February 24 and 25, 2017


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-perez-dnc-chair/

Tom Perez elected DNC chair
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
February 25, 2017, 3:38 PM

Last Updated Feb 25, 2017 9:31 PM EST

Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez was elected as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon after a competitive race against Rep. Keith Ellison and five other contenders.

Perez won after reaching the threshold of 218 votes out of the 435 members of the DNC. Perez received 235 votes while Ellison had received 200 votes. This came in a second round of voting after Perez failed to reach the threshold by one vote.

Tom Perez elected DNC chair, appoints Keith Ellison deputy chair
Play VIDEO
Tom Perez elected DNC chair, appoints Keith Ellison deputy chair

Former Vice President Joe Biden, former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and former Attorney General Eric Holder had backed Perez.

Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and the first Muslim elected to Congress, had received support from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, 2016 Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who could run for president in 2020.

After Perez’s win, he moved to appoint Ellison as deputy chairman of the DNC. Ellison asked DNC members “to give everything you’ve got to support Chairman Perez.”

Will Democrats rally around Tom Perez?
Play VIDEO
Will Democrats rally around Tom Perez?

President Obama issued a statement after the results were announced.

“What unites our party is a belief in opportunity – the idea that however you started out, whatever you look like, or whomever you love, America is the place where you can make it if you try,” he said. “I know that Tom Perez will unite us under that banner of opportunity, and lay the groundwork for a new generation of Democratic leadership for this big, bold, inclusive, dynamic America we love so much.”

Hillary Clinton, who stayed out of the race, also tweeted about the outcome.

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Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton
Congrats to @DNC chair @TomPerez & deputy @keithellison. Excited for strong, unified party standing for best of our country into the future.
4:28 PM - 25 Feb 2017
9,268 9,268 Retweets 45,777 45,777 likes

Other candidates in the race included Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana; Sally Boynton-Brown, the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party; South Carolina chair Jaime Harrison; Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party; and former TV commentator Jehmu Greene.

Perez replaces Donna Brazile, who had been serving as the DNC’s interim chairwoman following the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from that role last summer. Wasserman Schultz resigned amid fallout from hacks into the DNC, which the U.S. intelligence community eventually concluded was part of a campaign ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin for his government to interfere in the 2016 election and help sway its outcome in favor of Donald Trump.

Larry Sabato: Democrats seem willing to reunify
Play VIDEO
Larry Sabato: Democrats seem willing to reunify

The race also comes after the last cycle’s bitter primary campaign between Sanders and Clinton, who went on to become the party’s nominee. Even though Clinton had stayed out of the race for DNC chair, she delivered a message to DNC members in a video Friday.

“The challenges we face as a party and a country are real,” Clinton said. “So now more than ever, we need to stay engaged in the field and online, reaching out to new voters, young people and everyone who wants a better, stronger, fairer America.”

“Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our party and our country,” she added.



YESTERDAY’S HORRIFIC ATTACK ON FOREIGNERS BY AN AMERICAN – GO TO THE TWO ARTICLES BELOW. SEE ALSO “DENIAL AIN’T A RIVER IN AFRICA” POSTED TODAY ON THE SAME SUBJECT FROM A SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW. IT EXPLORES THE PSYCHIATRIC ROOT OF THESE MASS HYSTERIA EVENTS THAT COME EVERY SO OFTEN, BRINGING REVOLUTIONS AND POGROMS.

THE HERO IN THIS SITUATION, A 24 YEAR-OLD MAN NAMED IAN GRILLOT, STATED THE HE FELT COMPELLED TO HELP THEM AND THAT HE WAS JUST DOING “WHAT ANYONE SHOULD HAVE DONE TO HELP ANOTHER HUMAN BEING.” IT TAKES EMPATHY, SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND RAW COURAGE TO GO UP AGAINST A KILLER THE WAY HE DID, AND UNFORTUNATELY MOST PEOPLE JUST WON’T DO IT. IN THE COLUMBINE KILLING AND ONE OTHER MASS SHOOTING (WHOSE DETAILS AREN’T COMING TO MY MIND RIGHT NOW), A CONCERNED AND DETERMINED MAN INTERVENED AND SAVED THE LOSS OF EVEN MORE LIVES.

I THINK THE DETERMINATION MAY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN A TRUE LACK OF THAT PARALYZING TYPE OF FEAR THAT SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO REAR CHILDREN SO THAT THEY WILL HAVE MORE COURAGE, BUT WE TEND NOT TO DO IT. I THINK THE REASON IS THAT A GREAT MANY AMERICAN PARENTS TEND TO WANT THEIR CHILDREN TO BE OBEDIENT FIRST AND INDEPENDENT SECOND (OR THIRD). IT IS AN UNFORTUNATE THING IF AMERICAN POLICE FORCES HAVE TO CHOOSE FROM PEOPLE WITH BULLYING PSYCHOLOGIES BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO FEW WITH NORMAL, HEALTHY COURAGE WHO WANT THE JOB.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-community-heal-deadly-bar-shooting/

Kansas community tries to heal from deadly bar shooting
CBS/AP
February 25, 2017, 12:41 PM

OLATHE, Kan. -- In the middle of a crowded bar, Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to “get out of my country,” witnesses said, then opened fire in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other, as well as a third man who tried to help.

