There are 15 million students in the US but everyone I meet judges them all by the craziest stories in the right wing press. My students are thoughtful, serious, responsible and intellectually curious. There are so many great young people out here. Just wanted you to know.
On Musk's plan
Larry Ellison, major Trump supporter, is investing in Twitter
So are Brookfield, the company that bailed out Jared Kushner
As are investors from KSA and UAE, states that conspired to help get Trump elected in 2016
Let's not be naive about Musk. Please RT
Are there still people out there who think the alarm over GOP-Russia ties in 2016 was cooked up by HRC? It was always about Ukraine. Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik (Russian intelligence agent) took Trump a plan for Ru taking Eastern Ukraine 1/6
Stop saying it will come down to turnout. That won't even matter if the Republican-held legislatures refuse to certify the votes. And you can't stop voter suppression with encouraging tweets. We're losing our democracy.
Harry Reid to James Comey, laying out so simply what has since been buried or simply forgotten by most Americans. Read this now and think about the ridiculous paths we've been led down, the redirections, the misinformation. Maybe a few people might even be outraged or angry...?
It's all in the Mueller Report. I know there are people (
@AndreaChalupa
@AlexandraChalup
) who have been screaming this from the rooftops. But just in case there are people for whom the penny has dropped, please send them my way. Or don't. Because it's too fucking late now. 6/6
And they are thought to have been financed, before Mercer, by pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Dmitri Firtash (see connections to Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, their lawyers, Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis etc).
IT WAS ALWAYS ALL ABOUT RUSSIAN POWER AND UKRAINE. 5/6
Frank Mermoud, the intermediary between the corrupt Ukrainian politicians and Manafort, was in business with Arron Banks.
Banks & co supported Brexit, which was desired by Putin as a means of weakening NATO.
Cambridge Analytica worked for that campaign as well as Trump's. 4/6
Check out every major player around Trump. Tom Barrack went way back with Manafort because the biggest client of his Colony Capital for years was pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Erik Prince had extensive dealings in Ukraine. 3/6
Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych played a central role in it and apparently wanted to be elected head of an independent republic in eastern Donbas.
Felix Sater and Michael Cohen took their own plan to Trump for Russia controlling Ukraine. 2/6
Anyone else in my Twittersphere have covid-19? I do and I've suddenly completely lost my sense of smell! Not dreadfully sick otherwise - flu-like aches and shortness of breath. But the smell thing, it turns out, is a symptom, so know to look out for it!
I have an Arron Banks joke but he's suing me over it because he never had anything to do with that and neither did Andy Wigmore and it was all legal anyway.
I hope UK friends find this chilling. "Since becoming prime minister, Johnson has claimed there is no evidence Russia has ever meddled in British affairs."
Trumpian levels of gaslighting. Please start calling it out
@BBC
. Why the hell else did you become journalists?
Fantastic piece by
@peterjukes
putting together what we know about Russian influence ops in the UK - and asking, if this is what we already know, what is Boris Johnson trying to suppress in the Russia report?
PLEASE RT
Russian Influence in Britain: What Johnson Doesn't Want You to Know |
@peterjukes
explains why the British Prime Minister personally intervened to suppress a parliamentary report into Vladimir Putin's 'active measures'
Sessions wrote the letter to get US ambassdor to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired, at behest of Giuliani et al, under direction of ukrainian officials working for Russia
My husband and I never baby talk to our pets. We use complex syntax and have them perform sophisticated multi-step tasks.
Our 2 year old parrot (here aged 1) can now code & is specializing in encryption software. Our Pomeranian (Westminster Best in Show) runs a biotech startup.
"The Conservative strategy was simple: wage war on the political process, on trust, and on truth. Ensure the whole experience is miserable, bewildering and stressful, then ask voters to make it go away." YES
There is NOTHING consoling about this interview with Fiona Hill. But read it if you want a sober assessment of what Putin's prepared to do. If you're already having nightmares, maybe skip it.
A terrible day for journalism. It could happen to anyone, being bullied by a wealthy person over journalism that is so clearly in the public interest. And the judge largely found in her favor, so this is a bizarre and extraordinarily punitive decision.
This is a big deal. It was previously thought that the Mercers switched support from Cruz to Trump in May 2016, bringing Mercer's Cambridge Analytica with them. In fact CA worked for Cruz while contracted to Trump, then gave Trump all Cruz's data 1/
Trump was already Russia's guy. Manafort and Kilimnik (Russian intelligence agent) were already discussing whether Manafort could join the Trump team in September 2015. Ran it by Sam Patten, long-time associate of Kilimnik who worked for SCL in 2014 on US election beta-run
The entire Frankfurt, Germany SWAT unit has been dissolved after 20 active and former officers were suspected of participating in right-wing extremist chat groups and sharing extremist content.
