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Saturday, June 29, 2019

Rep. Eric Swalwell went after former Vice President Joe Biden in the second Democratic presidential primary debate. Swalwell said Biden, who is 76 years old, should “pass the torch.” Biden rejected the California lawmaker’s critique.

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Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEAL

An Iraqi general and a U.S. Marine testifying in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL said on Thursday they never saw the platoon leader stab a wounded detainee in the neck, disputing the central allegation in the prosecution's war crimes case. A sworn deposition of Major General Abbas al-Jubouri, videotaped in San Diego earlier this month, was played for the seven-member jury on the second day of defense testimony in the court-martial of Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher. Contrary to prior testimony that Gallagher, or a medic on his team, had acted deliberately to cause the death of a helpless Islamic State fighter in their custody, Jubouri said the Navy SEALs did all they could to save the teenager's life.

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Kamala Harris Is Surging and Birtherism Is Back

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyKamala Harris broke out from the other nine Democrats onstage during the second Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, calling on her personal experiences of racial injustice as a black woman.“As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said.That’s when she was attacked on Twitter by a conservative provocateur for not being an “American black.” It’s a play straight out of the racist birther playbook used against Barack Obama when he ran for president a decade earlier. This time, though, those kinds of allegations don’t have to circulate for years on obscure right-wing forums before they reach a mainstream audience. On Thursday night, spammers and even one of President Trump’s sons spread the attack to millions of people within hours. Kamala Harris Shows She’s Here to Capture the CrownHarris, 54, was born in Oakland, California to a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She spoke of her experience growing up black in the debate, recalling a story about neighbors who wouldn’t let their children play with Harris and her sister because of the color of their skin.The attacks on Harris’s background started Thursday when Ali Alexander tweeted she is not an “American black.” “She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” Alexander wrote. “I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting. Now using it for debate time at DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”Alexander’s claim was picked up by Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted it to his nearly 3.6 million followers. “Is this true?” Trump Jr. wrote. “Wow.”Trump Jr., who later deleted his tweet, wasn’t the only one using Alexander’s tweet to question Harris’s ethnicity. Harris’s team denounced the comment as racist. “This is the same type of racist attacks his father used to attack Barack Obama. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” a Harris spokesperson told The Daily Beast.More Twitter users copied and pasted Alexander’s message verbatim and tweeted it as their own, according to screenshots posted by writer Caroline Orr. Some of those accounts, like “@prebs_73,” have copy-pasted other popular right-wing tweets verbatim. Other accounts with right-wing references in their usernames and biographies piled on, accusing Harris of not being black.“Ummmmm @KamalaHarris you are NOT BLACK. you are Indian and Jamaican,” wrote a Twitter user with a cross emoji, the word “CONSERVATIVE,” a red “X” emoji (a right-wing Twitter trope), and three stars (a QAnon symbol) in their username.At least one known network of bot accounts was found spreading Alexander’s original tweet, BuzzFeed reported.Shireen Mitchell, a technologist and founder of the group Stop Online Violence Against Women, said the accusation against Harris plays into a long-running debate that has been used to drive a white nationalist wedge through black communities.“We are and have always been, for centuries in this country, having this little fight about who gets opportunities as black people and who doesn’t,” Mitchell said. “That includes colorism; that includes distinctions of where the ship actually landed; it includes if you are (and I am) a descendant of a slave who was born here versus a descendant of slavery from another country. Those distinctions, from my perspective, make no sense ever. But what it does is allow for white nationalist and nativist conversations to be planted in my community.”A spokesman for Trump Jr. said Trump sent the tweet originally because he had not known that Harris’s mother was Indian. “Don’s tweet was simply him asking if it’s true that Kamala Harris was half-Indian because it’s not something he had ever heard before and once he saw that folks were misconstruing the intent of his tweet he quickly deleted it,” the spokesman said. Alexander, who describes himself as black and Arab, said that Harris has a “nasty, lying history with Black people.” “Me pointing out that Kamala Harris has a mother from India and a father from Jamaica went viral last night because many people assume she descends from Black American Slaves,” he said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “She does not. I corrected Kamala Harris last night because she stole debate time under the premise that she is an African-American when she is in fact a biracial Indian-Jamaican who is a first generation American.”This isn’t the first time pro-Trump activists have tried to undermine Harris and her authority to speak on issues of race based on her parents. In January, right-wing operative Jacob Wohl, an associate of Alexander, argued on Twitter that Harris was ineligible to be president because her parents weren’t from the United States, even though she was born in California. Wohl’s claims were circulated by other right-wing figures online, in an attempt to create a birther-style question about whether Harris could legally run for president.Mitchell, who has monitored harassment campaigns against black women since 2013, said Harris is facing a new, digital permutation of the birther conspiracy theory attacks President Trump levied against Obama.“It’s a different iteration of birtherism: ‘where were you born?’ She was born in Oakland!” Mitchell said, referring to the conspiracy theory that falsely accused Obama of being born outside the U.S. “The conversation is, no matter who we are, our blackness should be challenged because what we look like is not ‘American enough.’”Mitchell draws a distinction between two kinds of fraudulent accounts that try to discredit black people online. Botnets, an automated network of fake accounts, often tweet the same message. The technique allows a message to spread far and fast, with little effort. Some of the copy-paste accounts sharing Alexander’s message appear to be operated by real people. Mitchell also monitors a trend called “marionetting,” in which someone will falsely pose as a black person online to push ideas that many black people might otherwise find objectionable. Recent examples of marionetting include a troll who stole a black transgender activist’s picture to pose as a Trump supporter, and Russian-run accounts like “Blacktivist” that impersonated black Americans to sway black voters away from Hillary Clinton in 2016.“I actually thought the botnet was going to die, because I felt like more marionetting was happening ... After this debate, I saw more botnets responding again, versus just marionetting.”Fraudulent accounts often rely on stereotypes that trolls hope to apply to a collection of fake accounts, Mitchell said.“The ‘black enough’ line has been a stereotypical frame,” she said. “It has always been a systemic narrative. It’s just being expanded in this national debate”‘Digital Blackface’: Pro-Trump Trolls Are Impersonating Black People on TwitterRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Landfill Investigated Amid Search for Missing Virginia 2-Year-Old

