News Dump

White House Official Who Heard Trump's Ukraine Call to Offer 'Damning Testimony' to House Impeachment Investigators: "I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen," Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/29/white-house-official-who-heard-trumps-ukraine-call-offer-damning-testimony-house

US deploying more troops around Syria oil fields after killing of Isis leader - Trump has said he hopes to secure a US share of Syrian oil revenues, which is a war crime
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/28/syria-us-troops-oil-fields-isis

World unprepared for impact of climate change on mountain water supplies: experts | Mountain-sourced water supplies, which provide about half of all drinking water worldwide, is becoming more unpredictable as warmer temperatures melt glaciers and change precipitation
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-mountain-summit-previe-idUSKBN1X8193

“Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” said Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys. “What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.” (That's the idea....)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say

Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon said on Tuesday that he and his cabinet would resign, bowing to a basic demand of the enormous antigovernment protests that have consumed the country and suspended daily life for nearly two weeks. "I’m at a dead end," Mr. Hariri said in a televised speech. “Jobs come and go, but what’s important is the country,” he added, echoing words of his father, Rafik Hariri, the prime minister who was assassinated in 2005. “No one’s bigger than the nation.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/world/middleeast/saad-hariri-stepping-down-lebanon.html

"The new research shows that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by midcentury."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/29/climate/coastal-cities-underwater.html

Biggest Private Coal Miner Goes Bust After Trump Rescue Fails
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-29/biggest-private-coal-miner-goes-bust-after-trump-rescue-fails

Intelligence panel Democrat: Sondland committed perjury
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/467851-castro-it-appears-sondland-committed-perjury

Side-by-side comparing Sondland's opening statement to Vindman's, where they recollect the same meeting very differently. Presumably, Vindman's account is more in line with Hill's -- if Bolton testifies the same, Sondland's fucked. Bolton’s moustache quivers in anticipation.
https://twitter.com/Olivia_Gazis/status/1189002142989901824?

Team Trump Admits Intentionally And Illegally And Unconstitionally Holding Back Billions For Puerto Rico Disaster Recovery
https://www.dcreport.org/2019/10/24/team-trump-admits-holding-back-billions-for-puerto-rico-disaster-recovery/

Bernie continues his Gentrification Tour at Cass Technical High School where the student body racial makeup is 82% African American but his rally is 98% white.
https://twitter.com/AndrewCraft/status/1188576196495396867

Over 900 children and 200 adults infected with HIV after doctor in Pakistan reuses syringes pulled from bin.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hiv-children-pakistan-syringes-ratodero-ghangro-cases-virus-a9173101.html

Illegal quid-pro-quo. It's legal to use aid as leverage, not to bribe or extort: In 2017, WH explored cutting off taxpayer funding for charter schools affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, a political opponent of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-28/trump-explored-cutting-grants-for-schools-tied-to-erdogan-foe

U.K. Labour party now says it will back an early election in December, giving voters a say in how Brexit proceeds
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-29/johnson-pushes-again-for-early-general-election-brexit-update

White House official plans to tell impeachment investigators he feared Trump’s demands of Ukraine would undermine national security
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/10/28/white-house-official-plans-to-tell-impeachment-investigators-he-feared-trumps-demands-of-ukraine-would-undermine-national-security/

Nunes Ordered Aide To Leaking The Ukraine Whistleblower’s Name
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say

Trump illegally and unconstitutionally pocketed $16.8 Million In Campaign Funds
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/poliltical-campaigns-18-million-trump-properties_n_5db7837be4b0bd61024fe1f1

North Carolina's congressional map is illegal Republican gerrymander
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-carolina-gerrymandering/north-carolinas-congressional-map-is-illegal-republican-gerrymander-court-rules-idUSKBN1X805D?il=0

Army Officer on White House Staff Reported Concerns on Trump’s Ukraine Dealings
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/us/politics/Alexander-Vindman-trump-impeachment.html

