Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker catvoncat: "Here's another one I saw on Twitter: What are you tired of explaining to people?"
Everything? LOL.
I Love Autumn
Some photos I snapped while Iain and I were out and about yesterday, during one of my favorite times of the year.
Please feel welcome to share your favorite autumnal photos in comments. Or, if you don't live in a climate where there's an "autumn" as such, or where it's currently spring, share a photo that shows what this time of year looks like by you!
Hey, Paul Ryan — F#@k You!
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is the fucking worst. That ain't news. But here he is being the worst once again, in one of the worstest of worst ways:
After Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked for prayers for the victims of the mass shooting at a church in Texas on Sunday in a tweet, he was met with widespread criticism from what he called the "secular left," who claimed the latest mass shooting was Republicans' fault for not budging on gun control policy.He also asserted that "people who do not have faith don't understand faith."
..."It is the right thing to do in moments like this because, you know what? Prayer works," he said. "And I know you believe that and I believe that and when you hear the secular left doing this thing, no wonder you have so much polarization and disunity in this country when people think like that."
Yeah. That's the real problem here. That my atheist ass doesn't "understand faith." Not that his faith-ful ass is exploiting religious belief to cover for his deadly inaction on guns and catastrophic failure of leadership.
Oh, dear. Was that uncivil of me? GOOD.
For All the Earnest Girls
On Saturday, I did a Twitter thread on Donna Brazile, Hillary Clinton, and the importance of being earnest, which I've collected into a Moment, for anyone who missed it. This one's for all the earnest girls who have been mocked our whole lives for taking shit too seriously, by people who tried to make us feel bad because they don't take shit seriously enough.
Daily Dose of Cute
It's understandable why you might think these things! After all, Olivia is very adorable, and it makes sense that she would be protective of her wee sister.
But what you don't know is that Sophie hates being groomed, and so what Olivia is really doing is passive-aggressively annoying Sophie until she starts with a low-level grumble, which escalates into a yowl, which turns into a sharp hiss before she flounces away in a huff, thus giving Olivia precisely what she wanted all along.
She's such an asshole, lol.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 292
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures 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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: On the Shooting in Sutherland Springs.
Andrew Desiderio at the Daily Beast: Massive Leak Reveals New Ties Between Trump Administration and Russia, Implicating Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Jared Kushner.
A new trove of more than 13 million leaked documents implicates top officials and associates of [Donald] Trump—as well as foreign politicians—in shady business relationships tied to offshore financial accounts.Dirty, disloyal traitors. The entire lot of 'em.
In at least two cases, the documents highlight top administration officials' previously undisclosed connections to Russia and Kremlin-linked interests.
The so-called Paradise Papers were leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the same publication that obtained the "Panama Papers." Süddeutsche Zeitung shared the new documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which led a global effort of 96 media organizations from 67 countries to pore through the records. The findings were published on Sunday.
The documents show that many of the wealthy individuals Trump brought into his administration have worked to legally store their money in offshore havens where they would be free from taxation in the United States.
...Among the Trump administration officials implicated in the leaks is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who according to the documents concealed his ties to a Russian energy company that is partly owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin's judo partner Gennady Timchenko and Putin's son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov. Through offshore investments, Ross held a stake in Navigator Holdings, which had a close business relationship with the Russian firm. Ross did not disclose that connection during his confirmation process on Capitol Hill.
...Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is also implicated. The documents reveal that Russian tech leader Yuri Milner invested $850,000 in a startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded in 2014.
Milner has long had a reputation in Silicon Valley as a big-league investor; his firm at one point owned major chunks of both Facebook and Twitter. But Milner was never considered particularly Kremlin-connected. These new documents call that reputation into question. The investing arm of Gazprom, the state-backed energy company, financed a share of Facebook worth up to $1 billion; a Kremlin-owned bank invested $191 million into a Milner firm, and some of that money was then injected into Twitter.
Meanwhile... Andy Towle at Towleroad: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Lied About His Billionaire Status and Many Other Things. "An explosive report in Forbes magazine reveals that Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross lied to them about his billionaire status and the magazine has removed him from its list of richest Americans. The magazine also says Ross is a serial liar about many other things." He sounds great.
