Friday, January 25, 2019
JANUARY 25, 2019
NEWS AND VIEWS
RUSSIA HAS A FINGER IN EVERY PIE, IT SEEMS. WHAT IS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S RELATIONSHIP WITH MADURO? RIGHT NOW, AT ANY RATE, IT’S ADVERSARIAL, BUT IF PUTIN CROOKS HIS FINGER AT HIM THAT MAY BE TEMPORARY. WHATEVER, I PREFER HAVING THE RUSSIANS ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN THAN JUST TO OUR SOUTH; FOR SOME BACKGROUND, READ THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON THIS RUSSIAN PARAMILITARY GROUP WHO HAVE MOVED INTO VENEZUELA NOW. SEE THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE BELOW.
THEY ARE THE GROUP WHO DISMANTLED THE UKRAINIAN CONTROL OF CRIMEA AND EASTERN UKRAINE. THEY HAVEN’T ESTABLISHED CONTROL OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY YET, BUT I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THEY ARE WORKING ON IT. FOR THE BLOW BY BLOW DESCRIPTION, GO TO THE WEBSITE BELOW. NO, I’M NOT TRYING TO START A CONSPIRACY THEORY, BUT TO POINT OUT THE FACT THAT SO FAR RUSSIA HASN’T REALLY WANTED TO INFILTRATE THE USA IN ANY SIGNIFICANT WAY, EXCEPT OF COURSE TO MANIPULATE OUR VERY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. THEY LIKE BEING INFLUENTIAL BUT UNSEEN. IT’S SAFER THAT WAY. SO, AS FAR AS SENDING IN TROOPS, NOT YET.
I DO NOT TRUST OUR LOCAL FASCIST-LEANING “MILITIAS” AT ALL, AND I BELIEVE THAT IF THEY THOUGHT TEAMING UP DIRECTLY WITH RUSSIANS WOULD ADVANCE THEIR CAUSE, THEY MIGHT WELL BE WILLING TO DO IT. I DON’T BELIEVE THEY HAVE THAT STRONG “LOVE OF THE USA” THAT THEY CLAIM TO HAVE WITH ALL THEIR PATRIOTIC HOO-HA. THEY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED, SO FAR ITS’ SMALL GROUPS, BUT THERE ARE SOME WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A DESIRE TO SECEDE FROM THE UNION AS IN THE CIVIL WAR, AND TO SET UP WHITE NATIONALIST SECTIONS, SPECIFICALLY IN PORTLAND, OREGON, AND EVEN ADVOCATING PLACES WHERE THERE ARE SIMPLY NO BLACK OR BROWN PEOPLE AT ALL. I SHUDDER TO THINK ABOUT WHAT MEANS THEY WOULD USE TO ACCOMPLISH THAT, BUT IT HAS BEEN DONE AROUND THE WORLD AND DOWN THROUGH TIME OVER AND OVER.
THOUGH SUCH A THING IS, RIGHT NOW, HIGHLY IMPROBABLE, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN? ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS, BUT IF YOU JUST TAKE AN HONEST LOOK AT THE USA, YOU WILL GET SOME IDEA OF WHAT THE BUILT-IN EVILS ARE. AS A CASE IN POINT, REMEMBER 2016. HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU WOKE UP THE MORNING AFTER THE ELECTION?
SEE THIS WEBSITE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/04/portland-right-wing-anti-fascist-rallies-patriot-prayer/904871002/. THIS SITE ALSO LOOKS INTERESTING: https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../so-you-want-to-secede-from-the-u-s-a-four-step-gui...” AND THIS “MUST READ” -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-01-25/exclusive-kremlin-linked-contractors-help-guard-venezuelas-maduro-sources
Exclusive: Kremlin-Linked Contractors Help Guard Venezuela's Maduro - Sources
Jan. 25, 2019, at 12:02 p.m.
BY MARIA TSVETKOVA AND Anton Zverev
FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro reacts with National Electoral Council (CNE) President Tibisay Lucena during a ceremony to mark the opening of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), in Caracas, Venezuela, January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File PhotoREUTERS
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Private military contractors who do secret missions for Russia flew into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for President Nicolas Maduro in the face of U.S.-backed opposition protests, according to two people close to them.
A third source close to the Russian contractors also told Reuters there was a contingent of them in Venezuela, but could not say when they arrived or what their role was.
Russia, which has backed Maduro's socialist government to the tune of billions of dollars, this week promised to stand by him after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president with Washington's endorsement.
It was the latest international crisis to split the global superpowers, with the United States and Europe backing Guaido, and Russia and China urging non-interference.
Yevgeny Shabayev, leader of a local chapter of a paramilitary group of Cossacks with ties to Russian military contractors, said he had heard the number of Russian contractors in Venezuela may be about 400.
But the other sources spoke of small groups.
Russia's Defence Ministry and Venezuela's Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment about the contractors. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We have no such information."
The contractors are associated with the so-called Wagner group* whose members, mostly ex-service personnel, fought clandestinely in support of Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine, according to Reuters interviews with dozens of contractors, their friends and relatives.
A person believed to work for the Wagner group did not respond to a message asking for information.
Citing contacts in a Russian state security structure, Shabayev said the contingent flew to Venezuela at the start of this week, a day or two before opposition protests started.
CUBA CONNECTION?
He said they set off in two chartered aircraft for Havana, Cuba, from where they transferred onto regular commercial flights to Venezuela. The Cuban government, a close ally of Venezuela's ruling socialists for the last two decades, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The contractors' task in Venezuela was to protect Maduro from any attempt by opposition sympathizers in his own security forces to detain him, Shabayev said.
"Our people are there directly for his protection," he said.
Venezuelan authorities said they had put down an attempted revolt on Monday by rogue military officers about a kilometer from the presidential palace in Caracas.
Maduro, the 56-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez, only takes to the streets in carefully-controlled situations, since crowds have barracked him in the past.
One of the two anonymous Russian sources, who is close to the Wagner group and fought in foreign conflicts where it was active, said the contractors first arrived in advance of the May 2018 presidential election, but another group arrived "recently."
Asked if the deployment was linked to protecting Maduro, the source said: "It's directly connected." The contractors flew to Venezuela not from Moscow but from third countries where they were conducting missions, he added.
The third source, who is close to the private military contractors, said there was a contingent in Venezuela but he could not provide further details.
"They did not arrive in a big crowd," he said.
Publicly-available flight-tracking data has shown a number of Russian government aircraft landing in or near Venezuela over past weeks, though there was no evidence the flights were connected to military contractors.
A Russian Ilyushin-96 flew into Havana late on Wednesday after starting its journey in Moscow and flying via Senegal and Paraguay, the data showed.
The aircraft, a civilian jet, is owned by a division of the Russian presidential administration, according to a publicly-available procurement contract relating to the plane.
Between Dec. 10 and Dec. 14 last year, an Antonov-124 heavy cargo aircraft, and an Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft, carried out flights between Russia and Caracas, flight-tracking data showed. Another Ilyushin-76 was in Caracas from Dec. 12 to Dec. 21 last year. All three aircraft belong to the Russian air force, according to the tracking data.
(Additional reporting by Rinat Sagdiev in Moscow, Brian Ellsworth in Caracas and Sarah Marsh in Havana; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Copyright 2019 Thomson Reuters.
COULD A GROUP LIKE THE WAGNER GROUP FROM RUSSIA BECOME LOCALLY INFLUENTIAL IN PARTS OF THE USA AND THEN WORK TO INTERFERE WITH OR DISMANTLE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND MORE? I CAN SEE IT HAPPENING IF OUR CONGRESS AND THE FREE PRESS DIDN’T FIND OUT ABOUT IT AND RAISE AN ALARM. I CAN SEE IT IN THE MILITIA AREAS – WHAT I TEND TO CALL “THE BACKWOODS” – WHERE A GROWING NUMBER OF DISSIDENTS FROM MODERN AMERICAN VALUES ARE DOMINANT?
LOOK AT THE DESCRIPTION OF THEIR PATTERN OF OPERATION UNDER THE HEADINGS BELOW, “HISTORY” AND “OPERATIONS” IN CRIMEA AND EASTERN UKRAINE. IF I WERE TO WRITE A LARGE AND SERIOUS NOVEL, IT MIGHT HAVE A PLOT LIKE THIS ONE. SIMPLY PUT, I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT HAVING THEM ON “OUR SOUTHERN BORDER” BECAUSE GETTING INTO THE COUNTRY WOULD BE EASY. THEY WOULD PROBABLY ESTABLISH THEMSELVES IN CONTROL IN ARGENTINA FIRST, HOWEVER, FOR A BASE OF OPERATIONS.
WAGNER GROUP*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group
Wagner Group
The Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, tr. Grupa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner, or CHVK Vagner (Russian: ЧВК Вагнера, tr. ChVK Vagner, Russian: Частная Военная Компания Вагнера), is a Russian paramilitary organisation. Some have described it as a private military company (or a private military contracting agency), whose contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts, including operations in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Syrian government as well as, from 2014 until 2015, in the War in Donbass in Ukraine aiding the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Others are of the opinion that ChVK Wagner is really a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence in disguise, which is used by the Russian government in conflicts where deniability is called for.
History, organization, status
The founder of the company is reported to be Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, who was born in Kirovohrad Oblast (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR) in 1970.[28][29][30] According to the Security Service of Ukraine’s statement in September 2017, Dmitriy Utkin used to be a Ukrainian citizen.[29] Up until 2013, he was a lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a special forces (Spetsnaz GRU) unit (the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade) of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).[31][1][32] He retired in 2013 and began working for the private company Moran Security Group founded by Russian military veterans; the company performed security and training missions around the world, specializing in security against piracy. The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up a Saint Petersburg-based organization Slavonic Corps that headhunted contractors to "protect oil fields and pipelines" in Syria.[1] Utkin was in Syria as part of the Slavonic Corps and survived its disastrous mission.[31] The Wagner Group itself first showed up in 2014,[1] along with Utkin in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.[31] The company's name comes from Utkin's own call sign ("Wagner"), which he allegedly chose due to a passion for the Third Reich.[33] Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the Slavic Native Faith (a modern Pagan cult) is a faith favored by the leadership of the Wagner Group.[34] In August 2017, the Turkish Yeni Şafak speculated that Utkin was possibly just a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.[35]
. . . .
In early 2016, Wagner had a membership of 1,000,[2] which later rose to 5,000 by August 2017,[40] and 6,000 by December 2017.[3] The organization was said to be registered in Argentina[2][40] and also has offices in Saint Petersburg[41] and Hong Kong.[42] The company trains its members at a Russian MoD facility Molkino (Russian: Молькино)[32][43] near the village of Molkin, Krasnodar Krai.[44][45][46] According to a report published by Russian monthly Sovershenno Sekretno, the organisation that hired personnel for Wagner did not have a permanent name and had a legal address near the military settlement Pavshino in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow.[47]
The pay of Wagner private military contractors (PMCs), who are usually retired regular Russian servicemen aged between 35 and 55,[35] is estimated to be between 80,000 and 250,000 Russian rubles a month.[48] One source also stated the pay was as high as 300,000.[36] When new PMC recruits arrive at the training camp, they are no longer allowed to use social network services and other Internet resources. Company employees are not allowed to post photos, texts, audio and video recordings or any other information on the Internet that was obtained during their training. They are also not allowed to tell anyone their location, whether they are in Russia or another country. Mobile phones, tablets and other means of communication are left with the company and issued at a certain time with the permission of their commander. Passports and other documents are surrendered and in return company employees receive a nameless dog tag with a personal number. The company only accepts new recruits if a 10-year confidentiality agreement is established and in case of a breach of the confidentiality the company reserves the right to terminate the employee's contract without paying a fee.[49] According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Russian military officers are assigned the role of drill instructors for the recruits.[50] During their training, the PMCs receive a 1,100 dollar monthly pay.[35] . . . .
Russian and some Western observers, as well as a few people who have been personally involved with the Wagner Group, believe that the organization does not actually exist as a private military company and is but a myth created by Russian propaganda. They believe it is in reality a disguised branch of the Russian MoD that ultimately reports to the Russian government.[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82] Private military companies are not legally allowed in Russia; nevertheless a number of them appear to have been operating in Russia and in April 2012 Vladimir Putin, then Russian prime minister, speaking in the State Duma endorsed an idea of setting up PMCs in Russia.[83] Several military analysts described Wagner as a "pseudo-private" military company that offers the Russian military establishment certain advantages such as ensuring plausible deniability, public secrecy about Russia′s military operations abroad, as well as about the number of losses.[84][83][85] Thus, Wagner contractors have been described as "ghost soldiers", due to the Russian government not officially acknowledging them.[86] In March 2017, Radio Liberty characterized the ChVK Wagner as a ″semi-legal militant formation that exists under the wing and on the funds of the Ministry of Defence″.[87] In September 2017, the chief of Ukraine′s Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak said that in their opinion Wagner was in essence ″a private army of Putin″ and that the SBU were ″working on identifying these people, members of Wagner PMC, to make this information public so that our partners in Europe knew them personally″.[29][88] The Wagner Group has also been compared with Academi, the American security firm formerly known as Blackwater.[89]
Operations
Crimea and Eastern Ukraine
Wagner PMCs first showed up in February 2014 in Crimea[6][7] during Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula where they operated in line with regular Russian army units, disarmed the Ukrainian Army and took control over facilities. The takeover of Crimea was almost bloodless.[90] The PMCs, along with the regular soldiers, were called "polite people" at the time[91] due to their well-mannered behavior. They kept to themselves, carried weapons that were not loaded, and mostly made no effort to interfere with civilian life.[92] Another name for them was "little green men" since they were masked, wearing unmarked green army uniforms and their origin was initially unknown.[93]
. . . . Following the end of major combat operations, the PMCs were reportedly given the assignment to kill dissident pro-Russian commanders that were acting in a rebellious manner, according to the Russian nationalist Sputnik and Pogrom [ru] internet media outlet and the SBU.[85][90] According to Sputnik and Pogrom, in one raid, they killed more than 10 militia fighters.[90] In another operation in early January 2015, the PMCs disarmed without any loss of life the Odessa brigade of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), after surrounding their base in Krasnodon with the support of tanks and artillery, and demanding the separatists disarm and return to their homes.[101] According to the SBU and the Russian news site Fontanka [ru], Wagner also forced the reorganization and disarmament of Russian Cossack and other formations.[95][102] The PMCs acted mostly in the LPR,[90] for whose authorities they allegedly conducted four political killings of separatist commanders.[7][90] The killed commanders were in a conflict with the LPR's president, Igor Plotnitsky.[95][103] The LPR accused Ukraine of committing the assassinations,[103][104] while unit members of the commanders believed it was the LPR authorities who were behind the killings.[104][105][106] In late November 2017, the SBU published what they said were intercepted audio recordings that proved a direct link between Dmitry Utkin and Igor Cornet, the Interior Minister of the LPR, who was stated to had personally led the initiative of eliminating the dissident commanders.[107] In early June 2018, the SBU also published telephone conversations between Utkin and Igor Plotnitsky from January 2015, as well as conversations between Utkin and Russian GRU officer Oleg Ivannikov who was using the pseudonym Andrei Ivanovich. Ivannikov, according to a Wagner PMC, supervised both their forces, as well as that of the LPR separatists, during the fighting in 2014 and 2015.[98] Wagner left Ukraine and returned to Russia in autumn of 2015, with the start of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War.[7]
DISSIDENTS WITHIN RUSSIA ARE IN FAVOR OF THE US STANCE AGAINST MADURO. I DOUBT THAT THEY HAVE MUCH CONTROL OVER THE SITUATION THERE, THOUGH, BUT IT’S GOOD TO HAVE THEIR GOOD WILL.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/25/688658697/putin-backs-maduro-as-kremlin-critics-cheer-u-s-support-for-venezuelas-oppositio
WORLD
Putin Backs Maduro, As Kremlin Critics Cheer U.S. Support For Venezuela's Opposition
January 25, 20194:55 PM ET
LUCIAN KIM
PHOTOGRAPH -- Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro during a meeting outside Moscow on Dec. 5. Maxim Shemetov/AFP/Getty Images
Kremlin Rallies To Defend Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
Download LISTEN: 2:50
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov resorted to his trademark sarcasm when asked by reporters about the Trump administration's decision to recognize an opposition politician as Venezuela's lawful leader, in place of sitting President Nicolás Maduro.
In its "paranoid anxiety" about interference in its own elections, the United States is once again trying to decide the fate of another country, Lavrov said during televised remarks during a visit to Algeria on Thursday. "You don't even have to set up a Mueller investigation."
RELATED: LATIN AMERICA
Venezuelan Opposition Leader Guaidó Declares Himself President, With U.S. Backing
But if the U.S. decisively took sides in Venezuela's escalating political crisis this week, Russia wasn't sitting idly by. On Thursday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Maduro, expressing Russia's continuing support and condemning "destructive external interference."
The Kremlin is deeply invested in the survival of Maduro's regime, having sunk both political and financial capital into Venezuela. Russia has propped up the country's rulers with at least $17 billion in loans and credit lines since 2006, often taking oil assets in return, according to an investigation by Reuters.
RELATED: LATIN AMERICA
Why Venezuela's Military May Be Standing By Maduro, For Now
If Cuba was the Kremlin's closest ally in Latin America during the Cold War, now it's Venezuela, whose vast oil wealth gives Russia direct influence over an OPEC member. That Maduro's predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez, was stridently anti-American made Venezuela the ideal partner.
