Category: Domestic Affairs,

Parkland students return to school with clear backpacks, increased security

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Schools,Leave a comment

But these teenagers won’t be returning to a normal high school experience. Instead, they’ll be met with strict security measures which are intended to protect them from another mass shooting but have some students feeling as if they’ll be learning in a prison.

…MSD students will only be allowed to carry clear backpacks on campus and will be required to wear new student IDs at all times.

There will be an increased police presence on campus, as Gov. Rick Scott provides extra Florida Highway Patrol officers to beef up security and provide support to Broward County sheriff’s deputies. Students will have limited points of entry to the school.

…”We have no sense of normalcy anymore,” said [student, Isabelle] Robinson, 17.

…”It feels like being punished,” Robinson told CNN. “It feels like jail, being checked every time we go to school.”

…Many students, like Robinson, aren’t happy about the new security measures. She pointed out that the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was not a student of Stoneman Douglas at the time of the shooting, so the new security measures that appear to target students are counterproductive.

“It’s like putting into place all these rules that wouldn’t have changed anything,” Robinson said.

…I understand why they are doing it, but if a person wants to bring a gun on campus, they just aren’t going to put it in their backpack.” [- Senior, Demitri Hoth]

…[Sophomore, Daniel] Bishop said he would support metal detectors but called the clear backpacks “an invasion of privacy.” He believes the increased security measures will make students “safer,” but that doesn’t mean they’ll be “safe.”

…The increased police presence has also given students of color at Stoneman Douglas a sense of unease, according to Kai Koerber, a junior. He said the school is being turned into “a police state.”

“Every day, students lose more and more freedoms at MSD,” Koerber said. “Students of color have become targets and white students have become suspects. We do not welcome the militarization of MSD. It is terrible to see our school lose control over the protection of their students and their families.”

Parkland students return to school with clear backpacks, increased security – CNN

Jeezus… The crass stupidity of good intentions not backed up by thinking things through….

Everything we know about Shulkin’s White House exit

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

If Shulkin, the only holdover from President Barack Obama’s administration, was fired, the actions of his acting replacement — Defense Department official Robert Wilkie — could be legally challenged as invalid until Trump’s permanent pick for the job, White House doctor Ronny Jackson, is approved by the Senate. If Shulkin resigned, Trump can put his own candidate in place to assume the job.

The White House, now seemingly aware of the issue, has maintained that White House chief of staff John Kelly offered Shulkin the chance to resign in a conversation a few hours before Trump tweeted that he was replacing his VA secretary.

Shulkin, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that he resigned, telling multiple outlets that he was flatly fired.

Everything we know about Shulkin’s White House exit – CNNPolitics

hmmmm

Fact check: Trump administration departs from reality on wall, census, Amazon

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Trump hailed the start of his long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall this past week, proudly tweeting photos of the “WALL!” Actually, no new work got underway. The photos showed the continuation of an old project to replace 2 miles of existing barrier.

…Trump is misrepresenting Amazon’s record on taxes, the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation and the contract that has the post office deliver some Amazon orders. Federal regulators have found that contract to be profitable for the Postal Service.

People who buy products sold by Amazon pay sales tax in all states that have a sales tax.

…Trump is misrepresenting Amazon’s record on taxes, the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation and the contract that has the post office deliver some Amazon orders. Federal regulators have found that contract to be profitable for the Postal Service.

People who buy products sold by Amazon pay sales tax in all states that have a sales tax.

… The post office does not use taxpayer money for its operations.

…Trump is floating the idea of using “M” — the Pentagon’s military budget — to pay for his wall with Mexico. Such a move would almost certainly require approval from Congress and there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the notion of diverting military money for this purpose.

Only Congress has the power under the Constitution to determine federal appropriations, leaving the Trump administration little authority to shift money without lawmakers’ approval.

…The Census Bureau hasn’t included a citizenship question in its once-a-decade survey sent to all U.S. households since 1950, before the Civil Rights era and passage of a 1965 law designed to help ensure minority groups in the count are fully represented.

…The Commerce Department’s assertion that the citizenship question was asked on “almost” every decennial census between 1820 and 1950 also pushes the limits of reality. According to the Census Bureau, the question wasn’t asked in four of those censuses —1840, 1850, 1860 or 1880.

Between 1820 and 1950, a total of 14 censuses were held. That means more than 1 in 4 surveys during that time period lacked the citizenship question.

