Monday, July 16, 2018
What Hold Does Putin Have on Trump? The Crisis Facing America
Russia helped Donald Trump into the
This is an unprecedented situation, but not an uncontemplated one. At the 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution worried a great deal about foreign potentates corrupting the American presidency.
When Gouverneur Morris famously changed his mind in favor of an impeachment clause, he explained his new point of view by invoking a situation very like that now facing the United States:
Our Executive was not like a Magistrate having a life interest, much less like one having an hereditary interest in his office. He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust; and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing the first Magistrate in foreign pay without being able to guard [against] it by displacing him.The United States was then a comparatively poor and vulnerable country, so the Founders imagined corruption taking the form of some princely emolument that would enable an ex-president to emigrate and—in the words of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—“live in greater splendor in another country than his own.” Yet they understood that even the most developed countries were not immune to the suborning of their leaders. As Morris said, "One would think the King of England well secured [against] bribery. … Yet Charles II was bribed by Louis XIV.”
And it’s a fact that has to be seen in the larger context of his actions in office: denouncing the EU as a “foe,” threatening to break up NATO, wrecking the U.S.-led world trading system, intervening in both U.K. and German politics in support of extremist and pro-Russian forces, and his continued refusal to act to protect the integrity of U.S. voting systems—it adds up to a political indictment whether or not it quite qualifies as a criminal one.
America is a very legalistic society, in which public discussion often deteriorates into lawyers arguing whether any statutes have been violated. But confronting the country in the wake of Helsinki is this question: Can it afford to wait to ascertain why Trump has subordinated himself to Putin after the president has so abjectly demonstrated that he has subordinated himself? Robert Mueller is leading a legal process. The United States faces a national-security emergency.
We want to hear what you think. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic. In 2001–02, he was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Thanks To Robert Mueller, Trump And Putin Now Have A Summit Agenda
Susan B Glasser/New Yorker:
There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.
Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, to the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.
This case was investigated with the help of the FBI’s cyber teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San Francisco and the National Security Division. The Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. There will be no comments from the Special Counsel at this time.
Thanks to Robert Mueller, Trump and Putin Now Have a Summit AgendaAnd by the way, everyone expects Americans to be the next indictment targets. Roger Stone? More?
Rosenstein dropped another astonishing revelation into his press conference:residentTrump had been aware all along about the charges against Russian actors, and had been briefed on them by the Justice Department even before he left for Europe. “Theresidentis fully aware of the department’s actions today,” Rosenstein told reporters as he announced the indictments, which lay out in methodical detail the ways in which agents of the Russian government systematically worked to infiltrate the Democrats’ 2016 campaign with the apparent goal of helping Trump win the American Presidency.
Trump knew the indictment was coming when he bragged about what an easy meeting he would have with Putin. He knew it was coming when he once again attacked the investigation by his own government as “rigged.” And he knew it was coming when he rambled on about an agenda for the Helsinki summit that would cover just about everything but the Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Talk about brazen.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 13, 2018
Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to the 2016 Election
The
Department of Justice today announced that a grand jury in the District
of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel’s
Office. The indictment charges twelve Russian nationals for committing
federal crimes that were intended to interfere with the 2016 U.S.
presidential election. All twelve defendants are members of the GRU, a
Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence
Directorate of the Russian military. These GRU officers, in their
official capacities, engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the
computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
the Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of
Hillary Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the
names "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0" and through another entity.
“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”
According to the allegations in the indictment, Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, Boris Alekseyevich Antonov, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev, Nikolay Yuryevich Kozachek, Pavel Vyacheslavovich Yershov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin, and Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev were officials in Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the Russian government’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
In 2016, officials in Unit 26165 began spearphishing volunteers and employees of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including the campaign’s chairman. Through that process, officials in this unit were able to steal the usernames and passwords for numerous individuals and use those credentials to steal email content and hack into other computers. They also were able to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through these spearphishing techniques to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor the computer activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of files of malicious computer code to steal passwords and maintain access to these networks.
The officials in Unit 26165 coordinated with officials in Unit 74455 to plan the release of the stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 presidential election. Defendants registered the domain DCLeaks.com and later staged the release of thousands of stolen emails and documents through that website. On the website, defendants claimed to be “American hacktivists” and used Facebook accounts with fictitious names and Twitter accounts to promote the website. After public accusations that the Russian government was behind the hacking of DNC and DCCC computers, defendants created the fictitious persona Guccifer 2.0. On the evening of June 15, 2016 between 4:19PM and 4:56PM, defendants used their Moscow-based server to search for a series of English words and phrases that later appeared in Guccifer 2.0’s first blog post falsely claiming to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for the hacks in the hopes of undermining the allegations of Russian involvement.
