February 18, 2017


News and Views


I AM DELIGHTED TO SEE THAT OUR INTELLIGENCE PEOPLE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED BY DONALD TRUMP, EVEN IF THEY CAN’T GET HIM OUT – YET. IF THIS RUSSIAN SCANDAL CONTINUES, HOWEVER, I THINK THEY WILL.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chill-intelligence-trump-white-house-sources/

"Chill" in flow of intelligence to Trump White House, sources say
CBS NEWS
February 18, 2017, 7:52 AM

President Trump is spending the weekend at his Florida resort. On Saturday, he’ll lead a rally in Melbourne, Florida. The event comes as Mr. Trump tries to regain his footing after what’s been a tumultuous first month in office.

Mr. Trump’s administration has been criticized as chaotic and overwhelmed, but on his way to Florida for the rally organized by his campaign, he seemed right at home in front of a crowd of supporters and the backdrop of Boeing’s new flagship plane, CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports.

President Trump at 787 Dreamliner plant: "God bless Boeing"
Play VIDEO
President Trump at 787 Dreamliner plant: "God bless Boeing"

“My focus has been all about jobs, and jobs is one of the primary reasons I’m standing here today as your president,” Mr. Trump said.

Still touting his Election Day victory, the president stopped in South Carolina Friday to relive the promises he made on the campaign trail.

“We are going to fully rebuild our military,” he said. “We are going to lower taxes on American business.”

He was leaving his problems in Washington behind.

After condemning the media in his first solo press conference Thursday, the president continued his attacks on Friday, saying in a tweet “the FAKE NEWS media … is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
4:48 PM - 17 Feb 2017
41,029 41,029 Retweets 127,072 127,072 likes

“The leaks are absolutely real; the news is fake,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday.

After reports that the CIA is withholding sensitive intelligence from the White House, Mr. Trump made a personal call to CIA Director Mike Pompeo and told him to stop the damaging leaks to the press.

Trump heatedly complains to CIA chief about leaks
Play VIDEO
Trump heatedly complains to CIA chief about leaks

“How do they write a story like that in the Wall Street Journal without asking me?” Mr. Trump asked during his press conference.

Pompeo said in a statement that “the CIA does not, has not, and will never hide intelligence from the president.”

But sources told CBS News there is a “chill” in the flow of intelligence to the White House, both because of comments from the president about the intelligence community and anxiety over the handling of sensitive information about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Another problem: staffing in the White House.

Flynn unlikely to face charges for lying to FBI, sources say
Play VIDEO
Flynn unlikely to face charges for lying to FBI, sources say

After the ouster of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump has had trouble finding a replacement. Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward turned down the post after the White House rejected Harward’s request to hire his own staff.

CBS News has learned former CIA Director David Petraeus is no longer being considered for the position. One other candidate is Mr. Trump’s acting National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump is focused on his “thank you” rally in Melbourne, some three months after the election. He said the crowds are expected to be “massive.”



http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/donald-trump-inauguration-protests/

Trump inauguration protests
57 Photographs – These include at least one of the violent Black Bloc group who were smashing windows of private cars and businesses. They are not normal Progressive and Moderate protesters, but Anarchists. Read about them in Wikipedia.



SHOULDN'T COORDINATING WITH AN ENEMY/RIVAL NATION IN ORDER TO WIN AN ELECTION BE SOME FORM OF TREASON?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-yells-at-cia-director-over-reports-intel-officials-are-keeping-information-from-him/

Trump yells at CIA director over reports intel officials are keeping info from him
CBS NEWS
February 17, 2017, 5:28 PM

Last Updated Feb 18, 2017 11:31 AM EST

This story has been updated with responses from the CIA and the White House.

CBS News has learned that on Thursday, an angry President Trump called CIA Director Mike Pompeo and yelled at him for not pushing back hard enough against reports that the intelligence community was withholding information from the commander-in-chief.

The agency then drafted a strongly worded statement rebutting the claim. “We are not aware of any instance when that has occurred,” read Pompeo’s statement. “It is CIA’s mission to provide the President with the best intelligence possible and to explain the basis for that intelligence. The CIA does not, has not, and will never hide intelligence from the President, period.”

The White House also denied the report. The president “did not yell at the CIA director,” a White House spokesperson wrote Saturday in an email to CBS News.

Trump slams the intel community for leaks to media
Play VIDEO
Trump slams the intel community for leaks to media

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal had reported that U.S. intelligence officials have kept information from Mr. Trump because they feared it could be leaked or compromised.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd denied Friday that there was a conversation between Pompeo and Mr. Trump about the article.

“There was no conversation between the CIA Director and the President about the Wall Street Journal article either before or after CIA issued its statement about the article,” Boyd said. “The CIA issued its statement on its own accord because the story was inaccurate and we felt the need to defend the integrity of our officers and institution.”

The reality is, insiders say, that there has been a “chill” in the information flow. Intelligence sources say the agency is intent on protecting information, and if there are concerns it could be compromised, it will be withheld.

The ongoing investigation into whether Trump associates coordinated with the Russians remains a concern for some who handle sensitive data. It can be inferred that there is a lack of trust, and because the CIA has had a role in uncovering signs of Russian cyber intrusions, there are also concerns that sensitive information could be shared with adversaries.



MCCAIN HAS THAT COMBINATION OF GUTS AND HUMILITY THAT I LIKE, EVEN IF HE IS A REPUBLICAN. HE ALSO HAS AN INTELLIGENT AND BENIGN LOOK ABOUT HIM. IF HE WERE PRESIDENT I WOULDN’T FEEL TERRIFIED.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-mccain-blasts-trump-in-munich-speech/

John McCain blasts Trump in Munich speech
CBS/AP
February 18, 2017, 10:44 AM

Presidents -- U.S. Senator John McCain speaks at the opening of the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2017. REUTERS

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. John McCain delivered a withering critique of President Donald Trump in a speech Friday that highlighted fractures within the GOP as the new administration struggles to overcome a chaotic start.

