Due to a sharp rise in Coronavirus cases, Greater London (32 boroughs + the City of London) will move in to Tier 3 (Very high alert) on Wednesday Dec 16th at 00:01.
Most surrounding counties including all of Kent, most of Surrey, and parts of Beds, Bucks, and Essex are (or will be - as of Saturday) in Tier 3 as well.

The Usual Stuff

Stay 2m (6ft) away from people that you don't live with where practical, and at least 1m (3ft) away at all times. Do your very best to maintain hygiene, washing your hands and shared surfaces at every opportunity. And of course, you should only do what you're comfortable with.
If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, even mild, stay home for at least 10 days until you no-longer have a temperature. Get a test through the gov.uk testing website or calling 119. Others in your household must stay home for 14 days ^source.
Most coronavirus cases are mild, but if you're very ill, call 111, or in an emergency, call 999 - DO NOT go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital with COVID-19. Continue to keep NHS appointments for other purposes unless your clinician tells you otherwise or the government changes the advice.

What are the restrictions?

Under Tier 3:

• In general, you cannot mix with other households indoors or outdoors, in private or public
  • There are a few exceptions. You can meet with a group of six (maintaining social distance) in public parks, beaches (good luck in London), open countryside, public gardens (e.g. Kew), allotments, sports grounds, playgrounds, or in the grounds of a heritage site
• Pubs, cafes and restaurants will move to takeaway only
• Cinemas (other than drive in), theatres, casinos, bowling alleys, and indoor play areas all close
• Attractions with indoor parts like zoos or botanical gardens have to close the indoor parts
• You should work from home if you can but go to work if you can't and try to minimise journeys
• You cannot stay away from home overnight apart from for work, medical, care, or other exceptional reasons

Single adult households can still form a (permanent) mutual support bubble with one other household.
There are various other exceptions for things like weddings (up to 15 people), funerals (30 people) and in a few other areas. You can read the full Tier 3 restrictions here.
You can leave your home to escape injury or harm.
If you break these rules you may be fined from £1000 or more, depending on the offence.

Making a Christmas Bubble

Between 23rd and 27th December the rules are being loosened so we can see close family and friends over the festive period. For these four days you can form an exclusive ‘Christmas bubble’ composed of people from no more than three households
Note that:

• You can only be in one Christmas bubble and you cannot change your Christmas bubble
• You can only meet your Christmas bubble in private homes or in your garden, places of worship, or public outdoor spaces
• You can travel between tiers and UK nations for the purposes of meeting your Christmas bubble
• if you form a Christmas bubble, you should not meet socially with friends and family that you do not live with in your home or garden unless they are part of your Christmas bubble

Can I visit London now?

Theoretically yes. Many of the typical tourist attractions will be closed during Tier 3 so make sure you check anything you want to do in advance and book the limited space available.
Many incoming foreign travellers from higher risk countries are subject to a mandatory two week quarantine. Check if your country is on the list.

Test to Release scheme

Starting on Dec 15th, you can reduce your time in isolation after arrival to 5 days (instead of 10 days) by paying for a coronavirus test.
This must be from a test provider participating in the government scheme and you have to opt in on your passenger locator form when you arrive in England from abroad. There are currently very few providers and the tests are quite expensive (£180) but this list will likely be expanded in the coming weeks. You will need to pre-book (there's considerable lead time).
The full guidance is here

Can I go somewhere else?

The government advises that you should not leave a Tier 3 area unless for work, education, or some other good reason, and if you normally live in a Tier 3 area you should not stay away from home overnight.

Face masks

Face coverings are compulsory on all forms of public transport and in all shops, takeaways, hospitals and care homes. This is a law and you can be fined if you do not comply. You don't need to buy a fancy respirator, instead think about buying or making your own from fabric, or use a scarf or bandana. As long as you wash them at a decent heat between uses this is much more environmentally friendly than disposable surgical masks.

The NHS App

The NHS COVID-19 app is now available. It uses Apple & Google's co-developed bluetooth protocol which does not transmit any of your personal details to anyone, including the government. It's been used as the basis for apps in privacy-conscious countries like Germany and Ireland, and is generally considered safe and secure.
The app is particularly effectively in dense urban areas, and NHS England's also includes features to help you check in to venues and get a test.
Download it!

Get help or give help

With the short days, the cold weather, and the lockdown restrictions, this is going to be a hard time for everyone.

• If you're feeling the strain or just feeling lonely and want to talk to someone the /MentalHealthUK master post is a great place to start.
• Also try our Daily Observations thread or /LondonSocialClub for virtual meets!
• Mutual Aid groups are local groups organised to support the most vulnerable in our communities. Find your Mutual Aid Group here.
• You can also Volunteer for the NHS. They're reopened applications recently.

This is not official advice - just our summary and might contain errors and omissions. Check gov.uk for the letter of the law. Please post any feedback or suggestions

LETS KEEP THIS UP TO DATE (Updated 01/01/21)
A question we see multiple times a week in this thread...It's heartbreak for all of us. We itch and ache for something to fill that void in our lives after Gomorrah...Like addicts looking for our next hit. There's nothing exactly like it, but there are similar shows of similar quality. To hopefully avoid seeing this question in the future I went ahead and made a list with my personal show and movie suggestions...and then also a list with the most commonly mentioned when this question pops up.
If there's something you think I should add, just comment and I'll update this thread every day to keep our Mafia world engine running.
Please stick to the general "organized crime" theme for suggestions you may have. Not to be mistaken with the "police" theme.
WHERE TO WATCH (google these streaming sites)
Actvid (way less ads, if any. 1st choice by far. Especially to nube pirates)
FShareTV
Europixhd
Gustatv
Putlockers
FMovies
LosMovies
MOST POPULAR SUGGESTIONS (from other redditors)
Your Honor- Bryan Cranston, New Orleans, Mafia.
Love/Hate (Ireland)- Next on the watchlist.
Warrior- Wow...Just heard of it...just started...It's an Asian American "Banshee"...So ya. It's flipping awesome.
Suburra Blood on Rome
Romanzo Criminale
Mafia UnderCover (Solo)
1992 (Trilogy 1992, 1993, 1994)
The Last Panthers (Currently Watching 1st time)
4 blocks
Umbre
Sopranos
The wire
Mob City
McMafia
Top Boy
Dogs of Berlin
Gomorrah (Movie)
Snowfall
Undercover
Pusher Trilogy
Infernal Affairs Trilogy (Asian " The Departed")
Cocaine Coast
El Chapo
Black Souls
Outrage (Asian)
The Last Narc (Kiki Camarena Documentary)
New World (Asian)
Banshee- best hand to hand action show...ever?
The Ozarks
Aranyelet
Cocaine Coast
Surviving Escobar (Alias JJ)
OZ (HBO)
A Ciambre
Cannabis
MY SUGGESTIONS (Faster paced, modern, dark)
Boardwalk Empire - I would hope everyone has seen boardwalk by now. This is the closest you'll come to scratching that Gomorrah itch and a phenomenal show overall.
Narcos & Narcos Mexico - my number 1. One of only 2 shows I enjoyed more than Gomorrah
Zero Zero Zero -Ive gathered we've all seen it...lol.
Gangs of London - Could have been better, but the Gareth Evans fight sequences and overall direction of the show is solid.
Bad Blood - loosely based on Canada's most powerful crime family, the Rizzutos.
Giri/Haji - 10/10...but it's slow. Just a warning. An "episode a night" kind of show.
Peaky Blinders - British Gangs, British History, Tom Hardy, and Cillian Murphy?! Grab a pint you wanker.
The Ruthless -loosely based on Giuseppe Morabito's rise in the Ndranghata.
The Traitor - Thomaso Buscetta biopic and my own personal favorite mafia movie of all time.
Operation Odessa- One of the most entertaining and wildest documentaries I've ever seen.
Gotti (1996). The HBO movie is solid as hell. It pisses and takes a shit on John Travolta's Gotti.
Fear City: New York and the Mafia - incredible documentary detailing the fall of the 5 family bosses of the 80-90's.
Il Capo De Capi (Corleone)- a 6 part show that follows Salvatore Riina from the time he's a boy, to his demise.
Gangs of Wasseypur - my oddball pick and the only Indian movie I've ever seen. Indian coal gangs man...Shits intense and violent as hell. Warning...It's long as shit.
Piranhas - Rise of the new generation of young Camorra's. Great coming of age story.
A Prophet- Best Picture calibre foreign gangster gem.
Nameless Gangster (Korea) - It's one of those you just gotta try it if you're skeptical on Asian movies. Take a leap of faith.
Additional movies: Donnie Brasco, The Irishman, Casino, Departed, City of God, American Gangster, Triad Election.

