<1
Trump wants credit for staying at the White House over weekends while the shutdown drags on
Trump is blaming Democrats for being away on “vacation” while he sits alone in the Oval Office.
[ MAYBE TRUMP SHOULD CALL MCCONNELL (WHO IS ALSO AT HOME) TO KEEP HIM COMPANY ]
By Amanda Sakuma Jan 12, 2019, 4:36pm EST
National parks are being vandalized, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are showing up to work without pay, but while the partial government shutdown drags on President Donald Trump wants you to know: You should feel bad for him that he’s stuck in the White House.
Since the shutdown first began on Dec. 22, Trump has tweeted every weekend, and during down time during the week, to make a point that he’s at the White House.
It started around Christmas time, just days into the partial government shutdown, when Trump began tweeting that he was holed up and by himself.
--“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal,” he tweeted on Christmas Eve, making it clear he was sore about missing his usual holiday at his resort in Mar-a-Lago. (Melania and their son Baron both left their Florida trip early in order to be with the president over the holiday.)
TRUMP: If you don’t have a barrier, whether it’s a steel barrier or a concrete wall, substantial and strong, you never are going to solve this problem. You are never going to solve — and I don’t need this.
Look, I could have done something a lot easier. I could have enjoyed myself. I haven’t left the White House because I’m waiting for them to come over in a long time. You know that. I stayed home for Christmas. I stayed at the White House for New Year’s.
HANNITY: I think you tweeted Christmas Eve, all alone, where is Chuck and Nancy [ SEAN! MAYBE THEY ARE VACATIONING WITH MCCONNELL ]?
TRUMP: My family, I told them, stay in Florida and enjoy yourselves. The fact is I want to be in Washington. I mean, I consider it very, very important.
Trump is determined to get his border wall and a slam dunk on his signature campaign promise, refusing to back down from his demands of $5 billion to fund his border wall. Congressional Democrats say they won’t go higher than $1.3 billion on border security as a whole. But Trump wants you to believe that he’s working hard on a deal.
This weekend he’s blaming Democrats for the impasse. They’re away on “vacations” (or as some of us might call it, the weekend), while he’s alone in the Oval Office, waiting for a deal. In some ways, it’s a good communications strategy: He’s appealing over Twitter to his supporters to make it seem as though he’s been putting in extra hours at work — to no avail.
The reality, however, is that Trump has had ample opportunity to cut a deal for some time now.
--It’s not like Trump has been doing a lot of productive work
So far, Trump’s meetings with congressional leaders have dissolved in chaotic tantrums. He’s stormed out of meetings, got into a shouting match on TV, and gone on profanity-laden rant while repeatedly referring to the shutdown as a “strike.” He took a trip to the southern border, where he paraded Border Patrol agents as props for his photo ops pushing for the wall.
He and his top advisors have offered extra money to address the humanitarian crisis at the border and have been willing to compromise on what his barrier will look like — be it steel slats, concrete, walls and fences. But so far Trump has yet to budge much at all on his $5 billion asking price. Vice President Mike Pence once floated a $2.5 billion compromise, but congressional Democrats rejected the deal after Trump himself said he refused to back down from his original offer.
Trump is not the only one who could be doing something — there are plenty of paths out of the impasse. Democrats could fold and give Trump his money. But it’s worth noting if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell worked with a little more than dozen Democrats, he could form a veto-proof majority: Senate Republicans could suck it up and get the votes together to reopen the government.
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/12/18180047/ ... e-shutdown
<2
Record shutdown hits Trump states hard
Chris CanipeJan 12
Rural Western states that voted for President Trump are disproportionately affected by the government shutdown, which today sets a record as the longest in U.S. history, since federal workers there make up a large share of the workforce.
The big picture: Out of the 10 states with the most affected federal employees per 10,000, six voted for Trump — Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho and West Virginia.
The top 10 states that voted for Hillary Clinton were D.C., Maryland, New Mexico and Virginia.
Why it matters: Trump's hard line over wall funding could end up hurting some of the people who put him into office.
One example: Offices of the USDA's Farm Service Agency, which help farmers affected by China's soybean tariffs, are closed due to the shutdown.
An Axios analysis from September found that Trump states were the ones hit hardest by his tariffs.
About the data: The map above shows federal workers in the nine departments affected by the partial shutdown: Homeland Security, HUD, Commerce, Interior, Transportation, State, Agriculture, Justice and Treasury.
The data also includes other employees who are affected: EPA, FDA, Indian Health Services, NASA and Small Business Administration.
Go deeper: All the ways Americans are feeling the effects of the shutdown
https://www.axios.com/record-shutdown-h ... 6d8db.html
<3
Dems struggling to help low-wage contractors harmed by shutdown
BY NIV ELIS - 01/12/19 06:49 PM EST
Democrats are struggling to come up with a way to provide back pay for low-wage contractors losing income because of the partial shutdown, a complicated process that hasn’t been tackled during previous government closures.
