The zephyrs of change. Trump continued

[PerkingFaintly]

Republicans starting to feel the breeze as diverse Dems have a good election day.

Six lessons learned from US Democrat wins
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41920434

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3073837-Manafort-Destiny-Trump-continued?pg=1

So the Republicans are stuck with Moore.

Pretty much lion. Their sole hope is to find and heavily back and publicize a write in candidate.

It would have to be a huge and expensive "Vote for . Don't vote for Roy Moore, he's a Commie and Socialist".

Note I don't say he's a child molester. That's because that wouldn't cost him as many votes as being a Commie or a Socialist.

Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Quite the listen. Politico has audio of George Papadopoulos' July arraignment in closed Virginia courtroom.

www.politico.com/story/2017/11/08/secret-hearing-mueller-trump-probe-244653

Renato Mariotti@renato_mariotti
THREAD: Does Trump’s desire to roll back sanctions on Russia help Mueller’s criminal investigation

thehill.com/homenews/administration/359991-trump-on-russia-sanctions-having-russia-in-a-friendly-posture-is-an

1/ In the piece above, @thehill reports that Trump said that Russia sanctions should be rolled back. Check out his comments:

"And, you know, people don't realize Russia has been very, very heavily sanctioned," he continued. "They were sanctioned at a very high level, and that took place very recently. It's now time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken."

2/ I’m surprised that Trump’s lawyers aren’t vetting these comments more carefully because Mueller is likely looking at whether anyone in the Trump camp offered to trade an official act (like lifting sanctions) for something of value.

3/ I discussed this issue earlier this week, when news broke that the Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower meeting claimed that Trump Jr. said they would revisit the Magnitsky Act:

twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/927546198743019520

4/ It’s a crime to offer to trade an official act (like lifting sanctions) for something of value even if you don’t go through with it. But going forward with the act you promised is evidence that a prosecutor can use against you.

5/ So Trump’s comments could be useful to Mueller. If a Trump associate promised to consider reducing sanctions in exchange for something, you can expect Mueller to look into Trump’s later motivation for wanting to lift sanctions.

6/ Given the controversy surrounding Trump’s ties to Russia, his comments create the appearance of impropriety even if no one offered to reduce sanctions. For that reason, it’s surprising that he made those comments.

7/ Trump feels strongly enough about reducing sanctions on Russia to talk about doing so even though it will bring additional scrutiny and criticism. I would expect Mueller to look into why Trump has such strong feelings about Russia. /end

Hariri says he will return to Lebanon soon, leaves doubt about resignation

www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-politics-hariri/hariri-says-he-will-return-to-lebanon-soon-leaves-doubt-about-resignation-idUSKBN1DC0WW?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

How would they get that audio?

I have no idea.

It seems that they ‘obtained it’ after the case was officially unsealed. This was back in July.

publicize a write in candidate.

Across - can you explain a bit more about this? It sounds like a significant difference from UK elections, where you have the option of picking a listed candidate or “spoiling your ballot paper” so that it is counted (showing engagement) but not against any candidate - effectively a protest vote.

I defer to Across on this. But in my own understanding, in some states (and Alabama is one) you can ‘write in’ a candidates name - or use a printed sticker, I guess - to vote for someone not on the ballot paper. Murkowski won by those means.

There are serious problems for all comers, though, in that (I believe) the voting papers have already been sent to Alabamans overseas, including Armed Forces personnel.

Oh dear god. Thank god it was found and defused: there was an attempted pipe-bomb attack on today's Omagh remembrance ceremony.

Omagh alert 'attempt to disrupt Remembrance Day
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-41960294

This year is the 30th anniversary of the attack on the Enniskillen remembrance service, of course.

That is correct cozie, in the US in certain jurisdictions you can write in the name of a candidate and it counts as a valid vote. There have been votes for Mickey Mouse, Frank Zappa, and others as 'protest votes'. But there have been successful write in candidates, too.

