#kremlingate

[lutnistas]

the towers of the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod ( Russia )

Trans-Siberian Railway travel

[shootingforthosestars]

Today's news.

[stillwithhernothim]

#Repost @hillary.for.us ・・・ #GEORGIA, now is your time to shine! Vote for #JonOssoff! This election is VERY close, no one can afford to sit this one out. #riseup #maketrumpfurious _________________________________ RP @jonossoff - Today is the day! Polls are open and we're ready to #Flipthe6th. Find your polling place at ElectJon.com/Vote or text WHERE to 21333. ______________________________ #peach #vote #winning #election #jamescomey #FBI #donaldtrump #trumpregrets #trumpcare #jobs #ahca #aca #lockhimup #TrumpRussia #putinspuppet  #resist #feminist #democracy #America #news #politics #kremlingate #impeachtrumpnow

[hillaryinthehighcastle]

It’s been a busy week of news! Here’s a recap of where things stand in the world.

[dr-archeville]

Wednesday was another banner day for the GOP.  Let's take a stroll through some headlines.

1) Obamacare replacement would leave twenty-three million out in the cold, according to the CBO.

Premiums would go down (at least for the young, wealthy, and healthy), but costs would go up for people with preexisting conditions.  And more than twenty million would lose coverage altogether.  From The New York Times, by way of the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office:

A bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that narrowly passed the House this month would leave 14 million more people uninsured next year than under President Barack Obama’s health law — and 23 million more in 2026, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.  Some of the nation’s sickest would pay much more for health care.

Under the House bill, the number of uninsured would be slightly lower, but deficits would be somewhat higher, than the budget office estimated before Republican leaders made a series of changes to win enough votes for passage.  Beneath the headline-grabbing numbers, those legislative tweaks would bring huge changes to the American health care system.

In many states, insurance costs could soar for consumers who are sick or have pre-existing conditions, while premiums would fall for the healthy, the new estimate concludes. […] In addition, it said, “out-of-pocket spending on maternity care and mental health and substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars.” 

Awesome.

2) The attorney Trump hired for Kremlingate has ties to … wait for it … Russia.

Can’t make this stuff up.  From CNN: 

The prominent New York lawyer expected to represent President Donald Trump in the widening Russia probes has professional connections of his own to Moscow, which could create yet another public-relations problem for the White House.

Marc Kasowitz, who has been Trump's go-to lawyer for years on both personal and business matters, is defending a Russian bank, OJSC Sberbank, in an ongoing lawsuit in US court.  He also represents a company controlled by a Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to the Kremlin. 

Speaking of Russia:

3) Jeff Sessions lied.

The attorney general appears to have fibbed on his security clearance form.  Also from CNN:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday.

Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list "any contact" he or his family had with a "foreign government" or its "representatives" over the past seven years, officials said.

The new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials.  He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year.   

And even MORE Russia ...

4) Top Russian officials discussed how to influence Trump aides last summer.

From The New York Times: 

American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.

The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said.  Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump’s opinions on Russia.

Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn.  Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort.   

5) Montana Republican congressional candidate charged with assaulting reporter.

America, 2017, man.

Here’s a first-person account from a Fox News (!) reporter:

Faith, Keith and I arrived early to set up for the interview in a room adjacent to another room where a volunteer BBQ was to take place.  As the time for the interview neared, [Greg] Gianforte came into the room.  We exchanged pleasantries and made small talk about restaurants and Bozeman.

During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act.  Gianforte told him he would get to him later.  Jacobs persisted with his question.  Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him.  Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter.  As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, "I'm sick and tired of this!"

Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken.  He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names.  In shock, we did not answer.  Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized.

Gianforte has since been charged with misdemeanor assault.  The state’s three biggest newspapers have all rescinded their endorsements.  The special election is today; the Republican was a slight favorite, though Democrat Rob Quist was posing an unexpectedly stiff challenge.  More than half of the estimated total ballots in the election had already been cast, according to the Times, so it’s unclear how much this late turn of events will affect the result.

From the Politics Is Broken files, Republicans have been basically silent:

National Republicans invested in a special election for a vacant House seat in Montana were mostly silent Wednesday evening after their candidate, Greg Gianforte, was accused of assaulting a reporter before a campaign event.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to representatives with House Speaker Paul Ryan's political team, with the National Republican Congressional Committee, and with the Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund.

