Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Stephen Miller is Trump’s shot across the incoming Democrats’ bow, if not an outright declaration of war. @VanityFair @Substack @HarperCollins @HarvardIOP @DougDucey @NathalieRayes @AliMayorkas @ChrisLu44 @costareports @JamesCarville @thecrimson @HarvardPolitics @OfficialYPU
“On paper, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever” to appoint Stephen Miller as chief of staff, says journalist Chris Whipple (@ccwhip), whose reporting has offered an inside look at Susie Wiles and the Trump administration.
“Above all, he or she has to be the honest broker of thing more important than that. … Miller is the polar opposite of what you would think of as an honest broker.”
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
TODAY at 2:00 PM CT, I'll be joined by Stacey Abrams, Kerry Washington and Lance Bass for a virtual rally as we fight to the finish! We'll also have a surprise guest joining too 👀
Thank you to everyone who has shown their support for our campaign and believes that Mississippi u this afternoon on our path to victory! RSVP ➡️ ScottColom.com/fight
Thank you to everyone who has shown their support for our campaign and believes that Mississippi u this afternoon on our path to victory! RSVP ➡️ ScottColom.com/fight
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
This was Scott Colom's last political ad before the Tuesday election in Mississippi. It shows why he should win the race for Senator. No name calling. Just a rendition of history that shouldn't be forgotten and the reason to vote.
#Colom #Mississippi #senator #Evers #vote #election
#Colom #Mississippi #senator #Evers #vote #election
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The deeply perverted mind of JD Vance's real boss
NEW: In leaked recordings, Peter Thiel argued that Nashville should be a moral alternative to Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church, which he called “a dubious ally” against a hypothetical future Antichrist Democratic president.
“America is the last and final form of the Roman Empire,” Thiel told a closed-door crowd in Nashville’s Masonic Temple. “There is no successor.”
He has attacked Pope Leo XIV at least four times this year, once calling him “a useful idiot for the CCP.” thelettersfromleo.com/p/the-global-c…
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Lutnick and Huang need to testify before Congress under oath immediately. Their greed and selfishness have put America’s security at risk.
The story keeps getting crazier. To recap everything that has been reported so far:
- The US intelligence community discovered that Jensen Huang, the CEO of the largest company in the world, was sleeping with Alice Huang, a Chinese spy and an executive at Megaspeed. (FT)
- Multiple independent investigations have concluded that Megaspeed is likely a Chinese cutout, which helps Chinese companies access AI chips or circumvent export controls. (NYT and Bloomberg)
- The US intelligence community also concluded that Alice Huang’s goal was to convince Jensen to lobby the U.S. government to loosen export controls on advanced AI chips. (NYT)
- The intelligence community relayed this information to “a small group of top US government officials” earlier this year. (FT)
- Over the last year, Jensen Huang has repeatedly lobbied the U.S. government to loosen export controls on advanced chips. @BISgov has done so, not only by permitting the export of H200 chips to China, but also not enforcing export controls that would have required a license for exports of the most advanced Blackwell chips to Megaspeed and Southeast Asia.
- Although @CommerceGov leadership was presumably briefed on this information by the U.S. intelligence community, @BISgov has taken no actions to tighten controls on Megaspeed or Southeast Asia.
- Megaspeed remains a preferred cloud partner of Nvidia, and continues to receive Nvidia Blackwell chips despite employing a Chinese spy who reportedly is romantically engaged with the CEO of Nvidia.
- Tens of billions of dollars worth of AI chips have been exported to Southeast Asia this year alone, and Malaysia and Singapore are now two of the four largest importers of AI chips in the world.
What is going on here??? We need answers. The question of who gets the most advanced AI chips in the world is literally the defining strategic question of our time. And not only does it seem like the MSS may be directly influencing the debate on export controls in the United States, but also @CommerceGov is refusing to listen to the warnings of the IC on this issue. What is a POSSIBLE good explanation for why Megaspeed is still receiving chips? Why is there not a license requirement for AI chip shipments to all of Southeast Asia? This is beyond strange at this point.
The fallout from this story will be massive. Obviously, the motivations underpinning Nvidia’s policy views opposing export controls must now all be questioned. But also, how did @BISgov sit on this information and has still taken no actions? We need answers.
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
"The House I Live In" (1945), as sung by Frank Sinatra:
"What is America to me?
A name, a map, a flag I see
A certain word, democracy!...
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me!"
"What is America to me?
A name, a map, a flag I see
A certain word, democracy!...
