We begin today’s show in Syria, where Israeli F-15 bomber jets have reportedly bombed a Syrian air base used by Iranian forces. There are reports that 14 people died in the strikes, including Iranian nationals. Israel is said to have launched the raid from Lebanon’s airspace. The Israeli bombing came a day after a suspected chemical weapons attack killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 1,000 in the Syrian town of Douma, the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta. The Syrian opposition blamed the Assad government for carrying out the attacks, but Syria denied having any role. The chemical attack came one day after Syrian forces launched an air and ground assault on Douma. While international officials are still investigating what happened, President Trump took to Twitter to directly accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of playing a role. The U.N. Security Council is meeting today to discuss the crisis in Syria. Today also marks John Bolton’s first day as President Trump’s national security adviser. We get reaction from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, one of the founding editors of The Intercept. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/9/glenn_greenwald_on_syria_us_israel[with embedded video, and transcript]
Glenn Greenwald: Brazil’s Right Wing Jailed Ex-President Lula Because They Couldn’t Win at the Polls
Published on Apr 9, 2018 by Democracy Now!
In Brazil, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has begun serving a 12-year sentence for a controversial corruption conviction. After missing a 5 p.m. Friday deadline, Lula turned himself in to police on Saturday following a standoff during which he spent the night in São Paulo’s steelworkers’ union building. Lula’s supporters gathered outside, many hoping he would defy orders to surrender. On Saturday, Lula addressed thousands of his supporters and members of his Workers’ Party. Last week, the Supreme Court rejected Lula’s bid to stay out of jail while he appealed his conviction, effectively removing him from Brazil’s presidential election later this year, where he was the front-runner. Lula is a former union leader who served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. During that time, he helped lift tens of millions of Brazilians out of poverty. His supporters say the ruling against him is a continuation of the right-wing coup that ousted Lula’s ally, President Dilma Rousseff, from power in 2015. Last year, Rousseff said, “The first chapter of the coup was my impeachment. But there’s a second chapter, and that is stopping President Lula from becoming a candidate for next year’s elections.” Still with us in Rio de Janeiro is Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the founding editors of The Intercept. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/9/glenn_greenwald_brazils_right_wing_jailed[with embedded video, and transcript]
“Apartheid, Rogue, Terrorist State”: Glenn Greenwald on Israel’s Murder of Gaza Protesters, Reporter
Published on Apr 10, 2018 by Democracy Now!
On Saturday, hundreds of mourners gathered in Gaza for the funeral of Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja, who was fatally shot by the Israeli army while covering a fresh round of deadly protests along the Israel-Gaza border. Photos show the 30-year-old journalist was wearing a flak jacket clearly marked ”PRESS” at the time of the shooting. He’s one of at least nine Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli army during its brutal crackdown against Friday’s protests. The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed 31 people in total since Palestinians kicked off a 6-week-long nonviolent protest late last month, dubbed “The Great March of Return.” Both the International Criminal Court and the United Nations have rebuked Israel in recent days and warned its actions on the border could violate international human rights conventions. For more, we continue our conversation with Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the founding editors of The Intercept. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/9/apartheid_rogue_terrorist_state_glenn_greenwald[with embedded video, and transcript]
President Trump was emphatic that it was time to leave Syria and he was opposed by Joint Chiefs, CIA, Israel & Saudi Arabia. Then, on cue, reports of a gas attack against civilians in Syria. Was it gas? Who did it? Why the immediate rush to judgment like the Salisbury UK “nerve gas” attack? As that lie is exposed, Theresa May & Boris Johnson are exposed as liars but they got what they wanted. Lionel joins to look at the absurd attributions, lack of motives in the latest wave of panic about Russia. And, DHS is looking to identify and track “journalists, bloggers and all media influencers” but if you’re concerned, the DHS Press Secretary says you’re a “black helicopter conspiracy theorist”.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law?
Prosecutors have the power to flood jails and prisons, ruin lives, and deepen racial disparities with the stroke of a pen. But they also have the discretion to do the opposite. This video explores the power of prosecutors to continue to drive mass incarceration — or end it.