Republicans Attack Jewish Army Veteran Alexander Vindman Testifying Against Trump as a Ukrainian Spy
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/army-veteran-testifying-trump-ukraine-spy-vindman-impeachment.html

@brikeilarcnn on ex-Rep. Duffy’s remarks on Alexander Vindman: It’s "anti-immigrant bigotry, and it's an odd questioning of patriotism coming from Sean Duffy, the guy who spent part of his 20s on MTV’s 'The Real World'… while Alexander Vindman spent his on foreign deployments.”
https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1189233542674468864

Conservatives Commentators Are Questioning The Loyalty Of Jewish NSC Official And Iraq Veteran Alexander Vindman Set To Testify In The Impeachment Inquiry
https://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-doubt-loyalty-of-nsc-official-on-trumps-ukraine-call-2019-10

We're supposed to believe that a Purple Heart recipient who spent 2 decades serving the US in the military & then another as an Army foreign area officer secretly still holds primary allegiance to Ukraine, where he fled from as a Jewish refugee at age 3.
https://twitter.com/TianaTheFirst/status/1189202481491955724
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/vindman-is-a-patriot-not-a-ukrainian-spy

A short while ago, men such as Robert Mueller, William Taylor, and Alexander Vindman would have been pin-ups for (us) American conservatives: decorated combat veterans; patriots; straight arrows. The urge to prop up Trump changed all of this. A heartbreaking and infuriating era.
https://twitter.com/jaynordlinger/status/1189225511383384064

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, leaving the deposition room, accuses Republicans of "very clearly in their questioning" trying to get Lt. Col. Vindman to reveal the whistleblower's identity, "even though in his testimony he says he doesn't he didn't know." Calls it "outrageous."
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1189227142707634177

New - some tense moments at Vindman deposition. Schiff objected to a line of questioning from Republicans, which Democrats contended was an effort to out the whistleblower. GOP pushed back, arguing they were simply asking questions about who Vindman spoke with, per sources
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1189222355861721092

GOP members argue they are not trying to out the whistleblower. The back-and-forth led to a heated exchange between Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, according to multiple sources. Other members joined in.
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1189222525118627840

Meadows denies he’s trying to out whistleblower. “How can we out someone when we don’t know he is?” he told us. He said Dem accusations they are trying to out WB are “not accurate.” “I’ve not been on any fishing expedition. I only ask questions we know the answer to.”
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1189223876670173184

“What the Republicans are trying to do in there very clearly in their questioning is try to front door or backdoor Lt. Col. Vindman into revealing who the whistleblower is even though ... he said he didn’t know,” said Wasserman Schultz, saying it’s a “process of elimination”
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1189227333053489154

The identity of the Whistleblower doesn't matter. The information is out and is incriminating for Trump. Trump and most Republicans want to know the identity of the Whistleblower for Revenge, what he lived his whole life for.

When the CIA contractors on the ground in Benghazi needed a lawyer, they hired Zaid. When the RNC needed someone to help them get Hillary Clinton's emails, they hired Zaid. When a Marine involved in Haditha wanted to sue a congressman, he hired Zaid.....: Mark Zaid is used to being attacked by those on the other side of whatever case he's on and to the intense media attention that comes with handling clients involved in some of the biggest matters facing the country. But now the Washington attorney is representing the whistleblower who has sparked an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, and things have never been quite like this. "This case, from the moment I've been in it, has been nonstop every single day. Obviously, it involves the president of the United States," Zaid said in an interview with NBC News at his home in the Washington suburbs. "We've been warned, 'They're coming after you.'"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/whistleblowers-welcome-mark-zaid-represents-trump-accuser-others-secrets-share-n1071811

House Resolution detailing impeachment inquiry process going forward | House Democrats resolution on impeachment says that Republicans can request to call witnesses in the public sessions. | The resolution lets Nunes ask Schiff for permission to issue a subpoena. If Schiff declines, Nunes gets a vote in the full committee.
https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116-HRes660.pdf

