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Friday August 31, 2018

Trump's Top Targets in the Russia Probe Are Experts in Organized Crime
TheAtlantic | Natasha Bertrand | 08/30/18

Some of President Trump's favorite targets in the Russia probe have spent their careers in the Justice Department and the FBI investigating organized crime and money laundering, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

Bruce Ohr. Lisa Page. Andrew Weissmann. Andrew McCabe. President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked these FBI and Justice Department officials as dishonest "Democrats" engaged in a partisan "witch hunt" led by the special counsel determined to tie his campaign to Russia. But Trump's attacks have also served to highlight another thread among these officials and others who have investigated his campaign: their extensive experience in probing money laundering and organized crime, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

As Trump praised and defended Russian President Vladimir Putin along the campaign trail, financial analysts and money-laundering experts questioned whether the real-estate mogul had any financial incentives -- including business ties or outstanding debt -- to seek better relations with Moscow. Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed in May 2017 to investigate a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, assembled a team with revealing expertise in fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and other financial crimes.

Trump's fixation with seeing Ohr ousted from the Justice Department could be perceived as yet another attempt to undermine the credibility of the people who have investigated him. It could also be interpreted as an attack on someone with deep knowledge of the shady characters Trump and his cohort have been linked to, including Semion Mogilevich, the Russian mob boss, and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate close to Putin who did business with Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. (Incidentally, another Manafort associate, the Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, admitted that he only managed to be in business because Mogilevich allowed him to be, according to a leaked 2008 State Department cable.) Ohr was involved in banning Deripaska from the U.S. in 2006, due to his alleged ties to organized crime and fear that he would try to launder money into American real estate. Nearly a decade later, Ohr and the FBI sought Deripaska's help in taking down overseas criminal syndicates. ... Read more

Our History - 50 Years Ago: As World Watched
50 Years Ago: As World Watched, Chicago Police Attacked Protesters at '68 Democratic Convention | TRNN | 08/30/18 | 22:39

Corporate profits aren't as great as you think (and might not last)
Axios | author | 08/31/18

Companies had a stellar second quarter: profits rose more than 16 percent from last year, according to the Commerce Department. That's great news, right?

Reality check: Look at corporate profits as a share of the economy. That figure is nowhere near its 2012 high point. In fact, the number has not changed that drastically in the last few years. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Why there's no surprise hospital bill backlash -- yet
Axios | Bob Herman | 08/31/18

Investigative projects from Kaiser Health News/NPR and Vox have exposed pernicious billing practices from hospitals and doctors that have left patients shocked, angered and exasperated.

The bottom line: Hospitals have taken PR hits with the airing of surprise bills, but nothing suggests their practices will change in the short term.

Driving the news: The $109,000 heart attack bill, reported by KHN's Chad Terhune, went viral this week, and the hospital eventually caved by offering to wipe away 99% of the amount billed.

  1. This was an extreme example of a family getting blindsided, but "in smaller amounts, $10,000, $20,000, it happens all the time," KHN editor-in-chief Elisabeth Rosenthal told "CBS This Morning."
  2. More than half of U.S. adults "have been surprised by a medical bill that they thought would have been covered by insurance," according to a new survey from research group NORC at the University of Chicago.
  3. However, every American facing medical debt does not have their own personal investigative journalist.
Read more
House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger

House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 31 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara -- A Rare Look Inside Africa's Last Colony
Book Alleges Trump is Compromised by Russian Mafia | TRNN | 08/30/18 | 13:34
Koch Brothers Backed Conservative Archbishop Attacks Pope and "Homosexuals in the Church" | TRNN | 08/31/18 | 16:45
Trump Begging Senators: PLEASE Let Me Fire Jeff Sessions! | TYT | 08/30/18 | 10:16
Trump's Conspiracy Theory About Russia Tapes | TYT | 08/30/18 | 5:48
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup -- Domestic | 1a.org | 08/31/18 | 1hr
  1. Former U.S. Senator John McCain, who died this week at age 81, will be honored at services across the country through Sunday. Here's a full list of memorial events, courtesy of USA Today. And here's our show on McCain's legacy.
  2. Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who died earlier this month at age 76, will be laid to rest in Detroit on Friday -- traveling in the same hearse that carried Rosa Parks. A concert was held in her honor the evening before the funeral.
  3. Voters in Arizona, Florida, and Oklahoma cast their ballots on Tuesday. In an upset victory, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, D-FL, secured the bid for governor.
  4. On Wednesday, Axios reported that White House counsel Don McGahn will vacate his post later this year. President Trump later confirmed via Twitter.
  5. I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Counsel! I liked Don, but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!
Friday News Roundup -- International | 1a.org | 08/31/18 | 1hr
  1. The United Nations leveled major criticism at several governments around the world this week. A report was released that said that top military officials in Myanmar must be investigated for war crimes against Rohingya Muslims.
  2. The UN also criticized human rights abuses in Nicaragua this week. It condemned what it said was "repression and torture" of opposition activists by the government of President Daniel Ortega. The Nicaraguan government denied the reports.
  3. Trade continues to be a pillar of President Trump's foreign policy. He abruptly announced that he was renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the support of Mexico. By Friday, we'll hear whether negotiators hashed out a new deal that includes Canada.
  4. What's in this new trade deal? How is it different from the current status of Nafta? And how will these changes affect Mexican and Canadian citizens?
  5. In Brazil, President Michel Temer sent troops to the country's northern border to address the inflow of refugees from Venezuela. Venezuela is suffering from a major economic crisis that has caused food shortages and left medicine scarce.
  6. And the Catholic Church is again under fire after Pope Francis' trip to Ireland. The pope gave a speech in Dublin that critics said inadequately addressed recurring allegations of widespread sex abuse within the church.
President Donald Trump Disapproval At 60 Percent In New Poll | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/31/18 | 11:22
President Donald Trump Spins Out As Country Remembers John McCain | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/31/18 | 15:45
Immigration Plays Big Role In Texas Race, Says Congressman | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/31/18 | 9:11
NYT: Donald Trump, Michael Cohen Tried To Buy Decades Of Dirt From Natl Enquirer | Hardball | MSNBC | 08/31/18 | 6:46

08.31.2018. 11:06

Thursday August 30, 2018

What are Trump's and Kushner's connections to Russian mafia boss Semion Mogilevich?
Quora | John Adams | 01/227/18

I have been researching Trump and Kushner since Trump first announced he was planning to run back in 2014 and there were already reports that both were deeply connected to the Russian-Jewish mafia and the annexation of Ukraine.

Semian Mogilevich's the boss of bosses over the Russian-Jewish mafia and has been on the FBI top most wanted list for many years following the fall of the Soviet Union when he came in to possession of Soviet military weapons he was offering for sale on the black market to terrorists including nuclear weapons grade materials. He is also the major heroin source for over 80% of heroin in Europe and is involved in blackmail, bribery, money laundering, white collar stock fraud, murder for hire and human trafficking. If the Russian-Jewish mafia is involved then Mogilevich is involved and he holds so much power in the Russian government through threats of blackmail and violence that even Putin answers to Mogilevich. ... Read more

Craig Unger: Donald Trump Would Not Be President Without The Russian Mafia
realclearpolitics.com | Tim Hains | 07/21/17

CRAIG UNGER: Well, there's been a lot of terrific reporting about Donald Trump's relationship with Russia recently, but I wanted to see when was he first compromised by Russia. And I went back to 1984, when a man named David Bogatin, who allegedly had ties to the most powerful crime gang in Russia, walked into Trump Tower. This is a man who doesn't really have any means of making a living that seems to be legitimate. He meets with Donald Trump, and he buys not one or two, but five luxury condominiums for more than $6 million. ... Read more
*Married to the Mob: Investigative Journalist Craig Unger on What Trump Owes the Russian Mafia | DN | 07/20/17 | 10:11

Friends of Donald Trump
Friends of Donald Trump 2
Trump, Putin and the mob. Research collection by Jay McKenzie | Medium | 08/21/17 | articles
House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger

House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.
Trump's Russian Laundromat | TheNewRepublic | Craig Unger | 07/13/17 | article
Why FBI Can't Tell All On Trump, Russia | WhowhatWhy.org | Russ Baker | 05/17/17 | article
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 30 [11:14]
*Overthrow: 100 Years of U.S. Meddling & Regime Change, from Iran to Nicaragua to Hawaii to Cuba | DN | 03/12/18 | 21:59
As special counsel Robert Mueller continues his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, we take a look back at Washington's record of meddling in elections across the globe. By one count, the United States has interfered in more than 80 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000. And that doesn't count U.S.-backed coups and invasions. We speak to former New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer, author of "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq."
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. From the Grassroots to the Ballot Box: How Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum Won In Florida
  3. "Mississippi Is Failing": As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, Advocates Demand Answers
  4. Update on Prison Strike Demanding End of "Slave Labor": After 10 Days, Protests Spread to 11 States
Brainwashed Trump Supporter Will BLOW YOUR MIND | TYT | 08/29/18 | 6:35
Trump Fires White House Lawyer Over Twitter | TYT | 08/30/18 | 5:59
Trump vs Google, AT&T layoffs and outsourcing, Trump friend resigns | TYT | 08/30/18 | 44:58
It's Time To Overthrow Our Leaders Not Replace Them! | ThomHartmann | 01/09/18 | 9:20
The1a.org
Puerto Rico, Presently | 1a.org | 08/30/18 | 1hr
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz squarely blamed the Trump administration for thousands of deaths related to Hurricane María.

"The administration killed the Puerto Ricans with neglect. The Trump administration led us to believe they were helping when they weren't up to par, and they didn't allow other countries to help us," Yulín Cruz said, later adding, "Shame on President Trump. Shame on President Trump for not even once, not even yesterday, just saying, 'Look, I grieve with the people of Puerto Rico.'"

A revised death toll by The George Washington University estimated the death toll at 2,975 people. Original estimates were as low as 64, or even 16, which is the number President Trump used when he visited the island in 2017, nearly two weeks after the disaster.
*Democrats Alarmed At GOP Use Of Private Security Documents | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/29/18 | 6:48
Climate Change
*The Hidden Impacts of Climate Change | VICE | 12/02/15 | 5:22
*The Last Hours for Climate Change | ThomHartmann | 09/24/15 | 11:42
Don McGahn Is Leaving & Donald Trump WH Isn't Ready For Legal Storm Coming | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/29/18 | 11:07
FBI debunks Trump's latest conspiracy theory | CNN | 08/29/18 | 2:57
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
So Much Winning | The Daily Show | 08/30/18 | 20:31

08.30.2018. 10:48

Wednesday August 29, 2018

*What they're saying: Parkland students turn out for Florida primary elections
Axios | Khorri Atkinson | 08/29/18

Parkland student activists voted for the first time in the 2018 midterm elections.

Why it matters: The turnout rate among young voters in the nation's largest swing state could be a glimpse of what's to come across the country in November.

The backdrop: A recent analysis by TargetSmart found that ongoing voter outreach efforts have already increased voter registration among people 29 and younger across battleground states following the February 14 shooting.

  1. In Florida, voters between the ages of 18-29 made up 26.23% of all new voter registrations before the Feb. 14 high school massacre. Almost three months after the shooting, they made up 34.22% of all new voter registrations in the state.
  2. The Parkland activists have rallied for tighter gun control laws and had their first tangible opportunity to make a difference on primary night.
... Read more

Trump Gives Canada Until Friday to Agree to New NAFTA Deal
Another Turbulent Time | DemocracyNow

Scoop: Don McGahn's coming White House exit
Axios| Jonathan Swan, Mike Allen | 08/29/18

Top White House officials and sources close to White House counsel Don McGahn tell Axios that McGahn will step down this fall -- after Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, or after the midterms.

The big picture: That potentially puts a successor in charge of fielding a blizzard of requests or subpoenas for documents and testimony if Democrats win control of the House in the midterms. And if the White House winds up fighting special counsel Robert Mueller, an epic constitutional fight could lie ahead. ... Read more
Coming Exit For White House Lawyer | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/29/18 | 4:00

ShowTime
Trump, Putin and the mob. Research collection by Jay McKenzie | Medium | 08/21/17 | articles
House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger

House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.

It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.

To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991 -- that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenixlike rise from the ashes of the post--Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.

Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 29 [10:30]
Top Student Loan Watchdog Resigns over Trump Admin Doing Bidding of Predatory Lenders | DN | 08/29/18 | 14:37
Books, Not Magazines: Outcry Grows over DeVos Plan to Divert Federal Funds and Put Guns in Schools | DN | 08/29/18 | 11:56
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 29 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Top Student Loan Watchdog Resigns over Trump Admin Doing Bidding of Predatory Lenders
  3. Books, Not Magazines: Outcry Grows over DeVos Plan to Divert Federal Funds For Guns in Schools
  4. Puerto Rico Raises Official Death Toll to Nearly 3,000 as First Anniv. of Hurricane Maria Approaches
  5. Meet Crystal Mason, the Black Texas Mother Facing 5+ Years in Prison for Voting in the 2016 Election
*Bernie Sanders Doesn't Care What The Establishment Thinks | TYT | 08/28/18 | 6:32
National Enquirer Boss Turns On Trump, Loses Job | TYT | 08/28/18 | 5:11
LEAKED: Trump's Intervention | TYT | 08/28/18 | 7:20
The1a.org
Deregulation Nation: Coal-Fired Power Plants | 1a.org | 08/29/18 | 1hr
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved closer to deregulating coal-fired power plants, after the acting administrator signed a plan that weakened the laws that govern them.

From reporters Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport of The New York Times: The new plan would all but erase [President] Obama's efforts to impose pollution controls on planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants in an effort to transition toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar power. One of the proposal's most significant changes would give authority to states to decide how much to cut emissions, while restricting what states can do to encourage greater efficiency and other modifications at coal plants.

When the rule is submitted into the federal register on Tuesday the public will have 60 days to submit comments before it is finalized.

Trump administration officials have long said that the Clean Power Plan exceeded the federal government's authority. They have said that the new plan operates within the bounds of the 1970 Clean Air Act, which obliges the government to design a way to cut carbon emissions.
It's Primary Season: What Happened In Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma | 1a.org | 08/29/18 | 1hr
On Tuesday, voters in Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma headed to the polls to select nominees for Senate and gubernatorial races.

Standout victories include Andrew Gillum, D-FL, who secured the nomination for governor in an upset victory over Gwen Graham, and Rep. Martha McSally, R-AZ, who won to replace Senator Jeff Flake.

