• U.S. intelligence briefed House on Russia to ensure Trump's re-election. • Classified briefing to lawmakers made Trump angry • Trump said Democrats would “weaponize” news of Russian military campaign • Trump was mad DNI Joseph Maguire would let staff appear • That's why Maguire's out, Richard Grenell's in as 'acting' DNI.

In Washington last week, U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers that Russia is carrying out a military-grade attack on the 2020 elections, with the goal of making Americans doubt the integrity of the vote and ensure re-election for impeached, manifestly unfit and corrupt President Donald Trump, Reuters reported Thursday. Read the rest

“We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Donald Trump cabinet member Mick Mulvaney said in a recording obtained by The Washington Post. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.” Read the rest

• U.S. State Department blames Russia for cyberattacks that hit neighboring Georgia in October 2019

• By identifying Russia's digital assaults on neighbors, US hopes to raise awareness of ongoing GRU attacks on US Read the rest

The Defense Information Systems Agency, which calls itself a combat support agency of the Defense Department on its website, employs 8,000 military and civilian employees.

The DIA, which is responsible for secure White House communications, said Social Security numbers and other personal data its network held, was likely compromised, reports Reuters, citing a letter sent to compromised individuals. Read the rest

“What does this guy worth $60 billion own, who wants to be president?” Read the rest

On his batshit Twitter account, impeached and manifestly bonkers U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for all cases that came out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election to be "thrown out."

Trump implied that he could bring a lawsuit over the matter. Read the rest

Can't tell if it's because he's an illiterate dunce, or a narcissist. The singular form: “President’s Day.” Perhaps he thinks it's all about him? Read the rest

📷: Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas (2nd and 3rd from left) with Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Photographer unknown.

Prosecutors with the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York are considering whether to charge Rudy Giuliani's crimeing buddy Lev Parnas, and at least one of Parnas's business partners, with misleading prospective investors for their appropriately named business entity, 'Fraud Guarantee.' Read the rest

We've written here at Boing Boing before about Mike Bloomberg's awful memes, which the 2020 presidential hopeful's campaign machine crapped out on Facebook and Instagram this week with awful accounts like FuckJerry.

Facebook said Friday it will allow 'influencers' like FuckJerry to produce sponsored content for political campaigns, as long as the posts are clearly identified as ads, but sponsored political content will not be placed in Facebook’s political Ad Library, unless they're "boosted" by the influencer as a paid post, the company announced on Friday. Read the rest

Now acquitted by the Senate, the president can glibly admit to what he was accused of. In a chat last night with Geraldo Rivera, Donald Trump says he sent Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig for dirt on political opponents, a fact he insisted was not so during his impeachment trial.

"Here's my choice: I deal with the Comeys of the world, or I deal with Rudy," Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. Trump explained that he has "a very bad taste" of the US intelligence community, because of the Russia investigation, so he turned to Giuliani.

"So when you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, number one, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor," Trump said. "But also, other presidents had them. FDR had a lawyer who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers."

Read the rest

Researchers at MIT say the voting app Voatz, which is being used by at least 4 states in the 2020 elections, has major security flaws that could allow an attacker to intercept and alter votes, while making voters think their votes have been cast correctly, or trick the votes server into accepting connections from an attacker. Read the rest

WTF is even going on anymore. Read the rest

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to temporarily halt work on the cloud computing 'JEDI' contract, in what represents a major win for Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos. Read the rest

White House plans to divert $3.8 billion from DoD to build Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, for which he lied that Mexico would pay Read the rest

British Prime minister Boris Johnson today pushed out five cabinet members and saw another quit rather than accept the terms of staying on, reports the BBC. Sajiv Javid, exiting his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that Johnson demanded he replace his aides with people hand-picked by Downing Street, a condition "no self-respecting minister" would accept. Sacked colleagues untarnished by the remark include Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom; those remaining to consider their self-respect include Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Javid's replacement is a man who was a junior housing minister barely months ago, described by one opposition MP as a "stooge" of top Johnson advisor Dominic Cummings. Cummings was reported to have already sidelined Javid, who refused to agree to big spending plans and tax cuts that the government hopes to sweeten Brexit with.

He has been replaced as chancellor by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak - who just seven months ago was a junior housing minister. Mr Javid had been due to deliver his first Budget in four weeks' time. The former home secretary was appointed chancellor by Mr Johnson when he became prime minister in July. His resignation follows rumours of tensions between Mr Javid and the prime minister's senior adviser Dominic Cummings.

Barely weeks after a general election victory! Read the rest

Iowa Democratic party chairman Troy Price, who oversaw last week's botched caucus, today announced his resignation. A half-baked precinct reporting app failed on the night and paper headcounts took several days to gather and count. Moreover, the close race and bizarre caucus rules led to Pete Buttigieg winning the most delegates despite trailing rival Bernie Sanders by thousands of votes.

Pete Buttigieg won with a narrow 0.1% victory over Bernie Sanders in terms of delegates, while Senator Sanders won the popular vote. Since then, the Sanders campaign has asked for a "recanvassing" check of the vote. Iowa Democratic leaders will elect a new local leader on Saturday.

Photo: YouTube Screengrab Read the rest

'Secret Service had been charged up to $650 per night for rooms at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, and charged $17,000 a month for a cottage at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster'