Wide...

Roger Stone Arrested; Indicted on Seven Counts

Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation has led him to the doorstep of longtime conservative ratfucker and proud bearer of a Nixon back tat Roger Stone. Stone was indicted yesterday "by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering." He was arrested at his home early this morning.

You can read the entire indictment here. The gist: "STONE was contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases by Organization 1. By in or around early August 2016, STONE was claiming both publicly and privately to have communicated with Organization 1."

In plain language: Senior Trump campaign officials (note the plural) contacted Roger Stone to ask him to work with Wikileaks to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton via hacked emails.

None of this is a surprise. We even have some idea of who the "senior Trump campaign officials" are who were in communication with Stone. In November, the New York Times reported on an email exchange between Steve Bannon, then running Trump's campaign, and Stone about Wikileaks.

But surely it was not only Bannon. The indictment makes clear it was multiple Trump campaign officials who communicated with Stone about stolen emails, and it's reasonable to believe that most or all of the senior players on Trump's team were engaged on this subject.

Remember: The now-infamous meeting Don Trump Jr. had at Trump Tower with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was taken after Don Jr. was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. That meeting was also attended by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, and, within a half hour of his son having a meeting with Russians who promised to deliver some dirt on Clinton, Donald Trump tweeted at Clinton: "Where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?"

One month later that [video autoplays] Trump invited the Russians to hack us, saying: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

I suspect at minimum that the senior campaign officials who were aware of and/or in communication with Roger Stone about his interactions with Wikileaks regarding Clinton emails include: Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski, Mike Pence, Don Jr., Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Kellyanne Conway.

There is also a strong possibility that Reince Priebus, who was then chair of the RNC and had, after initial criticisms of Trump, forged close ties to the Trump campaign, and who went on to become Trump's chief of staff, knew about the communications.

So, obviously, I'm quite glad that Stone will, one hopes, eventually be held accountable for his sinister participation in Trump campaign collusion with a foreign adversary to undermine our election.

But I also find it very curious why it's only Stone being indicted, and not the entire lot of co-conspirators. Why only Stone and not the "senior Trump campaign officials" with whom he communicated, at least some of whom are almost certainly walking around the halls of the White House with immense power and influence, which they wield relentlessly with overt malice?

"This is just the beginning" doesn't feel compelling to me at the moment, because it's clearly not the beginning. We're two years in, and Mueller is confident enough to say in the indictment that Stone communicated with senior Trump campaign officials, plural, which means he's got evidence, but he's not acting on it. I want to know why.

And I need, as a citizen of this country at greater risk with each passing day, to know why the fuck it is that this investigation still hasn't touched any of the people currently working in the Trump administration.

Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Roger Stone need to face consequences, but none of them are empowered by the executive branch and none of them have continued access to state secrets.

I am realistic about the fact that Mueller can't frog-march Donald Trump and Mike Pence out of the West Wing, but Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway, and Don Trump Jr. need their access and influence severed immediately. That is far more urgent than Roger Stone.

Who strikes me, by the way, as the least likely among this list of traitors to roll.

Open Wide...

Thinking Out Loud About the Mueller Investigation

Three pieces of news first:

1. Yesterday, Special Counsel Bob Mueller told a judge that he's not ready to sentence former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates because Gates is still cooperating with "several ongoing investigations," and instead requested an update in two months.

2. Also yesterday, it was reported that Mueller has subpoenaed more associates of Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi.

3. Finally yesterday, ten Republican Senators broke with their party to align with Democrats on a procedural vote regarding legislation to protect sanctions against Putin-allied Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Now, a few thoughts on each, in order:

1. Two months means that the breathless reports Mueller is on the verge of completing his investigation were, once again, premature.

2. There are a few people whose obvious criminality make them a sort of litmus test for me on how serious and effective Mueller's investigation is. I've previously expressed my consternation that Jared Kushner, for example, who repeatedly broke federal disclosure laws, still retains his highly influential position in the administration. Dirtbags Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi still facing no meaningful consequences is also troubling.

