Light News Dump

Trump Offered Assange Pardon if He Covered Up Russian Hack, Court Hears | Lawyers acting for the WikiLeaks founder said Dana Rohrabacher, a former Republican congressman, had brought the message to London from Trump. | If he appears in court in the U.S., Assange would face 18 charges including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The total jail time for all charges would be 175 years. | “Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-offered-assange-pardon-if-he-covered-up-russian-hack-court-hears

Also, I think it is fair to say that he pardoned all those people yesterday knowing this story was about to break. He was trying to normalize it.

Republicans Fired John Rood, top Pentagon policy official who warned against withholding Ukraine aid resigns at Trump's request
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/19/politics/john-rood-pentagon-official-depart/index.html

Among those who backed junk bond king (something Trump is also guilty of.....) Michael Milken's pardon is Nelson Peltz, CEO and founding partner of Trian Fund Management. Peltz threw a fundraiser Saturday for Trump at his Florida home that raised more than $10 million for Trump's re-election campaign.
https://www.pionline.com/washington/trump-pardons-1980s-junk-bond-king-michael-milken

Rod Blagojevich's Republican family donated  $200,000 to Trump's re-election effort last fall
https://theweek.com/speedreads/896605/family-1-new-trump-pardon-recipient-donated-200000-trumps-reelection-effort-last-fall

Trump's pardon of Bernie Kerik nullified Kerik's $103,300 debt to taxpayers
https://theweek.com/speedreads/896611/trumps-pardon-bernie-kerik-also-apparently-wiped-keriks-103300-debt-taxpayers

Coronavirus outbreak slashes China carbon emissions: study | China's carbon emissions have dropped by least 100 million metric tonnes over the past two weeks, according to a study - That is nearly six percent of global emissions during the same period last year
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-coronavirus-outbreak-slashes-china-carbon.html

Trump commutes sentence of Miami woman doing 35 years in prison for defrauding and scamming Medicare
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article240404271.html

Story filed to ESPN: After a brief and tumultuous tenure, John Beilein is leaving as Cleveland's coach. Associate HC JB Bickerstaff will be elevated to head coach. Beilein's expected to say goodbye to staff and players on Wednesday upon team's return from All-Star Break.
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1229963300487733249

Kevin Durant is looking healthy
https://streamable.com/yor5i

Kyrie Irving, who was not at practice today, has re-aggregated the right shoulder that caused him to miss 26 games earlier this season, Kenny Atkinson said. He is going to see a specialist this week.
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1229895741612662786?s=20

Kyrie Irving has re-aggravated his injured right shoulder that cost him 26 games and is out indefinitely again, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson confirmed today
https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1229899462870544385

Irving's injury is best described as a deterioration in the shoulder. When he discussed his return in late December, Irving acknowledged that he took a cortisone shot at the time in hopes of avoiding surgery. The reality is that he has been playing with on and off discomfort
https://twitter.com/thesteinline/status/1229926097938194434?s=21

Most Republican lawmakers, who are a minority in the Oregon House, refused to attend a Tuesday night session of the Oregon House of Representatives amid a slowdown over anger at a sweeping bill on climate change.
https://apnews.com/4ce9fed8f814e1e822077d394f1017a7

Trump keeps pardoning himself | In many cases, there are blatant similarities between the president and his pardon recipients
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/19/trump-keeps-pardoning-himself

Multiple [Cavs] players began playing songs that included the word “thug” whenever Beilein was within earshot, sources said: Bone Thugz-n-Harmony’s “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and Tupac’s “Thugz Mansion” among them.
https://theathletic.com/1619192/2020/02/19/inside-the-failed-john-beilein-cavs-experiment-and-a-franchise-culture-problem/

Giancarlo Stanton says #Astros should have title stripped, and also angry at their apologies.
https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1230127200357277696

Rosenthal: For MLB to move on, Astros need to stop saying 2017 title was legit
https://theathletic.com/1618587/2020/02/19/rosenthal-for-mlb-to-move-on-astros-need-to-stop-saying-2017-title-was-legit/

Florida cannot, for now, bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/florida-can-t-bar-felons-vote-over-fines-fees-court-n1138736?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

By way of perspective, 84,000 people caucused on caucus day in 2016 (there was no early voting then). That’s out of about 600k registered Democrats in Nevada at the time: As of this morning, @nvdems can report more than 33,000 Nevada Democrats early voted on Tuesday, bringing the total to more than 70,000 participants in our historic early voting period. Stay tuned for final numbers this afternoon!
https://twitter.com/MBForgey/status/1230182335116541952

The fact that 70k early ballots in NV *could* point to record turnout should be a cause for soul searching in the Dem party re: these caucuses. There are 2.1 million eligible voters in the state.

