February 28, 2018


News and Views


THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD -- TWO ARTICLES


https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-source-wh-communications-director-hope-hicks-resigning-214244539--politics.html
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks resigning
Associated Press Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin, Associated Press
February 28, 2018 2 minutes 7 seconds ago

Photograph -- In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump's closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington. Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's most loyal aides, is resigning. In a statement, the president praises Hicks for her work over the last three years. He says he "will miss having her by my side." The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's closest and most loyal aides, is resigning.

The departure of one of the president's longest-serving advisers, who worked as a one-woman communications shop during his winning campaign, came as a surprise to most in the White House — and cast a pall over the West Wing at a tumultuous time. The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the House panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia.

In a statement, Trump praised Hicks for her work over the last three years, saying he "will miss having her by my side."

Hicks, who occupied the desk closest to the Oval Office in the West Wing, has been a central participant in or witness to nearly every milestone and controversy of the Trump campaign and White House. She began her White House tenure as director of strategic communications — a title that only partly captured her more expansive role as the president's gatekeeper to the press.

Hicks acknowledged to a House intelligence panel Tuesday that she has occasionally told "white lies" for Trump. But she said she had not lied about anything relevant to the Russia investigation. She has also been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team about her role in crafting a statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with Russians, as Mueller's expansive probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential misdeeds committed by those in the president's orbit moves ever closer to the Oval Office.

Hicks' departure leaves a vacuum in the White House communications team, and in the president's collection of trusted aides. The announcement came a day after a similar announcement about the impending departure of deputy communications director Josh Raffel, and just a few days after senior adviser Jared Kushner saw his security clearance downgraded — limiting his access to classified information.

White House officials and outside advisers suggested Hicks' departure would strengthen chief of staff John Kelly's control over what has been an oftentimes chaotijc West Wing.

In a statement, Kelly said Hicks had become "a trusted adviser and counselor," but behind the scenes the pair had occasionally clashed over her more informal role. Kelly had begrudgingly supported making Hicks communications director after the short-lived tenure of Anthony Scaramucci, in an effort to integrate her role into the rest of the White House's communications strategy.

Hicks said in a statement, "There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump." She added she wished Trump and his administration the "very best."

A former Ralph Lauren fashion model and public relations pro who worked for Trump's daughter Ivanka, Hicks, 29, had no political background when Trump asked her to serve on his campaign.

Before Wednesday's announcement, Hicks had not been happy for some time, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One person said Hicks had been increasingly feeling the stress of the position.

She was an unconventional campaign press secretary, rarely mixing it up with reporters, almost never giving interviews and, despite Trump's fondness for cable, staying off TV. She spoke at a rally exactly once in December 2016, after Trump beseeched her "to say a couple of words."

She said nine: "Hi. Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you, Donald Trump."

Within the White House, she was seen as a stabilizing force on Trump, who at times would grow unhappy when she was not around. As the West Wing was riven by rivalries in the early months of the administration, she allied herself with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in opposition, at times, to the nationalist forces led by then-chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Hicks, who has long tried to avoid media attention, was thrust into the spotlight recently when it was revealed she had been dating former Staff Secretary Rob Porter. He left the administration after accusations that he had abused his two ex-wives became public.

Hicks helped craft the White House's initial supportive response.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Hicks would remain at the White House "for several weeks" and denied that Hicks' decision to leave had anything to do with her lengthy testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

"Don't try to read more into it than exists," Sanders said. "This is something that she's been thinking about for a while."

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas contributed from Washington. Jonathan Lemire contributed from New York.



HOW DEPRESSING. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. THERE’S MORE THERE.

“ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AT THAT CONFERENCE, FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY, WOULD JUST A HANDFUL OF MONTHS LATER DESCRIBE MR TRUMP'S POLITICS AS "A TOXIC MIX OF DEMAGOGUERY AND MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS AND NONSENSE" AND CALL HIS CANDIDACY A "CANCER ON CONSERVATISM". LAST WEEK, MR PERRY - NOW MR TRUMP'S ENERGY SECRETARY - WAS BACK AT CPAC, REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS "FOOTSOLDIER IN THE ARMY". DONALD TRUMP'S ARMY, THAT IS.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43220700
Where did the Republican Trump-haters go?
Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcher on Twitter
28 February 2018

Once upon a time there was an active, vocal resistance among conservatives to the prospect of Donald Trump's presidency. One year in, and the signs of dissent are rapidly fading.

On Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Donald Trump took the stage and reminded the packed hall just how far he'd come.

"Remember when I first started running?" the president asked. "People said, 'Are you sure he's a conservative?' I think I proved I'm a conservative."

Mr Trump then launched into nearly an hour and a half of his trademark campaign-style oratory, often acknowledging that he was deviating from his "boring" speech text. On script and off, however, it was clear his intended objective was to drive home the point that he has governed as a true conservative.

He boasted of his tax cuts, right-wing judicial nominations, regulatory rollbacks and defence of religious liberty.

Those are the sort of accomplishments attendees of this annual conference of young Republicans, grassroots activists, party functionaries, conservative media pundits, assorted merchants and special interests longed for through eight years of the Obama presidency, and now they're getting. That's got to make them thrilled, right?

Well, sort of.

A joke no more

According to straw poll of conference attendees, 93% approve of the job Mr Trump is doing in the White House. It's a number not too far from the 80% of Republicans across the US who continue to tell pollsters they support the president.

Media caption In 2018, a bullish Mr Trump joked about hiding his bald spot

That, as the president acknowledged, was not always the case. In 2016 - at the beginning of his long march to the Republican nomination and the presidency, Mr Trump abruptly cancelled an appearance at Cpac when faced with the prospect of a walkout from "never-Trump" conservatives.

Even worse, Mr Trump's 2015 Cpac speech was received by a sparse audience with a shrug. Someone in the crowd shouted a joke about Mr Trump's trademark phrase, "you're fired". People laughed. The man no one thought would really run for president paraded through the hallways of the convention with a phalanx of burly private security guards, looking more like a Las Vegas boxing promoter than a serious candidate.

That year's straw poll had Mr Trump as the presidential pick of just 3.5% of attendees, in eighth place, far behind libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul's 25.7%.

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Another Republican presidential hopeful at that conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, would just a handful of months later describe Mr Trump's politics as "a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense" and call his candidacy a "cancer on conservatism".

Last week, Mr Perry - now Mr Trump's energy secretary - was back at Cpac, referring to himself as "footsoldier in the army". Donald Trump's army, that is.

'This is scary'

"Donald Trump hijacked the Republican Party," says Myra Adams, a conservative activist, commentator and consultant who has been coming to Cpacs since the late 1990s. "He was not a conservative by nature, but he slowly became a conservative."

She says that there have been things Mr Trump has done as president that have been "true conservative action" - and he mentioned quite a few during his speech. Throw in that he picked loyal conservative Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate, she adds, and there's a lot for Republicans to be happy about.

Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
It's just the other stuff that has been concerning. She takes a deep breath and starts in.

"I think what conservatives, Republicans, Americans who care about this country don't like is the way he comports himself," she says. "And you can do amazing things on one hand with legislation and judges, but if you're tweeting and calling people names and getting facts wrong and basically making everything about you, and you have a White House that's in chaos, and you can't keep people, and you can't staff agencies, and you can't nominate ambassadors, and you just can't get it together as an administration, people look at that and say, oh my God, this is scary."

Adams says she finds herself in a quandary. She backed Ohio Governor John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary, but fell in line behind Mr Trump when he became the nominee. Since then, it's been a struggle.

"You take it day by day," she says. "You just kind of get out and watch the news and hope it's not going to be something crazy or some huge crisis."

Top marks
Adams may have her doubts, but on the main stage, in the smaller side sessions and throughout the convention halls of Cpac last week, however, one conclusion was unavoidable - the Republican Party is Donald Trump's party now.

In a panel discussion titled The Trump Report Card: Conservatives Grade the Administration, the participants took turns singing the president's praises.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Trump books for sale at Cpac
"On social and cultural issues, we've seen such a change on how conservative values are communicated on a national level,"said Lauren Ashburn, host of a Catholic news cable programme.

Trump and congressional Republicans have done "very good, amazing things that have changed the direction of the world," added Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Van Hipp, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, was succinct. "It feels good to be an American again," he said.

Cracks in the foundation
Beneath this seeming veneer of universal approbation, however, there was some unease that goes beyond the concerns Adams has with presidential comportment. Mr Trump - the onetime New York Democrat - may have become a conservative, but the president is changing the Republican Party, as well.

Anti-immigration sentiment, once scarce at a conference that tilted toward libertarianism, is growing.

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During one session, David Bier of the Cato Institute was heckled when he asserted that statistics show immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A liberal participant in a panel discussion on the "Trump effect on American politics" was booed when he suggested that Republicans should support citizenship for Mexican migrants whose cultural values might make them reliable conservative voters.

Then there's the race issue. In a Friday evening conference dinner, the communications director for the American Conservative Union, which hosts Cpac, said that Michael Steele, who served as Republican National Committee chair from 2009 to 2011, only got the job because "he's a black guy".

Mr Steele, on his radio show, said he was concerned about what those comments said about the Republican Party.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The party of Reagan no longer?
"I disagree with the direction this president is taking in this country, because I call BS on a lot of it," he said. "Do you mean to tell me as a black conservative I can't be critical of the president?"

And, perhaps as a testament to the power of the #metoo movement, the most dramatic break came on Saturday. Conservative columnist Mona Charen was roundly booed - and received a security escort from the conference - because she condemned "sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women."

In a New York Times column on Sunday, Charen lamented what she said Mr Trump has done to the conservative movement.

"What happened to me at Cpac is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee," she wrote. "We built and organised this party - but now we're made to feel like interlopers."


Media captionWhy these women are sticking with Trump
She compared the Trump presidency, for traditional conservatives, to an episode of the old science fiction television programme The Twilight Zone.

"Politicians, activists and intellectuals have succumbed with numbing regularity, betraying every principle they once claimed to uphold," she wrote.

She also insisted that, although it felt that way at Cpac, she's not alone.

There are still voices in the Never Trump ranks - columnists and commentators like Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and John Podhoretz of the New York Post, Republican consultants Rick Wilson and John Weaver, and a handful of active and former politicians, including Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ohio's Mr Kasich and the elders of the Bush family.

"When I ran for office, I said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president," Bush said last May. "Unfortunately, so far chaos organises the presidency right now."

Satisfaction and swag
In a massive hall a floor below the main Cpac stage, the conference's exhibit "hub" is full of booths for various conservative organisations, vendors, think tanks, publishers and groups with something to sell - either ideologically or materially.

