John McCain: Attacking The Free Press Is ‘How Dictators Get Started’

“We need to learn the lessons of history.” 
By Mary Papenfuss 

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave a staunch defense of the free press Saturday, noting that attacks on the media are “how dictators get started.”

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” to be aired Sunday, McCain took a swipe at President Donald Trump’s volleys against the Fourth Estate, particularly a Friday tweet in which the press was called the “enemy of the American people.”

 Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

4:48 PM - 17 Feb 2017

“We need a free press,” said the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. “We must have it. It’s vital.” 

“If you want to preserve ― I’m very serious now ― if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press,” he added.

McCain said that without a free press, “we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time.”

“That’s how dictators get started,” he added, noting that attacks on journalists questioning those in power are a tactic used by autocratic governments.

“When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press,” he said. “I’m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”

“A fundamental part of that new world order was a free press,” he added. “I hate the press; I hate you especially,” McCain quipped. “But the fact is we need you.”

Trump has ratcheted up his assaults against media organizations in recent weeks, culminating in a belligerent press conference Thursday in which he excoriated the members of the press as “fake news.”

McCain, in Germany for the Munich Security conference, has unleashed a series of thinly veiled attacks on the White House.

In a speech before the conference, he slammed a “hardening resentment” toward “immigrants, and refugees, and minority groups, especially Muslims” and asked world leaders not to give up on America despite the country’s current politics.

During a question-and-answer, the senator said the resignation of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, showed the administration was “in disarray.”

Trump Admits To ‘Relationship’ With Putin In Resurfaced Video

Nah, Trump has no past relationship with Putin. Oh Wait, there is this,,,

White House Considered Mobilizing National Guard To Round Up Unauthorized Immigrants: Report

White House press secretary Sean Spicer called the report “100% false.”

 But, this document proves otherwise. Trump-National-Guard-Draft-Memo

(See Page-3, Section-D)

 President Donald Trump’s administration at some point considered mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, according to a draft copy of an order obtained by The Associated Press.

Though the AP on Friday reported that the memo was written by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security quickly denied that the report was true. 

“100% false. There is no effort to use the National Guard to round up,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in an email to The Huffington Post.

“The Department is not considering mobilizing the National Guard,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

The AP’s report says that an 11-page draft memo showed the Trump administration considering an unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans.

The memo, which has reportedly been circulating among Department of Homeland Security staff for two weeks, says participating troops would be authorized “to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States,” according to the AP.

Eleven states would be targeted for raids, according to the memo. They include states on the U.S.-Mexico border like Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, and non-border states like Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah. Governors in those states would have final approval on whether troops under their control participate, according to the AP.

If the Trump administration were to go ahead with the plan, it could be a tough sell ― including to Republican governors. 

The Huffington Post reached out to the governors of the 11 states listed in the memo. Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah said they had not heard from the Trump administration on the issue. But the GOP governors of both Arkansas and Utah expressed deep reservations about the idea.

“I would have concerns about the utilization of National Guard resources for immigration enforcement with the current deployment responsibilities our guardsmen have overseas,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison (R) said. “During my time at Homeland Security, we utilized National Guard partnerships for specific responsibilities along the border, so the concept is fine, but it’s a matter of resources. In Arkansas, I believe it would be too much of a strain on our National Guard personnel.”

Hutchison served as undersecretary for border and transportation security when the Department of Homeland Security was formed under President George W. Bush.

“While we cannot speculate as to what may be requested via official channels in the future, we have serious constitutional concerns about activating the National Guard to provide the mentioned services and the potential financial impacts of doing so,” the office of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) said.

The office of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) emphasized that state agencies “are not permitted to arrest or detain immigrants based solely on their undocumented status.”

During the 2016 campaign, Trump talked at various times about implementing a “deportation force” to conduct raids on undocumented immigrants. In August, during a high-profile speech in Arizona, he pledged to “triple the number of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] deportation officers” and to “create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice.”

The National Guard is not part of ICE, but the memo obtained by the AP is reminiscent of that August pledge. Federal law permits the president to call up National Guard units in the various states when he or she believes that “unlawful obstructions, combinations, assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the U.S. make it impractical to enforce the laws of the U.S. in any state or territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”

Other statutes stipulate when the president may call the National Guard to service in concert with state governors, but Trump doesn’t appear to meet any of these criteria.

President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to enforce desegregation of the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, enabling black students to register over the objections of Gov. George Wallace. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard to enforce desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. And in the mid-2000s, President George W. Bush deployed Guard troops on the border to assist with Border Patrol operations.

The concept of a deportation force faces heavy opposition in Congress, including from top Republicans. At a recent town hall, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said definitively that “there won’t be a deportation force.”

But it’s not clear what purview, if any, the House would have over the mobilization of the National Guard, meaning that Ryan could be powerless to stop this from happening ― if he wanted to at all.

A recent uptick in arrests and deportation of undocumented immigrants stoked fears nationwide about potential use of a “deportation force.” In a call with reporters a week ago, an ICE official said agencies had targeted several cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, in an “enforcement surge.” 

Trump has floated potential executive actions before, only to back away. Most notably, his administration looked into a religious freedom executive order that would have potentially curtailed LGBTQ rights. But they ultimately decided against going down that route. The AP story, likewise, says merely that the administration is “considering” this order on deportation.

“It is irresponsible to be saying this,” Spicer told reporters on Air Force One Friday, according to a White House pool report. Spicer also denied that any document the AP had obtained is a White House document.

The Huffington Post

Spies Keep Intelligence From Donald Trump on Leak Concerns

Decision to withhold information underscores deep mistrust between intelligence community and president

 

By

Shane Harris and

Carol E. Lee

Feb. 15, 2017 8:42 p.m. ET


U.S. intelligence officials have withheld sensitive intelligence from President Donald Trump because they are concerned it could be leaked or compromised, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.
The officials’ decision to keep information from Mr. Trump underscores the deep mistrust that has developed between the intelligence community and the president over his team’s contacts with the Russian government, as well as the enmity he has shown toward U.S. spy agencies. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump accused the agencies of leaking information to undermine him.

In some of these cases of withheld information, officials have decided not to show Mr. Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information, the current and former officials said. Those sources and methods could include, for instance, the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government.
A White House official said: “There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening.”

 Intelligence officials have in the past not told a president or members of Congress about the ins and outs of how they ply their trade. At times, they have decided that secrecy is essential for protecting a source, and that all a president needs to know is what that source revealed and what the intelligence community thinks is important about it.

But in these previous cases in which information was withheld, the decision wasn’t motivated by a concern about a president’s trustworthiness or discretion, the current and former officials said.
It wasn’t clear Wednesday how many times officials have held back information from Mr. Trump.
The officials emphasized that they know of no instance in which crucial information about security threats or potential plotting has been omitted. Still, the misgivings that have emerged among intelligence officials point to the fissures spreading between the White House and the U.S. spy agencies.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, asked Monday night for the resignation of Mike Flynn, his national security adviser, after the White House said the president lost trust in him, in part, because he misstated the nature of his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump castigated the intelligence agencies and the news media, blaming them for Mr. Flynn’s downfall.
“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!” Mr. Trump tweeted.

Mr. Trump doesn’t immerse himself in intelligence information, and it isn’t clear that he has expressed a desire to know sources and methods. The intelligence agencies have been told to dramatically pare down the president’s daily intelligence briefing, both the number of topics and how much information is described under each topic, an official said. Compared with his immediate predecessors, Mr. Trump so far has chosen to rely less on the daily briefing than they did.
The current and former officials said the decision to avoid revealing sources and methods with Mr. Trump stems in large part from the president’s repeated expressions of admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his call during the presidential campaign for Russia to continue hacking the emails of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia stole and leaked emails from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign to undermine the election process and try to boost Mr. Trump’s chances of winning, an allegation denied by Russian officials.
Several of Mr. Trump’s current and former advisers are under investigation for the nature of their ties to Moscow, according to people familiar with the matter. After Mr. Flynn’s dismissal, lawmakers have called on the government to release the transcripts of his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and to disclose whether Mr. Trump was aware of or directed Mr. Flynn’s conversations.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he has heard concerns from officials about sharing especially sensitive information with Mr. Trump.
“I’ve talked with people in the intelligence community that do have concerns about the White House, about the president, and I think those concerns take a number of forms,” Mr. Schiff said, without confirming any specific incidents. “What the intelligence community considers their most sacred obligation is to protect the very best intelligence and to protect the people that are producing it.”
“I’m sure there are people in the community who feel they don’t know where he’s coming from on Russia,” Mr. Schiff said.
Tensions between the spy agencies and Mr. Trump were pronounced even before he took office, after he publicly accused the Central Intelligence Agency and others of leaking information about alleged Russian hacking operations to undermine the legitimacy of his election win. In a meandering speech in front of a revered CIA memorial the day after his inauguration, Mr. Trump boasted about the size of his inaugural crowd and accused the media of inventing a conflict between him and the agencies.
In a news conference on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Trump again lashed out at the media and intelligence officials, whom he accused of “criminal” leaks about Mr. Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador last December.
Mr. Trump didn’t explain Wednesday why he asked for Mr. Flynn’s resignation. Instead, he suggested the leaks and the media were to blame for his ouster.
“General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think it’s really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.”
“I think in addition to that from intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s criminal action. It’s a criminal act and it’s been going on for a long time before me but now it’s really going on.”
Reviving his line of criticism against intelligence officials during the transition, Mr. Trump said the “illegally leaked” information was from people with political motivations. “People are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump said.

