Tag: MSNBC

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Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo:”Texas Is Being Run From Maralago”

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Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo appeared on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (09/24/2021), where she blasted elected Republicans in Texas for giving in to former President Trump’s baseless demands for an audit into the state’s 2020 election results. The decision by the Texas Secretary of State’s office to conduct an audit into the election results of Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties, came literally a few hours after Trump’s demand, which led a visibly upset Judge Hidalgo to tell host Maddow that Texas was “being run from Maralago.”

Judge Hidalgo told Maddow:“We have to remember we had incredibly successful elections here in Harris County in 2020. We had innovations that led to record turnouts from both parties, the highest in 30 years, I mean it was beautiful, and since then, no evidence has come out that would in any way cause the need for this kind of audit. All we’ve seen is [former]President Trump exhorting the state, or [Governor]Abbott, to have this audit…The reality of it is Texas is being run from Maralago, and that is dangerous, and it’s not appropriate…it’s extremely concerning.”

Judge Hidalgo added that time had come for politicians in Washington to get off the sidelines, and actively join the fight against voter suppression in the states, telling host Maddow, “We need the federal government to act, I mean, this has gone too far… This should be another call to action. We’ve got the writing on the wall. We’ve got to get off our chairs and get moving on all this.”

Bottom line folks, as Judge Hidalgo correctly pointed out, time has come for some decisive action to be taken against these naked efforts by Republicans at the state level, to restrict the voting rights of minorities. Democrats in Washington cannot just sit on the sidelines, and watch their counterparts in Republican-led states like Texas, go to war against GOP’s efforts to restrict minority voting rights. Simply put, time has come for Democrats in Washington to finally do away with the filibuster, and institute a national voting standard geared towards making it easier for people to vote, as opposed to GOP’s scheme of limiting access to the ballot box. As Judge Hidalgo correctly put it, congressional Democrats need to “get off their chairs and get moving” on a comprehensive federal voting rights law.

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NYT’s Maggie Haberman Ensnared In Feud Over Trump Inaugural Funds

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Melania Trump with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

In case you missed it, the Trump inaugural saga has taken a new, and very interesting twist lately, with now Twitter-active Stephanie Winston Wolkoff taking a direct shot at Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel of the New York Times(NYT), as being part of the plot to throw her under the bus.

You’ll remember that after the bombshell revelation that a staggering $40 million of Trump’s inaugural funds had mysteriously disappeared, there was an effort by Trump’s allies to pin the blame on then First Lady Melania Trump’s Senior Advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. Stephanie Wolkoff talked about this effort to throw her under the bus at an appearance on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show on September 1, 2020.

In the interview, a visibly upset Stephanie Wolkoff told host Maddow, that then First Lady Melania Trump basically told her she had to be the fall person for the Trump inaugural scandal. Wolkoff specifically said, “Melania and the [Trump]White House had accused me of criminal activity, then publicly shamed and fired me, and made me their scapegoat. At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record. She was no longer my friend, and she was willing to let them take me down, and she told me herself, that this is the way it has to be. She was advised by the attorneys at the White House that there was no other choice because there was a possible investigation into the presidential inauguration committee….At first I really did think maybe she would come to my aid? Maybe she would tell the truth? She turned her back, she did. She folded like a deck of cards., and I’m shocked she did it.”

This 05/23/2021 tweet however, shows that Stephanie Wolkoff is not only going after Trump and his allies in her effort to set the record straight regarding Trump’s inaugural, she’s also calling out NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel, as being part of the plot to destroy her. This, if proven, could turn out to be a huge scandal unto itself, given the fact that many liberals still blame the New York Times for Trump’s ascension to the White House. Specifically, many liberals believe NYT’s excessive coverage of the “email scandal”, weakened Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the final stretch of the 2016 campaign.

There’s no other way any reasonable person can interpret Stephanie Wolkoff’s tweet other than NYT’s Haberman and Vogel were doing Trump’s bidding when they wrote the referenced piece. This is especially so considering Wolkoff’s invocation of “SETUP. COVERUP. TAKEDOWN” in her tweet. For the record, accusations of “access journalism” against then White House reporter for the New York Times, Maggie Haberman, persisted throughout Trump’s presidency. Stephanie Wolkoff is not the first person drawing that inference.

