Conservative Blogger
Monday, January 9, 2017
Navy, Trump planning biggest fleet expansion to deter Russian, Chinese threats
BATH, Maine – With President-elect Donald Trump demanding more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China.
The Navy's 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the Republican Trump had promoted on the campaign trail, providing a potential boost to shipyards that have struggled because budget caps that have limited money funding for ships.
At Maine's Bath Iron Works, workers worried about the future want to build more ships but wonder where the billions of dollars will come from.
"Whether Congress and the government can actually fund it, is a whole other ball game," said Rich Nolan, president of the shipyard's largest union.
Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy's 355-ship goal could require an additional $5 billion to $5.5 billion in annual spending in the Navy's 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke at the Congressional Research Service.
The Navy's revised Force Structure Assessment calls for adding another 47 ships including an aircraft carrier built in Virginia, 16 large surface warships built in Maine and Mississippi, and 18 attack submarines built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia. It also calls for more amphibious assault ships, expeditionary transfer docks and support ships.
In addition to being good for national security, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who'd enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
"Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies," he said. "The complexities aren't going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We're going to need this Navy."
Many defense analysts agree that military capabilities have been degraded in recent years, especially when it comes to warships, aircraft and tanks.
Even when Trump takes office, no one envisions a return to the heady days during the Cold War when workers were wiring, welding, grinding, pounding and plumbing ships at a furious pace to meet President Ronald Reagan's audacious goal of a 600ship Navy.
The Navy currently has 274 deployable battle force ships, far short of its old goal of 308 ships.
Lawrence J. Korb, a retired naval officer and former assistant defense secretary under Reagan, said the Navy's request isn't realistic unless the Trump administration is willing to take the budget "to levels we've never seen."
"You never have enough money to buy a perfect defense. You have to make trade-offs," said Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
But investors apparently are betting on more ships.
General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, Connecticut-based Electric Boat and California-based NASSCO, and Huntington Ingalls, which owns major shipyards in Virginia and in Mississippi, have both seen stock prices creep upward since the election.
"To the generic military shipbuilder, it's a bull market right now," said Ronald Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch division.
In Bath, the 6,000 shipbuilders aren't going to count their eggs before they hatch.
"A lot of people are hopeful that it'll happen," Nolan said. "But they're taking a wait-and-see approach. They've heard it before and then seen it not come to fruition."
Trump's Cabinet nominees get their day before Senate, as partisan wrangling intensifies
Confirmation hearings begin this week on Capitol Hill for Alabama Sen. Jeff Session as U.S. attorney general and other Cabinet picks from President-elect Donald Trump -- amid increasing partisan threats about derailing nominees and calls to keep politics out of the process.
The most recent exchange began Saturday when Democrats called for a delay in the hearings -- including at least seven this week -- because several of Trump’s nominees have purportedly failed to complete ethics reviews to avoid conflicts of interest.
Democrats called for the delay based on letter this weekend from the Office of Government Ethics to Senate leaders stating that some of the nominees scheduled for hearings have yet to complete their ethics review process.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the complaints are merely “procedural” and are being raised by Democrats frustrated about him and fellow Republicans now controlling the House, Senate and White House.
"I understand that. But we need to sort of grow up here and get past that,” the Kentucky senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We confirmed seven Cabinet appointments the day President Obama was sworn in. We didn't like most of them either. But he won the election.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the ethics review is to ensuring wealthy Cabinet members work for the American people instead of "their own bottom line and that they plan to fully comply with the law."
Republicans are intent on getting as many Trump nominees through the arduous confirmation process before the incoming Republican president takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Several of Trump’s picks are wealth Americans with far-reaching business connections -- Republican mega-donor Betsy DeVos, for education secretary; ExxonMobile CEO Rex Tillerson, for secretary of state; Billionaire private-equity investor Wilbur Ross, for commerce secretary and former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary.
Despite all of the wrangling ahead of the Senate confirmation hearings, Trump’s nominees will almost certainly get enough votes in the chamber's GOP-led committees. However, they could run into delays when both parties cast final votes on the Senate floor, despite needing only 51 “yeahs.”
Democrats could use procedural moves to extend the debate on each of the nominees. But they don’t have the power to use the filibuster to block the nominations, because in the last Congress they changed the threshold on such filibusters from 60 to 51 votes.
The hearings begin Tuesday with Sessions in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same panel that in 1986 denied him a federal judgeship, following allegations that he had made racist remarks and called the NAACP "un-American."
Still, Session, an immigration hawk and the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump, a fellow Republican, is expected to be confirmed without much delay or fight.
Still, civil rights groups are urging a thorough vetting of Sessions. Last week, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and other group members were arrested after a sit-in protest in Sessions' Mobile, Alabama, office, and could do something similar on Capitol Hill.
The two-day hearing includes a day for Sessions to address the committee, and a day for rebuttal witnesses from those opposing his nomination.
