Thursday, November 30, 2017

Tax Cartoons





Tax cut bill clears Senate test vote as Trump eyes 'big victory'


The Republican plan to overhaul the nation’s tax system cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday, as President Trump rallied support for the bill and called it the “beginning of the next great chapter for the American worker.” 
The bill advanced on a 52-48 party line vote, allowing senators to start debate on the sweeping legislation. 
Ahead of the floor vote, President Trump traveled to Missouri to rally support for the bill -- and pressure Congress.
“Now comes the moment of truth,” the president said during a rally in St. Louis. “In the coming days, the American people will learn which politicians are part of the swamp and which politicians want to drain the swamp.”
He said, “The eyes of the world now turn to the United States Senate. ... A successful vote in the Senate this week will bring us one giant step closer to delivering a big victory to the American people.”
Speaking at the St. Charles Convention Center on Wednesday, the president said he is working to “help push our plan for historic tax cuts right across the finish line.”
“A vote to cut taxes is a vote to put America first again,” the president said in St. Louis. “We want to do that, we want to put America first again. It's time to take care of our workers, to protect our communities and to rebuild our great country.”
He also took aim at Missouri’s Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill, a top Republican target in the 2018 midterm elections.
“Senator Claire McCaskill -- have you ever heard of her? -- is doing you a tremendous disservice,” Trump said. “She wants your taxes to go up. She's weak on crime. She's weak on borders. She's weak on illegal immigration. And she's weak on the military. Other than that, I think she's doing a fantastic job.”
Critics say both the House and Senate versions will disproportionately help the wealthy and corporations.
But Trump on Wednesday argued some super wealthy people – including himself – won’t like everything in the bill.
President Donald Trump points to sign that reads Merry Christmas as he arrives to speak about tax reform at the St. Charles Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, in St. Charles, Mo. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Ahead of the floor vote, President Trump traveled to Missouri to rally support for the bill -- and pressure Congress.  (AP)
“We're also going to eliminate tax breaks and complex loopholes taken advantage of by the wealthy… I think my accountants are going crazy right now,” he said.
He added: “It's all right. Hey, look, I'm president. I don't care. I don't care anymore. I don't care. Some of my wealthy friends care. Me, I don't care. This is a higher calling.”
The bill still faces hurdles in the Senate, where Republicans have just two votes to spare in their 52-48 edge over Democrats.
“If they send it to my desk, I promise all of the people in this room, my friends, so many friends in this room -- a great state -- I promise you I will sign it,” Trump said. “I promise. I will not veto that bill. There will be no veto.”
As it stands, the Senate’s tax overhaul plan is different from that of the House’s version. The two chambers would need to come together on a unified piece of legislation to advance to President Trump’s desk.
Under the Senate bill, the standard deduction – the amount which reduces the amount of income Americans are taxed – would increase to $12,000 for individual filers and $24,000 for married couples.
When it comes to reducing the corporate tax rate, both chambers want to see the tax rate lowered to 20 percent from 35 percent. However, the Senate measure would delay the implementation for one year.
The Senate’s tax plan would eliminate state and local tax deductions – meaning taxpayers in high-tax states would lose a write-off. This would impact mostly blue states, such as California and New York.
The Senate’s tax plan also includes a repeal of the individual mandate, the ObamaCare requirement for Americans to have health care.
The Senate tax reform measure would leave the mortgage deduction pretty much alone, capping it at $1 million. The House plan, on the other hand, would drastically reduce the cap on the popular deduction to mortgage interest to $500,000.

Democrat Conyers used his power to protect himself, top staffer in sexual harassment cases, accuser says