I've never heard of a 'spoilt ballot' here, at least not in CA, but maybe it goes by another hame. I've only heard of write in candidates and 'none of the above'. Normally, the spot on the ballot for the office in question is just left blank signifying 'no vote cast' for that office.

It’s incredibly frightening perking. Everything is so febrile and this could have reignited (and still might) an awful situation.

Spencer Ackerman
@attackerman
EXCLUSIVE: A Green Beret involved in an intelligence activity in Mali discovered 2 Navy SEALs were stealing money from it. Now he’s dead & they’re under investigation for killing him - after picking the worst cover story possible.

This raises a ton of questions about what the US is really doing in west Africa — at a moment when it seems like that’s where the “war on terrorism” is gaining momentum.

amp.thedailybeast.com/green-beret-discovered-seals-illicit-cash-then-he-was-killed

That is horrendous, Perking.

Wisconsin becomes 28th state to call for U.S. constitutional convention

host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/wisconsin-becomes-th-state-to-call-for-u-s-constitutional/article_d1df5fb0-58ac-5812-a3a3-f2eec08510f2.html

Another mikefarb thread on Wisconsin

MikeFarb
MikeFarb
@mikefarb1
#unhackthevote

Wisconsin Voter Turnout Thread.

Everyone remembers when Wisconsin pulled their data in the middle of the night during our thread.

We were looking for precinct level registration data.

It gives us a great tool to evaluate the Election.

Thread

Wisconsin claimed they have certain areas where they were not able to get complete data.

We accept that for the point of this thread.

We have removed all 36 of these precincts from our graphs.

We have to use reliable data.

The following are our findings.

mobile.twitter.com/mikefarb1/status/929839794032709637

Mike Farb is doing excellent work.

The New York Times
The New York Times
@nytimes
Opinion: Mitch McConnell moved to expel Bob Packwood. He can do the same thing if Roy Moore wins in December.

t.co/iKFHqNCSJO?amp=1

Trump’s been allowing journalists to be denigrated at press conferences again, this time by duterte.

On Georgia's wiped servers:

Michael McDonald‏ @ElectProject

Tidbit here is FBI made a copy of the now-infamous server before it was wiped, will share data with plaintiffs

Kennesaw State Embroiled in Controversy over Security of Election

diverseeducation.com/article/104918/

Hardcore Russian disinfo - tied into a botnet and troll factory, of course.

Inside a pro-Russia propaganda machine in Ukraine
www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-41915295

The videos show extremist groups with hidden faces, distorted voices and posing with weapons.
The fighters identify themselves with a confusing array of labels. At times they describe themselves as pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, as pro-Ukrainian rebels in Russia and even as fighters from so-called Islamic State - even though they have also made videos potentially deeply offensive to Muslims.

'The Fatherland'
In one of these videos, six armed men are draped in a neo-Nazi flag.
They appear to be extreme Russian anti-government nationalists, helping Ukrainians to fight what they describe as "Putin's bloody regime" in Eastern Ukraine...
...
But BBC Russian has discovered a number of similarities between characters and locations in the videos and people and backgrounds in other online films which aim to recruit men to defend the "Donetsk People's Republic" - indicating that the videos are fakes produced by anti-Ukraine fighters operating in the region.

It's a long article. The disinfo campaign is seizing real events (eg a fire) and claiming them as attacks by the fictional groups.

There was an article in The Daily Mail yesterday about Russian trolls! I know The Mail on Sunday is less frothy than the weekly stuff, more Remain-inclined etc, and has a different editorial team (I think) but I was still heartened.

Joy Reid‏**@JoyAnnReid**

To those of you who hated the TPP and cheered Trump on while he pulled us out of it, note the world moved on w/o us.

Hours after Trump says US won’t be taken advantage of, Pacific nations reach deal without America
www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/10/us-left-out-as-pacific-trade-deal-achieved/

Joy Reid‏**@JoyAnnReid**
We might as well be Brexit Britain looking at Europe like “hey, friend...” and getting back a ¯\(ツ)/¯

And who did the keynote at Davos? (45 is too bedazzled by the ceremonial to notice anything else.)