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Trump Admitted to a Conflict of Interest in Turkey

by ChrisUdnan Posted on November 15, 2016

Mother Jones

Donald Trump admitted last year that he had a conflict of interest in dealing with Turkey, a country instrumental in the United States’ fight against ISIS, because he has property there. The December 2015 comment foreshadowed the many questions now surrounding how the president-elect will separate himself from his far-reaching business interests.

“I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump said. “It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two.”

Trump made those comments to Stephen Bannon, who was then the chairman of Breitbart News, during an interview on Bannon’s radio show Breitbart News Daily. Bannon became the CEO of Trump’s campaign in August, after he secured the nomination. Trump announced shortly after the election that Bannon would serve as his chief strategist in the White House—an appointment widely denounced by Trump’s critics because of Bannon’s history as an enabler of white nationalism as head of Breitbart, not to mention the misogynist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim content the website published.

Trump’s comments about his conflict of interest applied specifically to Turkey. But by the logic Trump used, the conflict would also pertain to US relations with countries around the world where Trump has properties and financial entanglements, from Scotland to Azerbaijan. It would even involve the US government itself. In Washington, DC, Trump operates the Trump International Hotel out of a historic building owned by the federal government.

Trump has said he would eliminate this conflict-of-interest problem by turning his business over to his children, in what he is calling a blind trust. But that questionable solution is even more dubious given that Trump has named his three children to his transition team and likely intends for them to serve as informal advisers on domestic and foreign policy matters. Reports Monday indicated Trump is seeking top-secret security clearances for his kids. That means his children are likely to have access to information they could use to steer their father’s decision-making in a direction friendly to the family business.

Listen to the interview with Bannon here. (The relevant section is at the beginning.)

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Trump Admitted to a Conflict of Interest in Turkey

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What Happened to Emailgate?

by ClairFarrelly Posted on November 15, 2016

Mother Jones

Have there been any new email leaks lately? Or any news at all about Hillary Clinton’s private server? I haven’t noticed any. That’s kind of funny, isn’t it?

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What Happened to Emailgate?

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Here’s How Facebook Got Worked

by EnidGroom45106 Posted on November 15, 2016

Mother Jones

There are lots of wingnut sites that traffic in conspiracy theories and urban myths. But that’s not all. There are also fake news sites, deliberately crafted to look real and fool people into believing outrageous stories. The most infamous at the moment is the Denver Guardian, which peddled a fake story written in pseudo-AP style about an FBI agent involved in investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails who was found murdered. Sites like Google and Facebook should work harder to eliminate junk like this from their search results and news feeds, and in Facebook’s case it turns out they have a pretty good idea of how to do it. But Gizmodo reports that they were afraid to pull the trigger:

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the company’s decision-making, Facebook executives conducted a wide-ranging review of products and policies earlier this year, with the goal of eliminating any appearance of political bias. One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people’s feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It’s unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed.

“They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous citing fear of retribution from the company. The source added, “there was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after Trending Topics,” and that “a lot of product decisions got caught up in that.”

This demonstrates the benefit of working the refs. Back in May, an ex-Facebook employee accused Facebook of manipulating its Trending Topics feed to favor liberal stories. Conservatives naturally went ballistic, and their shitstorm of abuse worked: Facebook caved in and agreed to change its process even though there was never any real evidence of liberal bias in the first place.

That was a victory, but not the real victory. The real victory is that it put the fear of God into Facebook, which became hypersensitive to anything that might affect right-wing sites—even if those sites were plainly bogus. And as Mike Caulfield points out, bogus right-wing stories like the Denver Guardian’s get a lot of attention on Facebook:

To put this in perspective, if you combined the top stories from the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and LA Times, they still had only 5% the viewership of an article from a fake news site that intimated strongly that the Democratic Presidential candidate had had a husband and wife murdered then burned to cover up her crimes.

Facebook probably could have stopped this kind of thing, but their earlier run-in over the Trending Topics feed made them afraid to do anything. That’s how Facebook ended up promoting dozens of right-wing conspiracy theories during a presidential campaign. They had been worked.

