By Robert A. Vella
If readers think it’s difficult keeping up with the news in these troubled times, try documenting it every day! It’s like trying to herd thousands of stubborn cats! But, that’s enough said about my problems. Let’s get to the news.
Today, we’ll examine the First Lady’s troubles in the form of a scapegoated former friend and aide whose new tell-all book is rocking the White House, President Trump’s ongoing efforts to cover-up his corrupt and criminal behavior especially concerning his traitorous ties to Russia, confirmation of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny‘s poisoning, Trump’s politically and racially motivated trip to Kenosha plus related stories, coronavirus pandemic news, and election news.
Apparently Melania’s adversary Stephanie Winston Wolkoff has been cooperating with three ongoing criminal investigations into the Trump inauguration including the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York (SDNY), Washington D.C.’s attorney general, and the House of Representatives’ Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and, is planning to release taped conversations she had with the First Lady. Afterwards, Melania might become “Melanoma.”
Another book which was published on Tuesday, by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Schmidt, is causing shockwaves in Trumpland and at the DOJ. Details of the hamstringing of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into Russian collusion during the 2016 election campaign is painting a much clearer picture of official cover-up by the Trump administration which is still continuing concerning Russian interference in the upcoming 2020 election. The book also triggered President Trump to reveal, by denying a claim which Schmidt never made, that he might have suffered a series of mini-strokes last year during the Democrats impeachment inquiry.
Yes, it’s been confirmed. Vladimir Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny was poisoned.
Laura Ingraham‘s long interview with Trump on Monday is also noteworthy because it showcased his conspiratorial and nonsensical ramblings despite the Fox News host’s repeated efforts to prevent him from saying something stupid which could further damage his reelection chances. Megalomania just can’t be constrained, it seems.
But first, I highly recommend watching yesterday’s illuminating interview with former DHS official Elizabeth Neumann by MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace. In it, she blasts the president for supporting violent white supremacist groups which represent the greatest terrorist threat to the nation. As a Christian and Republican, she also candidly explained her regretful decision to vote for Trump in 2016 saying that she was blinded by the ideological culture which surrounded her. See:
Former DHS official speaks to the growing threat of white supremacy and how warnings from her department were rebuffed – Former DHS official who left the Trump administration in April, Elizabeth Neumann, weighs in on the threat of domestic terrorism and calls it ‘ironic’ that the president uses the term ‘domestic terrorism’ now to refer to Antifa when he refused to do so after the shooting in El Paso last year
Melania’s troubles
From: Mrs. Trump’s ex-adviser says she taped calls for protection [clarification by The Secular Jurist]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former friend and adviser of Melania Trump said Tuesday that she made recordings of her conversations with the first lady because she needed evidence to protect herself amid questions about the costs [and possible illegality] of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, whose book “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” was released this week, helped produce Trump’s inauguration and later worked for the first lady as an unpaid White House adviser.
[…]
In an interview on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Wolkoff said, “I’ve been accused of taping my friend, as the White House said, and how horrible of a human being I am for doing that.”
“And they’re right. If she was my friend, it would be horrible. But Melania and the White House had accused me of criminal activity and publicly shamed and fired me and made me their scapegoat,” Wolkoff said. “At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record. She was no longer my friend and she was willing to let them take me down.”
Wolkoff said Melania Trump told her that White House attorneys claimed there was no other choice but to turn her back on her friend because there was a possible probe of the presidential inauguration committee. Wolkoff said she taped the first lady because “I was going to do anything in my power to make sure that I was protected.”
[…]
Wolkoff told ABC News in an interview broadcast Monday that she continues to cooperate with multiple criminal investigations into the committee’s operations.
Related stories:
Melania Trump used private email accounts while in the White House, says former colleague and friend
Trump’s cover-up
From: NYT reporter’s new book makes explosive Russia, Mueller claims — that Times didn’t report
It’s one of a number of potentially explosive claims in [New York Times reporter Michael] Schmidt’s forthcoming book, titled “Donald Trump v. The United States,” which will officially be published on Tuesday. Schmidt covered the Russia investigation extensively for the Times, and his early reporting on the probe won a Pulitzer Prize.
Per Axios, Schmidt’s book is based on an array of documents obtained from Mueller’s office, the FBI, the White House and Trump’s personal legal team, as well as hundreds of hours of conversations with current and former officials and others involved in the investigation. It is not immediately entirely clear why these reports, many dating back as far as three years, made it into the pages of Schmidt’s book rather than the subscription-based newspaper that employs him.
In an article adapted from his book, Schmidt reported Sunday that former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein blocked Mueller from investigating Trump’s personal financial ties to Russia.