Session will be followed Tuesday by retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the nominee for the post of Homeland Security secretary.
Tillerson’s hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to run the State Department, arguable the most important and high-profile Cabinet post, could be the most contentious.
His job leading oil giant ExxonMobile, which included deals with Russia and connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is raising concerns, especially after a recent U.S. intelligence report stated both meddled in this year’s presidential election.
However, the expected showdown with Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain -- who last week suggested he’d vote for Tillerson when “pigs fly” -- appears less likely.
McCain said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that still has questions but that a meeting last week with Tillerson eased concerns.
“Every president should have the benefit of the doubt as to their nominees,” he said. “So there has to be a compelling reason not” to vote for him.
Democrats and others argue that Ross, who founded the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., is the type of Wall Street tycoon that Trump has vowed to keep out of Washington.
But Ross' record has so far shown no potentially damaging conflicts of interest.
Schumer and other Democrats have purportedly targeted DeVos, Sessions and Tillerson as well as Mnuchin and South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney, for the Office of Management -- whose hearings have yet to be scheduled.
“If Republicans think they can quickly jam through a whole slate of nominees without a fair hearing process, they’re sorely mistaken,” Schumer said last week.
One of the committees that hasn't yet received the ethics review forms is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will hold the DeVos hearings.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said it had also not received the forms for Ross, though a spokeswoman said they expect them soon.
Committee aides said they have received ethics forms for Sessions, Tillerson, Treasury Secretary nominee and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis and Elaine Chao, for transportation secretary.
The Government Ethics office did not list which of Trump's Cabinet choices hadn't turned in their disclosures.
Other confirmation hearings next week include Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Ben Carson for housing secretary.
Trump pick for secretary of state to face tough scrutiny over Russian ties
Tensions over President-elect Donald Trump’s favorable Russian views and the upcoming Senate confirmation hearing for prospective secretary of state Rex Tillerson is expected to boil over in the days ahead.
Top Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that they plan to continue with new sanctions on Russia despite the potential to possibly alienate Trump and his ideas for warming ties between the U.S. and Russia.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump and his top aides have planned to downplay Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election which was pointed out in a U.S. intelligence report released Friday. The Russian divide in Congress would certainly get Trump’s presidency off to a rocky start.
Concerns over Russia are expected to come into the light during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing. Graham and McCain both agreed that they still had questions about Tillerson even after so-called “positive meetings” with the Exxon-Mobil executive. Tillerson’s Russian ties are expected to be scrutinized heavily.
“Mr. Tillerson has got to convince me and I think other members of the body, that he sees Russia as a disruptive force, that he sees Putin as undermining democracy all over the world, not just in our backyard,” Graham added. “He has to realize that the Russians did it when it came to the hacking and that new sanctions are justified.”
Trump has yet to accept the intelligence briefing that pointed at Moscow for interfering with the presidential election. He said in a series of tweets Sunday that it wasn’t bad to have a relationship with Russia.
“Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We have enough problems around the world without yet another one,” he added. “When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!”
Should Tillerson’s confirmation be rejected, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The Journal noted that only three potential cabinet picks have been rejected in the 20th century. The last rejection came in 1989 during George H.W. Bush’s presidency when his secretary of defense pick was rejected by a Democratic Senate.
A Republican-held Senate would need three total dissenters to possibly vote down Tillerson as the pick, if Democrats hold united. Graham and McCain would have to lure another senator onto their side.
With a showdown looming in the Senate, a fight over Russian ties isn’t going away.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told “Meet the Press” that Russia didn’t help U.S.-allied forces in Syria one bit in the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Carter said that Russia had promised to help fight extremists and help end the Syrian civil war. Instead, he said, Russia “doubled down on the Syrian civil war.”
Meryl Streep, Jimmy Fallon and more use Golden Globes stage to slam Trump
 |
| Idiots |
During a night that saw "Moonlight," "La La Land," "The Crown" and "Atlanta" win big it was the next president of the United States that got the most attention.
Just minutes into the show, host Jimmy Fallon used his time on stage to take digs at Trump after he was forced to improvise for the first few minutes of the show due to a broken teleprompter.
Once his script was up and running, Fallon called the Golden Globes "one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote." That, though, isn't quite true. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 85 members, has its own methods of selecting winners.
TECHNICAL GLITCH MARS JIMMY FALLON'S GOLDEN GLOBES MONOLOGUE
Fallon often used the President-elect as a punchline, even comparing him to belligerent and cruel "Games of Thrones" King Joffrey, but Meryl Streep changed the tone of the evening when she launched into a somber speech about Trump.
Streep said Trump's behavior "sank its hooks in my heart" and she slammed what she called Trump's "instinct to humiliate." She asked for a "principled press to hold Trump [accountable]" and to call him out "for every outrage." Her comments were met with applause, tears and support by her fellow actors in the audience. Actor Chris Pine called her speech the "best message of tonight."
