CNN’s Jeff Zeleny said Tuesday afternoon that the Democratic party has “no leader” and is in “complete disrepair and disarray.”
The perspective from the network’s senior White House correspondent came during a panel segment on possible Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
“The list of names that you read off is incredibly interesting. We’re not going to know for sure until after the midterm elections,” Zeleny told fill-in host Dana Bash. “That’s when things sort of start to see who’s the most popular campaigning this fall.”
Zeleny sees Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif) as a possible fresh face for the party and compared the freshman senator’s current position to President Obama’s in 2005 before he captured the presidency three years later.
“But Senator Kamala Harris is fascinating to me,” he said. “Because she arrives in Washington, at the exact same time Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaHarris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Five ways America would take a hard left under Joe Biden Valerie Jarrett: ‘Democracy depends upon having law enforcement’ MORE arrived in Washington, 2005 for him, 2017 for her, in terms of first year of a new Republican administration.
“So I think that the party generally looks to someone new, not someone old,” Zeleny said, in what appeared to be a reference to Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE’s 2016 campaign.
“We’ll see if that’s true this time, but it’s a huge problem for Democrats. There is no bench for the party. So they can be laughing all they want about these poll numbers for Donald Trump, but the reality is, Democrats are in complete disrepair and disarray in their own party. There’s no leader,” he concluded.
Harris, 52, is a former attorney and served as California attorney general before being elected as the state’s junior senator in 2016.
Sens. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE (D-Mass.), Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy KlobucharAmy KlobucharHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Democrats demand Republican leaders examine election challenges after Georgia voting chaos Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk MORE (D-Minn.) are among at least 10 other possible candidates speculated to be challenging President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE in 2020.
Notes taken by then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in a 2016 meeting with Russian officials show the word “donations” near references to the Republican National Committee (RNC), two sources told NBC News.
The notes on Manafort’s smartphone from the meeting were allegedly turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate and House Intelligence committees, all of which are investigating possible ties between Russia and President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s campaign.
NBC reported Thursday that a source briefed on the information described the notes as cryptic but containing the words “donations” and “RNC” in close proximity.
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Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and Manafort met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower after an intermediary said she could provide potentially damaging information on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE.
The meeting, which has come under high scrutiny, came just as Trump was set to gain the Republican nomination for president.
Donations to American campaigns from foreign individuals or entities is illegal in the U.S. under the Federal Election Campaign Act.
Earlier this week, NBC News reported that Mueller is looking into if Trump tried to hide the purpose of the meeting.
Mueller recently partnered with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) to investigate Manafort’s past lobbying work with Russian connections, Politico reported on Wednesday.
FBI agents raided Manafort’s home in July, but authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing.
The RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
Owning an iPhone could someday mean being blocked from recording anything that someone in power doesn’t want you to record.
“Corporations aren’t friends of the people, corporations are friends of money.” —Edward SnowdenThat’s the potential ramification of a patent granted to Apple earlier this week for technology that remotely disables iPhone cameras by infrared sensors.
While Apple’s patent application uses the example of a rock band preventing audience members from recording a concert, since the application was first submitted back in 2009 observers have noted that the technology could also be used by police, repressive governments, and anyone in power to stop citizens from recording abuses of power and other injustices.
The patent was approved despite thousands of signatures on a petition seeking to block the technology from being developed.
“Here’s the rub. The First Amendment and Article 19 of the U.N.’s Declaration on Human Rights don’t really apply to the corporations that build these cellphones and run these social networks. Free speech rules don’t apply to Silicon Valley,” wrote the civil liberties group Free Press back in 2011, and Apple’s “cellphone camera kill switch can be used as a pre-emptive strike against free speech. “
Approval for the patent was also granted amid increasing use of smartphone technology to record abuses of power, whether that is everyday citizens recording police brutality, House Democrats recording their sit-in for gun control after Speaker Paul Ryan shut off C-SPAN cameras, or peaceful protesters recording assaults by police.
