Thursday Open Thread | Does This Smell Like Selling State Secrets? Just Asking for a Friend.

You didn’t think that Jared was reading the President’s Daily Briefing for fun, did you?
There was a reason for that story about the four countries that admitted that they choose to meet with Jared ALONE.
UH HUH
UH HUH

Saudi Crown prince said he has Kushner ‘in his pocket’ after allegedly receiving sensitive information from the President’s Daily Briefing
Bob Brigham
21 Mar 2018 at 19:30 ET

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having White House senior counsel Jared Kushner “in his pocket” and may have used highly sensitive intelligence from the President’s Daily Briefing in his violent crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia, The Intercept reported Wednesday.

Three sources told The Intercept that Kushner had revealed names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince.

“The Saudi figures named in the President’s Daily Brief were among those rounded up; at least one was reportedly tortured,” The Intercept explained.

Mohammed bin Salman also was said to have told UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed that Kushner was “in his pocket.”

Kushner communicates with both the Saudi and Emirati crown princes via Whats-App. A source claims that Kushner’s lawyers have since told him not to use the app for government business.

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67 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | Does This Smell Like Selling State Secrets? Just Asking for a Friend.

  1. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    Cargo container lost off North Carolina coast held 5,900 pounds of sulfuric acid”
    http://wtvr.com/2018/03/10/cargo-container-lost-off-north-carolina-coast-held-5900-pounds-of-sulfuric-acid/
    Excerpt:

    One of the 76 cargo containers that fell into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, on March 3, had almost 6,000 pounds of sulfuric acid in it.

    The Coast Guard confirmed in a press release that A. P. Moller-Maersk reported that the container missing from the cargo ship Maersk Shanghai held 5,900 pounds of sulfuric acid, and that there are no indications that this container has washed up on shore yet.

    Other than the container with sulfuric acid, no other containers have been reported to have hazardous material.

  2. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “Demonstrators gather at Sacramento City Hall to protest fatal shooting of unarmed man”
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/demonstrators-gather-sacramento-city-hall-protest-fatal-shooting/story?id=53945371

    Excerpt:

    Demonstrators in Sacramento, California, gathered Thursday evening to protest the death of 22-year-old Stephon Clark, who was killed in his grandmother’s backyard over the weekend after two police officers fired 20 shots at him.

    A crowd of people went to Sacramento’s City Hall, chanting phrases like “Stand up, fight back” and “No justice, no peace.”

    Black Lives Matter Sacramento is hosting the demonstration, according to the Facebook event titled “Turn Up – for [Stephon] Clark!”

    “We are tired of Sacramento law enforcement killing us!” the event description reads. “We are tired of talking and meeting and sitting trying to convince our elected officials that there needs to be change!”

    …In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg praised the city’s efforts to remain transparent by releasing the video but also said “it is not fair” to “render a judgment on the specifics in this case until more facts are known that explain what we all saw in the video.”

    Steinberg also encouraged the community to make sure voices heard, emphasizing his desire to make sure this kind of death never happens again.

    “It is vital that we give voice to the pain in our community, especially the African-American community,” he said. “There is far too much history, too much pain, not to say loud and clear the death of one more young man of color is one too many.”

  3. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “In ‘Slap in the Face’ to Immigrants, Spending Bill Leaves Out DREAM Act While Funding Border Wall Young undocumented immigrants are left in limbo with budget deal, while lawmakers plan to strengthen ICE with funding for agents and detention centers”
    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/22/slap-face-immigrants-spending-bill-leaves-out-dream-act-while-funding-border-wall
    Excerpt:

    With funding for President Donald Trump’s plan for a border wall but no protection for young immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. as children, immigrant rights activists on Thursday called the spending deal released by lawmakers this week an affront to immigrants across the country, and demanded that Democrats who claim to support their communities reject the plan.

    “This budget is a slap in the face to the immigrant community,” Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), said in a statement. “While Congress congratulates itself, this budget funds the deportation machine, criminalizes immigrants, and neglects the 800,000 hardworking Dreamers still stuck in limbo. America will not be greater or safer by undermining our immigrant communities.”