3. It's perplexing why a handful of Republican Senators suddenly decided to break ranks over Russia out of nowhere. It's not like they haven't known that Deripaska is a bad dude — and obviously Putin is way worse, and yet they've been protecting Trump on Russian collusion for two years.

Of course it's possible that ten Republican Senators spontaneously became courageous patriots overnight, but I don't find that to be likely.

Especially given the timing.

All at once, we have "breaking" news about Trump's fealty to the Kremlin which isn't actually breaking news at all; Mueller petitioning to extend his Russia investigation yet again; and Republicans suddenly deciding that the president being in cahoots with Russia is a bad thing. And we're days away from the point at which Mike Pence could assume the presidency and still be eligible to run for two more full terms.

I have long feared (and repeatedly expressed) that Mueller's investigation is effectively, if not intentionally, creating loads of time and space for Republicans to so thoroughly consolidate power that they won't have to care about his conclusions, even if those conclusions eventually recommend serious, meaningful consequences for Donald Trump and/or his various co-conspirators in 2016 election meddling and ongoing collusion with Russia.

(And indeed, during his confirmation hearing yesterday, Bill Barr testified that, if confirmed, he would not make Mueller's report public, but would write up his own report on the special counsel investigation.)

I have also long suspected that Pence is cooperating with Mueller, and that he recognizes assuming the presidency via succession is his best bet to achieve his lifelong ambition to be president.

I have additionally believed for some time that the Republicans were preparing to throw Trump under the bus as soon as we reached this point in his presidency, at which time Pence could be elevated. And, to my eyes, it looks like the pieces of that plan are falling into place.

Including, of course, Mueller's old friend Barr going through the confirmation process right now, too.

As I said on Monday: My sense is that they're using Trump to demolish Democratic norms (and stack the judiciary), then Pence will be able to exploit the "new normal" without any of the blame. Trump will be the Republicans' scapegoat forever, as they pretend to be restoring democracy while killing it.

I used to believe that Mueller's investigation was inadvertently giving Republicans' time to consolidate power and get their succession plan in order. Now I am inclined to believe that it was designed that way.

I was thinking about the special counsel investigation last night, again questioning my own instinct that it's not on the up-and-up, and instead I came up with a stronger feeling that the fix has been in from the very beginning.

Think about this: It was always kind of shocking that Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. An ethical move from someone who is hardly known for his ethics, or his professionalism. Why did he do that? That question has always bugged me. It was so out of character.

Then it hit me: Sessions must have had assurances, maybe from Mueller himself, about how this was going to go.

Even now, we've not heard a fucking peep about Sessions being investigated (just like Pence), even though Sessions was obliged to recuse himself for reasons that warrant investigation.

And the fact that Sessions did recuse himself, and a non-Trump appointee, Rod Rosenstein, then came to oversee the investigation, helped give it the illusion of credibility.

Then there's this: If someone didn't whisper something in Sessions' ear, he had no motivation to recuse himself. He viewed his role as Attorney General as protecting Trump. He petitioned for the position specifically so he could play that role. It doesn't make sense that he would then just abruptly offer to recuse himself.

Further, Sessions then spent the next year and a half being publicly (and presumably privately) berated by Trump over the recusal, by which Trump was utterly confused. Sessions never cleared up that confusion by satisfactorily explaining to Trump why he recused himself (because "ethics" was never going to make sense to the boss who'd hired him based on his promises to essentially eschew ethics). The most likely reason Sessions wouldn't have told Trump his reason is because it would have clued Trump in to a plan, by his own party, to remove him.

It's also telling that Sessions is laying low now. Dude has disappeared. He isn't on CNN; he isn't even on Fox News. He's just gone. He doesn't want anyone asking him questions about anything.

Anyway. This is where my head is at the moment, as I try to figure out what's happening and what's likely to happen next. As always, I hope I'm wrong. Although, at this point, I can't be wrong about all of it, because some of it has already happened: The Republicans have indeed consolidated power and stacked the judiciary in the time that Mueller has been investigating.

My major lingering question at the moment is this: Why have Mike Pence, who was hand-picked by Paul Manafort and oversaw the presidential transition during which many of these Russian contacts took place, and Jeff Sessions, who was obliged to recuse himself for Russian contacts he failed to disclose, not been reported as targets of the investigation? They are central figures. We need to know what their participation is, or isn't.