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me!"
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
In her resignation letter, Dhillon said that she told Susie Wiles that she intended to step down after the midterms.
Two sources familiar with the matter, however, told CBS that Mr. Trump demanded she be fired after he watched her on "60 Minutes" cbsnews.com/news/harmeet-d…
Two sources familiar with the matter, however, told CBS that Mr. Trump demanded she be fired after he watched her on "60 Minutes" cbsnews.com/news/harmeet-d…
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
She accomplished 27 consecutive defeats in her quest to seize sensitive voter roll records.
One federal judge described it as part of the failed “election interference” scheme that Essayli recently participated in while unlawfully holding his position.
One federal judge described it as part of the failed “election interference” scheme that Essayli recently participated in while unlawfully holding his position.
Congratulations to @AAGDhillon on her successes at the DOJ. She accomplished much in her two years leading the Civil Rights Division. I’ve fought alongside Harmeet for years to protect girls’ sports and restore election integrity. She’s a born fighter, and I’m excited for what’s next.
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Los Angeles, I am deeply honored to be your next mayor.
I just spoke with Mayor Bass and expressed my deepest gratitude for her leadership and decades of service. Los Angeles would not be the city it is today without her.
I love this city. I believe in its people. The work change will take time. And together, we are going to build a future as extraordinary as the city we call home.
Thank you, LA. Let’s get to work.
I just spoke with Mayor Bass and expressed my deepest gratitude for her leadership and decades of service. Los Angeles would not be the city it is today without her.
I love this city. I believe in its people. The work change will take time. And together, we are going to build a future as extraordinary as the city we call home.
Thank you, LA. Let’s get to work.
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Why should Congressional Democrats investigate corporate America if their mandate is to deliver real economic change? Because investigations are a key catalyst for securing reform and legislation. For much of the last century, Congress used to be the main institutional player working to secure an economy that serves working people. A key tool was oversight. Lawmakers routinely investigated complex markets and major corporations, identifying problems and exposing wrongdoing. A major goal of these investigations was to learn what was driving certain problems and figure out how to fix them.
After Democrats took back the House during the first Trump administration in 2019, I joined the House Judiciary Committee as a staffer on the Antitrust Subcommittee. Under the terrific leadership of @RepJerryNadler and then-Rep @davidcicilline, we pursued an 18-month investigation into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, securing key evidence of how their business practices were undermining competition and harming people, setting the basis for both lawsuits and proposed legislation.
A few lessons from that experience:
1. The quality of legislative oversight depends on the staff and the support of top members to confront power. Committee and Subcommittee Chairs that are focused on getting answers and unafraid to take on powerful corporate interests will make the difference between oversight that doesn’t surrender to their evasion tactics and oversight that aims low or flames out.
Even a relatively small number of dogged, talented lawyers ready to dive in can make a big impact. In the 1930s a single congressional lawyer, Ferdinand Pecora, helped reshape our entire banking system by subpoenaing records and interrogating top financiers, including J.P Morgan. The investigation exposed self-dealing, market manipulation, and tax avoidance, and laid the groundwork for foundational New Deal legislation, including the Glass-Steagall Act and the Securities Exchange Act.
2. Eliminating bottlenecks to moving investigations forward is key. For example, the House should make sure that Subcommittee Chairs can issue subpoenas rather than needing the sign-off of the full Committee or its Chair. A credible threat of sending subpoenas is critical for credible oversight.
3. Ensuring that members can develop the muscle to effectively interrogate CEOs requires investing in real preparation. In the lead up to the hearing with Bezos, Pichai, Cook, and Zuckerberg, the Antitrust Subcommittee spent months reviewing millions of documents collected from the firms, interviewing affected parties, briefing members on key evidence, and conducting practice hearings. Members came into the hearing deeply informed and able to rebut and call out CEO dissembling. The result was some of the most effective member questioning of executives we’ve seen in decades. @TheProspect wrote up a great overview: prospect.org/2020/07/30/tri…
4. For decades, institutional capacity in Congress has been extremely weak. Much of this traces back to the Gingrich Revolution, which was effectively the 1995 DOGE-ing of Congress. Republican leadership fired over 600 professional staffers, eliminated the Office of Technology Assessment, and gutted research capacity. None of that capacity was ever meaningfully restored.
As a result, members have way fewer resources to develop serious expertise or go deep on a new topic. Members should start rebuilding that capacity so the institution can fully play its Article I role, where Congress can again do serious policy development and legislating and serve as a real check on the executive and judicial branches.
