JULY 23 and 24, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


DEMS DETECTED? OR ANOTHER FOX UNTRUTH? TODAY’S ARTICLE CONFIRMED THE FACTS HERE. NEITHER ARTICLE HAS COMMENTED ON WHY THIS WOULD BE DONE, AND WHY SO SECRETIVELY. I REALLY DON’T LIKE IT. 270 WEBSITES IMPLYING US SENATORS ARE 'FOR SALE' WERE PURCHASED BY THE DSCC – I WANT A FULL EXPLANATION FROM THEM TO BE PUBLISHED, AND AN APOLOGY TO THE SENATORS WHO WERE TARGETED.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/23/mystery-solved-democrats-behind-purchase-websites-implying-us-senators-for-sale.html
MIDTERM ELECTIONS JULY 23, 2018 6 hours ago
Mystery Solved: Democrats behind purchase of websites implying US senators 'for sale'
Associated Press

IMAGE -- The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has quietly purchased dozens of web addresses implying U.S. senators were "for sale," according to the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of web addresses implying U.S. senators were "for sale" have been quietly and mysteriously purchased online, amid heightened concerns on Capitol Hill that foreign agents -- especially Russians -- might be trying to meddle in upcoming midterm elections.

An Associated Press investigation found the responsible party: Democrats.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee acknowledged to the AP that it had quietly purchased the addresses, which use a new internet suffix "forsale," in March for at least 27 incumbent senators facing re-election this fall and in 2020, without telling the senators. The cybersecurity director for the sergeant-at-arms, the highest-ranking U.S. law enforcement officer in the Senate, has been looking into the matter.

The addresses now controlled by the Democratic political group include the names of mostly Democrats but some prominent Republicans, too. The group masked its role in the purchase to ensure its identity as the buyer remained anonymous. The current price for such addresses, with a privacy guard, is roughly $18 each.

"It's a routine campaign practice to purchase URLs to stop bad actors from getting them, and if we eventually decided to develop a URL into a website then there would be a clear disclosure of who was operating it," said Lauren Passalacqua, communications director at the DSCC.

Buying politically-related web addresses to use them later online -- or prevent rival campaigns from using them -- has been a routine practice for decades. But Washington has been transfixed by criminal charges filed against Russian military officers accused of secretly meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, accused by federal prosecutors of setting up websites like DCLeaks.com and using anonymous Twitter accounts to peddle embarrassing information about U.S. politicians.

U.S. intelligence chief Dan Coats has cautioned that the "warning lights are blinking red" and that "the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack."

The mysterious "forsale" purchases set off alarms. AP's review found roughly 280 political web addresses registered under the "forsale" domain, targeting President Donald Trump, the GOP, Supreme Court and National Rifle Association, as well as individual Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it was responsible for at least 27 of them targeting U.S. senators and didn't provide further details.

"In this particular atmosphere, anything along these lines is concerning, because there's so much opportunity for malicious use of the internet, particularly in campaigns," said Angus King, I-Maine, before AP solved the mystery. King declined to comment after learning from AP that Democrats were responsible.

The latest actions show how lines and motives in American politics can blur among foreign adversaries, U.S. dirty-tricksters, pranksters or speculators hoping eventually to sell the web addresses to campaigns or their rivals. None of the addresses for the senators appears to be associated with an operational website, obscuring motives for future uses. Unlike in cases where so-called squatters register web addresses they hope to sell for profit, there were no indications the addresses were being made available for resale or populated with ads to make money.

Tim Groeling, an expert on political communication and new media at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the anonymity sought by the Democratic group was what troubled him. The identities of whoever registered the websites were purposefully masked. He said it's common for campaigns to purchase permutations of candidate names defensively and to use offensively against political opponents.

"The lack of transparency is both concerning from a standpoint of the potential for other governments to do this type of thing and not be revealed, and our domestic politics," Groeling said. "I'm a big fan of transparency. I think a lot of things can be fixed with sunlight."

The addresses use the new internet suffix "forsale" first made available in 2015 and intended to help consumers sell unwanted items without paying auction sites. The addresses the Democrats registered included the names of Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; King; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss. and Dean Heller, R-Nev.

The technology infrastructure of the U.S. Senate and its offices around the country are the responsibility of the sergeant at arms. Terry Gainer, who previously served as sergeant at arms until 2014, said that if he had learned of the mysterious addresses in the current political environment, he would have his cybersecurity officer as well as the Capitol Police made aware. He said he would also ask the Secret Service and FBI to investigate.

"I don't believe in coincidences, and again, what's been going on since the whole Russian intrusions, there'd be much more sensitivity about taking a look at this," Gainer said.

It was unclear who purchased the addresses targeting the NRA, GOP and others. Internet records showed they were purchased anonymously hours before the Democrats bought the ones with the senators' names, and within seconds of each other. The address implying the Supreme Court was for sale was purchased last month.

"It's no different from dot-sucks," said Paul Vixie, a highly regarded computer scientist who helped design the system of internet addresses currently in use. "Social commentary has always thrived on the internet, due to reach and cost issues. These politicians are right to reserve those names, but wrong if they think other domains only slightly less clean won't appear."

Warren's staff declined to comment, as did McCaskill's and Cruz's. Heller, Casey, Heitkamp, Sanders and Wicker did not respond to questions. The GOP, DNC and NRA also did not respond to questions from the AP.

Politicians and celebrities, especially, have trademark rights to their own names, and can file a complaint and request arbitration through the World Intellectual Property Organization or the National Arbitration Forum with whoever registered the website, according to Alexander Urbelis, a partner at the New York-based Blackstone Law Group who detected the new registrations.

"It's a really nutty thing to do unilaterally because it's going to set off alarm bells," Urbelis said.


SHE SHOULD NEVER HAVE OPENED THIS BUSINESS WHILE HOLDING A POSITION IN THE WHITE HOUSE. IT WAS UNETHICAL AND MAY HELP TO QUALIFY HER FATHER FOR IMPEACHMENT.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/ivanka-trump-closing-down-her-fashion-business-citing-conflict-white-n894141
fashion business to focus on her White House role
"My focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington," she said.
by Ben Popken / Jul.24.2018 / 1:54 PM ET

PHOTOGRAPH -- Ivanka Trump at the White House on June 7, 2018, in Washington.Andrew Harnik / AP file

Ivanka Trump is shuttering her clothing line in order to focus on her role as senior adviser in her father's White House, the company announced Tuesday.

"When we first started this brand, no one could have predicted the success that we would achieve," said Ms. Trump in a statement to NBC News. "After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners."

The closure of Ms. Trump's business, which was first reported by the The Wall Street Journal, will reduce its entanglements in President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda and protectionist trade practices. According to a report, workers at one of the Chinese factories of Ivanka Trump's clothing line were paid $62 a week. Her business employs 18 people.

Ivanka Trump is closing her fashion brand
JUL.24.201802:38

Last week, Ms. Trump heavily promoted a new White House push to get American businesses to hire American workers. When asked in an interview with Gray Television whether she would ask the Trump Organization to sign the same pledge, Trump said it was "a great idea" but wanted to "recuse" herself from "calling them."

Earlier this month, Canadian retail giant Hudson's Bay, which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, said it would begin phasing out Ivanka Trump's goods, citing weak sales. That move comes amid a growing trade war between America and its trading partners, which stems from Trump's decision to impose punitive tariffs on all imported aluminum and steel, including Canadian imports. The Ivanka Trump company said it had been notified of the pullback in the fall of 2017.