One of the women accusing the powerful Democratic Rep. John Conyers of sexual harassment claimed to Fox News on Wednesday night that in addition to touching her inappropriately, he also failed to protect her when one of his top staffers assaulted her.
Deanna Maher, 77, has accused Conyers, D-Mich., of engaging in three inappropriate incidents in the late 1990s. She said the first was in 1997 when she rejected his offer to share a hotel room and have sex. She added that the others involved unwanted touching in a car in 1998 and unwanted touching of her legs under her dress in 1999.
In an interview on Fox News’ “The Story” with Martha MacCallum, Maher emotionally described the incident with Conyers' high-level staffer as “pretty devastating.” She said it happened in 2001 when she was 61.
CONYERS’ FORMER TOP STAFFER ACCUSES CONGRESSMAN OF INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING
She said the unnamed staffer grabbed her, forced her against a wall and “stuck his tongue down my throat at my age.”
“I can’t tell you how ashamed I felt,” she said. “Dirty.”
Afterwards, Maher, a former deputy chief of staff for Conyers, claimed the congressman gave her no help whatsoever. “I got no protection afterwards because Congressman Conyers covered that whole thing up.”
She also noted that Conyers was a powerful member of the Judiciary Committee and that it controlled funding for the Department of Justice.
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS NOT SEEKING CONYERS’ RESIGNATION, DESPITE PRESSURE FROM OTHER DEMS
“Do you realize that’s all the jobs and all the budgets,” she said to MacCallum. “And that’s what he controlled. So all he has to do is pick up a phone call and destroy someone’s life.”
When the initial incidents with Conyers allegedly took place, Maher said she didn’t report them but was “appalled,” “shocked” and “devastated,” especially since she said they happened on government property with federal law enforcement nearby.
Maher told MacCallum that she was sharing her experiences for the young women entering the workforce on the Hill, saying that when these encounters happened to her she was a mother and a grandmother and “not any young chicken.”
“I’m really trying to stand up for them because they are vulnerable,” she said. “It’s very exciting and glamorous to be part of Capitol Hill, congressional hearings and this is where they are shooting ducks.”
Fox News reached out to Conyers' office and did not get an immediate response.
Conyers surrendered his post as the House Judiciary Committee's top Democrat after a report that he'd quietly settled a complaint by a former aide who said he'd harassed her. Conyers' attorney, Arnold Reed, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the lawmaker has no plans to leave Congress and will fight the accusations against him "tooth and nail."

NY Times tweets GOP phone numbers, irking party leadership


How badly does the New York Times editorial board want the GOP tax-reform bill to fail? Apparently enough to tweet the phone numbers of seven GOP senators who might be inclined to vote against it.
But Wednesday's move, which journalism's Old Gray Lady dubbed an "experiment" to get its viewpoint across, didn't sit well with the Grand Old Party leadership.
In fact, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slammed the Times' maneuver.
“NYT published Republican senators’ phone numbers in order to push their liberal agenda," McDaniel tweeted. "Can we now stop pretending that the NYT isn't a political organization?”
In response, the GOP also tweeted the Times’ switchboard number and urged the public to “let them know how you feel about their liberal bias.”
And numerous social media users called out the Times, calling it “a Super PAC” and questioning whether it was ethical for the publication to issue a direct call to action to its readers.
Passage of the tax-reform bill, of course, would be a major legislative victory for President Donald Trump.
But in a series of tweets, the Times criticized the plan and asked readers to contact moderate Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bob Corker of Tennessee, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Jerry Moran of Kansas.
“Contact @SenJohnMcCain and @JeffFlake, particularly if you live in Arizona, and tell them to oppose the tax bill: It would add more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years without helping the middle class,” read one of the tweets.
The Times explained its move.
“This morning, the Times editorial board is tweeting here to urge the Senate to reject a tax bill that hurts the middle class & the nation's fiscal health,” the Times’ Opinion Twitter account said.
The Times also took a swipe at Trump, accusing him of tweeting questionable videos about Muslims on Wednesday morning, as a distraction to discourage questions about the tax bill.
“Don't let Trump's tweets of Islamophobic conspiracy theories distract you," the newspaper tweeted. "Call your senator and tell him or her that #thetaxbillhurts.”
It remained unclear if this was the first time the paper’s editorial board undertook such an effort. A Times spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday only that the approach was an “experiment” to get the anti-GOP message out.
"The Editorial Board has been writing for weeks about concerns over the tax legislation pending in Congress," Times senior vice president of communications Eileen Murphy said. "This was an experiment in using a different platform to get that message out. We emphasized to our audience that this was the position of the Editorial Board in particular, not of Times Opinion generally."

