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Leaving this here…RIP 
A former Deutsche Bank executive who reportedly signed off on some of the institution’s unorthodox loans to Donald Trump killed himself in his Malibu home on November 19. Thomas Bowers, the onetime head of Deutsche Bank’s American wealth-management division, where he oversaw Trump’s private banker, committed suicide by hanging, according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office. Bowers was 55.
I’ve learned that Tom Bowers, a former senior @DeutscheBank executive, died last week at 55 in Malibu, Calif. I knew him. It’s very sad.
— David Enrich (@davidenrich) November 26, 2019
Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank—which lent him around $2 billion after most other institutions had forsaken him for his history of defaults and bankruptcies—has come under investigation by two Congressional committees and the New York Attorney General, who are hoping the bank can shed light on Trump’s elusive finances, according to the New York Times . At one point, Bowers had a close connection to those finances.
Rosemary T. Vrablic, a managing director at Deutsche Bank who became Trump’s private banker in 2010 after being introduced by her client, Jared Kushner, reported directly to Bowers. Vrablic reportedly helped Trump secure loans from her bank, which Bowers approved—including more than $100 million to buy his Doral resort in Miami—even after Trump and Deutsche had to settle messy litigation over a Chicago loan that went bad.
“Rosemary is widely recognized as one of the top private bankers to the U.S. ultra high-net-worth community,” Bowers said in a press release when Deutsche Bank hired her in 2006.
Bowers hasn’t been employed by Deutsche since at least 2015, when he joined Starwood Capitol Group as COO, and was then appointed to the Board of Directors of Opus Bank in 2016.
Bowers isn’t the first Trump-connected Deutsche exec to commit suicide. In 2014, Deutsche derivatives analyst William S. Broeksmit, who reportedly had links to Trump and Russia, hung himself from a dog leash at his home in London.
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Shame on Apple for bowing to the demands of dictators and murderers.
BBC News - Apple changes Crimea map to meet Russian demands
An incredible thread listing the long litany of mob bosses, dictators, traitors, and other criminals who have lived in Trump Tower.
Italian plot to create new Nazi party uncovered, police say
American jobs are getting worse, new economic index shows
The country’s ultra-low unemployment rate rests on a foundation of low-wage and often unstable work
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A Pennsylvania bill would require death certificates for fertilized eggs that never implant in the uterus
The proposed bill also means health providers would have to obtain death certificates for all fertilized, but not implanted, eggs, since in order to to obtain a burial permit, you first have to obtain a death certificate, Christine Castro, a staff attorney at the Pennsylvania-based Women’s Law Project, told Vice. “The bill is written in a misleading way,” she said.
If the bill, known as the “Pennsylvania Final Disposition of Fetal Remains Act,” passes and isn’t followed, it could result in a $50 to $300 fine or up to 30 days in prison for providers.
The problem is women, and even their doctors, can’t track when or how many fertilized eggs don’t implant in the uterus because those eggs typically dissolve in utero and are shed through a woman’s menstrual lining every month, making them undetectable.
What?! Are they going to require anyone who has a menstrual cycle acquire a death certificate each month and then have a funeral for a pile of used tampons? This is unenforceable, idiotic and unconstitutional.
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WH handing over these withheld funds in the dark…now they get released.
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I really feel like when this full story comes out it’s going to be mind-blowing again. And more for the impeachment case.
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I used to live in Rep Ted Lieu’s district, and still get his emails. Thought it was really interesting that he included all pertinent information on how to be a Whistleblower.
Rep Lieu is on the Judicial Committee so we will be seeing him more in the coming weeks. He’s been a die-hard proponent for getting rid of T.
Congressman Ted Lieu
Representing the 33rd District of California
Federal Employees Guide to Sharing Key Information with the Public
Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) and Congressman Don Beyer (D | Virginia) offer the following resource guide for federal employees who wish to break the Administration’s communications blackout on federal agencies. The guide explains how to safely and responsibly share information, and encourages employees to “Know Your Rights” and “Know Your Options.” In the “Know Your Rights” section, federal employees can learn about which federal laws apply to them. In the “Know Your Options” section, employees can learn about how to safely disseminate information to agency inspectors general and the press. The resource guide also includes links to an in-depth list of federal whistleblower statutes and information about agency inspectors general. Reps. Lieu and Beyer initially introduced this guide in 2017 and updated it in 2019.
