Open Thread For July 1, 2017
UK Cyber Expert Tells How He Was Drawn Into the Hillary E-Mail Hacks By Peter Smith. Shit’s real, folks, and Smith is only one degree away from collusion with the Trump campaign. Flynn, Bannon, and Conway. Wanna bet that they placed ethics and morality above political expediency? Me neither. Oh, and speaking of those Delaware LLC’s that are above additional taxation?:
It (a dossier sent to the expert) detailed a company Smith and his colleagues had set up as a vehicle to conduct the research: “KLS Research”, set up as a Delaware LLC “to avoid campaign reporting,” and listing four groups who were involved in one way or another.
One of the four ‘involved groups’ included Bannon, Flynn and Conway. May not be the smoking gun, but the ammo’s been loaded.
BTW, when it comes to LLC’s, Delaware is just like Switzerland. Only with fewer scuples. You simply HAVE to read this piece in Lawfare. It may change your life.
How Trump Could Singlehandedly Stop International Campaign Against Kleptocracy. Hey, when you’re a kleptocrat and your family is a family of kleptocrats, why not?
Total Scumbag Named To Elections Commission. Hans Von Spakovsky, the Godfather of the Voter Fraud myth. This commission is potentially the most dangerous threat yet to free elections. States must just say no.
Pollution Could Return to Claymont, Thanks to CZA Changes. When you see the names of the behind-the-scenes players, you can only shudder. David Swayze, Bill Freeborn, Brian McGlinchey. Oh, and ‘Claymont’s own’ John Carney.
BTW, in case, you’re wondering, no ‘Pre-Game/Post-Game’ for tomorrow. There are only so many ways to say ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen’.
One sure sign that collusion is proven is that Fox News pundits Brit Hume and Sean Hannity now argue that if Donald Trump’s campaign did indeed collude with Russia, that it would be “highly inappropriate” but not a crime.
That lawfare piece is interesting. It’s not very often that you’ll see an unnamed source go public after the initial story appears.
“Von Spakovsky” isn’t that Russian?
Some of yesterday’s House activity needs further explanation and clarification. There have been excuses made, and aspersions cast. I will not attempt to justify or excuse the failures of the entire General Assembly, its leadership and the Governor throughout this self-created crisis. However, I do think that the public and all Delawareans deserve to be made aware of all of the options available to our elected officials and how we abdicated and continue to abdicate our responsibilities by not putting all alternatives into consideration. In the matter of HB 240, the personal income tax bill that failed to pass in the House by the narrowest of margins one of my amendments, supported by K. Williams and others of my ilk, would have capped the itemized deductions at a $20,000 total thereby trading for some additional revenue from the wealthier but it was defeated by Republicans and some of my Dem. colleagues. In addition both HB 107 and HB 109 (out of committee and wasting away on the “ready” list) have a phase out of itemized deductions starting at the $125,000 individual taxable income level and completed at the $250,000 individual level while allowing current itemized deductions to be used by those lesser income levels if they so choose. Apparently not acceptable to some of my own caucus members, leadership and Governor Carney. Of course we will never know since my (and many other caucus members) numerous pleas and formal requests to place the bills on the agenda for a full House vote have gone unheeded and been rejected multiple times. We have the sufficient 25 vote (3/5 margin required) in our caucus and if either were brought to the floor for what would be a successful vote I guess the naysayers (democrats????) would be forced to choose a clearly defined side. I also implored leadership and the Governor to put the Grant-in Aid bill back into consideration with HB 101 (the LLC license fee increase raising $21.5 million or with the amendment $43 milion) attached to provide the necessary funding required to offset the $37 million in Grant-in-Aid cuts in Rep. Smith’s budget proposal. That idea was also dismissed because of outspoken opposition by a very few (3???) Dem. caucus members whose self-interests seem to obscure our obligations to provide necessary services to the poor, middle-class, disabled and all Delaware residents.
Representative John Kowalko
Whoa. There just might be a God. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. If you read the article by the cyber guy who snooped for Peter Smith, you might have read this graf:
“The document listed a series of high-level Trump campaign officials: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Lisa Nelson.”
Bannon, Conway and Clovis all serve in the Trump Administration.
But who is Lisa Nelson, you might ask. Lisa Nelson is, wait for it, the CEO of the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). This courtesy of Daily Kos. Oh, pleasepleaseplease…