February 27, 2017


News and Views


AN INCH AT A TIME, THERE IS PROGRESS.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-intel-white-house-interference-nunes/
Dems cry WH interference as House Intel committee probes Trump-Russia ties
By NANCY CORDES CBS NEWS
February 27, 2017, 7:32 PM

Play VIDEO -- FBI probing Russia ties of Trump's campaign inner circle
Play VIDEO -- What's next in investigation of Trump team's possible Russia contacts?


WASHINGTON -- House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes is leading the House investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russian operatives.

He insisted there was nothing wrong with him and his Senate counterpart Richard Burr making a few calls at the request of Trump aides.

“What would be the problem of the White House sending me a number of a press person to call?” Nunes said Monday.

“All it was was a White House communications person passing a number and a name of a reporter over for me to call, following up on what I had already told all of you in the days before that,” he said.

But that, combined with reports that White House officials made similar requests to the CIA director and FBI officials, prompted fresh accusations from Democrats of White House tampering.

“We have to do this investigation bipartisan,” said Virginia’s Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“We have to not let a White House or any other political interference get in its way, because it’s too important,” Warner said.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer would not confirm or deny that CIA Director Mike Pompeo was asked to defend the campaign.

“I’m not going to discuss what we did internally,” Spicer said.

And Nunes argued the probe is probably a dead end anyway.

“What I’ve been told by many folks is there’s nothing there,” he said.

“First of all, we haven’t obtained any of the evidence yet,” said Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

“We can’t draw any conclusions. And nor should we. We shouldn’t be prejudging where the facts lead,” he said.

Schiff added that he’s not convinced the FBI will share all its information with Congress. CBS News has confirmed that the FBI Counterintelligence Division is leading the investigation into whether Trump associates coordinated with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-5-carmakers-knowingly-use-unsafe-takata-air-bags/

Did 5 carmakers knowingly use unsafe Takata air bags?
CBS/AP
February 27, 2017, 3:37 PM

DETROIT - Japanese auto parts maker Takata pleaded guilty on Monday to a criminal charge and agreed to pay $1 billion for a scheme to conceal a deadly defect in millions of its air bag inflators. In addition, plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits against the air bag maker and five automakers allege the car companies knew that Takata’s products were dangerous yet continued to use them for years in order to save money.

Takata admits to hiding problems that can cause inflators to explode with too much force, hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers. U.S. prosecutors still are seeking extradition of three former Takata executives from Japan to face criminal charges.

Detroit federal Judge George Caram Steeh accepted a guilty plea to a fraud charge Monday. It was entered by the company’s chief financial officer, Yoichiro Nomura, on Takata’s behalf. Nomura also agreed that Takata will be sold or merge with another company.

Takata has agreed to pay $850 million in restitution to automakers, $125 million for victims and families and a $25 million criminal fine. Separately, the company faces dozens of consumer and state lawsuits that could run into millions of dollars.

The allegations against Honda (HMC), Toyota (TM), Ford (F), Nissan (NSANY) and BMW were made in a filing Monday with a federal court in Miami, which is handling pretrial evidence-gathering in lawsuits against Takata and the automakers. The filing says documents produced in the case show the auto companies had independent knowledge that Takata’s air bag inflators were unsafe before putting them in millions of vehicles.

The allegations came just hours before Takata entered a guilty plea to one criminal charge and agreed to pay a $1 billion penalty at the hearing in Detroit.

The inflators are blamed for at least 16 deaths worldwide and more than 180 injuries. The problem touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history involving 42 million vehicles and up to 69 million inflators.

Former Takata executives indicted for fraud and conspiracy
Play VIDEO
Former Takata executives indicted for fraud and conspiracy

Unlike most other air bag makers, Takata uses the explosive chemical ammonium nitrate to inflate air bags instantly in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to prolonged airborne moisture.

Monday’s filing says that after an inflator ruptured in 2009, one of the auto companies described the problem as “one in which a passenger protection device was transformed into a killing weapon.” The company was not identified in the document.

The court filing marks the broadest allegation so far that automakers knew about Takata’s problems yet continued to use the inflators and put their customers in danger. The lawyers are trying to counter the auto companies’ assertion that they shouldn’t be liable because they, too, were deceived by Takata.

“The automotive defendants were aware that rupture after rupture, both during testing and in the field, confirmed how dangerous and defective Takata’s air bags were,” the attorneys allege in the court filing, called a “status report.”

But the automakers have pointed to Takata’s plea agreement, in which the Justice Department says Takata got the car companies to keep buying its inflators “through submission of false and fraudulent reports and other information that concealed the true and accurate test results.”

In addition to the deaths and injuries caused by Takata air bags, lawyers allege that vehicles sold by the automakers declined in value because they kept using the Takata equipment.

The filing Monday includes specific allegations that each of the automakers knew about Takata’s problems:

Honda, Takata’s largest customer, was intimately involved in designing Takata inflators, and two Takata inflators exploded and ruptured at Honda facilities in 1999 and 2000. “Before Honda initiated its first narrow recall in 2008, at least eight ruptures had occurred in Honda vehicles,” the lawyers allege.
Toyota had quality concerns about Takata in 2003, the same year that an inflator ruptured at a Toyota testing facility, the document says. At least 15 inflators in Toyotas blew apart by 2014, when the company issued a nationwide recall.

Ford picked Takata inflators over the objections of its own inflator expert because Takata was apparently the only company that could provide the number of inflators Ford needed, the lawyers wrote. One document obtained through the pretrial process said that Ford had a “gun to its head, so it had to accept ammonium nitrate.”

Nissan, the document said, switched to Takata inflators “primarily, if not solely” to save about $4 per inflator. Another automaker told Nissan about the risky inflators in 2006, eight years before Nissan began a national recall, the document said.

At BMW, documents show the company went to Takata seeking cost savings. As early as 2003, a Takata inflator ruptured in a BMW in Switzerland.

BMW and Nissan said they couldn’t comment on pending litigation. Toyota declined to comment. Honda was preparing a statement. A message was left Monday with Ford.

Takata, which also makes seatbelts, has racked up two straight years of losses over the recalls but said it hopes to start turning a profit again this fiscal year.

Volkswagen will pay billions in fines for emissions rigging
Play VIDEO
Volkswagen will pay billions in fines for emissions rigging

Takata’s penalty is small compared with the one imposed on Volkswagen, which must buy back cars and pay up to $21 billion in penalties and compensation to owners over its emissions-cheating scandal.

Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Kelley Blue Book, said authorities may have kept the penalty manageable so Takata could stay in business and continue to carry out the giant recall.

“My sense is there has been more kid-gloves treatment of Tataka simply because destroying them makes the problem much worse,” Brauer said.


CONCERNING IMPEACHMENT OF DONALD TRUMP AND MICHAEL PENCE – THREE ARTICLES

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-the-legal-removal-of-the-president-vice-president-et-al-for-misprision-of-treason?recruiter=303521361&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-reason_msg

Petitioning THE US SENATE and 8 others

The legal removal of The President & Vice President, et al., for Misprision of Treason
Ray S. Cline Washington, DC

FEBRUARY 24, 2017 OR LATER – THIS DATE COMES FROM THE FIRST COMMENTER, AND I AM UNABLE TO FIND THE OFFICIAL DATE OF THE PETITION, THOUGH THERE CERTAINLY SHOULD BE ONE.

A Petition for:

The legal removal of The President & Vice President, et al., for Misprision of Treason

Regarding known and recorded activities of:
D.J. Trump Sr., M. Pence, S. Bannon, P. Manafort, C. Page, Gen. M. Flynn, R. Stone, R. Tillerson, S. Miller, S. Mnuchin, J.C. Kushner, J. Kushner, R. Giuliani, J. Comey, M. McConnell, P. Ryan, J. Chaffetz, B. Epshteyn, J. Sessions, K. Conway, S. Spicer, R.L. Mercer, R. Mercer, D. Mercer, C. Koch, D. Koch, K. Rove, W. Deng Murdoch, A. Scaramucci, C. Lewandowski, D.J. Trump Jr., E. Trump, I.M. Trump, I.M. Trump, M.K. Trump, John & Jane Doe; et. al. (1-100)

That the above parties having had certain knowledge of relationships of one Donald John Trump with numerous Russian oligarchs and one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, a former high ranking KGB officer, who is the current President of the Russian Federation, (a nation that has clearly positioned itself as the foremost geopolitical and military enemy of the United States, NATO and EU); did not find patriotic merit in informing any US authorities of the 'clear and present US national security threat danger' posed when said individual Donald John Trump ran for President of the United States, are thus guilty of :

18 U.S. Code § 2382 "Misprision of Treason"

"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both."

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

Its is therefore our desire that the above individuals as named above, be charged, brought to swift trial, impeached, if guilty, punished according to all applicable US statutes, and prevented from holding any further US public office, forever.

So that the nightmare of having traitors to our nation, in charge of our nation's affairs and our nuclear deterrent forces, might be swiftly rectified, we additionally request that Clinton / Kaine be simply declared the overall victors of the 2016 popular count election and installed immediately.

The Clinton / Kaine overwhelming popular vote majority of 2.9 million (65,844,954 (48.2%) to 62,979,879 (46.1%) was an overwhelming majority and must be respected as such, so that rational, sane, secure, continuity of government might prevail even as the current emergency is simultaneously resolved.

VERIFIABLE FACTS:

The head of NSA, Admiral Michael Rogers, said that there shouldn’t be “any doubt in anybody’s mind” that another country tampered with the U.S. election.

During the election time period, ODNI publicly revealed that elements of Russian intelligence agencies, namely GRU, (Main Intelligence Agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation / Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние), had covert interest in the US Presidential campaign of Donald John Trump. The most sensitive activity of the GRU is gathering intelligence on American leaders.