Jon Swaine at the Guardian: Offshore Cash Helped Fund Steve Bannon's Attacks on Hillary Clinton.
Eighteen months before guiding Donald Trump to election victory, Steve Bannon delivered the opening shot in the ruthless Republican campaign to paint their Democratic opponent as corrupt.And who owes seven billion dollars in back taxes:
The future White House chief strategist produced a book in May 2015 accusing Hillary Clinton of trading favours for donations to her charitable foundation. Its questionable central charge, on the sale of a uranium company to Russia, recently became the subject of a House inquiry and feverish talk on conservative media.
But the financial arrangements of another foundation, which bankrolled Bannon's creation of the book, Clinton Cash, have received less scrutiny.
Leaked documents and newly obtained public filings show how the billionaire Mercer family built a $60m war chest for conservative causes inside their family foundation by using an offshore investment vehicle to avoid US tax.
The offshore vehicle was part of a network of companies in the Atlantic tax haven of Bermuda led by Robert Mercer, the wealthy hedge-fund executive and Bannon patron whose spending helped put Trump in the White House and aided a resurgence of the Republican right.
The IRS says Robert Mercer, the big Trump donor, owes $7,000,000,000 in back taxes. https://t.co/3cN4BURxWd
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 4, 2017
Natasha Bertrand at Business Insider: Carter Page's Testimony Is Filled with Bombshells — and Supports Key Portions of the Steele Dossier. "The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released the full transcript of the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's testimony before the panel last week, portions of which support details in an explosive collection of memos outlining alleged collusion between the campaign and Moscow before the 2016 US election. Page revealed during his testimony that he met with members of Russia's presidential administration and the head of investor relations at the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow in July 2016. ...Page also disclosed that a Trump campaign adviser named Sam Clovis had asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement upon joining the campaign — and that he discussed his Moscow trip with Clovis both before he went and after he returned."
Ken Dilanian, Julia Ainsley, Alex Moe, and Kasie Hunt at NBC News: Carter Page Coordinated Russia Trip with Top Trump Campaign Officials. "It's long been known that Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016, but he has said it was in his private capacity, unrelated to his role with the Trump campaign. Page, whose sworn testimony was released Monday night, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he sought permission to make the trip from campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also notified Hope Hicks, who is now the White House communications director. ...Page also acknowledged that he had been aware that another volunteer campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had been meeting with a professor with links to the Kremlin, according to the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif."
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Marina Fang at the Huffington Post: Russian Lawyer Who Met with Donald Trump Jr. Claims He Offered a Quid Pro Quo. "When President Donald Trump’s eldest son met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 after being promised “information that would incriminate” Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. suggested that a U.S. law the lawyer was lobbying against could be reconsidered if Trump became president, according to the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. ...Veselnitskaya also claimed that he wanted 'financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton's campaign,' according to Bloomberg. But she said that she did not have them. Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.'s lawyer, said he had no comment."
* * *
Lisa Friedman at the New York Times: Syria Joins Paris Climate Accord, Leaving Only U.S. Opposed. "Syria announced during United Nations climate talks on Tuesday that it would sign the Paris agreement on climate change. The move, which comes on the heels of Nicaragua signing the accord last month, will leave the United States as the only country that has rejected the global pact. ...'This is the very last country that actually announced, so everyone has joined and the U.S. is now so isolated,' said Safa Al Jayoussi, executive director of IndyAct, an environmental organization based in Lebanon that works with Arab countries on climate change." Utterly humiliating.
[CN: Nativism] Nick Miroff at the Washington Post: DHS Ends Protected Immigration Status for Nicaraguans, But Hondurans Get Extension. "The Trump administration has given 2,500 Nicaraguans with provisional residency 14 months to leave the United States, announcing Monday that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation that has allowed them to remain in the country for nearly two decades. But Trump officials deferred a decision for the much larger group of 57,000 Hondurans who have been living in the United States with the same designation, saying the Department of Homeland Security needed more time to consider their fate. ...Monday's announcement was anxiously awaited by about 200,000 Salvadorans and 50,000 Haitians whose TPS status is due to expire early next year. But administration officials did not include those countries in their announcement."
