solarbird | good morning, it's 23 march 2017

Wow. I'm out of evens.

Trump/Russia was explosive yesterday. NO, REALLY, IT'S ANOTHER LEVEL. "Schiff: There is now 'more than circumstantial evidence' of Trump-Russia collusion." Just saying that. We found out via AP Exclusive that "Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin." Specifically politically. The "Former Trump campaign chief 'offered to help Putin advance interests'." And "The FBI may already have Carter Page on a major crime: 18 U.S.C. § 1001, punishable by up to 5 years in prison."

And of course GOP is stonewalling - or actively interfering - in the investigation. "Today, Chairman Nunes shared information with WH still withheld from our committee. He cannot conduct a credible investigation this way" reports the Democratic leader on the committee; there's more details on that in "Nunes claims some Trump transition messages were intercepted." Basically he went to Ryan and Trump (who is being investigated!) to give them insider information not even given out to Democrats on the committee. Shit like that is why McLean's is saying, "Party or country? The Republicans choose a side." (Spoiler: it's not country.) And useless faux renegade Senator McCain is saying, "Congress doesn't have 'credibility' to handle Russia probes."

We have more adventures in neofascism - "Gorka changes story from "I have never been a member of Vitezi Rend" to "I never swore allegiance formally."" is pretty neat. More on that in "Gorka Hedges, Evades on Vitezi Rend Tie." Also, "Roger Stone, the ‘Trickster’ on Trump’s Side, Is Under F.B.I. Scrutiny" and we now know "The Trump Campaign Has Been Under Investigation Since July" and Democrats want to know why that wasn't disclosed during the endless BUT HER EMAILS releases of the campaign.

I include as a contextual rerun, "Moscow had contacts with Trump team during campaign, Russian diplomat says." Regular contacts, he said.

In health care, they're LITERALLY REWRITING THE BILL AS I TYPE THIS. No. Really. There'll be no CBO score and nobody will even know what's really in it tomorrow. "Defying Trump, Freedom Caucus insists it'll oppose GOP ObamaCare replacement" and "Freedom Caucus Closing In On Deal To Rewrite Health Care Bill At 11th Hour" are the stories. This is no way to write legislation, but then - it isn't really supposed to be.

Regarding the Supreme Court, the two stores today are "While Gorsuch was testifying, the Supreme Court unanimously said he was wrong" and "Neil Gorsuch and the “Frozen Trucker”."

The terrorist attack you didn't hear about yesterday was in New York City. "Man Arrested For Deadly Midtown Stabbing Reportedly Came To NYC To Kill Black People" and "Racist Maryland man who fatally stabbed black New Yorker admits his intent to kill African-American men," and the latter story gets real specific - this was a white supremacist racial attack straight up intended to incite terror. But, you know, somehow it's different. Because white guy. I specifically picked stories that did not make a big deal about how well the murderer was dressed, WHICH WAS THE LEAD IN SOME STORIES.

A couple of stories on antl-LGBT activities: "This Bus Is On A Road Trip To Convince You That Transgender People Aren’t Real," and "DeVos funds group suing against transgender rights." The lawsuit is against a school, for allowing a trans student (a boy) to use the boys' washroom. And yes, DeVos's foundation helps fund the group suing.

An interview and reaction to that interview: "Trump's Diplomat: How Rex Tillerson Is Translating 'America First' Into Foreign Policy" and "Rex Tillerson is clearly out of the loop and out of his depth in Trumpland."

"Advocates call on lawmakers to resist environmental cuts in Trump budget" is focused locally, but applicable generally.

The article "Amazing Disgrace: How did Donald Trump—a thrice-married, biblically illiterate sexual predator—hijack the religious right?" has a misleading headline; the fundamentalist movement wasn't "hijacked," this is what it always was - but the article itself makes that case fairly well.

In more basic corruption, "Despite a Trust, Ivanka Trump Still Wields Power Over Her Brand."

In border cruelty, we have a story about an event from a few years ago: "U.S. border officers told a Mexican teen to drink liquid meth. His family received $1 million for his death." They had a test on hand that would've confirmed the liquid was meth in 2-3 minutes. They waited an hour to call for medics. Both officers are still employed. We also have "Khan Breaks Silence on Canada Travel Cancellation" - the story from a couple of weeks ago regarding his trip cancellation to Canada? Maybe not so well reported, maybe overstated on his part. He was in fear that he wouldn't be allowed to return, and given that this has actually happened this week to citizens, that's not so unfounded. But he wasn't placed under an individual travel ban.

You might recall another story from last month, about the GOP majority leader in Hawai'i being forced out for Trump criticism; well, she's no longer a Republican at all. "Hawaii Republican resigns from party after criticizing Trump."

Finally, a couple of more local-scope stories, but they're flavourful: "Wisconsin Republican urges cuts to college aid to keep poor students from buying ‘goodies and electronics’" and "Former Colorado GOP chairman Steven Curtis charged with voter fraud." Yes, it's the new cruelty and the same old irony. What fun.

Today's going to be extra lively as the unread, unevaluated Newest Version GOP healthcare bill is schedule to come up for a vote, and who even knows what else will spin out of the Treasonart. (I thought those blades got recalled, but I guess not.) ADVENTURES!

----- 1 -----
U.S. border officers told a Mexican teen to drink liquid meth. His family received $1 million for his death.
By Kristine Phillips | March 21, 2017 | The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/03/21/u-s-border-agents-made-a-mexican-teen-drink-liquid-meth-his-family-won-1-million-for-his-death/

Cruz Velazquez Acevedo began convulsing shortly after he drank the
liquid methamphetamine he’d brought with him from Tijuana, Mexico.

The 16-year-old had just crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to San
Diego and was going through the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was
carrying two bottles of liquid that he claimed was apple juice. U.S.
Customs and Border Protection officers told him to drink it to prove he
wasn’t lying, court records say.

The teen took four sips.

Then, he began sweating profusely. He screamed and clenched his fists.

In a matter of minutes, his temperature soared to 105 degrees, his
family’s attorney said. His pulse reached an alarming rate of 220 beats
per minute — more than twice the normal rate for adults.

“Mi corazón! Mi corazón!” Acevedo screamed, according to court records
— “My heart! My heart!”

He was dead about two hours later.

Now, more than three years after his death, the United States has
agreed to pay Acevedo’s family $1 million in a wrongful-death
lawsuit brought against two border officers and the U.S. government.

...

The two Border Protection officers, Adrian Perallon and Valerie Baird,
believed the teen was carrying a deadly controlled substance,
but they “coerced and intimidated” him into drinking the liquid,
according to a complaint. The boy was taken to a hospital almost an
hour after he had sipped the methamphetamine.

...

“I’m not prepared to say they knew for certain that it was going to
kill him. … It’s obvious that they suspected from the beginning that
it’s meth,” Iredale said. “Playing a cruel joke on a child is not
something that’s justifiable in any way. They have test kits available
that would’ve given results in two to three minutes.”