China has even more money invested in Venezuela than Russia, but Beijing's reaction to Venezuela's political turmoil has been characteristically muted, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry calling on "all relevant parties to stay rational and cool-headed."
RELATED: LATIN AMERICA
State Department Orders Some Diplomatic Staff Out Of Venezuela In Political Crisis
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a sharply worded statement, slamming Washington for its "total disregard for the norms and principles of international law." The lead story in Russia's official government newspaper Friday declared that "the United States is carrying out a classic coup d'état in Venezuela."
Putin last met with Maduro in December, when the Venezuelan leader traveled to Russia to shore up support amid growing political pressure at home. Less than a week later, in a show of solidarity, Putin sent two nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela.
At the time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: "The Russian and Venezuelan people should see this for what it is: two corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer."
The Kremlin criticized Pompeo's remarks as "absolutely inappropriate" and "undiplomatic." After a couple of days, the planes made the 6,200-mile flight back to their base in Russia.
Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who caters to Russian hardliners, said on a talk show on state TV that President Trump's decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's new leader was precipitated by the appearance of the Russian planes.
If Maduro asks Russia to intervene militarily, Zhirinovsky said, it should.
"When dozens of Tupolev Tu-22 planes will ply Venezuela's airspace, I assure you no country will dare to intervene," he said.
Some Russians' anger over foreign intervention in Venezuela echoes outrage over U.S. support for regime change in countries as different as Iraq, Ukraine, Georgia and Libya. The subtext is that Russia could be next.
For Putin's domestic critics, the Trump administration's support for Maduro's opposition is a source of inspiration.
In a tweet, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called Trump's decision "outstanding."
Speaking on his weekly webcast, Navalny calculated that every Russian had involuntarily invested 7,500 rubles, or more than $100, in Venezuela.
"Why the hell have we invested a huge amount of money in Venezuela when we could have built a lot of things here in Russia?" he asked.
Navalny, who was barred from running against Putin in a presidential election last year, is focusing on Russians' unhappiness with miserly salaries, new taxes and the raising of the retirement age.
Economic hardship at home contrasts with Putin's geopolitical ambitions.
Asked whether Putin had discussed financial or military assistance with Maduro during their phone call on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered with one word: No.
For now, Maduro will have to make do with the Kremlin's rhetorical support.
ROGER STONE AND WIKILEAKS
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/politics/roger-stone-trump-mueller.html
F.B.I. Arrests Roger Stone in Mueller Case
By Mark Mazzetti, Eileen Sullivan and Maggie Haberman
Jan. 25, 2019
VIDEO -- Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime Trump adviser, has been charged as part of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller. He was arrested in a pre-dawn F.B.I. raid in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is expected to appear in court Friday.CreditCreditJim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency
WASHINGTON — Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump, was charged as part of the special counsel investigation over his communications with WikiLeaks, the organization behind the release of thousands of stolen Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign, in an indictment unsealed Friday.
Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office.
F.B.I. agents arrested Mr. Stone before dawn on Friday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and he was expected to appear in a federal courthouse there later in the morning. F.B.I. agents were also seen carting hard drives and other evidence from Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem.
Embedded video
CNN
✔
@CNN
“FBI. Open the door.”
Watch exclusive CNN footage of the FBI arresting longtime Trump associate Roger Stone. Stone has been indicted by a grand jury on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. http://cnn.it/2DyhiiH
23.9K
7:02 AM - Jan 25, 2019
13.6K people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
The indictment is the first in months by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with Trump campaign associates. Citing details in emails and other forms of communications, the indictment suggests Mr. Trump’s campaign knew about additional stolen emails before they were released and asked Mr. Stone to find out about them.
[Read the indictment.]
Mr. Stone’s lawyer, Grant Smith, dismissed the charges, calling them “ridiculous,” and said, “this is all about a minor charge about lying to Congress about something that was apparently found later.”
“The only reason Mr. Stone was charged is his 40-year friendship with the president and his efforts to defeat the person who was anointed by the establishment,” Mr. Smith said.
An F.B.I. agent leaving Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem.
Credit
Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Image
An F.B.I. agent leaving Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem.CreditJeenah Moon for The New York Times
Mr. Stone, a self-described dirty trickster, began his career as a campaign aide for Richard M. Nixon and has a tattoo of Nixon on his back. He has spent decades plying the political dark arts, including scandal-mongering, to help influence American election campaigns, and has long maintained that he had no connection to Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. He sometimes seemed to taunt American law enforcement agencies, daring them to find hard evidence to link him to the Russian election interference.
According to the indictment, between June and July of 2016, Mr. Stone told “senior Trump campaign officials” about the stolen emails in WikiLeaks’ possession that could be damaging to Mrs. Clinton. On July 22, WikiLeaks released its first batch of Democratic emails. After that, according to the indictment, the Trump campaign sought more.
“A senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton campaign,” the indictment said, referring to WikiLeaks. The indictment did not make clear who the senior Trump campaign official was and who directed the senior campaign official to reach out to Mr. Stone, though it left open the possibility that it was Mr. Trump.
A portion of the indictment.
Image -- A portion of the indictment.
The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, sought to broadly distance Mr. Trump from the charges. “The charges brought against Mr. Stone have nothing to do with the president,” she told CNN. Asked whether he directed a campaign aide to contact Mr. Stone about the WikiLeaks emails, she repeated that the charges did not involve the president.
Jay Sekulow, the president’s outside lawyer, dismissed any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
“The indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress,” he said in a statement.
Last year, Mr. Trump tweeted praise for Mr. Stone who promised never to testify against him and contrasted him with other former associates who have cooperated with prosecutors.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump returned to an oft-repeated talking point suggesting that the special counsel’s investigation — and news media coverage of it — was biased. “Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION!” he wrote on Twitter. “Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?”
In June of 2016, days before Russia was publicly identified as having stolen the emails, senior Trump campaign officials and Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney about getting information that could be damaging to Mrs. Clinton.
It is illegal for a political campaign to accept foreign aid, and Mr. Trump and his son have said they did nothing wrong because they did not receive any damaging materials because of that meeting.
Mr. Stone has said publicly that he was in contact with WikiLeaks and suggested on Twitter that additional damaging information would be coming. The indictment said that Mr. Stone was contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases.
Mr. Stone’s brash behavior made him less of a subject of news media scrutiny than other current and former aides to President Trump — like the character in a whodunit whom readers immediately dismiss as too obvious to have committed the crime.
Everyone Who’s Been Charged in Investigations Related to the 2016 Election
Roger Stone is the sixth Trump adviser or official charged in the special counsel investigation.
Aug. 21, 2018
But the special counsel’s investigators spent months encircling Mr. Stone, renewing scrutiny about his role during the 2016 presidential race. Investigators interviewed former Trump campaign advisers and several of his associates about Mr. Stone’s fund-raising during the campaign and his contacts with WikiLeaks.
Three senior Trump campaign officials have told Mr. Mueller’s team that Mr. Stone created the impression that he was a conduit for inside information from WikiLeaks, according to people familiar with their witness interviews. One of them told investigators that Mr. Stone not only seemed to predict WikiLeaks’ actions, but also that he took credit afterward for the timing of its disclosures that damaged Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
In October, Mr. Stone exchanged emails with Stephen K. Bannon, then the chief executive of Mr. Trump’s campaign. In one exchange, Mr. Stone wrote that more WikiLeaks disclosures were forthcoming, “a load every week going forward,” according to the indictment. Mr. Bannon appears to be the official described in the court document as “the high-ranking Trump Campaign official,” based on previous disclosures about the email exchange.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Steve Bannon
TO: Roger Stone
EMAIL:
What was that this morning???
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Roger Stone
TO: Steve Bannon
EMAIL:
Fear. Serious security concern. He thinks they are going to kill him and the London police are standing done.
However —a load every week going forward.
Roger stone
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Steve Bannon
TO: Roger Stone
EMAIL:
He didn’t cut deal w/ clintons???
A day before Mr. Stone and Mr. Bannon emailed about WikiLeaks, Donald Trump Jr. exchanged Twitter messages with the WikiLeaks Twitter account and asked, “What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about.”
At the end of that week, on Oct. 7, WikiLeaks released more than 6,000 emails related to John D. Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign. The release came 30 minutes after The Washington Post published a recording of Mr. Trump bragging on the set of Access Hollywood about assaulting women. The timing has raised questions about whether the WikiLeaks release was an attempt to distract the public from the Access Hollywood tape and redirect negative attention from Mr. Trump to the Clinton campaign.
In social media posts and numerous interviews before the 2016 election, Mr. Stone indicated that he had advance knowledge that a trove of information damaging to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign might be about to spill into public view, and even suggested that he had personally spoken to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
Mr. Stone has changed his story in the months since, saying that he was not actually speaking to Mr. Assange and that he had no direct knowledge that Russians were responsible for the Democratic hacking. Still, it was revealed last year that, in the weeks before the election, Mr. Stone was messaging on Twitter with Guccifer 2.0, a pseudonym used by one or more operatives in the Russian intelligence scheme to steal the emails and funnel them to WikiLeaks.
