thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Federal Judge Blasts William Barr For Distorting Mueller Report

Carlos Barria / Reuters President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr attend the 38th annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 15 , 2019 .
A federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush laid into Attorney General William Barr ’ s “ lack of candor ” in a court opinion on Thursday , accusing the nation ’ s chief law enforcement official of producing a “ distorted ” summary of special counsel Robert Mueller ’ s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election .
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed , questioned whether Barr intended to create a “ one-sided narrative ” that would benefit President Donald Trump .
“ The speed by which Attorney General Barr released to the public the summary of Special Counsel Mueller ’ s principal conclusions , coupled with the fact that Attorney General Barr failed to provide a thorough representation of the findings set forth in the Mueller Report , causes the Court to question whether Attorney General Barr ’ s intent was to create a one-sided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrative that is clearly in some respects substantively at odds with the redacted version of the Mueller Report , ” Walton wrote .
Barr released a summary of the Mueller report before its public release that mischaracterized the report ’ s findings in a manner that helped Trump .
Mueller complained to Barr that his summary “ did not fully capture the context , nature , and substance ” of Mueller ’ s full report , but the report shaped public opinion on the findings of the Mueller investigation for weeks .
Walton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conference ahead of the report ’ s release last April , saying he could not “ reconcile certain public representations made by Attorney General Barr with the findings ” of the Mueller report : The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr ’ s statements , made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements , and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary .
Walton said that Barr ’ s credibility issues led him to the conclusion that he needed to review the unredacted report himself to provide “ independent verification in light of Attorney General Barr ’ s conduct and misleading public statements about the findings in the Mueller Report.
” This is a developing story and will be updated .

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A federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush laid into Attorney General William Barr’s “lack of candor” in a court opinion on Thursday, accusing the nation’s chief law enforcement official of producing a “distorted” summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, in an opinion issued in the course of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed, questioned whether Barr intended to create a “one-sided narrative” that would benefit President Donald Trump.
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“The speed by which Attorney General Barr released to the public the summary of Special Counsel Mueller’s principal conclusions, coupled with the fact that Attorney General Barr failed to provide a thorough representation of the findings set forth in the Mueller Report, causes the Court to question whether Attorney General Barr’s intent was to create a one-sided narrative about the Mueller Report — a narrative that is clearly in some respects substantively at odds with the redacted version of the Mueller Report,” Walton wrote.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr attend the 38th annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 15, 2019. Carlos Barria / Reuters
Barr released a summary of the Mueller report before its public release that mischaracterized the report’s findings in a manner that helped Trump. Mueller complained to Barr that his summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s full report, but the report shaped public opinion on the findings of the Mueller investigation for weeks.
Walton also criticized Barr for holding a press conference ahead of the report’s release last April, saying he could not “reconcile certain public representations made by Attorney General Barr with the findings” of the Mueller report:
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The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements, made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary.
Walton said that Barr’s credibility issues led him to the conclusion that he needed to review the unredacted report himself to provide “independent verification in light of Attorney General Barr’s conduct and misleading public statements about the findings in the Mueller Report.”
In March, a federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush questioned whether Barr had intended to create a “one-sided narrative” about the Mueller report to benefit Trump.
Read the full opinion below:
This is a developing story and will be updated.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Former Nazi Concentration Camp Guard Ordered Out Of U.S. By Judge

A judge has ordered the deportation of a former Nazi concentration camp guard living in Tennessee following a two-day trial in Memphis .
German citizen Friedrich Karl Berger on Thursday was ordered deported because of his “ willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place , ” said U.S. Immigration Judge Rebecca L. Holt in her ruling .
Berger admitted in court that he served as an armed guard in the Neuengamme concentration camp system in 1945 .
The camp ’ s prisoners included Russian , Polish , and Dutch civilians , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nationalities , and political prisoners , the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release .
Thousands died under forced labor and other horrifying conditions at the camp , while thousands of others were systematically murdered .
Barbed wire at the memorial site of the former Nazi labor and death camp Neuengamme in Hamburg , Germany .
Berger told the court that he was tasked with ensuring that prisoners , housed at a subcamp near Meppen in northern Germany , didn ’ t flee during their dawn-to-dusk workday and while traveling to worksites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the camp during the advance of British and Canadian forces in March 1945 , Berger helped guard the prisoners during their forcible evacuation to the Neuengamme main camp in Hamburg , the court found .
In the two weeks of travel it took to reach the main camp , roughly 70 of the prisoners died , the Justice Department said .
Berger admitted that he never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service and that he continues to receive a pension from Germany based on his past employment , “ including his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
From 1938 to 1945 , more than 100,000 people were imprisoned at Neuengamme , and at least 50,000 of them died .
Berger ’ s attorney , Hugh Ward , told local news station WBIR that his client has never been accused of war crimes before and that he is a law-abiding Tennessee citizen .
“ We ’ re reviewing the judge ’ s ruling and considering appealing , ” Ward told WBIR .
He did not immediately respond to HuffPost ’ s request for comment .
Homeland Security Investigations said it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspected human rights violators , and that since 2003 , HSI ’ s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has stopped more than 315 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S .

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A judge has ordered the deportation of a former Nazi concentration camp guard living in Tennessee following a two-day trial in Memphis.
German citizen Friedrich Karl Berger on Thursday was ordered deported because of his “willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place,” said U.S. Immigration Judge Rebecca L. Holt in her ruling.
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Berger admitted in court that he served as an armed guard in the Neuengamme concentration camp system in 1945. The camp’s prisoners included Russian, Polish, and Dutch civilians, Jewish people, people of other European nationalities, and political prisoners, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release. Thousands died under forced labor and other horrifying conditions at the camp, while thousands of others were systematically murdered.
Barbed wire at the memorial site of the former Nazi labor and death camp Neuengamme in Hamburg, Germany. APN
Berger told the court that he was tasked with ensuring that prisoners, housed at a subcamp near Meppen in northern Germany, didn’t flee during their dawn-to-dusk workday and while traveling to worksites and back.
When the Nazis abandoned the camp during the advance of British and Canadian forces in March 1945, Berger helped guard the prisoners during their forcible evacuation to the Neuengamme main camp in Hamburg, the court found. In the two weeks of travel it took to reach the main camp, roughly 70 of the prisoners died, the Justice Department said.
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Berger admitted that he never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service and that he continues to receive a pension from Germany based on his past employment, “including his wartime service,” the court heard.
From 1938 to 1945, more than 100,000 people were imprisoned at Neuengamme, and at least 50,000 of them died. picture alliance via Getty Images
Berger’s attorney, Hugh Ward, told local news station WBIR that his client has never been accused of war crimes before and that he is a law-abiding Tennessee citizen.
“We’re reviewing the judge’s ruling and considering appealing,” Ward told WBIR. He did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Homeland Security Investigations said it has more than 180 active investigations into suspected human rights violators, and that since 2003, HSI’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has stopped more than 315 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--How The Government Could Make Coronavirus Treatment Affordable

There ’ s a serious risk that Americans who become infected with coronavirus , or COVID-19 , may be unable to afford potentially high medical costs , according to health leaders and Democrats .
The good news is there are things the federal government can do to help .
The question is whether President Donald Trump and his administration will actually do them .
Major emergencies , from natural disasters to infectious disease outbreaks , are incredibly common , so the government has a number of tools at its disposal it can utilize to help those affected .
Those range @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help with medical needs .
None of these things would come close to fixing America ’ s frayed safety net , but they could provide targeted help to people in the midst of a crisis .
Lawmakers are already taking action .
On Wednesday , congressional leaders announced a bipartisan , $ 8.3 billion spending package to address coronavirus , including $ 300 million to purchase vaccines for coronavirus , although it will be at least a year or two before inoculations are expected to become available .
And while it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to people in need , this time a number of congressional Republicans appear open to the administration providing direct help with coronavirus patients ’ medical costs .
In the meantime , the Trump administration could take several significant steps , if it so chose , to protect Americans ― especially those who are uninsured or underinsured ― from bearing crushing costs as a result of exposure to coronavirus .
When invoked by the president , the program enables the government to call up a nationwide reserve of medical professionals who travel to areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ addition , patients can seek care at Defense and Veterans Affairs medical facilities at no cost .
And private hospitals can voluntarily participate and be reimbursed for their costs at 110 % of what Medicare pays for the treatments provided .
This help for patients , however , is temporary and funding is limited .
Moreover , the federal government rarely uses its authority to cover care at private hospitals , although the George W. Bush administration did use the program in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 , according to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Congress .
Robert Kadlec , assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services , told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the administration is looking into activating this program .
Later that day , Trump alluded to the same option during an appearance at the National Institutes of Health .
During emergencies , the federal government can temporarily make it easier for affected people to sign up for Medicaid , the joint federal-state program for low-income people .
At the request of states , federal authorities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applications and eligibility to help connect people harmed during a crisis to medical care , explains a 2018 report from the Medicaid and Children ’ s Health Insurance Program Advisory Commission , an expert panel that advises Congress .
In some cases , such as in Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast 15 years ago , that can include things as simple as automatically approving Medicaid applications , even if people lose benefits later if it turns out they didn ’ t qualify .
New York implemented similar measures after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Michigan , the Barack Obama administration used Medicaid rule waivers in the midst of the lead contamination of the local drinking water supply in 2016 .
At Michigan ’ s request , the federal government allowed the state to raise the income eligibility standard for pregnant women and children to enable them to receive Medicaid coverage and to permit higher-income individuals to buy into Medicaid .
The nation ’ s leading public health agency has the authority to use its own funds to cover the costs of diagnosing and treating illnesses during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agency has not formally activated this authority , although the CDC is handling treatment for some coronavirus patients .
This assistance is limited , however , to the care the CDC directly provides and does not cover costs incurred at hospitals and other medical facilities after a patient is released from the CDC ’ s care .
New York state is the first jurisdiction to declare that health insurance companies must provide testing and treatment for coronavirus without asking for payment from patients , meaning normal forms of cost-sharing like deductibles and copayments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could take similar action , but this comes with a severe limitation : States don ’ t have regulatory authority over job-based health insurance , which is the most common form of health coverage in the United States and is federally regulated .
The items covered under this part of the law must be approved by four expert committees affiliated with the Department of Health and Human Services .
Those committees would have to agree that a coronavirus vaccine constituted preventive care , and that would make cost-sharing disappear .
This would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only to vaccinations .
The administration already has used another part of the Affordable Care Act to address coronavirus by designating tests for the disease as “ essential health benefits ” that private insurers and government programs must cover , although that move doesn ’ t do anything to mitigate patient cost-sharing .
Trump also currently is asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the entire law .

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There’s a serious risk that Americans who become infected with coronavirus, or COVID-19, may be unable to afford potentially high medical costs, according to health leaders and Democrats. The good news is there are things the federal government can do to help. The question is whether President Donald Trump and his administration will actually do them.
Major emergencies, from natural disasters to infectious disease outbreaks, are incredibly common, so the government has a number of tools at its disposal it can utilize to help those affected. Those range from cash assistance to temporary housing to help with medical needs. None of these things would come close to fixing America’s frayed safety net, but they could provide targeted help to people in the midst of a crisis.
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According to the most recent census data, 8.5% of Americans, or 27.5 million people, were uninsured in 2018. And 194 million people, or 45%, are “underinsured,” the findings of a 2019 Commonwealth Fund analysis show.
Lawmakers are already taking action. On Wednesday, congressional leaders announced a bipartisan, $8.3 billion spending package to address coronavirus, including $300 million to purchase vaccines for coronavirus, although it will be at least a year or two before inoculations are expected to become available. And while it’s normally Democrats who advocate for government assistance to people in need, this time a number of congressional Republicans appear open to the administration providing direct help with coronavirus patients’ medical costs.
In the meantime, the Trump administration could take several significant steps, if it so chose, to protect Americans ― especially those who are uninsured or underinsured ― from bearing crushing costs as a result of exposure to coronavirus.
National Disaster Medical System
The departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Veterans Affairs jointly operate the National Disaster Medical System, which has existed since 1984 to offer direct medical care and financial assistance during public emergencies.
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When invoked by the president, the program enables the government to call up a nationwide reserve of medical professionals who travel to areas in need and treat patients. In addition, patients can seek care at Defense and Veterans Affairs medical facilities at no cost. And private hospitals can voluntarily participate and be reimbursed for their costs at 110% of what Medicare pays for the treatments provided.
This help for patients, however, is temporary and funding is limited. Moreover, the federal government rarely uses its authority to cover care at private hospitals, although the George W. Bush administration did use the program in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of Congress.
Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the administration is looking into activating this program. Later that day, Trump alluded to the same option during an appearance at the National Institutes of Health.
Medicaid
During emergencies, the federal government can temporarily make it easier for affected people to sign up for Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for low-income people. At the request of states, federal authorities can waive normal Medicaid rules related to applications and eligibility to help connect people harmed during a crisis to medical care, explains a 2018 report from the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Commission, an expert panel that advises Congress.
In some cases, such as in Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast 15 years ago, that can include things as simple as automatically approving Medicaid applications, even if people lose benefits later if it turns out they didn’t qualify. New York implemented similar measures after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Advertisement
In Flint, Michigan, the Barack Obama administration used Medicaid rule waivers in the midst of the lead contamination of the local drinking water supply in 2016. At Michigan’s request, the federal government allowed the state to raise the income eligibility standard for pregnant women and children to enable them to receive Medicaid coverage and to permit higher-income individuals to buy into Medicaid.
Centers For Disease Control And Prevention
The nation’s leading public health agency has the authority to use its own funds to cover the costs of diagnosing and treating illnesses during an emergency. To date, the agency has not formally activated this authority, although the CDC is handling treatment for some coronavirus patients. This assistance is limited, however, to the care the CDC directly provides and does not cover costs incurred at hospitals and other medical facilities after a patient is released from the CDC’s care.
The Affordable Care Act
New York state is the first jurisdiction to declare that health insurance companies must provide testing and treatment for coronavirus without asking for payment from patients, meaning normal forms of cost-sharing like deductibles and copayments won’t apply. Other states could take similar action, but this comes with a severe limitation: States don’t have regulatory authority over job-based health insurance, which is the most common form of health coverage in the United States and is federally regulated.
If a vaccine for coronavirus ever becomes available, however, the 2010 Affordable Care Act includes a key provision that could make it affordable for people with most types of private health insurance policies or coverage from government programs.
Under the law, insurance companies may not require cost-sharing for preventive medicine, which includes things like contraception, screening for sexually transmitted infections and routine immunizations.
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The items covered under this part of the law must be approved by four expert committees affiliated with the Department of Health and Human Services. Those committees would have to agree that a coronavirus vaccine constituted preventive care, and that would make cost-sharing disappear. This would not, however, apply to treatments, only to vaccinations.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Tech Giants May Be Profiting From Forced Labor Of Uighur Muslims In China: Report

Uighurs and Kazakhs in exile say it ’ s likely those working in inner China are still better off than @ @ @ @ @ in Xinjiang , and that in the past , some had gone voluntarily to earn @ @ @ @ @ at Jiangxi Lianchuang Electronics , a lens maker in Nanchang , told The Associated Press @ @ @ @ @ there were free to enter or leave their compound , although most live in dormitories @ @ @ @ @ and a current worker said they were happy with their working conditions , their salary @ @ @ @ @ $ 714.20 ) a month , and their teachers and Mandarin classes in the evenings @