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 698

image of Tom Hardy and Idris Elba in RocknRolla

IrRESISTible. See what I did there?
* * *

[Content Note: Nativism. Covers entire section.]

Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed: The Trump Administration Is Slowing the Asylum Process to Discourage Applicants, an Official Told Congress.

A high-ranking Customs and Border Protection official told Congress earlier this month that border agents were limiting asylum applications along the border because allowing too many migrants to apply would inspire more migrants to come, according to a letter written by senior House Democrats on Monday.

The statement by Jud Murdock, CBP's acting assistant commissioner, contradicted official claims that the practice of "metering" — when officials limit the number of individuals who can make asylum claims at ports of entry on any given day — was due to resource constraints, including a lack of detention space and personnel. When asked about the practice at a Senate hearing last week, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that it was not meant as a deterrent.

But on Dec. 6, Murdock said in a closed congressional briefing that CBP had chosen to limit asylum-seekers at ports of entries because "[t]he more we process, the more will come," according to the letter.

Murdock's answers to follow-up questions "clearly indicated, given the context, that the Department's decision to limit processing was primarily motivated by its desire to deter migrants from seeking asylum at ports of entry" generally, according to the letter, which was signed by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Bennie Thompson, and Jerrold Nadler, the ranking Democrats on the Immigration Subcommittee, the Homeland Security Committee, and the Judiciary Committee, respectively.

Particularly in light of that confirmation of one of the many observable cruel practices being employed as disincentive, this piece from Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News is so important: Migrants Share Their Vision for a World That Honors and Respects Them. "[N]o matter the deterrents used by governments, no matter the anti-immigrant rhetoric deployed, no matter the risk or cost, people have always migrated and will continue to migrate globally. This is because their lives depend on their ability to move from one place to another — for family, for work, and in many cases for safety."

Maxwell Tani at the Daily Beast: Advertisers Ditch Fox News' Tucker Carlson for Saying Immigration Makes U.S. 'Dirtier'. "Last Thursday, Carlson ran a segment arguing against the economic benefits of immigration in which he claimed the influx of low-skilled workers 'makes our own country poor and dirtier and more divided.' ...At least four advertisers were not pleased with Carlson's comments. ...During his show on Monday, Carlson defended his comments, saying various government statistics showed that illegal immigration has damaged natural landscape in the American Southwest. 'We're not intimidated,' he said. 'We plan to try to say what's true until the last day. And the truth is unregulated mass immigration has badly hurt this country's natural landscape.'" This fucking guy.

It's tough to believe that any advertiser has been willing to associate themselves with anyone or anything on Fox News up until this point, but I'm glad that these advertisers finally drew a line somewhere.

* * *

“Trump may emerge as a brazen grifter who, by aspiring to the White House like a wizened, soiled version of Icarus, flew beyond the boundaries of his own luck and abilities and delivered his business, children and well-being into the hands of prosecutors.”https://t.co/3ixzKPjUEI
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) December 17, 2018

Trump may (or may not) have delivered himself into the hands of prosecutors, but, in either case, he's plowing ahead with his 2020 reelection bid. Alex Isenstadt at Politico: Trump Launches Unprecedented Reelection Machine. "Donald Trump is planning to roll out an unprecedented structure for his 2020 reelection, a streamlined organization that incorporates the Republican National Committee and the president's campaign into a single entity. It's a stark expression of Trump's stranglehold over the Republican Party: Traditionally, a presidential reelection committee has worked in tandem with the national party committee, not subsumed it. Under the plan, which has been in the works for several weeks, the Trump reelection campaign and the RNC will merge their field and fundraising programs into a joint outfit dubbed Trump Victory. The two teams will also share office space rather than operate out of separate buildings, as has been custom." Yikes.

David A. Fahrenthold at the Washington Post: Trump Agrees to Shut Down His Charity Amid Allegations That He Used It for Personal and Political Benefit.

[Donald] Trump has agreed to shut down his embattled personal charity and to give away its remaining money amid allegations that he used the foundation for his personal and political benefit, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced Tuesday.

