Daily Archives: February 18, 2017

Whatever happened to liberal Democrats, with their concerns about civil liberties and government surveillance of American citizens?

Liberals once hated the CIA. And they loved the Russians. You can look it up. Their liberal friends in Hollywood made movie after movie about the dangers of The Deep State and its awesome surveillance powers. One of the best was Three Days of the Condor, with liberal icon Robert Redford fighting the malevolent CIA boss John Houseman, who longed for the clarity of world war.

Years later, Edward Snowden became the liberal demigod and WikiLeaks their winged chariot of truth. Liberals fretted about the powers of the intelligence community being used on citizens for political reasons.

So what happened to the ideals of these liberal Democrats? Donald Trump was elected president, thats what.

And now you can clearly see the change in them as Trumps now-former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has become feast for the crows.

Flynn deserves his punishment. Make no mistake about that. He reportedly lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his phone conversations with a Russian ambassador that included discussion of the Obama administrations sanctions against Russia.

As a former general officer, as a former Defense Intelligence Agency boss, Flynn understands the chain of command. There is no lying to a superior officer.

So Flynn is gone, forced to resign, his head high on a spike upon the Democratic Party ramparts.

Democrats jeer at his head up there. Its as if this episode were street theater in olde England, with Punch and Judy entertaining the small folk.

But what victory are they celebrating, exactly? And at what cost to the republic?

What would have been bothersome to liberals of old (the pre-Trump kind) is that Flynn may have been targeted for a takedown by the Deep State intelligence operatives liberals once loathed.

Flynn and Trump warred with the intelligence community during the campaign, and Trump called out the CIA, tweeting at them, provoking them.

Most recently, Trump was furious that his private conversations with the Australian prime minister became public and were used as a club to pound him in the pages of the Never Trump Washington Post and other establishment newspapers.

The damning news was that there are reportedly transcripts of Flynn speaking with the Russian ambassador before Trump was inaugurated president. This indicates that Flynn was most likely the subject of a warrant issued by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. His conversations were recorded. The American public should know what this is about.

Whats astounding about this is that news reports on Flynns conversations with the Russian ambassador also mentioned something else. They mentioned the existence of many intelligence community sources, and these many intelligence sources presumably read the transcripts and leaked their contents to reporters.

The intelligence community records the conversations of a private citizen and leaks them to damage a president. And liberals who once prided themselves on being civil libertarians are overjoyed. They dont question their good fortune. They celebrate.

Now Trump is in open, public war with American intelligence, and liberals cheer on the intelligence community leakers.

Democrats are on the outs, so they love this story about Flynn. It feeds into their belief that Trump is some tool of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Its not whether they believe this that matters. What matters is that they see a way to sear this deeply upon the American mind before the 2018 elections.

Democrats will continue to push this theme, even if it means celebrating a possible takedown of administration officials by American intelligence, and the many sources of those reports.

Why arent liberals more concerned, when once theyd be outraged about authoritarian tactics?

For the same reasons they werent concerned about presidential overreach when their guy was president, with his imperial pen and his phone.

Because for many Democrats, just like for many Republicans, its all about power, isnt it? And ideals even those that help preserve the republic be damned.

Continued here:

Where's the liberal outrage over civil liberties in the Flynn case? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

The early weeks of the Trump administration have widened divides between liberal and conservative Jews, setting off quarrels over anti-Semitism, Israel and the Holocaust.

Well before the 2016 election, discussion over Israel had become so barbed among Jews that Jewish groups began organizing civility training so relationships and holidays wouldn't be ruined. But those disputes have erupted with a new intensity since Donald Trump won the presidency.

They were on display most prominently this week, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the Trump White House and a pair of news conferences during which the president would not directly address questions about anti-Semitism. On Thursday, in one of the most remarkable moments of a riotous back-and-forth with reporters, Trump shut down a Hasidic reporter from an Orthodox magazine who had taken pains to preface his question by saying he knew Trump wasn't anti-Jewish.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights group that has been highly critical of Trump, called the president's response "mind-boggling."

But Mort Klein, president of the hawkish Zionist Organization of America, who has championed Trump as a great ally of Israel, said Trump must have been frustrated by the "relentless and outrageous allegations" of anti-Semitism against him and his White House strategist Steve Bannon. "If there was a hint of anti-Semitism, I would be at their throat," Klein said.

