Clinton says she would like to run Facebook

Hillary Clinton didn't win the presidency in 2016, so is there another job she would like to have? The former Democratic Party nominee considered the question Friday at Harvard University and said she would like to run Facebook.
During an event at which she received the prestigious Radcliffe Medal for “transformative impact on society,” Clinton was asked which company she would like to lead as CEO.
Without any hesitation, Clinton named Facebook, noting that the social media giant has vast power and controls the flow of information.
“It’s the biggest news platform in the world … but most people in our country get their news, true or not, from Facebook,” she said.
The response drew mixed reactions on social media, though the attempt to put her name on the table may not be so out of the ordinary. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg openly endorsed Clinton’s candidacy while a co-founder of the social media giant, Dustin Moskovitz, led a nearly $30 million effort to defeat now-President Donald Trump.
Other Facebook employees contributed more money to Clinton's campaign -- some $114,000 -- than to those of any other candidate, according to Federal Election Commission data that takes into account only donations over $200, the Hill reported.
But the former U.S. secretary of state’s openness to run Facebook came at the time when the tech company is coping with a number of scandals, including alleged misuse of user data that allowed political campaigns, including possibly Clinton’s, to target potential voters after acquiring the data of millions of people.
Just this week, Facebook was accused of deceptive tactics to pressure people to accept its privacy policy. According to a complaint filed by the European Center for Digital Rights on behalf of an anonymous individual, the platform blocked users who didn’t consent to the new privacy policies and used “tricks” – including fake message notifications – to pressure them into agreeing with the policies.
“[Facebook] used additional ‘tricks’ to pressure the users: For example, the consent page included two fake red dots … that indicated that the user has new messages and notifications, which he/she cannot access without consenting — even if the user did not have such notifications or messages in reality,” the complaint reads, according to Australia's News.co.au.
But similar to Cambridge Analytica, the company that was forced to shut down amid the data misuse scandal, the Clinton campaign itself may have harvested the data of potentially millions of users to get an edge over Trump.
In the midst of the election, Clinton's campaign launched a mobile application called “Hillary 2016” that allowed every user to pair their friends list on Facebook with their phone contacts – and give the campaign permission to access that info.
People who didn’t download the application - or weren’t even Clinton supporters – weren’t given an option to prohibit their Facebook friends from pairing their phone numbers with Facebook accounts and indicate their likelihood of voting for the Democratic candidate.