Underwood said that the Donald J. Trump Foundation is dissolving as her office pursues its lawsuit against the charity, Trump, and his three eldest children.

The suit, filed in June, alleged "persistently illegal conduct" at the foundation and sought to have it shut down. Underwood is continuing to seek more than $2.8 million in restitution and has asked a judge to ban the Trumps temporarily from serving on the boards of other New York nonprofit organizations.

Underwood said Tuesday that her investigation found "a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more."

A small but important victory.

Speaking of which... Nicole Lafond at TPM: Stone Forced to Run Apology Ads in Papers as Part of Defamation Settlement. "Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone — who faces scrutiny for his lack of credibility in the Russia probe — has been forced to run apology advertisements in national newspapers as part of a settlement agreement for making false statements on InfoWars, the Wall Street Journal reported. Stone was sued for $100 million for false claims about Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, who is known as a dissident of Beijing. Guo filed the lawsuit in March, after Stone suggested he was convicted of crimes in the U.S. and China and claimed Guo donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign, which is illegal for a foreign national, as the WSJ notes. Stone will also have to retract his comments on social media. He won't have to pay any damages if he complies."

Bill Chappell at NPR: U.S. Space Command Is Revived, as Vice President Pence Unveils Plan in Florida.

America's military operations in space are now back under a single unified command, as the Trump administration revived the once-retired U.S. Space Command on Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence outlined the plan during his visit to the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday.

"Today, there are more than 18,000 military and civilian personnel working in space operations for our national security, all across the Department of Defense," Pence said.

The vice president added that under [Donald] Trump's order, Space Command will "integrate space capabilities across all branches of the military; it will develop the space doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures that will enable our warfighters to defend our nation in this new era."

"A new era of American national security in space begins today," Pence said.

Okay. Still super thrilled (NOT THRILLED) about the idea of Donald Trump and Mike Pence launching nukes from space. Christ.

[CN: Misogyny; racism; harassment]

"Female politicians & journalists were abused on Twitter every 30 seconds in 2017, according to the largest-ever study into how women are targeted w/hate speech online. ...Black women were almost twice as likely as their white counterparts to be targeted." https://t.co/ukthh89EJb
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 18, 2018

[CN: Wildfires; carcerality; injuries] Yessenia Funes at Earther: Two California Inmates Suffered Severe Burns Fighting the Camp Fire. Why Were They There at All? "No firefighters' lives were lost fighting the Camp Fire, but five suffered serious burn injuries on November 8... Among those injured were two incarcerated people, who suffered burns to the face and neck. ...These incidents once again raise the question of how ethical and just this conservation camp program — which bills itself as voluntary — really is. California has 44 conservation camps sprinkled throughout the state that house nearly 4,300 incarcerated people. At these camps, prisoners earn a mere $2 a day with an additional dollar per hour when they're fighting an active fire — which is higher than other prison jobs but dramatically lower than the $40,000 to $56,00 annual salary firefighters outside prison earn."

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Open Wide...

Mueller Reportedly Close to Wrapping It Up

Today, Special Counsel Bob Mueller is scheduled to file a detailed memo in support of the sentencing of Michael Flynn, which will "include information about any 'bad acts' Flynn committed for which he was not charged, and details about his cooperation with the special counsel." There is, to put it mildly, a good chance this memo will not reflect well on Donald Trump.

Mueller will also file detailed memos on Friday in support of the sentencing of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Those are also unlikely to reflect well on Trump.

Mueller is thought to be nearing the end of his investigation:

Mueller's prosecutors have told defense lawyers in recent weeks that they are "tying up loose ends" in their investigation, providing the clearest clues yet that the long-running probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election may be coming to its climax, potentially in the next few weeks, according to multiple sources close to the matter.

...The only other publicly known matter Mueller is believed to be focused on relates to former Trump adviser Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi — both of whom have been aggressively investigated to determine if they had advance communications with WikiLeaks or associates of the group about its plans for the release of stolen emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller's filings on Flynn, Manafort, and Cohen will be made public, though parts of them may be redacted. So we'll have something to scrutinize, even if his final report is tanked by acting AG Matthew Whitaker.