Knocking Trump off Twitter was a 'mistake,' ex-employee says


Bahtiyar Duysak told TechCrunch deactivating President Trump's Twitter account was a "mistake."  (Reuters)
A former Twitter employee who stunned the world earlier this month by deactivating President Donald Trump’s account for 11 minutes has now stepped forward.
Bahtiyar Duysak owned up to his involvement in the Nov. 3 Trump outage Wednesday in an interview with TechCrunch.
Duysak, who is of Turkish decent but born and raised in Germany, called the outage a “mistake,” and said he didn’t think the president’s Twitter account would actually get deactivated.
Before leaving Twitter on the day of the outage, Duysak was assigned to the trust and safety division of customer support while he neared the end of his work and study visa.
The team is in charge of responding to alerts of offensive tweets, bad behavior, etc.
During his last day on the job, Duysak said, someone had reported Trump’s account. So as his final act as a Twitter employee, he decided to start the process of deactivating the account before he signed off for good.
Duysak said he didn’t think much of it, until several hours later when he learned what happened to the president's account and that a media uproar followed.
Bypassing mainstream media
Trump has consistently used Twitter to bypass the mainstream media and reach his 43.6 million followers directly, sometimes with content that some consider inflammatory.
On Wednesday, Trump faced backlash for retweeting several videos that appeared to show Muslims committing acts of violence, with British Prime Minister Theresa May among the critics.
However, Trump seemed to ignore the criticism telling May in a tweet “don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.”
Trump’s large social media presence was a crucial tool during his presidential campaign, and a platform that he acknowledged played a role in his election victory, the Washington Post noted.  
'Full internal review'
According to TechCrunch, Trump’s account was supposed to be protected from deactivation over a Terms of Service violation.
Twitter initially blamed the outage on “human error,” but later learned that “a Twitter customer support employee” was responsible and promised to be “conducting a full internal review.”
As for whether there will be legal repercussions, Duysak told TechCrunch he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and hopes to “continue an ordinary life.”

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Golden State Calif. Cartoons





Senate GOP Introduce Last Minute Tax Bill Changes Ahead of Key Committee Vote

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaks to reporters following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
GOP senators made last minute changes to the tax reform bill in an effort to win over undecided lawmakers ahead of a key committee vote.
Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Steve Daines say they could vote against the tax bill.
They argue the legislation puts limited-liability companies and small businesses at a disadvantage compared to larger corporations.
Meanwhile, Senator Bob Corker expressed concern the tax reform could jeopardize budget revenues in the short-term.
The tax bill is expected to clear Congress this week with senators confident they can reach an agreement.
“We always have to deal with everybody, so it’s not any one particular person,” said Senator Orrin Hatch. “This is … these are tough times these are tough issues hard to deal with and we intend to deal with them we’re always able to come out all right in the end, so we’ll see what happens.”
Experts say the proposed tax overhaul would boost the GDP by at least 0.4 percent per year over the next decade.

Signature Gathering Underway to Repeal New Calif. Gas Tax Hike

In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, gasoline prices are displayed at a Chevron station in Sacramento, Calif.
OAN Newsroom
Backers of an initiative to repeal California’s controversial gas tax have began to gather signatures.
The bill was signed into law in last April, raising gas prices across the state by 12 cents per gallon, and hiking vehicle registration fees by up to $175.
The signature drive kicked off in San Diego on Monday in an effort to reverse the legislation.
Although the gas tax aims to fund infrastructure improvements, critics claim it does not take into account the high cost of living in the state.
Organizers of the repeal effort have until January to obtain more than 365,000 signatures to get the issue on next November’s ballot.

Second House Dem calls for Conyers to resign as sex misconduct outcry grows


A second Democratic lawmaker called on Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to step down Tuesday over sexual misconduct allegations hours after Conyers' former deputy chief of staff detailed three occasions when he made unwanted advances toward her.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said in a statement that while she had looked up to Conyers for decades, "I believe these women, I see the pattern and there is only one conclusion – Mr. Conyers must resign."
Jayapal joined Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., as the only two lawmakers who have said Conyers should resign from Congress. In a statement of her own last week, Rice called the allegations against Conyers "as credible as they are repulsive."
The 88-year-old Conyers has been under fire since a BuzzFeed News report that he had paid a former staffer more than $27,000 in 2015 to settle a complaint from the woman alleging that she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. BuzzFeed also published affidavits from former staff members who said they had witnessed Conyers touching female staffers inappropriately or requesting sexual favors.
Deanna Maher, who worked for Conyers between 1997 and 2005, told the Detroit News Tuesday that the congressman partially undressed in front of her in a hotel suite during a 1997 Congressional Black Caucus event.
"I didn't have a room and he had me put in his hotel suite," said Maher, adding that she rejected his offer to share his room at the Grand Hyatt in Washington and have sex.
Maher, now 77, said Conyers also touched her inappropriately in a car in 1998 and touched her legs under her dress in 1999. She said she didn't report the harassment because Conyers is a powerful man in Washington and she didn't think it would be taken seriously.
On Tuesday, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) met behind closed doors to determine whether they could convince Conyers to resign his seat or leave the organization he helped found in 1971. A spokeswoman for the CBC said Tuesday that the group has no additional comments about the allegations against Conyers beyond a statement released last week that condemned the alleged behavior and called for an House Ethics Committee investigation.
CBC Chair Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., told reporters that he and Conyers "had a good conversation" and said he "did not ask [Conyers] to resign."
When asked if Conyers should resign, Richmond said "I have no idea ... that's a personal decision."
Conyers has denied the allegations and refused to resign, though he did announce Sunday that he would step aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Separately Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a letter to the Ethics panel that it should move quickly in its inquiry.
"We are at a watershed moment for our country in the fight against sexual harassment and discrimination," Pelosi wrote. "The Committee on Ethics has a great responsibility to proceed expeditiously as well as fairly into any investigation of credible harassment and discrimination allegations."