While Solomon's columns on Ukraine were labeled as opinion, they largely read like news stories. Adding to the potential confusion between opinion and news, Solomon was identified as "an award-winning journalist" in his column tagline. When appearing on television to discuss his Ukraine columns, Solomon was not typically labeled an opinion writer by the broadcast programs. The Hill did not contact television producers to label Solomon as an opinion columnist. It should have. | The article breakdowns down endless lies Solomon wrote that bolstered Trump
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/483600-the-hills-review-of-john-solomons-columns-on-ukraine

'Education deserts' are a 'staggering' problem, and for-profit colleges are taking advantage
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/education-deserts-problem-152634914.html

Comey left DOJ before Blagojevich committed his crimes and returned after he began serving his prison sentence. He wasn't involved in the case.
https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1230192367489159168

2/ As with some of the President's defenders during the Ukraine scandal, we see here the nonsensical notion that attempted but unsuccessful corrupt acts are OK because they failed.
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1230192379073835011

The Biden campaign is out with a new video, which welcomes him to the debate stage by pointing out where he broke with Pres. Obama. The video ends with this: “Money can’t rewrite history”
https://twitter.com/MariannaNBCNews/status/1230192639770648576
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOB-fzcg9_4

Blagojevich "did not sell the Senate seat," POTUS says But he TRIED to, see below: "conspiring to trade the senate seat... conspiring to sell the Senate seat..." Blago himself talked about others needing to "offer anything of any value" for the seat. https://web.archive.org/web/20090731193705/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2008/pr1209_01a.pdf
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1230191961967075334

If you're not up to date: Joe Biden praised Bloomberg who praised Trump who also praised Bloomberg. A diagram might be necessary.

What is the 'boogaloo?' How online calls for a violent uprising are hitting the mainstream
The movement says it wants a second Civil War targeting liberal political opponents and law enforcement.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/what-boogaloo-how-online-calls-violent-uprising-are-getting-organized-n1138461

The EU will tell Britain to give back the ancient Parthenon marbles, taken from Greece over 200 years ago, if it wants a post-Brexit trade deal
https://www.businessinsider.com/brexit-eu-to-ask-uk-to-return-elgin-marbles-to-greece-in-trade-talks-2020-2

"If anyone is going to destroy the UK economy, it's going to be UK citizens. Not immigrants."
--The UK, probably.

This Medical Records bullshit speaks to the fundamental problem of Bernie Sanders. Yes, we all want progressive priorities and a just economy. But we DON'T want to just replace one arrogant, hate-motivated, vengeful, secretive, bullying, dark, and conspiratorial regime with another. YOU work for US.

Buttigieg on Sanders: "I would look to the Obama standard of releasing not just a letter from a doctor, but actual results from a physical. That's what we're planning to do, and I think every candidate should hold themselves to that same standard."
https://twitter.com/ec_schneider/status/1230211623630950400

India to murder monkeys that get too near Trump
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/india-deploys-monkey-police-to-protect-trump-from-attack-jp0hqsbqg

From AG Barr's confirmation hearing: "Do you believe a president could lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient's promise not incriminate him?" Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Barr during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "No, that would be a crime," Barr said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/425404-trumps-ag-pick-it-would-be-a-crime-if-a-president-pardoned-individual-in
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/william-barr-confirmation-hearing/h_b044168bb65f906231dad9bd15a33901
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/17/six-most-important-words-uttered-barr-hearings/
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/cohen-email-trump-dangled-pardon-obstruction-justice-mueller.html

Sen. Coons: Would it strike you as obstruction of justice for him to exercise his presidential pardon power for the purpose of preventing testimony? Mr. Barr: Yeah, I think that if a pardon was a quid pro quo to altering testimony, that that would definitely implicate an obstruction statute.
https://www.coons.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video/transcript-barr-to-sen-coons-if-someone-tried-to-stop-a-bona-fide-lawful-investigation-to-cover-up-wrongdoing-i-would-resign

'Dark Towers' Exposes Chaos And Corruption At The Bank That Holds Trump's Secrets. Deutsche Bank was willing to work with Donald Trump when others would not. In his book, David Enrich details Deutsche Bank's quest to become the world's largest bank — and how its corporate culture led to countless scandals.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/19/807191309/dark-towers-exposes-chaos-and-corruption-at-the-bank-that-holds-trump-s-secrets

In 2011, Bernie explained why he'd never run for POTUS: "I would likely end up causing a right-wing extremist to be president of the United States. That is not something I would be happy to do. It would likely be a futile and losing campaign. That would not be too smart."
https://twitter.com/josecanyousee/status/1230209784722284544

The national press secretary for Bernie Sanders—a man who wants to be president and commander in chief—once joined Trump in dismissing the Russian attack on a US election. Anyone who believes in American democracy should be concerned. Sanders needs to explain this.
https://i.imgur.com/VsNOwPd.jpg

Long-time Trump adviser Stone to be sentenced by judge he antagonized
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-stone/long-time-trump-adviser-stone-to-be-sentenced-by-judge-he-antagonized-idUSKBN20D2KU

David Plouffe: If no moderate consolidation BEFORE Super Tuesday and if Nate Silver's avg. delegate projections indicative, Sanders will have insurmountable lead in pledged delegates (rest of primary wouldn't matter)

Sanders rejects Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion on health-care compromise
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanders-rejects-ocasio-cortezs-suggestion-on-health-care-compromise/2020/02/18/113c9ff4-52c6-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html

