🔴 Trump & 🇷🇺Russia & 🇺🇦Ukraine
With Tweets, Retweets, links to articles and excerpts, I’ve tried to document this national soap opera/tragedy we’re living through. The resources at the beginning are a mixed bag of timelines and documents and I provide a clickable cast of characters (Russians, mostly).
What does this have to do with The Blacklist? A lot, actually. Russian mob figures, spies and apparatchiks. Semion Mogilevich, the Smart Don, reminds me of Red, though Red is a lot nicer and much better-looking.
Featured are drawings (she calls them “maps”) by @Jzikah, and “Mueller, She Wrote” is the best podcast I’ve ever come across. The three women who do it are comedians, though they’re all super smart and A.J. (the lead) has a PhD and is a Veteran.
Caution: You may enjoy this feature a bit more if you’re of the liberal persuasion. This is the single place on this blog where *there are politics* though I tend to stick with MSM, specialized sources (ex-Intel Community, altGov, and reputable sleuths) and other people I’ve learned to trust.
🇷🇺 Press Here For Recent (2023)
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2022
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2021
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2020 (below)
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2019
🇷🇺 Press Here For 7/26/2017 through 2018
📀 Press Here For Impeachment #1 Trial on Cspan (2020)
📀 Press Here For Impeachment #2 Trial on Cspan (2021)
📀 Press Here For January 6th Committee Hearings (2022)
✅ Press Here For Biden/Burisma/Ukraine Fact Checks
💽Recommended⋙ Mueller She Wrote Podcast ⋙ http://bit.ly/2PgTKWs or Press ⇊ ⇊
Other Podcasts:
The Asset (Center for American Progress) 🌟
The Dworkin Report (Scott Dworkin)
Gaslit Nation (Sarah Kendzior, Andrea Chalupa)
The Lawfare Podcast (Benjamin Wittes, Brookings)
The Josh Marshall Podcast (TPM)
The Mother Jones Podcast (David Corn)
Mueller Time (Eric Leval, Chris Carey)
The Oath (Chuck Rosenberg, MSNBC)
The Report (Lawfare)
On Topic (Renato Mariotti)
Skullduggery (Michael Isikoff, Yahoo)
Trump Inc (ProPublica)
Trumpcast (Slate)
🔊 PlayerFM: Best Trump Russia Investigation Podcasts (2019) http://bit.ly/2MKbtV8
Twitter List: INVESTIGATORS: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/lists/investigators
// Investigative reporters, Trump-Russia sleuths, Intelligence Community, Legislators, “alt-gov,” and Targets
Russian Intelligence Services:
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) – The Foreign Intelligence Service reports directly to the President of Russia.
GRU – Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces.
Federal Security Service (FSB) – The Federal Security Service is responsible for counter-intelligence, state security and anti-terrorist operations
🔄 ECFR , Mark Galeotti [EU] (2016): Introduction: Putin’s hydra: Inside Russia’s intelligence services http://bit.ly/2NZWN1h
// 5/11/2016, Intro
⋙ 📒 ECFR, Mark Galeotti [EU] (2016): Report: Putin’s Hydra: Inside Russia’s Intelligence Services [pdf] http://bit.ly/2NYjG5b 20p
// May 2016, Full report
Key People: Roman Abramovich, Aras Agalarov, Emin Agalarov, Rinat Akhmetov, Rinat Akhmetshin, Yulya Alferova, Anatoly Antonov, Andrii Artemenko, Arron Banks, Andrey Baronov, Vitaly Bespalov, Leonid “Len” Blavatnik, Anna Bogacheva, David Bogatin, Victor Boyarkin, Wm Browder, Mariia Butina, Carole Cadwalladr, Michael Caputo, Yuri Chaika, Igor Chekunov, Michael Cohen, George Cottrell, Oleg Deripaska, Andrii Derkach, Igor Divyekin, Kirill Dmitriev, Aleksandr Dugin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Paul Erickson, Oleg Erovinkin, Nigel Farage, Dmitri Firtash, John Fotiadis, Gene (Evgeny) Friedman, Igor Fruman, Daniel Gelbinovich, Rob Goldstone, Sergei Gorkov, Henry Greenberg, Andrew Intrater, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Brittany Kaiser, Mikhail Kalugin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Saak Karapetyan, Eugene Kaspersky (Kaspersky Lab), Denis Katsyv, Irakly (“Ike”) Kaveladze, Michael Khodarkovsky, Konstantin Kilimnik, Sergey Kislyak, Artem Klyushin, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Konstantin Kosachev, Aleksandra Krylova, Elena Khusyaynova, Simon Kukes, Alexander Litvinenko, Howard Lorber, Yuriy Lutsenko, Simona Mangiante, Alexander Mashkevich, Viktor Medvedchek, Josef Mifsud, Semion Mogilevich (Don Semyon), Konstantin Molofeev, George Nader, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Alexei Navalny, Eduard Nektalov, Konstantin Nikolaev, Vyacheslav Nikonov, Yevgeniy Nikulin, Alexander Nix, Isabel Oakeshoff, George Papadopoulos, Lev Parnas, Sam Patten, Alexander Perepilichnyy, Dmitry Peskov, Igor Pisarsky, Petro Poroshenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, George Ramishvili, Dmitry Rogozin, Alexander Rovt, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, Dmitry Rybolovlev, Konstantin Rykov, Mikheil Saakashvili, Felix Sater, Igor Sechin, Anastasia Shevchenko, Viktor Shokin, Oleg Solodukhin, Christopher Steele, Ruslan Stoyanov, Oleg Solodukhin, Peter Strzok, Taiwanchik (aka Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov), Andriy Telizhenko, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (aka Taiwanchik), Aleksandr Torshin, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Yulia Tymoshenko, Anastasia Vashukevich (aka Nastya Rybka), Viktor Vekselberg, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Vyacheslav Volodin, Curt Weldon, Andy Wigmore, Alexander Yakovenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Ivan Yermakov, Viktor Yushchenko, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Maria Zakharova, Joel Zamel, Volodymyr Zelensky
Bios w links (Wikipedia unless otherwise noted): Roman Abramovich, Aras Agalarov, Emin Agalarov, Rinat Akhmetov, Rinat Akhmetshin, Yulya Alferova (National Compass), Anatoly Antonov, Andrii Artemenko, Arron Banks, Andrey Baranov (Bloomberg), Vitaly Bespalov (NBC), Leonid “Len” Blavatnik, Anna Bogacheva (NYT), David Bogatin (NYT), Victor Boyarkin (TrumpRussia), William Browder, Mariia Butina, Carole Cadwalladr, Michael Caputo, Yuri Chaika, Igor Chekunov, Michael Cohen, George Cottrell, Oleg Deripaska, Andrii Derkach, Igor Divyekin, Kirill Dmitriev, Aleksandr Dugin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Paul Erickson, Oleg Erovinkin, Nigel Farage, Dmitri Firtash, John Fotiadis (Archinect), Gene (Evgeny) Friedman, Igor Fruman, Daniel Gelbinovich (Daily Beast), Rob Goldstone, Sergei Gorkov, Henry Greenberg (Miami Herald), Andrew Intrater, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Brittany Kaiser (Cambridge Analytica), Mikhail Kalugin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Saak Karapetyan, Eugene Kaspersky (Kaspersky Lab), Denis Katsyv, Irakly Kaveladze, Michael Khodarkovsky, Elena Khusyaynova, Konstantin Kilimnik, Sergey Kislyak, Artem Klyushin (National Compass), Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Konstantin Kosachev, Aleksandra Krylova (NYT), Simon Kukes, Alexander Litvinenko, Howard Lorber, Yuriy Lutsenko, Konstantin Malofeev, Simona Mangiante (Papadopoulos), Alexander Mashkevich, Viktor Medvedchek, Josef Mifsud, Semion Mogilevich (Don Semyon) …
Cover: KyivPost (10/18/2019): Shady Cast of Characters: Engineers of Trump-Ukraine Scandal http://bit.ly/2MZCilW
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Alexei Navalny, Eduard Nektalov (NYMag), Konstantin Nikolaev, Yevgeniy Nikulin, Vyacheslav Nikonov, Alexander Nix, Isabel Oakeshoff, George Papadopoulos, Lev Parnas ,Sam Patten, Alexander Perepilichny, Dmitry Peskov, Igor Pisarsky (RIM), Petro Poroshenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, George Ramishvili (Bloomberg), Dmitry Rogozin, Alexander Rovt, Giorgi Rtskhiladze (CNBC), Nastya Rybka (aka Anastasia Vashukevich) (WaPo), Dmitry Rybolovlev, Konstantin Rykov, Mikheil Saakashvili, Felix Sater, Igor Sechin, Anastasia Shevchenko (Amnesty Intl), Viktor Shokin, Oleg Solodukhin, Christopher Steele, Ruslan Stoyanov, Peter Strzok, Taiwanchik (aka Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov), Andriy Telizhenko (BuzzFeedNews), Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (aka Taiwanchik), Aleksandr Torshin, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Yulia Tymoshenko, Anastasia Vashukevich (aka Nastya Rybka) (WaPo), Viktor Vekselberg, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Vyacheslav Volodin, Curt Weldon, Andy Wigmore, Alexander Yakovenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Ivan Yermakov (Moscow Proj), Viktor Yushchenko, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Maria Zakharova, Joel Zamel, Volodymyr Zelensky
By @WendySiegelman
Key Documents
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 LawfareBlog: Litigation Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation http://bit.ly/2OVch6n
// new November 2018, to be continually updated
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 JustSecurity: Public Document Clearinghouse: UKRAINE Impeachment Inquiry http://bit.ly/2CEsQ2F ‼️ Links to ALL documents ‼️
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 AmericanOversight: Trump-Ukraine Key Figures and Documents http://bit.ly/2C24bES
AmericanOversight: The Trump Administration’s Contacts with Ukraine http://bit.ly/2BYSY89 from FOIA requests
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 JustSecurity, Andy Wright: Just Security Launches the Russia Investigation Congressional Clearinghouse http://bit.ly/2L21uHz
// 8/22/2019
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 Lawfare: Full Text of the Mueller Report’s Executive Summaries http://bit.ly/2IFLewq
// 4/18/2019
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 Lawfare: Document: The Mueller Report http://bit.ly/2vcgNpN
// 4/18/2019
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Whistle-Blower Complaint: Read the Document [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2nq4FAD
// 9/26/2019
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo: Trump impeachment inquiry: Latest news and updates http://wapo.st/2P09WuE [Continually updated]
🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo, Kate Rabinowitz and Kevin Schaul: Who’s involved in the Trump impeachment inquiry http://wapo.st/2W673dg
// orig published 10/21/2019
By @jzikah has a new book! Cartoon President http://amzn.to/2QUeZhk @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 Court Filing (1/17/2019): Civil Action No. 1:18-cv-03501 [pdf] http://cnn.it/2CBddZy (111p) Democratic National Committee v.: Russian Federation, DJ Trump For President, Inc (and others)
// 1/17/2019
⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheAtlantic, Yoni Appelbaum: Impeach Donald Trump http://bit.ly/2FykFIP
//March 2019 cover story
⋙ 💙💙🔄 Politico Mag, Darren Samuelsohn: The Only Impeachment Guide You’ll Ever Need http://politi.co/2QHcJGi
// 1/11/2019, As talk of the I-word heats up, here’s POLITICO Magazine’s soup-to-nuts answers to all your questions about the politics—and the practical realities—of removing a president.
⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo, Max Boot: Here are 18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset http://wapo.st/2D7IJQ9
// 1/13/2019
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheAtlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg (Editor): UNTHINKABLE: 50 Moments That Define an Improbable Presidency http://bit.ly/2RvDFOn
// Jan 2019; Donald Trump’s 50 Most Unthinkable Moments ~ 50 Articles
⋙ 💙💙🔄 Wikipedia: Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (2018) http://bit.ly/2Bh12jP
⋙ 💙💙🔄 Axios: Timeline: Every big move in the Mueller investigation http://bit.ly/2Euh3H9
// 12/12/2018
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 Moyers&Co: Interactive Timeline: Everything We Know About Russia and President Trump http://bit.ly/2uVHc9j
// continually updated
⋙ 💙💙🔄📒 DocumentCloud: Steele Dossier [pdf] http://bit.ly/2y5ZhnF 35p
⋙ 💙💙🔄📒 FBIRecordsVault: Records Between FBI and Christopher Steele http://bit.ly/2KqLoF1
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ AP: Mueller Investigation documents http://bit.ly/2ihbK0l
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ CitJourno: Trump/Russian Mob Connections http://www.citjourno.org
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ CNN, Marshall Cohen, Tal Yellen & Liz Stark: Tracking the Russia investigations (documents) http://cnn.it/2hVCpU5
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Russian Hacking and Influence in the U.S. Election http://nyti.ms/2NqFXeY
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ BrennanCenter: Trump-Russia Investigations http://bit.ly/2yRKcu6
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Politico: The people connected to the Russia probes [ Interactive ] http://politi.co/2FUDhz2 //➔ Democrats, Prosecutors, Law Enforcement/Lobbyists/Media,Team Trump, Foreign Nationals
⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheMoscowProject: Trump’s Russia Cover-Up By the Numbers http://bit.ly/2ycY959
// Center for American Progress; 80+ contacts with Russia-linked operatives https://themoscowproject.org/about/ http://bit.ly/2ycY959
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NBCNews: Russia timeline: Key players, meetings and investigation details http://nbcnews.to/2vtR3YW
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ DailyBeast: Democrats Release the Fusion GPS Testimony on Trump and Russia http://thebea.st/2qMmH1d w attachment [pdf] ⋙ via Dianne Feinstein http://bit.ly/2FjtlPP
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Justice Department Gives Congress Comey’s Memos on Trump http://nyti.ms/2HdLe2Z
// 4/19/2018 ➔ DocumentCloud: http://bit.ly/2HOGC4z
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ DOJ: Indictment of Internet Research Agency LLC et al … [PDF] http://bit.ly/2CqdHzD 37p //➔ Mueller Investigation
// 2/16/2018
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Amy Siskind: The Weekly List ~ “This is How Democracy Ends” https://theweeklylist.org
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Mueller Has List of Questions for Trump http://nyti.ms/2rfDuqK + http://nyti.ms/2HExEKi
// 4/30/2018, Majority Relate to if Trump Obstructed Inquiry on Russia
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Trump Lawyers’ Confidential Memo to Mueller, Explained [ Document ] http://nyti.ms/2kKPgq9
// 6/2/2018, NYT article about document: http://nyti.ms/2swIZSc
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ TIME: The Arguments President Trump Has Made Against the Mueller Investigation http://ti.me/2MdeARX
// 6/8/2018
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ TIME: Wikipedia: Links between Trump associates and Russian officials http://bit.ly/2K42VDF
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ WaPo: Who has been charged in the Russia probe and why http://wapo.st/2toNwH2
// continually updated; WaPo Russia page
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ ForeignAffairs Anthology: A New Cold War? Russia and America, Then and Now 1947- http://fam.ag/2KEA4dF
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Justice.gov: Mueller Indictment of 12 Russians in the GRU for Election Hacking [pdf] http://bit.ly/2NbphV6 29p
// 7/13/2018
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ FactCheck.org: Timeline of Russia Investigation http://bit.ly/2KZ4qaQ
// posted 6/7/2018, updated 7/13/2018; Key moments in the FBI probe of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election; Readable
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Legal Process Server: DNC Lawsuit vs Russia, Wikileaks, et al http://bit.ly/2KIOhBq
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT, Linda Qiu: Truth-Testing Trump’s 250-Plus Attacks on the Russia Inquiry http://nyti.ms/2MY609E
// 8/18/2018
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Justice.gov: Manafort Plea Agreement [pdf] http://bit.ly/2CZiVb7 17p
// 9/14/2018
⋙ 💙💙🔄💽 NYT: Opinion | Operation Infektion: A three-part video series on Russian disinformation http://nyti.ms/2OHqSSV
// 11/12/2018
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ PasteMag, Jacob Weindling: A Year of Trump and Russia: The 75 Stories That Defined the Mueller Investigation in 2018 http://bit.ly/2QWN1SU
// 12/28/2018
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ LawFareBlog: Document: Indictment of Roger Stone [pdf] http://bit.ly/2UdQgmj 24p
// 1/25/2019
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄📋 NYT: Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2MAZCps
// 1/26/2019
⋙ 💙💙🔄 BuzzFeedNews: These Secret Files Show How The Trump Moscow Talks Unfolded While Trump Heaped Praise On Putin http://bit.ly/2DWQ2ed
// 2/5/2019; ⏳TIMELINE ⌛️
⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo: What we learned about Trumpworld outreach to Russia since Mueller’s investigation began http://wapo.st/2twkXYE
// 2/19/2019, And what we still don’t know.
⋙ 💙💙🔄 ◕📋 NYT, Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish: Trump Has Publicly Attacked the Russia Investigation More Than 1,100 Times http://nyti.ms/2T2HSsN
// 2/19/2019
By @Jzikah
;
⋙ 💙💙🔄 ◕📋 WaPo, Philip Bump: The 81 people and organizations just looped into the Trump probe — and why they were included http://wapo.st/2SJrw41
// 3/4/2019
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Full Document: Trump’s Call With the Ukrainian President [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2lfBkbC (Annotated)
// 9/25/2019″
⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Whistle-Blower Complaint: Read the Document [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2nq4FAD
// 9/26/2019
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ HPSCI: Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry report http://bit.ly/2LlnJsX
// 12/3/2019; House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Report: House Judiciary Committee report on their articles of impeachment against President Donald John Trump http://bit.ly/2Ek2rIa 658p
// 10/15/2019
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Lawfare: House Releases Impeachment Trial Brief http://bit.ly/2ucCo3Y document 111p
// 1/18/2019
By @Jzikah
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Trial Memorandum of the US House of Representatives in the Impeachment Trial of President Donald J Trump http://bit.ly/2uePNsc
// 1/18/2020
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Trial Memorandum of President Donald J Trump http://bit.ly/2NGi2XK 171p
// 1/20/2020
By @Jzikah
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Vox, Matthew Yglesias and Andrew Prokop: The ultimate guide to the Donald Trump impeachment saga http://bit.ly/2SoXpkm
// Updated: Feb 5, 2020, 8:06pm EST, Published: Nov 5, 2019, 8:06am EST
⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ 📀 Press Here For Impeachment Trial on Cspan
// 1/20/2020-2/5/2020
⏳WaPo: The full Trump-Ukraine impeachment timeline http://wapo.st/35odsUl
By @Jzikah has a book! Cartoon President http://amzn.to/2QUeZhk
⭕ 31 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @JRubinBlogger Disappointed rules proposed for House do not sanction members seeking to overthrow democracy.
🐣 RT @SpyTalker [Jeff Stein] Very happy to announce our new partnership with @thedailybeast, starting with today’s cross-posted piece: Poisoner, Hacker, Meddler, Spy: How Russian Agents Ran Wild via @thedailybeast
⋙ DailyBeast/SpyTalk, Jeff Stein and Patricia Ravalgi: Poisoner, Hacker, Meddler, Spy: How Russian Agents Ran Wild in 2020 http://bit.ly/38WUlnO
// 12/31/2020; Some wins, some losses, but overall a record to be proud of—if you’re Vladimir Putin.
WaPo: Meet the Trump saboteur in charge of undermining Biden — and America http://wapo.st/3rK5MIb Trump’s budget director, Russell Thurlow Vought, “is very good at is sabotage. He’s sabotaging national security, the pandemic response and the economic recovery”
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens Hey @realDonaldTrump, know you’re up and Tweeting! Enjoy that last NY Eve before we kick you out of Our House. You lost. Here’s a special message just for you and yours. Happy New Year, loser.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln A #NYE2020 message made with love from @TheRickWilson to @realDonaldTrump. #NewYear 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1344856023471972352?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @jgeltzer The Justice Department just filed its response to the lawsuit filed by Gohmert & more trying to force Pence to declare Trump the winner at the joint session of Congress on 1/6. ¤ DOJ—the same DOJ that reports to Trump—says the lawsuit should be tossed out of court. ¤ DOJ is right.
🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 TRUMP PENTAGON putting US national security in great peril. Transition meetings turned off since 18 Dec. Political appointees are deliberately hiding issues. Russian hack? Mil Ops against Iran? Contract corruption? Jan 6 DC security?
⋙ NPR: Biden’s National Security Adviser: Pentagon Hasn’t Granted Meetings Since Dec. 18 http://n.pr/2KUkID1
Reuters: Iran’s foreign minister says Trump trying to fabricate pretext to attack Iran http://reut.rs/2L8h8F2 “Separately, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned Trump ‘not to turn the New Year into mourning for Americans’”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused U.S. President Donald Trump of attempting to fabricate a pretext to attack Iran, and said Tehran would defend itself forcefully.
Separately, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned Trump “not to turn the New Year into mourning for Americans”.
Zarif said in a tweet: “Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region. Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war.”
The U.S. military flew two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the Middle East in a message of deterrence to Iran on Wednesday, but the bombers have since left the region.
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that the Nimitz aircraft carrier, which was off the coast of Somalia, would be heading back to it’s homeport. Previously operating in the Middle East, some U.S. officials said the move could be seen an attempt to reduce tensions in the region.
In recent days there has been increased concern and vigilance about what Iranian-backed forces might do in the lead up to the anniversary of a Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, the official said.
Washington blames Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq, including near the embassy. No known Iran-backed groups have claimed responsibility.
Iran is preparing to hold events marking the anniversary of Soleimani’s killing.
“Iran doesn’t seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests,” Zarif wrote.
Hossein Dehghan, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Twitter: “I saw on the news that the Americans are on alert for fear of the revenge (over Soleimani’s killing) and have flown two B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf”.
“All their military bases in the region are covered by our missiles. I advise the White House evictee (Trump) not to turn the New Year into mourning for Americans,” said Dehghan, a former defence minister.
🧵 RT @BillKristol 1. A brief thread on why we should not panic but should worry, even be a bit…alarmed. ¤ I’ve been speaking with former Trump Administration officials and with other former senior national security types who remain plugged in to the Pentagon. 📌 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1344655961445855232?s=20
// three I’s ~ Iran, Insurrection Act, Insanity
⭕ 30 Dec 2020
WSJ Editorial: Trump’s Embarrassing Electoral College Hustle http://on.wsj.com/3aYX9Ub
// It is doomed to fail but would still set a destructive precedent.
Reuters: Trump pardon of Blackwater Iraq contractors violates international law – UN http://reut.rs/3hxZnv1
Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter, over the incident in which U.S. contractors opened fire in busy traffic in a Baghdad square and killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The four contractors, who worked for the private security firm Blackwater owned by the brother of Trump’s education secretary, were included in a wave of pre-Christmas pardons announced by the White House.
“Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families,” said Jelena Aparac, chair of the U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries, said in a statement.
The Geneva Conventions oblige states to hold war criminals accountable for their crimes, even when they act as private security contractors, the U.N. experts said.
“These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level.”
By allowing private security contractors to “operate with impunity in armed conflicts”, states will be emboldened to circumvent their obligations under humanitarian law, they said.
The pardons were strongly criticised by many in the United States. General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, respectively commander of U.S. forces and U.S. ambassador in Iraq at the time of the incident, called Trump’s pardons “hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.”
WaPo, EJ Dionne: Republican ‘populism’ is a fraud http://wapo.st/3mXGwuh “McConnell’s maneuvers this week are the last gasp of his party’s hypocrisy, rooted in a burning desire for working-class votes unmatched by a will to do anything to earn them”
Republicans were only willing to embrace Trump’s “populism” as long as it was fake — or of a right-wing sort that elevated the politics of race and immigration. The moment Trump started talking about real money for non-elites, the GOP leadership threw its hands up in horror. McConnell’s maneuvers this week are the last gasp of his party’s hypocrisy, rooted in a burning desire for working-class votes unmatched by a will to do anything to earn them.
WaPo Editorial: Trump is inciting chaos on Jan. 6, both in and outside the Capitol http://wapo.st/381AHbd
Mr. Trump — who told the Proud Boys during the first presidential debate in September to “stand back and stand by” — issued his uncamouflaged summons to “Be there, will be wild!” So much for the law-and-order president. Just as hypocritical are the Republican members of Congress — the latest being Mr. Hawley — who plan to raise objections to the certification of electoral votes for Mr. Biden. They cite completely baseless allegations, uniformly rejected by the courts, of voter fraud. Their aim is not, as they profess, to ensure election integrity, but rather to cater to the whims of a would-be autocratic president and burnish their credentials as Trump loyalists for future elections.
Republican congressional leaders have acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s desperate efforts to stop Mr. Biden from being sworn in to office are bound to fail. Not, though, before more harm is done to the United States’ political system and its standing in the world. We can only hope the damage from the chaos Mr. Trump is inciting doesn’t extend to human lives.
🐣 RT @kyledcheney SASSE issues a lengthy midnight takedown of efforts by some Republicans to overturn Biden’s victory, labeling them “ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage.” http://bit.ly/3rIJ0k0 https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1344516142556184576?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 Democrats have won the popular vote in all but one election since 1992, and have generally acquiesced to the Electoral College outcome. There were legitimate concerns over the outcomes in 2000, 2004 and 2016. But Dems NEVER behaved in the unhinged way Trump & his minions are now.
🐣 RT @kasparov68 Putin has been busy signing laws with both hands. More laws criminalizing dissent, huge fines for “online libel,” and “foreign agents”. With other hand, more goodies for his pals, privatizing national parkland, handing more public assets to his mafia.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 It’s typical of authoritarian regimes to be obsessed with churning out new laws as a way of legitimizing their repression. As documented well by Kafka, the irony is that they ignore the law when it suits them and have no independent judiciary.
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom I hope that’s all it is.
⋙ 🐣 RT @gtconway3d The president is cutting short his vacation in order to resume his critical and important work undermining the Constitution he swore to uphold.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @kaitlancollins President Trump is skipping his New Year’s Eve party, an unusual move that surprised guests who were told he’d be there. Instead he’s heading back to Washington early. W/ @Kevinliptakcnn [link]
⋙ 🐣 RT @ps9814 I’m certain this is about Iran war plans. See @RadioFreeTom’s article in The Atlantic.
⋙ 🐣 CNBC (2016): Trump asks why US can’t use nukes: MSNBC http://cnb.cx/3rGrJHY ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1344487869637824513?s=20/photo/1
[8/3/2016:] “Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked at one point if we had them why can’t we use them,” Scarborough said on his “Morning Joe” program.
Scarborough made the Trump comments 52 seconds into an interview with former Director of Central Intelligence and ex-National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden.
Scarborough then asked a hypothetical question to Hayden about how quickly nuclear weapons could be deployed if a president were to give approval.
“It’s scenario dependent, but the system is designed for speed and decisiveness. It’s not designed to debate the decision,” Hayden said.
🐣 RT @TheRickWilson Not one of you dorks in the Senate will escape this politically. It will never, ever go away.
💽 MSNBC, Mitchell Reports: Sen. Murphy: Hawley is “engaged in the attempted overthrow of democracy” http://on.msnbc.com/393fFZ9
// Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) weighs in on expanding stimulus checks, telling Andrea Mitchell that “the legislative session ends in three days. So there is only one path to get $2,000 into the hands of Americans who are struggling today, and that is to pass the House legislation.” He also sharply criticizes Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) announcement that he would object to the Electoral College certification on January 6th, saying that “Josh Hawley and anyone who supports his effort are engaged in the attempted overthrow of democracy. There is no evidence that there was any fraud.”
🐣 RT @marceelias Looks like 2021 may be another busy year of suing states over restrictive voting laws.
⋙ USAToday: GOP seeks to roll back mail-in voting in states like Georgia and Pennsylvania that Trump is contesting http://bit.ly/38GwyZ6
TheAtlantic, Ed Yong: Where Year Two of the Pandemic Will Take Us http://bit.ly/392R1I7
// As vaccines roll out, the U.S. will face a choice about what to learn and what to forget.
TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: Trump Could Still Start a Last-Ditch War With Iran http://bit.ly/3pHFp3X
// A final grand distraction before the president is forced to relinquish his office is a real danger that deserves serious attention.
🐣 RT @BillKristol OMB is in effect the White House and has been involved over the last couple of years in many of Trump’s illegalities and cover-ups, so that’s no surprise. On the other hand, DOD “opacity” is bad and worrisome.
⋙ 🐣 RT @lrozen Biden spox Yohannes Abraham warns of DoD & OMB “intentional opacity,” making transition harder, has security, health, economic repercussions
⭕ 29 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @harrylitman Pence’s constitutional role is to “open” the certificates. That’s it. Not to certify not even technically to count. He has no way even to purport to change the count. It’d be like saying the Oscar presenters get to decide who wins Best Picture.
🐣 RT @MSNBC “When candidates lose presidential elections it is a humiliating personal rejection … and they need family and friends around them to help them cope with that defeat. Donald Trump doesn’t have that,” Democratic strategist Chaitanya Komanduri says.
⋙ 💽 MSNBC, TheBeatWithAri: ‘Loser’: Dem Strategist says Trump ‘has nobody’ to console him, maybe a ‘hug from Lou Dobbs’ http://on.msnbc.com/
// As Trump wreaks havoc in his final days in office, Democratic strategist Chaitanya Komanduri joins MSNBC’s Ari Melber to discuss his inability to concede and why he’s a “loser.”
🐣 RT @michaelluo .@sbg1: “…unless there is a full accounting for what happened with Donald Trump, 2020 is not over and never will be. I still don’t want to remember, but I know that forgetting is not an option, either.”
⋙ NewYorker, Susan Glasser: The Trümperdämmerung Is a Fitting End to 2020 http://bit.ly/3nZFWh4
WaPo: N.Y. prosecutor hires forensic accounting experts as Trump criminal probe escalates http://wapo.st/34U1qnW
// Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance
⭕ 28 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @PhilLewis The Proud Boys have made Hotel Harrington their gathering spot when they’re in D.C. ¤ The hotel just put out a statement that they’ll close January 4th-6th, when thousands of Trump supporters are expected to come to the capitol for a last-ditch rally. Many just lost reservations https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1343760802965286912?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @pbump This is not a joke.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Bencjacobs INBOX: President Donald Trump issues Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket
⋙ 🐣 ‘Who will rid us of this meddlesome president?’
😅 RT @DonWinslow The first few weeks of January are going to feel a lot like the last 30 minutes of Goodfellas. 💽 https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1343777976710643712?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @PeterHotez We’ve learned in 2020 that our nation can’t implement complicated public health measures: we saw this with the diagnostic testing, virus detection, virus genome sequencing, we’re just not delivering at a high level, can’t understand why
⋙ 🐣 ♫ Well, this train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers … ¤
I said, this train carries broken-hearted
This train, thieves and sweet souls departed
This train carries fools and kings … ¤
~ Springsteen
⋙⋙ 🐣 lyrics aside, Fauci has said we need to study the difficulty of achieving public health goals in a complex society of non-conformists
🐣 RT @keplya https://twitter.com/keplyq/status/1343732280318164992?s=20/photo/1
// “Hope was never a thing with feathers” ~ Claudia Rankine
⋙ 🐣 “It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah” ~ Leonard Cohen
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Breaking: The House has voted to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. It’s the first successful override vote of the Trump admin.
🐣 RT @JustSchmeltzer WOW, House passes $2000 checks in a suspension-of-the-rules vote, getting the 2/3rd vote needed. Impressive! ¤ Mitch won’t let a vote on that, cleanly, but gives Pelosi and Schumer another strong talking point, as well as GA Senate candidates.
WaPo: Biden accuses Trump appointees of obstructing transition on national security issues http://wapo.st/2Ky6oA3
TheGuardian: Russia admits to world’s third-worst Covid-19 death toll http://bit.ly/3aWn7Ye
// More than 186,000 Russians have died due to coronavirus, three times more than previously reported
But many Russians flout social distancing rules, and in recent weeks the country’s outbreak has overwhelmed poorly funded hospitals in the regions.
Russia has instead pinned its hopes on corralling its outbreak by vaccinating people with its Sputnik V jab, named after the Soviet-era satellite.
… Russia has not said how many people it has vaccinated so far, and according to recent surveys by state-run polling company VCIOM and the Levada polling agency only 38% of Russians plan to get the shot.
⋙ 🐣 MT @Laurie_Garrett [12/21] … Alexander “Sasha” Kagansky, age 45, supposedly stabbed himself & then leapt to his death from a 14th story window in St Petersburg Russia. He was a #COVID19 #vaccine researcher, collaborating w/US & UK scientists.
⋙⋙ MoscowTimes (12/21): Russian Scientist Who Worked on Coronavirus Vaccine Stabbed, Falls Out of Window http://bit.ly/3pygEH0
🐣 RT @duty2warn To reconfirm, Trump is pathologically aberrant and fiercely malignant. GOP Senators are enablers who put party and power over country and constitution. Trump’s lawyers are village idiots. His cabinet is criminal. Every Trump loyalist is a sycophant. And DeJoy deserves deJail.
🐣 RT @JRubinBlogger Our divisions are considerable, aggravated by the descent of one party into nuttery and by a Constitution that gives GOP disprop power. Lawmakers should reduce distortion (e.g., the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact) and deploy federalism.
⋙ WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: America isn’t ‘hopelessly divided.’ It only looks that way because of our Constitution. http://wapo.st/3nZnDsc
⭕ 27 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @StevenBeschloss If we just move on after Jan. 20, if we don’t confront both the criminality and the complicity of Trump and his regime, then America can’t really move on. This will be a festering wound of injustice that won’t heal.
⋙ 🐣 As Fintan O’Toole wrote of Trump today in The Irish Times: “[T]hose who want to rebuild American democracy will have to put a stake through his heart.” http://bit.ly/3hyPZYd
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @SykesCharlie “Democracy is not just about voting… Trump set out to lay waste to that whole system, from the bottom up, poisoning the groundwaters of respect for evidence, argument and rationality that keeps it alive.”
⋙ IrishTimes: Fintan O’Toole: Trump has unfinished business. A republic he wants to destroy still stands http://bit.ly/3hyPZYd
// 2020 in review: Donald Trump will continue to unleash racism, nativism and a fear of government
… [H]e got nearly 75 million votes in November, even while his malign incompetence was killing his own people. He got those votes, moreover, having made it abundantly clear that he would never accept the result of the election unless he won. They were votes for open autocracy.
This is his legacy: he has successfully led a vast number of voters along the path from hatred of government to contempt for rational deliberation to the inevitable endpoint: disdain for the electoral process itself.
In this end is his new beginning. Stripped of direct power, he will face enormous legal and financial jeopardy. He will have every reason to keep drawing on his greatest asset: his ability to unleash the demons that have always haunted the American experiment – racism, nativism, fear of “the government”.
Trump has unfinished business. A republic he wants to destroy still stands. It is, for him, not goodbye but hasta la vista. Instead of waving him off, those who want to rebuild American democracy will have to put a stake through his heart.
🐣 RT @AppropsDems NEW: @AppropsDems Chairwoman @NitaLowey on President Trump’s belated signing of HR 133: ¤ “The House Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction over rescissions, and our Democratic Majority will reject any rescissions submitted by President Trump.” http://bit.ly/3mMPkDm
🐣 RT @stealthygeek Reminder that line-item veto is not a thing.
⋙ 🐣 RT @AndrewSolender Trump says he’s signing the stimulus bill “with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed.” ¤ “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item… insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.” Text Block: https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1343365526198906882?s=20/photo/1-2
🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT The House will vote tomorrow on legislation increasing the checks from $600 to $2000. It will pass with likely universal Democratic support. ¤ Then it’s up to McConnell. The Senate could vote Tuesday and send it to the President’s desk. ¤ What will McConnell do?
⋙ 🐣 If Trump is serious and McConnell doesn’t allow a vote or doesn’t push caucus to support the $2000, Trump could screw up the GA election which McConnell needs Trump’s support for to keep his majority…🤔
🐣 RT @PreetBharara👇
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney NY Post cover/editorial: “Sidney Powell is a crazy person. Michael Flynn suggesting martial law is tantamount to treason.”
⋙ NYPost: The Post says: Give it up, Mr. President — for your sake and the nation’s http://bit.ly/3ryjo9u
// Mr. President, it’s time to end this dark charade. We’re one week away from an enormously important moment for the next four years of our country.
Mr. President, it’s time to end this dark charade. ¤ We’re one week away from an enormously important moment for the next four years of our country. ¤ On Jan. 5, two runoff races in Georgia will determine which party will control the Senate — whether Joe Biden will have a rubber stamp or a much-needed check on his agenda.
Unfortunately, you’re obsessed with the next day, Jan. 6, when Congress will, in a pro forma action, certify the Electoral College vote. You have tweeted that, as long as Republicans have “courage,” they can overturn the results and give you four more years in office. ¤ In other words, you’re cheering for an undemocratic coup.
You had every right to investigate the election. But let’s be clear: Those efforts have found nothing. To take just two examples: Your campaign paid $3 million for a recount in two Wisconsin counties, and you lost by 87 more votes. Georgia did two recounts of the state, each time affirming Biden’s win. These ballots were counted by hand, which alone debunks the claims of a Venezuelan vote-manipulating Kraken conspiracy. ¤ Sidney Powell is a crazy person. Michael Flynn suggesting martial law is tantamount to treason. It is shameful.
We understand, Mr. President, that you’re angry that you lost. But to continue down this road is ruinous. We offer this as a newspaper that endorsed you, that supported you: If you want to cement your influence, even set the stage for a future return, you must channel your fury into something more productive.
President Trump, your legacy is secure — stop the ‘stolen election’ rhetoric. Stop thinking about Jan. 6. Start thinking about Jan. 5. […]
🐣 I’ve seen different pov’s and I’m confused:
1. Was Trump defeated (on relief package)?
2. Did he get some substantive commitments?
3. Or ~ Was he played?
⋙ 🐣 RT @TSubtext Very much depends on the audience.
WaPo: Trump has indicated he will sign stimulus and government spending bill into law, averting shutdown http://wapo.st/2KYWaZ8
// The president had demanded changes to the stimulus bill but on Sunday signaled he would release the stimulus funds after all
CNN, Dean Obeidallah: Nero fiddled. Trump plays golf http://cnn.it/3mQhYmZ
🐣 RT @duty2warn In his final days, Trump finally now approaches the apex of his malignancy. There is nothing positive driving him at all. There is nothing he cares about that is beneficial to the electorate. He is driven purely by grievance, rage, fear and especially revenge.
😅 WaPo: Dave Barry’s Year in Review 2020 http://wapo.st/2KyfEnM
// And we thought past years were awful.
⭕ 26 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @TheLastWord .@tribelaw argues that Trump’s pardons to absolve the crimes of his friends might be crimes themselves if they’re issued to obstruct justice. He also explains why it’s important for the next admin. to investigate and prosecute those abuses of power. https://on.msnbc.com/37T6ZoK
// 12/28/2020
⋙ 🐣 RT @tribelaw My @FT op-ed explains the counter-intuitive fact that it’s the very breadth of the president’s pardon power — its “plenary” character— that enables an ex-president to be prosecuted for using that power as part of a criminal scheme to obstruct justice:
⋙⋙ FT, Lawrence Tribe: Donald Trump’s pardons must not obstruct justice http://on.ft.com/3mUkXLd
// Abuses of constitutional clemency power should be investigated and prosecuted
🚫 WaPo, David Ignatius: Until Biden’s win is certified, the U.S. remains vulnerable http://wapo.st/2WMorET
// alarmist
Law&Crime: Mike Pence Cannot Block the Certification of Joe Biden’s Victory When the Senate Formally Counts Electoral College Votes on Jan. 6th http://bit.ly/2M21Dik
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Let me explain why he’s really mad. The NDAA forces shell companies to reveal money sources, putting a major crimp in the global money laundering scams donald and his family have been running for decades. It’s not a “gift” to Russia. It would cut off his ruble supply.
⭕ 25 Dec 2020 ✨✨
🐣 RT @GeorgeTakei He warned us four years ago how this would go. How do you think it all ends, friends? 💽 https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1342540614030815233?s=20/photo/1
// Tony Schwartz, co-author of TAOTD, saying Trump will never accept his loss
⋙ 🐣 RT @Cleavon_MD You couldn’t pick a worse person to run America during a pandemic than Trump. 3,000 Americans dead per day because we have a mentally unstable President. Even more disturbing & sickening are Republicans that toe the party line and allow their constituents to die from COVID.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @sandzNJ That is truly the most disturbing part. Here we sit and watch and wonder who will save us. Another 60K +/- people will die before new leadership comes in! He’s done more damage than doing nothing with his lies, gatherings and subterfuge.
💙 🧵 RT @JYSexton This is one of the most important threads I’ll write. ¤ Trumpism is fascism. ¤ We are in a full-blown crisis. We must recognize we’re dealing with a religious death cult and warring over reality itself. ¤ Here’s what I discovered writing AMERICAN RULE. 1/-31 📌 https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1309895500200579073?s=20
// 9/26/2020
📋 RawStory: More than 2,900 health care workers died this year — and the government barely kept track http://bit.ly/38CVdOi
🐣 RT @CIAspygirl It’s not too late. Maybe Melania can be a Cover Girl for:
“Birther Monthly”
“Tone Deaf Daily”
“Enabler Enquirer”
“Crime Family Chronicle”
“Soulless Sentinel”
“Sexual Predator Apologist Gazette”
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @thedailybeast Melania’s lack of magazine covers as First Lady seems to have Trump a little grouchy on Christmas https://trib.al/JjaT6Mr
⋙ 🐣 ● 2500/day dying from COVID-19
● Unemployment insurance running out
● Eviction moratorium ending
● Government shutting down
● Defense bill vetoed
~ and we’re supposed to feel sorry for who? ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1342696749111119874?s=20/photo/1
// Melania eating jewelry like spaghetti
CNN, Gary Kasparov: It’s time to treat Putin’s Russia like the rogue regime it is http://cnn.it/37OoSoA
🐣 RT @GarrettHaake Graham golfed with President Trump today, and here suggests the President is dug in on boosting direct payments to $2000. Unless he can convince senate Republicans fast, we’re moving towards a shutdown on Monday.
⋙ 🐣 RT @LindseyGrahamSC After spending some time with President @realDonaldTrump today, I am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PeterVroom1 Trump’s goal now is to intentionally create a crisis that will allow him to take extraordinary measures with respect to DOJ/DOD. Graham, as Sen Judiciary Chairman, can facilitate his last ditch efforts through committee hearings to lend some credibility.
🐣♫ RT @LawrenceTribe “Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’” — Bob Dylan
🐣 RT @DanRather I hope. I mourn. I pray. I love. I listen. I share. I resolve. I waver. Life is complicated. We need each other to shoulder the pain. And share the joy. Merry Christmas.
🐣 “The Dead of Winter” will have a different meaning this year
🐣 A survivor of World War II, a doctor, once tried to explain what life was like when Prague was bombed. ¤ He said, “Life had no value.” ¤ When I look at the death toll each day, numb, I think I finally understand what he was saying.
⭕ 24 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @davidaxelrod Of all the many reckless, thoughtless, selfish- even lawless- things @realDonaldTrump has done as president, throwing COVID aid to Americans in doubt on Christmas Eve has to rank near the top. ¤ This isn’t about getting them more money. ¤ It’s about getting himself more attention.
⋙ 🐣 trying to upstage the baby Jesus
🐣 RT @LincolnProject On #ChristmasEve in 1776, George Washington led his men across the Delaware River and changed the tide of history. On this eve in 2020, their #Legacy is under attack. We must unite & rise to meet this moment just as they did more than 200 years ago. #MerryChristmas✨ https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1342282252953255937?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DelthiaRicks … No $2000 checks & no $600 ones, either
⋙ WaPo: Families on brink of eviction, hunger describe nightmare Christmas as $900 billion relief bill hangs in limbo http://wapo.st/34G11Fu
// About 14 million Americans will lose unemployment aid on Saturday after President Trump and Congress were unable to reach a deal.
😅 RT @gzeromedia ¤ #TopStories2020 ¤ Trump’s promising to be back by Christmas 2024 (maybe as Santa). ¤ More #PUPPETREGIME: https://gzeromedia.com/puppet-regime/
💽 https://twitter.com/gzeromedia/status/1342243660532908033?s=20/photo/1
// pseudo-Muppets
🐣 RT @joshtpm Manafort worked for Russia to attack the United States probably just for money in the final analysis. Trump knew. Trump helped. And now Trump has pardoned Manafort with full knowledge that he was part of a Russian conspiracy to sabotage a US election.
🐣 RT @WillieGeist Andrew Weissman, former senior prosecutor on the Mueller investigation, on President Trump’s pardons of Manafort and Stone: “What (Trump) did yesterday is proof of obstruction. It’s the final act.” @Morning_Joe
‼️ 🐣 RT @JakeSherman So let’s recap where we are on Christmas Eve.
— Unemployment expires Saturday.
— Government funding expires Monday.
— House Rs blocked Dem 2k check bill.
— Senate R leadership says 2k check bill cant get 60 in the Senate, unlikely to bring it up.
— No plan to keep govt open.
WaPo, Amber Philips: Could Trump declare martial law to try to steal the election? http://wapo.st/3rlzR0B
// That and other efforts his allies are floating won’t work, say legal and national security experts. Here’s why.
⭕ 23 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom If you don’t like the pardons, and the vetoes, and the general callousness of going to Florida while people suffer, you are really not going to like the war with Iran that he is clearly going to try and start in the next few weeks.
🐣 RT @JohnJHarwood Trump’s pardons to shield Manafort and Stone – after dangling the idea to persuade them not to tell Mueller what they know about him – is open corruption ¤ the pardons don’t discredit the national security questions about Trump’s conduct w/Russia ¤ the pardons affirm them
🐣 RT @BillKristol The Manafort pardon was of course contemptible. But it was successful. The promise of pardons enabled just enough of a cover up that Trump was able to get away with the collusion and lying about it. In this sense, Trump won. Putin won. America lost, and justice was denied.
🐣 RT @Peter_Wehner To GOP lawmakers who declare Trump’s actions are “rotten to the core”: It’s better late than never, but his actions have been rotten to the core for four years. It would’ve been more courageous to speak out when it mattered, not 28 days before Trump leaves office.
NYT Editorial: Trump Corrupted the Presidential Pardon. Biden Must Repair It. http://nyti.ms/34IB7Rw
// There are clear ways to reform the pardon process to work as the founders intended.
NYT: Trump Gives Clemency to More Allies, Including Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner http://nyti.ms/3rpk0hk
// It was the second wave of pardons and commutations by the president in two days, showing his willingness to use his power aggressively on behalf of loyalists.
WaPo: Trump’s last-minute outburst throws pandemic relief effort into chaos http://wapo.st/2KoPS5n
🐣 RT @chrislhayes All of this was clear during impeachment, of course. It’s the entire theme of Schiff’s final speech: The man is iredeemably venal and cannot be trusted to do the right thing ever. Ten months later 1 of every 1000 Americans is dead, & the president is desperate to pull off a coup
🐣 RT @duty2warn Kudos to those who commented, suggesting that the REAL source of Trump’s objection to the NDAA involved the proposed requirement of shell corporations to disclose ownership etc. – which is problematic for money launderers like him. Good accurate call.
WaPo: Trump vetoes defense bill, teeing up holiday override votes in Congress http://wapo.st/3mGeFic
NYT, Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt: A President Unhappy, Unleashed and Unpredictable http://nyti.ms/34EO2Em
// President Trump remains the most powerful man in the world, but powerless to achieve what he most wants: to avoid leaving office as a loser.
⭕ 22 Dec 2020
💙 WaPo, Edward Foley (12/22): It’s time for Mike Pence to choose: Trump, or the truth http://wapo.st/3n0cLJf
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC George Mason, delegate to Constitutional Convention, said in 1788 that a President should not be granted power to pardon because he might “pardon crimes which were advised by himself. It may happen, at some future day, that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic.”
💙 NBC, Ben Collins: As Trump meets with QAnon influencers, the conspiracy’s adherents beg for dictatorship http://nbcnews.to/3pkLqmT
// With Trump’s days in office dwindling, QAnon influencers have become increasingly restless and militant, urging the president to “#crosstherubicon.”
WaPo: Trump grants clemency to 20, including ex-advisers and former lawmakers http://wapo.st/3haX54G
// The recipients of pardons and commutations included three Republican former members of Congress, people convicted of crimes as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and contractors convicted of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007.
🐣 RT @thedailybeast Trump informed MAGA attorney Sidney Powell on Monday that he does not intend to appoint her “special counsel” to investigate “election fraud,” according to two people with knowledge of the matter and another source close to the White House.
⋙ DailyBeast, Asawin Suebsaeng and Erin Banco: Trump Tells Sidney Powell He Won’t Name Her ‘Special Counsel’ http://bit.ly/3hfpEya
// The president has met with the conspiracy theorist lawyer recently. But he is not yet buckling to one of her wishes.
🐣 RT @benjaminwittes What a genuinely disgusting set of clemency actions—from pardons for L’Affaire Russe figures to slates wiped clean for murderers of Iraqi civilians and corrupt congressmen!
NYT, Matthew Continetti: Is Trump Really All That Holds the G.O.P. Together? http://nyti.ms/2Ktw4xA
// The Republican Party has embraced reality-TV authoritarianism not out of strength but weakness.
🐣 RT @LaurieGarrett Mystery worthy of Le Carre: Alexander “Sasha” Kagansky, age 45, supposedly stabbed himself & then leapt to his death from a 14th story window in St Petersburg Russia. He was a #COVID19 #vaccine researcher, collaborating w/US & UK scientists. @MaxBoot
⋙ MoscowTimes (12/21): Russian Scientist Who Worked on Coronavirus Vaccine Stabbed, Falls Out of Window http://bit.ly/3pygEH0
RawStory: Michael Flynn should face court martial for ‘incitement to insurrection’: Ex-Colin Powell chief of staff http://bit.ly/2WD4oIZ
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is among the far-right Republicans saying President Donald Trump should declare martial law and reconduct the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud. Many elections officials and national security experts, however, have stressed that there is no evidence that such fraud occurred or that President-elect Joe Biden didn’t win the 2020 presidential election fairly. And when Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, spoke to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Monday night, December 21, he expressed his outrage over Flynn’s martial law suggestion and recommended that he face court martial.
Wilkerson told Hayes, “I have to commend all those people out there in every state who worked so hard to deliver a free and fair election. At the same time I saw that, I have to say my fears are somewhat significant with a former lieutenant general in the United States Army saying what Flynn said with regard to martial law and going to the battleground states and essentially reconducting the election. Were I the secretary of defense, I’d call him back to active duty — which is in the prerogative of the secretary of defense — and I’d court martial him.”
The former Colin Powell chief of staff, who considers Flynn a “disgrace to his uniform,” added, “at a minimum, I’d cite him for incitement to insurrection. This is not something that a military officer should do…. He needs to be rebuked. He needs to be reprimanded. And it needs to be done officially.”
⭕ 21 Dec 2020
CNN, Stephen Collinson: Trump threatens 30-day reign of destruction on the way out of office http://cnn.it/34yOh3y “‘We don’t know what he might do,’ one officer in the Pentagon said. Another added: ‘We are in strange times.’”
🐣 RT @GlennKesslerWP Noteworthy: Pat Robertson does a rundown of a bunch of Trump’s lies and notes Trump seems to believe this stuff. He “lives in an alternate reality…very erratic…it’s time to move on.” 💽 https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1341142630479114240?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @jeremyherb New statwment from Wyden following Treasury briefing on SolarWinds says Microsoft said “dozens of email accounts were compromised. Additionally the hackers broke into systems in the Departmental Offices division of Treasury, home to the department’s highest-ranking officials.” Text Block: https://twitter.com/jeremyherb/status/1341184949794320384?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Undercutting Trump, Barr says there’s no basis for seizing voting machines, using special counsels for election fraud, Hunter Biden http://wapo.st/3nJp2TC
🐣 ◕ RT @D_Kuehn It’s really important for people to understand that what is happening now is much worse than the Great Recession. I understand it’s hard to process that we are living through a series of historic crises, but it’s imperative that we understand that’s what’s happening. https://twitter.com/D_Kuehn/status/1340872948765351937?s=20/photo/1
// overlaid unemployment recession
⋙ 🐣 RT @D_Kuehn The economic crisis is extraordinary. We have a public health crisis on top of that, an ongoing constitutional crisis and barely avoided threat to democracy. And we’re facing a climate crisis.
⋙ 🐣 RT @D_Kuehn The inflection point of capitalist prosperity that’s brought so many real benefits also brings problems and contradictions and we have to accept their reality.
🐣 RT @benpershing “Dominion has stated the company has no ownership relationship with the Pelosi family, the Feinstein family, the Clinton family, Hugo Chavez or the government of Venezuela.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @existentialfish Newsmax just aired this note to “clarify” its coverage of Smartmatic and Dominion. 💽 https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1341078245878472706?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @svdate […; full statement:] https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1341096656431923202?s=20/photo/1
📊 RT @Mediaite Polarized America: Fox News Poll Says 22 Percent Think Trump Was Best POTUS Ever And 42 Percent Say He Was The Worst [link]
CNN: Barr says no need for special counsels to investigate election or Hunter Biden http://cnn.it/3h4u3DW “On the SolarWinds cyber attack that affected several agencies in the US government, Barr said, ‘It certainly appears to be the Russians.’”
⭕ 20 Dec 2020
WaPo, Max Boot: Trump saved the worst for last http://wapo.st/3rgSsea “Never before in U.S. history has there been a record of a president discussing a military coup to stay in office”
🐣 RT @propublica “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted.”
⋙ ProPublica (2016): The Story Behind Jared Kushner’s Curious Acceptance Into Harvard http://bit.ly/2LV0IQR
// 11/18/2016; ProPublica editor Daniel Golden wrote a book a decade ago about how the rich buy their children access to elite colleges. One student he covered is now poised to become one of the most powerful figures in the country.
🐣 RT @kasparov68 It’s like the police watching a thief try to break into a bank vault but not stopping him because he has the wrong tools and can’t get it open. Do they wait until he blows it up or shoots the bank manager?
⋙ 🐣 RT @stuartpstevens If the president plotting a coup and seizing voting machines isn’t the greatest criminal conspiracy in US history, what beats it? Success is not necessary for conviction, only intent and planning.
WaPo: A frustrated Trump redoubles efforts to challenge election result http://wapo.st/2J6k6Ju
💙 Public officials and military leaders have refused to be drawn into Trump’s post-election maneuvering. On Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Gen. James C. McConville, the Army’s top officer, released a joint statement that said: “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
💙 TheAtlantic, Peter Wehner: Trump Is Losing His Mind http://bit.ly/2WusPby “In the process, Trump has in too many cases turned his party into an instrument of illiberalism and nihilism”
The president is discussing martial law in the Oval Office, as his grip on reality falters. ¤ None of this should come as a surprise. Some of us said, even before he became president, that Donald Trump’s Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering him, was his psychology—his disordered personality, his emotional and mental instability, and his sociopathic tendencies. It was the main reason, though hardly the only reason, I refused to vote for him in 2016 or in 2020, despite having worked in the three previous Republican administrations. Nothing that Trump has done over the past four years has caused me to rethink my assessment, and a great deal has happened to confirm it.
Even amid the chaos, it’s worth taking a step back to think about where we are: An American president, unwilling to concede his defeat by 7 million popular votes and 74 Electoral College votes, is still trying to steal the election. It has become his obsession.
In the process, Trump has in too many cases turned his party into an instrument of illiberalism and nihilism. Here are just a couple of data points to underscore that claim: 18 attorneys generals and more than half the Republicans in the House supported a seditious abuse of the judicial process.
And it’s not only, or even mainly, elected officials. The Republican Party’s base has often followed Trump into the twilight zone, with a sizable majority of them affirming that Joe Biden won the election based on fraud and many of them turning against medical science in the face of a surging pandemic.
… If any of his predecessors—Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, to go back just 40 years—had been president during this pandemic, tens of thousands of American lives would almost surely have been saved.
Our institutions, especially the courts, will have passed a stress test, not the most difficult ever but difficult enough, and unlike any in our history. Some local officials exhibited profiles in courage, doing the right thing in the face of threats and pressure from their party. And a preponderance of the American public, having lived through the past four years, deserve credit for canceling this presidential freak show rather than renewing it. The “exhausted majority” wasn’t too exhausted to get out and vote, even in a pandemic.
But the Trump presidency will leave gaping wounds nearly everywhere, and ruination in some places. Truth as a concept has been battered from the highest office in the land on an almost hourly basis. The Republican Party has been radicalized, with countless Republican lawmakers and other prominent figures within the party having revealed themselves to be moral cowards, even, and in some ways especially, after Trump was defeated. During the Trump presidency, they were so afraid of getting crosswise with him and his supporters that they failed the Solzhenitsyn test: “The simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions! His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme—only not through me.”
For the foreseeable future, journalists will rightly focus on the pandemic. But once that is contained and defeated, it will be time to go back to focusing more attention on things like the Paris Accords and the carbon tax; the earned-income tax credit and infrastructure; entitlement reform and monetary policy; charter schools and campus speech codes; legal immigration, asylum, assimilation, and social mobility. There is also an opportunity, with Trump a former president, for the Republican Party to once again become the home of sane conservatism. Whether that happens or not is an open question. But it’s something many of us are willing to work for, and that even progressives should hope for.
There’s a lovely line in William Wordsworth’s poem “The Prelude”: “What we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how.”
There are still things worthy of our love. Honor, decency, courage, beauty, and truth. Tenderness, human empathy, and a sense of duty. A good society. And a commitment to human dignity. We need to teach others—in our individual relationships, in our classrooms and communities, in our book clubs and Bible studies, and in innumerable other settings—why those things are worthy of their attention, their loyalty, their love. One person doing it won’t make much of a difference; a lot of people doing it will create a culture.
Maybe we understand better than we did five years ago why these things are essential to our lives, and why when we neglect them or elect leaders who ridicule and subvert them, life becomes nasty, brutish, and generally unpleasant.
Just after noon on January 20, a new and necessary chapter will begin in the American story. Joe Biden will certainly play a role in shaping how that story turns out—but so will you and I. Ours is a good and estimable republic, if we can keep it.
🐣 RT @ OlgaNYC1211 So humiliating! Every Russian media outlet this morning is breaking with the news that Trump refused to publish a WH statement blaming Russia for the attacks. Bad enough trump and Republicans refuse to act but having this used as propaganda is infuriating @senatemajldr @SenateGOP
🐣 RT @gelles “Trump has visited golf courses on about 21% of the days of his presidency, or roughly 1 in 5 days. He has visited Trump properties on about 29% of the days of his presidency — nearly one-third of his days in office.”
⋙ 📋 CNN: Donald Trump’s presidency by the numbers http://cnn.it/3auV962
// 12/18/2020
🐣 RT @MSNBC Fmr. CIA and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash on the alleged Russian cyberattacks on US agencies: “I think Trump requested cyber hacking from Russia. He welcomed it, he benefited from it and I think he’s rewarded it.”
💙 ‼️ ⋙ 💽 MSNBC, AndreaMitchell: Former CIA and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash: This is an epic national security crisis http://on.msnbc.com/2Wwwi9B “I think Trump requested cyber hacking from Russia, he welcomed it, he benefited from it and I think he rewarded it”‼️ ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1340648927402586122?s=20/photo/1
// Former CIA and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash joins Peter Baker and Andrea Mitchell to comment on the Russian hack of federal agencies. “We have not had a cybersecurity breach like this in a long time, maybe even in our history,” Bash stated. Regarding President Trump’s silence, Peter Baker added that “this administration has taken a number of actions against Russia in the past; it’s expelled diplomats, imposed sanctions. What it’s not done is have the President…actually give voice to these kinds of actions. He does not criticize Russia.”
🐣 RT @MoscowTimes The United States confirmed Saturday that it is planning to close the two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia https://twitter.com/MoscowTimes/status/1340554032063102976?s=20
⭕ 19 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @OrinKerr In the old days they waited for a suspicious fire at the parliament building.
⋙ 🐣 RT @LLinWood Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pennsylvania are states in which martial law should be imposed & machines/ballots seized. ¤ 7 states under martial law. ¤ 43 states not under martial law. ¤ I like those numbers. ¤ Do it @realDonaldTrump! ¤ Nation supports you.
🐣 RT @JohnJHarwood recorded speaking privately to fellow Republicans in 2016, Kevin McCarthy “joked” that Donald Trump was on Vladimir Putin’s payroll ¤ after he said it, then-Speaker Paul Ryan (unsuccessfully) swore those who heard it to secrecy: “no leaks. this is how we know we’re a real family”
⋙ 🐣 RT @GOPLeader I had a briefing from the FBI today to learn more about Eric Swalwell’s ties to a reported-spy from China, and one thing is now crystal clear: ¤ Swalwell should no longer be on the Intel Committee.
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom If there were an ounce of decency left in the GOP, @senatemajldr would assemble a group of senior Republicans, call @MarkMeadows, go to the Oval, and together tell Trump to stop planning a coup or he’ll be removed from office in accordance with the Constitution. But there isn’t.
NYMag, Jonathan Chait: Trump Floats Coup Plan That’s So Wild Even Rudy Giuliani Is Terrified http://nym.ag/34uCzHc
🧵 RT @joshtpm It’s kind of buried in most of the reporting on this meeting Trump had with Sidney Powell, Rudes [Rudy?], etc. But the real detail I think is that Mike Flynn was at this White Hiuse meeting. Flynn is actively pushing a declaration of marital law that wld have the military force new … https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1340448349233803266?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @joshtpm 2/ elections in the swing states Trump lost. Powell is, I think, best seen as a creature of Mike Flynn, at least inasmuch as their influence on Trump. Flynn has always had a unique hold over Trump. From 2015 through his notional cooperation to pardon. A former 3 star general …
⋙ 🐣 RT @joshtpm 3/ pressing a defeated President to declare martial law to overturn the result of an election that is now formally and definitively over is needless to say a very grave matter. I have complete confidence that Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46 president in one …
⋙ 🐣 RT @joshtpm 4/ month. But I think people are underestimating how chaotic and dangerous the next thirty days will be. What we are watching is a criminal conspiracy to overturn a certified, final election result involving the President and a handful of cronies including Flynn,
⋙ 🐣 RT @joshtpm 5/ Giuliani, Powell and others.
💙 🧵 RT @tnicholsmd He came in by ambulance short of breath. Already on CPAP by EMS. Still, he was clearly working hard to breathe. He looked sick. Uncomfortable. Scared. ¤ As we got him over to the gurney and his shirt off to switch a a hospital gown, we all noticed the number of Nazi tattoos. 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/tnicholsmd/status/1333391178738274305?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd All of us being a team that included a Jewish physician, a Black nurse, and an Asian respiratory therapist. ¤ We all saw. The symbols of hate on his body outwardly and proudly announced his views. We all knew what he thought of us. How he valued our lives. 4/
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd Yet here we were, working seamlessly as a team to make sure we gave him the best chance to survive that we could. All while wearing masks, gowns, face shields, gloves. The moment perfectly captured what we are going though as healthcare workers as this pandemic accelerates. 5/
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd Unfortunately, society has proven unwilling to listen to the science or to our pleas. Begging for people to take this seriously, to stay home, wear a mask, to be the break in the chain of transmission. 8/
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd Instead, they’ve called the pandemic a hoax, called us liars and corrupt, told us we are being too political by worrying about patients dying and trying to save lives. ¤ They’ve stopped caring about our lives, our families, our fears, worried only about their own. 9/
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd I’ve faced these situations countless times since medical school. Not the intubation – which is routine at this point for me and my team. The swastikas. The racist patients. Every single time I feel a bit shaken, but I went into this job wanting to save lives… 12/
⋙ 🐣 RT @tnicholsmd I run through the meds and plan with the nurse and RT. I pause. I see the SS tattoo and think about what he might think about having Jewish physician taking care of him now, or how much he would have cared about my life if the roles were reversed. 16/ […]
🧵 RT @ I don’t really want to boost Cohen, but I also don’t want to rip it off, so here it is, but I’ll tell you what he said @emilyjanefox is the interviewer here. [link to Vanity Fair] 📌 https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1340507936733470726?s=20
// Interview with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer”
🐣 RT @ @DirkSchwenk Starts at noting that Cohen said at the beginning that Trump wouldn’t transition peacefully … and granted that’s true. Cohen on Trump – “pure narcissism.”
This interviewer Emily Jane Fox says she is a long time friend of Cohen – which is a bit of a pause. Cohen is a bit inconsistent as to whether Trump knows he lost – seems to be on the bottom line that Trump is working on his next steps – to rip off Fox News and do a TV network
Trump TV, per Cohen, will be “one fucking infomercial after another and there are 20 Million stupid people out there … that are willing to part with their money…. Educated people, too.”
Cohen – he fell for the emotional appeal, his white power base falls for the same appeal.
PARDONS: Cohen says he does not expect a lot of pardons … Trump cares for no one except for Trump … won’t pardon Giuliani, Jared, Ivanka, Jr., etc. That would waive 5th Amendment, and that wouldn’t be good for DJT … so … no.
Cohen expects many cases out of DOJ and the States, and in light of that, DJT won’t pardon, because they would then testify against Trump.
STEP DOWN AND GET PARDONED? “No, that’s not going to happen, DJT will never step down” because that would be little people forcing him to do so.
Are you still assisting in any investigations? COHEN: I can partially answer, part that I can’t…. I have provided them (Tish James) her entire investigation stems from my (Cohens) testimony to them…. They’re VERY WELL PREPARED … to bring justice to the crimes
Civil Litigation … You (cohen) are out all this money … I (cohen) owe millions … wants reimbursed for money he laid out for Stormy Daniels. Trump called me, said stop this … Stormy sued me (cohen) … deposed General Counsel and Eric Trump … they are too dumb to settle
Cohen is ready to take it all to trial, because that is the only way to beat Trump. Trump never settles, and will take advantage of any weakness shown.
Will you ever talk to Trump again? Cohen – No, I can’t the damage he caused is too significant … he destroyed my family’s happiness. I will never forgive him for what he did… He did himself for himself, without me knowing, at my expense.
Cohen: The court held me responsible for Trump’s dirty deeds … and I can never forgive it. EJF: you really believed he would be loyal? C: DJT is “one way”, but he still somehow believed that he had 5% loyalty … but he had zero.
EJF: Will he jump back in and campaign for Trump 2024? C: he’s desperate for the money… when IRS looks at tax returns, they’re going to find he owes 100s of millions even before penalties … which makes the company worthless…
C: He WILL counterprogram the Biden election [inauguration?]… Obama had the dignity and patriotism to sit in the front row in a peaceful transition … Trump has no humbleness, decency … so he’ll counterprogram the inauguration … so he’ll raise money on it
Alan Weisselberg… is as much in it as Trump, but in my case they gave that fucknut…immunity. I just don’t get it. EJC: We’ll see what he gets. @emilyjanefox I really questioned your decision to put Cohen on, but I think this is a valuable interview, and I hope people boost
Cohen – my book “Disloyal” is currently being adapted for a full length feature film (so he’s getting paid big), and he has a second book coming out (which kinda makes me doubt a little of my tweet above).
Next Cohen book – how people get sucked into Trump. DJT doesn’t care about anyone except for himself, and will steal everything out of the Trump PACs that he can possibly take. He’s already thinking about how to “take money for the little guy.” ¤ Cohen: he’s racist, homophobic, a fraud, etc.
Closes out. Still not sure if Cohen should be boosted at all. I know @marykerry thinks not. He’s definitely a NYer, and has some mobbed up family ties. Enemies of my enemies? Not sure at all.
🐣 RT @atrupar John Bolton did a CNN interview earlier today where he called the Oval Office discussion of martial law “appalling” and said Trump is “unfit for the job.” 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1340526191107854338?s=20/photo/1
🚫🧵 RT @RonGOPVet4Biden What a surprise, it looks like the “mastermind” behind QAnon, Jim Watkins, had connections to child porn sites going back to the 1990s. So, when the whole purpose of your cult is to fight against child porn and your leader … 📌 https://twitter.com/RonGOPVet4Biden/status/1340453502330556416?s=20
⋙ MotherJones, Al Vincens and: QAnon Is Supposed to Be All About Protecting Kids. Its Primary Enabler Appears to Have Hosted Child Porn Domains. http://bit.ly/37zRtOr
// 10/29/2020; [not posted because old article] Archives document Jim Watkins’ links to domains suggestive of underage sexual material.
🐣 RT @SpyTalker Spies on Flynn-Trump #Coup Talk: ‘Horrifying..embarrassing.’ It’s ‘white knuckle’ time, says one former top #CIA officer by .@talk_spy .@spytalker
⋙ SpyTalk, Jeff Stein: Spies on Flynn-Trump Coup Talk http://bit.ly/38lRAfx
// ‘Horrifying..embarrassing.’ It’s ‘white knuckle’ time, says one former top CIA officer
Reports that disgraced former Army General Michael Flynn urged President Trump to declare martial law and “re-run” the election drew harsh reactions Saturday from intelligence veterans, who worry that foreign adversaries could use the chaos at the top of the government to “take advantage of us,” as one former top CIA spy put it.
“It was heated, people were really fighting it out in the Oval,” a source told CNN.
Veteran intelligence officers told SpyTalk they were appalled at the coup talk.
“Many former intelligence officers, myself included,” retired CIA presidential briefer David Priess told SpyTalk, “are shocked that the using-the-military-to-interfere-in-democratic-processes, things we used to collect on and analyze regarding other countries, are reportedly being discussed by the U.S. president about the US political process!”
Former CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer called the coup talk “very disturbing.” He virtually cringed at the thought of foreign embassies in Washington filing reports on the possibility of martial law in the United States.
“This is the kind of behavior that gets intelligence officers at embassies writing cables home about impending coup plotting,” he told SpyTalk. “Usually those are Americans writing the cables. Not this time.”
Even before the coup talk, said former senior CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos, foreign diplomats at embassy receptions in Washington were openly worrying about the president’s mental state. “The subject was, is the American president acting like Kurtz,” he told SpyTalk. ¤ (Kurtz is the fictional mad colonel in the 1979 Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now, adapted from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.)
And now the CIA’s foreign counterparts are bringing it up in bilateral meetings with others around. “My friends overseas are embarrassed,” he said. “We represent America.” It looks like “we’re crazy town.”
“The bottom line is Trump’s nuttiness is super embarrassing. There is not so much worry that this is real coup plotting, as we know the U.S. military is loyal, but ultimately a president acting like Kurtz is dangerous for America,” Polymeropoulos said. “And our adversaries see this crystal clear.”
A member of Congress who said he had been talking with career intelligence agency employees said they are “horrified. But they believe Trump lacks the competency to carry out a coup.”
“We are so lucky they are idiots,” tweeted former senior CIA executive John Sipher.
But Polymeropoulos, who served as a CIA station chief battling terrorist insurgents and Russians alike during his 28-year career, worries that “our adversaries going to take advantage” of the apparent chaos at the top of the government. He calls it “white knuckle” time.
Amid all this, Trump, backed by many congressional Republicans, is still rallying his followers in a campaign to invalidate the presidential election.
But Flynn’s advocacy of a military coup will go nowhere, even if he and Trump tried to set the ball rolling, intelligence veterans agree. He’s already shooting himself in the foot by refusing to sign the national defense budget, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress, noted a member of Congress. “Not exactly the way to get military support,” he said on terms of anonymity in exchange for freely discussing national security issues.
“Certainly the fact that the President would even briefly consider using the military to overturn an election is appalling,” says former State Department and CIA officer and historian Mark Stout.
“But those of us who have worked for and alongside the military know that he is barking up the wrong tree. The U.S. military is not going to do this sort of thing for any President, ever.”
🐣 RT @talk_spy If Pat Cipollone and Mark Meadows are so worried by the coup plotting that they’re sending up flares via the press, maybe it’s time for them to walk out, hold an impromptu press conference in the White House driveway and beg a delegation of Republican leaders to confront Trump.
🐣 RT @RepKinzinger [R] One of the Q conspiracies includes that GITMO is going to house the deep state when “the storm” happens. So this guy is implying that I’m nervous cuz Its going to get me. Ill expose these theories, and shine the light into the darkness. #RestoreOurGOP […]
🐣 RT @RepKinzinger [R] No. The military will not be “deployed” to re-run an election. It’s time for this to be shut down, and now. Gen. Flynn has lost his moral authority to be taken seriously, and the GOP needs to stand up to it. #RestoreOurGOP
// 12/18/2020
🐣 RT @Scaramucci Can’t hide the money. It will be traced. He knows they are all going to jail
🐣 RT @BrendanNyhan Dangerous how the goalposts are shifting. Imagine telling yourself in 2014 that people will think everything is fine because the next President won’t *successfully* pull off a coup
⋙ 🐣 RT @holden It’s amazing how the “Watch what Trump does, not what he says” folks moved to “Watch what Trump *successfully* does, not what he *attempts* to do” without missing a beat.
⋙⋙ 🧵RT @BrendanNyhan The Wall Street Journal editorial board mocked me for warning of the threat Donald Trump posed to American democracy back in 2017. People were still suggesting that the threat had been overblown just a few weeks ago. And here we are. 📌 https://twitter.com/BrendanNyhan/status/1340489535063547906?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @holden It’s like someone shows you a gun, and says “I’m going to shoot those people” and all the Very Serious People say, oh, he just talks that way, he’ll never shoot.”
🐣 RT @john_sipher This is a terrible breach. Any public retaliation will not be in direct response but we be [sic] necessary push back for years of Russian malign activity against the US and its allies. We’ve mishandled Putin for over a decade. He’s now clearly shown his stripes.
🐣 RT @BrianStelter “Privately, the president has called the hack a ‘hoax’ and pressured associates to downplay its significance and push alternate theories for who is responsible, two people familiar with the exchanges said.”
⋙ NYT: Trump Contradicts Pompeo Over Russia’s Role in Hack http://nyti.ms/3h1XeaC
// Hours after the secretary of state said that Moscow was behind the vast cybersecurity breach, the president suggested it might have been China and downplayed the severity of the attack.
🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews “Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma responded with an ominous threat: “We’re going to use their computers to make sure that people like Biden & his entire team will never again imagine that they have the right to world domination. Just wait and see””
⋙⋙ 🐣 1. “Deputy” Speaker
2. The Duma has no power
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Asylum for Trumpusha: ¤ Russian lawmakers are concerned about the future of the Kremlin’s favorite U.S. president.
⋙⋙ DailyBeast: Russian Media Wants Moscow to Grant Asylum to Trump http://bit.ly/
// 12/10/2020; Russian media and lawmakers are concerned about the future of the Kremlin’s favorite U.S. president.
🐣 RT @jennycohn1 I hadn’t thought of that.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @cre8tiverenewal What about Erik Prince’s mercenaries? With Flynn in DoD I fear anything is possible… 32 days is a long time for them to do significant damage
⋙ 🐣 I think in that event, the US military would get involved
🐣 RT @swin24 Since 2017, Trump has on again off again talked about wanting Mike Flynn back in his admin and/or advising him, despite the cloud of scandal around the ex- national security adviser. Come the very end of the trump era, the president got what he wanted in the dumbest way possible
⋙ 🐣 RT @swin24 Also, for some Trumpworld connective tissue: Mike Flynn is now been in direct contact on “election fraud” issues with MyPillow ceo Mike Lindell, who is a major funder of Lin Wood and Sidney Powell’s legal work, the latter of whom was also at the Trump meeting with Flynn
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @swin24 Turns out, MyPillow ceo Mike Lindell is a major funder of a number of the pro-Trump efforts to overturn the 2020 election that you’ve been seeing. He’s given handsomely to Trumpist attorneys Lin Wood/ Sidney Powell in weeks since the election, for instance [link]
⋙ 🐣 RT @swin24 If you had told me a year ago that in the wake of the 2020 race, Trump would bring back Gen. Flynn to consult & egg on & work w/ QAnon peddling lawyers to try to steal the election & cancel democracy, & that the MyPillow creator would also be a player in the saga I woulda said… ….Yea ok that sounds right
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens Not since US Army officers became traitors and joined the Confederacy, has a group so betrayed their oath of office as the majority of Republican Senators and Members of Congress. Their children & grandchildren will study their weakness and anti-American cowardice.
🐣 RT @Porter_Anderson Media: @sam_vinograd to @biannagolodryga on the cyberattack: “What @realDonaldTrump did today was cement his own legacy as a national security threat to the homeland. By undercutting his experts, he’s helping #Russia’s mission to sow confusion in the #UnitedStates.”
// on CNN
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman One of the biggest financial scandals in the world is how Deutsche Bank time and time again acted as a conduit for the Russian government, Russian intelligence, and Russian oligarchs to expand their influence around the world, and particularly, in the US.
🐣 RT @RichardHaass smart piece on the hack. essential to distinguish among 1) political influence operations; 2) espionage; 3) disruptive attacks/sabotage; & 4) unconstrained warfare to understand what occurred & to decide whether to go beyond instituting better protection.
⋙ WIRED: Russia’s Hack Wasn’t Cyberwar. That Complicates US Strategy http://bit.ly/37w3fct
// To evaluate whether cybersecurity tactics are working, you need to first establish what the SolarWinds hack really was.
🐣 RT @kasparov68 Are you kidding? His own Secretary of State, a full loyalist, already admitted it was Russia! When I said in 2017 that Trump had more Russian connections than Aeroflot, this is what I was worried about. [re: Trump tweet]
⋙ NYMag, Jonathan Chait: Trump Won’t Denounce Russia’s Hack Because He’s Still Subservient to Putin http://nym.ag/3mEe1S9
⋙⋙ 🐣 “RT @real The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of…. … discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!). There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA. @DNI_Ratcliffe @SecPompeo”
🐣 RT @benjaminwittes It is, shall we say, unusual for the President of the United States to meet in the Oval Office with a felon to discuss the appointment of the criminal’s lawyer as a special counsel.
⋙ RT @benjaminwittes I chose my word very carefully. He pled guilty to a felony. His motion to withdraw that plea was never granted. The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss was granted because—and only because—of the pardon, which he accepted. Pardon or not, he is a felon.
// Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell
🐣 RT @RenatoMariotti The mere fact that the President of the United States is considering a military coup is alarming. That would mean the end of America as we know it. ¤ Let’s not mince words here. Using “martial law” to overturn the election is a coup. It’s beyond unconstitutional. It’s evil.
🐣 RT @SykesCharlie Folks, at this point we probably should begin to consider the possibility that the president is insane.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT During the meeting, the president asked about Flynn’s suggestion of deploying the military, those briefed said. That was also shot down.
⋙ 🐣 RT @gtconway Let’s not be hasty
↥ ↧
🧵 RT @maggieNYT SCOOP – Sidney Powell was in Oval Office last night as POTUS discussed making her special counsel for election fraud. @KannoYoungs and me 📌 https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1340349856574038017?s=20
⋙⋙ NYT: Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud http://nyti.ms/3mzWs5U
// In a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president weighed appointing Sidney Powell, who promoted conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, to probe voter fraud.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT Among those pushing back on the idea was Pat Cipollone, Meadows and even Giuliani. But Giuliani separately pushed DHS this week to seize control of voting machines to examine them for possible fraud. DHS said it has no authority to do that.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT The meeting got raucous, with various administration members drifting in and out and different people arguing. Powell told others they were quitters, people people briefed on the meeting
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT The fact of the meeting – and Giuliani hope of seizing the voting machines – has alarmed some of the president’s advisers, who see his desire to take his refusal to accept the election results as in a dangerous new place
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT Meadows and Cipollone strenuously and repeatedly objected to these suggestions, saying there was no constitutional basis, according to the people briefed.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT One person floated an executive order to seize the voting machines. That was also shot down by Cipollone, per the people briefed.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT Adding to the story but two people briefed said Flynn was there as well for this meeting.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT During the meeting, the president asked about Flynn’s suggestion of deploying the military, those briefed said. That was also shot down.
⋙ 🐣 RT @maggieNYT MORE – POTUS asked about possibility of Powell being given security clearances to pursue her theories, per people briefed on the meeting.
President Trump on Friday discussed naming Sidney Powell, who as a lawyer for his campaign team unleashed conspiracy theories about a Venezuelan plot to rig voting machines in the United States, to be a special counsel overseeing an investigation of voter fraud, according to two people briefed on the discussion. ¤ It was unclear if Mr. Trump will move ahead with such a plan.
Most of his advisers opposed the idea, two of the people briefed on the discussion said, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer. In recent days Mr. Giuliani has sought to have the Department of Homeland Security join the campaign’s efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss in the election. ¤ Mr. Giuliani joined the discussion by phone, while Ms. Powell was at the White House for a meeting that became raucous and involved people shouting at each other at times, according to one of the people briefed on what took place.
Ms. Powell’s client, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser whom the president recently pardoned, was also there, two of the people briefed on the meeting said. Some senior administration officials drifted in and out of the meeting. ¤ During an appearance on the conservative Newsmax channel this week, Mr. Flynn pushed for Mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to “rerun” the election. At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea.
The White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, and the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, repeatedly and aggressively pushed back on the ideas being proposed, which went beyond the special counsel idea, those briefed on the meeting said. Mr. Cipollone told Mr. Trump there was no constitutional authority for what was being discussed, one of the people briefed on the meeting said.
Mr. Trump was defeated in the election by President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. by more than 7 million votes. The states have confirmed Mr. Biden’s Electoral College victory by a margin of 306-232. ¤ But Mr. Trump, egged on by supporters like Ms. Powell, has never conceded and, holed up inside the White House, he continues to assert that he actually won — even though the baseless claims Ms. Powell and others have made of widespread fraud have been thoroughly debunked and even many of Mr. Trump’s closest allies have dismissed as preposterous her tale of an international conspiracy to rig the vote.
Mr. Trump tends to think of Justice Department appointees when he describes special counsels, but those briefed on the meeting said the idea was for Ms. Powell to serve as a special counsel within the White House, appointed by the president, according to those briefed on it. ¤ Mr. Trump also asked about Ms. Powell being given security clearances to pursue her work, two of the people briefed on the meeting said.
Ms. Powell accused other Trump advisers of being quitters, according to the people briefed. ¤ But the idea that Mr. Trump would try to install Ms. Powell in a position to investigate the outcome sent shock waves through the president’s circle. She has repeatedly claimed there was widespread fraud, but several lawsuits she filed related to election fraud have been tossed out of court. …
Mr. Trump has been in contact with Ms. Powell at other times in recent days, even though his campaign last month sought to distance itself from her as she aired wild and baseless claims about Dominion Voting Systems machines, which were used in some states, somehow being connected to a Venezuelan plot to control the election. ¤ Dominion officials have demanded that Ms. Powell retract her claims. The Trump campaign on Saturday sent a memo to campaign officials telling them to preserve documents related to Ms. Powell and Dominion in case of legal action by the company against Ms. Powell, according to a report by CNN that a campaign official confirmed.
Since the election, Mr. Trump had pushed the outgoing attorney general, William P. Barr, to appoint a special counsel to look into election fraud, as well as one to investigate Hunter Biden, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son. Mr. Barr, people briefed on the matter, has been unwilling to do what Mr. Trump wanted.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani have been pushing for data that would provide evidence of widespread election fraud. Mr. Barr has said the Justice Department has found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would change the outcome of the election. ¤ Part of the White House meeting on Friday night was a discussion about an executive order to take control of voting machines to examine them, according to one of the people briefed on the discussion. ¤ Mr. Giuliani has separately pressed the Department of Homeland Security to seize possession of voting machines as part of a push to overturn the results of the election, three people familiar with the discussion said. Mr. Giuliani was told the department does not have the authority to do such a thing. ¤ The conversation between Mr. Giuliani and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the acting deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, took place in the past week, according to the people familiar with the discussion, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the conversation.