A person close to Mr. Trump said he was reluctant to let go of Mr. Flynn because Mr. Flynn had vigorously supported him at a stage of his presidential campaign when few people did. Mr. Trump also felt Mr. Flynn did nothing wrong in his conversations with the U.S. ambassador to Russia and had good intentions.
“They both continue to support each other,” this person said.
For intelligence veterans, who had hoped that Mr. Trump’s feud with the agencies might have subsided, Wednesday’s comments renewed and deepened concerns.

“This is not about who won the election. This is about concerns about institutional integrity,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior intelligence official.
“It’s probably unprecedented to have this difficult a relationship between a president and the intelligence agencies,” Mr. Lowenthal said. “I can’t recall ever seeing this level of friction. And it’s just not good for the country.”

Several congressional probes are examining Russia’s alleged meddling in the election. On Wednesday, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee requested a Justice Department briefing and documents related to Mr. Flynn’s resignation, including details of his communications with Russian officials.

—Damian Paletta contributed to this article.

 

Russian spy ship spotted off Delaware

By Ryan Browne and Barbara Starr, CNN

Updated 5:05 PM ET, Wed February 15, 2017 

  Washington (CNN)A Russian spy ship sits 30 miles off the coast of Connecticut, a US defense official told CNN, while an armed Russian warplane recently carried out a "mock attack" against a US ship.

This is the farthest north the Russian spy vessel has ever ventured, according to US defense official.

CNN reported that the Leonov, which conducted similar patrols in 2014 and 2015, was off the coast of Delaware Wednesday, but typically it only travels as far as Virginia.

The ship is based with Russia's northern fleet on the North Sea but had stopped over in Cuba before conducting its patrol along the Atlantic Coast and is expected to return there following its latest mission.

The vessel is outfitted with a variety of high-tech spying equipment and is designed to intercept signals intelligence. The official said that the US Navy is "keeping a close eye on it."

The Leonov is a Vishnya-class spy ship, as is a Russian vessel that trailed the US ship that encountered close-flying Russian aircraft in the Black Sea on Friday. 

The USS Porter was sailing in the Black Sea when it had three encounters with Russian aircraft Friday. They were deemed unsafe and unprofessional because of how close the Russian planes flew to the American destroyer, according to a senior defense official. The Pentagon later released pictures of the encounter.

A pair of Russian Su-24s pass within close proximity of the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter while the ship conducts routine maritime operations in international waters.

Another defense official said that one of the planes, an armed Su-24 attack jet, flew within 200 yards of the Porter, traveling at a speed of 500 knots (about 570 mph) and flying 300 feet above the water.

The Navy said the aircraft did not cross the deck of the Porter but assessed that the Su-24 was carrying out a "mock attack" on the American ship, according to the official.

Two additional Russian aircraft, an IL-38 maritime patrol plane and another Su-24 jet, also flew nearby. The Porter's crew attempted to radio the Russian planes but received no response.

Moscow denied Tuesday that its aircraft had made any unsafe moves. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian state media, "There has been no incident on February 10 involving flybys of Russian military planes in the Black Sea next to USS Porter."

The development coincided with reports that Russia had deployed a land-based intermediate range cruise missile, a move that one official labeled a violation of the 1987 arms control treaty.

Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign

By Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 12:54 PM ET, Wed February 15, 2017

(CNN)High-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials tell CNN.

President-elect Trump and then-President Barack Obama were both briefed on details of the extensive communications between suspected Russian operatives and people associated with the Trump campaign and the Trump business, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

Flynn scrambles White House

Both the frequency of the communications during early summer and the proximity to Trump of those involved "raised a red flag" with US intelligence and law enforcement, according to these officials. The communications were intercepted during routine intelligence collection targeting Russian officials and other Russian nationals known to US intelligence. 