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un ordered missile launch, saying, ‘Fire with courage’


North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un ordered his engineers on Tuesday to launch the country’s new intercontinental ballistic missile with "courage" a day ahead of the flight test where it demonstrated its reach deep into the U.S. mainland.
State television on Wednesday broadcast a photo of Kim's signed order where he wrote: "Test launch is approved. Taking place at the daybreak of Nov. 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!"
North Korea’s state television said that the nuclear-capable intercontinental-ballistic missile that was launched earlier is “significantly more” powerful than the previous weapon and puts the entire United States in its crosshairs.
The report called the weapon a Hwasong 15. The launch was detected after it was fired early Wednesday morning from a site near Pyongyang.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, which first reported the launch, said the missile launch happened around 3 a.m. local time in North Korea. South Korea fired pinpoint missiles into nearby waters to make sure North Korea understands it can be "taken under fire" by the South, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said.
The South Korean military said that the missile was fired from an area near Pyongyang. It reached a height of 2,796 miles and traveled 596 miles, demonstrating the potential to reach a range of 8,100 miles. David Wright, a U.S. physicist who has studied North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, said that this would put any part of the U.S. comfortably within reach of a North Korean missile strike.
One factor that could significantly affect the missile’s range is the payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analyst said.
North Korea has been working to perfect “re-entry” technology to one day have a warhead be able to survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. This ICBM would be able to hit any city within the U.S. if a warhead is able to survive re-entry.
It was determined by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) that the missile "did not pose a threat to North America, our territories or our allies," Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning III told Fox News.
Manning, in an earlier statement, said: "We are in the process of assessing the situation, and we will be providing additional details when available.”

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Morning Joe Cartoons



More media bashing: Trump hits 'fake' networks, CNN, 'Morning Joe'


There’s a post-Thanksgiving buffet of possible topics, from the Senate scramble over tax reform to just who’s running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to whether Sarah Huckabee Sanders actually baked a pecan pie. (Really. That became a thing after correspondent April Ryan challenged the authenticity of said pie on Twitter. Seriously.)
But let’s start with the president of the United States slamming the media for the umpteenth time: This is no longer a feud or a battle but a permanent feature of the Trump tenure.
Trump now says all the networks, with one notable exception, are unfair to him, and yesterday he took to the Twitter:
“We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”
I always say the president has every right to hit back at what he views as bad journalism. But I think the constant drumbeat of “fake news”—not about particular stories but entire networks—is losing its punch.
Trump’s most ardent supporters will cheer, but the other networks do stories that are legitimate--and Fox News does many of those same stories—even if some of them don’t please the White House. This doesn’t mean they’re not overly negative, sometimes biased, and occasionally inaccurate, but just branding everything “fake” has become more like a mantra than a specific complaint. So no trophy is needed.
But this and other recent tweets show Trump has been stewing about his coverage.
Easier to understand is his blast at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which had a little flap over talking about turkey on a show pretaped before Thanksgiving: “The good news is that their ratings are terrible, nobody cares!”
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski regularly rip the president in harsh terms, and it’s personal for Trump because they were once friends. But if nobody cares because of ratings, why does he care? (“Morning Joe” has beaten CNN in total viewers for more than two years but “New Day” is recently winning the key demo.)
Perhaps most troubling was this Trumpian slam at his least favorite network:
“@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!”
The network responded: “It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news. #FactsFirst”
This is an outgrowth of Trump having watched CNN International on his Asia trip. And for those who haven’t seen it, the international channel has a more sober tone than CNN here and features far more world news.
A number of journalists say Trump is sending a signal to other countries that could jeopardize CNN foreign correspondents who must operate in hostile territory.
I truly hope that’s not the case, and that Trump was just expressing his usual frustration with all things CNN.
Trump knows when he tweets these things that the media will go haywire, which means that he’s driving their agenda. But he may be approaching the point of diminishing returns.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

'Blowback': Clinton campaign planned to fire me over email probe, Obama intel watchdog says