Here's a comprehensive look at Tuesday's results. And here are four takeaways from Tuesday's primaries, courtesy of The New York Times.
*Republican Attacks On DoJ Russia Experts A Boon To Russian Mafia | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/28/18 | 12:03
Rachel Maddow reviews the storied history of Justice Department official Bruce Ohr in prosecuting Russian organized crime, making him only the latest DoJ Russia expert to endure Republican smears in an effort to protect Donald Trump from the Robert Mueller investigation.
President Donald Trump Warns Of Violence, But Will The Tactic Work? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/29/18 | 10:24
Florida Dem Candidate Stages Big Primary Upset | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/29/18 | 6:51
Elie Honig: Donald Trump Has 'Signaled' That He Intends To Pardon Paul Manafort | MTP Daily | MSNBC | 08/28/18 | 9:12
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Separation Anxiety | The Daily Show | 08/28/18 | 20:33

08.29.2018. 13:31

Tuesday August 28, 2018

Aides expect Trump to go rogue on Manafort pardon
Politico | Nancy Cook | 08/24/18

The president's comments are being read as a signal that he wants to ignore his lawyers and exonerate his former campaign chairman.

President Donald Trump's lawyers and a cadre of informal White House advisers claim they've convinced him not to pardon Paul Manafort -- but White House officials expect the president to do it anyway.

The president's characterization of his former campaign chairman as a victim and "brave man" is being read by aides as a signal that Trump wants to use his unilateral authority to issue pardons to absolve Manafort, according to eight current and former administration officials and outside advisers. ... Read more

*Interesting History
The Lasting Impact Of The 1968 Democratic Convention | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 19:54

Trump flips the script on Washington scandal response
Politico | Christopher Cadelago | 08/24/18

The president will visit Ohio on Friday to speak at the state Republican Party dinner. He also is booked to do more than a half-dozen rallies and 16 fundraisers in as many as 15 states over the next six weeks, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Trump's refusal to hide reflects his unshakeable confidence that he's the only one who can get them to turn out in November, allies say -- and the reality that his base won't abandon him, no matter what. He infamously boasted as a candidate in early 2016 that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters" -- and since then has earned his "Teflon Don" reputation as his presidency has bounced from crisis to crisis. ... Read more

*Billionaires Silencing Independent Media
Abby Martin On Billionaires Silencing Independent Media | TYT | 08/27/18 | 10:43

Coverup claim against Pope Francis shakes a Church in crisis
Axios | Dave Lawler | 08/28/18

Pope Francis spent much of his visit to Ireland over the weekend seeking forgiveness -- for those guilty of "abuses of power" and "sexual abuses," and for "some members of the hierarchy" who knew of the abuses and did nothing.

Yes, but: The Vatican's former ambassador to Washington claims the pope falls into that second category. ... Read more

Taibbi: Censorship Does Not End Well
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 08/13/18

How America learned to stop worrying and put Mark Zuckerberg in charge of everything

Two weeks ago, we learned about a new campaign against "inauthentic" content, conducted by Facebook in consultation with Congress and the secretive think tank Atlantic Council -- whose board includes an array of ex-CIA and Homeland Security officials -- in the name of cracking down on alleged Russian disinformation efforts.­ As part of the bizarre alliance of Internet news distributors and quasi-government censors, the social network zapped 32 accounts and pages, including an ad for a real "No Unite the Right 2" anti-racist counter-rally in D.C. this past weekend.

"This is a real protest in Washington, D.C. It is not George Soros. It is not Russia. It is just us," said the event's organizers, a coalition of easily located Americans, in a statement. ... Read more

Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 08/02/18

The social network is too big and broken to properly function, and these "fixes" will only create more problems

You may have seen a story this week detailing how Facebook shut down a series of accounts. As noted by Politico, Facebook claimed these accounts "sought to inflame social and political tensions in the United States, and said their activity was similar -- and in some cases connected -- to that of Russian accounts during the 2016 election." ... Read more

How Saudi Arabia Financed Global Terror (older but good)
How Saudi Arabia Financed Global Terror | Journeyman Pictures | older, 01/05/15 | 23:44
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 28 [10:30]
*White Nationalism in the White House: Administration Faces New Revelations About Ties to Far Right | DN | older, 08/23/18 | 9:22
Sanders Backers Win Major Reforms as Democratic Nat'l Committee Votes to Limit Superdelegate Power | DN | 08/27/18 | 7:56
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 28 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. 50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention
  3. Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests
  4. 1968 DNC Protests, 50 Years Later: Organizers Recall Coalition Building & Running Pig for President
*Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone Discusses: Facebook & Google Play the Censor: Are our Civil Liberties Endangered? | TRNN | 08/28/18 | 15:30
New Deep State Conspiracy Theory | TYT | 08/24/18 | 7:16
Trump's Awkward Phone Call With President Of Mexico | TYT | 08/27/18 | 12:16
Government Official Burns Boss On His Way Out | TYT | 08/27/18 | 8:19
The1a.org
Who Can Help The Rohingya? | 1a.org | 08/28/18 | 1hr
A UN report released Monday says: It says the Myanmar military has cracked down on the Rohingya, and subjected them to a terrifying regime of mass slaughter and rape. Hundreds of their villages in Rakhine state have been razed. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to escape over the Myanmar border to Bangladesh -- a task made all the harder because the Myanmar government will not grant the Rohingya citizenship, making them effectively stateless. These actions are in response to "raids by Rohingya insurgents on several police checkpoints".

Who are the Rohingya? From The Council on Foreign Relations: The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam. There are an estimated 3.5 million Rohingya dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017, the majority of the estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State, where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. They differ from Myanmar's dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously. ...
Paul Manafort Looked To Cut A Deal With Mueller In Second Trial: WSJ | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 17:54
John Mccain Offers Strong, Timely Message In Final Words | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/28/18 | 8:44
When It Comes To Mexico, Does President Donald Trump Have A Deal? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/28/18 | 13:03
Senator Pays Tribute To John McCain, Frets Over Arpaio | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/28/18 | 8:35
The Other Federal Investigation Worrying President Donald Trump | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 7:22
Trump announces new US-Mexico trade deal | CNN | 08/27/18 | 20:02
Paul Butler: Turns Out The President Donald Trump Doesn't Have Any Real Friends | AM Joy | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 17:59

08.28.2018. 10:36

Monday August 27, 2018

*What, Exactly, Are We Reading?
adfontesmedia | Vanessa | older, 11/08/17

... The primary way statements are currently evaluated in the news are on the basis of truthfulness, which is arguably the most important ranking metric. Several existing fact-checking sites, such as Politifact and Washington Post Fact Checker, use a scale to rate the veracity of statements; Politifact has six levels and Washington Post Fact Checker has four, reflecting that many statements are not entirely either true or false. I score each sentence on a similar "Veracity" metric, as follows:

  1. True and Complete
  2. Mostly True/ True but Incomplete
  3. Mixed True and False
  4. Mostly False or Misleading
  5. False
Since there are many reputable organizations that do this type of fact-checking work, according to well-established industry standards, (see, e.g., Poynter International Fact Checking Network), I do not replicate this work myself but rather rely on these sources for fact checking. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

*Biggest cover story of all: 35 ways the National Enquirer's publisher boosted Donald Trump
qz.com | Heather Timmons | 08/24/18

With its circulation reportedly down to less than 300,000, the National Enquirer doesn't, technically, reach all that many US households. Its ubiquity in supermarket checkout lines -- where even if shoppers don't buy it, they can't escape seeing the headlines -- makes it highly visible. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Poll: 60% percent of people oppose a pardon for Manafort

*David Pecker's DARKEST TRUMP SECRETS: A National Enquirer Insider Tells All!
HP | Maxwell Strachan | 08/24/18

Jerry George, a former senior editor at AMI, opens up about the company's CEO, the evolution of the Enquirer and the role it played in reshaping Trump's image.

Hired by the National Enquirer's late publisher Generoso Pope Jr. in 1985, George went on to work at the Enquirer and its parent company, AMI, for 28 years, earning the titles of senior editor and West Coast bureau chief before eventually leaving the company in 2013.

The Enquirer changed dramatically when Pecker was named chairman and chief executive of AMI. A well-resourced, gleefully lowbrow gossip rag became, in George's telling, a spare operation that at times acted as a protection racket for certain favorite celebrities -- especially Donald Trump, Pecker's close "personal friend." This week Pecker was granted immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for information related to payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. ... Read more

Trump's life or death number: 34
Axios | Mike Allen | 08/25/18

The writing is on the wall, top Republicans tell us: Democrats will likely win the House and undoubtedly move to impeach President Trump.

The big picture: Assuming Democrats win the House, it is inconceivable charges that Trump illegally paid off two women to protect his political campaign, corroborated by two longtime loyalists under oath, alone would not provoke impeachment proceedings. It's equally inconceivable Robert Mueller won't provide much more impeachment fodder when he reports his findings.

Trump's political superpower is his willingness to say, do and endure things most humans would never tolerate. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 27 [11:44]
Is Trump Above the Law? James Risen on Prosecuting the President & Why Press Needs to Fight Back | DN | 08/24/18 | 6:21
James Risen: Reality Winner's Sentence Is One of the Worst Miscarriages of Justice in Recent History | DN | 08/24/18 | 20:12
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 27 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Obit Omit: What the Media Leaves Out of John McCain's Record of Misogyny and Militarism
  3. Sanders Backers Win Major Reforms as Democratic Nat'l Committee Votes to Limit Superdelegate Power
  4. Pope Asks Forgiveness for Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal as New Letter Says He Knew, But Failed to Act
*Rapid GDP Growth: Does Trump Deserve the Credit? | TRNN | 08/27/18 | 11:24
IT'S OVER: Key Witness Flips On Trump | TYT | 08/24/18 | 12:41
Tabloids Smeared Hillary For Trump. A Lot. | TYT | 08/24/18 | 9:38
Giuliani: White Collar Crime ISN'T Crime | TYT | 08/24/18 | 9:41
The1a.org
Restoring America's Regular Order: Remembering Senator John McCain | 1a.org | 08/27/18 | 1hr
John McCain was graceful, too, even amid his generally blunt and sometimes combative demeanor. I watched him speak quietly to grievously injured servicemen and women in the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. I saw him tour the old prison in Hanoi and then discuss improving national ties with Vietnam's leaders. I witnessed him sit patiently with the few remaining dissidents in Uzbekistan and pledge support for their cause. And on election night 2008, I stood on the grass at Phoenix's Biltmore Hotel while McCain gave a concession speech for the history books. Pledging to help Barack Obama lead the American people through the days to come, he wished "Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president." It seems almost quaint, this graciousness in the face of political defeat, a vestige of better political times. Our leaders today could learn much from it.
Is Inmate Labor Modern-Day Slavery? | 1a.org | 08/27/18 | 1hr
From a Vox explainer on the strike: The inmates will take part in work strikes, hunger strikes, and sit-ins. They are also calling for boycotts against agencies and companies that benefit from prisons and prison labor.

"The main leverage that an inmate has is their own body," Sawari said. "If they choose not to go to work and just sit in in the main area or the eating area, and all the prisoners choose to sit there and not go to the kitchen for lunchtime or dinnertime, if they choose not to clean or do the yardwork, this is the leverage that they have. Prisons cannot run without prisoners' work."
Remembering Senator John McCain As A 'Rebel With A Cause' | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 17:24
Michael Avenatti: I Will Get To The Truth And Bring President Trump To Justice | AM Joy | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 9:29
President Donald Trump Organization Chief Latest To Be Given Immunity | Hardball | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 10:12
National Enquirer insider: They have safe full of Trump stories | CNN | 08/24/18 | 9:02
Lawrence: President Donald Trump's 'Worst Week' As Top Allies Talk To Feds | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 10:37
Allen Weisselberg Immunity Likely Means Prosecutors Seek 'Bigger Fish' | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 3:59
All The President Donald Trump's Mess | All In | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 7:36
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
*Jake Tapper - How CNN Is Taking on the Trump Administration | The Daily Show | 08/27/18 | 11:19

08.25.2018. 11:46

Friday August 24, 2018

Trump's fantasy legal system
Axios | Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 08/24/18

When President Trump told "Fox & Friends" that this "whole thing about flipping ... almost ought to be outlawed," he was continuing a long habit of declaring what he thinks laws and the legal system should be, and ignoring what they are.

Why it matters: A White House alumnus told us that the comments about "flipping," and belittling Attorney General Jeff Sessions, reflect Trump's fundamental belief "in an ethic of loyalty rather than a traditional conception of justice or the rule of law." ...

... Specifically with regard to the Justice Department, he believes two things: 1. These people work for me. Why should I not expect personal loyalty from the people who work for me? And 2. This is how the world works, so everyone should quit pretending otherwise." ... Read more

Fox News interviews Donald Trump
Ainsley Earhardt from Fox News interviews President Donald Trump | Fox News | 08/23/18 | 12:22
Trump Can't Keep Up With His Own Lies | TYT | 08/23/18 | 6:15

No, impeachment will not crash the stock market
Politico | Ben White | 08/23/18

The longest bull market run in American history could get killed off by a financial collapse in Turkey, a policy mistake by the Federal Reserve or a plain old economic recession. It will probably not be slain by an impeachment of President Donald Trump.

That's the consensus view of Wall Street traders and money managers, who say that while an ugly impeachment fight might cause temporary volatility, markets could easily survive an impeachment and even the unlikely event that Trump is removed from office in a Senate trial.

In fact, Wall Street pros often talk about a potential relief rally if Trump departs the White House early. ... Read more

It Would Take Exactly One Senator to Get Trump's Taxes
Politico | George K. Yin | 08/24/18

What does he owe to Russia? Here's how a single Senate Republican could begin to unravel the mystery.

For all the attention given to the felonies committed by Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, the Mueller investigation still hasn't shined a light on the central mystery surrounding Donald Trump's presidency thus far: Just what, if anything, he owes to Russia. If he has no Russian connection, why is the president so deferential to Russian President Vladimir Putin and so intent on silencing Russian accusers like former CIA Director John Brennan? There could be innocent explanations, of course, but many Americans, including some Republicans, are puzzled.

The answer may lie inside documents we've been talking about for two years: his tax returns. If Trump does have a clear connection to Russians -- if he owes them money, or if he has business partnerships with Putin allies--the returns may provide useful clues and would certainly be a worthwhile place to look. ... Read more

How This Will End
Mother Jones | Eliot A. Cohen | 08/24/18

Michael Gerson, one of the most eloquent and principled critics of Donald Trump, insists that we are at June 1973, the moment when John Dean's testimony broke the dam that a year later swept Richard Nixon off into disgrace. Others agree: This is an inflection point. And yet an equally well-informed friend insists, "I no longer believe in political inflection points and neither should you." Who knows? But even if we do not recognize the turning points in the moment, we can anticipate what the end will feel like when it does arrive.

