September 28, 2017

Feinstein & Grassley Reach Deal to Subpoena Manafort to Testify at a Public Hearing in Senate

The Senate Will Subpoena Paul Manafort to Testify at a Public Hearing on the Russia Investigation
TIME
Aric Jenkins
7:38 PM ET

The ranking Democrat of the Senate judiciary committee and its Republican chairman have reached a deal to subpoena former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in order to make him attend a public hearing.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told CNN Wednesday the she and Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have agreed to terms regarding Manafort as part of the committee's investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election and possibly the FBI during both the Trump and Obama administrations.

A Feinstein spokesperson told CNN that the subpoena agreement is "in principle" and that details are still being hammered out. Grassley also confirmed the deal to the outlet and said that specific details are being finalized.

Manafort's office did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment.
Manafort has tried to avoid appearing at a public hearing on the matter in recent months, cutting a deal with investigators in July in exchange for documents and a closed-door, transcribed interview with the committee. President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., took the same deal.
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http://time.com/4960331/paul-manafort-subpoena-dianne-feinstein-chuck-grassley/


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/913214621569269760

September 24, 2017

CNN Poll: Opinion of Republican Party falls to all-time low - 29% hold a favorable view

29% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party!


http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/24/politics/cnn-poll-republican-party-approval/


WASHINGTON (CNN)
There are fresh signs the Republican Party's brand is in trouble.

Fewer than three in 10 Americans -- 29% -- hold a favorable view of the Republican Party according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That is down 13 percentage points from March and is the lowest mark for the GOP since CNN began asking the question in 1992.

The previous low point for the GOP was 30% -- hit twice -- in October 2013 following the federal government shutdown over President Barack Obama's health care law, and December 1998, in the wake of the House of Representatives approving two articles of impeachment against then President Bill Clinton.

Republicans are signaling they prefer President Donald Trump's vision for the party, with 79% saying he is taking it in the right direction. A majority of GOP voters -- 53% -- believe Republican leaders in Congress are taking the party in the wrong direction.

That finding comes as approval ratings and favorability ratings for Republican leaders in Congress have dropped. Overall approval of the party's leadership is down to 20%, a new low in CNN polling back to 2008. That includes just 39% of Republicans who approve of the job GOP leaders are doing. House Speaker Paul Ryan's favorability has dipped to 32%, a six-point drop since April, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stands at 20% favorability, a seven-point dip since spring.

Both parties will have to grapple with an increasingly unhappy public as nearly six in 10 Americans (59%) say they are angry at both parties, while just 23% say they are not angry at either party. Independents are the most upset, with 68% saying they're angry at both parties -- up 10 points since March. Anger among Republicans has also spiked, with 63% now angry at both parties compared to 38% who said the same in the spring. Among Democrats, anger at both sides is up seven points, to 49%.


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/912026488744034304

September 24, 2017

LeBron responds to Trump's attempts at using sports to divide the nation in two minute video.

https://twitter.com/uninterrupted/status/911704933283520512

"It’s not about dividing. We as American people need to come together even stronger.” — @KingJames responds to @realDonaldTrump’s comments.

"I'm a little frustrated because this guy that we've put in charge has tried to divide us once again. Obviously we all know what happened with Charlottesville and the divide that that caused. And now it's hitting home for me even more because he's using sports as the platform to try and divide us."




https://twitter.com/christoq/status/911942429955080192

September 24, 2017

#TakeTheKnee is about racism & police brutality. It has nothing to do with the flag or the military.

I know how savvy DU members tend to be. Could it be more obvious how Faux sNooz & other sites are trying to manipulate the narrative here? Kaep & the rest said over & over this is about #BLM & racist police brutality. It's about calling attention to how America has a racist society. It's about multi-culturalism & inclusion.

Don't let them control the narrative. "Hey don't look at that, look at this big shiny flag I'm waving!!"
Oh, you won't go for the squirrel trick? Then I question your patriotism, because that's what scoundrels do.