JPMorgan is considering selling off the company's Manhattan headquarters and cutting or relocating employees to cities with cheaper costs and better tax benefits to insulate itself from a looming economic downturn.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1189256586864275456

@TedDanson testifies on plastic pollution: "We have no more time to waste."
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1189258462611542016
https://www.c-span.org/video/?465846-1/ted-danson-testifies-hearing-plastic-pollution

Harry Dunn's family to sue Trump administration for 'lawless misconduct' and 'cover up'
https://news.sky.com/story/harry-dunns-family-to-sue-trump-administration-for-lawless-misconduct-and-cover-up-11848247

Devin Nunes: Reporters Asking Me Questions About Ukraine Scandal Are ‘Assassins’
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/devin-nunes-reporters-fox-news-tucker-carlson_n_5db7e953e4b02aee7d35739f

So much for states’ rights: Trump asks the Supreme Court to block California’s “sanctuary state” law. Republican justices face a test of whether they will remain loyal to their principles when those principles cut against the GOP.
https://www.vox.com/2019/10/29/20936376/trump-supreme-court-tenth-amendment-deport-sanctuary

Payday lenders discussed raising money for Trump’s campaign to fend off regulation, audio reveals
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/29/payday-lenders-discussed-raising-money-trumps-campaign-fend-off-regulation-audio-reveals/

US Republican official accused of selling babies in human smuggling plot
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/baby-sell-adoption-paul-petersen-arizona-republican-utah-arkansas-a9175726.html

Farmer to sue German government over failure to tackle climate change - After three straight years of crop losses due to soaring temperatures and crippling droughts, Heiner Luetke Schwienhorst has had enough and is taking Europe’s most powerful government to court.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/farmer-court-germany-government-climate-change-crop-failure-a9174451.html

Bernie Sanders Donors Lose Case Against DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz
https://lawandcrime.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-donors-lose-case-alleging-dnc-improperly-tipped-the-scales-in-favor-of-hillary-clinton/

China's ocean waste surges 27% in 2018: ministry
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution-oceans/chinas-ocean-waste-surges-27-in-2018-ministry-idUSKBN1X80FL

LOL: Bernie Sanders on Elizabeth Warren’s past work advising corporations such as Dow Chemical: “I’ll let the American people make that judgment. I’ve never worked for a corporation myself. I’ve never carried their baggage in the United States Senate.”
https://twitter.com/johnjharwood/status/1189136162369277954?s=21

A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald Trump’s presidency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast. Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the high-profile depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblower’s name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it’s an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say

Facebook claims these 12 large Facebook pages are "real pages run by real people" and not centrally-controlled inauthentic behavior by The Daily Wire They all just posted the same link from the Daily Wire with the same text ALL WITHIN FOUR SECONDS
https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1189216741836107776
https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing

Interesting to hear Jared suggest he’s “cleaning up @JoeBiden messes.” Biden’s skillful management of the Recovery Act in ‘09/‘10 helped lay a foundation for 8 yrs of growth after a cataclysmic econ crisis. @realDonaldTrump is the beneficiary of that work.
https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1189221360343621634
https://www.axios.com/jared-kushner-interview-joe-biden-criminal-justice-4159a5c5-29bf-43ec-944f-77ec46c0d239.html

Katie Hill's resignation is a travesty. This is not what justice looks like
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/29/katie-hill-resignation-travesty-justice

Turkish-Backed Militias Are Killing Civilians As They Clear Kurdish Areas in Syria
https://time.com/5711596/syria-war-crimes/

A vaccine which could "revolutionise" tuberculosis treatment has been unveiled by researchers. It is hoped the vaccine will provide long-term protection against the disease, which kills 1.5 million people around the world each year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50205762

ICE Is Rushing to Open For-Profit Detention Centers—Right Before California’s Ban Goes Into Effect
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/ice-california-new-detention-facilities-private-profit/

