Election Expert Says Electoral College Had Nothing To Do With Slavery

Attorney and election expert Tara Ross said the electoral college has nothing to do with slavery during an interview with “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.

“You hear today that it’s just about slavery and the southern slave-owning states wanted to have an electoral college. Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.

“If you look at the discussions, it was large versus small. Some of the large were northern states. Some of the large were southern states. And vice versa. It was about the size of the states. It was not about slavery at all. It was about, let’s have a presidential candidate who addresses the needs of the whole country.”

Ross said small states were concerned about being left out of the fold, which led to a compromise and the current system we have today.

“The small states were terrified that they would be run over by the large state delegates if anything like that were to happen,” she said earlier in the interview.

“There are so many memorable quotes of small state delegates sitting on the floor of the constitutional convention, thundering at the large state delegates next to them, ‘we do not trust you’ … The small states were very scared,” Ross added. “And so, of course, we ended up with this compromise, a constitution that blends many kinds of principles together so that we can balance power between the large and the small states.”

She also criticized the idea of awarding electoral votes to the popular vote winner and specifically highlighted states like New York and Illinois.

“It’s crazy. And Illinois has to do that by the way even if the candidate did not appear on Illinois’s ballot at all. They would agree that the will of the nation trumps what Illinois voters say,” Ross said.

“Now 12 states, plus D.C. have signed on to this compact. That’s 181 electors. There are two other states, New Mexico, Delaware, that have legislative approval there but the governors have not yet signed. That would be 189 electors on board. They need 270 to put their compact into effect.”

This Nuclear Missile Bunker Takes Visitors

The rickety elevator atop former Air Force Missile Site 8 slowly teeters its way 35 feet underground, opening up to a nuclear missile bunker filled with Cold War-era technology, fixtures and decor. It makes you feel like you’ve stepped into an old sci-fi movie — or perhaps the hatch from the show “Lost.”

Except the nuclear warhead on the other end of the 250-foot tunnel is real — although no longer functional — and the best part? Anyone can visit it.

Missile Site 8 is now a National Historic Landmark and the home of the Titan Missile Museum. The Air Force still owns the Green Valley, Arizona, property, which houses the only remaining Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile complex left of the 54 that were active during the Cold War. The site became a museum so the public could better understand one of the DOD’s biggest missions — nuclear deterrence.

When you walk into the site’s underground launch control center, it feels like you’ve stepped back in time.

“It is very much the same in appearance as it was in 1963 when the site became operational,” said museum director Yvonne Morris. The site was one of 18 she worked at as one of the first female crew commanders chosen in 1978 for the Titan missile program.

Despite the bunker’s dated look, visitors get a clear view of the importance of nuclear deterrence.

Nuclear Deterrence: How the Site is Important

Missiles are part of the land-based portion of the nuclear triad.

“Our job in the Titan II program was to project a credible threat to the Soviet Union and to convince the Soviet Union that if they were to initiate a preemptive strike against the U.S., we would still be able to retaliate with such force and devastation that it would be suicide for both countries,” Morris said.

And no one wants that, hence the nuclear triad’s mission: peace through deterrence. It’s something Morris said is the biggest takeaway from the missile site.

“You can read books and the internet about nuclear weapons. You can study it. But you really don’t have a frame of reference for how these things work or what’s involved in maintaining them day to day. That’s one of the things we can provide here,” she said. “The overall technology has not changed in the strategic deterrent … so this is a really good picture for folks.”

What It Was Like ‘On Alert’

Each missile crew had a four-day rotation. They were “on alert” for the first and last 24 hours.

“[We were] responsible for everything that went on at the missile site during that time. We oversaw maintenance, we inspected all of the equipment,” Morris said. “We’re generally just maintaining the missile so it’s ready to launch at all times.”

There were bunks for sleeping and a kitchen for eating … and there was boredom.

“Being on alert could very much be like any other kind of shift work. You’re sleeping and working at odd times,” Morris said.

