JANUARY 7, 2019

NEWS AND VIEWS

I HOPE THAT THIS “THURSDAY AT 8:12 PM” NOTED ON THE ROOT ARTICLE BELOW WAS THURSDAY, JANUARY 3. TODAY IS MONDAY, JANUARY 7, SO I CAN’T BE SURE. WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE, I WONDER, TO LEAVING OFF THE DATES? OR IS IT JUST A FAD, LIKE SHORT SKIRTS? AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS I HAVE HAD ONE CASE LIKE THIS. ANNOYYYINNNG! OTHER THAN THAT, I LOVE MONIQUE JUDGE’S STORY.

THIS IS VERY MUCH A “GOOD NEWS” ARTICLE. THE FIRST ARTICLE THAT STARTED MY PATH TOWARD DAILY NEWS COLLECTION AND COMMENTARY WAS THIS HORRIFIC FERGUSON, MO STORY. THOSE OF YOU WHO CARE ENOUGH TO GO OUT INTO THE RAIN OR SNOW AND VOTE FOR A FAIR-MINDED LIBERAL FOR EVERY OFFICE IN THE LAND WILL SOLVE THIS FASCIST-LEANING TREND THAT WE ARE IN. WE LET THEM TAKE POWER, BY NOT BOTHERING WITH IT. NOW IT’S TIME TO PUT THINGS RIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS, WESLEY BELL. YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE RIGHT ISSUES.

https://www.theroot.com/wesley-bell-wastes-no-time-making-changes-in-st-louis-1831475488?fbclid=IwAR1GhYie-qyCpAOt3gcHbCXBeftehOva4ZHRVF5fpvwmTyVrLTporQt6SJk
Wesley Bell Wastes No Time Making Changes in St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office
Monique Judge
Thursday 8:12pm
Filed to: WESLEY BELL

PHOTOGRAPH – WESLEY BELL Photo: Jim Salter (AP Photo)

Newly elected St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell wasted no time cleaning up shop and making changes after being sworn in on Jan. 1. On his second day in office Wednesday, he fired the assistant prosecutor who failed to get an indictment against former Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the 2014 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Kathi Alizadeh had worked for the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s office since 1988, and she made $135,000 per year. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Bell gave her a two-page letter explaining the reasons for her termination. She also said that she would be speaking with an attorney.

According to the Post-Dispatch, Bell had a 15-minute meeting with his staff on Wednesday morning, during which he announced he had made three changes and said “we wish the three individuals well.” He did not go into details about the staff changes.

In addition to the personnel changes, Bell announced some policy changes for his office as well. According to the Post-Dispatch, those changes include:

Marijuana cases involving fewer than 100 grams will no longer be prosecuted, and those with more than 100 grams will only be prosecuted if there is evidence to suggest that the marijuana was being sold or distributed.

People who fail to pay child support will no longer be prosecuted, nor will failure to pay child support be used as the sole reason to revoke a person’s probation. For those who currently have a child support case pending, the cases will not be dropped, but they will be placed on hold.

Cash bail will no longer be requested on misdemeanor cases

Prosecutors may not threaten witnesses to force them to testify in cases

Bell, a former Ferguson councilman, ran against and defeated Bob McCulloch on a promise to “fundamentally change the culture” of the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s office.

It looks like he is doing just that.


SOME GOVERNMENT WORKERS ARE NOT RECEIVING THEIR PAY. A "BLUE FLU" IS ON THE HORIZON. WILL TRUMP ENJOY THIS, I WONDER?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/government-shutdown-threatening-paychecks-more-tsa-agents-calling-out-sick-n955591
With government shutdown threatening paychecks, more TSA agents calling out sick
"If you don't have a check to pay your bills, what are you going to do?"
Why hundreds of unpaid TSA workers are calling out sick
JANUARY 7, 2019 2:46 PM
Jan. 7, 2019 / 7:57 AM EST / Updated 12:19 PM EST
By Erik Ortiz and Tom Costello

VIDEO – SHUTDOWN PROBLEMS FOR TSA?

It's not unusual for airport security agents tasked with screening passengers to call out sick in noticeable numbers after the holidays.

But with a partial government shutdown entering its third week — and threatening to deny the nation's 51,000 Transportation Security Administration employees involved in the screening process a paycheck come Friday — the idea that more and more agents might be no-shows at checkpoints could have a cascading effect throughout airports and lead to longer lines.

Such an outbreak has been dubbed a "blue flu" — in reference to the blue shirts that TSA agents wear.

Image: An employee with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checks the documents of a traveler at Reagan National Airport in WashingtonAn employee with the Transportation Security Administration checks the documents of a traveler at Reagan National Airport in Washington on Jan. 6, 2019.Joshua Roberts / Reuters

"If you don't have a check to pay your bills, what are you going to do?" said Rudy Garcia, president of the American Federation of Government Employees 1040 local, the union for Dallas TSA employees. "You will look for something outside of what you're doing now."

On Friday, about 5.5 percent of the TSA workforce called out at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, compared with 3.5 percent on a normal day, tweeted agency spokesman Michael Bilello.

And at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, a TSA employee union official told CNN last week that up to 170 of its workers have called out.

Bilello denied in a statement Sunday that there was any significant uptick in call-outs and that they are "a normal occurrence this time of the year."

Long lines on a weekend after the holiday season are also common, TSA officials said.

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But agents, many of whom make about $30,000 a year, say they don't want to feel like their livelihoods are in limbo as the Trump administration and Washington lawmakers fail to end a federal shutdown that is affecting everything from food stamps to immigration courts. Both sides have been at an impasse over the White House's demands for funding a wall at the U.S.'s southern border.

Recommended -- Trump-appointed judge defends Mueller, scolds lawyer for Russian firm

Christian Bale credits Satan for inspiration on how to play Dick Cheney in 'Vice'

"We are a paycheck to paycheck family," said Brian Turner, a Philadelphia TSA officer for six years, adding that "we have a mortgage payment. We have credit card payments. We have car payments. Utilities. And we also have childcare. So with half of our income gone, it is very concerning."

Other airport workers, such as air traffic controllers, are also set to work without pay as the shutdown drags on and their next paycheck is due Jan. 15. The Federal Aviation Administration said there have been no widespread reports of controllers calling in sick.

Still, without the promise of a next paycheck, workers such as Turner will be left to decide whether to take matters into their own hands and look elsewhere for employment.

"I have to keep food in the kitchen," Turner added. "And I will have to make that call at some point."


Erik Ortiz
Erik Ortiz is an NBC News staff writer focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

Tom Costello
Tom Costello is an NBC News correspondent based in Washington, D.C.


THERE IS A GOODLY PROPORTION OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO ARE REALLY TIRED OF THE TRUMP CAMP AND THEIR TRICKS. IT’S OFTEN FUNNY, ACTUALLY, BUT NOT IN A HAPPY WAY. I’D MUCH RATHER HAVE NO DRAMA OBAMA BACK AGAIN.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-appointed-judge-defends-mueller-scolds-lawyer-russian-firm-n955756?icid=recommended
Trump-appointed judge defends Mueller, scolds lawyer for Russian firm
"You have undermined your credibility in this courthouse," Judge Dabney Friedrich said. "Knock it off."
PHOTOGRAPH -- Dabney Friedrich in 2007.Stephen J. Boitano / AP file
Jan. 7, 2019 / 1:17 PM EST
By Charlie Gile and Rich Schapiro

A federal judge on Monday defended special counsel Robert Mueller while delivering a scathing denunciation of a lawyer for a Russian company charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The confrontation took place inside a Washington courtroom where Judge Dabney Friedrich scolded Eric Dubelier, the attorney for Concord Management, over a recent court filing.

"I thought your brief was inappropriate and unprofessional and ineffective," Friedrich told Dubelier. "You have undermined your credibility in this courthouse."

"Knock it off," added Friedrich.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Defense attorney Eric Dubelier leaves federal court in Washington, on May 9, 2018.Andrew Harnik / AP file

Dubelier's provocative three-page brief quoted the film "Animal House," saying the special counsel's strategy in the case was akin to saying: "You f---ed up. You trusted us."

