Podcasts about kilimnik

Four years on, litigation of the 2016 presidential election continues. Not doing so is a tacit acceptance of other countries' ability to skew results of the United States' elections.This week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the fifth and final volume of its report on Russian interference. It's nearly 1,000-pages and mostly takes a look back. But it's filled with clear warnings for this election. Related: Trump campaign's Russia contacts 'grave' threat, reportSen. Mark Warner is a Democrat from Virginia and the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He joins The World's host Marco Werman to discuss the report and its lessons for 2020. Related: Russia rejects accusations of spreading virus disinformationMarco Werman: One of the most stunning conclusions of this report is that Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, was in fact, a career spy for the Russians. And that conclusion goes a lot further than the Mueller report, and yet it doesn't seem to have caused much of a stir. Do you think that's an astounding revelation? Mark Warner: Well, I think every American should read of the absolutely stunning number of contacts between Russians, Russian agents and members of the Trump campaign. And in reference to Mr. Kilimnik and Mr. Manafort, we know Manafort passed over insider campaign information, polling information, as reported in the report. What the Russians did with that, how they used it, we may never know. Related: How relying on electronic voting machines puts us at riskDo you believe Manafort joined the Trump campaign for the express purpose of selling information from inside to the Russians? Again, I would ask every American to read it and draw their own conclusions. I mean, clearly, there were more contacts, connections than had been previously reported. I think we've got a pretty comprehensive picture. And what worries me the most is that we're now 70-plus days away from another election. And unfortunately, our country and the White House, in particular, have not done enough to prevent Russia or other nations from intervening in the next presidential election as well. Related: This ex-MP wants US politicians to 'stop playing the Ukrainian card' Americans should read this 1,000-page report, but it is heavily redacted. It's really hard to tell what is incriminating at times. And it falls in the midst of this distracting pandemic. Are you worried that this is just going to be a headline this week and then will disappear? I am worried about that. And I think people are a bit exhausted with the pandemic, with a president that makes no even pretense of trying to slow down people's right to vote using the mail. So, there is a little bit of an exhaustion here. I would remind listeners that 10 days ago, the American intelligence community said Russia will be back. Other nations like China and Iran are also trying to interfere in our elections. One of the things that bother me is while social media companies have gotten better — even the Department of Homeland Security has gotten better in terms of protecting our election security — the US Congress, because we've not had the ability in the Senate to vote on legislation, has not passed a single law to prevent foreign interference. A Russian entity could still advertise on Facebook and not disclose who is really behind it. If a political campaign was offered dirt at a presidential level on another candidate, there would not be an affirmative obligation to tell the FBI. And I think that is a grave error that we've not put better rules of the road in place to prevent Russians or others from interfering in our elections. The report does delve into what's going on now. Can you give us a couple of examples from the report that you found most concerning when we're talking about the 2020 general election? There are Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting Vice President Biden. My job now is to keep the pressure on the intelligence community to become even more forthcoming with more information, more names about what we've learned so that we don't repeat the mistake of 2016, where, I think, if the intelligence community had been more forthcoming about the Russian interference, more Americans would have been on guard. We see in other nations like Sweden, like the Baltic nations, where the Russians also try to intervene, the best defense oftentimes is a well-educated electorate about Russian tactics. Again, given the heavily redacted parts of this report, isn't that a big loss for state and local officials who are trying to prepare for electronic hacking and foreign interference? I do think the intelligence community is always reluctant to give up information. That's a constant struggle. I was hoping this report would have actually been out at the beginning of summer, but it was a laborious process to negotiate with the intelligence community about what needed to be redacted. Let's say there is a new administration in 2021. Should the information in this report be followed up on? Should criminal prosecutions be pursued? Well, I'll leave that to the Justice Department. But I do think in the era of social media, in a world that is so electronically connected, the ability of foreign powers to hack into different systems, the ability to use techniques like deepfakes or your face or mine or a politician's face could appear online and not be that person, frankly, is a much more effective and much more cheap way of doing conflict with the United States than trying to conduct them simply as military exercises. I think this is the world that we live in, and I think it would be very important that a future Biden administration would take this threat more seriously. Suppose it's a future Trump administration, too. Would you leave the decision on the prosecution to the current Justice Department headed by Attorney General William Barr? I have no confidence in Attorney General Barr that he's anything other than Mr. Trump's some kind of personal confidant. You're privy to a lot of intelligence, Sen. Warner. Are you getting a good night's sleep as we approach November? I toss and turn a lot, but as we've seen from other nations, the best defense against foreign nation meddling is a well-educated electorate. And I'm not sure, particularly when we've got a White House that continues to deny that Russian intervention took place in 2016, or continues to take place in 2020, we're not getting that well-educated electorate. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is backpedaling as fast as possible after finally facing some Congressional pushback, and now claims that his aggressive cost cutting measures will be rolled back before the election. Meanwhile, it’s night two of the DNC, which is now basically just the RNC from 2004 -- we’ve got Colin Powell up tonight and a tribute to Cindy McCain, while the party quietly eliminates language that calls for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. And lastly, the GOP led Senate Panel, after much hemming and hawing, reveals some pretty conclusive evidence in the Russiagate scandal. Maybe now we can move on? THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW There is a small light at the end of the fascist tunnel for the Post Office, as public pressure appears to have cowed Trump lackey Louis DeJoy. DeJoy, the postmaster general who previously ordered aggressive cost-cutting measures that crippled the already-struggling agency’s ability to do its jobs, now claims he will roll back some of those cuts until after the election, to quote “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.” endquote. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too late for that: we all know the score. But the blatant nature of DeJoy’s corruption appears to have provoked enough backlash that things might slightly change. Like many of Trump’s corrupt schemes, this one appears to be partly undone because the administration didn’t quite dot the “i”s and cross the t’s legally. Two states, Washington and Pennsylvania, have filed lawsuits against the government to challenge DeJoy’s policies. Per CNN, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson claims Dejoy quote “acted outside of his authority to implement changes to the postal system, and did not follow the proper procedures under federal law.” DeJoy’s cost cutting measures like slashed overtime, reduced office hours, and processing facility closures would be postponed, but we know that’s not going to be enough -- we’re going to have to pump way more funding into the agency rather than just stop the bleeding**:** DNC Night 2: Party Like It's the RNC '04 Night two of the RNC, sorry, I mean DNC, but honestly, it’s getting hard to tell at this point. On Tuesday, Biden’s GOP buddies included Colin Powell, who has endorsed Democrats in the past. Powell has also, of course, lied to the American public in order to sell us on the Iraq war, but we can’t hold that against him. If supporting the Iraq war were a disqualifying factor in Democratic politics, of course, Joe Biden wouldn’t be the nominee. But he is, and plenty of Democrats are pleased about that. Biden formally got the nomination tonight, beating Bernie Sanders in the official delegate count. Progressive Rep. AOC was one of two speakers who nominated Sanders, not Biden, which immediately caused something of a centrist panic online. What they don’t realize is that AOC’s speech is a traditional formality when there’s a runner-up candidate like Bernie whose name is still on the convention’s ballots. AOC used her time well, giving a forceful, short speech shouting out several progressive causes and problems with the country, like the looming eviction crisis, that have until now gone unnoticed by the Democrats and Republicans at the convention. Meanwhile, in a blink-and-you’ll miss it moment, the Huffington Post reported on Tuesday that the DNC had quietly dropped language from its party platform that demanded an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Says a lot about whose votes they’re gunning for. And on that note -- we also heard from Cindy McCain, who spoke about her husband’s long friendship with Biden. That sounds lovely for them. McCain presence fit the issue of national security that other speakers, like former Secretary of State John Kerry, also spoke on -- hyping up Biden’s steady hand over the military, which in context basically means he won’t tweet at Iran as much but might bomb them anyway. To close out the night, Jill Biden spoke as a character witness for her husband, who joined her briefly at the end of her speech. We’ll surely be seeing a whole lot more of them as the week goes on. Senate Finds Russiagate Dirt A massive Senate report on Tuesday confirmed what most sane people already knew: Trump campaign officials in 2016 had contact with Russian intelligence officers, Kremlin officials and other Russian nationals. Russiagate isn’t the only reason Trump won the 2016 election, of course, but Tuesday’s report shows that even the GOP-led Senate has been forced to admit that members of the Trump campaign actively sought Russian help, and the Russians, in some cases, provided it. The Senate report, like Robert Mueller’s exhaustive, exhausting investigation, stopped short of calling the contacts “collusion,” but that’s basically just semantics. What the new report shows is that Paul Manafort buddy Konstantin V. Kilimnik was in fact a Russian intelligence officer, and that Kilimnik had ties to the Russian government’s election interference operations. Russiagate can be a fraught topic on the left, as it’s been used as a cudgel and a crutch by liberals trying to find a scapegoat to blame for botching the 2016 election and dooming the country to at least four years of Trump. But you don’t have to go full Red Scare to acknowledge the facts that the Mueller investigation and the new Senate report show. Maybe once we’re all on the same page, we can move on and make sure neither the foreign interference or the embarrassing loss to a fascist candidate ever happen again. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES Notre Dame University has become the latest college to rapidly shut down after opening for the school year, canceling in-person classes after an outbreak. Michigan State and UNC-Chapel Hill both took similar steps almost immediately after starting classes. Seems like... maybe opening schools isn’t the right idea right now. Well folks, it actually happened. Notorious weird islamophobic troll Laura Loomer won her primary in Florida’s 21st congressional district. The 21st is heavily Democratic, so it’s highly unlikely Loomer will actually win, but it’s sure setting up one hell of a surreal general election. Elsewhere in Florida’s primary, the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate for Ninth Circuit State Attorney, Monique Worrell, won election and will replace departing Democrat Aramis Ayala. Worrell is a staunch criminal justice reform advocate, and is now in a position to really change lives in the state. And finally, cops in Portsmouth, Virginia are doing their level best to sideline a progressive prosecutor from handling cases relating to the vandalism of Confederate monuments. The same cops, of course, are pushing for felony charges for civil rights leaders and public defenders who participated in protests that damaged the statues. That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for more DNC madness with the full show this afternoon. Aug 19, 2020 - AM Quickie HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Jack Crosbie PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

060719 Podcast, Kilimnik, Pientka, Flynn, Dowd, Mueller Fraud, Mexico, Trade War, Immigration, Border Security.