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NANCHANG, China (AP) — In a lively Muslim quarter of Nanchang city, a sprawling Chinese factory turns out computer screens, cameras and fingerprint scanners for a supplier to international tech giants such as Apple and Lenovo. Throughout the neighborhood, women in headscarves stroll through the streets, and Arabic signs advertise halal supermarkets and noodle shops.
Yet the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs who labor in the factory are isolated within a walled compound that is fortified with security cameras and guards at the entrance. Their forays out are limited to rare chaperoned trips, they are not allowed to worship or cover their heads, and they must attend special classes in the evenings, according to former and current workers and shopkeepers in the area.
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The connection between OFILM, the supplier that owns the Nanchang factory, and the tech giants is the latest sign that companies outside China are benefiting from coercive labor practices imposed on the Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, and other minorities.
Over the past four years, the Chinese government has detained more than a million people from the far west Xinjiang region, most of them Uighurs, in internment camps and prisons where they go through forced ideological and behavioral re-education. China has long suspected the Uighurs of harboring separatist tendencies because of their distinct culture, language and religion.
When detainees “graduate” from the camps, documents show, many are sent to work in factories. A dozen Uighurs and Kazakhs told the AP they knew people who were sent by the state to work in factories in China’s east, known as inner China — some from the camps, some plucked from their families, some from vocational schools. Most were sent by force, although in a few cases it wasn’t clear if they consented.
Workers are often enrolled in classes where state-sponsored teachers give lessons in Mandarin, China’s dominant language, or politics and “ethnic unity.” Conditions in the jobs vary in terms of pay and restrictions.
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At the OFILM factory, Uighurs are paid the same as other workers but otherwise treated differently, according to residents of the neighborhood. They are not allowed to leave or pray – unlike the Hui Muslim migrants also working there, who are considered less of a threat by the Chinese government.
“They don’t let them worship inside,” said a Hui Muslim woman who worked in the factory for several weeks alongside the Uighurs. “They don’t let them come out.”
“If you’re Uighur, you’re only allowed outside twice a month,” a small business owner who spoke with the workers confirmed. The AP is not disclosing the names of those interviewed near the factory out of concern for possible retribution. “The government chose them to come to OFILM, they didn’t choose it.”
In this photo taken Wednesday, June 5, 2019, neighborhood residents chat near the entrance to an OFLIM factory in Nanchang in eastern China's Jiangxi province. The Associated Press has found that OFILM, a supplier of major multinational companies, employs Uighurs, an ethnic Turkic minority, under highly restrictive conditions, including not letting them leave the factory compound without a chaperone, worship, or wear headscarves. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
The Chinese government says the labor program is a way to train Uighurs and other minorities and give them jobs. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday called concern over possible coerced labor under the program “groundless” and “slander.”
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However, experts say that like the internment camps, the program is part of a broader assault on the Uighur culture, breaking up social and family links by sending people far from their homes to be assimilated into the dominant Han Chinese culture.
“They think these people are poorly educated, isolated, backwards, can’t speak Mandarin,” said James Leibold, a scholar of Chinese ethnic policy at La Trobe University in Melbourne. “So what do you do? You ‘educate’ them, you find ways to transform them in your own image. Bringing them into the Han Chinese heartland is a way to turbocharge this transformation.”
OFILM’s website indicates the Xinjiang workers make screens, camera cover lenses and fingerprint scanners. It touts customers including Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell, HP, LG and Huawei, although there was no way for the AP to track specific products to specific companies.
Apple’s most recent list of suppliers, published January last year, includes three OFILM factories in Nanchang. It’s unclear whether the specific OFILM factory the AP visited twice in Nanchang supplies Apple, but it has the same address as one listed. Another OFILM factory is located about half a mile away on a different street. Apple did not answer repeated requests for clarification on which factory it uses.
In an email, Apple said its code of conduct requires suppliers to “provide channels that encourage employees to voice concerns.” It said it interviews the employees of suppliers during annual assessments in their local language without their managers present, and had done 44,000 interviews in 2018.
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Lenovo confirmed that it sources screens, cameras, and fingerprint scanners from OFILM but said it was not aware of the allegations and would investigate. Lenovo also pointed to a 2018 audit by the Reliable Business Alliance in which OFILM scored very well.
All the companies that responded said they required suppliers to follow strict labor standards. LG and Dell said they had “no evidence” of forced labor in their supply chains but would investigate, as did Huawei. HP did not respond.
OFILM also lists as customers dozens of companies within China, as well as international companies it calls “partners” without specifying what product it offers. And it supplies PAR Technology, an American sales systems vendor to which it most recently shipped 48 cartons of touch screens in February, according to U.S. customs data obtained through ImportGenius and Panjiva, which track shipping data.
PAR Technology in turn says it supplies terminals to major chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Subway. However, the AP was unable to confirm that products from OFILM end up with the fast food companies.
McDonald’s said it has asked PAR Technology to discontinue purchases from OFILM while it launches an immediate investigation. PAR Technology also said it would investigate immediately. Subway and Taco Bell did not respond.
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A report Sunday from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, researched separately from the AP, estimated that more than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred from Xinjiang to factories across China between 2017 and 2019. The report said it found “conditions that strongly suggest forced labor” consistent with International Labor Organization definitions.
The AP also reported a year ago that Uighur forced labor was being used within Xinjiang to make sportswear that ended up in the U.S.
In this photo taken Wednesday, June 5, 2019, residents of the Hui Muslim ethnic minority walk in a neighborhood near an OFLIM factory in Nanchang in eastern China's Jiangxi province. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
FROM FARMERS TO FACTORY WORKERS
Beijing first sent Uighurs to work in inland China in the early 2000s, as part of a broad effort to push minorities to adopt urban lifestyles and integrate with the Han Chinese majority to tighten political control.
At first the program targeted young, single women, because the state worried that Uighur women raised in pious Muslim families didn’t work, had children early and refused to marry Han men. But as stories of poor pay and tight restrictions trickled back, police began threatening some parents with jail time if they didn’t send their children, six Uighurs told the AP.
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The program was halted in 2009, when at least two Uighurs died in a brawl with Han workers at a toy factory in coastal Guangdong province. After peaceful protests in Xinjiang were met with police fire, ethnic riots broke out that killed an estimated 200 people, mostly Han Chinese civilians.
An AP review of Chinese academic papers and state media reports shows that officials blamed the failure of the labor program on the Uighurs’ language and culture. So when the government ramped up the program again after the ascent of hardline Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2012, it emphasized ideological transformation.
A paper drafted by the head of the Xinjiang statistics bureau in 2014 said the Uighurs’ poor Mandarin made it hard for them to integrate in inner China. It concluded that Xinjiang’s rural minorities needed to be broken away from traditional lifestyles and systematically “disciplined”, “trained” and “instilled with modern values.”
“The local saturated religious atmosphere and the long-time living habits of ethnic minorities are incompatible with the requirements of modern industrial production,” the paper said. It outlined a need to “slowly correct misunderstandings about going out to choose jobs.”
Before Uighurs were transferred for jobs, the paper continued, they needed to be trained and assessed on their living habits and adoption of corporate culture.
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“Those who fail will not be exported,” it said.
The paper also described government incentives such as tax breaks and subsidies for Chinese companies to take Uighurs. A 2014 draft contract for Xinjiang laborers in Guangdong province obtained by the AP shows the government there offered companies 3000 RMB ($428.52) per worker, with an additional 1000 RMB ($142.84) for “training” each person for no less than 60 class hours. In exchange, companies had to offer “concentrated accommodation areas,” halal canteens and “ethnic unity education and training.”
But it was a tough sell at a time when Chinese officials were grappling with knifings, bombings and car attacks by Uighurs, fueled by explosive anger at the government’s harsh security measures and religious restrictions. Hundreds died in race-related violence in Xinjiang, both Uighur and Han Chinese.
A labor agent who only gave his surname, Zhang, said he tried brokering deals to send Xinjiang workers to factories in the eastern city of Hangzhou, but finding companies willing to take Uighurs was a challenge, especially in a slowing economy.
“Their work efficiency is not high,” he said.
The size of the program is considerable. A November 2017 state media report said Hotan prefecture alone planned to send 20,000 people over two years to work in inner China.
There, the report said, they would “realize the dreams of their lives.”
Protesters hold a large sign against China's Uighur camps, labeled as vocational training centres by the Chinese government, outside the home of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou before her extradition hearing at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada January 20, 2020. Lindsey Wasson / Reuters
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ANSWERING THE GOVERNMENT’S CALL
The Uighurs at OFLIM were sent there as part of the government’s labor program, in an arrangement the company’s website calls a “school-enterprise cooperative.” OFILM describes the workers as migrants organized by the government or vocational school students on “internships”.
OFILM confirmed it received AP requests for comment but did not reply.
The AP was unable to get inside the facility, and on one visit to Nanchang, plainclothes police tailed AP journalists by car and on foot. But posts on the company website extoll OFILM’s efforts to accommodate their Uighur workers with Mandarin and politics classes six days a week, along with halal food.
OFILM first hired Uighurs in 2017, recruiting over 3,000 young men and women in Xinjiang. They bring the Uighurs on one- or two-year contracts to Nanchang, a southeastern metropolis nearly two thousand miles from Xinjiang that local officials hope to turn into a tech hub.
OFILM is one of Nanchang’s biggest employers, with half a dozen factory complexes sprinkled across the city and close ties with the state. Investment funds backed by the Nanchang city government own large stakes in OFILM, corporate filings show. The Nanchang government told the AP that OFILM recruits minorities according to “voluntary selection by both parties” and provides equal pay along with personal and religious freedom.
OFILM’s website says the company “answered the government’s call” and went to Xinjiang to recruit minorities. The Uighurs need training, OFILM says, to pull them from poverty and help them “study and improve.”
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Mandarin is heavily emphasized, the site says, as well as lessons in history and “ethnic unity” to “comprehensively improve their overall quality.” The site features pictures of Uighurs playing basketball on factory grounds, dancing in a canteen and vying in a Mandarin speech competition.
In August, when OFILM organized celebrations for Eid Qurban, a major Islamic festival, Uighur employees did not pray at a mosque. Instead, they dressed in orange uniforms and gathered in a basketball court for a show with Communist officials called “Love the Motherland – Thank the Party.” An OFILM post said a “Uighur beauty” dazzled with her “beautiful exotic style.”
State media reports portray the Nanchang factory workers as rural and backwards before the Communist Party trained them, a common perception of the Uighurs among the Han Chinese.
“The workers’ concept of time was hazy, they would sleep in till whenever they wanted,” a Party official is quoted as saying in one. Now, he said, their “concept of time has undergone a total reversal.”
In the reports and OFILM posts, the Uighurs are portrayed as grateful to the Communist Party for sending them to inner China.
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Despite the wan expressions of three OFILM workers from Lop County, a December 2017 report said they gave an “enthusiastic” presentation about how they lived in clean new dormitories “much better than home” and were visited by Communist Party cadres.
“We were overjoyed that leaders from the Lop County government still come to see us on holidays,” one of the workers, Estullah Ali, was quoted as saying. “Many of us were moved to tears.”
Human rights activists display dolls which they say depicts thousands of missing ethnic Uighurs outside the Chinese embassy on March 5, 2020 in The Hague, Netherlands. Pierre Crom via Getty Images
THEY TOOK MY CHILD TO INNER CHINA
Minorities fleeing China describe a far grimmer situation. H., a wealthy jade merchant from Lop County, where OFILM now gets Uighur workers, began noticing the labor transfer program in 2014. That’s when state propaganda blaring through television and loudspeakers urged young Uighurs to work in inner China. Officials hustled families to a labor transfer office where they were forced to sign contracts, under threat of land confiscations and prison sentences.
H., identified only by the initial of his last name out of fear of retribution, was worried. The government was not only reviving the labor program but also clamping down on religion. Acquaintances vanished: Devout Muslims and language teachers, men with beards, women with headscarves.
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Toward the end of 2015, when H. greeted his 72-year-old neighbor on the street, the man burst into tears.
“They took my child to inner China to work,” he said.
Months later, H. and his family fled China.
Zharqynbek Otan, a Chinese-born ethnic Kazakh, said that after he was released from an internment camp in 2018, neighbors in his home village also told him their sons and daughters were forced to sign contracts for 6 months to five years to work at factories near Shanghai. If they ran from the factories, they were warned, they’d be taken straight back to internment camps.
Nurlan Kokteubai, an ethnic Kazakh, said during his time in an internment camp, a cadre told him they selected young, strong people to work in inner Chinese factories in need of labor.
“He told us that those young people would acquire vocational skills,” Kokteubai said.
Nearly 200 Uighur Turks gather to protest against China and its East Turkistan policies in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium on February 02, 2020. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Not all workers are subject to the restrictions at OFILM. One ethnic Kazakh said her brother made power banks in central China for $571.36 a month and didn’t take classes.
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But another said two of his cousins were forced to go and work in cold, harsh conditions. They were promised $428.52 a month but paid only $42.85. Though they wanted to quit, four Uighurs who complained were detained in camps after returning to Xinjiang, scaring others.
Uighurs and Kazakhs in exile say it’s likely those working in inner China are still better off than those in camps or factories in Xinjiang, and that in the past, some had gone voluntarily to earn money. A former worker at Jiangxi Lianchuang Electronics, a lens maker in Nanchang, told The Associated Press the 300 or so Uighurs there were free to enter or leave their compound, although most live in dormitories inside factory grounds. He and a current worker said they were happy with their working conditions, their salary of about 5,000 RMB ($714.20) a month, and their teachers and Mandarin classes in the evenings.
But when presented a list of questions in Uighur about the labor transfers, the former Jiangxi Lianchuang worker started to look very nervous. He asked for the list, then set it on fire with a lighter and dropped it in an ashtray.
“If the Communist Party hears this, then” – he knocked his wrists together, mimicking a suspect being handcuffed. “It’s very bad.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Sweeping Senate Vote Sends Trump $8.3 Billion Bill To Fight Virus