In one stall a person wearing prison garb and a Hillary Clinton mask poses for photos. In another, a woman dressed Kim Jong-un waves an inflatable rocket. The National Rifle Association offers special discounts to join - $600 (£431) for a lifetime membership that comes with an engraved knife.

Image caption
A woman at the 2018 Cpac conference dressed as Hillary Clinton in prison garb

On the edge of the room, a group of students from Princeton University holding bags full of conference swag stand and chat. Two are wearing camouflage hats from the NRA. One is bedecked in political buttons, including "socialism sucks" sticker in Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic campaign colours.

They gave the president generally positive reviews.

"He's had a lot of great conservative successes over the last year or so. I tend to support him," says Will Crawford of Rome, Georgia. "I don't support every single thing he does, but in general I'm happy with his presidency so far."

Allison Berger of Madison, New Jersey, says she's learned to appreciate Mr Trump's draw as a public speaker - and as president.

"He was not my first, or second, or third, or fourth choice during the primaries," she says. "But I've been very happy he's governed very conservatively so far."

At Cpac and across the US, for most Republicans, at least for now, that seems to be enough.


FUNNY HOW THAT PARTICULAR WHITE HOUSE HAS SO MANY WHITE LIES. WE OUGHT TO CALL THEM THE FAKE PRESIDENCY.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43216954
Trump-Russia: Communication director Hope Hicks 'admits white lies''
2 hours ago February 28, 2018

Photograph -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks leaves the US Capitol after the closed-door meeting Reuters
Photograph -- The 29-year-old former model has been at Mr Trump's side for years GETTY IMAGES
Photograph -- Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image caption -- Admiral Mike Rogers


White House communications director Hope Hicks has reportedly admitted telling what amounted to white lies for President Donald Trump.

But in her testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, she denied lying about anything relevant to the Russia investigation, US media report.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers said Ms Hicks deflected some questions in the nine-hour hearing.

The 29-year-old former model has been by Mr Trump's side for years.

Who is Trump's 29-year-old media director?
She is seen as a key witness in the ongoing inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The 29-year-old former model has been at Mr Trump's side for years

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said afterwards that Ms Hicks answered questions about her role in Mr Trump's campaign.

She also discussed matters relating to the transition period between the election and the inauguration, according to the California Democrat.

But Mr Schiff said she would not answer any questions about events since Mr Trump became president.

Ms Hicks reportedly refused to answer questions about a 2016 meeting between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower.

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Donald J. Trump
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WITCH HUNT!

7:49 AM - Feb 27, 2018
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“I’ve been skeptical about the collusion and obstruction claims for the last year. I just don’t see the evidence....in terms of the collusion, it’s all a bit implausible based on the evidence we have.” Jonathan Turley on @FoxNews

7:28 AM - Feb 27, 2018
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When reports of the meeting first emerged, the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr released a statement saying the meeting was held to discuss Russian adoptions.

But in a later statement, he said the meeting had been held after members of the campaign were offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

Ms Hicks was with the president on Air Force One while they were penning the initial statement, which the White House has acknowledged Mr Trump had a role in drafting.

"All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered," Mr Schiff told AP news agency.

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"We got Bannoned," said Democratic representative Dennis Heck as he emerged from the session.

He was referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who declined to answer questions about anything other than the Trump campaign during his testimony earlier this month.

During Tuesday's White House news briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders said that "we are co-operating because as the president has said repeatedly there is no collusion, and we're going to continue to cooperate, and hopefully they'll wrap this up soon".

Ms Hicks has already testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee and met Robert Mueller, the Department of Justice special counsel, according to US media sources.

Mr Mueller is investigating whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, or obstruction of justice.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump tweeted to call the investigation a "WITCH HUNT!"

During the campaign, Hope Hicks served as press secretary. She took over as the head of the White House communications team last August, after the abrupt firing of Anthony Scaramucci.

US intelligence agencies have said Russia directed cyber-attacks against Hillary Clinton Democrats during the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers testified in a separate hearing to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Admiral Rogers said his agency has not yet been given specific authorisation from the White House to counter alleged Russian efforts to disrupt US elections.

"Clearly, what we've done hasn't been enough," Mr Rogers told the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

He said the US response to date "has not changed the calculus or the behaviour on behalf of the Russians".

Mr Trump declared last week that he has been tougher on Russia than his predecessor, Barack Obama.


HOW DEPRESSING. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. THERE’S MORE THERE.

“ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AT THAT CONFERENCE, FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY, WOULD JUST A HANDFUL OF MONTHS LATER DESCRIBE MR TRUMP'S POLITICS AS "A TOXIC MIX OF DEMAGOGUERY AND MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS AND NONSENSE" AND CALL HIS CANDIDACY A "CANCER ON CONSERVATISM". LAST WEEK, MR PERRY - NOW MR TRUMP'S ENERGY SECRETARY - WAS BACK AT CPAC, REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS "FOOTSOLDIER IN THE ARMY". DONALD TRUMP'S ARMY, THAT IS.”


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43220700#
Where did the Republican Trump-haters go?
Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcher on Twitter
28 February 2018

Once upon a time there was an active, vocal resistance among conservatives to the prospect of Donald Trump's presidency. One year in, and the signs of dissent are rapidly fading.

On Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Donald Trump took the stage and reminded the packed hall just how far he'd come.

"Remember when I first started running?" the president asked. "People said, 'Are you sure he's a conservative?' I think I proved I'm a conservative."

Mr Trump then launched into nearly an hour and a half of his trademark campaign-style oratory, often acknowledging that he was deviating from his "boring" speech text. On script and off, however, it was clear his intended objective was to drive home the point that he has governed as a true conservative.

He boasted of his tax cuts, right-wing judicial nominations, regulatory rollbacks and defence of religious liberty.

Those are the sort of accomplishments attendees of this annual conference of young Republicans, grassroots activists, party functionaries, conservative media pundits, assorted merchants and special interests longed for through eight years of the Obama presidency, and now they're getting. That's got to make them thrilled, right?

Well, sort of.

A joke no more
According to straw poll of conference attendees, 93% approve of the job Mr Trump is doing in the White House. It's a number not too far from the 80% of Republicans across the US who continue to tell pollsters they support the president.


Media captionIn 2018, a bullish Mr Trump joked about hiding his bald spot
That, as the president acknowledged, was not always the case. In 2016 - at the beginning of his long march to the Republican nomination and the presidency, Mr Trump abruptly cancelled an appearance at Cpac when faced with the prospect of a walkout from "never-Trump" conservatives.

Even worse, Mr Trump's 2015 Cpac speech was received by a sparse audience with a shrug. Someone in the crowd shouted a joke about Mr Trump's trademark phrase, "you're fired". People laughed. The man no one thought would really run for president paraded through the hallways of the convention with a phalanx of burly private security guards, looking more like a Las Vegas boxing promoter than a serious candidate.

That year's straw poll had Mr Trump as the presidential pick of just 3.5% of attendees, in eighth place, far behind libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul's 25.7%.

One shooting, two Americas
Seven things Trump's $500bn spending splurge tells us
A smoother Trump with same hard edge
Another Republican presidential hopeful at that conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, would just a handful of months later describe Mr Trump's politics as "a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense" and call his candidacy a "cancer on conservatism".

Last week, Mr Perry - now Mr Trump's energy secretary - was back at Cpac, referring to himself as "footsoldier in the army". Donald Trump's army, that is.

'This is scary'
"Donald Trump hijacked the Republican Party," says Myra Adams, a conservative activist, commentator and consultant who has been coming to Cpacs since the late 1990s. "He was not a conservative by nature, but he slowly became a conservative."

She says that there have been things Mr Trump has done as president that have been "true conservative action" - and he mentioned quite a few during his speech. Throw in that he picked loyal conservative Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate, she adds, and there's a lot for Republicans to be happy about.


Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
It's just the other stuff that has been concerning. She takes a deep breath and starts in.

"I think what conservatives, Republicans, Americans who care about this country don't like is the way he comports himself," she says. "And you can do amazing things on one hand with legislation and judges, but if you're tweeting and calling people names and getting facts wrong and basically making everything about you, and you have a White House that's in chaos, and you can't keep people, and you can't staff agencies, and you can't nominate ambassadors, and you just can't get it together as an administration, people look at that and say, oh my God, this is scary."

Adams says she finds herself in a quandary. She backed Ohio Governor John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary, but fell in line behind Mr Trump when he became the nominee. Since then, it's been a struggle.

"You take it day by day," she says. "You just kind of get out and watch the news and hope it's not going to be something crazy or some huge crisis."

Top marks
Adams may have her doubts, but on the main stage, in the smaller side sessions and throughout the convention halls of Cpac last week, however, one conclusion was unavoidable - the Republican Party is Donald Trump's party now.

In a panel discussion titled The Trump Report Card: Conservatives Grade the Administration, the participants took turns singing the president's praises.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Trump books for sale at Cpac
"On social and cultural issues, we've seen such a change on how conservative values are communicated on a national level,"said Lauren Ashburn, host of a Catholic news cable programme.

Trump and congressional Republicans have done "very good, amazing things that have changed the direction of the world," added Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Van Hipp, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, was succinct. "It feels good to be an American again," he said.

Cracks in the foundation
Beneath this seeming veneer of universal approbation, however, there was some unease that goes beyond the concerns Adams has with presidential comportment. Mr Trump - the onetime New York Democrat - may have become a conservative, but the president is changing the Republican Party, as well.

Anti-immigration sentiment, once scarce at a conference that tilted toward libertarianism, is growing.

The people around Donald Trump
The porn star scandal Trump can't shake
During one session, David Bier of the Cato Institute was heckled when he asserted that statistics show immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A liberal participant in a panel discussion on the "Trump effect on American politics" was booed when he suggested that Republicans should support citizenship for Mexican migrants whose cultural values might make them reliable conservative voters.

Then there's the race issue. In a Friday evening conference dinner, the communications director for the American Conservative Union, which hosts Cpac, said that Michael Steele, who served as Republican National Committee chair from 2009 to 2011, only got the job because "he's a black guy".

Mr Steele, on his radio show, said he was concerned about what those comments said about the Republican Party.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The party of Reagan no longer?
"I disagree with the direction this president is taking in this country, because I call BS on a lot of it," he said. "Do you mean to tell me as a black conservative I can't be critical of the president?"

And, perhaps as a testament to the power of the #metoo movement, the most dramatic break came on Saturday. Conservative columnist Mona Charen was roundly booed - and received a security escort from the conference - because she condemned "sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women."

