Trump Is a Russian-Interference Truther Once More On Twitter, the president claims vindication against claims of collusion and reverses his acknowledgement of Kremlin tampering with the election. Jun 22, 2017 On Tuesday, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer what should have been an easy question: Does the president believe that Russia interfered in the 2016 election? Spicer demurred: “I have not sat down and talked to him about that specific thing.” That answer was incredible, in both the literal and figurative senses. It was hard to believe that Spicer hadn’t discussed that topic with President Trump, and hard to believe that Trump would still be denying the now-universal view of intelligence agencies and lawmakers in both parties. In fact, Trump had acknowledged as much on January 11, at his first and only post-election press conference. But in a series of tweets Thursday morning, Trump validated Spicer’s reluctance, indicating that he has changed his mind, no longer believes there was Russian interference, and sees the whole thing as a “a big Dem HOAX!” [...] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/trumps-denial-of-russian-interference/531243/ [with comments]
Sean Hannity Likens Russia Probe To Birther Conspiracy The Fox News host has welcomed birthers on his show in the past. 06/20/2017 In an effort to discredit the investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/donald-trump ]’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, Fox News host Sean Hannity [ http://video.foxnews.com/v/5477103763001/?playlist_id=930909813001 ] compared the probe to conspiracy theories questioning where former President Barack Obama was born. “This has now become, like, Russia-Trump conspiracy - birther conspiracies, you know? Sort of truthers,” Hannity said Monday on his show. Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump and the chief council for the American Center for Law and Justice, agreed. “Right,” Sekulow said as he nodded, calling the investigation a “witch hunt” and a “false narrative.” [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-hannity-russia-birther_us_59493cf7e4b0cddbb009ba06 [with embedded non-YouTube video of the segment, and comments], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRtP5lPF60w [with comments]
Sean Hannity is a F*cking Tool Apparently suffering from amnesia, Fox News host Sean Hannity equated Russiagate with Birtherism, the vicious Obama conspiracy theory he [and, of course, Trump] helped promote. Jun 20, 2017 Sean Hannity is convinced the Trump administration has no ties to Russia and there was no collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election. How does he know this? He keeps repeating it on his show over and over and over again until in his simple little mind actually believes it. It's one thing to display acts of extreme cognitive dissonance due to personal bias (he's been doing this for over 20 years), but it's another to completely forget about a vile conspiracy theory you helped propagate, then use it as an example to illustrate how supposedly ridiculous the Russiagate theory is. On his show last night, Hannity claimed that Russiagate "has now become, like, Russia-Trump conspiracy - birther conspiracies, you know? Sort of truthers.”. [...] https://thedailybanter.com/2017/06/sean-hannity-is-a-f-cking-tool/ [with the same clip with Sekulow embedded, and comments]
This is what foreign spies see when they read President Trump’s tweets By Nada Bakos Nada Bakos was formerly a CIA analyst and targeting officer. She is the author of the forthcoming book “The Targeter: My Life in the CIA.” June 23, 2017 Every time President Trump tweets [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump ], journalists and Twitter followers attempt to analyze what he means. Intelligence agencies around the world do, too: They’re trying to determine what vulnerabilities the president of the United States may have. And he’s giving them a lot to work with. Trump’s Twitter feed is a gold mine for every foreign intelligence agency. Usually, intelligence officers’ efforts to collect information on world leaders are methodical, painstaking and often covert. CIA operatives have risked their lives to learn about [ https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/analytical/leadership-analyst.html ] foreign leaders so the United States could devise strategies to counter our adversaries. With Trump, though, secret operations are not necessary to understand what’s on his mind: The president’s unfiltered thoughts are available night and day, broadcast to his 32.7 million Twitter followers immediately and without much obvious mediation [ https://twitter.com/TrumpOrNotBot ] by diplomats, strategists or handlers. Intelligence agencies try to answer these main questions when looking at a rival head of state: Who is he as a person? What type of leader is he? How does that compare to what he strives to be or presents himself as? What can we expect from him? And how can we use this insight to our advantage? At the CIA, I tracked and analyzed terrorists and other U.S. enemies, including North Korea. But we never had such a rich source of raw intelligence about a world leader, and we certainly never had the opportunity that our adversaries (and our allies) have now — to get a real-time glimpse of a major world leader’s preoccupations, personality quirks and habits of mind. If we had, it would have given us significant advantages in our dealings with them. Trump’s tweets offer plenty of material for analysis. His frequent strong statements in reaction to news coverage or events make it appear as if he lacks impulse control. In building a profile of Trump, an analyst would offer suggestions on how foreign nations could instigate stress or deescalate situations, depending on what type of influence they may want to have over the president. For instance, ... [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/president-trumps-twitter-feed-is-a-gold-mine-for-foreign-spies/2017/06/23/e3e3b0b0-5764-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html [with comments]
G.O.P. Health Plan Is Really a Rollback of Medicaid Medicaid is the country’s largest government health care program, covering more Americans than its better-known sibling, Medicare. Percentage of People Medicaid Covers [top row: All Americans 20%, All births 49%, All nursing home residents 64% middle row: All adults 12%, All poor adults 40%, All adults with disabilities 30% bottom row: All children 39%, All poor children 76%, All children with disabilities 60%] Limiting the amount that the federal government would pay for each person would leave states with difficult choices, and would be a fundamental shift of financial risk [downward, and wealth upward]. JUNE 20, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/upshot/gop-health-plan-is-really-a-rollback-of-medicaid.html
Rand Paul: Insurance should be available for $1 a day
Paul said Friday that the Senate bill fails to address ObamaCare's subsidies to insurance companies, arguing that it continues a trend of "bailing out" insurers. "I want the bill to look more like a repeal bill. I promised people I was going to repeal it; I didn't promise people that I was going to replace it with a federal program of bailing out insurance companies," he said. "I mean, we could do this for cars," he added. "New cars are expensive. We could have a car stabilization fund." Morning Joe 6/23/17 Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., discusses the Senate GOP plan to overhaul health care, the Medicaid cuts proposed in the bill and his ideas for making health insurance affordable. Duration: 9:14 http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/rand-paul-insurance-should-be-available-for-1-a-day-974418499917 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nkylf-DOas [with comments]; http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/339123-rand-paul-insurance-should-be-available-for-1-a-day [with embedded videos]
Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.