Members of Unit 74455 also conspired to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.
To avoid detection, defendants used false identities while using a network of computers located around the world, including the United States, paid for with cryptocurrency through mining bitcoin and other means intended to obscure the origin of the funds. This funding structure supported their efforts to buy key accounts, servers, and domains. For example, the same bitcoin mining operation that funded the registration payment for DCLeaks.com also funded the servers and domains used in the spearphishing campaign.
The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:
“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”
According to the allegations in the indictment, Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, Boris Alekseyevich Antonov, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev, Nikolay Yuryevich Kozachek, Pavel Vyacheslavovich Yershov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin, and Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev were officials in Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the Russian government’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
In 2016, officials in Unit 26165 began spearphishing volunteers and employees of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including the campaign’s chairman. Through that process, officials in this unit were able to steal the usernames and passwords for numerous individuals and use those credentials to steal email content and hack into other computers. They also were able to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through these spearphishing techniques to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor the computer activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of files of malicious computer code to steal passwords and maintain access to these networks.
The officials in Unit 26165 coordinated with officials in Unit 74455 to plan the release of the stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 presidential election. Defendants registered the domain DCLeaks.com and later staged the release of thousands of stolen emails and documents through that website. On the website, defendants claimed to be “American hacktivists” and used Facebook accounts with fictitious names and Twitter accounts to promote the website. After public accusations that the Russian government was behind the hacking of DNC and DCCC computers, defendants created the fictitious persona Guccifer 2.0. On the evening of June 15, 2016 between 4:19PM and 4:56PM, defendants used their Moscow-based server to search for a series of English words and phrases that later appeared in Guccifer 2.0’s first blog post falsely claiming to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for the hacks in the hopes of undermining the allegations of Russian involvement.
Members of Unit 74455 also conspired to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.
To avoid detection, defendants used false identities while using a network of computers located around the world, including the United States, paid for with cryptocurrency through mining bitcoin and other means intended to obscure the origin of the funds. This funding structure supported their efforts to buy key accounts, servers, and domains. For example, the same bitcoin mining operation that funded the registration payment for DCLeaks.com also funded the servers and domains used in the spearphishing campaign.
The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:
- Count One alleges a criminal conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States through cyber operations by the GRU that involved the staged release of stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 president election;
- Counts Two through Nine charge aggravated identity theft for using identification belonging to eight victims to further their computer fraud scheme;
- Count Ten alleges a conspiracy to launder money in which the defendants laundered the equivalent of more than $95,000 by transferring the money that they used to purchase servers and to fund other costs related to their hacking activities through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; and
- Count Eleven charges conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by attempting to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections.
There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.
Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, to the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.
This case was investigated with the help of the FBI’s cyber teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San Francisco and the National Security Division. The Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. There will be no comments from the Special Counsel at this time.
Topic(s):
National Security
Component(s):
Press Release Number:
18 - 923
Updated July 13, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
NES emulator hidden inside Animal Crossing (GameCube)
Unused feature has been hidden in Animal Crossing for nearly two decades.
Monday, July 9, 2018
Mitch McConnell chased from Kentucky restaurant by protesters
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was followed to his car
Saturday by protesters who hurled both personal insults and political
rhetoric at him while he left a Kentucky restaurant.
The encounter, which took place in a parking lot outside of a Louisville restaurant, was captured on camera by one of the protesters. In the video, you can hear the group of protesters chanting "vote you out!" and "abolish ICE!" to the Republican senator from Kentucky.
One man can be heard calling the senator "turtle head" and repeatedly saying "we know where you live" as the senator and two dining companions climb into their parked vehicle.
McConnell did not respond to the protesters' comments. The Washington Post was first to report the video Sunday.
The encounter, which took place in a parking lot outside of a Louisville restaurant, was captured on camera by one of the protesters. In the video, you can hear the group of protesters chanting "vote you out!" and "abolish ICE!" to the Republican senator from Kentucky.
One man can be heard calling the senator "turtle head" and repeatedly saying "we know where you live" as the senator and two dining companions climb into their parked vehicle.