5. AI markets should be high on the list of investigations. The business decisions of the major AI firms have huge public ramifications, yet the public is at a severe informational disadvantage when it comes to how these markets work and the choices these firms are making. A congressional investigation will help ensure future legislative action is based on a more complete view of what is going on rather than selective and partial corporate disclosures.
After Democrats took back the House during the first Trump administration in 2019, I joined the House Judiciary Committee as a staffer on the Antitrust Subcommittee. Under the terrific leadership of @RepJerryNadler and then-Rep @davidcicilline, we pursued an 18-month investigation into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, securing key evidence of how their business practices were undermining competition and harming people, setting the basis for both lawsuits and proposed legislation.
A few lessons from that experience:
1. The quality of legislative oversight depends on the staff and the support of top members to confront power. Committee and Subcommittee Chairs that are focused on getting answers and unafraid to take on powerful corporate interests will make the difference between oversight that doesn’t surrender to their evasion tactics and oversight that aims low or flames out.
Even a relatively small number of dogged, talented lawyers ready to dive in can make a big impact. In the 1930s a single congressional lawyer, Ferdinand Pecora, helped reshape our entire banking system by subpoenaing records and interrogating top financiers, including J.P Morgan. The investigation exposed self-dealing, market manipulation, and tax avoidance, and laid the groundwork for foundational New Deal legislation, including the Glass-Steagall Act and the Securities Exchange Act.
2. Eliminating bottlenecks to moving investigations forward is key. For example, the House should make sure that Subcommittee Chairs can issue subpoenas rather than needing the sign-off of the full Committee or its Chair. A credible threat of sending subpoenas is critical for credible oversight.
3. Ensuring that members can develop the muscle to effectively interrogate CEOs requires investing in real preparation. In the lead up to the hearing with Bezos, Pichai, Cook, and Zuckerberg, the Antitrust Subcommittee spent months reviewing millions of documents collected from the firms, interviewing affected parties, briefing members on key evidence, and conducting practice hearings. Members came into the hearing deeply informed and able to rebut and call out CEO dissembling. The result was some of the most effective member questioning of executives we’ve seen in decades. @TheProspect wrote up a great overview: prospect.org/2020/07/30/tri…
4. For decades, institutional capacity in Congress has been extremely weak. Much of this traces back to the Gingrich Revolution, which was effectively the 1995 DOGE-ing of Congress. Republican leadership fired over 600 professional staffers, eliminated the Office of Technology Assessment, and gutted research capacity. None of that capacity was ever meaningfully restored.
As a result, members have way fewer resources to develop serious expertise or go deep on a new topic. Members should start rebuilding that capacity so the institution can fully play its Article I role, where Congress can again do serious policy development and legislating and serve as a real check on the executive and judicial branches.
5. AI markets should be high on the list of investigations. The business decisions of the major AI firms have huge public ramifications, yet the public is at a severe informational disadvantage when it comes to how these markets work and the choices these firms are making. A congressional investigation will help ensure future legislative action is based on a more complete view of what is going on rather than selective and partial corporate disclosures.
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Alan Alda as Senator Vinick gave this speech on live TV 21 years ago today and it is still better than most politicians
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
"So when you try to hurl that word 'liberal' at my feet as if it were something dirty, something to run away from, something that I should be ashamed of, it won't work, Senator. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor."
21 years ago today, on TV
21 years ago today, on TV
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
.@Lawrence: ‘The bad guys lost’ in the midterm elections bsky.app/profile/lastwo…
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
21 years ago today, The West Wing broadcasted a LIVE episode called "The Debate" featuring a presidential debate on TV.
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Lawrence O'Donnell retweeted
Last Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries traveled to Montgomery to appear with Figures just before mid-term elections. Before he left, the New York Times reports, Jeffries stopped at the Sculpture Park where we had taken the students.
On Tuesday, 2nd District voters thwarted the Republican plan by re-electing Figures. Surging Democrats recaptured the House with a large majority, which soon will make Jeffries America’s first African-American Speaker.
/4
On Tuesday, 2nd District voters thwarted the Republican plan by re-electing Figures. Surging Democrats recaptured the House with a large majority, which soon will make Jeffries America’s first African-American Speaker.
/4
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Joining @Morning_Joe at 7am ish.
.@Lawrence: ‘The bad guys lost’ in the midterm elections bsky.app/profile/lastwo…
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