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Critics note that it’s not hard to imagine police officers disabling all iPhone cameras in the vicinity before taking any action—whether legal or illegal—against people.
Technology website Engadget illustrated the argument with a potential situation: “Picture this: You’re out for a stroll on the streets of Vancouver when suddenly you find yourself caught up in a depressed mob of hockey fans. Riot police are striking a young man with their batons near a squad car. You pull out your iPhone to capture a video of this seeming abuse of force—only to see a flashing message on the screen that says ‘Recording Disabled.’
It’s also not hard to imagine Ryan having disabled all iPhone cameras in the House to subdue media coverage of the sit-in: “If the Speaker of the House’s office controls when C-SPAN’s cameras are live, it’s not a stretch to assume it would control when iPhones can work,” as the Guardian writes.
And critics observe that it’s much more difficult to pursue justice when no record exists of an injustice happening in the first place.
While Apple garnered praise from privacy activists for its stance against the FBI when the government agency sought its help in unlocking a phone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters, it’s also been pointed out that technology companies don’t have a spotless record on civil liberties.
The United Nations must suspend Saudi Arabia’s membership from the Human Rights Council or risk further damaging the council’s credibility, rights defenders said in a letter sent to the international body on Wednesday.
“What’s particularly shocking is the deafening silence of the international community, which has time and again ceded to pressure from Saudi Arabia and put business, arms and trade deals before human rights despite the Kingdom’s record of committing gross and systematic violations with complete impunity.” —Richard Bennett, Amnesty InternationalThe groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, point out that Saudi Arabia has used its membership to obfuscate its human rights abuses in its coalition’s military engagement in Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia has amassed an appalling record of violations in Yemen while a Human Rights Council member, and has damaged the body’s credibility by its bullying tactics to avoid accountability,” said Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “UN member countries should stand with Yemeni civilians and suspend Saudi Arabia immediately.”
Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses in Yemen are so well-documented that the European Union, Dutch lawmakers, and rights groups throughout the world have called on the international community to issue an arms embargo against the country.
But an arms embargo has yet to happen. And in one recent air strike, American-made bombs decimated a densely populated market, killing over 100 people, including 25 children.
Yet when the UN recently added the Saudi-led coalition to a blacklist of armed groups killing and maiming children around the world, the oil-rich country threatened to withdraw funds from UN programs aiding Palestinian refugee children, prompting UN leader Ban Ki-Moon to remove the Kingdom from the ignoble list.
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Saudi Arabia’s abuses in Yemen are hardly the half of it, rights advocates point out. Richard Bennet, head of Amnesty International’s UN office, delves into the country’s appalling record on human rights:
“What’s particularly shocking is the deafening silence of the international community,” Bennett says, “which has time and again ceded to pressure from Saudi Arabia and put business, arms and trade deals before human rights despite the Kingdom’s record of committing gross and systematic violations with complete impunity.”
In an email to the Associated Press, the Saudi ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council said his country rejected what he described as “accusations” from the human rights groups.
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Authorities in Cleveland, Ohio, are adding fuel to an already “combustible” atmosphere, some activists say, as the city readies extra jail space and courtrooms and shuts down a local university to house 1,700 riot police and their weapons in preparation for demonstrations at next week’s Republican Party convention.
Democracy Now! reported Thursday that city officials “say some courts will be kept open almost 24 hours per day in case protesters are arrested en masse. Authorities have also opened up extra jail space to hold protesters.”
The decision to shut down classes at Case Western Reserve University to house riot police drew ire from students and faculty, as one professor described in Belt Magazine:
Adding tension to the situation in Cleveland is the fact that several Black Lives Matter protests last week saw mass arrests and violent behavior from police, leading civil rights groups in Louisiana to sue the Baton Rouge police force for violating demonstrators’ First Amendment rights—not to mention the fatal police shootings of two black men in St. Paul and Baton Rouge a week prior.
