September 30, 2019

Holy crap! Remember "Making a Murderer"? Somebody just confessed to killing Halbach

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1178629342731128832?s=21


A convicted murderer in Wisconsin allegedly confessed to killing Teresa Halbach, the photographer whose 2005 death gained renewed interest with the release of Netflix's 'Making a Murderer.'

September 28, 2019

State Dept. intensifies email probe of Hillary Clinton's former aides LOL

The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said.

As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials. Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.

State Department investigators began contacting the former officials about 18 months ago, after President Trump’s election, and then seemed to drop the effort before picking it up in August, officials said.


To many of those under scrutiny, including some of the Democratic Party’s top foreign policy experts, the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Clinton email case represents a new front on which the Trump administration could be accused of employing the powers of the executive branch against perceived political adversaries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/state-dept-intensifies-email-probe-of-hillary-clintons-former-aides/2019/09/28/9f15497e-e1f2-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html




JFC.

September 27, 2019

Kurt Volker, US Special Envoy has resigned

https://twitter.com/RebeccaBuck/status/1177716562951917568




Volker was the US Ambassador to NATO under Obama.

On September 26, 2019, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the unclassified text of the "whistle-blower complaint" regarding the interactions between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In this document, Ambassador Volker, along with US Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, were described as having "reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to 'navigate' the demands that the President had made of Mr. Zelenskyy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Volker


It's unclear if he really did anything wrong besides advising Ukraine on how to deal with a corrupt, lunatic President. His Senate testimony should be interesting.

September 27, 2019

Ted Lieu sets Trump straight on his meeting with Wayne LaPierre

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1177703523439566853


If the below article is accurate, it appears
@realDonaldTrump
seeks to trade action on legislation in exchange for financial support from the
@NRA
. That would be illegal. A felony, to be exact.

September 27, 2019

Giuliani just backed out of the Kremlin linked event

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1177699318423273477


GIULIANI texts me, "Not going," when asked about the Washington Post report about his planned appearance at a reportedly Kremlin-linked event for a speech.





Probably because the Post found out about it.

September 27, 2019

Giuliani set to make paid appearance next week at Kremlin-backed conference that includes Putin

By Tom Hamburger ,
Josh Dawsey ,
Amie Ferris-Rotman and
Rosalind S. Helderman September 27 at 4:58 PM


Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose actions as President Trump’s personal lawyer have helped set in motion an impeachment inquiry, is set to appear as a paid speaker at a Kremlin-backed conference in Armenia on Tuesday — an event expected to include the participation of Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and other top Russian officials.

Giuliani confirmed to The Washington Post on Friday that he plans to take part in a panel at the conference sponsored by Russia and the Moscow-based Eurasian Economic Union, a trade alliance launched by Putin in 2014 as a counterweight to the European Union.

According to an agenda for the event posted online, Giuliani is set to participate in a panel led by Sergey Glazyev, a longtime Putin adviser who has been under U.S. sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine five years ago.


Giuliani’s decision to take part in the conference astounded national security experts. His scheduled appearance comes days after the release of a whistleblower complaint accusing Trump and Giuliani of pressuring Ukrainian for damaging information about Democrats.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

September 27, 2019

Democrat Weighs Releasing Complaint About IRS Trump Tax Audit

A key House Democrat said he’s consulting lawyers about whether to make public a complaint by a federal employee about possible misconduct in the Internal Revenue Service’s auditing of President Donald Trump.

The complaint raises allegations about “inappropriate efforts to influence” the audit process, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in August. Neal told reporters on Friday that a decision on releasing the complaint depends on advice he receives from lawyers for the House of Representatives.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-27/democrat-weighs-releasing-complaint-about-irs-trump-tax-audit


I've reached my free article limit , so could only post two paragraphs. I hope it's released.

September 26, 2019

"It's Management Bedlam": Madness At Fox News As Trump Faces Impeachment

In public, Donald Trump’s allies are putting on a brave face, repeating talking points, mostly staying on message. But in private, there are few who believe that the allegations leveled by an intelligence agency whistle-blower that Trump abused American foreign policy to leverage Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden won’t result in considerable damage—if not the complete unraveling of his presidency. “I don’t see how they don’t impeach,” a former West Wing official told me today. “This could unwind very fast, and I mean in days,” a prominent Republican said.

Trump’s final bulwark is liable to be his first one: Fox News. Fox controls the flow of information—what facts are, whether allegations are to be believed—to huge swaths of his base. And Republican senators, who will ultimately decide whether the president remains in office, are in turn exquisitely sensitive to the opinions of Trump’s base. But even before the whistle-blower’s revelations, Fox was having something of a Trump identity crisis, and that bulwark has been wavering. In recent weeks, Trump has bashed Fox News on Twitter, taking particular issue lately with its polling, which, like other reputable polls, has shown the president under significant water. Meanwhile, Trump’s biggest booster seems to be having doubts of his own. This morning, Sean Hannity told friends the whistle-blower’s allegations are “really bad,” a person briefed on Hannity’s conversations told me. (Hannity did not respond to a request for comment). And according to four sources, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch is already thinking about how to position the network for a post-Trump future. A person close to Lachlan told me that Fox News has been the highest rated cable network for seventeen years, and “the success has never depended on any one administration.” (A Fox Corp spokesperson declined to comment.)

Inside Fox News, tensions over Trump are becoming harder to contain as a long-running cold war between the network’s news and opinion sides turns hot. Fox has often taken a nothing-to-see-here approach to Trump scandals, but impeachment is a different animal. “It’s management bedlam,” a Fox staffer told me. “This massive thing happened, and no one knows how to cover it.” The schism was evident this week as a feud erupted between afternoon anchor Shepard Smith and prime-time host Tucker Carlson. It started Tuesday when Fox legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano told Smith on-air that Trump committed a “crime” by pressuring Ukraine’s president to get dirt on Biden. That night, Carlson brought on former Trump lawyer Joe diGenova, who called Napolitano a “fool” for claiming Trump broke the law. Yesterday, Smith lashed back, calling Carlson “repugnant” for not defending Napolitano on air. (Trump himself is said to turn off Fox at 3 p.m., when Shep Smith airs.) Seeking to quell the internecine strife before it carried into a third day, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace communicated to Smith this morning to stop attacking Carlson, a person briefed on the conversation said. “They said if he does it again, he’s off the air,” the source said. (Fox News spokesperson Irena Briganti denied that management had any direct conversation with Smith)


https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/09/madness-at-fox-news-as-trump-faces-impeachment-lachlan-murdoch

September 25, 2019

Breaking per ABC Ukrainian government sources say Zelensky did feel pressured by Trump

BREAKING per
@ABC
: Sources from inside the Ukrainian government have spoken out to say that indeed President Zelensky DID feel pressure from Trump to investigate Biden after the phone call. He feared losing US support.


https://twitter.com/ItsMeCathi/status/1176929921312219137

September 22, 2019

Why is Narendra Modi giving a rally in a stadium in Houston, TX?

Why is he here? I know he excites the Republicans with his ethnic cleansing of Muslims but what's the point here?


https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/1175830330848071681

Trump makes a reference to jointly fighting "radical Islamic terrorism" and gets a rousing applause. A message India will see as vindicating the approach to Pakistan #HowdyModi


https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1175822863535882241

Massive protest against Modi outside the stadium!
While Modi openly campaigning for Trump's re- election on the American soil. #AdiosModi #HowdyModi


https://twitter.com/MazMHussain/status/1175819484013191168

This is ironic since Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a member of the RSS, which Modi has been a lifelong member of.