Bottom line folks, Yours Truly is not accusing Maggie Haberman or Ken Vogel of any wrongdoing. By all accounts, these are serious journalists, who exhibit a high level of professionalism(my personal opinion). What Yours Truly is simply pointing out, is what any reasonable person presented with Stephanie Wolkoff’s recent tweet would conclude, and that is, Haberman and Vogel were in on the plot by Trump’s allies to throw her under the bus. It would be in everybody’s interest, especially Wolkoff who suffered greatly as a result of the Trump inaugural saga, if Haberman, Vogel or even the New York Times management, addressed this issue.

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Is Trump’s GOP A Criminal Enterprise?

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Ever since Trump was elected U.S. President in November 2016, many Americans have wrestled with the question as to whether he is being unduly influenced by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The question of Russia’s influence over Trump grew into a crescendo prompting the launching of a formal investigation (Mueller probe) to look into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in 2016.

Even though the official finding of the Mueller probe was that there was not enough evidence to prove that TeamTrump colluded with Russia, questions about Trump’s ties to Russia have persisted, partly because Mueller never completely shut that door. Remember, Mueller never concluded that TeamTrump never colluded with Russia. What he said was that he never collected enough evidence to prove it. One of the key witnesses he had relied on to prove his case, Paul Manafort, totally stonewalled his investigation.

Beyond Trump’s strange ties to Russia, a lot of Americans have also been confounded by the extreme measures congressional Republicans have taken and continue to take, all in an effort to shield President Trump from any congressional oversight. This has led a lot of people to validly speculate that congressional Republicans are privy to some wrongdoings (potentially criminal) by Trump, and have made a conscious decision to hide this from the public–which has given rise to this notion that Trump’s GOP is a criminal enterprise.

Yours Truly raised this very question way back in August 2018 in a blog post titled Proof That Congressional Republicans Have Become A Criminal Enterprise, a post which you probably summarily dismissed as “yet another conspiracy theory” pushed by “radical liberal @Emolclause.” The blog post was based on an August 27, 2018 piece by Jonathan Chait of the Intelligencer, which made the bombshell revelation that congressional Republicans had essentially sworn to shield from any oversight, a list of things they figured would be harmful to Trump’s presidency. Some of the items in GOP’s shield-at-all-costs list included surprise surprise, Trump’s tax returns, Trump’s family business, White house clearances, and shockingly, issues dealing with election security/Russians hacking our elections.

Any reasonable person reading this bombshell Intelligencer piece would have concluded as Yours Truly did, that congressional Republicans had not only become a criminal enterprise, but that they were certainly not working in the interests of the American people.

A lot has transpired since August 2018 and what many of you summarily dismissed as “wild conspiracy theories by radical @Emolclause” is now playing out right in front of our very eyes. It has become impossible to continue assuming that congressional Republicans are just naively defending Trump. Many are now starting to to state publicly that Trump’s GOP has indeed become a criminal enterprise.

There are many reasons as to why people have become more comfortable in publicly calling Trump’s GOP a criminal enterprise but the best reason by far is the shocking conduct we witnessed during the recent impeachment hearings, when Republican members of congress, in an effort to defend Trump, kept repeating a debunked conspiracy theory pushed by Russian intelligence officials, that it was Ukraine who interfered with our 2016 elections. This shocking behavior by congressional Republicans drew sharp rebuke from Trump’s former adviser on Russia, Dr Fiona Hill, who castigated them to their faces, telling them they were doing Putin’s work.

Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris(CA) is no longer biting her tongue either regarding this topic and recently called Republicans a “criminal enterprise” on CBS’ Steven Colbert show, an assertion she gladly repeated on her Twitter account.

For the record, neither the Intelligencer nor Yours Truly were the first to start labelling Trump’s GOP a criminal enterprise. Shining lights like Author Sarah Kendzior were already warning about this right after Trump won the election–an assertion many in the mainstream media dismissed. Just today the aforementioned Sarah Kendzior stopped by MSNBC’s AMJoy show where she dropped this bombshell totally in keeping with her previous warnings.

Bottom line folks, we cannot keep kicking the can down the road over the very serious queston as to whether sitting Republican members of congress are engaged in some kind of criminal conspiracy with a hostile foreign power(Russia). There’s enough smoke at this juncture for Democrats and indeed the mainstream media to start publicly asking the question Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently posed to President Trump and that is, why all Trump’s/GOP’s roads seem to lead to Russia, and more importantly, what is so rotten with their Russia dealings that they are terrified of the public finding out?

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Little Known FBI’s Race-Based Surveillance

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There have been numerous media reports about a very troubling practice by the FBI to designate Black activists as “Black Identity Extremists”, an often bogus designation which is then used to justify subjecting the said activists to all levels of surveillance–private, local, state, federal and even military surveillance in major cities like Houston, LA, Chicago, New York and others. The rationale, a bogus one, is that a “Black Identity Extremist” or BIE is more likely to attack law enforcement officers and thus needs to be placed under 24-hour surveillance.