The search is still on for a Hampton toddler who went missing Monday morning. Hampton Police focused on the city landfill on Thursday four days days after 2-year-old Noah Tomlin went missing.

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Biden wounded as Democratic tensions boil over at debate

For months, the 2020 Democratic campaign seemed mostly placid, even cordial. At Thursday’s presidential debate, those frictions came to the fore – and Joe Biden bore the brunt. The former vice president, 76, entered the debate as the front-runner, having led the pack of more than 20 Democratic candidates since he joined the race in April.

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Senate fails to limit Trump war powers amid Iran tensions

Political unease over the White House's tough talk against Iran is reviving questions about President Donald Trump's ability to order military strikes without approval from Congress. The Senate fell short Friday, in a 50-40 vote, on an amendment to a sweeping Defense bill that would require congressional support before Trump acts.

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5 takeaways from Thursday night’s Democratic debate

A tense exchange between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden highlighted the 2020 cycle's second Democratic primary debate.

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US deploys F-22 stealth fighters to Qatar amid Iran tensions

The US has deployed F-22 stealth fighters to Qatar for the first time, its military said Friday, adding to a buildup of US forces in the Gulf amid tensions with Iran. The Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters have been deployed "to defend American forces and interests," the US Air Forces Central Military Command said in a statement that did not specify how many of the hi-tech planes had been sent. A photo handout showed five of the jets flying above the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

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MacKenzie Lueck case: Utah police arrest man on suspicion of kidnapping, murder of SoCal college student

Police took a person into custody as the search continues for missing Southern California college student MacKenzie Lueck, authorities said.