"The loans were uncovered and first reported on by Wendy Siegelman, an independent reporter who has written for the Guardian and Buzzfeed."
@WendySiegelman
deserves some kind of award for all the public interest work she's done
This is arguably the biggest, most important news of the past 18 hours: An FBI informant allegedly gave Kremlin anti-Biden propaganda to top Republicans who built a fake impeachment case on it. It has Putin's fingerprints all over it.
The New York Times published it on page A16
This call prompted Isabel Oakeshott to go back into the Banks emails. And make a shock discovery.
This statement has not previously been published.
In it, she says: "I have no doubt that Banks & Wigmore have been acting as agents of influence of the Russian state"
5/
46% of the world's privately owned guns are in the US. That's nearly 400 million of them. The US is an outlier. When I look at protests against authoritarianism in other countries, I think we have reason to believe it won't look like that here. Not a comforting thought.
Just saw a clip of Russell Brand's response video to the Dispatches allegations. Immediately spotted The Fourth Turning on his bookshelf. Steve Bannon's bible. Nasty little nod to the fashy right who he thinks will protect him.
Watching the new season of The Crown, in which a British Prime Minister is rumored to have met with a KGB officer!
SHOCKING
@carolecadwalla
If Harold Wilson had simultaneously blocked a report into his relationship with powerful Russians, would he have got elected?
FFS. I can't believe the BBC is actively participating in trolling and trying to discredit a female journalist - and Britain's most important journalist too. Not a public service broadcaster at this point.
Dear
@bbc
, I hope your daughter/wife/sister/female employees never have to deal with this. Because here's the thing. It's not very nice. I don't know whose idea it was to broadcast this to your global audience without talking to me or seeking comment but I really wish you hadn't
"We urgently need a judge-led inquiry into foreign interference in our politics, in particular during the Brexit and Scottish independence referendums, and the 2017 general election." This needs to be said often and loudly.
Excellent article from Edward Lucas in
@thetimes
today on our
@CommonsCMS
report on disinformation and fake news - Digital gangsters threaten to kill democracy | Comment | The Times
THIS. I have no time for the minimizers. You think things are bad now? By this time next year this country could be unrecognizable. Don't focus on Trump. Focus on the movement. Read about Project 2025.
THIS. I know everyone wants there to be some "good guys" out there but the pro-Remain centrists, Blair and Mandelson and their allies, have made their fortunes from Deripaska. There won't be any good guys until Britain reexamines its relationship with Russian money.
All week long, America has been convulsed by attempts to lift sanctions on Oleg Deripaska - the Putin ally close to Manafort who's being investigated by Mueller. In Britain, Deripaska's long time business associate, Lord Mandelson, appears on the BBC. Without a whisper
Just read Carole's whole thread and if you're in the UK wonder why the fuck none of it was investigated, and if you're in the US think about the GOP being aware of this all this time - Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, all of them...
Wow. A lot to digest here. But reading new Senate Intel report about Paul Manafort's relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, & who should pop up but Frank Mermoud. This has never been properly explored. But Mermoud is Arron Banks's business partner
I did try telling people that Russia was deeply interested in nuclear energy reactors - not just in the US either. We don't even know who owns Westinghouse, the biggest US nuclear company, after Kushner arranged the sale to a shell company without proper CFIUS review? 1/3
Russian spies spent years hacking the energy industry. Their targets worked at more than 500 different entities, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to an indictment unsealed today.
Prigozhin tells Russians they need to call their progeny home and close the borders, like North Korea. There will be some big empty houses in Knightsbridge, Highgate, and St Tropez!
Meanwhile in Russia: Yevgeny Prigozhin took a crack at predicting the future and described the steps he believes Russia has to implement in order to survive the fight that it started.
Banks v Cadwalladr
First hearing tomorrow. (Judge to decide meaning of words.) Thank you to the many 1000s of people who have supported me so far. It’s so important & means so much. THANK YOU 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Many domestic groups and foreign states have an interest in stoking domestic divisions in the US. They will love the sight of hundreds of police in riot gear on campuses. Shouldn't the police role be to weed out the outside infiltrators, protect our students, and deescalate?
The news that the WH is preparing a dossier on
@washingtonpost
reporter
@Fahrenthold
for his stories uncovering Trump corruption should be a wakeup call to all journalists-- this is the future if you don't stop normalizing Trump and his people, treating everyone as equivalent.
Rupert Murdoch is "dating" a Russian molecular biologist whose son-in-law is Roman Abramovich (close friend of Jared and Ivanka and, well, Putin, obvs). It's a small, small world.
OMG. Here's the video. Theresa May is asked a direct question by
@BenPBradshaw
. Did she block intelligence services investigation into Arron Banks? May: "We do not comment on criminal investigations." That was not the question. And it was very definitely not a denial.