McConnell did not respond to the protesters' comments. The Washington Post was first to report the video Sunday.
Mitch McConnell Heckled Out of Restaurant for Second Time in Two Days
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Our Deeply Perverse Resident Won't Shut the Fuck Up
Posted by Rude One
One of the weirdest moments from last night's campaign rally for some fuckin' asshole GOP senate candidate in Great Falls, Montana (motto: "We hate those Mexicans so much even though most of us have never met one") was when, for no apparent reason other than that the roulette wheel in his brain of "Shit I Don't Like" stopped on it,resident Donald Trump
attacked a line that George H.W. Bush said 30 years ago. It's the
equivalent of saying, "You know what always pissed me off? That St. Elsewhere finale" to a group of high school students.
Here's what our goddamned dementedresident
said, "All the rhetoric you see here, the ‘thousand points of light,’
what the hell was that by the way? ‘Thousand points of light.’ What does
that mean? Does anyone know? I know one thing. ‘Make America Great
Again’ we understand. ‘Putting America first,’ we understand. ‘Thousand
points of light,’ I never quite got that one." The crowd of slobbering
knob gobblers hooted and laughed as Trump did his little prancy jig of
derision, all agreeing that a metaphor is just too fucking hard to
understand.
Now, I have no love for George H.W. Bush, and I don't give a single, hard rat turd that he's an old, old man confined to a wheelchair with a recently dead wife. Yeah, yeah, he was a war hero and he's done a lot of charitable stuff post-presidency. Fuck that guy. He was a shitty president who helped pave the way for political campaign damnation with the Willie Horton ad. And he jizzed out George W. Bush. Fuck him.
Still, Trump's attack is just fuckin' weird. First off, it wasn't Bush's 1988 campaign slogan. Those would have been "A Kinder, Gentler Nation" or "Experienced Leadership for America’s Future," which are arguably easy to comprehend. "A thousand points of light" was an instantly mockable line, but it was from a speech and Bush was talking about volunteer organizations. He even said he was talking about those. I can remember criticizing the phrase at the time, thinking, "That evil motherfucker just wants charities to take over shit that the government is supposed to do." But it wasn't too hard to understand, for fuck's sake. You'd have to be a fucking moron and/or a Trump supporter to not see what that means.
Trump's tone at his rallies has gotten increasingly deranged, increasingly threatening, and increasingly unhinged (yes, that is possible). Last night, he started his usual riff on one of his obsessions, the "truth" of Senator Elizabeth Warren's racial heritage (which is really of a piece with his refusal to accept that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii). Deriding her as "Pocahontas" - he doesn't even use her name anymore and his slavering hordes love it which makes him do it even more because leadership or something - he then created an entire scenario of facing Warren in a debate.
He literally acted it out as he said, "I'm gonna get one of those little kits. And in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims that she's from Indian heritage...We will take that little kit and say — but we have to do it gently, because we're in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle. And we will very gently take that kit, and we will slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm, even though it only weighs probably two ounces."
So, let's see, in one small segment of a 70-minute "speech" (if by "speech," you mean, "blabbering from an old man who finally has an audience to cheer on his incoherent brain farts and misanthropy"), Trump was not just racist, but he was sexist, rapey, rape-mocking, and bullying. What a puddle of weak shit ourresident is.
In a single tweet in response, Warren reamed out Trump, reminding him that there are far, far more important things going on than his ability to get the yokels all het up.
Essentially, we don't have a president. How many bullshit rallies has he done in the last week? No, that's not a goddamn president. That's a mascot. We have a Philly Phanatic out there, getting the crowd pumped up, to distract from the vile, awful things done by the vile, awful people who work for this vile, awful man.
One of the weirdest moments from last night's campaign rally for some fuckin' asshole GOP senate candidate in Great Falls, Montana (motto: "We hate those Mexicans so much even though most of us have never met one") was when, for no apparent reason other than that the roulette wheel in his brain of "Shit I Don't Like" stopped on it,
Here's what our goddamned demented
Now, I have no love for George H.W. Bush, and I don't give a single, hard rat turd that he's an old, old man confined to a wheelchair with a recently dead wife. Yeah, yeah, he was a war hero and he's done a lot of charitable stuff post-presidency. Fuck that guy. He was a shitty president who helped pave the way for political campaign damnation with the Willie Horton ad. And he jizzed out George W. Bush. Fuck him.