Whatever we get to see by the end of this thing, it's going to look bad for Trump. It already looks bad for Trump. What remains to be seen is whether it will be bad for Trump — whether it will result in any meaningful consequences for him, or whether it will just be another round of bad press for him to weather, from which he ultimately emerges unscathed, his enormous power remaining firmly intact and unchecked.

It's not reassuring that Trump is, virtually on the daily, tweeting execrable bombast about the investigation that is tantamount to obstruction, to no consequence.

Trump, however, doesn't have only Mueller to worry about anymore. House Democrats are preparing investigations of their own, and he's still facing challenges over his business: "The attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland said Monday that they are moving forward with subpoenas for records in their case accusing [Donald] Trump of profiting off the presidency. U.S. District Court Judge Peter J. Messitte approved the legal discovery schedule in an order Monday. Such information would likely provide the first clear picture of the finances of Trump's Washington, D.C., hotel."

It seems inconceivable that all of the investigations into Trump's plethoric and obvious corruption would not result in multiple legal troubles from which it would be impossible to totally extricate himself, but I suspect we're about to find out how truly powerful the office of the presidency is when its occupant is willing to wield that power to shield himself from accountability.

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 665

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by Fannie: Is Facebook Worth It? And by me: This Is Making Me Filthy Angry and Saudi Prosecutor Says Team Dispatched to Rendition Khashoggi Killed Him.

Here are some more things in the news today...

[Content Note: Anti-Semitism; Nazism; terrorism] Christina Tkacik at the Baltimore Sun: Man Shouts 'Heil Hitler, Heil Trump' During Intermission of Baltimore Performance of Fiddler on the Roof. "A man shouted a pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salute during a performance of Fiddler on the Roof at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday night. Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst during intermission prompted fears that it was the beginning of a shooting. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting 'Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!' Immediately after that, 'People started running,' Scherr said. 'I'll be honest — I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought: Here we go.'" Horrendous.

Meanwhile... Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: As Hate Crimes Rise, a Bill to Combat the Problem Languishes in Congress. The legislation "attempts to not only stem the rising tide of hate crimes across the U.S., but to also help Americans get a better handle on where and how these hate crimes take place, and who exactly is targeted. The 'National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality Act,' dubbed the 'NO HATE Act,' was introduced early last year by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). However, it has languished in Congress over the past 18 months — perhaps due to the fact that the measure has zero Republican co-sponsors. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced a similar bill in the Senate in 2017."

Related Reading: Today in Trump's Campaign of Stochastic Terrorism.

* * *

Staff at the Daily Beast: Trump Attacks Mueller as 'Disgrace to Our Nation,' Claims White House Is Running 'Smoothly'. "With the midterm elections over and the threat of additional indictments apparently looming large on his mind, [Donald] Trump turned his anger to Robert Mueller and his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling his team 'a disgrace to our nation' in a Thursday morning tweet. ...'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,' he wrote. 'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don't care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won't even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!' Separately, he claimed the White House is 'running very smoothly.'"

Since everything Trump says is projection, we can safely assume Mueller's team is the one running very smoothly and the White House is a chaotic disgrace to the nation. Also: We can see the same with our own eyes. Also also: Bob Mueller did not work for Obama for eight years. Just FYI.

* * *

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Cheyenne Haslett at ABC News: Judge Sides with Nelson, Rules Florida Law on Matching Ballot Signatures Being Applied Unconstitutionally. "In the latest legal twist in the Florida vote-counting controversy, a federal judge has ruled that the state's law requiring signatures on ballots to match those on file is being applied unconstitutionally. U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker has granted a preliminary injunction, sought by Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson... Vote-by-mail and provisional ballots have become increasingly popular, Walker said, but the county canvassing boards, which determine whether a voter's signature on vote-by-mail and provisional ballots match state records, are 'staffed by laypersons that are not required to undergo formal handwriting-analysis education or training.'" What a mess.

