JUNE 8, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


http://www.star-telegram.com/latest-news/article212649229.html
Security cams catch cops beating man unconscious in Arizona. Four are placed on leave
BY MATTHEW MARTINEZ
mmartinez@mcclatchy.com
June 06, 2018 09:14 AM

Four police officers in Mesa, Arizona, are on administrative leave after video surfaced of a group of cops beating an unarmed suspect unconscious at an apartment complex.

Mesa police released the video Tuesday of the confrontation between 33-year-old Robert Johnson and a group of four officers in an outdoor hallway of the complex near the intersection of Main Street and Horne.

The video shows three of the officers throwing punches after they say he resisted an order to sit down outside an elevator so that they could detain him. Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista told KNXV that the officer who did not throw a punch was a sergeant but that he and the other three cops in the video had been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

Batista told the station that while Johnson did not comply with officers' orders to sit down, it does not appear in the video that the level of force exerted was necessary.

One officer, standing face-to-face with Johnson in the video, appears to make solid, pounding contact with Johnson's face three to four times, including at least once after the suspect is already unconscious and sliding to the ground.

Police were called to the apartment complex shortly before midnight on May 23. A woman who lived there told police that her ex-boyfriend, 20-year-old Erick Reyes, was trying to break into her apartment, according to the Arizona Republic. Johnson was on his phone in the same hallway as Reyes when police initially detained Reyes.

"I don't feel that our officers were at their best," Batista told the newspaper. "I don't feel this situation needed to go the way that it went."

The officers have not been identified, except by rank in the case of the sergeant who did not throw a punch.

Reyes was arrested that night and charged with disorderly conduct/domestic violence and possession of drug paraphernalia. Johnson was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and hindering.

Local pastor Andre Miller, who says he is Johnson's pastor, released a statement to KSAZ, along with attorneys Benjamin Taylor and Joel Robbins, that described Johnson as "cooperative" and "following police instructions." It read, in part: "The misconduct of these officers would have gone unnoticed of it had not been captured by surveillance videos at the apartment complex where the assault occurred. The Mesa Police Department must develop a law enforcement culture that meets community and constitutional norms and ensures that police and citizens go home safely after police interactions."

Four Mesa, Arizona police officers are on leave after a suspect was beaten in an apartment hallway on May 23. Mesa Police Department Video screenshot


MORE ABOUT MESA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa,_Arizona
Mesa, Arizona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mesa (/ˈmeɪsə/ MAY-sə) is a city in Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a suburb located about 20 miles (32 km) east of Phoenix. Mesa is the central city of the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. . . . .

Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson, and the 36th-largest city in the US. The city is home to 439,041 people as of 2010 according to the Census Bureau. Mesa is home to numerous higher education facilities including the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University.

The history of Mesa dates back at least 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam people. The Hohokam, whose name means "All Used Up" or "The Departed Ones", built the original canal system. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World. Some were up to 90 feet (27 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep at their head gates, extending for as far as 16 miles (26 km) across the desert. By A.D. 1100 water could be delivered to an area over 110,000 acres (450 km2), transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis. By A.D. 1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals many of which are still in use today.[4]


http://www.azfamily.com/story/37684291/mesa-records-subpoenaed-in-us-probe-of-deadly-police-shooting
Mesa records subpoenaed in US probe of deadly police shooting
Posted: Mar 08, 2018 9:10 PM EST
Updated: Mar 08, 2018 9:10 PM EST

MESA, AZ (AP) -
Mesa police records have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department in a civil rights investigation involving a former officer who was acquitted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Texas man last year, authorities said Thursday.

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury found Philip Mitchell Brailsford not guilty of second-degree murder on Dec. 7.

[RELATED: Ex-Mesa police officer who shot, killed unarmed man found not guilty of murder]

Mesa police said in a statement that they've been asked to provide all documentation surrounding the Jan. 18, 2016, shooting and will comply and provide any records requested.

Calls to Brailsford's attorney for comment weren't immediately returned Thursday.

