February 20 THRU 23, 2017


News and Views


I HAVE PUT THIS STORY FIRST, NOT BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT, BUT BECAUSE IT HAS THE MOST ADORABLE PHOTOGRAPH. GO TO THE WEBSITE.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiny-new-frog-species-found-in-india/

Tiny new frog species found in India
By MINDY WEISBERGER LIVESCIENCE.COM
February 21, 2017, 5:00 PM

Photograph -- Vijayan’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus pulivijayani) is a miniature frog from the Agasthyamala hills in the Western Ghats, India. SD BIJU

Some of the smallest known frogs were recently discovered following a five-year survey in India. Seven new species of “night frogs,” in the Nyctibatrachus genus, include four species that are among the tiniest frogs ever found, capable of comfortably crouching on a thumbnail with room to spare.

Though the frogs were abundant in the survey area, their minuscule size and chirping calls -- which resemble the sounds of insects -- enabled them to remain undetected until now, scientists wrote in a new study.

Their discovery raises the total number of known night frog species to 35, with seven species recognized as miniaturized — smaller than 0.7 inches. [So Tiny! Miniature Frog Species Are Among World’s Smallest (Photos)]

The smallest of the newly described frogs -- Nyctibatrachus manalari, N. pulivijayani, N. robinmoorei and N. sabarimalai -- measure between 0.5 and 0.6 inches.

N. webilla and N. athirappillyensis are slightly larger than their cousins at approximately 0.7 inches and 0.8 inches respectively, while the largest of the new finds, N. radcliffei, measured 1.5 inches.

tiny-frogs-10.jpg
Seven new species discovered from the Western Ghats. A. Radcliffe’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus radcliffei), B. Athirappilly night frog (Nyctibatrachus athirappillyensis), C. Kadalar night frog (Nyctibatrachus webilla), D. Sabarimala night frog (Nyctibatrachus sabarimalaiI), E. Vijayan’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus pulivijayani), F. Manalar night frog (Nyctibatrachus manalari), G. Robin Moore’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus robinmoorei). [(D-G. Size of the miniature species in comparison to the Indian 5-rupee coin (24 mm diameter)]. SD BIJU
Night frogs are native to the Western Ghats mountain range, one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots and a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. The region runs parallel to India’s western coast, covering an area measuring approximately 54,054 square miles.

It is home to hundreds of species of animals and plants that are recognized as globally threatened, with 145 species listed as endangered and 51 as critically endangered, UNESCO reported in a site description.

Over the past decade, scientists have described 103 new species from the Western Ghats, including the unusual Indian purple frog, which is found nowhere else on Earth and is the only living frog in an evolutionary lineage dating back to the Jurassic.

Critically endangered species and beloved animals at risk
Critically endangered species and beloved animals at risk
What the future holds for night frogs -- and for many of their fellow amphibians -- is uncertain, as more than 32 percent of the Western Ghats frogs are threatened with extinction, according to the study co-author, SD Biju, a biologist and head of the Systematics Lab with the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Delhi, India.

“Out of the seven new species, five are facing considerable anthropogenic threats and require immediate conservation prioritization,” Biju said.

The new findings emphasize that biodiversity in the Western Ghats is dramatically underestimated -- even in well-studied groups like night frogs -- and highlight the urgency of implementing conservation measures to protect threatened wildlife, and to preserve the habitats of as-yet undiscovered species, the study authors wrote.

The findings were published online Feb. 21 in the open access journal PeerJ.



IN MY VIEW IT IS DANGEROUS FOR TRUMP’S PEOPLE TO HAVE TO WATCH WHAT HE SAYS AND STEP UP TO GIVE CORRECTIONS. IT’S ALSO EMBARRASSING, OF COURSE. BUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MEXICO IS SENSITIVE AND TRUMP, UNFORTUNATELY, ISN'T DELICATE IN THE WAY HE DEALS WITH FOREIGN LEADERS.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-secretary-says-no-use-of-military-forces-in-immigration/

DHS secretary says “no use of military forces in immigration”
By KYLIE ATWOOD CBS NEWS
February 23, 2017, 6:06 PM

Photograph -- Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly delivers a statement accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City, Mexico February 23, 2017. REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA - RTS101NX

In Mexico City, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly promised there will not be any mass deportations of illegal immigrants. Kelly also said that there will not be any military force used in immigration enforcement.

“There will be no use of military forces in immigration,” Kelly declared in a statement at the Mexican Foreign Ministry. “There will be no -- repeat -- no, mass deportations.”

The statement contradicts what President Trump had said hours before when he referenced Kelly’s and Secretary of State Tillerson’s trip to Mexico.

“We’re getting really bad dudes out of this country. And at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before. And they’re the bad ones. And it’s a military operation,” said Mr. Trump in a meeting with manufacturing CEOs at the White House.

Tillerson and Kelly spent the morning meeting with their Mexican counterparts. The Mexicans called for collaboration on all levels with the U.S. Both cabinet secretaries echoed the need for coordination on all levels, including along the border.

Tillerson described the U.S.-Mexico relationship as one of “vibrant colors” between sovereign countries that will “from time to time will have differences.” “We listened closely and carefully to each other as we respectfully and patiently raised our respective concerns,” Tillerson explained.