8 Million Americans Have Been Forced to Start Crowdfunding Campaigns to Cover Medical Costs, Survey Shows. "No one should have to beg for money to get the healthcare they need in the richest country on Earth."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/19/barbaric-8-million-americans-have-been-forced-start-crowdfunding-campaigns-cover

A new study of World Bank data finds that aid disbursement to highly aid-dependent countries coincides with sharp increases in bank deposits in offshore financial centers. According to The Economist, the World Bank refused to release the study. Afterward, its chief economist resigned.
https://promarket.org/the-world-banks-papergate-censorship-is-not-the-best-way-to-stop-development-aid-from-fueling-corruption/

“There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” ~ Kevin McCarthy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/opinion/maria-butina-trump-rohrabacher-russia.html

Think about it, this fucker wanted to primary America’s first black President after he passed the most expansive, life-saving healthcare legislation since Medicaid. After he saved the country from the brink of economic collapse. FuckBernie.
https://twitter.com/ag_due/status/1230245435568197632

Barack Obama was an excellent president. What's disappointing is that someone in this race would suggest otherwise.
https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1230263824407814145

Trump's Spokesperson Says President is 'Against Aggressive Sentencing' Two Weeks After Trump Suggested Drug Dealers Should be Executed
https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-spokesperson-says-president-against-aggressive-sentencing-two-weeks-after-trump-1488109

Devin Nunes files serial lawsuits while voting against Americans’ right to use courts
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article240407461.html

The Sanders campaign just claimed it's racist to ask for the health records of a 78-year-old white man with a heart condition running for president. Nothing is real. We're in some other place.
https://twitter.com/tomwatson/status/1230123040673062912

Young Canadians are becoming vegetarian or vegan to fight climate change - It's estimated that over 10 million Canadians follow a diet that restricts meat partially or completely
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/18/news/young-canadians-are-becoming-vegetarian-or-vegan-fight-climate-change

IRS to boost visits to high-income people who haven't filed tax returns
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/483660-irs-to-boost-visits-to-high-income-people-who-havent-filed-tax-returns

Massive restoration of world’s forests would cancel out a decade of CO2 emissions, analysis says | “There’s 400 gigatons now, in the 3 trillion trees, and if you were to scale that up by another trillion trees that’s in the order of hundreds of GT captured from the atmosphere – at least 10 years."
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/forests-climate-change-co2-greenhouse-gases-trillion-trees-global-warming-a8782071.html

Steve Kerr on the idea of holding out a healthy Steph Curry: “No. He’s perfectly healthy. If the point is he might get hurt, what’s the point of ever playing anybody? I guess the argument is we’re not making the playoffs. So, are we not trying to entertain our fans?”
https://streamable.com/4uqhr 

We Calculated How Much We Pay Trump to Play Golf. It Turns Out, He's America's 10th Highest Paid Athlete
https://www.theroot.com/we-calculated-how-much-we-pay-trump-to-play-golf-it-tu-1841793634

Judge: Border Patrol's detention conditions in Az 'violate the Constitution'
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/021920_bp_detention_suit/judge-border-patrols-detention-conditions-az-violate-constitution/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/483749-federal-judge-sides-with-migrants-in-lawsuit-over-unsanitary

Trump Says He ‘Barely Knows’ Dana Rohrabacher After Julian Assange Makes Pardon Claim
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/02/19/trump-says-he-barely-knows-dana-rohrabacher-after-julian-assange-makes-pardon-claim/#2bd15e2669fc

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing a Russian-backed Syrian offensive are being squeezed into ever smaller areas near Turkey’s border “under horrendous conditions” in freezing temperatures that are killing babies and young children, the U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said Wednesday.
https://apnews.com/f6eb2c813823ec66acba8139e98a124a
https://www.dw.com/en/syria-idlib-reaches-a-breaking-point/g-52422467

Oil and gas firms 'have had far worse climate impact than thought' - The oil and gas industry has had a far worse impact on the climate than previously believed, according to a study indicating that human emissions of fossil methane have been underestimated by up to 40%.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/19/oil-gas-industry-far-worse-climate-impact-than-thought-fossil-fuels-methane

Fossils discovered in the Sahara reveal catfish and tilapia swam in rivers 12,000 years ago but died off from over fishing and climate changes
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8021347/Fossils-discovered-Sahara-reveal-catfish-tilapia-swam-rivers-12-000-years-ago.html

Mass animal die-off in China due to disinfectants | China's state-owned news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday more than 100 undomesticated animals were found dead in Chongqing, a megacity in southwest China that borders Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak. The Chongqing Forestry Bureau said the 135 wild animals, representing 17 species, included wild boar, weasels, blackbirds and other bird species.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/02/19/Mass-animal-die-off-in-China-due-to-disinfectants-authorities-say/3591582127195/

Methane emitted by humans vastly underestimated, researchers find | They measured methane levels in ancient air samples and found that scientists have been vastly underestimating the amount of methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere via fossil fuels
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-methane-emitted-humans-vastly-underestimated.html

US military did not properly store or account for nearly $715 million in weapons for Syrian partners fighting ISIS
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/02/18/us-military-did-not-properly-store-or-account-for-nearly-715-million-in-weapons-for-syrian-partners-fighting-isis/