February 21, 2019

The cover of next week's NewYorker, "The Real Emergency," by Barry Blitt.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1098710243465408512

February 21, 2019

It's Official: NC State Board of Elections has ordered a new election 9th Congressional District

https://twitter.com/alanblinder/status/1098688767248994304

a little more:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/north-carolina-board-election-votes-new-election-ninth-district

February 21, 2019

Xlnt Question Re: Hasson & Smollett

Anyone asking if arrest of Christopher Hasson - U.S coast guard plotting carnage against Dems, left-leaning media & had arsenal in his home - set white men back the way they’re asking if Jussie’s arrest set Black gay men back?

Just curious 💅🏽



https://twitter.com/MidwinCharles/status/1098665596831612928

February 21, 2019

Check out this MENSA meeting on foxandfriends

Steve Doocy patiently tries to explain to Brian Kilmeade that Fox & Friends (which starts at 6 AM) is on between 'The Five' (which starts at 5 PM) and 'Outnumbered Overtime' (which starts at 1 PM). (h/t @grace_sleepy)

VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/1098600061741817856

February 21, 2019

Fugelsang: Captain Trump is wearing cleats in a rubber raft and blaming his crew for leaks.

trump tweeted:

Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.....

https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/1098586619169460225

February 21, 2019

TIME Cover: Knock, Knock

?cache=dr4t9wbqzi&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-time-magazine-cover-democrats_n_5c6e7eb9e4b0e37a1ed53d2f

February 21, 2019

GOP: "What to do? what to do?"

February 20, 2019

FEC gives Jeanine Pirro 24 hours to stop flouting law and come clean on 14-year-old campaign debt

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) is demanding that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro file financial reports from her failed 2006 campaign against then-incumbent Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

The Center for Public Integrity’s Dave Levinthal was first to report on Wednesday that the FEC had sent a letter to Pirro suggesting that she had 24 hours to reply.

“It is important that you file this report immediately,” the letter stated. “The failure to timely file a complete report may result in civil money penalties, an audit or legal enforcement action.”

The commission went on to recommend that Pirro use an “overnight delivery or courier service” so that the report is not subject to further delays.

Levinthal noted that Pirro has not filed a report since 2011, when she acknowledged owing nearly $600,000 to 20 different vendors.



LETTER HERE:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/fec-gives-jeanine-pirro-24-hours-stop-flouting-law-come-clean-14-year-old-campaign-debt/

February 20, 2019

The most likely scenario is this one: The Yogi Berra: The Russia investigation will not end next wk

Barr may announce something. He may take it on himself to even give insight into some facet of the Mueller investigation. He may announce that there was “no collusion” or there was collusion, or that the sun rises in the east. Maybe there’s some nugget of information that Mueller really feels needs to be public now that Barr will bring before the microphones. And the investigation continues. Let’s hope that it does. Because if the investigation ends next week, it’s hard to see how that’s anything but astoundingly good news for Donald Trump.

*And yes, that’s a joke about the song “Closing Time”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/20/1836337/-Reports-that-the-Russia-investigation-is-over-could-mean-anything-almost-literally-anything#read-more

February 20, 2019

Emptywheel: A Report Talking About "COLLUSION" Is Coming This Week From Mueller

THE CONCLUSORY REPORT IS NOT COMING NEXT WEEK
BUT-
A REPORT TALKING ABOUT “COLLUSION” IS COMING THIS WEEK

............

....... As I noted back in November when Mueller’s prosecutors declared Manafort to have breached his plea agreement, this sentencing memo presents an opportunity for Mueller to “report” what they’ve found — at least with respect to all the criminal actions they know Manafort committed, including those he lied about while he was supposed to be cooperating — without anyone at DOJ or the White House suppressing the most damning bits. DOJ won’t be able to weigh in because a sentencing memo is not a major action requiring an urgent memo to the Attorney General. And the White House will get no advance warning because Big Dick Toilet Salesman Matt Whitaker is no longer in the reporting chain.


So, as noted, Mueller will have an opportunity to lay out:

The details of Manafort’s sleazy influence peddling, including his modus operandi of projecting his own client’s corruption onto his opponents

The fact that Manafort already pled guilty to conspiring with a suspected Russian intelligence asset

The details about how Manafort — ostensibly working for “free” — got paid in 2016, in part via kickbacks from a Super PAC that violated campaign finance law, possibly in part by Tom Barrack who was using Manafort and Trump as a loss-leader to Middle Eastern graft, and in part by deferred payments or debt relief from Russian-backed oligarchs

Manafort’s role and understanding of the June 9 meeting, which is a prelude of sorts to the August 2 one

The dates and substance of Manafort’s ongoing communications with suspected Russian intelligence asset Konstantin Kilimnik, including the reasons why Manafort shared highly detailed polling data on August 2, 2016 that he knew would be passed on to his paymasters who just happened to be (in the case of Oleg Deripaska) a central player in the election year operation

The ongoing efforts to win Russia relief from the American Ukrainian-related sanctions by pushing a “peace” plan that would effectively give Russia everything it wants

Manafort’s ongoing discussions with Trump and the Administration, up to and including discussions laying out how if Manafort remains silent about items two through six, Trump will pardon him

Because those items are all within the substance of the crimes Manafort pled guilty to or lied about during his failed cooperation, they’re all squarely within the legitimate content of a sentencing memo. And we should expect the sentencing memo in DC to be at least as detailed as the EDVA one; I expect it, like the EDVA one and like Manafort’s plea deal, will be accompanied by exhibits such as the EDVA one showing that Manafort had bank accounts to the tune of $25,704,669.72 for which suspected Russian intelligence asset Konstantin Kilimnik was listed as a beneficial owner in 2012. Heck, we might even get to see the polling data Manafort shared, knowing it was going to Russia, which was an exhibit to Manafort’s breach determination.

The only thing limiting how much detail we’ll get about these things (as well as about how Manafort served as a secret agent of Russian backed Ukrainian oligarchs for years) is the ongoing sensitivities of the material, whether because it’s grand jury testimony, SIGINT collection, or a secret Mueller intends to spring on other defendants down the road.

It’s the latter point that will be most telling. As I noted, thus far, the silences about Manafort’s cooperation are — amazingly — even more provocative than the snippets we learned via the breach determination. We’ll likely get a read on Friday whether Mueller has ongoing equities that would lead him to want to keep these details secret. And the only thing that would lead Mueller to keep details of the conspiracy secret is if he plans to charge it in an overarching conspiracy indictment.

We may also get information, however, that will make it far more difficult for Trump to pardon Manafort.

So, yeah, there’s a report coming out this week. But it’s not The Report.


MOTR:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1098231262119112705
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/02/20/questions-to-ask-before-reporting-a-breaking-mueller-report/



*********
from today:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1098318389725016064
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/02/20/the-significance-of-the-rod-rosenstein-bill-barr-window/