The department oversees the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the agency responsible for safeguarding critical systems, such as elections and hospitals. ¤ Mr. Cuccinelli is said to have told Mr. Giuliani that there is no authority by which the agency, which spent the year working with state election officials to prepare for the election, could assert control over voting machines in those states. ¤ Mr. Giuliani called Mr. Cuccinelli this week to push the department to re-examine the machines to find evidence of what the Trump campaign has called widespread fraud, two of the people briefed on the discussion said.
The effort by Mr. Trump’s campaign to use the cybersecurity agency in the push to overturn the results of the election comes after the president last month fired the head of that agency, Christopher C. Krebs. Before he was ousted, Mr. Krebs joined other top election officials in calling the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
State and local governments take the lead in managing elections in the United States while cybersecurity agency primarily provides support, guidance and intelligence with the local leaders on potential threats to the voting system.“We don’t own those networks and we do not have independent legal authority to go in and start combing through those networks,” said Suzanne Spaulding, an under secretary for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure in the Obama administration. “Efforts that appear to be driving a partisan agenda, particularly completely unfounded allegations, significantly undermine the hard work these men and women have been engaged in for years.’
🐣 RT @JonLemire “Officials at the White House had been prepared to put out a statement Friday afternoon that accused Russia of being ‘the main actor’ in the hack, but were told at the last minute to stand down”
⋙ AP: Trump downplays Russia in first comments on cyberattack http://bit.ly/34wBkHE
//➔ coulda been China; he forgot to mention the 400lb man in his basement
🐣 RT @ianbassin The former top intelligence official at DHS has reported to Congress as part of a whistleblower complaint that he was pressured by the Admin to exaggerate the role of far left agitators in violent acts.
⋙ Reuters: DHS whistleblower was pressed to exaggerate leftist role in urban protests, lawyer says http://reut.rs/3ha0vF2
⭕ 18 Dec 2020
💙 📋 NYT, Timothy Eagan: The Next 3 Months Are Going to Be Pure Hell http://nyti.ms/3rfObHF “The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that more than 500,000 Americans likely will have died from Covid-19 by the end of March” ⋙ We were at 314,000 on 12/18
// Biden margin; Lessons from Lewis and Clark on living through the darkest days and longest nights.
‼️ 📋 It’s equally troubling that Biden won the popular vote by 7 million, but came within 43,000 votes of losing the election because of the anti-democratic relic of the Electoral College.
🐣 RT @k_eichensehr My latest for @just_security: some thoughts on the still unfolding Russia hacks and why the US should depart from its usual “Strategic Silence” in the face of espionage to try to prevent these hacks from escalating into destruction/disruption
⋙ JustSecurity, Kristen Eichensehr: “Strategic Silence” and State-Sponsored Hacking: USG and SolarWinds http://bit.ly/37uMoH8
// Is the failure to date to attribute the SolarWinds intrusion and condemn Russia a purposeful tactic?
🐣 RT @AlexWardVox How the US government hack happened, and what it means, explained by @Jason_Healey
⋙ Vox, Alex Award: How the US government hack happened, and what it means, explained by an expert http://bit.ly/37tDJVk
// “This has only started,” Columbia University’s Jason Healey told Vox.
🧵 RT @anneapplebaum Time for Christmas shopping 2020! So many good books were published this year, despite everything. Everyone should read Putin’s People by @CatherineBelton, on the deep roots of Russia’s current ruling class. I reviewed it for @TheAtlantic here: 📌 https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1340042528318517248?s=20
⋙⋙ TheAtlantic: A KGB Man to the End http://bit.ly/34pd3D8
// The origins of Putin’s worldview—and the rise of Russia’s new ruling class
🐣 RT @dnvolz A full SolarWinds damage assessment and recovery operation for the U.S. government “is a months, if not yearslong, ordeal,” a senior intelligence official said.
⋙ WSJ, Warren Strobel: Computer Hack Blamed on Russia Tests Limits of U.S. Response http://on.wsj.com/2LRf2d5
// It appears spying, not destruction, was the aim; U.S. officials have yet to define precise impact of the suspected Kremlin intrusion
🐣 RT @mviser The formation of the Biden Cabinet began much earlier and has been far more comprehensively planned than previously known. ¤ By Election Day, they had a database of 9,000 potential hires, with 2,500 already vetted. (It now has more than 45,000 entries).
⋙⋙ WaPo: 45,000 names, 130 packets of information, and gut instincts: How Biden is managing his transition http://wapo.st/3apPKNu
⋙ 🐣 RT @mviser “The Biden transition team is the most organized, best resourced, most effective transition team ever” said David Marchick at @publicservice. “Future transition teams, Republican and Democratic will be studying their model. They’re just wickedly organized”
🐣 RT @edwardlucas This is utterly brilliant by @ClaireBerlinski
⋙ Substack, Claire Berlinski: The Hack http://bit.ly/38eYoM8
// How to write about attacking the United States: The Cosmopolitan Globalists’ Guide to Style
🐣 RT @anneapplebaum “Rather than deter the Kremlin, the president has repeatedly refused to acknowledge previous Russian actions—basically giving Vladimir Putin an invitation to continue and amplify attacks” From @GrahamDavidA, on why the US has been hacked
⋙ TheAtlantic, David Graham: Trump’s Weakness Invited Russian Cyberattacks http://bit.ly/34mnhEr
// The president’s failure to push back aggressively against Putin’s meddling seems only to have encouraged it.
🐣 RT @petestrzok Untrue. The investigation opened July 31. ¤ 199 criminal charges followed. ¤ @realDonaldTrump, be like Sen McCain: spend your last days in office standing up to Putin’s cyberattacks and fighting the virus that’s killed 315k Americans, not diverting from your defeat and corruption.
⋙ 🐣 RT @real New Peter Strzok Texts Undermine Official Narrative on Start of ‘Russia Collusion‘ Investigation [link] via @BreitbartNews. Check out last in his class John McCain, one of the most overrated people in D.C.
TheDispatch, Jack Goldsmith: Self-Delusion on the Russia Hack http://bit.ly/38aQEug
// The U.S. regularly hacks foreign governmental computer systems on a massive scale.
🐣 RT @laraseligman Just in: @SecArmy Ryan McCarthy and @ArmyChiefStaff Gen. McConville respond to former Gen. Flynn’s remarks urging Trump to declare martial law to overturn the election results: “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 On MSNBC. CHRIS HAYES. 8 pm ET. Today. Friday. Pentagon ends coordination with Biden transition. The top four political operatives are Trump squirrels who are hiding incompetence. There is no coup coming. This is just incompetence and political warfare.
🧵 RT @McFaul On Russian power, a few sentences from “Putin, Putinism, and the Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy.” THREAD/ 1. 📌 https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1340013745146191872?s=20
⋙⋙ IntlSecurity, Michael McFaul: Putin, Putinism, and the Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy http://bit.ly/2KHGrNR
// 10/19/2020
🐣 RT @thedailybeast The shell company, which sucked almost half of the Trump campaign’s funds, had a board stacked with family members and confidantes
⋙ DailyBeast/BI: Kushner OK’d Trump Campaign Shell Company That Secretly Paid Inner Circle: Report http://bit.ly/2J1pj5k
// The shell company, which sucked almost half of the Trump campaign’s funds, had a board stacked with family members and confidantes.
Jared Kushner approved the creation of a shell company that operated like a “campaign within a campaign” and secretly funneled millions of dollars in campaign cash to Trump family members, Business Insider reports. The company, American Made Media Consultants Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC, took more than half of the Trump campaign’s massive $1.26 billion war chest and was largely shielded from having to publicly report financial details. However, a source told Business Insider that Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump was the company’s president, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew was its VP, and Trump campaign CFO Sean Dollman was treasurer and secretary.
The mysterious company caused consternation among other campaign staffers, who had no idea how it was spending money, and the Campaign Legal Center filed a civil complaint with the FEC in June accusing the Trump campaign of laundering $170 million largely through it. A campaign spokesperson denied that AMMC paid Lara Trump or Pence’s nephew for being on its board.
⭕ 17 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @AWeissman_ Trump leaves office saying not a word about the devastating Russian cyber attack on our nation. He began 4 years ago by undermining Obama’s Russia sanctions and then rewarded the man who helped him, Michael Flynn, with a full pardon. ¤ Why is he so afraid to condemn Russia?
🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand SCOOP/BREAKING NEWS: The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks, officials directly familiar with the matter said.
⋙⋙ Politico: Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught http://politi.co/3npPFgi
// Hackers accessed systems at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand Investigators found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation and the Richland Field Office of the DOE.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand DOE and NNSA officials have begun coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies. Officials at DOE still don’t know whether the attackers were able to access anything, the people said—and may not know “for weeks”
NYT, Thomas P. Bossert: I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked. http://nyti.ms/37pHATf Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump and deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.
// The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.
The logical conclusion is that we must act as if the Russian government has control of all the networks it has penetrated. But it is unclear what the Russians intend to do next. The access the Russians now enjoy could be used for far more than simply spying.
The actual and perceived control of so many important networks could easily be used to undermine public and consumer trust in data, written communications and services. In the networks that the Russians control, they have the power to destroy or alter data, and impersonate legitimate people. Domestic and geopolitical tensions could escalate quite easily if they use their access for malign influence and misinformation — both hallmarks of Russian behavior.
On Dec. 13, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security — itself a victim — issued an emergency directive ordering federal civilian agencies to remove SolarWinds software from their networks.
The removal is aimed at stopping the bleeding. Unfortunately, the move is sadly insufficient and woefully too late. The damage is already done and the computer networks are already compromised.
The remediation effort alone will be staggering. It will require the segregated replacement of entire enclaves of computers, network hardware and servers across vast federal and corporate networks. Somehow, the nation’s sensitive networks have to remain operational despite unknown levels of Russian access and control. A “do over” is mandatory and entire new networks need to be built — and isolated from compromised networks.
President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government. He must use whatever leverage he can muster to protect the United States and severely punish the Russians.
President-elect Joe Biden must begin his planning to take charge of this crisis. He has to assume that communications about this matter are being read by Russia, and assume that any government data or email could be falsified.
At this moment, the two teams must find a way to cooperate. ¤ President Trump must get past his grievances about the election and govern for the remainder of his term. This moment requires unity, purpose and discipline. An intrusion so brazen and of this size and scope cannot be tolerated by any sovereign nation. ¤ We are sick, distracted, and now under cyberattack. Leadership is essential.
NYT, Thomas P. Bossert: I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked. http://nyti.ms/37pHATf Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump and deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.
// The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.
🐣 RT @CharlesPPierce Do you think he knows that his veto can be overridden? Have they explained that to him yet?
⋙ 🐣 RT @real I will Veto the Defense Bill, which will make China very unhappy. They love it. Must have Section 230 termination, protect our National Monuments and allow for removal of military from far away, and very unappreciative, lands. Thank you!
// Translation: Section 230 = Ability for Social Media to label his posts as misinformation; “our” National Monuments = Confederate monuments, rename bases; removal of military from “far away” = Germany
⭕ 16 Dec 2020
WaPo, Dana Milbank: We’ve finally identified the source of fraud in the 2020 election. It’s Ron Johnson. http://wapo.st/34kMZJo //➔ Basically, the hearing was an opportunity to air the accusations Rudy Inc lost in court but without a judge to look at the evidence and rule on the case
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “Do we need a special counsel for Hunter Biden right now? Obviously not… An investigation has already been opened. There is no need for recusal of this Justice Dept. The only reason… is to try and stick it to the incoming president” – Chuck Rosenberg w/ @NicolleDWallace 💽 https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1339359574235766785?s=20/photo/1
💙 Politico, Dan Diamond: ‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal http://politi.co/2Kcr3JB
// Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.
🐣 ❣ RT @ProjectLincoln Americans have always said, “It can’t happen here.” But it can, and it will, unless we stand united and fight for our #democracy. 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1339306575278698496?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @annieisi “This is not the America I recognize. It’s got to stop. … I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican Party, to call this stuff out and move on … We have to move on.” –Chris Krebs on baseless election fraud claims
⋙ USAToday: Ex-election security chief Christopher Krebs confronts GOP on false fraud claims: ‘It’s got to stop’ http://bit.ly/38aq5pg
WaPo, Amber Philips: How Republicans are spinning their election fraud falsehoods now that many are acknowledging Biden’s win http://wapo.st/3r2hJsr
// The message seems to be: Okay, Biden won, but here are reasons we should still maybe doubt it
🧵 RT @atrupar This is pretty rich coming from a guy whose baseless claims have undermined public confidence in elections 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1339225647424688130?s=20
// Senate Homeland Security Committee on election, Chain Ron Johnson; former CISA chief Chris Krebs testifies (after having been fired by Trump for saying election was secure)
🐣 RT @real Poll: 92% of Republican Voters think the election was rigged!
⋙ 🐣 ◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1339205790826176515?s=20/photo/1
// Statistica/Gallup: Party Affiliation Sees Major Shift http://bit.ly/3mtz5L3
// 7/17/2020; chart through June; Jan: D ~45%, R ~47% ➔ Jun: Jan: D ~50%, R ~39%
⋙⋙ 🐣 If you include non-voters, Republicans are about 22% of all Americans
NYT: Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of the C.D.C. http://nyti.ms/34gr0mO “‘Every time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging won,’ Mr. McGowan said.” The WH squelched anything ‘they thought could be viewed as criticism of Trump’
// Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, go public on the Trump administration’s manipulation of the agency.
⭕ 15 Dec 2020
NewYorker, Masha Gessen: The Overlooked Hallmark of the Trump Administration—and Other Autocracies http://bit.ly/2WromX0 ‘We have to understand Trump’s failures through two traits: cruelty and militant incompetence. But there is a third one: indifference’
We have come to expect this President to fail Americans, catastrophically, and we have become accustomed to understanding these failures through two traits of his Administration: cruelty and militant incompetence. But there is a third one, characteristic of many, if not all, autocracies: indifference.
One of the best-remembered and most useful phrases from twentieth-century political theory is Hannah Arendt’s “the banality of evil,” born of her attempt to understand the motivations of Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Holocaust. The phrase has been interpreted to mean that Eichmann, despite his high position, was merely a cog in a wheel that would have churned with or without him—that he was normal for his time, a shapeless man who would have conformed to any era. All of this is accurate. But what perhaps struck Arendt most when she was reporting on the Eichmann trial, for The New Yorker, was Eichmann’s indifference. She notes that he didn’t seem to remember some of his most consequential, murderous actions, not because he had a poor memory—and not, she assumed, because he was dissembling—but because he didn’t care, and hadn’t cared at the time. Eichmann had an excellent recollection of two things: perceived injustices perpetrated against him—during his trial in Jerusalem he showed himself to be a first-class whiner—and events that advanced his own career, as when important people noticed him and, say, took him bowling.
The parallels offer themselves. From what we know about Donald Trump, he will remember 2020 as a year when he was unfairly treated by the voters, the courts, and the media, and also a year when he golfed. In this year of the coronavirus, Trump has oscillated between holding briefings and acting like the pandemic was over, while recommending bleach and bragging about his own tremendous recovery. But what he has demonstrated consistently, while three hundred thousand people in this country have died and millions became sick, is that he couldn’t be bothered. Memorable news stories have focussed on the cruel and self-serving ways in which the Administration has addressed the pandemic, as when the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly found it to be politically advantageous that the virus was disproportionately affecting states with Democratic governments, or when Trump withheld resources from states whose governors had criticized him. Trump apparently wanted to lift covid-19 restrictions because he wanted the short-term economic boost that might have helped his reëlection chances. But he also demonstrably, passionately, even desperately wanted a vaccine, and he wanted to take credit for it. His Administration poured money into Operation Warp Speed. And then they dropped the ball, for no reason that we can now see—likely because there is no real reason. Someone might have thought that it wasn’t his job. Someone might have wanted to spite Pfizer for refusing the money that Trump was so generously bestowing. Someone else might have assumed, overconfidently, that Pfizer could always be coerced later into producing the additional doses. Trump himself was most likely golfing.
Nothing has reminded me of Russia quite so much as the Trump Administration’s belated effort to encourage Americans to vaccinate. It will build on an earlier effort to “defeat despair” about the pandemic, which either wasted or simply failed to spend more than a quarter of a billion dollars, because the officials involved tried to ideologically vet two hundred and seventy-four celebrities who may or may not have been asked to take part. Many, according to documents released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, appeared to have been disqualified because they had been critical of Trump. Several said no, and only a handful, Dennis Quaid among them, accepted; Quaid then apparently backed out, and the campaign went dormant. Had it all been a scam? A particularly dumb version of a Hollywood witch-hunt? Probably not. It was probably another story about a President and an Administration that cares about slights but not about people.
🐣 RT @thereidout “At the end of the day, there’s now one pro-democracy political party in the United States of America and that’s the Democratic Party. ¤ And I am a member of that party because of that. I’m a single issue voter. I believe in democracy.” @SteveSchmidtSES
on #thereidout. 💽 https://twitter.com/thereidout/status/1338999604654862345?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Aaron Blake: McConnell sets up a clash with Trump over who’s in charge in the GOP http://wapo.st/385aXJS //➔ In the mix is whether Trump will react to McConnell’s rebuke by gumming up the Georgia runoffs
WaPo: Judge orders Trump Organization to give more records to N.Y. attorney general http://wapo.st/3mpJcR4
// re: tax evasion
🐣 RT @SennBlumenthal Stunning. Today’s classified briefing on Russia’s cyberattack left me deeply alarmed, in fact downright scared. Americans deserve to know what’s going on. Declassify what’s known & unknown.
🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews “This is probably going to be one of the most consequential cyberattacks in U.S. history,” one U.S. official said, after the NSC held its second meeting in three days about the attacks, which security experts have linked to Russian intelligence.
⋙ Politico: ‘Massively disruptive’ cyber crisis engulfs multiple agencies http://politi.co/34gL88h
// The hacks also placed new pressure on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has been without a permanent leader since November.
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance I wrote what’s been on my mind & my heart: Barr will go down in history as the worst attorney general of our lifetimes. He consistently chose to enable a president who did not believe in the rule of law, regardless of the damage it did to the country.
⋙ MSNBC, Joyce Vance: Barr’s escape hatch isn’t enough to shake Trump’s stigma http://on.msnbc.com/3r3Fksu
// Barr’s legacy is one of dishonesty and steadfast refusal to understand his duty to serve justice and the people.
DailyBeast, Rick Wilson: Trump’s Axis of Assholes Just Completed Its Hostile Takeover of the Republican Party http://bit.ly/37jZK8S “The Republican Party’s wholesale moral, ideological, and political collapse is the most shocking ideological betrayal in our nation’s history”
// He lost the election, but his true believers, denying that defeat to the bitter end and already preparing to sabotage everything the Biden administration does, are the party now.
The Republican Party’s wholesale moral, ideological, and political collapse is the most shocking ideological betrayal in our nation’s history. From a devotion (at least a stated devotion) to the Constitution, federalism, and limits on the power of government over its citizens, the Trump GOP has gone full authoritarian, pleading “Meine Ehre heisst Treue” to ensure Donald Trump’s continuing affection. That they believe this won’t come without political and moral consequences is beyond logic and reason, but here we are.
This week’s legal temper tantrums, insane demands, and alt-reich violence on the streets of Washington, D.C., proved that, except for a tiny handful, Republicans are just as awful as Trump. They are peerless when it comes to raging contempt for the will of the voters, the Constitution, and the fundamental underpinnings of the republic. The ludicrous, last-gasp Texas legal argument that the Supreme Court summarily rejected last week was not simply doomed to fail from a legal perspective. It was so politically and morally corrosive and dangerous that only in the era of Trumpian collapse would they have allowed their names to be attached to it.
Once 17 Republican attorney generals—and if you’re new to politics, “AG” also stands for “Aspiring Governor”—put ambition over the Constitution and the rule of law to co-sign the Lone Star State’s hot garbage, to use the legal term, we’re no longer in a functioning republic.
All authoritarian movements seek to purify their ranks, to weed out the unbelievers, the apostates, the poseurs. Trumpism is no different. You’ll see more and more GOP members tested in the dark and difficult days ahead. Don’t be shocked when they fail; as a close observer of the GOP’s transformation into the party of Trump-fluffers, I’ve seen it more closely than most and know how this story ends. They’ll make every excuse, but fear of Trump and the wretched lust for power are all they have left.
🐣 📋 RT @Redistrict Fact: in 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million and came within 77,744 votes of winning the presidency. ¤ In 2020, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 7.1 million and came within 65,009 votes of winning reelection.
// margins in Swing States
⋙ 🐣 RT @Lee__Drake This analysis looks at the tipping point to 270. A small number of votes in AZ, GA, WI, NV, and NE-2 could have done it
⋙ 🐣 RT @CjgbVictoria As devil’s advocate, I’ll make a pro-EC argument I haven’t seen elsewhere. Over the last 20 years, ignoring 3rd parties, the presidential vote has averaged D 52% & R 48%. Each party won the EC 50% of the time. Under a pop vote system, the D’s wd win 83% & the R’s 17% of the time.
🐣 RT @kaitlancollins Biden says he had “a good conversation” with McConnell today. “I called him to thank him for the congratulations.” He said they have “always been straight with one another” and agreed to get together “sooner than later.” “I’m looking forward to working with him.”
🐣 RT @mkraju Barry Black, the esteemed Senate chaplain, says in his morning prayer: “We accept the results of the Electoral College and ask that you bless President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.” His prayer comes before McConnell’s speech on the floor
🐣 RT @atrupar “Our country has officially a President-elect and a Vice President-elect … the Electoral College has spoken” — here’s Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor congratulating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory over Donald Trump 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1338866857734856705?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote He must have fallen down multiple times like the others.
⋙ 🐣 RT @BillBrowder Shocking news. Paul Behrends, ex-staffer to Dana Rohrabacher and one of the key people behind the anti Magnitsky campaign in DC in 2016 died suddenly from head trauma last weekend in Washington
⋙⋙ DailyBeast: Ex-Hill Staffer Linked to Veselnitskaya Dies Suddenly After Fall Near His Home http://bit.ly/2LE0CwP “The longtime aide to ‘Putin’s Congressman’ Dana Rohrabacher died suddenly from a head injury over the weekend”
// Paul Behrends, who lost his job on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee after links to Russia were reported, suffered a head injury close to his home on Friday night.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ThomasS4217 timing is interesting..8th anniversary of Magnitsky Act
🐣 RT @Reuters Putin congratulates Joe Biden on U.S. election victory – Kremlin http://reut.rs/3abf5KN
⭕ 14 Dec 2020
💙 ✅ WaPo, Ann Gerhart: Election results under attack: Here are the facts http://wapo.st/2IY9cWg ⋙ with excerpts from various court rulings and links to all of The Post’s reporting on each false claim
// tags: rigged election rigging stolen election stolen; A compilation of the misinformation, disinformation and many rejected legal challenges by Trump and his allies to try to overturn votes
🐣 RT @RepJerryNadler Attorney General Barr will be remembered for misleading the public, politicizing DOJ, and callously disregarding civil rights. I look forward to working with whomever President-elect Biden chooses as the new AG to repair the integrity of the Department of Justice. Text Block: https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1338638516415311877?s=20/photo/1
💙 NYT, Michelle Goldberg: Just How Dangerous Was Donald Trump? http://nyti.ms/3gOot8n “Both the Trump and Bush presidencies concluded with America a smoking ruin. Only Trump has ensured that nearly half the country doesn’t see it”
// He failed to bend the state to his will, but he still broke the country.
Fascism is obsessed with fears of victimization, humiliation and a decline, and a concomitant cult of strength. Fascists, wrote Robert O. Paxton in “The Anatomy of Fascism,” see “the need for authority by natural chiefs (always male), culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s historical destiny.” They believe in “the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason.” This aptly describes Trump’s movement.
… Trump’s ability to envelop his followers in a cocoon of lies is unparalleled. The Bush administration deceived the country to go to war in Iraq. It did not insist, after the invasion, that weapons of mass destruction had been found when they obviously were not. That’s why the country was able to reach a consensus that the war was a disaster.
No such consensus will be possible about Trump — not about his abuses of power, his calamitous response to the coronavirus, or his electoral defeat. He leaves behind a nation deranged.
🐣 RT @inhoungk Analysts said it was hard to know which was worse: that the federal government was blindsided again by Russian intelligence agencies, or that when it became clear what was happening, White House officials said nothing. @SangerNYT @nicoleperlroth
⋙ NYT: Scope of Russian Hack Becomes Clear: Multiple U.S. Agencies Were Hit http://nyti.ms/3gM8Leb
// The Pentagon, intelligence agencies, nuclear labs and Fortune 500 companies use software that was found to have been compromised by Russian hackers. The sweep of stolen data is still being assessed.
🐣 RT @nytimes Joe Biden’s 306 Electoral College votes make his victory official. https://nyti.ms/3a9Zv1Y [Map:] https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1338650030576689152?s=20/photo/1
💽 WaPo: Joe Biden’s speech to America: ‘It is time to turn the page’ http://wapo.st/3oPDrhi
President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed his faith in the integrity of American elections and the legitimacy of his presidency after the electoral college formalized his November win Monday, ridiculing President Trump for claiming victory despite multiple failed efforts to overturn the election results.
In sweeping and sometimes agitated comments 37 days after he was projected the winner, Biden attempted to unify a polarized and skittish country with direct appeals to the more than 74 million Americans who voted for Trump.
“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden said. “We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And now it is time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history. To unite. To heal.”
The speech represented, to date, Biden’s most forceful defense of the election as well as his most complete denunciation of Trump’s fraudulent claims. Biden noted that he received 7 million more popular votes, and the same number of electoral votes, 306, as Trump did in 2016 when he claimed “a landslide.”
“President Trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take,” Biden said. “He took his case to Republican governors and Republican secretaries of state . . . to Republican state legislatures, to Republican-appointed judges at every level. Even President Trump’s own cybersecurity chief overseeing our elections said it was the most secure election in American history.”
Biden praised judges and election workers, both Democrats and Republicans, who withstood Trump’s criticism and defended the integrity of the election. ¤ “They knew this election was overseen, overseen by them — it was honest, it was free, and it was fair,” Biden said. “They saw it with their own eyes, and they wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different. It was truly remarkable.”
“It is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election,” he added. “It’s simply unconscionable. We owe these public servants a debt of gratitude … our democracy survived because of them.”
Biden expressed particular contempt for a Texas-based legal challenge — which was joined by 17 Republican attorneys general and 126 congressional Republicans — that sought to overturn results in four states that Biden won: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“Thankfully, a unanimous Supreme Court immediately and completely rejected this effort,” Biden said. “The court sent a clear signal to President Trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
The meeting of the electoral college has been, in recent history, a formality often unnoticed by the public, rather than an event carried live on cable television and prompting a major address by a president-elect. It was only Trump’s defiance that prompted Biden to decide to give another valedictory speech.
💽 ≣ PBS: Biden speaks after Electoral College certification results [transcript, video] http://to.pbs.org/2LDSpJ5
🧵 RT @atrupar Biden: “In the start of this pandemic, this crisis, many were wondering how many Americans would actually vote at all, but those fears proved proved to be unfounded. We saw something very few predicted, even thought possible — the biggest voter turnout in the history.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1338643429434208256?s=20
// Biden speech after Electoral Votes counted (pending Hawaii)
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: William Barr Is Out as Attorney General http://nyti.ms/34aXvTo “Barr’s resignation allows him to avoid any confrontation with the president over his refusal to advance Mr. Trump’s efforts to rewrite the election results”
// Mr. Barr was one of the most powerful members of President Trump’s cabinet and faced widespread criticism over his willingness to advance Mr. Trump’s political agenda.
🐣 RT @marceelias 🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have officially cross the 270 margin in the Electoral College voting necessary to become President and Vice-President on January 20th. ¤ Donald Trump and his allies lost a record breaking 59 lawsuits between Election Day and today.
🐣 We reached 300K verified deaths from COVID-19 today ~ the same day thd first vaccines were administered. ¤ But we’re not out of the woods yet. IHME projects another 200K deaths by April 1. ¤ So stay safe: mask up, keep your distance, wash your hands and avoid gatherings. ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1338608858915278850?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @nytimes Breaking News: More than 300,000 people with the coronavirus in the U.S. have died, a wrenching toll that comes on the heels of the nation’s first vaccine shots.
‼️ ⋙ NYT: The number of people with the virus who died in the U.S. passes 300,000. http://nyti.ms/34fd38C
WaPo, Karen Tumulty: President Trump has become a delusional character out of Monty Python http://wapo.st/3gMR8L3
😅 ♫ RT @ReesusP GOODBYE Perhaps it would be easier to hear from some white kids?
💽 https://twitter.com/ReesusP/status/1338507387888537600?s=20/photo/1
// The Sound of Music parody Auf Wiedersehen to Trump
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC President’s legal team has just been rejected by Wisconsin Supreme Court in effort to overturn 2020 election: https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1338530371990941697?s=20/photo/1
// Three Stooges
🐣 📋 I take some comfort in the fact that, of the entire US pop. of 331M, just 74.2M voted for Trump. That’s only 22.5%. ¤ 81.3M voted for Biden. That leaves 175.5M who did not vote. Some are too young to vote, of course, some too busy, some uninterested. I’m grateful they’re there.
⭕ 13 Dec 2020
💙 WaPo: Tracking the 2020 electoral college vote http://wapo.st/3gIg9ap //➔ Times when each state’s electors will cast their votes are given, along with the link to each state’s livestream
// Follow along as states cast their votes for president and finalize Joe Biden’s win
🐣 ”The yeoman is the backbone of the nation.” “Cowards are born in towns, heroes in the country.” – Heinrich Himmler ¤ ⋙ The ideology that says cities are “corrupt” and the countryside brave and pure has a history
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 In a remarkable show of near-unanimity across the nation’s judiciary, at least 86 judges — ranging from the lowest levels of state court systems to the U.S. Supreme Court — have rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters.
⋙ WaPo: ‘The last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election http://wapo.st/3qNZyXr
// 38 appointed by Republicans
🐣 RT @HowardMortman 20 years ago today. ¤ Gore: “Supreme Court has spoken. While I strongly disagree with court’s decision, I accept the finality of this outcome, which will be ratified Monday in Electoral College. For sake of our unity as a people and strength of our democracy, I offer my concession” 💽 https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1338092915135049729?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 12 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @brhodes These goons in the streets of DC would have been SA in early 1930s Berlin. And the vast majority of elected Republicans won’t say a word about it.
🐣 RT @davidplouffe The battle to save our country is not Democrats vs Republicans. It is pro-democracy forces vs. pro-autocracy forces. It won’t go away on Jan. 20. It won’t be won easily and it will take a big tent to include all those who disagree on a bunch of things but agree on the big thing.
🧵 RT @SteveSchmidtSES In all the years I worked in GOP politics, from local races to the White House it never occurred to me that it was even remotely possible that there were people sitting in rooms with me that would one day be in favor of overturning a Presidential election and making the loser […] America’s first dictator. 📌 https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1337848568661598212?s=20
🐣 RT @jamiegangel What Attorney General Bill Barr really thinks of @realDonaldTrump tweets according to a source familiar with the dynamic: “it’s the deposed king’s ranting…” my reporting with @Kevinliptakcnn @cnn
⋙ 🐣 RT @LisaMirandoCNN Great new reporting from @jamiegangel: A source familiar with the dynamic between AG Barr and Trump right now says Barr cannot be intimidated by Trump, “none of this matters— it’s the deposed King ranting. Irrelevant to the course of justice and to Trump’s election loss..” #CNN
🐣 RT @kasparov68 Don’t dare say “But the system worked” when a majority of Republicans in Congress support the overturning of a free and fair election. You don’t celebrate a cancer not having killed you yet. You celebrate when you’re cancer free.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 The system isn’t working when so many of its participants and supposed defenders are trying to destroy it. That’s the crisis, and it’s not going away because this time some judges threw out cases prepared by idiots.
🐣 RT @ RepKinzinger [R] I want to be clear: the Supreme Court is not the deep state. The case had no merit and was dispatched 9-0. There was no win here. Complaining and bellyaching is not a manly trait, it’s actually sad. Real men accept a loss with grace.
🐣 RT @davidplouffe The fight to save our Democracy is just beginning. It’s a scary thought. But if this cast of seditionists gains control of the Senate, House and the White House anytime this decade it’s lights out for America. They are all must-win elections.
🐣 RT @StevenBeschloss Never again wonder how it could have happened in Germany. Never again think it couldn’t happen here. The authoritarian impulse in America is a cancer that must be confronted and overcome.
⋙ 🐣 RT @brianklaas The person representing Trump’s campaign in court just retweeted a call for Joe Biden & Kamala Harris to “confess their crimes on national TV” or be executed. ¤ The authoritarian radicalization of the Republican Party and the Republican base is the defining story of the Trump era.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @brianklaas Here’s the tweet, which was retweeted by Sidney Powell, who has been closely affiliated with Trump’s legal team during the post-election process. https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1337791310481289218?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @jennycohn1 They planned their coup starting in February at the latest.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ “Newly Surfaced Recording Reveals ALEC and GOP Election Attorneys [and the CNP] Working with State Legislators to Question Validity of Election” — in February, long before the election took place. By @JamieMCorey 1/
⋙⋙⋙ 💽 Documented.net: Newly Surfaced Recording Reveals ALEC and GOP Election Attorneys Working with State Legislators to Question Validity of Election http://bit.ly/342XCjZ
// 10/26/2020; CNP: Council for National Policy
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) CEO Lisa Nelson told a room full of conservative activists that ALEC had been working with three GOP attorneys on “action items that legislators can take to question the validity of an election.” The comments were made during a strategy session about elections at the Council for National Policy in February 2020.
Nelson, who runs the legally non-partisan charity (ALEC) and is a member of CNP, told the group, “obviously we all want President Trump to win and win the national vote. But it’s very clear from all the comments and all the suggestions up front that really what it comes down to is the states and the state legislators.” She added that they’ve been working with former Federal Election Commission (FEC) Member and Heritage Foundation attorney Hans Von Spakovsky, former FEC member Brad Smith, and GOP attorney Cleta Mitchell “trying to identify what are those action items that legislators can take in their states.”
🚫 WaPo: Multiple people stabbed after thousands gather for pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington http://wapo.st/2KowlkM
WaPo Editorial: Republicans faced a simple choice: For or against democracy. http://wapo.st/3qQ4Ql2 “Their recklessness raises the once-unthinkable possibility that a Congress controlled by one party might one day flip a presidential election … in defiance of the voters’ will”
🐣 RT @Edsall “America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader,” George Packer writes. “It also became more delusional.”
⋙ TheAtlantic, George Packer: A Political Obituary for Donald Trump http://bit.ly/3gHgMkj
// Jan-Feb 2021; The effects of his reign will linger. But democracy survived.
NYT: ‘An Indelible Stain’: How the GOP Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy http://nyti.ms/3qS4cDK “[M]uch of the GOP leadership now shares responsibility for the quixotic attempt to ignore the nation’s founding principles and engineer a different verdict from the one voters cast in November”
// by Jim Rutenberg and Nick Corasaniti; The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump was also a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders who had put their interests ahead of the country’s.
🐣 RT @SanhoTree Live coverage from the White House Führerbunker. 💽 https://twitter.com/SanhoTree/status/1324370210636390400?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @atrupar Overwhelming “Downfall” vibes from Trump’s tweets this morning. The city is crumbling around him and from the bunker he’s hysterically turning on his former allies.
WaPo, Dan Balz: Republican officials have followed Trump along his dangerous and destructive path http://wapo.st/3gGt64l
⭕ 11 Dec 2020
🐣 RT @SpeakerPelosi The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this unlawful & undemocratic GOP lawsuit have brought dishonor to the House and must once and for all end their election subversion – immediately.
⋙ Speaker.gov: Pelosi Statement on Supreme Court Rejecting GOP Election Sabotage Lawsuit http://bit.ly/37eeAh9
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to reject the sham GOP lawsuit demanding that Electoral College votes in four states be overturned and awarded to Donald Trump:
“The Court has rightly dismissed out of hand the extreme, unlawful and undemocratic GOP lawsuit to overturn the will of millions of American voters.
“The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions.
“The pandemic is raging, with nearly 300,000 having died and tens of millions having lost jobs. Strong, unified action is needed to crush the virus, and Republicans must once and for all end their election subversion – immediately.”
NYT, Jamelle Bouie: The ‘Trump Won’ Farce Isn’t Funny Anymore http://nyti.ms/3nboYfa “[T]he events of the past month make me worry that we’re following a script the climax of which requires a disaster”
// Republicans are now seriously arguing that elections are legitimate only when their side wins.
WaPo, Greg Sargent: Chris Murphy’s surprise floor speech raises tough questions for Democrats http://wapo.st/3qPQH7p “This is a party that has a whole bunch of enemies of democracy inside its top ranks. That’s bone-chilling.” ~ Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
🐣 RT @AdamSerwer Never forget that the majority of Republicans sought to overthrow the results of a presidential election and install their unelected candidate, the majority of their supporters approved, and their sniveling apparatchiks concocted post hoc rationalizations justifying it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @AdamSerwer None of the people who supported that document—not a one—can ever again honestly claim to believe in freedom, democracy, individual rights, or constitutional government. All they believe in is their own divine right to rule, no matter what the people say.
WaPo, Amanda Bennett: I was Voice of America’s director. Trump’s latest pick to run the organization is dangerous. http://wapo.st/3mbAg1N
HuffPo: Trump Named ‘Loser Of The Year’ By German News Magazine Der Spiegel http://bit.ly/3a4YgRW
// “Trump’s presidency ends as it began: Without decency and without dignity,” Der Spiegel declared.
🐣 RT @ICEINTERN Wake up GOP. ¤ “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President.” Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. ¤ With this rejection, GOP is a DEAD Party. ¤ People will feel shameful to be called “republican”. #GOPIsOver
⋙ 🐣 RT @nytopinion “What is left to say about a political party that would throw out millions of votes? The substance of a lawsuit filed by the State of Texas, and backed by more than 17 other states, would be laughable were it not so dangerous,” writes the editorial board.
⋙⋙ NYT Editorial: The Republicans Who Embraced Nihilism http://nyti.ms/3qS0zNV
// The Supreme Court thwarts the latest Trumpist attack on American democracy.
🐣 RT @TWreninator This is excellent. Madam Speaker please do this!! @TeamPelosi @SpeakerPelosi
⋙ 🐣 RT @BillPascrell Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was written after the Civil War to bar from government any traitors who would seek to destroy the Union. ¤ My letter to House leadership today demands that 126 Republicans (and counting) are violating the Constitution. https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1337482904545464325?s=20/photo/1-2
// letter
🐣 RT @real The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!
🐣 RT @C_C_Krebs Here’s how I see it: plenty of people are telling you who they are right now. Go ahead and take them at their word.
🐣 RT @robertjdenault Just to be clear, this morning Trump found out his loan officers and insurance company have been subpoenaed by criminal investigators not subject to his pardon power and this evening his last gasp at election subversion was killed by a conservative SCOTUS.
🐣 RT @sgurman New w/@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus: Trump in a meeting Friday fumed about a @WSJ report that said Barr knew about the Hunter Biden investigation and kept it private during the heated election campaign, and openly considered firing the attorney general.
⋙ ‼️ WSJ: Trump Pursues Appointing Special Counsel to Probe Election, Hunter Biden http://on.wsj.com/3qQATRO
// President has expressed frustration with Attorney General William Barr as efforts to overturn election have failed
🐣 RT @neal_katyal “Any attorney…admitted to conduct cases in any court of the US…who so multiplies the proceedings in any case unreasonably&vexatiously may be required by the court to satisfy personally the excess costs, expenses&attorneys fees reasonably incurred” 28 USC 1927
SCOTUSblog, Amy Howe: Justices throw out Texas lawsuit that sought to block election outcome http://bit.ly/2W6Pevj
🐣 RT @chrislhayes This is bad rhetoric! Bad bad bad!
⋙ 🐣 RT @adamkelsey The @TexasGOP is out with a statement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, all but calling for secession: ¤ “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
🐣 RT @ArietteSaenz .@MichaelJGwin, spox for @JoeBiden, reacts to SCOTUS rejecting Texas’ & President Trump’s bid to overturn the election: “This is no surprise” Text Block: https://twitter.com/ArletteSaenz/status/1337553116334612481?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DavidAFrench There were zero votes for the TX AG on the merits, including zero votes from Trump appointees. It was a clown suit from the beginning, and 126 representatives, 18 state AG’s, and a host of prominent right-wing activists beclowned themselves by supporting it.
🐣 RT @eliehonig In a way, Alito and Thomas smacked this down hardest of all. ¤ The other 7 Justices said essentially: we wouldn’t even let Texas in the door. ¤ Alito and Thomas said: we *would* let Texas in the door, and then we’d throw them out.
Reason, Jonathan Adler: Supreme Court Unanimously Denies Texas Emergency Relief, Refuses to Grant Motion for Leave to File http://bit.ly/3mathpK “The #Kraken may have been released. Tonight’s Supreme Court order should also have put it out of its misery.”
🐣 RT @gtconway3d “No constitutional provision, no statute and no principle of law gives one state the standing to challenge another state’s handling of an election.”
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PostOpinions In our system, Texas isn’t the boss of Pennsylvania, @gtconway3d writes. ¤ “Allowing such suits would invite a multistate free-for-all every time a presidential election is held.”
⋙⋙⋙ WaPo, George Conway III: Trump’s last-ditch effort to steal the election is the biggest farce of all http://wapo.st/3oJyGWr
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @deepakguptalaw BREAKING: The Supreme Court has flatly rejected Texas’s insane bid to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election. The case is over. Texas has no say how other states conduct their elections. https://twitter.com/deepakguptalaw/status/1337543152996126726?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Congress bans anonymous shell companies after long campaign by anti-corruption groups http://wapo.st/2W3W8kT “The legislation has limitations. The general public won’t have access to the ownership data, a disappointment to anti-corruption campaigners”
// LLCs; tagged onto Defense bill; Bipartisan measure requires companies established in the U.S. to disclose their real owners
🐣 RT @emptywheel 126 Republicans want to help Donald Trump steal the election even though he lost even worse than Mitt Romney did in 2012.
SCOTUSblog, Tom Goldstein: Editorial: Don’t just deny Texas’ original action. Decimate it. http://bit.ly/379NJmA “A simple five-page per curiam opinion genuinely could end up in the pantheon of all-time most significant rulings in American history”
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Republicans record their names on a list of shame http://wapo.st/2LtsKTi (w links to lists of Seditionists)
🐣 RT @McFaul One group of states trying to overturn the election results in a another group of states is an outrageously anti-democratic, anti-federalism act. Since 1861, is there any comparable anti-democratic, anti-American act in our history? I can’t think of any, but maybe I’m wrong.
Law&Crime: Manhattan DA’s Office Reportedly ‘Escalating’ Investigation of Trump ‘Significantly,’ Recently Interviewed Deutsche Bank Employees http://bit.ly/2W4WJTt
⭕ 10 Dec 2020
WaPo: With time running out, Trump and GOP allies turn up pressure on Supreme Court in election assault http://wapo.st/3gDPAD3 We are only “a few democracy-conscious representatives away” from Republicans in Congress overturning an election
Joshua A. Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, said Trump’s pressure will have no effect with the justices, calling it “a loser of a case” that he expect the court to “reject quite easily — probably with a one-sentence order.”
But he warned that the effort from Trump and his GOP allies has, in his view, made clear that Republicans in Congress, if they held big enough majorities in both chambers, would plausibly attempt to “undo the will of the voter when they count the electoral college votes on Jan. 6.”
With Democrats controlling the House, he added, such a scenario is impossible this year, “but we are only a few democracy-conscious representatives away from that potentially occurring. That itself is extremely concerning for the longer-term health of our democracy.”
TheBulwark, Jonathan Last: The Republican Party As Totalitarian State http://bit.ly/381dTqW “It’s important to understand that this is all new to American politics. We have not been down this road before. And so we should not assume that we know with certainty where it leads”
// One of our two major political parties has become an autocracy.
💙 TheAtlantic, Adam Serwer: If You Didn’t Vote for Trump, Your Vote Is Fraudulent http://bit.ly/2JTyAwE “It’s no accident that the Trump campaign’s claims have focused almost entirely on jurisdictions with high Black populations”
// The president’s supporters believe that the votes of rival constituencies should not count—even though they understand, on some level, that they do.
Trumpism demands the profession of beliefs that are neither strictly literal nor exactly figurative, but instead statements of ideological values that don’t fit neatly in either category. These statements are not amenable to journalistic fact-checking, because they are not factual claims; they are assertions of identity and political legitimacy that are incontestable on their own terms. To announce loudly that you accept the proclamations of the Church of Trump, no matter how false, contradictory, or exaggerated, is to identify yourself as a member of that faith community; to deny them is to risk excommunication. As long as devotion to the Trumpian creed remains a central tenet of membership in the Republican Party, precious few elected officials will risk the brand of the heretic.
To Trump’s strongest supporters, Biden’s win is a fraud because his voters should not count to begin with, and because the Democratic Party is not a legitimate political institution that should be allowed to wield power even if they did. ¤ This is why the authoritarian remedies festering in the Trump fever swamps—martial law, the usurpation of state electors, Supreme Court fiat—are so openly contemplated. Because the true will of the people is that Trump remain president, forcing that outcome, even in the face of defeat, is a fulfillment of democracy rather than its betrayal.
The Republican base’s fundamental belief, the one that Trump used to win them over in the first place, the one that ties the election conspiracy theory to birtherism and to Trump’s sneering attack on the Squad’s citizenship, is that Democratic victories do not count, because Democratic voters are not truly American. It’s no accident that the Trump campaign’s claims have focused almost entirely on jurisdictions with high Black populations.
“Detroit and Philadelphia—known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily—cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race,” Trump said on November 5. Since then, Trump’s legal challenges have targeted cities with large Black populations—not just Philadelphia and Detroit, but also Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Trump improved his vote margin slightly in these places, while getting destroyed in nearby suburbs. But because the outdated popular perception of suburbs is that they are white, they lack the assumption of illegitimacy that Trumpists attach to cities.
The absence of not only evidence of any systemic fraud, but even compelling anecdotes that might be misleadingly trumpeted throughout right-wing media, has not deterred the president or his supporters. Republican legislators are already scheming to put new restrictions on the franchise, justified by claims of fraud so baseless that not even their handpicked judges can find a foothold to sustain them. The necessary ingredient is not actual voter fraud, but Democratic victory at the ballot box, real or potential.
According to a 2020 survey by the political scientist Larry Bartels, three-quarters of Republican voters believe that “it is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.” Because Republicans believe, as Mitt Romney put it after his defeat in 2012, that Black people vote for Democrats only because they are offered “free stuff,” Black votes are considered illegitimate even if they are legally cast. Those votes could be legitimate if more of them were cast for Republicans, the party of true Americans, but as long as they are cast for Democrats, they can be dismissed as the result of Democratic brainwashing. Demanding that Black votes be tossed out is not antidemocratic, because they should not have counted in the first place.
In the early days of Reconstruction, Democrats hoped that Black men, if enfranchised, would vote for those who had fought to keep them enslaved, understanding that their subordinate position in southern society was in the best interests of both races. Some northern Republicans similarly feared that Black men would vote as their former masters demanded. But when the emancipated chose their own path based on their own interests, Democrats concluded that they had to be excised from the polity, by force. ¤ In that era, Democrats and their paramilitary allies used their claims of fraud and conviction that Black participation had fatally corrupted democracy to justify a campaign of murder and terrorism.
The conviction that the rival political constituency cannot, under any circumstances, legitimately hold power has not yet resulted in widespread violence. But it remains incompatible with democracy, which requires the assent of its losers and the peaceful transfer of power between factions. ¤ When they say the 2020 election was stolen, Trumpists are expressing their view that the votes of rival constituencies should not count, even though they understand, on some level, that they do. They are declaring that the nation belongs to them and them alone, whether or not they actually comprise a majority, because they are the only real Americans to begin with.
WaPo, Aaron Blake: The Trump team throws in the towel on proving voter fraud http://wapo.st/3gyJELM
🐣 RT @marceelias I am shaken by this Texas case. Not because it will prevail (it won’t) but because something is seriously wrong with our democracy that these elected leaders, who know better, are using the courts to spread lies and undermine our elections. ¤ That makes me very worried.
⋙ 🐣 RT @jaketapper The Kraken Caucus — 106 House Republicans (and 18 state attorneys general) who signed onto a anti-democracy lawsuit to disenfranchise millions of their fellow Americans, based on lies and conspiracy theories.
💙💽 MSNBC, LastWord: Steve Schmidt: ‘106 members of Congress broke faith with American democracy’ http://on.msnbc.com/3gBEUEX
// Fmr. Republican strategist Steve Schmidt joins Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss how some House Republicans refusing to accept that Biden won means “we’re one election away from losing the country to people who do not believe in democracy.”
↥ ↧
💙💽 MSNBC, DeadlineWH: Steve Schmidt: We are ‘one election away… from losing our democracy’ http://on.msnbc.com/3m8TAwG
// 12/9/2020; Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt says congressional Republicans are to blame for the ‘poisoning of democracy’ by not acknowledging President Trump’s election loss
↥ ↧
💙🐣 RT @AmanpourCoPBS: The Republican Party “has become America’s first autocratic party,” says Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt. @MichelMcQMartin @SteveSchmidtSES @ProjectLincoln 💽 https://twitter.com/AmanpourCoPBS/status/1336416649017233408?s=20/photo/1
// extended clip of Steve Schmidt w captions
🐣 The neofascist “Republican” party is willing to give up democracy altogether rather than share it with nonwhite people
🐣 RT @ .@JoyAnnReid: “106 House Republicans signed on in support of killing democracy – in Trump’s Hail Mary attempt to overturn the election and save himself from the consequences of returning to civilian life without the legal protections of the presidency”
⋙ 💽 MSNBC, ReidOut: 106 House Republicans, 17 State AGs back anti-democracy lawsuit to try and overturn 2020 election http://on.msnbc.com/2JU2yRh
// 106 House Republicans signed a court filing supporting the Texas lawsuit that seeks to overturn the 2020 election results by overturning millions of votes in four battleground states that President-elect Joe Biden won.
🐣 RT @JoshShapiroPA I know we’ve grown numb over time to Trump’s corrosive conduct but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the sitting president is petitioning our nation’s highest court to throw out millions of legal votes of our fellow Americans in order to change the results of the election.
🐣 RT @johnkruzel JUST IN: New amicus brief from 106 Republican House members in support of Texas’ bid to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Supreme Court. Here they are 👇
⚖️JUST IN: New amicus brief from 106 Republican House members in support of Texas' bid to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in the Supreme Court. Here they are👇 pic.twitter.com/QLN4jDfoto
— John Kruzel (@johnkruzel) December 10, 2020
CNN: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time Person of the Year http://cnn.it/39YTaq2 https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1337245574337269761?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: U.S. military dispatches B-52 bombers to Middle East as show of force against Iran http://wapo.st/2W4Og2E
🐣 RT @brhodes During Susan Rice’s tenure as NSA, the blending of domestic and natsec policy accelerated – immigration, health security, technology, R/D, diversity in workforce were prominent issues. Susan knows how to make govt work and is always the best prepared person in the room
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote The ONLY reason the Supreme Court should hear the Texas lawsuit is to publicly humiliate the people who filed and and help amplify the clear message that the election stands.
🐣 RT @rickhasen Ben Ginsberg quote in piece: The GOP “used to be a party for states’ rights,” Ginsberg said. “I can’t imagine something that is less faithful to the principle of states’ rights than a Texas attorney general trying to tell other states how to run their elections.”
🐣 RT @marceelias Trump and his allies won 1 case–shortening the time in PA to cure certain mail ballots from 9 days to 6 days after the election. ¤ It is true that neither Rudy nor Ellis were involved in that case. ¤ Trump and his allies have lost 55 cases in the post election.
⋙ 🐣 RT @rickhasen In the end Rudy and Jenna made a lot of money, helped Trump raise a lot of money for a post-presidential leadership PAC slush fund, and helped delegitimize the election in the eyes of millions of Trump supporters, without a single legal victory.
🐣 RT @tribelaw This should be decisive. It’s over. Except that Trump still has allies willing to assist him in his attempted coup. Let’s call it what it is. It is an attempt to overthrow not just the Popular Vote but the Electoral Vote. He says “Stop the Steal.” We should say “Stop the Coup.”
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @wolfblitzer This Just In. All 50 States and DC have now officially certified their presidential election results. The @JoeBiden national popular vote lead over @realDonaldTrump is more than 7 million votes – 51.3% to 46.8%. Biden has 306 Electoral Votes; Trump has 232. (270 needed to win.)
🐣 CISA: “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”
@AGEricSchmitt ¤ @AGSteveMarshall ¤ @AGRutledge ¤ @AGAshleyMoody ¤ @AGDougPeterson ¤ @StenehjemForGov ¤ @AGMikeHunter ¤ @AGCurtisHill ¤ #SeditionSeventeen ¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1337078444664922113?s=20/photo/1
// cartoon: “MAGA Show”
🐣 CISA: “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” @KSAGOffice ¤ @JeffLandry ¤ @LynnFitchAG ¤ @foxforgovernor ¤ @AGAlanWilson ¤ @SDAttorneyGen ¤ @TNattygen ¤ @SeanReyesUT ¤ @MorriseyWV ¤ #SeditionSeventeen ¤ #Shame #Treason ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1337078886467825668?s=20/photo/1
// drawing: Trump w autocrats
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln The #SeditiousSeventeen state AGs should hear from all of us today. Find their contact information in our thread above and let them know what you think about their failure to uphold democracy and the Constitution on behalf of @realDonaldTrump
🧵 @ProjectLincoln #SeditiousSeventeen 📌 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1337064180629852162?s=20
// Phones and Twitter for State AGs signing on to TX lawsuit to overturn election
Trump Griping (rev chron)
🐣 RT @real Great. Most corrupt Election in history, by far. We won!!!
🐣 RT @real Voter Fraud!
🐣 RT @real “People are upset, and they have a right to be. Georgia not only supported Trump in 2016, but now. This is the only State in the Deep South that went for Biden? Have they lost their minds? This is going to escalate dramatically. This is a very dangerous moment in our history….
🐣 RT @real ….The fact that our Country is being stolen. A coup is taking place in front of our eyes, and the public can’t take this anymore.” A Trump fan at Georgia Rally on @OANN Bad!
🐣 RT @real “Donald Trump won by a landslide, and they stole it from him!” @seanhannity
🐣 RT @real How does Governor @BrianKempGA allow certification of votes without verifying signatures and despite the recently released tape of ballots being stuffed? His poll numbers have dropped like a rock. He is finished as governor! @RepDougCollins
🐣 RT @real How can you give an election to someone who lost the election by hundreds of thousands of legal votes in each of the swing states. How can a country be run by an illegitimate president?
🐣 RT @real The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States. 78% of the people feel (know!) the Election was RIGGED.
⋙ 🐣 68% of Republicans
TIME: Who Will Be TIME’s Person of the Year for 2020? See the Shortlist http://bit.ly/3oBzHzZ
// Essential Workers (incl Dr Fauci), Biden, BLM (w George Floyd), Trump
⭕ 9 Dec 2020
TheAtlantic, James Fallows (12/9): How Biden Should Investigate Trump http://bit.ly/3mra9DW
// The misdeeds and destructive acts are legion. The new president should focus on these three.
🐣 🖼 RT @Gabrielle_Corno And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in #storm 💽 https://twitter.com/Gabriele_Corno/status/1336635374819553283?s=20/photo/1
// amazing tornado video
NYT: 17 Republican Attorneys General Back Trump in Far-Fetched Election Lawsuit http://nyti.ms/3qJeJkw
// The move is an attempt to bolster a baseless legal effort by Texas that seeks to delay certification of the presidential electors in four battleground states that Mr. Trump lost.
🐣 RT @MSNBC “We are now one election away…from losing our democracy because one party doesn’t believe in it,” political strategist Steve Schmidt says as congressional Republicans continue to not acknowledge Pres. Trump’s election loss.
⋙ 💽 MSNBC, DeadlineWH: Steve Schmidt: We are ‘one election away… from losing our democracy’ http://on.msnbc.com/2K7bYc2
// Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt says congressional Republicans are to blame for the ‘poisoning of democracy’ by not acknowledging President Trump’s election loss
🐣 RT @clearing_fog Think about this. ¤ The 17 state AGs who are trying to overturn the election, are members of RAGA. ¤ RAGA’s biggest donor – at $2.7 million – is the Judicial Crisis Network, who also spent $30 million supporting Trump judges. ¤ JCN’s address is nothing more than a UPS store.
🐣 RT @mrbromwich The Supreme Court should sanction the lawyers who filed this case, as well as the chief legal officers for the states who are listed as plaintiffs. No lawyer could file this in good faith.
⋙ 🧵 RT @bradheath Seventeen states filed a brief in the Supreme Court just now in support of Texas’ request that the justices throw out the results of the presidential election in four other states that didn’t support President Trump. 📌 https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1336763665580765187?s=20
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Trump’s lawyer in the Texas case is the man who questioned whether Kamala Harris was eligible to serve as vice president. That opinion was condemned for being wrong and racist. Now, he’s helping Trump in his doomed effort to overturn the election results.
⋙ CNBC: Trump says he will join Texas in long-shot Supreme Court bid to undo Biden White House win http://cnb.cx/3ozTDmP
// Joe Biden is projected to defeat President Trump in the Electoral College. Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani are frantically trying to avoid that outcome.
💙 NYT, Thomas Edsall: The Resentment That Never Sleeps http://nyti.ms/3m3oyGz
// Rising anxiety over declining social status tells us a lot about how we got here and where we’re going.
🐣 RT @marceelias To answer everyone’s questions — no, this filing does NOT change my answer. ¤ This lawsuit is still going nowhere.
⋙ 🐣 RT @marceelias Seventeen states have filed a brief supporting the Texas’ political stunt in the US Supreme Court. ¤ Sad. https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1336777108941647872?s=20/photo/1
⋙🔆 This❗️⋙ DemocracyDocket: Texas SCOTUS Decertification Challenge http://bit.ly/3n34a9J
// links to docs:
● Read the motion to file bill of complaint here. http://bit.ly/37PbI9y
● Read the amicus brief filed by 17 states in support of Texas’ request here. http://bit.ly/37MY2Mp
● Read Trump’s motion to intervene here. http://bit.ly/3724q3l
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 18 red states want the Supreme Court to overturn the will of the people.
🐣 RT @JohnBrennan Those who continue to deny & fight against the election of Joe Biden are advocating for authoritarianism. They want their bully dictator to remain in power. Full stop. ¤ Yes, democracy is messy & at times uncomfortable, but, as oft quoted, it beats all the alternatives.
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @Steve_Vladeck Missouri (and 16 other states Trump won) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Texas’s crazy #SCOTUS lawsuit against 4 states Trump lost. The brief doesn’t actually say TX is right, and it doesn’t address the many defects in TX’s claims. It just says “this case is important.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @Steve_Vladeck Read the brief for yourself, but it’s not going to move the needle: ¤ http://bit.ly/3guihCq ¤ I still expect #SCOTUS to issue a single order getting rid of this, either denying TX’s motion for leave to file, or granting it while simultaneously dismissing the suit on the merits.
🐣 RT @McFaul The President of the United States of America is calling for a coup. Outrageous. (& that so many elected “leaders” in our country are remaining silent in response to this attack on our democracy is deeply disappointing.)
🐣 RT @jonfavs When you’re 1-51 in court and can’t find enough Republican legislators to break the law, always go with the hashtag. The hashtag will get you the rest of the way there.
🐣 RT @Noahpinion At least now he admits he’s just trying to overturn an election, rather than “win” one he already lost.
🐣 RT @rorycooper It’s embarrassing how many Republicans are humoring or encouraging this Keystone Coup.
🐣 RT @brianklaass The president of the United States is trying to overturn the certified results of a democratic election in order to seize power like a tinpot despot. And most elected officials in his own party refuse to denounce him for it either because they are political cowards.
🐣 RT @BillKristol “The technical term for attempting to stay in power illegitimately—such as after losing an election—is self-coup or autocoup, sometimes autogolpe…The term autogolpe comes from the Spanish because there have been so many such attempts in Latin America.” https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1336715573997219841?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @real #OVERTURN
🐣 RT @rebeccaballhaus A sweeping multistate legal effort by Trump and his supporters to override Biden’s victory has reached the end of the line, after at least 35 losses in courts at all levels including the U.S. Supreme Court.
⋙ WSJ: Trump’s Challenges to Election Results Face End of the Legal Road http://on.wsj.com/33Y0pLd
// Courts across the U.S. have rejected the president and his supporters, citing lack of proof and other shortcomings
🐣 RT @JohnJHarwood this is deranged
⋙ 🐣 RT @real We will soon be learning about the word “courage”, and saving our Country. I received hundreds of thousands of legal votes more, in all of the Swing States, than did my opponent. ALL Data taken after the vote says that it was impossible for me to lose, unless FIXED!
🐣 RT @gtconway3d You need a very different kind of intervention
⋙ 🐣 RT @real We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!
EmptyWheel, Marcy Wheeler: In His Mike Flynn Opinion, Emmet Sullivan Made a Finding of Fact Against Billy Barr’s New Reality http://bit.ly/37J93ye
This post shows that Sullivan laid out evidence that DOJ’s motion to dismiss was pretextual. He declined to rule that the motion itself was pretextual, because the question is moot. But he made it clear he thinks DOJ’s excuses for blowing up the Flynn prosecution are bullshit.
And this post notes that, before Sullivan started mooting the shit out of DOJ’s interest in his docket, he struck some documents that Sidney Powell had submitted to his docket because the government had not authenticated them, without at the same time striking another document that the government didn’t rely on but had not authenticated. It’s a tactical step, I think, that leaves everything else in his docket as authenticated, even though DOJ stopped short of standing by all those exhibits. … …
One way to think about this (language) is that Billy Barr attempted to create a new set of facts by submitting documents from the Jeffrey Jensen investigation to Sullivan’s docket and making false claims about them, thereby attempting to annul the set of facts that led DOJ (even DOJ under Bill Barr, repeatedly) to argue that Mike Flynn’s lies were serious. Judge Sullivan is having none of Billy Barr’s new reality, in significant part because DOJ has not explained what changed from its prior assertions of fact and partly because none of the claims it has made about the so-called new evidence refutes DOJ’s prior representations.
These findings of fact may have a more specific effect, though. Billy Barr has served up his different set of facts and based off those, John Durham is attempting to criminalize the decisions of the people that prosecuted Mike Flynn for telling the FBI material lies. DOJ generally has no basis to appeal Sullivan’s findings, because its position in the docket is (as Sullivan notes repeatedly) moot. But Durham has even less ability to contest Sullivan’s findings of fact; he has no standing.
So unless DOJ finds a way around the fact that they themselves have mooted any further involvement before Judge Sullivan, then, any further investigation into the circumstances of Flynn’s prosecution will have to contend with the fact that a judge has already found a number of key premises entertained by those pushing the investigation to be false.
At least as of right now, it is not relevant to Trump’s pardon of Mike Flynn. But one thing Sullivan did in his opinion was to reject Billy Barr’s new reality in a way that may be invoked for any related matters before DC District courts.
⭕ 8 Dec 2020
NYT (12/8): Here’s when Biden’s win becomes official — and how Trump has been trying to prevent that http://nyti.ms/2Hut7vg Calendar of Key Dates ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1338367174377877504?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MatthewSteigler Important point Trump’s lawyer is missing: they haven’t filed a cert petition.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @JennaEllisEsq IMPORTANT POINT REPORTERS ARE MISSING IN PA SUIT: ¤
The Supreme Court only denied emergency injunctive relief. In the order, it did NOT deny cert. @MikeKellyPA’s suit is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
⋙⋙⋙ SCOTUS: http://bit.ly/3oCIq4R
⋙ 🐣 RT @MatthewSteigler Was feeling fairly clever til I discovered @steve_vladeck said it an hour before I did.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ Important point @JennaEllisEsq is missing in PA suit: ¤ @MikeKellyPA hasn’t even *filed* a petition for certiorari in his case; he had sought an injunction pending a *future* appeal. So there was nothing else for #SCOTUS to deny. ¤ Other than that though…
WaPo: Supreme Court denies Trump allies’ bid to overturn Pennsylvania election results http://wapo.st/36WlVSy Also includes updates on other efforts to overturn election results
🐣 RT @nicnimh JUST IN: #SCOTUS denies Mike Kelly et al legal challenge to Pennsylvania election results. https://twitter.com/nicninh/status/1336426852982939650?s=20/photo/1
// one sentence “injunctive relief … is denied”
⋙ 🐣 RT @sungirl914 Look more closely… the case is still pending.
🐣 RT @scotusreporter BREAKING: Supreme Court denies request to stop certification of Pennsylvania vote, with no noted dissents.
WaPo, Paul Waldman: Who’s going to tell the GOP base that they’re being scammed? http://wapo.st/36Yuufm “The GOP base’s eagerness to fall for every new iteration of this con is limitless, and nobody knows that better than the party’s leaders.”
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @marceelias 🚨NEW: Texas has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan in the US Supreme Court seeking to invalidate their election results.
My answers to your questions:
✓ No, I am not worried.
✓ No, this won’t succeed.
✓ I have no idea.
⋙ DemocracyDocket: TX v PA VA GA WI http://bit.ly/37PbI9y
WaPo: Safe harbor law locks Congress into accepting Biden’s win http://wapo.st/3qA9aVs “Happy Safe Harbor Day, America. … ‘What federal law requires is that if a state has completed its post-election certification by Dec. 8, Congress is required to accept those results’”
// said Rebecca Green, an election law professor at the William & Mary law school
⭕ 7 Dec 2020
🚫😅 HuffPo [UK]: How Fart Jokes Took Over The Final Days Of Trump’s Presidency http://bit.ly/3qCF8QW
// The president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani just can’t catch a break.
🐣 RT @CNNPolitics Georgia reaffirms Joe Biden’s victory for the third time following recounts, dealing a major blow to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results https://cnn.it/3m4g5mx
WaPo: Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state http://wapo.st/33TFn0g
WaPo: Conservative nonprofit group challenging election results around the country has tie to Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis http://wapo.st/39Us2Zk
Senior Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis serves as special counsel to the Thomas More Society, which has filed lawsuits through the newly formed Amistad Project alleging problems with the vote in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Amistad’s lawsuits have asked courts to allow the Republican-controlled legislatures in battleground states to appoint presidential electors — a strategy Trump and his legal team have urged state lawmakers around the country to embrace. Amistad sought to justify the plan in a paper published Friday that railed against the conduct of election officials in “urban Democrat strongholds.”
For Trump, the Amistad Project has served a key role in helping to keep alive his baseless claims that fraud corrupted the 2020 presidential race. The group’s efforts serve as a third front in the assault against the election results, alongside Trump’s own legal challenges and lawsuits filed by attorney Sidney Powell.
🚫 JerusalemPost: Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready http://37LFfRw
// article seems credible but I’m still not posting; This “Galactic Federation” has supposedly been in contact with Israel and the US for years, but are keeping themselves a secret to prevent hysteria until humanity is ready.
🐣 RT @MaddowBlog “After a parade of sheep and charlatans posing as White House-endorsed public health officials, Joe Biden’s selection of Rochelle Walensky to head up the CDC suggests that conviction and competence are back in vogue in the Beltway.”
⋙ BostonGlobe: Rochelle Walensky and the return of competence http://bit.ly/37IMhGT
// After a parade of sheep and charlatans posing as White House-endorsed public health officials, Joe Biden’s selection of Rochelle Walensky to head up the CDC
🧵 RT @GeoRebekah 1/ There will be no update today. ¤ At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. ¤ They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint. ¤ They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.. 📌 https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1336065787900145665?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @GeoRebekah 2/ ¤ They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country. ¤ They took evidence of corruption at the state level. ¤ They claimed it was about a security breach. ¤ This was DeSantis. ¤ He sent the gestapo.
⋙ 🐣 RT @GeoRebekah This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly. ¤ This is what happens to people who speak truth to power. ¤ I tell them my husband and my two children are upstairs… and THEN one of them draws his gun. ¤ On my children. ¤ This is Desantis’ Florida. […]
💙 TheAtlantic, Zeynep Tufekci: ‘This Must Be Your First’ http://bit.ly/37Lxefg “The U.S. president is trying to steal the election, and, crucially, his party either tacitly approves or is pretending not to see it. This is a particularly dangerous combination”
// Only one widely understood word captures what Donald Trump is trying to do, even though his acts do not meet its technical definition.
⭕ 6 Dec 2020
WaPo: As Trump rants over election, his administration accelerates push to lock in policy and staffing gains http://wapo.st/3oA0JI1
🐣 RT @richarddeitsch “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” — Garry Kasparov.
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC Vice President Al Gore presided over Congressional certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2001, and declared George W. Bush’s victory, adding, “May God bless our new President.” #Getty https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1335789721981775874?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @EvanMcMullin Senators Perdue and Loeffler received intel warnings about the coming pandemic and told the public that everything was okay while quietly moving their money so they’d benefit from the crisis. It’s blatant and deadly corruption that simply cannot be tolerated no matter who it is.
⋙ 🐣 RT @EvanMcMullin At a minimum, we have to be able to trust that our representatives in Congress won’t deceive us about a major threat to our lives so that they can profit on it. But that’s exactly what Perdue and Loeffler did. It’s an incredibly inhumane abuse of the public trust.
🐣 RT @BillKristol If we had a president, he’d be assisting in a smooth transition to his successor, speaking about the honor of having served in our highest office, denouncing any threats of violence, and telling people to wear masks and behave responsibly in a pandemic. ¤ But we have no president.
💙🧵 RT @ASlavitt COVID Update December 6: I understand how hard it is to want to believe in an unpleasant reality. ¤ I really do. 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1335763841360130048?s=20
🔄 Google: AP: Latest 2020 Presidential Election Results
or https://abcnews.go.com/Elections
💙 🔄 WaPo: Who Joe Biden is picking to fill his White House and Cabinet http://wapo.st/2JPg2gO
// continually updated; tags: Biden Cabinet picks Biden Cabinet nominees under consideration Cabinet options possible Cabinet nominees
⭕ 5 Dec 2020
DailyBeast, David Perry and Matthew Gabriele: History Will Judge Trump but We’ve Got to Do It First http://bit.ly/3lR1NFq A plea by two historians to investigate and expose (if not prosecute) the travesties committed by the Trump administration
// Trump may feel like an aberration now, but give it time and he’ll blend right in with other recent Republicans whose regimes broke the law and got away with it.
🌎 AP: Biden officially secures enough electors to become president http://bit.ly/2VHKmfQ “California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win”
● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1335575381454303237?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @davidmweissman When I was a conservative watching @JudgeJeanine, I always wanted her to take down President Obama & wondered why she never did. I understand why that never happened. One, she’s kind of crazy, and two, they had nothing on President Obama. When you lose hate, you see clearly.
// NeverTrumper
🐣 RT @RichardHaass This sentence still stuns even tho we know it: “The president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health & economic crises afflicting the nation & largely clearing his schedule of meetings unrelated to his desperate bid to rewrite the election results.”
⋙ NYT, Peter Baker: Trump’s Final Days of Rage and Denial http://nyti.ms/37KVHBM
// Shakespearean; The last act of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.
On Saturday night, Mr. Trump took his unreality show to Georgia for his first major public appearance since the Nov. 3 election. A rally to support two Republican senators in a runoff next month offered a high-profile opportunity to vent his grievances and promote his false claims that he was somehow cheated of a second term by a vast conspiracy.
“You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” he told supporters in a state that he lost by 12,000 votes, adding that he actually won other states where in fact he lost too. “They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it,” he declared as he pressured Republican state officials to overturn the results. “We just need somebody with courage to do what they have to do.”
[W]hile he will leave office in 46 days, the last few weeks may only foreshadow what he will be like after he departs. Mr. Trump will almost certainly try to shape the national conversation from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his relentless campaign to discredit the election could undercut his successor, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Although many Republicans would like to move on, he appears intent on forcing them to remain in thrall to his need for vindication and vilification even after his term expires.
At times, Mr. Trump’s railing-against-his-fate outbursts seem like a story straight out of William Shakespeare, part tragedy, part farce, full of sound and fury. Is Mr. Trump a modern-day Julius Caesar, forsaken by even some of his closest courtiers? (Et tu, Bill Barr?) Or a King Richard III who wars with the nobility until being toppled by Henry VII? Or King Lear, railing against those who do not love and appreciate him sufficiently? How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless electorate.
“This is classic Act V behavior,” said Jeffrey R. Wilson, a Shakespearean scholar at Harvard who published the book “Shakespeare and Trump” this year. “The forces are being picked off and the tyrant is holed up in his castle and he’s growing increasingly anxious and he feels insecure and he starts blustering about his legitimate sovereignty and he starts accusing the opposition of treason.” …
As the circle around Mr. Trump shrinks and even allies like Mr. Barr distance themselves, the president resists any suggestion that he stand down. “I’m never, ever going to concede,” he told one ally who urged him to prepare to do so. And if he is not listening to advisers, many are no longer listening to him. ¤ At one point, Mr. Trump appeared to telephone Mr. Ducey even as he was certifying Arizona’s results on live television and the governor refused to take the president’s call, which was announced by a “Hail to the Chief” ring tone. …
Top Republican lawyers have dropped off his election lawsuits, which have been dismissed by the dozens and even in one case declared “bizarre” by a judge appointed by Mr. Trump. Five courts in five battleground states rejected his latest legal challenges to the election in a little more than three hours on Friday, with a Wisconsin judge warning that “this is a dangerous path we are being asked to tread.”
Sliding further from the mainstream, the president has aligned himself more with fringe news outlets like One America News Network and the conspiracy theorists of QAnon, who believe the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles plotting against Mr. Trump. In a meeting with Republican senators, according to an official confirming a report in The Post, Mr. Trump said QAnon followers “basically believe in good government,” a comment that left the room silent until his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, volunteered that he had never heard them described that way.
With six weeks until he leaves office, Mr. Trump remains as unpredictable and erratic as ever. He may fire Mr. Barr or others, issue a raft of pardons to protect himself and his allies or incite a confrontation overseas. Like King Lear, he may fly into further rages and find new targets for his wrath. ¤ “If there are these analogies between classic literature and society as it’s operating right now, then that should give us some big cause for concern this December,” said Mr. Wilson, the Shakespearean scholar. “We’re approaching the end of the play here and that’s where catastrophe always comes.”
DailyBeast, Will Sommer: The GOP’s QAnon Faction Is Waging War on Republicans http://bit.ly/2JQsflx
// It’s the conspiracy theories versus those who want to keep a toe, at least, in the world of the real.
DailyBeast, Sam Brodey: Trump Uses Georgia Rally to Urge His Supporters to Avenge Him http://bit.ly/3lOEegq
// The president, and the crowd that gathered to see him in Valdosta on Saturday night, were clearly most invested in the election that just happened rather than the one ahead.
🧵 RT @ASlavitt COVID Update December 5: There’s a common real estate expression Trump is very familiar with called “other people’s money.” ¤ It means if a bank lends you their money, you can take any risk you want. ¤ Trump’s presidency has been guided by the principle “other people’s lives.”1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1335395470609244160?s=20
🐣 RT @thedailybeast “One of the big challenges that Joe Biden is going to have is to figure out how to puncture that information bubble that, not just Republican officials, but a sizable portion of voters are in right now,” says Obama
DailyBeast, Matt Wilstein: Obama Tells Colbert That Trump ‘Exceeded’ His Worst Nightmares http://bit.ly/2Lbxahw
// The former president revealed to Stephen Colbert what was going through his mind when he first sat down with the newly elected Donald Trump at the White House
“You couldn’t make up some of the stuff that you’re seeing,” Obama said. “And it is to the detriment of the country, but it also runs contrary to what would have been smart politics if the Republicans wanted to maintain the White House.”
“And that in some ways is more troubling because now it’s no longer even strategic,” he continued. “You’re drinking your own Kool-Aid in a way that I think is troublesome. And one of the big challenges that Joe Biden is going to have is to figure out how to puncture that information bubble that, not just Republican officials, but a sizable portion of voters are in right now.”
As Trump continues to deny that he legitimately lost to Biden, Colbert reminded Obama about the gracious way he invited his successor into the White House for a meeting and photo-op shortly after the 2016 election. The host said it was a “chilling moment” to watch because he had an “emotional flash” of all the ways Trump could abuse the “dignity of the office” over his first term. “Were you having a similar feeling in that moment?” he asked.
“Yeah, it was a concern,” Obama answered. When Colbert asked if those concerns were “borne out,” Obama said they were “exceeded.”
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump is about to hold a rally (ostensibly for Loeffler and Perdue) in Valdosta, Georgia. It will be his first since losing the presidential election to Joe Biden. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1335374464377352193?s=20
WaPo: Trump calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning Biden’s win in the state http://wapo.st/36LDXqr
🧵 RT @McFaul Here’s my @JoeBiden foreign policy “to do” list in the first year. ¤ Day One: rejoin the Paris climate agreement. THREAD. 📌 https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1335280325157535744?s=20
⭕ 4 Dec 2020
TheDispatch, Jonah Goldberg: Screwtape Went Down to Georgia http://bit.ly/3mT2TBV
// ‘The safest road to Hell is the gradual one.’
For the last few years, a certain subset of the right has convinced itself that the Democrats aren’t just wrong or even bad, but that they are singularly evil and lethally dangerous enemies of America, hell-bent on destroying all that is sacred by imposing godless socialism on us all.
I’ll skip the usual structural reasons for this development—the Big Sort, media balkanization, and, yes, the behavior of some Democrats—and focus instead on the part relevant to my point. The president of the United States said this sort of thing a lot.
A second data point: The president is a deeply flawed and crude person with a thumbless grasp of the Constitution, the duties of his office, and the most rudimentary tenets of religion and traditional morality. Because this is so incandescently obvious, casting the Democrats as an existential threat to All We Hold Dear makes it a lot easier to overlook these things. Hence all of that “He’s our King David” gibberish from the early days of the Trump presidency. When you’re in a Manichean existential battle with the unholy Forces of Darkness, it’s much easier to overlook the adultery, greed, deceit, and corruption of your anointed champion.
Now, normally I’m not one to leap to the defense of Democrats, but I think offering the faint praise that they are not all evil incarnate is literally the least I can do. …
For nearly five years now, it has been obvious that Trump was unfit for the job and the arguments marshaled in his defense were cynical rationalizations that, for some, eventually mutated into sincerely held delusions. Sure, some deluded themselves from the beginning, but I’ve talked to too many Republican politicians and conservative media darlings who admitted it in private. And even the griftier gibbons going full Gorka as they fling their own feces for fun and profit in Trump’s defense knew it. …
Now, America isn’t in Hell, but the people who did nothing, or far too little, are daily beset by lesser, fresher, hells of their own making—and I’m making popcorn. The gloriously entertaining spectacle of Trump and his ambitious progeny suddenly having to deal with their own mini-Trumps in the form of Wood, Powell, and their minions is enough to turn their home-brewed dumpster juice into a delicious elixir sweeter even than liberal tears. …
I understand that this all sounds awfully self-righteous. But I’ll tell you, I feel like I deserve my gloating. I’m not alone in my right to it, but I deserve my share. I’ve been saying “don’t do this” for five years and I’ve been mocked and shunned for it. So forgive me if I enjoy my I-told-you-so moment. Or don’t forgive me. I’m used to it.
NewYorker, Steve Coll: Donald Trump, George Wallace, and the Influence of Losers http://bit.ly/2VJvVrX
// The outgoing President may find himself stunned by the speed at which former loyalists distance themselves. But his ideological imprint on the G.O.P. is likely to remain.
DailyBeast, Justin Baragona: CNBC Hosts Get in Off-the-Rails Shouting Match Over Masks and COVID Restrictions http://bit.ly/39VhSYi Rick Santelli, “a godfather of the tea-party movement” has also embraced herd immunity
// Andrew Ross Sorkin told Rick Santelli he was doing a “disservice” to their viewers by denying masks work, prompting Santelii to yell: “You are! You are!”
🐣 RT @RachelBitecofer I KNOW. I’m loving the soothing banality of Biden. ¤ He’s so sane and orderly. And coherent. God I missed coherent. ¤ I wanted it back so badly. I’ll never taken it for granted again. I will work tirelessly every day to defend our hard-fought return to boring!
⋙ 🐣 RT @LarrySabato I’m watching President-elect @JoeBiden’s press conference. It’s so refreshingly NORMAL. After 4 years of the bizarre and the disturbing, we really are going to have a return to normalcy.
WaPo, Beverly Gage: McCarthyism was never defeated. Trumpism won’t be either. http://wapo.st/37DWh3V
// Censure brought down a crusading anti-communist senator but fired up his followers.
tags: William F Buckley, Army McCarthy, Eisenhower, National Review, Roy Cohn, Edward R Murrow, paranoid style, Trumpism
ScienceNews: 50 years ago, scientists caught their first glimpse of amino acids from outer space http://bit.ly/3qqwGEe
// Excerpt from the December 5, 1970 issue of Science News
WaPo: Pentagon blocks visits to military spy agencies by Biden transition team http://wapo.st/3gaYQhM “[T]he delays have impaired the Biden team’s ability to get up to speed on espionage operations against Russia, China, Iran and other U.S. adversaries”
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: The size of Joe Biden’s victory matters. And it is huge. http://wapo.st/3qucotr Biden “cleared 51 percent — the largest vote percentage obtained against an incumbent president since 1932 … If there is such a thing as a mandate, Biden has one”
Biden not only received a majority of the popular vote, but also cleared 51 percent — the largest vote percentage obtained against an incumbent president since 1932 and a bigger percentage of the popular vote than any Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1988, when Bush was essentially running for a third Ronald Reagan term. In the process, Biden amassed the largest total number of ballots in U.S. history. He pummeled Trump by more than 7 million votes (and exceeded Barack Obama’s 2008 vote total by more than 11 million). That margin is bigger than Massachusetts’ entire population; in fact, only 14 states have a population of more than 7 million. Biden’s popular vote margin by percentage (4.4 percent) far surpasses Obama’s 2012 victory over Mitt Romney.
Why is it important to emphasize the magnitude of Biden’s victory? Because, far from narrow, it represents the overwhelming verdict of the voters. If there is such a thing as a mandate, Biden has one. He has been explicit about the things he intends to do: preserve and expand Obamacare, pass child-care and sick-leave legislation, pursue police reform, push through a massive infrastructure bill and tackle climate change.
… That it is of such an enormous magnitude should earn at the very least a measure of consideration and deference from senators who were given their seats by a comparatively tiny portion of the electorate. Treating Biden as anything but the president-elect and denying him ample latitude to compile the Cabinet and senior staff of his choosing represents an outlandish attempt to preempt the will of more than 80 million Americans.
NYT, Michelle Goldberg: The MAGA Revolution Devours Its Own http://nyti.ms/33LwyFJ “The Republican establishment, and also the conservative establishment, has always made this bet that it could open Pandora’s box and close it on command” ~ historian Rick Perlstein
// Republicans encouraged Trumpist havoc. Now it’s coming for them.
“The Republican establishment, and also the conservative establishment, has always made this bet that it could open Pandora’s box and close it on command,” Rick Perlstein, a historian of American conservatism, told me. They could activate tribalism to achieve power, while maintaining a modicum of respectability. They could create an alternative reality but keep people enclosed within it. But with Trump “having pried Pandora’s box open, that becomes impossible,” Perlstein said. ¤ Republicans helped Trump unleash countless civic evils. They shouldn’t be surprised when those evils don’t spare them.
IHME: COVID-19 Projection for US http://bit.ly/2QuOKfB Daily Deaths are expected to peak at ~2971 on 1/13/2021.
🐣 ◕ 🔆 This❗️⋙ The new IHME projections are dire. Their early projections were off, but lately they have been right on the mark. THE NEXT 3 MONTHS ARE DIRE. Vaccines will be too late to help most us. Hospitals will need help. ¤ IHME: COVID-19 Projection for US http://bit.ly/2QuOKfB ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1334940595643625479?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @TheTweetOfGod No.