Each group has a stake in the outcome of Thursday's contest between Gianforte and Democrat Rob Quist.  And each group was silent in response. 

On to some local news.

6) State Treasurer Dale Folwell thinks thousands are on State Health Plan fraudulently.

By July 31, every state employee on the State Health Plan must provide documentation that proves their spouses and children are, in fact, their spouses and children.  From the INDY: 

On Wednesday, the INDY reached out to state treasurer Dale Folwell Wednesday to ask why he feels an audit is necessary — and why, while he hopes an audit will reveal zero cases of insurance fraud, he believes the numbers will be in the thousands, which translates to tens of millions of misspent dollars.  And the fault, he says, lies with human resource directors across the state (there are more than one thousand) who simply did not perform their jobs. 

You can read the complete Q&A with Folwell here. 

6) The NBA buys into the HB 2 "compromise" and awards Charlotte the 2019 All-Star Game.

Governor Roy Cooper is touting this as another organization noting the "progress" North Carolina has made.  We think he's wrong.

Here's a bit of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's statement, which appeared on the INDY's website:

“We have decided to award NBA All-Star 2019 to Charlotte based on this deep connection and the belief that we can honor our shared values of equality and inclusion, and we are excited to bring the All-Star Game back to Charlotte for the first time in 28 years.

While we understand the concerns of those who say the repeal of HB2 did not go far enough, we believe the recent legislation eliminates the most egregious aspects of the prior law.  Additionally, it allows us to work with the leadership of the Hornets organization to apply a set of equality principles to ensure that every All-Star event will proceed with open access and anti-discrimination policies.  All venues, hotels and businesses we work with during All-Star will adhere to these policies as well.

Sports have a long history of helping to change attitudes around important social issues.  We believe holding our All-Star activities in Charlotte will be a powerful way for the NBA to continue this tradition.”   

That should just about do it.  Have a great Thursday.

[badgop]

U.S. spies believe Donald Trump 'is a traitor'; the president attacks them as 'KremlinGate' unfolds

U.S. spies believe Donald Trump ‘is a traitor’; the president attacks them as ‘KremlinGate’ unfolds

It appears that some members of the intelligence community believe the president must be brought down. President Donald Trump is flaming the intelligence community on Twitter again. “The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers!” he declared Thursday. “They will be caught!” He could be picking the wrong fight. Read the full story at: U.S. spies believe Donald Trump ‘is a traitor’;…

[wordbirds]

KREMLINGATE

(n.) KREM-lin-gayt  The continuing scandal involving Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. election of Donald Trump, through social media propaganda, fake news, and personal contact with campaign and government officials. Usage: In the spring of 2017, the former F.B.I. head Robert S. Mueller, was made Special Counsel of a commission investigating possible crimes connected to collusion, conspiracy and obstruction of justice by members of the Trump team with known or suspected ties to  Kremlin officials. The investigation, reminiscent of the Nixon Administration’s Watergate scandal, quickly became  known as Kremlingate.

[mzimnik]

1. Process, process, process. "The sloppy and rushed way in which the administration rolled out its Executive Order on immigration makes the best case for why process really matters."

2. Who is speaking for whom? #Trump's positions (in tweets or his one solo mess of a press conference) often are contradicted by his cabinet (including Pence on NATO, Russia, the press; Mattis on Iraq; Haley on the 2-state solution; etc.) 3. Staffing gaps are a YE-HUGE problem. "His team has been setting records for the slowest appointment of 2nd and 3rd tier political appointments — the folks who actually make the machinery of government run."