Fact check: Trump administration departs from reality on wall, census, Amazon – Chicago Tribune

hmmmm

Scott Pruitt Getting Pressure To Resign From EPA

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Pruitt has come under scrutiny over his accommodations in Washington after ABC News reported last week that he rented a room in a luxury townhouse co-owned by the wife of a top gas industry lobbyist. That same day, Bloomberg News reported that Pruitt paid $50-a-night for the room, well below market value for a place in that neighborhood. The EPA’s Office of General Counsel issued a hasty memo on Thursday arguing that the administrator paid a fair rate.

… Pruitt’s use of taxpayer-funded security details on trips home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, a family vacation to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and an outing to the Rose Bowl college football game in Pasadena, California.

…Federal regulations require government employees to be “prudent” when “making official travel arrangements” and book “the least expensive class of travel that meets their needs.”

Yet Pruitt spent between $2,000 and $2,600 on first-class flights to Oklahoma, and regularly books $1,400 to $4,000 flights to Boston, New York and Corpus Christi, Texas, according to The Washington Post. He often stays at luxury hotels.

Pruitt’s international travel costs are especially high. His trip to Italy for an environmental summit last June cost more than $120,000. Pruitt’s trip to Morocco in December to promote liquefied natural gas ― a bizarre decision for an EPA administrator ― cost nearly $40,000, according to E&E News.

… Pruitt made his name on the national stage suing the EPA more than a dozen times to block rules such as the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s landmark greenhouse gas regulation, which Pruitt is in the process of repealing. He championed Exxon Mobil Corp. in investigations into whether the oil giant committed fraud by covering up evidence that emissions from burning fossil fuels warm the planet.

Scott Pruitt Buffeted By Growing Pressure To Resign From EPA | HuffPost

hmmm

Amazon, Google want to be a fly on the wall in your home [with the ability to record and “report,”] patents suggest

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Privacy,Leave a comment

Patent filings by both companies — most of which are still under consideration — indicate that both tech giants want their smart home devices to listen more astutely to what happens in the home.

…A device could analyze speech patterns and pitch to identify that a child is present, sense movement while listening for whispers or silence, and give parents the option to program a smart speaker to “provide a verbal warning.

The filing gives the example that when children are near a liquor cabinet or are in their parents’ bedroom, the system may “infer that mischief is likely to be occurring…the system may report and/or record the findings for subsequent use,” and could then give the child a warning as a form of “deterrence.”

The patents also outline the possibility for monitoring the “emotional state” of the occupants of a home. For example, “crying may signify a sad emotional state, whereas laughing may signify a happy emotional state.” The document also discusses monitoring body temperature, audio signatures, and facial expressions.

…John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy and technology project director [said] in a statement, “If these patents are implemented, there will be unparalleled surveillance of our private lives.”

Amazon, Google may want to be a fly on the wall in your home, patents suggest – National | Globalnews.ca

hmmmmm

An unheard-of problem: A president who can’t find a lawyer

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Well-known Washington lawyers cited several reasons for declining the President in recent weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with their decisions. Among them, Trump appears to be a difficult client and has rebuked some of his lawyers’ advice. He’s perceived as so politically unpopular he may damage reputations rather than boost them. Lawyers at large firms fear backlash from their corporate clients if they were to represent the President. And many want to steer clear of conflicts of interest that could complicate their other obligations.

…Even in a city with such a sizable legal industry, so many top lawyers and large law offices with white-collar and national security specialists have already been hired by witnesses, subjects and companies involved in the Mueller probe. Thus, few in town can take new clients at the center of it.

…Boutrous added the President is a “notoriously difficult client who disregards the advice of his lawyers and asks them to engage in questionable activities.”

An unheard-of problem: The President can’t find a lawyer – CNNPolitics

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More advertisers drop Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show despite apology to David Hogg

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Hogg did not accept Ingraham’s apology. He told the New York Daily News on Friday that Ingraham will have to admit she slandered his classmates in her coverage of their gun protests.

…Liberty Mutual Insurance and Office Depot are the latest Fox News sponsors that have said publicly they will not run commercials in the conservative commentator’s nightly prime-time program “The Ingraham Angle.”

…Other defectors include Nestle, Johnson and Johnson, TripAdvisor, Nutrish, Expedia, Jos. A. Bank and Hulu, the streaming video service that is one-third owned by Fox News parent 21st Century Fox.

