November 20 and 21, 2017


News and Views

SIGH.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trumps-science-office-is-a-ghost-town/
By JACQUELINE ALEMANY CBS NEWS November 21, 2017, 5:00 AM
Donald Trump's science office is a ghost town

Photograph -- FILE: President Donald Trump, center, speaks as he is seated between Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple, left, and Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, right, during an American Technology Council roundtable in the State Dinning Room of the White House, Monday, June 19, 2017, in Washington. ALEX BRANDON / AP

In its 41-year-old history as the White House hub of innovation, the Office of Science and Technology Policy has never gone this long without a leader or official mandate. The science office, which takes up half of the fourth floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, has a fleet of empty desks.

The OSTP, as administration staffers refer to it, has hosted two events since President Trump took office: One on drones and another on "American Leadership in Emerging Technology" that prominently featured the high powered tech executives in attendance like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

But nine months into his administration, there's no clear indication that the president is close to naming a science adviser who will inform his policymaking, though that's the mission that the OSTP has played since its founding in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. From climate change to space to education, the office has served as an in-house incubator for research, data, and crisis management that drove policy under seven presidents.

A White House official, when asked when there would be a nomination for OSTP director and science adviser to the president, said there were no personnel announcements to be made at this time.

Under Mr. Trump, the OSTP staff has dropped to 45 staffers, a substantial decline from President Obama's OSTP, which had a staff of 135 people. Another difference from the Obama years -- the majority of Mr. Trump's OSTP staffers do not have a background in science. The office hasn't formally been restructured, but a White House official said the team has "naturally" streamlined over the past few months with a narrowed focus on three main issues: technology, science, and national security.

Mr. Trump's OSTP has disintegrated into a shell of what it once was under President Obama: what Obama's OSTP director and senior science advisor Dr. John Holdren called "a science and technology magnet."

"It was clear that [Obama] understood how and why science and technology matter to virtually every facet of the national agenda and that he would understand and run with good ideas presented to him," said Dr. John Holdren, the former OSTP Director and senior science adviser to Mr. Obama. "Trump is a science and technology talent repellent."

The vacancies have drawn scrutiny from seven Democratic senators, including New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who sent a letter to President Trump on Monday, urging him to fill the open positions.

"In previous administrations, OSTP was central to disaster mitigation efforts, including hurricanes -- but when Hurricane Irma, Harvey and Maria struck the U.S., OSTP lacked key leaders," the letter read. "Scientific and technical input would also have contributed to decisions around climate change, the Iran nuclear deal and North Korea's nuclear program -- areas where key decisions have been made over the past nine months in absence of a science adviser and other officials."

The @WHOSTP Twitter handle was finally created 290 days into the Trump administration and has picked up 382 followers. Out of the five existing tweets, four of them feature the work and photos of Michael Kratsios, the U.S. deputy chief technology officer.

Kratsios, a 31-year-old former chief of staff to Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel, majored in political science at Princeton, that being the extent of his experience in the field of "science." Thiel was Trump's most prominent supporter from the tech industry. Kratsios, who was appointed to his role in March, proved to be a beneficiary of that relationship.

The OSTP has not offered a reason for why the White House has yet to nominate the office's top Senate-confirmed positions that work side by side in the office, the OSTP director and the chief technology officer (CTO). Another White House official could not confirm whether or not Mr. Trump planned to nominate a CTO at all. Sources say Kratsios has been angling for the role himself and describe him as a micromanager who has created a highly controlled work environment that has had a stifling effect on the few careerists still in the office.

"I don't know if he'll go up for the nomination," a White House official told CBS News of Kratsios potentially being named CTO. "A lot of times, we've seen across different administrations deputies just filling in." (The CTO position was only created under the Obama administration).

That sentiment may be wishful -- at least a few former OSTP staffers think Kratsios is unqualified for the job. CBS News spoke with multiple former OSTP staffers on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their current employers to speak publicly.

"I think one of the reasons that he is not named the CTO is because although he comes from the tech community, he is not a technologist," one former OSTP staffer told CBS News.

Under Mr. Obama, Megan Smith, a former vice president at Google who had two degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as CTO. Kumar Garg, a former OSTP staffer under Obama, argued the Trump administration should nominate someone to run the office who can withstand Senate scrutiny.

"OSTP is a congressionally-chartered office and the new administration should put forward whoever they believe should play a senior leadership role – they should put forward those folks towards Senate review," Garg said.

Because of the rocky transition process, the incoming Trump administration only turned its attention to the science office a week before the inauguration, after many Obama-era OSTP staffers had already departed.

Reed Cordish, a 43-year-old former professional tennis player-turned-real-estate-developer, showed up alone to OSTP to get a better sense of the office, and even then, it was for not more than an hour. Cordish currently serves as an assistant to the president for Intragovernmental and Technology Initiatives.

"The first and only contact that OSTP leadership had with any member of the Trump team about the transition at OSTP did not take place until a week before the inauguration, was with an individual with no particular background in science, technology, or science and technology policy, and lasted exactly one hour," Holdren told CBS News. "We handed over our 100+ chapter transition book and never heard a peep back. I have no idea whether anybody read it."

A source in the room said that at the end of the brief meeting, Cordish told the group that he wanted to "make sure you guys stick around," but most staffers had already made alternative career plans, given that no one in the office had heard from the Trump transition team until that point.

One former senior OSTP staffer ended up leaving his post early once Trump staffers did finally inhabit the office because even then, no one was interested in speaking with him.

"One of the reasons I left early is that I didn't actually talk much to anyone," the former OSTP staffer told CBS News in an email. "I met Kratsios but didn't have a chance to actually talk to him and tell him what I was doing, what I knew, etcetera. I walked out with a clear conscience. I did my part to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition."

The OSTP was more fully integrated into the Obama administration. It was responsible for putting together the five-year strategic plan on STEM education, in coordination with the Department of Education, The National Science Foundation, The Smithsonian Institution, and the White House. And it helped propel the expansion of the renewable energy industry, making wind and solar energy competitive with coal, gas and fossil fuels by securing $4 billion in private sector commitments to foster clean energy innovation.

The OSTP had a seat at nearly every high level discussion in the Obama administration, but that's a privilege it no longer enjoys.

"There is no substitute for senior leadership," said Cristin Dorgelo, a former OSTP Chief of Staff under Obama. OSTP, he added, "provides a path for escalating tough issues among leaders in the White House and members of the Cabinet. That lack of leadership makes for a stagnant OSTP."

Even the White House science fair – initiated by Mr. Obama in 2009 -- seems to be falling by the wayside.


One source tells CBS News that former OSTP staffers left behind all of the necessary information to enable the office to conduct the one-day affair. But despite assurances to CBS News from the office earlier in April that the Trump administration would be hosting a science fair in 2017, an OSTP spokesperson told CBS News that "with the holidays on us, it would be tough to pull together before January."

The federal budget process, too, is feeling the effects of the OSTP staffing shortage.

Historically, OSTP participates in the budget-writing process with the Office of Management and Budget, to recommend research and development priorities for federal agencies. But the 2018 budget -- which saw a 20 percent decrease in research and development funding -- was crafted without input from OSTP's Assistant Director of Federal Research and Development. That role has gone unfilled in the Trump White House.

The research cuts were, in the words of one Obama administration OSTP staffer, "unprecedented and dramatic" reductions that would have otherwise funded the NIH, the Department of Energy and NASA.

Just days after Mr. Trump released that first federal budget, which proposed eliminating NASA's education office, Ivanka Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos hosted an event at the NASA museum to highlight science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

"It's difficult to discern malevolence from incompetence," another former OSTP staffer griped.

Former OSTP staffers are also concerned that national security will suffer, too. One source of anxiety is China's aggressive investments in artificial intelligence. Over the summer, the country unveiled a development plan to be a leader in the field by 2030, supplemented by multibillion dollar investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

The Obama administration released two comprehensive reports on A.I. in 2016, spearheaded by Dr. Edward Felten, a professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the founding Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy. A White House official said that the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence still exists but referenced only one policy lead assigned to the issue "who does a lot of data work."

In 2016, the federal government invested approximately $1.2 billion in research and development in "AI-related technologies," and recommended that even more money be spent on basic research on A.I.

But there has been no mention of the issue by the Trump administration, except by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who dismissed the threat of robots displacing humans as "50 to 100" years out.

"It's not even on our radar screen," he said at an event in March. He later clarified his comments in May.

"When I made the comment on artificial intelligence — and there's different views on artificial intelligence — I was referring to kind of like R2-D2 in 'Star Wars,'" Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing. "Robotics are here."

OSTP wasn't designed to be a center of research and development on A.I., according to Dr. Holdren, but the office previously advised the president and national security adviser on its economic and security implications and urged the U.S. to take the lead on the issue.