Russians Hacked Antidoping Agency Computers
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/sports/olympics/russia-doping-wada-hacked.html

Russell Westbrook: "When I hoop, I have no friends. When I’m inside those lines, there are no friends. Spalding, that’s my friend"
https://streamable.com/2d8p5

Brad Stevens on Tacko Fall: ”Everybody is yelling because of his size. I get it. Every time he walks in the room, I say, 'Man, he's tall' under my breath. But at the same time, I hope people appreciate him for who he is and how hard he is working.”
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27937723/celtics-tacko-fall-makes-debut-knicks-fans-cheer-on

Judge tosses Pittsburgh gun laws passed after massacre
https://apnews.com/b66151c7b3454a8988f56140495b056f

YEP: Obama says he's not impressed with people who spend their time just flaming others on Twitter for not being good enough: "That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far."
https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1189304791874322432

YEP: Obama at his Foundation summit: "This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke, and all that stuff—you should get over that pretty quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."
https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1189304414991015937

Only Dem vote opposing sanctions on Turkey, Shitstain Antisemite Ilhan Omar
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2019/roll592.xml

George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign advisor who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI during their investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, has filed for #CA25 to run for office.
https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/272/201910299165305272/201910299165305272.pdf

George Papadopoulos launches campaign to run for Katie Hill's congressional seat
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/468024-george-papadopoulos-launches-campaign-to-run-for-katie-hills-congressional

Robert Blair, Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser to the Acting Chief of Staff, is expected to appear in closed session on Friday as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry per an official working on the probe
https://twitter.com/AlexNBCNews/status/1189291603871064067

Vindman’s testimony appears to contradict Rick Perry's ardent denials that he ever heard the Bidens discussed as part of pressure on Ukraine...Perry was in the meeting when Vindman raised concerns about targeting the Bidens, we’re told. W/@bjlefebvre:
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1189288049584361475?s=19

Now that the impeachment is formalized, the GOP has new complaints:
    Dems’ impeachment resolution:
    -Cuts Oversight and Foreign Affairs out of public hearings
    -Pretends to give @DevinNunes subpoena authority, subject to  Schiff’s approval
    -No Due Process for the WH
    -Doesn’t undo the damage of Schiff’s biased and unfair sham
https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1189282679935639553

WH slams House impeachment resolution. In written statement, @PressSec says resolution "confirms" House impeachment inquiry "has been an an illegitimate sham from the start" and continues "scam" without due process for the President.
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1189290613671452675

YEP: Bernie saying “I never worked for a corporation” as a diss against Warren is silly because probably the majority of Americans have worked for a corporation directly or indirectly at some point in their lives. If working for a corporation makes you a Bernie enemy, what’s the point
https://twitter.com/marcushjohnson/status/1189237170936209408

Wasserman Schultz, Democrats did not tilt 2016 primary in Clinton’s favor, judicial panel rules
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-nsf-sanders-clinton-wasserman-schultz-lawsuit-struck-down-20191028-s36qtwldjvhmjawzis7b6hi5ci-story.html

No refugees will be resettled in the US in October, leaving hundreds in limbo around the world
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/politics/refugee-pause-october/index.html

A member of our well regulated militia arms herself for a trip to KFC. She's upset about not receiving a napkin or fork with her order, so she fires a shot through the drive-thru window.
https://www.wlky.com/article/woman-fires-shot-into-kfc-drive-thru-window-after-not-receiving-fork-and-napkin-witnesses-say/29616487#

The National Weather Service is now calling the situation in Southern California an EXTREME Red Flag Warning. The combination of strong winds, very low humidity, long duration and incredibly dry fuels has prompted them to add the extreme label. #NBCLA #RedFlagWarning
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIEfLV2UEAA5Yut.jpg


George Papadopoulos tweeted this just before the RedState Katie Hill revenge porn story came out:

California’s 25th congressional district looks like it’s for the taking
https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1184992848489238529