Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
July 25, 2019
What the Mueller Investigation Was Always About
In the partisan warfare that dominated Wednesday’s hearings, we’ve forgotten the point: Our elections are under threat, and the president doesn’t much care.
By Dahlia Lithwick
July 25, 2019
1:02 PM
snip//
For anyone hoping for a made-for-TV denouement, this wasn’t it. But anyone seeking a physical tableau of two men who love their country, from different parties and different eras, agreeing sadly that it was not “ethical” or “patriotic” or “right” for the president of the United States to sell the country into electoral oblivion for a hotel deal, the ending was sober and kind of perfect. Schiff and Mueller landed the plane on the tragic mutual agreement that whether or not the president committed a crime, he sold us all out.
For those who ever believed a by-the-books, unelected special counsel in the midst of a partisan political firestorm was going to save America by way of congressional testimony, Wednesday was a dramatic betrayal. He erred, as we expected, on the side of understatement and minimizing, disputing the characterization of events delivered by politicians on both side of the aisle and refusing to offer legal conclusions he had already arrived at in print. But none of that drains the force of what he revealed in his investigation, and the conclusions of that effort are not in dispute.
In these final moments, Robert Mueller and Adam Schiff weren’t worried about scoring points. They worried about the future of free and fair elections in a country that doesn’t seem to have noticed that free and fair elections are vanishing before our eyes. As Mueller warned of the interference, “they’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.” That is what Mueller was investigating. This is his warning. It’s easy to tell ourselves that all of the corruption and self-dealing and the purposive cruelty to immigrants and enrichment of the wealthy can be cured in November 2020. The problem is that this solution is precisely that which is under threat, and that which we may never quite realize was lost.
Dahlia Lithwick: What the Mueller Investigation Was Always About
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/mueller-testimony-adam-schiff-threat-to-elections-russia-interference.htmlWhat the Mueller Investigation Was Always About
In the partisan warfare that dominated Wednesday’s hearings, we’ve forgotten the point: Our elections are under threat, and the president doesn’t much care.
By Dahlia Lithwick
July 25, 2019
1:02 PM
snip//
For anyone hoping for a made-for-TV denouement, this wasn’t it. But anyone seeking a physical tableau of two men who love their country, from different parties and different eras, agreeing sadly that it was not “ethical” or “patriotic” or “right” for the president of the United States to sell the country into electoral oblivion for a hotel deal, the ending was sober and kind of perfect. Schiff and Mueller landed the plane on the tragic mutual agreement that whether or not the president committed a crime, he sold us all out.
For those who ever believed a by-the-books, unelected special counsel in the midst of a partisan political firestorm was going to save America by way of congressional testimony, Wednesday was a dramatic betrayal. He erred, as we expected, on the side of understatement and minimizing, disputing the characterization of events delivered by politicians on both side of the aisle and refusing to offer legal conclusions he had already arrived at in print. But none of that drains the force of what he revealed in his investigation, and the conclusions of that effort are not in dispute.
In these final moments, Robert Mueller and Adam Schiff weren’t worried about scoring points. They worried about the future of free and fair elections in a country that doesn’t seem to have noticed that free and fair elections are vanishing before our eyes. As Mueller warned of the interference, “they’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.” That is what Mueller was investigating. This is his warning. It’s easy to tell ourselves that all of the corruption and self-dealing and the purposive cruelty to immigrants and enrichment of the wealthy can be cured in November 2020. The problem is that this solution is precisely that which is under threat, and that which we may never quite realize was lost.
July 25, 2019
House panel approves subpoena for official White House communications
By Morgan Chalfant - 07/25/19 11:59 AM EDT
The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted along party lines to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to subpoena for records from the White House in connection with an investigation into aides’ use of personal email and text applications for official business.
The panel voted 23-16 Thursday on a resolution that authorizes Cummings to subpoena White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for official records and communications sent or received by noncareer White House officials using private email and nonofficial text-based accounts.
Democrats blasted the White House, accusing aides of flouting federal records laws, particularly the Presidential Records Act. Cummings pointed to evidence President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has used WhatsApp to conduct official White House business.
