Eminem attacks NRA in awards show performance: 'They control the puppet'

At the iHeartRadio Music awards, the rapper castigated gun lobbyists, saying ‘they love their guns more than our children’

Ben Beaumont-Thomas Mon 12 Mar 2018

Eminem has continued his run of politically charged performances with an attack on the National Rifle Association during a set at the iHeartRadio Music awards in Inglewood, California.

Adding a new freestyle verse to his song Nowhere Fast, he rapped:

This whole country is going nuts, and the NRA is in our way

They’re responsible for this whole production

They hold the strings, they control the puppet

And they threaten to take donor bucks

So they know the government won’t do nothing and no one’s budging

Gun owners clutching their loaded weapons

They love their guns more than our children

The performance was introduced by Alex Moscou, one of the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. He said he and his fellow students were “tired of hearing politicians sending their thoughts and prayers to us, and doing nothing to make the necessary changes to prevent this tragedy from happening again”.

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Quiz: Whats the Worst Part of This Betsy DeVos Exchange?

By Margaret Hartmann March 12, 2018

One would think that after Betsy DeVos appeared unfamiliar with basic education policy during parts of her confirmation hearing – an incident she says was worse than a root canal – the Education secretary would study up. Yet in a rare interview on Sunday night, DeVos revealed that she still has a poor grasp on these subjects.

There were plenty of cringe-inducing moments during the 13-minute 60 Minutes segment, from DeVos opting not to say whether she thinks the number of false accusations of sexual assault is as high as the number of actual assaults, to her declaration that the federal government has “invested billions and billions and billions of dollars from the federal level, and we have seen zero results.”

But one exchange with Lesley Stahl on school choice, DeVos’s signature issue, was so bad that it’s hard to identify the worst part. Here’s a little pop quiz. Was it:

(a) DeVos’s attempt to explain how letting parents pull kids (along with taxpayer funds) out of bad public schools helps the other kids in the failing school.

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[You gotta see the rest of the choices and transcripts, with the zinger end.]

Cable news covered the Baltimore school walkout for less than a minute

On March 6, Baltimore high school students staged a walkout for gun safety weeks after the Parkland, FL, school shooting left 17 dead. Cable media outlets all but ignored the walkout, spending less than a minute in total on the story on March 6.

Hundreds of students from both public and private schools across Baltimore came together on March 6 and marched to City Hall to protest gun violence. (There have been 18 shootings at schools this year alone.) The students had a list of gun safety demands, including “more frequent active shooter drills and comprehensive follow-up investigations into allegations of school police misconduct.” They also demanded social work and counseling services in schools “to prevent the culture of gun violence.” The walkout is the latest in several calls for more gun safety regulations.

On the day of the walkout, CNN and Fox News ignored the story completely, while MSNBC gave it less than a minute of coverage during its 1 p.m. hour:

Trump official under fire after granting broad access to mining and oil firms

Exclusive: extractive industry companies who met with Kathleen Benedetto later saw direct benefits from administration decisions

Jimmy Tobias 9 Mar 2018

A key Trump administration official scheduled roughly twice as many meetings with mining and fossil-fuel representatives as with environmental groups, public records requests have revealed.

Further investigation shows that some of the firms she met later benefited directly from administration decisions that weakened wilderness and wildlife protections.

As is the case with other prominent interior department officials appointed by the department secretary, Ryan Zinke, the official work calendar of his senior adviser Kathleen Benedetto indicates the remarkable access that the extractive industries have to the Trump administration.

“It makes it look like [Benedetto] is the fixer for mining companies,” said Aaron Weiss, a staffer at Center for Western Priorities, an environmental group. The interior department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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Trump Org Donates $151,000 in Foreign Profits to U.S. Treasury

By Adam K. Raymond

The Trump Organization wrote a check to the U.S. Treasury last month for $151,470, an amount it said represented all profits from “foreign government patronage” to its hotels in 2017. Though the company announced the donation in February, the amount wasn’t known until dailymail.com reported it Friday.

The donation fulfills a promise made last year to allay concerns about Trump’s continued ownership stake in his company. By refusing to divest from the Trump Organization, he was at risk of violating the Constitution’s “foreign emoluments clause,” critics said, citing the ban on federal officials accepting money from foreign governments.

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But critics say the damage is already done. “With this announcement, President Trump’s businesses seem to confirm that they accepted payments from foreign governments in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause,” Rob Marus, a spokesman for the District of Columbia attorney general, said last week. The D.C. attorney general is one of several suing Trump over potential emoluments clause violations. “Whether the Trump Organization donated the proceeds from those foreign emoluments is irrelevant to our case,” Marus added.

New evidence the Stormy Daniels payment may have violated election law

by Philip Bump March 9

One short, newly revealed email from a Manhattan banker just made it much more likely that the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election violated federal law.

NBC News on Friday reported that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime ally and attorney, had used a Trump Organization email address as he worked to secure the payment to Daniels. Daniels alleges the money was paid to keep her from telling the media about a sexual relationship she had with Trump; Cohen and Trump continue to deny that relationship.

In particular, NBC received a copy of an email from a banker at First Republic Bank that was sent to Cohen. Cohen then forwarded the email to his private Gmail account and, from there, to Daniels’s attorney.

Notice the email address. The banker emailed Cohen at mcohen@trumporg.com. Trumporg.com redirects to Trump.com. The domain is registered to the Trump Organization. It is, in other words, an email address that belongs to the Trump Organization — an asset of the company.

That means that federal election law was almost certainly violated.
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Heres Why Republicans Stopped Talking About a Uranium One Whistleblower

The guy they hoped would implicate Hillary Clinton doesn’t appear too reliable.

Dan Friedman Mar. 8, 2018

A former FBI informant who GOP lawmakers have claimed could implicate the Clintons in the so-called Uranium One scandal failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by the Clintons or anyone else during a February 7 interview with staffers of three congressional committees, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee say in a summary of the meeting released Thursday.

For months Republicans have said the informant, a former lobbyist named William D. Campbell, had explosive information regarding the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian firm that owned mines in the United States, to Rosatom, a Russian-state owned company. They claimed that Campbell could shed light on how Russians exerted influence over then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—allegedly steering money to her family foundation—in order to win approval of the sale. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and several House Republicans cited Campbell’s claims to urge the appointment of a new special counsel to investigate the Uranium One sale. But lately, Republicans have largely stopped talking about Campbell. His recent congressional interview may help explain why.

During the meeting, Campbell admitted that he lacked knowledge of the interagency review process through which the sale was approved. Campbell said he “looked on Google to see” how the process worked, according to Democrats, who also note that he “identified no evidence that Secretary Hillary Clinton, President Bill Clinton, or anyone from the Obama Administration took any actions as a result of” Russian influence.

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Meet the Mueller team

By Marshall Cohen, Tal Yellin, Caroline Kelly and Liz Stark

Special counsel Robert Mueller assembled a team of at least 17 lawyers for his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The investigation has already led to charges against 22 people and entities, including four associates of President Donald Trump. Mueller brought on private-sector attorneys and prosecutors from the Department of Justice. Here are biographies of the 17 lawyers known to be working on Mueller’s team.

What swamp? Lobbyists get ethics waivers to work for Trump

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, March 8, 2018

President Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington.

A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government.

But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump's top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.

Though the waivers were typically signed by McGahn months ago, the Office of Government Ethics disclosed several more on Wednesday.

North Korea and South Korea snooker Trump

by Max Boot March 8

South Korean conservatives have had two nightmare scenarios about President Trump: that he would either embroil their country in a ruinous war with North Korea or that he would sell out their interests to the North.

Trump spent his first year in office lending credence to the first concern. He threatened to rain “fire and fury” down on North Korea. He called its dictator, Kim Jong-un, “Little Rocket Man,” and bragged that his “nuclear button” was much bigger than Kim’s. Administration officials claimed that deterrence couldn’t work and discussed the possibility of a “bloody nose” strike that could have triggered a nuclear war.

Now, in a head-snapping display of incoherence, Trump has agreed to meet Kim, giving the worst human-rights abuser on the planet, what he most wants: international legitimacy. Kim will be able to tell his people that the American president is kowtowing to him because he is scared of North Korea’s mighty nuclear arsenal.

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