@arusbridger
The expression "stay woke" was adopted by Black Lives Matter, meaning stay aware of racial injustice. The word wasn't in the least silly in that context. But the sarcastic appropriations of it by white people have managed to discredit it. Good to remember it had a point though...
Thread (please RT)
Kushner arranged the sale of US nuclear company Westinghouse to Brookfield Business Partners. Another Brookfield subsidiary, Brookfield Property Partners, bailed him out of his 666 5th Ave deal. Both are registered in Bermuda and their ownership is opaque.
Thread. NYT citing Bannon as an authority, as though he's offering objective analysis? Yes, there are parallels between Brexit and Trump, because Bannon helped create both situations and has openly taken credit elsewhere.
Short thread🧵
If you're reading the stories about Durham's investigation today (Fox News, the Daily Mail, etc) claiming there was an elaborate hoax by team Clinton to associate Trump with Russia, bear in mind that they're confusing 3 separate stories to obfuscate the facts
Brexit began with flotillas on the Thames, packed with flag-waving minor celebrities, firing water cannons at one another. This is where we are now. How it ends I don't even dare to imagine.
One of the finest journalists in Britain is being taken to court for sticking up for our democracy and daring to hold murky, unchecked power to account.
Solidarity Carole. We stand with you.
This piece by
@NickCohen4
is so important.
"Journalists who claim to understand Johnson say he is at heart a liberal... but his motives no longer matter." He's being ushered into power by the far right and we've seen with the entire GOP how that plays out.
Wait, so the story is all those totally non-racist white people voted for the white supremacist in 2016 because of economic anxiety and now he's given them 8% unemployment and is taking away medicare while hundreds of thousands die and they vote for him again because... 🤔
Anyone else find they're sitting down to work and thinking, well this is all irrelevant since we don't know what kind of world we're living in anymore...?
Certain institutions are keystones of liberal democracy: i.e. they couldn't exist without it; it couldn't exist without them. A free press is one of them. The idea that "independence" means being neutral between democracy and the alternatives is pure nonsense. 1/n
@FlamablePajamas
Money, but also things that money can't buy, like thinking you're so powerful you're silently pulling the strings behind the stage of world history. They're narcissists.
Lots of comments asking
@carolecadwalla
for evidence that Russia attacked the US elections. Here are the documents, where Mueller careful lays out the evidence. Hope people read it carefully; fully expect dogmatic dismissal from many.
This is RT boosting Russia’s Spetsnaz or special forces. They’re controlled by GRU - who attacked US elections & killed British citizen. You know who RT also boosts? Nigel Farage. Taking back control for who, Nigel?
For the Americans: Cambridge Analytica started working for Trump in Sept, 2015
This contract dates from 11 months before it was announced that Cambridge Analytica was working for the Trump campaign.
And overlaps with period when Cambridge Analytica was working for Ted Cruz
My biggest question about the Trump admin's nuclear deals is whether Jared Kushner secretly sold off US nuclear company Westinghouse to someone who is a front for Russian money...
There are a bunch of media bros over here in the US who want to amplify the misogynistic view of Carole Cadwalladr as someone crazy or unprofessional when in fact she's an extraordinarily intelligent, insightful journalist who uncovered vital facts. Call them out when they do it.
A really important piece about the far right’s use of online harassment & other forms of bullying to destroy their critics’ lives, especially when the critics are women. 1/
Hey, Britain! This is the Mail Online today, "the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world," promoting Trump's disgusting anti-immigrant hoax. WTF?
I rewatched Breach last night, about FBI traitor Robert Hanssen. Last time I saw it I didn't know his boss, Louis Freeh, had gone on to work for the Russians, or that Freeh's predecessor, William Sessions, went on to work for Semyon Mogilevich. Did they recruit others? It's wild.
Once read hard to forget. "I've been told that at the highest level of M16 the line is "we see no benefit in telling the great British public that they were suckered""
2. With Breixt it would mean the security services admitting they dropped the ball- again. I've been told that at the highest level of M16 the line is "we see no benefit in telling the great British public that they were suckered"
1. Before the year is out....the evidentiary link between Wikileaks, Russian hackers, Kremlin disinformation outlet, and Donald Trump.
In 2016, I received a phone call from someone in the intelligence world telling me to keep an eye on Sputnik that day. I did not know what....
Turning off CNN doesn't mean staying in your silo,
@andersoncooper
. People can read informed journalism instead of watching staged propaganda cynically courting far right viewers. You're better than this, Anderson. Or anyway, I hope you are.
Cooper: You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?
@carolecadwalla
Surely not the Steve Bannon who was recently ARRESTED and CHARGED WITH FRAUD...? I can't believe someone with such honesty and integrity would work for him!