"I doubt it is doing that now, with its total staff of forty, and nobody like Ed Felten," Holdren said.

"You have a number of experts in both science and technology and national security who are comparing this to a Sputnik moment for the U.S.," another former OSTP staffer added.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


HOW SHOCKED THESE WORKERS MUST HAVE BEEN. IT'S DEMORALIZING TO FIND THAT AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME WHEN OUR COUNTRY IS MOVING OVER INTO THAT DIRECTION AS WELL, THIS SHOWS UP. IT'S JUST AN ACCIDENT, BUT IT LOOKS A LOT LIKE A SIGN FROM GOD, DOESN'T IT?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/giant-nazi-swastika-unearthed-hamburg-germany-construction-crew/
AP November 21, 2017, 8:34 AM
Construction crew unearths giant concrete swastika

Photograph -- A ground keeper removes a covering sheet from a concrete swastika next to a sports ground in Hamburg-Billstedt, Germany, Nov. 21, 2017. AP

BERLIN -- Construction workers in Germany have unearthed a giant concrete swastika on a sports field in the northern city of Hamburg.

The German news agency dpa reported Tuesday workers were digging in the ground with an excavator to build changing rooms when they suddenly hit the 13-by-13 foot Nazi symbol.

CIA ran down rumor of Hitler's escape from Nazi Germany
96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany
Protesters block neo-Nazi march to prison where Rudolf Hess died

Members of the sports club at the Hein-Kling stadium in the city's Billstedt district told dpa the swastika served as a foundation for a monument that was torn down decades ago.

City officials say they want the swastika, which was buried 1.3 feet below the ground, gone as quickly as possible. Because it's too heavy to be transported away, they are planning to destroy it with jackhammers.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



I HAVEN'T HEARD ANY MORE ABOUT THIS, BUT I'LL KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR PROGRESS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-investigation-mueller-to-interview-top-level-white-house-officials/
By JEFF PEGUES CBS NEWS November 20, 2017, 8:45 PM
Mueller to interview top-level White House officials as part of Russia probe

WASHINGTON -- CBS News has learned that special counsel Robert Mueller will soon interview top-level White House officials as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Meanwhile, CBS News has learned new details about members of the Trump family who met with Russians during the campaign.

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Alexander Torshin CBS NEWS

Alexander Torshin is a Kremlin insider. As a deputy head of Russia's Central Bank, he has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and reportedly has links to organized crime, which is why his meeting in May 2016 with Donald Trump Jr. during the height of the presidential campaign has gotten the attention of congressional investigators.

The two men were introduced during a dinner at a National Rifle Association conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to a source, Trump Jr. and Torshin discussed a "mutual interest in firearms." The source did not recall if the campaign ever came up.

In a statement, Alan Futerfas -- the attorney representing the president's son -- said "they made small talk for a few minutes and went back to their separate meals."

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Ron Hosko CBS NEWS

Ron Hosko, a former assistant director of the FBI, said meetings like this are typical of intelligence operations.

"The art of getting close to someone is: 'I give you opportunities, but I don't make you uncomfortable, and I don't have you push me away,'" Hosko told CBS News.

Torshin had made overtures to the trump campaign before. Through an intermediary, a request for a meeting with candidate Trump made its way to top campaign officials, including Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Sources say Kushner recommended against the meeting.

But less than three weeks after the NRA event, both Donald Trump Jr. and Kushner met at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. Trump Jr. had been promised "dirt on Hillary Clinton." That meeting is now a key focus in special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

171120-en-pegues-special-counsel-russia.jpg
Special counsel Robert Mueller, Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner. CBS NEWS

The special counsel's office has also been examining the firing of FBI Director James Comey and whether anyone, including the president, obstructed justice.

It has asked the Justice Department to hand over documents pertaining to the firing as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



THIS IS SOMETHING THAT'S BEEN IN THE NEWS FAIRLY RECENTLY, AND IT'S JUST "BUSINESS AS USUAL." IT'S JUST MORE CHEATING. THE FACT THAT AMERICAN WORKERS ARE PUT OUT OF A JOB WHILE THE GIANTS OF INDUSTRY PUT SOMEONE WHO WORKS CHEAPER IN THEIR PLACE. THE ENLIGHTENMENT DUDES TALKED ABOUT "THE SOCIAL CONTRACT" AS THE BASIS FOR BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT ETHICS, BUT IT MOST OFTEN APPEARS TO ME THAT THERE IS NO "SOCIAL CONTRACT."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/business-owners-say-they-tried-to-stop-hidden-foreign-workforce-loophole-auto-plant/
CBS NEWS November 21, 2017, 7:36 AM
Foreign worker loophole: Businesses say South Carolina officials ignored complaints

A CBS News investigation this summer uncovered a hidden foreign workforce building auto plants across the country. An American business owner is now speaking out about how the practice hurts American workers.

CBS News found hundreds of Eastern European workers on American construction sites, including factories for BMW and Volvo, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. Now, South Carolina business owners tell CBS News they are being undercut by cheap foreign labor, and they've been trying to put a stop to it for years.

Donna Rauch is the CEO of AEC, a company that builds and installs automation equipment from its shop in Greenville, South Carolina, just down the road from dozens of major manufacturing plants.

"We're right in the middle of what should be a very successful place for not only us to be, but for other automation companies," Rauch said.

But Rauch says jobs that could be done by her 50 local employees are instead going to workers hailing from half a world away.

"Our competition is coming in from overseas -- from Poland, Romania, Croatia, Italy," Rauch said.

"Same training and in some ways we have better training because we've been doing it longer," Rauch said. "Much lower cost."

A CBS News investigation this summer discovered hundreds of men from Eastern Europe working for subcontractors on projects in Alabama and Michigan, as well as South Carolina.

They are paid as little as $10 an hour, and brought to the U.S. for six months at a time thanks to these visas, which allow foreigners to supervise work, but not actually do it themselves, a loophole we found being exploited at the expense of American workers.

"It's hard to describe what it's like to sit with an employee and tell them I have to lay you off, I don't have a job for you when you know that other people are taking those jobs," Rauch said.

ctm-112117-foreignworkforce.jpg
Jim Axelrod and South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt CBS NEWS
Rauch and four other South Carolina business executives, who declined to speak publicly for fear of being blacklisted, told us they've made dozens of complaints like these to state officials, starting as far back as 2013.

"We don't want to be upsetting the larger manufacturing companies that are coming in. If we make it hard for them, they won't come," Rauch said.

Over the past decade, South Carolina has handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to lure foreign manufacturers to the state. In exchange, they create permanent American jobs. But there are no requirements the plants themselves must be built by Americans.

"The piece that we're being left out of is during the building of that plant. That's the area that an automation company lives in," Rauch said.

The man who helps secure those deals is South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, who worked at BMW for 17 years. Multiple local business owners told CBS News they've complained about foreign workers directly to his office. He declined our request for an interview.

So Axelrod caught up with him on his way into work.

"Why won't you talk to us about this?" Axelrod asked.

"Because I don't know anything about it," Hitt said.

"Well, they say they don't have a level playing field here in South Carolina," Axelrod said.

"Well, I don't know anything about it," Hitt replied.

"Jobs that are supposed to go to Americans and South Carolinians are going to Romanians, and people from the Czech Republic and Poland and Bosnia. Is there merit to what they're saying," Axelrod said.

"I think they would complain to me if there was a problem," Hitt said.

"So if we get in touch with your communication director, are you going to set up an interview? Because she declined our request," Axelrod asked.

"Not likely," Hitt replied.

CBS News did hear from Hitt's communication director, but they still did not want to schedule an interview about this. For their part, Volvo and BMW told us it is their subcontractors' responsibility to ensure their workers are legally permitted to work in the United States.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS IS NEAT TO LOOK AT AS THE EARTH CHANGES. IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THE IMAGE WAS LITERALLY FORMED FROM WHAT THE CAMERAS ON THE SATELLITE SAW FROM DAY TO DAY, ALL COMPILED INTO A SORT OF MOVING PICTURE. MOTHER EARTH DANCING, PERHAPS.

htps://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-time-lapse-video-earth-20-years/
CBS NEWS November 17, 2017, 7:41 AM
NASA time-lapse of Earth's 20 years shows how the planet is changing

Our most complete picture of life on Earth is coming into focus, as a stunning new NASA time-lapse video crams 20 years into just a few minutes. It is helping scientists learn a lot more about global warming and how the planet is changing.

"It's one of a kind. It's never been done before and so being able to capture land, ocean, atmosphere, ice, over 20 years together -- it's insanely cool," NASA oceanographer Dr. Jeremy Werdell told CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.