In a New York Times column on Sunday, Charen lamented what she said Mr Trump has done to the conservative movement.

"What happened to me at Cpac is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee," she wrote. "We built and organised this party - but now we're made to feel like interlopers."

Media captionWhy these women are sticking with Trump
She compared the Trump presidency, for traditional conservatives, to an episode of the old science fiction television programme The Twilight Zone.

"Politicians, activists and intellectuals have succumbed with numbing regularity, betraying every principle they once claimed to uphold," she wrote.

She also insisted that, although it felt that way at Cpac, she's not alone.

There are still voices in the Never Trump ranks - columnists and commentators like Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and John Podhoretz of the New York Post, Republican consultants Rick Wilson and John Weaver, and a handful of active and former politicians, including Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ohio's Mr Kasich and the elders of the Bush family.

"When I ran for office, I said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president," Bush said last May. "Unfortunately, so far chaos organises the presidency right now."

Satisfaction and swag
In a massive hall a floor below the main Cpac stage, the conference's exhibit "hub" is full of booths for various conservative organisations, vendors, think tanks, publishers and groups with something to sell - either ideologically or materially.

In one stall a person wearing prison garb and a Hillary Clinton mask poses for photos. In another, a woman dressed Kim Jong-un waves an inflatable rocket. The National Rifle Association offers special discounts to join - $600 (£431) for a lifetime membership that comes with an engraved knife.

Image caption
A woman at the 2018 Cpac conference dressed as Hillary Clinton in prison garb
On the edge of the room, a group of students from Princeton University holding bags full of conference swag stand and chat. Two are wearing camouflage hats from the NRA. One is bedecked in political buttons, including "socialism sucks" sticker in Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic campaign colours.

They gave the president generally positive reviews.

"He's had a lot of great conservative successes over the last year or so. I tend to support him," says Will Crawford of Rome, Georgia. "I don't support every single thing he does, but in general I'm happy with his presidency so far."

Allison Berger of Madison, New Jersey, says she's learned to appreciate Mr Trump's draw as a public speaker - and as president.

"He was not my first, or second, or third, or fourth choice during the primaries," she says. "But I've been very happy he's governed very conservatively so far."

At Cpac and across the US, for most Republicans, at least for now, that seems to be enough.



“MASSIVE FISA ABUSE”

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/02/28/trump-calls-sessions-surveillance-probe-decision-disgraceful/23373345/
Trump calls Sessions' surveillance probe decision 'disgraceful'
Thomson Reuters
JONATHAN LANDAY
Feb 28th 2018 10:49AM

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on Wednesday against his attorney general, calling Jeff Sessions' decision to have the Justice Department inspector general - and not prosecutors - investigate alleged surveillance abuse "disgraceful."

Trump took to Twitter to criticize Sessions for not referring the allegations to Justice Department lawyers and instead assigning the probe to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

"Why is A.G. Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate massive FISA abuse," Trump wrote, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the government uses to monitor the communications of suspected foreign agents.

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey, etc.," Trump continued. "Isn't the IG an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? Disgraceful."


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!

9:34 AM - Feb 28, 2018
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Horowitz was sworn into his position in April 2012, during the Obama administration.

Trump's public criticism clashes with longstanding principle under which the Justice Department operates independently from the president.

SEE ALSO: Hope Hicks, Barack Obama among the most powerful in Trump's Washington, GQ says

Trump has crossed that line numerous times, for example by promising to have his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton investigated and criticizing court decisions on his immigration policy.

He has previously attacked Sessions, mostly notably for recusing himself from the Justice Department investigation, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign.

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LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/02/27/levi-sanders-son-bernie-sanders-running-congress-new-hampshire/377728002/
Levi Sanders, son of Bernie Sanders, is running for Congress in New Hampshire
Sean Rossman, USA TODAY Published 1:31 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018 | Updated 1:57 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018

Photograph -- Ex-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., his wife Jane Sanders, and his son Levi Sanders at a primary night rally in Vermont in 2016. Levi Sanders is joining seven fellow New Hampshire Democrats and three Republicans running for the 1st Congressional District seat in 2018. Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is stepping down after her term ends. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

Levi Sanders, the son of 2016 presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced Monday he's running for Congress in New Hampshire.

Sanders, 48, seeks the seat of Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who has held the seat for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district since 2017 (and on-and-off since 2007). She won't seek re-election in 2018.

More: Here are the members of Congress retiring at the end of 2018

Sanders' announcement of his campaign boasts some of the same themes as his father's presidential run: tuition-free college and healthcare without "out-of-pocket" expenses. He also aims to tackle the opioid epidemic, "sensible" gun legislation and equal pay for women.

Sanders is running as a Democrat, which makes eight Democrats vying for Shea-Porter's post, according to WMUR-9.

Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, backed his son in a statement to WMUR.

"I am very proud of Levi's commitment to public service and his years of work on behalf of low income and working people," he told the Manchester television station. "Levi will be running his own campaign, in his own way, with his own ideas. The decision as to who to vote for will be determined by the people of New Hampshire's first district, and nobody else."

More: Indictment: Russians also tried to help Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein presidential campaigns

According to his campaign, Levi Sanders is a senior legal analyst and a specialist in Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income Benefits. He's lived in New Hampshire for 15 years with his family.

"For over 17 years, I have represented the working class who have been up by the system," he said in a statement. "It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99% and not the 1% who have never it [sic] so good."


SOME DETAILS, VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF BERNIE’S EARLY ADULT LIFE
“'I REALLY DON'T WANT TO SAY MUCH,' SHE SAID. 'ALL I CAN SAY IS I BELIEVE IN BERNIE SANDERS AND I AM A STRONG SUPPORTER.'”


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3155396/Bernie-Sanders-1960s-love-life-revealed-wife-woman-son-sugar-shack-home-lived-revolutionary.html
EXCLUSIVE: Bernie Sanders' very 1960s love life revealed - his first wife, the woman who had his son, and the sugar shack home where he lived as a 'revolutionary'
By Martin Gould In Montpelier, Vermont, For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 17:15 EST, 9 July 2015 | UPDATED: 21:46 EST, 6 March 2016


Democratic presidential candidate has said nothing about his family life in the 1960s when he was living in Vermont as a 'revolutionary'

He married a college sweetheart and they lived in a sugar shack on 85 acres of land, without electricity, but divorced after 18 months

Sanders then had his son with another woman, Susan Mott, long before he married his current wife

His Senate and campaign biographies say he is married with four children but do not make clear three are his stepchildren

For more of the latest on Bernie Sanders visit www.dailymail.co.uk/bernie

Bernie Sanders' bid for the White House was placed under a shadow Thursday as new questions arose as to why the self-described Democratic Socialist has kept his complicated early love life secret for so long.

Sanders has never discussed his first marriage nor the fact that his only natural-born child was with a second woman.

But Daily Mail Online has pieced together the fragments of his life as a revolutionary living in his adopted state of Vermont.

And they reveal that he was married to one woman, yet had his son Levi with a second - long before he went on to marry his current wife.

The Sanders campaign did not respond to Daily Mail Online's queries about why the veteran senator has kept details of his early life so quiet nor how he expected them to remain secret during his run for the nation's highest office.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Future first lady? Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders as he was about to give the speech officially announcing his candidacy for the White House

First wife: Deborah Messing, born Shiling, was Bernie Sanders' college sweetheart and they moved to Vermont but they divorced 18 months after marrying

Mother of his child: Susan Mott Glaeser, with whom Sanders had his son, Levi, in 1969

The Sugar Shack: Sanders and his first wife Deborah Shiling paid $2,500 for the property on 85 acres of land just outside the small hamlet of Middlesex. It had no electricity, but Deborah told Daily Mail Online there was water - 'too much' of it

His campaign website says that he 'lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife Jane. He has four children and seven grandchildren'.

Sanders is making a long-shot bid to upset Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate in next year's presidential election.

If he were to be successful and beat the Republican candidate in November 2016, he would become only the second divorced president in history.

But unlike Ronald Reagan, whose first wife, Jane Wyman was an Oscar-winning actress who was still playing a leading role on television's Falcon Crest at age 72, Sanders' first wife, Deborah, lives a quiet life.

For 20 years she worked as a buyer for the Hunger Mountain Coop, a '20,000 square foot community-owned natural foods cooperative' in Vermont's capital, Montpelier.

Daily Mail Online has learned that Sanders married Deborah Shiling, who is three years his junior, on September 6, 1964.

Her father was Dr. Moses Shiling, at the time chief of pulmonary diseases at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The ceremony was in the garden of her parents' home in Baltimore.

Deborah, now remarried and known by her married name of Deborah Messing, confirmed to Daily Mail Online that she had been briefly married to the 73-year-old presidential candidate.

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Activist: At the University of Chicago, where Sanders studied, he began his career which would lead to the run for the presidency. He was photographed at a racial equality sit-in in January 1962

Son: Levi Sanders, 46, is following in his father's liberal footsteps, posing with Barack Obama, then a senator, before he became president

Family: Levi Sanders (left) was among those on stage with Bernie Sanders as he announced his run for the presidency

Family: His campaign has also published this picture of the Sanders family. On his campaign and official website Sanders says that he is married with four children. In fact three are his wife's, who he treats as his own, while his son Levi is by another relationship

1974: The father of a five-year-old son, Sanders campaigned for the senate as an independent

'I really don't want to say much,' she said. 'All I can say is I believe in Bernie Sanders and I am a strong supporter.'

The couple met in college and moved to a sugar shack* without electricity on 85 acres of land in Middlesex, a small hamlet just outside the Vermont capital of Montpelier. They bought it for just $2,500.

But the marriage did not last, and Bernie and Deborah divorced in 1966 after 18 months. Soon afterwards Deborah married her current husband Bob, who she describes as 'a poet slash logger slash philosopher'.

They now live in a house on a steep hill less than a mile from the gold-domed statehouse that dominates Montpelier.

Sanders, now 73, went on to live with Susan Mott, and together they had a son, Levi, now 46. He was born in Brightlook Hospital, St. Johnsbury, Vermont on March 21, 1969, publicly available records show.

Daily Mail Online has been unable to find any record of Sanders marrying Mott.

Mott is now married to German immigrant Hendrik Glaeser, who has run a sign-making business in Burlington, Vermont's largest city, for some 30 years.

Their wedding certificate records her name as Susan Mott.

When approached by Daily Mail Online at her Burlington home, she said: 'I really don't want to do this.'

Asked whether she thought that Sanders could have kept his secrets as he ran for the nation's highest office, she smiled, saying: 'I am not a chatty person'.

