"Information" in the Time of Trump

"Information" in the time of Trump--to support decision-making and to transparently evaluate those decisions--not freely available, not fact-based, not inviolable...

Climate Data Preservation Efforts Mount as Trump Takes Office
Universities host hackathons to save environmental information amid fears the Trump administration will scrub data that undercuts its views.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603402/climate-data-preservation-efforts-moun...

EPA, Agriculture, Health & Human Services gagged:
http://fortune.com/2017/01/24/trump-gag-order/

‘1984’ Is Back on the Best Seller List After Kellyanne Conway’s ‘Alternative Facts’ Comment
http://fortune.com/2017/01/24/1984-george-orwell-best-seller-list/

Trump’s disregard for the truth threatens his ability to govern
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-disregard-for-the-truth-threatens...

As in Canada, relief for gagged government scientists came only with election loss (PM Steven Harper).
Journalists, politicians, citizens must continue to challenge "alternative facts."
Academics, civil servants, politicians should squirrel away copies of data and reports--like the days of book-burning...

Are there other things we can do?

ETA: Sounds like Depts of Commerce and Interior also have restrictions on communications.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/315989-trump-clamps-down-on-federal-a... .

A bit of resistance from Badlands National Park, which dared tweet on climate change.
http://www.geekwire.com/2017/badlands-bad-ass-national-park-climate-tweets/ .

ETA: We can't forget that in December, the transition team requested list of Dept Energy employees who attended climate conferences, etc.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/505041927/trump-transition-ask...

House Republicans revive obscure rule that allows them to slash the pay of individual federal workers to $1

House Republicans this week reinstated an arcane procedural rule that enables lawmakers to reach deep into the budget and slash the pay of an individual federal worker — down to $1 — a move that threatens to upend the 130-year-old civil service.

The Holman Rule, named after an Indiana congressman who devised it in 1876, empowers any member of Congress to propose amending an appropriations bill to single out a government employee or cut a specific program.

The use of the rule would not be simple; a majority of the House and the Senate would still have to approve any such amendment. At the same time, opponents and supporters agree that the work of 2.1 million civil servants, designed to be insulated from politics, is now vulnerable to the whims of elected officials...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/house-republicans-revive-...

EPA Scientists' Work May Face 'Case By Case' Review By Trump Team, Official Says

...Any review would directly contradict the agency's current scientific integrity policy, which was published in 2012. It prohibits "all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions."

It also would likely have a chilling effect on the agency's ability to conduct research on the environmental issues it is charged with regulating...

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/25/511572169/epa-scientists-work-...

The On The Media episode "The Game Has Changed" has several interesting stories about how the press can deal with the new information-fluid environment of Trump. One is on the kinds and purposes of his tweets, another on why fact checking may not be the most fruitful strategy, and another is a similarity to a Russian political strategy called "managed democracy". You listen to the episode at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/otm.

That's one small step for Trump, one giant leap for samizdat.

https://twitter.com/RogueNASA
https://twitter.com/altnatparkser
https://twitter.com/badhombrenps
https://twitter.com/AltUSDA

http://www.scientistsmarchonwashington.com/
---------

I still sorely miss Robert McChesney's "Media Matters" on NPR, but it looks like McChesney did an interview for KPFA last week. https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-january-19-2017/ -- Starts at 43:30.
ETA:
With video here:
http://www.risingupwithsonali.com/trump-presidency-spurs-introspection-over-role...

I hope this becomes a regular feature.

Federal workers' Twitter brushfire burns Trump
Trump has yet to tweet a response to all the needling. But his team may be realizing months too late that it’s up against a foe it didn’t reckon with.

...This Twitter rebellion, apparently centered at the National Park Service, is winning cheers from liberal activists who seize on every 140-character outburst for signs of anti-Trump resistance. It’s also forcing Trump’s agencies to mount a whack-a-mole response, as they delete tweets about climate change and order employees to stay quiet online, each time stirring up headlines alleging an information lockdown.

The Twitter brushfire showed no signs of slowing Wednesday...

Also getting into the act were non-government-sponsored Twitter feeds purporting to come from “unofficial resistance teams” at the park service, the EPA and NASA.

“Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS,” the “alternative” park service account tweeted Tuesday night. “You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!”...

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/federal-workers-twitter-brushfire-burns-tr...

ETA:
@AltNatParkService
@RogueNASA
@ungaggedEPA
@BadHombreNPS
U.S. environmental employees were soon joined by similar "alternative" Twitter accounts originating from various science and health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Weather Service. Many of their messages carried Twitter hashtags #resist or #resistance.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-resist-idUSKBN15A0DI

@AltNASA
@AltUSFWS
@AltUSForestService
@AltHHS
@altNOAA

>5 davidgn: and 6 YAY!

At least the "alternative facts" President is driving up sales of 1984.

>6 margd: one has to wonder about the state of affairs this coming summer. Forest firefighters are seasonal employees - keep that freeze on long enough and the western part of the US will be divided into two sections - smoking and non-smoking.

>9 alco261: Veterans' health care also stands to be harmed by hiring freeze.

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/25/511469982/hiring-freeze-and-obamacare-repeal-could...

>10 sturlington: yes, I know. I'm fortunate in that I made it through my service and returned safe home but I know others who did not and the thought of a diminished or starved-to-make-it-look-bad and then turn the VA over to private operators has them really worried.

Looking Back at Canada's Political Fight Over Science
The country’s last prime minister prevented some scientists from talking to the media, while making cuts to research budgets.

Excerpts from interview with Chris Turner, author of The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Wilful Blindness in Stephen Harper’s Canada:

“Once you’ve established that talking is trouble, people will actually begin to silence themselves, which is in some ways the creepiest part of it.”

...If we can look past what’s happening with Trump, the long-term damage will be that distrust and that erosion of a sense of value in public institutions...

Canadian universities and Canadian research labs absolutely lost good people because they didn’t want to work there anymore and they were good enough to go off to England and the U.S. Now, anecdotally, you’re already hearing stories of students wanting to not apply to American schools.

For many years the big thing in Canada was the so-called ‘brain drain.’ A lot of Canada’s best people go to the U.S. because the research budgets are bigger. It’s kind of the research scientist equivalent of Canadian stars going to Hollywood. I will be surprised if there isn’t a certain reluctance—not just Canadians, but people all around the world—about living in the U.S. right now.

NASA’s climate research is one of the best in the world. The best people coming out with climate-science degrees, is that going to be their top dream job in Donald Trump’s administration? Will they then be more open to the idea of doing the same kind of work in Canada under a government that is really active on climate? Probably.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/canada-war-on-science/514322...

Information flow is a two-way street.

Trump’s fascist regime has shut down the 202-456-1111 White House Comments Line to further stifle dissent. But not to worry! Bernie’s campaign digital team has created a work around.

Does Trump’s active control of his hotels, resorts and golf courses create an unethical and potentially catastrophic opportunity for abuse of power? Probably…okay, definitely.
But ol’ Trump has a method to his madness. By not divesting himself from his businesses, he’s actually creating satellite White Houses all over the world. That means we have dozens of phone numbers we can use to reach the president and discuss the issues that matter most.

...

On the site, callers fill out a form with their email and phone number and then receive a call that connects them to one of Trump's properties — from all over the world and totally randomly. The website is aware that you will probably be connected to a hotel or golf course, but they suggest you "tell management that until Trump steps away from his businesses for real, their property is no different from the Oval Office and you want to talk about the issues that matter most."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/26/1625364/-Trump-Disconnected-WH-Line-so-B...

Sounds like a time.

> 13 :-)

(Rep) Cummings (D): Trump's 'gag orders' on federal workers likely illegal
He asks White House counsel to cease "apparent violations."

In a letter to White House counsel Donald McGahn, Cummings cites a Jan. 20 memo sent by acting Health and Human Services Secretary Norris Cochran that says there should be "no correspondence to public officials (e.g. Members of Congress, Governors) ... containing interpretations or statements of Department regulations or policy" unless they are approved by the department.

Cummings' letter asks the Trump administration to "take immediate action to remedy the Trump administration’s apparent violations of multiple federal laws by imposing gag orders on federal employees that prevent them from communicating with Congress."

Cummings argues the HHS memo, and possibly memos sent by other agencies, appear to violate several laws, including the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The whistleblower law, Cummings said, requires the inclusion of a "mandatory statement that employee communications with Congress and Inspectors General are protected" in "any nondisclosure policy, form, or agreement."...

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/elijah-cummings-trump-agencies-law-234222

Still up as of now, EPA page on climate, which Trump reportedly asked it to take down:
https://www.epa.gov/climatechange

Trump pressured Park Service to find proof for his claims about inauguration crowd

On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that the photos might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

Trump also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agency’s account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009...

Reynolds was taken aback by Trump’s request, but he did secure some additional aerial photographs and forwarded them to the White House through normal channels in the Interior Department, the people who notified The Post said. The photos, however, did not prove Trump’s contention that the crowd size was upward of 1 million...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pressured-park-service-to-back-up-...

Felony Charges for Journalists Arrested at Inauguration Protests Raise Fears for Press Freedom

At least six journalists were charged with felony rioting after they were arrested while covering the violent protests that took place just blocks from President Trump’s inauguration parade in Washington on Friday, according to police reports and court documents.

The journalists were among 230 people detained in the anti-Trump demonstrations, during which protesters smashed the glass of commercial buildings and lit a limousine on fire.

The charges against the journalists — Evan Engel, Alexander Rubinstein, Jack Keller, Matthew Hopard, Shay Horse and Aaron Cantu — have been denounced by organizations dedicated to press freedom. All of those arrested have denied participating in the violence.

“These felony charges are bizarre and essentially unheard of when it comes to journalists here in America who were simply doing their job,” said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of Pen America. “They weren’t even in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were in the right place.”...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/business/media/journalists-arrested-trump-ina...

