Republicans in Congress and the NRA

We have to get to the bottom of the connections between the NRA, Russia, and Republican campaigns including Trump’s in 2016.

At the heel of the hunt, I think the key to general Republican complicity in this scandal is going to be the fact that a lot of them got laundered Russian money in 2016, a lot of which got washed by the NRA.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 13, 2019

The NRA, which pumped $30 million into #Trump campaign, says it took money from 23 Russia-linked donors https://t.co/5M8LKBGfTz

— David Beard (@dabeard) January 2, 2019

Republican senators overseeing NRA-Russia probes are top NRA allies https://t.co/WeqabL5YVD

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 21, 2019

The National Rifle Association appears to have illegally coordinated its political advertising with Republican candidates in at least three recent high-profile US Senate races, according to Federal Communications Commission records. https://t.co/N29pHiZZ7K

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 14, 2019

Senator Richard Burr & NRA appear to be even tighter than we thought. Documents from the @FCC show that the NRA’s ads in @SenatorBurr’s race were authorized by the same media consultant working for Burr’s campaign-which is against the law. https://t.co/qPg57a3mk6 #NoNRAmoney

— Newtown Action (@NewtownAction) January 15, 2019

The Senators investigating ties between the Kremlin and the NRA are big allies of the gun group—but they don't seem to be impeding the investigation, a sign that the NRA's hold on lawmakers may be weakening. https://t.co/VImPUpoMnR

— The Trace (@teamtrace) January 18, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked U.S. intel report says Butina/Torshin operation to co-opt the NRA was blessed by the Kremlin. https://t.co/Ri670G8OSC

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) January 14, 2019

Mueller is investigating Trump campaign ties to the NRA

Special counsel Robert Mueller is interested in the Trump team's relationship with the NRA during the 2016 campaign https://t.co/YZ8ek8Z8x4 pic.twitter.com/kTU3gZYhxC

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 22, 2019

The NRA and Trump campaign appeared to use the exact same media consultant to coordinate their 2016 campaign ads, which is not legal: https://t.co/I8YPqDXdg1

— Slate (@Slate) December 9, 2018

and there’s this:

Documents reveal potentially illegal coordination between the NRA and Republicans in key Senate races https://t.co/70HC4dQaVR

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 22, 2019

Climate update 1/22/19

updated 1/24/19

Roughly 1 in 4 Americans say their “personal observations of weather” helped convince them that climate change is real. Two new polls show that U.S. concern about global warming is surging, @yayitsrob reports: https://t.co/aBLhBfBBPV

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) January 24, 2019

Extreme weather and drought are two ways the climate crisis exacerbates the growing refugee and security crises around the world. Solving these crises requires action to solve the climate crisis. https://t.co/XDWWBXEaPI

— Al Gore (@algore) January 24, 2019

At a conference sponsored by Facebook, Google and Microsoft, a climate-change denial group handed out brochures that claimed “more carbon dioxide will help everyone, including future generations of our families.” https://t.co/Ny9AKY5qR9

— Stephanie Mencimer (@smencimer) January 23, 2019

A record number of Americans understand that climate change is real, according to a new survey, and they are increasingly worried about its effects in their lives today https://t.co/pEJyra4MvF

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 22, 2019

More Americans than ever believe in climate change, no matter what Trump says https://t.co/p35W14rjAY pic.twitter.com/lTYbnhDk8K

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 22, 2019

Greenland’s Melting Ice Nears a ‘Tipping Point,’ Scientists Say https://t.co/vwlv4Q4ePO

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 22, 2019

"Policymakers have severely underestimated the risks of ecological tipping points, according to a study that shows 45% of all potential environmental collapses are interrelated and could amplify one another."#ClimateChange #ActOnClimate #Science https://t.co/JSBuhNihqx

— Paul Dawson on Climate Change (@PaulEDawson) January 4, 2019

Breaking News: Scientists say the world’s oceans are heating up faster than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change https://t.co/nB5KIoldyO