Concord Management was one of three companies charged last February with carrying out a multimillion-dollar social media disinformation campaign designed to sow discord among U.S. voters and boost Donald Trump's campaign.

Mueller's team said the funding for the effort was provided by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin's.

Lawyers for Concord Management have been fighting to get the charges dropped, arguing in part that the company did not knowingly break the law.

In court Monday, Dubelier defended the filing and accused Friedrich, a Trump appointee, of not being impartial.

"There seems to be some bias in this court," said Dubelier, adding that he may withdraw from the case.

Friedrich described the lawyer's attacks against the special counsel as "meritless."

The colorfully worded court filing wasn't the first from Concord's lawyers. In a brief last May, they quoted the movie "Casablanca" and accused Mueller of searching for a "make-believe crime."

"To justify his own existence, the special counsel has to indict a Russian — any Russian," the court papers said.

The filing goes on to quote a famous line from the 1942 film: "Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects."

The judge scheduled the next hearing for March 7.

Charlie Gile
Rich Schapiro
Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.


"WE'RE LOOKING AT A NATIONAL EMERGENCY BECAUSE WE HAVE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY -- JUST READ THE PAPERS"

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/politics/donald-trump-shutdown-crisis/index.html
Cornered: Trump escalates shutdown crisis
Stephen Collinson Profile
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 3:22 AM ET, Mon January 7, 2019

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump is threatening to burst out of his dead end on the government shutdown by wielding sweeping presidential power to declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and build his border wall.

Trump's gambit comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gears up to pile political pressure on the GOP this week with a set of bills designed to open shuttered agencies and show that Democrats can provide credible government.

But since the Republican-led Senate will only act on a deal that Trump will sign, the parties remain as estranged as ever as the shutdown heads into a third week with hundreds of thousands of government workers unpaid.

"We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency -- just read the papers," Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday.

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Trump inclined to declare national emergency if talks continue to stall

Trump's threat is a characteristic move from a President who often tries to escape a crisis by igniting an even bigger controversy, hoping to throw his enemies off balance and disguise his own vulnerable position.

But such a declaration could ignite a legal and political firestorm if he goes ahead, escalating the bitter showdown over the wall and his hardline immigration policies into a constitutional duel over executive power.

Talks over the weekend involving congressional staffers and led by Vice President Mike Pence failed to make meaningful progress toward ending the standoff. Trump is demanding more than $5 billion in wall funding before agreeing to reopen the government. Democrats have offered about $1.5 billion for border security, but no taxpayer dollars for a wall, which the President promised Mexico would pay for.

Both sides appear to be digging deeper into a showdown that is exacerbated because it is the first test of wills in the new era of divided government after Democrats took control of the House of Representatives last week.

"This shutdown could end tomorrow, and it could also go on for a long time. ... It's really dependent on the Democrats," Trump said on Sunday.

But the Democrats are refusing to talk about Trump's wall while the government remains partially closed.

"There's no requirement that this government be shut down while we deliberate the future of any barrier, whether it's a fence or a wall," said Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

"This is the first President in history who shut down his own government," he said.

The extent of disagreement was reflected in differing accounts of the fruitless attempts to negotiate a deal coming from each side.

A source in Sunday's meeting involving Pence, White House staffers and congressional aides told CNN's Manu Raju there was no real discussion about a dollar amount that could help unpick the deadlock.

And a Democratic source familiar with the talks said the administration could not provide a full accounting of how Trump would spend his billions of dollars as requested.

A House GOP leadership aide said, "Democrats were given what they asked for, which was a detailed, breakdown list of the administration's proposals for border security that include the wall and other border protection measures."

How shutdowns end

McConnell notably absent as Trump talks shutdown fight after meeting with Hill leaders

Government shutdowns usually end when one or both sides in the dispute start to feel intolerable political pain and take steps to end it.

So far, that point has not been reached in the current standoff.

