RSN: "No Is Not Enough": Naomi Klein on Challenging Trump's Shock Doctrine Politics

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13 June 17 PM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News SIMPLY IGNORING FUNDING KILLS AN HONEST ORGANIZATION: People will pay a number of big corporations for "services," but they see an information watchdog as an unwelcome expense. Even as they come to learn on a daily basis. If you only support the corrupt institutions then only the corrupt institutions will remain. The June funding-drive needs attention. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! "No Is Not Enough": Naomi Klein on Challenging Trump's Shock Doctrine Politics Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein, Democracy Now! Excerpt: "As President Trump is sued by the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C., for 'unprecedented constitutional violations' and as another federal appeals court rejects Trump's Muslim ban, we spend the hour with best-selling writer Naomi Klein." READ MORE Deputy AG Rosenstein: No Good Cause to Fire Mueller Lydia Wheeler, The Hill Wheeler writes: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Tuesday said he has not seen good cause to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference." READ MORE Trump's Personal Lawyer Boasted That He Got Preet Bharara Fired Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott, ProPublica Excerpt: "Marc Kasowitz, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, has boasted to friends and colleagues that he played a central role in the firing of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to four people familiar with the conversations." READ MORE Trump's FBI Pick Backed Mass Detentions After 9/11 Betsy Woodruff, The Daily Beast Woodruff writes: "Donald Trump's pick to be FBI director was at the center of a controversial immigrant detentions in the immediate wake of 9/11, when dozens of people were spirited away to maximum security prisons and kept from communicating with their families and lawyers - sometimes for weeks." READ MORE Jeff Sessions Personally Asked Congress to Let Him Prosecute Medical Marijuana Providers Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post Ingraham writes: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday." READ MORE Central America Braces for Return of US Military-Led Foreign Policy Nina Lakhani, Guardian UK Lakhani writes: "Central America is bracing itself for a return to military-led US foreign policy amid rising fears that sweeping aid cuts and mass deportations could destabilize the region." READ MORE After Coal, a Small Kentucky Town Builds a Healthier, More Creative Economy Peter Slavin, YES! Magazine Slavin writes: "Nearly 50 years ago, on a presidential campaign swing through eastern Kentucky, Sen. Robert Kennedy promised to help a disabled coal miner build a community center in the tiny mountain town of Hemphill to give idle youth and others a place for recreation and meetings." READ MORE Contribute to RSN Become a Fan of RSN on Facebook and Twitter Update My Monthly Donation

Progressive Breakfast: People's Summit Drives New Wave of Progressive Candidates

Isaiah Poole

People’s Summit Drives New Wave of Progressive Candidates

The theme of the People’s Summit in Chicago was “beyond resistance.” Jim Keady, a restaurant owner and activist with the New Jersey Organizing Project, believes he can win in his state's fourth district by throwing out the traditional “centrist” playbook political consultants say he needs. He was among dozens of current and prospective political candidates at the Summit striving to build upon the opposition to the Trump administration a drive toward taking real governing power.

People’s Summit

Inspired by Sanders, activists in Chicago push Democrats to left — or out of the way. Chicago Tribune: “Nearly one year after effectively conceding the Democratic presidential nomination, (Bernie) Sanders was the star of this year’s People’s Summit, which has quickly become the country’s largest progressive political conference. At least 4,000 people trekked to Chicago for a weekend of teach-ins, panels and dance parties. In a Saturday-night speech, Sanders planned to tell activists to charge ahead because ‘ideas that, just a few years ago, seemed radical and unattainable, are now part of Main Street discussion.'”

Sanders urges alternatives to Republican policies. WaPo: “’People have got to understand that we’re at a pivotal moment in American history, and it’s not clear which way we’ll go,’ Sanders said in an interview. ‘There’s an enormous potential to improve peoples’ lives; on the other hand, there’s an opening for an austerity economy where everybody but the top 1 percent gets poorer. I will do my best to make people to understand that this is a 12-month-a-year operation, not about an election every four years.’”

Democrats in split-screen: The base wants it all. The party wants to win. NYT: “Democrats are facing a widening breach in their party, as liberal activists dream of transforming the health care system and impeaching President Trump, while candidates in hard-fought elections ask wary voters merely for a fresh chance at governing.
The growing tension… was on vivid, split-screen display over the weekend. In Chicago, Senator Bernie Sanders led a revival-style meeting of his progressive devotees, while in Atlanta, Democrats made a final push to seize a traditionally Republican congressional district.”