Contracted maintenance workers, cleaners, security guards and cafeteria staff at government buildings are among the hardest hit by the shutdown, which began Dec. 22.
Unlike the hundreds of thousands of affected federal employees who often receive back pay after a shutdown ends, low-wage contractors are not afforded compensation once the government reopens.
While President Trump is expected to sign legislation that would eventually give back pay to federal workers, even ensuring similar compensation after future shutdowns, contractors are not covered in that bill.
Senate Democrats say they are looking for a solution, but it’s proving to be a surprisingly tricky problem to fix.
“That’s putting it mildly. It’s not easy,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who represents a state with thousands of federal workers and contractors.
Government contractors can cover anything from outsourced services for agencies, such as cafeteria service at federal offices buildings, to major offsite projects. Lawmakers say they want to help low-wage workers who are shut out of work while doing so in a way that doesn’t pad the pockets of higher-wage contractors who can more easily withstand the financial strain of a shutdown.
Figuring out exactly how to get the money to employees is no easy task, according to legislators.
“It’s hard to get that definition and it’s hard to figure out, because our relationship is with the contractor, not with his or her employees,” Cardin said. “It’s tough for us to figure out how to legislatively fix that.”
To complicate matters further, of the nine federal agencies affected by the shutdown, each deals with contractors differently. Some major contractors that deal with multiple agencies are still receiving revenue from the roughly 75 percent of the government that is functioning as normal, while smaller firms are taking a bigger hit to their cash flow and bottom line.
“The contractor has to decide whether to furlough the worker, force them to use vacation days, or just pay them a stipend out of their own pocket, which they probably won’t be paid back,” says Tony Anikeeff, who co-chairs the government contracts practice at the Williams Mullen law firm.
It's not clear how many contract workers there are overall. One estimate puts it as high as 3.7 million people, about half the size of the directly employed federal workforce, including military and postal employees.
And Local 32BJ, part of the Service Employees International Union, said at least 2,000 of its members are affected by the shutdown.
But what is clear is that the number has grown over the years, with more agencies outsourcing cleaning and food services, replacing federal workers with contractors.
Experts say one concern is whether legislation like the kind Democrats are exploring would lead to moral hazard and fraud.
If contractors know their employees will eventually be paid, experts say they could furlough more of them with the knowledge that the government will pick up the tab.
“If you think about the government and a contractor, it would be hard -- and this would really open the doors for potential fraud -- but Congress could say that the time lost could be compensated,” said Anikeeff.
Democrats say the large, profitable contracting organizations have enough money to cover most workers salaries during a shutdown, or even temporarily move them to other projects. For that reason, lawmakers are focusing on the low-wage workers who staff federal buildings.
But even big contractors can face challenges.
Executives at two top government contractors -- SAIC and Engility -- reportedly have to pay $10 million a week to workers who are shut out of projects during the shutdown. The government, meanwhile, was said to be about $40 million behind in payments to the two firms at the three-week mark of the shutdown.
In the House, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) introduced a bill that would provide back pay for any “retail, food, custodial, or security services” contractors put on leave due to a shutdown. But so far Democratic leaders have not included it in their legislation aimed at fully reopening the government.
“Unlike many other contractors, those who employ low-wage service workers have little latitude to help make up for lost wages,” Norton said. “We must act to ensure that low-wage, federally contracted service workers are not put at a unique disadvantage by the Trump shutdown.”
Norton’s bill, which has about 15 cosponsors and would authorize but not appropriate funds for low-wage contractors, is seen as a starting point while specific language is worked out.
“I think it’s a matter of building support, at this point,” a Norton spokesman said. “The intent is there, but the execution is important.”
If workable language is drafted, Democratic leadership would support such legislation, according to a Democratic House aide.
Republicans, on the other hand, have been less effusive in their support.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they would not address hypothetical legislation. He declined to say whether McConnell supported the principle of providing back pay to low-wage contractors affected by shutdowns.
The Hill reached out to every Republican member of the Senate Appropriations committee for comment. Only one, Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.), expressed support for providing contractors with back pay, though none explicitly opposed the concept.
Senate Democrats think part of the solution has to come from the Trump administration.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Thursday sent a letter backed by 33 other senators to acting White House budget chief Russell Vought, urging the administration to secure back pay for federal contractors.
“Government contracts typically have provisions to modify the terms of the contract,” the senators wrote. “Federal contracting officers should use these provisions to work with contractors to provide back pay for employees who lost wages as a result of the government shutdown.”
Some experts note that it’s impossible to protect everyone affected by a shutdown.
“I would look at the ripple effect not just for contractors but the support industry for government that rely on government and don’t have customers right now,” said Dan Blair, former deputy director in the Office of Personnel Management.
“Think about the restaurants, the food trucks, the parking garages, all the Uber drivers who cater to government workers and contractors and are losing business,” said Blair, who’s now senior counselor at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
The negative economic consequences of the shutdown are only expected to grow.