To be sure, Trump could hang on until the 2020 election. It is even possible, if considerably less likely, that he could be re-elected and march off into a glitzy retirement at Trump properties in Florida and New Jersey, his retreat from public life punctuated only by bursts of increasingly senile bombast. But it does seem more likely than once it was that he will go down in disgrace. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 24 [11:53]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 24 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Mother of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner: My Daughter Was "Nailed to the Door" by the Trump Admin
  3. James Risen: Reality Winner's Sentence Is One of the Worst Miscarriages of Justice in Recent History
  4. Is Trump Above the Law? James Risen on Prosecuting the President & Why Press Needs to Fight Back
  5. 17-Year-Old Helps Win Last-Minute Stay of Deportation For His Mom--Now She'll See Him Start College
Pecker Flips On Trump | TYT | 08/23/18 | 4:57
Trump Mulling Manafort Pardon | TYT | 08/23/18 | 8:06
Trump: If I'm Impeached... | TYT | 08/23/18 | 8:47
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup -- Domestic | 1a.org | 08/24/18 | 1hr
On Tuesday, President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges, including campaign finance violations.

And Paul Manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes.

Friday News Roundup -- Global | 1a.org | 08/24/18 | 1hr
  1. The fallout from the grand jury report released in Pennsylvania about sexual abuse by priests within the Catholic Church has international repercussions.
  2. In Nicaragua, protests continue against the government of President Daniel Ortega, and the government is cracking down on the opposition. The Miami Herald reports that "in four months of protests, more than 2,000 people in Nicaragua have been arrested, according to media reports. About 400 people are currently detained
  3. From The Washington Post: The episode represented a case study in how the president runs his administration. The apparent basis of Trump's directions to the nation's top diplomat were accusations leveled by Fox -- accusations that echo talking points used by white-nationalist groups, including an organization that has referred to "the so-called apartheid" and the "so-called 'historical injustices of the past.'"
  4. And the president has proceeded with his tariff policy, leveling 10 percent tariffs on "another $16 billion worth of Chinese products, bringing the total so far to $50 billion," according to The New York Times.
  5. In India, nearly 200 people have died since August 8 due to flooding in Kerala, according to The Indian Express.
*David Pecker's Past Practice Puts POTUS In A Pickle, Precludes Pulitzer | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/23/18 | 12:29
*What David J. Pecker's Cooperation Could Mean | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 10:31
President Donald Trump Should Consider Resigning, Says Spiro Agnew Attorney | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 8:58
What A President Donald Trump WH Memo Said About Barack Obama Aides | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 8:48
The Hint That President Donald Trump May Pardon Paul Manafort | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/24/18 | 8:28
For Fact's Sake: Everyone Wouldn't Be Poor If President Trump Was Impeached | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/23/18 | 5:56
*Farrow: Memo in White House warned of conspiracy | CNN | 08/24/18 | 6:05

08.24.2018. 10:14

Wednesday August 22, 2018

Wake up and Smell the Convictions
Back-To-Back Legal Blows From Cohen And Manafort Trials Jolt Trump Presidency

HP | Zeke Miller, Jonathan Lemire and Darlene Superville | 08/22/18

With Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen convicted of multiple criminal charges, the investigations circled ever closer to Trump.

President Donald Trump confronted one of the most perilous moments of his presidency Tuesday after two onetime members of his inner circle simultaneously were labeled "guilty" of criminal charges. Although Trump largely ignored the jarring back-to-back blows at a campaign rally in West Virginia, questions mounted about his possible legal exposure and political future

In a split screen for the history books, Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of financial crimes at nearly the same moment Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a series of felonies, including campaign finance violations that the lawyer said he carried out in coordination with Trump. ... Read more

Donald Trump Responds To Former Personal Attorney Michael Cohen's Guilty Plea
HP | Nina Golgowski and Antonia Blumberg | 08/22/18

President Donald Trump lashed out at his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, a day after Cohen pleaded guilty to charges relating to bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance violations "at the direction of a candidate for federal office."

As a part of his plea Tuesday, Cohen said he worked on behalf of an unnamed candidate, ostensibly Trump, for the purpose of influencing the election. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, two counts related to an illegal campaign contribution and one count of making a false statement. ... Read more

TYT Longer Show
Trump Channels Mean Girls In Mueller Tirade; Tucker Carlson On Tacos | TYT | 08/18/18 | 44:05

The President Is a Crook
TheAtlantic | David Frum | 08/22/18

The country now faces the choice between the Trump presidency and the rule of law.

So now it's confirmed, as a matter of legal record, that President Donald Trump organized a scheme to violate federal election laws. He directed his longtime personal attorney to pay at least one woman for silence. That attorney got the money by lying to a bank to get a home-equity line of credit.

It's a matter of legal record, too, that Trump's campaign chair was a huge-scale crook. Despite his desperate financial straits, he volunteered to work for Trump for free -- and Trump accepted.

These two cases complete the beginnings of the story. They are not the story in full. The Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort cases are like the first rocky outcroppings a ship passes as it makes landfall. They are examples of the kind of people willing to work for Trump--and the way that those people carried on their business. They indicate why one of Trump's sons would write "I love it" when offered stolen information about the Hillary Clinton campaign by a purported representative of the Russian government, how so much doubtful money flowed into the Trump Organization after 2006, and why Trump dares not publish his tax returns. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 22 [7:55]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 22 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty & Implicates Trump as Paul Manafort Is Convicted. Is Impeachment Next?
  3. Trump Administration Admits 1,400+ More People Will Die Each Year Following Coal Plant Deregulation
  4. Meet Maya Little, UNC Student Whose Protest Ignited the Movement to Topple a Racist Confederate Statue
BOMBSHELL: Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty, Implicates Trump | TYT | 08/21/18 | 11:17
Sure Looking Like Trump Paid For An Abortion... | TYT | 08/17/18 | 10:39
Trump's HILARIOUS Excuse For Scrapping Military Parade | TYT | 08/17/18 | 8:52
The1a.org
A Plea, A Verdict And The Future Of The Presidency | 1a.org | 08/22/18 | 1hr
On Tuesday, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to unlawful campaign contributions. Also on Tuesday, Paul Manafort was found guilty of financial crimes including fraud.

What does all this mean for President Trump -- and the presidency? And what does any of this have to do with the Russia investigation?
Cohen And "The Candidate" | 1a.org | 08/22/18 | 1hr
President Trump's former personal attorney pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and a campaign finance violation Tuesday.

Michael Cohen's plea seems to implicate President Trump, although he told prosecutors that he made payments in at the "direction" of an unnamed candidate for federal office.

On the same day, Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of financial crimes.
How Bad Is This For President Donald Trump; What Are The Possibilities? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/22/18 | 13:51
Senator Elizabeth Warren: President Trump WH Most Corrupt In Living Memory | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/22/18 | 10:53
Michael Cohen Attorney: President Donald Trump Committed A Crime, No Dispute | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/22/18 | 9:16
New York AG Candidate On How She Can Take On President Donald Trump | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/22/18 | 10:05
Donald Trump's Worst Day In Office? Cohen Takes A Deal Implicating Trump | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/22/18 | 15:53
Carl Bernstein: This is worse than Watergate | CNN | 08/22/18 | 8:31
Hayes: The President Donald Trump Has Surrounded Himself With Criminals | All In | MSNBC | 08/21/18 | 9:22
Daily Show with Trevor Noah
My Super Tweet 16 - The "Best" of Donald Trump's Tweets | The Daily Show | 08/22/18 | 20:36
Late Night with Seth Meyers
President Trump's Military Parade, Pornhub Collins | Seth Meyers | 08/17/18 | 2:20

08.22.2018. 10:27

Tuesday August 21, 2018

Trump sees China trade as a war he can win
Axios | Jonathan Swan, Mike Allen | 08/21/18

With China's economy cooling, President Trump and his aides are emboldened on the hardline tariffs strategy that they increasingly believe is jamming President Xi Jinping, officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: For West Wing policy advisers, China has become a rare unifying issue, while deep rifts remain on other trade issues, especially the wisdom of Trump's plan to impose massive tariffs on car imports.

The Wall Street Journal reports in today's lead story: "The Trump administration is moving closer ... to levying tariffs on nearly half of Chinese imports despite broad opposition from U.S. business." ... Read more

Dems raise concerns over Bolton's ties to Russia
Politico | Nolan D. McCaskill | 08/20/18

In a letter to White House chief of staff John Kelly, Democrats cite recent reports indicating that Bolton worked with a Russian woman who was charged last month for failing to register as an agent of a foreign power in the U.S.

In their telling, Bolton "worked directly with a Russian citizen who has now been charged by federal prosecutors with infiltrating [the NRA] and spying against the United States for years." ... Read more

TYT Full Show
Google, Apple ditch college degree requirements
There are More Important Things than Donald Trump!

Trump's Ex-Campaign Chair Paul Manafort Found Guilty on 8 Counts -- Judge to Declare Partial Mistrial
AlterNet | Cody Fenwick | 08/21/18

The jury in the trial against President Donald Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort has found the defendant guilty on eight of the charges against him Tuesday. Judge T.S. Ellis is declaring a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts, however, on which the jury remained deadlocked.

Judge T.S. Ellis has said that he could accept a partial verdict in this case. Manafort was found guilty on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, and of hiding a foreign bank account. ... Read more

BOMBSHELL: Michael Cohen Implicates President Trump in Campaign Finance Violations While Pleading Guilty in Federal Court
AlterNet | Cody Fenwick | 08/21/18

In an explosive admission, Michael Cohen implicated his former client President Donald Trump in campaign finance violations Tuesday as he pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan.

Cohen said he violated the law in making hush money payments during the campaign at the direction of a candidate for office -- which could only be the president. The payments pertain to Stephanie Clifford (better known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign. Both women have said they had affairs with Trump prior to the campaign. ... Read more

Noam Chomsky - Best Speech In 2018 | Lecture, May 2018 | 05/29/18 | 1:19:11
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 21 [10:12]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 21 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Sister Simone Campbell: Catholic Sex Abuse Stems from "Monarchy" & Exclusion of Women from Power
  3. National Prison Strike Begins: Prisoners in 17 States Demand End to "Slave Labor" Behind Bars
  4. From Attica to South Carolina: Heather Ann Thompson on the Roots of the Nationwide Prison Strike
Authoritarian Patriarchy Is the Root of Sexual Abuse in the Church | TRNN | 08/20/18 | 18:07
The Art Of The Self-Own | TYT | 08/20/18 | 14:53
Will Turkey's Debt Crisis Go Viral with Richard WOlff | Thom Hartmann | 08/16/18 | 12:23
Just How Catastrophic Will Unchecked Climate Change Be? with Dr. Joe Romm | Thom Hartmann | 08/15/18 | 11:54
Are Turkey's financial tremors spreading across the globe? | Aljazeera: Counting the Cost | 08/18/18 | 25:00
Is the US-Turkey crisis beyond repair? | Aljazeera: Inside Story | 08/11/18 | 25:00
The1a.org
Mass Reflection: Catholics Face Their Faith After Another Sex Abuse Scandal | 1a.org | 08/21/18 | 1hr
Catholics around the country are reeling and reflecting after the release of a sweeping grand jury report that implicated 300 priests in the abuse of more than 1000 children in Pennsylvania.

The report contains searing details about minors who were victims of rape, assault, molestation and other abuses. And it articulates how the church's hierarchy covered it up over decades.

On Monday, Pope Francis released a letter addressing the report: With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.
The Equal Rights Amendment In 2018l | 1a.org | 08/21/18 | 1hr
Back in May, Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA.
Donald Trump's America: What Americans Think About The State Of The Country | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/21/18 | 9:51
*Donald Trump Claims "I Could Run" Robert Mueller Investigation "If I Want" | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/20/18 | 9:02
Why President Donald Trump Is 'Freaking Out' Over Don McGahn's Talks With Mueller | Deadline | MSNBC | 08/20/18 | 12:50
*Anderson Cooper reacts to Giuliani's false statement | CNN | 08/20/18 | 9:04
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump Freely Criticizes the Free Press | Stephan Colbert | 08/17/18 | 5:30
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trump Pulls Brennan's Security Clearance | The Daily Show | 08/19/18 | 3:35

08.21.2018. 15:44

Monday August 20, 2018
*Trump's Tade Policies
Trade: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) | 08/19/18 | 21:13

White House Counsel, Don McGahn, Has Cooperated Extensively in Mueller Inquiry
NYT | Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman | 08/18/18

The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice, including some that investigators would not have learned of otherwise, according to a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter.

In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president's fury toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president's most intimate moments with his lawyer.

Among them were Mr. Trump's comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump's obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump's attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him. ... Read more

Trump Lashes Out At Times NYT's Bombshell McGahn Report, Calls It 'Fake News'
HP | Nina Golgowski | 08/19/18

President Donald Trump fired off several angry Tweets on Sunday aimed at discrediting a report that White House counsel Donald McGahn is cooperating with the Russia investigation to protect himself, with Trump insisting that it is "just the opposite."

"I have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close," Trump tweeted. "I allowed [McGahn] and all others to testify ? I didn't have to. I have nothing to hide." ... Read more

*Watch Steve Bannon's Full Interview With MSNBC's Ari Melber | MSNBC | 08/18/18 | 54:49
In an exclusive interview, Steve Bannon sits down one-on-one with Ari Melber for his first ever interview on MSNBC. Bannon outlined, among other subjects: his new plans for the midterm elections and why he thinks impeachment is on the ballot; why he is critical of parts of the Trump administration's economic program; his views of Bob Mueller and the Russia probe; his thoughts on Trump's gender gap with women voters; and his opinion of the president's response to the 2017 Charlottesville riot. During the interview, Bannon said for the first time that he has raised over $5 million for his midterm effort, confirmed he did sign an N.D.A. for Trump (but was not paid for it), and that it would be a problem if Donald Trump did know about the Trump Tower meeting in advance.

Exclusive: Steve Bannon's new film, "Trump @ War"
Axios | Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 08/16/18

The film is part of a drive by Bannon to galvanize Republicans to embrace the midterms as Trump's "first re-elect."

The film is designed to portray Trump supporters as being under siege -- complete with clips of CNN's Don Lemon, and footage of a "Make America Great Again" hat being burned.

