‘Swing Set Susan’ Threatened to Arrest Hispanic Teens. Now She’s Charged With Impersonating a Public Servant.

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Giuliani Is Drawing Attention to Hunter Biden’s Work in Romania. But There’s a Problem.

By BY KENNETH P. VOGEL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Nd8brp

What Does Mark Zuckerberg Actually Believe?

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Don Valentine, Founder of Sequoia Capital, Is Dead at 87

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E.A. Carmean,Who Forsook a Life in Art for the Church, Dies at 74

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Esper: US troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields

The United States will send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to keep oil fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday. It was the latest sign that extracting the military from Syria is more uncertain and complicated than President Donald Trump is making it out to be.

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Harvard’s Student Newspaper Chooses Ethical Journalism over PC Mob’s Demands

Harvard University’s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, was accused of “cultural insensitivity” and “blatantly endangering undocumented students” last month -- all because it had adhered to journalistic ethics.It’s true: According to an article in the Washington Post, all that the newspaper had done to deserve this was ask U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement representatives for comment on a story about an “Abolish ICE” protest. In other words? The paper’s reporters were attacked because they demonstrated basic journalism skills. It is, after all, not only not controversial to ask both sides for their views in a straight-news piece; it would actually be controversial not to.Despite this, the Post reports that “hundreds” of students signed a petition calling on the newspaper to stop talking to ICE completely. Their cause was quite obviously absurd, and it depresses me that hundreds of our nation’s (supposedly) best and brightest could actually be ignorant enough to sign something like that.The good news? Rather than back down from the pressure, the newspaper stood its ground. Earlier this week, Crimson editors Angela N. Fu and Kristine E. Guillaume published a defense of the paper’s work.“The Crimson exists because of a belief that an uninformed campus would be a poorer one — that our readers have the right to be informed about the place where they live, work, and study,” the letter states. “In pursuit of that goal, we seek to follow a commonly accepted set of journalistic standards, similar to those followed by professional news organizations big and small.”It continued:> Foremost among those standards is the belief that every party named in a story has a right to comment or contest criticism leveled against them. That’s why our reporters always make every effort to contact the individuals and institutions we write about — administrators, students, alumni, campus organizations, and yes, government agencies — before any story goes to press. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the integrity, fairness, and accuracy of our reporting.Good for them.Yes, I understand how illogical it was that this was ever even a controversy to begin with. The truth is, though, we’re now living in a culture where people don’t always use logic. Particularly, the social-justice mob has a habit of just throwing around buzzwords instead – such as “insensitive” or “racist” or “sexist” -- and fully expects that doing so will be enough to silence their opponents. Worse? It often works. Often, when the mob accuses a person of doing something offensive, the knee-jerk response is an apology. The pressure, after all, can be very intense -- no one wants to be smeared, or even canceled, and sometimes an apology can seem like the only way out.I’m glad to see that the Harvard Crimson didn’t do this. These student editors stood up not only for journalism specifically, but also for logic in general. They rejected the idea that the offended person is always right, simply because he or she is offended. Not only is this great news on its own, but I also hope it will inspire others to stand up for what’s right in the future -- rather than making the social-justice mob more powerful by caving to it out of fear.

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A fire in California's Sonoma County has burned nearly 22,000 acres. To avoid further risk, PG&E might orchestrate the state's largest-ever blackout.

A wildfire ignited late Wednesday night in Sonoma County, California. The quick-moving blaze has spread across 21,900 acres, fueled by high winds.

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Democrats Have an Impeachment Momentum Problem

