As Florida Shooting Survivors Beg for Action, Trump Opts to Lie Low - Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )

15/2/2018

As Florida Shooting Survivors Beg for Action, Trump Opts to Lie Low

By

Margaret Hartmann

@MargHartmann

Under President Obama, the White House response to mass shootings developed a ritualistic quality, with the president delivering 15 speeches offering prayers for the fallen and calls for lawmakers to tighten gun safety laws, which were mostly not heeded.

President Trump has changed the pattern – and not just because he opposes stricter gun control measures. In the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting in particular, we’ve seen victims addressing Trump directly, with several students who survived the shooting using Twitter to demand that he take action. On Thursday Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed in Wednesday’s shooting, issued her own plea to the president, looking into the camera to address him during a CNN interview.

“President Trump, you say what can you do? You can stop the guns from getting into these children’s hands,” Alhadeff yelled. “What can you do? You can do a lot! This is not fair to our families and our children [to] go to school and have to get killed!”

@CNNnewsroom

"I just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements [together] for my daughter's funeral...President Trump, please do something...action, we need it now!" Lori Alhadeff lost a child in the school shooting, her plea leaves @BrookeBCNN in tears http://cnn.it/2Hi5Qrp

7:56 AM - Feb 16, 2018

Later on Thursday Jimmy Kimmel framed yet another plea for gun control as a charge to Trump directly. “Children are being murdered. Do something,” Kimmel said. “We still haven’t even talked about it. You still haven’t done anything about this. Nothing. You’ve literally done nothing.”

Trump’s handling of the tragedy mirrored his response to last week’s scandal, White House staff secretary Rob Porter’s resignation over reports that domestic violence accusations prevented him from securing the proper security clearance. As his aides failed to detail the process that led to Porter’s exit, Trump added fuel to the controversy by initially saying he only wished Porter well, lamenting that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” and failing to strongly condemn domestic violence.

In the first hours after the Parkland shooting, the only statement from the White House was that Trump was “aware” and monitoring the situation. Then on Thursday morning he issued a tweet that seemed to suggest the shooter’s neighbors and classmates deserve blame for failing to alert authorities about his concerning behavior – though people did reach out to police and the FBI, and they were unable to intervene.

Twenty hours after gunfire was first reported, Trump finally made a six-minute statement from the White House. But it was blasted for being so generic that it could have applied to any tragedy. He also failed to use the word “gun” once, which was seen as an effort to comfort gun owners scared that children being murdered might curtail their Second Amendment rights.

(Similarly, when Treasury Secretary remarked at a hearing on Thursday, “It’s a tragedy what we’ve seen yesterday, and I urge Congress to look at these issues,” he felt the need to clarify later that he was in no way calling for new gun laws.)

During his speech Trump said he would be meeting with governors and attorneys general to discuss school safety, but he offered no hints about what type of action he might call for. In a statement, the Democratic Attorneys General Association said, “We don’t know what the president’s plans are.”

It seems the general strategy is to lie low and wait until Americans shift focus to some other topic. Politico notes that the White House daily briefing was delayed twice on Wednesday, then canceled, along with Thursday’s briefing. “I suspect they didn’t want split screens,” said former President George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer. “White Houses have been burned by split screens before.”

Trump said he’s making plans to visit the Parkland community, but so far the White House has offered no details on the trip. Trump canceled an event scheduled for Friday in Orlando, but is still set to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, which is about 40 miles from Parkland. Aside from ordering flags to half mast, the White House had nothing further to say about the tragedy after Trump’s remarks.

Trump can refuse to take any meaningful action to curb gun violence – while quietly rolling back gun control laws – and ignore calls to show leadership on the issue. But the horrible reality is that he’s going to be repeating this cowardly process again and again.

Sen. Jeff Flake: President Trump's immigration policy would hurt the economy - CNBC News

15/2/2018

Sen. Jeff Flake: President Trump's immigration policy would hurt the economy

Sen. Jeff Flake tells CNBC's John Harwood that he opposes President Donald Trump's proposed reductions in legal immigration.

"We're going to need increased immigration," the Arizona Republican said.

John Harwood

CNBC.com

Flake says Trump’s immigration policy threatens economic growth Flake says Trump’s immigration policy threatens economic growth

3 Mins Ago | 00:58

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., sat down to talk with CNBC's John Harwood about an array of issues. Here's what the retiring conservative lawmaker, and frequent critic of President Donald Trump, said about immigration.

JOHN HARWOOD: The president's laid out conditions that include reductions in legal immigration, that I think go against what you think makes sense.

SEN. JEFF FLAKE: Yeah.

HARWOOD: Cutting legal immigration is directly harmful to the U.S. economy, is that not the case?