Brailsford, a Mesa policeman for about two years, was fired in March 2016 for violating department policy in the shooting of 26-year-old Daniel Shaver of Granbury, Texas, at a hotel.

Authorities said no gun was found on Shaver's body and two pellet rifles related to his pest-control job were later discovered in his hotel room.

[ORIGINAL STORY: Officer-involved shooting at a Mesa La Quinta Inn leaves man dead]

Officers had gone to the hotel in response to a report of a man with a gun. Police ordered Shaver to exit his hotel room, lay face-down in the hallway and refrain from making sudden movements.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Mesa officer shoots, kills unarmed man at Mesa hotel]

Jurors saw video of Shaver crawling in the hallway and begging police through sobs not to shoot him.

Brailsford said he thought Shaver was grabbing a gun when he reached for his waistband. Authorities have said it looked like Shaver was pulling up loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down as he crawled.

Shaver left behind a wife and two young daughters. His widow, Laney Sweet, and Shaver's parents have filed separate wrongful death lawsuits against the city of Mesa.

[READ MORE: Widow of man shot, killed by ex-Mesa police officer speaks about verdict, her family]
[RELATED: Woman who witnessed fatal shooting sues former Mesa police officer]
Click/tap here to download the free azfamily mobile app.

© 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



I DO HOPE SOMETHING USEFUL TO SOCIETY WILL COME OUT OF THIS CASE, BECAUSE THE VIDEO SHOWS THE VIOLENCE, AND THE LACK OF PROVOCATION FOR THE BEATING. ALSO, MESA HAS A HISTORY. SEE TODAY’S REVIEW OF NEO-NAZI AND WHITE SUPREMACIST ACTIVITY THERE ON THE SPECIAL BLOG BY THAT NAME.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-johnson-beaten-mesa-arizona-police-department-speaks-out-today-2018-06-07/
By JAMIE YUCCAS CBS NEWS June 7, 2018, 6:48 PM
Man beaten into submission by Arizona police officers in viral video speaks out

VIDEO – BODY CAM VIDEO

MESA, Ariz. -- The police in Mesa released body camera video showing what led four officers to beat a man into submission. The footage is graphic.

The incident has ignited protests in the Phoenix suburb. The man who was beaten spoke to reporters Thursday.

"I'm a family man. I'm a God-fearing person," Robert Johnson said. "I just want Mesa to be held accountable for what they've done and everything that happened at the time."

Johnson, 35, said he is still replaying the May 23 incident over in his mind.

180607-cbsnews-robert-johnson-presser-01.png
Robert Johnson seen at a press briefing Thu., June 7, 2018. CBS NEWS

Newly released bodycam video shows the moment when three Mesa police officers and a sergeant first confronted Johnson.

"Have a seat," an officer told Johnson. "Guess what, I ain't gonna ask you again. Have a seat."

180607-mesapd-johnson-bodycam-footage-01.png
A look at new bodycam footage from the Mesa Police Department. MESA, ARIZONA, POLICE DEPT.

They were responding to a domestic disturbance call. While the suspect they were looking for complies with an order to sit, Johnson is asked several times and appears not to comply. Then officers order Johnson to "sit your ass down."

Johnson, unarmed, takes several blows to the head and is rammed into the elevator door. After being handcuffed, he can be heard swearing at officers.

"It feel good putting your hands on me? While I'm subdued?" Johnson asked the officers in the video. "How the f*** are you, huh? Huh?"

At one point police indicate he's spitting at them and get him a mask.

"You tried to spit on me!" one of the officers said.

mesa.jpg
Mesa officers seen on video punching a man in an apartment complex May 23 MESA POLICE

A total of five officers involved in the incident are on administrative leave. The Mesa Police Department (MPD) identified the officers as: Jhonte Jones, Rudy Monarrez, Ernesto Calderon, Robert Gambee and William Abbiatti.

The Mesa police union says there's been a rush to judgment, but one use-of-force expert disagrees.

"I think this is a clear-cut case of unreasonable force," said William Terrill of Arizona State University. "It is remarkable how passive the suspect remains being punched in the face repeatedly and then goes down on the ground."

