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Now Donald Trump likes Mueller plus Nielsen’s cyber fight

Shanka Cheryl
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Now Donald Trump likes Mueller plus Nielsen’s cyber fight

President Donald Trump can’t decide whether to hate Robert Mueller’s report or to love it as he switches back and forth day by day. While he claims to be the happiest he’s ever been, his tweets paint an entirely different story. As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has always said, ‘watch what he does, not what he says.’ Smart words to follow.

After denouncing the special counsel’s Russia investigation throughout its nearly two-year history, Trump greeted its conclusion with choice words: “the Crazy Mueller Report,” ″written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters,” containing “total bullshit.”

Now, suddenly, the “witch hunt” is golden, in the pivoting rhetoric of the White House.

Bristling at Democratic attempts to dig deeper into episodes of possible obstruction of justice laid out in Robert Mueller’s report, Trump’s team is pointing to the fact that Mueller stopped short of accusing Trump of a crime (and glossing over the idea that it left Congress to pursue that path as it sees fit.)

This has given rise to fulsome praise for an inquiry Trump has routinely condemned.

“It was the most thorough investigation probably in the history of our country,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “I say it’s enough.”

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway offered this: “The president is saying that the Mueller report is the definitive, conclusive non-partisan investigation.”

This, after Trump assailed the inquiry as a partisan, polluted exercise since its inception and, according to the Mueller report, pressed aides to stop it.

Said Conway: “You want to see the nonpartisan, definitive, conclusive taxpayer-funded, lengthy, unobstructed, unimpeded, uninterfered with investigation? You just saw it and it’s called the Mueller report.”

The switch came as House Democrats stepped up their scrutiny of Trump’s behavior and finances and the White House pushed back. A former White House official defied a House subpoena, the Treasury Department ignored a deadline for providing Trump’s tax returns and the president vowed “we’re fighting all the subpoenas” from Democratic lawmakers on these subjects.

Despite crediting Mueller with unparalleled thoroughness — and after countless false claims that the report exonerated him — Trump did not abandon his characterization of the inquiry as a witch hunt, something he’s repeated on Twitter alone nearly 200 times in less than a year .

“We just went through the Mueller witch hunt, where you had, really, 18 angry Democrats that hate President Trump,” he said. “They hate him with a passion.”

Kirstejen Nielsen kept quiet about election security with Donald Trump.

Just Don’t Tell Donald Trump His Election Was Rigged

A top White House official told Kirstjen Nielsen, then Homeland Security secretary, not to bring up election security with President Donald Trump, steering her away from discussing a critical national security threat with a president who bristles at suggestions that Russian interference contributed to his 2016 victory, according to two people familiar with the matter.

One official said the guidance from acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney wasn’t related to the sensitivity of the election interference issue, but to keep the White House meetings concentrated on border security, the most visible part of Nielsen’s sprawling portfolio and the top item on Trump’s political agenda.

But it suggests a lack of White House focus on preventing cyberattacks, which Nielsen described during her tenure as a bigger terrorism threat to the United States than planes or bombs. The potential for foreign cyberattacks to shape U.S. elections has been in the spotlight as special counsel Robert Mueller’s report outlined efforts made by Russia to steal thousands of emails and internal documents from the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign in 2016.

Despite the lack of White House coordination, Nielsen continued to work on election and cybersecurity with other administration officials, according to people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private meetings.

The New York Times was the first to report that Nielsen had been told not to talk about the topic.

Mulvaney said in a statement he did not recall any meetings in which he told Nielsen not to bring up election security, and stressed the topic was very important. Trump signed an executive order last fall authorizing sanctions against foreigners who meddle in U.S. elections and requested $17.6 billion for federal cybersecurity efforts next year in his budget. Mulvaney added that federal, state and local governments are now sharing intelligence and federal authorities are conducting security breach training drills.

“The Trump administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections, and we’ve already taken many steps to prevent it in the future,” he said.

Still, Trump and his aides have said Russia’s 2016 interference was exaggerated. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, on Tuesday during an interview at the Time 100 Summit in New York minimized Russia’s involvement by describing it as “buying some Facebook ads to try to sow dissent.”