This video is part of a series [the four further videos, in sequence, next below], presented by the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice and Brooklyn Defender Services, shows how prosecutors can single-handedly transform the broken American criminal justice system. The videos feature Deray McKesson (activist and Black Lives Matter founder), Nina Morrison (The Innocence Project), Baratunde Thurston (Author and Comedian), Adam Foss (a former prosecutor), Scott Hechinger (Brooklyn Defender Services), John Pfaff (professor and author of Locked In), Josie Duffy-Rice (Fair Punishment Project), and Brandon Buskey (ACLU).
Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law?
The U.S.’s wealth-based incarceration system allows those with money to walk free before trial, while those who can’t make bail remain locked up. Guess who decides whether someone will have to pay bail? Believe it or not, the answer is often prosecutors. But they also have the power to recommend freedom.
Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law?
Prosecutors are the gatekeepers of the criminal legal system. They decide whether to prosecute and what to charge. Their harsh and discriminatory practices have fueled a vast expansion of incarceration as the answer to societal ills over the last several decades. This video exposes how basic charging decisions can reduce our reliance on incarceration and lead to healthier communities.
Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law?
Did you know that more than nine out of 10 cases are resolved by plea bargain? That’s in large measure because the laws, like harsh mandatory minimum sentences, have stripped judges of much of their discretion and have instead given prosecutors all the negotiating power. The result: Overwhelmingly, people plead guilty, even when innocent, out of fear of a negative outcome at trial.
Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law?
Almost all prosecutors in America are elected officials. And voters across the United States — in red and in blue states alike — strongly prefer elected prosecutors who are committed to reducing incarceration, ending racial disparities, and being fully transparent. This video explains how voters can hold prosecutors accountable because power concedes nothing without a demand.
President Donald J. Trump Presides Over the Signing of One Federal Decision Memorandum of Understanding for Major Infrastructure Projects
Issued on: April 9, 2018
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of his Cabinet, from left to right, Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow; Mick Mulvaney the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen; U.S. Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt; U.S. Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke; U. S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson; U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao; U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue; Assistant to the President Ivanka Trump ; Secretary of the U.S. Army, Mark T. Esper and Assistant Secretary of U.S. Army Ricky “R.D.” James, holds the signed One Federal Decision Memorandum of Understanding in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, April 9, 2018, in Washington, D.C., which establishes a coordinated and timely process for environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects.
Editor-in-chief Judd Legum sits down with ThinkProgress reporter Rebekah Entralgo to talk about Jared Kushner's 41-story Manhattan skyscraper, which has been an unmitigated disaster. The full mortgage for the office space, about $1.2 billion, is due in a year. Now, with Kushner ensconced as a senior adviser in the White House, a mysterious white knight has emerged to bail him and his family out of this mess.
Monday, April 9th 2018[, with Matt Bracken hosting the fourth hour]: Calm Before Storm? - The chemical attack in Syria may spark World War III, especially as experts question the motive and timing. With Trump calling to remove US troops from Syria a week ago and Assad’s army being on the verge of total victory against ISIS, why would Syria gas its newly-regained territory given the public scrutiny surrounding chemical weapons? Also, Trump’s base seeks action against social media platforms censoring alternative media.
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Liz Crokin says the elite satanic pedophiles who rule the world are trying to kill everyone off through vaccines and chemtrails so they can rape and eat children in peace. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liz-crokin-elite-satanic-pedophiles-are-trying-to-kill-us-off/
As a fringe right-wing political commentator, Ximena Barreto claimed that “African-Americans are way more racist than white people,” labeled Islam “a fucking cult” that has “no place” in the United States, pushed the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory, and attacked the “retarded” 2017 Women’s March. In December, she became a deputy communications director at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with President Emmanuel Macron of France
Issued on: April 9, 2018
President Donald J. Trump spoke today with President Emmanuel Macron of France to continue their coordination on responding to Syria’s atrocious use of chemical weapons on April 7.
Jerry Coyne, professor emeritus of evolution & ecology at the University of Chicago, is known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design. A prolific scientist and author, he has published dozens of papers elucidating the theory of evolution, notably as they involve the fruit fly, Drosophila. His bestselling book, "Why Evolution Is True [ https://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/0143116649 ]," is considered by many to be the most concise and convincing explanation of the scientific theory of evolution. Coyne is an outspoken atheist, holding that religion and science are fundamentally incompatible. In 2013, Coyne worked with FFRF to stop a Ball State University professor from teaching creationism.