This is another attack on immigrants by the Trump administration. See the thread:TPS, DACA, the wall, calling immigrants criminals & rapists https://t.co/7X4qI5RfJt
— JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) November 7, 2017
To be clear: Many of the immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti are actually refugees escaping persecution and violence. Some of them will face certain death if they are deported.
[CN: War on agency] Christine Grimaldi at Rewire: Republicans Inject Extremist Fetal "Personhood" Language into Tax Plan. "Congressional Republicans are using their new tax plan for more than tax breaks for corporations and the rich. Their plan gives fetuses federal benefits in an apparent attempt to codify the view that life begins at fertilization — and to take another swipe at legal abortion. 'This is a back-door attempt to establish personhood from the moment of conception,' Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, told Rewire in an email. ...Page 93 of the 429-page plan, which a Washington Post analysis describes as rewarding big corporations and the 'super-rich' at the expense of some small businesses, the working poor, and charities, outlines the GOP's plan to designate 'unborn children' as beneficiaries in 529 college savings plans. The change appears to be politically motivated. Expectant parents already can put a 529 plan in their own name and switch the beneficiary when their child is born. That's because 529 plans require the beneficiary's social security number, which fetuses don't have."
[CN: Violence; child abuse] James Bridle at Medium: Something Is Wrong on the Internet. "What concerns me is not just the violence being done to children here, although that concerns me deeply. What concerns me is that this is just one aspect of a kind of infrastructural violence being done to all of us, all of the time, and we're still struggling to find a way to even talk about it, to describe its mechanisms and its actions and its effects. As I said at the beginning of this essay: This is being done by people and by things and by a combination of things and people. Responsibility for its outcomes is impossible to assign but the damage is very, very real indeed." What Bridle describes, the manipulation of algorithms to serve distressing content to children under the guise of children's content, is something not even remotely on my radar, but it's definitely an important issue. And I have a suspicion about where all these videos are being created and whence they're emanating.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
This Is Rape Culture: Weinstein's Harassment Brigade
[Content Note: Sexual assault; harassment; stalking; intimidation.]
Ronan Farrow, whose story about Harvey Weinstein was a critical component of moving the story forward, has now written another important piece for the New Yorker, in which he details the campaign of spying, harassment, and intimidation that Weinstein waged against his accusers.
In the fall of 2016, Harvey Weinstein set out to suppress allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women. He began to hire private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations. According to dozens of pages of documents, and seven people directly involved in the effort, the firms that Weinstein hired included Kroll, which is one of the world's largest corporate-intelligence companies, and Black Cube, an enterprise run largely by former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies. Black Cube, which has branches in Tel Aviv, London, and Paris, offers its clients the skills of operatives "highly experienced and trained in Israel's elite military and governmental intelligence units," according to its literature.There is much, much more at the link.
Two private investigators from Black Cube, using false identities, met with the actress Rose McGowan, who eventually publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to extract information from her. One of the investigators pretended to be a women's-rights advocate and secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan. The same operative, using a different false identity and implying that she had an allegation against Weinstein, met twice with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press. In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details.
The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker. Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies "target," or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focussed on their personal or sexual histories. Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally. He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating.
In some cases, the investigative effort was run through Weinstein's lawyers, including David Boies, a celebrated attorney who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a Times story about Weinstein's abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times, including in a libel case.
Farrow includes a statement from Black Cube which reads, in part: "It should be highlighted that Black Cube applies high moral standards to its work, and operates in full compliance with the law of any jurisdiction in which it operates — strictly following the guidance and legal opinions provided by leading law firms from around the world."
Imagine being the kind of people who can get wealthy harassing rape victims on behalf of their rapists, under the auspices of being women's rights advocates, and claiming to operate in accordance with "high moral standards."
