Monday, December 18, 2017

The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s campaign to turn over documents, a former campaign staffer tells BuzzFeed. Stein is expected to release them publicly as well.


Great piece from a small business owner in Maine: "Senator Collins, which one of us is being duped?"


Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: Vladimir Putin "knows how to handle an asset and that's what he's doing with the President"


University of Baltimore students protest DeVos during commencement address


.@SenatorCollins: "I rise to express my support for the conference agreement on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act."


HHS is refusing to make public more than 10,000 comments on a Trump admin proposal to reduce federal regulations for religious and faith-based groups that could affect access to abortion and care for transgender patients, sources tell Politico


Alabama is first state to freeze enrollment to Children’s Health Insurance Program


GOP tax bill could cost $2.2 trillion: study


Montage of clips from minutes 2:45-3:25 shows @FoxNews wedge of attack against @FBI/ Mueller. Wonder how much collusion with White House on this?


BREAKING: Virginia police chief retires after criticism over Charlottesville's response to violent white nationalist rally


Medicare, Social Security, health care, food assistance, heating aid, and VA benefits. Those are the dollars that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are coming after the second their tax plan passes. Just take their own word for it.


Representative Dennis Heck: People were concerned over train...


Twitter is deleting fascist accounts because social media companies, including Twitter, have to face a committee hearing in the UK Parliament tomorrow


Stolen emails. Wikileaks. White supremacists. Donald Trump. It all happened in 2009


I guess most of the transition team had their emails from 2012-2016 (!!!) hacked.


Another bombshell buried in @nytmike story on Trump: he’s angry at AG Sessions & FBI Director Wray for not purging the FBI (and ostensibly @TheJusticeDept too) fast enough


How the Tax Plan Will Send Jobs Overseas

ICYMI

Corker demands to know how last-minute provision that would benefit him got added to GOP tax bil


Trump: "We also face rival powers, Russia and China, that seek to challenge American influence, values and wealth. We will attempt to build great partnership with those countries.” How does “challenge American values” lead straight to Trump building "great partnerships” w them?


The President's budget request on trains was described thusly: "a nearly 13 percent reduction in transportation spending over fiscal 2017 ... and a $630 million reduction in subsidies for long-distance Amtrak routes."


‘Corker Kickback’ sends Republicans scrambling in advance of tax vote


Sandy Hook mom tears into Trump for hosting NRA president on anniversary of shooting


Trump will drop climate change from US National Security Strategy


Twitter launches massive purge of white supremacists


Petersen withdrawal letter


BREAKING: United States vetoes UN resolution that would have required Trump to rescind declaration of Jerusalem as Israel capital.


Turns out someone impersonated me during the @FCC #NetNeutrality comment period – further proof of forged comments in this process. We need to get to the bottom of this and demand justice for those who sought to be heard.


YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP: Sen. @JohnCornyn is now defending the tax bill and attacking @IBTimes by tweeting out an article from a registered lobbyist for the banking industry, who is lobbying on tax issues


JUST IN: Trump releases national security strategy that downplays global deals, rolls back focus on climate change


Watch @IvankaTrump lie & try to blame Democrats for going against the tax bill before it was written. Yeah, that’s not what happened. She’s absolute evil. Period.


What did the FBI ever do to Jeanine Pirro? Other than-- never mind


The Farage staffer, the Russian embassy and a smear campaign against a Kremlin critic


Activists worry that Senator Susan Collins, despite her good intentions, is getting duped by Republican leaders eager to notch their first major legislative victory with the tax bill


Kaspersky Lab sues Trump administration over software ban


Trump privately calling deputy AG a threat to his presidency


FBI warned Trump in 2016 Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign


Here are the latest games from Trump’s shoddy legal team


JUST IN: Sheriff’s office: Several vehicles on I-5 were struck by the derailing Amtrak train, injuring multiple motorists, but no fatalities of motorists have been reported


Turkey's President Erdogan defies President Trump, says Turkey has its own embassy plans for Jerusalem


NEW: The President is "is telling associates Mueller will soon write a letter clearing him."


Trump Administration Moves To Kill Rules For Organic Eggs


Last fall, Paul Ryan made a point never to be photographed with Trump—fearful of how it would be used to tarnish his brand


Trumpworld's inside/outside strategy to fend off Mueller


President Trump's voter fraud commission seems to have been silenced by lawsuits, and members have no clue what's going on


BREAKING: Ukraine parliament introduces Magnitsky Act for Ukraine. This is 6th country to introduce Magnitsky sanctions. Thanks @serhiykiral and Olena Sotnyk for your leadership


Video: Anti-Mueller, anti-FBI messages echoing back and forth — this is how the Fox-Trump-GOP “feedback loop” works


The list that’s freaking out everyone in Moscow


Trump: "No, I'm not" firing Mueller, as allies step up attacks on special counsel probe


Opinion: America still hasn't reckoned with the election of a reckless con man as president


Susan Collins demanded that her "fixes" be enacted before the tax vote. They're not. She demanded that the top rate not be lowered for the highest earners. It now will be. How can she not change her vote?


