@BrookesTimes July 2018 |
Saturday 21 July 2018
Quote of the Week
“There’s
also a profound lack of class or dignity. Trump’s narcissism diminishes the
presidency and America’s prestige around the world.”
[Former Australian
high commissioner to the UK Mike Rann,
The
Age, 14 July 2018]
Labels:
Donald Trump
Friday 20 July 2018
Trump-Putin Helsinki 16 July 2018 Press Conference: the matter of a curious admission and omission
The mainstream media carried transcripts of the 16 July 2018 US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin joint press conference held in Helsinki, Finland.
Video of this press conference is available online.
There is one specific exchange between President Putin and an American reporter.
It went thus:
REPORTER: Did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any
of your officials to help him do that?
PUTIN: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S. Russia
relationship back to normal.
The White House also posted a transcript of the joint press conference.
This is how that exchange between Putin and the American reporter is presented on the White House website:
Snapshot captured on 19 July 2018 |
The Kremlin English version transcript omits this question and answer in their entirety.
The Atlantic spoke with the reporter in question, Reuters' Jeff Mason:
But recordings of the
exchange were muddled for two reasons. First, the English translation of
Putin’s previous response was concluding as Mason began to speak. Second, the
microphone seemed to pick up Mason’s question halfway through—making the latter
half of it easier to hear. (Mason told me that he had held on to the microphone
even though an official had tried to pull it away so that he could ask Putin a
follow-up question. “I don’t know if they turned the sound off during the time
when each of the presidents were speaking, or if it got flipped on and off. I
certainly didn’t touch anything.”)
That the question could be heard clearly at the press conference is demonstrated at 6:10 mins in on this MSNBS The Last Word video.
So why the differing editing of the press conference video and transcripts by the White House, the Kremlin and media outlets.
It is possible that many news outlets took their video and transcripts directly from the White House press office and presumed that any discrepancy was an instance of lost in translation.
The possibility also exists that the 'reshaping' of this question and answer was deliberate on the part of both the Oval Office and the Kremlin because it was realised that, albeit unintentionally, Russian President Vladimir Putin has just publicly admitted that not only did he want Donald Trump to win the 2016 US presidential campaign, he had directed Russian officials to help Trump win.
Labels:
lies and lying,
spies,
US-Russia relations
Too warm, too dry as Winter draws closer to Spring in Australia 2018
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), 12 Jly 2018:
Warmer days and nights favoured
for August–October
August to October days
and nights are likely to be warmer than average for most of the country, with
high chances (greater than 80%) in eastern Victoria and NSW, and southern
Tasmania.
Days and nights in
August are likely to be warmer than average for most of Australia, with high
chances (greater than 80%) of warmer days in the southeast.
Historical accuracy for
August–October maximum temperatures is moderate for eastern and northern parts
of Australia, as well as southern WA. Elsewhere, accuracy is low to very low.
Historical accuracy for minimum temperatures is moderate for the northern half
of Australia, SA, and Tasmania, but low to very low elsewhere.
Temperature - The chance
of above median maximum temperature for August to October
Drier than average
August–October likely in northeast and southeast mainland
August to October is
likely to be drier than average in Victoria, NSW, southeast SA and northeast
Queensland
The August outlook shows
most of Victoria, NSW and Queensland are likely to be drier than average.
Historical outlook
accuracy for August to October is moderate over most of the country, except for
interior WA, where accuracy is low to very low.
Rainfall - Totals that
have a 75% chance of occurring for August to October
Drought
June rainfall was below
average for most of Australia, and very much below average for parts of the
east coast
The start of the
southern wet season has been drier than average
Rainfall deficiencies
persist in both the east and west of the country, increasing in the east at the
6- and 15-month timescales, and along the west coast at the 15-month timescale
Lower-layer soil
moisture was below average for June across most of New South Wales, the
southern half of Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the
Kimberley and the south of Western Australia
Soil Moisture
Soil moisture in the
lower layer (from 10 cm to 100 cm deep) for June decreased over
eastern Australia, and increased over parts of northwest Western Australia
following above average rainfall for June.
Lower-layer soil
moisture was below average for the Kimberley and southern Western Australia
away from the west coast, most of South Australia and the Northern Territory,
New South Wales and eastern Victoria, southern and eastern Queensland south of
a line between Birdsville and Townsville, and along the coastal fringe of
eastern Cape York Peninsula.
Map of lower level soil moisture for the previous month
NSW Dept. of Primary Industries, NSW State Seasonal Update - June 2018. Click on map to enlarge:
The entire Northern Rivers region is considered drought affected.
