Peter Morici, Josh Kraushaar and Gen. Jack Keane joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Senate passes bill to keep government open until February, undercutting Trump’s drive for border wall funding. (Reuters) — WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to fund several federal agencies through Feb. 8 and avert a partial government shutdown, but without including $5 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that President Donald Trump demanded.  By a voice vote the Senate approved the stop-gap measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for passage before a midnight Friday deadline when existing funding expires for several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.

5am – D/E     FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY:

• NYT: Facebook offered big tech firms more user data than previously revealed. The Times reported late Tuesday that it obtained internal Facebook (FB) documents that show how the social media giant arranged to share data with more than 150 companies. The deals helped Facebook gain more users, according to the report, and its partners were able to add new features to their products while effectively avoiding Facebook’s usual privacy rules. Many of the partnerships ended years ago, but the details reported by the Times are striking. Amazon (AMZN) got access to Facebook users’ names and contact information through their friends on the social network, according to the report, while Microsoft’s (MSFT) search engine Bing was allowed to “see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent.” Streaming services Netflix (NFLX) and Spotify (SPOT) had the “ability to read Facebook users’ private messages,” it said.
• THE NEW YORK TIMES HAD SPECIAL ACCESS TO FACEBOOK DATA WITHOUT USERS’ KNOWLEDGE. While the Tuesday bombshell focused on how the information from Facebook was mainly shared with major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Spotify, The Times was one of nine media organizations that also obtained special access to things like a users’ friends lists.

 

6am – A         INTERVIEW – PETER MORICI – economist and business professor at the University of Maryland and a columnist.  @pmorici1 – discussed the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates.

• Federal Reserve to hike interest rate for fourth time this year despite Trump’s objections. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked the nation’s benchmark borrowing rate by 0.25 percent for the fourth time this year, despite months of objections from President Donald Trump, who fears higher interest rates will take the steam out of the nation’s booming economy. The move, announced at the conclusion of the central bank’s December monetary policy meeting, is the fourth rate hike this year and the fourth for Trump-appointed Fed Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell. As head of the Federal Reserve, Powell has found himself uncharacteristically singled out for criticism over the central bank’s handling of interest rates, with Trump saying he “maybe” regretted nominating Powell to the position.

6am – B/C Federal judge strikes down Trump asylum rules for domestic and gang violence victims. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan — who a day earlier had excoriated former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — ordered the government to allow migrants with iffy claims to be given a full chance to make their case for asylum. And he ordered the U.S. to un-deport plaintiffs in the case who were already ousted under the new policy, saying they deserve to be brought back and allowed to claim asylum.

• Federal judge strikes down Trump asylum rules for domestic and gang violence victims. In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down large portions of Justice Department policies that made it harder for immigrants to claim asylum. A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed Justice Department policies that made it harder for immigrants to claim asylum because of domestic violence or gang violence, finding the policies violated existing law. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled the harsher Justice Department policies ordered by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions were “arbitrary, capricious and in violation of the immigration laws.” Because “it is the will of Congress — not the whims of the Executive—that determines the standard for expedited removal, the Court finds that those policies are unlawful,” Sullivan wrote in his 107-page decision. He permanently blocked the government “from continuing to apply those policies and from removing plaintiffs who are currently in the United States without first providing credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws,” and ordered the feds “to return to the United States the plaintiffs who were unlawfully deported and to provide them with new credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws.”

6am – D/E/F DOSSIER NEWS:

• TRUMP’S TWEETS FORCE CNN, MSNBC TO FINALLY DISCUSS FLAWS IN THE STEELE DOSSIER
• JOHN MCCAIN ASSOCIATE GAVE DOSSIER TO BUZZFEED
• BuzzFeed Wins Defamation Lawsuit Filed by Executive Named in Trump Dossier

7am – A/B – INTERVIEW – JOSH KRAUSHAAR – Political Editor for National Journal

• Senate passes bill to keep government open until February, undercutting Trump’s drive for border wall funding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he will move a stopgap measure funding the government until early February. The measure if passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump would prevent a partial shutdown set to begin Saturday and would fund government departments and agencies through Feb. 8
• Senate Approves Bipartisan Criminal Justice Bill
• Republican Sens. Rubio and Graham spoke out against President Trump’s plan to withdraw from Syria, calling it a “colossal” and “huge mistake.”

7am –C Donald Trump Jr. has message for Ocasio-Cortez after she bashed Politico article. President Trump’s son went on Twitter to agree with Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who called out mainstream media’s “fake news.” “Welcome to our world… You think that’s bad? Imagine what it’s like when they actually hate you,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, retweeting her Tuesday afternoon swipe at a news article that she’d dismissed as “gossip.”  Ocasio tweeted about a Politico article: POLITICO headline: “Ocasio-Cortez weighs a new primary target: Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries, the newly elected No. 5 Democrat in the House, has drawn criticism from the left since the party’s leadership elections.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‏@Ocasio2018: One disappointment about DC is the gossip that masquerades as “reporting.” This story has: – Not a SINGLE named or verifiable source – Only ONE on-the-record comment, which is a denial. My dad had a name for junk articles like this: “Birdcage lining.”

