Monday, December 30, 2019

“It feels like a strange and slightly sad old guy yelling at you to get off his lawn, echoed by younger but no less sad people in red hats shouting, ‘Yeah, get off his lawn!’”


See below. Now that Judge Leon has dismissed the Kupperman/Bolton case, Judge Jackson's ruling is the definitive word. Bolton must testify


Trump won't stop attacking Democrats for homelessness in California and New York, but he's been completely silent about the issue in Florida, which has the third largest unsheltered population in the country. That's not a coincidence.


Erik Prince, founder of security firm Blackwater & brother of Betsy DeVos, has been referred to US Treasury Dept for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela to meet a top aide of Maduro per 2 senior US officials


Read me in ⁦@thedailybeast⁩ on why this veteran is suing the vice chair of the Joint chiefs.


It’s clear from the examples of the intersection of authoritarianism and surveillance that we’ve seen around the world that a privacy bill of rights is absolutely necessary. Privacy needs to start being seen as a human right.


Trump promised to eliminate the deficit in 8 years. So far, he has increased it by 68%


Trump boss Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, twists Hanukkah attack to push anti-immigrant agenda: “Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family"


The pastor of a Miami megachurch that will host President Donald Trump at a rally this week is guaranteeing that parishioners who entered the U.S. illegally won’t risk deportation by attending


"Trump's increasingly egregious abuses made 2019 one of the most corrupt years in US history. But we can hope for a measure of accountability in 2020,"


Mark Meadows accused of timing retirement to help elect wife’s friend. Lynda Bennett's website was registered on Oct. 28 by Scott Meadows. Her Facebook page was created the day before he announced his retirement. The Tea Party endorsed her by 6:15 am.


Trump and McConnell are bluffing. Call.


It’s been nearly 24 hours since Trump spoke to Putin and still no WH acknowledgement or readout of the call. Kremlin’s readout came immediately after, stating they discussed issues of “mutual interest”.


"Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities,"


I find Andrew Yang an interesting candidate - but wasn’t aware of Russia link noted by @JuneCasagrande - Bernie Sucher - a board director of Yang’s Venture for America, co-founded Russia’s Troika Dialog, headed a subsidiary of Alfa Bank and was a former colleague of Carter Page


Outing and shaming whistleblowers harms national security by discouraging government officials from using official channels to report abuses. Alternatives are leaks or, perhaps even worse, silence.


Opinion: Assad is growing stronger under Trump’s nonexistent Syria policy


The impeachment trial of Donald Trump will be crucial for a small group of incumbent senators whose 2020 re-election bids are central to determining control of the chamber


Mike Pompeo arrives in Ukraine this week, where he will have to navigate the divide between official and unofficial U.S. policy without upsetting Trump or providing more fodder to the president's critics


Trump’s lawyers decided president could unilaterally take over Congress: report


‘Disgusting’: Internet blasts Trump for Americans learning of latest call with Putin from the Kremlin


The family of the suspect in the Monsey Hanukkah attack said he has a long record of mental illness and “was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races”


The destruction of the liberal international order-- i.e. break up of NATO, EU, WTO, etc -- and weakening of democracies. He'd love to go back to the 19th century with Russia as a major power in a multipolar word in which values do not play a prominent role in int affairs.


Esper and Pompeo say they came to Mar-A-Lago to brief Trump on events in Middle East. Pentagon targeted five sites in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for attack by Iranian backed militia attack on Iraqi facility that endangered US troops, and additional options under consideration


2000: Congress passes “Pain Relief Promotion Act” to enhance access to narcotic pain killers. 2000-2017: Congressional leaders take huge campaign donations from pharma companies while refusing to tackle the opioid epidemic. 2019: Congress blames DEA for opioid epidemic.


This, alone: “There was no public announcement that Trump wanted the assistance withheld. Neither Congress nor the Ukrainian government was notified.” The insistence on just quietly hurting Ukraine in their war with Russia— who was the audience for it?


“These men broke the customary code of silence maintained by the SEALs because they thought Chief Gallagher’s behavior violated something more sacred: the duty of the men and women who fight for the United States to fight for it honorably.”