Coyne regularly writes for popular periodicals, including The New Republic. His blog, Why Evolution Is True [ https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/ ], is frequently updated with posts on science, daily life and freethought issues. In 2011, FFRF awarded Jerry Coyne the Emperor Has No Clothes Sward for his plain-speaking on religion.
Jerry Coyne explains 'Why Evolution is True' (also the title of his excellent new book) at the Atheist Alliance International 2009 conference, sponsored by The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
U.N. Security Council Meeting on Syria The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria which killed more than 40 people and injured hundreds more. Members were briefed by the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria and officials from the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Russia’s hands are “covered in the blood of Syrian children.” In addition, she said the U.S. will respond to the attacks and urged for unrestricted humanitarian access in Syria. The Russian and Syrian Ambassadors to the U.N. also delivered remarks criticizing the actions of the U.S. along with the U.K. and France.
In Emergency Meeting, Security Council Speakers Voice Grave Concern over Alleged Chemical Weapons Use in Syria, as Versions of Recent Attacks Sharply Differ Syria’s Representative Says Meeting Convened on False Pretences, Offers to Facilitate Visit by World Verification Body in Refuting Claims of Involvement 9 April 2018 https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sc13284.doc.htm
Light is flooding into the Arctic. There will be winners and losers.
That’s what brought an international group of scientists to the Barents Sea to investigate how plant and animal life will adapt to the new normal.
Two key factors that govern the arctic ecosystem are rapidly changing: ice and light. The Arctic is the fastest warming place on earth, and ice that used to form on the surface of the ocean is vanishing. That’s threatening species large and small that rely on it, but it’s also created an opportunity. Less ice means more light reaches the underwater ecosystem, benefiting the algae that anchors it as well as apex predators like whales and seals.
This video is part 1 of a three-part series on the changing Arctic.
Thanks to the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting for supporting Thaw. Subscribe and stay tuned for more.
As Israel Bombs Syria and Mark Zuckerberg is taken to task for privacy violations, the world slips farther form the grasp of Globalist control. Nationalist stirrings in Europe and the collapse of liberal strongholds all over the world is proof that the New World Order will not stand against the strength of the stirring giant of humanity. Join Harrison Smith, Tyler Nixon and Jake Lloyd in the War Room as they break down the latest moves in the new renaissance.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Meeting with Defense and Military Leaders
Issued on: April 9, 2018
President Donald J. Trump met today with the top defense and military leaders of the United States to review progress in protecting America and our interests. The President reiterated his commitment to rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces, including through the budget agreement he made with the Congress that delivers more than $1.4 trillion in defense spending over the next two years. This budget supports efforts to recover readiness, grow the force, buy more modern equipment, and give our troops a much deserved pay raise. The President commended the work done on developing and implementing new strategies that will further advance our military’s strength and national security. The President also lauded the leaders for their work at home, in conflict zones, and against our Nation’s toughest security challenges. Finally, President Trump highlighted the tremendous sacrifices made by our soldiers, sailors, airman, Marines, National Guardsmen, and Coast Guardsmen around the world each and every day.
Sen. Torriccelli: FBI have evidence of 'some kind of obstruction'
The Beat with Ari Melber 4/9/18
Former New Jersey Senator Bob Torricelli tells Ari Melber the FBI raid on Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen’s office and hotel suggest evidence of “some kind of obstruction of the process”. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig reports Cohen is under investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.
Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer: ‘I feel sorry’ for Trump ‘scapegoat’ Cohen
The Beat with Ari Melber 4/9/18
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti responds exclusively to Ari Melber, after Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room are raided by the FBI. Avenatti says part of him “feels sorry” for Michael Cohen and it would be “legal malpractice” to allow Cohen to “testify and not take the 5th amendment”.
Fmr. Federal Prosecutor: Trump 'unhinged' by Michael Cohen raid
The Beat with Ari Melber 4/9/18
Former Federal Prosecutor Paul Butler tells Ari Melber Trump appears “unhinged” in his response to the FBI raid of Michael Cohen’s office and hotel, as Trump blasts the act as a “disgrace” and an “attack on our country”. Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin and Council on Foreign Relations fellow Max Boot join The Beat.
Justin Wayne is a “seduction artist” — a particular kind of dating coach who promises to teach men how to convince reluctant women, usually strangers in a public place, to sleep with them. Wayne’s advice isn’t particularly unique. But the way he proves it works is.
