PBC News & Comment: FBI Says Assange and Stone Communicated—in 2017

Newly released documents from FBI show direct messages between Roger Stone and Julian Assange, long after the 2016 campaign….--unsealed FBI documents in Michael Flynn case show top officials wanted to avoid the appearance of entrapment when he lied about contact with Russian ambassador
--new report on FISA court shows that FBI warrant requests dropped in 2019
--Trump wants the spies he says lie to get evidence that Covid-19 came from Wuhan labs
--listener Brian Kreowski sends this link to BBC report that brands speculation about labs as “conspiracy theories
--and Trump has a team exploring how to extract payments from China for its alleged negligence
--our Covid-19 daily update, edited by Linda Lewis, with deep coverage of Texas “reopening”
--journalist and infectious disease specialist Dr. Keren Landman says Georgia “screwed up” with inept reopening
--Jesse Jackson urges more prisoner releases as outbreaks continue in lockups nationwide
--Dr. Fauci’s optimistic report on Remdisivir might be overstated, as earlier trials were not so promising
--the drug’s maker, Gilead, promises to give away first 1.5 million doses, but has history of profiteering
--in personal essay that links war deaths to Covid deaths, Craig Murray says he was wrong about downplaying its dimensions
--Guardian reports that 100,000 cruise ship crew members are stranded on their luxury liners
--mobile phone technician in Silicon Valley got NY state to pay him $69 million for ventilators that haven’t materialized, after re-tweet by Trump
--despite oil glut, Trump administration is using pandemic to expand drilling on federal lands
--in two reports, NY Times continues to dance around Tara Reade’s accusation against Joe Biden
--Trump blasts his campaign team for his own blunders, “I’m not fucking losing to Biden”
--the polling shows his self-inflicted wounds
--Justin Amash’s plan to run for prez as Libertarian draws interesting reactions, including Liz Mair in NY Times and Rachel Bitecofer in Guardian
--Timmon Wallis offers most lucid and unemotional criticism of Planet of the Humans that PBC has seen
--and listeners John Zweibel and Paul Lehto have different takes