The Department of Justice is already reviewing a different excessive use of force case by the MPD when an unarmed man was shot and killed by an officer. That officer was acquitted on murder charges last year, and that's when the government took over the case.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



JAMES A WOLFE 68 IN THIS EMBARRASSING AND SCANDALOUS ACT NOT ONLY GAVE IN TO TEMPTATION IN AN AFFAIR WITH A LOVER, BUT WITH TWO OTHER REPORTERS AS WELL, ACCORDING TO THE USATODAY.COM ARTICLE. THE MADDOW REPORT IS A FULLER VIDEO ACCOUNT, BUT I ALWAYS WANT BOTH PRINT AND VIDEO. THE FACT THAT IT WENT ON FOR YEARS RATHER THAN MONTHS IS A DANGER SIGN FOR OUR INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/7/18
DoJ seizes records of NY Times reporter in leak probe: NYT
Rachel Maddow shares breaking news from The New York Times that the Justice Deparment seized the records of and surveilled a national security reporter who currently works for The New York Times, in an investigation of leaks of classified material. Duration: 11:33


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/07/feds-seize-new-york-times-reporters-phone-email-records-leak-probe/683548002/?csp=chromepush
Former Senate staffer indicted; Feds seize 'N.Y. Times' reporter's phone, email records in leak probe
Carolyn McAtee Cerbin and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY Published 10:23 p.m. ET June 7, 2018 | Updated 11:25 p.m. ET June 7, 2018

WASHINGTON — A veteran Senate Intelligence Committee staffer was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to FBI agents during an investigation into the leak of classified information in which federal authorities also seized emails and phone records belonging to a New York Times reporter.

James A. Wolfe, 58, who served as the committee's director of security for nearly three decades, is alleged to have made false statements to agents in December about his contacts with three reporters, according to federal court documents made public late Thursday.

One of the reporters was identified as New York Times correspondent Ali Watkins, the newspaper said Thursday night, adding that the Senate staffer and Watkins had a personal relationship.

"Mr. Wolfe's alleged conduct is a betrayal of the extraordinary public trust that had been placed in him," said Jessie Liu, the chief federal prosecutor in D.C. "It is hoped that these charges will be a warning to those who might lie to law enforcement to the detriment of the United States."

Wolfe is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.

A federal prosecutor notified Watkins on Feb. 13 that the DOJ had obtained information on her Google email accounts and Verizon phone, the Times reported. The seized records spanned years before and after Watkins joined the Times in 2017 to cover federal law enforcement.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issuing a stern warning over the multitude of leaks coming out of the White House. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) reports. Buzz60

Before she started at the Times, FBI agents sought information from her about a romantic relationship she had with Wolfe, but Watkins said she didn't answer those questions, which were part of an investigation into unauthorized leaks.

The Times reported that Watkins said Wolfe had not been a professional source of information for her. She said before joining the Times she told editors at two previous employers — BuzzFeed News and Politico — about her relationship with Wolfe and continued to cover national security and the Intelligence Committee for them.

According to Justice Department rules for getting information from, or records of, members of the news media, "the approach in every instance must be to strike the proper balance among several vital interests: Protecting national security, ensuring public safety, promoting effective law enforcement and the fair administration of justice, and safeguarding the essential role of the free press in fostering government accountability and an open society."

“It’s always disconcerting when a journalist’s telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department — through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process,” said Watkins’s personal lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall. “Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges.”

In August, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a broad crackdown on unauthorized disclosures of classified information, warning both would-be leakers and the media as he demanded that the "culture of leaking must stop."

Referring to an "explosion'' of leaks since President Trump took office, Sessions said the Justice Department has “more than tripled" the number of active leak investigations compared to the number pending at the end of the Obama administration.

"I have this warning for would-be leakers: Don't do it," Sessions said. "I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks," he said.