Speaking in Germany at the Munich Security Conference, McCain didn’t mention the president’s name, according to the prepared text, while he lamented a shift in the United States and Europe away from the “universal values” that forged the Western alliance seven decades ago. McCain is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of NATO, calling the military pact obsolete, and sought instead to stoke a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Mr. Trump’s defense secretary, Jim Mattis, has accused Putin of wanting to break NATO.

McCain says immigration ban "will probably give ISIS more propaganda"
Play VIDEO
McCain says immigration ban "will probably give ISIS more propaganda"

McCain, who has openly quarreled with the president, said “more and more of our fellow citizens seem to be flirting with authoritarianism and romanticizing it as our moral equivalent.”

The senator lamented the “hardening resentment we see toward immigrants, and refugees, and minority groups, especially Muslims.” During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump promised to stop Muslims from entering the U.S. and shortly after taking office issued an executive order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations.

McCain also said the alliance’s founders would be “alarmed by the growing inability, and even unwillingness, to separate truth from lies.” While bashing the news media for being dishonest, Mr. Trump has ignored facts and sought to blame others for his miscues. Trump tweeted Friday that the news media are “the enemy of the American people.”

He went on, saying of NATO’s founders that the most alarming part for them would be a “sense that many of our peoples, including in my own country, are giving up on the West, that they see it as a bad deal that we may be better off without, and that while Western nations still have the power to maintain our world order, it’s unclear whether we have the will.”

“I refuse to accept that our values are morally equivalent to those of our adversaries,” the Arizona Republican went on. “I am a proud, unapologetic believer in the West, and I believe we must always, always stand up for it. For if we do not, who will?”

Mr. Trump has suggested before that the U.S. is not morally superior to foreign powers like Russia. Asked in an interview with Fox News about his attempts to foster a positive relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- a “killer” -- the president responded with this: “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers...Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

The senator said he’s aware there is “profound concern across Europe and the world that America is laying down the mantle of global leadership.” But he said that’s not the message they would hear from him or other American leaders “who cared enough to travel here to Munich this weekend.” Mattis had already addressed the conference. Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were are scheduled to give speeches.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/norma-mccorvey-jane-roe-in-roe-v-wade-abortion-case-dead-at-69/

Norma McCorvey, "Jane Roe" in Roe v. Wade abortion case, dead at 69
CBS/AP
February 18, 2017, 2:04 PM

Photograph -- Norma McCorvey, the woman at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion, testifies before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee during hearings on the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Capitol Hill in Washington Jan. 21, 1998. CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

DALLAS -- Norma McCorvey, whose legal challenge under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision that legalized abortion but who later became an outspoken opponent of the procedure, died Saturday. She was 69.

McCorvey died at an assisted living center in Katy, Texas, journalist Joshua Prager confirmed to CBS News. He is working on a book about McCorvey and was with her and her family when she died. He said she died of heart failure.

McCorvey was 22, unmarried, unemployed and pregnant for the third time when in 1969 she sought to have an abortion in Texas, where the procedure was illegal except to save a woman’s life. The subsequent lawsuit, known as Roe v. Wade, led to Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that established abortion rights, though by that time, McCorvey had given birth and given her daughter up for adoption.

Decades later, McCorvey underwent a conversion, becoming an evangelical Christian and joining the anti-abortion movement. A short time later, she underwent another religious conversion and became a Roman Catholic.

“I’m 100 percent pro-life. I don’t believe in abortion even in an extreme situation. If the woman is impregnated by a rapist, it’s still a child. You’re not to act as your own God,” she told The Associated Press in 1998.

Notable deaths in 2017
After the court’s ruling, McCorvey had lived quietly for several years before revealing herself as Jane Roe in the 1980s. She also confessed to lying when she said the pregnancy was the result of rape.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, she remained an ardent supporter of abortion rights and worked for a time at a Dallas women’s clinic where abortions were performed.

Her 1994 autobiography, “I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice,” included abortion-rights sentiments along with details about dysfunctional parents, reform school, petty crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, an abusive husband, an attempted suicide and lesbianism.

But a year later, she was baptized before network TV cameras by a most improbable mentor: The Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham, the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America. McCorvey joined the cause and staff of Benham, who had befriended her when the anti-abortion group moved next door to the abortion clinic where she was working.

McCorvey also said that her religious conversion led her to give up her lover, Connie Gonzales. She said the relationship turned platonic in the early 1990s and that once she became a Christian she believed homosexuality was wrong.

She recounted her evangelical conversion and stand against abortion in the January 1998 book “Won by Love,” which ends with McCorvey happily involved with Operation Rescue.

But by August of that year, she had changed faiths to Catholicism. And though she was still against abortion, she had left Operation Rescue, saying she had reservations about the group’s confrontational style.

McCorvey formed her own group, Roe No More Ministry, in 1997 and traveled around the country speaking out against abortion. In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by McCorvey to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

In May 2009, she was arrested on trespassing charges after joining more than 300 anti-abortion demonstrators when President Obama spoke at the University of Notre Dame. In July 2009, she was among demonstrators arrested for disrupting Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination hearing.

McCorvey was born in Louisiana, spending part of her childhood in the small village of Lettsworth. Her family then moved to Houston and later Dallas, where in “I Am Roe” she recounts stealing money at the age of 10 from the gas station where she worked afternoons and weekends and running away to Oklahoma City before being returned home by police. She was eventually sent to a state reform school for girls in the northern Texas town of Gainesville, living there from the age of 11 to 15.

She married at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. She says her mother tricked her into signing away custody of her firstborn and then threw her out of the house.

“My mom screamed, ‘What did a lesbian know about raising a child?’ I lost my child, and my home,” she told the AP in 1998.

She gave a second child up for adoption, but when she got pregnant a third time she decided to have an abortion. She said she couldn’t afford to travel to one of the handful of states where it would have been legal.