Sanders eventually married Jane O'Meara in a civil ceremony in Burlington of May 28, 1988. They are still married and Sanders treats her three children, Heather, Carina and David as his own.

All reports about Sanders have previously said that Levi was the result of Sanders' first marriage, although the name of his first wife has never before been revealed.

In its biography, CNN says his first wife's name is 'unavailable publicly' and lists Levi as a child of that marriage.

Business: Susan Mott is now married to Hendrik Glaeser, who runs this sign business
Hendrik Glaeser, husband of Susan Mott Glaeser.
Business: Susan Mott, the mother of Bernie Sanders' son Levi, is now married to German-born Hendrik Glaeser, who runs this family business in Vermont

Still an ally: Messing, who was Bernie Sanders' first wife, is still a supporter and says he is a 'friend'

Packing them in: Sanders is filling large-capacity venues as he surfs an unexpected wave of support

History: Ronald Reagan was the first divorced president, with his second wife Nancy as first lady.

His Wikipedia page says: 'First wife (name and dates unknown).'

His official biography on the Senate website doesn't even mention a first wife at all and lists his children as Levi, Heather, Carina and David without differentiating between children and step-children.

Even people who have researched his life know little about the threads of his love life. In his book 'The Jews of Capitol Hill', Kurt F. Stone wrote: 'Sanders, his first wife and their son Levi, lived without electricity or running water in a converted sugar house,' when they first moved to Vermont.

However Deborah Messing told Daily Mail Online Levi was not born at that time — and the house had water. 'In fact we had too much water,' she said without elaborating.

Sanders has previously been reported to have styled himself a 'revolutionary' when he moved to Vermont.

The New York Times reported last week that he had written an article in an alternative newspaper headlined 'The Revolution Is Live Versus Death'.

Sanders told Chris Cuomo on CNN on Friday that he accepted that his personal life is going to be up for play in the election.

'I'm not being naive,' he said, 'I don't think I can avoid it.'

However Cuomo did not ask him directly about his first marriage or the birth of his son, merely claiming there were 'salacious' articles circulating about him.


[SUGAR SHACK* -- THIS IS NOT A LOVE NEST AS THE SONG SUGGESTS. IT IS A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS – SEE BELOW. AS A HOME, IT IS LESS THAN TOTALLY DESIRABLE, IN MY VIEW.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_shack]

A sugar shack (French: cabane à sucre), also known as sap house, sugar house, sugar shanty or sugar cabin is a semi-commercial establishment, primarily found in Eastern Canada and northern New England. Like the name implies, sugar shacks are small cabins or groups of cabins where sap collected from sugar maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. It is often found on the same territory as the sugar bush, which is intended for cultivation and production of maple syrup by way of craftsmanship (as opposed to global mass production factories built for that purpose in the 20th century).]



GOOD TRUMP SUGGESTIONS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS

"The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff, it's so violent,"

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-meets-with-republicans-democrats-on-school-safety-live-stream-updates/
KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS February 28, 2018, 3:00 PM
Trump meets with Republicans, Democrats on gun control -- live updates
Last Updated Feb 28, 2018 3:43 PM EST

CBSN – TRUMP PUSHES FOR ONE BILL ON GUN CONTROL

President Trump and a number of Republican and Democratic members of Congress are meeting at the White House Wednesday to address school safety issues. The meeting comes in response to the Parkland shooting two weeks ago.

The White House's list of expected attendees includes Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee; Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida; Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Connecticut; Rep. Brian Mast, R-Florida; Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Florida; Rep. John Rutherford, D-Florida and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana.

Florida's Democratic senator, Sen. Bill Nelson, is not on that list.

On Wednesday, the president also intends to address community safety more broadly, according to the White House.

Mr. Trump has floated arming teachers, raising the age minimum for purchasing a firearm, addressing mental health issues and improving the background check system in the wake of the high school shooting that left 17 dead.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to campus for the first time Wednesday. Last week, Mr. Trump held a listening session with some of those students, and other students and families affected by school shootings. He has also met with governors on the topic.

Follow below for live updates.

Trump says some lawmakers are "petrified of the NRA"

President Trump reiterated that some in the room are afraid of the NRA, in even stronger terms this time.

"They have great power over you people," the president said. "They have less power over me."

Mr. Trump added that some lawmakers are "petrified of the NRA. You can't be petrified..."

Trump speaks out against video games, Internet content

Mr. Trump suggested some kind of ratings system for media content, in terms of how it terrorizes children.

"The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff, it's so violent," the president said, mentioning his son, Barron Trump. "I look at some of the things he's watching and I say, how is that possible?"

Trump warns against attaching concealed carry reciprocity to another bill

Republicans had hoped to add a provision for concealed carry reciprocity among states to a bill to improve the federal background checks system.

But Mr. Trump shot that idea down.

"If you add concealed carry (reciprocity) to this, you'll never get it passed," Trump said. "... We want to get something done."

Trump says states should have flexibility

President Trump said states can have some flexibility when it comes to some measures, such as whether they want to arm teachers.

But the data, Mr. Trump said, such as background checks, needs to be the same.

Trump says Republicans are "afraid of the NRA"

When Mr. Trump received a silent response from Republicans as he suggested raising the age for purchasing some firearms to 21, he said they aren't taking the idea seriously because they're "afraid of the NRA."

Trump suggests need to "take the guns away immediately" from mentally ill

President Trump said he wants to focus on those with mental health problems.

"We need to do something about the mentally ill not being able to buy a gun," Trump said, adding that maybe there might need to be a provision to "take the guns away immediately" if necessary.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered a "caution on mental health."

"I think we'e [sic] got to concentrate not just on those who have mental health issues but on those who show a danger to themselves or others," Grassley said.

Chris Murphy says "we will get 60 votes" on background checks bill

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said they have a "unique opportunity" to get universal background checks.

Murphy said the Senate "will get 60 votes" on a simple background check bill.

Background checks do have near universal support among the American public.

The president seemed to agree with Murphy.

Trump says he wants just one bill
The president said he would prefer to see just one bill, rather than a number of different bills, as Cornyn spoke. Cornyn is backing legislation to improve the existing background check database.

"If we can get 60 votes for it Mr. President, I'm all for it," Cornyn said.

Trump says he's dealing with bump stocks by executive order
Interrupting comments from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the president said he would be dealing with bump stocks by executive order.

"We've got to stop this nonsense, it's time," Trump says
"I'm the biggest fan of the Second Amendment, many of you are," the president told those seated around the table.

Mr. Trump mentioned that he met with National Rifle Association (NRA) leaders over the weekend.

"We've got to stop this nonsense, it's time," he said.

Trump criticizes gun-free zones
President Trump said gun-free zones are harming the country, claiming 98 percent of mass shootings in the U.S. have occurred in gun-free zones since 1950.

"You've gotta have defense, too," he said.

The president said other reforms needed include improving mental health and strengthening background checks.

Kathryn Watson
Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital.

February 19, 2018

THESE ARE SOME ORPHANED MATERIALS FROM FEBRUARY 19, AND FOR SOME REASON THEY WEREN'T PUBLISHED THEN, SO I'M PRESENTING THEM NOW. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM.


News and Views


THE LATEST DETAILS ON THE INDICTMENT

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/special-counsel-robert-mueller-indictment-russia-significance/
CBS NEWS February 19, 2018, 4:41 PM
Special counsel is "laying the groundwork" with latest Russian meddling indictment

VIDEO – REID ON PROVING COLLUSION

Over the weekend on Twitter, President Trump condemned any suggestion that his presidential campaign colluded with Russians. His comments stemmed from the special counsel's latest indictment on Friday, accusing more than a dozen Russians of carrying out a complicated scheme to influence the 2016 election. The document alleges Russians posed as Americans and used social media to influence the vote.

According to CBS News justice reporter Paula Reid, the significance of the latest indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller is that "it lays out in specific details how the Russians meddled in these elections and what crimes were committed under U.S. law."

"Because when you say someone meddled, well, what exactly does that mean? And here Robert Mueller lays that out specifically," Reid said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "He says sometimes it was pushing out messages on social media, sometimes it was paying Americans to engage in political activities and other times it was setting up two rallies in the same city on the same day on opposite sides of an issue."

It's just the tip of the iceberg in the probe, Reid added.

"What he's doing is he's laying the groundwork here. He's explaining to the American people what happened. And now they'll continue to investigate whether or not any Americans knowingly participated in this," Reid said.

In this particular indictment, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there is no allegation that any American was knowingly involved in the conspiracy.

"But we know from the indictment that the Russians did work with Americans. They paid people to do this. So the big question now for investigators is, did anyone knowingly participate?" Reid said.

Even Mr. Trump "has not been cleared" yet, Reid said.

"He also tweeted that this began before his campaign, which is true. There's no evidence or claim of collusion in this specific indictment. But this is one of many, and we know from sources that the investigation continues specifically into whether there were any financial transactions between the Trump campaign and Russia and then also this question of obstruction of justice. Just last week investigators were talking again to Steve Bannon. They're also speaking to Trump's legal teams, former spokesman, so the investigation continues. Nobody is in the clear," Reid said.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


TREY GOWDY PRAISES THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rep-trey-gowdy-on-mueller-indictments-this-is-exactly-what-we-wanted-him-to-do/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS February 18, 2018, 1:08 PM
Rep. Trey Gowdy on Mueller indictments: "This is exactly what we wanted him to do"

Following the indictments of 13 Russian nationals for their involvement in meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, says the charges tell Americans what some have known all along: "Russia is not our friend."

"Russia has tried to subvert the fundamentals of our democracy. For those of us who supported Bob Mueller from day one and said, 'Give him the time and the resources and independence to do his job,' this is his job. This is exactly what we wanted him to do," said Gowdy on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller.

On Friday, Mueller charged 13 Russians as well as three Russian companies with offenses relating to interference in the 2016 election. The indictment describes a sophisticated conspiracy involving the theft of U.S. identities, sowing discord on social media, communicating with unwitting Americans and even setting up political rallies from afar.

Gowdy said that all Americans must ward off Russia's attempts to use similar tactics in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

"Next cycle it could be a Republican. But Americans are the victims of what Russia did, not Republicans, not Democrats, all of us are victims," said Gowdy. "I would tell all my fellow citizens to be really skeptical of anything you read on social media and do your own independent research."

Meanwhile, just days after a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead, Gowdy said those critical of current gun laws in place need to take into account the "instrumentality by which that shooter is killing people."

"You should look at the instrumentality and magazine capacity and the speed with which the projectiles, including bump stocks. But you also have to look at the shooter," Gowdy said. "In almost half the instances of mass shootings, there was notice provided to someone that the person was going to do what, what he ultimately did."

