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PBC News & Comment: In An Era of Widespread Cowardice, Chelsea Manning Shows Courage

Manning refuses to testify before WikiLeaks grand jury, and is jailed indefinitely; it appears the investigation is not about Russiagate…–at Shadowproof, Kevin Gosztola offers excellent coverage and reaction

–in brilliant essay nailing Rachel Maddow’s lies, Caitlin Johnstone notes that WashPost reports that the case against Assange precedes 2016

–Paul Manafort draws light sentence for his tax and fraud convictions

–Trump twists the words of Judge Ellis to again claim “no collusion”, and his denials are about the only reason to be skeptical

–Judge Ellis was way too generous in declaring that Manafort “lived an otherwise blameless life” and Franklin Foer offers corrections at The Atlantic

–also at The Atlantic, David Graham says Mueller is “Not invincible”

–Republicans release transcript of interview with Bruce Ohr, Justice Dept. official who was Christopher Steele’s contact, and whose wife worked at FusionGPS

–Noam Chomsky says that Israeli intervention in 2016 “vastly overwhelms” anything Russia did

–House Dems passed their anti-hate resolution, and the stench of Dem collusion in the smearing of Rep. Omar lingers

–progressive writer David Talbot praises Pelosi, Nadler and others for broadening the resolution, and PBC thinks he misses important points

–listener John Zweibel has strong comments on Omar affair

–Trump uses the moment to sow division, calling Dems “anti-Israel, anti-Jewish”

–and then Individual 1 resumed his attack tweets on Michael Cohen

The Guardian delivers more evidence of illegal contributions to Trump inauguration

–former Fox exec Bill Shine is 6th communications director to step down, moves to Trump re-election campaign

–House passes fabulous package of reforms to elections, campaign finance and ethics, but it’s going nowhere

–Sen. Elizabeth Warren turns up the volume, goes to Long Island City to propose regulation of tech giants including Amazon, Google and Facebook

–Rep. Tulsi Gabbard turns it up to “11” as she calls for decriminalization of sex work

–massive blackout hits Venezuela….caused by decrepit infrastructure, or a cyber attack?

NY Times claims Russia still supports Maduro, but is hedging its bets

–satellite surveillance shows new activity at North Korean missile and nuke sites

–Border Patrol has been spying on journalists

Jeopardy host Alex Trebek has stage 4 pancreatic cancer