Ms. Trump started the brand in 2014 and sales soared during the 2016 presidential campaign, in part thanks to her glamorous, high-profile appearances on the campaign trail.

Image: Ivanka Trump boots on saleIvanka Trump brand boots for sale at the Century 21 department store in New York on Feb. 10, 2017.Drew Angerer / Getty Images file

But in 2016 a grassroots anti-Trump social media campaign named #GrabYourWallet hit the Ivanka brands with calls for boycotts, crowdsourcing a database of businesses for activists to contact and demand they end ties.

"This is a resounding success," Shannon Coulter, the campaign's founder, told NBC News in an online message.

What Lebron James’ salary says about the value of labor in America

"We've seen increased momentum in the wake of the immigration crisis caused by the Trump administration and Hudson's Bay subsequent dropping of the Trump brand," said Coulter, a digital marketing strategist in San Francisco, California. "I believe Ivanka is closing her company in order to avoid the further embarrassment of major retailers dropping her line."

But in 2017 as anti-Trump backlash began to grow over connection to her father's divisive and controversial policies, retailers began distancing themselves from the Trump line.

They took down in-store promotional signage and relegated Ivanka's lines to their back racks, or continued to sell in store while removing the products from their website.

Citing poor sales, upscale retailer Nordstom declined to fully renew its spring order for the Ivanka Trump line. That prompted her father to lash out at the company on Twitter.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!

11:51 AM - Feb 8, 2017
136K
118K people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Ms. Trump's business later launched a direct-to-consumer website that would bypass reluctant retailers.

Though Ms. Trump made note of "strong sales" and a "rapidly growing" e-commerce business in her statement on Tuesday, the challenging optics had continued to mount.

Critics uncovered records of Chinese trademark approvals for Ivanka Trump products that showed the applications were approved after President Trump conceded to Chinese demands to lift a ban on the ZTE electronics manufacturing company that had been put in place following allegations it was involved in stealing American trade secrets.

Ms. Trump had put her company, IT Collection LLC, in a trust to help alleviate conflict-of-interest concerns. But because she is a public figure, those concerns were unavoidable. She wore items from her company's collection during appearances in her White House role, granting free advertising to her personal company from her public role, potentially running afoul of rules that bar government employees from using their public office for private gain or endorsements.

The challenges started almost right away. Ivanka Trump wore a $10,000 bracelet from her collection during an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" and one of her vice presidents of sales sent a "style alert" to journalists encouraging them to share it.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Simon Cullen
✔
@Simon_Cullen
Ivanka Trump's jewelry company sent a 'style alert' to journalists, promoting the bracelet she wore alongside her dad on @60Minutes

4:32 PM - Nov 15, 2016
1
See Simon Cullen's other Tweets
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Ms. Trump shared the news with her staff at Trump Tower and visited with members of her team, who were "most likely surprised," as the company had previously committed to staying in business for the foreseeable future, according to a source close to Ms. Trump. The staff would be receiving settlements in line with industry standards, the source said.



THIRD WAY? NO WAY!

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/22/terrified-progressive-enthusiasm-sweeping-nation-corporate-democrats-have-begun
Published on
Sunday, July 22, 2018
byCommon Dreams
Terrified by Progressive Enthusiasm Sweeping the Nation, Corporate Democrats Have Begun Planning a 'Counterrevolution'

"A reminder that these are the same people who tried to cut Social Security under Obama. Anyone who associates with Third Way is part of a plan to do it under the next president."

byJake Johnson, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- Democratic leaders "need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down and saying, 'That wouldn't really work,'" said social worker Rachel Conner. (Photo: Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

Corporate Democrats are extremely worried about the wave of progressive enthusiasm that is sweeping the country in red and blue states alike, and—according to a report by NBC News on Sunday—they are beginning to organize a "counterrevolution" to beat it back.

Ignoring survey after survey showing that progressive priorities like Medicare for All, a living wage, and tuition-free public college are overwhelmingly popular among the American public, Democratic politicians and operatives with the notorious think-tank Third Way used an invite-only event in Columbus, Ohio on Friday to tout an alternative agenda that centers on "opportunity" and access rather than equality—a platform that explicitly avoids alienating the ultra-wealthy.

"You're not going to make me hate somebody just because they're rich. I want to be rich!" Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said during last week's closed-door event, which was titled "Opportunity 2020."

"Once again," added Third Way president Jon Cowan, "the time has come to mend, but not end, capitalism for a new era."

As NBC's Alex Seitz-Wald notes, the "anxiety" centrist Democrats have felt about the rousing campaigns of democratic socialists and bold progressives like New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed "has largely been kept to a whisper among the party's moderates and big donors."

But now, with organized events and more frequent interviews with the press, corporate Democrats and strategists are beginning to openly state their plans to undercut surging progressive momentum, "with some of the major fundraisers pressing operatives on what can be done to stop" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) if he decides to launch another bid for the presidency, Seitz-Wald reports.

"Sanders' wing of the party terrifies moderate Dems," Seitz-Wald writes.

"They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down."
—Rachel Conner, social worker

In terms of electoral strategy, Democratic insiders are advocating an approach that reaches out to so-called moderate Republicans who have supposedly broken with Trump, instead of placing the bulk of their focus on inspiring both non-voters and Democrats disgruntled by the party's corporate turn.

"Where progressives see a rare opportunity to capitalize on an energized Democratic base, moderates see a better chance to win over Republicans turned off by Trump," as Seitz-Wald explains.

The problem with this approach, as many commentators have noted, is that it was tried in 2016—and it failed miserably.

As a counter to progressive ideas like a federal jobs guarantee, Medicare for All, and expanded Social Security benefits, NBC reports that Third Way has put forth an "apprenticeship program to train workers, a privatized employer-funded universal pension that would supplement Social Security, and an overhaul of unemployment insurance to include skills training."

Progressives were quick to denounce such proposals as a thinly-veiled push to privatize Social Security and undermine more ambitious—and far more popular—left-wing proposals that have been winning big in Democratic primaries across the nation.

Responding to the Democratic establishment's attempts to dismiss the successes of bold progressives and uphold a toxic status quo, 27-year-old social worker Rachel Conner told the New York Times on Saturday: "They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down and saying, 'That wouldn't really work.'"

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

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THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL DUST UPS WITH CANADA IN THE LAST YEAR OR SO. IS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STIRRING UP A CONFLICT WITH THEM PURPOSELY? SURELY, HE WOULDN’T TRY TO DO THAT. THEY ARE OUR FRIENDS, AND WE NEED THEM.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canadian-pot-investors-are-being-banned-from-entering-us/
CBS NEWS July 24, 2018, 7:46 AM
Canadian pot investors are being banned from entering the U.S.

More than 30,000 people cross the U.S.-Canadian border in Blaine, Washington, every day. For most, it's a trouble-free experience but for some Canadian business people, that seems to be changing.

Sam Znaimer is a Vancouver, Canada-based venture capitalist who has been investing in everything from tech to telecommunications for more than 30 years. Recently, he put more than $100,000 into legal American cannabis companies. In May, when he attempted to drive across the border, he was flagged for a secondary inspection and questioned for four hours.

"To my shock and horror, I was told that I was deemed to be inadmissible to the United States because I was assisting and abetting in the illicit trafficking of drugs," Znaimer said. "They never asked whether I had consumed marijuana, the only thing that they're interested in is that I've been an investor in U.S.-based cannabis companies."

nfa-blackstone-canda-pot-border-needs-gfx-frame-1707.jpg
CBS News SAM ZNAIMER
Marijuana in some form is legal in 30 states and Washington D.C., but it's still outlawed by the U.S. federal government.

"I was shocked. I couldn't believe that anyone as peripherally involved with these companies as an investor could possibly be deemed to be assisting and abetting. It is a huge regulatory overreach," Znaimer said.

American immigration attorney Len Saunders said he's seen at least a dozen cases like Znaimer's at the Blaine land crossing as well as airports in Vancouver and Edmonton over the past few months. In the prior 15 years that he's practiced law on the border, he'd never seen one.

"You're being barred because you're getting paid through drug money, even though it's marijuana," Saunders said. "It might as well be cocaine or heroin…These are not people who have criminal convictions, these are not people who are terrorists or a threat to the United States"

In June, Canada became only the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide. It's also home to one of the only securities exchanges on the planet where people can buy stock in American pot companies. Analysts estimate 44 percent of the $5.7 billion invested in legal cannabis around the world come to Canada.

Giadha Aguirre De Carcer analyzes cannabis industry data, and she fears that Canadian investors will be scared away from putting their money in the American market.

"Canada has matured as a market, with better regulation, faster and earlier," De Carcer said. "It could have a very damaging effect to legal cannabis businesses in the United States, and it could do so to the point of crippling the market."

As for what this does to relations between Canadian investors and the United States, Znamier said he believes it was intended to "provide a huge chill on business travel into the United States" and for him, "it's been hugely effective."

The U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection didn't respond when asked if these actions are part of a new border enforcement policy. Instead, it notes that "marijuana remains federally prohibited in the United States," that it's "officers are thoroughly trained on admissibility factors" and that their determinations "are made on a case-by-case basis ...based on the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time."

But that's little comfort to Sam Znamier. Although he may be able to get a costly and temporary waiver to his ban sometime in the future, for now, he's unable to cross the world's longest international border, possibly for the rest of his life.

The impact on Canadian businesspeople is dramatic, but Americans who travel overseas and return to the U.S. are not affected because by law American citizens cannot be stopped from returning home.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THIS THIRD WAY IS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND NOT THE REPUBLICAN. READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ON WHAT THE THIRD WAY IS FOR ORIGIN AND POLICY POSITIONS. THIS BRAND OF CLINTON GOVERNMENT IS WHY SO MANY OF US WERE FED UP AND ANGRY WHEN BERNIE SANDERS CAME ALONG. THEIR MASTERS ON WALL STREET AND THE KOCH BROTHERS ARE MISTAKEN. IT JUST WON’T WORK.

READ ALSO THIS WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON THIRD WAY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-altman/wall-streets-third-way-ab_b_9125786.html
THE BLOG 01/31/2016 02:37 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017
Wall Street’s Third Way Absurdly Wrong About Sanders’ Social Security Plan
headshot
By Nancy Altman

PHOTOGRAPH – BERNIE SANDERS SPEAKING ASSOCIATED PRESS

Third Way is reaching the point of desperation in its quest to cut Social Security and protect its Wall Street, K Street lobbyist, and GOP donors from paying their fair share. As Third Way has become more and more marginalized, its public outpourings have become more and more extreme and, quite frankly, head-scratching.

In a 2011 Politico column, “Progressives: Wise Up,” Third Way’s president and vice president for policy lectured advocates for Social Security to stop fighting a Grand Bargain that would have cut Social Security’s modest benefits - cuts that are opposed by 93.8 percent of Americans.

In 2013, the duo took to the Wall Street Journal where they attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren for proposing to expand Social Security as a solution to the nation’s looming retirement income crisis. This time, they lectured not just progressives; they warned the entire Democratic Party not to “follow Sen. Warren...over the populist cliff.” Since Senator Warren was standing with the 90 percent of Democrats (and 73 percent of Republicans) who want to increase Social Security benefits, it was no surprise that Third Way admitted that they represented, “no people,” beholden only to their wealthy paymasters.

Now, as Senator Bernie Sanders is running strong for the Democratic nomination for president on a platform that includes the incredibly sound and popular idea of expanding Social Security, Third Way is at it again. In a new report, “How the Sanders Social Security Plan is Not Progressive,” Third Way is warning the electorate that Sanders is coddling the rich. (In the report’s words, the Sanders plan is “substantially tilted toward the wealthy.”)

Sanders, who daily attacks the “billionaire class,” is proposing to benefit the rich at the expense of the rest of us? Sound preposterous? That is because it is. Let’s examine the facts.

In recognition that the nation is facing a looming retirement income crisis, a disappearing middle class, and perilously rising upward redistribution of wealth, a growing number of policymakers are joining the vast majority of the American people in understanding that Social Security is a solution. Social Security is the most efficient, universal, secure and fair retirement income program around. It provides an essential - though too modest - foundation for America’s working families. As a byproduct it is the nation’s most effective anti-poverty program, keeping over 22 million beneficiaries - including over one million children - out of poverty and lessening the depths of poverty for millions more.

But Social Security’s benefits are woefully low by virtually any standard. Given the deterioration of the rest of the retirement system, including disappearing pension programs and risky options from Wall Street that mainly benefit the wealthy, stagnating wages, and lost home equity, the case for expanding Social Security is overwhelming. Congress has not increased Social Security benefits in many decades. Moreover, as the consequence of actions by past Congresses, they will be even lower, as a percentage of final pay, for future beneficiaries.

Understanding these facts, 43 Senators and 116 members of the House of Representatives — about 70 percent of the Democrats in Congress - are on record in favor of expanding, not cutting, Social Security. Among them is Senator Bernie Sanders. Indeed, he has introduced legislation to do just that.

Here is what Sanders’s plan would do. First, it would increase Social Security’s benefits across-the-board, but in a progressive manner. Those with the lowest earnings would receive the largest increases as a percentage of those earnings. Second, it would increase Social Security’s minimum benefit so that those who work a lifetime at low wages would not retire into poverty, as they do now. Third, it would adopt a more accurate cost of living increase, so that Social Security’s modest benefits don’t erode in value more and more with each passing year, as they do now. To restore Social Security to long range actuarial balance, including paying for these improvements, Sanders’ plan imposes new taxes on those with annual incomes in excess of $250,000.

According to the Social Security Administration, these new taxes will raise an additional $11.9 trillion over the next 75 years. The new benefits that the Sanders plan provides will cost Social Security $3.4 trillion. Taking increased revenue and increased benefits together, the proposal will net the Social Security trust funds an additional $8.5 trillion to restore Social Security to long-range actuarial balance.

Sounds both progressive and responsible, doesn’t it? So how can Third Way claim not only that the Sanders plan is not progressive, but indeed, that it is “substantially tilted toward the wealthy,” as its report does? Only by playing fast and loose, with an apparent desire to obfuscate and confuse, not illuminate and explain.

Conveniently, the Third Way report completely ignores, in its calculations of the plan’s impact on those of different incomes, the $11.9 trillion of additional revenue that would be paid by those with annual incomes in excess of $250,000. Those with income below that dollar threshold pay nothing more.