...

Perallon and Baird are still employed by the Customs and Border
Protection in San Diego, the agency said in a statement.

----- 2 -----
McCain: Congress doesn't have 'credibility' to handle Russia probes
By Max Greenwood - The Hill - 03/22/17 07:16 PM EDT

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/325330-mccain-congress-doesnt-have-credibility-to-handle-russia-probes#.WNMsOY7Wo0Y.twitter

Congress no longer has the credibility to independently tackle a probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Trump and his associates' ties to Moscow, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday.

"It's a bizarre situation, and what I think, the reason why I'm calling for this select committee or a special committee, is I think that this back-and-forth and what the American people have found out so far that no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone," McCain told MSNBC's Greta Van Susteren. "And I don't say that lightly."

McCain's comments come amid an increasingly bitter feud that erupted between members of the House Intelligence Committee earlier Wednesday, after the panel's chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) claimed that he had seen evidence that the U.S. intelligence community incidentally surveilled members of Trump's transition team.

----- 3 -----
Defying Trump, Freedom Caucus insists it'll oppose GOP ObamaCare replacement
By Peter Sullivan - 03/22/17 - The Hill

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/325220-defying-trump-freedom-caucus-members-insist-theyll-oppose-gop-obamacare

The conservative House Freedom Caucus said it remains opposed to the House GOP's ObamaCare replacement legislation Wednesday despite pressure from President Trump.

Speaking to reporters outside a Freedom Caucus meeting after a White House meeting, the group called on leaders to start over on ObamaCare, saying the replacement bill does not have the votes to pass Thursday.

"The opposition is still strong," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the group.

"They don't have the votes to pass this tomorrow. We believe that they need to start over and do a bill that actually reduces premiums."

----- 4 -----
This Bus Is On A Road Trip To Convince You That Transgender People Aren’t Real
“This can’t be considered transphobic or bigoted.”
Mar. 22, 2017 | Dominic Holden | BuzzFeed News Reporter

https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/this-bus-is-on-a-road-trip-to-convince-you-that-transgender

An orange bus rolled onto the streets of Manhattan Wednesday to make its first stop on an East Coast tour, where a load of activist passengers will evangelize that transgender people don’t exist and citizens must rise up to complain about their growing acceptance.

The creators are calling it the “Free Speech Bus” and they’ve decorated it with male and female stick figures along with the slogan: “Boys are boys… and always will be. Girls are girls… and always will be. You can’t change sex. Respect all.”

On Wednesday, they parked outside the United Nations headquarters, where ambassadors are considering a sex education resolution, which a spokesperson for the bus argued promotes “an ideology that gender is fluid.”

“We are trying to strike back against that,” said Joseph Grabowski, a spokesperson for the National Organization for Marriage, one of three conservative groups behind the project. They hope parading the bus through major cities will unleash a silent majority that they believe is frustrated by shifting norms about gender and families.

----- 5 -----
AP Exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin
By JEFF HORWITZ and CHAD DAY | 22 March 2017 | Associated Press

https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/Manafort's-plan-to-'greatly-benefit-the-Putin-Government

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to "greatly benefit the Putin Government," The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates.

Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin's government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.

Manafort pitched the plans to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.

...

"To suggest that the president knew who his clients were from 10 years ago is a bit insane," Spicer said. He noted the AP's reporting "has started to catch a lot of buzz" but said Manafort's work occurred long before he became Trump's campaign chairman. "I don't know what he got paid to do," Spicer said, adding, "There's no suggestion he did anything improper."

...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the disclosures "serious stuff" and more evidence that an independent congressional committee should investigate the Trump administration. "Other shoes will drop," he said.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a frequent Trump critic, said of Manafort: "Clearly, if he's getting millions of dollars from a billionaire close to Putin, to basically undermine democratic movements, that's something I'd want to know about. I doubt if Trump knew about it."

----- 6 -----
Party or country? The Republicans choose a side.
Trump is being investigated for treason, confirmed the FBI. And still, the GOP lawmakers kept shamelessly asking about leaks.
Scott Gilmore | McLean's | March 20, 2017

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/washington/party-or-country-the-republicans-choose-a-side/

The Congressional Intelligence Committee met today to begin its investigation of Russia’s interference in the U.S. election. The first two witnesses were FBI Director James Comey and head of the NSA Adm. Mike Rogers. Close observers of the ongoing scandal were not expecting much drama. The hearing was open to the public, and given the sensitive nature of the issue, it seemed unlikely that either Comey or Rogers would be able to say anything of particular interest. And the Republican Chair, Devin Nunes, had signaled he had no intention of allowing this investigation to focus on the Trump administration. Nunes has complained the real crimes are the constant drip of leaks that have kept this story in the news for months. Nonetheless, not only was there drama, but history was made.

Comey began his testimony by confirming, for the first time, that the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into whether the sitting President of the United States colluded with a foreign power to influence the outcome of the election. He announced it dryly, using carefully chosen words that made it sound like an unimportant administrative detail. But the implications were clear, and even after all these months of headlines and conjecture, they were astounding: For the first time in American history, the President is being investigated for treason.

Treason is a shocking word. It has not been thrown around much as this Russian scandal has grown, and for good reason. But conspiring with a foreign power to influence a U.S. election must surely fall within the definition of “giving comfort to her enemies”. And when Clinton’s former campaign manager Robby Mook used it today, saying “If U.S. campaign aides helped the Russians, knew about the Russians plans, or asked the Russians to intervene in any way, they should be prosecuted for treason…” it was hard to disagree.

----- 7 -----
Gorka changes story from "I have never been a member of Vitezi Rend" to "I never swore allegiance formally." http://bit.ly/2o2peOu
Eli Clifton | Seen on Twitter | 22 March 2017

https://twitter.com/EliClifton/status/844544466216214529

Gorka changes story from "I have never been a member of Vitezi Rend" to "I never swore allegiance formally."

[links to next story]

----- 8 -----
Gorka Hedges, Evades on Vitezi Rend Tie
by Eli Clifton and Jim Lobe | LobeLog | 22 March 2017

Trump counter-terrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has offered a series of inconsistent reactions to The Forward’s report that he is a sworn member of Vitezi Rend. This chivalric order was founded in the 1920s by Adm. Horthy, a self-described anti-Semite who ruled Hungary from 1920 until 1944 and who allied his country with Nazi Germany during World War II. In an unsurprisingly friendly interview with Breitbart today, Gorka passed up the opportunity to repeat his insistence that he was never a member of the organization.

After declining to respond to queries from LobeLog, where photos of Gorka wearing the Vitezi Rend medal at Trump’s inaugural ball were first published, and the Forward, which interviewed senior Vitezi Rend officials who said Gorka was sworn in as a member, he told Tablet on March 16th:

"I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend. Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father’s medal and used the ‘v.’ initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism."