On YouTube, he posts “infield” videos, hidden camera footage of women he claims to have met on the street and seduced almost instantly. These videos often include footage of Wayne having sex with these women, whose eyes he’s concealed with tiny black bars, suggesting that they did not know they were being filmed.
His videos have earned millions of views, and he has 127,000 YouTube subscribers. But Wayne's channel just shows how little YouTube does to police its content — particularly the host of explicit videos. And Wayne crosses ethical, and possibly legal, lines in these videos teaching men how to manipulate women into sex, even if they say no.
VICE News caught up with Wayne at one of his bootcamps in Miami Beach, and discovered that he also bribes and coerces the women he claims in the videos are his girlfriends.
And Wayne claims to have five girlfriends — more proof his methods work — and that eight women have publicly revealed they have his name tattooed on their bodies. VICE News asked if the tattoos were about power. “Yeah,” Wayne said. “Show me you're more committed. You know, sacrifice.… That proves to me you're more committed, by getting my name on your body.”
The Killing Rooms Of Mosul Are Filled With Bodies And Mystery | Full Segment (HBO)
Published on Apr 9, 2018 by VICE News
MOSUL, Iraq — In March, VICE returned to Mosul for the first time since the war against ISIS was declared over eight months ago.
While life may be returning to normal in the eastern half of the city, on the other side of the river — where the fighting was most intense — the scale of rebuilding that needs to be done is monumental. It’s estimated there are still 8 million tons of conflict debris that need to be moved before reconstruction can start, equivalent to three times the size of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. About 75 percent of that rubble is in West Mosul, and it’s mixed with so much unexploded ordnance that experts say this is now one of the most contaminated spots on the planet.
In the Old City, where ISIS made its last stand, residents have slowly started to come back – a few business owners hoping to repair shops, and families who have no other option but to live in their damaged homes. Some water tanks have been trucked in, and electricity cables have been temporarily patched together along some streets, but the place feels deserted, and in some ways the scene was not that different from how it looked shortly after the fighting.
'You certainly have a cornered Trump': Fmr. Watergate prosecutor
All In with Chris Hayes 4/9/18
As Trump threatens his own Saturday Night Massacre after the FBI raids Michael Cohen's office, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman sees parallels to Nixon.
Senator Jeff Merkley responds to President Trump's diatribe about the FBI raid of his personal attorney as well as Trump's vow to use forceful action against Syria.
Legal woes deepen for Trump team as FBI raids Cohen work, home
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Tom Winter, NBC News investigative reporter, talks with Rachel Maddow about what is known so far about FBI raids on personal and business locations of Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen.
Seized material from Trump attorney suggests broad investigation
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Tom Hamburger, investigative reporter for The Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about what the range of material taken from Trump attorney Michael Cohen's home, hotel, and office suggest about the scope of the investigation.
Limits of Mueller's mandate seen in hand-off to SDNY prosecutors
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Rachel Maddow looks back at congressional testimony by FBI Deputy Director Rod Rosenstein about what happens if Robert Mueller uncovers crimes in the course of his investigation that are not within the scope of his mandate.
Use of search warrant sends message on Michael Cohen probe
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about the legal particulars of the FBI raid on Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen and what it means that a warrant was used instead of a less obtrusive means of gathering evidence.
Trump breaks new ground with rant against Mueller, Sessions
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about historical parallels to Donald Trump's rants against the Department of Justice and the prosecutors investigating him.
Letter reportedly exposes Pruitt lie; travel to be examined
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/9/18
Rachel Maddow relays a new report in The Atlantic that an internal EPA letter suggests that Scott Pruitt, contrary to his previous claims, was aware of the giant pay raise given to his aide, and the EPA IG will take a look at Pruitt's travel.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer reacts to Michael Cohen FBI raid
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 4/9/18
Michael Avenatti thinks Michael Cohen will take the 5th Amendment over his payment to Stormy Daniels and says the FBI raid would not have happened if Stormy Daniels had not come forward. Jill Wine-Banks and Ari Melber also join Lawrence O'Donnell.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer Avenatti has a theory about that FBI raid
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 4/9/18
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is reportedly under investigation for bank fraud and Stormy Daniels' lawyer speculates it could be tied to the loan Cohen took out to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000. Tim O'Brien and Ari Melber join Lawrence O'Donnell.
