Thursday, December 12, 2019

EXIT POLL: Conservatives projected to win election as Labour suffer major losses #GE2019 CON: 368 LAB: 191 LIB DEM: 13 BREX: 0 SNP: 55 GREEN: 1 OTHER: 22


.@RepSwalwell: "I want to hear someone dispute the fact that Trump invoked his rival's name 4 times on that July 25 call. I want to hear someone dispute the fact that Trump's chief of staff said, 'we are withholding military aid because the Ukrainians need to investigate 2016.'"


Current and former FBI agents are concerned the President and Attorney General's constant attacks on the bureau may create a chilling effect that harms national security


Rep Swalwell slays


The genocide measure officially recognizes the systematic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923


Trump launches medium-range ballistic missile over Pacific — only days after Kim Jong-un test


Three lawsuits claiming President Trump's business dealings are violating the Constitution have ping-ponged in federal courts for months. But all three cases are now advancing to critical stages


Congressman Jeffries submitting for the record in the impeachment markup articles on Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Rogert Stone's convictions. Quoting his grandmother, the NY member says "birds of a feather flock together."


“The idea that Donald Trump was leading an anti-corruption effort is like Kim Jong Un leading a human rights effort— it’s just not credible.”


While attending those events, Parnas was photographed with former Florida AG Pam Bondi, who is now advising the White House on its impeachment defense strategy. The WH didn't respond to a request for comment.


Lawmakers strike tentative spending deal to prevent a government shutdown


Congress and the White House appear to have reached a deal on a landmark North American free-trade agreement (not to be confused with the North American Free Trade Agreement), and few people in Washington are more pleased about it than Mike Pence.


Democratic and Republican-appointed judges clashed over a lawsuit claiming that President Trump is violating the Constitution by profiting from the spending of foreign and state government officials at his luxury Washington hotel


BREAKING: Trump has signed off on a trade agreement with China to avert tariffs set for Dec. 15, according to people familiar with the matter


The Senate - yet again - rejects the election security bill. Our republic is under attack from within. Sen. McConnell’s treachery is equivalent to Benedict Arnold’s intentional failure to fortify West Point in hopes that G. Washington would be captured.


Opinion: Why the articles of impeachment don’t include a bribery charge


Trump froze military aid — as Ukrainian soldiers perished in battle


Not one of my Republican colleagues would agree with their own witness, who stated that President Trump's July 25th call was, "anything but perfect". History will remember this moment.


NEWS: Pence's office has rejected Schiff's request to declassify Jennifer Williams' supplemental testimony, declaring that the request is invalid because the impeachment inquiry has ended.


Matt Bevin pardoned a Kentucky man who beheaded a woman and stuffed her in a barrel


Guys I would be very curious who gave Gohmert the FDR/Stalin conversation information, about FDR agreeing the Soviets could have the Baltics after WWII, because I only know a few people who referred it regularly, and it’s none of the people he talks to. This is a huge red flag.


Report: Trump’s Ukraine Extortion Scheme Financed by #Russia.


Rep. Jerry Nadler: "What is central here is, do we want a dictator? No matter popular he may be, no matter how good or bad the results of his policies may be, no president is supposed to be a dictator in the United States."


.@RepEscobar (D-Texas): “Our Republican colleagues are working overtime to try to convince us that we didn’t see what we saw with our own eyes and we didn’t hear what we heard with our own ears. Facts matter.”


I am gobsmacked by this clip. A future juror admits conversation with Trump’s defense counsel - his past employee - regarding merits of case and plan to “vote the right way.” The integrity of the sham trial will be on par with Russian “show trials.”


“For the third time this year, GOP rejects election-security bill”


The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a proposal to designate a three-digit number to reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 988


JUST IN: Schiff has submitted classified evidence to the judiciary committee ahead up tonight’s impeachment markup. it’s the letter from the Pence aide who filed additional evidence after her testimony. Schiff says the office of the vice president has declined to declassify it.


