News

"Russia attacked, but they shouldn't have let him attack," he said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25921559

Link above goes to the Daily Kos post that discovered the scrubbing. Here's the text of the original article:

Former Intelligence Officer Claims KGB Recruited Trump

Isabel Van Brugen – The Daily Beast – 21 February 2025

A former Soviet intelligence officer has alleged that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename “Krasnov.”

Alnur Mussayev, 71, a former Kazakh intelligence chief, made the explosive claim in a Facebook post on Thursday. He claimed that he served in the 6th Directorate of the KGB in Moscow, which was responsible for counter-intelligence support within the economy. One of its key objectives, he claimed, was “recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries.”

Mussayev wrote that in 1987 “our directorate recruited Donald Trump, a 40-year-old American businessman, under the pseudonym Krasnov.”

He reiterated that the department specialized in recruiting spies and intelligence sources from the West, asserting once again that Trump had been brought into the fold.

“I hope I’ll survive a third assassination attempt,” he said in a comment below his post.

He made another shocking allegation in another comment, saying: “Today, the personal file of resident ‘Krasnov’ has been removed from the FSB. It is being privately managed by one of Putin’s close associates.”

Mussayev’s allegations, while unfounded, add to ongoing speculation about Trump’s connections to Russia. Trump’s first visit to Moscow as a real estate developer in 1987 drew intense scrutiny and speculation that the trip was arranged by the KGB for dubious reasons.

According to Politico, in 1985, the KGB updated a secret personality questionnaire distributed among the agency, advising case officers what to look for in a successful recruitment operation.

The document instructed agents to target “prominent figures in the West” with the goal of drawing them “into some form of collaboration with us… as an agent, or confidential or special or unofficial contact.”

Trump has denied any improper ties to Moscow or collusion with President Vladimir Putin.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment.

U.S. officials have also expressed concerns about Trump’s relationship with Putin.

Anthony Scaramucci who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017, said during an episode of “The Rest Is Politics: US” podcast with co-host Katty Kay on Friday that he thinks there is a mysterious “hold” on the president.

Scaramucci did not elaborate on what he believes that “hold” might be, adding only: “I don’t know why it’s like this. [H.R.] McMaster couldn’t figure it out, [James] Mattis couldn’t figure it out, [John] Kelly couldn’t figure it out.”

cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/post/2965218

Coca-Cola has set a goal of having women in 50% of its senior leadership roles by 2030. Coke has also said that it wants race and ethnicity representation that reflects national census data at all levels of the company in the U.S.

Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist who targets corporate DEI programs, applauded PepsiCo’s actions on Friday. In a post on X, Starbuck said Coca-Cola “should be very nervous about continuing with their woke policies.”

tl;dr: Pepsi bad, Coke good.

Summary

The General Services Administration (GSA) is removing all EV chargers from federal properties, citing that they are “not mission-critical.”

The move aligns with Trump’s broader rollback of green energy initiatives, including efforts to override California’s EV mandates.

The GSA will also phase out electric vehicles purchased under the Biden administration. Critics see this as part of a broader GOP effort against clean energy.

The decision comes as Trump also pauses $3 billion in public EV charger funding.

President Donald Trump was asked at a press conference this month if there were any federal agencies or programs that Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency wouldn’t be allowed to mess with.

“Social Security will not be touched,” Trump answered, echoing a promise he has been making for years. Despite his eagerness to explode treaties, shutter entire government agencies and abandon decades-old ways of doing things, the president understands that Social Security benefits for seniors are sacrosanct.

Still, the DOGE team landed at the Social Security Administration this week, with Musk drawing attention for his outlandish claims that large numbers of 150-year-old “vampires” are receiving Social Security payments. DOGE has begun installing its own operatives, including an engineer linked to tweets promoting eugenics and executives with a cut-first-fix-later philosophy, in multiple top positions at the Social Security Administration.

Their first wave of actions — initiating the elimination of 41 jobs and the closing of at least 10 local offices, so far — was largely lost in the rush of headlines. Those first steps might seem restrained compared with the mass firings that DOGE has pursued at other federal agencies. But Social Security recipients rely on in-person service in all 50 states, and the shuttering of offices, reported on DOGE’s website to include locations everywhere from rural West Virginia to Las Vegas, could be hugely consequential. The closures potentially reduce access to Social Security for some of the most vulnerable people in this country — including not just retirees but also individuals with severe physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as children whose parents have died and who’ve been left in poverty.

Donald Trump’s shocking and mendacious attack this week on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a “dictator” while cozying up to the Russian president and indicating that traditional US security support for Europe is waning may have alarmed US allies abroad but has prompted a more starkly divided response among Americans at home.

Reflecting the country’s deeply partisan attitude to the new president and his “America first” foreign policy doctrine, polling suggests that Republicans are much more likely to oppose additional help for war-torn Ukraine. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that 47% of Republicans but just 14% of Democrats thought the US was providing too much support to Ukraine – views that have changed dramatically since the war began three years ago, when just 7% of all American adults (9% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats) said the US was providing too much support to Ukraine.