Bannon shared the trailer as he announced a new political group aimed at turning out Republicans this fall, Citizens of the American Republic (COAR). ... Read more
Trump @ War by Steve Bannon (trailer) | | 08/16/18 | 1:45

Who's to blame for Turkey's financial crisis? | Inside Story | Aljazeera | 08/14/18 | 25:00
Why the world is worried about Turkey | Vox | older | 7:35
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 20 [11:07]
"Freakishly Warm" Arctic Weather Has Scientists Reconsidering Worst-Case Scenarios on Climate Change | DN | older | 7:08
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. ICE Arrests Husband Taking Pregnant Wife to Hospital to Give Birth, Forcing Her to Drive Alone
  3. Horror at TX Detention Center: ICE Guards Separate Fathers & Sons After They Had Just Been Reunited
  4. In Memoriam: David McReynolds, the Gay Socialist Pacifist Who Twice Ran for President, Dies at 88
Have a Little Carcinogenic Glyphosate With Your Morning Oatmeal | TRNN | 08/16/18 | 11:04
Trump LOVES His New Security Clearance Trick | TYT | 08/18/18 | 11:29
*Press To Trump: "We Are Not The Enemy; We Are The People." | TYT | 08/18/18 | 8:29
How Republicans Exploit Christianity | TYT | 08/19/18 | 11:40
*Chomsky: Israel Meddles In US Elections Far More Than Russia | TYT | 08/19/18 | 7:18
The1a.org
“Truth Isn’t Truth:” Updates On The Mueller Probe | 1a.org | 08/20/18 | 1hr
We’ve lived in the age of the ‘alternative fact’ since 2017, when senior advisor Kellyanne Conway defended Press Secretary Sean Spicer after he lied about the size of the president’s inauguration crowd.

But do Giuliani’s comments represent a new level of obfuscation? What are the implications of Giuliani’s efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the Mueller probe?

This conversation between Giuliani and Todd was directed by news that broke on Saturday night, The New York Times reported a scoop that White House counsel Don McGahn is cooperating with the investigation.
In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president’s fury toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president’s most intimate moments with his lawyer.

Among them were Mr. Trump’s comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump’s obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him.

For a lawyer to share so much with investigators scrutinizing his client is unusual. Lawyers are rarely so open with investigators, not only because they are advocating on behalf of their clients but also because their conversations with clients are potentially shielded by attorney-client privilege, and in the case of presidents, executive privilege.
Americans In Combat | 1a.org | 08/20/18 | 1hr
Journalist C.J. Chivers doesn’t sugarcoat the American war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On one matter there can be no argument: The policies that sent these men and women abroad, with their emphasis on military action and their visions of reordering nations and cultures, have not succeeded. It is beyond honest dispute that the wars did not achieve what their organizers promised, no matter the party in power or the generals in command. Astonishingly expensive, strategically incoherent, sold by a shifting slate of senior officers and politicians and editorial-page hawks, the wars have continued in varied forms and under different rationales each and every year since passenger jets struck the World Trade Center in 2001. They continue today without an end in sight, reauthorized in Pentagon budgets almost as if distant war is a presumed government action.

He told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly that he’s just not sure how these wars might end.

As long as we don’t have a draft, as long as we don’t have American households hooked up to the blood lottery that is war where any parent might have to worry about their child being called off to serve, I think that we will have a Pentagon that’s not quite fully supervised because the public doesn’t really feel a stake here. And until the country invests more fully intellectually in the war, I think that we’re bound to keep having conversations like this year after year.
John O. Brennan: I Gave Trump A Year To Live Up To The Office. He Didn't. | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/18/18 | 24:37
Rudy Giuliani: “Truth Isn’t Truth” | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/20/18 | 7:39
The Roots Of President Donald Trump's Treatment Of Intel Agencies | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/20/18 | 5:52
NYT: White House counsel McGahn cooperated 'extensively' with Mueller probe | CNN | 08/18/18 | 8:44
Giuliani reacts to report McGahn is cooperating with Mueller | FoxNews | 08/18/18 | 6:28
Anderson Cooper: Was Omarosa one of 'the best people'? | CNN | 08/13/18 | 6:29
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trump's Critics Lose Their Security Clearance & A TSA Agent Busts a Move | The Daily Show | 08/19/18 | 3:35
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Fascists to Watch 2018 | Samantha Bee | 08/15/18 | 3:35

08.19.2018. 10:03

Friday August 17, 2018
Terrified Trump Wants Omarosa ARRESTED | TYT | 08/16/18 | 9:31

Trump cuts funding for projects to stabilize Syria
Axios | Shannon Vavra | 08/17/18

The Trump administration is ending up to $230 million in funding intended to help stabilize Syria, David Satterfield, the State Department's Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, told reporters on a call Friday.

Why it matters: This is the latest in a string of cuts to Syrian stabilization funds the administration has been making following repeated complaints from President Trump about the cost of U.S. involvement. Axios reported in May that the State Department was ending funding to projects in northwest Syria after Trump requested they be reviewed. ... Read more

Wildfire smoke from U.S., Canada blazes reaches Europe

Exclusive: Steve Bannon's new film, "Trump @ War"
Axios | Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 08/16/18

The film is part of a drive by Bannon to galvanize Republicans to embrace the midterms as Trump's "first re-elect."

The film is designed to portray Trump supporters as being under siege -- complete with clips of CNN's Don Lemon, and footage of a "Make America Great Again" hat being burned.

Bannon shared the trailer as he announced a new political group aimed at turning out Republicans this fall, Citizens of the American Republic (COAR). ... Read more
Trump @ War by Steve Bannon (trailer) | | 08/16/18 | 1:45

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger

House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.

It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.

To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991 -- that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenixlike rise from the ashes of the post--Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.

Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 17 [13:08]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 17 (FULL) | 59:02
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  1. Headlines
  2. Respect: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin, an Icon of the Civil Rights & Feminist Movements
  3. Angela Davis: Aretha Franklin Offered to Post Bail for Me, Saying "Black People Will Be Free"
  4. Angela Davis: Aretha Franklin "Will Forever Animate Our Collective Sense of Desire for Change"
SEAL Team Six Commander Goes After Trump | TYT | 08/16/18 | 1:59
WTF?! CEOs Make THIS Much? | TYT | 08/16/18 | 12:18

The1a.org
Friday News Roundup - Domestic | 1a.org | 08/17/18 | 1hr
  1. A new grand jury report implicated more than 300 priests from six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania in the abuse of over 1,000 children. The report documents 70 years of abuse, and is the broadest examination by the federal government into child sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
  2. Troubling new figures on drug overdose deaths also came out this week. Over 72,000 Americans died from a drug overdose last year, according to provisional estimates by the Centers for Disease Control. That's a nearly 10 percent increase from 2016. What's behind this surge? Analysts point to the growing prevalence of opioid use, and the increased deadliness of the drugs.
  3. Tuesday was a groundbreaking day for women and people of color running in elections across the country, particularly for Democrats. Candidate Jahana Hayes won the party's support in Connecticut, and is on track to become the state's first black Democrat in Congress.
  4. It was a tough week for many of President Trump's critics. The president yanked the security clearance of former CIA head John Brennan, who has fiercely criticized the administration.
  5. And finally, the president publicly derided former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman several times... Tweet: When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn't work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!...
Friday News Roundup - International | 1a.org | 08/17/18 | 1hr
  1. Violence continued in Afghanistan this week. At least 311 people died during a brutal week of attacks, including one by a suicide bomber on students in a classroom. The Taliban maintained a five-day sustained assault on the eastern city of Ghazni, but the siege dulled on Wednesday when the Afghan government announced they took back control of the city.
  2. The civil war in Yemen rages on. "At least 450 Yemenis were killed in the first nine days of August alone," according to Vice News. Vice reports that an international coalition backed by the United States is preparing to recapture the port city of Hodeidah. The movement could have devastating consequences for the Yemeni people, because nearly three-quarters of imports enter through Hodeidah. Millions of people could go hungry or without adequate medical care, if the battle is protracted.
  3. American tariffs are compounding economic turmoil in Turkey. Last week, President Trump announced "tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, to 50 and 20 percent, respectively." The relationship seems to be deteriorating. ...
Maddow: President Trump Isn't Attacking Critics, He's Going After Witnesses | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/17/18 | 21:29
Former Intel Chiefs Rebuke President Donald Trump, But POTUS Feels Emboldened | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/17/18 | 13:46
Author: Craig Unger - President Donald Trump Is Russia's Asset In The White House | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/17/18 | 6:26
Hundreds Of Newspapers Criticize President Trump's Anti-Media Attacks | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/17/18 | 6:11
The Vatican Responds To Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal In PA | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/17/18 | 6:54
Ret. Lt. General to Trump: Take my security clearance too | CNN | 08/17/18 | 11:54
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Another Day, Another Omarosa Tape | Stephen Colbert | 08/17/18 | 3:55
Trump Freely Criticizes the Free Press | Stephen Colbert | 08/17/18 | 5:30
Melania Trump Responds To Omarosa's Book | Stephen Colbert | 08/17/18 | 4:42
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Omarosa Says Trump Tried to Buy Her Silence | Seth Meyers | 08/16/18 | 6:22
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Hating Trump Is a Booming Business | Trevor Noah | 08/16/18 | 5:29

08.17.2018. 18:05

Thursday August 16, 2018

KellyAnne Hurls Hubby Under the Bus
HP | Carla Herreria | 08/15/18

ellyanne Conway, President Donald Trump's chief counselor, found a unique way to let her husband know how she feels about his public bashing of her boss.

During an interview with Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, Conway complained that her husband's recent tweets about Trump were "disrespectful" and possibly violated their "marital vows," but insisted that she was speaking off the record. She asked Terris to be quoted as a "person familiar with their relationship" ? not as herself.

Terris, who was working on a story about their marriage, wouldn't let her. He published their full exchange in the Post on Wednesday in a wild profile revealing how Conway's job as Trump's right-hand woman has affected her relationship with George Conway, a former Trump supporter who has become a vocal critic of the president on Twitter. ... Read more

FCC Shuts Down Alex Jones' Flagship Pirate Radio Station In Texas

Exclusive: Steve Bannon's new film, "Trump @ War"
Axios | Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 08/16/18

The film is part of a drive by Bannon to galvanize Republicans to embrace the midterms as Trump's "first re-elect."

The film is designed to portray Trump supporters as being under siege -- complete with clips of CNN's Don Lemon, and footage of a "Make America Great Again" hat being burned.

Bannon shared the trailer as he announced a new political group aimed at turning out Republicans this fall, Citizens of the American Republic (COAR). ... Read more
Trump @ War by Steve Bannon (trailer) | | 08/16/18 | 1:45

There's a Science to Successfully Talking to Trump Supporters -- Here's How
AlterNet | Bobby Azarian / Raw Story | 08/15/18

If humans were completely rational agents, our beliefs and political attitudes would be based on reasoning grounded in evidence and logic--but unfortunately that's not the case.

It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or something else -- if you are a reasonable person then you must be wondering what the hell hardcore Trump supporters are thinking right now. From wearing shirts that say, "I'd rather be a Russian than Democrat," to conspiracy theories that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophilia ring out of a pizza joint, it is obvious that Donald Trump and abominable allies have perfected the skill of brain washing those vulnerable to such manipulation. It's all so bizarre that most Americans have at some point questioned whether someone had slipped them some LSD when they weren't looking. ... Read more

Trump is Not What He Seems - Maggie Haberman | Washington Watch | 08/13/18 | 1:06:40
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 16 [10:18]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Shocking Investigation Reveals Pennsylvania Priests Abused 1,000 Children and Covered Up the Abuse
  3. "This Church Is a Criminal Enterprise": Former Priest & Survivor Speak Out on PA Catholic Sex Abuse
  4. "I'm Bringing My Bullhorn to Congress": Rashida Tlaib, Muslim Dem. Socialist, Appears Headed to D.C.
Alex Jones Somehow Getting Crazier | TYT | 08/15/18 | 10:45
Trump DEVASTATED Congress Won't Let Him Help Russia | TYT | 08/15/18 | 6:34
The1a.org
The Future Of For-Profit Colleges | 1a.org | 08/16/18 | 1hr
Lies My Teacher Told Me | 1a.org | 08/16/18 | 1hr
How Americans View Of Foreign Influence On U.S. Politics | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/16/18 | 6:27
Amid Omarosa Chaos, President Trump Pulls John Brennan's Security Clearance | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/15/18 | 12:29
Politico: White House Staff 'Terrified' Of Omarosa Manigault | Hardball | MSNBC | 08/15/18 | 11:21
Trump revokes ex-CIA Director Brennan's security clearance | CNN | 08/15/18 | 17:43
Clapper: I don't plan to stop speaking about this administration | CNN | 08/15/18 | 7:06
Hayden: This has everything to do with punishing us for criticizing Trump | CNN | 08/15/18 | 5:45
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump's NDAs Are Completely Worthless | Stephen Colbert | 08/15/18 | 7:11
Trump's Obvious Attempt To Change The Subject | Stephen Colbert | 08/15/18 | 9:15
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Does the Trump N-Word Tape Exist? | The Daily Show | 08/15/18 | 5:57
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Fascists to Watch 2018 | Samantha Bee | 08/15/18 | 7:07
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Omarosa Says Trump Knew About Hacked Emails in Advance | Seth Meyers | 08/15/18 | 9:33

08.16.2018. 13:40

Wednesday August 15, 2018

The Trump Regime Will Make It Easier for Financial Firms to Gouge U.S. Veterans
Esquire | Charles P. Pierce | 08/13/18

Mick Mulvaney's CFPB continues to ignore its duty--and Betsy DeVos is getting in on the game, too.

Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, intends to scrap the use of so-called supervisory examinations of lenders, arguing that such proactive oversight is not explicitly laid out in the legislation, the main consumer measure protecting active-duty service members, according to a two-page draft of the change. The agency's move comes as a Senate committee prepares to vote on the nomination of Kathleen Kraninger to succeed Mr. Mulvaney as chief of the consumer watchdog, which is responsible for protecting consumers from financial abuse. The proposal surprised advocates for military families, who have urged the government to use its powers to crack down harder on unscrupulous lenders. The consumer bureau conducted dozens of investigations into payday and other lenders during the Obama administration without any significant legal opposition, and no lenders are currently challenging its oversight based on the law, according to administration officials. ... Read more
Don't Make Republicans Choose Between Bankers And Troops... | TYT | 08/14/18 | 13:37

Trump's Trying To Shut Omarosa Up. Good Luck With That.
HP | S.V. Date | 08/14/18

After decades of being able to shut people up with threats of lawsuits, President Donald Trump is likely in for a rude awakening as he goes after a former White House aide who has written an unflattering book.