7am – D Senate passes bill to keep government open until February, undercutting Trump’s drive for border wall funding. (Reuters) — WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to fund several federal agencies through Feb. 8 and avert a partial government shutdown, but without including $5 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that President Donald Trump demanded.  By a voice vote the Senate approved the stop-gap measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for passage before a midnight Friday deadline when existing funding expires for several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  42m42 minutes ago The Democrats, who know Steel Slats (Wall) are necessary for Border Security, are putting politics over Country. What they are just beginning to realize is that I will not sign any of their legislation, including infrastructure, unless it has perfect Border Security. U.S.A. WINS!

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  32m32 minutes ago: With so much talk about the Wall, people are losing sight of the great job being done on our Southern Border by Border Patrol, ICE and our great Military. Remember the Caravans? Well, they didn’t get through and none are forming or on their way. Border is tight. Fake News silent!

7am – E         Louie Gohmert Reveals Paul Ryan Encouraged GOP Congressmen To Campaign Against Trump

8am – A/B     INTERVIEW – GENERAL JACK KEANE – is a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst – discussed why he thinks withdrawing from Syria is a strategic mistake.

• KEANE: Syria withdrawal a strategic mistake. Bush won the war in Iraq with the Surge. Obama lost the peace by premature withdrawal. the result was ISIS. POTUS destroyed  ISIS safe haven in Syria and will lose the peace by withdrawing.ISIS will re-emerge, Iran a greater threat, will own all of Syria, Israel more in danger, AQ a growing menace. Responding to future threats as they arise actually prolongs our involvement in Syria. Stay the course with a modest troop investment stabilize eastern Syria with a major reconstruction effort and have a seat at table for political solution.
• Trump orders rapid withdrawal from Syria in apparent reversal: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.

8am – B         GOFUNDME FOR BORDER WALL: A Purple Heart medal recipient and disabled military veteran has taken to GoFundMe to raise money to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall. Brian Kolfage is a triple amputee Air Force veteran who lost both legs and his right hand while serving in Iraq in 2004. Kolfage, a vocal Trump supporter, has also been vocal in fighting against Facebook, which he says blacklisted his page earlier in the year. He is also the founder of the website Fight4FreeSpeech where he is calling for 1 million signatures in a petition against Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Now, Kolfage is trying to fund Trump’s border wall by raising at least $1 billion. In the description, Kolfage says he hopes by funding a portion of the wall, it “will jumpstart things and will be less money Trump has to secure from our politicians.” Kolfage says he is working to have the $1 billion GoFundMe limit raised in hopes of reaching $2 billion. In two days, the account has raised $817,462 of his goal, a total donated by 13,284 people thus far.

8am – C  BIDEN / LION KING:

• Biden allies see O’Rourke as a clear threat. Allies to Joe Biden say Rep. Beto O’Rourke could pose a significant threat to the former vice president if both men choose to run for the White House. “If both of them run, and there’s a good chance they both will, I think it spells trouble for Biden,” said one longtime aide to the former vice president. There are a series of reasons why political observers think the upstart Texan could represent an existential threat to Biden’s presidential hopes. The biggest is that O’Rourke appeals to former President Obama’s network of former aides and donors, who are searching for a candidate to back for the first time in more than a decade.
• CNN AFRICAN VOICES: Petition calls on Disney to drop ‘Hakuna Matata’ trademark. (CNN) An online petition is calling on Disney to relinquish its trademark of the Swahili phrase “Hakuna Matata.” The phrase, which roughly translates to “no problems” or “no worries” and is a common expression in parts of eastern and southern Africa, is perhaps best known as a song in Disney’s 1994 hit movie “The Lion King.” The company trademarked the expression the same year, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The petition, created by Zimbabwean activist Shelton Mpala, has received more than 50,000 signatures. Mpala told CNN he started the petition “to draw attention to the appropriation of African culture and the importance of protecting our heritage, identity and culture from being exploited for financial gain by third parties.” “This plundered artwork serves to enrich or benefit these museums and corporations and not the creators or people it’s derived from,” Mpala said.
  

8am – D         FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY:

• NYT: Facebook offered big tech firms more user data than previously revealed. The Times reported late Tuesday that it obtained internal Facebook (FB) documents that show how the social media giant arranged to share data with more than 150 companies. The deals helped Facebook gain more users, according to the report, and its partners were able to add new features to their products while effectively avoiding Facebook’s usual privacy rules. Many of the partnerships ended years ago, but the details reported by the Times are striking. Amazon (AMZN) got access to Facebook users’ names and contact information through their friends on the social network, according to the report, while Microsoft’s (MSFT) search engine Bing was allowed to “see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent.” Streaming services Netflix (NFLX) and Spotify (SPOT) had the “ability to read Facebook users’ private messages,” it said.
• THE NEW YORK TIMES HAD SPECIAL ACCESS TO FACEBOOK DATA WITHOUT USERS’ KNOWLEDGE: While the Tuesday bombshell focused on how the information from Facebook was mainly shared with major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Spotify, The Times was one of nine media organizations that also obtained special access to things like a users’ friends lists.