hmm
Ford investigating possible problems with fuel economy, emissions tests
Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it had hired outside experts to investigate its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures after employees raised concerns, and did not know whether it would have to correct data given to regulators or consumers.
UPDATE 1-Ford investigating possible problems with fuel economy, emissions tests
hmmmm
Judge puts strict gag order on Roger Stone, allows him to remain out of jail
“Publicity cannot subside if it’s the defendant that’s fanning the flames,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Thursday, making it clear that a violation of the strict gag order would mean jail for the former Trump adviser.
“Today, I gave you a second chance. This is not baseball, you don’t get a third chance,” she told Stone.
Stone can still raise funds for his legal defense and maintain his innocence publicly, but he cannot comment on the case or its participants, the judge said.
Before issuing her ruling, Jackson said Stone “couldn’t keep his story straight on the stand” when she allowed him the opportunity to explain his decision to post an image of her on Instagram with what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun near her head. His apology, she said, rang “hollow.”
Judge puts strict gag order on Roger Stone, allows him to remain out of jail
hmmm
N.C. elections board orders new race in disputed House district
The board voted unanimously to call a new House race after hearing testimony that the November election between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready was tainted by a scheme to collect and mark voters’ absentee ballots.
…The board’s vote came an hour after Harris called for a new election and then declined to finish his own testimony, citing health reasons.
…Harris reversed weeks of GOP resistance to a new North Carolina race, hours after state officials said that Harris’ campaign attorney withheld documents relevant to the investigation.
…In a dramatic twist on Wednesday, Harris’ son took the stand unexpectedly and provided documents showing that he had warned his father about Dowless, the operative at the center of the election fraud scandal.
…Earlier Thursday, state board lawyer John Lawson said Harris’ campaign attorney turned over new documents late Wednesday night, a day before Harris was set to take the stand. The records in question should have been turned over earlier under a subpoena sent to the campaign committee, the board said.
…”I’m here to own that,” Branch said, adding that he did not think to ask Harris’ campaign manager or other campaign employees paid by the consulting firm Red Dome Group to turn over records.
The revelation drew the ire of the election board chairman, Bob Cordle, who called Branch’s actions “unacceptable.”
N.C. elections board orders new race in disputed House district – POLITICO
hmmmm
Mark Harris calls for new election in North Carolina 9th District
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously for a new race in the state’s 9th District after four days of hearings on whether to certify the result.
…Harris, who previously pushed for the elections board to certify the result, unexpectedly called for a new election during testimony Thursday.
…”I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”
The House did not seat Harris amid the fraud allegations.
…In a tweeted statement Thursday, North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse said “we support” Harris’s decision and “will do everything we can to help the process and system improve in the future.”
Mark Harris calls for new election in North Carolina 9th District
hmmmm
Emails reveal coordination between Chao, McConnell offices
Chao has met at least 10 times with politicians and business leaders from the state in response to requests from McConnell’s office, according to documents provided to Politico by the watchdog group American Oversight. In some cases, those people later received what they were hoping for from Chao’s department, including infrastructure grants, the designation of an interstate highway and assistance in getting state funds for a highway project — although the documents don’t indicate that the meetings led to those outcomes.
…A dozen of the emails show McConnell’s staff acting as a conduit between Chao and Kentucky political figures or business leaders, some of whom previously have had relationships with the couple.
…American Oversight obtained the emails under the Freedom of Information Act. The group’s founder and executive director , Austin Evers, said they show an unusually close relationship between a Senate leader and a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet — and that “Secretary Chao built a political operation in her office to favor Kentucky.”
“We launched this investigation because we were intrigued by the president’s selection of Elaine Chao as Transportation secretary,” Evers said. “The media and political class identified it as a savvy move to hire the spouse of the majority leader of the Senate. We wanted to see what that relationship looked like.”