 

Among several senior Trump advisers regularly communicating with Russian nationals were then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and then-adviser Michael Flynn.

Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations. 

Adding to US investigators' concerns were intercepted communications between Russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief that they had special access to Trump, two law enforcement officials tell CNN. These officials cautioned the Russians could have been exaggerating their access.

Trump dismissed the claims that his advisers had close ties to Russia in a tweet Wednesday.

"This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign," Trump tweeted.

CNN has reached out to Flynn for comment. In an interview, Manafort emphatically denied that he was in contact with Russians known to US intelligence.

"That is 100% not true, at least as far as me," he said. "I cannot believe that they are including me in anything like that. I have not been involved in any of these activities."

Manafort said he did not know where US officials got the idea that he was in contact with suspected Russian operatives during the campaign but said he never spoke with any Russian officials during that time.

"I don't remember talking to any Russian officials, ever. Certainly during the time we're talking about," he said, calling the allegations "boggling."

"I have knowingly never talked to any intelligence official or anyone in Russia regarding anything of what's under investigation," he said. "I have never had any connection to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or the Russian government before, during or after the campaign."

Trump knew about Flynn for weeks

Manafort said the FBI has not contacted him about the allegations and said he was not aware of any other Trump campaign officials or people close to Trump being in touch with Russians known to US intelligence.

Manafort, who has held business ties with Russian and Ukrainian individuals, also emphasized that his work for the Yanukovich government in Ukraine should not be interpreted as closeness to the Russians. He said he worked for Yanukovich during a time when Ukraine was "moving into the European orbit."

The extensive contacts drew concerns of US intelligence and law enforcement officials in part because it came at a time of Russian cyberactivities targeting mostly Democratic Party political organizations.

Post-election intelligence briefings on Russian meddling in the US elections included details of those communications, which included people involved in Trump's businesses.

The communications were gathered as part of routine US intelligence collection and not because people close to Trump were being targeted.

McConnell: Flynn investigation 'highly likely' in Senate committee

The FBI and US intelligence agencies continue to try to determine what the motive for the communications were.

One concern was whether Trump associates were coordinating with Russian intelligence operatives over the release of damaging information about the Hillary Clinton campaign.

"If that were the case, then that would escalate things," one official briefed on the investigation said.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

Your Grandpa Didn’t Come To America To Commit Crime, And Neither Do Today’s Immigrants

Carolyn Gregoire Senior Writer, The Huffington Post

Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images

People in New York City protest President Trump’s immigration ban on Feb. 11.

Amid all the fear-mongering and lies about immigrants these days, let’s be clear on the facts. President Donald Trump may be fond of claiming that immigration leads to crime, but the data show just the opposite. 

A large-scale new study led by the State University of New York at Buffalo found no association between immigration patterns and higher crime rates. 

In fact, immigration actually correlates with minor decreases in some crimes, according to the report published in the latest issue of the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice.

“Our research shows strong and stable evidence ― across 200 U.S. metropolitan areas and 40 years ― that for murder, robbery, burglary, and larceny, as immigration increases, crime decreases on average in American metropolitan areas,” Dr. Robert Adelman, a sociologist at the University at Buffalo and the study’s lead author, told The Huffington Post.

The study found no effect of immigration on aggravated assault rates, he added.

In the current political climate, we need data like this to support informed ― rather than emotionally charged ― dialogue and decision-making. 

“This research is important because our policy debates and arguments should center around data, evidence, and facts,” Adelman said. “The more rigorous our policy discussions, the better.”

This research is important because our policy debates and arguments should center around data, evidence, and facts. Dr. Robert Adelman

The researchers analyzed census information and FBI crime data from 200 cities between the years 1970 and 2010. They found that in most cases, crime was stable or actually declined slightly in communities with large immigrant populations. This generally agrees with most previous research on the subject. 

“Communities experiencing demographic change driven by immigration patterns do not experience significant increases in any of the kinds of crime we examined,” Adelman said in a press release. 

Not only do immigrants not drive up crime rates, they also make positive contributions to their new homes. Overall, immigration waves tend to have a favorable effect on community and economic life, the study’s authors noted.

“There is a large literature about the contributions and benefits of immigrants in the communities they live in,” Adelman said. “From sheer population growth to economic revitalization, immigrants often bring social and economic vitality to cities and communities.”

In a 1997 study, psychologist Dean Keith Simonton found that periods of increased immigration often precede periods of exceptional creative achievement in a culture. Immigrants offer fresh ideas and perspectives, thereby spurring innovation for all of us. 

So yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda had it right: Immigrants do get the job done.

Trump Administration Caught In Lie About Campaign Contacts With Russians

WASHINGTON ― U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have confirmed that President Donald Trump’s campaign aides and associates had constant contact with Russian intelligence officials before the election, directly contradicting public statements made by top administration officials. 

On Jan. 15, shortly before Trump took office, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly said on television that there were zero contacts between the campaign and Russian officials.

“Just to button up one question, did any adviser or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?” CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked. 

“Of course not,” Pence replied.

Pence also answered “of course not” when asked a similar question that day by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, adding, “All the contact by the Trump campaign and associates were with the American people.” 

Trump himself also denied these interactions, according to NBC News on Jan. 11:

Trump did not specifically address questions regarding whether members of his staff were in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. When NBC News repeated that question to Trump afterwards as the president-elect approached the elevator to exit the room, he answered “No.”

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed to stand by those earlier denials. 

“There’s nothing that would conclude me that anything different has changed with respect to that time period,” Spicer said. 

But on Tuesday night, multiple news outlets reported that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies had obtained phone records and intercepted calls that showed Trump associates and campaign aides repeatedly talking to Russian officials in the year before the election.

It’s not clear what they were discussing, and so far, there is no evidence that they were actively colluding to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. But according to CNN, U.S. investigators were concerned that Russian officials were bragging about their special access to Trump ― although the Russians could have been exaggerating about that matter.

It’s also possible that both Spicer and Pence were in the dark about the intelligence and law enforcement findings when they made their comments. But Trump was not; both he and President Barack Obama were briefed on the extensive contact between the Russian operatives and the Trump aides. It’s not clear when those briefings took place. 

Pence has been left to uncomfortably defend other Trump administration officials before. He repeatedly told the press that former national security adviser Michael Flynn did not discuss sanctions with Russian officials before the inauguration, though that, too, turned out to be false. 

Flynn resigned Monday night after evidence piled up that he’d had such discussions. Pence was reportedly particularly upset by the whole affair, since he was left with egg on his face. Additionally, Flynn then blamed his faulty memory rather than fully apologize to Pence.

If Trump Really Cared About The Working Class, Puzder Never Would’ve Been Nominated

Emily Peck Executive Editor, Business and Technology, The Huffington Post

Fred Prouser / Reuters

If Donald Trump truly cared about working Americans, as he claimed during his campaign, he never would have nominated a vocal opponent of working people, fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder, for labor secretary.

Puzder on Wednesday withdrew from consideration, under increasing fire from Republicans upset about his record on immigration, from Democrats upset over his history of running a company repeatedly charged with labor violations, and from just about everyone horrified by domestic abuse accusations from an ex-wife, which gained fresh attention when Politico published a 1990 tape of the woman saying Puzder “vowed revenge” after she went public. Nearly 150 civil rights, women’s rights, labor and faith organizations had called for Trump to withdraw the nomination.

“From the very start of the nomination process, it was clear that fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder was unfit to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. Thanks to fierce opposition from a diverse group of Americans, including people deeply concerned about the treatment of workers and of women, enough senators came to the same realization, forcing Mr. Puzder’s withdrawal from the nomination,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement. 

“In nominating Mr. Puzder for labor secretary, President Trump chose for the department that champions workers someone whose views and values are not only antithetical to what workers want and need, but also out of step with mainstream America.” 

Of all the problems with Puzder, it was his record on workers’ rights that was particularly galling.

Puzder would have overseen a department created specifically to defend workers’ rights and improve their wages and working conditions. As chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., Puzder has always been on the other side of that mission.

His nomination revealed “the complete scorn Trump actually has for workers,” Heidi Shierholz, a policy director and economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute, told The Huffington Post. 

Puzder is a vocal opponent of raising the federal minimum wage and has been critical of laws that offer workers basic benefits like paid sick leave and rest breaks on the job. 

Since the 66-year-old former lawyer took over CKE Restaurants in 2000, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s together have faced more employment discrimination lawsuits than any other major U.S. hamburger chain, according to an analysis of court filings by Capital and Main. As you can see from Capital and Main’s chart, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. had almost twice as many lawsuits as McDonald’s per $1 billion in sales. 

With someone like Puzder leading the department, you would have seen years of progress on raising wages and improving benefits like paid sick leave and parental leave grind to a halt, and even roll backward, Shierholz said.