The indictment does not mention whether Mr. Stone or any other Trump associate knew about the Russian operatives’ plans before they hacked the Democrats. As Mr. Mueller’s investigators interviewed witnesses and reviewed documents, they sought to answer that question, according to two people briefed on the inquiry. To make a case that Mr. Trump’s associates conspired with the Russians, the investigators indicated, they needed to show that the associates knew about the hacks in advance — knowing about the fruits of what Russia stole was not enough, the people said.
The Plot to Subvert an Election: Unraveling the Russia Story So Far
For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack: spies, leaked emails, social media fraud — and President Trump’s claims that it’s all a hoax. The Times explores what we know and what it means.
Sept. 20, 2018
Mr. Stone himself has said publicly that he was prepared for the possibility that he could be indicted, but he has long maintained that he is innocent and has often echoed Mr. Trump’s claims that Mr. Mueller’s investigation is a politically motivated witch hunt.
“This was supposed to be about Russian collusion, and it appears to be an effort to silence or punish the president’s supporters and his advocates,” he said last May on “Meet the Press.”
“It is not inconceivable now that Mr. Mueller and his team may seek to conjure up some extraneous crime pertaining to my business, or maybe not even pertaining to the 2016 election,” he said.
The tumultuous relationship between Mr. Stone and Mr. Trump goes back decades, with Mr. Stone acting as an informal adviser to Mr. Trump as he considered running for president several times. When Mr. Trump formally announced during the spring of 2015 that he was running for president, Mr. Stone was one of the first members of the team, but within months, he had a public dispute with Mr. Trump and left the campaign.
The two men have remained close, though, speaking often by telephone.
Jeenah Moon contributed reporting from New York, and Michael S. Schmidt from Washington.
https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/hbo-documentary-new-york-newspapermen-jimmy-breslin-pete-hamill
HBO to premiere documentary on New York city’s greatest newspapermen, Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill
Dermot McEvoy @IrishCentral Jan 25, 2019
Photograph -- Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin.
“Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists” set to premiere on HBO chronicling the amazing lives of their careers, from the 1960s into the 21st century.
“Once there was another city here, now it is gone—the Lost City of New York.”
—Pete Hamill
In the New York of my youth, circa 1967 B.I. (Before Internet), it was the habit to pick up the New York Post on the way home from school or work and go out at 8 p.m. to fetch the New York Daily News when it hit the street. The usual gore was on the front page and the sports page wasn’t much better with terrible Mets and Yankees teams. But the thing you’d attack first would be the columnists, Hamill in the Post and Breslin in the News. A couple of Irish guys serving their city.
On Monday, January 28th at 8 p.m EST, HBO will premiere "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists", a documentary that explores the careers of two of New York’s greatest newspaper columnists, whose careers stretched from the 1960s into the 21st century.
The documentary covers all the traumatic events felt by the citizens of New York: the assassinations of JFK and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, Son of Sam, the Bernie Goetz shooting, the Central Park jogger case, the AIDS epidemic, all the way up to 9/11.
Breslin, who died in 2017, and Hamill star as themselves with an all-star supporting cast including Tom Wolfe, Guy Talese, Gail Collins, Gloria Steinem, Spike Lee, Colin Quinn, Robert De Niro, Shirley MacLaine, Andrew Cuomo, Shane Smith, James Duff, Earl Caldwell, Richard Esposito, Mike Lupica, Sam Roberts, Charlie Carillo, Robert Krulwich, and Garry Trudeau. It was directed and produced by Jonathan Alter, John Block, and Steve McCarthy.
Steve McCarthy fills us in
IrishCentral caught up with Steve McCarthy to speak about the documentary. Like Breslin and Hamill, McCarthy has outer-borough New York blood running through his veins.
“I was born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn,” he said. “My dad was the NYPD beat cop at the corner of 69th Street and Third Avenue. I graduated from SUNY Oswego and started working as a gofer at CBS News. I gradually rose through the ranks—went to NBC News for a few years and then returned to CBS News as a producer for 60 Minutes in the ’90s. I began to make films after 9/11—my first was Finding Paddy about the life of FDNY Capt. Patrick Brown who died in the north tower. Other films followed and now I teach journalism and filmmaking at Montclair State University and continue to make documentaries.”
The documentary couldn’t have been made without the Montclair Connection, because McCarthy, Alter, and Block are ensconced there. “We all live in Montclair, NJ,” said McCarthy, “and have been friends for many years. John Block and I worked as producers at NBC Dateline. Jonathan Alter and I produced stories for the Today Show—mostly about veterans returning from Iraq. John Block and I recently produced a PBS film called The One That Got Away.”
Jimmy Breslin surrounded by Stephen McCarthy, John Block and Jonathan Alter.
There was also one more crucial Montclair connection in the making of the film. “Jimmy Breslin’s stepdaughter, Emily Eldridge, lives in Montclair. We all had experiences with Jimmy Breslin and we asked her how Jimmy was doing and if she thought he would be interested in a doc. We then added Pete to the film because we felt it would allow us to focus on journalism—a particular type of journalism that no longer exists.”
How did they get Breslin and Hamill to go along? Particularly the famously prickly Breslin? “I believe they both saw the documentary as an important work to discuss journalism and their role in the field. By the time we got to Jimmy, he was not quite the tiger he had been in earlier years. He had mellowed and was usually very pleasant to deal with.”
One of the central themes to the documentary is the subject of race, both in New York and America in general. “Jimmy said it best in one of his many interviews—‘It’s always about race.’ Both of these writers saw the drama and conflict this nation has gone through with respect to race. This is particularly acute in New York City—the gateway for immigrants into the U.S. They also used the Irish immigrant background and experience as the backdrop for their reporting on race. We all came from somewhere and our forefathers left because of the promise of this country.”
It’s all about Jimmy
As someone who has had dealings with Breslin over the years, I have dealt with the infamous Breslin bombastic personality. He was a contradiction in terms. He loved the underdog but could treat people horribly (the documentary explores the truly senseless and inexplicable ad hominem attack he laid on an Asian woman who worked as a reporter for Newsday in 1990). I asked McCarthy, short of turning into a psychiatrist, if he had any idea why Breslin was Breslin?
“Jimmy wore a mask,” replied McCarthy, “what we saw was not always who the real Jimmy was. Did it have to do with his childhood—probably? Was he insecure? Yes, like many very talented people. Did he snarl at people? —indeed he did. But I believe he had, as many tough guys do, a soft heart. At his funeral, a young African-American man spoke about how Jimmy paid for his college tuition because his parents had died. I was amazed that we had not heard that story before. I think he did many things simply because they were the right thing to do and did not always boast about them.”
Jimmy Breslin.5
Jimmy Breslin.
The contrast between Breslin and Hamill could not be illustrated more than their relationships to their mothers. Hamill loved his mother, who would not tolerate bigotry, but Breslin’s mother (and family) are brutally rendered by Breslin: “Large cold Irish family”; he admits he never kissed his mother; and the damnest comment of all: “I was a stranger out of her.”
I asked McCarthy how did he ever get Breslin to confess to all this stuff? “One of the things that all three of us do very well is get people comfortable to share important things. It’s part of the craft and involves spending the time, doing the homework and listening. We also develop trust with the people are interviewing. It’s part art and part science.”
Hamill the Mensch
In contrast to Breslin you have Hamill, a mensch of a man, as they say at the corner saloon. Like many of the people they wrote about, both Breslin and Hamill came out of poverty, but Hamill was not tainted by it. His brother Denis perhaps put it best, “Poverty was not a sin.” Pete is honest in his progress as a man. His relationship with Robert Kennedy was remarkable and, in a way, tragic because he sent him a letter that convinced Kennedy to run for President. He was there when RFK was murdered and said he made a “terrible mistake as a journalist.”
Pete Hamill.5
Pete Hamill.
“Pete’s a complicated man as well,” said McCarthy. “His stories about stickball and bars in Park Slope reminded me of my own childhood in Bay Ridge. We weren’t wealthy but had food to eat and clean clothes. And, our parents valued education. Pete’s relationship with RFK had a major conflict in it. He, like many progressive Irish-Americans, fell in love with the Kennedys. They saw that this dynasty proved the Irish made it in America. They also saw how they didn’t forget where they came from. Instead of kicking the next guy coming up the ladder they extended a hand to help bring them up. The fact that both Pete and Jimmy were right there when RFK was shot is amazing. It makes for one of the most interesting parts of the film.”
Read more: Pete Hamill's Irish wake at NYU brought out the great man himself
McCarthy and his partners dared to go where many fear to tread—Pete Hamill’s famous love life. He had dalliances with Jacqueline Onassis and Shirley MacLaine. (For the record, I once saw Pete in the Lion’s Head one night with Mary Tyler Moore—not bad for a kid from Park Slope, Brooklyn!) So, how did McCarthy do it?