-To download a PDF version of the resource guide, click here.
-For information on the Federal Inspectors General and how whistleblowers can report government fraud, waste and abuse, click here.
-For more information on federal employee protections, click here.Additional Resources:
- ProPublica: How To Leak To ProPublica
- The Washington Post: Here’s how to leak government documents to The Post
- The Intercept: The Intercept Welcomes Whistleblowers
- The New York Times: Confidential news tips
- The Guardian: Share stories with us securely and confidentially
- The Official SecureDrop Directory: Media Organizations that Securely Accept Documents from Anonymous Sources
- Los Angeles Times: Submit a news tip or leak
- NPR: Got a confidential news tip for NPR?
- NBC News: NBC News Tips
- ABC News: Do you have a tip you would like to share with ABC News?
- CBS News: CBS News Investigates
- The Wall Street Journal: Got a tip?
- Buzzfeed News: Share Tips Securely and Anonymously
- POLITICO: Share a news tip with POLITICO
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In other breaking news… George Zimmerman is suing Trayvon Martin’s parents for $100M.
No, this is not a joke. Yes, this is the murderer of their son, a proven danger to all of society, suing THEM for damages.
Our nation is sick.
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WARNING: This article contains instances of hate speech, since it deals with right wing extremist, white nationalist trends. This article points out the alarming, growing push among white nationalists to engage in mass violence.
Extremism, Terrorism & Bigotry
The Boogaloo: Extremists’ New Slang Term for A Coming Civil War
- November 26, 2019
It’s not often an old joke evolves into a catchphrase for mass violence, but that’s just what’s happened this past year when a variety of extremist and fringe movements and subcultures adopted the word “boogaloo” as shorthand for a future civil war.
From militia groups to white supremacists, extremists on a range of online platforms talk about—and sometimes even anticipate—the “boogaloo.” The rise of “boogaloo,” and its casual acceptance of future mass violence, is disturbing. Among some extremists, it may even signify an increased willingness to engage in violence.
“Boogaloo” has its roots in decades of jokes about an old movie: the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Almost from the moment of the movie’s release, people exploited the format of the movie’s title for humorous purposes, replacing “Breakin’” with some other film, event or person of their choice.
These jokes included “Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo” references, made every so often by gamers and history buffs, among others. But its most recent, and most serious, iteration caught on and spread very quickly. Though some still use the phrase as a joke, an increasing number of people employ it with serious intent.
Gun Rights Activists Threaten Violence
This new usage seems to have started with gun rights activists intimating or promising violence if the government were to “come for their guns.” The full phrase has been used this way before; for example, in June 2018 someone started a Reddit thread titled “Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo” featuring a 2012 Facebook post by Gavin Newsom, then California’s lieutenant governor, telling the National Rifle Association, “we ARE coming for your guns.” The implication made by the poster was clear—that any such effort would result in civil war.
In 2019, usage spread widely among pro-gun activists on a variety of online platforms, so much so that it was quickly pared down simply to “boogaloo” or “the boogaloo.” In August, a Twitter user warned others to buy whatever guns and ammo they wanted now, because soon the ability to do so would be “severely curtailed,” adding, “Button up for the #boogaloo. Now.” That same month someone else tweeted the hashtag #boogaloo, warning about 100 million “active shooter” situations “when the cops try to do nationwide gun confiscations.”
A range of boogaloo-related phrases also emerged this year, as the term became more popular, including: “showing up for the boogaloo,” “when the boogaloo hits,” “being boogaloo ready” and “bring on the boogaloo.” Boogaloo-related hashtags have surfaced, including #boogaloo2020, #BigIgloo (igloo-related images are now also used as boogaloo references), #boojahideen, and #boogaloobois.
Some people predicted that proposed “red flag” laws (laws allowing the temporary seizing of firearms from individuals deemed to present a danger to themselves or others) would bring on the boogaloo. Boogaloo-related hashtags now often appear along firearm-related tags, such as #2a, #gunrights, and #ShallNotBeInfringed. Many boogaloo references are directed against the “alphabet boys” or “alphabet gang” – federal agencies like the FBI and ATF – which people assume would assist in any gun confiscations.
In September, then-presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke called for a mandatory buyback program for assault weapons, sparking a rash of boogaloo references. “You realize your gun confiscation plan would set off the boogaloo, right?” one person asked O’Rourke on Twitter in October. “Do you know that you will start a boogaloo?” demanded another. “Once Beto starts taking the guns away, the boogaloo will start,” asserted a third.