What This Says About Trump

Trump is no champion of the working class, either. Sure, he talked about the forgotten worker on the campaign trail, but he certainly wasn’t talking about the fast-food workers of Puzder’s world. Trump’s rhetoric was geared mainly to white men in America’s Rust Belt, who’ve lost ground as manufacturing jobs have shifted overseas.

These men may comprise an important voting block, but they actually make up a very small percentage of today’s working-class Americans. Only 13 percent of the working class has a job in manufacturing, according to Tamara Draut’s book, Sleeping Giant: How the new working class will transform America.

Today’s working class ― those in the labor market without college degrees ― is far more diverse than Trump would have you believe. These workers are far more likely to be running a cash register at one of Puzder’s Carl’s Jr. restaurants, or working as a health aide, or holding down a retail sales job.

This work is not getting done by teenagers. Only 30 percent of fast-food workers are teens, according to Draut’s book. And more than one third are nonwhite.

If Trump cared about this actual working class, Puzder’s name would never have come up for the job of labor secretary.

Most Americans Support Workers Rights

Puzder’s views on the minimum wage and worker benefits are largely out of step with what most working people want.

Puzder has been a vocal opponent of raising the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, even as other employers of low-paid workers ― from Walmart to Target to McDonald’s ― have raised pay. And, as states and cities have raised minimum wages without facing any of the job losses that Puzder ― who reaps millions in salary and benefits ― claims would happen if companies paid workers more.

He’s been critical of rules in California that require workers to take breaks. He’s said that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers offer health insurance to those working more than 30 hours a week is a bad idea. He opposes an expansion of a rule that would give more low-paid workers the ability to earn overtime pay.

And, more generally, he seems to view working people with disdain, calling his own employees “the best of the worst,” in 2011. “It’s kind of the bottom of the pool,” he said at a speech at Westmont College in California that year, with no apparent consideration to the idea that the best people would want to work somewhere that pays decently.

It seems, in fact, that Puzder would rather do away entirely with human workers. He’s been a proponent of replacing fast-food workers with automation or robots: “They never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip and fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination suit,” he said recently.

While Puzder’s record on labor violations alone probably wouldn’t have done him in, it’s the most revelatory part of this story: Trump nominated a fox to guard the henhouse.

Puzder’s supporters had argued that he is a successful businessman and job creator, but it’s clear he’s gone about his business with very little regard for the people who’ve helped him reach the top.

There are better ways to run a business. And plenty of companies ― even in fast food ― are able to treat workers with respect and turn a profit. 

The two goals don’t need to be at odds. Perhaps Trump’s next choice will understand that. If not, that person, too, can expect a lot of hostile fire.

Not even Kellyanne Conway can spin this one.

Trump Administration Caught In Lie About Campaign Contacts With Russians

Top administration officials have denied that there were any contacts between the campaign and the Russian government.

 

WASHINGTON ― U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have confirmed that President Donald Trump’s campaign aides and associates had constant contact with Russian intelligence officials before the election, directly contradicting public statements made by top administration officials. 

On Jan. 15, shortly before Trump took office, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly said on television that there were zero contacts between the campaign and Russian officials.

“Just to button up one question, did any adviser or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?” CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked. 

“Of course not,” Pence replied.

Pence also answered “of course not” when asked a similar question that day by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, adding, “All the contact by the Trump campaign and associates were with the American people.” 

Trump himself also denied these interactions, according to NBC News on Jan. 11:

 Trump did not specifically address questions regarding whether members of his staff were in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. When NBC News repeated that question to Trump afterwards as the president-elect approached the elevator to exit the room, he answered “No.”

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed to stand by those earlier denials. 

“There’s nothing that would conclude me that anything different has changed with respect to that time period,” Spicer said.

ABC News Politics ✔ @ABCPolitics

.@PressSec Sean Spicer tells @jonkarl nobody on the Trump campaign had contact with Russia before the election http://abcn.ws/2lMw9vf 

2:19 PM - 14 Feb 2017

 

 

But on Tuesday night, multiple news outlets reported that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies had obtained phone records and intercepted calls that showed Trump associates and campaign aides repeatedly talking to Russian officials in the year before the election.

It’s not clear what they were discussing, and so far, there is no evidence that they were actively colluding to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. But according to CNN, U.S. investigators were concerned that Russian officials were bragging about their special access to Trump ― although the Russians could have been exaggerating about that matter.

It’s also possible that both Spicer and Pence were in the dark about the intelligence and law enforcement findings when they made their comments. But Trump was not; both he and President Barack Obama were briefed on the extensive contact between the Russian operatives and the Trump aides. It’s not clear when those briefings took place. 