“As talented and handsome as Pete is, he is also modest. He did not boast about the glamorous women he went out with. He actually didn’t tell us much. When we asked him if he loved Jackie Onassis he replied: ‘I’d really agree with Garcia Marquez who said once, that everybody’s got three lives—a public life, a private life, and a secret life. Private life is by invitation only. A secret life is nobody’s business.’ ”
Read more: Lion’s Head roared - Greenwich Village saloon was home to many Irish and other rogues
Laughs galore
John F. Kennedy famously said that “there are three things in life: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension so we must make the best of the third.” If you want some laughs, you’ve come to the right place in Breslin and Hamill.
One of the highlights of the film is Breslin commenting on the love life of Hamill in a column, no less. “One of the funniest parts of the film,” says McCarthy, “was when Jimmy wrote a column about Pete going out with Jackie O and Shirley MacLaine at the same time. Shirley hit the roof, Jackie O laughed, and Pete was pissed off. He called Jimmy about it and Jimmy said, “I needed it” —meaning he needed something for a column that day.”
Pete Hamill, Steve McCarthy and Jimmy Breslin.5
Pete Hamill, Steve McCarthy and Jimmy Breslin.
There’s a lot of humor in this documentary. My favorite parts were when Breslin said that the Son of Sam wrote so well he thought “Hamill wrote it!” and Abe Hirschfeld kissing Hamill when he rehired him as Editor at the New York Post. Did McCarthy have any favorite parts?
“Besides the aforementioned Breslin column on Pete’s love life,” said McCarthy, “I’d have to say the Jimmy on the phone section is the funniest part. While filming some of these stories I almost burst out laughing behind the camera. Nick Pileggi, Governor Andrew Cuom, and Jonathan Alter all recounted very funny stories about Jimmy on the phone. Another funny moment is when the Latina cop who lost her job for posing nude thanks Jimmy for writing about her and he says ‘Aw shut up! God Bless ya,’ and walks away.”
The gunslinger versus the poet
With words, Breslin was a gunslinger, Hamill is the poet laureate of the brick and mortar that makes New York, well, New York. It is this contrast in style that makes them such interesting characters, bouncing off each other in this documentary.
“This,” said McCarthy, “I believe, is one of the strengths of the movie. As Colin Quinn said, ‘they're both these Irish bar columnists, and they both are so similar and so different at the same time.’ Jimmy was hot, Pete cool. Jimmy was a married man almost his whole life, Pete was more of a man who played the field. (He did settle down to a long marriage to his beloved Fukiko.) Their styles of writing and reporting were quite different. Jimmy focused more on the individual’s struggle, Pete constructed a much bigger picture, but both based their writing on reporting. Both stuck up for the little guy. Both celebrated the differences of our citizens.”
Breslin and Hamill also have something to say about the Irish. Breslin, via Dan Barry of the New York Times, called the Irish “shopping center faces,” while Hamill has a much kinder opinion of his countrymen although both his parents escaped from Belfast pogroms of the 1920s. I asked McCarthy, as an Irishman, how he viewed both Breslin’s and Hamill’s opinion of the Irish?
“I grew up reading both of them. And they were not popular in my house. My father was a police officer and Jimmy, in particular, was not always kind to cops. My family was and to some extent still is more conservative than Jimmy and Pete. What I learned from them is it may not be easy to go against your tribe, but you need to follow the facts and your heart. There were signs saying ‘Irish Need Not Apply’ as we show in the movie. We cannot forget that our family members were kicked down instead of being helped up. Irish-Catholics took care of themselves by creating a school system (I attended 12 years of Catholic school) and gaining political strength to end bigotry toward the Irish. I believe, as Catholics, it’s our job to help end bigotry against new groups coming in. Pete and Jimmy stood for that and it’s a lesson for all of us.”
“You’re not put on this earth to be happy”
The most devastating thing Breslin said in the whole documentary was at the end when he commented that “You’re not put on this earth to be happy.” That put a chill on the documentary.
“Jimmy was referring,” said McCarthy, “to the fact that he lost three women in his life—his first wife and both his daughters. I cannot imagine going through that. I believe it would make anyone say that. At the same time, it’s very Irish. It’s probably based on hundreds of years of oppression. The Famine was our own genocide. The discrimination our ancestors faced was real. There’s a darkness in our blood and maybe it causes us to tell stories that are sometimes very sad. I know it’s affected me, and often the stories I work on.
So, Stephen McCarthy, was it worth it?
“This experience was a dream come true for me. It was, to quote Hemingway, a moveable feast. We got to meet many of our journalistic idols like Tom Wolfe. Nick Pileggi, Gay Talese, Gloria Steinem and other important New Yorkers including Spike Lee, Robert DeNiro, Colin Quinn, and others. This film will be used for a teaching tool for many years to come. I’ve already shared parts of it and the details of production with journalism students at Montclair State University.
"There are lessons here and hopefully, it will inspire young people in our profession. It was also important to me because all of my four children worked on the film as my crew. Ryan, Justin, Alison, and Madeline ran the cameras, set the lights, did the audio and helped in post-production. It was great for them to meet all of these important folks, especially Pete and Jimmy. It was an experience we will never forget.”
Read more: Remembering the King of Queens English - Jimmy Breslin
* Dermot McEvoy is the author of the The 13th Apostle: A Novel of Michael Collins and the Irish Uprising and Our Lady of Greenwich Village, both now available in paperback, Kindle and Audio from Skyhorse Publishing. He may be reached at dermotmcevoy50@gmail.com. Follow him at www.dermotmcevoy.com. Follow The 13th Apostle on Facebook.
Related: Movies, New York
A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE STORY, HERE. IT CHEERS ME UP.
https://wtop.com/local/2019/01/veteran-who-lost-leg-in-afghanistan-helps-colin-powell-change-a-tire/
Veteran who lost leg in Afghanistan helps Colin Powell change a tire
By Abigail Constantino
January 24, 2019 11:58 pm
WASHINGTON — A veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan offered road-side assistance to one of the military’s highest ranking officers.
Colin Powell was on Interstate 495 on his way to Walter Reed National Medical Center when his left front tire blew out Wednesday.
As he jacked the car up and took out some of the bolts, a car pulled in front of him and a man, who has an artificial leg, got out.
Anthony Maggert, of Stafford, Virginia, was on his way to Walter Reed that day, too. Maggert said he recognized the four-star general and wanted to help him, Powell said in a Facebook post.
As the men chatted, Powell learned that Maggert lost his leg in Afghanistan when he worked there as a civilian employee.
After a selfie, the two men parted ways to go their appointments. Powell did not get Maggert’s name or contact information. But Maggert sent Powell a message, saying that he will never forget the day they met.
Maggert said he served 23 years in the military and did three tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, where he lost a leg after getting an infection, NBC Washington reported.
Powell is a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army. He was Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush.
Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.
© 2019 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
https://www.facebook.com/GenPowell/posts/10157015643556719
General Colin L. Powell
Yesterday at 9:30 AM ·
Yesterday was a reassuring day for me. I was on my way to Walter Reed Military Hospital for an exam. As I drove along Interstate 495 my left front tire blew out. I am a car guy and knew I could change it but it was cold outside and the lug bolts were very tight. I jacked the car up and got several of the bolts removed when a car suddenly pulled up in front of me. As the man got out of his car I could see that he had an artificial leg. He said he recognized me and wanted to help me. We chatted and I learned that he lost his leg in Afghanistan when he worked over there as a civilian employee. He grabbed the lug wrench and finished the job as I put the tools away. Then we both hurriedly headed off to appointments at Walter Reed. I hadn't gotten his name or address but he did ask for a “selfie”. And then he sent me the message below last night.
"Gen. Powell, I hope I never forget today because I’ll never forget reading your books. You were always an inspiration, a leader and statesman. After 33 years in the military you were the giant whose shoulders we stood upon to carry the torch to light the way and now it is tomorrow’s generation that must do the same. Anthony Maggert"
Thanks, Anthony. You touched my soul and reminded me about what this country is all about and why it is so great. Let's stop screaming at each other. Let's just take care of each other. You made my day.
SOMEONE CLOSE TO TRUMP IS ARRESTED, TRUMP HOWLS AS THOUGH HE HAD BEEN HIT. HE HASN’T BEEN, BUT THEY ARE BEATING THE BUSHES CLOSER AND CLOSER TO HIM. HE SEEMS TO THINK THAT IF HE DOES THAT EVERY TIME, PEOPLE WILL COME TO BELIEVE HIM, AND HIS “BASE” WILL REMAIN TRUE. WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT DOES GET REPETITIVE, HOWEVER. "NO COLLUSION," "MAGA," AND YADDA YADDA YADDA.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-roger-stone-arrest_us_5c4afb6ae4b0e1872d42d4b0
POLITICS 01/25/2019 11:21 am ET Updated 25 minutes ago
Donald Trump Responds To Roger Stone’s Arrest In Mueller Investigation
The indictment alleges Stone was in contact with Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks about information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.