4. #Kremlingate / #Russiagate isn’t going away. "The story about Trump’s ties to #Russia can’t simply be swept under the rug (as both the administration and some Republicans in Congress hope)." Too many unanswered questions. 5. Competing centers of gravity at the White House only bring dysfunction: the NSC, #Bannon’s newly minted #StrategicInitiativesGroup (#SIG) and #JaredKushner. 6. For all the big talk, major shifts in national security policy have yet to be seen. 7. Mattis is becoming too big to fail. He's the guy that will save us by injecting sanity into the administration. 8. Trump will not change. - he is temperamentally unfit to be leader of the free world. - he is erratic, self-absorbed, intellectually un-curious and vindictive.- he lacks two of the most important traits a successful president must have: humility and empathy. 9. Checks and balances sort of working? Glenn Greenwald w/The Intercept recently responded to me on Twitter about this. He said that the system is working fine (courts, protesters, press are checking Trump). But, I had pointed out that without Congress checking him, there is no real Constitutional enforcement. So far, the GOP House and Senate refuse to do any real investigations. 10. Strap yourselves in, because the real test is still coming. "Every part of this month of perpetual crisis has been self-created: The world has not thrown him many curveballs." When the world throws him a real crisis, there is nothing so far to suggest that he and his team will handle it well. 

[jacensolodjo]

“ Exclusive: NSA Chief Admits Donald Trump Colluded With Russia”

[thedepressedweasel]

Please donate/boost this to help protect Bob Mueller 

[toshootforthestars]

Hmm...

[shootingforthosestars]

[stillwithhernothim]

#Repost @hillary.for.us ・・・ Take a wild guess? Even worse is that Trump's nut job supporters (at this point, you must be criminally insane to support the treasonous sob) eat it up. Trump knows this just fuels their bigotry and promotes hate crimes, but he doesn't care. Anything to distract from his treason. 🇬🇧❤🇬🇧 ____________________________________ RP @marthajane10 @breakingnumber45 ____________________________________ #muslimban #hatemonger #liar #jamescomey #FBI #donaldtrump #mags #trumpregrets #lockhimup #TrumpRussia #putinspuppet #imwithher  #resist #feminist #democracy #America #London #manchester #uk #Europe #news #politics #treason #kremlingate #impeachtrumpnow

[ritware1850]

#Repost @mercurial_era ・・・ #Repost @bitches.of.karma ・・・ And he can't do anything without help - but will probably try to do it himself and fall in the process. 😂 #trump #donaldtrump #dimwhittrump #resist #theresistance #trumprussia #russiagate #putingate #putinspuppet #kremlingate #kremlinklan #turtle

[donothingfortrump-blog]

I had to make another when I discovered that someone else had already done the previous one 🤤 #TrumpRussia #RussianConnections #KremlinGate #ImpeachTrump #ImpeachNow #IllegitimatePresident #DoNothingForTrump #JustFollowTheMoney

[dr-archeville]

Another week is just about in the books.  Let's finish it off with a bang.

1) Federal appeals court rules against Trump's Muslim ban.

According to a federal appeals court in Richmond, the president's executive order is discriminatory.  From The New York Times:

Describing President Trump’s revised travel ban as intolerant and discriminatory, a federal appeals court on Thursday rejected government efforts to limit travel to the United States from six predominantly Muslim nations.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions quickly vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The decision was the first from a federal appeals court on the revised travel ban, which was an effort to make good on a campaign centerpiece of the president’s national security agenda.  It echoed earlier skepticism by lower federal courts about the legal underpinnings for Mr. Trump’s executive order, which sought to halt travelers for up to 90 days while the government imposed stricter vetting processes.

The revised order, issued on March 6, “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination,” the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., concluded in its 205-page ruling. 

2) The president's son-in-law is now under the FBI's watch for possible connections to Kremlingate.

Jared Kushner has become a "focus" of the FBI's investigation into whether or not Russia coordinated with the Trump campaign during the presidential election.  From The Washington Post:

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said. 

3) Trump tells NATO member nations to pay up.

From the NYT: 

President Trump on Thursday punctured any illusions that he was on a fence-mending tour of Europe, declining to explicitly endorse NATO’s mutual defense pledge and lashing out at fellow members for what he called their “chronic underpayments” to the alliance.

On a tense day when Mr. Trump brought the “America first” themes of his presidential campaign to the very heart of Europe, he left European leaders visibly unsettled, with some openly lamenting divisions with the United States on trade, climate and the best way to confront Russia.

The discord was palpable even in body language.  When Mr. Trump greeted Emmanuel Macron, France’s new president, they grabbed each other’s hands, jaws clenched, in an extended grip that turned Mr. Trump’s knuckles white.  When the leaders lined up to pose for the traditional photograph at NATO headquarters, Mr. Trump appeared to push aside the Montenegrin prime minister, Dusko Markovic, to get to his assigned place in the front.