Sarah Silbiger via Getty Images WASHINGTON , DC - MARCH 03 : U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( D-KY ) speaks to the media following the weekly Republican caucus luncheon where Vice President Mike Pence , Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and members of the coronavirus task force briefed senators on March 3 , 2020 in Washington , DC .
( Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images ) WASHINGTON ( AP ) — The Senate passed an $ 8.3 billion measure Thursday to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in hopes of reassuring a fearful public and accelerating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus , whose rapid spread is threatening to upend everyday life in the U.S. and across the globe .
The money would pay for a multifaceted attack on a virus that is spreading more widely every day , sending financial markets spiraling again Thursday , disrupting travel and potentially threatening the U.S. economy ’ s decade-long expansion .
The plan would more than triple the $ 2.5 billion amount outlined by the White House 10 days ago .
The Trump proposal was immediately discarded by members of Congress from both parties .
Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Senate Appropriations committees negotiated the increased figure and other provisions of the legislation in a burst of bipartisan cooperation that ’ s common on the panel but increasingly rare elsewhere in Washington .
“ In situations like this , I believe no expense should be spared to protect the American people , and in crafting this package none was , ” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby , R-Ala. “ It ’ s an aggressive plan , a vigorous plan that has received an overwhelming positive reaction.
” Trump was sure to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ universal support .
It is intended to project confidence and calm as anxiety builds over the impact of the virus , which has claimed 11 lives in the U.S. “ The American people are looking for leadership and want assurance that their government is up to the task of protecting their health and safety , ” said Sen. Patrick Leahy , D-Vt .
The impact of the outbreak continues to mount .
The British government is considering suspending Parliament for five months in hope of limiting the spread of the virus in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal public health agencies money for vaccines , tests and potential treatments , including $ 300 million to deliver such drugs to those who need it .
More than $ 2 billion would go to help federal , state and local governments prepare for and respond to the coronavirus threat .
An additional $ 1.3 billion would be used to help fight the virus overseas .
There ’ s also funding to subsidize $ 7 billion in small business loans .
Other dollars would be directed to help local officials prepare for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treatment by community health centers .
Medicare rules would be loosened to enable remote “ telehealth ” consultations whereby sick people could to get treatment without visiting a doctor .
Sen. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash. , whose state is at the center of the crisis , praised the bill because it “ will increase access for public lab testing , help pay for isolation and quarantine , help pay for sanitizing in public areas , better track the virus and those who might come into contact with it , help labs who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limit exposure.
” The legislation contains a hard-won compromise that aims to protect against potential price gouging by drug manufacturers for vaccines and other medicines developed with taxpayer funds .
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would have the power to make sure commercial prices are reasonable .
Azar is a former drug industry lobbyist .
The bill seeks to restore $ 136 million that the Department of Health and Human Services cut from other accounts such as heating subsidies for the poor to battle the virus .
The legislation comes as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the outbreak is quieting down .
Lawmakers in both parties had faulted a shortage of tests for the virus and contrasting messages from Trump and his subordinates .
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday , Trump downplayed the lethality of the virus , saying the World Health Organization ’ s updated estimate of a 3.4 % death rate in coronavirus cases is “ a false number.
” “ Now you ’ re starting to see rapid deployment of tests , which makes me feel better , quite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , D-Calif. , a doctor .
“ I think their communications are a little better .
As long as the president doesn ’ t contradict the experts and the scientists who know what they ’ re doing , things will get better .
”