…The thinned herd of advertisers was apparent during Thursday’s edition of “The Ingraham Angle.” While major national brands such as Pfizer, Progressive.com, Gillette and WeatherTech remained in the program, there were several promos for other Fox-owned cable networks and spots from direct response advertisers — usually a sign of ad cancellations.

More advertisers drop Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show despite apology to David Hogg

hmmm

FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally | US news | The Guardian

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

A controversial London-based academic with close ties to Nigel Farage has been detained by the FBI upon arrival in the US and issued a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

…The special counsel is also examining the 2016 release by Wikileaks of damaging emails that were stolen – allegedly by Russian hackers – from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Roger Stone, a strong champion of Trump, appeared to have some advance warning that Wikileaks had the emails before they were published, according to tweets he sent at the time.

Stone, who has known Trump since the late 1980s, acknowledged having communications with Assange through an intermediary. He later claimed the middleman was a journalist named Randy Credico, but Credico vigorously denied the allegation.

FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally | US news | The Guardian

hmmm

Alton Sterling shooting: Baton Rouge officer is fired for excessive force

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Gulf Coast Region,, Race,Leave a comment

One of the two white officers who wrestled Alton Sterling to the ground and killed him outside a Louisiana convenience store was fired after an excessive force investigation. The second officer will be suspended for three days.

…Salamoni, the only officer to open fire, was terminated.

…After the announcement Friday, the department released graphic body camera footage showing Salamoni calling Sterling a variety of profanity-laced names while the injured man lay bleeding to death on the concrete.

Alton Sterling shooting: Baton Rouge officer is fired for excessive force

Not enough. A three day suspension is an embarrassment to the city of Baton Rouge and advertisement of a city and its police department’s willingness to shield murderers in their midst.

It’s nice that the fired the shooter but if he isn’t in jail for this violent crime all it amounts to is a slap on the wrist and a tacit nod of permission to officers to act above the law and commit violent crime with clearly racist undertones without fear of consequences.

No police officer who takes the law into their own hand is qualified to uphold the law. Period.

Pruitt’s EPA security broke down door to lobbyist condo

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s protective detail broke down the door at the Capitol Hill condo where he was living, believing he was unconscious and unresponsive and needed rescue, in a bizarre incident last year.

…A Capitol Police officer called 911 at the behest of Pruitt’s security detail, which had tried unsuccessfully to reach him by phone, and by banging on the building’s front door, according to police recordings obtained by ABC News.

“They say he’s unconscious at this time,” the 911 operator is told, according to the recordings.

…The protective detail then broke down the building’s glass-paneled front door and ascended two flights …where two sources tell ABC News he was found groggy, rising from a nap. It is unclear what led to the panic that caused the response. Pruitt declined medical attention, and a police report was never filed.

…The EPA has since reimbursed Pruitt’s former landlord, Vicki Hart, for the cost of the door.

…The EPA allowed Bloomberg News to review copies of canceled checks that Pruitt paid to the condo owner. The news outlet reported that the checks show varying amounts paid on sporadic dates — not a traditional monthly “rent payment” of the same amount each month, according to Bloomberg. In all, Pruitt paid $6,100 over six months to the limited liability corporation for the Capitol Hill condo.

…“It’s not just if he is paying market rent,” Morgan said. “A short-term lease is expensive. Is he given the ability to end it any day? Is this an arrangement any other person could get on the open market? My assumption would be this situation does not involve the hallmarks of a specific fair market transaction.”

…“Since Administrator Pruitt is already involved in allegations of accepting gifts of travel, the question arises whether a sense of entitlement may have led him to violate the gift rules on this rental arrangement as well,” Holman wrote.

The head of the nonprofit watchdog group the Environmental Integrity Project and former EPA Director of Civil Enforcement Eric Shaffer called on the EPA’s inspector general and Congress to look into the issue.

“Does this explain why Pruitt flew to Morocco to pitch natural gas exports, which isn’t really an EPA concern?” Schaeffer wrote in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE: Pruitt’s EPA security broke down door to lobbyist condo – ABC News

hmmmmm

EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist ‘power couple’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

For much of his first year in Washington, President Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist [J. Steven Hart,] property records from 2017 show.