I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.
We didn’t fight for the Affordable Care Act for more than a year in the public square for any personal or political gain – we fought for it because we knew it would save lives, prevent financial misery, and ultimately set this country we love on a better, healthier course.
Nor did we fight for it alone. Thousands upon thousands of Americans, including Republicans, threw themselves into that collective effort, not for political reasons, but for intensely personal ones – a sick child, a parent lost to cancer, the memory of medical bills that threatened to derail their dreams.
And you made a difference. For the first time, more than ninety percent of Americans know the security of health insurance. Health care costs, while still rising, have been rising at the slowest pace in fifty years. Women can’t be charged more for their insurance, young adults can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26, contraceptive care and preventive care are now free. Paying more, or being denied insurance altogether due to a preexisting condition – we made that a thing of the past.
We did these things together. So many of you made that change possible.
At the same time, I was careful to say again and again that while the Affordable Care Act represented a significant step forward for America, it was not perfect, nor could it be the end of our efforts – and that if Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it.
That remains true. So I still hope that there are enough Republicans in Congress who remember that public service is not about sport or notching a political win, that there’s a reason we all chose to serve in the first place, and that hopefully, it’s to make people’s lives better, not worse.
But right now, after eight years, the legislation rushed through the House and the Senate without public hearings or debate would do the opposite. It would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and ruin Medicaid as we know it. That’s not my opinion, but rather the conclusion of all objective analyses, from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that 23 million Americans would lose insurance, to America’s doctors, nurses, and hospitals on the front lines of our health care system.
The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.
Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.
I hope our Senators ask themselves – what will happen to the Americans grappling with opioid addiction who suddenly lose their coverage? What will happen to pregnant mothers, children with disabilities, poor adults and seniors who need long-term care once they can no longer count on Medicaid? What will happen if you have a medical emergency when insurance companies are once again allowed to exclude the benefits you need, send you unlimited bills, or set unaffordable deductibles? What impossible choices will working parents be forced to make if their child’s cancer treatment costs them more than their life savings?
To put the American people through that pain – while giving billionaires and corporations a massive tax cut in return – that’s tough to fathom. But it’s what’s at stake right now. So it remains my fervent hope that we step back and try to deliver on what the American people need.
That might take some time and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But I believe that’s what people want to see. I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines. And I believe that it’s possible – if you are willing to make a difference again. If you’re willing to call your members of Congress. If you are willing to visit their offices. If you are willing to speak out, let them and the country know, in very real terms, what this means for you and your family.
After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics. It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.
The CBO just undermined a big GOP talking point on the Senate health bill Some areas still won’t have insurance providers on individual exchanges [sic - offering policies in the individual market]. Jun 26, 2017 Updated Jun 26, 2017 [...] To repeat: “Some sparsely populated areas might have no nongroup insurance offered.” That seems like a messaging challenge for Republicans selling the speedy process, and the bill. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/26/15876826/cbo-marketplaces-insurance-meltdown
Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now 14 June 2017 In 1899, the economist Thorstein Veblen observed that silver spoons and corsets were markers of elite social position. In Veblen’s now famous treatise The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the phrase ‘conspicuous consumption’ to denote the way that material objects were paraded as indicators of social position and status. More than 100 years later, conspicuous consumption is still part of the contemporary capitalist landscape, and yet today, luxury goods are significantly more accessible than in Veblen’s time. This deluge of accessible luxury is a function of the mass-production economy of the 20th century, the outsourcing of production to China, and the cultivation of emerging markets where labour and materials are cheap. At the same time, we’ve seen the arrival of a middle-class consumer market that demands more material goods at cheaper price points. However, the democratisation of consumer goods has made them far less useful as a means of displaying status. In the face of rising social inequality, both the rich and the middle classes own fancy TVs and nice handbags. They both lease SUVs, take airplanes, and go on cruises. On the surface, the ostensible consumer objects favoured by these two groups no longer reside in two completely different universes. Given that everyone can now buy designer handbags and new cars, the rich have taken to using much more tacit signifiers of their social position. Yes, oligarchs and the superrich still show off their wealth with yachts and Bentleys and gated mansions. But the dramatic changes in elite spending are driven by a well-to-do, educated elite, or what I call the ‘aspirational class’. This new elite cements its status through prizing knowledge and building cultural capital, not to mention the spending habits that go with it – preferring to spend on services, education and human-capital investments over purely material goods. These new status behaviours are what I call ‘inconspicuous consumption’. None of the consumer choices that the term covers are inherently obvious or ostensibly material but they are, without question, exclusionary. The rise of the aspirational class and its consumer habits is perhaps most salient in the United States. The US Consumer Expenditure Survey data reveals that, since 2007, the country’s top 1 per cent (people earning upwards of $300,000 per year) are spending significantly less on material goods, while middle-income groups (earning approximately $70,000 per year) are spending the same, and their trend is upward. Eschewing an overt materialism, the rich are investing significantly more in education, retirement and health – all of which are immaterial, yet cost many times more than any handbag a middle-income consumer might buy. The top 1 per cent now devote the greatest share of their expenditures to inconspicuous consumption, with education forming a significant portion of this spend (accounting for almost 6 per cent of top 1 per cent household