He added, "If you only look at the instrumentality and you don't look at the person who's pulling the trigger, then I think you're doing a disservice to everyone who wants to see an end to killings, including mass killings."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



COMMENT BY KELLY ALLWOOD, A “GUN ENTHUSIAST,” --
“WE NEED THESE RIFLES BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT HAS THEM,” ALWOOD EXPLAINED. HE STOPPED THERE TO SAY HE REALIZES THIS IS WHERE GUN ENTHUSIASTS AND RIFLEMEN ARE MADE OUT TO SEEM LIKE ANTI-GOVERNMENT “WHACK JOBS” BY THE MEDIA, BUT THAT’S JUST NOT TRUE.”

I’M SORRY, SIR, BUT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THEY ARE. THE PEOPLE WHO GO ON SPREE KILLINGS LIKE THIS, ARE USUALLY, TO ALMOST ALWAYS, HIGHLY MALADJUSTED AT THE VERY LEAST, AND YOUNG MEN (THOUGH NOT PADDOCK, WHO WAS IN HIS 60S), AND WHILE THAT MAY NOT BE TECHNICALLY CLASSED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFESSIONALS AS “INSANITY,” FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, THEY CERTAINLY ARE BONA FIDE DEMONSTRABLY DANGEROUS “WHACK JOBS.” THIS YOUNG MAN WAS FORMERLY DIAGNOSED AS HAVING AUTISM AND ADHD. HE WAS NOT “RESPONSIBLE” OR HEALTHY, WAS "IN THE LOCAL POLICE RECORDS" DOZENS OF TIMES ON ARTICLE SAID, AND IF HE HAD BEEN HOSPITALIZED THE FIRST TIME, THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IN ALL LIKELIHOOD.

THE SECOND GREAT POINT THAT I SEE IN THIS ARTICLE, CLEARLY MADE IN ANSWER TO THAT RIDICULOUS WE’RE “PROTECTING OURSELVES AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT” ARGUMENT, READ THIS STATEMENT BY FIREARMS INSTRUCTOR KELLY ALLWOOD: “I DON’T THINK THE FOUNDERS HAD THE ORLANDO SHOOTING IN MIND WHEN THEY WROTE THE SECOND AMENDMENT.”

WE’VE GOTTA GET A GRIP, PEOPLE!



MORE FOR THOSE WHO ARE MORE INTERESTED IN RIFLES THAN I AM:

https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.htm?C=188
So What Is an ‘Assault Rifle’ Really? We Look at the Definitions and How the Term Is ‘Demonized’
Jun 13, 2016 9:36 am

Image source: AP PHOTOGRAPH OF AUTOMATIC RIFLE
TheBlaze

It seems that there is a lot of confusion as to the difference between military rifles and those designed for civilian ownership, especially because of the language often used to describe the latter.

But why? Is an AR-15 not an assault rifle? Does the “AR” in AR-15 not stand for “assault rifle”?

Special: Biggest scam against the American people exposed

Photograph -- A man with an AR-15, which is a semi-automatic rifle allowed for civilian ownership. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

It doesn’t. In fact, it doesn’t mean “automatic rifle” either, as many might think. AR actually stands for ArmaLite rifle, which is the company that first developed it in the 1950s.

The most popular terms to describe the weapons at the center of the recent gun control debate are “military-style” and “assault.” These words have long been used to to describe civilian firearms like the AR-15, but some consider it an inappropriate association that is deliberately being made to “demonize” the guns.

With what seems to be little understanding or agreement on the definition of what constitutes an assault rifle and the difference between civilian and military arms, TheBlaze went searching.

Military vs. Civilian Rifles — What’s the Difference?

For the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on AR-15s since it is what CBS calls “the most popular rifle in America” and one often designated an “assault” rifle. An AR-15 is the civilian equivalent to the military’s M-16. So what’s the difference?

Kelly Alwood, a firearms trainer and consultant, told TheBlaze the only difference is that one is fully automatic and the other is semi-automatic. It’s a small yet simultaneously big distinction. Firearms for use by the military are able to shoot continuously with one pull of the trigger, machine-gun style. Civilian firearms, on the other hand, only allow one shot per trigger pull.

M-16, a military automatic rifle. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Chris Parrett, a firearms enthusiast, pointed out that modifying a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one is not only highly illegal with extreme penalties but also no easy feat.

What Constitutes an ‘Assault’ Rifle?

Merriam-Webster Dictonary defines “assault rifle” as “any of various automatic or semiautomatic rifles with large capacity magazines designed for military use.” The keywords here are “designed for military use.”

If that definition doesn’t quite cut it for you, here’s how David Kopel (via the Washington Examiner) describes it in an article in the “Journal of Contemporary Law” based on a definition from the Department of Defense (emphasis added):

As the United States Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency book Small Arms Identification and Operation Guide explains, “assault rifles” are “short, compact, selective-fire* weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”[21] In other words, assault rifles are battlefield rifles which can fire automatically.[22]

Weapons capable of fully automatic fire, including assault rifles, have been regulated heavily in the United States since the National Firearms Act of 1934.[23] Taking possession of such weapons requires paying a $200 federal transfer tax and submitting to an FBI background check, including ten-print fingerprints.[24]

Many civilians have purchased semiautomatic-only rifles that look like military assault rifles. These civilian rifles are, unlike actual assault rifles, incapable of automatic fire.

Based on these two definitions, since AR-15 is designed for civilian use, it therefore doesn’t fit with the definition of an “assault” weapon. This then begs the question why the association is being made in the first place.

(Editor’s note: machine guns, or automatic weapons, are reserved for the military but they can be purchased for a relatively high cost after a very lengthy background check and licensing procedure. See David Kopel’s definition we included above.)

“It’s a way to demonize something for a political agenda and misconstrue [the guns] and the public on the Second Amendment,” Alwood said.

Alwood, who the day he spoke with TheBlaze was traveling around helping police departments with their rifles, pointed out that all arguments for further gun control regulations or bans seem to go back the question “what would you possibly need this for?” Or rather, why would someone need the civilian equivalent to a military firearm?

Alwood said many gun control advocates would tie this question to hunting. In other words, why would a hunter need such a firearm? As the governor of New York Andrew Coumo said his State of the State address this week, “no one hunts with an assault rifle.” To which Alwood would respond, 1) there are practical applications in hunting with a so-called assault rifle and, 2) “the Second Amendment wasn’t designed for hunting,” an association which he thinks started being made in the 1980s.

“We need these rifles because the government has them,” Alwood explained.

He stopped there to say he realizes this is where gun enthusiasts and riflemen are made out to seem like anti-government “whack jobs” by the media, but that’s just not true.

“I don’t want people to think of me as anti-government. Most gun owners are not anti-government,” Alwood said.

He added that the Founding Fathers drafted the Second Amendment with protection of the citizens and their freedoms in mind.

“[Without the Second Amendment] there is no way to resist the government, voiding all other amendments,” Alwood said. “Why should [the government] continue to give you your freedom of speech if there is no one to stop them. It’s the only safeguard we have to protect us from a tyrannical government. …Look at all countries in trouble with dictators, they have absolute gun bans.”

The conservative publication Townhall recently called out two countries with a similar sentiment to this in mind:

Neither the Venezuelan nor Chinese governments have particularly good track records when it comes to human rights. By maintaining a government monopoly on guns, both can ensure that further abuses are carried out with less protests from the citizenry. Overall, it is sad to see two dictatorial governments making it easier to abuse their citizens as they please while also squelching the possibility for resistance.
Read the original post here.



ON THE SUBJECT OF WHICH PARTICULAR RAPID FIRE RIFLE IS USED, THEY’RE ALL TERRIBLY DANGEROUS, AND SO ARE THE GUN FANCIERS WHO LOVE THEM SO MUCH. AR-15 SEMI-AUTOMATIC VS AUTOMATICS AND “ASSAULT WEAPONS” – ALL OF FOR THEM -- NEED TO BE BANNED FOR CIVILIAN USE, AND NOT JUST THE AR-15; ALSO, THE ARTICLES ON THIS MATTER WHICH I SAW OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS SHOWED SEVERAL AR-15S WHICH LOOKED TO BE LESS EXPENSIVE AND LIGHTER WEIGHT – GREAT FOR A TEENAGER; THEN, AS SOON AS HE’S 18, HE CAN GO AND BUY HIS FIRST AR AND MANY ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION.

THAT WILL MAKE HIM A POWERFUL MAN, AND NOT A KID, RIGHT? THOSE TOUGH KIDS ON THE BLOCK HAD BETTER WATCH THEIR STEP! BY THE WAY, I THINK THAT IT IS NOT IRRELEVANT THAT HE IS ONLY 5’7” OR SO AND WEIGHS 113 LBS. WHAT’S THE POINT? UNLESS HE’ HAS BEEN TAUGHT SOME REALLY GOOD MARTIAL ARTS TECHNIQUES, HE IS MORE OR LESS HELPLESS AND HAS VERY LIKELY BEEN BULLIED ALL HIS LIFE. I DO WISH THE SCHOOLS WOULD KEEP BETTER CONTROL, BECAUSE IT REALLY IS DEEPLY UNFAIR. SO, ALL IN ALL, THAT’S WHY FEELS THAT HE NEEDS AN AR.

HUFFPO WOULDN’T BE HUFFPO IF IT DIDN’T THROW IN A LITTLE IRONY. LOOK AT THIS GEM: “VISUALLY, DOES THAT SEEM ANY DIFFERENT THAN AN AUTOMATIC GUN TO YOU? WOULD YOU FEEL TERRIFIED IF YOU WERE PINNED [SIC] IN WITH A CROWD AS SOMEONE FIRED INTO IT WITH A GUN LIKE THAT? OR WOULD YOU FEEL SAFE AND SECURE IN KNOWING THAT IT’S NOT REALLY AN ASSAULT RIFLE?”

THE ARTICLES THAT I’VE SEEN ON BANNING THE AR-15 DURING THESE LAST FEW DAYS, HAVEN’T EVEN MENTIONED THE FULLY AUTOMATICS OR THE OTHER SEMI-AUTOMATICS. TRUE, THEY ARE BANNED BY A LAW FROM THE 1930’S, BUT WITH SPECIAL PERMISSIONS YOU CAN STILL BUY THEM. MORE CHEATIN’ AND LYIN’! THAT’S HOW MANY OF OUR LEGISLATORS REALLY MAKE THEIR MONEY.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-a-scaletta/ar15s-are-basically-assau_b_10469112.html
THE BLOG 06/16/2016 07:34 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017
Stop Saying AR-15s Aren’t Assault Rifles
By Kelly A Scaletta

Photograph – AR-15

In the wake of the Orlando shootings, the AR-15 and weapons like it are in the spotlight because, once again, a semi-automatic rifle was used in the shooting.

