North Shore gangster is 2nd suspect in Bulger’s murder
Playing it down now since he is not the first high-profile inmate killed in prison.
Baker and Gonzalez talk tough in their final debate
The election may turn on corruption and the opioid problem, and it could burn Baker.
[flip to below fold]
‘Who are we protecting?’
It's the trans community, and they have plenty of defenders.
Btw, have you read the fine print in the referendum?
It might give you pause on voting Yes.
Lawrence disaster estimated at $800 million and counting
Meanwhile, the debate over the National Grid lockout is heating up -- the same as your electric bill!!
"With control of Congress at stake, Trump reprises a favorite theme: Fear immigrants" by Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis New York Times November 02, 2018
WASHINGTON — Immigration has been the animating force of the Trump presidency, and now — facing the possibility that Republicans will lose control of Congress on Tuesday — the president has fully embraced a dark, anti-immigrant message in the hope that stoking fear will motivate voters to show up for his party’s candidates across the country.
Who started the "caravan?"
Eager to shift the national conversation away from the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and the pipe bombs delivered by a Trump supporter, the president’s political team has in recent days urged him to use his bully pulpit to ratchet up the nation’s sense of alarm about the dangers of migrants heading for the border.
Did you look under the masks?
The president did not need much convincing.
On Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted out a 53-second, expletive-filled video that features immigrants charged with violent crimes and images of a throng of brown-skinned men breaching a barrier and running forward. The president’s message was clear: Immigrants will kill you and the Democrats are to blame.
“It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country,” Trump wrote in the tweet, part of a grim warning about the dangers of immigrants that has left some Republicans — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — uneasy heading into Tuesday’s voting.
They are calling it another ‘Willie Horton’ ad.
Still, the president’s dark rhetoric has clearly put some Democratic candidates on the defensive, especially in conservative states where Trump won by wide margins in 2016. In the last several days, Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, has embraced some of the president’s anti-immigrant messaging as she fights for reelection, telling Fox News that “I do not want our borders overrun, and I support the president’s efforts to make sure they’re not.”
She's not crazy!
For the president, the late-in-the-game focus on immigration is a natural return to the most enduring strategy of his career as a public figure. Using immigrants to generate fear was a central tool that he employed to grab the public’s attention when he was just a celebrity. And it was the key to his winning the presidency.
It looks to me like he just used ma$$ media methods -- you know, the kind that get us into wars based on lies -- against them.
Now, with polls showing Democrats ahead in many critical House races, Trump is using presidential brute force to all but take over the campaign communications strategies for Republican candidates across the country. In tweets, rally speeches, interviews, campaign ads, and off-the-cuff remarks to reporters, the president has made immigrants the singular object of his attention.
There they go again, citing self-comforting polls and planting a hatchet in Trump.
Trump is betting that a relentless focus on the threat he envisions from south-of-the-border immigrants, combined with his repeated assertion that Democrats are to blame for letting them into the country, will energize conservative supporters, and he is hoping that the dark imagery will not alienate suburban voters — especially women — who have already been abandoning Republicans in droves.
It is a risky bet. Last year, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia lost after running dark ads warning of the dangers of marauding MS-13 gangs in the state, and some congressional Republicans have grimaced at the president’s determined effort to shift the conversation away from issues like low unemployment, tax cuts, conservative Supreme Court justices, and reduced regulation.....
The Trump-hating media isn't interested in any of that.
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Related:
"President Trump suggested Wednesday that there might be truth to a theory that philanthropist and Democratic megadonor George Soros is funding a caravan of Central American migrants, telling reporters that he ‘‘wouldn’t be surprised’’ if that is the case. As he left the White House, Trump was asked whether he thinks somebody is funding the migrant caravan that is slowly making its way through Mexico toward the US border. ‘‘I wouldn’t be surprised, yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised,’’ Trump responded. Asked whether the funder could be Soros, Trump said: ‘‘I don’t know who, but I wouldn’t be surprised. A lot of people say yes.’’ Trump’s comments came in the wake of Soros being targeted with a pipe bomb last week and the fatal shootings this weekend at Pittsburgh synagogue by a suspect who posted frequently about the migrant caravan. The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to a question about what evidence Trump has that points to the possibility that Soros, a wealthy Jewish donor, has funded a caravan that originated in Honduras. In the run-up to the midterm elections, Trump has repeatedly pointed to the caravan as a symbol of what is wrong with US immigration policy and blamed Democrats for legislation not being passed to address the issue."
So is the ma$$ media going to investigate who is underwriting it, or are they on the bandwagon as it makes its way north?
Going to give it the DoJ, FBI treatment are they?
When are they going to investigate that rat's nest of corruption and treason, instead of leaving it all to Fox?
Romney criticizes president for characterizing media as ‘fake news’
The Globe tells you how to just say no to them, and Trump had a great comeback:
"President Trump defended his proclivity to spread misleading statements and falsehoods, saying in a television interview Wednesday that he tells the truth when he can. ‘‘Well, I try. I do try . . . and I always want to tell the truth,’’ Trump said in an interview with ABC News. ‘‘When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful.’’
Related:
"Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House communications director last year, made headlines Wednesday when he called President Trump ‘‘a liar’’ during a CNN interview. On Thursday, as he continued a media blitz promoting a new book about Trump, Scaramucci sought to backpedal. No, he said, Trump is not ‘‘a liar.’’ He’s ‘‘an intentional liar’’ who uses ‘‘a methodology of mistruth’’ with the aim of unsettling the mainstream media and the political left. Scaramucci’s parsing comes as Trump has increasingly been under fire for abandoning the truth. ‘‘He’s an intentional liar,’’ Scaramucci said of Trump, while on Bloomberg TV. ‘‘It’s very different from just being a liar-liar.’’
They must be the very same ma$$ media to whom he was talking!!
Trump blasts caravan, says he’s cutting Central American aid
There was no indication of any action, as he attempts to make illegal immigration a focus of next month’s midterm elections. If Trump should follow through with his threat to end or greatly reduce US aid, that could worsen the poverty and violence that are a root cause of the migration he has been railing against, critics said. Associated Press journalists traveling with the caravan for more than a week have spoken with Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorans but have not met any of the ‘‘Middle Easterners’’ that Trump claimed had ‘‘mixed in’’ with the Central American migrants. It was clear, though, that more migrants were continuing to join the caravan. Trump for months has sought to use foreign aid as a cudgel more broadly, threatening to withhold humanitarian and other aid from ‘‘enemies of America’’ and using it to pressure foreign governments to bend to his will. On Monday, he said he would be making good on his threat.
OMG!!!!!!!
He's doing something every war criminal president has done for the last 70 years, and they applaud it when he is sanctioning Iran, Russia, China, Palestinians, Venezuela, etc, etc.
Who wrote that slop again?
"President Trump conceded there’s no evidence for his claim that Middle Eastern terrorists are among thousands of migrants traveling from Honduras toward the US border, but blamed Venezuela and unidentified “leftists” for encouraging the so-called caravan. Trump is trying to make immigration central to the midterm elections next month. Questioned repeatedly about the claim on Tuesday, Trump conceded that “there’s no proof of anything” but....."
Reminds me of when W. Bush had to admit that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
With migrants seeking refuge, Trump sees opportunity
The same way Condi Rice saw an opportunity after 9/11.
Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy caught federal agencies off guard, GAO says
Pentagon to dispatch 800 more troops to border in response to migrant caravan
Trump considering executive actions to stop asylum-seekers from Central America
Seeing as it is all over FOXABCNNBCBS, I'm suspicious of the entire event.
Police blockade migrant group
A new migrant caravan from El Salvador is making its way north
Mattis says military already moving equipment to southern border
Pentagon sending 5,200 troops to border
US judge appoints monitor to evaluate border facilities
I'm saving my global outrage for Palestine and those families.
It's a dirty war on children that echoes brutal separations of the past:
"Trump says he’ll send military troops to beef up patrols at border with Mexico" by Seung Min Kim Washington Post April 04, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday said the military will be sent to guard the US-Mexico border, further escalating his rhetoric on illegal immigration but offering few details on how and when such a plan might be implemented.
Trump has for days taken to Twitter and used his public remarks to warn of threats posed by immigration, but the prospect of sending military personnel to the southern border added a new dimension to Trump’s strategy, which had centered on threats to walk away from the North American Free Trade Agreement and pressuring Congress to send him funding for a border wall.
Trump said Tuesday during a meeting and news conference at the White House with the leaders of three Baltic nations that he would soon meet with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss deploying the military to the border. ‘‘I think it is something we have to do,’’ Trump said.
Sending troops to the border is not unprecedented and has been done by previous presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who utilized National Guard troops when concerns over security or humanitarian problems arose.
It was not immediately clear why the Border Patrol would need help from the Pentagon at this time. The number of people crossing illegally into the country has plummeted over the past decade and is at the lowest level since 1971.
In recent days, the president has emphasized the hard-line immigration stance he campaigned on as his conservative base has shown signs of growing impatience that he has not fulfilled some of his top promises, such as securing the funding to build a border wall.
One adviser who speaks often to Trump said the president has been concerned about his political base since he signed into law last month a spending bill that did not fund the wall or some of his other immigration plans and that he has carefully monitored recent criticism, particularly on Fox News. Since then, the adviser said, he has been trying to appeal to his supporters through tougher rhetoric on border security and pushing protectionist trade policies.
Trump on Tuesday sought to portray his idea of sending troops to the border as a new, aggressive phase of his immigration agenda, but he offered no details about how the military would be used. Later Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that the administration’s plans include mobilizing the National Guard.
Trump was briefed on the possibility of sending troops to the border last week by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House aides and loved the idea, according to a senior White House official, who added that senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has also been involved in the planning.
‘‘Let’s kick this into overdrive, and give me a plan,’’ the official said, describing Trump’s reaction to the notion. This person, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations, said there was no apparatus in place ‘‘this minute’’ but that it was likely to happen.
There was no detailed plan to discuss sending troops to the border publicly before Trump’s impromptu comments, this person said, and it caught the communications office off guard.
Trump’s announcement on Tuesday promptly drew rebukes from immigration advocates and Democrats, particularly border-state lawmakers who criticized the move as a waste of military resources. ‘‘Sending US service members to patrol the US-Mexico border is wrong,’’ tweeted Representative Beto O’Rourke, a Texas Democrat who represents the border city of El Paso and is running for the Senate against Republican Senator Ted Cruz. ‘‘It’s dangerous to service members, to US citizens, and to the people of the border,’’ but officials representing Border Patrol agents applauded Trump’s announcement. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said deploying military personnel would be a ‘‘tremendous boon.’’
‘‘It increases the certainty of apprehension of those that cross the border illegally,’’ Judd said.
Members of the military cannot arrest immigrants, because they are not duly sworn law enforcement personnel, Judd said, but they can aid Border Patrol agents by serving as their de facto ‘‘eyes,’’ surveying the border and monitoring surveillance equipment.
Mexico expressed opposition to the idea.
The profile of illegal border-crossers has also changed dramatically in recent years. Last month, US agents encountered nearly 10,000 unaccompanied minors and ‘‘family units’’ consisting of a child with an adult relative. The vast majority were from Central America. Rather than sneaking across, those border-crossers typically turn themselves in to US agents to request asylum protections, citing the lethal threats of gang violence in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras — nations with some of the highest homicide rates in the world.....
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"The caravan of migrants that’s alarmed President Trump has now stalled" by Joshua Partlow and David Agren Washington Post April 03, 2018
MATIAS ROMERO, MEXICO — After days of walking from Mexico’s southern border, the caravan of hundreds of migrants that has drawn President Trump’s Twitter ire has now halted on a brown-grass soccer field, its participants unsure and anxious about the way forward.
The men and woman, most from Central America, were squatting Tuesday in a walled public park while government officials decide their fate.
‘‘We are scared, just like you,’’ Irineo Mujica, the head coordinator of the migrant caravan, told the assembled group through a megaphone on Tuesday morning. ‘‘Now President Donald Trump has said that he wants to hit us with nuclear bombs.’’
Talk about your FAKE NEWS!!
Where did he hear that?
Trump has made the migrant caravan a central theme in his tweets for three days running — although he hasn’t in fact threatened a nuclear strike. The president has warned that Mexico must stop the group or risk being penalized in the negotiations over reforming NAFTA. He has also threatened to reduce foreign aid to Honduras, the country of origin of many marchers.
Honestly, the over-the-top hyperbole coming from the left is laughable at this stage.
Trump’s comments have turned what had been an annual march to raise awareness about the suffering of migrants into something of a political crisis for Mexico. On Monday, Mexican immigration officials began to register the hundreds of migrants and talked about the possibility of humanitarian visas for the most vulnerable, while others might receive permits of less than a month. Some have already been deported, according to Mexican officials.
While the march wasn’t unprecedented, this year’s exercise drew an unusually large number of participants. Conservative American media jumped on the reports of march, depicting it as a sign of the threat of illegal migration to the United States.
All staged and scripted, all agenda all the time.
At the Victor E. Flores Morales sports park in this southern city in Oaxaca state, scores of children played Tuesday on slides and metal swings, waiting for their parents and the organizers of this caravan to decide the next move. For most migrants, their goal is the United States, still more than 800 miles away. They wanted to march on.
Some said they heard about this caravan through friends and relatives; others said they have made the trip in the past but weren’t allowed into the United States. The migrants said they had convened from several countries in Tapachula, a city along Mexico’s southern border, and begun their march north. A number of them said they were fleeing gang violence and extortion threats in their violence-plagued countries, while others said they were looking for better paying jobs.
After several nights of sleeping outdoors, the migrants had begun adapting to this bivouacked life. A former Pizza Hut employee from Guatemala boiled fish soup for the camp over a wood fire alongside his new friend, a fajita cook from El Salvador who had been deported after living in Texas for 14 years. A Honduran man who said he paid 60 percent of his auto-mechanic salary in extortion fees to gang members still wore his orange vest from an overnight guard shift aimed at to preventing cellphone theft. On the surrounding streets, migrants begged for money.
All of those interviewed on Tuesday said that they would prefer to live in the United States but they would settle for Mexico if that was where they were allowed to stay. Almost anything, they said, would be better than returning to Central America, which has some of the hemisphere’s highest incidences of violence.
How things change in 6 months!
‘‘There is a barbarous situation in our country,’’ said Santos Alberto Lino, 40, who had worked as an auto mechanic in Honduras before joining the caravan. ‘‘People want to live in peace and harmony.’’
Maybe the coup wasn't a good idea after all.