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/454723-house-panel-approves-subpoena-for-official-white-house
House panel approves subpoena for official White House communications
House panel approves subpoena for official White House communications
By Morgan Chalfant - 07/25/19 11:59 AM EDT
The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted along party lines to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to subpoena for records from the White House in connection with an investigation into aides’ use of personal email and text applications for official business.
The panel voted 23-16 Thursday on a resolution that authorizes Cummings to subpoena White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for official records and communications sent or received by noncareer White House officials using private email and nonofficial text-based accounts.
“There are serious questions about this White House’s use of personal email and text accounts. We must issue these subpoenas to get our answers,” said Cummings at the business meeting Thursday morning.
Democrats blasted the White House, accusing aides of flouting federal records laws, particularly the Presidential Records Act. Cummings pointed to evidence President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has used WhatsApp to conduct official White House business.
“This is the law. We make the laws,” Cummings said. “If we are going to preserve our records, we need to preserve them consistently.”
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/454723-house-panel-approves-subpoena-for-official-white-house
July 25, 2019
Lawmaker says she’s been told to back off call for probe of Jeffrey Epstein’s work release
By Julie K. Brown
July 25, 2019 11:36 AM
Florida Sen. Lauren Book has reached out to Capitol police after receiving an anonymous warning connected to her demand for a state inquiry into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s handling of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s lenient work release program, the Miami Herald has learned.
Book, a vocal advocate for child sexual assault survivors, said she also received more than a dozen calls by Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off on her call for an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into Bradshaw.
Ric Bradshaw, sheriff of Palm Beach County when Jeffrey Epstein was incarcerated and still sheriff, said his office will investigate its own handling of the multimillionaire’s work release. Epstein was allowed 12 hours a day, six days a week of freedom despite allegations from three dozen underage girls that he had molested them. Taylor Jones Palm Beach Post
On Monday, Book, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to authorize a probe into how Epstein, accused of molesting dozens of underage girls and a registered sex offender, was permitted to leave the Palm Beach County Jail and spend much of his 2008-2009 incarceration in an office in West Palm Beach.
more...
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article233102457.html?fbclid=IwAR2F2pWHFNTwAJRfSszP8BPFAZ3WscK-yQKo6h-IuWxSsWstEDLyyN-Zv6o
Lawmaker says she's been told to back off call for probe of Jeffrey Epstein's work release
Lawmaker says she’s been told to back off call for probe of Jeffrey Epstein’s work release
By Julie K. Brown
July 25, 2019 11:36 AM
Florida Sen. Lauren Book has reached out to Capitol police after receiving an anonymous warning connected to her demand for a state inquiry into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s handling of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s lenient work release program, the Miami Herald has learned.
Book, a vocal advocate for child sexual assault survivors, said she also received more than a dozen calls by Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off on her call for an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into Bradshaw.
Ric Bradshaw, sheriff of Palm Beach County when Jeffrey Epstein was incarcerated and still sheriff, said his office will investigate its own handling of the multimillionaire’s work release. Epstein was allowed 12 hours a day, six days a week of freedom despite allegations from three dozen underage girls that he had molested them. Taylor Jones Palm Beach Post
On Monday, Book, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to authorize a probe into how Epstein, accused of molesting dozens of underage girls and a registered sex offender, was permitted to leave the Palm Beach County Jail and spend much of his 2008-2009 incarceration in an office in West Palm Beach.
more...
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article233102457.html?fbclid=IwAR2F2pWHFNTwAJRfSszP8BPFAZ3WscK-yQKo6h-IuWxSsWstEDLyyN-Zv6o
July 25, 2019
So, No Oscar for Mueller?
By Connie Schultz
July 25, 2019 6 min read
Minutes after Robert Mueller III had completed his first round of Wednesday's congressional testimony, journalists and pundits started weighing in — on his acting abilities.
Mueller was "boring" and "phlegmatic."
His performance was "a disaster," "painful" and "deeply unsatisfying."
Some compared his testimony to the bombastic pathology of Donald Trump — and even the conversational theatrics of former FBI Director James Comey — and found him wanting.
Mueller had expressed not one partisan viewpoint. He refused to be political. He even stumbled at times, failing to remember every reference in the 448 pages of his published report.
In this time of crisis in our country, with the most dangerous president in the United States history, they wanted former special counsel Robert Mueller to be entertaining.
Look at what we've become.
