Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy

Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy


“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists and their sources demand protection,” said Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said of the incident.

Ben Smith
@BuzzFeedBen
This story concerns a reporter's work @BuzzFeedNews. We are deeply troubled by what looks like a case of law enforcement interfering with a reporter’s constitutional right to gather information about her own government

Justice Dept. Seizes Times Reporter’s Email and Phone Records in Leak Investigation

9:09 PM June 7, 2018

Prosecutors secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records.”

Carter Page is at the center of this fuckery.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ide-charged-over-leaking-stories-to-reporters

Since seizing a journalist’s records is so delicate — and potentially an intrusion on their First Amendment rights — there are special regulations the Justice Department must follow. Before obtaining records that could reveal a journalist’s sources, investigators are required to have “made all reasonable attempts to obtain the information from alternative, non-media sources.” They’re also supposed to notify the reporter to give them a chance to negotiate or challenge the move, though the attorney general can waive this in extreme cases.

The Times reports that FBI agents initially approached Watkins to ask about her relationship with Wolfe, and said they were investigating illegal leaks. But she only learned that her records had been seized when she received a letter from the Justice Department in February. The records contained years of data on Watkins’s communications, and some were even attached to her university email from when she was an undergraduate. It’s unclear what, if any, efforts were made to obtain the information from other sources.


Journalists previously raised alarms about the Obama administration’s aggressive moves against reporters in leak investigations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions bragged last year that his DOJ was pursuing three times as many leak investigations as were open at the end of the Obama administration, but this is the first known instance of the Trump administration continuing those tactics against the press

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...-seizes-nyt-reporters-data-in-leak-probe.html

gsgs comment-

Department of Justice on a fishing expedition to find the root of leaked information.


James Wolfe faces a grand jury because he had a girlfriend that was a journalist, and friends that were journalists.

The Department of Justice used a sledgehammer on Wolfe, and a crow bar on Ali Watkins, when it was not necessary. Now, there are doubts that the Justice Department stuck the rules, and the law.

From my view, it is hard to distinguish what I am looking at. Considering that the Russiagate investigation has thrown everything into doubt. Some are trying to protect the investigation, some are trying to use any available opportunity to obstruct the investigation.

The Constitution should protect us from Trump's corruption, and his mistaken idea that he can do anything he wants to do, because he is in that position of ultimate power. What if no one is willing to enforce American's constitutional rights, or those willing to fight for justice, are blocked from doing so ?

/end gsgs comment

Mitch McConnel cancelled the Senates's summer break so he could stuff more Trump nominees into the system.

05/01/18

Republicans confirming Trump's court nominees at record pace

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...nfirming-trumps-court-nominees-at-record-pace

Trump and His Lawyers Embrace a Vision of Vast Executive Power


No Supreme Court precedents offer definitive guideposts about whether Congresscan make it illegal for a president to use his powers to supervise the Justice Department in a corrupt way.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/us/politics/trump-executive-power-russia-investigation.html

Wolfe, it should be noted, is charged only with making false statements, not with leaking classified information

June 8, 2018


PRESIDENT TRUMP’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has made its first move to go after a journalist’s data. The action comes as part of a case against former Senate Intelligence Committee senior staffer James A. Wolfe, who has been charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters.

Minutes before the indictment against Wolfe was unsealed last night, The New York Times reported that prosecutors had secretly seized years’ worth of the phone and email records of one of its reporters, Ali Watkins. “Mr. Wolfe’s case led to the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporter’s data under President Trump,” wrote the paper’s Adam Goldman, Nicholas Fandos, and Katie Benner


Wolfe, it should be noted, is charged only with making false statements, not with leaking classified information.


Download of announcement of grand jury, found at highlighted word link-

"Minutes before the indictment against Wolfe was unsealed last night, The New York Times reported" ( sentence with highlighted link starts off second paragraph)

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/nytimes-reporter-data-leak.php

June 8, 2018

Trump Praises Arrest of Former Senate Committee Aide in Leaks Inquiry


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/us/politics/trump-leak-investigation.html

gsgs comment- Washington Post has joined in with FOX TV to nurse Trump's delusions that James Wolfe is facing an interrogation because of proof of leaks.


