December 3, 2019

Kamala on C-Span NOW. She is a winner!

March 3, 2019

"in early states, Democrats are courting black voters"

SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. — Sen. Cory Booker gathered here recently with several dozen pastors, sharing a full-plated lunch with some of the state’s most influential religious leaders. Then, in a church gymnasium, taking the stage after a gospel singer, he quoted scripture, talked about a “moral moment” and decried President Trump for “igniting racism.”

More than 2,000 miles away, in a very different setting at the glitzy Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Sen. Kamala D. Harris was greeted at the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit by a crowd that had been swaying and dancing to the beat. She answered questions about when she first knew she had “black girl magic” and noted that the chairwoman of her operation in Iowa — a state that is 91 percent white — is black.

In the early stages of the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, one with a historically diverse field, including Booker (N.J.) and Harris (Calif.) as prominent African American candidates, black voters have quickly become a highly sought-after electoral prize. The courtship is playing out in complex ways throughout the early voting states, a dynamic that will become more visible Sunday as several candidates appear in Selma, Ala., taking part in a remembrance of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights marchers in 1965 were viciously attacked by police as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

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Don't sleep on the black vote.

More at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/candidates-press-to-connect-with-black-voters/2019/03/02/04d02618-3ae5-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html?utm_term=.2719321c491c
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January 18, 2019

Virginia's lone black statewide official sits out Robert E. Lee tribute

RICHMOND, VA - JAN 18: Virginia Lt Governor Justin Fairfax (D) stepped off the rostrum in the Virginia Senate as a member paid tribute to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee January 18, 2019, in Richmond, Virginia. (Laura Vozzella/TWP)

By Laura Vozzella January 18 at 3:05 PM
RICHMOND — Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, only the second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia, briefly bowed out of his duties in the state Senate on Friday in protest of a tribute to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Fairfax (D), who normally presides over Richmond’s upper chamber, stepped off the dais and let a Republican wield the gavel while Sen. Richard Stuart (R-King George) marked Lee’s 212th birthday with praise for “a great Virginian and a great American.”

“I believe there are certain people in history we should honor that way in the Senate .?.?. and I don’t believe that he is one of them,” Fairfax, a descendant of slaves, said in an interview afterward. “I think it’s very divisive to do what was done there, particularly in light of the history that we’re now commemorating — 400 years since the first enslaved Africans came to the commonwealth of Virginia.

edit

(more at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginias-lone-black-statewide-official-sits-out-robert-e-lee-tribute/2019/01/18/7b721ba4-1b4c-11e9-88fe-f9f77a3bcb6c_story.html?utm_term=.aa033bdf1e43&wpisrc=nl_buzz&wpmm=1

January 12, 2019

"IT'S ACTUALLY A SCARY TIME": KAMALA HARRIS makes case on Colbert

Backstage, Senator Kamala Harris smiled and exhaled, appearing both excited and relieved.

Harris had just successfully navigated 12 minutes of being interviewed by Stephen Colbert, an experience that mixes goofy comedy with sudden downdrafts of pointed questioning, all in front of a live audience of 400 and a half-dozen cameras that will beam the conversation to millions more Late Show viewers. She had been bracingly blunt in declaring that Paul Manafort is guilty of conspiring with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election (“What more do we need to know?”) and had issued a perhaps overly optimistic guarantee about how the government shutdown will end (“It does not end with a wall”).

Harris had managed to work in her somewhat clunky catchphrase (“If it’s worth fighting for, it’s a fight worth having”) and to tease the official announcement of her presidential run (“I might!”). Judging by the raucous cheers of the studio crowd, Harris already had a few believers. But immediately afterward, the senator seemed most proud of having gotten a laugh out of Colbert, a moment that happened after the TV cameras shut down.

more at
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/kamala-harriss-opening-arguments-echoes-of-1976?mbid=nl_CH_5c38fcd43889055ec05705b5&CNDID=17765398&utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=vyf_vanityfair_news_newdb_active_20190112%20(1)&bxid=MjI2ODU0OTY0NDQxS0&hasha=f6c05dbeeb7587ff748c3a27a77ca8cd&hashb=113b41f68e576b7c63e38ccdc322fb1ff94e1ad6&spMailingID=14942223&spUserID=MjI2ODU0OTY0NDQxS0&spJobID=1560917496&spReportId=MTU2MDkxNzQ5NgS2

December 3, 2017

MUST READ: KT McFarland admitted RUSSIA THREW THE ELECTION TO TRUMP!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/russia-mcfarland-flynn-trump-emails.html?_r=1

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On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump’s victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,” she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times.




Chuck mentioned it on "Meet the Press" . But didn't PRESS the issue with Susan Collins. Anybody else see this in the NY Times???

November 5, 2017

Lawrence Tribe breaks down the Trump/Kushner/Putin/Saudi connection.

@tribelaw

Prince who recently refused to give Kushner as much 💰 as he needed (one of 🌎’s richest) just got arrested in a Saudi “corruption sweep.”

*****

Much more @:

https://twitter.com/tribelaw

October 27, 2017

Dana Boente announces resignation as U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Virginia

Remember him? What does it MEAN?

By Rachel Weiner October 27 at 3:28 PM
Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has submitted his resignation, a spokesman confirmed Friday.

He plans to serve until a successor is confirmed.

“I will be around for a while and hope to visit with all of you to discuss how much the office and our work means to each of us,” Boente wrote in a letter to the lawyers he oversees. “I have so much respect for you and the work you do every day.”

Boente, a 33-year veteran of the Justice Department, was tapped earlier this year to serve as acting Attorney General after Sally Yates was fired. He went on to serve as acting Deputy Attorney General.