Hours later, the 51-year-old former air traffic controller reportedly told a bartender in another town that he needed a place to hide because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.

In India, the father of one of the wounded men called Wednesday’s attack in the Kansas City suburbs a hate crime, but authorities on Friday declined to discuss a motive as they investigated. The shooting swiftly stoked fears about the treatment of immigrants, who feel targeted by President Trump’s promises to ban certain travelers, build a wall along the Mexico border and put “America first.”

The president has been especially vocal about the threat posed by Islamic terrorist groups. Both of the Indian men were Hindu.

At the White House, press secretary Sean Spicer said any attempt to connect the president’s rhetoric on immigrants to the tragedy in Kansas “would be absurd,” CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports.

The slain man was identified as Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32. His widow said he came to the U.S. in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Texas at El Paso and worked in Iowa for six years before moving to the Kansas City area.

“He did not deserve a death like this,” Sunayana Dumala said Friday at a news conference organized by her husband’s employer, the GPS device-maker Garmin. “I don’t know what to say. We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening somewhere. I was always concerned, ‘Are we doing the right thing staying in the U.S. or America?’ But he always assured me good things happen in America.”

Though she did not mention Mr. Trump by name, she directed anger at the U.S. government, asking what officials would do to stop hate crimes.

“Not everyone will be harmful to this country,” she said.

Purinton was jailed on murder and attempted murder charges. His first court appearance was scheduled for Monday.

A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill in the suburb of Olathe said Purinton used racial slurs before firing. He was taken into custody about five hours later after speaking with another bartender at an Applebee’s some 70 miles away in Clinton, Missouri.

A small memorial for Srinivas Kuchibhotla is displayed outside Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kan., Feb. 24, 2017. AP PHOTO/ORLIN WAGNER

The Kansas City Star reported Purinton’s comments to the second bartender. The paper did not cite its sources.

The other men who were shot were identified as 32-year-old Alok Madasani, who was released from the hospital Thursday, and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, who remained hospitalized.

In a phone interview with The New York Times on Friday night, Madasani described the remarks made by the man sitting near him and Mr. Kuchibhotla on the restaurant’s patio. “He asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally,” Mr. Madasani said. Both men were educated in the United States and were working here legally.

“We didn’t react,” Madasani said. “People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level.”

Madasani said he went in to get a manager, and by the time he returned to the patio, the man was being escorted out.

Authorities allege that Purinton returned a short time later and shot Madasani, Kuchibhotla and Grillot, who had intervened.

Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, said he had spoken with his wounded son by phone from India and was worried about his safety.

“I request other parents to think twice before sending their children to the United States,” he said.

As engineers for Garmin, Kuchibhotla and Madasani worked at the company’s main campus just a mile from the scene of the shooting. Garmin is one of the region’s best-known employers.

Local police were working with the FBI. Spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the federal agency’s role is to help determine if a civil rights violation occurred.

Purinton, who is being held on $2 million bond, was moved Friday from Missouri to Kansas. Because he has not yet appeared in court, he did not have an attorney formally assigned to his case.

Beverly Morris, who has lived next door to Purinton in Olathe for about 20 years, said he never made her feel unsafe.

“He seemed like a good guy,” Morris said, but “anybody who knew him knew he had a drinking problem.”

Another neighbor, Michael Shimeall, told The Star that Purinton seemed friendly and never showed a temper “or anything like that.”

He recalled that Purinton was helpful with neighbors when they had to dig out after snowstorms or pick up a tree blown down by wind. He said Purinton had photos of the ships he served on in the Navy and other Navy items in his home.

FAA records from the 1990s indicate that Purinton was a pilot and was licensed to work in an airport control tower. Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says Purinton left the FAA 17 years ago in 2000.

At the time of the attack, bar patrons were watching a college basketball game on television. When Purinton began harassing the two men, Grillot “stood up for them,” bartender Garret Bohnen told The Star.

Witnesses also told the newspaper about Purinton’s yelling about leaving the country.

As the gunfire began, Grillot hid under a table until nine shots had been fired. Believing the suspect’s magazine was empty, he chased the gunman in hopes of subduing him.

A bullet went through his right hand and into his chest, just missing a major artery but fracturing a vertebra in Grillot’s neck.

“Another half inch, I could be dead or never walk again,” he said Thursday from his hospital bed in a video from the University of Kansas Health System.

He did not describe what led to the shooting, saying only that he felt compelled to intervene to help others.

“I was just doing what anyone should have done for another human being,” he said.

About 60 children were playing at a church across the street from the bar when the shooting happened. Jeramie Albin, a volunteer for the youth program at First Baptist Church, said Friday that he didn’t think much about a noise that sounded like “somebody dropped a bunch of books.”

Then he learned about the shooting.

The church immediately went into lockdown. Volunteers herded children into the church basement, careful not to scare them, while police officers arrived on the scene. For the next 20 minutes, volunteers led songs to distract the children from police lights outside and helicopters overhead.