Hugh Laurie, accepting his award for best supporting actor in a limited series or TV film for "The Night Manager," speculated that this would perhaps be the last Golden Globes ceremony.
"I don't mean to be gloomy, but it has the words 'Hollywood,' 'foreign' and 'press' in the title," Laurie said, explaining his pessimism about the awards surviving the Trump era. He added that some Republicans don't even like the word "association."
He accepted his award "on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere."
The night's top winner was Damien Chazelle's lauded Los Angeles musical "La La Land," which took home seven awards. Ryan Gosling won for best actor in a musical or comedy, and "La La Land" composer Justin Hurwitz won best score and its lyricists, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, won for best original song, "City of Stars."
Meanwhile, "Moonlight" won the award for the best motion picture drama.
Casey Anthony won best actor in a motion picture drama for "Manchester by the Sea," and Isabelle Huppert won best actress in a motion picture drama for "Elle."
Viola Davis won best supporting actress for "Fences," and British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson took best supporting actor for his performance in Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals."
2017 GOLDEN GLOBES: SO HOT OR SO NOT?
On the TV side, "The People v. O.J. Simpson" took home the best miniseries award, as well as an award for Sarah Paulson.
Donald Glover looked visibly surprised when his FX series "Atlanta" won best comedy series over heavyweights like "Veep" and "Transparent."
Other winners were Tracee Ellis Ross ("Black-ish") and Billy Bob Thornton ("Goliath").
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Russians scoff at US report on election meddling
Russian politicians and news media are scoffing that the recently released report by U.S. security services blaming the country’s government of meddling in the U.S. presidential race.
Alexei Pushkov, a member of the upper house of parliament's defense and security committee, said on Twitter that "all the accusations against Russia are based on 'confidence' and suppositions. The USA in the same way was confident about (Iraqi leader Saddam) Hussein having weapons of mass destruction."
In another tweet on Saturday, Pushkov suggested that President "Obama is alarmed: Republicans trust Putin more than Democrats."
Margarita Simonyan, the editor of government-funded satellite TV channel RT that is frequently mentioned in the U.S. report, said in a blog post: "Dear CIA: what you have written here is a complete fail."
On Friday, a declassified U.S. intelligence report accused Putin of ordering a campaign to influence the U.S. election and hurt 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s candidacy -- findings made public after officials briefed President-elect Donald Trump.
The report adds fresh fuel to the debate over Russia’s involvement in email hacking that affected Democratic groups during the 2016 race. Trump has publicly questioned the evidence linking Russia.
And hours before the briefing, Trump called it a “political witch hunt.”
However, Trump and the intelligence community seemed to find some common ground after the briefing. Both Trump and the report said the Russians did not target vote tallying.
Trump, in a statement, went a step further and said “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”
“Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We … have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am president, Russia will respect us far …
“more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!,” Trump tweeted.
Megyn Kelly Leaving Fox For Liberal NBC?
Don’t you just love how the Left is star-struck over Megyn Kelly? Wonder why? Could it be her schmoozing at parties with Barack Obama… or her revealing photo shoots… or her skewed grilling of Donald Trump… or perhaps the fact that right after that debate, she predicted that Hillary Clinton would ascend to the White House? That Republicans would lose in 2016? That doesn’t sound very unbiased to me – it sounds, well, almost Leftish, if you get my drift. Kelly is making a whopping $6.7 million a year at Fox. She is the face of Fox News currently. Some of these networks are offering her double that and her contract expires in 2017. Wonder just what she’ll do. You could very well see her over at CNN or NBC. I imagine that ‘Fair and Balanced’ is a financially and a politically driven concept. Over 50,000 people have now signed a petition for Kelly never to moderate another debate on Fox News. That’s a message loud and clear, don’t you think? While the media elites may be all gaga over Kelly, conservatives are not so smitten with her tactics.
Was Friday's declassified report claiming Russian hacking of the 2016 election rigged?
Friday night, during her last show on Fox News, Megyn Kelly asked former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra whether he accepted the conclusion by 17 intelligence agencies in a recently released declassified report that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and that this interference came at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hoekstra gave an answer many viewers of "The Kelly File" did not anticipate. He noted that the declassified report represents the views of only three intelligence agencies, not seventeen. Hoekstra also questioned why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) did not co-author or clear the report and why it lacked dissenting views.
The declassified report issued on January 6 is an abridged version of a longer report ordered by President Obama that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to undermine the 2016 president election, hurt Hillary’s candidacy and promote Donald Trump through cyber warfare, social media and the state-owned Russia cable channel RT. Although the report’s authors said they have high confidence in most of these conclusions, they were unable to include any evidence for classification reasons.
As someone who worked in the intelligence field for 25 years, I share Congressman Hoekstra’s concerns about Friday’s declassified Russia report and a similar Joint DHS and ODNI Election Security Statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and DHS on October 7, 2016.