HEROES of DEAD WORLD
PART FIVE:
Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Complex, Colorado, 1100 hours…
This was turning out to be the longest five minutes of Green Dragon’s life. Though Green Dragon was near invulnerable to most damage, especially fire and heat based attacks, and despite the fact that he was a more skilled in hand to hand combat that his opponent, Firefox’s plasma attacks were powerful enough to hurt even him. Green Dragon’s own fire based attacks weren’t harming Firefox, who made absolutely no effort to avoid them. In fact, Green Dragon suspected that his fire attacks was only making Firefox more powerful. In contrast, Green Dragon knew that he couldn’t dodge Firefox’s plasma attacks indefinitely and soon, one of his blasts was going to connect. Below him, the landscape was pot marked for miles around with eight foot deep smoldering craters where Firefox missed with his powerful plasma blasts, each impact probably causing more damage to the Cheyenne Mountain facility. Green Dragon knew that this had to end quickly and he hoped that the cameras at Cheyenne Mountain were still monitoring the battle.
Green Dragon’s only chance was to maneuver close enough to Firefox and force a physical fight. If he could get within arms distance, he was sure that he could knock the arrogant son of a bitch out. He barrel rolled to the left, narrowly avoiding getting incinerated by another one of Firefox’s blasts, then yelled, charging straight towards the plasma powered hero, the two foot long razor claws mounted on his left forearm gauntlets glowing white hot and ready to strike. Green Dragon only had time to raise it defensively across his face as one of Firefox’s plasma blasts finally connected.
The plasma blast hit Green Dragon like an artillery explosion and he tumbled uncontrolled out of the sky training fire and smoke behind him as he fell. Skidding across the ground nearly 500 feet below him, Green Dragon left a trail that scarred the earth for nearly a quarter mile before finally coming to a smoking halt in the middle of a field in the valley below. Firefox landed a few feet from where Green Dragon lay motionless, his fists glowing white and ready to fire the killing blow.
“Barbecued dragon time,” he hissed.
“Oh no you don’t, you mother jerk-face!” Firefox looked up just in time to see Sky Fyre flying low over the ground towards him, her eyes and fists ablaze with fury and fire.
“Sky Fyre,” said Firefox, holding out his hands out in front of him. “No, honey! Wait! I’m…”
A look of surprise filled Firefox’s face as Sky Fyre’s plasma fire ball struck the overpowered hero dead center of his chest. The blast explosion hurled Firefox high into the sky, trailing a fiery tail of pure plasma energy twisting behind him. He smashed into the mountainside nearly a mile away, lying motionless in the middle of a smoking crater nearly ten feet deep and fifty feet wide. Sky Fyre stood there, eyes and mouth wide with surprise. “Did I… did I… did I just…” she muttered.
“Yeah,” grunted Green Dragon, picking himself up off the ground, straightening up his helmet and massaging his bruised shoulders. Brushing large clumps of dirt and rocks off of his shoulders and neck, Green Dragon said, “You just defeated a Level 8 hero with Level 10 thermal, fire, and plasma projection powers.”
Sky Fyre leapt. “Whoo-hoo! I kicked his ass, huh, GD?”
“Language, Sky,” reprimanded Green Dragon, squinting in the distance at the thin plume of rising smoke to see if Firefox had recovered yet, and smiling to himself knowing that he and Sky Fyre would be long gone before Firefox regained consciousness.
“Sorry, GD,” said Sky Fyre. “But, wait. How did my fire ball blast knock him out? Firefox feeds off of solar and heat sources, causing fire or heat based attacks against him to actually make him stronger. My fire ball wasn’t any stronger than one of yours, GD. So how did I hurt him so bad?”
“We have to get to the detention facility in Kansas,” said Green Dragon, abruptly changing the subject. “With our stealth jet destroyed, we will have to fly ourselves directly to Ransom then figure out a way to get Doctor Genocide’s assistant out of the facility. Do you think you have the energy for it, Sky?”
“Yeah, man!” the teen heroine said, clapping. “I just kicked Firefox’s butt!”
As the pair took to the sky, the young heroine looked over to her mentor and said, “Hey, GD, did you hear that old creeper call me ‘Honey?’ What a weirdo!”
“I heard,” replied Green Dragon.
“I wonder what he was trying to say before I blasted him?” said Sky Fyre. “And what were you two talking about before the fight? I could see it on the monitors, but there wasn’t any audio.”
“It wasn’t anything important,” lied Green Dragon. “Right now, we have to keep focused on the mission at hand.”
“You got it, GD,” smiled Sky Fyre. “Ha! I just kicked Firefox’s butt and… oh… wait! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” Sky Fyre smacked her forehead.
“What’s wrong, Sky?” Green Dragon had a worried tone in his voice. Sky Fyre was extremely intelligent and observant for a girl her age. Had she figured out the truth? Did she realize why he and Firefox had been locked in such a deadly battle? Was she aware of her mentor Green Dragon’s betrayal?
“Aww, nothing, GD,” said Sky Fyre. “I just forgot the damn bag of sandwiches back at Cheyenne Mountain!”
“Language, Sky,” said Green Dragon, relief in his voice and happy that he had deflected the subject again.
Sky Fyre looked over at her long time mentor, and squinted her eyes. “So, you’re lying to me, too,” she thought. “Okay. We’ll see about that.”
PART SIX:
Hannover, Germany, 1800 hours local time/ 1200 hours US EST…
Azure Blade dropped Tasmanian Devil on the top of a four story red brick building near a street corner in Hannover’s famous Stone Door district, one of many blocks in the city where young people and tourists had been welcomed to party, dance, mingle, and satisfy other vices back when the world still lived. The top of the red brick building on which the three heroes now stood was one of several brothels which lined the two blocks which made up the Stone Door district. Across from the building was a line of casinos, dance clubs, and gentlemen’s lounges. The white stone building connected to the brothel and facing the wide cobblestone courtyard where local bands used to play in an open air venue was the famous Sansibar Club. The sun was setting, the fading fire red and violet skies casting long shadows across the downtown city plaza. The dead shambled below, as if taking a late day stroll or doing last minute shopping in the plaza’s department stores. There were many, but not as closely packed as they were in Amsterdam.
Azure Blade looked over the city, a dubious expression on her face. “Okay, Devil. We’re here. Now what?”
Taz lifted the bottom of his mask, exposing his mouth. Producing a fine Cuban cigar from one of his pouches, he lit it and took a deep, satisfying drag. “Now?” he said. “Now, you two broads get lost.” Taz blew a cloud of smoke into the air.
“What?” said Wyvern, her eyes blazing with fire. “What are you talking about?”
“I said,” continued Taz. “You two get lost! You need to get to Berlin. Link up with the German heroes Haupmann Schnell and Schutzen Meister at the research laboratories. Go find out what you can!”
“And what about you, Devil?” said Azure Blade, threateningly. “Were you really serious about getting drunk tonight? And why here? Why in Hannover? Why at this particular place?”
Tasmanian Devil chuckled. “Yes, that was the plan and yes, I have my reasons for being here.” He took another drag of his cigar and blew the smoke towards the beautiful female heroine, Azure Blade.
“What’s the matter, blue eyes,” he smirked. “After all these years we’ve worked together. Don’t you trust me?”
“Yes?” whispered Wyvern.
“No!” yelled Azure Blade.
“No!” repeated Wyvern.
Taz rolled his eyes, chuckling again but without any humor. “Let’s just say we’re killing two birds with one stone. You two get to Berlin. I’ve got something to find out here.”
“Why the secrecy, Devil?” persisted Azure Blade. “What is so important that you have to do it alone?”
“Because I do!” growled Tasmanian Devil, swiftly unsheathing both of his sword-scythes from the two scabbards on his back and taking a fighting stance facing Azure Blade. For her part, Azure Blade instantly drew her two glowing blue swords in her hands as she squared off against Tasmanian Devil.
“You may be a Level 7 hero with Level 9 fighting ability, blue eyes,” snarled Tasmanian Devil. “But you’ve never bested me when we sparred in practice.”
“I was holding back on you, Devil,” responded the powerful female sword master. “Two of our comrades have already died on this mission and one remains under siege in London. Why are you so eager to abandon the mission and get rid of us? Is it so that you can run?”
“Nobody calls me a coward!” yelled Taz, charging towards Azure Blade with his right arm cocked back, ready to deal a killing blow with his sword-scythe. Azure Blade also yelled angrily, her twin blades wind milling in front of her as she charged towards the berserker hero. One fireball slammed into Azure Blade while another struck Tasmanian Devil, flinging both of them backwards and slamming each of them painfully on opposite sides of the rooftop ledge so hard that large chunks of concrete fell to the street below.
Wyvern hovered over them, her eyes and hands blazing with fire. “Go ahead, you two stupid fuckers! Give me another excuse!” She raised both fists, pointing them at her teammates.
Taz rubbed his head as he slowly and painfully got to his feet, his battle suit smoking from where the fireball hit him. “You roasted my cigar,” he groaned, tossing his ruined cigar aside.
“You’re lucky that’s the only thing I roasted,” sneered Wyvern.
“You said, ‘If you are still alive in the morning,” said Azure Blade. She was already standing tall, pointing one of her swords at Taz, although she was wincing in pain from the fire ball blow she took from Wyvern. “What did you mean by that?”
“I mean just what I said,” said Taz. “Meet me here in the morning. If I’m dead, you’ll know that I failed. If not, then I’ll have help. But only I can do it. I’m the only one they trust. If they see you two, they may bail, and any chance we have of saving the world may vanish.”
“Who?” yelled Azure Blade. “Who are you meeting?”
“You won’t like it if I told you, so you’ll have to trust me.” answered Taz, feeling around in one of his modular pouches attached to his battle suit belt.
Wyvern gently put her hand on Azure Blade’s shoulder. “Blade. We’re running out of time. If he wants to stay. If he wants to run. We can’t stop him. But if we come back in the morning, and he is neither dead or has brought help; if we find him laid out drunk and hung-over, I’ll fry him myself.”
Azure Blade looked at Wyvern, a heroine as innocent, bashful, and timid as she was beautiful and powerful. Wyvern was more a follower than a leader. Before she was gifted with super powers and became the heroine known as Wyvern, Krysta was a young Catholic nun from Ireland. But now? Something had changed. The young and inexperienced hero Wyvern, though supremely powerful, was also relatively untrained, unworldly, and extremely timid. Before she had gained her superhuman powers from the comet, Krysta was an attractive, red haired, twenty-one year old nun from Waterford, Ireland. An orphan secluded from the secular world, living much of her life in a convent, she had moved to New York two years ago to serve with the Catholic diocese there. Her superpowers manifested soon afterwards and for the past year, the heroine now known as Wyvern was recruited to serve with the US government super hero Operation Team Bravo. Azure Blade simply exhaled and nodded, giving Taz a distrustful glare before she and Wyvern took to the sky, flying east towards Berlin.
Later, Tasmanian Devil sat on the ledge of the rooftop of the brothel, dangling his feet and watching as an increasing mass of dead roamed below him, attracted as they were by the yelling and blasts of fire coming from the roof. They would have eventually made it to the roof where Taz was sitting, but Wyvern blasted the stairwell leading up to the roof before she and Azure Blade flew to Berlin.