The bar was scheduled to reopen Saturday even as the community tries to recover from the attack.

The Indian government said its diplomats would monitor the Kansas investigation. Kuchibhotla was from the southern state of Telangana, and his body was to be transported to the capital city of Hyderabad, where his family lives.

Mourners poured into Hyderabad. His parents have another son working in the United States.



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/24/516999145/kansas-man-arrested-in-shooting-that-reportedly-targeted-foreigners

Kansas Man Arrested In Shooting That Reportedly Targeted
February 24, 20177:14 AM ET
BILL CHAPPELL

Photograph -- Adam Purinton was arrested Thursday and accused of carrying out a shooting in Olathe, Kan. He's seen here in a photo released by the Henry County (Mo.) Sheriff's Office.
Henry County Sheriff's Office/AP
Video -- Kansas Man Arrested In Shooting That Reportedly Targeted Foreigners Listen· 1:59


A Kansas man is charged with murder in a shooting that left one man dead and two others wounded. Two of the victims are originally from India; their assailant was reportedly heard yelling "get out of my country" just before opening fire.

The FBI is jointly investigating the triple shooting with local authorities, an FBI representative tells NPR. The agency is working to determine whether the victims' civil rights were violated as part of the crime.

The incident occurred at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kan. Two of the victims, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, work for Garmin, which has its U.S. headquarters in the town. Police say Adam Purinton, 51, shot the two men as well as another bar patron who intervened on their behalf.

Kuchibhotla, 32, died after being taken to a hospital; Madasani, 32, is recovering from the attack, as is the other victim, Ian Grillot, 24.

Witnesses say the violence in Olathe, about 20 miles southwest of Kansas City, seemed to be aimed at foreigners. The Kansas City Star reports:

"At least one witness reportedly heard the man yell 'get out of my country' shortly before shooting Kuchibhotla and Madasani. The man fled on foot. A manhunt ensued. Five hours later, Purinton reportedly told a bartender at a bar in an Applebee's in Clinton, Mo., that he needed a place to hide out because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men, The Star has learned."

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says Purinton, 51, is being charged with one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated murder. Purinton is being held on $2 million bond; he's expected to be extradited from Henry County, Mo., to face charges in Kansas.

The shooting prompted an outpouring of support on Go Fund Me pages set up for the victims. A friend who set up a page for the family of Kuchibhotla says he died after "an intoxicated man hurling racial slurs opened fire inside a packed Kansas bar."

Sreedar Harohawley of the India Association of Kansas City tells reporter Laura Ziegler of member station KCUR in Kansas City that he's shocked by the violence.

"It kind of sent chills down the spine," Harohawley tells Ziegler. "I was like, wow. This has hit us close to home ... this is home to us."



THE STORY ABOUT THE STORY. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT, BY LOGIC, A STORY CAN'T BE BOTH "GROSSLY OVERSTATED" AND "WRONG," UNLESS THAT MEANS THAT IT CONTAINS ESSENTIAL TRUTH. THAT, TO ME, IS FLAWED, BUT NOT "WRONG."


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-denies-report-that-fbi-rejected-its-request-to-knock-down-story/

White House denies report that FBI rejected its request to “knock down” story
CBS NEWS
February 24, 2017, 12:53 PM

In a background briefing, two senior Trump administration officials inveighed against a CNN report that the FBI rejected a White House request to “publicly knock down” a story first reported by the New York Times. That report, published on Feb. 14, said there were repeated contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian intelligence officials in 2015.

A senior administration official characterized the the CNN report, posted Thursday, as false, disgusting and erroneus. That story said that the White House request came after the FBI had indicated to the White House that the Times story about the Russian contacts was inaccurate.

Trump slams FBI for failing to track down leakers

On the morning the story broke in the Times, Feb. 14, McCabe and one senior administration official both attended a White House meeting on a separate issue. McCabe, according to the senior administration officials, approached the official and asked to meet with him privately afterward. In this meeting, McCabe told the official that the Times story was “garbage.” The official said he was getting “crushed,” and asked what he could do to counter the story. McCabe told him that he could do nothing -- because the FBI can’t get into the business of issuing statements about particular stories. McCabe said he’d consider the problem and call him later.

Then, Comey spoke with the senior administration official and reiterated the agency’s opinion that the Time story was inaccurate. Asked by the official whether the White House could itself state in news interviews that the story about the Russian contacts was inaccurate, Comey assented. On Sunday, Priebus appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to dispute “bogus stories like the one in “The New York Times” that we have had constant contact with Russian officials.”

Then, on “Fox News Sunday,” Priebus went further. “I can assure you, the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that [the allegation] is not only grossly overstated, but also wrong,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.” “They have made it very clear that the story is complete garbage.”

The senior administration officials said that the White House had not initiated the conversation with the FBI. They said that the FBI had contacted the White House. The CNN story referred to a Justice Department directive that restricts communication about investigations. According to a 2009 Justice Department memo, initial communications between the Justice Department and the White House on a possible or ongoing criminal investigations can involve only the attorney general and deputy attorney general on the DOJ side and to the counsel and principal deputy counsel, the president and vice president on the White House side.