Shortly thereafter, Gorka, following weeks of declining to respond to the Forward’s questions about his right-wing ties, issued a statement through the White House. Remarkably, it avoided any mention of his relationship with Vitezi Rend despite the fact that the Forward’s story was getting widespread attention in the media. His statement simply asserted: “I’ve been a committed opponent of anti-Semitism, racism and totalitarianism all my life. Any suggestion otherwise is false and outrageous.”

Two days later, however, The Telegraph asked Gorka about his relationship:

"He insisted that he was not a full member of the Order of Vitez.

"By the bye laws I inherited the title of Vitez through the merits of my father, but I never swore allegiance formally,' he said."

Gorka had gone from “never” being a member to “never [having] swor[n] allegiance formally,” a denial that appeared to hedge his unequivocal statement to the Tablet.

----- 9 -----
Trump the Destroyer
Trump has stuffed his Cabinet with tyrants, zealots and imbeciles – all bent on demolishing our government from within
By Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | 22 March 2017

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-on-trump-the-destroyer-w473144

It's like the campaign never ended. It's the same all-Trump, all-the-time madness, only exponentially worse.

Morning, February 24th, National Harbor, Maryland, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Chin up, eyes asquint, Donald Trump floats to the lectern on a sea of applause and adulation. The building is shaking, and as fans howl his name – Trump! Trump! Trump! – he looks pleased and satisfied, like a Roman emperor who has just moved his bowels.

"Great to be back at CPAC," he says. "The place I have really ..."

The thought flies into the air and vanishes. Last year at this time, Trump was bailing on a CPAC invite because a rat's nest of National Review types was threatening a walkout to protest him. There was talk of 300 conservatives planning a simultaneous march to the toilet if the formerly pro-choice New Yorker was allowed onstage.

----- 10 -----
Former Trump campaign chief 'offered to help Putin advance interests'
Paul Manafort proposed strategy in 2005 where he would influence US politics in a way that would benefit Russia, AP reports
Stephanie Kirchgaessner | The Guardian | 22 March 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/22/former-trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-offered-help-putin-russia?CMP=twt_gu

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort once offered to help Vladimir Putin advance Moscow’s interests as part of a multimillion-dollar contract agreed with a Russian billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin, it has been reported.

According to a report by the Associated Press released on Wednesday, Manafort proposed a confidential strategy in 2005 whereby he would influence US politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the US, Europe and the former Soviet republics, in a way that would benefit the Putin government.

The explosive allegation comes days after James Comey, the FBI director, confirmed before a congressional hearing that the FBI was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination between the Kremlin and Trump campaign officials. While Comey repeatedly refused to name the subject or subjects of the investigation, Manafort is one of several former Trump campaign officials known to have ties to Ukraine and Russia.

He resigned from his role as campaign chairman after it emerged last year that he had worked as a covert Washington lobbyist for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.

It is not clear based on the AP report whether Manafort, a longtime Washington lobbyist, followed through on his pitch to help Putin. But the AP said the detailed offer was made to the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin for whom Manafort worked.

----- 11 -----
Roger Stone, the ‘Trickster’ on Trump’s Side, Is Under F.B.I. Scrutiny
By MAGGIE HABERMAN - The New York Times - MARCH 21, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html

In President Trump’s oft-changing world order, Roger J. Stone Jr., the onetime political consultant and full-time provocateur, has been one of the few constants — a loyalist and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” who nurtured the dream of a presidential run by the developer-turned-television-star for 30 years.

But two months into the Trump presidency, Mr. Stone, known for his pinstripe suits, the Nixon tattoo spanning his shoulder blades and decades of outlandish statements, is under investigation for what would be his dirtiest trick — colluding with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton and put his friend in the White House.

At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, Democrats pressed James B. Comey, director of the F.B.I., for information on Mr. Stone. Asked by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, a Democrat, if he was familiar with Mr. Stone, Mr. Comey replied tersely, “Generally, yes,” before saying he could not discuss any specific person.

Mr. Stone, 64, is the best known of the Trump associates under scrutiny as part of an F.B.I. investigation into Russian interference in the election. John D. Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman whose hacked emails were released by WikiLeaks, accused him in October of having advance warning of the hacks, which the intelligence community has concluded were orchestrated by Russia.

----- 12 -----
DeVos funds group suing against transgender rights
Seen on Twitter | Parker Molloy‏ (@ParkerMolloy) | 21 March 2017

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/844279856162574338

1 & 2: School gets sued over policy protecting trans kids.
3: B. DeVos believes leaving issue up to state/local.
4: DeVos funds group suing.

[Numbers refer to screencapped stories at within tweet]

----- 13 -----
Schiff: There is now 'more than circumstantial evidence' of Trump-Russia collusion
By Madeline Conway | 03/22/17 | Politico

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/schiff-russia-trump-collusion-236386

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that there is “more than circumstantial evidence now” to suggest that President Donald Trump’s campaign may have colluded with Russia’s attempts to disrupt the election, but he would not offer details.

“I can tell you that the case is more than that,” Schiff told Chuck Todd on MSNBC. “And I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now.”

When Todd followed up, asking if he had “seen direct evidence of collusion,” Schiff would not say so directly, but insisted that he has seen some “evidence that is not circumstantial” and is worth investigating.

“I don’t want to go into specifics, but I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation, so that is what we ought to do,” Schiff said.

The FBI is currently investigating any links between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether the two parties coordinated with Russia’s suspected cyberattacks on Democratic Party officials before the election.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any such wrongdoing. While Democrats have been raising questions about the president’s relationship with Russia for months, no public evidence has emerged to tie him or his associates directly to the cyberattacks.

----- 14 -----
US officials: Info suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians
By Pamela Brown, Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN
Updated 1:31 AM ET, Thu March 23, 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/us-officials-info-suggests-trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians/index.html

Washington (CNN)The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, US officials told CNN.

This is partly what FBI Director James Comey was referring to when he made a bombshell announcement Monday before Congress that the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, according to one source.

The FBI is now reviewing that information, which includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings, according to those U.S. officials. The information is raising the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence investigators that the coordination may have taken place, though officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive and that the investigation is ongoing.

In his statement on Monday Comey said the FBI began looking into possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives because the bureau had gathered "a credible allegation of wrongdoing or reasonable basis to believe an American may be acting as an agent of a foreign power."

The White House did not comment and the FBI declined to comment.