Law firm sues Kushner company over thousands of dollars in unpaid bills


So what happens now?? The EPA moves in early December to hire Definers Public Affairs, where Blustein works, as a "media monitoring" contractor, even while Blustein still has pending FOIAs for agency staffers who have been critical of EPA. Here the award notice


House Republicans prepare to wrap up Russia investigation


Republicans confident tax bill to become law this week


NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing legislation in the state that would take away firearms from anyone convicted of domestic violence


“Unfortunately, President Trump echoes the rhetoric of despots in these countries with his combative slogan of ‘fake news.’ What's not fake at all is that journalists everywhere are under increased threat because of rulers who take encouragement from Mr. Trump's malice.


Sorry, but an innocent man does not interfere in his own criminal investigations. There's no need


Donald Trump Jr. actually liked this tweet by Mike Cernovich, saying Pedophilia is NOT a crime


Rex Tillerson acknowledged in a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats that Russia “interfered in democratic processes here,” The Daily Beast reports


What is wrong with these people


I’ve interviewed coup plotters, torture victims, generals, politicians they toppled & dozens whose lives were destroyed by actual coups & coup attempts This language is so dangerous for democracy—and it’s precisely what you see before purges (which Fox News hosts are advocating)


Businessman who set up Trump Jr.-Russian lawyer meeting to testify before House Intel on Monday


Gary Morton, an EPA employee who prevents underground fuel tanks from polluting water supplies, spoke up at a rally to protest EPA budget cuts. Days later, his emails were FOIAed by a GOP lawyer who the EPA has now hired to do "media monitoring"


Sarah Palin's son arrested on domestic violence claims


Tax bill a dream come true for some GOP wonks


Worth remembering when you think about the Corker story: With McCain out, if Corker and Flake or Collins vote no, Trump's entire $1.5 trillion tax bill will be defeated. That's how big the stakes are. This is why the #CorkerKickback hashtag is trending.


Alabama Senator-elect Doug Jones says it's time to move on from the special election, even though Roy Moore won't concede

ICYMI

Quite an amazing article. Discusses how white high school students, e.g. at sports contests, use the exclamation "Trump" as a racial jeer.‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ How a President’s Name Became a Racial Jeer


“That’s correct.” Trump Treasury chief Steve Mnuchin admits the GOP tax scam won’t increase wages for years


Trump To Outline His Blueprint For Military And Foreign Policy


A major new study finds that children born near fracking wells are smaller and less healthy


Good evening @nytimes. Why are you referring to Rubio as a "longtime champion of the working class" as if it is a fact -- even though he regularly supports policies to the contrary?


The possibility that Trump is in Putin’s pocket is scarier than any crimes Mueller might uncover


Trump is the "greatest organizing tool Democrats could have" in 2018 midterm elections, top strategist says


Jeff Sessions will be next target if right-wing attacks on Robert Mueller fail: Politico reporter


Sen. Bob Corker Failed to Properly Disclose Millions of Dollars in Income


National security strategy plan paints China, Russia as U.S. competitors


A Tax Plan to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts


The final straw: Rupert Murdoch needs to go


New York governor: GOP tax bill is an act of "economic civil war"


Paranoia grips Capitol Hill as harassment scandal spreads


The $1.5 trillion the #GOPTaxScam would add to the deficit risks triggering cuts to farm safety net programs and a $25 billion cut to #Medicare. I joined @WhipHoyer to tell @SpeakerRyan that he and @HouseGOP will own these devastating cuts if they pass their partisan tax bil


BREAKING: Mueller team fires back at Trump lawyer saying We've obtained emails with "consent or appropriate criminal process"...


JUST IN: Final GOP tax bill includes ObamaCare mandate repeal


Venezuela gives Russia's Rosneft gas field concessions: Rosneft


This Evangelical Leader Denounced Trump. Then the Death Threats Started


Businessman who set up Trump Jr.-Russian lawyer meeting to testify before House Intel on Monday: report


After 9-point loss in Va., Gillespie says he would not encourage others to run for office because of ‘poisonous atmosphere’

ICYMI

Tax Bill: Bob Corker Demands Answers From Chairman Orrin Hatch About Last-Minute Tax Provision


UN Security Council set to vote on resolution rejecting Trump's Jerusalem embassy move


Putin’s allies pump millions into GOP campaigns through proxies — thanks to Citizens United


If Congress doesn't act before the end of the year, Medicare will be hit with an automatic $25 billion cut in 2018 alone.


Manafort Pal Still Profiting From Mostly Silent Pro-Trump Group


The government is paying a private firm $297 million to help hire 5,000 Border Patrol agents – nearly $40,000 per agent


“Understanding Provokatsiya: Alt-Right in Cahoots with Alt-Left ‘Resistors’”


Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner sued for omitting info from financial disclosure forms


Ex-FBI agent to Trump: Somebody already made bureau 'bigger and better' and it was Robert Mueller


What happens when people who are supposed to cure the conflict of interest have even greater conflicts of interest than those they replace?


Trump lawyer says he did not confront Mueller before complaining about him to Congress


Pres said he's very upset about Mueller obtaining emails from the Trump transition but doesn't think there's anything Mueller can use. Again said there was "no collusion whatsoever" with Russia