The secretary of State made no mention of payment for the wall that Trump plans to build along the southern border, but he did highlight a joint U.S.-Mexico commitment to law and order along the border. He also claimed some responsibility for the U.S. in acknowledging the need to curtail drug trafficking and the illegal movement of firearms and cash from the U.S. to Mexico.

The Mexican foreign minister’s comments were a little more pointed. In what Videgaray called the “public and notorious differences” between the U.S. and Mexico, he dwelled on the need for agreements that serve both countries. He heralded these meetings for creating necessary dialogue after what he characterized as irritating U.S. policies that may be harmful to Mexico.

He also noted the importance of having the U.S. secretary of State as a part of the discussions. Earlier in the month when he visited Washington, Videgaray spent about nine hours in the White House for meetings and much less time with Tillerson. This visit may usher in a new beginning with Tillerson taking the reins on U.S.-Mexico relations which, until this point, has been spearheaded by top White House aide and Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Videgaray is seen as the primary force working behind the scenes to get the U.S.-Mexico relationship on solid ground -- it has suffered in recent weeks over border and trade issues. He also faced pushback in his country for a CBS News report that he saw and revised the speech Trump was to deliver before signing the border wall executive order. He denied the report, calling it “fake news.”

Tillerson on mission to mend fractured relationship with Mexico
Play VIDEO
Tillerson on mission to mend fractured relationship with Mexico

The minute Tillerson landed in Mexico, discussion with his Mexican counterparts about the border commenced. On Wednesday evening, he had dinner with Videgary and other Mexican ministers where they spoke about U.S.-Mexico relations going “both ways” on the border in order to have a working relationship, according to a U.S. administration official. They called it a constructive conversation “where people did more than listening than they have probably ever done.” Tillerson has been doing a lot of listening -- he also said that he did a lot of listening during his trip to Bonn, Germany last week for the G-20 meetings.

But it was clear to one immigration expert that Mexico pressed the U.S. on the treatment of Mexicans in the U.S. facing deportation. “For Videgaray to say we need to see the facts has a lot of meaning. I can see there must have been direct conversations about the way DHS will respect the human rights of Mexicans subject to deportation,” explains Gustavo Mohar, a Chief Negotiator for Migration Affairs when both governments started bilateral conversations on the border in the 2000s. Mohar added that what was missing from the conversation seemed to be how Mexicans in the U.S. will be given a chance to stay and become legal.

Though no tangible new agreements were announced Videgaray did say that there are plans for the U.S. and Mexico to meet with all countries in the central American region to discuss the joint responsibility and root causes of immigration.

Before departing, Kelly and Tillerson visited with Mexican President Pena Nieto. There had been reports from US Mexican officials that this meeting was on the rocks but nothing appeared amiss. The Mexican president has not yet met President Trump, having cancelled his trip to D.C. earlier this month over his disagreement with Mr. Trump over the construction of the southern border wall.



TOLD THE REPORTER TO SIT DOWN !!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-anti-defamation-league-urges-trump-to-address-jcc-threats-anti-semitism/

Amid growing calls for action, Trump addresses JCC threats, anti-Semitism
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
February 21, 2017, 8:25 AM

Under growing pressure to address threats against the Jewish community following another wave of bomb threats called into Jewish Community Centers around the country Monday, President Trump broke his silence on the issue Tuesday morning.

After previously deflecting a number of questions about the apparent rise in anti-Semitic incidents, Mr. Trump chose to address the issue at the end of his visit Tuesday to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

“This tour was a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms,” the president said. “The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.”

His remarks followed days of increasing attention to the problem and weeks of anxiety within the Jewish community.

2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted Tuesday morning that the president should speak out against these incidents himself.

Follow
Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton
JCC threats, cemetery desecration & online attacks are so troubling & they need to be stopped. Everyone must speak out, starting w/ @POTUS.
8:09 AM - 21 Feb 2017
23,283 23,283 Retweets 67,021 67,021 likes

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also called on the administration to address these threats. The group issued a statement saying that the “threats themselves are alarming, disruptive and must always be taken seriously,” despite the fact that all of the threats so far have turned out to be hoaxes.

Follow
ADL ✔ @ADL_National
We are still waiting to hear what administration will do to address ongoing threats to Jewish communities #answerthequestion https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/833795629218463745 …
5:43 PM - 20 Feb 2017
482 482 Retweets 614 614 likes

Later in the day, the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, tweeted about the bomb threats.

Follow
Ivanka Trump ✔ @IvankaTrump
America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers. #JCC
6:59 PM - 20 Feb 2017
7,287 7,287 Retweets 36,066 36,066 likes

On Monday, a White House official put out this statement: “Hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the promise of individual freedom. The President has made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable.”

The head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, suggested on Twitter that Mr. Trump should speak out against the threats himself.

Follow
Jonathan Greenblatt ✔ @JGreenblattADL
Glad to see this. All Jews need to urge @POTUS to step forward & share a plan. His words carry weight. His actions will speak even louder. https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/833828489442783237 …
8:38 PM - 20 Feb 2017
155 155 Retweets 373 373 likes

The situation Monday marked the fourth time in which bomb threats were called into JCCs across the country, bringing the total to 69 threats at 54 JCCs across the country in 27 states. They have all been hoaxes.

