Newsweek: Trump business conflicts open US to foreign blackmail Rachel Maddow

How Donald Trump's Business Ties Are Already Jeopardizing U.S. Interests

Source: Newsweek



Donald Trump hasn’t been sworn in yet, but he is already making decisions and issuing statements to world leaders that radically depart from American foreign policy, all to the benefit of his family’s corporate empire. Because of this, the next president of the United States is already vulnerable to undue influence by other nations, including through bribery and even blackmail.

Given the vast scope of the clashes between the Trumps’ extensive business dealings and the interests of America, the president-elect vowed during the campaign to eliminate potential conflicts by severing ties to his company—yet, with only weeks to go until he takes the oath of office, he hasn’t laid out a credible plan. Trump’s sole suggestion to date—a “blind trust” run by his children—would not eliminate the conflicts, given that the money generated would still go to his family. Moreover, such a trust would be anything but blind: If Trump Tower Moscow goes under construction, Trump will see it while in Russia and know that his kids are making millions of dollars from it. That is why foreign leaders hoping to curry favor will do everything they can to help Trump’s family erect more buildings, sell more jewelry and make money through any means possible. Even if the family steps away from its company while Trump is president, every nation on Earth will know that doing business with the Trump Organization will one day benefit the family. The only way to eliminate the conflicts—sell the company, divvy up the proceeds—has been rejected by Trump, whose transition team refused to respond to any questions from Newsweek for this article.

Some of the most egregious conflicts that have emerged involve countries in Asia and its subregions, particularly the Philippines. Global policy on the Philippines has been fraught with tension since the election in May of Rodrigo Duterte as the country’s president. Duterte, who boasted to voters during the campaign that he had shot a fellow law school student for teasing him, has championed the killing of suspected criminals and street children by vigilante death squads. In 2015, he said that if he became president, up to 100,000 people suspected of links to illegal drugs could be killed. Just months after his election, Duterte said he was eager to lead a genocide of up to 3 million drug addicts. “I'd be happy to slaughter them,” he said. “At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have [me].” And in September, an admitted hit man testified to a Senate committee in the Philippines that Duterte presided over a killing campaign when he was mayor of Davao City.

As president, Duterte rapidly showed he was little concerned with the legal protections afforded to Filipinos suspected of crimes. During his first three months in office, 850 Filipinos were killed by death squads, apparently on little more than the suspicion that they were drug users and dealers. Since then, the estimated death toll has climbed to 4,500. The carnage has been condemned throughout the Western world; the Parliament of the European Union and two United Nations human rights experts have urged Duterte to end the massacre. One of the experts even appeared to suggest that Duterte and his government could be held legally accountable for committing mass murder in violation of international law. “Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” said Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on summary executions. In response to the denunciations, Duterte lashed out at the United States, threatening to align his country more with China.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/12/23/donald-trump-foreign-business-deals-jeopardize-us-531140.html

American Express will give all parents 20 weeks of paid leave

Source: CNN



Starting in January, the financial services giant will expand its paid parental leave policy for mothers and fathers to 20 weeks at full pay, plus another six to eight weeks for women who give birth and require medical leave. Full-time and part-time employees who have worked at Amex for at least a year are eligible.

That's a big shift from the company's current policy of offering six weeks of paid leave for the primary parent plus another six to eight weeks for birth mothers who require medical leave. Secondary caregivers, meanwhile, have gotten just two weeks.

Under the new policy, parents will also have access to a 24-hour lactation consultant. And mothers who go on business trips will be able to ship their breast milk home for free.

In addition, expectant parents will have access to a parent concierge, whom they can go to for information on the company's family benefits and resources.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/12/pf/paid-parental-leave-american-express/index.html

NFL and MLB fans bringing guns to stadiums? Washington state legislators have proposed the idea.

Source: Washington Post

Legislators in the state of Washington have proposed a bill that would allow fans to bring guns into sports stadiums, including Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field.