The President, who has made few attempts to broaden his support in office appears to most fear a backlash from conservative media and his own base that is passionately in favor of his promise to build a wall.

He may be less vulnerable to anger in the political middle ground of America than most presidents as the devastating effects of no paychecks, closed national parks and curtailed government services start to build.

Trump also does not seem that troubled by the plight of locked out government workers -- who he once said were mostly Democrats anyway.

In a news conference on Friday, the President suggested, without evidence, that many government workers want the government to stay closed until he gets wall money.

Democrats are also yet to feel a compelling reason to end the shutdown. Few want their new House majority to begin by handing Trump a win, and since Trump said before Christmas he would be proud to shut down the government, they believe that he will get most of the blame.

But the longer the shutdown goes on, there must be some danger that Democrats come to be seen as just another example of Washington dysfunction -- in a way that taints their hopes of a fast start in the House.

Does Trump have the power to go it alone?

RELATED: Trump says he is considering using emergency powers to build wall

Given Trump's volubility, it is not always easy to judge whether his threats -- like declaring a national emergency to fund the wall -- are negotiating tactics, serious gambits or just ideas that occur in the spur of the moment.

But a bold claim of presidential power would be in line with his tendency to test the limits of his executive authority and his impatience with constitutional constraints.

Opinion in Washington is divided on whether Trump actually has the power to barge ahead on his own on the wall -- despite opposition in Congress.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that Trump could not "execute" on his "threatening talk."

"If Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this President doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border. So, that's a nonstarter," Schiff said.

But Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, was asked whether Trump had such authority on "This Week" on ABC.

"Unfortunately, the short answer is yes," he said in the belief that Trump could declare an emergency in order to use Defense Department dollars in a building project as had been done in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Smith also warned: "I think the President would be wide open to a court challenge saying 'Where is the emergency?' "

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders came unstuck on this score when she was challenged on "Fox News Sunday" over the White House claim that 4,000 known or suspected terrorists had come into the United States and that the most vulnerable access point was the southern border.

In fact, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the figure represents individuals blocked from traveling or entering the United States, often at airports and does not necessarily refer to the southern border.

If Trump does make good on his threat to declare a national emergency, he would be on contested ground.

He would arguably be seeking to use unchecked executive power to subvert a coequal branch of government that has thwarted him in carrying out a personal political crusade.

And he would again be accused of using the military to further his own ends, as he was when he sent troops to the border region last year.

US law does give a President the authority at times of national emergency to defer Army construction plans that are not essential to national defense and to apply the resources to civil works projects that meet that test.

But such power is generally seen to be limited to a time of war or genuine national crisis. Trump's declaration would likely face a legal challenge on the grounds that the situation at the border does not meet that sudden contingency. The judiciary and Congress also have the right to challenge a President's definition of a national emergency.

Such a power play would also come at a time when there are already worries about the President's impulsive leadership.

Constraints on Trump are weakened by the departure of moderating influences in his administration, like former Defense Secretary James Mattis.

He is currently being served by an acting defense secretary, an acting attorney general, an acting White House chief of staff and a White House counsel's office that is regarded as understaffed.

Such aides may lack the authority or the desire to question the legality or wisdom of the President's actions.


I HOPE GINSBURG RECOVERS FULLY AND IS NOT FORCED TO RESIGN. WE WILL MISS HER WHEN SHE’S GONE. I HOPE TO SEE ONE OF THE TWO FILMS ABOUT HER WHICH ARE OUT NOW.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/07/682867101/ginsburg-misses-supreme-court-arguments-for-first-time-after-cancer-surgery
Ginsburg Misses Supreme Court Arguments For First Time After Cancer Surgery
January 7, 20199:51 AM ET
NINA TOTENBERG
DOMENICO MONTANARO

PHOTOGRAPH -- Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on November 30, 2018.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Updated 10:35 a.m. ET

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not taking part in today's oral arguments before the court.

The 85-year old liberal justice underwent surgery for cancer last month and also recently broke several ribs after a fall.

Ginsburg has not missed a day of arguments since she was confirmed to the court in 1993.

