JUNE 7, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


“BEFORE COMEY SENT THE LETTER TO CONGRESS, AT LEAST ONE SENIOR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TOLD THE FBI THAT PUBLICIZING THE BOMBSHELL MOVE SO CLOSE TO AN ELECTION WOULD VIOLATE LONGSTANDING DEPARTMENT POLICY, AND IT WOULD IGNORE FEDERAL GUIDELINES PROHIBITING THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATED TO AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION, ABC NEWS WAS TOLD.”

OF COURSE, WE MUST REMEMBER THAT TRUMP PERSONALLY ADMITTED FIRING COMEY OVER HIS FAILURE TO OBEY TRUMP, IN HIS DISHONEST ATTEMPT TO DERAIL AN INVESTIGATION THAT ENDANGERS HIS PRESIDENCY; SO THIS SCOLDING OF COMEY IN REGARD TO THE CLINTON LETTER IS, WHILE TRUE IN MY OPINION, NOT THE REAL REASON FOR HIS ACTIONS.

WHETHER COMEY WAS UNETHICAL IN ISSUING THAT CLINTON LETTER DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION IS NOT AT AN ISSUE TO ME. HE CLEARLY SHOULD HAVE WAITED UNTIL AFTER THE POLLING WAS OVER; BUT WE MUST REMEMBER THAT REPUBLICANS, NO MATTER HOW GENEROUS AND HONEST THEY MAY APPEAR, RARELY FIT TRULY IN THOSE CATEGORIES. I DO KNOW THAT SOME ARE. I THINK THE HORRIBLY AND UNFAIRLY MALIGNED VIETNAM WAR HERO JOHN MCCAIN IS ONE OF TRUMP’S WANTON SMEAR VICTIMS. FOR THAT DISGUSTING COMMENT CONCERNING MCCAIN'S BEING ALIVE RATHER THAN DEAD, IMPLYING THAT MCCAIN WAS LET GO BECAUSE HE TOLD THINGS TO THE ENEMY. MOST IN THIS COUNTRY DO NOT BELIEVE THAT. HE WILL LOSE MORE OF THE RARE AMERICAN GOOD WILL, ESPECIALLY IF MCCAIN DOES DIE SOON.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/doj-watchdog-finds-james-comey-defied-authority-fbi-154204884--abc-news-topstories.html
DOJ watchdog finds James Comey defied authority as FBI director, sources say
MIKE LEVINE
Good Morning America June 6, 2018

photograph -- DOJ watchdog finds James Comey defied authority as FBI director, sources say

The Justice Department's internal watchdog* has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter.

[Justice Department's internal watchdog* REFERS TO Inspector General Michael Horowitz]

One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word "insubordinate" to describe Comey's behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term.

In the draft report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz also rebuked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for her handling of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal email server, the sources said.

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump complained of "numerous delays" in the release of Horowitz's final report, which is expected to run several hundred pages long and be released in the coming days. The sources who spoke to ABC News were willing or able to address only a portion of the draft report's complete findings.

"What is taking so long with the Inspector General's Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey," Trump said on Twitter. "Hope report is not being changed and made weaker!"

There is no indication the president has seen – or will see – a draft of the report before its release. Horowitz, however, could revise the draft report now that current and former officials mentioned in it have offered their responses to the inspector general's conclusions, according to the sources.

Almost from the start, the long-awaited report was expected to chastise Comey for his handling of the Clinton-related probe. But in apparently describing Comey's defiance of authority, the draft report was criticizing a man who prided himself on his leadership style at the FBI and has since dedicated his post-government life to promoting a new generation of effective leaders.

The draft of Horowitz's wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign.

Before Comey sent the letter to Congress, at least one senior Justice Department official told the FBI that publicizing the bombshell move so close to an election would violate longstanding department policy, and it would ignore federal guidelines prohibiting the disclosure of information related to an ongoing investigation, ABC News was told.

In an interview in April, ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Comey: "If Attorney General Lynch had ordered you not to send the letter, would you have sent it?"

"No," Comey responded. "I believe in the chain of command."

But in backing Trump's ultimate decision to fire Comey last year, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein slammed Comey's letter to Congress and said it "was wrong" for Comey "to usurp the Attorney General's authority" when he announced in July 2016 that the FBI would not be filing charges against Clinton or her aides.

"It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement," Rosenstein said in a letter to Trump recommending Comey be fired. "At most, the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors."

Horowitz's draft report cited Comey for failing to consult with Lynch and other senior Justice Department officials before making his announcement on national TV. While saying there was no "clear evidence" that Clinton "intended to violate" the law, Comey insisted the former secretary of state was "extremely careless" in her "handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

"I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say," Comey said before cameras on July 5, 2016.

By then, Lynch had taken the unusual step of publicly declaring she would accept the FBI's recommendations in the case, after an impromptu meeting with former president Bill Clinton sparked questions about her impartiality.

PHOTO: Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington D.C., Sept. 22, 2016. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)
PHOTO: Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington D.C., Sept. 22, 2016. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

Comey has defended his decisions as director, insisting he was trying to protect the FBI from even further criticism and "didn't see that I had a choice."

"The honest answer is I screwed up a couple of things, but ... I think given what I knew at the time, these were the decisions that were best calculated to preserve the values of the institutions," Comey told ABC News. "I still think it was the right thing to do."

More than a year ago, as lawmakers increasingly voiced concern over how the FBI and Justice Department handled matters surrounding the 2016 election, the inspector general's office announced that it had launched an investigation into an array of allegations, including an allegation "that Department or FBI policies or procedures were not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to, the FBI Director's public announcement on July 5, 2016."

A week before the announcement, while the investigation into Hillary Clinton was still underway, a political firestorm erupted in Washington after Lynch happened to run into Bill Clinton in Arizona and briefly met with him inside a plane sitting on a tarmac there. Days later, with questions swirling over whether Bill Clinton tried to improperly influence the investigation into his wife, Lynch haphazardly announced that she would not recuse herself from the matter but would "fully expect to accept" whatever recommendation the FBI made.

Comey later called it a "tortured half-out, half-in approach." And after such a "strange" announcement, "I decided I have to step away from her and show the American people the FBI's work separately," Comey told ABC News.

The inspector general's office seemed to similarly view Lynch's announcement as strange, with the draft report criticizing her for how she handled the impromptu tarmac meeting and its aftermath, according to sources familiar with the findings.

In April, when Comey was promoting his new book "A Higher Loyalty," Lynch issued a statement saying that during the Clinton email investigation she "trusted" the "non-partisan career prosecutors" handling the case "to assess the facts and make a recommendation -- one that I ultimately accepted because I thought the evidence and law warranted it."

Nevertheless, ABC News has confirmed that Horowitz's draft report went on to criticize senior FBI officials, including Comey and fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, for their response to the late discovery of a laptop containing evidence that may have related to the Clinton investigation.

That discovery prompted the FBI's letter to Congress announcing the reopening of the Hillary Clinton email probe. Hundreds of thousands of emails had been found on the laptop of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, whose wife, Huma Abedin, was a top aide to the secretary of state.

It took weeks for the FBI to start analyzing the laptop's contents, and Horowitz's draft report criticized senior FBI officials for how long the laptop languished inside the bureau, sources told ABC News.

The Associated Press first reported that the draft report criticized senior FBI officials for their handling of the laptop.

McCabe was fired from the FBI in March, after Horowitz concluded in a separate report that McCabe "lacked candor" when speaking to internal investigators about his role in a disclosure to the media. The matter has since been referred to the U.S. attorney in Washington for possible prosecution, and McCabe's legal team is now seeking a grant of immunity from lawmakers who want him to testify before a Senate panel about Horowitz's findings.

Talking with ABC News about his own firing, Comey said he decided to write a book afterward because, "It occurred to me maybe I can be useful by offering a view to people, especially to young people, of what leadership should look like and how it should be centered on values."

ABC News was unable to ascertain information about another key part of the inspector general's report: whether animus toward Trump may have influenced the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails or the subsequent probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

FBI senior agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page exchanged hundreds of messages in the lead-up to the election, including messages calling Trump "an idiot" and saying the Republican Party "needs to pull their head out of their" rear-ends. The messages also included critiques of Hillary Clinton.

"There are so many horrible things to tell, the public has the right to know. Transparency!" Trump said in his Twitter message on Tuesday.

Representatives for Comey, Lynch and McCabe declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for the inspector general's office also declined to comment.


TAKE THAT, TRUMP!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maryland-gubernatorial-candidate-tells-trump-to-kiss-off-in-new-ad/
By BLAIR GUILD CBS NEWS June 7, 2018, 12:45 PM
Maryland gubernatorial candidate tells Trump to kiss off in new ad

Democratic State Senator Richard Madaleno is telling President Trump to kiss off in a new 30-second ad as part of his bid for governor of Maryland.

The spot points out the ways in which Madaleno has "already infuriate[d]" Mr. Trump, including his defense of Planned Parenthood, his help in banning assault weapons in the state, and his support for public education over school vouchers.

After touting each of these accomplishments in the Maryland General Assembly, a different voice chimes in, "Take that!" directly addressing Mr. Trump, the National Rifle Association, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

But in the final moments of the ad, Madaleno asks: "And what's the number one way I piss off Donald Trump and the Republicans?" before leaning in to kiss his husband Mark Hodge.


Victory Fund
✔
@VictoryFund
BREAKING: @RichMadaleno just released the first political ad in American history to feature a kiss between a candidate and a same-sex spouse. The piece aired on @foxandfriends in Maryland and Washington DC this morning. #TakeThatTrump #FirstKiss

9:30 AM - Jun 7, 2018
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128 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
"Take that Trump!" he says after the embrace.