Roseanne blames Ambien, ABC, herself as Trump also hits the network

I think we can all agree it wasn’t the Ambien, that Roseanne Barr has a long history of spewing conspiracy theories and ugly attacks.
But her spectacular self-immolation has ignited a cultural debate in this country over race, online venom, cultural standards and — inevitably — President Trump.
Even as Barr, in a late-night tweestorm, blamed her racist slur against Valerie Jarrett on the sleep medication, and attacked some of her fellow cast members, she admitted that she was fully at fault:
“guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting -- it was memorial day too -- i went 2 far & do not want it defended -- it was egregious Indefensible.”
Fine. She’s right. There is no defense. What planet do you have to be on to talk about a black person and “Planet of the Apes”?
There is also no question that ABC knew exactly what it was getting, which is why network president Ben Sherwood told the New York Times back in March that “you can’t control Roseanne Barr. Many who have tried have failed.”
So obviously the network wasn’t unaware that Barr had a long history of tweeting ugly, unproven insults and wild conspiracy theories. And presumably she wasn’t on Ambien all those times.
Roseanne retweeted at one point that “ABC is allowing the Trump haters to control their station” — even though it was the network that provided the platform for her pro-Trump reboot in the first place.
The network gambled that she could revive her hit show — which she did, specifically tailored to appeal to Trump Country — and she did. But even as she was riding high, Roseanne couldn’t stay off the Twitter. And that cost her, the hundreds of people who worked on the show and the network that invested in her.
With so many pundits on the left blaming the Roseanne debacle on Trump — who, of course, had nothing to do with it besides enjoying the show’s success — it was only a matter of time before the president joined the fray.
It’s noteworthy that Trump made no comment on Barr’s racist tweet. Instead, he tweeted that Disney CEO Bob Iger “Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?”
I’m sure unfair things have been said about Trump on ABC News and every other network. I’m just as sure that they didn’t fall into the category of likening him to an ape.
But HBO’s Bill Maher, five years ago, did jokingly compare Trump’s hair to an orangutan. And ABC’s lightning-quick dumping of “Roseanne” does raise questions about the media and cultural standards used when public personalities say offensive things.
No action was taken against Joy Behar, for instance, when the “View” co-host mocked Vice President Pence’s religion. She eventually apologized, first privately and then publicly.
MSNBC took no action against Joy Reid when a torrent of her homophobic tweets surfaced from a decade ago. She ludicrously claimed that her account had been hacked, but also apologized for her “dumb” and “hateful” postings.
And ESPN action took no action against former “Sports Center” co-host Jemele Hill for calling the president a “white supremacist” and “bigot.” But the network suspended her for suggestion a boycott of the Dallas Cowboys for cracking down on player protests.
On the other hand, CNN fired host Reza Aslan for tweeting that Trump was a “piece of s---” and “embarrassment to humankind.”
CNN also fired pro-Trump contributor Jeffrey Lord for tweeting the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil.”
Sarah Sanders weighed in Wednesday, saying:
“Where was Bob Iger‘s apology to the White House staff for Jemele Hill calling the president and anyone associated with him a white supremacist? To Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness? Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the president on ‘The View’ after a photo showed her holding President Trump’s decapitated head? And where was the apology from Bob Iger for ESPN hiring Keith Olbermann after his numerous expletive-laced tweets attacking the president as a Nazi and even expanding his role after that attack against the president’s family?”
Those are legitimate questions. In fairness, CNN dumped Griffin, and Olbermann, who made some extremely harsh anti-Trump videos for GQ, is being used by ESPN only on sports. But would the treatment have been different if the target wasn’t Trump?
The bottom line is that each media organization sets its own standards, depending on the gravity of the offense, the popularity of the performer and the person’s past record.
These problems were once far easier to sweep under the rug. But we all live in Twitter’s world now, where one ill-chosen phrase can end a career and online mobs can form at a moment’s notice.
Roseanne Barr woke up Tuesday morning with the most popular show on television. But hours later she was unemployed because she touched the third rail of racism, and ABC executives concluded she had crossed a very bright line.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Secret McCabe memo in Mueller's hands gives details of Comey's firing: report

Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote a secret memo on circumstances leading up to the firing of his former boss James Comey.
A person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the previously unknown document was turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller and his team are investigating whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 presidential election and if the president’s decision to fire Comey last May was an attempt to obstruct the investigation.
The memo reportedly recalls a conversation McCabe had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about his preparation for Comey’s firing.
Rosenstein, who’s currently facing calls to resign from members of the U.S. Congress amid his reluctance to comply with U.S. House oversight, played a role in the downfall of Comey as he penned a memo that criticized Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation that the White House used to justify the firing.
ROSENSTEIN FIGHTS HOUSE GOP IMPEACHEMENT PUSH, SAYS DOJ ‘IS NOT GOING TO BE EXTORTED’
The memo by McCabe reportedly claims Rosenstein suggested to him that he was initially asked to reference the Russia investigation in the memo about Comey. The final memo by the deputy attorney general didn’t mention Russia and instead focused on the Clinton email case.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller just a week after Comey was fired from his role. The job fell to Rosenstein because Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the case because of his advisory role in Trump's campaign.
McCabe is known to have kept personal notes on his interactions with Trump, some of which included what Comey told him about his encounters with the president, Fox News reported. He turned over the memos to Mueller.
Trump criticized the documents, saying in March that he never saw McCabe take notes about their conversations, suggesting the memos should be called “fake memos.”
“Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?” Trump tweeted.
McCabe was fired in March, just days before he would have been eligible for a lifetime pension, amid a report by an inspector general, claiming he misled internal investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Clinton’s email server and leaked a self-serving story to the media.
Sessions, who authorized the McCabe firing, said at the time that McCabe “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions.”
DOJ IG RELEASES EXPLOSIVE REPORT THAT LED TO FIRING OF EX-FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR ANDREW MCCABE
Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who also penned the damning report, determined that McCabe authorized the leak yet later told the investigators that he did authorize the disclosure and did not know who was responsible.
“[W]e concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the CF investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the report said.