----- 15 -----
As a former trial attorney who did hundreds of cross-examinations, I can't tell you how easily Carter Page will fold under FBI questioning.
Seth Abramson | on Twitter | 22 March 2017

BREAKING on CNN: "People connected to the [Trump] campaign were in contact [with hackers]...they were giving the thumbs up to release info."
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844705318307270659

As a former trial attorney who did hundreds of cross-examinations, I can't tell you how easily Carter Page will fold under FBI questioning.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844756220355465216

As proof of this claim (cf. attached tweet), see _every single thing_ about Page's interview w/ MSNBC's Chris Hayes:
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844756598669152256
[linkto: http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/carter-page-i-don-t-deny-meeting-with-russian-ambassador-889043011736 ]

(1) 18 U.S.C. § 1001 punishes, in the context of federal investigations, falsifying a material fact and/or using a "false writing" to do so.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844762444182433792

(2) On September 25, 2016, knowing that he was under investigation by the FBI, Page wrote this letter to Jim Comey:
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844762775758893056
[Linkto: https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/09/26/Editorial-Opinion/Graphics/2016.09.25_FBI_letter.pdf?tid=a_inl ]

(3) In the letter, Page tells Director Comey, in no uncertain terms, that "I have not met this year with any sanctioned official in Russia."
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844763051333054464

(4) This statement was not only regarding a "material fact," but indeed the very fact Page knew had put him under investigation by the FBI.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844763306501955585

(5) Page's denial was, as Page admitted in a March 2 interview, a response to claims he met with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin in Moscow in 2016.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844764087309426689

(6) But on March 2, Page told MSNBC's Chris Hayes something different from what he had told FBI Director Comey in his September 2016 letter.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844764625065275394

(7) Page, on meeting Sechin, said: "It wasn't 1-on-1. I may have been in a meeting...but I never shook [his] hand."
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844764970638225411

(8) This contrasts dramatically with the categorical denial in his letter to Comey, meaning the latter was a falsity as to a material fact.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844765301942079488

(9) The consensus among #Russiagate analysts is that Page will be the first to be turned by the FBI, the easiest to turn, and a key witness.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844765771699970049

(10) The facts above suggest Page has already violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001, faces up to 5 years in prison, and can be turned by the FBI _now_.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844766031184736257

(BONUS) The FBI only needs probable cause to secure an indictment, and only an indictment to pressure Page into turning on Trump/his allies.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844767919561072642

(DOUBLE BONUS) And here's Carter Page unambiguously admitting to meeting with a Rosneft executive in December 2016:
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844769872793915392
[linksto: https://youtu.be/MEmg4DNVFSE?t=5m33s ]

[Here is a thread link, posted later: https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844761886331613186 ]
(THREAD) BREAKING: The FBI may already have Carter Page on a major crime: 18 U.S.C. § 1001, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Read on.

----- 16 -----
A Russian Lawyer Involved In A US Prosecution Mysteriously Plunged From His Apartment Window
The case, USA v. Prevezon, was being spearheaded by now-fired US Attorney Preet Bharara.
posted on Mar. 21, 2017, at 4:19 p.m.
Mike Hayes | BuzzFeed

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/russian-lawyer-plunges-from-window?utm_term=.oyOZl8rxr#.veDBkDJzJ

A Russian lawyer who was a witness in a US federal court case connected to the largest money-laundering scheme in Russian history was hospitalized after plunging four stories on Tuesday in Moscow, a spokesman said.

There are conflicting reports about what happened to the lawyer, Nikolai Gorokhov. His spokesman, William Browder — who was an alleged victim in the money-laundering scheme — says he was “thrown from the fourth floor of his apartment building.” Russian media, often controlled by the state, says he “fell while he and workers were trying to lift a Jacuzzi into his apartment.”

“His name is redacted in all the documents,” Browder told BuzzFeed News regarding court filings in the US Southern District. “The feds were very concerned for his safety. I can confirm his role.” The Department of Justice didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The case, USA v. Prevezon, is on the brink of going to trial in Manhattan — right in the middle of a massive shakeup of federal prosecutors by President Trump.

In court filings, the Department of Justice alleges that Prevezon, a Cyprus-based real estate company owned by a Russian national, purchased several New York City apartments with funds linked to a decade-old $230 million tax fraud case — the biggest in Russian history — perpetrated by gangsters and corrupt officials. In court filings, Prevezon says the DOJ has no hard evidence to back up its claims.

Last week, after plenty of drama, Trump fired Preet Bharara, the high-profile US attorney who was handling the case. Now prominent New York City defense attorney Marc Mukasey — the son of former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who at one point was defending Prevezon — is reportedly on the shortlist to replace Bharara.

----- 17 -----
Trump’s Team Said It Didn’t Ask For Military Vehicles At Inauguration. Emails Show It Did.
“Such support would be out of guidelines,” one Pentagon official wrote.
By Jessica Schulberg | The Huffington Post | 22 March 2017

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/emails-trump-military-vehicles-inaugural-parade_us_58d094d1e4b00705db5223ed

WASHINGTON ― The month after Donald Trump won the presidential election, his staff asked the Pentagon to send photographs of military tactical vehicles that he could include in his inaugural parade, emails obtained by The Huffington Post show.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee “is seriously considering adding military vehicles to the Inaugural Parade,” a Pentagon official wrote in an internal email dated Dec. 13, 2016. “The conversation started as ‘Can you send us some pictures of military vehicles we could add to the parade,’” the official wrote.

The emails, which were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, corroborate HuffPost’s January report that Trump, who has spoken favorably of public displays of military prowess, looked into deploying heavy military equipment in his inaugural parade. Asked in December about plans to use military equipment during the occasion, a Trump aide refused to address the matter on the record but offered a vehement off-the-record denial. It’s not clear whether the aide was aware of the conversations referenced in the Pentagon emails, and he did not respond to a request for an explanation.

The author of the the Dec. 13 email, whose name was redacted, appeared uncomfortable with the request from the Trump team. “I explained that such support would be out of guidelines, and the costs associated with bringing military vehicles to the [National Capital Region] would be considered reimbursable.”

----- 18 -----
[UPDATE] Man Arrested For Deadly Midtown Stabbing Reportedly Came To NYC To Kill Black People
by Jen Chung | Gothamist |on Mar 22, 2017 12:04 pm

http://gothamist.com/2017/03/22/midtown_stabbing_arrest.php

Police are questioning a man who turned himself in for the fatal Monday night stabbing of a 66-year-old man in Midtown Manhattan. The suspect reportedly approached officers at the Times Square police station shortly after midnight this morning and said, "You need to arrest me. I have the knife in my coat"

...

Police say the victim, identified by the NY Post as Timothy Caughman, was involved in a dispute at West 36th Street and 9th Avenue on March 20th when he was stabbed in the chest and back. He then walked into the Midtown South Precinct, at 357 West 35th Street, just before 11:30 p.m., where he told officers he was stabbed. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital but doctors could not save him, and he was pronounced dead at 1 a.m. Tuesday.

...

A police source now tells the Daily News that the suspect in custody is a Maryland white supremacist who told cops he came here from Baltimore for the express purpose of murdering black people. Specifically, the News's source says the suspect was motivated "by rage against black men who get romantically involved with white women."