The Madaleno campaign claims the ad, which debuted during Pride month, is the first-ever political ad in the U.S. to feature a kiss between a same-sex married couple.

"I'm running for governor to deliver progressive results and to stand up to Donald Trump," Madaleno says in the ad.

The ad will run in Maryland and D.C. The Victory Fund, which supports LGBTQ candidates for public office, said that the commercial aired during Fox News' "Fox and Friends" Thursday.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



HERE IS ANOTHER OF THOSE POINTLESS BEATINGS. THE ARTICLE SAYS THAT MESA HAS BEEN CRITICIZED IN THE NEWS SEVERAL PREVIOUS TIMES, ALSO.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mesa-arizona-police-release-bodycam-video-of-officers-beating-man-robert-johnson/
CBS NEWS June 7, 2018, 7:13 AM
Newly released bodycam videos show moments before Mesa officers beat unarmed man

Newly released bodycam videos show the moments leading up to a violent altercation involving Mesa, Arizona, police officers and an unarmed black man. Officers, who are part of a police department that has been under scrutiny before for excessive force, are seen punching Robert Johnson repeatedly before wrestling him to the ground.

The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call when they encountered 33-year-old Johnson and his friend, who was accused of trying to break into his ex-girlfriend's apartment. They ordered Johnson to sit down and when he apparently fails to comply, the officers move in, reports CBS News correspondent Jamie Yuccas.

Three are seen punching Johnson, including several blows to the head. Surveillance video also shows an officer kneeing him in the stomach. After being handcuffed, Johnson can be heard swearing at police.

Woman punched by New Jersey officer on the beach: "I'm not a criminal"
Johnson's attorney, Benjamin Taylor, said it's a clear case of excessive force.

"He wasn't doing anything wrong. They searched him, they patted him down and they went over to the wall and they beat him up," Taylor said.

Police say they acted only after Johnson refused to cooperate. In their incident report, one officer wrote Johnson's "body language" looked like he "was preparing for a physical altercation." Still, Mesa's police chief is opening a formal investigation and changing police policy.

"There's going to be a special directive that says that we will not strike somebody in the face or in the head, unless they are showing us active aggression," said Ramon Batista, Mesa police chief.

The Mesa Police Department made national headlines in the past over excessive use of force. Officer Philip Brailsford was acquitted last year of second degree murder charges in the shooting of Daniel Shaver. Bodycam video showed unarmed Shaver crawling and begging for his life, then reaching toward his pocket before Brailsford shot him multiple times.

Batista took the job as Mesa's police chief just last year. He moved quickly to release the videos after a local pastor told him about the incident last week. Three officers and one sergeant involved have been placed on paid administrative leave.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


MORE SONIC ATTACKS – IN CHINA THIS TIME. VIDEO.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/us-state-department-evacuates-diplomats-china-mystery-illness/
VIDEO: U.S. diplomats leave China over illness 3:40



MARS NEWS THREE ARTICLES

CBS FAILED TO GIVE ME A PRINT STORY ON THIS. WHY? I’LL LOOK ELSEWHERE.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/06/07/nasa-finds-organic-material-on-mars/
NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material On Mars, May Be Potential Life
June 7, 2018 at 2:18 pm Filed Under:Mars, NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – New Mars discoveries are advancing the case for possible life on the red planet, past or even present.

NASA scientists reported Thursday the Mars rover Curiosity has found potential building blocks of life in an ancient lakebed.

The organic molecules preserved in 3 billion-year-old bedrock suggest conditions at Mars may have once been conducive to life. That leaves open the possibility that microorganisms once populated the red planet – and still might.

Curiosity also has confirmed seasonal increases of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Researchers say they can’t rule out a biological source.

Curiosity has been drilling since 2013. It previously found hints of methane and organic compounds, but these findings are the best evidence yet. More powerful spacecraft are needed to prove whether life ever existed on Mars.

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


SO, DOES METHANE AUTOMATICALLY MEAN LIFEFORMS ARE PRODUCING IT? THE FACT THAT THE AMOUNT OF METHANE IN THE MARS ATMOSPHERE INCREASES AND DECREASES SEASONALLY DOES LOOK TO ME AS THOUGH A REPETITIVE PATTERN IS ONGOING, AND THE MOST LIKELY CASE IF IT WERE ON EARTH WOULD BE BACTERIA. CROSS YOUR FINGERS!

ON THE OTHER HAND, BETTER WATCH THIS FIRST!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4D2yH4f5U
BEHIND THE SCENES OF MARS ATTACKS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtjHWlM4lQ
Mars Attacks! (1996) Official Trailer #1 - Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan Sci-Fi Comedy


SO, OKAY, THERE ARE OTHER SOURCES FOR METHANE.

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/6-surprising-sources-of-methane
MOTHER NATURE NETWORK
JUNE 7, 2018
From hydroelectric dams to rice fields, methane comes from some unexpected places.
JOHN PLATT
September 24, 2012, 11:12 a.m.

PHOTOGRAPH -- rice field methane
Photo: Dave A. LaSpina/Flickr

Methane is a naturally occurring organic compound, but human activity has increased the amount of this potent greenhouse gas that goes into the atmosphere. Most of the methane that humans emit comes from natural gas, landfills, coal mining and manure management, but methane is almost everywhere and it comes from some surprising sources. Here are a few that you might not expect.

Hydroelectric dams: A risk and an opportunity

The 8,000 hydroelectric dams in the U.S. generate a huge amount of sustainable electricity, but they also produce methane. How? It's all part of the process to create a dam in the first place.

When a dam is built, the area behind the dam is flooded by water that can no longer travel where it used to flow. That leaves a potentially huge amount of vegetable matter — plants and trees that use [sic] to exist in the open air — rotting beneath the surface of the water. Rotting vegetation produces methane, and in normal situations that methane would escape into the atmosphere in incremental doses. But the rotting plants behind a dam store up their methane in the mud. When the supply of water lowers behind a dam, all of that stored-up methane can suddenly be released.

The amount of methane a dam could release varies depending on where and how the dam was built. A 2005 study published in the journal Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change found that the Curuá-Una dam in Pará, Brazil, actually released three-and-a-half times more methane than an oil-based power plant generating the same amount of electricity. A study this year by a doctoral student at Washington State University found the mud behind one dam in Washington released 36 times more methane than normal when water levels were low.

But don't worry. Some scientists are already looking into this problem, suggesting the methane could be captured and turned into electricity.

The Arctic's growing methane problem

Just as methane is escaping from the mud behind dams, the gas is escaping from underneath Arctic ice and permafrost due to global warming. A study published this May in the journal Nature Geoscience found that methane gas, which had been trapped under the ice, is now escaping into the atmosphere as the Arctic region heats up. This, in turn, could speed up further warming.

The potential impact of all of this Arctic methane is still being studied, but it seems to be one of the bigger and most immediate dangers of climate change.

Ocean microbes: A new discovery in methane

As much as 4 percent of the planet's methane comes from the ocean, and a study published in August finally may have figured out how it gets there in the first place. According to scientists from the University of Illinois and Institute for Genomic Biology, the ocean-based microbe Nitrosopumilus maritimus produces methane through a complex biochemical process the researchers referred to as "weird chemistry." It was a totally unexpected discovery for two reasons. One, the researchers were actually looking for clues to create new antibiotics. And two, all other microbes known to produce methane can't tolerate oxygen, which is found in both the air and water.

Since N. maritimus happens to be one of the most abundant organisms on the planet, this could be a valuable discovery that will lead to a better understanding of the Earth's natural systems and climate change.

Composting: It has its downsides

Home or business composting is a great way to get rid of organic waste such as yard trimmings and food scraps and transform them into something useful. But it's not without its downside: The act of composting produces both carbon dioxide and methane. According to an EPA report (pdf), the amount of material composted in the U.S. from 1990 to 2010 increased 392 percent and methane emissions from composting have increased about the same percentage.

This shouldn't be a deterrent to composting, though. The amount of methane produced by composting is less than 1 percent what is produced by natural gas systems.

Oddly enough, the EPA estimates that composting levels have actually decreased by about 6 percent since 2008, so if you don't currently compost, you might want to consider starting. Compostable material you throw away will just end up emitting methane in landfills anyway, so you may as well do some good instead of sending your table scraps to the dump.

Rice: You're soaking in it

Rice may be one of the biggest food staples around the world, but its cultivation produced the third-highest levels of methane from all agricultural processes in 2010, according to an EPA report (pdf).

Rice is grown in flooded fields, a situation that depletes the soil of oxygen. Soils that are anaerobic (lacking oxygen) allow the bacteria that produce methane from decomposing organic matter to thrive. Some of this methane then bubbles to the surface, but most of it is diffused back into the atmosphere through the rice plants themselves.

The cultivate manner matters, according to the EPA, which found that rice plants growing in especially deep water tend to have dead roots, which blocks the methane from diffusing through the plants. In addition, nitrate and sulfate fertilizers appear to inhibit the formation of methane. In the U.S., states such as Texas and Florida practice what is known as a ratoon (or second) rice crop using regrowth from the first crop which produces higher levels of emissions.

Rice production was up in most of the eight U.S. states that grow it from 2006 to 2010, resulting in a 45 percent increase in methane emissions.

Semiconductors: You're using one right now

Guess what: the device you're using to read this article was manufactured with the help of methane. Specifically, the semiconductors in computers and mobile devices are produced using several different methane gases, including trifluoromethane, perfluoromethane and perfluoroethane. Some of this gas escapes in the waste process. According to an EPA report (pdf), the total of all of these gases released in 2010 was the equivalent of 5.4 teragrams of carbon dioxide.

There's good news, though: The semiconductor industry has made consistent improvements to reduce waste and emissions, reducing them by 26 percent between 1999 and 2010.