By Marina Fang
President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out after his longtime confidant Roger Stone was arrested as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?
38.6K
11:16 AM - Jan 25, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
45K people are talking about this
Trump repeated his claim that the investigation is a “Witch Hunt” and appeared to make a reference to a conspiracy theory spread by former Fox News and CNN host Greta Van Susteren, who suggested without evidence that the “FBI obviously tipped off CNN,” which first reported Stone’s arrest.
Van Susteren issued a correction later, but not before right-wing websites like InfoWars and Drudge Report spread the claim.
Stone — who had repeatedly said that he expected to be indicted — has admitted to being in contact with Russian intelligence officers during Trump’s campaign, as well as with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. A seven-count indictment charged him with obstruction of an official proceeding, false statements and witness tampering.
The indictment alleges Stone spoke “to senior Trump Campaign officials” about WikiLeaks and “information it might have had that would be damaging” to the campaign of Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the summer before the election. Stone was “contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases” by WikiLeaks, the indictment adds.
A longtime Republican strategist known for his “dirty tricks,” Stone has been an informal adviser to Trump since the 1990s, when he was a lobbyist for Trump’s casinos.
PHOTOGRAPH -- Trump and Stone in 1999. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
The two have had an on-again-off-again relationship.
“Roger is a stone-cold loser,” Trump told The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin in 2008. “He always tries taking credit for things he never did.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? Here’s how.
headshot
Marina Fang
Reporter, HuffPost
"RUSSIA, IF YOU ARE LISTENING .... IT WAS SO OUT OF THE ORDINARY," CORDERO SAID, REFERRING TO TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN APPEAL TO RUSSIA, BECAUSE IT WOULD INDICATE THAT THE CANDIDATE MAY HAVE BEEN SOMEHOW WORKING IN TANDEM WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF A FOREIGN POWER THAT DOES THINGS THAT ARE HOSTILE TO THE UNITED STATES. THE STONE INDICTMENT DOES MOVE US CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING THAT THAT QUESTION MIGHT ACTUALLY GET ANSWERED."
NO COLLUSION? WELL, OF COURSE NOT.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/25/roger-stone-charges-push-mueller-deeper-into-trump-campaign/2679032002/
Roger Stone indictment: Mueller pushes deeper into Trump campaign; highlights effort to use Russia hacks to derail Clinton bid
Kevin Johnson, Bart Jansen and Brad Heath, USA TODAY Published 6:26 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2019 | Updated 6:30 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2019
PHOTOGRAPH -- American political consultant Roger Stone speaks to the media after being indicted on federal charges at U.S District Courthouse on Jan. 25, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Photo: Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports)
WASHINGTON — Every criminal case brought against a senior member of the Trump campaign as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has revealed a new attempt to conceal contacts with Russia or intermediaries linked to the Kremlin.
Michael Cohen, the longtime personal attorney to President Donald Trump; Michael Flynn, the Trump administration's first national security adviser; Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman; and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the campaign; all have been implicated in back-channel efforts to establish lines of communication with the United States' primary adversary – Russia.
In a 24-page indictment revealed Friday against Roger Stone, one of Trump’s longtime political advisers, Mueller's prosecutors took their deepest plunge yet into the inner workings of the Trump campaign and its intense interest in the Kremlin’s effort to undermine Clinton’s presidential bid with hacked emails laundered through the group the government says became its de facto publishing arm: WikiLeaks.
Since launching his investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, Mueller hasn’t charged any Americans with plotting to help the Kremlin’s effort. Instead, his office has indicted a succession of Trump associates – now Stone – for lying to investigators about their activities, and in the process has sketched an increasingly detailed picture of a series of efforts by the campaign to benefit from hacking by Russian intelligence services that the U.S. government says was meant to help deliver Trump the presidency.
Stone's relationship with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published troves of documents stolen from Democratic political organizations by a hacking group backed by Russian military intelligence, is at the heart of the Friday court filing in which the self-avowed political "dirty trickster" was charged with lying to investigators, obstruction and witness tampering.
Following a brief court appearance Friday morning, a defiant Stone stood before jeering protesters and cheering supporters claiming that he was "falsely accused" and would "plead not guilty."
Stone's remarks came shortly after prosecutors detailed a series of alleged contacts between Trump campaign officials, who were not identified in court documents, and the colorful political adviser who had publicly boasted of his connections with WikiLeaks and its embattled founder, Julian Assange. Some of the exchanges had been known previously, because Stone and his associates had made them public, but their inclusion in Friday's indictment marks the first time prosecutors themselves have offered such detailed information about interactions within Trump's campaign.
Assange has been living in exile at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since being granted asylum in 2012, in part to avoid the reach of British authorities and possible prosecution in the United States.
Starting in the summer of 2016, as Trump was securing the Republican nomination for president and as the FBI was launching its initial inquiry into Russia's interference campaign, prosecutors alleged Friday that Stone communicated with senior Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks and the politically-charged material in its possession.
In those contacts, according to court documents, the campaign officials referred to information that "would be damaging to the Clinton campaign."
Among the most striking of the allegations disclosed Friday, however, was contained in a passage in which prosecutors asserted that after a July 22 release of stolen Clinton-related emails, "a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information (WikiLeaks) had regarding the Clinton campaign."
"Stone, thereafter, told the Trump campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by (Wikileaks)," prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors did not identify the senior campaign official, nor did the documents elaborate on who may have directed that official to get in touch with Trump's longtime adviser.
But the July timeline referenced in the court documents closely tracked a series of related events that month, including an often-cited July 27, 2016 campaign appearance by then-candidate Trump who personally appealed to Russia to unearth Clinton's electronic communications.
"Russia, if you are listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said, referring to a tranche of emails linked to an FBI review of Clinton's communications while she served as secretary of State.
Mueller's office previously alleged that later that same day, hackers working for Russia's military intelligence service "attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office."
Mueller's office did not allege that Stone or other campaign aides worked with WikiLeaks to release the stolen records. Instead, they allege that Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation of Russian election interference, and that he tried to conceal emails and other records the committee had requested that related to his efforts to obtain information about WikiLeaks' planned disclosures.
Those efforts, according to prosecutors, continued throughout the summer and into the fall and included alleged collaborations with intermediaries including right-wing political commentator Jerome Corsi, identified in court documents as "Person 1," and radio host Randy Credico, identified by prosecutors "Person 2."
In an Aug. 2, email, Corsi allegedly informed Stone that Assange "plans 2 more dumps" of emails, including one in October.
"Time to let more than (Clinton campaign chief John Podesta) to be exposed as in bed (with) enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC,” the message said, referring to Clinton.
Stone replied that he expected WikiLeaks to release "a load every week, going forward."
That same month, in a text with a London-based supporter involved with the Trump campaign, Stone asks if the person wants to switch to a "secure line" to continue an alleged exchange about WikiLeaks' planned releases.
Prosecutors said Stone told the friend that he "spoke to my friend in London last night," a reference to Assange. "The payload is still coming."
In all, WikiLeaks released 33 sets of documents totaling 50,000 pages of stolen communications related to the Clinton campaign and Podesta.
Following the Oct. 7 release of the first batch of Podesta communications, prosecutors alleged that an associate of an unidentified, high-ranking Trump campaign official sent Stone a text message:
"Well done," it said.
The Trump official was campaign and administration Steve Bannon, according to copies of the messages previously published by The New York Times.
Stone denied any wrongdoing Friday, denying any collaboration with WikiLeaks.
Yet the case against Stone, and the allegations that he lied about his alleged entreaties involving WikiLeaks, tracks the underlying false statement charges against other Trump campaign officials regarding their contacts with Russia.
Flynn, the former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition promising relief from the sanctions the Obama administration had imposed to retaliate for the hacking. In charging him, Mueller's office revealed new details about the extent to which Flynn had discussed those conversations with other top Trump transition aides.
Last month, prosecutors said Cohen, the president's former personal attorney, acknowledged that Trump had continued efforts to build another of his eponymous towers in Moscow. More recently, when Mueller’s office fought with Manafort about whether he had violated his plea agreement, it was revealed that the former campaign chairman had provided polling data to a Russian associate and lied to the special counsel about it.
Trump's lawyers and the president have not strayed from their claims that Mueller has not filed charges involving conspiracy or coordination with Russia. But Democratic lawmakers, conducting their own investigations into Russian interference, seized on the new charges lodged against Stone.
"It is clear from this indictment that those contacts happened at least with the full knowledge of, and appear to have been encouraged by, the highest levels of the Trump campaign," said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It remains essential that the special counsel be permitted to finish this work without any political interference.”
