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December 2016 - page 2

Trump Deepens Hostile Stance with Beijing, Questions “One China”

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President-elect Donald Trump looks determined to put the United States on a collision course with China, after deepening criticism of a long-standing principle underpinning Sino-US relations. Trump said Sunday, in a Fox News interview, that he understood the “One China” policy, after breaking decades of protocol by accepting a post-election congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen. He then went on to question the utility of the policy, telling Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that it could be used as leverage. “I don’t know why we…

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McConnell Won’t Say if Tillerson can be Confirmed as Sec. of State

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Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson will reportedly be President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, but tea leaves in the Senate suggest it could be an uphill battle to get the oil baron confirmed. During a briefing with reporters on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was upbeat about the prospect of Trump’s nominees thus far being approved, but dodged a question on the likelihood of a Tillerson confirmation. “I don’t want to comment on a phantom nominee today,” he stated. Tillerson’s ties…

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Obama “Actively” Pondering End of Dormant Muslim Surveillance Scheme, Ahead of Trump

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The White House is reportedly thinking about scrapping a controversial immigration surveillance program that has been dormant since 2011, in the final weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration. President Obama is considering fully ending the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), according to The Guardian. The program targeted foreigners in the US, from a set of almost exclusively Muslim and Arab-majority countries. The lone exception was North Korea. Democratic legislators, immigrants rights groups and civil libertarians have all expressed concerns that President-elect Trump could eventually use the…

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State Dept. IG Joins Fray of Overseers Asking for More Authority as Trump Admin. Readies for Power

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The Inspector General at the US State Department again notified Congress of a blind spot in oversight, and urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would address it. Testifying before a Senate foreign relations subcommittee on Thursday, department IG Steve Linick said his watchdog role is more limited than others in the federal enterprise because of unique procedures at State. Linick specifically mentioned rules that allow department investigators at the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and other agencies to keep the IG’s office in the dark about probes.…

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Fast Food Nation: Trump Set to Name Minimum Wage-hating Burger Czar as Labor Secretary

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Donald Trump is leaning toward naming a fast food CEO to a key position tasked with enforcing the country’s workplace laws. Andrew Puzder, the head of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, is expected to be named Trump’s Secretary of Labor, according to Thursday reports in both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Though Trump routinely promised to “drain the swamp,” during the presidential campaign, he would be nominating, in Puzder, a man whose industry allies stand to benefit immensely from the appointment. Puzder…

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Keith Ellison Will Resign, If He Wins D.N.C. Vote

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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will relinquish his congressional seat, if elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman. The legislator told the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune on Wednesday morning that he would make the move, after hearing that many of his colleagues would not back another sitting lawmaker as head of the DNC. “Serving my neighbors in Congress and fighting for them has been the best job I’ve ever had,” Elllison said. “Until the DNC Chair election, I plan to continue doing just that,” he added. The vote…

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Congressional Dems Hone in on Russian Interference Claims, Accuse GOP of Stonewalling Probe

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Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, used a hearing on government transparency Wednesday to demand that the panel take action on allegations that the Russian government interfered in last month’s election. He charged that the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), is rebuffing requests for an investigation into the matter. “On November 17, 2016, I wrote a letter to the Chairman requesting that our committee conduct a bipartisan investigation into Russia’s role in interfering and influencing the 2016 presidential…

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Congress Expands Contractor Whistleblower Safeguards, But Next Snowden Still Exempt

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Congress made permanent and expanded protections granted to whistleblowers who work for federal contractors, readying the legislation for President Obama’s signature. The House of Representatives approved of the bill on Monday, in a voice vote with the rules under suspension, meaning it garnered support from more than two-thirds of the body. In June, the Senate approved of the measure by unanimous consent. The bill indefinitely extends a pilot whistleblower protection program for contractors, first established in 2013. It also grants the same protections to employees…

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GAO: Political Interference Baked into State Department’s Annual Human Trafficking Report

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Those who followed the life and death of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) are well aware that the State Department’s annual assessment of human trafficking can be highly politicized. In 2015, the department upgraded Malaysia to “Tier 2” from “Tier 3,” shortly after Congress forbade the President from negotiating the TPP with countries given the latter designation, in the Trafficking in Persons report (TIP). Not long after, Reuters revealed that officials appointed by President Obama had fought with career TIP bureaucrats on tier rankings–with an…

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800 Climate Scientists Warn Trump Presidency Could Be Defined by “Denial and Disaster”

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Hundreds of scientists and energy experts sent a letter to the President-elect of the United States on Tuesday, urging him to admit that climate change is real and to take specific steps to address it. The 800 signatories to the letter, all Americans or individuals working in the US, called on Donald Trump to publicly state that global warming is a “human caused, urgent threat.” “If not, you will become the only government leader in the world to deny climate science,” the message stated. The…

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Trump Deceit on Taiwan Call Masks Aggressive G.O.P. Outlook on China

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Donald Trump’s transition team carefully prepared for his recent controversial phone call with Taiwan’s President, according to a report published Sunday evening in The Washington Post. The President-elect had brushed off the Friday conversation as routine, rather than a breach of decades-long protocol. “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency,” Trump tweeted immediately afterward. “Thank you!” The Post, however, called the flippancy of that assertion into disrepute, reporting that the chat had been “planned weeks ahead by…

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