Conservatives Are Now Mocking David Hogg for Getting Rejected by Some Colleges

Oh, and they’re also comparing the high school senior to Hitler.




[ NOTE: Kevin Hogg's son is a 17-year-old senior. He suffers from dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and in earlier years had been in remedial courses. He had then followed his father’s example. “I realized if I ever wanted to make an impact on the world, I’d have to work my ass off,” he told The Daily Beast. He was now taking all honors classes, three of them Advanced Placement, with stellar grades. He was in AP environmental science just before dismissal time on the afternoon of Feb. 14 when he heard the gunshots. ]




The student leaders demanding action on gun control in the wake of last month’s Parkland, Florida, shooting have been the focus of intense attacks on the right, many of whom have promoted baseless conspiracy theories and mocking memes to undermine the students’ messages.

But this week took an especially vitriolic turn when conservatives seized upon a new video interview featuring David Hogg, in which the 17-year-old from Marjory Stoneman Douglas discusses having recently learned that he was rejected by several California colleges, including Berkeley and UCLA.

In the video posted by TMZ on Tuesday, Hogg appears gracious as he reflects on the string of rejection letters. He acknowledges the disappointment but says that his mind’s been focused on the movement.

The most eloquent part of the interview comes when Hogg is asked if he was at all surprised by the rejections considering his newfound national prominence. “I’m not surprised at all, in all honesty,” he says in the video. “I think there’s a lot of amazing people that don’t get into college, not only [who] do things that I do, but because their voices just aren’t heard in the tsunami of people that apply to colleges in such an impacted school system here in America.”

That, however, hasn’t stopped conservatives from mocking Hogg. Fox News host Laura Ingraham went as far as to deride Hogg for the “totally predictable” rejections in light of Hogg’s GPA and SAT scores.

Laura Ingraham
@IngrahamAngle
David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.) https://www.dailywire.com/news/28770/gu ... oseph-curl …

10:45 AM - Mar 28, 2018

The conservative site The Blaze wrote about the video to claim Hogg’s unhappiness these days “has more to do with the fact that he hasn’t been granted admission into preferred colleges than it does with the fact that 17 of his school peers were gunned down in February’s mass school killing.”

Meanwhile, a Minnesota lawmaker has been under fire for comparing Hogg to Hitler Youth—a malicious attack also embraced by the far-right news sites InfoWars and Breitbart.

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/ ... -colleges/






Student Marchers Rally In Paul Ryan’s Hometown For Gun Law Reform

After a trek of 50-plus miles, they’re challenging young people around the country to take up the charge.

Dozens of Wisconsin students arrived in the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday morning after walking more than 50 miles to demand tougher gun laws.

Ranging in age from 11 to 18 years old, the students came from communities throughout Wisconsin to join in the 54-mile trek from Madison to Janesville, according to organizers. The journey began on Sunday ― exactly 53 years after Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of civil rights activists into Montgomery, Alabama, after a five-day, 54-mile march that began in Selma.

“Kids have a voice despite not having a vote,” said a 15-year-old marcher at a rally in Janesville. “We will enact change.”

Students from Shorewood High School, just north of Milwaukee, organized the “50 Miles More” march to call out Ryan for blocking gun reform legislation and to demand lawmakers take immediate action to curb gun violence.

The students stopped at every mile to speak the name of a victim of gun violence.

A spokeswoman for Ryan told HuffPost on Monday that the speaker “respects those expressing their views.”

She added that “the House recently enacted new laws to keep children safe without infringing on constitutional rights,” likely referring to legislation that includes expanding federal background checks for gun purchases.

The 50 Miles More movement, however, has a stronger set of demands listed on their website:

Military-style weapons, and all weapons of war, should be banned from civilian society.

All accessories that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, such as bump stocks, should be banned.

Four-day waiting period on all gun purchases.

Require background checks on all gun sales.

Raise the legal purchasing age of all guns to 21

Randy Bryce, a Democrat seeking to challenge Ryan in November’s election, met the students in Janesville and expressed his support for their cause in a statement and on Twitter.

“Paul Ryan, the people of your district ― students, parents, gun owners, veterans, hunters, Republicans and Democrats alike ― are shouting for you to do something,” Bryce said in the statement. “I echo the students in calling for common-sense gun reform, including a ban on all military assault rifles.”

The students’ trek follows weeks of gun reform activism by young people around the country, sparked by the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

On March 14, students around the country staged school walkouts to honor the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting and call attention to gun violence.

On March 24, more than a million students, teachers and activists took to the streets in cities around the U.S. to demand stricter gun control laws.

Organizers of the Wisconsin are calling on students in the 49 other states to embark on similar marches before the November elections.

At Wednesday’s rally, 18-year-old organizer Katie Eder encouraged students not to be daunted by the prospect of walking 50 miles for the cause.

“Every day it was harder for our bodies to keep moving,” Eder said. “So why did we?”

“I kept moving because despite so many people telling us that ending gun violence is impossible ... I believe with every bone in my very sore body that this is the time to do the impossible.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wi ... 2a5c78a1f9





Rick Santorum Tries to Walk Back ‘CPR’ Comments by Making the Same Point

The former GOP senator told CNN’s Chris Cuomo he ‘misspoke’ when he said students should ‘learn CPR’ instead of marching for gun control.

Less than 72 hours after he first suggested that survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, should start taking CPR classes “instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem,” Rick Santorum admitted on Wednesday that he didn’t mean that literally.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rick-sant ... t?ref=home





Wisconsin Democrats blast GOP effort to leave seats vacant

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democrats on Wednesday blasted a Republican-backed bill that would ensure that two vacant seats in the Legislature will remain open until next year, calling the proposal a blatant attempt to avoid adding to a string of recent GOP losses and saying it would deny some voters their voice in government.

A Madison judge last week ordered Gov. Scott Walker to call special elections by noon on Thursday to replace state Rep. Keith Ripp and state Sen. Frank Lasee. The two Republicans quit in December to join Walker’s administration.

Walker has been trying to get around the order. He asked the 2nd District Court of Appeals on Wednesday to consider killing the order and rule immediately that he has until April 6 to call the elections, which would give the Legislature time to pass the bill. The appeals court denied the request Wednesday afternoon, rejecting Walker’s arguments that holding special elections within months of November’s elections is a waste of taxpayer money.

“Representative government and the election of our representatives are never ‘unnecessary,’ never a ‘waste of taxpayer resources,’ and the calling of the special elections are ... his ‘obligation,’” President Judge Paul F. Reilly wrote.

State attorneys had planned to ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, to set the April 6 deadline by noon Thursday. But Wisconsin Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin filed a letter late Wednesday afternoon saying Walker has decided not to seek relief from the Supreme Court at this time. No reason was given...........

https://www.apnews.com/e4b2ded3f7624fc3 ... ats-vacant





Arizona police department arming motorcycle police with AR-15s

[ NOTE: Imagine cops shooting a black kid armed with a cell phone 20 times with pistols - Oh My ! ]

Police in Tempe, Ariz., are now equipping some motorcycle police with AR-15 rifles that will be locked into place behind the officers, a local ABC affiliate reported.

Eight motorcycles in use by the Tempe Police Department will now carry the rifles, to match the firepower of officers in patrol cars who have been using the rifle for years, a law enforcement authority told the news outlet.

The military-style semi-automatic rifle has been at the center of a heated debate on gun control after it was used in a mass shooting at a Florida high school last month that left 17 people dead.

The Tempe police sergeant told ABC 15 News that while the visible rifle may be unnerving to some, the rifles would be an improvement for motorcycle police over standard handguns, as they are often the first units to arrive at the scene of a crime.

The department said it tested the mount's locking mechanism before equipping them.

Last week, police in Tempe responded to the deadly crash of a self-driving Uber test vehicle and a woman crossing the street.

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch ... ith-ar-15s





Trump’s FBI Attacks Are Helping Accused Terrorists Defend Themselves In Court

Jurors in the Kansas militia trial have been primed to believe the FBI is biased against conservatives.

WICHITA, Kan. ― Three anti-Muslim militia members, on trial for plotting to slaughter Somali refugees in southwest Kansas, have adopted a defense strategy that could’ve been culled directly from President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed: suggesting that a biased FBI conspired against them in the lead-up to the 2016 election due to their political beliefs.

Curtis Allen, Patrick Stein and Gavin Wright are on trial in connection with their arrest in a FBI domestic terrorism sting just weeks before the 2016 election. Their defense attorneys, in turn, are putting the FBI on trial ― accusing the nation’s premier law enforcement agency of improperly targeting the three men due to their conservative ideology...........

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/do ... c9e5f9fbd4





A Federal Judge Just Gave the Go-Ahead to a Major Case Against Trump

His decision allows a case alleging the president violated the emoluments clause to move forward—and just might provide a model for other states.

Donald Trump’s legal fight to keep the public from prying too far into his private business dealings was dealt a serious blow Wednesday when a Maryland judge ruled that a lawsuit, alleging the president is violating the US Constitution by continuing to own his business empire while he holds office, may go forward.

The case, filed last spring by attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C., contends that Trump is in violation of the emoluments clause, which prohibits high federal office holders from accepting gifts from foreign governments. A handful of other lawsuits making the accusation have also been filed, but looming over them all is the question of who actually has legal standing to file the suit..........

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... nst-trump/





‘Heartbroken’ Trump Critic Ann Coulter: He’s a ‘Shallow, Lazy Ignoramus’

At a ‘debate’ Tuesday night with neoliberal blogger Mickey Kaus, Coulter explained how she went from Trump diehard to bitter angst—and what her prescription for him would be.

Right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter, whose 2016 campaign book In Trump We Trust touted the many virtues of the Republican nominee, is having second, third, and possibly even fourth thoughts about Donald J. Trump.

“I knew he was a shallow, lazy ignoramus, and I didn’t care,” Coulter admitted to an audience largely composed of College Republicans and a few hecklers at Columbia University on Tuesday night.

It was the sort of anti-Trump invective that Coulter would share privately with pals, including this reporter, over a wine-soaked dinner during the first year of the new administration, but in recent weeks she has increasingly voiced her displeasure in public forums.

This time, Coulter—wearing her trademark slinky black cocktail dress, accessorized by a sparkling, handcuff-sized bracelet—repeatedly trashed her former hero during a supposed debate in Columbia’s Roone Arledge Cinema with her good friend, neoliberal blogger Mickey Kaus (modeling a plain blue suit and blue patterned tie)..........

“It kind of breaks my heart,” Coulter acknowledged of her disappointment with the president, and she recounted a profanity-laced shouting match she had with Trump in the Oval Office last year over what she saw as his lackluster follow-through on immigration policy. “He’s not giving us what he promised at every single campaign stop.”..........

[ NOTE: TELL ME IT AIN'T SO !!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE WH ?? ]

It was four nights after Coulter had aimed a bitter Twitter blast at the 45th president of the United States—who had complained last Friday, after signing the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that contained generous funding for liberal social and cultural programs favored by Democrats, ..........

“Yeah, because you’ll be impeached,” Coulter had tweeted to her 1.94 million followers, one of whom is Trump. (Later during the debate, she repeated a report that the president was seriously considering vetoing the spending legislation, but after White House chief of staff John Kelly explained that such a veto would mean missing his planned weekend at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said “f--- it!” and signed the bill instead...........)

“We had 16 lunatics being chased by men with nets running for president—and Trump. So of course I had to be pedal-to-the-metal for Donald Trump.”.........

https://www.thedailybeast.com/heartbrok ... s?ref=home





Trump fires Veterans Affairs secretary

President Trump has fired his embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. On Twitter today he said he's going to nominate Ronny Jackson, the physician to the president, for the role. As Axios' Jonathan Swan wrote on Sunday, Shulkin's days were numbered due to ongoing drama at the department over spending and personnel.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
5h
I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs....

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
....In the interim, Hon. Robert Wilkie of DOD will serve as Acting Secretary. I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!

4:31 PM - Mar 28, 2018
24.2K
11K people are talking about this

Why this matters via Swan: Trump loves Jackson, thinks he’s a great guy and did a terrific job behind the podium when he delivered Trump’s medical results. Trump regarded that appearance as a triumph, according to sources with direct knowledge. This appointment is yet another example of how personal relationships — and Trump’s personal comfort level — are the whole ballgame.

But, but, but.... White House officials are well aware of Jackson's lack of experience running large organizations — the VA is the second-largest federal agency. Defense official Robert Wilkie, who will serve as acting secretary pending Jackson's confirmation, is very well regarded and administration officials wouldn't be concerned if he had to stay on a while during a drawn out confirmation for Jackson.

Details on Jackson provided by the White House:

*Attended Texas A&M University and University of Texas Medical Branch. Began active duty naval service in 1995

* Operational assignments included, instructor at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida; det. officer in charge and diving medical officer at Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 in Sigonella, Italy; and diving safety officer at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk.

* Served residency in emergency medicine at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center and then assigned as clinical faculty in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia.

* Served in a forward deployed Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon in Taqaddum, Iraq.

* White House physician for second term of George W. Bush, both terms of Barack Obama.

* Jackson does not have reported experience running an agency equivalent to the size of the VA, the second largest agency in the federal government.

Shulkin's turbulent ride at the White House:

* The VA's inspector general reported last month that Shulkin used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe.

* He started handling his own media relations because he doesn't trust the agency's communications staff.

* The White House was befuddled by Shulkin's media appearances. Senior officials were especially furious when he told Politico that he had their blessing to clean house.

https://www.axios.com/trump-replaces-hi ... f2116.html

<

Hulu pulls ads from Laura Ingraham's show

Hulu has joined the companies pulling their advertisements from Fox News host Laura Ingraham's primetime program after she mocked a student survivor of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting over his college rejections.

“We’d like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham’s show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully,” the streaming service said in a tweet Thursday.

hulu
@hulu
Replying to @davidhogg111 and 11 others
We’d like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham’s show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully.

5:58 PM - Mar 29, 2018
15.6K
5,424 people are talking about this

Fox News did not immediately return a request for comment.

Hulu is one of at least seven sponsors to pull its ads from "The Ingraham Angle" over her attack on Parkland student David Hogg.

Ingraham mocked Hogg in a tweet Wednesday for getting rejected by some colleges to which he had applied.

Laura Ingraham
@IngrahamAngle
David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)

10:45 AM - Mar 28, 2018

Hogg hit back by targeting Ingraham’s advertisers.

David Hogg
@davidhogg111
Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #

Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair

8:30 PM - Mar 28, 2018 · Washington, DC
110K
68.2K people are talking about this

The Fox News host apologized for her comments after companies began pulling their advertisements from her show.

Laura Ingraham

@IngrahamAngle
Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg111. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David...(1/2)

12:06 PM - Mar 29, 2018
7,823
32.7K people are talking about this

But Hogg rejected Ingraham’s apology, saying she had only done so because advertisers began to drop.

