January 13, 2017

Spy chief's move for Trump detente is derailed, via tweet

Source: www.politico.com

A top U.S. intelligence official tried this week to make peace with Donald Trump.

But the president-elect isn't quite ready for that just yet.


Hours after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Trump spoke on the phone, each emerged with very different views of how the conversation had gone — different enough that one former CIA official said it appeared to be a "hardening of positions."

Clapper, in a conciliatory but cautious statement late Wednesday, said he'd expressed to Trump his "profound dismay" over leaks to the media about an unverified private dossier containing damaging material that Russia allegedly had gathered on the president-elect. Clapper insisted, however, that the intelligence community had not passed judgment on the credibility of the dossier itself. He also said he did not believe intelligence officials were behind the leaks.

On Thursday morning, Trump offered his own readout of the call, using his favorite medium: Twitter. The president-elect claimed the spy chief had dismissed the contents of the private dossier, not simply the leaks to the media. “James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!” Trump wrote.

The divergent takes on the conversation will likely exacerbate the extraordinary tensions between Trump and the intelligence community. Trump has frequently derided the intelligence community's work, while U.S. spy officials and others in the national security world have been worried about Trump's apparent fondness for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

The mood may calm down once Clapper and other spy leaders step down in a few days and Trump's nominees move into their new positions, but the episode is likely to linger in the intelligence world's psyche for years.

Vice President Joe Biden also talked of big consequences. Sitting down with reporters on Thursday, Biden said Trump’s frequent statements disparaging the U.S. intelligence community “play into the Russian narrative” of a weakened America that allies can’t rely on.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-james-clapper-leaked-report-233526

January 10, 2017

Jason Chaffetz vows to continue Clinton email investigation

Source: cnn.com

Washington (CNN)House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said Monday he will continue to investigate Hillary Clinton's use of a primary email server while leading the State Department, but claimed he "won't be a cheerleader" for President-elect Donald Trump.

"Just because there was a political election doesn't mean it goes away," the Utah Republican said of the Clinton investigation.
He called the classified emails that surfaced on the server "the largest breach of security in the history of the State Department."
The FBI decided not to recommend charges against Clinton, though their months-long investigation -- and last-minute reopening of it -- cast a pall over her campaign.
Chaffetz also told reporters his committee will continue its executive oversight role ?and said that could include probing issues arising in the Trump administration.

"My job is not to be a cheerleader for the president," he said.
When asked about Trump's potential business conflicts the chairman noted that the law? exempts the president of the United States, calling the push from Democrats to launch a committee investigation on Trump's business ties "premature at best."
Chaffetz also sidestepped a question about potential conflicts for Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, tapped to be a senior adviser, saying he just learned about his role. But he said he planned to talk to the incoming White House Counsel, Don McGahn, soon.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/09/politics/jason-chaffetz-hillary-clinton-email-investigation/index.html

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Do these guys realize that George W Bush had some 22,000,000 emails lost and the entire admin did all their email on servers hosted by the RNC.

[link:http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/george-w-bush-white-house-lost-22-million-emails-497373.html

January 8, 2017

What went wrong with the Democratic Party? Three big failures that led to the current debacle

To an extent that is rarely true of an opposition party, Democrats can claim a mandate of resistance. Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a large margin, he’s incredibly unpopular and the Republicans have broken norms around using any tools available to gum up the opposition party’s agenda. In a welcome development, Democrats have largely avoided their classic debate about whether they should throw women or people of color under the bus in order to remain electorally competitive (though some pieces in this genre have slipped through).

But while “resistance” is a welcome posture for Democrats, it’s one that very few have clearly defined. Most autopsies have focused on Hillary Clinton’s campaign failures and messaging, but these are ancillary to the more structural failures of the Democratic Party over the last few years and offer only limited help to understand what’s coming next. Next week, I’ll discuss some principles for Democrats going into the future. But before Democrats can go forward, it’s worth understanding what’s been going wrong.

Mistake 1: Focusing on Perception, Not Power

Throughout Barack Obama’s time in office, Democrats have proved incapable of fighting back against Republican subterfuge because of their commitment to “respectability politics.” For example, James O’Keefe released a selectively edited video which he claimed showed that ACORN (a nonprofit organization that organized, mobilized and advocated for low-income communities) had advised him on how to buy a house and use it as a brothel. Rather than rallying in defense of ACORN, “an overwhelming majority of Democrats” voted with Republicans to cut off funding for an organization that had been “instrumental” in campaigns for living-wage ordinances, increasing the minimum wage and ending predatory lending.


