Trumpwatch: Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere

[lionheart]

Let's hope he is done soon.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nra-parkland-shooting-fundraising-money-florida-school-guns-a8320606.html

'The National Rifle Association (NRA) has received record breaking donations in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, even as students across the country have led massive demonstrations to promote gun control legislation.'

There's a Second Season?

The Leadership Conference
‏
Verified account

@civilrightsorg

'Wow. @SenBlumenthal just asked these four judicial nominees to raise their hand if they believe Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. No one did.

Why are so many Trump nominees unwilling to acknowledge that this historic #SCOTUS decision was correctly decided?'

I guess that Brian said something along the lines of 'You have to be joking'?

Yep -- dystopias never end.

Macron played a blinder I think.

@EdKrassen
Following Following @EdKrassen
More
In his speech to the US Congress, French President Emmanuel Macron found as many ways to intelligently insult President Trump’s ideologies in such a way that ignorant people like Trump himself are led to believe that they are compliments. It was brilliant!

Impressed by Macrons fluency in English.
(What can I bring to the bunker ? I have a lot of Slimming World Hi Fibre mint chocolate bars...)

We'll all be on 'rations', Travelled. You'll lose weight anyway - so the bars will fit right in.

Macron and John Lewis hugging was just a real moment. You can just feel the humanity.

Trump couldn't do that if he tried for a decade.

Major dental work done today so I'm flying on Vicodin. But even with my ability to comprehend somewhat affected, Scrotus still doesn't make sense.

How and why Macron puts up with the bullshit 'power man' posturing and verbal diarrhea is really beyond me. Is there some angle in French/US politics from the French or European point of view that I am missing? Is there something Macron wants from the US?

Of course.

I don't know about Macron. I suspect he wants to take Merkel's place.

Cohen takes the 5th.

www.documentcloud.org/documents/4447050-Clifford-v-Trump-Cohen-Declaration-042518.html

But why is open to question.

What a hero.

TheBeat w/Ari Melber
‏Verified account
@TheBeatWithAri

BREAKING: Trump seeks to review seized Michael Cohen files, offers to make himself personally available for any review or screening of evidence seized by FBI of his lawyer.

What the law understands by Taking The Fifth and what the public may perceive it as are two different things - much like the old Scottish verdict of Not Proven.

PS - I say 'old' only because I just don't know whether it's still an option under Scots law.

Next Generation of Trumpers.

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/turning-point-usa-racist-tweets_us_5ad65b06e4b029ebe01ed1ac

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-travel-plan-supreme-court-leans-towards-upholding_us_5ae0a78fe4b055fd7fc717ff

Ah Well.

Michael Avenatti
‏*@MichaelAvenatti*
At this moment, I think it is critically important that we remember this:

‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth?’ Trump said — years after invoking it himself
www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/23/if-youre-innocent-why-are-you-taking-the-fifth-trump-said-years-after-invoking-it-himself

White supremacy

Ryan J. Reilly
@ryanjreilly
Jeff Sessions is about to testify on DOJ's budget. Here’s HuffPost’s scoop on the administration’s draft strategic plan (which still hasn’t been published yet)
Sessions' opening statement: "let me say with all the strength I can muster, that no nation has a finer group of law officers than those who comprise our FBI, DEA, ATF, and USMS.”

2018: when a Republican attorney general’s praise for law enforcement is actually a bit newsworthy.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/doj-trump-strategic-plan-civil-rights_us_5a7120c6e4b0a6aa487457b9

Zeke Johnson
@Zeke__Johnson
More Zeke Johnson Retweeted Ryan J. Reilly
The DOJ "draft strategic plan sidelines civil rights while emphasizing a crackdown on leaks and the MS-13 gang."

Joyce Alene
@JoyceWhiteVance
Leaving out civil rights as a top DOJ priority is unconscionable.

And

DHS is preparing to cancel the temporary residency permits of about 9,000 immigrants from Nepal, the Trump admin’s latest move to expel foreigners living in the U.S. with some form of provisional status.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/9000-nepalis-face-deportation-as-trump-administration-prepares-to-cancel-residency-permits/2018/04/24/e6cd7594-4800-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html

And

We Asked A Republican Running For Michigan Governor About His Anti-Muslim Remarks. He Responded With More Anti-Muslim Remarks.
Republican Patrick Colbeck, who is running for governor in Michigan, has spread unfounded anti-Muslim conspiracy theories about Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat in the same race. The state GOP distanced itself from Colbeck.
www.buzzfeed.com/talalansari/muslim-governor-michigan-race-republican-democrat-loyalty

And

[tbh everything about Blankenship is a problem and I am no fan of Elaine Chao but:

