Month: January 2017

Hillary Clinton not a saint

First, let me commend you on urging everyone to get behind President Elect Donald Trump. Love him or loath him, he will be our next President and we had all better hope and pray that he is successful.

Dem rep unsure why Trump has ‘taken a shine’ to Assange

“I watched him for a long time and look, I think he is a dangerous guy,” Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee, said of Assange in an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York. “He is dedicated to the idea that there shouldn’t be secrets — and that might be an interesting philosophical point — but he doesn’t seem to worry too much about Russian secrets or Chinese secrets.

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The young prince leading Saudi ArabiaA s drive for economic reform has laid out a three-pronged strategy to avoid a backlash from any religious conservatives opposed to his plan, according to remarks reported by Foreign Affairs magazine on Saturday. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old overseeing the kingdomA s biggest-ever overhaul of state and society, told visiting researchers last month punitive measures would be considered for any clerics who incited or resorted to violence over the plan, one of the researchers wrote.

Ex-lawmaker seeks a comeback bid, this time in N.J. Senate

Seen in this 2009 file photo, then-state Democratic Committee Chairman and Assemblyman Joe Cryan , shares a laugh with Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage during the event of Hawaiian Luau at O’Donnell Dempsey Senior Center in Elizabeth. Bryan left the legislature but announced Saturday he was making a comeback by seeking the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Raymond Lesniak who is running for governor.

What the US lost in Syria

The duration of the latest Syrian cease-fire may matter less than its genesis. Russia, Turkey and Iran brokered the agreement without US involvement — a worrying sign of the waning regional influence of the world’s only superpower.

[Chicago Tribune] Trump’s North Korea conundrum

“We may have to go on an arduous march, a time when we will again have to eat the roots of grass,” said a March 2016 editorial in the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, preparing North Koreans for worsening conditions after tougher sanctions were imposed. Last year around this time, North Korea tapped the world on the shoulder with an underground nuclear test that drew the usual international diplomatic tut-tutting.

[Kent Harrington ] Donald Trump’s North Korean family values

With every new US president arriving in Washington come a handful of counselors and aides whose personal ties, built over years and forged in election campaigns, give them pride of place in the administration. From the “Irish Brotherhood” that brought John F. Kennedy to office to the “Berlin Wall” that guarded Richard Nixon’s door, close friends and confidantes have often outdone the administration’s biggest names.

Trump, Putin and the Big Hack

Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin’s foreign minister, once remarked while on a trip to Berlin in the early days of the Cold War, “The trouble with free elections is that you never know how they will turn out.” On the morning of November 9th, Molotov’s grandson, Vyacheslav Nikonov, a member of the Russian Duma’s foreign-affairs committee, announced to the parliament, “Three minutes ago, Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the American Presidential elections.

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RT, a state-run Russian television network that broadcasts around the world in English, was implicated in a recently declassified United States intelligence report that accused the Russia government of meddling in the American presidential election to tip the vote in favor of Donald J. Trump. The Russians are accused of hacking the email systems of the Democratic National Committee and conducting a widespread disinformation campaign that included the propagation of fake news stories on the internet and the airwaves.

Trump Challenges Intel Agencies

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday escalated his blunt public challenge to the U.S. intelligence agencies he will soon oversee, appearing to embrace WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s contention that Russia did not provide his group with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trump’s [seen here] defiance has increased the pressure on intelligence officials to provide decisive evidence of Russian election interference.

Challenging the duopoly

Ever so briefly during the 2016 presidential campaign, Peter Ackerman and his band of reformers believed their time had come. Those hopes proved fleeting, but Ackerman and his rebels are in for the long haul.

Letters: Evaluating Obama’s legacy

Re: “How do you assess Obama’s legacy?” [Opinion, Jan. 3]: It’s become clear that President Obama is very concerned about his place in history, and his actions in office will define that legacy. His administration has given us inedible school lunches, unaffordable insurance and made police lives unimportant.

Loyal opposition versus resistance to Trump

Perhaps nothing has made modern progressivism look sillier than the often hysterical reaction to the election of Donald Trump. This has spanned everything from street protests, claims of Russian electoral manipulation and even reports of sudden weight gain and loss of sexual interest.

The Latest: Trump team defends Crowley on plagiarism claims

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is defending against plagiarism accusations the syndicated talk show host Monica Crowley, named as a communications specialist for the incoming administration. In its report, CNN says it found more than 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including copying with no changes or minimal changes from news articles, other columnists and think tanks.

To celebrate inaugural or not? Trump critics are divided

It’s typically an unquestioned honor to participate in the inauguration of an American president. Who wouldn’t want to be part of such a historic event? The sharp divisions over Donald Trump’s election have politicians, celebrities and even high school students debating whether taking part in the inauguration is a political act that demonstrates support for the new president and his agenda or a nonpartisan tribute to democratic traditions and the peaceful transfer of power.

Menendez raises concerns over secretary of state nominee

A New Jersey senator who sits on the panel that will hold confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state is expressing concerns about the nominee’s “overall depth of understanding” of United States foreign policy. But Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez says he remains open to the nomination of Rex Tillerson and looks forward to hearing more from him during the upcoming Foreign Relations Committee hearings.

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His son, Tom Hentoff, said his father died on Saturday from natural causes at his Manhattan apartment. He was 91. Hentoff was a Village Voice contributor and columnist for 50 years and also wrote for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Down Beat and the Wall Street Journal.

Judge refuses to release 4 accused of beating disabled youth

A Chicago judge refused to allow four black people caught on cellphone footage taunting and beating a mentally disabled white man to post bail and leave jail, saying they are accused of such “terrible actions” that they are a danger to society. “Where was your sense of decency?” Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked them on Friday during their first court appearance, sounding baffled that the suspects could be charged with such cruelty toward the 18-year-old victim.

Only ‘stupid and fool’ think cordial relations with Russia is bad: Trump

Washington .D.C. [USA], Jan. 8 : President-elect Donald Trump, who has been refusing to believe conclusions reached by the US intelligence agencies of Russian involvement in the 2016 election, has defended his belief that closer ties with Moscow would be good for Washington. [NK US] Trump’s comments came one day after he received intelligence reports stating that the Russian government hacked into the Democratic Party groups and individuals during the election, and that Moscow acted to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign to benefit Trump.

Killer ‘lost his mind’ in Iraq

US authorities were under pressure yesterday to explain how a mentally ill man, whom his family said “changed” after serving in Iraq, was able to arm himself and shoot five people dead in Fort Lauderdale airport. Runaway chaos: People stand on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last Friday after a gunman opened fire inside the terminal Photo: AP Photo/Lynne Sladky US authorities were under pressure yesterday to explain how a mentally ill man, whom his family said “changed” after serving in Iraq, was able to arm himself and shoot five people dead in Fort Lauderdale airport.