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Saturday, April 8, 2017
Fight breaks out at Florida protest against Syria strikes; sponsor International Action Center
The fight was caught on video during a live broadcast on Action News Jax, a local station in Jacksonville.
It looked as though a couple of dozen protesters were gathered in downtown Jacksonville and protesters started shouting at each other. Police stepped in and arrested six.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told the station that David Schneider, 27, was the primary organizer of the protest. He was charged with inciting or encouraging a riot. The ages of those arrested ranged from 26 to 74.
After a few days in Mar-a-Lago, Chinese president enjoys layover in Alaska
Chinese President Xi on Friday took in the natural beauty of Alaska Friday after meeting with President Trump at his resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
The two leaders said they made progress, but there were no breakthroughs regarding North Korea or trade. Trump announced that he launched an airstrike into Syria moments after dinning with his Chinese counterpart.
Xi requested time with Alaska’s Gov. Bill Walker as the Chinese delegation's plane made a refueling stop in Anchorage. His wife and the Chinese delegation stepped off the Boeing 747 and were greeted by Walker, his wife and several dignitaries. The Anchorage Daily News reported that the Alaska visit was kept under wraps until earlier this week.
The visitors and their hosts drove off in a line of SUVs, limos and other vehicles in 40-degree weather under blue skies. The sightseeing tour will include a stop at Beluga Point, a pullout on the scenic Seward Highway about 15 miles south of Anchorage.
The pullout offers a stunning view of the snow-capped Chugach Mountains and Turnagain Arm in Alaska's Cook Inlet. The waters are home to the endangered Beluga whale.
Walker said he was eager to tell Xi about the abundance of Alaska's resource development opportunities.
"We have tremendous potential in our oil and gas, tourism, fish, air cargo and mineral resource industries," Walker said in a statement issued before the meeting.
For Walker, even just a few hours of time with the president of the world's largest country can pay dividends.
China is the state's top export market, buying nearly $1.2 billion worth of goods in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The next top international market was Japan, at nearly $820 million, followed by South Korea, at $730 million.
Chris Hladick, the commissioner of the state's Commerce department, called the visit by the Chinese delegation a "once-in-a lifetime opportunity."
"We're not even shown on the map for the United States," he said, a nod to Alaska and Hawaii often being left off of maps of the U.S. "I think this is an extremely valuable opportunity to meet with our largest trade partner face to face."
The state's top export product to China? Fish, accounting for 58 percent. Frozen cod and flat fish, such as halibut, topped a lengthy list of fisheries products, which also included frozen salmon and pollock.
A distant second on the export list are minerals and ores, accounting for 27 percent. Included in that last year was about $130 million of precious metals, which Hladick said was likely gold from the Fairbanks area.
Lower-tier exports included oil, wood, scrap metal and airplane parts.
Hladick sees China as a potential market for Alaska coal and hoped to raise the issue with Chinese officials during their visit. "It's meetings like this that spark interest and then you follow up," Hladick said.
Having your largest trade partner drop in for a meeting is fortuitous when the state is in tough financial straits because of a prolonged period of low oil prices. Hladick said he'd be happy to get a 45-minute meeting with the Chinese trade minister.
Walker has been courting Asian markets -- particularly Japan and South Korea -- in trying to drum up interest in a liquefied natural gas project the state is pursuing. State officials wouldn't say if Walker would bring up the natural gas pipeline, which is in its early stages, during his visit with Xi, but it seemed unlikely that he wouldn't take time to tout the multi-billion dollar project that would take natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to a plant on the state's coast, where it would be liquefied and shipped.
Xi is the second major world leader to spend time in Alaska's largest city in the last few years. U.S. President Barack Obama used a three-day trip to Anchorage in 2015 to showcase the impact of climate change. King Harald V of Norway also made an official visit to Anchorage a few months before Obama.
Alaska's location provides a natural stopping point for world leaders to make refueling stops, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage has hosted many presidents over the years for these short stints.