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-KY) speaks to the media following the weekly Republican caucus luncheon where Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and members of the coronavirus task force briefed senators on March 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Sarah Silbiger via Getty Images
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed an $8.3 billion measure Thursday to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in hopes of reassuring a fearful public and accelerating the government’s response to the virus, whose rapid spread is threatening to upend everyday life in the U.S. and across the globe.
The money would pay for a multifaceted attack on a virus that is spreading more widely every day, sending financial markets spiraling again Thursday, disrupting travel and potentially threatening the U.S. economy’s decade-long expansion.
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Thursday’s sweeping 96-1 vote sends the bill to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cast the sole “no” vote. The House passed the bill Wednesday by a 415-2 vote.
The plan would more than triple the $2.5 billion amount outlined by the White House 10 days ago. The Trump proposal was immediately discarded by members of Congress from both parties. Instead, the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations committees negotiated the increased figure and other provisions of the legislation in a burst of bipartisan cooperation that’s common on the panel but increasingly rare elsewhere in Washington.
“In situations like this, I believe no expense should be spared to protect the American people, and in crafting this package none was,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. “It’s an aggressive plan, a vigorous plan that has received an overwhelming positive reaction.”
Trump was sure to sign the measure, which has almost universal support. It is intended to project confidence and calm as anxiety builds over the impact of the virus, which has claimed 11 lives in the U.S.
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“The American people are looking for leadership and want assurance that their government is up to the task of protecting their health and safety,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The impact of the outbreak continues to mount. The British government is considering suspending Parliament for five months in hope of limiting the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom.
The legislation would provide federal public health agencies money for vaccines, tests and potential treatments, including $300 million to deliver such drugs to those who need it. More than $2 billion would go to help federal, state and local governments prepare for and respond to the coronavirus threat. An additional $1.3 billion would be used to help fight the virus overseas. There’s also funding to subsidize $7 billion in small business loans.
Other dollars would be directed to help local officials prepare for the potential worsening of the outbreak and subsidize treatment by community health centers. Medicare rules would be loosened to enable remote “telehealth” consultations whereby sick people could to get treatment without visiting a doctor.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., whose state is at the center of the crisis, praised the bill because it “will increase access for public lab testing, help pay for isolation and quarantine, help pay for sanitizing in public areas, better track the virus and those who might come into contact with it, help labs who are trying to identify hot spots, and limit exposure.”
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The legislation contains a hard-won compromise that aims to protect against potential price gouging by drug manufacturers for vaccines and other medicines developed with taxpayer funds. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would have the power to make sure commercial prices are reasonable. Azar is a former drug industry lobbyist.
The bill seeks to restore $136 million that the Department of Health and Human Services cut from other accounts such as heating subsidies for the poor to battle the virus.
The legislation comes as carping over the administration’s response to the outbreak is quieting down. Lawmakers in both parties had faulted a shortage of tests for the virus and contrasting messages from Trump and his subordinates. In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday, Trump downplayed the lethality of the virus, saying the World Health Organization’s updated estimate of a 3.4% death rate in coronavirus cases is “a false number.”
“Now you’re starting to see rapid deployment of tests, which makes me feel better, quite honestly,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., a doctor. “I think their communications are a little better. As long as the president doesn’t contradict the experts and the scientists who know what they’re doing, things will get better.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--House Greenlights $8.3 Billion Emergency Coronavirus Bill

Faced with a rising death toll and mounting concern across the country , the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping bill to provide $ 8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat the threat of the novel coronavirus .
The funding package , which includes $ 2.2 billion to help with prevention and response efforts and more than $ 3 billion for vaccine research , was passed by a vote of 415 to 2 after days of intense negotiations .
Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado , citing cost concerns , were the lone holdouts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Congress for $ 2.5 billion to help in the battle against the virus .
“ How do you move from $ 2.5 billion dollars to $ 8.5 billion dollars ?
” Biggs told The Hill .
“ I mean [ the administration ’ s ] doing all kinds of things that are going to have significant substantive advantages to slow down and protect people .
And it looks like this is just a money play to some of my colleagues across the aisle — there ’ s no offsets , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heads to the Senate , which is expected to consider the legislation on Thursday .
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( D-N.Y. ) said Democrats hope to see the funding package passed through the Senate by the end of the week .
“ Today , Democrats and Republicans in Congress showed they can come together in a bipartisan way to respond to the coronavirus in a swift , smart and strategic way to keep the American people safe , ” Schumer said .
The bill was approved by the House on the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from COVID-19 , bringing the total death toll in the U.S. to at least 11 .
More than 150 cases have been identified in the country so far .
Worldwide , more than 90,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 3,000 have died .
Health experts have warned that a global pandemic may be inevitable .

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Faced with a rising death toll and mounting concern across the country, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping bill to provide $8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat the threat of the novel coronavirus.
The funding package, which includes $2.2 billion to help with prevention and response efforts and more than $3 billion for vaccine research, was passed by a vote of 415 to 2 after days of intense negotiations.
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Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado, citing cost concerns, were the lone holdouts. The White House had originally asked Congress for $2.5 billion to help in the battle against the virus.
“How do you move from $2.5 billion dollars to $8.5 billion dollars?” Biggs told The Hill. “I mean [the administration’s] doing all kinds of things that are going to have significant substantive advantages to slow down and protect people. And it looks like this is just a money play to some of my colleagues across the aisle — there’s no offsets, there’s no credibility.”
The emergency bill now heads to the Senate, which is expected to consider the legislation on Thursday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats hope to see the funding package passed through the Senate by the end of the week.
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“Today, Democrats and Republicans in Congress showed they can come together in a bipartisan way to respond to the coronavirus in a swift, smart and strategic way to keep the American people safe,” Schumer said.
House Democrats negotiated a bipartisan $8.3 billion #coronavirus supplemental—including $3 billion for research, $7 billion for small businesses and $2 billion for public health funding—to address this crisis HEAD ON.
We will ALWAYS keep our nation safe. #ForThePeople pic.twitter.com/uYHqMI0LZQ — House Democrats (@HouseDemocrats) March 4, 2020
The bill was approved by the House on the same day that California reported its first death from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll in the U.S. to at least 11.
More than 150 cases have been identified in the country so far.
Worldwide, more than 90,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 3,000 have died. Health experts have warned that a global pandemic may be inevitable.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Elizabeth Warren Has Changed The Democratic Party

The two most influential scholars of economic inequality in the past 50 years are a French economist named Thomas Piketty and a former Harvard law professor named Elizabeth Warren .
Piketty ’ s work revolutionized the way we think about capitalism ; Warren ’ s research transformed the way we think about the economic pressures facing middle-class families .
Her bankruptcy scholarship from the 1980s through the 2000s didn ’ t just resonate with those reading law reviews and economic journals .
It took Washington .
Chuck Schumer was stunned to read Warren ’ s work indicating that middle class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemed like boom years at the turn of the millennium .
She had discovered , he said , “ the greatest crisis in America.
” Warren was different .
She showed up in D.C. in 2009 as the chair of a panel overseeing the bank bailouts .
The panel was essentially toothless ― something created to mollify critics without limiting the Treasury Department ’ s ability to do what it wanted with the $ 700 billion Congress had allotted the financial rescue .
Warren could have easily secured a place for herself in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not looking too hard at the people in power .
Instead , she converted the oversight committee into a bracing exposé of abuse and incompetence , enraging the Obama administration and educating the public .
Warren demonstrated the lengths that Obama ’ s Treasury Department would go to in order to help rogue bankers , efforts that included throwing millions of struggling homeowners to the wolves .
Somehow , this performance vaulted her into the Senate , and from the Senate to , for a few weeks this fall , a position as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nomination .
On Thursday , Warren formally withdrew from the primary , after a disappointing showing in early states .
But like her career prior to Washington , the significance of Warren ’ s campaign can ’ t really be measured quantitatively .
Warren has changed the way we think about our politics in ways many Americans don ’ t even realize .
The horizon of possibilities is wider and a bit brighter as a result of her run , and ideas that once seemed like hippie pipe dreams are now the serious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moderates and centrists now define themselves on her terms ― they are moderate because they don ’ t want to do what Elizabeth Warren has proposed .
When Piketty published ” Capital in the Twenty-First Century , ” he closed the book with a call for a new tax , not on income , but on accumulated fortunes .
Only this ambitious new effort to corral the rich , he insisted , and could reverse the grim expansion of economic inequality under capitalism .
In Washington , this policy advice was regarded as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A wealth tax was silly .
It could never happen .
It was the sort of thing a very smart but impractical academic might propose .
No Democrat in Congress wrote any legislation pursuing Piketty ’ s idea .
Nobody even assigned staff to investigate the idea further .
Until Warren ran for president .
Working with Piketty disciples Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman at the University of California , Berkeley , Warren put together a detailed , ambitious plan to tax the fortunes of billionaires and ultra-millionaires .
By imposing a small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ― just two cents for every dollar over $ 50 million , as Warren is fond of emphasizing ― this new tax would raise billions in revenue for the federal government and , most important of all , take a sledgehammer to inequality .
This was a new idea in Washington .
Ever since the administration of John F. Kennedy , taxation had been understood exclusively as a way to fund the government .
Warren was offering taxation as a cure for inequality , not because the government is broke , but because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas with the moral clarity of a Methodist preacher .
“ The fight for justice will never be over , ” she told thousands of rallygoers in Atlanta .
“ With every win , a bigger win stands just around the corner .
With every inch we take on the moral arc of justice , we make an extra mile possible.
” In Warren ’ s telling , her plans seemed not only possible , but necessary .
She didn ’ t shy away from unpleasant truths .
The government , she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Republicans weren ’ t the only crooks in Washington .
But change would have to begin within the Democratic Party , and she was ready to change it .
Sen. Bernie Sanders ( I-Vt. ) is running an honorable campaign premised on many of the same foundations on which Warren built hers .
But for all his commitment to principle , Sanders simply does not carry the same intellectual gravitas that Warren does .
Despite his talk of revolution , Sanders is always looking to the past .
He wants to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — Franklin Delano Roosevelt ’ s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson ’ s Great Society .
His proposals are all ideas that FDR and LBJ had before , expanded or modified to meet our moment .
He is a politician , and a good one , but Warren is something else ― a once-in-a-generation figure like John Maynard Keynes or John Kenneth Galbraith who can rewrite conventional wisdom and then walk the corridors of power putting new ideas in practice .
And so many of Sanders ’ most promising policies are essentially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His wealth tax is heavier , and he ’ d cancel all student debt , not just 75 % of it .
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery , but consensus is the best path to progress .
When Warren and Sanders appeared on the debate stage together before of millions of Americans , it was their ideas that seemed reasonable and practical , not the tut-tutting of centrist after centrist who collapsed long before the Iowa caucuses .
Elizabeth Warren will not be the next president of the United States , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Our politics and our planet are still in peril .
We are fortunate to have her in the fight for the future .

