News Dump

John Hickenlooper burns the Senate: "If the senate is so good, how come all of those senators are trying to get out."
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1139193399481909249

Ask Hickenlooper about Sanders point that right-wing populism is rising everywhere. He points out that Europe already has Sanders’s ideal welfare state. “We’re seeing the populism on the rise in countries that already have that form of government. So that’s not the solution.”
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1139195315561672710

U.S. Office of Special Counsel Finds Kellyanne Conway Repeatedly Violated the Hatch Act, Recommends Removal from Federal Service
https://osc.gov/Resources/Report%20to%20the%20President%20re%20Kellyanne%20Conway%20Hatch%20Act.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/06/13/federal-watchdog-agency-recommends-removal-of-kellyanne-conway-from-federal-office-for-violating-the-hatch-act/
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/federal-agency-recommends-that-kellyanne-conway-be-removed-from-service-over-hatch-act-1364221
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-conway/trump-aide-conway-repeatedly-violated-u-s-law-u-s-investigators-find-idUSL2N23K0VO

WH already spinning the report, refusing to act: The White House said a U.S. government watchdog agency should withdraw its report calling for White House adviser Kellyanne Conway to be fired for repeated violations of U.S. law, according to a letter released on Thursday. The mainstream media should agree to a complete blackout of Kellyanne Conway. Media access is oxygen for Kellyanne’s role as... whatever it is she does. Cut it off. No-platform her to the maximum extent possible.   Don’t interview her.   Don’t air or cover her statements.    Don’t even acknowledge that she is part of the Trump administration.    If there’s video of White House officials that needs to be aired and Conway is present, crop her out or digitally remove her.   Where those steps cannot be applied - where she must be covered somehow - insert a disclaimer that Kellyanne Conway has been implicated in multiple Hatch Act violations and was recommended to be fired by an independent government watchdog agency. When she’s visible, display an onscreen label: “WARNING: THIS PERSON IS CORRUPT.” (This is what I really wanted the media to do with Trump when he started campaigning. But the media doesn't care about anything else other than profits.). But CNN will probably have her on tonight.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-conway-whitehouse/white-house-calls-on-agency-to-withdraw-conway-report-idUSKCN1TE2N3

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving the White House at the end of the month (she originally said she was leaving November 2018....)
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/13/sarah-huckabee-sanders-is-leaving-the-white-house-at-the-end-of-the-month-trump-says.html

Eight remaining Flint water prosecutions have been dismissed by the Department of Attorney General, officials said Thursday, June 13.
https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2019/06/state-dismisses-criminal-charges-in-all-flint-water-cases-will-continue-to-investigate.html

Art installations blast audio of sobbing, detained children across New York City. It is a pop-up art installation of the most dystopian kind: Small kids curled up underneath foil survival blankets in chain-link cages, with audio of crying detained children wailing through speakers, dropped onto sidewalks throughout New York City.
The guerrilla art installations, 24 in all, were plopped in front of the offices of news organizations, Google and highly trafficked areas of the city on Wednesday, depicting the most vivid sounds and migrant children detained by federal authorities at the U.S. southern border. "Papa,” a detained child wept in one recording at an installation, a real moment captured inside a holding facility and published by ProPublica last year. Border Patrol agents joked with each other in that recording, as children cried out for their parents. The audio drew immense public outrage and demands that the Department of Homeland Security change its policies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/12/art-installations-blast-audio-sobbing-detained-children-across-new-york-city/

Federal watchdog recommends Conway be removed from office for Hatch Act violations
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/448379-federal-watchdog-recommends-conway-be-removed-from-office-for-hatch

Reminder: Republican-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstates most of GOP's lame-duck laws limiting Democrats' power
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-wisconsin-lame-duck-laws-20190612-story,amp.html

Elizabeth Warren rises to second in California poll
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/448330-warren-rises-to-second-in-california-poll

Duncan Hunter's wife pleads guilty to conspiring with husband to use campaign funds for personal use
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/13/politics/margaret-hunter-duncan-hunter-california/index.html

Margaret E. Hunter Admits Conspiring with her Husband, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, to Steal more than $200,000 in Campaign Funds
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/margaret-e-hunter-admits-conspiring-her-husband-rep-duncan-d-hunter-steal-more-200000

Gun magazines are getting larger. Expect mass shootings to get worse
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/enterthefray/la-ol-guns-magazines-mass-shootings-nra-20190613-story.html