American Jews have been especially on edge because of a surge of anti-Semitic harassment over the course of the presidential campaign and continuing this year. Last month, Jewish community centers and other institutions in 27 states and Canada received what is being investigated as a coordinated series of telephone bomb threats over a period of days, according to the Secure Community Network, formed by Jewish organizations to protect their institutions.

Many Jewish groups and others had seen animus in the White House statement last month on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews. The president's aides defended the statement as "inclusive" of all who were killed by the Nazis.

At a news conference with Netanyahu last Wednesday, Trump opened by calling Israel a symbol of "survival in the face of genocide." But when an Israeli reporter asked Trump about the rise in anti-Semitic harassment during the campaign and since his election, he responded by touting his Electoral College total and promising "peace in this country." Netanyahu then took up the question, saying he had known the president, his family and some of his aides for many years and "there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump. I think we should put that to rest."

The response rankled some American Jews. Alana Newhouse, editor-in-chief of Tablet, the online Jewish magazine, addressed the prime minister: "I won't tell you what to be afraid of in your country, and you don't tell me what I should fear in mine."

The next day, a confirmation hearing was held for David Friedman, the combative attorney Trump chose as U.S. envoy to Israel. Friedman, who has deep ties to the Israeli settler movement, had said the Anti-Defamation League sounded like "morons" for accusing Trump of anti-Semitism, and he had called supporters of the dovish pro-Israel lobby J Street "worse than kapos," a reference to Jews who helped the Nazis imprison fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

At the hearing, Friedman apologized for using inflammatory language in the past, and said he regretted not expressing his views of J Street in a more respectful manner. Greenblatt said he had spoken with Friedman about his remarks regarding the ADL and had accepted his apology.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, the largest American Jewish movement, said he met for 90 minutes with Friedman at the nominee's request, "He simply wanted to have a conversation directly," Jacobs said in a phone interview. "He knows how offensive it was."

On Friday, Reform Jewish leaders announced they opposed Friedman's nomination, the first time the movement had ever opposed a president's choice for the position. The ZOA's Klein, meanwhile, said Friedman has "the potential to be the greatest U.S. ambassador to Israel ever."

Jewish issues came to the fore again in a remarkable way during Trump's question-and-answer session on Thursday.

The reporter from the Brooklyn-based Orthodox Ami Magazine, Jake Turx, sporting curly sidelocks and a skullcap embroidered with his Twitter handle, rose to ask his question. While Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the Jewish vote, Orthodox Jews who backed Trump have taken comfort in his support for Israel, his many Jewish friends and advisers, and especially his Orthodox Jewish daughter, Ivanka, who converted, and her husband and close presidential aide Jared Kushner. Turx opened his question to Trump by noting the president was a "zayde" which is Yiddish for grandfather then started to ask about the increased reports of anti-Jewish harassment and hate crimes.

But Trump quickly interrupted, saying "not a fair question," and when Turx tried to continue, said "quiet, quiet, quiet ... I find it repulsive. I hate even the question."

The internal Jewish debate will likely rage on in the coming weeks as Trump's policies on Israel, refugees and immigration take shape.

At Friedman's hearing, three young Jews who belong to the activist group IfNotNow, which opposes Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, stood up to interrupt the proceedings. They shook groggers, or noisemakers, used on the holiday of Purim to drown out the names of enemies of the Jewish people.

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Liberal, conservative Jews in US increasingly divided over Trump - Chicago Tribune

The most controversial figure in the Victorian Liberal Party, Marcus Bastiaan, had his audience enthralled as he thundered about the need for change.

Radiating confidence, and with his past as a bellicose Brighton Grammar debater on display, Bastiaan told his Sydney listeners that the Liberals had been overrun by "lobbyists, political staffers or people who have worked in government the entirety of their careers".

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27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

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One of Melbourne's most notorious mafia figures faces prison and will likely be deported after an old friend he violently tried to extort turned against him.

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CCTV footage shows two black vehicles speeding around a corner near a car park. Courtesy Echo Taskforce detectives.

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Possible getaway car used by one of the two suspects wanted over an armed robbery at an Elsternwick jewellery store in September.

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Virtual reality technology like this will feature in the TAC's new traffic school, dubbed a Road Safety Education Complex, at Melbourne Museum.

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A giant archangel is set to walk the streets of White Night, sending messages of love, understanding and compassion.