Kyle Griffin
‏*@kylegriffin1*
Don Blankenship, the West Virginia Republican Senate candidate, questioned whether Mitch McConnell faced a conflict of interest in foreign relations because Elaine Chao’s father is “a wealthy Chinaperson.”

www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/politics/don-blankenship-china-west-virginia.html ]

Amd

b-boy bouiebaisse
@jbouie
a nice, soft-focus profile of a man who once argued the united states must elect a potentially dangerous authoritarian in order to stop the “ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners” who will destroy America

www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/michael-anton-white-house-state-dinner.html

And

Ava DuVernay
@ava
“A young black man protected the public from a white man hell-bent on committing mass murder. Everything about this is a problem for Donald Trump.” Strong essay by @chaunceydevega.

www.salon.com/2018/04/24/our-president-ignores-an-american-hero-trumps-silence-on-the-waffle-house-murders-is-deafening/

And

This Teen's Racist Promposal Went Viral And Now The School Is Investigating
"If I was black I'd be picking cotton, but I'm white so I'm picking u 4 prom?"

www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/racist-promposal?utm_term=.xan0LoExB#.qubN3dzlg

[there's also a story about Joy Reid that I haven't been following closely - she's purported to have written homophobic posts on her blog years ago but she is denying it and saying that her site was hacked. If anyone can discern what's going on, please share!]

How moving was that Macron/Lewis hug. I think the bromance between Macron and 45 was all tactics on Macron's part, after all Trump is very easy to manipulate...
butter him up, praise him, tell him how special the relationship is then go for it with your speech in the Senate... blast him with a speech that brings the House to its feet rubbishing a lot of what Trump has done or is doing.

Russia investigation

Steve Vladeck
@steve_vladeck
The @senjudiciary Committee has posted the (revised) text of the Grassley Amendment to the #Mueller protection bill.

www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/S.2644%20Grassley1%20-%20HEN18497.pdf

The notification provisions are much less problematic than what was in the version about which @ThePlumLineGS reported earlier today:

twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/989269571633909762

Among lots of other things, this version makes it clear that @ChuckGrassley’s amendment is not, as some had speculated earlier today, a poison pill meant to destroy the bill. Instead, it sure looks like a thoroughgoing and thoughtful compromise that really ought to pass muster.

Renato Mariotti
@renato_mariotti
More Renato Mariotti Retweeted Steve Vladeck
I agree with @steve_vladeck. This doesn't look at all like the language that was discussed by @ThePlumLineGS earlier today, and I can't find that language anywhere in the bill. As far as I can tell, the bill would only protect (not undermine) the Mueller investigation.

Renato Mariotti
@renato_mariotti
More Renato Mariotti Retweeted Renato Mariotti
UPDATE: This language does NOT appear in the latest version of the bill

And

Jeremy Herb
@jeremyherb
Missed Sessions on the Hill today? You can read all the different ways he danced around questions about Cohen, Rosenstein and Mueller here

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/jeff-sessions-hearing-cohen-rosenstein/index.html

And

Philip Rucker
@PhilipRucker
Just in —> WaPo, NYT, AP, CNN & Politico are asking federal court to unseal materials Mueller used to obtain search warrants in Russia probe

www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/news-organizations-seek-access-to-mueller-materials-in-russia-investigation/2018/04/25/38eabf70-47e9-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html

And

Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
Top DHS official Jeanette Manfra said today that it's likely that more than 21 states were targeted by Russia before the election. (thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/384585-homeland-security-official-says-likely-russia-targeted-more-than-21 …) Reports have put that number as high as 39.

And

Shane Harris
@shaneharris
What happens if Trump fires Mueller? He could become a whistleblower. @wbaidlaw and @MarkSZaidEsq imagine the last-resort scenario.

Robert Mueller's Last Resort
www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/opinion/robert-mueller-legal-whistleblowing.html

And

Trump needed new lawyers for Russia probe. He found them at a tiny Florida firm.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-needed-new-lawyers-for-russia-probe-he-found-them-at-a-tiny-florida-firm/2018/04/25/7288a4f2-47cd-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html

And

Giuliani reopens negotiations about presidential interview with Mueller, but cautions special counsel that Trump remains resistant
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-reopens-negotiations-about-presidential-interview-with-mueller-but-cautions-special-counsel-that-trump-remains-resistant/2018/04/25/91ce79de-48a1-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html

Matthew Miller
@matthewamiller
Congrats to Rudy Giuliani on doing such a good job professionalizing the Trump legal team that it took a full 24 hours for your negotiations with Mueller to leak to the press.