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Here’s How Facebook Got Worked

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A Trump Administration Could Gut a Key Federal Policy That Helps Trans People

by epxxatlw Posted on November 14, 2016

Mother Jones

In 2010, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, she implemented a revolutionary new policy to make it easier for transgender people to codify their gender identity on their passports. With Trump now preparing for his new administration, transgender advocates are concerned that this State Department policy could be in jeopardy—and are urging trans people to apply for their passports as soon as possible.

“The current policy that’s in place, it’s a really good one,” says Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Minter emphasizes that even though the Trump campaign has not explicitly targeted the current passport rule for change, “we’re urging people to go ahead and get that done just to be safe and sure. Take advantage of the protection that we know is there now and could be changed in the future.”

The State Department rule, enacted in June 2010, marked an unprecedented shift in the federal government’s treatment of transgender people. The Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex marriage was five years away, and the Pentagon’s policy allowing transgender troops to serve openly would not come for another six.

Before 2010, a passport gender change required proof of sexual reassignment surgery. Under Clinton’s new policy, those seeking to change their gender on their passport would only need to provide a note from their physician saying they’d undergone “clinical treatment for gender transition,” according to the State Department’s announcement of the change. In practical terms, this meant that Clinton had helped create one of the only ways for transgender people to obtain federal ID that properly acknowledges their gender—a passport has weight everywhere, even in conservative states that otherwise might make it difficult for trans people to change the gender on, for example, driver’s licenses.

Given this history, LGBT-focused legal advocacy groups are concerned about what it could mean for the trans community if this important avenue is shut down.

“I don’t know if transgender people are their highest priority, but certainly the State Department regulations could be changed.” says Jillian Weiss, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. “It will take some time to undo the tremendous progress of the Obama administration, but there’s no doubt that we will lose some rights.”

To be clear, there has been no official movement yet on this front. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Wednesday that the State Department has not yet been contacted by Trump’s transition team.

But Trump has indicated he may not be an advocate of the LGBT community as president. During the campaign, he told Fox News that he would “strongly consider” appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who would consider overturning Obergefell v. Hodges—a move that could affect trans rights for years to come by eliminating the right to marry for some transgender people. (He has since distanced himself from that position, telling 60 Minutes during his first formal interview as president-elect that he was “fine” with gay marriage.) Trans rights advocates are also concerned about a court that will be unsympathetic in matters that deal with trans equality, such as the upcoming case challenging Obama administration guidelines requiring that schools permit transgender students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender.

So LGBT advocates aren’t taking any chances by waiting around to see what might happen. Twitter user Riley (@dtwps) started the hashtag #translawhelp, along with a corresponding website, to connect trans folks with legal advice and funding for the passport process and other questions post-election. Tied to that is a crowdfunding effort to help raise money for the necessary passport fees trans people will need. Kendra Albert of the law firm Zeitgeist Law is also coordinating an effort to match trans people in need of passport funds with donors. Albert told Mother Jones that “for a lot of people, gaining correct documentation has gained a sense of urgency that it didn’t have before.”

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A Trump Administration Could Gut a Key Federal Policy That Helps Trans People

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Saturday Night Live Just Did A Cold Open That Will Make You Sob

by RayfordC42 Posted on November 13, 2016

Mother Jones

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Saturday Night Live Just Did A Cold Open That Will Make You Sob

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A Fresh Start?

by TammaraSavoy Posted on November 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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David Frum is persuading me this morning that the tweetstorm can be a valuable medium after all. He is not buying Michael Smerconish’s suggestion that we should all give Donald Trump a fresh start:

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A Fresh Start?

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We Are All Keynesians Now: Part 2

by Dolores7899 Posted on November 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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Trump economic advisor Anthony Scaramucci took to the pages of the Financial Times yesterday to tout the bold, innovative plans in store for the American economy:

This could literally have been written by Paul Krugman any time in the past eight years. Needless to say, Republicans in Congress refused to give it the time of day. It was socialism! It was reckless! It was debt busting! It would lead to hyperinflation! And maybe worst of all, it was Keynesianism!