----- 19 -----
Racist Maryland man who fatally stabbed black New Yorker admits his intent to kill African-American men
BY Rocco Parascandola Graham Rayman Thomas Tracy | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | Updated: Thursday, March 23, 2017, 12:23 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/suspect-midtown-knife-killing-surrenders-cops-article-1.3005263?cid=bitly

A white Army vet intent on killing black men stalked one potential victim before setting his sights on another — quenching his racist thirst by driving a sword through a man in Midtown, police said.

The 26-inch weapon — with an 18-inch blade — pierced the victim’s chest just above his heart and exited his back before pinging against the sidewalk on Monday night.

White supremacist James Jackson, 28, wanted maximum exposure for his crime, telling investigators he rode 200 miles on a bus from Baltimore because New York is the “media capital of the world.”

“He wanted to make a statement,” said Assistant Chief William Aubry, head of the Manhattan detectives squad.

----- 20 -----
While Gorsuch was testifying, the Supreme Court unanimously said he was wrong
Ian Millhiser | Think Progress | 22 March 2017

https://thinkprogress.org/while-gorusch-was-testifying-the-supreme-court-unanimously-said-he-was-wrong-33b9ff7eca77#.z7zk0mmc8

About 40 minutes after Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch began his second day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, all eight of the justices he hopes to join said a major disability decision Gorsuch wrote in 2008 was wrong.

Both the Supreme Court’s decision and Gorsuch’s 2008 opinion involved the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires that public school systems which take certain federal funds provide a “free appropriate public education” to certain students with disabilities.

Applying this law to individual students, the Supreme Court acknowledged in its Wednesday opinion in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, is not an exact science. “A focus on the particular child is at the core of the IDEA,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the unanimous Supreme Court. “The instruction offered must be ‘specially designed’ to meet a child’s ‘unique needs’ through an ‘[i]ndividualized education program.’”

But while this process can be difficult, it must provide meaningful educational benefits to disabled students — which brings us to Judge Gorsuch’s error in a 2008 opinion. In Thompson R2-J School District v. Luke P., a case brought by an autistic student whose parents sought reimbursement for tuition at a specialized school for children with autism, Gorsuch read IDEA extraordinarily narrowly.

----- 21 -----
Neil Gorsuch and the “Frozen Trucker”
The judge’s infamous dissent reveals he may not have the temperament to serve on the Supreme Court.
By Jed Handelsman Shugerman | Slate | 21 March 2017

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/03/neil_gorsuch_s_arrogant_frozen_trucker_opinion_shows_he_wants_to_be_like.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_ru

I have tried to be balanced in reviewing Judge Neil Gorsuch’s record. In a post right after his nomination, I called his decision criticizing “Chevron deference” (Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch) brilliant, a thorough and deep defense of judges deciding “what the law is” rather than deferring to agency officials. His opinion in TransAm Trucking v. Administrative Review Board, though, exposes a big hole in Gorsuch’s anti-Chevron theory, showing that judges can abuse statutory interpretation just as badly as bureaucrats. Gorsuch’s opinion in what’s known as the “frozen trucker” case also demonstrates an arrogant and cold judicial personality. I have read very few modern opinions that were more callously written than Gorsuch’s TransAm dissent.

Here are the basic facts. Alphonse Maddin was a truck driver for TransAm. Late on a January night in temperatures below zero, he discovered that his trailer’s brakes had locked up due to the cold weather. (The truck itself could drive but not when attached to the trailer). He called TransAm’s road service for help at 11:17 p.m., and then discovered that the truck cabin’s heat was broken. He fell asleep and woke up two hours later with a numb torso. Maddin also could not feel his feet. He called the road service again, and they told him to “hang in there” despite the life-threatening conditions. He waited about 30 more minutes before unhitching the broken trailer. Although his supervisor ordered him to stay, Maddin decided to drive off with the truck after almost three hours in the subzero cold. A service truck did arrive 15 minutes after he left, but it’s hard to blame him for deciding not to risk his life. It’s amazing he waited so long at all.

TransAm fired Maddin for abandoning his trailer. Maddin filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the Department of Labor. He claimed that TransAm had violated the whistleblower part of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, which prohibits an employer from firing an employee who “refuses to operate a vehicle because ... the employee has a reasonable apprehension of serious injury to the employee or the public.” The agency concluded that he had indeed been fired for refusing to operate his vehicle, and that he had a reasonable apprehension of danger.

----- 22 -----
Wisconsin Republican urges cuts to college aid to keep poor students from buying ‘goodies and electronics’
Travis Gettys | Raw Story | 22 Mar 2017 at 08:36 ET

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/wisconsin-republican-urges-cuts-to-college-aid-to-keep-poor-students-from-buying-goodies-and-electronics/

A Wisconsin Republican called for cuts to federal student aid because he doesn’t approve of the way some beneficiaries spend their money.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) complained Tuesday during a congressional hearing that low-income students are spending their Pell Grant funds on commercial goods that he deems unnecessary, reported Inside Higher Ed.

“I know in many ways in this country we hate the middle class,” Grothman said. “We love the rich, we love the poor and we hate the middle class. People wonder why — sometimes they use the Pell Grants, too, for goodies and electronics, and they resent the fact that by doing it right, their kids are penalized.”

Grothman complained that poor students were given grant aid that he believes is largely subsidized by the middle class, and he said those taxpayers are resentful that their own children must take out loans to pay for their eduction.

“People get tired of the American government hating the middle class, and they have to kick in for their kids’ programs, so their (own) kids have to take out loans,” Grothman said. “Well, the kids from some other families seem to get things for free.”

He suggested first-year students should be ineligible for Pell Grants so the government was not “wasting money” on students who won’t graduate.

----- 23 -----
Corey Stewart advocates for Confederate flags, statues at Roanoke rally
By Carmen Forman | The Roanoke Times | Mar 18, 2017

http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/roanoke/corey-stewart-advocates-for-confederate-flags-statues-at-roanoke-rally/article_d1befc53-4d30-5f96-a754-8c1767e6c15a.html

With close to two dozen supporters, Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart staged a rally in Roanoke Saturday to preserve Virginia’s Confederate statues and battle flags.

Protecting Virginia’s heritage, and keeping Confederate statues in place is the top issue in the governor’s race, said Stewart, whose single-digit poll numbers show him trailing in a primary race that includes two other GOP candidates.

At Awful Arthur’s downtown, Stewart vowed as governor to defund any Virginia localities that would remove Confederate statues.

Stewart, chairman of Prince William County’s board of supervisors, was co-chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Virginia until he was fired a month before Election Day.

He has turned a fight over a the controversy involving the future of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville into his top campaign issue.

“We will never ever allow the city of Charlottesville, or Petersburg or Richmond or any other city to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee or any other Virginia military hero,” he said Saturday.