David Hogg
@davidhogg111
I 100% agree an apology in an effort just to save your advertisers is not enough. I will only accept your apology only if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I in this fight. It’s time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children. https://twitter.com/fred_guttenberg/sta ... 7859318786 …

2:06 PM - Mar 29, 2018 · Arlington, VA
53.7K
22.6K people are talking about this

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/38094 ... ahams-show






Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin Says He Was Fired After Opposing Privatization of VA Healthcare

In a tweet late Wednesday, President Donald Trump fired Shulkin, who faced a mounting internal rebellion at VA and a bruising ethics scandal.?

( Note: WoW! What a guy! Another tweet firing! Does this guy ever fire anyone face to face? What really hurts, just hours before the firing, trump and Shulkin had a lengthy phone conversation concerning VA affairs. GREAT CHANCE TO FIRE SHULKIN ! Couldn't even do it over the phone )

A White House official said Shulkin was informed of his dismissal by chief of staff John Kelly Wednesday afternoon before the president announced the move on Twitter.

“As I prepare to leave government, I am struck by a recurring thought: It should not be this hard to serve your country.”

Shulkin packed up his office and in response to a reporter’s query late Wednesday dejectedly emailed:

“Let’s talk tomorrow — I just need tonight to myself.”

http://time.com/5220404/david-shulkin-fired-blame/





Trump Repeated A False Claim That The Border Wall Has Started Construction

Addressing a crowd in Ohio on Thursday, Trump said construction had begun on his promised border wall, but he was referring to pictures of construction that began in 2009.

President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated a lie that construction on his long-promised wall at the US-Mexico border had started.

"We started building our wall, I'm so proud of it. We started. We have $1.6 billion. You saw the pictures yesterday. I said what a thing of beauty," he said while addressing a crowd of union workers and supporters in Ohio.

Thing is, the pictures he was no doubt referring to were the ones he tweeted Wednesday, which were from work that began in 2009.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!

2:47 PM - Mar 28, 2018
102K
55.3K people are talking about this

He wrote, "Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!"

The 2009 construction project is to replace a 2.25-mile section in the California-Mexico border wall, according to a statement from US Customs and Border Protection in February. The original, made of scrap metal and other material, went up in the 1990s.

"Although the existing wall has proven effective at deterring unlawful cross border activity, smuggling organizations damaged and breached this outdated version of a border wall several hundred times during the last two years," Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said in a statement.

A Department of Homeland Security official told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday that Trump had met with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and CBP commissioner Kevin McAleenan on Wednesday afternoon, but did not provide details of the briefing.

The Border Patrol office in San Diego tweeted pictures of the project in February, with some of them making it into Trump's tweet.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/blakemontgomer ... .yvDO0o39P





Pentagon: Trump, Mattis discussed using military dollars for border wall

President Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis have spoken about the possibility of using Defense Department funds for a border wall between the United States and Mexico, a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday.

“They have talked about the proposal, potentially,” chief spokeswoman Dana White told reporters. “Securing Americans and securing the nation is of paramount importance to the secretary. They have talked about it. I don’t have any more details with respect to specifics.”

White could not say when the two spoke, and said it was “an initial conversation.”

Trump last week signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill into law, providing the Pentagon with $700 billion in fiscal 2018 and $716 billion in fiscal 2019.

The budget also included $1.6 billion for border funding, far below the $25 billion Trump wanted.

It would require congressional approval to reprogram the money, but it looks unlikely lawmakers will want to divert Pentagon money. Mattis has repeatedly stressed that the dollars are meant to fix an urgent readiness crisis.

But Trump on Twitter seemed to suggest that the department could spare some of its billions for a border wall.

“Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!”

When pressed on the possibility of the diverted dollars ultimately hurting the military’s ability to buy needed equipment, White said the suggestion was “a bridge too far.”

“I think that’s a bridge too far because we don’t have those details and, again, it’s been an initial conversation, so I don’t have any more details,” she said.

“The president and the secretary, there’s no daylight between them with respect to ensuring that this military stays the most lethal in the world. There’s no disagreement with them on that issue,” she said.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/38086 ... order-wall





More Good News For Rich People!

The Wall Street Journal reports today that IRS audits of rich people declined by 25 percent in 2017. Booyah!

I have helpfully extrapolated the trendline since 2011 so that rich people know when the IRS is likely to simply stop auditing them at all. It’s only four years away! Happy days are here again if only they can keep those damn liberals out of power long enough.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/ ... ch-people/





A Coup at Veterans Affairs

If you’re like us, your initial reaction upon hearing that President Trump had picked his personal physician to head the Department of Veterans Affairs was: “What? You mean the guy who looks like a retired Grateful Dead roadie and said ‘unequivocally’ that Mr. Trump would be ‘the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency’ ”?

No, not him. The doctor with no managerial experience nominated to head the second-largest federal bureaucracy is Dr. Ronny Jackson, the lead White House physician since 2013 and a rear admiral, who said after an exam in January that Mr. Trump was in “excellent health,” despite being overweight and needing a higher dosage of cholesterol-lowering medication.

Mr. Trump tends not to look very far when seeking to fill top government positions. He named his family event planner to head an important regional office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He floated the idea of putting his personal pilot in charge of the Federal Aviation Administration. What’s next, making his son-in-law Middle East peace envoy?

But, anyway, it seems that as secretary of veterans affairs, Dr. Jackson would not be tending to Mr. Trump so much as to the right-wing billionaires Charles and David Koch and others who support privatization of veterans’ health care and other services.

The man Dr. Jackson would replace as head of this long-troubled department, David Shulkin, whom Mr. Trump fired on Wednesday, was the highest-ranking holdover from the Obama administration and among the few Trump cabinet members with demonstrated ability at their jobs.

Dr. Shulkin had strong bipartisan support in Congress — he was confirmed 100 to 0 by the Senate — and was backed by almost all veterans groups. He guided important legislation through Congress, a rare accomplishment for this White House. These laws led to an expansion of the G.I. Bill for post-9/11 veterans, an easier process to remove bad employees and quicker appeals on disability benefits.

The department’s inspector general found “serious derelictions,” though, in the way Dr. Shulkin spent his time and taxpayer money during a European trip, during which he had improperly accepted tickets to Wimbledon. (Shulkin: The trip cost the VA $122,000, he sent a check for $4,312 to cover his wife’s airfare immediately after the report came out. ) That’s a serious problem. But it’s laughable to think that this would be a disqualification for a president for whom corruption is a continuing business model and who has watched some cabinet members treat self-dealing as a perk.

[ NOTE - MNUCHIN: Spent nearly $1 million in taxpayer dollars on eight trips, opting for military aircraft over commercial flights. ]

Mnuchin’s flights include:

*A $15,112 trip to New York for a meeting with the president at Trump Tower to “discuss pending issues regarding tax reform and tariffs.”

*A $16,350 trip to Ottawa, Canada, last June for 20 people, including Linton and members of the press.

*A $33,046 flight to Louisville and Fort Knox in August.

* A $94,100 flight to Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Las Vegas “for official events with Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, and Congressman David McKinley in WV and Senator Dean Heller in NV.”

*That same month, the Treasury Department requested that Mnuchin and his wife be allowed to fly on a military jet “for a personal junket to Edinburgh, Great Britain; Paris, France; Gargnano, Italy; and Milan, Italy that was, in fact, their honeymoon trip.”

* The day of the Great American Eclipse, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Scottish actress Louise Linton, flew to Kentucky on a government plane.

*A $45,136 military flight to Miami for the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, The trip would have cost $688 per person on a commercial flight.

*A weeklong $183,646 trip to the Middle East for “bilats and press conferences with government officials. Jared Kushner and then-deputy National Security Adviser tagged along for each leg of the trip.

*A $301,167 three-day trip to the United Kingdom and Germany last March for meetings. on a military aircraft.

*A $314,000 trip to Bari, Italy, for the G-7 finance ministers meeting on a military aircraft. ] [/color]

* NOTE: What about Zinke and Pruitt ?????

So we come back to the Koch brothers. After a year of amity between Dr. Shulkin and the president, there came word last month of behind-the-scenes intrigue inside and outside the department over replacing the secretary. Those supporting such a move had ties to the Kochs and a group they fund called Concerned Veterans of America.

The group advocates privatizing V.A. care, which Dr. Shulkin has opposed. While the department has increased the role that private doctors play in the treatment of veterans — which is particularly useful in areas far from V.A. hospitals — most veterans advocates believe that despite the department’s history of serious problems with access to care and with the quality of care, the solution is more funding and better management. They see privatization as a boon for the private sector, not for veterans. And, as Dr. Shulkin said in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times late Wednesday, the nine million veterans who use the V.A. would overwhelm the private sector. More than 1,200 hospitals and clinics in the V.A. system provide that care now.

Mr. Trump gave no reason for firing Dr. Shulkin, but it’s all too believable that powerful political donors lay behind it. Each administration is entitled to pursue its own goals. But once again, this one has chosen a policy that is opposed by the people it would affect and that would chiefly benefit an entitled sliver of Americans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/opin ... eft-region

<

Texas woman gets 5 years in prison for voting illegally

Crystal Mason, 43, says she didn't know a felony conviction made her ineligible to cast a ballot in 2016.

A Texas woman was sentenced to five years behind bars this week for voting illegally in the 2016 election while on supervised release from federal prison.

Crystal Mason, 43, testified in court that she did not know that she was ineligible to vote due to her 2011 fraud conviction before casting a provisional ballot in the presidential election. In Texas, knowingly voting illegally is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

J. Warren St. John, her defense attorney, told NBC News on Friday. "The punishment does not fit this crime."

Texas' ballot asks voters to certify that they have completed their sentences — including supervision — if they have previously been convicted of a felony. Mason testified in court that she did not read the fine print because an election worker was helping her with the provisional ballot...........

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... ly-n861516





Ex-head of Colorado Republicans charged with voter fraud

POLITICSMARCH 22, 2017 / 5:47 PM / A YEAR AGO

DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado talk radio host who once chaired the state Republican Party and has accused Democrats of widespread voter fraud has been charged with forging his ex-wife’s signature on a mail-in ballot in the 2016 election, court records showed on Wednesday.

If convicted, Curtis faces a maximum three years in prison for forgery and up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine for ballot-tampering, said Tyler Hill, a spokesman for the district attorney.

Steve Curtis was found guilty of voter fraud and forgery for signing ex-wife’s ballot

He was sentenced to four years probation, community service in voter fraud case.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colo ... SKBN16T37X

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/26/s ... probation/





Iowa Woman Pleads Guilty To Voting Twice For Donald Trump

She was reportedly concerned her first ballot would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton.

An Iowa woman pleaded guilty to election misconduct this week after being accused of illegally voting twice for Donald Trump last year, according to The Associated Press.

The woman, 56-year-old Terri Lynn Rote, reportedly cast a ballot during early voting in Polk County and attempted to cast a second one at a satellite voting location, where she was arrested. Rote told police she voted twice because she believed Trump’s claims that the 2016 election would be rigged and thought her first ballot would be changed to a vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to CBS News.

Rote’s attorney told the court in January that she believed her client had “cognitive limitations” and a mental health disorder.

Rote who tried to vote for Donald Trump twice gets two years probation and $750 fine.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/io ... b458eacb54

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 00886.html





Voting Rights Advocates Just Won a Big Victory in Court

The ruling is a setback for conservative groups trying to purge voter rolls across the country.

A conservative legal group’s crusade to purge voter lists across the country hit a setback Friday when a federal judge in Florida ruled that Broward County was already adequately maintaining its voter file. In doing so, the judge rebuffed the group’s efforts to force the heavily Democratic county to implement procedures that voting rights advocates say could have resulted in eligible voters being removed from the rolls...........

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -in-court/





No, Donald Trump can’t just use Pentagon money for his border wall

Congress didn’t give President Donald Trump money for his border wall — and Mexico certainly isn’t paying for it — so now he’s asking his administration to go to legally questionable lengths to fund it anyway.

Trump has spoken with Secretary of Defense James Mattis about using Department of Defense money for the border wall, Pentagon spokesperson Dana White confirmed Thursday. The president reportedly noted that the Pentagon was getting so much money in Congress’s $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that it could surely afford the border wall.

To be perfectly clear: This is not how government spending works.

And while the Pentagon received $700 billion as part of Congress’s government funding package, putting funding for the military at historic levels, that’s not a blank check to the Pentagon. That money is appropriated to specific programs — and spending it for the border wall instead could be illegal.

A quick civics primer: The legislative branch of government manages the nation’s purse strings, allocating money to federal agencies and authorizing how those funds can be used. It’s in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: Congress has the power ”to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and General Welfare of the United States.”

“Every line item is subject to tons of legislative, authorizing, and regulatory language with strict limitations on transfers and re-programmings,” Matthew Dennis, the Democratic spokesperson with the House Appropriations Committee, said.

And using federal funds for anything other than what Congress appropriates them for is illegal under that the Antideficiency Act, which was enacted in 1870.

In other words, Trump can’t simply call on the Department of Defense to use its excess money for his border wall. ..........

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... order-wall





Liberty Mutual to stop running ads on Laura Ingraham's show

Liberty Mutual will no longer run advertisements on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show, the insurance group's CEO told employees in a memo Friday.

“As many of you know, there have been several media reports regarding TV host Laura Ingraham's comments regarding one of the students from Parkland, FL, and Liberty Mutual Insurance's advertising during her program,” the company's Chairman and CEO David Long wrote.

“These comments are inconsistent with our values as a company, especially when it comes to treating others with dignity and respect. We are not scheduled to run any future ads on her show and will continue to analyze our advertising placements to make sure they align with our beliefs as a company,” he continued.

Liberty Mutual is at least the 12th advertiser to withdraw support from Ingraham’s show after she mocked Parkland, Fla., high school shooting survivor David Hogg over his college rejections.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/38104 ... ahams-show





Oklahoma Teachers Prepare For Walkout As Red State Revolt Spreads

State legislators fast-tracked a pay raise bill to avoid closures, but teachers say it doesn’t come close to adequately funding schools.

Teachers in Oklahoma still plan to walk off the job next week after state legislators passed an education funding bill that fell apart within hours.

Oklahoma is one of a wave of red states now facing a teacher revolt after years of anemic funding for education.

The historic and successful strike in West Virginia has inspired a burgeoning uprising among austerity-weary teachers around the country. In addition to Oklahoma, Arizona could soon face a strike by teachers, who are demanding the state boost pay by 20 percent and return to pre-recession funding levels for education. (Meanwhile, teachers in Kentucky shut down public schools in 25 counties on Friday to protest proposed cuts to the state pension plan.)

Teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona are all among the lowest-paid in the country, with schools facing growing teacher shortages. Republicans control the statehouse and governor’s office in all three states.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ok ... 12dc9c3395





Donald Trump Doesn't Understand Community Colleges

In a speech on Thursday, he revealed he doesn't appreciate the vital role they play in the country's education system and economy.