In her book “I Am Roe,” she said her adoption attorney put her in touch with Texas lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were seeking a woman to represent in a legal case to challenge the state’s anti-abortion statute. She gave birth to the “Roe” baby in June 1970.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/petraeus-out-of-the-running-for-national-security-adviser/

Petraeus out of the running for national security adviser
By MAJOR GARRETT CBS NEWS
February 18, 2017, 10:10 AM

Sources close to retired Gen. David Petraeus say the White House eliminated the former CIA director from consideration for the open national security adviser post after he weighed in on the job during a conference in Germany this week.

The investigation into the Trump-Russia ties
Play VIDEO
The investigation into the Trump-Russia ties

‎”Whoever it is that would agree to take that position certainly should do so with some very, very significant assurances that he or she would have authorities over the personnel of the organization -- that there would be a commitment to a disciplined process and procedures,” Petraeus said at the Munich Security Conference.

That pronouncement angered the White House as it deepened the sense the next national security adviser must assert authority over staff and the inter-agency process -- highlighting the reason Vice Adm. Robert Harward refused to take the job earlier this week. Two sources confirmed to CBS News that Harward had demanded his own team, and the White House resisted.

Sources close to the situation said the White House is content for the time being with acting National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg and does not have a coherent replacement plan in place. Kellogg, a former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, had been serving as chief of staff and executive secretary of the National Security Council when he took over as the national security adviser.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, offered his resignation Monday night, following revelations that he had numerous phone calls with foreign counterparts, which included a conversation in December with the Russian ambassador about lifting sanctions. Mr. Trump has said it was Flynn’s falsehoods to Vice President Mike Pence about such conversations that prompted his dismissal.

Petraeus was under consideration for the post and had been considered for secretary of state during the transition. But early stumbles in the first three weeks of the Trump administration led Petraeus to draw a list of conditions -- chief among them authority over hiring senior National Security Council staff -- before he would take the national security adviser job.

The conditions would have been a hurdle in any serious White House consideration of Petraeus, but the impulse was there until Petraeus’ comments in Munich.

CBS News’ Reena Flores contributed to this report.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-says-construction-of-u-s-mexico-border-wall-to-begin-in-months/

President Trump says construction of U.S.-Mexico border wall to begin in "months"
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS January 25, 2017, 12:52 PM

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that construction of his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall will begin “in months.”

“As soon as we can, as soon as we can physically do it,” he told ABC News in an interview. “I would say in months, yeah. I would say in months -- certainly planning is starting immediately.”

In the interview, which will air in its entirety Wednesday night, Mr. Trump reiterated what he said during a pre-inauguration press conference -- which is that rather than paying for it up front, Mexico will “reimburse” the U.S. for the wall in some form. In the meantime, U.S. taxpayer dollars will be put toward construction of the wall.

Trump signs executive orders to build wall
“All it is, is we’ll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico,” he said. “I’m just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form. What I’m doing is good for the United States. It’s also going to be good for Mexico. We want to have a very stable, very solid Mexico.”

The wall was a centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s campaign, and part of his hard-line pitch on immigration. He reiterated Wednesday that Mexico -- which has repeatedly said it will not pay for the wall -- will pay for it “100 percent.”

The interview clip comes as Mr. Trump is expected to begin signing immigration-related executive orders, including possibly one relating to the border wall.

“Ultimately, it will come out of what’s happening with Mexico ... and we will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico, which I’ve always said,” Trump said.



BERNIE SEZ – THREE ARTICLES


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-social-security-bill_us_58a61e12e4b045cd34bff1dd

Bernie Sanders Unveils Social Security Expansion Bill On The Day Millionaires Stop Paying
The legislation would expand the payroll tax on high earners to boost benefits for everyone.
By Daniel Marans
02/16/2017 05:43 pm ET

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced a bill on Thursday to expand Social Security benefits by lifting the cap on earnings subject to payroll taxes.

The progressive lawmakers presented their proposal on the day that Americans with wages of $1 million or more stop paying into Social Security for the year.

Workers now contribute to Social Security based on the first $127,200 they earn every year. The new legislation would apply the 6.2-percent payroll tax to ordinary earnings of $250,000 or more, as well as to unearned income, like capital gains and dividends, above that threshold.

Rather than increase benefits for those high-earning workers based on their additional contributions, the bill would use the revenue to extend Social Security’s solvency until 2078, and to boost benefits across the board with a disproportionate impact on low earners.

“We can expand benefits, we can extend the life of Social Security, if we have the guts to tell the millionaires and billionaires, yes, they are going to have to pay a bit more in taxes,” Sanders said at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Sanders was joined by DeFazio; Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.); Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Paul Tonko (N.Y.); and representatives of progressive organizations like Social Security Works, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Alliance for Retired Americans.

TOM WILLIAMS/GETTY IMAGES
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) questions Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), nominee to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Jan. 24, 2017.

There has been a cap, or taxable maximum, on the amount of pay subject to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security since the government began collecting the tax in 1937.

The cap rises with the average wage index. The share of the country’s ordinary earnings covered by the cap, however, has declined to just under 83 percent in 2014 from 90 percent in 1983.

This drop is the result of the disproportionate wage growth of those with earnings above the cap, and stagnant pay growth for the vast majority of workers, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress released Thursday. An accompanying study published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that just 1.6 percent of American workers make $250,000 a year or more, suggesting that Sanders’ bill would affect relatively few people.

There is virtually no chance of the legislation advancing in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Instead, the release of the bill was another opportunity for Democrats to hammer President Donald Trump for going soft on campaign promises not to cut Social Security and Medicare. Trump has not discussed his plans for the two programs since the election, but his proposals to invest in infrastructure, increase defense spending and reduce taxes will put him under enormous pressure to find savings elsewhere.

Warren said at Thursday’s press conference that Trump’s appointment of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget shows that Trump “has already turned his back on his promise to protect Social Security.” The Senate confirmed Mulvaney on Thursday morning in a 51-49 vote.