“But I think the investigations, and all of the speculation that’s happened for the last two years, has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads,” he said.

Nielsen resigned April 7 after a rocky 16-month tenure and amid a staff shake-up at her department orchestrated by the White House frustrated by the surging number of Central American migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico. Trump named as acting secretary Kevin McAleenan, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who has little cyber experience. He has since attended meetings on cybersecurity and is working to get up to speed on the topic, aides said.

Nielsen, in meetings with Trump, would attempt to explain to the president that her department was responsible for much more than immigration, according to two people familiar with the matter. But Trump’s staff, dealing with a president with a short attention span and a focus on border security, would push her to stay on topic.

Another person said Nielsen took the issue up herself, convening classified meetings with agency heads and Cabinet secretaries, and cross-government strategy sessions with FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials to chart a path forward on cybersecurity and election security.

Garrett Marquis, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said any suggestion that the administration is giving less than a “than a full-throated effort to secure America’s elections” was patently false.

“National Security Council staff leads the regular and continuous coordination of the whole-of-government approach to addressing foreign malign influence and ensuing election security,” he said.

The 2018 midterm elections passed with no major disruptions to election infrastructure, though thousands of emails were stolen from aides to the National Republican Congressional Committee by an “unknown entity,” federal officials said.

And intelligence agencies constantly warn about the potential for foreign interference.

Chris Krebs, the head of cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency at Homeland Security, has said he thought it possible that the 2018 elections were largely spared in part so foreign agents could save their gunpowder for 2020. Speaking to the Atlantic Council’s International Conference on Tuesday, Krebs said the most active cyber threats come from Russia and China, while on the lower end are Iran, North Korea and “then the extremists pace.”

He said the U.S. has made progress, especially on information sharing, but that’s the “minimum bar.”

“We have to get beyond information sharing … to operationalizing information security,” he said.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ ready to smash box office history; bookies set odds

George Cando
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‘Avengers: Endgame’ ready to smash box office history; bookies set odds

Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” will easily break box office records, and bookies around the globe have already been setting odds just on this (You can see these just further down). It already passed the $100 million mark in China when it opened Wednesday, but crossing that $300 million mark here in the United States will be a true “Mission: Impossible” task.

“Avengers: Endgame” is guaranteed to be a movie-theater event unlike any other. For the past week, fans have been live streaming Marvel Movie Marathons watching each of the films in order leading up to the final one in the saga.

When the 22nd film in Marvel Studios’ saga opens in North American theaters on Thursday night, it will land on more screens than any movie ever has in U.S. and Canadian theaters. And the 4,600 theaters the Walt Disney Co. has lined up may still not even be able to keep up with demand.

Beginning Thursday night, AMC Theatres will stay open 72 hours straight. Some $120 million in presales have already set records on advance ticketing services Fandango and Atom. AMC’s website was crashed by early “Endgame” ticket buyers.

“It looks like we’ve gotten Thanos’ snap,” AMC said at the time.

Just how massive the ticket sales will be by the end of Sunday has been one of the one of the industry’s favorite guessing games. Can it clear $300 million domestically? Is a $1 billion worldwide weekend possible? Will “Avengers: Endgame” eventually rival the $2.8 billion total gross of “Avatar” in 2009?

Regardless, records will fall — and they have already started to. Disney said Wednesday that “Avengers: Endgame” grossed about $107.2 million in China on Wednesday, where it first opened. That’s already the most lucrative single day ever in Chinese theaters. Only “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” had a larger single day gross, and its one-day $119.1 million haul came from both U.S. and Canada theaters.

“This is a seismic box-office event,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “This is like the 100-year-flood of movies.”

The current opening weekend record is held by the last “Avengers” movie — the 2018 preamble to “Endgame,” ″Infinity War.” It debuted with $257.7 million domestically and $640.5 million worldwide.

Both of those records are likely toast. The worldwide haul is certain to be obliterated that because “Infinity War” didn’t debut in China until two weeks later. “Endgame” is opening worldwide more or less simultaneously everywhere except Russia.

Estimates range from $260 million to $300 million domestically, and between $800 million and $1 billion globally.

Helping the cause is that reviews, at 97 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, have been among the best for any Marvel movie. “Endgame” concludes not just the arc of the “Avengers” movies but signals the completion of the 22-movie Marvel Cinematic Universe, as mapped out by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.

