March 16, 2018

Russian exile-Glushkovs cause of death: Homicide compression to the neck

Ladies and gentleman, your UK afternoon news cyclone:


https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/974674342230609920/i2C_hw3l?format=jpg&name=800x419

London police announce they’ve opened a murder investigation into this week’s death of Russian exile Nikolay Glushkov, with cause of death determined as "compression to the neck”


Mr Glushkov’s family has been informed and is being supported by family liaison officers at this difficult time.

Police were called by London Ambulance Service at 22:46hrs on Monday, 12 March, after Mr Glushkov was found dead at his home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden.

Officers attended and an investigation was launched into his death, which at that stage was treated as unexplained.

A special post mortem began on Thursday, 15 March and we received the pathologist report today (Friday, 16 March), which gave the cause of death as compression to the neck.

His family have been informed.


MORE:
http://news.met.police.uk/news/murder-investigation-launched-after-man-found-dead-in-new-malden-298894
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/nikolai-glushkov-russia-exile-murdered-london-neck-compression-alexander-litvinenko-boris-berezovsky-a8259611.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

March 16, 2018

"Burn It Down, Rex"

Michelle Goldberg nails it:

In this case, patriotism and self-interest point in the same direction. Before entering this administration, Tillerson was a vastly more respected businessman than Trump; as chief executive of Exxon Mobil, he presided over what The Times described as a “state within a state.” Now the first line of his obituary will be about a year of abject failure as the country’s lead diplomat, culminating in a humiliation fit for reality TV.

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COMMENTS

The only way he will ever change that is by joining those who would bring this despicable presidency down. If Tillerson came out and said that the president is unfit, and perhaps even that venal concerns for private gain have influenced his foreign policy, impeachment wouldn’t begin tomorrow, but Trump’s already narrow public support would shrink further. Republican members of Congress like Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, might be induced to rediscover their spines and perform proper oversight.



MORE:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/opinion/burn-it-down-rex.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=B1554656BDE71003AC7672DD0FF5CF4A&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

March 16, 2018

Russian plane was carrying so much gold that its cargo door burst open

A Russian plane was taking off in Siberia when its cargo door buckled under shifting weight, bursting open and scattering nearly 200 bars of gold and silver on the runway, the Guardian reports.

The Antonov plane, which stopped to refuel at the Yakutsk airport, was reportedly carrying 9.3 tons of precious metals when it took off.

“As it gathered height, the cargo door became damaged due to the shifting of cargo,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement on Telegram, according to the Guardian. The plane was forced to land back at the airport.

Local media reported that police immediately closed off the runway to prevent people from flooding to the scene to collect the jackpot.

“One hundred and seventy two bars have been found weighing around 3.4 tonnes,” the local interior ministry told TASS state news agency, the Guardian reports. “Only part of the gold fell out – altogether there were around nine tonnes in there.”



http://time.com/5202598/russia-plane-gold-cargo-takeoff/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter

March 16, 2018

Accurate Depiction: Whitehouse Grindhouse

https://twitter.com/roweafr/status/974541575152807936

March 16, 2018

The Cabinet Trump Wants:

March 16, 2018

John Fugelsang: People, this could happen to you someday.

I refuse to joke about Vanessa Trump bc it's NEVER funny when a couple files for an uncontested quick divorce, one where assets can be swiftly transferred, on the same day an independent special counsel subpoenas their family business. People, this could happen to you someday.

https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/974450055330574337

March 15, 2018

"They probably got the idea from one of those protesty video games"

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons

March 15, 2018

Trump Organization 'negotiated with sanctioned Russian bank in 2016'

Donald Trump’s private company was “actively negotiating” a business deal in Moscow with a sanctioned Russian bank during the 2016 election campaign, according to a memo by Democratic lawmakers investigating possible collusion between the campaign and the Kremlin.

The statement by Democrats on the House intelligence committee, who have had access to internal Trump Organization documents and interviewed key witnesses, raises new questions about the Trump Organization’s financial ties to Russia and its possible willingness to deal with a bank that had been placed under US sanctions.

Trump has personally denied that he ever had business dealings with Russia. In a tweet that was published shortly before his 2016 inauguration, he said he had “nothing to do with Russia – no deals, no loans, no nothing”.

But doubts about the veracity of that statement began to emerge last August, when the New York Times published emails from a longtime business associate of Trump called Felix Sater, who boasted that he had lined up financing for a Trump Tower in Moscow with VTB Bank, which is under US sanctions.




MORE:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/15/trump-organization-negotiated-with-sanctioned-russian-bank-in-2016?CMP=share_btn_tw

March 15, 2018

BOOM: Mueller just subpoenaed the Trump Organization and he wants documents about Russia

SCOOP: In recent weeks, Mueller subpoenaed Trump Org for documents, including some related to Russia. Latest sign that despite what the president's lawyers say the investigation is not going to be over soon.



Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed President Donald Trump's businesses for documents, some of which relate to Russia, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.

The newspaper says it marks the first time Mueller, who is probing Russian involvement in the 2016 election, has asked for information directly related to the Trump Organization.