⋙ 🐣 RT @RightWingWatch Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann has a personal request for God: “Lord, would you allow Donald Trump to have a second term as president of the United States.” 💽 https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/1334889119290335235?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 3 Dec 2020
WSJ, Peggy Noonan: Who’ll Be 2020’s Margaret Chase Smith? http://on.wsj.com/3oI71p9 “When history hands you a McCarthy—reckless, heedlessly manipulating his followers—be a Margaret Chase Smith … You’d likely pay some price. But years later you’d still be admired“
// Seventy years ago, Maine’s first female senator distinguished herself for her courage and integrity.
WaPo, Aaron Rappaport: It might not be so simple for Trump to pardon his children and Giuliani http://wapo.st/3mODnxQ “[I]f the issue were to arise, there is a significant possibility that [SCOTUS], dominated by … originalists, would invalidate the use of blanket pardons”
[B]ased on the Framers’ original understanding of the pardon authority, … while the pardon power grants the president expansive authority, that power is not unlimited. Most importantly, the Framers would have understood that pardons must be issued for specific crimes. They were not intended to be broad grants of immunity, get-out-of-jail-free cards bestowed by presidential grace.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that the scope of the pardon clause should be interpreted in light of its meaning at the time of the founding. This originalist methodology means looking to 18th-century English law. …
Since English law informs our own understanding of the pardon power, there is a strong argument that the specificity requirement is part of our Constitution and serves as a constraint on the president’s authority. That would not prevent the president from issuing pardons to anyone for any reason, but it does require that each pardoned crime be listed.
In the case of his family and personal lawyer, such a list might prove embarrassing to the president — and edifying to the public. In this way, specificity raises the political costs of issuing such pardons. It also reduces the pardon’s effectiveness. Should a relevant offense be left off the list, the pardon’s recipient would be vulnerable to prosecution.
The Supreme Court has never ruled on the specificity requirement, and the question of the validity of any blanket pardon by Trump would come up only if a federal prosecutor seeks to indict a pardon recipient who raises the pardon as a barrier to prosecution.
But if the issue were to arise, there is a significant possibility that a court, dominated by self-identified originalists, would invalidate the use of blanket pardons. This possibility should make Trump pause before offering such pardons to friends and family. But it also leaves him in a bind. Should he attempt to specify each and every federal crime committed by his children or lawyer? Or is that a gift too costly even for Trump to consider?
NYT, Neal Katyal: I Wrote the Special Counsel Rules. Barr Has Abused Them. http://nyti.ms/36EjsMp
// There is no reason for the outgoing attorney general to appoint his preferred prosecutor for the continuing Trump-Russia inquiry.
🐣📋 RT @davidfrum Share of vote 21st c. presidential candidates
1) Obama 2008 52.9
2) Biden 2020 51.3
3) Obama 2012 51.1
4) Bush 2004 50.7
5) Gore 2000 48.4
6) Kerry 2004 48.3
7) Clinton 2016 48.2
8) Bush 2000 47.9
9) Romney 2012 47.2
10) Trump 2020 46.9
11) Trump 2016 46.1
12) McCain 2008 45.7
NewYorker, Susan Glasser: President Trump Is Acting Crazy, so Why Are We Shrugging It Off? http://bit.ly/39M9Z7P “Either the President actually believes what he is saying or he is engaged in the most cynical attack on American democracy ever to come from the White House”
// The dangerous “yeah, whatever” phase of Trump’s lame-duck Presidency.
// caption: Either the President actually believes what he is saying or he is engaged in the most cynical attack on American democracy ever to come from the White House.
🐣 RT @thedailybeast When even Rudy Giuliani thinks you’re too much
DailyBeast: Rudy Attempts to Shush Unhinged ‘Witness’ During Election Fraud Hearing http://bit.ly/36Cnvsl
// The Trump legal team presented Melissa Carone for testimony despite a judge already declaring her allegations as “simply not credible.”
Politico: Pro-Trump legal crusade peppered with bizarre blunders http://politi.co/33KGEH0
// Spelling errors, misplaced states and client mix-ups are the main results so far of Sidney Powell’s legal efforts to overturn the election.
// Sidney Powell released the Kraken. And it turns out the mythological sea beast can’t spell, is terrible at geography and keeps mislabeling plaintiffs in court.
🐣 RT @Angry_Staffer The official serving as Trump’s eyes and ears at DOJ has been banned from the building after trying to pressure staffers to give up sensitive information about election fraud and other matters she could relay to the White House, per 3 sources
⋙ AP: Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info http://bit.ly/3g5F73b
⭕ 2 Dec 2020
WaPo, Paul Waldman: What’s the future of the GOP? You’re looking at it — and it’s bonkers. http://wapo.st/3qpiDPo
While he might have a change of heart, at this point it looks unlikely that Trump will merely retire to Mar-a-Lago and fill his days playing golf. He’ll keep saying he might run again, so the media and the party keep paying attention to him. As a consequence he’ll retain his position as leader of the GOP, shaping its agenda, keeping it focused on bitter attacks and conspiracy theories, and receiving the fealty of every ambitious Republican.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @semperdiced Is this SNL? 💽 https://twitter.com/semperdiced/status/1334374454181289990?s=20/photo/1
// Rudy’s witness
🐣 RT @justinbaragona Here’s Lin Wood telling Georgia Republicans NOT to vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue next month. ¤ “They have not earned your vote. Don’t you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for god’s sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it!” 💽 https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1334227769115484161?s=20/photo/1
WaPo Editorial: The GOP’s push to slime its own honest members is just a grab for cash and political advantage http://wapo.st/2I2RIr8
🐣 RT @Alt_uscis Sydney power [Powell] keeps telling her MAGA crowd not to vote in the runoff. Keep going Sydney 💽 https://twitter.com/ALT_uscis/status/1334220486574739458?s=20/photo/1
// rally with @llinwood
NYT, Thomas Edsall: Honestly, This Was a Weird Election http://nyti.ms/2I39Fpy //➔ While voters soundly rejected Trump, in down-ballot races in the suburbs they also rejected the progressive extreme, with progressive appeal concentrating in already-Democratic city strongholds
// Biden soared among crucial suburban voters. Democrats? Not so much.
🧵 🌎 RT @DrEricDing NEW—Dire warnings in WH Coronavirus Task Force’s confidential state report warns “#COVID19 risk to all Americans is at a historic high” and that “we are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity.” 📌 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1334306978248724481?s=20/photo/1
🐣 🌎 RT @madremiarosalia democracy! https://twitter.com/madremiarosaIia/status/1334314474015236097?s=20/photo/1
// “The 28 senators from these 14 states represent fewer people than the 2 senators from California”; tags: the 10 percent rules, the ten percent rules, the 10% rules
TheBulwark, Mark Becker: My Call With Ron Johnson: He Knows Biden Won But Won’t Admit It http://bit.ly/2I2VkJK
// The Wisconsin senator says it would be “political suicide.”
WaPo, Philip Rucker: Trump escalates baseless attacks on election with 46-minute video rant http://wapo.st/3mtXD7H
🐣 RT @gtconway3d it’s as though he’s in the bunker, his days numbered, directing ministers to destroy bridges and factories, and ordering generals to attack with armies that no longer exist
Esquire, Charles Pierce: My God, He’s Completely Insane http://bit.ly/3oh9oPh “He does everything except rub dirt in his hair”
// With “the most important speech he’s ever made,” the president announced he will bring the temple down on his own head.
// He does everything except rub dirt in his hair. Me? I have a very brief tolerance for sedition in high places.
WaPo, Philip Bump: The most petulant 46 minutes in American history http://wapo.st/2VAh2rD
🔆 This❗️⋙ YahooNews, David Knowles (Ed.): Trump rehashes bogus vote-fraud claims for 46 minutes in his ‘most important speech’ ever http://yhoo.it/2VuPvrF
↥ ↧
💽 Facebook: Trump’s 46-minute speech http://bit.ly/3qmIxmG
💙 NYT, Thomas Friedman: Biden Made Sure ‘Trump Is Not Going to Be President for Four More Years’ – Interview http://nyti.ms/36vNQIE “We got to figure out how to work together,” he said. Otherwise, “we’re in real trouble.”
// Here’s what Joe Biden had to say about the future in our interview.
🐣 RT @TheAtlantic “Trump’s veneer of invincibility is fading. He lost his bid for reelection, and staged the most incompetent coup attempt since Woody Allen’s ‘Bananas,'” @Yascha_Mounk writes:
⋙ TheAtlantic: Why Trump Might Just Fade Away http://bit.ly/3lvsjnS
// Americans will soon grow tired of the president, despite his efforts to stay in the limelight.
🐣 RT @marceelias Here is the clearest articulation of Powell’s Kraken conspiracy theory, complete with Iran, China, Chavez, and Kemp. Text Block: https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1334208646771773446?s=20/photo/1
💙 NYT, Frank Bruni: The Deep State Is on a Roll http://nyti.ms/3qnBiLi “These officials and servants are distinguished by a professionalism that survives and edges out their partisan bearings”
// Three cheers for Anthony Fauci and all the other glorious cogs.
🐣 RT @cnni “Attorney General William Barr dealt the most credible blow to Trump’s lies about a stolen election, precisely because he previously often came across more as the President’s personal lawyer than a neutral arbiter of justice.” | Analysis by @StCollinson
⋙ CNN, Stephen Collinson: William Barr breaks with Trump’s election fantasy http://cnn.it/3qjb50v
⭕ 1 Dec 2020
WaPo, Christopher Krebs: Trump fired me for saying this, but I’ll say it again: The election wasn’t rigged http://wapo.st/3mHxCle Details the steps taken by CISA to make the 2020 election “the most secure in US history” esp in the change to auditable paper-based systems
With the advantage of time to prepare for the 2020 election, we got to work. My team at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, had primary responsibility for working with state and local election officials and the private sector to secure their election infrastructure — including the machines, equipment and systems supporting elections — from hacking. (Other agencies handle fraud or other criminal election-related activity.) The Russian assault in 2016 had not included hacking voting machines, but we couldn’t be sure that Moscow or some other bad actor wouldn’t try it in 2020.
A key development was the establishment of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center to share security-related information with people who can act on it for defensive purposes. By the 2018 midterm elections, all 50 states and thousands of jurisdictions had joined the center.
We offered a range of cybersecurity services, such as scanning systems for vulnerable software or equipment, and conducting penetration tests on networks. Election officials across the country responded by markedly improving cybersecurity, including upgrading to more modern systems, hardening user accounts through additional log-on measures and being quicker to share suspicious-event information.
But there was a critical weak spot. Voting machines known as Direct Recording Electronic machines, or DREs, do not generate paper records for individual votes. And paper ballots are essential pieces of evidence for checking a count’s accuracy. With DREs, the vote is recorded on the machine and combined with voting data from other machines during the tabulation process. If those machines were compromised, state officials would not have the benefit of back-up paper ballots to conduct an audit.
In 2016, five states used DREs statewide, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, with a handful of others using DREs in multiple jurisdictions. Fortunately, by 2020, Louisiana was the last one with statewide DRE usage. Congress provided grant funding in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to states to help them retire the paperless machines and roll out auditable systems. As the 2020 election season began, Delaware, Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina all swapped over to paper-based systems. ¤ The combined efforts over the past three years moved the total number of expected votes cast with a paper ballot above 90 percent, including the traditional battleground states.
The secretaries of state in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, as well officials in Wisconsin, all worked overtime to ensure there was a paper trail that could be audited or recounted by hand, independent of any allegedly hacked software or hardware.
That’s why Americans’ confidence in the security of the 2020 election is entirely justified. Paper ballots and post-election checks ensured the accuracy of the count.
The 2020 election was the most secure in U.S. history. This success should be celebrated by all Americans, not undermined in the service of a profoundly un-American goal.
NYT, Susan Rice: Our Democracy’s Near-Death Experience http://nyti.ms/3qh0pzn “For now, our democracy has held. Still, the lesson we must learn is not a reassuring one”
// Now is no time for complacency. The next Congress must shore up our institutions.
Mr. Trump and his political allies have been employing nearly every weapon at their disposal to try to retain the White House, notwithstanding the will of the people.
First, the Trump campaign labored (largely in vain) to concoct bogus conspiracy theories to discredit Mr. Biden by falsely smearing his son Hunter. To do so, Mr. Trump and his associates solicited foreign assistance from Ukraine and China and relied on Russian agents to disseminate disinformation.
Second, Trump supporters worked assiduously to suppress the vote by denigrating the legitimacy of mail-in ballots during a pandemic, limiting access to ballot drop-boxes and polling stations, flooding social media with messaging to dampen minority voter turnout, blasting robocalls to deceive voters about where and when to vote and manipulating the postal system to delay ballot delivery.Third, some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters intimidated voters at the polls. Heeding calls to “stand by” and “go into the polls and watch very carefully,” they deployed, sometimes armed, in Black and brown communities under the guise of ensuring no fraudulent votes were cast.
Fourth, in the run-up to Election Day, Mr. Trump dispatched an army of litigants to enlist the courts in curtailing access to the polls. Since the election, his legal team has tried repeatedly to halt ballot counting and toss out legitimately cast votes that most likely favored Mr. Biden. Ultimately, Mr. Trump summoned Michigan’s Republican leaders to the White House, apparently in an attempt to coax the state’s Legislature into unilaterally appointing Trump electors.
Despite these machinations, the worst fears about this election failed to materialize. Defying the combined challenges of the pandemic, a chaotic primary season, foreign interference and presidential sabotage, the 2020 election proved to be one of the cleanest and, according to senior U.S. officials, the “most secure” in our nation’s history. The American people voted in unprecedented numbers, risking their health and foiling efforts in many states to make voting as difficult as possible. African-Americans, especially, braved countless barriers to casting their ballots.
There is no proof, nor even credible evidence, of significant voting irregularities, much less fraud. Republican and Democratic state and local officials largely adhered to their legal responsibilities, conducting the tabulation and certification processes honestly and transparently. Federal officials, sometimes collaborating with the private sector, effectively minimized the impact of Russian electoral interference.
For now, our democracy has held. ¤ Still, the lesson we must learn is not a reassuring one: A determined autocrat in the White House poses a grave threat to our democratic institutions and can severely undermine faith in our elections, particularly when backed by partisans in Congress.
[B]olstering our democracy depends in large part on the people of Georgia voting out their incumbent senators on Jan. 5. If the Senate flips to Democratic control, Congress will be able to apply the lessons of our democracy’s near-death experience.
It would enact the For the People Act to combat corruption, strengthen ethics rules and improve voter access as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the protections of the 1965 legislation. Congress would pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act to constrain the power of future presidents who deem themselves above the law and finally adopt long-stalled legislation to shore up our election infrastructure against adversaries, foreign or domestic.Now is no time for self-congratulation or complacency. We must act with the unique urgency and courage of those who know they are living on borrowed time.
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “I think we’ll look back on this as one of the most historic months of the last hundred years… It was the month where American democracy was poisoned intentionally, deliberately with lies” – @SteveSchmidtSES w/ @NicolleDWallace 💽 https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1333914325682171904?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Redistrict Breaking: Donald Trump’s share of the U.S. vote just fell to 46.9%. He’s now failed to crack 47% in either of his runs for president (for perspective, Mitt Romney got 47.2% in 2012 and Hillary Clinton got 48.2% in 2016).
🐣 RT @AshaRangappa The pardon power is practically unfettered: The President may generally *grant* a pardon to whomever he wants. But 1) “dangling” a pardon — offering it as an enticement for personal benefit (as detailed in Mueller Report) or 2) offering/accepting money for a pardon is a crime.
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman Oh man. I wonder who this is
⋙ 🐣 RT @ShimonPro NEW: Unsealed court document in DC reveals DOJ investigating an alleged “secret lobbying scheme” and a bribery conspiracy that offered “a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence.” @kpolantz
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ We don’t know who it involves. We don’t know who the person seeking the pardon is. All of that is redacted. Appears to still be an active investigation.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ Search warrants were executed: ¤ 50 digital devices including iPhones, iPads, laptops, thumb drives and computer drives were seized after investigators raided offices.
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Unbelievable. Barr has made Durham Special Counsel so he can continue to investigate the 2016 Russia probe even after Biden takes office. What a dick.
AP: Interview: Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud http://bit.ly/2KPLMmo
Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. ¤ His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the election was stolen, Trump’s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election and his refusal to concede his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.
Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election. Barr was headed to the White House later for a previously scheduled meeting. ¤ “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.
Shortly after Barr’s statement was published, Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud. And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation.
The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.
But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Attorney Sidney Powell has spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.
Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.
🐣 RT @mattyglesias Yes.
⋙ NYMag, Jonathan Chait: ‘White Women Voted for Trump’ Is the Worst Election Trope http://nym.ag/3qf0kw5
// If you voted against Trump, Trump’s not your fault.
⋙ 🐣 Three times as many white women as Black women voted for Biden. A lower % of Blacks voted for Biden than for Clinton. This particular election was won by whites in the suburbs, particularly: white men, both with AND without college education (vs 2016) http://brook.gs/37bYO5q
🐣 RT @brianklaas One of the most sinister aspects of Trump’s lies about the election are that they are being pushed by people who know better – people who know they are lying, but also know that the lies will be widely believed by millions. It is beyond disqualifying and must never be forgotten.
⭕ 30 Nov 2020
WaPo, Brian Klaas: How to protect our democracy from a future Donald Trump http://wapo.st/2VxzBg1 “Trump’s efforts to undermine the system have an unintended benefit. He found the hidden cracks that always existed in American democracy and exposed them for all to see”
NewStatesman: Anne Applebaum on Donald Trump: “History has always hung in the balance. We just imagine that it didn’t” http://bit.ly/33xH3MM
// The historian and author of Twilight of Democracy on the meaning of the US election result and whether the age of progress is over.
… A lot depends on how Trump comes to be perceived over the next few weeks and months. It may be that as he leaves office, and power slips away from him, and he continues to say that the election was stolen, which he will – people may begin to find him ridiculous. [Though] I imagine there will be some cult following.
… the existence of a third of the population that is no longer interested in following the rules, and no longer believes in the system – it’s toxic. And it has all these implications. It makes future elections hard to resolve, it might make laws difficult to pass, and it may polarise the other side as well. Because every time they vote for a Democrat, the Democrat is blocked and can’t do anything. And that is going to create a disappointment with democracy on the other side of the spectrum, which would also eventually be very dangerous.
I suppose we have several hopes. One is that the contradiction between what they’re seeing on their news feeds and real life will begin to bother some of them.
It’s the same thing that happened to Soviet propaganda: it eventually became so jarring, and so far away from reality, that people could see through it. [Although] Soviet propaganda worked for a long time, and was very effective. We now remember it retrospectively as having been a joke, but it didn’t feel that way, if you were living in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. But it ceases to portray reality. That’s what we have to hope for in any case.
There is also the reality of other people. Even people who watch Fox all the time, and watch Newsmax, eventually encounter people who don’t. And they have to cope with the idea that there’s an alternative epistemological system. One of the tasks of politics from now on – not just for the left, but for the centrist Democrats and the Republicans and the centre-right – is to try and find ways of reaching those people. … …
Every day there are a huge range of radical options open to us. Every day history could go one direction or another. Our societies could be on a road to steep decline and disaster – or we could recover, and America will lead a new democratic coalition and we’ll create a better world. But neither one of those outcomes is for sure. And both of them depend on the decisions of many different people.
History has always hung in the balance. We just imagined that it didn’t, but it always does. And, by the way, the people who invented American democracy knew that. That’s what they were talking about when they were writing the constitution. What they were all remembering was the fall of Rome. They were reading Cato and Cicero, or popularised, bowdlerised versions of them.
Aristotle said that democracy leads to tyranny, and they had that in their heads. They wrote the constitution in order to seek to avoid that, but they always knew it was possible. There’s the famous quote from Alexander Hamilton, in which he says, one day a demagogue will come along, and people will believe him, and he’ll lead them astray with false promises. They always knew that.
It’s the illusion of the last several decades, because of the incredible success of our democracies since the 1940s, through the 1980s and 1990s. It didn’t always look that way. There were some bad moments in the Sixties and Seventies, but it felt like democracy was constantly triumphing and spreading and there was something inevitable. It was a major and important success, but there is no law of history that meant it had to be a success. ¤ … It’s up to people in their 20s and 30s. What’s the world going to look like in 2050? They’ll decide.
NationalReview Editorial: Trump’s Disgraceful Endgame http://bit.ly/3qeyS1v “Flawed and dishonest assertions … pollute the public discourse and mislead good people who make the mistake of believing things said by the president of the United States”
The idea, as the Trump team stalwartly maintains, that the Supreme Court is going to take up this case and issue a game-changing ruling is fantastical. Conservative judges have consistently rejected Trump’s flailing legal appeals, and the justices are unlikely to have a different reaction.
Trump’s most reprehensible tactic has been to attempt, somewhat shamefacedly, to get local Republican officials to block the certification of votes and state legislatures to appoint Trump electors in clear violation of the public will. This has gone nowhere, thanks to the honesty and sense of duty of most of the Republicans involved, but it’s a profoundly undemocratic move that we hope no losing presidential candidate ever even thinks of again.
Getting defeated in a national election is a blow to the ego of even the most thick-skinned politicians and inevitably engenders personal feelings of bitterness and anger. What America has long expected is that losing candidates swallow those feelings and at least pretend to be gracious. If Trump’s not capable of it, he should at least stop waging war on the outcome.
NatRev, Jim Geraghty: The Stolen-Election Narrative Needs to End http://bit.ly/2HUav7Y
Sunday morning, President Trump called in to Maria Bartiromo’s program on Fox News and laid out his account of what happened in the 2020 presidential election:
A glitch is supposed to be when a machine breaks down. Well, no, we had glitches where they moved thousands of votes from my account to Biden’s account. And these are glitches. So, they’re not glitches. They’re theft. They’re fraud, absolute fraud. And there were many of them, but, obviously, most of them tremendous amounts, got by without us catching. We got lucky to catch them. I think we caught four or five glitches of about 5,000 votes each, and different states. And, again, they’re not glitches . . . This election was over. And then they did dumps. They call them dumps, big, massive dumps, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and all over. If you take a look at — you just take a look at just about every state that we’re talking about, every swing state that we’re talking about. And they did these massive dumps of votes. And, all of a sudden, I went from winning by a lot to losing by a little.
. . . We’re talking — there are a lot of dead people that so-called voted in this election. But dead people were, in some cases, in many, many cases, thousands of cases, voted, but, also, dead people made application to vote. They were dead 10 years, 15 years, and they actually made application. This is total fraud. And how the FBI and Department of Justice — I don’t know. Maybe they are involved. But how people are allowed to get away from this stuff — with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This election was a total fraud. And it continues to be, as they hide. And the problem we have, we go to judges, and people don’t want to get involved . . .
. . . they had judges making deals. And they had electoral officials making deals, like this character in Georgia, who is a disaster. And the governor’s done nothing. He’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him. But you — I look at what’s going on. It’s so terrible. They stuffed the ballot boxes. You know, I have been hearing that expression, for many years. You have too, stuffed the ballot — they stuffed the ballot boxes. And they used COVID as a means to stuff the ballot boxes. Joe Biden did not get 16 million more votes than Barack Hussein Obama. He didn’t get it.
Since Election Day, President Trump has repeatedly insisted that the election was a fraud, rigged, or stolen, and that massive numbers of votes for him were secretly switched to Biden by the voting machines or by the officials running the elections in the counties. Yet his legal team has not made these assertions in court, nor have they presented any evidence in court that persuaded any judges. The legal team’s much more limited efforts, disputing much smaller numbers of votes, have almost entirely failed.
President Trump also wants his supporters to go out and vote for incumbent Republican Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the runoff elections in January. It is hard to see why. If Democrats, along with corrupt Republicans, along with every election official in the state, and every county official and local volunteer, and the management of the Dominion voting machines, and perhaps the Venezuelan government, and perhaps the Department of Justice and FBI and whatever other co-conspirators all worked together to steal the state from Trump . . . why would they not also steal the election for the Democrats running for Senate? ¤ What is the point of voting if the elections are rigged, as the president insists?
If the president is telling the truth, why should Georgia Republicans participate in the charade of an election scheduled for January 5? ¤ And if the president isn’t telling the truth . . . why shouldn’t Georgia Republicans — or anyone else — come out and say that he isn’t telling the truth?
🐣 RT @Marmel Took the liberty of making @draiochta14’s fantastic “who’s leaving” card set into a tik tok. Full credit to her… and, of course, @NSYNC.#ByeByeTrump 💽 https://twitter.com/Marmel/status/1333427743170576384?s=20/photo/1
WaPo Editorial: Trump’s latest Fox News rant was one of his most dangerous. Republicans can’t ignore it. http://wapo.st/37lZIwe //➔ Sure they can. And they will.
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S Sunday Fox News rant ranks as one of the most dangerous of his presidency, and that is saying something. Mr. Trump issued claim after incoherent claim about vote rigging — machines switched thousands of votes, dead people voted, mail-in ballots were “phony,” poll watchers “weren’t allowed.” The United States just conducted probably the most secure, transparent presidential vote in its history; Mr. Trump calls it “the most messed-up election we have ever seen.” Proving there is no core national institution he will not besmirch, Mr. Trump attacked the judicial system for failing to ratify his lies and suggested that the Justice Department and the FBI are in on the conspiracy.
Either the president is delusional, or he is willing to knowingly tear down the democracy to deny that he is a loser. Either way, everyone else in a position of trust has a responsibility to defend the nation’s democratic system against Mr. Trump’s sustained assault. Some Republicans, mostly at the state and local levels, have done so, at times under extreme public scrutiny, counting the votes and refusing to manipulate the electoral process to overturn the popular will. For conscientiously overseeing the vote in his state — and standing up for its integrity against baseless attacks from Mr. Trump and the state’s two U.S. senators — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his family have received threats. He and other election officials have had to accept security details.
“It’s time to stand up and be counted,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “Are you going to stand for integrity? Or are you going to stand for the wild mob? You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it’s on the left side. What are you going to do when it’s on our side?” …
For weeks, Republicans dodged by saying Mr. Trump was entitled to make his case in court. Well, he has had his chance. He has failed. Judges, including those appointed by Mr. Trump, have made clear the election was not stolen. The dodge has run its course.
🐣 RT @DrLeanaWen Scott Atlas is not just “highly controversial” but is a widely discredited purveyor of anti-science disinformation and conspiracy theories that have actively caused harm. To be clear: Masks work. #covid19 is real. Herd immunity kills.
⋙ 🐣 RT @CNN Dr. Scott Atlas, a highly controversial member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, has resigned, a person who works with the task force says
⋙⋙ CNN: Dr. Scott Atlas resigns from Trump administration http://cnn.it/3qg6egB
WaPo: Wisconsin and Arizona make it official as Trump fails to stop vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat http://wapo.st/39vRHri
WaPo, Eugene Robinson: Trump is an ego monster. Republicans, don’t let him consume you. http://wapo.st/3qdI7Pz “The GOP officials who enabled and abetted Trump will ultimately have to ask what they’re willing to put up with if they can’t bring themselves to marginalize him”
With Trump, it’s generally wise to assume the basest motives. Maybe he is actually trying to bully Republicans into nullifying the election and helping him stage what would amount to an authoritarian coup d’etat. Maybe he is spitefully trying to make life as difficult as possible for the new administration by delegitimizing Biden’s victory in the eyes of many voters. Maybe he is reinforcing his cult-leader control over his followers in what amounts to a massive act of hostage-taking, hoping to use them as human shields against potential criminal investigations or prosecutions — or as sources of ongoing profit.
But perhaps, on some level, Trump simply cannot accept that in an election that saw Republicans do well overall — gaining seats in the House, retaining control of statehouses, winning Senate seats that polls indicated they would almost surely lose — the man at the top of the ticket got creamed by more than 6 million votes.
“So I led this great charge, and I’m the only one that lost?” Trump tweeted Sunday. “No, it doesn’t work that way. This was a massive fraud, a RIGGED ELECTION!”
But yes, it does work that way. And no, of course the election wasn’t rigged. What happened was that voters turned out in record numbers for the specific purpose of kicking Trump out of the White House. It was a massive act of rejection, a clear message sent by more than 80 million of Trump’s fellow citizens: Go away.
🐣 RT @chrislhayes Some of the discourse grooves of the impeachment story are being repeated in Trump’s post election attempt to overturn the election. You can say “well it’s not really come to much of anything” or you can say “this is an extremely dangerous abuse of power, even if it didn’t work”
⋙ 🐣 RT @chrislhayes And obviously there’s a huge connection between impeachment and now. The whole point of the case was that a man who abused his office to attempt to cheat in an election couldn’t be trusted as the head of a democratic government.
🧵 RT @AshaRangappa Wow. Flynn’s pardon extends to any crimes within the “investigatory authority” of the Special Counsel, including crimes *arising* out of facts “known to” the SC within the scope of its investigation. Kinda suggests that his criminal liability wasn’t just lying to the FBI 📌 https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1333547087024115712?s=20/photo/1-2
DailyBeast, Rick Wilson: We Won’t Forget and We Won’t Forgive What Trumpists Did to America http://bit.ly/3fOTuc0 “Only exposure, pain, humiliation, and (inshallah) incarceration will lead to a moment of reckoning for the GOP”
// It’s not enough to merely enjoy their agony and humiliation. It’s not enough to hope they’ll be shamed and correct their behavior. Have you not met these people?
🐣 RT @ForeignAffairs Washington and its partners are threatened less by rival great powers than by emergent, interconnected, and cascading transnational dangers, G. John Ikenberry writes. Confronting these dangers will require more cooperation, not less.
⋙ ForeignAffairs, G. John Ikenberry: The Next Liberal Order http://fam.ag/3q6AYAu
// Instead of embracing great-power competition, the United States should double down on the liberal international project.
🐣 RT @IrnaEnglish [Iran] Defense minister says idiot acts, assassinations not to go unanswered https://bit.ly/3qfFLzy #Fakhrizadeh
⭕ 29 Nov 2020
NYT, Ben Smith: The King of Trump TV Thinks You’re Dumb Enough to Buy It http://nyti.ms/33K4d2L “[N]obody I’ve ever covered treats an audience with the blithe disdain of Mr. Ruddy”
// Chris Ruddy, the C.E.O. of Newsmax, has found a business opportunity in feeding Trump supporters the fantasy that the president could still win the election.
🐣 RT @60Minutes “We can go on and on with all the farcical claims alleging interference in the 2020 election, but the proof is in the ballots. The recounts are consistent with the initial count,” says Krebs. “The American people should have 100% confidence in their vote.” https://cbsn.ws/3o2rT9W
⭕ 28 Nov 2020
NYT: In Key States, Republicans Were Critical in Resisting Trump’s Election Narrative http://nyti.ms/3fMqfGE
// They refuted conspiracy theories, certified results, dismissed lawsuits and repudiated a president of their own party.
WaPo: 20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election http://wapo.st/3mirm3b “Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ”
NYT: Israel’s Gamble: If Assassination Fails to Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program, Blowing Up Deal Is Easy http://nyti.ms/3fKNMYq
// The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist is likely to impede the country’s military ambitions. Its real purpose may have been to prevent the president-elect from resuming diplomacy with Tehran.
🐣 RT @C_C_Krebs Fact Check: Even if the nonsense claims of hacked voting systems and tallies were true – they’re decidedly NOT & ppl propagating the claims are doing democracy great harm – every canvass, audit, or recount conducted by hand has been consistent. Can’t hack paper. #WeArePerseus
⭕ 27 Nov 2020
WaPo, Elliot Williams: Emmet Sullivan’s handling of the Michael Flynn case is vindicated http://wapo.st/2VduQbE “In the end, the judge’s steadfastness saved the Justice Department from itself — or at least from its attorney general”
🐣 RT @60Minutes See the interview with the man President Trump ousted after he said the election was secure, Sunday night on 60 Minutes. https://cbsn.ws/3fFIJIK 💽 https://twitter.com/WylieNewmark/status/1332542639388942336?s=20/photo/1
// @C_C_Krebs
🐣 RT @paulkrugman So Trump lost, but we’re still talking about why so many people voted for him. And story seems to be that millions thought “We feel disrespected by liberal elites, who think we’re stupid. So we’re going to own them by … 1/ https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1332338636516454404?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @paulkrugman voting for a corrupt, dishonest, incompetent guy who barely conceals his contempt for his own supporters.” I honestly have no idea how we’re supposed to deal with this 2/
⋙ 🐣 RT @paulkrugman To say that many Trump supporters basically engaged in a massive self-own sounds condescending; yet what could be more condescending than pretending that this isn’t exactly what happened? 3/ […]
⋙⋙ 🐣 people vote on abortion, guns, judges and some vote because they consider themselves “conservative”; some are simply racist and anti-immigrant ~ the “self-owners” are likely 40-50% of those who voted for Trump. I think of them as the cultists
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Milwaukee County’s recount of the presidential election vote tally has come to an end, with President-elect Joe Biden adding 132 votes to his margin of victory over Trump in Milwaukee County.
⋙ MilwaukeeJS: Milwaukee County presidential recount wraps up with Biden adding to his margin over Trump http://bit.ly/39nZqHx
WaPo: In a scathing opinion, appeals court rejects Trump request to block Pa. certification http://wapo.st/3o6OPVR “The Trump campaign said it would take the case to the Supreme Court, where legal experts have said it has little chance of success” ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1332503376341463041?s=20/photo/1
// The Trump campaign said it would take the case to the Supreme Court, where legal experts have said it has little chance of success.
// FP title ⇈ Inside title: Federal appeals court panel rejects Trump request to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results
In a scathing 21-page opinion, the 3rd Circuit Court said that the Trump campaign’s challenge of the district court’s decision had “no merit.” The opinion was written by Judge Stephanos Bibas, who was appointed to the court by President Trump. Bibas was joined by two other Republican-appointed judges in a unanimous vote by the three-member panel.
“Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Bibas wrote. “Voters, not lawyers, choose the President. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”
🐣 RT @JohnBrennan This was a criminal act & highly reckless. It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict. ¤ Iranian leaders would be wise to wait for the return of responsible American leadership on the global stage & to resist the urge to respond against perceived culprits.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JohnBrennan I do not know whether a foreign government authorized or carried out the the murder of Fakhrizadeh. Such an act of state-sponsored terrorism would be a flagrant violation of international law & encourage more governments to carry out lethal attacks against foreign officials.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JohnBrennan These assassinations are far different than strikes against terrorist leaders & operatives of groups like al-Qaida & Islamic State, which are not sovereign states. As illegitimate combatants under international law, they can be targeted in order to stop deadly terrorist attacks.
🧵 RT @ Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of Iran’s most important nuclear officials, has been assassinated in Tehran. This is what we know /THREAD/: ¤ 1. Israel has assassinated numerous Iranian nuclear scientists in the past but have never been able to get to the highly protected Fakhrizadeh. 📌 https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/1332343037268291585?s=20
⋙ 🐣 […] RT @tparsi Whatever Iran’s response, the assassination of Fakhrizadeh will change Iranian politics and reduce its openness to compromise with the US, not just on nuclear matters, but on regional issues as well. ¤ That’s why the real target here was Biden’s forthcoming diplomacy w/ Iran.
NYT: Gunmen Assassinate Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist in Ambush, Provoking New Crisis http://nyti.ms/3qg4zI3
// Iran expressed fury over the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, blaming it on Israel and the United States. His death may complicate President-elect Biden’s intention to restore the Iranian nuclear deal.
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Prominent Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack outside Tehran http://wapo.st/36a4Ioe ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1332431045724135430?s=20/photo/1
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, described the attack on the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as the work of “state terror” and implicated Israel as having a possible role. Officials in Israel had no comment.
v
“The operation reflects thinking of those in the Netanyahu government — and/or the Trump administration — who see these next few weeks as their last chance to make relations with Iran as bad as possible, in an effort to spoil the Biden administration’s efforts to return to diplomacy with Tehran,” said Pillar*, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.*Paul Pillar, a 28-year veteran of the CIA and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies
⭕ 26 Nov 2020 🦃
NYT, David Brooks: The Rotting of the Republican Mind http://nyti.ms/36gpvGE
// When one party becomes detached from reality.
My analysis begins with a remarkable essay that Jonathan Rauch wrote for National Affairs in 2018 called “The Constitution of Knowledge.” Rauch pointed out that every society has an epistemic regime, a marketplace of ideas where people collectively hammer out what’s real. In democratic, nontheocratic societies, this regime is a decentralized ecosystem of academics, clergy members, teachers, journalists and others who disagree about a lot but agree on a shared system of rules for weighing evidence and building knowledge.
People need a secure order to feel safe. Deprived of that, people legitimately feel cynicism and distrust, alienation and anomie. This precarity has created, in nation after nation, intense populist backlashes against the highly educated folks who have migrated to the cities and accrued significant economic, cultural and political power. Will Wilkinson of the Niskanen Center calls this the “Density Divide.” It is a bitter cultural and political cold war.
Under Trump, the Republican identity is defined not by a set of policy beliefs but by a paranoid mind-set. He and his media allies simply ignore the rules of the epistemic regime and have set up a rival trolling regime. The internet is an ideal medium for untested information to get around traditional gatekeepers, but it is an accelerant of the paranoia, not its source. Distrust and precarity, caused by economic, cultural and spiritual threat, are the source.
What to do? You can’t argue people out of paranoia. If you try to point out factual errors, you only entrench false belief. The only solution is to reduce the distrust and anxiety that is the seedbed of this thinking. That can only be done first by contact, reducing the social chasm between the members of the epistemic regime and those who feel so alienated from it. And second, it can be done by policy, by making life more secure for those without a college degree.
WaPo: Fact-checking Trump’s cellphone rant of election falsehoods http://wapo.st/36avVY3
WaPo: Trump commits to stepping down if electoral college votes for Biden http://wapo.st/3fGohYc
⭕ 25 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @LukeBrussel Pompeo, a proponent of making US policy on the Middle East based around a belief that the State of Israel is a Sign that the Rapture and End Days are near when all sinners will be killed, says Biden cabinet picks live in “fantasy world”.
⋙ Politico: ‘Fantasy world’: Pompeo knocks Biden administration picks as out of touch on foreign policy http://politi.co/33hIXB3
// The secretary of State cited incoming officials’ approach to Iran as an example of having “led from behind.”
Vice, Ben Mathis-Lilley (Dec 2018): William Barr Pushed for Iran-Contra Pardons. Will He Do the Same With Mueller’s Convictions? http://bit.ly/3o1YzRb
// 12/7/2020
↥ ↧
NPR Fresh Air, Dave Davies (Jan 2020): Attorney General William Barr’s Unwavering Support Of Trump, Explained: Interview with David Rohde [Audio ✛ Transcript] http://n.pr/3fyV69w
// 1/23/2020
↥ ↧
CommonDreams, Will Bunch (Dec 2019): Reagan’s Forgotten Iran-Contra Escape May Reveal More About Trump’s Fate Than Watergate http://bit.ly/3m88GDq “The attorney general then is the attorney general now: William Barr”
// 12/4/2019; The principles first laid bare in Iran-Contra—a deference to the raw exercise of power, including a willingness to overlook the rule of law—have become America’s cruel guiding spirit in the 21st century.
🐣 RT @thedailybeast While Trump publicly tries to get momentum for his push to “turn the election over,” he has fretted privately about prosecutors wanting to “f*ck with” him post-presidency.
⋙ DailyBeast: Trump Literally Phones It in for Voter Fraud ‘Hearing’ as He Frets Privately About Prosecutors Ready to Pounce http://bit.ly/2V5iu53
// While Trump publicly tries to get momentum for his push to “turn the election over,” he has fretted privately about prosecutors wanting to “f*ck with” him post-presidency.
🐣 RT @dfriedman33 In 2017, a Trump lawyer left Flynn’s attorney a message that seemed to hint Flynn could get a pardon even if he cooperated with Mueller as long as Flynn didn’t implicate Trump in wrongdoing. Flynn didn’t implicate Trump. And Trump just pardoned him.
⋙ MotherJones, Dan Friedman: Was Trump’s Pardon of Flynn Part of a Deal? http://bit.ly/33i2Bwy
// An old voicemail message may provide a clue.
🐣 RT @TimKaine In February, a majority of both Houses of Congress told Trump—no war with Iran unless you come and justify to us and the American people and get the Congressional approval the Constitution requires.
⋙ 🔥🐣 RT @TimKaine In February, a majority of both Houses of Congress told Trump—no war with Iran unless you come and justify to us and the American people and get the Congressional approval the Constitution requires.
⋙ 🔥Axios (11/25): Scoop: Israeli military prepares for possibility Trump will strike Iran http://bit.ly/3l9bZZw //➔ According to Bret McGurk on @MSNBC on 11/26, the assassination of Fakhrizadeh was likely carried out by Israel with help from US Intelligence ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1332431385030762496?s=20/photo/1
● Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. One of the main issues discussed was Iran, Israeli officials say.
● Pompeo visited Israel and several Gulf countries last week to discuss Iran. State Department officials traveling with Pompeo told reporters “all options are on the table.”
● While Pompeo was in the Gulf, U.S. Central Command announced that B-52 strategic bombers conducted a “short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East to deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies.” That was seen as another signal to Iran.
● Hossein Dehghan, an adviser to Iran’s leader and a possible candidate in Iran’s upcoming presidential elections, told AP last week that a U.S. military strike against Iran could set off a “full-fledged war” in the Middle East.
🐣 RT @marceelias There are lots of things in the world to worry about right now but the Pennsylvania election result is not one of them. ¤ The governor has certified the results pursuant to federal law. Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20th.
🐣 RT @rgoodlaw When the pardon itself is part of an ongoing crime (conspiracy to obstruct justice) it may be ineffective. ¤ @SamBerger_DC’s analysis from 2019Down pointing backhand index #FlynnPardon
⋙ JustSecurity, Sam Berger (2019): When the Pardon Furthers the Conspiracy: Limits to the Pardon Power http://bit.ly/3q3FeRq
// 1/9/2019
🐣 RT @DavidCornDC “This election has to be turned around.” ¤ That’s what @realDonaldTrump just said, when he phoned into a GOP election hearing in Pennsylvania. ¤ This is a dangerous statement.
⋙ 🐣 RT @msfunsun Sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it.
🐣 RT @BillKristol Giving thanks to the hundreds of thousands of (mostly volunteer) election officials, observers, poll watchers, etc., who pulled off a free and fair election despite the pandemic and the president. How superior our state and local officials have proved than our national ones!
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln The Lincoln Project Gives Thanks 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1331756305409839105?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @davidaxelrod Let’s be clear: the pardon of Flynn and others to follow are not about righting wrongs. They’re about rewarding silence.
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI http://wapo.st/2V0gPOn
⭕ 24 Nov 2020
🐣 😅 RT @RobMajor4 💽 https://twitter.com/RobMajor4/status/1330714026939183105?s=20/photo/1
// Trump dancing on sinking ship
🐣 RT @JohnFugelsang Hunter Biden’s laptop ¤ discarded & forgotten; ¤ has gone to dwell w/
● Migrant Caravans
● Hillary’s Emails
● The Fake Birth Certificate
● Benghazi
● Ground Zero Mosque
● Obamacare Death Panels
● Swiftboaters for Draft Dodgers &
● “Threats To Traditional Marriage”
on @GOP’s Island of Misfit Smears
‼️🐣 📋 RT @JasonLeopold Reminder that Mark Meadows signed a sworn declaration that said Trump told him he doesn’t mean what he tweets ¤ (Via my/@BuzzFeedNews #FOIA case) https://twitter.com/JasonLeopold/status/1327701545618612225?s=20/photo/1
// Trump’s Tweets not commands re: declassification of Mueller docs
🐣 RT @TheHill Brennan takes final shot at Trump: “I leave his fate to our judicial system, his infamy to history, & his legacy to a trash heap” http://hill.cm/n0Y1kT9
🧵 RT @ErikWempel There’s notice of a settlement in the suit of Joel and Mary Rich against Fox News et al. for infliction of emotional distress over the network’s retracted promotion of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. 📌 https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/1331309423189487623?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @JoeBiden America is back.
🐣 🌎 RT @votesaveamerica Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania coming in hot with certification for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. These states put their victory well over 270.
Reminder, Joe is projected to win: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, VA, WA, WI https://twitter.com/votesaveamerica/status/1331298342253391878?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @tribelaw The rollout of this breathtakingly capable, experienced, diverse national security team was truly splendid. I found myself standing at attention throughout it. America is back. Public service is back. Dedication is back. Truth is back. I felt so proud of my adopted country. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
⭕ 23 Nov 2020
NBCNews, Dean Obeidallah: Trump’s election lies are an attempted coup. Biden and other Democrats should say so. http://nbcnews.to/3pP4RFk
// Regardless of how you define the word, now is not the time for academic debates.
President Donald Trump is not trying to simply undermine President-elect Joe Biden’s presidency, nor is he primarily trying to position himself for a 2024 presidential run, as many have suggested. No, Trump’s No. 1 goal is to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It’s time for Biden and other Democratic leaders to describe his actions in the most forceful and universally understandable language possible. And that means, in this case, calling them part of an attempted coup to illegally overthrow the Biden presidency. …
Regardless of how you define the word, now is not the time for academic debates. Trump’s wildly effective communications strategy proves that sometimes simpler is better. Biden’s response, in contrast, has been far too careful and far too polite. On Thursday, Biden called Trump’s efforts to undermine the election results “totally irresponsible,” adding that his message to immigrants worried about Trump’s electoral attacks was “Hang on. I’m on my way.” Other leading Democrats have, for the most part, followed Biden’s lead.
This message is not surprising given Biden’s campaign strategy, which emphasized unity. Such sentiment was also at the heart of Biden’s victory speech Nov. 7. But it is nevertheless a very bad strategy.
Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Russia’s Vladimir Putin amassed power through bullying. These types of leaders treat silence or muted responses as a sign of weakness, emboldening them to push further with their authoritarian goals.
… A Reuters poll released Wednesday found that only 73 percent of Americans said Biden won the election, while 52 percent of Republicans say Trump “rightfully won.” This is incredibly disturbing, and probably unprecedented.
Team Biden must also repeatedly highlight Trump’s lack of credible evidence of voter fraud. Common sense tells us that if the assertions by Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani of a “national conspiracy” to rig the election were true, the Trump effort would have more to show for it. It has been nearly three weeks since Election Day. Instead, Trump’s lawyers lashed out at reporters when pressed for details or data. …
Biden, as president-elect, is rightfully focused on trying to facilitate an effective transition of power between Trump’s outgoing administration and his incoming one. But he must simultaneously be spending the weeks until Inauguration Day vocally defending our democratic elections against authoritarian attacks from within. By standing up to Trump’s attempted coup, Biden will be proving to those millions of Americans who voted freely and fairly for him that they made the right choice.
WaPo: Trump relents on transition as Republicans join mounting calls for him to acknowledge Biden’s win http://wapo.st/3l5sV3q
Though procedural in nature, Trump’s acceptance of the General Services Administration starting the transition amounted to a dramatic capitulation and capped an extraordinary 16-day standoff since Biden was declared the winner on Nov. 7. ¤ On Monday, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified Biden’s win there, while earlier in the day dozens of business leaders and Republican national security experts had urged Trump to accept the result because refusing to begin the transition was endangering the country’s security, economy and pandemic response.
A senior Trump campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said Monday night: “He basically just conceded. That’s as close to a concession as you will probably get.”
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance It’s a .gov website. We’re back, America.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JoeBiden buildbackbettter.gov
🐣 RT @BradMossEsq If the fall of Trump has shown anything it is how many prominent conservative political and legal pundits are complete frauds, scam artists and charlatans selling snake oil to gullible lemmings.
🐣 RT @DeanObeidallah Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election is a COUP-and Joe Biden/Democrats should be vocally denouncing it as such. History proves taking the high road is the very worst response to a fascist like Trump. ¤ My new @NBCNewsTHINK article:
⋙ NBCNews: Trump’s election lies are an attempted coup. Biden and other Democrats should say so. http://nbcnews.to/3pP4RFk
// Regardless of how you define the word, now is not the time for academic debates.
⋙ 🐣 RT @crackthemessage Along these lines I encourage folks to read the attached piece about Thucydides. His writings in 427 BCE about the corruption of political leaders and the role of passion in political discourse are striking for their application to 2016. @MelissaJPeltier
⋙⋙ GetPocket/NYRB: What Thucydides Knew About the US Today http://bit.ly/3pZfWnA
// Everyone who reads Thucydides knows him as the most profound and convincing historian of empire, not only in his own age but also in his explicit and implicit predictions of later ages.
🐣 RT @davidfrum Now onto the corrupt pardons phase of the presidential transition
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Sen. Dianne Feinstein: “After serving as the lead Democrat on the Judiciary Committee for four years, I will not seek the chairmanship or ranking member position in the next Congress.”
🐣 RT @real I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good…
⋙ 🐣 RT @real …fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.
🐣 RT @MSNBC BREAKING: GSA Admin. Emily Murphy has informed President-elect Biden that the administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to letter obtained by @GeoffRBennett. https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1331016584752754692?s=20/photo/1-2
🐣 RT @sbg1 I look forward to no longer having the word ‘ascertainment’ in my current events vocabulary…
⋙ 🐣 RT @BeschlossDC @GSAEmily has let President-elect Biden know that transition process will now begin, says CNN.
WaPo: Republican national security experts call on Trump to concede, begin transition http://wapo.st/339dlNQ
WaPo: Michigan board votes to certify the state’s election results, dealing Trump another blow http://wapo.st/3l5sV3q
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: The Republican Party has split in two. Let’s keep it that way. http://wapo.st/33a93G5 ‘Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Toomey and Sasse hold the balance of power in a narrowly divided Senate’
🐣 RT @JoeBiden Today, I’m announcing the first members of my national security and foreign policy team. They will rally the world to take on our challenges like no other—challenges that no one nation can face alone. ¤ It’s time to restore American leadership. I trust this group to do just that. 💽 https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1330967606585593857?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @RepAdamSchiff Dear @GSAEmily, ¤ Your refusal to recognize Biden’s win will do serious long-term harm. ¤ To national security, our fight against COVID, and more. ¤ Trump’s frivolous lawsuits and baseless conspiracies to overturn the people’s mandate will not succeed. ¤ Do your duty. Right now. https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1330968740142444546?s=20/photo/1-2
⭕ 22 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @5_2blue Michael Conway says Biden should do the unthinkable and pardon Trump to unite the nation. ¤ How do you feel about this?
⋙ 🐣 No pardon. It would in fact be divisive (Dems would ignite). He should pick a good AG, one known for integrity and fairness, and restore the wall between the DOJ and the White House. If Trump tries to pardon himself, we should get a SCOTUS opinion on that.
🐣 RT @kaitlincollins Chris Christie: “I have been a supporter of the president’s. I voted for him twice. But elections have consequences & we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.” He says an unwillingness to present evidence “must mean the evidence doesn’t exist.”
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens It was all a lie.
⋙ 🐣 RT @StuartEtc Trumpism’s hold on the GOP has made it clear that there were maybe two dozen actual conservative pols in the GOP before 2016. The rest were pretenders who when you scratched the surface revealed themselves as a motley crew of grifters, fascists, racists, and sociopaths.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TRobinsonAlst2 The GOP sold its birthright as the party of Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge and Eisenhower to become the party of Limbaugh, David Duke & The Proud Boys. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” has produced its inevitable result.
🐣 RT @carlbernstein I’m not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially in reporting this: 21 Republican Sens–in convos w/ colleagues, staff members, lobbyists, W. House aides–have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump & his fitness to be POTUS. (1/3)
⋙ 🐣 RT @carlbernstein The 21 GOP Senators who have privately expressed their disdain for Trump are: Portman, Alexander, Sasse, Blunt, Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn, Thune, Romney, Braun, Young, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Rubio, Grassley, Burr, Toomey, McSally, Moran, Roberts, Shelby. (2/3)
⋙ 🐣 RT @carlbernstein With few exceptions, their craven public silence has helped enable Trump’s most grievous conduct—including undermining and discrediting the US the electoral system. ¤ More from my appearance earlier on @cnn 💽 https://twitter.com/carlbernstein/status/1330710307052814336?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @MuellerSheWrote THREAD. ‘Twas the night before Christmas
The year: 2020
Giuliani had lost foolish lawsuits a-plenty
Michigan lawmakers tried to be bought
When sedition was offered as trump’s evil plot
And even though Biden and Harris had won
Transition of power still hadn’t begun 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1330368238702694402?s=20
🐣 RT @ABlinken Sigh. This pains me in light of my admiration for Robert Wright. The Moral Animal is among the most brilliant books I’ve read. Well, maybe I’ll evolve…https://twitter.com/ABlinken/status/1327412079666540555?s=20
⋙ 🐣 I think you can be progressive to your bones and still be a political and policy realist. “Politics ~ The Art of the Possible”
🐣 RT @MaryLTrump Linda Thomas-Greenfield as UN Ambassador, Michele Flournoy as SecDef, and @ABlinken as SecState? This is great news. But I’m afraid we’re going to have to get used to expertise, professionalism, competence, and decency again. I think we can do it.
NYT Editorial: A Great Election, Against All Odds http://nyti.ms/35SyUnK “In the face of a raging pandemic and the highest turnout in more than a century, Americans enjoyed one of the most secure, most accurate and most well-run elections ever”
// Democracy is hard work. That work paid off.
Democracy is a fragile thing, and it requires constant tending and vigilance to survive. Americans were lucky this time. They were also well prepared. When pushed to the brink, they mobilized to protect their democracy. For this moment, at least, tune out the president, his flailing dishonesty and his bottomless disregard for the American experiment. Instead, express gratitude to the millions of Americans who still believe in that experiment, and who did all they could to make this election succeed in the face of daunting odds. Then help make sure they don’t have to do it by themselves again.
NYT: Biden Chooses Antony Blinken, Defender of Global Alliances, as Secretary of State http://nyti.ms/3nK4yKf
// Formerly the State Department’s No. 2, Mr. Blinken is expected to try to re-establish the United States as a trusted ally ready to rejoin global agreements and court multilateral efforts to confront China.
WaPo: Here’s when Biden’s win becomes official — and how Trump is trying to prevent that http://wapo.st/2Hut7vg With key deadlines looming, derailing the certification of results is part of the president’s strategy ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1330697907545268227?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Chris Christie calls the conduct of Trump’s legal team a ‘national embarrassment’ http://wapo.st/35Upnwo
⭕ 21 Nov 2020
WaPo: In scathing opinion, federal judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Pennsylvania http://wapo.st/35Pe090
Brann wrote that Trump’s campaign had used “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in its effort to throw out millions of votes. ¤ “In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) said in a statement after Brann’s decision that Trump had “exhausted all plausible legal options” in the state and acknowledged that Biden won the election. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris on their victory,” said Toomey.
⭕ 20 Nov 2020
NewYorker, John Cassidy: Rudy Giuliani Is a Hot Mess http://bit.ly/334rWKC
Barely stopping to draw a breath, Giuliani claimed that Biden operatives, working in cahoots with big-city Democratic machines, corrupt judges, and a voting-software company tied to Communist governments abroad (I kid you not), contrived to reverse the early leads that Trump held on Election Night in states such as Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. “What I am describing to you is a massive fraud,” Giuliani insisted at one point. At another, he said that the evidence he and his colleagues had gathered was “enough to overturn any election.”
And what is that evidence? Giuliani claimed that Trump’s legal team had gathered hundreds of affidavits from poll watchers and election officials alleging perfidious acts. But when reporters asked him to release these documents, he replied, “I can’t do it. I can’t put a witness’s life in jeopardy.” Much of the evidence Giuliani did point to has already been discredited, including claims from Republican poll watchers of malfeasance in Wayne County, Michigan, which includes the city of Detroit. Last week, a Wayne County judge dismissed the case to which these witnesses’ affidavits were attached. He said that the witnesses did not attend a session on the ballot-counting process hosted by election officials and their statements were “rife” with speculation.
⭕ 19 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @LeeFuell This is what we are seeing from Trump, Giuliani, and their enablers:
⋙ Rand: The Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” Propaganda Model http://bit.ly/2o8DlqR
// Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It
↥ ↧
🧵 RT @kasparov68 It’s comforting to call Trump, Giuliani, and the rest clowns, but clowns with power are not funny at all. They won’t overturn the election, but they are doing tremendous damage, which was always the goal. 📌 https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1329492749314363398?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @NicoleGoodkind This is Trump’s argument: George Soros, Biden, the Clinton Foundation & the antifa worked with the Venezuelan government to rig the election by making big Dem cities vote for the Democratic candidate. But they also let Republicans win Senate, Congressional and local races.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @NicoleGoodkind The most insane thing is that this an accurate description of what Trump’s personal lawyers are telling the American people uninterrupted on Fox News and that very few GOP Senators or Congressman will refute these claims in any way.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 As I wrote in 2018, Trumpism’s goal is to split the country, to carve out enough supporters who believe whatever he says, no matter the evidence. Attacking the media and discrediting elections were always part of it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 When Trump continued to insist that the 2016 was fraudulent, many wrote it off as childishness and ego. Yes, but discrediting the system also had a point, preparing for an election he didn’t win.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 Trump’s outrageous attacks on the US election process, and the refusal of the GOP to challenge them, will result in many similar attacks in future elections, in the US and elsewhere. Democracy discredited, Putin’s dream.
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Sen. Sasse; “Trump lost Michigan by more than 100,000 votes, and the campaign and its allies have lost in or withdrawn from all five lawsuits in Michigan for being unable to produce any evidence. Wild press conferences erode public trust … We are a nation of laws, not tweets.”
HuffPo: Republican Senators Push Back Against Trump For Trying To Overturn The Election http://bit.ly/330DZIB
// Plus Sasse and Ernst (sort of); “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said of Trump.
HuffPo: Republican Senators Push Back Against Trump For Trying To Overturn The Election http://bit.ly/330DZIB
// Plus Sasse and Ernst (sort of); “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said of Trump.
DailyBeast: Desperate Rudy’s Latest Pennsylvania Gambit Is Wilder Than His Sweaty Press Conference http://bit.ly/35KbSiS
// No, he says, he doesn’t have to provide any evidence of fraud in the state. Instead, it’s Pennsylvania that must prove its mail-in ballots were legal.
🐣 RT @McFaul Letting Rudy become the face of the GOP is really not a good look. Hard to see how this helps in Georgia or the longer game. But Im no expert.
🧵 RT @atrupar Giuliani and company are about to give us a Total overview of the Landscaping 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1329472200898994181?s=20
🐣 RT @C_C_Krebs That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re lucky.
↥ ↧
🐣 Is there anything in Q iconography having to do with hair dye dripping down both sides of your face? Is it like stigmata? A secret signal to the bearers of arms? Or could it just be a way of subtly signifying that someone is a drooling idiot?
💙 WaPo, Dan Zak and Josh Dawsey: Rudy Giuliani’s post-election meltdown starts to become literal http://wapo.st/3lRiVf9
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Trump uses power of presidency to try to overturn the election and stay in office http://wapo.st/2IUIEog
WaPo: Wayne County Republican who asked to ‘rescind’ her vote certifying election results says Trump called her http://wapo.st/2UKmsQB “Trump has also invited leaders from Michigan’s Republican-controlled state legislature to meet with him on Friday afternoon in Washington”
🐣 RT @prahme The thing that is most worrisome is there seems to be no time limit attached to his being unable to back up his claims of widespread fraud or lack of frivolous or wreckless suits & suggestions
⋙ 🐣 Trump will never concede. He fully intends to continue to tear apart our democracy, every shred. There’s already a law saying the “apparent winner” must be allowed to transition, but Trump refuses to allow it. The people in DHS who are breaking that law will get a pardon.
⋙ 🐣 Biden will be sworn in and become president, but he’ll have to spend much of his term trying to repair the damage. It remains to be seen how much the GOP will cooperate with him because Trump can get behind [the] primary challenger [of anyone] who steps out of line. Sad!
🐣 RT @prahme I don’t know if you are in Insta, but Neal Katyal’s breakdowns of where the legal stuff stands on a daily are fantastic https://instagram.com/tv/CHtvCYzHRJk/?igshid=f8h10dnnojy3…
⋙ 🐣 It turns out I had set up an account a long time ago. Yes, I love @Neal_Katyal. He’d make a great AG. The problem is there are still going to be 30% who Trump will now be able to convince [the courts] are part of the “deep state.” He’s even messaged his appointees on Scotus to stick w him.
⭕ 18 Nov 2020
😅 RT @Alyssa_Milano Trump’s concession speech. #TransitionNow #EmilyDoYourJob 💽 https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1329261615120670723?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Philip Bump: What the fired director of federal cybersecurity actually said about the election http://wapo.st/35Odok9 What Chris Krebs “said” was actually a statement put out by two working groups made of numerous officials in fed, state and outside agencies
🐣 RT @McFaul 2 weeks after losing the election, Trump continues to deliver for Putin. No greater gift the outgoing incumbent could deliver to Putin than delegitimizing our democracy by failing to recognize the results.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews “That’s how you delegitimize a nation.” ¤ Discrediting the crown jewel of Western democracy remains one of Russia’s top priorities—& while he failed to come through on other fronts, Trump delivered a parting gift above & beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews While pro-Kremlin mouthpieces are in mourning over Joe Biden’s victory, they managed to make lemonade out of the shriveled lemons of Trump’s waning presidency, by claiming that at least half of America is now disappointed in the country’s electoral system. https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1325157225887801344?s=20
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “If you take out [Chris Krebs] and the number two guy resigns, now you’ve got no leadership at the helm to stop the propaganda that people are buying into that this whole election was rigged” – @FrankFigliuzzi1 w/ @NicolleDWallace https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1329195585489018881?s=20/photo/1
DailyBeast, Michael Tomasky: The Only Way for Biden to ‘Move the Country Forward’ Is To Hold Trump To Account for his Crimes http://bit.ly/35Juhw3
// No, the 45th president probably isn’t going to prison. But that doesn’t mean that the 46th president should just move on from the crimes his predecessor committed.
🔄💙 Track the Legal actions Dems are taking here 🔆❗️⋙: DemocracyDocket: 2020 Post-Election War Room http://bit.ly/2INeSSC
🐣 RT @MollyJongFast This is fucked up
⋙ 🐣 RT @aabramson “Rudy told people he was trying to get the legislatures to flip,” one source familiar says. “Rudy’s view of the world is if he does a good enough job inflaming the results, Pennsylvania won’t certify, Wisconsin won’t certify”
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @aabramson This is viewed as “ludicrous” among dems, gop, and election law experts. But that seems to be besides the point. If Rudy/Trump’s goal is to wreak havoc, its working.
⋙⋙⋙ TIME: ‘People will stop believing in the process.’ Why Donald Trump’s Legal Strategy Is Dangerous Even If It’s Likely to Fail http://bit.ly/35GZ0d6
⋙⋙ 🐣 🔆 This❗️⋙ AP (11/14): GOP leaders in 4 states quash dubious Trump bid on electors http://bit.ly/2UHvFcu “State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors”
🐣 RT @BillKristol The lawsuits are idiotic and the lies embarrassing. But Trump’s getting much of what he wants. He’s still in charge of the GOP and he’s laying the groundwork to stay in charge. In a defeated Administration (e.g. 1992) that behaves normally, power ebbs away quickly. Not so here.
🐣 RT @ There you have it. Trump official told CNN the goal is to “set so many fires that it will be hard for the Biden administration to put them all out.” ¤ This is scorched earth foreign policy.
⋙ CNN: Trump team looks to box in Biden on foreign policy by lighting too many fires to put out http://cnn.it/3fgrk9p
It’s a strategy that radically breaks with past practice, could raise national security risks and will surely compound challenges for the Biden team — but it could also backfire. Analysts and people close to the Biden transition argue the Trump team may act so aggressively that reversing some of its steps will earn Biden easy goodwill points and negotiating power with adversaries.
🐣 RT @C_C_Krebs In defending democracy, do or do not, there is no try. This is the way. #Protect2020 @HamillHimself @PedroPascal1
⋙ 🐣 RT @HamillHimself Translation: The recent statement by Chris Krebs was highly accurate, in that there were no improprieties or fraud, confirmed by all credible 2020 Election officials sworn under oath to be truthful. Therefore, he has been terminated for refusing to lie for me, your #LiarInChief. [Att: Trump’s tweets firing Krebs:] https://twitter.com/C_C_Krebs/status/1328953421882413056?s=20
🐣 RT @girlsreallyrule Statement from @SpeakerPelosi on Trump’s decision to fire top election security official, Chris Krebs: Text Block: https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1329018891281035269?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 17 Nov 2020
WaPo: In reversal, GOP officials in key Michigan county certify ballot count after striking a compromise with Democrats http://wapo.st/3kHG4iA State Democrats say Trump has no hope of overturning Biden’s 148,000-vote lead.
“If the state board follows suit, the Republican state legislator will select the electors. Huge win for @realDonaldTrump,” Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted Tuesday night after the initial Wayne County deadlock.
But experts said such a move would have been on shaky legal ground, and key GOP lawmakers have acknowledged Biden’s win and said they do not plan to attempt to intervene.
After the initial deadlock in Wayne County was met with an outpouring of condemnation, the board recessed Tuesday night and returned with a new agreement to certify the results, along with a request that the secretary of state’s office conduct a comprehensive audit of the vote tallies.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in an interview on CNN that “it appears that the truth won in this scenario.”
“The evidence is clear — there were no irregularities, there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and in fact there were simply minor clerical errors,” she said, adding: “So I think they did the right thing, they performed their duty, and they certified the election for the voters in Wayne County.”
On Fox News late Tuesday, Ellis decried the board’s change of heart as “mob rule.”
The reversal in Michigan came as the Trump campaign has faced a string of failures in its beleaguered effort to overturn the result of the election through the courts. In the latest defeat on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the campaign’s claim that GOP observers did not have sufficient access to the vote count, underscoring how the president’s claims of voting irregularities have repeatedly run aground before judges.
The argument marked Giuliani’s most direct involvement yet in Trump’s post-election litigation. A federal prosecutor during the 1980s, he won plaudits for securing convictions of major mob figures. But according to the federal court system’s public records system, he last entered an appearance in a federal case in 1992. In a text message, Giuliani estimated that it had been “four or five years” since he tried a case in court.
“Rudy is calling the shots, and we are following,” one senior Republican involved in the campaign said. “I wouldn’t have organized it this way, but that’s the way the president wants it.”
Referring to the withdrawal of former Trump attorneys in Pennsylvania, an official said, “Rudy wants to make arguments in court that other lawyers are not willing to make. It’s not that they weren’t willing to represent us. When they intersect with Rudy’s world, they don’t want to make those arguments that Rudy wants to make.”
One Republican lawyer close to the campaign said they too quickly jumped to accusations without proof of fraud and instead should have asked for examinations in states to glean evidence first. ¤ This Republican said the campaign also should have engaged higher-power lawyers earlier on, instead of hiring “TV show lawyers.” ¤ “The lawyers on the outside, none of them are supportive of the Rudy strategy,” this person said. “Rudy is not advancing the cause of the law.”
Reuters: U.S. Senate leader McConnell warns against troops quickly leaving Iraq or Afghanistan http://reut.rs/2UEDnE9
CISA Rumor Control: https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol
// will likely be taken down soon
🐣 RT @suemgordon22 @CISAKrebs delivered for the Nation. With others across government and in the private sector, he built not only new capability, but strong foundation for the future. Proud to call him my colleague and friend. You did good, pal, and served your turn with honor and dignity.
🧵 RT @RepSlotkin Today the acting Sec. Def. announced a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan & Iraq. Whatever one’s views, making such a quick move without coordination with our NATO, Iraqi and Afghan allies, after so much blood has been shed, hurts us in both the short and long-term. 📌 https://twitter.com/RepSlotkin/status/1328882526425935872?s=20
🧵 RT @jimsciutto Mark Aronchick, who argued against Rudy Giuliani today in PA court, tells me tonight: “Giuliani was outrageous in the things he was saying. He called Philadephia election workers ‘a little mafia group’. Many things he said were not related to what the complaint actually said.” 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1328883102467371009?s=20
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Trump fires top DHS official who refuted his claims that the election was rigged http://wapo.st/3lH2wde
🐣 RT @BillKristol I’m told DOD has been ordered to plan further troop withdrawals, from Somalia, South Korea and Germany. Trump is doing his best to weaken America, our friends, and allies on his way out the door.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TalhaMAwais Intervention is not the answer to everything, Mr. Warmonger.
⋙⋙ 🐣 Troops are in Germany and South Korea for stabilization, not intervention. Pulling troops out of Germany advantages Russia; pulling them out of SoKo opens them up for invasion by NoKo. Trump is breaking things in a tantrum.
🐣 RT @kylegriffin In the incoming Senate, Democratic senators will represent at least 20,314,962 more people than their Republican counterparts. If the two Georgia seats go to the Democrats, the Democratic half will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half.
⋙ Vox, Ian Milhauser: America’s anti-democratic Senate, by the numbers http://bit.ly/36HHFjC
// 11/6/2020; If the United States chose its leaders in free and fair elections, Republicans would be firmly out of power.
🐣 RT @BillKristol It’s not just that the anti-mask, anti-distancing, anti-testing Republicans are wrong as a matter of public policy. It’s not even that they lack empathy for those who suffer. They relish their lack of empathy. They glory in their callousness. They are proud of their inhumanity.
⭕ 16 Nov 2020
💙 NYT Mag, Jonathan Mahler: Can America Restore the Rule of Law Without Prosecuting Trump? http://nyti.ms/3nzbyJK
✅ WaPo, Ann Gerhart and Tyler Remmel: Election results under attack: Here are the facts http://wapo.st/3kFKczI ‘The facts about prominent efforts to question the fairness and integrity of the election, as well as updates on litigation’
// A compilation of the misinformation, disinformation and many rejected legal challenges by the Trump campaign to try to overturn votes.
🐣 RT @EamonJavers Biden on Trump’s refusal to concede: “I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started.”
💙 NYT, Frank Bruni: Was It Worth It, Jared and Ivanka? http://nyti.ms/3f3FVF8 “They are the Faustian poster couple of the Trump presidency, the king and queen of the principle-torching prom at which so many danced alongside them, although in less exquisitely tailored attire” ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1328444315182505985?s=20/photo/1
// The glossiest grifters become Vuitton vagabonds.
They are Mitch McConnell after a makeover, Ted Cruz gone to charm school, Mike Pompeo with a more rigorous fitness regimen, Lindsey Graham with less time on the links. They are Mike Pence and Nikki Haley and scores of others in and out of office, so entranced by power, so enchanted by perks, so primed for future prizes that they junked values that they once supposedly held and downgraded decency to something ornamental, a sprig of parsley on a fish fillet.
🐣 RT @CSIS Falling confidence in vaccines is a U.S. national security risk. A new report recommends five urgent actions to bolster public acceptance for a Covid-19 vaccine. Learn more: http://cs.is/calltoaction.
WaPo: Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine found to be nearly 95 percent effective in a preliminary analysis http://wapo.st/35CxT2W This mRNA vaccine, co-developed with Dr Fauci’s NAIAD, does not require storage at hypercold temps like Pfizer’s
🐣 Updated my header photo and avatar. I had had an image of Stonehenge, feeling we were heading backwards. Now I am focused on science, beauty and optimism, but the scars remain. A brief respite as many more battles will come. ¤ ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty.’
💙 TheAtlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg: Why Obama Fears for Our Democracy http://bit.ly/3lCsePX
// In an exclusive interview, the former president identifies the greatest threats to the American experiment, explains why he’s still hopeful, and opens up about his new book.
⭕ 15 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @McFaul If I were to become this delusional in the future, I would hope that my children would intervene, and help to reduce the embarrassment. cc @IvankaTrump .
⋙ 🐣 RT @real I WON THE ELECTION!
⋙ [Twitter:] (!) Official sources called this election differently
🐣 RT @KTharase This what one million looks like. ¤ Police estimate you pity party at 5 to 6 thousand. https://twitter.com/KTharase/status/1327689791752716288?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES They are disloyal Americans. They are sewing conspiracy theories and undermining the legitimacy of an election they know full well was won by Biden. There is no evidence of fraud. It is a con masquerading as an idiots coup. Nevertheless, it is poisonous for our Republic
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens Every Republican who hasn’t acknowledged the winner of 2020 election is hurting America. What’s wrong with these people? Are they not Americans?
⋙ 🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln It’s time for Republicans to put America first. 💽 https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/status/1327607996776665089?s=20/photo/1
// The Lincoln Project ad❣
💙 🐣 RT @60Minutes “Our adversaries have seen us weakened, not just as a consequence of this election, but over the last several years. We have these cleavages in the body politic that they’re convinced they can exploit,” former President Obama tells Scott Pelley. https://cbsn.ws/3pvlshp
🐣 RT @AnandWrites I feel myself approaching a strange, thrilling milestone: I’m starting not to care about Donald Trump anymore. Not to be interested. Not to wonder about the latest thing. Not to retweet the recent tweet. Just not to care.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance I’ve been thinking that same thing all weekend and it’s absolutely tremendous. Trump is about to be irrelevant.
🐣 RT @Reuters WATCH: From Al Gore in 2000 to Hillary Clinton in 2016, here’s a look back at some historic presidential concession speeches 💽 https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1328175961670524930?s=20/photo/1
💙 WaPo: The federal government’s chief information security officer is helping an outside effort to hunt for alleged voter fraud http://wapo.st/3eZxwTe
🐣 RT @JohnBrennan Trump will never acknowledge he lost the election. Honesty & accepting reality are not in a despot’s DNA. ¤ Despite his tantrum, Inauguration Day will arrive, and President Biden & VP Harris will immediately restore dignity, competence, & honesty to the White House. ¤ Can’t wait.
🧵 RT @joshtpm On the @SWAtlasHoover front, there’s a fascinating story to be told that @Stanford and particularly the @HooverInst has been a hot spot of covid misinformation from basically the beginning of the pandemic. It’s not just Atlas. 📌 https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1328159514319867909?s=20
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @thehowie His last tweet, targeting the sitting Governor of Michigan said:
[‼️] “The only way this stops is if people rise up. ”
If he represents the President and is telling people to rise up against the Governor, that really is not a good look.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SWAtlasHoover Just to clarify the obvious.
US pandemic policy is:
Federally supported (massive resources, OWS, personnel, beds, logistics);
State managed; &
Locally implemented.
Want more mandates & lockdown? Contact your governor. That’s state controlled. Not federal. Period.
#Federalism
⭕ 14 Nov 2020
AP (11/14): GOP leaders in 4 states quash dubious Trump bid on electors http://bit.ly/2UHvFcu “State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors”
💙 WaPo, David Boies and Theodore B Olson: We opposed each other in Bush v. Gore. Now we agree: Biden won. http://wapo.st/3kAD4oe “The nation’s laws and shared values dictate that Americans now unite to support democracy, national security, [and) public trust in institutions…”
WaPo: Trump greets hundreds of supporters in D.C. to falsely claim he won election http://wapo.st/2IuDvnk
⭕ 13 Nov 2020
WaPo (11/13): The votes that won Joe Biden the presidency http://wapo.st/36LFVFX “Flipping just a little more than 81,139 votes in four states would have changed the winner of this election” ~ even though Biden won the popular vote by almost 6 million and counting ● /photo/1
// 6M is from today (7/17); Americans cast a historic number of votes in the presidential election. A handful of them gave Democrats the edge.
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln It’s time for Republicans to put America first. 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1327370658712608769?s=20/photo/1
// The Lincoln Project ad❣ America First
🐣 RT @ChrisAlbertoLaw I’m sorry, I love this clip of John F Kennedy, so I’m posting it again not only for its content but also to show that our faith in democracy producing the best leaders is well-founded. 💽 https://twitter.com/ChrisAlbertoLaw/status/1327321078369308673?s=20/photo/1
// JFK on the role of the free press
NYT: Federal Prosecutors Push Back on Barr Memo on Voter Fraud Claims http://nyti.ms/35zo6KV
// The prosecutors, assigned to monitor this month’s elections, said they had found no evidence to back any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities.
CNN: John Kelly blasts Trump for not helping with the transition: ‘The downside to not doing so could be catastrophic’ http://cnn.it/36zm5hl
WaPo: More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel http://wapo.st/2Iuq9qF //➔ Trump Really Doesn’t Care. Do U?
⭕ 12 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @BradBeauregardJ There’s nothing grand about the GOP, they’re the party of Authoritarianism now. The Republicans represent the top 1% and the only way they can stay in power is through voter suppression and attacking our Democracy. ¤ Watch @mehdirhasan @chrislhayes & @JRubinBlogger break it down 💽 https://twitter.com/BradBeauregardJ/status/1327115680148303874?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 ◕ RT @BradBeauregardJ This is the graph from the video above that shows how rapidly the Republican Party is sliding towards Authoritarianism. It’s nothing new for Mitch McConnell and his ilk, but it’s happening at an alarming rate with Trump https://twitter.com/BradBeauregardJ/status/1327126110979706883?s=20/photo/1
// Source V-Dem Institute; WaPo
⋙ 🐣 RT @BradBeauregardJ This is the article from @_cingraham that they discussed in the video ¤ The article covers the GOP’s rapid shift towards Authoritarianism, specifically the 2 Republican Senators from Georgia who need to be defeated on 1/5/2021
💙 ⋙⋙ WaPo, Christopher Ingraham: GOP leaders’ embrace of Trump’s refusal to concede fits pattern of rising authoritarianism, data shows http://wapo.st/3ppgpyT
// Research by a team of international scholars shows the Republican Party’s shift away from democratic norms predates Donald Trump but has accelerated since
⋙⋙⋙ (V-DemInstitute: New Global Data on Political Parties: V-Party) ⇊ http://bit.ly/2IzfFWS ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1327142536473956354?s=20/photo/1
Now, according to data released by an international team of political scientists just before the Nov. 3 election, it’s possible to quantify the extent to which the Republican Party no longer adheres to such principles as the commitment to free and fair elections with multiple parties, the respectful treatment of political opponents and the avoidance of violent rhetoric.
“The Republican Party in the U.S. has retreated from upholding democratic norms in recent years,” said Anna Lührmann, a political scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and a former member of the German parliament. “Its rhetoric is closer to authoritarian parties, such as AKP in Turkey and Fidesz in Hungary.”
↥ ↧
⋙ 🐣 RT @prahme I’ve had a different opinion about Trump Congressional sycophants (sickelephants)when people say what has he done to them-I think it’s reversed-they are using him, milking him for all he’s worth politically to increase their fascist base of power to use the minute he’s gone…
⋙⋙ 🐣 I think it started under Gingrich which is when they realized they couldn’t win on policies, so they started to lie and use “truthy” language. Of course, before that, Nixon’s Southern Strategy set the dominoes up for people to self-sort.
⋙⋙ 🐣 Then Fox and talk radio created echo chambers that were then weaponized by the Internet. Trump was gasoline thrown onto a smoldering fire, just waiting. I hope Biden will be more than a brief interlude in the craziness and vitriol.
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @MSNBC BREAKING: Joe Biden wins Arizona, NBC News projects. https://on.msnbc.com/3eSYnAe2UpzbrQ
// For years, we’ve been living inside a story defined by Donald Trump’s reality-TV worldview. America finally changed the channel.
🐣 RT @BillKristol “In WI counties where RVAT spent the most Trump underperformed Republican House candidates by 7 points. In PA counties where RVAT spent the most Trump underperformed Republican House candidates by 5 points. Those are decisive margins in such close states.”
⋙ WaPo: Never Trumpers played a critical role in beating him. The numbers prove it. http://wapo.st/3pp0JM3
NYT: Election Officials Directly Contradict Trump on Voting System Fraud http://nyti.ms/2GViilt
// A group of federal, state and local officials working with a Department of Homeland Security agency declared flatly that the election was the most secure in the nation’s history.
WaPo: As Trump stews over election, he mostly ignores the public duties of the presidency http://wapo.st/36zyIcb //➔ what was that thing they said about Nero? 🎻
// He has been mostly absent from view, focused on purging disloyal aides and tweeting grievances and misinformation even as the pandemic rages.
🐣 RT @PeterHotez In my 40 yrs as a physician-scientist committed to halting neglected diseases I’ve visited nations where “life is cheap”, it’s horrifying to witness it firsthand. I never envisioned this could happen in USA where now fake ideologies pseudoscience take precedence over human life
📊 WaPo: Exit poll results and analysis for the 2020 presidential election (preliminary) http://wapo.st/36tgsRL ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1327070879650615297?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @FranklinFoer I’ve tracked DHS’s election efforts. They were heroic. Without any real money or new authority, they bolstered the safety of election infrastructure markedly and made local officials sharper. Of course, Trump is now rewarding their efforts by pushing their leaders out the door.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JakeTapper Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees: ¤ “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.“
⋙⋙ CISA: Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees http://bit.ly/3nhzlOg
🐣 RT @jaketapper “Oh this national security official just told the truth and didn’t kowtow to the president pushing a deranged & debunked conspiracy theory, sure hope he doesn’t get fired for it!” is not something people should find themselves saying in the US of A and yet… here we are
💙💙🧵 RT @ifindkarma How will history remember Trump? ¤ “The narrative that will become widely understood is that Donald Trump did not sit atop a global empire. He was not an intuitive genius and tough guy who created billions of dollars of wealth through fearlessness. He had a small, sad operation…” 📌 https://twitter.com/ifindkarma/status/985647147545538560?s=20
// mega MEGA thread of videos etc starting in 2018 by Adam Rifkin ~ fan favorites
⭕ 11 Nov 2020
WaPo, John Bolton: Time is running out for Trump — and Republicans who coddle him http://wapo.st/3pqseES “[A]ny aggrieved candidate must at some point produce valid legal arguments and persuasive evidence. Trump has so far failed to do so, and there is no indication he can”
🐣 There’s a movie about @RonaldKlain: HBO’s “Recount.” He’s played by Kevin Spacey. Klain spear-headed the Gore campaign during the 2000 Recount. The movie won a ton of Emmys. ¤ And if you’re into @NicolleDWallace or @SteveSchmidtSES, they’re major characters in “Game Change”
🐣 RT @marceelias The day ends as it began, with Trump still searching for his first court victory. He and his allies remain 0-12. 🙃 ¤ Goodnight. 😴
🐣 RT @davidplouffe Arizona done. Recounts don’t erase 14K vote leads. So Georgia will be too. 306 EV, most Presidential votes ever and 5-6 pt national vote lead when all is said and done. Well done @JoeBiden, @KamalaHarris and @jomalleydillon.
🐣 RT @sebgorka These men have utterly failed in their duty to America and our chief law enforcement officer, @realDonaldTrump. ¤ Time for @POTUS to declassify ALL Crossfire Hurricane documents. ¤ NOW.
// photos of Durham and Barr
⋙ 🐣 and to think *certain people* still think Hillary should be “locked up” over three (3) c-word “confidential” (the lowest level of classified) emails
WSJ, Karl Kove (‼️): This Election Result Won’t Be Overturned http://on.wsj.com/32B9vgk
// Recounts occasionally change margins in the hundreds, never in the tens of thousands.
🧵 RT @BillKristol Short thread. FWIW, my takeaway from conversations last night with recent DOD senior officials:
1) DOD under Esper has pushed back more than many people realize against many Trump ideas, ranging from use of troops here at home, to Afghan withdrawal, to military options re Iran. 📌 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1326526284625743872?s=20
4) A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a “clap-out” as he left the building. The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired. END
↥ ↧
🧵 RT @BillKristol Another thread. More on DOD, based on further conversations with well-informed former Trump officials:
1. NSA Robert O’Brien also key; he urged removal of Esper, putting in Miller and Patel.
2. Having total loyalists not just at Sec Def but at DOD Policy and Intel is a big deal.
📌 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1326536862765252613?s=20
🧵 RT @thedailybeast NEW: President Trump continues to refuse to cede the election. His national security adviser Robert O’Brien is enabling the mayhem, four senior officials told The Daily Beast. 📌 https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1326700251302998016?s=20
⋙⋙ DailyBeast: Trump’s National Security Adviser Tells Staff: Don’t Even Mention Biden’s Name http://bit.ly/36qa79D
// No one around Trump is willing to tell him he lost the election. Into the “fucking clown show” stepped Robert O’Brien.