There are a lot of reasons that survivors don't report their abuse. The fear of vengeance from the person who harmed you once (or more times) already is a big one.
On the Shooting in Sutherland Springs
[Content Note: Mass shooting; death; injury; gun apologia; domestic violence; child abuse.]
On Sunday, a 26-year-old white man named Devin Kelley walked into a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and shot nearly every person in the congregation, killing 26 of them and injuring about two dozen more. He then fled, was shot and injured by a local resident, and then took his own life.
My condolences to the families, friends, fellow congregants, and community of those who were killed. I am so sorry.
Here is a thread for information sharing and discussion. As always, let's keep it image-free. And please note that talking about the critical need for gun reform is on-topic for this thread. This is a political issue. Politicize the fuck out of it in this space.
On that note, here are some thoughts I shared on Twitter:
"So sad," Trump says of the Texas church massacre. "Who would ever think a thing like this could happen?"
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 6, 2017
LITERALLY EVERYONE. Because it happens ALL THE TIME. https://t.co/9ouqlyX7kv
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
I have been writing urgently about the link between domestic violence and acts of mass public violence for years. https://t.co/8OUiIrcKCU
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
We must, MUST, start taking seriously that violence against women is a major indicator of the potential for acts of public mass violence.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
Reminder: People with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
Fact: Many survivors of gun violence have lasting psychological trauma. Note that we never, ever, talk about the mental illness guns CAUSE.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
Read this, on mental illness, trauma, and guns. https://t.co/vDPMu0bK5K
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 6, 2017
BREAKING: US Air Force says it failed to transmit Texas shooter's domestic violence conviction into the National Crime Information Center.
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) November 6, 2017
I wonder if someone "failed to transmit" that information because they didn't want "to ruin a man's life" over it. https://t.co/0n3SroWSyt
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 7, 2017
Once again, a public act of mass violence was preceded by an escalating history of domestic abuse. Kelley was kicked out of the Air Force with a "bad conduct discharge" following a conviction for domestic violence, after he assaulted his wife and his baby stepson, the latter so badly he fractured his skull.
He should have been barred from purchasing firearms because of that conviction, but, as noted above, it was never entered into the National Criminal Information Center database that alerts federal law enforcement, which would have red-flagged his background check.
That could be, in part, because "the military has no distinct charge for domestic violence, notes Grover Baxley, a former judge advocate general who now practices military law as a civilian. 'We see this all the time,' Baxley said. 'There is no specific domestic violence article.' Instead, military prosecutors charge abusers with other offenses, like assault."
The military also appears to have failed to impose the maximum sentence on Kelley: "In fact he should have still been behind bars at the time of Sunday's shooting. Had justice been done, Kelley would have only been due for release at the end of a five-year term, which would have come on Tuesday." Instead of the maximum sentence, he was given only 12 months.
The 12 months is an important number because anything more is presumed to result from the equivalent of a felony and disqualifies the person from owning a firearm whether or not it was a domestic violence crime. No more than 12 months is presumed to result from a misdemeanor, which does not preclude owning a firearm unless domestic violence is involved.I'll bet he wasn't.
The military judge in the case, J. Wesley Moore, has also given 12-month sentences to a colonel convicted of possessing child pornography in March of this year and to a lieutenant convicted of aggravated and abusive sexual contact and assault upon a commissioned officer in August 2014.
...Exactly why Moore gave Kelley such a light sentence is difficult to determine without the court record, and the judge was not available for comment.
It sounds an awful lot like Judge Moore doesn't like "ruining men's lives" by giving them sentences that reflect, sheerly by their duration, the severity of those men's crimes.
Here's the thing about not wanting to "ruin men's lives": It almost always abets those men's ruination of other people's lives. Case in fucking point.
Election Day 2017
It's Election Day in many places across the United States today. I got up at the crack of dawn so that me and the Golden Girls could go cast our vote first thing this morning when the polls opened.
I am not in the business of telling people how to vote, and if you don't want to vote at all, that's your business, but here are some of my reasons for voting and encouraging others to vote.