I also suspect the entire purpose of this report and its timing was to provide President Obama with a supposedly objective intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that the president could release before he left office to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s election.I am concerned both intelligence assessments were rigged for political purposes.
You may remember when Hillary Clinton claimed during the final presidential debate on October 19 that based on the October 7 ODNI/DHS statement, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had determined the WikiLeaks disclosures of Democratic emails were an effort by Russia to interfere with the election.
Clinton’s remark was not accurate. Although the October memo said “the U.S. Intelligence Community” was confident that the Russian government was behind the alleged hacking, the October memo was drafted by only two intelligence organizations – ODNI and DHS.
Since it came out only a month before the presidential election and was co-authored by only two intelligence agencies, the October memo looked like a clumsy attempt by the Obama White House to produce a document to boost Clinton’s reelection chances. Its argumentation was very weak since it said the alleged hacking of Democratic emails was “consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts” but did not say there was any evidence of Russian involvement.
Friday’s declassified intelligence report on Russia hacking is even more suspicious. As Congressman Hoekstra noted, this report was drafted and cleared by only three intelligence agencies, not 17. DHS, which co-authored the October statement, added a brief tick to the new report, but did not clear it. The Office of Director of National Intelligence, which co-authored the October memo, did not draft or clear Friday’s report, nor did other members of the U.S Intelligence Community with important equities in this issue such as DIA and the State Department’s Intelligence and Research Bureau (INR).
The declassified Russian report also lacks standard boilerplate language that it was coordinated within the U.S. Intelligence Community. This language usually reads: “This memorandum was prepared by the National Intelligence Council and was coordinated with the US Intelligence Community” or “this is an IC-coordinated assessment.”
Given how politically radioactive the issue of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election has become, why wasn’t the January 6 Russia report an intelligence community-coordinated assessment? Why were several important intelligence agencies and their experts excluded?
It also is important, as Hoekstra indicated in his Fox interview, that intelligence community assessments on extremely controversial issues include dissenting views, such as those added by INR to the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD program. A declassified version of this estimate was released in 2002 that included INR’s dissent.
The content of the declassified report was underwhelming. Although the report made serious accusations of Russian interference in the election, it did not back them up with evidence. And, as Hoekstra also noted in his Fox News interview, the report made some dubious arguments that Russia succeeded in influencing the election using its RT cable channel, a Russian propaganda tool that is only taken seriously in the United States by the far left.
It’s also troubling that the unclassified report does not mention the extremely weak internet security of Clinton’s private email server, the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. This makes it impossible to determine whether the alleged hacking and leaking of Democratic emails was more Russia and other hostile actors exploiting this carelessness rather than a deliberate and robust Russian operation to interfere with the election.
This is not to say the new CIA/NSA/FBI report is without value. I believe the classified report probably includes solid evidence on the intensive and broad-based cyber warfare efforts that Russia, China and other states have been conducting against the United States for the last eight years that President Obama has ignored.
I am encouraged that President-elect Trump responded to this report by stating that will take aggressive action against cyber warfare against the United States in the early days of his administration.
At the same time, I believe President-elect Trump and his team are justified in questioning the January 6 report as politically motivated.
I am concerned that the exclusion of key intelligence players and the lack of dissenting views give the appearance that the conclusions of this report were pre-cooked.
I also suspect the entire purpose of this report and its timing was to provide President Obama with a supposedly objective intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that the president could release before he left office to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s election.
Adding to the Trump team’s concerns time intelligence agencies were are playing political games over possible Russian interference in the election is the fact that at the same time these agencies were refusing to brief Congress about their findings on this issue they were constantly being leaked to the news media. The most recent press leaks, some by intelligence officials, occurred this week on the classified contents of the new Russia report before they were briefed to Mr. Trump.
The new intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election broke so radically with the way objective and authoritative intelligence community assessments are supposed to be produced that it appears to have been rigged to support a pre-ordained set of conclusions to undermine President-elect Trump. I believe the October 2016 memo and related developments support this unfortunate conclusion.
It is vital that the Trump administration and U.S. intelligence agencies move beyond this situation by working together to forge new policies to protect our nation against the many serious threats it faces, including radical Islam, cyber warfare, nuclear proliferation, Russia, China and other threats.
Intelligence agencies were led astray by the Obama administration’s partisanship and national security incompetence.
I am confident that over time, the outstanding men and women Trump has named to top national security posts will ensure that America’s intelligence agencies have Trump’s confidence and produce the hard hitting and objective intelligence he will need to defend our nation.
In Trump's ongoing feud about Russia, he says those opposed to better relations 'fools'
A day after U.S. intelligence officials said Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump, the president-elect renewed his call for better Washington-Moscow relations and suggested naysayers are “fools” or “stupid people.”
The incoming Republican president, as he repeatedly did during his winning White House campaign, seemed eager Saturday to use Twitter to battle foes, critics and the Washington establishment, which appears to have no political desire to befriend former Cold War enemy Russia and now-Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump sent five tweets Saturday morning, including the final message over three separate tweets -- because of the limit to 140 characters each.
“Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We … have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am president, Russia will respect us far …
“more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!,” Trump tweeted.
Trump, during the 2016 White House race, roiled the U.S. intelligence community and others over suggestions that he admired Putin’s tough leadership, despite Russia in 2014 annexing neighboring Ukraine’s Crimea region and other strong-arm tactics.
The president-elect has also suggested that the United States’ stature as a world power has been diminished because of President Obama’s tentative foreign policy.
On Friday, a declassified U.S. intelligence report accused Putin of ordering a campaign to influence the U.S. election and hurt 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s candidacy -- findings made public after officials briefed Trump.
The report adds fresh fuel to the debate over Russia’s involvement in email hacking that affected Democratic groups during the 2016 race. Trump has publicly questioned the evidence linking Russia.
And hours before the briefing, Trump called it a “political witch hunt.”
However, Trump and the intelligence community seemed to find some common ground after the briefing. Both Trump and the report said the Russians did not target vote tallying.
Trump, in a statement, went a step further and said “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”
The two other Trump tweets Saturday morning said: “Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!"
The other was, “Only reason the hacking of the poorly defended DNC is discussed is that the loss by the Dems was so big that they are totally embarrassed!”
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Montel Williams slams Chicago Facebook Live attack suspects on social media
 |
| A Hate Crime |
Williams took to Facebook on Thursday to express his opinions on the brutal attack.
“Life in prison. No parole. I'm not interested in whether these kids had a tough life, whether their parents loved them enough, I don't care,” Williams said.
The TV personality called the argument of whether it was indeed a hate crime a “distraction.”
“This is the cold blooded torture of an innocent human being. That's bigger than a hate crime, it's bigger than racism,” Williams added.
Williams offered his prayers to the victim, adding, “If you can do this to another human being once, you can't be trusted to not do it again.”
The four suspects accused in the Chicago Facebook Live attack were denied bail on Friday. The Chicago judge they appeared before in court said they are accused of such "terrible actions."
The four suspects were identified as Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper, both of Chicago, and Jordan Hill, of suburban Carpentersville. All are 18. A fourth suspect was identified as Covington's 24-year-old sister, Tanishia Covington, also of Chicago.
The beating was captured on cellphone video by one of the assailants and has since been viewed millions of times on social media. The graphic footage shows the suspects taunting the victim with profanities against white people and President-elect Donald Trump.
Prosecutors offered new details of the assault, explaining that one of the suspects demanded $300 from the mother of the victim, who is schizophrenic and has attention-deficit disorder. They also said the beating started in a van when the same attacker became angry that the mother had contacted him asking that her son be allowed to come home.
A prosecutor told the judge that the suspects forced the victim to drink toilet water, kiss the floor and then allegedly stuffed a sock into his mouth and taped it shut as they bound his hands with a belt.
Cook County Associate Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked the suspects "Where was your sense of decency?"
"I find each of you a danger to yourself and society," the judge said.
All four are charged with two counts of committing a hate crime — one because of the victim's race and the other because of his mental disabilities.
The uproar over the beating intensified the glare on Chicago after a bloody year of violent crime and protests against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a police department that has been accused of using excessive force and hushing-up wrongdoing. The department has also been the subject of a long civil-rights investigation by the Justice Department, which is expected to report its findings soon.
What no one wants to tell Sally Field, Keegan-Michael Key and all the other anti-Trump celebrities (but should)
In the latest bid to derail a Trump Presidency, a group of celebrities have created a video asking anti-Trump supporters to sign a petition to be sent to members of Congress to stand up to Donald Trump. The video was created by the social media campaign Humanity for Progress, formerly known as the pro-Hillary Clinton group, Humanity for Hillary.
Unfortunately, videos like this only promote more negative discourse and separation. They bring about more fear and scarcity when we need love, abundance and unity. Whether you like it or not, Donald Trump will become the 45th President of The United States on Friday, January 20, 2017. That’s as much a fact as the sky being the color blue and the grass being green. Similarly, you wouldn’t argue that the Denver Broncos weren’t the Super Bowl Champions or that the Chicago Cubs didn’t win the World Series, and you can’t argue that Donald Trump didn’t win the election.
Trump won and there’s nothing you nor anyone else can do to change that. Asking people to sign a petition that urges congress to stand up to Donald Trump is childish and accomplishes absolutely nothing. Instead of trying to fight the inevitable, how about giving the guy a chance? You may not like Donald Trump, but the fact is he is going to be the next leader of the free world and it’s time to grow up emotionally, stop acting stupid, put your hate for him on the shelf and stand behind our new president. Trump built a business empire like few others have ever done, and whether you voted for him or not or like him or not, it’s time to give him the opportunity to bring that same success to the office of Commander in Chief.