Furthermore it was known by the above individuals that Donald John Trump's main advisor, one Paul Manafort, had previously worked extensively on behalf of Putin's ally, pro-Russian Ukrainian dictator Yanukovych between 2007 and 2012. For those services, Manafort received $12.7 million in cash payments from Yanukovych’s political party.

It was also known by the above individuals that General Michael T. Flynn, was the personal dinner guest of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in Moscow. General Michael T. Flynn was the person selected by Donald John Trump to be National Security Advisor.

Subsequently, the Democratic National Committee was cyber-attacked by parties connected to the Russian state security service GRU, who stole US emails (in violation of US laws) who then forwarded doctored versions to Julian Assange's WikiLeaks in Europe; as part of a GRU intelligence campaign of 'Active Measures' (активные мероприятия) to spread disinformation among the US voting electorate, to help Donald John Trump during the 2016 US presidential election.

During that same time period, computer experts determined that there were continuous, covert, computer communications via KGB founded Russian Alfa Bank and Donald John Trump's campaign.

On 29 December 2016, the White House sanctioned the GRU and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation known as FSB, (Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации - ФСБ) for alleged tampering and disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election.

In addition, the Department of State also declared 35 Russian diplomats persona non grata and denied Russian diplomatic staff access to two Russian government-owned compounds in Maryland and New York.

The White House also sanctioned several GRU officials including GRU Chief Igor Valentinovich Korobov, Deputy Chief Sergey Aleksandrovich Gizunov, and First Deputy Chiefs Igor Olegovich Kostyukov and Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev.

On that same day, December 29, 2016, during the Obama administration, Flynn spoke personally with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the very same day the Obama administration announced retaliatory measures in response to Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign; if there was intent to interfere with or defeat said measures, this clearly constitutes a felony violation under the Logan act. Trump's incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, said he doubted that Flynn and Kislyak discussed the retaliatory measures.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 22, 2017, that Flynn was under investigation by U.S. counterintelligence agents for his numerous communications with Russian officials. On February 9, 2017, U.S. intelligence officials shared an account of Flynn's interactions with Kislyak, which indicated that he did discuss the sanctions placed on Russia by the Obama administration, and Flynn's spokesman released a statement that Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

It is now further proven by US intel intercepts that Donald John Trump personally, and his representatives individually, and severally (such as Gen. Flynn and Manafort) have personally visited, communicated with, and taken monetary (and in kind) payments from officials of the Russian state, as well as oligarchs and organizations during the 2016 campaign. This was in direct violation of numerous US laws pertaining to election tampering, espionage, diplomacy, and treason.

During the campaign we have heard Donald John Trump, on numerous occasions, oddly praise Russian President Putin, while condemning US allies as Germany, Japan, Ukraine, NATO and the EU, as well as excoriating the US Intelligence Community, insulting our Armed Forces' hard working and experienced battlefield troops and their general officers, and even bashing the Gold Star Mother of Capt. Khan, who died while preventing a suicide attack upon a mess hall near Baqubah, Iraq, and was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

As if all of that was not tragic enough, the Trump administration is also doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. A mere three weeks after the inauguration, Donald John Trump has repeatedly gone out of his way to delegitimize our nation's brave intelligence officers (who have served this nation in secret, faithfully, and with honor, since Nathan Hale in 1776), mocking these thousands of quiet, brave, men and women publicly, and in demeaning their precious work, he has even incredibly blown off receiving the PDB (President's Daily Briefing), a brief of the most important daily classified information on national security collected by our 17 U.S. intelligence agencies and given to the President of the United States every morning precisely at 0745 hours, as it has been with every Commander in Chief since JFK.

"Since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has human ears inside the White House Situation Room... There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” an unnamed US intelligence official added in deep frustration."

On January 29, 2017, Donald John Trump restructured the National Security Council's "Principals Committee" assigning a permanent invitation to Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist, while at the same time eliminating the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence, thus depriving both the Pentagon and US Intelligence Community of any direct way to advise, consent, or dissent to any actions planned by the President and remaining NSC members, 'in the room', face to face. In the modern history of our nation, this is the first time that the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community have been removed from the direct decision making process.

In an era when the entire world can be wiped out in in a thermonuclear exchange and 9200 U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons (on high-alert) can be launched in 2 to 3 minutes, and a mass extinction event occur, removal of the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community from the NSC as brakes upon accidental war, or to prevent a "Pearl Harbor Style" sneak attack upon the US (or our NATO & EU allies), is just highly illogical, and profoundly disturbing.

In these ways and others, Donald John Trump (and cohorts) have clearly adhered to the enemies of the United States while simultaneously weakening United States defense, intelligence, and geopolitical posture. There is no question that these individuals have seriously violated the Hatch and Logan Acts and committed acts of treason, and clear concealments of treason under: 18 U.S. Code § 2382 "Misprision of Treason"

IN CONCLUSION

What we have here before us is Vladimir Putin's concerted attempt at a permanent political and military realignment and reversion of United States policies towards Russia via purported blackmail influence over the Trump Presidency. If left unchecked, the Destruction of America & NATO from WITHIN via Donald John Trump, shall be the end result of Putin's determined chess game.

