All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Tami]

How a conservative columnist helped push a flawed Ukraine narrative

Back in March, the Hill newspaper published a series of stories and interviews that seemed, at the time, to be mainly of interest to foreign-policy wonks.

John Solomon, the paper’s executive vice president, interviewed Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, who alleged a startling conspiracy: that law enforcement officials within his country had leaked damaging information in 2016 against Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, to help Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Lutsenko also floated suggestions that Marie Yovanovitch, who was then the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, was cooperating with the scheme to help Clinton and undermine Trump’s campaign. The ambassador, Lutsenko alleged, was “interfering in his ability to prosecute corruption cases” and had even given him a list of defendants that he would not be allowed to prosecute, Solomon wrote.

Solomon’s piece urged “a serious, thorough investigation” of Lutsenko’s claims.

The story touched off a brushfire within the conservative media, in which Solomon is a prominent figure, but stayed largely out of mainstream view.

On Thursday, however, Solomon’s work gained new attention — and raised new questions about its sourcing, credibility and motivation. In a complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower, Solomon’s stories were cited as part of a narrative about the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to pressure Ukraine’s government into digging up dirt on Trump’s Democratic rivals, including Clinton and Joe Biden, to enhance his prospects for reelection next year.

What’s clear is that Solomon — a former Washington Post investigative reporter who later became editor of the conservative Washington Times — has played an important role in advancing a flawed, Trump-friendly tale of corruption in Ukraine, particularly involving Biden and his son Hunter. The younger Biden was a director of a Ukrainian energy company at the time his father, the vice president, was beseeching Ukrainian officials to crack down on corruption.

[Tami]

NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals

The National Rifle Association acted as a "foreign asset" for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, according to a new investigation unveiled Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

Drawing on contemporaneous emails and private interviews, an 18-month probe by the Senate Finance Committee's Democratic staff found that the NRA underwrote political access for Russian nationals Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin more than previously known — even though the two had declared their ties to the Kremlin.

The report, available here, also describes how closely the gun rights group was involved with organizing a 2015 visit by some of its leaders to Moscow.

Then-NRA vice president Pete Brownell, who would later become NRA president, was enticed to visit Russia with the promise of personal business opportunities — and the NRA covered a portion of the trip's costs.

[Tami]

Former ⁦@ICEgov
⁩ Dir. Tom Homan shows no respect to ⁦@RepJayapal
⁩ during a House hearing today after going over his time, shouting out,
“I'm a taxpayer, you work for me!”

Twitter Link

[Tendrin]

In what concrete ways have Democrats moved right? What are they willing to spend less money on than in the 80s? What protected classes from the 1980s have lost legal protections?

… we spent the entire 90s slashing the welfare state under the Clinton administration and you're seriously asking this question?

[Tami]

BBC caught up in fight over calling out Trump's racist language

London (CNN Business)The BBC faces a growing backlash and calls to overturn its decision to reprimand an anchor for her comments about US President Donald Trump.

The UK broadcaster said this week that morning show anchor Naga Munchetty broke its editorial rules when she appeared to assign a racist motive to a July tweet by Trump that said four US lawmakers — all women of color -— should "go back" to the "places from which they came."

Controversy over the decision to reprimand Munchetty deepened Friday when the BBC's director of editorial policy and standards, David Jordan, said it's "probably unwise" for the BBC to label people as liars or racists.

News organizations around the world have struggled with questions over how to handle comments made by the American president. Some media outlets routinely label Trump a racist and a liar, while others are more circumspect.

[Mecegirl]

If anyone is intersted in a reading of the Whistle blower report. Here is a sound cloud of it released by Penguin Random house.https://soundcloud.com/penguin-audio...mittee-9262019

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie's Cartoons of the Week:

[SquirrelMan]

I dispute that. The NYT goes after Trump like all the other News outlets. However, they have been getting sloppy lately and some of the people they have hired, for the sake of balance, aren't all that great.

Maggie Habermann is extremely problematic. She practices an extreme form of access journalism, meaning she will write puff pieces normalizing Trump's fascist regime in exchange for information. She has done tremendous damage to this country since Trump took office.

[SquirrelMan]

Gary Johnson, the only adult in the room. I just laughed so hard.

I just blinked like a meme.

[Mecegirl]

NRA was "Foreign Asset" to Russia ahead of 2016

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/76487...EAJzo6TseHxFEM

Wish I could say I'm surprized.

[Malvolio]

Yeah, rather then thinking "My money built a hospital that I and my friends can use free of charge" its always "Someone is STEALING MY MONEY"

Odd that they see hospitals that way, but not libraries. I mean, homeless people go to the library all the time to read books for free that they could not afford to buy. But you don't hear conservatives complain about it that much. Maybe it's because a lot of local governments slowly and quietly cut the funding for public libraries.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

BBC caught up in fight over calling out Trump's racist language

It's brutally clear that nobody, and I mean NOBODY, not world leaders, not political parties, not the media or John and Jane Q. Public were even remotely ready for the likes of Trump who gleefully overturned the apple cart that's the presidency with it's longstanding norms of decency and honor, then promptly pulled down his pants and **** on the produce. As things stand, after Trump leaves office (or is removed from same), it's literally going to take years to recover from and repair all the damage he caused with his reign of greed, crime, bigotry and ineptitude as he's shaping up to make Nixon look like a Boy Scout. Meanwhile....

**********

Everyone In Washington Is Reading the Whistleblower Complaint — Except Senate Republicans

A nine-page whistleblower complaint might have been the most-read document in Washington on Thursday — but not among Senate Republicans.

“Haven’t seen it,” said Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo said they hadn’t read it either.

“I’ve been running around this morning,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman apologized.

The release of the whistleblower complaint from an intelligence community official was the latest development in a chaotic few days on Capitol Hill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has opened an official impeachment inquiry into revelations that President Trump had pressed the Ukrainian president in a July call to work with his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General William Barr on investigations, including one into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Oh, they have the time to read it, just not the stomach. Let's call a spade and spade, boys and girls, Republicans are COWARDS!

[worstblogever]

Net support for impeachment rose 13% just since last weekend. It's now at 43% for, 43% against. And it's unlikely to trend back in support of Trump as the evidence of multiple actors in the White House being implicated, evidence of a deliberate attempt at a coverup, and, y'know, cable news covering the impeachment inquiry, particularly when the whistleblower testifies and we learn of other phone calls like that one.

[worstblogever]

It's little Tim Apple all over again. The man never, never, never lets anything go.



Also, he spelled "describing" wrong and used the word hyphen instead of apostrophe.


WBE! Are you still with us? How is Trump's profile coming along? Still having trouble updating it for this year?

It's looking like that as I wrap up days 600-700, I might only have to wrap up Days 900-1000 or so and I no longer will be playing catch-up.

[Tendrin]

NRA was "Foreign Asset" to Russia ahead of 2016

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/76487...EAJzo6TseHxFEM

Wish I could say I'm surprized.

Was just on my way to post this. I think we can all take joy in the downfall of the NRA.