“It is an outrageous denial of the truth and shows his allegiance to Russia and to Putin especially,” said Carla Bayles, a voter from Washington state who supported Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. “We are alienating our allies and getting us closer to a world war.”

The first is Josh Weil in Florida

The second is Gay Valimont

Would be good to support them outside of Florida as much as possible.

Summary

A Missouri Republican lawmaker proposed a bill to create a registry of pregnant women “at risk” of abortion and another for prospective adoptive parents.

The bill claims to reduce abortions by facilitating adoptions, though it lacks a clear definition of “at risk.”

Critics warn it could expand government tracking of pregnancies, echoing broader anti-abortion surveillance efforts.

Missouri remains a key battleground over abortion, with legal challenges to the state's near-total ban ongoing.

There were gasps and cries in the courtroom when Judge Kirstin Hamman said, “And the judgement and sentence is vacated and the defendant is ordered to be released from custody,” before a Zoom feed broadcasting the hearing suddenly turned off.

She ruled that new evidence, including DNA test results, would likely change the outcome of another trial against Gordon Cordeiro.

Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin said he was disappointed in the ruling and “None of the judge’s findings exonerate him in any way.”

His office intends to appeal and file a motion seeking to impose bail on Cordeiro’s release, Martin added, saying there is a flight risk because a murder charge is involved.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office issued a statement late Friday identifying the victims from earlier in the day as ranging in age from 18 to 33 years old. Officers who responded around noon Friday found one man dead at the scene and two wounded women, who later died after being taken to a hospital, according to Louisville Metro Police Department.

The coroner’s statement said that the man, 18-year-old Leslye M. Harbin Jr., died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene, while the two women, 33-year-old Antwanette Chillers and 29-year-old Raysa Pacios Valdes, each died of a gunshot wound at a hospital.

Authorities have not said whether the victims knew each other or knew whoever was responsible for the shooting.

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella abruptly withdrew from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, citing concerns over a gesture made by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that he described as 'alluding to Nazi ideology'.

Summary

A new Economist/YouGov poll shows Americans favor many government programs over Elon Musk and his DOGE, which is working to slash federal spending.

The CFPB (50% approval), EPA (61%), and USAID (46%) were all viewed more positively than DOGE (42%).

Even the IRS’s free tax-filing program received strong support (63%). Musk himself had a 42% favorable and 52% unfavorable rating.

The findings show that government programs remain widely valued by the public.

Summary

Trump has frozen billions in federal agricultural funds linked to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, leaving farmers struggling ahead of the spring season.

Many had planned investments in irrigation, fencing, and conservation projects, now at risk. Small farms, already financially vulnerable, are particularly hard-hit.

While the USDA released $20 million, farmers say it’s insufficient. Some are taking loans to cover gaps, while advocacy groups warn of canceled contracts and business disruptions.

The administration defends the freeze, citing concerns over non-agriculture spending, but has not provided a timeline for further releases.

A new executive order from the Trump Administration commands the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to terminate the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.

The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID includes 14 members, composed of patient advocates, physicians, researchers, and others, some with lived experience of the disease. Despite being classified as special government employees, the committee members are unpaid volunteers.

The executive order follows removal of important Long COVID information and data from federal websites since the Trump Administration took office this year. These include government resources about Long COVID as a disability, the Pulse Household Survey, as well as important COVID-19 data.

The project, located east of Tampa, involves phosphogypsum, a radioactive, carcinogenic and toxic waste generated by the fertilizer industry.

Public health teams are being gutted, imperiling efforts to safeguard organ donation and prevent maternal and infant death. Many workers expressed fear at what would happen to the work they left behind.

President Donald Trump and the Justice Department have shuttered the first nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal police, the DOJ confirmed to the Washington Post on Thursday.

The database, created in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, was designed to prevent bad police officers from jumping to new agencies and starting over with clean records. Ironically, Trump was the one to propose this database during his first term in 2020, but it wasn't created until an executive order by President Joe Biden created the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database. Trump issued an order last month revoking Biden’s orders, and the database.

While the database only covered federal law enforcement officers and not local, state, or county officers, it contained nearly 150,000 federal officers and agents, from the FBI and IRS all the way to the Railroad Retirement Board.

Trump's resending of Biden's executive order was part of his effort to dramatically downsize the size and scope of the federal government. The order in question laid out steps to improve use-of-force standards and research, ensured appropriate use of body cameras, and required anti-bias training, in addition to creating a misconduct database.

Critics argue the federal decision props up costly fossil fuels power plants, does little to ensure grid reliability and undercuts state clean energy goals.

President Donald Trump on February 21 fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and dismissed five other admirals and generals in an major shake-up of the top leadership of the U.S. military.

A much-touted federal reform effort, and a tribal lawsuit, sought to improve outcomes for BIE students. Now the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government threaten what little progress the agency has made

Concerns are growing about the fate of a Biden-era rule to limit toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water, with some states moving to introduce laws that would lock in place PFAS protections that could survive any potential rollback by the Trump Administration.

"Once again, Democrats have thrown working people under the bus, this time in Michigan," said one critic.