In the video, Keegan-Michael Key and Sally Field say, “We demand that you block nominees who threaten the rights of women, the LGBT community, people of color, immigrants and the poor.” Unfortunately, Key and Field miss the point entirely. Nobody is saying that Donald Trump is perfect. He’s definitely not going to be the most polished or politically correct president. Even many of his supporters strongly and publicly disagree with some of the things he has said and done in the past. But that’s not the point!
The point is trying to stand in the way of the President of The United States is wrong and interfering with democracy. Quit your whining and instead of wasting your mental energy trying to change the unchangeable, finally accept the fact that Donald Trump is our next president and let’s adopt a spirit of unity and togetherness for the betterment of our country. We’re all stronger when we come together as one.
Finally, to Key, Field and the other celebrities in the video, I urge you to take a look in the mirror. Are you perfect? Have you ever said mean things about someone else? Should we hold that grudge against you for the rest of your life? Should we start a petition for people to boycott your movies and television shows? I don’t think so.
Donald Trump is our next president and that’s a fact. Prior to November 8, 2016, it was perfectly acceptable to be pro Hilary or pro Trump. But not anymore. There’s only one right thing to do: Support President-Elect Trump and together let’s make America great again.
Intel report on Russian interference finds no documents forged
No documents related to the hacks of the Democratic National Committee emails or Clinton campaign Chair John Podesta’s emails appear to be altered or forged, according to a declassified U.S. intelligence report on alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election released Friday.
While the report accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering a campaign to influence the U.S. election and hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, it found that the material sent to WikiLeaks did not contain “any evident forgeries.”
The claim that the emails may have been doctored or forged was raised by DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile in October, when she was criticized for an email that surfaced in hacked messages from Podesta’s account.
The report also concluded that Moscow chose WikiLeaks to distribute the information “because of its self-proclaimed reputation for authenticity.”
While the report does not specifically mention Podesta’s emails, it does say Russian intelligence agencies relayed material to WikiLeaks “from the DNC and senior Democratic officials.” Podesta was the most prominent Democratic official to be subject to a cyberattack during the campaign.
The Brazile email passed on a question to campaign adviser Jennifer Palmieri about the death penalty, under the subject line: “From time to time I get questions in advance.”
The exchange came right before a March town hall hosted by CNN and TV One, where a similar question was asked. Yet Brazile denied receiving questions from CNN, and implies that the emails released were doctored.
"I have seen so many doctored emails. I have seen things that come from me at 2 in the morning that I don't even send,” she told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, adding, "I will not sit here and be persecuted, because your information is totally false.”
Brazile stood down in October as a CNN contributor over the revelation. She released a statement Friday criticizing Trump over his past statements disputing Russian involvement in the cyberattacks.
"For the first time ever, President-elect Donald Trump is not disputing the fact that Russia was behind the targeted attack on the DNC and the Clinton campaign,” she said.
DNC's 'gross' negligence led to its hacking, Trump tweets
Just hours after the U.S. declassified an intelligence report Friday that offered new details on an alleged influence campaign stemming from Moscow-- including cyber activity-- President-elect Donald Trump took aim at the Democratic National Committee for allowing its systems to be hacked.
“Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place.The Republican National Committee had strong defense!” the tweet read.
The intelligence report added fresh fuel to the debate over Russia’s involvement in email hacking that affected Democratic groups during the 2016 race.
Trump has publicly questioned the evidence linking Russia and, hours before his briefing on Friday, called the focus a “political witch hunt.”Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place.The Republican National Committee had strong defense!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017
However, Trump and the intelligence community seemed to find some common ground after the briefing. Both Trump and the report said the Russians did not target vote tallying.
Earlier, Trump said in a statement that “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”
Still, the report lays out in new and alarming detail an alleged influence campaign stemming from Moscow, which Ryan and others condemned.
The report said that included cyber activity, as well as efforts by state-funded media and paid social media “trolls.” The report said Russian intelligence services conducted cyber operations against both major U.S. parties, and said they have “high confidence” Russian military intelligence used Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks.com to release “US victim data” publicly and to the media, “and relayed material to WikiLeaks.”
WikiLeaks famously published emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta last year. Founder Julian Assange, however, told Fox News this past week that Russia was not his source.
The report said:
“We assess with high confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election, the consistent goals of which were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”
In his written statement, Trump acknowledged that Russia, China and others “are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee” – but said “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome.”
Trump also said the U.S. needs to fight and stop cyberattacks, and he’ll appoint a team to give him a plan within 90 days of taking office. “Two weeks from today I will take the oath of office and America’s safety and security will be my number one priority,” he said.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Wikileaks' Assange: Governments 'hate transparency. They loathe it'
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview that his organization published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman "to give the American people true information about the players that they were going to have to deal with."
"We’re in the business of publishing information about power," Assange said. "Why are we in the business of publishing information about power? Because people can do things with power, they can do very bad things with power. If they’re incompetent, they can do dangerous things. If they’re evil, they can do wicked things."