Taz watched as the streets darkened below him, the moaning from the dead getting steadily louder. Soon, the light would fade and the dead would lose interest and shamble onwards. Taz tossed away the small empty bottle of Mint-Peppermint schnapps that the Dutch commander had given to him back in Amsterdam and pulled out the second bottle from a modular pouch on his belt.
“Thank God for plastic liquor bottles,” he thought, unscrewing the cap. Reaching into another pouch, he took out a small headphone transmitter, one set to a hidden frequency that none of his comrades or the US government could trace. “I’m here,” he said.
“Yeah, we know,” said the surprisingly clear voice at the other end. “Jeez, Master Sergeant! Could you have made any more noise? Fucking Metallica makes less noise than you!”
“I had to convince the rest of the team to leave,” replied Taz.
“Well, okay,” said the voice on the other end. “Come on down, then.”
“What?” said Taz. “You really wanted to meet inside the Sansibar?”
“Yes, I really wanted to meet inside the Sansibar!” said the other voice. “After every combat tour, we always met in Hannover, at the Sansibar, to blow off steam and get a little down time before returning home to the States. Come on down, Master Sergeant!”
Taz exhaled, steeling himself for what was obviously a trap. Four stories up with no way to get down off the roof, Taz jumped off the side, landing on the three story roof of the casino across the narrow cobblestone street . Pivoting, he leapt again dropping to the second story balcony of the brothel he was just on before somersaulting forwards, sword-scythes in hands and landing in the middle of a pack of the dead beside the Sansibar entrance. Taz immediately took a fighting stance, expecting to have to fight his way into the large night club. Instead, however, the dead parted ways, forming a makeshift clear corridor which led to the entrance of the Sansibar. Alarmingly, the club was now brightly lit. Two large muscular dead men, probably bouncers for the Sansibar while they still lived, emerged from inside the club and opened the doors. Knowing that this indeed was a trap, Tasmanian Devil none the less ran through the corridor created by the dead, both sword-scythes held across forearm to elbow in case the dead attacked as he burst into the club. With a start, Tasmanian Devil realized as he passed through the doors of the Sansibar that the two muscular bouncers were still alive!
The two bouncers closed the glass doors behind them as Taz spun around, ready to strike with his wicked blades should the two men attack him. Both men were extremely muscular, each wearing some type of makeshift, armored football pad uniforms with wicked spikes mounted on the shoulders, leather gauntlets and gloves infused with more armor plates, and black and red leather pants lined with yet more armored padding. The only difference between the two bearded brutes was that one had a Mohawk whilst the other had a reverse Mohawk.
“Hey,” said Taz. “I know you dudes! You two were super powered executive body guards before the world went to shit. The Intimidators, right? ”
The brute with the Mohawk, the one Taz knew as the German mercenary called Barbarian, extended a hand towards the bar and speaking in German, said, “Sit, please,” in a gruff but not unfriendly tone.
Taz looked over to Barbarian’s partner, the equally huge mercenary with the reverse Mohawk named Highlander. He simply puffed out his chest, crossing his massive arms. Highlander, predictably from the Scottish Isles, nodded towards the bar, saying nothing. Taz turned, facing the long, well lit bar still stocked from counter to ceiling with bottles of liquor and taps of beer. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the lady standing behind the bar.
“Alda? You’re still alive?” said Taz in German.
Alda, the short platinum blonde bartender in her late thirties stared questioningly at the hero. “You…ummm…. you look different from when I last saw you. They say it’s you under that mask. But…”
Tasmanian Devil removed his mask, revealing a grim faced, middle aged man with short cropped white hair, thick furrowed brows, haunted grey eyes and a mouth in a permanent scowl framed by short, white stubble. “This better? How’ve you been, Alda?” Tasmanian Devil, smiled revealing incisor teeth that were twice as long as the average human’s.
“Yep. That’s you alright!” Alda laughed. “Although I think I like you better with that silly mask on your face!” She reached up and grabbed a tall glass from the rack over the bar. “Go ahead and sit down. It’s been a while. Can I get you your usual?”
There was always something about Alda’s voice, so gravelly, yet so seductively German, that appealed to Taz. “Where is he, Alda?”
Alda slid the long island iced tea in front of Taz, nodding her head and motioning to the side of the bar where an opening led to stone steps going down to the restrooms and storage spaces under the club. “He wanted to make sure you were alone, which is why he had Floppsy and Moppsy over there to greet you!”
“Hey!” yelled Highlander. Taz looked past the two mercenaries, outside past the glass doors where the dead seemed to have formed a protective barrier around the club, facing outwards.
“Master Sergeant Gunther!” A tall figure wearing a white mask and white cowl emerged from the stairway. He wore a red battle suit with white straps, gloves and combat boots. Two submachine guns where strapped to each thigh, two pistols on each waist, and a Carl Gustov rocket launcher was slung across his back. Over his right eye on his white mask was a gun-targeting, lead angle site that homed in on Taz.
Closely behind him came another man wearing a black, skull shaped helmet, black leather jacket and pants, over a white shirt with a black skull and crossbones design on it. In the man’s hands was a black steel mace. Next to him came another young man with wavy dark blonde hair, sunglasses, a black leather jacket and black leather pants. He wore a red leather shirt with a stylized ‘A’ in the middle of a black star design. Tasmanian Devil recognized the first two guys, but the last one looked like a young David Hasselhoff if he had decided to take up being a rock star instead of an actor. Taz figured he had to be German. Immediately, Taz leapt off the bar stool, holding his sword-scythes in a defensive fighting position as he faced the threats. Alda yelped and ducked under the bar as everyone else took fighting stances, surrounding the outnumbered hero.
The one with the white mask and cowl held up his hands towards Taz. “Whoa, there, Gunther! We’re all friends here! Is that how you greet your former commander? Hell, back in the day, you used to salute me!”
“That was before you became a damned assassin and domestic terrorist!” growled Taz. “Back then, you were Lieutenant Colonel Mayfield , MARSOC, and I was your senior ranking NCO, Master Sergeant Gunther. Those days are long gone. Now, you’re the murderer known as Arsenal, the leader of the criminal group known as the Jail Breakers who specialize in breaking super criminals out of prison. I’m the hero known as Tasmanian Devil, and the guy standing next to you with the black skull mask is the toady known as Dick Face! The only one who I don’t recognize is that Hitler youth wannabe’ who is skulking around behind you!”
“Black Skull,” yelled the man wearing the black skull helmet, hefting his mace threateningly at Taz. “You better call me by my correct name!”
“I’m Captain Awesome,” said the other man, pushing past the villain Black Skull and speaking English but in a thick German accent.
“Hero?” laughed the villain named Arsenal. “Really, Gunther? You call yourself a hero?” Arsenal continued laughing as he took a seat at the bar, motioning his two henchmen Black Skull and Captain Awesome to sit down with him. Barbarian and Highlander remained at the doors, obviously being paid by whatever currency that was valuable to them to keep watch and safeguard this meeting between hero and villains.
“Alda, would you kindly pour us a tumbler of your best bourbon, bitte?” Arsenal reached up, pulling back on his white cowl and removed his mask. Short cropped jet black hair topped a handsome black face, a thin, well trimmed moustache over his lips. The man now known as Arsenal had the dashing good looks of a black, Hollywood, action hero, save for the deep scar that cut from his upper right forehead and down across his lower right chin, a present given to him from Tasmanian Devil during their first battle when neither knew each other’s identity. In truth, if Tasmanian Devil had known that Arsenal was actually his former commanding officer, he may have plunged both his sword-scythes into his heart, instead.
“Come on, now Gunther,” said Arsenal. “I’ve wondered that for a long, long time. After everything we’ve done, after everything I know about you, how can you call yourself a hero?”
“Why am I here, Mayfield?” said Tasmanian Devil. “Why are those dead outside not attacking us?”
“I mean, admit it Master Sergeant,” continued Arsenal, ignoring Tasmanian Devil’s questions. “You’ve forgotten more people you’ve killed than I’ll ever remember people I’ve killed. So what? That comet gives you enhanced powers. The government gave you a fancy battle suit, a stupid code name, and an obscenely huge weekly paycheck and you now think you’re a hero?”
Arsenal downed his bourbon in one gulp, setting it down on the bar as Alda filled it again. “C’mon, Master Sergeant. Aside from tying to make an honest buck, what makes you any different than me?”
“Dammit, Mayfield,” Taz slammed his fist on the bar and making all of the glasses jump. “I didn’t come here to drink and catch up on old times with you as if nothing ever happened! Those were civilians that you had killed in Afghanistan! I don’t know what brought you here to Germany and frankly, I don’t care! I have a world to save! That’s what makes me different from you!”
Arsenal glanced over at Taz, who was sitting next to him at the bar and rested his chin on his hand. “Really, Gunther?” said Arsenal calmly, almost condescendingly. “You have a world to save? And how do you expect to do that, hmm?” He took a sip from his bourbon, savoring the smooth taste as it flowed down his throat. “Would it surprise you to know that that’s why we are here? It’s our world as well, you know.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Mayfield?” said Taz.
“You’ve already seen it, Master Sergeant,” said Arsenal. “Look outside. Go ahead. There are one hundred of the dead standing guard in front of the Sansibar, keeping the other dead from trying to enter. And they’ll be there for at least another three hours under his control before the nano’s expire.”
“His control?” said Tasmanian Devil, eying his former commanding officer suspiciously as he sipped his long island ice tea. “Who is in control?”
“Him,” said Arsenal, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb back where the stairs were. “He was our last mission. He was the last person the Jail Breakers broke out of SEAD custody, and believe me, you’ll thank me for it.”
“I’m pleased that you would come all this way just to see me,” said a figure climbing up the stairs. “It’s Mister Tasmanian Devil, isn’t it?”
“You!” growled Tasmanian Devil, grabbing up his sword-scythes and leaping towards the frail looking figure standing at the top of the stairs with the wild, unkempt, hair wearing a dirty white lab coat. When Tasmanian Devil’s former commanding officer, now turned super criminal, contacted him and asked him to meet him here in Hannover to have a meeting with someone who had the ability to save the world, the hero never imagined it would be this monster. It was him! Public enemy number one before the world died. It was this old man whose mechanical abominations had been responsible for murdering untold thousands of innocent people in his quest to wipe out mankind.
“I’ll kill you, you monster!” raged Tasmanian Devil. “I’ll kill you, Doctor Genocide!”
Continued in Mission Two- The Only Heroes Are The Dead Ones...

Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater. (the previous edition can be found here if you are super behind).
House-keeping:

1. How to read: the headings will guide you through this piece. The Main Course covers the “big” stories and The Sides covers the “smaller” stories. IF YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS CLOSELY: you likely know about the stories in the Main Course section, so you will be best served by scrolling down to The Sides portion.
   
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Let’s dig in!

MAIN COURSE

Trump’s war on the intelligence community: 10 days under an authoritarian administration

I wrote a stand-alone piece covering the biggest news from last week: Over the past 10 days, we've seen Trump fully indulge his authoritarian impulses in an attempt to stamp out any inkling of facts that he dislikes - whether that be for personal, egocentric reasons or to shore up political strength. This began with a briefing given to the House Intelligence Committee that Russia is seeking to re-elect Trump. In response, Trump purged the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of officials he perceived to be disloyal, installing loyalists in their place.
Also covered: how Trump gets away with a cabinet full of acting officials, Richard Grenell’s numerous dis-qualifications, a pardon offered to Julian Assange, and the hunt for “Never Trumpers” in the administration.

Sunday night update

On Sunday, Trump made a veiled threat toward House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff while claiming without evidence that the Democrat had leaked information from the Russia briefing on Feb. 13: “Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media. Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience!” tweet
Later, while speaking to reporters, Trump called for an investigation into the leak - more concerned about the public learning of the briefing than he is about Russia’s repeated interference in U.S. elections. “They leaked it, Adam Schiff and his group. They leaked it to the papers and - as usual - they ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information,” Trump said.
Schiff responded: “Nice deflection, Mr. President. But your false claims fool no one. You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020.”

Pardon-palooza

Authoritarians also dispense largesse, but they do it by their own whims, rather than pursuant to any system or legal rule. The point of authoritarianism is to concentrate power in the ruler, so the world knows that all actions, good and bad, harsh and generous, come from a single source. (The New Yorker)

Last week, Trump granted pardons and commutations to 11 people with one thing in common: connections. Trump bypassed the process of formal procedures typically used to determine who is given a pardon, instead relying on connections to his wealthy friends and political allies.

• Former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of soliciting bribes from candidates to replace Barack Obama in the Senate after Obama was elected president, knew Trump personally from his appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice. Trump falsely claimed that former FBI Director James Comey was involved in Blagojevich's prosecution; Comey did not take over at the FBI until years after the Blagojevich case.
  
  • Illinois' entire GOP congressional delegation—Darin LaHood, John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis, and Mike Bost: "Blagojevich is the face of public corruption in Illinois, and not once has he shown any remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters...Blagojevich is the face of public corruption in Illinois, and not once has he shown any remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters." (source)
• Former San Francisco 49ers team owner Eddie DeBartolo, who was convicted of “failing to report a felony” in 1998 after he paid a $400,000 bribe for a casino license, was pardoned as a result of the lobbying of New England Patriots owner and frequent Mar-a-Lago guest Robert Kraft.
  
• Michael Milken, the so-called junk bond king who was convicted in 1990 of securities and tax fraud, knew Trump personally and frequently spent time with him at Mar-a-Lago. In his first memoir, Trump called Milken “a brilliant guy.” Many of Trump’s inner circle also lobbied for a pardon for Milken, including Rudy Giuliani, Jared Kushner, Steven Mnuchin, and developer friends Howard Lorber and Richard LeFrak. In fact, last year Mnuchin “flew on Mr. Milken’s private jet from Washington to Los Angeles and helped secure a real estate tax break that could benefit Mr. Milken.” A key backer of Milken’s pardon, hedge fund manager (and executive of Wendy’s) Nelson Peltz, held a record-breaking fundraiser for Trump’s re-election campaign at his home just 3 days before Milken was pardoned.
  
  • John K. Carroll: “As one of the lead prosecutors on the Milken case, I am outraged — not at the specific result here but at what the pardon process says about the way justice is served in our country...What outrages me, and what I think should outrage others, is the process that brought about the pardon. In as guileless an admission as I have ever seen of rich man’s justice, the White House bolstered its decision by listing a murderer’s row of Republican donors and billionaires who provided “widespread and long-standing” support for Milken’s pardon. Sheldon Adelson, Tom Barrack, my old boss Giuliani and others are listed as supporters of the pardon. If I had to prove that the scales of justice tilt toward the rich, I would offer that list and then sit down and wait for the jury to convict.”
• Former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was convicted in 2009 of lying to federal investigators and committing tax fraud, knew Trump personally and had Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera sign a letter on his behalf requesting a pardon from the president. In 2004, Trump called Kerik “a friend of mine” and “a great guy.” Rudy Giuliani also supported the request, as Kerik once served as a senior vice president at Giuliani Partners.
  
  • "The pardon cancels out $103,300 in restitution that Kerik still owed the Internal Revenue Service as part of his sentence, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan." (source)
• Paul Pogue, a construction company owner who pleaded guilty to underpaying his taxes by $473,000, did not know Trump and did not have any Fox News personalities lobby on his behalf. Instead, Pogue’s family appears to have purchased a presidential pardon. Pogue’s son and daughter-in-law made over $200,000 in contributions to the Trump Victory Committee last year. The couple also made several large donations to the Republican National Committee and each donated $5,600 to Donald Trump for President Inc.,” according to FEC filings.
  

Roger Stone going to prison

Perhaps not coincidentally, Trump’s pardoning of corrupt public officials like Blagojevich occurred just two days before Roger Stone’s sentencing for lying to investigators, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness tampering. Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months - or 3.3 years - in prison, much lighter than the original 7-9 year sentencing recommendation made by career prosecutors who withdrew from the case in protest of AG Barr’s intervention.
Lawfare has a great line-by-line breakdown of the sentencing hearing, if you’d like the nitty-gritty details. But if you only have time to read one excerpt from the hearing, I suggest the following:

Judge Jackson: “The truth still exists. The truth still matters. Roger Stone's insistence that it doesn't, his belligerence, his pride in his own lies are a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy...The dismay and the disgust at the attempts by others to defend his actions as just business as usual in our polarized climate should transcend party. The dismay and the disgust with any attempts to interfere with the efforts of prosecutors and members of the judiciary to fulfill their duty should transcend party.
"Sure, the defense is free to say: So what? Who cares? But, I'll say this: Congress cared. The United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia that prosecuted the case and is still prosecuting the case cared. The jurors who served with integrity under difficult circumstances cared. The American people cared. And I care."

Judge Jackson pushes back
During the hearing, Judge Jackson said that the jurors in the case "served with integrity." Stone’s lawyers took this statement and moved to disqualify the judge from the case, claiming that her remarks “rendered her unable to fairly rule on his bid for a new trial.”

"Stone’s Motion for New Trial is directly related to the integrity of a juror. It is alleged that a juror misled the Court regarding her ability to be unbiased and fair and the juror attempted to cover up evidence that would directly contradict her false claims of impartiality," his lawyers argued.
"The premature statement blessing the “integrity of the jury” undermines the appearance of impartiality and presents a strong bias for recusal," they added.

As expected, Jackson denied the motion to have her disqualified...
A pardon for Stone?
But the goal may be to reach the ears of the president instead. According to Politico, a former senior administration official who remains in contact with Trump and his senior advisers says about a pardon for Roger Stone: “It’s not a question of if; it’s when.” Following the sentencing, Trump argued that Stone’s jury was “tainted” and said that “Roger has a very good chance of exoneration.”
On Sunday, Trump was asked about the possibility of a pardon for Stone and instead took the opportunity to attack the jury forewoman, again:

"That juror is so biased and so tainted, that shouldn't happen in our criminal justice system… You have a juror that is obviously tainted. She was an activist against Trump. She said bad things about Trump and bad things about Stone," the President claimed without evidence. "She somehow weaseled her way onto the jury and if that's not a tainted jury then there is no such thing as a tainted jury."

More info on Stone’s lenient sentence

In the week since four prosecutors withdrew from Stone’s case in protest of AG Barr’s interference, we have gotten a slow drip-drip of new information. A piece by The New York Times Sunday summed it up nicely: Timothy Shea, appointed to replace Jessie Liu as head D.C. attorney, was sent to the office specifically to steer cases to the president’s benefit after previous efforts failed.

A new boss, Timothy Shea, had just arrived and had told them on his first day that he wanted a more lenient recommendation for Mr. Stone, and he pushed back hard when they objected, according to two people briefed on the dispute. They grew suspicious that Mr. Shea was helping his longtime friend and boss, Attorney General William P. Barr, soften the sentencing request to please the president.
...The tensions between the office, the Justice Department and the White House date back further than the tumult in the Stone case. They have been simmering since at least last summer, when the office’s investigation of Andrew G. McCabe, a former top F.B.I. official whom the president had long targeted, began to fall apart.
Mr. Shea’s predecessor, Jessie K. Liu, a lawyer whom Mr. Trump had appointed to lead the office in 2017, pressed the McCabe case even after one team of prosecutors concluded that they could not win a conviction. After a second team was brought in and also failed to deliver a grand jury indictment, Ms. Liu’s relationship with Mr. Barr grew strained, people close to them said. She left the position this year, though she and Mr. Barr have both stressed to associates that her departure was amicable.

Undoing Mueller’s work

Trump’s efforts to derail the sentencing of Stone can be seen as part of a larger campaign to rewrite history, and specifically, erase the findings of the Mueller investigation. Roger Stone’s indictment shows that Stone was acting on Trump's personal order to find Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails stolen by Russia. In order to cover-up his role in the Russia-Wikileaks-Trump network, Stone lied to investigators and threatened a witness. By claiming that Stone did not commit a crime, Trump is attempting to reverse the findings of the Mueller report and make himself the victim.
Last week, Trump embarked on a rambling Twitter thread calling for all cases stemming from Mueller’s probe to be “thrown out.” He continued, saying: “If I wasn’t President, I’d be suing everyone all over the place.......BUT MAYBE I STILL WILL. WITCH HUNT!”
Hours later, while discussing the spate of pardons he had issued that day, Trump made the astounding assertion that he is “the chief law enforcement officer of the country” and thus has the “legal right” to interfere in criminal cases. “I’m allowed to be totally involved,” the president added. While technically he is incorrect - the Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer - in practice Trump has been proven right. A lawless chief executive is in fact in charge of enforcing the law when the Attorney General acts as his personal fixer.

This is in the style of autocrats across the globe, who weaponize the law to help themselves and their friends and hurt their enemies. The nation’s legal system is now run by a man who has spent his life mocking it. (NYT Editorial Board)

Meanwhile, the president’s allies have reportedly been urging him to fire anyone who was involved in Mueller’s investigation:

The MAGA punditry’s outsized influence over the president means their campaign against the so-called Mueller “holdovers” is likely not falling on deaf ears, especially given Trump’s fixation with what his defenders and detractors are saying about his administration in their frequent appearances on his favorite TV programs.
“It's totally unclear to me why any members of the Mueller team need to remain in the Trump DOJ,” the pro-Trump conservative blogger Will Chamberlain wrote after news broke of the Stone sentencing recommendation.
...GOP operative Arthur Schwartz, a close friend of Donald Trump Jr. who has been described as the eldest son’s “fixer,” said of the career officials in question: “I think they should all be investigated.”
...John Dowd, a former Trump lawyer who remains in touch with the White House, characterized the line attorneys in the Stone case as “insubordinate,” and “the same crowd of prosecutors wedded to the Mueller agenda” who need to be “cleaned out” from DOJ. “And Bill Barr is doing that,” Dowd said.