This destruction of the United States, NATO, and the EU shall finally facilitate Putin's decades long dreams of an expansionist 'Greater Russia' not only in predominate control of Eastern Europe but also of Western Europe and the United States, as well.

After the significant revelations of the Putin / Trump / Manafort / Panama Papers.... the apparent quid pro quo between Trump & Putin for Ukraine / Baltics / NATO / EU, the failure of Trump to publicly reveal sources of income in his taxes, etc.; it must be clearly affirmed that no one, not even the President of the United States is above the "Laws of the Land", up to and including, "TREASON".

This petition will be delivered to:
THE US SENATE
The US Congress
Department of Justice

Letter to
THE US SENATE
The US Congress
Department of Justice
The Joint Chiefs of Staff
Director of National Intelligence
United States Office of Special Counsel
Director of Central Intelligence
Director of NSA
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor The Supreme Court of the United States
The legal removal of The President & Vice President, et al., for Misprision of Treason

TOPIC
Impeach Trump
14 petitions

https://www.change.org/p/senate-intelligence-subpoena-trump-s-tax-returns?source_location=topic_page



Washington Post’s motto: Democracy Dies in Darkness. Let’s remember that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bannons-dangerous-deconstruction/2017/02/26/0d1aab0e-fad2-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.ac74939d284c

Opinions
Bannon’s dangerous ‘deconstruction’
By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer February 26 at 8:49 PM

Photograph -- White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon spoke during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland on Thursday. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
[What ‘President Promise-Keeper’ should say on Tuesday night]
See what President Trump has been doing since taking office
View Photos The new president’s tumultuous first weeks have been marked by controversial executive orders and conflicts with the media.
[Trump’s takeover of conservatism is complete]


Just when you despair that only chaos animates the Trump administration, along comes Stephen K. Bannon, the White House ideologue, to offer the Rosetta Stone illuminating what this circus is all about.

And when you realize what Trump & Co. might really be up to, your despair turns to alarm.

There is no way of knowing how much President Trump truly cares about the ideas that Bannon holds close to his heart. Trump seems far more obsessed with attacks on him from many directions — and genuinely worried that investigations of his team’s ties to Russia could pose a mortal threat to his power.

After Bannon had offered his Deep Thoughts on Trumpism at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, there was Trump on Friday morning back to his usual grubby business of using Twitter to denounce his enemies. His target in this case was the FBI. He accused the agency of being “totally unable to stop the national security ‘leakers’ ” and being guilty of leaks of its own.

Trump’s anxiety was likely heightened by word that Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, asked the FBI to deny reports that several members of Trump’s team had contacts with Russian agents during the 2016 campaign. Priebus’ intervention raises serious questions about whether the White House is trying to shut down or influence inquiries that are plainly in the national interest.

Bannon predicts there will be an ideological 'fight every day' Play Video1:34

White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 23. Bannon said the media is "adamantly opposed to" the president's agenda. (Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Bannon, appearing with Priebus, may have had this in mind when he told the assembled conservatives that “every day, it is going to be a fight” and pushed Team Trump’s attacks on the media to a new level. Trump picked up on the theme in his own CPAC remarks on Friday, echoing countless authoritarians in repeating his condemnation of “fake news” outlets as “the enemy of the people.” Trump’s survival may depend on his supporters ignoring a lot of bad news and inconvenient facts.

But it is Trump’s opponents and the not yet committed who need to pay close attention when Bannon, the president’s visionary chief strategist, promises an ominous-sounding “new political order.” Philip Stephens, a Financial Times columnist, had a nice description of Bannon’s job, characterizing him as “the ideologue who informs Mr. Trump’s impulses.” And Bannon actually made sense of Trump’s seemingly bizarre habit of naming people to head up agencies whose missions they openly oppose.

When Bannon listed the administration’s central purposes, the first two were unsurprising: “national security and sovereignty” and “economic nationalism.” But then came the third: the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Bannon explained that officials who seem to hate what their agencies do — one thinks especially of Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has sued it repeatedly to the benefit of oil and gas companies — were “selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.”

Thus did Bannon invoke the trendy lefty term “deconstruct” as a synonym for “destroy.”

This is a huge deal. It reflects a long-standing critique on the right not just of the Obama and Clinton years but of the entire thrust of U.S. government since the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Critics of the administrative state — “the vast administrative apparatus that does so much to dictate the way we live now,” as Scott Johnson, a conservative lawyer and co-founder of the Power Line blog, put it in 2014 — see it as unconstitutional because regulatory agencies make and enforce rules based on authority they claim was illegitimately ceded by Congress.