>17 margd: Same happened under Obama. Ask some of the reporters at Standing Rock, for recent examples, but this sort of in has gone on for years. Now, the question becomes whether these charges will dropped or sharply reduced, as previously tended to be the case.

At least now these journos have a bigger support base -- particularly in this instance...

>18 davidgn: I can see journalists being caught up in a mass arrest, but surely released once they've established credentials, not charged with felony. Unnecessary work for our over-worked jails and courts, as they will surely be declared innocent of rioting? Chill on some reporting? (Nah! A badge of honor, methinks.)

Meanwhile...

Days Before a Deadline, Trump Team Cancels Ads for Obama Health Plan
(most effect expected on younger people who might enroll if only reminded)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/us/politics/donald-trump-obamacare-ads.html?_...

Also, Al Gore and others are attempting to hold a climate & health conference in place of the one that CDC cancelled:
...former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the American Public Health Association (APHA), The Climate Reality Project, Harvard Global Health Institute, the University of Washington Center for Health and the Global Environment and Dr. Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, will host a Climate & Health Meeting that will take place on February 16, 2017 at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Supported by the Turner Foundation and other organizations, the one-day event will fill the gap left by the recently-canceled Climate & Health Summit originally to be hosted and sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others...
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/health

We may see more science-trained candidates in future elections.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/thanks-to-trump-scientists-a...

Check out http://alternativefacts.com/

Trump acknowledges climate change — at his golf course
The billionaire, who called global warming a hoax, warns of its dire effects in his company's application to build a sea wall.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-climate-change-golf-course-22...

>21 sturlington: This website is temporarily unavailable, please try again later.

>23 jjwilson61: Bet it got flooded. Anyway, it was a redirect to a Psychology Today article on gaslighting.

It seems the comments made it.

14 Senate Democrats approve Mr. Torture Pompeo to be head of the CIA--including the leader of the Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Clinton VP pick Tim Kaine. Crazy. Senate republicans held up Obama Supreme Court pick for more than a year--Senate Democrats knuckle under without any real resistance. I wonder how many of them will vote yes to Trump's Supreme Court choice.

Marty Walsh once again makes me proud to be from Boston, and even prouder to be from Dorchester.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sanctuary-cities-vow-resist-trump-order-desp...

Marty's got some information:

We will not be intimidated by the threat to federal funding. We have each other's backs and we have the Constitution of the United States of America on our side. I want to say directly to anyone who feels threatened today or vulnerable, you are safe in Boston. We will do everything lawful in our power to protect you. If necessary, we`ll use city hall itself to shelter and protect anyone who's targeted unjustly.

Interview with Cdn biologist Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy, on Cdn experience under PM Steven Harper and US scientists under President Trump:

...This week, her group has been slammed with calls from U.S. scientists looking for help....There's the march being organized. There's an initiative underway called the 314 Action that's urging scientists to start running for office at different levels of government. Just before I came here, I saw an initiative started by some academic scientists who are putting out a letter of support for their government colleagues. They've also created a website where government scientists can send data and information that might be censored and they'll facilitate getting that information out to the public.

...They're afraid of actually losing data. We did see that happen here under the Harper government. There were actual dumpsters full of books and data sets. Once you lose that kind of information, you might never get it back. This is research that is paid for by taxpayer dollars. The public has a right to be informed about it.

...one really practical thing we saw happen in Canada under the Harper years was government scientists taking their name off of publications. Often government scientists collaborate with academic researchers on publications...It's unfortunate that (govt scientists) no longer would have that as a publication for themselves, but at least the information gets out to the public.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/u-s-scientists-turn-north-for-help-making-tomatoe...

ETA: Another article on science challenges in Canada and now the US: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jan/27/canadian-scientists-lend-support... Also, I wasn't aware of this but apparently international students can apply for Cdn citizenship, with their time in school counted in part to required residence time--what a contrast to US situation at the moment: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/world/canada/international-students-canadian-...

#28--I could see that happening here. Trump and Co. look to be pretty determined to shut down the EPA and ignore whatever environmental impact in their crazy chase for oil and gas wealth. But really it's going to take a calamitous event for some people in this country to finally get this through their noggins and even then there are going to be many who deny. It's almost like some major disaster is going to have to happen once, twice, three times--maybe even more than that.

Senate democrats are pretty much confirming all of Trump's appointees so far. Of Mattis-Defense, Kelly-Homeland Security, Pompeo-CIA, Haley-UN ambassador.

Donnelly-Ind, Feinstein-Ca, Hassan-NH, Heitkamp-ND, VP nominee Kaine-Va, Klobuchar-Minn, Manchin-WVa, McCaskill-Mo, Reed-RI, Schatz-Hi, leader of the Senate Democrats Schumer-NY, Shaheen-NH, Warner-Va and Whitehouse-RI have voted to confirm every single one of the above Trump cabinet appointees so far.

No Senate democrat has voted against all four and only three--Gillibrand-NY, Heinrich-NM and Udall-NM have voted against three of the four appointees. Sanders and Warren have voted yes on two of the four and Brown and Franken two other who call themselves progressive have voted yes on 3 of the 4.

I really don't get. It's true they don't have the numbers to stop these people from being confirmed but if anything that should make it even easier to stand up and vote no. If I'm voting it's No, No, No, No and fuck No to every single one of them every single time. What's it going to be like when Trump names his Supreme Court choice?

Some pushback to EPA employees' pushback?

altEPA ‏@altUSEPA 12m12 minutes ago
@altUSEPA + Beware bait-and-switch where accts seem to start out positive to gain a momentum, then suddenly switch to alt-facts. PsyOps

Hope employees are taking extra steps to preserve their anonymity:

Twitter publishes FBI national security letters following gag order lift
The letters are from 2015 and 2016
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/28/14425122/twitter-publishes-fbi-national-securi...

FBI request for Twitter account data may have overstepped legal guidelines
...FBI has routinely used National Security Letters to seek internet records beyond the limitations set down in a 2008 Justice Department legal memo, which concluded such orders should be constrained to phone billing records...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-twitter-surveillance-idUSKBN15C00W

*headdesk*

Security Risks of the President's Android Phone
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/01/security_risks_13.html

President Trump's Insecure Android
https://www.lawfareblog.com/president-trumps-insecure-android

In NPR interview this morning with David Frum, he mentioned that Twitter restored alt-right accounts that it had deleted prior to election. I was half-asleep but I think he was saying that Twitter, like many others, might be guided by fear of blast from the Donald or attack with regulatory instruments of government.

How to Build an Autocracy
The preconditions are present in the U.S. today. Here’s the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism.
by David Frum
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/5...

Federal workers turn to encryption to thwart Trump:
Agency employees are turning to Signal and other incognito forms of communication to express their dissent.

Federal employees worried that President Donald Trump will gut their agencies are creating new email addresses, signing up for encrypted messaging apps and looking for other, protected ways to push back against the new administration’s agenda.

Whether inside the Environmental Protection Agency, within the Foreign Service, on the edges of the Labor Department or beyond, employees are using new technology as well as more old-fashioned approaches — such as private face-to-face meetings — to organize letters, talk strategy, or contact media outlets and other groups to express their dissent....

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/federal-workers-signal-app-234510

Reuters Instructs Reporters to Cover Trump Like Any Other Authoritarian
This is where we are.
http://www.alternet.org/media/reuters-instructs-reporters-cover-trump-any-other-...

Good.

Jared Kushner Is 'F*cking Furious' About Reduced Role: Report
The president's son-in-law appears to be losing the battle against Steve Bannon.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/jared-kushner-fcking-furious-about-reduced-ro...

Bad.

Thank you for posting these--it helps a lot.

>36 Marissa_Doyle: You bet. Even though this wasn't the thread I intended to post them in. :-D

The first one fits, at least.

Don't much care where you post them--I'm reading them anyway, here and other threads. :) Living where I do in deep blue MA, I've been insulated from a lot of this crap--but no one is anymore, and we need to know. So thank you.

This comes from the same outlet, and at first I was inclined to dismiss it as overinterpretation, but then I watched the video.

Steve Bannon's Ex-Partner Acts Terrified in Bizarre CNN Interview—Then Suddenly Disappears
"I don’t really know the Steve Bannon that you have today.”
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/steve-bannon-business-partner-disappears-cnn

I'm sorry, but that woman looks scared. Or at the least, exceedingly uncomfortable. The question is why, and there are several possible explanations -- some benign, some not.

I had my dad (who, as a retired INS officer, has professional training and experience in interrogation -- and yes, he's very pissed off about the present immigration situation) take a look at this one, too. The first adjective he came up with was "evasive." Then "extremely uncomfortable." Also "she's trying to make light of the situation, but doesn't really manage it."

The best we can hope for is that she never really knew him as well as she indicated in print, and regrets accepting the invitation to come on the show. The worst would be that she knows him better than she's willing to admit...

Regardless, it makes for bad television, so I'm not surprised she didn't come back.

>38 Marissa_Doyle: You're welcome. In times like this, we've got to stick together and have one another's backs. And yes, we all need to be aware, now more than ever.

>39 davidgn: Ex-Partner Acts Terrified

I wonder where goons and arsonists are coming from--the ones we saw before election and most recently at Berkeley. Effect seems to be making libs and Dems look bad and Trump supporters and workers look put-upon. A NY real estate person would have met Mafia types, and AltRight people no doubt have violent people in their number. Dem women have those pink hats.

Trump adviser cites non-existent 'massacre' defending ban
Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to President Donald Trump, cited a nonexistent massacre to justify his highly controversial immigration ban.

Speaking to Chris Matthews on MSNBC on Thursday night, Conway said:

“I bet it’s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

It also never happened...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kellyann-conway-bowling-green-massacre_us_58...

>41 margd: They are anarchists called Black Blocs. Here's a little information: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/02/what-black-bloc/9739387...

I read somewhere else thst they had been disrupting Berkeley protests for some time.

Thanks. Interesting. Anarchist Black Blocs wear black to appear anonymous to police (and media), but anyone could do so?