NASA launched this satellite in 1997, allowing them to track life on Earth through 20 years of satellite imaging.

"Bottom line, what are you seeing, the planet getting warmer over these 20 years?" Reid asked.

"Absolutely," Werdell said. He said the data points help show how our planet is changing.

"Generally speaking, ocean levels are rising. Now they rise slowly, it's like watching ice cubes melt in a glass of soda," Werdell said.

ezgif-com-resize-5.gif
A new NASA time-lapse video crams Earth's 20 years into just a few minutes. NASA


What's causing the changes in color are changes in the map are gazillions of microscopic creatures called phytoplankton.

"You love these little guys," Reid said.

"We're geeks. Yeah, I'm sorry. We do. I do love these guys. First they're useful to the society, they feed us, they give us oxygen, but they're just so beautiful," Dr. Ivona Cetinic said.

The tiny ocean organisms Cetinic studies, along with plants on the ground, pull carbon dioxide out of the air and help human life possible. These building blocks of life are at the bottom of the food chain, and Cetinic says as they change, so can Earth's ecosystem.

"It's really cool. This data set is powerful because it tells us what's happening now, what happened in the past, but also what's going to happen in the future," Cetinic said.

It's complicated but one way to think about all this is that by keeping track of all those phytoplankton in the oceans, scientists have an early warning system on what's happening to the Earth as it heats up. To help them do that even better they're sending up another satellite this weekend.

Stunning photos of climate change
50 Photos
Stunning photos of climate change
© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



PRAMILA JAYAPAL D, AK STANDS UP FOR WOMEN ON ANOTHER SUBJECT CLEARLY AND SUCCESSFULLY. GOOD JOB!

EMAIL Nov. 17, 2017
Sign now to stop GOP attacks on women's rights
Team Pramila Nov 17 at 2:37 PM
To Lucy Warner
Pramila Jayapal

Lucy, why are Republicans using the tax code to attack women’s rights?
Because they think they can pull the wool over our eyes and get away with pleasing anti-choice groups by limiting women’s access to reproductive health care.

Here’s the deal: the latest plan from Republicans — which passed in the House yesterday — attempts to have the federal government define “personhood” at the moment of conception by creating college savings plans for embryos.
This is a ridiculous plan, considering parents can already set up college savings plans to secure their child’s future. If they are able to get away with this move, it could be a precursor to a nationwide ban on abortion in our country.

Furthermore, this comes just a few weeks after House Republicans introduced a bill to ban abortion after 6 weeks — and less than a month after the Trump administration tried to prevent a young immigrant woman in detention from getting an abortion she had every legal right to.
It’s clear: women's rights are under attack in ways both big and small. We can’t let them get away with any of it. Will you stand with Pramila today?


THIS "YOUNG LADY" DIDN'T BACK DOWN AND MADE HER POINT, ALL IN ONE SHORT WELL-PHRASED SENTENCE. I THINK I LIKE HER!

https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2017/9/8/pramila-jayapal-fights-back-against-gop-male-lawmaker-who-calls-her-young-lady
CONGRESS
Pramila Jayapal Fights Back Against GOP Male Lawmaker Who Calls Her “Young Lady”
“You may not know me, young lady, but I’m deeply disturbed.”
By Hayat Norimine 9/8/2017 at 3:13pm

IMAGE: C-SPAN -- Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal responds to Don Young’s apology after a heated House floor debate on September 7, 2017.
//www.c-span.org/video/?c4681683/rep-don-young-apologizes-rep-pramila-jayapal

“Racism, sexism and age-ism are all alive and well in the U.S. House,” Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal wrote on Facebook Thursday night.

The Seattle House Democrat faced debate that turned personal Thursday afternoon on the House floor—when an Alaska GOP representative called Jayapal “young lady” several times and said she “didn’t know a damn thing what she’s talking about.” Don Young, 84, later apologized when Jayapal, 51, asked Young to withdraw his words. Watch the video below:

Young was proposing an amendment to a government spending package that prohibits funds to support a National Park Service rule, which limits types of wildlife hunting practices on National Preserves in Alaska. Young said it was the state’s right to manage its public lands. Jayapal opposed his amendment, arguing that the rule implemented in 2015 helped to preserve important wildlife and natural scenery and eliminate “cruel hunting practices.” She also added that the regulations were good for the economy and underwent an extensive public process. (It ultimately passed.)

“The other side may argue that this amendment is a state’s rights issue, but that simply isn’t true,” Jayapal said. “These are federal lands and are therefore subject to federal regulation. These national lands are intended to be enjoyed by all Americans.”

Young’s statement turned personal after Jayapal spoke during the floor debate; he said her statement was written by an interest group—“maybe your staff is affiliated with the Humane Society or some other group”—and called her statement “nonsense.”

“I’m deeply disappointed in my good lady from Washington. Doesn’t know a damn thing what she’s talking about,” Young responded. “Now I know your side doesn’t believe in the state’s rights. You don’t, I do. ... You may not know me, young lady, but I’m deeply disturbed.”

At that point Jayapal interjects and asked that Young withdraw his remarks. House rules of conduct allow words to be withdrawn if a member impugns the motives of another member, uses offensive language, or says something “deemed unparliamentary.”

“The gentleman has already impugned my motives by saying that I don’t know a damn thing about what I’m talking about,” Jayapal said. “He’s now called me ‘young lady,’ and Mr. Chairman, I ask that he take down his words.”

The House proceedings paused for five minutes. And after Young returned, he apologized and said he gets “very defensive about my state.” Young is known for his temper, according to The Hill, and in the past caused a social media storm for pushing through a crowd of reporters.

“I can tell you that I care about my state as deeply as you do, and I look forward to getting to know you,” Jayapal said. (The full apology is included below.)

“My message to women, including women of color: stand strong,” Jayapal wrote on her Facebook. “Refuse to be minimized or patronized. Let all the small guys out there be intimidated by you.”



I HAVE A FEELING THAT UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF SANDER, THE PROGRESSIVES WILL MAKE STEADY PROGRESS AND IMPROVE OUR POSITION IN THE LEGISLATURE -- AND WHO KNOWS, MAYBE THE PRESIDENCY! HE KEEPS UP WITH WHAT'S GOING ON AND RESPONDS APPROPRIATELY.

http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/361086-sanders-democrats-have-been-completely-shut-out-of-tax-reform
Sanders: Democrats have been 'completely shut out' of tax reform
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 11/19/17 09:50 AM EST

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing back on President Trump's claim that Democrats have been obstructionists on tax reform, saying on Sunday that Democrats have been shut out of the process.

"Democrats have been completely shut out of this process just as they've been shut out of the health-care legislation process," Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Sanders was referring to a tweet from Trump on Friday, when the president accused Democrats of being "obstructionists" during the tax-reform process.

Sanders called the tweet "total nonsense."

"What this legislation is about is fulfilling the promises, Republican promises, made to wealthy campaign contributors. There is a reason why the billionaire class provides hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Republicans, and now it's payback time," the senator said.

Sanders's comments come as Republicans inch closer to passing tax legislation, which would mark their first major legislative victory of the year.

The Senate legislation cleared a party-line vote in the Senate Finance Committee last Thursday — the same day that House Republicans approved their version of the tax-reform legislation.



THIS MAN RANDY BRYCE IS ONE TO WATCH. HE MAKES A REALLY GOOD IMPRESSION IN HIS TWO COMMERCIALS WHICH ARE ON YOUTUBE, AND IN THIS NEWS ARTICLE. HE SPEAKS "FOR THE COMMON MAN," BY BEING ONE. HE HAS SOME EDUCATION, THOUGH, BECAUSE HE TALKS WELL AND WITH GOOD GRAMMAR. ALSO, HE SEEMS TO ME TO HAVE THE ETHICAL STRUCTURE THAT I WANT EVERY ONE OF OUR NEW POLITICIANS TO HAVE, ESPECIALLY THE LIBERALS AND PROGRESSIVES.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/20705/bernie-sanders-paul-ryan-wisconsin-randy-bryce
WEB ONLY / FEATURES » NOVEMBER 20, 2017
Bernie Sanders Is Now Backing Randy Bryce—Which Could Be Very Bad News for Paul Ryan
Sanders’ endorsement of Bryce comes at a time when the former union organizer and steelworker is rising in the polls in his bid to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan.
BY MARC DAALDER

Sanders’ embrace of Bryce is another indicator that progressive challengers are gaining steam in the upcoming election cycle.

Randy Bryce took the political world by storm this June when he released a stunning television ad announcing his campaign to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan. Bryce is running for Ryan’s seat in Wisconsin’s southeastern 1st congressional district, which straddles Milwaukee’s metropolitan border.