That’s the theory. In practice, this is a war on a century’s worth of work to keep our air and water clean; our food, drugs and workplaces safe; the rights of employees protected; and the marketplace fair and unrigged. It’s one thing to make regulations more efficient and no more intrusive than necessary. It’s another to say that all the structures of democratic government designed to protect our citizens from the abuses of concentrated private power should be swept away.

It’s a very strange moment. Trump and Bannon are happy to expand the reach of the state when it comes to policing, immigration enforcement, executive-branch meddling in the work of investigative agencies, and the browbeating of individual companies that offend the president in one way or another. The parts of government they want to dismantle are those that stand on the side of citizens against powerful interests.

In his CPAC presentation, Bannon accused Trump’s foes of being “corporatist.” But, in the truest sense of the word, the real corporatists are in the White House.

Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Read more on this topic:

Kathleen Parker: Bannon is Trump’s conscience
David J. Rothkopf: The danger of Bannon on the NSC
Fareed Zakaria: Bannon’s words and actions
Greg Sargent: Steve Bannon’s first major play is shaping up as a full-blown fiasco



TURCOPOLIER: ECHO, OR REBUTTAL? REGULATIONS KEEP THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES REAL, UP TO DATE AND PRESENT IN ALL PARTS OF THE NATION AND POSSESSIONS, TERRITORIES AND REGIONS, ALL OF WHICH CAN AND SOMETIMES DO MAKE ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THAT LAW WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO GOVERN US ALL IN EQUAL FAIRNESS. IT ALSO KEEPS THE NUMBER OF FLY PARTS IN PEANUT BUTTER DOWN TO A MINIMUM, AND SUCH THINGS. THERE PROBABLY ARE THINGS FOUND IN REGULATIONS THAT ARE NO LONGER NEEDED – LAWS AND LIFE DOES CHANGE AFTER ALL – BUT WE NEED OUR REGULATIONS IN MUCH THE SAME WAY WE NEED THE SUPREME COURT – TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY FAIR FOR ALL AND WELL-ORDERED.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
27 February 2017

" ... But then came the third: the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Bannon explained that officials who seem to hate what their agencies do — one thinks especially of Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has sued it repeatedly to the benefit of oil and gas companies — were “selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.”

Thus did Bannon invoke the trendy lefty term “deconstruct” as a synonym for “destroy.”

This is a huge deal. It reflects a long-standing critique on the right not just of the Obama and Clinton years but of the entire thrust of U.S. government since the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Critics of the administrative state — “the vast administrative apparatus that does so much to dictate the way we live now,” as Scott Johnson, a conservative lawyer and co-founder of the Power Line blog, put it in 2014 — see it as unconstitutional because regulatory agencies make and enforce rules based on authority they claim was illegitimately ceded by Congress.

That’s the theory. In practice, this is a war on a century’s worth of work to keep our air and water clean; our food, drugs and workplaces safe; the rights of employees protected; and the marketplace fair and unrigged." Washpost

Well, this is interesting, and I think correct in the appreciation of just what it is that Bannon and company seek as a reward for their efforts.

It should be noted that Trump's expected budget proposal will not seek to reduce the benefits involved in Medicare and Social Security. These were campaign promises and he evidently will honor them. In any event SS is not insolvent and does not contribute to the present federal budget deficit.

What Bannon seems to propose is a roll-back of federal function to levels that he thinks reflect the amount of power ceded by the original states when they ratified the constitution.

Would this be such a bad thing?

For the Progressive Left it is a HORROR! The Left is wedded to the idea tht the federal government should administer our lives.

It will be interesting to learn if the majority of Americans share the love the "administrative state" as much as the Left does. pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bannons-dangerous-deconstruction/2017/02/26/0d1aab0e-fad2-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.2ee8977cccb3



ANOTHER IDIOTIC, GROTESQUE AND POINTLESS CRIME AGAINST LIFE HAS OCCURRED. SEE BELOW:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anger-in-el-salvador-after-gang-kills-beloved-hippo-gustavito-at-zoo/
Anger in El Salvador after gang kills beloved hippo "Gustavito" at zoo
AP February 27, 2017, 6:07 PM

Photograph -- In this frame grab from video taken on March 10, 2014 and released by El Salvador’s Canal 9, a hippopotamus named Gustavito is fed at the San Salvador Zoo in El Salvador. Zoo director Vladan Henriquez said at a news conference on Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 that the animal was covered with bruises and puncture wounds after apparently being attacked with metal bars, knives and rocks. The attack occurred on Tuesday night, Feb. 21, 2017. Zookeepers did not discover the hippo’s injuries until Thursday because he did not leave his pool, and he died late Sunday, Feb. 26. AP

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - El Salvador’s widespread violence reached an unsuspected corner with the brutal and fatal beating of the national zoo’s beloved hippopotamus Gustavito.

Even among a population numbed by a staggering human death toll due to gang violence in recent years, the animal’s death late Sunday stirred outrage.

Salvadorans mourned through social media and some left flowers at the gate of the zoo, which has been closed until further notice.