The split was starkest at NATO headquarters, where Mr. Trump used the dedication of a soaring new building to lecture allies on their financial contributions.  Far from robustly reaffirming NATO’s mutual defense commitment in the way that many members hoped he would, Mr. Trump repeated his complaint that the United States was shouldering an unfair burden. 

4) Blue Cross/Blue Shield requests 23 percent rate hike.

And Trump is largely to blame.  Here’s the gist, from the INDY: 

Earlier today, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced that it was seeking an average rate hike of 22.9 percent for individual plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, a staggering increase for the half-million people insured by BCBS in North Carolina through the Obamacare exchange.

On the surface, this hike — along with news that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City is abandoning the ACA marketplace altogether, leaving twenty-five Missouri counties without an Obamacare insurer — lends credence to Republican claims that the health care law is “collapsing” and in a “death spiral.”  Dig a little deeper, however, and the truth is more complicated.  Indeed, much of the blame isn’t inherent to Obamacare at all, but rather owes to the uncertainty sown by the Trump administration and the Republicans hellbent on repealing the law. 

5) N.C. Congressman Mark Meadows tears up when he realizes the Republican Obamacare replacement would harm people like his late sister and father.

From the INDY: 

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released what can only be described as a devastating analysis of the American Health Care Act, Republicans’ effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.  The CBO found that the bill would leave an additional twenty-three million people uninsured, gut Medicaid, put at risk millions with preexisting conditions, and cause sick and older people’s premiums to skyrocket to finance a massive tax cut for the wealthy.  The AHCA narrowly passed the House earlier this month without a CBO score following a compromise between the GOP leaders of the moderate Tuesday Group and the hard-right Freedom Caucus.

Earlier this week, U.S. Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey resigned as chairman of the Tuesday Group, saying, “Many in the Tuesday Group are eager to live up to our ideal of being problem-solvers, while others seem unwilling to compromise.  The recent health care debate was illustrative.”

And now U.S. Representative Mark Meadows, who represents the Eleventh Congressional District of North Carolina and chairs the Freedom Caucus, seems to be having his own regrets.

Those regrets stemmed from the realization that the plan he backed might well have left his late sister and father, who both died after cancer battles, out in the cold.  From the Independent Journal Review: 

When reporters pointed out the portion of the CBO report saying individuals with preexisting conditions in waiver states would be charged higher premiums and could even be priced out of the insurance market — destabilizing markets in those states — under AHCA, Meadows seemed surprised.

“Well, that’s not what I read,” Meadows said, putting on his reading glasses and peering at the paragraph on the phone of a nearby reporter. […]

After reading the paragraph, Meadows told reporters he would go through the CBO analysis more thoroughly and run the numbers, adding he would work to make sure the high-risk pools are properly funded.

Meadows, suddenly emotional, choked back tears and said, "Listen, I lost my sister to breast cancer.  I lost my dad to lung cancer.  If anybody is sensitive to preexisting conditions, it’s me.  I’m not going to make a political decision today that affects somebody’s sister or father because I wouldn’t do it to myself.” 

6) Riverside graduate might have been deported.

From the INDY: 

Wendy Miranda Fernandez, a Durham resident unexpectedly taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March, has been taken to the airport for the third time since being detained, according to the advocacy group Alerta Migratoria NC. Her deportation, delayed several times since she was detained while seeking a stay of a 2016 order of removal from the country, is scheduled for 8:05 this morning.

If she’s sent back to El Salvador, her supporters say, it could amount to a death sentence.   

7) The Montana Republican who assaulted reporter wins anyway.

From CNN: 

Republican Greg Gianforte has won the special election for Montana's open US House seat, CNN projects, defeating Democrat Rob Quist and capping off a whirlwind final 36 hours of the campaign that saw Gianforte being charged for allegedly assaulting a reporter.

In his acceptance speech, Gianforte apologized by name to Ben Jacobs, the Guardian reporter who accused the Republican of "body-slamming" him and breaking his glasses.

"When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it," Gianforte told his supporters at his Election Night rally in Bozeman.  "That's the Montana way." 

Have a great weekend.