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 10, 2019

But the report also fell into some of the kind of Both Sides coverage that has made denialism a force in mainstream politics. https://t.co/bO9MIx1o2y

— Esquire (@esquire) January 3, 2019

The disbelief of climate change and racism rest on the same foundation: an attack on observable reality, on science. If there is any idea that we destabilize this new year, then let it be this foundation of disbelief. My latest @TheAtlantic. https://t.co/IJo3zUQ5gi

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) January 1, 2019

“We have rallied, as human beings, to do what’s right. But the chips are down now, and we have to get serious about confronting this global emergency.”

Former VP @algore underlines the threat of climate change: https://t.co/5DgxG331he pic.twitter.com/BY6doRukUZ

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 1, 2019

The most significant story of 2018 wasn’t Donald Trump or Robert Mueller. It was climate change. https://t.co/dzBSUs1UaB

— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) December 31, 2018

Three decades have passed since then-NASA scientist James Hansen testified before the Senate Energy committee and alerted the country to the arrival of global warming.

Why it matters: He was right. https://t.co/KzlQPi6vSE

— Axios (@axios) December 26, 2018

Do you think that the extreme weather events in the United States over the past few years are related to climate change?
ALL
Yes 61%
No 34%
REP.
Yes 24%
No 70%
DEM.
Yes 90%
No 8%
IND.
Yes 63%
No 32%
(Quinnipiac U Poll, RV 12/12-17/18)
more: https://t.co/aZqRzPW95r

— PollingReport.com (@pollreport) December 18, 2018

Kinda like what happened in Kansas! Right? https://t.co/PPrGzUqfsr

— David Roberts (@drvox) December 17, 2018

The warming in the Arctic is unlike anything on record, NOAA reports. A scientist says the pace is greater than any natural cycle. https://t.co/3yqFt3z2re pic.twitter.com/EXkYiKInzF

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 11, 2018

Some Trump social media photos appear to have been altered

Aren’t we sensitive about those small hands? lol

President Trump's official Facebook account has been posting photoshopped images that make his fingers look longer. Seriously. https://t.co/6DtYhICTCO pic.twitter.com/iVGfkVe5Vj

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) January 21, 2019

Trump’s social media photos reportedly altered to make him look thinner and his hands bigger. https://t.co/MeggY4EHwS

— Slate (@Slate) January 22, 2019

Trump and his MAGA base feed the Covington controversy

White people are victims in the MAGA world.

Just a reminder that Trump never invited Waffle House hero James Shaw Jr to the White House—a man who saved American lives—but is inviting rich racists because that’s what he is. https://t.co/zsrYO6ewLK

— Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) January 22, 2019

Sarah Sanders says that WH has reached out to the Covington Catholic kids and invited them to the WH but any meeting would take place after the shutdown.

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 22, 2019

Analysis: Trump’s defense of Covington teens is latest skirmish in culture war about "masculinity" https://t.co/qwucv2yjgj

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 22, 2019

You should read this @laurawags essay. We’ve had two years with Trump, and too many folks are still unwilling to call out racist bullying. On video! If you need to experience this to recognize it, we are in trouble. https://t.co/OY4sMLQnOA

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) January 22, 2019

Covington Catholic is perhaps the perfect fight for Trump. https://t.co/6VRfpWlFGc

— Philip Bump (@pbump) January 22, 2019

Desperately feeding alternate chum to the MAGA base while Trump's bullying over the wall fails and his numbers (outside the bubble) swirl down the drain https://t.co/zCiupe512c

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 22, 2019

Yep, @paulwaldman1 gets this exactly right. Trump, Limbaugh, and the conservative grift-outrage machine are absolutely overjoyed about the Covington student controversy:https://t.co/sNVQylUKxq

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 22, 2019

McConnell’s bill is a sham

It’s not a compromise.

