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26 October 19
Bess Levin | Lindsey Graham Introducing Resolution to Permanently Attach Lips to Trump's Ass
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Robert Mueller. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Despite the South Carolina senator’s insistence that Donald Trump did nothing wrong when it comes to Ukraine, and that it’s “very appropriate” for the president of the United States to try to extort another country, House Democrats just had to go ahead and open their impeachment inquiry. Even though Trump, who admitted to withholding aid to Ukraine until it investigated his political rival, is quite obviously innocent. Even though, as God is his witness, Graham will testify Trump doesn’t have a corrupt bone in his body, and would never do any of the things his acting chief of staff has already confessed to on live television. Even though Nancy Pelosi can quite obviously see it’s tearing Graham up inside.
And that got Lindsey thinking: Sure, he can wag his finger at Democrats and tell them they should be ashamed of themselves, that their mamas raised them better than this, and that they should be sent to bed without any shrimp and grits, but serious times call for serious measures. And that is why, on Thursday afternoon, he will introduce a resolution that not only formally denounces the House’s impeachment inquiry, but makes it clear to any presidents listening that he is willing to go down with the ship. Speaking about his plan on Fox News, Graham told Sean Hannity, “This resolution puts the Senate on record condemning the House…. Here’s the point of the resolution: Any impeachment vote based on this process, to me, is illegitimate, is unconstitutional, and should be dismissed in the Senate without a trial.”
Of course, nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the House must hold a vote before opening an impeachment inquiry, nor does anyone believe that Republicans would suddenly be totally cool with the proceedings should one be held, but never mind you that. Graham is also apparently upset that the president has not been allowed to confront the whistle-blower, whose identity is protected by federal law. “We cannot allow future presidents and this president to be impeached based on an inquiry in the House that’s never been voted upon, that does not allow the president to confront the witnesses against him, to call witnesses on his behalf, and cross-examine people who are accusing him of misdeeds,” he said.
Graham, whose devotion to Trump runs so deep that he’s willing to overlook all the times the president has slandered his dead friend, announced the resolution after saying earlier this month that he would be sending a letter to Pelosi telling her that Senate Republicans have no intention of removing Trump from office over a friendly phone call with the president of Ukraine. And even though Graham is sticking his neck out for the president he loves, for some people, it’s apparently not enough. According to Jonathan Swan, “a source close to” Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t think a resolution is enough. “If you’re going to talk the talk on Fox, you better walk the walk in the chamber,” this person said. “And a resolution is just talk. People expect action.”
It’s not clear what kind of action Don Jr.’s inner circle would like Graham to take, or what would constitute walking the walk, though there is presumably a nonzero chance Graham will use his 3 p.m. press conference to chain himself to the doors of Pelosi‘s office and refuse to get out of the way until the House agrees to clear Trump on all charges and pass a law declaring him president for life.
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Robert Mueller. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Judge Rules Impeachment Probe Legal, Orders Mueller Material Turned Over to House Investigators
Philip Ewing, NPR
Ewing writes: "House Democrats won an important victory in federal court on Friday when a judge ordered the Justice Department to surrender now-secret material from the Russia investigation - and, more broadly, validated the impeachment inquiry into President Trump."
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Bernie Sanders. (photo: Antonella Crescimbeni)
Philip Ewing, NPR
Ewing writes: "House Democrats won an important victory in federal court on Friday when a judge ordered the Justice Department to surrender now-secret material from the Russia investigation - and, more broadly, validated the impeachment inquiry into President Trump."
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Bernie Sanders. (photo: Antonella Crescimbeni)
Bernie Sanders Can Help Solve the Mass Incarceration Crisis in America
Sarah Cate, Jacobin
Cate writes: "Ending the horrors of our criminal justice system won't just require proposing strong progressive criminal justice policy - it will also require building a mass movement that can end mass incarceration."
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib. (photo: Stefani Reynolds/Picture-Alliance/DPA/AP)
Sarah Cate, Jacobin
Cate writes: "Ending the horrors of our criminal justice system won't just require proposing strong progressive criminal justice policy - it will also require building a mass movement that can end mass incarceration."
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib. (photo: Stefani Reynolds/Picture-Alliance/DPA/AP)
Rashida Tlaib to Mark Zuckerberg: Why Haven't You Stopped Hate Groups From Organizing on Facebook?
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Michigan Congressmember Rashida Tlaib told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that she feared that far-right hate groups were using Facebook event pages to incite violence against Muslims and other minorities - including death threats directed at her office."
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Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Michigan Congressmember Rashida Tlaib told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that she feared that far-right hate groups were using Facebook event pages to incite violence against Muslims and other minorities - including death threats directed at her office."
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Two police stand at their vehicle. (photo: Guardian Liberty Voice)
Video Shows Officer Shooting Fleeing Fresno Teen in the Back of the Head
Sam Levin, Guardian UK
Levin writes: "Newly released video shows a Fresno, California, police officer shooting a fleeing, unarmed 16-year-old in the back of the head and then handcuffing the boy as he lies motionless on the ground."