Sanders urges progressives to seek more electoral wins. Reuters: “Buoyed by the British Labour Party election gains this week, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday urged a summit of progressive activists who propelled his presidential candidacy to ramp up efforts to win elections and help remake a Democratic Party he deemed a failure. ‘They won those seats by standing up to the ruling class,’ he said, referring to the British elections and citing wins by progressive U.S. candidates in several state and local races while writing off losses as evidence liberal progressives could still be competitive even in conservative states.”

Lawsuits & Intimidation

AGs of MD and DC to sue Trump for emoluments violations. WaPo:“Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland say they will sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House. The lawsuit, the first of its kind brought by government entities, centers on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his company when he became president.”

Ex-prosecutor Bharara refused Trump’s call, got fired next day. HuffPost: “President Donald Trump fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara the day after the prosecutor refused to return a call from him…Bharara said he viewed direct contact from the president to himself, as a law-enforcement official, to be an inappropriate breach of protocol and reported it to the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 9. ‘Twenty-two hours later, I was fired, Bharara said.”

Puerto Rico votes for statehood, but needs Congress to act. MassLive: “Puerto Rico’s governor announced that the U.S. territory has overwhelmingly chosen statehood in a nonbinding referendum Sunday held amid a deep economic crisis that has sparked an exodus of islanders to the U.S. mainland. U.S. Congress, however, has final say in any changes to the island’s political status… The referendum coincides with the 100th anniversary of the United States granting U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans, though they are barred from voting in presidential elections and have only one congressional representative with limited voting powers.”

We are not broke: trashing the austerity lies. TruthOut: “The wealthiest of the wealthy using tax dodges and offshore safehouses to hide their money from the tax man is an international phenomenon, to be sure, but the issue takes on a decidedly unique slant here in the United States. It was confirmed in the original reporting on the Panama Papers last year that hundreds of the wealthiest US citizens enjoy the privileges of offshore cash havens, even as the new government in Washington pleads abject poverty while seeking to bleed the poorest among us for the benefit of the richest.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Working Together in a Time of Crisis. Tobita Chow: “We live in a time of crisis. Billionaires and white nationalists have gone from lobbying the White House to living in the White House. Time and again, the One Percent have tried to divide us. Together, we can defeat them.”

Trump Offers Fool’s Gold to Fund Infrastructure. Leo Gerard:“A falsely-funded infrastructure program is a massive broken promise. America needs real improvements to roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, water systems and railways. That requires a commitment of real tax dollars, not the relinquishment of America’s public assets to profit-seeking private Wall Street entities. Americans should not be charged twice for maintenance of the public good, once through tax breaks to investors and again in outrageous tolls and fees the investors charge.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more

RSN: Dan Rather | None of What Is Happening at the Top of Government Now Is Normal. None of It.

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Dan Rather | None of What Is Happening at the Top of Government Now Is Normal. None of It. 

Dan Rather, Dan Rather's Facebook Page
Rather writes: "What gives me hope is we have had waves of abnormality in our country's history. And we've had times when what we would consider now to be not normal, like segregation, was considered normal. What has centered and saved our country time and again is civic engagement."
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Preet Bharara Is Talking and His Story Sounds a Lot Like Comey's
Sandhya Somashekhar and Jenna Johnson, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Preet Bharara, a prominent former U.S. attorney ousted by President Trump, said Sunday that he reported to the Justice Department efforts by the president to 'cultivate some kind of relationship' with him, describing phone calls from Trump that made him increasingly uncomfortable."
READ MORE

Preet Bharara. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

reet Bharara, a prominent former U.S. attorney ousted by President Trump, said Sunday that he reported to the Justice Department efforts by the president to “cultivate some kind of relationship” with him, describing phone calls from Trump that made him increasingly uncomfortable.

In his first sit-down interview since his March removal, Bharara said he reported one of the phone calls to the chief of staff for Attorney General Jeff Sessions because it made him uneasy. He said he was dismissed from the important prosecutor’s job in Manhattan only 22 hours after he finally refused to take a call from the president.

The recollections add a new dimension to the intensifying debate over Trump’s firing of former FBI director James B. Comey, who was removed from his job after private conversations with Trump that he viewed as inappropriate. Comey testified before Congress last week that Trump told him he hoped the FBI would drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump has said Comey’s version of events is untrue.

Bharara sat behind Comey throughout the explosive testimony, which led Democrats to suggest that Trump may have obstructed justice.

Bharara told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that Comey’s account “felt a little bit like deja vu.”

“And I’m not the FBI director,” he said, “but I was the chief federal law enforcement officer in Manhattan with jurisdiction over a lot of things including, you know, business interests and other things in New York.”

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, pushed back against Bharara’s characterizations, suggesting on Twitter that if a U.S. attorney refused to take Trump’s call “he deserved to be fired.”