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Friday, June 28, 2019

China's Xi to present Trump with terms for settling trade fight: WSJ, citing Chinese officials

Beijing is insisting that the U.S. remove its ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the Journal said, citing Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan. Beijing also wants the U.S. to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more U.S. exports than Beijing said it would when the two leaders last met in December, the WSJ said.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker's Spanish is 'humorous'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the Spanish being spoken on stage by presidential candidates including Cory Brooker and Beto O’Rourke at the first Democratic primary debate as “humorous”.The youngest ever congresswoman said there was “a lot of Spanglish in the building” as 10 presidential hopefuls sparred on policies and Donald Trump at the debate in Miami on Wednesday night.Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, said:“I loved it, because, I represent the Bronx and there was a lot of Spanglish in the building.”“I thought it was humorous sometimes, at times. Especially because, sometimes, of the content of the question.”The Democratic congresswoman, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, added that she thought the candidates might start saying “I will not give you an answer to your question” in Spanish."But it was good,” she added. “I thought it was a good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country.” Ms Ocasio-Cortez also compared the candidates to unprepared "high school students". "I think sometimes with the debate stage this big, it can kind of seem like a high school classroom, and so there are some folks that, like, didn’t seem like they read the book, and then they got called on," she said.Asked who she think will make the next debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez first praised Elizabeth Warren’s performance.“I think Elizabeth Warren really distinguished herself, I think Julian Castro really distinguished himself,” she said. “I think Cory Booker did a great job in talking about criminal justice. ”Looking ahead to the next debate on Thursday, the Democratic congresswoman warned that Joe Biden was not a “safe choice”.“I think it’s dangerous to assume that any candidate is a quote-unquote ‘safe choice,’” she said. “That you pick one candidate and that’s just going to deliver an election for you. But with respect to vice president Biden, it’s more about an overall electoral strategy.”I think there’s this idea that we have to sacrifice everything,” she continued. “That we can’t talk about working class issues, that we can’t talk about criminal justice issues, that we can’t talk about immigration because it isolates this very small sliver of Obama-to-Trump voters."Ms Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted concerns she had over the way climate change is being disused during the debates.The Bronx congresswoman, who introduced Green New Deal proposal supported by a number of Democratic presidential candidates, said: “‘Is Miami going to exist in 50 years?’ we need to say, ‘What are you going to do about this?’”

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Supreme Court blocks plan to add citizenship question to 2020 census

In a ruling with far-reaching political and economic implications, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision today that a citizenship question could not be included on the 2020 census — for now — because the Department of Justice’s explanation for seeking to add one was inadequate.

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'Liberalism Is Obsolete,' Russian President Vladimir Putin Says Amid G20 Summit

He also spoke about Europe's migrant crisis and LGBTQ rights in Russia

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Did Biden’s debate performance help narrow polling gap between front-runner and the rest of 2020 Democratic field?

Reaction and analysis from Republican strategist Ned Ryun and University of Maryland lecturer Jason Nichols.

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Sparks fly as Kamala Harris challenges Joe Biden's record on race

The California senator sharply criticized the former vice president for his fond recollection of serving with two segregationist senators, and for opposing integration through busing in the 1970s.

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Democrats unite at debate in endorsing health care to undocumented immigrants

All 10 candidates on Thursday night’s Democratic debate stage said their health care plans would provide coverage for people in the country illegally, a show of unity on what had been a contentious night between the candidates.

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Family of Slain University of Utah Student Lauren McCluskey Files $56 Million Lawsuit Against School