No matter where you go, methane is a part of life on this planet. Understanding where it comes from can help us to reduce manmade emissions in the future and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are putting into the atmosphere.

Related story on MNN: What is methane and why should I care?
Related topics: Climate Change, Computers, Greenhouse Gases, Hydropower, Methane


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/06/07/life-mars-building-blocks-life-discovered-3-billion-year-old-organic-matter/681597002/?csp=chromepush
'Building blocks' for life discovered in 3-billion-year-old organic matter on Mars
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Published 2:00 p.m. ET June 7, 2018

The "building blocks" for life have been discovered in 3-billion-year-old organic matter on Mars, NASA scientists announced Thursday.

Researchers cannot yet say whether their discovery stems from life or a more mundane geological process. However, “we’re in a really good position to move forward looking for signs of life," said Jennifer Eigenbrode, a NASA biogeochemist and lead author of a study published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

The findings were also remarkable, in that it showed that organic material can be preserved for billions of years on the harsh Martian surface.

The material was discovered by the Mars Curiosity rover, which has been collecting data on the Red Planet since August 2012.

For the past six years, "the Curiosity has sifted samples of soil and ground-up rock for signs of organic molecules — the complex carbon chains that on Earth form the building blocks of life, according to Science. "Past detections have been so faint that they could be just contamination," the journal said.


Now, samples taken from two different drill sites on an ancient lakebed have yielded complex organic molecules that look strikingly similar to the goopy fossilized building
blocks of oil and gas on Earth.

The rover also discovered traces of methane on Mars.

"The detection of organic molecules and methane on Mars has far-ranging implications
in light of potential past life on Mars," said Inge Loes ten Kate, a Utrecht University scientist in an accompanying article in Science. "Curiosity has shown that Gale crater (where the material was discovered) was habitable around 3.5 billion years ago, with conditions comparable to those on the early Earth, where life evolved around that time.

"The question of whether life might have originated or existed on Mars is a lot more opportune now that we know that organic molecules were present on its surface at that time," Kate said.

The nuclear-battery-powered Curiosity rover, a $2.5 billion mobile chemistry lab, launched in 2011. NASA calls the Curiosity the "largest and most capable" rover ever to make contact with Mars.

It's about the size of a car, has a seven-foot-long arm, carries 10 science instruments, 17 cameras and a laser to "vaporize" rocks.


THE NEWEST DEADLY VIRUS. THE GOOD NEWS, IS THAT IT DOESN’T SPREAD EASILY. SEE THE THREE ARTICLES BELOW.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2171089-nipah-the-unknown-virus-that-could-be-the-next-pandemic-threat/?cmpid=ILC|NSNS|2018_webpush&utm_medium=ILC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_campaign=webpush-Roost-Nipah
ANALYSIS 7 June 2018
Nipah: the unknown virus that could be the next pandemic threat
By Debora MacKenzie

Nipah virus has killed 17 people in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It’s a relatively small toll, from a virus few have heard of – and after starting in May, the outbreak now seems under control.

But there has been a collective, worldwide shudder among disease experts. Many consider Nipah the scariest of the “emerging” viruses causing increased concern since the disastrous Ebola epidemic of 2014. It is one of the World Health Organization’s eight priority viruses for developing a …

photograph -- Nipah does not yet spread easily, but often kills those it infects
Reuters/PA Images


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/undaunted-doctor-performs-last-rites-for-nipah-victims/article24098653.ece
KERALA
Undaunted, doctor performs last rites for Nipah victims
STAFF REPORTER KOZHIKODE, JUNE 06, 2018 23:59 IST
UPDATED: JUNE 07, 2018 11:13 IST

He gets frantic calls from home almost every day, a worried wife asking him to be careful about his health. But R.S. Gopakumar, health officer attached to the Kozhikode Corporation, seems fearless in the face of the unexpected outbreak of Nipah virus infection, even going to the extent of carrying the coffins and lighting the pyre of some of those who died of the rare disease.

When 25-year-old Rasin succumbed to the infection on May 31, there was no one to perform his last rites. His father had passed away and his mother was in the isolation ward of the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, with suspected symptoms.

ALSO READ
“The Kerala government’s extraordinary response is no solace for Mohammed Salih’s family who have lost four members in three weeks to the Nipah virus.” The relatives of V. Moosa, Salih’s father, offer prayers at his burial in Kozhikode.
Nipah virus: Anatomy of an outbreak


“I asked Rasin’s mother if I could perform the final rites as per Hindu religious beliefs. She said yes. I carried the pall to the crematorium and lit the pyre and performed the rituals,” he said. The staff of the Ivor Madhom crematorium on the banks of the Bharathappuzha in Thrissur district helped him. A day before, he had to help the relatives of Abin, 26, who too lost his life to the virus, to perform the last rites.

The protocol laid down by an expert team from the National Centre for Disease Control was followed during the cremation and burial as exposure to the virus can be fatal.

ALSO READ
Nurse Lini Puthussery.
WHO pays tribute to Kerala nurse who died of Nipah virus infection


Reema Sahay, scientist from the National Institute of Virology, was present at the Kannamparambu burial ground when the body of V. Moosa, whose two sons too died of the infection, was taken for last rites. The directions from Dr. Sahay, an expert in handling Ebola victims, came in handy, Dr. Gopakumar pointed out. Those handling the body are supposed to wear personal protective equipment.

Some staff of a corporation crematorium even refused to perform the last rites of Rajan, one of the earlier victims. The body was kept in an ambulance for hours before Ivor Madhom staff were called in to do the rituals.

Dr. Gopakumar also helped some others who died of suspected infection. Sabeerath did not have any relatives except her husband. With his permission, Dr. Gopakumar carried the coffin to the burial ground. When the body of Raghu, 53, was taken to the crematorium, his relatives refused to wear the PPE and perform the rituals.

“After my efforts to convince them about the need to wear the equipment failed, I carried the coffin myself with the help of some social activists and lit the pyre,” he added.



MADDOW NEWS

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/18
New Cambridge Analytica revelations connect Trump Russia dots
Rachel Maddow reports on how new revelations about an executive from Cambridge Analytica, the data firm hired by the Donald Trump campaign, meeting with Julian Assange, and the firm's use of data from a Russia-sponsored academic. Duration: 14:51


Embed
HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/18
Ivanka eyed by investigators for referring Russian to Cohen
Rachel Maddow shares a report from Buzzfeed news that Ivanka Trump referred a Russian promising a meeting with Vladimir to Michael Cohen as Cohen pursued plans for a Trump tower in Moscow. Duration: 2:40


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/18
Two EPA staffers leave as Scott Pruitt scandal worsens
Rachel Maddow reports on two EPA staffers leaving the agency as the scandal of Scott Pruitt trying to use the influence of his public office to get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise reaches a new level of corruption even for Pruitt. Duration: 5:06


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/18
Democrats in good shape for 2018 after California primaries
Steve Kornacki talks wit Rachel Maddow about the outcome of important California primary races and how the Democrats are set up to flip some seats in the 2018 midterms. Duration: 8:17


HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/18
New Orleans is the 'City of Yes'
Rachel Maddow looks back at when The Rachel Maddow Show offered to help New Orleans move away from branding itself "the city of n.o." and celebrates a new initiative by the city's new mayor to make "City of Yes" a more appropriate identity. Duration: 2:52


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/5/18
Man with White House access arrested on attempted murder warrant
Rachel Maddow reports what is known so far about breaking news of a man arrested outside the White House on an attempted murder warrant. The man was a contractor with a White House pass working for the National Security Council. Duration: 4:12


HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/5/18
Infamous Donald Trump White House press aide loses job
Rachel Maddow reports that Kelly Sadler, the Donald Trump White House press aide who gained notoriety for her tasteless crack about John McCain's mortality, has lost her job. Duration: 2:08


HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/5/18
Trump, GOP keep Scott Pruitt on despite flagrant abuse of office
Rachel Maddow shares reporting that Donald Trump EPA administrator Scott Pruitt tried to use his office as leverage to get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise. There does not appear to be any dispute of the evidence that he did this. Duration: 13:16


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/5/18
Trump keeping immigrant kids in cages, military bases may be next
Rachel Maddow explains why military bases are now among the considerations for handling the overflow of immigrant children seized from their families by the Trump administration. Duration: 4:29


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/5/18
'Printing error' leaves almost 200,000 voters off L.A. rosters
Rachel Maddow reports on 118,522 voters' names being left off of Los Angeles County polling rolls as the result of what is being described as an accidental printing error. Duration: 0:59


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/4/18
Trump pardon strategy would have to include Russians to end probe
Rachel Maddow explains why if Donald Trump wanted to pardon his way out of the Mueller investigation by pardoning all of his family, friends, and colleagues, the Russian indictments would still keep everyone on the hook, so Trump would have to pardon the Russians too. Duration: 23:22


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/4/18
Mueller accuses Manafort of attempting to tamper with witnesses
Rachel Maddow shares breaking news that Robert Mueller's prosecutors have accused Paul Manafort of attempting to tamper with witnesses, and are asking the judge in his case to adjust or remove his release ahead of trial. Duration: 3:06


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/4/18
Sen. Merkley denied access to detention center for immigrant kids
Rachel Maddow reports on an effort of the weekend by Senator Jeff Merkley to see inside a former Walmart where he says 1,000 children are being held after being forcibly removed from parents seeking refuge in the United States. Duration: 3:48


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/4/18
US inflicting lifelong trauma on immigrant children seeking help
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, talks with Rachel Maddow about the trauma inflicted on young children of families torn apart by ICE, and the effort to reunite them with their parents. Duration: 4:05



http://www.evadeaza.ro/video-blog/a-little-girl-gives-coins-to-a-street-musician-and-gets-the-best?shared=1
A little girl gives coins to a street musician and gets the best surprise in return
Check out what happens when a little girl gives money to a street artist.