Prosecutors say former CIA officer Kevin Mallory gave secrets to a Chinese spy in exchange for for $25,000.  (REUTERS)

A former CIA officer betrayed the U.S. by giving a Chinese spy information about human assets and other top-secret information in exchange for $25,000, prosecutors say.
A jury heard opening statements Wednesday in the trial of Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg, Va.
Mallory, a former self-employed consultant, had grown suspicious about a Chinese think tank’s job offer, defense attorney Geremy Kamens said. Mallory had reportedly told CIA about the job offer, but prosecutors viewed that as an attempt to cover his tracks.
Defense lawyers countered that their client is a loyal American who was merely stringing the Chinese along to try to get them to expose details of their own intelligence operation.
Mallory’s plan folded in April 2017 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during a flight back from Shanghai when customs agents found $16,500 in unreported cash, prosecutor Jennifer Gellie told jurors. Gellie said that encounter prompted Mallory to reach out to old CIA contacts to concoct a cover story.
Mallory agreed to be questioned in May 2017 about his contacts. Gellie said that that he was caught off guard during that interview when a Samsung phone given to him by the Chinese displayed text conversations between Mallory and the Chinese recruiter. Mallory had expected the phone's secure messaging features would keep the conversation hidden, Gellie said.

Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid.

In one text message, Mallory wrote "your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid."
Agents searched Mallory's home and found two small computer discs containing top-secret documents. Mallory had sent some of those documents to the Chinese recruiter using the Samsung phone, Gellie said.
"Kevin Mallory chose to pass closely held government secrets to a Chinese government agent," Gellie told the jury.
Kamens, though, said Mallory reached out to his old CIA contacts months before he was supposedly spooked by the airport inspection. The CIA contacts testified Wednesday that Mallory had contacted them in February 2017.
The trial is being heard in the Eastern District of Virginia, which is home to the CIA and Pentagon. Still, espionage trials are a rarity, given that both sides have strong incentives to reach plea deals. The government is concerned about exposing secrets, while defendants are worried about potentially stiff sentences.
If convicted, Mallory faces up to life in prison.

Nancy Pelosi MS 13 Cartoons

Trump slams Democrats, 'MS-13-lover' Nancy Pelosi in Nashville campaign rally

President Trump slammed Democratic leaders at a Tennessee rally Tuesday night, labeling former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat in the running to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker, as an “absolute total tool of Chuck Schumer and, of course, the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi.”
Trump, who defended labeling members of the MS-13 gang as “animals,” hit the House minority leader for taking exception with the classification. “We are all God’s children,” Pelosi argued in response last week.
The president’s fiery comments, in front of a large crowd Tuesday at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, were made to boost GOP Senate hopeful Marsha Blackburn.
Trump did not mention the earlier cancellation of Roseanne Barr's television show.
Blackburn, a Republican congresswoman, is vying for her party’s nomination to replace retiring Corker, a Republican. Blackburn and Bredesen are expected to face off in a general election that is considered a toss-up by Fox News.
“They’re more interested in taking care of criminals than they are in taking care of you,” Trump said of Democrats as the crowd booed. The president said Bredesen, whom he claimed he had never even heard of, “donated a lot of money to the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
"Democrats have opposed every common sense measure to stop this horrendous scurge of crime, to dismantle MS-13 and to end illegal immigration," he continued.
“You have to get out,” to vote, Trump said. “We need Marsha Blackburn to win. And it’s going to be a very special time. Together we are taking back our country. We are returning the power back to our great American patriots.”
"Tennessee needs a senator that’s going to support President Donald Trump and I am going to be there to stand with President Trump to take your Tennessee values to Washington, D.C. to fight with him to get the job done," Blackburn said.
The campaign in Tennessee is among several races crucial to Trump’s plans to maintain control of the Senate, where Republicans have a two-seat majority.
Trump won Tennessee with more than 60 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election.
“This November, this is the state were America’s comeback will continue full speed ahead,” the president said.
Primaries are scheduled for Aug. 2.
Earlier in the evening Trump resurrected talk of the construction of a southern border wall, reiterating a campaign promise that Mexico would pay for it.
"I don't want to cause a problem but in the end Mexico is going to pay for the wall," the president said to cheers. "I'm just telling you Mexico is paying for the wall. They make all of this money and they do nothing to stop people coming through Mexico from Honduras and all these countries. They do nothing. They are going to pay for the wall and they are going to enjoy it, okay?"
That claim was met with a swift tweet from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
"President @realDonaldTrump: NO. Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall," he wrote. "Not now, not ever. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us)."
Also at the rally, Trump spoke of pending new health care legislation. Speaking of his "two Alexes" - Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar - Trump said "phenomenal" health care plans would be released in the upcoming weeks.
He did not discuss any additional details on the plan.

