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Giuliani Claims He Kept Texts From State Dept. To ‘Protect’ Himself

Remember in 2016 when the GOP thought that the threat that Hillary might have State Department communications on private devices was enough to disqualify her and the possibility that they might end up outside to control of the State Department was enough to justify red faced screaming “lock her up”? Some people might start to think those concerns about cyber security in 2016 were not in good faith. 

So how did Rudy get those? Who sent them? Will there be an investigation? Will the GOP show even the slightest concern about private devices being used for State Department communications? Of course not. They never cared.

“Giuliani also repeated his claim that the State Department had approved of all his communications with Ukraine–and that he had five or six more texts in his back pocket as proof.

“I’m going to use them to protect myself if and when I need them,” he told CNN.”

From: talkingpointsmemo.com https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/giuliani-texts-state-department-ukraine-protect

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The president who is escaping indictment appointed the guy escaping 83 ethics charges.

The story not being told here is that Brett was facing 83 ethics charges and they went away when he became a Justice of the Supreme Court.  This was brought up during his confirmation hearing and somehow the story was all about the he-said she-said allegation and not the mountain of ethical problems that Brett had. The mystery mortgage payments? His role in the Brook’s Brothers riot in Florida? He public meltdown and unhinges ranting about conspiracies targeting him went mostly unremarked. The president who is escaping indictment appointed the guy escaping 83 ethics charges.

100k pages of his time in the Bush white house were withheld from congress. Somehow that wasn’t a story. Even while the NY Times covered it.

The bulk of the records being withheld “reflect deliberations and candid advice concerning the selection and nomination of judicial candidates, the confidentiality of which is critical to any president’s ability to carry out this core constitutional executive function,” wrote Mr. Bush’s lawyer, William A. Burck.

Looking at the WaPo fact check of the reasons why the Republicans didn’t care about those documents reveals some odd excuses.

Kavanaugh was a trusted adviser to Bush, said Paul C. Light, a New York University professor and expert on the White House

 

“Both groups concluded that Kavanaugh is no longer subject to the federal judiciary’s internal ethics review process because he is now a member of the Supreme Court. He became immune the moment he was confirmed on Oct. 6, a process that followed a congressional testimony about sexual misconduct allegations against him.”

The president who is escaping indictment appointed the guy escaping 83 ethics charges

From: huffpost.com

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-ethics-complaints-dismissed_n_5d4442a1e4b0acb57fcb6356

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Mueller Was Right: Read the New Senate Report on Russian Technology Meddling in US Elections

““Throughout 2016 and for several years before, Russian intelligence services and government personnel conducted a number of intelligence-related activities targeting the voting process … the Committee found ample evidence to suggest that the Russian government was developing and implementing capabilities to interfere in the 2016 elections, including undermining confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and voting processes.””

That’s the key quote. This is going on and Moscow Mitch is doing all he can to block election security.

From: forbes.com

https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveandriole/2019/08/01/mueller-was-right-read-the-new-senate-report-on-russian-technology-meddling-in-us-elections/

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Children of US Troops Born Overseas Will No Longer Get Automatic American Citizenship

“Children born to U.S. service members and government employees overseas will no longer be automatically considered citizens of the United States, according to a policy alert issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Wednesday.”

What a disgusting thing to do the troops. I can think of no one more deserving of “merit based immigration” than the children of active duty military personnel.

From: military.com

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/08/28/children-us-troops-born-overseas-will-no-longer-get-automatic-american-citizenship.html

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Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama’s numbers

 

“Obama eventually put in place arcane requirements to issue public reports on civilian death tolls (but just in certain military theaters), to limit targets to high-level militants (again, in certain battlefields), and require interagency approval (also only for certain targets).

Trump has peeled back all of those requirements because, well, he can. We now know more than we did about U.S. drone wars when Obama first took office, but less than when he left.”

Trump’s drone war escalation has gone unreported. His blocking of all reporting on it has gone unnoticed. I don’t hear a single thing about this from the concern trolls who cared very deeply about Obama’s drone war. 

From: chicago.suntimes.com

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/8/18619206/under-donald-trump-drone-strikes-far-exceed-obama-s-numbers

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Hannity has mentioned Clinton on 86 percent of his shows since Trump’s inauguration: study

“Hannity’s apparent obsession with Clinton is “largely a reflection of his show’s focus on the dizzying conspiracy theory he constructed to defend Trump” from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, “

Hannity needs to respect the results of the election and move on with his life.

From: salon.com

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/11/hannity-has-mentioned-clinton-on-86-percent-of-his-shows-since-trumps-inauguration-study/

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Bret Stephens should show the same respect to the man who called him a bedbug that he demands we show to Nazis on campus.

“So I was surprised to receive an email from Bret Stephens last night. The subject line read “From Bret Stephens, New York Times.” The provost of my university was cc’ed on the message. Stephens had found a tweet that I had written earlier that afternoon. Riffing on the headline “Breaking—there are bedbugs in the NYT newsroom,” which was drawing rounds of Twitter jokes, I had written “The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens.” The tweet had landed with a thud (nine likes, zero retweets), and I went about my day.”

Republican attempts to shut down free speech on campus because his feelings were hurt. None of the free speech concern trolls who stand up for Nazis could be reached for comment.

From: esquire.com https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/amp28829576/bret-stephens-bedbug-david-karpf-interview/?__twitter_impression=true

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GITMO for families escaping violence

GITMO for families escaping violence.

This administration is saying that people who are not breaking the law can be rounded up and placed in camps without adequate food, medical care or hygiene and denied access to the rule of law; and the administration is saying it can do this indefinitely.

Can we call them concentration camps now?

“The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a regulation to allow it to indefinitely detain migrant families who illegally cross the border. The rule replaces a decades-old court agreement that mandates a level of care for migrant children and limits how long the government can hold them in custody.”

From: nytimes.com https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/us/politics/flores-migrant-family-detention.html

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U.S. Deported a Detroit Man to Iraq. If he had been a POW, this would have been a war crime.

“In a heartbreaking video taken on what appears to be the streets of Baghdad weeks after being deported there, Aldaoud describes how he was pulled over by immigration officials and put on a plane. “They wouldn’t listen to me,” he said. “They wouldn’t let me call my family. Nothing. They just said: You’re going to Iraq and your best bet is to cooperate with us. That way we’re not going to chain you up; we’ll put you on a commercial flight. I begged them, I said: please, I’ve never seen that country. I’ve never been there, however, they forced me. I’m here now.” Immigration attorney”

From: slate.com https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/detroit-michigan-man-deported-died-iraq-diabetic-homeless.html

Now compare to this.

“Detained migrants should certainly be treated—at a bare minimum—no worse than international law requires prisoners of war to be treated. While there are certainly many cases of mistreatment of POWs by the United States as well as other international actors, the Geneva Conventions outline an ideal for POW treatment. The United States agreed to abide by these guidelines when it ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1955.

How can immigrants possibly deserve treatment any poorer than that of an actual, self-declared enemy of the United States? “

From: foreignpolicy.com https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/26/the-united-states-treats-migrants-worse-than-prisoners-of-war/

Even if you call them invaders , they should be treated at least as well as POWs are. And if Mr. Aldaoud had been yanked out of a POW camp and dumped into the streets somewhere to die, it would have been a violation of international law. This is rouge nation bullshit. This is not how to treat a person who has been in the county for 40 years. We should expect more from ICE than this.