He accused Bharara of being a “resistance Democrat.”

But Bharara said he never got a direct call from President Barack Obama, under whom he worked for more than seven years. And in a tweeted response to Corallo after the interview, Bharara said the “AG office agreed w/ me about call.”

Trump and his supporters have played down the significance of the president’s overtures to Comey and highlighted aspects of Comey’s testimony that seemed exculpatory. They also have criticized Comey’s admission that he arranged for a friend to pass along details of the encounters to the New York Times.

“I believe the James Comey leaks will be far more prevalent than anyone ever thought possible. Totally illegal? Very ‘cowardly!’ ” Trump said in a tweet Sunday.

The volleys came during an unusually quiet weekend for Trump. Once the president landed in New Jersey for a visit to a Trump golf club in Bedminister, the White House largely went silent. Photos popped up on social media showing Trump at a graduation party at the club Friday and posing for photos with a young couple who were married there Saturday.

Some of those who came to the president’s defense this weekend did so in ways that seemed to contradict the declarative statements made by Kasowitz that Trump “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone.”

In an interview with Fox News that aired Saturday night, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, seemed to confirm Comey’s version of events as he tried to emphasize the fact that his father did not directly order Comey to stop investigating Flynn.

“When he tells you to do something, guess what? There’s no ambiguity in it, there’s no, ‘Hey, I’m hoping,’ ” Trump Jr. said. “You and I are friends: ‘Hey, I hope this happens, but you’ve got to do your job.’ That’s what he told Comey.”

And on “Fox News Sunday,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said that she believes the president’s version of events over Comey’s — but then she speculated.

“Say his version is true, and he said, the president said: ‘I hope you let this go,’ ” she said. “Listen, I’m a mom of kids. There’s a difference between saying ‘I hope you do your homework’ and ‘Go do your homework.’ Donald Trump, President Donald Trump, is someone who speaks definitively. He’s somebody who, when he talks to you, you know what he means.”

As U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District, Bharara developed a reputation as a tenacious and bipartisan prosecutor, indicting 17 prominent New York politicians for malfeasance, including 10 Democrats. He prosecuted insider trading cases, including one against disgraced financier Bernie Madoff.

Bharara’s jurisdiction included the headquarters of the Trump Organization, though at the time of his ouster, there was no indication that it was related to any specific case. It is common for new presidents to ask for the resignation of U.S. attorneys appointed by a predecessor, and he was one of 46 asked to step down.

Still, Bharara has said he was puzzled because Trump indicated he would keep him on in November during a meeting at Trump Tower. Bharara refused to step down, and Justice officials fired him. “To this day I have no idea why I was fired,” Bharara told Stephanopoulos.

Shortly after his removal, ProPublica reported that Bharara had been overseeing an investigation into stock trades made by Trump’s health and human services secretary, Tom Price. While a Georgia congressman, Price bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in health-care stocks while sometimes voting on legislation related to the industry.

Bharara is now a distinguished scholar in residence at the NYU School of Law and has been critical of Trump and Republicans. During last week’s hearing, he echoed Comey’s remarks that he hoped there were recordings of his conversations with Trump, as the president has hinted. “We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes,” he tweeted.

During an April 6 speech at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, he mocked Trump’s oft-repeated pledge to “drain the swamp.”

“To drain a swamp you need an Army Corps of Engineers, experts schooled in service and serious purpose, not do-nothing, say-anything neophyte opportunists who know a lot about how to bully and bluster but not so much about truth, justice and fairness,” he said.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/44082-preet-bharara-is-talking-and-his-story-sounds-a-lot-like-comeys

DC and Maryland to Sue President Trump, Alleging Breach of Constitutional Oath
Aaron C. Davis, The Washington Post
Davis writes: "Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland say they will sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House."
READ MORE

Pulse Orlando: Hundreds Gather Outside Nightclub to Remember 49 Lives Lost
Christal Hayes and Gal Tziperman Lotan, Orlando Sentinel
Excerpt: "Rainbow lights lit a makeshift stage outside the club as a string quartet played before the vigil. Forty-nine purple hearts lit up an outside wall of the club, each with a victim's name."
READ MORE

Puerto Rico Votes in Favor of Statehood
Mallory Shelbourne, The Hill
Shelbourne writes: "Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly in favor of statehood on Sunday in a referendum that begins the steps toward sending representatives to Washington, D.C."
READ MORE

Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Detained Before Moscow Protest
BBC News
Excerpt: "'Alexei Navalny has been arrested in the entrance to our block of flats,' Yuliya Navalnaya wrote on Twitter, adding 'our plans haven't changed.' Thousands of his supporters have heeded his call to protest against corruption."
READ MORE

