fountainofyouth
fountainofyouth's JournalJeff Sessions Used Political Funds for Republican Convention Expenses
Source: Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration says Attorney General Jeff Sessions was acting as a then-U.S. senator when he talked to Russia’s ambassador at an event during last year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but Mr. Sessions paid for convention travel expenses out of his own political funds and he spoke about Donald Trump’s campaign at the event, according to a person at the event and campaign-finance records.
Mr. Sessions made comments related to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign at a Heritage Foundation event during the Republican convention in July, when he met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, according to a person at the event in Cleveland.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-sessions-used-political-funds-for-republican-convention-expenses-1488509301
Illinois town in Trump territory backs detained immigrant
Source: Associated Press
WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. A southern Illinois community that solidly backed President Donald Trump has rallied behind a Mexican restaurant manager who doesn't have legal permission to live in the U.S. and has been detained by immigration officials.
Letters of support for Juan Carlos Hernandez Pacheco have poured in from West Frankfort's mayor, police chief, high school athletic director and the county prosecutor. They describe Hernandez as a role model and praise his robust civic involvement, including funding school scholarships, benefit dinners for families in need and hosting a law enforcement appreciation event.
Hernandez, 38, came to the U.S. in the 1990s but didn't obtain legal status, according to friends. He has been the manager of La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant for a decade in the community with coal mining roots, about 100 miles southeast of St. Louis.
He was arrested at his home earlier this month and remains in custody at a U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement facility outside St. Louis. ICE officials did not explain why Pacheco was arrested, but noted his drunken-driving convictions from 2007.
Read more: http://m.startribune.com/illinois-town-in-trump-territory-backs-detained-immigrant/414876684/
Yes, your actions can affect the lives of REAL PEOPLE!!!
H.R. McMaster Breaks With Administration on Views of Islam
Source: New York Times
President Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser has told his staff that Muslims who commit terrorist acts are perverting their religion, rejecting a key ideological view of other senior Trump advisers and signaling a potentially more moderate approach to the Islamic world.
The adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, told the staff of the National Security Council on Thursday, in his first “all hands” staff meeting, that the label “radical Islamic terrorism” was not helpful because terrorists are “un-Islamic,” according to people who were in the meeting.
That is a repudiation of the language regularly used by both the president and General McMaster’s predecessor, Michael T. Flynn, who resigned last week after admitting that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about a phone call with a Russian diplomat.
It is also a sign that General McMaster, a veteran of the Iraq war known for his sense of history and independent streak, might move the council away from the ideologically charged views of Mr. Flynn, who was also a three-star Army general before retiring.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/hr-mcmaster-trump-islam.html
McMaster is someone who could have served very comfortably in the Obama administration. I hope he gains the clear upper hand against Bannon and Co., and sooner rather than later.
Trump Chooses H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser
Source: New York Times
President Trump picked Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a widely respected military strategist, as his new national security adviser on Monday, calling him “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”
Mr. Trump made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago getaway in Palm Beach, Fla., where he has been interviewing candidates to replace Michael T. Flynn, who was forced out after withholding information from Vice President Mike Pence about a call with Russia’s ambassador.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/politics/mcmaster-national-security-adviser-trump.html
McMaster is a superb military strategist, but his job is going to be mostly bureaucratic.
Could have been much worse than this, though.
Bomb threats called in to at least 10 JCCs in fourth round of harassment
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
At least 10 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats on Monday, for the fourth time in five weeks.
The threats have been called in to JCCs across the country, according to Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Network — an affiliate of the Jewish Federations of North America that advises Jewish groups and institutions on security.
News reports indicated that threats were received by JCCs in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin; St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Buffalo, New York; and Birmingham, Alabama.
The threats were called in on Monday morning. It is not known if they were live calls or recorded.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2017/02/20/news-opinion/united-states/bomb-threats-called-in-to-at-least-10-jccs-in-fourth-round-of-harassment
As a reminder, our fearless leader had a particularly outrageous response to a question about this a week ago: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-anti-semitism/
White House dismisses 6 over failed background checks
Source: Politico
Several White House staffers were dismissed Thursday morning after failing FBI background checks, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Six aides were "walked out of the building by security" on Wednesday after not passing the SF86, a Questionnaire for National Security Positions for security clearance.
Among those whose White House posts were revoked was President Donald Trump’s director of scheduling, Caroline Wiles, the daughter of Susan Wiles, Trump’s Florida campaign manager and former chief of staff to Governor Rick Scott. Wiles was appointed deputy assistant secretary before the inauguration in January. Two sources close to Wiles said she will get another job in Treasury.
She's among others who failed to pass the intensive background check, which includes questions on the applicant's credit score, substance use and other personal subjects.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/02/white-house-failed-background-checks-dismissals-235112
Whole article there.
The SF86 is the standard OPM form for a background check to receive security clearance. Clearance can be rejected for a number of reasons, but common ones include a criminal history, severe debt or mismanagement of money, financial conflict of interest, or unexplained foreign travel or associations.
Remember to bring up his tax returns!
After every major revelation, remind yourself and those around you that until he releases his taxes, we have every reason to believe that he's keeping embarrassing information from us that could be relevant. All of this goes back to his tax returns. Keep telling your elected officials to bring it up.
Turmoil at the National Security Council, From the Top Down
Source: New York Times
These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world.
Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks.
The national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His survival in the job may hang in the balance. (snip)
Still, Mr. Flynn presents additional complications beyond his conversations with the Russian ambassador. His aides say he is insecure about whether his unfettered access to Mr. Trump during the campaign is being scaled back and about a shadow council created by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s top strategist, who was made a member of the council two weeks ago. For his part, Mr. Bannon sees the United States as headed toward an inevitable confrontation with two adversaries — China and Iran.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/national-security-council-turmoil.html
CIA Memo: Designating Muslim Brotherhood Could 'Fuel Extremism'
Source: Politico
Trump administration officials pushing to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization face at least one significant obstacle: analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency.
CIA experts have warned that so labeling the decades-old Islamist group “may fuel extremism” and damage relations with America's allies, according to a summary of a finished intelligence report for the intelligence community and policymakers that was shared with POLITICO by a U.S. official.
The document, published internally on Jan. 31, notes that the Brotherhood—which boasts millions of followers around the Arab world—has “rejected violence as a matter of official policy and opposed al-Qa’ida and ISIS.”
It acknowledges that “a minority of MB [Muslim Brotherhood] members have engaged in violence, most often in response to harsh regime repression, perceived foreign occupation, or civil conflicts.” Noting that there are branches of the group in countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia, it cautions that some of America’s allies in the region “probably worry that such a step could destabilize their internal politics, feed extremist narratives, and anger Muslims worldwide.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757
In other words, it would be another way to cultivate a war with the Muslim world if you're Steve Bannon.
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