Mr. Trump dodged questions about a rise in anti-Semitism last week at two White House press conferences. On Thursday, for example, a Jewish reporter asked the president how the administration plans to address the issue and instead of answering it, Mr. Trump told the reporter to sit down and said it was “not a fair question,” then declared “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”



SOME UNCONTROVERSIAL GOOD NEWS --

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/zachary-turpin-doctoral-candidate-university-of-houston-discovers-walt-whitman-novel/

Doctoral candidate discovers early Walt Whitman novel
AP February 21, 2017, 2:35 PM

Photograph -- Zachary Turpin, a University of Houston graduate student, poses for a portrait at his home, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in Houston. Turpin recently discovered a previously unknown novella by the poet Walt Whitman. JON SHAPLEY/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA AP

HOUSTON -- Zachary Turpin was propped up in bed with his laptop in May, his wife and newborn son sleeping beside him, when he made a discovery that stands to rock the literary world.

There on his screen, he saw a small ad in an 1852 newspaper. The ad promised “A Rich Revelation:” A six-installment piece of fiction called “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle” was coming soon to the Sunday Dispatch, a three-penny weekly published in Manhattan.

The Houston Chronicle reports the short novel, like the newspaper that published it, was all but lost to the ages. But the author, Turpin believed, was Walt Whitman, one of America’s best-known and most beloved poets.

Now, Turpin, a 33-year-old doctoral candidate in English at the University of Houston, has found the novel itself -- a discovery that upends what previously was believed about the 19th-century poet’s early career. Published anonymously as a serial in 1852, “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle” reveals much about Whitman’s early life and work that the poet later tried to hide.

You might recognize Turpin’s name: Last spring, he unearthed a book-length newspaper series on fitness and healthy living that Whitman published under a pseudonym in 1858.

021-waltwhitman-hollyer-npg-82-25.jpg
Walt Whitman
That discovery was important, but Turpin’s latest “is going to change everything we thought we knew about Whitman’s writing career,” said Ed Folsom, a University of Iowa English professor and editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, which is publishing “Jack Engle” on its website today.

The novel also is being published in book form by the University of Iowa Press.

Any discovery of new work by Whitman is a major find, said Stephen Enniss, director of the Harry Ransom Center, a massive arts and humanities archive at the University of Texas at Austin.

“He is, along with Emily Dickinson, our major 19th-century American poet -- and arguably, one of our first modern poets,” Enniss said.

Whitman’s most famous work, “Leaves of Grass,” offers a distinct voice to the American canon -- expansive poems that spill freely across the page, overflowing with rich and earthy images and a democratic, inclusive spirit.

But Whitman was in his mid-30s when he published “Leaves of Grass.” By then, he’d had a long career in journalism and had published a novel, several short stories and novellas.

For decades, scholars wrote off Whitman’s early fiction as mediocre. And until now, Folsom said, scholars assumed that Whitman’s last piece of fiction was published in 1848, which meant a seven-year gap between his fiction-writing days and the publication of “Leaves of Grass.”

“It’s always been easy to kind of assume that Whitman, at some point, just said, ‘Well, that’s it for fiction; it’s just not going anywhere for me,’” Folsom said. That assumption, he said “has allowed us to miss the ways in which the fiction led into the poetry.”

Thanks to Turpin’s find, Folsom said, we now know that Whitman was still writing and publishing fiction even as he worked on the poems that would immortalize him as America’s bard.

“What we are beginning to realize with this novel, now, is that the fiction and poetry are mingling in ways we never before knew.”

“Jack Engle,” the story of an orphan’s adventures, can be classified as sentimentalism, Turpin said. The serial appeared “unsigned, practically unheralded and riddled with typographical errors” - and then, he said, “it sank like a stone.” The story received little response. It was never reprinted or reviewed. And Whitman never mentioned it again.

Then last year, in one of Whitman’s notebooks, Turpin found a detailed plot outline for the story.

Previous scholars had concluded it was probably just an outline that never amounted to anything, but Turpin wanted to see for himself. He started searching digital databases for some of the character names Whitman had listed.

That’s when he found a match -- the newspaper ad for a story called “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle.”

“There’s nothing (in the ad) that says Whitman,” Turpin said, but the character name matched and the timeline was plausible. Immediately, he started searching for a library that had archived the Sunday Dispatch.

New York Public library delivers books on a train
Play VIDEO
New York Public library delivers books on a train
Online, Turpin discovered that the only remaining copies of those issues are at the Library of Congress. He requested an image of the story’s first installment.

Weeks later, the library emailed him the story’s first page. Turpin knew that if he saw more of the character names Whitman named in his outline -- “Covert,” ‘’Wigglesworth,” ‘’Smytthe” -- he’d have a confirmation.

“I open it up and my eyes are furiously scanning,” he recalled. “The first names I see are ‘Jack Engle.’ ‘Martha.’ ‘Wigglesworth.’ It was quite a good moment.”

Because of their size and age, it cost about $1,200 to have the newspaper pages scanned and digitized.

Wyman Herendeen, a UH English professor who was chairman of the department at the time, immediately paid the cost from the department’s discretionary fund.

