Al Franken Talks to Malcolm Nance Who Makes the Case that Trump is a Russian Asset [LISTEN]

 author, commentator, and career intelligence officer lays out Donald Trump’s decades-long relationship with Putin, the KGB, and Rusky Oligarchs. With a cast of unsavory characters like convicted Russian stooges Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, Nance leaves little doubt that the President of the United States has been and continues to be in cahoots with corrupt money-launderers and murderers. A fun show!

Deutsch, Luria, 22 Representatives Demand White House Deny TruNews Press Credentials

U.S. Representatives Ted Deutch (FL-22) and Elaine Luria (VA-02) joined 22 U.S. Representatives in a letter to the White House demanding that it deny TruNews press credentials and access to Administration officials.

After Deutch and Luria sent an initial letter on December 10, 2019, the White House stated that TruNews is "not credentialed to cover the White House." However TruNews founder Rick Wiles confirmed to the New York Times that it received an invitation from the White House to attend the World Economic Forum in January.

Mr. Wiles has a record of attacking Jews on his show and repeating deeply offensive and dangerous stereotypes against the Jewish community, as well as offensive derogatory statements about other minorities.

Just a few weeks ago, Rick Wiles asked his guest whether the “transgender movement gets its origin in Zionism."

In November, Rick Wiles stated, "That's the way the Jews work. They are deceivers. They plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda. This impeach Trump movement is a Jew coup. And the American people better wake up to it really fast.”

In 2018, Mr. Wiles asserted that the United States has “a brown invasion that has come in” and is “pushing the white Europeans off the land.”

The Members of Congress are asking Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney "why staff of the TruNews website were granted White House access and what steps were taken to ensure this anti-Semitic purveyor of hate and other such outlets are denied access to the White House and Administration officials in the future."

The co-signers of the letter include Representatives Karen Bass, André Carson, Joaquin Castro, Emanuel Cleaver, II, Val Demings, Eliot L. Engel, Ruben Gallego, Alcee L. Hastings, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Joe Kennedy, Rick Larsen, Nita M. Lowey, James P. McGovern, Grace Meng, Jamie Raskin, Kathleen Rice, Bobby L. Rush, Bradley S. Schneider, Jackie Speier, David Trone, Nydia Velázquez, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The letter can be read below or accessed here.




Dear Mr. Mulvaney,

On December 10, 2019, Representative Ted Deutch and Representative Elaine Luria wrote to you to inquire why staff of the TruNews website were granted White House access and what steps were taken to ensure this anti-Semitic purveyor of hate and other such outlets are denied access to the White House and Administration officials in the future.

By the time President Trump traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Members of Congress had not received a response. Yet TruNews founder Rick Wiles confirmed to the New York Times that he received an invitation from the White House to join the press corps attending in Davos. In addition, Mr. Wiles’ colleague was allowed to ask a question of Senior Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump. As Mr. Wiles stated, “We want to thank President Trump and the White House for extending the invitation to be here.”

Mr. Wiles has a record of attacking Jews on his show and repeating deeply offensive and dangerous stereotypes against the Jewish community.

On November 22, 2019, Rick Wiles stated, "That's the way the Jews work. They are deceivers. They plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda. This impeach Trump movement is a Jew coup. And the American people better wake up to it really fast.”

Mr. Wiles has also repeated anti-Semitic conspiracy theories used by centuries of anti-Semites to ostracize and even kill Jews, saying “You have been taken over by a Jewish cabal, a Bolshevik revolution, and I’m going to tell you, the church of Jesus Christ, you’re next... They’re coming for you…There will be a purge. That's the next thing that happens when Jews take over a country. They kill millions of Christians…”

Mr. Wiles also confirmed for the reporter that he coined the phrase “Jew coup” as a way to bring attention to the religious faith of individuals involved in the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Since the December 10 letter, more tragedy has befallen the American Jewish community. On the same day the letter was sent, shooters stormed a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey and killed four people. On December 28, a man entered a Rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York and stabbed community members as they gathered to celebrate Chanukah. In addition, daily anti-Semitism in New York City and around the country has become far too commonplace.

TruNews has a long history of making offensive derogatory statements about other minorities as well, including:

• On January 29, Mr. Wiles claimed that the Coronavirus “plague” was sent by god to “purge a lot of sin off this planet,” such as “vile, disgusting people in this country now, transgendering little children, perverting them.”

• In 2018, after YouTube suspended Mr. Wiles’ page for violating their guidelines, he responded that “America is on the verge of a French Revolution-style upheaval during which leftist mobs will seek to execute Christians and conservatives in order to purge American society.”