If you can vote, but thinking about not bothering, please consider all the disenfranchised voters who would love to but can't. #ElectionDay
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 7, 2017
If you can't find any other reason to go vote, just do it because Republicans don't want you to. Especially these two jerks. #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/mGdIUdUKC8
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 7, 2017
Vote like it's the last time you'll ever get to, so it isn't. #ElectionDay
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 7, 2017
If you do go to the polls and encounter any voter intimidation or suspect voting irregularities, you can make a report at the Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
If you need to find your polling place, you can do that at IWillVote.com.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share additional resources, information, and "I Voted!" photos in comments!
The Virtual Pub Is Open + Programming Note
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
I've got some personal stuff to do on Monday, so I will be taking the day off, and I'll see you back here Tuesday.
And don't worry — if the rumors turn out to be true that we'll be starting next week with more indictments, I promise to open a thread for discussion at my earliest opportunity!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by falling leaves.
Recommended Reading:
Chauncey DeVega: [Content Note: White supremacy] To Argue That the Confederacy and General Lee were "Honorable" Is to Embrace and Defend White Supremacy
Jenn Fang: [CN: Racism; nativism] Racist Anti-Asian Campaign Mailers Sent to New Jersey Residents
Ragen Chastain: [CN: Sexual assault; fat hatred] Judge Fat-Shames Sexual Assault Victim
Teresa Jusino: [CN: Sexual harassment/assault] A Pattern of Behavior: Eight House of Cards Employees Accuse Kevin Spacey of Sexual Harassment and Assault
Kaiser: [CN: Sexual assault] Why Is the LA DA's Office 'Slow Rolling' the Danny Masterson Rape Investigation?
Proma Khosla: Wonder Woman Takes the Title of Highest Grossing Superhero Origin Story
Rae Paoletta: Aliens Might Actually Be Surprisingly Human-Like
Ryan F. Mandelbaum: An Elaborate Planetary System May Exist Around Our Nearest Star
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
This Is a Must-Read
🚨 "The group’s hackers seemed particularly interested in Democratic officials working on voter registration issues." https://t.co/ShI34jxcr6
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 3, 2017
I realize I am the brokenest of broken records, but this is still happening. Russia's success only means that they have continued and will continue to meddle in our democracy.
And every time you hear someone talk about the 2018 midterms like they'll be a curative, or feel the urge to say that yourself, remember that anything that happened in 2016 will happen again in 2018, with even greater confidence.
Because we have not made any meaningful effort to stop them.
To the absolute contrary, the current administration is aiding them in several meaningful ways. And voter suppression is one of them.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 288
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures 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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Authoritarian Watch: Trump Screams for Show Trials and Elizabeth Warren, What Are You Even Doing?
Further in Authoritarian Watch today:
Trump says he's not worried about unfilled State Department roles b/c "the one that matters is me. I am the only one that matters." pic.twitter.com/JxcWiy7ozY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2017
LAURA INGRAHAM: Your State Department still has some unfilled positions. Are you worried that the State Department doesn't have enough Donald Trump nominees in there to push your vision through? Because other State Departments, including Reagan's at times, undermined his agenda, and there's a concern that the State Department currently is undermining your agenda.Welp.
DONALD TRUMP: So, we don't need all the people that they want. You know, don't forget, I'm a businessperson, and I tell my people: Where you don't need to fill slots, don't fill 'em. But we have some people that I'm not happy with their thinking process—
INGRAHAM: Right. But Assistant Secretary of State you're not getting rid of that position?
TRUMP: Well, all right, but, let me tell ya: The one that matters is me. I'm the only one that matters. Because, when it comes to it, that's what the policy is going to be. You've seen that; you've seen it strongly.
* * *
“Congratulations, Jay,” Trump tells his Federal Reserve chair pick, Jerome “Jay” Powell. pic.twitter.com/nsHaLFxIma
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 2, 2017
Trump replaces the first woman to chair the Fed with a dude. Shocking. https://t.co/MQxPji6BjM
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 2, 2017
Further, as Eastsidekate noted (which I'm sharing with her permission): "Lady with a PhD in economics who's garnered near universal praise is pushed aside for a lawyer dude. Got it."