I have proof that Putin in a dark spirit who has existed for centuries, perhaps for all time. A Russian art historian friend found him in a painting from the studio of Hieronymus Bosch.
Yep. Here’s Dom Cummings admitting Vote Leave’s strategy rested on 1.5 billion ads in last 4 days. This was money that we now know was illegal. First item on parliament’s business must be to demand he gives evidence to parliament. It’s untenable he advises PM while in contempt.
Scoop: Biden admin officials are discussing whether US should subject some of
@elonmusk
’s ventures to national security reviews, including his deal for Twitter Inc., and the Starlink satellite network, sources tell
@SalehaMohsin
and me.
@BloombergTV
btw it's not cancel culture if the NYT does an article (and sends a photographer) every time people get mad at you on Twitter. That's something else...
Well that's fine then. "The UK government missed a deadline to intervene in the sale of stakes in the Independent and the Evening Standard newspapers to a Saudi investor, a UK appeals court ruled on Friday."
Papadopoulos's minder... oops, I mean wife, who is *totally not Russian or a Russian asset* has taken a sudden interest in Ukraine. For some network called RT..? "Really True" maybe?
@ScottMStedman
So there is a red line. All it takes to awaken the conscience of the Republican Party is having the President's supporters try to kill them, losing the Presidency, Senate and House, and being cut off by major financial donors. Heartwarming.
This is where Britain should be by now with understanding Russian interference in Brexit, however significant or insignificant it may have been.
@carolecadwalla
@peterjukes
They were working for Trump/Bannon BEFORE they signed on to work with on November 3rd, 2015. Bannon kept saying Brexit and Trump 2016 were one event and they were.
AG Barr notifies federal agents and lawyers that they cannot open investigations of 2020 presidential candidates, their campaigns, or advisers without his approval.
Something I want to say about America. All great powers in history have been aggressive, expansionist, racist, hierarchical, and behaved towards people, internally and externally, with psychopathic cruelty. The USA started out with higher ideals. 1/13
A big social media following doesn't make someone a significant social or political force rather than a popular troll. (Btw not that big: he has 731k YouTube subscribers. 12 year old girls who make slime have millions). We have to stop falling for popular trolls,
@RobBurl
.
@afneil
3)In March 2019, Shapiro's podcast was the 2nd most listened to in the US, he has written a bestselling book and has a huge number of YouTube followers and views. These are all platforms where he puts ideas out there unchallenged. An interview with
@afneil
is quite different.
Men is suits, backed by dark money, announcing they believe they have God on their side. Extraordinary arrogance. It shouldn't be tolerated in liberal democratic institutions.
.
@HouseGOP
members praying on the House floor offends both our Constitution and the New Testament, which denounces public displays of devotion.
The blasphemy of the new Speaker, who says God ordained him, is just as disgusting.
Trump was already Russia's guy. Manafort and Kilimnik (Russian intelligence agent) were already discussing whether Manafort could join the Trump team in September 2015. Ran it by Sam Patten, long-time associate of Kilimnik who worked for SCL in 2014 on US election beta-run
I just talked to
@ChrisMurphyCT
about his big floor speech ripping Republicans.
“If this becomes normalized," he tells me, "they will steal an election two years from now or four years from now.”
The GOP has "enemies of democracy inside its top ranks."
This woman left school, went to nursing school, became an RN. Then went back to school, got a PhD in astrophysics and works for NASA. There are some amazing women out there.
At the age in this photo I asked a teacher how I could work for NASA. He laughed. He knew my parents never graduated high school. It’s been a difficult road but at 38 my biggest dream has come true. I start at NASA later this year after graduating with my PhD in astrophysics.
Wow, this is pretty extraordinary. Antifa "cells"? People who organize in cells are part of terrorist organizations. Antifa isn't even an organization. Evidence-free journalism that will only encourage the private militias to fight an enemy they define as they go along...
Hello, people who look at young men massacring children and say it's because they're lonely and isolated. I'd like you to meet some divorced single women in Manhattan and ask them how many are carrying AR-15s.
Excellent piece from
@Byline_Media
. If
@WendySiegelman
says it you can take it to the bank. The ties between Cambridge Analytica, SCL Group and Russian intelligence are significant.
1/2
McGonigal went on to work for Brookfield Property partners. See the thread below to understand why this could be very bad news. It involves the sale of Westinghouse nuclear company to what may be a front for Russian money.
Holy cow.
“Charles McGonigal, who was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York Field Office, is under arrest over his ties to Oleg Deripaska.”
“McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018.”
The YouTube algorithm I worked on heavily promoted Brexit, because divisiveness is efficient for watch time, and watch time leads to ads.
Brits deserve deserve to know what
@YouTube
's AI promoted by the millions during the referendum.
Without transparency there is no democracy