Career officials at the agencies pushed back on the White House requests, US officials and people briefed on the requests say. "Once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious," a senior US official involved in the process says. https://t.co/9kz8rJtsU0
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 15, 2018

Walter M. Shaub, Jr. at Slate: This Is the Saturday Night Massacre. "With the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, America is in uncharted territory. ...The thing about traveling in uncharted territory is that you don't know where you'll end up. This may seem like a simplistic observation, but it's one worth making. Uncharted territory is the last place a conscientious government official wants to be and the first place an unscrupulous one wants to go. ...[W]hatever the outcome of Mueller's investigation, America is establishing new precedents. One precedent is that [Trump] fired the FBI director — and Congress did nothing. Another is that Trump admitted the FBI's investigation of his campaign motivated the firing — and Congress did nothing. A third precedent is that Trump fired the attorney general after having railed against him publicly for refusing to intervene in the investigation — and Congress has done nothing. A fourth precedent is..." (Read the whole thing. It's very good.)

Anna Schecter at NBC News: Text Messages Show Roger Stone and Friend Discussing WikiLeaks Plans. "Six days before WikiLeaks began releasing Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, Roger Stone had a text message conversation with a friend about WikiLeaks, according to copies of phone records obtained exclusively by NBC News. 'Big news Wednesday,' the Stone pal, radio host Randy Credico, wrote on Oct. 1, 2016, according to the text messages provided by Stone. 'Now pretend u don't know me.' 'U died 5 years ago,' Stone replied. 'Great,' Credico wrote back. 'Hillary's campaign will die this week.'"

Important..
Russian media & Bloomberg are reporting that Congress may postpone Russian sanctions until next year. A sweeping Russian sanctions package was initially postponed until after midterms. Yet Congress updated sanctions on Cuba today. Unreal! https://t.co/OGo8ClTuVg
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) November 15, 2018

Vaughn Hillyard at NBC News: Second Trump-Kim Summit to Go Ahead without List of Nuclear North Korean Weapons, Pence Says. "The U.S. will not require North Korea to provide a complete list of its nuclear weapons and missile sites before [Donald] Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un meet for a second time, Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News exclusively on Thursday. Since an initial agreement for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula was reached between Trump and Kim in June, the United States has pressed the North Koreans to provide information on the entirety of its nuclear operations. The Kim regime has refused to provide the details of the country's operations and postponed scheduled meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York City last week. The second Trump-Kim meeting, slated for after the New Year, will be where a 'verifiable plan' to disclose the sites and weapons must be reached, Pence said." Sounds legit.

"Moderating influence." https://t.co/ThBiLN06ux
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 14, 2018

[CN: Domestic violence] Claudia Rosenbaum and Ruby Cramer at BuzzFeed: Stormy Daniels' Attorney Michael Avenatti Has Been Arrested on Suspicion of Domestic Violence. "A report on the alleged incident was taken on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon, Avenatti was booked on a felony domestic violence charge, LAPD Officer Jeff Lee told BuzzFeed News. Officials declined to elaborate on the allegations, except to say the alleged incident occurred at a residence in the 10000 block of Santa Monica Boulevard near Beverly Hills. ...Avenatti, who was released on $50,000 bail, denied any allegation of abuse or violence, first in a statement through his law office, and again outside after his release." Sounds about right.

* * *

And finally, this is a remarkable act of resistance, which I am angry has even been necessitated, and I take up space in solidarity with the teachers.

Casey Quinlan at ThinkProgress: Los Angeles Teachers Are Willing to Strike for Better School Conditions 'as Long as It Takes'. "Teachers at Beachy Avenue Elementary School are weary. They're tired of paying for so many of their classroom supplies, having very few physical education options for students, lacking laptops for students to regularly use, the co-location of charter schools, and dealing with the burden of constant testing. And they're willing to go on strike. ...[Oralia Reyes, a third grade teacher at Beachy Avenue Elementary School, said:] 'I don't want any of my students to feel like they're lacking. I don't want any of them to feel second class or anything. That is what I am fighting for. And I think the parents once they hear that, understand that we're not in it for ourselves.'"

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 644

As my grandmother used to say — a hit dog will holler. pic.twitter.com/kC34Ldd0is
— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) October 25, 2018

Debate Moderator: Mr. Gillum, I'll give you a chance to respond now.