Feige has been tight-lipped about what the next phase will be, though he has new reinforcements. Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox brings Marvel’s X-Men and Deadpool under the same roof.

“Endgame” will give a much-needed jolt to the box office, which is running about 16 percent behind the pace of 2018. Ironically, though, the weekend won’t be much an improvement over the same time frame last year since that’s when “Infinity War” opened. And no other wide release is daring to open against “Endgame.”

Ultimately, the only thing standing in the way of “Endgame” is “Endgame,” itself. With a running time of three hours and one minute, theaters won’t be able to fit as many screenings in per day as they’d like to.

“It looks like the demand is going to outstrip the supply but theaters are doing their best to keep up with that,” said Dergarabedian. “Look, there’s only 24 hours in a day and it’s a 3 hour and one minute movie.”

Disney said Wednesday that “Avengers: Endgame” grossed about $107.2 million in China on Wednesday, where it first opened, two days ahead of the U.S. release.

avengers endgame leaders images 2019

Can Avengers: Endgame really hit $300 million in the U.S.?

On Tuesday, Fandango reported that 4,000 showings on its site had been sold out. To handle the demand, some theaters have even begun offering round-the-clock showings. Still, in some areas of the country, it’s difficult to find tickets, especially for a group of moviegoers.

Current industry predictions have the film earning between $260 million and $285 million in the U.S. during its debut. “Endgame” will have the highest opening weekend in U.S. history if it cracks $257.6 million, the current record held by “Avengers: Infinity War.”

However, even with a record number of presale tickets and additional showings, “Endgame” probably won’t earn much more than the predicted range. Although some have speculated that the highly anticipated film could reach or surpass the $300 million mark, it’s not likely.

“Mathematically, it’s very challenging,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, said.

First and foremost, “Endgame” is not the only film in theaters this weekend. “The Curse of La Llorona,” “Breakthrough,” “Shazam!,” “Hellboy,” “Missing Link,” “Dumbo” and “Captain Marvel,” among others, are contracted to play over the weekend at theaters nationwide. Even if no one were to attend these screenings, theaters are still obligated to set aside screens for these films to play.

Then there is the run time of the film — three hours, two minutes. With an additional 30 minutes tacked on for previews and 30 minutes for cleanup at the end of the film, a theater can only show “Endgame” about three times in a 12-hour period.

Some AMC and Alamo Drafthouse theaters have opted to add more showings, including ones at 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., at a few dozen locations. However, the boost that these cinemas get, likely won’t tip the scales too much for the overall opening weekend gross.

Currently, “Endgame” is expected to play in around 4,600 theaters this weekend, the widest release of any film in U.S. history.

Its predecessor, “Infinity War” showed in around 4,470 theaters when it was released last year and hauled in an average of $57,000 per theater, according to data from Comscore.

The only other film to have a higher profit average per theater was “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which took in around $59,900 per theater in 2015. “The Force Awakens” played in 4,100 locations during its debut and hauled in a total of $247.9 million in its first weekend.

However, even if “Endgame” were to earn $60,000 per theater during its debut, it would only garner $276 million for its debut. This would be a huge feat for the film, but puts it $24 million shy of the $300 million mark.

Theaters would have to average more than $65,000 each in order for “Endgame” to come close to hitting that level.

“It’s never happened, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be happen,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore, said. “We just don’t know if it’s possible. … It’s literally unprecedented.”

Dergarabedian noted that this kind of benchmark could never have been hit in past decades, as inflation and rising ticket prices have helped bump up these figures.

“Endgame” will get a bit of a boost from ticket sales at Imax theaters — of which there are about 400 locations showing the film in the U.S. — as those tickets tend to be more expensive than traditional movie tickets, he said.

Current forecasts have the total global opening ranging between $750 million and $900 million, with analysts predicting that “Endgame” will be the fastest film to hit the $1 billion mark.

leaders for marvels avengers endgame movie 2019 images

Odds On Avengers: Endgame Box Office

“Avengers: Endgame” is expected to have one of the biggest opening weekends ever, but will they surpass a $1 billion global opening weekend? The oddsmakers at BookMaker.eu doubt it, as the odds are currently -2000 (1/20) that when the Avengers assemble they will fall under the billion-dollar threshold.