My perpetually cold son (adopted from warm climes) likes to wear black, neoprene balaclava on cold days. I'll forward article to him to support my concerns that he'll be mistaken for a troublemaker. Maybe a cheerier color?

http://www.policemag.com/channel/patrol/articles/2015/01/understanding-the-black...

FWIW the police these days very often use violence to quell protests. They did it during Occupy. They've done it at Ferguson. They do it at Standing Rock---just for a few examples. They act with very little provocation. They lie afterwards and they protect their own no matter the circumstances or actions. From what I saw of that video it looked like they were firing back--and probably rubber bullets which can be lethal.

In lieu of a better source on short notice:

https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/White-House-Security-Chief-Resigned/2017/02/03/...

Dunno what this is about. Wild-ass guess: did these guys try to confront Trump about >32 davidgn:?

Per Steve Clemons, "Political and Foreign Policy Commentator ~ Washington Editor at Large, The Atlantic and National Journal. Contributor, MSNBC":
https://twitter.com/SCClemons
"I have confirmed that the Chief of Information Security at White House forced to resign. Was error in tagging him as Secret Service. 1/2"
"Others - not sure how many - attached to White House security/cyber security/info security - resigned last night & escorted out of EEOB"
"It is the CISO function, at minimum, in WH that saw forced resignations last night. These folks work w/@SecretService but not of Secret Svc"

Maybe we'll be hearing from them at some point. That would be helpful.

Interesting story about the leaks here: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/trumps-enemies-within-214735

>47 sturlington:

"Asked about the State Department dissent channel memo, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters: “These career bureaucrats have a problem with it? I think they should either get with the pogrom or they can go."

I might have introduced an error in transcribing the above. Oops.

U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted—What We Stand to Lose
By hiding online records of welfare violations, U.S. agency robs journalists, investigators, and the public of timely information—and takes pressure off abusers.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/wildlife-watch-usda-animal-welfare-tr...

Zoos, factory farms, laboratories, puppy mills...

>50 margd: https://twitter.com/altusda to track that issue.

Odd Time to be Evenhanded
We don’t need no stinkin’ civility badges

https://thebaffler.com/blog/opposition-party-lehmann

One of the rarely acknowledged liabilities of a corporate-run media is its diehard resistance to plain speech and direct action. In one of my former, more respectable editing gigs, I was soberly instructed never to use the word “reform” to characterize pending legislation, because the phrase was simply too inflammatory. (Never before or since have I been so heartily sick of the word “overhaul,” that right-thinking outlet’s substitute phrasing of first resort.)

And now a fledgling administration composed mainly of antidemocratic thugs and amoral opportunists is mining the conflict-averse culture of mainstream American journalism for all its worth. Day in and day out, Donald Trump and his band of fascist clowns derides the press for its putative dishonesty, its elitism, its fatal bubble-fied out-of-touchness—in sum, its bald metaphysical wrongness. This is what White House strategist Steve Bannon, who assiduously wiped out any and all basic standards of journalist truth-telling during his tour as maximum leader of Breitbart News, was getting at when he sniped at a New York Times reporter that the press was now the White House’s “opposition party,” and should keep its collective mouth shut if it knew what was good for it.

And just the other day White House counselor and communications hand Kellyanne Conway took to the Sunday political talk-circuit to call for the mass firing of political reporters who “talk smack” about Trump and company—a complaint that turned out to be mainly a rebuke to the national media for failing to call the 2016 presidential election properly. This was just one small item in what one takes to be an endless litany of Oval Office-sanctioned exercises in phony media-perpetrated victimology. Perhaps next week Conway will demand reporters’ heads for their bad Super Bowl picks.

Typically, the press’s response to this arrant, administration-wide witch hunt has been to clear its collective throat and ask, “Pardon me, sir, may I have some more?” NPR has instructed its reporters not to use the uncouth term “lie” to characterize the Trump White House’s already fearsome record of shameless, orchestrated mendacity. The New York Times, to its credit, has adopted the L-word, rather extensively in fact, in its Trump reporting, but has also offered an ongoing, and ill-advised, series of post-election mea culpas that play right into Kellyanne Conway’s off-with-their-heads act. (You’ll note as well that the Paper of Record was the obliging platform for Bannon’s authoritarian press-baiting oratorio.) Meanwhile, my hometown paper, the Washington Post, in the guise of its mysteriously immovable op-ed editor Fred Hiatt, primly chastises any reporter tempted to direct any unseemly opprobrium toward our new fascist leaders. Cue the self-serious throat-clearing.

The opening of the Trump administration has not been encouraging, to put it mildly. But that doesn’t change our mission.
We must distinguish between words and deeds. We must sort the good from the bad. And, in a political culture inclined to view every adverse action as the onset of a potential apocalypse, we must distinguish the merely regrettable from the genuinely harmful, and the genuinely harmful from the irreversibly damaging.
When, as one of his first executive actions, Trump blocked a fee reduction for federally insured mortgages, he was taking a prudent, modest step to protect federal finances, not opening a war on working people.
When Trump ordered the creation of an office to assist the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, he sent an inaccurate message about the prevalence of such crime, but the office itself seems unlikely to do much harm. But barring refugees from war-torn countries, and favoring one religion over another—that defaces our democracy.

While Hiatt’s last point is indisputable (at least to everyone not drawing a sycophancy bonus from the Trump White House and everyone not named Paul Ryan or Dana Boente), all the courtier-like difference trimming that precedes it is something of a tour de force in meaningless meritocratic posturing. There’s the rhetoric of impartial gatekeeping—the holy charge of distinguishing the “good from the bad,” and above all, of resisting any faint suggestion of justified public alarm.
...

Sean Spicer cites Atlanta terror attack that never happened
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/08/politics/spicer-alleged-atlanta-terror-attack-trnd...

3X!

ETA: Sean Spicer on Citing Atlanta Terror Attack That Never Happened: I 'Clearly Meant' Orlando
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sean-spicer-citing-unknown-atlanta-terror-attack-...

FEC commissioner to Trump: Show evidence of voter fraud

...Trump reportedly blamed voter fraud for why both he and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) lost in New Hampshire last November during a recent meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.

“The scheme the President of the United States alleges would constitute thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law,” Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said in a statement Friday.

“The President has issued an extraordinarily serious and specific charge,” added Weintraub, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush. "Allegations of this magnitude cannot be ignored.”

“I therefore call upon President Trump to immediately share his evidence with the public and with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities so that his allegations may be investigated promptly and thoroughly.”...

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/federal-elections-commissioner-demand...

I saw Stephen Miller on two news shows this AM. I can believe that Trump was pleased with his forceful performance. (Manly, even. :-) George Stephanopolous was quick with follow-up questions, though, and left no doubt that questions esp with regard to proof on purported NH voter fraud were NOT being answered. Testy!

(Wonder what woman will be drafted to spoof Miller on Saturday Night Live? An actress or comedian in mold of Rachel Maddow or Amy Schumer?? :-)

ETA: ALT DOJ ‏@ALT_DOJ 5h5 hours ago
Who can play Stephen Miller on @nbcsnl ? I think @peeweeherman !

(margd: more than a passing resemblance in photos posted with that tweet!)

*****************************************
Stephen Miller’s bushels of Pinocchios for false voter-fraud claims

White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller appeared on ABC’s “The Week” on Sunday, spouting a bunch of false talking points on alleged voter fraud. (He also repeated similar claims on other Sunday talk shows.) To his credit, host George Stephanopoulus repeatedly challenged Miller, noting that he had provided no evidence to support his claims. But Miller charged ahead, using the word “fact” three times in a vain effort to bolster his position...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/02/12/stephen-millers-b...

*************************************

Trump Advisor Stephen Miller Makes Contentious Sunday Morning Debut
http://deadline.com/2017/02/stephen-miller-donald-trump-george-stephanopoulos-me...

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins
Intelligence Community pushes back against a White House it considers leaky, untruthful and penetrated by the Kremlin
02/12/17

In a recent column, I explained how the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies* to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington—a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.

Now those concerns are causing problems much closer to home—in fact, inside the Beltway itself. Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust...

...NSA doesn’t appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears.

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration...

John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He’s published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.

http://observer.com/2017/02/donald-trump-administration-mike-flynn-russian-embas...

*Close allies, the "Five Eyes", that share intelligence are the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

>55 margd: I didn't see any of the shows he was on, and haven't watched any of the clips, but as mentioned in the deadline article, another article I read showed a bunch of tweets commenting that it looked like he was reading from a teleprompter.

It seems like the Trump administration is obsessed with "voter fraud", going so far as Trumps ludicrous claim of "thousands" of people from Massachusetts being bused into New Hampshire to vote there, without offering up any kind of evidence for their claims. While I'm not sure of exact numbers, figuring your standard charter bus as holding around 50 people, that's 20 buses per thousand, which translates into a damn lot of buses when someone claims "thousands" were involved. If such a massive fleet of buses had made the trek that day, you'd think at least some of the companies providing them would be coming forward to confirm they'd taken people between the two states that day.

They were magical buses, eh?

They lie and don't care that they lie or that anyone notices they are lying. The point is simply to make those noises and whip up the masses, not to prove or disprove anything as if truth and logic mattered. Exactly the same tactic as in the Brexit campaign or any fascist propaganda takeover of reality anywhere. What amazes me, after the first encounter with this in the late 1980s-early 1990s in the Balkans, is its efficiency even in the age of internet, instant contact, and global surveillance.

Hell, it may be MORE efficient now, hard to tell.

Posted on Facebook: photos of documents and aide with nuclear football...

From Trump’s Mar-a-Lago to Facebook, a National Security Crisis in the Open
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/politics/mar-a-lago-north-korea-trump.html

DeAgazio Has Posted Dozens of Photos With Trump From Mar-a-Lago Since the Inauguration, Including With the Military Member Who Carries the ‘Nuclear Football’
http://heavy.com/news/2017/02/richard-deagazio-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-facebook-...