During a speech on Thursday, President Trump revealed a striking ignorance of one of the pillars of his country’s educational system. In the course of promoting his infrastructure plan, he, a bit perplexingly, dismissed the country’s community colleges, suggesting he doesn’t know what purpose they serve. “We do not know what a ‘community college’ means,” he told the crowd in an Ohio training facility for construction apprentices, moments after expressing nostalgia for the vocational schools that flourished when he was growing up—schools that offered hands-on training in fields such as welding and cosmetology.

One of Trump’s stated goals is to ensure that every American knows “the dignity of work, the pride of a paycheck, and the satisfaction of a job well done”—but he seems to be unaware of the vital role that community colleges play in realizing that vision.

Community colleges are not just a substantial part of the future of American education—they are also a substantial part of its present. More than 40 percent of the country’s undergraduates are currently enrolled in community colleges, according to the College Board, the higher-education research firm and test administrator. Preliminary federal data suggest that roughly 9 million undergraduates were enrolled in community colleges in the 2015-2016 school year. And with their low tuition (typically costing less than what federal Pell grants provide) and practice of letting in all applicants, community colleges serve as a pathway to the middle class for low-income and first-generation students. Further, one in three community-college students transfers to a bachelor’s-granting institution within six years...........

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/a ... es/556976/





Impeachment billboard installed on Trump motorcade route in Florida

A billboard calling for President Trump's impeachment has been placed on the usual presidential motorcade route between Trump's Florida golf club and Palm Beach resort.

The sign, designed in the style of the Trump–Pence 2016 campaign logo, calls for "Impeachment Now" and spins the president's "Make America Great Again" slogan to say, instead, "Make America America Again."

Located just two miles from the Mar-a-Lago resort that Trump often visits on weekends, the president may see the massive sign while traveling between the resort and his Trump International Golf Club, which is about 20 minutes inland.

Mad Dog PAC, a group known for its provocative signs calling out Trump and Republican politicians, is responsible for the billboard and said it is one of dozens to be posted along highways across the country.

The impeachment sign was funded by nationwide donors and is planned to remain in place for four weeks, the group's founder told CBS 12 Palm Beach.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... in-florida





Shulkin: Trump didn’t mention firing in call hours before he was fired

Hours before he was ousted, former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin discussed his progress in his position with President Donald Trump — who gave him no indication that he would later fire him.

Shulkin said during an interview with MSNBC that he spoke on the phone to Trump on Wednesday about needing to focus on polices to help the VA.

“We spoke about the progress that I was making, what I needed to do from a policy perspective to make sure that we‘re fixing the issues in VA,” Shulkin said. “He was very focused, he was very inquisitive about the things we were working on, making sure we were focused on the job at hand.“

MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked if Trump “made no mention of the fact that he was about to terminate you,” to which Shulkin said, “That’s correct.”

Trump on Wednesday evening announced on Twitter that White House physician Ronny Jackson would be nominated to replace Shulkin.

Shulkin said that he was informed that he would be ousted, not by Trump, but by his chief of staff John Kelly.

“Right before that, the Chief of Staff Kelly gave me a call, which I appreciated, gave me a heads up,” Shulkin said.

“And so that was much after the phone call,” he said of the tweet.




No longer muzzled, Shulkin takes on Trump’s White House

The fired Veterans Affairs secretary claims he was politically knifed: ‘It should not be this hard to serve your country.’

Ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is going down swinging.

Instead of disappearing into obscurity like others who were summarily fired by President Donald Trump, Shulkin is using his dismissal as an opportunity to step into the spotlight. Freed from the constraints of serving in the Trump administration, Shulkin is publicly — and loudly — raising red flags about what he sees as a sinister plot to privatize veterans’ health care.

Within hours of Trump’s announcement via Twitter that he is replacing Shulkin with White House physician Ronny Jackson, the newly unseated secretary had published an op-ed in The New York Times and conducted an interview with NPR.

Shulkin is flipping the script on an unspoken rule in Washington that fired Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials should keep their grievances to themselves out of respect for the president. But Trump’s unconventional presidency, which has spit out a string of jilted ex-staffers, is challenging that long-standing practice.

Former Trump administration officials are quick to anonymously lambaste the president and his team to reporters. And a small number have started doing it on the record.

Shulkin, for his part, blamed his ouster on “the ambitions of people who want to put VA health care in the hands of the private sector,” something he opposes, lamenting that a political power struggle over his department made it tougher to do the work of running and improving the VA.

“They saw me as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed,” Shulkin wrote in his New York Times op-ed, published shortly after midnight on Thursday. “As I prepare to leave government, I am struck by a recurring thought: It should not be this hard to serve your country.”

Trump announced Shulkin’s firing on Twitter, writing, “I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!”..........

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... ing-491272





GOP tax message hits a snag

More than three months after the passage of the GOP’s tax-cut law, new surveys suggest that many people don’t think they are getting bigger paychecks, which could cut into support for Republicans in this fall’s midterm elections.

A CNBC poll this week stated that just 32 percent of working adults reported having more take-home pay due to the new law, a problem for Republicans hoping to run on the measure and the health of the economy in November.

The GOP has made the tax-cut law the centerpiece of its campaign message, arguing that Republican control of Congress and the White House led to legislation that is putting more money in people’s pockets and stimulating an economy with low unemployment.

Yet the CNBC poll suggested that many people aren’t noticing much of a change from the law, a sentiment that could feed into Democratic arguments that it is helping the rich while doing little for the middle class.

Conservatives say their problem is about messaging. They say they simply have to do more to deliver the news about the tax bill and its benefits.

“Republicans have to discipline themselves to stay on message,” said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist. “Somebody says ‘Korea and steel,’ you say ‘tax cuts.’”

Republicans publicly and privately have criticized President Trump for distracting from a party message centered on taxes and the economy..........

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/38088 ... its-a-snag





The Memo: Trump prizes loyalty over experience in Cabinet

President Trump’s penchant for making unconventional picks to fill senior positions is once again on full display.

On Wednesday, he announced that he would nominate the White House physician, Ronny Jackson, to replace David Shulkin as the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Jackson, who served President Obama as well as Trump, has no significant experience managing a large organization. The VA has an annual budget of around $180 billion and well over 300,000 employees.

Trump’s approach to appointments, which often seems to put loyalty and personal chemistry ahead of experience, extends far beyond Jackson.

Voters who backed Trump elected him despite his own lack of Washington experience, choosing to trust his business background and gut instincts. Trump seems to be taking the same approach with many of his appointments.

Earlier this month, he chose Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn as chief economic adviser.

Kudlow’s main focus in recent years has been as a television commentator, though he does come from a business background as a former chief economist for Bear Stearns. That experience, however, dates back more than 20 years.

Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and former rival to Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has little evident experience in the areas within his purview as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. His tenure has been marked by a number of controversies.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been deeply involved in the promotion of charter schools over orthodox public schools for years, but has never before held public office. That inexperience has been exposed on occasion, most recently in an awkward CBS “60 Minutes” interview.

These stumbles have strengthened critics’ convictions that Trump is failing to hire “the best people,” as he famously promised.

“One thing that has always been valued in a White House — except for perhaps this one — is real qualifications and real experience,” said David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron and the author of a book on presidential chiefs of staff. “President Trump doesn’t really seem to pay attention to those things."

It is, to be sure, easy to oversimplify Trump’s hiring style, and its effects.

Experience doesn’t always lead to success. Donald Rumsfeld was seen as a successful chief of staff to President Ford. His tenure at the Pentagon during the Iraq War was viewed very differently.

While critics complain of Trump’s unorthodox, inexperienced picks, some of his most conventional choices have not exactly covered themselves in glory either.

Sean Spicer, his first press secretary, was basically an emissary from the GOP establishment to the Trump insurgents who had won the White House — but his tenure was characterized by memorable missteps.

Tom Price, another popular pick with conservatives inside the Beltway as Secretary of Health and Human Services, resigned after spending around $400,000 on chartered flights and other travel expenses.

Similarly, Trump supporters would argue that media coverage of the tumult that has affected his administration fails to acknowledge those figures who have performed competently: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is often mentioned, as is Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

But there is no doubt that Trump has been prone to out-of-the-box appointments from the start — for better and for worse.

This week sees the departure of Hope Hicks as his communications director. She has been by his side since the start of his outsider bid for the presidency, and had never previously worked on a political campaign.

Hicks’s exit is a source of genuine sadness inside the West Wing.

A very different reaction was produced when Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former contestant on the Trump-fronted NBC series “The Apprentice,” was ousted from her post late last year in the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Much media coverage of Trump’s personnel picks has focused on his fondness of people from the television world. But backers and critics of the president alike caution against painting with too broad a brush.

Some note, for example, that State Department spokeswoman and acting under-secretary of State Heather Nauert is generally seen as having acquitted herself well — despite some harsh coverage when she was first appointed that sneered at her history as a Fox News anchor.

Others bridle about the emphasis given to John Bolton’s frequent appearances on the same cable network.

They note that, whether or not one agrees with the hawkish foreign policy stance of Trump’s pick to be his third national security adviser, Bolton has a history of government service that dates back decades.

Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee and a frequent Trump critic, said that “a lot of folks” had been critical of Trump’s fondness for TV commentators.

“When it is Omarosa, it is an absolutely valid point,” he said. “But having people in important positions able to well-articulate their positions? I think that’s a good thing.”

A Republican strategist with ties to the White House drew a distinction between Bolton and other choices, however.

“Larry Kudlow has been a television commentator for what feels like decades,” the source said, “I think it is an open question whether he is qualified to handle his position — and we’ll soon find out.”

Others take an even more sharply negative view, arguing that Trump prizes loyalty above all else, to his own detriment.

“If any president in our modern era truly needed people to speak truth to power, it’s this president, because he comes into the job with so little experience,” said Cohen. “Unfortunately, I don’t think he is really interested in learning.”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... in-cabinet

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How 5 Large Mega-Gyres Helped Create a “Galaxy of Garbage” in the Pacific

And it’s growing.

What’s 1.6 million square kilometers, weighs 80,000 metric tons, and is three times the size of continental France?

That would be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—the enormous collection of detritus that floats in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and California. Also known as the “GPGP,” the patch’s sprawl has made it notoriously difficult to measure. But a new study in the journal Scientific Reports has gathered the most comprehensive measurement yet. After three years of data collection, researchers from the Ocean Cleanup—a Dutch nonprofit that works on developing technologies to scrub the oceans—have calculated that the patch is four to sixteen times larger than ever before determined—and it’s growing...........

https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... e-pacific/






Ingraham announces break from her show amid backlash over Parkland student

Fox News host Laura Ingraham is taking vacation time as advertisers flee her show, "The Ingraham Angle," over a feud with a high school student who advocates for gun control.

Ingraham on her show Friday night described the vacation as a pre-planned break with her children for the Easter holiday.

“A blessed Good Friday and Passover to all of you; I’ll be off next week for Easter break with my kids,” she said. "Fear not. We've got a great lineup of guest hosts to fill in for me."

Ingraham, who hosts one of Fox News’s highest-rated talk shows, leaves in the midst of controversy and boycotts.

More than a dozen companies have stopped advertising on Ingraham's show in the days since the Fox News host mocked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg for being rejected from colleges...........

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/38108 ... nd-student





Gov. says he'll make Vermont the latest state to pass gun control law

March 31 (UPI) -- Vermont's Republican Governor Phil Scott said he will sign into law three bills that contain gun control measures.

A bill passed by the state's legislature on Friday expands background checks, bans bump stocks, and raises the age for people to buy guns to 21. Law enforcement, military personnel and people who have taken a hunter safety course are exempt from the age restriction. It also sets limits of no more than 10 rounds of ammunition for a long gun and no more than 15 rounds for a hand gun.

Earlier this month, Florida's governor signed a bill into law that raised the legal age to buy a rifle and banned bump stocks, which are attachments that increase a gun's firing rate...........

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/03 ... m_medium=1





Free High-Capacity Magazines Given Out at (Vermont) Gun Rights Rally

(MONTPELIER, Vt.) — Gun rights supporters protesting gun restriction legislation are gathering at the Vermont Statehouse, urging the governor not to sign the bill.Police estimate hundreds of protesters turned out Saturday to show their opposition a day after the Vermont legislature passed the gun restrictions package.

Protesters were giving away 1,200 30-round magazines. The legislation would ban high-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices known as bump stocks, in addition to raising the legal age. It would also expand background checks for private gun sales...........

http://time.com/5223698/free-magazines- ... d=homepage





Taliban ramps up attacks to send message that no one is safe

On Friday, four civilians in Afghanistan's northeast Badakhshan province were killed, and eight injured, after a gun battle between the Taliban and security forces, per the Washington Post. That came after a suicide bomber in neighboring Kunar province killed two people and injured another.

The bigger picture: The first three months of 2018 have seen repeated attacks on civilians and increased aggression from the Taliban. Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center says the message the Taliban is sending is simple: "Despite U.S. efforts to step up battlefield pressure on the Taliban, the group remains strong and quite capable of carrying out sophisticated, devastating attacks."

"There’s a clear reason why the Taliban is ramping up its attacks on civilians in urban spaces, including in supposedly highly secured areas: By staging these attacks with impunity, the Taliban wants to convey the impression that the government can’t protect its people. Sadly, that’s an impression that a critical mass of Afghans certainly have of their government these days."
— Michael Kugelman

Some of the major attacks in recent weeks:

*January 20: Insurgents storm Kabul's luxury Intercontinental Hotel, and kill at least 22, including 14 foreigners.

*January 27: A suicide bomber strikes in Kabul, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 100 more.

*February 24: Two suicide strikes in Helmand Province kill two Afghan soldiers and wound "a dozen civilians, including women and children," per the New York Times.

*March 9: The Taliban attacks an army outpost in the northern Takhar Province. Ten local law enforcement officers are killed, and nine more wounded.

*March 17: A suicide car bomb in Kabul kills at least three. The Taliban was targeting a foreign security company, per Radio Free Europe, but those that were killed were "passerby and local workers."

*March 30: Following Friday's firefight, the Taliban claims more civilians were killed than the four reported by Afghan officials, and says the government bears responsibility for their deaths.

* Worth noting: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reports that more than 10,000 civilians were killed or wounded in 2017, and attributes 42% of those casualties to the Taliban.

https://www.axios.com/taliban-attacks-c ... 75414.html





Industrial-scale pork on trial in federal nuisance lawsuits

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Drive past clustered hog sheds containing thousands of animals in the country’s No. 2 pork-producing state on the wrong day and the reason hundreds of North Carolina neighbors are suing in federal court is clear: it really stinks.

The question facing jurors in a federal lawsuit starting Monday is whether the open-air animal waste pits that proliferated over a generation generate intense smells, clouds of flies and noise.