“Here we’re used to seeing the dead every day,” Martin Castillo, a street vendor in the capital’s historic downtown, said Monday. “They kill us like flies, but this tops it all. They killed an animal that only entertained us.”

Zoo director Vladan Henriquez said at a news conference that the hippo was covered with bruises and puncture wounds after apparently being attacked with metal bars, knives and rocks.

The attack occurred last week, sometime Tuesday night. But zookeepers did not discover the hippo’s injuries until Thursday because he did not leave his pool. Gustavito died the injuries late Sunday.

Justice Minister Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde said an investigation had been opened.

El Salvador is one of the world’s most violent countries, recording 5,278 homicides last year, or an average of 14 people killed per day. Most of the killings have been blamed on powerful street gangs.

Gustavito was born and raised in Guatemala, but was brought to El Salvador 13 years ago.

“We’re angry,” said Carmen Rogel, who often brings her grandson to the zoo. “We didn’t know they had killed Gustavito and were surprised when we arrived and the gate was closed.”



THERE IS AN EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL STATUE IN THE THOMASVILLE, NC PUBLIC LIBRARY WHERE I WORKED, WHICH IS CLEARLY OLD – VICTORIAN ERA AT LEAST. I ASKED THE ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN WHERE IT CAME FROM AND SHE SAID, “I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY WHERE THE LIBRARY GOT IT.” AMERICAN SOLDIERS ALSO TOOK ART FROM EUROPE AT THAT TIME. IT’S A SHAME.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/artworks-looted-by-nazis-in-1939-returned-to-poland/
Artworks looted by Nazis in 1939 returned to Poland
AP February 27, 2017, 2:47 PM

Photograph -- This photo taken Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 in Krakow, Poland, shows an old picture of Renaissance-era of the southern Polish city of Krakow, that together with two other artworks, was returned to Poland Sunday by Austria’s Horst von Waechter, whose family had looted them from Krakow during World War II. Waechter’s father, Otto von Waechter, was a Nazi governor of the occupied city. AP
Photograph -- ap-17058591497627.jpg, This photo taken Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 in Krakow, Poland shows an 18-century map of Poland built into a small table and two old drawings that were returned to Poland Sunday by Austria’s Horst von Waechter, whose family had looted them from Krakow during World War II. Waechter’s father, Otto von Waechter, was a Nazi governor of the occupied city. AP


WARSAW, Poland - In a gesture welcomed in Poland, the son of a Nazi official has returned three artworks that his family had looted from the southern Polish city of Krakow during World War II.

Polish officials said Monday they hoped the gesture by Horst von Waechter of Austria would inspire other Nazi descendants to follow suit.

In the ceremony Sunday in Krakow, von Waechter returned an 18th-century map of Poland, built into a small table, and two historic drawings that his mother, Charlotte von Waechter, had appropriated there in late 1939. It was shortly after her husband, Otto von Waechter, had become governor in the southern Polish city occupied by German and Austrian Nazis during the war.

The handover took place at the office of the Krakow provincial governor and was the result of efforts by Polish historian and politician Magdalena Ogorek, according to Krzysztof Marcinkiewicz, spokesman for the governor.

He said one of the paintings had Charlotte von Waechter’s handwritten pencil inscription saying it came from the Potocki Palace in Krakow, where the Waechters resided during the war.

Ogorek told The Associated Press she spotted some Poland-related objects at Horst von Waechter’s castle in Austria while she was doing research there about his father, who died in 1949 at the Vatican while waiting to be smuggled to Argentina to avoid facing justice.

She said von Waechter returned the objects to Krakow for no compensation.

“He gave a good example to others and we should be happy about this,” Ogorek said.

Poland was severely damaged during World War II, its palaces, museums and libraries bombed and plundered by the Nazis and by the Soviet Red Army from 1939-45. The government continues trying to retrieve looted artworks and the Culture Museum has posted a list of many of them.

Some of the artworks occasionally surface at auctions around the globe, leading Poland to negotiate the terms of their return.



EMBARRASSING, BUT INNOCENT, I’M SURE.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/moonlight-oscar-winners-barry-jenkins-tarell-alvin-mccraney-on-best-picture-mix-up/

"Moonlight" Oscar winners weigh in on best picture mix-up
By DAVID MORGAN CBS NEWS
February 27, 2017, 11:17 AM

NEWS VIDEO – INTERVIEW WITH JENKINS AND MCCRANEY, BOTH OF WHOM ARE BLACK. HOPEFULLY THIS INDICATES A SHIFT IN THE BELIEVED HOLLYWOOD RACIALISM.
Photograph -- moonlight-oscars-barry-jenkins-tarell-alvin-mccraney-promo.jpg, Writer-director Barry Jenkins and co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney on the stunning Academy Awards gaffe. CBS NEWS
Photograph -- moonlight-best-picture-win-getty-645726598-620.jpg, “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz holds up the winner card reading the name of the actual Best Picture winner: “Moonlight.” KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES


Hollywood’s top movies racked up honors last night at the Academy Awards ceremony, with “La La Land” taking home six Oscar, and “Moonlight” following with three, including best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay.