“For Avengers: Endgame to surpass $1 billion it would need to surpass it’s already lofty expectations in China and the United States. Tony Stark and company may be able to defeat Thanos, but surpassing $1 billion may prove to be an insurmountable foe” said head Entertainment Oddsmaker DJ Fields.

Domestic projections are much better as  Avengers: Endgame is currently listed as a -300 favorite (1/3) to break the U.S.opening week record of $257,698,183 that the franchise previously set.

Real-Time Odds

Will Avengers: Endgame surpass a $1 billion opening weekend worldwide?

Yes +800 (8/1)

No -2000 (20/1)

Will Avengers: Endgame break the U.S. Box office record for biggest Opening Weekend ($257,698,183)? BoxofficeMojo.com will be the official source.

Yes -300 (3/1)

No +220 (11/5)

Who will have the highest U.S. Box Office Gross for Opening Weekend?

“Avengers: Endgame” -180 (5/9)

“Star Wars 9 The Rise of Skywalker” +140 (7/5)

Facebook ready to pay out $5 billion plus Trump’s Twitter meet

Jeffrey Lang
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Facebook ready to pay out $5 billion plus Trump’s Twitter meet

Facebook stated on Wednesday that it expects a fine of up to $5 billion from the Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating whether the social network violated its users’ privacy. This would set a new record for penalties by the FTC against a tech company.

The company set aside $3 billion in its quarterly earnings report Wednesday as a contingency against the possible penalty but noted that the “matter remains unresolved.”

The one-time charge slashed Facebook’s first-quarter net income considerably, although revenue grew by 25% in the period. The FTC has been looking into whether Facebook broke its own 2011 agreement promising to protect user privacy.

Investors shrugged off the charge and sent the company’s stock up nearly 5% to $190.89 in after-hours trading. EMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson, however, called it a “significant development” and noted that any settlement is likely to go beyond a mere dollar amount.

″(Any) settlement with the FTC may impact the ways advertisers can use the platform in the future,” she said.

Facebook has had several high-profile privacy lapses in the past couple of years. The FTC has been looking into Facebook’s involvement with the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica scandal since last March. That company accessed the data of as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.

In addition to the FTC investigation, Facebook faces several others in the U.S. and Europe, including by the Irish Data Protection Commission, and others in Belgium and Germany. Ireland is Facebook’s lead privacy regulator for Europe. Regulators in Europe fined Google a record-breaking $5.1 billion for abusing its power in the mobile phone market. They also ordered the search giant to alter its practices.

The social network said its net income was $2.43 billion, or 85 cents per share in the January-March period. That’s down 51% from $4.99 billion, or $1.69 per share, a year earlier, largely as a result of the $3 billion charge.

Revenue grew 26% to $15.08 billion from a year earlier. Excluding the charge, Facebook earned $1.89 per share.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $1.62 per share and revenue of $14.98 billion.

Facebook’s monthly user base grew 8% to 2.38 billion. Daily users grew 8% to 1.56 billion.

Donald Trump meets with Twitter president Jack Dorsey.

Donald Trump’s Jack Dorsey Twitter Meeting

President Donald Trump said he had a “great meeting” Tuesday with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, hours after bashing the company and accusing it of not treating him well because he’s a Republican.

Trump uses Twitter extensively to get his message out, particularly since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, including more than 40 tweets and retweets in the last two days, and two criticizing Twitter itself. But Trump has also asserted that social media companies have been exhibiting bias against conservatives, something the companies have rejected as untrue.

Trump gave his readout of the meeting, of course, on Twitter.

“Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!” Trump tweeted to his nearly 60 million followers.

While some tech company executives may lean liberal, they have long asserted that their products are without political bias. Twitter described the meeting with Dorsey as constructive and said it came at the president’s invitation.

“They discussed Twitter’s commitment to protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis,” the company said in a statement.

Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that he would have more followers “if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games. No wonder Congress wants to get involved – and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!”

Russian agents used social media sites to sow discord among U.S. voters in the 2016 elections. Companies such as Twitter and Facebook have since invested heavily in rooting out fake news, propaganda and hate speech. But conservatives are complaining that those steps are disproportionally aimed at their side of the political spectrum.