Still, Trump's attack is just fuckin' weird. First off, it wasn't Bush's 1988 campaign slogan. Those would have been "A Kinder, Gentler Nation" or "Experienced Leadership for America’s Future," which are arguably easy to comprehend. "A thousand points of light" was an instantly mockable line, but it was from a speech and Bush was talking about volunteer organizations. He even said he was talking about those. I can remember criticizing the phrase at the time, thinking, "That evil motherfucker just wants charities to take over shit that the government is supposed to do." But it wasn't too hard to understand, for fuck's sake. You'd have to be a fucking moron and/or a Trump supporter to not see what that means.
Trump's tone at his rallies has gotten increasingly deranged, increasingly threatening, and increasingly unhinged (yes, that is possible). Last night, he started his usual riff on one of his obsessions, the "truth" of Senator Elizabeth Warren's racial heritage (which is really of a piece with his refusal to accept that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii). Deriding her as "Pocahontas" - he doesn't even use her name anymore and his slavering hordes love it which makes him do it even more because leadership or something - he then created an entire scenario of facing Warren in a debate.
He literally acted it out as he said, "I'm gonna get one of those little kits. And in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims that she's from Indian heritage...We will take that little kit and say — but we have to do it gently, because we're in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle. And we will very gently take that kit, and we will slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm, even though it only weighs probably two ounces."
So, let's see, in one small segment of a 70-minute "speech" (if by "speech," you mean, "blabbering from an old man who finally has an audience to cheer on his incoherent brain farts and misanthropy"), Trump was not just racist, but he was sexist, rapey, rape-mocking, and bullying. What a puddle of weak shit our
In a single tweet in response, Warren reamed out Trump, reminding him that there are far, far more important things going on than his ability to get the yokels all het up.
Essentially, we don't have a president. How many bullshit rallies has he done in the last week? No, that's not a goddamn president. That's a mascot. We have a Philly Phanatic out there, getting the crowd pumped up, to distract from the vile, awful things done by the vile, awful people who work for this vile, awful man.
Friday, July 6, 2018
Donald Trump is going there to meet with his handler
Author & MSNBC Analyst Malcolm Nance reacts to Trump's latest
remarks on Putin and GOP senators meeting with Russian officials in
Moscow. Nance is joined by reporter Brian Bennett who has more on
Trump's upcoming summit with Putin.
Fuck Scott Pruitt
I am not going to waste any time talking about you. I'm glad your ass is finally gone. Fuck you, Scott Pruitt.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Michael Avenatti vs. Groper Trump in 2020?!!
IF (big) he seeks re-election, I will run, but only if I think that there is no other candidate in the race that has a REAL chance at beating him. We can't relive 2016. I love this country, our values and our people too much to sit by while they are destroyed. #FightClub #Basta— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) July 4, 2018
Monday, July 2, 2018
Thursday, June 28, 2018
This Is The World Mitch McConnell Gave Us
Mr. MacGillis is the author of a biography of Mitch McConnell.
There
is an unusual space in the basement of the University of Louisville
library, in the large anteroom to the official archives for Senator
Mitch McConnell. The space is called the Civic Education Gallery, but it
is, essentially, a kind of shrine to the political career of Mr.
McConnell, not unlike the exhibits on Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron you’d find
at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The
mere fact of the shrine is curious enough, given that it memorializes a
politician who shows no sign of leaving the stage any time soon. What’s
most unusual, though, is what it chooses to highlight.
There are a few
artifacts from Mr. McConnell’s youth — his baseball glove, his honorary
fraternity paddle — but most of the exhibits are devoted to the
elections Mr. McConnell won, starting with high school and on up through
Jefferson County executive and the Senate.
When
I visited the room while researching my 2014 biography on Mr.
McConnell, I was struck by what was missing: exhibits on actual
governing accomplishments from the Senate majority leader’s four decades
in elected office. That absence confirmed my thesis that Mr. McConnell,
far more even than other politicians, was motivated by the game of
politics — winning elections and rising in the leadership ranks,
achieving power for power’s sake — more than by any lasting policy
goals.
Well, that was then. Four years later, it is becoming increasingly clear that Mitch McConnell is creating a legacy for himself, and it’s a mighty grand one.
Mr.