JUNE 6, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


WATCH THIS VIDEO OF ROBERT F KENNEDY’S BODY BEING CARRIED BY TRAIN. AS WITH SO MANY PEOPLE FROM MY AGE GROUP, THIS WAS A TRULY TRAUMATIC TIME PERIOD. VIETNAM, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE DEATHS OF THE THREE MOST REVERED MEN OF OUR TIME. IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME NOT TO HAVE STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THE REAL AMERICA. AND NOW WE HAVE BERNIE SANDERS, WHO MAY NOT LIVE AS LONG AS I WOULD LIKE. I BELIEVE HE PROBABLY WILL, THOUGH, BECAUSE HE SEEMS SO STRONG AND MENTALLY ACTIVE THAT I’M SURE HE’S NOWHERE NEAR THE WORST OLD AGE SYMPTOMS. MAY THE HIGHER POWER BLESS HIM.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-f-kennedy-50th-anniversary-death-funeral-train/
CBS NEWS June 6, 2018, 8:50 AM
Americans remember Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train, 50 years later

VIDEO – RFK’S FINAL JOURNEY

Fifty years ago, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just moments after he won the California presidential primary. Shortly after his funeral at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, a train took his remains to Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington D.C. where was buried next to his brother, John. Up to two million Americans interrupted their day to stand by the tracks and pay tribute to the man lying in the train's last car on its 225-mile journey.

John Anderson was a campaign aide for Bobby Kennedy in 1968 and managed the guest list on the funeral train that day.

"I was asleep and my wife woke me up and said 'I think Bobby was shot,' But it's amazing, 50 years later, it's real," Anderson told "CBS This Morning" co-host John Dickerson. "I was struck by the size of the crowds….Every now and then there would be one or two people standing with a flag or sign, it was very emotional, still is."

Also aboard the train was photographer Paul Fusco. He captured the faces – black and white, male, female, young and old, staring into the train window.

dickerson-rfk-50th-stereo-frame-8714.jpg
John Anderson CBS NEWS
John Malone, who was 20 at the time, stood along the tracks in New Jersey.

"The sense was that you were at a wake. You were paying your respects, and just here to do that and stay quietly waiting for the train to come by," Malone said. "In one of the houses here I could hear a woman crying, and as the train came by she just called out, 'Oh Bobby, oh Bobby.'"

When Bennett Levin was 28 years old, he watched the train pass in Philadelphia.

"We waited and we waited and we waited for what seemed to be an eternity," Levin said. "The bridge was lined three deep….There wasn't a spot to be had."

The kind of people in attendance? "Working people," Levin said.

"Everybody seemed to turn out… And the crowd even though the train was hours late stood there reverently waiting for the train. And, you know, that in itself said an awful lot for the esteem that the people held Robert Kennedy in," Levin said.

dickerson-rfk-50th-stereo-frame-5469.jpg
Michael Scott CBS NEWS
Today, Levin owns the car that held the casket 50 yeas ago.

During a year marked by racial unrest – from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to riots in the cities – 15-year-old Michael Scott went with his mother to watch the train pass through North East, Maryland.

"In the last car I'm standing there and I see a lady with a veil. And she is sitting next to a casket that has a flag over it and it was like 'I wasn't ready for that.' I just expected to see the train and here I am looking at a lady with a veil, sitting next to a coffin that's carrying the hope of my family, black Americans," Scott said. "The fact that he was willing to stand up for people who look like me, people who weren't privileged, people who worked in harsh working conditions… that spoke to me as a young man. The train was carrying the remains of our last hope. And I think that was felt for everyone that was there."

Stephanie Lang watched the train in Baltimore when she was 24 years old. She went with her husband and her 2-year-old daughter.

"I was thinking about Ethel Kennedy, the grief that she was going through to lose a husband," Lang said. "When the train came through, that was the moment that I stopped and paid my respect and saw the train come by and I put my hand on my heart."

dickerson-rfk-50th-stereo-frame-7729.jpg
Stephanie Lang CBS NEWS
"Do you think that people would walk to the edge of a train track for any public figure today?" Dickerson asked Lang. She doesn't think so.

"I don't think we have the respect that we have today," she said.

For John Anderson, the train ride was an "event that was the end of that adventure."

"It was a little piece of American history that I had a very little piece of," Anderson said. "And it also gave me a lot of hope at that moment that there would be a better day."

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has an exhibit of the funeral train on display through June 10. "The Train: RFK's Last Journey" looks at this historical event through three distinct works: Paul Fusco's photos, Rein Jelle Terpstra's project, "The People's View" which shows photos and videos from people in the crowd, and a film reenactment of the train's journey by French artist Philippe Parreno. And for those on the East Coast, the International Center of Photography has an exhibit, "RFK Funeral Train: The People's View," on display through September 2.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


ECONOMIC SITUATIONS ARE COMPLICATED. TRY AGAIN, MR. PRESIDENT.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steel-workers-ask-trump-to-halt-metal-tariffs/
MONEYWATCH June 6, 2018, 3:35 PM
Steel workers ask Trump to halt metal tariffs

VIDEO --steel workers ask trump to halt tariffs

Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports imposed by the Trump administration have workers in mills that use those raw materials to build other products concerned about the future of their jobs.

What's happening?

At the Borusan Mannesmann mill in Baytown, Texas, which manufactures steel pipe and tube products, workers penned letters to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, imploring the administration not to carry out the tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"We need this company to grow even more," Roger Jaime, a worker at the mill, told KHOU's Levi Ismail, as he and other workers wrote postcards to the White House and to other lawmakers to ask for relief.

Why does it matter?

The workers are concerned that the tariffs will harm the company and potentially result in job losses. The threat has already waylaid Boursan Mannesmann's growth plans.

Just over 200 people work at the mill, which imports raw material from a facility in Turkey. But it could have more employees because the company has been planning a $75 million expansion that would have added 170 jobs. That investment has been put on hold in the wake of the steel tariffs, given that the cost of getting materials from abroad will increase and selling the more expensive finished products will likely get tougher.

Borusan Mannesmann administrators said the tariffs could create an added annual expense of more than $25 million for the relatively new company. Each employee's letter asks Washington to "please consider our situation" -- for more time to build and create the chance for the jobs Baytown needs.

What could the effects be?

Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. can help local producers of the metals by making foreign products more expensive. But they can also increase costs more broadly for U.S. manufacturers that cannot source all their needs locally and have to import the materials. That hurts those companies and can lead to higher consumer prices, economists say.

Steel and aluminum production jobs represent a small segment of the U.S. economy -- about 255,000 in steel and 61,000 in aluminum, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Manufacturers and end users make up a much larger portion of the economy. That means tariffs on raw materials, combined with retaliation from upset trading partners, may end up causing more harm than good. An estimate from consulting firm Trade Partnership forecast about 179,000 U.S. jobs lost versus 33,000 created as a result of the metal tariffs.

BMP, the parent company that owns the mill in Baytown, has filed an exclusion request with the U.S. government asking for an two-year exemption on raw material imports produced at its facility in Turkey -- which would otherwise be subject to a 25 percent tariff. The company argues in its request that the exclusion is necessary for its expansion and would "unlock" the investment the firm needs.

One of the projects Borusan Mannesman is contracted to supply is the GCX Pipeline, a roughly $1.8 billion, 514-mile project intended to transport natural gas from Texas' Permian basin to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline's owner, Kinder Morgan, also filed an exclusion request, specifically for the specialized X70 pipe. The company argues the materials cannot be obtained from U.S. suppliers in time to meet the project's October 2019 deadline.

Kinder Morgan (KMI) said the project "will directly support 2,500 well paying construction jobs during the eighteen months" required to complete it and that "steel pipe imports from Turkey are consistent with U.S. national security."

--CBS News' Jillian Harding and Rachel Layne contributed to this report

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.



WHY WON’T THESE NOSY DEMOCRATS LEAVE ME ALONE? TRUMP SAYS THAT HIS FAMILY SEPARATION POLICY IS THE DEMS’ FAULT FOR THEIR POLICY OF OPEN BORDERS. WHY DOESN’T HE SIT DOWN IN MEETINGS WITH LEADERS FROM THOSE NATIONS TO DISCUSS HOW TO PEACEFULLY SOLVE THE ISSUES RATHER THAN HARANGUING THE MEXICAN PRESIDENT OVER PAYING FOR HIS ACCURSED WALL. SOME PROGRESS WAS MADE ON THAT WHEN OBAMA WAS PRESIDENT, BUT I GUESS TRUMP DIDN’T CONTINUE IT.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/04/merkley-shelter-migrant-children-trump-593988
White House blasts Merkley after his attempt to visit a shelter for migrant children
By TED HESSON 06/04/2018 05:34 PM EDT Updated 06/04/2018 10:23 PM EDT

The White House on Monday blasted Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) over his criticism of an administration policy that will increase family separations at the border.

Merkley — who's called the Trump administration’s handling of children and families “cruel” — livestreamed on Sunday an attempt to enter a Texas shelter for unaccompanied minors.

He was turned away and later tweeted criticism of the decision.

“I was barred entry. Asked repeatedly to speak to a supervisor — he finally came out and said he can’t tell us anything. Police were called on us,” he wrote. “Children should never be ripped from their families & held in secretive detention centers.”

Merkley said his office had contacted the operators last week and was told it would not be granted access, an answer he called “unacceptable.“

"You're seeking asylum, and the first thing that happens when you get here is you're torn away from your parents,” he said in the video. “What kind of impact does that have on these children?"

The facility, housed in a former Walmart building in Brownsville, Texas, is overseen by HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to the senator’s office.