It's not just that Trump is pushing Janet Yellen aside for a man; it's that he's pushing her aside for a man who is significantly less qualified than she is.
* * *
Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Carter Page Says He Told Jeff Sessions He Was Traveling to Russia in July 2016. "After testifying to the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors on Thursday, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page told CNN that he told Jeff Sessions that he had plans to travel to Russia in July 2016. ...Page told CNN that it was the only time he met Sessions, who at the time was a national security adviser to the campaign and now serves as attorney general. Page said that he told this to the House Intelligence Committee, and the Republican leading the committee's Russia probe, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) confirmed that to CNN. Conaway said that Page told the committee that Sessions did not react to Page's heads up about the trip. 'I don't make anything sinister out of it. He said Sessions did not react or comment one way or the other,' Conaway told CNN." LOL yeah that's kinda the problem!
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo, and Scott Shane at the New York Times: Trump and Sessions Denied Knowing About Russian Contacts; Records Suggest Otherwise. "Standing before reporters in February, President Trump said unequivocally that he knew of nobody from his campaign who was in contact with Russians during the election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told the Senate the same thing. Court documents unsealed this week cast doubt on both statements and raised the possibility that Mr. Sessions could be called back to Congress for further questioning. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, unsealed his first charges Monday in a wide-ranging investigation... Records in that case show that George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser, had frequent discussions with Russians in 2016 and trumpeted his connections in front of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions."
Esme Cribb at TPM: Franken Blasts Sessions: Papadopoulos Docs Show 'You Failed to Tell the Truth'. "Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), whose questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in his January confirmation hearing kicked off a chain of events that ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel, on Thursday had some more pointed questions for Sessions. Franken included his questions in a scathing letter to Sessions after court documents [were] unsealed Monday... 'We must get to the bottom of what happened so that we can prevent it from happening again,' Franken wrote. 'I am deeply troubled that this newest revelation strongly suggests that the Senate — and the American public — cannot trust your word.'" No suggestion. We can't.
Selina Wang at Bloomberg: Twitter Sidestepped Russian Account Warnings, Former Worker Says. "In early 2015, a Twitter employee discovered a vast amount of Twitter accounts with IP addresses in Russia and Ukraine. The worker, Leslie Miley, said most of them were inactive or fake but were not deleted at the time. Miley, who was the company's engineering manager of product safety and security at the time, said efforts to root out spam and manipulation on the platform were slowed down by the company's growth team, which focused on increasing users and revenue. ...Throughout Twitter's history, security took a backseat to free speech and growth, according to ten former employees who asked not to be identified."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Alexander Nazaryan at Newsweek: Trump Is Leading the Most Corrupt Administration in U.S. History, One of the First-Class Kleptocrats.
Now, a year after the election — and more than a year after Trump first made that pledge [to "drain the swamp"] to the American people — many observers believe the swamp has grown into a sinkhole that threatens to swallow the entire Trump administration. The number of White House officials currently facing questions, lawsuits, or investigation is astonishing: Trump, being sued for violating the "emoluments clause" of the U.S. Constitution by running his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.; Paul J. Manafort, the second Trump campaign manager, indicted on money laundering charges in late October; Flynn, for undisclosed lobbying work done on behalf of the Turkish government; son-in-law and consigliere Jared Kushner, for failing to disclose $1 billion in loans tied to his real-estate company; and at least six Cabinet heads being investigated for or asked about exorbitant travel expenses, security details, or business dealings.[CN: Climate change] Christopher Joyce at NPR: Massive Government Report Says Climate Is Warming and Humans Are the Cause. "The 600-plus-page Climate Science Special Report [is] part of an even larger scientific review known as the fourth National Climate Assessment. The NCA4, as it's known, is the nation's most authoritative assessment of climate science. ...Without major reductions in emissions, it says, the increase in annual average global temperature could reach 9 degrees Fahrenheit relative to pre-industrial times. ...The report notes that sea level has risen 7 to 8 inches since 1900, and 3 inches of that occurred since 1993." Holy shit.