Senior administration officials defended conversation with the FBI by suggesting there was an exception to the rule made for public affairs. The directive also states: “This policy does not, however, prevent officials in the communications, public affairs, or press offices of the White House and the Department of Justice from communicating with each other to coordinate efforts.”

The White House is operating in a gray area here, given that McCabe is not a communications or public affairs official, CBS Justice Department Reporter Paula Reid suggested. But Reid points out that even if the White House broke a rule in this case, it did not break a law. And there are probably few if any ramifications for breaking a rule.

The FBI has declined to comment.

CBS News’ Brian Gottlieb contributed to this story



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/02/24/in-december-spicer-said-barring-media-access-is-what-a-dictatorship-does-today-he-barred-media-access/?utm_term=.5c3363a7e7ed&wpisrc=nl_politics-pm&wpmm=1

Politics Analysis
In December, Spicer said barring media access is what a ‘dictatorship’ does. Today, he barred media access.
By Philip Bump February 24 at 3:34 PM

Play Video -- Here's the audio from the White House briefing that blocked CNN, New York Times 39:59
Photograph -- This post has been updated.
Update: The Wall Street Journal, which participated in the briefing, subsequently released a statement.
Update: Audio from the briefing makes clear that Spicer intentionally excluded certain outlets because the White House isn’t going to “sit back and let false narratives false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer barred reporters from several large media outlets from participating in a scheduled press briefing Friday. Two months ago, in a panel discussion, he insisted that open access for the media is “what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

While conservative outlets such as Breitbart, One America News and the Washington Times were allowed into Friday’s briefing, Politico, the New York Times and CNN were not, according to the Times’ Michael Grynbaum. The White House Correspondents’ Association, representing the White House press pool, released a statement indicating that it was “protesting strongly” against the way the briefing was handled. The New York Times’ executive editor, Dean Baquet, told his paper’s reporter that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.” CNN called it “an unacceptable development” that was “how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like.” On Twitter, The Washington Post’s executive editor, Marty Baron, called the move “appalling.”

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From Executive Editor Marty Baron @PostBaron
4:21 PM - 24 Feb 2017
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Former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer defended Spicer on Twitter: “Press secretaries SHOULD brief/gaggle w all press. But WH staffs & POTUSes often meet w who they want.” The problem for Spicer is that he already clearly articulated his views on excluding media outlets from access at the White House: Since it’s a publicly funded operation, it shouldn’t happen.

[White House blocks CNN, New York Times from press briefing hours after Trump slams media]

The subject was raised at an event hosted by Politico in December, before Spicer had been named as President Trump’s press secretary. Politico’s Jake Sherman raised the question of how a Trump White House might deal with outlets it didn’t like, given that some had been blocked from attending Trump campaign events.

“One of the things that the Trump campaign gained notoriety for, and was criticized for, was banning reporters and banning outlets,” Sherman said, noting that Politico was one of those outlets. “You’ve said, I think, that that’s not going to happen . . . ?”

“Look, there’s a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity,” Spicer replied. “I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government. That is something you can’t ban an entity from.”

“Conservative, liberal or otherwise,” he continued, “that’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship. I think there is a vastly different model when it comes to government and what should be expected, and that’s on both sides.”

During the campaign, the bans were much more significant than simply being excluded from one meeting. The Post, for example, was refused press credentials for several weeks. That Spicer has now blocked access to news organizations that had published stories embarrassing to the White House, and that this happened 24 hours after senior White House adviser Steve Bannon had declared war on the press, suggests that the exclusion was precisely the sort of differentiation that Spicer once said he opposed.


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WSJ says they would not have participated in gaggle had they known of the blocking of others and said they won't in future
3:41 PM - 24 Feb 2017

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POLITICO ✔ @politico
📻 Here's audio of what @seanspicer said at a press gaggle where certain media outlets were blocked from attending http://politi.co/2liWgZO
5:03 PM - 24 Feb 2017
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/24/ruth-bader-ginsburg-on-trumps-presidency-we-are-not-experiencing-the-best-of-times/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na&utm_term=.796db10ae2c3

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Trump’s presidency: ‘We are not experiencing the best of times’
By Kristine Guerra
February 24 at 3:53 PM

Photograph -- Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at the Jewish Federations of North America conference in Washington in 2016. (Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a noted critic of President Trump, suggested that she doesn't believe the country is in good hands but said she is hopeful about the future.

“We're not experiencing the best of times,” Ginsburg said Thursday on BBC's “Newsnight,” though she did not comment directly about the president.

But, the 83-year-old jurist said the public's resistance to the new administration — on full display at last month's Women's March protests — has given her “reason to hope that we will see a better day.”

“A great man once said that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle; it is the pendulum, and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it will go back,” she told BBC.

“Some terrible things have happened in the United States, but one can only hope that we learn from those bad things,” she added, citing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as an example.

Ginsburg, who leads the Supreme Court's liberal wing, repeated the sentiment during an appearance at George Washington University on Thursday.

“I meant that we are not as mindful of what makes America great,” Ginsburg told a crowd at the university, appearing to draw from Trump's signature slogan.