As of Saturday, the shutdown is officially the longest in U.S. history, and there are few signs it will end anytime soon.
Trump said Thursday he was canceling a planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The president had said he would skip the trip, scheduled for Jan. 22, if the government remained closed.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4250 ... y-shutdown
<4
POLITICS RUSSIA
President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report
By ALYZA SEBENIUS AND MICHAEL SIN / BLOOMBERG 9:23 AM EST
(Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if details from his conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin were released.
Trump was responding to a Washington Post report, which said he went to great lengths to hide details of his discussions with Putin. Trump took possession of his interpreter’s notes after a 2017 meeting in Hamburg and instructed the linguist not to discuss the matter with other administration officials, the Post said, citing current and former U.S. officials.
“We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of others things,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday. “It was a great conversation. I’m not keeping anything under wraps.”
Representative Eliot L. Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said it will hold hearings on the “mysteries swirling” around Trump’s relationship with the Russian president.
“Every time Trump meets with Putin, the country is told nothing,” Engel said in a statement. “The Foreign Affairs Committee will seek to get to the bottom of it.”
U.S. officials only learned of Trump’s actions when two aides sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout from then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Post said. The officials said there is no detailed record, including in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with Putin at five locations from the past two years, the newspaper reported.
“I mean it’s so ridiculous, these people make it up,” Trump said on Fox News, adding that he’s been tougher on Russia than the last three or four presidents.
A White House spokesman contacted by the Washington Post who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the administration has sought to “improve the relationship with Russia.”
[ Presidents can’t just clean house
In the United States, the law gives people a broad right to destroy things they own. If a private citizen wants to throw away old clothing or shred documents, he generally has the right to do so. This was also historically true for many American presidents, who often destroyed diaries, letters and other records. In most cases, presidents who intentionally destroyed their papers did so to protect both their own privacy and that of their professional acquaintances.
This changed, however, after Richard Nixon’s presidency. Congress created the Presidential Records Act of 1978 out of concern that former President Nixon would destroy the tapes that led to his resignation.
The PRA sets strict rules for presidential records created during a president’s term. They include material related to “constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.” This includes records created on electronic platforms like email, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There is a narrow exception that things like diaries, journals or other personal notes don’t need to be opened for review.
Under the law, the federal government must maintain ownership and control of all presidential records, including records created by the president’s staff. Once a president leaves office, all presidential records must be transferred to the archivist of the United States, who makes them available to the public over time. ]
http://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/
<5
Trump dodges question on whether he has worked for Russia
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump avoided directly answering when asked whether he currently is or has ever worked for Russia after a published report said law enforcement officials, concerned about his behavior after he fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, had begun investigating that possibility.
Trump said it was the “most insulting” question he’d ever been asked.
The New York Times report Friday cited unnamed former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.
Trump responded to the story Saturday during a telephone interview broadcast on Fox News Channel after host Jeanine Pirro, a personal friend, asked the Russia question.
“I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked,” Trump said. “I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written, and if you read the article you’ll see that they found absolutely nothing.”
Trump never answered Pirro directly, but went on to assert that no president has taken a harder stance against Russia than he has.
“If you ask the folks in Russia, I’ve been tougher on Russia than anybody else, any other ... probably any other president, period, but certainly the last three or four presidents.”
Trump’s claim was disputed by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said almost all the sanctions on Russia arose not in the White House but in Congress, due to concerns by members of both parties about Moscow’s actions. Warner accused the White House of being very slow to put in place the penalties.
The Times reported that FBI agents and some top officials became suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign but didn’t open an investigation at that time because they weren’t sure how to approach such a sensitive probe.
Trump’s behavior in the days around Comey’s May 2017 firing helped trigger the counterintelligence part of the probe, according to the newspaper.
In the inquiry, counterintelligence investigators sought to evaluate whether Trump was a potential threat to national security. They also sought to determine whether Trump was deliberately working for Russia or had unintentionally been influenced by Moscow.
Trump tweeted early Saturday that the report showed that the FBI leadership “opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof” after he had fired Comey.
Robert Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed special counsel soon after Comey’s firing. The overall investigation is looking into Russian election interference and whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Russians, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Trump. The Times says it’s unclear whether Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence angle.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the report “may well suggest what it was that helped start this investigation in the first place.” He and other Democratic senators said this report and others within the past week questioning Trump’s behavior toward Russia give new urgency to the need for the Mueller investigation to be allowed to run its course.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Times he had no knowledge of the inquiry but said that since it was opened a year and a half ago and they hadn’t heard anything, apparently “they found nothing.”
Trump has also repeatedly and vociferously denied collusion with the Russians.
Warner spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Coons on “Fox News Sunday.”
https://www.apnews.com/f246dec6e3f7402cb0fc6d6c420e442c
<6
Tucker Carlson Knocks the FBI Over New Trump-Russia Report
by Josh Feldman | Jan 11th, 2019, 9:25 pm
Tucker Carlson blasted the FBI in reaction to the stunning new report that they opened an inquiry into whether President Donald Trump was secretly working for Russia.