    The budget deal includes $1.5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as funding for 45,000 beds in detention facilities and to pay 100 immigration judges and 60 attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Meanwhile, the DREAM Act, which would offer permanent protection and a path to citizenship to young undocumented immigrants, has been left out of the deal.

  4. eliihass says:

    McMaster out John Bolton in..

    You can’t make this crazy up..

  5. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    Excerpt from article at this link: https://justseeds.org/to-immigrants-with-love-mural/

    Jess Chen and Roger Peet collaborated on an illustration early this year for a campaign entitled To Immigrants, With Love- an outreach and letter-writing effort designed to breach the feelings of isolation that many immigrant individuals and families experience, in their daily dealings with the US’ suffocating climate of xenophobia.

    https://justseeds.org/wp-content/uploads/galeriadelaraza1500.jpg

    The good people at Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco recently approached us with a request to turn the graphic into a billboard to fill the rotating space on the sidewalk outside their iconic Mission District location. The installation was being prepared right as Trump’s DACA action hit, and we were able to insert some last minute language addressing that to the image.”

  6. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

    On Tour
    During the summer and fall of 2017, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival went on tour across the United States, stopping in over 15 states for mass meetings, press conferences, truth commissions, and other events to spread the word about the Campaign.

    Collected here [at link below] are some of the highlights from each public event, including live videos, cultural pieces, news articles, and Twitter moments:

    https://art.poorpeoplescampaign.org/on-tour/

    https://art.poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PPC_Logo.jpg

  7. rikyrah says:

    Dow down over 700 points.
    MAGA, don’t ya know.

  8. rikyrah says:

    Judge in DOJ’s lawsuit against California over the state’s “sanctuary” laws says California can depose two senior immigration officials early on (over DOJ’s objection) https://t.co/r6loXe93jp pic.twitter.com/IQCVZuqzrM— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) March 22, 2018

  9. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “6 Months After Maria, Puerto Ricans Face a New Threat—Education Reform Colonialism and disaster capitalism are dismantling Puerto Rico’s public-school system.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/colonialism-and-disaster-capitalism-are-dismantling-puerto-ricos-public-school-system/
    Excerpt:

    “It is hard not to read this combination—the elimination of public schools and the creation of charters and voucher systems—as anything other than a large-scale privatization of the education system. For her part, Keleher denies that this is the main goal, and the final bill is vague around these issues: Charters may or may not be for-profit, vouchers may or may not be used at sectarian schools, and charters and private schools may or may not accept special-education students.

    “This last point, about students with special needs, is particularly crucial. Unlike in the 50 states, where about 13 percent of the student body qualifies for special-education services, in Puerto Rico 40 percent of the student population requires them. But research suggests that charter schools are less likely than traditional public schools to enroll and retain students with disabilities.”

  10. rikyrah says:

    UPDATE: 4 defense attorneys at different large law firms have been approached to join Trump’s legal defense team in recent weeks. All 4 turned him down.— Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) March 22, 2018

  11. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “FEMA silent amid chaos in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, emails show”
    https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/fema-silent-amid-chaos-puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria-emails-n859081
    Excerpt:

    WASHINGTON — As hundreds of people stood in line for food and many went hungry during the days and weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Walmart Inc. and local supermarkets threw out tons of spoiled meat, dairy and produce.

    Emails and text messages made public Tuesday in a letter sent by the top Democrat on the House oversight committee describe frantic efforts by officials at Walmart and the Puerto Rican government to get fuel for generators to prevent food from going bad.

    From the Federal Emergency Management Agency came only silence.