• In 2018, Mr. Wiles asserted that the United States has “a brown invasion that has come in” and is “pushing the white Europeans off the land.”

• In 2017, Mr. Wiles claimed that “if God sent angels to this country, homosexuals would attempt to rape them.” He continued, “if angels arrived in some major cities in this country, men would seek to rape them. We have become that wicked.”

• In 2017, following the devastation Hurricane Harvey caused to Houston, Mr. Wiles connected the destruction to the city’s LGBTQ policies by saying, “Here’s a city that has boasted of its LGBT devotion, it’s affinity for the sexual perversion movement in America. They’re underwater.”

• In 2014, Mr. Wiles stated that “We are on the edge of World War III and this time the United States of America does not have divine protection because we’ve become a nation of homosexuals and atheists and lesbians and God-haters.”

• In 2014, amid the Ebola epidemic, Mr. Wiles argued that “Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion.”

We reiterate our demand that the White House deny TruNews and other purveyors of hate access to the White House and Administration officials. Please share with us what steps will be taken to ensure extremist websites are not included on official White House press lists or invited to future White House events. President Trump and White House leaders should condemn these offensive statements and make clear that those who spread hateful messages will not be tolerated or welcomed by this Administration.

Sincerely,

Trump And Sanders Are Already Getting Russia's Help

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., excoriated Russia on Friday after being briefed that the Kremlin is attempting to help his presidential campaign as part of an effort to interfere with the Democratic primary and the 2020 election.

"The intelligence community has been very clear about it — whether Trump recognizes it not, or acknowledges it or not, they did interfere in 2016," Sanders told reporters. "The intelligence community is telling us they are interfering in this campaign right now in 2020. What I say to Mr. Putin: If elected president, trust me, you will not be interfering in American elections."

The Washington Post reported on Friday U.S officials have briefed President Trump, other lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and Sanders, who has recently become the front-runner in the Democratic contest. This comes as President Trump was sharply criticized this week for pushing out Joseph Maguire, his acting director of national intelligence because he was angry that lawmakers on Capitol Hill were briefed that Moscow is interfering to aid his re-election in 2020.

"Does this mean we are not allowed to do anything to stop it [attacks on our elections]?" asked Rachel Maddow on her show Friday, of Trump's firing of Maguire. 

"Is the president effectively issuing a 'stand-down' order to the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies to *not* protect us from this attack from a foreign antagonist? Just the events from these past weeks or so are  so extreme in where we thought we would slide to in our lifetime."

Source MSNBC

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Deutch, Diaz-Balart, Parkland Parents Commend Creation of National School Safety Clearinghouse

Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018, the families of the victims have turned their loss into action. For two years, many Parkland families have promoted the creation of a nationwide clearinghouse for schools to share best practices and prevent any future school shootings. Recently, the Administration launched the website SchoolSafety.Gov.

Below are statements from Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22), Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), Max Schachter (Safe Schools for Alex), and Tony Montalto (Stand with Parkland: The National Association of Families for Safe Schools).

Congressman Deutch: “I cannot say enough about the strength of the Parkland survivors. After surviving unimaginable loss, the parents have concentrated their energy into preventing other families from facing the same horrible feeling of never seeing their child return home from school. Their leadership and commitment to school safety was instrumental in leading the White House to launch SchoolSafety.gov. This new clearinghouse can help our schools protect our children and save lives.”

Congressman Diaz-Balart: “Today, I joined the President and Parkland families at the White House to announce the launch of schoolsafety.gov, a website designed to assist the public with school safety and security best practices. The creation of a federal clearinghouse for school safety has been a top priority for the Administration and the Parkland families, and I have been working with my colleagues to codify this effort in statute with the Luke and Alex School Safety Act. It is imperative that our communities have access to this vital information, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Administration to ensure the safety of our children and our schools.”

Max Schachter: “The Federal School Safety Clearinghouse is the most significant step the federal government has taken to educate schools on best practices in order to reduce violence and make all schools safe in America. I cannot thank my good friends Congressman Diaz-Balart and Congressman Deutch enough for their leadership and everything they have done since the Parkland tragedy to protect our students and prevent these tragedies from ever happening again."

Tony Montalto: "Today a major school safety initiative was released by the administration. We are proud to have been part of the team that helped to create the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse and the ‪SchoolSafety.gov‬ website. This coordinated effort by the Departments of Education, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services will provide a valuable one-stop shop to anyone charged with keeping America’s schools safe. Millions of students and staff members will benefit from today’s announcement."