Adam Goldman
✔
@adamgoldmanNYT
SCOOP: Justice Dept. Seizes Times Reporter’s Email and Phone Records in Leak Investigation https://nyti.ms/2M7pLM7 with @npfandos

9:07 PM - Jun 7, 2018
Federal law enforcement officials secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records this year in an investigation of classified information leaks.
Ex-Senate Aide Charged in Leak Case Where Times Reporter’s Records Were Seized
Federal prosecutors seized the records as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information to the news media by a former Senate aide.

nytimes.com
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Twitter Ads info and privacy

At the same time, Sessions offered an ominous warning to the press, saying that prosecutors have launched a review of Justice policy related to subpoenas issued to media organizations in criminal investigations.

"We respect the important role that the press has and we give them respect, but it is not unlimited," Sessions said. "They cannot place lives at risk with impunity."

Sessions doubled down on that position in testifying on Capitol Hill in November: “We intend to get to the bottom of these leaks. I think it has reached epidemic proportions. It cannot be allowed to continue, and we will do our best effort to ensure it does not continue.”

Sessions' remarks threatened a break with the Obama Justice Department policy, which asserted that reporters would not be targeted.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, taking fire for aggressive investigative tactics taken against journalists, pledged in 2013 that he would "not prosecute any reporter'' for doing their jobs.

The Trump Justice Department, however, has offered no such blanket protections, as Sessions also announced the creation of a new counterintelligence unit within the FBI that would focus exclusively on leaks of classified material to the press and others.

"The attorney general has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice," Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a statement late Thursday. "The allegations in this indictment are doubly troubling as the false statements concern the unauthorized disclosures of sensitive and confidential information."

According to her Times biography, Watkins has been credited with several journalistic scoops, including revealing that Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, met with a Russian spy in 2013. She also discovered details on China’s harassment of American spies.And she was the first to report the name of the Russian woman, Olga Vinogradova, who met with former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos during the 2016 campaign.

While working for McClatchy, Watkins was part of a Pulitzer-finalist team for reporting on the CIA's spying on Senate Intelligence Committee computers.

More: Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces broad crackdown on leaks, issues warning to press

More: As Jeff Sessions announces leak crackdown, here are 12 major leaks of the Trump era

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Carolyn McAtee Cerbin on Twitter: @carolyncerbin



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-dangerous-myths-about-social-security/
5 dangerous myths about Social Security
By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH June 8, 2018, 6:00 AM

The Social Security system's costs will exceed its income this year, the first time that has happened since 1982.

Plenty of workers may take this development with a grain of salt because of the widespread belief that they'll never see a Social Security check in their lifetime. More than half of working Americans don't think they'll receive a benefit when they retire, according to a Gallup poll in 2015.

Yet that common belief -- that Social Security won't be around when today's workers retire -- is far from the truth, and it could very well undermine the political will to fix a system that currently supports 67 million Americans. The report from the program's trustees on Tuesday underscore that lawmakers need to act now to stabilize and expand the program, said Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, at a Thursday hearing to discuss the development.

"We need to act," Johnson said. "Workers and their families need the certainty that we've gotten Social Security on the right track."

Lawmakers have taken steps to shore up Social Security in past decades. In 1983, a bipartisan effort stabilized the program by gradually raising the full retirement age to 67 and requiring government employees to pay into Social Security, a first.

Lawmakers say new fixes are now needed, especially as a major demographic shift is underway. About 10,000 baby boomers each day are claiming Social Security for the first time, while many millennials are so far opting to sit out on parenthood, leading to a 30-year low in U.S. births.

"It's largely about the demographics," said Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, at the hearing. "It's like the tide is inevitable."

Those demographic shifts may be impossible to change, but Social Security is not. Here are five misperceptions many Americans hold about the program.

A trust fund holds my Social Security investments
The Social Security Administration refers to the program as operating two "trust funds," one for disability and one for the Social Security pension program. Yet they aren't trust funds in the traditional sense, meaning money socked away in an account that's dedicated to your personal investments.

The term creates "much unintended confusion," according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In fact, the Social Security trust fund operates more like an accounting ledger, according to the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation. The Treasury estimates its tax receipts, then "credits" that amount to the Social Security trust fund. Next, it subtracts the money paid in monthly Social Security benefits from the balance of the trust fund. "No money actually changes hands," it noted. Remaining funds are then invested in special Treasurys.