Better yet, look at what Mueller did say during his seven hours of testimony.
Let's start with the Judiciary Committee, and Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's questioning:
snip//
If any word of this strikes us as boring, we have our own question to answer: When did we give up on America?
So, No Oscar for Mueller? By Connie Schultz
https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz?fbclid=IwAR0Tcz2ZyinWWNASJlE0NlZcuZ51UzQN8VuVXM-9MVrsM9Hz1GST7DgWsPoSo, No Oscar for Mueller?
By Connie Schultz
July 25, 2019 6 min read
Minutes after Robert Mueller III had completed his first round of Wednesday's congressional testimony, journalists and pundits started weighing in — on his acting abilities.
Mueller was "boring" and "phlegmatic."
His performance was "a disaster," "painful" and "deeply unsatisfying."
Some compared his testimony to the bombastic pathology of Donald Trump — and even the conversational theatrics of former FBI Director James Comey — and found him wanting.
Mueller had expressed not one partisan viewpoint. He refused to be political. He even stumbled at times, failing to remember every reference in the 448 pages of his published report.
In this time of crisis in our country, with the most dangerous president in the United States history, they wanted former special counsel Robert Mueller to be entertaining.
Look at what we've become.
Better yet, look at what Mueller did say during his seven hours of testimony.
Let's start with the Judiciary Committee, and Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's questioning:
snip//
If any word of this strikes us as boring, we have our own question to answer: When did we give up on America?
July 25, 2019
OH NYET
Trump Spoke in Front of Presidential Seal Edited With Symbols of Russia and Golf
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated 07.25.19 6:36AM ET /
Published 07.25.19 4:51AM ET
Trump Spoke in Front of Presidential Seal Edited With Symbols of Russia and Golf
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-spoke-in-front-of-presidential-seal-edited-with-symbols-of-russia-and-golf?ref=homeOH NYET
Trump Spoke in Front of Presidential Seal Edited With Symbols of Russia and Golf
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated 07.25.19 6:36AM ET /
Published 07.25.19 4:51AM ET
When Donald Trump spoke in front of a presidential seal on Tuesday, it appeared to have been edited to look like Russia’s coat of arms. At a student summit hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA, the president stood in front of an image of the seal, which looked at first glance to be perfectly normal. But a closer look shows the eagle has two heads, like Russia’s national symbol, and the bird is holding golf clubs instead of its usual arrows. Neither the White House nor Turning Point knows how the apparent practical joke on the president got on the screen or who created it, The Washington Post reports. A Turning Point spokesman said: “It was a last-minute A/V mistake... and I can’t figure out where the breakdown was... but it was a last minute throw-up, and that’s all it was... I can’t figure out who did it yet.”
July 25, 2019
(Yesterday) Trump vetoes 3 bills prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia
So while no one was looking he did this.
Trump vetoes 3 bills prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia
Zachary Cohen
By Zachary Cohen and Betsy Klein, CNN
Updated 9:54 PM ET, Wed July 24, 2019
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has vetoed three joint resolutions prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the White House announced Wednesday, rejecting an attempt by congressional lawmakers to halt the controversial weapons transfers.
In messages to the Senate, Trump announced he was returning the bipartisan bills that would have blocked licensing for certain arms sales in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, France, Spain and Italy.
"Apart from negatively affecting our bilateral relationships with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy, the joint resolution would hamper the ability of the United States to sustain and shape critical security cooperation activities," Trump said in one of the messages.
He called each resolution "ill-conceived" and said it failed to address root causes of conflict in Yemen.
"The United States is very concerned about the conflict's toll on innocent civilians and is working to bring the conflict in Yemen to an end. But we cannot end it through ill-conceived and time-consuming resolutions that fail to address its root causes," Trump said. "Rather than expend time and resources on such resolutions, I encourage the Congress to direct its efforts toward supporting our work to achieve peace through a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Yemen."
The package of resolutions of disapproval stood as a symbolic showing of congressional opposition -- including from within Trump's own party -- to the administration's relationship to Saudi Arabia, following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
more...
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/politics/saudi-arms-sale-resolutions-trump-veto/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3ARNYLb-g4o98p_8Le2nFQ9IGIkxWx-KzaFFJIFlsPy8yB1hh5cbWzKfY
July 25, 2019
more...