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Md., referred to Mueller's allegations that at least some the campaign's contacts with Stone regarding WikiLeaks were carried out by a campaign official at the direction of another. "The direction came at the same time that Trump was calling for Russia’s help in obtaining Clinton’s emails, Schiff said.
Legal analysts, meanwhile, suggested Friday that the Stone indictment likely meant that there were more to follow.
Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute and a former senior counsel with Ken Starr’s independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton, said the allegations that a senior Trump official was "directed" to contact Stone only raised more questions of where Mueller's theory of the case will lead.
“That begs the question who is senior enough to direct a senior campaign official,” Rosenzweig said.
“Does it put Trump in the bag personally?” Rosenzweig said. “Not quite yet.”
Carrie Cordero, a former Justice Department official, said the Stone indictment offers a possible explanation for why candidate Trump was appealing to Russia to unearth Clinton emails.
"It was so out of the ordinary," Cordero said, referring to Trump's campaign appeal to Russia, because it would indicate that the candidate may have been somehow working in tandem with the activities of a foreign power that does things that are hostile to the United States. The Stone indictment does move us closer to understanding that that question might actually get answered."
NO, AOC IS NOT THE AMERICAN OFFICE OF SOMETHING OR OTHER. IT REFERS TO A NEW PERSON TO POLITICS WHO IS GETTING LOTS OF ATTENTION. I TOOK THIS EXCERPT TO SHOW WHY SHE IS RESPECTED BY MANY AT THE TENDER AGE OF 29 YEARS. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO VOTE FOR SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT NEXT YEAR, BUT MAYBE SHE CAN HAVE A SWING AT THE BALL IN 2024. IF HE WERE TO RUN WITH HER AS HIS VICE PRESIDENT THEN, I WOULDN’T BE UNHAPPY. SHE SEEMS TO ME TO HAVE CONSIDERABLE PROMISE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Ocasio and the second or maternal family name is Cortez.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (/oʊˌkɑːsioʊ kɔːrˈtɛz/; Spanish: [oˈkasjo koɾˈtes];[1] born October 13, 1989), also known by the initialism AOC,[2][3] is an American politician and activist.[4][5] A member of the Democratic Party, she has been the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district since January 3, 2019. The district includes the eastern part of The Bronx and portions of north-central Queens in New York City.
On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic Party's primary election for the 14th congressional district, defeating the ten-term incumbent Congressman, Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, in one of the biggest upset victories in the 2018 midterm election primaries.[11] She beat Republican opponent Anthony Pappas in the November 6, 2018 general election, and at age 29, became the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress.[12]
A member of the Democratic Socialists of America,[13] Ocasio-Cortez drew support and gained national recognition for her progressive platform, which includes Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, guaranteed family leave, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, free public college and trade school, infrastructure projects for renewable energy, and a 70% marginal tax rate for incomes above $10 million. Before running for Congress, she served as an educational director for the 2017 Northeast Collegiate World Series for the National Hispanic Institute, and worked as a bartender. Ocasio-Cortez majored in international relations and economics at Boston University, graduating cum laude in 2011.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 14th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2019
Preceded by Joe Crowley
Personal details
Born October 13, 1989 (age 29)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Education Boston University (BA)
Website House website
WHAT IS THE NATIONAL HISPANIC INSTITUTE? THIS WIKI DESCRIPTION BOILS DOWN THE NEED FOR WELL-INFORMED AND COURAGEOUS HISPANIC MINDS IN THE USA AT ITEM NUMBER FOUR OF THE SECTION CALLED “LEADERSHIP & ACADEMIC PROGRAMS,” SECTION BELOW. IT CAPTURES THE TRUE NEED FOR A NEW KIND OF DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP IN THE USA, TO NUDGE ASIDE THE FEAR-BASED POLICIES OF THE MAINSTREAM DEMOCRATS.
National Hispanic Institute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Hispanic Institute (NHI) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the future leadership needs of the global Hispanic community. Founded in 1979 in the State of Texas with the mission of serving the future leadership needs of the United States via the Hispanic/Latino community, NHI became the largest Latino youth organization in the United States.[2][3] NHI is now an international organization with over 85,000 alumni worldwide and a well-known consortium of notable colleges and universities.[3][4][5]
To carry out its mission, NHI annually conducts independent research focused on leadership and educational development, collaborates with K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, and annually works with over 3,000 high-achieving youth and their families. According to its website, NHI has distinguished itself from other organizations by not focusing on civil rights, not pointing to existing social problems as the rally-call to civic involvement, or depicting Hispanics and Latinos as a community in urgent need in order to influence giving.[3] NHI instead recognizes the talent of Hispanic and Latino youth, the potential they represent to the future of the Hispanic/Latino community and extended sectors of the American and global society. Based on this philosophy, NHI develops and conducts experiences through which students may become intellectually, culturally, and socially engaged in the life of their communities.[3]
NHI utilizes a combination community-based revenue generating strategies to fund its work. It relies neither on government nor private charity to support its efforts.[3] NHI is headquartered in Maxwell, Texas (approx. 30 minutes southeast of Austin, Texas) and maintains its Leadership Service Center on the campus of Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania (approx. 20 minutes west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania),[6] and its partnership with the Center for Hispanic Studies on the campus of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.[7]
Leadership & Academic Programs
Since its first program in 1981, the National Hispanic Institute has identified and selected high-ability youth to participate in its leadership and academic development experiences. These selected students are intellectually challenged to alter old, strident views that have historically framed their understanding of Hispanics and Latinos.[3] According to its website, NHI's leadership programs pursue four key outcomes:
- Instead of continuing the popularly held social notions of a people at the bottom of the human scale, students are presented with a new view, one of an energetic, dynamic, and powerful intertwined culture of global dimensions and potential.
- Instead of perceiving their educational development as being driven by the need to champion the cause of downtrodden communities, students develop an appreciation for the roles that intellectually, socially, and culturally play a role in guiding and advancing the equity, wealth, and skill-building trajectory of the future their community.
- Instead of viewing themselves as a collection of individuals from different nationalities, countries and backgrounds, students embrace the concept of a world-wide culture of Latinos tied together by a commonality of historical events, experiences, and language.
- Instead of being guided by an urgency to avoid causing potential harm to the American and global quality of life, students’ calling to leadership is invigorated by the excitement of supplying new strength, vigor, and promise to the American and global experience.[3]
NHI leadership programs are hosted on the campuses of notable universities that are members of the organization's consortium known as the NHI College Register (NHI CR). The leadership programs have historically been hosted on campuses in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington State in the continental United States. They have also been hosted in Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Spain.[3]
The Great Debate
(for students between 9th and 10th grade)
Each Great Debate conference hosts between 150-300 students and discusses complex themes that are important to the growth and leadership supply of the Latino community. NHI’s goal is for youth to increase their capacity to express thought, respond to intellectual challenge, work in organized endeavors and compete against their top peers. Beyond learning about important community issues, you gain a support network of NHI alumni, including education directors, mentors and coaches. These volunteers are former participants of the Great Debate and other NHI leadership programs like the Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session and Collegiate World Series. They dedicate hundreds of hours of their time to advance your leadership readiness. In addition, our university hosts/partners invest in supplying their campuses and facilities to support your leadership development. As a Great Debate student, receive other opportunities as well – like participation as a volunteer mentor, opportunities to win invitations to Celebración, future programs and access to the NHI College Register network.[8]
FOR MORE, GO TO WEBSITE.
. . . .
WHO ARE “THE RELIGIOUS LEFT?” THIS ARTICLE ISN’T ABOUT A SPECIFIC CHURCH, BUT A GROUP OF LIKE MINDS WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE DISTURBINGLY NEGATIVE TREND IN OUR NATION’S POLITICAL STANCES THE LAST FEW YEARS. THAT GROUP IS CALLED “FAITH IN PUBLIC LIFE.”
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/684435743/provoked-by-trump-the-religious-left-is-finding-its-voice
RELIGION
Provoked By Trump, The Religious Left Is Finding Its Voice
5:38
DOWNLOAD
TRANSCRIPT
January 24, 20195:04 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
TOM GJELTEN
VIDEO -- Dozens of clergy members, immigration activists and others participate in a protest against the imprisonment and potential deportation of an immigration activist. Religious liberals are becoming increasingly outspoken in their opposition to many Trump administration policies.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Religious conservatives have rarely faced much competition in the political realm from faith-based groups on the left.
The provocations of President Trump may finally be changing that.
Nearly 40 years after some prominent evangelical Christians organized a Moral Majority movement to promote a conservative political agenda, a comparable effort by liberal religious leaders is coalescing in support of immigrant rights, universal health care, LGBTQ rights and racial justice.
"We believe that faith has a critical role to play in shaping public policies and influencing decisionmakers," says the Rev. Jennifer Butler, an ordained Presbyterian minister and founder of the group Faith in Public Life. "Our moral values speak to the kinds of just laws that we ought to have."
