Trump Talk: or, Lift every voice and sing

[lionheart]

It's Black History Month and the fight goes on (plus, we all need a boost that does not come from ye olde hop flask).

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might

Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand.

True to our God,
True to our native land.

James Weldon Johnson (1900)

Love this

The ghastly NRA can't dispute this

shareblue.com/teen-survivors-david-hogg-ultimatum-nra-attack-dogs-will-outlive/

Across

Nothing is impossible. If batch pardons were offered, though, it would be a whole different ball game.

Erm...

Jeff Horwitz
@JeffHorwitz
Last night Trump staff holed up in the room with the CCTV system and locked the door. Then the owners group killed the power to the room - disabling the hotel’s phones and internet, located on servers in same room. Cops called.

apnews.com/amp/ce4dbdd4446c4862bb9c483425554c67?__twitter_impression=true

Trump's managers retreated behind the glass walls of an office where they were seen carrying files to an area where the sounds of a shredding machine could be heard, according to two witnesses aligned with the owners. The legal complaint also accused Trump's team of improperly destroying documents.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity over concerns they would be drawn into an expensive and protracted legal fight.

Elsewhere in the building, the hotel owners' team and its allies were barred by Trump Hotel staff from entering the room containing the building's closed-circuit TV system as well as key computer servers for the hotel and apartments that share the property. In response, they shut off power to the room — temporarily bringing down phone lines and internet connections within the building.

According to the legal complaint, Trump's chief of security and six security guards "pushed and shouted at" Fintiklis when he came to deliver the termination notices. The complaint said the hotel employees then called the police.

A new confrontation appeared likely to arise during the weekend, as Trump's security staff set up early Saturday in the hotel lobby, witnesses said.

OK, that's Trump business staff, rather than Trump White House staff...

Because these days we have specify, having a POTUS who didn't divest. All good fun and games.

Thanks for that link Pain. It really clarifies the 'pros and cons' of pardons in this situation. Definitely a double-edged sword for the guilty parties, thank Goodness!

cozie That's just it, isn't it? This whole debacle is a different ball game. We've just never been in this situation before. Watergate was 100% a 'domestic' situation. All the 'players' were US citizens acting at the direction of other US citizens 'protect' Nixon and the GOP's control of policy. Scrotus-gate is about foreign interference to elect Scrotus and direct US policy to the foreign powers taste. It's just unprecedented. I think that's why we're all on tenterhooks, we have no 'past actions' on which to predict 'future behaviour'.

Not your fault, Pain, I should know better than to pick the scab when I look at the orange one's twitter feed.

Sorry! Should’ve thought to make it clearer. Yes his hotel rather than whitehouse.

But! Don’t forget what has been alleged to have happened at the Panama’s hotel

Trump's Panama tower used for money laundering by condo owners, reports say

Trump Ocean Club drew people accused of corruption and future president benefited from laundered funds, reports say

amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/17/trump-ocean-club-panama-money-laundering-reports

That whole Panama City thing is just weird...............

Also from November.

www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-panama/

Whoa! Mona Charen ruffling some feathers with her CPAC speech.

“I’m disappointed about our side about being silent about serial harassers and abusers, including the one sitting in the White House… because they happen to have an R beside their name.”

Alexander Nazaryan‏Verified account
@alexnazaryan

Whoa, Mona Charen just called out President Trump on his alleged sexual misconduct from the CPAC floor. By far the strongest criticism of the President I've heard here.

ana marie cox‏Verified account
@anamariecox

Mona Charen now criticizing CPAC for inviting Marion LaPen: “And the LePen name is a disgrace… the fact that CPAC invited her is a disgrace.” (!!!!!!!!!) Audience erupts in lusty boos

Tim Alberta‏Verified account
@TimAlberta

Mona Charen, who stunned #CPAC by rebuking conservatives for excusing the behavior of Donald Trump and Roy Moore, was just escorted outside by 3 security guards after her speech. More in @POLITICOMag story later.

lawfareblog.com/document-house-intelligence-democrats-release-rebuttal-memo

It's pretty well what I expected. I wish I knew what has been redacted, though.

Ted Lieu
‏
Verified account

@tedlieu
28m28 minutes ago

Pleased to see Schiff memo was released. The redactions were unnecessary, but at least the White House kept the main points in. I can say that the redacted materials all support the boldfaced points.

This Democratic memo shows the Nunes memo was designed to mislead the people.

democrats-intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=358

Yes, as expected. I think a lot of the points have already been made by various committee members in interviews and on social media.

Also, by powers of deduction when it comes to the other memo and its flimsy manipulations.

Good to fill in some detail though.

Mr O'Donnell and Mr Friedman have the floor.

WaPo: Russian military spies hacked several hundred computers used by authorities at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea while trying to make it appear as though the intrusion was conducted by North Korea, per US intelligence

www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/russian-spies-hacked-the-olympics-and-tried-to-make-it-look-like-north-korea-did-it-us-officials-say/2018/02/24/44b5468e-18f2-11e8-92c9-376b4fe57ff7_story.html?__twitter_impression=true

From last year:

EXPECT CYBER ATTACKS AND MISDIRECTION: RUSSIA ENHANCES NORTH KOREAN INTERNET ACCESS,

www.byline.com/column/67/article/1857

Sarah Kendzior
@sarahkendzior
The Pentagon recently said that they would use nukes to retaliate against a major cyberattack on infrastructure.

Russia has a long record of hacking infrastructure, and is now trying to pin hacks on North Korea -- which Trump's already threatened to nuke.

Recipe for disaster.

Last month I wrote about the unprecedented two false North Korea nuclear missile alerts, and the danger of a gullible, war-hungry president being tricked, potentially by hackers (link: www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fastcompany.com/40524460/could-false-alerts-and-fake-news-start-a-nuclear-war)

Zachary Cohen
@ZcohenCNN
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that Ivanka Trump briefed South Korean President Moon about the new NK sanctions.

Asked if she had the appropriate security clearance, Mnuchin said, “She has the appropriate access to brief the president.”

Worth noting this story from October re Ivanka's security clearance:

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/10/05/politics/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-security-clearance/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Brian Klaas
@brianklaas
The president’s chief adviser, a general, has allowed the president’s unqualified daughter (who lacks permanent security clearance) to brief a key ally on diplomatic decisions involving the risk of nuclear war. This snapshot belongs in an authoritarian banana republic.

Hoax attempts against Miami Herald augur brewing war over fake, real news

amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article201938144.html?__twitter_impression=true

Two incidents hit The Miami Herald in recent days that underscore new tactics by those seeking to discredit mainstream media, and they augur what experts said are dark days in the battle between credible news and misinformation.

Both incidents came in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 when a teenage gunman killed 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

In the first incident, a perpetrator used a software tool to create two fake tweets that looked like they came from the account of Alex Harris, a Herald reporter preparing tributes to the slain students. One fake tweet asked for photos of dead bodies at the school and another asked if the shooter was white.

The reporter almost immediately began getting angry messages.

“It was hampering our ability to cover this terrible tragedy in our own backyard because we’re having to deal with the backlash,” said Aminda Marques, executive editor of The Herald.

In a second incident, someone again used a software tool to create a phony Miami Herald story — in the high tension following the Parkland shooting — saying that a Miami-Dade middle school faced threats of “potentially catastrophic events” on upcoming dates, indicating that a new mass shooting was in the offing.

Screenshots of that fake story were passed along on Twitter and Snapchat, two social media platforms, said Monique O. Madan, a Herald reporter whose byline appeared on the fake story.

“It looks super real. They use the same font that we use. It has our masthead. It has my byline. If I weren’t a journalist, I wouldn’t think twice about it,” Madan said.

Worried parents and teachers grew alarmed, thinking it was a real Herald story. Dozens called or messaged Madan. “My phone just would not stop ringing,” she said.

