Donald Trump Jr. is now the focus in Mueller’s #TrumpRussia probe

justinspoliticalcorner:

Aram Roston at BuzzFeed: 

Federal prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller are focusing keenly on the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and are trying to determine his intent when he attended a controversial June 9, 2016, meeting with a Russian lawyer, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he was looking for negative information about Hillary Clinton when he, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with the lawyer. But he claimed he did not receive any useful opposition research.

The source familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors have been trying to determine exactly what information was provided and are scrutinizing Trump Jr.’s statements about the meeting.

Requesting or accepting anything of value for a presidential campaign from a foreign national violates federal election law, legal experts told BuzzFeed News.

Trump Jr.’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, did not respond to calls or an email requesting comment.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment on the investigation, and grand jury proceedings are secret. White House communications director Hope Hicks referred calls to President Trump’s attorneys. White House lawyer Ty Cobb said, “I don’t know anything about that in the sense of what their motivations or interest are. I wouldn’t comment on it.” Kushner’s lawyer declined to speak on the record.

The special counsel is authorized to investigate “any links and/or coordination” between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, as well as “any matters” that may arise from the investigation. Mueller’s office has said 16 prosecutors are working for the special counsel.

That prosecutorial muscle is reportedly bearing down on a variety of people in Trump’s campaign for possible collusion with Russian efforts to sway the election and other issues. Mueller is said to be looking at whether Trump obstructed justice in any way in his conversations with and eventual firing of FBI director James Comey. And Manafort, whose residence was searched last month, is reportedly facing Mueller’s scrutiny not just for his role in the June 9 meeting but also for his dealings in Ukraine, where he was a consultant for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, is reportedly under investigation for communications with Russia’s ambassador and his representation of a Turkish firm.

Manafort’s spokesperson, Jason Maloni, emailed that Manafort, “has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries.” Flynn’s lawyer did not respond to a phone message.

The probe of Trump Jr. would bring the investigation right into the president’s family. Prosecutors investigating Trump’s son, the source said, are focusing specifically on his mindset when he met with the Russian attorney on June 9, and they want to learn details of the information that was offered to Trump Jr.

According to emails released by Trump Jr., a Trump family associate requested the meeting to share “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary.” The information had come from Russian officials and was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” the email said.

[…]

If someone solicits or accepts between $2,000 to $25,000, the potential prison sentence is a maximum of one year, according to the law. But if a foreign national donates something worth $25,000 or more, then a conviction can carry a penalty of five years in prison.

If the material handed over to Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort had a high value, that could give prosecutors leverage.

Determining a precise dollar value is, Hasen said, “a difficult question.” He added, “But obviously opposition research has value.”

Donald Trump Jr. is now the focus in Mueller’s #TrumpRussia probe

I genuinely wish that everyone would delete the word “Mary Sue” from their vocabulary. In its original, fanfic usage, it described a character who was, yes, usually female, but whose greatest crime was not perfection: it was twisting the story. A Mary Sue in that sense literally walks into someone else’s world and makes everything about her. Flash forward to the modern day and it’s a rare female protagonist who doesn’t get accused of being a Mary Sue, and hence worthless. Here’s the thing: she can’t distort the story if the story already belongs to her. The protagonist, regardless of gender, is awesome and interesting and has a milkshake that brings all the boys, girls, or genderfluid space pirates to the yard, because that’s why they’re the star of the story. So calling female protagonists “Mary Sue” is sexist, belittling, and reduces them in a way that is very rarely applied to their male counterparts—even when those male counterparts are just as guilty of being a little too perfect to be real.

Seanan McGuire in “Infodump,” “Mary Sue” And Other Words That Authors Are Sick Of Hearing (via nudityandnerdery)

go read the link, they’re all great!

(via querulousgawks)

dukeofbookingham:

backpacksandblazers:

witchedybitchedy:

ruby–wednesday:

thecharge:

ariaste:

margotkim:

This is the greatest progression of events I have ever read, where’s my historical gay romance novel about this

KING JAMES, CAN YOU CHILL?

Local King Cannot Stop Promoting His Boyfriend

where’s the lush period drama about this series of events?

fun thing about king James, this guy was fairly public about his bf (more public than what was acceptable). He threw lots of extravagant parties with his man on his arm. It pissed off the church obviously so to get them off his back, he’s the one that ordered the third translation of the Bible from Hebrew to English (the King James Version aka the Authorized Version) so the Bible every hot blooded all American Christian reads today was literally just written so a very gay king could fuck his boyfriend in peace.

A chapter of my dissertation is on James and, specifically, the Jacobean Church. I don’t want to throw WitchedyBitchedy under the bus—so I’m not tagging them, and I hope no one else does, either—but almost everything they’ve said here is completely untrue.

James was bisexual, not gay. However, these terms are anachronistic and this post (in its entirety) fails utterly to account for the fact that understandings of sexuality were radically different in the seventeenth century. James having a male lover is more an issue with the contemporary church—especially American evangelical churches—than it ever was in James’s lifetime.

Moreover, James’s sexuality had nothing to do with the creation of the Authorised Bible. The KJV emerged out of the conflict between varying factions within the Church of England—variously labeled the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians, the Anglicans and Puritans, the Conformists and Nonconformists, etc. Their primary feud was over church government, but James was able to align their interests in the production of a new English Bible. This was because the most popular English Bible at the time, the so-called Geneva Bible, was hated by both James and the clergy. James, though, had the Bible translated in committees that were composed equally of Anglicans and Puritans, which meant that neither side could complain about it.

☝🏻️☝🏻☝🏻

Sometimes, you’ll want to punish your body for punishing you.

chronicallykiri:

wtddty:

You’ll want to skip medications or go for a run or not eat as often/much/little/etc as you should. And you’ll sit in the pain and suffering just to make your body hurt as much as you do mentally. But take a deep breath, and know that it doesn’t help. You’ll do it two or three or ten times before it truly sinks in, but remember, it doesn’t help.

Things nobody tells you when  you have a chronic illness

Men’s Rights Activism Is the Gateway Drug for the Alt-Right

quixylvre:

clatterbane:

new-boot-goofin:

Fuck these fucking fuckers.

There are good reasons why men’s-rights activism has served for so many as a gateway drug to the alt-right: Both movements appeal to men with fantasies of violent, sometimes apocalyptic redemption — and, like Cantwell, a tendency to express these fantasies in bombastic prose. And both movements are based on a bizarro-world ideology in which those with the most power in contemporary society are the true victims of oppression.

In other words, if you can convince yourself that men are the primary victims of sexism, it’s not hard to convince yourself that whites are the primary victims of racism. And it’s similarly easy for members of both movements to see white men as the most oppressed snowflakes of all.

that would also explain why they’re so violently ableist

^^^

Men’s Rights Activism Is the Gateway Drug for the Alt-Right

Student’s grades lowered for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance

moatakni-native:

postingwhileblack:

Leilani Thomas is a student at Lower Lake High School who started her protest by sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance when she was in second grade when she didn’t even know who Colin Kaepernick was.

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But her quiet rebellion was criticized by her teacher who decided to punish the little brave girl by docking her participation grade for not standing.

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The only person who supported student’s decision was Konocti School District Superintendent Donna Becnel. She said that Leilani has rights to sit down because of the first amendment.

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Very courageous girl! 

#SupportPOC

reblogging cause school is coming up and all you in school have a choice, and not participating in the “pledge” is a valid one