But now it’s edging closer and closer to Republican orthodoxy. I wonder how long it will be until Paul Ryan issues an entire roadmap explaining how fiscal stimulus is just what the country needs, and now that Republicans are in charge the country will finally get it?

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We Are All Keynesians Now: Part 2

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Things We Can Count On In the Next Two Years

by PeggyTabarez Posted on November 10, 2016

Mother Jones

What is Donald Trump going to do in office? Beats me. For the most part, I’d ignore what he said on the campaign trail, since he said so many different things at different times. It’s obvious that (a) he doesn’t know much, and (b) he doesn’t truly care about very many things—and that means he’s going to be willing to negotiate. On that score, I mostly agree with Tyler Cowen, who speculates that “his natural instinct will be to look for some quick symbolic victories to satisfy supporters, and then pursue mass popularity with a lot of government benefits, debt and free-lunch thinking.”

However, this also means Trump is likely to follow the lead of Congress, which is completely in Republican hands and likely to follow the lead of Paul Ryan. Given that, I think there are a few things we can speculate about. Here’s a short list:

The filibuster is toast. Republicans will get rid of it as soon as they need to.

There are three Supreme Court justices who support Roe v. Wade and are getting on in years: Stephen Breyer (78), Anthony Kennedy (80), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (83). Using standard actuarial tables, there’s a 60 percent chance that at least one of them will die during Trump’s term. That means there’s a 60 percent chance that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

Repealing Obamacare will be harder than Republicans think, and it’s possible that they’ll shrink from it when they truly have to face up to the consequences. For one thing, it’s impossible to keep the “good parts” (pre-existing conditions, community rating, etc.) and only get rid of the bad parts. In the best case, they’ll pass a bill that repeals Obamacare in name, but leaves most of it in place under a different name. But I doubt that. In the end, I think they’ll rip down the whole thing.

There will be a recession sometime during Trump’s term. I don’t know what this means. But I’ll bet the Republican Congress will be a whole lot more eager to fix it with crude Keynesian pump priming than they were for Obama.

Trump seems to really care about infrastructure, which makes sense since he thinks of himself as a builder. So we might very well get an infrastructure bill passed. I expect that a wall on the southern border will be part of it.

Congress will pass a big tax cut for the rich. Not as big as Trump’s, I think, but plenty big anyway.

Winners from a Trump presidency: rich people; pro-lifers; Paul Ryan, who will now be reelected Speaker easily; China; Wall Street; Vladimir Putin; James Comey; and CNN president Jeff Zucker, who did everything in his power to help elect a guy who could keep his ratings up.

Losers from a Trump presidency: poor people; anyone on Obamacare; illegal immigrants; climate change; the white working class, which fell for Trump’s con but will get virtually nothing from his presidency; anyone who cares about human decency and national dignity; Barack Obama, whose presidency will now be considered a failure; and the Democratic Party, which has lost control of the presidency, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and most of the states.

Since I have the Reconstruction era on my mind right now, it’s hard to avoid the obvious comparison. Reconstruction lasted about eight years, and then was dismantled almost completely. Barack Obama’s presidency lasted eight years and will now be dismantled almost completely. I will withhold my opinion for now on the obvious reason for this similarity.

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Things We Can Count On In the Next Two Years

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GOP Climate Hawk Narrowly Loses Senate Seat

by AllenWaring Posted on November 9, 2016

Mother Jones

Unlike nearly every other Senate contest in the country, the New Hampshire race featured a Republican who has been outspoken about the need to combat climate change. Kelly Ayotte, the incumbent, was one of just five GOP senators to vote for a resolution acknowledging that humans are a significant cause of global warming, and she was the first GOP senator to come out in support of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. But that wasn’t enough to keep her seat; she was narrowly defeated by Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.

Ayotte’s environmental moderation earned her the ire of some on the right and even resulted in her potentially missing out on millions of dollars in independent ad buys from groups affiliated with the Koch brothers, according to the Intercept. But Hassan argued that Ayotte’s climate advocacy was too little, too late. Back in 2010, when Ayotte first ran for Senate, she told the editorial board of the Portsmouth-Herald that although there was evidence to show human activity affects climate change, “I don’t think the evidence is conclusive.” The same year, Ayotte signed onto a pledge sponsored by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, promising not to vote for any climate change legislation that would increase taxes. During a debate last month, Hassan criticized Ayotte for having “doubted whether climate change was real.”

“I was the first Republican in the country to support the president’s Clean Power Plan,” Ayotte shot back. “I’ve crossed party lines, even taken criticism from my own party to protect New Hampshire’s environment, and that goes back to my time as state attorney general.”

Environmental advocacy groups didn’t buy Ayotte’s rhetoric, and they threw their support behind Hassan, who as governor committed New Hampshire to an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Hassan said that combating climate change would be one of her top priorities should she win the Senate seat. In an interview this week, Melinda Pierce of the Sierra Club emphasized her group’s support for Hassan, arguing that Ayotte’s previous record on climate issues didn’t back up her recent positioning. “You can’t choose to green yourself up on one issue if the rest of your voting record doesn’t support broad action on climate change,” Pierce said.

NextGen Climate Action, a group run by billionaire Tom Steyer, spent more than $420,000 campaigning against Ayotte, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. NextGen sought to reach millennial voters by targeting ads on social media platforms, apps like Tinder, and X-box Live, according to Kate Corriveau, press secretary for NextGen in New Hampshire. The group also sent field teams to campuses across the state hoping to motivate students to vote.

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GOP Climate Hawk Narrowly Loses Senate Seat

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New Hampshire Just Gave Us Another Win for Women in the Senate

by FannieNeville Posted on November 9, 2016

Mother Jones

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan has won the highly contentious battle for the state’s Senate seat, unseating Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte by a razor-thin margin. With Republicans having secured control of the chamber early Wednesday morning, Hassan’s election will not affect the balance of power in the Senate.

The New Hampshire race was too close to call for most of Tuesday night, with the gap between the candidates narrowing to less than 1,500 votes. Hassan declared victory Wednesday morning, but the results were not made official until later in the afternoon. Ayotte conceded the race shortly after the official results were announced.

With two of the state’s most prominent political figures on the ballot, the New Hampshire contest was one of the closest Senate contests of the year. Both candidates entered Election Day in a virtual dead heat. Their debates were often fierce and Hassan and Ayotte both moved to the center in an effort to gather votes from the other party. The race was the second-most expensive Senate contest this cycle, with more than $120 million dollars pouring into the state.

Ayotte’s fight to protect her seat was complicated by the rise of Donald Trump. Hassan frequently took aim at Ayotte’s support of the Republican presidential nominee. During a debate last month between the two candidates, Ayotte awkwardly said the Republican presidential nominee “absolutely” would be a good role model for children. Hassan lost no time in attacking her opponent, and Ayotte quickly walked back her comments, saying she misspoke during the debate. Ayotte completely withdrew her support for the nominee after video surfaced of Trump bragging about touching women without their consent, a move that opened the senator up to criticism from her fellow conservatives. The tight contest in New Hampshire extended to the presidential race, with Clinton leading by a slim one-point margin after all precincts had reported.

Hassan has touted her ability to work across the aisle during her time in the governor’s mansion, noting that she engaged Republicans to negotiate the state’s budget, ending up with a $62 million surplus. But Hassan’s call for the United States to temporarily halt accepting Syrian refugees—she’s the only Democratic governor to do so—has put her in hot water with Democrats. (Hassan has not clarified whether she still supports a temporary ban.) In the campaign’s final weeks, Hassan played up her ties with Hillary Clinton in an effort to shore up her support among left-leaning voters.

In a recent interview with Mother Jones, Hassan said she hopes to secure emergency funding to address the state’s opioid crisis and reduce the influence of special interests on Capitol Hill.

“Washington has been captured by corporate special interests like the Koch brothers who stack the deck for themselves and against the middle class,” she said. “I’m running for Senate to change that.”

Hassan will join three other Democratic women—Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), California Attorney General Kamala Harris, and former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto—as first-term senators in 2017.

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New Hampshire Just Gave Us Another Win for Women in the Senate

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