Third Way only mentions the increased Social Security revenue to make the specious point that the new proposed revenue will “crowd out” other social spending. But what Sanders is proposing is simply to require the wealthiest among us to pay the same rate on their incomes into Social Security as less well-off Americans. Right now, someone with an annual salary of around $1 million pays one-tenth the rate on those earnings paid by a minimum-wage worker on his or her earnings.

Senator Sanders’ expansion bill simply asks millionaires and billionaires to pay the same rate on their income as other less well-off Americans do. It is sound policy and fair, supported by the vast majority of Americans, Democrats, Independents and Republicans.

Third Way’s argument that requiring the wealthiest to fairly pay into Social Security will exhaust their ability to pay increased taxes seems absurd coming from an outfit that has proposed cutting the Social Security benefits of those with total annual incomes of $12,000 or less. It is reminiscent of the line in a 2013 Washington Post editorial attacking then-Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Linda Sanchez for introducing legislation to expand Social Security. Though the Post editorial board never mentions the impact of the Social Security cuts it supports on those of modest means, it apparently felt the need to remind us that “the rich have finite resources.”

Given the upward redistribution of wealth, where the top one percent has seen enormous income growth while the bottom 90 percent has seen its income decline, it is not unreasonable to require the wealthiest among us to contribute the same rate into Social Security AND to pay more in federal taxes to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, better educate our workforce by making college debt-free, and support other goods and services that benefit us all. And, despite Third Way’s effort to turn the generations against each other, the fact is that countries that spend more on seniors also tend to spend more on children; those that spend less on one, spend less on the other.

When it was Senator Elizabeth Warren who was being attacked by the Third Way in the exact same manner for proposing to expand Social Security, she responded,

It’s part of the larger issue about a rigged playing field. They don’t wanna pay more, they don’t wanna pay a fair share. I believe everybody should pay a fair share. That’s how we make sure people can retire with dignity. That’s not what Wall Street wants to do.

And to the ludicrous charge that her plan to expand Social Security benefited the wealthy, she forcefully responded,

Oh please. I’m out there working for Jamie Dimon [CEO of Wall Street firm JPMorgan Chase] the same way Dick Cheney is out there trying to save the environment.

An interesting note on this exchange is that while it is clear that neither Senator Warren nor Senator Sanders are getting paid by JPMorgan Chase, the Third Way’s Board has had a number of members who have received their paychecks directly from that Wall Street bank.

In addition to ignoring the revenue in its analysis, except to argue that this will tax the wealthy beyond their ability to pay a penny more, how else does the Third Way’s analysis seek to argue with a straight face that the Sanders proposal is “substantially tilted toward the wealthy?”

The only way to even plausibly make the case that the Sanders proposal disproportionately favors the rich is to obscure the facts. The overwhelming majority of Social Security’s 60 million beneficiaries have extremely modest incomes. As the following chart shows, almost three out of four seniors - 72.5 percent - have incomes under $50,000. Over nine out of ten have incomes under $100,000 dollars. Fewer than two out of a hundred have incomes over $200,000. And many of them are still working and not yet receiving their earned Social Security benefits.

2016-01-31-1454266961-291170-image1ssw.png

Instead of using dollar figures to analyze to whom the new benefits go, the report refers to “quintiles.” The top quintile consists of people with earnings over $63,000 — hardly “wealthy” — and many of them are still working and not yet receiving Social Security. To reinforce its claim that the Sanders proposal lacks progressiveness, Third Way obscures the facts further by comparing a couple with combined income of $220,000, carefully picked to make the most dramatic case, to single individuals with incomes of $25,000 and $60,000. Presumably by design, the example obscures Social Security’s ingenious structure, which is highly progressive.

Social Security is designed to provide a floor of protection, allowing working families to retain their standards of living in the event that wages are lost as the result of disability, old age, or death. Higher earners receive larger benefits in absolute dollars, as they should. At the same time, those with lower earnings receive larger benefits as percentages of their earnings, in recognition that they have less discretionary income and therefore need a greater percentage of their benefits replaced. The following chart shows the ingenious structure.

2016-01-31-1454266998-8061559-image2ssw.png

The Third Way’s analysis is even more misleading than that, though. The report includes as a benefit increase, in its calculation of who gets what benefits from the Sanders plan, the more accurate cost of living adjustment. But preventing benefits from eroding is not a benefit increase. It does not put a single dollar of purchasing power in any beneficiary’s pocket, rich or poor. Indeed, the Sanders proposal will likely continue to under-measure the inflation experienced by seniors and people with disabilities, but it is the most accurate measure that the Bureau of Labor Statistics now produces. Though not a benefit increase, preventing the erosion of purchasing power of existing benefits is most important for the most vulnerable beneficiaries, who have little or no other income to offset the loss.

Third Way and its Wall Street donors want to cut Social Security, presumably to escape their obligation to pay their fair share and to force more Americans to seek to replace the lost benefits with retirement savings, invested in the stock market and subject to high Wall Street fees. But that is not what the overwhelming majority of Americans want - and for good reason. Expanding, not cutting, Social Security’s modest benefits, and requiring the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share, is responsible and wise policy. The nation is facing a looming retirement income crisis. The 401(k) experiment is a clear failure. Social Security works. It is a solution.

The American people want to see Social Security expanded, not cut, and want the wealthiest among us, those who have benefited so much from the commonwealth (i.e., common wealth) pay their fair share. And that is the right policy, as well.


WHITE NATIONALISTS TO RALLY IN WASHINGTON DC, THEY HOPE, THIS YEAR. CHARLOTTESVILLE PLANS HAVE FALLEN THROUGH. TOO DARNED BAD!!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/07/24/white-nationalist-rally-charlottesville-jason-kessler/828913002/?csp=chromepush
'This isn't the end': Jason Kessler unexpectedly gives up bid for anniversary rally in Charlottesville
Christal Hayes, USA TODAY Published 4:40 p.m. ET July 24, 2018 | Updated 4:56 p.m. ET July 24, 2018

VIDEO – Highlights of this day in history: A key ruling during the Watergate scandal; Nixon and Khrushchev hold a 'kitchen debate' during the Cold War; Brigham Young and Mormon followers arrive in present-day Utah; Apollo 11's crew returns home. (July 24)AP, AP

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia — The man behind last year’s Unite the Right rally who is suing this Virginia city in an attempt to again gather with white nationalists on the anniversary of the deadly protests unexpectedly gave up his cause in a bizarre hearing Tuesday.

After arriving nearly 45 minutes late at the city’s federal courthouse, Jason Kessler only stayed in the courtroom for about a minute before withdrawing a request that the city of Charlottesville grant him a permit for another rally on Aug. 11, a request the city had originally denied that sparked a lawsuit in earlier this year.

Claps and some light cheering broke out after U.S. District Judge Norman Moon dismissed the request, but many were left surprised and wondering about Kessler's sudden change of heart.

"I think the city is very relieved with the outcome," John Longstreth, an attorney for Charlottesville said as he was leaving the courthouse.

Kessler's attorney, James Kolenich, said “this isn’t the last time” Kessler would be requesting a permit to rally in the city, though it was his understanding Kessler would not be holding an event in the city on Aug. 11 or Aug. 12 to mark a year since last year’s events. Instead, Kolenich said, Kessler would focus on a planned rally in Washington, D.C.

More: 'Unite the Right' anniversary: White nationalists planning to rally in D.C.
More: What is the alt-right? And how is it using social media to spread its message?
22 PHOTOS Charlottesville aftermath: Protests around the U.S. Fullscreen
Protesters, silhouetted against the evening sky, demonstrate in response to a white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Va., in Philadelphia on Aug. 16, 2017. Matt Slocum, AP

“I know he’s hated in this community,” Kolenich said, explaining that the white nationalist is simply “misunderstood,” a comment that sparked laughter by a small group of counter protesters that gathered in the courtroom.

After the hearing ended, Kessler posted on Twitter about his planned D.C. rally, dubbed "Unite the Right 2," directing his followers to a website and telling them to "be ready."

His permit application for an Aug. 12 rally in the nation's capital received initial approval but details are being worked out.

Kolenich, who was also late to the hearing, drew ire from Moon, who questioned the seriousness of the case.

Kolenich described Kessler’s withdrawal as “unexpected” and something he didn’t understand, then later called it “strategic,” explaining the judge was not happy with their tardiness and upset because they had not filed several documents.

After the hearing, Kolenich said Kessler did feel bad about the events that happened last year but explained his “personality” prevented him from showing this. He then talked openly about Nazis, Eastern Europe and anti-fascists.

Kolenich told reporters he is an "anti-Semite," saying it did not make him a Nazi or racist, then called the pope a "clown."

He added Tuesday’s withdrawal does not end Kessler’s lawsuit against the city. It merely ends a possibility of Kessler being able to obtain a permit for a rally next month.

Last August's demonstrations shook Charlottesville for two days. On the evening of Aug. 11, hundreds of torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus, chanting white supremacist slogans.

In 2017, an assortment of alt-right and far-right affiliated groups gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of Confederate monuments and names from a city square. It ended in the death of a Charlottesville woman. USA TODAY

The next day, the group swamped downtown Charlottesville and rioting broke out when they were met by counter-protesters. Several people were injured, and one woman, Heather Heyer, 32, died when she was struck by a car.

Residents in the community approached Tuesday's events with caution, many saying they know this isn't the last they'll see of Kessler.

"They are definitely going to come back. There's no question there. This whole thing is just going to lead to another lawsuit and another planned rally. This isn't the end," lifelong Charlottesville resident Tanesha Hudson said. "But we will be here and we will again stand up for our city."



IT’S OKAY. WE’RE ALL FRIENDS HERE, GUYS!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/politics/dassandro-tim-ryan-bernie-sanders/index.html
Rep. Tim Ryan snags one of Bernie Sanders' top Iowa aides
CNN Digital Expansion 2018 Rebecca Berg
By Rebecca Berg, CNN
Updated 10:00 AM ET, Tue July 24, 2018

Rep. Tim Ryan delivers remarks at the Democratic National Convention on July 28, 2016, in Philadelphia.

(CNN)One of Sen. Bernie Sanders' former top Iowa advisers, Pete D'Alessandro, has signed on as a general consultant to help Rep. Tim Ryan navigate the Hawkeye State as Ryan tests the waters there for a 2020 presidential bid.

But D'Alessandro, who recently came up short in a Democratic congressional primary, tells CNN he's not telegraphing a message about his 2020 allegiances. His agreement with Ryan is good only through the end of this year, and it isn't exclusive.

"Obviously, if Bernie Sanders comes in and says, 'Pete, I'm doing an event and I'd like you to help me,' I'd go and help him," said D'Alessandro. "I think Tim understands that."

He added, "My folks that I talk to in Bernie world are very aware of it, and nobody said not to do it."

D'Alessandro agreed to help Ryan after the Ohio Democrat lent his support to D'Alessandro's congressional bid. ABC News first reported D'Alessandro's move.

"Tim Ryan was out here helping me. He was just such a great supporter in every way, who was there as a friend when I would ask him for advice," said D'Alessandro. "He certainly didn't need to weigh in on the guy who was going to finish third, and the fact that he did that for me ... whatever he decides to do, (helping him) just seemed like absolutely the right thing to do. Maybe that transcends politics."

D'Alessandro also praised Ryan for his "compelling" story, as a Rust Belt Democrat "who was willing to take on establishment" by challenging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. D'Alessandro touted Ryan's "authenticity," saying: "One thing that came clear to me in 2016 working for Bernie -- what you're talking about matters, that's the first place you bring people in -- but people are just crying for authenticity and this guy is as authentic as the day is long. And I think that's going to be one of the things people realize right away."

In his work for Ryan, D'Alessandro will connect him with state lawmakers and party activists for meetings and events, although he said he believes Ryan is already "doing the right things" in Iowa to test the waters. Ryan is slated to headline the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding event next month along with Rep. John Delaney, a Maryland Democrat who has already announced his bid for president.

This story has been updated to note that ABC News first reported D'Alessandro's personnel move.


RICHARD NIXON HAD HIS “ENEMIES LIST,” AND I’LL BET QUITE A FEW OF THEM DO. THAT SHOULD BE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT. LYNDON JOHNSON WAS FAMOUS FOR RIDING ROUGHSHOD OVER PEOPLE IN CONGRESS, TOO. IT WOULD BE INTERESTING IF THE FIRST OFFENSE, IF PROVEN, WOULD CREATE A PUBLIC MARK AGAINST THEM, ALL OF WHICH WOULD ACCUMULATE TOWARD IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS. THEY MIGHT BE MORE CAREFUL IF THAT WERE THE CASE. THERE ARE HOUSE AND SENATE ETHICS COMMITTEES. THEY COULD HANDLE THAT. MAYBE THEY DO, BUT I’VE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING IN THE NEWS ABOUT SUCH ACTIONS.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/24/rep_adam_schiff_never_thought_i_would_see_a_president_with_an_enemies_list_in_my_lifetime.html
Rep. Adam Schiff: Never Thought I Would See A President With An "Enemies List" In My Lifetime
Posted By Tim Hains
On Date July 24, 2018

VIDEO -- Rep. Adam Schiff spoke with Judy Woodruff on 'PBS NewsHour' Monday night 6:59

Rep. Adam Schiff spoke with Judy Woodruff on 'PBS NewsHour' Monday night about the release of a FISA application for Carter Page, which he says shows that the government acted appropriately. Schiff also discussed the President's saber-rattling against Iran, and his threat to take away security clearances from former Obama officials speaking out against Trump, calling it the resurrection of an "enemies list."

REP. ADAM SCHIFF: It’s quite fitting, in the Trump administration, that Donald Trump would come to the defense of someone who has acknowledged — and that is Carter Page — acknowledged being an informal adviser to the Kremlin.

Look, the FBI had probable cause to believe that Carter Page might be acting as to a foreign power, Russia. They submitted an application and extensions that were approved by four different judges that were appointed by three different Republican presidents. And there was ample evidence to warrant the approval of those five applications.

The president is counting on people not to read them. And, of course, who has the time to read hundreds of pages of a FISA application? So the president is merely repeating falsehood after falsehood after falsehood.

But the fact that remains the FISA applications were appropriately put before the court, and they were appropriately approved...

Well, you have to look to the independent experts. And the independent experts that have looked at this, I think, have uniformly upheld what the FBI did.

I know it’s easy for Mr. Gowdy to try to diminish Carter Page, but he was one of only five of Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers during the campaign. The other, George Papadopoulos, they’re similarly trying to say, well, he was just a coffee boy, even though he was involved in setting up meetings with heads of state for the Trump campaign.

And, similarly, even Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman of the Trump campaign, Donald Trump has tried to diminish and say, well, he was only there for a short time.

So this is part of the pattern with the president and his allies like Mr. Gowdy, downplay, diminish those that were having these interactions with the Russians, try to shift attention elsewhere.

But the reality is, there is an extraordinary and worrying and disturbing number of Donald Trump both high-level and lower-level campaign people, from Mike Flynn and Manafort, to the president’s own son, to Papadopoulos and Page, meeting with the Russians and then later lying about it...

JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS: Congressman, several other things to ask you about, a lot breaking late today.

Number one, the president — the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, saying the president is seriously considering revoking security clearance for five former high-ranking intelligence and FBI officials.

What do you make of that?

SCHIFF: Well, clearly, this is an effort to punish and silence the president’s critics.

Now, this is not something you tend to see in the United States of America, not until now. This is what you would see in authoritarian governments.

I think it is really appalling and will certainly put a chill on people both going into public service, but those who leave office and have deep concerns about the president will feel that, if they speak out, they will be punished, that their future job prospects will be diminished.

And I think, for others who may seek to tap the talent of people who have served in the intelligence community, it will also inhibit their ability to reach out to people with experience...

But it’s a new enemies list, is what it is...

And none of us thought we would see that again in our lifetime, but this president is determined, I think, to resurrect an enemies list. And he’s put his first few names on it.



DEMS AGAINST DEMS – WHO WINS? COME ON ACROSS THE LINE AND JOIN US, GUYS! THE RECENTLY DISCOVERED CASE OF THE DSCC BUYING UP 27 WEBSITES ENDING IN “FOR SALE,” INCLUDING ONE IN SANDERS’ NAME, IS PROBABLY ONE OF THESE VERY ATTACKS IN THE MAKING. THE MORE WE THINK THE PARTY IS HOPELESSLY DIRTY, THEY LESS THE INTELLIGENT CITIZENS WILL FEEL LIKE VOTING FOR THEM. THEY ARE FOLLOWING SELF-DEFEATING POLICIES.

SANDERS’ COMMENT: "WHAT THESE ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD NOT BE DOING IS DOING NEGATIVE ATTACKS ON DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES," SANDERS TOLD AP. "THAT JUST CONTINUES THE PROCESS OF DEBASING THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM IN THIS COUNTRY AND IS WHY SO MANY PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED WITH POLITICS."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/09/no-stranger-party-establishments-tactics-sanders-calls-dccc-attacks-progressives
Published on
Friday, March 09, 2018
byCommon Dreams

No Stranger to Party Establishment's Tactics, Sanders Calls DCCC Attacks on Progressives "Appalling"
'What these organizations should not be doing is doing negative attacks on Democratic candidates,' says former presidential candidate
byJon Queally, staff writer

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders on the stage with DNC chairman Tom Perez during a Democratic Party "unity tour" last year. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Having tasted what it feels like to have the Establishment-wing of the Democratic Party put its thumb on the scale when he ran for president in 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is telling the congressional campaign arm of the party to stop working against progressive candidates in contested primary races this election season.

Speaking with the Associated Press, Sanders said that it's "appalling" and "not acceptable" for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), whose mission is to help candidates win in local districts nationwide, to be choosing favorites—as evidence shows it has— in Texas, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

"What these organizations should not be doing is doing negative attacks on Democratic candidates," Sanders told AP. "That just continues the process of debasing the Democratic system in this country and is why so many people are disgusted with politics."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License



https://www.cbsnews.com/video/detained-immigrants-describe-hungry-days-in-ice-boxes-dog-pounds/
Customs And Border Protection Claims Dignity
Immigrants describe "dog pound" detention

THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THIS SITUATION SOUND LIKE IT PROBABLY IS AGAINST INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS. THE US COULD BE SANCTIONED BY THE UN IF SO AND TRIED. OUR REPUTATION AS A NATION IS ALREADY IN TATTERS. THIS CASE IS DISGUSTING.



MORE ON CUSTOMS ISSUES

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pablo-villavicencio-judge-orders-release-ecuadorian-immigrant-detained-while-delivering-pizza-2018-07-24/
CBS/AP July 24, 2018, 7:16 PM
Federal judge orders immediate release of immigrant detained while delivering pizza

PHOTOGRAPH -- Pablo Villavicencio and his two young daughters. FACEBOOK / PABLO VILLAVICENCIO

NEW YORK -- A federal judge has ordered the release of an Ecuadorean immigrant who was held for deportation after he delivered pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation. Judge Paul Crotty issued an order late Tuesday saying Pablo Villavicencio must be immediately released. The man is being held at a New Jersey lockup.

The judge said the release is necessary because his imminent removal from the United States is no longer reasonably foreseeable.

The judge said Villavicencio can remain in the U.S. while he exhausts his right to complete an effort to gain legal status. Villavicencio applied to stay in the U.S. after he married a U.S. citizen. They have two young girls. Crotty issued the ruling after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday.

Another judge already temporarily blocked his deportation. He has remained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in New Jersey.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement Tuesday saying the federal government has "cruelly" kept Villavicencio from his wife and two young daughters "for no legitimate reason."

Supporters Call For Release Of Pizza Delivery Man Detained By ICE In New York
Villavicencio's wife Sandra Chica speaks at a news conference on June 18, 2018 in New York City. SPENCER PLATT / GETTY

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



POOR MR. PRESIDENT!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/politics/week-in-review-trump-headlines/index.html
24 headlines that sum up 1 very bad week for Donald Trump
Chris Cillizza
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 7:30 PM ET, Fri July 20, 2018

(CNN)It's hard to avoid hyberbole when it comes to Donald Trump. The President himself constantly engages in braggadocio about the biggest this or the worst that. He lives in a world of extremes and, therefore, the way that he is covered tends to favors the extremes as well.

And yet, it's very hard to look at this past week and not see it as the worst one of Trump's 18 months -- to the day! -- in office.

Rock, paper, soccer: This week in politics, GIF'd

The week began with Trump's disastrous press conference in Helsinki with Russian president Vladimir Putin in which he sought to cast the Russian interference in the 2016 election as at least partly America's fault.
BOOM!

Tuesday was consumed by the debate over whether Trump meant "would" or "wouldn't" in regard to Russia meddling.
POW!

The White House spent Wednesday walking back Trump's assertion early in the day that Russia was no longer targeting the US.
BIFF!

Thursday brought the news that Trump had invited Putin to a second summit in Washington this fall -- an announcement that surprised at least one person: Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
ZONK!

Then, today, we learned that Michael Cohen, the President's longtime fixer, secretly taped a conversation with Trump regarding a possible payout to a former Playmate alleging she had an affair with Trump in the mid-2000s.
KAPOW!

CNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy.

A disastrous week -- from beginning to end. Even by Trumpian standards. Below, the week as told through 24 major headlines.