California must push against 'blue wall,' son of Rev. Billy Graham says

Evangelist Franklin Graham is on a tour throughout California where he is encouraging Christians to vote and help turn the state red ahead of the upcoming primary election.  (Reuters)

Evangelist Franklin Graham, a son of the late Rev. Billy Graham, warned Californians this week that their state is "in trouble" as it nears next week's primary elections.
Graham -- whose father was a globally known preacher who died Feb. 21 at age 99 -- is on a 10-stop tour in California, urging fellow evangelical Christians to get out and vote in hopes of chipping away at the liberal-majority Golden State's “blue wall.”
During a speech Monday night in Fresno, in the state's Central Valley, the 65-year-old fourth-oldest of Billy Graham's five children underscored the importance of participating in the democratic process.
"Our country is in trouble," Graham told an audience at the Fresno Fairgrounds as part of his Decision America California Tour, according to the Fresno Bee. "Your state's in trouble – you know that. But there are things that we can do. You know God hears prayer."
Graham invoked politics throughout his speech, reminding the crowd that it’s not too late to "turn this state around," while encouraging voters to lend their support to candidates who align with Christian values, the Bee reported.
Of the stops on the California tour, three “are in or bordering critical House districts in the Central Valley," while “others hug the line between red and blue up the state,” the New York Times reported. The tour ends June 5, primary day.
Speaking to fellow evangelicals and top donors in a locker room at the Rose Bowl two weeks ago, Graham urged his supporters to stand up against California’s “Blue Wall,” according to the Times, adding that it’s time for church congregations to get out and vote.
Even if Graham’s message resonates with evangelicals, who make up 20 percent of California’s population, according to the Pew Research Center, political strategists are still skeptical the state will turn red come November.

Facebook co-founder's wife spent $650G on Shaun King's PAC to elect anti-police prosecutors

Shaun King received over $650,000 from Cari Tuna, the wife of a cofounder of Facebook, in a bid to reshape criminal justice system.  (Facebook/Shaun King)

The wife of a Facebook co-founder has contributed the majority of cash to a political action committee led by Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King that targets district attorney races across the U.S. in a bid to reshape the criminal justice system.
Cari Tuna -- wife of Dustin Moskovitz, who co-founded Facebook together with Mark Zuckerberg -- contributed more than $650,000 to the Real Justice PAC in February 2017, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The PAC also took in $400,000 in contributions in addition to Tuna’s generous donation, making her the top contributor funding most of the group’s activities.

Cari Tuna, the wife of Dustin Moskovitz, who cofounded Facebook together with Mark Zuckerberg,  (Open Philanthropy Project)

King, who has recently come under fire for pushing a debunked story about a state trooper sexually assaulting a woman, said his group is working to elect “reform-minded prosecutors at the county and municipal level who are committed to using the powers of their office to fight structural racism and defend our communities from abuse by state power."
SHAUN KING SLAMMED FOR PUSHING WOMAN’S NOW-DISCREDITED CLAIM TROOPER SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER
Tuna’s donation appears to be the only contribution she made this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data. In previous cycles, she spent millions on a labor union PAC and an environment group.
She also gave money to the Democratic Party group and over $400,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund, Hillary Clinton’s fundraising committee.
Her husband, who left Facebook in 2008, also used his wealth to oppose now-President Donald Trump, spending nearly $30 million to defeat him, according to the Free Beacon.
"We just felt really compelled to, sort of, get off the sidelines and help ensure that the Democrats were able to win the election," Moskovitz said at the time.
The revelation comes after reports that New York billionaire George Soros has funneled so far nearly $3 million into California’s district attorney races, supporting candidates that are in favor of progressive policies, including lower incarceration rates, crackdowns on police misconduct and changes in a bail system that they argue discriminates against the poor.
SOROS SPENDS BIG IN CALIFORNIA’S DA RACES IN BID TO RESHAPE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Soros reportedly spent more than $1.5 million on a political action committee to prop up the San Diego County candidacy of Geneviéve Jones-Wright, who pledged to form a police misconduct unit and attacked policies that “criminaliz[e] poverty.”
She openly embraced the support of Soros, saying “I love it!" during a recent fundraiser. "If he didn't take an interest in this campaign, it would be an even more uneven playing field,” she added, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The wealthy liberal donors are spending big on Diana Becton in Contra Costa County. Her challenger, a veteran prosecutor, slammed the support from the wealthy, describing them as “billionaires who apparently think Contra Costa's public safety is for sale.”