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steve2470
steve2470's Journal
steve2470's Journal
April 28, 2019
Thursday I surveyed the entire Mueller report. I read some sections carefully; I skimmed others. My job was to anchor Lawfare’s initial coverage, so I needed to have a sense of the big picture, as well as detailed knowledge of certain findings and arguments. Starting Friday, however, I am reading the entire document carefully, starting at the beginning. I’m writing up my thoughts as I go in this post. There will be no cohesive argument to this journal. It will simply be a collection of my observations, questions and thoughts as I go through the document. It will get long. I will not attempt to summarize the underlying document, merely to reflect on it, but I will organize this post by document section. I will update the post as I read. I hope people find it useful.
The following table of contents are links to the sections of this journal, which correspond to sections of the report itself:
Introduction to Volume I
The Special Counsel Investigation
Russian "Active Measures" Social Media Campaign
GRU Hacking Directed at the Clinton Campaign
Russian Government Links to and Contacts with the Trump Campaign
Prosecution and Declination Decisions
Introduction to Volume II
Background Legal and Evidentiary Principles
Factual Results of the Obstruction Investigation
B. The President's Conduct Concerning the Investigation of Michael Flynn
C. The President's Reaction to Public Confirmation of the FBI's Russia Investigation
D. Events Leading Up to and Surrounding the Termination of FBI Director Comey
E. The President's Efforts to Remove the Special Counsel
F. The President's Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation
G. The President's Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails About the June 9, 2016, Meeting Between Russians and Senior Campaign Officials
H. The President’s Further Efforts to Have the Attorney General Take Over the Investigations
I. The President Orders McGahn to Deny That the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel
J. The President’s Conduct Toward Flynn, Manafort, [REDACTED]
K. The President’s Conduct Involving Michael Cohen
L. Overarching Factual Issues
Legal Defense to the Application of Obstruction-of-Justice Statutes to the President
Introduction to Volume I
This is a short little section, barely two pages, but it has several interesting items in it, starting with Mueller’s almost casual endorsement of the FBI’s historical account of the Russia investigation’s origins. In the middle of page 1, Mueller describes the investigation as beginning when “a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos.” Papadopoulos, Mueller writes, had “suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” It was that information, the paragraph concludes, that “prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.”
Notes on the Mueller Report: A Reading Diary
https://www.lawfareblog.com/notes-mueller-report-reading-diaryThursday I surveyed the entire Mueller report. I read some sections carefully; I skimmed others. My job was to anchor Lawfare’s initial coverage, so I needed to have a sense of the big picture, as well as detailed knowledge of certain findings and arguments. Starting Friday, however, I am reading the entire document carefully, starting at the beginning. I’m writing up my thoughts as I go in this post. There will be no cohesive argument to this journal. It will simply be a collection of my observations, questions and thoughts as I go through the document. It will get long. I will not attempt to summarize the underlying document, merely to reflect on it, but I will organize this post by document section. I will update the post as I read. I hope people find it useful.
The following table of contents are links to the sections of this journal, which correspond to sections of the report itself:
Introduction to Volume I
The Special Counsel Investigation
Russian "Active Measures" Social Media Campaign
GRU Hacking Directed at the Clinton Campaign
Russian Government Links to and Contacts with the Trump Campaign
Prosecution and Declination Decisions
Introduction to Volume II
Background Legal and Evidentiary Principles
Factual Results of the Obstruction Investigation
B. The President's Conduct Concerning the Investigation of Michael Flynn
C. The President's Reaction to Public Confirmation of the FBI's Russia Investigation
D. Events Leading Up to and Surrounding the Termination of FBI Director Comey
E. The President's Efforts to Remove the Special Counsel
F. The President's Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation
G. The President's Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails About the June 9, 2016, Meeting Between Russians and Senior Campaign Officials
H. The President’s Further Efforts to Have the Attorney General Take Over the Investigations
I. The President Orders McGahn to Deny That the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel
J. The President’s Conduct Toward Flynn, Manafort, [REDACTED]
K. The President’s Conduct Involving Michael Cohen
L. Overarching Factual Issues
Legal Defense to the Application of Obstruction-of-Justice Statutes to the President
Introduction to Volume I
This is a short little section, barely two pages, but it has several interesting items in it, starting with Mueller’s almost casual endorsement of the FBI’s historical account of the Russia investigation’s origins. In the middle of page 1, Mueller describes the investigation as beginning when “a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos.” Papadopoulos, Mueller writes, had “suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” It was that information, the paragraph concludes, that “prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.”
April 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/LordFonzz/status/1121114135071051776
"Ice Ice Baby" re-done with Game of Thrones
Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice 1989https://twitter.com/LordFonzz/status/1121114135071051776
April 22, 2019
2 minutes and 20 seconds, courtesy of MoMA
(the motion seems normal, which is slower than typical film I have seen of that era, maybe modified ?)
New York City in 1911
https://twitter.com/Gabriele_Corno/status/11200903364481310732 minutes and 20 seconds, courtesy of MoMA
(the motion seems normal, which is slower than typical film I have seen of that era, maybe modified ?)
