Congressman Adam Schiff starts this with the question of why Republicans should have voted to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. Continues with his own history joining it back to the initial question with a court case against Richard Miller. He describes his work under an attorney in Czechoslovakia (related to Vladimir Merciar's messaging), describing the breakup as "the velvet divorce".
Quotes:
- If you are going to live in Southern California, why would anyone choose to live anywhere but the beach?
- From chapter 6 - in November 2014, North Korea had hacked Sony Pictures before the studio released a film, The Interview - Wikipedia lists several doubts
- Several pages cover the first Trump/Russia investigation - one such quote:
The air of scandal around Nunes was now palpable. It seemed to me that his whole world was caving in, and not even his Republican colleagues wanted to defend him. Everywhere he went, he was trailed by a phalanx of reporters shouting questions about the "Midnight Run," and I would see him in the corridors below the Capital hurrying to escape the press, looking beleaguered and afraid.
- From an interview with Dan Coats concerning a call with Trump Here is the president of the United States sitting in an empty White House. His wife is in New York. His family is in New York. On a Saturday night, that has to be a lonely thing to do
- Several pages are spent quoting his "I don't think it's OK" speech, however hearing and seeing it from video carries more impact
- Concerning Trump's call to the Ukrainian president:
I settled on what was troubling me: Zelensky wasn't surprised by Trump's request. Nothing Trump asked for took him aback, and he never once asked what these investigations were really about. He knew. Someone had prepared Zelensky for exactly what the president would be asking.
The mysterious coach was Rudy Giuliani.
- Storming the SCIF:
The double doors were flung open and a cascade of GOP rabble-rousers clamored into the room demanding to be included... They had stormed past the security guard and into the bunker, bringing their cellphones with them, an extremely serious breach of the SCIF security protocols.
From the pictures in the news, Rodney Davis was at the back of the group. It seems to me that this provided the permission structure for the January 6 insurrection of the capital.
- After the first impeachment: What differentiated Trump's circumstances from Nixon wasn't the absence of a recording, but the presence of Fox News and a whole information ecosystem that sustained Trump no matter how corrupt his conduct.
- During the Ukrainian investigation:
In her crisp British cadences, Fiona Hill had just told the Republicans on our committee - and not only them but the president as well - that they were full of it, and even worse, they were pushing out Kremlin talking points and doing Putin's bidding.
- Schiff expresses a level of Democratic self-awareness that may be missing in some echo chambers:
During one of (Senator) Romney's 2012 presidential debates, Obama had attacked him over his position on Russia. In a mocking tone, Obama said: "When you were asked 'What's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America?' you said Russia. Not al-Qaeda, you said Russia. ... In the time that had since passed, Romney's views of the continuing threat from Russia had proven far more prescient than Obama's
The book Careless People was written by Sarah Wynn-Williams.
- Chapter 1 starts with her recounting a shark attack at age 13.
- Early at her work, she was expected to send a mail pushing to start a Facebook organ donor flag as a life event, for a director's pet-project
- She saw Hillary Clinton at a Salsa bar in Columbia
- Sheryl Sandberg used Facebook employees to sell her book - seems unsavory but not illegal
- Korean law requires games to be submitted and reviewed, Facebook ignored this so their government issued arrest warrants for several managers including Mark. Before a trip there, they sent someone as a test
- A quote from her experience on a trip to Asia - I didn't anticipate the only request he (Mark Zuckerberg) makes: a riot. To be precise, his exact request is for a riot or a peace rally … I'm surprised when we come to a stop outside a shopping mall because the president-elect's team had said the blusukan would take place at a nearby slum. We all jump out and try to locate Jokowi and Mark. Within moments we're overtaken by people
- Privacy vs access Facebook would leverage Hong Kong users' data as part of a deal to get into China
- Concerning a conference in Davos: ‘'the point when I realize that Facebook's meetings with politicians are changing is when I see that Cameron and Osborne (British) don't want to confront Joel and Sheryl about any regulatory issues. What they want to talk about - and ultimately request - is Facebooks's support against the Brexit vote.''
- In reference to the 2016 US presidential election: ‘'Facebook embedded staff in Trump's campaign team in San Antonio for months, alongside Trump campaign programmers, ad copywriters, media buyers, network engineers, and data scientists. A Trump operative named Brad Parscale ran operation together with embedded Facebook staff''
- A mention of how an open office plan reduces sexual harassment lawsuits
- Near the end of the book she lists out lies that Facebook executives have made in front of congress - unaware of any accountability
There is also a review from Lawfare here.
Sent the following message to Dick Durbin:
Although it is rather old, I recently read the ProPublica report on the gifts received by the Supreme Court justices. While Thomas may claim that he was going to decide in the way he would decide, it is clear that the gifts didn't help him see the perspective of the rest of us who don't fly private. I was glad to also see that the Senator I voted for has made several public statements and asked Thomas to recuse on specific decisions.
Realistically it is unlikely that this letter, or any newspaper article will give a conservative justice a conscience, shining a light on corruption makes it clear that we aren't people who are OK with corruption.
Here's a
link to Sen Durbin request for recusual in 2023.
Yesterday Joe Biden exited his presidential run for 2024. He had a rather short announcement and promoted his vice president in her bid for the nomination. It didn't look like he was enjoying it as much as any state-of the-union speeches or campaign events.
For once in the history of the US, we are not at war, in a recession, or under a pandemic. There are no shortages at the gas pumps and no empty shelves in stores. Life may not be perfect, but it is better than most times.
With Kamala Harris being a former attorney general, this election is becoming a contest of law verses lawless. It is a good time to pause and appreciate that Biden did something he didn't want to do for the good of the democracy.