In his confirmation hearing last month, Mulvaney refused to disavow a previous claim that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” and reaffirmed his support for benefit cuts, such as an increase in the retirement age. Warren noted those positions in her comments.

“That’s who Donald Trump put in charge of delivering a budget to the American Congress,” Warren said, referring to Mulvaney. “Well, I’m here to say, those budgets that cut Social Security will go down in flames. We will fight back.”



538 IS A RECOGNIZED NEWS SITE, THOUGH THEY WERE NEW TO ME, WHICH BEGAN UNDER THE NEW YORK TIMES. I BELIEVE FROM WHAT I SEE HERE THAT IT IS NOT A FAKE NEWS SITE. IN THE 2012 ELECTION, IT CORRECTLY PREDICTED ALL 50 STATES’ RESULTS. IT IS THE PRODUCER OF THE SANDERS ARTICLE BELOW, “THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FiveThirtyEight

FiveThirtyEight
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FiveThirtyEight, sometimes referred to as 538, is a website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college,[538 1] was founded on March 7, 2008, as a polling aggregation website with a blog created by analyst Nate Silver. In August 2010, the blog became a licensed feature of The New York Times online. It was renamed FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus. In July 2013, ESPN announced that it would become the owner of the FiveThirtyEight brand and site, and Silver was appointed as editor-in-chief.[3] The ESPN-owned FiveThirtyEight began publication on March 17, 2014. In the ESPN era, the FiveThirtyEight blog has covered a broad spectrum of subjects including politics, sports, science, economics, and popular culture.

During the U.S. presidential primaries and United States general election of 2008 the site compiled polling data through a unique methodology derived from Silver's experience in baseball sabermetrics to "balance out the polls with comparative demographic data."[4] Silver weighted "each poll based on the pollster's historical track record, sample size, and recentness of the poll".[5]

Since the 2008 election, the site has published articles – typically creating or analyzing statistical information – on a wide variety of topics in current politics and political news. These included a monthly update on the prospects for turnover in the U.S. Senate; federal economic policies; Congressional support for legislation; public support for health care reform, global warming legislation, LGBT rights; elections around the world; marijuana legalization; and numerous other topics. The site and its founder are best known for election forecasts, including the 2012 presidential election in which FiveThirtyEight correctly predicted the vote winner of all 50 states.

During its first five and a half years FiveThirtyEight won numerous awards - both when it was an independent blog and when it was published by The New York Times. These included "Bloggie" Awards for "Best Political Coverage" in 2008 and "Best Weblog about Politics" in 2009, as well as "Webbies" for "Best Political Blog" in 2012 and 2013. In 2016, while under the ownership of ESPN, FiveThirtyEight won the "Data Journalism Website of the Year" award.



https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-future-of-the-democratic-party-according-to-the-bernie-sanders-wing/

The Future Of The Democratic Party, According To The Bernie Sanders Wing
By Galen Druke and Clare Malone
Filed under Party Time
New episode: Politics podcast
FEB. 16, 2017 AT 5:38 PM

This is the third episode of “Party Time,” a mini-series from FiveThirtyEight’s Politics podcast examining where the two major political parties are heading in the Trump era. Throughout February, we’re talking to lawmakers, strategists and stakeholders who hold different views within the parties. In the first two episodes, we heard from people representing different positions within the Republican Party: Trump allies and Trump skeptics.

In the final two episodes, we hear from the Democrats. The Democratic Party, with less power in federal and state government than it has had in more than 80 years, is juggling competing internal pressures as it tries to chart a path out of the wilderness. Progressives want the party to pivot to the left on economic issues, in the vein of Bernie Sanders’s democratic socialism. The establishment sees the 2016 presidential election loss as a failure of strategy and message more than a flawed platform.

In this episode, we hear from the progressives: RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the labor union National Nurses United; Jenn Kauffman, senior vice president at political media strategy firm Revolution Messaging; and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Here is a partial transcript of our conversation with Kauffman. At Revolution Messaging, she helped develop digital strategy for Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign:

Galen Druke: As Democrats start to pick up the pieces after this last election, there’s somewhat of a debate within the party over its future direction — whether it should pivot to the Sanders/Warren wing of the party or stick with what they’ve got but maybe find more popular candidates. Where do you come down on that?

Jenn Kauffman: We see what happens when we don’t connect with voters about why we’re the party that’s fighting for them. This election, so many people felt pessimistic. Many people thought that things aren’t working. And, you know, I see hats that say, “America’s already great.” I’m a progressive, and I’m not sure that I always feel that way. I think that there’s a lot of voter frustration and we need to speak to that, and at the heart of that is economic inequality. At the heart of that is so much that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the like have been addressing.

We need to take a hard line, and it’s hard for us to do that if we don’t divorce ourselves from some of the ties that are preventing our party from moving forward and really tackling this head-on. I’m lucky enough to have been able to buy a home, and when I was negotiating on a sales price, I didn’t come in at the highest price, right? I came in, and I tried to negotiate. And I feel like that’s what the progressives have been urging the Democratic Party to do, and I feel like so often in the past, we’ve seen our party come to the table with the most milquetoast propositions and walk away with something that makes no one happy. And I don’t think that that’s how we’re going to win voters and move our agenda forward.

Druke: What lessons have you learned from the success of the Bernie Sanders campaign that you think could be applied more broadly?

Kauffman: Authenticity, I think, was the biggest takeaway. Authenticity permeated every aspect of the campaign. I think that’s, perhaps, a lot of what’s driven the appeal on the Republican side behind Trump. There isn’t this filter, right? When you saw Bernie Sanders and you saw his hair blowing this way and that way, when you knew there wasn’t this stylist, this image maker, there wasn’t this committee of people who determined what he was going to wear that day and what he was going to say that day. The way that the campaign was people-powered, meaning that it was fueled by millions of people who gave small-dollar donations. It was like $218 million mostly through those small donations of an average of $27. That meant that the campaign and Bernie Sanders didn’t have ties to special interests. And I think that was a really big takeaway: Authenticity really was the winner.