----- 24 -----
Trump's Diplomat
How Rex Tillerson Is Translating 'America First' Into Foreign Policy
By Erin McPike | Independent Journal-Review | March 21, 2017

[I'm including this because it was written by the _only_ journalist allowed on the trip]
http://ijr.com/2017/03/814687-trumps-diplomat/

When it comes to taking on the world, the two words the Trump administration swears by are “America First.”

And the man charged with carrying out that policy around the globe didn’t even want the job in the first place. For Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who until now spent the entirety of his career at ExxonMobil, the challenge he faced on a headline-grabbing trip to Asia was how to translate President Donald Trump’s mandate into a workable foreign policy.

“America First” now functions as his business charter.

It’s a starting point for Tillerson’s negotiations with his foreign counterparts who understand he has to act in the best interest of American national security and economic security. Although it may seem awkward for a diplomat trying to forge positive relationships with a host of other countries, the politically charged motto comes at a time when countries on every continent are turning toward nationalism in the face of rapid globalization.

----- 25 -----
Despite a Trust, Ivanka Trump Still Wields Power Over Her Brand
By RACHEL ABRAMS | The New York Times | MARCH 20, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/business/despite-trust-ivanka-trump-still-wields-power-over-her-brand.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

What role Ivanka Trump plays in her father’s White House is among the pressing questions at the intersection of politics and business under the Trump administration.

Since her father became president, Ms. Trump has sat in meetings with political and business leaders at the White House, drawing criticism that she could use her informal adviser role to promote her brand. Now, she also works out of a West Wing office and is in the process of getting a security clearance and government-issued devices.

To address those concerns, Ms. Trump handed over day-to-day control of her company to her top executive, Abigail Klem, and transferred its assets to a new trust overseen by relatives of her husband.

But details of the arrangement, which have not been disclosed, indicate how much power Ms. Trump continues to hold over the brand that bears her name.

Continue reading the main story
Under the trust, which was executed in the first week of March, Ms. Trump may address potential conflicts in one of two ways: recuse herself from related White House business or veto a potential business deal for her company, said Jamie Gorelick, a longtime ethics lawyer in Washington who is an independent adviser to the Ivanka M. Trump Business Trust.

Ms. Trump is the sole beneficiary, said Ms. Gorelick, who provided details of the trust and Ms. Trump’s expanding White House role in interviews.

On Monday, Ms. Trump said the trust was part of a voluntary pledge to follow rules placed on government employees.

For about a decade, Ms. Trump has licensed her name to partners that manufacture her clothes, shoes and other items. Ms. Trump, who appeared in her own advertisements, was the face of it all. Her brand is privately held, meaning that its inner workings, partners and investments are not subject to public disclosure.

----- 26 -----
Khan Breaks Silence on Canada Travel Cancellation
March 17, 2017 | Hawes Spencer | 88.9 WCVE (a public station)

http://ideastations.org/radio/news/khan-breaks-silence-canada-travel-cancellation

Gold Star father Khizr Khan has finally broken his silence on why he wouldn't travel to Canada earlier this month-- and why he won't travel abroad.

"Have you even read the United States Constitution?"

His voice echoed around the word. But so did his silence after cancelling the Canada trip. Finally, in a Friday afternoon email to this reporter, Khan explains: "I did not want to go through the hassle of uncertain rules and capricious implementation."

Khan also expressed his concern about Muslim profiling with the local bar association.

"Seeing things like Muhammed Ali Jr. being detained. Muslim but American citizens being detained at the border."

That's lawyer Lloyd Snook, who explains:

"Basically, there is no Fourth Amendment protection at the border."

A reporter sought but didn't receive a comment from U.S. Customs & Border Protection, and Khan says he won't go abroad until there's clarity.

----- 27 -----
Former Colorado GOP chairman Steven Curtis charged with voter fraud
Blair Miller | 5:23 PM, Mar 21, 2017 | ABC 7 Denver

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/former-colorado-gop-chairman-steven-curtis-charged-with-voter-fraud

WELD COUNTY, Colo. – The former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party is charged with forgery and voter fraud for allegedly forging his wife’s mail-in ballot from last year’s election, according to court records and sources.

Steven Curtis was the chairman of the state party from 1997 to 1999. He was charged Feb. 1 with one count of forgery of a public record, a fifth-degree felony, and an elections mail-in ballot offense, a misdemeanor.

...

Curtis spoke about voter fraud ahead of last year’s election.

“It seems to be, and correct me if I’m wrong here, but virtually every case of voter fraud I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats,” he told KLZ 560.

----- 28 -----
Amazing Disgrace
How did Donald Trump—a thrice-married, biblically illiterate sexual predator—hijack the religious right?
By Sarah Posner | The New Republic | March 20, 2017

https://newrepublic.com/article/140961/amazing-disgrace-donald-trump-hijacked-religious-right

Back in August 2015, when Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions were widely considered a joke, Russell Moore was worried. A prominent leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, Moore knew that some of the faithful were falling for Trump, a philandering, biblically illiterate candidate from New York City whose lifestyle and views embodied everything the religious right professed to abhor. The month before, a Washington Post poll had found that Trump was already being backed by more white evangelicals than any other Republican candidate.

Moore, a boyish-looking pastor from Mississippi, had positioned himself as the face of the “new” religious right: a bigger-hearted, diversity-oriented version that was squarely opposed to Trump’s “us versus them” rhetoric. Speaking to a gathering of religion reporters in a hotel ballroom in Philadelphia, Moore said that his “first priority” was to combat the “demonizing” and “depersonalizing” of immigrants—people, he pointed out, who were “created in the image of God.” Only by refocusing on such true “gospel” values, Moore believed, could evangelicals appeal to young people who had been fleeing the church in droves, and expand its outreach to African Americans and Latinos. Evangelicals needed to do more than win elections—their larger duty was to win souls. Moore, in short, wanted the Christian right to reclaim the moral high ground—and Trump, in his estimation, was about as low as you could get.

...

In the end, conservative Christians backed Trump in record numbers. He won 81 per- cent of the white evangelical vote—a higher share than George W. Bush, John McCain, or Mitt Romney. As a result, the religious right—which for decades has grounded its political appeal in moral “values” such as “life” and “family” and “religious freedom”—has effectively become a subsidiary of the alt-right, yoked to Trump’s white nationalist agenda. Evangelicals have traded Ronald Reagan’s gospel-inspired depiction of America as a “shining city on a hill” for Trump’s dark vision of “American carnage.” And in doing so, they have returned the religious right to its own origins—as a movement founded to maintain the South’s segregationist “way of life.”

“The overwhelming support for Trump heralds the religious right coming full circle to embrace its roots in racism,” says Randall Balmer, a historian of American religion at Dartmouth College. “The breakthrough of the 2016 election lies in the fact that the religious right, in its support for a thrice-married, self-confessed sexual predator, finally dispensed with the fiction that it was concerned about abortion or ‘family values.’ ”

...