…Hart confirmed to ABC News in a brief interview that Pruitt had lived in the flat, which is owned by a limited liability company that links to an address listed to Hart and his wife Vicki Hart, a lobbyist with expertise in the healthcare arena. Steven Hart said Vicki Hart co-owns the condo. He said his wife was not the majority owner, but would not identify her partners.

…[Vicki Hart’s] website says she previously worked as a senior health policy advisor for two Senate Majority Leaders before establishing her firm in 2002.

Steven Hart served in the Reagan Justice Department and became, according to his website, is one of the nation’s top fundraisers, donating more than $110,000 to Republican political candidates and committees last election cycle, records show.

…Mr. Hart is the chairman and CEO of Williams and Jensen, a firm that reported more than $16 million in federal lobbying income in 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Among his many clients are the NRA, for whom he serves as outside legal counsel.

…Another lobbying client of Hart’s, the railroad Norfolk Southern, spent $160,000 last year on lobbying Congress on “issues affecting coal usage, oil production, and transportation, including EPA regulation.”

…The revelations about Pruitt’s living situation come as more questions are being raised by members of Congress about his travel habits.

EXCLUSIVE: More Cabinet trouble for Trump? EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist ‘power couple’ – ABC

hmmm

Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg urges others to ‘use white privilege’ to ensure gun violence in ‘black community’ is heard

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Student survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have said they have to use their “white privilege” to make sure that the stories of other students across the country who experience gun violence are also heard.

…“There is a lot of racial disparity in the way that this is covered,” Mr Hogg said of last month’s shooting. “If this happened in a place of lower socioeconomic status, or a….black community, no matter how well those people spoke, I don’t think the media would cover it the same.”

“And I think it’s important that we point that out as Americans and realise that. Because, we have to use our white privilege now to make sure that all of the voices that….all of the people that have died as a result of this and haven’t been covered the same can be heard,” he continued. “It’s sad, but true.”

…In doing so, the students highlighted the high rates of gun violence in the city, which rarely get national media attention. There were 4,000 shooting victims in the city in 2016, contributing to a spike in homicides that year.

Sam Zeif, one of the students who visited Chicago, called it “heartbreaking to know they’ve been feeling this pain and fear for nearly their whole lives”.

Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg urges others to ‘use white privilege’ to ensure gun violence in ‘black community’ is heard

Well, good on you for choosing to operate in and react to the real world, kiddo.

California sues over Census citizenship question – CNNPolitics

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Progressives, states and civil rights advocates are preparing a flurry of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the next census, saying the move will penalize immigrants and threaten civil rights.

The late Monday move from the Commerce Department, which it said came in response a request by the Justice Department, would restore a question about citizenship that has not appeared on the census since the 1950s.

…The state of California immediately challenged the plan in federal court.

…”The citizenship question is the latest attempt by President Trump to stoke the fires of anti-immigrant hostility,” Padilla said in a statement. “Now, in one fell swoop, the US Commerce Department has ignored its own protocols and years of preparation in a concerted effort to suppress a fair and accurate census count from our diverse communities. The administration’s claim that it is simply seeking to protect voting rights is not only laughable, but contemptible.”

New York announced it would also lead a separate multi-state lawsuit to challenge the move on Tuesday.

California sues over Census citizenship question – CNNPolitics

sigh…

Tumblr’s Ban Of Russian Accounts Adds Detail To Targeting Of Black Americans

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Tumblr has listed a number of accounts linked to Russian social media agitation giving the newest look at a sophisticated effort to sow discord among Americans — including black users.

…That included using fake online accounts to organize real-world political events and posing as black Americans to address real black Americans discussing race, law enforcement and the 2016 political campaign.

…Russian influencemongers bought a relatively small number of paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, but once they had been shared and users began seeing more free content, about 150 million people saw some Russian material, the social media giant said.

Black users and Black Lives Matter were a target on Facebook as well, according to Mueller’s indictment. The best-known account, “Blacktivist,” and others sought to divide black users from within. In another example from Mueller’s indictment, Internet Research Agency influencemongers used the Instagram account “Woke Blacks” to encourage followers not to vote for any candidate in 2016.

“[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL,” a post from the account said.

…”They want to drive a wedge between us so that we spend our time fighting with each other instead of building towards the future,” Tumblr’s post said. “We’ll be watching for signs of future activity, but the best defense is knowing how they operate and how to judge the content you see.”

Tumblr’s Ban Of Russian Accounts Adds Detail To Targeting Of Black Americans : NPR

hmmmm