Why? "For the third time this year, GOP rejects election-security bill"


I greatly cherish the moments when @RepRaskin morphs into a modern day version of Clarence Darrow and destroys the GOP’s baseless conspiracies and empty rhetoric.


Rep. Jamie Raskin RIPS Republican’s line that Donald Trump is an “anti-corruption crusader.” "You pick up the New York Times yesterday, President Trump had to pay $2 million to charities because he ripped off his own charity!"


Antitrust concerns lead the FTC to consider seeking a preliminary injunction against Facebook. If it occurs, such a move could come as soon as January.


Rep. Lofgren: "Without asserting any privilege whatsoever, he just announces they’re not going to cooperate or provide any information. This isn’t something that needs to be adjudicated by the judicial branch… because there’s no privilege being asserted here. It’s simply ‘No.’”


Analysis: One sign that Trump is worried about impeachment? His avalanche of tweets.


BREAKING: @GovAndyBeshear just signed an executive order restoring voting rights to over 100,000 Kentuckians w/ convictions in their past, effective immediately. Iowa is now the only state w/ a blanket, permanent ban on voting rights for those w/ past convictions.


Hank Johnson responding to Gaetz bringing up Hunter Biden drug problems. “I would say that the pot calling the kettle black is not something that we should do. I don't know what members, if any, have had any problems with substance abuse, been busted in DUI, I don't know.”


Great point from @ZoeLofgren: @realDonaldTrump was president for over 2 years before he asked Ukraine to investigate Bursima & Biden. Why wait so long if he cared about corruption? Why was this not an issue...until Biden decided to run for president?


We know different justice systems exist for different people. Many of us have seen it. @RepHankJohnson experienced it first-hand as a child in the Jim Crow era. We cannot continue perpetuating two justice systems. Trump must be held accountable. No one is above the law.


Rep. Lofgren: "I would just like to note the argument that somehow lying about a sexual affair is an abuse of presidential power, but the misuse of presidential power to get a benefit somehow doesn't matter— if it's lying about sex, we could put Stormy Daniels' case ahead of us."


Rep Madeleine Dean on Judiciary Republicans: "Do not be confused by the lawyers on the other side who would teach the wrong civics lesson and distract you that we need to go to court. We need permission of a president, we need permission of a court. We do not."


Saudi prince says he twice saved Trump from bankruptcy – Middle East Monitor


A federal judge has rejected the Trump admin's attempt to toss out a lawsuit over missing notes documenting Trump's face-to-face meetings with Putin. The judge was a Trump appointee


FYI a former Republican (still in office) who left his party (kicked out) after he would not support Trump. This is important to note. He did the courageous thing. The Mob (GOP) made a political example of him.


I was gonna suggest a Pulitzer for Sharpie


Why did Justice Kennedy retire so abruptly? What role did his son at Deutsche Bank play? Who paid off Brett Kavanaugh’s $92,000 country club fees plus his $200,000 credit card debt plus his $1.2 million mortgage, and purchased themselves a SCOTUS seat?


Website used to facilitate sex trafficking of children seized and alleged leader of sex trafficking organization and two others arrested in South Florida


“Novel actions raise novel legal issues,” Judge Dabney Friedrich said in Washington this morning when a lawyer for the company charged with conspiracy to fund the Russian troll factory during the 2016 election objected to a DOJ subpoena.


New filing in Fruman and Parnas case: Letter Motion


This is such a depressing read. The Trump/Johnson formula of lying shamelessly and counting on a right wing press to echo it while the mainstream fails to catch up is here to stay, and neither the left nor the press has figured out how to confront it.


Answering GOP claims that Democrats are impeaching instead of governing, Rep. Cicilline touts the passage of hundreds of bill by "one of the most productive Congress's in modern history," but Senator Mitch McConnell has not brought those bills to the floor.


.@Repjoshharder: "Are you deliberately violating this federal court order because you are too corrupt to uphold the law or because you are too incompetent to do your job?" Secretary @BetsyDeVosED: "I don't need to sit and listen to what you just spewed out of your mouth."


Trump just claimed Ivanka created 14 million jobs. The entire economy added 6 million.