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"Is there room for Amazon in Trump’s Washington?" by Tim Logan Globe Staff April 03, 2018
That question will soon be answered.
When the most powerful man in the world takes your company to the woodshed on Twitter each morning, is it wise to move that company to his front door?
That’s a question they’re probably mulling at Amazon this week after a string of early morning tweets by President Trump bashing the retail giant for delivery deals that Trump claims (incorrectly, many experts say) cost the US Postal Service “many billions of dollars.”
It’s a charge Trump has repeatedly leveled over the years but one that took on new import after Axios reported last week that the president has “wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust” law. Then came the tweets holding the company responsible for the death of small retailers nationwide and threatening to raise Amazon’s postal rates. The verbal assault has helped to drive Amazon’s stock price down more than 12 percent in a week, cutting into founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth by nearly $14 billion — at least on paper, but the episode could also complicate Amazon’s closely watched search for a second headquarters.
Increasingly, it’s been looking like the company favors locating its massive campus in or around Washington, D.C., where Bezos has a home and owns the Washington Post. When Amazon in January unveiled its list of 20 finalists for the so-called HQ2, three of the sites were in metro Washington — Northern Virginia; Montgomery County, Maryland; and D.C. proper. Throw in a well-educated workforce, good transit, and the prospect of sizable tax breaks from Maryland or Virginia, and a Beltway headquarters could make a lot of sense, but then there’s Trump. The tweeter-in-chief — with his unusually outspoken approach to corporate regulation — has taken aim at other blue-chip companies — from Boeing to drug makers. Some of the Twitter-generated controversies have blown over quickly. Others have influenced whole industries.
At this point, 17 months after Trump was elected, most major businesses have thought about how a presidential tweetstorm might shake up their business, said Tom Stringer, managing director of corporate advisory services at consulting firm BDO.
“Every company right now is probably aware of, and cognizant of, what he can do, both good and bad,” Stringer said. “It goes into the calculus” of a decision like this, he said, and whether a company might embrace Trump’s Washington or run in the other direction.
Here’s how that might play out for Amazon and HQ2.....
Maybe Boston will get it after all.
--more--"
Their advice was head elsewhere, wade in, and ignore the noise.
"Amazon met with ICE officials over facial-recognition system that could identify immigrants" by Drew Harwell Washington Post October 23, 2018
WASHINGTON — Amazon pitched its facial-recognition system in the summer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as a way for the agency to target or identify immigrants, a move that could shove the tech giant further into a growing debate over the industry’s work with the government.
The June meeting in Silicon Valley, revealed in e-mails as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by the advocacy group Project On Government Oversight, shows that officials from ICE and Amazon Web Services talked about implementing the technology giant’s Rekognition face-scanning platform to assist with homeland security investigations.
An Amazon Web Services official specializing in federal sales contracts, whose name was redacted in the e-mails, wrote that the conversation involved ‘‘predictive analytics’’ and ‘‘Rekognition Video tagging/analysis’’ that could possibly allow ICE to identify people’s faces from afar — a type of technology immigration officials have voiced interest in for its potential enforcement use on the Southern border.
‘‘We are ready and willing to support the vital (Homeland Security Investigations) mission,’’ the Amazon official wrote.
Officials from Amazon and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)
Microsoft, a tech giant building facial-recognition tools that compete with Amazon’s, came under fire in the summer for the potential work it could do as part of a major ICE contract. Google has also faced internal resistance over its contributions to Project Maven, a Defense Department initiative that would allow AI to identify objects in battlefield drone video.
And you thought the Terminator was just a movie.
Amazon has a number of government contracts and is believed to be the lead contender to win the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud-computing contract, known as JEDI. The company also operates a private cloud service for top-secret intelligence used by the CIA. The agency’s deputy director for science and technology, Dawn Meyerriecks, characterized the Amazon-CIA bond during a panel last month outside Washington as a ‘‘closer partnership than I’ve ever seen in my career.’’
Bezos has donated money to fund college scholarships for undocumented immigrant students, but he has also publicly supported the tech industry’s contributions to national-security efforts and other government work.
He wants the cheap labor.
‘‘If big tech companies are going to turn their backs on the Department of Defense, we are in big trouble,’’ Bezos said at a Wired magazine event last week. Asked about immigration, he added, ‘‘I’d let them in if it were me. I like ‘em, I want all of them in. But this is a great country and it does need to be defended.’’
ICE has portrayed facial recognition and other artificial-intelligence software as potentially powerful tools in their pursuit of ways to clamp down on illegal immigration. ICE officials told tech-industry contractors last year they wanted an ‘‘extreme vetting’’ system that could automatically mine the social media of foreign visitors to assess whether they might commit criminal or terrorist acts, but the technology’s growing role in the business of criminal justice and investigation has faced growing scrutiny from civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers worried over its possible use in surveillance efforts that could threaten privacy and civil rights. The technology has also been found to perform less accurately among people of color, sparking fears of misidentification.
Rekognition, for instance, incorrectly matched the faces of 28 members of Congress with those of people arrested for a crime during a test in the summer by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. Amazon has said the test’s methodology was flawed.
Considering that they are members of Congre$$, the match and methodology look to be working just fine.
Some in the tech industry have called for broader regulation of facial-recognition systems, and only a few states govern the technology’s appropriate use. Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote a blog post in July challenging lawmakers to form a bipartisan commission to set standards that could prevent the systems’ misuse and abuse ‘‘by private companies and public authorities alike.’’
‘‘We know from history that new and powerful surveillance tools left unchecked in the hands of the state have been used to target people who have done nothing wrong,’’ an anonymous Amazon employee wrote last week. ‘‘We can sell dangerous surveillance systems to police or we can stand up for what’s right. We can’t do both.’’
So how many units do you want to order?
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Related: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos spotted having dinner in Kendall Square
No one got in his face and chased him out?
"Migrant caravan that stirred Trump outrage seeks to end journey in Mexico City" by Joshua Partlow The Washington Post April 04, 2018
MATIAS ROMERO, Mexico — A caravan of Central American migrants intends to move north and end its journey in Mexico City, leaving anyone seeking to reach the US border on their own, organizers said Wednesday.
The immediate trouble is a lack of transportation to get the group to the next stop, the city of Puebla en route to the Mexican capital.
Organizers have been searching for a way to safely move the roughly 1,000 people who have become a target of President Trump as a symbol of weak border controls and the need for tougher US immigration rules, but the caravan — organized into a large group to protect against bandits and others — has become more of a showcase of the difficulties facing activists trying to aid migrants and keep them on the move. The first goal is to reach the city of Puebla, about 300 miles away, and then press on for a last leg to Mexico City.
For days, the group has remained stalled on a dusty soccer field in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Rodrigo Abeja, one of the organizers, said they were seeking help from a breakaway faction of Mexico’s teachers union, which has years of experience convening huge protests, and is generally aligned with the country’s leftist presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but the logistics remain fluid.
The Mexican government has responded by issuing temporary permits to migrants. Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the caravan had ‘‘gradually dispersed,’’ but that a large contingent remains together seeking to reach Puebla for an immigration law workshop, and then get to Mexico’s capital.
Even before Trump got involved, this had become the biggest caravan — an annual journey to highlight the plight of migrants — that this group of organizers had seen.
Many Hondurans who had fled after the contested presidential election in November already had amassed in the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula and joined the caravan when it set off late last month. Mujica said that ‘‘a minimum of 80 percent’’ of the migrants in the group come from Honduras.