McConnell has created the world in which we are now living. Donald
Trump dominates our universe — and now has the power to fill the second
Supreme Court seat in two years. Mitch McConnell, who has promised a
vote on whomever the resident nominates “this fall,” is the figure who
was quietly making it all possible, all along.
First,
there was Mr. McConnell’s vigorous defense, going back to the early
1990's, of the role of big money in American politics, which would help
Mr. Trump not so much in terms of funding his campaign, but in helping
shape the conditions for his appeal.
While
Mr. McConnell has long cast his defense of campaign spending as a First
Amendment issue — money is speech — he made no secret of his motivation
for fighting so hard on the issue. Namely, that he was well aware that
he, as someone lacking in natural campaign talents, and the rest of the
Republican Party, as more business-oriented than the Democrats, would
need to maintain the flow of large contributions to be able to win
elections. “I will always be well financed, and I’ll be well financed
early,” he declared after winning his first race for county executive,
in 1977.
His crusade against campaign
finance reform culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United
ruling eliminating limits on corporate spending on elections, which Mr.
McConnell followed up by blocking legislation to disclose the identity
of large donors. Even before that ruling, the spread of big money in
politics had done so much to sour the public on government, creating a
ripe target for the Tea Party and, later, for a billionaire populist
running against “the swamp.”
Mr.
McConnell laid the groundwork for the right-wing insurgency of 2009 and
2010 in another way, too, with his decision to withhold Republican
support for any major Democratic initiatives in the Obama years. This
meant that Republicans had less influence on the final shape of
legislation such as the Affordable Care Act than they would have had as
fully willing negotiators.
But
Mr. McConnell, prioritizing elections over policy, calculated that by
blocking or delaying Democratic legislation, above all through
aggressive use of the filibuster, Republicans would create a tedious
gridlock that voters would blame the Democrats for. After all, weren’t
they the ones in power?
Mr. McConnell
was right. This strategy helped to foment opposition to the health care
bill, and to drive huge Republican gains in the 2010 election. But it
also fueled the rise of the Tea Party, which was motivated substantially
by the notion that Mr. Obama was “ramming things down our throats” —
that is, passing legislation on a partisan basis after Mr. McConnell
withheld any Republican negotiation. Of course, Mr. McConnell proceeded
to have plenty of headaches managing the far-right contingent in his own
caucus, but it was a contingent he helped produce.
His
role in the election of Trump was even more direct. Most notable was
his refusal to hold a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote on Merrick
Garland, Mr. Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme
Court, despite the fact that the nomination was made a full 10 months
before the end of Mr. Obama’s term. This refusal exploded norms and
dismayed Beltway arbiters who had long accepted McConnell’s claim to be a
guardian of Washington institutions. It also provided crucial
motivation to Republicans who had grave qualms about Mr. Trump but were
able to justify voting for him as “saving Scalia’s seat.”
Mr. McConnell’s other form of aid for Trump was more hidden. As The Washington Post reported
a month after the 2016 election, Mr. Obama had been prepared that
September to go public with a C.I.A. assessment laying bare the extent
of Russian intervention in the election. But he was largely dissuaded by
a threat from Mr. McConnell. During a secret briefing for congressional
leaders, The Post reported, Mr. McConnell “raised doubts about the
underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he
would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians
publicly an act of partisan politics.” The Obama administration kept
mum, and voters had to wait until after Trump’s election to learn the
depth of Russian involvement.
Now,
with the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, it is evident just
how much of a lasting legacy Mitch McConnell’s will leave the country:
Donald Trump will have at least two lifetime appointments to the Supreme
Court. The resident has — and will now enjoy — greater latitude in
filling those seats as a result of Mr. McConnell’s doing away last year
with the 60-vote requirement for Senate confirmation,
to get Neil Gorsuch seated. In the day and a half before Justice
Kennedy’s announcement, the impact of the Scalia seat was made plain
again, as the court issued 5-4 rulings in favor of Trump’s “travel ban” and anti-abortion groups, and against public employee unions.
The
abortion and union rulings had an ironic resonance, as far as Mr.
McConnell goes. In the 1970's, when he ran for county executive in
Louisville, he secured the pivotal endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. by
pledging to back collective bargaining for public employees (a promise
that went unfulfilled), and while in office he worked effectively behind
the scenes to protect abortion rights locally.