Jill McCluskey/University of UtahUniversity of Utah track star Lauren McCluskey was gunned down on campus in October, and—according to her parents—nobody has been held accountable.Now, McCluskey’s family filed a $56 million federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school on Thursday over its “repeated failure” to respond to the student-athlete’s “multiple and continuing pleas for help” in the days leading up to her death.The 21-year-old was on the phone with her mother, walking home from a Monday night class, when she was “hunted down” and shot seven times by her ex-boyfriend, the lawsuit states.“Suddenly, I heard her yell, ‘No, no, no!’ I thought she might have been in a car accident,” Jill McCluskey said at the time, reported The Salt Lake Tribune. “That was the last I heard from her.” Police later discovered her body in a parked car.The shooter, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland, killed himself hours after Lauren’s death. Her family has said that McCluskey dated Rowland—a convicted sex offender—for about a month before discovering that he had lied about his name, age, and criminal history.Shortly after the two began dating, the relationship “began to sour,” and Rowland became “possessive, controlling, and manipulative,” according to the lawsuit. McCluskey’s friends said at the time that she had stopped paying attention to her studies, “seemed defeated,” and had developed several bruises, the complaint states.When Lauren discovered Rowland’s deception, she ended the relationship, the lawsuit claims.“He attempted to blackmail Lauren,” the McCluskey family said in a press release. “He tried to intimidate Lauren when she contacted the police in an attempt to scare her into withholding information regarding his criminal behavior. And he impersonated a police officer in an attempt to lure Lauren away from her dormitory. Lauren reported this all to the police, but her reports, in practicality, were ignored.”McCluskey and her friends reported Rowland’s “abusive,” “dangerous,” and “threatening” behavior more than 20 times before the shooting, according to the 51-page complaint filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Utah.Despite those reports, “no investigation occurred, no plans were developed or implemented and no effort was made to take any meaningful action reasonably calculated to end the harassment or to otherwise prohibit Melvin Rowland from having ongoing access to the university’s campus,” the complaint claims.The McCluskeys contend in their lawsuit that the University Department of Public Safety “acted with deliberate indifference and conscious disregard of the deadly situation” and “failed to use any reasonable means to protect Lauren.”“Rather than investigating the allegations [made by] Lauren and treating them with the urgency that they deserved, the detective in charge of Lauren’s case went on vacation and returned to find that Lauren had been murdered,” the lawsuit states.In December, a scathing independent review of the case pointed out multiple missteps in the course of the university’s response to McCluskey—and outlined 30 recommendations to improve safety at the school, including hiring more officers, bringing on a victim advocate, improving domestic violence training, better communication between departments on campus, training from outside law enforcement agencies, improved background checks, and more.University President Ruth Watkins said at the time that the review “does not offer any reason to believe” that McCluskey’s death could have been prevented but that it “offers weaknesses, identifies issues and provides us with a road map for strengthening security on our campus.”The university also noted that no one would be disciplined or fired over the case.In June, the university released an update to the campus safety improvements in which it acknowledged that there were “gaps and mistakes” in the case and noted that the university is now “acting on its commitment to take steps to reduce the likelihood of such a terrible tragedy happening again on campus.”Watkins said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon that, although there are “differences” in how the university would characterize the events leading to McCluskey’s murder, “let me say again that we share the McCluskey family’s commitment to improving campus safety.”“We continue to address the recommendations identified by the independent review of the university’s safety policies, procedures and resources, and we are making ongoing improvements designed to protect our students and our entire campus community,” she added.McCluskey’s mother said on Wednesday that any money collected from the case will go toward a foundation the family set up in her daughter’s name.“Lauren’s death was preventable,” said Jim McConkie, an attorney for the family. “The university repeatedly ignored multiple concerning reports of stalking, physical abuse, emotional abuse, intimidation, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual harassment, gender based discrimination and other dangerous and abusive behaviors.”The lawsuit is “a last resort to affect positive change,” her mother said on Thursday. “Women must be believed and taken seriously when they ask for help.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Report: Apple to shift assembly of Mac Pro from US to China

Apple will manufacture its new Mac Pro computer in China, shifting away from a U.S. assembly line it had been using for that product in recent years, according to a report published Friday. The company intends to assemble the new Mac Pro in a factory near Shanghai, according to The Wall Street Journal , which cited unidentified people familiar with the plan. Apple issued a statement saying the new Mac Pro will be designed and engineered in California, but wouldn't say where it will be assembled.

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