A government watchdog who played a central role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the Obama administration told Fox News that he, his family and his staffers faced an intense backlash at the time from Clinton allies – and that the campaign even put out word that it planned to fire him if the Democratic presidential nominee won the 2016 election.
“There was personal blowback. Personal blowback to me, to my family, to my office,” former Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough III said.  
The Obama appointee discussed his role in the Clinton email probe for the first time on television, during an exclusive interview with Fox News. McCullough – who came to the inspector general position with more than two decades of experience at the FBI, Treasury and intelligence community – shed light on how quickly the probe was politicized and his office was marginalized by Democrats.
In January 2016, after McCullough told the Republican leadership on the Senate intelligence and foreign affairs committees that emails beyond the “Top Secret” level passed through the former secretary of state's unsecured personal server, the backlash intensified.
mccullough 1127a
Former Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough III.
“All of a sudden I became a shill of the right,” McCullough recalled. “And I was told by members of Congress, ‘Be careful. You're losing your credibility. You need to be careful. There are people out to get you.’”
But the former inspector general, with responsibility for the 17 intelligence agencies, said the executive who recommended him to the Obama administration for the job – then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – was also disturbed by the independent Clinton email findings.
“[Clapper] said, ‘This is extremely reckless.’ And he mentioned something about -- the campaign … will have heartburn about that,” McCullough said.
He said Clapper's Clinton email comments came during an in-person meeting about a year before the presidential election – in late December 2015 or early 2016. “[Clapper] was as off-put as the rest of us were.”
After the Clapper meeting, McCullough said his team was marginalized. “I was told by senior officials to keep [Clapper] out of it,” he said, while acknowledging he tried to keep his boss in the loop.
As one of the few people who viewed the 22 Top Secret Clinton emails deemed too classified to release under any circumstances, the former IG said, “There was a very good reason to withhold those emails ... there would have been harm to national security.” McCullough went further, telling Fox News that “sources and methods, lives and operations” could be put at risk.
Some of those email exchanges contained Special Access Privilege (SAP) information characterized by intel experts as “above top secret.”
“I was told by members of Congress, ‘Be careful. You're losing your credibility. You need to be careful. There are people out to get you.’”
WikiLeaks documents show the campaign was formulating talking points as the review of 30,000 Clinton emails was ongoing.
The campaign team wrote in August 2015 that “Clinton only used her account for unclassified email. When information is reviewed for public release, it is common for information previously unclassified to be upgraded to classified.”
McCullough was critical of the campaign’s response, as the classified review had barely begun. “There was an effort … certainly on the part of the campaign to mislead people into thinking that there was nothing to see here,” McCullough said.
In March 2016, seven senior Democrats sent a letter to McCullough and his State Department counterpart, saying they had serious questions about the impartiality of the Clinton email review. However, McCullough was not making the decisions on what material in Clinton’s emails was classified -- he was passing along the findings of the individual agencies who got the intelligence and have final say on classification.
“I think there was certainly a coordinated strategy,” McCullough said.
McCullough described one confrontation with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office just six weeks before the election, amid pressure to respond to the letter – which Feinstein had co-signed.
“I thought that any response to that letter would just hyper-politicize the situation,” McCullough said. “I recall even offering to resign, to the staff director. I said, ‘Tell [Feinstein] I'll resign tonight. I'd be happy to go. I'm not going to respond to that letter. It's just that simple.”
As Election Day approached, McCullough said the threats went further, singling out him and another senior government investigator on the email case.
“It was told in no uncertain terms, by a source directly from the campaign, that we would be the first two to be fired -- with [Clinton’s] administration. That that was definitely going to happen,” he said.
McCullough said he was just trying to do his job, which requires independence. "I was, in this context, a whistleblower. I was explaining to Congress -- I was doing exactly what they had expected me to do. Exactly what I promised them I would do during my confirmation hearing,” he said. “... This was a political matter, and all of a sudden I was the enemy."
He said pressures also increased early on from Clinton’s former team at the State Department, especially top official Patrick Kennedy.
"State Department management didn't want us there,” McCullough said. “We knew we had had a security problem at this point. We had a possible compromise."
Speaking about the case more than a year after the FBI probe concluded, McCullough in his interview also addressed the possibility that a more cooperative State Department and Clinton campaign might have precluded the FBI’s involvement from the start.
“Had they come in with the server willingly, without having us to refer this to the bureau … maybe we could have worked with the State Department,” he said.
More than 2,100 classified emails passed through Clinton's personal server, which was used exclusively for government business. No one has been charged.
Asked what would have happened to him if he had done such a thing, McCullough said: “I'd be sitting in Leavenworth right now.”
Fox News asked a Clinton campaign spokesman, Feinstein’s office and Clapper for comment. There was no immediate response.
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

