fountainofyouth
fountainofyouth's JournalTrump Chooses H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser
Source: New York Times
President Trump picked Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a widely respected military strategist, as his new national security adviser on Monday, calling him “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”
Mr. Trump made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago getaway in Palm Beach, Fla., where he has been interviewing candidates to replace Michael T. Flynn, who was forced out after withholding information from Vice President Mike Pence about a call with Russia’s ambassador.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/politics/mcmaster-national-security-adviser-trump.html
McMaster is a superb military strategist, but his job is going to be mostly bureaucratic.
Could have been much worse than this, though.
Bomb threats called in to at least 10 JCCs in fourth round of harassment
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
At least 10 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats on Monday, for the fourth time in five weeks.
The threats have been called in to JCCs across the country, according to Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Network — an affiliate of the Jewish Federations of North America that advises Jewish groups and institutions on security.
News reports indicated that threats were received by JCCs in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin; St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Buffalo, New York; and Birmingham, Alabama.
The threats were called in on Monday morning. It is not known if they were live calls or recorded.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2017/02/20/news-opinion/united-states/bomb-threats-called-in-to-at-least-10-jccs-in-fourth-round-of-harassment
As a reminder, our fearless leader had a particularly outrageous response to a question about this a week ago: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-anti-semitism/
White House dismisses 6 over failed background checks
Source: Politico
Several White House staffers were dismissed Thursday morning after failing FBI background checks, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Six aides were "walked out of the building by security" on Wednesday after not passing the SF86, a Questionnaire for National Security Positions for security clearance.
Among those whose White House posts were revoked was President Donald Trump’s director of scheduling, Caroline Wiles, the daughter of Susan Wiles, Trump’s Florida campaign manager and former chief of staff to Governor Rick Scott. Wiles was appointed deputy assistant secretary before the inauguration in January. Two sources close to Wiles said she will get another job in Treasury.
She's among others who failed to pass the intensive background check, which includes questions on the applicant's credit score, substance use and other personal subjects.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/02/white-house-failed-background-checks-dismissals-235112
Whole article there.
The SF86 is the standard OPM form for a background check to receive security clearance. Clearance can be rejected for a number of reasons, but common ones include a criminal history, severe debt or mismanagement of money, financial conflict of interest, or unexplained foreign travel or associations.
Remember to bring up his tax returns!
After every major revelation, remind yourself and those around you that until he releases his taxes, we have every reason to believe that he's keeping embarrassing information from us that could be relevant. All of this goes back to his tax returns. Keep telling your elected officials to bring it up.
Turmoil at the National Security Council, From the Top Down
Source: New York Times
These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world.
Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks.
The national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His survival in the job may hang in the balance. (snip)
Still, Mr. Flynn presents additional complications beyond his conversations with the Russian ambassador. His aides say he is insecure about whether his unfettered access to Mr. Trump during the campaign is being scaled back and about a shadow council created by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s top strategist, who was made a member of the council two weeks ago. For his part, Mr. Bannon sees the United States as headed toward an inevitable confrontation with two adversaries — China and Iran.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/national-security-council-turmoil.html
CIA Memo: Designating Muslim Brotherhood Could 'Fuel Extremism'
Source: Politico
Trump administration officials pushing to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization face at least one significant obstacle: analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency.
CIA experts have warned that so labeling the decades-old Islamist group “may fuel extremism” and damage relations with America's allies, according to a summary of a finished intelligence report for the intelligence community and policymakers that was shared with POLITICO by a U.S. official.
The document, published internally on Jan. 31, notes that the Brotherhood—which boasts millions of followers around the Arab world—has “rejected violence as a matter of official policy and opposed al-Qa’ida and ISIS.”
It acknowledges that “a minority of MB [Muslim Brotherhood] members have engaged in violence, most often in response to harsh regime repression, perceived foreign occupation, or civil conflicts.” Noting that there are branches of the group in countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia, it cautions that some of America’s allies in the region “probably worry that such a step could destabilize their internal politics, feed extremist narratives, and anger Muslims worldwide.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757
In other words, it would be another way to cultivate a war with the Muslim world if you're Steve Bannon.
Obama's Protections for L.G.B.T. Workers Will Remain Under Trump
Source: New York Times
The White House said on Monday that President Trump would leave in place a 2014 Obama administration order that created new workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
In a statement issued in response to growing questions about whether Mr. Trump would reverse the Obama order, the White House said the president was proud to embrace gay rights.
"President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, just as he was throughout the election," the statement said. "The president is proud to have been the first ever G.O.P. nominee to mention the L.G.B.T.Q. community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression."
The decision to keep the order, the statement added, was Mr. Trump's. It uses stronger language than any Republican president has before in favor of equal legal protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, though that is not likely to quiet Mr. Trump's critics on the left.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/obama-trump-protections-lgbt-workers.html?_r=0
Well, so he passed up one opportunity to be needlessly cruel, I suppose.
Hill staffers secretly worked on Trump's immigration order
Source: Politico
Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Donald Trump's top aides draft the executive order curbing immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, but the Republican committee chairman and party leadership were not informed, according to multiple sources involved in the process.
The news of their involvement helps unlock the mystery of whether the White House consulted Capitol Hill about the executive order, one of many questions raised in the days after it was unveiled on Friday. It confirms that the small group of staffers were among the only people on Capitol Hill who knew of the looming controversial policy.
Kathryn Rexrode, the House Judiciary Committee’s communications director, declined to comment about the aides’ work. A Judiciary Committee aide said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) was not "consulted by the administration on the executive order."
The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump's transition operation forced its staff to sign these agreements, but it would be unusual to extend that requirement to congressional employees. Rexrode declined to comment on the nondisclosure pacts.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-immigration-congress-order-234392
Senate Dems will filibuster Trump's Supreme Court nominee
Source: Politico
Senate Democrats are going to try to bring down President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick no matter who the president chooses to the fill the current vacancy.
With Trump prepared to announce his nominee on Tuesday evening, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in an interview on Monday morning that he will filibuster any pick that is not Merrick Garland and that the vast majority of his caucus will oppose Trumps nomination. That means Trump's nominee will need 60 votes to be confirmed by the Senate.
"This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat," Merkley said in an interview. "We will use every lever in our power to stop this."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/senate-democrats-filibuster-supreme-court-pick-234368
Godspeed!
GOP Rep Urges Halt To Trump's Executive Order Banning Refugees
Source: TalkingPointsMemo
A Republican lawmaker whose district has one of the largest Syrian refugee populations in the country on Saturday called for a halt on President Donald Trumps executive order banning refugees and immigrants from certain countries from entering the U.S.
I urge the administration to halt enforcement of this order until a more thoughtful and deliberate policy can be instated," Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) told The New York Times Jonathan Martin.
Trump's Friday executive order banned all refugees from entering the country for 120 days, and prohibited the entry of people from Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan and Libya for 90 days, even if they held U.S. green cards. Refugees, graduate students, Google employees and others caught unawares by the immediate implementation of the order were left stranded abroad or detained at points of entry across the U.S.
A six-person Christian family arriving from Syria emailed Dent on Saturday morning to tell him that they had been detained at Philadelphia International Airport, according to the Times. The family said they had legal paperwork, green cards, and visas needed to enter the country.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/charlie-dent-urges-halt-trump-executive-order-refugees
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