“I decided to run for office because not everybody’s seated at the table—and it’s time to make a bigger table,” Bryce says in the ad. “If somebody falls behind, we’re so much stronger if we carry them with us. That’s the way I was raised. We look out for each other.”

The ad helped raise almost half a million dollars for Bryce’s campaign in just twelve days.

An Army veteran and an ironworker by trade, Bryce mixes an everyman’s appeal with genuine progressive politics—a stark contrast with Ryan’s straight-laced conservatism. And Bryce received a boost to his progressive credentials last week when he was officially endorsed by Bernie Sanders.

“We've got to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from people like Paul Ryan,” Sanders said in a statement announcing the endorsement. “I think Randy Bryce has an agenda that is going to make sense to working families. We need Randy in Congress.”

Sanders and Bryce line up on a range of issues, from unwavering support for workers and union rights to a $15 minimum wage.

Explaining why he stands with workers fighting for a higher wage, Bryce tells In These Times, “I’ve always been supportive of a $15 minimum wage. Otherwise what we’re doing is just giving welfare to corporations. We shouldn’t be subsidizing corporations so that they can profit more on the people’s backs.”

Bryce also shares Sanders’ belief in a universal healthcare system, backs the Vermont senator’s Medicare for All bill and supports a massive investment in infrastructure spending to revitalize deindustrialized communities like those in his Wisconsin district. Joe Dinkin, spokesperson for the Working Families Party—of which Bryce is a member and endorsed candidate—says that what connects Sanders and Bryce is a commitment to progressive values.

“What Bernie sees in Randy Bryce is a working class progressive that draws a perfect contrast to ‘Wall Street’ Paul [Ryan],” Dinkin says. “Randy wants to guarantee healthcare for all, to rebuild America's roads and bridges and to make the billionaires pay for it. Paul Ryan wants to give billionaires a massive tax cut and make the middle class pay. This endorsement, coming from America's most popular political leader, is a huge deal and proves that this is a top tier race.”

Bryce says it’s not only his policy positions that that set him apart from Ryan, but also his commitment to representing the needs of his constituents rather than outside interests.

“It’s about getting trust,” Bryce says. “It’s not just showing up a few weeks before election day and trying to get people to vote. It’s about actually being involved in the community—to listen and then to come up with ways to implement the needs of the community.”

Bryce may still appear to be a longshot candidate. A recent Public Policy (PP) Poll shows him trailing Ryan by seven points. But Bryce’s campaign says that these numbers will change as more voters get to know who the candidate is and what he stands for (the PP poll shows 69 percent of respondents still aren’t familiar with Bryce).

Ryan beat his Democratic opponent in 2016 by 35 points, so the race currently sitting at single digits represents a significant change in the political winds. The Bryce campaign’s own internal polling shows Bryce winning in 2018 by a 3-point margin—assuming more voters get to know him.

Democrats are currently engaged in what some are calling a civil war over the future of the party and, in many ways, over the future of the resistance to President Trump. Randy Bryce’s campaign offers echoes of the party’s past—of FDR’s ambitious New Deal, of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty—and potentially signals a new direction for the party’s future.

“We need more working people to run for office. We understand it. We get the struggles of living paycheck to paycheck,” Bryce tells In These Times.

Asked whether his campaign will help inspire more working people like himself to run, he replies, “It’s already happening. People are contacting me. We’re seeing a record number of candidates come out everywhere. And a lot of Republicans that are going to have to fight for their seats see this wave coming, and they’re retiring in pretty big numbers.”

Sanders’ embrace of Bryce is another indicator that progressive challengers are gaining steam in the upcoming election cycle. Rather than giving in to Trump’s demagoguery or Ryan’s austerity, Bryce is trying to prove that what voters are really looking for are commonsense solutions to their problems. While the Right pushes for building a “big, beautiful wall” and enacting tax cuts for the rich, Bryce is countering with proposals for higher wages and jobs building infrastructure—policies that will clearly improve working people’s lives.

He is also showing that candidates from outside the political establishment can help usher in this new progressive vision for both the Democratic Party and the country as a whole.

“We have enough lawyers in Congress,” says Bryce “There aren’t a lot of garbage men, ironworkers, building tradespeople. We need more people that actually know what it’s like to struggle so that we have a government that’s receptive to our needs.”

MARC DAALDER
Marc Daalder is a writer and student living in Massachusetts. He attends Amherst College, writes for the student publication AC Voice, and spends his spare time tweeting, blogging and writing fiction.



LOOK AT THESE FIGURES!

http://inthesetimes.com/article/20682/socialists-democrats-larry-krasner-election-2017
WEB ONLY / FEATURES » NOVEMBER 8, 2017
Socialists Just Showed the Democratic Party How to Win Across the U.S.
Tuesday night’s progressive electoral wave is proof that embracing a bold left agenda is the key to victory.
BY MILES KAMPF-LASSIN

Photograph -- Democratic socialist Seema Singh Perez will be the first Indian-American member of the Knoxville city council. (Facebook/Elect Seema Singh Perez City Council 3rd District)

These victories are not anomalies or flukes. Rather, they prove that embracing an explicitly socialist politics does not prevent candidates from winning in 2017.

One year ago, a wave of disbelief, gloom and rage washed across the country. A vile orange manifestation of America’s darkest id had won the presidency, Republicans held control of all three branches of government, and new nightmares awaited.

Trump is still president, the GOP still has the House and Senate, and every day we witness new threats to the environment, the social safety net and—with an incoherent man-child’s hands on the nuclear football—the very future of humanity.

But last night we saw a very different kind of wave, one that moves us towards a politics that rejects the horrors of Trumpism—and instead embraces a bold progressive vision for the future. Across the country, candidates running from the Left won—and many of them won big.

Larry Krasner, a civil-rights attorney who has represented activists from Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, was elected as Philadelphia’s new District Attorney in a 40-point blowout. Krasner ran on a platform of stopping mass incarceration, ending bail and civil asset forfeiture and explicitly renouncing Trump. Following his victory, he told Business Insider, “I think the Democratic Party should be madly wrapping its loving arms around progressives.”

Maine voters overwhelmingly chose to expand Medicaid in a historic referendum that will provide health coverage to tens of thousands of residents who don’t currently have it—a clear repudiation of Republicans’ attempts to gut the program through their effort to repeal Obamacare. The referendum was supported by Our Revolution, the group that grew out of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and saw at least 21 of its endorsed candidates win this election cycle.

Meanwhile, left candidate Seema Singh Perez won a seat on the Knoxville, Tenn. city council, defeating her opponent 6,105 to 4,470 to become the city’s first Indian-American council member.

Perez is a prime example of the new type of candidate blazing an electoral path for the Left in the era of Trump. After protesting the DNC for its bias against Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary, she chose to run for office for the first time this year, coming from a background in social work and healthcare—not politics. She’s also an open socialist who won the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group that has seen massive growth since Trump’s election, ballooning from 6,500 members in May 2016 to more than 30,000 today (the author is a member).

Perez joins 14 other DSA-endorsed candidates who won their elections yesterday. One of them, Lee Carter, defeated Virginia GOP House of Delegates Majority Whip Jackson Miller, one of the most powerful Republicans in the state, by running on a pledge to win single-payer healthcare and take big money out of the political system. After facing a campaign of red baiting, including a flier comparing him to Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, Carter scored an upset victory—even with little backing from the state’s Democratic Party.

Socialists saw other big gains in Somerville, Mass., where two DSA members—Ben Ewen-Campen and J.T. Scott—won seats on the Board of Aldermen after beating incumbents. Overall, all seven candidates endorsed by Our Revolution, including Ewen-Campen and Scott, won in that city’s elections.

In Cuyahoga County, Oh., DSA member Tristan Rader won his election to the Lakewood City Council. In Moorhead, Minn., Red River Valley DSA cofounder Kara Gloe won a School Board seat. And in Pittsburgh, Pa., district judge candidate Mik Pappas and county council candidate Anita Prizio—both endorsed by the local DSA chapter—beat out longtime incumbents.

Other places DSA-endorsed candidates won include Cheektowaga, Peekskill and New York, N.Y., New Haven, Conn., Pleasant Hill, Ia., Billings, Mont. and Upper Darby, Penn.

These victories are not anomalies or flukes. Rather, they prove that embracing an explicitly socialist politics does not prevent candidates from winning in 2017. If anything, the socialist tag can show voters where candidates stand and what their values are. As Lee Carter explained to The New Republic, “If you’re to the left of Barry Goldwater, Republicans are going to call you a socialist anyway, so you may as well just own the label.”