“I do a lot of original archival research,” Herendeen said. “I know the excitement. I know the thrill of a seeming discovery that oftentimes proves to be misleading.” But Turpin is “a very cautious scholar,” he said, and “there were enough pieces of the puzzle that certainly made it sound convincing.”

Bits and pieces of Whitman’s work have emerged over the years, but works like “Jack Engle” are well hidden.

Whitman wrote much of his journalism and fiction anonymously or under pseudonyms, and later, when he’d established himself as a poet, he wrote that his “serious wish” was to have “all those crude and boyish pieces quietly dropp’d in oblivion.”

But Turpin believes Whitman would be proud to see his fiction being republished today.

“Whitman deeply desired publicity,” he said. “That his work gets so much attention now, and that scholars like myself will snatch after any scrap that he wrote, I think would probably please him.”

Turpin is “one of the most talented of a whole new generation of scholars,” Folsom said -- scholars who will create “a golden age of discovery” as they dig through digital databases and uncover material that hasn’t been seen for decades, even centuries.

Digitized archives -- including the Walt Whitman Archive -- are “democratizing” research, Herendeen said, taking materials tucked away in basements and on microfilm and making them accessible to scholars everywhere.

Librarians still finding answers in the Google era
Play VIDEO
Librarians still finding answers in the Google era
Whitman’s archive is widely scattered, Enniss said, and in the past, a researcher like Turpin would have to visit multiple libraries to find these materials and piece the clues together. Digitization makes the job easier, “but one still has to know what one is looking for.”

Searching digital archives is “sort of like an adrenaline sport,” Turpin said, especially when it turns up material no one’s ever seen.

He knows there may be more work to discover, from Whitman and others, and he can’t stop searching now.

“It sort of makes me feel like the first 49er, pulling up a (gold) nugget and telegraphing home: ‘Come now, come right now.’ “


TWO GRAVE ERRORS MADE: CRITICIZING THE TRUMP TEAM’S LACK OF COORDINATION WITH NSC DIRECTORS IN PLANNING, AND MAKING UNFORTUNATE COMMENTS ABOUT IVANKA. EITHER COULD GET HIM RELIEVED OF HIS NEW POSITION.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/senior-trump-appointee-fired-after-critical-comments/

Senior Trump appointee fired after critical comments
CBS/AP
February 19, 2017, 1:05 PM

Photograph -- President Donald Trump signs three executive actions in the Oval Office on January 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. POOL, GETTY IMAGES

WASHINGTON -- A senior Trump administration official was fired following criticism in a private speech of President Donald Trump’s policies and his inner circle of advisers.

Craig Deare, whom Trump appointed a month ago to head the National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere division, was on Friday escorted out of the Executive Office Building, where he worked in Washington.

A senior White House official confirmed that Deare is no longer working at the NSC and has returned to the position he previously held at the National Defense University. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an incident not otherwise made public, and provided no further details.

But current and former administration officials say Deare’s termination was linked to remarks he made Thursday at a private talk at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

According to one person who attended the discussion, Deare slammed the Trump administration for its policies on Latin America, specifically its rocky start to relations with Mexico. That person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private event.

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's influence on policy
Play VIDEO
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's influence on policy

Trump signed an order in the first week of his presidency to build a border wall with Mexico, jumpstarting a campaign promise. The move prompted Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto to cancel his trip to Washington in late January.

The person who attended the Wilson Center discussion also said that Deare openly expressed frustration over being cut out of most of the policy discussions about Mexico, saying that members of Trump’s inner circle, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, have not consulted with NSC directorates as the White House formulates policy.

Officials at the State Department have expressed similar sentiments regarding the president and his administration’s take on diplomacy. Last week, when the president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no one from the State Department had been involved in those talks. Instead, Kushner, who had little diplomatic experience, had a greater role in the meeting than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Several staffers in the State Department have also been laid off.

Deare has been on the faculty of National Defense University in Washington since 2001. He joined the university’s College of International Security Affairs in 2010 and most recently served as dean of administration.

The person who attended the Wilson Center talk also noted that Deare made several remarks about how attractive Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, appeared, remarks that person described as “awkward.” Mr. Trump has also made several remarks in the past about how attractive his eldest daughter is, once commenting on a television talk show, that “if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her.”

Deare did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials with the Wilson Center also declined a request for information, saying the discussion was off the record.

Deare is the second senior NSC official to leave in under a week. On Monday, mr. Trump’s national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, resigned after revelations that he discussed sanctions with a Russian diplomat before Trump was sworn in, then misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of those conversations.


Definition of “di·rec·to·rates”
noun
plural noun: directorates

-- the board of directors of a company.
-- a section of a government department in charge of a particular activity.
-- "the Directorate of Intelligence"



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-russia-scandal-takes-unexpected-turn

Trump’s Russia scandal takes an unexpected turn
02/20/17 01:02 PM—UPDATED 02/20/17 04:23 PM
By Steve Benen

VIDEO -- Trump ties, GOP party loyalty confound Trump Russia investigation, 2/14/17, 9:00 PM ET

On Friday afternoon, FBI Director James Comey delivered a classified, hour-long briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Russia scandal, and soon after, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent “formal requests to more than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals, asking them to preserve all materials related to the committee’s investigation” into the controversy.