Sam Levin, Guardian UK
Levin writes: "Newly released video shows a Fresno, California, police officer shooting a fleeing, unarmed 16-year-old in the back of the head and then handcuffing the boy as he lies motionless on the ground."
“The city was so adamant that the officer ‘feared for his life’,” the lawyer told the Guardian on Thursday. “Why were they hiding the video? If a picture speaks a thousand words, then the video speaks a million words.”
The aftermath of the shooting caught on video was especially upsetting to watch, the attorney added.
“He’s unconscious and in the process of dying. What is the threat?” said Chandler. “They just saw him as an animal who had been shot. They hunted a target. It’s inhumane.”
A paramedic report showed that police declined to remove the handcuffs when an EMT arrived, with an officer saying police would only take them off later at the hospital.
Jerry Dyer, the Fresno police chief at the time of the shooting, has previously stated that the officer, Sgt Ray Villalvazo, thought “he was about to be shot”. Dyer claimed the teen “reached into his waistband several times”, according to the Fresno Bee. But the new footage, which Chandler obtained in the process of a civil lawsuit against the department, only shows him running away as he appears to be holding up his pants. He was unarmed.
Fresno’s current police chief, Andrew Hall, continued to defend the shooting as a justified use of deadly force in a statement this week, saying Murrietta-Golding was “known to carry firearms” and noting that he had entered a daycare center when he hopped the fence.
Hall further alleged that Murrietta-Golding was involved in a crime the previous day.
A spokesperson for the Fresno police department did not respond to an inquiry seeking clarification on the firearms allegation and the use of handcuffs.
According to the family’s suit, police were trying to question Murrietta-Golding, but lacked a search or arrest warrant, so officers staked out his house then pulled him over in a car with two other teens and “held them at gunpoint”. At that point, he fled.
Lawyers for the family noted that the shooting happened on a Saturday while the daycare center was empty. And Chandler said it was “despicable” that police were still trying to attack Murrietta-Golding’s character, saying the allegations and insinuations about what had happened prior were not relevant to the officer’s decision to kill the boy as he fled.
The shooting happened nine months after Fresno police killed Dylan Noble, shooting the unarmed 19-year-old multiple times, including while he was lying on the ground, barely moving. Advocates have long argued that Fresno police need to focus on de-escalation and anti-bias training, and a 2017 American Civil Liberties Union report found that police shoot people of color at a hugely disproportionate rate in the city.
Chandler faulted Fresno police for failing to implement meaningful reforms after both killings of unarmed teens.
“There has been no change in either the culture, the training or the mentality regarding the use of deadly force.”
The state of California recently passed a major reform meant to limit the use of lethal force by police, with a law considered the strictest in the country.
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Anti-government protesters in Iraq. (photo: Hussein Faleh/AFP)
Iraqi Forces Use Tear Gas in Baghdad as Protests Continue
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Security forces in Iraq have fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital, Baghdad, before a planned march on parliament where the government is set to hold an emergency session to discuss the resumption of deadly demonstrations."
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Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Security forces in Iraq have fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital, Baghdad, before a planned march on parliament where the government is set to hold an emergency session to discuss the resumption of deadly demonstrations."
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Climate scientists had warned for several days before the wildfires broke out that this would be a week of especially intense fire weather across California. (photo: Kent Porter/AP)
California Wildfires: Blazes Ravage State as 2 Million Face Looming Blackouts
Sam Levin, Vivian Ho, Susie Cagle and Joanna Walters, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Californians faced another day of destruction as firefighters struggled to control a pair of fast-moving wildfires, including one that forced the evacuation of about 50,000 residents in suburbs north of Los Angeles."
Sam Levin, Vivian Ho, Susie Cagle and Joanna Walters, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Californians faced another day of destruction as firefighters struggled to control a pair of fast-moving wildfires, including one that forced the evacuation of about 50,000 residents in suburbs north of Los Angeles."
EXCERPT:
Questions arise for major power company
PG&E, California’s largest utility company, is facing scrutiny over the origins of the Kincade fire. On Friday, PG&E admitted its electrical equipment might have ignited the blaze.
Strong winds earlier in the week had prompted PG&E to impose sweeping blackouts affecting a half-million people in northern and central California. Power was restored to most people by Thursday evening, PG&E said.
However, PG&E said it hadn’t turned off a 230,000-volt transmission line near Geyserville that malfunctioned minutes before the fire erupted. The utility reported finding a “broken jumper” wire on a transmission tower Wednesday night.
Bill Johnson, the PG&E CEO, said it was too soon to know if the faulty equipment had sparked the fire. He said the tower had been inspected four times in the past two years and appeared to have been in excellent condition.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy in January, is currently facing hundreds of lawsuits over its role in deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
Newsom has pledged $75m to help communities prepare for future blackouts and wildfires, but he was pointed in his criticism of the power company.
“Decades of greed and mismanagement by PG&E have led us to this moment. Californians are infuriated – I am too. Years and years of greed, years and years of mismanagement, years and years of putting shareholders over people,” he said in a series of tweets.
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