As the Democratic National Committee (DNC) purges a number of Bernie Sanders-aligned members from leadership, and longtime Democratic operatives scold the party for straying too far from the ever rightward-moving “center,” Tuesday’s election results show that the Democrats’ problem isn’t a shift to the Left: It’s the party’s refusal to change.

A newly released poll shows that, nationally, the Democratic Party has hit its lowest point in favorable views in 25 years. Democrats have reason to be relieved after avoiding a potentially dispiriting loss in the Virginia governor’s race, while also coming out on top in New Jersey with Phil Murphy’s gubernatorial victory and Bill de Blasio’s re-election as mayor of New York City. However, this poll is a reminder that the party has a long way to go to work back from its lowest level of power since the 1920s.

Democrats must read the red tea leaves and realize that policies that improve people’s lives—such as universal healthcare, tuition-free college, affordable housing, higher wages and real criminal justice reform—are not just popular: They’re winning issues.

And despite many establishment pundits’ obsession with spotlighting a supposed class versus identity politics divide in the Democratic Party, the election results also showed that progressives from all backgrounds can win.

In Hoboken, N.J., Ravi Bhalla became the nation’s first Sikh mayor after facing a racist opposition campaign that featured fliers fear mongering over “terrorism.” Minneapolis elected Andrea Jenkins, the first transgender woman of color to the city council.

Black Democrat Justin Fairfax won his race for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia in a showdown with a Trump-like Republican opponent who exclaimed at a rally, “We are going to take back Virginia the way this president is going to take back this country!” Virginia also elected the first openly transgender woman to its state legislature, Danica Roem. And in Charlotte, N.C., Democrat Vi Lyles overcame a smear campaign to become the city’s first woman of color mayor.

Since last year’s election, some things have remained unchanged in the political landscape. The Republican Party has still thrown their lot in with an imbecile president posing as a populist. And the Democrats, in many ways, are still coming to terms with the meaning of the party’s loss and trying to chart a new way forward.

Tuesday was the clearest signal yet of what the Democratic Party must do if it hopes to build from the energy and activism that has blossomed in response to Trump’s election: Run candidates with bold left agendas. Support them. Don’t be afraid of the S-word. And leave Third Way centrism in its tomb.

The path to victory is being charted. The choice of whether to follow it is up to the Democrats now.


MILES KAMPF-LASSIN

Miles Kampf-Lassin, a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School in Deliberative Democracy and Globalization, is the Community Editor at In These Times. He is a Chicago based writer. miles@inthesetimes.com @MilesKLassin


SOCIALISM IN FLORIDA? HEAVEN FORBID!

http://inthesetimes.com/article/20653/Miami-South-Beach-Socialism-Bernie-Sanders
ACT LOCALLY » NOVEMBER 15, 2017
The Sunshine State’s Still Berning: Bringing the Political Revolution to Miami
Tomas Kennedy and the rise of South Beach socialism.
BY ROB WILE

Photograph -- Tomas Kennedy is the chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Progressive Caucus and a deputy political director of Florida Immigrant Coalition Votes.

A total shift in Miami politics is going to manifest itself in the next 10 to 15 years.

MIAMI—Tomas Kennedy almost didn’t make it to Homestead, Fla. The 26-year-old, who serves as the deputy political director of the immigrant rights group Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) Votes, had spent the past week on Irma relief, driving nonstop throughout South Florida in his 1999 Kia delivering thousands of cans of food and, this Sunday, overseeing the delivery of ice. His Kia finally overheated, he says. Luckily, dumping a bottle of water on the engine did the trick.

Homestead was the final delivery of the day. Earlier, he’d coordinated ice pallet dropoffs out of a refrigerated truck—210 bags each—for a Make the Homeless Smile outdoor breakfast BBQ in downtown Miami, a building without power in Coral Way; and a church relief group in West Grove.

Kennedy, whose soft-spoken manner among friends belies a blistering intensity in public meetings and protests, has developed a reputation as one of the leading voices of South Florida’s burgeoning new Left. It’s a burst of progressivism that even Kennedy finds surprising in a region famously associated with Cuban-immigrant-led Republicanism.

In addition, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is growing in South Florida, with 100 members in Miami and another 100 in Broward and Palm Beach counties. They, too, jumped into action after Irma, organizing fundraisers and volunteer efforts. Kennedy is a DSA member.

Perhaps most significant is the advent of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, formed by former Bernie Sanders supporters who sensed an opening after the 2016 election. Kennedy was one of the main organizers for Sanders in South Florida; his evident leadership and his activism made him the easy choice to chair the new caucus. It now has 80 members.

“There needed to be a surge of fresh energy [in the county Democratic Party],” Kennedy says. “I’m not a strong partisan person, but it was like, ‘Okay, this side is clearly the best vehicle for change that we’ve got.’ ”

Kennedy’s personal background is closer to the more heterodox half of the current wave of South Florida immigrants—in other words, the ones more liberal than the largely conservative Venezuelan tidal wave that is also arriving in the Magic City.

He came to the United States with his parents from Argentina at the age of 10, fleeing that country’s 1998-2002 economic crisis. With his precarious immigration status and his parents’ interest in politics, Kennedy grew up attuned to political discourse, and became part of the Dream Act movement (and gained his citizenship last year). But he was launched into activism in earnest in 2015, after his father developed crippling arthritis in his legs. Lacking insurance, an operation was performed only thanks to a Kickstarter campaign and a kind doctor.

The experience was searing enough that Kennedy says he decided to devote himself to improving the lives of the marginalized in South Florida. He started in an official capacity at FLIC earlier this year after spending several years as an organizer with SEIU and working for progressive democratic state senator José Javier Rodríguez.

Kennedy balances his duties at FLIC with running the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Progressive Caucus. After Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle decided not to bring charges against corrections officers in the death of Darren Rainey, a developmentally challenged inmate who was burned alive in a shower, the caucus demanded the party censure her. After waiting months to get a quorum to vote, they easily won it.

“We literally made their lives miserable every time they had a meeting—we showed up with signs like, ‘No, you’re not going to get away with it, if you’re going to pull these shenanigans you have to clean it up afterward.’ ”

The caucus was also instrumental in Democrat Annette Taddeo’s victory in a special election to fill a state House seat vacated by a three-term Republican.

“We felt that Annette was very open minded, willing to listen to the grassroots, and very receptive to our concerns,” he says.

The caucus also worked with the party to draft a resolution supporting the extension of the government’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for qualified immigrants and creating a permanent legislative solution for TPS recipients.

The TPS resolution is emblematic of the effort South Florida progressives are making to focus on long-term goals, such as restoring voting rights to felons, rather than on the next election cycle.

“We have had this six-month mentality of, ‘Which election do we have ahead?’ ” Kennedy says.

Knowing South Florida’s political history, Kennedy understands that the Left’s progress won’t reach a critical mass in the short term, but he has no doubt which way the city will ultimately swing. “A total shift in Miami politics is going to manifest itself in the next 10 to 15 years.”

ROB WILE
Rob Wile is a writer and DSA members living in Miami.



“... IS SO UNSTABLE, IS SO VOLATILE, HAS A DECISION-MAKING PROCESS THAT IS SO QUIXOTIC ....” THIS DESCRIPTION CHILLS MY BLOOD. HOW’S THAT INVESTIGATION GOING, MR. MUELLER?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-trump-nuclear-weapons-powers-unchecked/
CBS NEWS November 20, 2017, 11:10 AM
Amid rising tensions, are Trump's nuclear powers unchecked?

South Korea's spy agency says North Korea may conduct more ballistic missile tests by the end of the year to boost its ability to threaten the U.S. Meanwhile, Democrats are asking questions about President Trump's authority to launch nuclear weapons.

The White House considers anxiety about the president's temperament and nuclear weapons misplaced, reports CBS News correspondent Major Garrett. It's North Korea, the administration argues, that is volatile and recklessly provocative. Still, what is legal when it comes to the president and nuclear weapons is a very real topic.

Mr. Trump's warnings to North Korea have been vivid and descriptive.

"The U.S. has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Mr. Trump said in September at the United Nations General Assembly.

The meaning of "destroy" in the nuclear age raises this question: are the president's powers unchecked?

"If you execute an unlawful order you will go to jail," Air Force Gen. John Hyten said.

Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command, tried to answer the question over the weekend, saying there are limits.

"I provide advice to the president. He will tell me what to do," Hyten said. "And if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to say, 'Mr. President, that's illegal.' And guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the short time available to respond to a nuclear attack or one that may be imminent gives the commander-in-chief special power.

"The president has to hold in his hands the sole decision to use our nuclear weapons," Cotton said Sunday on "Face the Nation."

Since the Cold War, U.S. presidents have had sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. The codes to do so follow the president in a suitcase: the nuclear football.

"No one human being should ever have that power," Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said.