April 16, 2019
(Jewish Group) Twitter sucks at anti-semitic moderation
Case in point:
https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1117968251219263491
https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1118004473107046400
April 12, 2019
WARSAW — Growing up in a small city in southern Poland, part of a religious family and conservative community, Maciej Gosniowski was told again and again that something was wrong with him.
“It would be better if I changed myself,” he recalled teachers telling him. “It would be better if I behaved more like a boy. It would make my life easier.”
Mr. Gosniowski was beaten by other students who used homophobic slurs he did not yet understand. He does not want other young people to suffer as he did, so he welcomed the decision by the mayor of Warsaw to introduce a declaration last month aimed at promoting tolerance.
But the backlash to the declaration has left him shaken.
Poland's Populists Pick a New Top Enemy: Gay People
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/europe/poland-gay-rights.htmlWARSAW — Growing up in a small city in southern Poland, part of a religious family and conservative community, Maciej Gosniowski was told again and again that something was wrong with him.
“It would be better if I changed myself,” he recalled teachers telling him. “It would be better if I behaved more like a boy. It would make my life easier.”
Mr. Gosniowski was beaten by other students who used homophobic slurs he did not yet understand. He does not want other young people to suffer as he did, so he welcomed the decision by the mayor of Warsaw to introduce a declaration last month aimed at promoting tolerance.
But the backlash to the declaration has left him shaken.
April 10, 2019
Donald Trump’s new Washington hotel, located just blocks from the White House, owes electricians, wood workers and a plumbing and heating business more than $5 million for unpaid labor, according to liens filed against the property with the District of Columbia.
The 263-room hotel, located on the historic site of the city’s former main post office, opened in October following a $212 million renovation of the 1899 structure. The liens were filed in November and December, according to public records.
(rest behind paywall)
Does anyone know if Trump actually paid these contractors ???? I put this originally in LBN, my apologies.
Trump's D.C. Hotel Tagged With $5 Million in Unpaid Worker Liens (from January 2017)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/trump-s-dc-hotel-tagged-with-5-million-in-unpaid-worker-liensDonald Trump’s new Washington hotel, located just blocks from the White House, owes electricians, wood workers and a plumbing and heating business more than $5 million for unpaid labor, according to liens filed against the property with the District of Columbia.
The 263-room hotel, located on the historic site of the city’s former main post office, opened in October following a $212 million renovation of the 1899 structure. The liens were filed in November and December, according to public records.
(rest behind paywall)
Does anyone know if Trump actually paid these contractors ???? I put this originally in LBN, my apologies.
April 9, 2019
(Jewish Group) If You Are Defending Stephen Miller, You Are an Ally of Anti-Semitism
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2019/04/ilhan-omar-is-right-stephen-miller-is-a-white-nationalist.html?__twitter_impression=trueLast fall, Stephen Miller encouraged the president to focus his midterm message on the threat posed by a caravan of Central American migrants. Trump proceeded to tell supporters that this caravan was an “invasion,” that “the Democrats had something to do with it,” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the Jewish billionaire George Soros was financing this “invasion” in an attempt to rig the midterm elections.
Lee Zeldin did not object to these remarks. In his view, it was not anti-Semitic (or even irresponsible) for the president to suggest that a wealthy Jew was orchestrating an invasion of the United States, using nonwhite immigrants as his shock troops — even though the president was saying such things just days after a neo-Nazi had murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue because he believed that Jews were orchestrating an invasion of the United States, using nonwhite immigrants as their shock troops. Instead, Zeldin chose to demonstrate his solidarity with American Jews last fall by inviting Steve Bannon to headline one of his campaign events.
It is worth noting that even if Trump’s revanchist nativism didn’t contain traces of anti-Semitism, it would remain a form of politics that endangers Diaspora Jews. Jewish reactionaries like Stephen Miller might be able to assimilate to the form of Americanism that Trump champions. But the vast majority of American Jews are liberal, cosmopolitan, and secularist. Which is to say: They are the “globalist” villains in Trumpism’s Manichaean fable of American decline.
And even if Trump’s politics did not endanger Jews, anyone who has ever uttered “never again” in earnest would still be obliged to oppose him. If you are a Jew who has “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism — but infinite tolerance for a president who describes immigrants as an “infestation,” and directs extrajudicial cruelty at their children — then you aren’t so different from the Nazis’ apologists. You share their conviction that some populations are entitled to basic rights, while others are not.
Lee Zeldin did not object to these remarks. In his view, it was not anti-Semitic (or even irresponsible) for the president to suggest that a wealthy Jew was orchestrating an invasion of the United States, using nonwhite immigrants as his shock troops — even though the president was saying such things just days after a neo-Nazi had murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue because he believed that Jews were orchestrating an invasion of the United States, using nonwhite immigrants as their shock troops. Instead, Zeldin chose to demonstrate his solidarity with American Jews last fall by inviting Steve Bannon to headline one of his campaign events.
It is worth noting that even if Trump’s revanchist nativism didn’t contain traces of anti-Semitism, it would remain a form of politics that endangers Diaspora Jews. Jewish reactionaries like Stephen Miller might be able to assimilate to the form of Americanism that Trump champions. But the vast majority of American Jews are liberal, cosmopolitan, and secularist. Which is to say: They are the “globalist” villains in Trumpism’s Manichaean fable of American decline.