Monday:
Trump declines to side with US intelligence over Putin
White House issues talking points to curtail damage from summit
Trump has amassed $53 million war chest ahead of 2020

Tuesday:
Trump surprised at fierce criticism of Putin news conference
Trump, facing fury, says he misspoke with Putin
White House opted for Russia indictments before Putin meeting
Trump seems to question commitment to defending all NATO allies
Mueller seeking immunity for five witnesses

Wednesday:
Trump keeps up defense of Helsinki performance
Trump says 'no rush' on North Korea nuclear negotiations
Trump now says he holds Putin responsible for election interference
Sanders disputes that Trump said Russia no longer targeting US
White House reveals range of topics for Trump-Putin meeting
WH entertaining Russian proposal to interrogate Americans
Trump's military parade expected to cost nearly as much as 'tremendously expensive' canceled war games

Thursday:
Trump inviting Putin to Washington this fall
Trump was briefed on Putin's involvement in 2016 election
US spy chief doesn't know what happened in Trump-Putin meeting
WH says Trump 'disagrees' with suggestion to interrogate Americans
Giuliani says Trump open to resisting wide-ranging Mueller interview
Interior Secretary Zinke kept some meetings off public calendar

Friday:
Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to ex-Playmate
Trump escalates his war with the Fed
Pompeo: Russia 'will try to undermine Western democracy' in 2018
Read Friday's full edition of The Point newsletter, and sign up to get future editions delivered to your inbox.



FOX TRAPPED

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/23/fox-news-accidentally-interviews-anti-ice-democrat-barbara-litalien
Fox News
'That didn't go as planned': Fox News interviews anti-Ice Democrat in mix-up
When the hosts realised they were speaking to Barbara L’Italien instead of Ann Kirkpatrick, they cut the interview off
Sam Wolfson in New York
Mon 23 Jul 2018 13.19 EDT

VIDEO -- Barbara L’Italien on Fox News. Photograph: Fox News

It was supposed to be straightforward: early-morning Fox News hosts would interview former Democratic congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick about her support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the controversial agency responsible for enforcing American immigration policy.

Kirkpatrick had been booed at a congressional primary in Arizona the previous day for speaking in support of Ice. The conservative, pro-Trump news network has a long history of interviewing Democrats who share parts of their agenda to give the impression of bipartisanship.

'An insult to women': newly hired ex-Fox exec fuels new turmoil at White House

But when the hosts threw her a softball question about her support for Ice, they got a surprising response. “Good morning. I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump,” began the interviewee. “I feel that what’s happening at the border is wrong. I’m a mother of four, and I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane.”

The hosts looked confused, but soon realized what was going on – they had booked the wrong guest.

“I’m actually Barbara L’Italien. I’m a state senator representing a large immigrant community,” the woman they thought was Kirkpatrick said. L’Italien is a Democrat and outspoken critic of Ice who is running for Congress in Massachusetts.

The hosts, unsure of how to handle the situation, let L’Italien continue unimpeded. “I keep thinking about what we’re putting parents through,” she said. “Imagining how terrifying that must be for those families, imagining how it would feel not knowing if I’d ever see my kids again. We have to stop abducting children and ripping them from their parents’ arms, stop putting kids in cages and stop making three-year-olds defend themselves in court.

At this point, the hosts tried to push back against L’Italien. “That practice has ended now” said host Rob Schmitt. “Kids have been reunited with their families,” his colleague Jillian Mele claimed.

As L’Italien began her response, reiterating that she wasn’t Ann Kirkpatrick, Schmitt began talking over her. “Who is this? Who is this?” he can be heard saying. Seconds later, L’Italien’s feed was cut.

“That didn’t go as planned,” Schmitt said, before the show moved to a commercial break.

The L’Italien campaign has since explained that the mistake occurred because Fox News contacted L’Italien staffers mistakenly, believing they worked for Kirkpatrick – and they did not correct them. L’Italien later posted a video of what she planned to have said, had she not be cut off.

On a 24-hour news channel where hundreds of guests appear each day, there is always the possibility that the wrong guest might end up in the studio. BBC News famously interviewed taxi driver Guy Goma, who was waiting in reception for a job interview, about legal issues at Apple. It emerged he’d been mistaken for Guy Kewney, a legal expert. The same channel also once introduced the journalist Michael Wolff as Ben Walker, the baseball editor of the Associated Press.

Support The Guardian


ELIMINATE STAND YOUR GROUND LAWS!!!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clearwater-florida-stand-your-ground-shooting-markeis-mcglockton-parking-spot/
CBS NEWS July 23, 2018, 7:32 AM
Florida sheriff won't charge man in deadly "stand your ground" shooting over parking spot

Police say a Florida man will face no charges for shooting another man dead in a parking lot after an argument last week. Protesters gathered Sunday at the scene of the shooting in response.

Last Thursday, Markeis McGlockton parked in a handicap spot with his girlfriend and three young kids before going inside a convenience store with his five-year-old son to buy snacks. Outside, Michael Drejka approached McGlockton's girlfriend, Britany Jacobs. Jacobs says Drejka yelled at her for parking in a handicapped spot without a permit.

Surveillance footage shows McGlockton then walked out of the store and shoved Drejka to the ground. Seconds later, Drejka pulled out his gun and fired a single shot at McGlockton in the chest. The 28-year-old stumbled back into the store and collapsed in front of his son.

Drejka has a concealed weapons permit and told police he shot McGlockton because he feared for his life.

The sheriff's office says he is protected by Florida's "stand your ground" law, which allows people to use deadly force when fearing "imminent death or great bodily harm" without a duty to try to escape the danger.

"He had to shoot to defend himself," Pinellas county sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. "And those are the facts and that's the law "

But Jacobs says McGlockton backed away from Drejka after he pushed him.

"This is wrong," Jacobs told CBS News' Meg Oliver. "Because what my man was trying to do was protect his girl like anybody else would."

The couple's four-month-old son and three-year-old daughter were inside the car during the shooting.

Jacobs learned Drejka wouldn't be charged from the news.

CBS News has not been able to reach Drejka for comment. The state attorney's office will make the final decision on whether to press charges.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


UNBOUNDED POWER IS HALF A STEP AWAY FROM EVIL. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A “BENIGN DICTATOR” TO DO GOOD FOR A COUNTRY, BUT HOW LONG WILL THEY STAY GOOD? THE WAY HE IS HANDLING THE DEMONSTRATIONS IS NOT A GOOD SIGN. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL INTERVENE. WATCH THIS VIDEO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvVAappRxac.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nicaragua-protesters-demand-president-ortega-step-down-after-hundreds-killed-in-clashes/
Protesters demand Nicaraguan President Ortega step down after hundreds killed in clashes
CBS NEWS July 23, 2018, 7:20 AM

Thousands of people marched yesterday in Nicaragua to demand that President Daniel Ortega step down. The demonstrations over proposed benefit cuts, which began three months ago, are expected to continue today.

Human rights groups say about 300 people have been killed during the protests, many by police.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has warned that deadly clashes in Managua could lead to civil war, and worsen the immigration crisis in the U.S.

Nicaragua Unrest

PHOTOGRAPH -- Anti-government marchers demand the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and the release of political prisoners in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July 22, 2018. Anti-government protests began in mid-April over cuts to the social security system but broadened to include demands for Ortega to leave office and for early elections to be held. ARNULFO FRANCO/AP

CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports an eerie quiet during much of the day in the capital city of Managua, as people stay home and business owners close up shop for their own safety.