Why these librarians are protesting Trump’s executive orders

Libraries are for everyone.

Q: How can you tell when FBI has been in your library. A: You can't.
The "Patriot" Act makes it illegal for us to tell you if our computers are monitored: be aware!

Fake news can have real life consequences.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/librarians-protesting-trumps-executive-orders/

>61 margd: cf. my anecdote after the break here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/247510#5914110

I know of a certainty that the FBI was involved in surveilling my local Occupy, working in liaison with a regional police task force normally dedicated to narcotics investigations, because FBI agents openly interviewed several community figures who had supported the local movement (or at any rate, that became generally known). I expect I was targeted on account of another member of my Occupy group being connected with an affiliate of Anonymous. He would go on to be arrested by the FBI in Texas several months later, and subsequently convicted for hacking. While I fully understand why my (situational) association with that individual would have made me a prima facie intelligence target, the experience still rankles -- particularly the fact that to all indications, they dragged the local library into it. (I suppose I should have expected as much, given that the regional police unit in question was based in Erik Prince's home county: a bunch of Blackwater wannabes, I'm sure.)

Spies Keep Intelligence From Donald Trump on Leak Concerns
Decision to withhold information underscores deep mistrust between intelligence community and president

The officials’ decision to keep information from Mr. Trump underscores the deep mistrust that has developed between the intelligence community and the president over his team’s contacts with the Russian government, as well as the enmity he has shown toward U.S. spy agencies. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump accused the agencies of leaking information to undermine him.

In some of these cases of withheld information, officials have decided not to show Mr. Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information, the current and former officials said. Those sources and methods could include, for instance, the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/spies-keep-intelligence-from-donald-trump-148720935...

It's not just the US intelligence community showing distrust of the current admin. European agencies are concerned as well.

http://www.newsweek.com/allies-intercept-russia-trump-adviser-communications-557...

Trump makes / repeats 15 dubious claims in news conference
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/02/16/fact-checking-pre...

50, updated:

USDA Starts Reposting Some Of Their Deleted Animal Welfare Records
Animal advocates say it’s a good sign, but not a total victory.

The Department of Agriculture has started to repost some animal welfare data previously deleted from its website, after two weeks of public outcry over the removal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/usda-animal-welfare-data_us_58a757e4e4b07602...

Why Trump wants you to hate the media
- Frida Ghitis February 17, 2017

Now that the campaign is over and it's not very useful to drive the crowds into a frenzy of hatred against Hillary Clinton, Trump has found the new direction in which to focus his supporters' animosity. But this time, the anointed enemy serves an even more useful purpose.

..."The FAKE NEWS media ... is not my enemy, it is (sic) the enemy of the American people."

...The advantages of having an enemy are well-known. In Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" -- suddenly a new best-seller in the Trump era -- the masses engage in a daily mandatory ritual, the "Two Minutes of Hate," during which their anger is feverishly stoked against the foe of the moment. Dictators, strongmen and autocrats have practiced the art of drumming up loathing toward others to great effect.

...What (Trump) wants is to manufacture his own pseudo-truth; to create a reality where he always wins. Where the only polls that count are the ones where he's doing great. Where the only comments about him are compliments, and where anything negative is false, the work of an out-of-control media.
Where when things go wrong it is someone else's fault: He practically blamed the media for Russia's positioning of a spy ship off the US coast, buzzing US ships and illegally launching a cruise missile. It happened, he said, because the media's false reporting made the Kremlin think there's no chance of improved relations.

His administration is in chaos, but it's all the media's fault. And besides, there is no chaos. But if there were...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/opinions/trump-wants-you-to-hate-media-ghitis/

_____________________________________________________________

AP’s National Guard Story Is A Lesson About How News Works In The Trump Era
Is the White House playing the media? Are we playing ourselves? Just...take a breath.

... “primed for freakout” condition is common in the Trump-era press.

...“draft order of dubious origin gets leaked and denied”...draft of an executive order that would revive CIA “black sites”... draft executive order curtailing the rights of the LGBTQ community...National Guard (to round up illegal immigrants)

...Some have suggested these leaks are some sort of by-design bait-and-switch, wherein the White House gets a “Donald Trump is mulling doing something extreme” story, then denies it, leaving the news organization that reported on it sandbagged and exposed. Meanwhile, the White House is suddenly in a stronger position to do what they actually want to do.

...The AP reported it attempted to get clarification from the White House (on National Guarf story) several times before it went to press, affording the administration the opportunity to disown the policy entirely. That means the White House could have nipped this story in the bud, but opted not to. What does the White House gain from that? Well, additional ammunition to make the case that the media is being unfair, for a start.

...Here’s the real takeaway: The media should be awake to the possibility that the breakneck speed of our industry, the norm-breaking and erratic tendencies of the president, and the very real stakes of outlandish policy decisions combine to provide the White House with opportunities to kill us with paper cuts. Self-awareness, in this instance, will strengthen our hand...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ap-national-guard-trump-media_us_58a76c45e4b...

______________________________________________________________

ETA: A dubious order or statement might also be floated by authorities to identify an inhouse leaker.

______________________________________________________________

ETA: The past is always present. Nixon in (Dec 14) 1972: “The Press is the Enemy”

(Preparing for upcoming news conference about what later became known as the Christmas bombings of North Vietnam)

Nixon: Just say: “Except for Christmas Day, there will be no truce.” I don’t want anybody flying over Christmas Day. People would not understand that. There’s always been a truce; World War I,World War II, and so forth. All right, the main thing is for you to get rested and get ready for all this and go out there and just remember that when it’s toughest, that’s when we’re the best. And remember, we’re going to be around and outlive our enemies. And also, never forget, the press is the enemy.

Kissinger: On that, there’s no question—

Nixon: The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. Professors are the
enemy. Write that on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it.

Kissinger: I, on the professors—

Nixon: Always—

Kissinger: —I need no instruction at all.

Nixon: Always—

Kissinger: And on the press, I’m in complete agreement with you—

Nixon: It’s the enemy. So we use them, at times. But remember, with the exception, now and then, of a—I think Wilson, maybe—there
are two or three—Howard Smith. Yes, there are still a few patriots, but most of them are—they’re very disappointed because we beat ’em in
the election. They know they’re out of touch with the country. It kills those bastards. They are the enemy, and we’re just gonna continue to
use them, and never let them think that we think they’re the enemy. You see my point? But the press is the enemy. The press is the enemy.
That’s all.

NIXON: Remember, we're gonna be around to outlive our enemies. And also never forget: The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy. Write that on a blackboard 100 times and never forget it.

https://worlddesk.org/tag/nixon/

NATO Officials Say Russian 'Fake News' Seeks to Undermine Alliance

Emails accusing German soldiers stationed in Lithuania of rape were sent this week to local news outlets, the latest incident in what NATO officials say is a Russian "fake news" campaign aimed at eroding public support for the military alliance.

...After the Lithuania allegation broke, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that there had been several previous attempts to spread disinformation about NATO.

(A)...Swedish...study accus(ed) Russia of using underhand methods, including fake news, counterfeit documents and other disinformation, to try to influence Swedish decision-making. The campaign was focused, it said, on steering the country away from joining NATO.

The study said an array of active measures were being used, including broadcasting misleading reports on Russia's state-run news website Sputnik (now with an office in Scotland as discussed in earlier post) that were then picked up in Sweden. At other times, forged documents and fabricated news items consistent with Russia's strategic objectives have first appeared in obscure Swedish media outlets, which were picked up subsequently by Sputnik and "other sources of Russian public diplomacy" and broadcast to an international audience.

...On Monday, aides of French politician Emmanuel Macron said he had become a fake-news target of Russian media and that his presidential campaign had been facing thousands of cyberattacks. Richard Ferrand, secretary-general of Macron's En Marche! (Onwards!) party, said Russian state-controlled media Russia Today and Sputnik had spread false reports with the aim of swinging public opinion against him.

http://www.voanews.com/a/nato-officials-russian-fake-news-seeks-undermine-allian...

Telling the truth is now a political act. Today set out as a day of facts by museums, libraries, and other institutions.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/steinberg-telling-the-truth-is-now-a-political-...

Trump comment about immigration 'problems' baffles Sweden

U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that Sweden experienced an immigration-related security incident prompted a baffled response from the Scandinavian country on Sunday as diplomats asked for an explanation and citizens responded with amusement.

..."You look at what's happening last night in Sweden," Trump said. "Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible."

That appeared to confuse the Swedish government, which asked the U.S. State Department to explain what the new president meant.

...Swedes mocked Trump's remark on Twitter using the hashtag #LastNightInSweden, posting pictures of reindeer, Swedish meatballs and people assembling the country's famous IKEA furniture.

"#lastnightinsweden my son dropped his hotdog in the campfire. So sad!" Twitter user Adam Bergsveen wrote.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sweden-idUSKBN15Y0QH

>70 margd: Can I play too?

>71 davidgn: Someone tweeted photo of chaos in horrible Swedish incident--a dozen or so pink-cheeked Swedes running back to their sauna after rolling in the snow. :-)
____________________________________________

...Trump had the lowest percentage of truthful statements of any recent presidential candidate, according to the fact-checking group PolitiFact. Of the hundreds of Trump claims the group has analyzed since he entered the race in 2015 through his first month in office, a full 70 percent are rated “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire.”...

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-russia-falsehoods_us_58a9c2bde4b07602a...

Could reporters be hunted down if Trump goes after leakers?

...The news media is... “the enemy of the American People.”

This tweeted pronouncement, with its authoritarian echoes, came soon after Trump’s vow to stamp out the unauthorized flow of intelligence-community information to journalists. “I’ve actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks,” he said. “Those are criminal leaks.”

...Justice Department officials ... are supposed to operate with a measure of independence, choosing their own cases, not as corporate functionaries reporting to the chief executive.