This time, it was technically a Sig Sauer MCX, but it’s in the same classification of gun. It’s a category of weapon called “military” or “assault rifles.” And while some people would like to blame that nomenclature on the “ignorance” of liberals, it’s how they are actually marketed.

But there is also a technical distinction between an assault weapon and the “semi-automatic rifles” which the gun advocates want you to know about.

I will quote the Blaze here, so as to not be [sic] called “gun grabber” or be accused of any bias in my definition:

For the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on AR-15s since it is what CBS calls “the most popular rifle in America” and one often designated an “assault” rifle. An AR-15 is the civilian equivalent to the military’s M-16. So what’s the difference?

Kelly Alwood, a firearms trainer and consultant, told TheBlaze the only difference is that one is fully automatic and the other is semi-automatic. It’s a small yet simultaneously big distinction. Firearms for use by the military are able to shoot continuously with one pull of the trigger, machine-gun style. Civilian firearms, on the other hand, only allow one shot per trigger pull.

So one is semi-automatic, and the other is fully automatic. Got it.

See, with a semi-automatic weapon, you have to pull the trigger each time you want to fire a round. You can’t just hold the trigger down and have a steady stream of bullets come out like you can with a fully automatic.

Doesn’t that sound a lot less deadly?

This, to the gun-rights advocate, is the quintessential distinction between them. But that’s a distinction without a difference.

Then there’s what’s called a “bump stock.”

You can buy one right here for just $135.95.

So what is a bump stock, you ask?

I’ll let this guy tell you because he seems like he knows what he’s talking about. After all, he’s selling them, right?

At about the 20-second mark, what did he say?

“This stock will let you use your semi-automatic rifle to bump-fire—or mimic automatic firing—without breaking any laws.”

“Mimic automatic firing... without breaking any laws.”

Those are his words, not mine. And while he goes on to adhere to the semantic distinction, he’s doing it emphasizing that in practicality, there is not one.

Alright, so what does that mean.

At 38 seconds:

“Bump firing is the use of a recoil of a semi-automatic firearm to simulate the effect of firing fully auto.”

So basically, it lets you do the same thing as a fully automatic weapon; it just lets you do it in a slightly different way. Each time the gun recoils, it bounces back, which causes it to automatically pull the trigger again, which causes another recoil and so on.

With both an automatic weapon and a bump stock, you’re holding your finger still while the gun automatically fires, but on a technicality, the trigger is being pulled each time with a semi-automatic.

Using the word “automatic” as an adjective, you can describe a semi-automatic with a bump stock as an automatic weapon, even you [sic] can’t call it one by its technical definition.

Perhaps a visual will help. Here’s a guy bump-firing 100 rounds in a matter of seconds:

Visually, does that seem any different than an automatic gun to you? Would you feel terrified if you were pinned in with a crowd as someone fired into it with a gun like that? Or would you feel safe and secure in knowing that it’s not really an assault rifle?

But there’s a problem with the guy in the last video. He’s using what’s called a double drum, and they suck. They tend to jam up, and that’s the last thing you want to happen if you’re trying to murder 100 people in a matter of minutes. Just ask James Holmes.

So what’s a would-be psychopath to do?

Well he could go buy himself the top-rated AR-15/M16 50RD 223/5.56X15 DRUM Magazine which sells for $215.00 and describes itself as:

Rugged, reliable 50-round drum magazine designed for .308/7.62x51mm & .223/5.56x45mm, full metal jacket ammunition provides plenty of capacity and reduces reloading time. Rated for full-auto fire, the low-profile drum is still compact enough for shooting from the prone position. Integral hand wheel makes it easy to crank back the spring for quick loading/unloading. X-15 magazine fits AR-15/M16 style rifles, and functions with .223/5.56x45mm & 300 Blackout ammunition. The X-15 is also shorter than a standard 30rd magazine.

It’s designed to reload quickly, and it’s rated for full auto fire—their words, not mine.

Becuase [sic] in case the first 50 rounds that went into the deer didn’t do the job, you need to be able to dump another 50 into him fast, or Bambi might get away.

Look, let’s stop with this nonsensical distinction without a difference between automatic and semiautomatic. With a bump stock, it’s effectively the same thing. The “gun rights” people know it because they’re the ones buying it; the gun manufacturers know it because they’re the ones selling it.

And the killers know it because they’re using them to shoot over 100 people in a matter of minutes.

Do you think those victims feel any less “assaulted” because they weren’t “technically” shot by an assault weapon?

What they’re hoping for is that the rest of us won’t know, and we’ll just buy into the “one pull per bullet” nonsensical rhetoric and let it go.

I don’t think the founders had the Orlando shooting in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment.

But we should in considering our gun legislation and start recognizing the difference between a weapon to defend yourself and your family and one designed for assaulting others.

Follow Kelly A Scaletta on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KellyScaletta
Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? Here’s how.

Kelly A Scaletta
Politically aware sports writer and editor

ONLINE GUN BUYING -- https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.htm?C=188


A PLEDGE:

“A LOT OF HIGH SCHOOL KIDS ARE 18 YEARS OLD OR WILL TURN 18 BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTION." OUR KIDS ARE DYING AND NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT," SHE SAYS. "EVERYONE'S GOING TO VOTE." THAT SOUNDS SO GOOD TO ME. MAYBE WE CAN GET BACK TO “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL” AGAIN.

I’M SO GLAD TO SEE A RENEWAL OF CONCERN AND ACTIVISM ON HUMAN ISSUES. I HOPE FOR THE SAME ON ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS AS WELL. MAYBE WHEN BERNIE IS ELECTED AND THE UNCARING AND LARGELY CYNICAL REPUBLICANS ARE OUT OF OFFICE, THINGS WILL IMPROVE. IT’S AS THOUGH WE ARE COMING BACK TO LIFE AS A NATION AND AS WHOLE, CARING PEOPLE. I THINK WE OWE A LOT OF THIS TO BERNIE SANDERS; AND EVEN MORE TO THE SIMPLE HORROR OF THESE REPEATED TRAVESTIES OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES. I’M SAYING THAT PARTLY BECAUSE SO MANY WERE KILLED HERE, AND PARTLY BECAUSE 90% OF THE TIME WE ARE UPSET AND ANGRY OVER OUR MOST RECENT GUN MASSACRE. THEN IN NO TIME, THE PUBLIC HAS FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT, AND ARE SAYING AGAIN HOW “THE REAL ISSUE ISN’T GUNS,” AND THAT WITHOUT OUR GUNS “THE GOVERNMENT” IS PROBABLY GOING TO MARCH IN AND TAKE OVER OUR TOWNS AND CITIES.

THE PEOPLE I FEAR ON THAT ISSUE ARE THE “ALT-RIGHTERS.” THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT OUR COUNTRY, BUT ABOUT HARANGUING PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET ABOUT THEIR “LIBTARD” VIEWS. I MUST SAY, THAT PARTICULAR TERM IS AS VULGAR SOUNDING AS “CUCK.” DON’T THEY KNOW ANY OTHER WAY TO SPEAK? GUESS THEY AREN’T PLANNING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT, SO THEY JUST DON’T CARE.

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/18/586958556/student-activists-who-lived-through-florida-shooting-plan-march-on-washington
NATIONAL
Students Who Lived Through Florida Shooting Turn Rage Into Activism
February 18, 20186:00 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
BRIAN MANN

Photograph -- A week ago, kids in Parkland, Fla., were talking about prom and graduation. Now they're talking about funerals and gun control. Some students say the shooting that left 17 people dead will be a catalyst for different gun laws.
Brian Mann/North Country Public Radio

Sunday afternoon, Cameron Kasky is doing push-ups in a park near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Kasky, a junior, says kids like himself are doing something new, demanding a fresh look at America's gun laws.

"The crescendo has hit its point. It's enough and it's over," he says. "I haven't got a shred of doubt that this is going to be our change."

Police say 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz has confessed to murdering 17 people last Wednesday with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which the troubled teen was able to purchase legally. Kasky and most of the other kids in the park survived the attack and now they're pivoting hard trying to create a new national movement.

They've announced plans for a massive rally against school and gun violence in Washington, D.C., on March 24, with smaller rallies and protests in cities around the U.S.

"I just know we must prioritize lives over guns," says Dylan Redshaw, a 17-year-old senior.

Sophie Whitney, age 18 and also a survivor, nods and says, "We can't dwell on the sadness. Of course we're all heartbroken, but we can't let the 17 people die for nothing. We have to make something good out of their death."

At a picnic table in this city park a short drive from their school, the kids have set up a kind of media center. They're fielding calls from news outlets all over the country and also from community organizers who want to help by donating or volunteering. This kind of activism feels really different, compared with past mass shootings.

The kids here say in part it's because the victims are old enough to have a voice. "After what happened in Newtown, those kids were too young to speak out against what happened and to really even maybe even understand what happened," says Chris Grady, age 18, also a senior and a survivor.

"We want to be the voices not only for them but for any student or teacher affected by acts of cowardice like this," he adds.


Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School use a picnic table at a city park as a media center to plan their rallies on Washington, D.C., and around the country.
Brian Mann/North Country Public Radio
Another big change after the Parkland attack has been social media. Brendan Duff is a college student who went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He's come home to help manage the new movement's digital campaign. He says the response has been overwhelming, with hundreds of messages per minute pouring in.

"People all over the country want to help. Social media is honestly the best way to reach not only everyone in this country I think, but definitely this generation," Duff says.

This is all happening really fast. Emma Gonzalez, another survivor of Wednesday's attack, went viral nationwide over the weekend after speaking at an anti-gun rally in Fort Lauderdale.

"If you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something," Gonzalez demanded, sparking a roar of applause.

On this Sunday afternoon, Gonzalez is here in the park helping plan next steps. Her mom Elizabeth Weigard says it's been "terrifying" watching her daughter get caught up in this highly charged moment.

"All you want to do is hold them tight," Weigard says. "Like I don't even want her to go to the bathroom on her own. And she's just like camped out all night with these amazing kids organizing a movement. It's kind of like letting them drive for the first time, which up until a week ago was my biggest fear. You just got to open your arms and let them fly."

These kids know they're flying in the face of massive political opposition, headwinds that include the NRA's staunch opposition to gun control, and the Republican Party's distrust of limiting gun rights. Sophie Whitney, one of the student organizers, says she has a question for those people: "Why is your right to own an AR-15 more important than a kid's right to feel safe?" She quickly answers her own question, saying, "It's not, it is common sense."