...[A]ccording to the presidential historian Robert Dallek, no American leader has acted with more unadulterated self-interest as Trump. Dallek says that in terms of outright corruption, Trump is worse than both Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding, presidents who oversaw the most flagrant instances of graft in American political history.
* * *
[CN: Sexual violence; descriptions of rape] Cécile Allegra at the Guardian: Rape Used Systematically in Libya as Instrument of War. "Male rape is being used systematically in Libya as an instrument of war and political domination by rival factions, according to multiple testimonies gathered by investigators. Years of work by a Tunis-based group and witnessed by a journalist from Le Monde have produced harrowing reports from victims, and video footage showing men being [sexually assaulted]. In several instances, witnesses say a victim was thrown into a room with other prisoners, who were ordered to rape him or be killed. The atrocity is being perpetrated to humiliate and neutralise opponents in the lawless, militia-dominated country. Male rape is such a taboo in Arab societies that the abused generally feel too damaged to rejoin political, military, or civic life."
First of all, let me say that I take up space in solidarity with these victims and survivors, and I hope they are safe after courageously speaking out.
Secondly, I want to note that this is, or should be, a foreign policy issue for the United States. It is a critical human rights issue.
One of the many reasons I supported Hillary Clinton was because of her history of advocating on behalf of people who are victimized by rape as a weapon of war.
But Donald Trump, if he even ever hears about it, will not care. Further, he has no moral authority on which to speak about it, since he is himself a confessed serial sex abuser.
I will never stop grieving for the people we will abandon as a nation because our president is a hideous specimen.
* * *
[CN: Environmental racism; toxic water; description of miscarriage] Auditi Guha at Rewire: Miscarriages in Flint: 'I Really Believe It's the Water.' "Researches studying the water crisis recently found a high number of fetal deaths and fewer pregnancies in Flint since April 2014, which is when the city switched its water supply to use water from the polluted Flint River without adding anti-corrosives to treat it. ...Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who blew the whistle on high lead levels in children, has looked into the possibility of miscarriages being caused by the tainted water, according to the Free Press. State officials deny this is happening, but residents pointed out that the same people also denied the existence of the water crisis until it was made public." Residents make a damn good point.
By stripping Title X funding, Trump is taking direct aim at women in marginalized communities & their #reprohealth: https://t.co/DGy8BRgW5N
— NARAL (@NARAL) November 3, 2017
[CN: Racism] Sameer Rao at Colorlines: Report: Five Ways Hollywood Sidelines Black Screenwriters. "'Race in the Writers' Room: How Hollywood Whitewashes the Stories that Shape America' examines all 234 original scripted series airing on 18 basic cable, premium cable, and streaming networks during the 2016-2017 television season. Report author and University of California, Los Angeles scholar Darnell Hunt uses writers' room demographic information to conclude that most TV executives hire very few Black writers and showrunners. ...Fully 65.4 percent of all TV series writers' rooms have no Black writers. An additional 17.3 percent have only one Black writer. Black writers make up only 4.8 percent of all writers' rooms, while White people constitute 86.3 percent of the whole." 4.8 percent! For fuck's sake!
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Elizabeth Warren, What Are You Even Doing?
. @jaketapper to Senator Warren: "Do you agree with the notion that it was rigged?"
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 2, 2017
Senator Warren: "Yes." pic.twitter.com/HC9wPt9tmT
JAKE TAPPER: I want to ask you one other question, Senator. We learned today from former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile that the Clinton campaign in her view did rig the presidential nominating process by entering into an agreement to control day-to-day operations at the DNC. The Clinton campaign controlling the party's staffing, strategy, finances, communications, and that agreement was entered into in August 2015, a year before she defeated Senator Bernie Sanders. This must shock you.Although the video cuts off there, suggesting there might have been more to the exchange, after that came only Tapper saying, "All right. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, Senator."