Trump: FBI raid on atty. Michael Cohen 'an attack on our country'
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 4/10/18
During a meeting set to be about the reports of chemical weapons attacks in Syria and how the U.S. might respond, Trump took time to blast the FBI's raid on his personal attorney Michael Cohen. Our expert panel reacts.
'Disturbing & unhinged': Trump blasts FBI raid in Syria meeting
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 4/10/18
Steve Schmidt, a veteran Republican strategist had some choice words after Trump attacked the FBI's raid on his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Schmidt joins to react.
FBI veteran: Trump attacks on DOJ & FBI are 'an American tragedy'
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 4/10/18
After the FBI raided the office & home of Trump's personal lawyer, the president called it a 'disgrace' and 'an attack on our country.' FBI veteran Frank Montoya, Jr. reacts to Trump's attacks on the DOJ & FBI.
Hari Kondabolu - Exposing "The Problem with Apu" | The Daily Show
Published on Apr 9, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
In Hari Kondabolu's documentary "The Problem with Apu," the comedian explains how a show as beloved as "The Simpsons'" still retains a racial blind spot after 30 years.
Niccole Thurman investigates the demonic drag queens who are infiltrating bookstores across America to recite manifestos of inclusion and diversity to unsuspecting kids.
Two Trump speeches, two dozen dubious claims President Trump made a host of dubious claims during two recent public appearances, jumping from taxes to trade, from Iraqi oil to Canadian immigration laws, from promoting voter-fraud conspiracy theories to suggesting a California mayor should be charged with obstruction of justice.
We counted 24 false or misleading statements in Trump’s infrastructure speech in Ohio on March 29 and his roundtable on taxes in West Virginia on Thursday. This is not an exhaustive list, however, and some of Trump’s claims include multiple inaccuracies.
The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake For at least a year, the biggest page on Facebook purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam with ties to a middle-aged white man in Australia, a review of the page and associated accounts and websites conducted by CNN shows. http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/09/technology/fake-black-lives-matter-facebook-page/index.html
An Internal Email Contradicts Scott Pruitt's Account of Controversial Raises The EPA administrator has said he “didn’t know” about unusual salary bumps given to a pair of trusted aides, but a message from one of those staffers claims otherwise. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/pruitt-epa-raises/557561/
The $66 billion Bayer-Monsanto merger just got a major green light — but farmers are terrified Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and chemical company, has won approval in the US to buy agricultural giant Monsanto. But farmers are worried about what the consolidation might mean for prices and their future business. Whereas Bayer and Monsanto claim the move will spur innovation, other analysts have expressed skepticism. http://www.businessinsider.com/bayer-monsanto-merger-has-farmers-worried-2018-4
Chinese investment in the US falls sharply in 2017 Chinese investment in the US plunged last year as tensions between the two countries mounted. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43706310
Warning of ‘repercussions,’ Trump company lawyers seek Panama president’s help PANAMA CITY - Lawyers representing President Trump’s company last month wrote directly to the president of Panama, asking him to intervene in a legal fight over the Trump International Hotel in the capital — and warning that the case could have “repercussions” for Panama’s reputation. The law firm, Panama-based Britton and Iglesias, wrote in Spanish to President Juan Carlos Varela on March 22 to “urgently request your influence in relation to a commercial dispute regarding the Trump hotel.” At the time, the majority owner of the Trump hotel — Cypriot-born investor Orestes Fintiklis — had kicked out the Trump Organization as the hotel’s manager, after a ruling from a low-level Panamanian judge. The president’s company was seeking to retake control. The request was extraordinary: The U.S. president’s company was asking the leader of a U.S. ally to intercede on its behalf, disregarding Panama’s separation of powers. It is the first known instance of the Trump Organization asking directly for a foreign leader’s help with a business dispute since Trump was elected. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/warning-of-repercussions-trump-company-lawyers-seek-panama-presidents-help/2018/04/09/9e3fbb8e-3c2f-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html