Illinois Legislators to Trump: We Will Not Role Back Historic Environmental Laws
The Sierra Club, EcoWatch
Excerpt: "Illinois state legislators announced Friday a series of legislative proposals that would block any weakened environmental and worker protection standards from taking effect in Illinois, and also respond to President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris agreement."
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RSN: US-Made Apache Helicopter Guns Down Boat Full of Somali Refugees Fleeing Yemen, 3 Months and Counting: Pipeline Leaks Natural Gas Into Alaska's Cook Inlet

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GAMING READER SUPPORTED NEWS IS POINTLESS, NO? Obviously if thirty thousand people are coming here every day and 30 are donating then - a lot - of people think this should be free. It isn't. Sitting back and watching the organization struggle accomplishes what? Where are we going here? / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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Trevor Timm | Everyone Loves Bernie Sanders. Except, It Seems, the Democratic Party 
 
Trevor Timm, Guardian UK 
Timm writes: "If you look at the numbers, Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America - and it's not even close. Yet bizarrely, the Democratic party - out of power across the country and increasingly irrelevant - still refuses to embrace him and his message. It's increasingly clear they do so at their own peril." 
READ MORE

The Courts Gave Trump Great News About His Muslim Ban, and Almost No One Noticed 
Ian Millhiser, ThinkProgress 
Millhiser writes: "Two big stories broke Wednesday regarding President Trump's Muslim ban, but only one of them received the headlines it deserved. Worse, the largely unmentioned story is likely to have much deeper implications for the future than the story that dominated the news." 
READ MORE

Fired US Attorney Preet Bharara Said to Have Been Investigating HHS Secretary Tom Price 
Robert Faturechi, ProPublica 
Faturechi writes: "Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was removed from his post by the Trump administration last week, was overseeing an investigation into stock trades made by the president's health secretary, according to a person familiar with the office." 
READ MORE

Who Is Really Paying for Donald Trump's Border Wall? 
Massoud Hayoun, Al Jazeera 
Hayoun writes: "Former Mexican President Vicente Fox made international headlines when he tweeted to US President Donald Trump, 'Mexico is not going to pay for that f****** wall."' 
READ MORE

US-Made Apache Helicopter Guns Down Boat Full of Somali Refugees Fleeing Yemen 
Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy 
Gramer writes: "Refugees crossing oceans to flee war and famine have to contend with the risks drowning, dehydration and other perils on their journey. Now add Apache helicopters to the list." 
READ MORE

UN: Disturbing Pattern in Violence Against Colombian Activists 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "The U.N. high commissioner for human rights released its report on the Colombian peace process noting a 'deeply worrying' pattern of violence against human rights activists and community leaders." 
READ MORE

3 Months and Counting: Pipeline Leaks Natural Gas Into Alaska's Cook Inlet 
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch 
Chow writes: "For more than three months, an underwater pipeline has been spewing hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of processed natural gas per day in Alaska's Cook Inlet, possibly threatening critically endangered beluga whales, fish and other wildlife." 
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CLG: Trump gave CIA power to authorize drone strikes - report

 News Updates from CLG
15 March 2017

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

 

Previous editions: Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed

 

Trump gave CIA power to authorize drone strikes - report | 14 March 2017 | President Donald Trump has reportedly given the Central Intelligence Agency the power to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists...Unnamed US officials claim that President Trump expanded the power to conduct drone strikes from the Pentagon exclusively to the CIA, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The move has not been confirmed by the Trump administration. Under the new authority, the CIA would not require permission from the Pentagon or even the White House before launching a drone strike for a targeted killing mission.

 

Pentagon wants to declare more parts of world as temporary battlefields | 13 March 2017 | Donald Trump's administration is considering a military proposal that would designate various undeclared battlefields worldwide to be "temporary areas of active hostility", the Guardian has learned. If approved, the Pentagon-proposed measure would give military commanders the same latitude to launch strikes, raids and campaigns against enemy forces for up to six months that they possess in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

 

SEAL Team 6 joins South Korea war drill for the first time | 13 March 2017 | US special forces -- including SEAL Team 6 -- will take part in a large war drill in South Korea as part of a plan to "decapitate" the leadership in Pyongyang, according to a report. The SEAL team will join the annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises between the two allies for the first time, along with the Army's Rangers, Delta Force and Green Berets, Yonhap News Agency of South Korea reported. South Korean defense officials have confirmed that thedrill will practice taking out the North Korean leadership, the Daily Star reported.