LAW -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Undergoes Surgery For Lung Cancer

Ginsburg had hoped to be back on the court for arguments, but Dr. Douglas Mathisen, chairman of thoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, warned that getting back to work too quickly after this kind of surgery could mean "one step forward and five steps back."

Ginsburg is expected to make a full recovery and be back on the court.

"These days we are seeing more and more patients in their 70s and 80s make relatively quick recoveries," Mathisen said last month before Ginsburg's surgery, "because we are detecting so many more lung cancers at early stages" when treatment is far more effective and successful.

This is Ginsburg's third bout with cancer. In 1999, she was treated for colorectal cancer, a decade later, she was treated for pancreatic cancer.

Ginsburg is one of four ideologically liberal justices on the court. President Trump has shifted the court in a more conservative direction, appointing two Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh replaced the court's swing justice, Anthony Kennedy, for whom he clerked.

LAW -- Federal Panel Of Judges Dismisses All 83 Ethics Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh

The court this term has deliberately avoided politics in the cases it's hearing, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, but the prospect of Trump appointing a third justice has liberals very nervous, especially as the 2020 elections approach.

Ginsburg has become a cultural icon for the left, with a nickname of the "Notorious RBG" getting attached to her for her sharp dissents, and in the past year, there have been at least two widely distributed motion pictures memorializing her life — the "RBG" documentary, which premiered at Sundance last year and "On the Basis of Sex," which is out in theaters now. Ginsburg is played by Felicity Jones.

NPR's Brett Neely contributed to this report.


I ASSUME THE DATA WAS NOT ENCRYPTED. THIS IS FRIGHTENING. I HOPE OUR SYSTEM IS BETTER PROTECTED. I WISH THERE WERE A WAY TO COUNTERATTACK ANY HACKER WHO TRIES TO BREAK IN, LIKE GIVING HIM A LETHAL VIRUS. I WONDER WHAT CAN BE DONE. CAN ORBIT BE TRACED AND ARRESTED? THERE SHOULD BE AN EXTREMELY HIGH FINE AS WELL AS PRISON FOR THIS.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/07/germany-data-breach-teenager-being-questioned-by-police
German data breach: agencies 'failing to take security seriously'
Bavarian interior minister ‘astonished’ at handling of biggest data leak in German history
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Mon 7 Jan 2019 10.28 EST

PHOTOGRAPH -- The teenager has denied being the main perpetrator but claims to know ‘Orbit’, the hacker who claimed responsibility. Photograph: Charles Platiau/AP

The German government and security agencies have been accused of not taking internet security seriously, following a huge data breach that affected hundreds of politicians and celebrities.

Joachim Herrmann, interior minister for the southern state of Bavaria, said he was appalled at the way the federal government and information security agency, the BSI, was handling the scandal, the biggest data leak in German history, after it was revealed it had dismissed a breach in December as one-off incident.

“I was astonished at the way they communicated this, it was bewildering,” he told the tabloid Bild.

Herrmann said he believed the perpetrator behind the hack was an individual and not a foreign government, as was initially feared, with many pointing the finger at Russia.

A 19-year-old German man was being questioned by police on Monday, over his alleged involvement with the hacker believed to be responsible. Police raided the teenager’s house in the town of Heilbronn in south-west Germany on Sunday and took away the contents of rubbish bins and computer equipment.

Identified only as Jan S, he has denied being the main perpetrator behind the leaks but claims to know “Orbit”, the hacker who has claimed responsibility via Twitter.

Jan S, who works in the IT industry, told the state broadcaster ARD he had been questioned “for several hours”. He is so far being treated only as a witness to the security breach, having allegedly been in communication with Orbit.

It was revealed on Friday that the BSI was investigating a data leak affecting many prominent politicians, including the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The information, drip-fed on Twitter throughout December, included mobile phone numbers, credit card details, contact information and family photographs. Celebrities and journalists were also affected.

Herrmann insisted the BSI should be forced to reveal what it knew when, and why it failed to crack down on the breach at the earliest opportunity.

The federal interior minister, Horst Seehofer, has come under attack for failing to address the issue publicly and for not providing reassurance to ordinary Germans about the safety of their data.