🧵 RT @SteveSchmidtSES The Trump Coup rolls on. Fueled by Trump’s brittle ego, idiocy, malice and the political cowardice of most all elected Republicans, this sad spectacle seems like the perfect ending to the reality show Presidency. It feels more like “Moon over Parador” than any type of real 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1326652663979765761?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @karinanniebell But friends in Europe and other expats are warning that from the outside looking in, we’re missing the really important pieces of the landscape that suggest we are facing a soft, slow roll coup, and we’re not prepared. My inbox is blowing up with warnings about what they see.
DailyBeast: Infamous MAGA Figures Rush Into Purged Pentagon http://bit.ly/38FIf4d
// The senior Defense Department leadership now includes aides to Mike Flynn and Devin Nunes, as well as someone who called Barack Obama a “terrorist leader.”
🐣 RT @RonaldKlain I’ve seen so many kind wishes tonight on this website. Thank you – and I’m sorry I can’t reply to each of you. ¤ I’m honored by the President-elect’s confidence and will give my all to lead a talented and diverse team in a Biden-Harris WH.
// will be Biden’s Chief of Staff
🐣 RT @Kasparov63 Everything must be done to keep as many people in the community of shared truth and shared sacrifice. This is why Biden’s message of unity is crucial, even if rejected by most GOP. Society cannot survive too much fragmentation, which is what Putin is betting on.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Kasparov63 A unity message also rejected by many on the left, btw, and unwisely so. You do not have to have empathy for those who hate you, but you have to recognize their humanity and the need for their participation in society or there will be no society.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Kasparov63 But you can never make peace with extremists who would destroy you and your society, who would bring down the institutions that protect all. Reducing their number is paramount, and it can only be done by breaking through the walls they have built against truth.
🐣 RT @TheRickWilson They did. You lost. You’re leaving. It’s all over but the weeping.
⋙ 🐣 RT @real Nobody wants to report that Pennsylvania and Michigan didn’t allow our Poll Watchers and/or Vote Observers to Watch or Observe. This is responsible for hundreds of thousands of votes that should not be allowed to count. Therefore, I easily win both states. Report the News!
// Trump tweet flagged by Twitter
WaPo, Kathleen Parker: Be very afraid of a post-defeat Trump http://wapo.st/3llo4fm
🐣 RT @McFaul Yes.
⋙ 🐣 RT @mgalyan @McFaul You think we’ll get a peaceful transition?
⭕ 10 Nov 2020
💙 WaPo Mag, David Montgomery (11/10): The Abnormal Presidency http://wapo.st/2KdtQSF
// Trump dramatically changed the presidency. Here’s a list of the 20 most important norms he broke — and how Biden can restore them.
Politico: ‘Devastating’: Top Pentagon leadership gutted as fears rise over national security http://politi.co/3eOzCoN
// Trio of resignations follow defense secretary’s firing.
WaPo: Why GOP superlawyer Ben Ginsberg is bucking his party and blasting Trump’s baseless election claims http://wapo.st/3kmszox
🧵 RT @jennycohn1 Rs blocked efforts 2 assess the legitimacy of their own “wins” (2000, 2002, 2004, 2016), many of which defied polls or involved glitches. They killed the #SAFEAct, which wld have required robust manual audits this year. Rs have unclean hands on the issue of election integrity. 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1326356331054342145?s=20
// tags: history of GOP on election recounts election integrity
NYT: The Times Called Officials in Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud http://nyti.ms/3kkT9yq
// The president and his allies have baselessly claimed that rampant voter fraud stole victory from him. Officials contacted by The Times said that there were no irregularities that affected the outcome.
🧵 RT @TimothyDSnyder 1/20. Democracy is precious and exceptional. 📌 https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1326319545427107840?s=20
🐣 RT @AndrewSolender New @Reuters/@Ipsos poll of 1,363 U.S. adults (Nov. 7-10):
Who won the 2020 election?
Biden – 79%
Trump – 3%
Not yet decided – 13%
72% say the loser should concede defeat, 60% believe there will be a peaceful transition.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @WWIPhD ~6 in 10 Republicans said Trump had lost. Only 3% of all respondents said that Trump had won.
⋙ Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Nearly 80% of Americans say Biden won White House, ignoring Trump’s refusal to concede http://reut.rs/38tE6zZ “[A]bout six in 10 Republicans and almost every Democrat said Biden won”
💙 DailyBeast, Rick Wilson: Trump’s Final Hissy Fit Is Petty, Illegal and Stupid http://bit.ly/3llxqaH
//. Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States. We’re done. It’s all over but the weeping and rending of MAGA garments.
DailyBeast, Julia Davis: ‘Milk Him Like a Cow’: Russian State Media Mulls How to Take Advantage of Trump Before He’s Gone http://bit.ly/3phqMVu
// Russian lawmakers want Putin to take advantage of Trump in the remaining weeks he’s in office.
🐣 RT @AVindman In the last 24 hours, the Secretary of Defense (SecDef), the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD-P), and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intell (OUSD-I) have been sacked. Trump loyalist now sit in the 1, 3, and 4 slots at DOD. Kash Patel is DOD Chief of Staff. Why?
⋙ 🚫 🐣 RT @DickesonPeter 45 expects massive protests when he makes his grab to stay in power. He needs people in the DoD who will put troops on the streets to crush protests, something Esper didn’t want to do. The US military chiefs need to decide right now, whose side their on, The People or 45?
⋙ 🚫 🐣 RT @thedawnwestlake According to @JuliaDavisNews, Russian State TV is demanding “the cow be milked” before he leaves (the cow being trump), so those folks are being installed to spy/communicate/steal defense secrets? Meanwhile, Gina Haspel was in @senatemajldr’s office this afternoon. WHY?
🧵 RT @atrupar .@ChrisMurphyCT: “There’s an epidemic of delusion that is spreading out from the WH & infecting the entire Republican Party in the wake of this election, & it presents a real threat to this country. Trump didn’t win the election. Every single one of my colleagues knows this.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1326267249372618757?s=20
// Chris Murphy floor speech
🐣 RT @jaketapper The WH is firing top leaders at the Pentagon while the president denies the election results
⋙ 🐣 RT @JenGriffinFNC US defense official confirms: chief of staff Jen Stewart replaced by Kash Patel, a former Devin Nunes staffer who worked to discredit the Russia investigation. Also out, Vice Admiral Joseph Kernan, ret Navy SEAL who was Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
🐣 RT @ezraklein Biden’s discipline and tonal control through this whole thing has been extraordinary. ¤ Or maybe the better word is: presidential. https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1326261433458331649?s=20
🧵 RT @atrupar Biden downplays Trump refusing to concede: “I’m confident that the fact they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we’re able to do.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1326250434923802626?s=20
// Biden presser Q&A
🐣 Stay off the streets people. Trump is staffing up to invoke the Insurrection Act. ¤ We’re winning. Victory is inevitable if we keep our cool.
🐣 RT @joshtpm As his presidency dies, Trump is stocking the staffers most involved in the Ukraine extortion effort and the Nunes ‘unmasking’ nonsense into key positions in the intel and defense infrastructure. some he’s reclassifying as career officials to make them harder to fire. https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1326255828828041216?s=20
🐣 RT @BillKristol Be alarmed.
⋙ 🧵 RT @John_Hudson Pompeo just now: “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” 📌 https://twitter.com/John_Hudson/status/1326225961738772491?s=20
NBCNews: DOJ’s election crimes chief resigns after Barr allows prosecutors to probe voter fraud claims http://nbcnews.to/2JQK2sB
// Barr on Monday issued a memo authorizing prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections.”
Richard Pilger, who was director of the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ, sent a memo to colleagues that suggested his resignation was linked to Barr’s memo, which was issued as the president’s legal team mount baseless legal challenges to the election results, alleging widespread voter fraud cost him the race.
“Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications, and in accord with the best tradition of the John C. Keeney Award for Exceptional Integrity and Professionalism (my most cherished Departmental recognition), I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch,” Pilger’s letter said, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.
⭕ 9 Nov 2020
🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT This is simple: my colleagues don’t think they can win if the vote is fair. They need a stooge to run the special election or they are in big trouble.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney LOEFFLER and PERDUE jointly attack the Republican secretary of state in Georgia. Text Block: https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1325892732355817473?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney Georgia’s secretary of state rejects the attacks, says election was a “resounding success” and that even if “illegal votes” are uncovered, they won’t be enough to change the results.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @bluestein The response from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: “Let me start by saying that is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me, and the voters will be the one to fire me.” #gapol Text Block: https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1325910990735740928?s=20/photo/1-3
TheBulwark, Bill Kristol: Be Alarmed http://bit.ly/35djhXt
// Things are probably going to work out okay. But complacency in the defense of democracy is not a virtue.
🐣 RT @RVAT2020 Trump is acting contrary to basic Republican constitutional values and threatening the integrity of the election – @AmbJohnBolton 💽 https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1325986200264585216?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @EJDionne Republicans are fostering cynicism about the constitutional order on a massive scale. They are stumbling toward sedition.” ¤ Great column from @MJGerson in which he also accuses the GOP of “bad faith and poltroonery.” ¤ Wonderful word: poltroonery.
⋙ WaPo: The election is over, but there’s no end to Republican bad faith http://wapo.st/3khI1lP
🐣 RT @BradMossEsq Lawyers Sound the Alarm as ‘Off the Rails’ AG Barr Caters to President Trump’s Baseless Fraud Narrative: ‘A Straightforward Abuse of Power’
⋙ Law&Crime, Matt Naham: Lawyers Sound the Alarm as ‘Off the Rails’ AG Barr Caters to President Trump’s Baseless Fraud Narrative: ‘A Straightforward Abuse of Power’ http://bit.ly/2Uf3ZuY
🐣 RT @AshaRangappa_ I also suspect that there is some reflexive control going on: To get people “protesting in the streets” in order to validate their narrative that this is close call and a toss-up. (There’s a time for protest, it’s not now — these challenges won’t make it through the courts)
🐣 RT @LincolnsBible We’re entering the ugly part. ¤ Hang on.
🐣 RT @brhodes It’s pathetic and doomed to fail, but we shouldn’t ignore or forget that much of the Republican Party is publicly advocating overturning the will and votes of the people based on false conspiracy theories and fealty to an autocrat. This is no different from Belarus.
🐣 RT @neal_katyal Even Bill “Teargas” Barr can’t stop the truth. It’s over.
⋙ 🐣 RT @jaketapper Sen. Ben Sasse congratulates President-elect Joe Biden on his win | Politics | http://omaha.com http://bit.ly/2UhDtkF
WaPo: Facebook takes down a large network of pages tied to Stephen Bannon for pushing misinformation http://wapo.st/3kiGXOu
// The pages, which pushed the ‘Stop the Steal’ effort and other misleading messages, were removed over the weekend, while the former top Trump strategist’s account was frozen
🐣 RT @ezraklein If we saw the head of the ruling regime, and his party, react to the election results this way in any other country, we’d know exactly what we are looking at. ¤ And I’d say here, too, it’s time to be honest and say we know exactly what we are looking at.
⋙ Vox, Ezra Klein (11/7): Trump is attempting a coup in plain sight http://bit.ly/36oNbaV
// How do we cover it when it’s happening here?
🐣 RT @karoli Stop being doom and gloomy. We knew the next 2 months were going to suck. It’s all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Mail in ballots are perfectly legal.
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Shocking yet unsurprising. There is no evidence of voting irregularities. Also, Barr, be careful what you ask for. Someone might look into how republicans senators in Kentucky, Maine, and South Carolina won their elections.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JonLemireWASHINGTON (AP) — Barr authorizes DOJ to probe ‘substantial allegations’ of voting irregularities despite little evidence of fraud.
⇈ ⇊
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom So now we know what that homunculus was up to
‼️ 🐣 RT @MCJalonick WASHINGTON (AP) _ Barr authorizes DOJ to probe ‘substantial allegations’ of voting irregularities despite little evidence of fraud
🐣 RT @SykesCharlie “By refusing to concede, Trump is establishing yet another loyalty test for Republicans, yet another gangland initiation rite. And so far, Republicans are lining up to demonstrate just how loyal they can be.” –@JVLast
⋙ TheBulbark, Jonathan Last: The Warning Lights Are Still Flashing Red http://bit.ly/3n3DW6o
// It’s the day after tomorrow, finally.
MSN/Reuters, Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe: Citizen Trump will face legal woes http://bit.ly/3eHNjpy
NYT: Growing Discomfort at Law Firms Representing Trump in Election Lawsuits http://nyti.ms/3ljhrKn
// Some lawyers at Jones Day and Porter Wright, which have filed suits about the 2020 vote, said they were worried about undermining the electoral system.
🐣 RT @vemontgmg We are watching the Republican Party willingly burn the trust and legitimacy of our democratic system to the ground to avoid hurting the feelings of the president who just lost, badly. This damage will be hard to undo.
Stars&Stripes/Bloomberg: A look at who is being mentioned for top posts in a Biden administration http://bit.ly/3eJFoIm
🐣 RT @anneapplebaum Former Supreme Allied Commander, Nato
⋙ 🐣 RT @stavridisj If Trump moves on to fire the head of the CIA and the head of the FBI, both true professionals and patriots, we are going to be in uncharted waters for the next 90 days. It all has terrible “burn it down” on the way out feeling. It is playing with fire with our nations security
🐣 RT @swingleft Trump got mad at Mark Esper because he opposed using US troops to attack protesters (which Trump did for a photo op). ¤ Christopher Miller refused to answer whether counterterrorism resources would be used on U.S. protesters. https://twitter.com/swingleft/status/1325865454510944256?s=20
🐣 RT @sbg1 The kicker to this Esper interview is chilling. ¤ ‘Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes’ man. And then God help us.’
⋙ MilitaryTimes: Exclusive: Esper, on his way out, says he was no yes man http://bit.ly/35bAnVI
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @Acosta Trump has fired the Secretary of Defense.
NYT: Pfizer’s Early Data Shows Vaccine Is More Than 90% Effective http://nyti.ms/3eF9Bs5 “By the end of the year it will have manufactured enough doses to immunize 15 to 20 million people, company executives have said”
// Pfizer announced positive early results from its coronavirus vaccine trial, cementing the lead in a frenzied global race that has unfolded at record-breaking speed.
⭕ 8 Nov 2020
‼️ 💙 🧵 RT @DavidManel THREAD: I’m still very interested in Trump’s remarkable success in Miami-Dade and Rio Grande Valley/Texas border. The explanations given in the press… 📌 https://twitter.com/DavidManel/status/1325631543021359105?s=20
⋙ […] 🐣 RT @ Before the election, Kellyanne Conway was quoted as saying: “The person who coined the term, ‘hidden, undercover Trump voter in 2016,’ there are even more of them, and they’re even more committed now, and they’re going to surprise you as to who they are this time.”
WaPo: A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition resources to Biden — and she isn’t budging http://wapo.st/2IiKGhX “‘No agency head is going to get out in front of the president on transition issues right now,’ said one senior administration official”
🐣 RT @60Minutes “Donald Trump can say whatever he wants. But we just had an election, an election that was secure, an election where the votes were tallied,” says PA’s Democratic AG Josh Shapiro, who’s defending the state against Republican lawsuits he calls frivolous. https://cbsn.ws/3n6mFcO
WaPo: Trump continues to defy election results as world and some in GOP begin to move on http://wapo.st/358iPKf “Trump has told others that he is never going to admit that he lost the race”
🐣 RT @blakehounshell The AP has been calling races since 1848
⋙ 🐣 RT @real Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!
🐣 RT @WSJ “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear,” former President George W. Bush said in a statement from Dallas
⋙ WSJ: George W. Bush Congratulates Joe Biden http://on.wsj.com/3n52EU1
// Former President George W. Bush said Sunday he had spoken to President-elect Joe Biden. “I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night”
Former President George W. Bush said Sunday he had spoken to President-elect Joe Biden. ¤ “I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Mr. Bush said in a statement from Dallas. “I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency.”
“Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unity our country,” Mr. Bush said. “The president-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans. I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can.”
“I want to congratulate President Trump and his supporters on a hard-fought campaign.” the former president added. “He earned the votes of more than 70 million Americans–an extraordinary political achievement. They have spoken and their voices will continue to be heard through elected Republicans at every level of government.”
Mr. Bush expressed confidence in the ballot-counting process that the Trump campaign is challenging in several closely fought states. “President Trump has the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges, and any unresolved issues will be properly adjudicated,” he said. “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”
“We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future,” Mr. Bush said. “There is no problem that will not yield to the gathered will of a free people.”
🐣 RT @BarackObama Congratulations to my friends, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris — our next President and Vice President of the United States. Text Block: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1325136780396437507?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MalcolmNance We did.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TravisAllen02 The crowds would make you think the US just overthrew a dictator.
🐣 RT @ktumulty Editorial In the Murdoch-owned @nypost implores Trump: “It undermines faith in democracy, and faith in the nation, to push baseless conspiracies. Get Rudy Giuliani off TV. Ask for the recounts you are entitled to, wish Biden well, and look to the future.”
⋙ NYPost Editorial: President Trump, your legacy is secure — stop the ‘stolen election’ rhetoric http://bit.ly/2JIWkmJ
🐣 RT @Transition46 The President-elect spoke with former President Bush this morning.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TheBushCenter Statement by President George W. Bush: Text Block: https://twitter.com/TheBushCenter/status/1325492912122114050?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ BushCenter: Statement by President George W. Bush http://bit.ly/2U64t6H
// President Bush congratulates President-elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris
⭕ 7 Nov 2020
Politico: Inside Donald Trump’s 2020 undoing http://politi.co/2IbpryZ
// How Biden prevailed and Trump fell short in an unforgettable election, according to conversations with 75 insiders.
🐣 RT @TheRickyDavila If you missed the awesome drone fireworks display, here it is, enjoy. 💽 https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1325298618492874754?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @PreetBharara I had to explain to my kids just now that this is not the normal level of celebration after an election in America
⋙ 🐣 RT @marija24 My mom called me from Serbia and said: “You’re celebrating like we did in 2000 when we overthrew Milosevic’s regime”. ¤ Those who survived autocracy and dictatorship know what it feels like when somebody else does.
😅 RT @H_MitchellPhoto Rudy Giuliani accidentally booking Four Seasons Total Landscaping for a press conference instead of the Four Seasons Hotel may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. https://twitter.com/H_MitchellPhoto/status/1325281257346002945?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @JohnFellinBmore Great location. It’s the best location. Best location for any press conference. No other President has had this location. I’m the first. Me. I have that location. Big news coming. Big news. The country is doing better than ever. I did that. Great, great location. https://twitter.com/JohnFellInBMore/status/1325161460444524544?s=20/photo/1-3
// 1. landscaping, 2. adult book store, 3. cremation services
🐣 RT @HarryAlford3 This is how Ireland ended its newscast tonight 💽 https://twitter.com/HarryAlford3/status/1325220150497464320?s=20/photo/1
// video montage with voiceover of Biden reading Seamus Heaney
🐣 RT @telesurenglish President-Elect of the United States Joe Biden addressed the nation with a message of unity. ¤ Watch the full speech here: 💽 https://youtu.be/QDrsGSiK1YY
🐣 RT @tedlieu On Eagle’s Wings has lifted me and many others during our low moments. You can tell when a @POTUS actually believes in God. As a Catholic, I’m so proud @JoeBiden will be the second Catholic in our history to sit behind the Resolute Desk.
⋙ 🐣 RT @HeidiNBC On Eagle’s Wings is a Catholic hymn
“And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.”
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman Not lost on me is the moment of embrace between Hunter Biden and his father. The dude has some horrible demons but the attacks they levied against father and son should go down as some of the most disgraceful acts of political malfeasance in US history. https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1325257492851380224?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @FaceTheNation In the midst of the ongoing and devastating #coronavirus pandemic, @joebiden tells supporters: “This is a time to heal in America.” @NorahODonnell reflects on Biden’s appeal for unity in the wake of #Election2020 💽 https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1325267708615798787?s=20/photo/1
// Biden Victory Celebration; fireworks and mini-drones
🐣 RT @joshtpm Coming back from golf to see the city awash in celebrations https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1325198750931775488?s=20/photo/1
// Trump, scowling
🐣 RT @RegSprecher Kanzlerin #Merkel gratuliert @JoeBiden und @KamalaHarris. https://twitter.com/RegSprecher/status/1325135945977405445?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @EvanMcMullin A note to my fellow conservatives and Republicans: I hope you won’t view this electoral loss as setback, but rather as an opportunity to move forward and beyond the darkness of the last four years. https://twitter.com/EvanMcMullin/status/1325162695042068480?s=20
🐣 RT @HeaneyDaily
History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Congratulations to @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris! #Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the #UnitedStates. and have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!
↥ ↧
🧵 RT @NBCNews US allies send messages of congratulations to US President-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris. 📌 https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1325144046839296001?s=20
// Macron, Johnson [UK], Trudeau, Kurz [Austria], Martin [Ireland], Stoltenberg [NATO], Kahn [London]
😅 RT @TheRealHoarse Just got in some fresh data since this morning:
– Cursing at the TV – down 78%
– Google searches for “moving to Canada” – down 65%
– Google searches for “Mooving to Kanadia” – up 82%
🐣 RT @aliaena BELLS ringing across PARIS!! ¤ 17h45 November 7, 2020 ¤ Biden/Harris ¤ The world has been watching. 💽 https://twitter.com/aliaena/status/1325121977917403139?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @mathieuvonrohr A tale of two @derspiegel covers https://twitter.com/mathieuvonrohr/status/1325133192341254144?s=20/photo/1-2
// Trump decapitates Statue of Liberty; Biden restores it (same artist)
🐣 RT @MittRomney Ann and I extend our congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. We know both of them as people of good will and admirable character. We pray that God may bless them in the days and years ahead.
🐣 RT @JohnBrennan President-elect Biden: ¤ Congratulations on your hard-fought victory. Your poise, professionalism, & patriotism have been in abundant evidence over the past several days, as they have been throughout your career. ¤ You are a good & wise man. ¤ Our country needs you. ¤ Thank you.
NBCNews: After Joe Biden win over Donald Trump, relief sweeps U.S.’s traditional allies http://nbcnews.to/357ResL
// We want to invest in our cooperation for a new transatlantic beginning, a new deal,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
🐣 RT @SpeakerPelosi We kept the republic! Congratulations to Joe Biden on his victory for the soul of our country. Congratulations to Kamala Harris for making history. It’s a time to heal and a time to grow together. E Pluribus Unum.
🐣 RT @BernieSanders I want to congratulate all those who worked so hard to make this historic day possible. Now, through our continued grassroots organizing, let us create a government that works for ALL and not the few. Let us create a nation built on justice, not greed and bigotry.
🐣 RT @AdamRifkin “There’s a humility to the randomness of tragedy that brings about caring that cannot be faked. Grief humbles you. In this moment our country needs a leader of humility. We are in pain. It gives us hope that Joe Biden is #ManOfTheMoment.” @ReallyAmerican1 💽 https://twitter.com/ifindkarma/status/1315069614691282944?s=20/photo/1
‼️ 🐣 RT @JoeBiden America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. ¤ The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. ¤ I will keep the faith that you have placed in me. 💽 https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1325118992785223682?s=20/photo/1
// 10:52am 11/7/2020
~~~~~~~~
🐣 My patience is running thin. CALL IT ‼️@AP @cnn @FoxNews @ABC @CBSNews @PBS @NPR @NBCNews @MSNBC @DecisionDeskHQ
🐣 RT @jmeacham Take a breath: President Biden would come to office with a pop vote % LARGER than Truman, JFK, Nixon, Clinton, Bush 43, and Trump. And roughly the same as Reagan, Bush 41, and Obama.
🐣 Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep Matt Gaetz both diagnosed w COVID-19 ~ @MSNBC
⋙ Couldn’t happen to a couple of more deserving guys
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [Meltdown]
[Twitter warning:] Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process. Learn more
// X4 ✛ ✛ ✛ ‼️
🐣 RT @MollyJongFast That New York Post cover is proof positive Rupert is done with Trump.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Azi Today’s tabs. https://twitter.com/Azi/status/1325076323107266560?s=20/photo/1-2
// NYDailyNews: “Come On, already”; NYPost: “Ready, Set … Joe?”
🐣 RT @BillKristol “After four years of turning a blind eye to the president’s rhetoric and behavior…the test for the GOP was whether it would accommodate the president’s rebellion against this country’s democratic norms or denounce it. The GOP has failed that test.”
⋙ Politico Mag: The Election That Broke the Republican Party http://politi.co/32lBctn
// By lashing themselves to the president’s desperate conspiracies of fraud, GOP officials have undermined their own legitimacy.
⭕ 6 Nov 2020
TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum (11/6): Trump Won’t Accept Defeat. Ever. http://bit.ly/3pbWC69
// His forever campaign is just getting started.
🐣 🌎 RT @theglobalist How did Pennsylvania vote in 2020 compared to 2016? #UnitedStates #USElection2020 #Pennsylvania2020 https://twitter.com/theglobalist/status/1325512381951320064?s=20/photo/1
NPR: Trump Dumps 3 Agency Leaders In Wake Of Election http://n.pr/2IfAM0E including Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a move criticized by GOP Senator Jim Inhofe who called her “an exemplary public servant”
Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement criticizing Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, who he said “effectively demanded” the resignation of Gordon-Hagerty. (The National Nuclear Security Administration is a semi-autonomous agency that is part of the Energy Department.)
Inhofe called Gordon-Hagerty “an exemplary public servant and remarkable leader” and said Brouillette’s decision “during this time of uncertainty demonstrates he doesn’t know what he’s doing in national security matters and shows a complete lack of respect for the semi-autonomous nature of NNSA.”
🐣 RT @real Incredibly stated Jim! 💽 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1324927258679767042?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Donald Trump has lost. He is defeated. He is attempting to poison American democracy and the nest of Republican cowards in the Senate and House are happy to let him do it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES .@realDonaldTrump YOU HAVE LOST. IT IS OVER. YOUR ACTIONS IN THIS HOUR ARE A DISGRACE FOR THE AGES. IT WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES It is essential to understand what we are watching. (1) Joseph Robinette Biden of Delaware has been elected the President of the United States of America. (2) American democracy is under attack by the defeated President. (3) He is not acting alone. He is supported in his attack
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES by his White House and campaign staff. He is also supported by several Law firms. All of these people are complicit in the assault against American democracy. None of them should ever be forgiven. All of them should pay a brutal price for betraying the American ideal. (4) The
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Elected leaders of the country have an absolute moral and constitutional obligation to defend the country from Trump’s authoritarian delusions and illiberal ravings. (5) There is no middle ground in this moment. (6) The American people have spoken.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES It is time for the Decision desks to call this race. Networks and other news organizations should not be intimidated from declaring reality. The Trump team has lost. It’s over. @ProjectLincoln . The threshold for calling these races has been met and then some.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Goodbye @IvankaTrump. You will be loved by the people you disdain and disdained by the people you want to be loved by. There will never be a Met Ball for you again. You are fated to live out your years as an aging, corrupt, villainous Barbie; paying the price for what you did.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Good Bye @DonaldJTrumpJr. Decency has been restored. Your father once worried about giving you his name because you might turn out to be a loser. Turns out it was the perfect name for you both. Trust me on this , your name will be synonymous with disgrace forever and ever.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES It is quite a thing to watch @mschlapp, a leading voice of American fascism and authoritarianism dress up his sedition in the cloak of American democracy. Yes, they have lost, but their extremism and insanity will deepen. @matthewjdowd
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES .@BillStepien History is watching. It’s time to talk to King Lear. Don’t be on the side of Trump’s coup. Leave Trump and his scumbag pack behind. You are a party guy who did a job. Trump lost. Sedition doesn’t suit you. Don’t do it @ProjectLincoln
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Here is a piece of advice for the deflated White House Staffers. If you ever want to work for any institution other than the RNC, Breitbart, NY Post. Wash Examiner, Sinclair, OAN, RT ect.. write a letter of resignation, right now, on the basis of Trump’s remarks last night.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Every person who goes on Television saying Trump won an election he has lost is desecrating the sacrifice of every American Patriot from the birth of the Republic through today. The statements are an attempt to murder American democracy and end the American experiment.
💙 😅 🐣 RT @_gh0stn LMAOOO IM NEVER DELETING THIS APP 💽 https://twitter.com/_gh0stn/status/1324801623781122048?s=20/photo/1
// Biden w Obama other Dems as Superheroes battling Trump ~ Black Panther? All Votes Matter Mail-in ballots
🐣 RT @atrupar Is there a reason TV stations aren’t calling this race beyond that they don’t want to hurt Trump’s feelings?
⋙ 🐣 Acc to the guys at @msnbc, there are some new questions about the number and party of provisional ballots, ie they may be more Republican than mail-in ballots. ¤ Oh yeah ~ and that Supreme Court challenge
NBCNews: 2 men detained after police learn of possible threat to Philadelphia vote counting center http://nbcnews.to/355dSC0
// The FBI is investigating the possible threat.
WaPo, Max Boot: Thank goodness Trump is too incompetent to properly organize a coup http://wapo.st/3l4FX1S
🐣 RT @LaurieGarrett The placeholder is live. ¤ Many pages are ready to launch, as soon as @JoeBiden is declared the next President of the United States of America. ¤ Stay tuned here for transition team lists and plans:
⋙ 💙 🔄 Biden-Harris Transition Team Official Website https://buildbackbetter.com
NYT, Timothy Egan: American Democracy Survives Its Brush With Death http://nyti.ms/3euLYlW “The violent fringe on the left helped Mr. Trump. The violent fringe on the right, sadly, did not appear to hurt him”
// I’m badly shaken by what happened in this election.
… Democrats were done in by extreme voices that Mr. Trump was able to link to their party. Defunding the police will never be popular outside a few lefty precincts. The whiff of socialism helped kill Democrats in Florida. ¤ The violent fringe on the left helped Mr. Trump. The violent fringe on the right, sadly, did not appear to hurt him.
… A presidential candidate could win the popular vote by nearly five million votes, but depending on where those votes are cast, he or she could still lose in the archaic Electoral College, the fortress for the tyranny of the minority. Only once in the last 30 years have Republicans won the popular vote.
California, where nearly one in eight Americans live, with 53 members in the House, would have the same power as Wyoming, a state with a lone representative in the House and a declining population. ¤ The obvious flaw here — that the person who gets the most votes does not necessarily win — could be neutralized by the National Popular Vote Compact, in which all of a participating state’s electoral votes are pledged to the winner of the national popular vote. … [F]or now, it’s the best vehicle for bringing the American system closer to one that reflects the will of the people.
Ah, the will of people. Who knows what the hell that is. Yes, it’s karmic justice that three of the states pivotal in electing Mr. Trump — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — now look like three that will fire him. And for that slim majority, and the rest of us, may mourning in America soon turn to morning in America.
🐣 RT @clairecmc The Lt Gov of PA said this am that the segregated ballots (those arriving after Tuesday-today) have not been counted. If margin is big enough they won’t matter, and that closes off the only legal case with a whisper of merit.
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey to NBC: “I saw the president’s speech last night. It was very hard to watch. The president’s allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I’m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here.”
🐣 RT @BillKristol Every decent Republican elected official should speak up today against the lies, the conspiracy theories, and violence, and for counting every vote. But one person in particular who could make a difference and partly redeem himself after four years of bending the knee: VP Pence.
🚫🐣 RT @ KellyO Statement from the Trump campaign this morning. Text Block: https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1324722227342880771?s=20/photo/1
// denial
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @Vox BREAKING: Joe Biden is projected to win the #2020Election, per Decision Desk. ¤ The former two-term vice president and 36-year Senate veteran will be the 46th president of the United States. https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1324711652957315080?s=20/photo/1
⋙ Vox: Joe Biden has won. Here’s what comes next. http://bit.ly/2IepWYK
// Biden will have to overcome a surging pandemic, an economic crisis, and a hostile Republican Party.
🐣 RT @atrupar BOOM!
⋙ 🐣 RT @DecisionDeskHQ Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273. ¤ Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States of America. ¤ Race called at 11-06 08:50 AM EST
⋙ All Results: http://bit.ly/2JLXNZP
🐣 I’m hoping AP announces Biden win once PA results are clear. ¤ Then people of good will ~ not just Democrats but Republicans, too ~ call to congratulate him. ¤ That will get the message through to Trump.🤞
🐣 I expect Biden to be more Eisenhower than FDR.
🐣 Who comes up with phrases like “Defund the police,” anyway? It’s a shibboleth, intended to distinguish the “woke” from the rubes. People insist it doesn’t REALLY mean what it says, ie “defund” means send shrinks with police sometimes, training, etc. Use plain English, people.
⋙ 🐣 RT @RGanley That is one of the failures of Dems, we are terrible at naming things. Rep have perfected naming things for decades, mostly naming thing the opposite of what it actually is, like right to work law.
⭕ 5 Nov 2020
ForeignAffairs, Larry Diamond: A New Administration Won’t Heal American Democracy http://fam.ag/3kkTgK8
// The rot in U.S. political institutions runs deeper than Donald Trump.
NYT: James Baker, a veteran of the 2000 Florida recount, says Trump should not try to stop vote counting. http://nyti.ms/2TYfFm3 ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1324677437976961024?s=20/photo/1
“We never said don’t count the votes,” Mr. Baker said. “That’s a very hard decision to defend in a democracy.” …
“There are huge differences,” Mr. Baker said of the Florida battle and the brewing fights over this week’s election. “For one thing, our whole argument was that the votes have been counted and they’ve been counted and they’ve been counted and it’s time to end the process. That’s not exactly the message that I heard on election night. And so I think it’s pretty hard to be against counting the votes.”
🧵 RT @TimAlberta The dishonesty here is breathtaking. ¤ Cruz claims repeatedly that poll watchers have been denied access in Philly. OK. What’s his source? ¤ People on the scene there say poll watchers have had access all along. Here’s a statement from Philly’s bipartisan commission on elections: 📌 https://twitter.com/TimAlberta/status/1324561121567789056?s=20/photo/1-2
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TedCruz I am angry. ¤ The American people are right to be angry. ¤ We need observers. ¤ Now.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TimAlberta The last 3 hours on Fox News has been a parade of fire-breathing Republicans ranting and raving about dark rooms and troves of ballots and a lack of transparency… and it’s obvious that none of them have any actual knowledge about the specifics of what’s happening on the ground.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ The funny thing? For months I’ve heard Trump/GOP officials in MI/WI/PA boast about their poll-watcher system, how sophisticated it is, how they’ve taken steps to ensure eyes & ears in the big precincts. And now the national know-nothings swoop in and scream about lack of access.
NYT, Paul Krugman: Is America Becoming a Failed State? http://nyti.ms/3mXBrCF
// Mitch McConnell may make the nation ungovernable.
🐣 RT @McFaul Is this what you want President Trump? Senator Graham? Senator Cruz? Because if not, you better make it clear right now. Your followers are confused.
⋙ 🐣 RT @perez4az Alex Jones casually attempting to instigate a Civil War at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. ¤ America, 2020. 💽 https://twitter.com/perez4az/status/1324559557918556161?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @McFaul Is this what you want President Trump? Senator Graham? Senator Cruz? Because if not, you better make it clear right now. Your followers are confused.
⋙ 🐣 RT @perez4az Alex Jones casually attempting to instigate a Civil War at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. ¤ America, 2020.
🐣 RT @brhodes Newt Gingrich has done as much as any person to damage American democracy over the last three decades. This fascist loser rant is a logical endpoint of a cynical and destructive career.
⋙ 🐣 RT @joshtpm Here Gingrich describes the (non-existent) crimes for which Bill Barr should send in federal agents to arrest election workers in Pennsylvania. 💽 https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1324574366185738240?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Edward Foley: Trump wants the courts to stop the counting. He’s going to be disappointed. http://wapo.st/3l2KFwR
🐣 RT @JaneMayerNYer This is a great and important report just in case…
⋙ 🐣 RT @rgoodlaw National Task Force on Election Crises report blows [Mark] Levin idea out of the water. ¤ Even well-grounded claims of vote counting problems would not allow Legislature to select Trump electors. ¤ @ElectionTask is highly respected cross-partisan expert group. Text Block: https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1324430155343929346?s=20/photo/1-2
⋙ NTFEC: A State Legislature Cannot Appoint Its Preferred Slate of Electors to Override the Will of the People After the Election http://bit.ly/3mXuO3n
WaPo: Trump turns angry and despondent as possible defeat looms http://wapo.st/2I6OJ0A
WaPo: Biden renews call for patience as Trump assails vote-counting process http://wapo.st/3l4loCH
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Trump is freaking the fuck out because not only is he watching his presidency disintegrate, but he’s watching the only protection he has from being criminally prosecuted dissolve as each vote is counted. #CountEveryVote
🐣 RT @McFaul Republicans need to signal clearly right now that they value the democratic process over Trump. Silence is not an option.
🐣 RT @JoeBiden No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever. ¤ America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen.
🐣 RT @NYMag “That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him, like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over. But he just hasn’t accepted it, and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.”
⋙ Vulture, Halle Kiefer: Anderson Cooper Has Snapped and He’s Taking the Good Name of Turtles With Him http://bit.ly/32jrQhM
// Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not bring our good friends, the chelonians, into this.
🐣 RT @danpfeiffer It’s true that many Republicans have not parroted Trump, some have even said vaguely good things, but let’s not pretend the party of voter suppression, gerrymandering, misinformation and court rigging care deeply about American democracy.
🐣 RT @ZerlinaShow .@Scaramucci on Trump’s presser: “That was a disaster…if you needed more evidence about how deranged he is and what a complete liar and fraud he is, you got it on full display tonight.” 💽 https://twitter.com/ZerlinaShow/status/1324518829012168704?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @scottbudman #Breaking: Steve Bannon’s Twitter and YouTube accounts have been suspended.
🐣 RT @JoeBiden [7:25pm] Keep the faith, folks.
🐣 RT @RepAdamSchiff What we just saw was the most dishonest and anti-democratic moment in the history of the presidency. ¤ Donald Trump lied incessantly about our election and undermined the very foundation of our democracy. ¤ We will count every vote. No matter what he says.
🐣 RT @JRehling BREAKING: A federal judge has just denied the Trump campaign’s injunction to stop vote counting in Philadelphia. The count goes on.
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC Alexander Hamilton warned us against choosing any leader who was a “daring usurper” of “avarice,” who would try to grab power by aggravating and exploiting the “jealousies and apprehensions” of the American people.
🐣 RT @Acosta CNN: So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 114,876 new cases and 1,159 reported deaths.
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln Republicans, now is the time to defend American democracy.
History will remember what you do in this moment of crisis.
Speak up or stay silent. Both are a choice and a statement.
🐣 RT @JeffFlake Fellow Republicans, don’t wait until the election is called to defend our elections and our democratic institutions. The time is now.
🐣 RT @marceelias I hope every Republican voting/election lawyer watched that spectacle on TV so they understand who and what they are fighting for.
🐣 RT @Acosta Don’t get exhausted.
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens Is anyone still seriously asking why it is important to defeat the Trump enablers? ¤ @ProjectLincoln
🐣 RT @MJGerson My one consolation tonight? This is exactly how history will always remember Trump — as a pathetic, lying whiner who cared nothing for this country.
‼️ TPM: Trump Declares War On American Democracy http://bit.ly/3k4x72J
🐣 RT @sullydish Trump just proved that all our fears about his utter indifference to liberal democracy were and are valid. Pathological narcissism and delusion. Unfit. Always was.
WaPo, Aaron Blake: Trump blames Democrats for late-counted mail ballots. He should blame the GOP. http://wapo.st/367f8nj
🐣 RT @oliverdarcy MSNBC immediately cuts off Trump when he moves to undermine the integrity of US election system. ¤ “Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the President of the United States…”
⋙ 🐣 RT @oliverdarcy NBC News has cut away. ABC News has cut away as well. CBS News is fact-checking right now.
⋙ 🐣 RT @oliverdarcy “What a sad night for the United States of America to hear their President say that,” @jaketapper says on CNN. “To falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy that way with his feast of falsehoods. Lie after lie after lie.”
WaPo Editorial: Losing an election, Trump chooses to slander American democracy http://wapo.st/350FMPk
WaPo, Philip Bump: In a speech of historic dishonesty, Trump tried to reinforce his long-planned effort to retain power http://wapo.st/32fsixh
✅ WaPo Factchecker, Glenn Kessler: Trump’s White House statement: Falsehood upon falsehood http://wapo.st/3k7ORKy
NYT: In Torrent of Falsehoods, Trump Claims Election Is Being Stolen http://nyti.ms/2I9tgo8
// Most television networks cut away from the statement President Trump gave Thursday night from the White House briefing room on the grounds that what he was saying was not true.
💙 🧵 RT @atrupar Trump opens his news conference by saying “if you count the legal vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” This is a lie. There is no evidence of election fraud. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1324498834941239297?s=20
💙 💽 CSPAN: Campaign2020: President Trump News Conference http://cs.pn/3oWkURr
// tags: trump presser trump says he won election trump meltdown trump treason
President Trump held a briefing at the White House two days after Election Day and without a declared winner in the presidential race. “This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election. They’re trying to rig an election and we can’t let that happen,” said the president without providing evidence to back his assertions. President Trump claimed that mail-in ballots inherently led to “corruption” and election workers “finding” these ballots during the counting process amounted to election fraud. The president said his campaign would pursue legal action, including going to the Supreme Court.
‼️ ⋘ 5:45pm Trump declares he has won ‘when legal votes are counted’ ⋙
🐣 RT @BradMossEsq “Alexa, show me what NRA’s finance officials say to its senior leadership whenever they want a blank check for use on vacation.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @NRA COME AND TAKE IT
🐣 RT @alt_uscis I am just going to leave this here 💽 https://twitter.com/ALT_uscis/status/1324482903468871682?s=20/photo/1
// snippet from Trump/Hillary Clinton debate: “most dangerous”
🐣 RT @peltzmadeline Steve Bannon calls for Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Wray to be beheaded “as a warning to federal bureaucrats”@youtube prohibits “inciting others to commit violent acts against individuals” 💽 https://twitter.com/peltzmadeline/status/1324471538310127618?s=20/photo/1
⋙ MMFA: Steve Bannon and his co-host discuss beheading Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray http://bit.ly/351N9pV
// Bannon: “I’d put their heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats”
🐣 RT @AshaRangappa_ Today my positive thought that gives me faith in democracy is that the media has handled the delay in election results very well. In particular, they did a good job of setting expectations in advance that this wouldn’t be a “night of” affair, and it is paying off now
🧵 RT @JakeTapper Conservative GOP veteran of several presidential campaigns: “Very concerned about what I’m seeing from GOP activists. They are attacking the integrity of the electoral system but don’t seem to have any particular expertise about what they are criticizing. We all lose… 📌 https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1324468023126798336?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 hmmmmm … James Baker?
⋙ 🐣 RT @JakeTapper 2/ “… if we turn voting integrity into another political football. And what I’m seeing isn’t the usual gamesmanship around contested elections like we saw in 2000. They are attacking the the system itself. It’s increasingly clear to me that Trump lost this thing….
⋙ 🐣 RT @JakeTapper 3/“…. We cannot be the party attacking a system as being unfair when we just took a 3 million vote loss.”
🐣 RT @brianklaas I’m really up for four years of normal tweets like this. Conspicuous absence of typos, conspiracy theories, racist dog whistles, or lies – and no covfefe to be found.
💙 ⋙ 🐣 RT @JoeBiden [3:45pm] I ask people to stay calm.
The process is working.
The count is being completed.
🐣 RT @JoeBiden Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience. ¤ But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world.
🐣 RT @JoeBiden Be patient, folks. Votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.
🐣 RT @MaryLTrump Every vote must be counted. Donald is lying.
WaPo, Cat Zakrzewski: Technology 202: Trump’s Twitter feed is covered in warning labels http://wapo.st/3mXqm4B fun times
🐣 RT @atrupar Following the news for the past two days has been like watching a chess match where one side has lost all of its good pieces and is just scrambling to avoid checkmate
🐣 RT @brhodes The images of Trump trying to shut down a democratic election and his supporters chanting “stop the count” are being broadcast around the globe. A gift to autocrats everywhere.
🐣 RT @joshtpm My understanding of where we are.
Nevada: basically done. Biden’s gonna win.
PA: It’s just math. Biden’s gonna win.
AZ: Biden solid favorite. But a Trump comeback possible.
Georgia: razor thin margin but decent odds for Biden.
NC: Very likely Trump; not impossible for Biden.
🐣 RT @jrubinblogger Please identify any other Democrat who could have won Wis, Mich, PA, Ariz, GA and Nevada. I’ll wait.
⋙ 🐣 Rep Clyburn saved us
WaPo: Trump and his allies boost bogus conspiracy theories in a bid to undermine vote count http://wapo.st/34Xjo9E
// The campaign also sent an estimated 9 million text messages between midnight and midday Wednesday, according to an anti-robocall firm, with some messages seeking money to launch voting challenges.
NYT: With His Path to Re-election Narrowing, Trump Turns to the Courts http://nyti.ms/3514Wxt
// The president pursued lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and his campaign said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin.
🐣 RT @DavidCornMD The Trump family is now calling on GOP-controlled state legislatures to nullify the actual vote and push for Trump electors. This is a dangerous moment. https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1324415365439463424?s=20/photo/1
// screenshot: MarkLevin; RT’d by DonJr
⋙ ⇈ 🐣 RT @marklevinshow REMINDER TO THE REPUBLICAN STATE LEGISLATURES, YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY OVER THE CHOOSING OF ELECTORS, NOT ANY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, SECRETARY OF STATE, GOVERNOR, OR EVEN COURT. YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY — ARTICLE II OF THE FED CONSTITUTION. SO, GET READY TO DO YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @MaxKennerly No, they don’t. The legislatures already decided to choose electors by popular vote, and Congress decided—as Article II says they can—the manner of appointing electors had to be in place by November 3. It’s done. ¤ BTW, retroactively removing the franchise violates Bush v. Gore.
🚫🐣 RT @ddale8 That is not true. Even in pre-pandemic elections, it was routine for states to accept ballots – including ballots from overseas military members – postmarked by (or before) Election Day but received after. The states that do so include states governed by conservative Republicans.
🚫 ⋙ 🐣 RT @real ANY BALLOT THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED
// screenshot; blocked by Twitter; not RT’d to not spread the craziness
⋙ 🐣 RT @ddale8 That was fast
🐣 RT @pithywidow His legal strategies are only ever PR strategies
⋙ 🧵 RT @ariberman Important point by Biden lawyer Bob Bauer: Trump’s lawsuits challenging vote counting not designed to win in court, but spread misinformation & encourage thuggish behavior by his supporters to undermine legitimacy of election
🐣 RT @business [Bloomberg] WATCH: The Trump campaign speaks outside of the Philadelphia Convention Center as protests happen around the ballot-counting site #Election2020 https://trib.al/n1oFnYv
😅 RT @RightWingWatch Presidential spiritual adviser Paula White is currently leading an impassioned prayer service in an effort to secure Trump’s reelection. 💽 https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1324175651515949056?s=20/photo/1
// ‘old-time religion’
🐣 RT @russperez56 If @PeteButtigieg isn’t MVP of the @JoeBiden campaign, I don’t know who is. He is on Fox News non-stop, making their jaw drop every time. Like a teacher talking to students. #BidenHarris2020ToSaveAmerica
⋙ HuffPo: Pete Buttigieg Schools Fox News Viewers In Testy Interview On Trump’s Economy http://bit.ly/2TVPcWf
// The former Democratic presidential contender basically told viewers to Google it.
🐣 RT @kasparov68 Counting every vote is the foundation upon which every democratic process and principle is built. If the voting process is shaken, the rest will fall. Count every vote!
🚫🐣 RT @jacobsoboroff Answering my questions would have been a good start at transparency. Where’s *any* evidence of thousands of fraudulent ballots, as you alleged? You ignored everything I asked you.
⋙ 🐣 RT @RichardGrenell We just finished a press conference announcing a federal lawsuit to stop counting illegal ballots in Nevada. ¤ Clark County officials must start answering questions as to why. ¤ We demand transparency.
// what a charade!
🐣 RT @ShalomLipner “Joe,” @algore] said, “I’ve decided to end it… An appeal and recount in FL.. could spark a constitutional crisis and raise serious questions about the continuity of our govt.. I believe it is right and best for our country.”@JoeLieberman via @WSJ.
⋙ WSJ, Joe Lieberman: A Disputed Election: My Lesson From 2000 http://on.wsj.com/3er3iZ2
// Al Gore showed me the importance of accepting an adverse outcome.
🐣 RT @EricGarland So Louis DeJoy’s people meet tomorrow at 11am with Judge Sullivan to discuss just how many votes might have been lost…in TEXAS. Text Block: https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1324185392527024128?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 🌎 RT @SeniorsAction Missing ballots: ¤ We will keep tweeting this image until #DeJoy is in jail. #USPS #MailInBallots https://twitter.com/SeniorsAction/status/1324197008651898880?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @JoeLockhart Game on. The runoffs will be nationalized and a first big test of President elect Biden’s ability to turn out Democrats in Georgia, again.
⋙ 🐣 RT @travisakers David Perdue has now fallen below the 50% mark. With outstanding ballots to be counted coming from primarily Democratic-leaning precincts, it is likely that Georgia will have two runoff races for U.S. Senate.
🐣 RT @AnaCabrera Trump feels like the election is “being stolen from him”, a Trump campaign adviser tells @Acosta. The adviser says Trump is the driving force behind the rhetoric coming from the campaign questioning the legitimacy of the election and ballot counting process.
🐣 RT @RusEmbUSA #Lavrov: <...> dialogue between our countries so far remains hostage to the US domestic political struggle <...> we realistically assess the prospects of bilateral cooperation and do not expect too much. ¤ https://bit.ly/32dPJHi https://pic.twitter.com/P34y5jCA9g
🐣 Carville thinks Alaska Senate in play and that Perdue won’t breach 50%, so the Senate may still be in play ¤ Fired up?
🐣 RT @BillKristol I think it’s very possible, maybe likely, that Biden is the only Democrat who could have beaten Trump.
⋙ 🐣 good move on his part to appeal to working/middle class whites and labor; hope he tamps down the p.c. crowd a tad
🐣 RT @emptywheel What a pity, then, that McConnell has spent the last 4 years making it clear he doesn’t mind if there are long-term Acting Secretaries, even ones who are ridiculously unqualified. ¤ Be less credulous, please, pool boy @JimVandeHei.
🐣 RT @JRubinBlogger “Only 3 pres campaigns have defeated an incumbent president.” What he did not say is that he had to do this in face of multiple abuses, including serial Hatch Act violations, attack on post office and extorting a foreign power to manufacture dirt on him
⋙ WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Joe Biden ran a historic race http://wapo.st/32fBPEB
// Polls may not be real, but Biden’s big win sure is.
🐣 RT @chrisinsilico Only if it involves confessions.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kayleighmcenany Who would want to join a LIVE prayer group tomorrow?
🇺🇸 🙏 🇺🇸 🙏
💙 🐣 RT @LincolnsBible Land does not vote. ¤ People do. 💽 https://twitter.com/LincolnsBible/status/1324312949100478465?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Redistrict Of course, there are plenty of other PA counties besides Philly where Biden is still poised to gain a *lot* of ground w/ mail ballots. Delaware, Lehigh, Cumberland, Bucks, Monroe, Centre, Allegheny to name a few. This isn’t a nail-biter, imo.
YahooNews: Eric Trump Busted For Fake Video Of Someone ‘Burning 80 Trump Ballots’ http://yhoo.it/32exyS7
// he RT’d a video from an account that has now been suspended; the video was of sample ballots (no barcodes)
🐣 RT @feliciasonmez Chinese state media doing its thing. Although I love how it kind of ends up being a civics lesson on how American democracy works — a whole section on the Electoral College! — even as they run headlines like “One-person-one-vote is an illusion.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @austinramzy Chinese state-controlled Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong today: “So-called US-style democracy has descended into a joke.” https://twitter.com/austinramzy/status/1324213965056925697?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 4 Nov 2020
💙❤️ TheAtlantic, George Packer: Face the Bitter Truth http://bit.ly/2TX5OwC
// We are two countries, and neither of them is going to be conquered or disappear anytime soon.
🐣 RT @NBCNews BREAKING: More than 100,000 Covid-19 cases recorded in the U.S. today, marking the latest single-day record high. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1324161586114809860?s=20/photo/1
// 1000+ deaths
🐣 RT @USPoliticsPoll PENNSYLVANIA: Biden needs just 61-63% of the outstanding mail in ballots to win state, which isn’t hard because he’s been winning them by a 78-22% margin so far. ¤ The Blue wall is coming back together.
🐣 RT @pbump If this holds for the rest of what’s out in Maricopa, Trump gains about 80k in Maricopa vs. the original 93k deficit. Not nothing!
⋙ 🐣 RT @greggiroux
Maricopa County update: Trump netted 13,644 votes
Biden 887,457 (+30,322)
Trump 802,160 (+43,966)
https://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionresults/general2020.aspx…
Biden’s lead in Arizona now 79,173 votes, down from 92,817 votes before.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @pbump I think it’s 430k. 13,600 times 5.8.
⋙ 🐣 RT @AkaMotherto3 Replying to @pbump So PA is back in play. ¤ Why would 2020 be easy.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @pbump This is Arizona.
🐣 RT @TracyViselli @pbump Still have 40,000 plus in Pima which will favor Biden as well, probably a bit more than Maricopa.
🧵 RT @kyledcheney JUST IN: Postal Service files a new explanation in court explaining its failure to comply with Judge SULLIVAN’s order but says it complied in spirit anyway. 📌 Text Block: https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1324028292815618051?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @brhodes Maybe, just maybe, voter suppression and sabotaging the USPS had something to do with the discrepancy between the polls and the result (in which Biden will still win).
⭕ 3 Nov 2020 Election Day ‼️
🐣 RT @real VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! 💽 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1323534663453913093?s=20/photo/1
// Trump dancing to “YMCA”
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrotePodcast If trump loses, he can be indicted for federal crimes going back five years. And don’t even get me started on state charges post-election. THIS IS IT! WE are the Muellers we’ve been waiting for. #Vote2020
🐣 RT @AnaChech WOW! U.S. District Judge Sullivan ordered USPS personnel to sweep 27 facilities identified by its IG by 3:30 p.m. on Election Day to check for any ballots that hadn’t been delivered, and ensure they arrived at their destination before polls closed
⋙ RawStory: Judge orders postal service to sweep facilities for unsent ballots — and deliver them http://bit.ly/2GsHXBW
// A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to check its facilities for any unsent ballots and deliver them immediately. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan
🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Sex, Lies and Videotape: ¤ Concerned with Trump lagging in the polls, Moscow is pulling out all the stops in a continued effort to help “Russia’s candidate” with Hunter kompromat. ¤ Putin himself stepped out of the shadows in a coy effort to shade Biden.
⋙ 🚫 🐣 DailyBeast: Russian Media’s Final Election Push For Trump: Primetime Hunter Biden ‘Sex Videos’ http://bit.ly/2JzEX83
// Russian state media is making a final push for Trump by airing excerpts of the so-called “Hunter Biden sex tapes” during primetime, almost daily.
President Donald J. Trump remains Russia’s preferred candidate for a number of reasons, many of which are frequently articulated by pro-Kremlin analysts, pundits, and foreign policy specialists. Appearing on Russia’s state TV show The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, the deputy dean of world politics at Moscow’s State University, Andrey Sidorov, explained that Trump’s re-election would undoubtedly benefit Russia. Sidorov concluded that the election of former Vice President Joe Biden would lead to the consolidation of the West—restoring NATO alliances badly undermined by Trump—and thus resulting in a united front, with additional sanctions against Russia for its ongoing malign activities.
Sidorov surmised that Moscow can’t help but be concerned with the outcome of the U.S. election, since it will directly affect the Kremlin. The host of the popular state TV show 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, worried out loud that the Biden presidency would mean “the administration and the White House filled with Russophobes.” Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is viewed through the same lens and a potential Harris presidency, following the Biden years, is another unwelcome prospect for the Kremlin.
🐣 RT @djrothkopf It’s not even noon on Election Day. We don’t know the results. Disappointment may loom. Or success. But the commitment of so many for so long to combatting a malevolent president and GOP who are actively attacking our government has been deeply inspiring.
⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf You all are fighting for your country. You all are doing what is essential to preserve a democracy. You all are what makes America a country that is so much greater than its many flaws and likely in the end to triumph over our enemies and continue growing and evolving.
⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf Some of you have been engaged in this battle for years & years. All of you know it does not end today. But the sacrifices and brilliance and resolve of so many millions should be a source of hope for us all. And I, like so many others I know, am deeply grateful for your efforts.
⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf Thank you. ¤ And vote. And help and encourage others to vote.
🐣 RT @duty2warn There is not much data on how malignant narcissists confront losing. This is a unique case in many ways, and circumstances will dictate much of it. It can be very messy, or not so much. Emotionally, he has three basic thoughts that rotate – malice, grievance, and begging. (more)
⋙ 🐣 RT @duty2warn It can easily turn messy because he still has power and a bully pulpit for a time. Unknown what his enablers will do, likely they cover themselves. Malice is fixation on revenge. We’ll see some. Grievance is spinning lies. We’ll see a lot. Begging is private, we won’t see much.
⋙ 🐣 RT @duty2warn Staying out of jail is a process that stretches over time. It’s really not his greatest fear. His greatest fear is humiliation. If he loses, and it’s by a lot, and he can’t spin anything anyone believes, it’s humiliation. Then his secrets get uncovered. That’s the big humiliation
⋙ 🐣 RT @duty2warn Hitler in the bunker. Jim Jones and Kool-Aid. But it’s not a lot of data considering how different the circumstances were for each. Trump speaks for fifty million people who choose not to see truth. How that plays, is crucial.
🐣 RT @tribelaw This election is unique. At stake is not just the outcome of the vote, but whether we will retain the constitutional right to vote. At stake is truth itself and the future of all that matters. If Trump holds into power, it’s possible we’ll recover someday. But not likely.
⭕ 2 Nov 2020
⭕ 1 Nov 2020
NewYorker, Susan Glasser: Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose http://bit.ly/32lMvBK
// The President has survived one impeachment, twenty-six accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated four thousand lawsuits. That run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, if Joe Biden wins.
OpenDemocracy: The dangerous psychology of Donald Trump http://bit.ly/353dhAs
// The last four years provide a roadmap that shows how the personal and the political can combine to disastrous effect.
🐣 RT @.JoeBiden Vote for America. ¤ 💽 http://iwillvote.com https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1316513615373987840?s=20/photo/1
// Joe Biden ad❣ Vote for America
💙 TheGuardian, Lois Beckett: Scholars warn of collapse of democracy as Trump v Biden election looms http://bit.ly/3kP0kzH
// Dozens of experts on fascism warn of global danger, calling for action from ordinary people: ‘It is not too late’
⋙ 💙 NewFascism: How to Keep the Lights On in Democracies: An Open Letter of Concern by Scholars of Authoritarianism http://bit.ly/3kOWk2n
We must boldly and unapologetically safeguard critical thinking based on evidence. This includes demonstrating the virtues of entertaining a wide array of positions and perspectives, and support, both in word and deed, for investigative journalism, science and the humanities, and freedom of the press. We need swift and tangible commitments from corporate media organizations and governments to tackle the dangers of misinformation and media concentration. We must encourage coalitions organized across differences of race, class, gender, religion and caste, while respecting the perspectives and experiences of others. We need to reveal and denounce any and all connections between those in power and those vigilante and militia forces using political violence to destabilize our democracies. Much like the active democratic movements across the globe from Nigeria to India, Belarus to Hong Kong, we must be prepared to defend pluralism and democracy against the growing dangers of communal violence and authoritarianism at the ballot box but, if necessary, also through non-violent protest in the streets. We must defend the integrity of the electoral process and ensure the widest possible voter turnouts, not just in this election but in every election large and small in all of our hometowns. And we must re-commit to a global conversation on support for democratic institutions, laws, and practices both within and between our respective countries. This includes directly confronting the unfettered greed that drives global inequality, which has unleashed geopolitical rivalries over access to resources, international migrations, and collapsed state sovereignties all over the world.
We need to turn away from the rule by entrenched elites and return to the rule of law. We must replace the politics of “internal enemies” with a politics of adversaries in a healthy, democratic marketplace of ideas. And above else, we need to work together to find ways to keep the light of democracy shining in our countries and all over the world. Because if we don’t, we will indeed face dark days ahead.
🚫 TheMarcusReader: The Acceleration of the Authoritarianism of Trump and Trumpism in 2020 http://bit.ly/3kOVeUj with timeline
// ⏳ uncertain of author; It may be too late for the election but I want to get it into the record.
We should worry when:
1. A politician rejects, in words or action, the democratic rules of the game,
2. denies the legitimacy of opponents,
3. tolerates or encourages violence, or
4. indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media.
🐣 RT @NYCAntifa The truck that side-swiped the Biden/Harris campaign bus was driven by a Trump supporter who drove into a crowd of BLM protesters in September. ¤ Like we’ve been saying–far right violence doesn’t just stick with one group. Esp when given a green light to go ahead w/ impunity https://twitter.com/NYCAntifa/status/1323146292365873153?s=20
🧵 RT @Kasparov63 Trump always outdoes himself in sinking to new lows, but after praising dictators, attacking veterans, demeaning women, and surrendering to a pandemic, we can hope that he has also undone himself. My new op-ed at CNN. 📌 https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1322640109569773568?s=20
⋙⋙ CNN: Win or lose, with Trump, prepare for the unimaginable after the election http://cnn.it/3oMH1cW
⋙ 🐣 RT @Kasparov63 Trying to play “what if?” with autocratic types like Trump rarely works because such people are capable of violating every norm to serve their own interests. But we can be prepared to fight like hell, and we must be.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Kasparov63 If Trump calls on his zealots to “LIBERATE AMERICA!” and there is violence, what then? Stop thinking, “Trump would never..” Normal people don’t like to imagine terrible events, which is why autocrats consistently surprise them.
🐣 RT @WilDonnelly Trump tried to do business with Castro during embargo, wanted to give Putin a $50M condo, had secret bank acct for deals with Chinese communist party, shared love letters with Kim & turned US farmers into govt-subsidized socialists. He sure likes to project his love for commies!
⋙ 🐣 RT @real Biden is a proven Castro puppet! Vote TRUMP
🐣 RT @lawfareblog The right-wing threat is fracturing—with a wide range of overlapping groups and radical individuals posing a risk of political violence that may overwhelm counterterrorism officials. ¤ Here’s Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware:
🔆 This❗️⋙ Lawfare, Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware: The Terrorist Threat from the Fractured Far Right http://bit.ly/2TLu2tQ
● White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis
● “Boogaloo” and Anti-government Extremism
● QAnon
● Neo-Luddites
● “Salad Bar” IdeologiesConfronting the Fracturing Far-Right Terrorism Threat
The fracturing far-right is not necessarily new. The United States has always faced a diffuse militia and anti-government threat, and throughout the latter parts of the 20th century, the extreme right’s efforts to unify unraveled under intense law enforcement pressure. The result was a disparate, splintered movement, with skinheads, national socialist movements, and militias all competing for recruits and attention. But today’s atomized movement is different—not least because of the connectivity afforded by the internet and social media. It is also fueled to a greater extent than before by increasingly widespread populist discontent in the United States and in other Western countries that has been increasingly legitimized by political leaders and thus entered into the mainstream of national politics and discourse. We are not just seeing several factions energized; we are also seeing them unusually vocal, unnervingly popular and, in some cases, unconventionally public in their promises of violence.
Until a few months ago, far-right violence was mostly predictable. Instances tended to be tragic but otherwise largely contained shootings randomly perpetrated by lone-actor white supremacists against soft targets—typically places of worship or shopping centers—along with sporadic militia or sovereign citizen attacks on law enforcement. We now face a cacophony of violence, growing louder and perpetrated by multiple collectives or groups of actors that are similar in their ideologies and strategies, but just distinct enough in their differing approaches and targeting to complicate counterterrorism efforts.
Although these groups have so far inflicted a limited number of fatalities, their violence has the potential to escalate suddenly. And there seems to be no clearly articulated strategy from either the federal government or law enforcement to wrench back control. The 2020 election provides the most dangerous potential trigger, particularly in the event of a contested outcome. Several of these groups, including QAnon adherents, are highly motivated by President Trump; any appearance of voting irregularities that favor the Biden campaign against Trump, whether legitimate or not, may spark widespread violence—especially if the president chooses to amplify such concerns. But predicting which of these groups is most likely to attack and what targets would be most in danger is not possible. In the absence of a clear, comprehensive national strategy, fear and anxiety is increasingly fueled by uncertainty and discord.
💙🐣 ♫ RT @ProjectLincoln The Lincoln Project is proud to present our music video for “Commander in Chief” by @ddlovato. ¤ Watch and pitch in here: 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1316891143989321731?s=20/photo/1
// The Lincoln Project ad❣ Commander in Chief
🐣 RT @crooks&liars Here’s Trump’s Faux doctor saying lockdowns don’t help, and bashing Fauci. On Russian TV, no less. #Trump #ScottAtlas #DrFauci #COVID19 #Lockdowns #Pandemic Watch now on #CLTV 💽 https://twitter.com/crooksandliars/status/1322949911554318337?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump, currently complaining about the weather in Dubuque, Iowa, complains about the weather wherever he goes 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1322989910563893249?s=20
🧵 RT @atrupar This is the stuff of Nazi rallies 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1322946242763202560?s=20
USAToday: Lincoln Project: We’re fighting for a better America. A Biden era would be a good start. http://bit.ly/34KUHwT By Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens
🐣 RT @joshchaffetz now we’re only allowed to do RT with comment
⋙ 🐣 RT @SWAtlasHoover I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent. I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us.
// oops!
↥ ↧
DailyBeast: Trump’s Favorite COVID Adviser Goes on Kremlin-Backed RT to Blast Lockdowns as ‘Epic Failure’ http://bit.ly/3eevT3H “Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist, was introduced … as ‘one of the only two men the U.S. president apparently listens to on the pandemic’”
// Scott Atlas also made a point to complain about criticism he’s faced for his coronavirus guidance, calling it a “sad statement” that the media “destroyed” him.
NYT Editorial: Why Are Republicans So Afraid of Voters? http://nyti.ms/34QAUMV
🐣 RT @AliVelshi “If all the votes are added up in Pennsylvania, Trump is going to lose,” says AG @JoshShapiroPA. He’s already defeated 6 different lawsuits restricting voting access in his state. He joins me 8aET to share how he’ll prevent interference on Election Day. #VelshiAcrossAmerica
🐣 RT @JohnWDean There is a reason Trump is campaigning like his freedom depends on winning. It does. If he loses he faces state and federal criminal charges. Likely prison. It seems Donald’s big motivator! So the great con continues…
NYT: Their First Try Backfired, but Giuliani and Allies Keep Aiming at Biden http://nyti.ms/3edcZKx
// The former New York mayor’s dirt-digging effort on Hunter Biden in 2019 ended with President Trump’s impeachment. Now he is back with new associates. So far it is not going exactly as planned.
🎃 31 Oct 2020
🐣 ♫ RT @springsteen This is @joebiden’s hometown. This is more than where he’s from. This is who he’s for. 💽 https://twitter.com/springsteen/status/1322582291453861890?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump is about to deliver his fourth rally speech of the day in Pennsylvania, this one in Montoursville. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1322705991696322561?s=20
🐣 RT @TeamPelosi Democrats believe voters should pick the President of the United States. Trump and his Republican enablers disagree. #Vote accordingly.
⋙ 🐣 RT @BeschlossDC Trump just said it at Reading PA rally: “If we win on Tuesday or — thank you very much, Supreme Court — shortly thereafter…”
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @therecount Here’s the clip from Trump’s Reading, PA rally: “If we win on Tuesday or — thank you very much, Supreme Court — shortly thereafter…” 💽 https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1322636317252030471?s=20/photo/1
😅 RT @ProjectLincoln Dear Donald… https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1322599215357337601?s=20/photo/1
// Lincoln Project ad❣ Closer: missteps, stumbles and stupidity
🐣 RT @petestrzok RT is registered with the Department of Justice as an agent of the Government of Russia. ¤ A WH advisor providing Covid advice to @realdonaldtrump is giving interviews to a propaganda arm of Russia. ¤ Our election is three days away. Imagine what four more years would look like.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SWAtlasHoover New interview. Lockdowns, facts, frauds … if you can’t handle truth, use a mask to cover your eyes and ears https://youtu.be/4qKti8V4-uc #FactsMatter #LockdownsKill
// Scott Atlas gives interview on RT
🐣 RT @tribelaw For the worst traitor ever to hold the presidency to say he’d jail his opponent and his predecessor for treason if he wins is disqualifying in itself
⋙ PoliticusUSA: Trump Threatens To Jail Obama And Biden For Treason If He Wins http://bit.ly/35P3Nby
🐣 RT @stonecold2050 Trumpanzees driving a funeral hearse brandish weapons & attempted to drive Biden’s campaign bus off the I-35 highway in Texas. Their hearse is emblazoned with the message, “Collecting votes one DEAD Democrat at a time”. How in the world is this not terrorism? #LockThemUp
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump is about to deliver his fourth rally speech of the day in Pennsylvania, this one in Montoursville. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1322705991696322561?s=20
🐣 RT @BradMossEsq This incitement to vigilantism isn’t new. History is replete with examples of authoritarians doing this to intimidate dissent. https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1322714425644691458?s=20
🐣 RT @therecount Here’s the clip from Trump’s Reading, PA rally: “If we win on Tuesday or — thank you very much, Supreme Court — shortly thereafter…” 💽 https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1322636317252030471?s=20/photo/1
DailyBeast: Biden Team Cancels Texas Event After Highway ‘Ambush’ by MAGA Cavalry http://bit.ly/2TILA9G
// Dozens of pickup trucks, many with Trump flags, surrounded a Biden campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin.
🐣📋 RT @carlquinanilla New @Stanford study estimates that 18 Trump rallies have led to 30,000 COVID cases and 700 deaths (via @AaronBelkin) https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1322527556126605313?s=20/photo/1
⋙ ★ Stanford, B Bergheim et al: The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies http://bit.ly/3oJhMrY “[W]e conclude that these 18 rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19 [and] 700 deaths” ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1322570903461498881?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 30 Oct 2020
💙 🐣 RT @TheDailyShow Here it is. The definitive list of Trump’s 100 Most Tremendous Scandals. 💽 https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1322327675948576768?s=20/photo/1
SeattleTimes: Judge in Portland cites Trump tweets in restricting feds at protests http://bit.ly/2HIIXTd
// A federal judge found Friday that tweets by President Donald Trump helped incite improper conduct by federal officers responding to racial justice demonstrations in Portland, Oregon.
AMA: American Medical Association statement on ongoing attacks on physicians treating COVID patients http://bit.ly/3oJYTVW ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1322511068518907904?s=20/photo/1
The following statement is attributable to:
Susan R. Bailey, M.D.
President, American Medical Association“Throughout this pandemic, physicians, nurses, and frontline health care workers have risked their health, their safety and their lives to treat their patients and defeat a deadly virus. They did it because duty called and because of the sacred oath they took. The suggestion that doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis—are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge. COVID-19 cases are at record highs today. Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work—wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing physical distancing.”
MSNBC, Steve Benen: Trump delivers a curious pre-election pitch to the Supreme Court http://on.msnbc.com/3kK3k0h
// Supreme Court justices should help Trump win, the argument goes, because they’ll be happier with him than with his opponent.
At 2:57 a.m. (E.T), while much of the country was asleep, Donald Trump was tweeting. In fact, the president was specifically publishing this:
[Tweet:] “If Sleepy Joe Biden is actually elected President, the 4 Justices (plus1) that helped make such a ridiculous win possible would be relegated to sitting on not only a heavily PACKED COURT, but probably a REVOLVING COURT as well. At least the many new Justices will be Radical Left!”
I think in Republican circles, it’s seen as wild-eyed nonsense when Democrats express concern that Donald Trump intends to turn to the Supreme Court to help him stay in power. But the president himself keeps giving the public — friend and foe alike — reason to believe this is precisely his plan.
His early-morning tweet is strangely written, but the point seems clear enough: Trump is effectively trying to lobby the high court. As the president sees it, a Biden victory would be “ridiculous,” and he hopes a majority of the Supreme Court — or in this case, “4 Justices (plus1)” — can be counted on to prevent this from happening.
For Trump, it doesn’t seem to occur to him to make appeals based on right and wrong, constitutional or unconstitutional, principled or unprincipled. He thinks in self-interested terms, and the president seems to assume everyone else does, too.
🐣 RT @BillMoyers Trump has begun to muse about losing the election, saying he would like simply to drive away, or fly away, from the burden of the presidency. Yesterday, retired Brigadier General Peter B. Zwack wrote that “Trump appears to be a classic flight risk.”
⋙ MoyersOnDemocracy, Heather Richardson: It’s Happening Whether They Like It Or Not http://bit.ly/3kKfBSz
// A record number of 80 million early ballots have already been cast, and we are all parsing the polls for clues about who will emerge as the winner of the 2020
🐣📊RT @SykesCharlie Fat lady hasn’t sung yet. But the lights are on in the dressing room … and she’s clearing her throat .. https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1322377425859301377?s=20/photo/1
// FoxNews Poll: Biden 52% Trump 44% (10/27-29, LV)
⋙ 🐣 I’m waiting for Biden to say, “Folks, our long national nightmare is over” ¤ He won’t. It’s too divisive. But it’s what I’ll hear
🐣 RT @Yamiche American Medical Association is now pushing back on Trump’s false claim that doctors & hospitals are jacking up death tolls to make more money saying, “The suggestion is … a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge.” Text Block: https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1322284418686439424?s=20/photo/1
💙 🐣 RT @MaddowBlog Here is that powerful testimony from Montana ICU nurse Joey Traywick (with a little bit of perspective from Dr. Kris Spanjian at the beginning). ¤ Reporting by NBC News’ @gabegutierrez from @StVincentMT 💽 https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1322365300021600256?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Biden Team’s on it. Our job:
1. #VOTE
2. Check and make sure your vote counted
3. GOTV: door knock, phone bank, texts, drive others to polls
4. It’s still not too late to donate: http://ActBlue.com
💙 NYT, Ron Suskind: The Day After Election Day http://nyti.ms/34Gk8Qh
// Current and former Trump administration officials are worried about what might happen on Nov. 4.
WaPo: Republicans shift from challenging rules to preparing to challenge individual ballots http://wapo.st/2THNWWx
WaPo: DHS plans largest operation to secure U.S. election against hacking http://wapo.st/3jKs87b
// A 24/7 war room will operate from Election Day until local officials are confident in the results. It shows just how far DHS’s cybersecurity agency has come since 2016.
WaPo: The unseen machine pushing Trump’s social media megaphone into overdrive http://wapo.st/31XFh6I
// Researchers say the online feedback loop between Trump, high-profile influencers and rank-and-file followers is a danger to the election.
WaPo: Five Reagan White House lawyers endorse Biden, saying Trump has ‘fomented hatred’ http://wapo.st/3ebX4vT
⭕ 29 Oct 2020
NewYorker, Susan Glasser: Denialism, Dishonesty, Deflection: The Final Days of the Trump Campaign Have It All http://bit.ly/2TF8EXa “[T]his fall’s campaign may well go down as one of the most scandalous periods of his norm-shattering Presidency”
WaPo, Alan Alda: I cannot remain silent as Trump rejects science and endangers lives http://wapo.st/2HRedid “Trump’s deceitful assurances that covid-19 is nothing to worry about have laid untold dead at the feet of this president.”
🐣 RT @MSNBC .@FrankFigliuzzi1: When the president fires and threatens to terminate consecutive FBI directors for not doing his political bidding, he doesn’t erode one agency’s credibility and trust, he jeopardizes public perception of law enforcement writ large
⋙ MSNBC, Frank Figiuzzi: When Trump attacks the FBI, he’s inadvertently attacking the police he says he supports. http://on.msnbc.com/3jExtwU
// Trump’s pre-election threats to the FBI director is part of a larger pattern.
🐣 RT @MaddowBlog “We are experiencing the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States”
⋙ AP: FBI warns ransomware assault threatens US healthcare system http://bit.ly/3mGQ1yx
Federal agencies warned that cybercriminals are unleashing a wave of data-scrambling extortion attempts against the U.S. healthcare system designed to lock up hospital information systems, which could hurt patient care just as nationwide cases of COVID-19 are spiking.
In a joint alert Wednesday, the FBI and two federal agencies warned that they had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.” The alert said malicious groups are targeting the sector with attacks that produce “data theft and disruption of healthcare services.”
The cyberattacks involve ransomware, which scrambles data into gibberish that can only be unlocked with software keys provided once targets pay up. Independent security experts say it has already hobbled at least five U.S. hospitals this week, and could potentially impact hundreds more.
The offensive by a Russian-speaking criminal gang coincides with the U.S. presidential election, although there is no immediate indication they were motivated by anything but profit. “We are experiencing the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States,” Charles Carmakal, chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said in a statement.
Alex Holden, CEO of Hold Security, which has been closely tracking the ransomware in question for more than a year, agreed that the unfolding offensive is unprecedented in magnitude for the U.S. given its timing in the heat of a contentions presidential election and the worst global pandemic in a century.
The federal alert was co-authored by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The cybercriminals launching the attacks use a strain of ransomware known as Ryuk, which is seeded through a network of zombie computers called Trickbot that Microsoft began trying to counter earlier in October. U.S. Cyber Command has also reportedly taken action against Trickbot. While Microsoft has had considerable success knocking its command-and-control servers offline through legal action, analysts say criminals have still been finding ways to spread Ryuk.
The U.S. has seen a plague of ransomware over the past 18 months or so, with major cities from Baltimore to Atlanta hit and local governments and schools hit especially hard.
In September, a ransomware attack hobbled all 250 U.S. facilities of the hospital chain Universal Health Services, forcing doctors and nurses to rely on paper and pencil for record-keeping and slowing lab work. Employees described chaotic conditions impeding patient care, including mounting emergency room waits and the failure of wireless vital-signs monitoring equipment.
“One of the comments from the bad guys is that they are expecting to cause panic and, no, they are not hitting election systems,” Holden said. “They are hitting where it hurts even more and they know it.” U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern about major ransomware attacks affecting the presidential election, even if the criminals are motivated chiefly by profit.
Mandiant’s Carmakal identified the criminal gang as UNC1878, saying “it is deliberately targeting and disrupting U.S. hospitals, forcing them to divert patients to other healthcare providers” and producing prolonged delays in critical care.
He called the eastern European group “one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors I’ve observed over my career.”
While no one has proven suspected ties between the Russian government and gangs that use the Trickbot platform, Holden said he has “no doubt that the Russian government is aware of this operation — of terrorism, really.” He said dozens of different criminal groups use Ryuk, paying its architects a cut.
WaPo: Appeals court panel rules Minnesota must set aside ballots received after Election Day in case they are invalidated http://wapo.st/2HIlqRQ
💙 🐣 RT @duty2warn He is losing in the suburbs. He’s losing with women. He’s losing with seniors. He is losing with the young vote. He loses big with African Americans. Also loses a bit with Hispanics. He’s also losing among military families. How many non-college educated white males can there be?
💙 JustSecurity, Dakota Rudesill: Preventing a Military Decision About Who Won a Disputed Election http://bit.ly/2HLHoDT “A self-interested Trump administration instruction declaring the current president the winner would put the military in an impossible situation”
Unfortunately, the norm-shattering step of a self-serving “I won” executive order from President Trump is conceivable, as is a legal opinion to that same effect from a Justice Department run by an Attorney General who has prioritized protection of the president over the non-partisan, fair, and impartial administration of justice. Trump and his team have demonstrated their willingness to abuse the presidency for personal and political benefit. Trump has repeatedly indicated intent to contest the election if he is not declared the winner. And, serious gaps and ambiguities in election law could leave a disputed election unresolved through inauguration day. In this context, it is prudent to anticipate that Trump and his political appointees might take norm-shredding, legally dubious administrative steps to hold onto power.
WaPo: Gen Z, Millennial voters embrace activism and voting, as youth turnout surges ahead of Election Day http://wapo.st/3ekBJRf
Major social movements driven by young activists around climate change, gun safety and Black Lives Matter protests have led to an explosion of civic awareness among younger Americans, who are on track to turn out to vote in record numbers this election and could play a pivotal role in some key battleground states.
Data on early voters and recent polling suggest eligible voters under 30 could break their historic 2008 turnout, when it peaked at 48 percent when Barack Obama was elected. New data suggest they may be on track to sustain their dramatic turnout in the 2018 midterms, when they more than doubled their rate of voting compared to the prior midterm election.
NYT, Michelle Goldman: Four Wasted Years Thinking About Donald Trump http://nyti.ms/3mxCyJ9
ChristianPost, Joe Biden: The greatest commandment has guided my politics http://bit.ly/34FsMOV
🐣 Any family that has suffered the horror of family separation should be reunited and allowed to stay in the US. Their healthcare should be paid for, including for the psychological trauma they have suffered. This can be appended to a law to make DACA permanent.
NYT: ‘Perception Hacks’ and Other Potential Threats to the Election http://nyti.ms/3jGJQsi
// In the final days of voting, election officials and cybersecurity experts are keeping a close eye on a range of possible ways foreign governments and other hackers could interfere.
[F]rom the sprawling war room at United States Cyber Command to those monitoring the election at Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft, experts are watching closely for more “perception hacks.” Those are smaller attacks that can be easily exaggerated into something bigger and potentially seized upon as evidence that the whole voting process is “rigged,” as President Trump has claimed it will be.
The phrase comes up every time Christopher Krebs, the Department of Homeland Security official responsible for making sure voting systems are secure, talks about the biggest vulnerabilities in this election. His worry is not a vast attack but a series of smaller ones, perhaps concentrated in swing states, whose effect is more psychological than real.
Perception hacks are just one of a range of issues occupying election officials and cybersecurity experts in the final days of voting — and their concerns will not end on Election Day.
One theory gaining ground inside American intelligence agencies is that the Russians, having made the point that they remain inside key American systems despite bolstered defenses and new offensive operations by Cyber Command, may sit out the next week — until it is clear whether the vote is close.
The Russian play, under this theory, would be to fan the flames of state-by-state election battles, generating or amplifying claims of fraud that would further undermine American confidence in the integrity of the election process. …
NYT: ‘Perception Hacks’ and Other Potential Threats to the Election http://nyti.ms/3jGJQsi
// In the final days of voting, election officials and cybersecurity experts are keeping a close eye on a range of possible ways foreign governments and other hackers could interfere.