We don’t know much about how the briefing went – committee members were tight-lipped following Comey’s presentation – though Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted late Friday that he’s “now very confident” that the committee will conduct “thorough bipartisan investigation” into Russia’s “interference and influence.”

Reading between the lines, this makes it sound as if the Republican-led panel is trying to knock down the idea that a special select committee is necessary to investigate the scandal without political interference.

A day later, Reuters reported that the FBI is pursuing “at least three separate probes” related to Russian intervention in American politics, “according to five current and former government officials with direct knowledge of the situation.” Two of three, according to the report, relate to alleged cyber-crimes, while the third is the ongoing counter-espionage probe.

And then yesterday, the New York Times moved the ball forward, though in an unexpected way.

A week before Michael T. Flynn resigned as national security adviser, a sealed proposal was hand-delivered to his office, outlining a way for President Trump to lift sanctions against Russia.

Mr. Flynn is gone, having been caught lying about his own discussion of sanctions with the Russian ambassador. But the proposal, a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia, remains, along with those pushing it: Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, who delivered the document; Felix H. Sater, a business associate who helped Mr. Trump scout deals in Russia; and a Ukrainian lawmaker trying to rise in a political opposition movement shaped in part by Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The “Ukrainian lawmaker,” in this case, is Andrii Artemenko, who’s allied with Putin’s government.

According to the Times’ reporting, Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, claims he received a sealed envelope from Felix Sater, a controversial figure in Trump’s orbit, and Cohen delivered the envelope to Michael Flynn before his resignation.

According to the Washington Post’s reporting, however, Cohen had a different version of events: he met with the president at the White House, but never dropped off any documents.

The Times stands by its reporting. Why Cohen would tell two very different stories to two different newspapers is unclear.

To be sure, back-channel communications like these aren’t illegal or even uncommon, but the broader context matters: people close to Trump have been quietly passing around a pro-Putin plan, which may yet be part of a White House blueprint to ease Russian sanctions, which may help explain Russia’s illegal efforts to help put Trump in the White House.

Indeed, any story that further solidifies the connections between the U.S. president and his allies in Moscow is worth paying attention to.

Postscript: As the story continues to unfold, keep an eye on Felix Sater, a former FBI informant and a Soviet-born Trump associate who’s worked for years to facilitate Trump business deals in Russia.

Explore:
The MaddowBlog, Donald Trump, Russia, Scandals and White House


SEE SUPREME COURT CASE BELOW:
I HADN’T THOUGHT OF THE USA GETTING INTO A CROSSBORDER SKIRMISH OR WORSE, BUT IF MANY MEXICAN CITIZENS ARE SHOT ACROSS THE BORDER THERE COULD BE A BREAK IN THE REASONABLY GOOD RELATIONS THAT HAVE EXISTED BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES. THIS YOUNG MAN, ACCORDING TO THE ARTICLE, WAS IN A CULVERT BETWEEN THE TWO BORDERS AT THE TIME OF THE SHOOTING. IS THE US IN THE HABIT OF KILLING ALL WHO ARE CAUGHT CROSSING LIKE THIS?


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-seems-split-in-case-of-boys-death-near-us-mexico-border/

Supreme Court seems split over Mexican teen's shooting death by Border Patrol agent
AP February 21, 2017, 1:43 PM

Photograph -- Attorney Cristobal Galindo, representing the family of Mexican teenager Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, speaks infront of the US Supreme Court after presenting argument on Feb. 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appears to be evenly divided about the right of Mexican parents to use American courts to sue a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fired across the U.S.-Mexican border and killed their teenage son.

Justice Anthony Kennedy and other conservative justices suggested during argument Tuesday that the boy’s death on the Mexican side of the border was enough to keep the matter out of U.S. courts.

The four liberal justices indicated they would support the parents’ lawsuit because the shooting happened close to the border in an area in which the two nations share responsibility for upkeep.

Supreme Court nominee takes issue with Trump comments
Play VIDEO
Supreme Court nominee takes issue with Trump comments

A 4-4 tie could cause the court to hold onto the case and schedule a new round of argument if Judge Neil Gorsuch is confirmed as the ninth justice.

The case arose from an incident that took place in June 2010 in the cement culvert that separates El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

The circumstances of exactly what occurred are in dispute, but what is clear is that the agent was on the U.S. side of the border when he fired his gun, striking Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca on the Mexican side.

Friends and relatives of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, 15, carry his coffin before his burial in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday June 10, 2010. AP PHOTO
Lower courts dismissed the parents’ lawsuit. The Supreme Court is considering whether noncitizens who are injured or killed outside the United States can have their day in American courts.

The legal issues are different, but the Supreme Court case resembles the court battle over President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven majority Muslim nations in at least one sense. Courts examining both issues are weighing the rights of foreigners.

Kennedy noted the court has been reluctant to allow civil rights lawsuits like the one the parents filed, especially when they may implicate international relations. “This is a sensitive area of foreign affairs where the political branches ought to discuss with Mexico what the solutions ought to be,” Kennedy said.

image6564328x.jpg
Sergio Adrian Hernandez, 15 AP PHOTO
U.S. officials chose not to prosecute Agent Jesus Mesa Jr. in the killing of the Mexican teenager, and the Obama administration refused a request to extradite him so that he could face criminal charges in Mexico.