One of them, Maria Elena Colindres Ortega, 43, who had been a congresswoman in Honduras until January, said she joined in the hope that she could eventually apply for political asylum in the United States. More than 20 people were killed in post-election protests, and Honduras has long been dangerous for activists.
‘‘I couldn’t wait for them to kill me,’’ Colindres Ortega said.
Trump has made the migrant caravan a central theme in tweets.
For several years, migrants have traveled north in caravans through Mexico around this time of year, to protect themselves from crime and to highlight the plight of those fleeing Central America to escape poverty and danger. Trump’s comments have turned the event into a fresh source of tension between the United States and its southern neighbors.
The Mexican government has denied that it is allowing the migrants to travel unimpeded across its territory.....
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I was told ‘‘the threat is real and it’s time to act.’’
"Trump revealed Tuesday that he had been discussing the idea of using the military at the border with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. ‘‘We’re going to be doing things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,’’ Trump said, calling the move a ‘‘big step.’’ He spent the first months of his presidency bragging about a dramatic drop in illegal border crossings, which some DHS officials had dubbed the ‘‘Trump effect.’’ Indeed, arrests at the border last April were at the lowest level since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, and the 2017 fiscal year saw a 45-year low for Border Patrol arrests, but the numbers have been slowly ticking up since last April and are now on par with the totals for many months of the Obama administration. Trump’s new focus on hard-line immigration policies appears aimed, at least in part, to drawing a political contrast with Democrats heading into the midterm elections. He has also been under growing pressure from conservative backers who have accused him of betraying his base for not delivering on the wall; he was set off by images played on his favorite network, Fox News, of a so-called caravan of migrants making their way north through Mexico....."
Trump wins pledges of 1,600 troops for Mexico border duty
"Some of the estimated 300 Central Americans in a caravan of asylum-seekers that traveled through Mexico plan to head to the US border crossing at San Ysidro on Sunday. They will approach Customs and Border Protection officials to formally request entry. US immigration lawyers have warned them to prepare for the worst possible outcome. About 20 lawyers gave free advice last week to the migrants at three Tijuana locations (AP)."
They tell you what kind of questions you will be asked and how to answer, and you might have to wait for a couple of years before you can get in.
Ninth death reported at pediatric center amid viral outbreak
Isn't New Jersey a sanctuary state?
The Great Trumpkin’s powers are fading
Time to start throwing Stones:
"Mueller examining Roger Stone’s ties to Wikileaks" by Sharon LaFraniere, Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Danny Hakim November 01, 2018
WASHINGTON — The e-mail exchange, not previously reported, underscores how political operative Roger Stone presented himself to Trump campaign officials: as a conduit of inside information from WikiLeaks, Russia’s chosen repository for documents hacked from Democratic computers.
The head of Donald Trump’s campaign, Steve Bannon, and two other former senior campaign officials have detailed to prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert Mueller, how Stone created that impression, according to people familiar with their accounts. One of them told investigators that Stone not only seemed to predict WikiLeaks’ actions, but that he also took credit afterward for the timing of its disclosures that damaged Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, but at the same time, the top tier of Trump’s campaign was deeply skeptical of Stone, who has made a career of merging fact and fiction and seems to prize attention over credibility. Whether Stone was, in fact, a trusted intermediary to WikiLeaks — or simply a master of puffery that made him appear so — remains a paramount question for Mueller’s investigators.
To tease out the truth, prosecutors have summoned Stone’s former employees and longtime political allies to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington or be interviewed at the special counsel’s office. Investigators asked them about a range of issues, including Stone’s relationship with WikiLeaks, his attempts during the presidential race to raise money for his political causes, and whether he tried to persuade one associate not to cooperate with the inquiry.
This is the best Mueller has, huh?
Stone has repeatedly said that if he implied that he had more direct sources, he has said, he was simply engaging in political hyperbole. In an interview Wednesday, Stone insisted he did nothing more than “posture, bluff, hype,” based on WikiLeaks’ Twitter feed and miscellaneous tips.
This article is based on interviews with people familiar with the Russia investigation and the inner workings of the Trump campaign, as well as a review of hundreds of text messages and emails that Stone exchanged over months with several associates, including Randy Credico, a New York comedian, former radio host, and left-wing activist whom Stone has repeatedly identified as his source about WikiLeaks.
Besides the confusion caused by Stone’s penchant for innuendo and outright lies, investigators are hampered by the fact that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains out of reach, holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has lived for six years in fear of extradition to face possible criminal charges.
Still, Bannon’s October 2016 e-mail correspondence shows that the perception that Stone knew what WikiLeaks had in store for Clinton spread to the highest levels of the Trump campaign. No evidence has emerged that Trump or his advisers alerted authorities.
Well, the Obama administration never alerted him that they were spying on and infiltrating his campaign, and it looks like Stone is going to be another of Mueller ‘‘patsy for a ‘Russia’ conspiracy.’’
As the month began, Stone peppered Twitter with predictions of an October surprise from Assange, whipping up speculation in the US news media and beyond. Assange, too, had been hinting at coming bombshells.
October surprises happen all the time, and plenty of people outside the ma$$ media bubble were not surprised at all.
Looks like Sayoc and the synagogue are this years!
Unable to reach Bannon, Stone communicated with Matthew Boyle, the Washington political editor of the far-right Breitbart News, which Bannon ran before joining Trump’s campaign.
“Assange — what’s he got?” Boyle asked Stone on Oct. 3. “Hope it’s good.”
“It is,” Stone replied.
A half-hour later, Boyle e-mailed Bannon, urging him to call Stone. Bannon replied, “I’ve got important stuff to worry about.”
Boyle continued to press: “Clearly he knows what Assange has.”
A Breitbart spokesman said in a statement, “Matt Boyle acted in his role as a journalist to attempt to uncover the story behind Roger Stone’s public claims.”
The next day, after Assange’s news conference via video link, Bannon followed up with his e-mail to Stone. According to one person familiar with Bannon’s account to prosecutors, the exchange ended with Stone’s reply, in which he essentially repeated what Assange or his allies had already said publicly.
Three days later, on Oct. 7, Stone’s prediction of an October surprise came true when WikiLeaks unleashed a trove of e-mails hacked from the computer of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. The disclosure came just a half-hour after the publication of a recording in which Trump boasted of grabbing women’s genitals and was an apparent attempt to divert attention from that explosive story, which threatened to derail Trump’s chances of capturing the White House.
I'm surprised to see the name Podesta (wasn't in print), and how come the names Steele, Ohr, McCabe, Strzok, et al, are never investigated by my pre$$?
The kind of case prosecutors might be trying to build against Stone is difficult to determine.
Uh-oh.
Another nothing charge, if any!
According to people familiar with the inquiry, they are focused in part on whether Stone testified truthfully when he told the House Intelligence Committee a year ago that he had no “advance knowledge of the source or actual content of the WikiLeaks disclosures.”
Investigators are also examining whether Stone engaged in witness tampering or obstruction of justice stemming from his dealings with Credico, the people said.
In a statement this week, Stone again labeled Credico his source about WikiLeaks. Stone said Credico “was emphatic over a 50-day period, insisting that this ‘bombshell’ was coming” from WikiLeaks that would undermine Clinton before the election.
Credico has vehemently denied Stone’s account.....