Clare Malone: Was there a moment when Sanders really broke through? Was it a conscientious decision on the part of [your team] to say, “We’re going to go everywhere; we’re going to talk to everyone”? … Bernie Sanders is now just “Bernie.” But he wasn’t a year ago, a year and a half ago. And so I’m wondering what it was.

Kauffman: You have to be issues-focused. I think that was how he was able to stand out from this field in which he had very little name recognition. In some ways, because he didn’t have that name ID, he had to be for something. He had to define himself by his positions on income inequality and the system being rigged. We had tremendous success early on advertising on Facebook, with petitions — urging people to sign on to a petition that would be sent to their governors stating their support for refugees fleeing war-torn Syria. And that does two things. It defines Bernie and the issues that he stands for, and it begins to form a movement. It connects them with the issues that they care about, and it begins to build a narrative for what the country can look like and how we can move forward.

Druke: How does your experience from the campaign change the conventional wisdom about how to run a campaign moving forward? Ultimately, the candidate who had a pretty ad-hoc strategy for much of the campaign and raised far fewer dollars than his opponent ended up winning (Donald Trump).

Kauffman: One interesting thing that I think wasn’t reported enough about was modeling. People talked about the models and the models being wrong. I would posit almost that we need to stop relying on models entirely — and it’s not because they’re right or wrong, but because models mean that we’re going to reach out to people based off of past voting behavior. These are audiences that are modeled after what likely voters look like. And we see here in the U.S. that we have really abysmal turnout numbers. At the high, maybe 50 percent of voters are turning out. At a low, like in local elections, it’s 20 percent. And I would posit perhaps why we’re seeing those kinds of numbers is because we’re only talking to certain people.

One of the huge successes behind the [Sanders] campaign was that we weren’t heavily micro-targeting — we were talking really broadly, and we were talking to audiences that in the past have not been communicated with by political campaigns. And people were hungry for it, and they really responded, and I think that’s the path forward.

Malone: You’ve pulled a lot of triggers here for us when you say, “maybe we don’t need models anymore,” because we talk a lot about how campaigns have used data in the past, even 10 years, to move forward. Are you saying, “Hey, we’re mostly done with that”? Is there room for a different kind of model?

Kauffman: The model is also based off of past cycles, and there hasn’t been someone like Trump in cycles past. So, you know, the model might have been right if the candidate opposite Hillary Clinton had been anyone but Trump.

I do need to step back. My dad has a Ph.D. in statistics and would kill me if I were to say, “Throw out all the models.” But I think the reality is that we need to be smarter about targeting. … I mean, there are really cool things that you can do with micro-targeting. You can have messages that are tweaked for specific audiences, and that’s really cool. As a digital user, I like it when I get a message that’s created just for me. I’m a Latina whose last name is Kauffman, and when I get something that’s in Spanglish, that’s perfect. That’s right at the nexus of the story, in essence, of who I am. That’s really cool for me.

So we can do really awesome things like that when we’re smart about using models and data to target. I think, though, to only target people who are within those universes is the big mistake, and you can’t have such unique, siloed messages that only go to certain people and certain audiences because then I think that undercuts the authenticity, and we’ve seen that authenticity is king. It’s just so important to voters these days.

Malone: This is perhaps an uncomfortable question for a lot of Democrats, but do you think the Democratic Party was too top-heavy on cultural issues and was not paying enough attention to core economic messaging? And tied into that — how does the party balance civil rights issues, gay rights issues while also trying to put the pedal to the metal on appealing to the working class that in some places, black or white, doesn’t share certain progressive cultural values?

Kauffman: That’s a really good question. I do think it’s possible to be focused on both economic and cultural issues at the same time. I think from a strategic standpoint, perhaps one of the mistakes was not focusing on our frame and moving it forward and instead constantly being distracted by Donald Trump. I think that those distractions prevented us from being able to shine a bright enough light on our economic message. He would tweet about something and then everybody would get up in arms and they would respond back, and it felt like the news cycle was just wash, rinse and repeat. Every 24 hours, there was something crazy that he would say, and everybody would respond to it.

And I think at the end of the day, a lot of people, even sometimes I said it: “Oh I wish Hillary Clinton would have had a better economic message.” In the end, she had an economic message. I think it didn’t cut through. And I think that part of that was because everyone, me included, we were all too focused on responding to Donald Trump’s “Trumpster fires” as we were referring to them. It meant that more resources needed to be devoted to cutting through the noise by promoting social media content and by having more digital advertising to cut through that echo chamber, to cut through the noise and deliver that economic message, along with cultural messages to voters.

Malone: I know you’ve worked with a number of labor groups. Labor has been on a decades-long decline as far as power. A lot of labor households voted Trump this year, and I’m wondering what is the future of the labor movement within the Democratic Party.

Kauffman: One thing that’s going to be key is letting union members know what’s happening. Donald Trump had talked about “draining the swamp,” and he’s turned around, and he wants to stack his Cabinet with picks from Goldman Sachs and Exxon. To stack the Cabinet with Washington and Wall Street insiders is the opposite of “draining the swamp,” and I think for union members, they’re going to be really concerned when they connect the dots and realize what’s happening.

With regard to where does labor go from here, it’s a really interesting question, and it’s something that the labor movement has been asking themselves. We’re seeing them redefine what it means to be in the labor movement. Do you work? Then, yes, if you work, then you’re part of the labor movement. Work has value, and that means you’re part of this movement and part of what makes America great.

You can listen to the episode by clicking the “play” button above or by downloading it in iTunes, the ESPN App or your favorite podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts, learn how to listen.

The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast publishes Monday evenings, with occasional special episodes throughout the week. Help new listeners discover the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for “good polling vs. bad polling”? Get in touch by email, on Twitter or in the comments.