She cited examples, such as the freedom to speak one's mind and the idea that the United States is “receptive” and “welcoming” to all people, the Associated Press reported.

[‘Greatest threat to democracy’: Commander of bin Laden raid slams Trump’s anti-media sentiment]

Ginsburg didn't talk about Trump's controversial executive order barring refugees and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. But, according to the AP, she reflected on the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

The White House has said that the president will soon unveil a revised order after the first one was blocked by federal courts.

Ginsburg also defended the free press, the target of repeated attacks from the president, who has called the media “the enemy of the American People.” The justice said she reads both The Washington Post and the New York Times every day and believes that “reporters are trying to tell the public the way things are.”

Trump has consistently attacked both publications and the media in general, dismissing negative stories about his administration as fake news.

“What is important is that we have a free press, which many countries don't have,” Ginsburg told BBC. “Think of what the press has done in the United States.”

She cited The Post's Watergate investigation. The work of Bob Woodward, now an associate editor at The Post, and Carl Bernstein, a former reporter, in exposing the Watergate scandal helped bring about President Richard Nixon's resignation.

[Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein: Trump’s attacks on the press are more dangerous than Nixon’s]

“That story might never have come out if we didn't have the free press that we do,” said Ginsburg, who noted that she lives in “the famous Watergate” building.

Ginsburg has earned the nickname “Notorious RBG” for never being shy about granting interviews or speaking her mind.

Her most recent remarks seemed more subdued and lacked the bluntness of her past criticisms of Trump. Unlike her Supreme Court colleagues who have avoided political commentary, the Bill Clinton appointee has made no secret of her dislike for the real-estate developer.

In July, she criticized Trump in three separate media interviews.

Predicting that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton would win, she told the AP in July that she refused to even think about the possibility of a Trump victory. In an interview with the New York Times, she said she couldn't imagine what the country and the Supreme Court would be like if Trump won.

“For the country, it could be four years,” she said. “For the court, it could be — I don't even want to contemplate that.”

[In her remarks on the presumptive GOP nominee, Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have trumped her usual outspokenness]

She also called Trump a “faker” during an interview with CNN.

“He has no consistency about him. He said whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego,” she told CNN, questioning how Trump had gotten away with not turning over his tax returns.

The war of words between Justice Ginsburg and Donald Trump Play Video2:35
The Notorious RBG and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump traded insults. Here’s a quick rundown of what the two have said. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
Trump, as he is also known to do, fired back. He called the justice's comments “highly inappropriate” in an interview with the Times and took to Twitter to call for her resignation.

Ginsburg's outspokenness about Trump later backfired, with some critics saying she had crossed the line. She later said she regretted the comments but fell short of apologizing — which Trump demanded.

Ginsburg is the oldest of the sitting justices. She told the BBC that she has “a way to go,” drawing from the experience of the Supreme Court's most recent retiree, John Paul Stevens, who left the bench at age 90.



http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/321140-dem-senator-goes-on-tweetstorm-over-leaked-obamacare-repeal

Dem senator goes on tweet storm over leaked ObamaCare repeal plan
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 02/24/17 07:54 PM EST


Dem senator goes on tweet storm over leaked ObamaCare repeal plan
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) blasted the leaked Republican plans for repealing and replacing ObamaCare in a Friday night tweet storm.

A draft House Republican ObamaCare bill was leaked on Friday and includes plans to dismantle the core aspects of the healthcare law and replace them with a system centered on a new tax credit.

The measure is dated Feb. 10, so it is not the most recent version of Republicans’ plan. It is unclear how much has changed since then.


Murphy starts his "rant" with a tweet saying, "Let me count thy ways that the leaked GOP ACA repeal plan will totally, completely, monumentally screw you."
He followed it with a series of tweets highlighting six parts of the draft ObamaCare repeal bill.


In contrast to ObamaCare, the credits are not based on income, which Democrats argue means not enough help is given to low-income people to be able to afford coverage. Republicans say income-based credits discourage work.

The GOP plan is paid for in part through a proposal to start taxing more generous employer-sponsored health insurance plans. The proposal would start taxing plans above the 90th percentile of premiums.

TAGS CHRIS MURPHY



THIS "INDIVISIBLE" GROUP IS BEING LOOKED AT BY INTERESTED AMATEUR PROGRESSIVES AS A GOOD WAY OF MAKING OUR OWN GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION TO SPREAD OUR POSITIVE MESSAGE AMONG THE POPULACE, JUST AS DAVID KOCH SUCCEEDED IN DOING WITH HIS "ALTERNATE VIRTUES" OF NON-INTERFERENCE WITH THE MARCH OF SOCIAL DARWINISM IN THIS COUNTRY. LOOK UP "INDIVISIBLE" ON GOOGLE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-protesters-flooding-politicians-town-halls/

Meet the protesters flooding politicians' town halls
By NICOLE SGANGA CBS NEWS
February 24, 2017, 6:00 AM

Photograph -- People shout to Rep. Jason Chaffetz during his town hall meeting at Brighton High School Feb. 9, 2017, in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. CBS NEWS

For some, the road to resistance proves long. For Kristin Moline, it stretched 800 miles.

