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Day 907

1/ Trump told four liberal congresswomen of color to "go back" and "fix" their "broken and crime infested" countries. All four are American citizens and born in the United States, except for one, who became a refugee at age 10 when a civil war devastated Somalia. While he did not mention them by name, Trump's tweets were directed at the members of the so-called "squad," who were elected to Congress in 2018: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley. Republicans remained largely silent after Trump's attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, called the tweets "xenophobic" and accused Trump of reaffirming his plan to make "America white again." (New York Times / Associated Press / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Yahoo News / CNN)


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/07/15/day-907/
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BOOM - read this. :boom:

And Roger Stone was very much tied to Assange…here comes some more evidence about what was Assange’s role in election meddling.

Atlanta (CNN)New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.

The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.

Despite being confined to the embassy while seeking safe passage to Ecuador, Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments, frequently for hours at a time. He also acquired powerful new computing and network hardware to facilitate data transfers just weeks before WikiLeaks received hacked materials from Russian operatives.
These stunning details come from hundreds of surveillance reports compiled for the Ecuadorian government by UC Global, a private Spanish security company, and obtained by CNN. They chronicle Assange’s movements and provide an unprecedented window into his life at the embassy. They also add a new dimension to the Mueller report, which cataloged how WikiLeaks helped the Russians undermine the US election.

An Ecuadorian intelligence official told CNN that the surveillance reports are authentic.

The security logs noted that Assange personally managed some of the releases “directly from the embassy” where he lived for nearly seven years. After the election, the private security company prepared an assessment of Assange’s allegiances. That report, which included open-source information, concluded there was “no doubt that there is evidence” that Assange had ties to Russian intelligence agencies.
UC Global did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Assange, a native of Australia, has always denied working for the Kremlin and has insisted that the source of the leaks “is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.” He also said he would have published damaging information about then-candidate Donald Trump if he had received it.
The US announced criminal charges against Assange earlier this year for his role in the 2010 leaks of secret diplomatic cables and Pentagon war logs, which WikiLeaks got from then-US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. British police yanked Assange from the embassy in April. He is now serving a one-year prison term in London for skipping bail in the UK, while aggressively fighting extradition to the US.
WikiLeaks did not respond to requests for comment. Assange’s lawyers declined to comment. Assange maintains his innocence and WikiLeaks says the charges are “the worst attack on press freedom in our lifetime.”

Assange also issued a special list of people who were able to enter the embassy without showing identification or being searched by security. He was even granted the power to delete names from the visitor logs. To avoid surveillance cameras, Assange occasionally met guests inside the women’s bathroom, according to the security reports.
This all leaves open the possibility that additional sensitive meetings took place but are still secret.
Quickly, the once-mundane diplomatic mission in the heart of London became a hotbed of tension and suspicion. Throughout Assange’s stay at the embassy, Ecuador employed three security companies to conduct constant surveillance. Assange installed his own recording devices and used noise machines to stymie the snooping, according to the documents obtained by CNN.
The task of controlling Assange proved difficult. Fistfights broke out between Assange and the guards. He smeared feces on the walls out of anger.
Assange also maintained direct contact with senior officials in Ecuador, including former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, and regularly used those connections to threaten embassy staff, according to the surveillance documents and two Ecuadorian government sources who spoke to CNN. He claimed he could get people fired, even the sitting ambassador.
Assange’s authority appeared at times to rival that of the ambassador. In December 2013, Ambassador Juan Falconí wrote a letter to Assange and said that “you cannot give instructions contrary to mine.”
CNN reached out to the four ambassadors who overlapped with Assange’s time at the embassy. Only Falconí would comment, saying the Ecuadorian government had never pressured him to give Assange special treatment and that he had established rules for Assange to follow.
Several current and former Ecuadorian government officials, including Correa and Patiño, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While Correa was in office, he responded to criticism over harboring Assange by doubling down on the asylum offer and holding Assange up as a symbol of Ecuador’s commitment to freedom of the press.
Referring to Assange, Correa pointed out that “the icon of freedom of expression chooses to take refuge in the embassy of Ecuador,” in a 2012 interview with RT en Español, a Spanish-language network controlled by the Kremlin. The Russian government operates television networks around the world to spread propaganda, and it reaches American audiences on its flagship English-language station, RT.
Despite the years of strife, Assange was allowed to stay and prepared to wield his power when the moment was right. That moment came in summer 2016, a pivotal time in the US presidential campaign.

Russia comes knocking
By June, Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had emerged as the de facto nominees of their parties and were gearing up for what would be a bruising general election. The campaign took a historic turn on June 14, when the Democratic National Committee announced that it had been hacked and blamed Russia – which Trump dismissed as a farce.
Assange was busy back at the embassy. That month, members of the security team worked overtime to handle at least 75 visits to Assange, nearly double the monthly average of visits logged by the security company that year. He met Russian citizens and a hacker later flagged in the Mueller report as a potential courier for emails stolen from the Democrats.