SCOTUS just declined DACA case. That makes this compromise even more absurd.

As I noted in piece below:

"There is no way this offer represents a compromise, if we conventionally understand a 'compromise' to be an agreement in which both sides secure meaningful concessions." https://t.co/6Jh32ebSuE

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 22, 2019

THIS –> from @ThePlumLineGS is critical:

Trump’s phony #immigration ‘compromise’ has now been unmasked as a total shamhttps://t.co/oStiDDFeSz

— Philip Wolgin (@pwolgin) January 22, 2019

This is a major change to immigration law that Trump didn’t mention in his speech but has crept into the bill. https://t.co/hkzrtcXSSr

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 22, 2019

Update on Trump’s false or misleading claims

He’s getting worse.

I call them lies. I think he deliberately says things he knows are not true.

Analysis | President Trump made 8,158 false or misleading claims in his first two years https://t.co/ucsCDjAQE0 He almost tripled his pace of false claims in his second year.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 21, 2019

Donald Trump said more than 6,000(!) untrue things in 2018https://t.co/pKD0dE17WE pic.twitter.com/Nnr3u1mnYa

— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) January 21, 2019

President Trump said more than 6,000(!) untrue things in 2018 | Analysis by @CillizzaCNN https://t.co/MtyOD7SQJx pic.twitter.com/wi0qZs3y9l

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) January 22, 2019

A Harvard and a Yale psychiatrist on Trump: "He is unimpeded by empathy, duty, or shame and is wedded, in dangerous ways, only to what nurtures his exaggerated self-image … As things stand, his disregard for truth imperils our country and the world." https://t.co/krGNkNNPFv

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 21, 2019

Today is Tuesday. That means @realDonaldTrump is lying, again.

Multiple Trump associates have pled guilty as a result of evidence in the possession of the @FBI. Does @POTUS attack the evidence? No. He attacks law enforcement.#TuesdayThoughts https://t.co/FuQFzINsu1

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 22, 2019

Trump takes sides again

Trump tweeted congratulations to the Patriots for making the Super Bowl but did nothing for the Rams. If he was the president of the whole country, he would congratulate both sides. He just wants to divide people, even on something minor like this.

Remember Kraft gave Trump a SuperBowl ring as a gift, and donated $1 million to his inaugural committee. Trump likes Brady because he is a rich man with a foreign wife that has fits when things do not go his way and vice-versa. https://t.co/lwkcYI1r6A via @BleacherReport #GoRams

— Andrew Padovano (@Ap_mecca93) January 21, 2019

Never forget the infamous picture of the MAGA hat in Brady’s locker (and that Kraft gave a million to the Trump campaign from his company) pic.twitter.com/bIq3aQNzNf

— Jamie Ehrlich (@jamie_ehrlich) January 21, 2019

and don’t forget this:

Are you forgetting that Putin also "stole" 😉 Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring? #Collusion https://t.co/6x3kPaa2au

— R.D. Greenfield (@RDGreenfield1) January 21, 2019

Trump isn’t giving anything in his “deal”

All he doing is giving back what he took away in terms of protection for immigrant groups.

It would be like this:

Let’s say I lent you $20 and you didn’t pay me back. Then you said you would pay me back if I treated you to dinner too.

That’s a scam, not a deal.

Sad!

Baltimore’s Mee Jun Low

The Baltimore Sun ran an article today about Mee Jun Low, a small cheap Chinese restaurant on Mulberry Street in downtown Baltimore many years ago.

I recall one time I was there with a friend. He asked the waitress if they had a cigarette machine. She said no but she would give him one of hers.

The 1978 edition of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) Bawlamer guide said:

“At the end of your “meal” in the garish den of Mee Jun’s, you’ll wonder why you bothered to try to find the location, climb the narrow stairs, attempt to decipher the faded menu, and figure out what you were really eating. Not for the faint at heart. Entrees $2.50-$6.75.”