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- To understand where the impeachment inquiry has gone so far, and where it’s likely to go next, you need to keep in mind one key concept. Hint: it’s not quid pro quo.It’s momentum.To date, House Democrats have built on the original whistle-blower’s document by eliciting behind-closed-doors depositions from those officials in the State Department, Defense Department, and White House who are willing to defy Donald Trump’s order not to participate. By leaking the headlines of their testimony, the Democrats have been able to dominate the news cycle for weeks.The polls seem to indicate that the public is listening, at least to some extent: since the formal inquiry was launched, the percent of people who support impeachment has risen from 39% to 49%. Impeachment supporters now narrowly outnumber impeachment opposers.Yet the Democrats are reaching the end of this phase of quasi-secret investigative depositions. And public hearings will pose a significant challenge to the Democrats’ momentum.The first problem the Democrats will face is that much of the public — and all of the media — already knows the basic outlines of the story that will unfold in the public testimony. That’s because of the basic fact that the Ukraine scandal is fairly simple: Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate a political rival, and he conditioned military aid and a White House visit on a public announcement that such an investigation would take place.As Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders noted at the beginning of the impeachment inquiry, the simplicity of the narrative is a major virtue from their standpoint. The public neither wants nor would tolerate anything with the complexity of the Robert Mueller investigation.The downside of the simplicity, however, is that once the story is fixed in the public mind, there is going to be relatively little new to say about it. A lack of “new news” will slow the inquiry’s sense of momentum.Sure, scandal aficionados can nerd out over the details of which Ukrainian prosecutor is connected to what network of Ukrainian oligarchs. And there’s always some pleasure to be taken in observing just how remarkable are the public-service resumes of the so-called deep-state witnesses, like Ambassador William Taylor, who have testified against Trump. However, these will not sustain more than a single news cycle.The one significant twist still remaining in the current phase of desposition-taking will come when former national security advisor John Bolton either comes forward or definitively bows out.The arch-hawk is not much liked by Democrats, but neither were his fellow former George W. Bush administration officials pleased when he went to work for Trump. Nevertheless, Bolton is a patriot by his own lights. There has already been testimony that he referred to the alternative Ukraine policy being cooked up by White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and others as a “drug deal” that he wanted no part of. It’s therefore conceivable that Bolton would be able to testify directly about the quid pro quo. It’s also conceivable, however, that some of the knowledge he has might be subject to executive privilege. And Bolton is likely to take seriously the consequences of any testimony for the office of the national security advisor and for the presidency. The result could be either dramatic testimony or a dramatic refusal to testify.Once the Bolton issue is resolved, the move to public testimony will be unavoidable. That stage will give rise to the second major challenge to the Democrats’ momentum: the Republican counterpunch in the form of a concerted attack on the very rival Trump asked Ukraine to investigate: Joe Biden. Once television cameras are in the room, Republican members of Congress can be expected to use their equal questioning time to hammer home Trump’s allegation that Joe and Hunter Biden did something corrupt.The Democrats (not to mention the Bidens) are potentially vulnerable to this method of momentum-breaking. Although Biden has insisted that neither he nor his son did anything wrong, the reality is that Hunter Biden took a position on the Board of Directors of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company controlled by an oligarch who was under investigation for money-laundering by Ukrainian prosecutors. Joe Biden, as Vice President, sought the removal of the investigation’s chief prosecutor. Although Joe Biden’s actions were consistent with U.S. policy – American and IMF officials were frustrated with the prosecutor for not taking a stronger stance against corruption, and indeed, it seems that despite being assigned the Burisma case he basically ignored it – the basic sequence of events creates an appearance of impropriety.Republicans will use the Bidens to try to change the subject, because changing the subject means weakening the Democrats’ momentum. It also is very likely that Republicans will seek to get into the weeds of the various conspiracy theories that surround the whole affair.The Democrats don’t have a simple response to this, except to insist on their narrative and hope the public won’t be distracted. To maintain momentum in the public hearings stage, they will have to try a “greatest hits” strategy, getting the existing witnesses in front of the public for brief and pointed hearings.Although momentum has been on the side of Democrats so far, many things can still change that. The path forward will have more twists and turns.To contact the author of this story: Noah Feldman at nfeldman7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include “The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President.” For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Philippine vice president says time for Duterte to halt failed drug war; 'It's not working'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte should allow the United Nations to investigate his war on drugs, and abandon a deadly campaign that has been failure and a dent on the country's international image, its vice president said on Wednesday.