Pence has been left to uncomfortably defend other Trump administration officials before. He repeatedly told the press that former national security adviser Michael Flynn did not discuss sanctions with Russian officials before the inauguration, though that, too, turned out to be false. 

Flynn resigned Monday night after evidence piled up that he’d had such discussions. Pence was reportedly particularly upset by the whole affair, since he was left with egg on his face. Additionally, Flynn then blamed his faulty memory rather than fully apologize to Pence.

Huffingtonpost.com

Twenty things President Trump said that weren't true in the first twenty days of his presidency.

theantediluvian 

January 20th

1. Lying at the Liberty Ball:

"The crowd was unbelievable today. I looked at the rain, which just never came, you know, we finished the speech, went inside, it poured then we came outside," he said. "The helicopter scene was an incredible scene, and then, amazingly it rained—like God was looking down on us."

In reality? The rain actually started as he was beginning his speech. So what does that say about whether or not (weather or not?) God was endorsing Trump?

January 21st

2. Making things up in a speech at the CIA HQ:

"Time magazine — and I have been on their cover, like, 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. Like, if Tom Brady is on the cover, it's one time, because he won the Super Bowl or something, right? I've been on it for 15 times this year. I don’t think that's a record, Mike, that can ever be broken."

Here in this timeline? Trump has been on the cover 11 times — and that's a lot — but it's not 15 and it's not even close to the record. Richard Nixon was on the cover 55 times.

January 22nd

3. Inventing alt-facts in a tweet:

"Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly."

What's wrong with this tweet? It's not unreasonoble to speculate that celebrities hurt "the cause" (it's a tremendous cause like the world has never seen before), President Trump has absolutely no idea what percentage of the protesters voted. Baseless, insulting and completely made up.

January 23rd

4. Trying to convince congressional leaders that he's good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like him:

President Donald Trump claimed at a meeting with congressional leaders Monday that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in last November's election because between three million and five million "illegals" cast ballots, multiple sources told Fox News.

What about in the real world? Not one state election official gave even a hint of credence to this malarky (that's right, in the Trump Era we're going to need to use all the synonyms for lie, lying and liar) nor have any election experts in any way endorsed his claims — to the contrary — authors of one of the two misrepresented studies put out a release stating, "We wish Donald Trump would stop citing our work." The author of the second study tweeted, "As I’ve noted before, voting integrity better in this election than ever before. Zero evidence of fraud." Youch.

January 25th

5. In a flagrant fabrication during his first major TV interview as President:

“Look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, a very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech,” Trump told ABC News’ David Muir. “You can’t have that.”

Was that true? Not even a little bit true. Nobody was shot to death on January 10th in Chicago. There were five shootings that day but none of them happened during Obama's speech.

6. Another deranged doozy from the ABC interview:

"No, no, you have to understand, I had a tremendous victory, one of the great victories ever. In terms of counties, I think the most ever or just about the most ever. When you look at a map it's all red."

Tremendous victory or tremendous lie? President Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. His Electoral College win ranked 46th out of 58 elections. While he did end up winning the most counties since Reagan, Nixon won 327 more counties than Trump.

January 26th

7. At the GOP retreat in Philly, proving he can lie with the worst of them:

“The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” Trump said at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless and I want to go a different route.”

Fact or fiction? If you thought this is what really happened, you were WRONG! But! But! You can't cancel a meeting with Donald Trump! He cancels on you!

edit on 2017-2-9 by theantediluvian because: (no reason given)

January 27th

8. In a damnable distortion during an interview on Christian Broadcast Network:

"They've been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians."

Impossible to believe? It should be — on its face — but read here if you're not convinced.

9. Fictionalizing recent history in a joint conference with Theresa May:

"I happened to be in Scotland at Turnberry, cutting a ribbon when Brexit happened, and we had a vast amount of press there. And I said 'Brexit' — this was the day before, you probably remember — I said 'Brexit is going to happen,' and I was scorned in the press for making that prediction. I was scorned."

Mandela mania? Perhaps President Trump is flitting through alternate timelines and not just a liar who makes things up? That would explain why he whipped up this whopper when it's public record that he wasn't in Scotland until the day after the vote.

January 28th

10. Too triggered to tweet straight:

“Thr [sic] coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas [sic] been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its….. …dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST”

Who's really false and angry here? Both of these "failing" newspapers have seen their subscriptions go up. Not only did he lie about that, he lied about the apology. I know the best apologies. Believe me. Tremendous apologies. This ain't no apology.