The two most influential scholars of economic inequality in the past 50 years are a French economist named Thomas Piketty and a former Harvard law professor named Elizabeth Warren. Piketty’s work revolutionized the way we think about capitalism; Warren’s research transformed the way we think about the economic pressures facing middle-class families. Her bankruptcy scholarship from the 1980s through the 2000s didn’t just resonate with those reading law reviews and economic journals. It took Washington. Chuck Schumer was stunned to read Warren’s work indicating that middle class incomes were actually declining during what had seemed like boom years at the turn of the millennium. She had discovered, he said, “the greatest crisis in America.”
Warren could have contented herself with a comfortable life writing books as a celebrated intellectual. She pursued power instead.
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Most academics who come to Washington leverage their prestige to ingratiate themselves with the elite. They write briefs and studies and op-eds that, consciously or not, flatter the sensibilities of the rich and powerful.
Warren was different. She showed up in D.C. in 2009 as the chair of a panel overseeing the bank bailouts. The panel was essentially toothless ― something created to mollify critics without limiting the Treasury Department’s ability to do what it wanted with the $700 billion Congress had allotted the financial rescue. Warren could have easily secured a place for herself in Democratic Party politics by playing nice and not looking too hard at the people in power.
Instead, she converted the oversight committee into a bracing exposé of abuse and incompetence, enraging the Obama administration and educating the public. Warren demonstrated the lengths that Obama’s Treasury Department would go to in order to help rogue bankers, efforts that included throwing millions of struggling homeowners to the wolves. Somehow, this performance vaulted her into the Senate, and from the Senate to, for a few weeks this fall, a position as the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
On Thursday, Warren formally withdrew from the primary, after a disappointing showing in early states. But like her career prior to Washington, the significance of Warren’s campaign can’t really be measured quantitatively. Warren has changed the way we think about our politics in ways many Americans don’t even realize. The horizon of possibilities is wider and a bit brighter as a result of her run, and ideas that once seemed like hippie pipe dreams are now the serious subject of policy discussion. Even self-proclaimed moderates and centrists now define themselves on her terms ― they are moderate because they don’t want to do what Elizabeth Warren has proposed.
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When Piketty published ”Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” he closed the book with a call for a new tax, not on income, but on accumulated fortunes. Only this ambitious new effort to corral the rich, he insisted, and could reverse the grim expansion of economic inequality under capitalism.
In Washington, this policy advice was regarded as the book’s principal flaw. A wealth tax was silly. It could never happen. It was the sort of thing a very smart but impractical academic might propose. No Democrat in Congress wrote any legislation pursuing Piketty’s idea. Nobody even assigned staff to investigate the idea further.
Until Warren ran for president. Working with Piketty disciples Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman at the University of California, Berkeley, Warren put together a detailed, ambitious plan to tax the fortunes of billionaires and ultra-millionaires. By imposing a small annual tax on these hoards of wealth ― just two cents for every dollar over $50 million, as Warren is fond of emphasizing ― this new tax would raise billions in revenue for the federal government and, most important of all, take a sledgehammer to inequality.
This was a new idea in Washington. Ever since the administration of John F. Kennedy, taxation had been understood exclusively as a way to fund the government. Warren was offering taxation as a cure for inequality, not because the government is broke, but because inequality is bad.
And people loved it. According to one New York Times poll, a full two-thirds of the country supports Warren’s wealth tax. Even most millionaires support it, according to a CNBC survey.
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It’s not just the wealth tax. Universal childcare, student debt cancellation, reimagining U.S. trade policy ― again and again Warren drew on her expertise as a bankruptcy law expert to target the financial hardships facing working families, and then developed sophisticated, ironclad policy proposals to tackle those problems.
Warren pitched these ideas with the moral clarity of a Methodist preacher. “The fight for justice will never be over,” she told thousands of rallygoers in Atlanta. “With every win, a bigger win stands just around the corner. With every inch we take on the moral arc of justice, we make an extra mile possible.”
In Warren’s telling, her plans seemed not only possible, but necessary. She didn’t shy away from unpleasant truths. The government, she said, had been corrupted by big money, and Republicans weren’t the only crooks in Washington. But change would have to begin within the Democratic Party, and she was ready to change it.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is running an honorable campaign premised on many of the same foundations on which Warren built hers. But for all his commitment to principle, Sanders simply does not carry the same intellectual gravitas that Warren does. Despite his talk of revolution, Sanders is always looking to the past. He wants to revive the best ideas of former presidents — Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. His proposals are all ideas that FDR and LBJ had before, expanded or modified to meet our moment. He is a politician, and a good one, but Warren is something else ― a once-in-a-generation figure like John Maynard Keynes or John Kenneth Galbraith who can rewrite conventional wisdom and then walk the corridors of power putting new ideas in practice.
And so many of Sanders’ most promising policies are essentially Warren plans turned up a notch. His wealth tax is heavier, and he’d cancel all student debt, not just 75% of it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but consensus is the best path to progress. When Warren and Sanders appeared on the debate stage together before of millions of Americans, it was their ideas that seemed reasonable and practical, not the tut-tutting of centrist after centrist who collapsed long before the Iowa caucuses.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-04--Texas Officials Want To Suppress Democratic Voters. Super Tuesday Shows It's Working.

