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Brian Beutler
@brianbeutler
, 5 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
I overheard this on @Lawrence, too, and assumed that Bezos must suspect a foreign government intelligence agency–most likely Saudi Arabia.

Then I remembered the horrifying, but somehow forgotten story of Jeffrey Rambo. nytimes.com/2018/06/24/bus…
To wit: nytimes.com/2018/06/24/bus…
In other words, the Trump administration, or perhaps Trump-loyal rogue security service guys, have already committed wild privacy abuses on the order of what Bezos apparently suspects, and used the information to blackmail a reporter.
Because Trump is an unceasing crook, and because Washington media got wrapped around the axle by the gossipy aspect and professional implications of the Watkins-Wolfe, this scandal got flushed down the memory hole almost immediately. But it happened.
On that basis alone, I think Bezos would not be crazy to suspect something similar happened here–if in fact that's what he suspects.
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Brian Beutler
@brianbeutler
The top tax rate in the country that provided Howard Schultz the opportunity to become one of the richest men in the world was 91 percent when he was a child, and 70 percent when he founded his company. Simply un-American. His favorite Dem president, FDR, would not have approved.
We shouldn't ask each generation to rebuild the country anew. We shouldn't ask young people to fight for the rights and privileges their parents and grandparents secured for themselves all over again.
Their inheritance shouldn't be a fortune or chicken scratch depending on their parents' luck and longevity. It should be a better, more just country for each new cohort, every time.
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Brian Beutler
@brianbeutler
Dems simply can't count on major media to convey the state of politics faithfully. Even when the plain truth–Trump demanding unilateral concessions to reopen his own government–stares reporters in the face, institutional incentives drive them to false balance. Gotta go around.
🚶...
Trump literally called cameras into the Oval Office last month and said "if we don't get what we want...I will shut down the government," and then it happened, and the mainstream press is still #bothsidesing it.
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Brian Beutler
@brianbeutler
Pretty sure this is the first time Trump has claimed knowledge of the "inner workings" of the Mueller investigation, one week after he put a lackey in charge of it.

Perhaps it's a coincidence and he's just repeating b.s. he heard from witnesses. Still, very alarming.
Note that just yesterday, two Daily Caller propagandists lobbed Trump a softball about potential Whitaker replacements, and Trump, unprompted, confessed that Whitaker's appointment was all about Mueller.
Speaking of Daily Caller propagandists, here's a third. Note how in attempting to smear @daveweigel, @ChuckRossDC intentionally cut away the attached screen grab, which included both his colleagues' softball question, and Trump's unprompted, incriminating response.
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