Another student, Dylan Redshaw leans in to speak, voice shaking with anger, and says the kids here aren't looking for gun bans. "We just need age restrictions and high-quality, accessible mental health institutions, and higher checks when people are trying to purchase these weapons," he argues.

These kids moved quickly the last couple days to build a social media campaign, while also tapping into the national grassroots network first organized ahead of the Women's March last year. With that help, they think the rally in Washington, D.C. on March 24 will be big.

"We're going to have a place in every major city somewhere where that people all across the country can go to," Stoneman Douglas alum Brendan Duff says. "They want to feel engaged, they want to feel like they're doing something to help. And this is it."

Another student tells NPR this campaign isn't just focused on rallies and social media. It's also about the midterm election. A lot of high school kids are 18 years old or will turn 18 before the November election.

"Our kids are dying and no one is doing anything about it," she says. "Everyone's going to vote."

NPR's Digital News intern Asia Simone Burns produced this story for the Web.

RELATED:

NPR ED
Should The Parkland Shooting Change How We Think About Phones, Schools and Safety?
NATIONAL
Columbine Survivor On Florida School Shooting
NATIONAL
Students Who Survived Florida Shooting Want Politicians To Know They're Angry



I ASSUME THAT THIS DRIVER ISN’T IN REALITY A MURDERER WHO PLANNED TO SHOOT THE PRESIDENT. THIS STORY CERTAINLY IS LOW-KEY FOR SUCH A SITUATION. WAS THE FBI CONSULTED, FOR INSTANCE?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-motorcade-press-van-driver-detained-with-handgun/
By JACQUELINE ALEMANY CBS NEWS February 19, 2018, 11:19 AM
TRUMP MOTORCADE PRESS VAN DRIVER DETAINED WITH HANDGUN

Photograph -- President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen in Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Dec. 24, 2017. AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER

Law enforcement detained the driver of the press van in President Donald Trump's motorcade on Monday morning in West Palm Beach after U.S. Secret Service found a handgun in the driver's bag.

The handgun was found during a routine security screening prior to the motorcade's departure from Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago club to Trump International Hotel, where the president plays golf.

The driver told law enforcement that he forgot to leave his gun behind in his personal car before getting into the press van to drive the pool of journalists trailing Mr. Trump for the day. After the firearm was located during the screening off club grounds in a parking lot across the street, the driver was not allowed onto club grounds. The drivers of the other two vans were also removed as a precaution.

White House press staffers replaced the professional drivers after the incident and drove the three press vans in their absence. One of the White House staffers accidentally hit a Secret Service vehicle in the parking lot, causing minor damage.

The Secret Service released a statement confirming the incident Monday:

The Secret Service can confirm that an individual serving as a staff contracted driver was briefly detained by U.S. Secret Service personnel and other law enforcement officials today. The individual was found to be in lawful possession of a prohibited item (firearm) outside the secure area at a Secret Service security screening checkpoint. The incident was investigated by the Secret Service and our partners at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) and resolved. At no time was any Secret Service protectee in danger or impacted. All Secret Service security measures worked.

The incident occurred 37 miles away from Parkland High School less than week after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly killed 17 people with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. Florida is a concealed-carry state.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement Monday morning which said Mr. Trump is "supportive of efforts to improve the Federal background check system." However, the president, who has tweeted 32 times since the mass shooting, has yet to mention gun control himself.


The White House, as is its practice, would not confirm the president's activities at the Trump International Golf Club. Mr. Trump arrived at his Florida property — the "Winter White House" — on Friday, after visiting the victims of the Parkland, Florida mass shooting Friday night, as well as members of law enforcement at the Broward County Sheriff's office. He skipped golf on Saturday and Sunday, but according to several photographs posted on social media by people at Mar-a-Lago, the president socialized with members throughout the weekend and seems to have made an appearance at one party, at least.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



A FEW PEOPLE REALLY ARE JERKS, AREN’T THEY? MOST AREN’T THIS BAD, THANK GOODNESS. ALL OF THE FOUR OR FIVE INCIDENTS THAT I’VE READ ABOUT DOWN THROUGH THE LAST TEN YEARS OR SO, HAVE BEEN ON THE ILL-FATED CARNIVAL LINE. TO PARAPHRASE THE WORDS OF ONE UNDERSTANDABLY DISGRUNTLED PASSENGER, SAID WHEN SHE WAS OFFERED A MEASLY 25% DISCOUNT, SHE WILL NEVER, EVER, GO ON CARNIVAL AGAIN. IF SHE SUES FOR HER WHOLE FARE BACK AND DAMAGES OVER MENTAL DISTRESS CAUSED BY THE TRIP, THAT WOULD BE ABOUT RIGHT, I WOULD SAY. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT IN THIS AGE OF CELLPHONE CAMERAS BUSINESSES WILL START “TRYING HARDER?”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carnival-cruise-fight-carnival-legend-ship-investigation-security-response/
[I COULD FIND NO WRITER’S NAME WITH THIS STORY.]

Photograph -- carnival-legend-brawl-family.jpg Members of a family disembark from a police boat in Eden, Australia, after being booted off and transported from the Carnival Legend cruise ship for allegedly fighting with other passengers, Feb. 16, 2018. REUTERS
VIDEO -- CBS NEWS, 1:48 DURATION

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Carnival Cruise Line has said "all aspects" of a series of incidents on a South Pacific cruise that was interrupted by brawls will be investigated, including the response of security personnel whom some passengers say made matters worse by using heavy-handed tactics. The violence was apparently caused by a 23-member family, members of which threw punches at other passengers.

Some of the passengers said they locked themselves in cabins to escape three days of violence on the Carnival Legend, which arrived in its home port of Melbourne on Saturday, a day after a family was offloaded in an unscheduled stop in Eden, New South Wales in Australia.

Police said they were investigating the incident and the operator apologized for the "disruptive behavior" by the group that was removed from the cruise liner. One passenger told 9 News Australia the brawl was a "bloodbath."

The "big Italian family" spent days attacking Australians aboard the ship, with people "getting strangled and punched up," passenger Lisa Bolitho told reporters.


"Very violent, they were full-on attacks," she said.

She also questioned the ship's management, quoting the captain as saying, "'What do you want me to do about it -- throw them overboard?'"

WATCH – Cellphone video footage purportedly of the brawl on Friday shows security guards fighting and trying to separate passengers amid shouting and kicking. -- THE FEROCITY IS STARTLING. A CASE OF HUMAN RABIES, PERHAPS? TO VIEW IT, GO TO YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n16cnyC8EcA

The Reuters news agency reported Monday that Carnival had released a brief statement, saying "all aspects including the security response" would be investigated. The statement did not provide a timeline for the company's investigation.

EXCLUSIVE: Shocking violence aboard Carnival Legend cruise ship by 3AWRadio on YouTube

Videos posted online from inside the ship appear to show Carnival security personnel beating an individual on the ground and attempting to grab cell phones from other passengers as they recorded the events.

Bolitho's son Jarrah said he was among those targeted and fled and locked himself in the cabin with his mother.

"I was watching the fight and one guy came up to me and said 'Do you want to go too bro?'" he said, adding the offenders were in their late teens and early 20s. "My mum had to drag me away from it all. They were trying to pick on any Aussie they could find."

Carnival Cruise Line said it was offering guests a 25 percent future cruise credit as a "goodwill gesture" but some passengers criticized the offer.

"I won't be travelling Carnival ever again so a 25 percent off a future cruise in my eyes is unacceptable," Mark Morrison said.

The cruise liner with more than 2,000 passengers was on a 10-day trip from Melbourne to New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



THIS IS ONE OF THOSE STORIES THAT MAKES ME REALLY ANGRY. THERE SHOULD BE NO LOSS OF TIME BEFORE AN AMBER ALERT IS ISSUED. IT SHOULDN’T MATTER WHETHER OR NOT THERE WAS “EVIDENCE OF AN ABDUCTION,” OR ANY OTHER CRIME AGAINST HIM – RAPE, OR MURDER PERHAPS? SOLD AS A “SEX SLAVE?” ETC. AN AMBER ALERT SHOULD HAPPEN EVERY TIME A CHILD GOES MISSING, AND FAST, ESPECIALLY SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AND YOUNG ONE LIKE THIS. IF THE LAW IS ACTUALLY WRITTEN THAT WAY, IT SHOULD BE AMENDED OR STRUCK DOWN. LET THE SUPREME COURT DO WHAT IT SHOULD, RATHER THAN PUTTING IN DECISIONS TO BENEFIT THE HUGE CORPORATE ENTITIES WHICH THEN SKEW OUR ELECTIONS, AS IN THE INFAMOUS CASE OF CITIZENS UNITED. I ALSO DON’T THINK THE COURT MEMBERS SHOULD BE SEATED FOR A LIFETIME, NOR SHOULD THEY HAVE AN IDENTIFIABLE POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION.

ONE MORE THING HERE. THE CHILD’S WELFARE HAS BEEN REPORTED TO THE KANSAS DCF JUST LAST SPRING – SOMETIMES AN ABUSER ACCIDENTALLY “GOES TOO FAR” AND THE CHILD IS MORTALLY WOUNDED, OR THE MAN (USUALLY) IN THE HOUSEHOLD IS COMMITTING SEXUAL ASSAULT ON HIM. PEOPLE CAN BE VICIOUS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lucas-hernandez-missing-fbi-joins-search-for-kansas-boy-5/
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP February 19, 2018, 1:29 PM
Lucas Hernandez missing: FBI joins search for Kansas boy, 5

Photograph -- Lucas Hernandez KWCH

WICHITA, Kan. — Authorities searching for a missing 5-year-old Kansas boy have scoured a nature park and set up a tip hotline.

The Wichita Eagle reports that police said they received a call at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday to report Lucas Hernandez was lost in southeast Wichita. When officers arrived, Lucas' 26-year-old stepmother said he was last seen at about 3 p.m. Saturday in his bedroom before she showered and fell asleep.

Officers and dogs have searched his home, neighborhood and the 216-acre Chisholm Creek Park. Officer Charley Davidson said Sunday that police have found no evidence that suggests Lucas was abducted, which is why no Amber Alert has been issued.

An FBI team is assisting police. Lucas has brown hair and eyes and weighs about 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt with a bear on it.

TWO RELATIVES OF THE BOY TOLD THE WICHITA EAGLE THEY HAD CONCERNS ABOUT THE BOY'S WELFARE IN THE PAST, AND THE child's great aunt said she contacted the Kansas Department of Children and Families last spring. THE AGENCY HAS NOT SAID WHETHER OR NOT THEY HAD CONTACT WITH THE FAMILY.