Now some Senate Democrats want a say in preemptive nuclear war, drafting a bill requiring Congress declare war first.

"The president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic, that he might order a nuclear weapons strike," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said.

The hearing where Murphy spoke was the first of its kind since 1976, when Congress learned in the weeks before he resigned President Nixon was sometimes drunk and depressed, raising alarms about nuclear launch powers and instability in the Oval Office. Mr. Trump's advisers says it is all more stable now and that diplomatic and economic pressure against North Korea remains the first priority.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN THE PAST TWO OR THREE YEARS THAT AN AMERICAN MILITARY PERSON WAS INVOLVED IN SOMETHING THAT ENDANGERED THE JAPANESE PUBLIC. THAT TIME IT WAS A SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A WOMAN. AS A MILITARY NATION WE NEED, FIRST, TO TRY TO SEE TO IT THAT WE DON’T ENLIST SOMEONE WHO IS SIMPLY DANGEROUS, AND SECOND, KEEP A WATCH OVER OUR FIGHTERS TO SEE WHETHER OR NOT THEIR MENTAL STATE IS DEGENERATING. THAT DOES HAPPEN IN WARTIME CONDITIONS.

WE NEED THEM AND I HONOR THEM, BUT WE ARE EVENTUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEY DO AND DON’T DO. THERE IS A PHOTOGRAPH WITH THIS ARTICLE OF A SIZEABLE BUNCH OF JAPANESE PEOPLE WITH THEIR FISTS IN THE AIR AND CARRYING PLACARDS BEARING TERSE WARNINGS. WE NOT ONLY NEED OUR SOLDIERS, WE NEED OUR INTERNATIONAL ALLIES EVEN MORE. SOMETIMES, I DON’T THINK THE PRESIDENT SEES IT THAT WAY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/okinawa-japan-us-troops-restricted-base-alcohol-nicholas-james-mclean-crash/
AP November 20, 2017, 6:51 AM
U.S. troops in Japan in hot water over fatal crash

Photograph -- Japanese raise fists and shout slogans as they protest against the American military presence at Kadena Air Base in Cyatan, Okinawa, in this May 21, 2016 file photo. JIJI PRESS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

TOKYO -- U.S. military personnel in Okinawa have been restricted to base and banned from drinking alcohol after a Marine was arrested over a crash that killed a Japanese man.

Police on the southern Japanese island arrested 21-year-old Nicholas James-McLean late Sunday on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in injury or death and driving under the influence of alcohol, said Kazuhiko Miyagi of the Okinawa police.

He confirmed that a breath test indicated James-McLean had an alcohol level that was three times the legal limit. The Marine was slightly injured, Miyagi said.

Ex-U.S. Marine charged in Japan rape, murder case
Hidemasa Taira, 61, who was driving a small truck, died in the Sunday morning crash in Naha, the main city in Okinawa.

He was making a turn when his vehicle was hit by James-McLean's truck, which was coming from the opposite direction, according to Japanese media. The reports cited witnesses as saying the Japanese driver had the right of way when the crash occurred and the Marine may have driven through a red light.

The incident could fuel opposition to the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, where about 25,000 American troops are stationed and where local residents have expressed concerns in the past about military crime and crowding on the island.

The U.S. military said "alcohol may have been a factor" in the crash.

Buying and drinking alcohol was banned for U.S. military personnel all over Japan. As well, those on Okinawa were restricted to base and their residences, until further notice.

The military said commanders across Japan will immediately lead mandatory training on responsible alcohol use and acceptable behavior.

"When our service members fail to live up to the high standards we set for them, it damages the bonds between bases and local communities and makes it harder for us to accomplish our mission," U.S. Forces, Japan, said in a statement posted on its website.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


THIS IS SAD. I SUPPOSE, EVEN IF THEY DON'T HAVE MUCH LIGHT, THEY CAN LISTEN TO THE TEACHER. BESIDES, THEY NEED A PLACE TO GO AND SOMETHING TO KEEP THEM BUSY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-schools-no-power-hurricane-maria-aftermath/
By DAVID BEGNAUD CBS NEWS November 19, 2017, 11:46 PM
Many students leaving Puerto Rico as schools struggle without power

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Former "Hamilton" star Lin-Manuel Miranda led a march in Washington, D.C. on Sunday for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

He's calling on Congress to address the crisis still unfolding in the American territory.

Lin-Manuel Miranda brings help, hope to Puerto Rico
Nearly two months after Hurricane Maria barreled through, about half of Puerto Rico is still in the dark, and school children in the American territory are getting lessons in patience and perseverance.

Daylight is the only way these first graders can practice English at Julio Henna Elementary School.

Puerto Rico's storm of misery

But no matter what the language, the struggles are easy to see.

Meals come in ready-to-eat packages, or from the one gas stove. But at least this school is open -- even if it is a little dark.

Puerto Rico's long road to recovery from Hurricane Maria
Puerto Rico's long road to recovery from Hurricane Maria

But the government can't tell us how many of the 1,100 schools have power. Teacher Juan Hernandez is still cleaning up after the hurricane.

"Parents, they think they can come to the school, but the Department of Education says they can't," Hernandez said. "We are waiting for answers."

The contractor hired to certify the schools are safe was fired, so the National Guard has taken over.

Principal Debra Hernandez has a list of hazards.

"There is a leak that is important to fix," she said.

But six weeks after the storm, many of her students have left the island.

"Since the storm we have lost 25 students confirmed, some of the moved to the States," Hernandez said.

"The reality is we are not going to have the system we had on the 18th of September," said education secretary Julia Keleher.

Keleher said Maria devastated a school system already in trouble, but she won't put kids back into unsafe schools.

"Some school communities are willing to open their schools even though those schools have conditions that wouldn't meet minimum standards in the States," Keler said. It doesn't meet her bar, though, and she said she thinks "some of the conditions are unacceptable."

For her and a lot of parents. There's one school that's been without power for three weeks, but it's still open. Fifty-six kids have transferred to Florida. Across the island, about 6,400 left for the mainland and enrolled in school there.

171119-evening-begnaud-puerto-rico-school-01.jpg
A look at students in the dark at a school in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. CBS NEWS
© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



I’M ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING THAT I’VE NEVER DONE BEFORE. I’M TAKING A READER’S COMMENT FOR THE BLOG TODAY ABOUT TRUMP AND, BECAUSE IF IT IS TRUE, IT IS HORRIBLY ILLEGAL AND SCURRILOUS; IF IT IS NOT TRUE, I WOULD DESERVE TO BE SUED. SO, I WILL TRY TO VERIFY THE STORY. THE PLAINTIFF HAS FILED AND DROPPED THE SUIT TWICE, BECAUSE, SHE CLAIMS THAT SHE WAS THREATENED -- BOTH HER AND HER FAMILY. SHE ALSO CLAIMS THAT NOT ONLY WAS SHE RAPED, BUT EPSTEIN HELD HER FOR FOUR MONTHS AS A SEX SLAVE. HOW PROFOUNDLY DEPRESSING.

THIS SNOPES ARTICLE ON THE TRUMP/EPSTEIN SITUATION, STATES THAT EPSTEIN HAS SETTLED SEVERAL VERY SIMILAR CLAIMS IN THE PAST IN THE FINANCIAL RANGE OF $100,000. THAT IS VIEWED BY MANY AS AN ADMISSION OF GUILT. I WOULDN’T GO QUITE THAT FAR, BECAUSE WEALTHY PEOPLE WITH A HIGH SOCIAL POSITION WOULDN’T WANT TO RISK SUCH A SCANDAL. I PRAY THAT THIS IS NOT, NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY TRUE.

THE FOLLOWING IS ANOTHER CASE, THIS TIME INVOLVING A DEMOCRAT ELDER STATESMAN – JOHN CONYERS. THERE REALLY DOES NEED TO BE A PENALTY SPECIFIED IN THE CONSTITUTION FOR HOW TO HANDLE MAJOR CRIMINAL CASES LIKE THIS. IN THE CONYERS CASE, HE ALSO HAS A HISTORY OF MALE MISBEHAVIOR. IN THAT CASE, HE DIDN’T FORCE SEXUAL CONTACT, BUT ACCORDING TO THE WOMAN, HE FIRED HER FOR DENYING HIS ADVANCES.
HTTP://THEHILL.COM/HOMENEWS/HOUSE/361460-DEMOCRATS-STOP-SHORT-OF-DEMANDING-CONYERS-STEP-DOWN-FROM-POWERFUL-COMMITTEE.

THIS READER COMMENT CAME FROM THE YAHOO ARTICLE BELOW.

