RSN: Juan Cole | For First Time, a US President Backs a Fascist France, EPA to Shut Down Open Data Service Friday

RSN has accomplished a stellar job of reporting from credible sources regarding the GOP sabotaging the RUSSIA investigation. 

There's far more to the GOP's attempt to hide their corruption...from less than credible sources. 

This seems to go far beyond just effecting the US election to egregious crimes, treason? espionage? links with spies? campaign funding fraud? 

Republicans are trying to cover up their actions. 

It's important to support INDEPENDENT SOURCES of news and information. 
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Michael Isikoff | Senate Russia Probe Flounders Amid Partisan Bickering 
Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News 
Isikoff writes: "More than three months after the Senate Intelligence Committee launched its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election - including allegations of collusion by associates of President Trump - the panel has made little progress and is increasingly stymied by partisan divisions that are jeopardizing the future of the inquiry." 

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FOCUS: Carter Page's Visit to Moscow Got the FBI's Attention 
 
Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman, The New York Times 
Excerpt: "Ever since F.B.I. investigators discovered in 2013 that a Russian spy was trying to recruit an American businessman named Carter Page, the bureau maintained an occasional interest in Mr. Page. So when he became a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign last year and gave a Russia-friendly speech at a prestigious Moscow institute, it soon caught the bureau's attention." 
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ALSO SEE: DOJ Official Leading Trump-Russia Probe to Step Down

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/20/top-doj-cyber-official-to-leave-post-next-month-237427

How about this? 
Money Laundering? Dark Money PACs? Illegal Campaign Contributions? 
Fraud? Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell were involved as well. 

Daily Kos: Why Is Chaffetz Resigning? It Will All Come Out in the Laundering

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2017/4/21/1654905/-Why-Did-Chaffetz-Resign-It-Will-All-Come-Out-in-the-Laundering

EXCERPT BELOW: 

Why Is Chaffetz Resigning? It Will All Come Out in the Laundering

Apr 21, 2017 5:29pm EDT by Mopshell

Soon we hope to bid a gleeful farewell to Jason Chaffetz (R-Disgraced). To say that he’ll be leaving under a cloud would be to understate the case. He’s in trouble with both his religion and the Law which is quite an accomplishment for a mediocre House republican.

Let’s first take a quick look at the highlights dim bulbs of his adulterated career.

Jason Chaffetz was a member of Darrell Issa’s Oversight Committee investigating fundraising off the Benghazi tragedy. When Issa’s four years of failures were up, Chaffetz was chosen to take on the chairmanship.  He’d learned well from Issa and proceeded to follow in his predecessor’s missteps.

That he’s more conceited than competent was immediately apparent but he failed to draw much attention to himself until the Comey letter broke the surface of already turbulent waters. Of course it’s protocol that communiqués from the Intelligence agencies are kept confidential but Chaffetz was oblivious to nitpicky details like guidelines or rules.  He was far too intoxicated with a vision of the harm he could do to opposition candidate Hillary Clinton if he spun this the right(wing) way.

Thus, before any other members of the committee had seen the FBI email, Chaffetz went public and concocted a monstrous lie: he falsely declared that the FBI had reopened the Clinton email case. Comey did put the record straight but the media preferred the lie.

Though most Democrats seemed to focus exclusively on Comey’s appearance, some of us never forgot the malicious role Chaffetz had played. Within a week, several complaints were filed against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). That was why, on the eve of the first day of the 115th Congress, the all-republican Rules Committee tried to quietly do away with the OCE. The NY Times reported:

WASHINGTON — House Republicans, overriding their top leaders, voted on Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.

The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change. There was no advance notice or debate on the measure.

Due to an overwhelming outcry, they didn’t succeed. Desperate to escape the penalties for his ethics violations, Chaffetz scheduled his Oversight Committee to begin the new session by looking into ways of hamstringing the OCE. He at least managed to slow them down. We won’t know until an actual budget is written, but it’s probable that the republican House will attempt to severely restrict the OCE’s funding as soon as they can. 

However, those measures can no longer help the beleaguered Chaffetz. Turns out his ethics violations expanded to fill his rather large capacity for wrongdoing. 

What do Claude Taylor’s sources have to say? They should be well-placed to know what’s going on. After all, Claude worked on both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns plus eight years in Clinton’s White House. He’s now a travelling photographer with expanded contacts among journalists and those working in and around the Capitol Building.

So, tell us what you’ve heard. \

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2017/4/21/1654905/-Why-Did-Chaffetz-Resign-It-Will-All-Come-Out-in-the-Laundering

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Juan Cole | For First Time, a US President Backs a Fascist France 

Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "It is a sad day for France, and for the world, that such a hateful person - a neo-Fascist - is in the running to be president."
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Michael Isikoff | Senate Russia Probe Flounders Amid Partisan Bickering 
Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News 
Isikoff writes: "More than three months after the Senate Intelligence Committee launched its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election - including allegations of collusion by associates of President Trump - the panel has made little progress and is increasingly stymied by partisan divisions that are jeopardizing the future of the inquiry." 
READ MORE

State Department, US Embassies Promoted Trump's Mar-a-Lago
Darren Samuelsohn, Politico
Samuelsohn writes: "President Donald Trump isn't the only one promoting his private Mar-a-Lago club as the 'winter White House.' His foreign policy team has gotten in on it too."
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DNC Hackers Targeted French Presidential Candidate Macron: Researchers
Joe Uchill, The Hill
Uchill writes: "The hackers behind the Democratic National Committee (DNC) email breach appear to have made similar attacks against Emmanuel Macron, a French candidate for president, as well as groups associated with German political parties, according to a new report."
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Arkansas Carries Out Country's First Back-to-Back Executions in Almost Two Decades
Mark Berman, The Washington Post
Berman writes: "Arkansas on Monday night executed two inmates in back-to-back lethal injections, carrying out the country's first double execution since 2000."
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Theresa May Hires Top Obama Aide for Re-Election Campaign
teleSUR
Excerpt: "The self-described 'mastermind' behind former U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 is now the campaign manager for the U.K. prime minister that upholds neoliberal Margaret Thatcher's legacy - Theresa May."
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THIS MATTERS!

EPA to Shut Down Open Data Service Friday 
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch 
Chow writes: "Opendata.epa.gov - the U.S. government's largest civilian-linked data service, storing crucial information on climate change, life cycle assessment, health impact analysis and environmental justice - could face shut-down this Friday, according to people familiar with the plan." 
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