As if trying to set up a secret channel between Trump and Putin wasn’t enough, Reuters is reporting that Jared Kushner also had additional communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that were previously undisclosed.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.

Those contacts included two phone calls between April and November last year, two of the sources said. By early this year, Kushner had become a focus of the FBI investigation into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, said two other sources - one current and one former law enforcement official.

The idea that Kushner was just a “witness” to wrongdoing can be completely discarded. Kushner was an active agent who withheld the scope of his connections to Russian officials and who attempted to set up a secret communication channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin. 

This is the man who Donald Trump charged with everything from Mideast peace, to creating a new trade deal with China, to overhauling government.

But there is one chore Trump assigned to Kushner that he can carry out — criminal justice reform. His actions have crossed so many lines that there are none left to cross. We’ve left Watergate somewhere way back in the rear mirror. It’s time to bring Jared Kushner home. In handcuffs.

Amateur MMA fighter Greg Gianforte won the special election to fill Montana’s lone House seat last night, despite being charged with criminal assault for bodyslamming a reporter the day before. As Daily Kos Elections noted, “with perhaps as much as two-thirds of the vote cast early,” it’s not clear how much the assault affected voters, if at all. Remember, this is a state that went by double digits to a racist after he confessed on tape to sexual assault. And, both got away with it, because Gianforte is now congressman-elect, and Donald Trump is now the president. Watch whiteness work, because if any brown folks tried that shit, they’d be calling someone for bail right now. It’s something that wasn’t lost on former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara—fired by the popular vote loser for perhaps being a little too good at his job—who tweeted that if Gianforte “were an immigrant … he’d face deportation”:

While Trump’s anti-immigrant executive order from last January made just about any undocumented immigrant here eligible to be swept up by his mass deportation force, on camera Trump was telling a very different—and untrue—story, claiming that he and ICE would target only criminals and “bad hombres” for arrest and deportation. The fact is the Trump regime has expanded the definition of “criminal” so broadly, that even undocumented immigrants with traffic infractions—like making an improper U-turn—can get torn from their families and shipped out of this country. But apparently, as long as you look like Gianforte, you can assault someone on tape, in front of witnesses, and it won’t stop you from getting elected to the United States Congress.

Intelligence expert and author Malcolm Nance put Jared Kushner's alleged request to establish a secret channel with the Kremlin in perspective for average viewers Friday night.

"Had any individual other than these individuals who worked immediately for President Trump, performed these actions,” he told MSNBC's Chris Hayes, "they would have immediately had their clearances pulled. They would have had their jobs terminated."

He called the report, if true, "so suspicious" that he said Kushner and his aides should "have their clearances pulled right now." He added that the FBI should "descend" on the White House immediately. Here's the full excerpt of Nance's remarks, but don't miss his impassioned reaction in the video below the fold.

Had any individual other than these individuals who worked immediately for President Trump, performed these actions at any time in the SF-86 security clearance process, they would have immediately had their clearances pulled. They would have had their jobs terminated. Some of these contacts are so suspicious that they would have warranted their own counterintelligence investigation. This nation is in a counterintelligence investigation. They are in a spy hunt over at the FBI, and now we have this story—should it prove true—of an American citizen who is the senior adviser to the president of the United States, attempting to establish what we call in the intelligence community ‘covert communications’ with a hostile nation's potential intelligence agency or senior leadership. That brings you -- that crosses the line to the espionage act of 1917. This cannot be explained. Put aside the other 18 contacts with Moscow. This one incident requires Jared Kushner and all of his immediate staff to have their clearances pulled right now and to have the FBI descend on there and to determine whether this is hostile intelligence in the White House one step from the president.

If you are female in this society, you get used to having your appearance critiqued. And if you are black and female—because of the intersecting nature of racism and sexism, it seems as if you are forever being policed for everything. Sociology professor Patricia Hill Collins once wrote that “the black American woman has had to admit that while nobody knew the troubles she saw, everybody, his brother and his dog, felt qualified to explain her, even to herself.” Such is the life of the black girl/woman in America, that everything about us is up for debate and conversation, including how we wear our hair. And as young black girls around the country are finding out, natural hair styles are often unwanted in schools and considered a distraction.

Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden, Massachusetts, had a dress code which said that hair extensions are prohibited. But critics argue that this disproportionately impacts black girls, who often wear hair extensions for braids. The school made the national spotlight when two teenage girls refused to take out their braids and were kicked off their sports teams and not allowed to attend the prom.

The controversial rule, which prohibits students from wearing “anything artificial or unnatural in their hair” including hair extensions used for braids, made national headlines after Mya and Deanna Cook, 15-year-old twin sophomores, were removed from their sports teams and banned from prom over their unwillingness to take down their braids. The girls also received daily detention for two weeks for refusing to change their hair style. Other students at the school faced suspension over the policy.

This may seem like it’s not a big deal. But braids are an integral part of black culture across the world. Almost every little black girl wears her hair braided at one point or another. In Colombia, enslaved black women used braids to direct people to freedom—women would braid paths into their hair that represented the roads they used to escape. They also kept gold and hid seeds in their braids which helped them to survive after they left bondage. So braids are not just a part of our fashion, but intimately connected to who we are as a people. Punishing black girls for wearing their hair in braids is akin to punishing them for simply being black. And this is becoming a trend.