Texas Democrats chose to award a plurality of their convention delegates to former Vice President Joe Biden .
But people were forced to wait hours to vote on Tuesday in part because for several years , the state has systematically closed polling places in communities with large and growing Black and Latino populations .
And that casts doubt on whether Democrats actually have a chance to turn the state blue in 2020 , regardless of whom they nominate .
A 2019 report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund ( LCEF ) , a civil rights organization , found that Texas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black and Latino communities after the Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 .
The law had previously required a number of states with histories of racist voting practices , like Texas , to seek federal approval before making changes to their election rules .
According to the LCEF report , Harris County closed 52 polling places from 2012 to 2018 , more than all but three other counties nationwide did in the same period .
On Super Tuesday , some Harris County residents said they had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote , according to the Texas Tribune .
CNN reported that the last voter at Texas Southern University , a college in the county , waited almost seven hours to cast a ballot .
An analysis by The Guardian found that Texas officials have been methodical about closing the most sites in communities with the largest-growing Black and Latino populations .
The publication found that the 50 Texas counties that gained the most Black and Latino residents from 2012 to 2018 eliminated 542 polling sites over that span , while the 50 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Latino residents during that time eliminated only 34 sites .
“ People have died to fight for the sanctity of the vote , ” spokesperson Abhi Rahman told HuffPost .
“ Republicans ’ only way to retain power is to basically curb the vote , and we ’ re fighting back against all of those attempts , ” he added .
Harris County elected a Democrat to run its elections in 2018 .
Diane Trautman replaced Republican clerk Stan Stanart , who was notorious in Texas for his handling of the county ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats were trying to corrupt them .
Trautman ’ s office did not respond to HuffPost ’ s request for comment , but on Wednesday the clerk effectively acknowledged Tuesday ’ s problems .
One day removed from Super Tuesday , it is impossible to know the full impact of those long lines .
The lines may have dissuaded some people from voting in Tuesday ’ s primary , but they may also have discouraged potential Democratic voters from participating in future elections , including the contest in November .
And that decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wouldn ’ t necessarily prove a lack of civic responsibility .
If a voter made sacrifices to vote on Tuesday ( say , they altered their work schedule or paid a babysitter ) , they may be unable to make a similar commitment later this year .
Voter suppression works by instilling such an acute sense of dread in those trying to vote ― about the hours and resources and effort it will take ― that they don ’ t or even can ’ t make the attempt .
We have no idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grueling long lines on Tuesday , cast their ballot , and now may choose ( or feel forced ) to sit out future elections .
Finding a solution to this kind of voter disenfranchisement will be just as important to Democrats ’ hopes of turning Texas blue and winning in 2020 ― if not more important ― than the candidate Democrats select to lead the ticket .

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On Super Tuesday, long lines at a number of Texas polling stations cast a pall over the Democratic primary, sowing confusion and anger on an otherwise clarifying day for the party.
Voters line up at a polling station during the presidential primary in Houston on March 3, 2020. MARK FELIX via Getty Images
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Texas Democrats chose to award a plurality of their convention delegates to former Vice President Joe Biden. But people were forced to wait hours to vote on Tuesday in part because for several years, the state has systematically closed polling places in communities with large and growing Black and Latino populations. And that casts doubt on whether Democrats actually have a chance to turn the state blue in 2020, regardless of whom they nominate.
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke endorses Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at Gilley's in Dallas on March 2, 2020. Elizabeth Frantz / Reuters
Many of the polling sites with long waits on Tuesday were in Harris County, which includes Houston, the state’s largest city. Harris County is 40% Latino and 19% Black.
A 2019 report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund (LCEF), a civil rights organization, found that Texas election officials rapidly eliminated polling places in Black and Latino communities after the Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. The law had previously required a number of states with histories of racist voting practices, like Texas, to seek federal approval before making changes to their election rules. According to the LCEF report, Harris County closed 52 polling places from 2012 to 2018, more than all but three other counties nationwide did in the same period.
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On Super Tuesday, some Harris County residents said they had to wait in line for several hours to vote, according to the Texas Tribune. CNN reported that the last voter at Texas Southern University, a college in the county, waited almost seven hours to cast a ballot.
The last voter at Texas Southern University has walked out of the voting booth. It took Hervis Rogers nearly 7 hours to vote tonight. #supertuesday2020 pic.twitter.com/kEQ0HgPZHg — ed lavandera (@edlavaCNN) March 4, 2020
An analysis by The Guardian found that Texas officials have been methodical about closing the most sites in communities with the largest-growing Black and Latino populations. The publication found that the 50 Texas counties that gained the most Black and Latino residents from 2012 to 2018 eliminated 542 polling sites over that span, while the 50 counties that gained the fewest Black and Latino residents during that time eliminated only 34 sites.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party said these closures are part of voter suppression efforts by state Republicans.
“People have died to fight for the sanctity of the vote,” spokesperson Abhi Rahman told HuffPost. “Republicans’ only way to retain power is to basically curb the vote, and we’re fighting back against all of those attempts,” he added.
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Voters wait in line to cast their ballot in the Democratic primary at a Houston polling place on Super Tuesday. Callaghan O'Hare / Reuters
Harris County elected a Democrat to run its elections in 2018. Diane Trautman replaced Republican clerk Stan Stanart, who was notorious in Texas for his handling of the county’s elections and his unfounded claims that Democrats were trying to corrupt them. Trautman’s office did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, but on Wednesday the clerk effectively acknowledged Tuesday’s problems.
“There is no such thing as a perfect election,” Trautman tweeted, “but I am committed to always improving the voting process and increasing access to the polls.”
One day removed from Super Tuesday, it is impossible to know the full impact of those long lines. The lines may have dissuaded some people from voting in Tuesday’s primary, but they may also have discouraged potential Democratic voters from participating in future elections, including the contest in November. And that decision ― unfortunate as it would be ― wouldn’t necessarily prove a lack of civic responsibility. If a voter made sacrifices to vote on Tuesday (say, they altered their work schedule or paid a babysitter), they may be unable to make a similar commitment later this year.
Voter suppression works by instilling such an acute sense of dread in those trying to vote ― about the hours and resources and effort it will take ― that they don’t or even can’t make the attempt. We have no idea how many people in Texas endured the grueling long lines on Tuesday, cast their ballot, and now may choose (or feel forced) to sit out future elections.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Jewish Student Sues N.J. School District For Failing To Stop Peers' Anti-Semitic Bullying

The teen , identified only with the initials “ P.W.
” in the lawsuit , alleges that a “ culture of anti-Semitism ” at Marine Academy of Science and Technology was exposed in April 2018 when she received a photo of a fellow student posing next to the words , “ I h8 Jews.
” After she told her parents , who reported the incident to administrators , the student claims classmates bullied her for months for “ snitching.
” The Jewish student , who is now a freshman in college , was “ devastated ” by her high school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bullying , the complaint states .
P.W .
dropped out of MAST , but the retaliation allegedly followed her to her next high school , which she also dropped out of .
“ She did not go to her senior prom .
She did not walk in a graduation ceremony , ” the complaint states .
“ Her adjustment to college has been very challenging .
Her sense of self-worth has been severely compromised.
” P.W .
filed a lawsuit against Monmouth County Vocational School District , its board of education , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. District Court of New Jersey .
She is withholding her full name in the lawsuit to protect her identity .
Her parents have also filed a complaint with the state attorney general ’ s division of civil rights .
In October , the office announced after an investigation that it had found “ probable cause ” that the school and district had discriminated against P.W .
based on her religion .
The student spotted several MAST classmates reading Adolf Hitler ’ s autobiographical manifesto “ Mein Kampf ” on campus , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t studying World War II at the time .
She also saw various students drawing swastikas in their notebooks and on school lunch tables .
Students would “ give each other Jewish sounding surnames as a joke and then ridicule those names , ” the complaint states .
The situation escalated in April 2018 , during a school-sponsored field trip to New Jersey ’ s Sandy Hook Beach .
One male student texted a photo to a group thread of MAST students showing another male classmate lying on the beach next to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ etched into the sand .
The teen in the photo commented on the group thread that the image would be good for MAST ’ s “ yearbook cover.
” P.W .
had been added to the thread just before the photo was sent , leading her to believe that it was “ intended for me , ” according to the complaint .
The Jewish student ’ s parents reported the photo to the school ’ s principal , Earl Moore .
The two boys who took and appeared in the photo received suspensions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the thread about the photo being in the yearbook was also suspended briefly .
“ It seems most of the kids are blaming me for getting [ the boys ] in trouble instead of seeing that [ the boys ] were in the wrong , not me , ” the student wrote in an April 2018 email to administrators that was reprinted in the complaint .
A large group of students , including some who were formerly P.W.
’ s friends , formed a pact to no longer speak to her , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her Spanish class chanting , “ Free [ J.L . ]
, ” saying the name of the student who had originally sent the photograph .
The teen began spending her lunch periods walking around campus alone or “ hiding ” in classrooms , the lawsuit states .
“ Mr .
Moore was so deliberately indifferent to P.W.
’ s experience that he never bothered to do anything to investigate meaningfully how she was being treated by her fellow students , whether in the context of a disciplinary investigation or not , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that after the beach photo incident , the district consulted with the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey to address the school ’ s overall climate .
In May 2018 , the school ’ s junior class attended a full-day “ cultural competency ” program sponsored by the Center for Holocaust , Human Rights & Genocide Education .
The entire school also participated in “ Building Bridges , ” a year-long program created by the center to “ build a culture of mutual respect and understanding .
”