It's hard to believe how easily some (many) of our fellow countrymen are willing to be manipulated into believing a false narrative. I know. But all we can do is fight back against the spread of misinformation with truth & facts. Don't let them turn this around on us. This is a fight that plays in the heartland. Where we need to start winning again. Heck, I might even go back to watching football.

Go Niners.


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/911917664489975809

September 23, 2017

They complain about political correctness & then they attempt to silence anyone who offends them.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/911719685338537984

September 23, 2017

Know your enemy: Lana Lokteff

“It was women that got Trump elected,” Lana Lokteff, one of the most prominent women in the American alt-right, told an audience earlier this year at an “ideas” conference in Stockholm. White women, she means, but when Lokteff — whose pale skin, long blonde hair, and light blue eyes help make her a living embodiment of the Aryan ideal — speaks about politics, the “white” is generally assumed. “And, I guess,” Lokteff continued, “to be really edgy, it was women that got Hitler elected.”

Hitler wasn’t really elected (he lost his race for the presidency and was appointed to the role of chancellor), but facts are fungible for Lokteff. And besides, it was the frisson of name-checking Hitler that counted for the audience.

In the corner of the world Lokteff inhabits, Hitler references are far less controversial than praise for female political power; women tend to be either overlooked or actively dismissed. But then, Lokteff is an unconventional figure: She hosts a white nationalist radio program, Radio 3Fourteen, part of the Red Ice media conglomerate that she runs with her husband Henrik Palmgren, a Swedish national. (Palmgren is media director for Richard Spencer’s fledgling AltRight Corporation, described as a “more ideological” — read: more overtly white nationalist — Breitbart.)

Despite her fervent commitment to advancing the interests of the white race, however, Lokteff faces a problem. Like many far-right movements throughout American history, the alt-right movement is as rooted as much in ideas of male superiority as it is white supremacy. The white nationalist side gets more attention, but men’s rights activism has been equally important to the movement. Women who are eager to be race warriors are seen by the white men who dominate the alt-right as, at best, subordinate partners, and, at worst, as part of the problem — yet another threat to white male power.

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/9/18/16323686/women-alt-right-power-subservience-paradox-klan

An estimated 20 percent of alt-right supporters are women.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/the-women-behind-the-alt-right/537168/

Lana Lokteff is a danger. She has a popular YouTube channel that seems legitimate and believable. Any impressionable, suggestive young mind could stumble upon it and start to believe her bullshit. Her views, deeply offensive to any rational person, are packaged for mass consumption and presented so that they could sound reasonable to anyone who doesn't know better. I consider her a threat to American democracy. She needs to have a bright light shined on her hateful, racist views.



https://www.youtube.com/user/RedIceRadio

September 22, 2017

Facebook admits it illegally permitted a foreign country to actively meddle in democratic process

Facebook’s halting steps forward in aiding the congressional investigation are nothing new for the company, which only recently has come around to the very frightening (and probably illegal) reality that it permitted a foreign country to actively meddle in the democratic process of the U.S.

In July, the social media company poured cold water on the Senate Intelligence Committee when presented with evidence that Russian actors potentially used Facebook to target highly specific groups of voters.

“We have seen no evidence that Russian actors bought ads on Facebook in connection with the election,” Facebook told CNN at the time.

That proved untrue less than two months later, when Facebook revealed it had, in fact, been paid around $100,000 to push Kremlin-linked ads aimed at “amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum.”

And it’s an even further departure from Zuckerberg’s immediate reaction after the election, when he dismissed as “pretty silly” the idea that misinformation spread on Facebook could have affected the election’s outcome.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg left the door open to the possibility that Facebook may yet find more Russian fingerprints on some of its ads. Judging from the questions Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is putting forward, that may be a wise idea: “How are the Russians smart enough to target in areas where the Democrats weren’t knowledgeable enough?” Warner asked earlier this summer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-russia-ads-congressional-investigator_us_59c41c60e4b0cdc7732ffef1

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/911063166787903488