  12. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “This 17-Year-Old Girl Designed a Mural To Send A Powerful Message About Equality When Meliza Cepeda, 17, got the chance to design a mural, it became an opportunity to spread a powerful message.”
    https://www.seventeen.com/prom/prom-style/a19409143/meliza-cepeda-mural/
    Excerpt:
    Artist Melissa Cepeda explained:

    “I was surprised by how quickly a design came to me. I wanted to make something about people coming together. Over the years, I’ve noticed changes within our school’s neighborhood and also worldwide, and I’ve seen communities destroyed because of issues having to do with gentrification, race, police brutality, and much more. My friends and I talk about President Trump’s immigration policies a lot too. My mom is an immigrant, and our school is filled with kids whose families come from Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and other Caribbean islands. So for the piece, I drew two different colored hands reaching toward a tree. The tree represents Inwood (there’s a lot of nature around), and the hands represent people in Inwood and people in general. I named it Unity in Progress.”

    https://inwoodacademyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/unity1.png

    http://www.uptowncollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/UC-Mural.png

  13. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/21/vandals-spray-paint-mural-of-mexican-american-war-heroes-struggling-artist-perseveres/
    Excerpt:

    There’s dumb and dumber.

    But those words don’t truly describe the category of idiocy for the person or persons who vandalized an enormous outside mural in Santa Ana honoring American veterans.

    If there’s any justice, the graffiti spraying moron’s new street name will be “Dumberer.”

    I mean, really Dumberer?

    In a city where residents are proud of their Mexican heritage, Dumberer not only desecrated the Mexican flag, but also dishonored the courageous Mexican Americans who fought under the Stars and Stripes in three wars.

    Carlos Aguilar, the artist who spent five years painting nearly 200 portraits of men and women who served in the U.S. military — many of whom died for this country — looks at his work spray painted over and shakes his head in disbelief.

    “I was really mad, I was really upset,” Aguilar recalls of when he first saw the desecration a few weeks ago. “Imagine you come here with your family to celebrate the death of a loved one’s anniversary and you see that.

    “It’s shameful.”

    Caption on photo linked below: “Mural artist Carlos Aguilar uses a brush to temporarily paint over graffiti that was sprayed on his outdoor mural in Santa Ana depicting nearly 200 Mexican-American veterans on March 20, 2018. He hopes that funds can be raised to help pay for the damage to his mural that is on the side of the La Chiquita Market at the corner of E. Washington Avenue and N. Custer Street in Santa Ana, (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)”
    https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/0322_nws_ocr-l-mural-051.jpg?w=810

  14. rikyrah says:

    spread the word

    Want to hold a Voter ID Clinic to help citizens obtain the documents required to secure a state-mandated ID or documentary proof of citizenship? Contact VoteRidershttps://t.co/sUOBGjWUra

    — meta (@metaquest) March 22, 2018

  15. rikyrah says:

    Police apparently storming Cambridge Analytica on Bloomsbury Street. Watching the scene unfolding from our office! pic.twitter.com/xerHzGXt7r

    — Elizabeth Townsend (@elizaflorenx) March 22, 2018

    • majiir says:

      PBO can go anywhere on the planet and receive a warm welcome. Dotard, on the other hand, has to either arrange for a special crowd to welcome him or is afraid to travel to certain countries because he’ll face massive protests. He can’t ever expect to receive the respect that PBO receives because he hasn’t earned it and doesn’t deserve it. He is now not only a pariah in New York, he’s a pariah in most countries. Serves his arrogant *ss right to be rejected at a global level after promising that the U.S. would regain its respect have a first place standing among the nations of the world if he became president. None of this has happened. Our standing among the nations of the world has eroded significantly since January 20, 2017, and it’s all due to his dumb *ss.

  16. Ametia says:

    Devos stay agetting her ass taken to the woodshed

  17. rikyrah says:

    Sacramento police release video of fatal shooting of Stephon Clark
    Community activists and relatives of the father-of-two have questioned why officers needed to fire 20 shots.
    by Alex Johnson and Gadi Schwartz / Mar.21.2018 / 8:15 PM ET / Updated Mar.22.2018 / 5:54 AM ET

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sacramento-police-release-video-fatal-shooting-unarmed-man-n858926

  18. rikyrah says:

    Students press for change on guns ahead of March For Our Lives

    Emma Gonzalez, Jaclyn Corin, and Sarah Chadwick, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas who have been thrust into activism against gun violence after a shooting tragedy at their school, talk with Rachel Maddow about whether legislators are doing enough to prevent future atrocities.

  19. Ametia says:

    SHORT: I’m sorry bottom-line is getting fucked over.