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A New Jersey student is suing her former Monmouth County school district for failing to protect her from anti-Semitic bullying by her classmates.
The teen, identified only with the initials “P.W.” in the lawsuit, alleges that a “culture of anti-Semitism” at Marine Academy of Science and Technology was exposed in April 2018 when she received a photo of a fellow student posing next to the words, “I h8 Jews.” After she told her parents, who reported the incident to administrators, the student claims classmates bullied her for months for “snitching.”
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At one point, P.W. allegedly found a rock with the word “Adolf” painted on it next to her desk ― an apparent reference to an anti-Semitic meme.
The Jewish student, who is now a freshman in college, was “devastated” by her high school’s alleged failure to mitigate the bullying, the complaint states. P.W. dropped out of MAST, but the retaliation allegedly followed her to her next high school, which she also dropped out of.
“She did not go to her senior prom. She did not walk in a graduation ceremony,” the complaint states. “Her adjustment to college has been very challenging. Her sense of self-worth has been severely compromised.”
P.W. filed a lawsuit against Monmouth County Vocational School District, its board of education, and several school administrators on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. She is withholding her full name in the lawsuit to protect her identity.
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Her parents have also filed a complaint with the state attorney general’s division of civil rights. In October, the office announced after an investigation that it had found “probable cause” that the school and district had discriminated against P.W. based on her religion.
District Superintendent Timothy McCorkell maintains that school staff responded to the April 2018 incident “in line with the District’s progressive discipline approach.” The school also followed up by adding Holocaust and anti-discrimination awareness to its curriculum.
“The District is confident in the legal process and that the facts will support our position once the case is presented to the Division of Civil Rights,” McCorkell wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
P.W. claims she started seeing signs of anti-Semitic sentiment among her classmates soon after she enrolled as a freshman in 2015. MAST is a competitive magnet school in Monmouth County known for its Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.
The student spotted several MAST classmates reading Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf” on campus, the lawsuit claims, even though they weren’t studying World War II at the time. She also saw various students drawing swastikas in their notebooks and on school lunch tables. Students would “give each other Jewish sounding surnames as a joke and then ridicule those names,” the complaint states.
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One teacher at the school referred to “Mein Kampf” as a “great book,” the complaint alleges. A student reportedly identified himself on social media as a member of the Hitler Youth, the complaint states.
The situation escalated in April 2018, during a school-sponsored field trip to New Jersey’s Sandy Hook Beach. One male student texted a photo to a group thread of MAST students showing another male classmate lying on the beach next to the words “I h8 Jews” etched into the sand. The teen in the photo commented on the group thread that the image would be good for MAST’s “yearbook cover.”
P.W. had been added to the thread just before the photo was sent, leading her to believe that it was “intended for me,” according to the complaint.
The Jewish student’s parents reported the photo to the school’s principal, Earl Moore. The two boys who took and appeared in the photo received suspensions. A female student who joked in the thread about the photo being in the yearbook was also suspended briefly.
P.W.’s parents asked Moore to protect their daughter’s privacy, but during Moore’s ensuing investigation, he inadvertently identified the teen by revealing that the “victim” was a female student who had stayed home from school the next Monday, the lawsuit claims.
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Moore denies that he identified the Jewish student in this way. He did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
As the student’s identity leaked out to her classmates, she allegedly began receiving retaliation for being a “snitch.”
“It seems most of the kids are blaming me for getting [the boys] in trouble instead of seeing that [the boys] were in the wrong, not me,” the student wrote in an April 2018 email to administrators that was reprinted in the complaint.
A former student at Marine Academy of Science and Technology (not pictured) claims she was bullied by her classmates for being Jewish and for reporting an anti-Semitic act. sestovic via Getty Images
A large group of students, including some who were formerly P.W.’s friends, formed a pact to no longer speak to her, the complaint alleges. Some students walked into her Spanish class chanting, “Free [J.L.],” saying the name of the student who had originally sent the photograph. The teen began spending her lunch periods walking around campus alone or “hiding” in classrooms, the lawsuit states.
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Over the next few months, P.W.’s parents repeatedly asked Moore and other administrators to investigate and put an end to the retaliation. The parents claim that Moore did not follow through.
The principal exaggerated and even outright invented “procedural rules that do not actually apply in school disciplinary proceedings,” the suit alleges.
“Mr. Moore was so deliberately indifferent to P.W.’s experience that he never bothered to do anything to investigate meaningfully how she was being treated by her fellow students, whether in the context of a disciplinary investigation or not,” the lawsuit states.
After investigating the parents’ civil rights complaint, the New Jersey attorney general’s office determined that while Moore appropriately addressed the “I h8 Jews” photo, he didn’t properly investigate the subsequent alleged shunning of the Jewish student and other anti-Semitism allegations.
Superintendent McCorkell said that after the beach photo incident, the district consulted with the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey to address the school’s overall climate. In May 2018, the school’s junior class attended a full-day “cultural competency” program sponsored by the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education. The entire school also participated in “Building Bridges,” a year-long program created by the center to “build a culture of mutual respect and understanding.”
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“The program was so successful that it is now embedded into the MAST curriculum and remains a permanent part of its educational program,” McCorkell said.
“The District takes every reported allegation of bias, harassment, intimidation and bullying seriously and promptly investigates reported incidents,” he added.
But P.W. and her parents say the school failed to address the discrimination and retaliation she experienced because of her religion. The student is suing for an unspecified amount of damages.
P.W. ultimately ended up finishing her senior year at home, taking online courses and enrolling in a local community college. She is now attending an out-of-state university but is having a challenging time making new friends and establishing relationships with professors ― so much so that she is considering moving back to New Jersey to live with her parents and attend a local university.
“She understandably has issues with anger and trust,” the lawsuit states.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-03-05--Mitt Romney Says There's 'No Question' Hunter Biden Probe Appears Political

“ There ’ s no question ” that a probe into Joe Biden ’ s son Hunter Biden appears politically motivated , Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters Thursday , adding , “ I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations.
” Romney , a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee , could block an upcoming subpoena planned by committee head Sen. Ron Johnson ( R-Wis. ) .
Romney said he ’ d meet with Johnson to “ see what information he has ” before deciding whether to back a subpoena .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of significance that needs to be evaluated , it be done by the FBI or some other agency that ’ s not as political as perhaps a committee of our body , ” the senator said .
Johnson initiated a probe of Ukrainian energy company Burisma and Hunter Biden , who joined Burisma ’ s board when his father was U.S. vice president .
President Donald Trump ’ s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has accused the Bidens of illegal actions linked to Burisma without offering any details , substantiation or evidence .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ukraine while pressuring the country ’ s president to launch a probe into unfounded accusations against the Bidens .
The former vice president ’ s recent uptick in the Democratic primaries has rekindled threats of an investigation by the Senate .
Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday that the investigation was not politically motivated .
He hopes to subpoena a former Ukrainian Embassy official who worked for a Washington-based consulting firm that Burisma hired to combat accusations of corruption .
Romney ’ s vote against the subpoena would result in a deadlock , @ @ @ @

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“There’s no question” that a probe into Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden appears politically motivated, Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters Thursday, adding, “I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations.”
Romney, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, could block an upcoming subpoena planned by committee head Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
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Romney said he’d meet with Johnson to “see what information he has” before deciding whether to back a subpoena. “I would hope if there’s something of significance that needs to be evaluated, it be done by the FBI or some other agency that’s not as political as perhaps a committee of our body,” the senator said.
Johnson initiated a probe of Ukrainian energy company Burisma and Hunter Biden, who joined Burisma’s board when his father was U.S. vice president. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has accused the Bidens of illegal actions linked to Burisma without offering any details, substantiation or evidence.
Trump was impeached after withholding military aid from Ukraine while pressuring the country’s president to launch a probe into unfounded accusations against the Bidens. The former vice president’s recent uptick in the Democratic primaries has rekindled threats of an investigation by the Senate.
Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday that the investigation was not politically motivated. He hopes to subpoena a former Ukrainian Embassy official who worked for a Washington-based consulting firm that Burisma hired to combat accusations of corruption. Romney’s vote against the subpoena would result in a deadlock, blocking the action.