--more--"
That National lead is obviously nothing more than a piece of political junket meant to influence the election!
Was Trump confidant Roger Stone really poisoned?
They tried to drug him to death, and the Globe spent an hour with him at the hospital.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"A retired priest who lived for months next to a Roman Catholic school in Iowa moved out Thursday, hours after his history of sexually abusing boys became public knowledge following a 32-year cover-up. The move follows an Associated Press story exposing the diocese’s three-decade cover-up of abuse by Rev. Jerome Coyle, now 85, who was placed at the home this summer without the knowledge of nearby Saint Edmond Catholic School administrators or parents. Also Thursday, the Iowa attorney general’s office said it has opened an inquiry into the handling of clergy abuse. Attorney General Tom Miller said he was appalled by cases of abuse and cover-up that had been documented in Pennsylvania and ‘‘cases in Iowa that have gone unreported.’’ Coyle admitted in 1986 that he sexually abused approximately 50 boys over 20 years while serving at several Iowa parishes, according to the Sioux City diocese, which never told the public until Wednesday. The diocese transferred Coyle to a treatment center in New Mexico and stripped him of his parish assignments. He lived and worked in New Mexico for decades as a civilian....."
It's reached the point where I have lost patience with them.
Related(?):
"Netflix has chosen New Mexico as the site of a new production hub and is in final negotiations to buy a multimillion-dollar studio complex on the edge of Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, it announced Monday. It’s the company’s first purchase of such a property. Production work in Albuquerque and other places in New Mexico is forecast to result in $1 billion in spending over the next decade. More than $14 million in state and local economic development funding is being tapped to bring Netflix to New Mexico. Republican Governor Susana Martinez and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, said longstanding efforts to put New Mexico on the movie-making map are paying off. ‘‘After years of hard work to cut taxes and make New Mexico business-friendly, we’re seeing incredible results,’’ Martinez said. Keller called landing Netflix a ‘‘transformative victory’’ for the city. Company officials said previous experience working in the state inspired them to jump at the opportunity for an Albuquerque production hub. Netflix earlier this year announced it was establishing its first European production hub, in Spain. Netflix has about 130 million subscribers worldwide. Officials did not release details on the sale price of the studio complex in New Mexico. It includes sound stages, production offices, mill space, and a back lot."
Whatever happened to that immigrant school shooting training camp found out there anyway?
Once they took the set down, I mean.
Speaking of staged productions:
Pittsburgh shooting suspect pleads not guilty in synagogue rampage
"On Wednesday, four days after 11 people were fatally shot in the deadliest attack on Jews in US history, anonymous posters on another website popular with white supremacists, Stormfront, claimed the bloodshed at Tree of Life synagogue was an elaborate fake staged by actors....."
On to them and they know it.
The question is, will it affect your vote?
"Storms moving across the Gulf Coast region with howling wind and pounding rain were blamed for at least two deaths and left nearly 110,000 homes and businesses without electricity early Thursday....."
Father, daughter killed when struck by car on Halloween
A man also killed his wife and himself as his children waited to go trick-or-treating, and it further underscores the need for gun control in Florida.
"Major study finds ‘some evidence’ of link between cellphone radiation and brain cancer" by William J. Broad New York Times November 01, 2018
For decades, health experts have struggled to determine whether cellphones can cause cancer. On Thursday, a federal agency released the final results of what experts call the world’s largest and most costly experiment to look into the question. The study originated in the Clinton administration, cost $30 million and involved some 3,000 rodents.
The experiment, by the National Toxicology Program, found positive but relatively modest evidence that radio waves from some types of cellphones could raise the risk that male rats develop brain cancer.
“We believe that the link between radio-frequency radiation and tumors in male rats is real,” John Bucher, a senior scientist at the National Toxicology Program, said in a statement, but he cautioned that the exposure levels and durations were far greater than what people typically encounter and thus cannot “be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience.”
Moreover, the rat study examined the effects of a radio frequency associated with an early generation of cellphone technology, one that fell out of routine use years ago. Any concerns arising from the study thus would seem to apply mainly to early adopters who used those bygone devices, not to users of current models.
Oh, I see, nothing to fear here.
Too much money and control at $take.
Still, experts argue, even a small demonstrated rise in cancer risk could have wide implications, given that billions of people now use cellphones.....
Yeah, you will have to excuse me; I need to check my iPhone on how Georgia’s governor's race is going.
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{@@##$$%%^^&&}
UN votes overwhelmingly to condemn US embargo of Cuba
That is apparently all that is going on in the world, at least according to the Bo$ton Globe.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Plaintiff says suit led Harvard to alter guidelines on race
Injured sea turtle found in Brewster dies after rescue attempt
Racial bias probed at Coast Guard Academy
Must be the water.
State Police seize major firearms cache in Shirley
A few brief shots were fired.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"N.E. Teamsters facing $5.1b pension shortfall, putting retirees at risk" by Robert Weisman Globe Staff November 01, 2018
A pension plan covering more than 72,000 truck drivers and warehouse workers represented by the New England Teamsters union is the nation’s second-most-underfunded multi-employer pension plan and is on track to run out of money within two decades, according to a study.
The study, released Thursday by the pension consulting firm Cheiron Inc., details a worsening crisis for US multi-employer plans. Under those plans, multiple small businesses, such as trucking companies and liquor distributors, jointly contribute to a pension fund. Many are in industries such as transportation, manufacturing, and construction, where many companies have shut down, leaving fewer active workers to support a growing number of retirees.
The “plans are in really bad shape, and the only way to turn it around is through a cash infusion.”
You know, a BAILOUT!
Like what the banks got!
The deteriorating state of multi-employer plans has created uncertainty for tens of thousands of workers who are nearing retirement but aren’t sure they can depend on the financial cushion they’d long anticipated. Many lift heavy cargo daily and have suffered injuries to their backs and knees.
The stress on multi-employer plans is part of a larger rollback of the pension system, once a pillar of American retirement security. Over the past several decades, many employers, especially in the private sector, have been phasing out pension plans and transitioning to 401(k) retirement plans, which shift the financial risk and the burden of making contributions to employees.
A federal agency called the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation guarantees a minimum pension to participants even if their plans fail, but the agency’s insurance program covering multi-employer plans, which covers about 1,400 plans across the country, including the New England and Central States plans, is set to run out of money by 2025.
So who stole all the money?
Robbing everyone now, huh?
They will just have to cut benefits then.
What losses?
The thing was, until recently, at a record high!
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Just be thankful you are not a fisherman, 'eh?!!
More Globe deliveries:
WeWork lands another big tenant
At Wentworth’s architecture lab, students have designs on future
BU and building service workers reach tentative agreement, avoiding strike
Sears expanding Kenmore and DieHard lineups despite bankruptcy
???
"Stocks climbed Thursday as major indexes extended a rebound into a third day. The dollar dropped, a change that provided a relief to big exporters like industrial and technology companies. The US stock market continued its gradual rebound from a plunge that lasted almost the entire month of October, and many of the biggest gains on Thursday came from stocks that struggled badly last month, like those of chip makers and other technology companies and smaller, domestically focused companies. Strong earnings by US companies have helped the market recover its footing over three days....."
And if anything goes wrong you can blame China:
"With new indictment, US launches aggressive campaign to thwart China’s economic attacks" by Ellen Nakashima Washington Post November 01, 2018
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday unveiled a broad new initiative to combat China’s mounting criminal economic activity as authorities charged three Chinese individuals and a Chinese company with trade-secret theft.