The trial’s outcome could shake the profits and change production methods of pork producers who have enjoyed legislative protection and promotion in one of the nation’s food hubs. Supporters see industrial-scale hog complexes as generating jobs and revenues in rural communities. Friendly lawmakers last year sought to retroactively sink the lawsuits by more than 500 neighbors now lined up to go to trial one after another.

Neighbors like Randy Davis contend the industry’s long practice of storing liquid waste in what producers call lagoons, then spraying treated excrement onto nearby fields as fertilizer, spells misery for them...........

Hog growers are keeping an eye on the litigation that could force them to make changes or part with big payouts...........

The upcoming string of federal lawsuits target Murphy-Brown LLC, the hog production division of Virginia’s Smithfield Foods. Smithfield was bought in 2013 by a division of China-based WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer. China, with higher feed and labor costs than American pork producers, is one of the fastest-growing markets for U.S. exports and including Hong Kong now makes up about 9 percent, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

The cases are being overseen by Judge W. Earl Britt, who was born 86 years ago in a town of about 130 people along the South Carolina border and joined the court in 1980 after Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s nomination.

The first case to be tried next week involves 10 neighbors of Kinlaw Farm, a Bladen County hog operation located 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of a massive Smithfield Foods slaughterhouse. The farm and its owners, who raise hogs under contract with Murphy-Brown, are not defendants. Instead, the target is the company that set specific standards of how the farm must operate.

The neighbors’ lawyers hand-picked the plaintiffs for this first trial. A second trial starting later this spring will involve parties selected by hog industry lawyers. The two sides will alternate choosing the players for further trials.

Such test cases allow lawyers to measure the strength of their evidence. The resulting verdicts - and any financial penalties - create guiderails for a possible settlement, said Christopher Seeger, a New York attorney who helped negotiate a $4.85 billion settlement over the health risks of arthritis painkiller Vioxx.

Perhaps more important in shaping the ultimate resolution are the precedent-setting decisions judges make to accept some evidence and keep other details from jurors, Seeger said. Hog industry attorneys say the trial should be strictly limited to whether the 10 suing neighbors are suffering with a foul nuisance. They don’t want jurors to hear about alternative disposal hog waste methods used elsewhere, industry lobbying, or evidence of Chinese ownership.

“You generate data from these bellwether trials that are very informative,” Seeger said. “Where people would get more, where people would get less” based on how evidence persuades jurors.

https://www.apnews.com/1cddb8b2ad334ec0 ... e-lawsuits





Who stands to gain if Trump pulls the US out of Syria?

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's unexpected announcement on Thursday that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon" is raising concerns among some national security officials who warn that withdrawing now would not only undermine American credibility in the region but prompt a significant escalation to an already devastating conflict.

While Trump has often touted the gains made against ISIS since taking office, his latest comments caught much of his own administration off-guard -- including defense officials who have warned that now is not the time to withdraw from Syria.
"We're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria like very soon," Trump told supporters outside of Cleveland during a speech that was meant to focus on infrastructure." Let the other people take care of it now."

Several US defense officials have told CNN that the Pentagon has not heard any additional details from the White House since the President's remarks -- adding that the policy hasn't changed and that they are continuing to focus on their fight against ISIS.

* Who has the most to lose?:
* A US withdraw could help ISIS:
* Russia, Iran and Turkey stand to benefit:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/31/politics ... index.html





Nov. 13 2017 - 19:11

Kremlin TV Network RT Registers As ‘Foreign Agent’ in U.S.

The editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-run RT news network, Margarita Simonyan, said its U.S. branch has registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The 1938 law, designed to target Nazi propaganda, has been the driving force behind escalating U.S.-Russia tensions in recent weeks. Washington DC gave RT a Monday deadline to register as a “foreign agent” following allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"Between a criminal case and registration, we chose the latter," Simonyan wrote today in a tweet. "For which we congratulate American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it."

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/kremlin ... e-us-59563





March 30 2018 - 13:03

RT Ceases Broadcasting in Washington After Being ‘Thrown Out,’ Chief Editor Says

The Kremlin-run RT news network will go off the air in the U.S. capital because of its “foreign agent” status in the country, its chief editor has claimed.

RT’s American branch was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” in the U.S. last fall following allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The channel will be taken off air after two Virginia-based digital stations that carry RT alongside other international broadcasters disappear from screens this Sunday, a year after they were auctioned off by their parent organization.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/rt-ceas ... says-61001





President Who Bragged Of Groping Women Declares Sexual Assault Awareness Month

“Offenders too often evade accountability,” Trump said in his proclamation.

You’d think that a man whom several women have accused of sexual harassment or assault ― a man who openly bragged about sexually assaulting women ― would steer clear of any conversation about preventing such behavior. But here we are.

President Donald Trump on Friday proclaimed that April was National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, and the irony was lost on no one.

“Sexual assault crimes remain tragically common in our society,” the president’s proclamation read. “And offenders too often evade accountability.”

At least 19 women have accused Trump of sexually harassment or misconduct. He has yet to be charged and refuses to resign as president, despite lawsuits against him and his own comments about women...........

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/do ... 7437aaff29





Andrew McCabe’s GoFundMe Just Broke $400,000

Shattering the original $150,000 goal.

An online fundraiser that was launched Thursday to help cover former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s legal fees has surpassed $400,000, shattering the legal defense fund’s original goal of raising $150,000.

And it’s only Friday.

The 21-year FBI veteran was fired by the bureau just two days before he was set to retire, a punitive move that could deprive McCabe of his full retirement benefits. The stunning dismissal came after months of public and private attacks by President Donald Trump, who repeatedly accused McCabe of being politically biased against him. After McCabe’s firing, Trump gloated about his dismissal on Twitter.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!

11:08 PM - Mar 16, 2018
165K
146K people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

“Andrew McCabe’s FBI career was long, distinguished, and unblemished,” reads the GoFundMe page, which was organized by his friends. “He embraced the most daunting, difficult, and important challenges that the FBI and the country could assign to him over the past 21 years.”

“Unfortunately, the need for a legal defense fund is a growing reality,” it continues. “Media reports indicate that at a minimum, there are a number of congressional inquiries that he will be required to respond to, as well as the broader Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation that is ongoing, and any potential lawsuits he might consider.”

Many viewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of McCabe as a concession to Trump, though the official justification cited for McCabe’s ouster was his supposed “lack of candor” during congressional testimony. A week after the extraordinary dismissal, it was reported that almost a year before his firing, McCabe had authorized a criminal investigation into whether Sessions had been truthful when testifying about his contacts with Russian officials.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ke-400000/





Trump dined with Hannity at Mar-a-Lago: report

President Trump reportedly dined with Fox News personality Sean Hannity at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this weekend.

CNN reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted that sources had said the president had dined with Hannity Friday evening.

The Palm Beach Post also reported that Trump golfed with Hannity on Saturday.

“The president was in a very good mood. He seemed very, very happy,” longtime Republican operative Larry Casey, who was a guest at the club, told the Post.

Casey added that he saw the two golfing together, while the president remained uncharacteristically silent on social media.

Their meetings come as the White House searches for a replacement for Hope Hicks, Trump's longtime aide and White House communications director. Hicks' last day in the White House was on Thursday.

Trump was joined Friday night by former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, according to a tweet from ABC News reporter Meridith McGraw, and on Saturday by first lady Melania Trump and daughter Tiffany.

First lady Melania Trump's presence at Mar-a-Lago comes amid weeks of speculation over her reaction to news reports of her husband's alleged 2006 affair with Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's admission that he paid Daniels $130,000 as part of an agreement in 2016.

Trump has so far remained personally silent on the issue, while the White House and Trump's lawyers have maintained that the claims of the 2006 affair are false and politically motivated.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/38114 ... ago-report





PARKLAND STUDENTS, OTHERS FIRE BACK AT TED NUGENT FOR 'NO SOUL' COMMENTS

Parkland students and teachers are firing back at musician and NRA member Ted Nugent for saying the protesting students have “no souls” during a radio interview.

On Friday during a radio interview on The Joe Pags show, Nugent called the teens who have been fighting for gun reform after 17 people were shot and killed during the school shooting “soulless,” “mushy-brained” and “liars.”

"The lies from these poor, mushy-brained children who have been fed lies and parrot lies," Nugent said. "The level of ignorance goes beyond stupidity. The National Rifle Association are a bunch of American families who have a voice to stand up for our God-given, constitutionally given right to keep and bear arms."

The teen activists did not remain quiet. His comments angered many of the Parkland students, including Cameron Kasky. Kasky took to Twitter in response to Nugent’s comments and said he better apologize.

“If only he saw all the tears. If only he had to look into the eyes I’ve looked into. If only he saw what this did to all of us. And here the NRA is, receiving more fear-based donations than ever. Talk about ‘no soul.’ This guy better apologize. Seriously,” Kasky wrote.

David Hogg didn’t use his own words to slam the 69-year-old but re-tweeted Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand, who tweeted at NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch to contradict Nugent.

“Longtime @NRA Board member Ted Nugent just said this about Parkland gun violence survivors: "These poor children, I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul.” Waiting for you to contradict him,” tweeted Watts.

Parkland teacher Mike Marino didn’t call out Nugent directly but quoted John Lennon in his tweet.

““All you need is love” - John Lennon #ItsReallySimple #Peace #OnlyLoveCanDoThat #NeverAgain #MSDStrong,” tweeted Marino.

http://www.newsweek.com/ted-nugent-park ... ter-868100





ACTOR FRANK STALLONE SAYS SOMEONE SHOULD 'SUCKER PUNCH' DAVID HOGG

Actor Frank Stallone switched his Twitter account to private on Saturday after he tweeted that Parkland shooting survivor and activist David Hogg should be "sucker punched" by someone from his age group.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Stallone used vulgar language to describe Hogg, and said he was a terrible representative for today's youth.

"This David Hogg pussy is getting a little big for his britches. I'm sure someone from his age group is dying to sucker punch this rich little bitch. Watch him run home like the coward he is. He's the worst rep for today's youth headline grabbing punk," Stallone tweeted in the deleted post.

Fans and Twitter followers of Stallone were able to capture the tweet before it was deleted.

"This David Hogg pussy is getting a little big for his britches. I'm sure someone from his age group is dying to sucker punch this rich little bitch. Watch him run home like the coward he is. He's the worst rep for today's youth headline grabbing punk,"

http://www.newsweek.com/frank-stallone- ... nch-868072





WHITE HOUSE FACES RENEWED CRITICISM OVER LACK OF DIVERSITY IN INTERN PROGRAM

The White House has been criticized for lack of diversity in its spring intern program, after a photograph released Friday showed only a handful of this year’s 91 participants are non-white.

In the image released Friday, President Donald Trump smiles while posing alongside members of the intern program, who will perform duties including research, drafting memos, staffing events and fielding inquiries.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, three-fifths of America’s population is non-Hispanic white. In the photograph, white interns appear to make up a far higher proportion of the group.

“Diversity this ain’t,” tweeted France 24 White House correspondent Philip Crowther.

http://www.newsweek.com/white-house-fac ... ram-867918





Census Bureau Expert Adviser Rips Decision To Add A Citizenship Question

“I want to say in no uncertain terms that I think this is an absolutely awful decision.”

During a Thursday meeting between top Census Bureau officials and advisers, one expert began her presentation on the Trump administration’s last-minute decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 survey by asking: “What the hell?”

D. Sunshine Hillygus, a member of the the Census Scientific Advisory Committee and a political science professor at Duke University, offered a scalding critique of the decision, blasting the administration for what she says puts census data at risk.

“I want to say in no uncertain terms that I think this is an absolutely awful decision,” said Hillygus, who is on the panel of about 15 outside experts that advise the Census Bureau on data collection, methodology and analysis. “I am dumbfounded that this decision is coming in at such a late date. My view is that this is going to have severe negative implications for data quality and costs.”..........

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ce ... 12dc9c48d0





Pruitt holding on, so far

Despite his ethical troubles over travel, spending and a Capitol Hill lease, the EPA chief is championing Trump’s agenda.

The White House is not washing its hands of Scott Pruitt, even as the slow drip of damaging headlines about the EPA chief continues.

One senior administration official told POLITICO on Friday that the White House still stands behind the Environmental Protection Agency leader despite news reports that he spent months renting a room last year in a condo connected to an energy lobbyist — paying just $50 per night to lodge a block from the Capitol. The news followed months of negative headlines about Pruitt’s first-class travel, security costs and political ambitions that are one of Washington’s worst-kept open secrets.

Pruitt's daughter McKenna also lived in a second room in the condo when she was a White House intern, ABC News reported Friday, raising further questions about whether the rent deal was an unethical favor.

But Pruitt has also been one of the most effective members of President Donald Trump’s administration — moving to reverse a huge swath of Obama-era regulations, persuading the president to exit the Paris climate deal and promoting Trump’s efforts to produce more coal, oil and natural gas.

And unlike other Cabinet members who have gotten the ax from Trump, such as ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Pruitt has not obstructed the president’s conservative agenda or actively criticized his leadership. Instead, he praises Trump on Fox News and elsewhere every chance he gets.

“I confess the optics aren’t ideal, and it probably does not show the best judgment,” the senior administration official said of Pruitt’s former living arrangement. “But Scott Pruitt is always going to receive extra scrutiny since he’s so focused on enacting the Trump agenda.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... epa-452116





Did Shulkin get fired or resign? This is why it matters

Trump potentially opened the door to legal challenges that could hobble the VA.

The White House is now asserting that recently departed Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin resigned. Shulkin has made it clear in his public comments that he was forced out.

While Washington often wraps firings in the verbal cloak of a resignation, the distinction this time could have far-reaching implications that could throw the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest federal agency, into further disarray.

In announcing the removal of Shulkin as VA secretary, Trump tapped Defense Department official Robert Wilkie as the acting leader of the department, bypassing Shulkin’s deputy, who was next in line to succeed him. That decision has reignited a debate among legal experts about the president’s ability to hand-pick replacements for ousted Cabinet secretaries.

The debate centers on vague language in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which gives the president broad authority to temporarily fill a vacancy at a federal agency with an acting official if the current office holder “dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office.”

But some legal experts note that the law does not explicitly grant that authority to the president in the case of firings. That could make Trump’s decision to appoint Wilkie, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, as acting VA secretary a potential test of the president’s authorities under the act.

And it means that any formal actions Wilkie takes as acting secretary could face a legal challenge that might stall sorely needed reforms and modernizations at the troubled agency.

When POLITICO asked the White House for comment about the potential legal issues surrounding Shulkin’s replacement, spokeswoman Lindsey Walters said in a statement, “Secretary Shulkin resigned from his position as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Walters’ comment is in sharp contrast with the well-established narrative that Trump fired Shulkin. Until now, the White House has made little effort to correct the many press accounts saying Shulkin was removed.

