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

One of the women accusing the powerful Democratic Rep. John Conyers of sexual harassment claimed to Fox News on Wednesday night that in addition to touching her inappropriately, he also failed to protect her when one of his top staffers assaulted her.

Deanna Maher, 77, has accused Conyers, D-Mich., of engaging in three inappropriate incidents in the late 1990s. She said the first was in 1997 when she rejected his offer to share a hotel room and have sex. She added that the others involved unwanted touching in a car in 1998 and unwanted touching of her legs under her dress in 1999.

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

NY Times tweets GOP phone numbers, irking party leadership

How badly does the New York Times editorial board want the GOP tax-reform bill to fail? Apparently enough to tweet the phone numbers of seven GOP senators who might be inclined to vote against it.

But Wednesday's move, which journalism's Old Gray Lady dubbed an "experiment" to get its viewpoint across, didn't sit well with the Grand Old Party leadership.

In fact, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slammed the Times' maneuver.
“NYT published Republican senators’ phone numbers in order to push their liberal agenda," McDaniel tweeted. "Can we now stop pretending that the NYT isn't a political organization?”

NYT published Republican senators’ phone numbers in order to push their liberal agenda. Can we now stop pretending that the NYT isn't a political organization?

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) November 29, 2017

In response, the GOP also tweeted the Times’ switchboard number and urged the public to “let them know how you feel about their liberal bias.”

Contact The New York Times, 844-698-6397, and let them know how you feel about their liberal bias. https://t.co/2K9IXMQPOz

— GOP (@GOP) November 29, 2017

And numerous social media users called out the Times, calling it “a Super PAC” and questioning whether it was ethical for the publication to issue a direct call to action to its readers.
Passage of the tax-reform bill, of course, would be a major legislative victory for President Donald Trump.
But in a series of tweets, the Times criticized the plan and asked readers to contact moderate Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bob Corker of Tennessee, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Jerry Moran of Kansas.
“Contact @SenJohnMcCain and @JeffFlake, particularly if you live in Arizona, and tell them to oppose the tax bill: It would add more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years without helping the middle class,” read one of the tweets.

Contact @SenJohnMcCain and @JeffFlake, particularly if you live in Arizona, and tell them to oppose the tax bill: It would add more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years without helping the middle class. #thetaxbillhurts
Flake: (202) 224-4521
McCain: (202) 224-2235 pic.twitter.com/PvXI1b3Xd4

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017

The Times explained its move.
“This morning, the Times editorial board is tweeting here to urge the Senate to reject a tax bill that hurts the middle class & the nation's fiscal health,” the Times’ Opinion Twitter account said.
The Times also took a swipe at Trump, accusing him of tweeting questionable videos about Muslims on Wednesday morning, as a distraction to discourage questions about the tax bill.
“Don't let Trump's tweets of Islamophobic conspiracy theories distract you," the newspaper tweeted. "Call your senator and tell him or her that #thetaxbillhurts.”
It remained unclear if this was the first time the paper’s editorial board undertook such an effort. A Times spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday only that the approach was an “experiment” to get the anti-GOP message out.
"The Editorial Board has been writing for weeks about concerns over the tax legislation pending in Congress," Times senior vice president of communications Eileen Murphy said. "This was an experiment in using a different platform to get that message out. We emphasized to our audience that this was the position of the Editorial Board in particular, not of Times Opinion generally."

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

Bahtiyar Duysak told TechCrunch deactivating President Trump's Twitter account was a "mistake."  (Reuters)

A former Twitter employee who stunned the world earlier this month by deactivating President Donald Trump’s account for 11 minutes has now stepped forward.

Bahtiyar Duysak owned up to his involvement in the Nov. 3 Trump outage Wednesday in an interview with TechCrunch.

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

Golden State Calif. Cartoons

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

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaks to reporters following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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

Signature Gathering Underway to Repeal New Calif. Gas Tax Hike

In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, gasoline prices are displayed at a Chevron station in Sacramento, Calif.

OAN Newsroom

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

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

A second Democratic lawmaker called on Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to step down Tuesday over sexual misconduct allegations hours after Conyers' former deputy chief of staff detailed three occasions when he made unwanted advances toward her.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said in a statement that while she had looked up to Conyers for decades, "I believe these women, I see the pattern and there is only one conclusion – Mr. Conyers must resign."

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

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

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un ordered his engineers on Tuesday to launch the country’s new intercontinental ballistic missile with "courage" a day ahead of the flight test where it demonstrated its reach deep into the U.S. mainland.

State television on Wednesday broadcast a photo of Kim's signed order where he wrote: "Test launch is approved. Taking place at the daybreak of Nov. 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!"

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