Russian jet buzzes US Navy spy plane over Black Sea


A Russian Su-30 fighter jet buzzed a Navy reconnaissance plane flying in the Black Sea while conducting a routine patrol in international airspace Saturday, an official told Fox News. 
The Russian jet crossed 50 feet in front of the Navy P-8 in full afterburner causing “violent turbulence,” the official said. The provocation lasted 24 minutes.
It appears to be first known incident of this type since June, when an armed Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea. The Russian Su-27 jet had air-to-air missiles under its wings and approached the U.S. Air Force RC-135 recon jet "rapidly," coming within 5 feet of the American aircraft, officials said.
Once alongside, the Russian jet was “provocative” in its flight maneuvers and flying “erratically,” according to another official.
RUSSIAN JET BUZZES US RECON JET: PICTURES RELEASED OF 'UNSAFE' INCIDENT
Earlier this month, U.S. fighter jets intercepted Russian nuclear bombers approaching the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan off the coast of North Korea.
Multiple U.S Navy F/A-18 jets were dispatched to escort two Russian TU-95 bombers away from the ship currently stationed near North Korea and operating in the Sea of Japan, according to Navy officials.
The Russian bombers, capable of executing a nuclear strike, were intercepted merely 80 miles away from the ship, said Navy officials.
Lt. Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman described the incident with the Russian air force as “safe and professional,” according to Military.com.
Saturday's incident, which CNN was first to report, came just weeks after the Russian foreign ministry called the U.S. an “occupying force” in Syria.
There are roughly 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria, although the Pentagon acknowledges only 500. It’s unclear how many will remain following the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa, the terror group’s so-called capital.
There are approximately 3,000 ISIS fighters left in Iraq and Syria according to U.S. officials after reaching a height of nearly 40,000 fighters two years ago. 

Roy Moore campaign staff push, shove Fox News camera crew at rally


Campaign staffers for Senate candidate Roy Moore late Monday night got into a scuffle with two Fox News camera crews prior to a rally in the town of Henagar, Ala. 
Organizers told the media that Moore was expected to use the front entrance at the Henagar Community Center and the cameras were stationed outside, Fox News’ Jonathan Serrie reported. Moore instead used a side entrance.
Camera crews and reporters attempted to see the candidate as he made his way into the building. And that point, two men “decided to push the cameras back and physically manhandle two Fox News photographers,” Serrie told Shannon Bream host of “Fox News @ Night.”
A Fox News producer stepped in and told the two staffers not to touch the cameras.
“It’s not unusual for people to get bumped around a bit in the media scrum,” Serrie said. “This was not a scrum though. It is highly unusual for members of a political campaign to physically engage in this manner with members of the press,” he said.
It was unclear if Moore witnessed the scuffle that one cameraman said lasted about 30 seconds.
Bill Armistead, Moore’s campaign chairman, told Fox News he has not seen the video, but the campaign does not approve such behavior.
“Our campaign certainly doesn’t condone any pushing or shoving of anyone, certainly not reporters or anyone else,” he said.
Armistead accused the media of “inappropriate” behavior and “tying to stampede us in a lot of different situations and running down hallways, chasing after, shouting things that are inappropriate.”
For weeks, accusations that Moore, now 70, sexually molested or assaulted two teens, ages 14 and 16 -- and tried to date several others -- while he was in his 30s have taken center stage in the heated Alabama race. Moore denied the allegations of misconduct and said he never dated "underage" women.
“We’re not going to be open to taking questions until they’re (the media) ready to talk about issues,” Armistead said. “And that’s what we want to talk about.”
President Trump has declined to follow the path of other mainstream Republican leaders, who have called on Moore to step aside. Republican lawmakers are considering expelling Moore should he win the seat.
Serrie pointed out that the scuffle occurred on public property and Fox News had RSVP’d for the event.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Middle Eastern Terrorist Cartoons