How the Titan II Differs From Today’s Arsenal

The Titan II was the largest land-based missile the U.S. ever deployed, standing about seven stories tall. It carried the W53 warhead — the explosive equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT.

“One Titan II could pretty much lay waste to about 900 square miles,” Morris said.

 

U.S. Air Force airmen from the 576th Flight Test Squadron missile handling team install a cable raceway on an intercontinental ballistic missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Feb. 3, 2014. The missile handling team transports and handles ICBMs and performs operational check-out actions of the flight destruct ordnance package on the Minuteman III boosters. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder/RELEASED)

 

The Minuteman missile program that’s used today began when the Titan program did. The current version in the U.S. arsenal is called the Minuteman III and it’s smaller than the Titan II.

“[The Minuteman III] uses a solid rocket propellant instead of a liquid propellant like the Titan II,” Morris said. “It’s more efficient and a more reliable weapons system than the Titan II, given the state of today’s technology.”

The Minuteman program only requires two people on a crew versus the four required for a Titan II crew.

“But when people come here, they’re getting a pretty accurate picture of the life of people who do this kind of thing for the Air Force, and they’re getting a good look at the engineering requirements to launch a missile from an underground structure,” Morris said.

The Intricate Process of Launching

Morris took us through the launch process, which included lots of authentication, locks and decoding. One of the many failsafe devices, for example, required entering a six-digit code into a combination lock — meaning there were 17 million possible combinations — and you only had seven chances to get it right. On the eighth, the lock would commit “electronic suicide.”

“At a time when the hacking technology we have today didn’t exist, if you were going to try to guess the code, you were going to have to do it the old-fashioned way,” Morris said.

The last step required two crew commanders to turn separate keys simultaneously for five seconds.

Each key had to be held in position, or it would bounce back — another failsafe — and the keys weren’t near each other, so it was impossible for one person to turn both.

After that, it took less than a minute for the missile to launch, and from that point, there was no going back.

“There’s no way to stop a launch without a malfunction. There’s no ‘oops’ button,” Morris said. “If we could communicate with it, there was also the risk that the Soviet Union could communicate with it and take it off course.”

A Successful Launch Is Still a Failure

If they shot off the missile successfully, great. But that meant the mission — deterrence — was a failure.

Morris said they let visitors sit in the commander’s chair in the control room to go through the launch scenario. She said many can’t turn the key.

“It’s one thing to talk about World War III and nuclear winter and all the terrible things that would happen, if that were to happen,” Morris said. “It’s that person-to-person connection that makes it more real, especially when you’re sitting in the environment that would have participated in that.”

Source: Department of Defense

Rod Rosenstein Will Leave Justice Department In March

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein plans to leave the Justice Department in mid-March, agency officials told news outlets on Monday.

According to CNN, a Justice Department official said that Rosenstein’s departure is not related to a controversy surrounding his alleged offer wear a wire during conversations with President Trump. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe claimed in an interview that aired Sunday that Rosenstein broached the idea of wearing a wire to the White House in May 2017, days after James Comey was fired as FBI director.

McCabe also claimed that Rosenstein suggested using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein has disputed McCabe’s claims, saying that he was being sarcastic about wearing a wire.

Rosenstein was reportedly planning to leave the Justice Department soon after Attorney General William Barr’s confirmation. Barr was confirmed by the Senate last week.

Rosenstein planned to remain in office to ensure a smooth transition from Matthew Whitaker, the former acting attorney general, to Barr.

According to CNN, the Justice Department could announce a replacement for Rosenstein as soon as this week.

Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller special counsel on May 17, 2017, around a week after Comey’s firing. He oversaw the probe because former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from Russia-related matters.

Coca Cola Leaves Greece

It’s not the real thing anymore. The country of Greece, facing continuing problems learned today that Coca Cola Hellenic will leaving them. This news is particularly devastating as unemployment in Greece jumped over 25% this week.

Coca Cola Hellenic announced it will be shifting its trade listings from Athens to London and moving headquarters to Switzerland. As the largest company in Greece this loss is a further blow to the sinking Greek economy.