Gillum: Well, let me first say: My grandmother used to say, "A hit dog will holler." [crowd cheers and applauds] And it hollered through this room. Mr. DeSantis has spoken. First of all, he's got neo-Nazis helping him out in this state; he has spoken at racist conferences; he accepted a contribution — and would not return it — from someone who referred to the former President of the United States as a Muslim n-i-g-g-e-r. When asked to return that money, he said no! He's using that money to now fund negative ads. Now, I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist; I'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist.

BOOM.

* * *

[CN: Nativism; border militarization] Dan Lamothe and David Nakamura at the Washington Post: Pentagon Plans to Dispatch 800 More Troops to U.S.-Mexico Border in Response to Migrant Caravan. "The Trump administration is expected to deploy additional U.S. troops to assist in security operations at the southern border in response to a caravan of migrants traveling north on foot through Mexico, three U.S. officials confirmed Thursday. The plan calls for about 800 more troops, including some active-duty forces primarily from the Army, to join a growing border mission called for by [Donald] Trump, one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made."

Like I keep saying: When a president talks about closing and militarizing a border, it's not just to keep people out; it's to keep people in.

[CN: Fascism; terrorism] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Rather Than Unite Against Political Violence, Trump Attacks 'Fake News' Media Hours After CNN Pipe Bomb Mailings. "Donald Trump blamed the 'mainstream media fake news' for the 'anger in our society' hours after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admonished CNN President Jeff Zucker for 'attacking and dividing' by criticizing Trump's attacks on the media. The exchange came in the wake of a series of suspicious pipe bomb devices were sent to CNN and prominent Democrats around the country."

Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast: A President Who Hates Half the Country Doesn't Get to Call for 'Unity'. "I've cringed in these last few hours to hear journalists on TV or radio discussing Trump's appeal for magnanimity last night in Wisconsin as if we're supposed to take it seriously. Are they kidding? Yes, they are words the president spoke, and so they have to be reported. But they don't have to be discussed earnestly. They need and deserve to be discussed derisively and placed in the real-life context they merit." Correct.

Kate Riga at TPM: Gingrich: Media Has 'Earned' Label of Enemy of the People. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said at a Thursday Axios event that while [Donald] Trump's calling the press the 'enemy of the people' drives partisanship, news outlets have 'earned it.'" Just as a reminder, Newt Gingrich hates citizen journalism, too. One presumes his delicate constitution can only tolerate rank propaganda.

[CN: Murder] Tamer El-Ghobashy and Kareem Fahim at the Washington Post: Saudi Arabia, in Latest Reversal, Says Khashoggi's Killing Was Premeditated.

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said on Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a planned operation, citing information it received from Turkish investigators in Istanbul, according to a statement from the kingdom's Foreign Ministry.

It is the latest reversal by Saudi authorities, who last week said Khashoggi was killed accidentally in a fistfight at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by "rogue" agents. [Donald] Trump had initially said that explanation was credible, but in recent days expressed doubts, calling it "the worst cover-up ever."

According to the statement, a joint Saudi-Turkish investigative team "indicates that the suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention."

No shit.

Why do I feel like this story is yet another plant that, on the surface, looks like a criticism of Trump, but will be later deployed by Trump in some narrative about, say, how China interfered in the midterms? https://t.co/YYBet07vf6
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 25, 2018

Meanwhile... Frank Dale at ThinkProgress: Trump Claims 'I Rarely Use a Cellphone' in Tweet Sent from iPhone. "Donald Trump responded to a New York Times report that Russia and China are spying on calls made from his personal cell phones in a pair of tweets on Thursday morning. Despite claiming 'I rarely use a cellphone,' CBS News' Sara Cook noticed that both of Trump's tweets were sent from his iPhone. All eight of Wednesday's tweets from Trump's account were also sent via the Twitter app on his iPhone."