🧵 RT @atrupar Melania Trump in Tampa: “In a time when hate, negativity, & fear are the messages the media streams into our homes & the large tech companies are protecting political censorship, we need to remember what is really important: my husband’s administration is focused on the future.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1321876095826907136?s=20
// Trump rally in Tampa
🐣 RT @theminorchords Trump has a closer relationship with Kim Jong-un than Angela Merkel.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ddale8 Trump rails against US allies as in many ways “worse than the enemy,” telling a story about how Germany came out this week and said they like “Barack Hussein Obama” more than him. (?) He says their Obama love shows he’s doing his job by calling them out over their NATO failings
🐣 RT @MeidasTouch NEW VIDEO ¤ Those who know Trump best, know he is the worst. #AlumniAgainstTrump 💽 https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1321864529383313411?s=20/photo/1
// Meidas Touch ad❣ Alumni Against Trump
FSIStanford/Medium, Michael McFaul: To Foster a Free and Fair Election, American Voters Must Stay Calm and Patient http://bit.ly/2TAyaN1
// Even after casting their ballots, American voters still have a role to play in helping to foster a free and fair election.
🐣 RT @ForeignAffairs Donald Trump has shown more sympathy for far-right groups, many of them armed, than any president in recent memory, @matanock and @pstanpolitics write. How will this affect U.S. electoral politics in the weeks, months, and years to come?
⋙ ForeignAffairs: The Militarization of U.S. Politics http://fam.ag/2JjJ1co
// Regardless of who wins on November 3, Trump’s presidency has opened the door to electoral violence in the future.
TPM: 5 Points On The Huge Story About Trump And A Turkish Bank That’s Flying Under The Radar http://bit.ly/3e5IpT4
↥ ↧
NYT: Turkish Bank Case Showed Erdogan’s Influence With Trump http://nyti.ms/3jJqC5c
// New details of the Justice Department’s handling of the accusations against Halkbank reveal how Turkey’s leader pressured the president, prompting concern from top White House aides.
Reuters: White House advisers warn of ‘unrelenting’ COVID-19 spread http://reut.rs/2HItodQ “If things do not change, if they continue on the course we’re on, there’s gonna be a whole lot of pain in this country” Dr Anthony Fauci said in an interview
WaPo, Greg Sargent: Trump’s effort to steal the election, explained by a Democrat fighting against it http://wapo.st/3myF8hX “Pennsylvania is Ground Zero for this experiment. … Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) shed some light on what this could look like“
The claim is belied by the extraordinary extent to which Trump has gone to corrupt this election — that is, to avoid escaping the judgment of majorities of Americans. He and his allies have engaged in an unprecedentedly concerted effort to suppress the vote, while also placing large swaths of the government at the disposal of his reelection in a manner that defies recent memory.
Pennsylvania is Ground Zero for this experiment. It is the tipping-point state and the place where Trump’s corrupt machinations could have their most palpable impact. ¤ In an interview, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) shed some light on what this could look like in coming days.
“We have a sitting president who’s actively trying to undermine this election,” Shapiro told me. “He’s doing that because he knows that if all legal eligible votes are counted, he’s more likely than not going to come out on the losing side here in Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania state officials are in the extraordinary position of actively taking defensive steps to preempt a situation in which the Supreme Court helps Trump suppress untold numbers of lawfully cast ballots — as Trump has openly declared he expects it to do.
Shapiro is at the center of this effort. One main worry concerns the untold numbers of ballots that are mailed before Election Day but arrive after. The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a ruling allowing for Pennsylvania ballots arriving up to three days afterward to be accepted.
But Shapiro bluntly warned that Trump and Republicans will still likely try to use those late-arriving ballots “as a hook to challenge all mail-in ballots.”
What might this look like? The fear among many Democrats is that, despite the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump campaign and Republicans could still challenge those late ballots — and use that to ask the court to halt the count of all mail ballots until that’s sorted out.
The counting of mail ballots will go on for days after the election. If Trump is ahead in the initial count of in-person Election Day votes — and far more Republicans intend to vote on the day itself — he could declare victory while seeking to invalidate uncounted mail ballots.
It doesn’t matter that much what Trump declares. What matters is whether the court is willing to halt the count. ¤ Pennsylvania officials tried to preempt this by announcing that they will segregate all late-arriving ballots. The idea is to prevent Republicans from challenging those ballots and then using that to challenge all mail ballots, by claiming they’ve all been commingled and can’t be separated from one another, requiring a halt to the count until the legal dispute over the late ballots is resolved.
But the U.S. Supreme Court only declined to nix those late-arriving ballots for now, just before the election. And three conservatives — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — indicated that after the election, they may revisit the question.
Worse, the justices said there’s a “strong likelihood” that the state Supreme Court’s ruling is unconstitutional, because if state courts can “override” the legislature on setting election rules, that renders its authority over those rules “meaningless.”
In short, three justices believe state legislatures wield near-absolute authority over election rules — and state courts cannot intervene to ensure that those rules don’t infringe on voting rights as outlined in state constitutions.
If Amy Coney Barrett and Brett M. Kavanaugh subscribe to this — and Kavanaugh already has, in a related decision in Wisconsin — five justices could invalidate untold numbers of late-arriving ballots after the election.
So we know the Supreme Court is open to hearing a dispute over those late ballots after the election and could invalidate them. But does that mean the court would also halt the count of the larger pool of mail ballots?
We don’t know. Probably not: In the Pennsylvania ruling, even the three conservative justices indicated reluctance, clarifying that if the late ballots are segregated, that would allow a “targeted remedy” against them. ¤ But we know Trump and Republicans will try to make this happen.
A Politico piece aptly summed up the moment with this line: “Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to depress the vote as Trump.”
On top of that, Trump’s open effort to conscript the Supreme Court is only the latest in a long line of efforts to bend the government and the machinery of justice toward his reelection. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. But, with a massive enough effort, it can be defeated.
WaPo: How Trump waged war on his own government http://wapo.st/37Qnjqv “Beyond [the] recognizable faces, employees across the government were banished to basement offices, denied promotions and excluded from decision-making”
// ‘The 45th President’: One in a series looking back at the Trump presidency
// Twitter subtitle: Career employees have come under siege as a president and his political appointees have attacked bureaucrats they view as resistant.
The president went even further last week, signing an executive order that removes job protections for an estimated tens of thousands of civil servants, allowing them to be dismissed with little cause or recourse. The sweeping effort to crack the foundation of government employment probably would be rescinded if Joe Biden is elected president. But it shows the mistrust at the core of Trump’s worldview.
“It’s not how the enormous enterprise we call the federal government works,” said Donald Kettl, a public-affairs professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Bending the apparatus of the state to his own will — there’s an authoritarian tint to that that is impossible to escape.”
⭕ 28 Oct 2020
CNN, Dan Berman: Vermont secretary of state formally asks Kavanaugh to correct opinion http://cnn.it/35FjXUQ
NYT, Thomas Edsall: How Far Might Trump Go? http://nyti.ms/3e9ES63
// No one is quite sure.
↥ ↧
🔆 This❗️⋙ TheAtlantic, Barton Gellman: The Election That Could Break America http://bit.ly/2FTvxTj
// Nov issue; If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
🐣 RT @michikokakutani As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science: The Trump admin recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric agency, and installed new political staff who question accepted facts about climate change.
NYT: As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science http://nyti.ms/3jD11Ll
// The administration is imposing new limits on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that would undercut action against global warming.
⭕ 27 Oct 2020
FutureOfLife: 55 Years After Preventing Nuclear Attack, Vasili Arkhipov Honored With Inaugural Future of Life Award http://bit.ly/3oz1qSz
// Cuban Missile Crisis Cold War
On October 27, 1962, a soft-spoken naval officer named Vasili Arkhipov single-handedly prevented nuclear war during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Arkhipov’s submarine captain, thinking their sub was under attack by American forces, wanted to launch a nuclear weapon at the ships above. Arkhipov, with the power of veto, said no, thus averting nuclear war.
It is sobering that very few have heard of Arkhipov, although his decision was perhaps the most valuable individual contribution to human survival in modern history. PBS made a documentary, The Man Who Saved the World, documenting Arkhipov’s moving heroism, and National Geographic profiled him as well in an article titled – You (and almost everyone you know) Owe Your Life to This Man.
The Cold War never became a hot war, in large part thanks to Arkhipov, but the threat of nuclear war remains high. Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, hopes that the Future of Life Award will help draw attention to the current threat of nuclear weapons and encourage more people to stand up to that threat. Fihn explains: “Arkhipov’s story shows how close to nuclear catastrophe we have been in the past. And as the risk of nuclear war is on the rise right now, all states must urgently join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to prevent such catastrophe.”
Of her father’s role in preventing nuclear catastrophe, Elena explained: “We must strive so that the powerful people around the world learn from Vasili’s example. Everybody with power and influence should act within their competence for world peace.”
🐣 THIS is why you shouldn’t trust the mail to return your ballot. It’s too late. Fill out your mail-in ballot and drop it off, or else vote early in person (taking safety precautions).
⋙ 🐣 🌎 RT @ How’s the mail doing? Not great. https://twitter.com/UpshotNYT/status/1321081482505523200?s=20/photo/1
// mail delays
⋙⋙ NYT: One Week Before Election, the Mail Is Still Slow http://nyti.ms/2J5h8EG
🐣 RT @BrunoAmato_1 Wall Street wants Trump gone. They are banking on a Blue Wave. 🌊 🇺🇸
⋙ Politico, Ben White: As Trump warns of economic disaster, Wall Street grows giddy about Biden http://politi.co/3e54WPQ
// Many investors are betting on a Democratic sweep. But some other scenarios could create an unsettling environment for markets
🐣 RT @FlossObama I will never forget that moment. A man unafraid to be vulnerable. A man filled with kindness. A man who could connect, and deeply so.
⋙ NYT, Thomas Friedman: When My President Sang ‘Amazing Grace’ http://nyti.ms/3e0anzy
// caption: President Barack Obama helped ease the nation’s pain after a mass shooting at a South Carolina church in 2015.
// subtitle: We’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a truth-teller and a healer in the White House.
NYT, Kevin Roose: The Year in Misinformation, So Far http://nyti.ms/3oywuSx
↥ ↧
🔄 NYT: Tracking Viral Misinformation Ahead of the 2020 Election http://nyti.ms/3jBGJ4T
// Every day, Times reporters will chronicle and debunk false and misleading information that is going viral online.
💙 🐣 RT @RVAT2020 NEW AD: Trump Administration Officials for Biden. ¤ Never before have high-ranking staffers of an incumbent president opposed his reelection and endorsed his opponent. ¤ 💽 Heed their warning. https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1320828657414348800?s=20
// Republican Voters Against Trump ad ❣ Trump ex-officials
🧵 RT @FinancialTimes Donald Trump’s debt totals at least $1.1bn. Should he win re-election, about $900m of it will come due during his second term https://on.ft.com/3oqPFNT 📌 https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes/status/1320646374556344322?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ FinancialTimes: All the president’s debts: who Donald Trump owes money to http://on.ft.com/34yJQpZ
// Debts of more than $1bn are tied to the Covid-struck commercial real estate market
⋙ 🐣 RT @FinancialTimes Donald Trump’s biggest bank lender, Deutsche Bank, has financed his hotels in Chicago and Washington, and his Miami golf resort. ¤ The US president owes the bank $340m
⭕ 26 Oct 2020
✅ NYT Factcheck: Rallies Are the Core of Trump’s Campaign, and a Font of Lies and Misinformation http://nyti.ms/35xiwaQ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1320962196948557824?s=20/photo/1
// A recent rally in Wisconsin was typical. In 90 minutes, President Trump made 131 false or inaccurate statements.
WaPo: Trump appointee resigns over the president’s order removing job protections for many civil servants http://wapo.st/ Trump’s order “seeks to make loyalty to him the litmus test for many thousands of career civil servants, and that is something I cannot be part of”
The Trump administration-appointed head of a key advisory council on the civil service has resigned over an executive order to strip away protections against political interference in hiring and firing for a large portion of the career federal workforce.
The order, which could affect tens of thousands or more career positions involved in making or carrying out policy, “is nothing more than a smoke screen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President, or failing that, to enable their removal with little if any due process,” Ronald Sanders wrote in his letter of resignation Sunday from the Federal Salary Council.
“I simply cannot be part of an Administration that seeks . . . to replace apolitical expertise with political obeisance. Career Federal employees are legally and duty-bound to be nonpartisan; they take an oath to preserve and protect our Constitution and the rule of law . . . not to be loyal to a particular President or Administration,” he wrote.
🐣📋 RT @AriBerman Crazy fact: 52 GOP senators who voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett represent 17 million fewer people than 47 Dems & Collins who voted no
WaPo, Dana Milbank: It’s up to John Roberts to save his court http://wapo.st/2HDQ7b1 “If Roberts and his conservative allies on the court don’t do at least some of this in the next few months, they can count on being joined next year by a whole batch of new colleagues“
WaPo: Supreme Court rejects request to extend Wisconsin’s deadline for counting mail-in ballots http://wapo.st/34yz3Mx “The most powerful rebuke to Republican judicial activism is to defeat Trump & elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a landslide,” WI Dem Party Chair Wikler said
🐣 RT @JRubinBlogger To be clear, if the conservative justices rip up precedent, advance partisan agenda and engage in election mischief the court’s jurisdiction, size and life tenure will be altered. It needs to be innocuous for a long while or face a popular movement to severely limit its reach
🔆 This❗️⋙ Vox, Ian Milhiser: The radical implications of the Supreme Court’s new ruling on Wisconsin mail-in ballot http://bit.ly/35GqfUd
// The Supreme Court’s new decision on Wisconsin mail-in ballots threatens a century of voting rights law.
🧵 RT @kasparov68 Democrats participated in McConnell’s charade of a confirmation instead of boycotting because they didn’t want to “politicize” it. Now Trump has a party with Barrett, proudly desecrating the separation of powers. 📌 https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1320919451441762309?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 The GOP wants tribalism, with no separation between Republican presidents and GOP in Congress and in the courts. This is not politics as usual at all. It’s an attempt at one-party rule, a minority party at that, and it’s dangerous.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 Turning parliament and the courts into loyal servants of the president is the goal of every would-be autocrat. From Russia to Turkey to Hungary, this has been the roadmap. The US is far stronger, but not immune.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kasparov68 There will be many crises in the coming weeks. Trump and his dictator backers abroad have much at stake and they aren’t going to play by rules Americans recognize. We will see who is only role-playing at democracy and who is willing to fight for it.
WaPo, George Conway: I believe in the president, now more than ever http://wapo.st/2HFZEhn omg! 😅
💙 🐣 RT @RonaldKlain Take it from me: the only way to avoid Bush v Gore II is to win by enough votes that 2020 never gets to the Supreme Court. Don’t let the Court have this power: all of us, at the ballot box, need to decide this election.
⋙ 🧵 RT @mjs_dc Holy shit—Brett Kavanaugh just endorsed Rehnquist’s concurrence in Bush v. Gore, which was too extreme for Kennedy or O’Connor. ¤ This is a red alert. I can’t believe he put it in a footnote. This is terrifying. Text Block: 📌 https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1320873994032205824?s=20/photo/1
⋙ ⋙ 🐣 RT @mjs_dc This is VERY BAD NEWS for voting rights. Appallingly bad. Brett Kavanaugh used a footnote to throw his support behind an extreme theory that would severely limit state courts’ ability to protect voting rights. It’s the revenge of Bush. v. Gore. Actually, it’s much worse. […]
🐣 RT @ kylegriffin1 Ex-Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann: “I suspect strongly that if the president does not win reelection, that he is going to pardon a lot more people related to the Trump Organization, his family, people who work there, and even himself.”
⋙ NPR: Andrew Weissmann, Ex-Mueller Deputy, On Pardons, Barr And Investigating Trump http://n.pr/3e1O8cv
🐣 So, now we have a Justice whose son was Trump’s banker in a seat stolen from Obama because March was too close to an election, a Justice who ia rapist who likes beer, and another confirmed 8 days before an election who thinks women should have rapists’ babies. So much winning.
🐣 📋 ◕ RT @imrankhan Whoever wins the US election, it looks impossible for Trump to win the popular vote. ¤ Which will mean that the last time the Republicans won the popular vote will have been in 2004. And the last time before that, in 1988. ¤ Twice! In nine elections! https://twitter.com/imrankhan/status/1320678085407186944?s=20/photo/1
// w link to Wikipedia; GOP won popular vote ONCE since 1988 ‼️
⭕ 25 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @McFaul In democracies, journalists are supposed to ask tough questions. In autocracies, journalists working for the regime toss softballs. Trump obviously prefers the latter over on another network (& no one forced him to do this interview!)
💙 🐣 RT @PoliticusSarah This was Trump’s epic meltdown on 60 Minutes and it was even worse than reported. Trump literally ran away because he didn’t like the questions. 💽 https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1320519094295240712?s=20
WaPo: Tumult at home, ailing alliances abroad: Why Trump’s America has been a ‘gift’ to Putin http://wapo.st/2HBpOSs “National security experts say Putin’s greatest triumph in the Trump years has been on the foreign policy front, and [Trump’s] methodical denigration of NATO”
// by Philip Rucker and Shane Harris; ‘The 45th President’: One in a series looking back at the Trump presidency
🐣 RT @PorterAnderson Media: @JohnJHarwood to @AnaCabrera on the new positive diagnoses of @VP’s top staffers: Not only chief of staff @marcshort45 but also Zach Bauer, “Mike Pence’s body man, tested positive — an indication that the vice-president may have had serious, serious exposure to #COVID19.”
🐣 RT @InTheNoosphere Trump plans to fire heads of FBI, CIA and Pentagon if he wins re-election
⋙ Axios: Scoop: Trump’s post-election execution list http://bit.ly/2TnWaTF
🚫 🐣 RT @McFaul Putin rejects Donald Trump’s criticism of Biden family business
⋙ Reuters: Putin rejects Donald Trump’s criticism of Biden family business http://reut.rs/3dWvmTH
// hmmm
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Trump Had One Last Story to Sell. The Wall Street Journal Wouldn’t Buy It. http://nyti.ms/37FMYC9
// by Ben Smith; Inside the White House’s secret, last-ditch effort to change the narrative, and the election — and the return of the media gatekeepers.
By early October, even people inside the White House believed President Trump’s re-election campaign needed a desperate rescue mission. So three men allied with the president gathered at a house in McLean, Va., to launch one.
The host was Arthur Schwartz, a New York public relations man close to President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr. The guests were a White House lawyer, Eric Herschmann, and a former deputy White House counsel, Stefan Passantino, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
The three had pinned their hopes for re-electing the president on a fourth guest, a straight-shooting Wall Street Journal White House reporter named Michael Bender. They delivered the goods to him there: a cache of emails detailing Hunter Biden’s business activities, and, on speaker phone, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s named Tony Bobulinski. Mr. Bobulinski was willing to go on the record in The Journal with an explosive claim: that Joe Biden, the former vice president, had been aware of, and profited from, his son’s activities. The Trump team left believing that The Journal would blow the thing open and their excitement was conveyed to the president.
As the Trump team waited with excited anticipation for a Journal exposé, the newspaper did its due diligence: Mr. Bender and Mr. Beckett handed the story off to a well-regarded China correspondent, James Areddy, and a Capitol Hill reporter who had followed the Hunter Biden story, Andrew Duehren. Mr. Areddy interviewed Mr. Bobulinski. They began drafting an article.
Then things got messy. Without warning his notional allies, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and now a lawyer for President Trump, burst onto the scene with the tabloid version of the McLean crew’s carefully laid plot. Mr. Giuliani delivered a cache of documents of questionable provenance — but containing some of the same emails — to The New York Post, a sister publication to The Journal in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Mr. Giuliani had been working with the former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who also began leaking some of the emails to favored right-wing outlets. Mr. Giuliani’s complicated claim that the emails came from a laptop Hunter Biden had abandoned, and his refusal to let some reporters examine the laptop, cast a pall over the story — as did The Post’s reporting, which alleged but could not prove that Joe Biden had been involved in his son’s activities.
… Or was this yet another story of the younger Mr. Biden trading on his family’s name — a perfectly good theme, but not a new one or one that needed urgently to be revealed before the election.
Mr. Trump and his allies expected the Journal story to appear Monday, Oct. 19, according to Mr. Bannon. That would be late in the campaign, but not too late — and could shape that week’s news cycle heading into the crucial final debate last Thursday. An “important piece” in The Journal would be coming soon, Mr. Trump told aides on a conference call that day.
His comment was not appreciated inside The Journal. ¤ “The editors didn’t like Trump’s insinuation that we were being teed up to do this hit job,” a Journal reporter who wasn’t directly involved in the story told me. But the reporters continued to work on the draft as the Thursday debate approached, indifferent to the White House’s frantic timeline.
Finally, Mr. Bobulinski got tired of waiting. ¤ “He got spooked about whether they were going to do it or not,” Mr. Bannon said. ¤ At 7:35 Wednesday evening, Mr. Bobulinski emailed an on-the-record, 684-word statement making his case to a range of news outlets. Breitbart News published it in full. He appeared the next day in Nashville to attend the debate as Mr. Trump’s surprise guest, and less than two hours before the debate was to begin, he read a six-minute statement to the press, detailing his allegations that the former vice president had involvement in his son’s business dealings.
When Mr. Trump stepped on stage, the president acted as though the details of the emails and the allegations were common knowledge. “You’re the big man, I think. I don’t know, maybe you’re not,” he told Mr. Biden at some point, a reference to an ambiguous sentence from the documents.
As the debate ended, The Wall Street Journal published a brief item, just the stub of Mr. Areddy and Mr. Duehren’s reporting. The core of it was that Mr. Bobulinski had failed to prove the central claim. “Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden,” The Journal reported.
And if you’d been watching the debate, but hadn’t been obsessively watching Fox News or reading Breitbart, you would have had no idea what Mr. Trump was talking about. The story the Trump team hoped would upend the campaign was fading fast.
[I]t’s also about a larger shift in the American media, one in which the gatekeepers appear to have returned after a long absence.
It has been a disorienting couple of decades, after all. It all began when The Drudge Report, Gawker and the blogs started telling you what stodgy old newspapers and television networks wouldn’t. Then social media brought floods of content pouring over the old barricades.
By 2015, the old gatekeepers had entered a kind of crisis of confidence, believing they couldn’t control the online news cycle any better than King Canute could control the tides. Television networks all but let Donald Trump take over as executive producer that summer and fall. In October 2016, Julian Assange and James Comey seemed to drive the news cycle more than the major news organizations. Many figures in old media and new bought into the idea that in the new world, readers would find the information they wanted to read — and therefore, decisions by editors and producers, about whether to cover something and how much attention to give it, didn’t mean much.
But the last two weeks have proved the opposite: that the old gatekeepers, like The Journal, can still control the agenda. It turns out there is a big difference between WikiLeaks and establishment media coverage of WikiLeaks, a difference between a Trump tweet and an article about it, even between an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal suggesting Joe Biden had done bad things, and a news article that didn’t reach that conclusion.
Perhaps the most influential media document of the last four years is a chart by a co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, Yochai Benkler. The study showed that a dense new right-wing media sphere had emerged — and that the mainstream news “revolved around the agenda that the right-wing media sphere set.”
And the fact that Mr. Bobulinski emerged not in the pages of the widely respected Journal but in a statement to Breitbart was essentially Mr. Bannon’s nightmare, and Mr. Benkler’s fondest wish. And a broad array of mainstream outlets, unpersuaded that Hunter Biden’s doings tie directly to the former vice president, have largely kept the story off their front pages, and confined to skeptical explanations of what Mr. Trump and his allies are claiming about his opponent.
President Trump himself hit a wall when he tried to push the Hunter Biden narrative onto CBS News. ¤ “This is ‘60 Minutes,’ and we can’t put on things we can’t verify,” Lesley Stahl told him. Mr. Trump then did more or less the same thing as Mr. Reynolds, posting a video of his side of the interview to his own blog, Facebook.
The media’s control over information, of course, is not as total as it used to be. The people who own printing presses and broadcast towers can’t actually stop you from reading leaked emails or unproven theories about Joe Biden’s knowledge of his son’s business. But what Mr. Benkler’s research showed was that the elite outlets’ ability to set the agenda endured in spite of social media.
But I admit that I feel deep ambivalence about this revenge of the gatekeepers. I spent my career, before arriving at The Times in March, on the other side of the gate, lobbing information past it to a very online audience who I presumed had already seen the leak or the rumor, and seeing my job as helping to guide that audience through the thicket, not to close their eyes to it. “The media’s new and unfamiliar job is to provide a framework for understanding the wild, unvetted, and incredibly intoxicating information that its audience will inevitably see — not to ignore it,” my colleague John Herrman (also now at The Times) and I wrote in 2013. In 2017, I made the decision to publish the unverified “Steele dossier,” in part on the grounds that gatekeepers were looking at it and influenced by it, but keeping it from their audience.
The schemes of Mr. Herschmann, Mr. Passantino and Mr. Schwartz weren’t exactly WikiLeaks. But the special nervousness that many outlets, including this one, feel about the provenance of the Hunter Biden emails is, in many ways, the legacy of the WikiLeaks experience.
I’d prefer to put my faith in Mr. Murray and careful, professional journalists like him than in the social platforms’ product managers and executives. And I hope Americans relieved that the gatekeepers are reasserting themselves will also pay attention to who gets that power, and how centralized it is, and root for new voices to correct and challenge them.
⋙ 🐣 @benyt New media have always been disruptive: printing press::Reformation; pamphlets::French/Amer Revs; radio::Hitler but also Roosevelt; TV::McCarthy, but also Civil Rights/Nam War. The social media rev is full of promise as well as pitfalls. It took CV19 to get us back to facts
⭕ 24 Oct 2020
NYT Editorial: R.I.P., G.O.P. http://nyti.ms/35qOAgk
// The Party of Lincoln had a good run. Then came Mr. Trump.
🐣 RT @davidfrum If Trump had believed that until the pandemic he was on the way to beating Joe Biden, he would not have spent the summer of 2019 committing the crimes that got Trump impeached.
🚫 🐣 RT @AJentleson Reid says Biden should end the filibuster after 3 weeks. He’s right! If Dems take back the WH and the Senate we have a narrow window to pass the bills necessary to save our democracy. McConnell strung us along for a year on ACA. Fool me twice, shame on me.
⋙ AP: Reid says Biden should end Senate filibuster after 3 weeks http://bit.ly/3dSUefh
// mixed feelings about this
Former Senate leader Harry Reid says if Democrats win the presidency and the Senate, Joe Biden should take “no more than three weeks” to test bipartisanship before ending the filibuster so Democrats can overcome what they call Republican obstruction and pass bills.
The retired Nevada Democrat told The Associated Press in an interview that he understands Biden wants to work with Republicans, as the former vice president and Delaware senator has in the past. But Reid said there is just too much that needs to be done in the country to wait around trying to reach agreements under the decades-old Senate practice of requiring 60 votes to advance legislation.
Obama has since joined the effort for change. During the funeral this year for Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights leader, Obama announced his support for ending the filibuster, calling it a Jim Crow-era relic that was used to stall voting advances for Black people.
🐣 RT @maggieNYT UPDATE: The total of aides around Pence in the coronavirus outbreak is up to FIVE people. Short, Obst and 3 additional VP office staff, per ppl briefed
⋙ NYT: Members of Pence’s Inner Circle Test Positive for Coronavirus http://nyti.ms/3mjBxnR
// Along with Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, three additional staff members and a Pence adviser have also tested positive, according to people briefed on the developments.
The decision by Mr. Pence, who leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force, to continue campaigning is certain to raise new questions about how seriously the White House is taking the risks to their own staff members and the public from the pandemic that has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States. Mr. Short has been among those within the White House who have questioned the extensive lockdowns across the country.
🐣 RT @davidplouffe Powerful World Series ad narrated by Brad Pitt, @BarackObama dropping truth bombs in S. Florida and Joe and Kamala making their case vs. Trump super spreader events with no closing argument in the penultimate Saturday of Campaign 2020.
🐣 RT @matthewamiller I think we’re done here.
🐣 RT @danielsgoldman This additional information, combined with the illogical and suspicious story of the computer store owner, casts even more doubt on the laptop story. ¤ Most importantly, according to Parnas, the Russian security services had the materials in 2019.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand Exclusive: Ex Giuliani associate Lev Parnas tells me Giuliani was offered salacious Biden photos/emails in May 2019 by associate of Burisma founder Zlochevsky, who wanted to curry favor w/Trump admin. Material was also for sale in Kyiv in Sept ‘19. Latest:
⋙⋙ Politico: Former Giuliani associate raises questions about Hunter Biden’s ‘hard drive from hell’ http://politi.co/34ptsI1
// Salacious documents supposedly belonging to Hunter Biden were circulating in Ukraine in May 2019, Lev Parnas says.
WaPo, Max Boot: Trump may be running the sleaziest presidential campaign ever http://wapo.st/3dXRWeW Starting with Gingrich, the Republican Party “has become the party of pseudo-scandals”
🐣 RT @ForeignAffairs Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, read @apolyakova on the threat from disinformation campaigns, emanating from Russia and beyond:
⋙ ForeignAffairs, Alina Polyakova: The Kremlin’s Plot Against Democracy http://fam.ag/3dWzzGU
// Sep-Oct issue; How Russia Updated Its 2016 Playbook for 2020
🐣 ◕ RT @Greg_Palast The GOP’s running against the demographic tide; the only way they can win is by suppressing the vote. https://instagram.com/p/CGtJ885AiN6/ https://twitter.com/Greg_Palast/status/1320027778494959618?s=20/photo/1
// shrinking GOP base shrinking Trump base
1976 2018
11% 27% Minority Voters
17% 34% Whites with College Degrees
71% 39% Whites without College Degrees
⭕ 23 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @nytpolitics A Russian state hacker group started prowling around American state and local government computer systems just two months before the Nov. 3 election, setting off concern inside private security firms, law enforcement and intelligence agencies
⋙ NYT (10/23): Russians Who Pose Election Threat Have Hacked Nuclear Plants and Power Grid http://nyti.ms/37AVX7Q The group “It appears to be casting a wide net to find useful targets ahead of the election, experts said”
// The hacking group, Energetic Bear, is among Russia’s stealthiest. It appears to be casting a wide net to find useful targets ahead of the election, experts said.
Forbes: Forbes Estimates China Paid Trump At Least $5.4 Million Since He Took Office, Via Mysterious Trump Tower Lease http://bit.ly/37Gq8uq
// Donald Trump maintained a stake in Trump Tower when he became president, and with it, a financial connection to the Chinese government.
🐣 RT @gtconway3dg ohh he just gave it all away — Trump’s pushing to reopen so he can raise the GDP as much as possible before the report comes out on November 1st.
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Trump still thinks that public health measures to slow the spread of coronavirus are the fruit of a Democratic hoax meant to hurt him politically 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1319796535136296962?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @TVietor08 Trump “has participated in nearly three dozen rallies since mid-August…analysis shows COVID-19 cases grew at a faster rate than before after at least five of those rallies in…Blue Earth, MN; Lackawanna, PA; Marathon, WI; Dauphin, PA; Beltrami, MN”
⋙ USAToday: Trump’s campaign made stops nationwide. Coronavirus cases surged in his wake in at least five places. http://bit.ly/34nO5V1
🐣 RT @NeverTrumpTexan In case you didn’t catch the historic reference, when the Germans demanded Allied forces surrender during the Battle of the Bulge, the American General responded:
⋙ 🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln Nuts! https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1319801126363951104?s=20/photo/1-2
// Letter threatening to sue Project Lincoln from lawyer Marc Kasowitz; Double billboard in Times Square: 1) Ivanka applauding w NY and US death tolls; 2) Jared w quotation (VF?): “[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that’s their problem” [VanityFair: http://bit.ly/3hHJPmV%5D
🐣 RT @bradheath This, from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, is a pretty remarkable show of distrust for the Justice Department. https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1319631557238378496?s=20/photo/1
// Minute order on Michael Flynn
🐣 RT @tribelaw AXIOS: U.S. hits highest daily COVID-19 case count since pandemic began. At least 81,010 cases were confirmed today, surpassing the previous record set July 17 when 76,842 cases were recorded. Record levels of death lie ahead. And yesterday Trump said we’re doing just fine.
🐣 RT @donwinslow MY NEW VIDEO: #OpenLetterToRepublicans SOUND UP!! […]
💽 https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1300191230328856576?s=20/photo/1
// Don Winslow ad❣ Open Letter To Republicans
🐣 RT @nytopinion “This debate gave Trump and his team reason to hope that, despite everything, lightning might strike twice.” ¤ Our opinion writers watched the last Trump-Biden debate. Here’s what they thought.
⋙ NYT: Biden and Trump’s Final Debate: Who Won? http://nyti.ms/35GdCZl
// How their last clash looked to Times Opinion writers.
🐣 I caught Biden misspeaking a couple of times (“poor boys”) (I think he meant 2035 not 2025 on carbon neutral goal) plus some things I wished he’d said. ¤ Trump, OTOH, was lying, exaggerations, and conspiracy theories (some old, some new). So: vintage Trump.
🧵 Here are the major Fact Checks of the Final Presidential Election Debate, held in Nashville Tennessee, moderated by Kristin Welker of NBC News ~ (alphabetical) ⋙ 📌 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1319566809629138944?s=20
✅ ABCNews: Fact-checking Trump and Biden during 2nd 2020 presidential debate http://abcn.ws/3mfHylG
// The two candidates faced off in Nashville, Tennessee.
✅ AP FACT CHECK: Falsehoods and fumbles in Trump-Biden debate http://bit.ly/3dTZ102
✅ BBC: US election 2020: Trump and Biden final debate fact-checked http://bbc.in/35nP6fa
✅ Bloomberg: Fact Check: Trump and Biden’s Final Presidential Debate http://bloom.bg/2TpyUUZ
✅ BusinessInsider: Fact-checking the final Trump-Biden debate http://bit.ly/2HtzgHK
✅ CBSNews: Final presidential debate: Fact checking Trump and Biden http://cbsn.ws/3dQcUMq
✅ CNN: Fact check: Toned-down Trump continues his onslaught of falsehoods http://cnn.it/3koFdEf w 💽 Daniel Dale video
✅ Factcheck.org: Bogus Claims of Debate Moderator Bias http://bit.ly/31y8FR1
✅ TheGuardian: Biden slams Trump on coronavirus response, family separations and racism in final debate – as it happened http://bit.ly/34oUOOO
✅ LATimes: Fact-checking the final Trump-Biden presidential debate http://lat.ms/35lH3Q2
✅ NBCNews: Debate fact check: Trump and Biden face off in final debate http://nbcnews.to/3dY6Th2
✅ NYT: Fact-Checking the Final Presidential Debate http://nyti.ms/3jjRLvv
✅ Politifact: Fact-checking Donald Trump, Joe Biden in the final presidential debate http://bit.ly/34l3mpB
✅ WaPo: Fact-checking the second Trump-Biden debate http://wapo.st/3mes80N
~
✅ ✛ Heard on MSNBC (Fact-check): COVID-19 and young people (through 34yo): 21% hospitalized, 10% need ventilators, 2.7% die (on Ari Melber post-debate)
⭕ 22 Oct 2020
🧵 RT @NickMiroff Trump is right that Obama “built the cages.” But the “kids in cages” trope has become so completely divorced from context and history that it has left the public even more confused about how the American immigration enforcement system works. A quick thread: 📌 https://twitter.com/NickMiroff/status/1319485799918936064?s=20
[ … ]
⋙ 🐣 RT @NickMiroff All of this underscores the fact that administrations from both parties have struggled to cope with migration pressures using detention and deterrence. But the separation system Trump carried out under “Zero Tolerance” had no precedent, and did not occur under Obama.
🐣 RT @AWeissman Trump added a new spin to his false claim that he would release his taxes but they are “under audit.” There is no such prohibition, as we know. Trump added that there is nothing to see there since the Special Counsel had the financials and saw no wrongdoing. That’s false.
🐣 📋 RT @stuartstevens Before anybody gets excited about Trump going after Biden on energy, might look at some polling on subsidies for oil industry. Last numbers I saw had it at 87% against issue.
🐣 RT @NoahShachtman WHOA. Wall Street Journal’s news side just released a debunking of WSJ opinion side.
🐣 RT @Anthony Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden
🐣 RT @WSJ Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner alleged Joe Biden was part of talks around his son’s efforts to form a venture with a Chinese oil company. Biden’s campaign denied the former vice president’s involvement, and records reviewed by WSJ show no role for him.
⋙ WSJ: Hunter Biden’s Ex-Business Partner Alleges Father Knew About Venture http://on.wsj.com/34iMsrQ
// An ex-business partner of Hunter Biden said he consulted his father about a planned venture with a Chinese oil company. Joe Biden denied any involvement
🐣 RT @Acyn Does it look like he thinks he won? 💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1319471599901310978?s=20/photo/1
// post-debate Trump
⋙ FINAL Debate ⇈ ⇊
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump enters without a mask. Biden enters with one. And the final 2020 presidential debate is under way. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1319444920697049088?s=20
// two segments, linked
🧵 RT @jentaub Here we go. Anything could happen tonight. Final debate, moderated by Kristin Welker. #Debates2020 📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1319444655398932480?s=20
~~~~~~~~~~
To family: Why I keep saying: top off your gas tanks, charge up your power blocks, make sure you have bottled water and toilet paper, batteries, candles etc. Be careful online.
(Molly McKew is an expert on information warfare. She has been interviewed on PBS’s Frontline and for the documentary “Active Measures”:)
🧵 RT @MollyMcKew Today, more detail was revealed by CISA about extensive Russian cyber intrusions in US election/critical systems ¤ The indictment of GRU hackers released Monday is a roadmap to understanding what Russian can do on Election Day ¤ New on @RenewGreatPower /1 Text Block: 📌 https://twitter.com/MollyMcKew/status/1319427015242584065?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ GreatPower, Molly McKew: The newest GRU indictment is a roadmap for Election Day disruption http://bit.ly/3joafL6
// The US fired a warning shot at the Kremlin before the election — or maybe it’s a signal flare to alert Americans what may be coming
⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew On Monday, DoJ unsealed the indictment of 6 hackers from Russia’s GRU for “worldwide deployment of destructive malware and other disruptive actions in cyberspace.” /2
⋙⋙ Justice.gov: Six Russian GRU Officers Charged in Connection with Worldwide Deployment of Destructive Malware and Other Disruptive Actions in Cyberspace http://bit.ly/2FRYX4h
// Defendants’ Malware Attacks Caused Nearly One Billion USD in Losses to Three Victims Alone; Also Sought to Disrupt the 2017 French Elections and the 2018 Winter Olympic Games⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew It connected the dots between a wide array of cyberattacks over the past 5 years, which happened in France, Ukraine, Georgia, South Korea, the US, and the UK. ¤ The indictment made clear that a multi-nation intelligence effort helped attribute these attacks to the GRU /3
⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew The broad range of activities attributed to Sandworm shows how much leeway these units are given by the Kremlin to probe and beta-test and operationalize different kinds of cyber weapons to expansively contribute to Russia’s strategic (and petty) objectives within parameters. /4
⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew Key takeaways of the new GRU indictment:
1) tracking Russian activity is a top priority
2) Russia is willing to use disproportionate responses to retaliate against perceived slights
3) Russian behavior has not been deterred or altered by any response they have met thus far /54) The list of operational targets is a road map for what could happen on Election Day (or beyond)
5) private-sector & individual targets are seen as interchangeable with national targets
6) They tried to look like other hackers to hide the attribution of their attacks /67) far-right US media/personalities keep finding themselves as the amplification network for GRU-obtained materials — but how?
8) so much for the “patriotic hackers” bullsh*t⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew What are the potential targets for Russian hackers, based in the details in the indictment?
– Low-level elex interference (last minute hack-and-leak operations etc)
– Disrupting govt information systems, which could relate directly to elections or not … /8– Disrupting power grids
– Disrupting banking systems/payment systems
– Disrupting govt services and systems, or creating the perception of system vulnerabilities
– Creating the perception of widespread internet disruption
– Targeted technical attacks on media organizations … /9– Disrupting hospital databases, which can disrupt or delay the delivery of care
– Disrupting shipping, transportation, aviation, and other essential infrastructure
– the CISA announcement today mentioned education systems, which would be a remote learning nightmare, no doubt /10⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew We know Russian interference efforts are ongoing, we know how much importance they put in the cyber toolkit, and we should have every expectation that at least some of these options are well-prepared for use on US targets. /11
⋙ 🐣 RT @MollyMcKew Americans are wound pretty tight. We’re prepped to believe that someone will do something to disrupt the conduct of the elex, tallying of results, transition of power. It wouldn’t take very much to create the perception, or reality, of chaos /12 (end)
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand “Officials did not make clear what Russia planned to do, but they said its operations would be intended to help President Trump, potentially by exacerbating disputes around the results.” Really seems like THIS should have been the focus of last night’s emergency briefing.
⋙ 🐣 RT @nicoleperlroth BREAKING: U.S. administration officials have been watching Russia’s FSB penetrate state and local systems in recent weeks and believe they have pieced together Russia’s plans for election interference. It is far worse than Iran. w/ @julianbarnes @SangerNYT
⋙⋙ NYT: Russia poses a bigger election threat than Iran, many U.S. officials say. http://nyti.ms/31uDUw8
NYT: Iran and Russia Seek to Influence Election in Final Days, U.S. Officials Warn http://nyti.ms/2FRQXQN
// Iran is behind threatening, spoofed emails sent to voters, the officials said, but there was no indication that any votes themselves had been altered.
⭕ 21 Oct 2020
🧵 RT @atrupar Obama: “[Trump] has not shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself & his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show he can use to get attention..the only people truly better off than they were 4 years ago are billionaires who got his tax cuts” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1319040222517207040?s=20
↥ ↧
💽 RollingStone: Watch Obama Absolutely Torch Trump During His Debut Campaign Event for Biden http://bit.ly/31sBNco
// Obama debut; “He did inherit the longest streak of job growth in American history, but just like everything else he inherited, he messed it up,” the former president said
🧵 RT @.danielsgoldman Thread on “Russian disinformation.” ¤ Recently@DNI_Ratcliffe asserted that Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign. But Radcliffe misses the point. It is part of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election. ¤ Let me explain. ¤ 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/1318944825505447938?s=20
🐣 RT @Yamiche President Obama: “Our Democracy is not going to work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie everyday and just make things up. And we’ve become just numb to it. We’ve become immune to it. Every single day. Fact checkers can’t keep up.”
TheGuardian: Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film http://bit.ly/3odU7iW
// Trump’s personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat’s daughter in hotel room during pandemic
🐣 RT @davidaxelrod This @BarackObama speech in Philly is a brutal takedown of @realDonaldTrump. The raging pandemic. The laggard economy. The assault on the ACA. The slights of the war heroes. The embrace of conspiracy theories and racist memes. “Why would we accept this from the @POTUS?”
WaPo: U.S. agencies mount major effort to prevent Russian interference in the election even though Trump downplays threat http://wapo.st/3omhQxN
Top security agencies are coordinating actions to thwart foreign hackers, prevent Russia-linked individuals from entering the United States and freeze any of their assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction. They are also passing intelligence to social media firms, and helping state and local election officials shore up their defenses.
For months American military cyber-operators, aided by intelligence from the National Security Agency, have been targeting Russian spies in order to disrupt their plans by repeatedly knocking them off the Internet, confusing their planners and depriving them of their hacking tools. The goal is to prevent them from attacking American voting systems, according to security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The State Department this year has revoked the visas of two Ukrainians deemed to be engaged in activities designed to influence the election and advance Russia’s interests. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions last month on four Russia-linked individuals — including one of the Ukrainians who was labeled an “active Russian agent” — to prevent them from interfering in the electoral process — the first time that the U.S. government has taken such an action before an election.
A vital missing ingredient, however, has been messaging from the top, such as a declaration from the president that the United States will not tolerate efforts — in particular from the Kremlin — to interfere in the election. …
But officials say even if Trump is not publicly voicing support for agencies’ efforts, he is not impeding them, and the NSA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security have made securing the election a top priority.
But this election year the FBI, also armed with NSA intelligence, has tipped Facebook, Twitter and other tech companies to networks of fake accounts created by Russian operatives, which have cut short the attempts of these actors to polarize voters and undermine support for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
With this improved relationship and other initiatives, the government is “light-years” ahead of where it was in 2016 — and even the midterms, said David Imbordino, the NSA’s Election Security lead …
In 2016, some state election officials were wary of allowing the federal government to help them safeguard their systems. Today, DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has relationships with officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and has installed malware-tracking sensors on every state election network to spot potential intrusions. In some states, like Florida, it has those sensors in every county.
The election is still threatened by domestic efforts to cast doubt on its integrity and by Russian efforts to amplify those messages, experts say. The U.S. intelligence community’s head of counterintelligence, William Evanina, this month said that Russia, China and Iran have sought to “amplify divisive messages put forth by Americans, to include the president.”
In March 2018, DHS helped launch the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which serves more than 8,800 election jurisdictions by providing cyberthreat alerts and running CISA’s remote security monitoring. Also that year Trump signed an executive order permitting the imposition of sanctions in the event of foreign interference, and he also signed a national security memo that streamlined approval for offensive cyber operations.
U.S. Cyber Command ran a campaign to keep Russian trolls off the Internet for several days around the midterm elections in 2018. And today, CyberCom and the NSA are undertaking broader and more sophisticated actions, including against the Russian military spy agency, the GRU, and a botnet run by Russian-speaking criminals, U.S. officials said. …
Treasury’s sanctions have enabled social media firms to take more aggressive action against foreign influence. Shortly after Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach was added to a sanctions list last month, Google removed 14 accounts linked to him, including a Gmail account and a YouTube channel, which he used to spread disinformation involving the Ukraine and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Google was able to remove the accounts as violations of their terms of service that require customers to obey U.S. law, a Google spokeswoman said.
Noting the strides taken by the federal, state and local governments and social media companies, CyberCom’s Hartman urged Americans to refrain from “giving a foreign adversary more credit than they’re actually due.”
In the end, McMaster said, the biggest threat to the election is not Russia. “It’s what we’re doing it to ourselves,” he said. “The Russians cannot create these fissures in our society, but they can widen them.”
WaPo: Study finds no crime increase in cities that adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies, despite Trump claims http://wapo.st/3kjUxSz
WaPo, Greg Sargent: Why Trump’s endgame is to rage at Lesley Stahl http://wapo.st/
Politico: White House looks at cutting Covid funds, newborn screenings in ‘anarchist’ cities http://politi.co/2FNKR3T “New York, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and Seattle could lose funding for a wide swath of programs that serve their poorest, sickest residents”
// Documents show funding for a host of health programs is at risk under the president’s order targeting liberal strongholds.
New York, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and Seattle could lose funding for a wide swath of programs that serve their poorest, sickest residents after the president moved last month to restrict funding, escalating his political battle against liberal cities he’s sought to use as a campaign foil.
The Department of Health and Human Services has identified federal grants covering those services, which are among the nearly 200 health programs that could be in line for cuts as part of a sweeping government-wide directive the administration is advancing during the final weeks of the presidential campaign and amid an intensifying pandemic Trump has downplayed.
Trump in a Sept. 2 order called on federal agencies to curtail funding to jurisdictions that “disempower” police departments and promote “lawlessness.” The memo argued that the cities haven’t done enough to quash riots stemming from this summer’s protests over systemic racism and police violence.
The HHS list offers the most detailed picture yet of the administration’s efforts to quickly comply with the Trump directive and the potentially large cuts facing these cities even as the pandemic strains local budgets. It isn’t immediately clear what criteria the budget office will use to evaluate the grants — or how or when cuts may be made.
But while the White House pores over existing funds, at least one department has already moved to implement Trump’s directive for new funding. The Department of Transportation earlier this month said Trump’s “anarchy” memo would factor into the department’s review of applications for a new $10 million grant program supporting Covid-19 safety measures.
The HHS list, which was sent Friday to the White House budget office, represents the 1,500-plus funding awards that have gone to the four cities since 2018. Each federal department also faced a Friday deadline to submit their own lists to the Office of Management and Budget, which will make the final decisions about funding.
Officials from New York City and Seattle — as well as the United States Conference of Mayors — have already threatened legal action if the administration moves to block funds.
“This is nothing more than political retribution,” said Laura Feyer, a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Apparently Senator McConnell believes Kentuckians sent him to the Senate, not to look out for them in tough times, but to consolidate his personal legacy of stealing judgeships.
⋙ WaPo: McConnell warns White House against making stimulus deal as Pelosi and Mnuchin inch closer http://wapo.st/3oecPXF
// GOP leader suggests Democrats are not negotiating in good faith and could disrupt Supreme Court nomination
TheGuardian: Trump’s false ‘Russian spy’ claims put me in danger, says Steele dossier source http://bit.ly/34g7186
// Exclusive: New York-based analyst Igor Danchenko did gather intelligence about Trump but he is certainly not a spy, he says
⭕ 20 Oct 2020
NYMag, Jonathan Chait: Alleged China-Fighter Donald Trump Has Secret Chinese Bank Account http://nym.ag/2Hp3POw
NYT: Trump Calls on Barr to ‘Act’ Against Biden Before Election http://nyti.ms/3kjYSFn //➔ doesn’t seem to get that having all the career lawyers in the DOJ resign would be a “bad look”
// The president is increasingly fixated on seeing criminal action against his political opponents.
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 The Associated Press, while investigating how Trump plowed through a billion dollars during the campaign, found this interesting detail: A web of limited liability companies hid more than $310 million in spending from disclosure, records show.
⋙ AP: How Trump plowed through $1 billion, losing cash advantage http://bit.ly/2TeIDNU “‘You could literally have 10 monkeys with flamethrowers go after the money, and they wouldn’t have burned through it as stupidly’”
President Donald Trump’s sprawling political operation has raised well over $1 billion since he took the White House in 2017 — and set a lot of it on fire.
Trump bought a $10 million Super Bowl ad when he didn’t yet have a challenger. He tapped his political organization to cover exorbitant legal fees related to his impeachment. Aides made flashy displays of their newfound wealth — including a fleet of luxury vehicles purchased by Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager.
Meanwhile, a web of limited liability companies hid more than $356 million in spending from disclosure, records show.
“They spent their money on unnecessary overhead, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous activity by the campaign staff and vanity ads,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican consultant who advised John McCain and Jeb Bush and is an outspoken Trump critic. “You could literally have 10 monkeys with flamethrowers go after the money, and they wouldn’t have burned through it as stupidly.”
🐣 Better yet, contact the @FBI
⋙ 🐣 RT @KimberlyLofgren This afternoon, I received the following email purportedly from the Proud Boys. They said if I don’t vote for Trump, they will “come after me.” They had my address. They know where I live. ¤ This is voter intimidation and illegal. If this happens to you, contact @866OURVOTE. https://twitter.com/KimberLofgren/status/1318709674603053057?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @McFaul ICYMI, Director William Evanina of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center remarked that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’ THREAD 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1318692370855071744?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul “… For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party. ” 2/
⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul “Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.” That’s all on the record, folks, from a very senior U.S. intelligence official. 3/ END THREAD
⋙⋙ Stanford/Medium, Michael McFaul and Bronte Kass: Four Years Later, How is Russian Interference Different in the 2020 Election? http://bit.ly/3jg4a3m “[T]he Kremlin’s most ambitious project … has been the apparent effort to launder false information about Hunter Biden”
🐣 RT @RepAdamSchiff Anticipating the harsh judgment of history, Trump’s enablers are lashing out. At everyone. ¤ It will be said that when they found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous, unethical president in American history, ¤ They consoled themselves by attacking those who did.
🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Let me guess: she asked some good questions?
⋙ 🐣 RT @real I am pleased to inform you that, for the sake of accuracy in reporting, I am considering posting my interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, PRIOR TO AIRTIME! This will be done so that everybody can get a glimpse of what a FAKE and BIASED interview is all about… …Everyone should compare this terrible Electoral Intrusion with the recent interviews of Sleepy Joe Biden!
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @TheRecount Following his “60 Minutes” interview, Trump did not smile to greet cheering supporters as he departed the White House. https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1318691887939788803?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Democrats would not be “packing the courts.” It’s the GOP that has packed the courts, not just SCOTUS (by refusing hearings for Garland and ramming through Barrett) ~ but lower courts too, by slow-walking Obama’s nominees. ¤ Another word/expression is needed: re-balancing?
🐣 RT @rprose A former demographic forecaster at Russia’s statistics service, who left in July amid a dispute over virus data, says publicly available statistics on daily mortality rates “need to be multiplied by three”
⋙ Bloomberg: Rogue Demographer Says Russia Covid Deaths May Be Europe’s Worst http://bloom.bg/3m4mYo0
// A former employee of the Kremlin’s statistics agency says Russia’s daily coronavirus mortality figures understate the real toll from the disease …
⭕ 19 Oct 2020
NYT, Michelle Goldberg: Is the Trump Campaign Colluding With Russia Again? http://nyti.ms/35hpkJp “Reporting on disinformation is complicated, because it’s hard to write about it without amplifying it. Still, this episode distills just how far Trump has dragged the country down”
// Giuliani’s dirty tricks are the scandal, not Hunter Biden’s hard drive.
If there’s an important story here, it’s almost certainly about Giuliani’s dirty tricks, not any wrongdoing by Joe Biden. Reporting on disinformation is complicated, because it’s hard to write about it without amplifying it. Still, this episode distills just how far Trump has dragged the country down in four years.
In 2016, the public didn’t know that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was passing polling data to someone tied to the Russian intelligence directorate — such a revelation would have been devastating. Giuliani’s relationship with Derkach, by contrast, is out in the open.
Last week Giuliani told The Daily Beast he thinks there’s only a 50 percent chance that his Ukrainian collaborator is really a Russian spy, and that it wouldn’t matter to him if his Hunter Biden material was linked to Russian hacking. This barely made a ripple. “It’s collusion in broad daylight,” said Murphy.
Giuliani probably can’t sabotage Biden the way WikiLeaks sabotaged Clinton. The Clinton leak was damaging because many voters already believed there was something sinister about her hidden emails. Burisma never stuck to Biden in the same way, so there’s less payoff in forcing it back into the news.
But Giuliani’s tactics aren’t any less foul for being ineffective. It’s hardly surprising that the president’s bottom-feeding lawyer has shown himself open to working with Russian intelligence. It’s striking, though, that no one expects better.
🐣 RT @j_smithcameron Congrats to my friend @AndreaChalupa for #MrJones film being Critics Pick ¤ Check it out; it is riveting (and timely!)
⋙ NYT: ‘Mr. Jones’ Review: Bearing Witness to Stalin’s Evil http://nyti.ms/3jfiR6T
// 6/18/2020; In Agnieszka Holland’s historically informed drama, a Welsh journalist travels to 1933 Ukraine, then in the grip of famine.
StandUpRepublic, Molly McKew: Joe Biden Isn’t Doom-Scrolling America, And Probably You Shouldn’t Either http://bit.ly/2Hg1G8h
// It’s time to unhack our perceptions of our nation and limit the power of disinfo to shape reality
⋙ See under Entire Articles: McKew Doomscroll 10-19-2020
… Everything everyone warned about is here (except of course for deep fakes, which were really kind of over-inflated in importance as a predicted threat). Only it’s worse because one party is totally open to it. And part of the other side doesn’t hear it when they echo it back just as loud.
You should read most of these stories if you want to have a good sense of how awful it must be in any real newsroom right now. But this is what we see every day: an endless series of stories about the stories that seek to influence us and where they come from and what that means. Is it true, is it manipulation, is it conspiracy, is it madness? It’s an exhausting and multi-layered process that leaves us frayed, frail, frustrated, deep in our own doom-scrolling of American decline.
But maybe this is because we really have forgotten it doesn’t have to be like this. You’ve constantly heard me and others speak about how vital and essential leadership is to fixing the problem of the effectiveness of disinformation, in terms of establishing values, calling balls and strikes, setting us to the task of building instead of tearing down. Now, I have an example of this to show you.
Biden, in his half of the “dueling town halls” on Thursday night, repeatedly avoiding taking swipes at Trump supporters or Republicans, or saying that all is lost or that we are close to the abyss. We have to stop suspecting each other’s motives, he said, even when we don’t agree on policy. Over and over, he didn’t go for a zinger or a throat punch. He spoke of a better America.
This thing about not questioning the motivation of opponents gives everyone a way out of the Trump era death spiral — a simple way to end the endless “no, that’s a conspiracy” cycle that has polarized congressional discourse, poisoned media discourse, and amped us all up in hyper-partisan stances where we think everything needs to be the bloody Alamo even when that actually makes no sense.
Asked what it means if he loses, Biden offered that it may mean he isn’t a very good candidate, but he hopes it doesn’t mean we’ve given up on the idea of unity. Asked if he believed he could avoid seeking revenge against Trump, who the questioner believed was largely responsible for the very toxic political atmosphere in the country, Biden emphasized the need to find a way back to bipartisanship, and said “vindictiveness in a president” isn’t a good thing.
He repeatedly avoided blaming the challenges we are going to face on any one faction or side — he just accepted that they will be his burdens to carry, his problems to solve.
Joe Biden is serious about unity. I think maybe we are all underestimating how serious he is about unity. He’s already walking the unity walk, because he knows this is what he is selling to America, banking on the fact that our desire not to have to think about the government all the time and live in a permanent state of existential dread is very real. He’s not talking about the worst attacks on him because it would mean having to attack his attackers. He seems to know this is a dead end.
Biden has Trump’s number, and he has an encyclopedic memory of every disgraceful act Trump has committed and every humiliation of the office that must be overcome. But he also seems to understand the deep impact the corrosive effect that Trump’s presidency has had on all of us.
On our faith in the nation, and our ability to see truth, and our ability to find common ground, and our ability to be willing to disarm. I think perhaps we have forgotten what it’s like not to be targeted by a weapon of cognitive erosion 24/7, 365 days a year. But it felt like he was trying to show us.My dad called after the town halls to ask me something about socks. “I turned on the Biden thing for a minute,” he said. “It was like opening a portal into a saner time.” And it was. Biden was willing to admit past faults, and he explained how and why he had evolved on issues. He was respectful of questioners, whose views he didn’t agree with and explained why. He showed his views are informed by deep knowledge, and aware of disagreements with those positions. And no — he didn’t say we should check out a conspiracy about how his opponents are demons, in case we might agree.
Probably no one will be very happy about a president actually focused on unity — at least, not initially. But maybe, just maybe, Biden can turn down the temperature enough that we can all return to a lower activation energy and focus on the hard work that needs to be done instead of just living in the burn-and-churn adrenaline haze of the last 4 wacky years.
Can Joe Biden spontaneously will a calmer, unified America able to dedicate itself to solving the problems of actual people into existence? No, of course not. He can’t do it on his own. But in the same way that the Russians have hacked our perceptions of who we are and what we can accomplish — and Donald Trump has hacked our perceptions of who we are and deeply convinced Americans of a sense of doom and powerlessness that simply isn’t real — maybe Joe Biden can convince us to stop doom-scrolling the American demise that hasn’t happened and is not imminent and turn instead back to the hard, non-reality show work of building a functional country that will lead the way through these coming decades of transformative human transition before it’s too late and we find authoritarian nations have set the terms of a dystopian future. Maybe this would be the greatest perception hack of all.
MotherJones: Trump’s Wild Lies Down the Election Homestretch Are Not Crazy http://bit.ly/2T7imBa “Trump is using the autocrat’s playbook. Vladimir Putin’s, to be specific”
// The president isn’t nuts—he’s trying to make you nuts.
With Election Day nearing, the comparison has never been more apt. In 2016, the nonpartisan think tank RAND published a study (http://bit.ly/3jlyqtW) of the tactics and techniques used in Kremlin-controlled media. The end goal of what the researchers called “a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions” was to entertain, confuse, and overwhelm the public. (The entertainment component can serve as inspiration for loyal followers—for example, a string of broadcast traveling stage performances showcasing a greatest-hits of grievance and outrageousness.)
In a related book-length report (http://bit.ly/3o25MkS) published in 2018, RAND dug into a phenomenon of partisan politics that went back decades but was accelerating dangerously under Trump. As Clifton wrote, “This unprecedented behavior from a US president is akin to dumping gasoline on a long-smoldering trend RAND researchers call ‘Truth Decay’: a deepening disagreement over basic facts that is increasingly undercutting the fundamentals of our democracy, from elections to policymaking.” Whether it was Kellyanne Conway’s infamous coinage of the term “alternative facts” or the Trump team’s brewing storm of mendacity around the Mueller investigation, “misinformation coming from the highest levels of the US government fuels blind partisanship,” Clifton noted. “And it could potentially leave the public confused and mistrustful during crucial times, from national votes to a national security crisis.”
🔆 This❗️⋙ Politico: Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say http://politi.co/2HmmGK4 “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this”
// More than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter casting doubt on the provenance of a New York Post story on the former vice president’s son.
WaPo: Debate commission to mute Trump, Biden microphones during parts of Thursday debate http://wapo.st/31moUjQ
WaPo: Supreme Court denies GOP request to stop extended deadline for mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, a key state for Trump http://wapo.st/3dJagbC
🐣 RT @duty2warn If you haven’t seen #UNFIT yet, NOW is the time. Trump’s psychopathology IS the main story now. We should all understand it, and share – to the left and right. ¤ It’s also less than $1, thanks to iTunes, Prime Video, Microsoft, and Fandango (thru 10/22). ¤ http://unfitfilm.com
🐣 RT @snlyngaas Scoop –> Russian hackers suspected in campaign targeting U.S. state and local government networks
⋙ Cyberscoop, Sean Lyngaas: Industry alert pins state, local government hacking on suspected Russian group http://bit.ly/2IJfUPj “[T]he advisory from U.S. officials noted that there was no evidence that the ‘integrity of elections data has been compromised’”
WSJ, William McRaven: Biden Will Make America Lead Again http://on.wsj.com/3jg8Whn “We need a president with decency and a sense of respect.” ¤ Mr. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, 2011-14. ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1318383228890288131?s=20/photo/1
This week I went to the polls in Texas. Truth be told, I am a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense and a national-anthem-standing conservative. But, I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. Most important, I believe that America must lead in the world with courage, conviction and a sense of honor and humility.
If we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness. ¤ I voted for Joe Biden.
🐣 RT @dcexaminer As “a consequence of Russia’s actions,” Sweden will increase defense spending by 40% over the next four years, the largest increase for the country in 70 years. @TomRTweets says the shocking move shows Russia’s attempt to intimidate them backfired.
⋙ WashingtonExaminer: Russia reaps whirlwind with massive Swedish defense spending boost http://bit.ly/2Tb60YE
// As “a consequence of Russia’s actions,” Sweden will increase defense spending by 40% over the next four years.
NYT, John M Barry: What Fans of ‘Herd Immunity’ Don’t Tell You http://nyti.ms/3kdFHgl Mr. Barry is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”
// Great Barrington Declaration; A proposal to let people with low risk of infection live without constraint could lead to a million or more preventable deaths.
// Twitter alt-title: Opinion | Herd Immunity? Or ‘Mass Murder’?
So the idea of returning to something akin to normal — releasing everyone from a kind of jail — is attractive, even seductive. It becomes less seductive when one examines three enormously important omissions in the declaration.
First, it makes no mention of harm to infected people in low-risk groups, yet many people recover very slowly. More serious, a significant number, including those with no symptoms, suffer damage to their heart and lungs. One recent study of 100 recovered adults found that 78 of them showed signs of heart damage. We have no idea whether this damage will cut years from their lives or affect their quality of life.
Second, it says little about how to protect the vulnerable. One can keep a child from visiting a grandparent in another city easily enough, but what happens when the child and grandparent live in the same household? And how do you protect a 25-year-old diabetic, or cancer survivor, or obese person, or anyone else with a comorbidity who needs to go to work every day? Upon closer examination, the “focused protection” that the declaration urges devolves into a kind of three-card monte; one can’t pin it down.
Third, the declaration omits mention of how many people the policy would kill. It’s a lot.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, whose modeling of the pandemic the White House has used, predicts up to about 415,000 deaths by Feb. 1, even with current restrictions continuing. If these restrictions are simply eased — as opposed to eliminating them entirely, which would occur if herd immunity were pursued — deaths could rise to as many as 571,527. That’s just by Feb. 1. The model predicts daily deaths will still be increasing then.
WaPo: Trump attacks ‘Fauci and these idiots’ in call with campaign staff intended to boost morale http://wapo.st/3kebpu5 “Every day he goes on television, there’s always a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci is a disaster. … He’s been there for 500 years”
WaPo: U.S. charges Russian intelligence officers in several high-profile cyberattacks http://wapo.st/31ly5Bb
The United States on Monday unsealed criminal charges against six Russian intelligence officers in connection with some of the world’s most damaging cyber attacks, including disruption of Ukraine’s power grid and releasing a mock ransomware virus — NotPetya — that infected computers globally causing billions of dollars in damage.
The alleged hackers are members of the same military intelligence agency — the GRU — previously charged in connection with efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But the new indictment does not charge these members with U.S. election interference, and officials said the announcement was not timed to the current political schedule.
Rather, they stand accused of what Justice Department officials say is the single most disruptive and destructive series of cyberattacks ever attributed to one group. ¤ “No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in announcing the indictment.
One of those charged, 29-year-old Anatoliy Kovalev, was also indicted in 2018 by then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as part of an alleged conspiracy to hack American election systems during the 2016 presidential contest.
Demers brushed back the suggestion that Monday’s indictment might be any kind of message to Russia to not interfere in the current election, saying the announcement was “not particularly” timed to the political schedule. “When the investigation has matured and we’re ready according to the principles of federal prosecution then we bring the cases,” Demers said, declining to discuss in any detail the extent to which Russia is currently targeting the U.S. election. ¤ “Americans should be confident that a vote cast for their candidate will be counted for that candidate,” Demers said.
The charges lay out a breathtaking series of attacks and attempts attributed to the group, also known as Unit 74455 and which cybersecurity researchers have dubbed the Sandworm Team. That group, authorities say, also hacked computers supporting the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, hacked and leaked emails of individuals involved in French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in 2017, and targeted the international and British organizations investigating the poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal in 2018 in Britain.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said charges show that “time and again, Russia has made it clear they will not abide by accepted norms and instead they intend to continue their destructive and destabilizing cyber behavior.”
According to the indictment, the hackers unleashed wave after wave of computer attacks on Ukraine — a perennial focus of the Russian government. ¤ In late 2015 and 2016, the hackers allegedly launched computer attacks against Ukraine’s electric power grid. ¤ “These attacks turned out the lights and turned off the heat in the middle of the Eastern European winter, as the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men, women and children went dark and cold,” Demers said. …
The other defendants charged Monday are Yuriy Andrienko, 32; Sergey Detistov, 35; and Pavel Frolov, 28.
⭕ 18 Oct 2020
Salon, Chauncey DeVega: Historian Timothy Snyder warns that America is already in its own “slow-motion Reichstag Fire” http://bit.ly/31nOOE0 “Donald Trump’s authoritarian presence … is amongst the gravest threats America has ever faced from within” ~ Timothy Snyder
// Salon talks to Snyder about how Donald Trump uses pain and suffering as a weapon to remain in power
🐣 RT @NormOrnstein For those who do not have the opportunity to see the physical @washingtonpost page where systematically details all the scandals and norms Trump has broken, here it is. Breathtaking: https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1317992278300962816?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @AmySiskind Thanks Norm. Of note, this page represents roughly 1% of the broken norms – The Weekly List in full now has more than 34,500 items. https://theweeklylist.org
💙 ⋙⋙ WaPo, Amy Siskind: This is not normal http://wapo.st/31mKBjU
// 10/16/2020; from “The List”; A guide to what the next president will have to unwind
🐣 RT @GYamey BOOM ‼️💥 The Great Barrington Declaration is not science-based. The ONLY question left is who is funding/pushing for letting the virus rip? @aier of course! They play down climate change & schmooze with “tobacco firms, ExxonMobil & the Koch brothers”
🔆 This❗️⋙ TheGuardian, Trish Greenhalgh, Martin McKee and Michelle Kelly-Irving: The pursuit of herd immunity is a folly – so who’s funding this bad science? http://bit.ly/37ip9jK The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), a Koch-funded libertarian thinktank
// Links between an anti-lockdown declaration and a libertarian thinktank suggest a hidden agenda
You may not have heard of the “Great Barrington declaration” but you’ll likely have seen the headlines that followed it. Journalists have written excitedly about an emerging rift in the scientific community as the consensus around the most effective response to Covid supposedly disintegrates. The declaration, which called for an immediate resumption of “life as normal” for everyone but the “vulnerable”, fuelled these notions by casting doubt on the utility of lockdown restrictions. “We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity”, it stated.
Scientists were swift in their response. The declaration’s core assumption, that population immunity will be achieved by allowing life to go on as normal and shielding only the most vulnerable from the virus, is entirely speculative. The thrust of its argument is based on a false opposition between those who argue for lockdown and those who are against it, when in fact lockdowns are one of numerous measures that scientists have called for, and are seen as a short-term last resort to regain control. …
The truth is that a strategy of pursuing “herd immunity” is nothing more than a fringe view. There is no real scientific divide over this approach, because there is no science to justify its usage in the case of Covid-19. We know that when it comes to other coronaviruses, immunity is only temporary. The president of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences, in a detailed rebuttal, describes the declaration’s proposals as “unethical and simply not possible”.
Its three signatories were later received by Alex Azar, the US secretary of health and human services, and by Scott Atlas, recently appointed as Donald Trump’s health adviser, who tweeted on 8 October that “top scientists all over the world are lining up with the @realDonaldTrump #Covid_19 policy”. And on a call convened by the White House, two senior officials in Trump’s administration cited the declaration.
Was this ever really about science? When scientists disagree, we expect them to provide evidence for their position. Yet the declaration’s many contentious statements are unreferenced – and the manner of its launch seems designed to amplify publicity over substance. If anything, the tactics employed in this performance have serious implications for the public’s trust in scientists.
… [A]s the professor of political economy Richard Murphy put it, the declaration was “the economics of neoliberalism running riot … revealing in the process its utter indifference to the interests of anyone but those who can ‘add value’ within that system”.
As we approach one of the most important elections in the history of western democracy (itself described as a referendum on lockdown), we should be asking who funded this piece of political theatre, and for what purpose. The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), where the declaration was signed, is a libertarian thinktank that is, in its own words, committed to “pure freedom” and wishes to see the “role of government … sharply confined”.
The institute has a history of funding controversial research – such as a study extolling the benefits of sweatshops supplying multinationals for those employed in them – while its statements on climate change largely downplay the threats of the environmental crisis. It is a partner in the Atlas network of thinktanks, which acts as an umbrella for free-market and libertarian institutions, whose funders have included tobacco firms, ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers. Our questions to the AIER about its relationship to the three signatories went unanswered, but it has posted a number of articles about the declaration and herd immunity on its website.
These are not the names one would associate with sound public health policies. But the trio of scientists who fronted the declaration were able to put the weight of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions behind their statements – Stanford, Harvard and Oxford – giving the declaration a sheen of respectability. The views of these scientists about lockdown and the pursuit of herd immunity are no doubt sincerely held (though, notably, not published in any peer-reviewed scientific articles), but they are falling into a trap set by the right.
Rightwing free-market foundations and institutions have long attempted to savage the public reputation of well-intentioned policies such as those aimed at curbing ecological threats and limiting smoking. Some of the tactics these organisations have used in the past are those we see at play in the Great Barrington declaration: discredit the scientific consensus, spread confusion about what the right response is and sow the seeds of doubt. It seems that lockdown restrictions aimed at bringing the virus under control are merely the latest target in this rightwing stealth campaign.
⋙ Barrington Declaration https://gbdeclaration.org
● Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University, a biostatistician, and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety evaluations.
● Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases.
● Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations.
🐣 RT @60Minutes “I can disagree with Bernie Sanders on 57 issues… But you know what he’s not? He’s not un-American. Donald Trump is fundamentally un-American,” says the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, media consultant and ad maker for Republicans like Giuliani and Rubio. https://cbsn.ws/34SY5oq
🐣 RT @DrJRubenstein We’ve done tyranny before. ¤ Let’s not do it again. ¤ #Vote #VoteHealth #VoteBidenHarris https://twitter.com/DrJRubenstein/status/1318011380134457344?s=20/photo/1-2
// George III and Trump regal poses
🐣 RT @SamStein Bolton tells @jaketapper that if Trump loses he doesn’t expect him to go out gracefully and that it’s an open question how bad it gets. Says it will be incumbent on Republicans to step in. Makes clear it’s the problem his party will have to solve.
😅 RT @JReinerMD Newsmax preempted their schedule to broadcast the president’s rally but apparently didn’t think it important to change the title of the programming. https://twitter.com/JReinerMD/status/1317982424421310466?s=20/photo/1
// lol “The Rise of Hitler” …
🐣 📊 RT @EuropeElects If Europeans could vote in the US Presidential election
EU: Biden 83%—Trump 17% […] https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1317965230459228162?s=20
🧵 RT @donmoyn This is pretty damning. Bannon & Giuliani met with NY Post editors to drop their Hunter Biden story. Veteran reporters refused to allow their name to be attached to it because they did not think the story held up. 📌 https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1317947100701855746?s=20
⋙ NYT: New York Post Published Hunter Biden Report Amid Newsroom Doubts http://nyti.ms/3dCHbyk “Giuliani said he chose The Post because ‘either nobody else would take it, or if they took it, they would spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out.’”
// Some reporters withheld their bylines and questioned the credibility of an article that made the tabloid’s front page on Wednesday.
⭕ 17 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @ Tribelaw “Rather than bring us together, the president did the exact opposite. In April, he tweeted, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!””
⋙ WaPo, Elizabeth Neumann: The threats against Democratic governors prove Trump’s rhetoric encourages violence http://wapo.st/2Izhnrk Elizabeth Neumann served as assistant secretary of homeland security for counterterrorism and threat prevention from March 2018 to April 2020.
// 10/16/2020
🐣 RT @danielsgoldman This is so well reasoned and analyzed by @jonathanchait. The flurry of lies and ethical, moral and policy failures by Trump would never be acceptable for any other candidate or president, including Biden.
⋙ NYMag, Jonathan Chait: The News Media Isn’t Biased Against Trump. It’s Biased For Him. http://nym.ag/3lVKune
🧵 RT @ChrisMurphyCT Joe Biden – and all of us – SHOULD be furious that media outlets are spreading what is very likely Russian propaganda. ¤ 1/ I’ve seen the intel. The mainstreaming of misinformation is Russia’s 2020 goal. Here’s what we know, and why we can’t take it lying down. 📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1317449896333611009?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 2/ Russia knew it had to play a different game than 2016. So it built an operation to cull virulently pro-Trump Americans as pseudo-assets, so blind in their allegiance to Trump that they’ll willingly launder Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda. ¤ Guiliani was a key target.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 3/ Andriy Derkach was a top Russian agent. He was unmasked by the Treasury Dept this summer. Derkach and his team recruited Guiliani and have been feeding him info all year. The White House knew this.
⋙⋙ WaPo: White House was warned Giuliani was target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump http://wapo.st/3j3me0v
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 4/ Whether he knows it or not, Giuliani is effectively a Russian asset now. It’s almost certain that any anti-Biden info he has is fed to him by Derkach and Russian intel. ¤ This should be patently obvious to any reporter worth his or her salt.
⋙⋙ CNN: Vowing crackdown on Russian meddling, US sanctions Ukrainian lawmaker who worked with Giuliani to smear Biden http://cnn.it/37gT6Rh
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 5/ And you don’t have to believe me. Believe the Department or Justice – Trump’s own FBI is investigating the “leaked” Hunter Biden emails as Russian spycraft.
⋙⋙ CNN: US authorities investigating if recently published emails are tied to Russian disinformation effort targeting Biden http://cnn.it/3kci6ww
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 6/ Further, media don’t need a Pulitzer to see the whole story as super fishy. ¤ A pro-Trump computer repairman mysteriously comes across Hunter Biden’s laptop, copies the files, and guess who gets them? Russia’s top American asset – Rudy! Coincidence!!
⋙⋙ DelawareOnline: Meet the computer repairman at the center of New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story http://bit.ly/37oq16i
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 7/ Why is it important for media to not simply pick this story up and amplify it? Why should we be offended that the VP is being asked about it? ¤ Because this is Russia’s bet – that America, and its media, is so hungry for salacious stories that no one will vet their lies.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT 8/ And American media do have major credibility, for good reason. They do amazing work, and get most stories 100% right. ¤ Russia wants to use this credibility to their advantage. And that’s why we all have to be vigilant. Democracy depends on it.
🐣 RT @MonteBoa99 When the president advocates tossing aside the due process protections of the Constitution, you are looking at a man who thinks he’s King John before he was forced to sign the Magna Carta. ¤ It doesn’t get more Fascist than that, until you go full Mussolini.
⋙ 🐣 RT @renatto_marriotti We should never get used to the President of the United States calling for his political opponents to be imprisoned. ¤ Trump’s words matter. A group of terrorists took Trump’s words seriously enough to plot to kidnap the Governor. ¤ This is un-American. It’s authoritarian.
⋙⋙ 🧵RT @Acyn The President mentions the Governor of Michigan, the crowd chants lock her up, and the President says lock them all up 💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1317577844835319809?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @JoeBiden Donald Trump keeps telling us if he was president, you’d feel safe. ¤ Well, he is president — whether he knows it or not.
// 7/31/2020
TheGuardian: Facebook says it rejected 2.2m ads seeking to obstruct voting in US election http://bit.ly/3dDr1F6
// Nick Clegg, Facebook vice president, says social media giant also attached false information warnings to 150m posts
🐣 RT @duty2warn Those of you who watched him today in Michigan and Wisconsin, who heard him incite violence, saw him dance like a fool, and witnessed lie after lie interspersed with gaffes in a thunderstorm of unpunctuated half-sentences, probably think this is as bad as he can get. Think again.
🐣 RT @IlvesToomas I once had to listen for two hours to a not very smart president tell me why he had to lock up his opponent. Six months later Viktor Yanukovitch fled to Moscow and all of Ukraine got to see the garish trash he bought with his corruption.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Acyn Trump: Lock up the Bidens, lock up Hillary. Lock them up 💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1317248938001403904?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @AliVelshi Trump faces a long rap sheet after leaving office: potential charges include bribery, obstruction of justice, campaign finance violations, money laundering & conspiring to defraud the U.S. @JoyceWhiteVance joins me 9aET to discuss her new op-ed. #velshi
⋙ WaPo: Barbara McQuade and Joyce Vance: A rap sheet for a former president If Trump is prosecuted, obstruction of justice, bribery and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. could be among the charges. http://wapo.st/3lP4YxY
// 10/16/2020
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump begins his speech in Janesville, Wisconsin, by urging the governor to “open your state up,” even though coronavirus cases in the state have been spiking 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1317616804693463043?s=20
🧵 RT @JackieCalmes “So I guess they said she was threatened,” Trump says to his MI rally about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer–as if he doesn’t believe the FBI case against 13 men for plotting to abduct her. ¤ Crowd chants “Lock her up!” ¤ Yup–their gov was targeted & they want HER locked up. ¤ Law & order. 📌 https://twitter.com/jackiekcalmes/status/1317588265915064323?s=20
🧵 RT @atrupar The crowd for Trump’s rally in Muskegon, Michigan. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1317576907412721667?s=20
🐣 RT @MiaFarrow Ken Burns: “Since the Second World War, our nation’s democracy has never faced a greater threat than the current political leaders in Washington.”
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman Source: Investigators are worried that Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev’s potential election-related interference may go beyond the funding of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.
⭕ 16 Oct 2020
CNN (Oct): Cuomo signs law that allows NY to prosecute those pardoned by a President http://cnn.it/3maItmJ
// 10/16/2020
The bill, which was passed by the state legislature in May, closes New York’s “double jeopardy” legal loophole that protected individuals who are pardoned by a president for federal crimes from being prosecuted at the state level for the same offense. The change goes into effect immediately and applies to future and past offenses, provided a plea has not been entered and a person has not already been tried.
“This critical new law closes a gaping loophole that could have allowed any president to abuse the presidential pardon power by unfairly granting a pardon to a family member or close associate and possibly allow that individual to evade justice altogether,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “No one is above the law, and this commonsense measure will provide a reasonable and necessary check on presidential power today and for all presidents to come.”
The pardon bill allows for the prosecution at the state level of any individual who was employed by or served in the executive branch, served in a position subject to Senate confirmation, or worked for a presidential campaign or transition team, regardless of whether they had been pardoned or granted clemency by the president under which they served. It would similarly allow prosecution of presidential relatives regardless of pardon.
🐣 RT @NormOrnstein For those who do not have the opportunity to see the physical @washingtonpost page where systematically details all the scandals and norms Trump has broken, here it is. Breathtaking: https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1317992278300962816?s=20/photo/1
💙 ⋙ WaPo, Amy Siskind: This is not normal http://wapo.st/31mKBjU
// from “The List”; A guide to what the next president will have to unwind
🐣 RT @CNNOpinion “There is no chance that Trump doesn’t know what he is doing. While he likes to play the implausible ignorance card on issues like QAnon, it’s impossible that Trump doesn’t know that he’s helped Russia,” writes CNN national security analyst @sam_vinograd.
⋙ CNN, Samantha Vinograd: Trump and Giuliani may be useful to Putin, but they’re no idiots http://cnn.it/3dDcb1c
AP: Watchdog org: Trump ’16 campaign, PAC illegally coordinated http://bit.ly/3j9cDW5
New documents from a former Cambridge Analytica insider reveal what an election watchdog group claims was illegal coordination between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and a billionaire-funded pro-Trump super PAC.
The legal complaint touches on some of the same people involved in today’s hotly contested presidential race and provides a detailed account alleging that Trump’s last campaign worked around election rules to coordinate behind the scenes with the political action committee.
The now-defunct British data analytics firm violated election law by ignoring its own written firewall policy, blurring the lines between work created for Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Make America Number 1 super PAC, according to an updated complaint the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint also alleges that Cambridge Analytica — which improperly acquired and used 87 million Facebook users’ profiles to predict their behavior — had a shared project calendar for both entities, among other evidence.
“The idea that this spending was at all independent is farcical and these emails underscore that,” said Brendan Fischer, an attorney for the government oversight group, whose new filing supplements a complaint filed four years ago. “Cambridge Analytica not only misused people’s personal data, but it was a conduit for the wealthy family that owned it to unlawfully support the Trump campaign in 2016.”
The super PAC created a plethora of “crooked Hillary” memes that circulated widely on social media, and was financed largely by conservative billionaire Robert Mercer, who also founded, owned and managed Cambridge Analytica.
Under federal law, a super PAC may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including from corporations and unions, to support candidates for federal office — but it’s illegal for them to coordinate with political campaigns.
The complaint alleges that Cambridge Analytica used information it gained from working with Trump’s campaign to develop and target ads for the super PAC supporting his candidacy, “constituting unreported in-kind contributions to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. in the form of coordinated communications.”
🐣 RT @LincolnProject What happened to Rachel Vindman’s family could happen to anyone. ¤ In collaboration with @VoteVets 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1317103003157983233?s=20/photo/1
// Project Lincoln ad❣ Here Right Matters
↥ ↧
NYT (2019): Meet Alexander Vindman, the Colonel Who Testified on Trump’s Phone Call http://nyti.ms/37d5NMP
// 10/29/2019; He fled Ukraine at age 3 and became a soldier, scholar and official at the White House. That’s where, he told impeachment investigators, he witnessed alarming behavior by President Trump.
WaPo: U.S. judge: Do Trump’s tweets or White House lawyers speak for president on declassifying entire Russia probe? http://wapo.st/2GZG0NL
A federal judge rebuked the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office on Friday for dismissing without explanation President Trump’s “emphatic and unambiguous” tweets ordering the declassification of all documents in the government’s probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
“I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,” the president tweeted Oct. 6. “Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!”
Trump’s blanket statement came the day after he returned to the White House from three days of treatment for the novel coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The tweet has since created a headache for government lawyers in pending open-records lawsuits filed by news organizations seeking fuller disclosure of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report and investigative materials.
Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer maintained in a court filing Tuesday that the White House Counsel’s Office informed the Justice Department that notwithstanding the president’s statement, “there is no order requiring wholesale declassification or disclosure of documents at issue.”