…Evers from American Oversight contended that in these emails, Chao’s staff appear to go out of their way to make McConnell’s Kentucky contacts “feel special.” In one March 2017 email to Inman, requesting a meeting between Chao and the group Kentuckians for Better Transportation, Carmack suggested that if Chao couldn’t make it, perhaps “an assistant secretary or 2” could. “That way it is not taking up the Secretary’s time but they feel special,” Carmack continued.
…Evers highlighted two instances when DOT’s Inman instructed McConnell staffers to flag requests from Kentuckians for him in addition to sending them to Chao’s schedulers, “to make sure we take an extra look at” them.
…“The Secretary has indicated if you have a [Kentucky-]specific issue that we should flag for her attention to please continue to go through your normal channels but feel free to contact me directly as well so we can monitor or follow up as necessary,” Inman wrote to McConnell’s then-chief of staff, Brian McGuire, in an email from Feb. 28, 2017.
…In one email thread from March 2017, McConnell’s staff describes Hart County, Ky., Judge/Executive Terry Martin — the county’s top elected official — as a “loyal supporter” and “friend.”
…Oversight groups aren’t just worried about the meetings Chao is granting, however. A previously unreleased report from the watchdog group Restore Public Trust questions the 2018 choice of a town of about 25,000 residents situated near the Tennessee, Ohio, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers, as the site of a new DOT maritime gateway office intended to help coordinate between port operators and government bodies to help improve freight movement on inland waterways.
Paducah is the smallest city to host one of DOT’s 10 maritime gateway offices. The nine other such offices are in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Miami.
Emails reveal coordination between Chao, McConnell offices – POLITICO
hmmm
Republican candidate’s son shakes up North Carolina hearing with surprise testimony
John Harris also said that his father told him that he was going to hire Dowless as a contractor through the Red Dome consulting group in order to add a layer of separation from the campaign.
Harris’ attorneys have attempted to separate Harris from Dowless throughout the hearing, but Wednesday’s testimony damaged that argument.
Choking back tears, John Harris said he thought more about his children than his parents when considering his decision to testify.
“I love my dad, I love my mom, O.K.? I certainly have no vendetta against them, no family scores to settle, O.K.? I think they made mistakes in this process and they certainly did things differently than I would have done,” Harris said while his father looked on wiping back tears.
“We have got to come up with a way to transcend our partisan politics, and the exploitation of processes like this for political gain. That goes for both parties, Democrats and Republicans. And Libertarians,” he said.
“I’m just left thinking that we can all do a lot better than this.
Republican candidate’s son shakes up North Carolina hearing with surprise testimony
hmmm
Mark Harris Sought Operative Implicated In North Carolina Election
The disclosure by the Harris campaign frustrated investigators, who were presented with the evidence only on Wednesday, despite a subpoena from the North Carolina State Board of Elections for the relevant documents months ago.
…Harris has said publicly since the investigation began in December that he was unaware of any illegal acts that may have been done on behalf of his campaign. He reiterated that in his testimony Thursday.
…But Harris’ son, John Harris, testified Wednesday that he warned his father that he thought Dowless was likely engaged in illegal practices as part of his operation.
John Harris says he reviewed the absentee ballot results of the 2016 race and concluded Dowless was using illegal tactics to help Johnson.
…The question of what Harris knew about the operation in the eastern part of the 9th District is important for State Board of Elections as it must decide whether any “improprieties” occurred to an extent that would cast doubt on the election’s fairness. If that is determined to be the case, the board has the authority to call a new election in the district.
Email: Mark Harris Sought Operative Implicated In North Carolina Election : NPR
hmmm
Why Senator Bernie Sanders Lost My Support
In the past four years, Sanders’s words and actions have shown me time and time again that he is more concerned with boosting his image as a white savior figure of social justice than actually uplifting the voices of the communities he so direly pretends to represent. In fact, a New York Times article recently described how his campaign — the one I volunteered to support — initially focused on predominantly white states and failed to gain momentum with black voters in southern states, while black staff members told the Times they faced a plethora of microaggressions from white campaign leaders.