The Trump administration, like its predecessor, is arguing that the location of the teenager’s death, in Mexico, should be the end of the story.

Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler told the court that even if the victim had been American and all the other circumstances were the same, the lawsuit should be thrown out.

But Kneedler and Mesa’s lawyer both acknowledged that someone killed by an agent on the U.S. side of the culvert could sue.

“That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? To distinguish these two victims?” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Privacy experts also are watching the case because it could affect how courts treat global internet surveillance, particularly when foreigners are involved.

Sergio’s shooting was not an isolated border incident. Parents of a teenager killed in Nogales, Mexico, from gunshots fired across the border by a U.S. agent have filed a civil rights lawsuit. It is being delayed until the Supreme Court rules.

The government’s response to that incident was notable because prosecutors are pursuing second-degree murder charges against Agent Lonnie Swartz in the death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16.

A 2013 report commissioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and written by an outside group faulted the agency for not sufficiently investigating the 67 shootings that took place from 2010 to 2012 and questioned the use of force in some of those incidents. The agency has said it has tightened its policies, particularly in response to rock-throwing incidents.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-issues-memos-meant-to-crack-down-on-illegal-immigration/

DHS issues memos meant to crack down on illegal immigration
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
February 21, 2017, 11:10 AM

The Department of Homeland Security issued two memos Tuesday morning that could expand the number of immigrants detained or deported as part the administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The memos are intended to implement President Trump’s immigration actions from last month and enforce existing immigration law. CBS News’ Jeff Pegues previewed some of the memos’ details on Monday.

The Dreamers
The memos don’t overturn the Obama 2012 immigration action that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA has deferred deportations for people who came to the U.S. illegally as children and has provided work permits to more than 750,000 immigrants.

Deportation
New policies aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigration will be implemented, that will “facilitate the detection, apprehension, detention and removal” of undocumented immigrants “who have no lawful basis to enter or remain in the United States.”

One of the provisions suggests that individuals apprehended in the U.S. and deemed inadmissible would need to prove that they have been in the U.S. continuously for two years. Otherwise, they could be subject to expedited removal with no court proceeding. The previous policy authorized expedited removal for undocumented immigrants found within 100 air miles of the border and within 14 days after entering the country.

Undocumented immigrants brace for Trump's deportation push
Play VIDEO
Undocumented immigrants brace for Trump's deportation push
.--
A DHS official said Tuesday that the administration does not have a certain numerical threshold for how many people they intend to deport and that they want to quash the idea of mass deportation, in order to calm communities. The officials said they are executing the laws passed by Congress, and that there are practical limitations to what DHS can do because it does not have the personnel, time and resources to go into communities and round up people.

The official said that the memos are not intended to spur mass roundups or mass deportations and that as Mr. Trump has said, the administration will focus on criminals and people who have been convicted. Despite those priorities, the official said that it doesn’t mean that everyone else is exempt from potential enforcement.

The memos also authorize the immediate return of undocumented Mexican immigrants apprehended at the border and direct the facilitation of faster deportation proceedings with a surge in the deployment of immigration judges and asylum officers.

Unaccompanied children
The plan also attempts to deter the arrival of unaccompanied children who have come over the border to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America over the last three years. Under the new policies, their parents could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid smugglers to bring the children across the border.

More ICE agents, border patrol
The memos direct the government to hire 10,000 more agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and 5,000 more Border Patrol officers. They also direct the government to begin planning, designing and constructing a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

One of the memos says that Mr. Trump has directed the heads of all executive departments to identify and quantify all sources of direct and indirect U.S. federal aid or assistance to the government of Mexico.


BERNIE AND PROTEGES FOR 2020 ?

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-will-bernie-sanders-endorse-his-former-1487700721-htmlstory.html

FEB. 21, 2017, 11:02 A.M.
Will Bernie Sanders endorse his former campaign aide in the race to replace Xavier Becerra in Congress?
Christine Mai-Duc

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, right, is interviewed by Times political cartoonist David Horsey at the Theatre at Ace Hotel over the weekend. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)

In an appearance at the Theatre at Ace Hotel over the weekend, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke about the "totally new political world" as chants of "Bernie 2020" rang out in the soldout event.

But at least one audience member was interested to know Sanders' thoughts on the 34th Congressional District, where former Sanders campaign aide Arturo Carmona is running to replace former Rep. Xavier Becerra, who is California's new attorney general.

"What about 34?" came the shout from the audience as Sanders was being interviewed by Los Angeles Times political cartoonist David Horsey as part of the Times' Ideas Exchange series.

Horsey picked up the question, asking if Sanders was getting involved in the crowded race, in which 23 candidates are vying. Neither Sanders nor Our Revolution , the political group he helped start, has indicated whether it will endorse.

"Arturo is a good friend of ours," Sanders said. "He helped me during the campaign, and he and I just chatted tonight, so we’lll see where we go with that."