The New York Times dropped this bombshell report tonight, detailing how this inquiry was opened after the firing of James Comey, and how it ended up under the purview of Robert Mueller.
Carlson reacted by telling viewers “this is why you should never criticize the FBI”:
--“You think it’s your birthright as an American. You can do it. I wouldn’t try it though. They might open an investigation into you without your knowledge into something appalling. Maybe it’s beating your wife, maybe it’s dealing fentanyl to kids, maybe it’s betraying your country in some alliance with Vladimir Putin. You don’t need to have done it. But once they investigate you, they can always leak two years later that they were investigating you for this crime that you didn’t commit or at least they found no evidence you committed. At least they never charged you for it, which is how our system is supposed to work. But it doesn’t matter because you’re instantly discredited. Don’t criticize the FBI. Very unwise.”
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carl ... cize-them/
<7
‘DEEPLY AND PROFOUNDLY TROUBLING’:
CHUCK ROSENBERG REACTS TO TUCKER ATTACKING FBI OVER TRUMP-RUSSIA BOMBSHELL
"It begins to erode the trust in government, including at the FBI, including at times like this."
by Contemptor Staff January 11, 2019
Appearing on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration Chuck Rosenberg responded to Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s advice to viewers following a bombshell New York Times story reporting the FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation on President Donald Trump after he fired FBI Director James Comey. Carlson said the investigation was the reason why you shouldn’t criticize the FBI as they’ll open an inquiry into those who do.
TRANSCRIPT
BRIAN WILLIAMS (MSNBC HOST): Chuck Rosenberg, one for you. Every night here, I try to watch all the cables. CNN, Fox News, part of the job and tonight, watching Fox News, they seem to devote most of their coverage to illegal immigration, various discussions of that and then there came a time they did report this New York Times story and Tucker Carlson said the following into the camera that may give us an indication of an early defense strategy. We’ll play that and talk about it on the other side.
TUCKER CARLSON (FOX NEWS HOST): If you’re keeping track at home and get a pen and paper because worth remembering, this is why you should never criticize the FBI. You think it’s your birthright as an American. You can do it. I wouldn’t try it though. They might open an investigation into you without your knowledge into something appalling, maybe your wife or dealing fentanyl to kids or betraying your country. You don’t need to have done it but once they investigate you, they can always leak, I don’t know, two years later they were investigating you for this crime that you didn’t commit or at least they found no evidence you committed. At least never charged it for you, but it doesn’t matter because you’re instantly discredited. Don’t criticize the FBI. Very unwise.
WILLIAMS: Chuck Rosenberg, your response.
ROSENBERG: That’s a deeply and profoundly troubling statement, Brian. Here’s why. It’s not just because I work there and I know the ethos of the place and the men and women who care deeply about the rule of law. Remember too that the FBI and its work is overseen by the Congress and the department of justice, by the executive branch through, you know, the foreign intelligence advisory board and the privacy and civil liberties oversight board and lots of people, oh, and by the way, federal judges too, will oversee the work of the FBI.
So it’s a deeply and profoundly troubling statement. It completely misapprehends what the FBI is and who the men and women are who work there. It is really, really a bad thing to feed to the American people. It begins to erode the trust in government, including at the FBI, including at times like this.
https://contemptor.com/2019/01/11/deepl ... bombshell/
<8
Every congressperson along southern border opposes border wall funding
BY KATE SMITH
UPDATED ON: JANUARY 8, 2019 / 8:54 PM / CBS NEWS
Nine congressional representatives serve the districts that line the 2,000-mile southern border. They are men, women, freshman politicians and Washington veterans. The Democrats among them span liberal ideologies, while one of them is a Republican.
But they all have one thing in common: each is against President Donald Trump's border wall.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a multi-bill package that provided funding for federal agencies and reinstated Department of Homeland Security appropriations without offering any new border wall funding. All nine of the politicians serving in districts along the border voted in favor of the bills, which were an effective rebuke of the Trump administration's request for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.
"It's a 4th-century solution to a 21st century problem," said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers along the southern border who voted against funding the wall.
Gonzalez doesn't oppose border security. He said, "Nobody wants stronger border control than me." But he's against adding to the existing border wall because he doesn't "think it brings real border security and it comes at a major cost to taxpayers," the lawmaker said Tuesday in a telephone interview with CBS News.
During a private dinner with Mr. Trump last year, the congressman suggested a "virtual border wall," one that would use technology and existing military surveillance equipment currently not in use. But Mr. Trump wasn't interested in non-physical alternatives, Gonzalez said.
"At the time I thought we were going to be able to have a reasonable conversation," Gonzalez said. "I had no idea it was going to get this crazy."
Within Gonzalez's district is McAllen, a Texas border town that Mr. Trump plans to visit during his trip to the border this week. Unlike how areas along the border have been described by other politicians, Gonzalez called McAllen one of the safest towns in the country and said it is experiencing a 33-year low in crime rates. He rejects the idea that there is a crisis at the border.