And even if Trump’s politics did not endanger Jews, anyone who has ever uttered “never again” in earnest would still be obliged to oppose him. If you are a Jew who has “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism — but infinite tolerance for a president who describes immigrants as an “infestation,” and directs extrajudicial cruelty at their children — then you aren’t so different from the Nazis’ apologists. You share their conviction that some populations are entitled to basic rights, while others are not.
April 4, 2019
Amazon plans to relocate its entire Seattle-based worldwide operations team to Bellevue, Wash., by 2023, adding thousands of employees to its new campus just across Lake Washington, according to an internal email obtained by GeekWire.
Moving a large and critical team away from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters is a significant relocation of employees on its own, but it’s also a weighty symbolic gesture — the clearest sign yet that the tech giant is cooling on its hometown while doubling down on a neighboring city.
“I’m excited to share the news that we’re planning to migrate worldwide operations to Bellevue starting this year,” said Dave Clark, the senior vice president in charge of the team, in an email to his employees Wednesday. “This move gives room to grow while maintaining the campus feel that we’ve come to love around South Lake Union.”
Sources familiar with the plans said several thousand employees will be moving to Bellevue in the years ahead. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the email obtained by GeekWire.
Amazon moving thousands of employees out of Seattle, relocating key division to nearby city
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/exclusive-amazon-moving-thousands-employees-seattle-relocating-key-division-nearby-city/Amazon plans to relocate its entire Seattle-based worldwide operations team to Bellevue, Wash., by 2023, adding thousands of employees to its new campus just across Lake Washington, according to an internal email obtained by GeekWire.
Moving a large and critical team away from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters is a significant relocation of employees on its own, but it’s also a weighty symbolic gesture — the clearest sign yet that the tech giant is cooling on its hometown while doubling down on a neighboring city.
“I’m excited to share the news that we’re planning to migrate worldwide operations to Bellevue starting this year,” said Dave Clark, the senior vice president in charge of the team, in an email to his employees Wednesday. “This move gives room to grow while maintaining the campus feel that we’ve come to love around South Lake Union.”
Sources familiar with the plans said several thousand employees will be moving to Bellevue in the years ahead. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the email obtained by GeekWire.
April 4, 2019
reference: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-04-03/debates/5F15A794-4045-4A04-A714-1FED79C45726/EuropeanUnion(Withdrawal)(No5)Bill
(at 9 PM by Sir William Cash, a prominent Eurosceptic)
I thought I heard him say this last night during the debate on parliamentlive.uk, but now the official record confirms it
"Chuntering", a new addition to my vocabulary (if I can remember it)
chunter in British
(ˈtʃʌntə ) or chunner (ˈtʃʌnə )
verb
(intransitive; often foll by on) British informal
to mutter or grumble incessantly in a meaningless fashion
(ˈtʃʌntə ) or chunner (ˈtʃʌnə )
verb
(intransitive; often foll by on) British informal
to mutter or grumble incessantly in a meaningless fashion
reference: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-04-03/debates/5F15A794-4045-4A04-A714-1FED79C45726/EuropeanUnion(Withdrawal)(No5)Bill
(at 9 PM by Sir William Cash, a prominent Eurosceptic)
Sir William Cash
Absolutely; the idea of our subjecting ourselves to the European Council as well as to the European Parliament is about as humiliating as anybody could imagine. I suppose we are not supposed to say this but it happens to be true: we saved Europe twice in the last 100 years, yet we are now, as a result of this withdrawal agreement and these provisions, subjugating ourselves to the decisions taken by 27 other member states by majority vote.
9.00 pm
I see that the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman is chuntering. Perhaps he would like to come to the Dispatch Box and make his point. No, he is not going to, because he cannot understand what I am talking about, because he has not actually got the competence to do so.
Absolutely; the idea of our subjecting ourselves to the European Council as well as to the European Parliament is about as humiliating as anybody could imagine. I suppose we are not supposed to say this but it happens to be true: we saved Europe twice in the last 100 years, yet we are now, as a result of this withdrawal agreement and these provisions, subjugating ourselves to the decisions taken by 27 other member states by majority vote.
9.00 pm
I see that the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman is chuntering. Perhaps he would like to come to the Dispatch Box and make his point. No, he is not going to, because he cannot understand what I am talking about, because he has not actually got the competence to do so.
I thought I heard him say this last night during the debate on parliamentlive.uk, but now the official record confirms it
April 2, 2019
in reference to : https://twitter.com/KBrownianMotion/status/1113150262947008512
and: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/amazons-demented-plans-for-its-warehouse-blimp-with-drone-fleet/
CGI video of Amazon blimp-ship with small drones exiting and entering.....
https://twitter.com/DanRobitzski/status/1113107819799236609in reference to : https://twitter.com/KBrownianMotion/status/1113150262947008512
and: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/amazons-demented-plans-for-its-warehouse-blimp-with-drone-fleet/
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Sat Oct 16, 2004, 12:04 PM
Number of posts: 37,468