His parliamentary state secretary, Stephan Mayer, told German media on Monday that Seehofer would give MPs a detailed assessment of the cyber-attack in a special meeting of the Bundestag’s interior committee on Thursday.

On his Twitter account, Jan S said he had been in touch with the hacker known as Orbit for years via an encrypted messenger service. He said Orbit had sent him an email shortly after the publication of the hacked data, telling him he was planning to destroy his computer so he could not be traced. Jan S said the alleged hacker had since deleted his account with the messenger service.

The hack is likely to increase Germans’ comparatively high degree of scepticism towards social media, experts say. Among the more prominent victims of the hack who said they would drastically alter their use of social media was Robert Habeck, co-leader of the Green party, who said he would delete his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

He described the panic he felt on realising that large amounts of data from his accounts, including family photographs, had been hacked, but said he also regretted the manner in which he had frequently adopted a polemical style to further his arguments.

Habeck said social media had encouraged him to be “more aggressive, louder, more polemical and pointed – and at a speed in which it’s hard to allow any room for reflection,” he said.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-06/germany-seeks-u-s-assistance-after-hacking-breach-bild-reports
Politics
Germany Reportedly Seeks U.S. Assistance After Hacking Breach
By Patrick Donahue
January 6, 2019, 8:49 AM EST

German politicians criticize technology security agency
Interior minister pledges to get to bottom of data dump

German authorities sought help from the U.S. National Security Agency after discovering that hackers had released private data linked to Chancellor Angela Merkel and hundreds of other German politicians, Bild newspaper reported.

Responding to the biggest data dump of its kind in the country, German investigators wanted the U.S. intelligence agency to lean on Twitter Inc. to shut down profiles with links to the data, Bild said, citing unidentified security officials. German authorities argued that U.S. citizens were among thousands of people exposed by the data dump.

Angela MerkelPhotographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

As investigators seek to find out how data including email addresses, mobile phone numbers and private chat protocols were exposed, politicians took aim at Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, known as BSI, for failing to respond after receiving initial indications in December.

Read More: Hackers Dump Data on Merkel, Politicians in Giant German Leak

Began InvestigatingThe BSI issued a statement on Saturday saying it was approached by one lawmaker in Germany’s lower house, or Bundestag, at the beginning of December and began investigating. Only after the hacked information emerged on Thursday could the BSI determine that the cases were linked, the agency said.

The data were leaked over the past weeks via a Twitter account called “G0d” that identifies itself as based in Hamburg and describes itself using the words “security researching,” “artist” and “satire & irony.”

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who said he’d heard nothing of the leaks before Friday morning, will hold talks with the heads of the BSI and Germany’s Federal Crime office on Monday and make a report on the leaks by midweek, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.

Horst SeehoferPhotographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
“The public will learn everything that I know,” Seehofer told Sueddeutsche in an interview.

The country has seen a range of intrusions in recent years. Hackers tried to infiltrate computers of think tanks associated with the governing CDU and SPD parties in 2017. A year earlier, scammers set up a fake server in Latvia to flood German lawmakers with phishing emails.

In 2015, attackers breached the network of the Bundestag parliament and stole 16 gigabytes of data. Security firm Trend Micro Inc. has linked the Bundestag attack and others to Pawn Storm, a group with ties to Russia -- whose government has repeatedly denied it’s hacking foreign powers.

— With assistance by Stefan Nicola


ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46773138
Pentagon chief of staff Kevin Sweeney resigns
6 January 2019

PHOTOGRAPH -- GETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- Rear Admiral Kevin Sweeney is the third senior Pentagon official to resign in recent weeks

Department of Defence chief of staff Kevin Sweeney has resigned, a month after the Defence Secretary James Mattis announced his departure.

Rear Admiral Sweeney said in a statement that "the time is right to return to the private sector".

He is now the third senior Pentagon official to announce his resignation since President Donald Trump announced US forces would leave Syria.

Officials have said there is no timetable for the troop departure.