Galen Druke is FiveThirtyEight’s podcast producer and reporter. @galendruke
Clare Malone is a senior political writer for FiveThirtyEight. @claremalone


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/17/515764335/court-strikes-down-florida-law-barring-doctors-from-discussing-guns-with-patient

Court Strikes Down Florida Law Barring Doctors From Discussing Guns With Patients
REBECCA HERSHER
FEBRUARY 17, 2017 12:04 PM

Photograph -- A handgun on display at the National Rifle Association's 2003 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. A federal appeals court struck down part of a Florida law prohibiting physicians in that state from discussing guns in the home with their patients.
Chris Livingston/Getty Images

A federal appeals court says doctors in Florida must be allowed to discuss guns with their patients, striking down portions of a Florida law that restricts what physicians can say to patients about firearm ownership.

In a 10-1 decision, the full panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law, known as the Privacy of Firearm Owners act, violates the First Amendment rights of doctors.

A federal judge blocked the 2011 law from taking effect shortly after it was passed, and legal challenges by medical and gun control groups have been moving through the courts ever since. In 2014, a three-judge panel of the 11th circuit upheld the constitutionality of the Florida law.

Thursday's ruling overturned the panel's decision, noting there's no evidence that by asking about guns, doctors were in any way infringing on the second amendment rights of their patients, NPR's Greg Allen reported.

As the majority decision states, "Florida does not have carte blanche to restrict the speech of doctors and medical professionals on a certain subject without satisfying the demands of heightened scrutiny," continuing:

"As part of their medical practices, some doctors routinely ask patients about various potential health and safety risks, including household chemicals, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, swimming pools, and firearms. A number of leading medical organizations, and some of their members, believe that unsecured firearms 'in the home increase risks of injury, especially for minors and those suffering from depression or dementia.'

"In an effort to prevent and reduce firearm-related deaths and injuries, particularly to children, the American Medical Association 'encourages its members to inquire as to the presence of household firearms as a part of childproofing the home and to educate patients to the dangers of firearms to children.'

"The Florida law was passed in 2011, and targeted pediatricians who asked parents about firearms in the home. Under its provisions, doctors can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000, and can lose their medical licenses for discussing guns with patients."

The decision upheld a portion of the law that explicitly prevents doctors from discriminating against patients who own guns.

The National Rifle Association, which lobbied for the law's passage, has weighed in on the legal fight. As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action sent members a letter about the case in 2015.

"Physicians interrogating and lecturing parents and children about guns is not about gun safety," the letter read. "It is a political agenda to ban guns. Parents do not take their children to physicians for a political lecture against the ownership of firearms, they go there for medical care."

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
Should Doctors Ask Older People If They Have Guns At Home?

One of the judges in the majority, William Pryor, wrote a separate concurrence addressing gun rights arguments head on.

"I write separately to reiterate that our decision is about the First Amendment, not the Second. The Second Amendment "guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons," ... but the profound importance of the Second Amendment does not give the government license to violate the right to free speech under the First Amendment," he wrote.

Pryor, who President Trump has said is a contender for a future position on the Supreme Court, cautioned against politicizing the practice of medicine, and continued:

"The First Amendment is a counter-majoritarian bulwark against tyranny. ... The promise of free speech is that even when one holds an unpopular point of view, the state cannot stifle it. The price Americans pay for this freedom is that the rule remains unchanged regardless of who is in the majority."

...

"If we upheld the Act, we could set a precedent for many other restrictions of potentially unpopular speech. Think of everything the government might seek to ban between doctor and patient as supposedly 'irrelevant' to the practice of medicine. Without the protection of free speech, the government might seek to ban discussion of religion between doctor and patient. The state could stop a surgeon from praying with his patient before surgery or punish a Christian doctor for asking patients if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or punish an atheist for telling his patient that religious belief is delusional.

"Without the protection of free speech, the government might seek to censor political speech by doctors. The state might prevent doctors from encouraging their patients to vote in favor of universal health care or prohibit a physician from criticizing the Affordable Care Act. Some might argue that such topics are irrelevant to a particular patient's immediate medical needs, but the First Amendment ensures that doctors cannot be threatened with state punishment for speech even if it goes beyond diagnosis and treatment."

An aide to Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the governor was reviewing the decision, as member station WLRN reported.



LET’S FACE IT. TRUMP IS NOT HAPPY UNLESS HE IS PLAYING BROADLY TO AN ADMIRING AND VERY RAUCOUS AUDIENCE.

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/17/515777903/president-trump-seems-determined-to-continue-the-permanent-campaign

President Trump Seems Determined To Continue The Permanent Campaign
February 17, 201712:23 PM ET
RON ELVING

Photograph -- President Trump is getting out of Washington for a campaign-style rally Saturday, his first since becoming president. He seems determined to keep up campaign-style politics even while governing. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Americans have complained for years about presidential campaigns that start too early and last too long.

Now, they are confronted with one that refuses to end — even after reaching the White House.

Trump's Thursday Press Conference, Annotated
POLITICS
Trump's Thursday Press Conference, Annotated

There may never be a "last word" written or spoken about President Trump's 77-minute barrage in the East Room Thursday, but the first word from many was: "Wow."

That was the initial reaction blurted out by Bret Baier at Fox News, as well as by Wolf Blitzer at CNN. For the first time since he took the oath, the president took questions from all kinds of news organizations. And he took them very, very personally.

"I'll tell you what else I see," the president said with some heat. "I see tone. You know the word 'tone'? The tone is such hatred. I'm really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such — I do get good ratings, you have to admit that — the tone is such hatred."

The impromptu news conference came sprawling onto screens everywhere out of a planned introduction for Alex Acosta, the new nominee to be secretary of labor. But Trump appeared and stepped onto the dais alone. This was to be a one-man show, and White House officials said it was very much the idea of that one man.

In fact, Trump used the words "I" or "me" or "we" in reference to himself (the royal we) more than 500 times.