By openly embracing the racism of the alt-right, Trump effectively played to the religious right’s own roots in white supremacy. Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute and the alt-right’s most visible spokesman, argued during the campaign that GOP voters aren’t really motivated by Christian values, as they profess, but rather by deep racial anxieties. “Trump has shown the hand of the GOP,” Spencer told me in September. “The GOP is a white person’s populist party.”

...

For alt-right Christians, Russell Moore is the embodiment of where the religious right went wrong—by refusing to openly embrace racism. Throughout his youth, Griffin says, he felt alienated by Christians like Moore who were intent on “condemning racism.” He was only drawn back into Christianity when he married the daughter of Gordon Baum, a far-right Lutheran leader who co-founded the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a virulently racist group.” Griffin says he joined the CCC, as well as the white nationalist League of the South, because both groups embody the elements he views as integral to his faith: They are “pro-white, pro-Christian, pro-South.”

Moore has become a popular target among alt-right Christians. The white supremacist and popular alt-right radio show host James Edwards, himself a Southern Baptist, regularly disparages Moore on his program, calling him a “cuck-Christian.” In June, after the Southern Baptist Convention banned displays of the Confederate flag, Edwards hosted Nathanael Strickland, proprietor of the Faith and Heritage blog. In a recent post, Strickland had argued that white Southerners “have faced a widespread and determined assault on our heritage, symbols, monuments, graves, and identity by secular and governmental forces,” and likened such supposed attacks to what Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf: that Germans faced “cultural extermination and ethnic cleansing.” Edwards seconded that analysis, declaring the Confederate flag “a Christian flag,” and arguing that to attack it “is to deny the sovereignty, the majesty, and the might of Lord Jesus Christ in his divine role in Southern history, culture, and life.”

Strickland recently told me that alt-right Christians see “racial differences” as “real, biological, and positive,” a view he insists is “merely a reaffirmation of traditional historical Christianity.” He argues that many on the alt-right who consider themselves atheists or pagans only lost their faith in Christianity “due to the antiwhite hatred and Marxist dogma held by the modern church.”

Strickland considers himself a “kinist,” part of the new white supremacist movement that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, “uses the Bible as one of the main texts for its beliefs,” offering a powerful validation to white supremacists for their racism and anti-Semitism. Strickland sees kinism as a successor to Christian Reconstructionism, a theocratic movement dating back to the 1960s that played a key role in the rise of Christian homeschooling. The movement’s primary goal was to implement biblical law—including public stonings—in every facet of American life.

...

Some, in fact, believe that Trump does not go far enough in defending the faith. Strickland, for example, views Trump as merely a “civic nationalist,” not a full-blown racial and ethnic nationalist like those on the alt-right. “There are four legs supporting the table of civilization,” he says. “Blood, religion, culture, and language. Civic nationalists only acknowledge the last three of those.” In Strickland’s view, the alt-right must now become Trump’s “loyal opposition,” prodding the president even further to the right. “The alt-right’s job in the coming months and years will be to solidify nationalism’s place in the Republican Party and push the importance of the fourth leg—blood.”

----- 29 -----
Today, Chairman Nunes shared information with WH still withheld from our committee. He cannot conduct a credible investigation this way.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) | 22 March 2017 | on Twitter

https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/844649549696286724

----- 30 -----
Hawaii Republican resigns from party after criticizing Trump
Cathy Bussewitz, Associated Press
Updated 8:20 pm, Wednesday, March 22, 2017

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/politics/article/Hawaii-Republican-resigns-from-party-after-11021245.php?cmpid=twittersocialflow

HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii lawmaker who says she was pressured to give up her leadership post at the statehouse after criticizing President Donald Trump resigned Wednesday from the Republican Party.

Rep. Beth Fukumoto said members of the GOP refused to oppose racism and sexism including a suggestion by Trump to create a Muslim registry during his campaign.

"As a Japanese-American whose grandparents had to destroy all of their Japanese artifacts and items and bury them in the backyard to avoid getting taken and interned, how could I not have said anything?" Fukumoto asked. "And how could my party have not said anything?"

Fukumoto was voted out of her post as House Minority Leader in February after calling Trump a bully in a speech at the Women's March in Honolulu, saying many of his remarks were racist and sexist and had no place in the Republican Party.

Since then, she sought feedback from her constituents about leaving the GOP and said three-quarters of the more than 470 letters she received supported the move.

----- 31 -----
Nunes claims some Trump transition messages were intercepted
The move gave cover to the White House but was rebuked by top Democrats.
By Austin Wright | 03/22/17 | Politico

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/devin-nunes-donald-trump-surveillance-obama-236366

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes declared Wednesday that members of Donald Trump’s transition team, possibly including Trump himself, were under inadvertent surveillance following November’s presidential election.

The White House and Trump’s allies immediately seized on the statement as vindication of the president’s much-maligned claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower phones — even though Nunes himself said that’s not what his new information shows.

Democrats, meanwhile, cried foul.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, cast doubt on Nunes’ claims in a fiery statement and blasted the chairman for not first sharing the information with him or other committee members.

Schiff also slammed Nunes for briefing the White House on Wednesday afternoon given that the Intelligence Committee is in the middle of an investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, including possible collusion with the Trump team.

“The chairman will need to decide whether he is the chairman of an independent investigation into conduct which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he is going to act as a surrogate of the White House, because he cannot do both,” Schiff said at a news conference Wednesday.

“And unfortunately,” he added, “I think the actions of today throw great doubt into the ability of both the chairman and the committee to conduct the investigation the way it ought to be conducted.”

----- 32 -----
Moscow had contacts with Trump team during campaign, Russian diplomat says
By David Filipov and Andrew Roth | The Washington Post | November 10, 2016

[NOTE I AM RE-RUNNING THIS ARTICLE AS A REMINDER]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/moscow-had-contacts-with-trump-team-during-campaign-russian-diplomat-says/2016/11/10/28fb82fa-a73d-11e6-9bd6-184ab22d218e_story.html

MOSCOW — Russian government officials conferred with members of Donald
Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, a
disclosure that could reopen scrutiny of the Kremlin’s role in the
president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton.

The statement came from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who
said in an interview with the Interfax news agency that “there were
contacts” with the Trump team.

“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Ryabkov
said.

“We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the
future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for
those purposes,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

Ryabkov provided no further details, and his remarks drew a swift
denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who said the campaign had “no
contact with Russian officials” before Tuesday’s election.
(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Nevertheless, the assertion from Moscow attracted attention from
national security experts after a presidential campaign that the
Kremlin, according to U.S. officials, sought to influence in
unprecedented ways.

Washington, for instance, accused the Kremlin of orchestrating hacks
into the Democratic National Committee and the emails of Clinton
campaign chairman John Podesta that led to politically embarrassing
disclosures by WikiLeaks. Trump faced criticism during the campaign for
his positive statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin and for
other Russia-friendly policy stances, although he repeatedly denied
having financial or other ties to Moscow.