Labels:
Australia,
BOM,
drought,
New South Wales,
Northern Rivers,
weather
Slowly but surely Russian connections between the UK Brexit referendum campaign and the US presidential campaign are beginning to emerge
“We have concluded that there are risks in relation to
the processing of personal data by many political parties. Particular concerns
include: the purchasing of marketing lists and lifestyle information from data
brokers without sufficient due diligence, a lack of fair processing, and use of
third party data analytics companies with insufficient checks around consent….We
have looked closely at the role of those who buy and sell personal data-sets in
the UK. Our existing investigation of the privacy issues raised by their work
has been expanded to include their activities in political processes….The
investigation has identified a total of 172 organisations of interest that
required engagement, of which around 30 organisations have formed the main
focus of our enquiries, including political parties, data analytics companies
and major social media platforms…..Similarly, we have identified a total of 285
individuals relating to our investigation.” [UK
Information Commissioner’s Office, Investigation
into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: Investigation update,
July 2018]
Slowly but
surely the Russian connections between the UK Brexit referendum campaign and
the US presidential campaign are beginning to emerge.
The
Guardian, 15
July 2018:
A
source familiar with the FBI investigation revealed that the commissioner and
her deputy spent last week with law enforcement agencies in the US including
the FBI. And Denham’s deputy, James Dipple-Johnstone, confirmed to the Observer that
“some of the systems linked to the investigation were accessed from IP
addresses that resolve to Russia and other areas of the CIS [Commonwealth of
Independent States]”.
It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”, met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during an Atlantic Council meeting.
It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”, met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during an Atlantic Council meeting.
UK Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO), media
release, 10 July 2018:
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has today published a detailed update of her
office’s investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns.
In
March 2017, the ICO began looking into whether personal data had been misused
by campaigns on both sides of the referendum on membership of the EU.
In
May it launched an investigation that included political parties, data
analytics companies and major social media platforms.
Today’s progress report gives details of some of the
organisations and individuals under investigation, as well as enforcement
actions so far.
This
includes the ICO’s intention to fine Facebook a maximum £500,000 for two
breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Facebook,
with Cambridge Analytica, has been the focus of the investigation since
February when evidence emerged that an app had been used to harvest the data of
50 million Facebook users across the world. This is now estimated at 87
million.
The
ICO’s investigation concluded that Facebook contravened the law by failing to
safeguard people’s information. It also found that the company failed to be
transparent about how people’s data was harvested by others.
Facebook
has a chance to respond to the Commissioner’s Notice of Intent, after which a
final decision will be made.
Other
regulatory action set out in the report comprises:
warning letters to 11 political
parties and notices compelling them to agree to audits of their data protection
practices;
an Enforcement Notice for SCL
Elections Ltd to compel it to deal properly with a subject access request from
Professor David Carroll;
a criminal prosecution for SCL
Elections Ltd for failing to properly deal with the ICO’s Enforcement Notice;
an Enforcement Notice for Aggregate IQ
to stop processing retained data belonging to UK citizens;
a Notice of Intent to take regulatory
action against data broker Emma’s Diary (Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby)
Ltd); and
audits of the main credit reference
companies and Cambridge University Psychometric Centre.
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said:
“We
are at a crossroads. Trust and confidence in the integrity of our democratic
processes risk being disrupted because the average voter has little idea of
what is going on behind the scenes.
“New
technologies that use data analytics to micro-target people give campaign
groups the ability to connect with individual voters. But this cannot be at the
expense of transparency, fairness and compliance with the law.
She
added:
“Fines
and prosecutions punish the bad actors, but my real goal is to effect change
and restore trust and confidence in our democratic system.”
A
second, partner report, titled Democracy Disrupted? Personal information and political influence,
sets out findings and recommendations arising out of the 14-month
investigation.
Among
the ten recommendations is a call for the Government to introduce a statutory
Code of Practice for the use of personal data in political campaigns.
Ms
Denham has also called for an ethical pause to allow Government, Parliament,
regulators, political parties, online platforms and the public to reflect on
their responsibilities in the era of big data before there is a greater
expansion in the use of new technologies.
She
said:
“People
cannot have control over their own data if they don’t know or understand how it
is being used. That’s why greater and genuine transparency about the use of
data analytics is vital.”
In
addition, the ICO commissioned research from the Centre for the Analysis of
Social Media at the independent thinktank DEMOS. Its report, also published
today, examines current and emerging trends in how data is used in political
campaigns, how use of technology is changing and how it may evolve in the next
two to five years.
The
investigation, one of the largest of its kind by a Data Protection Authority,
remains ongoing. The 40-strong investigation team is pursuing active lines of
enquiry and reviewing a considerable amount of material retrieved from servers
and equipment.
The
interim progress report has been produced to inform the work of the DCMS’s
Select Committee into Fake News.
The
next phase of the ICO’s work is expected to be concluded by the end of October
2018.
The
Washington Post,
28 June 2018:
BRISTOL,
England — On Aug. 19, 2016, Arron Banks, a wealthy British businessman,
sat down at the palatial residence of the Russian ambassador to London for
a lunch of wild halibut and Belevskaya pastila apple sweets
accompanied by Russian white wine.
Banks
had just scored a huge win. From relative obscurity, he had become the largest
political donor in British history by pouring millions into Brexit, the
campaign to disentangle the United Kingdom from the European Union that had
earned a jaw-dropping victory at the polls two months earlier.