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, this is a real problem, but what we've got to do is Democrats now, is we've got to hold this party accountable. When Tom Perriello was first — Tom Perez was first elected chair of the DNC, the very first conversation I had with him is to say, you have got to put together a Democratic Party in which everybody can have confidence that the party is working for Democrats, rather than Democrats are working for the party. And he's being tested now. This is a test for Tom Perez. And either he's going to succeed by bringing Bernie Sanders and Bernie Sanders' representatives into this process, and they're going to say it's fair, it works, we all believe it, or he's going to fail. And I very much hope he succeeds. I hope for Democrats everywhere, I hope for Bernie, and for all of Bernie supporters, that he's going to succeed.
TAPPER: Very quickly, Senator, do you believe with the notion that it was rigged?
WARREN: Yes.
I'm not going to spend an enormous amount of time debunking Tapper's mendacious framing and Warren's astounding endorsement of the notion that the Democratic primary was rigged, because lots of other people are already doing that very effectively, and also because I think the entire thing is easily debunked with one simple fact: "Hillary for America was keeping the party afloat, which included state party funding to administer caucuses, which Secretary Clinton lost the majority of."
The fact is that the party was broke and Clinton raised the cash so that there could be a primary. That included caucuses which she knew she would lose.
I understand completely why it is that people who are primed to see Hillary Clinton as a duplicitous, entitled, power-hungry monster look at the facts and see a woman who would do anything to win.
Because that's what they're expecting to see.
But those same facts also tell the story of a dedicated, loyal, profoundly small-d democratic patriot — a woman who would do anything to ensure that her party and her country's democracy stay functional.
I am deeply troubled by the fact that suddenly Donna Brazile and Elizabeth Warren have joined the ranks of those who can only see the villain.
Apparently they've seen that the dirtbag left has succeeded in taking the party hostage and have calculated their futures depend on capitulating to their first and most aggressive demand: Shittalk Hillary Clinton, relentlessly and remorselessly.
Authoritarian Watch: Trump Screams for Show Trials
Thursday night, Donald Trump said the following during an interview with conservative radio host Larry O'Connor:
You know the saddest thing is that because I'm the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I'm not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing. And I'm very frustrated by it.Trump says he's "angry" that he isn't supposed to direct the Department of Justice and the FBI to target his political opponents, even though he would "love" to do exactly that.
I look at what's happening with the Justice Department. Why aren't they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her — the dossier? The kind of money — I don't know is it possible that they paid $12.4 million for the dossier, which is total phony, fake. And how is it used?
And, you know, it's very discouraging to me. I'll be honest, I'm very unhappy with it, that the Justice Department isn't going— Now, maybe they are, but you know, as president, and I think you understand this, as a president you are not supposed to be involved in that process, but hopefully they are doing something — and, at some point, maybe we're gonna all have it out.
This is not something the president of a democratic nation is supposed to want to be able to do.
And despite his saying that he isn't supposed to be doing it, his Friday morning tweetshitz were filled with demands that the DoJ and FBI target his political opponents.
Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
"Let's go, FBI and Justice Department." Says the president.
Before he left for a 12-day trip to Asia this morning, he reiterated his calls for the Justice Department to target Democrats, bellowing over the noise from Marine One.
Trump says he’s “disappointed” in the Justice Dept., says “they should be looking into the Democrats.” (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/9LP1ucJG6z
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 3, 2017
I don't know. I'm not really involved with the Justice Department. I'd like to let it run itself. But honestly they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty. They should be looking at a lot of things, and a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. [turns and walks away]I know it's become a cliché, but this isn't normal. It's unprecedented for a sitting U.S. president to publicly direct harassment of citizens. And let us be clear: That is what he's doing. He is publicly calling for the federal government to use taxpayer money to harass citizens of this nation because they are his ideological opponents and his critics.
That is deeply illiberal and undemocratic. Trust that authoritarians don't stop w/ prominent critics. He'll come for all "dissidents" next.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 3, 2017
The Republican Party can see all of this unfolding just as well as we can. He is their president. They are the Congressional majority, empowered with the duty to check and balance the executive branch.
But they are letting it happen. They are complicit in this slide into authoritarian rule. Shame on Donald Trump, and shame on them.
