When Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008 and served a 13-month sentence under the cushiest of conditions, it was his bodyguard and driver, former UFC fighter Igor Zinoviev, who frequently picked him up at the Palm Beach jail and shuttled him between the office and various appointments. Zinoviev also trained Epstein in a regimen that included weight-lifting and some light fighting drills. And whenever Epstein jetted around to his various estates, Zinoviev accompanied him, riding along on the pretend billionaire’s Lolita Express.

The mysterious Russian MMA fighter drew some attention from the media after Epstein’s arrest and indictment by federal authorities last month — but he has not made it easy for reporters to find him. There have been — so far as we can determine — no published or broadcast interviews with Zinoviev about his relationship with Epstein.

I spoke on the record with Zinoviev for an unpublished interview in 2015, when I was on staff at the Daily Beast. After numerous attempts in recent weeks, I was able to reach him by phone on Monday, August 12. As before, we spoke on the record. He talked about his response to Epstein’s apparent suicide and his memories of working for the man. A good chunk of the half-hour conversation involved revisiting things he had told me four years ago. To be honest, I didn’t expect that he’d try to back away from the assertions he made in our original interview — but he did. He also seemed, it is safe to say, quite nervous about saying anything at all. Below is a transcript of our conversation this week, with minor cuts and edits for length and clarity. Please note that Zinoviev is not a native English speaker — in places we have left his words verbatim, even when his meaning is not entirely clear, as we have been unable to reach him again by phone to clarify any of his assertions.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/jeffrey-epsteins-bodyguard-igor-zinoviev-on-his-old-boss.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=nym&__twitter_impression=true

George Conway Demands Trump Get Tested for Mental Decline: ‘Ridiculous to Suggest that Nothing is Happening’

Kellyanne Conway’s husband is back on Twitter and he’s going rogue again with his insinuations about President Donald Trump’s well-being.

George Conway, a vociferous critic of his wife’s boss, has not been shy in the past with his view that Trump is mentally unstable. On Thursday, Conway re-affirmed his position that the president needs “a full battery of tests for deteriorating mental capacity” in light of Trump’s most recent blunders and misstatements:

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/george-conway-demands-trump-get-tested-for-mental-decline-ridiculous-to-suggest-that-nothing-is-happening/

My name is Thomas Dambo. I build giant wooden trolls around the world and hide them in wilderness and forests. By doing this, I hope to lure people away from concrete cities and computer screens, into the wild and reconnect them with the natural world. I build all my enormous sculptures of recycled materials to show the potential in this precious material, which is often discarded and becomes a threat to the natural world.





The project is called “The 7 Trolls and The Magical Tower.” It’s a fairytale, told through sculptures and words, hidden in a forest, all made of recycled materials. I know it sounds a bit confusing, but watch the video and it will all make sense.



https://www.boredpanda.com/7-trolls-forest-hidden-sculpture-thomas-dambo/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPTwitter

Pat Buchanan is a white supremacist who has complained that the United States is “committing suicide” because “Asian, African, and Latin American children” are replacing whites; said that undocumented immigrants are conducting a “third world invasion” of the country; defended Adolf Hitler as “an individual of great courage” who didn’t want to go to war; and argued that homosexuality should be “contained, segregated, controlled, and stigmatized.”

Maryland Public Television (MPT) will feature him in a public affairs program starting next month.

The public television station announced on August 12 that it will relaunch The McLaughlin Group in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., area in September. MPT also plans to expand the program nationally in January 2020 “through an agreement with American Public Television.” The program was briefly relaunched last year on WJLA, Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s D.C. station. The weekly program will feature host Tom Rogan and panelists Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, and Clarence Page, as well as guest panelists. Clift, Page, and Buchanan were panelists on the original McLaughlin Group, which was hosted by the late John McLaughlin.

Buchanan is a former aide to President Richard Nixon and a longtime media personality who worked for MSNBC and CNN. He also ran for president as a Republican and third party candidate.

In 2000, he won the Reform Party’s nomination. At the time, Donald Trump said of Buchanan: “He's a Hitler lover. I guess he's an anti-Semite. He doesn't like the blacks. He doesn't like the gays. It's just incredible that anybody could embrace this guy.” In 2016, Buchanan said that “Trump has raised the very issues I raised in the early nineties.” Trump has flip-flopped on Buchanan, praising him for being “way ahead of your time!” and quoting him on immigration.

https://www.mediamatters.org/pbs/white-supremacist-pat-buchanan-will-co-star-public-televisions-relaunched-mclaughlin-group

U.S. Rep. Steve King told the Westside Conservative Club Wednesday that humanity might not exist if not for rape and incest throughout human history.

"What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" he said in Urbandale, Iowa. "Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can't say that I was not a part of a product of that."

The Kiron Republican was discussing his defense of not allowing exceptions for rape and incest in the anti-abortion legislation he tried to pass in Congress. Republican leadership had prevented bills he sponsored on banning abortions from advancing through the House, despite GOP support for the measures, King said.

Just because a conception happened in bad circumstances doesn't mean the result isn't a person, King, who is Catholic, argued.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/14/steve-king-abortion-rape-incest-westside-conservative-iowa-representative-birth-iowa-civilization/2007230001/

Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis helped pay the $50,000 bail for 22-year-old college student and farmworker Jose Bello, who was imprisoned at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, Calif., for 89 days after reading a poem criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a public meeting in May.

The New York Immigrant Freedom Fund and the National Bail Fund Network also contributed to paying Bello’s ICE-imposed bail, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which had filed a federal lawsuit on Bello’s behalf. ICE arrested Bello, a student at Bakersfield College who makes about $20,000 a year, at his home two days after he recited his poem at a meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors. He was released Monday.

“Jose Bello was exercising a fundamental right that we pride ourselves on as Americans,” Norman said in a statement shared by the ACLU. “If he was detained for reciting a peaceful poem then we should really ask ourselves, are our words truly free? This is America right? Where the 1st Amendment is freedom of speech unless I missed the memo somewhere. He was exercising that right.”

Norman and Davis are both members of the Players Coalition, an independent task force of 12 members co-founded by former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin and Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins in 2017 that is dedicated to improving social justice and racial equality. Earlier this offseason, Norman and Davis delivered a U-Haul truck filled with bottled water to Flint, Mich., and visited an immigrant respite center in McAllen, Tex., to witness the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border firsthand. Norman made an $18,000 donation to the center afterward.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/08/13/redskins-josh-norman-helps-pay-bail-immigration-activist-detained-since-may/?tid=sm_tw

Stacey Abrams made it official this week that she would not seek the presidency after months of speculation among Democrats, becoming one of the most prominent party leaders to pass on the 2020 race. But in an interview Tuesday night, she said she was open to being considered for the No. 2 spot by “any nominee.”

Ms. Abrams, who drew national attention during her unsuccessful run for governor of Georgia last year, said that she would focus her next year on identifying and stemming voter suppression efforts throughout the country, a major priority for her for years, instead of running for president or the Senate.

But she has remained close to the presidential race, meeting privately with several candidates and topping lists of potential vice presidents.

On Tuesday, Ms. Abrams spoke to The New York Times about why she decided not to run for president, how she feels about the possibility of being on a 2020 ticket, and why Democrats should not shy away from the politics of identity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/politics/stacey-abrams-vice-president.html