The full-time nurse crossed Oregon by car to ask her Representative a question during this week’s Congressional recess. With the day off from work, Kristin woke in the early hours of Friday morning to fulfill a civic duty and a 12-hour road trip. En route to brick red Gilliam County, the navy veteran tweeted a 30-second introductory video from her passenger seat to Republican Congressman Greg Walden.

“I have just one favor to ask you,” Kristin chirped. “Could you please call on me today?”

Incidentally, Kristin and her husband arrived first to North Gilliam Co. Fire Hall, and voluntarily cleared the foot of snowfall lining the town hall entrance ramp. “We just happened to have a snow shovel in the car,” Kristin recounts.

The member of District 2 Oregon’s “Indivisible Group” positioned herself in the second row with cell phone in tow. She recorded the entire event in 15-minute increments, applauding politely at times and interrupting twice when the Congressman dodged questions.

“It felt rude,” Kristin later says. “But what is even more rude is a member of Congress not answering our questions.”

When her turn came, Kristin apologized for reading aloud from her phone. “I’ve never been to a town hall,” she says.

She fidgeted in her seat, rising to shake Rep. Walden’s hand. “This is the first time I’ve met a member of my Congress,” she told him before carefully reciting a question about individual mandates under the Affordable Care Act.

wheres-walden-1.jpg
Signs from demonstrators protesting GOP Oregon Rep. Greg Walden in February 2017. CBS NEWS

Kristin updated followers in a “lessons learned” video recorded back home in her driveway. “Don’t let go of that microphone, and just persist.” She quickly posted the message to her month-old twitter account.

Concerned constituents who are not called by long road trips may sign up to be called Sunday nights at 8 p.m. Weekly “Ready to Resist calls” sponsored by the progressive group MoveOn draw participants from a handful of grassroots groups and all 50 states.

Two days after her road trip, Kristin recounted her story on the call to 46,475 recorded listeners and watcher. Some dialed in, while others live streamed the event — complete with PowerPoint presentation.

Also on the call was Ezra Levin, a former Congressional staffer who created the “Indivisible Guide,” a 26-page “practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda.” After brainstorming with friends over Thanksgiving dinner, he and his wife fleshed out a bare-bones instruction manual to feed a brewing movement of hungry activists.

“It all started as a Google doc,” Ezra says. “We released it online with an embarrassing number of typos.” Indivisible, the group they helped found, released a more carefully crafted PDF, which has since been downloaded 1.789 million times.

“This is not a rainbows and butterflies document,” Ezra says. “During the rise of the Tea Party, we saw a relatively vocal group of constituents have a huge impact on the national government.”

Despite what he calls its “backwards agenda,” Ezra concedes the Tea Party struck the right balance, steeping local tactics in a defensive kettle. “They recognized that the power of the president resided in constituents.”

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Anti-Trump protesters in New Mexico in February 2017. CBS NEWS
Virginian Maureen Hains voted for insurgent Tea Party candidate David Brat in 2014. “I was not well informed of what the Tea Party was truly about,” she says. Less than a week after President Trump’s inauguration, Maureen created a Facebook page entitled “7th District Town Hall Meeting.” Her first post? “The constituents of the 7th District would like Congressman Dave Brat to please answer our question: When is the next Town Hall meeting?”

Two days later, someone sent her a video of Rep. Brat speaking at a private event. “Since Obamacare and these issues have come up, the women are in my grill no matter where I go,” he told audience members. “They come up — ‘When is your next town hall?”

Maureen shared the video on her Facebook group wall, and watched it take off. Dozens of women joined forces to organize a “#Grilling with Bratwurst” event. Participants attested “I’m not a paid protester!” on a Facebook livestream of the event outside Rep. Brat’s local office. Also featured was a barbecue lit by paper flames, which served up constituent concerns written on index cards, later delivered to the Congressman.

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A scene from a protest against GOP Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia. CBS NEWS
These eye-catching tactics mirror antics unseating incumbents back in 2014, ultimately electing Tea Party symbols like David Brat. Maureen says that while she does not subscribe to the law of retaliation, she appreciates the irony of spoon-feeding the Tea Party its own medicine.

Six states northwest, Sen. Chuck Grassley met over 100 constituents in Iowa falls this week, the same venue he confronted nascent Tea Party members eight years ago. Back in the summer of 2009, participants protested government-controlled healthcare. This time around, Obamacare recipients urged their senator not to repeal.

Although 95 percent of incumbents were reelected last November, Congress averaged an approval rating of just under 17 percent in 2016. “The reason for the gap between the two is that representatives in Congress are very good at crafting their local image,” Ezra Levin notes.

“What we know about individual members of Congress is that they are extraordinarily responsive to constituents,” he explains. “That disposition means they wake up every morning thinking about re-election.”

Wendy Garcia, a full-time Arizona mom who oversees her husband’s construction company, also wakes up thinking about the midterms. “I start my morning with a pot of coffee at 6 a.m., and immediately start calling my DC representatives’ offices,” Wendy recounts. “Then I wake my children, get them off to school, and begin calling my local offices in Phoenix.”