 

U.S. force in Syria to help anti-ISIS fighters with firepower | 10 March 2017 | A Kurdish-led force fighting the Islamic State group with the support of U.S. troops will close in on the extremists' de facto capital Raqqa within a few weeks, but the battle for the city will be difficult, a U.S. military official said Thursday. [Yes, it's 'difficult' as the US is simultaneously arming and funding ISIS] Air Force Col. John Dorrian said the U.S. force consisting of a couple of hundred Marines that arrived in the region south of the Syrian-Turkish border on Wednesday will not have any front-line roles, but will provide artillery fire to support the advance of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

 

Marines have arrived in Syria to fire artillery in the fight for Raqqa | 8 March 2017 | Marines from an amphibious task force have left their ships in the Middle East and deployed to Syria, establishing an outpost from which they can fire artillery guns in support of the fight to take back the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State, defense officials said. The deployment marks a new escalation in the U.S. war in Syria, and puts more conventional U.S. troops in the battle. Several hundred Special Operations troops have advised local forces there for months, but the Pentagon has mostly shied away from using conventional forces in Syria.

 

Gunmen attack military hospital in Afghan capital, kill 4 | 08 March 2017 | Gunmen stormed a military hospital in Afghanistan's capital on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding more than 60, setting off clashes with security forces that were still underway hours later. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said an unknown number of gunmen entered the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital after an explosion and gunfire. The 400-bed military hospital is located near two civilian hospitals in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul, which is also home to several embassies.

 

Putin aide: Clinton advisers met with Russian ambassador 'lots' of times | 12 March 2017 | People associated with Hillary Clinton's campaign also met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman. "Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that [the Russian ambassador] had lots of meetings of that kind," Dmitry Peskov told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday. Peskov said that none of the meetings between campaigns and Kislyak were about the election.

 

On International Women's Day, Coup Leader of Nazi Ukraine Poroshenko Shuts Off Drinking Water Supply to Luganskn | 08 March 2017 | Ukraine has cut off the supply of drinking water to the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic from the Petrovskaya pumping station, reports the press service of the state-owned enterprise Luganskvoda. 'On March 6, 2017, at 12:00, the delivery of water from the Petrovskaya pumping station located on the territory of Ukraine, was stopped without a warning or explanation of the reason,' says the report. In this situation, the supply of water in the capital of the LPR will be carried out according to the schedule: the eastern quarters and a part of the center of Lugansk will receive water in the morning hours from 6:00 to 9:00, and in the evening from 18:00 to 22:00.

 

Brexit bill: Lords pass landmark legislation on leaving EU | 13 March 2017 | The House of Lords has passed the Brexit bill, paving the way for the government to trigger Article 50 so the UK can leave the EU. Peers backed down over the issues of EU residency rights and a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal after their objections were overturned by MPs. The bill is expected to receive Royal Assent and become law on Tuesday. The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said this would leave Theresa May free to push the button on withdrawal talks.

 

Two arrested after Germany shuts down shopping mall over fears of terrorist attack | 11 March 2017 | A major shopping center in the western German city of Essen has been sealed off after police received warnings of a possible terror plot. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident...Dozens of police surrounded the Limbecker Platz shopping mall in Essen on Saturday after receiving what they said was a credible evidence of a terror attack. Dozens of police surrounded the Limbecker Platz shopping mall in Essen on Saturday after receiving what they said was a credible evidence of a terror attack.

 

Second MACHETE attack in Dusseldorf hours after axe rampage at city station --An 80-year-old man has been attacked with a machete in Dusseldorf, just hours after a Kosovan went on a rampage with an axe in the German city's railway station. | 10 March 2017 | A manhunt has been launched for a man who is on the loose following the attack in a forest, according to reports. Teachers and pupils in a nearby school, Theodor-Fliedner-Gymnasium, have been told to stay inside. The victim has been rushed to hospital and police say the injuries are not life threatening. The incident comes just hours after seven people were left injured in Dusselford rail station after a man went on a rampage with an axe.

 

300 refugees subjects of US counterterrorism investigations | 08 March 2017 | Hundreds of refugees admitted to the US are involved in counterterrorism investigations, according to congressional sources. However, the FBI has yet to comment on the refugees' country of origin or any details of the investigations. An FBI probe of 1,000 counterterrorism investigations involves 300 refugees resettled in the US, Reuters reported Monday. This claim has already been used to defend an updated executive order blocking US entry from six Muslim-majority nations for 90 days and suspending the US visa program for 120 days.