The proposal would prevent public stadiums or the private entities that operate them, from banning people with a valid concealed pistol license from entering with a firearm. It’s a proposal that is at odds with NFL and Major League Baseball regulations.

“We haven’t seen the proposed legislation but we have a policy forbidding carrying a weapon into NFL stadiums,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, said in an email Sunday morning to The Post.

The Seattle stadiums, home of the Seahawks and Mariners and Seahawks, are privately operated and the proposal would extend to private operators of public spaces, stadium authorities and public facilities districts. The bill was proposed by Republican representatives Matt Shea, David Taylor and Bob McCaslin.

Trump to inherit state-run TV network with expanded reach

Source: Politico



President-elect Donald Trump is about to inherit a newly empowered Voice of America that some officials fear could serve as an unfettered propaganda arm for the former reality TV star who has flirted for years with launching his own network.

Buried on page 1,404 of the National Defense Authorization Act that passed last week is a provision that would disband the bipartisan board of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent U.S. agency that includes Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcast Networks.

The move – pushed by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce as a way to streamline the agency – concentrates control into a powerful CEO that is appointed by the president.

That change, combined with a 2013 legislative revision that allows the network to legally reach a U.S. audience, which was once banned, could pave the way for Trump-approved content created by the U.S. diplomacy arm, if he chooses to exploit the opportunity.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-voice-of-america-232442

Twitter U-turns over banning white nationalist

Source: The Guardian



Twitter has reinstated the account of Richard B Spencer, a self-styled white nationalist leader who was suspended from the service in the wake of a much-publicised crackdown on hateful conduct.

Spencer’s account was initially suspended on 15 November, as part of a sweeping move against leaders of the “alt-right”, a far-right movement which has been resurgent in America since the election of Donald Trump.

That same day, Twitter had announced new safety tools on its social network, including the ability to more easily report hateful conduct. It had also announced changes in how it trained its moderators to enforce the policies.

The suspension of Spencer, along with the accounts of the white-nationalist National Policy Institute which he heads up and its journal, Radix, was widely seen as a consequence of Twitter putting those new rules in action.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/12/twitter-u-turn-banning-white-nationalist-richard-b-spencer-alt-right?CMP=twt_gu

A hero of real news: Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! celebrate 20 years of fearless journalism...

Source: Salon

On Monday night in Harlem about 2,000 people zigzagged in lines outside Riverside Church. It felt like the wait before a rock concert and it kind of was: Patti Smith was scheduled to play, along with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. But the headliner was not a rock star but an unassuming journalist named Amy Goodman, founder and host of the independent news program “Democracy Now!”

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi recently called Goodman “as close to the ideal of what it means to be a journalist as one can get in this business.” In this age of fake news and a president-elect whose pathological lying is thoroughly documented, ordinary people, revered journalists and celebrities alike turn to Goodman because they see her as a guardian of truth. Goodman also has something akin to the outsider appeal and integrity of Sen. Bernie Sanders: Her daily news program is 100 percent supported by listeners, viewers and foundations, not by advertising or corporate sponsorship.

I squeezed between church pews, asking regular people what brought them to the 20th anniversary celebration of “Democracy Now!” Two young artists said Goodman “gives voice to struggling people from all over the world.” A middle-aged teacher explained that Goodman offers “relevant information you can’t find anywhere else.” Working people, retirees and folks of various ages, gender identities and races seem to say the same thing: “Democracy Now!” is one of the few strongholds of “real news.”

The recent victory of Native Americans against the Dakota Access pipeline — conditional or otherwise — can be directly traced back to Goodman’s early reporting from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Weeks before the mainstream media bothered to take notice, she and the “Democracy Now!” team filmed security guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on the peaceful “water protectors.” The footage went viral, receiving more than 14 million views, and was shared on nearly all the mainstream media outlets, including CNN, NBC and CBS, once they had no choice but to cover it.

Russians flock to U.S. real estate after Trump victory

Source: CNN

Don't Be a Sucker - 1947

Lets Take a Look at Trumps Cabinet of Villains The Resistance with Keith Olbermann GQ