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