President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II met in 1984 during refueling stops at the airport in Fairbanks. Their paths were crossing as one finished and one began trips to Asia.
Expert: Watch to see if Kim Jong-Un goes into hiding after Syria strike
The U.S. bombardment of a Syrian airbase just outside of Homs Friday was likely seen by North Korea as a clear warning that President Trump will use his military if United States interests are at risk.
The immediate focus after the strikes was on Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s reaction. Russia was not happy with the U.S., it spoke in defense of Syria and moved warships. But now the attention is on the next move by another world leader: Kim Jong-Un.
Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast columnist and author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On The World,” said in an emailed statement to Fox News Friday that the U.S. strike on the Syrian airfield “tells North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un that he must now heed American military power, something that he probably dismissed before.”
“Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, disappeared from public view for about six weeks in 2003 at the time of the Iraq war. Kim Jong-Un loves the public spotlight, and it will be telling if he similarly goes into hiding,” the author said.
The airstrikes are “a warning to China’s People’s Liberation Army, which had grown dismissive of the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader visiting Mar-a-Lago, almost certainly interpreted the strike as a sign of disrespect to him,” Chang said.
Now PlayingHow is China perceiving the strikes on Syria?
Trump made it a point to address the media about the Syria strike at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida just moments after dining with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping.
The strike was a culmination of a rapid, three-day transformation for Trump, who has long opposed deeper U.S. involvement in Syria's civil war. Advisers said he was outraged by heartbreaking images of young children who were among the dozens killed in the chemical attack and ordered his national security team to swiftly prepare military options. The Los Angeles Times reported up to 15 dead in the strikes. A Syrian official said six were killed at the base and nine others in surrounding areas. The death toll could not be independently confirmed.
“This is Trump saying, ‘No, I am a man of my words,’” Reva Goujon, the vice president of Stratfor, told CNBC. “’When I make a threat, I will follow through.’ That’s certainly something the Chinese and North Koreans will be thinking about.”
Trump has said that if China doesn't exert more pressure on North Korea, the U.S. will act alone. The missile strikes on Syria bring more weight to that statement.
After Gorsuch confirmation, Trump likely considering next Supreme Court pick
When President Trump was running for office, one of his favorite selling points to the so-called "Never Trump" Republicans was: You can take me, or you can choose Hillary Clinton and get stuck with her justices.
The strategy proved effective.
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote a column in The Washington Examiner titled, “It’s the Supreme Court, Stupid.”
“If Hillary Clinton wins, the Left gavels in a solid, lasting, almost certainly permanent majority on the Supreme Court," he worte. "Every political issue has a theoretical path to SCOTUS, and only self-imposed judicial restraint has checked the Court's appetite and reach for two centuries."
Supreme Court appointments was a main focal point during the campaign because there was a vacancy. Conservative Antonin Scalia had died. Hours after his death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that his chamber would not consider an Obama nominee and would instead wait until the new president was elected. There were 11 months left in Obama’s term at the time.
McConnell’s gambit worked. Obama's nomination, Judge Merrick Garland never saw the light of day, and Trump defeated Clinton.
Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch who—thanks to the Republican-controlled Senate’s decision to go nuclear—is set to be sworn in on Monday. The tilt of the court has regained its conservative tilt.
As soon as April 13, Gorsuch could take part in his first private conference, where justices decide whether to hear cases — and some of them could involve gun rights, voting rights and a Colorado baker's refusal to design a cake for a same-sex couple's wedding, The Associated Press reported.
But just as Gorsuch begins to get comfortable in his new chambers, Supreme Court observers are considering the real posibility that Trump could name additional justices. The court is collectively older than any other on record. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer are 84, 80 and 78, respectively.
Gorsuch's confirmation process was fought bitterly on both sides. Democrats assailed McConnell for choosing to go nuclear. Sen. Chuck Schumer said afterwards that there's no incentive for nominees to even speak to the minority anymore.
University of California at Irvine Professor Rick Hasen warned Democrats at the height of the Gorsuch fight that they had little to gain in filibustering the nomination.