The White House declined to elaborate on the exact circumstances surrounding Shulkin’s ouster or offer any evidence to support the assertion. A VA spokesman referred a request for comment to the White House.

But a person familiar with Shulkin’s dismissal strongly disputed that Shulkin resigned, noting that he did not submit a resignation letter. Shulkin’s removal happened so quickly, the person said, that he was never given the opportunity to return to his office or address VA employees.

Shulkin, for his part, has publicly criticized the White House for its handling of his removal. During an interview with MSNBC this week, he said Trump never mentioned his plans to push him out during a phone call on Wednesday. White House chief of staff John Kelly subsequently informed him of the president’s intention later that afternoon.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... ans-492877





Veterans Deserve Reforms, Not Politics

Secretary David Shulkin was pushed out, but his initiatives should live on.

The firing of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin may seem like just another in the recent spate of executive-branch departures. But for his efforts to reform a vast bureaucracy and to better serve America's 20 million veterans, Shulkin will be sorely missed.

He may have himself to blame for a host of alleged ethical violations, although Shulkin contends he has been falsely accused by Washington partisans and veterans' groups opposed to his reform efforts. What's clear is that many of those efforts have been sensible and courageous. The next VA leader -- Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, has been tabbed -- should push ahead on the same track.

Shulkin supported a plan approved by Congress to privatize VA services, but was wary of moving too abruptly or drastically. So the department focused on cities where VA hospitals are overcrowded and in rural areas where they are hard to reach. His efforts enabled many veterans to get care more quickly, and set up a controlled study to inform a broader push. Unfortunately, his pragmatism conflicted with a blind faith in privatization held by rivals in Donald Trump's administration.

This was not the only initiative Jackson, if confirmed, would do well to continue. Shulkin carried on with earlier reforms to the department's disability payment system, which has trapped many veterans in dependency, discouraging them from rejoining the workforce. He stepped up measures to improve employee accountability, and to prevent deserving veterans from being denied urgent care. He reinvigorated the VA's stalled effort to bring its record-keeping into the digital age and make its online system compatible with that of the Defense Department. And he proceeded carefully with the effort to shift care for homeless veterans -- some 40,000 people -- to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which may be better suited to the task.

The VA still needs to do a better job of vetting veterans who apply for care and disability payments. Consider that more than one-third of living veterans who served since the Sept. 11 attacks have sought some form of remuneration, compared with just 21 percent of those who served during the Vietnam War. It's one reason the department's budget has ballooned to $200 billion. This responsibility now falls to Jackson.

Shulkin, the only holdover from the Barack Obama administration in the Trump cabinet, persevered through a challenging if short term as VA secretary, attacked by foes from both political parties. Americans should thank him for his service, and hope Jackson will understand and further his priorities.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... -at-the-va

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For the first time in over 200 years London has overtaken New York City in murders.

They had 3 times more rapes than New York.

Someone in London is now 6 times more likely to be burglarized than someone living in New York.

London is the more dangerous of the two cities in almost all forms of violent and sexual crimes.

Keep in mind, For the last 200 years they have had a murder rate that ranged from half to 1/20th of what N.Y.'s was. Till last year.

London's Muslim mayor stopped their stop and frisk policy, and police are now fearful to stop someone suspicious if they are a minority due to getting in trouble.

How is massive influx of migrants, those weak policies and strict gun laws working out?

The left here wants to make us as much like Europe as possible, and they are turning into a hell hole. No thanks, I'll keep clinging to my guns and bible, thank you very much. Trump caught flack for his comments about Belgium and Europe but he was absolutely right. As usual.

Another Trump Advisor

"Don King may seem like a strange choice. Of course, they're longtime friends. But I'd also argue few people have their finger on the pulse of the People more than a big-time fight promoter. He's also one of the few people on earth who can rival Trump as a brander (e.g. 'Rumble in the Jungle,' 'Thrilla in Manila')."


Hidden risk: Russian snooping near undersea communications cables

"Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the U.S. and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths," AP's Deb Riechmann reports.


How the rest of the Kushner clan reacted to Trump's presidency

* "[Charles] Kushner even expressed hope, one close family friend said, that he might receive a pardon ... A dozen years earlier, a sordid scandal stemming partly from a family falling-out had reduced the senior Mr. Kushner from real estate baron to felon making wallets at a prison camp in Alabama."

* "His younger brother, Josh, has opposed the Trump presidency, driving a wedge between the men in a family that prizes close ties."

* "Tales of [Josh's] distaste for the Trump administration continue to surface, most recently at a January party at Oscar, a health insurance firm that he helped found. According to one attendee, Josh Kushner listed the year’s challenges, concluding with a laugh: 'We survived Donald Trump. Don’t tweet that. Really, don’t tweet that. I’ll get in so much trouble.'"

* Josh Kushner also donated $50,000 to the March for our Lives and attended the event with his girlfriend, model Karlie Kloss, this month.


Carbon emissions rose in 2017 after a 3-year plateau

After three years of stability, carbon emissions went up 1.4% in 2017.


China slaps new tariffs on 128 U.S. imports

China announced that its retaliatory tariffs of up to 25% on imports of U.S. food and other goods, including pork, fruit and wine will start on Monday. They are China's response to President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports, the Financial Times reports. The details: The new tariffs target 128 goods imported from the U.S. “in order to safeguard China’s interests and balance the losses caused by the United States' additional tariffs,” according to an online statement.


Strategy spoiler: April's two big confirmation fights

The big picture: Dems plan to use these hearings to uncork numerous frustrations with President Trump and his administration — including/especially questions about Russia, and objections to incoming national security adviser John Bolton, who isn’t subject to confirmation.

Dems plan to push Haspel, who in 33 years with the agency has served as station chief in world danger spots, on her involvement in past interrogation programs denounced as torture. Dems will also try to extract the declassification of new documents about "black sites." A source said that on torture allegations, Haspel “will have to walk the line, show Dems that it will never happen again and maybe express her discomfort with it all — but not outright admit it was torture which hangs out to dry the CIA, her people.”

Pompeo’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hasn’t been announced, but sources expect it April 12. Pompeo can be expected to argue that he improved morale at the CIA, empowering officers to do their jobs, and will be supportive of the rank-and-file officials in “the building.” Look for Pompeo to emphasize the diplomatic elements of his current job, including intense, difficult conversations around the world.

One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has already announced he'll oppose both nominations: "President Trump sought to break with the foreign policy mistakes of the last two administrations. Yet now he picks ... people who embody them, defend them, and, I’m afraid, will repeat them."





Trump: As far as I'm concerned, we're a developing country

Trump demands ‘nuclear option’ and 'no more DACA deal'
President Trump said Sunday that Republicans must change Senate laws in order to pass tougher border and immigration legislation. In a position shift, he also said the GOP should no longer make a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program deal with Democrats. The "nuclear option" Trump is referring to would involve changing Senate rules so legislation can pass with a simple majority instead of 60 votes. Republican leadership has resisted his previous calls for the change.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... do-its-job





Kasich rips Trump: A true leader offers hope, doesn't take it from innocent children

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) tore into President Trump after he tweeted on Sunday there would be "no more DACA deal."

"A true leader preserves & offers hope, doesn't take hope from innocent children who call America home," tweeted Kasich, who has become one of Trump's most prominent critics on the right.

"Remember, today is Easter Sunday. #DACA #Hope."

The pointed comments come after Trump on Sunday morning took to Twitter to demand that Republicans change Senate laws to pass tougher border and immigration legislation.

Trump also tweeted there would be "no more DACA deal," referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump's tweet implied he would no longer support bipartisan negotiations to replace the program through Congress.

Trump, who ended the DACA program last year, has accused Democrats of failing to agree on legislation he could sign, saying in the past they "just don't care."

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch ... m-innocent





A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares To Stop Them

Trump lays into Mexico for not stopping caravan of migrants heading toward US border

President Trump slammed Mexico for not doing enough to stop people attempting to get to the U.S. from entering their country and appeared to tie the continuation of a major trade deal to funding his border wall.

“Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!” Trump tweeted.

Trump Sunday appeared riled by reports of a caravan of migrant workers — mainly Hondurans — marching through Mexico toward the U.S. border. He earlier appeared to end negotiations over a deal for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country legally...........

https://www.buzzfeed.com/nidhiprakash/a ... .nwvv7936V





Jimmy Carter Zings Donald Trump: Apparently, America Wants A Jerk For President

Former President Jimmy Carter took a shot at President Donald Trump on Friday’s broadcast of “The Late Show.”

When host Stephen Colbert asked Carter if America does “want a jerk as president,” Carter replied: “Apparently, from this recent election, yes. I never knew it before.”

Colbert then asked Carter, 93, to name one of the most important qualities that is needed in the role of POTUS.

“I used to think it was to tell the truth,” Carter responded. “But I’ve changed my mind lately,” he added, in another apparent dig at Trump.

Carter, who was ostensibly on the show to promote his new book Faith: A Journey For All, later admitted to praying for Trump.

“I pray that he’ll be a good president and that he’ll keep our country at peace and that he’ll refrain from using nuclear weapons and that he will promote human rights. So yeah, I pray for him,” he added.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ji ... e50acdcc2d





Roseanne Touts Latest Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory About Child Sex Rings In Tweet

The controversial tweet has since been deleted.

Amid the hoopla over the reboot of “Roseanne” last week, people were scratching their heads over actress Roseanne Barr’s bizarre tweet hailing Donald Trump for freeing “hundreds” of children a month from their pimps.

The president has “broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere,” Barr tweeted Friday.

President Trump has freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over this world. Hundreds each month. He has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere. notice that. I disagree on some things, but give him benefit of doubt-4 now.

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 31, 2018

The tweet has since been deleted ― a practice not uncommon for the controversial television star. Barr deleted a tweet Thursday that accused Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg of performing a Nazi salute.

A representative for Barr did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

In the since-deleted tweet about sex trafficking, Barr, who’s no stranger to promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, was apparently referring to a fantasy birthed on the anonymous online message site 4Chan last year.

The conspiracy theory claims that Trump is secretly busting satanic child sex rings linked to high-level Democrats. Barr retweeted posts and links backing the “untold story” that shares similarities with the “Pizzagate” hoax that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza shop in Washington. ..........

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ro ... 7437ab8502





Graham: Pulling out of Syria ‘the single worst decision’ Trump could make

Pulling troops out of Syria would be a dangerous mistake that would unravel U.S. gains made against terrorist groups there, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Sunday.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,“ the South Carolina Republican argued that leaving Syria would wipe out gains against the Islamic State terrorist group.

“It’d be the single worst decision the president could make,” Graham said. “I’ve seen this movie before, when Obama did the same thing in Iraq.”

“When it comes to Syria, do not read the Obama playbook, one foot in, one foot out,” Graham advised. “This is a disaster in the making.”

Speaking in Ohio last week, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would end its military involvement in the war-torn Middle Eastern country “very soon.” The Trump administration has also frozen more than $200 million in recovery funds meant for Syria.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that there are approximately 2,000 troops in Syria, where the U.S. has sought to boost Arab and Kurdish militias in the campaign against ISIS. Trump said the United States was “knocking the hell out of ISIS,” which has lost the vast majority of its territory in both Iraq and Syria.

But Graham argued that removing U.S. troops would embolden the diminished ISIS and hand strategic victories to Iran and Russia, which support the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“There are over 3,000 ISIS fighters still roaming around Syria. We’ve got troops there to protect us and to protect the region,” he said.

“If we withdraw our troops anytime soon, ISIS would come back, the war between … Turkey and the Kurds would get out of hand, and you’d be giving Damascus to the Iranians.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... ast-493008





Sanders: 'We know nothing' about Trump's VA pick

By CONNOR O’BRIEN 04/01/2018 12:44 PM EDT
Sen. Bernie Sanders wouldn't commit to supporting President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, on Sunday.

In an interview on CBS’ "Face the Nation," the Vermont independent noted that Jackson, Trump's personal physician, is a virtual unknown on veterans issues. He also expressed concerns the Trump administration is pushing to privatize the nearly $200 billion bureaucracy, citing the conservative agenda of the influential donors Charles and David Koch.

"We know nothing about what Dr. Jackson stands for and what his vision is for the VA," Sanders said.

Trump replaced VA Secretary David Shulkin last week after months of criticism over reports he misused government travel. Shulkin has since said he was forced out for pushing back against efforts to privatize veterans services.

Jackson's nomination came as a surprise. And the pick has raised questions about his qualifications to manage the myriad health services and benefits provided by VA and whether the administration is indeed pressing to privatize more veterans services.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... kin-493220





‘I don’t know how you survive this one,’ Christie says of Pruitt

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speculated Sunday that Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt may not survive a brewing scandal over a Washington, D.C., living arrangement and blamed a "brutally unprofessional" presidential transition for setting the stage for this and other ethics issues.

"If Mr. Pruitt's going to go, it's because he should've never been there in the first place," Christie said on ABC's "This Week."

Pruitt spent months renting a room in a Capitol Hill condo owned partly by the wife of a top energy lobbyist for just $50 per night, according to news reports last week. Christie blamed a transition that "ill-served" President Donald Trump and didn't properly vet candidates for key positions.

Asked whether Pruitt, who has also faced questions over issues including his first-class travel, should resign or be fired, Christie replied, "I don't know how you survive this one."

"This was a brutally unprofessional transition," said Christie. "This was a transition that didn't vet people for this type of judgment issues, which I think could've been seen very easily in a lot of these people."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... dal-493178





Gov. ‘Moonbeam’ Brown’s Office Uses Trump’s Own Words To Defend Pardons

Trump touted second chances for former prisoners the day before he blasted California Gov. Jerry Brown for giving ex-convicts a ... second chance.

Turns out President Donald Trump’s timing was off for his vicious dig at California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for pardoning five immigrants who were facing possible deportation.

Trump, relying again on name-calling, lashed “Moonbeam” Brown Saturday for pardoning immigrants who had been convicted of crimes — even though they finished serving their sentences years ago.

But the president slammed the pardons the day after he proclaimed April “second chance month” — which Brown’s press office was only too happy to point out. The California tweet responded with the president’s own words, highlighted on the White House web site. The president celebrated “those who have exited the prison system and successfully reentered society ... we encourage expanded opportunities for those who have worked to overcome bad decisions ... and emphasize our belief in second chances.”

Trump could have been describing the pardoned Californians.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/br ... e50ace36ed





UH OH !