Now
he had something else that bolstered his standing as he sat down with his new Russian
friend, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko: his team’s deepening ties to Donald
Trump’s insurgent presidential bid in the United States. A major Brexit
supporter, Stephen K. Bannon, had just been installed as chief executive of
Trump’s campaign. And Banks and his fellow Brexiteers had been invited to
attend a fundraiser with Trump in Mississippi.
Less
than a week after the meeting with the Russian envoy, Banks and firebrand
Brexit politician Nigel Farage — by then a cult hero among some
anti-establishment Trump supporters — were huddling privately with the
Republican nominee in Jackson, Miss., where Farage wowed a foot-stomping crowd
at a Trump rally.
Banks’s
journey from a lavish meal with a Russian diplomat in London to the raucous
heart of Trump country was part of an unusual intercontinental charm offensive
by the wealthy British donor and his associates, a hard-partying lot who dubbed
themselves the “Bad Boys of Brexit.” Their efforts to simultaneously cultivate
ties to Russian officials and Trump’s campaign have captured the interest of
investigators in the United Kingdom and the United States, including special
counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Vice
News, 11 June
2018:
Yakovenko
is already on the radar of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating
Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, after he was named in
the indictment of ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos….
Banks,
along with close friend and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, was among the very
first overseas political figures to meet Trump after his surprise victory in
November 2016.
It
also emerged over the weekend that Banks passed contact information for Trump’s
transition team to the Russians.
Thursday 19 July 2018
Is Philip Gaetjens the consummate public servant or in 2018 has he devolved into a right-wing ideological warrior?
On 31 July
2018 Philip Gaetjens will become Secretary to the Australian Treasury reporting
to the Australian Treasurer.
Now from 2011
to 2015 he was head of the NSW Treasury under a Baird Coalition Government and
before that did a stint at the SA Treasury in 1995 to 1997 spanning the terms
of two Liberal premiers, so he will bring some experience to the position.
However, he has
also been both chief of staff to former federal treasurer and Liberal
MP Peter Costello during the Howard Coalition Government and chief of staff to current
federal treasurer and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison in the Turnbull
Coalition Government.
There is a question this curriculum vitae raises – “Is Philip Gaetjens the consummate public servant or in 2018 has he devolved into a right-wing ideological
warrior?”
Will treasury
advice still be seen as authoritative during his tenure?
With Treasury
already
gaining a reputation as an enabler of Scott Morrison’s worst partisan public pronouncements
in election years will Gaetjens make the situation even more difficult
for ordinary voters trying to decipher truth in the midst of relentless political spin?
In August Gaetjens will be joined in Treasury by Liberal Senator and Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann's chief of staff Simon Atkinson as Deputy Secretary of the Fiscal Group.
It's business as usual as Trump appointees dismantle US environmental law and regulations
5 July 2018:
Scott Pruitt,
whose tenure at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was
tarred by corruption scandals and hostility to environmental regulation, offered his resignation today, effective July 6.
The EPA’s new
interim administrator, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal lobbyist,
profiled by DeSmog.
DeSmog's prior profile
of Wheeler reports:
Wheeler is the latest former staffer of climate
change denier James Inhofe to join the EPA. Prior to
joining FaegreBD Consulting, Wheeler worked as majority staff
director, minority staff director and chief counsel at the Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works for Inhofe. He worked in a similar
vein at the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and
Nuclear Safety under the chairmanship of Inhofe and
also that of George Voinovich. Before that, he worked as Inhofe's
chief counsel from 1995 to 1997.
Under Presidents
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Wheeler spent four years as a staffer at the EPA's Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics before moving on to his position at
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Until mid-2017, Wheeler lobbied
on behalf of Murray Energy, the nation's largest privately owned coal
company. Run by vocal climate change denier Robert
Murray, the energy company has fought against industry regulation and
climate change mitigation efforts. According to EcoWatch, Wheeler brought in at
least $3 million in income for his firm from Murray Energy.
Murray Energy, while
Wheeler's client, produced an “Action Plan” for the Trump Administration
including complete elimination of the Clean Power Plan, overturning the
endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, and eliminating tax credits for wind
and solar energy. In his confirmation hearing, Wheeler admitted to having seen
the plan.
According to his profile at Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, Wheeler
“worked on every major piece of environmental and energy-related legislation
over the last decade, including greenhouse gas emissions legislation, the
Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,
the Clear Skies Act and the Clean Air Interstate Rule.” The consulting firm
also notes that Wheeler has worked on 1998 and 2005 Highway Bill
reauthorizations, the Diesel Emissions Reduction SEP Bill,
and Renewable Fuel Standards. His regulatory work includes “all major
fuel related issues including Refinery MACT, Gasoline sulfur, and
the NSPS program.”
“Andrew Wheeler’s
nomination is very much in keeping with the Trump administration’s agenda of
fossil fuel exploitation and climate inaction,” Michael Mann, a climatologist
at Penn State University told HuffPost.
Read the full article here.
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