In November, Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL-22), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL-25), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL-7), and John Rutherford (R-FL-4) introduced the Luke and Alex School Safety Act to create a federal clearinghouse that categorizes, assesses, and shares best practices for school safety measures and identifies the resources necessary to implement them.

My Takeaway From The 2020 Oscars

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, I really like books. While I prefer them over any other medium, there's something about movies that's true... unbelievable.

For any given movie, hundreds--sometimes thousands--of people are involved. With budgets often breaking into the hundreds of millions nowadays, the coordination these projects require is virtually unmatched.

Sure, we go to the theatre to see our favorite stars, but the actors are such a small piece of the greater puzzle. 

Massive production teams create sets, costumes, and manage all the gear needed to record. Coordinators make sure months of schedules are set and that everyone is in their right place all the time. Dozens of editors comb through hours and hours of footage, putting all the shots together just right.
And these people still only represent a fraction of the personnel and systems behind filmmaking.

Last night, 24 awards were given to the greatest filmmakers in the world at the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood. The star of the night was a major underdog, Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who won several awards for his film Parasite. Here are 3 lessons you can take away from Bong's acceptance speeches:

1) Study The Greats
It was unclear how many speeches Bong was prepared to give, but when he accepted his second Oscar, he went naturally to his education in filmmaking. He quoted the legend Martin Scorsese (who received nominations as well), and made it clear that he had spent much of his career poring over Scorsese's classics.

2) Great Work Requires Isolation

"Writing a script is always such a lonely process," Bong said as he received the award for best original screenplay. It's something most entrepreneurs and artists understand well: Doing great work and achieving great things requires that you spend a lot of time alone, sometimes wracking your brain to learn something complex or to get something just right.

Ultimately though, your hard work and the loneliness you went through always prove to have a wider impact. Bong recognized this when he said "We never write to represent our countries. But this is the first Oscar to South Korea." In other words, when your nose is to the grindstone, your focus is set solely on the task at hand. But when that task is complete, your hard work can turn into a collective good for the cause, organization, or people you represent.

3) Gratitude.
This is no surprise, but Bong Joon Ho and every single other Oscar winner had a long list of people to thank in their acceptance speeches. Most even thanked the other nominees from their categories--people you might otherwise think are competitors.

As I explained above, no one does these things alone. Like movies, a business or a project requires a team. People with different talents and different points of view all come together to make something that is beautiful and something that works.

Next time you reflect on who you're grateful for, be sure to think of all the "little people" that may not typically come to mind. The ones who you may never even see or hear, but are impacting the work you do nonetheless. Be thankful that you're able to benefit from a complex system of human contributions because they do what they do.

Ron Mills

How the coronavirus, may help Trumps Re Election

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The globe's eventual rebound from the coronavirus could help propel the U.S. economy to new heights right around the time of the presidential election, Axios Markets editor Dion Rabouin writes. Why it matters: With President Trump touting the stock market's performance and jobs growth as key accomplishments, that bounce could become an accelerant in the race. What's happening: S&P Global expects the outbreak to "stabilize globally in April 2020, with virtually no new transmissions in May." Most economists predict the world will get back to business as usual by the summer — and make up for lost time with accelerated economic growth in the second half of the year. What we're hearing: "We’re likely to return not just to normal, but above normal because of the U.S.-China trade deal," Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco, tells Axios. "Once contagion is under control and stabilized, I think we’ll see a pop in consumer spending and corporate spending." The backdrop: U.S. economic data had been strengthening ahead of the outbreak. Consumer confidence has been holding at historically high levels; and a private payrolls survey released Wednesday showed the highest job growth in five years. Both the National Retail Federation and National Association of Manufacturers tell Axios they expect their industries — two of the economy's laggards in 2019 — to see a return of job growth and investment this year. Between the lines: The bullish expectations are based on the assumption that Trump won't ratchet up tensions with China again or launch a second trade spat with Europe. source Axios.com

Deutch Testifies on His Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United

This morning, Congressman Ted Deutch testified on his bipartisan Democracy for All Amendment to overturn Citizens United before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in a hearing titled "Citizens United at 10: The Consequences for Democracy and Potential Responses by Congress."

Click here for a one-pager on the Democracy for All Amendment.

Excerpts from Congressman Deutch's testimony:

"Our amendment would level the playing field. It would promote political equality. And it would protect the integrity of our government institutions and elections."

"The Democracy for All Amendment is necessary because your status in our democracy should not depend upon your status in our economy. Whether you work three jobs and barely get by— or you own three homes and barely work—the eyes of our law, the eyes of our government, and our elections must see all Americans as equal. This amendment will get money out of our elections and, most importantly, it will put voters back in charge."

Click the image below to watch the full testimony.