"Very important leaker..."
- Trumpypants Toddler

FFS, they are digging in hopes of finding leaks. There is no proof of them. The biggest leaks of classified information, is Trumpypants, himself. He cannot be bothered to use a secure phone, despite fake cell towers in DC. His White House is notorious for leaking through the staff's own publicists. Top Secret, Secret, Confidential, Trumpypants blabs and boasts about what he thinks that he knows.

Fishing for information-Trump makes unsupported accusations of wiretapping, surveillance towards Obama administration


Who will ever forget Devin Nunes cloak and dagger Uber car farce-

That's no whistle blower, that's a ...

Nunes told Bloomberg's Eli Lake that his source was an "intelligence official," not "a White House staffer," in Lake's words. This appears to have been a flat-out lie—


Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a White House lawyer who previously worked on the House Intelligence Committee, both played roles in helping Nunes view the materials.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/white-house-gave-info-devin-nunes-report-article-1.3014162

Monday morning, March 27: A Nunes spokesperson says Nunes met his source at the White House last week "in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source." That’s apparently referring to a SCIF, a protected room used to share classified materials. But the need for a SCIF doesn’t explain the use of the White House; the Capitol building houses several of them and sits just 15 minutes away by car.

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/devin-nunes-white-house-trump-surveillance/



Lauren Easton, director of media relations for the AP, said Friday, “The Associated Press opposes any government overreach that jeopardizes the ability of journalists to freely and safely do their jobs and undermines the vital distinction between the government and the press."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...4503d041eaf_story.html?utm_term=.49946a1068c9

Barton Gellman
✔
@bartongellman
Senate staffer is charged with lying, NOT disclosing classified data. There’s a lot of throat clearing about leaks of
“non-public” and “sensitive” information, which ain’t a crime. Non-public is most of what good reporters report

https://wonkette.com/634975/were-su...-spying-on-new-york-times-reporter-you-betcha


Beyond these personal details, though, the broader implications for the press are chilling, according to a statement by Press Freedom Defense Fund Director James Risen and Deputy Director Kate Meyers. Risen was a longtime investigative reporter for the Times who was ensnared in a leak investigation by the Obama administration.

“The Trump administration’s draconian surveillance and targeting of a New York Times reporter is an ominous step towards a more authoritarian approach to the press by a White House that has already made it clear that it is at war with journalists, who are performing the daily public service of keeping Americans informed."

https://splinternews.com/the-trump-administration-went-after-a-new-york-times-re-1826665581

ah

Now I understand Orange Horror, Donald John IQ#45's attraction to North Korea- the whole country is closed to the public. it is Kim Jong Un's private property.


Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Heather Nauert unwittingly points out that North Korea does not permit freedom of the press.


Trump’s White House has restricted journalists’ access to parts of the summit, perhaps to stymie any “haters and losers” looking to build negative narratives. Notwithstanding the cable news media’s need for an action-packed evening, not a lot actually happened in Singapore — at least not much that the public is allowed to know about yet.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...s-a-good-photo-op-and-maybe-nothing-more.html

What State Dept. Undersecretary Heather Nauert does not say, is what penalties are, for anyone present in North Korea-

21 year old Otto Warmbier was an American university student that had intentions to steal a North Korean propaganda banner.

"...was caught trying to take a propaganda banner from North Korea for someone back home in exchange for a used car."

It remains unclear if his admission of guilt was forced, and whether he actually tried to remove the propaganda banner during his trip.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ma-kim-jong-un-ohio-latest-news-a7798241.html


19 June 2017

This young man was a American university student, that could function well enough to travel abroad, and looked forward to studying in China for his 3rd year.


After a year in North Korea custody-

North Korea had tortured him, and damaged his mind, brain and body so badly, he was reduced to a body that "... he was “jerking violently”, howling and “staring blankly” when he returned home on a medical flight


They said Otto was howling, making an “involuntary, inhuman sound”, “staring blankly into space jerking violently” and was blind and deaf with his head shaved.

Otto Warmbier died after less than a week after his body arrived without his mind, in America.


22-year-old University of Virginia student, had been tortured and that his mouth “looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth”.

Otto had a large scar on his right foot and a high fever, and added that Otto’s mother and sister ran off the plane at the sight of him.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/26/otto-warmbier-north-korea-us-parents


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...losers-of-trumps-summit-with-kim-jong-un.html

June 12, 2018

As the two leaders signed the agreement, CNN's Jim Acosta pressed Trump on the details and asked him if they had discussed Otto Warmbier, the U.S. college student who died after being imprisoned in North Korea. Trump did not answer.



White House correspondent Jim Acosta already had a tense relationship with Trump and the White House.

Brad Parsccale, former San Antonio marketing entrepreneur, gets the job of campaign manager after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski. This is the Brad Parscale that is protesting the fact that a reporter is trying to do his job, and trying to remove some of the squid ink cloud that is keeping the public in the dark.

America will not hear much of the truth from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or anyone standing at the podium in front of the White House press pool.


Brad Parscale previously called for the suspension of the CNN correspondent for shouting questions during the White House Easter Egg Roll. In January the president ordered Acosta to leave the Oval Office for asking about immigration policy during a photo op

yes, Brad Parscale, hired for web design for some Trump property, and some websites for Trump Organization. Promoted to shifting cash around, concerning TV ads for Trump's laughable attempt at a presidential campaign in 2011. That won Pascale the job of Campaign Digital Director.

March 19, 2018

Reporting by the Observer, the Guardian and the New York Times in recent days has revealed that Cambridge Analytica — the social media monitoring firm that bragged it helped put Trump in the White House — had gained access before the election to the data of 50 million Facebook users through highly questionable means.

Recall that just last week, Washington was aflutter over allegations from Brad Parscale, head of digital media strategy for President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run and the man who led the partnership with Cambridge Analytica, who tweeted on February 24 that his boss’ campaign had a massive advantage using Facebook advertising to reach voters. Parscale, who is now chief of Trump’s 2020 efforts, said his candidate’s Facebook ads were 100 or 200 times more cost-effective than those placed by the Clinton campaign for the presidency.

The Trump campaign actually paid more on average than the Clinton campaign.

Now in light of the Cambridge Analytica headlines, it is clear that price of the advertising wasn’t the real story. The real story is about how personal data from social media is being used by companies to manipulate voters and distort democratic discourse. In this regard, it appears the Trump campaign had a decisive and ill-gotten advantage in the quest to exploit personal data to influence voters. And they used it to the hilt.

http://time.com/5197255/facebook-cambridge-analytica-donald-trump-ads-data/

Ivanka's Jared Kushner, made himself useful by coordinating the digital team-

Parscale’s team rolled out a “Suppress The Vote” campaign instead, targeting three specific groups of likely Clinton supporters: young women, African Americans, and idealistic white liberals. Negative ads — like a 20-year-old clip where she suggested some African Americans were “super-predators” — were rolled out in a bid to turn them off Clinton and make them too disillusioned to vote at all.

Much of this flew under the radar, and even while most polls had given up Trump for dead, Parscale claimed in an interview with Fox that on the Friday before the election, he had predicted the Republican candidate would win with 305 electoral votes.

As it turned out, he was off by just one.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...rump-presidential_us_58facc0ee4b0f02c3870ea46
.

500-page report was critical of Comey, concluding that his actions in the Clinton probe broke longstanding department guidelines. It did not, however, find Comey’s decisions

Inspector General Report Faults Comey’s Handling of Clinton Probe, But Finds No Political Bias


Trump is expected to use the report against the Russia investigation anyway.


INAE OHJUN. 14, 2018 2:10 PM




The Justice Department’s inspector general on Thursday released a much-anticipated report on former FBI director James Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email use. As expected, the 500-page report was critical of Comey, concluding that his actions in the Clinton probe broke longstanding department guidelines. It did not, however, find Comey’s decisions were politically motivated.

“While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part, we nevertheless concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote.


Horowitz wrote that although the texts cast a “cloud” over the FBI, the internal review “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.”

Trump, who fired Comey in May 2017, has been eagerly awaiting the final inspector general report. The president and his allies are expected to use it to discredit the former FBI director in the special counsel’s Russia investigation. Shortly after firing Comey, Trump admitted in a televised interview that he got rid of him because of the Russia investigation.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/inspector-general-report-james-comey-clinton-probe/


June 14, 2018 3:31 pm

DOJ Report Confirms That the (Orange Horror IW#45) Is a Dishonest Conspiracy Theorist




• A new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general “found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors” in the Clinton email investigation “were affected by bias or other improper considerations … Rather, we concluded that they were based on the prosecutor’s assessment of facts, the law, and past department practice.”

• The president is known liar who frequently, publicly admits that he likes to tell lies.

• Trump has made many, many specific claims about “deep state” conspiracies against him that have proven to be completely false.

• Donald Trump Jr. has publicly confessed


• The special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign has already produced many indictments of — and criminal confessions from — Trump campaign members

FBI agents are allowed to have political opinions and partisan allegiances. And, to state the obvious, the FBI did not stop Trump from becoming president; in fact, there is significant evidence that bureau aided in his election.


Remember: The mainstream media’s liberal bias is “why Trump won.”


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...-clinton-probe-james-comey-text-messages.html

Look What You Made Them Do


PAUL WALDMAN MAY 13, 2018


From to neo-Nazism and white nationalism to Trump's election, conservative writers are blaming—who else?—liberals who call out racism

"...now we're supposed to believe that the increased prominence of neo-Nazis and white supremacists is the fault of liberals being insufficiently polite, that whites gravitated to Trump because liberals were rude to them, and that if Trump gets re-elected the people who voted for him won't be responsible for their own choice but instead the blame will rest at the feet of the left? Please"


"Are there excesses of political correctness some liberals are guilty of? Goodness, yes. Are there times when a liberal calls a conservative a racist even though they didn't deserve it? Absolutely. The reasonable response to that is to say, "That's unfair, and here's why it's wrong." But if your response to being called racist is to become more racist, I've got news for you: You were a racist to begin with. The fault is no one's but your own."

http://prospect.org/article/look-what-you-made-them-do

Sorry, I don't buy the "no political bias" finding. It doesn't pass the smell test. Comey repeatedly and at strategic times brought the Clinton probe to the public contrary to direction not to do so (withdrawing the charge later) while there was an ongoing probe of the Trump campaign going on (still going on) that was not made public. Everything Comey did favored Trump's campaign over Clinton's. Comey is a Republican and it's obvious to me that in both going public with the (later withdrawn) Clinton probe against precedence, protocol, and advice and not mentioning the Trump probe (which is deep and damning) was a Republican putting his thumb on the scales of the election.

Adding insult, we now know that, while publicly scolding Clinton for using her own server to exchange messages with people cleared for the messages, Comey himself was doing business via GMail.

This stinks of partisanship on Comey's part.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Hildebrand announces passage of resolution designating ‘Juneteenth Independence Day’


18 June 2018 at 2:45 pm


WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) today announced the passage of their resolution designating June 19, 2018, as “Juneteenth Independence Day,” in recognition of June 19, 1865, the day slavery legally came to an end in the

“I am proud to have worked in the Senate with over 45 of my colleagues to pass my resolution commemorating ‘Juneteenth Independence'
-U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Resolution 547: Designating June 19, 2018, as ‘‘Juneteenth Independence Day’’ in recognition of June 19, 1865, the date on which slavery legally came to an end in the United States.

2 1/2 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863; June 19, 1865, Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were free; June 19, commonly known as ‘‘Juneteenth Independence Day’’, as inspiration and encouragement. African-Americans from the Southwest have continued the tradition of observing Juneteenth Independence Day for over 150 years. 45 States and the District of Columbia have designated Juneteenth Independence Day as a special day of observance in recognition of the emancipation of all slaves in the United States;

• Whereas Juneteenth Independence Day celebrations have been held to honor African-American freedom while encouraging self-development and respect for all cultures;

• Whereas the faith and strength of character demonstrated by former slaves and the descendants of former slaves remain an example for all people of the United States, regardless of background, religion, or race;

• Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in December 1865; and

• Whereas, over the course of its history, the United States has grown into a symbol of democracy and freedom around the world:

• Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Senate designates June 19, 2018, as ‘‘Juneteenth Independence Day’’; recognizes the historical significance of Juneteenth Independence Day to the United States; supports the continued nationwide celebration of Juneteenth Independence Day to provide an opportunity for the people of the United States to learn more about the past and to better understand the experiences that have shaped the United States; and recognizes that the observance of the end of slavery is part of the history and heritage of the United States.

https://orleanshub.com/gillibrand-a...tion-designating-juneteenth-independence-day/

The American press and American journalists are still not allowed to see what is true, about the child prisons.

The children are locked in, the press is locked out.

The only child prisoners that the press has seen in Dept of Human Services prison camps are boys.

tRump's propaganda is teen boys are bad.
Mexican gang members- MS-13

"Animals," tRump said.

Other child prisons were chain link cages.

Press not allowed see young girls.

That would spoil tRump's optics.

Who wants to wage war on baby girls ?


June 19, 2018

New rules-
Apply for permit two weeks in advance
to look at what is allowed. No cameras,
no recording devices, no smart phones.
No talking to prisoners.

tRump rants about infest

tRump is the product of what was allowed to grow
and infest our political system

Russia was allowed to create an illusion.

Reality-abducted and imprisoned children

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
6h

"...pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13."

9:52 AM · Jun 19, 2018

(fuck the complete propaganda message)

tRump manufactured a crisis

tRump's henchgoons provided a policy

tRump's greedy slimeball contractors
build a Potemkin model child prison

"Rolls Royce, perhaps, of the shelter network."

oh, how pretty, how modern, how nice!
But, all the prisoners are teen boys.

?

Shifting the children away from their parents

Moving out of The U.S. Border Patrol cages

Under U.S. law, children are required to be turned over within three days to shelters funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.


Brane said she also saw officials at the facility scold a group of 5-year-olds for playing around in their cage, telling them to settle down. There are no toys or books.

The government is literally taking kids away from their parents and leaving them in inappropriate conditions," Brane said. "If a parent left a child in a cage with no supervision with other 5-year-olds, they'd be held accountable."

https://www.apnews.com/amp/9794de32d39d4c6f89fbefaea3780769?__twitter_impression=true



https://www.vox.com/2018/6/18/17475292/family-separation-border-immigration-policy-trump

Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is accustomed to dealing with unaccompanied minors, who are children under 18 who arrived in the US alone.

Now, that office is seeing increasing numbers of children who are arriving in their care with no information about relatives or their potential asylum claims because they were separated. That information remains with their parents.

We began with Samantha Bee's message to Ivanka

"You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another: Do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless cunt! He listens to you!"



Bee continued: "Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fucking stop it."


Everyone has been shouting at tRump.


This is what he did

Rather than simply ceasing his own policy, he’s issued an order intended to undo federal protections that limit a child’s detention to 20 days—which is no sure thing. His order has made the situation more legally complicated, not less.

Click to expand...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...lines-make-him-sound-strong-and-powerful.html

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and top White House adviser, remained curiously silent as the crisis surrounding the administration's policy of separating immigrant families swelled.

Click to expand...

Ivanka posted a tweet, after tRump signed a botched Executive Order, that cannot erase what harm that has been visited upon innocent children, and the pain visted on the parents.

We get it, Ivanka. You were indifferent to the undocumented children when this began and you remain indifferent.

Many of the families that have already been swept up in the cruel policy will still be separated for an unknown period of time, and it's not clear the administration has any plans or systems in place to reunite them.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-p...separating-immigrant-families-and-its-totally


Just like a chip off of the old pile of excrement. Better to be a strong odor, than odorless ?

We heard tRump's choice of vulnerable, undefended, completely open borders, or criminalizing asylum seekers and putting them into prison, with their colluding accomplice children in child prisons.

Who gave tRump the bright idea of Mommy & Me Prisons, where the child will serve time along with the mother ?

tRump indicated that he’d be working with Congress on a fix and framed the issue as a “dilemma” with two choices: separating families or doing nothing.

“The dilemma is that if you’re weak, if you’re weak, which some people would like you to be, if you’re really, really pathetically weak, the country is going to be overrun with millions of people,” Trump said. “And if you’re strong, then you don’t have any heart. That’s a tough dilemma.”

“Perhaps I would rather be strong, but that’s a tough dilemma,” he added

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17484506/family-separation-trump-immigration-congress


Thank you, Samantha Bee, for saving what is left of our sanity, despite everything!


“...if like most people you’ve been feeling a little uncomfortable this week with our new Pre-K prisons, good news. The President has fixed it with the next worst thing.”

Exasperated with how the crisis at the border indeed feels like it has gone on for 60 years, rather than Trump’s statement that “nobody’s taken care of criminally charging adults that cross the border” for that long, Bee condemned his executive order to end his policy of family separations by keeping families together in various shelters. “No more baby internment camps, just regular internment camps. That’s what we call a 2018 win,” bee said.

https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/samanthe-bee-donald-trump-border-policy-1202853049/

Democracy is an anarchist mob.

The 2016 election was sposed to be a SHIRTS & SKINS game but the ASS=CLOWNS won and pissed lotsa hopes and dreams of Clinton and Bush,