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Hizbollah leader warns of civil war after days of Lebanon protests

The leader of Hizbollah on Friday warned Lebanon that nationwide protests calling for the overthrow of the government could lead to chaos and civil war.  Hassan Nasrallah praised protesters for achieving “unprecedented” economic reforms but also suggested foreign intervention had a role in the demonstrations.  Over a quarter of Lebanon’s population are reported to have taken to the streets in anti-corruption protests over the past week. Hizbollah supporters have in recent days organised counter-attacks on the protests, which have so far remained largely free of sectarian division.  The powerful Shiite group, which is backed regionally by Iran, is in coalition with the government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri.  Speaking to the nation for the first time on day nine of the mass protests, Nasrallah warned that he had “intelligence” of foreign “conspiracies” to drag Lebanon into civil war.  Lebanon has been swept by more than a week of nationwide protests against the political elite Credit: AFP The leader claimed that the protests had started spontaneously, but were now being funded and organised by local and foreign actors who were exploiting the naivety of protestors. His speech echoed those given earlier this week by Mr Hariri and Michel Aoun, the country's president.  On the streets, protesters appeared unmoved. “All of them means all of them” they chanted, in reference to the demand for the country's entire cabinet to be replaced.   For the second day, security forces had to create human walls between the protestors and Hizbollah supporters in attempts to stop scuffles. “We are not going to stop our protests until we get what we want. We have been suffocated in these conditions for years. They have to go. All of them means all of them,” said Hieba, a 42-year-old restaurant owner.

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Warren’s Socialism for the Upper-Middle Class Is Awful — and Conservatives Need a Better Alternative

The first thing that needs to be noted about Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax — and, unsurprisingly, is seldom mentioned in discussions of it — is that it would redistribute hundreds of millions of dollars from the rich to the nearly rich.Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the wealth tax passes as she now proposes it and raises $2.75 trillion, as she estimates it will. (These are big assumptions, but bear with me.) Her plan would dedicate $1.25 trillion of that sum to “higher education” — that is, mostly to 18-year-olds who are already in the top third of their peers, as academic achievement and economic status are so closely correlated. Just over half of that ($640 billion) is dedicated to debt relief for college students. She would cap the relief at $50,000 and aim it at those who are earning less than $100,000 a year.The caps and controls would exclude those doctors and lawyers who come out of school with a huge portion of the total student debt in America, but begin earning well into the six figures shortly after graduation. It’s also true, though, that many student-debt holders who have a similar career trajectory can afford to earn less than $100,000 a year in order to win $50,000 in debt relief. Debt relief would rain down on graduates who are themselves privileged enough to take entry-level jobs in high-status fields for the promise of delayed rewards. Many of these debt-holders would still be on their high-earning parents’ health-care plans.A great part of the Warren debt-relief plan is simply taxing the wealthiest 75,000 households, and redistributing the gains to the next-wealthiest 250,000 households. We need to call this what it is: The continuing transformation of the Democratic party into the party of upper-middle-class entitlements, an attempt to take from the “bad” rich — the asset holders — and give to the “good” nearly rich. That many of the latter will become or are children of the former is just a trifling detail.While it could hardly be called revolutionary, the plan is actually pretty smart politics for Warren and the Democrats. It will dedicate a new program to demographic groups that have been moving away from Republicans and consolidating behind Democrats in recent elections: college graduates, upwardly mobile suburbanites. It will also address the genuine scandal of ever-growing student debt, without addressing the problem of ever-growing tuition and the luxurification of the American college experience. That is, it will relieve the costs to students, without really hitting the bottom line for the professoriate and administrations of colleges — another constituency that punches above its weight in the Democratic coalition.All of this should invite Republicans and conservatives to think harder about what direction they want to go in the future. There has been a lot of lazy and unfocused rhetoric about social and cultural “elites” in our circles, but not much in the way of making a coherent political case about the corruption and unfairness that is creeping into our system of meritocracy. Elizabeth Warren gets credit for having a “plan for that.” We may not like her plans. But until we figure out how to make the college experience a better value, more worthwhile and less costly to students and the rest of society, the question will gnaw: Do we have anything better?

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Family safe after speeding car is knocked out of its path

Traffic video released Wednesday by Phoenix police shows a car driven by Shannon Vivar making a right turn and unintentionally hitting the speeding vehicle out of the family's way as they crossed the street. Vivar's mother, Shirley, and her 3-year-old son were in the car with her. "I yelled, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Shannon!' And then we collided," Shirley Vivar said.