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Monday that Merkley was “irresponsibly spreading blatant lies” and “smearing hardworking, dedicated law enforcement officials” who deal with migrants at the border.

Gidley argued Monday that the senator’s refusal to back President Donald Trump’s hard-line agenda allowed criminals to enter and remain in the United States.

“No one is taking a public safety lecture from Sen. Merkley, whose own policies endanger children, empower human smugglers and drug cartels, and allow violent criminal aliens to flood into American communities,” the spokesman said in a written statement.

The White House identified two purported “victims of Sen. Merkley’s reckless open borders policies,” including a 65-year-old Oregon woman who was sexually assaulted and robbed by a Mexican man who had been deported 20 times.



https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/04/children-separated-border-trump-immigration-619112
WHITE HOUSE
Blowback over border separations amps up tensions inside Trump administration
By NANCY COOK and TED HESSON 06/04/2018 05:05 AM EDT

Some top administration officials say recent policy changes were made without sufficient consideration of practical or legal consequences.

PHOTOGRAPH -- A member of the Central American migrant caravan, holding a child, looks through the border wall toward a group of people gathered on the U.S. side, as he stands on the beach where the border wall ends in the ocean, in Tijuana, Mexico. | Hans-Maximo Musielik/AP Photo

The White House was thrown into turmoil after a handful of photographs of school-aged immigrant children, held behind fences in detention centers, ignited on social media.

President Donald Trump and top aides including policy adviser Stephen Miller felt deeply frustrated that these images, which dated back to the Obama administration, were getting pinned on them, according to people familiar with the reaction. So they created a special working group to do what this White House does best — push back and shift blame to Democrats through presidential tweets and a rare on-the-record briefing by Miller.

In reality, Trump’s own administration has increased the likelihood of family separation with a new policy to refer anyone suspected of crossing the border illegally for prosecution, including asylum seekers. The change is in keeping with the “shock and awe” tactics favored by top White House policy aide Stephen Miller, the architect of last year’s travel ban, which was initially blocked by courts after creating widespread chaos at airports.

The shift has brought tensions to a boil between some administration officials and the White House over how far they can push immigration policy, both legally and politically. Interviews with 16 current and former administration officials, immigration experts, and close White House advisers reveal a potentially thorny political quandary for the president: how to balance promises to his base, which favors a tough approach to border security, with efforts to appeal to moderate, independent, and suburban voters who may be turned off by visual images of immigrant parents separated from their kids.

“From the president’s standpoint, it is a double standard. He gets hit hard even though he feels he is just doing what the previous administration had done. The media is so quick to validate a false narrative,” said one former campaign official. “You can’t blame Trump because past administrations never dealt with illegal immigration.”

But some current and former administration officials see the renewed border crackdown as the latest example of enacting an aggressive policy without enough resources in place to deal with the resulting logistics – in part because the chaos may have the desired effect of scaring would-be migrants and deterring them from crossing the border in the first place.

“My sense is that they see what happened with the Muslim travel ban as a pretty good success story,” said one DHS official. “Why try to do the first draft correctly if you get so many bites at the apple?”

Miller has worked closely with a web of political appointees throughout the administration, including Sessions’ son-in-law John Walk, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, as well as lawyer Chad Mizelle; Thomas Homan, the soon-to-retire head of ICE; Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Gene Hamilton, a former staffer to Sessions on Capitol Hill who’s now at the Department of Justice.

These hardliners feel that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a close ally of White House chief of staff John Kelly, isn’t being creative or tough enough in using executive authority to carry out the president’s immigration agenda.

“From my conversations with many officials, both career and appointed, it is apparent that they are concerned about the lack of progress in curbing these illegal entries and making the system work, and their efforts and ideas have been ignored,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors lower levels of immigration.

Nielsen’s allies argue that such an aggressive approach often ignores legal boundaries or court decisions. And, they point out, when the administration’s immigration moves get challenged, it will be Nielsen and her team, not Miller, who get dragged before Congress or into court to explain.

Paul Ryan is pictured. | Getty Images
CONGRESS

House Republicans careen toward immigration showdown
By RACHAEL BADE

Even before the latest policy change, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action complaint in San Diego on behalf of a Congolese mother separated from her 7-year-old daughter for more than four months, as well as others in similar situations.

Two DHS officials said they had not seen any legal analysis making the case for the new prosecution strategy before Sessions announced it in May — a standard part of rolling out policy.


“In a normal administration, you make an analysis of the law and the policy change,” said one of the DHS officials. “The notion is to reduce litigation around it.” This person added: “It’s not clear to me that any of that foundational legal work has been done.”

Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley rejected the suggestion that the administration lacks the legal authority for stepped-up prosecutions of alleged border crossers.

“For years, the Department of Homeland Security has apprehended and referred tens of thousands of illegal aliens to the Justice Department, which then prosecutes them — just like other federal crimes,” he said in a written statement. “It is unclear how these anonymous sources arrived at the conclusion or insinuation that it is illegal for the attorney general and DHS secretary to prosecute those who break the laws passed by Congress — and which keep our nation and its citizens safe — but I assure you that both are well within their authority to do so.”

One senior administration official said any differences between Nielsen and Miller and other immigration hardliners were not over policy but over style.

“She is smart enough to understand the situation she is in and smart enough to know not to work against the president,” said another administration official.

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said “there is no daylight between the White House and Homeland Security on the measures needed to protect our nation. Secretary Nielsen is implementing bold reforms to save and defend innocent American lives.”

DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton added that Nielsen and Trump are “clearly on the same page” when it comes to national security. “Any accusations to the contrary are simply false,” he said, citing DHS’ enhanced vetting of visitors to the U.S., the deployment of National Guard troops to the southwest border, and the move to refer all suspected border crossers for prosecution.

But top government officials have acknowledged that the Health and Human Services Department is almost at capacity with shelter beds for unaccompanied minors, while advocates have raised questions about whether the agencies have enough staff and resources to care for immigrant children, including toddlers.

Mitch McConnell, and John Cornyn are pictured. | Getty Images
CONGRESS

GOP senators need an agenda — so they’re doing a poll
By JOHN BRESNAHAN and BURGESS EVERETT

Shelters for unaccompanied minors, which are overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, historically have been geared more toward teenagers, who came into the country alone, and who can live in dorm-like settings – not to children who need cribs, formula, help getting dressed or going to the bathroom. Advocates worry about the length of time these children could be held in custody away from their parents, as well as the difficulty of reuniting families held in different parts of the country.

A backup plan exists to help with the resources: the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement maintains 1,218 reserve beds and could open temporary facilities, including one in Homestead, Fla. If the department exceeds its $1.3 billion budget to house unaccompanied minors, it may need to transfer funds from other parts of its budget, which it’s done in the past.

“There’s no way HHS has the capability to handle this kind of influx of children, especially small children,” said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing the plaintiffs in the San Diego case. “I think it’s only going to get worse.”

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the HHS Administration for Children and Families, said the agency “routinely [evaluates] the needs and capacity of an existing network of approximately 100 shelters in 14 states” to care for unaccompanied minors, but the department did not comment on whether facilities are prepared to handle a surge of young children.

DHS referred roughly 29 percent of adults suspected of illegal entry and illegal reentry to the Justice Department for prosecution during a nearly seven-month period through mid-April, according to data provided by a DHS official. The number of suspected border crossers referred for prosecution doubled in the past month, according to the official.


That would mean the department is referring roughly 60 percent of suspected border crossers for prosecution – a dramatic increase, but still short of 100 percent Sessions targeted on May 7.

For immigration hardliners, the new “zero-tolerance” strategy — and its effect on migrant families — is a long-overdue step to deter illegal immigration and phony asylum claims.

“When the only consequence of sneaking across the border is you’re just sent back and can try again, there’s no reason not to try again,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. He likened adults bringing children to the border, who include people fleeing the violent Central American cartels the Trump administration routinely demonizes, to petty criminals: “If you rob a liquor store, you’re going to be separated from your kids.”



SENATOR MERKLEY – KIDS KEPT IN CAGES AT “PROCESSING CENTER.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-jeff-merkley-says-images-of-migrant-processing-center-seared-in-my-mind/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS June 6, 2018, 9:33 AM
Sen. Jeff Merkley says images of migrant processing center are "seared" in his mind

Sen. Jeff Merkley says that what he witnessed in Texas at a migrant processing center is now "seared" in his mind. He described long lines of young boys and girls being sorted by age and sex in large fenced-in warehouses, a part of their processing before they were handed off to the supervision of government agencies, all without their parents by their side.

"This is morally bankrupt and wrong on every level," Merkley said in his description of the process. He added, "You don't hurt children in order to influence policy decision."

Merkley spoke with members of the press following his viral account of being denied entry at a separate detention facility in Brownsville, Texas over the weekend. He described what he witnessed inside a different facility in McAllen, Texas, the McAllen Border Patrol Processing Center, which is controlled by the Department of Homeland Security, and is used to process undocumented migrants when they first arrive, and where many families are being separated as they enter the U.S.

The migrant children, he said, undergo their initial screening and sorting in a "dog-kennel style" setting. The senator's team were forced to lock their phones away before entering the facility.

"In the first room the ceiling is lower, the rooms were some, maybe 12 x 12 to 15 x 15," described Merkley of the cyclone-fencing in the space. He added that migrants had only the clothing they were carrying and foil space blankets. A Merkley staffer that traveled with the Senator described the scene as "impossible to calculate" as individuals were being sorted, separating boys from girls and men from women. A four-foot-high cinderblock wall acted as a partition for toilets for them to use. The room, Merkley said, had no padding on the floor, and some individuals were seen lying on the ground. In the same space, inundated staff members input data about the migrants into their computer system, and then, they later moved into a "vast warehouse" where fencing enclosures were "much larger" according to Merkley.