    • Fugg him! I know darn well he doesn’t think saying I’m sorry is enough? Haul his greedy ass before Congress to testify. Hold him accountable for selling out the country.

  20. rikyrah says:

    No mention of Russia hacks of US power plants in Trump Putin chat

    Rachel Maddow shares some of NBC News’ exclusive interview by Pete Williams of FBI Director Chris Wray and notes that not only did Donald Trump not mention the UK poisonings when he called Vladimir Putin, but he also didn’t mention Russia hacking U.S. power plants and energy infrastructure.

  21. rikyrah says:

    hmmph

    Ezra Klein

    @ezraklein
    Unpopular opinion: the way the media covered Hillary Clinton’s emails did much more to make Donald Trump president than anything Cambridge Analytica, or even Facebook, did. And it was less defensible on the merits.

    10:00 AM – Mar 21, 2018

  22. rikyrah says:

    Amee Vanderpool
    @girlsreallyrule
    The entire @facebook business model is the collection and sale of data. Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that he will just be more careful about who he sells it to, while he claims to respect your business changes nothing.

    @Our4thEstate
    #Zuckerburg is just a younger version of another #PutinTreasonTool, i.e., @realdonadltrump.

    Putin is masterful at the art of leveraging greedy narcissists to enrich himself, as well as, killing his opposition.

    4:17 PM – Mar 21, 2018

  23. rikyrah says:

    tell it, Ava

    Ava DuVernay

    @ava
    “If Game of Thrones can have three seasons of all male directors, why can’t we have three seasons of all women directors?” 🤷🏾‍♀️ https://twitter.com/theroot/status/976548776205840384

    3:47 PM – Mar 21, 2018

  24. rikyrah says:

    Legal Defense Fund

    @NAACP_LDF
    “There are perhaps no two areas in the criminal justice system that are marked by greater racial disparities than the sentencing of drug-related offenses & the imposition of the death penalty.” – @Sifill_LDF. Read our statement: http://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-responds-trump-administration-proposal-pursue-death-penalty-drug-traffickershttps://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/976473888753442816

    7:09 PM – Mar 21, 2018

  25. rikyrah says:

    Ed Krassenstein 💎
    @EdKrassen
    Robert Mueller already knows about Cambridge Analytica. Legal experts I’ve talked to suspect he’s building a RICO case, not only against President Trump, but against Don Jr., Kushner, Ivanka, and at least 4 members of Congress as well.

    This will be HUGE!
    And of course Glorious!

    11:02 PM – Mar 20, 2018

  26. Ametia says:

    Trump attorney John Dowd said to resign amid shake-up on legal team for Russia probe
    John Dowd, a personal attorney for President Trump handling the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, has resigned, according to two people familiar with the decision.

    Dowd’s resignation came several days after Trump added Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who was pushing an aggressive new strategy, to his team.

    https://s2.washingtonpost.com/4d079f/5ab3ca4bfe1ff61dddd4f2c3/YXdhcmVvZjQxMUBnbWFpbC5jb20%3D/2/10/3a569220054ddfca9b49a25bb24a75b5

  27. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    The poster at the link below was published for a July 2013. I had not seen it before today.

    “This poster was designed with the Ella Baker Center in July 2013, for Night Out for Safety & Democracy, their community alternative to the police-sponsored event National Night Out. In the course of designing them, George Zimmerman was found innocent for the murder of Trayvon Martin, and the poster’s message took on a new level of meaning and urgency.”

    https://www.micahbazant.com/#/neighbors/

  28. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “‘DREAMer’ Doctors in Training Are Now ‘at the Mercy’ of Courts”
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/dreamer-doctors-in-training-are-now-at-the-mercy-of-courts

  29. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “L.A. takes lead on legal brief seeking to prevent DACA termination”
    https://www.dailynews.com/2018/03/21/l-a-takes-lead-on-legal-brief-seeking-to-prevent-daca-termination/
    Excerpt:

    Los Angeles is leading a national coalition of 40 U.S. cities and counties, along with the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in filing a legal brief seeking to prevent the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Wednesday.

    Long Beach, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Los Angeles County are among the cities and governments joining in the amicus brief, along with New York City, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

    The brief asks the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold an existing injunction against the Department of Homeland Security preventing it from terminating the DACA program.
    DACA, created by DHS through an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012, allows about 850,000 immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children — often referred to as “Dreamers” — to work and study openly without fear of deportation. The Trump administration announced last September that it would end DACA in March unless Congress passed legislation to save the program.

    “We continue to fight to keep DACA alive and to seek clarity for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who depended on the program when they came out of the shadows,” Feuer said. “Today cities and counties across America stand united with the Dreamers, who personify the American values of education, hard work, and belief in a better tomorrow.”

  30. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    “Dreamers can once again get licenses to work in 70 occupations in Indiana”
    https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/21/dreamers-can-once-again-get-licences-work-70-occupations-indiana/447443002/

    Excerpt:

    The new DACA law changes the citizenship verification requirements for obtaining professional licenses to include the roughly 9,000 young immigrants in Indiana who were brought to the United States illegally as children but granted legal work status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

    The Holcomb administration began screening out DACA recipients last fall through a change in the application forms used by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, which coordinates licensing for nearly one in seven Indiana workers.

    The move, which was the subject of a Feb. 27 IndyStar story, effectively locked out DACA recipients from scores of occupations, ranging from nursing to architecture to hair styling.

    Holcomb defended the change to the application forms, arguing that it was necessary to comply with a 2011 state immigration law. But he also supported legislative efforts to remove the licensing barrier.

    “I support removing impediments in state law that keep Indiana’s DACA recipients from skilling up and going to work,” he said in a statement Wednesday after signing the legislation into law.The DACA program, established by President Barack Obama in 2012, protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation and grants them legal work status.

    DACA participants pay taxes and can obtain Indiana driver’s licenses and social security numbers, but can’t qualify for many public benefits, including food stamps.

    While the new Indiana law provides some peace of mind for DACA recipients, the program’s future remains unclear at the federal level.

  31. rikyrah says:

    Khaled Beydoun

    @KhaledBeydoun
    63% of mass killers since 1983 look like Mark Anthony Conditt, the Austin Serial Bomber: White, male, and citizens.

    Redefine Terrorism.

    9:45 AM – Mar 21, 2018

  32. rikyrah says:

    LOL

    #Resist 🌊
    @ZaibatsuNews
    ‘Let’s get stupid strong’: Watch Stephen Colbert ‘get fully ripped’ with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg http://j.mp/2puYSqS

    10:36 PM – Mar 21, 2018

  33. rikyrah says:

    RIP

    TV personality known for playing Bozo the Clown dies at 89
    Published 6:47 a.m. ET March 22, 2018

    OSTON (AP) — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children’s TV program Bozo the Clown, has died. He was 89.

    Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease, his family said in a statement to WCVB-TV .

    Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television. Avruch became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown.

    “He had a heart of gold,” manager Stuart Hersh told The Associated Press on Wednesday, “He brought the Bozo the Clown character to life better than anyone else’s portrayal of Bozo the Clown.”

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/nation-now/2018/03/22/tv-personality-known-playing-bozo-clown-dies-89/448345002/

  34. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    Happy Birthday George Edward Alcorn, Jr. 🎈🎂🎈 (March 22, 1940)

    https://youtu.be/80tRuGBXBA8&rel=0
    “National Inventors Hall of Fame
    Published on May 13, 2015
    George Alcorn is a pioneering physicist and engineer noted for his aerospace and semiconductor inventions. His x-ray imaging spectrometer, patented during his career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), allowed for the detection of radio signatures at a more distant and accurate rate than previously possible and influenced the continued evolution of imaging devices.”

    More biographical info:
    http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/science-and-medicine/george-edward-alcorn-jr-inventor/

  35. rikyrah says:

    Mueller following the money on Trump Middle East policy

    Mark Mazzetti, investigative correspondent for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about Robert Mueller’s consideration of undue influence on Donald Trump’s Middle East policies on behalf of Saudi Arabia and UAE.

  36. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning,Everyone 😄😄😄

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