In Part III of the interview, which aired Thursday on the Fox News Channel, Assange also said that governments "hate transparency. They loathe it. Because they have to work harder."
Assange sat down with Hannity for the exclusive at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Assange has been holed up for the past five years as he battles extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.
Governments are "full of incompetent people," Assange told Hannity. "And the more secretive the area is, the more incompetent it becomes because there’s no proper oversight."
However, the Australian conceded that secrecy was necessary in some areas. Assange noted that Wikileaks keeps its sources confidential, but added that secrecy "should be as small as possible [in terms of] how much it encompasses and for how long it’s encompassed."
"If you don’t know what’s happening in the world with powerful individuals, corporations and governments ... immoral actors within the state or within those big corporations prosper," Assange said at the conclusion of the interview.
"[But] if you have true information coming out about how people actually behave, what’s the result? The rest of the society goes 'You know what? I don’t want to deal with you.'"
House overwhelmingly votes to condemn UN resolution on Israel settlements
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Thursday to rebuke the United Nations for passing a resolution criticizing Israeli settlements.
Lawmakers voted 342-80 in favor of the bipartisan non-binding resolution, which declares unwavering support for Israel and insists that the United States reject any future U.N. actions that are similarly "one-sided and anti-Israel."
A visibly angry House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. opened debate on the resolution by saying that the Obama administration "abandoned our ally Israel when she needed us the most."
"Do not be fooled," Ryan said. "This U.N. Security Council resolution ... was about one thing and one thing only. Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state.
"These types of one-sided efforts are designed to isolate and delegitimize Israel. They do not advance peace, they make it more elusive."
The House measure divided Democrats, 109 of whom joined 233 Republicans in approving the measure. However, nearly 80 more opposed the measure because they said it contained inaccuracies and distorted the complexities of the Middle East peace process. They also accused Republicans of attacking Obama unfairly in the waning days of his presidency.
"The point of the measure seems to be to bash Obama on the way out," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who along with many other Democrats still voiced strong support for Israel. They said Obama deserved credit for engineering last year's new, long-term security agreement that gives Israel $38 billion in U.S. military aid, including $5 billion for missile defenses.
A similar bipartisan measure to reprimand the U.N. has been introduced in the Senate. "Israel is always the bad guy in the eyes of the United Nations," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the measure's co-sponsors.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the resolution "proved once again that the US-Israel alliance is based not only on shared interests, but also on shared values ... This special relationship has endured the test of time and I have no doubt that it will continue to be strengthened in the future."
Israel and its supporters lashed out at Obama for his decision to abstain and allow the U.N. Security Council to approve in December a resolution calling Israel's settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem "a flagrant violation under international law."
Although the U.S. is opposed to the settlements, it has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to scuttle resolutions that condemn Israel. Disputes between Israel and the Palestinians must be resolved through direct negotiations, according to longstanding practice and policy.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, accused Obama of a "shameful ambush" and said he was looking forward to working with Trump, whom he described as his friend.
But Secretary of State John Kerry said in a late December speech that the U.S. was standing up for a two-state solution when it abstained on the resolution. He criticized Israel for settlement building and blamed Netanyahu for dragging Israel away from democracy.
Kerry said expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are leading to an "irreversible one-state reality."
The Palestinians seek the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war, for an independent state. They say that Israeli settlements in these areas, now home to about 600,000 Israelis, are threatening their plans for independence by taking in lands where they hope to establish their state.
The U.N. resolution, along with Kerry's speech, essentially endorsed the Palestinian position by calling for the pre-1967 lines to serve as the reference point for a final border.
Netanyahu, who opposes a return to the 1967 lines, has condemned the moves as "skewed" and "shameful."
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the panel's top Democrat, sponsored the House measure. The U.N. resolution "undermines the prospect for Israelis and Palestinians resuming productive, direct negotiations," according to their legislation, and should be "repealed or fundamentally altered."
Attention from the move by the U.N. last month could provide fuel for pro-Israel initiatives favored by conservatives on Capitol Hill. For example, a small group of Republican senators is proposing to withhold 50 percent of the State Department's 2017 budget until the U.S. Embassy in Israel is moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised to shift the embassy.
But a spokesman for Jordan's government told The Associated Press on Thursday that the embassy move would be a "red line" for Jordan and "inflame the Islamic and Arab streets." Jordan serves as custodian of a major Islamic shrine in east Jerusalem and the Palestinians seek a capital there.
Email Headache Returns: New Clinton messages show passwords, schedules flowed freely
The election’s over – but Hillary Clinton’s emails are still coming to light. And they help illustrate why the FBI declared she was “extremely careless” with the information flowing across her secret server.
A new batch of messages released by the State Department on Tuesday shows the former secretary of state and her team routinely shared her upcoming schedules, talking points and sensitive items – such as her iPad password – via the homebrewed system.
