DragonI

1. 'Thank God': Putin thrilled U.S. 'political battles' over Ukraine taking focus off Russia, NBC News
2. Fiona Hill Testifies ‘Fictions’ on Ukraine Pushed by Trump Help Russia, NYTimes
3. Democratic counsel highlights Putin's hand in inventing Trump's Ukraine conspiracy theory, Daily Kos
4. Vindman calls Ukrainian election interference conspiracy theory "a Russian narrative", Axios
5. Debunking the Trump-backed conspiracy theory on Ukraine election meddling, CNN
6. Graham asks State Department for documents related to the Bidens and Ukraine, CNN

Replying to @realDonaldTrump

You're going down, spanky.  #LockHimUp

— Dean Lopata @DLoIndustries

WATCH: Eric Swalwell exposes Devin Nunes’ shady ties to Giuliani’s indicted henchman during impeachment hearing

During today’s hearing in the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) referenced a POLITICO article from last month which reported that a lawyer who worked for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee when Devin Nunes (R-CA) was the committee’s chairman, fed information on Ukraine to President Trump.

www.rawstory.com

Swalwell then asked Hill if she ever heard the name of the recently indicted Rudy Giuliani associate, Lev Parnas, “who was influencing President Trump and Rudy Giuliani about some of the debunked you referenced earlier.”

“I have heard his name, yes,” Hill replied, adding that she was aware that Parnas was indicted for illegal campaign finance transactions.

Swalwell then referenced a Daily Beast story from this Wednesday with the headline, Lev Parnas Helped Rep. Devin Nunes’ Investigations. After asking that the article be entered into the record, Swalwell then turned to House Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

1. Lev Parnas helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018 - to support his Russia and Ukraine conspiracist investigations
2. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested by the FBI at he Dulles airport  “on federal charges of violating campaign-finance laws through a six-figure donation they facilitated to President Donald Trump”.
3. They had one-way tickets to Vienna where “Giuliani Was Meant to Head to Vienna a Day After His Arrested Associates Flew There”

“Mr. Chairman, you have been falsely accused throughout these proceedings by the ranking members of being a ‘fact witness,'” Swalwell said. 

1. Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia
2. David Holmes, counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine

"I don't want him to leave the White House feet-first. I want him to leave handcuffs-first."

— Stephen Colbert,  The Late Show

• “The White House has no credibility when it comes to Trump’s dealings with doctors” Vox

READ: Diplomat David Holmes' closed-door impeachment inquiry testimony

The House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry have released the transcript of the closed-door deposition of David Holmes, the US Embassy in Ukraine official who overheard the call between President Donald Trump and US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

www.cnn.com

Sondland: "'Dammit, Rudy. Every time Rudy gets involved he goes and effs everything up.' He used the 'F' word."

Sondland: Zelensky “loves your ass.” he’ll do "anything you ask him to."

Trump: “So, he’s gonna do the investigation?”

Sondland: “He’s gonna do it”

Trump "doesn't give a s--t about Ukraine" — cared only about,  "big stuff that matters to him, like this Biden investigation that Giuliani is pushing." 

"It was surprising to me that he — yes. In my experience, generally, phone calls with the President are very sensitive and handled accordingly.”

“I believe at least two of the three, if not all three of the mobile networks are owned by Russian companies, or have significant stakes in those."

1. Sondland committed PERJURY when he originally testified that he knew “nothing” about bribery aka quid pro quo.
2. Sondland changed his testimony, admitting he knew AFTER multiple witnesses testified he LIED
3. Sondland finally admitting he told Ukrainian official that aid was tied to investigations into the Joe and Hunter Biden
4. Sondland testified that Trump directed diplomats to work with Giuliani on Ukraine

Costolo will clean up Twitter -- not because he's a good guy, but because you can't monetize trolls

pando.com

Among the recurring themes at our Don’t Be Awful fest last month was the notion that the primary reasons companies do bad things are: A. They can get away it; and B. It’s in their best interest from a business perspective.

Google reads your emails because the company’s prime source of revenue is serving up targeted ads. The company may not see anything wrong with reading content shared on a service it provides for free, but many disagree.

Facebook researches how to manipulate our emotions because, again, the company makes its money off advertising. By having a keen understanding of its users’ thoughts and feelings — and, moreover, the ability to shape these feelings — it can target advertisements more effectively. Did a user just post about feeling insecure about his or her appearance? Facebook will happily put an ad for beauty products in that user’s News Feed. Or better yet, Facebook can offer up a bunch of stories about attractive celebrities and then serve up an ad for beauty products.

For Uber, the calculus is even simpler: Complying with regulations is expensive, and therefore it will do everything it can — within the acceptable boundaries set by public opinion — to avoid them, even at the risk of its users.

And then there’s Secret and Whisper, which looked to monetize scandalous, unsourced rumors about people, celebrity or otherwise. The more scandalous the better, therefore making community moderation in direct opposition with its business model.

But Twitter is different. There are many awful things about it as a user. The trolling and abuse and harassment has gotten so bad that CEO Dick Costolo called the problem “embarrassing” in a recent internal memo:

I’m frankly ashamed of how poorly we’ve dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. It’s absurd. There’s no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It’s nobody else’s fault but mine, and it’s embarrassing.

Somebody even created a splash page and hashtag movement called #deardickc, which implores the CEO to “please make Twitter awesome again.”