'Nobody That I Know Of': Trump Denies Campaign Contacts With Russia
POLITICS
'Nobody That I Know Of': Trump Denies Campaign Contacts With Russia

"I'm here today," he said, "to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration. We have made incredible progress. I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done."

Trump seemed flummoxed by all the stories about the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn and dissension within the president's inner circle, stories that have been in heavy rotation throughout all forms of media this week. It was time to get the national focus back on the president himself and reverse the spotlight on his antagonists in the media.

The tone is such hatred. I'm really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such — I do get good ratings, you have to admit that — the tone is such hatred."

President Trump at a wide-ranging news conference
Feb. 16, 2017

"The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about — we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people," the president said. "Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it. To find out what's going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control."

Trump especially objected to accounts of his administration being in disarray.

"I turn on the TV, open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos," he said. "Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my Cabinet approved."

Admirers in the media called it "feisty" and "combative" and "vintage Trump." The website Conservative HQ called it "an epic beatdown of the media elite."

When it was over, the White House staff was clearly elated.

But detractors used an array of terms that began with the same two letters: "unprecedented," "unhinged," "untethered" and "unbelievable" being just a few — and "unpresidential" appearing often as well.

President Trump's Tweets, Annotated
POLITICS
President Trump's Tweets, Annotated

Not a few watchers were unsettled by Trump's reference to Russia and "nuclear holocaust" or his mention of the Russian spy ship reported to be off the coast. Trump said he had encouraged his new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to meet with the Russians, but added: "I told him I know politically it is probably not good for me. The greatest thing I could do is shoot that ship that's 30 miles offshore right out of the water."

But once again, the president seemed as concerned with how he won the presidency as he was about his actual presidency. He sounded very much like the man we all saw on the hustings in 2015 and through the long months of campaigning in 2016.

CHART: The Status Of Trump Administration's Key Members
POLITICS
CHART: The Status Of Trump Administration's Key Members

At one point he referred to his 306 votes in the Electoral College as "the largest margin of victory since Ronald Reagan." When Peter Alexander of NBC News pointed out there had been five larger ones in that time span, the president began to say, "I meant for Republicans," just as Alexander was adding that George H.W. Bush had won with 426.

"I was given that information," Trump said. "I have seen that information out there."

The president often seemed to be responding in the manner of a candidate. He talked about a favorable Rasmussen poll (which does not meet NPR's polling standards for a good poll) showing him with 55 percent approval. Other polls this week from Pew Research and Gallup (more respected outfits) have him as low as 39 or 40 percent.

He talked about the unfairness of the media and about the "mess" he "inherited upon his inauguration". And he returned repeatedly to complaints about Hillary Clinton, about the free pass she got from the media, about her dealings with Russia as secretary of state and about a deal involving exports of uranium.

The campaign mode continues this weekend, with the president again rallying like it's 2016. He teased it at his news conference: "In fact, I'll be in Melbourne, Fla., 5 o'clock on Saturday, and I heard — just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there."

Perhaps the campaign goes on because the president sees it as good politics. It enables him to dominate the cable coverage, much as he did in 2015 and 2016. By doing so, in all likelihood, he will keep his supporters enthusiastic and united. This will pressure congressional Republicans to back his versions of the policies on which they differ.

These would include the replacement for Obamacare, the future of Medicare, the size of the federal deficit, details of new trade and tax arrangements and the commitment to rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.

Or perhaps the campaign continues because it continues. The president does not yet seem comfortable in his new office with all the crosswinds and complications of divided powers and shared responsibilities.

But he remains utterly comfortable onstage — especially in front of an adoring crowd and a national TV audience.

Correction
Feb. 17, 2017
A previous version of this story misspelled Bret Baier's first name as Brett.



HATE CRIMES AGAINST ASIANS

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/17/515824196/first-ever-tracker-of-hate-crimes-against-asian-americans-launched

First-Ever Tracker Of Hate Crimes Against Asian-Americans
February 17, 2017 6:03 PM ET
JENNY J. CHEN

Photograph -- John Lu (left), Reynold Liang (center) and David Wu (right) during a news conference in Queens, N.Y., after being the victims of a hate crime in 2006. New York City council member David Weprin (second left) and John C. Liu look on.
Adam Rountree/AP

After years of declining numbers, hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are rising exponentially. A report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations found that crimes targeting Asian-Americans tripled in that county between 2014 and 2015. In addition, the FBI found that the number of hate crimes against Muslim communities rose dramatically between 2014 and 2015 (67 percent). That's the biggest increase of any other group listed in the Hate Crimes Report. However, national statistics on hate crimes against people who fall under the AAPI label are still scanty.

Two days before the inauguration, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a civil and human rights nonprofit, launched a website to rectify the issue. The website, standagainsthatred.org, documents hate incidents and crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders by tracking stories about hate incidents received from people around the country. The stories are vetted by AAJC staff and posted anonymously.

A Discomfiting Question: Was The Chicago Torture Case Racism?
CODE SWITCH
A Discomfiting Question: Was The Chicago Torture Case Racism?

"We've always recognized that hate incidents have been an issue," said AAJC Executive Director John Yang. "We realized that we really needed a better tracking tool."

Documented hate crimes against Asian-Americans extend as far back as the 1800s, when the white supremacist group Arsonists of the Order of Caucasians murdered four Chinese men whom they blamed for taking away jobs from white workers. The men were tied up, doused with kerosene and set on fire. In 1987, a Jersey City, N.J., gang calling itself the "Dotbusters" vowed to drive Indians out of Jersey City by vandalizing Indian-owned businesses. The gang used bricks to bludgeon a young South Asian male into a coma.

In a headline-grabbing case, two men from Queens, N.Y., were charged with a hate crime for attacking four Asian men, including one left with a possible fractured skull in a then-predominantly white neighborhood. "There's an undercurrent of suspicion of the new immigrant — what are they doing, what are they building, what are they putting in that store?" Susan Seinfeld, the district manager of Community Board 11, told The New York Times at the time.

