Actually a very journalistic article on What Trump did in India

Trump's India statecraft is forward-thinking and necessary

by Washington Examiner February 27, 2020 12:00

President Trump's successful trip to India this week will develop a critical prospective alliance while undermining one of the most common criticisms leveled against this president: that Trump cares little for democratic values or for allies.

This was certainly not evident from Trump's rhetoric and effort during his short visit. Instead, addressing more than 100,000 people in a packed Ahmedabad stadium, Trump offered a bright vision of future friendship between the world's most powerful and its most populous democracies. As the BBC observed, "It was a good speech."

Addressing democratic values, Trump carefully hinted at concerns over India's treatment of its Muslim citizens. While praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the president celebrated an India in which "millions upon millions of Hindus and Muslims, Sikhs and Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Jews worship side by side in harmony." Building on this theme of democracies made strong by diversity, Trump called for "every Indian, north and south, Hindu or Muslim, Jewish and Christian, young and old, take pride in the glories of your past, unite for an even brighter future, and let our two nations always stand together as powerful defenders of peace and liberty

Asked at a later press conference whether he had raised the issue of religious liberty in private meetings with Modi, Trump confirmed that he had done so. Describing shared U.S. and Indian efforts against terrorists, Trump threw Modi a line that President Barack Obama would have been highly unlikely to offer. He promised Indians that America would continue "to crack down on the terrorist organizations and militants that operate on the Pakistani border." Trump's strong stance here will go down well with an Indian government and people still reeling from a Pakistani terrorist attack last February that killed 40 people. Equally important is the fact that Trump's robust stance on Pakistani terrorist threats stands in contrast to unhelpful positions of calculated indifference taken by China and Russia.

Trump also promoted the "quad" strategic dialogue among the democracies of the United States, Australia, Japan, and India. He announced India's purchase of $3 billion in U.S. helicopters, and, in distinctly Trumpian terms, he offered a rationale for why India would gain by abandoning its Sino-Russian flirtations in favor of a U.S. partnership.

"We have spent two and a half trillion dollars on rebuilding our military. It’s the most powerful military anywhere in the world by far. That is why I have come here to India, in the spirit of fondness and goodwill, to expand our cherished partnership of incredible power and potential," Trump said. "I believe that the United States should be India’s premier defense partner, and that’s the way it’s working out. Together, we will defend our sovereignty, security, and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region for our children and for many, many generations to come."

Trump is here linking Chinese efforts to dominate the western Pacific oceans with Beijing's growing effort to project power at India's doorstep. It's a clever step for two reasons. First, New Delhi is increasingly concerned by China's sponsorship and use of the Pakistani port at Gwadar and related efforts to undermine India's security on its northern borders. Second, the U.S. needs all the allies it can get to deter Chinese President Xi Jinping's effort to turn the world's oceans into his private playground.

Unfortunately, there is still no U.S.-India trade deal, but that could be a good thing if, as the president suggests, this is because the two sides are working on a bigger deal than expected. This is a relationship that is important we get right, so patience is in order.

But, ultimately, this trip hinted at the possibilities of a very bright future. If India and the U.S. can form a common bond built on the rule of law, national sovereignty, and democracy, they will be that much more prosperous and safe. This presidential tale is not defined by tweets but by true statesmanship

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trumps-india-statecraft-is-forward-thinking-and-necessary

I’m sick of hearing on how our government agencies waste our tax dollars. All the money misused could have solved all poverty in the US imho

NSA spent $100M on phone surveillance program that prompted two unique FBI leads

A multimillion-dollar cellphone surveillance program that sifted through the metadata from millions of individual phone numbers yielded just two unique leads over a five-year period.

According to a newly declassified study, the National Security Agency spent $100 million on a highly invasive cellphone surveillance system. With that investment, the agency yielded only one significant FBI investigation from 2015 to 2019.

The NSA's cellphone surveillance was first revealed to the public after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the program to the media. After Snowden's leaks in 2013, the federal government advocated for the program as a necessary tool to prevent future terrorist attacks, but many questioned whether that was true.

The study, which was produced by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and briefed to Congress on Tuesday, showed that only one of two unique leads yielded a prolonged investigation. The other unique lead was vetted and deemed unworthy of additional inspection.

“Based on one report, FBI vetted an individual, but, after vetting, determined that no further action was warranted,” the report noted. “The second report provided unique information about a telephone number, previously known to U.S. authorities, which led to the opening of a foreign intelligence investigation.”

Additional information about the one prolonged investigation was not made available to the public. In total, 15 investigations were aided by the program, but 13 investigations were already being conducted when information from the surveillance program was uncovered.

Investigations into the Pulse nightclub shooting and a machete attack in Ohio were aided by the program, but it is not clear that either of those incidents relied on unique information from the NSA that the FBI didn't already posses

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nsa-spent-100m-on-phone-surveillance-program-that-prompted-two-unique-fbi-leads

Group threatens lawsuits over ‘suspiciously high’ voter registration rates in swing states

EXCLUSIVE: Voters in Florida, Michigan and Colorado are threatening to sue their states after an independent organization discovered that each has counties with unusually high voter registration rates – in some cases, they found more registered voters than actual people eligible to vote.

-The data was compiled by the Honest Elections Project, a new nonprofit organization that blames the seemingly implausible statistics on a failure of states to properly update voter rolls to account for people moving, dying or being incarcerated.

-The group examined publicly available registration records and compared it with citizen voting-age data from the U.S. Census Bureau, describing the figures as "suspiciously high."

“All three states have multiple counties where voter registration rates exceed 90 percent, in some cases they exceed 100 percent. In the last election in 2018, the nationwide registration rate according to the U.S. Census Bureau was 66.9 percent. That disparity is a clear sign these states aren’t maintaining accurate voter rolls,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project. Snead was formerly a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

-The organization's findings revealed that 27 counties in Florida have voter registration rates above 90 percent, well above the national average, and seven counties with rates higher than 100 percent. Michigan had 18 counties above 90 percent and one above 100 percent, and Colorado had 19 above 90 percent and five above 100 percent, the group said.

-In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton won Colorado by a relatively slim margin of 2.8 percent. President Trump won Florida by 1.3 percent, and Michigan by just 0.4 percent

-The observations led voters in each state to warn their respective secretaries of state that keeping ineligible voters on the rolls leaves the states vulnerable to improper activity during November's election. That warning came in the form of letters sent on their behalf from attorney William Consovoy, who has represented Trump in a number of matters.

"Retaining voter rolls bloated with ineligible voters harms the electoral process, heightens the risk of electoral fraud, and undermines public confidence in elections," the letters said. Consovoy noted that the National Voter Registration Act requires states to keep accurate voter rolls, and provides for individuals to notify their states and then sue if action is not taken within 90 days, which the voters intend to do if necessary.

"We ask that you establish, if one has not already been initiated, a comprehensive and nondiscriminatory list maintenance program in compliance with federal law," the letters each say. They call for the states to remove from their lists of voters everyone who is ineligible because they moved, died, were incarcerated or other reasons.

The voters also request that the states inform them of what measures they are taking to make these adjustments in time for November's election.

The practice of removing names from voter rolls has led to intense controversy and legal battles in numerous states. A Wisconsin court recently put that state’s voter roll purge on hold, as opponents argued the effort targeted voters in Democratic areas in a bid to suppress turnout.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/group-threatens-lawsuits-over-suspiciously-high-voter-registration-rates-in-swing-states

Watchdog group files IRS complaint, says Bloomberg using charity as political tool

The conservative watchdog Government Accountability & Oversight – not to be confused with the U.S. Government Accountability Office – sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig saying that Bloomberg and his tax-exempt charity "may be operating in violation of the Internal Revenue Code."

"Recent and numerous media reports lend credence to the idea that Michael Bloomberg’s charitable contributions have been and continue to be used to support his political campaign for president," the letter, signed by the group's executive director, Matthew D. Hardin, reads. "Even if these numerous assessments, standing alone, are not sufficient to give rise to an IRS investigation, the rest of the known context suggests a pattern of deliberate use of charitable, tax-exempt dollars for political purposes."

Bloomberg has been a generous donor to progressive causes for years, especially since he left his post as New York City mayor. He's funded the gun control groups Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, as well as numerous other left-of-center causes. He boosted one NYU program that pays the salaries of experienced environmental litigators that it then farms out to state attorney general offices to pursue "progressive" environmental issues — a move West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said raises "a fundamental question of ethics and who's running our government."

Government Accountability & Oversight, citing numerous media reports, pointed out that Bloomberg has been endorsed by the mayors of several cities which were on the receiving end of huge grants from his foundation.

Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs endorsed Bloomberg after he donated $500,000 to an education organization in his town, the watchdog group said. Washington, D.C. Mayor Murial Bowser endorsed Bloomberg after he poured $4 million into the district's public schools. The report cites several other elected officials whose constituents were on the receiving end of some of Bloomberg's vast fortune that then endorsed him.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watchdog-group-files-irs-complaing-says-bloomberg-using-charity-as-political-tool

Reddit Purges Moderators of Largest Pro-Trump Community ‘The Donald

The Donald is one of largest and influential hubs of pro-Trump activity on the web, with over 790,000 subscribed Reddit users. In 2016, the community’s users were responsible for the creation and proliferation of numerous pro-Trump tropes and memes across the Internet, in what has colloquially become known as the “great meme war.”

In a statement to Breitbart News, moderators of The Donald accused Reddit of trying to kill its pro-Trump community with “a thousand cuts,” and urged subscribers to migrate to thedonald.win, an independent Reddit-like site created by the pro-Trump community.

The Donald’s statement follows:

Reddit has been trying to slowly kill The_Donald since it played a role in getting Trump elected in 2016. It started with user harassment, moved on to restricting our posts from being seen by most of the rest of Reddit (The third highest-traffic website in the world), then entirely quarantining us from the rest of the website as well as search engine results.

In the last couple of days, China-backed Reddit has begun warning and banning our users not only for posting content that they disagree with, but even “liking” wrongthink. Finally, on Tuesday, Reddit admins removed more than half of the moderators that have spent the last four years of their lives building the number one Trump supporting online community and announced that they would be choosing users to replace us. Their post requesting new moderators was met with thousands of responses telling them, in no-so-nice words, to shove it.

As they’ve done with other Reddit communities, such as Kotaku In Action, they’ll be installing their own puppet moderators to continue to silence and dilute our message. Reddit knows that to entirely ban what is effectively the only conservative voice on their website would garner them too much negative press, and possibly legal attention, so they’ve been trying to kill off The_Donald with a thousand cuts.

In preparation for this inevitable course of events, the mod team established a backup website, free from the political censorship of Reddit, and have encouraged our users to migrate to it (of which at least 100,000 have in the last day). The_Donald can now be found on an independent website, created and run by the people that have ran The_Donald for years, at http://thedonald.win.

This is just the latest attempt by Reddit to interfere with its pro-Trump community. Reddit “quarantined” The Donald earlier this year, hiding its posts from Reddit’s front page and forcing visitors to Reddit to sign up to the site before they can view The Donald’s content.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has condemned Reddit for censoring the pro-Trump page, accusing the site of trying to tilt the scales against Republicans in 2020.

“I can’t think of a more obvious and effective way to ‘sway elections’ than to hide the largest conservative forum on your site a year ahead of the 2020 elections,” wrote Rep. Banks, in a letter to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in October.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/02/27/reddit-purges-moderators-of-largest-pro-trump-community-the-donald/

Unfortunately the new “The Donald”, by Reddit users is using cloudfare. Didn’t the learn a lesson with what happened to 8ch

In preparation for this inevitable course of events, the mod team established a backup website, free from the political censorship of Reddit, and have encouraged our users to migrate to it (of which at least 100,000 have in the last day). The_Donald can now be found on an independent website, created and run by the people that have ran The_Donald for years, at http://thedonald.win.

https://www.thedonald.win/?cf_chl_jschl_tk=d19197071e69fb09d517b82e33aa909a625a24c8-1582828938-0-Ac0ikLNhov9bfma0CqEE5jLWaUggOkImTCGDRGrm5MrLmmCIE1p0vth6Ami76oGKuTHKm1SJ_trRW9EikKixcIJK0D3MHL87MQhWjAm8jXVgnMU22A0VO3JaSYhK6W9x6E5G5nNQvB5kNeqvkDNKh65XBFXJFRBypz7zeZHl3c7fEjq_IonXuGnwSpXkF5ya0P36sRlsGKViVK4aawZoSioXz1T0E2DhZLNsLgvUbpKHLsFJhNexZ3naNE5ZeqqswYyxUfxiIrS_dcBlBr-EBbU

TECH8Chan Founder is Wanted for ‘Cyberlibel’ for Allegedly Maligning Current Owner of the Free Speech Site

Current 8Chan owner Jim Watkins has accused the site’s founder Fredrick Brennan of “cyberlibel.”

Published 1 hour ago on Feb 27, 2020 By Shane Trejo

The Philippines has issued a warrant for the arrest of 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan after the man to whom he sold the controversial free speech website accused him of committing “cyberlibel.”

The Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 158 issued a warrant on Wednesday for the arrest of Brennan, his lawyer Alexander Acain Jr. confirmed to CNN Philippines. Acain says he will recommend for his client to return to the Philippines from the United States and post bail but is not sure if Brennan will heed his advice.

These charges have resulted from a complaint made by current 8Chan owner Jim Watkins, who bought the site from Brennan, after Brennan made tweets referring to Watkins as “senile” and “incompetent.” Brennan is being charged under the country’s Cybercrime Prevention Act.

“They are a malicious imputation of senility on the part of [Watkins,] a condition, status or circumstance tending to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of [him,]” Pasig City Assistant Prosecutor Juliene Raymond Cabanacan said in an eight-page resolution issued on January 2 and received by Brennan’s attorneys last week.

Brennan, who is disabled and confined to a wheelchair, faces between 6 and 12 years in prison if he is ultimately convicted of the charges. He has become a vocal critic of how Watkins has handled 8Chan since he took full control over the site in 2016.

“I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,” Brennan said last year. “After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.”

“Shutting it down, having these chan sites pushed underground, it wouldn’t totally stop these kinds of things from happening. But it wouldn’t happen every few months,” Brennan added.

Watkins, however, has contended that 8Chan is integral in the fight for global free speech and vows to keep the website up in some form to allow anonymous discussion on the Internet to continue

“It is actually sinister behavior. Ours is one of the last independent companies that offer a place you may write down your thoughts free from having to worry about whether they are offensive to one group or another,” Watkins said after the media blamed 8Chan for enabling mass shootings.

“Power consolidation of the media beginning as radio and TV stations were gobbled up by a few strong and rich companies is now moving at a breakneck pace through the internet. It will effectively silence the masses and leave them with no place to voice their messages,” he added.

8Chan re-branded to 8kun in Nov. 2019 and was restored to the internet after being denied service by their DNS provider Cloudflare, which allows pedophiles to use their services to propagandize about the virtues of raping kids.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/8chan-founder-is-wanted-for-cyberlibel-for-allegedly-maligning-current-owner-of-the-free-speech-site/