The boogaloo meme soon spread from angry gun-rights activists to the militia movement and survivalists. The Telegram channel “Boogaloo: How to Survive” claims to show “how to survive in a post society world through understanding the psychology of violence, attaining resources, and organizing to accomplish post society tasks.” It currently has more than 1,700 members. A militia movement-related website now sells a “Boogaloo 2020” t-shirt—and it is hardly alone. Now one can buy boogaloo-related clothing and accessories from a variety of online marketplaces, including Amazon. Items include patches, pins and apparel (such as “Big Igloo” t-shirts).
The boogaloo meme has spread to other movements with anti-government beliefs, primarily minarchists and anarcho-capitalists, which are essentially conservative alternatives to anarchism, as well as a few apparent anarchists. Use of the term by adherents of these philosophies often refers to violence against the state and its institutions, especially law enforcement.
White Supremacists Take Up the Term
White supremacists have also adopted the boogaloo concept. A particularly disturbing boogaloo t-shirt (currently available online) features the word boogaloo under a photograph of John Earnest, the white supremacist who opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, California, in April 2019, killing one person.
Whereas the militia movement, radical gun rights activists typically promote the boogaloo as a war against the government or liberals, white supremacists conceive of the boogaloo as a race war or a white revolution. Some promote boogaloo-related phrases alongside hashtags such as #dotr or #DayOfTheRope, both of which are references to neo-Nazi William Pierce’s The Turner Diaries, a novelized blueprint for a white revolution.
Accelerationist white supremacists are particularly apt to use “boogaloo” – they seek the violent collapse of modern society in order to bring about a new, white-dominated world. Among them is Paul Nehlen, who gained notoriety by running for U.S. Congress in Wisconsin in 2016 and 2018. After the Poway synagogue shooting, Nehlen embraced both accelerationism and the term boogaloo and has even posted photos of himself wearing the John Earnest/boogaloo shirt.
In August, the accelerationist “Terrorwave Refined” Telegram channel posted the following call to arms:
If they are ever dumb enough to come for your guns, let the executive, legislative, and judicial workers and their kike handlers know that they had better confiscate all the manure and trucks in America…because the first places you’ll visit will be the courthouses, legislatures, barracks, and next, their personal homes, their parents [sic] homes, their kids [sic] homes…and it will truly be the beginning of the White Man’s Boogaloo.
The reference to manure and trucks is likely an allusion to Timothy McVeigh’s use of an ammonium nitrate truck bomb to destroy the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
The white supremacist (and accelerationist) group Feuerkrieg Division recently posted a song about a race-war boogaloo to its official Telegram channel. A sampling of the lyrics makes its thrust clear:
Do the Boogaloo!
Kill the kikes, and save the whites
Come on, it’s time to go!
Do the Boogaloo!
Plug a pig, and then a Yid
Let’s do the Boogaloo, all together now!
Care must be taken when evaluating boogaloo-as-civil-war references, as some people—even those in extremist movements—still use the phrase jokingly, or to mock some of the more fanatical or gung-ho adherents of their own movement.
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Stacking the courts with unqualified (by ABA standards) and very ideologically right-leaning judges. That is the true reason for R’s letting T stay in power…
Democrats and progressive outside groups have fumed for months arguing that Trump is nominating, and Senate Republicans are confirming, ideologically partisan, unqualified nominees.
“They are putting right-wing judges on the bench. These judges are far away from where the average American is, even far away from the average Republican,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a weekly press conference.
Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) added that he was “particularly concerned about rising issues around qualification and competence” on Trump’s picks.
…
Sarah Pitlyk, who was confirmed this week to be a judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, was rated as “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only GOP senator to oppose her nomination, while GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and Mike Rounds (S.D.) missed the vote.
Schumer, asked about her nomination during a weekly press conference, said, "there are many bad nominations, but it’s hard to think of one that’s as bad as hers."
In addition to Pitlyk, the Senate confirmed Sherri Lydon, Richard Ernest Myers, David Barlow, Austin Huffaker, Douglas Russell Cole, John Sinatra and Eric Ross Komitee to be district judges.
McConnell has already teed up two circuit nominations for next week: Patrick Bumatay and Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the Ninth Circuit.