FLAKE: Yes. I think somebody wrote – Fred Hiatt, in the Washington Post – you can be pro-growth and anti-immigration, you just can't be both. And that's very true. We're going to need increased immigration. So that's why I can't vote for the Grassley bill.

HARWOOD: Whatever happens on DACA, do you believe that this Congress will pass reductions in legal immigration?

FLAKE: No, I don't. You know, anything that does that would have to pass 60 votes in the Senate. And there aren't those 60 votes. I don't think there's a majority of Republicans who would go for that. In fact, I know there's not.

The NRA used to be run by someone who wanted gun control - Independent ( source : Washington Post )

16/2/2018

The NRA used to be run by someone who wanted gun control

Posted about an hour ago by Greg Evans in news

UPVOTE           

There have been 30 mass shootings in the United States this year alone, but Wednesday's massacre at a high school in Florida stands as the ninth worst in modern history.

19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and injured 15 more with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

In the wake of every major shooting, thousands of people call for an introduction on restraints for the availability of guns in America, but it is seldom that anything ever happens.

The blame often falls on the National Rifle Association and the strong influence that they hold in American politics.

In recent years, the NRA has become an increasingly demonized organisation, an identity which they haven't exactly helped themselves with.

Following recent mass shootings, they often go quiet on social media and wait for the discussions to die down before reemerging.

This has been further perpetuated by a series of highly confrontational videos fronted by conservative radio host Dana Loesch.

But this type of propaganda and aggressively protective stance on guns hasn't always been the policy of the NRA.

In the 1930s, when the ruthless gangster and bank robber John Dillinger was exchanging gunfire with his enemies on the streets, the leader of NRA spoke out against the senseless violence.

During Congressional hearings in 1934, in regards to the proposed restrictions on gun sales, Karl T Frederick, the then-President of the National Rifle Association, said under testimony:

I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons.

I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns.

I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.

In the 2011 book Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, author Adam Winkler details just how complex a character Frederick was.

As a three-time Olympic gold medallist in shooting, Frederick was a keen marksman and believed in shooting as a pass time and a sport.

However, despite appearing in Congress to propose restrictions against the criminal use of guns, he still wanted to protect the rights of a regular citizen and their right to own a firearm.

He is quoted as saying:

I am just as much against the gangster as any man [but] I do not believe we should burn down the barn in order to destroy the rats.

I think we should be careful in considering the actual operation of regulatory measures to make sure that they do not hamstring the law-abiding citizen in his opposition to the crook.

This may sound like the stance that advocates adopt today, in that any person with a gun would be able to defend themselves and their family against other shooters.

Yet, in contrast, he didn't believe that this right should translate to someone being able to carry a gun as part of their everyday life.

He added:

I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons

I seldom carry one.

Furthermore, Frederick felt that the topic of self-defence and guns should come through education and "intelligent legislative action".

In today's climate, Frederick would be seen as an interesting character in the ongoing debate around guns in America, and Winkler feels that his words would have resonated with the public.

In an interview with The Washington Post he said:

I think Frederick represented what the mainstream views of Americans are on guns today.

You have a right to bear arms, but there is also a place for reasonable regulations.

That’s where most Americans are on this issue. But that’s not where the NRA is anymore.

Frederick was by no means against guns of all kinds and was only lobbying for imposing licenses on machine guns and sawn-off shotguns, but not pistols.

As a result of the National Firearms Act of 1934, heavy restrictions on larger guns were introduced, while there were fewer restrictions on handguns.

Frederick's words do not correlate with the strong rhetoric of the NRA today and there are little references to him on their official website.

At time of writing, the NRA is yet to comment on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

HT Washington Post

Hungary anti-immigration bill an 'assault on human rights': U.N. - Reuters

FEBRUARY 16, 2018 / 9:35 PM / UPDATED 22 MINUTES AGO

Hungary anti-immigration bill an 'assault on human rights': U.N.

Reuters Staff

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday labeled an anti-immigration law proposed in Hungary an “assault on human rights” and urged its government to uphold the right of freedom of association.

A government billboard is seen in Budapest, Hungary, February 14, 2018. A billboard reads: 'Soros wants to transplant millions from Africa and the Middle East'. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

The nationalist government in Budapest on Tuesday submitted legislation to parliament that would empower the interior minister to ban non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support migration and pose a “national security risk”.

The bill is part of an anti-immigration drive by Prime Minister Viktor Orban that has set its sights on a campaign by Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist George Soros to bolster liberal and open-border values in eastern Europe.

It appeared to mark a further tightening of controls on groups “working on issues the government regards as against state interests, such as migration and asylum”, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said.

It represented “an unjustified restriction on the right to freedom of association and is a worrying continuation of the government’s assault on human rights and civic space,” he told a Geneva news briefing.

The government says the bill, which would also impose a 25 percent tax on foreign donations to NGOs that back migration in Hungary, is meant to deter illegal immigration Orban says is eroding European stability and has been stoked in part by Soros, who has dual Hungarian and U.S. citizenship.

“Such a tax is likely to result in reduced budgets and disrupt fundraising, thereby undermining NGOs’ ability to carry out their activities and services,” Colville said.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Tom Miles and John Stonestreet

Scores of White House Staffers Still Lack a Full Security Clearance - Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )

15/2/2018

Scores of White House Staffers Still Lack a Full Security Clearance

By

Eric Levitz

@EricLevitz

Throughout his general election campaign, Donald Trump argued that mishandling classified information was such a betrayal of the public’s trust and security, any official who did so was unqualified for the presidency — and fit for a prison sentence.

If Trump still holds that view today, he might need to “lock up” most of his own White House. As of last November, more than 130 administration appointees lacked permanent security clearances, according to documents obtained by CNN and NBC News. Among them were several top-ranking White House officials who had been on staff since the presidency’s earliest days, including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and White House counsel Don McGahn. Meanwhile, ten members of the president’s National Security Council had not been approved for permanent access to top secret information.

It is not clear how many of those appointees secured such access between November and today. And it’s also unclear how many of them lack a permanent security clearance for wholly innocent, bureaucratic reasons.

But all signs suggest that some administration officials simply have things in their backgrounds that render them ineligible for permanent security clearances — and that the president is allowing them to use interim security clearances indefinitely instead.

This was apparently the case with Rob Porter. This week, we learned that the FBI completed a background check on the former White House staff secretary last summer. That file would have included information about Porter’s history of domestic abuse, including the restraining order that one of his ex-wives secured against him. This appears to have prevented Porter from receiving a permanent security clearance. But the secretary was still able to access “top secret” information with an interim clearance until he resigned earlier this month.

It is true that Trump’s taste in staff may be especially taxing on the security clearance bureaucracy. A significant number of his appointees have never served in government before, and have vast and complicated financial holdings. Nonetheless, Trump’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn — former president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs — obtained a full security clearance by last November. Jared Kushner, meanwhile, had not.

Given Kushner’s prominent role in shaping the administration’s foreign policy, the notion that his background might disqualify him from holding a permanent security clearance would seem concerning — especially to anyone who believes that the mere use of a private email server by a government official is a crime tantamount to treason.

Berkshire buys Teva, feels IBM blues as Apple becomes top investment - Reuters

FEBRUARY 15, 2018 / 8:52 AM / UPDATED 15 HOURS AGO

Berkshire buys Teva, feels IBM blues as Apple becomes top investment

Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) on Wednesday disclosed a new stake in generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.TA) and said it bought more shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O), which surpassed Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) as its largest common stock investment.

Berkshire also nearly completed its yearlong exit from International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), selling more than 94 percent of what was left from an investment Buffett has admitted was not among his best.

In a regulatory filing detailing its U.S.-listed stock holdings as of Dec. 31, Berkshire reported owning about 18.9 million Teva American depositary receipts, worth about $358 million.

Teva shares rose more than 10 percent after market hours, reflecting what investors perceive as Berkshire’s seal of approval for the Israeli drugmaker.

Last month, Berkshire said it would work with Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) to create their own healthcare company. Other healthcare stocks fell on that news.

“The intimidation, bullying and misery facing the healthcare industry has created bargains,” said Bill Smead, who oversees $2.3 billion, including $130 million in Berkshire stock, at Smead Capital Management Inc in Seattle.

Teva and Berkshire declined to comment.

Wednesday’s filing details investments made by Buffett and his investment deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, though it does not say who bought what. Combs and Weschler are generally responsible for Berkshire’s smaller investments.

Berkshire’s Apple stake grew by about 23 percent since the end of September to roughly 165.3 million shares worth $28 billion. That was just above the reported $27.8 billion stake in Wells Fargo.

Berkshire may have funded the Apple purchases by selling roughly $5 billion of IBM stock, reducing that stake to just 2.05 million shares worth about $314 million.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc

305999.0

BRKA.NNEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

+4,993.99(+1.66%)

BRKa.N

BRKa.NTEVA.TAAAPL.OWFC.NIBM.N

Buffett began selling IBM in the first quarter of 2017, and has admitted he did not value the company as highly as when he began buying six years earlier.

Berkshire at one time owned roughly 81 million IBM shares, for which it paid about $13.8 billion. Berkshire was close to break-even on IBM when the selling began.

Berkshire on Wednesday also reported higher stakes in Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N), Monsanto Co (MON.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N), and lower stakes in American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O), General Motors Co (GM.N), France’s Sanofi SA (SASY.PA) and Wells Fargo.

On Tuesday, Berkshire agreed to sell more than 43 percent of another big holding, Phillips 66 (PSX.N), back to the oil refiner for $3.3 billion. It plans to remain a long-term shareholder.

Buffett will provide more detail about Berkshire’s investments and its more than 90 operating businesses in his annual shareholders letter, slated for release on Feb. 24.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Leslie Adler

The case for canceling all student debt - CNN Money

The case for canceling all student debt

by Katie Lobosco @KatieLobosco

February 15, 2018: 1:50 PM ET

How to talk to your kid about paying for college

What if the government wiped away everyone's student debt?

Let's be clear. No lawmaker has proposed such a plan. But researchers at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College say it's a proposal worth considering.

It's a "radical solution to the student debt crisis, but one that deserves serious attention, given the radical scope of the problem," wrote Marshall Steinbaum, one of the authors of the report, in a blog post.

There is currently $1.4 trillion of outstanding student loan debt in the US, held by about 44 million people.

Nearly 70% of college seniors at nonprofit schools left with some debt in 2015.

The researchers looked at what would happen if the government canceled all federal loans (the majority of student debt) and paid off all privately owned loans -— as a one-time policy.

Their economic models show that canceling student debt would lead to a boost in GDP by an average of $86 billion to $108 billion annually over the next 10 years. They also show that it would reduce the unemployment rate by about 0.3%.

Meanwhile the cost of paying off $1.4 trillion of debt would have a "modest" effect on the deficit and inflation over the next 10 years, the report said.

In his post, Steinbaum addressed two possible criticisms: that eliminating student debt is inequitable because the largest balances are held by the highest-income borrowers, and that the debt isn't a significant drag on the economy to begin with, since a college degree generally leads to higher earnings.

But Steinbaum says that those critiques are "much less true than they are commonly believed."

Some critics of debt cancellation also worry that current and future borrowers could borrow even more, expecting their debt to be forgiven, too. The research did not account for a potential moral hazard, though the paper suggests that using public funds to make colleges tuition- or debt-free could help avert the problem.

While the biggest debts are held by those who go to graduate school and earn big salaries, like doctors and lawyers, student debt is increasingly held by a larger portion of the population as the cost of education has risen, Steinbaum said.

Erasing all student debt is ambitious. But forgiveness programs do exist for some federal loan borrowers. Those who work in the public sector may be eligible to have their remaining debt forgiven after 10 years of payments. Another program provides debt relief for some teachers. And those enrolled in an income-driven repayment program may be eligible for debt forgiveness after 20 or 25 years.

Florida shooting: White House refuses to release photo of Trump signing bill weakening gun laws - Independent

16/2/2018

Florida shooting: White House refuses to release photo of Trump signing bill weakening gun laws

Calls for images to be made public intensify in wake of massacre

Tom Embury-Dennis @tomemburyd

President Donald Trump pauses as he arrives to speak about the mass shooting at a South Florida High School AP

The White House has refused to release any images of Donald Trump signing a bill that made it easier for some people with a mental illness to buy guns.

Requests from US media outlets initially came after the US President signed the bill into law on 28 February last year, just a month after his inauguration.

But calls for their release have intensified in the wake of the Florida school shooting, which left 17 people dead, including 14 students.

Florida high school students turn on adults over gun control

Gun laws are even less likely to change under Donald Trump

Trump does not mention gun control in speech after Florida shooting

The bill, HJ Resolution 40, repealed an Obama-era rule that would have added thousands of mentally ill US citizens to a database preventing them buying firearms.

Barack Obama pushed for the change following the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, in which 20 children between six and seven years old were shot dead. The law came into effect in 2016.

On the day Mr Trump signed the bill, the National Rifle Association (NRA), America’s most powerful pro-gun pressure group, called it a “new era for law-abiding gun owners”.

Jimmy Kimmel issues emotional message to Trump following Florida shooting: 'Children are being murdered'

“We now have a president who respects and supports our right to keep and bear arms,” its statement said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a group rarely on the side of the NRA when it comes to gun legislation, also supported Mr Trump’s repeal of the rule, insisting there was no evidence people affected “have a propensity for violence in general or gun violence in particular”.

CBS News said it has made requests for access to the images a total of 13 times, including after Wednesday’s tragedy in Florida. l

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary, responded just once, according to the news channel. "We don't plan to release the picture at this time,” she said on 19 April.

Presidential administrations typically release its own images of bill signings from the Oval Office, and often invite the press in to take pictures of their own.

Mr Trump signed another bill on the same day, the Waters of the United States rule, with images and video of the ceremony being widely circulated.

President Donald Trump speaks as he signs an order withdrawing the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, 28 February 2017 (AP)

The Independent has approached the White House for comment.