TRUE PATRIOT 37 minutes ago
Trump discounts accusations against Senate candidate Moore

Of course Papa Don supports Roy Moore. In 1994, Trump took a 13-year-old girl to a party with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who was a notorious registered sex offender, and raped her that night in what was a "savage sexual attack," according to a lawsuit filed in June 2016 by "Jane Doe." The account was corroborated by a witness in the suit, who watched as the child performed various sexual acts on Trump and Epstein even after the two were advised she was a minor. "Immediately following this rape Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I ever to reveal any of the details of Defendant Trump’s sexual and physical abuse of me, my family and I would be physically harmed if not killed," Jane Doe wrote in the lawsuit, filed in New York. The lawsuit was dropped in November 2016, just four days before the election, with Jane Doe's attorneys citing "numerous threats" against her. PER Newsweek

TRUMP'S WORDS

https://www.yahoo.com/news/president-trump-discounts-accusations-against-roy-moore-203344478--election.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=dbb2094c-7d9a-37c0-96b9-7f844af62e78&.tsrc=notification-brknews
'We don't need a liberal:' Trump discounts Moore accusations
Zeke Miller
Associated Press • November 21, 2017

Photograph -- 'We don't need a liberal:' Trump discounts Moore accusations

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, in Washington for a Thanksgiving trip to Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday discounted allegations of sexual assault against Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore and said voters should not support Moore's "liberal" rival.

Trump addressed the swirling controversy surrounding Moore for the first time since top Republican leaders called on Moore to step aside more than a week ago.

"We don't need a liberal person in there," Trump said of Moore's rival, Democrat Doug Jones. "We don't need somebody who's soft on crime like Jones."

Trump said he will announce next week whether he will campaign on Moore's behalf. Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before leaving for a Thanksgiving break at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Six women have accused Moore of pursuing romantic relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Two have accused him of assault or molestation; he vehemently denies it.

Trump, who won election last fall despite more than a dozen accusations of sexual misconduct against him personally, dismissed questions from reporters about backing a man accused of sexual assault over a man who is a Democrat. Trump pointed to Moore's assertions that he did nothing wrong.

"Roy Moore denies it, that's all I can say," Trump said. "He denies it."

He also noted that the allegations concerned behavior alleged to have happened decades ago.

"Forty years is a long time," Trump said, questioning why it took so long for Moore's accusers to come forward.

Previously, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said only that Trump "thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, both Republicans, have both called on Moore to leave the race in light of the accusations. The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have pulled their support for Moore's campaign ahead of the Dec. 12 special election to fill the seat once held by Republican Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general.

The allegations against Moore come amid a national reckoning over misdeeds by powerful men in media, business and politics. Trump said he is "very happy" that women are speaking out about their experiences.

"I think it's a very special time because a lot of things are coming out and I think that's good for our society and I think it's very, very good for women," Trump said.

More than a dozen women came forward in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election to say that Trump had sexually assaulted or harassed them over the years. He denied it. He was also caught on tape in 2005 boasting that he could grab women's private parts. "When you're a star, they let you do it," Trump said on the "Access Hollywood" tape.

Trump declined to answer Tuesday when asked why he does not believe Moore's accusers.

Jones began airing a new ad Monday that features statements made by Sessions, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama and first daughter Ivanka Trump responding to allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore.

Sessions said he had no reason to doubt Moore's accusers. Shelby, a Republican, said he will "absolutely not" vote for Moore. Ivanka Trump said there's a special place in hell for people who prey on children.

The ad was the first direct assault by the Jones camp against Moore on the allegations.

Moore's camp has begun firing back at the media and one of the accusers. His campaign held an afternoon Tuesday press conference to publicly question the account of Beverly Nelson, who said Moore assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old waitress.

The campaign quoted two former restaurant employees and a former customer who said they did not remember Nelson working there or Moore eating there.



THIS REMINDS ME OF A SPY STORY I READ IN WHICH A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WERE INVOLVED IN TRANSFERRING THE INFORMATION FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER VIA LOTS OF HANDS AND THEN IT WAS LEFT IN A PUBLIC PLACE WHERE NOBODY WOULD BE LOOKING FOR IT EXCEPT THE VILLAIN AND THE CLEVER DETECTIVE. THIS TIME, THOUGH, IT WAS REAL.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rob-goldstone-says-hes-guilty-of-hyping-the-message-to-trump-jr-about-russia-meeting/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS November 20, 2017, 11:06 AM
Rob Goldstone says he's guilty of "hyping the message" to Trump Jr. about Russia meeting

A music publicist who became a key player in the meeting between with President Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer says he regrets his role in the arrangement, and that he "puffed up" the wording of his email communications.

"If I'm guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it's hyping the message and going the extra mile for my clients,”* Rob Goldstone told the Times of London in an interview published Sunday.

Goldstone, who had interacted with the Trump family during the planning of a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, told the Sunday Times that he had a sense he shouldn't get involved when he sent the emails setting up a meeting with Trump Jr. on behalf of his Russian pop star client, Emin Agalarov, the son of Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire developer Aras Agalarov. The elder Agalarov helped bring the pageant to Moscow, and, according to the Washington Post, after the pageant, he signed a deal with Mr. Trump to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow.

"I should have listened to that little voice in my head," said Goldstone. "I remember specifically saying to Emin: 'You know, we probably shouldn't get involved in this.'"

In a series of emails between Trump Jr. and Goldstone, the publicist promised documents on Mr. Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton that would prove "very useful" to the Trump campaign. The meeting, in June 2016 at Trump Tower, was attended by Trump aides including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin at Trump Tower in New York.

The White House and Trump allies have insisted the meeting had nothing to do with the campaign and instead focused on a disbanded Russian adoption program. Goldstone claims that the Russians' promise of providing "dirt" on the Clinton campaign was used as a "pretext to lobby the Trumps" on other issues.

Goldstone has since accepted an invitation to be interviewed on what he knows about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, as well as any ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators in the ongoing Russia probe.

"I never thought in a million years that an email I wrote to [Trump's son Donald Trump Jr] would be examined by the world many times over," Goldstone said.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



"GUYS LOVE GUNS . . . DESCRIBING IT AS A FAMILY ACTIVITY. ‘TO ME IT'S LIKE JOY AND INSPIRATION.’" THIS LEVEL AND TYPE OF THINKING IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DON’T TEACH THE LIBERAL ARTS, DON’T REQUIRE WRITING OR READING OF THE LITERARY CLASSICS, DON’T TEACH MUSIC, DON’T TEACH LOGIC OR ETHICS OR A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY. WE HAVE STOPPED TEACHING THE MENTAL COMPONENTS THAT BUILD GOOD CITIZENSHIP, AND WE WONDER WHY WE HAVE ALL THE KILLING AND HATE CRIMES. SAYING YOU LOVE JESUS IS GOOD, BUT IT ISN’T ENOUGH. BABIES GROWING UP LEARN GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS. WE HAVE TO TEACH THE GOOD TO FIGHT THE BAD, WHICH THEY WILL CERTAINLY LEARN ON THE STREET CORNERS. WHY HAVE WE STOPPED THIS LIBERAL ARTS MATERIAL? BECAUSE DOING ALL THAT REQUIRES MORE TEACHERS AND THAT COSTS MORE MONEY.

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/21/565686173/do-it-yourself-ghost-guns-bypass-background-checks-firearm-registration
NATIONAL
Do-It-Yourself 'Ghost Guns' Bypass Background Checks And Firearm Registration
November 21, 20173:54 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
BRIAN MANN

Photograph -- An ATF agent poses with homemade rifles, or "ghost guns," at an agency field office in Glendale, Calif. There's a growing industry of companies that sell gun kits, instructions and do-it-yourself components online to help people build their own guns.
Jae C. Hong/AP

When Kevin Neal went on a deadly shooting rampage last week in California, he was armed with at least two semi-automatic rifles, known as "ghost guns," that he didn't buy in a store or from a gun dealer, authorities say.

"These arms are manufactured illegally, we believe, by him at his home," said Tehama County assistant sheriff Phil Johnston, during a news conference on Nov. 15.

Neal was banned from buying guns and reportedly had to surrender a firearm because of a court order. But it turns out there is a growing industry of companies that sell gun kits, instructions and do-it-yourself components online to help people build their own guns. It's a legal system that bypasses background checks and firearm registration.

Police Find Body Of Tehama County Gunman's Wife, Making His Death Toll 5
THE TWO-WAY
Police Find Body Of Tehama County Gunman's Wife, Making His Death Toll 5

A quick online search found companies offering kits that promise firearm parts that are already 80 percent complete. Just a bit of work in the garage or on the workbench, some final assembly, and you have a fully functioning pistol, assault rifle or shotgun.

The videos also offer helpful tips.