 

'Troubled' White House intruder, 26, managed to get to outside Trump's residence before Secret Service apprehended him carrying two cans of MACE and a letter about 'Russian hackers' | 11 March 2017 | The White House intruder who entered the president's residence Friday had two cans of mace on him and told Secret Service he was a friend of Donald Trump, authorities have said. Jonathan Tuan-Anh Tran, 26, of Milpitas, California, has been identified as the suspect in the incident and made his first court appearance on Saturday, ABC News reported. He is accused of entering or remaining in restricted grounds while using or carrying a dangerous weapon. Secret Service previously reported seeing an individual scaling a fence at 11.38pm Friday night while Donald Trump was in the White House.

 

Intruder arrested on White House grounds - Secret Service | 11 March 2017 | An intruder carrying a backpack entered the White House grounds late Friday and was arrested at an entrance near the part of the building where the president resides, the U.S. Secret Service and CNN said on Saturday. President Donald Trump, who was in the White House at the time, was not in any danger from the security breach, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source. Neither the Secret Service nor the White House responded immediately to a request for further details.

 

CIA planned to hack cars and trucks to carry out undetectable assassinations claims WikiLeaks | 08 March 2017 | WikiLeaks has claimed the CIA planned to hack cars and trucks to carry out assassinations. The secretive organisation said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used the phone's geolocation software to tap into vehicle control systems in modern cars. The hacking organisation made the statement as it announced a huge release of confidential documents from the CIA as part of its mysterious Year Zeroseries, founder Julian Assange claimed. It claims the CIA has been carrying out a global covert hacking program that exploits US and European companies.

 

Next WikiLeaks worry: the release of the code | 8 March 2017 | The computer security world is bracing for the next bombshell from the massive Wikileaks document leak: disclosure of the actual computer code for the CIA's alleged cyberweapons.

 

Hundreds of Radioactive Boars in Fukushima Thwart Residents' Plans to Return Home | 09 March 2017 | They descend on towns and villages, plundering crops and rampaging through homes. They occasionally attack humans. But perhaps most dangerous of all, the marauders carry with them highly radioactive material. Hundreds of toxic wild boars have been roaming across northern Japan, where the meltdown[s] of the Fukushima nuclear plant six years ago forced thousands of residents to desert their homes, pets and livestock...According to tests conducted by the Japanese government, some of the boars have shown levels of radioactive element cesium-137 that are 300 times higher than safety standards.

 

First photos of radioactive wild boar roaming Fukushima's nuclear wastelands as they're culled for attacking people | 10 March 2017 | We've all heard the crazy stories about radioactive boar roaming the nuclear wastelands of Fukushima. But such an outlandish tale can't possibly be true, can it? No-one has ever seen pictures of these creatures--until now. These incredibly unusual photographs of the terrifying mammals were taken in the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, whose reactors went into meltdown after it was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

 

Twitter is quietly hiding accounts behind a warning page - users are baffled --'Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content' | 09 March 2017 | A number of Twitter users are reporting that the site has started hiding their accounts behind a warning message. People visiting their pages are instead being shown a greyed-out version of their profile, with their pictures and tweets hidden from view. A message in the middle of the screen reads, "Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content. You're seeing this warning because they Tweet potentially sensitive images or language. Do you still want to view it?" A "Yes, view profile" button sits below. Many of the users affected by the barrier appear to be baffled as to why their profiles are being targeted by the site.

 

(Re)Secularizing the University -- By Michael Rectenwald | 14 March 2017 | I have unwittingly inserted myself into an ongoing and intensifying maelstrom in which speakers are now routinely prevented from speaking by "anti-fascist," black bloc activists, who overturn cars and set them on fire, pepper-spray speakers, and then, if speakers manage to reach the microphone, chant them down with collective hecklers' vetoes. At the same time, "social justice" activists and other students retreat to safe spaces--replete with crayons, coloring books and therapy pets. Such safe spaces are meant to protect students, not from the alarming violence of their compeers, but from the supposedly triggering, injurious expression of those protested... My search for plausible precursors to the privilege-checking and callout culture of social justice milieus led to post-1968 French feminists, who read Mao's Little Red Book and imbibed a Maoist ethos, incorporating ideological purging elements of the Cultural Revolution, such as "struggle sessions" and "autocritique," or self-criticism.

 

White House: Trump paid $38 million in income tax in 2005 | 14 March 2017 | The White House said Tuesday President Donald Trump earned more than 150 million in income and paid 38 million in taxes even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction in response to questions about the coming publication of his 2005 return. The 38 million was in addition to "paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes," a White House official said. Journalist David Cay Johnston published the return information ahead of an appearance on MSNBC.