The controversy surrounding this program, beyond its prima facie racism, centers around the ease with which a Black activist could end up in this designation. Several media reports have said that even mundane activities like organizing or attending a Black Lives Matter rally could in the eyes of the FBI qualify a Black activist as a BIE subjecting them to unjustified long-term government surveillance, the fruits of which could be used in their criminal prosecution. Needless to say, Black activists who support/sympathize with Black Lives Matter on social media (Twitter, Facebook) can also very easily be designated as BIEs. Simply put, this is a very serious problem that is yet to garner the mainstream media attention it deserves.

Yours Truly has ranted and raved about the lack of mainstream media attention surrounding this seemingly–let’s face it–racist surveillance by the FBI for quite a while now, wondering when House Democrats would take up this serious issue with the justice department.

Well, it turns out Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee (R-TX) did indeed raise this issue with then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a House hearing on November 14, 2017. Rep Jackson-Lee asked Sessions; “My question is, as I hold up the poster dealing with the report under your jurisdiction–Black Identity Extremists. It is interesting to me that you are opposing [meant targeting] individuals who are opposing lethal force, similar to the attack on Reverend Dr Martin Luther King on Cointelpro, but there seems to be no report dealing with the tiki torch parade in Charlottesville chanting ‘Jews will not replace us’. Why is there an attack on Black activists versus any report dealing with the Alt Right and the White Nationalists?” AG Sessions responded that he was not aware of the report.

Cointelpro which Rep Jackson-Lee referenced in her questioning was a controversial and secret surveillance program the FBI deployed on Black civil rights activists in the 60s, most notably, on the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Historians agree that the primary reason the FBI ran Cointelpro on Black civil rights activists was to scare them into silence. This is precisely why when Black activists hear about “Black Identity Extremists” they are immediately reminded of stories they’ve read about Cointelpro and are justified in questioning whether the FBI has indeed reverted back to its 1960s tactic of stifling Black dissent.

Bottom line the “Black Identity Extremist” debate is one that begs for serious mainstream media attention. The mainstream media and indeed members of Congress must not remain silent as a section of the population is unjustly subjected to heightened levels of government surveillance all in an effort to stifle their first amendment compliant political speech. At moments like these, Martin Niemoller’s famous words come to mind; “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist, then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist, then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

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Kushner Accused Of Selling State Secrets

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Author Sarah Kendzior, a regular conributor on MSNBC’s AM Joy Show repeated an explosive allegation she has made time and time again–that Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner is using his position in the White House to gain access to top state secrets and then selling/sharing them. The author says Kushner is a major national security problem who needs to be indicted.

Author Sarah kendzior told AM Joy host Joy Reid, “I have to say this is like the 12th time I have been on your show talking about Jared Kushner and the fact that he lied on his clearance forms, he’s done illicit dealings, he’s giving away state secrets and that he is a massive national security risk, and so is Ivanka Trump. The only way that we will be able to finally stop having this conversation on national TV is if he is indicted. That’s what needs to be done….” 

National security expert Malcolm Nance, also echoed similar sentiments regarding Kushner on the same AM Joy show. He told Joy Reid, “Jared Kushner’s problem is…he is trading intelligence for favors. And the one thing we know he did is Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia said, bragged publicly that Jared Kushner brought him the names of all the tax cheats in Saudi Arabia and he carried out that massive sweep of Princes and billionaires and then extorted almost a trillion dollars of money that was being withheld out of them. And that came from U.S. intelligence.”

Think about that folks, top-secret U.S. intelligence is being used in Saudi Arabia to extort trillions of dollars. This would be very troubling under any other previous U.S. administration, but it is exceptionally troubling when it happens under the Trump administration which is already littered with corruption scandals. One has to wonder if some of the extorted trillions of dollars did not end up “rewarding” the U.S. players up to and including Kushner, who facilitated the transfer of this sensitive U.S. intelligence to MBS

It is shocking that in a country where we have the Department of Homeland Security, a humongous department of the federal government ostensibly dedicated to protecting the country from threats both foreign and from within, even an extremely serious allegation that a senior White House official is selling state secrets is not enough to trigger a massive crackdown into who’s involved. Many Americans fully share Author Sarah Kendzior’s outrage as to why nothing is ever done to address the serious national security threat posed by Kushner and hopefully very soon the good folks at the Department of Justice will act on these concerns . Not long ago national security threats were a bipartisan issue. It appears in the age of Trump, even that tradition is thrown out of the window.