January 29th

11. From a fallicious post on Facebook:

"My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months."

How similar is similar? As it turns out, not that similar. Obama's actions were responsive where Trump's are preemptive. Obama's actions narrowly targetted Special Immigrant Visas for refugees from Iraq. Period. And despite a lull during one month, refugees were admitted in every month in 2011.

January 30th

12. Deceptive Donald strikes again via Twitter:

“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage, protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer.”

Sounds legit? It might if there weren't so many obvious holes. First off, he might have told DHS to get on-board with his bulls# — because the number they gave was 721. Secondly, the Delta outage was more than a full day after the "big problems" started.

February 2nd

13. Spreading disinformation from his Facebook page:

Trump’s post, which is still up as of Sunday morning, read: “Smart!

'Kuwait issues its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries | Al Bawaba,’” citing the source of the information

Did it really happen? Nope. The President of the f'ing United States of America was posting links to fake news. Officials from Kuwait, Pakistan, etc immediately came and said it was completely untrue. Part of the official statement from Kuwait read, "categorically denied media reports that it planned to stop issuing entry visas for some nationalities."

14. Following up in a tweet about Iran had formally being "put on notice," prevarication:

"Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a lifeline in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion."

Pesky reality begs to differ? This figure isn't new — it was being debunked waaaaay back in March. Most experts estimate the actual value of the assets (which are Iran's assets) to be about $100 billion. Beyond that, the assets have encumbrances, most notably about $20 billion in debt to China. When it's all said and done that $150 billion number is about a third of what President Trump continues to claim.

 February 3th

15. Old Unreliable erupts again on Twitter:

"Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!"

Does "the truth" mean the opposite thing in the Southern Hemisphere as it does in the Northern? According to an Australian official, the call was "hostile and charged." Other sources in the Australian government said that WaPo's reporting on the call was "substantially accurate," though everyone from both governments denied the call ended with Trump hanging up on Turnbull. Turnbull himself when pressed in a radio interview with Melbourne's 3AW, commented, "The call ended courteously, that's all I want to say about that."

February 4th

16. Not one to let reality get in the way of a good tweet:

“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?”

You can't make this stuff up? You can. Our country doesn't let just anyone in. In terms of refugees, the process for those from most parts of the world takes on average a year to 18 months. Those from places like Syria are looking at about two years.

February 5th

17. Fibbin' to Bill O'Reilly in an interview:

“California in many ways is out of control, as you know. Obviously the voters agree, otherwise they wouldn’t have voted for me.”

But wait! Isn't that diametrically opposed to the truth? Why yes, yes it is. Donald Trump got 31.5% of the popular vote in California while Hillary Clinton got nearly twice that at 61.5%.

February 6th

18. Telling tall tales on Twitter:

"Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting."

Can you spot the fake? I won't even bother to cite a source. Declaring any poll that he doesn't like "fake" is overtly deranged.

February 7th

19. In yet another disgracefully inaccurate tweet:

"It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!"

Objective reality? Though it has been at a slower pace than recent predecessors, not having a full cabinet at this point is not even close to historical. Obama's last nominee was confirmed in April. Bush 41 and Clinton had confirmations into March.

20. Spewing faleshoods at an address of the Major Cities Chiefs Association at their winter conference:

"And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right? Did you know that? Forty-seven years. I used to use that -- I’d say that in a speech and everybody was surprised, because the press doesn’t tell it like it is. It wasn’t to their advantage to say that. But the murder rate is the highest it’s been in, I guess, from 45 to 47 years."

Is he 'telling it like it is?' Not even close. According to the FBI statistics, the murder rate in 2015 was 5 per 100k, which is less than half of what it was in 1980 (10.2). In terms of total homicides, 1991 has the record with 24,703. There were a total of 15,696 murders and non-negligent man-slaughters in 2015.

I listed 20 but while searching the interwebz, I came across lists of 40 or more — since the inauguration — and fact checkers breakdowns detailing as many as a dozen falsehoods, inaccurate statements, etc from a single speech. Whether you love him or hate him, I can't believe that any reasonable person would argue that the sheer volume of bulls# that continues to gush from the President of the United States is a good thing. It's often said by supporters that Trump "lacks a filter" and that's taken to mean that he's somehow more candid.

I suggest that he is in fact missing a filter alright but that filter is one that screens out the bulls# for fear of being caught in lie and damaging one's credibility.

theantediluvian

posted on Feb, 9 2017 @ 12:08 PM

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