Rear Adm Sweeney held his post for two years from January 2017.

Trump's erratic foreign policy course
The end of Trump's love affair with generals?

In a terse resignation letter, he said it had been "an honour to serve" alongside his colleagues in the department, but made no mention of Mr Trump.

His announcement comes days after General Mattis left his post early, after initially planning to stay in his role until February.

His departure adds to a sense of uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's defence and foreign policies since the surprise announcement of the planned withdrawal from Syria, analysts say.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will embark on a week-long tour of the Middle East designed to reassure allies in the region.

Image copyrightREUTERS -- General Mattis announced his resignation in December

The former defence secretary hinted at policy differences with President Trump in his resignation letter.

James Mattis' resignation letter in full

Addressed to Mr Trump directly, Gen Mattis's letter described his views on "treating allies with respect" and using "all the tools of American power to provide for the common defence".

"Because you have the right to have a secretary of defence whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," he wrote.

Department spokeswoman Dana White also left her post after the president's surprise announcement on Syria, as did Brett McGurk, the presidential special envoy to the global coalition fighting so-called Islamic State.


THIS STORY SOUNDS DISTURBING TO ME. MAKING A BREAK WITH THE UN OVER AN INTERNAL ISSUE THAT COULD BE INHUMANE TREATMENT IS A CLEAR AND PURPOSEFUL STEP AWAY FROM JUSTICE.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/guatemala-bars-entry-to-un-sponsored-corruption-investigator/2019/01/06/91cb9e26-1213-11e9-ab79-30cd4f7926f2_story.html
Guatemala to withdraw from UN anti-corruption commission
By Jennifer Peltz | AP January 7 at 6:21 PM

PHOTOGRAPH -- FILE - FILE- In this April 20, 2015 file photo, a man holds a sign that reads in Spanish: “CICIG yes” in reference to the U.N. International Commission Against Impunity, or CICIG, during a protest against Guatemala’s President Otto Perez Molina in Guatemala City. Guatemala announced on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, that it is going to withdraw from UN-sponsored anti-corruption commission (Moises Castillo, File/Associated Press)

UNITED NATIONS — Guatemala announced Monday it was pulling out of a United Nations-sponsored anti-corruption commission after more than a year of tension between the government and the group, which has investigated top government officials and people close to President Jimmy Morales.

Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel announced the decision after meeting with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the commission, known as CICIG for its initials in Spanish.

She accused the group and its members of politicizing its work, violating Guatemala’s sovereign authority, failing to respect the presumption of innocence and causing “division in our society.”

“The CICIG has exceeded its authority,” she said. Jovel said the commission’s staffers have 24 hours to leave the country, though a Guatemalan court has ruled that the country has to grant them visas.

There was no immediate response from the U.N. Before the announcement, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres continues to support the commission’s work “and expects the Guatemalan government to provide the commission with all the assistance necessary for the discharge of its functions and activities.”

During its 11 years operating in Guatemala, CICIG has pressed corruption cases that have implicated more than 600 people, including elected officials, businesspeople and bureaucrats.

Morales has made no secret of his contempt for the group — formally, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala — which has investigated the president’s son and his brother. They deny accusations of corruption.

The commission has also tried to bring a case involving purported illegal campaign financing against Morales, who similarly denies the allegations. Lawmakers so far have rebuffed proposals to lift Morales’ immunity from prosecution in the matter.

Morales said in August 2017 he was expelling CICIG’s chief. Though a court quickly blocked that order, the commission head was later barred from re-entering the country after leaving for a business trip.

Last year, Morales refused to renew CICIG’s mandate, effectively giving it until September 2019 to wind down operations and leave the country.

Most recently, a commission member was detained at an airport for almost a day and refused entry to the country after arriving Saturday. A court ordered his release.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


A CLASSICS SCHOLAR?