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A woman has been freed from a mangled car after a multi-vehicle smash that left two others injured and shut down three lanes of peak-hour inbound traffic on the Monash Freeway on Wednesday morning.

27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

As Tony Abbott watched at the Octoberforum organised by figures from the Liberals' right wing, Bastiaan said the future of the party founded by Menzies lay in reconnecting with abase "let down by our party's failure to represent them".

Bastiaan fashions himself as the Liberals' new great hope, one of the few in party ranks capable of re-energising disenchanted members by thrusting the party further to the right. Bastiaanalso wants to sweep out state MPs he regards as dead wood. The handsome, wilful 27-year-old has torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

As one senior supporter says: "The Liberal party at a state level is a gentlemen's club, Marcus is a brutal operator. Labor are cutthroat, so are the Greens. We need to get tougher; we have to sharpen our spears."

Not everyone is happy. Far from it.

Some senior Victorian Liberals say Bastiaan's campaign to push the party to the right is a Trojan horse. His ultimate mission, critics say, is building an empire while undermining Matthew Guy and Malcolm Turnbull.

More damaging are claims of unethical tactics. His enemies in the party and there are many point to allegedly rampant branch-stacking aimed solely at delivering long-term power and control to the Bastiaan group.

Fairfax Media can reveal that senior party figures are overseeing a confidential vetting committee into Bastiaan'salleged branch-stacking aimed at removing non-genuine members and curtailing his influence. There are also claims that Bastiaan is an ideological wind-sock, prepared to point whatever way the political windsblow.

On Saturday, his partner, ultra-conservative political aspirant Stephanie Ross, 25 -who believes that women who have been raped should be denied abortions-will challenge the oldest man in state parliament, 65-year-old Gary Blackwood, for the safe Warragul-based seat of Narracan. Blackwoodwon Narracan from Labor in 2006 and turned it into a safe seat.

If Ross gets up, it will be the second Bastiaan group figure to win, with James Newbury being pre-selected earlier this year in the seat of Brighton, held by outgoing MP Louise Asher.

Like her partner, Ross believes that too many state MPs are unskilled and out of date. Bastiaan's allies point to the fact that Labor has been in state government for all but four years since 1999, and the Baillieu-Napthine government lasted just one term.

Bastiaan's use of social conservatives to build hisbase have many scared about the damage to the Liberal brand in progressively minded Victoria, with concerns the Bastiaan group's insurgencyis imperillingGuy's hopes of becoming the next premier.

"Theirplan is for Guy to lose the next election and then take over. Guy is furious," says one senior Liberal.

The divisions are coming at a testing time for the party in Victoria.

In an unrelated development, a internal financial dispute has seen business community supremo and fundraising vehicle chairman Hugh Morgan withholding $500,000 from the state branch.

In an extraordinary letter to president Michael Kroger, Mr Morgan says the board of Cormack foundation has identified "fundamental gaps" in the branch's governance.

The governance dispute and the divisions sparked by Bastiaan are spot fires that insiders say risk destabilising the party at a time when the focus should be on exploiting Premier Daniel Andrews' bumpy start to the year.

"We should be focusing on Labor rather than obsessingabout our own internal problems," says an MP.

Twenty-five-year-old Ross hails from a conservative Catholic Church in West Gippsland and has made a name for herself campaigning against abortion.

As the preselection date has drawn closer, so has pressure on her to withdraw from those in the party because of the damage she is causing.

Critics highlight her lack of political, business or life experience. Like Bastiaan,she claims to be focused on returning the party to its members and challenging a parliamentary team that has abandoned its values and lost touch.

To her supporter base, which includes a group from the St Thomas Aquinas community, she has ralliedagainst the Safe Schools program "that is teaching radical gender theory and warped graphic sex education centred around promiscuity".

She has warned Gippsland locals that Australia was "seeing the destruction of religious freedom, free speech, a push towards gay marriage (which won't stop there!) and euthanasia".

"There is a state/nation-wide push to bring conservative politics back into fashion! People like Corey [sic] Bernardi in SA, Andrew Hastie in WA, George Christensen in Qldand Kevin Andrews in Vicare all fighting and need our backing."

Last year, Ross hosted a gala fundraiser for conservative MP Kevin Andrews where the main attraction was former PM Tony Abbott. The Bulleen dinner featured a latin grace and a rendition of God Save the Queen.