And “Moonlight” won the most prestigious award, best picture, after a now-infamous, on-stage mix up, when the wrong envelope was given to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. After announcing “La La Land” had won, the envelope containing the Best Picture winner was brought on stage, and the stunned crowd watched as the “Moonlight” filmmakers were announced the winners.

“Very clearly, very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true,” said the film’s writer-director Barry Jenkins. “But to hell with dreams, I’m done with it, ‘cause this is true. Oh my goodness!”

On “CBS This Morning,” Jenkins and co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney were asked if the mix-up diminished their celebration.

“I don’t know if it diminished the celebration for us; it just made it much more complicated,” Jenkins replied. “As you said, I think the celebration is bound up now between our film and ‘La La Land’ and the Academy in a very complicated way.”

He likened the turn of events to a “Shakespearean tragedy.”

McCraney said, “It was difficult to say all the thank-yous we had to say, but at the same time it showed the camaraderie and love we have for both of the films.”

“Did you think it was a joke?” asked co-anchor Gayle King.

“I didn’t think it was a joke at all,” Jenkins said. “I could see in Jordan [Horowitz]’s face that he was telling the truth. The first thing I did was give him a hug. I’ve probably given him too many hugs at this point because they were so gracious and compassionate in the way they handled it.

“But backstage, it was just -- there were two things. One, we were trying to find each other, you know, to sort of share the moment, but also, two, to find the other side of the aisle, to give them whatever comfort they needed.”

Co-anchor Anthony Mason asked, “Did the Academy in any way try to explain what happened to you at that point?”

“I think everybody was just trying to make sure we were all on the same page and safe,” McCrary said. “When something like that happens, you want to make sure that everybody is categorically okay, and I think they did a great job of that. At one point this guy, Thomas, held my hand and walked me through the back. I was like, I don’t know what’s going on, help me out! Once I found Barry, I think everything sort of settled in.”

How the Oscars Best Picture flub unfolded
Play VIDEO
How the Oscars Best Picture flub unfolded

“I thought it was so great how the ‘La La’ team handled it, too,” King said. “There they were on stage in the middle of an acceptance speech and everyone tried to correct the problem right away. I thought your side was gracious, I thought their side was gracious. It was nice to see something good come out of really an awful moment.”

“I think that goes back to the award season,” Jenkins said. “Typically the award season is very contentious, but we’ve been spending a lot of time together going through the same trials and tribulations, I would say. And so I looked up at the stage and saw Jordan’s face. I could see if I was in his place how they would feel, and I think they looked over at us and they saw how we had felt as well.”

“Moonlight,” adapted from McCraney’s story “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” is a coming-of-age tale of a black man in Florida, told in three stages with three actors of different ages.

Shot in just 25 days for less than $5 million, the film also won the Golden Globe for Best Picture-Drama.

The glow of “Moonlight”
Actress Naomie Harris, director Barry Jenkins on humanity of “Moonlight”
“Moonlight” writer on the inspiration and message of the film
What Mahershala Ali hopes “Moonlight” audiences will take away
Oscars Not So White: Barry Jenkins makes history with nominations

Of Jenkins’ film, McCraney said, “I think what Barry did in the film that’s so impressive, that’s served as a lightning rod, he put his full self in it. He really took a story about memories that I had given to him and made it an experience about those memories, made it an intimate experience. And I think that will (and continues to) be the reason why people have seen the film and will continue to see it. I hope more people see it now. That’s really exciting.”

He said that the first time he saw the film, “I felt like he had gone into my head and took pictures in my memories and spread them across the screen. So now to have it out in the world and have it be -- it won best picture! You did that, brother! Sort of amazing!”

When asked what the accolades the film has received from critics, the industry and audiences mean to him, Jenkins replied, “In a certain way, everything. Maybe I have to think more of myself. I don’t mean that in the sense that the movie won Best Picture, but, you know, I had all these hopes of what I could do with my life, and now the ceiling on that has been radically changed.”