"When people talk about violence streaming across the border, it's just nonsense," Gonzalez said.
Rep. Will Hurd, a Texas Republican who represents more of the southern border than any other member of Congress, was one of a handful of Republicans to side with Democrats last week on the funding bill.
Hurd, who is the only black Republican in the 116th House of Representatives, won a second term in Congress during the midterms while campaigning against the wall, narrowly winning his re-election. Political strategists have said that Mr. Trump's last-minute, hardline rhetoric around what he called the "border crisis" nearly cost Hurd his seat in Congress.
Prior to the government shutdown, Hurd — a former undercover CIA agent — had introduced another idea: legislation for a "smart border wall," a technology-focused initiative that he claimed would cost less than $1 billion.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona whose district shares a border with Mexico, also opposed funding the wall, calling it "a fantasy" and "not the solution."
"This is a terrible, terrible mistake that Trump is making," said Grijalva, a first-generation Mexican-American whose father came to the U.S. under the 1940s-era Bracero temporary worker program. "It would be devastating to my district."
Grijalva questioned Mr. Trump's description of a "crisis" on the border, saying that if anything, the situation on the border was a "manufactured crisis."
"I think he is wrong politically, and in terms of security, absolutely wrong," Grijalva said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-bor ... -2019-1-8/
<9
Third suspected drug tunnel discovered near Arizona border
BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 01/12/19 04:35 PM EST
A tunnel that Mexican authorities suspect was used to transfer drugs and people across the border was discovered this week near Arizona, the third such tunnel found in the past month.
The Arizona Republic first reported Friday on the tunnel near Nogales, Sonora, across from Nogales, Ariz. Mexican Federal Police posted a video of the tunnel earlier this week.
The police said in the video that the tunnel was about 32 feet long, but provided limited information beyond that.
It is the third tunnel to be found in a month amid the partial government shutdown and increased debate over President Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
A representative from the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on Saturday.
The government has been partially shut down since Dec. 22 because Trump has demanded more than $5 billion to construct his signature wall.
Democrats have said that Trump's strategy of a border wall would be ineffective in reducing crime and the flow of drugs, in part because of the ability to burrow under walls.
The president has weighed declaring a national emergency to sidestep Congress and direct funds to build the wall, but has so far resisted making such a declaration.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... ona-border
<10
‘NONSTOP, MY LOVE’
The El Chapo Trial Shows Trump Is All Wrong About Drugs
The big takeaway from his trial is that no matter what the president says, the southern border is not how drugs come to America.
Michael Daly 01.12.19 6:27 PM ET
For eight weeks, a jury in Brooklyn federal court has been listening to witnesses recount how Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman moved tons of cocaine and heroin from Mexico to the United States, almost none of it—if any at all—across an unsecured stretch of border.
The makings of tens of thousands of overdoses was not backpacked across the desert by undocumented aliens. Much of it was smuggled by licensed drivers in vehicles through official points of entry, hidden in jalapeno pepper cans or frozen seafood or hidden compartments or wherever else might elude the searchers and their canines.
El Chapo also brought drugs in via trains and ships and submarines, none of which would be hampered by a wall. And he did not use tunnels just to break out of a Mexican prison. He constructed more than 100 that ran under border barriers, often from a warehouse in Mexico to one in the U.S., in an industrial area where trucks could come and go without drawing particular attention.
As a result, El Chapo was able to smuggle drugs in quantities that astonished his Colombian suppliers. He became as big as his ability to move product. A measure of that is contained in a 2012 exchange of texts that the feds recovered between him and Agustina Cabanillas Acosta, with whom he seems have mixed business with pleasure.
“How are the sales going?” El Chapo inquired.
“Oh, like busy bees,” she replied. “Nonstop, my love.”
The feds also recorded a conversation between El Chapo and Peter Flores, who, with his twin brother Margarito, became the biggest drug dealer in Chicago. El Chapo appears to have been able to supply any demand.
El Chapo: How much can you get rid of in a month?
Peter: Around 40 [kilos of heroin.]
El Chapo: Oh, that’s good… All right, I’ll send it then.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/el-chapo- ... s?ref=home
<11
POLITICS 01/12/2019 02:00 am ET
Trump Has Entered The Lying Stratosphere, Says Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist
“No one believes a word out of his mouth,” Thomas Friedman said of the president.
headshot
By Mary Papenfuss
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman didn’t hold back on his scathing criticism of Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a “disturbed” president who lies so often that “no one trusts this man.”
“If we face a crisis with a president who no one believes who’s surrounded by a C-team in a dysfunctional White House, then God save us,” Friedman told Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
Trump has told “one too many lies,” Friedman said. “I don’t know whether it’s lie number 6,000 or 7,000 — The Washington Post has been keeping tab — but ... we’re in a moment now where people simply don’t believe a word out of his mouth. When he can stand up and say, ‘I never said Mexico would pay for the wall,’ we’re through the looking glass.”
The “core” problem is that “we have a president without shame who is backed by a party without spine that is supported by a network called Fox News without integrity,” Friedman said. “Fasten your seatbelt.”
Friedman called Trump a president with “formal authority but no moral authority.” The most frightening thing, Friedman noted, is that the Republican Party will do nothing to stand up to him.
”We have a disturbed man as president – that’s very clear,” Friedman said. “We have a party that is not ready to stand up to it. What worries me is now we’re threatening our institutions.”
The “biggest crisis right now is in the Oval Office,” Friedman said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/th ... 2a21d514f7
<12
Oregon governor's husband cleans park amid shutdown, sends Trump bill
BY ARIS FOLLEY - 01/12/19 03:27 PM EST
Dan Little, the husband of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D), is sending President Trump a $28 bill after he cleaned up bathrooms that were overflowing with garbage at a local park that was understaffed due to the partial government shutdown.
Brown confirmed the news in a tweet on Friday in which she also included before-and-after photos of the bathrooms at the Mt. Hood National Forest Sno-Park and a photo of her husband standing alongside a pile of full garbage bags.
“This is just one of the many reasons I love my husband, Dan,” Brown tweeted.
“He visited Mt. Hood National Forest Sno-Park, and like many national parks across the country, found it a mess due to the partial government shutdown,” she continued. “He cleaned the bathrooms—and sent the bill to President Trump.”
The tweet also featured a photo of an invoice that her husband addressed to Trump for the services of “U.S. Forest Service Trash Removal.”
On Saturday, the government shutdown became the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the previous 21-day record set during the Clinton administration.
The latest funding lapse began Dec. 22 due to disagreements between Trump and congressional Democrats over funding for the president's proposed border wall.
Trump has demanded more than $5 billion in funding for the border measure. Democrats have refused to provide money for such a barrier.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... trump-bill
<13
Trade war’s wounded: Companies improvise to dodge cost hikes
By PAUL WISEMAN
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — In Rochester, New York, a maker of furnaces for semiconductor and solar companies is moving its research and development to China to dodge President Donald Trump’s import taxes — a move that threatens a handful of its 26 U.S. jobs.
In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the CEO of a company that makes precision parts for the biomedical and chip making fields jokes bitterly that he’s running “a nonprofit” and might have to cut jobs.
And east of Detroit, a metal stamping company that supplies the auto industry is losing business to foreign rivals because Trump’s steel tariffs have raised metals prices in the United States.
Trump frequently boasts that the taxes he’s imposed on imports — steel and aluminum and nearly half of all goods from China — have showered the U.S. Treasury with newfound revenue. “We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs,” he tweeted last month. “MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.”
Yet tariffs like Trump’s account for barely 1 percent of federal revenue. It’s actually companies like Linton Crystal Technologies in Rochester, Accu-Swiss Inc. in Oakdale, California, and Clips & Clamps Industries in Plymouth, Michigan, that are paying the price for his trade wars.
Tariffs tend to swell the cost of these companies’ materials and leave them at a competitive disadvantage to foreign rivals unburdened by import taxes. And their exports can be taxed when other countries retaliate with their own tariffs.
“Wars are messy,” said Todd Barnum, chief operating officer at Linton Crystal Technologies. “All the troops get hurt.”
Back in December 2017, Trump gave those companies and others a gift when he signed a measure that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The next month, though, he started slapping tariffs on imports — beginning with solar panels and dishwashers, before moving on to steel and aluminum and then hitting $250 billion in Chinese goods.
“Thank you for the tax cut,” said Jeff Aznavorian, president of Clips & Clamps. “However, I’m not going to be benefiting because I’m not going to have any profits to pay tax on.” For his company, “tariffs have completely undermined everything good that those tax cuts brought.”
The higher costs resulting from Trump’s tariffs have yet to inflict much overall damage to a still-robust American economy, which is less reliant on international trade than most other countries are. Fueled by lower taxes, the economy grew at an impressive 3.4 percent annual rate from July through September after having surged 4.2 percent in the previous quarter. And employers added 2.6 million jobs last year, the most since 2015.
And while numerous companies are hurting from the president’s confrontational trade stance, some are benefiting from it. An aluminum smelter in Missouri reopened under new ownership this year, for instance, and credited the aluminum tariffs for reducing foreign competition and bringing 450 jobs to New Madrid County.
But for many businesses, the tariffs are escalating costs, creating hardships and magnifying uncertainty. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index plunged last month to its lowest point in more than two years partly because of the tariffs. And the Federal Reserve appears increasingly worried that damage from the trade war will undercut the economy.
The potential costs of Trump’s tariff campaign become clear early this month when Apple warned that trade hostilities with Beijing were hurting its business in China — a key reason why its first-quarter revenue would fall below expectations.
“It’s not going to be just Apple,” Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White Council of Economic Advisers, acknowledged to CNN. Companies with significant sales in China will “be watching their earnings downgraded next year until we get a deal with China.”