Trump's re-election campaign is trying to force Omarosa Manigault Newman to stop disparaging Trump, based on a nondisclosure agreement she signed when she was working for his campaign but which covered future activity.

"That's going to fail," predicted Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C., lawyer specializing in federal employee rights. "[Trump is] used to a world where he can threaten financial ruin on people with these NDAs." ... Read more

  1. On Sunday, Omarosa released audio from a secret recording she made in December when she was being fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly in the White House's highly-secured Situation Room. The audio was first played during her appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
  2. Monday morning, NBC's "Today" aired an excerpt of a phone call Omarosa recorded between her and President Trump, who expressed surprise and disappointment that she got ousted from the White House. In the call, which she says came a day after she was fired, Trump said "nobody even told me about it."
  3. On Tuesday, "CBS This Morning" aired another Omarosa recording which featured Trump campaign officials discussing how to deal with any hypothetical fallout if a tape of Trump using the N-word were to be released.

The high-profile Trump White House departures
Axios | author | 07/06/18

The Trump White House has had more first-year departures than any other president in at least 40 years -- and the departures haven't stopped.

Why it matters: The revolving door of Trump's highest Cabinet officials is not normal.

  1. Michael Flynn - Title: National Security Adviser
  2. Sean Spicer - Title: Communications Director, Press Secretary
  3. Reince Priebus - Title: Chief of Staff
  4. Anthony Scaramucci - Title: Communications Director
  5. Steve Bannon - Title: White House Chief Strategist
  6. Katie Walsh - Title: White House Deputy Chief of Staff
  7. Michael Dubke - Title: Communications Director
  8. Sebastian Gorka - Title: Deputy Assistant to the President
  9. K.T. McFarland - Title: Deputy National Security Adviser
  10. Tom Price - Title: Secretary of Health and Human Services
  11. Omarosa Manigault Newman - Title: Communications Director
  12. James Comey - Title: FBI Director
  13. Andrew McCabe - Title: Deputy Director of FBI
  14. Dina Powell - Title: Deputy National Security Adviser
  15. Walter Shaub - Title: Director of the Office of Government Ethics
  16. Angella Reid - Title: Chief Usher
  17. Rob Porter - Title: Staff Secretary
  18. Josh Raffel - Title: Senior Communications Official
  19. Hope Hicks - Title: Director of Strategic Communications, Communications Director
  20. Gary Cohn - Title: Director of the National Economic Council
  21. John McEntee - Title: Personal aide to the president
  22. Rex Tillerson - Title: Secretary of State
  23. H.R. McMaster - Title: National Security Adviser
  24. David Shulkin - Title: Secretary of Veterans Affairs
  25. Michael Anton - Title: National Security Council spokesperon
  26. Tom Bossert - Title: Homeland Security Advisor
  27. Scott Pruitt - - Title: EPA administrator
  28. Yada Yada Yada
Read more

Roger Stone's Space Force
Click to zoom in

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 15 [8:30]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 15 (FULL) | 59:02
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  1. Headlines
  2. Parents of Murdered Parkland Student Joaquin Oliver on Using Art to Demand End to Gun Violence
  3. John Carlos Frey: Deported Parents Say Trump Administration Is Still Separating Families at Border
  4. Military Cover-Up? 100s of Migrants Feared Dead in Mass Grave at AZ's Barry Goldwater Bombing Range
New Omarosa Tape Drops And Trump Is MAD | TYT | 08/14/18 | 7:53
Trump: Military Might Is More Important Than Jobs | TYT | 08/14/18 | 14:59
The1a.org
Another School Year, Another Round Of Debate Over School Safety | 1a.org | 08/15/18 | 1hr
"Schools are safer today than they had been in previous decades," says James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University who has studied the phenomenon of mass murder since the 1980s.

First, while multiple-victim shootings in general are on the rise, that's not the case in schools. There's an average of about one a year -- in a country with more than 100,000 schools.

Second, the overall number of gunshot victims at schools is also down. According to Fox's numbers, back in the 1992-93 school year, about 0.55 students per million were shot and killed; in 2014-15, that rate was closer to 0.15 per million. ...
How Tech Companies Are Transforming Classrooms | 1a.org | 08/15/18 | 1hr
She wrote that Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the country has been at the forefront of introducing the tech giant's low-cost and free tools into the classroom.

Google bypassed administrators and school boards, reaching out directly to educators, she wrote, and it raises the question of whether our public schools should "turn out knowledgeable citizens or skilled workers."

But according to a study in 2016, there's still a lot we don't know about the usage of tech in classrooms. And those gaps in knowledge could be dangerous. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development published a study in 2015 which said "students who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes, even after controlling for social background and student demographics."

What are the effects of having classrooms branded by technology companies? And how much are these digital resources helping students?
Manafort Trial Exposes Corrupt Workings Of President Donald Trump Transition | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/14/18 | 26:19
Joe: A 40 Percent President Donald Trump Loses Midterms | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/15/18 | 12:11
What's Behind President Donald Trump's Latest Poll Numbers? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/15/18 | 16:28
On President Donald Trump's Language And His Barack Obama Obsession | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/15/18 | 10:16
Lawrence: Trump's 'Dog' Tweet Shows 'Something Seriously Wrong' With Him | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/14/18 | 8:44
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Omarosa Reveals Trump's Secret Staff Nicknames | Stephen Colbert | 08/14/18 | 7:11
Sen. Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist Ideas Are Mainstream | Stephen Colbert | 08/15/18 | 8:33
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Omarosa On Her Secret Tapes & Trump's Biggest Weakness | The Daily Show | 08/14/18 | 18:07

08.15.2018. 11:49

Tuesday August 14, 2018

The Useful Idiocy of Donald Trump
TruthDig.com | Chris Hedges | 01/28/18

The problem with Donald Trump is not that he is imbecilic and inept--it is that he has surrendered total power to the oligarchic and military elites. They get what they want. They do what they want. Although the president is a one-man wrecking crew aimed at democratic norms and institutions, although he has turned the United States into a laughingstock around the globe, our national crisis is embodied not in Trump but the corporate state's now unfettered pillage.

Trump, who has no inclination or ability to govern, has handed the machinery of government over to the bankers, corporate executives, right-wing think tanks, intelligence chiefs and generals. They are eradicating the few regulations and laws that inhibited a naked kleptocracy. They are dynamiting the institutions, including the State Department, that served interests other than corporate profit and are stacking the courts with right-wing, corporate-controlled ideologues. Trump provides the daily entertainment; the elites handle the business of looting, exploiting and destroying.

Once democratic institutions are hollowed out, a process begun before the election of Trump, despotism is inevitable. The press is shackled. Corruption and theft take place on a massive scale. The rights and needs of citizens are irrelevant. Dissent is criminalized. Militarized police monitor, seize and detain Americans without probable cause. The rituals of democracy become farce. This is the road we are traveling. It is a road that leads to internal collapse and tyranny, and we are very far down it. ... Read more
Donald Trump: The Establishment's Useful Idiot | TYT | 08/11/18 | 7:22

Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I'm His Uncle.
Politico | David S. Glosser | 08/13/18

If my nephew's ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.

Let me tell you a story about Stephen Miller and chain migration. It begins at the turn of the 20th century in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl of subsistence farmers in what is now Belarus. Beset by violent anti-Jewish pogroms and forced childhood conscription in the Czar's army, the patriarch of the shack, Wolf-Leib Glosser, fled a village where his forebears had lived for centuries and took his chances in America.

He set foot on Ellis Island on January 7, 1903, with $8 to his name. Though fluent in Polish, Russian, and Yiddish he understood no English. An elder son, Nathan, soon followed. By street corner peddling and sweat-shop toil Wolf-Leib and Nathan sent enough money home to pay off debts and buy the immediate family's passage to America in 1906. That group included young Sam Glosser, who with his family settled in the western Pennsylvania city of Johnstown, a booming coal and steel town that was a magnet for other hard-working immigrants. ... Read more

Some Good Politico Articles
The 327 people connected to the Russia probes
52 train wrecks John Kelly couldn't stop -- or started himself
Where we stand in Trump's trade war
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 14 [8:20]
Historic Ruling Against Monsanto Finds Company Acted with "Malice" Against Groundskeeper with Cancer | DN | 08/14/18 | 16:06
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Historic Ruling Against Monsanto Finds Company Acted with "Malice" Against Groundskeeper with Cancer
  3. How Monsanto Plants Stories, Suppresses Science & Silences Dissent to Sell a Cancer-Linked Chemical
  4. 40 Yemeni Children Dead by a U.S. Bomb: Outrage Mounts Over U.S. Role in Airstrike on School Bus
  5. AP Investigation: Behind the Scenes in Yemen, U.S.-Backed Saudi Coalition Is Working with al-Qaeda
Secret Trump Tapes Released By Former White House Staffer | TYT | 08/13/18 | 13:15
The1a.org
Discord Over Non-Disclosure Agreements | 1a.org | 08/14/18 | 1hr
Omarosa Manigault Newman, a reality television show star and former political aide, got the boot from the White House in December of 2017.

Over the course of her press tour promoting her book, Manigault Newman has made some astonishing claims. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, has confirmed one of them. Speaking to ABC News last Sunday, she said senior administration officials had been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs. And on Monday, the president confirmed it, too. ...
Life With Lyme Disease | 1a.org | 08/14/18 | 1hr
Across the country, about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are documented every year, but there are as many as 300,000 cases annually that meet the definition of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If it's detected and diagnosed, the disease can be easy to treat and track. "Public-health officials say that a few weeks of antibiotic treatment will almost always wipe out the infection, and that relapses are rare," says one 2013 article in The New Yorker. But many cases of Lyme disease go unreported, and it can be tricky to diagnose and treat.

From the same article: Most troubling, some patients who are treated continue to suffer from a variety of symptoms long after their therapy has ended. Nobody really knows why they fail to get better. Infectious-disease experts refer to the phenomenon, which can affect up to twenty per cent of patients, as Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. Researchers have attempted to resolve the mystery in experiments with monkeys, mice, and dogs; human studies are also under way. As the number of infections grows, so does the number of people struggling to figure out what is wrong with them. ...
President Donald Trump Team Destroying Careers Of Comey Witnesses One By One | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 20:09
President Trump Calls Omarosa Manigault 'Dog,' 'Crying Lowlife' In Tweet | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/14/18 | 11:36
Reality TV Executive: Omarosa-Trump Fight Is Like A Hip Hop Beef | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 15:19
MJ Panel Reacts To Omarosa Manigault Recording: 'Tabloidized' | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 7:59
Does Omarosa Manigault Have A Credibility Problem? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 10:04
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Geography 101: World Maps Trump Can Understand | Stephen Colbert | 08/14/18 | 4:36
Inside Kellyanne Conway's Brain | Stephen Colbert | 08/14/18 | 1:09
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Omarosa's Secret White House Tapes | The Daily Show | 08/13/18 | 8:10
Seth Meyers
Rudy Giuliani and Omarosa Cause Problems for Trump | Seth Meyers | 08/13/18 | 12:43

08.14.2018. 10:08

Monday August 13, 2018

The Parkland generation has huge plans for this fall
Axios | Steve LeVine | 08/13/18

Six months after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., some of the surviving students are only becoming more organized and more ambitious -- ringleaders of a vocal, demanding, tech-savvy strata of their generation.

Why they matter: This looks a lot like the '60s. The students aren't much younger -- and some are the same age -- as the Kent State shooting victims of 1970. They're smart, snarky in a witty way, and -- like the Woodstock generation -- wise for their age. But they seem a lot less self-destructive. ... Read more

Trump blasts "Wacky Omarosa" after she plays secret tapes on TV
Axios | staff | 08/13/18

Donald Trump Tweet: Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!

The big picture: As Axios' Jonathan Swan notes, Trump has nobody to blame but himself for Omarosa's raucous book tour, in which she calls him a racist and a misogynist, and says he's in mental decline. Trump brought her into the White House at the senior-most level with the top salary. In many ways, two former senior administration officials pointed out, what Omarosa is doing now is pure Trump. ... Read more

Full Omarosa: 'I Had A Blind Spot Where It Came To Donald Trump' | Meet The Press | NBC News | 08/12/18 | 21:32
Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House by Omarosa Manigault Newman

Few have been a member of Donald Trump's inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned fifteen years -- through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.

A stunning tell-all and takedown from a strong, intelligent woman who took every name and number, Unhinged is a must-read for any concerned citizen.
Omarosa Manigault Newman On Her Secret Recordings, Alleges Audio Of Trump Saying N-Word | TODAY | 08/13/18 | 11:43
The Big Dry: The face of Australia's drought crisis
The Big Dry: The face of Australia's drought crisis | ABC Australia | 08/06/18 | 31:55
Why is it so hot?
Why is it so hot? | Inside Story | Aljazeera | 08/04/18 | 24:55
Massive Deadly Heatwaves
Massive Deadly Heatwaves: A Consequence of Abrupt Climate Changes | Paul Beckwith | 07/06/18 | 14:57
Paul Beckwith website
Global Warming/Climate Change, Wikipedia
Global Warming.pfd from Wikipedia
Human Body Limit to Heat Stress from Abrupt Climate Change | Paul Beckwith | 08/03/18 | 15:00
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 13 [8:08]
Meet the Two Protesters Who Confronted Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke over Corruption & Climate Change | DN | 08/13/18 | 13:57
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 13 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Former Iranian Ambassador: Trump's Re-imposed Sanctions Against Iran Are an Act of Warfare
  3. Meet the Two Protesters Who Confronted Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke over Corruption & Climate Change
  4. Interior Sec. Zinke Blames "Radical Environmentalists," Not Climate Change, as 100+ Wildfires Rage
Betsy DeVos Caught Not Paying Taxes | TYT | 08/11/18 | 12:22
Donald Trump: The Establishment's Useful Idiot | TYT | 08/11/18 | 7:22
The1a.org
Ask A High Schooler | 1a.org | 08/13/18 | 1hr
What kind of memories does it dredge up for you? Good, bad or something in-between? Would you go back if you had the chance? Depending on when you were enrolled, it's probably a lot different now than what lives in your nostalgic recollections.

Teachers report that unprecedented access to social media and other forms of technology is making it hard for kids to focus, and educators are constantly asking for students' attention. And with mountains of homework and early start times, many students might not be getting enough sleep.