At Friday’s hearing, however, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court in D.C. expressed bafflement at the claim that President Trump’s words were not to be believed.
“I think the American public has a right to rely on what the president says his intention is,” Walton said. ¤ “It seems to me when a president makes a clear, unambiguous statement of what his intention is, that I can’t rely on the White House Counsel’s Office saying, ‘Well, that was not his intent,’ ” the judge said in a hearing conducted by videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Walton directed the department by noon Tuesday to clarify with Trump or “an individual who has conferred directly with the president” whether Trump had intended to order the declassification and release of Mueller report materials without redaction. The judge cited the urgency of releasing as much information as possible in the remaining days before the election.
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “Thanks to some stunning new reporting in the Washington Post, we now know that Rudy Giuliani was identified by United States intelligence agencies as a target of an active Russian intelligence operation to harm the candidacy of Joe Biden” – @NicolleDWallace 💽 https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1317208494978760706?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote The PDFs of the Biden emails were created in Central Europe on 10/10/19, 6 mos after the laptop was dropped off in Delaware. Do you know who was in Central Europe on 10/10/19? Firtash. In Vienna. The place Parnas & Fruman were off to when they were nabbed & indicted. On 10/10/19.
DailyBeast: Bolton Warned His Staff To Stay Away From Russia-Aligned Rudy Giuliani http://bit.ly/2H73i3L by Erin Banco, Spencer Ackerman and Asawin Suebsaeng
// As early as the spring of 2019, the former New York mayor was seen as a conduit for Russia’s evolving efforts to manipulate the forthcoming election.
🚫 WaPo, David Ignatius: The truth behind the Hunter Biden non-scandal http://wapo.st/357myX3
🧵 RT @ReardonReports BREAKING: Today @Fox17 obtained new FBI docs in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan @GovWhitmer – the docs lay out tactical training, surveillance, and violent threats against lawmakers and police officers….. 💽 📌 https://twitter.com/ReardonReports/status/1317241836038217728?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @brhodes It’s very 2020 that Rudy Giuliani is acting as an asset for both Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign and nothing about that is surprising.
🐣 RT @JakeTapper Former WH COS John Kelly has told friends, about Trump: “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
⋙ CNN: Former White House chief of staff tells friends that Trump ‘is the most flawed person’ he’s ever met http://cnn.it/3lVtT2R
WSJ: More Than 1,000 Current and Former CDC Officers Condemn U.S. Covid-19 Response http://on.wsj.com/3dB250B Includes Jeffrey Koplan, who led the CDC under Presidents Clinton and Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under President Obama
// An open letter calls for the federal agency to play a more central role in addressing the pandemic
🐣 RT @FrankFigliuzzi Rudy knows. Trump knows. Barr knows. Now we know.
⋙ 🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “I think in their wildest dreams inside the Kremlin, they could not have imagined a scenario where the lawyer to the president of the United States is actually becoming a mouthpiece for the intelligence services” – @FrankFigliuzzi1 w/ @NicolleDWallace 💽 https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1317208955278495746?s=20/photo/1
NYT Editorial: End Our National Crisis http://nyti.ms/3dxzUzP
// President Trump’s re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II
⭕ 15 Oct 2020
NYT: Slamming Trump, G.O.P. Senator Warns of a ‘Republican Blood Bath’ http://nyti.ms/3dy5cGM “We are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami,”
// Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska issued a scathing takedown of President Trump during a telephone town hall with constituents, saying he cozied up to dictators and white supremacists.
In a dire, nine-minute indictment of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy and what Mr. Sasse called his “deficient” values, the senator said the president had mistreated women and alienated important allies around the globe, been a profligate spender, ignored human rights and treated the pandemic like a “P.R. crisis.” He predicted that a loss by Mr. Trump on Election Day, less than three weeks away, “looks likely,” and said that Republicans would face steep repercussions for having backed him so staunchly over four tumultuous years
“The debate is not going to be, ‘Ben Sasse, why were you so mean to Donald Trump?’” Mr. Sasse said, according to audio obtained by The Washington Examiner and authenticated by The New York Times. “It’s going to be, ‘What the heck were any of us thinking, that selling a TV-obsessed, narcissistic individual to the American people was a good idea?’”
“We are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami,” he added.
Mr. Sasse also hinted at more drastic consequences: a “Venezuela style” Supreme Court with dozens of justices installed by ascendant Democrats; an empowered China ruling the Pacific because of Mr. Trump’s “weak” policies; and American allies doubting whether they can “trust in U.S. strength and U.S. will.”
Mr. Sasse, a former university president with a doctorate in American history from Yale who styles himself as a principled conservative, has never made a secret of his distaste for Mr. Trump. During the 2016 campaign, he compared Mr. Trump to David Duke and refused to vote for him. In office, he called Mr. Trump’s signature trade war with China “nuts.”
He argued that Mr. Trump had “careened from curb to curb” as he sought to respond to a pandemic that has claimed more than 217,000 American lives this year.
“He refused to treat it seriously,” Mr. Sasse said. “For months, he treated it like a news-cycle-by-news-cycle P.R. crisis.” ¤ He added that he did not think Mr. Trump’s leadership through the crisis had been “reasonable or responsible, or right.”
The “deficiencies” added up from there. ¤ “The way he kisses dictators’ butts,” Mr. Sasse said, listing his reservations about Mr. Trump. “I mean, the way he ignores that the Uighurs are in literal concentration camps in Xinjiang right now. He hasn’t lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong Kongers.”
He continued: “The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership, the way he treats women, spends like a drunken sailor.” ¤ Mr. Trump “mocks evangelicals behind closed doors,” he added. “His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists.”
Each of these things, Mr. Sasse predicted, would have consequences, for Republicans and the nation. He sounded particularly alarmed about the potential damage Mr. Trump, who supported Democrats for decades as a businessman, could do to the conservative cause in the long term by driving the country “to the left.”
Young people, he said, could “become permanent Democrats because they’ve just been repulsed by the obsessive nature of our politics.” Women, who have abandoned the party in droves, could decide “they need to turn away from this party permanently in the future.”
“I’m now looking at the possibility of a Republican blood bath in the Senate, and that’s why I’ve never been on the Trump train,” he said. “It’s why I didn’t agree to be on his re-election committee, and it’s why I’m not campaigning for him.”
🐣 RT @theRickWilson Is Thomas Schoenberger the Mastermind Behind QAnon? [EXCLUSIVE] https://heavy.com/news/thomas-schoenberger-qanon/… via @heavysan
⋙ Heavy, Emily Bicks: Is Thomas Schoenberger the Mastermind Behind QAnon? [EXCLUSIVE] http://bit.ly/37dB6r8
// Schoenberger has provided source material to Will Sommer at DailyBeast to gain access to the MSM
ARG [Alternate Reality Game] developer and pioneer Jim Stewartson mentions Schoenberger as one of the original developers of the QAnon movement in an in-depth video interview with the Financial Times, which was published on October 15.
“By March of 2017, Schoenberger’s crew linked up with Robert David Steele (former CIA) and William Binney (former NSA), members of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), a group of disaffected former intelligence officers and government officials who worked together writing editorials and sharing information. These groups came together and recruited the network that became Qanon,” the investigator told Heavy.
Other former national security officials that have publicly promoted the QAnon operation and are linked to the VIPs network include Steve Pieczenik, Michael Scheuer, and Trump’s former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn, the latter of whom posted a video himself on Twitter taking the Oath of Q on July 4, 2020.
YouTubers recruited into the QAnon network included Jordan Sather, and Patriot Soapbox’s Tracy Beanz and Paul Furber, the latter of whom is a South African web developer and tech journalist who was identified in an NBC News report as one of three people who helped boost the Qanon conspiracy theory to a wider audience, spreading the cryptic posts and messages from 4chan by taking the conspiracy from the dark corners of the Internet to the living rooms of everyday Americans.
A quick Google search of Schoenberger’s name reveals that he’s a musical artist, pianist and composer who shares his music under the YouTube handle Sophia Musik. However, he’s also an Internet mastermind of disinformation who purposely posts bizarre claims about himself and his co-conspirators online, the investigator told Heavy.
Schoenberger “has an extensive criminal record” and “has a history of being accused of co-opting businesses and movements, including “game jacking” the Cicada puzzles and has been accused by several people of being involved in murders and robberies, has been convicted of felony stalking, the investigator told Heavy.
“He also appears to be a member of the IAM (I am) cult and convinces members he is a time traveler, an alchemist, and a reincarnation of St. Germain (a prominent figure in the cult).”
Schoenberger is believed to have manipulated his way into the news covering QAnon, according to Heavy’s source. In particular, The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer, who’s broken several QAnon-related news stories over the past few years. … ¤ “By acting as a source to a journalist like Will Sommer, who has done a great deal of coverage on QAnon, Schoenberger is potentially putting himself in a position to influence media coverage of Q,” the source said.
Shoenberger has a son named Wolfgang from his marriage to Iranian American musician Faranak “Fara” Shahroozi, the cousin of NJK Holding Corporation founder and chairman Nasser Kazeminy, according to Heavy’s source. Kazeminy is also the godfather to Schoenberger and Shahroozi’s son.
In 2005, Schoenberger and Kazeminy formed Amadeus Investors LLC, which over time would pay Schoenberger in excess of $100,000,” Heavy’s source said.
In 2017, The Washington Post reported “that Flynn received about $28,000 from the Trump Presidential Transition. The largest source of income disclosed is $140,000 for Flynn’s work as an adviser and consultant to Minneapolis-based NJK Holding Corp. That firm is led by Nasser Kazeminy, an Iranian-born businessman now living in the United States.”
“In a 2015 deposition, Schoenberger claims that he worked on a covert operation planned for Afganistan with Bijan Kian in 2011. Kian was a partner with Flynn in the Flynn Intel Group and he was indicted in the Mueller investigation,” Heavy’s source clarified.
“Flynn is so influential in the Q community, that in order to show their dedication to QAnon, many followers online frequently display three stars in their Twitter bio, which references Flynn being a three-star general” …
QAnon’s origins can be traced to Cicada 3301, a complicated puzzle game that first appeared online in 2012 to test the world’s most “highly intelligent individuals.” In 2016, Schoenberger “stole” Cicada, Heavy’s source said, and he started manipulating the puzzle while working with Chavez, dropping “breadcrumbs” – vague top secret information hidden in clues.
In October 2017 QAnon posts premiered on 4chan, a site Schoenberger was prominent on before moving to 8chan in December, a site run out of the Philipines by pornography mogul and pig farmer, Jim Watkins, Heavy’s source said.
“We believe this group, using Steven Biss, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes’ lawyer … as a go-between so their communications would be confidential, set up QAnon as a means of creating their own channel to bypass the media and to turn American citizens into controlled extremists.” …
↥ ↧
🔲 YouTube: Is QAnon a game gone wrong? https://youtu.be/-4vb6UWhf3o via FT.com
🧵 RT @dantoujours So just so I follow this story: ¤ Hunter Biden, who lives in Los Angeles, decides to fly 3000 miles across country, to drop off 3 MacBook Pros at a repair shop run by a blind guy who charges the insanely low price of $85. ¤ He gets off the plane and drunk drives to the repair shop (because there aren’t repair shops in LA). 📌 https://twitter.com/dantoujours/status/1316844679783223297?s=20
He drops them off, signs a contract for repair and then disappears. The repair shop owner recovers and reads Hunter’s *private* emails, a few of which mention a possible meeting with his dad and is so alarmed, he contacts the FBI. ¤ The FBI arranges to pick up the hard drives, but the computer repair shop owner takes a totally normal step of copying them. Once he realizes the FBI isn’t doing anything with them, he calls up the most credible ex-Mayor on Earth and hands them the contents of these drives.
That totally credible ex-Mayor sits on them for months, then chooses to release them 3 weeks before the election. The mainstream media asks to independently verify their validity but said ex-Mayor does what all people trying to prove facts do and ignores these requests. ¤ Is this how stupid we are now?
No one who does data recovery would read through thousands of personal emails, even if the computer is abandoned. You’d just wipe the drives clean and sell the computers used. ¤ If these emails were as alarming as it’s being pushed, Giuliani wouldn’t have sat on them for months. ¤ And if Giuliani wanted to prove their validity, he’d turn them over to forensic experts.
HuffPo: GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Trashes Trump In Call With Voters: He ‘Kisses Dictators’ Butts’ http://bit.ly/37enyeK
// The Nebraskan said Trump secretly mocks evangelicals, mistreats women, “sells out our allies” and has “flirted with white supremacists.”
🐣 RT @brhodes 20 days before an election and the GOP message is that social media is unfairly censoring Russian disinformation and Savanah Guthrie asked tough questions. Amidst a pandemic and recession.
VanityFair, Caroline Giuliani: Rudy Giuliani Is My Father. Please, Everyone, Vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. http://bit.ly/31bUOzI
// I may not be able to change my father’s mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office.
━━━━━━━▼ Biden Trump Dueling Townhalls
✅ WaPo: Fact-checking the dueling town halls of Trump and Biden http://wapo.st/3k3GJf2 “Trump spun a web of falsehoods like a whirling dervish, while Biden talked in depth and at length on a range of policy issues, leaving us with a handful of claims to check”
🧵 RT @MollyMcKew Watching both townhalls 📌 https://twitter.com/MollyMcKew/status/1316898079006724097?s=20
POTUS:
-refused to denounce QAnon
-says his RT of bin Laden conspiracy is Thumbs up
-refuses to say he won’t claim elex rigged, spreads disinfo
-references Russian campaign agst Biden as important
-claims Obama spied on him despite failure to find any evidence
🐣 RT @adamslily TRUMP just wrapped his town hall and the new news we got was:
1) He most definitely did NOT follow the testing requirements for the 1st debate
2) He definitely DOES owe $421 million & paid $750 in fed income tax
3) He will NOT disparage the domestic terror threat, QAnon
🐣 RT @jmeacham You couldn’t script a starker or more illuminating contrast between Biden and the incumbent than this evening. Gravitas is on the ballot.
🐣 RT @glennkesslerWP has there ever been two more different presidential candidates than Trump and Biden?
🐣 RT @justinwolfers The election is now officially Mr Rogers v. Your Crazy Uncle.
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom Switching back to ABC now that the Trump thing is over, and I see Joe Biden being grilled about fracking, because the choice is between a Democratic candidate who might not ban fracking and a completely unhinged sociopathic loon
🔶
🧵 RT @atrupar [Trump Townhall]
GUTHRIE: When was your last negative coronavirus test?
TRUMP: “Well, I test quite a bit.”
GUTHRIE: Did you test the day of the debate?
TRUMP: “I don’t know. I don’t even remember.”
G: Did you take a test the day of the debate?
T: “I probably did.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1316893262737756163?s=20
🐣 RT @jengranholm I just love that @JoeBiden is talking about EV batteries, carbon negative strategies, transmission challenges, BTUs, weatherizing buildings, capturing methane and all manner of clean energy job opportunities … does @realDonaldTrump even know what any of that is?
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Trump town hall highlights (a brief list):
Does not denounce QAnon
Admits he “probably” owes money to foreign banks
Spreads lies about masks
Refuses to say when he last tested negative before getting COVID
🐣 RT @CNNPolitics In a heated exchange, President Trump once again refused to denounce the QAnon conspiracy theory https://cnn.it/3nVymnZ
🐣 RT @cheeseninja The only reason herd immunity is still in the news is because it’s a euphemism for failure and surrender, which is Trump’s actual Covid policy.
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC History does not suggest that showing anger helps a Presidential candidate in a debate.
“Dueling Townhalls” ⇈ ⇊ (I’m watching Biden)
🧵 RT @sahilkapur Trump and Biden town halls begin 📌 https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1316892639598399490?s=20
🐣 RT @kittyboone ABC analysts discussing @JoeBiden debate, and @RahmEmanuel says it best: his character is what wins the day. Truthful, willing to admit any errors. (Oh and btw: he is still spending time with voters in Constitution Hall.) CLASS ACT.
🐣 RT @mitchellreports Asked by @GStephanopoulos on ABC what it will mean about where America is if he if he loses, @JoeBiden says “it could say that I’m a lousy candidate …I hope it doesn’t say we are as racially ethnically & religiously at odds with one another as the President wants us to be”
🐣 RT @ Biden:”I guarantee you if I’m elected president, you will not hear me race-baiting, you will not hear me dividing, you’ll hear me try to unify…bring people together.”
🐣 RT @jeneps Biden’s been saying for weeks. that he didn’t want to make news on expanding SCOTUS but he just did. If Barrett is confirmed pre-election, “I’m open considering what happens from that point on,” he says of adding to the court.
🐣 RT @AshaRangappa If Biden wins both media and citizens are going to have to readjust attention spans to be able to listen to thoughtful, detailed ideas supported by facts — it requires engaging the rational and logical part of your brain rather than the one you use when you’re attacked by a bear
━━━━━━━▲
NBCNews: Feds examining whether alleged Hunter Biden emails are linked to a foreign intel operation http://nbcnews.to/37cfnzO
// One email, which has not been confirmed to be authentic, suggested a meeting between Joe Biden and a rep from a Ukraine firm that once paid his son Hunter.
WaPo: White House was warned Giuliani was target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump http://wapo.st/3j3me0v
The warnings to the White House, which have not previously been reported, led national security adviser Robert O’Brien to caution Trump in a private conversation that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia, one of the former officials said.
The message was, “Do what you want to do, but your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine,” this person said. Officials wanted “to protect the president from coming out and saying something stupid,” particularly since he was facing impeachment over his own efforts to strong-arm Ukraine’s president into investigating the Bidens.
But O’Brien emerged from the meeting uncertain whether he had gotten through to the president. Trump had “shrugged his shoulders” at O’Brien’s warning, the former official said, and dismissed concern about his lawyer’s activities by saying, “That’s Rudy.” …
Officials’ warnings about Giuliani underscore the concern in the U.S. intelligence community that Russia not only is seeking to reprise the disinformation campaign it waged in 2016, but also may now be aided, unwittingly or otherwise, by individuals close to the president. Those warnings have gained fresh urgency in recent days. The information that Giuliani sought in Ukraine is similar to what is contained in emails and other correspondence published this week by the New York Post, which the paper said came from the laptop of Hunter Biden and were provided by Giuliani and Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former top political adviser at the White House.
The former officials said Giuliani was not a target of U.S. surveillance while in Ukraine but was dealing with suspected Russian assets who were, leading to the capture of some of his communications.
Giuliani was interested in acquiring information from his foreign contacts about Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden held a board seat, as well as Biden’s activities in Ukraine, China and Romania, two former officials said. Giuliani’s eagerness was so pronounced “that everybody [in the intelligence community who knew about it] was talking about how hard it was going to be to try to get him to stop, to take seriously the idea that he was being used as a conduit for misinformation,” one former official said.
Earlier in 2019, U.S. intelligence also had warned in written materials sent to the White House that Giuliani, in his drive for information about the Bidens, was communicating with Russian assets.
Several senior administration officials “all had a common understanding” that Giuliani was being targeted by the Russians, said the former official who recounted O’Brien’s intervention. That group included Attorney General William P. Barr, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and White Counsel Pat Cipollone.
In a text message on Thursday, Giuliani said that he was never informed that Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian lawmaker in Ukraine whom he met on Dec. 5 in Kyiv, was a Russian intelligence asset. Giuliani said he “only had secondary information and I was not considering him a witness.” But Giuliani met again with Derkach in New York two months later, hosting him on his podcast, and he has promoted Derkach’s unsubstantiated claims about the Bidens, describing Derkach as “very helpful.”
In September, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach for allegedly running an “influence campaign” against Joe Biden, calling the Ukrainian “an active Russian agent for over a decade” who has maintained “close connections with Russian intelligence services.”
In August, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence publicly described Derkach as part of a Russian effort to interfere with the 2020 election by smearing Biden. The office of the DNI accused Derkach of “spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine” Biden and the Democrats.
For some officials, Trump’s willingness to meet with Giuliani despite warnings about Russian influence smacked of the collusion allegations that dogged the president after the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said he did not find evidence to substantiate a criminal charge of conspiracy against anyone in the Trump campaign. But his investigation documented numerous instances in which Trump associates knowingly sought damaging information from Russian individuals and their proxies about Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.
Giuliani was not shy about his pursuit of information that might damage Biden, taking a documentary film crew from the right-wing One America News to Ukraine in December when he met with Derkach. At the time, Giuliani claimed that Trump had directed him to share his findings with the Justice Department and Senate Republicans.
Officials’ fears about what Giuliani might tell the president were compounded by Trump’s generally furious reaction to negative intelligence about Russia and its efforts to influence U.S. politics.
“Whenever you talk to the president, no matter what your facts are, if you mention Russia, that’s it — you’ve hit the third rail,” one of the former officials said. Trump has called Russia’s documented campaign of election interference a “hoax” that was drummed up to challenge the legitimacy of his election and undermine his administration.
Trump has relied for years on Giuliani’s counsel. But in recent months, as the president has found himself behind in the polls, the former New York mayor has become an even closer confidant, aides and officials said. Giuliani has visited the White House for debate preparations, given the president tips on his response to the coronavirus pandemic, promoted the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19 and discussed what political events and rallies he thinks the president should hold.
Giuliani also was a major source of information during the impeachment, when Trump tried to rebut allegations of abuse of power by airing false allegations that Biden, while serving as vice president, had pressed for the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to spare his son from being investigated.
During his impeachment trial in the Senate, Trump denied sending Giuliani to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, who was then a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. But after his acquittal, Trump reversed himself, acknowledging in a podcast interview with Geraldo Rivera that he had directed Giuliani to go to Ukraine.
“So when you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, number one, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor,” Trump said. “But also, other presidents had them. FDR had a lawyer who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers.”
Months earlier, Trump also had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he should meet with Giuliani.
“Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you,” Trump told Zelensky in a phone call on July 25, 2019, according to a partial transcript released by the White House. “I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”¤ That phone call was the centerpiece of the impeachment case against the president.
⭕ 14 Oct 2020
SanDiegoUnionTrib, Phillip Halpern: Commentary: I won’t work in Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department any longer http://bit.ly/3k5ilcN Halpern was an assistant US attorney for 36 years in the US Attorney’s Office in San Diego.
Maybe I should’ve seen this coming, but like many of my colleagues, I fervently hoped that Attorney General William Barr’s preemptive misrepresentation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was an honest mistake or a solitary misstep — rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal potential presidential misconduct. After all, Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.
Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.
There is no other honest explanation for Barr’s parroting of the president’s wild and unsupported conspiracy theories regarding mail-in ballots (which have been contradicted by the president’s handpicked FBI director) and his support for the president’s sacking of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office used the thinnest of veils to postpone charging the president in a criminal investigation along with Michael Cohen (who pled guilty and directly implicated the president). It took federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein to stop Barr’s unprecedented “retaliatory” demands to silence the president’s former lawyer as a condition for staying out of jail.
Similarly, it took federal Judge Reggie Walton (who sharply criticized Barr for a “lack of candor”) to at least temporarily stop Barr from dismissing all charges against Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, who admitted lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. Rather than representing the interests of the American public, Barr chooses to act as Trump’s lap dog.
More recently, Barr directed federal officers to use tear gas in Lafayette Park to quell what were, at that time, peaceful protesters. Barr’s assertion the square was not cleared due to the president’s desire for a Bible-carrying photo op is laughable. It is certainly a case that Barr would lose before a jury (again, though, this may not be clear to him due to his unfamiliarity with jury trials).
Barr also turned his back on the rule of law by supporting the president’s selective use of federal troops to assault citizens protesting the killing of George Floyd in Portland, Oregon. Yet he stood silently by when armed right-wing protesters stormed the Michigan state Capitol building to protest the Democratic governor’s public health orders.
Barr’s longest-running politicization of the Justice Department is the Durham investigation — a quixotic pursuit designed to attack the president’s political rivals. Confirming his scorn for honest apolitical prosecutors, Barr refers to some as “headhunters” who pursue “ill-conceived charges against prominent political figures.” It does not appear to be a coincidence that all of these prominent political figures happen to be friends of the president. However, if I’m a headhunter because I charged and convicted disgraced local House members Duncan D. Hunter and Randy “Duke” Cunningham, so be it. It’s a badge that I will wear with honor.
I remained in government service this past year at least partly because I was concerned that the department would interfere with the Hunter prosecution in my absence. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues without such a rationale appear to have started abandoning Barr’s ship. Equally troubling, highly qualified lawyers appear to be unwilling to apply to be federal prosecutors while Barr remains at the helm. Yet, as I leave government service, I take great comfort in the fact that the career people who remain in the Department of Justice are firmly committed to the rule of law, and are some of the most dedicated, ethical and industrious individuals we have in government. At times like these, I take heart in knowing that they are all committed to preserving and rebuilding the Department of Justice that I was privileged to serve.
🐣 RT @MaryLTrump The republicans stole a Supreme Court seat from President Obama in order to install Gorsuch. They are again corrupting the process in order to install Barrett. Expanding the court to right those wrongs wouldn’t be court-packing, it would be justice.
🧵 RT @McFaul In the age of twitter and Tiktok, I understand why no one reads 1000 page reports anymore. Even I didn’t read the entire things, but in light of news today, remember: “Why the Senate’s Russia report should be one of America’s biggest stories THREAD 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1316458520670167040?s=20
⋙ NBCNews, Michael McFaul (8/22): Senate Russia report proves Trump collusion was very real. But do voters care? http://nbcnews.to/3186JhA
// Trump and Biden’s contrasting positions on Russian interference in American elections are clear. Whether voters care about these differences, however, is not as obvious.
🐣 RT @ForeignAffairs Many Chinese elites think that Trump’s presidency has pushed the United States’ gradual decay into a new phase of sharp deterioration, writes @JulianGewirtz. Changing that perception is key to deterring China’s most problematic behavior.
⋙ ForeignAffairs: China Thinks America Is Losing http://fam.ag/3lLgTwI
// Washington must show Beijing that the United States is not inexorably declining.
🐣 RT @spdustin This Hunter Biden laptop story is fucked. ¤ Docs show the laptop was dropped on Apr 12, 2019. They also show an external drive and its serial number. ¤ Western Digital’s web site says that drive’s **3-year** warranty expires Apr 18, 2022…meaning it was manufactured Apr *18*, 2019. https://twitter.com/spdustin/status/1316621229751762945?s=20/photo/1-3
🚫🐣 RT @BillKristol “Metadata on the PDF files suggest they were created on a Mac laptop on Sep. 29 and Oct. 10…The timing of the creation of those PDF files—several months after Biden allegedly dropped off his laptop at the PC repair store in April 2019—raises questions.”
⋙ DailyBeast: Trump Knew for Days That Rudy’s Hit on Hunter Biden Was Coming http://bit.ly/3176FyR by Asawin Suebsaeng, Erin Banco and Adam Rawnsley
// not tweeting; The president cheered as his personal lawyer prepared a “sex and drugs” sliming of the Democratic nominee’s son.
For example, metadata on the PDF files purporting to show Hunter Biden’s emails published by the Post suggest they were created on a Mac laptop on September 29 and October 10, 2019—around the same time Giuliani’s Ukrainian associates who helped him dig up dirt on the Bidens, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, were arrested and charged with breaking campaign finance laws. The timing of the creation of those PDF files—several months after Biden allegedly dropped off his laptop at the PC repair store in April 2019—raises questions about how and when Giuliani came into possession of the purported emails.
The Daily Beast tracked down John Paul Mac Isaac, a worker at a computer repair shop in Wilmington. … Mac Isaac was nervous and quiet throughout a one-hour interview, and his account kept shifting. He wavered back and forth between saying he had gone to the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the materials and the FBI had approached him. … The former Vice President’s office not only cast doubt on the main thrust of the article—that Biden, contrary to earlier claims, met with an official at a Ukraine energy company at his son’s behest—but also framed the entire charge as a product of “Russian disinformation.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and his staff told other lawmakers on Wednesday that they had received materials related to the contents of the Post story on September 25, the day after the publishing of his team’s Hunter Biden report.
Johnson and others hyped the investigation as crucial, claiming it would provide vital information to the American electorate before November 3. In the end the report did not move the needle.
🐣 RT @jallepap The subtext here is that Rudy & his circle should be extremely aware that their contacts in the GRU are compromised. The IC knows about their collusion in real time. Receipts are in hand. Countermeasures are ongoing. Americans are not going to be played again like in 2016.
⋙ 🧵 RT @nicoleperlroth NEW: Three weeks ago, intelligence analysts started contacting several people with knowledge of the GRU hack of Burisma, after picking up intelligence “chatter” that stolen Burisma emails would be leaked in a forthcoming “October surprise.”
📌 https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/1316585131818115073?s=20/photo/1-2
⋙⋙ NYT: Allegation on Biden Prompts Pushback From Social Media Companies http://nyti.ms/317M1yE
// Joe Biden’s campaign rejected assertions made in a published report that were based on unverified material from Trump allies. Facebook and Twitter found the story dubious enough to limit access to it on their platform.
The Biden campaign on Wednesday rejected a New York Post report about Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter that the nation’s leading social media companies deemed so dubious that they limited access to the article on their platforms.
The report, appearing just three weeks before the election, was based on material provided by Republican allies of President Trump who have tried for months to tarnish Mr. Biden over his son. It claimed that the elder Mr. Biden had met with an adviser to a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden served.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign, Andrew Bates, said that Mr. Biden’s official schedules showed no meeting between Mr. Biden and the adviser, Vadym Pozharskyi.
“We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,” Mr. Bates said.
Twitter said it was blocking the article because it included people’s personal phone numbers and email addresses, which violated their privacy rules, and because the article violated their policy on hacked materials.
… [T]he Trump campaign said the personal account of the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, had been locked because she had posted the New York Post story
An investigation by Senate Republicans — and significant scrutiny of the issue over the last year — found no evidence that Mr. Biden, the former vice president, engaged in wrongdoing over his son’s business dealings. … And Mr. Trump was impeached in connection with encouraging Ukraine’s leader to investigate Mr. Biden.
The Post report described a circuitous and unusual path by which the newspaper had obtained the email correspondence that involved two of Mr. Trump’s staunchest allies: Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer and a former New York City mayor, and Stephen K. Bannon, a former White House adviser.
The article said the emails were part of a trove of material on a laptop computer that was dropped off for repairs at a shop in Delaware, Mr. Biden’s home state, and never retrieved. It said the store owner had made a copy of the correspondence and provided it to the lawyer for Mr. Giuliani.
🐣 RT @LizSzabo So interesting: One-third of the genome of the novel coronavirus is dedicated to evading our “innate” immune system, which kicks in before we have time to make antibodies. ¤ Lecture 6: “Target cells and the innate response” https://youtu.be/2mL_cOckhzg via @YouTube
Last month, United States intelligence analysts contacted several people with knowledge of the Burisma hack for further information after they had picked up chatter that stolen Burisma emails would be leaked in the form of an “October surprise.”
Among their chief concerns, according to people familiar with the discussions, was that the Burisma material would be leaked alongside forged materials in an attempt to hurt Mr. Biden’s candidacy — as Russian hackers did when they dumped real emails alongside forgeries ahead of the 2017 French elections …
TheGuardian: Unmasking’ inquiry ordered by Barr finds no wrongdoing by Obama officials – report http://bit.ly/3lNcCJb
// Findings seen as defeat for Trump and Barr, who appeared to be fishing for damaging information that could be used against Biden
🐣 RT @FrancisBrennan Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company…
⋙ 🐣 Account reported: this is an end run around @Twitter and @TwitterSupport‘s decision to BLOCK this story which the @FBI and @cyber have identified as RUSSIAN disinformation attempting to interfere with our election
🚫 DailyBeast: Donald, Rudy and Rupert’s Dubious ‘October Surprise’ Reeks of Desperation http://bit.ly/3dqmXYu
// again, not to amplify, I did not tweet; The same sort of conspiracy peddling that paid off politically in 2016 isn’t doing a thing against Joe now.
… Every major paper, every fact-checker, every everything outside of Trumpland agrees on two points: one, that Biden put pressure on the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin because Shokin was seen as corrupt by every international organization (the IMF, for example), which wanted him out, and Obama deployed Biden to convey that message; two, that as far as is known, Shokin wasn’t even investigating Burisma at the time in question (2015). You can read this, or dozens of other sources.
So the whole idea that Biden did something corrupt with respect to Shokin is a desperate ploy from Trumpworld to be able to argue that Biden is the real bad actor. Why are they doing this? Let’s just take a second to remember what Trump said to Volodymyr Zelensky in that perfect phone call: “The other thing. There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
That, of course, is illegal. He got impeached over it, and if we had an honest Senate, he’d have been removed from office.
But here we have Giuliani and Bannon trying, after every other effort has failed, to get the Burisma story back into the news cycle. And it’s possible they’re sitting on more info proving or appearing to prove that Biden did in fact discuss Hunter’s business dealings with him.
Hunter Biden seems like a mess of a human being with really terrible judgment, and Joe should have said to him: dude, no, stay out of Ukraine. But the idea that this amounts to corruption is a stretch. Biden’s been in public life for 50 years. No one has ever accused him of cupidity or venality. If he did discuss his son’s business dealings, it was probably to tell him to be careful.
Meanwhile, there’s Donald Trump, whom no one has ever accused of decency or generosity. He used his own charitable foundation to pay fines in Palm Beach and buy portraits of himself. And that ranks about 50th of the list of things Trump has done that are greedy, unethical, or possibly illegal. Every day, he’s making money from the Saudis or someone staying in his Washington hotel. Every day, he’s out there trying to steal the election. Every day, he corrupts the institutions he’s been put in charge of a little bit more. And, every day, dozens or hundreds of Americans are dying needless deaths because he panicked and didn’t know what to do. He lied, and his lies are killing people.
And we’re going to get excited over one meeting Biden may have had that even if it happened proves nothing? No. The story here, if there is one, is how Giuliani and Bannon got this.
Being “equally tough on Hillary” got us the most corrupt and anti-democratic president in our country’s history. We can’t be stupid enough to play that equivalency game a second time.
🚫⬇️ 🐣 RT @BradMossEsq JFC the NY Post’s story is coming apart at the seams. This repair shop guy sounds like a lunatic. The whole saga is nuts.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NoahSchachtman Here’s the audio of the extremely odd interview with the guy who claims he gave Hunter Biden’s laptop to Rudy Giuliani.
⋙⋙ DailyBeast: Man Who Reportedly Gave Hunter’s Laptop to Rudy Speaks Out in Bizarre Interview http://bit.ly/2H2vbKr
// 🚫=not to amplify; John Paul Isaac gave conflicting stories to reporters on Wednesday. He also said he feared for his life, citing the Seth Rich conspiracy.
🐣 RT @ThePlumLineGS This is a huge tell. A GOP strategist tells Bloomberg that Senate Republicans don’t want a big stimulus bill now because they want to pivot hard to austerity under a Biden presidency, which could cripple it. No wonder McConnell is laughing. New piece:
⋙ WaPo: How Republicans will try to destroy a Biden presidency http://wapo.st/318u0jI
🐣 RT @MikeSachsEsq Even if the Dem Senators are right in their prediction that Barrett would furnish the 5th vote to strike down the ACA in its entirety…if Dems win WH and Senate, they could just moot the case pre-decision with a law instituting a de minimis tax penalty for the individual mandate
🐣 RT @danielsgoldman Before more journos go peddling this @nypost story, they should do some diligence on the cover story for how Giuliani got the “hard drive.” Giuliani has been conspiring with Russian agents for months, including someone the US says is actively trying to interfere in this election
MotherJones: Giuliani and the New York Post Are Pushing Russian Disinformation. It’s a Big Test for the Media. http://bit.ly/3dzsNHe (actually, this is old news, but “all things old are new again,” right?)
// With its new Biden story, Murdoch’s tabloid is a useful idiot for Vladimir Putin
WaPo: Videos show closed-door sessions of leading conservative activists: ‘Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor’ http://wapo.st/34WEwf0
⭕ 13 Oct 2020
💙 CMD*: Senator Whitehouse Calls Out Dark-Money Networks Behind Amy Coney Barrett’s SCOTUS Nomination http://bit.ly/313R0jS *The Center for Media and Democracy: How GOP dark money funders are the one who have “stacked the Court”; (all docs here)
// They used gutting the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to legally suppress the vote and allow gerry-mandering and now are poised to overturn: 1) The ACA, 2) DACA, 3) Gay Rights, 4) Roe v Wade, 5) Labor Rights
// Leonard Leo (Federalist Society), Carrie Severino (Legal Crisis Network and, now, FedSoc),
Donors Trust (identity laundering)
↥ ↧
💙 💽 WaPo Documentary: Pathways to power http://wapo.st/3nMoo8v
// 5/21/2020; The conservative movement transforming America’s courts
↥ ↧
💙 WaPo: Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo is helping Trump make courts more conservative http://wapo.st/3nN2dyN
// 5/21/2020; Leonard Leo helped conservative nonprofits raise $250 million from mostly undisclosed donors in recent years to promote conservative judges and causes
🐣 RT @SenWhitehouse It’s the same funders selecting judges, funding campaigns for the judges and then showing up in courts in these orchestrated amicus flotillas and telling those judges what to do. It’s all one big #DarkMoney scheme.
🐣 RT @annagalland Here’s what Trump did to my suburban neighborhood:
– shattered our schools
– torched beloved local businesses
– inflamed racist hate
– scammed working families to reward his own fam & cronies
– terrorized our immigrant families
Nope, don’t like you even a smidgen.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kaitlancollins “Suburban women, will you please like me?” President Trump says at his Pennsylvania rally. “I saved your damn neighborhood.
🐣 RT @howardfineman Hearing: #AmyConeyBarrett won’t say if Trump can delay the election. He can’t. – Vox This was a revealingly corrupt, cravenly political non-answer. No doubt she knew it when she said it, which shows that, even after being nominated, she plays to #Trump.
⋙ Vox, Aaron Rupar: Amy Coney Barrett refused to say if Trump can delay the election. The correct answer is he can’t. http://bit.ly/3nHf2L4
// The question has an easy, straightforward answer. Barrett didn’t provide it.
🐣 RT @amyklobuchar Today Judge Coney Barrett would not say whether voter intimidation is illegal. ¤ Just to be clear: voter intimidation IS illegal. It’s explicitly outlawed (in 18 USC 594 to be exact).
🐣 RT @NatashaBertrand “…the White House Counsel’s Office effectively told DOJ to disregard Trump’s tweets on the matter. They weren’t accompanied by an actual declassification order, and DOJ will proceed as though the tweets hadn’t occurred.” @kyledcheney
⋙ Politico: DOJ: Trump’s ‘total declassification’ of Russiagate docs has no effect http://politi.co/2H6pyLi
// DOJ attorneys told a judge that the White House Counsel’s Office effectively told DOJ to disregard Trump’s tweets on the matter.
🐣 RT @DonWinslow NEW VIDEO: #MemoToTrump ¤ I wrote a memo to Donald John Trump. 💽 https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1315739358230503424?s=20/photo/1
// Don Winslow ad❣ #MemoToTrump
🐣 RT @McFaul This video reminds me of a very ill Boris Yeltsin running for reelection in 1996. Anyone else remember his dancing?
⋙ 🐣 RT @RexChapman 215,000 dead Americans and he’s out there doing this… 💽 https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1315879949967011840?s=20/photo/1
// Trump dancing like a crazy person
⋙ 🐣 RT @RexChapman 💽 https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1315893789714776068?s=20/photo/1
// Yeltsin dancing like a crazy person
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul You found it! Eerily similar right? (Yeltsin was hiding that he’d just had a series heart attack)
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 Maybe that’s how you signal it’s time for Putin to swoop in, bail you out and take over
⭕ 12 Oct 2020
★ JAMA, Howard Bauchner and Phil Fontanarosa: Excess Deaths and the Great Pandemic of 2020 http://bit.ly/33RRI5m Highlights a series of articles in JAMA on the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US: deaths (including “excess” deaths), social, financial and on disparities
Two new reports in JAMA provide updated estimates regarding the mortality associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the US. In a research letter by Woolf and colleagues, the authors update their analysis of the number of “excess” deaths in the US related to COVID-19 and other causes from March 1 through August 1, 2020. 1,2 The authors report that during this 5-month period, a total of 1 336 561 deaths occurred in the US, an estimated 20% increase compared with the number of expected deaths, and representing 225 530 excess deaths. 2 Approximately 67% of these excess deaths were attributable directly to COVID-19, whereas excess deaths attributed to other causes also could have been related to the pandemic in general.
A second research letter, by Bilinski and Emanuel, 3 compared the US to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries with populations exceeding 5 million. The authors found that since the beginning of the pandemic, among the countries with moderate mortality (n = 8; COVID-19 deaths, 5-25/100 000) or high mortality (n = 7; COVID-19 deaths, >25/100 00), the US ranked third, with 71.6 deaths/100 000.
The importance of the estimate by Woolf et al—which suggests that for the entirety of 2020, more than 400 000 excess deaths will occur—cannot be overstated, because it accounts for what could be declines in some causes of death, like motor vehicle crashes, but increases in others, like myocardial infarction. These deaths reflect a true measure of the human cost of the Great Pandemic of 2020. As depicted in the illustration, these deaths far exceed the number of US deaths from some armed conflicts, such as the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and deaths from the 2009 H1N1 (Swine flu) pandemic, and approach the number of deaths from World War II.
In the report by Bilinski and Emanuel, 3 the authors note that the US experienced high COVID-19–associated mortality and excess all-cause mortality into September 2020. After the initial peak in early spring, US death rates from COVID-19 and from all causes remained higher than rates in countries with high COVID-19 mortality.
In addition, 3 Viewpoints and an Editorial in JAMA reflect on the mental health, financial, and disparities issues related to the pandemic.
Simon and colleagues 4 suggest that it is critical to consider that for every death, an estimated 9 family members are affected, such as with prolonged grief or symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. In other words, approximately 3.5 million people could develop major mental health needs. This does not account for the thousands of health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes who have been witness to the unimaginable morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19.
Cooper and Williams 5 comment on the unrelenting and seemingly intractable and embedded disparities that exist in the US and within the US health care system. They call for restorative justice. This issue is not new, but rather the COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted and further compounded the health, social, and economic disparities inherent in communities of color.5,6
Cutler and Summers 7 suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic represents the greatest threat to prosperity and well-being that the US has encountered since the Great Depression that began in 1929. The authors estimated the total financial cost of the pandemic—related to lost economic output and losses related to health—at $16 trillion, or approximately 90% of the annual US gross domestic product (GDP). The estimated economic loss from COVID-19 is a staggering number, but was largely preventable, and will reverberate through society for years to come.
In an accompanying Editorial, Fineberg underscores the key ideas of the Viewpoints by Simon et al, Cooper and Williams, and Cutler and Summers, and summarizes the findings of the report by Woolf et al highlighting that the data on excess deaths related to COVID-19 are “sufficiently mortifying and motivating.” 8 He also emphasizes that “an intense, persistent, multipronged, and coherent response must be the order of the day and an urgent priority for the nation.” 8
Few people will forget the Great Pandemic of 2020, where and how they lived, how it substantially changed their lives, and for many, the profound human toll it has taken.
WaPo, Christopher Ingraham: New research explores authoritarian mind-set of Trump’s core supporters http://wapo.st/3lDoiy2
// Data reveal high levels of anti-democratic beliefs among many of the president’s backers, who stand to be a potent voting bloc for years to come
The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a catastrophic failure, with researchers at Oxford University estimating that its mismanagement of the crisis resulted in nearly 60,000 preventable deaths.
A new book by a psychology professor and a former lawyer in the Nixon White House argues that Trump has tapped into a current of authoritarianism in the American electorate, one that’s bubbled just below the surface for years. In “Authoritarian Nightmare,” Bob Altemeyer and John W. Dean marshal data from a previously unpublished nationwide survey showing a striking desire for strong authoritarian leadership among Republican voters.
They measure it using a tool Altemeyer developed in the early 1980s, called the right-wing authoritarian (RWA) scale. …
… Researchers have also consistently found that separate measures of authoritarian belief, such as a short survey of attitudes toward child-rearing, are reliable predictors of Trump support.
… He found the different versions of the scale produced findings that were nearly identical to the original 20-question battery, suggesting the scale is measuring a distinct psychological attribute that can’t be explained away by religiosity or political ideology.
“Even if Donald Trump disappeared tomorrow,” they write, “the millions of people who made him president would be ready to make someone else similar president instead.”
🐣 RT @brianklaass Voter suppression isn’t normal. This isn’t part of democracy in Europe, or Japan, or Canada. 5 hour wait times to cast a ballot is a uniquely American blight. It’s a choice, made by Republicans, to make it hard for people to vote so that they can win elections with lower turnout. [link] https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1315710585443676160?s=20
🐣 RT @AnaCabrera Fauci on CNBC: “I’ve devoted my entire professional life to fighting infectious diseases. This is an outbreak of historic proportions, the likes of which we have not seen in 102 yrs. There’s no chance that I’m going to give up on this & walk away from it, no matter what happens”
💙 🧵 RT @AshaRangappa_ THREAD. Great, question, @JoyAnnReid! I had the same question. And for an answer, I *highly* recommend “Let Them Eat Tweets,” by @Jacob_S_Hacker and Paul Pierson, which gives a clear, if depressing answer to this question. For big picture summary, read on: 📌 https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1315825379450421249?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 3. This leads to what the authors call “The Conservative Dilemma.” At some point, the party reaches a choice point: How do you get people to vote for you, when you are serving the economic interests of an elite few, (these are the plutocrats — the rich), and it doesn’t help them […]
// outrage machine explained
🐣 RT @fenrir_71 Gorsuch – Catholic.
Kavanaugh – Catholic.
Roberts – Catholic.
Alito – Catholic.
Thomas- Catholic.
Sensing a pattern yet?
⋙ 🐣 Also, Sotomayor, to be complete
⋙ 🐣 a possible explanation is that Catholicism as taught in the Catechism and universities is (still) essentially Thomist. Plus the Jesuits developed skills in argumentation (and torture). Not to forget the nuns (rulers in hand) who added a certain authoritarian flair
NYT: Hours before Trump campaigns in Florida, Fauci cautions against holding rallies, saying it is ‘asking for trouble.’ http://nyti.ms/3jUfoMe
//; Hours before President Trump campaigns in Florida, Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned against holding rallies, saying it was ‘asking for trouble.’
🐣 RT @JoshNBCNews Dr Fauci tells @thenewsoncnbc with Shep Smith he’s committed to staying on the job regardless of who’s elected the next president. Says he’s not walking away from a problem this important
🐣 RT @AOC When politicians use faith as an excuse to pass and uphold laws that seize control of people’s bodies but not guarantee them healthcare, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, or welcome the stranger, you have to wonder if it’s really about faith at all.
📊 FiveThirtyEight: Biden is up 10.6% (52.4% Biden vs 41.8% Trump) in 538’s Poll-of-Polls http://53eig.ht/3dbyskN This is up from post-convention low of ✛6.6% on 9/19. Never has Biden been below 50% post convention ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1315685150068551685?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Republicans played victims in the first Barrett hearing. Democrats made the case against Republicans. http://wapo.st/3dlzUTj “If they save the seat, it would be a windfall; if they send more and more Republicans packing on Nov. 3, that’s a win, too”
Among the best of the Democrats was Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), whose presentation, cadence and passion have been well-crafted, both as a presidential candidate and now a surrogate for former vice president Joe Biden.
⋙ 💽 Amy Klobuchar segment Her remarks are worth watching in full http://cs.pn/2InXtj8
She was right to declare the hearing a “sham,” given that Republicans, in rushing through Barrett’s nomination, are refusing to pass a coronavirus relief package for the American people. “I think it shows real messed-up priorities from this Republican Party,” Klobuchar said. “But I am here anyway to do a job. To tell the truth.” She slammed Republicans for pushing Barrett’s nomination, even as Americans were already voting and even though they refused to consider Judge Merrick Garland in March 2016. She traced out the likely consequences of Barrett’s judicial philosophy — ending the ACA, eroding the legal right to abortion, striking down health care legislation. She made certain to point out that President Trump was seeking to put her on the court so that she could hand him the election, should it be disputed.
⋙ Amy Coney Barrett SCOTUS Nomination Threads:
🐣 Live-tweeting Hearings:
🧵 @SCOTUSblog ¤ https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/1315640381627871238?s=20
🧵 @peoplefor [PFAW] ¤ https://twitter.com/peoplefor/status/1315638230235189249?s=20
🧵 @sahilkapur ¤ https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1315639093523632128?s=20 ¤
🧵 RT @peoplefor [PFAW] As Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nominations hearings start, remember: we know that confirming Barrett would jeopardize our health care, our reproductive rights, our civil rights, and more. ¤ To protect our health care and our rights, senators must #BlockBarrett #WeDissent 📌 https://twitter.com/peoplefor/status/1315638230235189249?s=20
🧵 RT @SCOTUSblog Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham (SC) gavels the room into session with some housekeeping remarks and then speaks about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting confirmed with a bipartisan vote of 96-3. 📌 https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/1315640381627871238?s=20
🧵 RT @sahilkapur Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein chat before the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court hearings begin. 📌 https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1315639093523632128?s=20
⭕ 11 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @MarshallCohen NEW: Deep dive on “information laundering” under Trump. ODNI puts out unverified Russian info about Trump’s opponents ¤ Fox News gives it 24/7 attention without context ¤ Trump gets worked up and tells DOJ to jail Biden, etc. w/ @oliverdarcy @ZcohenCNN
⋙ CNN: How Team Trump used Fox News as a laundromat for unverified Russian information about top Democrats http://cnn.it/3jReHDn
Trump, with the help of outlets like Fox News, has been pushing a dishonest narrative in touting intelligence documents that his administration declassified last month on the eve of the first presidential debate. They claimed the information was a supposed smoking gun proving that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration sought to frame Trump with a Russian collusion scandal.
But when examined closely the documents indicate no such thing. In fact, by the Trump administration’s own admission, they are based on unverified Russian intelligence that could be totally bogus. Which is to say that the President and Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are hyping and disseminating information that originates from a foreign adversary to bludgeon top Democratic officials.
Trump and his allies have even gone so far as to demand or suggest that President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden should be charged with actual crimes — again, resting much of their case on unverified Russian chatter and other cherry-picked material that the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency warned against releasing, as CNN previously reported. …
In other words, the US government picked up on Russians discussing Clinton’s political strategy to highlight Trump’s connections to Russia. This is no bombshell: Clinton’s political strategy played out in public view during the 2016 campaign — in tweets and TV interviews — and it was true that Trump’s team had extensive contacts with Russians, which they worked hard to keep secret during and after the 2016 campaign. …
According to sources and Barr’s own recent public comments, Durham’s work is not expected to conclude before the election. Instead, Trump and right-wing news outlets have relied on these document dumps from Ratcliffe and Barr to fill the void and speculate about future indictments.
But Ratcliffe’s document dumps are a tell-tale sign that there likely won’t be any eye-popping indictments stemming from the Durham investigation. Ratcliffe wouldn’t be turning over these sensitive documents to Congress — and to the public — if they were needed for upcoming criminal prosecutions, according to current and former Justice Department officials.
Instead Ratcliffe and congressional Republicans are releasing the documents now, helping to stoke outrage in conservative media and feeding Trump’s diatribes in his several-times-a-day interviews with Fox News and other conservative talk show hosts.
“What they are doing is the most severe politicization of intelligence in history,” said Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff under Brennan.
🐣 RT @MSNBC “Abraham Lincoln was up for re-election and it was 27 days before the election and a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court,” Sen. Harris says at #vpdebate. “But, Honest Abe said, it’s not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision.” 💽 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1315442123492163584?s=20/photo/1
💙 🐣 RT @60Minutes They’ve worked on election campaigns for big-name Republicans like Giuliani, Rubio, McCain, Kasich, and George W. Bush. Now these Republican strategists have banded together to defeat the candidate of their own party. ¤ Inside the Lincoln Project, tonight. https://cbsn.ws/30R28Av 💽 https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1315376215205851137?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @60Minutes “None of us will ever work in Republican politics again,” says longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt about the likely consequences of being part of a super PAC whose mission is to defeat President Trump’s re-election. https://cbsn.ws/30XFhTU 💽 https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1315445804526694401?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Chuck Schumer is calling on Amy Coney Barrett to commit to recusing herself from cases involving the Affordable Care Act and the 2020 election if confirmed. ¤ Schumer says Barrett has “serious conflicts of interest.” [Axios link] https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1315434504782336004?s=20
🐣 RT @DemWrite This. Is. Blistering. Trump’s epic failure on COVID, in 10 succinct minutes. ¤ Everyone in America should see this. From @ByDonkeys: #DemCast 💽 https://twitter.com/DemWrite/status/1315393284043235329?s=20/photo/1
// Timeline
⭕ 10 Oct 2020
DailyBeast, Asawin Suebsaeng and Spencer Ackerman: Team Trump Admits Its ‘Russiagate’ Head Fake Has Been a Flop http://bit.ly/2GI43R0
// Loyalists like Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe are trying to craft a counter-narrative. But the country isn’t in the mood for the tale.
.
“That’s just everything now—the Post Office as a domestic political weapon, the census is being used as one,” said a former senior intelligence official. “The right wing has come around to the view that it is legitimate to use every aspect of government as leverage to preserve their own political power and destroy their enemies. That’s the reality of where we are. There’s no rational view of the proper job of intelligence agencies that says it’s to protect the president.”Intelligence veterans are quick to point to the very long history of politicized intelligence, from the Bay of Pigs to Iran-Contra to Iraq. They also observe that previous politicization was typically tied to a foreign target, rather than a domestic political fight, something that highlights the blatancy of Ratcliffe and Trump’s efforts. “There was a set of rules both sides played by, even if they politicized their analysis like [Bush-era Undersecretary of Defense] Doug Feith did to support a desired policy,” Mowatt-Larsen said. “The aberration here is that it’s being used purely to support the president in an election context. That’s an unacceptable politicization.”
CIA allies are quick to point out that none of the multiple inquiries into Russian election interference have substantiated Trump’s narrative of Clinton’s campaign inventing a hoax of Russia collusion. Instead, they’ve validated the 2017 intelligence assessment that Russia intervened on Trump’s behalf.
[A] former official thought the domestic weaponization of intelligence wasn’t necessarily a permanent feature of elite American politics. But the official said it depended on Republican moneymen repudiating Trump and compelling the party to abandon his mode of politics. That’s something that they haven’t done in four years–and something capital, historically, never does against nationalisms. “Is the result of this election definitive enough that the Republican Party decides we’re going to change our approach, or are they locked in?” the ex-official said. “It’s all going to come down to the plutocrats that fund the Republican Party.”
Mowatt-Larssen, author of the memoir A State of Mind: Faith and The CIA, agreed there was nothing inevitable about permanent domestic politicization of intelligence. But he said the intelligence agencies needed to “purge” themselves of habits of acquiescence to political figures.
“The first thing you need to do is restore your reputation and purge—I use that word deliberately—all the ways you’ve been intimidated, cajoled and persuaded to join a political enterprise. The intelligence agencies have to recognize there is now a problem with their truth-seeking character, objectivity, independence and nonpolitical role now being in question,” he said. “What’s clear is there’s been a trend toward politicization that has gotten really bad, and the intelligence community is aware they’re under assault.”
Trump is confident that a nation mired in a pandemic and corresponding economic disaster cares about relitigating the Russia investigations. “The American people are totally aware of this,” he assured Limbaugh.
⭕ 9 Oct 2020
WaPo: Trump, lagging in polls, pressures Justice Dept. to target Democrats and criticizes Barr http://wapo.st/2SJV1oR “Barr has sought to lower expectations in recent weeks, making sure that senior officials in the West Wing are not expecting anything before the election”
The delayed report is “a disgrace,” and Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, should be jailed, Trump said in a rambling radio interview, one day after he argued on Twitter that his current Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, is a criminal who should be barred from running.
“The behavior would be shocking in a normal presidency, but Trump has literally been doing this for years,” Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith, a Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, said of Trump’s calls to go after Democrats. “So it is reprehensible, but not shocking.”
🐣 RT @forwardarc Gretchen Whitmer: When Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate, he is complicit. Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry. As a call to action.
⋙ WaPo, Gretchen Whitmer: I will hold the president accountable for endangering and dividing America http://wapo.st/3nxnmNr
WaPo, Greg Sargent: On Hannity’s show, Trump reveals his corrupt, panicky endgame http://wapo.st/30PHbpq “Law enforcement is telling me that they are ready for a volatile and potentially violent period as we ramp up to the election and beyond” ~ Frank Figliuzzi
⭕ 8 Oct 2020
JustSecurity, Justin Hendrix (10/8): Six Disinformation Threats in the Post-Election Period http://bit.ly/31WW9L8 ● /photo/1
// Those seeking to sow discord may be keeping their powder dry until after November 3rd
CNN: US counterintelligence chief says foreign adversaries are exploiting Trump’s lies to influence election http://cnn.it/2SPnWIg
The top US intelligence official on election security says that foreign adversaries are exploiting lies by President Donald Trump in their campaigns to influence the 2020 election.
Bill Evanina, the Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, agreed when asked by Hearst Television that foreign powers are using the numerous exaggerated and false claims Trump has made about mail-in voting, voting multiple times and 2020 being the most fraudulent election in history.
Evanina was asked about a list of false claims about mail-in voting and voter fraud that the President has made, which the interviewer, Mark Albert, called “false statements.” Evanina did not directly address the truthfulness of Trump’s claims but did say they’re being amplified by foreign adversaries.
“If they see a reference made by the President of the United States, a prominent US Senator, a business person, someone who America looks at as a voice of reason, and they believe it suits their interests, they will amplify that by a thousand to make sure that the most amount of people see it,” Evanina said.
Mail-in voting is a favorite target of Trump’s, who has routinely spread false information on the way many Americans plan to vote during the pandemic.
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom Seriously, people should be listening to this interview with Hannity, because the president is basically just calling for violence at this point.
⋙ 🐣 RT @htheike77 We knew this is where this was going to go, & now we are approaching Nov 3- the time when it was going to happen. He has been prepping them for this for a very, very long time. This was his plan all along. The FBI has tried to sound the alarm- Barr has covered it up.
CNN: Prestigious medical journal calls for US leadership to be voted out over Covid-19 failure http://cnn.it/2SH0fSi “‘They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy,’ the editorial says”
In an unprecedented move, the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday published an editorial written by its editors condemning the Trump administration for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic — and calling for the current leadership in the United States to be voted out of office.
“We rarely publish editorials signed by all the editors,” said Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the medical journal and an author of the new editorial.
The editorial, which Rubin said was drafted in August, details how the United States leads the world in Covid-19 cases and deaths. So far, more than 7.5 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 200,000 people have died of the disease.
“This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy,” the editorial says.
NYT, Mary McCord: The Plot Against Gretchen Whitmer Shows the Danger of Private Militias http://nyti.ms/3ltTakE Ms McCord was an acting assistant attorney general for national security.
// These groups have no constitutional right to exist.
🐣 RT @MargLTaylor I’m concerned that the bizarre conservative push recently to say “the US is a republic not a democracy” is to lay the groundwork for Republican state legislatures to disregard the popular vote in key states.
⋙ 🐣 RT @KenGardner11 It isn’t recent. We don’t decide issues merely by majority vote. The states (represented in the Senate) must also approve legislation. And we don’t decide presidential elections by majority vote either. Candidates do sometimes win the presidency despite losing the popular vote.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @MargLTaylor I think I was too subtle in my tweet. The point is, we are both. So what are people who draw this distinction trying to achieve?
⋙⋙ ⋙ WaPo, Eugene Volokh (2015): Is the United States of America a republic or a democracy? http://wapo.st/30IRgEL
// 5/23/2015
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @KenGardner11 The people who want democracy really want all issues and all elections (even President) to be decided by majority rule. The people who emphasize that we are a Republic emphasize that our constitution imposes some limits on majority rule to protect minorities or individuals.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 But now we are moving to dictatorship by a corrupt minority drawing fuel from resentful populations. This has happened before, if elsewhere
WaPo: Citing 25th Amendment, Pelosi, Raskin move to create panel that could rule on president’s fitness for office http://wapo.st/3iJy2oC “[Pelosi] previewed the move on Thursday, telling reporters that she would discuss the 25th Amendment on Friday”
🐣 RT @kyledcheney TRUMP campaign fundraising email just now says Biden shouldn’t be allowed to run and needs to “pay the price.” https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1314332502379704320?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DavidCornDC This article suggests that the president of the United Stares—the man who controls the nuclear arsenal—may be suffering steroids-induced mania. And not one Republican has expressed concern about this.
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Trump Lashes Out at His Cabinet With Calls to Indict Political Rivals http://nyti.ms/3nyvWeH
// By Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman; The pressure on his top administration officials to take action came as President Trump bristled at the restraints of his illness.
The president castigated his own team, declaring that Attorney General William P. Barr would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Democrats like Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama. He complained that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had not released Hillary Clinton’s emails, saying, “I’m not happy about him for that reason.” And he targeted Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director. “He’s been disappointing,” Mr. Trump said.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we’ll just have to go, because I won’t forget it,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the investigation into his 2016 campaign ties with Russia. “But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country, and that includes Obama and it includes Biden.”
Mr. Trump has often argued that his political antagonists should be prosecuted, but in this case, he went further by indicating that he had directly pressured Mr. Barr to indict without waiting for more evidence. “He’s got all the information he needs,” the president said. “They want to get more, more, more, they keep getting more. I said, ‘You don’t need any more.’”
The president was all over the map in his two Fox phone calls, throwing out unsubstantiated or discredited accusations, explaining that he wanted to bring home troops from Afghanistan to be ready to fight China or Russia if necessary and calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan “the lockup queen” even as his own Justice Department was announcing the existence of an anti-government group’s plot to kidnap her.
As for his opponents, he said on Fox Business that Mr. Biden “wouldn’t be president for two months” because “he’s not mentally capable,” leaving Ms. Harris to then take over the presidency. “She’s a communist,” he said. “We’re going to have a communist.” A few hours later, Mr. Trump reposted Twitter messages claiming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be orchestrating “a coup” against him.
Mr. Trump told his Fox interviewers that he felt well despite his hospitalization, although during his evening phone call with Sean Hannity, his voice at times sounded raspy and twice he had to clear his throat. …
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, even indicated that he was boycotting the White House because of its lax handling of the virus.
“I haven’t actually been to the White House since August the 6th because my impression was that their approach to how to handle this is different from mine and what I suggested that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters.
After being rebuffed by the White House, the Washington city government’s health department released an open letter to the staff members and guests who attended a Sept. 26 ceremony in the Rose Garden that has been blamed for the outbreak, imploring them to get tested for the virus. Crede Bailey, the head of the White House security office, has been hospitalized and a fourth White House journalist tested positive on Thursday.
Ms. Pelosi said she planned to introduce legislation on Friday creating a commission on presidential capacity to review the health of a commander in chief under provisions of the 25th Amendment providing for the temporary transfer of power to the vice president in case of inability to discharge the duties of the office. “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation,” Mr. Trump replied on Twitter.
… He said he was no longer taking the experimental drugs used to treat the virus, but he added that he was still taking a steroid that doctors say can produce bursts of energy, euphoria and even a sense of invulnerability.
“I felt pretty lousy,” Mr. Trump said. But, he added, “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young.” He once again played down the severity of the disease. “Now what happens is you get better,” he said. “That’s what happens, you get better.”
Mr. Trump later released a video addressed specifically to senior citizens, who were once his political base but have increasingly soured on him as they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, according to polls.
“To my favorite people in the world, the seniors,” he said in the video. “I’m a senior. I know you don’t know that. Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to tell them. But I’m a senior.”
Acknowledging that he had been “very sick,” he praised the experimental treatments he was given for the virus and vowed to provide them to seniors. “I want you to get the same care that I got,” he said. “You’re going to get the same medicine. You’re going to get it free, no charge, and we’re going to get it to you soon.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that a person infected with the coronavirus can be with other people 10 days after symptoms first appear if the patient has gone 24 hours free of fever without the use of medication that reduces temperatures and if other symptoms are improving.
The onset of the president’s symptoms remains murky; if he started feeling sick on Oct. 1, the day he reported testing positive, then a Saturday return would be premature by C.D.C. guidelines. If he had his first symptoms the day before, then Saturday would meet the 10-day mark. Mr. Trump’s doctors have said he has not experienced fever in days, but the dexamethasone steroid he is taking is known to hide a fever.
Experts said resuming a public schedule might worsen Mr. Trump’s condition, which could still rapidly deteriorate in the next several days. Covid-19, an unpredictable disease, can suddenly and unexpectedly worsen during a patient’s second week of illness. Based on the information provided, “No, I would not clear him to start public engagements on Saturday,” said Dr. Phyllis Tien, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, where she conducts and advises on Covid-19 clinical trials.
White House aides privately expressed concern about whether the president’s animated mood in recent days stemmed from the dexamethasone. Doctors not involved with the president’s care said it could have a significant effect on a patient’s behavior.
Dr. Negin Hajizadeh, a pulmonary/critical care physician at Northwell Health, noted that the majority of Covid patients receiving dexamethasone are on mechanical ventilation and in a state of induced coma, so they do not exhibit any behavioral side effects. But, she said, large studies show that generally 28 to 30 percent of patients will exhibit mild to moderate psychiatric side effects like anxiety, insomnia, mania or delirium after receiving steroid treatments, and about 6 percent may develop psychosis.
“When we prescribe steroids we warn our patients: ‘This may cause you to feel jittery, might cause you to feel irritable,’” Dr. Hajizadeh said. “We will tell family members, especially for our older patients, ‘This may cause insomnia, this may cause changes in eating habits and, in extreme cases, mania and impaired decision making.’”
Watching the news coverage and angry at the state of the race, Mr. Trump has been imploring aides to let him resume campaign rallies as soon as this weekend. He showed up again in the Oval Office on Thursday despite efforts to get him to remain in the residence until he was more fully recovered. In addition to the attempt to hold a rally in Florida on Saturday, he said he would try to stage one the following day in Pennsylvania. …
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former aide to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, said that the Trump campaign was entering a dangerous period, one when a campaign heading for a possible defeat can become treacherous.
“The knives come out, the donors flee and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys,” he said. “Most politicians can handle losing a race, but they really don’t want to be embarrassed. When a loss seems inevitable, people who want a future in politics start looking out for their own interests. People start looking over their shoulders.”
🐣 RT @Amy_Siskind Lol Richard Grenell, who embarrassingly for our country served as DNI, got locked out of Twitter for tweeting false claims about voter fraud. ¤ Now do Trump.
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump won’t tell Hannity if he’s had a negative coronavirus test. He just ignores the question and starts ranting. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1314379349781553152?s=20
// Trump phone call with Hannity; hoarse, coughing, voice gives out
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar “California is gonna have to ration water. You wanna know why? Because they send millions of gallons of water out to sea, out to the Pacific. Because they want to take care of certain little tiny fish, that aren’t doing very well without water.” — Trump
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Trump concludes his interview with Hannity by claiming that Mike Pence refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power during the VP debate was his “best answer” of the night
💙 🐣 RT @EvanMcMullin Refusing to even consider another party’s Supreme Court nomination ‘because it occurred in the final year of a presidency’ and then rushing through your own party’s nomination in the final months of the next presidency is itself a form of court packing.
⋙ 🐣 RT @EvanMcMullin If Republicans in Congress are truly concerned about court packing – as they should be – they should’ve considered Garland’s confirmation in 2016 or remain consistent now and defer this confirmation until the next presidency. Trying to have it both ways is politicizing the court.
🐣 RT @MikeBalsamo1 NEW: Friction is growing in the Trump-Barr relationship over the Durham probe. Trump feels he’s given Barr wide latitude on Russia & wants more charges. While Barr understands Trump’s frustration, he won’t tolerate interference in specific investigations.
⋙ AP: Trump, Barr at odds over slow pace of Durham investigation http://bit.ly/2FcSUa0
… [T]he tensions between Trump and the attorney general over the fate of the probe underscore the extent to which the president is aggressively trying to use all of the levers of his power to gain ground in an election that has been moving away from him. ¤ In the absence of blockbuster findings, Trump is now moving to make documents public himself with his new acting head of intelligence.
… A report from the Justice Department’s inspector general in December knocked down multiple lines of attack against the Russia investigation, finding that it was properly opened and that law enforcement leaders were not motivated by political bias. But Barr has said he and Durham disagreed with the inspector general over whether the FBI had enough information to open a full investigation and, in particular, to use surveillance on a former Trump campaign aide.
WaPo: Longtime GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy charged with acting as a foreign agent, is likely to plead guilty http://wapo.st/3daq1I6
↥ ↧
On Maddow:
Trump Campaign Finance Committee
Steve Wynn, stepped away from casino business over sexual harassment scandal
Michael Cohen, Trump lawyer, convicted for perjury
⋙ Elliott Broidy, just indicted ~ guilty plea expected
Louis DeJoy, “guy Trump put in charge of messing up the post office”
(George Nader) ~ business ties to Broidy; imprisoned for child pornography
💽 TheIndependent [UK]: Trump gives Bill Barr ultimatum as he demands roundup of political enemies http://bit.ly/2SDNqIv //➔ This is stunning, really
// Rambling phone interview on Fox Business sees president vent rage about rivals’ supposed crimes against him
During a live phone-in on Fox Business, Donald Trump complained again that not enough of his political enemies have been arrested – and said attorney general Bill Barr could find himself in “a sad situation” if he doesn’t start rounding them up.
The blunt warning comes after Mr Trump left Walter Reed Medical Centre and returned to Twitter with a blizzard of angry tweets and retweets, many of them calling for the indictment of Obama administration figures.
The president’s rambling and ill-tempered interview with Maria Bartiromo on Thursday saw him run through a long list of his usual grievances, but he was particularly rancorous on the subject of supposed Obama-era “crimes” against him for which he wants to see his predecessor indicted, along with Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and many others.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes,” declared the president, “the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re gonna get little satisfaction unless I win. Because I won’t forget it. But these people should be indicted, this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama, and that includes Biden; these are people that spied on my campaign, and we have everything.
“Now they say they have much more, and I say Bill, you got plenty. You don’t need any more.”
Read more: How many presidents have lost a second term?
Comparing Mr Barr unflatteringly to former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grennell and successor John Ratcliffe, both of whom have released documents related to the Russia investigation, Mr Trump gave his attorney general a warning.
“To be honest, Bill Barr’s gonna go down either as the greatest attorney general in the history of the country or he’s gonna go down as a very sad, sad situation. I mean, I’ll be honest with you. He’s got all the information he needs. They wanna get more, more, more, they keep getting more, I say: ‘You don’t need any more. You got more stuff than anybody’s ever had.’”
Mr Trump has complained for years that various Democrats should be “locked up”, even telling Hillary Clinton to her face at a 2016 debate that she would be “in jail” if he won. (His administration has not investigated her in any meaningful way.)
However, in the last year or so, he has begun insisting ever more furiously that the Obama team committed crimes against him, in particular saying Mr Obama spied on his campaign.
[ Tweets: ]
All Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago. Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!
So I had to constantly fight off all of this Scum, achieve more than any other President in First Term, and then they talk Chaos. They created crimes against me and this administration!
Where are all of the arrests? Can you imagine if the roles were reversed? Long term sentences would have started two years ago. Shameful!
NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT CAUGHT COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE!
Wow!!! NOW DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS, THE BIGGEST OF ALL POLITICAL SCANDALS (IN HISTORY)!!! BIDEN, OBAMA AND CROOKED HILLARY LED THIS TREASONOUS PLOT!!! BIDEN SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO RUN – GOT CAUGHT!!!
Girl♥️Bot
@AMErikaNGIRLLL
The highest ranking members of the FBI , NSA and CIA were not only spying on Trump- They were trying to subvert his election win with #FakeIntelligence and a #FakeInvestigation 🔥Later in the Fox Business interview, while expounding the theme of Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails, Mr Trump appeared to suggest that he might take a more active role in his proposed criminal roundups.
“She should be indicted for that!” he shouted down the phone. “If people delete emails in a regular court case – she deleted 33,000 emails and nothing happens to her! Our justice system, nothing happens to her. With all of the pages of stuff, thousands of pages that we have on them, nothing happens to them, nothing happens.
“And you know, I said I’m gonna not get involved, I’m gonna have to get involved, because these people are crooked people.”
WaPo, Aaron Blake: Down in the polls and yearning for an October surprise, Trump lashes at his most loyal allies http://wapo.st/33J7wYa Trump goes after Barr for not indicting his political enemies and after Pompeo for supposedly sitting on information to support such indictments
There was much about President Trump’s Thursday morning interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that reeked of desperation and an incumbent president fighting for his political life. He decided to go down the “unlikable” path with Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and called her a “monster.” He said he wouldn’t participate in a virtual debate with former vice president Joe Biden next week. He suggested he might win heavily blue New York state. He even cast doubt on polls showing him down by double digits — by pointing to boaters and truck owners who support him.
But perhaps nothing in the interview reflected his precarious position quite like what he said about some of his most loyal allies. And the theme of each was the same: These people aren’t doing enough to further his political goals by linking his prominent foes to crimes.
Less than 12 hours earlier, Trump’s loyal vice president, Mike Pence, won plaudits from conservatives for his debate performance against Harris. But Trump hijacked the debate news with an interview that included targeting arguably his two most loyal Cabinet members — Attorney General William P. Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — along with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.
Trump built upon tweets this week suggesting Barr needs to start indicting people tied to the Russia investigation, while explicitly citing President Barack Obama and Biden.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes — the greatest political crime in the history of our country — then we’re going to get little satisfaction, unless I win,” Trump said, adding that he “won’t forget it” and that the crime “includes Obama, and that includes Biden.”
Trump also said at another point that “Bill has got to move” and that he would go down in history as a “very sad situation” if he doesn’t indict people. He said the Justice Department keeps asking for more information but that it already has all the information it needs.
But Obama and Biden weren’t the only ones Trump implicated in crimes and suggested he wanted his Cabinet officials to target. He also expressed rare dissatisfaction with Pompeo, who he said should release some sort of new information on Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“They’re in the State Department, but Mike Pompeo has been unable to get them out, which is very sad actually. I’m not happy about him for that reason,” Trump said. “He was unable to get that. I don’t know why. You’re running the State Department; you’re able to get them out.”
It wasn’t clear exactly what Trump was referring to, since the State Department has already released emails that it had.
While Trump has leaned on Barr before, and Barr has at least attempted to offer a veneer of criticizing Trump, the rebuke of Pompeo was highly unusual. Pompeo has bent over backward for Trump, dating back to his time as CIA director, and there’s rarely been daylight between the two men.
Trump also critiqued both men at multiple points in the interview, suggesting this was a concerted push rather than just a couple of one-off comments.
“Forget about the fact that they were classified,” Trump said of Clinton’s emails. “Let’s go. Maybe Mike Pompeo finally finds them, okay?”
Trump also reserved some of his harshest words to date for Wray, who has recently contradicted Trump’s baseless claims about massive mail-in voter fraud. Trump declined to say whether he would fire Wray.
“He’s been disappointing,” Trump said. “He talks about even the voting thing, that he doesn’t see the voting ballots as a problem,” he added before stating a baseless claim about voter fraud.
The 2016 election, it bears emphasizing, arguably turned on a late announcement from then-FBI Director James B. Comey about newly discovered Clinton emails. Trump is basically asking for the exact same thing from Pompeo — and publicly so. But it seems he would settle for something supposedly incriminating involving Obama and Biden, too.
Trump has been ramping up the pressure on Barr in recent days, and Thursday’s interview was a fusillade of pleas for his allies to use their legal powers to further his political goals. If Trump’s political standing doesn’t improve — and perhaps even if it does — you can bet there will be more where this came from over the next four weeks.
🐣 RT @clearing_fog Trump tweets ¤ April 17, 2020 https://twitter.com/clearing_fog/status/1314302938227990528?s=20/photo/1
// ‘Liberate VA MI MN’
‼️ 🐣 RT @danielsgoldman Let me get this straight: the “coup” started when Comey “overstepped his authority” and exonerated Clinton, leading to his announcement just days before the election that he reopened the investigation, all while those “working against” Trump didnt leak that investigation? Gotcha.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SenRonJohnson What is the greater threat to our democracy—transparency, or the continued coverup of an attempted coup against the duly elected president? Read my @WSJopinion
⋙⋙🚫 WSJ, Ron Johnson: An American Coup Attempt http://on.wsj.com/30M8W22
// omg; Time may be running out to expose the effort to overthrow Trump, which began before his election.
🐣 RT @JRehling If the suspects are Black, the media calls them rioters.
If the suspects are Muslim, the media calls them terrorists.
If the suspects look like ZZ Top, the media calls them a militia.
🐣 RT @FloridaBiden 👇 https://twitter.com/FloridaBiden/status/1314238882586787840?s=20/photo/1
// Reasons to Vote Him Out
🚫🐣 RT @Acosta Trump on Harris: “She wants to open up the borders to allow killers, murderers and rapists into our country.”
// disinfo
⁉️🐣 RT @BeschlossDC Now @JonLemire of AP reports that Mike Pence has canceled engagements scheduled for Indiana tomorrow and is instead returning to DC.
🐣 RT @kasparov63 Whenever a politician talks about achieving liberty and prosperity without democracy, get ready to take to the streets.
🐣 RT @PeteButtigieg Democracies are much better at delivering liberty, peace, and prosperity. That’s why we’re fighting so hard for democracy right now.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SenMikeLee Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.
🐣 RT @robertjdenault AG Barr contemplated charging BLM protestors with insurrection while he was aware of an *actual plot* to overthrow the government of Michigan by right-wing fanatics. ¤ People must recognize the seriousness of this moment. If the plot had succeeded it could have triggered.. a lot.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TaraLOGrady And FBI Director Chris Wray is the only person left standing between these plots and the American people yet trump and Bill Barr want him removed & will fire him immediately after the election
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @AjleDr Exactly and if the FBI had not started to reassert its independence it probably would have been successful. Trump already has his troublemakers lined up. This was a test run. If anyone doesn’t believe me look at the past five years of trump atrocities while in office.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @FBI Six Arrested on Federal Charge of Conspiracy to Kidnap the Governor of Michigan http://ow.ly/sVGI50BNBsm https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1314294597535887365?s=20/photo/1
// The Michigan Attorney General Charged Seven Additional Individuals Following a Coordinated Disruption of the Plan
🧵 RT @MichaelEHayden ICYMI: A Pro-Trump, anti-BLM blog popped up in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania this April. ¤ It was secretly authored by a U.S. white nationalist. We connected it to a network of Russian websites: 📌 https://twitter.com/MichaelEHayden/status/1314225868915564554?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @MichaelEHayden .@splcenter found that “Lancaster Patriot,” a Pennsylvania politics blog amplified by FOX News, is connected to a Russian malware site. ¤ It’s also linked to the Pro-Putin website Russia Insider:
⋙⋙ SPLC, Michael E Hayden : Far-Right Pennsylvania Politics Blog Was Mirrored by Obscure Russian Website http://bit.ly/2SFvtJM
🐣 RT @SachaBaronCohen It still feels bizarre to speak out in my own voice, but I wrote this for @TIME because Trump’s lies and conspiracies, spread by Facebook, threaten to kill more people—and democracy as we know it!
💙 TIME, Sacha Baron Cohen: We Must Save Democracy From Conspiracies http://bit.ly/2SE5YIQ “Trump clearly believes that his only hope for political survival is to spin an alternate universe”
⭕ 7 Oct 2020
💙 🧵 RT @atrupar The Pence-Harris vice presidential debate is about to begin. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1314007886369095681?s=20
💙 🧵 RT @atrupar The Trump-Biden debate, moderated by Chris Wallace, is about to begin. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1311108221990559748?s=20
// 9/29/2020
💙 WaPo (10/7): New Justice Dept. election fraud guidance could allow boosting of Trump’s exaggerated claims, legal observers say http://wapo.st/33GcNQ7 This is what the PA GOP legislature was trying to do, but now it’s nationwide DOJ policy
The Justice Department recently issued guidance giving federal prosecutors more leeway to take public action on suspected election fraud before ballots are in — a move that some legal analysts worry could foreshadow an effort to bolster President Trump’s exaggerated claims of fraud via mail-in voting.
The guidance, which came in an email from a career official in the department’s public integrity section, detailed what it called an “exception to the general non-interference with elections policy,” which discourages prosecutors from taking overt steps in fraud investigations until all ballots are counted and certified.
The exception would apply, the email indicated, “where the integrity of any component of the federal government is implicated by election offenses within the scope of the policy, including, but not limited to, misconduct by federal officials or employees administering an aspect of the voting process through the United States Postal Service, the Department of Defense, or any other federal department or agency.”
🐣 RT @JohnBrennan In debate, @Mike_Pence lied about handwritten notes of mine from 2016 that referenced unsubstantiated Russian allegation about Secretary Clinton. Follows DNI Ratcliffe’s politicized release of misleading snippets of documents. ¤ Russia helped Trump, and continues to. ¤ Full stop.
🐣 RT @joshrogin .@petestrzok on Radcliffe’s Russian intel: “There’s not anything nefarious there. [Trump’s allies] are trying to claim that Clinton spun all this up. This is clearly false. Her campaign did not.”
⋙ WaPo: Trump’s team trusts Russian intelligence over U.S. intelligence http://wapo.st/30CWGRF
🐣 RT @tribelaw “After all that America has accomplished, after all the years we have stood as a beacon of light to the world, it cannot be that here and now, in 2020, we will allow government of the people, by the people, and for the people to perish from this earth.” — @JoeBiden at Gettysburg
⭕ 6 Oct 2020
CNN: Former CIA director accuses intel chief of selectively declassifying documents to help Trump http://cnn.it/3d55rsF
Former CIA director John Brennan on Tuesday accused current intelligence chief John Ratcliffe of selectively declassifying documents ahead of the November election that benefit President Donald Trump, telling CNN that the decision to release materials gathered by the agency on Russian allegations that Hillary Clinton was planning on “stirring up a scandal” against her Republican rival in 2016 was motivated by politics.
“These were my notes from the 2016 period when I briefed President Obama and the rest of the national security council team about what the Russians were up to and I was giving examples of the type of access that the US intelligence community had to Russian information and what the Russians were talking about and alleging,” he added.
The former CIA director also pushed back on Ratcliffe’s declassification of a heavily redacted CIA memo related to the investigative referral forwarded to the FBI at the time. The memo notes that the Russians allege Clinton’s effort to stir up a scandal was “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”
“If, in fact, what the Russians were alleging that Hillary was trying to highlight the reported connections between Trump and the Russians, if that was accurate and a big if, there is nothing at all illegal about that,” Brennan said.
“John Ratcliffe and others are trying to portray this as unlawful activity that deserves follow-up investigation by the FBI. No. It was a campaign activity,” he added.
That message came during a Twitter spree attacking former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI, where Trump said he will declassify the documents with “no redactions.” Trump was quote-tweeting Paul Sperry, a conservative journalist and fellow at the Hoover institution, who wrote that if the documents were declassified, it would show that “the FBI and CIA not only knew the Russia ‘collusion’ allegations against Trump were a political dirty trick, but that they were in on the trick.”
But Brennan told CNN Tuesday that the memo declassified by Ratcliffe, which he characterized as a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL), is just one of several documents that were sent to the FBI related to Russian activity during the 2016 race.
“There are a lot of other CIOLs that talk about the contacts that were taking place between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russians. So he might want to think about trying to balance some of these releases by providing information to the American public about what theintelligence community had unearthed during this period of time about Russia’s interactions with those involved in the Trump campaign,” he said. …
NYT: Whistle-Blowing Scientist Quits Government With Final Broadside http://nyti.ms/3nlxMQl
// Dr. Rick Bright, who said he was demoted at the health department for blowing the whistle on a politicized coronavirus response, remains concerned about White House interference.