Men cleared of terrorism ties in high-profile border case


The arrests of six Middle Eastern men caught entering the United States illegally from Mexico two years ago set off alarm in border states and in some right-wing blogs and other media outlets.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called it a matter of national security and invoked the Islamic State group in a statement calling for stepped-up border security in response to the arrests. Conservative publications like the Washington Examiner reported on the men from "Middle East terror hotbeds," while Fox News questioned whether "Islamic State militants could be probing security."
Now, documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request reveal the men were fleeing violence and persecution in their homelands and were cleared of any terrorism ties. They also were physically and verbally abused by two Mexican smugglers with a history of crossing the border illegally and went days without food and water, the records show.
The case highlights the highly politicized nature of the U.S.-Mexico border as hysteria sometimes overtakes facts in an era where President Donald Trump, during his campaign, labeled Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. Some blogs incorrectly reported the men were released. Others tied them to the Islamic State.
In fact, the men cooperated with the government, and four have been deported. The remaining two are in removal proceedings, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe.
The five men from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan were arrested at a time when the Islamic State group was committing some of its bloodiest acts, just days after coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris heightened fears about attacks in the U.S.
The arrests also came around the same time as two Syrian families with children presented themselves at the border seeking asylum. The families were Christian and fleeing persecution. Still, the incident prompted a tweet from Trump that said, "Eight Syrians were just caught on the southern border trying to get into the U.S. ISIS maybe? I told you so. WE NEED A BIG & BEAUTIFUL WALL!"
But none of the cases had any ties to terrorism.
Government officials have long denied there have been any arrests of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with ties to the Islamic State, and private security analysts agree.
Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis for Texas-based intelligence firm Stratfor, said he knows of no instances of terrorists sneaking into the U.S. through the southern border.
He says it's much more likely a terrorist would use the Canadian border to sneak into the country, as Ahmed Ressam did in 1999. Ressam planned to bomb the Los Angeles airport and used false documents to enter the U.S. from Canada. Border authorities caught him with a car full of explosives.
Stewart added it's highly unlikely the Mexican cartels, which control smuggling corridors, would help a terrorist enter the United States.
"The last thing they want is to be labeled as narco-terrorists. That's just terrible for business," Stewart said. "I'm honestly much more concerned about meth, fentanyl and heroin than I am of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State coming across."
Despite most border crossers being from Latin America, a small number come from far-away places like China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Investigative files obtained by the AP show the Middle Eastern men completed a long and costly journey to America.
The Afghan man told Border Patrol agents he left his home seven months earlier and traveled through at least 10 countries before making it to the U.S. He was detained for weeks in Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico and paid nearly $15,000 in smuggling fees along the way.
Once the men reached the U.S. border, the smugglers told them crossing illegally into Arizona would be a matter of a few easy hours.
But their trip took several days in treacherous conditions.
The men spent three or four days walking through the desert. They ran out of water on the first night and food on the second, and then trekked through mountains near the border in snow and rain. The men said they had no jackets.
They said the smugglers verbally accosted them and threw rocks at them if they walked too slowly. The Afghan man said one of the smugglers punched him in the chest. When one man injured his ankle, a smuggler said "Bye-bye" and kept walking. Another man who couldn't keep up said he paid the smugglers more to slow down.
The men were arrested in November 2015 after triggering a Border Patrol sensor about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the border.
The arrests were first reported by right-wing blogs, then other news organizations. Three days after the Middle Eastern men were taken into custody, Ducey issued a statement saying their arrests were troubling, "especially in light of new threats on the United States from ISIS in a video released in just the last 24 hours."
But the FBI had already cleared the men, finding they had no ties to terrorism, according to the documents.
When asked about the governor's tweet, Ducey's spokesman issued a statement that touted the Republican's border efforts but did not address the issue of invoking the Islamic State when the men had no terrorism ties.
"The governor continues to put public safety at the forefront," spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said.
The men were interviewed separately, and all told authorities about abuses at the hands of the two Mexican smugglers. They became witnesses in the case against Ernesto Dorame-Gonzalez and Martin Lopez-Alvarado, who had committed prior immigration offenses and pleaded guilty to smuggling charges.
"We find smugglers are more interested in treating people as a commodity instead of human beings," said Stephanie Dixon, a spokeswoman with the Border Patrol's Tucson sector. "Many people are being lied to by smugglers, which leads to deaths and illnesses, for the sole purpose of criminal profiting."

Record amount of background checks for guns on Black Friday


The FBI on Friday received 203,086 requests for instant gun background checks, which would mark almost a 10 percent increase from 2016 and sets a new record for the most ever in one day, USA Today reported.
Authorities did not speculate on why so many Americans are seeking guns this holiday season, but the theory is that there is a fear about tougher gun laws in the future.
The FBI received 185,713 requests on Black Friday last year.
USA Today pointed out that background checks do not indicate the number of guns actually sold because a buyer could purchase more than one gun in a check.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, earlier this week, ordered a far-ranging review of the FBI database used to check the backgrounds of prospective gun buyers, after the Air Force failed to report the criminal history of the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people at a Texas church.
The failure enabled him to buy weapons, purchases his domestic violence conviction should have barred.
Sessions directed the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine if other government agencies are failing to report information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He also wants a report detailing the number of times the agencies investigate and prosecute people for lying on their gun-purchase applications and a closer look at the format of the application itself.