Texas has become “ground zero” in Trump-era, state-level efforts to enact racist, anti-immigrant legislation, following Trump ally Greg Abbott signing “show me your papers” legislation, a bill that if successfully enacted later this year will turbo-boost racial profiling of anyone perceived to be an immigrant. This could become a constitutional disaster in a state where nearly half the population is Latino, leading one immigrant rights group to declare it “as the worst piece of anti-immigrant state legislation we’ve encountered.”

As part of a “summer of resistance” to the legislation, state activists are kicking off a Memorial Day convergence in Austin this weekend to not only strategize against the “show me your papers” legislation, but to also spark a national fight against anti-immigrant agendas like Senate Bill 4. According to one organizer who talked to Buzzfeed, this summer could be the start of a “new civil rights movement”:

“It’s terrible these things have to happen, but they’re a huge wake up call for people who’ve been standing around not engaged,” said Pita Juarez, communications director for One Arizona, which is sending 25 activists to Austin this weekend.

Immigration activists have had success building these sorts of coalitions in the past, albeit on a smaller scale, and are hoping to use those wins as a model for the new movement. For instance, in 2010 Arizona lawmakers passed SB 1070, a sweeping immigration measure that made being undocumented a state crime and required state law enforcement authorities to check the papers of anyone they suspected was undocumented.

The law touched off widespread protests in Arizona, and numerous small, local organizations were formed to fight the law. But it wasn’t until activists realized “everyone was fighting these little battles. Why don’t we fight them together?” 

Six senators who caucus with the Democrats have set themselves apart from the rest of their caucus when it comes to telling Donald Trump to take a long walk on a short pier. Politico is calling it the "hell-no caucus" and it includes the following senators, listed in ascending order based on how many Trump nominees they’ve cast a "yes" vote for:

• Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, 1
• Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 2
• Cory Booker of New Jersey, 3
• Kamala Harris of California, 3 
• Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, 3
• Jeff Merkley of Oregon, 6 

Though the GOP Senate has been too dysfunctional to take up any major pieces of legislation, Democrats have been able to weigh in on Trump nominees to both his administration and the judicial branch. Gillibrand distinguished herself not only by voting for just one lonesome Trump nominee but also by being the only Democrat and indeed the sole senator in the chamber to vote against Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. The only Republican she backed was Nikki Haley for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Of course, they all deny having 2020 aspirations, but some of them are just doing it with a little more verve than others:

“Lost in all of the obvious concern about Russia is the fact that Trump is pushing an extremely, extremely right-wing, reactionary agenda: tax breaks for billionaires, throwing 24 million people off health insurance, and massive cuts to programs that working people need,” Sanders said in a brief interview. “And many of his appointees are pushing exactly that agenda, and I’m not going to support that.” [...]

In an interview, Harris also dismissed any notion that her recurring “no” votes have anything to do with potential national aspirations. “Literally, I could go down the list in terms of on merit and on the issues, why I voted the way I did,” the freshman senator said. [...]

As for Gillibrand, the New York senator gave a simple explanation for her “no” votes to New York magazine earlier this year: “If they suck, I vote against them. If they’re worthy, I vote for them.”

“If they suck, I vote against them.” Words to live by.

The Washington Post is reporting that Jared Kushner proposed but seemingly failed to set up a secret channel so the Trump administration could have secure communications with the Russians without being detected. Oops.

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergei Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, then President-elect Trump’s son-in-law and confidant, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

The meeting itself—though not the line of discussion—was previously disclosed by the White House, though not until March.

But here's the kicker: Kislyak was reportedly "taken aback" by the proposition of a U.S. administration using communications lines at a Russian embassy. In other words, this was so off the wall, reckless, and unusual that Kislyak—Kislyak!—was thrown by it.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

A Moment of Navel Gazing, If You Please

Happy 15th blogiversary to the persnicketiest band of muckrakers and misfits in Blogger Land. It all started when a dirty fucking hippie named Markos Hemp Flower Rainbow Tesla Moonbat Benghazi Moulitsas emerged from his law-school cocoon, flapped his tie-dye wings on May 26, 2002, and proclaimed: “I am progressive. I am liberal. I make no apologies.”

"The" Daily Kos percolated for several months before I discovered it (via the Dean for America blog) and got addicted to the cattle calls.  After that, all hell broke loose and it's been a sprint for world domination ever since. (Latvia signed its surrender papers yesterday and, in keeping with our time-honored custom, we ransacked the presidential palace.)

Today we have an amazing (and nationally-celebrated) Elections team, a radio crew, an activism and community-building arm, amazing front-page and diary contributors, award-winning cartoonists who regularly draw a crowd, and groups within the community that focus on everything from environmental issues and labor to gardening and the day's top comments. Among our registered members: Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Stephen Colbert. Not bad, eh?