...One of the recent (Obama-era shadow shield law) guidelines calls for the attorney general himself to sign off before a reporter is subpoenaed. That sounds like a formidable obstacle, but in his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Jeff Sessions ducked the question of what he would do.

You might think the First Amendment would protect journalists from getting drawn into court. After all, decisions in cases that rely on the First Amendment, especially one related to the Pentagon Papers, prohibit the government from “prior restraint” of publication.

But when it comes to the so-called “reporter’s privilege,” case law is notoriously shaky, and Justice Department guidelines enacted in recent years are well-intentioned but toothless...

“The protections are normative, not legal,” said Susan Hennessey, managing editor of the Lawfare blog and a former National Security Agency attorney.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/could-reporters-be-hunted-down-if...

Now I feel guilty (if not stupid) that I've ignored Christopher Lydon's Radio Open Source for so long. I'll never catch up at this point, but I need to work it back into my rotation. An information source not to be missed in the Time of Trump.

2/16 show (to which I'm listening now):
http://radioopensource.org/the-fog-of-trump/

Guests:
Timothy Snyder
professor of history at Yale and author of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning
Sally Quinn
Washington Post columnist and moderator of On Faith
Michael Glennon
professor of international law at Tufts and author of National Security and Double Government
Heather Cox Richardson
professor of history at Boston College and author of To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party

Timothy Snyder—eminent historian of the bloody conflicts in Europe—sees authoritarianism rising through the American fog. “The moment you say it couldn’t happen here,” Snyder warns, “is the moment you are ignoring history. And you’re taking a huge risk.” Sally Quinn gives us the inside scoop on Washington’s chattering class, fearing something they’ve never seen before. Michael Glennon, the man who previously warned us about the perils of double government, tells us what happens when the Deep State strikes back. Heather Cox Richardson gives us the historian’s take of Steve Bannon’s worldview.

ETA: Absolutely top-notch. Lydon has only gotten better with age, and the guests are electrifying. This one should be required listening.

----------------------
(Incidentally, I just finished listening to the 2/7 show interviewing Steve Kinzer on his latest book, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire , both of which are worth touting. )

Why is federal government data disappearing?

...The White House recently deleted all of the data on its open data portal, which served as a public clearinghouse for data on everything from federal budgets to climate change initiatives...

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/320511-why-is-federal-governmen...

_____________________________________________________

Look for yourself:

https://open.whitehouse.gov/browse

How to Run a Rogue Government Twitter Account With an Anonymous Email Address and a Burner Phone
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/20/how-to-run-a-rogue-government-twitter-accoun...

>76 margd: Similar, from @thegrugq: https://medium.com/@thegrugq/twitter-activist-security-7c806bae9cb0#.a2ga0im1r

Following either of them is definitely a giant leap in the right direction. One major caveat that both of them neglect is maintaining the anonymity of the burner phone. A thorough read of the comment thread to this post should illuminate the issues.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/04/cell_phone_opse.html
ETA: And this one. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/fingerprinting_5.html

Badge of honor for CNN and NYT, methinks!

White House blocks CNN, New York Times from press briefing hours after Trump slams media
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/24/white-house-blocks-cnn...

>78 margd:

Okay, I thought I was all out of "wows", but, WOW.

From the net

Total list of banned news outlets:

— The New York Times
— LA Times
— CNN
— BBC
— The Hill
— New York Daily News
— Daily Mail
— Politico
— Buzzfeed

Wow is right!

Without tv coverage Melissa McCarthy has no material for Saturday Night Live... :-(

Good on AP and Time:
Both the Associated Press and Time magazine, which were allowed to enter, boycotted out of solidarity with those news organizations kept out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-bars-news-organizations_us_58b08...

Surely the White House Correspondents' dinner will be cancelled?? Who would go?

So now we can add official state censorship to the list of this administration's actions. The mind boggles at how blatant and unConstitutional their actions are.

When will the pitchforks start amassing on the White House lawn?!

>81 margd: Surely the White House Correspondents' dinner will be cancelled?? Who would go?

White House correspondents of course. They should uninvite Trump though.

Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in at least 18 states

...From Virginia to Washington state, legislators have introduced bills that would increase punishments for blocking highways, ban the use of masks during protests, indemnify drivers who strike protesters with their cars and, in at least once case, seize the assets of people involved in protests that later turn violent. The proposals come after a string of mass protest movements in the past few years, covering everything from police shootings of unarmed black men to the Dakota Access Pipeline to the inauguration of Trump.

...Critics doubt whether many of the laws would pass Constitutional muster. “The Supreme Court has gone out of its way on multiple occasions to point out that streets, sidewalks and public parks are places where First Amendment protections are at their most robust,” said Lee Rowland, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/24/republican-lawmakers-intr...

>77 davidgn: (and cf. -- incidentally -- a couple of completely different threads here that shall not be named):

This should be required watching for any of our prospective rogue federal Tweeters, whistleblowers, et al., in combination with details shared above and elsewhere. Five years old, but fairly non-technical (not to mention entertaining), and principles and mindsets remain the same. In this political environment, it should be shared widely, as most of it has very wide applicability (though many specifics are, of course, inapplicable, and the advice on bitcoins and specific hardware is outdated). The most important takeaway: "Paranoia doesn't work retroactively."

The Grugq on OPSEC for Hackers "Freedom Fighters" at Hack in the Box Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaYdCdwiWU&t=1769s

ETA: Slightly more technical advice from "Zoz" @ DEFCON 22 - Don't Fuck It Up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1q4Ir2J8P8
(Yes, more technical, but still worth listening to the Australian MIT robotics PhD with the Mohawk even if you can't follow half of it. ;-)
Particularly valuable for section on cell phones starting at 38:11 -- https://youtu.be/J1q4Ir2J8P8?t=38m11s

Also, in addition to the documents he references at the beginning, here's an more "classic" document along similar lines which I once found helpful: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cia/tradecraft_notes/contents.htm )

BuzzFeed News traced a group of liberal and conservative websites back to the same company. “The product they’re pitching is outrage,” said one liberal writer.

Trumpthink in Trumpland is what we have to look forward to for the next four years!!!

Be careful’: GOP Intel chair warns reporters could face investigation for persisting on Sessions

“Look, I’m sure some of you are in contact with the Russian embassies,” (Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) said ominously. “So be careful what you ask for here because if we start getting transcripts of any of you or other Americans talking to the press then do you want us to conduct an investigation on you or other Americans because you were talking to the Russian Embassy.”
Report Advertisement

“I just think we need to be careful.”

Nunes, who served as a member of Trump’s transition team, later denied that his comment was intended to threaten reporters with investigation.

“I was saying the opposite and warning against engaging in witch-hunts,” he tweeted Thursday afternoon....

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/be-careful-gop-intel-chair-threatens-to-investig...

And now we have this redefining of the term "immigrant" by Ben Carson. Slaves were immigrants too!

http://www.snopes.com/2017/03/06/ben-carson-slavery-immigration/

>90 rastaphrog: but weren't they guest workers?

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/23/450826208/why-calling-slaves-workers-i...

Chaffetz: House Oversight Committee Won’t Investigate Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims

"We can't just investigate everything that's ever thrown out there by the Democrats, by the Republicans. We have to pick and choose."

>93 2wonderY: From the article...

“Obviously the president meant in totality, the number that had been released on the battlefield — that have been released from Gitmo since individuals have been released,” Spicer told reporters on Tuesday. “That is correct.”

ahhhh no dude. Trump specifically said all 122 were released by Obama. That's no where near being "in total".

Rachel Maddow: "We cover Trump like a silent movie"

“We developed sort of an informal, internal mantra… which is that we basically cover them as if they are a silent movie,” Maddow told TheWrap. “I stopped covering the Twitter feed and we started covering only what they do rather than what they say.”

http://www.thewrap.com/rachel-maddow-ratings-surge-trump-twitter-feed-stop/

It does have consequences in the long run, the Trump administration's disregard for truth. He could end up tweeting himself into irrelevancy.

Journalist Issie Lapowsky reports on her taste of Trump's media diet.

Bless her, I couldn't do it.
But someone needs to. A regular interpreter would be helpful.

Surely, a bill that allows employers access to one's personal medical and genetic information will go nowhere??

How Healthy Are You? G.O.P. Bill Would Help Employers Find Out

A bill in Congress could make it harder for workers to keep employers from getting access to their personal medical and genetic information and raise the financial penalties for those who opt out of workplace wellness programs.

House Republicans are proposing legislation aimed at making it easier for companies to gather genetic data from workers and their families, including their children, when they collect it as part of a voluntary wellness program...

The bill, which is under review by other House committees and has yet to be considered by the Senate, has already provoked fierce opposition from a wide range of consumer, health and privacy advocacy groups, as well as by House Democrats. Critics claim it undermines existing laws aimed at protecting an individual’s personal medical information from use by employer and others....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/health/workplace-wellness-programs-health-gen...

Naming the Three Faces of Donald Trump

Reasonable Chatting Trump, Unscripted Trump, and my personal fave, Somewhat Normal Republican Trump, or SNORT.

Media the enemy? Trump sure is an insatiable consumer

..."It's not the normal Beltway echo chamber. This is a very different echo chamber: Something will bounce from cable to the internet to Trump," said (Tobe) Berkovitz, the communications professor (at Boston U)....

https://apnews.com/eae4bee334fb4e358bfb1217d3e0ee74/Media-the-enemy?-Trump-is-su...

How Facebook, fake news and friends are warping your memory

“The development of Internet-based misinformation, such as recently well-publicized fake news sites, has the potential to distort individual and collective memories in disturbing ways.”

Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/16/key-democratic-officials-now-warning-base-no...

The Battle within Fox News

Since I only see Fox News when I get my car worked on, I had no idea there was any separation at all between news and commentary.

All the President's Lies
David Leonhardt MARCH 20, 2017

The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar....Trump has repeatedly accused Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, and Comey explained there is “no information that supports” the claim.