…Sanders implied that he has faced discrimination as a white man in the U.S. while suggesting we shouldn’t consider a candidate’s identity when choosing who to vote for. This, to me, feels like the equivalent of him telling everyone who is not a straight, white, cisgender male that we shouldn’t care about seeing ourselves represented in our government.
And despite his “progressive” statements on everything from bodily autonomy to a history of imperialist U.S. intervention abroad, Sanders has not always followed through on actions that actually align with those values, which is why my diminishing support for the senator has been a long time coming.
…From failing to denounce some of his supporters’ racist and sexist language to saying that white people who “felt uncomfortable” voting for black candidates Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum in the 2018 midterms are not “necessarily racist,” Sanders has continually flexed his privilege as a white man in politics — oftentimes, directly at the expense of people of color, especially women. In 2016 he refused to outwardly address allegations of gendered pay disparities and sexual harassment within his campaign. As someone who poured much of my energy and money into Sanders’s election bid, not to mention trusted a male candidate when he spoke of gender equality, I couldn’t believe how easily he downplayed the serious claims from his female staffers. He apologized to those women this year as he geared up to relaunch his election bid, but I see the damage as done.
….Earlier this month, he also delivered his own response to President Trump’s State of the Union address despite the fact that the Democratic Party asked Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, to officially fill that role. …Sanders’s blatant dismissal of a black woman by giving his own speech anyway. …Sanders’s deliberate decision to make his voice heard rather than fully support and listen to one of the most prominent emerging politicians of 2018 reinforced his need to take the spotlight away from someone who might ultimately be more qualified to represent today’s America.
…Sanders’s call for color-sex-orientation blindness in voting for president is not much different from potential candidate Howard Schultz’s claims that he doesn’t see color. Acknowledging race is an essential part of fighting racism and standing in solidarity with movements that support POC across the board.
…His platform never actually involved stepping aside to let the people most affected by discriminatory policies take the reigns.
Why Senator Bernie Sanders Lost My Support – Teen Vogue
hmmmm
In Brexit, Could Ireland Wear the Crown?
In other words, as Britain self-combusts, Ireland—with its young workforce, low taxes, and English fluency—is poised to pounce.
…Ahead of the Brexit deadline, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays moved their EU headquarters from London to Dublin in a bid to minimize disruption; Barclays alone has shifted some $215 billion in asset management to the Irish capital. (Both banks declined to comment on the moves.) Rivals Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs have promised to bulk up their own Dublin operations in the face of U.K. uncertainty, even as they maintain offices in the British capital.
…The ascent of Ireland as a global player and the subtle shift in power between it and the U.K. isn’t going over well with some in Britain—namely, the Brexit supporters who remain in Parliament. One Conservative member derided “the obdurate Irish government” for being overly concerned with border issues. Another was widely condemned in December for suggesting that Downing Street use the threat of economic damage, including food shortages, to compel Ireland to agree to a more favorable deal for the U.K.—an uncomfortable echo of the Great Famine of the 19th century. “We simply cannot allow the Irish to treat us this way,” an unnamed member of Parliament reportedly told a BBC columnist that same month, adding: “The Irish really should know their place.”
…The businesses moving to Dublin, Frankfurt, and Paris are not fly-by-night call centers, sweatshops, or hubs of unattractive work. Rather, they are the white-collar, green-collar, and gold-collar jobs upon which the 21st century’s economic power is being built. Ireland seems prepared to grab them all. “Small is beautiful. It keeps us agile,” says Bushnell, herself not quite 5 feet 3 inches. “We can’t scale nationally. We can only scale internationally. Instead of going wide, we are going deep. That has sent us up the value chain. We’re not call centers anymore. People are taking our calls now.”