----- 33 -----
The Trump Campaign Has Been Under Investigation Since July
By Evan Osnos | The New Yorker | March 20, 2017

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-trump-campaign-has-been-under-investigation-since-july?mbid=social_twitter

At 6:35 A.M. on Monday, a few hours before the House Intelligence Committee convened its first public hearing on Russian involvement in the U.S. election, President Donald J. Trump asserted once more that the issue was nothing more than an elaborate political distraction. “This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!” he tweeted, adding, a short time later, “The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!” He went on, “The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!”

Less than forty minutes into the hearing, James Comey, the director of the F.B.I., provided the latest official confirmation that the “Russian story” is not “FAKE NEWS.” It is, rather, the most serious legal scandal to confront a sitting President in nearly two decades. In an extraordinary public statement, Comey disclosed not only that the bureau is investigating Russian meddling in the campaign but that it is also looking at what relationship the Trump campaign might have had to that meddling. “The F.B.I., as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election,” Comey said. “And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coördination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” Comey, who had previously avoided confirming the existence of the investigation, acknowledged that it had become a matter of public interest to do so.

...

Last year, Comey was lambasted by Democrats for releasing information during the campaign about his agency’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server—for him, Monday’s hearing solved some problems while probably creating new ones. It demonstrated his independence and credibility at a moment when many wondered if he would be free to operate under the pressures imposed by Trump. But, because he also disclosed that the investigation of the Trump campaign began in July, Democrats will now want to know more about why he decided to inform voters about developments in the Clinton probe while keeping the Trump matter a secret.

----- 34 -----
Advocates call on lawmakers to resist environmental cuts in Trump budget
President Donald Trump abandons Puget Sound cleanup and restoration in his proposed 2018 budget, which slashes funding for the US Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental programs.
By Lynda V. Mapes | Seattle Times | 22 March 2017

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/advocates-call-on-lawmakers-to-resist-environmental-cuts-in-trump-budget/

The giant salmon and orca were props, but the eagle and outrage were real at a rally for Puget Sound on Wednesday on the waterfront of Elliott Bay.

“That eagle is here for us,” said Jim Rasmussen of the Duwamish Tribe, pointing to an eagle over the bay as he kicked off a demonstration convened by advocates for Puget Sound to push back against deep cuts in environmental programs proposed by President Donald Trump.

Trump’s spending plan for 2018 outlined for Congress includes elimination of the $28 million national estuary program for Puget Sound funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The money pays for environmental restoration and protection work, from replacing fish-blocking culverts to monitoring for pollution in shellfish beds.

Trump also wants to eliminate all funding for the Sea Grant program, a 50-year old partnership through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and universities for research, monitoring and improvement of coastal environments.

In his proposal, Trump said he was eliminating “under performing” programs and devolving the EPA’s restoration work to states and local governments.

But instead, the cuts would unravel existing partnerships that deliver more value for local communities than the programs cost, defenders said.

----- 35 -----
Freedom Caucus Closing In On Deal To Rewrite Health Care Bill At 11th Hour
Republicans are considering changes that could doom the bill in the Senate and save face in the House.
By Matt Fuller | The Huffington Post | 03/22/2017

[They are literally rewriting this overnight. No CBO review, no nothing]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/freedom-caucus-wins-major-rewrite-of-health-care-bill-at-11th-hour_us_58d31ae2e4b0b22b0d19c317?tzc1bj7m5wjx3fecdi

WASHINGTON ― Just hours before an expected Thursday vote in the House, congressional Republicans are considering massive changes to insurance coverage without even a basic idea of what those changes would mean.

According to House Freedom Caucus members, the conservative group is negotiating directly with President Donald Trump and the White House on an amendment to the Republican health care bill, seemingly cutting out GOP leadership from the conversation as Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his deputies work to corral votes for a bill that is, in these latest provisions, a mystery even to them.

The re-opening of negotiations is an admission of what has been clear all along ― that the bill as constructed by Ryan does not have the votes to pass on Thursday. It also represents a major reorganization of a significant chunk of the American economy in a matter of hours.

----- 36 -----
Rex Tillerson is clearly out of the loop and out of his depth in Trumpland
Jonathan Freedland | 22 March 2017 | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/22/rex-tillerson-out-loop-trump-secretary-state

There is a charitable reading of Rex Tillerson’s interview with the previously obscure Independent Journal Review. When the secretary of state told the IJR that “I didn’t want this job, I didn’t seek this job,” that he was “stunned” when Donald Trump offered it to him, and that he only did it because “my wife told me I’m supposed to do this,” it’s possible that he was displaying a charming modesty. Think of it as an elaborate version of the formulation favoured by celebrities on receiving an award: “I’m humbled.”

A more sceptical reading would suggest this was the former Exxon CEO’s way of signalling that he is not a politician, that he exists on a higher plane than the usual crowd of jockeying Washington careerists. (Recall that Tony Blair in his pomp was fond of telling reporters that “I don’t need to do this,” that there was more to his life than politics and that he was ready to walk away.)

Alternatively, Tillerson’s remarks could be read as an altogether less confident statement: a coded admission that he knows he is not qualified to be secretary of state, that he’s in way over his head – but we shouldn’t blame him, because it wasn’t his idea. On this reading, the secretary of state is, if anything, pointing an accusing finger at his boss: I know I’m rubbish at this, but it’s Trump’s fault for picking me.

It’s tempting to see it that way, especially for those who want to believe cracks are becoming visible in the hull of the Trump ship, even from the inside. They might note the testimony of supreme court nominee Neil Gorsuch, who on Tuesday repeated publicly the words that had previously been attributed to him privately, describing attacks on the integrity of judges, such as those frequently made by Trump, as “disheartening and demoralising”. Could these hints from two of Trump’s most important appointees, Tillerson and Gorsuch, be the first signs of mutiny?

I doubt it. The fact that Gorsuch repeated the exact same words of apparent criticism of Trump suggests that this was a licensed deviation, agreed with the White House in advance as the display of judicial independence necessary to win senate confirmation. The Trump team has been cynical in their approach to these hearings, allowing their nominees to say whatever it takes to get approved – remember attorney general Jeff Sessions posing as a valiant warrior for civil rights – and this seems likely to be in that vein.

The Tillerson remarks are more interesting, partly because they offer an explanation for why he has made such a disastrous start in the job. They suggest it’s his reluctance that accounts for the fact that he has been so rapidly sidelined. He has been repeatedly absent from Trump’s meetings with fellow heads of government; excluded from key decisions, such as the notorious travel ban; and visibly weakened, by watching as the department he heads is threatened with a budget cut of up to a third. In Washington terms, the once-mighty fossil fuel CEO looks both out of the loop and out of his depth.

So low is Tillerson’s standing that when Bob Corker, the Republican chair of the senate foreign relations committee, sought to defend him, he pointed out that the secretary of state “talks all the time to Jared,” referring to the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Inadvertently, Corker had revealed the true pecking order of Trumpland.