Trump administration moving hundreds of USDA scientists from D.C. to Kansas City
https://www.axios.com/trump-administration-moving-hundreds-usda-scientists-dc-kansas-city-c53e4520-c37c-4a40-8770-51a584b3d183.html

Good but still FAR too little FAR too late: 2016 Dem VP nominee (Kaine) introduces bipartisan legislation condemning anti-Semitism (specifically focused on condemning BDS and attacks on dual loyalty). No 2020 Dem presidential candidates on the list of co-sponsors.
https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1139185667173474304

Why the Trump Campaign Won't Pay Police Bills | Ten city governments from Arizona to Pennsylvania say the president's political committee has stiffed them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars
https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/donald-trump-police-cities-bills-maga-rallies/

Ten cities say Trump owes them money from rally security
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/448323-10-cities-say-trump-owes-them-money-from-rally-security

Bernie's Speech on Democratic Socialism did not announce a single detailed legislative policy plan about how to achieve his goals. This might be why he's slipping in the polls. People need more than generic platitudes. Details matter, and at least primary voters, can tell.

News that a U.S. Marshals Service officer had fatally shot a young black man in Memphis triggered chaotic protests late Wednesday that caused widespread property damage and left at least two dozen police officers injured by thrown concrete rocks. "Let me be clear — the aggression shown towards our officers and deputies tonight was unwarranted," said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland (D).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/13/memphis-shooting-brandon-webber-us-marshals-service-protests/

Secret Files Show How Brazil's Elites Jailed Former President Lula and Cleared the Way for Bolsonaro
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/12/secret_files_show_how_brazils_elites

As deficit skyrockets, author of GOP tax bill admits cuts may not pay for themselves
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/13/as-deficit-skyrockets-author-of-gop-tax-bill-admits-cuts-may-not-pay-for-themselves/

House To Investigate Secretary Elaine Chao Corruption Allegations
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/house-to-investigate-secretary-elaine-chao-corruption-allegations-61815365849

In Response to Mueller Report, Senate Intel Vice Chair Warner Introduces Legislation to Require Campaigns to Report Foreign Contacts
https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/5/in-response-to-mueller-report-senate-intel-vice-chair-warner-introduces-legislation-to-require-campaigns-to-report-foreign-contacts

Five men outlaw abortion in a Texas town, declaring a 'sanctuary city for the unborn'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/13/waksom-texas-outlaws-abortion-five-men/?utm_term=.fa611e7899c1

Texas city council passes near total abortion ban, declares itself 'sanctuary city for the unborn'
https://thinkprogress.org/waskom-texas-city-council-passed-sanctuary-law-for-unborn-abortion-ban-23846bac9b42/

Coalition to change Electoral College votes grows closer to 270-vote mark
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/06/13/Coalition-to-change-Electoral-College-votes-grows-closer-to-270-vote-mark/6361560294210/

Dem proposal to ban Pentagon funds for border wall survives House panel votes
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/448310-dem-proposal-to-ban-pentagon-funds-for-border-wall-survives-house-panel-votes

Beto O'Rourke blasts former VP Joe Biden as a "return to the past," says "we have to set a much higher mark"
https://www.newsweek.com/beto-orourke-slams-joe-biden-return-past-1443792

"You cannot go back to the end of the Obama administration and think that that's good enough," O'Rourke said during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "As much as a horror show as Trump has been ... we had real problems before Donald Trump became president." "You cannot go back to the end of the Obama administration and think that that's good enough," O'Rourke said during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "As much as a horror show as Trump has been ... we had real problems before Donald Trump became president." "We cannot return to the past," O'Rourke said, hitting the Obama administration over its failure to get "meaningful" gun control laws passed and over the amount of people it deported. "We cannot simply be about defeating Donald Trump."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/beto-o-rourke-u-s-can-do-far-better-biden-n1017116

Republicans deporting military veterans, in violation of federal rules | Another established norm trashed as ICE deports undocumented veterans, and then apparently loses their records
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/13/clumsiness-or-cruelty-trump-now-deporting-military-veterans-in-violation-of-federal-rules/

Wisconsin job center helped thousands. Republicans are closing it
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2019/06/13/wisconsin-job-center-helped-thousands-now-trump-closing/1383221001/

