Good Day, Newsies! I hope everyone is well today and that the sun is shining in your neck of the woods.
I’m short on energy (curses for crummy chemo), but long on determination and optimism about our future (yay for the power of progressive people!), so I will jump right into the news without further ado:
🌎 World 🌎
EU is not buying what Pompeo and his dominionist pals are selling:
Pompeo Fails to Sway Allies on Iran in Awkward Surprise Visit, Patrick Donahue, Jonathan Stearns and Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg, May 13, 2019.
And meanwhile in Sweden…
How cool is this? 😊
🔫 Couldn’t Happen to A Nastier Org 🔫
The NRA is embroiled in fraud/self-dealing/money laundering/who knows what else scandal and it is all going to come out, eventually:
Wonkette take: NRA Accidentally Sends Wayne LaPierre's Credit Card Bills To Ad Company. BY ACCIDENT!, Five Dollar Feminist, Wonkette, May 13, 2019.
Kill the “electability” myth with fire, please!
YES, THIS! => What If Electability Is More About Authenticity than Moderation?, David Atkins, Washington Monthly, May 12, 2019.
It may well be, in other words, that Democrats have been getting electability wrong for decades now, and that the biggest obstacle facing Democratic voters is their mistaken belief in a silent majority of voters more conservative than themselves. It may well be that the same candidates who appeal authentically to progressive emotional sensibilities will also appeal to the voters Democrats most need to persuade in the purple districts and states they need to win. At the same time, they might just be the ones to bring out people who otherwise wouldn’t vote at all.
🔍 That Russher Thing 🔎
Rick Gates is still cooperating. The investigation continues and Donny and his cabal of sleazy sycophants have not been able to stop it.
Status Report: USA vs Rick Gates.
U.S. confirms Rick Gates’s cooperation in pending Roger Stone, Gregory Craig trials, Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, May 13, 2019.
Rick Gates, the former top deputy to onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, continues to cooperate with the government in the pending prosecutions of Trump confidant Roger Stone and of former Obama White House counsel Gregory B. Craig, who worked with Manafort on Ukraine matters, according to a court filing.
The disclosure came in a joint filing Monday to delay Gates’s sentencing made by the office of U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District and by Gates’s attorney, Thomas C. Green. ✂️
In Monday’s filing, Liu and Green wrote, “To date . . . defendant Gates continues to cooperate with the government as required by his Plea Agreement.” They identified Craig’s and Stone’s pending trial dates, adding, “as a result the parties do not believe that a sentencing date should be set at this time” for Gates.
Both sides proposed giving the court a new update on Aug. 30.
And remember the judge last week who requested a copy of the unredacted Mueller Report?
Also, judge who ordered the Trump org financials subpoena case “fast tracked” denied the delaying tactics of Donny’s lawyers. The hearing is scheduled for 11AM ET today:
And if you still have any doubt that our Democratic House is on top of this:
Schiff Is Decisive: Mueller ‘Is Going To Testify’, Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo, May 13, 2019.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said decisively Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller “is going to testify,” something House Democrats have been pushing hard in recent days.
“The American people have a right to hear what the man who did the investigation has to say, and we now know we certainly can’t rely on the attorney general who misrepresented his conclusions,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week.” “So he is going to testify.”
⚖ Justice ⚖
Bail reform is one of many problems with our criminal injustice system — and my county has taken a baby step in the right direction with very promising results. Here’s hoping other counties around the country will pay attention and make similar reforms:
Report: Cook County Bail Reform Reduced Jail Population Without More Crime, Shannon Heffernan, NPR, May 13, 2019.
According to the report, in the 15 months following the reform, from October 2017 to December 2018, the average daily jail population dropped by 16%, from 6,940 to 5,799. Meanwhile, the percentage of felony defendants committing crimes while out on bond remained stable between the 15-month period before the reform and the 15 months after the changes.
In addition, the report cites FBI statistics showing that overall violent crime in Chicago declined by 8% from the first six months in 2017, before the reforms, to the same period a year later after the reforms.
