When a nation’s children marched, and their President ignored them - Trump cont.

[TheClaws]

For me, the Parkland children being belittled and abused in so many ways is utterly heartbreaking to witness. But they have been more adult than the adults in their response. They have shown us what faith means, and bravery. POTUS? He is made much, much smaller.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3198255--In-politics-stupidity-is-not-a-handicap-We-know-this-now-Trump-thread-cont

talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/zinkes-interior-dept-disproportionately-purged-native-american-workers

'A full third of the senior Interior Department (DOI) career officials reassigned under Secretary Ryan Zinke in a major agency reshuffling are Native American, even though Native Americans make up less than 10 percent of the Department’s workforce, a review by TPM has found.'

Military to guard the southern border...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/03/donald-trump-says-will-send-military-guard-mexico-border/

Do you think he has any idea at all about the history or the sensitivities around the Baltics or how vulnerable they feel around his pal Russia?

Police Are Responding To An Active Shooter At YouTube's Headquarters In California
Employees described fleeing the building, hearing multiple gunshots, and barricading themselves in rooms

www.buzzfeed.com/briannasacks/youtube-headquarters-shooting-reports

APNewsBreak: US suspects cellphone spying devices in DC

apnews.com/amp/d716aac4ad744b4cae3c6b13dce12d7e

Melissa McEwan
@Shakestweetz
"The agency’s response, obtained by The Associated Press from Wyden’s office, suggests little has been done about such equipment, known popularly as Stingrays after a brand common among U.S. police departments." Oh.
And, as far as we know, Trump is still making and taking calls, including with other heads of state, on his unsecured mobile phone.

This was a week ago

NRATV
@NRATV
After @YouTube said it'll ban content related to the sale or assembly of #firearms or firearms accessories, @NRAILA's @ChrisCoxNRA released a statement slamming the move as political posturing. @stinchfield1776 agrees and says #NRA members must rise up in the face of censorship.

www.thedailybeast.com/official-woman-shot-boyfriend-at-youtube-hq

www.thedailybeast.com/trump-withdraw-troops-from-syria-trumps-advisers-f-that?via=twitter_page

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/trump-dod-appointee-resigns-birther/index.html

Unusually, the shooter was a woman (who shot her boyfriend and herself). Two other casualties.

But these are very early reports.

www.rawstory.com/2018/04/watch-live-police-hold-press-conference-response-shooting-youtube-hq/

Stormy appears to have a proper lawyerly lawyer.

secondnexus.com/news/michael-avenatti-suspicious-activity-report/?utm_content=inf_677_1164_2&tse_id=INF_87569070378711e88b47e9f5a243ec69

money.cnn.com/2018/04/03/news/economy/us-tariffs-china/index.html

'The Trump administration on Tuesday published a list of about 1,300 Chinese exports that could be targeted for tariffs.'

thehill.com/homenews/campaign/381378-dem-challenging-cruz-in-texas-brings-in-67-million-in-first-quarter-of-2018

'Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) reportedly brought in more than $6 million during the first quarter of the year in his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).'

Trump isn’t a criminal target at this stage, but remains within the scope of interest regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election. His lawyers are concerned, obviously, he may become a criminal target should he be interviewed by Mueller and run his mouth as he is wont to do.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/381541-mueller-told-trumps-lawyers-that-president-is-not-a-criminal-target

Further clarification on the Mueller report above - an excerpt from the article saying Mueller still considers Trump to be a subject of his investigation.

But Mueller also said that he still considers Trump to be a subject of his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election, and emphasized the need to interview the president as part of the probe, The Washington Post reported.

Mueller is reportedly preparing a report about Trump's actions in the White House and whether he sought to obstruct the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, according to the Post.

Mueller reportedly stressed that he needed to interview Trump to determine whether the president acted with corrupt intent to undermine the Russia probe and in order to conclude that portion of the investigation.