The motive behind the hoaxes was not clear, but someone sought to create alarm.

“It seems to be consistent with a pattern of people trying to disparage or discredit the news media,” said Edward Wasserman, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Wasserman is a former executive business editor at The Herald and columnist on the media for McClatchy.

[this is just an excerpt, the rest is worth a read]

The Island of Misfit Toys - a one way ticket I hope.

Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom

I had a conversation with a fellow Never Trump Republican the other night, and we were trying to figure out what it is that some of our colleagues - who once claimed to be Never Trump - think they're getting out of selling their souls. We had some theories.
/1
One group, we assume, are true believers. This, I think, is a very small group of people, at least in DC, most of whom are just too intelligent (or too cynical) to have bought into any of this stuff. Small, dumb, highly motivated, not really the core of the DC GOP.
/2
The second group are people who have convinced themselves that patriotism requires holding their noses and helping Trump, or at least not letting him wreck anything. These were not usually public Never Trumpers. They hung back, and are quietly doing public service now.
/3
The largest group seems to be the group from the Island of Misfit Toys. These are the people who were the second and third-stringers who were never gonna make it in DC, but Trump is their Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. A world that was closed to them is now open.
/4
This group had a few Never Trumpers who might have signed on as a way of preserving viability but did a 180 on election day. Rank opportunism throughout this group. An Island of Misfit Toys who found their Santa.
/5
This Island of Misfit Toys works well for Trump because they share his insecurity, the sense of never having been accepted in the top tier. Chips on shoulders everywhere, with "get even" as their political mantra. (For what, who knows.) They're sad cases.
/6
And finally, there's the total cynics, the samurai, the political escort services who'll work for anyone for the right salary, say the right things, and do all the things the other girlfriends won't, for the right fee. It's purely transactional, and when it ends, it ends
/7
I leave it to you all to populate the various categories with names. You might have some; I couldn't possibly comment. /8x

A Former Manager At The Russian "Troll Factory" Is Now Living In The US, Report Says

The Russian news outlet TV Rain reported that Agata Burdonova moved to the US in December.

www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/kevincollier/a-former-manager-at-the-russian-troll-factory-is-now-living?__twitter_impression=true

A former manager of the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “troll factory” and propaganda operation accused of meddling in the 2016 election, has lived in the United States for the past two and a half months, according to a Russian news outlet.

Agata Burdonova, 31, was an English-language specialist who worked as a manager at the IRA, according to TV Rain, an independent Russian news agency that has broken a number of stories about the Internet Research Agency. She moved to Bellevue, Washington, on Dec. 7, and has thoroughly documented her move on her social media accounts. She has posted pictures of her boarding pass and Russian passport, a selfie with her husband at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and photos of Seattle’s Space Needle, a suburban American neighborhood, and several Washington parks.

TV Rain said she denied that she had worked for the Internet Research Agency and refused to comment on her move to the United States. She did not immediately respond to questions sent by BuzzFeed News to her accounts on Facebook and on a similar Russian social media platform, VK.

Burdonova is not among the 13 Russians that the Department of Justice’s special counsel has accused of violating a series of US laws in connection to the 2016 election. According to IRA documents obtained by the special counsel, one of the IRA’s stated objectives was to conduct “information warfare against the United States of America.” [...]

Julia Davis
Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
So much for those who try to downplay the sophistication of the Russian trolls, their supposedly rudimentary English skills and lack of understanding of the U.S. This former IRA troll farm manager is fitting in just fine, living in the U.S. & her English level is “professional.”

In her Social Security application, Agata Burdonova says she is a "Legal Alien Allowed to Work." I highly doubt that a cooperating witness would freely publicize so much info re: her current whereabouts, personal details, etc.
Attn. @FBI @DHSgov @ICEgov

This keeps getting better. It appears, former IRA (Russian troll factory) manager's husband received an offer of employment from @facebook & Facebook —as his employer— helped both of them immigrate to the US. They're now living in Bellevue, Washington.
Is your head spinning yet?