Trump’s tariffs are, in theory, supposed to help U.S. producers by raising the prices of goods their foreign competitors ship from abroad. But tariffs, a tax paid by importers, can backfire. They tend to hurt American companies that buy foreign goods for resale or for use as components in U.S.-made products.
Many U.S. importers face a wrenching choice: They can pass their higher costs on to their customers and risk losing business. Or they can absorb the extra costs themselves and sacrifice profits.
And tariffs, of course, invite retaliation. The European Union, Canada, Mexico and others have retaliated against U.S. products as payback for Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. China has imposed tariffs on $110 billion in American goods.
Among the products on Beijing’s hit list are American soybeans, an important export among Trump supporters in the U.S. heartland. To ease the pain, the administration last year handed farmers relief worth $11 billion — money that reduces the trade war’s contribution to the Treasury. Peter Meyer, head of grain and oilseed analytics at S&P Global Platts, said the payments allowed soybean farmers to recoup their losses from the trade war.
But the damage could prove longer-lasting. Before the trade hostilities erupted, China bought 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports. Now, it’s turning to Brazil and other countries for soybeans.
“It takes you months to years to cultivate a client and only weeks to piss them off,” Meyer said. “The concern now is that we’ve pissed off the Chinese and they’re going to go away.”
Linton Crystal Technologies is being walloped by tariffs both coming and going. The components it sends to an assembly plant in Dalian, China, are subject to import taxes when they arrive in China. And the assembled furnaces it ships back to Rochester for sale are hit with Trump’s tariffs at the U.S. border.
The U.S. import tax on a $2 million furnace amounts to $500,000. So, in desperation, the company has decided to move operations to China to avoid the tariffs. And it plans to lay off four or five American workers.
“It just doesn’t make any sense for me to ship it back here so I can be penalized half a million dollars,” Barnum said.
In the meantime, the higher costs are hurting Linton’s business. It expects revenue to drop 25 percent in 2019.
Accu-Swiss, which buys imported stainless steel on the tariff list, is negotiating with customers to split the higher costs. It’s also trying to make its operations leaner. It has, for example, reengineered its California factory so production can continue at night when the lights are off and employees are gone. Still, it, too, expects a 25 percent drop in revenue this year.
“I’m just hoping against hope that this thing will go away,” said CEO Sohel Sareshwala. “I’m just sustaining myself, almost becoming a nonprofit organization.”
Clips & Clamps, the Michigan auto supplier, buys steel from U.S. producers that don’t have to pay the tariffs. But domestic steel suppliers have been able to sharply raise their prices because Trump’s tariffs have priced out foreign competition.
“I am losing business to competitors outside the United States,” Aznavorian said, “and I am losing it due to raw materials pricing.”
Initially, Sareshwala and Aznavorian say, they assumed that Trump’s metals tariffs were just a negotiating tactic, intended in part to pressure Canada and Mexico to embrace a new North American trade pact. But the tariffs remained intact even after Trump signed a revamped regional agreement in November.
“My jaw dropped,” Aznavorian said. “I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ ”
Now, he can’t tell whether the tariff squeeze is ever going to end. “The uncertainty is horrible,” he said.
https://www.apnews.com/e416b1ea86b047f2b4828b68d49b3fb1
<14
House GOP leader to meet with King over race remarks
52 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top House Republican says he and Rep. Steve King will discuss King’s future in the party following the Iowa congressman’s remarks in defense of white supremacy.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” he intends to have a “serious conversation” with King on Monday.
The California Republican says King’s “language has no place in America.”
The New York Times recently quoted King saying, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
Recently re-elected to a ninth term, King has since insisted he is an advocate for “Western civilization,” not white supremacy or white nationalism. King said it was a “mistake” to use phrasing that “created an unnecessary controversy” and he denied being racist.
https://www.apnews.com/5c66130102924701ba01548880a168ef
<15
U.S.
'YOU SPELLED "RACIST" WRONG':
OCASIO-CORTEZ SLAMS REPORTING OF GOP STEVE KING'S REMARKS AS 'RACIALLY TINGED'
BY TOM PORTER ON 1/12/19 AT 6:47 AM
Democratic Socialist New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez criticized a reporter for not describing Republican Congressman Steve King as “racist.”
In a tweet Friday, David M. Drucker, a senior political correspondent for DC Examiner, tweeted that Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa and House minority whip Steve Scalise had spoken, following remarks in which King defended white nationalism.
King “'initiated' a convo today w/ @SteveScalise to inform them he would speak on floor to address his racially-tinged remarks,” tweeted Drucker, who says on his profile he is also a CNN political analyst and Vanity Fair contributor.
Hundreds of Twitter users criticised the reporter for the use of the phrase “racially tinged,” saying he should have used the word “racist” instead.
Among them was Ocasio Cortez.
"You spelled “racist” wrong,” she tweeted in response to Drucker.
"At this point those who use the terms “racially tinged” or “racially charged” to describe white supremacy should be prepared to explain why they chose to employ those terms instead of “racist”/“racism.” If the answer is their own discomfort, they’re protecting the wrong people," she continued.
Drucker thanked Ocasio Cortez for her comment, responding,"appreciate the edit."
"Thank you for being open. It’s time we call it what it is," she replied.
In a follow up report for the Examiner on comments by King to reporters in congress after addressing the House, Drucker wrote that King didn’t expect “blowback” for the remarks.
“King has been in hot water before for using racially charged rhetoric. But this latest episode smacked of outright racism and generated a rare rebuke from House GOP leaders,” he wrote.
Drucker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his comments to the New York Times earlier in the week, King had questioned why the terms “white nationalist, white supremacist and western civilization” became “offensive.”
The comments drew bipartisan condemnation, including from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and in a statement Friday King distanced himself from his earlier remarks, claiming that he is “an advocate for Western Civilization values” and describing white supremacism as “evil.”
Ocasio Cortez on Thursday criticised conservative media after the Daily Caller published a photograph which it was falsely claimed showed her in the bath.
She also accused UK newspaper the Daily Mail sending a reporter “to my boyfriend’s relative’s homes” offering them cash for “stories.”
"Women in leadership face more scrutiny. Period," she tweeted.
https://www.newsweek.com/ocasio-cortez- ... ng-1289002
<16
1 big thing: Ocasio-Cortez is the latest Twitter powerhouse
A freshman congresswoman who has held office for less than two weeks is dominating the Democratic conversation on Twitter, generating more interactions — retweets plus likes — than the five most prolific news organizations combined over the last 30 days.
The big picture:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is miles behind President Trump in the influence of her Twitter account. But he's the president — she's a new member of Congress who shot out of a cannon following the midterm elections. And she has far more power on Twitter than the most prominent Democrats, including the congressional leaders and the likely 2020 presidential candidates.
The main takeaways:
Among 2020 Democratic hopefuls, Sen. Kamala Harris (combining her Senate and personal accounts) had the highest Twitter engagement at 4.6 million interactions over the last 30 days — but that's still way behind Ocasio-Cortez.
Even former President Barack Obama was far behind Ocasio-Cortez, at 4.4 million interactions (but she's a lot more active on Twitter).
News organizations' metrics do not include numbers from their star journalists. CNN's Jim Acosta generated 2 million interactions, compared to the network's 3 million.
On the right, individual personalities out-index partisan news organizations. The biggest conservative megaphones — aside from the president — are Charlie Kirk (7.3 million interactions) and Donald Trump Jr., whose 1.86 million interactions eclipsed his nemesis, the New York Times' 1.84 by a hair.
The volume of tweets is an important variable to consider:
Trump: 9.1 tweets per day
Ocasio-Cortez: 5.8
Harris: 9.7
Obama: 0.4
CNN: 136
Two notes about the data:
Not listed is Fox News, which has boycotted Twitter since November. These numbers do not account for Twitter activity from bots.
https://www.axios.com/1-big-thing-ocasi ... 8ad10.html
<17
Rep. Pressley Blasts Trump in First Comments on House Floor
Newly-minted U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley used her first comments on the floor of the House of Representatives to blast President Donald Trump and the ongoing partial federal government shutdown.
Jan. 8, 2019, at 4:32 p.m.
BOSTON (AP) — Newly-minted U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley used her first comments on the floor of the House of Representatives to blast President Donald Trump and the ongoing partial federal government shutdown.
During the minute-long speech Tuesday, the Massachusetts Democrat said the shutdown has nothing to do with border security. She said Trump has dishonored his oath of office and brought down what she called "a tsunami of hurt" on federal workers and those who rely on government services.
Pressley was sworn in to her first term in Congress last week. Pressley defeated longtime incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano in the Democratic primary last year to become the first black woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress.
She and Rep. Lori Trahan are the newest members of the state's all-Democratic Congressional delegation.
[Full text of Ayanna Pressley’s speech on the floor of the House of Representatives:
“Madam Speaker,
I rise today in opposition to the occupant of the White House. Mr. Trump, you took an oath just as I did 5 days ago, to protect and defend the Constitution and the American people.
Sir, you dishonor that oath. You devalue the life of the immigrant, the worker and the survivor. I see right through you and so do the American people.
This has nothing to do with border security. Your shut down, another Trump generated crisis, has brought a tsunami of hurt.
So, I rise today to lift the voices of the unheard.
I rise today on behalf of the families concerned about feeding their children because their WIC benefits will run dry.
I rise today in solidarity with the thousands of workers with calloused hands and broken spirits working for no pay.
I rise today in support of the survivor fleeing violent hands, seeking safety, only to find the shelter door locked because of your shutdown.
I rise today in support of the American people, who believe in the promise of this nation and ask for honest pay for an honest day’s work.
Today I rise as one and I stand as thousands.
Thank you and I yield back.”
]
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politi ... story.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states ... ouse-floor
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