On Fox, though:

Fox News @FoxNews 19min
More
Mueller claims #Trump is not criminal target in his investigation, report says

It seems the YT shooter did not have any personal connection to any staff there, but rather a grudge against YT itself. However, that isn’t stopping some from bringing her nationality (Iranian) into the discourse. Her channels (now deleted) seemed to have been mostly comedy-based - not radical or political. (The twitter post below has a video that I can’t embed, but I recommend watching.)

Caroline O. @RVAwonk
1h1 hour ago
More
Those looking to prematurely spin a narrative about today's shooting at YouTube HQ in San Bruno are zeroing in on one of her posts, which actually appears to be a parody/satire.

1/

Social media:
(Have included CA in this, though obviously it is much more than social media)

Cambridge Analytica: Nigeria, Kenyan opposition to probe firm's alleged role in their elections

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/03/africa/nigeria-kenya-cambridge-analytica-elections-intl/index.html

And

A new study suggests fake news might have won Donald Trump the 2016 election
www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/04/03/a-new-study-suggests-fake-news-might-have-won-donald-trump-the-2016-election/

And

Sarah Frier
‏*@sarahfrier*
Scoop: An internal white paper at Facebook shows in detail how Trump's campaign was better at leveraging Facebook's advertising tools than Clinton's campaign.

Trump’s Campaign Said It Was Better at Facebook. Facebook Agrees
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/trump-s-campaign-said-it-was-better-at-facebook-facebook-agrees

Trump ran 5.9 million different versions of ads during the presidential campaign and rapidly tested them to spread those that generated the most Facebook engagement, according to the paper. Clinton ran 66,000 different kinds of ads in the same period.
28% of Trump’s ad spending was tied to third-party data files on voters, and leveraged a FB tool that helped the campaign show ads to lookalike audiences. Clinton’s ads aimed for broader audiences, with only 4 percent of her Facebook spend on the lookalike tool.
84 percent of Trump’s budget asked people on Facebook to take an action, like donating, compared with 56 percent of Clinton’s.
“Both campaigns spent heavily on Facebook between June and November of 2016,” according to paper, citing revenue of $44M for Trump and $28M for Clinton. “But Trump’s FB campaigns were more complex than Clinton’s and better leveraged FB's ability to optimize for outcomes.”

And

David Carroll 🦅
@profcarroll
Bad News: Despite the #CambridgeAnalytica catastrophe, Zuck backtracks on Sandberg’s pledge at Davos that Facebook would be applying #GDPR data rights to all 2.2 billion users.

Facebook says it will not extend GDPR privacy protections beyond EU

www.theverge.com/2018/4/3/17194504/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-gdpr-privacy-protections-europe

And

Facebook’s Russia problem won’t go away. Hundreds more accounts purged on the social network.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebook-says-there-were-more-russian-accounts-than-previously-acknowledged/2018/04/03/f26462f5-5715-4769-b887-29f80817f236_story.html

And (from yesterday)

Josh Dawsey
@jdawsey1
10h10 hours ago
Trump is expected to have dinner with businessman/investor/supporter Peter Thiel tonight, per people familiar.

And

Molly Scott Cato MEP
@MollyMEP
Brussels plans crackdown on ‘fake news’ in social media to prevent malign players ‘deploying cyber means to manipulate behaviour, deepen societal divides, subvert our democratic systems’

EU and other countries act while UK govt stands idle

Brussels plans crackdown on ‘fake news’ in social media
www.ft.com/content/dbc722b0-3407-11e8-ae84-494103e73f7f

And

Maryland governor settles lawsuit with ACLU over Facebook censorship
Observers say the settlement is an especially striking outcome after other public officials — most notably Trump — have been sued for over claims of censorship.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/maryland-governor-settles-lawsuit-aclu-over-facebook-censorship-n862461

Media:

Daniel Dale
@ddale8
Scott Pruitt tried to let only a Fox camera into the room for his announcement today on reducing fuel efficiency standards, CNN reports; Fox informed its competitors, and they created a pool. Pruitt also did not nivite most reporters who cover the EPA.