It will be bankrupt by the time I retire
That's simply untrue. While the program faces a funding shortfall by 2034, it isn't going broke.

One key issue is the Social Security reserves, which the program will dip into this year because its payments will outstrip its income. That $2.9 trillion surplus is on hand to fund benefits in case of situations like the one facing the program this year. The reason lawmakers are concerned is that the reserves will be depleted by 2034 for the Social Security program and 2032 for disability -- if nothing changes.

That will leave the program unable to pay full Social Security benefits.

Today's workers won't receive any benefits
That's a commonly voiced fear, but it's far from the truth. If nothing is changed and the Social Security reserves run out by 2034, the program will still be able to pay three-quarters of its benefits.

Granted, that's harmful to seniors, especially for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. But Social Security will still be paying out benefits for today's workers at least through 2092, which is as far as the Social Security administration has forecasted its operations.

It's impossible to fix Social Security
Actually, there are plenty of ideas for how to fix it.

They include raising the income cap on which workers pay Social Security tax, currently $128,400, or raising the tax rate that workers currently pay.

The latter could "cost you 50 cents a week," and would help replenish the Social Security reserves, said Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut, at the hearing. Larson's proposal would boost the contribution rate gradually from 6.2 percent to 7.4 percent by 2042. He also proposes boosting the payroll tax to wages higher than $400,000.

The government dips into Social Security to fund other programs
Not true. Washington doesn't raid the Social Security program to spend on pork-barrel projects or if it's running low.

Instead, as CBS MoneyWatch columnist Steve Vernon explains, the reserves are invested in special U.S. Treasurys and become part of the government's overall funding. Other investors are also buying U.S. Treasurys, of course. The government mingles the proceeds from those bonds with other revenue, including the Social Security's special bonds.

Here's another way to think of it: When you buy newly issued stock from a company, the business then invests that money across its operations. The special Treasurys Social Security buys are legally obligated to pay the stated market interest rate and to prepay the principal at maturity.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund
Social Security Trust Fund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund (collectively, the Social Security Trust Fund or Trust Funds) are trust funds that provide for payment of Social Security (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance; OASDI) benefits administered by the United States Social Security Administration.[1][2][3]

The Social Security Administration collects payroll taxes and uses the money collected to pay Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits by way of trust funds. When the program runs a surplus, the excess funds increase the value of the Trust Fund. At the end of 2014, the Trust Fund contained (or alternatively, was owed) $2.79 trillion, up $25 billion from 2013.[4] The Trust Fund is required by law to be invested in non-marketable securities issued and guaranteed by the "full faith and credit" of the federal government. These securities earn a market rate of interest.[5]

Excess funds are used by the government for non-Social Security purposes, creating the obligations to the Social Security Administration and thus program recipients. However, Congress could cut these obligations by altering the law. Trust Fund obligations are considered "intra-governmental" debt, a component of the "public" or "national" debt. As of June 2015, the intragovernmental debt was $5.1 trillion of the $18.2 trillion national debt.[6]

According to the Social Security Trustees, who oversee the program and report on its financial condition, program costs are expected to exceed non-interest income from 2010 onward. However, due to interest (earned at a 3.6% rate in 2014) the program will run an overall surplus that adds to the fund through the end of 2019. Under current law, the securities in the Trust Fund represent a legal obligation the government must honor when program revenues are no longer sufficient to fully fund benefit payments. However, when the Trust Fund is used to cover program deficits in a given year, the Trust Fund balance is reduced. By 2034, the Trust Fund is expected to be exhausted. Thereafter, payroll taxes are projected to only cover approximately 79% of program obligations.[7]

There have been various proposals to address this shortfall, including reducing government expenditures, such as by raising the retirement age; tax increases; and borrowing.