Parnas didn’t disclose a $1 million transfer from a Russian account made to his wife. Let me repeat that. The man Trump and Giuliani were using to dig up dirt on Biden and destroy State employees' reputations was paid one million by someone in Russia.


Friendly reminder that as @HouseGOP continues to try and distract the public during today's #ImpeachmentDebate, that the President's Chief of Staff admitted that Ukrainian aid was contingent on Ukraine conducting an investigation for @realDonaldTrump. This was two months ago


.@ThePlumLineGS “If Mitch McConnell goes through with his reported plan to hold a sham impeachment trial that acquits Pres Trump without calling witnesses, it will provide the perfect coda for the corrupt and farcical way Trump’s defenders have handled this saga all throughout.”


The rumored Senate plan to hold a Potemkin trial rather than a real one would befit Moscow Mitch but, as @JRubinBlogger, powerfully argues, would be a sham pointing decisively to the president’s guilt


Fox News host Chris Wallace delivered a vehement critique of Trump yesterday, accusing him of engaging in the most "direct sustained assault" on the free press in U.S. history


DUI enthusiast @MattGaetz is lecturin' America on Hunter Biden's "substance abuse" issues.


Sinclair Broadcast Group drops Boris Epshteyn's "must-run" segments


Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin exercised one last big power move, pardoning 100s of people including a child rapist and murderers. One pardon, in particular, is especially concerning as people question whether it was paid for in a roundabout way?


“He has a gun to his head. Gun!” Nadler says. “Of course he denies he was pressured,” saying there would be consequences if Zelensky announced he was pressured by Trump


Trump, who has already posted 90 tweets or retweets today, just said at a White House event that he's having a "very busy day."


Speaker Pelosi: "The articles [of impeachment] are what they are. They're very powerful, they're very strong, and they are a continuation of a pattern of misbehavior on the part of the president."


Just hours before a House panel was set to approve articles of impeachment against him, President Trump flexed his Twitter fingers, blasting out more than 80 tweets and retweets in less than three hours


Rep. Eric Swalwell: "There are no crimes here? That is the defense? That is the defense my colleagues across the aisle are putting forward? How about the highest crime that one who holds public office could commit? A crime against our Constitution."


Ever since he was appointed Attorney General and demonstrated that his loyalty is to Donald Trump and not the interests of justice, I have warned: When it comes to the rule of law, Bill Barr is the second most dangerous man in the country.


Opinion: McConnell’s plan for sham trial reveals depths of Trump’s corruption


Stormy Daniels becomes part of the congressional record


This is a HUGE report because, one level below the surface, we know Parnas was donating to McCarthy, Rubio and other GOP operatives. In other words, according to the SDNY filing, there is an alleged dotted line between Putin and the GOP. No rhetoric. Just facts.


Things getting heated at House Judiciary. Gaetz tries to ask Swalwell a question when Swalwell lays out alleged crimes by the president. “I will not yield,” Swalwell says to him. Gaetz can be overheard saying: “All hat, no cattle.”


I thought only in the Chinese and Russian legal system, officials determined the verdict before trial. Maybe #MoscowMitchMcConnell and #RedRand need to pay back Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum investment in Kentucky by protecting Trump.


Just a reminder to all my GOP judiciary colleagues *now* throwing Ambassador Sondland under the bus. He. Is. Your. Guy! He gave $1M to @realDonaldTrump who has said Sondland is “a great guy.” Because his testimony hurts Trump, now he goes under the bus.


“Mongolian ambassador visited Mar-a-Lago before Trump Jr. got coveted permit to hunt rare sheep”


AG Barr actually suggested that “Congress cannot entrust anyone but the president himself to execute the law.”


The VP’s office has rejected Schiff’s request to declassify supplemental testimony by Pence adviser Jennifer Williams, saying the Intel Cmte’s role in impeachment is over and that it “serves no purpose” to declassify another foreign leader call, per letter reviewed by @WSJ.