The senator said the ceiling in the next room appeared "much higher" and thin, sparse mattresses were placed on the floor. A Merkley staffer described the enclosures as resembling 20-foot-high cages with netting on top, housing children from ages 4 to 16 years old. From this point, migrant children are moved to detention facilities similar the one Merkley was barred from entering. These are controlled by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, before they are finally moved to Health and Human Services.

Texas is one of several border states processing undocumented migrant children in this way. Lauren Dasse, executive director for the Florence Project which provides free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children in immigration custody in Arizona, says her organization has seen 300 cases of family separation in her state, with 100 new cases in just the past 10 days alone. Dassee said the non-profit hears of children being separated at all age ranges, including young migrants with disabilities. She called the process "inhuman and cruel."

Family separation, which President Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for spearheading, is currently shrouded in secrecy according to Merkley, who is now demanding that Congress acts to bring transparency to the system. Merkley, along with experts on Tuesday's call, say the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy is further inflicting trauma on children who otherwise are seeking a new life in the United States.

"This is not mandated by law, this is a decision that was made after extensive conversations within the administration," said Merkley. He added, "It's completely at their decision to adopt this strategy."

In the meantime, Merkley said he's pushing for a bill that would allow members of Congress to visit any detention facility in the United States given 24 hours notice. "We need to see how facilities are operating on a day to day basis not cleaned up or sanitized for a special visit," he said.

The Oregon Democrat added that he would also be pressing for a simple "one sentence law that says when families seek asylum, it's policy not to separate children from their parents."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


PLANNING THEIR NEXT BOUT OF DESTRUCIION OF OUR NATION?

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/03/gop-senators-conference-survey-election-618648
CONGRESS
GOP senators need an agenda — so they’re doing a poll
Ted Cruz and Lamar Alexander are surveying their conference to figure out what the party should pursue while it still controls all of Congress.
By JOHN BRESNAHAN and BURGESS EVERETT 06/03/2018 07:01 AM EDT

PHOTOGRAPH -- Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Whip John Cornyn prepare to talk to reporters following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the Capitol on May 15. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican senators aren’t sure what to do between now and the November elections. So they’re conducting a poll — of themselves.

Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee have been quietly circulating an unusual “survey” of their colleagues in recent weeks asking about their level of support for dozens of legislative proposals, some of them highly controversial.

The areas under consideration include taking another stab at repealing and scaling back Obamacare; trying for Round 2 of tax cuts; eliminating or reining in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; defunding Planned Parenthood and other anti-abortion rights measures; instituting work requirements for federal welfare programs; expanding gun rights; instituting budget reforms; and dozens more.

Yet the Cruz-Alexander poll will likely show that Obamacare repeal still can’t get 50 GOP votes, according to Republican sources who’ve already taken the temperature of the caucus, and that any proposal to make the Trump tax cuts permanent couldn’t clear the 60-vote filibuster bar.

Further complicating matters, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) isn't interested in holding “messaging” votes he knows will fail.


Still, the survey could show areas where 30 or so senators from each caucus could team up, such as regulatory reform or education legislation.

There is also another reality for Republicans on Capitol Hill this fall: President Donald Trump drives political debate these days, and very little they do will get much media attention. Trump's scheduled meeting next week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the machinations of special counsel Robert Mueller, and the president's moves on tariffs and trade will dominate the headlines.

The most GOP lawmakers can do is try to help burnish their résumés as they head into the campaign, or make it more uncomfortable for Senate Democrats in tough races.

At the urging of rank-and-file Republicans, McConnell is expected to announce next week that he is dramatically shortening the traditional monthlong August recess, so the Senate can stay in town and pass 2019 spending bills and other legislative items.

Kim Yong Chol, Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo are pictured. | AP Photo
WHITE HOUSE

Surreal Trump-Kim summit defies diplomatic playbook
By NAHAL TOOSI
Cruz and Alexander — with the blessing of McConnell and other top Republicans — want to get a sense of what, if anything, the Senate GOP Conference can do beyond its current agenda, according to a Republican source privy to internal party dynamics.

“Our hope is to get a sense of the Conference on what legislative proposals can command 50 votes, and what is most important to each of you — additional victories we can achieve together in 2018,” Cruz and Alexander said in a May 16 letter. They based their efforts on a similar survey last year by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) that led to congressional repeal of Obama-era regulations opposed by business groups.

Senate GOP leaders already have several items on their to-do list. This summer, McConnell hopes to pass bills on national defense policy, agriculture, water infrastructure, and fighting opioid addiction. They are also pushing ahead on confirming more judicial and administration nominees named by Trump.

McConnell also hopes to jump-start the appropriations process, although only a portion of the 2019 spending bills will get done by the Sept. 30 government-funding deadline. An extension of current funding is expected to be passed before then.

Before the Memorial Day recess, McConnell touted the defense, water infrastructure and funding bills moving through Congress — but made no mention of Obamacare, immigration, tax cuts or votes to put vulnerable Democratic incumbents on the spot.

Cruz, who is up for reelection in November, is trying to push as many conservative legislative measures as possible, worried that the potential loss of the House or the Senate this fall will curtail the GOP’s ambitions under Trump.

Mitch McConnell is pictured. | POLITICO
CONGRESS

RELATED: Mitch McConnell’s record-breaking reign
By BURGESS EVERETT

Once a McConnell antagonist, Cruz sought out Alexander’s support to help make the survey effort less confrontational and more collaborative. The Tennessee Republican suggested letting senators make their own legislative suggestions if they were uncomfortable picking from Cruz’s mostly conservative list, said a person familiar with the effort.

“Sen. Cruz believes Republicans have a historic opportunity in 2018, with control of the executive and legislative branches, to deliver on the promises we have made to the American people and energize our base,” said a Cruz spokesman. “With only months left in the current Congress, it is critical that the conference work together to accomplish more legislative victories.”

Cruz is not alone in trying to push a conservative agenda. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he’s been “frustrated” the Republican-controlled Senate hasn’t done more.

“I hope we come up with an agenda beyond just confirming the judges; we’re working on that,” Graham said in an interview. Despite “the frustrations of the moment, you never lose sight of the fact that Mitch is very good at what he does.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is eager to try to repeal Obamacare in August. And Americans for Prosperity, the influential outside group, is pressing for a vote on extending the Trump tax cuts, even at a 60-vote threshold for passage. Conceivably, that would allow red-state Democrats to vote for the measure while the bulk of Senate Democrats move to block it.

“Some people are trying to make a political argument not to do it. But on a policy front it should just be done,” said AFP President Tim Phillips.

AFP spokesman Bill Riggs said the group is also urging the Senate to take up another health care overhaul, criminal justice reform and spending cuts — none of which McConnell has committed to because of internal GOP disputes and lack of support.



"I THINK THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SHOULD STAY OUT OF ALL PRIMARIES, SHOULD LET THE VOTERS DECIDE, SHOULDN'T PUT OUR THUMBS ON THE SCALE FOR ANYBODY."

I AGREE WITH ELLISON. THIS IS THE KIND OF THING THAT MADE ME ANGRIEST IN THE 2016 CONVENTION, BUT EVEN BEFORE THAT THEY HAD RUN OTHER CANDIDATES BEFORE THE CONVENTION AS WELL TO COMBAT SOMEONE THAT THEY DIDN’T CARE FOR – A PROGRESSIVE, AS IT HAPPENED. IT WAS A KING-MAKING OPERATION AND NOT AN ELECTION.

IF THERE IS GENUINE CAUSE TO ELIMINATE A CANDIDATE, IT COULD BE JUSTIFIED CLEARLY AND DONE IN WRITING, SEALED, AND AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW ON FILING OF A FOIA REQUEST. I DON’T EXPECT THE DNC TO DO WHAT I SAY, OF COURSE, BUT THIS WOULD BRING A LITTLE “SUNSHINE” INTO THE OPERATION AND THE CANDIDATE HIMSELF WOULD HAVE PROOF OF WHAT OCCURRED, IN CASE HE WISHES TO SUE THE DNC.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/06/sanders-calls-dnc-chair-tom-perezs-endorsement-cuomo-ny-primary-mistake
Published on Wednesday, June 06, 2018
byCommon Dreams
Sanders Calls DNC Chair Tom Perez's Endorsement of Cuomo in NY Primary a 'Mistake'
Vermont senator says endorsement will "make it harder to trust that progressive candidates in 2020 will get a fair shake"
byAndrea Germanos, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- Senator Bernie Sanders
VIDEO – THE DAILY 202 LIVE INTERVIEW 54:18 MINUTES

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday criticized Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez over his endorsement of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

In an interview with the Washington Post's "The Daily 202 Live," Sanders said it was "absolutely" a mistake. "To endorse one candidate over the other is not what the chair of the DNC should be doing.”

Perez—despite his previous assertion that the national party shouldn't be "anointing candidates" in primary races—last month announced his support for Cuomo, who's facing progressive challenger Cynthia Nixon in his bid for reelection

When asked by host James Hohmann whether Perez's endorsement will "make it harder to trust that progressive candidates in 2020 will get a fair shake when they're wading into primaries like this," Sanders responded, "Yep, it does."

Sanders also expressed disappointment that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) was not elected DNC chair. Ellison, who serves as DNC Deputy Chairman, has also been critical of Perez weighing in on the New York primary. He told Democracy Now! last month, "I think that the Democratic Party should stay out of all primaries, should let the voters decide, shouldn't put our thumbs on the scale for anybody."