If it sounds like the giddy optimism of millennial invincibility, that’s because it is: With a median age of 35.9, Ireland has the youngest population in the EU, putting it on par with such booming populations as those of Brazil, China, Qatar, Singapore, and Thailand. (The EU-wide median is 42.8; Germany claims the highest median age at 45.9.) “We always had cachet but were seen as riding coattails, either of the U.K. or the EU,” says Daniel Mulhall, an Irish ambassador who has served in Britain, Germany, India, and is currently ambassador to the U.S. Times have changed. “We became our own country,” he says. “We have our own ideas at last.”
…A cultural revolution has certainly helped make Ireland more internationally attractive. By referendum, Ireland last year rewrote its constitution to legalize abortion, just three years after it legalized gay marriage, also by referendum. The Irish government last year barred the Catholic Church, which controls 90% of the school system on its behalf, from admissions discrimination on religious grounds. Look no further than Taoiseach Varadkar to mark social progress; he is a gay, unmarried, 38-year-old man of Indian and Irish descent who is the head of government in a country that only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993. In the U.S., this would be the equivalent of the first black president taking office in 1888, not long after the abolition of slavery. “It’s no coincidence,” Traynor says, “that the people fighting for our future here are the ones who can still remember living in its past.”
In Brexit, Could Ireland Wear the Crown? | Fortune
hmmm
Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say
A Coast Guard lieutenant and self-described white nationalist who was arrested in Maryland last week was plotting to kill a long list of prominent journalists and Democratic politicians, as well as professors, judges and what he called “leftists in general,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing on Tuesday.
…In the last month, prosecutors said, the lieutenant used his work computer to draw up a list of prominent figures he called “traitors” and wanted to kill, including many well-known anchors and hosts on the CNN and MSNBC news networks and a number of Democratic elected officials. The list included, among others, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters, Senator Richard Blumenthal, whom he referred to as “Sen blumen jew,” and many of the senators running for president in 2020.
He had recently performed internet searches seeking information about whether senators and Supreme Court justices receive Secret Service protection, the court filing said.
…In a passage of the letter quoted in the court filing, Lieutenant Hasson wrote, “I am a long time White Nationalist, having been a skinhead 30 plus years ago before my time in the military.”
…Lieutenant Hasson wrote about wanting to start a race war, and pondered the best way to do it. “Much blood will have to be spilled to get whitey off the couch,” he wrote.
…In the 2017 letter he drafted to friends, the lieutenant discussed ways that, acting alone, he might cause the most social chaos. “Food/fuel may be the key, if I can disrupt two or three weeks,” he wrote. When people started to loot, steal or protest, he wrote, he would “dress as cop and shoot them. Burn down Apt complex, bar the doors first. Thermite on gas station tank.”
…Federal investigators said in the court filing that Lieutenant Hasson had begun stockpiling weapons in 2017. When federal agents searched his cramped basement apartment in Silver Spring, Md., they said, they found a cache of 15 assault rifles, shotguns and handguns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition that the lieutenant had amassed.
Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say – The New York Times
hmmmm
Supreme Court delivers a win to former addict in excessive fines case
Gorsuch and Thomas, who did not sign onto Ginsburg’s opinion, each wrote separate concurrences agreeing with the majority’s conclusion. The two conservatives would have used a different mechanism to incorporate the 8th Amendment, they wrote, relying on the 14th Amendment’s privileges and immunities clause, rather than its due process clause, as Ginsburg and the rest of the court did..
…Ginsburg delivered a staunch defense of the prohibition against excessive fines, tracing the lineage of the protection back to the Magna Carta to the current day.
She wrote that protection against excessive fines has been a “constant shield” and argued that high tolls can be used to undermine other liberties, to “chill the speech of political enemies,” and as a form of retribution. Citing a brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Ginsburg wrote that the court’s concerns were “scarcely hypothetical.”
In its brief, the ACLU argued that the “explosion of fines, fees, and forfeitures has buried people under mountains of accumulating debt.”