“This is my life now,” she says, owning her newfound reality of last-minute rallies and homemade press releases. The astonishment in her voice befits her new title as Director of Indivisible’s chapter in Surprise, Arizona. When she is not asking for a town hall meeting, Wendy enjoys telling Senate staffers about her “special interests”, which she describes as 9 and 15 years old.

This week, she is organizing a missing persons event held in honor of Republican Senator Jeff Flake — the second this month. “We’re calling it ‘Searching for Jeff Flake 2,’” she laughs.

Wendy is not the only one pushing back on President Trump’s description of “so-called angry crowds” as hardcore liberal activists.

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Protesters demonstrate against Virginia GOP Rep. Dave Brat in February 2017. CBS NEWS
Nelini Stamp scoffs when asked about professional protesters. “We’ve estimated 30,000 people participate in ‘Trump Tuesdays’,” says the New York Working Family Parties organizer. “We doubt all of them are professionally paid activists given the little money these organizations get.”

The Trump Tuesday events are modeled after Moral Mondays, the protests against then-Governor Pat McCrory in North Carolina. In 2013, sit-ins there turned into walk-ins at the state legislature building, resulting in the peaceful arrest of hundreds.

Nahini is one of thousands to appear outside the Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn walk-up in late January. Megaphone-toting New Yorkers sang and chanted on the street, dropping off energy bars on their Senator’s front steps to help him “bulk up” for the fight ahead.

In purple Virginia, Trump Tuesday encounters outside Democratic Sen. Mark Warner’s Vienna offices also feature snacks. The treats are provided by staffers who shake hands and take notes as constituents cycle through in groups of eight. According to the Senator’s office, last week’s event grew the largest crowd, with a headcount of 160.

Two hundred miles south, organizer Ivonne Wallace Fuentes prepared a “people’s town hall” for constituents of GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte. Ivonne says the Congressman turned down her invitation to join, so her team printed out his talking points to address constituent concerns. “So for example,” she explains, “if people have questions about where Sen. Goodlatte stands on the EPA, we can pull out his press release.”

But measuring the resistance movement is no small task with no good ruler. Groups like Indivisible have reported 5,000 chapter organizations, and 1,307 events and meetings totaling over 20,000 RSVPed participants. MoveOn has separately reported 22,000 attendees RSVPed for “resistance recess” activities.

In another budding project intended to track and facilitate the resistance, the ACLU has budgeted $13 million dollars of the over $24 million it raised in the weekend following President Trump’s immigration executive order. National political director Faiz Shakir told CBS News the ACLU partnered with former Bernie Sanders’ team members Becky Bond and Kenneth Pennington to create a “People Power” database set to launch on March 11, with the first town hall event held at the University of Florida Basketball Arena in Miami.
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Angry, energized constituents vent to GOP lawmakers at town halls
Play VIDEO
Angry, energized constituents vent to GOP lawmakers at town halls

The ACLU hopes to lend its “collective brainpower to sustain a movement that is lasting and influential,” and calls funding and manpower behind the project “organic.”

That is a departure from Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comments this week on disrupted town hall meetings. “There is a bit of professional protester, manufactured base,” he told reporters.

Attributing activism to a larger machine is nothing new. Then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had a similar message in 2009 after Tea Party protests hit summertime town halls. “Well, I think what you’ve seen is they have bragged about manufacturing to some degree that anger,” he said in a press briefing.

Yet for those dipping their toes into the activism ocean, support in the form of online calendars and instruction manuals are welcomed with open arms. After sharing her Oregon road-trip excursion to fellow activists on the “Ready to Resist call,” Kristin Moline listened to instructions from national organizers on how to “go-live on Facebook,” which she later put to the test at a “Where’s Walden” search party held in her hometown.

For Kristin, live streaming is a first, along with attending a town hall and shaking hands with her representative. “Like this is insane. I’m a nurse,” she says through choked laughter.

She pauses to collect herself. “But you know what? People like me are stepping up.”



ADULT FUN AND GAMES

http://www.umsl.edu/~munsr/proddir/current/2005_10_17.htm

Muns, Raleigh. "Where's Waldo? Not in the libraries because he's been banned"
The Current (University of Missouri-St. Louis) October 17, 2005 (vol. 38, no. 1164), p. 6



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

Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles: 'The truth is that Trump is a pathological liar'
BY Javier Panzar Contact Reporter
February 21, 2017 11:50 AM

VIDEO -- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about 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.
VIDEO -- 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 the 2016 election.

He got the crowd roaring by tearing into Trump for repeating false claims that thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheered on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally voted in November.

"I say this with no pleasure, my wife dislikes me saying this, but the truth is that Trump is a pathological liar," he said, reiterating a statement he made a week prior on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” "Either he knows that he is lying or even more dangerously, he does not know that he is lying."

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.



http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/politics/bernie-sanders-republican-town-halls/

Bernie Sanders: Town hall protests are just the beginning
By Eli Watkins, CNN
Updated 10:23 PM ET, Thu February 23, 2017

VIDEO -- Bernie Sanders: GOP lives in a fantasy 01:55

Story highlights
Sanders warns his GOP colleagues
He calls on people to build a mass movement

Washington (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed Thursday that public backlash against Republican members of Congress since President Donald Trump's inauguration would reach its highest point yet.

Sanders told CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront" that more than 100 protests would take place around the country on Saturday demanding politicians meet with their constituents to hash out concerns over the Republican agenda after weeks of raucous town hall events.

"I think the Republicans have not seen anything yet," Sanders said. "If they're worried about the protests they're seeing, they're going to see more. This coming Saturday we believe there will be well over 100 protests, most of them in Republican offices around the country, district offices, demanding that Republican members of Congress meet with their constituents and answer the questions that their constituents have."

He dismissed Republicans, like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who have said they are forgoing town hall events over safety concerns.

"If you don't have the guts to face your constituents, then you shouldn't be in the United States Congress," Sanders said. "That's what you're elected to do."

He also slammed the tea party movement as he defended the many people who have shown up to town halls and been accused by the President and others of being paid protesters.

"Unlike the tea party this is not being funded by the billionaire class," Sanders said.</i>

Challenged on that point and reminded that after the rise of the tea party, Democrats posted major losses in the 2010 midterm elections, Sanders talked about the current groundswell of people at town halls and did not back up his comments.

Burnett asked Sanders about "We Will Replace You," a group that includes some who said they supported Sanders' presidential campaign and has vowed to run primary challenges against Democrats who it views as not sufficiently opposing Trump's agenda.

Sanders said, "It's a free country, and people can do whatever they want to do." Adding that he didn't know exactly what the group's demands were, he called on Congress to join a populist movement in opposition to Trump.

"We need a mass movement of people, and I think we need members of Congress actively involved in that movement," Sanders said.
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Pressed on the group, Sanders said again he was unfamiliar with what it stood for and that its members could do as they pleased.

"You're asking me about a small group of people who do a very good job in getting publicity. I don't know what that means," Sanders said. "What you have to do is look at the totality of what a candidate does. If you don't like the candidate, fine, don't support that candidate. Do what you want."



http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/voters-activists-protestors-presidents-day/2017/02/19/id/774476/
Liberal Voters to Dems: Oppose Trump or 'We Will Replace You'
By Solange Reyner | Sunday, 19 Feb 2017 05:45 PM

Photograph -- Demonstrators protest President Donald Trump on Sunday in Chicago. (Getty Images/Joshua Lott)

A group of organizers and activists have banded together to put pressure on Democratic lawmakers who are "failing" them by launching the political action campaign "We Will Replace You," an organization warning Democrats failing to oppose President Donald Trump's agenda will come at a cost.

"We will only defeat Republicans on the local, state, and federal level if we go on the offensive," the group said on its website.

"Democrats must know there is a price for collaborating with Trump. Any Democrats who would give legitimacy or support to Trump do not represent us and must be replaced by people who will stand up for our lives, our values, and our democracy."

Waleed Shahid, a co-founder of the progressive group All of Us and co-founder of We Will Replace You, told the Guardian that Democratic leadership loves "the grassroots activism, but they don't want to take the next step and challenge the Democratic leadership."

Protests have popped up in droves since Trump won the election in early November, and some town hall meetings with lawmakers have turned fiery in weeks past. This weekend, rallies were planned all over the country ahead of President's Day protesting Trump's major orders and cabinet picks.

The group "We Will Replace You" questioned some Democratic senators' decisions to vote to confirm Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and join in confirming Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director. Resisting Trump, it said, would mean voting "No" on all Trump appointees, publicly supporting impeachment if Trump is found to have broken the law or violated the Constitution, and pushing for Steve Bannon to be fired.



THESE NEW INDIVIDUALLY FORMED PROGRESSIVE GRASS ROOTS GROUPS WILL DO SOME REAL GOOD, I FEEL SURE, AND GIVE AN OUTLET FOR THOSE OF US WHO FEEL THAT OPPOSING THE FORCES OF THE ALT-RIGHT IS A PRIMARY CALLING. I'VE BEEN A LIBERAL, AFTER SANDERS A PROGRESSIVE, AND NOW AFTER TRUMP A LITTLE ON THE RADICAL SIDE, THOUGH I DON'T SUPPORT VIOLENCE. THE BLACK BLOC GROUPS SHOCK ME, AND AREN'T AS PRODUCTIVE AS A MORE DISCIPLINED AND WELL DEFINED GROUP ARE. I LIKE WHAT I SEE OF BLACK LIVES MATTER ALSO. BLM, HOWEVER, HAS SHOWN SOME HOSTILITY IN A GENERALIZED WAY TOWARD WHITES. WHILE I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT, I DON'T THINK IT HELPS EITHER THE CAUSES OF THE AVERAGE BLACK CITIZEN. IT HAS SHOWN RESULTS AGAINST RACIST POLICING. CITY GOVERNMENTS ARE PAYING ATTENTION AND INITIATING CHANGES IN AN ENCOURAGING NUMBER OF CASES. THAT IS GOOD. I HAVE HOPED TO SEE REAL PROGRESS BEFORE I DIE RATHER THAN A DESCENT INTO A HELL ON EARTH.