Watch more of Sanders' comments in the YouTube video posted by Washington Post Live:


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
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VIDEO -- BERNIE SANDERS AND GERMAN AMBASSADOR – POPULISM AND APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS IN GERMANY -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeI2AY2mXVo
Town Meeting with Sen. Sanders and German Ambassador Pete Wittig

Senator Bernie Sanders
Published on Feb 12, 2018
What can the United States learn from Germany about issues like higher education, renewable energy, health care, social safety nets and more? German Ambassador Pete Wittig will also discuss current political events in Germany and Europe.


HISTORY LESSON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jK2eIpj6-c
FULL Democratic Debate: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton Face Off In New Hampshire | MSNBC
MSNBC
Published on Feb 6, 2016
In the latest Democratic Debate in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton got into a number of heated exchanges.



PLAY TWILIGHT ZONE MUSIC HERE

THE QUESTION

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2171020-why-are-there-so-many-devastating-volcanic-eruptions-right-now/?cmpid=ILC|NSNS|2018_webpush&utm_medium=ILC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_campaign=webpush-Roost-volcaniceruptions
Why are there so many devastating volcanic eruptions right now?
ANALYSIS 6 June 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is causing major damage
Mario Tama/Getty Images


AT LEAST ONE GOOD ANSWER

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/can-eruption-one-volcano-trigger-eruption-another-nearby-volcano-example-within-about-10-km?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

CAN AN ERUPTION AT ONE VOLCANO TRIGGER AN ERUPTION AT ANOTHER NEARBY VOLCANO (FOR EXAMPLE, WITHIN ABOUT 10 KM)?

There are a few historic examples of simultaneous eruptions from volcanoes or vents located within about 10 km of each other, but it's very difficult to determine whether one eruption caused the other. To the extent that these erupting volcanoes or vents have common or overlapping magma reservoirs and hydrothermal systems, magma rising to erupt from one volcano might affect the other volcano's 'plumbing' system and cause some form of unrest, including eruptions. For example, the huge explosive eruption of Novarupta vent in Alaska triggered the summit of nearby Mt. Katmai volcano to collapse, thereby forming a new caldera (but no eruption!).

For a few of the historic examples of simultaneous eruptions from nearby volcanoes, scientists actually consider the individual volcanoes or vents to be part of a larger volcano complex consisting of overlapping stratovolcanoes, cinder cones, fissures, vents, and even calderas. In such cases, the erupting vents (or volcano) are actually part of the same volcano complex. For example, Tavurvur and Vulcan cones that erupted at nearly the same time in September 1994 are vents located within Rabaul Caldera in Papua New Guinea. In such cases, one eruption does not really 'trigger' a nearby vent to erupt; instead, moving magma 'leaks' to the surface at multiple sites.

In contrast to these examples of simultaneous eruptions at volcanoes with overlapping or related magma and hydrothermal systems, two of Earth's most active volcanoes that are located close to each other -- Mauna Loa and Kilauea in Hawaii -- have separate shallow magma reservoirs that don't seem to affect each other. Even though Kilauea Volcano is located on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa (the summit calderas are only 33 km apart) and magma rising into both volcanoes originates from the same mantle hot spot, the chemistry of their magma is nevertheless distinct from each other. The timing of historic eruptions at Mauna Loa and Kilauea strongly suggests that an eruption at one volcano does not cause or trigger an eruption at the other volcano.



WE’LL SEE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/live-white-house-briefing-live-stream-online-today-2018-06-04/
By BLAIR GUILD CBS NEWS June 4, 2018, 3:58 PM
White House says Trump has no need to pardon himself

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday that President Trump would have no need to pardon himself from the Russia investigation, following up on his assertion that he has the power to do so.

"Thankfully the president hasn't done anything wrong and therefore wouldn't need one," she said.

Mr. Trump believes he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself, according to a tweet Monday. This suggests that the president thinks he holds the sweeping authority to potentially pardon himself from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which he labeled " totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL" in a follow-up tweet.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!

8:35 AM - Jun 4, 2018
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!

10:01 AM - Jun 4, 2018
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"The president hasn't done anything wrong," Sanders said.

While Mr. Trump has the presidential authority to grant pardons -- as he did most recently with Thursday's pardon of conservative author and documentary filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza-- it is less clear how this power would apply in the case of a self-pardon.

Legal scholars have speculated on the possibility, but a lack of historical examples makes it a difficult question to answer.

Sanders, however, said that "certainly the Constitution very clearly lays out the law," adding that the president does not believe himself to be above the law.

She maintained that Mr. Trump is not guilty of anything regarding the Russia probe, and the administration continues to cooperate with the investigation.

"The president knows that the special counsel isn't needed because, once again, he hasn't done anything wrong," Sanders said.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Blair Guild
ON TWITTER»
Blair Guild is a politics reporter and video producer for CBS News Digital.




IF THIS CROWD REACTION WEREN’T SO SAD, IT WOULD BE EVEN FUNNIER.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crowd-cheers-when-valedictorian-quotes-trump-during-speech-then-he-reveals-it-was-obama/
By CAITLIN O'KANE CBS NEWS June 4, 2018, 12:01 PM
Crowd cheers when valedictorian quotes Trump. Then he reveals it was really Obama

PHOTOGRAPH -- Ben Bowling BEN BOWLING/FACEBOOK

As valedictorian of his high school class, Ben Bowling thought a lot about what he would say in his speech at graduation. The high school senior from Bell County, Kentucky, stepped up to the podium and offered some words of wisdom for his classmates and their families.

"This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google," Bowling said. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.' – Donald J. Trump."

The crowd erupted with applause. Then Bowling interrupted their cheers.

"Just kidding," Bowling said. "That was Barack Obama."

The 18-year-old said after he revealed it was not Mr. Trump who said the quote, but actually Mr. Obama, the crowd quickly went silent.

Bowling, who graduated on Saturday morning, said he "didn't mean anything bad by it" and thought the moment was lighthearted and funny, the Louisville Courier Journal reports. "I just thought it was a really good quote," Bowling said.



CBS News
✔
@CBSNews
This valedictorian read a Trump quote during his graduation speech and the crowd erupted with applause. Then he interrupted their cheers.
"I'm kidding. That was Barack Obama." https://cbsn.ws/2HiZ6ID

3:14 PM - Jun 4, 2018
1,723
703 people are talking about this
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The valedictorian knew that "most people wouldn't like it if I used it, so thought I'd use Donald Trump's name. It is southeastern Kentucky after all."

Kentucky's Bell County, which is located near the Tennessee border, overwhelmingly supported Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, with nearly 80 percent of ballots cast for the Republican, the Courier Journal reports.

Although part of the crowd was shocked that the "Trump quote" they just cheered for was actually said by Mr. Obama, some people thought it was funny.

"Y'all, no lie -- the valedictorian just quoted Trump and everyone cheered ... then he told us that it was actually an Obama quote. Best part of the day. I'm rolling," tweeted Alisha Russell, who was in attendance, the Courier Journal reports.

Bowling's advice to any valedictorian who is going to give a graduation speech: be courageous.

"Try not to be too nervous about it," he told the paper. "For the most part, if you've been successful up to this point, there's nothing to worry [about]."

And Bowling has been successful. The Courier Journal said he earned a 4.216 GPA and will be attending the University of Kentucky, where he hopes to study biology and pursue a medical degree.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



MSNBC MADDOW


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/31/18
Trump could test Nixonian standard of abuse of pardon power
Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about Nixon era lessons about how much a president can abuse the pardon power, and whether norms, once broken, are gone forever. Duration: 4:26


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Eric Greitens resigns governorship with flurry of activity
Rachel Maddow reports on the resignation of Eric Greitens as governor of Missouri, but not before he signed 77 pieces of legislation, five pardons, and four commutations. Duration: 1:22


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Manafort legal defense fund set up for discreet payments
Rachel Maddow exposes new details about who is behind a new legal defense fund set up for former Donald Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort and notes the site's convenience for providing Manafort some incentive to keep the faith while under pressure to flip. Duration: 6:37


Embed
HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Russia more brazen with new fake news disinformation operation
Tim Johnson, cybersecurity correspondent for the McClatchy news service, talks with Rachel Maddow about a new fake news website with roots in Russia. Duration: 3:22


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Russia tries again at fake news site with mixed results
Rachel Maddow looks at a new fake news website reportedly produced by Russia that appears to be attempting some of the same 2016 tricks, but the clumsiness of the writing is a pretty clear giveaway. Duration: 2:21


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Bolton draws from anti-Muslim fringe for NSC chief of staff pick
Dion Nissenbaum, national security reporter for The Wall Street Journal, talks with Rachel Maddow about the radical, anti-Muslim views of Fred Fleitz, hired by Donald Trump NSA John Bolton to serve as NSC chief of staff. Duration: 5:51


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/1/18
Trump hosts N Korean master spy, cyber army leader in Oval Office
Rachel Maddow reviews the checkered history of Kim Yong-chol, the North Korean master spy who founded the nation's elite global hacker army and also spent a couple of hours in the Oval Office at an impromptu meeting with Donald Trump. Duration: 24:10

THE BLACK CUBE
ONE MORE FREAKY HATE AND ANTI-GOVERNMENT GROUP
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER

JUNE 6, 2018


DO WATCH THIS LATEST RACHEL MADDOW VIDEO. WHERE DO ALL THESE PEOPLE COME FROM? UNDER ROCKS IN THE DESERT?

Inside Black Cube and its work to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal
Company documents and sources detail how the Israeli private security firm spied on former Obama administration officials in an effort to undermine the Iran nuclear deal.. Duration: 11:22


THE FOLLOWING IS THE BLACK CUBE OF THE RACHEL MADDOW VIDEO ABOVE WHO HAVE DONE SOME ALARMING THINGS. FROM RECENT MSNBC NEWS IS A SPY ORGANIZATION RELATED TO ISRAEL. SEE THE FOLLOWING STORY.

