Robots will be doing all the manufacturing. Truck drivers will be replaced by computer driven vehicles. All the lettuce pickers are being deported and nobody wants those jobs.

The vast majority of US jobs are in services, not manufacturing.

Problem is the product coming out of US schools can't handle the service jobs.

In reversal, Trump administration won’t ban import of African elephant trophies

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will now consider all permits for importing trophies of animals from African nations on a “case-by-case" [or Trump-by-Trump] basis, months after the president called elephant hunting "a horror show" and suggested he would keep the ban in place.

In a formal memo, quietly issued late last week and later disclosed in a court filing Friday, the agency said it will withdraw earlier agency rulings related to importing trophies of dead elephants from South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia, as well as those related to importing trophies of dead lions and bonteboks from South Africa.

The agency said in the memo it was revoking numerous nationwide "enhancement findings," which placed certain restrictions on the practice, because those findings were "no longer effective" for making individual permit decisions for trophy imports of dead animals on the endangered species list. However, it also noted that it could still consider the information cited in those findings when reviewing applications in the future.

The agency said in the memo it was revoking numerous nationwide "enhancement findings," which placed certain restrictions on the practice, because those findings were "no longer effective" for making individual permit decisions for trophy imports of dead animals on the endangered species list. However, it also noted that it could still consider the information cited in those findings when reviewing applications in the future.

The Fish and Wildlife Service initially announced in November it had lifted the ban implemented under the Obama administration on importing trophies of dead elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia into the U.S. But Trump quickly stepped in and suspended the decision after it was assailed by conservation and animal rights groups. The president, whose two older sons hunt, later called the practice “terrible” and a "horror show."

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal.
5:57 PM - Nov 19, 2017
65K 37.4K people are talking about this

The Trump administration acted after an appeals court ruled in December that the Obama administration did not follow proper procedures in issuing the original ban.

[ WoW! These guys dig deep holes to find holes ]

Jimmiel Mandima, who works for the African Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit conservation organization, told NBC News that he does not see this new process as lifting the ban entirely, but rather taking into account the differences among African nations regarding trophy hunting.

“My assumption is the recognition of the different circumstances under which the hunting would take place,” he said.

However, he said the agency has not been transparent and there are still lingering questions from the conservation community.

"The confusion is not helpful," he said. "We need more information about the criteria that's going to be used, we don’t know that yet. ... It has not been shared, which is, therefore, confusing to us."

An agency spokesperson declined to give specifics about the next steps, citing ongoing litigation, but did say, “The president has been very clear in the direction that his administration will go.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... es-n854121





The world's last male northern white rhino is on death watch

(CNN)With three northern white rhinos left in the world, the only male is gravely ill, raising fears the subspecies is getting closer to extinction.(CNN)With three northern white rhinos left in the world, the only male is gravely ill, raising fears the subspecies is getting closer to extinction.

[ Might as well shoot'em now - Get it over with ]

(CNN)With three northern white rhinos left in the world, the only male is gravely ill, raising fears the subspecies is getting closer to extinction.

Sudan made headlines last year when the Tinder dating app named him the "most eligible bachelor in the world" in a campaign to raise funds to save the subspecies.

At 45, considered elderly in rhino years, the animal lives at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya with two female northern white rhinos -- Fatu and Najin. They are the last three northern white rhinos.

With the animal on the verge of extinction, the fate of the subspecies rests on Sudan's ability to conceive with the two rhinos.
Bleak future

But Sudan's ill health is a cause for concern as experts scramble to ensure the subspecies does not go extinct.

"We don't think he will last for much longer," said Elodie A. Sampere, a spokeswoman at Ol Pejeta.

Sudan developed an age-related infection on his back right leg last year, Ol Pejeta said. It was assessed and treated, and he resumed normal movement in January.

A secondary infection developed beneath the initial one, and it's not responding to treatment.

"Euthanasia will be explored if we feel he is suffering too much and won't recover," Sampere said. "We do not want him to suffer unnecessarily. Right now he is still feeding and walking around ... albeit very little."

Even before his illness, Sudan was a crucial part of ensuring the beloved animal does not go extinct. So much so, he was protected from poachers by 24-hour armed guards.

Race against time

Rhinos are targeted by poachers, fueled by the belief in Asia that their horns cure various ailments. Experts say the rhino horn is becoming more lucrative than drugs.

With only three left, there's a race against time to try to sustain the northern white rhino. A committee at the conservancy is looking at various alternative reproduction techniques, including in vitro fertilization.

The western black rhino was declared extinct seven years ago as a result of poaching. All five remaining rhino species worldwide are considered threatened, according to the conservation group Save the Rhino.

Experts say if poaching continues, rhino deaths could surpass births.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/africa/n ... index.html





With 1 male left worldwide, northern white rhinos under guard 24 hours

Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya (CNN)

At first glance, Sudan looks like any other northern white rhino: stout and agile, with square lips.

He grazes under the hot sun, his massive head lowered to the ground, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya.
When he's not napping in his enclosure, he waddles around the sprawling savannah, stopping briefly to drink water from a concrete hole.

But Sudan is not just any rhino. He's the last known male northern white rhino left in the world.

For an animal on the verge of extinction, the fate of the subspecies rests on his ability to conceive with the two female northern white rhinos at the conservancy.

Sudan and the two female rhinos -- Fatu and Najin -- are the last three northern white rhinos left in the world.

Sudan and his female companions live at the conservancy, where experts are scrambling to ensure the subspecies does not go extinct.

The animals are under 24-hour protection by armed guards. Rhinos are targeted by poachers, fueled by the belief in Asia that their horns cure various ailments. Experts say the rhino horn is becoming more lucrative than drugs.

In addition to round-the-clock security, the conservancy has put radio transmitters on the animals and dispatches incognito rangers into neighboring communities to gather intelligence on poaching.

The conservancy is also raising funds to help equip and train rangers who guard the rhinos.

On the verge of extinction

At 42, Sudan is elderly in rhino years. Fatu, 15, is a spring chicken, while Najin is 25.

Though the three northern white rhinos are physiologically healthy, age might be a factor, says George Paul, the deputy veterinarian at the conservancy.

"Sudan is currently old and may not be able to naturally mount and mate with a female," he says.

In addition, he has a low sperm count, which complicates natural and scientific efforts, experts say.

Najin could conceive, but her hind legs are so weak, she may be unable to support a mounted male.

"There has been recorded mating between different pairs over the last few years, but not conceptions," Paul says. "Based on a recent health examination conducted, both animals have a regular estrus cycle, but no conception has been recorded."

And if one is not recorded soon, the beloved animal will go extinct.

Alternative methods to conceive

In a race against time, international experts are resorting to science to try to sustain the subspecies.

The northern white rhino cannot mate with a black rhino, but there is a chance it could mate with a southern white rhino, Paul says. While southern white rhinos are not endangered -- Ol Pejeta has 19 -- they are a different subspecies from the northern white rhino genetically. Though the offspring would not be 100% northern white rhino, it would be better than nothing, experts say.

A committee at the conservancy is also looking at various alternative reproduction techniques, including in vitro fertilization.

"In other countries, success has been achieved with embryo transfer in a different rhino species, thus that, as a technique, can be presupposed to be the most promising," Paul says. "However, consultations are ongoing amongst different reproductive technique experts on the way forward."

Countdown to extinction

The need to preserve the northern white rhino is dire.

"Realistically, we are looking at these animals dying in the next decade or so. But hopefully, using artificial methods of reproduction, we might be able to bring them back in the future," Paul says. "This might mean that it will happen when the current animals are already deceased, but it could happen."

The conservancy acquired the northern white rhinos -- two males and two females -- in 2009 from a zoo in the Czech Republic. Suni, the other male northern white rhino at the conservancy, died last year.

There are no known northern white rhinos left in the wild. A total of three remain in captivity worldwide -- all in Kenya,
Sudan, the only male left, is in a company of one.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/16/africa/k ... index.html





'Our living dinosaurs'

There are far fewer African elephants than we thought, study shows

Linyanti Swamp, Botswana (CNN)Scanning Botswana's remote Linyanti swamp from the low flying chopper, elephant ecologist Mike Chase can't hide the anxiety and dread as he sees what he has seen too many times before.

"I don't think anybody in the world has seen the number of dead elephants that I've seen over the last two years," he says.
From above, we spot an elephant lying on its side in the cracked river mud. From a distance it could be mistaken for a resting animal.

But the acrid stench of death hits us before we even land.

Up close, it is a horror.
Elephant ecologist Mike Chase examines an elephant whose face was hacked off by poachers in Botswana.

He was a magnificent bull right in his prime, 45 to 50 years old. To get at his prized ivory tusks, poachers hacked off his face.

Slaughtered for their ivory, the elephants are left to rot, their carcasses dotting the dry riverbed; in just two days, we counted the remains of more than 20 elephants in a small area.

Visitors and managers at the tourist camps here are frequently alarmed by the sound of gunshots nearby.

And Chase worries that if Botswana can't protect its elephants, there's little hope for the species as a whole.

Chase, the founder of Elephants Without Borders (EWB), is the lead scientist of the Great Elephant Census, (GEC) an ambitious project to count all of Africa's savannah elephants -- from the air.

Before the GEC, total elephant numbers were largely guesswork. But over the past two years, 90 scientists and 286 crew have taken to the air above 18 African countries, flying the equivalent of the distance to the moon -- and a quarter of the way back -- in almost 10,000 hours.

Prior to European colonization, scientists believe that Africa may have held as many as 20 million elephants; by 1979 only 1.3 million remained -- and the census reveals that things have gotten far worse.

According to the GEC, released Thursday in the open-access journal PeerJ, Africa's savannah elephant population has been devastated, with just 352,271 animals in the countries surveyed -- far lower than previous estimates.

Three countries with significant elephant populations were not included in the study. Namibia did not release figures to the GEC, and surveys in South Sudan and the Central African Republic were postponed due to armed conflict. ......

https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/g ... index.html

<

1 big thing ... Exclusive polls: Big warning signs for Senate Dems

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios ... are#story0
A series of 10 state polls for Axios by SurveyMonkey finds that President Trump isn't a drag on the Republican brand in key Senate races, despite his historically high national disapproval ratings.

Trump’s approval is higher than Democratic senators up for reelection in six of the states (Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio and West Virginia).

Trump's approval is higher than his national approval rating in all 10 states.

Axios' Alexi McCammond dives in ...

Five Senate Democrats would lose to a Republican candidate if the election were held today and three have approval ratings under 50%, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.

Why it matters: Democrats are defending 10 Senate seats in states Trump won in 2016. In six of those states Trump's approval is higher than 50% (compared to 43% nationally). These numbers underscore how hard it will be for Democrats to pick up the two seats needed to win the majority despite Trump’s troubles.

The three most vulnerable senators in the 10 states are Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Each of their approval ratings is under or around 50%, while Trump's is well above that in all three states.

The least vulnerable senators in the 10 states are Democrats Bill Nelson of Florida, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Trump's approval is at just 46% in Florida and Pennsylvania and 54% in Ohio.

But, but, but... with the election many months away and final Republican opponents not set, these numbers are likely to change as real GOP challengers get involved in the race. The approval ratings of each senator may give a better idea of where they stand with voters in their states.

Go deeper.

What's next: We'll be polling some of the GOP Senate seats that are in play, including Arizona, Nevada and Tennessee.

Hm, for some reason that image didn't post correctly.

Anyway, Tester, Mansion, McCaskill, Donnelly and Heitkamp are all down in their senate races.

I Walk Through These Doors Every Day Including Many Weekends !

This crazy ass president is at it again! What a moron! When will it all end?

This president's Tariff Bill (As If Duties & Taxes aren't expensive Enough) has put us in serious jeopardy With Real Repercussions

80% of all our purchases is steel.

This tariff bill could put us out of business. Half of our business is done in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

The other half of our business is done worldwide.

We have customers in South Korea and Japan that process various types of products.

We have customers in South America, Brazil and Columbia that process powder paint and toner.

We have customers in Australia that process fertilizers and sulphur including Bentonite sulphur. Other customers that process fertilizers and sulphur are in the Middle East. Qatar Chemical, Turkish Petroleum in Kirikkale, Turkish Petroleum in Izmit, Saudi Aramco, Indian Oil, Deepak Fertilizer in India, and TAIF in Russia among others.

Fertilizer:

There are twelve essential nutrients which plants must take up from the soil. The macronutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphate (P) and potassium (K). Plants need smaller amounts of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S). These are called secondary nutrients. Plants need micronutrients in very small amounts. The micronutrients are iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), boron (B), copper (Cu) and molybdenum (Mo). Nutrients are needed in different amounts; however, a deficiency of any nutrient will result in poor crop growth.

Fertilizers are materials used to provide plants with nutrients. Many fertilizers are extracted and purified from natural deposits in the earth. Materials such as muriate of potash, diammonium phosphate (DAP) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) are all produced from naturally occurring minerals. Some materials, such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) are synthetic, but provide plants with the same nutrients that are found naturally in the soil.

These companies own and operate multiple fertilizer distribution facilities which provide vital storage and handling for producers and customers throughout the North American cropping areas and elsewhere. These companies maintain a worldwide network with strong relationships and a reputation for reliability and performance in the marketplace.

I work for SBS Steel Belt Systems. We are partially owned by SBS Steel Belt Systems Italy and Berndorf Band Group (BBG) in Austria.

Berndorf BBG purchases all of their coiled, raw material, carbon and stainless steels from the USA. The belts are further refined in Austria and then sold back to the USA as a "finished" product. These belt range from $50,000.00 to as much as $1,000,000.00 (if polished). Polished is done by hand and could take as long as a year to finish. No flaws or imperfections are permitted on these belts used on film casting machines. Due to our type of business, we need the highest quality steels especially our facility in Austria. BBG and SBS USA will not purchase their steels from China or Mexico because we need the highest quality steels. There are literally hundreds of these belts out there.

Spare parts for all the these machines is a must, a huge part of our business. I process orders everyday for these customers, hundreds, companies in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and around the world. In addition to selling spares, i also engineer these machines. For a small company (we employ about 30 people, 8 in the engineering department, 6 in the manufacturing department, and the remainder in purchasing and sales. These tariffs are NOT GOOD for our business.

We engineer, manufacture, and distribute, as I mentioned, all over the world. Products include, sulphur, fertilizer, wax, powder paint, rubber, cheeze, toner, resins, and even powdered dynamite for the USA army.. Customers include Xerox, MM Mars, Nestle, Hersheys, Bongards, Martin in Texas and Illinois, Akzo Nobel in the Carolinas, and many, many more.
Sulphur Solidification – Oil & Gas

The last years have seen significant collaborations with the major engineering companies, with supplies to several Oil Refineries and Gas-Fields worldwide and specifically in Southern Italy, Spain, Serbia, Turkey, Russia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and many other countries all over the world.

<
Chemical & Rubber

The range of products SBS is able to supply goes from feeding devices, through single belt coolers/flakers and double belt coolers/flakers up to discharge devices.

<
The cooling and freezing conveyors

with endless steel belts are employed in the production of food.
The care put into the design of the key components, such as the tension terminal and the belt tracking device, makes these machines particularly suitable to work in quite severe conditions with temperatures varying from – 60°C to + 100°c and with an efficiency close to 100%, producing 24 hours/day for 7 days/week.

<
Powder Coating

Since 2005, with its powder coating factory in Sicily (Southern Italy), SBS (ITALY & USA) havebeen developing know-how and technology in this field. During 2013, SBS acquired also the know-how from a former major player, thus being able to offer now complete lines, engineering, spares, and service for the powder coating industry.

<
Feeding Devices For Sulphur

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https://www.steelbeltsystems.com/

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Thought you retired, Joe.

Still work at the library?

Seagull!

Still working full time at the primary job. Retired from the library 3 years ago after 20 years of service on December 31st. I'm 73 (74 in September). As long as they need me, I'll continue to work. I like my job, they like me. A mutual admiration society

Spy poisoning is latest in string of suspicious cases in UK

LONDON (AP) — Britain offers wealthy Russians many attractions: the great city of London, the bucolic countryside, exclusive schools, and a global financial hub. But for some former spies and other foes of President Vladimir Putin, it has become lethal.

The latest victims near death’s door are 66-year-old Sergei Skripal — a former colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service, then a turncoat helping British agents who was convicted in Russia before being freed in a spy swap— and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia. Both were found comatose on a public bench Sunday in the medieval English city of Salisbury.

British officials say they were exposed to a rare nerve agent of undetermined origin. Their prognosis is unclear; officials have not said if they have suffered irreversible damage......

“Russian leaders seem to go out of their way to get rid of anybody that seems to be in their way, someone who’s betrayed them, someone who’s interrupting the money flow, and they don’t seem to care about borders. They just go wherever they have to go to get their guy,” said Joe Serio, the American author of “Investigating the Russian Mafia,” who spent nearly ten years with the anti-organized crime unit of Moscow’s police......

Cooper cited a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigation of 14 deaths that may have been the result of foul play — including the case of Scot Young. He worked with Putin’s critics before his body was found impaled on railings outside his London apartment in 2014......

There was also a chilling message from Moscow in the days after the attack on Skripal. A Russian state television news anchorman warned potential double agents they should expect a shortened life span in Britain......

The Litvinenko case is the best documented. The former KGB agent who had defected to Britain and publicly criticized Putin died in November 2006, three weeks after drinking tea containing the radioactive isotope polonium-210. Litvinenko died slowly, with the poison transforming him into a stick-thin figure wasting away on a hospital bed, and he blamed Putin shortly before he died. .....

Less clear is the 2013 demise of Boris Berezovsky, an affluent Russian businessman who moved to Britain in the early 2000s after breaking with Putin. He was an outspoken critic of Putin’s policies, and at times was allied with Litvinenko, until he was found dead on a bathroom floor at his home in southern England......

There are also serious doubts about the 2012 death of Alexander Perepilichny, a Russian businessman who provided vital testimony against Russian officials accused of stealing $230 million from a London hedge fund. He died near his rented home while jogging......

The 2015 death of former Putin aide Mikhail Lesin in a Washington hotel room was officially blamed by the District of Columbia’s chief medical examiner on accidental injuries suffered after days of heavy drinking, but officials never explained how he got the blunt force injuries to his head and body......

https://www.apnews.com/38cbefe7792841e2 ... ases-in-UK




UK police identify over 200 witnesses in nerve agent attack: minister

SALISBURY, England (Reuters) - British police have identified more than 200 witnesses and are looking at more than 240 pieces of evidence in their investigation into a nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Saturday.

Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, have been in hospital in a critical condition since Sunday, when they were found unconscious on a bench in the southern English cathedral city of Salisbury.

“The two victims remain in hospital and they’re critical but stable,” Rudd told reporters after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra security committee.

Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence before his arrest in Moscow in 2004. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006, and in 2010 was given refuge in Britain after being exchanged for Russian spies.

Many in British media and politics have speculated that Russia could have played a part in the attack on Skripal, but Rudd reiterated that it was too early to say who was responsible, and police should be given the time and space to determine the facts.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incident and accused the British media of whipping up anti-Russian hysteria.

In Salisbury, normally a quiet city, military vehicles and troops in protective suits and gas masks were seen working at several of the sites associated with the Skripal investigation.

At an ambulance station a short distance from the city centre, troops in light grey overalls, purple gloves and gas masks covered ambulances with black tarpaulins as they prepared to remove them.

At the hospital where the Skripals were being treated another team used an army truck to remove a police car.

TRACES OF NERVE AGENT

The BBC reported late on Saturday that traces of the nerve agent had been found at Zizzi, an Italian restaurant where the Skripals had a meal before they were found unconscious. A police spokesman declined to comment on the report......

Rudd said more than 250 counter terrorism police, from eight out of Britain’s 11 specialist units, were involved in the investigation, which was proceeding with “speed and professionalism”......

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brit ... SKCN1GM0R7




ATF investigating after Va. congressional candidate saws off AR-15

A Virginia Beach schoolteacher running for Congress who posted an online video sawing apart an AR-15 rifle is now under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to ABC 13 News.

Karen Mallard (D) says she destroyed the rifle, the kind used in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting last month, to take "a personal stand for gun safety," and handed the weapon over to the police after filming the video.

On Thursday, Virginia Beach Police said they had received the gun and were waiting for it to be picked up by the bureau, which investigates the illegal use of firearms, explosives and other illicit substances.

Critics of the video have suggested that the progressive candidate may have violated the law under Virginia legislation that prohibits rifles modified to be less than 26 inches.

On Twitter, Mallard blamed "right wing trolls" for a "coordinated effort" using "error-filled talking points" from the National Rifle Association to accuse her of breaking the law, which she denies.

"We own the gun so we destroyed it and took it straight to the police department and dropped it off. I wanted there to be one less gun and to do something about gun violence," Mallard told local media.

While Mallard told the local CBS affiliate WTKR that she knew "exactly" what she was doing in the video and that the gun was "inoperable" before she took a handheld saw to the barrel, one local attorney told the station that the act made the weapon illegal.

Mallard is running to face incumbent Rep. Scott Taylor (R) in the congressional election......

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/37 ... part-ar-15

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Schools brace for massive student walkouts over gun violence

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As schools around the country brace for student walkouts following the deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida, principals and superintendents are scrambling to perform a delicate balancing act: How to let thousands of students exercise their First Amendment rights while not disrupting school and not pulling administrators into the raging debate over gun control.

Some have taken a hard line, promising to suspend students who walk out, while others are using a softer approach, working with students to set up places on campus where they can remember the victims of the Florida shooting and express their views about school safety and gun control.

Since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, demonstrations have sprung up on school campuses around the country. But the first large-scale, coordinated national demonstration is planned for March 14, when organizers of the Women’s March have called for a 17-minute walkout, one minute for each of the 17 students and staff members killed in Florida.

National demonstrations are also planned for March 24, with a march on Washington, D.C.; and on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

No matter how schools decide to deal with the demonstrations, students have been reassured by Harvard, Yale, MIT, the University of Connecticut, UCLA and dozens of other colleges and universities that their participation won’t affect their chances of getting admitted......

https://www.apnews.com/69a381d10a9c4395 ... n-violence




‘Fake news’ smear takes hold among politicians at all levels

An Idaho state lawmaker urges her constituents to submit entries for her “fake news awards.” The Kentucky governor tweets #FAKENEWS to dismiss questions about his purchase of a home from a supporter. An aide to the Texas land commissioner uses the phrase to downplay the significance of his boss receiving donations from employees of a company that landed a multimillion-dollar contract.

President Donald Trump’s campaign to discredit the news media has spread to officials at all levels of government, who are echoing his use of the term “fake news” as a weapon against unflattering stories.

It’s become ubiquitous as a signal to a politician’s supporters to ignore legitimate reporting and hard questions, as a smear of the beleaguered and dwindling local press corps, and as a way for conservatives to push back against what they call biased stories.

“When Trump announced he was going to do his fake news awards, a group of us conservative legislators said, ’We need to do that, too,’” said Idaho state Rep. Priscilla Giddings, who has urged supporters to send examples of “biased, misleading and fake news” and plans to announce her awards March 18. “We need people to wake up to the fact that just because it’s on the front page of the Boise newspaper doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent true.”

The winners of the contest, it turns out, will be announced at the end of Sunshine Week, an annual focus by the nation’s news media on government transparency and the importance of a free press.

Rhonda Prast, editor of the Idaho Statesman in Boise, said it was ridiculous for anyone to assert that it would publish a story it knew contained falsehoods.

“The Statesman has a longstanding reputation as a reliable paper of record — going back 154 years — and our standards for accuracy and fairness have never changed,” she said in a statement. “The allegations of ‘fake news’ are unjust attacks on a free press.”

Giddings used the term herself last year to dismiss a report from another newspaper suggesting she may have been unqualified to run for office because she was claiming a homeowner’s exemption outside of her district. She said she’s submitting paperwork to prove the break was legitimate.

Experts on the press and democracy say the cries of “fake news” could do long-term damage by sowing confusion and contempt for journalists and by undermining the media’s role as a watchdog on government and politicians. They say it’s already exacerbated the lack of trust in media by conservatives and contributed to hostility that sometimes turns violent.

In the last year, at least three political figures have been implicated in physical assaults on reporters asking questions, while journalists have been attacked in dozens of other incidents by protesters, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

“I worry about the ongoing attack on the legitimacy of the media by President Trump and some of his supporters. The press is hardly perfect, of course, but it is also an important mechanism of accountability for people in power,” said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth College. “This kind of rhetoric is potentially corrosive to trust in the media and to people’s willingness to accept information that is critical of politicians they support.”

Nyhan was among the authors of a recent study for the Poynter Institute that found partisan divisions in the public’s attitudes toward the press. More Democrats now have more faith in the press, while Republicans have far more negative views and are “more likely to endorse extreme claims about media fabrication, to describe journalists as an enemy of the people, and to support restrictions on press freedom,” the study found.

The routine labeling of factual reporting as “fake news” comes as actual fake news proliferates on the internet.

Media researcher Craig Silverman helped popularize the term in 2014 as a label for completely fabricated stories written and spread by individuals seeking profit. Now the news media editor at BuzzFeed, he wrote recently that he cringes when he hears anyone use the term, which he said became a partisan weapon after Trump’s election in 2016.

Silverman wrote that political figures are manipulating social media to “literally brand real things as fake” and manufacture reality for their followers.

Politicians who have used the term in recent months in response to news reporting include the governor of Maine, a New Mexico congressional candidate, the Georgia secretary of state and the vice chairman of Trump’s now-disbanded voter fraud commission. A California school board president repeatedly used the term to attack a journalist investigating the area’s high rate of teenage pregnancy and its sex education policies.

The cries of “fake news” create a quandary for reporters, who want to defend their stories while also not giving credence to the charge.

“Our members, many of whom work for small news outlets, are bearing the brunt of these unwarranted attacks, and it’s completely unfair. These are people who are serving the community,” said Rebecca Baker, president of the Society of Professional Journalists. “Some are just ignoring it, and some are fighting back.”

Baker suggests that journalists respond to the attacks by showing their work as much as possible — by sharing the audio, video and documents that back up their stories. She wonders whether the term is starting to lose its clout from overuse, but also worries that whichever party controls the White House, Congress and state governments in the future will continue to use the tactic.

“This is part and parcel of the polarization of our politics right now,” she said.

https://www.apnews.com/4fd6d212e9a3432d ... all-levels




Trump Lawyers Are Considering A Challenge To Stop "60 Minutes" From Airing A Stormy Daniels Interview

Anderson Cooper interviewed the adult film performer and director on Thursday. CBS plans to air the interview next Sunday, March 18.

Lawyers associated with President Donald Trump are considering legal action to stop 60 Minutes from airing an interview with Stephanie Clifford, the adult film performer and director who goes by Stormy Daniels, BuzzFeed News has learned.

“We understand from well-placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing,” a person informed of the preparations told BuzzFeed News on Saturday evening.

It was not immediately clear what legal argument the lawyers would be making to support the considered litigation, and Trump and his legal team often have threatened litigation without following through on those threats in the past.

Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney who previously was a longtime lawyer for the Trump Organization, directed questions about the possibility of litigation to Larry Rosen, who Cohen told BuzzFeed News is “my attorney handling this matter.” Rosen — a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornik, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha — acknowledged his role in the matter generally but did not comment directly on the possibility of seeking an injunction.

BuzzFeed News has learned that CBS plans to air the 60 Minutes interview with Clifford next Sunday, March 18......

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/t ... pfNvmz8PJ




President for life

China clears way for Xi Jinping to rule for life

Beijing (CNN)China's largely ceremonial parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial change to the country's constitution, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely.

Inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People, nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) cast their ballots on a series of proposed amendments -- including removing the restriction that had limited the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms.

Out of 2,964 ballots, just two delegates voted against the move and three abstained, suggesting minimal opposition to Xi's push to rule for life. The amendments' passage required two thirds of the vote, which was a largely symbolic exercise......

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/11/asia/chi ... index.html




Bernie Sanders defends ‘smart and compassionate’ Maxine Waters after Trump attack

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) after President Trump called her a "low IQ individual."

"Pathetic that President Trump attacked smart and compassionate @RepMaxineWaters -- both traits alien to him," Sanders said in a tweet on Sunday.

Pathetic that President Trump attacked smart and compassionate @RepMaxineWaters -- both traits alien to him.
@BernieSanders

Trump hit Waters, who is one of his fiercest Democratic critics, at a campaign rally for GOP congressional hopeful Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

"And Maxine Waters, a very low IQ individual. Did you ever see her?" the president said.

" 'We will impeach him. We will impeach the president. But he hasn't done anything wrong. It doesn't matter, we will impeach him.' She's a low IQ individual. She can't help it. She really is. 'We will impeach him.' But we have Maxine Waters and plenty of others," he continued.

Waters shot back at Trump during an MSNBC interview on Sunday.

"This is not only typical of him, this is what this con man does. He diverts attention from himself by attacking others, but this business about Stormy [Daniels] is not going to go away," Waters said, referring to Trump's alleged affair with the adult-film star.

"He can call us all the names that he wants to call us, but you know our special counsel, [Robert] Mueller, is connecting the dots, and last night in a speech I said that if for some reason Mueller does not get him, Stormy will," she said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3778 ... fter-trump




Maxine Waters: Stormy Daniels will 'get' Trump if Mueller investigation doesn't

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) predicted Sunday that President Trump’s alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels will be his downfall if special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation isn’t.

“But this business about Stormy is not going to go away,” she told MSNBC. “If for some reason Mueller does not get him, Stormy will. So we know that this is going to go on.”

Trump allegedly had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, more than a decade ago. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 just before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement about the affair.
Daniels has since filed a lawsuit alleging the nondisclosure agreement is invalid because Trump never signed it.

Waters has been a fierce and vocal critical of Trump’s rhetoric and policies. She was among 60 Democrats who voted in December to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.

Trump has been critical in response, saying Saturday night at a rally that “she's a low IQ individual.”

Waters told MSNBC on Sunday that Trump likes to attack women in particular.

“It seems that he’s identifying and picking up more and more women that he’s attacking. This is not only typical of him, this is what this con man does. He diverts attention from himself by attacking others,” she said.

Waters vowed she would not dial down her criticisms of Trump.

“I’m not gonna run from it, I’m not intimidated by by him, and so he can keep calling names. I’ve got plenty for him. As a matter of fact, everybody knows he’s a con man, he’s been a con man all of his life,” she said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/37785 ... ion-doesnt




POLITICS 03/11/2018 09:08 am ET

Trump Is Remaking The Courts In His Image: White, Male and Straight

He’s nominated 87 people to be lifetime federal judges. They’re about as diverse as a casting call for “Mad Men.”

WASHINGTON ― More than a year into his presidency, Donald Trump is making the nation’s courts look a lot more like him: white, male and straight.

To date, Trump has nominated 87 people to be judges with lifetime tenure on U.S. district courts, circuit courts or Supreme Court. Eighty of them are white, or nearly 92 percent. One is black, one is Latino and five are Asian or Pacific American. He hasn’t nominated any Native American judges.

Put another way:
The president also keeps nominating men. Sixty-seven of his court picks are male, compared to 20 who are female.

That translates to about 77 percent being men:
Trump hasn’t nominated any openly LGBTQ people to the federal courts.

It’s even more apparent how homogenous Trump’s picks are when compared to his recent predecessors. A Congressional Research Service analysis looked at the first 26 district and circuit court nominees from the last four presidents: Bill Clinton’s were 73 percent white, George W. Bush’s were 81 percent white, Barack Obama’s were 46 percent white, and Trump’s were 96 percent white.

Advocates for a more diverse federal bench say it’s crucial that the nation’s courts reflect the demographics of the populations they serve.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tr ... 47bec6107c




Interior Secretary gets strong GOP resistance to drilling plan, starts backing off

WASHINGTON
Facing mounting pressure from fellow Republicans who see little consistuent support for drilling off the Atlantic coast, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke could be backpedaling on the Trump administration’s initial plans to expand the program, GOP lawmakers told McClatchy.

In a meeting with affected coastal GOP representatives last week, Zinke reaffirmed an exemption from the drilling for Florida, hinted to New Jersey officials their state was likely to be spared and left a Virginia congressman optimistic the policy would be overturned for his state, too. And Zinke said he’d travel to South Carolina to get a better sense of their concerns as well.

If Zinke carves out exceptions for all these states, the idea of cross-Atlantic oil drilling could be dead.

The new policy had seemed clear in early January, when Zinke, at the White House’s behest, said he would expand drilling all along the Atlantic. Then he gave an exemption to Florida, and other states — many of which have Republican-dominated congressional delegations — began demanding similar treatment......

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/article20399 ... Row4_card1




Climate Change Pushes Ticks Into Canada, Bringing Lyme Disease (and Confusion) With Them

https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... with-them/





Thanks to Trump, This Senator Finally Gets Her Chance to Decimate Alaska’s Environmental Protections

An industry-friendly White House helps Sen. Lisa Murkowski score long-sought gains.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... otections/




Steve Bannon to French Far-Right: “Let Them Call You Racist…Wear It as a Badge of Honor”
Bannon lets it all hang out on his European tour.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ou-racist/




Trump Just Delivered a Rambling 80-Minute Speech And It Was a Doozy

Kill drug dealers! Fake news! And Oprah’s “weakness.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... onor-lamb/




Trump Is Mad About His Impulsive Decision to Meet With Kim Jong-un

And he’d really like it if the media would just stop overthinking this, ok?

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... m-jong-un/




What Happened in Moscow: The Inside Story of How Trump’s Obsession With Putin Began

His 2013 visit paved the way for a scandal that shook the world.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... l-isikoff/




The world turns on Trump over tariffs

From Brussels to Tokyo to Capitol Hill, the White House faces backlash over its steel and aluminum duties.

President Donald Trump ratcheted up the economic pressure on the European Union over the weekend, threatening to turn allies into enemies at home and abroad with his trade pronouncements.

The decision to slap hefty tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, which the White House made formal on Thursday, has roiled international markets, angered longtime trading partners and prompted threats from the president’s own party to stop the tariffs through legislation.

At the same time, Trump’s decision to exempt Canada and Mexico and allow other countries to avoid the penalties if they negotiate a deal to address U.S. national security concerns has set off a high-stakes rush among nations eager to avoid the penalties but unclear on what, exactly, the U.S. wants in return.

Trump stoked the fire on Saturday by suggesting even broader tariffs for the EU if they don’t address still-unspecified concerns.

“The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the U.S. very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum,” he posted on Twitter. "If they drop their horrific barriers and tariffs on U.S. products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!" he tweeted.

The tweet — on top of the imposition on Thursday of sweeping 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports — provoked deeper consternation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... nal-405685




Trump attacks Democrats for obstruction on appointees

President Donald Trump on Sunday blamed Senate Democrats for the dearth of experts at the State Department, ignoring the department's high turnover and the number of positions for which there is no nominee.

"The Democrats continue to Obstruct the confirmation of hundreds of good and talented people who are needed to run our government ... A record in U.S. history. State Department, Ambassadors and many others are being slow walked. Senate must approve NOW," Trump wrote on Twitter.

The lack of experts at the State Department is receiving renewed attention after the announcement that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may meet for a possible historic summit. Their talks, which would be the first time in history a sitting U.S. president met with the country's leader, could include discussion of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, potentially accomplishing a long-held goal of getting North Korea to give up its nation's prized weapons program.

Despite the March 8 announcement of the possible talks, the U.S. currently does not have people in a number of key roles. Trump has not named an ambassador to South Korea, and the U.S. special envoy to North Korea resigned late last month. Along with the South Korea opening, Trump has yet to name an ambassador to the European Union. The president is correct in claiming that some of his ambassador picks have been held up, including Richard Grenell, a former spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, who he tapped to be U.S. ambassador to Germany.

POLITICO has previously reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is hollowing out the State Department by leaving other top positions unfilled amid a wave of retirements, although the secretary has scaled back those efforts.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... ies-454408




Trump stumps for GOP candidate Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania: 'We have to win'

After yet another busy news week, President Trump hosted a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night for a Republican congressional candidate but spent much of his time talking about his steel tariffs, his political prospects and his new North Korea diplomacy.

"We have to get out and we have to win," Trump told an enthusiastic political rally in an airport hangar at the Pittsburgh airport.

Trump stumped for Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone, who faces a special election on Tuesday, but he also talked about his own 2020 re-election bid during a meandering speech that lasted more than an hour.

Promoting an issue with special resonance in the mill towns of western Pennsylvania, Trump touted new steel and aluminum tariffs that he said would help areas that have lost industrial jobs for decades.

The president also bragged about his prospective meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and berated predecessors Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton for not stopping that nation's nuclear weapons program: "They had their shot and all they did was nothing,"

While urging voters in Pennsylvania to support Saccone, Trump also attacked some of his potential challengers in the 2020 presidential election, as well as the media. He repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as "Pocahontas," and described one television news reporter as a "sleeping son of a b----."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 413500002/




Trump rips NBC's Chuck Todd: 'He's a sleeping son of a b----'

BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/10/18 07:29 PM EST 1,379

President Trump attacked NBC host Chuck Todd at a campaign rally on Saturday, calling the news anchor a “son of a bitch.”

Trump mentioned Todd, who hosts NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in mentioning a 1999 appearance on the show in which he spoke about needing to “take out” North Korea.

“A show now headed by ‘Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,’ ” Trump said. “He’s a sleeping son of a bitch."

Trump spoke in Moon Township, Pa., at a campaign rally in support of Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate facing a tough race in a special House election.

Trump laid into other news networks during his remarks, saying that CNN has worse ratings than Fox News and harshly criticizing NBC and MSNBC.

Trump’s remarks came just hours after he tweeted criticism of the media’s coverage of his North Korea meeting, saying the press went from being “startled" and "amazed” to saying “so what, who cares” the following morning.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... of-a-bitch




Conservatives hated it when Obama said he’d meet with North Korea. Guess what they say now.

And some conservative writers are confused by their peers’ shift.

After President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement on Thursday that he had agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, some conservatives wondered why they were abandoning the position they took with President Barack Obama.

Obama’s comments in 2008 and 2009 about talking to strong men “without preconditions,” and his efforts to work with both North Korea and Cuba’s communist governments were greeted by conservatives with scorn. So it seemed odd to some on the right that Trump doing the same was being fêted as a victory for American foreign policy.

“I’m not certain why meeting with Kim without preconditions is suddenly a grand coup when we would have gone nuts had Obama done the same,” said conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who criticized Obama back in 2009 and is now often critical of Trump.

National Review’s Jim Geraghty wondered the same. “Remember how much we condemned then-senator Barack Obama’s pledge to ‘meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?’ That wasn’t wrong,” Geraghty wrote.

It’s unclear what Trump’s meeting will consist of, or what it means for America’s foreign policy strategy with regards to North Korea — since last night’s announcement, the administration has walked back some of Trump’s statements and tried to make it clear that the meeting, scheduled to perhaps take place before May, should not be read as a negotiation or an agreement, or a move towards demilitarization on the Korean peninsula.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/9/17100880/n ... ives-obama

<

Another positive from more jobs and less unemployment?

More competition for good workers, which equals higher wages and compensation packages.

Quotes from recent Quarterly Earnings Calls according to BusinessInsider.com ...

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen: "Over time, as jobs became very plentiful, that starting wage became more important. So, we've meaningfully increased starting wages across the company."

Target CFO Cathy Smith: "In 2018 we expect that our EPS from our core business will stabilize. This reflects several profit headwinds, including accelerated depreciation resulting from our remodel program, continued cost pressure from the rapid rollout of our new fulfillment options, ongoing wage investments in the face of a tight labor market across the country and the impact of last year's price and value investments, which will annualize throughout 2018."

Ross Stores CEO Barbara Rentler: "As noted in today's release, we plan to make competitive wage and benefit related investments. These include raising our minimum wage to $11 an hour, providing one-time bonuses for eligible hourly in-store associates and improving our paid leave programs."

Bojangles CFO John Jordan: "Company-operated restaurant labor cost as percentage of company-operated restaurant revenues increased to 29.1% in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017 from 27.1% in the same period last year. We delevered on the declining comparable restaurant sales but also incurred higher direct labor cost and medical cost, partially offset by lower incentive compensation. We expect our restaurant labor cost will continue to increase due to the tight labor market which results in higher wage inflation and employee turnover."

Del Frisco CFO Neil Thomson: "We are expecting on the labor cost line around about 6% to 7% labor inflation because of the location of our restaurants and we expect that to more than offset by the HotSchedules implementation as you've seen in the Q4 results that's already getting traction."

Foot Locker CEO Richard Johnson: "We will be making additional multimillion dollar investments in our compensation plans in 2018, especially for our system store managers, recognizing how important these associates are in connecting with our customers and enhancing their experiences within our banners. And we will continue to make investments in our talents in the years ahead."

J.C. Penney executive vice president of stores Joe McFarland: "We monitor very closely every individual market, the most competitive markets that we're in and through the task reduction, through these simplification efforts, we feel very confident in our ability to take and reinvest in the wage in our growth areas."

Sotheby's CFO Michael Goss: "Our adjusted expenses were higher than last year by 14%, driven primarily by two factors. One, higher incentive compensation after significant reductions in incentive compensation were made in 2016."

Walmart CFO Brett Biggs: "We made investment in wages."

Abercrombie & Fitch CFO Scott Lipesky: "On the expense side for wage pressure, we have seen pressure in wages across our fleet and in our distribution centers. So we have these wage pressures baked into our 2018 outlook. This has kind of a multiyear trend."

Burlington Stores CEO Thomas Kingsbury: "We are pleased to announce the following CapEx and incremental OpEx investments in 2018 to drive sales growth, improve our infrastructure, and give back to our associates ... Number two, incremental hourly wages of $30 million on top of three prior years of similar increases."

Dollar Tree CFO Kevin Wampler: "We expect continued pressure on store payroll based on states increasing minimum wages and general average hourly rate increases."

White House officials alarmed at education secretary's '60 Minutes' performance

(CNN) White House officials were alarmed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' struggle to answer basic questions about the nation's schools and failure to defend the administration's newly proposed school safety measures during a tour of television interviews Sunday and Monday, according to two sources familiar with their reaction.

Though DeVos was sworn in to her Cabinet position 13 months ago, she stumbled her way through a pointed "60 Minutes" interview with CBS' Lesley Stahl Sunday night and was unable to defend her belief that public schools can perform better when funding is diverted to the expansion of public charter schools and private school vouchers. At one point, she admitted she hasn't "intentionally" visited underperforming schools.

[ Another One Of Trump's Best People Performing Awkwardly and Unprepared - Like - Unqualified ?? ]

"I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them," DeVos said, as Stahl suggested that DeVos visit those underperforming schools.

Things worsened as DeVos continued her cable television tour Monday morning. The White House released its proposals for school safety measures after a shooting in Florida killed 17 people. Part of the proposal includes a task force to examine ways to prevent future mass shootings, headed by DeVos. Though the proposals don't include raising the age limit to purchase firearms from 18 to 21 -- as President Donald Trump once suggested -- DeVos told Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "Today" show that "everything is on the table."

"The plan is a first step in a more lengthy process," DeVos said, adding that she does not think that arming teachers with assault weapons would be "an appropriate thing."

"I don't think assault weapons carried in schools carried by any school personnel is the appropriate thing," DeVos said. "But again, I think this is an issue that is best decided at the local level by communities and by states."

"The point is that schools should have this tool if they choose to use the tool. Communities should have the tools, states should have the tool, but nobody should be mandated to do it," she said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to weigh in on DeVos' performance, saying school safety and other policies are the "focus of the President -- not one or two interviews, but actual policy."

Asked whether Trump tuned in to "60 Minutes," Sanders said, "I'm not sure if he saw the whole thing or not."

[ Probably Watched It Unless I Missed It - NO TWEETS !! ]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/politics ... index.html





House Republicans break with intelligence community on Russia

House intel panel Republicans contradict the CIA and say Putin was not trying to help Trump win the election

(CNN)Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reached an opposite conclusion Monday from the intelligence community they oversee, announcing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

The Republicans also said they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they are shutting down their yearlong investigation.

Their viewpoint -- which perfectly aligns with Trump's view on election meddling -- will be met with sharp disagreement by Democrats and is bound to inflame partisan tensions on a committee that's been beleaguered by partisanship throughout its Russia probe.

The Republican decision to end the House Russia investigation comes as special counsel Robert Mueller's probe appears to be accelerating.

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the Russia investigation, said Monday that the committee had concluded its interviews for the Russia investigation, and the Republican staff had prepared a 150-page draft report that they would give to Democrats to review on Tuesday morning.

The committee Republicans said Russians did meddle in the elections to sow chaos, but they disagreed with the intelligence community's assessment that they sought to help Trump.

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," Conaway said. "We found no evidence of any collusion of anything people were actually doing other than taking a meeting they shouldn't have taken or just inadvertently being in the same building."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, slammed the Republican decision to end the investigation.

"While the majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch," Schiff said in a statement. "By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is forging ahead with its investigation into Russian election meddling. But Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr told CNN on Monday that he had not yet seen any evidence of collusion or to substantiate the intelligence community's assessment that Putin was trying to help Trump win, though he said the committee was still investigating and had not reached conclusions on either matter.

"I've read a lot about it, but I haven't seen any" evidence of collusion, Burr said.

Asked about repeated efforts by Russians to coordinate with the Trump campaign, Burr said: "It's collusion on part of the Russians, I guess, but not the Trump campaign."

Burr would not say if he agreed with the Intelligence Community's assessment that Putin tried to help Trump, calling it simply "a 30-day snapshot."

In the House, Democrats say there are still scores of witnesses the committee should call, and argue that Republicans have failed to use subpoenas to obtain documents and require witnesses to answer questions that are central to the investigation.
Conaway told reporters that he feels the committee has investigated all avenues it needed to probe, and he argued that the panel would not have been able to obtain the information Democrats were seeking had they gone the route of subpoenaing witnesses or trying to hold them in contempt.

Conaway, for instance, said the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian lawyer where dirt on Clinton was promised was "ill-advised." But he said that the committee did not turn up any evidence of collusion, arguing the promoter who organized the meeting had exaggerated what the Russians would provide.

The committee's report will conclude that they agree with 98% of the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, according to a committee aide.

But the panel's Republicans take issue with the key finding that Putin was trying get Trump elected.

"Bottom line: Russians did commit active measures against our elections in '16, and we think they'll do that in the future," Conaway said. "It's clear they sowed discord in our elections. ... But we couldn't establish the same conclusions the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump."

A summary of the committee's initial findings states that the committee found "concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment's judgments, except with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump."

James Clapper, who was Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration when the assessment was released, said he disagreed, noting that US intelligence found Putin had deep animus toward Clinton and saw Trump as more friendly toward Russia.

"I obviously disagree. The four intelligence chiefs all agreed with the assessment, which was based on highly classified intelligence," Clapper told CNN. "This is a case of people living in their own reality bubbles when we can't agree on basic facts."
The committee's Russia investigation included interviews with 73 witnesses and a review of roughly 300,000 pages of documents, Conaway said. They included key figures like Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, but Democrats have argued that those witnesses failed to fully provide documents or answer important questions.

But Conaway said that Republicans would not hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions beyond what was authorized by the White House, despite threats to do so just several days ago. Conaway said such efforts -- and issuing subpoenas to other witnesses as Democrats demanded -- would be a fruitless endeavor.

"You use subpoenas when you think you can actually get something from them," Conaway said. "We're not too confident that the subpoena process would get us any more information than we have."

Conaway said he hopes that Democrats can work with Republicans on the draft report, and he wants to take their feedback as they shape the final report. He declined to put a timeline on when the report would be made public, as the committee intends to submit it to the intelligence community for declassification beforehand.

Conaway said Democrats will agree with some elements of the report, such as the social media interference, but he acknowledged they'd take issue with others.

It's widely expected Democrats will draft their own report that argues a case for collusion, as well as spells out all the avenues the committee did not investigate.

In addition to subpoenas and witnesses, Democrats have long raised issues about looking into Trump's finances, something the committee had not probed. Conaway said he saw no "link" between Trump's finances and the committee's investigation, and he did not want to go on a fishing expedition.

The Republican report will also say how "anti-Trump research" made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign through the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia. Conaway, however, stopped short of saying there was "collusion" between Clinton's campaign and the Russians, something the President has alleged.

The end of the Russia interviews is only the latest battleground on the House Intelligence Committee, which has been consumed by partisan fights for the better part of a year, from Chairman Devin Nunes' role in the investigation and more recently over competing memos about alleged surveillance abuses at the FBI during the Obama administration.

Several Republicans on the panel have been signaling for several weeks now that they're ready for the Russia investigation to wrap up, arguing that Democrats are trying to extend the probe into the campaign season.

"To me, I don't see anything else that's out there that hasn't been explored," Rep. Pete King, a New York Republican, told CNN last week.

But Democrats say the committee has raced through its final interviews, while allowing witnesses to pick and choose which questions they answer.

The committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Bannon in January, but in his return testimony he still did not answer questions about his time in the White House.

Democrats also sought subpoenas for the committee's last two witnesses, outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but Republicans did not issue them.

"There are a number of steps that I think any credible investigator would say, 'These need to be done,' and we still hope that they will be," Schiff said following Lewandowski's interview last week.

Conaway downplayed the partisan tensions on the committee, saying he and Schiff have "powered through" the issues. He noted that since he took over the Russia probe for Nunes in April 2017, he has not visited the White House or spoken to the President.
In the Senate, the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees are still investigating Russia's alleged 2016 election meddling.
There are still two committees in the Senate that are investigating Russia's 2016 election meddling: the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

Still, only the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to be pushing forward at full speed on its probe, as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is preparing to release transcripts of the committee's interviews with participants of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting -- a potential sign the committee is done investigating that matter.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to put out recommendations and hold a hearing on election security this month. Burr has said he's separating out the election security issues for the 2018 primary season while the committee continues to investigate questions about collusion and the 2016 election.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/politics ... index.html




Tillerson: Attack on Ex-Russian Spy Will ‘Trigger a Response’

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday declared that the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom will “trigger a response,” adding that “clearly” Russia was responsible. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind the attack, and she gave the Kremlin 48 hours to provide an explanation, or else “we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom.”

[ Shouldn't This Have Been A "presidential" Response ?? May Has Been Waiting For A Response. I Don't Think Tillerson Is What She Had In Mind ?!?! ]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tillerson ... a-response




Stormy Daniels offers to return money to 'tell her story' of alleged Trump affair

Letter from actor’s lawyer offers return of $130,000 fee and asks that no action be taken to prevent the airing of an interview on CNN

Stormy Daniels has offered to give back a $130,000 fee paid to her by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer in return for her silence about her alleged affair with the future US president.

A letter from the pornographic actor’s lawyer Michael Avenatti to Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Monday offered to pay the $130,000 (£93,000) into an account of the president’s choosing by Friday.

It gives Trump until noon ET on Tuesday 13 March to accept the offer.

The letter asks that no action be taken to prevent the airing of an interview that the actor – real name Stephanie Clifford – recently recorded with the CNN journalist Anderson Cooper for the CBS news program 60 Minutes, for which Cooper is a regular contributor.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... tell-story




Trump under growing pressure on gun control after appearing to cave in to NRA

President backs away from measures he supported after Parkland

Trump last month chided Republicans for being ‘petrified’ of NRA

Donald Trump, who last month chided fellow Republicans for being “petrified” of the National Rifle Association (NRA), is under growing pressure after seemingly caving in to the powerful gun lobby group’s demands.

The US president on Sunday backed away from raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, one of several measures he initially supported after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February.


Stormy Daniels offers to return money to 'tell her story' of alleged Trump affair
Read more
The proposal was notably absent from a modest set of Trump administration plans for school safety released over the weekend, which closely aligned with NRA positions. They include training teachers to carry guns in schools, a fiercely controversial idea already in place in some states.

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, insisted on Monday that the president has not abandoned some of the more radical changes but is focused on measures that can get through Congress straight away.

“Right now the president’s primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately,” she said. “But we haven’t let go of some of those other things that we’re going to continue to review and look at.”

Asked if there was a single thing in the proposals that was not supported by the NRA, she replied: “The president still has, in this plan, the age limit increase and that is part of one of the things that will be reviewed on what the best path forward is on that front, whether it can be done at a federal level or whether it needs to be done on a state-by-state basis.”

Trump had the $30m backing of the NRA in the presidential election and has been vocal in his support of the second amendment, the right to bear arms.

He met the NRA privately at the White House twice last month as he considered his response to the Florida school shooting, which left 17 people dead.

One reporter at Monday’s press briefing reminded Sanders that, last month, Trump told fellow Republicans: “Some of you are petrified of the NRA. You can’t be petrified.” The reporter added: “But based on the plan last night, it seems like President Trump was the one petrified of the NRA because he backed away from some of the ideas that he had brought into the discussion and I’m asking why he chickened out. Why he didn’t go forward with what he has proposed earlier?”

Sanders protested: “Look, he hasn’t backed away from these things at all. As I just said, they’re still outlined in the plan, but he can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things. And without that support, it’s not as possible.

“However, we are focused on things that we can do immediately. Let’s not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years, and never did anything. This president is actually supporting specific pieces of legislation and still laying out other priorities that he would like to see talked about and implemented.”

Trump left fellow Republicans aghast when, during televised meetings, he seemed to embrace measures including universal background checks and raising the age limit for buying assault weapons.


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He still supports legislation aimed at providing more data for the background check system: a database of people who are not legally allowed to buy guns. But he did not endorse a broader proposal that would close loopholes in existing law by requiring background checks for guns bought at gun shows or arranged over the internet.

The White House has deferred some of the more contentious proposals, including raising the minimum purchase age, for further study by a new commission led by Betsy DeVos, the education secretary.

Sanders was also quizzed about Trump’s past criticisms of his predecessors for failing to show leadership on the issue when it appeared that he too was now making the argument for political expediency.

She insisted: “We’re specifically driving forward on some of those things that we know can immediately happen and we’re determining what the best path forward is on some of those other things that don’t have that same broad base of support. You can’t just decide that you want laws to pass and it happens. But you can look at the best process forward to actually implement that type of policy.”

She added: “He is making sure that the things that we can do right now, we’re actually doing. Instead of holding everything back until we can get some of those other pieces done, we’re pushing forward on the things that have support, that can be accomplished immediately, and then we’re working through the process to see what we can do to get the other things done.

“That actually seems smart, and it seems like bold leadership to me – to push through on things that help protect kids while not ignoring some other policies that the president supports, which we’re doing.”

Democrats, once given hope by Trump’s instinctual response, have accused the president of buckling under NRA pressure and reverting to type. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said: “The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership, not a White House that cravenly tiptoes around the NRA.”

[ What New ?? The Guy's Two Faced and Fork Tongued ! Waters had it right: Don "The Con Man" ]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... l-parkland




All-star ( Carlos Correa ) from Puerto Rico skips Astros’ trip to White House

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... hite-house




Senate GOP downplays chances of bills to halt Trump tariffs

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3780 ... mp-tariffs




The Memo: Moment of truth for Trump in Pennsylvania

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/37 ... nnsylvania




Rosenstein defends Mueller: No reason to end special counsel

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... al-counsel




Qatar officials decline to give Kushner info to Mueller probe: report

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... obe-report




White House Won’t Seek to Raise Minimum Age to Purchase Guns After All

One Republican congressman slammed the plan as “weak” and “insufficient.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... after-all/




Trump is Reshaping the Census to Reflect His Vision of America

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... f-america/




Democrats ask for copy of Trump Organization’s check to taxpayers

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... ers-456925

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British PM Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Was Behind Nerve-Agent Attack

British Prime Minister Theresa May says evidence shows that it is "highly likely" that Russia is behind the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the city of Salisbury despite Kremlin denials that Moscow was involved in the incident.

May said in a speech to parliament on March 12 that either the Russian state was responsible for poisoning 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury, or that it allowed the military grade nerve agent Novichok, developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War, to get into the hands of others to carry out the attack.

She added that Russia's ambassador had been summoned to explain how the nerve agent came to be used against the former spy and given until the end of March 13 to explain how the chemical made its way to Britain.

"Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," May said, calling the attack a "reckless and despicable act."

"We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," she added.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stands by the country’s "closest ally."

"The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage," Sanders said during a daily White House briefing. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation."

Officials say the pair remain in a "critical but stable condition" at a Salisbury hospital after being exposed on March 4 to a nerve agent.

A police officer who fell ill after attending the Skripals also remains seriously ill.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to denounce May’s speech, saying in a statement that the accusations were politically motivated and based on a provocation.

"It is a circus show in the British parliament," the TASS news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Even before May’s comments, the Kremlin had strongly denied any notion of involvement, asserting that anti-Russian hysteria is being whipped up by the British media.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking just hours before the British meeting, said officials in the United Kingdom should first figure out what exactly occurred in Salisbury before blaming Russia for the incident.

"Get to the bottom of things over there first, and after that, then we can discuss it," he told a BBC journalist in response to a question about Skripal during a tour of a greenhouse at the National Grain Center in the Krasnodar region.

Earlier in the day, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that, since Skripal worked for British intelligence and was poisoned on British soil, the incident had "nothing to do with Russia, let alone the Russian leadership."

"The odds that #Russia's govt lost control of #Novichok stocks and this was used by some murderous mavericks to go after #Skripal are minimal," Russia analyst Mark Galeotti said on Twitter.

Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence colonel, was convicted by a Moscow military court in 2006 of "high treason" for passing secrets to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents detained in the United States.

England’s chief medical officer said during the weekend that traces of the nerve agent used to poison Skripal and his daughter had been found in a pub and a restaurant the two visited before falling ill.

Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, on March 11 urged an estimated 500 people who may have come into some contact with the substance to wash their clothes as a precaution and clean items such as mobile phones, handbags, and eyeglasses.

"There has been some trace contamination by the nerve agent," Davies said. "I am confident this has not harmed the health of anyone who was in The Mill pub or Zizzi's [restaurant]."

Trace amounts of the substance were found on and around a table where the pair had eaten in the restaurant, the BBC reported.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said that Britain might step up sanctions against Russia if it finds that Moscow was involved.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on March 10 that it was still "too early" to say who was behind the poisoning.

She has said police were examining more than 200 pieces of evidence, had identified more than 240 witnesses, and were looking through security camera footage.

She added that Russia's ambassador had been summoned to explain how the nerve agent came to be used against the former spy and given until the end of March 13 to explain how the chemical made its way to Britain.

"Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," May said, calling the attack a "reckless and despicable act."

"We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," she added.

[ Looks like the president will have to respond soon instead of through his mouthpiece, Tillerson. I was watching the Rachel Maddow show tonight. This could end going to NATO. The USA and the UK are. An attack against one member of the community is an attack on all. Interesting ! Stay tuned ]

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-britain- ... 93546.html

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Collective defence - Article 5

The principle of collective defence is at the very heart of NATO’s founding treaty. It remains a unique and enduring principle that binds its members together, committing them to protect each other and setting a spirit of solidarity within the Alliance.

Highlights

Collective defence means that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.

The principle of collective defence is enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.

NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

NATO has taken collective defence measures on several occasions, for instance in response to the situation in Syria and in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

NATO has standing forces on active duty that contribute to the Alliance’s collective defence efforts on a permanent basis.

https://www.nato.int/cps/ua/natohq/topics_110496.htm




Russian TV anchor Kirill Kleimenov made his remarks on a leading news program. (file photo)

Russian State TV Host Warns 'Traitors' After Skripal Poisoning

News of the poisoning of a former Russian military intelligence officer in Britain came slowly to state-run television in Russia.

For almost two days after the sudden hospitalization of Sergei Skripal, who has lived in England since being swapped for nearly a dozen alleged Russian spies in 2010, the incident was all over British front pages and led newscasts.

In Russia, the story was picked up by online news sites and newspapers, including Moscow's prominent radio station, Ekho Moskvy.

But there was little mention of it on the main national TV channels, which are overwhelmingly the main medium by which Russians get their news.

That was until the evening of March 7, when Channel One's main evening current affairs program, Vremya Novostei, reported on it, with a less-than-subtle commentary.

'Dangerous Profession'

Skripal is "by training, a traitor to his country," host Kirill Kleimenov said. "I don't wish death on anyone," he added, "but for purely educational purposes, for anyone who dreams of such a career, I have a warning: being a traitor is one of the most dangerous professions in the world."

Though couched as a commentary, the prominence of the statement, and its placement in the evening newscast of the country's main national TV channel, dovetailed with the adamant denials of Russian involvement, given by the Foreign Ministry and other official sources.
British officials have said the substance believed to have been used in poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia was a nerve agent, a toxin that requires sophisticated chemical expertise and laboratory equipment.Both remain hospitalized in critical condition; up to 21 police officers were also treated for exposure.

U.K. Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and outside experts, have said those facts alone suggest the involvement of a state security apparatus.

Skripal was a colonel in Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. He was arrested in December 2004, and a Moscow military court found him guilty almost two years later of passing the identities of Russian agents working undercover in Europe to Britain's MI6 intelligence agency.

'Strange Incidents'

Though the assertion that Skripal was killed for treasonous actions has raised eyebrows, the commentary wasn't out of character for Russian state TV.

In 2006, in the days after the death of Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former officer with Russia's Federal Security Agency who ingested the highly radioactive isotope polonium-210, several Russian TV channels opted to highlight the British reaction rather than the death itself.

A long-running Channel One editorial-style program known as Odnako ("However"), previously hosted by commentator Mikhail Leontyev, regularly spun outlandish conspiracy theories.

Leontyev, who later became spokesman for state oil company Rosneft, actively promoted the debunked theory that a Ukrainian fighter jet was responsible for shooting down the Malaysian MH17 passenger airliner over Ukraine in 2014.

In 2008, an anchor on a nightly news program for state-run Rossiya TV suggested that Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic "got a well-deserved bullet" for his pro-Western policies when he was shot and killed in 2003. Serbia’s Embassy lodged an official protest with the Russian Foreign Ministry at the time.

In his Skripal commentary, Kleimenov wrapped up his remarks by wryly suggesting that life in Britain might be hazardous.

"Something is wrong there," he said. "Maybe it's the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-skripal- ... 87407.html

<

Trump’s Personal Assistant Fired Over Security Issue

Problems related to online gambling and mishandling taxes prevented John McEntee from gaining necessary security clearance

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, was fired and escorted from the White House on Monday after being denied a security clearance over financial problems in his background, according to senior administration officials and people close to the former aide.

People close to Mr. McEntee said problems related to online gambling and mishandling of his taxes prevented him from gaining the clearance necessary for the role. The Secret Service is investigating Mr. McEntee for those issues, according to a law enforcement official.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “We don’t comment on personnel issues.” Mr. McEntee didn’t return a call seeking comment.

On Tuesday morning, less than a day after Mr. McEntee’s ouster from the White House, the Trump presidential campaign announced he would join the 2020 effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.

Mr. McEntee, 27 years old, was one of the longest-serving aides to Mr. Trump, dating back to the earliest days of the campaign when some of the only aides around the then-candidate included Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser; Stephen Miller, the president’s policy director; White House communications director Hope Hicks, who announced her resignation two weeks ago; and Dan Scavino, who is the White House director of social media.

Mr. McEntee had joined the campaign in 2015 a few years after graduating college.

In additional staff turnover, Mr. Trump on Tuesday said Rex Tillerson was out as secretary of state, after months of speculation over his fate, and that Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo would be nominated to lead the State Department.

Mr. McEntee wasn’t as well known as the others, but had been a constant presence at Mr. Trump’s side for the past three years. He made sure Mr. Trump had markers to sign autographs, delivered messages to him in the White House residence and, over the weekend, ensured that the clocks in the White House residence were adjusted for daylight-saving time.

“It’s not going to be great for morale,” one White House official said about Mr. McEntee’s departure.

Mr. McEntee was removed from the White House grounds on Monday afternoon without being allowed to collect his belongings, a White House official said. He left without his jacket, a second White House official said.

Several White House officials have lost their jobs over the past month since White House Chief of Staff John Kelly imposed a stricter security-clearance policy. Those changes were prompted by the departure of staff secretary Rob Porter, who quit after accusations of domestic violence were made public. Mr. Porter has denied the accusations, which had delayed final approval of his security clearance.

Mr. Kelly told reporters earlier this month that when he joined the White House as chief of staff this summer, he realized a large number of staffers still held interim clearances after more than seven months in the administration.

His review turned up “a couple spreadsheets worth of people” at the White House operating with interim security clearance after the first nine months of the Trump administration. He also found at least 35 officials who were inappropriately given top secret clearance.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-per ... 1520945928




Trump's personal assistant fired amid Secret Service probe joins Trump campaign

John McEntee, Trump's personal assistant, was fired and escorted from the White House on Monday, according to a Tuesday report from The Wall Street Journal.

McEntee has now joined Trump's re-election campaign.

McEntee is under investigation by the Secret Service for serious financial crimes, federal law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC.

President Donald Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee, was fired Monday and escorted out of the White House amid a Secret Service investigation into serious financial crimes, NBC News reported Tuesday.

He has now joined Trump's re-election campaign as a senior advisor. Trump 2016 campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson is also joining the 2020 re-election campaign as a senior advisor.

"Katrina and John will play pivotal roles on our campaign once again as we develop a winning strategy through 2020 to Keep America Great," said Michael Glassner, the campaign's chief operating officer. "They will also contribute tremendously to our national engagement in the mid-term elections this year. We're delighted to have them back on the team."

McEntee, who served on Trump's winning presidential campaign beginning in 2015, joined the Trump administration after the election. He was escorted off the White House grounds on Monday over an "unspecified security issue," the Wall Street Journal first reported, citing sources.

Federal law enforcement officials later confirmed to NBC that McEntee was under investigation by the Secret Service for serious financial crimes. The Wall Street Journal reported that McEntee had problems relating to gambling and taxes that were an obstacle to his obtaining security clearance.

The news of McEntee's firing came just minutes after reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been booted after more than a year as the top U.S. diplomat.

Pierson, who often gave interviews on cable news during the 2016 presidential race,worked with America First Policies, a pro-Trump nonprofit with deep connections to the White House, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

America First has denied coordinating its work with the White House or the Trump campaign.

"We're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want," Trump said outside the White House on Tuesday.

Before entering Trump's orbit, McEntee was the starting quarterback for the University of Connecticut's football team for 12 games during the Huskies' lackluster 2011 season.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/trump-p ... paign.html

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The White House Is Full Of Criminals ! I'd laugh but it's so SAD

At least his supporters did their civic duty. They voted. Something my dad fought and died for in Normandy.