The database “is critically important to protecting the American public from firearms-related violence,” Sessions wrote in his memo. “It is, however, only as reliable and robust as the information that federal, state, local and tribal government entities make available to it.”
The Pentagon’s inspector general launched a separate review of the Texas gunman, Devin P. Kelley, after the Air Force revealed it had failed to submit his domestic abuse case to the database. Kelley was able to buy four guns despite the conviction. He used a Ruger AR rifle with a 30-round magazine during the Nov. 6 shooting, going from aisle to aisle as he shot parishioners.
Sessions said the revelation was “alarming.” But the Pentagon has long known about failures to give military criminal history information to the FBI.

Franken will not resign, but 'embarrassed and ashamed' over misconduct allegations


Sen. Al Franken broke his silence Sunday on sexual misconduct allegations, reportedly saying he’s “embarrassed and ashamed” but will not resign from the Senate.
“I've let a lot of people down and I'm hoping I can make it up to them and gradually regain their trust," Franken, a two-term Democratic Minnesota senator, told the Star Tribune of Minnesota.
Franken spoke to Minnesota news media eight days after the first allegations surfaced.
"I am just very sorry," Franken told WCCO in an interview Sunday, reiterating that he has "a long way to go to win back the trust of the people of Minnesota."
Four women have publicly said Franken groped them, including one who said he forcibly kissed her.
"I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow," Franken, on Congress’ week-long Thanksgiving break, also said in the phone interview with the newspaper.
The first claim against Franken emerged nearly two weeks ago, when Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio host, said the senator forcibly kissed and groped her during a 2006 USO tour, before he was elected to the Senate.
She said Franken kissed her while rehearsing a sketch. And later on the tour, Franken was photographed with his hands over Tweeden’s breasts, grinning at the camera, as she slept.
Franken told Minnesota Public Radio on Sunday that he apologized to Tweeden, and called the photo "inexcusable."
"She ... didn't have any ability to consent. She had every right to feel violated by that photo," Franken said. "I have apologized to her, and I was very grateful that she accepted my apology."
A second allegation was reported Monday. Lindsay Menz told CNN that Franken grabbed her buttocks in 2010 when they posed together for a picture at a Minnesota state fair, while he was a senator.
Two other women have since anonymously reported such incidents to the Huffington Post. One woman said Franken groped her in 2007, during a photo at the Minnesota Women's Political Caucus. The other said he cupped her backside with his hand in 2008 and suggested that they go to the bathroom together at a Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis.
Franken’s office said last weekend that the senator will not resign, amid calls for him to step down.
The senator has repeatedly apologized to Tweeden. He also said he feels badly that Menz felt “disrespected” but that he does not remember the photograph being taken.
Franken has said he has posed for "tens of thousands of photos" over the years but does not remember any in which he cupped a woman's backside, as several women have alleged.
The senator also told the newspaper on Sunday that he has spent the past week "thinking about how that could happen and I just recognize that I need to be more careful and a lot more sensitive in these situations."
He said he didn’t expect such allegations would follow the first one. “I certainly hope not,” he said about the possibility of similar allegations surfacing.

Congress faces pressure to come clean on sex harassment payouts


Both Democrat and Republican politicians on Sunday called for increased transparency on how lawmakers handled allegations of sexual misconduct in the past.
There is a bipartisan effort to pass legislation that would require all sexual harassment claims to be handled in the public, The New York Times reported. It is unclear if the legislation would expose payouts in the past. 
Some politicians are in favor of exposing these older cases, while others warn of potential issues with victims who've had no interest of going public with their claims.
“I think it should be more transparent,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told NBC's “Meet the Press.” “I certainly think that if you accept taxpayer funds for settlement, that should be transparent.”
The call comes amid recent allegations against two high-profile politicians: Michigan Rep. John Conyers and Minnesota Sen. Al Franken.
Conyers is under investigation over allegations he sexually harassed female staff members. He said Sunday that he will step aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee while fiercely denying he acted inappropriately during his long tenure in Congress.
Denying the allegations, Conyers, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who was first elected to the House in 1964, urged lawmakers to allow him “due process.”
“I very much look forward to vindicating myself and my family,” Conyers said.
Franken broke his silence Sunday after being swept into a nationwide tide of sexual harassment allegations, saying he feels "embarrassed and ashamed," but looks forward to returning to work on Monday and gradually regaining voters' trust.
Three women allege that Franken grabbed their buttocks while taking photos with them during campaign events. Franken told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he doesn't remember the photographs but that such behavior is "not something I would intentionally do."
Asked whether he expected any other women to step forward with similar allegations, Franken said: "If you had asked me two weeks ago, 'Would any woman say I had treated her with disrespect?' I would have said no. So this has just caught me by surprise ... I certainly hope not."
The Times reported Sunday that the House is expected to adopt a resolution that all representatives and their staffs must take anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training.

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