Russia expels two German diplomats as rift over murder grows


Kansas Abandons Technology Trumpeted by Kris Kobach, Trump’s Onetime Voter Fraud Czar A system supposedly meant to root out voter fraud was beset by security and accuracy issues.


Opinion | The message from Congress: Dictators can do what they want — as long as Trump is their friend


Opinion: Our country is accepting the unacceptable


Exclu: Zelensky administration officials spent this weekend monitoring Trump's twitter feed in hopes he would make a supportive statement before their Putin talks


GOHMERT just named the person alleged to be the whistleblower as someone Republicans think should testify. No other lawmakers have done this.


Propaganda works


A fire has broken out on Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, while the vessel was undergoing repairs in a shipyard in the Arkhangelsk region.


USA Today comes out for impeachment, joining editorial boards at the LA Times, WaPo, an Boston Globe


The Trump Campaign was under investigation by the FBI. Really unprecedented in U.S. history & Horowitz just confirmed no political bias "or other improper considerations" affected opening of investigations into Papadopoulos, Manafort, Flynn, or Page.


Sen. Amy Klobuchar: "It is now undisputed by our intelligence agencies that Russia invaded our democracy. Not with bombs or jets or tanks, but with a sophisticated cyber mission to undermine the underpinnings of our very democracy"


⁩ GOP senators say McConnell will move to acquit Trump, not merely dismiss charges


BREAKING: state Sen. Erica Smith calls on NC St Bd of Elex to reject ES&S's uncertified voting machine for 2020, implement #HandMarkedPaperBallots. Cites "legitimate concerns regarding the company’s reliability as a trusted partner in NC’s election administration."


After ICE detained a high school sophomore, his school leaped into action


Prosecutors ask federal judge to revoke bail of Giuliani associate charged in campaign finance case


Let me get this straight. Giuliani has been touring the world digging up dirt on Democrats in the company of a suspected felon who has received $1 M payments from mysterious sources in Russia.


Rep. Pramila Jayapal: "This is not hearsay. The president was the first and best witness in this case. The president admitted to his wrongdoing and corrupt intent on national television. The president is the smoking gun."


"“We think it would be quite troubling if all the records that showed what actually happened were destroyed.” “Now they’ll have to respond.”


Eric Holder: William Barr is unfit to be attorney general


Trump called for Seoul evacuation at height of North Korea tensions, new book says


Important context for today's Senate nonsense: - FSB officers tried to develop Carter Page as an asset - the FBI warned Page about this - he continued to pursue a relationship with the Russians in question - this is documented in court/arrest records


The Attorney General swears an oath to serve and protect the Constitution—not the President. Bill Barr must come before the Senate to testify under oath. — Kamala Harris


"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being sued over allegedly failing to preserve official notes about President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a court ruled on Wednesday that the case could move forward."


Garrett Graff: "Fox News is now a threat to national security. The network's furthering of lies from foreign adversaries and flagrant disregard for the truth have gotten downright dangerous."


Nadler: “If the President can first abuse his power and then stonewall all congressional requests for information, Congress cannot fulfill its duty to act as a check and balance against the Executive—and the President becomes a dictator.”


I think to understand Trump and the cultishness you really have to internalize how much people really want to believe that they're finally getting even with the other people who they think are responsible for the condition of their lives. It's crazy, but it's powerful stuff.


Rep. Raskin says he is “afraid if we allow presidents to invite foreign governments to participate — overtly or covertly — in our elections” that it will become the “new normal” in America


NEW: Pres. Trump and his top advisers are considering expanding his legal team and bringing on controversial attorney and professor Alan Dershowitz, multiple sources told @ABC News.


House Science Committee seeks investigation of how 5G could hurt weather forecasting


Epstein’s Suicide-Watch ‘Companion’: He Was Terrified of Getting His ‘Ass Kicked’


Prosecutors' new filing in the Lev Parnas case requests revocation of his bail. Remarkable turn of events, given Parnas's key role in the Ukraine scheme for which the president is now being impeached. Here prosecutors cite Lev's "seemingly limitless access to foreign funds":


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