The serious law firms do this shit quietly. Like professionals.
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA
Thursday, May 10, 2018 | ENHANCED CAPITULATION TECHNIQUES | There will be, at most, 50 Republican votes for Gina Haspel, President Trump’s designated CIA director, and a key player in the Bush administration torture program. In a statement Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on the Senate to reject her nomination. “Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing," he said. "Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” H/T to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) for asking a hard question with an easy answer. On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) wrote to Attorney General Jeff Sessions urging him to give senators unfettered access to a Justice Department report on the CIA’s destruction of torture videotapes, and Haspel’s role in it.
This nomination is only a lock if every Republican other than McCain—including Flake—ultimately falls into line. If they don’t, then Haspel can only be confirmed with Democratic votes. So far only one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (WV), has announced he supports Haspel’s confirmation, but his vote would be decisive if all Republicans other than McCain and Flake rally behind her. Most Trump cabinet nominees have racked up a few Democratic votes, but those votes have always been surplus. It’ll be an enormous failure and a lasting stain if Democrats are given the opportunity to sink a torturer’s nomination but fail to do so.
| On Tuesday, a white Yale graduate student called the police on a black Yale graduate student she found napping in a common room in the school’s Hall of Graduate studies. When campus police showed up to interrogate her, she identified herself as Lolade Siyonbola and began streaming the incident on Facebook Live. The officers questioned her for nearly 20 minutes, even after she proved she lived in the building. A Yale official said the university will be “reviewing the call and the response of the police officers to ensure that the proper protocol was followed and to determine if there was anything we could have done better.” We imagine this won't be hard. One month after the April arrests of Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson in a Philadelphia Starbucks drew nationwide attention, a very similar story is capturing the country’s imagination, but for many people of color in this country, racial bias is a daily, not monthly problem. In between these two incidents, people have harassed or called the police on innocent black men and women for: We hope to use What A Day to bring attention to these incidents on a recurring basis. If you’re the person who sees a person of color in a public space and, apropos of nothing, immediately feels threatened, the problem is you. From Ernest Owens: “As a young black gay man, these are the daily questions I ask myself internally as I walk in public: Are my hands visible? Do I appear angry? Am I walking in front of white people rather than behind them in the street? Do I have cash on me to buy something before I ask the cashier can I use the bathroom?... These are the respectability politics of how black people are often forced to conduct themselves in society. It's not by choice, but by obligation. It could in many ways be the difference between being free or imprisonment, of staying alive or facing death.” | | |
House Intelligence Committee chairman/midnight avenger Devin Nunes (R-CA) tried to force the Justice Department to out a CIA and FBI informant working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller (placing lives at risk) to help Trump cover up whatever he's covering up. When confronted about this by the Washington Post, Nunes, referring to the Justice Department said, “I’ve never referenced an individual. They did. They did that. I didn’t." (The subpoena he sent to the Justice Department literally requested “all documents referring or related to the individual referenced in Chairman Nunes’ April 24, 2018 classified letter to Attorney General Sessions.”) Devin Nunes is bad at lying. Though Nunes and DOJ reached an accommodation that allowed him to view documents in a secure setting, the intelligence community believes Nunes is pushing for these documents from the Mueller investigation so that he can give them to Trump. (No shit!) Having overseen the complete breakdown of trust between intelligence agencies and the intelligence committee, House Speaker Paul Ryan gave Nunes the green light to continue the coverup. Gross! Also, Vice President Mike Pence "would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion." Pence added, "In the interest of the country, I think it's time to wrap it up." Earlier this month, Pence also called Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom Trump pardoned for criminal contempt of court, a champion of the rule of law. It’s hard to come up with jokes about Mike Pence because he is just so awful. You’re awful Mike Pence! | Three Americans held hostage in North Korea arrived home early Thursday morning. Trump greeted the hostages upon their arrival by thanking Kim Jong-un for being “really excellent” to them (minus the whole kidnapping part?), and telling the men they “probably broke the all-time in history television rating for 3 o’clock in the morning.” Makes all those months in captivity worth it. Trump will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12. It is very good these Americans are home. Israel struck dozens of suspected Iranian targets in Syria after Iran launched a rocket attack from Syria on Israel earlier this week. Tensions between the two countries reached new heights after Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is closing its student loan office, which was responsible for returning $750 million to borrowers. It’s interim director/pay-to-play crime boss Mick Mulvaney has signaled that the bureau will ease up on investigating student loan market abuses. Good thing the country’s student loan debt isn’t a problem anymore.... Emails show Salem Media Group pressured its radio hosts to cover Trump more positively. Meanwhile, Fox News contributor/Nazi cosplayer Seb Gorka accepted over $5000 from Kelli Ward for a campaign appearance and didn’t disclose it. Everything conservatives claim to believe about the liberal media is true about their own media. Spotify is no longer promoting R. Kelly’s music in its playlists as part of its new hate content and hateful conduct policy, though his music is still available on the platform. The decision is a response to a call from Time's Up to #MuteRKelly. Rudy Giuliani resigned from his law firm because apparently it’s not a good look for a law firm to employ someone who claims paying hush money to clients’ mistresses without the clients’ knowledge is okay. The serious law firms do this shit quietly. Like professionals.
Ice Cube claims Qatari investors who were trying to reach Steve Bannon targeted his basketball team 😱
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We need to win 24 seats to flip the House in 2018, and eight of the best targets are in California. Whether you live there or not, here's something you can do to help:
crooked.com/crooked8 → | | |
Seventeen House Republicans have filed a petition which, under House rules, will allow them to circumvent Speaker Paul Ryan and bring immigration legislation to the House floor—if a majority of House members signs it. Assuming all Democrats ultimately join them, they’re only seven GOP signatures away from their goal. | GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson donated $30 million to the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, in order to help Republicans keep the House in November. Paul Ryan met with the billionaire ahead of the donation, but left the room so someone else could technically solicit it, because as a federally elected official, he isn’t permitted to solicit a political donation of that size by law. Very subtle. Thirty million dollars is only a tiny fraction of the enormous tax cut Ryan gave Adelson. Purchasing Paul Ryan is just good business. | | |
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