Structure
The "Social Security Trust Fund" comprises two separate funds that hold federal government debt obligations related to what are traditionally thought of as Social Security benefits. The larger of these funds is the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which holds in trust special interest-bearing federal government securities bought with surplus OASI payroll tax revenues.[8] The second, smaller fund is the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, which holds in trust more of the special interest-bearing federal government securities, bought with surplus DI payroll tax revenues.[9]

The trust funds are "off-budget" and treated separately in certain ways from other federal spending, and other trust funds of the federal government. From the U.S. Code:

EXCLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY FROM ALL BUDGETS Pub.L. 101–508, title XIII, Sec. 13301(a), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1388-623, provided that: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the receipts and disbursements of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund shall not be counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of - (1) the budget of the United States Government as submitted by the President, (2) the congressional budget, or (3) the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

The trust funds run surpluses in that the amount paid in by current workers is more than the amount paid out to current beneficiaries. These surpluses are given to the U.S. Treasury (and thus become part of the general federal budget) in exchange for special U.S. government securities, which are deposited into the trust funds. If the trust funds begin running deficits, meaning more in benefits are paid out than contributions paid in, the Social Security Administration is empowered to redeem the securities and use those funds to cover the deficit.

. . . .

History
The Social Security system is primarily a pay-as-you-go system, meaning that payments to current retirees come from current payments into the system.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter and the 95th Congress increased the FICA tax to fund Social Security, phased in gradually into the 1980s.[13] In the early 1980s, financial projections of the Social Security Administration indicated near-term revenue from payroll taxes would not be sufficient to fully fund near-term benefits (thus raising the possibility of benefit cuts). The federal government appointed the National Commission on Social Security Reform, headed by Alan Greenspan (who had not yet been named Chairman of the Federal Reserve), to investigate what additional changes to federal law were necessary to shore up the fiscal health of the Social Security program.[14] The Greenspan Commission projected that the system would be solvent for the entirety of its 75-year forecast period with certain recommendations.[14] The changes to federal law enacted in 1983 and signed by President Reagan [2] and pursuant to the recommendations of the Greenspan Commission advanced the time frame for previously scheduled payroll tax increases (though it raised slightly the payroll tax for the self-employed to equal the employer-employee rate), changed certain benefit calculations, and raised the retirement age to 67 by the year 2027.[15] As of the end of calendar year 2010, the accumulated surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund stood at just over $2.6 trillion.[16]

Social Security benefits are paid from a combination of social security payroll taxes paid by current workers and interest income earned by the Social Security Trust Fund. According to the projections of the Social Security Administration, the Trust Fund will continue to show net growth until 2022[17] because the interest generated by its bonds and the revenue from payroll taxes exceeds the amount needed to pay benefits. After 2022, without increases in Social Security taxes or cuts in benefits, the Fund is projected to decrease each year until being fully exhausted in 2034. At this point, if legislative action is not taken, the benefits would be reduced.[18]

. . . .

Overview

The Trust Fund represents a legal obligation of the federal government to program beneficiaries. The government has borrowed nearly $2.8 trillion as of 2014 from the Trust Fund and used the money for other purposes. Under current law, when the program goes into an annual cash deficit, the government has to seek alternate funding beyond the payroll taxes dedicated to the program to cover the shortfall. This reduces the trust fund balance to the extent this occurs. The program deficits are expected to exhaust the fund by 2034. Thereafter, since Social Security is only authorized to pay beneficiaries what it collects in payroll taxes dedicated to the program, program payouts will fall by an estimated 21%.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-official-done-russian-interference-2016-election-090039831.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=5e53fef9-5fa4-39a8-abc4-01c97ce294c4&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Obama official: 'We should have done more' on Russian interference in 2016 election
Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News • June 8, 2018

Ben Rhodes, one of President Obama’s top national security advisers, acknowledged “we should have done more” to call attention to Russia’s information war during the 2016 election, noting that a much-heralded October statement from the U.S. intelligence community failed to even address a major part of the Russian attack.

“If you look at the October statement from the intelligence community, it doesn’t say anything about fake news,” Rhodes said in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. “All it talks about is that the Russians hacked and release some of the material, which I think was only a small piece of their information war. … My own view is we could have done more and said more certainly about the information war and fake news dissemination.”