🐣 RT @DavidCornDC This is disinformation. ¤ HRC campaign was openly raising questions re Trump ties to Russia. ¤ It was right to do so. Manafort was colluding with a Russian intelligence officer. And @DonaldJTrumpJr had tried to collude with a Kremlin emissary. Read GOP-backed Sen intel report.
⋙ 🐣 RT @BrookeSingman EXCLUSIVE @DNI_Ratcliffe declassified docs revealing CIA Director Brennan briefed @BarackObama on @HillaryClinton “plan”to tie @realDonaldTrump to #Russia as “a means of distracting the public” from her use of “private email server”ahead of 2016 election
🔄 🐣 RT @KimZetter Georgetown law school has created a fact sheet for all 50 states explaining the laws barring unauthorized private militia groups and what to do if groups of armed individuals show up near a polling place or voter registration drive. http://bit.ly/30IlLup
NYT: From Gettysburg, Biden Calls for Healing of a ‘House Divided’ http://nyti.ms/33Ce8rd He “fram[ed] the election as a national emergency whose outcome will determine the trajectory and the character of the country for years to come”
// “We have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shoals of anger and hate and division,” Joe Biden said in a speech near the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
↥ ↧
🔆 This❗️⋙ Rev: Joe Biden Gettysburg Campaign Speech (Transcript) October 6, 2020 http://bit.ly/3lkIC77 C-Span: Joe Biden Remarks in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania http://cs.pn/3d3KKgA
🐣 RT @NormOrnstein Starting January 21, we need an impeccable career prosecutor to head the Public Integrity Section at DOJ, and Preet Barara at SDNY. And we need the career people there to go after all the miscreants in Cabinet, WH, agencies. Without fear or favor. Crimes cannot go unpunished.
🐣 RT @BillKristol I have the highest regard for @GenMhayden as a public servant, and for Mike and @JchaydenJeanine as human beings. We’re honored to present this moving testimonial. It shows how important defeating @realDonaldTrump and electing @JoeBiden is to real patriots who love this country.
⋙ 🐣 RT @RVAT2020 NEW AD: Former Director of the CIA under Bush @GenMhayden: “If there is another term for Trump, I don’t know what happens to America.” 💽 https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1313649181475704832?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @mitchellreports On Trump/Truman balcony photo op, @BeschlossDC: “A lot of that scene was chilling because it reminded us of scenes that people could have seen of the 1930s, from central Europe or Latin America. Someone strutting around trying to show his power.” #AMRstaff
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Absolutely no words. I resigned the night before Trump was inaugurated, in large part over concerns about how immigration laws would be enforced under Sessions (his rumored choice to be AG at that point) & not wanting to stick around for that, but this is truly unfathomable.
⋙ 🐣 RT @KatyTur Rod J. Rosenstein went even further…telling the five prosecutors that it did not matter how young the children were. He said that government lawyers should not have refused to prosecute two cases simply because the children were barely more than infants.
💙 🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: ‘We Need to Take Away Children,’ No Matter How Young, Justice Dept. Officials Said http://nyti.ms/2I5dzxV ‘From the policy’s earliest days DOJ officials understood — and encouraged — the separation of children as an part of the plan to prosecute border crossers’
// Top department officials were “a driving force” behind President Trump’s child separation policy, a draft investigation report said.
🐣 RT @TheRickWilson 1/ Trump cut off stimulus talks. It’s almost as if he has a political death wish and will take down Republicans with him. ¤ His campaign people are staring mutely at the screens of their phones, stunned and depressed. ¤ Stepien was just on with the pollsters. Ooops. Blindsided.
🐣 RT @TheRickWilson 1/ Trump cut off stimulus talks. It’s almost as if he has a political death wish and will take down Republicans with him. ¤ His campaign people are staring mutely at the screens of their phones, stunned and depressed. ¤ Stepien was just on with the pollsters. Ooops. Blindsided.
2/ The desperation is growing in the campaign. They’ve watched the tracker. They see how badly they’ve bled out since the debate and his manic behavior since diagnosed. ¤ The stunts aren’t moving the numbers. Even the base is fading. Seniors fading. Noncollege whites fading.
3/ What happens next? Well, a lot of places are about to end rent and mortgage forebearance. The COVID bounce is coming. ¤ There is no vaccine. There is no scalable therapy. (What Trump got at Walter Reed was bespoke and expensive.) ¤ More pain is coming because he has failed.
4/ He has failed in every meaningful way and COVID will be his grim legacy. The Trump reality distortion field is cracked and broken; if he’s *lucky* history will brutalize him as a clown, a joke, a man without the intelligence to govern either the nation or himself.
5/ The more likely course of history will paint him forever as corrupt, mentally ill, and a wannabe authoritarian without a single redeeming quality. ¤ He will be seen as the first anti-American President, a man who reduced our nation at home and abroad.
6/ His elected enablers will lose, if not this cycle then next. Some will try to wash off Trumpism, but it’s a combination of septic muck, stripper glitter, and authoritarian nationalism. “Donald Who?” will rise from their lips daily. ¤ *They* were just being loyal to the party.
🐣 RT @FrankFigliusi Chris Wray may get fired for this. Must watch this video on election security from our intel leaders: @FBI #ChrisWrayHasBalls #Election2020
💙 ⋙ 💽 ≣ FBI: Safeguarding Your Vote: A Joint Message on Election Security http://bit.ly/36BNrF6
// video w transcript; The directors of the FBI, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and National Counterintelligence and Security Center discuss their agencies’ commitment to protect the integrity of the 2020 election. More at fbi.gov/elections.
💽 ≣ FBI: Safeguarding Your Vote: A Joint Message on Election Security http://bit.ly/36BNrF6
// video w transcript; The directors of the FBI, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and National Counterintelligence and Security Center discuss their agencies’ commitment to protect the integrity of the 2020 election. More at fbi.gov/elections.
🐣 RT @kyledcheney Even before he was out of Walter Reed, Trump confirmed through his chief of staff a directive to declassify new documents that his spy chief suggested raised questions about the attribution of 2016 election interference to Russia.
⋙ Politico: Trump rewrites the Russia probe from the hospital http://politi.co/3iGob2O
// by Natasha Bertrand, Andrew Desiderio, Kyle Cheney; The president declassified intelligence documents meant to implicate Clinton in 2016 meddling, but officials say they’re misleading
Trump authorized the declassification and release of documents this week based on intelligence that even his own advisers warn could be Russian disinformation, in what his allies have signaled is aimed at sowing doubt at the intelligence community’s conclusion that the meddling in the 2016 campaign came at the Kremlin’s direction — and was intended to boost his candidacy.
Some of those documents were released on Tuesday afternoon, including heavily redacted notes from former CIA Director John Brennan following a briefing with then-President Barack Obama. The notes describe intelligence reports that were drawn from Russian operatives, summaries of which Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified last week. …
It also comes in the middle of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was tasked by the Justice Department with probing the intelligence community’s findings. Durham is expected to refrain from releasing any conclusions before Election Day to avoid impacting the race, but the recent declassifications by both Ratcliffe and Attorney General William Barr appear to be an effort to fill that void. Trump has taken full advantage of it, weaponizing the releases to boost his re-election campaign.
Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who endorsed Clinton in 2016, called Ratcliffe’s reclassifications “the most politicized act I’ve ever seen by a senior intel official” and “a blatant attempt to get votes for Donald Trump before the election.
“This is Russian disinformation designed to create the very political chaos that it’s creating. This is Putin playing with us,” he added. …
Brennan, for his part, has denied accusations by Trump’s allies that he politicized the intelligence community’s findings in January 2017, when it concluded that Moscow interfered with the goal of helping Trump.
“I left it up to the CIA components responsible for Russia, cyber, and counterintelligence to select the relevant experts, some of whom had served in the fusion cell, to write the report,” he wrote in his recently released book.
When two senior managers approached him in late 2016 and said they only had medium confidence in the assessment of Putin’s motives, Brennan suggested they raise their concerns with the analysts who wrote the report and had seen all of the raw intelligence, he recalled. The managers agreed, and never went back to Brennan with further issues, said a person familiar with the matter.
🐣 RT @JoeBiden As president, I will embrace:
Hope, not fear.
Peace, not violence.
Generosity, not greed.
Light, not darkness.
I will be a president who appeals to the best in us. Not the worst.
🐣 RT @oneunderscore_ Facebook’s QAnon ban is the most sweeping content moderation step I’ve seen from any social media company so far. ¤ This won’t just ban certain posts. Facebook will ban Groups, Pages and Instagram accounts that post about QAnon, a militarized movement.
⋙ NBCNews: Facebook bans QAnon across its platform http://nbcnews.to/3jPVFNP
// The change is a significant escalation over its previous actions targeting QAnon and one of the broadest rules the social media giant has put in place in its history.
🐣 RT @jimsciutto New: All but one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is now self-quarantining due to exposure at multiple meetings in recent days, including a meeting in Pentagon’s secure meeting space for classified information known as ‘the tank’, a defense official tells @barbarastarrcnn
🐣 RT @TomBossert For the good of collective public health, not just your own, please remember to avoid large gatherings (they are super spreader magnets), socially distance, wear a mask, isolate when sick, and quarantine after being in contact with someone sick. This pandemic is far from over.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TomBossert These are the core elements of the targeted layered mitigation strategy. Unfortunately, the President and senior people around him have violated all five of these fundamentals. The news cycle tends to obscure the basics, but we can all learn from these unfortunate developments.
🐣 RT @carriecordero “We are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections” – FBI Director Chris Wray
⋙ 🐣 RT @FBI The right to vote in a free and fair election is one of the foundations of American democracy. The leaders of the #FBI, @CISAgov, @NCSCgov, and @NSAgov want you to know how their organizations work together to protect your voice—no matter how you cast your vote. #Protect2020 💽 https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1313494766387105794?s=20/photo/1
// Christopher Wray
⭕ 5 Oct 2020
WaPo, Ishaan Tharoor: What the U.S. election means for Russia http://wapo.st/3nmrEXZ “From a Russian perspective, the best outcome is a chaotic, contested election,” Alina Polyakova said. She is the president and CEO of the European Center for Policy Analysis
In congressional testimony delivered last month, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said he believed Russia was once again “very active” in its efforts to influence the U.S. election, specifically to “denigrate” Biden, Trump’s rival for the White House. That irked the president, but Wray is hardly the first administration official to link Putin’s agenda with Trump’s political success.
Former national security adviser John Bolton claimed he was afraid to leave Trump alone with Putin at a 2018 summit and alleged that Trump was loath to bring up election interference in his private conversations with the Russian leader. Bolton’s predecessor, H.R. McMaster, said last week that Trump was “aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts” by stoking uncertainty about mail-in voting and the credibility of the U.S. election.
“You know, Putin gets away with, I mean, literally murder or attempted murder . . . because people don’t call him out on it,” McMaster said on MSNBC. “And so they are able to continue with this kind of fire hose of falsehood, to sow these conspiracy theories. And we just can’t be our own worst enemies.”
No matter the Trump administration’s anti-Moscow moves, “you have a White House that has not been communicating a strong stance against Russia,” Alina Polyakova, the president and CEO of the European Center for Policy Analysis, told Today’s WorldView. The Russians “have been able to carry out all kinds of mischief,” she said, from Afghanistan, Syria and Libya to the Baltic Sea, exploiting the Trump administration’s dissonant, “incomprehensible foreign policy agenda” and Trump’s own seeming unwillingness to confront Putin.
Polyakova said[:] “Like it or not, Biden was part of that administration and did very little to impose real consequences.”
As president, most experts expect that he would ratchet up pressure on Moscow and work in greater concert with European partners who are also taking a tougher line. “If Biden is elected, we will confront a consolidation of the West on an anti-Russian platform,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council, to Bloomberg News.
Biden branded Trump “Putin’s puppy” in their first debate, while shrugging off a largely unproven Republican allegation that his son received an illicit $3.5 million payment from the wife of Moscow’s ex-mayor. In a CNN town hall last month, Biden labeled Russia an “opponent.” His 2011 visit to the Russian capital as vice president is still remembered for his perceived affront of telling opposition leaders that Putin should not run for president again (he’s now extended his rule until 2036). A future President Biden would have to reckon with the likely expiry of the New START accord, which limited the number of strategic nuclear warheads deployed by the United States and Russia. The Trump administration’s attempts to negotiate a new treaty have so far not yielded much fruit.
“A Biden administration will confront Russian aggression from a position of strength, even as we work to maintain strategic stability,” campaign spokesman T.J. Ducklo told Axios last month. “Unlike this administration which has never taken the Russian threat seriously, Joe Biden will rally our allies to deter Russian aggression as a united front, and protect the interests of Western democracies.”
[Dmitri Trenin of the Carnegie Moscow Center:] “If Biden wins, he will show to the world that he’s no Putin puppet and that he will take Putin very seriously.”
That’s why an altogether different result may be most appealing for the Russians. “From a Russian perspective, the best outcome is a chaotic, contested election,” Polyakova said. That’s quite possible, given the real possibility that Trump may not accept defeat and may choose, instead, to litigate the election through the courts.
A crisis for American democracy — and the global despair over America that in some corners has already set in — may be a victory in and of itself for the Russian leadership. “There’s been a misconception of Russian strategy in general,” Polyakova said. “It’s about ensuring that the U.S. looks chaotic, badly managed and full of strife and unable to deal with problems abroad and at home.” ¤ To that end, the Kremlin has hardly needed to lift a finger.
🐣 RT @nytimes After months of delays, President Trump’s son Eric was questioned under oath on Monday as part of a civil investigation by New York’s attorney general into whether the Trump family’s real estate company committed fraud.
⋙ NYT: Eric Trump Finally Interviewed in N.Y. Fraud Inquiry http://nyti.ms/2Su41hT
// President Trump’s son had sought to postpone a deposition with the New York attorney general’s office until after Election Day.
🐣 RT @JoshTPM Watching the little clues and the continued refusal to disclose the date of the last negative COVID test the piece of kryptonite at the center of this clown show seems likely to be that Trump went into the debate without getting tested, and perhaps hadn’t been tested in days.
💙 WaPo: Trump administration revokes the visa of a Ukrainian political fixer tied to Giuliani http://wapo.st/3istliU “The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Volodomyr Yelchenko, praised the administration’s actions against … [Ukrainian fixer Andrii] Telizhenko“
The State Department last month revoked the visa of a Ukrainian political fixer who aided President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in his gambit last year to dig up information from Ukraine that would damage former vice president Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to U.S. officials.
The revocation of Ukrainian fixer Andrii Telizhenko’s visa comes as U.S. officials crack down on Russian efforts to influence the November vote. The revocation, which hasn’t previously been reported, came shortly before the Treasury Department sanctioned a different Ukrainian who was cooperating with Giuliani — lawmaker Andriy Derkach — and dubbed Derkach an “active Russian agent for over a decade” and said he was trying to interfere in the election, the U.S. officials said.
Telizhenko accompanied Giuliani during a trip to Kyiv late last year, which included a meeting with Derkach. Derkach’s visa was pulled by the State Department earlier this year. Both Ukrainians had been interacting regularly with Giuliani, as the former New York mayor sought to obtain information from Ukraine that would help Trump’s electoral chances.
On Monday, in a statement on the Derkach designation, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said that anyone who does business with a sanctioned person could themself be subject to sanctions.
Derkach has not responded to requests for interviews since he was sanctioned but in a statement on Facebook described the U.S. action as a “preventive response to my next press conference . . . It is revenge against me, as a representative of the team of investigators.”
The U.S. moves, officials say, show an administration willing to target people furthering Moscow’s efforts to stoke political divisions in American society. They come despite the president’s aversion to acknowledging the Kremlin’s interference activities.
The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Volodomyr Yelchenko, praised the administration’s actions against Derkach and Telizhenko. “They are just ruining our efforts to preserve bipartisan support for Ukraine,” he said of the two Ukrainians in an interview. “They’ve tried to torpedo our relationship. When they come up with unsubstantiated stories to help one side on the eve of elections, that’s concerning. I’m glad the United States has seen them for what they are.”
Telizhenko has denied any involvement in Russian interference or disinformation operations and denied working with Derkach. Derkach has denied he is a Russian agent. …
Beginning in 2017, Telizhenko promoted the narrative that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. Citing his experience at the Ukraine embassy, he asserted that Ukrainian officials colluded with the Democratic Party to assist Hillary Clinton. That fueled the baseless theory — one pushed by Moscow — that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.
Giuliani joined the president’s allies in seizing upon Telizhenko’s theory as a way to defend Trump in the midst of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference and contacts between the Russian government and Trump associates.
Telizhenko first sparked U.S. officials’ concern in early 2019 when he began promoting such pro-Russian narratives by sharing information with Republican lawmakers. Later that year, he began discussions with Giuliani.
Giuliani met with Telizhenko several times last year and relied on him to organize a trip to Hungary and Ukraine during the impeachment proceedings. On that trip, Giuliani met twice with Derkach, according to Telizhenko. Telizhenko said he was present for one of the meetings, but denied arranging them.
Derkach appeared earlier this year on Giuliani’s YouTube podcast “Common Sense,” a platform for Giuliani to share his take on politics. Though Telizhenko denies working with Derkach, he provided the English-language voice-over for Derkach’s Russian comments to Giuliani.
Derkach again drew the attention of U.S. officials this spring when he began releasing leaked edited recordings of then-vice president Biden speaking to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Around the time Derkach released the tapes, Telizhenko made public a transcript of Biden speaking with Poroshenko. He claimed he received the document from someone other than Derkach.
In an interview with The Post earlier this year, Telizhenko said he had more transcripts of Biden’s conversations, which he said he provided to someone in the United States who might release them closer to the election.
Telizhenko also became a flash point in Senate Republicans’ probe of Biden and Ukraine this year. Democrats assailed Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) for taking information from Telizhenko in the course of their investigation, which culminated in a report released in September.
Telizhenko told The Post in September that he cooperated extensively with Johnson’s probe. This included handing over “more than 100 emails,” which were drawn mainly from Telizhenko’s previous work at the Ukraine embassy. This prompted Democrats to accuse the Johnson of laundering foreign disinformation.
Johnson denied the allegation and said the Democrats were smearing him to discredit the report. The report said Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma gave the appearance of a conflict of interest but it failed to demonstrate that his involvement with the Ukrainian gas firm changed U.S. policy toward Ukraine or influenced Joe Biden’s actions in any way.
🐣 RT @Laurie_Garrett Hiding behind HIPAA when it’s the Leader of the Free World we’re talking about is frankly immoral. The American people have a right to know how well/sick their President is. Refusing to even describe his lung scans = cover-up.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kurteichenwald Normal presidents waive HIPAA. Thats why their medical reports are released. Trump will not, because he cares only about Trump, not US national security. He can keep his privacy if he resigns. Until then, this alone is reason to vote him out.
‼️ 🐣 The Regeneron antiviral cocktail has not been approved for Emergency Use.
⋙ 🐣 RT @real I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!
⭕ 4 Oct 2020
NYT: As Trump Seeks to Project Strength, Doctors Disclose Alarming Episodes http://nyti.ms/3ivjbOo
// The president made a surprise outing from his hospital bed in an effort to show his improvement, but the murky and shifting narrative of his illness was rewritten again with grim new details.
WaPo: Secret Service agents, doctors aghast at Trump’s drive outside hospital http://wapo.st/3cYm0Xa “‘He’s not even pretending to care now,’ one agent said after the president’s jaunt outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”
🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Trump’s ride will be talked about 30 years from now like it happened yesterday. It will be viewed as the worst photo op in Presidential History. It speaks perfectly to his sociopathy, recklessness, neediness and the extremes of his movement.
@ProjectLincoln looks forward to crucifying him (politically) with it this week. He looks completely deranged as he conjures the definitive 21st Century Dr. Strangeglove vibe as he waves at the Q-Anon freak show from inside the hermetically sealed Presidential Suburban with two Secret Service hostages.
Trump’s malevolent insanity and malfeasance have wrecked the country. At least 150,000 are dead who shouldn’t be. The economy is wrecked for the little guy while Trump’s cronies and family engorge themselves. School is ruined and so many pleasures of life are ended because of Covid and Trump’s imbecility.
I wish I was able to be in the room with @SenatorCollins and @TheRickWilson @reedgalen and @stuartpstevens when she sees the ad coming for her with Trump in the limo. Trump ended his Presidency this week. The disclosure that he is a tax cheat combined withhis unhinged and out of control debate performance, which included a call to arms for fascist militia groups, threats of violence and sinister insinuations about a peaceful transition of power being dependent on his victory were more than enough to finish him.
But at long last Karma has found its’ way to Donald John Trump. His recklessness and casual disregard for human life have caused an epic tragedy in America. That same recklessness and buffoonery has destroyed his campaign. It is bankrupt and broken. Its’ leadership is scandalized.
There is chaos in the White House and in the campaign. It is coming apart. The staff are confused and scared. They have been disregarded and treated like disposable dog shit bags. No one trusts anyone or believes anything on the inside. It’s breaking up.
“THE RIDE” will be the Eternal symbol of Trump’s collapse. He looks like a fool. A reckless fool who failed America more than any other American who has ever lived. Get ready for Trump’s version of Dukakis in the tank. It will be our tribute to Roger Ailes with a special dedication to @kimguilfoyle for upholding the highest standards of depravity and insanity at the FNC. America, the sane part, has come to expect nothing less.
🐣 RT @DocJeffD “Pope Francis said on Sunday that the COVID-19 pandemic was the latest crisis to prove that market forces alone and ‘trickle-down’ economic policies had failed to produce the social benefits their proponents claim.”
⋙ Reuters: Pope says free market, ‘trickle-down’ policies fail society http://reut.rs/2HOyYv0
NYT: Trump’s Treatment Suggests Severe Covid-19, Medical Experts Say http://nyti.ms/3iy0klT
// Many of the measures cited by his doctors are reserved for patients severely affected by the coronavirus.
🐣 RT @AndrewFeinberg NEW: @ProjectLincoln is not pulling any negative ads. Here’s a new one. 💽 https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1312880782273376256?s=20/photo/1
// Lincoln Project ad❣ American Nazis
🐣 RT @PhilipRucker Attending physician at Walter Reed —>
⋙ 🐣 RT @DrPhillipsMD That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.
🐣 RT @CNNSOTU CNN’s @jaketapper: “Sick and in isolation, Mr. President, you have become a symbol of your own failures. Failures of recklessness, ignorance, arrogance. The same failures you have been inflicting on the rest of us … Get well and get it together” #CNNSOTU
🐣 RT @anneapplebaum Since I wrote this, Trump had himself photographed “working”: signing a blank piece of paper, with a binder photoshopped in afterwards to make it seem more serious. He can’t even lie competently.
⋙⋙ TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum: Trump Is a Super-Spreader of Disinformation http://bit.ly/34kN9ji
// The president is the single biggest reason why many Americans distrust science, the electoral system, and one another.
⭕ 3 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @KuchelmanAshley Always a great reminder. Please share this powerful video ‼️
💙 ⋙ 🐣 RT @Eleven_Films BREAKING: Remember America? We do. #ImpeachmentDay
💽 https://twitter.com/Eleven_Films/status/1224906560616316930?s=20/photo/1
// powerful Eleven Films ad❣ with Adam Schiff Impeachment Day Midnight in Washington
CBSNews: 1513 Alumni at Amy Coney Barrett’s undergrad school sign letter of concern http://cbsn.ws/3l8IEPt “[T]he letter says the alumni are ‘firmly and passionately opposed to her nomination,’ declaring Barrett fails to represent their views and values”
🐣📋 RT @Strandjunker 2 died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign.
4 died in Benghazi: They had Hillary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings, and launched a multiyear probe.
213,543 died thanks to Trump’s malevolence: They cheered him at the Rose Garden superspreader event. #RoseGardenMassacre
🐣 RT @MeidasTouch If Trump tested positive 72 hours ago like the doctor just implied this is one of the biggest scandals and coverups in American history
🐣 RT @davidaxelrod The stunning conclusion from the briefing today is that the @POTUS knew he had COVID-19 at least 3 days ago, did not disclose it, went to events and risked infecting others. ¤ They thought they could hide this until the media outed Hope Hicks and the POTUS developed symptoms.
🐣 RT @Judson4Congress This is the Rose Garden event now known as the #RoseGardenMassacre. ¤ We are now seeing the results of this event. ¤ Please don’t forget that the GOP bullied, threatened, and toiled to make sure that *THIS* was Every. Classroom. In. America. https://twitter.com/Judson4Congress/status/1312389296230469633?s=20/photo/1
// infected attendees circled
🐣 RT @gelliottmorris Early polling suggests the news that POTUS held a mostly-unmasked super-spreader in the Rose Garden last Sat, didn’t get tested b4 the debate on Tues, held an in-person rally on Wed & tried to hide his own case until an aide’s leaked on Thurs is going badly for the White House.
🧵 RT @chrisgeidner So. That presser did not go well. 📌 https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1312422484306726914?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @chrisgeidner The “72 hours” timeline statement is jaw-dropping. The oxygen bit was cartoonish in Conley’s avoidance. The “I’m not going to answer questions about that” refrain started to get jarring as well.
⋙ 🐣 RT @chrisgeidner Then they controvert the presser with this far-more-concerning background statement to the pool reporters:
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @albamonica Pool reporters at Walter Reed pass along this assessment from a source familiar with Trump’s health: “The President’s vitals over last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @chrisgeidner The background statement appears to have come from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
⋙⋙ 🧵(⇈) RT @Olivianuzzi UPDATE: Immediately after the press conference ended and before the anonymous statement was sent out, Mark Meadows briefed reporters without cameras—but he was caught on a feed asking to be off the record. 💽 📌 https://twitter.com/Olivianuzzi/status/1312429131079057409?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Olivianuzzi So we have the White House chief of staff on camera, anonymously providing contradictory information to reporters right after the president’s doctors briefed the public.
🐣 RT @Santucci NEW – Sources close to the President tell @ABC Trump was having trouble breathing & received supplemental oxygen on Friday at the White House after his oxygen levels dropped. This in part prompted the Trump to be transferred to Walter Reed w/ @KFaulders – confirming @nytimes
🐣 RT @brhodes Rallies. Debate. Flights. Fundraisers. Think of all the other people infected and put at risk since the White House held a mask and distance free event in the middle of a pandemic to celebrate stealing a SCOTUS seat. The irresponsibility is just staggering to contemplate
🐣 RT @MollyMcKew POTUS knew he had COVID.
They treated him in secret, hoping he wouldn’t show symptoms.
He continued to do events and expose others.
Lies. Endangerment. Lies.
Vote them out. None of these people should ever work in this place again.
🧵 RT @3DTruth Remember last week when trump said his covid numbers would be great if you didn’t count blue states? Good times!!! ¤ Remember in March, when trump wouldn’t give PPE to blue states at the peak of the pandemic, but gave more PPE to red states than they needed or asked for? Fun!!! 📌 https://twitter.com/3DTruth/status/1312309387227090944?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @3DTruth Remember when trump scrapped his national covid response in the beginning, because the hardest hit states were blue states, and he wanted all of us to suffer and die? ¤ Yeah, where’s your humanity? We should all be sending Trump get well cards and wishing him a speedy recovery!!!
⋙ 🐣 RT @3DTruth One of MY favorite memories of trump was when he was stealing PPE that individual states paid for with their own money. That was THE BEST! ¤ I guess his ppl have all the PPE they need to treat the Republican outbreak. Too bad our nurses wore garbage bags.
⋙⋙ 🐣 Thank you. I wish no ill on anyone, but I’ll save my “thoughts and prayers” for the victims, not the perpetrators.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @3DTruth Exactly. I’m trying to be honest about how I feel and not feed the negativity, but after all he’s put us thru, it’s psychologically unhealthy to pretend to feel a way that we don’t about the situation to earn “I’m a good person points.”
⭕ 2 Oct 2020
🐣 RT @DrEricDing National security risk: when your Secret Service bodyguards rebel against you. ¤ “He’s never cared about us”. Agents who work in field offices complained that they are no longer being tested when they return home from working at a rally for the president.
⋙ WaPo: Trump seemed to defy the laws of science and disease. Then, the coronavirus caught up with him http://wapo.st/3ndiiNY
🐣 RT @georgetconway3d Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
(“SARS-CoV-2”)
⋙ 🐣 RT @owillis hey. who is running the country right now?
🐣 RT @AngrierWHStaff This makes a lot of sense. Will have to look for other photos. ¤ I passed the bulging jacket off as not wearing the girdle he normally does, but very possible he was concealing small o2 tank. I *was* told he was having difficulty breathing. ¤ Would explain wearing suit to hospital
⋙ 🐣 RT @kakkiman Pretty sure Trump boarded Marine One with a portable oxygen concentrator in his pocket with the nasal cannula going up his back, hidden in his hair and tucked under his mask. He is not as well as they say. Liar in chief… https://twitter.com/kakkiman/status/1312215507433517057?s=20/photo/1-3
🐣 RT @SollenbergerRC So far:
The president
The first lady
Counselor to the president
The president’s top aide
The president’s campaign manager
The head of the Republican National Committee
Two GOP members of the senate judiciary
White House communications staffer
Three White House correspondents
🐣 RT @LisaDNews 23 POSITIVE COVID TESTS:
1+2. President & Melania Trump
3. Bill Stepien, Trump campaign mgr
4. Hope Hicks
5. Kellyanne Conway
6. Sen. Mike Lee
7. Sen. Thom Tillis
8. Ronna McDaniel
9. Notre Dame Pres. Jenkins
10-12. Three WH reporters
13-23. Eleven staffers frm Cleveland debate
🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Titanic hit the iceberg at 1140 pm. There was a slight shudder. Most passengers were undisturbed. 2 hours and 40 minutes later she was 14,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic. The lethal event was barely noticed. The consequences played out in spasms of fear and chaos. That is
⋙ 🐣 RT @SteveSchmidtSES The Trump campaign tonight. It is imploding under the staggering weight of its’ lying and corruption. The staffers are enraged about the recklessness of their leadership. It’s all going down. You can feel it. This is the week that finished the Trump presidency. The end is near
🐣 RT @davidplouffe A COVID-19 clusterfuck in the Rose Garden. So sad, so fitting, so infuriating. They are dumb, cynical and dangerous. And may their kind never return to the White House.
🧵 RT @SteveSchmidtSES .@ProjectLincoln We are hearing from many sources within the Trump campaign about the fear and panic in the ranks. Staffers are scared. Some are terrified. They know the walls are crumbling. Some like Miller and Meadows are irredeemable and will face history’s brutal judgement. 📌 https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1312223572748898304?s=20
⋙ Trump is losing. He is failing. The campaign is out of money. The former campaign manager allegedly stole $40 million and is reported to have beaten his wife and waived a gun at her. 5-0 took him down like he was on COPS. Guilfoye is disgraced and going down.
⋙ Don jr is clearly distressed. It’s Everyman and woman for themselves now. @ProjectLincoln. Old friends, you came to Washington, most of you with idealism in your hearts and a love of country and her people. Look what’s happened. It’s not too late. We will protect your
⋙ Confidentiality. What is happening inside? Is there talk of inciting fascist militia’s like the proud boys? Is there talk of proclaiming illegitimate victory? Is there talk of illegal voter suppression? It is not too late to do right. Remember all you had to do, once upon
⋙ a time was be in the Resistance by midnight on June 6, 1944. The time to act is now. Reach out. We will protect you. What are you seeing in the inside. We know about the mutiny tonight. So many of you are working from home now. No one is watching. Slow it down. Do no more
⋙ Damage. Incite no more racial animus. Incite no more violence and insanity. Be complicit in no more lies. Look at the monuments in Washington. Remember what they stand for. We are your friends. The American people are your friends. Hurt us all no more. Help us end this. Reach out
⋙ @reedgalen @stuartpstevens let us help you help all of us. Be Patriots in this hour of crisis. It is your next act that will be remembered. Trump will ask more of you. If you do as he asks there will be no place to return from. Infamy will linger forever around
⋙ Your names. It is America or Trump in the final analysis. It is time to come home. The sickness is spreading among you because Trump doesn’t care about you. His recklessness has put your families in danger as he has put all Americans in danger. Help us end this nightmare.
⋙ What is happening on the inside? What gears and machinery can you throw sand in ? Fight back at long last. Vote him out.
🐣 RT @PeterAlexander Top White House aide says power has not been transferred to Vice President Mike Pence: “The President is in charge.”
🐣 RT @JenniferJJacob BREAKING: Trump, who revealed early this morning he has coronavirus, is leaving the White House for Walter Reed Military Medical Center.
STATNews (9/29): Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody may help non-hospitalized patients recover faster, early data show http://bit.ly/3cR5Cro
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 WASHINGTON (AP) — White House doctor: Trump received experimental antibody cocktail, remains ‘fatigued’ after COVID-19 diagnosis.
WaPo: Justice Dept., FBI planning for the possibility of Election Day violence, voting disruptions http://wapo.st/2GAzM60
🐣 RT @ClaraJeffery Dana Bash reporting that Hicks, Trump, Stephen Miller, Bill Stepien, Chris Christie, among others were basically in a small conference room, unmasked, for days prepping for the debate.
🐣 RT @brianklaas Less than 72 hours ago, Trump was mocking Biden for wearing a mask. What Biden does is leadership: setting a good example that could actually save thousands of lives during the worst pandemic in a century.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ABC Pres. Trump mocks Joe Biden on the issue of masks: “I don’t wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” http://abcn.ws/debate #Debates2020 💽 https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1311938586745413633?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @CaroleCadwalla A reminder to all Americans that the net effect of our prime minister catching COVID-19 was that it prompted a surge of patriotic support. From which he emerged with renewed popularity. Which enabled him to tear up key functions of the state 📌 https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1311920391842078725?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @CaroleCadwalla It also silenced press & parliament at key moment in crisis from asking critical questions. And when it was announced he was moving to intensive care was moment of national shock. Everything about this is rocket fuel for ‘patriotism’
🐣 October. Surprise
🐣 RT @brhodes The whole thing is just so sad. All of it. Everything that has happened in this country.
🐣 RT @NBCNews BREAKING: NBC News Special Report: President Trump and First Lady test positive for coronavirus. https://pscp.tv/w/1lPKqLLQapAxb
// about 12:55amCT
🐣 RT @ashishkjha This is a nightmare.
COVID19 is a serious infection, especially for someone who is older like Mr. Trump.
I can’t believe he was infected. This is a total failure by WH team to protect the President
Wishing both the President and The First Lady and speedy recovery.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
// 12:54amET (11:54pmCT)
⋙ 🐣 RT @DMalebranche “Can’t believe”?
It’s completely believable given his reckless behavior and actions.
It’s no one fault but his own.
He had access to the best scientists, security, and public health officials.
He chose to ignore them all.
No one is celebrating.
But he is not a victim.
⭕ 1 Oct 2020
🧵 RT @vermontgmg THREAD: If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to point how just how embarrassing this list of “national security officials and other senior officials” endorsing Trump is—especially for a Republican president. Especially for an *incumbent* GOP president. There are three major problems: 📌 https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1311836883777921025?s=20
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @KWehsner Maddow: Trump Attack On Election Warrants Vigilance Of Swing State Republicans https://youtu.be/cV1xynOTqAA via @YouTube
AP: In big states, tiny counties, Trump attacking voting rules http://bit.ly/3cNMRVT “‘It’s clearly based on an overall strategy to disrupt the election as much as possible,’ said Barry Richard, who represented President George W. Bush’s campaign in the 2000 Florida recount”
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote YEP. Days before he brandished a gun and threatened suicide, Brad Parscale told a friend he was under federal investigation.
⋙ BusinessInsider: Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale told friends he was under federal investigation just… http://bit.ly/36or45S
// Brad Parscale told others he was under federal investigation, days before he was detained by police at his Florida home, Trump advisers told Insider
PennCapitalStar: After fiery unveiling, some Republicans express concern with House election integrity panel http://bit.ly/3ig7z1K Republicans in the PA House are seeking to give a select committee — that they would control — subpoena power over the integrity of the election
🧵 RT @ChrisMurphyCT This hasn’t gotten enough attention, but you need to know. Everybody needs to know.
1/ It’s about the massive coverup campaign underway to disguise the octopus-like Russian election interference operation being run on Trump’s behalf.
Please read this whole thing. 📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1311772832234385409?s=20
WaPo: As debate commission considers rule changes, Trump signals he’ll reject them http://wapo.st/33kEXQu
🐣 RT @AWeissman Breaking: One more reason the Special Counsel investigation should have performed a full financial investigation of Trump. ¤ Read: Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ScottMStedman This is the only known instance in the public record of Russian intelligence-connected rubles flowing into the small Deutsche Bank branch. ¤ Experts we spoke with could not find a legitimate reason for the vast amount of money moving from such a small bank in Russia to the US.
⋙ 🐣 RT ScottMStedman BREAKING: Forensic News can reveal, based on exclusive documents, that a small bank in Russia with deep ties to Russian intelligence quietly moved $330 million into Deutsche Bank’s New York branch during the time period that it was lending to Trump.
⋙⋙ ForensicNews, Scott Stedman and Eric Levai: Russian Intelligence Connected Bank Deposited $330 Million Into Deutsche Bank America http://bit.ly/36ntBx5
DBTCA issued large loans to Donald Trump in 2012 and again in 2015 for his properties in Miami, Chicago and Washington, DC, totaling approximately $340 million. The loans have been of intense public interest given their proximity to the branch laundering billions in Russian cash. Robert Mueller’s special counsel team, according to those who worked for the office, did not pursue Trump’s records with Deutsche Bank, and the Supreme Court said earlier this year that a subpoena issued by House Democrats to Deutsche Bank seeking Trump’s records was overly broad.
According to the New York Times, Trump still owes $297 million to Deutsche Bank for the loans for these properties.
🐣 RT @McFaul Trump has autocratic proclivities but not autocratic powers (yet). Dictators count the votes. Trump doesn’t get to count the votes. Dictators call on their armies to stay in power. Not an option for Trump; he’s got the Proud Boys. Stop making Trump sound more powerful than he is.
🐣 I live in Rochester, MN, where we have a large number of Somali and Hmong refugees. Plus, many of our Mayo Clinic doctors are immigrants. We don’t need any advice from @realDonaldTrump on immigrants. We welcome them.
Politico: Trump’s ex-national security adviser says president is ‘aiding and abetting’ Putin http://politi.co/3cQCNex
// H.R. McMaster’s warning represents perhaps his harshest public criticism of the president since the retired general was ousted from the White House in 2018.
🐣 RT @danielsgoldman I am sad to be one of the 1,600+ former DOJ lawyers to sign this letter urging current DOJ lawyers — including some of my former colleagues — to thwart the AG’s clear efforts to politicize the DOJ for the benefit of President Trump’s reelection. We must oppose authoritarianism.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 🚨NEW🚨1,600+ frmr DOJ lawyers warn of possible elex interference from AG Barr, urge current DOJ personnel, including John Durham, to
1️⃣ report such misconduct
2️⃣ refuse participation
3️⃣ as a last result, “resign[] rather than violate their oaths of office.”
⋙⋙ Medium: DOJ Alumni Open Letter on Protecting Free and Fair Elections http://bit.ly/3nbWySA
⭕ 30 Sep 2020
★ NYT: Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump http://nyti.ms/3dCxxvy
// Cornell University researchers analyzing 38 million English-language articles about the pandemic found that President Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.”
WaPo, Greg Sargent (9/30): Could Trump steal the election? Here’s one way to find out. http://wapo.st/3jxnmKO New laws would be required to change how electors are assigned. Three key swing states, MI PA & WI, have Dem governors. ACB must affirm she stands by this precedent
🧵 RT @davidenrich 1/ Remember how, last year, @DeutscheBank told a federal court that it did not have @realDonaldTrump’s tax returns? 📌 https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1311451500133130240?s=20
⋙⋙ NYT, David Enrich (10/10/2019): Deutsche Bank Does Not Have Trump’s Tax Returns, Court Says http://nyti.ms/2SmlgBv
// 10/10/2019
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 4/ In February 2005, when DB agreed to lend Trump $640M to build a skyscraper in Chicago, the bank required that Trump personally guarantee $40M of the loan. ¤ That “Payment Guaranty” agreement was later disclosed in a heap of NY state court filings.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 5/ The guaranty agreement clearly states that Trump (the Guarantor) was providing DB (the Agent) with copies of his federal income tax returns, as well as statements of his financial condition, etc. See for yourself. https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1311452122744000515?s=20/photo/1-3
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 6/ This doesn’t explain what happened to the tax returns that Deutsche at one point had. Nor does this 2005 agreement prove the bank had portions of his returns for later years, as sources have told me. ¤ But, for a DB/Trump obsessive like me, it is interesting. ¤ The End, for now.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ 7/ And this, from the 2005 loan agreement itself, says that @realDonaldTrump was required to provide @DeutscheBank with his federal tax returns *every year* going forward. ¤ Trump defaulted on this loan in November 2008, at which point he presumably stopped providing his returns. https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1311456754077757440?s=20/photo/1-2
WaPo, Dana Milbank: Trump backs violent white supremacists. There’s no way around it. http://wapo.st/2GkN7PY He “singled out, and made common cause with, one violent gang characterized by his own FBI as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism”
// “Rather than tell that group, the Proud Boys, to stand down, Trump suggested they ‘stand back and stand by’ — presumably, for further violence when needed.”
🐣 RT @AngrierWHStaff Family is afraid Parscale will flip. ¤ It doesn’t need to be said, but innocent people don’t worry about anyone flipping.
⋙ VanityFair, Gabriel Sherman: “The Family Is Worried Brad Will Start Talking”: Trumpworld Panics Over Debate Fiasco as Campaign Turmoil Mounts http://bit.ly/30mzyGJ
// Over three days, the New York Times dropped a tax bombshell, Florida cops cuffed Brad Parscale, and the president just couldn’t help himself onstage. “Trump didn’t win over any voters,” said a prominent Republican, “and he pissed off a lot of people.”
WaPo Editorial: The debate was a disgrace. It showed us Trump’s assault on democracy is escalating. http://wapo.st/3iiLgIL
🐣 RT @DanRather It’s hard to come to grips with a president who embodies the ugliness of the American story. White supremacy, economic injustice, and entitlement have always lived alongside this nation’s most noble ideals. Perhaps the United States can now reckon with its demons.
💙🐣 RT @ScottMStedman .@HillaryClinton last night on MSNBC: “It appears pretty clear to me… that Russian money was funneled through Deutsche Bank, Russian money was used as guarantees for continuing lending to Trump and his organization”
⋙ 🐣 RT @ScottMStedman I believe this is the first time someone of Clinton’s stature has said this out loud.
🐣 RT @MichaelJMorrell This is the most blatant act of politicization by a DNI that I have ever seen. DNI specifically testified at his nomination hearing that he would never do anything like this.
⋙ NYT: Top Intelligence Official Releases Unverified, Previously Rejected Russia Information http://nyti.ms/347YgMg
// The disclosure appeared to be aimed at helping President Trump benefit politically, and intelligence agencies were said to object to its release.
━━━━━━━▼ First Debate Factchecks
✅ NBCNews: First Presidential debate: Full coverage and fact checks http://nbcnews.to/2GpaaJi
// It was the first time the two candidates faced off on the debate stage after months of tweets and attack ads.
✅ CBSNews: First presidential debate: Fact-checking Trump and Biden on mail ballots, the economy, COVID and more http://cbsn.ws/2S9RJem
✅ WaPo: Fact-checking the first Trump-Biden presidential debate http://wapo.st/2G3OWBd
✅ NPR FactCheck: The 1st Presidential Debate http://n.pr/36fCatY
// Live Updates And Fact Checks
✅ USAToday: Debate fact check: Where Biden, Trump land on COVID-19, campaigning, law and order, more http://bit.ly/34eDJWi
✅ Snopes: Snopes Coverage of the First 2020 U.S. Presidential Debate http://bit.ly/3n3KpiL
// Joe Biden and Donald Trump met in Ohio for the first of four debates this election season. Snopes fact-checked it live.
✅ Politifact: Fact-checking the first 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump http://bit.ly/3ipLE8x
✅ CNN: Trump unleashes avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate http://cnn.it/3iiXqRI
✅ AP FACT CHECK: False claims flood Trump-Biden debate http://bit.ly/36rHQRs
✅ FactCheck.org: FactChecking the First Trump-Biden Debate http://bit.ly/30mtNJ9
// In a chaotic debate with plenty of crosstalk, there was also plenty to fact-check.
✅ NYT: Fact-Checking the First 2020 Presidential Debate http://nyti.ms/3l05Hfd
━━━━━━━▲
💙❤️ WaPo: Comey defends probe of Trump and Russia as Republican insist it was biased http://wapo.st/347qWF8
💙❤️ 🧵 RT @emptywheel The Comey hearing is about to start. Lindsey, Grassley, and Tom Cotton all wearing masks so prolly Trump will make fun of them. http://cs.pn/2ScoAzh 📌 https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1311305499346862080?s=20
WaPo: Right-wing extremists take to social media to celebrate Trump’s ‘stand by’ comment http://wapo.st/3n543uD
// Proud Boys, others see support in Trump’s response to a question about white supremacy
🐣 RT @AaronBlake There was literally an interruption for every minute of the debate last night — even if you define “interruption” narrowly. ¤ Trump was responsible for 71 of them. Biden: 22.
⋙ WaPo: Trump was the interrupter-in-chief at Tuesday’s debate. It wasn’t close. http://wapo.st/33fS31o
// According to a Fix tally, Trump was responsible for more than 75 percent of the interruptions Tuesday night.
🐣 RT @RidgeGlobal [TomRidge] If a Republican President is incapable of condemning white supremacists, then the party of Lincoln has expired.
⭕ 29 Sep 2020
💙 🧵 RT @atrupar The Trump-Biden debate, moderated by Chris Wallace, is about to begin. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1311108221990559748?s=20
// 9/29/2020
WaPo: Trump refused to condemn white supremacists, militia members in debate marked by disputes over race http://wapo.st/36guFTD
// “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by,” President Trump said after Democratic rival Joe Biden challenged him to condemn far-right supporters who have taken to the streets in recent months brandishing weapons.
🐣 RT @AngrierWHStaff Jake Tapper: that was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck. It was the worst debate I’ve ever seen, and it was because of President Trump
NYT: With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden http://nyti.ms/3l0iYV7
// Interrupting Joe Biden nearly every time he spoke, President Trump made little attempt to reassure swing voters about his leadership. Mr. Biden hit back: “This is so unpresidential.”
WaPo: Trump incessantly interrupts and insults Biden as they spar in acrimonious first debate http://wapo.st/3cGQtsN
🐣 RT @PpollingNumbers “Who was more truthful during the debate?”
Biden 65% (+36)
Trump 29%
PBS/CNN
🧵 RT @atrupar The Trump-Biden debate, moderated by Chris Wallace, is about to begin. Follow for a video thread. 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1311108221990559748?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Trump shakes his head as Biden points out that his own DHS and FBI directors say there’s no evidence that mail in ballots are a source of cheating https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1311131322459529216?s=20
🐣 RT @BeschlossDC Democracy was trashed tonight by a President who ran roughshod over the rules, refused to condemn white supremacists and would not tolerate any form of dissent—a harbinger of what a second term might be like.
🐣 RT @BrianStelter Wallace belatedly tried to exert control, but rarely if ever succeeded. So Trump basically moderated tonight’s debate – and Biden took full advantage of his behavior and used it as an argument to end Trump’s presidency. http://cnn.it/3n4TN5t
🐣 RT @MichaelEMann Jon Meacham is measured and circumspect. He doesn’t make statements like this lightly:
⋙ 🐣 RT @jmeacham No hyperbole: The incumbent’s behavior this evening is the lowest moment in the history of the presidency since Andrew Johnson’s racist state papers.
🐣 RT @MichaelEMann Jon Meacham is measured and circumspect. He doesn’t make statements like this lightly:
⋙ 🐣 RT @jmeacham No hyperbole: The incumbent’s behavior this evening is the lowest moment in the history of the presidency since Andrew Johnson’s racist state papers.
🐣 RT @jdiamond1 Tonight, Trump:
– Refused to condemn white supremacists
– Dismissed the memory of Biden’s late son Beau by responding w/ attack on Hunter
– Refused to commit to accepting election results
– Lied about how much federal income tax he paid in 16 & 17
🐣 RT @EvanMcMullin Tonight’s debate marked a new low in American politics, but let’s be clear about who brought us here. That man is Donald Trump—a bully, an ignoramus, a fraud. It’s time for a change, America. I still believe that we’re better than this. We must be.
🐣 RT @kyledcheney Tonight Trump disavowed:
-His CDC director’s comments on masks and vaccines
-His FBI director’s comments on white supremacist violence
-His intel community’s assessment of mail-in ballot security
⋘ Debate Night ⋙
WaPo Editorial: Trump’s taxes are full of red flags. He must disclose all his financial affairs. http://wapo.st/2GpKs7t
⭕ 28 Sep 2020
WaPo: Courts view GOP fraud claims skeptically as Democrats score key legal victories over mail voting http://wapo.st/3cEIYST ‘Republicans have struggled to offer proof for claims about the risk of widespread voter fraud, acc to court filings & oral arguments reviewed by The Post’
DailyBeast: Ex-Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith Vows to Fight Disinformation With New CNBC Show http://bit.ly/3kTfIea “The News with Shepard Smith” premieres on @CNBC on Wednesday at 7pmET/6pmCT
// “No pundits and no opinion,” the consummate newsman promises of his first show since leaving Fox News, debuting this week on CNBC.
Wednesday night’s debut of The News with Shepard Smith, an hour-long show that replaces the 7 p.m. [6 CT] airing of Shark Tank.
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “The concerning thing is that until yesterday, none of those transactions were known, so each and every one of those hidden transactions, those hidden payments provide a leverage point for those foreign nations to use over the president” – @petestrzok w/ @NicolleDWallace https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1310690484457820162?s=20/photo/1
// re: NYT investigation: Trump is a natsec risk, and will continue to be, even if he loses
🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “From a counterintelligence operator’s standpoint, if we saw a target with this kind of debt, this kind of possible fraud and tax avoidance at his country, we would be on him like crazy to recruit him” – @FrankFigliuzzi1 w/ @NicolleDWallace https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1310689433360965633?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @MargLTaylor The committee filed the lawsuit after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused the request[*] and then defied a congressional subpoena seeking the returns, despite a federal law that says the department “shall furnish” such records upon request. 📌 https://twitter.com/MargLTaylor/status/1310671178063900677?s=20
// for Trump’s tax returns
🐣 RT @thedailybeast NEW: Over 3 million Black voters in key states were identified by Trump’s 2016 campaign as people they had to persuade to stay at home on Election Day to help him reach the White House
🔆 This❗️⋙ DailyBeast, Jamie Ross: Trump’s 2016 Campaign Listed Millions of Black Voters It Wanted to Stop From Voting, Leak Reveals http://bit.ly/3mYUptA
// A huge data leak shows that three million Black Americans were unknowingly added to a list of people that Team Trump wanted to keep away from polling places.
Over three million Black voters in key states were identified by President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign as people they had to persuade to stay at home on Election Day to help him reach the White House.
The revelation comes from an enormous data leak obtained by the British news network Channel 4. It shows that, four years ago, the Trump campaign prepared files on almost 200 million American voters and separated some out into eight different categories. One such category, assigned to 3.5 million Black voters, was titled: “Deterrence.”
The Daily Beast revealed two years ago that Team Trump used audience lists created by Cambridge Analytica to target “dark ads” on Facebook in the final months of the 2016 campaign.
There’s no public record of those “dark ads,” which disappeared when the campaign stopped paying for them, and there’s no public information on the lists that were used to target voters. However, Channel 4 does report that it found some evidence that Team Trump pushed ads at Black voters designed to damage opinions of Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton.
One video ad showed Clinton talking about “super-predators” in 1996—a comment she apologized for in 2016 after the clip spread online. Channel 4 reports that Cambridge Analytica privately admitted that the campaign did target “AA,” or African Americans, with what it called the “Predators video,” though it’s not known if the ‘Deterrence’ list was used.
.
🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ As you read the NYT Trump tax story, remember the Eric Trump statement in 2014: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” ¤ Now ask to whom does Trump owe the hundreds of millions of dollars coming due soon?
🐣 RT @MSNBC “This president appears to have over $400 million in debt …To whom? Different countries? What is the leverage they have? …This is a national security question,” Speaker Pelosi says about NY Times report alleging years of tax avoidance by Pres. Trump.
⋙ 💽 MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell: Pelosi voices concern over apparent debt shown in Trump’s tax record http://on.msnbc.com/2FY4oyL
// House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to Andrea Mitchell about revelations from the release of some of President Trump’s tax records. She warned that the president’s debt is a “national security question” and called on him to “pay your fair share.”
WaPo, Max Boot: Trump’s taxes show why he is desperate to stay in office http://wapo.st/3kOA2NI “Trump’s tax returns … show that he is either a terrible businessman or a massive tax cheat”
🐣 RT @pjchatfield The reason we KNOW @realDonaldTrump IS UNDER FOREIGN INFLUENCE IS THAT U.S. BANKS WON’T LOAN MONEY TO TRUMP:
● Banks call it “THE DONALD FACTOR”: 6 MAJOR BANKRUPTCIES & he bilked U.S.BANKS!
● RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS ARE FUNDING TRUMP IN EXCHANGE FOR POWER!
⋙ TheMoscowProject: Mid-1990s: Banks Refuse to Lend to Trump, Citing “The Donald Risk” http://bit.ly/2S8WYuV
🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 Andrew Weissmann on NBC: “When I look at the NYT reporting and I see there are hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that are coming due that the president has personally guaranteed, my question is who does he owe that money to? Is there leverage that those people have?”
WaPo Editorial: Joe Biden for president http://wapo.st/2S8wPfO “He would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government”
🐣 RT @djrothkopf You know why Trump lies all the time? Because the facts do him in. Trump’s record speaks for itself. He’s the worst president ever. Bernard Schwartz and I detail why.
⋙ USAToday, David Rothkopf and Bernard Schwartz: Trump wants to run on his record. We hope he does. It’s been a disaster for America. http://bit.ly/337NCpm
// Trump’s historically, mind-bogglingly bad record is on the ballot. He has destroyed lives and livelihoods, weakened America and risked our democracy.
Trump’s mishandling of the COVID pandemic helped produce the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression — including an unemployment rate of nearly 15% in April. Some estimates suggest that over 40 million Americans lost their jobs as a result of the crisis. Only a fraction of those jobs have returned. Some will never return.
The gross domestic product contraction of 31.7% in the second quarter of this year, on an annualized basis, is by far the largest recorded in U.S. history. According to economists tracked by Bloomberg, the annualized growth rate under Trump’s first four years under a reasonable projection for the remainder of his term is likely to be 0.6%. That’s the worst since Herbert Hoover, about a quarter of the growth level under Barack Obama, and just about a seventh the average growth rate during Bill Clinton’s eight years in office.
As a result of the crisis, today 1 in 5 mothers of children under 12 reported that their children were not getting enough to eat.
America’s international standing has also been hammered under Trump. Under Obama, 74% in a Pew Research Center poll of 32 countries had confidence in him to “do the right thing” in international affairs. Only 29% felt Trump would and that was in January, before the COVID-19 catastrophe. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin ranked higher.
This is the toll of Trump attacking our allies, tearing up international agreements and undermining international institutions. Then came the crisis. In a new Pew poll, the U.S. image plunged around the world, in some countries to record lows.
On environmental policy, nine major green organizations rated Trump the “worst president for our environment in history.” Last year, nearly two-thirds of of Americans called the president’s record on the environment “poor” or “fair.” A new study from the Rhodium Group says Trump regulatory gifts to polluters will put an additional 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2035 — according to The New York Times that’s “more than the combined energy emissions of Germany, Britain and Canada in one year.”
Some of the areas in which Trump claims a great record are downright offensive — like his assertion that he has done more for Black people than “any president since Abraham Lincoln.” This is belied by his defense of white supremacist groups with his “very fine people on both sides” rhetoric, his abuse of Latin immigrants at our border and his constant use of racist dog whistles.
He is one of only two U.S. presidents to be impeached by the House during their first term in office, one of only three ever to be impeached and the only president to have ever been impeached on national security grounds.
He is the first ever to have been credibly accused of betraying his country to a foreign power. In 2016, and again this year, he has sought the support of foreign enemies to win the election and has taken other active measures, like undermining the U.S. Postal Service, to gain an unfair advantage. He is the only president to be accused of serial sex abuse, tax fraud and violation of emoluments clauses in the Constitution.
He denigrated our troops and refused to rise to their defense when credible reports suggested Russia had put a bounty on the heads of Americans serving in Afghanistan. He even refused to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the upcoming election.
No president has been associated with so many people charged with criminal conduct, and no administration has been home to such sweeping corruption. And that’s despite having a Justice Department that has sought to lift the president beyond the reach of the law and a record of packing the courts with unqualified and extremist judges.
The result of all this is that historians and political scientists have concluded there is a key metric by which Trump stands apart from all other presidents. He is the worst.
The president repeatedly says he wants to run on his record. Of course, what he says about that record is not true. (That’s another area he leads all presidents — by a mile. According to fact-checkers at The Washington Post, by July he had made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims.) But when you look at the truth of the damage Trump has done in his four years in office, if you care about America’s future, you can only hope that like Trump, all Americans want to make the 2020 election a referendum on his record.
Let it be a vote on failing to rise to the greatest challenge he faced, the pandemic, and a vote on economic performance and the staggering costs of bad policies. Let it be a vote on corruption. Let it be a vote on his attacks and those of his attorney general on the rule of law, a vote on sending armed federal forces to intimidate peaceful protesters. Let it be a vote on undermining our allies, supporting our enemies and pulling out of international agreements that made us safer. Let it be a vote on children in cages at the border, on the empty promise that Mexico would pay for that wall, on tax cuts funneling the lion’s share of benefits to America’s wealthiest, on not caring about COVID victims if they are Democrats, or too old, or people of color.
Let it be a vote on a record that is historically, mind-bogglingly bad, a record of destroying lives and livelihoods, of weakening America and putting our democracy in peril. So, yes, please, Mr. President, let’s discuss your record. And then, more important, let’s get out and vote on that abysmal record. Vote early if you can. Help others to vote. But whatever you do, recognize that the only way to end this record of abuse, corruption, failure and damage to our country is to remove from office the man who is responsible for it.
Trump wants to be part of history. There is one way to ensure that happens sooner rather than later. Vote.
Alternet: Here’s why there was no mention of Russia or Michael Cohen in NYT tax bombshell: Trump biographer David Cay Johnston http://bit.ly/3cAwEmT “[T]hat would be [in the] business records, not tax records”
🐣 RT @emptywheel The Deputy Campaign Manager who was sending polling data to an intelligence officer tied to the people who attacked the election complains that Mueller flipped “lower-level aides” to get damaging info they didn’t have. Text Block: https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1310529384357527552?s=20/photo/1
// TB says Gates is anti-Mueller etc
⋙ WaPo: Trump suggested naming his daughter Ivanka as his running mate in 2016, according to new book by Rick Gates http://wapo.st/3i6qCeV
⭕ 27 Sep 2020
NYT (2018): Cyberattacks Put Russian Fingers on the Switch at Power Plants, U.S. Says http://nyti.ms/2S2iGk8 “‘They have the ability to shut the power off. All that’s missing is some political motivation‘“ ⋙ Be prepared: top off gas tank, get power bank for electronics etc etc
// 3/15/2018
💙 🧵 RT @ RT @JamesMartinSJ Pope Francis: Tax evasion is part of a “structure of sin.” He also quoted this article: “It has become evident that those who do not pay taxes do not only commit a felony but also a crime: if there are not enough hospital beds and artificial respirators, it is also their fault.” 📌 💽 https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1310382258189107202?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @danpfeiffer Reminder: Trump wants to cut your Medicare and Social Security so that someone worth millions only has to pay $750 in taxes
🐣 RT @brhodes Biden should pass a Donald J. Trump Anti-Corruption and Tax Avoidance Act to restore fairness to our system and fund programs to support working people.
🧵 RT @ElieNYC One thing I will say, because I’ve spent too much of my life talking to @matt_levine, is that one of the *problems* with our tax evasion laws is that once the government decides to come at you, they WILL get you, because a BUNCH of stuff is technically “tax evasion.” 📌 https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1310437737846247424?s=20 [ … ]
⋙ 🐣 RT @ElieNYC Uhh… just to be clear, Trump should ABSOLUTELY GO TO JAIL for *apparently* paying $750,000 to his daughter to decrease his taxable income and listing one of his homes as a business to deduct property taxes. That’s the egregious stuff. ¤ I just don’t care about the haircuts is all
🧵 RT @JoyceWhiteVance I am just digging into this now, but “tax avoidance” is typically a federal crime. Failure to pay can be a misdemeanor but lying about your income in forms you sign is a felony. OK, BRB. 📌 https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1310330612495024129?s=20 [ … ]
⋙ 🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Really the last & most significant one: “within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans—obligations for which he is personally responsible—will come due.” So a president, who appears to be w/out the means to pay the debt, will wheel & deal on it. What could go wrong?
🧵 RT @Heidi_Cuda THE BIGGEST CON AND TRAITOR IN AMERICAN HISTORY—As Trump wages a re-election campaign that he is..losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he personally guaranteed.”-@nytimes 📌 https://twitter.com/Heidi_Cuda/status/1310335040908226561?s=20
🐣 RT @SkinnerPm When I was with CIA, a big thing in your clearance was your debt. Excessive debt made you a candidate for blackmail and therefore a security risk. We’re talking like student loans and stuff. I’m sure $400 million in debt is fine , though. All good.
🐣 RT @JRehling Trump paid a “consultant” $747,622. ¤ Ivanka’s financial disclosures listed income of $747,622 for consulting. ¤ If you think that’s a coincidence, you own a red ballcap with MAGA on it. (And it was made in China.)
🐣 RT @michaelluo Remnick: “It is hard to imagine, though, that every Trumpist—or, more importantly, every undecided voter in the swing states—will relish hearing that he paid, while in office, seven hundred and fifty dollars in federal income taxes.”
⋙ NewYorker, David Remnick: Donald Trump Barely Pays Any Taxes: Will Anyone Care? http://bit.ly/2S1l9LE
🐣 RT @brianstelter The tax story is singularly important because it fills in a big part of Trump’s portrait. Voters and reporters and historians should have the fullest possible portrait of both Trump and Biden. So the NYT has performed a real public service… (http://cnn.it/3kRGW4J)
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman Trump was so desperate for cash that in 2012 that he took out a $100M mortgage on Trump Tower as a payout. ¤ Deutsche Bank then lent him over $150M that year. What bank on earth would ever touch anyone as remotely cash strapped as Trump? Text Block: https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1310352355938848769?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @business [Bloomberg] Trump may be using consulting fees as a way to pay his children, NYT reports. Between 2010 and 2018, Trump deducted $26 million in “consulting fees” as a business expense.
⋙ Bloomberg: Trump Paid Minimal Income Taxes in 2016, 2017, Times Reports http://bloom.bg/338AKzy
// President Donald Trump paid just $750 in U.S. income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, reported losing millions of dollars from his golf courses and has hundreds
🐣 RT @gtconway3d There is another form of secure federal housing potentially available to him after he leaves office, and it does look like he may qualify.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln Of course Trump wants to stay president, he’s soon going to need a place to live and a paycheck.
🐣 RT @mrbromwich Trump knew something we didn’t when he started balking at the peaceful transfer of power. If he loses the election, he faces federal and state prosecution for bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, as does his entire family. No OLC memo will spare him.
🐣 RT @ewarren This is about more than one man’s personal tax scams. Donald Trump is a liar, a cheater, and a crooked businessman, yes. But he’s also taking advantage of a broken, corrupt, and unequal system that’s built for people like him to do what he did.
🐣 RT @SenJeffMerkley We always knew there was a reason @realDonaldTrump was desperate to hide his returns. Now we know exactly why—because he’s a failed businessman who’s rigged his taxes to pay way less than working Americans.
🐣 RT @richsignorelli Important: Trump Tax fraud could not have been done by Trump alone. He was aided & abetted by accountants, tax attorneys, Trump organization officials/employees, and family members. His family members also are principals in the scheme. All are potential co-defendants/cooperators.
⋙ 🐣 RT @arden_messing The IRS Commissioner owns two rental properties at a Trump Hotel in Hawaii. Rettig is from Beverly Hills. He is friends with Mnuchin. The entire Treasury needs to be fumigated, as well.
⋙⋙ 🧵 RT @sarahkendzior I’m making a thread of articles that I think are seminal to understanding the crisis we’re in, but have largely been played down. ¤ They describe massive and horrific crimes that have been carried out with impunity by people in Trump’s camp, often for years or decades. 📌 https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1084826195206774786?s=20
// 1/14/2019
🐣 RT @tribelaw One thing not to overlook in the blockbuster NYT report on Trump’s taxes is his $410M in personal debt. That represents some pretty massive leverage by people or governments with interests that aren’t necessarily ours as Americans. Kompromat, anyone?
🐣 RT @SpeakerPelosi It is a sign of President Trump’s disdain for America’s working families that he has spent years abusing the tax code while passing a GOP Tax Scam for the rich that gives 83 percent of the benefits to the wealthiest 1 percent.
⋙ Speaker.gov: Pelosi Statement on New York Times Report on President Trump’s Taxes http://bit.ly/2HDbQQb
🐣 RT @NYinLA2121 In 2016 Stormy Daniels got paid $130,000 for fucking Donald Trump.
In 2016 Donald Trump paid $750 to the IRS for fucking America.
🐣 RT @davidfrum It says right in the prayerbook that Yom Kippur is the day that God smites deceivers, wrongdoers, and criminals.
⋙ and: 🐣 RT @ruth_franklin According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. Baruch Dayan HaEmet. //➔ the day RBG died
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman It’s absolutely shocking to me that really respected journalists seem to be learning for the first time that Trump owes DBTCA hundreds of millions from loans that they gave him as they were washing laundered Russian money.
🐣 RT @Susan_Hennessey This is a national security story and we need to tell it like one.
⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf It is impossible to read this exceptional @NYTimes story on Trump’s taxes & not conclude he is a crook, his kids are crooks, his companies are badly mismanaged & his financial future is precarious. His creditors own him. We need to know who they are.
🐣 RT @BernieSanders Shock of shocks! Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, received a $72.9 million tax refund from the IRS while not paying a nickel in federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years. ¤ Yep. Trump l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else.
🐣 RT @RepAdamSchiff Trump lives a life of luxury, and lets working families pay the taxes. ¤ The year he was elected, he paid $750 in income taxes. ¤ No wonder his signature policy is cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting healthcare for everyone else. ¤ It’s who Trump is. It’s who he’s always been.
🐣 RT @Scaramucci He is broke, and in hopes of getting a foreign bailout, he’s betraying his country. The @GOP are accomplices to his treason.
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman Mainly owed to a financial institution that habitually launders Russian money
⋙ 🐣 RT @pwnallthethings Like the little story is he pays ~no income tax ¤ The bigger story is he sucks at business ¤ The much bigger story is there’s v likely accounting fraud ¤ But the really big story is the president has a personal liability of hundreds of millions of dollars due and no way to pay it
🐣 Looks like people who pay taxes are also “suckers” and “losers.”
🐣 RT @NormOrnstein We know they are going to be many more shoes to drop from the tax returns. Including outright tax fraud. But what we know now is he manipulated his taxes in ways that meant the rest of us who pay our fair share were cheated by him. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our President.
🐣 Just when I was – for the umpteenth time – going to cancel my subscription to the @nytimes, they publish another jaw dropper. Curses!
🐣 RT @davidfrum You can read Trump’s tax returns two ways: either Donald Trump is the greatest tax cheat in US history – or he is a financial desperado hopelessly in debt to God knows who & needs every dollar he scams from Secret Service golf car rentals just to pay the electricity bill
🐣 RT @peterstrzok This is a roadmap of some of the ways Trump is compromised. In the hands of a hostile intel service, these millions of dollars represent coercive leverage over @realDonaldTrump as a result of undisclosed foreign financial deals while he was President.
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance http://nyti.ms/3mZNgsK ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1310329239850418176?s=20/photo/1
Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.
He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.
As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.
⭕ 26 Sep 2020
HuffPo [CA]: Justin Trudeau Tells UN: ‘The World Is In Crisis, And Things Are About To Get Much Worse’ http://bit.ly/3i7doyy He “warned Friday that the current global order will be upended if leaders across the planet fail to come together to uphold human rights and tackle upcoming threats”
// He argued in a UN speech that COVID-19 is a “wake-up call.”
⭕ 25 Sep 2020
💙 DorfonLaw: State Legislatures Cannot Act Alone In Assigning Electors http://bit.ly/3cCNC3R by Grace Brosofsky, Michael C. Dorf, and Laurence H. Tribe
🐣 RT @emptywheel DiFi: Mueller’s findings confirm the FBI was right to open investigation. ¤ Side note: given Bill Barnett’s 302, we now know that an Agent who sent pro-Trump texts on his FBI phone SINGLEHANDEDLY prevented Mueller from finding a quid pro quo.
EmptyWheel, Marcy Wheeler: Billy Barr Releases 302 that Proves View of Pro Mike Flynn Agent Held Sway in Mueller Report Conclusions http://bit.ly/2EyVjvl
// Billy Barr just provided evidence that the only witness who will corroborate their claims that Flynn was railroaded, actually provided evidence that he wasn’t
🐣 RT @joshtpm The Trump GOP is trying to end the democracy more than 200 years of Americans have worked to hand down to us.
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo, Dana Milbank: This is not a drill. The Reichstag is burning. http://wapo.st/3mSOxC0 “America, this is our Reichstag moment. We have the power to stop it. Don’t let democracy burn to the ground.”
With his repeated refusals this week to accept the peaceful transfer of power — the bedrock principle that has sustained American democracy for 228 years — President Trump has put the United States, in some ways, where Germany was in 1933, when Adolf Hitler used the suspicious burning of the German parliament to turn a democracy into a totalitarian state.
Trump, as he has done before, has made the villain a minority group. He has sought, once again, to fabricate emergencies to justify greater powers for himself. He has proposed postponing elections. He has refused to commit to honoring the results of the election. And now, he proposes to embrace violence if he doesn’t win.
Overwrought, you say? Then ask Yale historian Timothy Snyder, a top authority on Nazism and Stalinism. “The Reichstag has been on a slow burn since June,” he told me. “The language Trump uses to talk about Black Lives Matter and the protests is very similar to the language Hitler used — that there’s some vague left-wing conspiracy based in the cities that is destroying the country.”
“It’s important not to talk about this as just an election,” Snyder said. “It’s an election surrounded by the authoritarian language of a coup d’etat. The opposition has to win the election and it has to win the aftermath of the election.”
If not? There won’t be another “normal” election for some time, he said. But that doesn’t have to happen, and Snyder is optimistic it won’t. To avoid it, we voters must turn out in overwhelming numbers to deal Trump a lopsided defeat. The military must hold to its oath. Homeland Security police must not serve as Trump’s brownshirts. And we citizens must take to the streets, peacefully but indefinitely, until the will of the people prevails.
“It’s going to be messy,” Snyder said. “He seems pretty sure he won’t win the election, he doesn’t want to leave office,” and he appears to Snyder to have “an authoritarian’s instinct” that he must stay in power or go to prison.
It’s abundantly clear that Trump plans to fabricate an election “emergency.” First, he claimed mail-in balloting, a tried-and-true system, is fraudulent. Now his supporters are trying to harass in-person voters.
When Virginia’s early voting opened this week, Trump supporters descended on a polling station, waving Trump signs and flags, chanting and forming a gantlet through which voters had to walk. When the New York Times reported that this voter intimidation campaign began at a nearby rally featuring the Republican National Committee co-chairman, the Virginia GOP responded mockingly from its official Twitter account: “Quick! Someone call the waaaambulance!”
Let’s be clear. There is only one political party in American politics embracing violence. There is only one side refusing to denounce all political violence. There is only one side talking about bringing guns to the polls; one side attempting to turn federal law-enforcement officials into an arm of a political party. And Trump is trying to use law enforcement to revive tactics historically used to bully voters of color from voting — tactics not seen in 40 years.
But embracing violence to resolve democratic disagreement is another matter. Trump embraced the “very fine people” among the homicidal neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. He embraced as “very good people” armed protesters who stormed the Michigan Capitol to intimidate lawmakers. He embraced his supporter who allegedly shot and killed two people at a protest in Wisconsin. He embraced the “GREAT PATRIOTS” who drove into Portland, Ore., hurling paintballs and pepper spray at demonstrators. He embraced officers who kill unarmed African Americans, saying they simply “choke” under pressure.
Now he’s rejecting the peaceful transfer of power. Worse: Most Republican officeholders dare not contradict him. The Times reported that of all 168 Republican National Committee members and 26 Republican governors it asked to comment on Trump’s outrage, only four RNC members and one governor responded.
In Federalist 48, James Madison prophetically warned that tyranny could triumph under “some favorable emergency.” In 1933, Hitler used the burning of the Reichstag to do just that. Trump now, it appears, is aiming to do likewise.
America, this is our Reichstag moment. We have the power to stop it. Don’t let democracy burn to the ground.
🐣 RT @joshtpm Every argument from Trump’s lawyers is based on his being the **current** President. When he leaves the White House all of it disappears in a flash. He knows it.
⋙ TPM, Josh Marshall: The Law Is Coming http://bit.ly/33UpiGE “Trump certainly imagines that he’ll be all but defenseless – or to put it more precisely, no different from any other defendant – without holding the Presidency. And he’s basically right.“
TPM, Josh Kovensky: Despite SCOTUS, Trump Attorneys Stick With ‘It’s Illegal To Investigate The President’ http://bit.ly/3cxn9EV “At arguments before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Friday morning, personal attorneys of the President pushed on to block a criminal subpoena issued by a Manhattan grand jury for President Trump’s tax returns.”
EmptyWheel, Marcy Wheeler: Billy Barr Releases 302 that Proves View of Pro Mike Flynn Agent Held Sway in Mueller Report Conclusions http://bit.ly/2EyVjvl
Flynn literally told the Russian Ambassador that Trump was aware of the discussions, but Barnett claims there was no evidence.
FLYNN: I haven’t gotten, I haven’t gotten a, uh, confirmation on the, on the, uh, secure VTC yet, but the, but the boss is aware and so please convey that. [my emphasis]
Now is probably a good time to note that, months ago, I learned that [FBI agent William] Barnett sent pro-Trump texts on his FBI phone, the mirror image of Peter Strzok sending anti-Trump texts.
So Billy Barr has released a 302 completed just a week ago, without yet releasing the Bill Priestap 302 debunking some of the earlier claims released by Billy Barr in an attempt to justify blowing up the Flynn prosecution, much less the 302s that show that Flynn appeared to lie in his first interview with Mueller’s investigators (as well as 302s showing that KT McFarland coordinated the same story).
And the [Barnett’s] 302 is an ever-loving shit show. Besides the key evidence — that his claim that investigators didn’t listen to him even though the conclusion of the Mueller Report is the one that he says only he had — Barnett disproves his claims over and over in this interview.
Barnett’s testimony substantially shows five things:
● He thought there was no merit to any suspicions that Flynn might have ties to Russia
● He nevertheless provided abundant testimony that some of the claims about the investigation (specifically that Peter Strzok and probably Brandon Van Grack had it in for Flynn) are false
● Barnett buries key evidence: he mentions neither that Flynn was publicly lying about his conversations with Sergey Kislyak (which every other witness said was driving the investigation), and he did not mention that once FBI obtained call records, they showed that Flynn had lied to hide that he had consulted with Mar-a-Lago before he called Sergey Kislyak
● Jensen didn’t ask some of the most basic questions, such as whether Barnett thought he had to investigate further after finding the Kislyak call or who the multiple people Barnett claimed joked about wiping their phone were
● Barnett believes that Mueller’s lawyers (particularly Jeannie Rhee and Andrew Weissmann) were biased and pushing for a conclusion that the Mueller Report shows they didn’t conclude, but he didn’t work primarily with either one of them and his proffered evidence against Rhee actually shows the opposite …… Strzok’s order to withdraw the NSL is yet more proof that Strzok was not out to get Flynn.
Barnett also confirmed something else that Strzok has long said — that they chose not to use any overt methods during the election (unlike the Hillary investigation). ¤ Again, this adds to the evidence that no one was out to get Trump. …
Barnett seems to suggest that as new information came in “in BARNETT’s opinion, no evidence of criminal activity and no information that would start a new investigative direction.” If he’s referring to call records (which is what the NSLs would have obtained) that is, frankly, shocking, as the call records would have shown that Flynn also lied about being in touch with Mar-a-Lago before calling Kislyak. It’s what Flynn was trying to hide with his lies! And yet Barnett says that was not suspect. …
What Billy Barr and Jeffrey Jensen have done is show that the only witness they’ve found to corroborate their claims can’t keep his story straight from one paragraph to another, and claims to be ignorant of several central pieces of evidence against Flynn. ¤ That’s all they have.
↥ ↧
WaPo: Justice Dept. disclosures cast fresh doubt on Trump-Russia investigation http://wapo.st/3i6N4Es
It’s still uncertain whether Durham will issue any findings before Election Day, but the two releases may serve a similar purpose: providing fresh ammunition for conservatives’ arguments that the FBI’s pursuit of the president was unfair and unfounded.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Attorney General William P. Barr said the individual whose information was used to assemble much of a dossier of allegations against the Trump campaign had been the subject of a national security investigation between 2009 and 2011, because FBI agents suspected he might be working for Russia.
The individual’s identity has been kept secret for years, but people familiar with the case said it is Igor Danchenko, a lawyer born in Ukraine who worked at a Washington think tank when he came under suspicion by the FBI for his Russian contacts. Danchenko’s lawyer has acknowledged he was a source of Christopher Steele’s.
In 2016, Danchenko took an assignment from Steele, a British former intelligence officer, to gather information about Trump’s dealings with Russia; Steele later wrote reports that claimed Trump and a number of his close advisers were colluding with Russia. Those reports were based in large part on a person Steele called his “primary sub-source,” which was Danchenko, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to elaborate on statements in official documents.
Although Steele’s allegations were not relied on as a basis to open the investigation into Trump’s campaign, they were used to justify secret surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, later found the court applications for that surveillance were riddled with serious errors and omissions.
In a statement, Graham said the “failure of the FBI to inform the court that the Primary Sub-source was suspected of being a Russian agent is a breach of every duty owed by law enforcement to the judicial system” and a “small group of individuals” in the FBI and Justice Department should be held accountable for their handling of the case.
The senator, a prominent supporter of Trump, did not identify those officials, but a part of his committee’s reexamination of the 2016 probe has focused intently on former FBI director James B. Comey and his deputy, Andrew McCabe.
Shortly before midnight Friday, prosecutors filed a summary of an interview conducted last week with FBI agent William Barnett, in which the veteran agent assigned to the Flynn case and the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III criticized what he called a “get Trump” attitude by some on Mueller’s team.
Barnett said he believed Flynn’s motive for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador was to save his job, rather than to cover up collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The agent said the investigative steps they took were “legally justified” and he felt there was good reason to scrutinize other Trump advisers, but too often Mueller’s team appeared to be pursuing a theory of Russian-Trump campaign collusion built on “supposition upon supposition.”
The disclosure comes four days before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is set to hear arguments over whether to dismiss Flynn’s case, and the Justice Department now cites Barnett’s statements as evidence of the “frail and shifting justifications” for the investigation and the “irregular procedure” of Flynn’s FBI interview.
Barnett’s voluntary interview was conducted last week as part of a review of the Flynn case by Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney handpicked by Barr to reexamine the case.
🐣 RT @JamesCarville A nutty week by any standards. But I want to call attention to what @realDonaldTrump is really aiming for. It’s not a distraction, it’s not to motivate his base, it’s not based on anything other than fear. 1/3
⋙ 🐣 RT @JamesCarville The orange perp knows that what awaits him in 39 days is a resounding electoral defeat. Yes, his cronies may pardon him on federal level but his bigger issue is w/ the distinguished Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance whose team has sniffed out this Trump family scam. 2/3
⋙ 🐣 RT @JamesCarville They are ready to pounce. Everything Trump thinks/breathes everyday is aimed at 1 thing, staying out of jail. He wants leverage to get a pardon from @NYGovCuomo before he will leave 1600 Penn. Prison won’t suit him or family well and his survival instinct has kicked in. 3/3
NYT: ‘I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S. http://nyti.ms/3j4cOmd
// From Myanmar to Canada, people are asking: How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And why won’t the president commit to a peaceful transition of power?
😅 🧵 RT @sykescharlie For no particular reason, this morning I’ve been thinking about Nicolae Ceaușescu’s last public appearance. ¤ Too soon? 📌 https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1309163503861858305?s=20
⋙ EuroNews (2016): See Nicolae Ceausescu’s gold bathroom http://bit.ly/307koFg
// 6/20/2016
💙 🐣 RT @SenAmyKlobuchar Watch my entire response to Senator Ted Cruz about the Supreme Court vacancy: 💽 https://twitter.com/SenAmyKlobuchar/status/1309605367282839558?s=20/photo/1
WeeklyDish [Newsletter], Andrew Sullivan: Yes, This Is The Face Of A Tyrant
// And a competent one at that.
⋙ See under Entire Articles: SullyDish Tyrant 9-25-2020
NYT, Frank Bruni: Will Trump’s Presidency Ever End? http://nyti.ms/33TipFI “The world’s richest and most powerful country has been brought pitifully and agonizingly low.” ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1309442220358086656?s=20/photo/1
// America is in terrible danger
“It’s all about situational power dynamics,” he continued. “If the situation were reversed, the Dems would be doing the same thing.” He argued that Chuck Schumer and McConnell “play the same game. McConnell just plays it a little better.”
So the lesson for Democrats should be to take all they can when they can? That’s what some prominent Democrats now propose: As soon as their party is in charge, add enough seats to the Supreme Court to give Democrats the greater imprint on it. Make the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico states, so that Democrats have much better odds of controlling the Senate. Do away with the filibuster entirely. That could be just the start of the list.
I wouldn’t begrudge the Democrats any of it. The way I’m feeling right now, I’d cheer them on. But Republicans reach back to Harry Reid’s actions when he was the Democratic majority leader of the Senate to justify their wickedness now. Democrats will cite that wickedness to justify the shattering of precedents in the future. Ugliness begets ugliness until — what? The whole thing collapses of its own ugly weight?
And who the hell are we anymore? The world’s richest and most powerful country has been brought pitifully and agonizingly low. On Tuesday we passed the mark of 200,000 deaths related to the coronavirus, cementing our status as the global leader, by far, on that front. How’s that for exceptionalism?
On Wednesday The Atlantic rushed its November cover story onto the web with an explanatory, almost apocalyptic note by its editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, that some journalism is too important to wait. The article is about the very real chance — essentially confirmed hours later by Trump’s “continuation” comment — that he might contest the election in a manner that keeps him in power regardless of what Americans really want.
“The coronavirus pandemic, a reckless incumbent, a deluge of mail-in ballots, a vandalized Postal Service, a resurgent effort to suppress votes, and a trainload of lawsuits are bearing down on the nation’s creaky electoral machinery,” the article’s author, Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer winner, wrote. “The mechanisms of decision are at meaningful risk of breaking down. Close students of election law and procedure are warning that conditions are ripe for a constitutional crisis that would leave the nation without an authoritative result. We have no fail-safe against that calamity.”
Just a few days before those words screeched across the internet, The New Yorker published a similar, equally chilling opus by one of its star writers, Jeffrey Toobin, who explained how this election might well degenerate into violence, as Democratic poll watchers clash with Republican poll watchers, and into chaos, as accusations of foul play delay the certification of state vote counts.
Several hours after Gellman’s article appeared, Slate published one by Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California-Irvine School of Law, with the headline: “I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy Than I Am Right Now.”