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/24/jeffrey-epstein-injured-in-federal-jail-in-manhattan.html
Jeffrey Epstein on suicide watch after accused sex trafficker is found injured in New York jail
Politics
Jeffrey Epstein on suicide watch after accused sex trafficker is found injured in New York jail
Published Wed, Jul 24 2019 10:56 PM EDTUpdated 6 min ago
Dan Mangan
Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is on a suicide watch after the wealthy financier was found mysteriously injured in his cell in a federal jail in New York City, WNBC-TV reported Wednesday night.
According to sources, officials do not know whether Epstein tried to hang himself, if he staged a suicide attempt, or if he was assaulted.
The former friend of presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton is accused of sexually abusing dozens of young girls at his New York and Florida residences in the early 2000s.
According to sources, officials do not know whether Epstein tried to hang himself, if he staged a suicide attempt, or if he was assaulted.
The former friend of presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton is accused of sexually abusing dozens of young girls at his New York and Florida residences in the early 2000s.
more...
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/24/jeffrey-epstein-injured-in-federal-jail-in-manhattan.html
July 25, 2019
So fess up. All of you
who badmouthed Mueller, claiming he's a republican and will sadly act like one, and there was A LOT of that going on, are you now convinced you were wrong? Do you think he acted in a partisan manner today?
July 25, 2019
In the End, In the Most Understated Way Possible, Robert Mueller Conveyed His Disdain for Donald Trump
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
July 24, 2019
5:17 PM
For two years, special counsel Robert Mueller hovered silently over the United States’ political system. His office’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia almost never issued statements, and no one on his staff seems to have leaked information about its ongoing work to the press. His report, when finally filed and released, was carefully—some would say maddeningly—written so as to neither condemn nor exonerate the president. When he appeared in public to discuss it, he spoke briefly from prepared notes and largely reiterated what was in the report.
The same pattern held throughout most of his testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. If a question was put to him that required him to do anything but confirm information in the report, he demurred: “I cannot get into that,” “Those are areas I’m not going to discuss,” “I don’t feel comfortable speculating on that,” and so forth.
Taking his final questions of the day, though, from Intel chairman and California Rep. Adam Schiff, Mueller briefly became non-noncommittal. Schiff and the other Democrats on the committee had spent two-plus hours enumerating the various ways in which the Trump campaign, while it may have stopped short of joining an illegal conspiracy, had nonetheless welcomed, celebrated, and encouraged the crimes that Russian intelligence operatives committed against his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Schiff asked Mueller, essentially, what he thought about all that—and Mueller, however monosyllabically, told him.
It was only a quick back-and-forth, and in the strict sense Schiff’s questions were hypothetical. But it followed another exchange in which Mueller, after being shown a slide of Trump’s enthusiastic comments about WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic emails, responded that to call the president’s remarks about the stolen material “problematic” would be “an understatement”; it also took place just after Mueller told Florida Rep. Val Demings* that it would be “generally” fair to say that the president’s written answers to investigators’ questions were not entirely truthful or complete. If you cared to hear it, the message was there: After two years, Schiff was able to get Mueller to be as direct as he’s ever going to be about judging the way that Donald Trump and the people close to him conducted themselves in 2016—and we learned that the words that Mueller thinks it’s fair to use to describe that conduct are ones like unethical, criminal, unpatriotic, and simply wrong. True, indeed.
In the End, In the Most Understated Way Possible, Robert Mueller Conveyed His Disdain for...Trump
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/robert-mueller-donald-trump-unpatriotic-unethical.htmlIn the End, In the Most Understated Way Possible, Robert Mueller Conveyed His Disdain for Donald Trump
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
July 24, 2019
5:17 PM
For two years, special counsel Robert Mueller hovered silently over the United States’ political system. His office’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia almost never issued statements, and no one on his staff seems to have leaked information about its ongoing work to the press. His report, when finally filed and released, was carefully—some would say maddeningly—written so as to neither condemn nor exonerate the president. When he appeared in public to discuss it, he spoke briefly from prepared notes and largely reiterated what was in the report.
The same pattern held throughout most of his testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. If a question was put to him that required him to do anything but confirm information in the report, he demurred: “I cannot get into that,” “Those are areas I’m not going to discuss,” “I don’t feel comfortable speculating on that,” and so forth.