The report said reforms "allowed more defendants to remain in their communities prior to trial, where they can work, pursue their education and support their families. The vast majority of released defendants appear in court for all hearings. Bail reform has not led to an increase in violent crime in Chicago."
There have been a few stories recently about cases being brought forward to finally start chipping away at the powerful pharmaceutical companies’ incredible and unjust drug pricing practices. This one appears to herald the trend kicking into a higher gear, which is good news!
States Sue Drugmakers Over Alleged Generic-Price-Fixing Scheme, Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR, May 13, 2019.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has a skin condition called rosacea, and he says he takes the antibiotic doxycycline once a day for it.
In 2013, the average market price of doxycycline rose from $20 to $1,829 a year later. That's an increase of over 8,000%.
Tong alleges in a new lawsuit that this kind of price jump is part of an industrywide conspiracy to fix prices.
The suit is a whopper — at least 43 states are suing 20 companies, and the document is over 500 pages long. It was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut.
That Coast Guard Officer Accused of Plotting a “Race War” Won’t Get out of Jail After All, Tess Owen, Vice News, May 13, 2019.
The U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant who stockpiled weapons and allegedly aspired to start a “race war” will remain in jail, pending the outcome of his trial, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The decision reverses a lower court’s agreement to release Christopher P. Hasson, 50, to relatives if his lawyers could come up with acceptable conditions.
“I find that no conditions or combination of conditions will reasonably ensure the safety of the community,” Maryland District Judge George Hazel wrote in his opinion.
Tip of the Iceberg
Here it is, Newsies: potentially the tip of the election “meddling” iceberg:
Wyden seeks answers in Florida election hacking allegations, Kim Zetter, Politico, May 13, 2019.
Wyden wants to know whether the company ever engaged a third party to conduct a forensic examination of its computer networks and systems since the hacking assertions first came to light after the 2016 election and has asked to see a copy of a report from any such investigation, according to a letter he sent last week to VR Systems that his office shared with POLITICO.
“There are troubling inconsistencies between the special counsel’s report and statements by VR Systems. For the United States to stop future attacks on our democracy, we need to know exactly how our election was attacked in 2016,” Wyden told POLITICO. ✂️
The problem isn’t theoretical. On Election Day in November 2016, some electronic poll books in Durham County, N.C., that used VR Systems software froze or crashed. Others displayed incorrect information indicating that some voters had already cast ballots when they hadn’t or the devices displayed a message telling poll workers incorrectly that voters were required to show a photo ID.
The problems led the county to issue an order to precincts to stop using the electronic poll books several hours into the election and to instead use a paper backup of the voter rolls. The move created long lines at precincts, causing some voters to leave without casting a ballot.
⚡️Lightning Roundup ⚡️
⚡️ Filed under “no shit, Sherlock”: Conservatism has become a racket, and Trump is the grifter in chief, Max Boot, WaPoOpinion, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ Filed under “we already knew this”: New Study: No Link Between Crime and Undocumented Immigrants, Kevin Drum, MotherJones, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ Stopped clock, etc.: Supreme Court Rules Against Apple, As Kavanaugh Sides With Liberal Justices, Bill Chappell and Nina Totenberg, NPR, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ It’s a start, albeit with challenges: California is bringing law and order to big data. It could change the internet in the U.S., Cyrus Farivar and David Ingram, NBC News, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ Do it, NY! New York Threatens to Fine Trump Because His Buildings Pollute Too Much, Oliver Milman, Mother Jones, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ Schadenfreude: An author was close to publishing her debut novel. Then she tweeted about a public transit worker eating on a train.CBS News, May 13, 2019.
⚡️ Worthwhile read: How Women Are Leading the Class Struggle, Brendan O’Connor, Splinter, May 12, 2019.
💚 RoundUp WindDown 💚
That’s it from me this week — although I am sure there’s more good news out there. Please do share in the comments!
Take good care of yourselves, dear Gnusies!