NYT: Trump Again Sows Doubt About Election as G.O.P. Scrambles to Assure Voters http://nyti.ms/2RX8kC5
// President Trump declined for a second day to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the election, while Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, implicitly rebuffed him, promising an “orderly transition.”
NYT: At Pentagon, Fears Grow That Trump Will Pull Military Into Election Unrest http://nyti.ms/2G66MD5
// Defense Department officials said top generals could resign if Mr. Trump ordered the active-duty military into the streets to quell election protests.
⭕ 24 Sep 2020
NYMag, Ed Kilgore (4/14): Could State Legislatures Hijack the 2020 Presidential Election? http://nym.ag/3j3kPaZ “No fewer than seven key battlegrounds states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) have Republican-controlled legislature“
// 4/14/2020
So consider this scenario: After a close election and a long count (lengthened by high levels of mail ballots), with court orders and lawsuits flying through the air, one or two or three unresolved states are in a position to give Trump 270 electoral votes, and Republican-controlled legislatures announce they are intervening (much as Florida’s did in 2000) to avoid chaos and “election fraud” and even civil war. No fewer than seven key battlegrounds states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) have Republican-controlled legislature.
↥ ↧
NCSL: The Electoral College http://bit.ly/33Pcv8v
// National College of State Legislatures; laws about electors
WaPo: Trump’s escalating attacks on election prompt fears of a constitutional crisis http://wapo.st/3cstwJH
NYT: Battles Over Voting Rules Fuel Concern About Postelection Fights http://nyti.ms/306elAJ
// Even as early voting has gotten underway, some pivotal states are still litigating how ballots should be cast and counted, creating uncertainty that is being fanned by President Trump.
NYT, Michelle Goldberg: Trump Wants You to Think You Can’t Get Rid of Him http://nyti.ms/3mPvAAe
// His strongman threats are scary. But don’t forget that he’s weak.
NYDailyNews, Alan Blotcky and Seth Norrholm: Say it plainly: The president is a psychopath http://bit.ly/2EurBrk Trump’s “malignant behavior over the past four years is growing and escalating right before our eyes. Trump’s psychopathy will change us forever if he is not stopped”
CNN: How Republicans in key states are preparing to run out the clock on the election http://cnn.it/3cynLdl
DailyBeast, Michael Tomasky: The GOP’s Long March to Fascism Finally Arrives With Trump 2020 http://bit.ly/3hW38J7 Gingrich, Limbaugh, DeLay, Rove, Trump: “I didn’t understand how many millions of people had been persuaded to embrace unreality”
// It turns out the most important anti-truth of recent vintage was the one about voter fraud. This is what Trump will use to steal the election if he can.
WaPo: Internal USPS documents link changes behind mail slowdowns to top executives http://wapo.st/30mAZ8r ‘By an estimate by the office of Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich), nearly 350 million pieces, or 7%, of the country’s first-class mail were affected over a five-week span’
// Newly obtained records appear in conflict with months of Postal Service assertions that blamed lower-level managers for strategies tied to delivery delays.
By one estimate, nearly 350 million pieces, or 7 percent, of the country’s first-class mail were affected over a five-week span, according to an analysis of USPS and Postal Regulatory Commission data by the office of Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich).
🐣 RT @Axios NEW: FBI Director Christopher Wray says the agency has “not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.”
⋙ Axios: Christopher Wray: FBI has not seen evidence of national voter fraud effort by mail http://bit.ly/2RVya9v
🐣 RT @stengel The Constitution does not guarantee the peaceful transition of power, but assumes it. It is the most important norm in our history. Every candidate for every office in the country must say they are for it, or else voters will punish them for it. #VOTE
‼️ 🐣 RT @MSNBC President Trump declines to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, if he loses: “Get rid of the ballots and we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”
⋙ NBCNews: Trump on peaceful transition if he loses: ‘Get rid of the ballots’ and ‘there won’t be a transfer’ http://nbcnews.to/3mNWWqj
// We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.”
🐣 “Those who will not learn from the past … ” http://bit.ly/2FYRFeV ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1309064028321447939?s=20/photo/1
// tags: Hitler’s rise to power propaganda state police terror voter suppression poll monitoring
Federal elections were held in Germany on 5 March 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January and just six days after the Reichstag fire. Nazi stormtroopers had unleashed a widespread campaign of violence against the Communist Party (KPD), left-wingers,[1]:317 trade unionists, the Social Democratic Party of Germany,[1] and the Centre Party.[1]:322 They were the last multi-party elections in a unified Germany until 1990.
The 1933 election followed the previous year’s two elections (July and November) and Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor. In the months before the 1933 election, brownshirts and SS displayed “terror, repression and propaganda […] across the land”,[1]:339 and Nazi organizations “monitored” the vote process. In Prussia 50,000 members of the SS, SA and Der Stahlhelm were ordered to monitor the votes by acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring, as auxiliary police.[2]
The National Socialists registered a large increase in votes in 1933. However, despite waging a campaign of terror against their opponents, the National Socialists only tallied 43.9 percent of the vote, well short of a majority. They needed the votes of their coalition partner, the German National People’s Party (DNVP), for a bare working majority in the Reichstag.
This would be the last contested election held in Germany before World War II. Two weeks after the election, Hitler was able to pass an Enabling Act on 23 March with the support of all non-socialist parties, which effectively gave Hitler dictatorial powers. Within months, the Nazis banned all other parties and turned the Reichstag into a rubberstamp legislature comprising only Nazis and pro-Nazi guests.
⭕ 23 Sep 2020
BusinessInsider: The Trump campaign is reportedly planning a way to bypass the 2020 election results in key swing states http://bit.ly/32ZIy6t
● The Trump campaign is weighing a postelection strategy that would bypass the results in key swing states by installing electors who would vote for the president in the Electoral College even if he loses, according to a report by The Atlantic.
● Election experts have said that moves by state legislatures to appoint their own slate of presidential electors after the fact would violate federal law.
● The Trump campaign’s plan would focus on swing states with Republican-led legislatures, including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, The Atlantic reported
Crooks&Liars: Ron Johnson Denounced Over Hunter Biden ‘Report’: ‘As If Putin Wrote It’ http://bit.ly/33WVo4G
// Ron Johnson delivered an “investigation” of Hunter Biden for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. It was an in-kind campaign contribution, funded by the taxpayers.
The report, which Johnson hopes will impact the November election, accuses Hunter Biden of “conflicts of interest” for a “very awkward” relationship with Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The report, however, found no evidence that the relationship affected U.S. policy.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer suggested that Johnson was doing the bidding of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“While the rest of the country was busy fighting COVID, Senate Republicans have been abusing the power of the Senate to conduct opposition research for President Trump’s campaign,” Schumer explained. “This morning, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee released his report, which reads as if Putin wrote it, not United States senators.”
“The bogus narrative of this report peddled by a Russian disinformation campaign was disproved by every witness who testified,” he added. “Despite their zeal to smear [former Vice President] Biden and his family, Senate Republicans found no evidence to support the conspiracy theories pushed by Putin’s intelligence agents.”
TheGuardian: Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies http://bit.ly/3kVSDrt “The shared allegiances expressed in the group are mostly to the police, the United States and Donald Trump, a person whom some say they are prepared to kill for.”
// 9/23/2020; saboteur provocateur; Patriots Coalition members suggested political assassinations and said ‘laws will be broken, people will get hurt’, leaked chats show
Leaked chat logs show Portland-area pro-Trump activists planning and training for violence, sourcing arms and ammunition and even suggesting political assassinations ahead of a series of contentious rallies in the Oregon city, including one scheduled for this weekend.
The chats on the GroupMe app, shared with the Guardian by the antifascist group Eugene Antifa, show conversations between Oregon members of the Patriots Coalition growing more extreme as they discuss armed confrontations with leftwing Portland activists, and consume a steady diet of online disinformation about protests and wildfires.
At times, rightwing activists discuss acts of violence at recent, contentious protests, which in some cases they were recorded carrying out. At one point, David Willis, a felon currently being sued for his alleged role in an earlier episode of political violence, joins a discussion about the use of paintballs.
Another prolific poster is Mark Melchi, a 41-year-old Dallas, Oregon-based car restorer who claims to have served as a captain in the US army. ¤ Melchi has been recorded leading an armed pro-Trump militia, “1776 2.0” into downtown confrontations in Portland, including on 22 August. At several points in the chat he proposes violence in advance of those confrontations, and appears to confess to prior acts committed in the company of his paramilitary group. …
He also claims police cooperation in interstate violence, writing “Yes, going after them at night is the solution… Like we do in other states, tactical ambushes at night while backing up the police are key. You get the leaders and the violent ones and the police are happy to shut their mouths and cameras.”
Although some members are connected with extremist groups or militias, on the whole they describe themselves as “patriots”, and they express no clear ideology beyond a hatred of the left, and a preparedness to use violence. The shared allegiances expressed in the group are mostly to the police, the United States and Donald Trump, a person whom some say they are prepared to kill for.
Newhouse said that the ideas expressed in the group were entrenched in “extreme nationalism – that a few strong men with guns can together take out an evil that is at once imagined as an existential threat, and pathetically weak”. Newhouse added that the group’s discussions “fit within a broader trend of rightwing extremists becoming more accelerationist over time”.
🧵 RT @AshaRangappa_ THREAD. It is important to take note and be prepared for the unprecedented actions Trump says he intends to take after the election. But it is also important not to allow his *wishful* reality to *become the reality. To do that, consider Trump’s psychological POV right now: 📌 https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1308929151789924354?s=20
WaPo, Philip Bump: Parsing Trump’s ‘there won’t be a transfer’ of power comments http://wapo.st/3mPv0Ck (he’s delusional)
TPM: Wyden: RonJohn Stumbled Upon Evidence Of Trump Administration Corruption In Ukraine Probe http://bit.ly/3kMwrQ7 Though nothing could be pinned on Joe or Hunter Biden, Rick Perry and pals may have landed in a heap of trouble
🐣 RT @davidfrum “I fired Comey because of Russia.”
“I asked Ukraine and China for dirt on the Biden family.”
“I want to choose a third Supreme Court justice to help my re-election.”
Trump doesn’t hesitate to explain what he’s doing. ¤ He says it. You should heed it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @CSPAN .@POTUS: “I think this will end up in the Supreme Court. & I think it’s very important that we have 9 Justices. & I think the system is going to go very quickly. I’ll be submitting at 5 o’clock on Saturday, the name of the person I chose for this most important of positions.”
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Trump won’t commit to a ‘peaceful transfer of power’ if he loses http://wapo.st/3iZJ2iH
NYT: Republican Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by Biden http://nyti.ms/3mO5n4U
// The report delivered on Wednesday appeared to be little more than a rehashing of unproven allegations that echoed a Russian disinformation campaign.
💙 WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Democrats lay out a plan to halt the drift toward authoritarianism http://wapo.st/3j0AM1G
↥ ↧
💙 WaPo: Democratic House chairs: Here’s how we can protect democracy from a lawless president http://wapo.st/3cofQza By House committee chairs Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, John Yarmuth, Zoe Lofgren, Eliot Engel and Richard E. Neal
💙 WaPo: House Democrats unveil changes to ‘prevent future presidential abuses’ http://wapo.st/32WDHDe
🐣 RT @Mimirocah1 This is facism not democracy. This should be a leading story everywhere. And every Republican (even if they won’t answer) needs to be asked about this. Shine a light on it.
🐣 RT @YApplebaum This @bartongellman piece is the stuff of nightmares
🐣 RT @bartongellman When Trump refuses to concede, the cascading effects could break our fragile transition of power. My new cover story in @TheAtlantic.
🔆 This❗️⋙ TheAtlantic, Barton Gellman: The Election That Could Break America http://bit.ly/2FTvxTj
// Nov issue; If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
The danger is not merely that the 2020 election will bring discord. Those who fear something worse take turbulence and controversy for granted. The coronavirus pandemic, a reckless incumbent, a deluge of mail-in ballots, a vandalized Postal Service, a resurgent effort to suppress votes, and a trainload of lawsuits are bearing down on the nation’s creaky electoral machinery.
📋 An authoritative report by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, calculated the rate of voter fraud in three elections at between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Another investigation, from Justin Levitt at Loyola Law School, turned up 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast in the United States from 2000 to 2014. Judges in voting-rights cases have made comparable findings of fact.
⭕ 22 Sep 2020
WaPo, Danielle Allen: The justices themselves can turn down the heat — by creating their own term limits http://wapo.st/2FY5wlA A rule could be adopted to limit terms to 18 years, with a new justice appointed every two years
The Supreme Court has in its own hands the power to turn the heat down on this election. ¤ This the justices can do by establishing, voluntarily among themselves, a rule for their court that each justice will limit service to 18 years, thereafter rotating off the Supreme Court to another bench in the federal judiciary or into senior status. One new justice would be appointed every two years, going forward. …
Our Supreme Court justices hold in their hands the power to begin the healing of our republic. May they use it. They would be following George Washington’s noble example.
‼️ CNN: White House liaisons being removed from their jobs and replaced http://cnn.it/2Eo8ejE “[They] will be replaced with officials who will report directly to the White House instead of the agencies to which they’re assigned”; a “hunt” is on for those disloyal to the president
… Many of the White House liaisons are being removed from their roles in anticipation of President Donald Trump winning a second term, CNN has learned.
The liaisons will be replaced with officials who will report directly to the White House instead of the agencies to which they’re assigned.
Previously the liaisons worked in conjunction with the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel and the agencies they served, while ultimately reporting to the agencies’ heads. With this change, the liaisons will instead report directly to the White House. Liaisons can be responsible for assisting the White House in placing political appointees at agencies.
While the email, first reported by Axios, was sent by Meadows, the changes will be implemented by the head of the personnel office, Johnny McEntee.
Since returning to the White House after being fired for issues related to his security clearance, McEntee has been on what’s internally referred to as a “hunt” for staffers he believes are disloyal to the President. In February, McEntee told agency officials at a meeting to expect staffing changes and movement across the government, according to people familiar with the meeting.
💙🔄 FBI&CISA: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Foreign Actors and Cybercriminals Likely to Spread Disinformation Regarding 2020 Election Results http://bit.ly/2RSdQ8V ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1308592721976844288?s=20/photo/1
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are issuing this announcement to raise awareness of the potential threat posed by attempts to spread disinformation regarding the results of the 2020 elections. Foreign actors and cybercriminals could create new websites, change existing websites, and create or share corresponding social media content to spread false information in an attempt to discredit the electoral process and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions.
State and local officials typically require several days to weeks to certify elections’ final results in order to ensure every legally cast vote is accurately counted. The increased use of mail-in ballots due to COVID-19 protocols could leave officials with incomplete results on election night. Foreign actors and cybercriminals could exploit the time required to certify and announce elections’ results by disseminating disinformation that includes reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud, and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections’ illegitimacy.
The FBI and CISA urge the American public to critically evaluate the sources of the information they consume and to seek out reliable and verified information from trusted sources, such as state and local election officials. The public should also be aware that if foreign actors or cyber criminals were able to successfully change an election-related website, the underlying data and internal systems would remain uncompromised.
RECOMMENDATIONS
● Seek out information from trustworthy sources, such as state and local election officials; verify who produced the content; and consider their intent.
● Verify through multiple reliable sources any reports about problems in voting or election results, and consider searching for other reliable sources before sharing such information via social media or other avenues.
● For information about final election results, rely on state and local government election officials.
● Report potential election crimes—such as disinformation about the manner, time, or place of voting—to the FBI.
● If appropriate, make use of in-platform tools offered by social media companies for reporting suspicious posts that appear to be spreading false or inconsistent information about election-related problems or results.VICTIM REPORTING AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The FBI encourages victims to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local field office (www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field). For additional assistance and best practices, and common terms, please visit the following websites:
Protected Voices: http://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/foreign-influence/protected-voices
Election Crimes and Security: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/election-crimes-and-security
#Protect2020: http://www.cisa.gov/protect2020
🐣 RT @JonLemire First debate topics. One week from today:
💙 ⋙ 🐣 RT @debates [CPD] NEW: Chris Wallace, moderator of the first presidential debate, has selected topics for the 9/29 debate – The Trump and Biden Records, The Supreme Court, Covid-19, The Economy, Race and Violence in our Cities, The Integrity of the Election #Debates2020 http://debates.org/2020/09/22/moderator-announces-topics-for-first-presidential-debate-2
🐣 RT @AOC Congressional GOP have made one thing extremely clear:
To them, there are no rules.
There are no principles.
There is only power.
They are ruthless, and always have been in my lifetime.
Dems must recognize they cannot be reasoned with at present & better adapt to that reality.
🐣 RT @danielsgoldman As someone privy to some of the impeachment conversations in the House, I can confidently say it would have made a big difference if Mueller had declared that Trump committed obstruction of justice and perjury but could not be charged because of DOJ policy.
WaPo: Mueller prosecutor says special counsel ‘could have done more’ to hold Trump accountable http://wapo.st/2FRLKIv
WaPo, Josh Rogin: Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden http://wapo.st/3iSX0CJ The whole Rudy/Derkach Ukraine/Burisma/Hunter Biden story goes 💦splat💦 all over Sens Ron Johnson, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham and Devin 🐮
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides are “probably directing” a Russian foreign influence operation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against former vice president Joe Biden, which involves a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker connected to President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, a top-secret CIA assessment concluded, according to two sources who reviewed it.
On Aug. 31, the CIA published an assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the November election in an internal, highly classified report called the CIA Worldwide Intelligence Review, the sources said. CIA analysts compiled the assessment with input from the National Security Agency and the FBI, based on several dozen pieces of information gleaned from public, unclassified and classified intelligence sources. The assessment includes details of the CIA’s analysis of the activities of Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach to disseminate disparaging information about Biden inside the United States through lobbyists, Congress, the media and contacts with figures close to the president.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Treasury Department have identified Derkach as a Russian agent, but it has not been publicly reported that the CIA, NSA and FBI believed Putin may be personally directing the campaign. Derkach has denied working on behalf of Moscow.
On Sept. 10, following calls from Democratic lawmakers, the Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach, alleging that he “has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a Sept. 10 statement that “Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world.”
⭕ 21 Sep 2020
ABCNews: The men behind QAnon http://abcn.ws/3mMcvia “If Trump loses, I think that how a lot of people are going to view it is: the deep state has won. Trump has lost. Our god, essentially, has been crucified … and they are going to punish Democrats with political violence“
// Experts and researchers said the key to “Q” is hiding in plain sight.
💙 📋 Vox, Matt Yglesias: Minority rule in America http://bit.ly/35VfgYF “[T]he Senate map gives rural areas 2.5 times the voting power of big cities, meaning Democrats need to win Senate races by 6 to 7 points.” Add to that the gerrymandering in the House. And now, SCOTUS. ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1308522230930964482?s=20/photo/1
// Our various undemocratic institutions are reenforcing each other in a deadly spiral.
Someone should do something about it
Neither Joe Biden nor Senate Democrats seem inclined to pursue these measures yet, but if Democrats win a Senate majority this fall, there is a partial solution at hand:
● End the filibuster so a Senate majority can govern.
● Admit DC, Puerto Rico, and ideally the US Virgin Islands as US states.
● Adopt tough legislative curbs on partisan gerrymandering.
● Expand the lower courts, at a minimum, as a way of improving the operation of the federal judicial system and putting the Supreme Court on notice to behave itself.
In a pinch, you add seats to the Supreme Court itself. Either way, Democrats need to get out of the funk of thinking of these moves as outrageous norm violations. The actual issue is that the American democratic tradition carries within it two overarching norms that are contradictory. One is adherence to the Constitution and to the rule of law. The other is adherence to the concept of political equality — that all citizens are equal and ought to have their interests and views considered equally by the political system.
🧵 RT @Ct_Bergstrom A major goal of modern propaganda is to make the targets despair of ever being able to find the truth. ¤ When the CDC retracts advice like this, time after time and without explanation, it’s even more damaging than concealing information. It undermines public trust more broadly. 📌 https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1308142798709772288?s=20
🐣 RT @RepValDemings The GOP argument that they need another GOP member on the Supreme Court in order to contest the election results is a frank confession that they plan to try to steal the election.
WaPo: Global banks process trillions in dirty money despite suspicions, investigation finds http://wapo.st/2Hea2Ne
🐣 RT @OliviaTroye I’ve seen some of these “changes” in guidelines occur first hand throughout the past 6 months-this is likely what happened: @CDCgov tried to warn & tell the truth, it didn’t fit the President’s narrative & someone got an angry call. This is so dangerous for the American people.
⋙ WaPo: CDC reverses itself and says guidelines it posted on coronavirus airborne transmission were wrong http://wapo.st/
//. CDC removes statement on airborne virus transmission, claiming website error
⋙⋙ ★ WaPo: The CDC says coronavirus is airborne and spread by aerosols, warns of poorly ventilated spaces http://wapo.st/3iRhFaq “There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air … and travel distances beyond 6 feet”
// “There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes),” the agency says. “In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk.”
🐣 RT @sarahposner He needs to be fired yesterday.
⋙ 🐣 RT @lachlan New: the pseudonymous managing editor of RedState has been trashing Fauci, Redfield, and the govt’s COVID response generally ¤ Turns out, his day job is a press officer at the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—the agency that Fauci leads
⋙⋙ DailyBeast, Lachlan Markay: A Notorious COVID Troll Actually Works for Dr. Fauci’s Agency http://bit.ly/3iRQxIr
// Bill Crews is a PR official at the National Institutes of Health. But he also has another job: an anonymous RedState editor who rails against the agency for which he works.
William B. Crews is, by day, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But for years he has been writing for RedState under the streiff pseudonym. And in that capacity he has been contributing to the very same disinformation campaign that his superiors at the NIAID say is a major challenge to widespread efforts to control a pandemic that has claimed roughly 200,000 U.S. lives.
Under his pseudonym, Crews has derided his own colleagues as part of a left-wing anti-Trump conspiracy and vehemently criticized the man who leads his agency, whom he described as the “attention-grubbing and media-whoring Anthony Fauci.” He has gone after other public health officials at the state and federal levels, as well—“the public health Karenwaffen,” as he’s called them—over measures such as the closures of businesses and other public establishments and the promotion of social distancing and mask-wearing. Those policies, Crews insists, have no basis in science and are simply surreptitious efforts to usurp Americans’ rights, destroy the U.S. economy, and damage President Donald Trump’s reelection effort.
“I think we’re at the point where it is safe to say that the entire Wuhan virus scare was nothing more or less than a massive fraud perpetrated upon the American people by ‘experts’ who were determined to fundamentally change the way the country lives and is organized and governed,” Crews wrote in a June post on RedState.
“If there were justice,” he added, “we’d send and [sic] few dozen of these fascists to the gallows and gibbet their tarred bodies in chains until they fall apart.”
🐣 RT @peterbakernyt Very haunting listening now to the bells at Washington National Cathedral tolling for the 200,000 killed by the coronavirus in the United States.
TheAtlantic, George Packer: The Inside Story of Why Mueller Failed http://bit.ly/32Lijke “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.” ~ John Locke
// In a new book, Andrew Weissmann, one of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s top deputies, lays out the limits and letdowns of the years-long Russia investigation.
Andrew Weissmann was one of Robert Mueller’s top deputies in the special counsel’s investigation of the 2016 election, and he’s about to publish the first insider account, called Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. The title comes from an adapted quote by the philosopher John Locke that’s inscribed on the façade of the Justice Department building in Washington, D.C.: “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.”
Weissmann offers a damning indictment of a “lawless” president and his knowing accomplices—Attorney General William Barr (portrayed as a cynical liar), congressional Republicans, criminal flunkies, Fox News. Donald Trump, he writes, is “like an animal, clawing at the world with no concept of right and wrong.” But in telling the story of the investigation and its fallout, Weissmann reserves his most painful words for the Special Counsel’s Office itself. Where Law Ends portrays a group of talented, dedicated professionals beset with internal divisions and led by a man whose code of integrity allowed their target to defy them and escape accountability.
“There’s no question I was frustrated at the time,” Weissmann told me in a recent interview. “There was more that could be done that we didn’t do.” He pointed out that the special counsel’s report never arrived at the clear legal conclusions expected from an internal Justice Department document. At the same time, it lacked the explanatory power of last month’s bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on the 2016 election. “Even with 1,000 pages, it was better,” Weissmann said of the Senate report. “It made judgments and calls, instead of saying, ‘You could say this and you could say that.’”
Where Law Ends describes numerous instances, large and small, when Mueller declined to pursue an aggressive course for fear of the reaction at the White House. For example, the special counsel shied away from subpoenaing Don Trump Jr. to testify about his notorious June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Ivanka Trump, who didn’t attend the meeting but talked with participants afterward in the lobby, and later discussed with her father how to conceal details from the press, was never even asked to speak with Mueller’s investigators: They “feared that hauling her in for an interview would play badly to the already antagonistic right-wing press—Look how they’re roughing up the president’s daughter—and risk enraging Trump, provoking him to shut down the Special Counsel’s Office once and for all.”
Weissmann blames this persistent timidity on one of Mueller’s other top deputies, a lawyer named Aaron Zebley, comparing Zebley to George B. McClellan (and more zealous team members, including himself, to Ulysses S. Grant). “Repeatedly during our twenty-two months in operation,” Weissmann writes, “we would reach some critical juncture in our investigation only to have Aaron say that we could not take a particular action because it risked aggravating the president beyond some undefined breaking point.”
By abdicating the role of prosecutor, Mueller cleared the way for Barr to take it on himself. Mueller and Barr were old friends. Several weeks before submitting the report, Weissmann writes, Mueller informed Barr of his intent to omit any legal recommendation. Barr didn’t object. Without telling Mueller, he saw a chance to disfigure the report into an exoneration of the president and thereby make its damning truths disappear. “Barr,” Weissmann writes, “had betrayed both friend and country.”
And Mueller? He was incapable of navigating the world remade by Trump. He conducted himself with scrupulous integrity and allowed his team to be intimidated by people who had no scruples at all. His deep aversion to publicity silenced him when the public badly needed clarity about the special counsel’s dense, ambiguous, at times unreadable report. His sense of fairness surrendered the facts of presidential criminality to an administration that was at war with facts. He trusted his friend Barr to play it straight, not realizing that Barr had gone crooked. He left the job of holding the president accountable to a Congress that had shown itself to be Trump’s willing accomplice. He wanted, above all, to warn the American people about foreign subversion of our democracy, while the greater subversion gathered force here at home.
In our interview, I asked Weissmann if Mueller had let the American people down. “Absolutely, yep,” Weissmann said, before quickly adding: “I wouldn’t phrase it as just Mueller. I would say ‘the office.’ There are a lot of things we did well, and a lot of things we could have done better, to be diplomatic about it.”
And the investigation—was it a historic missed opportunity? ¤ Weissmann’s reply was terse. “That’s fair.”
With the end of the Special Counsel’s Office, the one real check on Trump’s unfettered power was gone, until the next election. Now it’s upon us, and the president remains free to repeat what worked for him in the last one.
⭕ 20 Sep 2020
DailyBeast, Tim Weiner: Trump Makes America More Like Russia Every Day http://bit.ly/2EFlOiW Adapted from THE FOLLY AND THE GLORY: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020
// The terrible question at the heart of the matter remains: What is the influence that Putin has on Trump? And that mystery never has been fully investigated.
🧵 RT @SteveSchmidtSES Do Not Be Afraid. Do Not Tremble. Do Not Waiver. Do not doubt either the goodness of our people or the possibilities for our future. Do not let small men with tyranny and malice in their heart (@realDonaldTrump) or hypocrites with no core (@VP) make you afraid for our future
or of your countrymen and women. Do not let the fascists, racists and conspiracy theorists make you afraid of your neighbors or the strangers who could be your friend. We should all be grateful that we have been chosen by this rancid and dangerous hour to stand up and fight.
What we do now matters. Our Capitol is occupied by a cabal of small and low men and women who have betrayed all of us, the American experiment, their oaths and basic decency in service of a corrupt and malignant cult of personality that is vandalizing our principles, ideals,
Inheritance, future and fundamental goodness. 200,000 of our country men and women are dead. At least 150,000 of them could be alive but for Trump’s lethal lying and the immoral; supine complicity of his collaborators and enablers. Let us resolve to rise up and strike down
Trumpism. Let us put it down with righteous anger and fury. Let us resolve to never let this happen again. Let us do our duty as American citizens. Let us be conscious that we are called to safe action when we consider the blood, sacrifice and courage of ordinary people who
Stood their ground on a field in Lexington and Gettysburg. The men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and dropped from the skies over France to crush fascism are smiling at our cause. The men and women who taught the world the meaning of the words “human dignity” as they
Protested segregation, absorbed the beatings and marched across the Edmund Pettus bridge are watching and judging us. We are in the right and for the right. We are fighting for the good. Trumpism is UNAMERICAN. It is illiberal, demagogic,dishonest, cruel, corrupt and disgusting
Let us strike it down. We will. Vote. @ProjectLincoln @JoeBiden @votevets @actblue @RVAT2020 @crookedmedia @prioritiesUSA @PodSaveAmerica @PaulBegala @JamesCarville @davidplouffe @davidaxelrod. Have joy in this fight. RBG is with her husband again. She is arguing with Scalia
and meeting Washington and Lincoln. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas are there. Susan b Anthony is there and so is Elise Wiesel. A great champion of freedom has arrived in heaven. Her work is done. Her burden is now our’s. Let us honor her legacy by doing our duty
⭕ 19 Sep 2020
🐣 RT @ASlavitt HHS clarifies that it WILL interfere with FDA decision making.
⋙ NYT (9/19): In ‘Power Grab,’ Health Secretary Azar Asserts Authority Over F.D.A. http://nyti.ms/3hPbbrp
// Experts said the memo would make it more difficult for the F.D.A. to issue new rules, but it’s unclear how it would affect the vetting of coronavirus vaccines.
🐣 RT @AliVelshi So, @realDonaldTrump, you call my getting hit by authorities in Minneapolis on 5/30/20 (by a rubber bullet, btw, not a tear gas cannister) a “beautiful thing” called “law and order”. What law did I break while covering an entirely peaceful (yes, entirely peaceful) march?
⭕ 18 Sep 2020
JustSecurity, Asha Rangappa and David Shimer: Prepare for the Worst and Fight for the Best: A Citizen’s Guide to 2020 Electoral Interference http://bit.ly/3kKHFVE
🐣 RT @thehill #BREAKING: Joe Biden on Supreme Court: “There is no doubt — let me be clear — that the voters should pick the President and the President should pick the Justice.” 💽 https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1307135323143626752?s=20/photo/1
★ WaPo: Trump’s appointees sought to censor what government scientists said about the coronavirus, emails show http://wapo.st/33Kp4lk How two PR hacks used their “power center at [HHS] to censor, and even humiliate, top scientists and health officials”
// Michael Caputo and his adviser pressed them to use White House talking points as the pandemic raged out control.
In a June 30 email, Paul Alexander, one of those appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services, excoriated Anne Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director, for remarks she made before the group affiliated with one of the nation’s leading medical journals. Schuchat, a physician, had spoken to JAMA Network the day before, saying she hoped the country could “take it seriously and slow the transmission,” adding that “we have way too much virus across the country … right now.” The emails were first reported by the New York Times.
Schuchat’s comments came as cases were surging across several southern and western states — even as the president and his top advisers were intent on reopening the country and boosting the economy. But Alexander wrote to his boss, Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS, reprimanding Schuchat and writing a seven-point takedown of her assessment.
“Her comments are in contrast to those of senior members of the Trump administration — notably Vice President Pence, who said on Friday, ‘we have made truly remarkable progress,’” Alexander wrote.
“Importantly, having the virus spread among the young and healthy is one of the methods to drive herd immunity,” Alexander added. “She is duplicitous.”
Both Caputo and Alexander are now gone. But their emails offer new insight into how they created their own power center at the agency overseeing the pandemic response and used it to censor, and even humiliate, top scientists and health officials in an effort to sideline them or make them conform to White House-sanctioned messages. The tone of the emails is often emotional and accusatory, and they put more emphasis on the political import of the messages than on their medical or scientific substance, even as the virus raged out of control.
Caputo, a Trump loyalist engulfed in controversy, left this week on a 60-day medical leave earlier this week after a bizarre Facebook rant in which he accused government scientists of “sedition,” and warned supporters to take up arms to prepare for violence after the election. Alexander, a Canadian PhD he had hired on contract, was permanently let go this week, HHS said in a statement.
Alexander’s attempts to order career civil servants to rewrite CDC guidance, or instruct them on what they should or shouldn’t say quickly caused friction after he joined HHS this spring as Caputo’s adviser. He also instructed Anthony S. Fauci — the top government infectious-disease expert who has led the U.S. response to numerous epidemics — that he should refrain from advocating that children wear masks. Fauci disregarded his advice.
Caputo and Alexander also sought more control over the CDC’s weekly scientific missives, called the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Caputo told The Washington Post he was frustrated they could only see summaries ahead of publication, rather than full drafts.
Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said Alexander has no real-world experience responding to a health crisis on this scale. “It is complete nonsense for someone who has not worked on preparing for, or responding to epidemics or pandemics before … to say he knows better than Fauci and CDC when it comes to the response to this pandemic,” he said.
💙 🐣 RT @ruth_franklin According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
⋙ [ RBG has died ]
💙 🐣 RT @maddow Tough but fair. https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1307009380362211328?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln Your plan will kill millions. https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1306739500505206784?s=20/photo/1
// Lincoln Project ad❣ Herd Immunity
tags: herd mentality; thoughts: he clearly doesn’t understand how vaccines work or that vaccines aren’t vaccines 100% effective, plus he’s lying about the timeline while continuing to encourage behavior that seemed designed to infect as many people as possible, soooo, it’s fair
🐣 RT @RyanStruyk KARL: “How is it that you don’t trust your own experts?”
TRUMP: “Oh, I do. Not all of them, no…”
KARL: “Do you think you know better than they do?”
TRUMP: “Yeah, in many cases, I do.”
IHME Projection for Total Deaths with/without Universal Masks http://bit.ly/2QuOKfB
● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1307057910195924993?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @kenklippenstein Dept of Homeland Security’s intelligence division identifies white supremacists as the foremost threat to the 2020 elections, per intel assessment leaked to me: http://bit.ly/3iKYI98 ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1307058882120908800?s=20/photo/1-2
📔 WARPspeed document http://bit.ly/3iM61gV
NYT, Jensen Interlandi: What the Fall and Winter of the Pandemic Will Look Like http://nyti.ms/33Fz8fJ
// The coronavirus isn’t going away, but a vaccine is coming and so is an election.
🧵 RT @atrupar … come again? 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1307035508095291392?s=20
// Trump presser
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Emails Detail Effort to Silence C.D.C. and Question Its Science http://nyti.ms/3mBS7Ac “Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation”
// Emails from a former top Trump health official and his science adviser show how the two refused to accept Centers for Disease Control and Prevention science and sought to silence the agency.
≣ JudiciaryHouse.gov: Letter from Chairs Nadler, Schiff, Maloney and Lofgren to DOJ Inspector General Horowitz [pdf] http://bit.ly/32GFdZS Expressees concern over whether release of interim version of Durham Report is intended to influence election, in violation of DOJ policy
We are concerned by indications that Attorney General Barr might depart from longstanding DOJ principles to take public action related to U.S. Attorney Durham’s investigation that could impact the presidential election.
WaPo (12:24pm): Democrats seek ‘emergency investigation’ into whether Justice officials are improperly influencing the election http://wapo.st/35PKHDt The referral to the DOJ IG from four Dem chairmen expresses concern over political use of Durham investigation to help Trump
💙 WaPo, Philip Bump: Trump claims nothing more could have been done to defeat the coronavirus. He’s wrong. http://wapo.st/35Rj64W ● https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1306997764119764992?s=20/photo/1
// The coronavirus response we might have had.
Had the president not downplayed the risk and insisted it would simply go away, had he not pushed mask-wearing into the realm of partisan politics, had he not abandoned his support for containing the virus at the state level, had he not promoted unproven cure-alls — any of these changes would have made it easier for Americans to embrace the short-term difficulties necessary to contain the virus enough to change the trajectory of the pandemic. ¤ Trump chose — and continues to choose — not to do so.
WaPo Editorial: Under a lawless Trump, our system of checks and balances is being destroyed http://wapo.st/33E3TS9 “He has not grown into the office; instead, he has learned how to more effectively abuse its powers”
🐣 RT @ryanstruk MCCONNELL: “After they change the filibuster, they’re going to admit the District as a state. They’re going to admit Puerto Rico as a state. That’s four new Democratic senators in perpetuity. Once they get a hammerlock on the Senate, they’re going to then pack the Supreme Court.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @ryanstruk MCCONNELL: “The one thing the Majority Leader gets to do, that the other 99 don’t get to do, is to decide what we’re going to do… We’re not changing the filibuster rule. We’re not admitting the District and Puerto Rico as states. And we’re not packing the courts.”
⋙⋙ 🐣 … says the guy who’s been packing the courts for four years, after breaking precedent and stealing a SCOTUS seat from Obama. Cry me a river.
💙 🙏 If at 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, we were to have a national “Moment of Silence” lasting one second for each person who has perished, that “Moment” would last for 55.55 hours, or 2 days ✛ 7½ hours 🙏
// 200,000 seconds = 2.31481481 days: .31481481 days = 453.3333264 minutes = 7.555…hrs
🐣 RT @BillKristol Jared Kushner, March 21, 2020: “Cuomo didn’t pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state…His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem.” ¤ Like father, like son-in-law. Incompetent and uncaring.
VanityFair, Katherine Ebam: “That’s Their Problem”: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America’s COVID-19 Fate http://bit.ly/3hHJPmV
// First-person accounts of a tense meeting at the White House in late March suggest that President Trump’s son-in-law resisted taking federal action to alleviate shortages and help Democratic-led New York. Instead, he enlisted a former roommate to lead a Consultant State to take on the Deep State, with results ranging from the Eastman Kodak fiasco to a mysterious deal to send ventilators to Russia.
WaPo: Watchdog group calls on FEC to investigate donations to Trump and others by relatives and associates of Louis DeJoy http://wapo.st/2Ec4ZvC The nonprofit Campaign Legal Center seeks an investigation into irregular GOP campaign bundling practices at DeJoy’s former company
The filing by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center is the third complaint seeking a state or federal investigation since The Washington Post this month reported allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at New Breed Logistics, his former North Carolina-based company, to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates. ¤ DeJoy then defrayed the cost of those political contributions from 2003 to 2014 by boosting employee bonuses, two employees told The Post.
🐣 RT .@esglaude: “William Barr is searching so desperately to find a way to describe white Americans who refuse to wear a mask as victims that he’s reaching for comparisons that not only don’t make any sense, but reveal a kind of moral tone deafness.”
💽 MSNBC, MorningJoe: ‘A very strange speech’: What AG Barr’s words mean http://on.msnbc.com/3kuLCxn
// Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday suggested that nationwide stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus were the ‘greatest intrusion on civil liberties’ in history ‘other than slavery.’ The panel discusses Barr’s remarks.
⭕ 17 Sep 2020
WashingtonExaminer: Christopher Wray says Russia is ‘very active’ in trying to influence 2020 election http://washex.am/3cq7VSe
“Americans must have confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure. That’s why the security of our elections is and will continue to be one of our highest priorities,” Wray said. “We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections, and we’re working closely with our federal, state, and local partners as well as the private sector to share information, bolster security, and identify and disrupt any threats.”
Wray said that “just recently, for example, we shared threat indicators with both Facebook and Twitter that allowed them to take down fake accounts created as part of a Russian disinformation campaign before those accounts could develop a broader following.”
After a tip from the FBI, Facebook announced in early September that it had taken down a small network of 13 Russian accounts and two pages tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, and Twitter similarly said that it suspended a small number of accounts “for platform manipulation that we can reliably attribute to Russian state actors” that were operating a site called PeaceData. Graphika, a New York-based social media analysis firm, revealed that “the website employed real and apparently unwitting individuals, typically novice freelance writers, to write its articles” and that it published over 500 articles in English and over 200 articles in Arabic in 2020. The group said that “the network appeared designed to target progressive and left-wing audiences, including in the United States and United Kingdom.”
“They were able to shut down Russian influence accounts really right before they could ever build a following. And the faster we can do that and the more agile way we can do that, the better,” Wray said on Thursday. “Misinformation or disinformation or fake information is only effective if it seems credible. And it’s only credible if it’s built up some reservoir of credibility. … And if we’re able to shut them down and knock them back quickly before they can really build up that credibility, then it’s not going to stop it, but it means it’s much, much less effective. So, we need more of that. We’re having more of that.”
Robert Mueller’s 2019 special counsel report said that Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” criminal collusion between Russians and anyone in Trump’s orbit.
“I think, in many ways, what concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and sort of amplification of smaller cyberintrusions that contribute over time. I worry that they will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote,” Wray testified. “I think that would be a perception, not a reality. I think Americans can and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our democracy. But I worry that people will take on a feeling of futility because of all of the noise and confusion that’s generated, and that’s a very hard problem to combat.”
🐣 RT @MSNBC Fmr. FBI agent Peter Strzok: “When I see people who are quitting and leaving the Dept. of Justice, they’re not doing that based on any political agenda … They’re doing it because what they see is the unacceptable politicization of the Dept. Justice.”
⋙ 💽 MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell: Peter Strzok: ‘I believe that the president is compromised by the Russians’ http://on.msnbc.com/33ISalr
// Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who served as an FBI counterintelligence officer and the deputy of the FBI counterintelligence division, joins Andrea Mitchell
NYT: Lev Parnas, Giuliani Associate, Faces New Fraud Charges http://nyti.ms/2FIRDYD
// Mr. Parnas, who participated in a campaign to dig up dirt on the president’s political rivals, is accused of swindling investors.
WaPo: Trump alleges ‘left-wing indoctrination’ in schools, says he will create national commission to push more ‘pro-American’ history http://wapo.st/3hICmno
// President Trump characterized demonstrations against racial injustice as “left-wing rioting and mayhem” that are the result of decades of indoctrination in schools. The federal government has no power over the curriculum taught in local schools.
🐣 RT @CNN Dr. Anthony Fauci says normal life in the US may not be back until the end of 2021, even if there’s a vaccine by the end of 2020: “It’s not going to be an overnight event, where you have a vaccine and then all of a sudden everything is okay” https://cnn.it/2FoYZ2W https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1304533190133022722?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Trump contradicts health advisers on coronavirus vaccine timetable as death toll mounts http://wapo.st/3hIxT4m
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Federal judge temporarily blocks USPS operational changes amid concerns about mail slowdowns, election http://wapo.st/2RDJmri
🐣 RT @SykesCharlie “This is what struck me most during my conversation: she is young, with a long career ahead of her, and she was willing to put it all on the line…Olivia Troye, with much more to lose…had much more courage than all of them.”
⋙ NewYorker, Susan Glasser: “It Was All About the Election”: The Ex-White House Aide Olivia Troye on Trump’s Narcissistic Mishandling of COVID-19 http://bit.ly/2EcemeX
🐣 RT @MikkoAlanne Wow. Pence’s former top aide on the White House COVID Task Force — a lifelong Republican — goes public, confirms Trump deliberately and knowingly lied to the American people about the virus danger.
🐣 RT @RonaldKlain This is the most powerful anti-Trump ad I’ve seen so far. Please watch and share.
⋙ 🐣 RT @BillKristol 🚨🚨NEW from @RVAT2020. ¤ Olivia Troye, VP Pence’s lead staffer on the COVID task force, resigned two months ago. Now she speaks out: ¤ “No matter how hard you worked…the president was going to do something detrimental to keeping Americans safe. It was awful. It was terrifying.” 💽 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1306684848908754945?s=20/photo/1
// Republicans Against Trump ad❣ VP Pence staffer
↥ ↧
🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Former Pence aide says she will vote for Biden because of Trump’s ‘flat-out disregard for human life’ during pandemic http://wapo.st/32E0fsc
Olivia Troye, who worked as homeland security, counterterrorism and coronavirus adviser to Vice President Pence for two years, said that the administration’s response cost lives and that she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden this fall because of her experience in the Trump White House.
🐣 RT @peterbakernyt These are the words that Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor and Bush cabinet member, used in reaction to Trump’s statement about not counting virus deaths in blue states: “beyond despicable,” “soulless,” “almost unspeakable.”
⋙ NYT: For Trump, It’s Not the United States, It’s Red and Blue States http://nyti.ms/2FHTU6n
// A statement by the president this week was an insight into how he views the country as composed of parts that either are for him or against him.
💙 WaPo: FBI director affirms Russia’s aim to ‘denigrate’ Biden ahead of election http://wapo.st/2ZM7dt7
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln This is not normal. But it could be soon. 💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1306656256073981952?s=20/photo/1
// Lincoln Project ad 📌 Attack on Lafayette Square; Trump mimics Putin
🧵 RT @kyledcheney TODAY: Chris Wray and National Counterterrorism Center Director Chris Miller testify on threats to the homeland — including foreign election threats and homegrown extremism. ¤ As expected, Chad WOLF has not shown up despite a subpoena from Chairman Bennie Thompson. 📌 https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1306579921377079298?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney WRAY reaffirms that there are “very active efforts” by Russia to influence the 2020 election, primarily to “denigrate Vice President Biden” and damage what they see as an “anti-Russia establishment” in the United States.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney NEW: WRAY affirms that Russia is undertaking “very active efforts” to interfere in the election and damage Biden. ¤ He also says antifa is “not an organization” but an “ideology” or “movement.” QAnon, he says, is a “complex set of conspiracy theories.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney WRAY under questioning from @RepSlotkin, says white supremacist violence is the largest part of the greatest domestic terrorist threat in the country: “racially motivated violent extremism.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney WRAY, without mentioning that Trump is the loudest purveyor, says his greatest worry is that voters will believe “misinformation” that their votes are not secure: ¤ “I worry people will take on a feeling of futility because of all the noise and confusion that’s been generated.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney Last night, AG BARR made case for political role in DOJ and said of FBI agents: “Whose agents do you think you are?” ¤ Today, Rep. Demings gave WRAY a change to respond: ¤ “We, the FBI, work for the American people,” Wray said.
🐣 RT @mmpadellan trump’s FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that Russia IS interfering in our elections by attacking Biden, and that Antifa is NOT an organization, but an ideology. ¤ This is trump’s guy, y’all.
🐣 RT @MarshallCohen OANN is trying to cover up its past relationship with Andrii Derkach, an active Russian agent involved in Moscow’s anti-Biden meddling. OANN gave him tons of free airtime and promoted his wacko conspiracy theories.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Heh. Just noticed @OANN deleted all Derkach tagged stories from its site, including a Reuters story on the Ukrainian MP and US-labeled “active Russian agent” being sanctioned for election interference. But — oops! — it didn’t delete one misspelled with “Derkash,” which remains. https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1306590170133794816?s=20/photo/1
💙 NYT, Neal Katyal and Joshua Geltzer: This Is How Bad It’s Gotten at the Justice Department http://nyti.ms/2EdmThG “The latest [resignation] appears to be Nora Dannehy, a longtime prosecutor who … was part of a team looking into the Russia investigation” ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1306602613241249792?s=20/photo/1
// When civil servants resign, skeptics often ask what difference one person really can make by leaving. The answer is: a lot.
In his time as the head of the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr has alienated many federal prosecutors. The latest appears to be Nora Dannehy, a longtime prosecutor who has resigned from the department, where she was part of a team looking into the Russia investigation.
We don’t know for sure exactly what happened; she isn’t talking, nor is Mr. Barr. But The Hartford Courant, which broke the story, reported that Ms. Dannehy’s colleagues said that she departed because of Mr. Barr’s politicization — in particular, because Mr. Barr is evidently eager to break drastically with past practice and issue an incomplete report intended to help President Trump in his re-election efforts.
Her resignation looks like part of an extremely troubling pattern. Earlier this year, highly respected prosecutors in the Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases dramatically resigned or withdrew. One of them testified to Congress that the Justice Department under Mr. Barr was treating Mr. Stone “differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president.” The Justice Department inspector general has opened an investigation.
When civil servants resign, skeptics often ask what difference one person really can make by leaving. The answer is simple: a lot. Ms. Dannehy’s departure isn’t just likely a major assertion of integrity by her; it’s also a big problem for Mr. Barr — and therefore for Mr. Trump. ¤ The resignations are a forceful public signal that something is seriously awry with the Justice Department under Mr. Barr.
v
Mr. Barr’s bizarre project, headed by John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, was created to reinvestigate the investigators of Russian election interference and to cover ground already explored in detail by the department’s inspector general. Ms. Dennehy’s departure casts real doubt on Mr. Barr’s design to try to vindicate Mr. Trump’s narrative that he was targeted in 2016 by the “deep state.”Ms. Dannehy poses a looming further threat to Mr. Barr. She didn’t just withdraw from the investigation; she resigned from the department entirely. That means Mr. Barr can’t muzzle her — and, in turn, she can warn Congress and the rest of us …
She will have constraints like attorney-client privilege and classification. But that still leaves plenty of room to unmask Mr. Barr’s shenanigans. That should happen immediately in testimony before the House of Representatives. To lay bare Mr. Barr’s mischief is, in significant part, to defang it. This, not Mr. Durham’s unfinished report, is what needs to happen before the election.
🐣 RT @DavidPriess Dan Coats speaks out; pay attention: ¤ “No American, and certainly no American leader, should want such an outcome. Total destruction and sowing salt in the earth of American democracy is a catastrophe well beyond simple defeat and a poison for generations.”
🐣 RT @BillKristol “We must firmly, unambiguously reassure all Americans that their vote will be counted, that it will matter, that the people’s will expressed through their votes will not be questioned and will be respected and accepted.” — Dan Coats, former Trump DNI
⋙ NYT, Dan Coats: What’s at Stake in This Election? The American Democratic Experiment http://nyti.ms/2H9vumG
// Congress should establish a bipartisan commission to monitor voting and ensure that laws and regulations are followed.
💙 🐣 RT @BerniceKing Here we are: 💽 https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/1306229364347068417?s=20/photo/1
The government made an anti-fascism film in 1943
// And it’s eerily similar to 2017
🐣 RT @ForeignAffairs “Future elections in the United States and other democracies will face an onslaught of disinformation and conspiracy theories emanating not just from Russia but also from China, Iran, Venezuela, and beyond.”
⋙ ForeignAffairs, Alina Polyakova: The Kremlin’s Plot Against Democracy http://fam.ag/2FHmcO7
// Sep-Oct 2020; With new players in the disinformation game, the 2020 U.S. election will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far worse.
⭕ 16 Sep 2020
DailyBeast, Julia Davis: Russian Media Is Rooting for Civil War in America: ‘The Worse, the Better’ http://bit.ly/3hBdQoh Julia Davis watches Russian tv so you don’t have to
// “It is better to remain neutral, but if we had to choose, then Trump is certainly ours.”
WaPo: Federal officials stockpiled munitions, sought ‘heat ray’ device before clearing Lafayette Square, whistleblower says http://wapo.st/3my10eq
D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam D. DeMarco told lawmakers that defense officials were searching for crowd control technology deemed too unpredictable to use in war zones and had authorized the transfer of about 7,000 rounds of ammunition to the D.C. Armory as protests against police use of force and racial injustice roiled Washington.
In sworn testimony, shared this week with The Washington Post, DeMarco provided his account as part of an ongoing investigation into law enforcement and military officers’ use of force against D.C. protesters.
🐣 RT @maddow The attorney general has gone off the deep end. This is nuts.
⋙ WSJ: Barr Tells Prosecutors to Consider Charging Violent Protesters With Sedition http://on.wsj.com/3muwjGQ
// To bring a sedition case, prosecutors would have to prove there was a conspiracy to attack government agents or officials that posed an imminent danger
🐣 RT @KellyO HHS official, former Trump campaign operative Michael Caputo taking 60 day leave of absence after apologizing for tirade against government scientists. Caputo associate also leaving permanently. https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1306280131393183747?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 15 Sep 2020
💙 BlogForArizona (8/21): Joe Biden promises to lead the forces of light over the forces of darkness http://bit.ly/3c1TZ0g Biden’s acceptance speech:
// 8/21/2020
Give people light. Those are words for our time. The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division.
Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us not the worst. I will be an ally of the light not of the darkness. It’s time for us, for We the People, to come together. For make no mistake. United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.
* * *
But while I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did. That’s the job of a president. To represent all of us, not just our base or our party. This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.It’s a moment that calls for hope and light and love. Hope for our futures, light to see our way forward, and love for one another.
All elections are important. But we know in our bones this one is more consequential.
America is at an inflection point. A time of real peril, but of extraordinary possibilities. We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, and more divided. A path of shadow [darkness] and suspicion.Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this chance to heal, to be reborn, to unite. A path of hope and light.
This is a life-changing election that will determine America’s future for a very long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballot.
Who we are as a nation. What we stand for. And, most importantly, who we want to be. That’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be clearer.
* * *
[I]’ve learned two things. First, your loved ones may have left this Earth but they never leave your heart. They will always be with you. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose. As God’s children each of us have a purpose in our lives.And we have a great purpose as a nation: To open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. To save our democracy. To be a light to the world once again.
* * *
America’s history tells us that it has been in our darkest moments that we’ve made our greatest progress. That we’ve found the light. And in this dark moment, I believe we are poised to make great progress again. That we can find the light once more. I have always believed you can define America in one word: Possibilities.
* * *
The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote:
“History says,
Don’t hope on this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme“This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. With passion and purpose, let us begin — you and I together, one nation, under God — united in our love for America and united in our love for each other.
For love is more powerful than hate.
Hope is more powerful than fear.
Light is more powerful than dark.This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation.
And this is a battle that we, together, will win. I promise you.
💙 ⋙ DailyBeast, Adam Rawnsley and Lachlan Markay: Steve Bannon Is Behind Bogus Study That China Created COVID http://bit.ly/2FzGr0b An author of the study went on Tucker Carlson who suggested “what you just said completely changes everything we think we know about the pandemic”
// The study goes against basically all scientific evidence and expert opinion. But it fits with the former Trump adviser’s anti-China posture.
A new study purporting to show that the novel coronavirus was manufactured in a Chinese lab was published by a pair of nonprofit groups linked to Steve Bannon, the former top Trump strategist now facing felony fraud charges.
The study, co-authored by a Chinese virologist who fled Hong Kong this year, claims that “laboratory manipulation is part of the history of SARS-CoV-2.” Its findings were quickly picked up by a handful of prominent news organizations such as the New York Post, which hyped the “explosive” allegations that run counter to virtually all existing scientific literature on the source of the virus.
The study is the work of the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, sister nonprofit organizations that Bannon was instrumental in creating. According to documents posted on the Society’s website last year, he served as that group’s chair. The Bannon connection was first spotted by Kevin Bird, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University, and shared by Carl Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington, who called the study “bizarre and unfounded.”
A search of Google Scholar and the Rule of Law Society and Rule of Law Foundation websites indicates that the organizations have not previously published scientific or medical research, and it’s unclear whether the paper received any peer review. It was posted on Monday on the website Zenodo, a publicly available repository of scientific and academic research to which anyone can upload their work.
Both of the nonprofits behind the study were formed in conjunction with exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, with whom Bannon has collaborated on a number of advocacy efforts targeting the Chinese government and business endeavors that have drawn the scrutiny of federal law enforcement officials. …
“This virus is not from nature,” declared Dr. Li-Meng Yan, one of the scientists who conducted the study, during a Monday appearance on a British talk show. She called reports that the virus originated in a Wuhan meat market “a smoke screen” designed to obscure its true origins.
But other virologists disagree and say the paper makes false claims about a number of basic facts. “Basically, it’s all circumstantial and some of it is entirely fictional,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, told The Daily Beast of the study.
Unrelated to his work with the Rule of Law groups, Bannon is also facing felony charges over what federal prosecutors say was an effort to extract millions of dollars from a nonprofit seeking to privately finance the construction of a wall on the southern U.S. border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following publication of this piece, Yan appeared on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s primetime program on Tuesday night. After Yan reiterated her claims that the virus was developed in a lab and that the Chinese government released it intentionally, Carlson—who has become one of Fox’s loudest coronavirus skeptics—offered up a big caveat at the end of the interview.
“Unfortunately this is not the forum for the details of your research,” he said. “I don’t have the grounding to ask you the right questions but this is where you wish for a functioning media because what you just said completely changes everything we think we know about the pandemic that is wrecking our country.” ¤ Bannon’s name, meanwhile, did not come up once in the segment.
↥ ↧
So the author goes on Tucker Carlson who suggests “what you just said completely changes everything we think we know about the pandemic.” Pretty soon, they’ll be blaming the pandemic on ‘China-loving’ Biden
📔 ★ GatesFoundation, Bill & Melinda Gates: 2020 GoalKeepers Report: COVID-19 ~ A Global Perspective http://gates.ly/2RviWYH “In the blink of an eye, a health crisis became an economic crisis, a food crisis, a housing crisis, a political crisis” ●Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1306123270366916608?s=20/photo/1
“Mutually exacerbating catastrophes” is an apt description for the COVID-19 pandemic … . First, there was the disease itself. Then, governments moved resources to try to manage it and people stopped seeking health care to avoid being infected: building blocks of a comprehensive health catastrophe. Consider vaccine coverage, which is a good proxy measure for how health systems are functioning. Our data partner, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), found that in 2020 coverage is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s. In other words, we’ve been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks. One of the most important questions the world now faces is how quickly low-income countries can catch back up to where they were and start making progress again. The hardest-hit will need support to make sure that what should be temporary reversals don’t become permanent.
🐣 RT @mitchellreports .@ChrisMurphyCT: “Michael Caputo has to go. You cannot encourage the armed insurrection of Americans against the government and have a job in this administration.” #AMRstaff
🐣 RT @BillKristol “Trump isn’t actually running for re-election—or at least not running in the traditional manner…It is not a campaign to persuade the public…It’s a campaign to hold on to power using every tool available to him as president of the United States.”
⋙ NYT, Jamelle Bouie: Trump’s Perverse Campaign Strategy http://nyti.ms/2FC6DXY
// If the president’s allies are talking about the moment “shooting will begin” and “martial law,” it’s not by accident.
‼️ Vice, Carter Sherman: Staggering Number of Hysterectomies Happening at ICE Facility, Whistleblower Says http://bit.ly/33umy2E
// “We’ve questioned among ourselves, like, goodness, he’s taking everybody’s stuff out,” said a former nurse at the facility. “That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector.”
Politico: Caputo apologizes to HHS staff, signals desire for medical leave http://politi.co/2ForUEN
// The departure of the administration’s top health spokesperson would be a major blow to Trump’s messaging strategy on coronavirus.
DailyBeast, Lachlan Markay: Inside Kanye’s Operation to Ratf*ck Biden in Iowa http://bit.ly/35Avy91
// A pair of seasoned Republican operatives appear to be giving the famous rapper a boost to get his name on ballots.
⭕ 14 Sep 2020
NBCNews: Justice Department internal watchdog is investigating Roger Stone’s sentencing, say sources http://nbcnews.to/3kjuQRL
// Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky told Congress that the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. told him to recommend a lighter sentence because of Stone’s ties to Trump.
🐣 RT @AVindman Truth is a victim in this administration, I think it’s Orwellian—the ultimate goal of this president is to get you to disbelieve what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard. My goal now is to remind people of this.
⋙ 🐣 RT @AVindman This Atlantic interview provides some insight into my motivations for public service, testifying in Congress, and now speaking publicly.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TheAtlantic Exclusive: In his first interview since serving as a key witness in the impeachment trial, Alexander Vindman tells @JeffreyGoldberg that Americans should be worried about Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin.
⋙⋙⋙ TheAtlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg: Alexander Vindman: Trump Is Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’ http://bit.ly/3bXuf5i
// In his first interview, a key witness in the impeachment trial says Trump goes out of his way to try to please the Russian president.
WaPo: Top Trump health appointee Michael Caputo warns of armed insurrection after election http://wapo.st/32wU9d0
🐣 RT @ASlavitt This guy is unwell. He’s accusing our scientists of “sedition.” It’s getting embarrassing. ¤ On the other hand he does fit right in with the Administration. 🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Trump Health Aide Alleges Broad Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt http://nyti.ms/2Fs1QIM //➔ Fyi: Wikipedia: Caputo “worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S.”
// Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary of health for public affairs, told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection, and he accused C.D.C. scientists of “sedition.”
The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus made outlandish and false claims on Sunday that career government scientists were engaging in “sedition” in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.
Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump.
Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump’s pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger. …
Mr. Caputo delivered his broadside against scientists, the media and Democrats after a spate of news reports over the weekend that detailed his team’s systematic interference in the C.D.C.’s official reports on the pandemic and other disease outbreaks. Former and current C.D.C. officials described to Politico, The New York Times and other outlets how Mr. Caputo and a top aide routinely demanded the agency revise, delay and even scuttle the C.D.C.’s core public health updates, called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, that they believed undercut Mr. Trump’s message that the pandemic is under control.
Those reports, deemed “the holiest of the holy” by one former top health official for their international respect and importance, have traditionally been so shielded from political interference that political appointees see them only just before they are published.
Mr. Caputo on Sunday complained on Facebook that he was under siege by the media and said that his physical health was in question and his “mental health has definitely failed.”
“I don’t like being alone in Washington,” he said, describing “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.” He then ran through a series of conspiracy theories, culminating in a prediction that Mr. Trump will win re-election but his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will refuse to concede.
“And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” he said. “The drills that you’ve seen are nothing.” He added: “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”
His Facebook presentation comes as Mr. Trump has increasingly singled out federal government scientists as targets, complaining without evidence that they were deliberately trying to subvert his administration’s efforts to fight the pandemic for their own political reasons.
Mr. Caputo echoed those sentiments, saying scientists “deep in the bowels of the C.D.C. have given up science and become political animals.”
They “haven’t gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops” to plot “how they’re going to attack Donald Trump next,” Mr. Caputo said. “There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.”
Mr. Caputo frequently touched on themes of an obstructive “deep state” that the president has used throughout his tenure and during his re-election campaign. Mr. Trump has portrayed himself as at war with federal bureaucrats determined to thwart his policies and with radical left-wing activists who he claims are sowing violence in American cities.
Mr. Caputo suggested, also without evidence, that the August killing of a Trump supporter in Portland, Ore., by an avowed supporter of the left-wing collective known as antifa was part of a broader left-wing plot to target the administration’s supporters.
“Remember the Trump supporter who was shot and killed?” he said. “That was a drill.”
The man suspected of the shooting, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was later shot dead by officers from a federally led fugitive task force in Washington State. He “went down fighting,” Mr. Caputo said. “Why? Because he couldn’t say what he had inside him.” He then spoke of “hit squads being trained all over this country” — a conspiracy theory unsupported by evidence.
Mr. Caputo continued his social media effort after the Facebook event, retweeting a conspiratorial post that hinted with no evidence that armed camps were being established in Washington, D.C.: “Occupants don’t look like vagrants. Looks like forward basing for militant street ops,” J. Michael Waller, a conservative provocateur, posted.
He accused officials at the C.D.C. and other government agencies — including the Department of Health and Human Services — of deliberately subverting the president’s efforts to contain the pandemic. The C.D.C., he said, was riddled with anti-Trump researchers who “walk around like they are monks” and “holy men” but engage in “rotten science.”
But he singled out Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the agency, for praise. He “is one of my closest friends in Washington,” he said. “He’s such a good man.”
Former and current agency officials have asserted that Dr. Redfield has allowed so much political interference with the agency’s work that some career scientists are on the verge of resigning.
Mr. Caputo’s scientific adviser, Dr. Paul Alexander, was heavily involved in the effort to reshape the C.D.C.’s weekly reports on morbidity and mortality. The reports are widely read by the nation’s health professionals, who depend upon them for medical guidance.
Mr. Caputo acknowledged in a brief interview this weekend that it was unusual for a public affairs officer to hire his own scientific adviser. But he described Dr. Alexander, an assistant professor at McMaster University in Canada, as “a genius” to his Facebook audience, saying the public criticism had only served to make his position “permanent” as a watchdog over politically motivated scientists.
“To allow people to die so that you can replace the president is a grievous venial sin, venial sin,” he said. “And these people are all going to hell.”
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Is the Mail Getting Slower? We’re Tracking It http://nyti.ms/33nwiM6 Undeniably ~ since Postmaster General DeJoy unveiled major changes in early July
● Timelines: Long-distance Mail (Top) and Local Mail (bottom)
NYT: Is the Mail Getting Slower? We’re Tracking It https://t.co/6k2VHo4Vch Undeniably ~ since Postmaster General DeJoy unveiled major changes in early July
● Timelines: Long-distance Mail (Top) and Local Mail (bottom) pic.twitter.com/hcGoeD4j0k
— 🇺🇸 Auriandra 🇺🇦 (@Auriandra) September 14, 2020
● State-by-State https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1305574292277604354?s=20/photo/1
NYT: Biden Creates Legal War Room, Preparing for a Big Fight Over Voting http://nyti.ms/3mhNlYB “Biden officials described the ramp-up as necessary to guard the integrity of a fall election already clouded by President Trump’s baseless accusations of widespread fraud”
// With two former solicitors general and hundreds of lawyers, the Biden campaign is bracing for an extended legal battle and hoping to maintain trust in the electoral process.
The new operation will be overseen by Dana Remus, who has served as Mr. Biden’s general counsel on the 2020 campaign, and Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel during the Obama administration who joined the Biden campaign full-time over the summer as a senior adviser.
Inside the campaign, they are creating a “special litigation” unit, which will be led by Donald B. Verrilli Jr. and Walter Dellinger, two former solicitors general, who are joining the campaign. Hundreds of lawyers will be involved, including a team at the Democratic law firm Perkins Coie, led by Marc Elias, which will focus on the state-by-state fight over vote casting and counting rules. And Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general in the Obama administration, will serve as something of a liaison between the campaign and the many independent groups involved in the legal fight over the election, which is already raging in the courts.
Mr. Trump’s talk of fraud drew a notable Republican rebuke last week, when Benjamin L. Ginsberg, one of the party’s top elections lawyers for decades, wrote a scathing Washington Post op-ed article.
🐣 📋 RT @kylegriffin1 Republican Party affiliation is down 8% this year alone. Democrats have gained 5%.
⋙⋙ 💙 WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Trump might want to stop fighting the culture wars. He’s losing. http://wapo.st/3mmYasj //➔ tons of data with links to polls
⋙⋙⋙ The Fox News poll from 9/13 indicated that 48% view the demonstrations in NY, Kenosha and Portland to be “Riots,” while 40% said “Protests.” It noted “Thirty percent of Democrats join 68 percent of Republicans in describing the unrest as riots.” ¤ This perception is ominous for Democrats. Incivility and violence of any kind must be vigorously condemned, whether it comes from the right or the left.
⋙ 🐣 Then who are the 44% who support him? I guess those who vote on:
– The Economy
– Abortion
– Guns (lots of hunters where I live)
– Racism (barely disguised)
– “Traditional conservatives”
– In the Fox/OAN/talk radio/conspiracy bubbles
– Those who want to “own the libs”
Miss any?
🐣 “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command” – George Orwell, “1984”
“Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening” – Donald Trump, 2018
@Morning_Joe @MorningMika @JoeNBC
⭕ 13 Sep 2020
🐣 RT @MeetThePress WATCH: Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok says he continues to believe that “Donald Trump is compromised by the Russians.” #MTP ¤ Strzok claims: Russians “hold leverage over [Trump] that makes him incapable of placing the national interest … ahead of his own.” 💽 https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1305173152415330305?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 12 Sep 2020
DailyBeast, Emily Shugerman (9/12): Giuliani Claims He Had No Idea His Ukraine Pal Andriy Derkach Was a Russian Agent http://bit.ly/302cRYe
// Derkach was sanctioned this week by the U.S. Treasury Department for attempting to interfere in the upcoming U.S. elections by peddling conspiracies on Joe Biden.
🐣 RT @magi_jay Can we just start calling him a fascist at this point? Or at least fascistic? We’re not living under fascism. But he would sure like us to be.
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar “We’re gonna win four more years in the White House, and then we’ll negotiate, because based on the way we were treated, we’re probably entitled to another four years after that” — Trump, slurring, began his rally in Nevada by teasing that he intends to serve more than two terms
🐣 RT @JamilSmith I wrote about what Trump told Bob Woodward, and the whistleblower allegations that @DHSgov deliberately downplayed the threat of white-supremacist violence. Trump is running on keeping white people safe, but it’s clear that he doesn’t even care about them.
⋙ RollingStone, Jamil Smith: The No Lives Matter President http://bit.ly/2ZxC5O4
// Trump’s damning admissions on the Woodward tapes betray not merely his duty and the country, but even his promises to white America to keep them safe
🐣 RT @techreview [MIT] Videos spread by right-wing agitators have mobilized white vigilantes to take up arms against racial justice protesters, making them feel justified menacing and attacking them. If social-media companies do not act swiftly, the situation can only get worse. https://bit.ly/3bXnjFq
⭕ 11 Sep 2020
WaPo, Rachel Kleinfeld: The U.S. shows all the signs of a country spiraling toward political violence http://wapo.st/2FsjOL4
// It isn’t too late to bolster our democracy’s resilience and pull back from the brink.
WaPo Editorial: The Trump administration finally takes action against Russian election meddling — even as it tries to deny it http://wapo.st/35tgCth //➔ in a normal world, this would put an end to the Trump/Giuliani/Derkach-concocted Hunter Biden saga ~ but that’s not our world
THERE APPEAR to be two minds in the Trump administration: one that acknowledges Russia is a hostile geopolitical foe; and that of President Trump and his most craven flunkies, who seek to help the Kremlin escape blame and punishment for its persistent wrongdoing.
The first occasionally wins out, as was the case on Thursday, when the Treasury Department placed sanctions on Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian parliament. The department concluded that Mr. Derkach “has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services.” In the past two years, “Derkach waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States designed to culminate prior to election day,” Treasury stated.
What Treasury did not mention is that Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani worked with Mr. Derkach to smear Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden based on the fact that Mr. Biden’s son was once on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company. The smear effort continues with the ongoing Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee investigation led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who denies the by-now obvious conclusion that hyping Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theories right before the election advances a Russian disinformation plot.
≣ CNN: READ: Former Judge Gleeson’s response to Justice Department efforts to drop Michael Flynn’s prosecution http://cnn.it/3kbcger
↥ ↧
Politico: Court-appointed adviser blasts ‘corrupt’ DOJ move to drop Flynn case http://politi.co/3bT1mqW The advisor, ret. Judge John Gleeson, argued that the grounds for dismissing the case are so weak they “can only be chalked up to Trump’s pressure campaign”
// It’s not clear whether the brief by retired jurist John Gleeson will sway the District Court judge deciding Flynn’s fate.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s lies to the FBI are so clear — and their effect on the FBI’s Russia probe so obvious — that the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case can only be a pretext to help an ally of President Donald Trump, a court-appointed adviser to Judge Emmet Sullivan argued Friday.
In an unsparing, 30-page brief, John Gleeson, tapped by Sullivan to argue against the dismissal of the case, suggests that the Justice Department’s arguments for letting Flynn off the hook conflict with its positions in other cases — and even in earlier rounds of the Flynn case itself — and therefore can only be chalked up to Trump’s pressure campaign.
🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ Let’s not forget that it is just not normal for career prosecutors to resign from the Justice Department or high-profile cases — but that happened in the Stone and Flynn cases, and the Durham investigation, where the #2 just resigned. Barr is destroying the rule of law for POTUS
Politico: Durham aide quits amid pressure on Russiagate probe http://politi.co/3bT4yme
// Veteran prosecutor Nora Dannehy had been drafted to help investigate the origins of the inquiry into the 2016 Trump campaign.
A top aide to Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a politically sensitive investigation into the origins of the federal investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, has resigned from the Justice Department amid mounting pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to publish results from the probe before the November election.
Veteran federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who returned from the private sector to assist Durham in March 2019, exited the government Friday, according to a Durham spokesperson.
In recent interviews, Trump has expressed impatience with the Durham inquiry, suggesting that it should be producing more prosecutions as well as disclosures of information the president contends will be damaging to his political rivals. The situation also seems to have put a chill in Trump’s relationship with Barr.
“Bill Barr has the chance to be the greatest of all time, but if he wants to be politically correct, he’ll be just another guy, because he knows all the answers, he knows what they have, and it goes right to Obama and it goes right to Biden,” Trump said last month in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Last month, Barr predicted “significant developments in the probe before the election” and he has indicated he sees Justice Department policy as presenting no obstacle to releasing a report on Durham’s findings in advance of the November vote.
★ 🔆 This❗️⋙ ScienceMag, H Holden Thorp (Editor-in-Chief): Trump lied about science http://bit.ly/2ZvTpmJ “This may be the most shameful moment in the history of U.S. science policy”
🐣 RT @OlgaNYC1211 How surprising that Putin’s employee Caputo who worked for a pro Russian Ukrainian official suspected of ordering the beheading of a journalist is assisting in destroying our agencies and endangering Americans. Despicable regime
⋙ 🧵 RT @ddiamond HHS spokesperson Caputo and his aides have targeted the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports — a pillar of U.S. medical research — arguing that scientists are intentionally trying to undermine Trump’s message. ❣https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1304609701347328002?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ ★ Politico: Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19 http://politi.co/33lJ2Tt
// The politically appointed HHS spokesperson and his team demanded and received the right to review CDC’s scientific reports to health professionals.
Lawfare, Michelle Onibokun and Chuck Rosenberg: The Justice Department’s Policy Against Election Interference is Open to Abuse http://bit.ly/2DPY1MC
WaPo, Philip Bump: Trump goes full circle on the politics of embracing Putin http://wapo.st/3hno3EO Trump’s taxes and Putin’s leverage
🔆 This❗️⋙ HartfordCourant: Nora Dannehy, Connecticut prosecutor who was top aide to John Durham’s Trump-Russia investigation, resigns amid concern about pressure from Attorney General William Barr http://bit.ly/3bNPbf3
Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr – who appointed Durham – to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resignation for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics.
Durham is notoriously circumspect and neither he nor members of his team have revealed anything about the direction of their work. But Durham associates, none of whom have specific knowledge of the investigation, have said recently that it is their belief he is under pressure to produce something – perhaps some sort of report – before the presidential election in November.
The thinking of the associates, all Durham allies, is that the Russia investigation group will be disbanded and its work lost if Trump loses.
Dannehy was told to expect an assignment of from six months to a year when she agreed to join Durham’s team in Washington, colleagues said. The work has taken far longer than expected, in part because of complications caused by the corona virus pandemic. In the meantime, team members – some of whom are current or former federal investigators or prosecutors with homes in Connecticut – have been working long hours in Washington under pressure to produce results, associates said.
Trump and his supporters have pointed to the Clinesmith arrest and conviction as evidence for the President’s contention that political opponents – including top figures in the FBI and intelligence services – have been trying to hamstring his presidency or force him from office with contrived claims that he or members of his campaign colluded with Russia to win the election.
Barr has dropped hints in public that Durham’s investigation will produce something more significant – before the election – than the arrest of Clinesmith, who was charged with making a false statement.
Critics of the administration have accused it of trying to manipulate the Durham investigation to shore up the President’s poll numbers.
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Trump will be in big trouble when he can’t run off stage at the debates http://wapo.st/3bMJ36A
MotherJones: Coronavirus and Russia: Trump and the GOP’s Double Betrayal http://bit.ly/3ma28Vb “They have failed to respond effectively to … a pandemic that has claimed the lives of close to 200,000 Americans, and a foreign attack on the political foundation of the country”
// Not since the Civil War have political leaders engaged in such treachery.
⭕ 10 Sep 2020
★ Medium: Coronavirus Blog, Andy Slavitt: What Else Does He Know? http://bit.ly/3c8eoAS
// orig a thread; The pandemic would have been different under anyone but a madman
WaPo, Aaron Blake: The Trump team welcomed Russian disinformation, the Trump administration further confirms http://wapo.st/3k9oZ1p
President Trump, in August, promoted information that the U.S. government has increasingly connected to a Russian disinformation campaign in the 2020 election — after his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, worked with the man promoting it. Now the U.S. government says explicitly that the man behind it is a Russian agent.
The Treasury Department on Thursday identified Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach as an “active Russian agent for over a decade” — a label that could lead to more direct penalties. It added that Derkach has “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
🐣 RT @HannahLiubakova #Belarus That’s a pretty direct allusion. Russian Ambassador Dmitry #Mezentsev gave #Lukashenko a book with maps of Viciebsk, Minsk and Mahiliou from 1866. These territories were part of the Russian Empire back then. Lukashenko replied: “Thank you” 💽 https://twitter.com/HannaLiubakova/status/1303992119976169473?s=20/photo/1
NYT: Federal Court Rejects Trump’s Order to Exclude Undocumented From Census http://nyti.ms/2RjgEvq The court said “Mr. Trump’s proposal exceeded his authority under federal laws governing the census and reapportionment”
// A three-judge panel unanimously said President Trump lacked the authority to remove noncitizens from census counts used to allot House seats.
A federal court on Thursday rejected President Trump’s order to exclude unauthorized immigrants from population counts that will be used next year to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives, ruling that it was so obviously illegal that a lawsuit challenging the order need not go to a trial.
The court, a three-judge panel in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said Mr. Trump’s proposal exceeded his authority under federal laws governing the census and reapportionment. The specially convened panel said there was no need to consider a second claim in the lawsuit that the president’s order violated the Constitution’s requirement to base apportionment of the House on “the whole number of persons in each state.”
“The merits of the parties’ dispute are not particularly close or complicated,” the judges wrote in granting summary judgment to the plaintiffs, a view that was broadly shared by legal scholars. Two of the judges, Richard C. Wesley and Peter W. Hall, were named to the bench by President George W. Bush. The third, Jesse M. Furman, was nominated by President Barack Obama.
NYT: Russian Intelligence Hackers Are Back, Microsoft Warns, Aiming at Officials of Both Parties http://nyti.ms/2Fun6gv
// China is also growing more adept at targeting campaign workers. But contrary to Trump administration warnings, Beijing is mostly aiming at Biden campaign officials.
↥ ↧
WaPo: Russian hackers who disrupted 2016 election targeting political parties again, Microsoft says http://wapo.st/3k99nLs
↥ ↧
WSJ: Russian Hackers Have Targeted 200 Groups Tied to U.S. Election, Microsoft Says http://on.wsj.com/3mkVYBQ
// China has also sought to compromise ‘high-profile individuals’ linked to Joe Biden’s campaign, according to the software giant
🐣 RT @ScottMStedman I’m reliably told that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the group that published the Panama Papers, have massive tranches of leaked financial records from FinCEN and are preparing to publish a slew of articles.
⋙ FinCEN (9/1): Statement by FinCEN Regarding Unlawfully Disclosed Suspicious Activity Reports http://bit.ly/3bJPpE1
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is aware that various media outlets intend to publish a series of articles based on unlawfully disclosed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), as well as other sensitive government documents, from several years ago. As FinCEN has stated previously, the unauthorized disclosure of SARs is a crime that can impact the national security of the United States, compromise law enforcement investigations, and threaten the safety and security of the institutions and individuals who file such reports. FinCEN has referred this matter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Inspector General.
WaPo: Former DNI Daniel Coats criticizes suspension of in-person briefings to Congress on election security http://wapo.st/2DO7J25 “It’s imperative that the intelligence community keep Congress fully informed about the threats to our elections” ~ Former ODNI Coats ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1304170270744289280?s=20/photo/1
“It’s imperative that the intelligence community keep Congress fully informed about the threats to our elections and share as much information as possible while protecting sources and methods,” the former director of national intelligence said in an interview.
v
“[T]hese briefings in person should be delivered to both the Senate and the House oversight committees and also should be delivered to the duly elected members of the House and Senate at the appropriate classification level when directed by the bipartisan leadership of both the House and the Senate.” He added: “We must stand united in defending the election security process from being corrupted and ensure that a vote cast is a vote counted.”“The Super Bowl of all elections is coming our way in 2020.”
^
Coats’s stern warning came in response to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s notifying Congress a week and a half ago that he was suspending in-person briefings to lawmakers, though the Senate Intelligence Committee’s acting chairman said his panel will continue to receive such updates.
🚫🧵 RT @EricGarland BRAND NEW INDICTMENT AGAINST RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE AT EDVA SHOWS KINETIC OPERATIONS ON U.S. SOIL TARGETING AMERICAN ELECTIONS 🔥🔥🔥
Let’s break it down, shall we? 📌 https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1304137769900560384?s=20
// unsure about this guy, but posted ⇊
⋙ DOJ: Russian Project Lakhta Member Charged with Wire Fraud Conspiracy http://bit.ly/3ijU6Xy Project Lakhta: “a Russian interference operation targeting citizens in the United States, EU, Ukraine, and Russia” ~ German Marshall Fund ● Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1304163052355571712?s=20/photo/1
(9/10/2020) According to the allegations in the criminal complaint, Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits, 27, of St. Petersburg, Russia, serves as a manager in “Project Lakhta,” a Russia-based effort to engage in political and electoral interference operations. Since at least May 2014, Project Lakhta’s stated goal in the United States has been to disrupt the democratic process and spread distrust towards candidates for political office and the political system in general. Since 2014, Project Lakhta has sought to obscure its conduct by operating through a number of entities, including the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The Translator Department, where Lifshits served as a manager beginning around January 2017, is alleged to be responsible for much of Project Lakhta’s influence operations, which are still ongoing.
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote This is just the beginning. Strap in.
⋙ 🧵 RT @oneunderscore_ The Oathkeepers, a far-right militia group, has been banned by Twitter. ¤ They recently tweeted there’ll be “open warfare against the Marxist insurrectionists by election night, no matter what you do” and “Civil War is here, right now.” ¤ Its founder Stewart Rhodes is also banned. 📌 https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1304132929346437120?s=20
🐣 RT @AaronBlake The end of Cohen’s book:
“You now have all the information you need to decide for yourself in November.”
The end of Woodward’s book:
“When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.”
Politico: Treasury designates anti-Biden Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach for sanctions for election interference http://politi.co/2FhxSXR //➔ oh good! will they sanction @RudyGiuliani and @SenRonJohnson, too?
// Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian, has promoted discredited allegations against the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Treasury Department has designated Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian promoting discredited allegations against Joe Biden, for sanctions related to foreign interference in the U.S. election.
Derkach, who was previously identified as a malign actor by the intelligence community, met with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine in December, as Giuliani mounted an effort to obtain derogatory information on Biden’s relationships in Ukraine. On Thursday, the administration went even further in tying Derkach to the Kremlin.
“Derkach, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services,” Treasury found. “Derkach has directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
But Treasury’s announcement underscores growing evidence that Russia is mounting a similar campaign to its efforts in 2016 in an attempt to boost Trump’s candidacy and damage his rival. Trump administration intelligence officials have concluded that Russia is seeking to damage Biden and support Trump through actors like Derkach.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the sanctions decision an effort to “counter these Russian disinformation campaigns and uphold the integrity of our election system.”
“Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world,” Mnuchin said.
In his earlier statement, Derkach denounced efforts “to tie me to the special services of other countries,” like Russia, and said his critics were trying to discredit him by drawing attention to his studies at Moscow’s FSB academy, formerly known as the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB.
Derkach’s father, Leonid, was a KGB operative for decades before becoming the head of Ukraine’s security services; he was fired in 2004 over his alleged involvement in a murder plot.
Democrats have raised alarms about evidence that Derkach has disseminated packets of anti-Biden information to Republican lawmakers investigating Biden’s role in Ukraine, worrying that he was seeding disinformation into ongoing congressional probes.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, has been investigating Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Though Johnson has sharply denied the suggestion that Derkach has supplied the committee with any information, Democrats have accused him of amplifying discredited allegations that have originated from pro-Russia factions in Ukraine.
Derkach has also prom