 

Twitter Just SHREDDED Rachel Maddow Over Trump Tax Return 'Story' | 14 March 2017 | MSNBC's unapologetic liberal "journalist" Rachel Maddow lit the internet on fire Tuesday night when she teased via Twitter that she'd gotten her hands on President Donald Trump’s tax returns...If only it'd been true.

 

Trump releases 2005 tax info ahead of MSNBC report | 14 March 2017 | The White House says President Donald Trump made more than 150 million in income in 2005 and paid 38 million in income taxes that year. The acknowledgement came as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said she has obtained part of Trump's 2005 tax forms, and prepared to discuss the document on her Tuesday night show...The White House pushed back pre-emptively Tuesday night, saying that publishing those returns would be illegal. "You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago," the White House said in a statement.

 

James Comey to reveal if FBI is investigating Trump-Russia ties | 14 March | FBI director James Comey is set to officially reveal if the bureau is investigating Donald Trump and his administration's [alleged] ties to Russia during the presidential election. Since Trump's inauguration in late January, Congress intelligence committees, in both the House and Senate, have announced investigations into Trump's [alleged] link to Russia. The FBI has continually skirted around the question if the bureau was also looking into the matter, but the matter will be made public after Comey speaks with two senators on Wednesday.

 

Dennis Kucinich: I'm no fan of Trump's but he's got a point about wiretapping | 10 March 2017 | President Trump's assertion that his phones at Trump Tower were tapped last year has been treated as hilarious--and in some circles as beyond contempt. But I can vouch for the fact that extracurricular surveillance does occur, regardless of whether it is officially approved. I was wiretapped in 2011 after taking a phone call in my congressional office from a foreign leader.

 

Graham ready to subpoena for Trump wiretap information | 8 March 2017 | Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday he is ready to subpoena the intelligence agencies for evidence that would prove President Donald Trump's claims that he was wiretapped last year by then-President Barack Obama. Asked by CNN if he would subpoena for any evidence, the South Carolina Republican said, "Yes. All I can say is that the country needs an answer to this. The current President has accused the former President of basically wiretapping his campaign," Graham said, one day after he joined Trump for a one-on-one lunch at the White House.

 

New York U.S. attorney Preet Bharara says Trump fired him | 11 March 2017 | New York-based U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Saturday that the Trump administration fired him after he refused to its request to resign along with 45 other U.S. attorneys across the nation. "Today, I was fired from my position as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York," he said in a statement.

 

Trump administration dismisses 46 US attorneys | 10 March 2017 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked for the resignation of 46 US attorneys, the Justice Department announced Friday. "As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice. The attorney general has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed US attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition," Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores said. Administrations have the right to replace and nominate US attorneys...In mid-March 2001, President [sic] George W. Bush's attorney general said he was transitioning most of the 93 US attorneys before June of that year.

 

Trump administration shifts from 'insurance for everybody' | 14 March 2017 | The White House shifted from President Trump's stated goal of providing "insurance for everybody" on Tuesday, instead promising that the House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare offers "more people the option to get healthcare." The altered tone from Press Secretary Sean Spicer comes as the bill faces new scrutiny, including a report Monday from the independent Congressional Budget Office concluding that 24 million fewer people will have insurance by 2026 under the GOP plan. Spicer took issue with that analysis, in part by insisting that it failed to take into account separate actions Republicans say they plan to take after their initial bill.

 

Trump threatens GOP: Back health bill or get primaried | 10 March 2017 | President Trump has told Republican leaders that he's prepared to play hardball with congressional conservatives to pass the GOP healthcare bill, including by supporting the 2018 primary challengers of any Republican who votes against the bill. Sources told the Washington Examiner that Trump made that threat in a White House meeting on Tuesday with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and other members of the House GOP whip team that helps line up votes. Trump's threat is one that could resonate. Most of the Republicans who oppose the GOP's American Health Care Act represent ruby red districts that strongly support Trump and his agenda.

 

Trump claims ObamaCare was designed to 'explode' this year | 10 March 2017 | President Trump on Friday accused congressional Democrats and President Obama of conniving to make sure that ObamaCare would "explode" in 2017 - because Obama would be out of office by then. "We must act now to save Americans from the imploding ObamaCare disaster. Premiums have skyrocketed by double digits and triple digits in some cases...and [are] going up a lot higher," the president said.

 

G.O.P. Health Bill Clears 2 House Panels After Marathon Sessions | 09 March 2017 | The Republican drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act advanced on Thursday as two House committees approved broad legislation to undo the law and replace it with a more modest system of tax credits and a rollback of President Barack Obama's Medicaid expansion. The House Energy and Commerce Committee endorsed the legislation on a party-line vote of 31 to 23 after a session that lasted more than 27 hours. The House Way and Means Committee had approved the measure in a predawn session on Thursday. The House Budget Committee must give its approval to the measure next week before a final House vote that Speaker Paul D. Ryan plans for the week of March 20.