Thursday’s actions follow a series of moves meant to put Beijing on notice. The Trump administration has prioritized countering threats to US national and economic security as China seeks to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant economic power. The administration already has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, and since September federal prosecutors have brought charges in three intellectual property theft cases allegedly involving Chinese spies and hackers.
‘‘Chinese economic espionage against the United States has been increasing — and it has been increasing rapidly,’’ said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ‘‘Enough is enough. We’re not going to take it anymore.’’
Under the initiative, Sessions said, the department will pursue trade-secret theft cases and develop a strategy to identify researchers and defense industry employees who’ve been ‘‘co-opted’’ by Chinese agents to transfer technology to China.
‘‘China wants the fruits of America’s brainpower to harvest the seeds of its planned economic dominance,’’ Assistant Attorney General John Demers said. With the new initiative, he said, ‘‘we will confront China’s malign behaviors and encourage them to conduct themselves as they aspire to be one of the world’s leading nations.’’
The indictment alleges the defendants conspired to steal trade secrets from Micron, an Idaho-based semiconductor company. Micron is worth an estimated $100 billion and has a 20 percent to 25 percent share of the dynamic random access memory industry — a technology not possessed by the Chinese until very recently, Sessions said.
He outlined a number of laws that prosecutors would use, including the Foreign Agents Registration Act to identify unregistered agents seeking to advance China’s political agenda.
What junk.
Congress in August passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act to expand the government’s power to review investments from foreign countries — a response in large part to China’s increasingly aggressive efforts to obtain US technology through mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers, and last month, the Treasury Department released interim rules to implement the new law. Sessions said the Justice Department will work with Treasury on developing those regulations.
Justice will also identify opportunities to tackle Chinese threats to the US ‘‘supply chain’’ of companies that provide components for sensitive technologies, especially those in the telecommunications sector as it readies for the transition to 5G networks.
‘‘This is consistent with the state of confrontational actions over the last couple of weeks taken by the administration to tackle everything China’s trying to do,’’ said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ‘‘It’s bigger than intellectual property theft. It’s supply chain risk. It’s China’s efforts to be global leaders in 5G. It’s traditional espionage. It’s influence operations. This is part of a much broader whole-of-government approach to countering China’s efforts to gain strategic advantage, particularly in emerging technology.’’
For months, the Trump administration has been considering ways to decouple the US and Chinese tech sectors: restricting visas for Chinese students in the scientific, engineering, and math fields; banning Chinese telecommunications equipment companies from US 5G networks; expanding export controls on US tech firms, and increasing official scrutiny of Chinese investments and joint US-Chinese research, said Sacks.
So when Qin tries to apply for a visa, ha!
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Related: To jumpstart high-tech growth, IBM cuts a $33.4b deal to buy Red Hat
It's an all cash deal that was arranged by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
"Trump says China’s interfering in US elections but offers no evidence" by David Nakamura and Ellen Nakashima Washington Post September 27, 2018
UNITED NATIONS — President Trump on Wednesday accused China of interfering in the US midterm elections this fall in retaliation for the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing, marking a new front in deepening hostilities that have threatened to upend bilateral relations.
Yeah, they want you to vote Democrat.
The president made the allegation during his opening remarks at a UN Security Council meeting on nonproliferation, saying China ‘‘has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my administration. They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president to ever challenge China on trade, and we are winning on trade — we are winning on every level.
Trump presented no evidence, and his top national security advisers told reporters in August they had not found specific examples of interference from countries other than Russia, though they warned it remained a possibility. In his remarks, Trump made no mention of Russian interference, though he did say later that his administration will not let Moscow interfere in the elections.
Afterward, in a hastily arranged press call on ‘‘Chinese interference,’’ a senior administration official offered no examples of activity specifically constituting interference but said China has hurt ‘‘farmers and workers in states and districts that voted for the president because he stood up to the ways China has taken advantage of our country economically.’’
At a news conference later in New York, a reporter asked Trump what evidence he has to back up the accusation, which China denies. He said he can’t disclose what evidence he has, but that it will come out. He said his allegation did not come ‘‘out of nowhere.’’
The Trump administration said China is stepping up covert and overt activities to stifle free speech, punish those who support the president’s tough trade stance against China, and interfere in the US political system. It said China is hurting farmers and workers in pro-Trump states and districts. According to Trump, China has ‘‘actually admitted that they’re going after farmers.’’
The senior official said the activities include ‘‘targeting certain districts and states with tariffs, but go beyond that.’’ He did not elaborate.
‘‘China has all along followed the principle of noninterference in other country’s domestic affairs,’’ Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at the UN meetings, which President Xi Jinping is not attending. ‘‘We did not and will not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs.”
I believe them because they don't like people meddling in theirs!
Chinese state media purchased a four-page advertising supplement in the Des Moines Register this week touting China as ‘‘an example for the world’’ and noting Xi studied in the state as a college exchange student. Trump tweeted about the ad Wednesday, after his speech and referred to it during his news conference, but China, Russia, and other countries have been purchasing such ads for many years.
In a photo op with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump referred to the advertising and said Beijing was aiming to punish US farmers through high tariffs. ‘‘China is going and attacking the Farm Belt, our farmers,’’ Trump said. ‘‘They’re attacking our industrial — with ads and with statements that do not look like ads, they look like editorial, but they’re not. They’re made up by China.
He added that Chinese markets are down and US markets are up, implying the United States is winning the trade war.
‘‘China is getting hurt,’’ Trump said. ‘‘I don’t like it when they attack our farmers, and I don’t like it when they put out false statements. Besides that, we find out they’re trying to meddle in our elections, and we’re not going to let that happen — just like we’re not going to let that happen with Russia.’’
He tries to be truthful, and isn't an intentional liar.
Trump’s remarks appear consistent with a White House strategy, devised in the aftermath of his Helsinki summit with Russia President Vladimir Putin, to spread blame for election interference beyond Russia. In July, Trump appeared to give more credence to Putin’s denials of 2016 election interference than to US spy agencies’ assessment to the contrary.
Why I started blogging again.
Trump’s accusation is likely to reverberate in Beijing, where Chinese leaders have become increasingly convinced the Trump administration is pursuing a strategy aimed at containing the country’s economic growth. Hard-liners in the ruling Communist Party have been eager to highlight the increasingly harsh rhetoric from Trump and his aides as evidence the United States is seeking to punish China.
The two sides have engaged in a fast-escalating trade war, having both implemented tariffs on more than $250 billion worth of goods, but economists have warned the tariff battle could do damage to both sides over the long term if a deal is not reached.....
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Related:
Social media sites not seeing Chinese midterm meddling
They have reported online disinformation campaigns ahead of the Nov. 6 elections that appear to originate from Russia and Iran, but haven’t found evidence so far of such activity from China.
They are tapping Trump's phone, though:
When Trump phones friends, the Chinese listen and learn
When President Trump calls old friends on one of his iPhones to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing, U.S. intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening — and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well, but aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. White House officials say they can only hope he refrains from discussing classified information when he is on them.
And they can give you cancer!
"China mocks report it taps Trump’s iPhone (and plugs its own rival brand)" by Steven Lee Myers New York Times October 26, 2018
BEIJING — China on Thursday ridiculed but did not exactly deny an article in The New York Times detailing how Chinese intelligence agents eavesdropped on cellphone conversations President Trump had with friends in hopes of gaining insights into the administration’s policies.
A spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, suggested that “some people in the United States” were competing for “the Academy Award for best original screenplay” and even used a familiar Trump trope, warning the newspaper that it risked being called “fake news.”
She went on to say that the most secure way to avoid telephone intercepts is not to use “any modern communication devices.”
Almost certainly prepared for questions about the matter, Hua seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to discuss the article’s details. She even offered a plug for a Chinese competitor of the iPhones that Trump favors — to the apparent dismay of his security advisers.
“If they are very worried about iPhones being tapped, they can use Huawei,” she said, referring to a telecom giant that has raised security concerns in the United States as potentially vulnerable to Chinese intelligence agencies.
In Russia, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, responded similarly, treating the article with humor while not denying it.
“The newspaper probably has some detailed information on this subject that can be a justification for publishing such information,” he said, according to Ria Novosti.
According to current and former administration officials, Trump has continued to use his personal cellphone to make calls, in part to sidestep security and reporting safeguards otherwise required for official calls to and from the White House. The officials told the Times that the Chinese and the Russians had managed to eavesdrop on the calls, prompting intelligence officials to warn Trump that his cellphone calls are not secure.
Hey, none of ours are!
China, in particular, hoped to discern what Trump thinks and who shapes his thinking as the two countries fight a protracted trade war. Officials in China regularly quiz American visitors on the subject, saying they remain confused by the administration’s convoluted, contradictory, and shifting views and positions.
You don't need to spy on him to find that out. It's Kushner.
Hua’s remarks, made in response to a question at the ministry’s regularly scheduled briefing, quickly flashed as alerts by Chinese news organizations that until then had not reported on what would in China otherwise amount to a highly classified operation to eavesdrop on the president of the United States. The Global Times, an outspoken state-run newspaper, described Hua’s response as that of a sorceress able to wield godlike magic.
Meanwhile, Trump on Thursday denied the report that he often calls friends to gripe or solicit advice on his unsecure iPhones, allowing Chinese spies to listen in and gain insights into how to deal with the US administration.
‘‘The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it,’’ Trump said in a predawn tweet.
He does have a sense of humor.
Shortly after Trump’s tweet was sent Thursday, former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman took to Twitter to push back against his denial.
‘‘Clearly #45 memory is fading fast,’’ Manigault Newman wrote, referring to the president. ‘‘He ALWAYS used his personal iPhone in WH for calls even after being told over and over again about the security risk. He disliked his secure gov issued cell — he said it was slow and ‘buggy.’ ’’
OMG, they trotted out Omarosa for that!
She is one of those liar-liars the Mooch was talking about!
During an appearance on CNN after Trump’s tweet, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said the paper stands by the story.....
Like that is supposed to convince of of its credibility?
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"Without evidence, Trump says Russia will favor Democrats" by Mary Clare Jalonick and Christina A. Cassidy Associated Press July 24, 2018
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to show he’s taking the threat of Russian interference seriously, President Trump claimed without evidence Tuesday that Moscow will be ‘‘fighting very hard’’ to help Democrats win in the 2018 midterm elections.
Trump, who has offered mixed messages on Russian interference in US elections — at times even calling it a ‘‘hoax’’ — acknowledged in a tweet that the midterms are a likely target.
‘‘I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election,’’ Trump wrote. But he added ‘‘they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!’’
That’s despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying outright last week, following the leaders’ summit in Helsinki, that he wanted Trump to win in 2016. US intelligence agencies also have determined that Russia interfered in the election to help him win, and the agencies have warned there are ominous signs of more cyberattacks to come.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Christopher Krebs of the Homeland Security Department said the intelligence community has observed ‘‘continued malign influence operations’’ into 2018, though they do not appear to be ‘‘an effort at the same scope or scale’’ as in 2016.
As Trump tweeted on Tuesday, House Republicans held a hearing on election security in which lawmakers — even some of Trump’s closest GOP allies — strongly criticized Russian interference and pointed to an indictment this month of 12 Russian intelligence officers. The indictment alleges that the Russians broke into Democratic email accounts and tried to penetrate state election systems.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy noted that the indictment said there is no evidence the vote count was affected, ‘‘but that was not likely for a lack of trying.’’
Republican Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina criticized Trump directly.
‘‘Unfortunately, the president’s recent comments at the US-Russia summit in Helsinki failed to hold Putin accountable for his attacks on our country’s interests and deter him from future indiscretions,’’ she said.
Other Republicans were careful to draw a line and not directly disagree with the president.
‘‘I don’t think anyone here denies the fact that Russia attempted to meddle in the elections,’’ said Representative Jody Hice, Republican of Georgia. ‘‘The issue of meddling is one thing, the issue of the president colluding is another and that is indeed a witch hunt.’’
Democrats said Republicans haven’t done enough to keep the vote secure this fall. They asked for more questioning, more documents and more money for states to secure their election infrastructure.
If Dems lose like they should they will then cry foul while blaming Trump because his National Security Council meeting lasted less than an hour, and it could only be Putin because ‘‘he would know how to rig the election in his own favor because he has plenty of experience with that,’’ as well as stealing your pension (ignore the U.S-generated destabilization meant to interfere with Russia's domestic tranquility but keep the pension statement for later).
The very makeup of the election infrastructure — decentralized and different in every state — provides some protection against hacking efforts, but state and local election officials have been working with the Department of Homeland Security to shore up their efforts after at least 21 state systems were scanned for vulnerabilities by Russian hackers and at least one state saw its voter registration system breached.
In addition to helping state election officials obtain security clearances so they can be briefed on the latest threats to elections, Homeland Security officials also offer remote scanning of their networks to identify any vulnerabilities as well as intensive cybersecurity reviews that involve onsite exams.....
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"Pompeo seeks to reassure lawmakers on Russia amid bipartisan backlash" by John Hudson Washington Post July 26, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s top diplomat faced withering questions from lawmakers Wednesday about the president’s ability to steer US foreign policy and his lack of transparency, as the White House scrambled to present a tougher stance toward Russia.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee came as the White House postponed a second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid criticism of Trump’s conflicting statements on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In an effort to reassure lawmakers, Pompeo said the president accepts the views of the intelligence community that Russia interfered in the election, and he declared that the United States would never recognize Putin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, but Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the panel, told Pompeo that lawmakers are ‘‘filled with serious doubts about this White House and its conduct of American foreign policy.’’
Well, they didn't annex it so I'm tired of the endless lies, and this is the only time any foreign policy issue comes up in campaign.
He challenged Pompeo to satisfy bipartisan concerns that the White House is ‘‘making it up as they go’’ and that Pompeo himself may not know what is happening.
Corker complained that senators have been unable to get straight answers to basic questions about what Trump may have said to Putin when the two leaders met in Helsinki last week.
Pompeo testily assured senators that Trump had relayed the contents of the meeting afterward.
Russia and concerns that Trump is too cozy with Putin dominated the three-hour session. The hearing was a symbolic step for Republicans who have frequently set aside long-held policy views about Russia, North Korea, and other issues to suit Trump’s unorthodox approach.
In a sign that the White House wanted to blunt criticism from the president’s own party, the administration issued a declaration about its views on Crimea, including that Republican-approved sanctions will remain in place, hours before the questioning began. White House national security adviser John Bolton then issued a statement postponing the follow-up Putin summit until next year.