At the same time, Rhodes sharply criticized Facebook for not taking more aggressive steps to block Russian trolls from manipulating its platform and sharing information with the U.S. government.


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“And frankly, I don’t think Facebook has had anywhere near the interaction with the government and frankly the scrutiny that is necessary to say, Look, it’s not enough to just mouth words about this,” Rhodes said. “Having your platform essentially hijacked for the purposes of a foreign adversary living in information boards is something we need to deal with just as aggressively as we dealt with ISIS using social media. And I don’t see that happening yet either.”

Rhodes’ comments — a rare on-the-record admission of a lapse by a senior Obama official — came during a discussion of his new book, “The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House.” The book recounts Rhodes’s role as a speechwriter and senior adviser throughout the Obama presidency, complete with fly-on-the-wall accounts of deliberations over the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Iran nuclear deal, the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and other episodes.

Vladimir Putin with Barack Obama
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, September 2016. (Photo: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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But in its chapter on the Obama response to the Russian attack on the election, Rhodes makes clear he bristled when he was told he was excluded from National Security Council deliberations in the summer of 2016 — purportedly because he was the White House’s designated liaison to the Clinton campaign. When he was told by his boss, Susan Rice, that he couldn’t participate in the debate over Russia, “I walked downstairs to my office and sank into my chair,” Rhodes writes in his book. “For eight years, I’d worked my way up to the place where I thought I’d always be in the room and now I was being kept out of the most important conversation of all. My mind raced with a mix of self-pity and self-blame.”

Download or subscribe on iTunes: “Skullduggery” by Yahoo News

But Rhodes suggested that his exclusion might have made a difference because he — as well as former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki — had sought to combat how the Russians had manipulated social media during the country’s military intervention in Ukraine, flooding the world with bogus accounts of the 2014 shoot-down of Malaysian airlines Flight 17 and other developments during the crisis in that country.

Obama officials as well as the U.S. intelligence community failed to understand how the Russians were taking their playbook from the Ukraine crisis and now deploying it against the United States, Rhodes said.

“You learn in government who’s in the room kind of dictates what’s on the agenda, and not only was I not in the room,” Rhodes said during his Skullduggery interview, “nobody who focused on communications was in the room.” Instead, “our government kind of put [the Russian attack] in a box of cybersecurity. You know, they hacked something, they released it, we have to protect the election infrastructure.”

“So, I think it’s maybe not just me, but if somebody with that communication perspective had been in the room, there might’ve been more attention on this other set of capabilities that we had been living with from Ukraine for years, that they were deploying in the United States,” Rhodes said. “Because, essentially, they took their war machine that they built in Ukraine and just brought it to America in 2016.”

Whether calling more attention to the issue during the election would have made a difference is another question. When he later raised the issue with Obama directly, and told him, “We’re going to be criticized for not focusing on this,” Rhodes said the president downplayed the issue. “His belief was that, essentially, the Russians had found soft spots in our media and society such that, if we were calling that out, the people who consume that fake news aren’t going to listen to Obama anyway, Trump’s going to say it [the election] is rigged.”

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawyer-suing-trump-emoluments-sees-case-going-ahead-163610147.html
Lawyer suing Trump over emoluments expects to see hotel records
Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News • June 1, 2018

Norm Eisen; Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Paul Morigi/ Brookings Institution, AP)

In what could presage a new legal headache for the Trump White House, the lawyer leading a suit against President Trump over his ownership of a Washington hotel says he is “confident” that a federal judge will require the Trump Organization to begin turning over evidence about the hotel’s internal operations — a key step that could reveal details about the president’s finances.

The suit charges that the president is profiting from foreign governments doing business with Trump International Hotel, in violation of the Constitution.

“I do believe there is going to be accountability for this,” said Norm Eisen, the chief of Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), in an interview on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. “This is the first time in American history that a president has been brazen enough to take emoluments” — referring to the clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars presidents from taking foreign gifts or payments from foreign governments.