The stepmother's cousin, Kristin Edson, told CBS affiliate KWCH the boy's father and stepmother are distraught. She said the stepmother told her that when she woke up Saturday, the child was missing and the back door was open.

"Very distraught. Very upset. Devastated. I mean, can you imagine?" Edson told KWCH. "They're just very distraught and worried about his safety. It's cold out. We don't know where he's at."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.




THESE WELSH LOVE SPOONS ARE REALLY BEAUTIFUL AND SIMPLY “SWEET.” I WONDER HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF YEARS BACK THIS ART AND SYMBOLISM GOES. I’VE HEARD A LOT ABOUT IRELAND AND SCOTLAND BUT ALMOST NOTHING ABOUT WALES. THERE’S THE PRINCE OF WALES, OF COURSE, AND WELSH RAREBIT (WHICH IS PRONOUNCED MORE OR LESS LIKE “RABBIT.”)

ALSO, WALES IS WHERE THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RUIN THAT SOME SCIENTISTS MENTIONED AS POSSIBLY, POSSIBLY BEING THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR IS LOCATED IN WALES. YES, MANY ARCHAEOLOGISTS WHO BELIEVE IN TAKING FOLK STORIES INTO ACCOUNT WHEN EVALUATING A DIG, DO THINK THAT A CERTAIN ROMANO-BRITISH WARLORD VERY POSSIBLY WAS DEFENDING HIS LANDS IN WALES AGAINST INVADING ANGLO-SAXONS. IF SO, I’M SURE HE HAD A SET OF UNDERLINGS WHO FOUGHT WITH AND FOR HIM.

WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU FIND THESE THINGS INTERESTING. DON’T WORRY. IT MAKES NO PROCLAMATIONS NOR REFERENCES TO MERLIN OR DRUIDS AND CERTAINLY NOT SPACE ALIENS; JUST SPECULATION BASED ON EVIDENCE – IT’S A VERY GOOD VIDEO.

http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Camelot-Court-of-King-Arthur/ Camelot, Court of King Arthur, by Ben Johnson

“... The Welsh are the direct descendants of the Romano-Britons of England and Wales, who were pushed back towards the west of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries. Arthur is considered by many to have been a Romano-British leader fighting the Anglo-Saxon invaders. So the placing of Camelot in Wales at Caerleon could be quite plausible.

The legend of Arthur and his knights also appears in The Mabinogion, a collection of eleven stories collated from early medieval Welsh manuscripts, intertwining pre-Christian Celtic mythology, folklore, tradition and history.

The Mabinogion tales were written down in the 14th century but it is widely acknowledged that the stories they are based on date from much earlier than this. The four ‘mabinogi’ tales are thought to be the earliest, dating from the 11th century. Five of the remaining stories involve the legend of Arthur and his knights, even including one of the earliest references to the Grail legend. Three of the Arthurian tales are set at ‘Arthur’s Court’.”

If we look at Aneirin’s poem with its reference to Arthur written around AD 594, and then look at the Mabinogion stories, it appears that the tale of King Arthur is rooted in Welsh folklore, having been passed down through the ages in the oral tradition. If so, this may suggest that Arthur may indeed have been a real person and that some, if not all, of the deeds and accounts of him may be based in fact. Or it may be that ‘Arthur’ is a composite character incorporating the deeds of several British warriors and leaders of the 5th and 6th century.

Cadbury Castle, Somerset

Another candidate is Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Yeovil in Somerset, referred to as a location for Camelot by the antiquary John Leland in his Itinerary of 1542. Leland fervently believed that King Arthur was a real person and did exist in historical fact.

Cadbury Castle WKPD

Following the withdrawal of the Romans in the mid 5th century, the site is thought to have been in use from then until around AD 580. Archaeological excavations on the site have revealed a substantial building which could have been a Great Hall. It is also clear that some of the Iron Age defenses had been re-fortified, creating an extensive defensive site, larger than any other known fort of the period. Shards of pottery from the eastern Mediterranean were also found, showing wealth and trade. It therefore seems probable that this hill fort was the castle or palace of a Dark Ages ruler or king.

Local names and traditions seem to reinforce the links between Arthur’s Camelot and Cadbury Castle. Since the 16th century, the well on the way up the hill has been known locally as Arthur’s Well and the highest part of the hill has been known as Arthur’s Palace. Cadbury Castle is also situated not far from Glastonbury Tor, a location shrouded in mystery and legend. A causeway, known as King Arthur’s Hunting Track, links the two sites.

Also, according to tradition King Arthur, the legendary ‘Once and Future King’, sleeps in Cadbury Castle. The hill fort is supposedly hollow, and there he and his knights lie, ready until such time as England should need their services again. Indeed, every Midsummer Eve, King Arthur is supposed to lead a troop of mounted knights down the slopes of the hill.

Tintagel Castle, Tintagel, Cornwall.
In his “Historia Regum Britannae” Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Arthur was born in Cornwall at Tintagel Castle. Indeed a 1,500 year old piece of slate with two Latin inscriptions was found at Tintagel in the late 1980s, which would seem to link Arthur with Tintagel. The second inscription on the slate reads ” Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, has had [this] made.” King Coel (Old King Cole of the nursery rhyme) is said by Geoffrey of Monmouth to be one of Arthur’s ancestors.

Cadbury Castle, Somerset
Another candidate is Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Yeovil in Somerset, referred to as a location for Camelot by the antiquary John Leland in his Itinerary of 1542. Leland fervently believed that King Arthur was a real person and did exist in historical fact.

Cadbury Castle WKPD

Following the withdrawal of the Romans in the mid 5th century, the site is thought to have been in use from then until around AD 580. Archaeological excavations on the site have revealed a substantial building which could have been a Great Hall. It is also clear that some of the Iron Age defences had been re-fortified, creating an extensive defensive site, larger than any other known fort of the period. Shards of pottery from the eastern Mediterranean were also found, showing wealth and trade. It therefore seems probable that this hill fort was the castle or palace of a Dark Ages ruler or king.

Local names and traditions seem to reinforce the links between Arthur’s Camelot and Cadbury Castle. Since the 16th century, the well on the way up the hill has been known locally as Arthur’s Well and the highest part of the hill has been known as Arthur’s Palace. Cadbury Castle is also situated not far from Glastonbury Tor, a location shrouded in mystery and legend. A causeway, known as King Arthur’s Hunting Track, links the two sites.

Also, according to tradition King Arthur, the legendary ‘Once and Future King’, sleeps in Cadbury Castle. The hill fort is supposedly hollow, and there he and his knights lie, ready until such time as England should need their services again. Indeed, every Midsummer Eve, King Arthur is supposed to lead a troop of mounted knights down the slopes of the hill.

Tintagel Castle, Tintagel, Cornwall.
In his “Historia Regum Britannae” Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Arthur was born in Cornwall at Tintagel Castle. Indeed a 1,500 year old piece of slate with two Latin inscriptions was found at Tintagel in the late 1980s, which would seem to link Arthur with Tintagel. The second inscription on the slate reads ” Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, has had [this] made.” King Coel (Old King Cole of the nursery rhyme) is said by Geoffrey of Monmouth to be one of Arthur’s ancestors.


NOW, ABOUT THOSE HAND-CRAFTED SPOONS:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tokens-of-love-the-welsh-tradition-of-lovespoons/
CBS NEWS February 11, 2018, 9:28 AM
Tokens of love: The Welsh tradition of lovespoons

Conor Knighton's love of ISLAND HOPPING has taken him to a scenic spot that's all about love:

Off the northwest coast of Wales, lovely Llanddwyn Island holds a special place in the hearts of Welsh lovers.

It was here that St. Dwynwen -- the Welsh patron saint of lovers -- lived out her days, praying for romantics everywhere to find the happiness she never did.

[Dwynwen – for pronunciation – go to this site and click the button. https://www.howtopronounce.com/dwynwen/]

The Welsh celebrate St. Dwynwen's Day on January 25th.

And if you want to show your sweetheart that you REALLY love them, you don't get them chocolates or flowers or jewelry; you get them … a spoon.

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Conor Knighton, with lovespoon, on the Welsh Island of Llanddwyn, CBS NEWS

Kerry Thomas is a woodcarver who specializes in the art of Welsh lovespoons.

"It's a Welsh tradition, which dates back to the 17th century," he said. "Lovespoons were carved by young men, and offered to the young ladies that they were courting. And if accepted, they were then regarded as tokens of engagement, or betrothal."

Thomas made his first simple spoon in 1969 as a gift for his girlfriend. "I thought that I would learn how to carve to save myself having to buy an engagement ring!" he laughed.

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Woodcarver Kerry Thomas creates a lovespoon, at the Lovespoon Workshop in Cold Inn, Kilgetty. CBS NEWS

That spoon worked its magic -- and Thomas has been making increasingly elaborate utensils every year to commemorate his life together with his wife.

He showed Knighton an intricate four-sided spoon: Two smooth spoons, two rough spoons.

"What's that signify?" Knighton asked.

"The rough and smooth of married life. So, it's our wedding spoon," Thomas replied. "It's not all going to be smooth, it's not all going to be rough."

Each spoon starts as a single piece of wood. After drawing and cutting out a design, Thomas will spend hours crafting custom spoons for couples who may not be as handy as he is.

Photograph --wall-of-welsh-lovespoons-detail-620.jpg CBS NEWS
Each one is a labor of love.

You can say a lot with a spoon. Each twist, each knot signifies something important. "You put in little bits of stories," Thomas said. "You're putting little messages into your spoons."

At Castle Welsh Crafts in the capital city of Cardiff, owner Bob Rice guides his customers through the language of lovespoons.

A symbol such as a wheel means "I will work for you." An anchor might symbolize "steadfast love." A lock, the promise of a new home. The number of "seeds in the cage" is often used to represent how many children a couple would like to have.

"So if some guy goes home, and he's had one done with SIX spheres in, well, she better look out!" Rice laughed.

These decorative objects were once functional; the spoon itself is a symbol.

"What you do with a spoon? You're mixing and blending," said Thomas. "So, the lovespoon, you're mixing and blending the two hearts together. That's the object."

It's a way to say "I love you" in wood instead of in words.

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A Welsh tradition, on display at Castle Welsh Crafts in Cardiff. CBS NEWS

More from Conor Knighton's "Island Hopping" series:

Wake Island: Where America's day really begins

For more info:

The Lovespoon Workshop, Cold Inn, Kilgetty, Wales
Castle Welsh Crafts, Cardiff
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