What can be done about the politicization of the DOJ? In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School suggests that “Congress should transform the Justice Department into an independent agency, legally immunized from the president’s day-to-day control.”

Public charge rule takes effect

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the government to implement new “wealth test” rules making it easier to deny immigrants residency or admission to the United States if they might depend on public-assistance programs. Legal challenges will continue in lower courts in the meantime. Doug Rand, co-founder of Boundless Immigration who formerly worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House, estimates that as many as 400,000 people every year could be denied green cards or visas because of the new rules.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a written dissent that was sharply critical of both the federal government and her conservative colleagues, warning that they are “putting a thumb on the scale in favor of” the Trump administration. Read her full seven-page dissent here.

The justice wrote that granting emergency applications often upends "the normal appellate process" while "putting a thumb on the scale in favor of the party that won." Targeting her conservative colleagues, she said "most troublingly, the Court's recent behavior" has benefited "one litigant over all others."
"Claiming one emergency after another, the Government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases," Sotomayor said. "It is hard to say what is more troubling," she said, pointing to the case at hand, "that the Government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it." CNN

THE SIDES

Justice Department’s new rules benefit Giuliani

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, the DOJ indicated that the agency has implemented another layer of approval that would make it difficult for prosecutors to widen their probe into Rudy Giuliani:

The Justice Department revealed Tuesday that law enforcement officials running Ukraine-related investigations must seek approval before expanding their inquiries — a move that could have implications for Rudolph W. Giuliani, as President Trump’s personal attorney pushes for scrutiny of the president’s political foes while facing a federal probe into his own conduct.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote to Nadler that the department had tapped two U.S. attorneys to assist in the process — Scott Brady in Pittsburgh to receive and assess new information, and Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn to help coordinate personnel throughout the Justice Department involved in Giuliani’s case and others with a focus on Ukraine. An accompanying internal memo, circulated by Rosen in January, says that he and Donoghue must approve expansions of any inquiries.

Related: The Hill admits John Solomon’s columns were misleading

The Hill’s review of Solomon’s work can be found here. I have found the review itself to be overly generous to the publication (no surprise), so I will quote from a WaPo summary of the review:

In effect, the Hill said Solomon amplified an inaccurate and one-sided narrative about the Bidens and Ukraine that was fed to him by Giuliani, “facilitated” by businessman Lev Parnas, who was working with Giuliani at the time, and reinforced by Solomon’s own attorneys, who also represented clients embroiled in U.S.-Ukraine politics.
But the Hill stopped short of retracting or apologizing for Solomon’s articles, nor did it say it shouldn’t have published them. It also didn’t characterize Solomon’s motives in presenting what appears to be a largely debunked conspiracy theory about Ukraine.
“In certain columns, Solomon failed to identify important details about key Ukrainian sources, including the fact that they had been indicted or were under investigation,” said the internal investigation, which was overseen by the newspaper’s editor, Bob Cusack. “In other cases, the sources were [Solomon’s] own attorneys” — Victoria Toensing and Joseph DiGenova, who have also represented President Trump and Giuliani, who was also a key source for Solomon’s columns.
Solomon didn’t disclose this connection in his columns nor did he disclose to his editors that he shared drafts of his stories with Toensing, DiGenova and Parnas, the review noted.

Trump tries to block Bolton book

The Washington Post reports that Trump is attempting to block the release of former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book, instructing aides that it should not be released until after the November election.

Trump has told his lawyers that Bolton should not be allowed to publish any of his interactions with him about national security because they are privileged and classified, these people said. He has also repeatedly brought up the book with his team, asking whether Bolton is going to be able to publish it, they said.
Trump told national television anchors on Feb. 4 during an off-the-record lunch that material in the book was “highly classified,” according to notes from one participant in the luncheon. He then called him a “traitor.”
“We’re going to try and block the publication of the book,” Trump said, according to the notes. “After I leave office, he can do this. But not in the White House...I give the guy a break. I give him a job. And then he turns on me,” Trump added during the West Wing lunch. “He’s just making things up.”

Susan Rice tells Bolton the truth

During a panel discussion at Vanderbilt University on Wednesday, Bolton shared the stage with Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice. Bolton made excuses for his failure to testify in Trump’s impeachment trial, blaming the House for committing “impeachment malpractice.” Rice challenged Bolton repeatedly, denigrating his decision to promote his book instead of testify:

"I thought a lot about if I had been in that position how would I have approached it, and I'll be honest: It's inconceivable to me that if I had firsthand knowledge of gross abuse of presidential power that I would withhold my testimony from a constitutional accountability process.”
"I can't imagine withholding my testimony, with or without a subpoena," Rice said. "I also can't imagine, frankly, in the absence of being able to provide the information directly to Congress, not having exercised my First Amendment right to speak publicly at a time when my testimony or my experience would be relevant. And, frankly, when my subordinates ... were doing their duty and responding in a fashion consistent with their legal obligations to provide information."
"I would feel like I was shamefully violating the oath that I took to support and defend the Constitution."

Trump corruption update

President Donald Trump’s choice to stay at his own Las Vegas hotel each night during the western states swing that wraps up Friday likely cost taxpayers a million extra dollars as well as diverted thousands of them into his own cash registers.

Breaking with precedent, Trump flew back to Vegas to stay every night at his Trump International Hotel, despite his day activities taking place in California, Arizona, and Colorado.

Had Trump held the same events but done so in a geographically logical order ― starting in Beverly Hills and finishing in Colorado Springs, but overnighting each day in the city where he would begin the following morning ― Trump would have spent four fewer hours aboard Air Force One, thereby saving taxpayers about $1.1 million.
...Indeed, the repeated overnight trips to Las Vegas may have forced the Secret Service and other support personnel to keep a motorcade there for a full four days, rather than move it to the site of an upcoming presidential trip

This week, Trump has a whole new country to focus on: India, home to the largest portfolio of Trump real estate projects outside North America, according to the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. According to The Washington Post, since the elder Trump’s last trip to India in 2014, two of his business partners have encountered massive legal and financial trouble.
During Trump’s time as president, the Trump Organization has vigorously promoted their properties in India, earning millions of dollars in royalties:

In 2018, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. — who runs the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric Trump — spent several days in India promoting the family’s developments, attending a champagne dinner with condo buyers who plunked down $39,000 deposits and bringing in millions of dollars in new sales. While there, he also met with Modi behind closed doors. The next year, Trump’s Indian business partners flew 100 early buyers of his luxury condos near Delhi to visit Trump Tower and Trump Ferry Point golf course in New York City as a way to generate interest in the properties in India. One attendee gushed afterward about meeting the son of a U.S. president on the trip.

Trump 2020: Cambridge Analytica and Facebook

President Donald Trump’s campaign is bringing on an alum of the controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica...Matt Oczkowski, who served as head of product at Cambridge before it went bankrupt and shut down in 2018, is helping oversee the Trump campaign’s data program...Oczkowski, who also worked on Trump’s 2016 effort, joined the reelection campaign in January, and payments to his company, HuMn Behavior, are expected to show up on Trump’s next campaign finance disclosure later this month. (Politico)

An Axios report revealed where most of Trump’s re-election campaign is spending its advertising budget: on Facebook ads. “Last fall, the campaign urged Facebook to keep the same tools for political advertisers that they make available to companies...Facebook ultimately decided not to change its policies around microtargeting.” However, unlike in 2016, the campaign is also diversifying, “testing new strategies on several dozen platforms, including YouTube, Google, ad exchanges, publisher networks and conservative podcasts.”

• Side note: The IRS is suing Facebook for $9 million in back taxes, alleging the social media company undervalued intellectual properties when selling them to an Irish subsidiary in 2010. Ireland has lower corporate tax rates than the United States, so the move reduced the company’s tax bill.

