May 25-26,2018

Back- May 23-24, 2018 | All My Daily Kos stories

Saturday, May 26,2018

BREAKING: Reporter outs source of White House background briefing after Trump complains he ‘doesn’t exist’

Perhaps Kim and Moon have decided to resolve their conflicts without Trump.

Now on Daily Kos with 52 comments.

Click above to read article

Inquiring Minds Asked, and Slate answered:  Do police have jumbo-size handcuffs for use with big guys like Weinstein? 

Yes, though they’ll often daisy-chain a few pairs of regular handcuffs instead. That’s exactly what authorities did this morning: According to the Times, Weinstein was escorted to the courthouse in three interlinked sets of handcuffs to accommodate his girth. A regular set of cuffs is about 9 inches long, with cuffs that open out to roughly 8 inches in circumference. Manufacturers supply police departments with a longer (about 1 foot from end to end) and a larger (up to 10 inches in circumference) model, too, though officers tend not to keep these on their belts in normal situations. The jumbo cuffs are more likely to be used in courtroom settings, where a defendant might need sufficient range of motion to sign a document. 

How many pairs of handcuff would federal agents need for the president? HB

LINK ABOVE

Related story

A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/business/article210912434.html#storylink=cpy

Alfred Nobel is turning over in his grave:

Gracias, España: ‘Trump’s Son Should Be Concerned’: FBI Obtained (Spanish Police) Wiretaps Of Putin Ally Who Met With Trump Jr.

The wiretaps feature conversations between Alexander Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer

The FBI has obtained secret wiretaps collected by Spanish police of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank who has forged close ties with U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, that led to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the gun lobby’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016, a top Spanish prosecutor said Friday.

José Grinda, who has spearheaded investigations into Spanish organized crime, said that bureau officials in recent months requested and were provided transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer. On the wiretaps, Romanov refers to Torshin as “El Padrino,” the godfather.

“Just a few months ago, the wiretaps of these telephone conversations were given to the FBI,” Grinda said in response to a question from Yahoo News during a talk he gave at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s meetings with Donald Trump Jr. and other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”

Friday, May 25, 2018

Link to story above

My Daily Kos story for today:

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 Washington Post opinion writer Marc Thiessen favors the Libya model, is he another fan of "24" 

Two more noteworthy resignations from the Trump administration

Ex-US ambassador to Panama: Trump is 'like a velociraptor'

NYT: Federal prisons director resigns amid Kushner, Sessions infighting on prison reform

In case you missed it three weeks ago:

US ambassador to Mexico officially departs

May-23-24-2018

Back, May 21-22, 2018

Thursday, May 24, 2018
Everyone is writing about this. I put my two cents in anyway.

The letter is like ”an 18 yr. old’s stream of consciousness from breakup letter from a kid in summer camp” paraphrased from what Amb. Wendy Sherman just said on MSNBC.

Weds, May 23, 2018

My Daily Kos story for today

I added the original verision of "I Fought the Law and the Law Won" to my Daily Kos story (above) and posted the YouTube of it on Twitter. In 13 seconds it was re-Tweeted by this mystery account. I don't know what Daily News account this is. 

Now that a federal judge ruled that Trump can't delete Twitter accounts from people post critical Tweets about him I decided it was time to post on of my own with a link to today's Daily Kos article.

Back, May 21-22, 2018

May 21-22, 2018

Back - May 19-20, 2018 Websites I look at every day: NY Times ($)  | Washington Post ($) | Huffington Post (HUFFPOST) | Daily Beast | Politico | Slate | Buzzfeed | Axios | Vox | Daily Kos | The Hill | Alternet | RawStory | Think Progress | Local News: KOIN  | KGW | Weather

Tuesday, May, 22, 2018

Part Two of my Daily Kos story: Ambivalence about the Trump - Kim Jung Un Summit.

Link above

From The New York Times Editorial Board, an editorial with an illustration that says it all.

Excerpt: Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress compound their shame daily, either by standing by in silence or by working actively with the White House and conservative media to help expose the identity of an F.B.I. informant. Was it just a year ago that these same people professed outrage at the supposed “unmasking” of American citizens caught up in duly-authorized surveillance?

This self-interested assault is doing incalculable damage to the integrity of American law enforcement. It’s up to those people who have devoted their lives to the nation and to the rule of law, like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray — both Republicans and Trump appointees, don’t forget — to stand up to the president and defend these institutions.

One doesn’t have to agree with the particulars of every investigation to see the fundamental difference here: The members of our law enforcement and intelligence communities are trying to protect the country. Donald Trump and his supporters are simply trying to protect Donald Trump.

Trump’s Latest FBI Attack Stuns Justice Dept. Officials: ‘We’re in Venezuela’

‘You can’t overstate how critical it is that people who have information trust us to protect them,’ said a federal prosecutor, adding that Trump is working to break that trust. Daily Beast

BETSY WOODRUFF,

HARRY SIEGEL

Excerpt: 

President Donald Trump’s latest round of attacks on the FBI has left morale at the Justice Department at a new low, with officials bemoaning what they view as a full-frontal assault on their institution. 

“It’s a deliberate campaign to delegitimize institutions where the people who are inside those institutions are professionals and giving up lots of money for the jobs that they’re doing and it’s extremely demoralizing,” said one current federal prosecutor. 

“As my father used to say, history goes forward and backward. And things go backward when the trust in bedrock institutions—which are trustworthy, by the way—is diminished for the benefit of a few. It accelerates, and you wake up one day and we’re in Venezuela.”

Did charisma 'Trump' narcissism in 2016? | Opinion - Florida Sun Sentinal

EXCERT: We studied qualities that were likely to attract voters despite the candidates’ overblown self-importance, excessively high self-esteem, and reluctance to accept criticism. Not surprisingly, the more narcissistic the candidate, the less likely they were to earn someone’s vote, and the less charismatic they seem. What else, then, convinced voters to pick “the lesser of two evils?”

The answer is charisma and values. Many qualities that make a leader narcissistic are the same that make them an appealing charismatic leader: showing confidence and power, taking risks, and putting one’s self at the center of attention.

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Here’s how it works. When a voter sees a candidate as charismatic, they attribute to that person super-human qualities, and the effect is even greater when the candidate touts his or her own horn. For example, a charismatic leader who inspires those they seek to lead with a utopian vision of the future, may sprinkle in a bit of narcissism to convince followers that “I am the person that will take you to the promised land.” Preferences for candidates form based on these messages. Trump’s famous oration style and liberal use of rhetoric, symbolism, and metaphors likely influenced his highly charismatic rating by our sample. In contrast, Clinton was less inspiring, not rated as charismatic (statistically speaking).

When selecting leaders, people place greater weight on positive aspects of having a charismatic leader than the potential negatives of that leader’s narcissism. Charisma is the counter-balance medicine for narcissism. Voters are willing to discount a leader’s entitlement and self-serving agenda so long as that leader’s charisma can help them deliver on their vision.

The extent voters’ values align with the values of the candidates also figures into leader selection. When voters in our sample shared what they believed were Trump’s values, and they saw him as a charismatic leader, they were even more likely to vote for him.

What does all this mean? Our study shows that when voters have a choice, they will vote for a charismatic narcissist over a narcissist who lacks charisma. Further, when voters believe that a charismatic narcissist shares their values, this may allow voters to more fully embrace the candidate.

Monday, May, 21, 2018

This has all the makings of a big week as Trump escalates his war against Mueller demanding a investigation about spies being planted in his campaign for political espionage. The DOJ may have thwarted him by simply order initiating an internal inquiry knowing full well that there's no there there to uncover.

Back - May 19-20, 2018