In Cleveland in particular, there is widespread distrust of the police department that fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and then lied about the circumstances of the killing to cover themselves.
Police nationwide have also been on edge since a lone gunman ambushed a peaceful protest in Dallas, killing five officers.
Moreover, it emerged on Thursday that officials from the FBI have been personally contacting civil rights activists associated with the Black Lives Matter movement to warn them that they shouldn’t show up at the convention, the Independent reports.
“I think the FBI should be more concerned with investigating and dissuading the known white supremacists and people with ties to known terrorist organizations from attending the convention, versus trying to intimidate people who are speaking out against injustice,” said Samuel Sinyangwe, a civil rights activist contacted by the FBI, to the Independent.
The Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP made similar complaints last month in response to such tactics from local police.
Ratcheting tensions further, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is expected to draw out many passionate supporters of his divisive and racist rhetoric. As Ohio has an “open carry” law allowing the open display of guns, observers expect many convention-goers to be armed.
“Should violence break out during protests in Cleveland, open-carry activists bearing long-gun rifles may distract officers, frighten demonstrators, or inadvertently endanger themselves,” CityLab argued.
CityLab also noted that while “Ohio’s permissive open-carry laws introduce quite an X-factor into the proceedings[…] so does the Cleveland Police Department’s 2015 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, which remains unresolved. Then there is the fact that the RNC is a national and global event on a scale that Cleveland has never seen. (Certainly not in 1936, the last time the city hosted the RNC.)”
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Activists are preparing for the worst.
The Boston Globe reported that hundreds of demonstrators “will undergo training to help ensure their safety. Some will don neon green caps and be tasked with documenting—with video—the use of force by police or attacks by other groups.”
“Activists are being trained to make sure their hands are always exposed, so it’s evident they are not holding weapons, and to clearly articulate if approached by police that they are ‘complying, not resisting,'” the newspaper added.
“Some members of Black Lives Matter[…] said they would join [other] marches instead of holding their own event, in part due to safety concerns,” the Globe wrote.
Democracy Now! observes that the FBI and local police are also turning their cameras onto protesters: “Authorities, including the FBI, have been monitoring protest groups ahead of the convention and even approaching local activists. Police have also said they will deploy a video unit to document police interactions with demonstrators.”
“We want to make it very clear that we are being cooperative,” the Rev. Waltrina Middleton, founder of Movement for Black Lives and Cleveland Action, told the Globe.
Middleton “said many local activists are already on edge following home visits by the FBI and other law enforcement inquiring about their plans during the convention. (The FBI has characterized the visits as ‘community outreach’ aimed at keeping the convention safe),” the Globe noted.
The newspaper added that police “insist they are prepared to keep the peace with ramped-up security plans”:
Heads of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI both told reporters that they fear violence from “radical activists” at next week’s convention, ABC reported.
“It’s a threat we’re watching very, very carefully,” FBI director James Comey said.
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Women’s health advocates in Texas are outraged over the contents of a misleading and state-mandated booklet that’s handed out to women seeking an abortion.
According to the Austin Chronicle, “The error-ridden pamphlet, created by a 2003 abortion informed consent law, has been criticized for years for its myriad of medical inaccuracies and biased, ideologically-motivated misinformation, such as linking abortion and breast cancer (debunked by the National Cancer Institute), and promoting the idea that abortion inflicts psychological trauma and suicide, which is not recognized by the American Psychological Association.”
Now, the Department of State Health Services has proposed several revisions to the booklet, titled A Woman’s Right to Know, and is accepting public comments on the updates until Friday.
But according to the Texas Tribune, “The new draft doubles down on information highly contested by medical experts and the pro-abortion rights community, stoking the flames of a debate going back more than a decade.”
The Tribune reports:
To that end, reproductive rights advocates on Wednesday delivered thousands of comments in opposition to the booklet and its revisions.