The special counsel's office did not immediately respond to CNBC's request to comment.


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/15/mueller-subpoenas-trump-organization-for-documents-about-russia-nyt.html



https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/politics/robert-mueller-donald-trump-organization-russia/index.html

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/974341613764956161

VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/MetroManTO/status/974345983290200065?s=20

Senior congressional source says that Mueller beginning with a subpoena, rather than typical document request, suggests special counsel intends to put every Trump Org staffer on alert not to destroy evidence.
https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/974348406528397313

March 15, 2018

Who Really Won PA 18?

Grassroots women and organized labor pulled voters together in support of Conor Lamb. Conversations made it work.

BY LARA PUTNAM FROM MARCH 15, 2018, 5:06 PM – 4 MIN READ
TAGGED DEMOCRATSGRASSROOTS ACTIVISMLABORPOLITICSPROGRESSIVISM

Photo by Nathaniel Yap

The people who actually powered Conor Lamb’s nail-biter victory in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district are scratching their heads over the “Republican lite” narrative some pundits have put forward to explain this Democratic pickup in a district Donald Trump carried by 20 points. This facile take (which we’ve heard from the left and right alike) is a flat misreading that ignores the key actors on the ground and the kind of work that they—we—actually did.

Lamb’s campaign was powered by two core Democratic constituencies routinely portrayed as irreconcilable: college-educated suburban progressives and traditional blue-collar labor. They were not reconciled by a “magic” message that somehow brought out the inner Republican in all. From the perspective of those in the trenches (and I was there alongside many others who did much more), it was not the message or the messenger that made PA 18 different in 2018 from the past. It was the organizations and conversations that surrounded them.

The movement to “flip the 18th” was well underway before Conor Lamb ever started running, but it proved to have ample room for him. In Lamb, to his credit, grassroots and labor alike found a committed and generous partner who was both savvy and civic-minded enough to know that opening doors to their energies was crucial.

Grassroots democracy groups of the kind that popped up across America’s red and purple suburbs in the wake of Donald Trump’s election had been mobilizing in the Pittsburgh suburbs since the start of 2017, seeking a challenger to Republican incumbent Tim Murphy, who had run unopposed in 2014 and 2016. These groups, often growing out of friendships forged in the Women’s March and honed over the subsequent long summer of protests in support of the ACA, were thickest on the ground in PA 18’s affluent Allegheny County suburbs, which had been trending more liberal for years. Yet even deep red Westmoreland County saw the flourishing of “Voice of Westmoreland,” a grassroots group founded by three angry and inspired women in response to the same national events. And in PA 18’s center-west, the new independent Washington County Democrats club powered up along that same timeline. Grassroots women were organizing for action.

When Tim Murphy’s congressional seat unexpectedly opened up, organized labor stepped in as well. Heralding Lamb’s strong support for organizing rights, pensions, and jobs, the Steelworkers, United Mine Workers of America, Service Employees International Union, and local Labor Councils reached out to union households across the district’s steel and coal belts.

In the abstract, the policy priorities of suburban moms and mineworkers might seem difficult to square. But politics do not happen in the abstract. Politics happen in carpools and smoke breaks and endless planning sessions. People make their choices about who to support and how much effort to give within a web of personal ties. In PA 18, those personal relationships mobilized again and again, as outside Republican groups, spending over $10 million dollars over the course of the campaign, sought to use gun control, fracking, and abortion as wedge issues to alienate the women in the suburbs or blue-collar men outside them and dampen support for the campaign. Time after time, conversations with friends reeled people back when polarization loomed. In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Lamb sat down with local Moms Demand Action members and anguished grassroots leaders. Over the following days reassurances travelled from mouth to mouth, as Lamb’s grassroots stalwarts worked through the nuance of Lamb’s position, and reminded each other how much worse Saccone, with his NRA A+ rating, would be. Even last minute stealth mailers by national Republicans and the NRA did not shake that resolve.

Meanwhile, those of us canvassing in Washington County and Greene County heard echoes of a separate set of conversations—likewise carried along pre-existing personal ties—among union members, as they reassured each other that this time, this Democrat shared the values that mattered most. “Me and the guys down at the shop were just talking about him!” “I walk with the Silver Sneakers every week, there are other veterans there too. We’re pretty impressed with that young Marine.” “A group of us retirees from the plant get together every week: One in leadership was talking about Lamb and pensions.” “We’ll spread the news down at the Fish Fry.”

Conor Lamb outperformed Hillary Clinton by 7 points in Allegheny County, 11 in Westmoreland County, 11 in Washington County, and 14 in Greene County. The coalition that made that happen fused pieces of the old and pieces of the new, and was neither automatic nor magic.

“Enthusiasm” doesn’t get absentee ballot request forms into the hands of potential voters three weeks before an off-season election. Organization does. “Moderation” doesn’t ensure suburban moms and retired mineworkers will discover the common ground they share. Conversations do. A “Republican lite” victory would not imply a tidal shift in what’s politically possible across our country. But organizations and conversations like these? They just might.

https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/who-really-won-pa-18/
https://twitter.com/joanwalsh/status/974341868690595840