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Russian soldier shoots dead eight comrades at military base

A Russian soldier has shot dead eight fellow soldiers at a military base in eastern Siberia.  It is believed that the soldier - who had served for four months - was a conscript and has since been detained.  The shooting happened in the Transbaikal region on Friday at around 6.20pm local time.  Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper published by the Government of Russia, reports that two further soldiers were injured and remain in a serious condition. It added that the shots were discharged from a service weapon.  According to reports from local outlets the soldier, who is described as a "young man", aimed at his victims' heads before shooting wounded colleagues with what witnesses described as "controlled shots". Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a murder case against the suspect, whom it identified as 20-year-old Ramil Shamsutdinov. The soldier - whose name has not been released - was said to be guarding the base at the time. Deputy Defence Minister Andrey Kartapolov is flying to the area to investigate the incident. Gorny - Russia The suspected gunman may have been suffering from mental health problems, reports Russian news agency TASS.  According to TASS, the Russian defense ministry said: "At 6:20 p.m. local time on October 25, a serviceman of the repair and maintenance base stationed on the territory of the Trans-Baikal Region opened fire against his fellow servicemen from this service firearm during a change of the guard. "As a result, eight servicemen were killed on the spot while two others received wounds of various severity." The wounded servicemen "were promptly taken to the military hospital where they received necessary qualified medical assistance and their health condition is not life-threatening," the statement says. The Telegraph have contacted the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation for a comment.

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DeVos Fined $100,000 for Failure to Forgive Student Debt

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was hit with a $100,000 fine for violating a judge’s order to stop debt collection efforts against former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc.Despite the order, the department went as far as seizing the students’ tax refunds and wages.U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim in San Francisco issued the fine Thursday, after finding DeVos in contempt of court. Kim ordered the $100,000 to go to a fund held by the students’ lawyers to help the more than 16,000 borrowers who she said suffered damages from the violation. Both sides must submit a plan for administering the fund by Nov. 15.The judge’s rebuke comes hours after DeVos’s point person on overhauling the student loan system abruptly resigned and publicly called for mass debt forgiveness.“There is no question that defendants violated the” court order, Kim wrote in her ruling. She said the violation hurt individual borrowers.The language the judge used in her written order Thursday was more reserved than what she said in court earlier this month. At an Oct. 7 hearing, Kim said she was “astounded” by the agency’s conduct, saying it was “gross negligence,” at best, and “an intentional flouting” of her order, at worst.The Education Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.“The contempt finding and sanctions here are appropriate and well-deserved,” said Eileen Connor, a lawyer for the students. “The department and its leaders need to do better by students.”Corinthian, once among the largest for-profit college chains in the country, faced a flood of government investigations and lawsuits alleging systemic fraud before filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2015.In the aftermath, the federal government declared that as many as 335,000 former students could erase their loans by checking a box and signing their names on a simple form, under penalty of perjury. Doing so, the former students were told, would void their debt and prompt a refund on past payments.In 2017, a group of former Corinthian students sued the Education Department and DeVos claiming the government stopped granting the loan discharges. The case was brought as a class action on behalf of about 80,000 students.A report the department filed last month to show its compliance with the judge’s order to cease debt collections instead explained that the agency has seized tax refunds and wages from at least 1,808 students.The cases are Manriquez v. DeVos, 17-cv-07210, and California v. U.S. Department of Education, 17-cv-07106, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).(Adds comment from students’ lawyer)To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter BlumbergFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Reps. Schiff, Nadler criticize DOJ for elevating Russia probe to criminal investigation

Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., criticized the Justice Department late Thursday after the DOJ upgraded its inquiry into the origins of the Russia probe to a criminal investigation.

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More arrests after 39 bodies discovered in truck; Vietnamese nationals may be among dead

Police made more arrests Friday in connection with the investigation into 39 bodies discovered in the back of a truck outside London.

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U.S. imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe's state security minister

The United States has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's state security minister, Owen Ncube, over what it says is credible information of his involvement in "gross violations of human rights," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

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Biggest demonstrations yet rock protest-stricken Chile

As many as a million Chileans protested on Friday in the capital Santiago in the biggest demonstrations yet since violence broke out a week ago over entrenched inequality in the South American nation.

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Giuliani, Overheard Talking About Need for Cash, Mistakenly Calls NBC Reporter

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Has M.L.B.’s Ball Lost Its Juice? Some Players Think So

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Morales Averts Runoff in Bolivia, Officials Say, but Anger and Doubt Remain

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