expenditures, compared with just over 1 per cent of middle-income spending). In fact, top 1 per cent spending on education has increased 3.5 times since 1996, while middle-income spending on education has remained flat over the same time period. The vast chasm between middle-income and top 1 per cent spending on education in the US is particularly concerning because, unlike material goods, education has become more and more expensive in recent decades. Thus, there is a greater need to devote financial resources to education to be able to afford it at all. According to Consumer Expenditure Survey data from 2003-2013, the price of college tuition increased 80 per cent, while the cost of women’s apparel increased by just 6 per cent over the same period. Middle-class lack of investment in education doesn’t suggest a lack of prioritising as much as it reveals that, for those in the 40th-60th quintiles, education is so cost-prohibitive it’s almost not worth trying to save for. [...] https://aeon.co/ideas/conspicuous-consumption-is-over-its-all-about-intangibles-now [with embedded audio, and comments] [also at/dated per http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170614-the-new-subtle-ways-the-rich-signal-their-wealth ]
*
I moved my kids out of America. It was the best parenting decision I've ever made. June 13, 2017 "I really wish you'd reconsider your decision," my neighbor Steve said. He strode over, hands on hips, and added, "I hear it's dangerous down there. I'm really worried about your kids." The decision he was referring to was the radical idea that my husband and I had settled on. We were moving, along with our two young sons — at age 7 and 9 — from small town U.S.A. to a modest mountain village in Ecuador. Steve wasn't the only one with concerns. My brother, who normally lauded my parenting choices, was ominously silent on this one, afraid that talking about it would make it real, give it life and validation. Some of our friends turned on us, calling us terrible parents, or saying we were unpatriotic. Why would we want to leave the land of the free and the home of the brave? And where was Ecuador, anyway? Somewhere near Mexico? Africa? We were taking our children to a country that most Americans can't even point to on a map. What were we thinking? Well, we were thinking a lot of things, and taking a number of factors into consideration. In America, it seemed every third child was taking pharmaceuticals to treat behavioral issues, anxiety, or depression. High school students were unloading automatic weapons into their classmates. Opioid use was reaching all new highs. Bank executives were defrauding their customers and Wall Street was walking an increasingly thin tight rope. It felt like The American Dream as we knew it was all but gone, having transformed into a shadowy unknown. We fretted about what the future would hold for our family. We thought maybe, just maybe, a simpler lifestyle somewhere else was the answer. And so, in 2011, our family walked up to the edge of the unknown, took a deep breath, and jumped. [...] http://theweek.com/articles/703660/moved-kids-america-best-parenting-decision-ive-ever-made
--
Trump’s bluff on White House tapes wasn’t just dishonest — it was also a failure original title: Gingrich just admitted [and Trump then confirmed] Trump was being dishonest about White House tapes — because nothing matters Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich in July 2016. June 22, 2017 President Trump acknowledged Thursday that he doesn't have any tapes of conversations with former FBI director James B. Comey, finally coming clean after playing a nearly six-week-long game. "With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea... ...whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings. 11:55 AM - 22 Jun 2017" [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/877932907137966080 (with {over 12,000} comments), https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/877932956458795008 (with {over 32,000} comments)] And in the end, it wasn't just another bluff from Trump; it was another bluff that was called and that continued to chip away at Trump's honesty and credibility, for no discernible benefit. The president last month wielded those potential tapes as a very thinly veiled threat against Comey [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/12/president-trump-is-the-threatener-in-chief/ ]. And ever since then, Trump and the White House have decided to withhold the truth from the American people, refusing to answer a simple yes-or-no question about whether they had tapes. "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! 7:26 AM - 12 May 2017" [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473 (with {over 61,000} comments)] But Newt Gingrich just gave away the game earlier Thursday, for all intents and purposes. In an interview with the Associated Press [ https://apnews.com/amp/6eef6ee955ea44e3b6c828f1d5477b7f ], the Trump-backing former House speaker basically admitted that Trump was bluffing to try to get inside Comey's head. “I think he was, in his way, instinctively trying to rattle Comey,” Gingrich said. “He's not a professional politician. He doesn't come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: 'I'll outbluff you.' ” Apparently not being a “professional politician” is a license for dishonesty — because that's what this was. This is just the latest in a long line of Trump bluffs. There was the time he was going to force the House to vote on its health-care bill, pass or fail, until he urged that it be delayed [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/24/donald-trump-played-a-game-of-chicken-with-house-republicans-then-he-blinked/ ] in the face of defeat. There was the time during the spending debate when the White House signaled that Trump would allow a shutdown if the bill didn't fund his border wall, only to back down [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/25/president-trump-just-had-his-bluff-called-again/ ] a couple of days later. More examples abound [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/27/the-real-danger-of-president-trumps-bluffing/ ]. But this has been a particularly brazen brand of bluffing from the president of the United States. Trump threatened a former top government official using a falsehood to try to get him to soften his testimony. It's not difficult to attach this to the lengthening list of things suggesting that Trump has tampered in the Russia investigation or even obstructed justice in doing so. And for a president who has huge trouble with facts [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/ ], it displays a striking disregard for the truth. No, Trump never said clearly that he had the tapes, but he has left that possibility out there for weeks, refusing to go on the record. Politics tends to be a rough-and-tumble business, but this is pretty unapologetic political nihilism, plain and simple. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/22/gingrich-just-admitted-trump-was-being-dishonest-about-white-house-tapes-because-nothing-matters/ [with embedded videos, and comments]
Six-week ‘tapes’ saga comes to a very un-Trumpian end Rather than a flashy press conference, the president put out a carefully worded tweet saying that, contrary to earlier claims, he didn't record conversations with fired FBI director James Comey. 06/22/2017 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/22/donald-trump-james-comey-tapes-239878 [with comments]