[link:http://www.salon.com/2017/01/08/what-went-wrong-with-the-democratic-party-three-big-failures-that-led-to-the-current-debacle/|

January 8, 2017

What went wrong with the Democratic Party? Three big failures that led to the current debacle

Source: www.salon.com

To an extent that is rarely true of an opposition party, Democrats can claim a mandate of resistance. Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a large margin, he’s incredibly unpopular and the Republicans have broken norms around using any tools available to gum up the opposition party’s agenda. In a welcome development, Democrats have largely avoided their classic debate about whether they should throw women or people of color under the bus in order to remain electorally competitive (though some pieces in this genre have slipped through).

But while “resistance” is a welcome posture for Democrats, it’s one that very few have clearly defined. Most autopsies have focused on Hillary Clinton’s campaign failures and messaging, but these are ancillary to the more structural failures of the Democratic Party over the last few years and offer only limited help to understand what’s coming next. Next week, I’ll discuss some principles for Democrats going into the future. But before Democrats can go forward, it’s worth understanding what’s been going wrong.

Mistake 1: Focusing on Perception, Not Power

Throughout Barack Obama’s time in office, Democrats have proved incapable of fighting back against Republican subterfuge because of their commitment to “respectability politics.” For example, James O’Keefe released a selectively edited video which he claimed showed that ACORN (a nonprofit organization that organized, mobilized and advocated for low-income communities) had advised him on how to buy a house and use it as a brothel. Rather than rallying in defense of ACORN, “an overwhelming majority of Democrats” voted with Republicans to cut off funding for an organization that had been “instrumental” in campaigns for living-wage ordinances, increasing the minimum wage and ending predatory lending.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2017/01/08/what-went-wrong-with-the-democratic-party-three-big-failures-that-led-to-the-current-debacle/

January 2, 2017

Toilets, Trials, and Tolls: Cleaning Up After Pat McCrory

Source: The Huffington Post

We all know that North Carolinas Gov. Pat McCrory hastily signed HB2 only to acknowledge that pre-existing state law discrimination remedies should not have been eliminated by that bill. Unfortunately, HB2 (which did much more damage than just eliminating previous private law causes of action) wasnt his or his partys only blunder. By the Charlotte Observers tally, his partys legislature is losing an embarrassingly ever-growing number of matters in court including voter restrictions, abortion ultrasounds, preschool caps, retention elections, gerrymandered state legislative districts, gerrymandered congressional districts, Wake County school board districts, Wake County commissioner districts, teacher tenure, annexation, same-sex marriage, Planned Parenthood cuts, and coal ash. Were all that not bad enough, the legislature has ended the year by passing controversial Senate Bill 4 (which includes changing the board of elections & making other elections changes; making Supreme Court elections partisan; and modifying appellate review of cases) and by passing controversial House Bill 17 (which includes requiring senatorial advice & consent for certain gubernatorial appointments; reducing the governors exempt employees from 1500 to 425; and otherwise limiting gubernatorial powers). These bills were hastily passed in special sessions that were initially publicized to provide relief for victims of Hurricane Matthew with little other notice and without reasonably-sufficient time for thorough legislative and public review. True to form, departing Gov. Pat. McCrory signed both pieces of legislation even though he found one bill in part wrong and short-sighted. North Carolinas government is obviously broken.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-lloyd/toilets-trials-and-tolls_b_13914446.html

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This guy is really despicable and portrays the kind of people many republicans are becoming (not all). He had sour grapes after he lost the election and decided to pass new legislation to strip away his successors power that he enjoyed through out his term.

In fact using some of those powers to appoint friends to various boards on his final days.

[link:http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article123877334.html

January 2, 2017

Three former White House press secretaries issue warnings for press relations under Trump

Source: Politico

Trump and the press are going to be at odds this year. Spicer is saying he might not even have to do press conferences.

Now three former white house press secretaries issue warnings about the potential interaction between the press and the Trump admin.

This may not end well but its certainly going to be an interesting ride.

excerpt from former Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace.

"I think we're staring at trees and missing the forest, Wallace said. "We've just elected a man who bullies female reporters at his rally as an applause line. We have just elected a man who started a hot war with a female anchor instead of attending a debate she moderated. We are in a new place. And I don't think it's good. And I don't think it has any parallels to the past."



Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/01/three-former-white-house-press-secretaries-issue-warnings-for-press-relations-under-trump-233084