"You can actually make your own gun exactly the way you see it here," promised Mark Serbu, in a YouTube tutorial promoting his brand of instructions for making unregistered pistols. He joked with a co-host about how easy it is, no special tools required.

"He doesn't have basically anything, maybe a file."

YouTube

It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. In fact, there are a lot of different ways to build ghost guns. Some involve 3-D printers and sheets of metal, but most require only a few basic shop tools and preordered components. One do-it-yourself gun project online demonstrated a crude working shotgun that can be made from a few lengths of steel pipe.

"Guys love guns; these are like the coolest little toys for them," Serbu says, adding that the ghost gun hobby is gaining fast in popularity and describing it as a family activity. "To me it's like joy and inspiration."

But last week, the fun and games were eclipsed by horror. Neal drove through a rural town in Tehama County, Calif., hunting people, targeting a school. He murdered five adults and wounded seven children before being shot to death. His weapons were homemade military-style assault rifles.

How Mass Shootings Are Forcing Schools To Re-Evaluate Safety
NPR ED
How Mass Shootings Are Forcing Schools To Re-Evaluate Safety

Given Neal's criminal background, it was clearly illegal for him to possess these guns once they had been assembled.

But unlike most arms sellers, these kit companies don't have to do background checks. They don't have to find out whether their customers are mentally ill or have histories of domestic violence or criminal records.

The guns don't have to be registered. In fact there are no serial numbers on gun components that come packed in these kits.

"What is it going to take? We have known that this poses a real problem and yet we haven't done anything about it," says Adam Skaggs, with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The shootings in California, he says, show it's time to close what he describes as a deadly loophole.

"The trick is regulating this ghost gun workaround, just like we do fully functioning firearms," Skaggs says. "Make sure that [gun components sold in kits] are serialized, that those manufacturing them have appropriate licensing, and make sure that for people to buy them they have to pass a background check."

Research Suggests Gun Background Checks Work, But They're Not Everything
POLITICS
Research Suggests Gun Background Checks Work, But They're Not Everything

But so far, Congress has shown zero interest in regulating ghost gun products.

"We don't want gun crime; we don't want people getting shot," Serbu says."But most people realize that ultimately there's nothing really that we can do about it."

There is research suggesting that gun regulation can limit violence and reduce fatalities. But Serbu doesn't buy it. He thinks requiring background checks for ghost gun kits would just anger hobbyists like himself without stopping a single criminal.

"How many laws are you going to stack in front of them before it's going to work?" he asks. "Unfortunately we just have psychopaths out there who are going to do this kind of thing."

For now, hobbyists such as Serbu along with criminals and terrorists can all order as many of these weapon kits online as they want, no questions asked.


THE LEGAL WORKAROUNDS:

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/does-individual-need-license-make-firearm-personal-use
THE NFA, OR NATL FIREARMS ACT 1934, LISTS THINGS THAT ARE ILLEGAL TO DO OR POSSESS. THE KEY PROBLEM WITH MAKING NON-SPORTING SEMIAUTOMATICS IS THE ISSUE OF HAVING “TEN OR MORE IMPORTED PARTS.” I GET THE “IMPORTED” BIT, BUT NOT THE SPECIFIED NUMBER. WHAT THE HECK DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE? IT’S THE WHOLE KIT THAT SHOULD BE BANNED. I WONDER HOW THE TAX IS PAID AND THE ADVANCE APPROVAL OF THE ATF IS ACCOMPLISHED. IS THE PERMISSION NEEDS BASED? SEE THE WORDING OF THE WHOLE RULE:

“Does an individual need a license to make a firearm for personal use?

No, a license is not required to make a firearm solely for personal use. However, a license is required to manufacture firearms for sale or distribution. The law prohibits a person from assembling a non–sporting semiautomatic rifle or shotgun from 10 or more imported parts, as well as firearms that cannot be detected by metal detectors or x–ray machines. In addition, the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and advance approval by ATF.

[18 U.S.C. 922(o), (p) and (r); 26 U.S.C. 5822; 27 CFR 478.39, 479.62 and 479.105]”

Last Reviewed November 6, 2017


MSNBC VIDEOS:

MICHAEL MOORE IS A FUN GUY, PLUS VERY CLEVER AND PROGRESSIVE. I ALWAYS LIKE HEARING HIM.

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/michael-moore-to-viewers-you-should-run-for-office-1100402755699
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES 11/20/17
Michael Moore to viewers: You should run for office
Oscar-winning filmmaker and activist Michael Moore urges viewers to run for local office and help Democrats take back state houses. Duration: 9:04


THIS DEFINITELY LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER LINK IN THE RUSSIA CHAIN, AND IT’S KUSHNER AGAIN. I HAVE NEVER LIKED A “SMIRKER” AND BY JOLLY HE IS ONE.

http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/kushner-s-paper-linked-to-wikileaks-1100346435540
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 11/20/17
Kushner newspaper published material from Russian hackers
Kushner’s former newspaper the “New York Observer” promoted WikiLeaks hacks during the 2016 election, and became the favored outlet of a suspected Russian hacker. Former Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Spiers speaks exclusively to “The Beat.” Duration: 5:22


HOW CONVENIENT THOSE HUGE HOTELS ARE FOR MONEY LAUNDERING. NOTICE THIS ONE HAS NOBODY LIVING IN IT AND IS “SOLD” AGAIN IN AS LITTLE AS SEVERAL MONTHS. LYIN’, CHEATIN’ AND STEALIN’ IS HOW SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR MONEY, AND I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR IT. BEING A MULTIBILLIONAIRE IS NOT CONVINCING TO ME OF THEIR DECENCY OR INTELLIGENCE.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
11/18/17
Trump Panama building a magnet for dirty money laundering
Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, looks at how a Panama building project bearing the Trump name became a hot spot for illegal money world wide to be cleaned through real estate transactions. Duration: 17:06


BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER, OR SO THEY SAY; AND IF THIS CASE IS IN THE SAME PATTERN, TRUMP SHOULD WATCH HIS STEP.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
11/17/17
Echoes of Trump in corrupt former Panama president Martinelli
Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, reports on similarities between Donald Trump and his friend, former Panama president Ricardo Martinelli, who is being held in a federal detention facility in Miami fighting extradition back to Panama. Duration: 6:32


GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT, RIGHT?

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
11/17/17
Trump comfort with foreign corruption hurts US global reputation
Sarah Chayes, author of "Thieves of State," talks with Richard Engel about how Donald Trump's tolerance of corruption in other countries reflects back on the reputation of the United States, and why Donald Trump is in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Duration: 7:58


BRIBERY AS A WAY OF DOING BUSINESS SHOULD BE ALLOWED, TRUMP SEEMS TO THINK. DO WATCH THIS. IT’S CLASSIC TRUMP.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
11/17/17
Trump makes position on foreign bribery clear
Richard Engel shares a CNBC clip of Donald Trump expressing his displeasure with a law that forbids American businesses from bribing foreign officials. Duration: 1:25


RACHEL THINKS THE SENATE NEEDS TO EXAMINE WHAT IT WILL ALLOW AND HOW IT WILL CONTROL THINGS BETTER.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/16/17
Multiple scandals challenge Senate's standards
Rachel Maddow looks at the the questions facing the Senate, particlarly the ethics committee, on how to deal with Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Al Franken, and potential senator Roy Moore and the particulars of the accusations they face. Duration: 7:57


RACHEL AND STEVE KORNACKI ARE BEING PURELY LEGALISTIC ON THIS QUESTION, BUT IT IS THE CENTER OF WHAT I HAVE BEEN NOTICING SINCE DOING THIS BLOG. IF OUR ONLY CONTROL OVER WHO GETS INTO OFFICE IS PUNISHMENT FOR RECENT MISDEEDS OCCURRING WHILE THE INDIVIDUAL IS IN OFFICE, AND IF THERE ARE VIRTUALLY NO REAL RULES ABOUT WHAT SORT OF PERSON WILL BE ALLOWED IN THESE HIGH OFFICES, I THINK THAT’S A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR THE COUNTRY. AGAIN, I’M GONNA SAY, WE NEED A NEW REWRITE OF THE CONSTITUTION, INCLUDING HOW THE SENATE AND HOUSE ARE ALLOWED TO OPERATE. I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE HOUSE, BUT THE SENATE SEEMS TO SIMPLY MAKE THE RULES UP AS IT GOES. THEN THEY CALL THEM MYSTIFYING AND SILLY THINGS LIKE “THE NUCLEAR OPTION!”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/16/17
Can Senate Ethics Committee address pre-Senate scandals?
Steve Kornacki, MSNBC national correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether the Senate Ethics Committee can consider the actions of a senator before they were in office. Duration: 5:04