In recent years, law enforcement bias has also surfaced: In 2014, video footage showed a New York Police Department cruiser running over and killing 24-year-old Japanese-American student Ryo Oyamada. The court later ruled in favor of the police department, stating that the incident was unavoidable. In January of this year, a 60-year-old Chinese-American man playing Pokémon Go in his car at night was shot and killed by a security guard in Chesapeake, Va. The guard was charged with murder.

Hate crimes targeting AAPI often stem from the fact that they're seen as the "perpetual foreigner," said Yang. That anti-foreign sentiment has only increased under the new administration, he said. In one of the stories posted on the new AAJC website, an older white man approached an Asian-American woman in downtown San Francisco and pretended to hit her over the head with a book, yelling, "I hate your f****** race. We're in charge of this country now." The anonymous submission added, "He was not intoxicated." In another entry, a Muslim teacher in Georgia was told to "hang herself" with her headscarf.

As disturbing as these stories are, they often don't show up in national data, said Yang. Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders frequently underreport hate incidents because they feel intimidated by law enforcement or are afraid of being seen as overly sensitive. Unfortunately, their silence on the issue makes them an even more attractive target for hate crimes. Racially motivated incidents that are reported are often filed as generic offenses and don't show up in national data about hate crimes.

AAJC plans to share data gathered from its website with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes through its Hate Map and Hatewatch blog. The center began segmenting out its hate crime numbers for Asian-Americans last December and relies on grass-roots organizations like AAJC for those data.

"We need to raise public awareness that hate incidents against AAPI are not one-off incidents. They happen in much greater numbers than we'd like to admit," said Yang.



THIS ARTICLE MENTIONS SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW TO ME "PLASTIC BANKNOTES." I FEEL SURE THERE ARE NONE OF THOSE IN THIS COUNTRY. WIKIPEDIA DOES HAVE AN ARTICLE ON THE SUBJECT UNDER THE TERM "POLYMER BANKNOTES." THE GOOD THING IS THEY LAST LONGER; I'M SURE THEY'RE WASHABLE ALSO. NEATO !!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-39015115

Just one '£50k' fiver still to be found
3 hours ago
From the section Birmingham & Black Country

Photograph -- Graham Short's portrait of the Queen on a pinhead fetched £100,000
Photograph -- England is the only home nation in which the rare notes have not been found, FERGUSON MEDIA
Photograph -- The serial numbers of the four notes were released to help people identify them


Another five pound note estimated to be worth £50,000 due to a tiny, engraved portrait of Jane Austen has been found.

It is the third such discovery across the UK, meaning that just one more note is outstanding.

The fivers are the handiwork of Birmingham micro-artist Graham Short.

He spent a note in each of the four home nations and said the latest find was in Northern Ireland - with only England yet to stake a claim to cash featuring 5mm pictures of the author.

The first was found in a café in south Wales in December 2016, with the second discovery coming in Scotland inside a Christmas card the same month.

Mr Short said he spent one of the five pound notes in an undisclosed part of Northern Ireland - "in a small bar called Charlie's Bar".

He said: "An old lady found it and she said 'I don't want my picture in the papers' and she said 'if it sells for a lot of money it will be better if young children could benefit from it'."

He came up with the idea of engraving Jane Austen on the transparent part of the new plastic Bank of England £5 notes to mark the 200th anniversary of her death.

He has included a different quote around each one ensuring each note is unique.

The recipients in Wales and Scotland stated in December they intended to keep the notes rather than sell them.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39016179

Mr Wilders' championing of Donald Trump is having a negative effect on his poll ratings
February 18, 2017 8 hours ago
From the section Europe

Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders has launched his election campaign by calling some Moroccans "scum".

Mr Wilders tops opinion polls ahead of the 15 March parliamentary vote, but has seen his lead reduced in recent weeks.
He has vowed to ban Muslim immigration and shut mosques if he wins.

His latest comments come two months after he was convicted in a hate speech trial over his promise to reduce the number of Moroccans in the country.

Mr Wilders addressed his supporters on Saturday amid tight security in his party's stronghold of Spijkenisse, an ethnically diverse area near Rotterdam.

"There is a lot of Moroccan scum in Holland who make the streets unsafe," he said. "If you want to regain your country, make the Netherlands for the people of the Netherlands again, then you can only vote for one party."

He emphasised that he thought "not all are scum".

According to the 2011 census, there were more than 167,000 Moroccan-born residents of the Netherlands, making up the third-largest group of non-EU residents, a figure that does not take into account second or third-generation Moroccans.

Why Dutch populist Geert Wilders is scenting victory

A few dozen supporters of Mr Wilders turned up in Spijkenisse on Saturday morning, as did a small group of demonstrators.

"The things that he's going to do make very, very scared," one of the demonstrators, Emma Smeets, told the Associated Press.

"A lot of people have gotten used to it and they don't protest any more, and I think it's important that you show your voice, that you don't agree with the things that are happening, and also just to get into contact with the people that are voting for him."

Photograph -- Firebrand anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, center, talks to the media during an election campaign stop in Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, Saturday Feb. 18, 2017Image copyright AP

Mr Wilders's Freedom Party holds 12 of the 150 seats in the lower house of Parliament. But his nearest rival, right-wing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has narrowed the lead with just a month until the election is held.

The BBC's Anna Holligan, in The Hague, said Mr Wilders's championing of US President Donald Trump's policies appears to be backfiring, as many Dutch voters believe Mr Trump is bad for global stability.

Even if Mr Wilders wins, he may struggle to put together a coalition, as leading parties have said they would not work with him.

Mr Wilders's three-week trial last year was triggered when police received 6,400 complaints about remarks he had made during a municipal election campaign in The Hague.

At a rally, he asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands".

When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Mr Wilders responded: "We're going to take care of that."

At the trial, prosecutors took testimony from Dutch-Moroccans who said his comments made them feel like "third-rate citizens". He was convicted of insulting a group and inciting discrimination.