“This is just the latest shameful example of state leaders playing politics with women’s health,” Texas state representative Donna Howard said at a press conference held by NARAL Pro-Choice Texas.
Decrying the pamphlet as “propaganda,” Howard said: “As a former registered nurse, I find it outrageous that the state requires health professionals to provide misleading and coercive information to patients.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last month struck down key provisions of Texas’ draconian 2013 law that would have forced all but nine abortion clinics in the state to close.
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Experiments involving genetically engineered animals have nearly tripled in Germany in the past 10 years, driven by a burgeoning global industry that involves inventing and patenting genetically altered species for scientific research, says a new study commissioned by Germany’s Green Party and conducted by the research group Testbiotech.
“We must not allow any more animals to be tortured.” Click Here: los jaguares argentina—Nicole Maisch, Green Party of Germany”The massive increase in animal testing in the genetics field is unacceptable,” said Nicole Maisch, the Green Party’s parliamentary spokesperson for the protection of animals and consumer policy, to the newspaper Der Westen.
“Particularly when the experiments’ usefulness from a medical standpoint is extremely questionable, or when the trials have revealed themselves to be unsuccessful,” Maisch said, “we must not allow any more animals to be tortured.”
The study, which was released Wednesday and shared with Süddeutsche Zeitung and newspapers owned by Germany’s Funke Mediengruppe, found that nearly 950,000 animals were subjected to experiments in Germany in 2013 alone, and a full third of those involved genetically modified animals.
The genomes of mice, rats, and fish are being tinkered with the most, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung, but rabbits and pigs are popular choices, too.
Moreover, Süddeutsche Zeitung notes:
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A race to patent and profit from genetically modified species is driving the growing global market for such creatures, observes the German newspaper: “Researchers patent altered animals, such as ‘knockout mice,’ and sign license deals with corporations, which in turn aggressively market the animals to laboratories—as “custom-manipulated rodents,” for example.”
The newspaper continues:
Ebner also told Süddeutsche Zeitung that he fears so-called “free trade” deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will lead to the worldwide dispersal of products from genetically modified animals.
The newspaper observes that “meat and other products from genetically modified animals cannot be sold in Germany. […] In other countries, however, among other things scientists are experimenting with altering the ingredients of milk by changing the genes of cows. For such experiments, embryos must be genetically altered and then implanted in a surrogate. The Testbiotech study notes that these experiments often involve pain and suffering, as such laboratory animals are frequently killed in order to remove cells or the genetically modified embryo.”
It seems other countries have reason to worry, as the U.S. government continues to fight for pro-GMO legislation. Indeed, when President Obama last week signed into law a corporate-friendly GMO labeling bill, he “scratched out the laws of Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine that required the labeling of genetically engineered foods,” reports AlterNet.
“He also nullified the [GMO] seed labeling laws in Vermont and Virginia that allowed farmers to choose what seeds they wanted to buy and plant,” the progressive outlet observes, adding that “for good measure he preempted Alaska’s law requiring the labeling of any [GMO] fish or fish product, passed to protect the state’s vital fisheries from contamination by recently approved genetically engineered salmon.”
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For the first time ever, a civilian survivor of a U.S. drone strike attended a hearing in U.S. court on Tuesday.
Faisal bin ali Jaber, a Yemeni environmental engineer who lost two innocent relatives to a 2012 covert drone strike, is seeking an official apology and declaration of error for the deaths of his brother-in-law, Salem, and nephew, Waleed. In September, three American ex-drone operators filed a legal brief supporting Jaber’s claim.
Ahead of Tuesday’s landmark hearing in Washington, D.C., Jaber wrote to President Barack Obama saying he would “happily drop the case in exchange for an apology” and acknowledgment that his relatives “were innocents, not terrorists.”
As ABC News reported Tuesday:
“True accountability comes from owning up to our mistakes,” he wrote to Obama.