Sarah Pitlyk, who was confirmed this week to be a judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, was rated as “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only GOP senator to oppose her nomination, while GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and Mike Rounds (S.D.) missed the vote.
Schumer, asked about her nomination during a weekly press conference, said, “there are many bad nominations, but it’s hard to think of one that’s as bad as hers.”
In addition to Pitlyk, the Senate confirmed Sherri Lydon, Richard Ernest Myers, David Barlow, Austin Huffaker, Douglas Russell Cole, John Sinatra and Eric Ross Komitee to be district judges.
McConnell has already teed up two circuit nominations for next week: Patrick Bumatay and Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the Ninth Circuit.
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Israel’s state prosecutor has plans to indict prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cousin and personal lawyer, alongside six other people, on charges related to a possible conflict of interest over a $2bn purchase of German submarines.
Shai Nitzan said in a statement on Thursday the seven would be charged on various corruption offences, including money laundering, bribery and fraud – pending a hearing.
Among them is Mr Netanyahu’s attorney, David Shimron, who represented the German firm involved and was suspected of using his influence over the prime minister in return for a hefty cut of the deal.
…
Mr Netanyahu was recently the first sitting Israeli premier to be indicted. He is on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases related to allegedly receiving luxury gifts and positive news coverage in exchange for regulatory or political favours.
The head of a nation charged with bribery and his personal lawyer indicted. Something like that would never happen here.
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No wonder Trump gets along so well with Netanyahu. They share lawyer issues.
#FirstWorldDictatorProblems
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House passes bill to restore key parts of Voting Rights Act
The Democratic-controlled House has approved a bill that would restore key sections of the Voting Rights Act that once required officials in all or parts of 15 states to receive federal approval before making changes to the voting process.
The bill would amend the 1965 law to impose new obligations on states and local jurisdictions, essentially reversing a 2013 Supreme Court decision that tossed out a “pre-clearance” provision that determined which jurisdictions needed federal oversight of elections.
The bill was approved, 228—187, on Friday, and now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely to move forward.
Supporters said the measure would help prevent voter suppression in the South and other areas by developing a process to require states and localities with a recent history of voting rights violations to pre-clear election changes with the Justice Department.
Strict voter registration requirements, polling place confusion and other obstacles faced by Georgia voters last year show why federal oversight of elections is still needed in places with a history of discrimination, supporters said.
“No right is more precious to our citizenship than the right of all Americans to be able to vote,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the bill’s chief sponsor. “When Americans are not able to cast their ballots, their votes are silenced.’'
Elected officials "should be alarmed if any American who wants to cast a ballot is unable to cast a ballot,” she said.
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It is stories like this that give me hope and remind me that people CAN change.
I Worked for Alex Jones. I Regret It.
Seth Meyers takes a look at Trump’s unqualified Federal Judge appointments in a recent Check In.
This is an appalling state of affairs.
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For all that Barr’s actions, a lot of it stems from his world view and fed by all sorts of conservative ideology. Scarily his ability to influence not only law but what he wants to have people believe is deeply rooted in the fact he’s been giving T what he needs - conservative cover.
He is a devoted Catholic who has said he believes the nation needs a “moral renaissance” to restore Judeo-Christian values in American life. He has been unafraid to use his platform as the nation’s top law enforcement officer to fight the cultural changes they believe are making the country more inhospitable and unrecognizable, like rising immigration and secularism or new legal protections for L.G.B.T. people.
…
His politicization of the office is unorthodox and a departure from previous attorneys general in a way that feels uncomfortably close to authoritarianism, critics said.
“Barr has believed for a long time that the country would benefit from more authoritarianism. It would inject a stronger moral note into government,” said Stuart M. Gerson, who worked in the Bush Justice Department under Mr. Barr and is a member of Checks & Balances, a legal group that is among the attorney general’s leading conservative detractors. “I disagree with his analysis of power. We would be less free in the end.”
For the better part of three decades, Mr. Barr has been known in conservative legal circles as a sharp, tight-lipped lawyer who embodied the Reagan and Bush eras. “A fair number of people who were more or less conservative said publicly that it was good that he was coming in because he was a real lawyer who would bring respectability to this administration,” said Donald Ayer, who served in the Justice Department under Reagan and Mr. Bush.