Why America’s return to $1 trillion deficits is a big problem for you The federal government is on track to have a $1 trillion deficit in 2020 — and to continue running yawning deficits for years to come, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted Monday. It’s a report that should make Americans concerned, especially younger ones. On a basic level, this means the U.S. government is spending way more money than it brings in. This is not a new problem. The United States has been running a deficit every year since 2002, but the situation is about to get really ugly. The country has never run this high of a deficit during good economic times. If spending keeps up at this pace (and there is every indication that it will), President Trump and his successors are going to have less flexibility to pump up the economy during a downturn or even a crisis. “This is unprecedented,” said Justin Bogie, senior policy analyst on fiscal affairs at the conservative Heritage Foundation. It doesn’t mean the economy or stock market will crash tomorrow. The United States is able to run such high deficits because the U.S. Treasury turns around and sells U.S. debt to investors around the world. Right now, a lot of people want to buy U.S. government bonds, even though America already has $15 trillion in debt owned by the public. But the problem is no one knows when people might say enough is enough and stop buying U.S. debt — or demand much higher rates of return. Even if the nightmare scenario doesn’t materialize, deficits are a drag on the economy. Investors opt to buy government debt instead of making the type of private investments that create jobs or raise wages, economists warn. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/09/why-americas-return-to-1-trillion-deficits-is-a-big-problem-for-you/
Sinclair commentator resigns after vulgar tweet about Parkland survivor David Hogg A conservative commentator at a Sinclair Broadcast Group television station has resigned after a statement he made threatening to sexually assault Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg drew harsh criticism and sparked the beginnings of an advertiser boycott. Jamie Allman, who hosted a nightly news show the Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate in St. Louis, wrote on Twitter that he was “hanging out getting ready” to sexually assault Hogg with “a hot poker.” “Busy working. Preparing,” read the March 26 tweet, which is too vulgar to reprint here in full. An image of it was published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [ http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/jamie-allman-lands-in-hot-water-with-tweet-about-hot/article_3b1fe951-d154-5d4f-a0f2-c37ea771d2af.html ] as the remark began to draw more scrutiny in recent days. Spurred on by activists who took to social media to highlight the commentator’s remarks, advertisers including Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, the St. Louis health center Palm Health and local real estate office the Gellman Team, announced they would stop advertising on Allman’s TV program. By Monday night, Allman was gone from the Sinclair station, KDNL. “We have accepted Mr. Allman’s resignation, and his show has been canceled,” Ronn Torossian, a PR executive who is acting as a Sinclair spokesman, said in response to questions sent to the media company by The Washington Post. On Tuesday morning, Allman was absent from “Allman in the Morning,” his daily show on the conservative FM news-talk radio station KFTK. “Jamie’s taking a couple of days off,” a substitute host said, without further explanation, shortly after 6 a.m. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/04/09/sinclair-commentator-resigns-after-threatening-to-sexually-assault-parkland-survivor-david-hogg/
Syria 'chemical attack': Trump pledges 'forceful' US response US President Donald Trump has promised a "forceful" response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria, as Western leaders consider what action to take. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43707023
'I'm A Holocaust Survivor—Trump's America Feels Like Germany Before Nazis Took Over' Stephen B. Jacobs has a warning from the past for America today: It’s happening again. At 79 years old he is among the youngest of the living Holocaust survivors and was born six years after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. But Jacobs can remember life in the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald; what the Nazis did to him, his family, his friends. He worries about what’s happening right now in America, where he has lived and prospered since arriving a couple of years after Buchenwald’s liberation on April 11, 1945. The American far-right appears emboldened since the election of President Donald Trump, who led an inflammatory, nationalist campaign. Since then, clashes like the one in Charlottesville are becoming almost commonplace. “Things just go from bad to worse every day,” Jacobs, a successful New York architect who designed the Holocaust memorial at Buchenwald, tells Newsweek. “There’s a real problem growing.” So much so that Jacobs thinks there’s a “direct parallel” with Germany between the two world wars. Perhaps more alarming than the far-right getting braver is the seep into mainstream politics of their hate, their talking points, their rhetoric. “It feels like 1929 or 1930 Berlin,” Jacobs speculated, ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018 on Thursday. “Things that couldn’t be said five years ago, four years ago, three years ago—couldn’t be said in public—are now normal discourse. It’s totally unacceptable. “We thought our country had changed. In fact, it didn’t. We were operating on a misconception. ‘My god, we elected a black president in the United States! Look how far we’ve come!’ We haven’t.” In Trump, Jacobs says, the far-right sees an “enabler.” “I’m involved with New York real estate, I know this man personally,” says Jacobs, whose eponymous architecture firm celebrated its 50th birthday in 2017. “Trump is an enabler. Trump has no ideas. Trump is out for himself. “He’s a sick, very disturbed individual. I couldn’t say that Trump is a fascist because you’ve got to know what fascism is. And I don’t think he has the mental power to even understand it.” Jacobs calls New York, where he lives, an “island of resistance.” But he says Washington will soon realize too that “fascism has to be resisted.” “Fascism could have been won in Spain. It could’ve been stopped. But appeasement of fascism is what led to everything,” Jacobs warns. This is a man who lived what happens when fascism isn’t stopped before it metastasizes. He was born in Lódz, Poland, in 1939. His father, a physician, moved the family to Piotrków, near Warsaw, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland in September of that year. Piotrków, where many Jewish refugees in Poland fled, would become the Nazis’ first ghetto. Liquidated in 1942, a labor camp was established with two factories, where the family lived until their brutal separation in 1944. The women—his mother, three aunts and grandmother—were taken to a camp at Ravensbrück. The men—him, his older brother and his father—to Buchenwald. “In my case, you didn’t eat in Buchenwald unless you worked. So I was given an identity card that said I was 16 years old,” Jacobs says. “I was five.” He worked in a shoe factory, which also got him out of roll call every day. Working made you useful to the Nazis. Those not able to work, including young children like Jacobs, were sent to their deaths. He was told to keep his hat low and bang on a shoe if a Nazi ever entered the workshop. And, if asked his age, to lie. Before liberation, as the Allies closed in, the situation got especially dangerous because the Nazis rushed to liquidate the camp. One memory haunted Jacobs. His father, trying to keep him safe, entrusted him and another young boy in his care to a gentile in the camp. “That guy got scared and he abandoned us,” Jacobs says. “He put us in a barrack that had already been emptied. In other words, the people had already been deported. “And we spent that night in this barrack and I will never forget that. I had nightmares about that for many, many years growing up. “Somehow, in the morning, my father found us—I don’t know how he made the connection—and he took us and hid us in the TB ward in the hospital.” Jacobs’ father was an orderly at the camp hospital. Nazis and German doctors didn’t enter the tuberculosis ward fearing infection, which made it a good, if risky, hiding place. For years he wondered how his father managed to keep both him and his brother George alive. Then he realized: His father had help. Help from the camp’s active underground resistance. Buchenwald was founded before the war in 1937 to intern political prisoners such as communists. Inevitably, the communist prisoners got organized. They protected each other, arranged counterfeit paperwork, hid children from the camp guards. Some even held administrative posts in the camp. They ran the day to day. “The underground decided that they couldn’t save everybody but they would save the children,” Jacobs says, crediting the resistance with saving more than 1,100 children. Jacobs recalls, faintly, the underground’s armed uprising against camp guards, a prelude to liberation by the U.S. Third Army. “I have memories of when we were in the TB ward that they were shooting outside and we put mattresses against the windows, and they told us to get under the beds,” he says. “We saw people running around with weapons and red armbands.” There’s a picture of liberation where Rabbi Schacter of the U.S. Third Army is giving a religious service to Jewish camp survivors. A young Jacobs is in the foreground along with his older brother, George. It’s hanging at the Buchenwald museum. It wasn’t until after liberation that Jacobs found out what happened to the rest of his family. While in Ravensbrück, one of his aunts’ names appeared on a transportation list. She was going to be sent to Bergen-Belsen. His grandmother made the decision: If one has to go, we all go. So all the women ended up in Bergen-Belsen “which is about as bad as it could get,” Jacobs says. “They exchanged lists of survivors between the camps,” he says, speaking of the early days after liberation. “And I remember we were given a room in SS barracks that were outside the barbed wire enclosure of the camp. I remember sitting in that room with my father, and my brother running in very excited because he found my mother’s name on a survivors' list.” Somehow, the Jacobs family survived the three camps: Buchenwald, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen. Even his grandmother survived to witness liberation by the British, though she died a short time later. Another incredible moment came after liberation. Before Buchenwald, in Piotrków, Jacobs’ father bribed an SS physician at the hospital in which he worked to help his family. At the war’s end, that same SS doctor was captured by the Russians and put on trial, facing execution. “But my father gave an affidavit that saved his life,” Jacobs says. “I don’t know why. Even under those circumstances, he saved his life.” The two men wrote to each other until the former SS doctor died though none of the correspondence survives. “One of the things that I really regret