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Human rights group Reprieve, which is assisting Jaber in his case, noted that despite Obama recently “reaffirming his Executive Order to acknowledge and investigate civilian deaths by U.S. drones,” as he vowed to do in July, the administration planned to argue Tuesday “that the U.S. courts have no business deciding whether strikes are lawful—even where war crimes are alleged.”
“I will be in the courtroom as they make those arguments,” Jaber wrote. “I cannot be elsewhere. Salem did not want to ‘die silent.’ I owe it to him to be his voice. He and Waleed deserve the same acknowledgement as Warren Weinstein and Giovanni LaPorto,” he continued, referring to the American and Italian citizens killed in a 2015 strike whose families received a public apology from Obama last year.
“Their lives mattered just as much,” Jaber said.
Furthermore, Reprieve warned: “If the Obama Administration wins with these arguments, it would give the Trump Administration remarkably free rein insofar as drone killing and the U.S. courts are concerned.”
As Reprieve staff attorney Jennifer Gibson said: “President Obama is right to be worried about what a Trump Administration might do with his secret drone program. But if he is serious about bringing it out of the shadows, he must stop fighting against accountability. He must own up to the hundreds of civilians that even the most conservative estimates say the program has killed, and apologize to those that have lost their loved ones.”
“Instead of fighting Faisal in court,” Gibson added, “President Obama should simply apologize, admit his mistake, and devote the rest of his time in office to building true accountability into a program hidden in the shadows for too long.”
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Ferrari will add updated components to its SF1000 for next week’s Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, but the developments will not be “major” according to team boss Mattia Binotto.
The Scuderia saw a slight improvement of its performance last weekend in Russia after implementing several upgrades, although Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth, was the sole points-scorer for the Italian outfit at Sochi.
The changes included a revised rear-wing endplate and a modified profile of the SF1000’s front cape section. More tweaks are in store for next week’s return of F1 to the Ring.
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“We’ll have a few more upgrades at the Nurburging,” said Binotto. “I mean, not major, but still for us I think it’s important considering our level of competitiveness.
“Then we will focus mainly on the diffuser for the remaining part of the season, but when is not yet defined.”
Formula 1’s restrictive rules that will remain prevalent next year will leave little scope for significant development. But Binotto is confident that Ferrari will still be able to move forward with its current car.
“Obviously you have reduced opportunity in the wind tunnel due to regulations,” explained the Swiss engineer.
“But for us it’s still important to develop the current car in view of next year, certainly to understand eventually what’s wrong with this one and to address it for the future.”
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California state lawmakers approved a measure early Saturday that would move the state’s presidential primary up several months to the beginning of March, potentially granting California significantly more sway in the nominating process.
The legislation now goes to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, for consideration. It was unclear if Brown would sign the bill into law, according to The Los Angeles Times.
If Brown signs the measure, California would likely hold its presidential primaries before spring on Super Tuesday, when several other states hold their votes. That would force candidates to compete in the nation’s most populous state early on in the nominating contest.
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California’s current primary schedule puts the state’s voting in June, typically weeks after the eventual Republican and Democratic presidential nominees have rounded up the delegates to secure their name on their party’s ticket.
“California is the most populous state in the nation, the most diverse state in the nation and has the largest economy of any state in the nation. And we ought to have a significant say in who the nominees for president are,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) told CNN.
Moving up the state’s primary has the potential to dramatically alter the presidential race early on. For example, candidates could be forced to focus more heavily on issues, like climate change and environmental protection.
State lawmakers also passed a measure that would require presidential candidates to release their personal income tax returns before they can appear on the ballot in the state. Brown has not indicated whether he will sign the measure, but it has wide support among Democrats.
If Brown does sign that measure, President Trump would be forced to make public the tax returns that he has long refused to release if he runs for reelection in 2020.
Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE clinched the 2016 Democratic nomination in early June just before California primary voters went to the polls. She ended up receiving about 53 percent of the vote in the primary.