Summer 2016: The releases begin

June 14, 2016

Democratic National Committee announces it’s been hacked and blames Russia.

June 19, 2016

Assange asks the Ecuadorian embassy to beef up his Internet connection.
Embassy staff give Assange technical support “for data transmission,” according to the surveillance reports, and help install new equipment.

July 6, 2016

WikiLeaks asks Russian hackers for materials about Clinton “because the (Democratic National Convention) is approaching and she will solidify bernie (Sanders) supporters behind her after.”

July 14, 2016

Russian hackers send encrypted files to WikiLeaks, titled “big archive.”
Assange meets for hours with German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix.

July 18, 2016

Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland.
At the embassy, an Ecuadorian security guard abandons his post to receive a package outside the embassy from a man in disguise.
WikiLeaks tells the Russian hackers they got the files.

July 22, 2016

WikiLeaks releases more than 20,000 internal files from the Democratic National Committee.

Also in June, WikiLeaks secretly communicated with Russian hackers and Assange publicly announced plans to release new material about Clinton. The Mueller report says the Russian hackers obscured their identities by using online personas for all their communications with WikiLeaks, which included emails and direct messages to WikiLeaks’ account on Twitter.
Assange took at least seven meetings that month with Russians and others with Kremlin ties, according to the visitor logs.
Two encounters were with a Russian national named Yana Maximova, who could not be reached for comment. Almost nothing is known about Maximova, making it difficult to discern why she visited the embassy at key moments in June 2016. During her two visits that month, she met with Assange in the middle of the day in the embassy’s conference room.
Assange also had five meetings that month with senior staffers from RT, the Kremlin-controlled news organization.

(more)

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So he doubled down. AGAIN.

Pulled the “if ya don’t like it, YOU CAN LEAVE” card. Very literally.

Rhetoric like this almost always precedes violence.

Be careful out there, people.

Please.

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Conservative lawyers have made some statements about T’s racist comments, and George Conway III is especially vocal about T’s despicable words.

A group of conservative and libertarian lawyers including George Conway are condemning President Trump’s tweets targeting female minority Democratic lawmakers as “racist,” and saying that they “should be rejected by every American.”

The group, known as Checks and Balances, said in a statement issued late Monday afternoon that the president telling those lawmakers to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” are “of a piece with his nativist nature and at odds with the uplifting promise of our Nation.”

“As conservatives or libertarians, we have profound disagreements with the policies advocated by the Congressional targets of Trump’s tweets,” the group’s statement reads. “But they, like all Americans, are entitled to be treated with respect.”

The lawyers — who include former Republican administration officials like Donald Ayer and Charles Fried — also criticized GOP lawmakers for not swiftly and unequivocally criticizing Trump’s tweets.

“We refuse to share the silence of most of the Republican caucus in Congress, whose timidity in the face of this abhorrent behavior reflects the debased politics of the day,” the statement reads. “We add our voices to those who condemn the President’s ignorant racist nature and urge all citizens of whatever party to join us in rejecting a politics of division that is an affront to the rule of law.”

George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, has been a frequent and public critic of the president.

The message was met with immediate condemnation from Democrats, who labeled the remarks “racist” and “xenophobic.” Trump dug in on his remarks on Monday, denying he was being racist and accusing the lawmakers of being anti-Semitic.

“They can leave. And you know what? I’m sure there will be many people that won’t miss them. But they have to love our country. They’re congresspeople,” he said.

Most Republicans remained silent over the weekend, though several came out against the president’s remarks after his public comments on Monday.

Conservative Lawyers’ Group Condemns Trump’s ‘Ignorant Racist Nature’

“We refuse to share the silence of most of the Republican caucus in Congress, whose timidity in the face of this abhorrent behavior reflects the debased politics of the day,” the group Checks and Balances said in a statement.

A group of libertarian and conservative lawyers that formed to counter alleged transgressions of legal norms by the Trump administration issued a statement Monday condemning tweets from the president that urged four minority female Democratic House members to “go back” to their home countries.

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Interior to move one-fifth of Bureau of Land Management’s D.C. staff out west as part of larger “reorganization” push

While labeled reorganization, this is designed to punish, frustrate, & pick apart departments and drive people to quit.

Consumer Confidence Declines to Lowest in Two Years

https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2019-06-25/consumer-confidence-declines-to-lowest-in-two-years

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Republican Hall of Racist Shame:

  • Of the 197 Republicans in the House, only 10 (5%) have criticized Trump’s racist attacks. Shame on 95% of the Republicans in the House – they are racists – anyone who enables a racist is a racist.