Carmona has often talked about his connection with Sanders on the campaign trail, and often posts photos and quotes from the senator on social media.
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Follow
Arturo Carmona @ArturoCarmona
The revolution continues. #2017in3words
12:05 AM - 31 Dec 2016
7 7 Retweets 12 12 likes
Carmona is not the only candidate claiming to represent the progressive movement started by Sanders.

Wendy Carrillo, an activist and former journalist who spent weeks at the Standing Rock pipeline protest, and Kenneth Mejia, an accountant who said he was inspired to register to vote for the first time last year by Sanders, have also invoked his name in their campaigns.


http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-bernie-sanders-event-20170219-story.html

Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles: 'We are looking at a totally new political world'
Javier Panzar Contact Reporter

Photograph -- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks about a working class world while discussing his new book “Our Revolution” with Los Angeles Times columnist and political cartoonist, David Horsey, at the Ideas Exchange event in The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Feb. 19, 2017.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got a rock star’s welcome when he spoke in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday in what was theoretically a book tour stop but amounted to more of a political rally, urging progressives to play by new rules as they resist President Trump’s administration.

“We are looking at a totally new political world,” he said. “If we play by the old rules, we will lose and they will win. Our job is not to play by the old rules.”

Sanders, 75, used the stage at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel as part of Los Angeles Times Ideas Exchange to buttress his pitch to reshape and redefine the Democratic Party after its 2016 drubbing.

Since Trump’s electoral college victory, Sanders has secured a spot on the Senate Democrats’ leadership team and begun to reassert the populist political vision that won him millions of votes against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

Sanders applauded the activism that has sprung up since Trump’s inauguration and said Democrats and progressives needed to continue to build a resistance to Trump as well as a vision for the future.

“We can defeat Trump and Trumpism and the Republican right-wing ideology,” he said. “We have to understand, despair and throwing up your hands — that ain’t an option.”

Sanders believes a majority of voters agree with progressive values and Trump has a “mandate for nothing,” but he sought to explain Trump’s electoral college win despite losing the popular vote, arguing the party did not do enough to appeal to economically downtrodden industrial workers.

Bernie Sanders speaks about what Donald Trump was able to seize upon to win the election

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks about what Donald Trump was able to seize up to win the election before discussing his new book “Our Revolution” with Los Angeles Times columnist and political cartoonist, David Horsey, at the Ideas Exchange event in The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on February 19, 2017.

Sanders said Trump — whom he called a “phony billionaire” — seized on anxiety and fear among working-class voters on his way to victory. The issue, he argued, was not that Trump won the election “so much as the Democratic Party lost the election” by not answering the call of those workers.

He asked voters to put themselves in the “hearts and the souls” of workers who have lost jobs and who feel left behind by the global economy.

Sanders repeated many of the populist platforms he ran on, including rallying against the influence of money in politics and a financial system he says rewards Wall Street bankers while the American middle class shrinks.

The key to a progressive resurgence, he said, could be turning Trump’s message on its head by persuading workers who have lost jobs that foreign workers who come to the U.S. in search of a better life are not their enemies. Instead, he said, corporate greed is the main cause of their economic woes.

Bernie Sanders speaks about a working class world

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks about a working class world while discussing his new book “Our Revolution” with Los Angeles Times columnist and political cartoonist, David Horsey, at the Ideas Exchange event in The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Feb. 19, 2017.

Sanders began on Sunday by thanking California voters who cast ballots for him, and shouts of “Bernie 2020” rang out multiple times in the sold-out theater.

Clinton won Los Angeles County and California by large margins, but Sanders found support in pockets of Santa Monica and Silver Lake, as well as northeast and downtown Los Angeles.

Sanders’ campaign found a fount of support in Los Angeles during the primary, holding rallies with hip rock bands and liberal celebrities and drawing cheers from picnickers while walking around Echo Park Lake.


THE RUSSIA STORY IS SLOW, BUT IT ISN’T OVER YET.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-senate-committee-asks-white-house-and-1487538409-htmlstory.html

Senate committee asks White House and others to retain records related to Russia investigation
Associated Press
FEB. 19, 2017, 1:07 P.M.
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON


The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent formal requests to more than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals, asking them to preserve all materials related to the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues , according to a congressional aide.

The committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), sent letters Friday, the same day committee members received a classified briefing from FBI Director James B. Comey. Committee members declined to comment on what was discussed after the more than hourlong briefing.

The aide was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats wrote the White House and law enforcement agencies seeking assurances that they were preserving all materials related to contacts individuals associated with President Trump had with Russians.

Those letters asked for confirmation that the White House, FBI and Justice Department had instructed their employees to preserve all materials related to any contacts Trump's administration, campaign, transition team — or anyone acting on their behalf — have had with Russian government officials or its associates.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said that as long as committee members "do their job, and we cooperate with them, they'll issue a report, and the report will say there's nothing there."


