kpete
kpete's JournalI think his hands are shrinking...
https://twitter.com/JElvisWeinstein/status/942643621454528512
The GOP is losing the future...
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/942515166029238272
Tillerson acknowledged in closed-door meeting -that Russia interfered in democratic processes here"
Tillerson acknowledged in a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats that Russia “interfered in democratic processes here,”
Exclusive: Rex Tillerson, in Meeting With U.S. Diplomats, Says Russia ‘Interfered’ in Election
The secretary of state acknowledged Moscow’s 2016 interference. Then he continued to talk about cutting back on U.S. diplomacy.
Beleaguered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged in a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats on Tuesday that Russia “interfered in democratic processes here,” something President Trump still describes as “fake news” intended to delegitimize his presidency.
It’s a precarious position for Tillerson to take, even privately. Tillerson’s job is on thin ice, as rumors swirl that he will be swapped out for CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Within the department, Tillerson’s support is wafer-thin, as diplomats have come to see his purpose as hollowing out U.S. diplomacy.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-rex-tillerson-in-meeting-with-us-diplomats-says-russia-interfered-in-election
OBSTRUCTION? - Trump Appears to Have Withheld the KT McFarland Email about the "Thrown Election"
Langhofer uses the leak as an excuse to suggest wrong-doing by Mueller, when other possibilities are far more likely.
But consider the other implication of this: Langhofer is suggesting that this email chain (which included no named active lawyers, nor included Trump directly, though they were written in Trump’s presence at Mar a Lago) is “susceptible to privilege claims.” He is further suggesting that GSA is the only way this email could have been released (ignoring, of course, the Bannon/Priebus/Spicer) options.
If that’s right, then he’s suggesting that Trump was involved in this email chain directly. There’s no reason to believe he was CCed. But since the emails were written from Mar-a-Lago, it’s likely he was consulted in the drafting of the emails.
In addition, Langhofer is also admitting that Trump’s team didn’t release these emails directly — at least not to Congress.
Emails which couldn’t be more central to the point of Mueller’s investigation.
Did the GOP just admit that Trump withheld this email? Because if so, it suggests the “thrown election” comment is far more damning than the NYT laid out.
Update: It’s not clear whether Mueller ever tried to obtain these records via GSA (though it’s possible FBI obtained emails before the inauguration). But this, from the letter, makes it clear at least Congress had made requests, which led TFA to try to take GSA out of the loop even though SCO had a document preservation request.
In order to comply with congressional document production requests, TFA ordered from the GSA electronic copies of all PTT emails and other data. Career GSA staff initially expressed concern that providing copies of PTT emails to TFA might violate a document preservation request that the GSA had received from the Special Counsel’s Office.
Withholding this email from Congress would be particularly problematic, as McFarland testified in conjunction with her now-frozen nomination to be Ambassador to Singapore that she knew nothing about Flynn’s communications with Kislyak. h/t SS
More with lots of updates:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/12/16/trump-appears-to-have-withheld-the-kt-mcfarland-email-about-the-thrown-election/
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/942432420044967936
https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/942239742388776961
The city where Jesus grew up canceled Christmas because of Trump
The mayor of Nazareth is canceling Christmas, and he's blaming Donald Trump.
Ali Salam, who is Muslim in the Muslim-majority city, shut down all Christmas festivities in the city in protest of Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
“Our identity and faith aren’t up for debate,” Salam said, according to the Times of Israel. “The decision (by Trump) has taken away the joy of the holiday, and we will thus cancel the festivities this year.”
The city council was the bearer of the bad news Thursday after the mayor made the economically risky decision. Religious tourists flock to the city where Jesus grew up, especially for the Christmas holiday.
MORE:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/city-where-jesus-grew-canceled-025219678.html?utm_content=buffer596f7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Bob Mueller saving the taxpayers money!
In case it’s not already blindingly clear why Mueller’s team would get the unredacted emails from GSA instead of from Trump lawyers :Newsweek (31 Oct 16) : DONALD TRUMP’S COMPANIES DESTROYED EMAILS IN DEFIANCE OF COURT ORDERS
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-companies-destroyed-emails-documents-515120.html
It’s no accident that Trump lawyers complained to Congress instead of the courts. I’ve been able to easily find that at least the following GOP Congressmembers were publicly part of the transition and so have potential exposure in this email issue :
Sen. Tim Scott
Rep. Marsha Blackburn
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Rep. Tom Reed
Rep. Lou Barletta
Rep. Chris Collins
Rep. Tom Marino
Rep. Devin Nunes
Rep. Sean Duffy
Rep. Trey Gowdy
Rep. Dennis Ross
Thus he could learn which emails tRUmp gang redacted. Saves the trouble of searching through the entire 10,000 emails to find the key evidence.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/17/1725222/-tRUmp-gang-just-pissed-off-because-Mueller-totally-outfoxed-them#comment_68709980
Wow, Proof, Megyn Kelly Was Wrong About Santa
don't tell the president
https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/942409009960714240
CNN host left speechless as ex-Fox News analyst breaks confidentiality agreement & exposes Murdoch
Appearing on CNN’s Reliable Sources, legal analyst Tamara Holder said since she was pushed out at Fox for reporting sexual assault she has been unable to find another media job and that she is not alone among other women who were forced out at the network.