Erik Prince investigations

There is apparently another investigation into Blackwater Founder - and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos - Erik Prince. The FBI is reportedly investigating Prince “for his 2015 attempt to modify two American-made crop-dusting planes into attack aircraft — a violation of arms trafficking regulations...The planes became part of private military services Prince proposed to sell or use in mercenary operations in Africa and Azerbaijan.”
This new investigation adds to Prince’s legal problems, though he insists that he is untouchable “under this guy,” referring to Trump. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Justice Department is “in the late stages of deciding whether to charge” Prince for allegedly lying to Congress in its Russia probe and violating U.S. export laws in his business dealings overseas.

Trump blocking prominent climate change warning

The United States is against mentioning climate change in the communique of the world’s financial leaders, G20 diplomats said, after a new draft of the joint statement showed the G20 are considering including it as a risk factor to growth...G20 sources said the United States was reluctant to accept language on climate change as a risk to the economy. Reuters

On Sunday, it was announced that the U.S. ultimately agreed to a less-prominent placement for the risks of climate change. It will now appear in language referencing the Financial Stability Board’s work examining the implications of climate change for financial stability.

One of the G20 sources said it was the first time a reference to climate change had been included in a G20 finance communique during Trump’s presidency, even though it was removed from the top of the joint statement. U.S. officials have resisted naming climate change as an economic risk since Trump took office in 2017. One of his first acts as president was to announce Washington’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.

Rightwing threats

Last week, two men were arrested in separate incidents involving threats to President Trump’s perceived opponents.
A Michigan man, Brittan J. Atkinson, was arrested on Thursday for sending death threats to Mark Zaid, an attorney for the Ukraine whistleblower. Atkinson sent the threats in November, on the day that Trump held up a photo of Zaid and read some of his tweets at a rally in Louisiana.

"All traitors must die miserable deaths," Atkinson's email read in part, the indictment says. "Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate[.] We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are. We have nothing but time, and you are running out of it, Keep looking over your shoulder[.] We know who you are, where you live, and who you associate with[.] We are all strangers in a crowd to you[.]"

On Wednesday, Salvatore Lippa of New York was arrested for threatening to assault and murder Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Chuck Schumer in voicemails last month.

Lippa started the threatening message by calling the congressman "Schiff, Shifty Schiff," invoking the nickname used by President Donald Trump for Schiff, the lead House manager during Trump's impeachment trial.
...When questioned by U.S Capitol Police, Lippa admitted to making the threatening calls to Schiff and Schumer because he said he was upset about the impeachment proceedings, prosecutors said.

State news

• Washington Post: A second court has temporarily blocked North Carolina’s new voter identification law on the argument that it discriminates against African Americans. The ruling reduces the likelihood that the rule will be in effect in a key swing state during November’s elections. A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that intent to discriminate was a “primary motivating factor” behind the voter ID law, which passed the Republican legislature in late 2018.
  
• CBS News: Florida cannot bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
  
• CNN: Mississippi's law banning abortions at the detection of a fetal heartbeat -- as early as six weeks into pregnancy -- will remain blocked, a panel of circuit judges ruled on Thursday...The three-judge panel on the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's ruling that the Mississippi law unconstitutionally prohibited pre-viability abortions.
  
• Tampa Bay Times: A curious request arrived in the inboxes of Florida tax collectors last week from an employee of the Republican National Committee. He asked for “all email addresses that have been collected and are in the possession of the Tax Collector’s Office.” He also wanted any names, property addresses and phone numbers connected to those emails in their records. If the tax collectors had complied, the Republican Party would soon have a valuable trove of personal information for millions of Floridians as it gears up for the 2020 election: A detailed database of many taxpayers’ emails plus the name, address and phone number tied to that email.
  
• Associated Press: Most Republican lawmakers refused to attend a Tuesday night session of the Oregon House of Representatives amid a slowdown over anger at a sweeping bill on climate change. Earlier, Republican lawmakers, who are a minority in the House, insisted that bills coming to the floor be read in their entirety instead of being summarized, which slowed things down substantially. The 2020 session of the Legislature lasts only 35 days, being an even-year short session.
  
• Q13 Fox News: Efforts to expel a controversial state representative from the Washington Legislature are likely over after no Republicans would sign a letter calling for state Rep. Matt Shea’s expulsion. The Spokesman-Review reports that all 98 members of the state House of Representatives were asked Thursday to sign a letter calling for the expulsion of Spokane Valley Republican. All 56 Democrats signed the letter, but no Republicans did.
  

CONTINUED BELOW

Unfortunately there's no 100% agreed list of GA seasons and there never was one. Various platforms and Travel Channel affiliates provide contradictory episode listings. It was discussed numerous times over the years, recently we had yet another discussion on the matter. Somebody asked me on PM if I can share with them the chronological listing I've been using, so I've decided to post it here as well. Keep in mind this is not an "official" list, but it's a recommended one if you want to binge watch the whole show from beginning to end or if you're a new fan looking for specific episodes.
This is a list of Ghost Adventures episodes in order based on the original air date. I've been keeping it since I began watching the show during the first season and it mostly overlaps with the wikipedia listing, and a few other season lists. It includes every single episode, including all specials and compilation episodes. "Extra Pulses" are not added since there is no additional content compared to the original episodes. For the first 7 or so seasons this is how The Travel Channel listed their seasons before they nuked their site and started grouping them by production date and not air date. A few things of note:

• Ghost Adventures: The Beginning is The Documentary movie with a couple minutes of bonus footage. It was aired on the same day as the first episode of the series.
  
• To make matters even more complicated early seasons have alternate episode titles for some of the episodes. I've included the more common ones.
  
• The early compilation episodes were episodes with different edit and new narration compared to original ones, and were used as a bridge, while the GAC were filming new content. Later Travel Channel would just split the production in two seasons - Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer periods.
  
• Years ago Travel Channel listed episodes under new seasons if 2 or more months had passed since the last aired episode, and before the new content announcement.
  
• In recent years they've been doing a lot of specials with an overlapping theme like "Haunting of Vicksburg", some sites list these episodes as a complete season.
  

Season 1
Start: October 17, 2008
End: December 5, 2008

• Ghost Adventures: The Beginning (Special Episode)
• Bobby Mackey's Music World
• Houghton Mansion
• Moundsville Penitentiary
• Riddle House
• Sloss Furnaces
• Former Psychiatric Hospital
• Edinburgh Vaults
• Old Idaho Penitentiary

Season 2
Start: June 5, 2009
End: July 24, 2009

• Preston Castle
• Castillo de San Marcos
• La Purisima Mission
• Magnolia Lane Plantation
• Birdcage Theater
• Eastern State Penitentiary
• Moon River Brewery
• Ancient Ram Inn

Season 3
Start: October 30, 2009
End: January 22, 2010

• Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE (Halloween Special Episode)
• Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE: Post Mortem (Special Highlights Episode)
• Pennhurst State School and Hospital
• Poveglia Island
• Ohio State Reformatory
• Remington Arms Factory
• Washoe Club and Chollar Mine
• Linda Vista Hospital
• Execution Rocks Lighthouse
• Prospect Place
• Clovis Wolfe Manor
• Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE: The Cutdown (Special Behind the Scenes Episode)
• Poveglia Island Special (Special Episode with 30 minutes of additional footage)

Season 4
Start: September 10, 2010
End: June 10, 2011

• Best Evidence (Compilation Special Episode)
• Scariest Moments (Compilation Special Episode)
• Gettysburg
• Rolling Hills Asylum
• Return to Bobby Mackey's Music World
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium
• Stanley Hotel
• Hill View Manor
• Vulture Mine
• USS Hornet
• La Palazza Mansion
• Fort Chaffee
• Amargosa Opera House
• Old Fort Erie
• Villisca Axe Murder House
• Kell's Irish Pub
• Pico House Hotel
• Return to Goldfield Hotel
• Bonnie Springs Ranch
• Longfellow's Wayside Inn (Valentine's Day Special Episode)
• Salem Witch House
• Jerome Grand Hotel
• Yorktown Hospital
• Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
• Sacramento Tunnels
• Hales Bar Marina and Dam
• Kentucky Slave House
• Tooele Hospital
• Loretta Lynn's Plantation House