But
that was a long time ago, before Mr. McConnell saw the rightward swing
of the Reagan revolution and decided to hop on board for his own
political preservation as a Southern Republican.
These days, Mr.
McConnell has made explicit, with taunting tweets
among other things, that he views long-term conservative control of the
Supreme Court as his crowning achievement. It’s not hard to see why:
Holding a long-term majority on the court greatly aids his highest cause
— Republican victories in future elections — as recent rulings on
voting rights and gerrymandering demonstrated once again.
Whether
Mr. McConnell decides to add an exhibit in the Civic Education Gallery
documenting his role in the rise of Donald Trump is another matter. The
final historical judgment on that score will not rest with him, in any
case.
Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) covers government and politics for ProPublica and is the author of “The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell.”
Monday, June 25, 2018
Maxine Waters My Hero - We Need To Treat Trumpscum Like Trumpscum - Full Court Press
By PaulX2
Trump and his supporters are all upset because their whiteness is losing it's total control of our government. White racist men are being overwhelmed by women, demographics, and a culture shift. Brown people and women are actually doing things, and they don't like it one bit.
Trump's only option is to double down on Fascist behavior to impress his base of mentally retarded racist crackers, and hope they turn out in greater numbers in November. The more Trump mistreats the powerless the happier it makes them. Trump knows it. We know it. The world knows it.
Trump, and all his minions need to be opposed any and every way possible. From kicking a lying fake Christian out of a restaurant, to kicking any lying fascist nazi supporter out of anywhere. Trump supporters are scum and need to be treated like scum.
Full Court Press
We stand for good, and they stand for evil.
We act like christians, and they obviously serve Satan.
Get In Their Face.
They have never been nice, and I refuse to be nice to sickos.
Maxine, they are scumbags. Give it to them.
When they go low, I kick them in the chops with a 63 yard field goal kick.
No quarter.
Trump and his supporters are all upset because their whiteness is losing it's total control of our government. White racist men are being overwhelmed by women, demographics, and a culture shift. Brown people and women are actually doing things, and they don't like it one bit.
Trump's only option is to double down on Fascist behavior to impress his base of mentally retarded racist crackers, and hope they turn out in greater numbers in November. The more Trump mistreats the powerless the happier it makes them. Trump knows it. We know it. The world knows it.
Trump, and all his minions need to be opposed any and every way possible. From kicking a lying fake Christian out of a restaurant, to kicking any lying fascist nazi supporter out of anywhere. Trump supporters are scum and need to be treated like scum.
Full Court Press
We stand for good, and they stand for evil.
We act like christians, and they obviously serve Satan.
Get In Their Face.
They have never been nice, and I refuse to be nice to sickos.
Maxine, they are scumbags. Give it to them.
When they go low, I kick them in the chops with a 63 yard field goal kick.
No quarter.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Protests are now planned in all 50 states. 523 of them.
The executive order that Donald Trump signed today is not a
solution to the crisis created by his administration; it keeps kids
imprisoned indefinitely, and doesn't reunite thousands of separated
families. But it does show the administration is reacting to public
pressure, so we will continue to increase our pressure for justice at
hundreds of events on Saturday, June 30, to say that families belong
together—and free.
Donald Trump and his administration are cruelly separating children from their families.
But we won't allow it to continue. On June 30, we're rallying in Washington, D.C., and around the country to tell Donald Trump and his administration to stop separating kids from their parents!
Trump and his administration have been systematically criminalizing immigration and immigrants, from revoking Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to ramping up intimidating ICE tactics.
Join us on June 30 to send a clear message to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress: Families Belong Together!
If there's not an event near you, keep checking back or create an event at the link below.
https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/search/
Donald Trump and his administration are cruelly separating children from their families.
But we won't allow it to continue. On June 30, we're rallying in Washington, D.C., and around the country to tell Donald Trump and his administration to stop separating kids from their parents!
Trump and his administration have been systematically criminalizing immigration and immigrants, from revoking Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to ramping up intimidating ICE tactics.
Join us on June 30 to send a clear message to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress: Families Belong Together!
If there's not an event near you, keep checking back or create an event at the link below.
https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/search/
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Buckle Up?
There are few things more gratifying in my role as an advocate than when a whistleblower trusts me with explosive information (docs, images, etc.) and looks to me to ensure it is released for maximum impact for the public good. Today is another such day. #BuckleUp #Basta— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 23, 2018
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