the golden shower bit is only a small part of a 35 page report that claims trump has close ties to russia
the report was done by a former british counter-intelligence official, with a long history of dealing with russia
this had nothing to do with the CIA
the former british agent was hired by a
research and investigative firm in washington by none other than one of trump’s republican opponents in the primary campaign
however, by the time he began his research, the primary was over. the original client dropped out, but he was later hired by a new democratic client
by july he had collected a significant amount of material
the material was based on russian sources he deemed trustworthy, and unsurprisingly had nothing to do with 4chan (even if the alt-right neo nazi’s would like you to believe otherwise)
he delivered the report to his client, but also delivered a set to former colleagues in the FBI because of the gravity of it’s content
sometime this fall he asked the FBI for more information on the investigation, but he heard nothing back because instead of looking into the report, the FBI was obsessed with investigating clinton’s emails
so comey was well aware of the potential ties between trump and russian when he decided to fuck over clinton 11 days before the election by announcing they had found more emails
the british agent thought there might be a cover-up in progress
because of this he was persuaded to share the reports content with the washington editor of mother jones, who first reported on the existence of the report on the 31th of october [x] (this was before any of the 4chan posts were made)
sometime in october the report made it’s way to washington, and a summary of its content ended up in an highly classified intelligence report on russian interference that was delivered to both trump and obama in november
McCain got his hands on the report as well, and dispatch a trusted emissary, a former US official, to meet the source and find out more
on the 9th of December, McCain arranged a one-on-one meeting with comey and handed over documents given by the former british agent
McCain has later confirmed that the report published by buzzfeed was the same report he was in contact with [x]
also man so from what i understand of american politics right now, the republican party rose to power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, unabashedly nazi rhetoric, and actual for-real help from russia. then before trump is even actually president they’ve destroyed all oversight committees, told everyone associated with the obama administration to get the fuck out— even the guys taking care of our nukes— and changed things so they don’t need a supermajority in order to erase what little power the minority democrats can even leverage. they’ve also revived a law saying they can drop any civil servant’s wages down to 1$, forcing them to quit, and tried to demand from various departments lists of which civil servants that oppose republican dogma. paul ryan used private armed guards to refuse to accept a petition on behalf of planned parenthood.
trump hasn’t divested himself of his businesses, he’s pushing absurdly inappropriate cabinet appointments through without any vetting, half his press conferences are staffed with paid staff that applaud for him, and he screams at anyone who asks him a real question. the news channel nbc itself has financial ties to trump via a tv show he’s producing for them. republicans in his own party and plenty of democrats are too scared of troll mobs to stand up to him, because trump has repeatedly and successfully called for online harassment of his detractors. boeing, the airplane company, saw their stock prices drop after he took a swat at them and ended up donating to his inauguration.
we don’t actually have a democracy anymore. we just like… it’s gone? it is completely gone. trump’s presidency has not even officially started yet and every part of the democratic process, from freedom of the press, to checks and balances, to the right for citizens to petition for redress of grievances, has been dismantled.
i’ve really been doing my best here to keep my chin up and take things a day at a time, but holy shit. this is some pretty sobering business.
our new president is publicly undermining his own intelligence agencies bc he would like his word to be the only word on absolutely everything, regardless of fact & reality.
Kali Akuno, an organizer with Cooperation Jackson and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement talks to Alternet about the first stirrings of the mass-scale civil disobedience we must practice to resist trumpism.
I find great inspiration in Akuno’s ideas, and find them an excellent counterpoint to the idea of “not normalizing” Trump. The reality is that we always normalize everything – read the accounts of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps or Americans tortured for years in the country’s solitary confinement wings and you’ll find that, to a one, their terrible situations become normal. All constant stimulus fades to a background refrigerator hum that we can only notice when it ceases.
But Akuno is talking about normalizing resistance, becoming habitual monkeywrenchers and refuseniks, people whose first response to any trumpist outrage is “no way,” and whose fallback position is “hell no.”
My great aunt Lisa was an engineering foreman in Leningrad during the Soviet era, bossing a crew of surly, drunk, ungovernable men. Her stories about how these men featherbedded, foot-dragged, monkeywrenched and twiddled their days away were always told with a mixture of frustration (at the way they made her life difficult) and admiration (at how good they were at it).
As John Scalzi wrote yesterday: “You are more important than you know, if you don’t give in to despair, to complacency, or to apathy. Add to the moral weight that bends the arc toward justice. You can’t do it alone, but without you the work becomes that much harder.”
At 1:13 PM EST the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution that will begin the process of repealing Obamacare. The final vote tally was 51-48. The resolution instructs the House to have a repeal bill ready by January 27.
Seven years ago, on December 24, 2009, the Senate voted 60-39 to pass Obamacare. All Republicans voted against it, all Democrats voted for it.
“Today, we take the first steps to repair the nation’s broken health care system, removing Washington from the equation and putting control back where it belongs: with patients, their families, and their doctors,” Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who sponsored the legislation, said in a statement.
Republicans did not have the 60 votes needed to repeal Obamacare, so they opted to defund it via a budget resolution, which only requires a simple majority.
“That means they can essentially gut the law, removing all the subsidies that help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance and getting rid of the smorgasbord of taxes — on medical devices, insurance companies and wealthy individuals — that pay for those subsidies,” NPR explained.
Republicans, despite having voted more than 60 times to repeal Obamacare, have never had a legitimte replacement plan. It is widely reported that they will take two to four years to replace the Affordable Care Act, leaving up to 30 million Americans without insurance, and many paying exceptionally high premiums for having pre-existing conditions, including HIV, diabetes, cancer, and even pregnancy.
Repealing Obamacare also devastates Medicare, and will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Donald Trump uring the presidential campaign promised he would never touch Social Security or Medicare.
Concerned citizens can call lawmakers in the House and Senate at 202-224-3121.
Concerned citizens can call lawmakers in the House and Senate at 202-224-3121.
CALL. THEM.
Virtually everyone I know would lose their health care including possibly us. This is actually the first time in my adult life I have had health care period which means I have years and years of possible health issues to catch up which in itself could take years more.
Meg's Mumbles 