“[L]aw enforcement officials never fully investigated Mr. Trump’s own relationship with Russia, even though some career FBI counterintelligence investigators thought his ties posed such a national security threat that they took the extraordinary step of opening an inquiry into them,” Schmidt reports. “Within days, the former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere.”
Related stories:
Top White House Officials Want a Lid on Talk of Election Threats
Mike Pence says he ‘doesn’t recall’ being on ‘standby’ for Trump [hospital visit]
From: Justice Department hands over latest batch of Mueller investigation interviews to CNN
CNN received on Tuesday night what appears to be the last several hundred pages of witness interview records that the Justice Department is releasing from the Mueller investigation, part of what’s become an illuminating monthly disclosure of what witnesses told investigators about Russian election interference and the 2016 campaign.
This is the 10th time CNN has gotten documents like these from the Justice Department regarding the Mueller investigation as part of a 2019 lawsuit in conjunction with BuzzFeed News.
The previous releases have fleshed out details that Mueller summarized in his final report regarding President Donald Trump and his campaign’s actions. They often help explain what investigators learned about the Trump campaign in 2016 and Trump’s behavior then and after.
The memos so far have revealed, for instance, how top Trump campaign officials witnessed Trump and other officials in his campaign pushing for the release of stolen Democratic emails and supported a conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked the Democrats in 2016.
At times, the documents have given much fuller portraits of what the Russia investigation’s top cooperators said, and how several advisers to Trump turned on the President and others to share what they knew.
Navalny’s poisoning
From: Germany says Russia’s Navalny poisoned with nerve agent
BERLIN (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent that British authorities identified in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy, the German government said Wednesday, citing new test results.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement that testing by a special German military laboratory at the Charite’s request had now shown “proof without doubt of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.”
“It is a dismaying event that Alexei Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia,” Seibert said. “The German government condemns this attack in the strongest terms.”
Related stories:
Putin Runs the Show in Belarus as Russia Keeps State TV on Air
Thousands protest against Bulgarian government, scuffle with police
Montenegro’s president accuses Serbia of meddling in election
Kenosha visit and related stories
Local politicians and Jacob Blake’s family slam Trump’s visit to Kenosha
AP FACT CHECK: Trump misstates what happened in Kenosha
Owner of burned business accuses Trump of misleading public
Trump went full authoritarian in his latest Fox News interview [with Laura Ingraham]
Alleged [right-wing extremist] ‘boogaloo’ member arrested for threat against public health official
Where protesters go, armed militias, vigilantes likely to follow
Portland police missing in action against militias
Federal law enforcement drawn deeper into Trump’s political ambitions
Justice Department investigates protest leaders, funding in Portland and other cities
Coronavirus pandemic
Internal tensions and a resignation to virus’ spread govern President Trump’s pandemic response
White House slams WHO over criticism of [politically motivated] push for COVID-19 vaccine
Trump Admin Won’t Join International Vaccine Effort Because WHO Is Involved
CDC Did Not ‘Admit Only 6%’ of Recorded Deaths from COVID-19 [as Trump supporters claim]
Iowa: Coronavirus task force report shows dire warnings for the state
Coronavirus Is Surging In the U.S. Midwest. Here’s What’s Going on Across the Region
Fauci Warns of Surge; U.K. Reverses Course Again: Virus Update
Convalescent plasma not proven for coronavirus, [NIH] panel says
Election news
Ed Markey Holds Off Joseph Kennedy in Mass. Senate Race
Number of youth voters ‘definitely’ voting jumps to 77 percent: poll
Georgia likely removed nearly 200k from voter rolls wrongfully, report says
Mail-in voting: USPS delivery delays on everything from medicine to baby chicks deepen concerns
Other news
Appeals Court Rules [against Trump administration] To Keep CAFE Penalties High
Trump administration plans to remove endangered wolf protections
The Secular Jurist 
Pingback: Melania’s troubles, Trump’s cover-up, Navalny’s poisoning, Kenosha visit, pandemic and election news | sdbast
Thanks again so much for compiling these articles every day. My head swims from the non-stop news these days and it is deeply helpful to have you put these articles all in one place. Thanks, my friend.
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Much appreciated, and thank you too. For whatever it’s worth, I feel a sense of duty to do this comprehensive coverage. I’m hoping that by early next year I can get back to writing about things that really interest me.
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Don’t count on that, Robert.
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I’ve already made contingency plans.
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Armed militias? Constitutional law? 😀
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Nobody likes writing about fascism, but it is necessary.
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The depth of the corruption in DT45’s administration deepens every day. At some point, it’s got to implode.
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One would think so, from a historical perspective at least.
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