Add anxiety about college and careers into the mix. The cost of higher education has skyrocketed, so are students thinking differently about what to do next? What do actual students think about what's going on in their high schools and in ones around the country?
Arne Duncan On Dishonesty And Disadvantages In America's Education System | 1a.org | 08/13/18 | 1hr
Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been in education for a long time. He's worked at nearly every level of the system, as a tutor in a low-income neighborhood, as the superintendent of the Chicago school system, and then moving up to the federal level to serve under President Obama as the education secretary.

And he's known for his honesty. His new book, "How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success From One of the Nation's Longest-Serving Secretaries of Education," starts out with a chapter called "Lies, Lies Everywhere."

So whether it's valuing education or truly valuing teachers or valuing the lives of our kids and giving them a good start to life with early-childhood education, everyone will say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, but their actions don't follow, don't correspond, don't correlate. It's intellectually dishonest, and the stakes are too high. I worry about a caste system; I worry about people feeling like they can't get ahead.

I don't only blame politicians -- I blame voters. We don't vote based on education at any level -- local, state, Congress, president; we don't hold anyone accountable for results, voting based on whether a politician is going to help increase access to pre-K, is going to increase high-school graduation rates, and so on. Education should be the ultimate nonpartisan issue.
Omarosa Manigault Newman Records Firing By John Kelly In Situation Room | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 6:13
Rudy Giuliani Backtracks On President Donald Trump And Mike Flynn| Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/13/18 | 12:55
Trump tears into 'wacky Omarosa' over secret recordings | FoxNews | 08/13/18 | 6:50
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump Isn't Taking A Vacation From Lying | Stephen Colbert | 08/10/18 | 3:56
*Mike Pence Tries To Make Space Force Sound Less Dumb | Stephen Colbert | 08/09/18 | 6:05
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump's Week of Corruption Scandals | Seth Meyers | 08/09/18 | 9:46

08.13.2018. 15:28

Friday August 10, 2018

Go deeper: The prosecution in Manafort's trial has left no stone unturned
Axios | Khorri Atkinson | 08/09/18

The financial fraud trial of President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered its eighth day on Thursday with the special counsel's team presenting witnesses and evidence to illustrate how Manafort orchestrated a scheme to obtain millions of dollars and avoid paying taxes.

The big picture: This trial marks the first case that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has brought to court as a result of his probe into the 2016 Russian election meddling. However, the federal tax and financial fraud charges in dispute are separate from Manafort's time as President Trump's campaign chairman. The proceeding is being closely watched by the president and his legal team as they negotiate a possible interview between Trump and Mueller. ... Read more

Sean Hannity Is Letting Trump's Lawyers Host His Radio Show
HP | Sara Boboltz | 08/10/18

Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, frequent critics of the Russia investigation, are taking over the popular show on Friday.

Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, lawyers for President Donald Trump, will host Sean Hannity's radio show Friday afternoon in an unvarnished display of partisan loyalty on one of the nation's most influential talk shows.

Hannity announced the schedule change on Twitter Friday morning as he shared an interview with Sekulow he conducted earlier in the week. The lawyer criticized special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, a theme likely to resurface in Friday's episode when Sekulow and former New York mayor Giuliani take the reins.

Hannity's cozy relationship with the president is well known, but this is the first time he's stepped aside to lend his powerful microphone to Trump's team directly. ... Read more

The data fueling Trump's 2018 rallies
Axios | Alexi McCammond | 08/10/18

President Trump uses internal polling and approval rating data from the Republican National Committee to decide where to hold his midterm rallies -- including one held just before Ohio's special election, a GOP official with knowledge of the data sharing told Axios.

Why it matters: This is the first look inside the data that gives Trump part of his power over the primaries. He knows how to energize his Republican base, but pushing long-shot candidates over the finish line only works if he's in the right place and speaking to the right people. ... Read more

Trump's dueling Russia policies
Axios | Dave Lawler | 08/10/18

Moscow is fuming over the latest sanctions triggered yesterday by President Trump, which could carry significant diplomatic and economic consequences.

Between the lines: This is another punch landed by a man who seemed reluctant to throw it. Trump took this step after missing a deadline and absorbing pressure from Congress, particularly in the wake of his jarring performance alongside Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. He has tweeted about Russia today, but it was to condemn witch hunts rather than the use of chemical weapons. ... Read more

America's role in Yemen's disaster
Axios | Haley Britzky | 08/10/18

Dozens of children were killed today when an airstrike from the Saudi-led coalition struck a bus in Yemen.

The bigger picture: The war in Yemen is exacerbating what has been called the "world's worst humanitarian disaster." The coalition has bombed weddings, hospitals, and schools, been accused of torturing detainees and, according to a recent AP report, paid off and even recruited al-Qaeda members. The U.S. has continued to support it. ... Read more

Melania Trump's Parents Just Became Citizens Through a Process Her Husband Wants to Make Illegal
MotherJones | Sophie Murguia | 08/09/18

President Donald Trump has long demanded an end to "chain migration"--Republicans' favorite term for the practice of legal immigrants sponsoring their relatives for green cards. But that hasn't stopped Melania Trump's parents, who applied for citizenship in the United States through the same process that their son-in-law hopes to make illegal.

The first lady's Slovenian-born parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, became U.S. citizens in a brief ceremony in New York on Thursday, the New York Times reports, after Melania Trump sponsored them for green cards. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 10 [9:41]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 10 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Meet Gustavo Petro, Colombian Former Guerilla & Leftist Who Mounted Historic Campaign for Presidency
  3. "All for One": U.S. and Russian Filmmakers with Disabilities Collaborate in Powerful New Documentary
Trump Ally Rep. Chris Collins Arrested for Insider Trading -- Is the Swamp Drained Now? | TRNN | 08/09/18 | 17:24
*The Link Between Immigration and the Military Budget | TRNN | 08/10/18 | 13:40
*Devin Nunes REALLY Wishes This Audio Wasn't Leaked | TYT | 08/10/18 | 12:38
Fox And Friends Fawns Over Kim Jong-Un | TYT | 08/09/18 | 5:54
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup - Domestic | 1a.org | 08/10/18 | 1hr
This week, primaries and special elections in five states set the tone as midterms inch closer. On Tuesday, voters in Ohio, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington had their say -- and the results were mixed.

And new revelations came out of the Paul Manafort trial. According to an IRS revenue agent, Manafort didn't declare more than $16 million in income to the U.S. Treasury, and Rick Gates admitted to committing a slew of crimes with Manafort, his former boss.

Finally, the president might be away from the White House, but he's still on Twitter. A rebroadcast of Don Lemon's interview with LeBron James sparked the following tweet:
Friday News Roundup - International | 1a.org | 08/10/18 | 1hr
The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran this week, after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year. Renegotiating the deal was a key campaign promise for President Trump, but tension between the two countries has escalated.

In other sanctions news, the fallout from the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England is back in the headlines. The Trump administration said it would level new sanctions against Russia in response to what it calls an attempted assassination.

We'll also check in on the diplomatic flare-up between Saudi Arabia and Canada. After the Canadian Foreign Ministry called for the release of several human-rights activists, the Saudi government expelled the Canadian ambassador and rescinded the scholarships of Saudi students studying in Canada, among other measures.
Fourth Estate' Follows 'Failing' NYT In The President Donald Trump Era | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/10/18 | 6:33
Joe: President Donald Trump's Warning Of Immigration Invasion Was A Lie | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/10/18 | 16:13
Roger Stone says he won't testify against Trump | Anderson Coooper | CNN | 08/10/18 | 8:09
Don Lemon 8/09/18 | Trump's New Attack | CNN | 08/09/18 | 41:15
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
*Mike Pence Tries To Make Space Force Sound Less Dumb | Stephen Colbert | 08/09/18 | 6:05
Trump Isn't Taking A Vacation From Lying | Stephen Colbert | 08/10/18 | 3:56
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump's Week of Corruption Scandals | Seth Meyers | 08/09/18 | 9:46
Jimmy Kimmel Live
*Trump's Space Force Gets Celebrity Endorsement | Jimmy Kimmel | 08/10/18 | 6:25

08.10.2018. 11:17

Thursday August 09, 2018

Rudy Giuliani's expectations game
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 08/09/18

With his constant commentating and public negotiating, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is setting up unmeetable expectations for special counsel Robert Mueller -- a kind of insurance policy with the president's base.

What he's saying: The former New York mayor told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an interview last night that the investigation should be "over by September," and that Mueller's case "isn't going to fizzle. It's going to blow up on them." He added, "[T]here's a lot more to what they did that nobody knows about yet ... a lot more to the obstruction of justice, to the collusion, to the fake dossier." ... Read more

National deficit grew 20% last year, partially due to Trump tax cuts | Axios | Stef W. Kight | 08/09/18

Manafort trial Day 8: Judge concedes fault after Mueller team protests treatment
Politico | Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn | 08/09/18

The federal judge overseeing the Paul Manafort trial conceded Thursday morning that he made a mistake in chastising special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors a day earlier in front of the jury.

Addressing the jurors before prosecutors called their first witness of the day, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said he "may well have been wrong" on Wednesday when he slammed the Mueller team for allowing an expert witness from the IRS to remain in the courtroom while other witnesses were testifying.

Typically, witnesses aren't supposed to hear anyone else's testimony in a trial so they don't influence each other, but Mueller's team got Ellis' permission during the trial's opening arguments last week to have the IRS official in the court on a regular basis. Read more

Charlottesville: Race and Terror -- VICE News Tonight on HBO | VICE | 08/14/17 | 3:52
BEFORE TRUMP Official Trailer (trailer) | Documentary | 2018 | 3:52
Michael Moore In Trumpland
The Best Version of Michael Moore's "The Biggest F*** You In Human History" Speech | Documentary | 2018 | 3:52
This speech by Michael Moore was pulled out of context. Michael Moore went on Megyn Kelly last night to explain that the UN-edited version ends with the words "it will feel good for a day".
A YouTube Commenter
I don't think Mr. Moore was trying to give a "pro- Trump" speech as much as he was trying to make sure people understood WHY Trump was popular at all with anyone. I'm not a Trump supporter at all... but I have to say that Mr. Moore's presentation was a moment of journalistic honesty where he proved his ability to see the other side... and help you FEEL what they're feeling. It was effective and true.
Michael Moore In Trumpland by Michael Moore | Documentary | 2016 | 1:11:24
Fahrenheit 11/9
Michael Moore: Fahrenheit 11/9 | Michael Moore Believes America Is A Liberal Country | Stephen Colbert | 06/29/18 | 8:31
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore (trailer) | | 2004 | 2:31
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore (video=6, audio=10) | Documentary | 2004 | 1:58:28
Growth in Productivity vs Hourly Pay
Click to zoom in

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 09 [7:52]
Experts: If We Don't Stop Climate Change, CA Fires "Will Seem Mild In Comparison to What's Coming" | DN | 08/09/18 | 21:06
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Experts: If We Don't Stop Climate Change, CA Fires "Will Seem Mild In Comparison to What's Coming"
  3. $1 An Hour to Fight Largest Fire in CA History: Are Prison Firefighting Programs Slave Labor?
  4. 73 Years After U.S. Dropped Atom Bomb on Nagasaki, Survivor Warns About Threat of Nuclear Warfare
Greece's Government and Creditors Downplay Austerity's Effects in 'National Tragedy' Wildfires | TRNN | 08/09/18 | 10:40
Trump Makes A Complete Fool Of Himself | TYT | 08/08/18 | 8:08
China And Iran Laugh In Trump's Face | TYT | 08/08/18 | 9:01
The1a.org
Tiki Torches, Terror And Tears: One Year After Charlottesville | 1a.org | 08/09/18 | 1hr
Just a year ago, a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned deadly.

A.C Thompson covered the rally for ProPublica: The mood of the marchers wasn't merely angry, it felt homicidal.

And yet, as the march snaked across the grounds of the University of Virginia, I'd only seen two police officers. One of them had confronted Karim, who was carrying a camera-equipped drone in his hand. The officer wanted Karim [a producer for PBS's Frontline who was working with Thompson] to know that he wasn't allowed to fly it over the campus.

By now you know, at least in rough terms, what happened that night. A horde of white supremacists clad in polo shirts attacked a small group of anti-racist protesters, many of them students. The white supremacists used their flaming torches as weapons, smashing them into the students, again and again.
According To Anonymous Sources... | 1a.org | 08/09/18 | 1hr
Off-the-record. On the record. On background. "A source familiar with the matter." What do all of these phrases mean?

There are journalistic practices and lingo that are well-known within the profession, but can be confusing to news consumers.

Reporter Perry Bacon, Jr. of FiveThirtyEight, explains why anonymous sources are used this way.

But major investigative stories, both in Washington and outside of it, are often impossible to write without unnamed sources. The alternative to stories with unnamed sources is often not having the story published at all, rather than the same story with names. Sources have a wide range of motives for not going public. Some reasons are noble (whistleblowers may face retribution for leaking details to a reporter). Some are not (White House aides, both in the Trump administration and previous ones, sometimes don't like one another and complain anonymously about their colleagues to the press).

Either way, there are many news outlets and often very few people who know the details of White House deliberations or the state of the Russia investigation. So the sources have the power to set the terms with the journalists, and one of those terms is often, "don't use my name."
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump Floated Firing Mueller 20 Times While Golfing | Stephen Colbert | 08/08/18 | 4:29
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Bad Boy Roundup: Manafort & Don Jr. | August 8, 2018 Act 1 | Full Frontal on TBS | Samantha Bee | 08/08/18 | 6:57
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Chris Collins, Trump's Earliest Congressional Backer, Indicted | Seth Meyers | 08/08/18 | 6:15

08.09.2018. 11:05

Wednesday August 08, 2018

'Too Little Too Late': Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans
NYT | Tara Siegel Bernard | 08/08/18

For a rapidly growing share of older Americans, traditional ideas about life in retirement are being upended by a dismal reality: bankruptcy.

The signs of potential trouble -- vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings -- have been building for years. Now, new research sheds light on the scope of the problem: The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, the study found, and the same group accounts for a far greater share of all filers.

Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks. Read more
Rigged Economy CRUSHING Senior Citizens | TYT | 08/07/18 | 11:26

2018 officially has record number of women nominees
Axios | Alexi McCammond | 08/08/18

Here's your proof that 2018 is the year of the woman: there are now at least 172 women nominees for U.S. House and 11 women nominees for governor -- the highest in history, per the Center for American Women and Politics.

Be smart: Most of the nominees are running as Democrats, which could be a huge advantage for their party come November. ... Read more

48% of Republicans say the "news media is the enemy"
Axios | Henrietta Reily | 08/08/18

43% of Republicans -- compared to 21% of independents and 12% of Democrats -- believe that "the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior," according to a new Ipsos poll provided to The Daily Beast.