She, like her partner Bastiaan, attack Guy's parliamentary team. Most recently, she lashed out at the Coalition's decision to support the Andrews' government ban on fracking and conventional gas exploration.

The Bastiaan camp is privately talking down Ross's chances, perhaps mindful that many senior Liberals are running a furious behind-the-scenes campaign to deny her the prize, fearing Bastiaan would use it as proof positive of his theory that the party's future lies in arresting the decline in membership by proselytising views that resonate with a disaffected base.

But the challenge has sparked fears in the party establishment, with Guy throwing his weight behind Blackwood, pledging a new Warragul hospital (an announcement that would normally be reserved for the election campaign). MPs are lobbying preselectors and the Hawthorn-based shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto will serve as Blackwood's scrutineer.

Bastiaan's ascension from just another wannabe glad-handingoldies at branch meetings to a figure of intense discussion and intrigue across the party has included a familiar rite of passage for many Victorian political aspirants an alliance with veteran Liberal king-maker Michael Kroger.

A federal cabinet member told Fairfax Media that Kroger, who is still regarded as a "political animal of real substance" even by his enemies, believed Bastiaan (currently on the state's powerful administrative committee) would help entrench the veteran's power, not least due to Bastiaan's membership recruiting prowess.

If this is so, Kroger was only half right.

Bastiaan has excelled at recruiting members which equate to votes during key party battles, including those that decide pre-selection but appears not to be wedded to Kroger. Bastiaan is forging his own path, with a focus on seizing greater control at state council.

"It's like Frankenstein's monster. Kroger has lost control," says an observer.

A three-time university dropout, Bastiaan got into business with the aid of his father, dabbling in an antiques dealership while at university, before moving into a software design business.

He nowspends his time leaping betweenan e-commerce start-upandpolitics.

His party operation is under close scrutiny. In the seats held by former treasurer Kim Wells and shadow frontbenchers Nick Wakeling and Heidi Victoria, a vetting committee has been formed to scrutinise the surge in memberships in Melbourne's east that began in the middle of last year but have recently tapered off.

A well-placed source says the committee has identified a small number of members who say they did not pay their party fees or sign the necessary forms. There are many more cases of new members who have no interest in the party beyond casting votes when needed. The vetting committee's work has led to several prospective members being blocked.

The powerful party administrative committee, of which Bastiaan is a member, is aware of branch-stacking claims but has not conducted a formal audit.

With just 12,500 members, many of them "ageing", Kroger has on several occasions publicly praised Bastiaan's work to recruit fresh blood, despite the allegations of branch stacking.

Another supporter, state partyofficer Paul Mitchell, says attacks on Bastiaan are factionally driven.

"Marcus has not just talked about the membership crisis in the Liberal Party, he has gone out and done something about it and the overwhelming majority of party members respect and admire that," he said.

Bastiaan appears to have built his base by making use of membership discounts provided to students and couples. Ultra-conservative churches have also provided a fertile recruiting ground.

"I've had people from different churches approach me and say I've had Marcus ask me to join up. I've got nothing against people who go to church,but this is a blatant stack," says a Liberal MP.

A legitimate recruiter aligned with Bastiaan is medical doctor Ivan Stratov, who once ran for the Family First Party.

A prominent member of the Mormon church, Stratov won't say how many new members he has recruited (there is no suggestion Stratov is doing any branch stacking) or how closely he is working with Bastiaan.

But Stratov says some of Victorian's Mormons "are getting politically aware" and he's encouraging them to sign up. This is being made easier, he says, because of anger over the safe schools program, the push to legalise assisted euthanasia and other progressive policies. For instance, Dr Stratov says there is plenty of support for his views on abortions.

"I wouldn't agree with the vast majority of abortions in this country. I think there arefar too many," he says.

Supporters say concern about the growing influence of ultra-conservative church groups in the party is vastly overstated and servesas a means for underperforming MPs threatened by Bastiaan to create a sense of outrage and unease.

Others see the Bastiaan group's efforts as a genuine "insurgency" that is using conservatives as a rallying point.

Federal Assistant Treasurer and Deakin MP Michael Sukkaris another supporter of Bastiaan.

"The most important take out from the Deakin campaign was the importance of grassroots members and supporters. Modern campaigning is labour intensive andwith ageing and shrinking membership many in the party are grateful of Marcus' efforts to grow the party," Mr Sukkar said.

"I don't seriously believe anybody can seriously argue that Christians can no longer be welcome in the Liberal party."

The Bastiaan group's emergence, championing of right-wing views and divisive nature reflects the battle playing out in federal party ranks, with Abbott and other conservative warriors keeping Turnbull on something of a leash.

Next month, Abbott is the headline guest at a Liberal Party fundraiser organised by Bastiaan.Few doubt Abbott's commitment to long-held conservative values.

But several Liberal MPs say Bastiaan's efforts to portray himself as a conservative warrior is more about political opportunism than any deeply held ideal.

Some Liberals also say thatBastiaanhas privately backed same-sex marriage, a view he wasn't prepared to challenge when quizzed by Fairfax Media.

Blackwood, the group's preselection target, is himself a socially conservative MP and other arch-conservatives including the outspoken Bernie Finn are also in the Bastiaan camps sights.

The risk for Matthew Guy and the party inthe long term is that while conservative views may energise some of the Liberal base and a new generation of members, they won't win an election in Victoria.

The Narracan preselection battle will be a test of Bastiaan's success in organising numbers.

Regardless of whether Stephanie Ross wins or loses, Bastiaan is expected to be appointed vice-president of the state branch in April, a key step to realising his ambition of becoming president.

The most considered political observers say Bastiaan is not the problem.

He's simply using unreconstructed right-wing rhetoric to try to fill a void created by mainstream parties struggling to connect with cynical voters. It's this disconnect that is at the heart of the Bastiaan phenomenon and, to a far greater extent, political movements overseas.Whatever Bastiaan's fortunes, the broader politicalproblem is not going away.

"This is about the failure of mainstream parties to connect. It's not just us but Labor as well," says a senior party stalwart.

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Victorian Liberals: factional fight exposes deep divisions - The Age

Factional tensions in the Victorian Liberal Party have reignited over a failed attempt by a group of 'Young Turks'to oust an MP aligned with Opposition leader Matthew Guy.

At a preselection battle for the rural seat of Narracan onSaturday, 65-year-old incumbentGary Blackwood fended off a challenge by 25-year-old rival Stephanie Ross, a conservative pro-lifecampaigner and the partner of controversial Liberal numbers man Marcus Bastiaan.

The result is a victory for Mr Guy, who went to significant lengths to shore up support for Mr Blackwood including announcing plans, one week before today's contest, to build a new West Gippsland hospital should the Liberals win government at the next election.

However, some view it as yet another failure by the Liberals to embrace the gender targets Mr Guy himself set last year, and a blow to the party's attempts to renew and regenerate ahead the 2018 Victorian election.

"This is a leadership issue for Matthew," said one senior figure. "He set the terms, so if you can't meet them, that's a problem."

Mr Blackwood is currently the oldest Liberal member in State Parliament and has spent most of the past 11years on the backbench.

While Mr Bastiaan and his allies have long argued the parliamentary team needs fresh blood and firepower to combat Labor and the Andrews Government, Mr Guy said on Saturday:"Gary Blackwood won Narracan in 2006 and has held it with a strong majority ever since. This result reflects his proven track record of delivering for his community."

The battle for Narracanalso highlighted the ongoing culture war within the Victorian branchand fears that the Liberals are lurching too far to the right.

While Mr Blackwood is regarded as a social conservative (he voted against the decriminalisation of abortion in 2008),MsRoss -a Catholic aligned with the Menzies branch of the Liberals controlled by conservativewarrior Kevin Andrews - is seen as too extreme by many in her party. This was highlighted last year afterFairfax Media revealed details of aninterview where she argued that women should never have abortions, even in the case of rape.

Mr Bastiaan, meanwhile,has spent the past few months actively recruiting conservative church groups, Probus groups, and "anyone that will listen",exposing him to claims of alleged branch stacking.

But both are polarising figures and,as revealed by The Age on Saturday, senior party officials are currently overseeing a confidential vetting committee into Mr Bastiaan's recruitment activities.

Despite some Liberals assuming the preselection contest was going to be tight given Mr Bastiaan's reputation as a numbers man, Mr Blackwood ended up defeating Ms Ross 121 votes to 76.

However, the internal angst isn't over yet, with another sitting MP Burwood Liberal Graham Watt also being challenged for preselection on Sunday by lawyer-turned-staffer Gideon Rozner.

Read more from the original source:

State Liberal MP fends off preselection challenge by controversial pro-lifer - The Age