I think religion helps people understand who they should be.
Jennifer Butler, Faith in Public Life [SEE: https://www.faithinpubliclife.org/about]
Her group, part of what could be considered a religious left, says it has mobilized nearly 50,000 local clergy and faith leaders, with on-the-ground operations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio. Butler founded the organization in 2005 with a precedent in mind: It was religious leaders who drove the abolitionist movement in the 19th century and the civil rights movement in the 20th century.
"I think religion helps people understand who they should be," Butler says.
Assault on faith
Comparisons to the origins of the religious right are inevitable. The Rev. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority movement in 1979 to oppose abortion and gay rights and promote private Christian schools, largely in the South, during a time of cultural change.
Article continues after this message from our sponsor
RELIGION
U.S. Evangelicals Push Back Against Trump's Syria Pullout Plan
"What motivated the religious right to begin organizing was a feeling of loss," says Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "They felt the deepest values from their religion were being taken away from them."
Religious voters on the left now see a comparable assault on principles they hold dear and are finding a new determination to defend the values of their faith, as they understand them.
"To me, Jesus talked about reaching out to the poor, reaching out to the marginalized, reaching out to the oppressed," says Tara Agnew Harris, 41, who worships at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.
"Sometimes, I feel that traditional Christian beliefs have been hijacked," she says. "I think many people in the United States, when they hear about 'Christian beliefs,' they think it has something to do with a certain fundamentalist mindset."
The way that I personally interpret my Christian faith and my own Christian walk is that it's an active challenge. [It's about] how I can make a difference in the lives of others.
Tara Agnew Harris, member of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.
Harris in recent months has been exploring "immigrant injustice" issues and traveled with other Faith in Public Life activists to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., where undocumented immigrants were being held. She says her newfound interest in activism comes from her understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
"The way that I personally interpret my Christian faith and my own Christian walk," she says, "is that it's an active challenge. [It's about] how I can make a difference in the lives of others."
Butler's Faith in Public Life movement in recent months has organized a series of rallies to protest the Trump administration's detention of migrant families and the president's plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, moves that Butler sees as conflicting with biblical teachings.
"There are over a hundred verses of Scripture that say we are to welcome immigrants and welcome strangers," Butler says. "[Faith in Public Life] is driven by our moral values and not by politics."
Overshadowed on the campaign trail
The religious left, having been largely eclipsed in recent years, has a ways to go before it can match the clout of the religious right. Butler's group and those allied with it have primarily kept their focus on protest rallies and social media campaigns. Conservative religious groups, with 40 years of organizing experience, conduct sophisticated campaigns in support of those candidates whose views align with their own.
In his book The Four Faces of the Republican Party, Henry Olsen says conservative evangelical Christian voters demonstrate "unusual strength" in Republican presidential contests, especially in caucus states. While the Moral Majority organization was disbanded in 1989, the religious right is still active through such groups as the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which prepares voter guides spelling out candidate positions on such issues as abortion and gay marriage.
"We distribute those voter guides, door to door," says Virginia Galloway, a regional director, based in Atlanta. "We distribute them through the mail. We go to rallies and hand them out, and then people take them home and share them with their friends."
The Faith and Freedom Coalition has an army of trained volunteers at its disposal and access to sophisticated technology.
"When I started," Galloway says, "we had a clipboard and a piece of paper with names of voters on it. Now we have an app on our phone. It will even give us directions to the next house."
While many black churches have mounted voter registration drives in recent years to help get out the vote for Democratic candidates, the left does not have a level of organization matching that of religious conservatives.
RELIGION
The New Congress: Fewer Christians But Still Religious
"The religious right has been talked about a great deal over the years," says Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at the Pew Research Center. "We found when we tested this back in 2010 that a substantial number of Americans said they have heard of the religious right. A majority of Americans said they had not heard of the religious left."
A major disadvantage for any faith-based movement on the left is that it draws on a smaller base. Surveys show that liberals are less religious than conservatives by such measures as belief in God, church attendance or the importance of faith in their lives. Fewer than a third of liberals say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in organized religion. Nearly half of liberals under 30 have no religious affiliation.
Perhaps for that reason, the political agenda of the Faith in Public Life organization and other groups on the religious left at first glance doesn't seem all that different from that of groups on the secular left, such as MoveOn.Org.
In contrast, the religious right has a more unique identity, with an evangelical Christian agenda that secular conservatives don't necessarily share.
"The secular right may agree on some issues," says Henry Olsen, "but they are primarily motivated by a concern about what they would argue is the growing power of government. They are more interested in preserving the Constitution than the Bible."
Bridge builders
There are nevertheless some factors that may favor the religious liberals, in Butler's view. The religious left has, for example, a greater interfaith emphasis, incorporating progressive Catholics, mainline Protestants and some evangelicals, as well as non-Christian traditions.
"We're working with Muslims and Jews and Sikhs and every sort of faith group," Butler says. "We all have the same core values in mind, which is that everybody is created in the image of God, and we need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves."
At a time when the United States is increasingly diverse, such a multifaith approach makes sense.
Religious liberals also bring at least one value that the secular left, in Butler's view, may lack: a commitment to bridge building.
"A lot of folks on the secular left are a bit reticent to form common cause with people who see things differently on an issue," says Butler. "When it comes to reproductive rights and health, for example, we've been able to form alliances between people who are pro-life and pro-choice, because all of us agree there's common ground in wanting to reduce the number of abortions in the country."
Jesus, a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew, called us to preach good news to the poor, the broken, the bruised, and all those who are made to feel unaccepted!
Rev. William Barber
With many Democrats worried that identity-based politics might fragment their base, a movement committed to forming alliances across identities should be well-received.
Moral passion
Activists on the left should welcome the emergence of a religious core in their ranks because when political activity is morally inspired, it becomes more passionate — as conservatives already understand. Liberals are famous for being cerebral. A religious left may bring more energy to the progressive movement.
Democrats got a jolt of that passion at their last national convention with an appearance by the Rev. William Barber, an African-American preacher from North Carolina who started the "Moral Monday" movement in that state.
"Jesus, a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew, called us to preach good news to the poor, the broken, the bruised, and all those who are made to feel unaccepted!" Barber thundered, bringing the delegates to their feet.
Describing himself as "an evangelical Biblicist," Barber said the nation is need of "moral defibrillators" to work on its weak heart.
"We must shock this nation with the power of love. We must shock this nation with power of mercy. We must shock this nation and fight for justice for all!" Barber said, in the most rousing speech of the convention.
Barber has since launched a new Poor People's Campaign and is now a key partner in Butler's Faith in Public Life coalition. The two often show up at rallies and demonstrations together, walking arm in arm, both wearing their clerical collars.
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/fundamental-principles/
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1. We are rooted in a moral analysis based on our deepest religious and constitutional values that demand justice for all. Moral revival is necessary to save the heart and soul of our democracy.
2. We are committed to lifting up and deepening the leadership of those most affected by systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation and to building unity across lines of division.
3. We believe in the dismantling of unjust criminalization systems that exploit poor communities and communities of color and the transformation of the “War Economy” into a “Peace Economy” that values all humanity.
4. We believe that equal protection under the law is non-negotiable.
5. We believe that people should not live in or die from poverty in the richest nation ever to exist. Blaming the poor and claiming that the United States does not have an abundance of resources to overcome poverty are false narratives used to perpetuate economic exploitation, exclusion, and deep inequality.
6. We recognize the centrality of systemic racism in maintaining economic oppression must be named, detailed and exposed empirically, morally and spiritually. Poverty and economic inequality cannot be understood apart from a society built on white supremacy.
7. We aim to shift the distorted moral narrative often promoted by religious extremists in the nation from issues like prayer in school, abortion, and gun rights to one that is concerned with how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, immigrants, the disabled and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.
8. We will build up the power of people and state-based movements to serve as a vehicle for a powerful moral movement in the country and to transform the political, economic and moral structures of our society.
9. We recognize the need to organize at the state and local level—many of the most regressive policies are being passed at the state level, and these policies will have long and lasting effect, past even executive orders. The movement is not from above but below.
10. We will do our work in a non-partisan way—no elected officials or candidates get the stage or serve on the State Organizing Committee of the Campaign. This is not about left and right, Democrat or Republican but about right and wrong.
11. We uphold the need to do a season of sustained moral direct action as a way to break through the tweets and shift the moral narrative. We are demonstrating the power of people coming together across issues and geography and putting our bodies on the line to the issues that are affecting us all.
12. The Campaign and all its Participants and Endorsers embrace nonviolence. Violent tactics or actions will not be tolerated.
CONTACT US AT
INFO@POORPEOPLESCAMPAIGN.ORG
FOR PRESS REQUESTS, CONTACT US AT
PRESS@POORPEOPLESCAMPAIGN.ORG
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment