July 31, 2019

"Putin's Puppet"??? Check the spooky factual history...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the leaders of the United States and North Korea to have a third summit, and show flexibility in resolving the Korean peninsula nuclear issues, following his unprecedented state visit to Pyongyang last week.

In talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Osaka, Japan, ahead of the Group of 20 summit, Xi said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s determination to denuclearise remained solid, and Beijing was still committed to political engagement over the future of the peninsula.

The meeting with Moon came about a week after Xi made his first official visit to Pyongyang, where he pledged to support North Korea in its security and development needs.

“The trend for resolving the Korean peninsula situation through dialogue has not changed,” Xi was quoted by state-run China Central Television as saying on Thursday.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3016397/chinese-president-xi-jinping-calls-us-and-north-korean-leaders

China Says Kerry’s Call for Internet Freedom Naive

(Reuters) – China criticized U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday for his “naive” call for more Internet freedom...
https://washingtoninformer.com/china-says-kerrys-call-for-internet-freedom-naive/

Flawed by Design: Electronics with Pre-Installed Malware

Photo by: Reuters

Electronics sourced from China pose a risk to US national security. Firms in China have repeatedly pre-installed malicious software on products sold in the United States. This activity provides Chinese authorities with the means to conduct espionage and launch cyber-attacks against US targets. http://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2018/05/23/flawed-by-design-electronics-with-pre-installed-malware/

China Copies Russian Ship Technology For Use and Profit
Russian officials have been irritated for years by what they view as China’s illegal reverse engineering of combat systems. After selling a few systems to China, Russia had counted on follow-on orders for more systems, which is the ethical business practice of other nations. In addition to costing Russia the loss of future sales to China, Chinese copies compete with Russia in sales to other Third World navies. https://www.afcea.org/content/china-copies-russian-ship-technology-use-and-profit

July 31, 2019

TRUMP-LOVE? North Korea's second missile launch in less than a week

North Korea is at it again. The North launched a pair of short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korean and US officials said. That's the second such launch in less than a week. In response, South Korea held an emergency National Security Council meeting this morning. It's not clear if the missile launches will affect the working-level talks between the US and the North, which US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hoped would start soon. It was just a month ago when President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and Trump became the first sitting US President to set foot on North Korean soil.



Trump Learns That Love Letters From A Murderous Dictator Don’t Mean Much After All
After the Singapore meeting, Trump took to praising Kim ― who reportedly has had his uncle and his stepbrother murdered, while incarcerating countless political prisoners ― as a visionary leader. He has called Kim “very honorable,” a “very worthy, very smart negotiator,” and “very open and terrific.” He has gushed over the letters that Kim sent him and told audiences that he and the dictator “fell in love.” Just before the start of the Hanoi summit, Trump even called him “my friend” and said the United States and North Korea have a “special relationship,” a term once reserved for America’s ties to Great Britain.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-kim-jong-un-summit-collapse_n_5c7842fae4b0de0c3fbf2d35

July 13, 2019

U.S. Citizens are also detained at Trump "concentration camps."

ICE Is Dangerously Inaccurate
Even American citizens are not immune from immigration raids.
By Darlena Cunha
July 12, 2019

Ms. Nuetzi is a cheerful white woman who spent her childhood in Ocala, Fla., and has been an elementary school secretary in Gainesville for 20 years. In 2016, she voted for Donald Trump, and was ecstatic when he won. A year later, her driver’s license expired.

Ms. Nuetzi went to the motor vehicles agency to get a new one, and for the first time in her life, officials did not accept her birth certificate...

“I called to get a new passport, and they told me to go to immigration,” Ms. Nuetzi said. “But why would I go to immigration? I’m not an immigrant. Then I called Homeland Security and the woman on the other end of the line started laughing at me.”

It proved nearly impossible for Ms. Nuetzi to extract herself from the ICE machine.

Davino Watson is a U.S. citizen who was 23 years old when ICE held him for more than three years. A New Yorker, he was eventually dropped off in Alabama with no explanation and no money. After he was released, Mr. Watson filed a complaint and a court awarded him compensation in 2016. The next year, an appeals court decided the statute of limitations for that complaint had expired while he was still in ICE custody.

more true stories by the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/opinion/ice-raids.html

According to CBS News:

Who will be targeted in the expected ICE roundups of immigrant families?
BY CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ
JULY 13, 2019 / 9:07 AM / CBS NEWS

Will families be separated because of this operation? (ie ICE raids on Sunday 7/14/19)
Deportations can lead to family separations, as they have in the past. Roundups would not only affect undocumented immigrants with pending removal orders, but also so-called "mixed-status" families with members who are green card holders and U.S. citizens — mostly U.S.-born children.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-raids-who-will-be-targeted-expected-roundups-of-immigrant-families-2019-07-13/

July 11, 2019

Wise words by Gandhi that apply to Trump

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

July 10, 2019

New York Times Wednesday Briefing: "TRUMP VIOLATED CONSTITUTION" on Twitter

New Twitter rules for a president (and for everyone else)
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that President Trump had violated the Constitution by blocking Twitter users who criticized or mocked him. Because he uses Twitter to conduct government business, the court said, he could not exclude Americans from reading or engaging with his posts because he did not like their opinions.

The ruling was one of the highest-profile decisions yet in a growing constellation of cases addressing what the First Amendment means in a time when political expression increasingly takes place online.

July 7, 2019

Unexpected CNN news on 7/7/19 "What GOP says [about Trump] behind closed doors"

Justin Amash on what his GOP colleagues say behind closed doors
By Jamie Ehrlich, CNN
Updated 10:09 AM ET, Sun July 7, 2019

(CNN) - Rep. Justin Amash, the only congressional Republican to have publicly argued that President Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct, told CNN that high-level party officials have thanked him behind closed doors for his stance on impeachment proceedings against Trump.

"They're not saying it publicly. And I think that's a problem for our country, it's a problem for the Republican Party, it's a problem for the Democratic Party when people aren't allowed to speak out."

Amash didn't mention the President by name, but his decision to abandon the party comes after months of escalating criticism not just of Trump but of his own colleagues for their failure to hold the President to account, specifically for the actions detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the 2016 election and its aftermath.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/07/politics/justin-amash-republican-party-donald-trump-cnntv/index.html?cid=web-alerts&nsid=87140133

Readers should realize that Trump and the GOP majority in the Senate want Democrats in the House to impeach Trump, which will allow them to rally their constituency, after voting down ANY attempt at impeachment.

July 5, 2019

BREAKING CNN - After defying Congress; can Trump circumvent the Supreme Court?

Justice Department tells court it is looking at options to add citizenship question to census
By Ariane de Vogue, Kevin Liptak and Gregory Wallace, CNN
Updated 1:05 PM ET, Fri July 5, 2019

(CNN) - Lawyers for the Department of Justice told a federal judge in Maryland Friday afternoon that the Trump administration will continue to explore options of adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but made no mention of a potential executive order being considered by the White House.

An administration official stressed that as of now the census will be printed without the citizenship question, though discussions are continuing about how to challenge last week's Supreme Court ruling blocking the Census Bureau from adding it to the questionnaire.

Earlier Friday, President Donald Trump said he is considering his options, which include an executive order or a potential addendum to the questionnaire that would allow the question to be added at a later date. Such a move could require the administration to provide a new justification for the addition of the question, following a Supreme Court ruling requiring a new rationale.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/census-citizenship-question-deadline-donald-trump/index.html?cid=web-alerts&nsid=38903092