BLACK CUBE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-rhodes-black-cube-spy-firm-isreal-obama-officials-red-and-blue-interview-live-stream-2018-06-04/
By PETER MARTINEZ CBS NEWS June 4, 2018, 8:46 PM
Ben Rhodes: I'd be "surprised" if Israel didn't know about Black Cube spy firm

Ben Rhodes, who served as President Obama's campaign speechwriter and later his deputy national security adviser, said Monday that "he would be surprised" that a private intelligence agency with ties to the Israeli government were "somehow operating without the knowledge of the Israeli government." Rhodes said in an interview Monday night on CBSN's "Red & Blue" that the group, Black Cube, was involved in collecting information about former President Obama and some officials.

Ben Rhodes, who served as President Obama's campaign speechwriter and later his deputy national security advisor, said Monday the Trump administration's reversal of so many Obama administration policies is based not on ideology but simply because they were put into place by President Obama.

Rhodes (who is the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes) joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss policymaking in the Obama administration, and his new book, "The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House."

Co-host Gayle King asked Rhodes whether Mr. Obama or other members his administration feel that the current president is now trying to "unravel and undo everything that the Obama administration did."

"There are certain policies that they've targeted – Paris climate agreement, Cuba, TPP," said Rhodes, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. "There's not an ideological rationale for why you would take down all of those policies, other than that Barack Obama did them."

Trump administration reverses Obama transgender policies (CBS News, 02/22/17)
Trump signs executive order dismantling Obama environmental regulations (CBS News, 03/28/17)
Trump reverses Obama-era rule on Planned Parenthood, abortion provider funding (CBS News, 04/13/17)
Trump takes aim at Obama's ban on corporations' offshore tax havens (CBS Moneywatch, 04/21/17)
Trump's EPA to ease emissions restrictions (CBS News, 10/07/17)
Trump reverses Obama-era ban on import of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe (CBS News, 11/16/17)

"I say in the book we didn't get everything right. I say that there are things I'm not certain about, and I'll be saying it for the rest of my life. I'll be thinking about the decision-making on Syria the rest of my life," Rhodes said, reflecting on the shortcomings of the U.S. response as Syria's civil war spiraled out of control.

the-world-as-it-is-cover-random-house-244.jpg
RANDOM HOUSE

"[But] the fact that America is a progressive, inclusive country that has a future that is more inclusive and more diverse, that I truly do believe. And frankly I think the project of the Obama presidency that will endure for decades, that's the direction America is headed – and that's not the direction Donald Trump is headed.

"So, I think when history has its accounting, America is going to end up looking a lot more like the Obama presidency than the Trump presidency."

When asked about a comment by Mr. Obama following the 2016 election in which he said, "What if we were wrong?," Rhodes said, "President Obama wasn't unlike a lot of Americans after the election. He was trying to figure it out. There were different theories: Was it Russian meddling? Was it the campaign that the Democrats ran? We were on that last foreign trip and I was sitting with him in his presidential limousine and he'd read a column saying that maybe Democrats had pushed too far in the embrace of globalization and had gotten away from that sense of identity that is important to people, part of which was what President Trump had stoked.

"But I think, frankly, the reality is, any number of causal factors led to President Trump, and what I answer in the book is that question, which is, I don't think we were wrong."

Co-host Norah O'Donnell asked if Mr. Trump won on a message of change.

"That was his message," Rhodes said. "The racism and misogyny was also a part of the message, and that's important to know."

Rhodes said he felt "shell-shocked" by Clinton's loss, and admitted not considering the likelihood of a Trump win. But when asked whether the question "What if we were wrong?" was an indictment of the American electorate for not being willing to further the advances of Mr. Obama's presidency, Rhodes replied, "Absolutely not. What President Obama has said his entire political career is, his bet was always on the American people. He couldn't become the first African-American president, a two-term president, without the confidence of the American people.

0604-ctm-benrhodesqa-1582939-640x360.jpg
Former Obama speechwriter and deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes. CBS NEWS

"I think what he's getting at is a bigger phenomenon in the world. We were on a trip that led up to that comment that he made, when we saw Angela Merkel in Germany who'd taken huge flack for letting in Syrian refugees. She literally had a tear in her eye the last time she saw President Obama. We left Justin Trudeau sitting there alone wondering what was going to happen with President Trump, and now we see.

"We've seen the President Xi Jinping of China, who made kind of an ominous comment to us that if an immature leader throws the world into chaos, the world doesn't know who to blame. He was not talking about President Obama!

"And I think what he's referring to there is a sense of globalization, of immigration, trade. We're part of an enterprise, basically, a liberal international order that had pushed very far at changing the nature of our world over the last several decades, and the question is, did that get too far ahead of voters in places like the United States and United Kingdom who were feeling a sense of uncertainty because of that change?"

With regard to Mr. Trump's moving forward with plans for a summit with North Korea later this month, co-host John Dickerson asked, "I know you're not a fan of President Trump, but doesn't he deserve his due in getting this to where it's gotten so far?"

"Look, I think diplomacy is preferable to military conflict. The question is, what does that diplomacy produce? What I think is most likely is you'll see the North Koreans make commitments to denuclearize in the future, but in the past we've seen them make those commitments and not follow through. The follow-through is a question for them."

"The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House" by Ben Rhodes (Random House) is available via Amazon.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

David Morgan
David Morgan is a senior editor at CBSNews.com and cbssundaymorning.com.



I WAS RESEARCHING A DANGEROUS NEW SPY ORGANIZATION THAT WAS ON THE NEWS WHEN I CAME ACROSS THIS. IF YOU'RE INTERESTTED IN RELIGION, LOOK AT THIS. THE ORIGINAL BLACK CUBE IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION, BUT A THING, AND A VERY INTERESTING ONE. SEE THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE.

https://www.google.com/search?q=black+cube+mecca&oq=BLACK+CUBE&aqs=chrome.4.69i59j0j69i59j0l3.9452j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
What is the black cube in Mecca?

The Black Stone of Mecca, or Kaaba Stone, is a Muslim relic, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient sacred stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF THE “BLACK STONE.” IT LOOKS LIKE A HUGE BLACK BOX, BUT IT IS A BUILDING, THE KAABA. READ ALL ABOUT IT ON WIKIPEDIA. THE ARTICLE IS ONLY TWO OR THREE PAGES LONG, AND TELLS A RECAP OF THE HISTORY. THE KAABA IS THOUGHT TO BE “THE FIRST HOUSE OF WORSHIP, AND IT PREDATES THE BIRTH OF MOHAMMAD. IT IS THOUGHT TO BE NABATEAN ORIGINALLY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba







THIS STORY NOW MOVES TO FERGUSON, MO. IT LINKS SEVERAL MILITIA AND ANARCHIST GROUPS. SEE BELOW.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/presence-of-militia-style-group-oath-keepers-in-ferguson-questioned/
CBS/AP August 11, 2015, 7:47 AM
Presence of militia-style group in Ferguson questioned

FERGUSON, Missouri - In the midst of a spasm of tension in Ferguson, Missouri, on the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, several heavily armed men carrying assault rifles and flak jackets appeared, and they weren't cops.

Instead, they said they were members of the Oath Keepers. The group, led by a man identified only as John, told reporters they were in Ferguson to protect a journalist for InfoWars.com, a conservative website run by radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

"There were problems here, there were people who got hurt.We needed to be prepared for that," John told Reuters.

An Infowars representative told Reuters that it had not asked them for security.

"We happen to be in some of the same circumstances as theyare on occasion and ideologically we may share the same views,"said the representative, who asked not to be named citing security concerns. "They are there of their own volition and secondarily they are there to protect anyone who is innocent. Of course, we fall under that because our reporters are reporting."

Ferguson: One year later
29 PHOTOS
Ferguson: One year later

One member of the militia-style group described the Oath Keepers as constitutionalists. On their website, they say they are "a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to 'defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."'

In a statement, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called their presence "both unnecessary and inflammatory." St. Louis County police and prosecutors told CBS News said they would consult about the legality of openly displaying the weapons during a state of emergency, which had been declared Monday after violence rocked Ferguson during protests the previous evening.

Jones' website is well known for hosting inflammatory conservative rhetoric, and posting items that take an extreme view of current events. One of the headlines produced about the recent Ferguson unrest screams: "PROTESTERS DECLARE THEY ARE READY FOR WAR AS AMERICA'S IMPOVERISHED INNER CITIES THREATEN TO ERUPT."

Who are "sovereign citizens"?
Play VIDEO
Who are "sovereign citizens"?

A separate video claiming to be from an Oath Keepers' award banquet shows one of them imploring members to "assume the worst" and "prepare for economic collapse."

Oath Keepers is a national group best known as supporters of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy during a 2014 dispute with the Bureau of Land Management. The Idaho group gets its name from the 3 percent of Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War.

They come from what was a general rise in sometimes-violent anti-government activity in the Inland Northwest. After a lull following the demise of the Idaho-based neo-Nazi Aryan Nations in 2000, anti-government and white supremacist groups and individuals saw a dramatic uptick in activity and organization.

The Oath Keepers appear to still be active in multiple parts of the country. Last week, they were among several similar groups involved in a dispute in Montana over a mining claim.

The groups were there in support of a mine owner who is in contention with the U.S. Forest Service over his claim. Members of Oath Keepers, Pacific Patriot Network and 3% of Idaho said they came to Lincoln - the former hometown of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski - at White Hope Mine owner George Kornec's request.

In 2011, a member of the Georgia Oath Keepers, Darren Huff, was convicted in Tennessee on a federal firearms charge in what police said was a plot to take over a Tennessee courthouse and force President Barack Obama out of office.

Oath Keepers
Members of the Oath Keepers walk with their personal weapons on the street during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 11, 2015. REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON