Mediaboss Marketing

When I was in grade school, an occasional deafening alarm prompted our teachers to usher us into the school basement where we would squat along a clammy, concrete inner wall until the all-clear bell rang. It was practice in case the Russian commies (then the Soviet Union) decided to annihilate Pittsburgh. As preteens, we did not realize that if our city did get nuked no school basement would have saved us.

Back then, we were taught that the Russians were our adversaries. For most of the past seven decades the Russians have been our adversaries. They competed with us in a dangerous Cold War nuclear arms race. They tried to sneak nuclear arms to our doorstep in Cuba until President John Kennedy stopped them. They provided weapons to kill American soldiers in Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere.

And last year, Russians hacked into the computers of the Democrats and worked to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in favor of Republican Donald Trump. What does that say about Russia and Trump?

Republican leaders, including Trump, do not act like the Russians are adversaries any longer. In fact, it is well documented that Trump and people close to him have had business dealings with Russians. We dont know the extent of Trumps dealings with Russia, partly because he refuses to release his tax returns. But we know Trump has praised Russian billionaire, strongman, President Vladimir Putin. We know that Trumps son told a 2008 real estate conference that Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.

Republicans repeatedly castigated former President Barack Obama for not being tough on Russia. But these same tough-talkers were suddenly silent when government security experts verified that the Russians actively interfered with our presidential election. To many people, this was an act of aggression rivaling the Cuban missile crisis. Our longtime adversary was caught undermining a basic part of our democratic process.

But except for a few like Sen. John McCain, Republican patriotism took a back seat to political expediency. So what if the Russians interfered with the election? Their man had won.

A half-hearted investigation is under way in the Republican-controlled Congress. There probably would be no serious congressional investigation if Democrats were not pushing hard to learn more about the Russian hacking and about the Trump campaigns possible knowledge and complicity.

Thanks to investigative journalists, there are new revelations almost daily. We know that during the presidential campaign, Trump insiders were in regular communication with Russians, including the ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, considered to be a Russian spy by U.S. intelligence officials, according to CNN and other news outlets.

Michael Flynn lasted less than a month as Trumps national security advisor after communicating privately with Kislyak before Trumps inauguration. Flynn acknowledged the communications but apparently lied when he said they did not include discussion of sanctions that President Obama imposed against the Russians for interfering with the election.

Flynn changed his tune only when we learned via the media that U.S. intelligence personnel had listened to the conversations and knew otherwise. Now we have learned that Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions, met with Kislyak twice last year and failed to disclose it when asked under oath during his confirmation hearing.

Republicans may no longer think so, but secretly cozying up to the Russians and hiding or lying about it is a big deal. Russian interference with our election is a big deal. Republicans either need to start treating it like a big deal or explain why they are putting partisan politics ahead of their country.

Bill McCann is a Bastrop County resident and writes commentary columns for the Advertiser on matters of national and local interest.

See the rest here:
Commentary: Why are Republicans ignoring Trump's connection to Russia? - Austin American-Statesman

New York Times

No Wonder the Republicans Hid the Health Bill New York Times Republican House leaders have spent months dodging questions about how they would replace the Affordable Care Act with a better law, and went so far as to hide the draft of their plan from other lawmakers. No wonder. The bill they released on Monday ... Republicans' Obamacare Replacement Just Got A Powerful EnemyHuffington Post Some congressional Republicans speak out against "Trumpcare"CBS News Conservatives rebel against Trump-backed Republican healthcare planReuters Washington Post -NPR -New York Post -Energy and Commerce Committee all 2,155 news articles »

See the original post:
No Wonder the Republicans Hid the Health Bill - New York Times

It would have been impossible to imagine a year ago that the Republican Party's leaders would be effectively serving as enablers of Russian interference in this country's political system. Yet, astonishingly, that is the role the Republican Party is playing.

U.S. intelligence services have stated that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the intention of swinging it to one side. Knowing how cautious the intelligence community is in making such judgments, and given the significance of this particular finding, the evidence must be compelling. At the very least, any reasonable person would have to conclude that there is enough evidence to warrant a serious, wide-ranging and open investigation. Polls suggest that a majority of Americans would like to see such an investigation carried out.

It's important at this time of intense political conflict to remain focused on the most critical issue. Whether certain individuals met with Russian officials, and whether those meetings were significant, is secondary and can eventually be sorted out. The most important question concerns Russia's ability to manipulate U.S. elections. That is not a political issue. It is a national security issue.

If the Russian government did interfere in the United States' electoral processes last year, then it has the capacity to do so in every election going forward. This is a powerful and dangerous weapon, more than warships or tanks or bombers. Neither Russia nor any potential adversary has the power to damage the U.S. political system with weapons of war. But by creating doubts about the validity, integrity and reliability of U.S. elections, it can shake that system to its foundations.

The United States has not been the only victim. The argument by at least one former Obama administration official and others that last year's interference was understandable payback for past American policies is undermined by the fact that Russia is also interfering in the coming elections in France and Germany, and it has already interfered in Italy's recent referendum and in numerous other elections across Europe. Russia is deploying this weapon against as many democracies as it can to sap public confidence in democratic institutions.

The democracies are going to have to figure out how to respond. With U.S. congressional elections just 20 months away, it is essential to get a full picture of what the Russians did do and can do here, and soon. The longer the American people remain in the dark about Russian manipulations, the longer they will remain vulnerable to them. The longer Congress fails to inform itself, the longer it will be before it can take steps to meet the threat. Unfortunately, the present administration cannot be counted on to do so on its own.

There's no need to ask what Republicans would be doing if the shoe were on the other foot if the Russians had intervened to help elect the Democratic nominee. They would be demanding a bipartisan select committee of Congress, or a congressionally mandated blue-ribbon panel of experts and senior statesmen with full subpoena powers to look into the matter. They would be insisting that, for reasons of national security alone, it was essential to determine what happened: what the Russians did, how they did it and how they could be prevented from doing it again. If that investigation found that certain American individuals had somehow participated in or facilitated the Russian operation, they would insist that such information be made public and that appropriate legal proceedings begin. And if the Democrats tried to slow-roll the investigations, to block the creation of select committees or outside panels, or to insist that investigations be confined to the intelligence committees whose inquiries and findings could be kept from the public, Republicans would accuse them of a coverup and of exposing the nation to further attacks. And they would be right.

But it is the Republicans who are covering up. The party's current leader, President Donald Trump, questions the intelligence community's findings, motives and integrity. Republican leaders in Congress have opposed the creation of any special investigating committee, either inside or outside Congress. They have insisted that inquiries be conducted by the two intelligence committees. Yet Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the Republican chairman of the committee in the House has indicated that he sees no great urgency to the investigation and has even questioned the seriousness and validity of the accusations. The Republican chairman of the committee in the Senate, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has approached the task grudgingly. The result is that the investigations seem destined to move slowly, produce little information and provide even less to the public. It is hard not to conclude that this is precisely the intent of the Republican Party's leadership, both in the White House and Congress.

This approach is not only damaging to U.S. national security but also puts the Republican Party in an untenable position. When Republicans stand in the way of thorough, open and immediate investigations, they become Russia's accomplice after the fact. This is undoubtedly not their intent. No one in the party wants to help Russia harm the United States and its democratic institutions. But Republicans need to face the fact that by slowing down, limiting or otherwise hampering the fullest possible investigation into what happened, that is what they are doing.

It's time for the party to put national security above partisan interest. Republican leaders need to name a bipartisan select committee or create an outside panel, and they need to do so immediately. They must give that committee the mission and all the necessary means for getting to the bottom of what happened last year. And then they must begin to find ways to defend the nation against this new weapon that threatens to weaken American democracy. The stakes are far too high for politics as usual.

Washington Post

Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post.

Related articles:

Read more here:
Republicans are becoming Russia's accomplices - Chicago Tribune

Republicans took the first step toward reversing the Federal Communication Commissions internet privacy rules today, with 25 senators introducing legislation that would reverse the rules and forbid the commission from passing anything similar to them in the future.

The privacy rules were introduced last year as an addendum of sorts to the 2015 net neutrality order. That order required the FCC to take over enforcement of privacy protection from the Federal Trade Commission, but the FCC needed to pass clear rules in order to effectively do that.

This is largely about sharing your web browsing habits

The FCCs rules mostly align with the FTCs privacy framework, but they differ in two key ways: the FCC makes internet providers protect your web browsing history, and the FCC has much more leeway to actually enforce its rules.

Of course, neither of those distinctions are things that internet providers like. So theyve been fighting to overturn them.

For the most part, Republicans just want to see the FCC scale back its rules to more closely match the FTCs. At a minimum, thatll mean letting internet providers share your web browsing history so that they can make more ad money.