How EPA's Scott Pruitt avoided tough questions on Tuesday
edition.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/pruitt-epa-avoided-tough-questions/index.html

And

The Sinclair employee handbook, provided in part to HuffPost, states that the company “may monitor, intercept, and review, without further notice, every employee’s activities using Company’s electronic resources and communications systems.”

Sinclair Journalists Worry They’re Being Watched: 'There's A Lot Held Over Us'
The Sinclair Broadcast Group handbook warns employees to have no expectation of privacy in their communications.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sinclair-journalists-worry-theyre-being-watched-theres-a-lot-held-over-us_us_5ac3c46be4b09712fec5477f

And (from yesterday)

Molly McKew
@MollyMcKew
POTUS has tweeted ten times based on a FoxNews opinion that mischaracterizes an activist march as an invading immigrant army.
Hard not to conclude FoxNews is running information operations on POTUS.
Who is directing them?

And

Financial Times
@FinancialTimes
Walt Disney has offered to buy Sky News as a condition of Rupert Murdoch’s planned £11.7bn takeover of Sky
t.co/P04qlotwS0

Court cases:

Re: Alex Van Der Zwaan

Sarah Kendzior
@sarahkendzior
Pleads guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI; gets four years and eleven months less prison time than a black woman sentenced for voting while on probation

Also

Zoe Tillman
@ZoeTillman
A few takeaways from Alex van der Zwaan's sentencing (story here: www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/a-lawyer-who-admitted-lying-to-the-special-counsels-office?utm_term=.bnkWYPOBd1#.exKBvqad4l …):

1. It certainly sends a message that jail is on the table even in a case with a relatively low-level offense and a plea deal.

But...

2. Van der Zwaan's deal with Mueller's office didn't include a cooperation agreement, so he didn't get the benefits from that at sentencing the way that Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Flynn (who all agreed to cooperate and delay sentencing) are hoping for

3. The judge in van der Zwaan's case, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, is also handling Paul Manafort's criminal case and his civil lawsuit. We got a feel today for the weight she's giving Mueller's investigation - she talked about how it involves matters of nat'l and int'l importance

And

Roger Stone Hit With $100 Million Defamation Suit in Miami From Chinese Billionaire
www.miaminewtimes.com/news/roger-stone-sued-for-defamation-by-guo-wengui-10229139

Also more fun for Stone

Trey Yingst
‏*@TreyYingst*
EXCLUSIVE: Roger Stone's email to Sam Nunberg saying he dined with @JulianAssange

twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/981339073636913152

And re: Trump and Wapo's piece (which might be the source of recent WaPo/Besos antagonism?)

Renato Mariotti
@renato_mariotti
THREAD: What does today’s news that Trump is a “subject” of Mueller’s investigation but not a “target” mean? (Short answer: Not as much as it seems at first glance.)
1/ Today the @washingtonpost reported that Mueller told Trump’s attorneys that he is a “subject” but not a “target” of his investigation.
2/ You are a “subject” of a federal investigation when your conduct is part of the government’s investigation. So if the government is investigating what you did, you are a “subject.” It’s what people commonly refer to as being “under investigation.”
3/ A “target” of an investigation is someone for whom the prosecutor has substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime and is a “putative defendant.” In other words, is someone the prosecutor intends to charge.
4/ As a practical matter, federal prosecutors typically don’t decide until late in an investigation whether they will charge a person who is under investigation. Usually prosecutors don’t make that judgement until they’ve interviewed witnesses and reviewed the relevant documents.
5/ For that reason, defense attorneys typically complain that a “non-target letter” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. As a practical matter, if your client is a “subject,” a statement that the prosecutor doesn’t intend to indict you at this time doesn’t mean much.
6/ The prosecutor can just continue to collect evidence and make the decision to indict at a later time. That’s why any good federal criminal defense attorney knows that what really matters most is whether your client is a subject.
7/ So all today’s news tells us is that Mueller hasn’t decided to indict Trump at this time. But if Trump’s lawyers know what they’re doing, they’ll tell him that he’s still under great risk. /end

Rosenstein gets new top deputy for Russia probe

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/rosenstein-russia-ed-ocallaghan/index.html

Sarah Kendzior
@sarahkendzior
Rosenstein's new deputy, Edward O'Callaghan, assisted the Trump transition team.