Jennifer Bendery at the Huffington Post: Senate's Out? Nobody's Around? Perfect Time to Advance Trump's Court Picks, Says GOP. "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has held two hearings in the past week, despite virtually every senator being back home ahead of the Nov. 6 elections. Even Grassley wasn't at his hearings: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) chaired the first one, last week, and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) chaired Wednesday's hearing. Not a single Democrat could attend either hearing. Only one other Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), was present. That means, between those two hearings, that three of Trump's circuit court nominees and seven of his district court nominees sailed through without any real questions."

Ken Dilanian and Anna Schecter at NBC News: Mueller Has Evidence Suggesting Stone Associate Knew Clinton Emails Would Be Leaked. "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office has obtained communications suggesting that a right-wing conspiracy theorist might have had advance knowledge that the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman had been stolen and handed to WikiLeaks, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News. Mueller's team has spent months investigating whether the conspiracy theorist, Jerome Corsi, learned before the public did that WikiLeaks had obtained emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers — and whether he passed information about the stolen emails to Donald Trump associate Roger Stone, multiple sources said."

Dan Friedman at Mother Jones: Text Messages Show Roger Stone Was Working to Get a Pardon for Julian Assange. "In early January, Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and adviser to Donald Trump, sent a text message to an associate stating that he was actively seeking a presidential pardon for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — and felt optimistic about his chances. 'I am working with others to get JA a blanket pardon,' Stone wrote, in a January 6 exchange of text messages obtained by Mother Jones. 'It's very real and very possible. Don't fuck it up.' Thirty-five minutes later Stone added: 'Something very big about to go down.' ...As Mueller's team zeroes in on Stone, they have examined his push for an Assange pardon — which could be seen as an attempt to interfere with the Russia probe — and have questioned at least one of Stone's associates about the effort."

* * *

Let me put this as politely as I can: Anyone who imagines that the solution to patriarchal white supremacy is more patriarchal white supremacy is profoundly mistaken. https://t.co/QimyBpbq1G
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 25, 2018

* * *

[CN: Climate change; extreme weather. Covers entire section.]

Brian Kahn at Earther: U.S. Pacific Territories Took a Major Beating from Super Typhoon Yutu.

Super Typhoon Yutu continues to tear across the western Pacific after striking the tiny Northern Mariana Islands on Thursday local time. The U.S. commonwealth now faces a major cleanup after a direct hit from one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall anywhere in the world.

Super Typhoon Yutu struck the two islands of Tinian and Saipan, home to most of the tiny commonwealth's roughly 53,000 residents. It brought maximum sustained winds of up to 180 mph with gusts above 200 mph. That made it the equivalent of an extremely strong Category 5 hurricane, which is classified as any storm with winds in excess of 156 mph.

"We just went through one of the worst storms I've seen in all my experience in emergency management," Homeland Security and Emergency Management special assistant Gerald Deleon Guerrero said in a statement.

As it moved away from shore and day broke, the damage has become clear. The islands have been transformed by the storm as infrastructure was ripped to shreds by Yutu's powerful winds.

"We do not have power, and many, if not most, telephone poles were blown down," Ashley Beck, a resident of Saipan, told Earther. "Even concrete poles were damaged. I just drove along the two major roads in Saipan, and there are long stretches of road where every single telephone pole is down. It took months for some parts of the island to get power after the last major typhoon, Soudelor, so that is the concern now."

Just another cool reminder that the failure to meaningfully address climate change also risks our access to drinkable water. https://t.co/CpQ1Y09oqh
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 25, 2018

Yessenia Funes at Earther: A Pacific Hurricane Completely Washed Away This Hawaiian Island. "The days of islands vanishing under the waves are here. Hurricane Walaka, a monster storm that roared through the Pacific Ocean earlier this month, wiped out a tiny Hawaiian island known for harboring green sea turtles and endangered monk seals. Scientists with the Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the disappearance of East Island Monday, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat, and the realization has been unsettling. The 11-acre island located more than 500 miles from O'ahu is nearly all underwater after Walaka swept right over it."

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Open Wide...

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Things That Make Me Go Hmm

We Resist: Day 740

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Roger Stone Arrested; Indicted on Seven Counts

Thinking Out Loud About the Mueller Investigation

We Resist: Day 698

Mueller Reportedly Close to Wrapping It Up

We Resist: Day 665

We Resist: Day 644

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