Eisen, who served as special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Obama, is the chief counsel in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia claiming that foreign governments doing business with Trump’s hotel in Washington violate the Emoluments Clause of the constitution. Lawyers for the president recently asked U.S. Judge Peter Messitte, who is presiding over the case, to toss the lawsuit on the grounds that the president can’t be sued in his personal or official capacity.

But Eisen, noting that Messitte has already allowed the case to proceed, said he fully expects another favorable ruling after a hearing in the case over the scope of the Emoluments Clause slated for June 11. “We are confident the judge is going to allow us to take discovery,” he said.

The president’s decision to maintain ownership of his business while serving in the White House is only one of the ethics issues that has drawn the attention of ethics watchdogs like Eisen. In the interview with Skullduggery hosts Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff, Eisen also pointed to benefits the Trump family businesses have received from the Chinese government. Ivanka Trump’s accessories company was recently granted seven trademarks by the regime, and a Chinese state-owned construction company provided $500 million in financing to Indonesian developers for construction of a theme park venture that will include a Trump-branded hotel and golf course.

Download or subscribe on iTunes: “Skullduggery” by Yahoo News

“The Chinese are a one-party state, Isikoff,” Eisen said. “Do you believe these [Chinese] officials are not aware they are giving these benefits to the Trump family members and they don’t intend to shape American policy? Of course they do.”

While he acknowledged he has no “conclusive” evidence of a “quid pro quo,” Eisen noted that these moves came around the same time that Trump tweeted, on May 13, his intention to provide relief for China’s telecom giant, ZTE, which was subject to U.S. sanctions for doing business with Iran and North Korea.

“Look at the proximity,” Eisen said. ZTE is a “threat to American national security and Trump says we are going to save ZTE. That happens around the same time as this $500 million [Indonesian] financing and these trademarks to Ivanka. It is a lot” to accept that “it’s just a coincidence.”

More “Skullduggery” from Yahoo News:

Episode 1: A look back at the Lewinsky scandal
Episode 2: Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on ‘The Post’
Episode 3: Who did you vote for?
Episode 4: The spy, the reporter and the memo
Episode 5: The FBI under siege
Episode 6: Michael Cohen’s ‘stormy’ screwup
Episode 7: The troll farm hiding in plain sight
Episode 8: The incredible shrinking Jared Kushner
Episode 9: Who poisoned the Russian double agent in England?
Episode 10: The inside story of ‘Russian Roulette’
Episode 11: Do not congratulate
Episode 12: Ken Starr on Stormy Daniels
Episode 13: The Comey blitzkrieg
Episode 14: With all due respect…
Episode 15: Skullduggery Live!
Episode 16: I’m crushing it!
Episode 17: ‘I believe you have some information for us’
Episode 18: Trump’s ‘ridiculous’ spy claim



https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44404246
Science & Environment
Oldest 'footprints' found in China

PHOTOGRAPH -- The trackways date to the Ediacaran Period

The oldest known "footprints" left by an animal have been uncovered in southern China.

The identity of the creature that made the 546-million-year-old tracks is still unknown, but they come from the period when the earliest animals are thought to have evolved.

The fossil consists of two rows of imprints that represent the earliest known record of an animal with legs.

The research by a Chinese team appears in Science Advances journal.

Team-members are unclear whether the creature had two legs or several. But they say the tracks probably belong to a bilaterian.

This is a group of animals characterised by having paired appendages - in this case, perhaps, paired legs. They are one of the most diverse animal groups in existence today.

These legs raised the animal's body above the sediment it was moving across.

The trackways were found in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China. The rocks they come from are dated to between 551 million and 541 million years old.

"Previously identified footprints are between 540 and 530 million years old. The new fossils are probably up to 10 million years older," the study's co-author Zhe Chen, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

He added: "At least three living groups of animals have paired appendages (represented by arthropods, such as bumblebees; annelids, such as bristle worms; and tetrapods, such as humans).

"Arthropods and annelids, or their ancestors, are possibilities."

The animal appears to have paused from time to time, since the trackways seem to be connected to burrows that may have been dug into the sediment, perhaps to obtain food.



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