Report: Russian Financier in Erik Prince’s Seychelles Meeting Traced Back to Putin

The Russian financier whose Seychelles meeting with Trump campaign adviser Erik Prince in January 2017 raised red flags in the ongoing Russia probe has been tied directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times reports. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, is known to have met with Prince shortly before President Trump’s inauguration, and Prince admitted to the meeting while testifying before the House Intelligence Committee late last year. But Dmitriev’s links to Putin now appear to be closer than previously thought. Six sources cited by the Financial Times say Dmitriev’s wife, Natalia Popova, is close friends with Putin’s younger daughter, Yekaterina Tikhonova, and also serves as the deputy director of her Innopraktika foundation. While Prince has maintained his brief meeting with Dmitriev was spontaneous, these new details on Dmitriev’s direct links to Putin are likely to renew concerns the pair’s meeting was organized to set up a secret Kremlin backchannel with the Trump administration.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-ru ... n?ref=home




Kushner's father on family scrutiny: 'We didn't do anything wrong'

The father of Jared Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser — said in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday that neither his family nor his business has acted improperly, as multiple investigations have put a negative spotlight on the Kushners over the past year.

“Go knock yourselves out for the next 10 years,” Charles Kushner told the Times. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

The elder Kushner said the records he has voluntarily provided to investigators show that his business and his family have acted properly.


Charles Kushner went to prison in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations that stemmed partly from a family feud.

He expressed hope that, with his son in the White House, he might receive a pardon, according to the Times.

However, Jared Kushner’s time in the White House has been plagued with inquiries from the special counsel, including questions about whether he discussed his business with foreign officials.

And Charles Kushner's real estate business is viewed as tainted by some investors concerned about its association with the Trump administration.

The elder Kushner told the Times that all insinuations about ethical issues concerning his business were just false inferences he attributed to political opponents.

His son has been under scrutiny recently after he met at the White House last year with two financial companies that lent Kushner Companies more than half a billion dollars.

The head of the Office of Government Ethics has requested that White House counsel examine the meetings.

State regulators in New York are also looking into loans to Kushner from German lender Deutsche Bank, among others. And federal authorities are investigating Kushner's sister over concerns she used her brother's position in the White House to attract Chinese investment in a real estate deal.

Kushner also got his security clearance downgraded earlier this year after months of delays in his background check.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... hing-wrong





Entrance to Trump International Golf Club splattered with red paint

One of the entrance signs at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida was splattered this weekend with red paint.

ABC News reported that the red paint splattered onto the left entrance at the club in West Palm Beach, Fla. A can of red paint was also left at the scene.

On Saturday night, two vans from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department were looking into the reported vandalism. The sheriff's department confirmed that the Secret Service is also investigating the incident, according to the White House press pool.

Trump frequently visits his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he often spends time golfing over the weekends.

The president was in Florida this weekend. He reportedly dined with Fox News personality Sean Hannity at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump properties are frequently the target of protesters and demonstrators. Groups in the past have projected words and phrases onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year, the word "shithole" was projected on the D.C. hotel after reports that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... d-with-red





Warren slams ‘chaotic foreign policy’ while in Asia

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized the Trump administration for its “chaotic foreign policy” and said Washington's policies toward China have been “misdirected” for decades.

Warren said during a visit to the region that President Trump is hurting the U.S.'s ability to create an effective foreign policy toward North Korea’s nuclear program and other vital issues in Asia, The Associated Press reported.

“This has been a chaotic foreign policy in the region, and that makes it hard to keep the allies that we need to accomplish our objectives closely stitched-in,” Warren told reporters in Beijing on Saturday.


The senator, whom many consider a possible 2020 presidential candidate, also visited South Korea and Japan, where she criticized Trump for his “rash” agreement to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

For the summit between Trump and Kim to be a success, Warren said, there would need to be a commitment to discuss steps to reduce North Korea’s nuclear threat, Reuters reported. That would require negotiations by the State Department Trump has weakened, she said.

Warren, 68, argued that vacancies in the foreign service are getting in the way of the country’s ability to pursue its interests.

Warren also said that the foreign policy the U.S. has pursued with China for decades is flawed.

She said that the U.S. has mistakenly assumed for years that economic engagement with China would lead to a more open China. Now, she argued, the U.S. is finally understanding Chinese demands for U.S. companies to provide their intellectual property in exchange for access to its market.

“Now U.S. policymakers are starting to look more aggressively at pushing China to open up the markets without demanding a hostage price of access to U.S. technology,” she said.

Warren told Chinese officials that the U.S. can't support more economic integration with China if China fails to recognize basic human rights.

“I understand that our relationship with China is complex. There are areas where we have mutual interests and where we will work together to try to accomplish our shared goals,” Warren said. “But there are also areas where we are vigorous competitors and do not have shared interests.”

http://thehill.com/policy/international ... le-in-asia





Vodka-Chugging 20-Somethings Are in Charge of Vetting the White House Staff

A core premise of Donald Trump’s hit television show was that he is extremely good at making hiring decisions. This was also a core premise of his 2016 campaign: Whatever the real-estate mogul might lack in conventional qualifications for the presidency would be rendered irrelevant by his supreme talent for hiring “the best and most serious people.”

In his first 14 months on the job, the president hasn’t quite fulfilled that campaign promise.

Trump began his tenure with a covert agent of the Turkish government as his top national security adviser,

a neurosurgeon turned snake-oil supplements salesman as his head of Housing and Urban Development,

and a 36-year-old real-estate heir — with no experience in government or policymaking — as his point man for veterans’ health care, criminal justice reform, government “innovation,” the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the opioid epidemic.

The fundamental causes of the Trump administration’s personnel woes have long been clear. Donald Trump is not an expert in business management, just a real-estate heir with a gift for media manipulation.

He put Chris Christie in charge of staffing his administration when it still looked like that administration would never come to be — then abruptly fired Christie and threw out all of his work, shortly after winning the 2016 election. Christie said 35 eight-inch binders of vetted individuals were thrown out when he was replaced by Vice President Mike Pence as the head of the transition team.

But on Friday, for the first time, we finally got some insight into the proximate cause of the White House’s personnel woes: The office in charge of staffing the White House is, itself, run by a historically small staff composed largely of 20-somethings with no relevant experience, a fondness for chugging Smirnoff Ice and vaping tobacco during office hours — and, in a few cases, forged résumés and criminal histories.

these staffers are, at least, extremely cool:

young staffers from throughout the administration stopped by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes, known as vaping, current and former White House officials said.

PPO leaders hosted happy hours last year in their offices that included beer, wine and snacks for dozens of PPO employees and White House liaisons who work in federal agencies, White House officials confirmed.

In January, they played a drinking game in the office called “Icing” to celebrate the deputy director’s 30th birthday. Icing involves hiding a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, a flavored malt liquor, and demanding that the person who discovers it, in this case the deputy director, guzzle it.

Some of the people in charge of vetting Trump’s appointments lied on their résumés, and have histories of drunken, disorderly conduct (not that either of those things should render them unemployable for life, but still seems noteworthy).

One of the newcomers was a former Trump campaign worker named Caroline Wiles. Wiles, then 30, is the daughter of Susan Wiles, a prominent lobbyist and political operative in Florida….The younger Wiles has an unusual background for a senior White House official. On a résumé she submitted to the state of Florida, she said she had completed course work at Flagler College in Florida. On her LinkedIn page, she simply lists Flagler under education. A Flagler spokesman said she never finished her degree.

In 2005, she had her driver’s license suspended for driving while intoxicated, police records show.

In 2007, she was arrested for driving while intoxicated and arrested for passing a “worthless check.

Another special assistant to the president is Max Miller, 29, a Marine reservist and former Trump campaign worker…Miller said he attended Cleveland State University from 2007 to 2011.

In 2007, he was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after punching another male in the back of the head and running away from police, police records show.

In 2009, he was charged with underage drinking, a case that also was later dismissed under a first offenders’ program.

The following year, he pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge related to another altercation in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. That episode was related to a fight involving Miller shortly after leaving a hookah bar at about 2 a.m. one morning. During the fight, Miller punched through a glass door, cut his wrist and left a trail of blood as he wandered off, a police report said.

Since the most senior and experienced member of the personnel office came onboard, four of her family members have been given jobs at federal agencies. She insists this is a coincidence.

Since [75-year-old Katja] Bullock joined the Trump transition, four of her family members received political appointments to federal agencies.

Her son became deputy assistant administrator at the United States Agency for International Development.

His wife is a White House liaison at the Office of Personnel Management.

One of their sons serves as a “confidential assistant” at the Social Security Administration, agency records show.

And another son received an appointment in February as a “staff assistant” at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency that works to end global poverty, agency records show.

According to voter registration records, all four live in the same Kensington home.

Anyhow, the upshot is: The people in charge of hiring the White House staff are an even bigger mess than the White House staff.

One can only imagine what the person in charge of hiring the people in charge of hiring the White House staff must be like.

<

I'm sure Joe has already posted this but just in case he missed it ...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Monday, April 02, 2018

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove.

Actually I didn't post this one but I did post where trump's approval rating is up to 45%. Gave up on polls. Too many factors involved. Depends on who's running the polls. Favoritisms. The polls in the Illinois special elections were waaaaay off. Favorites were running in double digits and ended up winning within a point or two. Polls are just too erratic and change at the last minutes.

Wall Street to Trump: No trade wars. And lay off Amazon

Wall Street is sending President Trump a message: Don't start a trade war. And lay off Amazon, one of the most important companies in America.

The president played a starring role in last year's stock market boom. Now he's getting the blame as Wall Street hits the skids.

Trump's fingerprints were all over Monday's market sell-off. The Dow fell 459 points and the Nasdaq plunged almost 3%.

Trump's repeated and vociferous attacks on Amazon (AMZN) unnerved investors because they raise the specter of regulation — without any clues about what Trump wants.

"Calling out Amazon without offering any type of prescription is what's concerning the market," said Erin Browne, head of asset allocation at UBS Asset Management.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/investi ... index.html





Some companies may reduce their reliance on the US after Trump's trade moves

Companies linked to a newly-inked Pacific trade pact may reduce their reliance on the world's largest economy following President Donald Trump's controversial tariffs.

Rising U.S. protectionism reinforces the importance of a multilateral trading order — the kind represented by the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal — strategists have widely argued. It could also see companies based in TPP member nations shy away from doing business stateside.

Known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) or TPP-11, the landmark free-trade agreement will cut tariffs between 11 countries, which include Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia and Mexico. It was signed the same day that Trump authorized steel and aluminum duties — controversial taxes that pushed Beijing to enforce tit-for-tat action on Monday.

"In an environment of growing uncertainty and risk, the CPTPP helps by providing stability," said Deborah Elms, executive director at the Singapore-based Asian Trade Centre. "The agreement itself provides considerable new opportunities for member firms to find new markets or to save money — this should push companies to diversify their own portfolio and rely less on the U.S."..........

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/02/compani ... on-us.html





China tariffs could help Australia gain share from US wine, nut and fruit producers

China's tariff of up to 25 percent on U.S. agriculture could be good news for Australia's nut, wine and fruit producers.

Almost 40 percent of Australia's fruit exports last year went to greater China, and Chile also is a major fruit producer that could benefit.

Australia's wine exports to China were up more than 50 percent last year, while U.S. wine exports to the world's second-largest economy were down.

Beijing also imposed new tariffs on American pork, a move that could benefit the European Union, Brazil and Canada — major exporters to China.

California exports could suffer with China tariffs

China's tariff hit of up to 25 percent for U.S. agriculture could be a big gain potentially for Australia, particularly for wine and certain nut and fruit producers.

"We've invested quite a lot of time and money in building the market in China for 15 years, and then this may force us to reduce the amount of wine we're going to sell there just because our wines will become less economically viable," said David Amadia, president of Ridge Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

For the last five years, Ridge Vineyards has enjoyed "consistent growth" in the Chinese market even as it competes with premium French and Italian wines as well as Australian wines. But he said the new 15 percent Chinese tariff likely means "it will sort of be a lost investment."

China's finance ministry announced in a statement published Sunday it would impose retaliatory tariffs on up to 128 kinds of U.S. goods, following through on a threat initially made March 23 by Beijing that it would target $3 billion worth of American imports.
China is increasing the tariff on U.S. pork by 25 percent, and a new 15 percent duty will apply to other food commodities in addition to wine, including fresh fruits such as apples, cherries and citrus as well as dried fruit and nuts such as almonds and pistachios.

Soybeans may be target

There's concern that soybeans could be the next agricultural commodity targeted by Beijing after Trump announces duties on Chinese tech products. The U.S. ships more than $12 billion in soybeans to the world's second-largest economy, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pork in crosshairs

The duties, effective Monday, also apply to U.S. pork and ethanol — two major corn markets — and are likely to be felt particularly in the Midwestern states where President Donald Trump enjoyed strong support in the 2016 presidential election.

US fruit vulnerable

However, the U.S. could lose market share on fruit, nuts and wine to Australia. Almost 40 percent of Australia's fruit exports last year went to China and Hong Kong, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Also, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa also have been getting in on the action.

Australia's wine

Meantime, Australia's wine industry has been making inroads into China and seeing faster growth than some European competitors, due in part to more marketing efforts. It also comes as a result of reduced tariffs through the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect at the end of 2015.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/02/china-t ... ralia.html





Donald Trump ‘Cherishes’ Lou Dobbs So Much He Puts Him on Speakerphone for Oval Office Meetings

The Fox Business star was an O.G. Trumpist—long before Trumpism ever came along. Now he has direct influence over this presidency.

It is difficult to fully understand the Trump presidency without first understanding Lou Dobbs, the Fox Business powerhouse host and one of the main precursors to Trumpism.

Dobbs doesn’t get to just interview and socialize with the president; he is involved in some of the administration’s more sensitive discussions. During the first year of the Trump era, the president has patched in Dobbs via speakerphone to multiple meetings in the Oval Office so that he could offer his two cents, according to three sources familiar with these conversations. Trump will ask Dobbs for his opinion before and after his senior aides or Cabinet members have spoken. Occasionally, he will cut off an official so the Fox Business host can jump in.

[ NOTE: AT LEAST WE NOW KNOW WHO'S REALLY RUNNING THIS COUNTRY

Dobbs, these sources all independently recounted, has been patched in to senior-level meetings on issues such as trade and tax policy—meetings that featured officials such as senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, former top economic adviser Gary Cohn, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, trade adviser Peter Navarro, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

During the more intense days of the tax-bill push, Trump made sure to have his White House personal secretary get Dobbs on the line. And toward the conclusion of one memorable meeting, when the line was disconnected and Dobbs said farewell, Trump looked up, smiled, and simply told the room, “Love Lou.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-tr ... s?ref=home







Trump's morning tweets perfectly align with Fox & Friends

President Trump had a busy Tuesday morning on Twitter, with seven tweets before 9am, touching on topics from the Russia investigation to Pennsylvania's new congressional district map.

Why it matters:

His tweets perfectly aligned with Fox & Friends' morning lineup. Media Matters' Matthew Gertz tweeted screen-shots of the show next to Trump's remarks, revealing the president was watching on a delay. It started with a thanks to the hosts, and went from there:


screen-shots link


https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/965936078921269248

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Thank you to @foxandfriends for the great timeline on all of the failures the Obama Administration had against Russia, including Crimea, Syria and so much more. We are now starting to win again!

