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NRaleighLiberal

538: How Mueller's First Year Compares To Watergate, Iran-Contra And Whitewater

G_j

Republican lawmaker: Rocks tumbling into ocean causing sea level rise

(Science Mag) The Earth is not warming. The White Cliffs of Dover are tumbling into the sea and causing sea levels to rise. Global warming is helping grow the Antarctic ice sheet.

Those are some of the skeptical assertions echoed by Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee yesterday. The lawmakers at times embraced research that questions mainstream climate science during a hearing on how technology can be used to address global warming.

jpak

Trump ramps up rhetoric on undocumented immigrants: 'These aren't people. These are animals.'

(USA Today) President Trump used extraordinarily harsh rhetoric to renew his call for stronger immigration laws Wednesday, calling undocumented immigrants "animals" and venting frustration at Mexican officials who he said "do nothing" to help the United States.

“We have people coming into the country or trying to come in, we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are," Trump said.

"These aren't people. These are animals."

DonViejo

Senate Votes To Kill Repeal Of Obama-Era 'Net Neutrality' Rule

(AP) The Senate has voted to kill a Federal Communications Commission rule that repealed the Obama administration’s ban on internet providers blocking or slowing down certain content.

Back in December, the FCC repealed “net neutrality” rules that ensured equal treatment for all web traffic.

The Obama-era rule prevented providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from interfering with internet traffic and favoring their own sites and apps. Critics, including the Trump administration, said over-regulation was stifling innovation.

Three Republicans joined with Democrats in voting to repeal the FCC rule that was scheduled to go into effect next month. The final vote was 52-47.

DonViejo

Tillerson Decries 'Alternative Realities,' Leaders Who 'Conceal the Truth' in Loaded Commencement...

(Mediaite) "If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no long grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. This is the life of non-democratic societies…

"A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness and demand our pursuit of America’s future be fact-based––not based on wishful thinking, not hoped-for outcomes made in shallow promises––but with a clear-eyed view of the facts as they are, and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges."

deminks

'Infuriated' Jared Kushner Lost His Cool When Russians Didn't Deliver Hillary Dirt

(Daily Beast) Jared Kushner became “agitated” and “infuriate(d)” at the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting when a Kremlin-connected lawyer droned on about U.S. sanctions, instead of delivering on a promise to provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton. That’s according to Rob Goldstone, a British music promoter and friend of the Trumps who helped set up the meeting between Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr.—and who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Trump Tower confab.

Goldstone’s testimony stands in contrast to what Kushner said in public about the meeting. In a July 2017 statement, Kushner paints himself as bored and confused by Veselnitskaya’s presentation.

elleng

Trump Discloses Payment to Cohen in Financial Report

(NYT) President Trump’s financial disclosure, released on Wednesday, revealed for the first time that he paid more than $100,000 to his personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, as reimbursement for payment to a third-party.

The disclosure, released by the Office of Government Ethics, did not specify the purpose of the payment. However, Mr. Cohen has paid $130,000 to an adult film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has claimed she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cohen has said he made the payment to keep the actress, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, from going public before the 2016 election with her story about an affair with Mr. Trump.

DonViejo

Democratic Small Donor Group Close to Raising a Massive $1 Billion For 2018 Midterms

(Mediaite) As America gets closer and closer to the 2018 midterm elections, it appears Democrats will be going in with a substantial war chest if ActBlue’s fundraising numbers are any indication.

The fundraising tech company announced that they have raised $783 million since January 2017 — the month of President Donald Trump‘s inauguration — to support pro-left causes and candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

brooklynite

Women Score Major Victories in House Primary Races in Pennsylvania

(NYT) A state representative, an Air Force veteran and a high-powered attorney — all women — won Democratic House primaries on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where a record number of women ran for House seats in a year of intense political enthusiasm among female Democrats.

It was a night of major victories for female candidates in a state dominated by men from Congress to the Statehouse. Women showed strength in nearly every region, from the liberal eastern suburbs to the conservative southwest. Democratic women won competitive primaries in two safe Republican districts in western Pennsylvania.

Madeleine Dean, the state House member; Chrissy Houlahan, the veteran; and Mary Gay Scanlon, the lawyer, each won in Philadelphia suburban districts that they are now favored to carry in November, according to results from The Associated Press. Their primary victories raise the likelihood of women cracking the state’s all-male congressional delegation of 20 after midterm elections.

manor321

Cohen 'asked Qatari investor for millions of dollars'...said he would pass to Trump family members

(Daily Mail) Donald Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, is facing claims he asked a Middle Eastern official for millions of dollars to give to 'Trump family members' in a meeting at Trump Tower weeks after the president's election victory, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Cohen is alleged to have asked Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, a former diplomat in charge of a $100bn Qatari investment fund, to send 'millions' through him to Trump family members, an offer the Qatari said he refused.