“Fox News ruined people’s lives,” an impassioned Holder explained. “He (Murdoch) ruined my life. I don’t have a job in TV anymore because the place that he has secured down like Fort Knox allowed abusive predators to work. That is not nonsense, this is people’s lives. He said it wasn’t just Roger Ailes. Well, we don’t need to name names, we know it wasn’t just Roger. He said ‘nothing more since then’ — that’s a lie. We also know that Bill O’Reilly paid $30 million plus to somebody and, of course, they rehired him after that.”
“He says there are cases that amounted to flirting,” she continued. “Let me be clear. I had a man pull out his penis in his office and shove my head on it. That was not flirting. — that was criminal. That was not sexual harassment. I’m not the only case, there are women who can’t speak out.”
“Either Mr. Murdoch is a liar or he’s delusional and old and needs to get out,” she stated. “If you’re an investor, you need to decide, do you want your money with a man who has continued to lie to you for the past 20 years, your money, hundreds of millions of dollars of your money has gone to women over and over and over again. and we’ve been told that we have to shut up.”
“I want to be on TV talking about the things that — we want to talk about what we were paid to talk about on TV,” Holder continued. “For me, it was law. I had a sports show. But I’m stuck here, talking about this, because there are people like Rupert Murdoch who continue to deny that we were abused, that we were — our careers were destroyed, our lives were destroyed. And this is not political, this is people’s lives.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/watch-cnn-host-left-speechless-as-ex-fox-news-analyst-breaks-her-confidentiality-agreement-and-exposes-rupert-murdoch/
LAT Brutal Op-Ed: America still hasn't reckoned with the election of a reckless con man as president
...........
“What is it, in our American soul that allowed the Russians to be successful?” he asked.
“Those were not Russians voting in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, handing the election to the Republican candidate by a bit more than 80,000 votes. They were American men and women,” Dorfman wrote. “As were the 62,984,825 others who decided that such a troublesome, inflammatory figure expressed their desires and dreams. Trump could be impeached or resign, or his policies could simply implode under the weight of their malice, divisiveness and mendacity, and the country would still be defined and pressed by the same conditions and dread that enabled his rise.”
“Now, every desperate American must gaze in the mirror and interrogate the puzzled face and puzzling fate that stares back: What did I do or not do that made the cataclysm possible?” he continued. “Did I ignore past transgressions that corrode today’s society: the discrimination, the sexism, the violence, the authoritarianism, the intolerance, the imperial ambitions, the slavery and greed and persecutions that have darkened America’s story? Did I overestimate the strength of our democracy and underestimate the decency of my neighbors? Was I too fearful, too complacent, too impatient, too angry? Whom did I not talk to, whom did I not persuade? What privilege and comforts, what overwork and debts, kept me from giving my all? What injustice or humiliation or bigoted remark did I witness and let pass? How can I help to recover our country, make it once more recognizable, make it luminous and forgiving?”
“We must vigorously protest the president’s craven actions, but above all we need to acknowledge that what ultimately matters is not what a foreign power did to America, but what America did to itself,” he lectured. “The crucial question of what is wrong with our country, what could have driven us to this edge of catastrophe, cannot be resolved by a special counsel or a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives or spectacular revelations about Russia’s interference.”
MORE:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-dorfman-reckoning-trump-election-20171217-story.html
7 year old to Santa: "I Need A Blanket"
....................
Edinburg, TEXAS (KGBT) — Hundreds of donations have poured in at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Edinburg after a 7-year-old's letter to Santa went viral.
After first-grade teacher Ruth Espiricueta taught her students the difference between wants and needs, she asked them to write a letter to Santa, asking for two wants and one need.
But, Espiricueta never expected one of her students needed something as simple as food.
"I have binde good this day. This Christmas I would like a ball and a food. I need a blancet," wrote 7-year-old Crystal Pacheco.
"I started reading them and it's like, I did not expect her to say, ‘I need food. I want food, but I need a blanket more,'" Espiricueta said.
"And I asked, ‘Well, why do you need a blanket more than the food?’ ‘Well, I get to eat at school—sometimes I may not have at home, but I get to eat at school. A blanket I have one, but it's not warm enough."
The little girl said she wanted a ball instead of a doll because then both she and her brother could play with it.
Espiricueta posted Pacheco’s letter to social media, and since then, hundreds of donations have come in to the Edinburg elementary school.
MORE:
http://valleycentral.com/news/local/donations-pour-in-after-7-year-olds-letter-to-santa-goes-viral
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/i-need-a-blanket-read-this-7-year-old-students-heartbreaking-letter-to-santa-claus/
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