American Politics 101

[pretzels]

This week in television: bars in major US cities broadcast former FBI director James Comey's testimony live on televisions yesterday. Beer and daytime politics-you may never think they'd make a great pair.

ABC had the largest audience, with 3.295 million viewers, followed by CBS (3.286 million viewers), Fox News (3.096 million), CNN (3.049 million), NBC (2.73 million), MSNBC (2.719 million), Univision (624,000), Fox Business Network (210,000), CNBC (164,000) and HLN (140,000). The hearing was also carried by Telemundo, PBS and was offered to Fox broadcast affiliates, which had the option to air it.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-ct-fi-comey-ratings-20170609-story.html

[dreamon]

The drama keeps on coming -

Republicans are building Trump an ‘idiot defence’ against impeachment. Here’s why it might work. The normal rules for prosecuting
a crime simply don’t apply to the president, say experts on U.S. constitutional law. U.S. President Donald Trump’s defenders would
like you to know that he doesn’t know important things. They’re not saying he’s stupid. They’re saying he is somewhere between ill-informed
and clueless. To hear some Republican members of Congress tell it, Trump did not attempt to obstruct justice in his Oval Office words to
James Comey in February — he just didn’t understand how a president is supposed to interact with the director of the FBI.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017 ... -work.html

Definitions:

Clueless - having no knowledge, understanding, or ability
Idiot - an utterly foolish or senseless person
Ill informed - lacking adequate or proper knowledge or information, as in one particular subject or in a variety of subjects
stupid - having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

Basically his own party is throwing him under the bus to protect him from himself? Sure looks that way because while they try to avoid saying the
word "stupid" their other choices are not helping their cause. I don't remember any other President being labeled in this manner by his own party.

[CielOnTap]

Nexus card revocations continue and the agency responsible for doing the revoking is not explaining why in its letters to affected cardholders.
Yet the incidents that took place in winter this year continue to impact Canadians with Nexus cards during the summer.

When CBC Toronto contacted Goodale's ministry and the Canada Border Services Agency this weekend, neither would say whether Canada would review the U.S. appeals process, which governs a revoked Nexus card.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/nexus-card-travel-ban-1.4198580

From the Nexus site on the US Customs and Border Protection website:

Important Note: Both the United States and Canada must approve your application. Denial of an application by either country will prevent you from participating in the NEXUS program.

Where is the appeals process information shown?

From the CBP page on its search authority:

CBP has the authority to collect passenger name record information on all travelers entering or leaving the United States. This information is strictly used for preventing and combating terrorism and serious criminal offenses with the principal purpose of facilitating the CBP mission to protect our Nation's borders through threat analysis to identify and interdict persons who have already committed or may potentially commit a terrorist act in the future.

Should CBP determine that an error exists within our system of records, corrective measures will be taken.

Last published: March 16, 2017

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-search-authority
Who initiates corrective measures? How do affected travellers get informed of the measures, if at all?

Here's the link to CBP publications. One is about performance accountability. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/publications

From the 2016 fiscal year PAR on Key Initiatives: Trusted Traveller Programs (TTPs):

Once
an applicant is enrolled in a program, CBP runs law enforcement checks every 24 hours to ensure the
members maintain a low-risk status.

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2017-Mar/FY-2016-CBP-PAR-508C.pdf

[CielOnTap]

The US presence at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany provided many social media moments. Who sat in President's Trump chair when he left the summit table during a talk (his daughter), how credible Russia's Putin's answers were to Trump's questions concerning alleged Russian interference with the last political election, climate change (US said it will not stay on board) and whether some leaders congregated around Putin at the summit (Twitterverse indicates one image is photoshopped while an original image does not show Putin in the chair surrounded by four other leaders.


Protestors, police and Ms. Trump:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/826262/G20-summit-2017-live-updates-latest-news-Hamburg-protests-Donald-Trump-Germany-Putin

US is alone in not standing with the other leaders on climate change-
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/08/europe/g20-merkel-trump-communique/index.html

On US election interference, a political cartoon-
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/07/09/july-10-2017

The group photo or not of Putin and leaders.
http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2017/07/how-badly-faked-photo-vladimir-putin-took-over-twitter
On Twitter, it was pointed out that Merkel is wearing a ribbon on her jacket in the fake version of the photo.

After the summit, was the G20 effort worthwhile?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/g-20-violence-questions-remain-after-hamburg-riots-a-1156842.html

[deja vu]

Trump also said the U.S. is considering halting trade with "any country doing business with North Korea." On Twitter, he said that approach was under consideration, "in addition to other options."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/north-kore ... -1.4273746


Is that even possible, especially with China? Not just his brands or his daughters, but in general, as the majority of products in N. American stores are made in China. Given there may be a stockpile to rely on, but if this drags on how does one make up the difference?

[CielOnTap]

OK, it does seem that the President has kept his word to donate $1M in personal funds to charities picked by journalists to help Houston residents impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are donating a total of $1 million to a dozen organizations involved in Harvey relief work, including the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity, the White House announced Wednesday.
The American Red Cross and Salvation Army will each receive $300,000; Samaritan's Purse and Reachout America will collect $100,000 each.
The Trumps are giving $25,000 each to eight other organizations: the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Catholic Charities, Direct Relief, Habitat for Humanity, Houston Humane Society, Operation Blessing, Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies and Team Rubicon.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps-donate-total-of-1m-to-12-harvey-relief-charities-1.3577940

[CielOnTap]

Puerto Ricans continue to require assistance but the White House is a long way from the island.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Jose Vazquez was listening to the radio this morning when the programming was interrupted by a special report.

The exasperated announcer read President Trump’s tweets about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, first responders and the military not being in Puerto Rico forever over the air as the other disc jockeys gasped in disbelief.

Vazquez couldn’t believe it either, he said, pausing. Well, actually, he could.

“We don’t want them here forever,” the 35-year-old said. “We need them until Puerto Rico normalizes. If they can leave soon, great. That would mean we are closer to a full recovery.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/10/12/trumps-tweets-anger-but-do-not-surprise-puerto-ricans/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.6222146cf5f8

[CielOnTap]

Earlier this week, the US Congress passed a bill to provide money to FEMA and to a flood insurance program for Puerto Rico's recovery efforts after the hurricane plus efforts in other US states also impacted by disasters such as fire.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/10/24/us-senate-passes-365-billion-disaster-aid-bill-including-money-for-puerto-rico.html

President Trump signed the bill yesterday to allow the money to flow to US states and Puerto Rico aid efforts.

http://www.kcci.com/article/trump-signs-36-5-billion-emergency-aid-bill-for-disasters/13101476

[CielOnTap]

First Lady Melania Trump is in South Korea. She discovered the strength of K-Pop fame when a male
singer of said fame appeared next to her, causing girls present at the speaking event to start screaming
his name.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/11/08/in-korea-melania-trump-gets-upstaged-by-a-k-pop-star/?utm_term=.cdf83c45adb6

Definitely a Twitter moment for South Korea and the First Lady. Great social media content!

[CielOnTap]

Honolulu Hawaii had a false missile alert on Saturday. The emergency alert system in the state is now under critic as the
aging system is behind the alert that took 39 min to be reversed on social media.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/us/hawaii-false-alarm-sirens/index.html