7:24 AM - Feb 20, 2018
66.5K
30.5K people are talking about this

On Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and Barack Obama's handling of it:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time, and so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes.” .....

7:37 AM - Feb 20, 2018
68K
30.5K people are talking about this

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
....The President Obama quote just before election. That’s because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn’t want to “rock the boat.” When I easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems.

7:46 AM - Feb 20, 2018
85.6K
39.8K people are talking about this

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts. Total Fake News!

8:38 AM - Feb 20, 2018
78.2K
74K people are talking about this

Trump appeared to again cite a McLaughlin poll that shows the GOP leading the Democrats by one percentage point. The same poll released last week reported that the Democrats were leading by three points:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Republicans are now leading the Generic Poll, perhaps because of the popular Tax Cuts which the Dems want to take away. Actually, they want to raise you taxes, substantially. Also, they want to do nothing on DACA, R’s want to fix!

7:54 AM - Feb 20, 2018
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31.3K people are talking about this

After the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) released its schedule on Monday:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Matt Schlapp and CPAC are getting ready for another exciting event. Big difference from those days when President Obama held the White House. You’ve come a long way Matt!

8:03 AM - Feb 20, 2018
51.8K
17.7K people are talking about this

On the new Congressional district map for Pennsylvania:

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new “pushed” Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Your Original was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!

8:11 AM - Feb 20, 2018
79.4K
40.3K people are talking about this

https://www.axios.com/trump-tweets-fox- ... 6ff35.html








Ryan EPA Guy Zinke

Trump’s EPA Is Weakening Pollution Rules For Cars And Trucks

It’s the latest example of the Trump administration gutting environmental and climate rules.

The Trump administration announced Monday afternoon that Obama-era rules to reduce climate pollution from cars and trucks have got to go because they are too strict.

The decision comes at a time when cars, trucks, and other forms of transportation are the top source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, surpassing climate pollution from the power sector for the first time in 2016, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

It’s the latest example of the Trump administration gutting environmental and climate rules — from the Environmental Protection Agency proposing to undo the Clean Power Plan to the Interior Department allowing new coal leases on public lands.

The long-anticipated announcement on car emissions rules was immediately praised by automakers and conservative groups.

"This was the right decision," Wade Newton, a spokesman for Auto Alliance, an association of car manufacturers, said in statement emailed to BuzzFeed News. "We support the administration for pursuing a data-driven effort and a single national program as it works to finalize future standards."

[ EVER GET BEHIND THAT CAR, THAT TRUCK, THAT BUS AND SUCKING IN ALL THAT CARBON ??? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO PASS THAT VEHICLE ??? PREPARE YOURSELF...... IT'S GOING TO GET WORSE ]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/zahrahirji/epa ... .dp8p8z15J








We’ve Fought the NRA for Decades—We’ve Never Seen It as Panicked as It Is Now

There is a reason the Parkland survivors are being attacked so viciously.

In the immediate aftermath of the Parkland shooting, we drew on our combined 50 years of experience battling the National Rifle Association to predict that nothing would change on guns.

Those same 50 years of experience now tell us we were wrong. Why? Because we have never seen the NRA more vulnerable.

The NRA derives its power on one thing and one thing only: their ability to determine outcomes at the ballot box. In 1993, it knocked off Democratic Governor Jim Florio after he banned assault weapons in gun control-friendly New Jersey—a warning shot to blue state Democrats that even they could be beaten. In 1994, the group beat boll weevil House Democrats like Jack Brooks for supporting a crime bill that included gun restrictions, sending the message that even 30 years of pro-NRA votes didn’t mean jack if you crossed the gun lobby. Heck, even Bernie Sanders owes his first election for Congress to the NRA who called him the “more honorable choice for Vermont” when Republican incumbent Pete Smith bucked them. A Socialist is better than a Republican who messes with us, the group said.

This electoral lock now looks to be in jeopardy. The leadership at the NRA and the right wing are in a dither because Parkland teens have exposed that the NRA has a 20th century battle plan for a 21st century fight. Thanks to Parkland teenagers, everyone can see that the NRA made the wrong bets on geography; that it’s been complacent on technology; and that it may have lost an entire generation of future voters and office-holders.

This explains why the NRA, which has never been particularly modulated in its rhetoric, and many of its conservative media defenders, look especially unhinged today—from insisting that these teenage kids learn CPR instead of push for gun control, to mocking their college rejection letters, to comparing them to Nazis.

Losing breeds panic. And for the first time in a long time, the NRA is actually losing.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/weve-foug ... w?ref=home








White House considered firing Pruitt

But the EPA chief is continuing to push Trump’s deregulation agenda — and that may help him hang on, allies say.

White House chief of staff John Kelly has considered the firing of embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt in the coming months as part of a wave of ousters of top officials causing headaches for the president, a senior administration official told POLITICO.

Pruitt is still hanging on for now, in part because Kelly wanted to wait for an upcoming EPA inspector general’s report into his expensive travels, the senior official said. Another possible reason: Pruitt is doing the job President Donald Trump wants — including an announcement Monday that the agency will reverse the Obama administration’s attempt to tighten fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.

Multiple people close to the president still argue that Pruitt is one of Trump’s most effective Cabinet members in making policy, despite the steady drumbeat of headlines about his lavish travel expenses, high security costs and, most recently, the $50-a-night lodging he secured for several months last year in a lobbyist’s Capitol Hill condo.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... ing-453381








Trump defends Sinclair: It's 'funny to watch Fake News Networks' criticize it

President Trump on Monday defended Sinclair Broadcasting Group after its move to have its local news anchors warn of alleged bias in reporting by other media outlets.

"So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased," Trump tweeted Monday.

"Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke."

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.

8:28 AM - Apr 2, 2018
63.6K
42.8K people are talking about this

CNN last month reported that the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group is mandating its local affiliates to read aloud a promotional campaign that condemns other news outlets for pushing "fake stories."

"The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media," the script reportedly read. "More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first.”

The script also called for anchors to say they “understand Truth is neither politically ‘left or right.’ ”

Trump frequently rails against the media, accusing reporters and outlets of publishing falsehoods.

A poll released Monday found a large majority of Americans believe mainstream news outlets report "fake news."

Sinclair is the largest owner of local television stations in the country and is awaiting approval for its proposed merger with Tribune Media, which would give it access to about 70 percent of the nation’s television audience.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... s-networks

<

The Great Lakes Are Filling Up With Giant Green Blobs

Industrial agriculture fuels them, and new science shows that they emit way more greenhouse gas than previously thought.

Every summer, a massive green-algae blob colonizes western Lake Erie. Last year’s bloom ranked among the biggest ever, blanketing 700 square miles—an area 1.5 times bigger than Los Angeles. The shoreline of Toledo, Ohio, “smelled like a sewer,” according to one reporter.

These fetid growths appear on lakes throughout the country and world. They’re known as “harmful algal blooms” because they generate toxins called microcystins, which when ingested cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe headaches, fever, and liver damage. “Pets and livestock have died from drinking water contaminated with microcystins,” the US Environmental Protection Agency reports. In the summer of 2014, the city of Toledo, which draws its water from the western end of Erie, had to warn residents not to drink or even bathe in tap water for days after it became tainted with microcystins. (The city has launched a $500 million project to upgrade its water-filtration system, partially in response to the microcystin threat.)

Where do these green blobs come from? In short, we create them. In land upstream from the lake, farmers apply phosphorus as fertilizer for their corn and soybean crops. Every year, a portion of it leeches into the lake, where it fertilizes algae instead—a process called eutrophication. While Erie’s west-side drainage basin has been planted in millions of acres of farmland for decades, the state’s regulators have documented that the amount of biologically active phosphorus entering the lake each year spiked in the 1990s and has remained high ever since. The reason may be linked to the boom in no-till soybean farming that started in the 90s, as a 2017 paper by researchers from the National Center for Water Quality Research suggests..........

https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... een-blobs/





President Trump wants military to patrol Mexican border until wall is built

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to use the military to secure the U.S.-Mexico border until his promised border wall is built.

Speaking at a lunch with Baltic leaders, Trump said he'd already discussed the idea with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

"We are going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump said, calling the measure a "big step."

Does trump know the military can't make any arrests or shoot border crossers? They have to report them to border patrols just like you and me.

Trump's tweets calling on Mexico to halt "caravans" followed a "Fox & Friends" report Sunday that featured the leader of the union representing border patrol agents predicting that those in the caravan would create havoc and chaos in the U.S. as they wait for immigration reform.

About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

These "Stations of the Cross" migrant caravans have been held in southern Mexico for at least the last five years. They began as short processions of migrants, some dressed in biblical garb and carrying crosses, as an Easter-season protest against attacks against Central Americans as they cross Mexico.

Individuals in the caravans often try to reach the U.S. border but usually not as part of the caravan. The caravans typically don't proceed much farther north than the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. The current march is scheduled to end this month with a conference on migration issues in the central Mexican state of Puebla.



https://www.click2houston.com/news/nati ... l-is-built





China pledged to invest $250 billion in the United States. Now what?

In November, President Trump claimed a win when he returned from his Asia tour touting $250 billion in deals with China.

China has yet to announce its response to the coming IP theft tariffs. But as the situation escalates, the deal package announced during Trump's state visit with President Xi Jinping could come up — especially because it involves some big corporate names.

— Goldman Sachs (GS) said it would create a $5 billion fund with China Investment Corporation, the country's sovereign wealth fund, to invest in US companies.

— Qualcomm (QCOM) signed $12 billion in non-binding deals to supply semiconductors to Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.

—Sinopec (SHI), China's state-owned oil and gas company, said it would explore an investment of up to $43 billion in Alaska's energy sector.

— China Energy Investment Corp., which is also state-owned, signed a non-binding agreement with the state of West Virginia to invest nearly $84 billion in shale gas and chemical manufacturing projects.

— Boeing (BA) announced that it would sell about $37 billion worth of planes to a government holding company that buys jets for state-owned carriers such as Air China and China Southern Airlines.

It's not clear if all of the deals were new. And there's been plenty of skepticism about whether many will come to fruition, trade fight or not.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/news/ec ... index.html





China Cares a Whole Lot About Pigs in Iowa

“Like it or not, Iowans’ fates are inextricably linked with those of Chinese buyers.”

On the bank of the Des Moines River in downtown Des Moines sits the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates. The brainchild of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, the $250,000 annual World Food Prize recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to global food security.

The building’s walls are decorated with portraits of agricultural researchers who helped to end world hunger.

Mexican biochemist Evangelina Villegas Moreno and Indian geneticist Surinder Vasal, who together developed high-protein maize.

In the hall’s ballroom hangs a bronze plaque commemorating a 2012 visit by Xi Jinping, the president of China.

His visit to Iowa ushered in the signing of a U.S.-China pledge to cooperate in agricultural research and business. To kick off the business end of the deal, the Chinese side agreed to buy $4.3-billion worth of U.S. soybeans—more than the entire U.S. production for that year.

As the largest exporter of pork and corn in the United States and the number two exporter of soybeans, Iowa’s economy is increasingly propped up by China.

Fully one in four rows of Iowa soybeans end up in China, meaning that Iowa’s farmers are, essentially, being kept afloat by China’s middle class.

In early March, Trump announced tariffs on aluminum and steel, with China intended as a prime target.

on March 22, following an investigation into Chinese trade practices and intellectual property theft, Trump proposed levying tariffs on more than $50-billion-worth of Chinese goods.

China began levying a 25 percent tariff on eight U.S. products, including pork, along with lesser tariffs on 120 other goods, in retaliation for the duties on aluminum and steel.

Chinese leaders are fully aware of Trump’s dependence on the heartland for political support.

The trade restrictions proposed by the president stand to hurt the grain belt further. In 2013, the Midwest got a glimpse of what could happen. That year, China rejected over one million tons of U.S. corn at port after discovering shipments containing an unapproved line of genetically modified seed. Estimated losses totaled $3 billion. Distraught farmers joined class-action suits against Syngenta, the company that sold them the controversial seed line, but the suits took years to settle. In the meantime, many farmers suffered.

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ns/557105/





The Larger Concerns Behind the Teachers' Strikes

For educators in Oklahoma and other states, the demands go far beyond better pay.

One demand of the striking Oklahoma teachers has gotten a lot of attention: They want higher salaries. Superficially that demand may seem like a somewhat selfish concern—a question of their own bank accounts, not students’ needs.

Thousands of teachers returned to the picket lines on Tuesday in their effort to secure more education funding from state legislators.

The Oklahoma legislature last week passed a bill raising teacher salaries by $6,000 on average and restoring education funding by $50 million, but educators say it’s not enough given the cuts they’ve contended with in recent years.

They are asking for $10,000 more per teacher over the next several years.

$200 million in restored education funding.

The legislature had been cutting education spending for years, with the amount of per-student funding dropping by nearly 30 percent.

The situation has gotten so bad that schools have suffered from chronic textbook shortages and dilapidated facilities; some news coverage has recounted stories of severely outdated, damaged teaching materials and school buildings whose broken heating systems leave students shivering in the winter.

“Why are we here today?” one teacher, Dionne Liebl, asked, “We are here today because our schools, our children need us.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/a ... es/557171/





Scott Pruitt Bypassed the White House to Give Big Raises to Favorite Aides

The embattled EPA chief used an obscure provision last month to increase the salaries of a pair of staffers by tens of thousands of dollars.

In early March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt approached the White House with a request: He wanted substantial pay raises for two of his closest aides.

Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, were part of the small group of staffers who had traveled with Pruitt to Washington from Oklahoma,

Greenwalt, a 30-year-old who had worked as Pruitt’s general counsel in Oklahoma.

Hupp, 26, was working on his political team before she moved to D.C. to become the agency’s scheduling director.

Pruitt asked that Greenwalt’s salary be raised from $107,435 to $164,200; Hupp’s, from $86,460 to $114,590. Because both women were political appointees, he needed the White House to sign-off on their new pay.

The White House, the source said, declined to approve the raises.

So Pruitt found another way.

A provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act allows the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people into the agency, without White House or congressional approval.

The provision meant to help expedite the hiring of experts; specialists into custom-made roles.

After the White House rejected their request, Pruitt’s team studied the particulars of the Safe Drinking Water provision.

By reappointing Greenwalt and Hupp under this authority, Pruitt could exercise total control over their contracts and grant the raises on his own.

Pruitt ordered it done. Though Hupp and Greenwalt’s duties did not change, the agency began processing them for raises of $28,130 and $56,765.

Less than two weeks after Pruitt had approached the White House, according to time-stamped Human Resources documents shared with The Atlantic, the paperwork was finished.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... pa/557123/





How EPA's Scott Pruitt avoided tough questions on Tuesday

Washington (CNN)As questions swirled over whether or not he can hold onto his administration post, embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appeared calm on Tuesday as he touted the agency's decision to revise greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles.