is my parents died in the early 1980s, and at that time, we didn’t speak about this. It wasn’t something that you talked about,” Jacobs says. “They wanted to rebuild their lives and they didn’t want to focus on this. “Unfortunately my brother, who was older, doesn’t remember a thing. I believe that his experience was much worse than mine because I never had a pre-war conscience. I didn’t have any other framework. But he had a pre-war life. “I really believe that he suffered some very severe trauma and he doesn’t remember. He just doesn’t want to remember.” Jacobs returned to the camp at Buchenwald in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of liberation and the opening of a new museum. He says the camp had become a kind of “cathedral” for German communists because of the underground resistance. A narrative of self-liberation by the underground was fomented during the GDR years. But this was now the early days of German reunification. And Jacobs says he found himself caught in the middle of a German propaganda war. The new museum pointedly referred to the camp’s liberation by the U.S. Third Army, showing footage of prisoners praising in English the Americans. It replaced the old exhibition that focused heavily on the story of communists in the camp. “One side’s just as bad as the other, they’re both denying history,” Jacobs thought as he realized what was going on around him. The truth, he believes, lies somewhere in middle. The camp was undoubtedly liberated by the U.S. Third Army. But there was also an uprising at the same time, contributing to liberation efforts, and it’s down to the communist-run underground that so many people survived Buchenwald. By the time the Americans turned up, 21,000 inmates were still alive at the camp, though around 240,000 people had passed through its gates between 1937 and 1945. Prisoners were starved, diseased. Beaten to death by guards. Experimented on by twisted Nazi doctors. Including liquidation transports, where prisoners were sent to be murdered elsewhere, there were around 54,000 deaths at Buchenwald. In the years after liberation, Buchenwald was used as a prison camp by the Soviet Union to detain Nazis. Jacobs was told he is the only Holocaust survivor to design a memorial. He was asked in the late 1990s to come up with the Buchenwald Holocaust memorial by the U.S. Commission For The Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. The memorial, in the “Little Camp” area of Buchenwald, where Jews were mostly confined, was finished in 2002. Jacobs refused to take money for the work. “To me it was, in a way, an opportunity to bring this stuff to a closure,” Jacobs says. Thinking about his memorial design, Jacobs didn’t want to go for the heroic Soviet style or anything as abstract as Peter Eisenman's monument in Berlin. “All the barracks were demolished and only the foundations are visible. As you walk through the camp, there’s no place to sit down,” Jacobs says. “We wanted to create a place for quiet contemplation, where you could put your thoughts together. And the realization that we were doing this for future generations of German school kids. So we made sure the space was big enough to fit one bus.” They excavated down in the ruins of a barrack to create a separate space for reflection. Jacobs used stone as a primary material, symbolic of the camp’s quarry where many prisoners were worked to death. Stone seats allow visitors to sit and take in what happened around them, prompted by plaques. The design also features two large triangles on the floor. “The triangle is an important symbol here,” Jacobs says. “The triangle is the patch people wore. Every prisoner had some kind of triangle.” A yellow triangle for Jews. Red for communists. Pink for homosexuals. Jacobs also wanted to create a subliminal Star of David. “Some kids over the years have picked this up,” he says. Memorials are intended to not only honor those who died yesterday, but to warn what tomorrow brings if lessons from the past are forgotten. And it's today's generation, facing an ascendant far-right, who need to remember. “I’ve gotten phone calls sometimes late at night from German teenagers who were there and they felt they had to speak to me. They wanted to know why did I do this, why did I do that," Jacobs says. “These are Germans. They’re not Jewish teenagers. There is a sense of gratification that, in a way, this thing works." http://www.newsweek.com/im-holocaust-survivor-trumps-america-feels-germany-nazis-took-over-876965
Viktor Orban victory in Hungary: German minister warns EU A key German minister says the EU must drop its "arrogance and condescension" towards Hungary, where Eurosceptic PM Viktor Orban has just won re-election. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43697596
Hungary’s slide into autocracy to continue after Orbán's victory Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party winning supermajority again in Hungary’s election forebodes further erosion of independent institutions, warned Phoenix Kalen, a London-based analyst at Societe Generale in a research note on Monday, but she also noted that the course has already been determined at the onset of this decade. She expects markets to be left unfazed by the election results. http://www.portfolio.hu/en/economy/hungarys-slide-into-autocracy-to-continue-after-orbans-victory.35936.html
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