Putin had invited him to Moscow, and it looks like Bolton lied.
Corker’s frustrations followed a week of walk-backs, reversals, and clarifications from a Trump administration trying to account for the president’s freewheeling comments about Russia and the 2016 election.
In recent days, Senate Republicans have made public remarks opposing a future meeting between Trump and Putin. Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, unleashed a torrent of criticism, going so far as calling Trump’s news conference with Putin ‘‘treasonous.’’
On Wednesday, Pompeo said critics were unfairly characterizing Trump administration policy toward Russia as soft, and he ticked off a list of aggressive steps taken, including the expulsion of 60 Russian spies and diplomats, the sanctioning of Russian oligarchs, and the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine.
The hearing also provided the first opportunity for lawmakers to ask Pompeo about Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month. Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, expressed concern that there is ‘‘no verifiable evidence that North Korea . . . is denuclearizing.’’
‘‘I am afraid at this point that the Trump administration is being taken for a ride,’’ he said.
Aren't we all.
‘‘Fear not, senator,’’ Pompeo responded.....
Then be afraid, be very afraid.
--more--"
I'm surprised Iran and Syria never came up.
"How hackers could disrupt Election Day — and how the bad guys could be stopped" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff October 08, 2018
Election Day presents a tantalizing target for a malicious hacker.
The complex, multifaceted US voting system is rife with technological weak spots, from problems with the electronic voting machines in use in some states to vulnerabilities in the websites government officials use to disseminate information.
In an era where public trust in American institutions is at an ebb, and conspiracy theories threaten to metastasize online, public safety officials and cybersecurity experts say they have to be careful how they talk about the vulnerabilities.
“If the people do not trust that it’s a fair system, then the whole thing is going to fall apart,” said Cris Thomas, a well-known hacker who often goes by the name “Space Rogue” and now works in security at IBM, but many hope that sounding a louder alarm will spur action to strengthen the system.
Here are several scenarios in which hackers could affect the integrity of an election — and what experts say should be done to fix them:
I see this as the most likely scenario given the banging on the doors of the Supreme Court (where in the world was the security?).
A malicious group disrupts Election Day
A bomb threat closes a bridge that many voters in a key precinct use to get home. Someone hacks into the system that controls traffic lights, snarling traffic throughout the city. A propaganda operation unfolds on social media, feeding voters inaccurate information about changes to the election schedule.
We are getting that from the ma$$ media and pre$$.
Attacks on the environment in which the election takes place could be just as disruptive as hacks of the election system.
A group of cybersecurity researchers, elections officials, and public safety leaders met recently at the office of Boston cybersecurity startup Cybereason to game out how they would handle such a scenario. A “red team,” playing hackers intent on disrupting the election, threw imaginary attacks at a “blue team” of law enforcement.
At the end of the day, everybody was grateful it was only a game.
“If this were to happen today, I would say the red team would have the upper hand for a period of time,” said Sean P. Maloney, a state trooper assigned to the FBI’s Boston office, but he said practice events are a start in helping authorities imagine what they might face.....
The Globe tells you what can be done to prevent it, even as they encourage it!!!!!
Then they tell you, “it falls upon civilian leadership to come out with a clear and unified message that the attackers are not going to win this one. They may win a round or two, but democracy will prevail.”
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Once again, it is the usual suspects: North Korea, Russia, China, and Iran. and the question is will it be reported in time.
"US begins first cyberoperation against Russia aimed at protecting elections" by Julian E. Barnes New York Times October 23, 2018
WASHINGTON — The United States Cyber Command is targeting individual Russian operatives to try to deter them from spreading disinformation to interfere in elections, telling them that US operatives have identified them and are tracking their work, according to officials briefed on the operation.
The campaign, which includes missions undertaken in recent days, is the first known overseas cyberoperation to protect US elections, including the November midterms.
Then why would they let the cat out of the bag?
The operations come as the Justice Department outlined Friday a campaign of “information warfare” by Russians aimed at influencing the midterm elections, highlighting the broad threat the US government sees from Moscow’s influence campaign.
Defense officials would not say how many individuals they were targeting, and they would not describe the methods that Cyber Command has used to send the direct messages to the operatives behind the influence campaigns. It is not clear if the information was delivered in an e-mail, a chat, or some other electronic intervention.
In other words, the NYT is being used as a government mouthpiece here. There is no verification whatsoever!
Senior defense officials said they were not directly threatening the operatives. Still, former officials said anyone singled out would know, based on the US government’s actions against other Russian operatives, that they could be indicted or targeted with sanctions. Even the unstated threat of sanctions could help deter some Russians from participating in covert disinformation campaigns, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former intelligence official now with the Center for a New American Security.
They are removing newspapers from the stands?
“This would be a way to generate leverage that can change behavior,” she said.
Yeah, we can interfere with you, but you can't interfere with us!
The Cyber Command operations appear relatively measured, especially in comparison with the increasingly elaborate and sophisticated efforts by Russia to use disinformation to sow dissent in the United States, but the US campaign undertaken in response to Russia’s information offensive is limited in large part to keep Moscow from escalating in response by taking down the power grid or conducting some other reprisal that could trigger a bigger clash between great powers. Compared with traditional armed conflict, the rules of cyberwarfare are not well defined.
OMFG!
Cyber Command was founded in 2009 to defend military networks, but has also developed offensive capabilities. The command shares a headquarters and leadership with the National Security Agency, which collects electronic and signals intelligence. A joint Cyber Command-NSA team has been working on the effort to identify and deter foreign influence campaigns.
I'm sorry, what was that?
US officials also said the campaign is one aspect of a broader effort, which includes purges by social media companies of fake accounts that spread propaganda, to fight Russian intrusion in democratic elections. Cyber Command has also sent teams to Europe to shore up the defenses of US allies and partners so they can combat Russian intrusions on their own government networks, according to defense officials.
US intelligence officials have concluded that Russia is unlikely to try to hack into voting machines or directly manipulate voting results this year. On Friday, the director of national intelligence said that state and local governments have reported attempted intrusions into their networks, but that foreign governments have not penetrated voting systems, but Russian efforts to sway public opinion by spreading false information have continued, and officials said those efforts are becoming more refined, targeting specific groups of Americans. Almost all of the Russian disinformation efforts, according to current and former officials, are aimed at sowing dissent, polarizing the political parties, and setting the stage for the 2020 presidential election.
OMFG!
Yup, we all empty receptacles out here who can't think for ourselves, DUH!
So when are they going to investigate Israeli and AIPAC influence regarding our elections, 'eh?
The defense officials would not identify their targets, but other officials said some of the targets were involved in previous Russian efforts to spread disinformation in the United States and Europe, including the 2016 presidential election. The new US campaign, according to these officials, is aimed at both oligarch-funded hacking groups and Russian intelligence operatives who are part of Moscow’s disinformation campaign. It is not clear whether Cyber Command’s effort is also aimed at halting Russian operatives charged with hacking political entities.
The more they holler Russian disinformation the more credibility they give Russian reports!
Others said the US government must be ready to go further — cutting off the Russians’ ability to spread propaganda.
As long as it is not the swill and slop I'm reading, good God!
--more--"
Related:
Why Trump should get his space force
It's all about cybersecurity!
Also see:
Sunday Globe Special: Into Orbit
The force will be needed to battle the alien invaders!