Trump Sued For Allegedly Violating Presidential Records Act President Trump and the Executive Office of the President have been sued over alleged violations of the Presidential Records Act. June 22, 2017 Two government watchdog groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, filed a lawsuit [ https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-sues-president-trump-presidential-records/ ] Thursday against President Trump and the Executive Office of the President. The complaint alleges that White House staffers' widely reported use [ https://www.wired.com/2017/02/white-house-encryption-confide-app/ ] of encrypted messaging apps, such as Signal and Confide, for internal communication violates the Presidential Records Act. In the lawsuit, the groups claim the Trump administration has "failed to adopt adequate policies and guidelines to maintain and preserve presidential records." Encrypted messaging apps automatically delete messages, which would prevent those communications from being archived. "The American people not only deserve to know how their government is making important decisions, it's the law," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. "By deleting these records, the White House is destroying essential historical records." Presidential records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act while a president is in office. However, they become eligible under the PRA five years (and 12 years for classified material) after a president leaves office. Additionally, the lawsuit draws attention to Trump's use of his personal Twitter account. Under the Obama administration, social media posts were included as a type of communication to be archived under the PRA. Any of Trump's statements made on Twitter are subject to federal record keeping, and the lawsuit argues that any deleted tweets would count as a violation of the PRA as well. The lawsuit points to an instance in November when Trump deleted a tweet about meeting with generals at his Mar-a-Lago resort [and, of course, there was "covfefe"]. [...] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533977417/trump-sued-for-allegedly-violating-presidential-records-act
--
In Yemen’s secret prisons, UAE tortures and US interrogates A former detainee shows how he was kept in handcuffs and leg shackles while held in a secret prison at Riyan airport in the Yemeni city of Mukalla in this May 11, 2017 photo. He covered his face for fear of being detained again. He and other former detainees say abuses are widespread in a network of secret prisons run by the United Arab Emirates and its Yemeni allies, into which hundreds detained in the hunt for al-Qaida militants have disappeared. The United Arab Emirates and Yemeni forces run a secret network of prisons where prisoners are brutally tortured. The U.S. has questioned some detainees, and have regular access to their testimony -- a potential violation of international law. (June 21) Inside a secret prison in Yemen. Jun. 22, 2017 Updated Jun. 23, 2017 MUKALLA, Yemen (AP) — Hundreds of men swept up in the hunt for al-Qaida militants have disappeared into a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen where abuse is routine and torture extreme — including the “grill,” in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire, an Associated Press investigation has found. Senior American defense officials acknowledged Wednesday that U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses. Interrogating detainees who have been abused could violate international law, which prohibits complicity in torture. The AP documented [ https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v1/items/935fff20b9f7437d9bc720ee5c671cab/preview/YEMENI%20PRISONS%20MAP.JPEG?s=298x512 ] at least 18 clandestine lockups [ https://interactives.ap.org/yemen-prison/ ] across southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or by Yemeni forces created and trained by the Gulf nation, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. All are either hidden or off limits to Yemen’s government, which has been getting Emirati help in its civil war with rebels over the last two years. The secret prisons [ https://apnews.com/4925f7f0fa654853bd6f2f57174179fe ] are inside military bases, ports, an airport, private villas and even a nightclub. Some detainees have been flown to an Emirati base across the Red Sea in Eritrea, according to Yemen Interior Minister Hussein Arab and others. Several U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the topic, told AP that American forces do participate in interrogations of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies. They said U.S. senior military leaders were aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when U.S. forces were present. “We always adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct,” said chief Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White when presented with AP’s findings. “We would not turn a blind eye, because we are obligated to report any violations of human rights.” In a statement to the AP, the UAE’s government denied the allegations. “There are no secret detention centers and no torture of prisoners is done during interrogations.” Inside war-torn Yemen, however, lawyers and families say nearly 2,000 men have disappeared into the clandestine prisons, a number so high that it has triggered near-weekly protests among families seeking information about missing sons, brothers and fathers. None of the dozens of people interviewed by AP contended that American interrogators were involved in the actual abuses. Nevertheless, obtaining intelligence that may have been extracted by torture inflicted by another party would violate the International Convention Against Torture and could qualify as war crimes, said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University who served as special counsel to the Defense Department until last year. At one main detention complex at Riyan airport in the southern city of Mukalla, former inmates described being crammed into shipping containers smeared with feces and blindfolded for weeks on end. They said they were beaten, trussed up on the “grill,” and sexually assaulted. According to a member of the Hadramawt Elite, a Yemeni security force set up by the UAE, American forces were at times only yards away. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “We could hear the screams,” said a former detainee held for six months at Riyan airport. “The entire place is gripped by fear. Almost everyone is sick, the rest are near death. Anyone who complains heads directly to the torture chamber.” He was flogged with wires, part of the frequent beatings inflicted by guards against all the detainees. He also said he was inside a metal shipping container when the guards lit a fire underneath to fill it with smoke. Like other ex-detainees, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested again. The AP interviewed him in person in Yemen after his release from detention. The AP interviewed 10 former prisoners, as well as a dozen officials in the Yemeni government, military and security services and nearly 20 relatives of detainees. The chief of Riyan prison, who is well known among families and lawyers as Emirati, did not reply to requests for comment. Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, said the abuses “show that the US hasn’t learned the lesson that cooperating with forces that are torturing detainees and ripping families apart is not an effective way to fight extremist groups.” Human Rights Watch issued a report [ https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/22/yemen-uae-backs-abusive-local-forces ] Thursday documenting torture and forced disappearances at the UAE-run prisons and calling on the Emirates to protect detainees’ rights. Amnesty International called for a U.N.-led investigation “into the UAE’s and other parties’ role in setting up this horrific network of torture” and into allegations the U.S. interrogated detainees or received information possibly obtained from torture. “It would be a stretch to believe the US did not know or could not have known that there was a real risk of torture,” said Amnesty’s director of research in the Middle East, Lynn Maalouf. Defense Secretary James Mattis has praised the UAE as “Little Sparta” for its outsized role in fighting against al-Qaida. U.S. forces send questions to the Emirati forces holding the detainees, which then send files and videos with answers, said Yemeni Brig. Gen. Farag Salem al-Bahsani, commander of the Mukalla-based 2nd Military District, which American officials confirmed to the AP. He also said the United States handed authorities a list of most wanted men, including many who were later arrested. Al-Bahsani denied detainees were handed over to the Americans and said reports of torture are “exaggerated.” The network of prisons echoes the secret detention facilities set up by the CIA to interrogate terrorism suspects in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In 2009, then-President Barack Obama disbanded the so-called “black sites.” The UAE network in war-torn Yemen was set up during the Obama administration and continues operating to this day. “The UAE was one of the countries involved in the CIA’s torture and rendition program,” said Goodman, the NYU law professor. “These reports are hauntingly familiar and potentially devastating in their legal and policy implications.” The UAE is part of a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition meant to help Yemen’s government fight Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who overran the north of the country. At the same time, the coalition is helping the U.S. target al-Qaida’s local branch, one of the most dangerous in the world, as well as Islamic State militants. A small contingent of American forces routinely moves in and out of Yemen, the Pentagon says, operating largely along the southern coast. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has escalated drone strikes in the country to more than 80 so far this year, up from around 21 in 2016, the U.S. military said. At least two commando raids were ordered against al-Qaida, including one in which a Navy SEAL was killed along with at least 25 civilians [ https://apnews.com/d927fc2962f44a6d8edf6a790b556bbc/pro-government-tribal-leader-among-dead-us-raid-yemen ]. A U.S. role in questioning detainees in Yemen has not been previously acknowledged. [...] https://www.apnews.com/4925f7f0fa654853bd6f2f57174179fe/In-Yemen's-secret-prisons,-UAE-tortures-and-US-interrogates [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=39471610 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132516987 (and any future following)]
U.S. Tied to Torture in Network of Secret Yemen Prisons Run by UAE
Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press have just published explosive new reports on a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni forces. Dozens of people, including children, have been "arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and abused" in these prisons, according to Human Rights Watch. American forces reportedly participated in interrogations of detainees who were abused, a potential violation of international law. For more, we speak to Kristine Beckerle of Human Rights Watch. June 22, 2017 https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/22/us_tied_to_torture_in_network [with non-YouTube version of the included YouTube embedded, and transcript], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIR2CPze6cs [with comments] [id.]
--
Full Show - Sean Hannity Is The Most Courageous Member Of The Mainstream Media - 06/22/2017
Published on Jun 22, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel
Thursday, June 22nd 2017[, with Anthony Cumia hosting the fourth hour]: Democrats Turn On Each Other - Democrats turn on house leader Nancy Pelosi as they continue to lose election after election. We have an explosive guest lineup on today's broadcast including, Dr. Jerome Corsi, Peter Schiff and Col. Tony Shaffer. They will discuss radical Islam's takeover of Europe, Trump's ongoing battle against globalism and the dying MSM.
Alex Jones Fascist Rant: Discharge Constitution & Deport Political Opponents
Published on Jun 22, 2017 by Reich-Wing Watch
Self-proclaimed "libertarian" and defender of the constitution Alex Jones has called for Donald Trump to now throw out the constitution and create a fascist state to silence his critics.
Creationist Noah's Ark Park Hilariously Blames Atheists for Its Declining Profits
Photo Credit: YouTube
You'd think God would do more to save it.
By Kali Holloway June 21, 2017, 1:51 PM GMT
A Noah’s ark-themed museum in Williamstown, Kentucky was supposed to bring in a deluge of tourists to flood local businesses and leave owners awash in profits. Instead, a local news outlet [ http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article154014269.html ] reports business proprietors overwhelmingly say their bottom lines have remained unchanged. That’s particularly bad news considering that Answers in Genesis, the ministry behind the Ark Encounter, was given huge financial breaks, from state tax incentives to generous reductions in property taxes. Now Ken Ham, the Creationist head of AiG, says the blame for the park’s failures should be laid at feet of atheists and the press.
“Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure,” Ham wrote on his blog [ https://answersingenesis.org/ministry-news/ark-encounter/secularist-media-war-against-ark-continues/ ] earlier this month. “Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking.”
“Nowadays, it seems very few reporters in the secular media actually want to report facts regarding what they cover as news. When it comes to reporting on theologically conservative Christians like those of us at AiG, whose ideology they strongly oppose, many writers have an agenda to undermine Christianity as they file their stories.”
The Daily Kos [ https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/20/1337939/-Creationists-Ark-Park-Tax-Subsidy-Threatened-By-Bigoted-Hiring-Practices ] points to an article in the publication Church & State that notes Ark Encounter was given "$18 million in state tax incentives to offset the cost of the park's construction; a 75 percent property tax break over 30 years from the City of Williamstown (a town of about 3,000 near where the park will be located); an $11-million road upgrade in a rural area that would almost exclusively facilitate traffic going to and from the park; a $200,000 gift from the Grant County Industrial Development Authority to make sure the project stays in that county; 100 acres of reduced-price land and, finally $62 million municipal bond issue from Williamstown that Ham claims has kept the project from sinking.”