Bottom line House Democrats and the mainstream media need to get to the bottom of Kushner and Ivanka’s security clearance saga. It is very important that the public know exactly why intelligence officials were opposed to Kushner being granted a security clearance and whether Kushner has done anything to allay those concerns. Simply put, there was a lot of public skepticism when Trump brought Kushner and Ivanka to work in the White House(Nepotism). Now that their continued presence in the White House is a serious national security risk, they must be compelled to either answer serious questions about their security clearance, or leave the White House.

***UPDATED on 09/21/23 to include this 09/20/23 interview Saudi Crown Prince had with Fox News’ Bret Baier. MBS addresses the Kushner question at the 26 minute mark***

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The Trump Epstein Connection

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In case you missed it MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday had a segment in which Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) read in the U.S. Senate, an excerpt from an old Washington Post piece in which Trump is quoted as talking very favorably about his friend and accused child predator Jeffrey Epstein, including their mutual taste for women “on the younger side”.

Trump reportedly said about Epstein, “He’s a lot of fun to be with. Its even said that he likes a lot of beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side.”

This of course comes against the backdrop of news reports of a ruling by a federal judge that prosecutors who handled Epstein’s case violated the law by not conferring with his victims before arriving at his super sweetheart deal which saw him avoid jail time.

Naturally after the federal judge’s decision many questions about Epstein’s case are popping up chief among them, whether the public has a right to know more about the details of Epstein’s infamous case. Is it for example in the public’s interest that Epstein disclose the political figures(Democrat or Republican) who accompanied him in his infamous escapades with underage girls? Given the fact that many public officials have been forced to relinquish their seats because of pressure from the #MeToo movement, doesn’t the public have a right to know what public officials, past and present, Epstein hang out with? These are just some of the questions that will need to be addressed after the federal judge’s bombshell ruling.

Bottom line as a wise man once said, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” It is in the best interests of everybody involved that Epstein come out and explain what happened in his infamous escapades and the politicians who participated in them. Granting him immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony is something that needs to be seriously considered. It however cannot be left unsaid that because there may be very powerful individuals from both political parties implicated in Epstein’s scandal, the public may never get to the bottom of what really happened.

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Signs Of Russian Money Laundering In Trump’s Inauguration

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An interesting Rachel Maddow segment points out that a guilty plea by GOP Lobbyist Samuel Patten in the ongoing TrumpRussia investigation raises new troubling questions about the mysterious money flow surrounding Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Maddow has previously reported extensively on the strange money flow surrounding Trump’s inauguration but the latest guilty plea by the said GOP operative provides specific details that take allegations of Russian money laundering at Trump’s inauguration way beyond the speculative level. As a matter of fact, details of Patten’s plea deal speak to a slam-dunk Russian money laundering scheme.

Here’s how the Russian money funneling scheme played out. GOP operative Sam Patten has a shell company in DC. Patten got a yet unnamed U.S. citizen to “donate” $50,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. Patten’s shell company then reimbursed the unnamed U.S. citizen the $50,000. A Ukrainian with ties to a prominent Russian oligarch and who is also at the center of the ongoing Manafort case then reimbursed Sam Patten with a $50,000 drawn from a Cypriot bank. Cyprus is a well known haven of Russian money laundering meaning the said $50,000 that flowed into Trump’s inauguration could well have been laundered money.

There have been a lot of questions especially by Maddow about the whereabouts of the monies raised for Trump’s inauguration–an estimated $107 million. Maddow for example questioned why Trump’s inaugural committee never gave a detailed accounting of how the $107 million came in and what it was spent on–very odd.

With Sam Patten’s plea deal pointing heavily towards money laundering, expect Natasha Bertrand(Yours Truly’s MSM fave) and other journalists who’ve been excellent at TrumpRussia reporting to dig into Trump’s inaugural committee for answers to serious questions that still linger. For example How many other Patten-like “donations”  were made to Trump’s inauguration? Did this money find its way into GOP/RNC coffers–including to GOP members of congress? If so, did GOP/RNC know the source of the funds? As you can see there are numerous questions that need to be answered regarding the mysterious Trump inauguration funds.

Yours Truly recently wrote about how Trump’s GOP has degenerated into a criminal enterprise and stories like Sam Patten’s only work to support that argument. Bottom line Dems and the mainstream media must dig into this story to find out how much laundered Russian money has landed into GOP coffers.  Simply put House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel must be questioned about dirty Russian money flowing into GOP coffers.

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