Taking his final questions of the day, though, from Intel chairman and California Rep. Adam Schiff, Mueller briefly became non-noncommittal. Schiff and the other Democrats on the committee had spent two-plus hours enumerating the various ways in which the Trump campaign, while it may have stopped short of joining an illegal conspiracy, had nonetheless welcomed, celebrated, and encouraged the crimes that Russian intelligence operatives committed against his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Schiff asked Mueller, essentially, what he thought about all that—and Mueller, however monosyllabically, told him.
SCHIFF: I’d like to see if we can broaden the aperture at the end of the hearing. From your testimony today, I gather that you believe that knowingly accepting foreign assistance during a presidential campaign is an unethical thing to do.
MUELLER: And a crime.
SCHIFF: And a crime.
MUELLER: And a crime in given circumstances.
SCHIFF: And to the degree that it undermines our democracy and institutions, we can agree that it’s also unpatriotic.
MUELLER: True.
SCHIFF: And wrong.
MUELLER: True.
MUELLER: And a crime.
SCHIFF: And a crime.
MUELLER: And a crime in given circumstances.
SCHIFF: And to the degree that it undermines our democracy and institutions, we can agree that it’s also unpatriotic.
MUELLER: True.
SCHIFF: And wrong.
MUELLER: True.
It was only a quick back-and-forth, and in the strict sense Schiff’s questions were hypothetical. But it followed another exchange in which Mueller, after being shown a slide of Trump’s enthusiastic comments about WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic emails, responded that to call the president’s remarks about the stolen material “problematic” would be “an understatement”; it also took place just after Mueller told Florida Rep. Val Demings* that it would be “generally” fair to say that the president’s written answers to investigators’ questions were not entirely truthful or complete. If you cared to hear it, the message was there: After two years, Schiff was able to get Mueller to be as direct as he’s ever going to be about judging the way that Donald Trump and the people close to him conducted themselves in 2016—and we learned that the words that Mueller thinks it’s fair to use to describe that conduct are ones like unethical, criminal, unpatriotic, and simply wrong. True, indeed.
July 24, 2019
The Monitor via AP
No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported
Obed Manuel, Report for America Corps Member/Staff Writer
Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born U.S. citizen, spent 23 days in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in conditions that made him so desperate he almost opted to self-deport.
Galicia says he lost 26 pounds during that time because officers didn’t provide him with enough food.
He wasn’t allowed to shower. His skin was dry and dirty.
He and 60 other men were crammed into an overcrowded holding area where they slept on the floor and were given only aluminum-foil blankets. Some men had to sleep on the restroom area floor.
Ticks bit some of the men. Some were very sick, Galicia said, but were afraid to ask to go to the doctor because CBP officers told them their stay would start over if they did.
more...
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2019/07/24/no-shower-23-days-us-citizen-held-deportation-shares-like-immigrant?fbclid=IwAR3qwTS0CCsZRd6CcUGE601g8CSdYvQlZSVdOxFL1cWKHE0WagSIPhGDGaY
No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported
The Monitor via AP
No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported
Obed Manuel, Report for America Corps Member/Staff Writer
Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born U.S. citizen, spent 23 days in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in conditions that made him so desperate he almost opted to self-deport.
Galicia says he lost 26 pounds during that time because officers didn’t provide him with enough food.
He wasn’t allowed to shower. His skin was dry and dirty.
He and 60 other men were crammed into an overcrowded holding area where they slept on the floor and were given only aluminum-foil blankets. Some men had to sleep on the restroom area floor.
Ticks bit some of the men. Some were very sick, Galicia said, but were afraid to ask to go to the doctor because CBP officers told them their stay would start over if they did.
“It was inhumane how they treated us. It got to the point where I was ready to sign a deportation paper just to not be suffering there anymore. I just needed to get out of there,” he said.
more...
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2019/07/24/no-shower-23-days-us-citizen-held-deportation-shares-like-immigrant?fbclid=IwAR3qwTS0CCsZRd6CcUGE601g8CSdYvQlZSVdOxFL1cWKHE0WagSIPhGDGaY
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: NY
Home country: US
Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
Number of posts: 171,056