“It’s a really bad deal for taxpayers,” Steve Wood, a judge-executive from the area told the Lexington Herald Leader [ http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article154014269.html ]. Wood took office after the incentives were granted. “It was a shock for me because I didn’t really know all the details. Maybe I should have.”
The park says it provides jobs for roughly 900 people, all of whom have to “confirm agreement with Ark Encounter’s Statement of Faith,” according to the Ark Encounter employment website [ https://arkencounter.com/jobs/ ]. The requirement demands applicants “must profess, interalia, that homosexuality is a sin on par with bestiality and incest, that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and that the bible is literally true in order to be considered for the job.”
Intel chiefs tell investigators Trump suggested they refute collusion with Russians June 22, 2017 Updated June 22, 2017 (CNN) — Two of the nation's top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team and Senate investigators, in separate meetings last week, that President Donald Trump suggested they say publicly there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russians, according to multiple sources. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers described their interactions with the President about the Russia investigation as odd and uncomfortable, but said they did not believe the President gave them orders to interfere, according to multiple sources familiar with their accounts. Sources say both men went further than they did in June 7 public hearings, when they provided little [sic - no] detail about the interactions. [...] http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/intel-chiefs-trump-refute-collusion/index.html [with embedded videos]
Coats Tells House Investigators President Trump Seemed Obsessed with Russia Probe National Intelligence Director Dan Coats appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Jun 22 2017 Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told House investigators Thursday that President Trump seemed obsessed with the Russia probe and repeatedly asked him to say publicly there was no evidence of collusion, a U.S. official familiar with the conversation told NBC News. Coats’ account is not new — it largely tracked with his story as previously reported by NBC News [ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-asked-top-intel-officials-push-back-publicly-russia-probe-n763336 ] and other media outlets, the official said. Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the NSA, has also told associates that Trump asked him to say publicly there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian election interference effort. Both Rogers and Coats declined to do that, saying it would have been inappropriate, a former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter told NBC News. Rogers had his deputy write a memo about the conversation. NBC News has reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Trump’s requests of the two officials as part of an investigation into whether the president obstructed justice. [...] A former senior intelligence official familiar with their accounts said both Coats and Rogers were trying to balance their service to the country and to the president with their desire not to be seen as in any way interfering in an ongoing FBI investigation. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coats-tells-house-investigators-president-trump-seemed-obsessed-russia-probe-n775756 [with embedded videos]
--
Election Hackers Altered Voter Rolls, Stole Private Data, Officials Say Jun 22, 2017 The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful attempt to alter voter information, and the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like partial Social Security numbers, current and former officials tell TIME. In one case, investigators found there had been a manipulation of voter data in a county database but the alterations were discovered and rectified, two sources familiar with the matter tell TIME. Investigators have not identified whether the hackers in that case were Russian agents. The fact that private data was stolen from states is separately providing investigators a previously unreported line of inquiry in the probes into Russian attempts to influence the election. In Illinois, more than 90% of the nearly 90,000 records stolen by Russian state actors contained drivers license numbers, and a quarter contained the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, according to Ken Menzel, the General Counsel of the State Board of Elections [ http://www.elections.il.gov/ ]. Congressional investigators are probing whether any of this stolen private information made its way to the Trump campaign, two sources familiar with the investigations tell TIME. “If any campaign, Trump or otherwise, used inappropriate data the questions are, How did they get it? From whom? And with what level of knowledge?” the former top Democratic staffer on the House Intelligence Committee [ https://intelligence.house.gov/ ], Michael Bahar, tells TIME. “That is a crux of the investigation." [...] http://time.com/4828306/russian-hacking-election-widespread-private-data/ [with embedded video]
Trump White House Has Taken Little Action To Stop Next Election Hack Jun 24 2017 The Trump administration has taken little meaningful action to prevent Russian hacking, leaking and disruption in the next national election in 2018, despite warnings from intelligence officials that it will happen again, officials and experts told NBC News. "This attack is really the political equivalent of 9/11 — it is deadly, deadly serious," said Michael Vickers, a career intelligence official who was the Pentagon's top intelligence official in the Obama administration. "The Russians will definitely be back [ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/red-alert-election-systems-20-states-targeted-hackers-n657036 ], given the success they had…I don't see much evidence of a response." According to recent Congressional testimony, Trump has shown no interest in the question of how to prevent future election interference by Russia or another foreign power. Former FBI Director James Comey told senators that Trump never asked him about how to stop a future Russian election cyber attack [ http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hacking-in-america/election-over-russia-still-hacking-n683651 ], and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who sits on the National Security Council, testified that he has not received a classified briefing on Russian election interference. Dozens of state officials told NBC News they have received little direction from Washington about election security. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said this week he had never addressed the matter with Trump. That apparent top-level indifference, coupled with a failure to fill key jobs at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, has resulted in a government paralyzed by inaction when it comes to protecting the next election, experts and government officials told NBC News. "The Trump administration is woefully missing in action," said Gregory Miller, co-founder of the Silicon Valley based Open Source Election Technology Institute, a non-profit research group. "It isn't happening," said David Jefferson, a voter security expert and computer scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, when asked whether he saw a U.S. government effort to address the problem. "Many states are very leery or afraid of federal regulation of their election system, even though they are not prepared to defend against the new generation of threats." The White House disputes the idea that it hasn't taken action to protect election systems. One White House official said the U.S. is responding in a variety of ways, "some you'll see, some you won't see…You certainly don't want to telegraph your moves." [...] http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-white-house-has-taken-little-action-stop-next-election-n776116
*
The Kremlin's Investment in Trump Is Paying Off
Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Vladimir Putin in late January from the Oval Office.
The president’s policies in office have aligned almost perfectly with Vladimir Putin’s goals.
By Neera Tanden Jun 24, 2017
Fifty-four years ago this month, former President John F. Kennedy delivered the “Strategy of Peace,” a powerful address that captured America’s indispensable leadership at the height of the Cold War. Kennedy knew that our country could not guard against the Soviet Union alone, for he believed that “genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts.”
Incredibly, the man who now leads the United States seems to find himself locked in an alarming and perilous embrace with the Russian government. These ties threaten to weaken a system of alliances that have held Russia—and countless other threats to the international community—at bay since the conclusion of the Second World War.
In his Senate testimony two weeks ago, former FBI Director James Comey affirmed a disturbing suspicion: that Donald Trump first undermined Comey, by leaning on him to drop his investigation of former National Security-Adviser Michael Flynn, and then removed him from his post. Since then, events have escalated at a dizzying pace: Trump accused Comey of lying under oath [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/us/politics/trump-comey.html ] about their interactions earlier this year, even as he cheered Comey’s public assertion that the president wasn’t under FBI investigation. Soon, reports emerged that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating obstruction-of-justice allegations against the president—revelations Trump was none too happy [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875321478849363968 ] about. And all the while, rumors have continued to swirl that Trump may fire both Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who’s overseeing the special counsel inquiry.
But Trump’s reckless handling of these events should not distract from a startling reality: As the president faces accusations of colluding with the Russians during last year’s campaign, his policies in office have aligned almost perfectly with the Kremlin’s goals. If Moscow wanted its interference in America’s election to yield dividends, it could hardly have hoped for more.
Just as importantly, while Trump has expressed concern over the “cloud” the Russia investigation generated, he has seemed indifferent overall to Russia’s direct attempts to interfere with the American democratic process. According to Comey’s testimony, Trump never asked him [ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/08/full-text-james-comey-trump-russia-testimony-239295 ] about the meddling, or how to prevent similar interference in the future. Not once.
Trump himself has seemingly courted the favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin since the 2016 presidential campaign. He’s repeatedly praised Putin’s leadership, refused to condemn Russian efforts to disrupt the U.S. system of free elections, and openly encouraged Russian hacking of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Friday’s explosive report [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.57feae0c23f6 (excerpted above as part of the coverage of Jeh Johnson's June 21, 2017 testimony)] from The Washington Post confirmed that Putin was deeply and directly involved in an operation to hurt Clinton’s candidacy and help elect Trump.
What’s more, in every way he can, Trump has deferred to Russia on matters of foreign policy. After Russian forces deployed their hacking tools during the recent French presidential election, Trump invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the White House and failed to repudiate the attack against a vital American ally. Instead, during his meeting with Lavrov, Trump divulged highly sensitive classified information provided by Israel, another crucial U.S. partner. (That May 10 meeting also came a day after Trump removed Comey, who was leading the inquiries into collusion; Trump told the Russians that the director’s dismissal had alleviated “great pressure” on him.) Even more recently, the Trump administration has reportedly taken steps to return two diplomatic compounds that former President Barack Obama stripped from Russia following its actions during last year’s election.
When Americans step back and consider this stunning series of actions, they should be left with unsettling questions: What are Donald Trump’s reasons for doing this? What exactly does he have to hide?
In the “Strategy of Peace,” Kennedy described his belief that peace “must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. … We must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together.”
Today, it is the responsibility of this generation of Americans to help preserve international peace, to honor the allies who have stood by their side for decades, and to maintain the United States’ place as the leader of the free world.
The American system of checks and balances is only as strong as the leaders who have the character and courage to enforce them. Unless they denounce and punish any attempt to interfere with the special counsel’s investigation, demand accountability from the administration, and put their duty to their country over their duty to any political party, those checks and balances won’t protect America’s democracy.
Infowars Nightly News LIVE - Red Alert! Leftists Plan To Kill Trump Exposed
Streamed live on Jun 22, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel
Trump Supporter Angry At ABC News For Covering Legit News Story There’s no such thing as a good breakup. 06/22/2017 Updated June 23, 2017 Is it a sign of the times [yep] or simply the eccentric reaction of one person [nope]? A Donald Trump [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/donald-trump ] supporter in Boerne, Texas, has paid for a billboard telling ABC News he is angry they are covering a legitimate news story. Of course, he didn’t phrase it in exactly those terms. Kyle Courtney grew up watching ABC News, but he’s angry that the network keeps harping on all those pesky allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. You know, stories such as former Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson telling a congressional committee Wednesday exactly how Russia meddled in the vote [ http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/homeland-security-chief-testifies-capitol-hill-detailing-russia-48195807?cid=alerts_russia ]. Courtney decided to make his thoughts very public this week with the billboard in the city about 40 miles northwest of San Antonio, Texas, that says: “ABC News: I grew up with you. We are through. The Russians didn’t elect Donald Trump. I did.” It should be noted that Courtney didn’t actually elect Trump, the Electoral College [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/electoral-college-donald-trump_us_58581038e4b08debb78a05e8 ] did. Trump won 30 states and 306 Electoral College votes even though about 3 million more people voted for Hillary Clinton. Courtney’s sign is expected to stay up for two months [ http://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/boerne-man-renounces-abc-news-shows-support-for-trump-with-large-billboard ], according to the NBC News San Antonio affiliate. Courtney, who runs a business drilling water wells, gave a statement to HuffPost elaborating on why he’s angry: “ABC News was the only channel I watched as a child growing up in Texas but I think they have lost touch with America and forgotten the working man. They don’t represent our voice anymore. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was funded by the Clinton Foundation in close coordination with the media, and now we’re seeing them try to fix what they couldn’t fix during the election. They are doing everything they can, night after night, to create narratives and sway people’s direction to impeach Donald Trump. Our democracy is at stake when a major political party and the media are in bed together. I’m not asking anyone to boycott the Democratic Party. I’m not in the brainwashing business, but the liberal media is.” He says the support he’s getting for his breakup billboard is overwhelming. “I’m considering starting a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to buy up vacant billboards for various Trump supporters who otherwise couldn’t afford it to make their voices known,” he told HuffPost by email. Courtney also says he won’t change his mind about ABC even if the evidence proves Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. “This was not an easy decision. For 35 years I have watched how their agenda has changed. This didn’t just start with Donald Trump, I watched them systematically destroy George Bush and hand us Barack Obama on a silver platter.” [...] A spokeswoman for ABC in New York, asked for a response, emailed HuffPost: “Thank you for the heads up. I’m sorry we don’t have anything to add.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kyle-courtney-billboard-abc-news_us_594bfdc6e4b0a3a837be4e86 [with comments]
The Senate health care bill is a repudiation of every promise the president made to the American public about his approach to the health care system. Duration: 6:01
Hayes: Trump’s tapes claim was 'a preposterous bluff'
All In with Chris Hayes 6/22/17
President Trump confirmed today what anyone paying attention had already concluded - that there are, of course, no tapes of his conversations with then-FBI Director James Comey. Duration: 1:34
Trump tweets there are no Comey tapes, Democrats scoff
All In with Chris Hayes 6/22/17
Even though President Trump now says he has no tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee say that raises more questions. Congressman Eric Swalwell weighs in. Duration: 5:04
Trump properties flourishing after Trump's many visits
All In with Chris Hayes 6/22/17
The President has spent a full quarter of his presidency visiting Trump properties – and it’s been a huge boon to the Trump Organization’s bottom line. Duration: 2:37
GOP threat to Medicaid threatens liberty of millions of Americans
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/22/17
Rachel Maddow tells the history of ADAPT and the activism of disabled Americans and points out the leadership role these activists have taken in challenging the Republican plan to take Medicaid away from millions. Duration: 21:09
Sen Murphy: Now is the time to be heard on health care
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/22/17
Senator Chris Murphy talks with Rachel Maddow about the Republican tactic to try to quickly push their health bill through hoping Americans won't notice, and the importance of public feedback, particularly to persuadable Republicans. Duration: 6:37
Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's habit of making empty threats about tape recordings, and famous actual presidential tapes. Duration: 5:33
Voter data manipulated in 2016 cyberattacks: report
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/22/17
Rachel Maddow relays new details in what is being learned about the cyberattacks on the 2016 U.S. election and new reports that investigators are looking into whether stolen voter data made its way to the Donald Trump campaign. Duration: 2:24
Lawrence: We may not have heard the end of tapes and Trump
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 6/22/17
Donald Trump has finally admitted that he does not have recordings of his conversations but hints at conspiracy theories. Lawrence O'Donnell says he only tweeted the initial claim that put him in this messy position because Trump can't keep himself from lying. Duration: 9:56
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't yet have the votes for the health care bill that cuts Medicaid and four GOP senators haven't committed to voting yes. Neera Tanden and Adam Jentleson join Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 6:58
Paul Ryan's challenger: Ryan not listening, Trump untrustworthy
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 6/22/17
Wisconsin ironworker Randy Bryce will challenge Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election in 2018. If Bryce wins, it would be the third time since 1862 that a Speaker of the House has lost re-election. Lawrence O'Donnell talks to Randy Bryce. Duration: 7:07
Dems on Trump claim there are no Comey tapes: Prove it
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/22/17
On Twitter, Pres. Trump now says he has 'no idea' whether there are tapes of his conversations with Comey. Democrats on the Hill want proof. Guest host Nicolle Wallace discusses with our panel. Duration: 8:38
Dem Senator: Trump 'absolutely' tried to intimidate Comey
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/22/17
Oregon Democrat, Sen. Jeff Merkley joins MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in for Brian Williams to discuss Trump's claim he has no 'tapes' of fired FBI Director James Comey. Duration: 1:55
Dem Senator: Senate GOP health care bill is a 'horror show'
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/22/17
Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley joins MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in for Brian Williams to discuss his major concerns with the health care bill released by Senate Democrats. Duration: 4:04
Dems divided over Pelosi remaining on as their House leader
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/22/17
Will Democrats replace Nancy Pelosi as their party leader in the House of Representatives? Joining MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in for Brian Williams, our political panel reacts. Duration: 4:50
Is Pres. Trump trying to be his own communications director?
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/22/17
A new report in POLITICO makes the case that Pres. Trump would rather be his own communications director. Our panel discusses with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in for Brian Williams. Duration: 1:51
Whatever Trump Is Selling, His People Are Buying: The Daily Show
Published on Jun 22, 2017 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
President Trump is met with applause after saying the U.S.-Mexico border wall will be made of solar panels and bragging that his cabinet is filled with Wall Street bankers.
this is part 6 of a 17-part post which proceeds (point arising on the given) day by (point arising on the given) day from June 17, 2017 through July 3, 2017 -- the preceding part is the post to which this is a reply; the next part is a reply to this post -- the following 'see also (linked in)' listing, updated for intervening posts along the way, is common to all 17 parts
--
in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
IRS 'specialized, secretive investigative' unit aiding Mueller
8/31/17
Robert Mueller has reportedly enlisted the IRS criminal investigations unit in his Russia probe. Lawrence O'Donnell explains the investigation could put Trump through the most intense audit of his life. One error could result in big consequences for the president. Duration: 6:35
Austin Petersen, who was runner up to be the nominee of the Libertarian Party in 2016, opens up about his experience dealing with Nazis and fascists in the right-libertarian movement.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55456157/698679576.0.jpg)