  • Of the 53 Republicans in the Senate, only 8 (15%) have criticized Trump’s racist attacks. Shame on 85% of the Republicans in the Senate – they are racists – anyone who enables a racist is a racist.

And consider for a moment that the racist these Republican racists are enabling, is the most powerful person on earth.

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WHOA. Also:

To be clear: it’s not about where she was born, not really. “Go back” means “you don’t belong, go away,” and every racist, xenophobe, and nationalist knows this instinctively.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Has Been A U.S. Citizen Longer Than Melania Trump

Donald Trump presumably doesn’t question his wife’s right to criticize her adopted country.

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Judge Amy Berman is not allowing Roger Stone to post anything on major social media platforms as it breaches his gag ruling. Stone will not have to forfeit his bail and go to jail to await trial. Glad she is tightening the belt on this loose cannon of a man.

A federal judge bans Republican operative Roger Stone from posting anything at all on major social media platforms after ruling that the longtime confidant of President Trump violated an already strict gag order in his criminal case.

Jackson barred Stone from posting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — but she decided not to revoke Stone’s bail bond or hold him in contempt for violating her order.

Stone had previously been dressed down by the judge for his public statements about the federal criminal case in Washington, D.C.

A federal judge on Tuesday banned Republican operative Roger Stone from posting anything at all on major social media platforms after ruling that the longtime confidant of President Donald Trump violated an already strict gag order in his criminal case.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson walked through a litany of Stone’s recent posts from his Instagram account that appeared to breach his order not to speak publicly about his case.

Jackson barred Stone from posting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — but she decided not to revoke Stone’s bail bond or hold him in contempt for violating her order.

“It seems he is determined to make himself the subject of the story,” Jackson said of Stone, according to Buzzfeed News.

Stone’s lawyer argued that his client’s posts did not have an impact on the case, even if he was communicating about it publicly, Buzzfeed reported.

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As many as 11,800 military families face deportation issues, group says

Her name is Sofi. As in Sophie’s choice. This must be somebody’s sick idea of a joke.

3-Year-Old Asked To Pick Parent In Attempted Family Separation, Her Parents Say

A border patrol agent asked a 3-year-old migrant Honduran girl to choose which parent should be sent to Mexico. She started to cry as her father was taken away.

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Pelosi holds the line on the Administration on what she’ll agree to vote on regarding paying for an increased debt ceiling.

Good.

#SeeDeficitRisingRsTaxBill

Pelosi has also said she is hopeful that she can reach a deal with the White House, but on Monday she made clear that the White House would not dictate the fallback plan if the talks falter. Pelosi wants the White House to agree to a specific budget deal that would dictate spending levels for the next two years.

People involved in the negotiations said they were not panicking and that there were still multiple options to avoid a full-blown crisis, and they also said that all sides were working hard to reach a resolution. One option would be for lawmakers and the White House to reach an agreement in principle on the budget before the August recess, temporarily raise the debt ceiling, and then agree on specifics in the intervening months.

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Tariffs on China Don’t Cover the Costs of Trump’s Trade War

Government figures show that the revenue the US has collected from tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods is not enough to cover the cost of the president’s bailout for farmers, let alone compensate the many other industries hurt by trade tensions.


image

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Donald Trump’s grandfather wrote letter begging not to be deported. Here it is

‘This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree’

United Nations slams US for detention facilities: ‘This should never happen anywhere’

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Yes!!! I looked on @matt twitter feed…he’s the best! :trophy:

https://twitter.com/Matt_Kiser/status/1150896575738253317?s=19

A lot of security footage of the comings and goings of Assange’s gang with hard drives (of leaked documents we presume). Assange works with the Russians for sure.
I hope it throws open more questions for Mueller too. You have to wonder how the whole Russia investigation stopped at Stone, sending him into the US Federal Court in DC just when linking an inner circle T advisor with Assange and Wikileaks.

Yes…much better reading than racial slurs…:angry:

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@dragonfly9

Holy guacamole! This is huge news for Assange. It’s too bad Stone will probably see trial first. We haven’t had more of the 2016 Russian Cyber Attack story for a while. I have to say it makes for infinity better reading than the upsetting racist tweets vs. The Squad stories. Thanks for posting, definitely a must read!

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I believe this is the article on Assange:

Between this and the fact that he backed the Russian effort to frame Seth Rich coming out, maybe people will stop claiming he’s a journalist finally.


It’s up, it’s cranky, and it’s still very racist and very afraid of four strong women of color.

It’s also lying through its teeth claiming they’re shouting curses, backing terrorists, anti-USA, saying disgusting, vile, and hateful things… you know… all of the things IT does? Yup.


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