But his longstanding relationships with Trump allies like Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel who is a founder of the National Prayer Breakfast and takes part in the anti-abortion March for Life, and Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host whom Mr. Cipollone introduced to Catholicism, suggest that he was always at ease in the world of social conservatives who have lined up behind Mr. Trump to take on liberals.
In a speech on executive power delivered at a Federalist Society conference last month, Mr. Barr argued that the left’s opposition to the president was a dangerous attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and weaken the power of the presidency.
Delivering such a speech amid impeachment proceedings was unusual. During the Clinton impeachment, Janet Reno, then the attorney general, did not castigate Republicans and defend the president’s behavior as Mr. Barr has with Mr. Trump.
“Barr’s language against the ‘left’ and against ‘progressives’ was not something we’d normally hear in a speech by the attorney general,” said Carrie F. Cordero, a national security expert and a co-founder of Checks & Balances who served as a top legal adviser to the director of national intelligence and in the Justice Department.
“It’s embedded in department culture to set those partisan views aside when doing your work and applying the law,” Ms. Cordero said.
Defenders say Mr. Barr feels emboldened to criticize Democrats because he believes they crossed a line during his confirmation hearings when they accused him of being blindly deferential to Mr. Trump. The same general sentiment is one shared by the president, who also believes he is the victim of unfair attacks from the left.
“Their critics went too far too fast,” said Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor who first met Mr. Barr years ago through Ms. Ingraham. “And you reap what you sow.”
Mr. Barr and Mr. Trump have both staked out far-right positions on issues like aggressive policing, with the attorney general serving as the polished ego to the president’s unbridled id.
Last week, for instance, Mr. Barr said that communities who criticized policing needed to show more respect or they “may find themselves without the police protection they need.”
Both conservative supporters and critics of Mr. Barr insist that he is not doing the president’s bidding, as many on the left suggest. Rather, they say, he is empowered by Mr. Trump, who has not interfered with an attorney general who provides him the legal justification for his instinct-driven approach to the presidency. That leaves room for Mr. Barr to carry out Mr. Trump’s agenda through the prism of his own sweeping views of executive power.
“Barr has an opportunity to test legal theories that no other president would give Barr the opportunity to test,” Mr. Ayer said.
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Well this is a meaty read, WaPo FOIA’d a crapload of documents outlining behind the scenes realities behind the public messaging about this shitshow of a war. Surprising in that it’s not really surprising I guess?
The documents were generated by a federal project examining the root failures of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. They include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.
“If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction . . . 2,400 lives lost,” Lute added, blaming the deaths of U.S. military personnel on bureaucratic breakdowns among Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department. “Who will say this was in vain?”
With most speaking on the assumption that their remarks would not become public, U.S. officials acknowledged that their warfighting strategies were fatally flawed and that Washington wasted enormous sums of money trying to remake Afghanistan into a modern nation.
The interviews also highlight the U.S. government’s botched attempts to curtail runaway corruption, build a competent Afghan army and police force, and put a dent in Afghanistan’s thriving opium trade.
The U.S. government has not carried out a comprehensive accounting of how much it has spent on the war in Afghanistan, but the costs are staggering.
“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”
The Lessons Learned interviews also reveal how U.S. military commanders struggled to articulate who they were fighting, let alone why.
Was al-Qaeda the enemy, or the Taliban? Was Pakistan a friend or an adversary? What about the Islamic State and the bewildering array of foreign jihadists, let alone the warlords on the CIA’s payroll? According to the documents, the U.S. government never settled on an answer.
As a result, in the field, U.S. troops often couldn’t tell friend from foe.
“They thought I was going to come to them with a map to show them where the good guys and bad guys live,” an unnamed former adviser to an Army Special Forces team told government interviewers in 2017. “It took several conversations for them to understand that I did not have that information in my hands. At first, they just kept asking: ‘But who are the bad guys, where are they?’ ”
The view wasn’t any clearer from the Pentagon.
“I have no visibility into who the bad guys are,” Rumsfeld complained in a Sept. 8, 2003, snowflake. “We are woefully deficient in human intelligence.”
But throughout the Afghan war, documents show that U.S. military officials have resorted to an old tactic from Vietnam — manipulating public opinion.
the Lessons Learned interviews contain numerous admissions that the government routinely touted statistics that officials knew were distorted, spurious or downright false.
lol I loved “self licking ice cream cone” 
(And “snowflakes” were what Rumsfield called his memos, “Help!” after only six months into the war was my particular favorite.)
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