The group wrote that the fines can “lead to a host of collateral harms — wage garnishment, loss of employment and housing, poor credit ratings, driver’s license suspension, incarceration, prohibitions on the right to vote, and even family separation.”
Supreme Court delivers a win to former addict in excessive fines case
hmmmm
Supreme Court civil forfeiture case: Justices back man whose $40K SUV was seized over $400 drug sale
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines applies to the states, an outcome that could help efforts to rein in police seizure of property from criminal suspects.
…Law enforcement authorities have dramatically increased their use of civil forfeiture in recent decades. When law enforcement seizes the property of people accused of crimes, the proceeds from its sale often go directly to the agency that took it, Institute for Justice lawyer Wesley Hottot said in his written arguments in support of Timbs.
…Ginsburg noted that governments employ fines “out of accord with the penal goals of retribution and deterrence” because fines are a source of revenue.
…The case drew interest from liberal groups concerned about police abuses and conservative organizations opposed to excessive regulation. Timbs was represented by the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice.
…The case is Timbs v. Indiana, 17-1091.
hmmmm
Trump administration to cancel $929 million in California high-speed rail funding
The two federal grants represent about one-fourth of all the funding for the project to date — money critical to completing the Central Valley portion and finishing environmental reviews for other segments between San Francisco and Los Angeles. If the funds are lost or tied up in a long legal battle, the state would probably have to either make up the money elsewhere or further curtail the project.
…“It’s no coincidence that the Administration’s threat comes 24 hours after California led 16 states in challenging the President’s farcical ‘national emergency,’” Newsom said in a statement, referring to Trump’s emergency declaration to secure funding for his wall on the Mexican border. “The President even tied the two issues together in a tweet this morning. This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won’t sit idly by. This is California’s money, and we are going to fight for it.”
…“But let’s be real,” Newsom said in the speech to lawmakers. “The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.… Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were. However, we do have the capacity to complete a high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield.”
In the hours that followed Newsom’s speech, Trump demanded that California return $3.5 billion in federal funds, and headlines proclaimed the Democratic governor was abandoning the ambitious project championed by his predecessors — a story line that Newsom denied and one that his team has scrambled to correct.
…Whether the Trump administration can actually cancel the $929-million grant, which in legal terms is called “de-obligating” the funds, remains unclear. The possibility of ordering a refund of the $2.5-billion grant that is already being spent is even a bigger legal uncertainty.
…The federal action to terminate the grant wades into uncharted legal territory.
hmmm
Michael Cohen plans to give America a peek into Trump Tower, and it’s ‘chilling,’ says lawyer
Cohen has pledged to appear before closed sessions of the House and Senate intelligence committees and in a public session of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before he reports for a federal prison sentence on March 6.
…Cohen “can speak to better than anyone” is Trump’s character.
Davis said that lawmakers will hear “how he speaks in bigoted words in private, which Michael Cohen will tell you.”
“He treats people badly,” the veteran Washington, D.C., attorney continued. “He has no moral character in defrauding people in his businesses, and going bankrupt, and taking cash out, and putting people out of work. He lacks the moral compass that we expect in our presidents.”
Michael Cohen plans to give America a peek into Trump Tower, and it’s ‘chilling,’ says lawyer
hmmmm
Key witness testifies to tampering with absentee ballots in N.C. House race
The board looked into absentee ballot irregularities, the disclosure of early voting results and election security. They found that 595 people failed to return absentee ballots in Bladen County and another 1,493 people failed to do so in Robeson County, a significant number considering the narrow margin separating the two candidates.
…Lisa Britt said that she was paid to collect absentee ballots in the 2018 election by McCrae Dowless, a political operative hired by consultants for Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris.
Britt said some of the ballots she collected were unsealed and uncompleted and testified she filled out the options left blank for Republican candidates — an admission of vote tampering that violates North Carolina law.
