Friday, September 2, 2016

Black Lives Matter Cartoons





Black Lives Matter accuses Dems of 'placating' group, after memo leaked


Black Lives Matter slammed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after a memo leaked late Wednesday seemed to show the group carefully coaching candidates on how to avoid angering the "radical" activists.
The November 2015 memo included tips like: Do not offer “support for concrete policy positions;” be sure to "lead from behind;" stick to "small" meetings; and avoid mentioning terms like "black-on-black crime."
On its Facebook page, BLM said officials should "stop pacifying" them.
“We are disappointed at the DCCC’s placating response to our demand to value all Black life. Black communities deserve to be heard, not handled. People are dying,” the organization said, in response to the leaked document.
The leaked files were posted along with other Democratic documents by Guccifer 2.0, a hacker of unknown origin who the U.S. says could be working out of Russia and is intent on disrupting the U.S. presidential election. Guccifer 2.0 claims the documents were taken from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s personal computer.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, in a statement, called the leak an “attempt by Russia to influence our election,” while saying Pelosi “does not support the content or attitude of this memo. On many occasions, Leader Pelosi has publicly supported the ideals embraced by the Black Lives Matter movement and continues to do so.”
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He also noted Pelosi “does not have a personal computer at the DCCC so no hacked, dumped or doctored documents can be attributed to her computer.”
It's the latest leak to dog Democrats, after another document dump exposed discussions in the upper reaches of the party about undermining Hillary Clinton primary foe Bernie Sanders.
The Nov. 19, 2015, memo was sent to DCCC staff by Troy Perry, who was the DCCC director of diversity but now works for the Clinton campaign. The DCCC is House Democrats' campaign arm.
In the email, he lays out the “best practices” for dealing with Black Lives Matter members.
“If approached by BLM activists, campaign staff should offer to meet with local activists. Invited BLM attendees should be limited,” the email said. “Please aim for personal or small group meetings. Listen to their concerns, don’t offer support for concrete policy positions.”
The memo also urged against mentioning "black on black crime" or "all lives matter."
"This response will garner additional media scrutiny and only anger BLM activists," the memo said.
Meredith Kelly, national press secretary for the DCCC, said in a statement Wednesday that the organization “highly respects and values the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
“In less than two years, BLM has evolved from three words into a political force that is changing and waking our nation,” she said. “At the DCCC, we highly encourage our candidates to not only embrace the importance of this movement, but to meet with and listen to community activists to partner social change.”
Black Lives Matter is a national organization that was created in 2012 after the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The movement has since grown and the group has been at the forefront of documenting and protesting the killings of Alton Sterling, a black man shot several times during an encounter with police officers outside a convenience store, and Philando Castile, a Minnesota man whose death was livestreamed on the Internet.
Its members have also gotten into confrontations with political candidates, including Democrats.

State Department to release all Clinton schedules before election


The State Department agreed Thursday to turn over all the planning schedules from Hillary Clinton's time serving as secretary of state to The Associated Press by mid-October in an abrupt reversal from U.S. government lawyers' warning last week that hundreds of pages would not be released until after the presidential election.
The decision will make available all of Clinton's minute-by-minute schedules before the presidential election.
Those planning documents offer a detailed look at Clinton's daily routine during her four-year tenure as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
The State Department provided the AP some of the Democratic presidential nominee's official calendars from her time at the department, but some of those calendars had been edited after her events and, in some cases, names of those who met with her had been omitted.
The department has so far released about half of her more complete daily schedules.
"As stated in today’s court filing, the Department had no objection to shifting its resources as long as its overall processing burden was not increased," State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement. "Consequently, the Department plans to complete its production of former Secretary Clinton’s schedules not later than October 17.”
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The new agreement Thursday was drawn up after government lawyers told the AP last week that the department expected to release the last of the detailed daily schedules around Dec. 30, weeks after the election. The AP had objected to the delays.
The daily schedules drew attention last week after the AP reviewed the two years of schedules released so far, plus Clinton's official calendars. From those, the AP determined that more than half the people who Clinton met or spoke with — outside of members of the U.S. or foreign governments — had donated to the Clinton Foundation either personally or through companies or groups.
The AP's review focused on Clinton's discretionary contacts with outside interests and excluded her meetings or calls with federal officials or foreign government representatives, because those contacts were part of her regular diplomatic obligations.
Clinton has said the AP's analysis was flawed because it did not account fully for all meetings and phone calls during her entire term as secretary. She also said the analysis should have included meetings with federal employees and foreign diplomats.
The State Department's decision Thursday to turn over all of the more-detailed daily schedules by Oct. 17 means it will have to triple its pace of producing 600 pages a month. That production schedule was ordered last January by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon.
The AP first asked for all Clinton's calendars in 2010 and again in 2013 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, but the State Department did not release them. After further delays, the AP sued the State Department in federal court in March 2015 to obtain the planning materials and other records, leading to Leon's order.