 

The House GOP's puzzling ObamaCare replacement | 10 March 2017 | On reading the House Republicans' new American Healthcare Act, it is difficult to understand what the proposal is designed to accomplish, either substantively or politically. On the one hand, it contains enough provisions with superficial resemblances to those in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that it seems sure to inflame the "Repeal Only" faction. Yet on the other hand, it fails to prevent millions of people from losing coverage; as soon as that becomes known, swing-district members will again be facing outrage in constituent meetings. 

 

Influential hospitals, doctor groups come out against House proposal | 8 March 2017 | A constellation of influential groups representing the nation's hospitals and physicians came out Wednesday against a House Republican proposal to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, marking the latest round of setbacks to the controversial plan. Seven groups representing the nation's hospitals, health systems and medical colleges collectively added their "significant concerns" to the growing opposition, focusing on the prospect of sharply lower numbers of insured Americans if the Republicans' plans were to become law. Separately, the American Medical Association rejected the bill for the same reason.

 

Q&A: The facts on the Republican health care bill | 8 March 2017 | House Republicans released their replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act on March 6. How does the GOP's American Health Care Act differ from the ACA? We look at the major provisions.

 

U.S. job growth rises briskly, wages continue to climb | 10 March 2017 | US jobless figures would give Fed chief Janet Yellen the green light to raise rates next week. US job growth increased more than expected in February and wages rose steadily, new figures show today. The figures could give the Federal Reserve the green light to raise interest rates next week despite slowing economic growth. Non-farm payrolls rose by 235,000 jobs last month as the construction sector recorded its largest gain in nearly 10 years due to unseasonably warm weather, the Labor Department said today. The economy created 9,000 more jobs in December and January than previously reported.

 

First lady Melania Trump touts equality at International Women's Day luncheon | 8 March 2017 | First lady Melania Trump spoke about equality, freedom and the responsibility women have to help each other achieve success at an invitation-only luncheon honoring International Women's Day Wednesday at the White House. "As an immigrant myself, having grown up in a communist society, I know all too well the value and importance of freedom and equal opportunity -- ideals which this great nation was founded and has continued to strive towards throughout its history," Trump said according to her prepared remarks obtained by CNN from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser and chief strategist to the first lady. The first lady spoke from a podium in the State Dining Room, focusing on atrocities women are confronted with around the world, including human trafficking.

 

Undocumented person deported five times killed a California woman | 7 March 2017 | An illegal Mexican immigrant with a long rap sheet who has been deported five times allegedly killed a Californian woman in a violent drunk driving crash. Estuardo Alvarado, 45, was arrested after slamming his car into the back of Sandra Duran's vehicle in North Hills, Los Angeles on February 19 after fleeing another crash he had just been involved in. The 42-year-old mother died at the scene of blunt force trauma.

 

Study: Hillary Clinton ran one of the worst campaigns in years | 11 March 2017 | A new study by the Wesleyan Media Project has found that the 2016 presidential campaign run by Hillary Clinton is without a doubt one of the worst-run political operations in years. Interestingly, the directors of the study dispute the argument that "advertising doesn't matter" in elections. Clinton's failure to advertise in certain key states, they argue, was the biggest reason for her defeat by Donald Trump. The study also backs the view thatClinton's focus on identity politics and emphasis on condemning her opposition contributed to a campaign message devoid of substance with no clear message on policy.

 

States of emergency are declared in FOUR Eastern states as dangerous nor'easter prepares to dump up to two feet of snow on the region after claiming two lives in the Midwest --Four states have been placed under a state of emergency: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland | 14 March 2017 | A state of emergency has been issued in four states across the northeast as Winter Storm Stella is set to slam the area with up to two feet of snow on Monday and Tuesday. State of emergencies in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland have all taken affect as of midnight on Monday and 50 million residents are being urged to prepare for the 'life-threatening' storm. The harsh winter weather has already claimed lives in Milwaukee after two elderly men on different sides of the city collapsed while shoveling snow on Monday.

 

Blizzard takes aim at northeastern U.S., flights canceled | 13 March 2017 | A fast-moving winter storm bringing up to two feet of snow was expected to hit the northeastern United States, forecasters warned on Monday, prompting airlines to cancel thousands of flights and some mayors to order schools to close on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, with forecasts calling for up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow by early Wednesday, with temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal for this time of year. Some 50 million people along the Eastern Seaboard were under storm or blizzard warnings and watches.

 

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