Russia

Matthew Gertz
@MattGertz

1. NY Times reporter Amy Chozick says she became an “an unwitting agent of Russian intelligence” in covering hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 election. www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/04/25/what-comes-next-after-ny-times-reporter-admitted-becoming-unwitting-agent-russian-intelligence/220038

1. Journalists should take her words as a warning. U.S. intelligence chiefs say that Russia will attempt similar actions during the 2018 midterm campaign. Next time around, reporters won't be able to say they didn't know.
2. Chozick's admission is an opportunity for a serious discussion about how journalists should treat stolen materials.
3. The December 2016 NY Times bombshell on the Russian hacking campaign started a conversation, but that foundered as leading newsroom figures suggested they had an obligation to publish vital information.
4. That is a false choice between hiding vital information from the public and behaving exactly as media outlets did during the 2016 election.
5. There's a third option: Recognizing that the scope of the email coverage greatly exceeded the actual news value of the emails, and that the source of the emails was vastly more important than it was portrayed.
6. Given how mundane the emails were, journalists should have given their content much less attention, while making the fact that they had been released as part of an effort by a hostile foreign government to sway the election an essential part of their reporting.
7. That’s how French reporters would later treat the release of “spectacularly mundane” emails stolen from Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 campaign for president of France.
8. It’s also how the Miami Herald treated hacked internal Democratic campaign documents during the 2016 election.

10. If major media outlets want to avoid becoming witting agents of a foreign power, they need to consider what happened in 2016 and develop processes that make that less likely. 11. And it would behoove them to tell their readers and viewers up front how they plan to cover stolen documents going forward. 12. Maybe then we’ll be spared future attempts by reporters to explain why they always "chose the byline.” #fin

And

Mike Memoli
@mikememoli
NEW: Cambridge whistle blower told House Democrats Tuesday that Steve Bannon directed staff to test messaging in 2014 about Vladmir Putin and Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.
Chris Wylie said it was unusual because it was the only foreign leader they tested. "I can't explain why it was that they picked Vladmir Putin."
Wylie called Cambridge "a full service propaganda machine" and said it also focused, at Bannon's urging, on messaging that would discourage Democratic turnout.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/steve-bannon-ordered-messaging-tested-about-putin-in-2014-cambridge-analytica-whistleblower

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
More Natasha Bertrand Retweeted Mike Memoli
Wylie has also said he was asked to write a memo for Russian oil company Lukoil explaining how "to target information on American voters." www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump

And

How the Kremlin may have helped Trump win the Catholic vote
Russia gave WikiLeaks stolen emails. WikiLeaks may have given Trump the Catholic vote.
www.vox.com/2018/4/25/17214724/trump-russia-wikileaks-catholic-clinton

And

(Russia-ish)

Top Trump Fundraiser Caught Working for Assad Ally
He’s reportedly ‘closer to the president than perhaps any other lobbyist in town.’ So why is Brian Ballard taking cash from a member of Assad’s inner circle?

www.thedailybeast.com/top-trump-fundraiser-caught-working-for-assad-ally

And

Exclusive: Expelled spies included Russians suspected of tracking compatriots who resettled in US
Some of the spies expelled last month from the U.S. were reportedly tracking Russian defectors and their families.

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/expelled-spies-russians-tracking-defectors/index.html

Wendy Siegelman
@WendySiegelman
US senators push banks to disclose ties with wealthy Russians allied with Putin - Dem senators Jeanne Shaheen & Sheldon Whitehouse have written to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Europe-based Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, HSBC & Credit Suisse

www.cnbc.com/2018/04/24/us-senators-push-banks-to-disclose-ties-with-wealthy-russians.html

The letter asked each bank whether it had, within five years, conducted a review to determine if it had any accounts controlled by anyone on the list released on Jan. 29 of oligarchs or senior Russian political figures.
The January 29 sanctions list referenced in the letter to the banks includes 114 administration and political leaders in Russia as well as 96 oligarchs (that matched Forbes magazine's Russian billionaires' rankings)

And

State Department to add staff, funding to counter Russian propaganda
www.axios.com/global-engagement-center-adding-staff-russian-propaganda-e47f3a1e-30e0-48a8-a8f5-14db05762514.html

And

Harry Reid says that Trump, Comey and the Koch Brothers are all to blame for the fact that Americans didn’t learn earlier about Russian attempts to influence the U.S. election.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/harry-reid-says-trump-damaging-country-warns-against-impeachment-n868861

Caroline O.
@RVAwonk
Mark Zuckerberg told investors on Wednesday that Facebook is sticking with its ad-based business model despite mounting scrutiny of the company’s practices.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is sticking by ads model
thehill.com/policy/technology/384914-zuckerberg-says-facebooks-sticking-by-ads-model