Mueller's Memos. Wonkagenda For Mon., Nov. 4, 2019
Buzzfeed FOIA'd Mueller docs, the 2020 horse race, and a Canadian Hamburglar. Your morning news brief!
Morning Wonketariat! Here's some of the things wemaybe talking about today.
Minions under (acting) White House Chief of Staff and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney have no intention of complying with subpoenas from House impeachment investigators today. Democrats say they've been preparing for this stonewalling tactic with a slew of other interviews this week, including ways to nail John Bolton's mustache to a chair.
Four witnesses scheduled to testify tomorrow - NSC lawyers Eisenberg and Ellis as well as Mulvaney deputy Blair and… https: //t.co/qU5J4YUJkd
— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju) 1572837912.0
Buzzfeed and CNN got their hands on some of Robert Mueller's super secret memosand they reveal some rather interesting things. For one thing, convicted liar Michael Cohen said it was "not his idea" to lie to Congress; for two, the Ukrainium One fantasy was being floated as early as 2016 by Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik long before Rudy Giuliani started slurring it on Fox News.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! The Trump campaign was "very happy" the Russians dumped HER EMAILS since it distracted from Sen. Ted Cruz telling Republicans to vote their conscience at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Additionally, CNN is reporting that Mike Flynn was thought to have the most connections with Russia, Trump and his inner-circle of idiots had a hard-on for HER EMAILS, and they kept Sean Hannity in the loop about everything. [ Mueller's Notes ]
The New York Times has a good longread about how former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko was trying to curry favor with Trump in order to keep military aid flowing to the country so they could fight Russian-backed separatists. This included the freezing of cases related to Paul Manafort's funny money problems and the Mueller investigation. [ Morning Maddow ]
A federal judge has shot down a lawsuit challenging Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's overhaul of Obama-era sexual assault rules.
Later today the EPA is expected to ease up on rules regulating the dumping of toxic waste water into local waterways. What's the worst that could happen?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks some of the 2020 candidates should stop tripping over each other in their race to the left, arguing that voters in the Rust and Bible belts aren't too keen on Medicare For All or the Green New Deal. In a roundtable with Bloomberg, Pelosi said, "What works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan. What works in Michigan works in San Francisco — talking about workers' rights and sharing prosperity. Remember November. You must win the Electoral College."
Pete Buttigieg wrote an op-ed in Buzzfeed touting his new disability policy.
Politico has a BRUTAL play-by-play on how Beto's failure to get his shit together ultimately led to his campaign's downfall.
Now that Andrew Yang's campaign has money, he fully intends to be the Ron Paul of 2020.
The Boston Globe has a nice piece on how Elizabeth Warren finally found her groove on the campaign trail.
Dave Weigel has a great piece about the Liberty and Justice Dinner this weekend. Pete Buttigieg gave a fiery speech and now everyone thinks he's gay Obama 2.0 , Sen. Elizabeth Warren kicked Joe Biden, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar yelled at some people in the hope of standing out. On the sad end, John Delaney and Gov. Steve Bullock had to shout over the sound of people leaving, and Joe Biden has boxes of party favors and leftover tickets since his people never bothered to show up.
The 2020 candidates are going all-in on Iowa in one last desperate push to stand out ahead of the Iowa caucuses in February, with many campaigns struggling to stay afloat and Pete Buttigieg moving in on the old white people faltering on Joe Biden.
Politico has a piece where its reporters gab about seven things that could shape 2020.
A new Texas Tribune poll shows Democrats struggling to overtake Trump in Texas, while a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that it's still anyone's race in 2020.
Tomorrow is election day! Political fortune tellers think it, like everything else is 2019, is a bellwether for 2020.
As California burns (again), Trump is (again) threatening to cut off funding for wildfires, shitposting this weekend that he told Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to "clean" the forests floors with rakes.
The Chicago Reader, working with transparency nonprofit Lucy Parsons Labs and the ink-stained wretches over at Muckrock, have uncovered how cops in Chicago have been secretly using civil asset forfeitures as a multi-million dollar dark money fund. A lot of the cash is being used to fund undercover narcotics operations, but the Chicago Police Department has also spent a lot on dubiously legal search and surveillance measures, like phone cracking and Stingrays, and they've gone out of their way to hide all of it. TLDR: Cops are ripping off cars from poor people, and using the cash to spy on and arrest more poor people.
The Trump administration doesn't want to let in Iraqi refugees who risked their lives helped US forces during the Iraq War 2: Oil Snatch-a-roo.
The New York Times has a long, windy yarn about former Soviet states doling out oodles of Euros to oligarchs in the farming business in the form of government subsidies. It's a lot like the US farm bailouts, if the farmers were mobsters.
An AP investigation has found that some Canadian homes may have lead levels worse than Flint, Michigan. The reasoning is because of aging plumbing systems throughout the country, and a lack of federal oversight, testing, or notification. Oh, Canada, if only there were some kind of agency focused on protecting the environment!
Canadians are being ripped off by a hacker(s) who's been called "The Hamburglar," for hacking the McDonald's app accounts of customers and stealing more than $2,000 in food. McDonald's recommends customers change their passwords, and is telling customers to contact their banks for refunds. The lesson here is never link your debit or credit cards with random apps, and avoid the lure of public WiFi.
Official Florida man Donald Trump migrated back to New York to grace the crowd at a UFC fight with his presence. The crowd was not enthused, and then things just got weird.
A Florida man is being charged with fraud when, after working at an electrical plant for six years, he was offered a promotion and it was discovered he'd faked all his qualifications for the job.
Seeing as how there's local elections tomorrow, John Oliver 'splained voting machines, how Congress knows they're fucked, the companies know they're fucked, and how nobody wants to fix them because of their hatred for Chads. Fucking Chad.
Voting Machines: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) www.youtube.com
And here's your morning Nice Time: It's Prince Michael!
Sir Michael Newton www.youtube.com
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