Its not clear how quickly Republicans intend to move on this, but, one way or another, these privacy rules are probably going down. Republicans can move forward with this legislation, which would require a majority vote in both houses and a signature from the president. Or they could wait around for the FCC to kill the rules on its own commission chairman Ajit Pai has already indicated his plans to do that.

Senator Flake wants the FCC to follow the FTC on privacy

In Congress, Republicans are relying on the Congressional Review Act to reverse the rules. The act allows recently enacted rules to be reviewed and reversed by a new Congress, and its getting thrown around regularly as a way for Republicans to quickly undo many Obama administration actions from last year.

The big question, if the privacy rules are overturned by Congress, is what the FCC will do next. The law would prevent the FCC from passing any rules that are substantially the same as the ones overturned, but its not clear whatll qualify as different enough to clear that bar, especially since the changes Republicans are pushing for arent very dramatic.

At the very least, Republicans have made it clear what they want the FCC to pass. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published earlier this month, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who authored the resolution introduced today, said he wanted to scrap the current privacy rules in the hope that [the FCC] would follow the FTCs successful sensitivity-based framework.

Read more here:
Republicans introduce resolution to kill FCC's internet privacy rules - The Verge

WASHINGTON Employers who cheat their workers or endanger their lives now have one less thing to worry about, courtesy of the GOP Congress.

Senate Republicans voted Monday to kill an executive order issued by former President Barack Obama known as the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. The 49-48 vote, with all Democrats opposed, eliminates a regulation issued late in Obamas presidency that would have made it harder for companies to secure federal contracts if they have a documented history of wage theft or workplace hazards.

Following in the footsteps of House Republicans, GOP senators used whats known as a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. The obscure procedural maneuver requires only a simply majority, meaning Senate Democrats had no hope of stopping it through a filibuster. In passing the resolution, Republicans not only killed the rule, but also made sure the Labor Department never puts forward a similar rule again, unless Congress tells it to.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign off on the resolution, peeling back yet another regulation on employers.

Its insane, said Debbie Berkowitz, a workplace safety expert at the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit that advocates for low-wage workers. This is really a vote against working families. Theres been a big misinformation campaign by big business.

Obamas rule would have required companies seeking federal contracts to disclose violations of labor law including minimum wage, overtime, and health and safety statutes over the previous three years. Federal agencies would have been able to consider those violations when doling out contracts.

Backers of the rule, which included Democrats and worker groups, said it would have helped assure that the nations most unscrupulous employers arent rewarded with taxpayer dollars. Republicans and business groups claimed it would have unfairly punished companies without giving them due process. They dubbed it the blacklisting rule.

But even a record of violations wouldnt have precluded a company from receiving contracts. Under the rule, firms bidding for contracts would have had the opportunity to explain mitigating circumstances and steps they took to address the problem. The Obama White House said the goal of the rule was to get companies in compliance with the law.

Studies have shown that many federal contractors routinely break workplace laws, and many continue to receive contracts regardless of violations.

The Labor Department estimated that the rule would have applied toroughly 14,000 contractorseach year. Only a small share of these companies is expected to have reportable violations, and even fewer are expected to have serious, repeated, willful, or pervasive violations to report, the department noted.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a report ahead of Mondays vote that found 66 of the governments 100 largest contractors have broken labor laws.

As Republicans and the Trump White House race to kill regulations, the Labor Department has become a top target. Last week, House Republicans used the Congressional Review Act in an effort to undo a different labor rule, one that would require employers to keep better record of workplace injuries. The Senate has not yet voted on that measure.

Passed in 1996, the Congressional Review Act enablesCongressto dismantle a regulation within 60 days of it being finalized, while also forbidding agencies from rolling out a similar regulation in the future. In general, it could only be used successfully when one party holds both chambers of Congress and takes control of the White House.

Any regulations that Obama did not finalize early enough before he left office could now be wiped out through the Congressional Review Act.Republicans have successfully used the act to repeal more than a dozen regulations in the first few weeks of Trumps tenure. Until this year, the act had only been used successfully once, in 2001, when Republicans blocked a workplace safety rule put forth at the end of the Clinton administration.

The most interesting and troubling thing about this is that it may very well be the ultimate block on modernizing workplace standards, Celine McNicholas, labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute, recentlytold The Huffington Post.

Excerpt from:
Republicans Just Made It Easier For Companies To Exploit Workers ... - Huffington Post