…The investigation is centered around a key figure, Dowless, who was hired by the Red Dome Consulting Group for a “get-out-the-vote” operation for the Harris campaign, which paid Red Dome for its services.
Strach revealed that Red Dome paid Dowless $131,375 for the 2018 primary and general election, including $83,693 for the general election.
According to testimony Monday, Dowless had two components to his operation — collecting absentee ballot applications and then collecting the actual ballots. He and those he hired collected at least 788 ballot requests in Bladen County and 231 in neighboring Robeson county, according to investigation findings.
…Britt, a convicted felon on probation who admitted to voting in the 2018 election despite being barred from doing so in North Carolina, is Dowless’ step-daughter. She said they have a very close father-daughter relationship, but she testified against Dowless, saying that she did simply what he directed her to do.
“I didn’t think my father would send me out to do anything illegal,” Britt said.
Key witness testifies to tampering with absentee ballots in N.C. House race
hmmmm
Man Accused Of Election Fraud In NC-09 Declines To Testify Because He Wasn’t Given Immunity
“The evidence will show that a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially-resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election,” said North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach.
…In terms of actions by the board, to certify Harris would require three votes, meaning at least one Democrat would have to vote in favor. And to hold a new election would require four votes, meaning at least one Republican would have to vote in favor.
…Democrats who now hold the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives have indicated they would not seat Harris if questions remain about the election’s fairness. In that case, the House could deem the seat vacant, which would then give Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, the authority to call a new election.
…Monday’s hearing kicked off with a key witness detailing how the alleged scheme worked and suggesting that the operative who was behind the absentee ballot operation sought to obstruct the state investigation into it.
…A number of voters have come forward to say that Dowless or people paid by Dowless picked up their vote-by-mail ballots, which is illegal in North Carolina.
…Not only did Dowless pay people to pick up ballots, $125 per 50 ballots collected, but that actions taken were meant to “obstruct the investigation and testimony provided at this hearing.”
…Britt described how Dowless gave her specific instructions for how to return ballots so as to not “raise red flags” with the State Board of Elections: using post offices close to the voters, and never mailing more than nine or ten ballot envelopes at a time.
…Election results in Bladen County, where Dowless is based, also indicated something was amiss after results were tabulated.
Harris won 61 percent of the vote-by-mail ballots in Bladen County, despite only 19 percent of the voters who voted by mail being registered Republican. For Harris to have ended up with that 61 percent, he would have had to win every single Republican and unaffiliated voter and some registered Democrats as well, leading to questions about whether ballots were manipulated or tossed out.
Man Accused Of Election Fraud In NC09 Declines To Testify : NPR
hmmmm
Roger Stone ordered to appear in court over Instagram post
Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered longtime Trump associate Roger Stone to appear in federal court after an image posted to his Instagram page pictured her and a symbol that resembled crosshairs.
…In a court filing, Jackson ordered Stone to appear in court Thursday to determine why his contact with the media or the conditions of his release “should not be modified or revoked in light of the posts on his Instagram account.”
Roger Stone ordered to appear in court over Instagram post – CBS News
hmmm
Troops do not view immigration as a ‘national emergency.’ Not even close.
What makes this group different than your typical illegal immigrant, Nunez-Neto said, is that they aren’t “trying to avoid detection,” and are in fact turning themselves over to officers at ports of entry to enter the asylum process.
…“If the people who have been arriving in increasing numbers are not trying to evade detection, I’m not sure a barrier will really address that flow.”
Troops do not view immigration as a ‘national emergency.’ Not even close.
Can’t see how a nation of immigrants taking in the poor huddle masses, especially refugees who are not trying to evade the law is a problem but it cannot be argued that the suggestion that a wall is a good way to stem the tide of people following the law and dutifully turning themselves in upon arrival at the border to have their refugee claim processed in accordance with United States law is anything but laughable.
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 