But most reporters who cover the agency weren't in the room, and cameras were nearly non-existent.

EPA had previously planned to hold Pruitt's appearance Tuesday at a Chevrolet dealer in Chantilly, Virginia, just outside of Washington.

The event was canceled.

There was pushback from some Chevy dealers who didn't want to see the brand tied to the Trump administration's announcement.

The event was subsequently moved to EPA headquarters.

A CNN journalist in the building was not allowed into the room for the event.

EPA had attempted to allow television camera access to Fox News without informing the other four networks: CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS.

Fox alerted the networks and a pool was established allowing networks equal access to the event.

The agency has not responded to a request for comment.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics ... index.html





White House considered firing Pruitt

But the EPA chief is continuing to push Trump’s deregulation agenda — and that may help him hang on, allies say.

White House chief of staff John Kelly has considered the firing of embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt in the coming months as part of a wave of ousters of top officials causing headaches for the president, a senior administration official told POLITICO.

Pruitt is still hanging on for now.

Kelly wanted to wait for an upcoming EPA inspector general’s report into his expensive travels.

Another possible reason: Pruitt is doing the job President Donald Trump wants — including an announcement Monday that the agency will reverse the Obama administration’s attempt to tighten fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.

Multiple people close to the president still argue that Pruitt is one of Trump’s most effective Cabinet members in making policy.

His supporters say Monday’s move on car and truck rules, long expected to land this week, is a case in point: It fulfills Trump’s priority of reducing manufacturers’ costs and will make life easier for automakers in states like Ohio and Michigan, while enraging liberals from California and other places that rejected the president in 2016.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... ing-453381





California upset as EPA lowers vehicle pollution standards

Setting up a likely legal fight with California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will scrap Obama-era rules governing fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases emitted by cars.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, in announcing his long-awaited decision on automobile standards, signaled he might challenge California's long-established authority to set stricter standards than the U.S. government on air pollution. He said the federal government can't let one state "dictate standards for the rest of the country. EPA will set a national standard for greenhouse gas emissions that allows auto manufacturers to make cars that people both want and can afford."

He added that California's legal authority, known as a waiver, "is still being reexamined by EPA." The waiver applies not only to California but several other states that have followed California's lead.

Gov. Jerry Brown, in response to the EPA announcement, said: "This cynical and meretricious abuse of power will poison our air and jeopardize the health of all Americans.” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he's reviewing Pruitt's announcement and is "ready to file suit."

During Barack Obama's presidency, the U.S. government and California struck a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by about one-third for new cars sold from 2022 to 2025. Those same rules had the effect of increasing fuel efficiency, also by about one third, to an average of 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks sold in 2025. California could have insisted on even tougher rules for cars sold in the state because of its legal special authority — a "waiver" granted to California decades ago because of its bad air problems.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/article20771 ... Row2_card1





Trump backs Pruitt amid ethics controversies

President Trump is giving Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt a vote of confidence, despite the mounting ethics troubles that are causing headaches for the administration.

"I hope he's going to be great,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Baltic state leaders.

A White House official said Trump phoned Pruitt on Monday night.

The president told the EPA chief to “keep your head up, keep fighting” and that “we have your back,” according to multiple media reports.

White House chief of staff John Kelly called Pruitt Tuesday morning to reiterate Trump’s message.

The calls come amid a flurry of negative headlines for Pruitt. The Atlantic reported Monday that Pruitt used an obscure legal provision to bypass the White House and give raises to two top staffers.

That came on the heels of a Washington Post report that the EPA considered a $100,000 per month private jet lease for Pruitt, who already faces an inspector general probe into alleged travel abuses.

Pruitt is also under scrutiny for a $50 per month condo lease linked to lobbyists whose clients later received approval for a pipeline expansion plan. The lobbyists and the EPA have denied any wrongdoing.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... troversies





Two Republican lawmakers call for Pruitt to step down or be fired

Two Florida GOP lawmakers on Tuesday called for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt to either resign or be fired by President Trump.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) appeared to be the first Republican lawmaker to publicly request Pruitt’s dismissal. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) echoed his call shortly after.

In a Tuesday afternoon tweet, Curbello said Pruitt’s “corruption scandals are an embarrassment to the Administration, and his conduct is grossly disrespectful to American taxpayers.”

“It's time for him to resign or for [Trump] to dismiss him.”

Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, said in a statement that she was on the same page.

“I agree with my colleague, Carlos, that the EPA administrator should resign,” she said. “When scandals and distractions overtake a public servant’s ability to function effectively, another person should fill that role.”

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... r-be-fired





Antarctica’s Mighty Glaciers Are Melting Way Faster Than We Realized

The base of the ice around the south pole shrank by 1,463 square kilometers between 2010 and 2016.

Hidden underwater melt-off in the Antarctic is doubling every 20 years and could soon overtake Greenland to become the biggest source of sea-level rise, according to the first complete underwater map of the world’s largest body of ice.

Warming waters have caused the base of ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 square kilometers—an area the size of Greater London—between 2010 and 2016, according to the new study published in Nature Geoscience.

The research by the at the University of Leeds suggests climate change is affecting the Antarctic more than previously believed and is likely to prompt global projections of sea-level rise to be revised upward.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... -realized/





17 States Sue the Trump Administration Over Census Citizenship Question

This is the third major lawsuit against the controversial new citizenship question.

Seventeen states, the District of Columbia, and six major cities sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over the addition of a controversial new question about US citizenship to the 2020 census. This is the third major lawsuit against the administration’s action, after California and the NAACP sued last week, marking a major escalation of the legal and political battle over the census. Civil rights advocates say the question is designed to spark fear in immigrant respondents and will cause many immigrants not to be counted, diminishing the political power and financial resources of the jurisdictions where they live.

“This is a blatant effort to undermine the census and prevent the census from carrying out its Constitutional mandate,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who organized the multi-state lawsuit, at a press conference in lower Manhattan. New York has the third-largest immigrant population in the country, after California and Texas. More than 1 in 5 New York residents are foreign-born. “This is an effort to punish states like New York that welcome immigrants,” Schneiderman said.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -question/





White House appears to shift explanation on whether Shulkin resigned or was fired

The White House appears to be shifting its explanation about the departure of former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, now saying he was offered “the opportunity to resign” after previously saying that he “resigned from his position.”

The changing narrative comes as Shulkin has refused to go quietly, saying he was fired and accusing the White House of politically knifing him.

“I came to Washington with the commitment to make our system work better for veterans. That’s the commitment that I went to work every day. I continue to feel strongly about that. There was no reason why I would resign,” Shulkin said in an interview on CNN on Monday, adding that he was fired as a result of President Donald Trump’s tweet last week announcing his replacement.

The dispute raises the stakes in an obscure, but potentially consequential debate over Trump’s ability to appoint Shulkin’s replacement. Trump bypassed Shulkin’s deputy when naming his interim successor, which potentially ran afoul of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. That law gives the president broad authority to temporarily fill a vacancy at a federal agency with an acting official only if the current office holder “dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office.”

On Friday, White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement, “Secretary Shulkin resigned from his position as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

But on Monday, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp said during an interview on Fox News that White House chief of staff John Kelly gave Shulkin an “opportunity to resign” from the job.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... ire-495074





Jill McCabe breaks silence

Jill McCabe, wife of ousted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, spoke publicly for the first time Monday night about President Donald Trump's attack on her, vowing to set the record straight on the matter.

"I made the decision to run for office because I was trying to help people," Jill McCabe wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. "Instead, it turned into something that was used to attack our family, my husband’s career and the entire FBI."

Trump used Jill McCabe's candidacy for the Virginia state Senate and her acceptance of nearly $675,000 from the Virginia Democratic Party and groups connected to then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe as a cudgel to bash Andrew McCabe and the FBI's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

"Andrew’s involvement in the Clinton investigation came not only after the contributions were made to my campaign but also after the race was over," she wrote.

"We tried to go even beyond what the rules required — Andrew kept himself separate from my campaign," Jill McCabe writes. "When the kids and I went door-knocking, he did not participate; he wouldn’t even drive us. He could have attended one of my fundraisers but never did."

"Nothing can prepare you for what happens when your life is turned upside down by current events," she writes. "Nothing prepares you for conversations you have to have with your teenage children."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... cks-496444





Trump launches second day of attacks against the media

'Little Jeff Zuker, whose job is in jeopardy, is not having much fun lately,' Trump tweets.

President Donald Trump spent a second day Tuesday attacking CNN and other mainstream media outlets while defending Sinclair Broadcast Group, the local-news giant whose anchors were required to deliver an on-air monologue denouncing “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.”

“The Fake News Networks, those that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast,” the president tweeted, defending a broadcaster that employs a former Trump administration official as a commentator and is known at a corporate level for its conservative-leaning reporting. “The ‘Fakers’ at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS have done so much dishonest reporting that they should only be allowed to get awards for fiction!”

Sinclair’s profile on the national level has grown over the past several months amid reporting on its efforts to purchase Tribune Media, a deal that would give Sinclair, already the largest owner of television stations in the country, 43 more stations in markets including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

While the purchase is still pending, the deal is expected to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken what experts consider to be Sinclair-friendly steps since Trump's inauguration. Notably, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, appointed to his position by Trump, moved last year to revive a regulatory loophole through which Sinclair could expand without overstepping federal limits on media ownership. Pai's FCC has also done away with regulations prohibiting broadcasters from owning more than one top-rated TV station in a market and requiring them to keep studios in local markets, both steps considered beneficial for Sinclair.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... cks-497975





Sinclair, the pro-Trump, conservative company taking over local news, explained

Sinclair reaches 40 percent of households — and soon will reach 72 percent.

This month, the 193 local TV affiliates owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group began running a series of promotional segments, warning of a scourge of “fake news” promoted by “members of the media [who] use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.’”

The segments, which echo the Trump administration’s anti-media rhetoric, are eerily uniform across all Sinclair affiliates, so much so that Deadspin’s Timothy Burke was able to edit them together into a supercut showing dozens of Sinclair anchors saying the exact same words.


VIEW THE VIDEO IN THE FOLLOWING LINK

https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo




The video is just the most recent example of Sinclair stations’ strong partisan tilt. A recent paper by Emory University political scientists Gregory Martin and Josh McCrain found that when Sinclair buys a local station, its local news program begin to cover more national and less local politics, the coverage becomes more conservative, and viewership actually falls — suggesting that the rightward tilt isn’t enacted as a strategy to win more viewers but as part of a persuasion effort.

A report from the Pew Research Center last year found that 37 percent of Americans say they frequently rely on local TV for news — not far behind the 45 percent of Americans who say they get news from Facebook, and ahead of the 33 percent who say they look at news websites and apps, the 28 percent who watch cable news, the 26 percent who watch national nightly news, and the 18 percent who still read print newspapers.

That makes the partisan tilt of the hundreds of local TV stations that Sinclair owns concerning, especially since the company’s channels reach 40 percent of Americans.

The uproar over Sinclair’s “fake news” editorial prompted furious rebuttals from the company and an intervention from the president, who spoke up in the company’s defense while attacking CNN and NBC — a somewhat confusing comparison for him to make, as Sinclair owns some 25 NBC affiliates:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.

8:28 AM - Apr 2, 2018
76.3K
49K people are talking about this

But Sinclair’s anti-media promos are hardly an aberration. Sinclair has been steadily growing and acquiring new affiliates in more and more markets for decades. It has, in the process, spread a conservative message enforced by mandates on local news anchors, including requirements that they air partisan commentaries by figures like Boris Epshteyn, Sinclair’s chief political analyst and a former Trump aide in both the 2016 campaign and the White House.

Here, for example, is Epshteyn condemning cable news anchors for their use of “curse words” when reporting on President Trump’s description of Haiti and much of Africa as “shithole” countries. “The allegation is that President Trump said the word once in a private meeting. How is it okay to repeat it and splash it onscreen hundreds of times?” Epshteyn asks.


VIEW THE VIDEO IN THE FOLLOWING LINK

https://youtu.be/hGhTYeCoI3U




Epshteyn produces as many as nine conservative, pro-Trump segments a week. The “Bottom Line With Boris” videos are “must-runs,” meaning all 193 Sinclair stations must broadcast them.

Another recent Sinclair segment featured former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka ranting about the “deep state” and its efforts to sabotage Trump, and was produced by Kristine Frazao, a former reporter and anchor for the Russian propaganda network RT.

The company is set to become more powerful with its planned $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media, which would add 42 stations to Sinclair’s 193 existing affiliates. The deal has to secure approval from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Sinclair has already agreed to sell a number of stations to stay below the FCC’s requirement that TV station owners reach no more than 39 percent of US households with TVs.

Let me repeat that: Sinclair is hitting the absolute maximum level of viewer reach that a broadcasting conglomerate of its kind is allowed to have under federal regulations. The 39 percent figure is actually an underestimate because the FCC undercounts reach provided by ultra-high frequency (UHF) channels; measured accurately, the Tribune deal will let Sinclair reach 72 percent of households, Mother Jones’s Andy Kroll notes.

And unlike Fox News, Sinclair programming comes to people on local TV, on channels affiliated with ABC or NBC or CBS or Fox, many of which have existed in their communities for decades before Sinclair bought them. Millions of viewers of those stations have no idea that they’re watching conservative editorials rather than normal local news, which gives Sinclair incredible power to persuade viewers of conservative ideas...............................................>

How Sinclair Broadcast Group became a national giant;
Sinclair has been broadcasting conservative programming for well over a decade;
Local stations purchased by Sinclair are in for an alarming change;
Many Sinclair viewers don’t know their local news is peddling a conservative message


https://www.vox.com/2018/4/3/17180020/s ... -affiliate

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So let me get this straight. Donald Trump screws a lady 33 years younger than him who is in the porn star hall of fame. And he doesn't say anything about it. Only way we hear about it is SHE tells.

That guy is the OG.

Our OG president's approval has went up 2 points since the story aired.

Because he is the man you want to be.

.

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 33% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 38% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -5. (see trends).

This is the president’s best overall job approval rating since April of last year. President Obama earned a 46% job approval rating on April 4, 2010, his second year in office.

Any golden showers involved?

You're welcome.

Just in the last several hours ...

1) Mexico has begun breaking up that large caravan of people heading for our border.
2) Canada & Mexico are renegotiating NAFTA with us.
3) The US Postal Service has announced they are renegotiating their deal with Amazon.
And (4) Fox Business is reporting that Trump is in discussions with GOP leaders to rescind some of the spending measures in last months Omnibus Bill.

It is amazing how this guy just keeps winning.

He has 90% of the press against him. 99% of TV, Hollywood, and musicians bashing him. And the dude just keeps winning.

I'll just leave this right here ...