“A sitting national security adviser, former head of an intelligence agency, retired lieutenant general and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the importance of telling them the truth.”
Category Archives: Traitor
President Trump, hostage taker? – Los Angeles Times
Trump’s statement that he may intervene in the case against Meng could be one of his most dangerous “break the norms” moments since he won the White House. By putting her arrest in play as a bargaining chip in trade talks, Trump has told the world that hostage-taking is now a part of his approach to international negotiations too. It also is a further erosion of the independence of the Justice Department. Trump has already demanded that it investigate his political foes, including Hillary Clinton, though so far the department has refused to follow his lead. It’s unclear how much it could resist him in the Meng case, but to swap her prosecution for a trade deal tells the world that U.S. arrest warrants can be made to go away if Trump gets a trade concession. While Trump may have the legal authority to intervene in a specific case, that he is willing to do so not for reasons of justice, but for political gain, is an appalling blurring of policy goals and our concept of an independent and professional Justice Department.
‘They don’t care’: Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties | Technology | The Guardian
Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker. “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a factchecking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”
New Zealand courts banned naming Grace Millane’s accused killer. Google just emailed it out | Toby Manhire | World news | The Guardian
this is next-level. You didn’t have to go searching to find the name on the internet. Google put it right in your inbox. You didn’t even need to click to open the email. His name was in the subject field. Shouldn’t Google then be hauled before the courts? What did they have to say for themselves – was this defensible, and what processes did they have in place to stop this sort of thing happening? A spokesperson for Google in New Zealand (based in Australia) responded to those questions by saying, “we wouldn’t comment on specifics”. That’s a no-comment on the specific fact that they dispatched an email with the name of the accused – information unequivocally suppressed by NZ courts – in the headline.
Germany: AfD′s ′white men′ Advent calendar sparks controversy and ridicule | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 11.12.2018
Germany’s right-wing populists said they sought to celebrate the contributions of white men, who faced “rampant discrimination” in society. The calendar was promoted with the hashtag “yes to white men” on Twitter.
Zuckerberg must end far right’s fundraising on Facebook – Tom Watson | Technology | The Guardian
The deputy Labour leader, Tom Watson, has demanded that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg never again allows far-right activists to fundraise on the network, criticising him for having a “contempt for social responsibility”. A Guardian investigation on Friday found that a hidden global network of US thinktanks, rightwing Australians and Russian trolls were providing financial, political and moral support to Tommy Robinson, who has more than 1 million followers on Facebook – his main social network after Twitter suspended him for claiming “Islam promotes killing people” in March.
Source: Zuckerberg must end far right’s fundraising on Facebook – Tom Watson | Technology | The Guardian
How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian
he Kochs’ chief political lieutenant, Richard Fink, developed what he called a three-stage model of social change. Universities would produce “the intellectual raw materials”. Thinktanks would transform them into “a more practical or usable form”. Then “citizen activist” groups would “press for the implementation of policy change”. To these ends the Kochs set up bodies in all three categories themselves, such as the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Cato Institute and the “citizens’ group” Americans for Prosperity. But for the most part they funded existing organisations that met their criteria. They have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a network of academic departments, thinktanks, journals and movements. And they appear to have been remarkably successful. As researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities have found, Americans for Prosperity alone now rivals the Republican party in terms of size, staffing and organisational capacity. It has pulled “the Republican party to the far right on economic, tax and regulatory issues”. It was crucial to the success of the Tea Party movement, the ousting of Democrats from Congress, and the staffing of Trump’s tra
Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian
A separate study of about 600 Twitter accounts, believed to be directly tied to the Russian government or closely aligned with its propaganda, found significant numbers had tweeted prolifically in Robinson’s defence.
Source: Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian
John Kelly interviewed by Mueller’s team and expected to quit – report | US news | The Guardian – “Building their own wall and circling the wagons for last stand”
Chief of staff answered questions related to potential obstruction of justice, CNN reported, and is not on speaking terms with Trump
Source: John Kelly interviewed by Mueller’s team and expected to quit – report | US news | The Guardian
Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him
Despite the charge and conviction, Roundtree was never disciplined by Windbigler, according to Roundtree’s personnel file. Instead, Windbigler promoted Roundtree to detective this June, less than a year after the guilty plea. The command staff neglected to inform the oversight commission of the move, even though the commission must approve such promotions, according to Jim Rieckhoff, the commission’s chairman. He says the oversight panel was notified of the promotion in a letter this week from Todd Thayer, the acting police chief. Rieckhoff also seemed unaware until told by a reporter Thursday that Roundtree had pleaded guilty.
Source: Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him
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