Watchdog: Foundation exec sought help from Clinton aide on diplomatic passports

Emails shed light on Huma involvement in Clinton Foundation
A new batch of emails released Thursday allegedly shows a top Clinton Foundation official asking Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin for help obtaining diplomatic passports – though Clinton officials say the request was related to the effort to secure the release of two American journalists held in North Korea.
The July 2009 exchange was included in the release of 510 pages of State Department documents obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch, which had sued in court for records.
In the exchange, then-Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band says he needs the special passports for himself and others.
“Need get me/ justy and jd dip passports,” he writes. “We had them years ago but they lapsed and we didn’t bother getting them.”
“Ok will figure it out,” Abedin replies.
Bill Clinton spokesman Angel Urena said in response Thursday that the exchange does not tell the whole story.
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“The trip led to the successful release of two American journalists who were being held in North Korea,” Urena said. “This request turned out to be unnecessary and the trip was able to occur without diplomatic passports.”
But Judicial Watch noted that federal law “strictly limits” such passports to certain individuals, including Foreign Service officers and those “having diplomatic status or comparable status because he or she is traveling abroad to carry out diplomatic duties on behalf of the U.S. Government.” Their family members and government contractors also are eligible.
“The idea that the State Department would even consider a diplomatic passport for Clinton Foundation executives is beyond belief,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin also said the request was related to freeing the journalists.
“Judicial Watch is now attacking State Department officials and the 42nd President of the United States for rescuing two American journalists from North Korea,” Schwerin said in a written statement. “This is a new low even for this right-wing organization that has been going after the Clintons since the 1990s.”
The State Department referred Fox News back to the federal regulations, saying they could not comment on individual cases.
Judicial Watch said the new documents include 37 email exchanges not in the original 30,000 handed over to the State Department.
The Judicial Watch release comes on the heels of another release earlier this week between Band and Abedin.
In that exchange of emails -- released as part of a public records lawsuit filed by the conservative group Citizens United -- Band suggested individuals from companies that had donated to the foundation be included at a State Department lunch with then-Chinese President Hu Jintao scheduled for January 2011, according to ABC News. 

Trump changed immigration policy speech after Mexican president's tweet


As Donald Trump arrived in Phoenix late Wednesday, fresh from a visit to Mexico City’s presidential palace, he had in his hands a big immigration speech that omitted the usual line that Mexico would have to pay for his proposed wall along the U.S. southern border.
Just after landing, though, Mr. Trump discovered that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had tweeted that he had told the Republican presidential nominee during their private meeting earlier that day that his country would refuse to pay for the wall.
Mr. Trump was peeved that Mr. Peña Nieto had gone public with the fact that the Mexican president had broken what Mr. Trump considered a deal to keep the question of paying for the wall off the table at their initial meeting.
So Mr. Trump hurriedly inserted a new sentence in his immigration speech, and he soon boomed out from the podium his traditional declaration that the wall would be paid for by Mexico—adding, “They don’t know it yet but they’re going to pay for the wall.”
“I had no choice,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Thursday. But he also said of the Mexican president, “I liked him very much.”
All told, Wednesday was a day of exceptional twists and turns, spanning multiple time zones and two countries, on the trade and immigration issues that have become signatures of the Trump presidential campaign.
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The day wasn't only one of the most unusual in the campaign, but one of the most controversial. Many Mexicans were incensed that their president invited Mr. Trump. A poll published in the Reforma newspaper Wednesday showed 85% of Mexicans disapproved of the invitation, and 72% thought it weakened the Mexican government.
As the dispute between Mr. Trump and Mr. Peña Nieto over paying for the wall escalated, John Podesta, the chairman of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, tweeted late Thursday: “What a mess.”
The high-stakes day, which seemed to have been put together at the last minute, actually had been discussed internally for weeks, according to Trump campaign advisers. The campaign saw the meeting in Mexico as a chance to appeal to moderate voters, and the immigration speech as a chance to motivate Mr. Trump’s core voters.
A person close to Mr. Peña Nieto said that “since there was such a clear disagreement in preparatory conversations over issues about the wall and its payment, both parties agreed not to discuss them at the meeting, and instead talk about other topics, such as the great contribution that the Mexican community makes in the U.S., illegal drugs and weapons trafficking, bilateral trade, within North America and the rest of the world.” The person added: “Before the conversation began, Mr. Peña Neto reiterated to Mr. Trump that Mexico won’t pay for any wall, and as agreed, they discussed other topics.”
At the press conference after the meeting, the Trump campaign got the photo op it wanted of Mr. Trump and a world leader. The size of the press turnout pleased the candidate. When asked if they discussed the GOP nominee’s proposed wall, Mr. Trump said they did, but not who would pay for it. Mr. Peña Nieto stayed silent. It wasn’t until landing in Phoenix that Mr. Trump saw the Mexican’s tweet about not paying.
Mr. Trump and his team were stunned, advisers said. News reports were questioning why Mr. Trump didn’t discuss the payment issue at the joint press conference.

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