Rick Gates, a key figure in the Russia probe, was Trump's deputy campaign manager and stayed on through the transition period as deputy chairman of the inaugural committee.

Why is O'Callaghan overseeing the Russia probe when he assisted the Trump transition team, and a key figure from that team has pled guilty? Shouldn't he have to recuse himself, at the very least?

Admin:

The announcement of DJ Gribbin’s departure comes after the president said an infrastructure program won’t happen before November's midterm elections
www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-top-infrastructure-aide-is-leaving-white-house-1522792246

And

Planned Parenthood CEO Says Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Offered 'Bribe' to Stop Abortions
people.com/politics/planned-parenthood-ceo-says-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trump-offered-bribe-to-stop-abortions/

And

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Links YouTube Shooting to “Criminal Illegal Aliens”
“Would anyone be surprised?”

www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/04/rep-dana-rohrabacher-links-youtube-shooting-to-criminal-illegal-aliens/

And

2 Florida Republicans Now Joining Calls For Scott Pruitt To Resign
Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen say Pruitt should leave the agency amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/carlos-curbelo-scott-pruitt_us_5ac3b87be4b04646b6470a31

Russia:

Putin demands Russia be included in probe of Russian ex-spy's poisoning
www.cbsnews.com/news/sergei-skripal-russia-nerve-agent-poisoning-investigation-vladimir-putin/

And

Ellen Nakashima
@nakashimae
"We have failed to impose sufficient costs" on Russia -- H.R. McMaster in his last public remarks as National Security Advisor, in a speech at the Atlantic Council.

[video footage here: twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/981397994737152002 ]

Robbie Gramer
@RobbieGramer
McMaster coming out swinging against Russia at @AtlanticCouncil dinner right now. Last time he did this (Munich conference in February), Trump rebuked him on Twitter. But he only has 6 days left on the job now.
"Mr. Putin may believe that he is winning...Perhaps he believes that our free nations are weak and will not respond. He is wrong" - McMaster speaking now
McMaster said he appreciated compliments on Trump's National Security Strategy, but said all kudos should go to his deputy, Nadia Schadlow for leading the NSS effort
McMaster: "For too long, some nations have looked the other way in the face of these threats. Russia brazenly, and implausibly denies its actions, and we have failed to impose sufficient costs."
Adds: "Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have all been targeted by Russia’s so called hybrid warfare, a pernicious form of aggression" that mixes political, economic, information, and cyber aspects

Naveed Jamali
@NaveedAJamali
More Naveed Jamali Retweeted Ellen Nakashima
We all need to step away from the daily impeachment porn and take a long hard look at the threat Russia independent of Trump poses to the US and the world.
Right now Russia is engaged in aggressive overt conventional armed conflict in Syria and Ukraine. They have shot down civilian airliners and threatened us with a new ICBM. Those actions have nothing to do with Trumps looming impeachment.
As a young intelligence officer I studied how the case of WMDs lead us to war with Iraq and now I see that the failure to warn about the threat of Russia, will likely result in a failure to detect, deter and destroy the next next Russian event against us.
For example, in 2015 Japans MOD declared that Russian incursion into their airspace reached “Cold War” levels. Again conventional overt military activity. We cannot fail again to recognize the trend of Russian aggression.

Some good news:

Rebecca Dallet beats Michael Screnock in race for Wisconsin Supreme Court
www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/03/rebecca-dallet-beats-michael-screnock-race-wisconsin-supreme-court/477978002/

Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
This is the first time in 23 years that a liberal candidate who wasn't an incumbent won a seat on the high court in Wisconsin.

Matt McDermott
@mattmfm
Democrats ran against Trump.
Republicans ran towards the NRA.

Result? Democrats win by double digits.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is just another data point in a growing list that suggests a significant Democratic wave.

Another Wisconsin Republican up for re-election in November: Paul Ryan. 👀