I'ts Mueller Time: Part 5

Mueller Memos part 5: hundreds of pages of FBI witness interviews were declassified

Last year, BuzzFeed News sued the US government under the Freedom of Information Act for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller’s team kept secret. 

We won that lawsuit, and we’ve been publishing the FBI’s summaries of interviews with witnesses. They just published the fifth installment. 

Some of the key findings:

Stephen Miller, Hope Hicks, and Jared Kushner sometimes drafted tweets for President Donald Trump

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn sought guidance from former Obama administration officials Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes “about how to do things.”

 Steve Bannon didn’t think the “Putin stuff” was a big deal.

Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) announced today that Alan T. Brown will join him as his guest at the State of the Union on February 4, 2020.

Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) announced today that Alan T. Brown will join him as his guest at the State of the Union on February 4, 2020.

Alan T. Brown was injured in 1988 at the age of 20 in an accident that caused a C5-6 spinal cord injury and left Alan a quadriplegic, with no feeling or movement below his chest. He has dedicated his life to improving the lives of people living with paralysis through peer mentoring, outreach, and fundraising to help others with basic needs like ongoing medical care and access to wheelchairs. Alan also serves as Director of Public Impact at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, where he focuses on extending the reach of the Foundation’s impact on the greater public, creating new opportunities for partnership with other organizations, increasing the visibility of the Paralysis Resource Center (PRC) and other Reeve Foundation programs, bolstering fundraising efforts, and assisting many families as they navigate the trauma and complexity of life with a spinal cord injury.

Rep. Deutch invited Brown to highlight his story as well as the stories of the millions of Americans living with paralysis and their families.

Rep. Deutch has helped pass 11 bills this Congress to lower drug costs, protect people with pre-existing conditions, increase funding for the Paralysis Resource Center (PRC), and reverse health care sabotage – including the CREATES Act, which was recently signed into law. The CREATES Act will make it easier for generic drugs to come to market, save taxpayer dollars and help lower prescription drug costs.

Wasserman Schultz Invites Teen with Life-Threatening Illness and High Drug Costs to State Of The Union

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) announced today that Cooper City student Emily Kaufman will be her guest at the State of the Union in Washington, DC, February 4, 2020.

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz and Kaufman, 15, will meet with the media on Tuesday, February 4^th (details below) to discuss their concerns about the threats to quality affordable health care access, and how big Pharma has passed along brutal prescription drug price hikes to American families.

Kaufman is a powerful singer who aspires to land on Broadway one day. She’s also is an insulin dependent diabetic who bravely faces this life-threatening condition every day, even as obscene prescription costs threaten her family’s financial security.

Wasserman Schultz invited Kaufman to highlight her medical-expense challenges, which sadly, is a story that families and patients across District 23 face. Wasserman Schultz is calling on President Trump and Congressional Republicans to stop threatening healthcare access for Americans with pre-existing conditions and support legislation to end Big Pharma’s price gouging of innocent patients like Kaufman.

“Emily had no control over the Type 1 diabetes disorder she will live with for the rest of life,” said Wasserman Schultz. “But the Senate, as the House has already done, could pass legislation tomorrow that would provide financial relief to her family and millions of others who are in the same tight financial spot caused by price-gouging pharmaceutical companies. Emily and her family deserve relief, and I hope President Trump sees her Tuesday night in the chamber. She’s one of millions of Americans who need immediate protection from the outrageous costs of prescription drugs.”

Kaufman’s diabetes is caused by the pancreas producing little or no insulin the body needs to metabolize sugar. Unlike the more common Type 2 diabetes, Emily's condition is not diet-related, and there is no cure. Like she does every day, on Tuesday night, Kaufman must regulate her insulin levels or risk grave illness, including coma.

“I’m so excited and honored to be asked to the State of the Union,” said Kaufman.  “I’m happy to be able to speak about the healthcare issues that are so important to me.”

Wasserman Schultz joined Democrats in passing 11 bills this Congress, to lower drug costs, protect people with pre-existing conditions, and reverse health care sabotage – including the CREATES Act, which was recently signed into law. The CREATES Act will make it easier for generic drugs to come to market, save taxpayer dollars and help lower prescription drug costs.

Wasserman Schultz has also championed the Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), landmark legislation that would give Medicare the power to negotiate directly with drug companies to bring down prices and make those savings available to hardworking families across America.

Unfortunately, President Trump and Senate Republicans continue blocking legislation to lower costs and protect patients. Meanwhile, three days into this year, Pharma had already increased drug prices on more than 400 medicines. And President Trump’s lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act recently moved forward, once again putting the health care of millions in jeopardy.