Speaker Nancy Pelosi brings a poster titled "McConnell's graveyard" with bills she says Leader Mitch McConnell "wants to bury." "Leader McConnell seems to take great pride in calling himself the Grim Reaper.  it's part of his political campaign," she says. The poster depicted more than a dozen bills currently stalled in the Senate, including the Equality Act, which would codify nondiscrimination language protecting Americans on the basis of sex and gender identity in federal law, as well as the Violence Against Women Act.
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1139187441095458817
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/448376-pelosi-shows-off-poster-of-mcconnells-graveyard

“I’ll tell you what: I’ve seen a lot of things over my life,” he told ABC News. “I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. I don’t — you don’t call the FBI. Life doesn’t work that way.” Except that, for Trump, it has. And he has most definitely called the FBI. During the 2016 election, The Post’s Robert O’Harrow reported extensively on Trump’s ties to an FBI informant and an FBI agent in the 1980s. The informant was a labor consultant with a criminal record and mob ties named Daniel Sullivan, whom Trump worked with. And through Sullivan, Trump cultivated a relationship with a young FBI agent named Walt Stowe.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/13/trump-claimed-hes-never-called-fbi-he-has-when-he-wanted-its-help/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-ties-to-an-informant-and-fbi-agent-reveal-his-modes-of-operation/2016/09/16/6e65522e-6f9f-11e6-9705-23e51a2f424d_story.html?utm_term=.c873d7f93890

90% of Sri Lanka's corals dead, last 10% to go in the next 10 years if no action taken
http://srilankabrief.org/2019/06/90-percent-of-sri-lankas-corals-are-dead/

YEP: Whatevever you think of Beto, this quote to @GideonResnick feels extremely true. https://www.thedailybeast.com/beto-orourkes-team-is-tired-of-the-medias-bullshit-narrative
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1139161885117419520
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D88dseQXkAU2LNe.jpg

Ecuador approves same-sex marriage: The largely Catholic nation joins neighboring countries in allowing gay marriages. Judges marginally voted in favor of changing the current law
https://www.dw.com/en/ecuador-approves-same-sex-marriage/a-49169619

Australia approves vast coal mine near Great Barrier Reef
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/06/13/australia-approves-vast-coal-mine-near-great-barrier-reef.html

Facebook blocks access to Graph Search, a key transparency tool used to expose human rights abuses - Facebook has restricted public access to a feature that has been used to pursue war criminals, expose human rights abuses and identify corrupt officials.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-13/facebook-blocks-access-to-graph-search-transparency-tool/11207102?pfm=ms

Democratic presidential hopeful and former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) slammed President Trump's recent comments that he would listen if a foreign entity offered negative information on a political opponent, and said the president wasn't "one-quarter of the man" the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was. "It's un-American. I mean that's the really simple way of thinking about it. It's un-American. It's un-patriotic. I think it's against the law," Delaney said Thursday on ABC's "The View." "This is an example of, if he was one-quarter of the man Sen. McCain was, we would never have to have this conversation," he continued, addressing McCain's daughter and the show's co-host Meghan McCain.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/448388-delaney-trumps-remarks-on-accepting-intel-from-foreign-entity-shows-hes-not

Republican blocks bill requiring campaigns to alert FBI to foreign assistance
https://www.axios.com/marsha-blackburn-foreign-offers-assistance-campaigns-fab324f4-a630-41aa-9b90-a6fc4ca5c5d0.html

YEP: House Dems Do What They Do Best After Trump Invites Foreign Election Interference: Shrug
https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-dems-do-what-they-do-best-after-trump-invites-foreign-election-interference-shrug

As Sarah Sanders leaves, the last WH press briefing was 94 days ago, the longest stretch of time. In the pass 100 days, only one White House briefing was held. In the past 200 days, only four briefings were held. In the past 300 days, 8 briefings were held, per @AlliemalCNN ~ Manu Raju (CNN)
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1139267650092224512

A U.S. airstrike killed six Afghan soldiers between late Tuesday night and early Wednesday after an exchange of gunfire between allied forces, according to Afghan officials and statements by U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. The deaths mark the third reported mistaken American bombing on Afghan troops in 92 days.
https://www.stripes.com/news/us-bombs-kill-afghan-allies-for-third-time-in-three-months-1.585778

Kelloggs is using rejected cereal to create a line of beers in efforts to reduce food waste.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/9279486/new-coco-pops-rice-crispies-beer