"Imagine if in a year or so Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, or Kennedy leave the Court,” he wrote on Election Law Blog. “Then things get MUCH worse from the point of view of progressives. Then Roberts becomes the swing voter and there goes affirmative action, abortion rights, etc. If you think things with the Supreme Court are bad for progressive now they can get much, much worse.”
He went on the write that a better move for Democrats was to “save the firepower for that fight. It is possible that Senators like Susan Collins would be squeamish about such a nominee, and they might not vote to go nuclear. At that point, people can take to the streets and exert public pressure.”
In August, then-candidate Trump told The Washington Post that the next president may appoint up to five justices. That would change the direction of the court for decades. Trump’s first nomination is 49 years old.
The Washington Examiner, citing a Trump associates, repeated Trump's campaign number Friday. He “expects to name five to the court.”
Friday, April 7, 2017
Twitter files lawsuit over US government attempt to identify users behind anti-Trump account
Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the U.S government over an attempt to reveal the identities of the users behind the @ALT_USCIS account, which has been critical of President Trump’s administration.
A “rogue” government account, @ALT_USCIS describes its goal as “immigration resistance” and is now at the center of the row between Twitter and two government agencies - the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Twitter wants to prevent the agencies from “unlawfully abusing a limited-purpose investigatory tool to try to unmask the real identity of one or more persons who have been using Twitter’s social media platform,” according to the lawsuit. The users have harnessed @ALT_USCIS “to express public criticism of the Department and the current Administration,” it adds.
TRUMP SAYS HIS TWITTER POWER IS WHY KAEPERNICK IS A FREE AGENT
@ALT_USCIS is one of a number of so-called “alternative agency” accounts set up on the social media site following Trump’s inauguration, Twitter explains. These accounts provide a platform for purported current or former employees of federal agencies, without revealing their identities.
“Like other accounts of this sort, @ALT_USCIS claims to be run by one or more current government employees—in this case, employees of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,” Twitter says, in its suit. “And as with other such accounts, the person or persons who established and speak through @ALT_USCIS have identified themselves only by means of this pseudonymous account name.”
On March 14 Twitter received a CBP summons “demanding that Twitter provide them records that would unmask, or likely lead to unmasking, the identity of the person(s) responsible for the @ALT_USCIS account,” according to the suit, which describes the summons as unlawful. “Permitting CBP to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_USCIS account would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account in particular and on the many other ‘alternative agency’ accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies,” it added.
MCDONALD'S TWITTER ACCOUNT HACKED, BLASTS TRUMP
The account has racked up over 35,000 followers since it was set up in January 2017. In its description, @ALT_USCIS says that it does not express the views of DHS or the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The @ALT_USCIS account tweeted part of Twitter’s lawsuit Thursday.
The ACLU’s national Twitter account tweeted its support for the social media site Thursday. “We're glad Twitter is pushing back,” it said.
Twitter declined to comment on its legal action when contacted by Fox News. The DHS and CBP have not yet responded to a request for comment on this story.
Russia says Syria airstrike an 'aggression' by US
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| Miller says US strike signals Russia: 'Control your client' |
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin believes that the U.S. has dealt the strikes under "far-fetched pretext."
Russia also suspened an agreement with the U.S. to avoid mid-air collisions over Syria in wake of the airstrikes. The deal had been made for safety precautions when engaging military targets.
Russia has argued that the death of civilians in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday resulted from Syrian forces hitting a rebel chemical arsenal there.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that "either Russia has been complicit (in the attacks) or Russia has been simply incompetent."
Peskov said that the U.S. has ignored past incidents of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels. He argued that the Syrian government has destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control.
Russia added that no servicemen dies in the U.S. airstrike.
The U.S. launched nearly five dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield early Friday in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians, the first direct assault on the Damascus government since the beginning of that country's bloody civil war in 2011.
Trump addressed the media shortly after reports on the airstrike began to surface.
"It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons," Trump said. "Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types."
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