Despite the booger flinging meta wars, sigh-inducing GBCWs, and the sheer crazy volume of information that gets posted every day, The 'The' "The" Daily Kos is still a kickass source of netroots-level analysis, opinion, issue-vetting, fundraising, snarking, storytelling and flying furniture, and only a fool would try to herd our breed of cats. So from all of me to all of you---especially you, Kos, our mighty Keyboard Kingpin and your “squadrons of rabid lambs”---Happy 15th blogiversary from user ID #2574.  May your hearts remain progressive...and your hands always be filled with freedom pies.

P.S. Kos wrote a blogiversary post earlier today. You should read it.

Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Donald Trump made a whole slew of campaign promises that he had no intention of keeping. Of course, this is completely obvious—kind of like saying water is wet. But for some of his voters, this is actually news. For many of the rural families hit hard by drug addiction, they saw hope in Trump. And when you are desperate and grieving, you want to believe anything. Unfortunately, the hope that they wanted will never come. After the Trump administration released its budget this week, they realize that all of his campaign promises to do something “bigly” about opioid addiction will never be realized. 

Trump’s budget proposal, released this week, would reduce funding for addiction treatment, research and prevention. The most damaging proposed cut, critics say, is the president’s 10-year plan to shrink spending for Medicaid, which provides coverage to an estimated three in 10 adults with opioid addiction. [...]

A Congressional Budget Office report on Wednesday said a patient’s cost of substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars a year in states that chose to weaken coverage requirements.

Some see the moves as a painful betrayal of Americans whose families have been devastated by addiction and trusted the president’s repeated pledges to make them a priority once in office. Trump’s budget priorities focus on tax cuts, military spending and border security with massive cuts to programs for the poor and disabled.

It is really super tempting to play the blame game here. But one thing that is hard to deny is that emotions are incredibly powerful. Trump was masterful at manipulating the emotions of people who already felt hopeless and backed into a corner. The very people most desperate for help will now get screwed because they got conned by the snake oil salesman. True, they screwed the rest of us in the process. And that feels unforgivable. But there is a strange mix of anger, sadness and pity when you realize that they are genuinely shocked and let down that he has no intention of doing what he said he was going to do. 

Since February, with only two sitting members, the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been without a quorum. That has meant it can’t do its job, which is to approve and regulate interstate oil and natural gas pipelines, the transmission and wholesale sales of electricity, approve liquefied natural gas storage facilities and license non-federal hydro-electric plants. That paralysis suits anti-fossil-fuel activists just fine. They’d like FERC to remain hamstrung. 

That’s because these climate hawks seek to keep most coal, oil, and natural gas in the ground as a means of reducing the impact of global warming. They have long viewed the 40-year-old commission as a rubber-stamp for pipelines and other projects that have benefited the nation’s boom in oil and natural gas production. That boom has grown rapidly in the past decade by means of hydraulic fracturing of underground shale formations. As long as there is no FERC quorum, it’s a “net positive for the climate,” according to the Oil Change International, an anti-fossil fuel research and advocacy group.

Five protesters therefore were on hand Thursday at a confirmation hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for two new FERC commissioners, Robert Powelson and Neil Chatterjee. After chanting slogans such as “FERC is killing Pennsylvanians” and “Shut FERC down,” four of the five were arrested by Capitol police and charged with obstruction. One paid a fine and three were detained overnight for arraignment Friday. It was not the first such protest, but usually protesters are hustled out on the room and let go instead being arrested. 

Mark Hand at ThinkProgress reports:

Without an expanded pipeline network, companies would likely be forced to leave natural gas in the ground, according to the activists. Natural gas is mostly methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, which traps 86 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

“Their rubber-stamping of fracked gas permits disregards the harms such projects inflict on communities, towns, and the climate,” Lee Stewart, an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy and one of the four arrested in the hearing room, said in a statement. “Until FERC is replaced with an agency dedicated to a just transition off fossil fuels and to an exploitation-free energy system based on localized, renewable energy, business as usual is unacceptable.” [...]

During the hearing, Powelson, a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and Chatterjee, a senior energy policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), pointed to the continued use of coal, natural gas, and nuclear as good options for meeting the nation’s need for baseload power generation.

The persecutors of the Salem Witch Trials used more science that this administration.

It's impossible to view Montana Republican Greg Gianforte's assault on journalist Ben Jacobs in isolation. As many outlets are now pointing out, the number of threatening incidents this month alone is startling. The AP writes:

— The editor of Alaska’s largest newspaper said a state senator slapped one of his reporters when the reporter sought the lawmaker’s opinion on a recently published article.

— A Washington-based reporter from CQ Roll Call said he was pinned against the wall by security guards and forced to leave the Federal Communications Commission headquarters after he tried to question an FCC commissioner after a news conference.

— A West Virginia journalist was arrested after yelling questions about the opioid epidemic at U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price.

We've all watched Donald Trump stoke this fire among his base for months—casting reporters as “the enemy of the American people” and news outlets as "evil" and hellbent on treating him unfairly.

On the campaign trail, Trump's ire had a trickle-down effect.

At one rally, a man was photographed in a shirt that read, “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required.”

It should be little wonder now that $100,000 worth of donations poured into Gianforte's coffers as news of his attack and unrepentant statement following it spread across the country.