NYT says Trump is poised to name Richard Grenell as Director of National Intelligence.
Here's Lev Parnas telling the Daily Beast that Grenell agreed to give a "heads up" to Kremlin-connected oligarch Dmitry Firtash if DOJ was about to move to extradite him to face trial here:
“During the situation that was going on with the Firtash case, Victoria [Toensing] called Ric Grenell...
“She basically asked him, if he sees any pressure coming from DOJ to extradite Firtash, if he could let us know. She told me he said he would.”
"A spokesperson for Grenell at the US embassy in Berlin did not respond to multiple requests for comment, which included detailed visibility of this reporting. State Dept officials in Washington also did not respond to multiple requests for comment."
My friend Welton Gaddy died today -- one of my favorite people in the world.
Welton was the Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana, and the longtime former president of the Interfaith Alliance @intrfthalliance -- where he did so much good for so many years. religionnews.com/2014/11/19/wel…
Welton was the fiercest, wisest, most unrelentingly decent champion of the first amendment and its protections of true freedom of religion. thenewsstar.com/story/life/fai…
Short(ish) thread on one interesting detail concerning the bizarre falsified elector documents Republicans sent in to the National Archives in various Biden-won states after the 2020 election, falsely asserting that those states had chosen Republican/Trump electors:
In 5 states (at least) - AZ, GA, NV, MI, WI - Republicans sent in fake electoral slates that looked quite alike: Same font, spacing, formatting, and language. The similarity suggests a coordinated effort or that, at least, they were all working from the same document template.
Here's the nut graf language, for example, from the Arizona document:
"WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Arizona, do hereby certify the following:"
"When a broad political movement has consistently put lies ahead of truth in the service of its own power—as the Trumpist right has with respect to Russia, Trump and associated matters—it simply has to smear those who faced the issue squarely.
"To acknowledge that Susan’s writings are accurate, that she is superbly qualified to serve at the Justice Department, and that her work reflects not bias but care, wisdom, and factual rigor is to allow that there really was something to talk about concerning Russia and Trump.
Ever have one of those nightmares where it's your time to talk and everybody's looking at you, but you haven't prepared anything?
I've had that nightmare a million times, but never once where the amount of time I had to tread water and ad lib and fail and flail was **four hours**.
"Alabama saw its largest single-day increase in new cases Monday, a little more than three weeks after the stay-at-home order expired on April 30 and two weeks after the state allowed restaurants and bars to reopen on May 11." alreporter.com/2020/05/26/wer…
"The number of cases confirmed per day in Alabama has been rising since April 30, showing no sign of slowing. Over the past week, new cases rose faster than in 46 other states with no comparable increase in testing." alreporter.com/2020/05/26/wer…
"Those who say more testing is the only cause for the rise in cases are simply wrong, said Dr. Michael Saag, infectious disease expert at UAB.
“They’re not walking through the hospital like I am, seeing the entire ICU just loaded with only COVID patients" alreporter.com/2020/05/26/wer…
"Aome senior officials believe that the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices that make up the three floors of the West Wing." nytimes.com/2020/05/10/us/…
"Most restaurants, offices and retail stores do not have the ability to regularly test all their employees and quickly track down and quarantine the contacts of anyone who gets infected. At the White House, all employees are being tested at least weekly" nytimes.com/2020/05/10/us/…
"Like other members of the White House staff, Ms. Miller did not regularly wear a mask while at work. On Thursday she was seen on television talking without a mask within a few feet of several reporters, all of whom were wearing one." nytimes.com/2020/05/10/us/…