A small group of House Judiciary Committee members has traveled to the Justice Department to begin reviewing Mueller's underlying evidence, Politico reports. The initial group of lawmakers includes Reps. Cicilline, Neguse, Scanlon, Deutch, and Raskin.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/judiciary-committee-mueller-report-1364594

House Republicans reintroduced a bill to eliminate all gun-free school zones across the U.S.
https://www.newsweek.com/gun-free-school-zones-repeal-house-republicans-thomas-massie-1443921

When Al Gore's Campaign Received Illegal Election Material, He Turned It in to the FBI
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/al-gore-stephen-colbert-trump-election-campaign-1022007

Democrat Party Activist Betsy Sweet Looks To Challenge Collins In 2020 Race
https://www.mainepublic.org/post/democrat-party-activist-betsy-sweet-looks-challenge-collins-2020-race

More than 600 companies including Walmart and Costco sent a letter to Trump begging him not to increase China tariffs
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-costco-hundreds-of-companies-send-trump-tariff-letter-2019-6

Premature baby found in Border Patrol facility in Texas
https://apnews.com/4117f50a12d14f12915b6bb0d975614a

Random note: McConnell wanted his legacy to be an overwhelming number of young, extremely conservative federal judges. He's got that now, and there's no undoing it. 119 young ultra-conservative christian nutjob judges and counting.

Random note: In 2018, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on the National Republican Congressional Committee to make a bipartisan pledge not to utilize stolen/hacked info in House elections. After months of negotiations, in September 2018, House Republicans backed out and refused to sign it.
https://dccc.org/dccc-chair-lujan-releases-historic-cybersecurity-pledge-use-stolen-hacked-materials-nrcc-refuses-sign/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/us/politics/house-hacked-materials.html

UK signs Julian Assange's US extradition papers
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/06/13/uk/julian-assange-extradition-order-us-gbr-intl/index.html

Transportation Secretary Chao sells stock in Vulcan after pledge to divest by 2018
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/448503-transportation-secretary-chao-sells-stock-in-vulcan-after-pledge-to

Number of criminal environmental cases referred to DOJ by Interior at nearly 25-year low
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/448342-number-of-environmental-criminal-cases-interior-referred-for

Boris Johnson backed arms sales to Saudi Arabia during bombing campaign in Yemen, new email shows
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-yemen-war-weapons-exports-a8955091.html

Hundreds of public execution sites identified in North Korea, human rights group reports
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-12/north-korea-more-than-300-execution-sites-found-report/11201180?section=world

Swiss scientists have developped a carbon-neutral fuel for aviation and maritime transportation.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190613103146.htm

RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines. (and about Michael Skakel....)
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798

Death to the Meritocracy with Andrew Yang Podcast
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/opinion/the-argument-andrew-yang-2020.html

After one day of cheering and euphoria as Russian authorities released anti corruption reporter Ivan Golunov, the Russian police detain more than 400 at protest over his arrest
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-journalist-protests-idUSKCN1TD12A

India has a trash pile that’s so big it needs aircraft warning lights
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/india-has-a-trash-pile-that-s-so-big-it-needs-aircraft-warning-lights

Scotland planted over 22 million trees last year, smashing goals
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/448428-scotland-planted-over-22-million-tree-last-year-smashing-planting

Democrats roll out proposal requiring insurance to cover OTC birth control
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/448392-democrats-roll-out-proposal-requiring-insurance-to-cover-otc-birth-control

ICE Is Sending Asylum-Seekers to the Private Prison Where Mother Jones Exposed Abuse
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/ice-is-sending-asylum-seekers-to-the-private-prison-where-mother-jones-exposed-abuse/

Two-hour ‘dose’ of nature per week gives big health boosts for everyone
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/13/two-hour-dose-nature-weekly-boosts-health-study-finds

'Deja Vu' of Iraq War Lies as Mike Pompeo Blames Iran for Tanker Attack Without Single Shred of Evidence: "Secretary Pompeo gives zero proof but insists that Iran is responsible for ship attacks in Gulf of Oman. Lies, lies, and more lies to make a case for war."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/13/deja-vu-iraq-war-lies-mike-pompeo-blames-iran-tanker-attack-without-single-shred

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee | Twenty-one Indian cities – including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad – are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020, and 40% of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/12/indian-villages-lie-empty-as-drought-forces-thousands-to-flee