The big picture: The results starkly illustrate a growing partisan divide in support for press freedom and faith in fair reporting, but still suggests that measurable skepticism about the media's motives exists on all sides of the political spectrum. ... Read more

John Bolton Says North Korea Hasn't Done Much To Rid Itself Of Nuclear Weapons
HP |Nick Visser | 08/08/18

White House national security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday North Korea has done little to denuclearize, nearly two months after the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, met with President Donald Trump.

"The United States has lived up to the Singapore declaration," Bolton said during an interview on "Fox and Friends." "It's just North Korea that has not taken the steps we feel are necessary to denuclearize." ... Read more

President Donald Trump's Approval Tied To Congressional Seats
President Donald Trump's Approval Tied To Congressional Seats: Charts | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/08/18 | 10:32
Click to zoom in
Click to zoom in

Why Trump's economy could be downhill from here
Politico | Ben White | 08/01/18

"It's probably as good as it gets," Megan Greene, chief economist at Manulife said on the latest edition of the POLITICO Money podcast, regarding the robust second-quarter growth rate of 4.1 percent.

"I think Q2 is the peak," she said. "We will probably decelerate and return to our potential GDP growth, or around our potential GDP growth, from here on out, which is going to be around 2 percent. We won't go straight to 2 percent, it will take a while. But unless we fundamentally boost productivity growth or our labor force, I don't see any other way of really boosting our potential GDP." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 08 [8:24]
Documenting Hate: New Doc Lays Bare the Violent White Supremacy that Exploded in Charlottesville | DN | 08/07/18 | 12:54
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 08 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Do Historic Victories & Tight Races in Primaries Mean Dems Could Retake Senate & House in November?
  3. Madison, Wisconsin "Shaken" by Shooting at Community Radio Station WORT-FM
  4. Meet Debbie Africa: First Member of MOVE 9 to Be Freed After Nearly 40 Years Behind Bars
Extreme Heat Could Make One Third of Planet Uninhabitable | TRNN | 08/01/18 | 12:40
Hate Groups March in Portland, Oregon and Police Attack Counter-Protesters | TRNN | 08/07/18 | 14:45
Pro-Trumpers Vs. Ex-Trumpers Gets HEATED | TYT | 08/08/18 | 16:03
Fox News Reporter QUITS | TYT | 08/07/18 | 4:20
The1a.org
Baby Boomers In Bankruptcy | 1a.org | 08/08/18 | 1hr
The "golden years" of retirement might not be so golden, after all. A new study from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project shows that the rate of people over 65 filing for bankruptcy has more than tripled since 1991.

What's driving this surge? According to the study, rising out-of-pocket medical expenses and declining incomes are putting seniors in dire financial straits:

The social safety net for older Americans has been shrinking for the past couple decades. The risks associated with aging, reduced income, and increased healthcare costs, have been offloaded onto older individuals. At the same time, older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy, and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher.
New Trial Testimony Offers Insight Into Paul Manafort Ties To Russia | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/07/18 | 13:08
Joe: Why Is Twitter Dragging Their Feet On Alex Jones? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/08/18 | 13:58
GOP congressman indicted for insider trading | CNN | 08/08/18 | 15:47
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Rick Gates: Confessions, Infidelity, And 'WTF' | Stephen Colbert | 08/07/18 | 10:27
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Gates & Manafort: The White-Collar Bonnie & Clyde | The Daily Show | 08/07/18 | 5:36

08.08.2018. 11:54

Tuesday August 07, 2018

Even If Emission Reduction Targets Are Met, Earth Still Heading Towards 'Hothouse' State
Reuters/HP | Nina Chestney | 08/07/18

"It may be very difficult or impossible to stop the whole row of dominoes from tumbling over. Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if 'Hothouse Earth' becomes the reality."

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The world is at risk of entering "hothouse" conditions where global average temperatures will be 4-5 degrees Celsius higher even if emissions reduction targets under a global climate deal are met, scientists said in a study published on Monday.

The report comes amid a heatwave that has pushed temperatures above 40C (104 Fahrenheit) in Europe this summer, causing drought and wildfires, including blazes in Greece in July that killed 91 people.

Around 200 countries agreed in 2015 to limit temperature rise to "well below" 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, a threshold believed to be a tipping point for the climate.

However, it is not clear whether the world's climate can be safely "parked" near 2C above pre-industrial levels or whether this might trigger other processes which drive further warming even if the world stops emitting greenhouse gases, the research said.
Read more

California's Mendocino Wildfire Becomes The Largest In State History
HP | Nina Golgowski and Nick Visser | 08/07/18

The Mendocino Complex fire has grown to more than 283,800 acres. "That's one of those records you don't want to see," a Cal Fire official said.

A combination of wildfires raging north of San Francisco, which already has consumed an area almost as big as Los Angeles, is now the largest fire in modern California history, authorities said Monday night.

The Mendocino Complex fire, which includes two blazes along the Mendocino National Forest, had chewed through more than 283,800 acres as of Monday night. The blaze is just 30 percent contained, Cal Fire's Mendocino unit said. ... Read more

Fighting California's Wildfires: Stunning Footage from the Front Lines | TheAtlantic | 12/12/17 | 6:08
38,000 evacuated as Carr wildfire continues to burn | ABC | 07/28/18 | 6:50
Special report: wildfire summer | SkyNews | 08/02/18 | 9:52
What happens when the permafrost thaws? | CTV-W5 | 11/11/17 | 22:52
Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future | ABC News (Australia) | 06/27/17 | 8:51

Trump proposal would limit citizenship for legal immigrants on welfare
Axios | staff | 08/07/18

The Trump administration is finalizing a plan to make it more difficult for legal immigrants who have used certain welfare programs -- including Obamacare, children's health insurance, and food stamps -- to obtain citizenship or green cards, according to NBC News.

Why it matters: Hardline policy adviser Stephen Miller has been leading the charge to scale back legal immigration for some time. According to NBC, the proposal would not need Congressional approval and would mark the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades. Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 07 [9:19]
Climate Scientist: California Wildfires Are Faster, Stronger, Deadlier & Will Continue to Intensify | DN | 08/02/18 | 12:17
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 07 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Documenting Hate: New Doc Lays Bare the Violent White Supremacy that Exploded in Charlottesville
  3. New Charlottesville Doc Exposes Neo-Nazi Leaders & Their Ties to U.S. Military & Weapons Contractors
  4. Mother of Heather Heyer, Killed 1 Year Ago: Everyone Needs to Pick Up the Baton & Stand
Trump University vs. LeBron's 'I PROMISE' School | TYT | 08/07/18 | 3:28
President Bron vs President Don | TYT | 08/07/18 | 3:00
The1a.org
Sea Levels Rise On A Community Not Convinced Of Climate Change | 1a.org | 08/07/18 | 1hr
Tangier Island is disappearing. It lies 16 open-water miles from the closest mainland town in Virginia. The island loses around 15 feet of coastline per year, due to rising sea levels and erosion.

Tangier Island, and its 450 residents, vaulted onto the national stage after an interview the mayor and some town residents gave to CNN. In it, they asked President Trump for help in saving the island. Eighty-seven percent of island residents voted for Trump, who has previously called climate change a "hoax."
Hope Hicks Visit Raises Concern Over Potential Trump Witness Tampering | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/06/18 | 8:21
Prosecutors: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) | 08/05/18 | 19:43
Mike Pence Once Made Moral Case For Removing A President | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/07/18 | 10:16
Morally Correct To Drop Alex Jones From Platforms | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/07/18 | 8:08
4-Star General Warns: President Trump Behavior 'More Alarming And Illogical' | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/07/18 | 8:50
Rick Gates Set To Testify For Second Straight Day In Paul Manafort Case | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/07/18 | 8:58
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
What? The Trump Tower Meeting Wasn't About Adoptions? | Stephen Colbert | 08/06/18 | 5:29
Chris Hayes Unpacks Rick Gates' Testimony | Stephen Colbert | 08/07/18 | 9:54
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trump Slams LeBron James on Twitter & Crashes a Rally in Ohio | Trevor Noah | 08/06/18 | 6:27
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump Confesses on Twitter; Rick Gates Testifies Against Manafort | Seth Meyers | 08/06/18 | 10:03

08.07.2018. 13:04

Monday August 06, 2018
QAnon Movement Will Make You Facepalm | TYT | 08/03/18 | 8:46
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez OBLITERATES Fox News | TYT | 08/03/18 | 11:44

Facebook follows Apple and Spotify, deletes Infowars pages
Axios | Sara Fischer | 08/06/18

Facebook has removed four Pages on its platform run by controversial conservative site Infowars and its leader Alex Jones. Apple and Spotify have also removed Infowars content over the past week for violating their conduct policies.

Why it matters: Facebook has thus far refused to ban Infowars on the grounds of free speech, but now says it's taking action against the company for repeatedly posting content over the past several days that breaks the platform's Community Standards. ... Read more

Shrinking GOP, Stormy Setup, Trump Challengers | Overtime with Bill Maher (HBO) | Bill Maher | 08/03/18 | 10:20

Manafort's defense team attempts mission impossible
Politico | Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn | 08/06/18

His legal team is mounting a case to exonerate him in Virginia -- an uphill battle, experienced attorneys say. "Normally, you'd say this is pure kamikaze, but maybe Manafort feels there's a possible escape hatch."

Many Washington attorneys have speculated that the longtime GOP operative is biding his time, pinning his hopes on Trump swooping in with a pardon that lets him off the hook if he's convicted in Virginia or in a second trial in September on another set of charges from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Still, Manafort's legal team is mounting a case to exonerate him in Virginia -- an uphill battle, experienced attorneys say, since jurors have already seen a mountain of emails, bank records and financial statements that prosecutors say implicate the ex-Trump campaign chief. ... Read more

President Donald Trump Worries Son May Have Wandered Into Legal Trouble | Kasie DC | MSNBC | 08/06/18 | 14:23
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 06 [8:36]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 06 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Meet Ahed Tamimi, 17-Year-Old West Bank Activist Jailed for 8 Months for Slapping Israeli Soldier
  3. Venezuelan Pres. Nicolás Maduro Targeted in 1st Assassination Attempt by Drone Against Head of State
  4. "Earth Will Be Annihilated": On 73rd Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing, a Warning Against Nuclear War
Trump Tries To Bury DEVASTATING Poverty Report (Fails) | TYT | 08/03/18 | 11:53
NRA Going BANKRUPT | TYT | 08/03/18 | 8:34
The1a.org
Changing Autos, Changing Climate | 1a.org | 08/06/18 | 1hr
The administration billed the proposed rollback from Obama-era fuel efficiency standards as a way to help car companies and lower vehicle prices for consumers, but critics said the plan would accelerate climate change and increase fuel prices. By seeking to strip California of its authority to set its own strict vehicle emissions standards, the proposal also opens new questions about the limits of federal powers over states.

The 19 states, and Washington D.C, announced they would sue to halt the proposed rollback, touching off what will likely be a heated legal showdown, possibly making it to the Supreme Court.

The car industry is tied like few others to American identity; the open road, iconic design and good jobs. All car makers are spending billions trying to figure out a future that is more electric, more autonomous and steps back from fossil fuels. Which way are cars going? What happens when states and the federal government disagree on the way forward?
By Tweeting, President Donald Trump Makes Son's Situation Worse | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/06/18 | 14:43
The Effects Of Donald Trump's Lies About The Tower Meeting And The Media | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/06/18 | 12:32
Conway breaks from Trump on media rhetoric | CNN | 08/05/18 | 5:53
Anthony Scaramucci: I'd tell Trump to knock it off | CNN | 08/05/18 | 19:41
Max Boot: Trump's Iran policy not thought out | CNN | 08/06/18 | 6:10
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Ivanka's Courageous Stance Of 'The Media Isn't The Enemy' | Stephen Colbert | 08/03/18 | 4:29
One Week Older And One Week Closer To Mueller's Report | Stephen Colbert | 08/04/18 | 5:00
Rob Reiner Has Some Acting Notes For Trump | Stephen Colbert | 08/04/18 | 10:00
Real Time with Bill Maher
Monologue: Enema of the People | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) | Bill Maher | 08/03/18 | 7:59

08.06.2018. 12:05

Friday August 03, 2018

Donald Trump Jr. Says Democrats Are More Like Nazis Than Republicans Are
HP | Carla Herreria | 09/02/18

What he didn't mention was the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who support his father.

onald Trump Jr. said Thursday that the platform of the Democratic National Committee is "awfully similar" to the Nazi Party's.

Trump, President Donald Trump's eldest son and head of the Trump Organization, made the remark during an interview with One America News Network while attending a premiere for Dinesh D'Souza's film "Death of a Nation," which also attempts to frame similarities between Democrats and Germany's Nazi Party. ... Read more

Prominent Conservatives Attend Screening of New D'Souza Film | 08/02/18 | 6:04
Death of a Nation (trailer) | 2018 | 2:17

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
NYT | Nathaniel Rich | 08/01/18

The world has warmed more than one degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution. The Paris climate agreement -- the nonbinding, unenforceable and already unheeded treaty signed on Earth Day in 2016 -- hoped to restrict warming to two degrees. The odds of succeeding, according to a recent study based on current emissions trends, are one in 20. If by some miracle we are able to limit warming to two degrees, we will only have to negotiate the extinction of the world's tropical reefs, sea-level rise of several meters and the abandonment of the Persian Gulf. The climate scientist James Hansen has called two-degree warming "a prescription for long-term disaster." Long-term disaster is now the best-case scenario. Three-degree warming is a prescription for short-term disaster: forests in the Arctic and the loss of most coastal cities. ... Read more

What Is QAnon: Explaining the Internet Conspiracy Theory That Showed Up at a Trump Rally
NYT | Justin Bank, Liam Stack and Daniel Victor | 08/01/18

Do you remember Pizzagate? It's a little like that: a web of baseless conspiracy theories. And its supporters were highly visible at an event for the president in Florida.

In one shot on Fox News, the president was partially obscured by a sign in the crowd reading "We Are Q." In another shot during the president's speech, a sign promoting the debunked Seth Rich conspiracy theory, with the hashtag #Qanon, came into focus in the center of the screen. Some attendees wore T-shirts with a blocky Q. Others held up signs with the letter.