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/04/donald-trump-2020-romans-223755
FOURTH ESTATE
This Latin Tome From Just Before Christ Explains How Trump Wins Reelection
He may not be consciously stealing the wisdom of the Romans, but he might as well be.
By JACK SHAFER January 04, 2019
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

As an unorthodox politician, Donald Trump has no peer. Feeding his hungry acolytes his original stew of invective, self-glorification and glitter, he redefined the business of campaigning in 2016. Much of what Trump served from his menu drew on the moldy leftovers—demagoguery, fear-mongering and character assassination—hoarded by his mentor, Roy Cohn, as my colleague Michael Kruse noted in an April 2016 feature.

But Trump never limited himself to singing selections from the Cohn hymnal. As if tuned to some secret political frequency, he communicated on a higher level with his supporters than did his competitors. How did he do it? Recently, while slumming the classics shelf in my local library, I discovered the Roman pamphlet Commentariolum Petitionis, which brings us closer to solving the mystery of how Trump performed his 2016 magic.

I’m not suggesting that Trump stumbled onto Commentariolum Petitionis one day while loitering in the Palm Beach County Library and then followed its Xs and Os to victory. There’s so much advice in its pages that Trump doesn’t heed, such as [to paraphrase] Surround yourself with the right people and Generosity is a requirement for a candidate and You must conduct a flawless campaign with the greatest thoughtfulness, industry, and care. More likely, Trump instinctively rediscovered the most eternal of its teachings and applied them to his needs. Also, Commentariolum Petitionis isn’t exactly a political secret. Republican strategist Karl Rove blurbed the Freeman translation when it was published in 2012 by Princeton University Press, calling it “timeless counsel.”

Whether Trump read the pamphlet or merely absorbed it by osmosis, his 2016 campaign traced its wisdom and his 2020 campaign will likely reheat it.

Translated as Handbook of Electioneering and more recently as How to Win an Election (by Philip Freeman), the pamphlet is believed to have been written around 64 B.C. by the great orator Marcus Cicero’s younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero. Marcus was running for consul, the highest office in the land, but was considered a political outsider because he had been raised by a businessman father in a town that wasn’t Rome—sort of like Trump! Set down in letter form, Commentariolum Petitionis is little brother’s lecture to big brother on how to go as low as he needed to go in order to win his campaign. For the Cicero brothers, like Trump and his offspring, politics was a family affair in which nobody could expect to go far unless they gained the support of their kin. “Almost every destructive rumor that makes its way to the public begins among family and friends,” Quintus writes.

Presaging Trump’s endless Hillary-bashing, Quintus instructs his brother to remind the public “of what scoundrels your opponents are to smear these men at every opportunity with the crimes, sexual scandals, and corruption they have brought on themselves.” Actually filing corruption charges wasn’t necessary. “Just let them know you are willing to do so,” he writes, and let fear do its mischief.

“Be sure to put on a good show,” Quintus writes, one filled with color and spectacle. “You must always think about publicity,” he continues, “it is vital that you use all of your assets to spread the word about your campaign to the widest possible audience” using your skills as a public speaker.

Like a bell chiming at noon, Quintus repeatedly tells Marcus to preach a gospel of hope to the voters—all but instructing him to manufacture and distribute red baseball caps bearing the “Make Rome Great Again” motto. Make your zealous supporters “believe that you will always be there to help them” and smother them in flattery. But “stick to vague generalities” that will assure “the common people that you have always been on their side,” he writes. “If you break a promise, the outcome is uncertain and the number of people affected is small. But if you refuse to make a promise, the result is certain and produces immediate anger in a larger number of voters.” Fill the house with supporters and pour promises into their heads so they’ll be enthusiastic enough about your message to proselytize on your behalf.

“People are moved more by appearances than reality,” Quintus writes. “People would prefer you give them a gracious lie than an outright refusal.”

How did the advice work out for Marcus Cicero? He won, just like Trump! But a couple of years later it all went to hell, so Trump might not want to follow Quintus’ script all the way to the end. As Freeman writes, “In 43 BC, Quintus and his brother Marcus were murdered as the republic itself died and the Roman Empire rose in its place.”

******

Slap some Latin on me, baby, via email to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com! My email alerts will promise you everything. My Twitter feed accuses you of corruption. My RSS feed wants you jailed.

Jack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer.


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