From the Economic Times: CCH’s announcement coincided with data that showed Greek unemployment climbing for a 35th consecutive month in July to 25.1 percent from a revised 24.8 percent in June. The jobless rate has more than tripled since the country’s now five-year-old recession began.

Fifty-four percent of Greeks under 24 continue to be jobless fueling more riots as the country struggles to regain its footing.

Late-Night Deal Breaks Deadlock Over Natural Gas Exports. The Trump Administration Is Ecstatic

  • The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission broke its deadlock over approving liquefied natural gas terminals.
  • Commissioners hashed out a bipartisan agreement over how to account for greenhouse gas emissions.
  • The Energy Department sees this as a major “breakthrough” for American energy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) broke a two-year partisan deadlock Thursday night to approve a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana.

Top Department of Energy (DOE) officials said this was a major breakthrough that will alleviate a growing problem for U.S. energy producers — a lack of export infrastructure.

“We have been promoting US energy around the world and today’s decision by the FERC is a very important one,” DOE Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

The Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal is the first such project to get FERC approval in two years. Republican FERC commissioners Neil Chatterjee, the chairman, and Bernard McNamee worked with Democrat Cheryl LaFleur to hash out an agreement to get her support.

Chatterjee and McNamee needed LaFleur’s vote to approve Calcasieu Pass, which they secured after working out a new approach to account for greenhouse gas emissions from the export facility.

“This is a tremendous breakthrough,” DOE Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes told TheDCNF. “We hope it will serve as an analytical template going forward.”

Once complete, Calcasieu Pass terminal will export up 12 million metric tons of LNG a year. Brouillette said the project already has buyers, including in Europe, waiting for American natural gas.

Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling spurred an oil and natural gas boom over the past decade, making the U.S. the world’s top hydrocarbon producer. However, a limiting factor on oil and gas is the lack of export terminals and pipelines.

Menezes said breaking FERC’s deadlock was also an important step in helping DOE improve its own LNG terminal approval process, including “making sure there’s no duplicative reviews.”

Getting approval to build and LNG export terminal is a long, complicated process that requires approval from multiple agencies. FERC currently has a backlog of a dozen LNG projects awaiting approval.

The Trump administration has been pushing for speedier approvals for LNG terminals, but FERC has been holding up the process amid pressure from environmental groups to factor global warming into their approval process.

LaFleur, for example, called on FERC to factor in estimates, like the controversial “social cost of carbon,” for a cost-benefit analysis. However, LaFleur agreed to compromise with her Republican colleagues.

FERC’s other Democratic commissioner Richard Glick opposed the terminal, arguing his colleagues were “deliberately ignoring the consequences that its actions have for climate change.”

The commission’s environmental review of Calcasieu Pass found the facility would emit roughly 3.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year — about 0.07 percent of total U.S. emissions.

Brouillette argued that while an individual LNG export terminal would emit greenhouse gases, it would help lower global emissions because countries want gas as an alternative to coal.

“To the extent that LNG is displacing coal around the world, we think the impact is going to be positive,” Brouillette said.

Brouillette also stressed the geopolitical implications of LNG exports and the role energy could play in President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

“These are decisions that impact the president’s ability to make foreign policy decisions,” Brouillette told TheDCNF. “We get to assist Poland, we get to assist Lithuania, we get to assist the Baltic states.”

Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War puts just about every Marvel hero into one film [trailer]

If a Marvel hero has made it to the big screen, there’s a pretty good chance they show up in the studio’s next film in the Avenger series – Infinity War.

This teaser trailer for the movie released Wednesday is action-packed and includes some surprise appearances so be sure to watch until the very, very end.

Avengers: Infinity War hits U.S. theaters May 4.

U.S. Voices Concern Over Sentencing of Wang Quanzhang

The United States is deeply concerned by the sentencing of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang in Tianjin, China on January 28 to four-and-a-half years in prison on charges of “subverting state power.” Wang was among the first individuals detained during the Chinese government’s July 9, 2015 (“709”) crackdown on legal advocates for rule of law and human rights defenders, and the last to be tried.

“We are troubled that China has subjected Mr. Wang to a three-and-a-half-year period of pre-trial detention, and has been held incommunicado, has been deprived of legal counsel of his choosing, and that his chosen lawyer has been subjected to reprisals,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement Tuesday. “We call on China to release Mr. Wang immediately and allow him to reunite with his family. We remain concerned by the deteriorating situation for the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms in China, and continue to urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and to respect the rule of law.”

Wang often defended farmers who’s land the government took, members of out-of-favor religions, and scholars who spoke against Beijing’s human rights abuses.

More than 200 Chinese lawyers like Wang were arrested in the 2015 crackdown.

Source: U.S. Department of State

Tax Refunds Now up 1.3 Percent over 2018, Increase 19 Percent from Last Week

The average American’s tax refunds are up in 2019, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Mainstream media has reported for weeks that President Trump’s tax plan had negatively impacted refund amounts, but new data shows they got it wrong.

“The average refund at this point in the filing season is now up 1.3 percent over last year based on 47.7 million individual returns processed thus far in 2019 compared 49.2 million returns processed in 2018,” the Treasury Department said Friday in a statement. “Through four weeks of the filing season, the average tax refund in 2019 increased to $3,143, a significant jump from last week’s average of $2,640.”

“Tax refunds normalized as we expected. #TaxCuts #refunds working,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tweeted Saturday morning, but the Treasury Department also warned that weekly filing data is variable and will continue to fluctuate.

Even with fluctuations, Mnuchin saying that refunds normalized “as expected” indicates that they expect the trend to remain around the average from 2018.

The increase in the weekly data is primarily due to the remainder of the Earned Income Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits being paid out this week.

The media also dishonestly cast the lower refunds received during the first few weeks as representing higher taxes paid under Trump’s tax reforms. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“The size of someone’s refund is a separate issue from whether their taxes have increased or decreased,” Treasury said.  “Most people are benefiting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by receiving larger paychecks throughout the year, instead of tax refunds that simply result from people overpaying the government throughout the year.”

Arlington National Cemetery ‘Running Out of Room’

Work is expected to begin next year on a long-planned expansion of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the cemetery’s executive director told Congress.

The cemetery now occupies about 625 acres of land near the nation’s capital and is the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their family members.

But, after more than 150 years of service, the cemetery is running out of room.

“The expansion will add 37 acres of burial space and extend the cemetery’s active life,” Karen Durham-Aguilera said during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies.

Arlington National Cemetery lies on the former Arlington Estate — land that once belonged to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and stepgrandson of George Washington.

By the start of the Civil War, the property had passed into the family of Robert E. Lee through marriage. In May 1861, Union troops occupied the estate after the Lee family fled south.

The property served as a Union Army camp and headquarters throughout the war, and starting in 1863, as the site of Freedman’s Village, a home for freed slaves that provided housing, education, training and medical care to help former slaves transition to freedom.

The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on May 13, 1864. By war’s end, more than 16,000 soldiers had been buried there.

Today, the cemetery holds funeral services Monday through Saturday (except federal holidays), conducting between 27 and 30 services each weekday and between six and eight services each Saturday. Information on burial eligibility and military honors is available on the cemetery’s website.

Bank Flagged ‘Suspicious’ Payments To Lobbyist Who Worked With Fusion GPS And Attended Trump Tower Meeting

  • The bank for Russia-born lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin flagged as suspicious hundreds of thousands of dollars into his account in 2016 and 2017.
  • Akhmetshin worked closely with Fusion GPS in 2016 and was also one of the attendees of the infamous Trump Tower meeting.
  • Akhmetshin worked for Fusion GPS to investigate the lobbyist behind the Magnitsky Act, which was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting.

Wells Fargo in 2017 flagged half a million dollars in wire transfers and bank deposits to the account of Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russia-born lobbyist who has worked closely with opposition research firm Fusion GPS and also attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting.

According to BuzzFeed News, Wells Fargo flagged the transactions for the Treasury Department upon the request of federal investigators looking into the Trump Tower meeting, which was held on June 9, 2016.

Wells Fargo deemed the deposits suspicious because of “overseas origin” and because of “a suspicion that they showed Akhmetshin had violated federal lobbying law,” according to BuzzFeed.

Akhmetshin has been interviewed by several congressional committees and testified to the grand jury being used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

BuzzFeed’s report focuses on Akhmetshin’s involvement in the Trump Tower meeting, while largely ignoring his connection to Fusion GPS, which commissioned the infamous Steele dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.

BuzzFeed, which was the first news outlet to publish the dossier, mentions Fusion GPS only once in its report, on the 24th paragraph.

The BuzzFeed report does not accuse Akhmetshin of wrongdoing, though the implication of the piece is that the payments to Akhmetshin are somehow linked to his visit to Trump Tower. The report does show that Akhmetshin received much more in wire payments and deposits from his lobbying client, the Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, than he reported on lobbying disclosure reports filed with Congress.

Akhmetshin’s lawyer responded to the story, telling NBC News that “it is appalling that BuzzFeed published this misleading article.”

“Mr. Akhmetshin categorically denies that he engaged in any form of unlawful activity, and BuzzFeed’s unsupported suggestions to the contrary are completely untrue.”

Akhmetshin gained national prominence when it was reported in July 2017 that he was part of the Russian delegation at the Trump Tower meeting, which was hosted by Donald Trump Jr. and attended by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.

Akhmetshin accompanied Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya and several other associates to the meeting.

The meeting has drawn scrutiny because Trump Jr. accepted it after an associate said that a Russian lawyer — later identified as Veselnitskaya — sought to provide the campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“If it is what you say, I love it,” Trump Jr. wrote in an email accepting the offer.

Most of the Trump Tower attendees, including Akhmetshin and Trump Jr., have testified that the meeting was a dud. They’ve all claimed that Veselnitskaya did not provide information on Clinton. Instead, she focused on the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that imposed sanctions on Russian human rights abusers.

Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya and Fusion GPS all worked as part of a multi-faceted campaign aimed at undermining the Magnitsky Act. Fusion’s main task was investigating Bill Browder, the London-based financier whose lobbying efforts let to the law’s passage.

Browder claims that his former lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Russian jail in 2009 while investigating a $230 million money laundering scheme involving a Russian organized crime syndicate.

The ultimate client for Fusion, Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya was Katsyv, whose firm, Prevezon Holdings, was sued by the Justice Department for allegedly laundering money stolen during the tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky.

Some of Prevezon’s payments to Akhmetshin and Fusion GPS were routed through its U.S. law firm, BakerHostetler. That arrangement in an arrangement that mirrored its work for the Clinton campaign and DNC. On that project, Perkins Coie, the law firm for the Democrats, paid Fusion GPS $1 million to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. BakerHostetler paid Fusion $523,651 in 2016.

Fusion GPS’s work on a seemingly anti-Kremlin project (the dossier) and a project backed by Russians is one of the stranger twists of Russiagate.

Despite the overlap in Fusion’s work, the firm’s founder, Glenn Simpson, has denied knowing about the Trump Tower meeting until it was reported in the press. That claim has drawn some skepticism because Simpson was with Veselnitskaya hours before the meeting for a court hearing in the Prevezon case.

According to BuzzFeed, documents show that in the months before and after the Trump Tower meeting, Akhmetshin made $40,000 in cash deposits and received a wire transfer of $100,000 from Katsyv. BakerHostetler paid Akhmetshin another $97,400 over five months, according to BuzzFeed.

Akhmetshin also received $52,000 from the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, a foundation financed by Katsyv that Akhmetshin used as his lobbying vehicle on Capitol Hill.

BuzzFeed lists a series of other deposits that Wells Fargo found suspicious and reported to Treasury.