They were all self-described "followers of Q," an anonymous person or group of people who claim to be privy to government secrets. That supposedly classified information has been revealed on the 4chan and 8chan message boards and spread around mainstream internet platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Q has attracted people -- the exact number is hard to know -- eager to consume his "bread crumbs," or new details in a sprawling web of conspiracy theories. ... Read more
WTF Is QAnon?! | TYT | 08/02/18 | 14:15

Meet The Trump Fans Of Q-Anon (HBO) | VICE | 08/02/18 | 4:13

Manafort trial Day 3: The bookkeeper speaks, a man-made waterfall and a Rick Gates guarantee
magazine | Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein | 08/02/18

Testifying on the third day of special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecution of the longtime GOP operative, who is facing bank- and tax-fraud charges, Heather Washkuhn of the Southern California-based accounting firm NKSFB said she handled Manafort's books from 2011 to 2018, earning about $100,000 a year.

During that period, she managed the accounts for more than a half dozen Manafort properties in Florida, New York and Virginia, tracking money as it moved around his different bank accounts, helping pay his bills and manage rental properties, and creating annual statements for Manafort's accountants to do his taxes.

... Under questioning from Mueller prosecutor Greg Andres, Washkuhn testified she was not aware of any holdings Manafort kept outside the U.S. She also acknowledged dealing frequently with Manafort's longtime associate Rick Gates, who cut a plea deal earlier this year and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of Manafort and Mueller's broader Trump-Russia probe. ... Read more

The Midterm Elections Are in Serious Danger of Being Hacked, Thanks to Trump
MotherJones | AJ Vicens and Pema Levy | 10/18

Why has the White House and its GOP allies in Congress done so little to combat the threat?

On July 12, 2016, Matthew Emmons, an IT technician, was settling into a quiet workday when a colleague approached his cubicle in the Springfield strip-mall office of the Illinois State Board of Elections. Servers holding the personal information of more than 7.5 million voters had ground to a halt, and there was something he had to see.

Within minutes, a handful of techs had anxiously gathered around a monitor showing the registration database servers hitting total capacity. "We knew we were under attack," Emmons, now the IT director, recalls. "These are very powerful servers, and it had locked those things up." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 03 [9:41]
We speak with Nathaniel Rich, writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. His piece "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change" was published August 1 in a special edition of The New York Times Magazine dedicated to climate change. | NYT | 08/01/18 | article
"Losing Earth": How Humanity Came to Understand Climate Change & Failed to Act in Time | DN | 08/02/18 | 11:57
Extreme Weather Is Exploding Around the World. Why Isn't the Media Talking About Climate Change? | DN | 08/02/18 | 11:27
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 03 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. A Slaughter in Silence: How Trump's "America First" Policy Enabled Ethnic Cleansing in the DRC
  3. Mexican Journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, Freed from Detention, Denounces ICE "Concentration Camps"
  4. Body of Olivia Lone Bear Found in N. Dakota as Native Women Face Crisis of Murders, Disappearances
Is Trump Betraying the American People? With TRNN's Paul Jay | TRNN | 08/02/18 | 51:16
Trump Admin. Admits Russia Hacking US Elections RIGHT NOW | TYT | 08/02/18 | 11:53
Sean Hannity Has A Message For Violent Conservatives | TYT | 08/02/18 | 11:54
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup -- Domestic | 1a.org | 08/03/18 | 1hr
  1. President Trump is pressuring Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end the Russia probe, in a Twitter broadside leveled on Wednesday. But the AG's power is limited because Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.
  2. In media news, Facebook discovered a coordinated disinformation campaign ahead of the midterm elections. Last week, The Daily Beast reported that Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri was the "first identified target of the Kremlin's 2018 election interference."
  3. In an update on #MeToo, Ronan Farrow produced a blockbuster scoop for The New Yorker on alleged harassment by CBS Head Les Mooves. From his story.
  4. And the Trump administration's immigration policy continues to cause controversy. This time, a federal appeals court in California said the president acted outside of his authority when he threatened to withhold funding from "sanctuary cities."
Friday News Roundup -- International | 1a.org | 08/03/18 | 1hr
  1. Disputed presidential elections in Zimbabwe have left troops patrolling the Harare city center, and most residents staying inside their homes. This is the first election since Robert Mugabe stepped down in November.
  2. Reuters reports that the country has averaged up to 10 percent economic growth over the past several years. Since April, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has pushed several reforms like making peace with Eritrea and liberalizing the economy. But could his biggest hurdle to progress be undoing the snarl of government regulation?
  3. And President Trump said this week that he would meet with Iranian officials. But the Iranians have flexed their defensive power, beginning "a major military exercise" in the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNN. What does this mean for the American relationship with Iran?
  4. It may take years to identify them, but North Korea has returned remains of soldiers who were missing in action. The North Koreans say they are U.S. troops, but only one 'dog tag' was returned with them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in Singapore for a regional summit, where the denuclearization process will likely be discussed.
US 'Wide Open' To Cyber Attack As Russians Continue Undeterred | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 08/02/18 | 14:10
'It's Getting Old': President Donald Trump Yet Again Attacks The Media | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/03/18 | 13:28
Tale Of Two Administrations On Russian Meddling In U.S. Elections | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 08/03/18 | 3:40
Trump Intel Officials: Russia's A Threat. Donald Trump: Russia's A Hoax. | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/02/18 | 11:12
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
How Mueller Sparked Trump's Latest Twitter Fit | Stephen Colbert | 08/02/18 | 7:54
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trump Fights Obstruction with Obstruction | Trevor Noah | 08/02/18 | 7:56
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Prominent Conservatives Attend Screening of New D'Souza FilmTrump and Rudy Giuliani Panic Over the Russia Probe | Seth Meyers | 08/02/18 | 7:56

08.03.2018. 10:12

Thursday August 02, 2018

Poll: 71% of business owners want more China tariffs
Axios | Stef W. Kight, Jonathan Swan | 08/02/18

A majority of business owners, including small business owners, surveyed in a new poll support additional tariffs on China, Mexico, Europe and Canada, although most expect negative effects on the economy if there's a trade war, according to new UBS polling provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: Trump has faced trade retaliation from allies and harsh criticism over his tariffs from both sides of the aisle --most recently from the conservative Koch network, but this polling paints a more nuanced picture of public opinion on the issue. ... Read more

Trump Can't Be Racist! He Married Three Immigrants!

Ignoring Lawyers, Trump Reportedly Pushing For Interview With Special Counsel
HP | Nick Visser | 08/02/18

The president hopes that by meeting with Robert Mueller about the Russia probe, he can clear his name, according to reports.

Trump hopes to convince Mueller and his investigators to end their inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has told the lawyers to try to reach an agreement that would allow him to be interviewed, the Times reported, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

The president's legal team has urged him to refuse the request, fearing that Trump, known for making off-the-cuff statements, will contradict himself. ... Read more
Did Donald Trump Just Make An Obstruction Case Against Him More Likely? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 11:33

How this year's wildfire season compares to past years
Axios | staff | 08/02/18

More than 4.8 million acres have been torched by wildfires so far this year across the United States, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center -- about 1 million acres above the 10-year average of 3.8 million acres burned by this point in the year. California has been particularly hard hit.

The big picture: California's deadly Carr Fire has burned more than 121,000 acres so far and claimed at least 6 lives. It was only 35 percent contained as of Wednesday evening. It's already on the state's top 10 lists for both its size and destructiveness, having burned 1,058 homes as well as hundreds of other structures. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

What Is QAnon? | All In | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 7:46
What Does The Conspiracy Group QAnon Have To Do With President Donald Trump? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 7:21

Ivanka Trump on family separation: 'That was a low point for me'
Politico | Rebecca Morin | 08/02/18

President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump came out Thursday against the family separations that resulted from her father's zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigration, calling them a "low point" of her White House tenure thus far.

The Trump administration last week reunited at least 1,442 children with their parents, though 2,551 children identified as separated from a parent at the border. An additional 378 were connected with parents or sponsors in the U.S. or turned 18 while in custody.

Undocumented migrant children and parents had been separated at the southern border as a result of a Trump administration policy mandating that all illegal border-crossers be referred for criminal prosecution. Under withering criticism over the policy, the president later signed an executive order to end the practice. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 02 [9:08]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 02 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Climate Scientist: California Wildfires Are Faster, Stronger, Deadlier & Will Continue to Intensify
  3. Rob Nixon: Gov't Inaction on Climate Change Is "Slow Violence" That Hits World's Poor the Hardest
  4. "Losing Earth": How Humanity Came to Understand Climate Change & Failed to Act in Time
  5. Extreme Weather Is Exploding Around the World. Why Isn't the Media Talking About Climate Change?
Extreme Heat Could Make One Third of Planet Uninhabitable | TRNN | 08/01/18 | 12:40
Ms. Foroohar says the legalization of stock buybacks in 1982 allowed companies like Apple to now spend only 15% of their investments on R&D, while the majority is spent on market manipulation; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the move from traditional pensions to 401k's makes everyone feel they benefit from finance, when the vast majority of profits go to the elites and most people's living standards deteriorate
*Artificial Intelligence in Whose Interests? -- RAI with Rana Foroohar (Pat 6/6) | TRNN | 05/21/18 |12:34
Trump Swears He Barely Knew His Own Campaign Manager | TYT | 08/01/18 | 8:11
Trump Can't Be Racist! He Married Three Immigrants! | TYT | 08/01/18 | 8:57
George Soros Conspiracy Theory DEBUNKED | TYT | 08/01/18 | 10:18
The1a.org
Missing In Action: How Are The Remains Of Soldiers Returned? | 1a.org | 08/02/18 | 1hr
More than 326,000 Americans fought alongside soldiers from South Korea as part of a UN coalition during the war to support the South against the Communist North. About 33,000 coalition troops remain unaccounted for.

The US government has said it wants to resume field operations in North Korea to search for an estimated 5,300 Americans who "have not yet returned home."
What's At Risk If The President Donald Trump Sits Down With Robert Mueller? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/02/18 | 14:44
ashington Post Tallies Up President Donald Trump's False, Misleading Claims | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/02/18 | 3:00
Trump Triples Down With 16 Daily False Claims In June And July | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 8:34
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Jim Acosta Walks Into The Lyin' Den | Stephen Colbert | 08/02/18 | 7:22
A 'Smocking Gun,' Al Capone, And Obstruction Of Justice | Stephen Colbert | 08/01/18 | 5:39
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Andrea Mitchell - The Trump Era Is Uncharted Territory for the Press | Trevor Noah | 08/02/18 | 9:54
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Q Anon, Printable Guns, & Other Pure Nonsense Words | Samantha Bee | 08/01/18 | 6:41
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump Pushes Another Tax Cut, Calls for End to Russia Probe | Seth Meyers | 08/01/18 | 9:34

08.02.2018. 10:02

Wednesday August 01, 2018

The fall foretold: A preview of epic days to come
Axios | Mike Allen | 08/01/18

Squint at the colorful, consequential news of the past 24 hours, and you see a preview of special counsel Robert Mueller's report(s) -- plus a glimpse of the debates that will divide America through the fall, and heading into the presidential campaigns of 2020.

How it started: President Trump set the tone for the day by tweeting at 7:58 a.m.: "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion." ... Read more

Trump Calls On Jeff Sessions To Stop Mueller Investigation
HP | Marina Fang | 08/01/18


President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should stop this rigged witch hunt," heightening his attacks on the special counsel's investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has frequently raged at Sessions. He has suggested the attorney general should not have recused himself and has lamented naming Sessions to the Cabinet post. ... Read more

Workplace Sexual Harassment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) | 07/29/18 | 28:43

'Everyone talked with Woodward': Trump White House braces for new book
Politico | Annie Karni | 08/01/18

Unlike previous administrations, this White House had no process for making officials available to the legendary reporter.

Bob Woodward, the legendary Washington Post journalist, was sitting on the couch in press secretary Jay Carney's office, presenting Obama administration officials with an offer they couldn't refuse.

It was 2011, and Woodward was working on a book chronicling President Barack Obama's debt-ceiling negotiations. He pulled out a secret memo written by Peter Orszag, the former budget director, that Woodward had obtained and which held potentially damaging revelations about the administration.

Participating in his project, Woodward said, would give people like Carney the opportunity to respond to such memos. Woodward then pointed to a safe that is kept in the press secretary's office, which holds classified documents. "I'd like access to everything, including what's in there," he said, "some of which I might have already." ... Read more

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

THE INSIDE STORY ON PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT

With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump's White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 01 [9:03]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 01 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. A Threat to Global Democracy: How Facebook & Surveillance Capitalism Empower Authoritarianism
Trump Declares War On The Koch Brothers | TYT | 07/31/18 | 13:01
Fox News Breaks The Hypocrisy-Meter | TYT | 07/31/18 | 9:36
The1a.org
Are The Koch Brothers Newly Woke Or A 'Total Joke'? | 1a.org | 08/01/18 | 1hr
A political war is being waged between President Trump and billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

From a 2015 PBS NewsHour explainer: A: Charles and David Koch, ages [82] and [78], are billionaire brothers who helped create a broad network of nonprofit groups that control hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into politics. Through their deep pockets, they are reshaping politics with an uncompromising agenda of reducing regulation, advancing libertarian ideas, promoting free-market Republican candidates and ousting Democrats. They have two other brothers, William and Frederick, who aren't involved in the effort.
Public Evidence Suggests Robert Mueller Able To Bring Conspiracy Charge | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 07/31/18 | 11:19
Mika: President Donald Trump Continues To Own This Border Policy | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 4:46
Florida President Donald Trump Fans Berate Reporters At Rally | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/01/18 | 6:06
Did President Donald Trump Make A Mistake By Slamming The Koch Brothers? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 07/31/18 | 7:15
Paul Manafort Trial, Day 1: Opening Arguments... And An Ostrich Jacket | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 07/31/18 | 8:32
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump Joins The 'Collusion Is Not A Crime' Chorus | Stephen Colbert | 07/31/18 | 4:12
How The 2018 Midterms Became About Bigfoot Porn | Stephen Colbert | 08/01/18 | 5:50
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Rudy Giuliani Rants About "Scumbag" Michael Cohen | The Daily Show | 08/01/18 | 5:06
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Paul Manafort's Fraud Trial, National Cotton Candy Day | Seth Meyers | 08/01/18 | 3:03

08.01.2018. 10:47



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Documentaries (small | pop-up)
Documentaries (big | full screen)
Good YouTube Documentaries

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Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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Donation


I am one of those "once" middle class, over 60, over educated, under-employed, semi retired, soon to be poor workers, that everyone is talking about. 
But I have a modest standard of living so I plan to give all extra donation, beyond my immediate needs, to several of my favorite charities.

save-the-children

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