...the current president of the United States...lies in ways that no American politician ever has before. He has lied about — among many other things — Obama’s birthplace, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.

...Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone’s estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. His claim doesn’t change the odds.

...As Comey was acknowledging on Monday that the F.B.I. was investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump was lying about it. From both his personal Twitter account and the White House account, he told untruths.

A few hours later, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, went before the cameras and lied about the closeness between Trump and various aides who have documented Russian ties. Do you remember Paul Manafort, the chairman of Trump’s campaign, who ran the crucial delegate-counting operation? Spicer said Manafort had a “very limited role” in said campaign.

The big question now is not what Trump and the White House are saying about the Russia story. They will evidently say anything. The questions are what really happened and who can uncover the truth....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/opinion/all-the-presidents-lies.html?smprod=n...

ETA:
Trump’s Weary Defenders Face Fresh Worries

...In midafternoon came a tweet from Mr. Trump’s official @potus account: “FBI Director Comey refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Michael Flynn to Russia.”

A dour and disapproving Mr. Comey instantly fact-checked the tweet when it was read out loud to him. “No,” he said. “It was not our intention to say that today.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/us/trump-obama-wiretap-comey.html

FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at far-right news sites

Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is accused by the FBI of ordering a campaign intended to influence the U.S. election. Mikhail Klimentyev AP

The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections....

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article139695453...

>105 margd: That's interesting.

104 lies, contd. I guess unless one considers verb tense of "am"....

Nov 16, 2016
@realDonaldTrump
I am not trying to get "top level security clearance" for my children. This was a typically false news story.

March 21, 2017
Ivanka Trump to get top security clearance and office, WH official says
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/politics/ivanka-trump-west-wing/

Trump lawyers close down interactive website in which one can bat his face with kitten paws:
letter claims her site infringed on the "internationally known and famous" Trump trademark!

Teen owner says prez should have more important business than taking on silly sites like hers.

Surely 1st amendment doesn't allow trademark protection for President's name??

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/trump-lawyers-swipe-at-teen-cat-website...
http://www.kittenfeed.com/

>109 margd: The site is still active, and according to a different article I read about this, lawyers working with her are waiting on further action by Trumps lawyers after she changed the name.

How Fake News Tricks Your Brain
We live in a world with many “alternative facts,” which means verifying and fact-checking ourselves and those in our community plays an important role in determining what is real and what is fake.

...Motivated reasoning is the idea that we are motivated to believe whatever confirms our opinions.

...Another related concept is “naïve realism,” or the idea that our views are the only ones that are accurate.

(Steve Sloman, a professor of cognitive science at Brown University and editor-in-chief of the journal Cognition) ...research focuses on the idea that knowledge is contagious. Hence his book title: The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone.

Sloman recently published a paper called “Your Understanding Is My Understanding” in the journal Psychological Science with Brown undergraduate Nathaniel Rabb. In the web-based experiment, which examined more than 700 volunteers, Brown and Rabb made up a phenomena in which scientists supposedly discovered a system of helium rain.

...“It’s like understanding is contagious,” Sloman says. “If everyone around you is saying they understand why a politician is crooked, they saw a video about that person on YouTube...then you’re going to start thinking that you understand, too.”

...With all this research shedding light on what makes us so susceptible to fake news, is there a way we can protect ourselves against it?

...(not) possible to train individuals to verify everything that they encounter

...“Develop a norm in your community that says, ‘We should check things and not just take them at face value,’” Sloman says. “Verify before you believe.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/fake-news-science-psychology-quiz/

"We watched Fox News from 6 a.m. until midnight on Thursday to see how its coverage varied from that of its rivals..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/business/media/fox-news.html?emc=edit_nn_2017...

Trump and his people really need to make sure they know when something happened before making accusations against Obama about the event(s).

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/watch-kayleigh-mcenany-blames-obama-for-golfing-...

>113 rastaphrog: To be honest - I don't think they care. Indeed, given the sheer volume of lies I think it is very deliberate. In this case, while a certain percentage will know/recall that the death was in 2002 and Obama was not president at that time a certain percentage won't and will take the statement as a fact. I think the only thing they are really interested in is the hope that the percentage who do know/recall will be smaller than the percentage that doesn't know/recall. If the count goes in that direction - they win and everybody else loses.

>113 rastaphrog:, >114 alco261: They have a reality tv take on, uh, reality. Credibility isn't important. Ratings are.

Many of Trump's more passionate supporters are extremely upset at the loss of their Internet privacy. http://www.avclub.com/article/death-internet-privacy-tearing-reddits-the_donald-...

>116 sturlington: Absolutely LOVE it!

What Americans think of Donald Trump and the media

...Only 28 percent of Americans said they tend to trust Trump more than ABC News, while 53 percent said they are more likely to trust ABC News. Those numbers are 33 percent and 47 percent when it comes to MSNBC, and 17 percent and 37 percent when it comes to Fox News.

But the survey found Americans who identify as Republican are more likely to trust Trump over any of those outlets.

"If you are a Republican, Trump is a font of truth," Murray said. "For other Americans, not so much."

The poll also discovered that ABC News is more trusted than Fox News (44 to 32 percent) and MSNBC (36 to 18 percent).

As expected, more Republicans trust Fox (67 percent) than MSNBC (10 percent), while more Democrats trust MSNBC (67 percent) than Fox (19 percent). But while more Republicans trust Fox (65 percent) over ABC (16 percent), more Democrats trust ABC (41 percent) over MSNBC (25 percent).

The poll did not include NBC News or CBS News. It included only the three outlets that received either the highest or lowest credibility ratings in a recent Morning Consult poll.

...More than 6 in 10 Americans believe traditional TV and newspaper outlets report "fake news," including 27 percent who think this happens regularly and 36 percent who say it happens occasionally. More than 8 in 10 Americans believe online news sources do so...

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/what_americans_think_of_donald_trum...

Senators Manchin (WV) and Heitkamp (ND) the two weakest links in the Democratic Senate have announced they're going to vote to confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch.

Manchin is finally having a town hall meeting today. Sadly, I can't attend.

How Russian Twitter Bots Pumped Out Fake News During The 2016 Election
Gabe O'Connor, Avie Schneider | April 3, 2017

...(Former FBI agent Clint) Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, says the Russian misinformation campaign didn't stop with the election of President Trump.

"If you went online today, you could see these accounts — either bots or actual personas somewhere — that are trying to connect with the administration. They might broadcast stories and then follow up with another tweet that tries to gain the president's attention, or they'll try and answer the tweets that the president puts out," Watts says...

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/04/03/522503844/how-russian-t...

Twitter refuses U.S. order to disclose user behind anti-Trump account

Esha Bhandari, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Twitter user in the case, said the government’s request was highly unusual. Requests for social media account information from the U.S. government typically involve a pressing national security or criminal matter, she said.

“We have seen no reason the government has given for seeking to unmask this speaker’s identity,” Bhandari said, adding that the right to anonymous speech against the government is “a bedrock American value” strongly protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

>122 2wonderY: Well, that's nice. But unless so-and-so was very careful indeed, NSA already knows enough to find them. And what NSA knows, others may well be privy to. https://theintercept.com/2017/01/13/obama-opens-nsas-vast-trove-of-warrantless-d...

U.S. Blinks in Clash With Twitter; Drops Order to Unmask Anti-Trump Account
By MIKE ISAACAPRIL 7, 2017

...Customs and Border Protection on Friday withdrew its demand that Twitter unmask the anonymous account, a day after the social media company sued the government to block the summons. The person or people behind the account in question, @ALT_USCIS, had claimed to be a current employee of Citizenship and Immigration Services and had regularly posted messages at odds with White House policy.

The government’s move defused a potential standoff pitting a presidential administration that has tried to clamp down on leaks against a technology company with a history of defending its users’ First Amendment rights...

@ALT_USCIS, created in January, has been active on Twitter in criticizing the administration’s immigration policies and other actions. On Friday, after news broke that the government had withdrawn the summons seeking information from Twitter, the account posted a message thanking those who had supported the right for anonymous free speech.

ALT🛂 Immigration @ALT_uscis
We want to thank @twitter and @aclu for standing up for the right of free anonymous speech. Thank you resistance for standing up for us. https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/850395470090448896 …
1:25 PM - 7 Apr 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/technology/us-blinks-in-clash-with-twitter-dr...

Trump administration to keep White House visitor logs secret
Cameron Joseph | Friday, April 14, 2017

WASHINGTON — Hide the swamp.

The Trump administration has decided not to let the public know who's visiting the White House by refusing to release its visitor logs, officials announced Friday.

That's a major change from the last administration. President Obama's team voluntarily disclosed the comings and goings of most visitors to the White House grounds, and the Obama administration released more than 6 million records during his presidency, posting them online for the public's perusal.

Trump officials explained the change as a national security issue...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-administration-white-house-visito...

Sad news, but at least NOAA posted it:

2016 brings global temperature three-peat

Global surface temperature in 2016 was the warmest since official records began in 1880. It was the third year in a row to set a new heat record, and the fifth time the record has been broken since the start of the 21st century.

http://www.noaa.gov/climate

Macron Campaign Wards Off Hacking Attempts Linked to Russia
Presidential candidate’s campaign suffers multipronged phishing attack beginning in mid-March

https://www.wsj.com/articles/macron-campaign-wards-off-hacking-attempts-linked-t...

EPA website removes climate science site from public view after two decades
Chris Mooney and Juliet Eilperin | April 28, 2017

...“As EPA renews its commitment to human health and clean air, land, and water, our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency,” J.P. Freire, the agency’s associate administrator for public affairs, said in a statement. “We want to eliminate confusion by removing outdated language first and making room to discuss how we’re protecting the environment and human health by partnering with states and working within the law.”

The agency also said it would carefully archive pages from the past administration.

Yet the website overhaul appears to include not only policy-related changes, but also scrutiny of a scientific Web page that has existed for nearly two decades, and that explained what climate change is and how it worked...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/28/epa-website...

_______________________________________________

ETA: archive backup: http://epaarchive.cc/climatechange

The Interior Department Just Quietly Scrubbed Its Climate Change Page
Sarah Emerson | Apr 27 2017

... What was once a robust overview of the Interior's climate change priorities is now a pedestrian paragraph about the types of land the agency protects. Gone are the mentions of rising sea levels, worsening wildfires, and threatened wildlife. In fact, the entire page, which is just 101-words-long, only uses the term "climate change" once.

The revised page now links to the climate change pages of other environmental agencies. One of the links, which should have directed to the Bureau of Land Management, is dead...

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/the-interior-department-scrubbed-its-...

The FCC Is Investigating Stephen Colbert’s Controversial Trump Joke
David Canfield
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/05/the_fcc_will_investigate_colbert_...

__________________________________________________

@CharlesMBlow
Charles M. Blow Retweeted The Hill
Help me understand: Colbert's cxxk joke gets investigated for obscenity, but Trump's pxxxygrabbing tape was played until my ears bled?!

Sounds like this precedes the time of Trump, but given Russian election activities and Trump proclivity to out-sourcing and fondness for Putin...(ETA) but then Trump DOES advocate "buy American"!

US Officials Are Warning About A Russian Cybersecurity Company's US Government Ties
Kaspersky has denied links to the Russian government, but US officials are raising doubts.
Ali Watkins & Sheera Frenkel | May 8,9, 2017

WASHINGTON, DC — US intelligence officials are expressing concern over a Russian cybersecurity company’s access to US government systems and pushing the General Services Administration for answers on how long it has been approved for use by US agencies.

Three US intelligence officials told BuzzFeed News they were concerned by what they categorized as a close relationship between the company, Kaspersky, and the Russian government, and what giving the company access to US government systems could mean.

...Public contracting records show Kaspersky began getting US government contracts to protect online systems at the National Institute of Health in 2008, and by 2014, the company’s products were being used by the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department and several offices within the State Department, including some US embassies. According to the Federal Procurement database, Kaspersky’s most recent contract was signed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission in June of 2016....

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/us-officials-are-warning-about-a-russian-cy...

Federal Employees Guide to Sharing Key Information with the Public

Washington - On February 16, 2017, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) and Congressman Don Beyer (D | Virginia) released the following resource guide for federal employees who wish to break the Administration’s communications blackout on federal agencies. The guide explains how to safely and responsibly share information, and encourages employees to "Know Your Rights" and "Know Your Options." In the "Know Your Rights" section, federal employees can learn about which federal laws apply to them. In the "Know Your Options" section, employees can learn about how to safely disseminate information to agency inspectors general and the press. The resource guide also includes links to an in-depth list of federal whistleblower statutes and information about agency inspectors general. The full press release can be found here.

https://lieu.house.gov/federal-employees-guide-sharing-key-information

Under Trump, inconvenient data is being sidelined
The Trump administration has recently removed Obama-era webpages and tucked public information in hard-to-navigate databases.
Here's a few of the changes that have been made, so far.
Juliet Eilperin | May 14, 2017

The Trump administration has removed or tucked away a wide variety of information that until recently was provided to the public, limiting access, for instance, to disclosures about workplace violations, energy efficiency, and animal welfare abuses.

Some of the information relates to enforcement actions taken by federal agencies against companies and other employers. By lessening access, the administration is sheltering them from the kind of “naming and shaming” that federal officials previously used to influence company behavior, according to digital experts, activists and former Obama administration officials...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/under-trump-inconvenient-data-is-being-s...

On US News shortly: video of Erdogan goons v defenseless protestors, DC, 16 or 17 May, 2017. One protestor is kicked in face!

Amerika
Türk Büyükelçiliği Konutu Önünde Kavga
Paylaş | 17 Mayıs 2017
0:02:54

http://www.amerikaninsesi.com/a/turk-buyukelciligi-konutu-onunde-kavga/3853579.h...

_____________________________________________

Mahir Zeynalov‏ Verified account @MahirZeynalov 11h11 hours ago
Mahir Zeynalov Retweeted Amerika'nın Sesi

Erdogan's bodyguards beat up Kurdish protesters in D.C. Just imagine what we are going through back in Turkey.

I read yesterday that Fox News Channel's ratings have slipped recently.

Slate offers an opinion why.

The stories they are neglecting are just too juicy.

Qatar Points to ‘Fake News’ Amid Diplomatic Crisis
The FBI reportedly sent investigators to Doha, but the crisis between the Gulf states has been brewing for some time.
Bethania Palma | Jun 6th, 2017

The crisis started in late May 2017, when Qatar’s state-run news agency QNA posted remarks attributed to emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that praised Iran and Israel and disparaged Trump. Shortly afterward, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with the country. The government of Qatar released a statement saying that QNA had been hacked, and that the statement by Al Thani wasn’t authentic:

The Qatar News Agency (QNA) website has been hacked by an unknown entity. A false statement attributed to His Highness has been published.

CNN reported on 6 June 2017 that Russian hackers attacked Qatar’s state news agency and produced the artificial statement:

US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US’ closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

The FBI recently sent a team of investigators to Doha to help the Qatari government investigate the alleged hacking incident, Qatari and US government officials say....

http://www.snopes.com/2017/06/06/qatar-fake-news-crisis/

Twitter Users Blocked by Trump Seek Reprieve, Citing First Amendment

“Though the architects of the Constitution surely didn’t contemplate presidential Twitter accounts, they understood that the president must not be allowed to banish views from public discourse simply because he finds them objectionable,” Mr. Jaffer said. “Having opened this forum to all comers, the president can’t exclude people from it merely because he dislikes what they’re saying.”

>138 2wonderY: It'll be interesting to see what comes of that, especially as Sean Spicer has said Trumps tweets are "official statements" from the president.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/sean-spicer-trumps-tweets-are-considered-officia...

The media actually loves Trump’s tweets. It’s Trump who should hate them.

If Trump wants to communicate directly with Americans, then he has to accept the consequences of his words. It’s telling that he prefers to broadcast unfocused, typo-ridden thoughts on Twitter — a reactive medium that demands little in the way of contemplation.

Perhaps this explains why, according to a Monmouth University poll last week, 61 percent of Americans believe Trump does more to hurt himself whenever he speaks on his own behalf. Americans can hear what the president is saying — they just don’t seem that impressed.

Feeling the heat: Reporters worry about aggressive leak investigations in Trump era

"This is a tough operating environment. There is a chill for sure. We'll see how bad it gets," New York Times reporter Adam Goldman told CNN.

Other reporters say Trump's crackdown has caused them to re-evaluate "source protection" and "operational security."
...
"It's very rattling as a reporter, but also very motivating as a reporter," one of the veteran journalists said.

Beyond a lie: The White House is creating misinformation as propaganda

Government-sponsored propaganda isn’t supposed to work in a vibrant democracy where openness flourishes, mostly because a free press is positioned to deter and undercut those kinds of heavy-handed attempts.
...
The Trump White House lies will continue indefinitely. Increasingly, they should be viewed as a crucial piece of the administration’s permanent propaganda campaign.

Trump welcomes false info from allies online and blocks Twitter users for minor stuff:

A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story
JEREMY W. PETERS | June 10, 2017

...In this fragmented media environment, the spread of false information is accelerated and amplified by a web of allied activist-journalists with large online followings, a White House that grants them access and, occasionally, a president who validates their work. The right-wing media machine that President Bill Clinton’s aides once referred to as “conspiracy commerce” is now far more mature, extensive and, in the internet age, tough to counter.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/us/politics/comey-fake-news-twitter-posobi...
_____________________________________

It doesn't take much for Trump to block you on Twitter
Nancy Coleman | June 9, 2017

Tweeting about ice cream or sending a GIF of the Pope doesn't seem particularly momentous.

But as some Twitter users are finding out, it doesn't take much to be shut out by President Donald Trump.

...First Amendment concerns

When someone is blocked on Twitter, they are unable to follow the account, view the account's tweets when logged in to the service, or view tweets the account has liked.

Earlier this week, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump's tweets from his personal account are considered official White House statements.

And that, some legal experts say, raises First Amendment concerns about what Trump is doing.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University says it'll consider a lawsuit if Trump doesn't unblock Twitter users.

"Your Twitter account is a designated public forum for essentially the same reasons that open city council meetings and school board meetings are," the lawyers wrote in the letter...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/09/politics/trump-twitter-block-users-trnd/index.html

_________________________________
ETA: more avoidance of negative feedback:

Donald Trump's state visit to Britain put on hold
US president told Theresa May he did not want trip to go ahead if there were large-scale public protests
Patrick Wintour | June 12, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/11/donald-trump-state-visit-to-brit...

Not only are cyber-attacks by Russia (and others?) cheap and effective, they are deniable, unlikely to trigger sanctions(?)... Detected and outed, perpetrators deny. Our guys understandably hesitate to reveal their sources and technical capabilities, so denials often stay plausible... (Wonder what Snowden will have to say when he has finally had enough of his hosts?)

Trump-Comey Feud Eclipses a Warning on Russia: ‘They Will Be Back’
PETER BAKER and DAVID E. SANGER | June 10, 2017

...no evidence that the Russians have stopped. The N.S.A. suspects that a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which has published tools used by the agency to breach foreign computer networks, is a front for Russia, probably the G.R.U., the military intelligence arm.

The recent leak of a classified N.S.A. document, for which a contractor has been arrested, provided evidence that the G.R.U. was trying to penetrate a company that provides software used to check voter registrations at polling places, perhaps to wreak havoc. That data may be useful in future races.

The Homeland Security Department is also looking at new evidence of computer code buried in the electrical power grid. Russia is believed to be behind two major attacks on Ukraine’s grid, and there are warnings that those techniques could also be turned on the United States.

“This is part of what the Russians call ‘new generation warfare,’” Heather A. Conley, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an author of “The Kremlin Playbook,” said Thursday. “It’s a strategy of influence, not of brute force.”

The strategy’s central concept, she said, refined in attacks on Eastern European countries, is that it is “better to collapse a country from within.”

...few doubt that the Russians have concluded that their attack on the American system was successful beyond their dreams — they started a scandal that has consumed the American political process.

“They can win two ways,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who has been investigating the election hacking through the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday. “They can do it” trying to influence votes, “or they can get caught doing it,” and undercut confidence in the American electoral system.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/us/politics/trump-comey-russia-fbi.html

The blockade of Qatar is a move against the values of the Arab spring
The pretext offered was to cut the funding of terrorist groups. Yet the most significant demand had nothing to do with this: it was to close down al-Jazeera
Wadah Khanfar (former director-general of Al Jazeera) | 8 June 2017

...a set of measures were announced (by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE) that are unprecedented in peacetime: cutting diplomatic relations; closing all the borders, sea lanes and airspace; banning citizens of all participating states from travelling to Qatar, and banning all Qataris and residents of Qatar from travelling to those countries. These are measures not even used in a warzone. They violate all the norms of international aviation.

The pretext offered for all this was the desire to cut the funding of terrorist groups and radical Islamist ideology. And yet the most significant demand had nothing to do with this: it was to close down the al-Jazeera media network. This has been eagerly sought by many Arab states, first and foremost Saudi Arabia, ever since the original news channel launched in 1996.

Al-Jazeera transformed the Arab media from a natural extension of the intelligence and security agencies to an independent sector whose values were transparency, accountability and democracy. This is exactly what so many Arab regimes fear.
Advertisement

Al-Jazeera is very familiar with the charges Qatar now faces, because they were made against it: al-Jazeera was accused of aligning itself with Hezbollah, supporting Islamist groups and having intimate ties with Israel.

The most important event al-Jazeera covered was the Arab spring in 2011. This was a political earthquake, driven by the dreams and aspirations of a new generation, born under dictatorship but raised in the age of the internet. Young people sought to turn those dreams into reality, taking to the streets, using the power of networking and learning from the experiences of other youth groups from around the world. The dynamic was neither partisan, sectarian nor ideological.

Toppling regimes proved to be the easiest step. For these were ageing regimes whose structures had been infested with rampant corruption. Establishing consensus and rebuilding the state on democratic foundations was much harder. Young people alone were not up to the task. Counter-revolutionary forces, funded by the entire wealth of the Gulf, regained control....

...Donald Trump claimed ownership (of the siege), saying the moves to isolate Qatar were the fruits of his address to more than 40 leaders of Muslim nations last month.

The current dispute has nothing to do with funding terrorism or radical ideology and even less to do with any official Qatari leaning toward Iran. This is a resumption of an old fight: drying all the fountains of independent conscience in preparation for a restoration of the old order in the Middle East. This time, however, the old order has tough new security powers, created by the war on terror and the support of a president who has jettisoned all the US’s values...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/08/blockade-qatar-against-ara...

___________________________

Al Jazeera says its Arabic channel Twitter account suspended
June 8, 2017

Pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera said on Saturday the Twitter account for its main Arabic language channel had been suspended and that it was working to get it back...

...The network said on June 8 it was combating a large-scale cyber attack but that all its entities remained in operation....

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-aljazeera-idUSKBN19808Q

Here's how in all happens:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/10/opinion/sunday/opart-white-house-...

And for dessert:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/excerpts-from-james-comeys-opening-statement...

About 7% of US adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
Information has no place in the minds of these folks who probable worship the
ground Trump walks on.

>147 Molly3028: Heard on a local (KY) religious radio station the other evening that if the Deep State deposes Trump with the bogus independent investigation, civil war will be called for.

The AP has egg all over its face, but nobody cares: the desired narrative is advanced.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/06/when-ap-spreads-fakenews-a-forensic-apprais...

In short:
1. Russian outlets report Russia is looking into reports that one of its airstrikes may have killed Daesh's al-Baghdadi.
2. AP reports Russians claim their airstrike killed al-Baghdadi.
3. The usual suspects begin to circulate opinion pieces heaping scorn upon Russia's "fake news" claim to have killed al-Baghdadi.

Tracing right-wing alt-reality on Twitter

On Wednesday, (tweeter) Posobiec shared something that seemed to back his theory (that liberal anti-Trump rhetoric was to blame for the shootings): a video that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch had filmed in March about resisting the Trump administration’s policies. “Flashback: Loretta Lynch: ‘We Need More Blood in the Streets,’ ” Posobiec tweeted, with a link.

But Lynch hadn’t said that — as no less than the Daily Caller, a popular conservative website, pointed out in a fact-checking column Thursday morning.

He (Posobiec) doesn’t see a parallel between news reports associating him with the Pizzagate gunman and his own assertions that left-wing rhetoric was to blame for the Alexandria shooting.

The NYT story on it.

And a related article with more resources.

From the Washington Post: More policy, less shock coverage, please.

Trump may be waging a war on the media, but many of his enemies are still committing media malpractice as they did in 2016, when the extreme dearth of policy coverage helped propel Trump to the White House. Perhaps they simply learned the wrong lesson from the campaign: that keeping the American people shocked, rather than informed, is the easiest path to the ratings they crave.

The Rachel Maddow Show 7/6/17
Maddow to news orgs: beware of forged Trump Russia documents!

Rachel Maddow explains how an ostensible top secret NSA document submitted through the show's inbox is likely a fake, and points out the perils of such forgeries to news organizations trying to report out important stories like the Trump Russia story. Duration: 21:06

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-to-news-orgs-heads-up-for-hoaxes...

The Canadian who started this thread used the expression "in the time of Trump". She did so on January 26, 2017, which means not long after the president was elected.

So in her mind something suddenly happened. The country changed quickly and dramatically just because there was a new president. The Trump Era. Maybe she could explain to us what these dramatic changes were and how they occurred so suddenly.

In other words, life was great, then suddenly went to hell because Trump was elected. Since she is constantly casting aspersions on the mental health of others, I wonder what conclusion can be drawn about someone whose opinion changes so starkly, so dramatically and quickly, so soon after a new president was elected, long before he has had a chance to do much of anything. How is it exactly that the evil Trump has destroyed America in such a short time?

Maybe she could tell us something about her country, too, and why it's so much better than America. Maybe we can learn from her.

>153 2wonderY: "..Pentagon...know(s) that any day now President Trump could wake up on the wrong side of the bed and announce World War III in 140 characters. Trump’s tweets have always been a late night punchline, but yesterday was a great reminder that they have real world consequences, whether it’s implementing shitty policies or nearly starting a war..."

Trump has to go! At least Pence would have some discipline in these matters. (Couldn't be worse.)

The other side of Trump tweeting a declaration of war that might be warranted, the Joint Chiefs would await formal notification as they (rightfully) waited direction via formal channels.

Might Chiefs ignore a declaration of war they thought unwarranted? Would the prospect of unwarranted war prompt 25th amendment transfer of power to VP?

N Korea, Iran, Syria, Qatar, Russia-we need a hand on the tiller that's steady!!

ETA_____________________

US admiral stands ready to obey a Trump nuclear strike order
Rod McGuirk | July 27, 2017

...Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Trump ordered it, (US Pacific Fleet Commander Scott) Swift replied: “The answer would be: Yes.”

“Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us,” Swift said.

He added: “This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.”

Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown later said Swift’s answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military.

“The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military,” Brown said. “The premise of the question was ridiculous.”...

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/07/27/us-admiral-stands-ready-to-o...

Supporter: Trump reviews draft of fake Fox News story just before aired/published.

Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale
David Folkenfli | August 1, 2017

The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

...Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network...alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government. His suit charges that a Fox News reporter created quotations out of thin air and attributed them to him to propel her story.

...The first page of the lawsuit quotes a voicemail and text from (Trump supporter, Ed Butowsky, a wealthy Dallas investor and unpaid Fox commentator on financial matters who has emerged as a reliable Republican surrogate in recent years) boasting that Trump himself had reviewed drafts of the Fox News story just before it went to air and was published...

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/01/540783715/lawsuit-alleges-fox-news-and-trump-suppo...

Tillerson spurns $80 million to counter ISIS, Russian propaganda
The secretary of state won’t tap funding approved by Congress, angering officials.
NAHAL TOOSI | 08/02/2017

...It is highly unusual for a Cabinet secretary to turn down money for his department. But more than five months into his tenure, Tillerson has not issued a simple request for the money earmarked for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, $60 million of which is now parked at the Pentagon. Another $19.8 million sits untouched at the State Department as Tillerson’s aides reject calls from career diplomats and members of Congress to put the money to work against America’s adversaries.

The $60 million will expire on Sept. 30 if not transferred to State by then...

...Current and former U.S. officials call (the struggle over money)t the latest example of a severe slowdown in department decision-making; of Tillerson’s reliance on a coterie of political aides who distrust State’s career staffers; and a casualty of President Donald Trump’s intention to slash State's budget, which has Tillerson looking for ways to reshape the department and spend less money, not more.

Sources cited another sensitive factor at play: Russia. At one point during the discussions, Tillerson aide R.C. Hammond suggested the money is unwelcome because any extra funding for programs to counter Russian media influence would anger Moscow, according to a former senior State Department official.

...The Global Engagement Center...staff of about 80 is responsible for coordinating governmentwide efforts to counter the online messages of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.

A Pentagon spending bill signed into law by former President Barack Obama in December broadened the center's mandate to include battling state-sponsored disinformation campaigns by countries such as China, North Korea and Russia...

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/02/tillerson-isis-russia-propaganda-241218

Kushner's "off-the-record" meeting with Congressional interns:

Kushner on Middle East: 'I don't know' what makes administration's approach unique