THIS ARTICLE IS GETTING OLD, BUT IS OUTSPOKEN ON A SUBJECT THAT IS STILL IMPORTANT. WHY ISN’T MORE BEING DONE ON THE TRUMP/PUTIN POWER GRAB FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES? THAT WHOLE SITUATION, IF IT IS PROVEN TO BE TRUE, IS SURELY TREASON. GOOGLE USES THE TERM “ATTEMPTING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT,” WHICH IS WHAT THEY DID, IN THE SENSE OF STEALING AN ELECTION BY INFILTRATION. ILLEGALLY INTERFERING IN AN ELECTION IS SURELY A CRIME. IF IT ISN’T, IT SHOULD BE.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/russia-trump-putin-scandal-media

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington
Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?
DAVID CORN FEB. 9, 2017 6:00 AM

Photograph -- President Donald Trump speaks to Vladimir Putin by phone on January 28. Pete Marovich/DPA/ZUMA

The biggest election-related scandal since Watergate occurred last year, and it has largely disappeared from the political-media landscape of Washington.

According to the consensus assessment of US intelligence agencies, Russian intelligence, under the orders of Vladimir Putin, mounted an extensive operation to influence the 2016 campaign to benefit Donald Trump. This was a widespread covert campaign that included hacking Democratic targets and publishing swiped emails via WikiLeaks. And it achieved its objectives. But the nation's capital remains under-outraged by this subversion. The congressional intelligence committees announced last month that they will investigate the Russian hacking and also examine whether there were any improper contacts between the Trump camp and Russia during the campaign. (A series of memos attributed to a former British counterintelligence officer included allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.) Yet these behind-closed-doors inquiries have generated minimum media notice, and, overall, there has not been much outcry.

Certainly, every once in a while, a Democratic legislator or one of the few Republican officials who have bothered to express any disgust at the Moscow meddling (namely Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio) will pipe up. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi days ago called on the FBI to investigate Trump's "financial, personal and political connections to Russia" to determine "the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), responding to Trump's comparison of the United States to Putin's repressive regime, said on CNN, "What is this strange relationship between Putin and Trump? And is there something that the Russians have on him that is causing him to say these really bizarre things on an almost daily basis?" A few weeks ago, Graham told me he wanted an investigation of how the FBI has handled intelligence it supposedly has gathered on ties between Trump insiders and Russia. And last month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pushed FBI Director James Comey at a public hearing to release this information. Yet there has been no drumbeat of sound bites, tweets, or headlines. In recent days, the story has gone mostly dark.

Look at the White House daily press briefings. Since Trump entered office, there has been far more back-and-forth between reporters and Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the inauguration crowd size, Trump's bathrobe, and Melissa McCarthy than the Russia scandal. Trump associates are perhaps being questioned by House and Senate intelligence committee investigators, and the FBI, which according to news reports has looked at possible ties between Trump advisers and Russia, might also still be on the case. Yet this has not been a top priority for White House reporters.

Here are two questions that could have been posed to Spicer at his first briefing:

* Have any past or present Trump associates, inside or outside his administration, been contacted or questioned by the intelligence committees, the FBI, or any other government body investigating the Russian hacking or interactions between Trump's circle and Russia?

* During the presidential campaign, did Trump or any of his political or business associates have any interactions with Russian officials or Russian intermediaries?

That did not happen. At Spicer's first briefing, Anita Kumar of McClatchy did ask, "Has the president spoken to any of the intelligence agencies about the investigation into the Russian connections? And will he allow that to go on?" Spicer replied, "I don't believe he has spoken to anyone specifically about that and I don't know that. He has not made any indication that he would stop an investigation of any sort." This was an important question that warranted a response that was less equivocal—and reporters could have pointed that out.

This quietude is good news for Putin—and reason for him to think he could get away with such an operation again.

At the next day's briefing, on January 24, Margaret Talev of Bloomberg asked Spicer about reports that Comey was remaining in his post and whether Comey and Trump had discussed "the Russia investigation and the parameters of that." Spicer responded, "I don't have anything on that." Spicer's nonresponse didn't prompt any news.

In the fortnight since, the key twin questions—what is Trump doing regarding the Russian hacking, and are Trump associates being investigated for interactions with Russia?—have not been regular items on the agenda during the White House briefings. When Trump spoke to Putin by phone on January 28, subsequent media reports noted that the call focused on how relations could be improved. There was no public indication that Trump had said anything to Putin about the Russian intervention in the US election. And in the following days, White House reporters did not ask Spicer about this apparent omission.

There have been plenty of significant topics for journalists to press Spicer and the administration on—the travel ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Trump's plan to dump Obamacare, various nominations and a Supreme Court pick, Trump's fact-free charge of widespread voter fraud, Steve Bannon's participation on the National Security Council, Trump's contentious calls with foreign leaders, the president's erratic behavior, and much more. But the lack of media attention to the Russia story, at the White House briefings and beyond, is curious. It is true that the intelligence committee probes are being conducted secretly, and there are no public hearings or actions to cover. (Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, hoping to confine this scandal, succeeded in preventing the creation of a special committee or an independent commission to probe this affair—either of which would have probably sparked more coverage than the highly secretive intelligence committees.) Still, in the past, pundits, politicians, and reporters in Washington have not been reluctant to go all-out in covering and commenting upon a controversy subjected to private investigation.

In this instance, the president's own people may be under investigation, and Trump has demonstrated no interest in holding Putin accountable for messing with US elections in what may be considered an act of covert warfare. Still, there has been no loud demand from the DC media (or most of the GOP) for answers and explanations. This quietude is good news for Putin—and reason for him to think he could get away with such an operation again.