Republican Sen. James Lankford said on CBS that he doesn't believe Trump is "a very good role model" for youth, and that disagreements on rhetoric have been a "grand challenge" for him as a person of faith.


The latest NYT article mentions Pompeo by name twice and offers no evidence he was against withholding aid. How are preparations for Mike Pompeo's Senate run going, @maggieNYT? Is Ron Lauder still on board?


#BREAKING - Lebanese Hezbollah stating they strongly condemn the "brutal" #US military strikes in #Iraq and #Syria earlier today.


A Gangster in the White House


Cannot believe this is not more of a national news story: Republican governors rebel against the WH's anti-refugee stance.


Zelenskiy defends his decision to swap Berkut fighters with Russia-backed separatists amid tearful reunions in Kyiv.


Trump's national security adviser apparently doesn't know that Kim Jong Un's family name is Kim....


Count’em: 15 Republican governors defy Trump, ask for more refugees:


Under the Logan Act it is a crime for persons not authorized by the United States government to conduct diplomacy on behalf of the United States. Washington Post: Giuliani held back channel phone call with Venezuelan President.


As far as I know... never in our history have we had a more intemperate and boorish political leader than Trump. His language and example are coarsening American public life.


#Iran's foreign minister @JZarif has arrived in Moscow. He will meet #Russia's foreign minister Lavrov tomorrow on Monday.


Laura Loomer is a reprehensible bigot who among other idiocies has labeled the FBI "the Federal Bureau of Islam." She was banned from Twitter. Trump retweeted a fundraising campaign message for her. Yesterday. This has become so common for him that most of us missed it.


Big takeaway is Trump WH knew the hold was illegal: (1) Pentagon warned them, they ignored it; (2) they tried to preemptively blame the military for it; and (3) they scrambled to put together an absurd legal argument to justify it.


Extraordinary that this extortive plot — which mortgaged our national security for Trump’s interests — went on for nearly 3 months with little notice until the whistleblower came forward. Chilling to think what else may be happening behind the scenes.


So saddened to hear about another church shooting in Texas, this one in White Settlement near Fort Worth. Clearly what we are doing in Texas, what we are doing in this country, when it comes to guns is not working.


Why are we always learning about Trump's conversations with Putin from the Kremlin?


Netanyahu says immunity from prosecution 'a cornerstone of democracy'


Moving New York City’s homeless into Trump Tower would help solve the problem and at the same time bring a much higher quality group of people into the building. Win-win for everybody.


Now you know why he doesn’t want them to testify


Trump is really, really trying to make "Crazy Nancy" stick – he's tweeted it 8 times in the past 7 days, and RTed himself saying it twice, all post-impeachment.


As we enter the New Year, the world needs young people to keep speaking out, applying pressure and pushing boundaries to have us protect our planet and improve the lives of its people. Wishing everyone, everywhere peace and happiness in 2020.


Donnie has a lot of hate in him, I’ve heard him use racist epithets against every group over the years, yet his main rage is for women, deep down he hates them. Speaker Pelosi is straight up owning this drug-addled fool this holiday season.


Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer


Gold’s surprise end-of-year rally picks up the pace as the dollar sags


NEW: evidence suggesting Trump knowingly broke the Impoundment Control Act abetted by aides he is shielding from public view. IF he were innocent, 1,000 wild horses couldn’t keep him from testifying in self-defense. But he’s guilty


I wasn’t kidding when I said Giuliani was acting as a shadow Secretary of State. Ukraine was far from the only thing he’s been involved in.


#Iran's foreign minister @JZarif has arrived in Moscow. He will meet #Russia's foreign minister Lavrov tomorrow on Monday.


If Iran’s proxies in Iraq (who have been on the receiving end of anger from protestors) have everything to lose then that makes them the most dangerous - but not the most desperate. These groups actually feel they have acted with restraint amid wide-ranging local/external threats


Ivanka Trump never once said a word about family separations. In point of fact, her office was asked about it repeatedly & she demurred. This is a false claim by a major news organization to give cover to this administration which has separate families & caged kids. Be outraged.


Trump is unlikely to pay much of a price for violating the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Act and thereby further endangering our national security. But he should!


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