But after the calm, the sounds of protest pierce the air, and the fear of bloody confrontations returns.

Within minutes of arriving in the capital, Bojorquez encountered an anti-government protest and the sound of mortar fire.

Several young men – masked and holding homemade mortar launchers – told Bojorquez they fire the mortars to warn fellow demonstrators when pro-government forces are near.

They told Bojorquez that they were willing to risk their lives: "The fear is gone," one said.

manuel-bojorquez-nicaragua-protestors.jpg
Masked protesters in Managua, Nicaragua. CBS NEWS

The fear was gone on April 19 – that's the day protests started over proposed cuts to social security benefits. Government forces are accused of killing more than 40 people that week. Hundreds have been killed since then, some even attacked while hiding in a church.

The uprising continues to intensify against President Ortega, whom demonstrators say has turned into a dictator and should step down. But Ortega remains defiant, insisting the protesters are being influenced by outside forces and blaming them for initiating the violence.

Ortega supporters hold pictures of dead police officers at demonstration in Managua

Supporters of Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega hold pictures of dead police officers, who lost their lives during recent protests, at a demonstration in Managua, Nicaragua July 21, 2018. JORGE CABRERA/REUTERS

In the neighborhood of Monimbo, which had been a stronghold of the opposition, barricades built using cobblestones from the streets can still be seen. It was the site of a bloody confrontation with police last week. At this point, it's still not clear how many people were killed.

One woman feared being identified on camera, but wanted to let Bojorquez know one thing: her neighborhood was not backing down – that Monimbo had lost the battle, but not the war.

Several international organizations have called on the Nicaraguan government to end the violent suppression of protests and for President Ortega to allow early elections next year. He refuses to back down, which means the protests are likely to continue.

cbs-nicaragua-protest-feed-rem67-01-frame-23321.jpg
Memorials have been erected for those killed in clashes with police. CBS NEWS
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


HERE ARE TWO EPITAPHS, OF WHICH THERE A GREAT MANY MORE ON 2018 DEATHS. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. GO TO THE WEBSITE FOR THE REST IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/notable-deaths-in-2018/4/

Claude Lanzmann
In his monumental, 9½-hour documentary "Shoah" (1985), French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (Nov. 27, 1925- July 5, 2018) told the story of the Holocaust without resorting to archival photos, newsreels, actors or music – only images of the barren East European landscape where Nazi death camps were erected and where trains deposited detainees to the gas chambers, and the words of survivors (both the victims and the perpetrators of war crimes) laying bare their memories of a chilling inhumanity.

The documentary, told through the unflinching testimonies of Jewish captives, German executioners, and Polish bystanders, was universally praised (Roger Ebert called it "one of the noblest films ever made").

For Lanzmann, who had been a member of the French Resistance, the topic of his long-in-production film (whose name translates as "destruction") was death itself: "Death rather than survival," he wrote in his autobiography. "For 12 years I tried to stare relentlessly into the black sun of the Shoah."

CREDIT: AP Photo, Mark Terrill/Criterion Collection


Harlan Ellison
At 5'5, science fiction writer Harlan Ellison (May 27, 1934-June 28, 2018) was bullied as a youth, which may have fueled his loud-mouthed attitude, once punching an Ohio State University professor who said he lacked writing talent. He brought that pugnacious style to his work, penning nightmarish, sometimes darkly humorous stories. He wrote some 50 books and more than 1,400 articles, essays, TV scripts and screenplays, and earned nearly a dozen Nebula and Hugo awards.

He once said he wanted his stories "to grab you by the throat and tear off parts of your body."

Some of his most popular works were surrealistic fantasies set in grisly worlds run by totalitarians and conformists. "A Boy and His Dog," set in a world devastated by nuclear war, featured a protagonist who communicated with his dog via telepathy; he recently expanded the novella into a full-length novel, "Blood's A Rover." He edited the seminal 1967 sci-fi anthology "Dangerous Visions," and his short story, "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," is about the last humans, eternally tortured by a malevolent, godlike computer.

His 1967 "Star Trek" episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," is thought by many to be the best ever, in which a young woman played by Joan Collins is saved from a fatal accident by the starship Enterprise's time-traveling Dr. McCoy. Later, the ship's Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock learn they must return to the year 1930 and let her die or history will be changed and Nazi Germany will win World War II.

"Harlan Ellison: There was no one quite like him in American letters, and never will be," author Stephen King Tweeted. "Angry, funny, eloquent, hugely talented. If there's an afterlife, Harlan is already kicking ass and taking down names."

CREDIT: AP Photo


Dorothy Cotton
The North Carolina-born Dorothy Cotton (January 5, 1930-June 10, 2018) studied English and Library Science at Virginia State College, and earned a master's degree in Speech Therapy from Boston University. She was invited by The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to join the staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and was one of King's closest colleagues while she served as the organization's national director of education for more than a decade. She later served as an administrator at Cornell University.

During a commemoration of King's death in 1993, Cotton said that people need to take responsibility for carrying on the mission of racial equality.

"Rosa Parks didn't wait to see what everybody else was doing. She just did it," Cotton said of the woman who inspired the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycotts by refusing to give her seat to a white man. "We should ask ourselves what we're doing. It starts with ourselves, our families and our churches."

CREDIT: Dorothy Cotton Institute


Gena Turgel
Born in Krakow, Poland, author and educator Gena Turgel (Feb. 1, 1923-June 7, 2018) and her family were forced into a Jewish ghetto in late 1941, where some of her siblings were shot by the SS. In January 1945, Turgel and her mother were forced onto a death march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, and later on to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. It was in a hospital at Bergen-Belsen where the 22-year-old Turgel cared for 15-year-old Anne Frank as she lay dying from typhus. "I washed her face, gave her water to drink, and I can still see that face, her hair and how she looked," Turgel told the BBC. One month after Frank's death, the camp was liberated by the Allies.

After the war, Turgel married one of the death camp's liberators (a British Jew), earning the nickname "The Bride of Belsen." (Her wedding dress, made from parachute silk, is part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum in London.) In 1987 she published a memoir, "I Light a Candle," and until the end of her life she retold the story of the Holocaust and the horrors of anti-Semitism she witnessed.

In April she attended Britain's National Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony in London: "My story is the story of one survivor, but it is also the story of six million who perished. Maybe that's why I was spared - so my testimony would serve as a memorial, like that candle that I light, for the men, women and children who have no voice."

CREDIT: Paul Faith/AP


Alan Bean
Navy test pilot and astronaut Alan Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) was the fourth human being to walk on the moon. Named lunar module pilot for Apollo 12, Bean and his crewmates -- commander Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon -- blasted off on Nov. 14, 1969.

"The whole thing about the lunar trip was, every part of it was more amazing and more science-fiction than I imagined it to be," Bean later said. "The view of the Earth looking back from space, I knew what it was going to look like. But when I actually got there and looked back and saw it sitting out there and realized that everybody but the three of us was down there, it just seemed impossible. It just seemed too amazing to be true. The whole mission went that way."

He also flew aboard America's first space station, Skylab, in 1973, logging a then-record 59 days in orbit.

Bean then left NASA and devoted himself to his new career as an accomplished artist. "It is my dream that on the wings of my paintbrush many people will see what I saw and feel what I felt, walking on another world some 240,000 miles from my studio here on planet Earth," Bean wrote on his website.

CREDIT: NASA


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