Season 5
Start: September 23, 2011
End: December 16, 2011

• Ashmore Estates
• Mizpah Hotel
• Old Town San Diego
• Winchester Mystery House
• Lizzie Borden House
• Letchworth Village
• Return to Virginia City
• Rocky Point Manor
• Rose Hall
• Old Charleston Jail

Season 6
Start: February 24, 2012
End: July 20, 2012

• Horror Hotels and Deadliest Hospitals (Compilation Special Episode)
• Wickedest Women, Houses of Terror and Bloodiest Battlefields (Compilation Special Episode)
• Shanghai Tunnels
• Peabody-Whitehead Mansion
• Copper Queen Hotel and The Oliver House
• The National Hotel
• Return to Linda Vista Hospital
• The Galka Family
• The Riviera Hotel
• Hellfire Caves (Special Episode)
• Fort Horsted (Special Episode)

Season 7
Start: September 14, 2012
End: April 19, 2013

• Central Unit Prison
• Excalibur Nightclub
• Point Sur Lighthouse
• The Palmer House Hotel
• Black Moon Manor
• Sedamsville Rectory
• Cripple Creek
• Dead Men Walking (Compilation Special Episode)
• Brookdale Lodge
• Tor House
• Union Station
• Death By Wild West (Compilation Special Episode)
• Crazy Town
• Clinically Dead (Compilation Special Episode)
• Killer Nightlife (Compilation Special Episode)
• Do Not Disturb (Compilation Special Episode)
• Home Sweet Hell (Compilation Special Episode)
• Wyoming Frontier Prison
• Sailors' Snug Harbor
• Passport to Hell (Compilation Special Episode)
• Dungeons and Demons (Compilation Special Episode)
• Bewitched and Bothered (Compilation Special Episode)
• Obsessions and Possessions (Compilation Special Episode)
• New Orleans
• Market Street Cinema
• Armies of Darkness (Compilation Special Episode)
• First Timers (Compilation Special Episode)
• Goldfield Hotel Redemption
• Glen Tavern Inn
• King's Tavern

Season 8
Start: August 16, 2013
End: November 15, 2013

• Pioneer Saloon
• Black Swan Inn
• Tuolumne Hospital
• Missouri State Prison
• Yost Theater and Ritz Hotel
• Haunted Victorian Mansion
• Up Close and Personal (Compilation Special Episode)
• Exorcist House
• Alcatraz
• Mustang Ranch
• Thornhaven Manor
• Transylvania (Halloween Special Episode)
• Battle of Perryville

Season 9
Start: February 15, 2013
End: July 12, 2013

• Sharon Tate Ghost
• The Myrtles Plantation
• George Washington Ghost
• Bannack Ghost Town
• Fear Factory
• Heritage Junction
• Battle of Los Angeles
• Netherworld: Paris Catacombs (Special Episode featuring only Zak, aired in the middle of the season)
• St. James Hotel
• Fox Hollow Farm
• Haunted Savannah
• Overland Hotel and Saloon
• Old Licking County Jail

Season 10
Start: October 4, 2014
End: March 7, 2015

• Queen Mary
• Lemp Mansion and Brewery
• Zozo Demon (Nick's last regular episode)
• Island of the Dolls (in the og edit it was mentioned Nick couldn't make it for filming)
• Ireland's Celtic Demons (Halloween Special Episode, Nick's last appearance as part of the GAC)
• Bell Witch Caves (new intro, Jay and Bill introduced as permanent GAC investigators)
• Sallie House
• Nopeming Sanatorium
• Apache Junction
• Return to Tombstone
• Demons in Seattle
• Texas Horror Hotel

Season 11
Start: August 22, 2015
End: November 7, 2015

• Edinburgh Manor
• Old Montana State Prison
• Manresa Castle
• Old Lincoln County Hospital
• Haunted Harvey House
• Los Coches Adobe
• Grand Canyon Caverns
• Haunted Hollywood
• Odd Fellows Asylum
• Clown Motel and Goldfield High School
• Deadwood: City of Ghosts (Halloween Special Episode)
• Lava Hotel Springs Inn

Season 12
Start: January 30, 2016
End: August 6, 2016

• Black Dahlia House
• Secret Scientology Lab
• Bracken Fern Manor
• Return to the Riviera
• Chinese Town of Locke
• Star of India
• Leslie's Family Tree Restaurant
• Hell Hole Prison
• The Domes
• Nevada State Prison
• Return to Winchester Mystery House
• Stardust Ranch
• The Haunted Museum

Season 13
Start: September 24, 2016
End: January 14, 2017

• Colorado Gold Mine
• Mackay Mansion
• Palace Saloon
• Reseda House of Evil
• Dorothea Puente Murder House
• Route 666 (Halloween Special Episode)
• Hotel Metlen
• St. Ann's Retreat
• Twin Bridges Orphanage
• Dumas Brothel
• Zalud House
• Dakota's Sanatorium of Death
• De Soto Hotel and Concordia Cemetery (Spliced Part 1 of the Route 666 Halloween Special)
• Goatman's Bridge (Spliced Part 2 of the Route 666 Halloween Special)

Season 14
Start: March 25, 2017
End: July 15, 2017

• Stone Lion Inn
• Freak Show Murder House
• Samaritan Cult House
• Double Eagle Restaurant
• Silent Movie Theater
• Exorcism in Erie
• Skinwalker Canyon
• Upper Fruitland Curse
• Witches in Magna
• The Viper Room
• Asylum 49

Season 15
Start: September 23, 2017
End: January 13, 2018

• Golden Ghost Town
• Ogden Possession
• Haunting of Vicksburg: Mcraven Mansion (Special Episode)
• Haunting of Vicksburg: Demons and Dolls (Special Episode)
• Haunting of Vicksburg: Spirits Under Siege (Special Episode)
• Haunting of Vicksburg: Champion Hill Battlefield (Special Episode)
• Museum of Madness (Halloween Special Episode)
• Annabelle's Curse (Halloween Special Episode)
• Albion Normal School
• Museum of the Mountain West
• Pythian Castle
• The Titanic Museum
• Wolf Creek Inn
• Eureka Mining Town
• Sin City Exorcism
• Phelps Dodge Hospital
• The Slaughter House

Season 16
Start: March 24, 2018
End: July 14, 2018

• Ripley's Believe It or Not
• The Alley of Darkness
• Kennedy Mine
• Old Gila County Jail and Courthouse
• Hotel Leger
• Enchanted Forest
• The Washoe Club Final Chapter
• Lewis Flats School
• Kay's Hollow

Season 17
Start: October 6, 2018
End: January 12, 2019

• Graveyard of the Pacific: Astoria Underground (Special Episode)
• Graveyard of the Pacific: Norblad Hostel (Special Episode)
• Graveyard of the Pacific: Commander's House (Special Episode)
• Graveyard of the Pacific: Cape Disappointment (Special Episode)
• The Haunted Museum LIVE (Halloween Special Episode)
• Idaho State Reform School
• Westerfield House
• Crisis in Oakdale
• Tintic Mining District
• Terror in Fontana
• Riverside Plane Graveyard
• Curse of the River Bend: Mineral Springs Hotel (Special Episode)
• Curse of the River Bend: McPike Mansion (Special Episode)

Season 18
Start: February 23, 2019
End: July 20, 2019

• Gates of Hell House
• Palomino Club
• Lutes Casino
• Melrose Hotel
• Binions Hotel and Casino
• The Woodbury
• Crescent Hotel
• St. Ignatius Hospital
• Mount Wilson Ranch
• Panic in Amarillo
• Union Hotel
• Idaho State Tuberculosis Hospital
• A Haunting in Scottsdale

Season 19
Start: October 5, 2019

• Serial Killer Spirits: H. H. Holmes Murder House (Special Episode)
• Serial Killer Spirits: John Gacy Prison (Special Episode)
• Serial Killer Spirits: Axe Killer Jail" (Special Episode)
• Serial Killer Spirits: Ted Bundy Ritual House (Special Episode)
• Curse of the Harrisville Farmhouse (Halloween Special Episode)
• Albion Castle
• Cerro Gordo Ghost Town
• Pasadena Ritual House
• Horror in Biggs
• Franklin Castle
• Union Brewery of Death
• Nightmare in Antelope
• Goodwin Home Invasion
• Haunted Hollow Forest
• The Chinatown Poltergeist
• Beneath the Bonanza