He is currently serving as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division and will remain in that post until John C. Demers is confirmed.

President Trump has not named a successor for Boente in Virginia.

The U.S. attorney’s job in the Eastern District of Virginia is an important and high-profile one. The Eastern District is home to the CIA and the Pentagon, and its prosecutors often handle terrorism cases. It includes about 300 lawyers and other employees with offices in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/dana-boente-resigns-as-us-attorney-for-eastern-district-of-virginia/2017/10/27/78fda97a-bb43-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.c0101d75ed3b#comments

July 26, 2017

"You'd think a guy who dodged the draft 5 times would be happy there are people who want to serve"

From Twitter:

shauna?Verified account @goldengateblond 1h1 hour ago
Replying to @goldengateblond

You'd think a guy who dodged the draft 5 times would be happy there are people who want to serve voluntarily.

https://twitter.com/goldengateblond

March 2, 2017

Rolling Stone: A Who's Who of the Trump Campaign's Russia Connections

Everything we know about the members of Trump's campaign who had contact with the Russian government

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Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager
In January, The New York Times reported that the FBI – with help from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit – is investigating whether intercepted communications and financial transactions demonstrate links between Russian intelligence officers and Trump's former campaign manager. (Manafort's defense was that if he did have contact with the Russians, he didn't do it knowingly. "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer,'" he told The Times.)

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Carter Page, former Trump foreign policy adviser
The same Times report that detailed the investigation into Manafort said investigations into two other Trump associates – Carter Page and Roger Stone – were also ongoing. Page was named a foreign policy advisor by the Trump campaign in March 2016 but took a leave of absence from the campaign in September, when reports emerged that U.S. intelligence agencies were investigating his interactions with senior Russian officials, including former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Deputy Chief for Internal Policy Igor Diveykin – the man U.S. officials believed was in charge of "intelligence collected by Russian agencies about the U.S. election."

Roger Stone, informal adviser
A longtime Republican operative and self-described "ratfucker," Stone was in contact with Trump throughout the run-up to the election and often appeared on television and at rallies in support of the GOP nominee, though he served no official role in the campaign.

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General Michael Flynn, former Trump national security adviser
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According to a Thursday New York Times report, "among Mr. Trump's inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy" during the campaign.

Jeff Sessions, Trump attorney general
A bombshell Washington Post report published Wednesday night names at least two occasions on which Sessions, the former Alabama senator recently confirmed as Trump's attorney general, met with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.
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Jared Kushner, Trump son-in-law and senior adviser
In addition to his repeated contacts with Flynn and Sessions during the campaign, the New Yorker reports that Kislyak met with Kushner during a previously undisclosed meeting at Trump Tower in December. The White House told the magazine that the point of their confab was to create "a more open line of communication in the future."

MORE at:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/a-whos-who-of-the-trump-campaigns-russia-connections-w469977

January 11, 2017

"A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump"

David Corn in Mother Jones 10/31

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump



Carlo Allegri/ZUMA
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey set off a political blast when he informed congressional leaders that the bureau had stumbled across emails that might be pertinent to its completed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of emails when she was secretary of state. The Clinton campaign and others criticized Comey for intervening in a presidential campaign by breaking with Justice Department tradition and revealing information about an investigation—information that was vague and perhaps ultimately irrelevant—so close to Election Day. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid upped the ante. He sent Comey a fiery letter saying the FBI chief may have broken the law and pointed to a potentially greater controversy: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government…The public has a right to know this information."

Reid's missive set off a burst of speculation on Twitter and elsewhere. What was he referring to regarding the Republican presidential nominee? At the end of August, Reid had written to Comey and demanded an investigation of the "connections between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign," and in that letter he indirectly referred to Carter Page, an American businessman cited by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, who had financial ties to Russia and had recently visited Moscow. Last month, Yahoo News reported that US intelligence officials were probing the links between Page and senior Russian officials. (Page has called accusations against him "garbage.&quot On Monday, NBC News reported that the FBI has mounted a preliminary inquiry into the foreign business ties of Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chief. But Reid's recent note hinted at more than the Page or Manafort affairs. And a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.

"This is something of huge significance, way above party politics," the former intelligence officer says. "I think [Trump's] own party should be aware of this stuff as well."
Does this mean the FBI is investigating whether Russian intelligence has attempted to develop a secret relationship with Trump or cultivate him as an asset? Was the former intelligence officer and his material deemed credible or not? An FBI spokeswoman says, "Normally, we don't talk about whether we are investigating anything." But a senior US government official not involved in this case but familiar with the former spy tells Mother Jones that he has been a credible source with a proven record of providing reliable, sensitive, and important information to the US government.

In June, the former Western intelligence officer—who spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clients—was assigned the task of researching Trump's dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to the former spy and his associates in this American firm. This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project's financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.) "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit."

This was, the former spy remarks, "an extraordinary situation." He regularly consults with US government agencies on Russian matters, and near the start of July on his own initiative—without the permission of the US company that hired him—he sent a report he had written for that firm to a contact at the FBI, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates, who asked not to be identified. (He declines to identify the FBI contact.) The former spy says he concluded that the information he had collected on Trump was "sufficiently serious" to share with the FBI.

Mother Jones has reviewed that report and other memos this former spy wrote. The first memo, based on the former intelligence officer's conversations with Russian sources, noted, "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." It maintained that Trump "and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." It claimed that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based on "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls."

The former intelligence officer says the response from the FBI was "shock and horror."

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David Corn has been on this for a while - lots of reporting at Mother Jones.