CLEARLY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN OKAY IF THEY WERE IRANIAN. I DO WISH ALL RELIGIOUS AND GOVERNMENTAL BODIES DOWN TO THE CITY COUNCIL, POLICE DEPARTMENTS, AND SCHOOL BOARDS WOULD SPEAK OUT AGAINST THIS WILLINGNESS TO KILL OR ATTACK OR DESECRATE HOUSES OF WORSHIP FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. THE MESSAGE THAT IT REALLY ISN’T ACCEPTABLE IN THE USA NEEDS TO GET OUT ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. IN THIS COUNTRY, WE TEND TO EMPHASIZE CRIMINALITY, WHEN SO OFTEN THE PROBLEM IS IMMORALITY FIRST AND FOREMOST. IT’S NOT REALLY THAT TRUMP HAS SPECIFICALLY SAID AMERICANS “SHOULD” DO THAT, BUT THAT THINGS LIKE HIS RIDICULOUS NAZI SALUTES AND HIS APPOINTING OF AN OLD SOUTHERN RACIST AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, A LEADER OF THE ALT-RIGHT VIA BREITBART AS HIS PRIMARY ADVISOR, A WOMAN FROM TEXAS WHO IS ACTIVELY TRYING TO KILL THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTE IN THEIR PLACE CHURCH RUN AND OTHER FOR PROFIT SCHOOLS WHOSE TUITIONS WILL NOT BE AFFORDABLE TO THE VERY POOR, AND IN DOING THAT DEPRIVE OUR GROWING CHILDREN OF THE GUARANTEE OF A PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL WHICH WILL BE SOLID ENOUGH TO ENABLE THEM TO DO COLLEGE WORK. AFTER THAT, HOPEFULLY BERNIE SANDERS WILL BE PRESIDENT AND FREE BACHELOR LEVEL COLLEGE TUITION AT STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES WILL BE THE LAW THEN!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-bar-shooting-suspect-said-he-thought-he-killed-iranians-911-call-reveals/
Kansas bar shooting suspect said he thought he killed Iranians, 911 call reveals
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP
February 27, 2017, 3:13 PM

Play CBS news video.
Photograph -- srinivas-kuchibhotla-kansas-shooting-2017-2-24.png, Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot and killed at a bar in Olathe, Kansas. KCTV
Photograph -- adam-purinton-960.jpg, Adam Purinton WIBW
Photograph -- alok-madasani-shot-kansas-2017-2-24.png, Alok Madasani, who was shot in a bar in Olathe, Kansas, on Wednesday, was released from the hospital on Thursday. KCTV


CLINTON, Mo. -- A Missouri bartender told a 911 dispatcher that a patron said he killed “two Iranian people” just hours after a shooting 70 miles away at a suburban Kansas City bar left one Indian man dead and another hurt.

In a recording of the Henry County, Missouri 911 call made early Thursday, the bartender at the Applebee’s in Clinton, Missouri, is heard saying the man made her promise she wouldn’t call police.

Fifty-one-year-old Adam Purinton was arrested soon afterward. He’s charged with murder and attempted murder in the shooting in Olathe, Kansas, that some witnesses said was racially motivated.

In the 911 call, the bartender told the dispatcher a man had come into the bar and said he’d done something “really bad” and was on the run from the police.

The bartender tells the dispatcher that the man initially said the shootings occurred at a gas station, not a bar.

She says the man asked if he could stay with her and her husband. The bartender warned police not to approach the building with sirens blaring or the man would “freak out” and “something bad’s going to happen.”

Witnesses said Purinton yelled at the two Indian men to “get out of my country” before pulling the trigger in the attack that also wounded a third man who tried to help. A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe said Purinton used racial slurs before firing.

“OK, so I’m a bartender at Applebees and I had this guy come into my bar and he told me that he had done something really bad and he was on the run from the police, and he asked if he could stay with me and my husband,” the bartender says in the call. “He wouldn’t tell me what he did. I kept asking him and he said he would tell me if I agreed to let him stay with me. I finally got him to tell me. He said he shot and killed two Iranian people in Olathe, and I looked it up on the news and there was this shooting like three hours ago...”

The men who were shot were identified as Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, who died at a hospital, and 32-year-old Alok Madasani and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, who were hospitalized, police said. Kuchibhotla and Madasani were H1B visa holders, according to GPS-maker Garmin, where both men worked.

In India, the father of one of the wounded men called the attack a hate crime, but authorities on Friday declined to discuss a motive as they investigated the shooting, which stoked fears about the treatment of immigrants in the U.S. Authorities have declined to discuss if they were investigating it as a possible hate crime.

FBI spokesman Bridget Patton said the agency had no new information to release Friday. She said the FBI’s role is to work jointly with Olathe police to determine if a civil rights violation occurred.

Madasani, one of the wounded men, said Sunday he wished the killing of his best friend during the attack had all been a dream.

He addressed a crowd of hundreds during a vigil at the Ball Conference Center in Olathe, Kansas. He described the fatal shooting of his friend and co-worker Kuchibhotla as “a senseless crime,” the Kansas City Star reported.

“The main reason why I am here is that’s what my best friend, Srinivas, would have done,” Madasani said. “He would have been here for me.”

Still walking on crutches, Madasani drew applause when he called the shooting “an isolated incident that doesn’t reflect the true spirit of Kansas, the Midwest and the United States.”

Purinton appeared in court Monday wearing a safety smock meant to keep him from harming himself.

A public defender waived a formal reading of the charges against Purinton, who was seen in the courtroom through closed-circuit television wearing the green smock.

A Johnson County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Master Deputy Rick Howell, says suspects who make statements during initial jail processing that could suggest they might harm themselves are required to wear the smocks until mental health professions say otherwise.

Howell would not disclose what Purinton said at the time he was being processed or whether he is considered a suicide risk.