Other newly revealed emails, which were posted as the result of litigation, show Clinton’s top advisers griping about her during her time as secretary of State; an Asian ruler who later implemented Sharia law saying he considered former President Bill Clinton part of his “family”; and Clinton talking about Justin Cooper, one of the key figures who administered to her private server.
ASSANGE: RUSSIAN GOV'T NOT SOURCE OF WIKILEAKS EMAILS
Many of the 371 emails posted on the State Department website had been partially released previously, and are separate from the hacked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta posted by WikiLeaks before the election. Almost all the messages were partly or heavily redacted.
Among the items redacted -- yet still sent over email -- was Clinton's iPad password.
In an Aug. 20, 2012 conversation, Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, told her boss she had the iPad password reset. The device had previously given Clinton problems, though Abedin wrote that it’s “all good now.”
At the top of the message, Abedin typed out the entirety of the new password, which was redacted on the State Department release. Clinton responded later with even more information, noting that “I finally realized I had to add the [redacted] to the password!!!!”
During the July speech in which FBI Director James Comey termed Clinton’s server practices “extremely careless” but not criminal, he also said “hostile actors” could have hacked her communications. In at least one instance, Clinton aide Cooper logged hacking attempts on the server.
Still, Clinton and her advisers continued sending information that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, including detailed, advanced copies of her schedules and talking points for upcoming calls and meetings with foreign leaders and top U.S. officials.
On Sept. 30, 2011 – the day American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was killed – Abedin emailed Clinton to say then-CIA Director David Petraeus wanted to talk on a secure connection. She added: “Assume its about awlaki.”
Other emails released Tuesday shed light on Clinton’s relationships.
In advance of a September 2012 meeting with the Sultan of Brunei – who would later impose Sharia law on his country – Abedin emailed Clinton that Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah hoped to have dinner with Clinton and her family.
“They say sultan sees wjc as part of his family and thus is treating you in this ‘informal’ way,” she wrote, using Bill Clinton’s initials.
On Dec. 24, 2011, Clinton emailed Chelsea Clinton, who was using a pseudonym revealed previously by WikiLeaks, asking “Who will provide tech support after Justin leaves,” ostensibly citing Cooper, who originally helped set up Clinton’s server and was typically called for any tech issues Clinton was experiencing.
“Let’s talk about this later – he’s actually supported by someone else too as a fyi,” Chelsea replied cryptically. “I think there are a couple options.”
In an email chain from April 4, 2012 that Clinton was eventually excluded from, Abedin complained about Clinton’s obsession with an archiving project.
“This records thing is the bain of my existence with her….” she wrote.
Philippe Reines, another top Clinton aide, responded with the frustration he experienced explaining to Clinton that she had received the incorrect copy of a document.
“I emailed her that. I told her in the elevator up from videos. I told her that in the pre-brief. I told her that in the elevator up to 8. I made clear it wasn’t that Jake [Sullivan]’s timeline was ‘inadequate’ – just that the wrong version made its way to her,” Reines wrote. “But [I] think it played into whatever anxiety she has that you’re experiencing about the topic of archiving.”
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Holder hired to help California fight Trump administration
California lawmakers already are preparing for a legal brawl with the Donald Trump administration – and they’ve got President Obama’s former top attorney in their corner.
Top state Democratic lawmakers announced Wednesday that former Attorney General Eric Holder has been tapped as outside counsel to advise the Legislature on potential challenges with the Trump government. He will lead a team from the Covington & Burling law firm, where he’s been working since leaving the Obama administration in 2015.
“With the upcoming change in administrations, we expect that there will be extraordinary challenges for California in the uncertain times ahead,” California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a statement. “This is a critical moment in the history of our nation. We have an obligation to defend the people who elected us and the policies and diversity that make California an example of what truly makes our nation great.”
They said Holder and his team will advise “in our efforts to resist any attempts to roll back the progress California has made.”
The statement did not specify which policies they anticipate will cause friction, though California’s numerous sanctuary cities are likely to face challenges from an administration that has threatened to pull their federal funding.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, De León suggested Holder’s team will work on issues like immigration, climate change, the environment and voting rights.
The unorthodox arrangement assigns to Holder’s team some duties that normally would be handled by the state’s top law enforcement official, the California attorney general. Gov. Jerry Brown has nominated Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra for that job.
The Los Angeles Times reported that De León and Rendon have been considering hiring outside counsel ever since Trump’s election, in a preemptive bid to protect state policies that could clash with the new administration’s.
Holder was one of Obama’s longest-serving and most controversial Cabinet members.
He had a contentious relationship with congressional Republicans, who in 2012 voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents on the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” scandal.
He left in 2015 to rejoin Covington & Burling.
Holder said in a statement Wednesday he is “honored” to work with California’s Legislature “as it considers how to respond to potential changes in federal law that could impact California’s residents and policy priorities.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Tit for Tat ? ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base in Rochester on the an...
-
NEW YORK (AP) — As New York City faced one of its darkest days with the death toll from the coronavirus surging past 4,000 — more th...