Follow-up re: former IRA (Russian troll factory) manager Agatha Burdonova:
On June 15, 2017, Dmitry Fyodorov says he received an employment offer from Facebook.

mobile.twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/967559297516425217/photo/1

On August 8, 2017 Fyodorov marries Burdonova.
Employer (presumably, Facebook) sponsors both of their visas —prob. H1B.

mobile.twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/967596963163189248/photo/1

Brad Parscale
@parscale
Finally. @WIRED gets it right. Here is an insider at @facebook that built the system and saw behind the curtain.

southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
This article about Facebook’s auction system, which Brad Parscale just endorsed, says that Facebook systematically charged the Clinton campaign more for ad space than the Trump campaign because Clinton’s ads were less “provocative.”

HOW TRUMP CONQUERED FACEBOOK—WITHOUT RUSSIAN ADS
www.wired.com/story/how-trump-conquered-facebookwithout-russian-ads/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Like many things at Facebook, the ads auction is a version of something Google built first. As on Google, Facebook has a piece of ad real estate that it’s auctioning off, and potential advertisers submit a piece of ad creative, a targeting spec for their ideal user, and a bid for what they’re willing to pay to obtain a desired response (such as a click, a like, or a comment). Rather than simply reward that ad position to the highest bidder, though, Facebook uses a complex model that considers both the dollar value of each bid as well as how good a piece of clickbait (or view-bait, or comment-bait) the corresponding ad is. If Facebook’s model thinks your ad is 10 times more likely to engage a user than another company’s ad, then your effective bid at auction is considered 10 times higher than a company willing to pay the same dollar amount.

[...]During the run-up to the election, the Trump and Clinton campaigns bid ruthlessly for the same online real estate in front of the same swing-state voters. But because Trump used provocative content to stoke social media buzz, and he was better able to drive likes, comments, and shares than Clinton, his bids received a boost from Facebook’s click model, effectively winning him more media for less money. In essence, Clinton was paying Manhattan prices for the square footage on your smartphone’s screen, while Trump was paying Detroit prices. Facebook users in swing states who felt Trump had taken over their news feeds may not have been hallucinating.

The Hoarse Whisperer
@HoarseWisperer
This is crazy.

Facebook effectively charged Trump less for propaganda than it charged Clinton for regular ads.

Facebook gave Clinton a fraction of the advertising impressions for the same amount of money.

Facebook helped elect Trump all on their own.

Mark Irvine
@MarkIrvine89
Today I discovered that @Google spent $125,000 to sponsor #CPAC2018

Google claims it lacks resources to solve problems of brands ads appearing next to fake news and hate speech online. Now it joins Breitbart as a sponsor.

Today, Google continues to monetize fake news online.

mobile.twitter.com/MarkIrvine89/status/967437554399219714/photo/1

Sweden is taking on Russian meddling ahead of fall elections. The White House might take note.

www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/europe/sweden-looks-at-russias-electoral-interference-in-the-us-and-takes-steps-not-to-be-another-victim/2018/02/21/9e58ee48-0768-11e8-aa61-f3391373867e_story.html?__twitter_impression=true

Hundreds of local election workers have been trained to spot and resist foreign influence. The country’s biggest media outlets have teamed up to combat false news. Political parties scour their email systems to close hacker-friendly holes.

The goal: to Russia-proof ­Sweden’s political system so that what happened in the United States in 2016 can never happen in this Nordic country of 10 million people.

Although the general election isn’t until Sept. 9, officials say their preemptive actions may already have dissuaded the Kremlin from interfering. In Washington, meanwhile, the FBI says it has received no White House orders to secure the 2018 midterms against Russian influence.

“It would be very risky for a foreign nation to do this now,” said Mikael Tofvesson, who heads the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s effort to safeguard elections from malicious foreign influence. “It could risk a backlash. It would be an exposure of their methods.”

[whole thing is worth a read]