Sting talks ‘My Songs,’ Shaggy and that new Vegas gig

Curt Johnson
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Sting talks ‘My Songs,’ Shaggy and that new Vegas gig

When I was much younger, Sting and The Police had a huge impact on myself and my friends in school. We would scour through his lyrics and be so blown away by their depth and meaning. Sting has always been a part of my life, and his songs have oddly played a part with major experiences in my life. Having him return to give his more mature voice to these songs should be interesting.

It reminds me of how Joni Mitchell turned “Both Sides Now” into something so much more heartfelt and melancholy when she redid it compared to her much younger self. Now when you listen to it, I dare you to not tear up. Hearing Sting’s new take on his classics actually has me excited.

Winning another Grammy or coming out with a new album wasn’t enough for the icon as Sting will be heading to Las Vegas to launch a residency next year. It used to mean being put out to pasture for many aging artists who weren’t bringing in the sales they used to, but nowadays it serves as a reminder to many how much they still love their icons.

Sixteen performances of “Sting: My Songs” will take place at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, beginning May 22, 2020. Even more shows are being planned for June, August, and September.

“Visually, sound-wise, dancing — it’s going to be a Vegas show. I’m really committed to that,” Sting said in a phone interview with Movie TV Tech Geeks. “I am a little frightened and a little excited at the same time.”

Tickets for the general public, starting at $59, go on sale May 3.

Sting said he’s been offered a residency in Vegas in the past, but he felt it wasn’t the right time: “I always thought, ‘I’m not quite ready for that. I’m still a touring animal.’ (Now) I’m ready.”

Residencies in Vegas once were meant for acts heading into retirement or in the final stretch of their careers, but that’s changed with contemporary artists going to the city to perform, from Jennifer Lopez to Lady Gaga.

Sting said he likes the idea of performing at a single venue every night, compared to traveling city-to-city on a normal tour.

“Being in one place is actually a different, spiritual vibe,” the English performer said. “Welcoming people into your house — that’s basically what it’s going to be. I’ll be telling the story of my life through songs. I’ve had a long, interesting life and I can’t wait.”

Sting Performing Shape of My Heart in Las Vegas My Songs MTTG Interview.

Before he heads to Vegas, Sting has a string of projects in the works: He will tour the United Kingdom with Shaggy (they won the Best Reggae Album Grammy this year for their collaborative album “44/876”); he has a number of solo shows in the United States and around the world; and he will release a new album, “My Songs,” on May 24.

The album finds Sting re-shaping and re-imagining some of his biggest hits, from “Every Breath You Take” to “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.” You can pre-order this now on MP3, CD or how it will sound amazing, vinyl.

“We weren’t treating the original recordings as holy relics or museum pieces … we were just having fun with the songs,” said the 67-year-old, adding that his voice is now “different to what it was 30, 40 years ago. It has more texture, a richness to it.”

His song, “Shape of My Heart,” will also appear on the new album. The tune has been sampled by a number of artists throughout the years, from rapper Nas to Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica to English singer Craig David, who collaborated with Sting when he re-worked the song in 2002.

The most famous version is Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams,” one of the biggest hits of the last year.

“I’m always intrigued by that. I’m always pleased by what I hear because they hear something in that lovely, descending bass line that makes for reflection. That pleases me. And there have been some fabulous versions,” Sting said of artists sampling “Shape of My Heart.”

“I was very impressed by what he put on top of (my version),” he said of “Lucid Dreams” specifically. “It’s a really good song.”

He said the new album made use of both old and new recordings, with arrangements based on how the music had evolved during live performances over the years.

“My voice has more interesting overtones than it did when I was 25,” he noted. “It’s a less pure sound, but I think it has this richness to it. The songs change every night when I sing them, and I’m always hearing something I haven’t actually discovered there. It’s discovery within that repetition too.”

This isn’t Sting’s first attempt at re-recording his music. In 1986, the Police remade two songs from their 1980 albumZenyatta Mondatta, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86” came out on that year’s Every Breath You Take: The Singles compilation; “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da ’86” was later released on the SACD version of the album.

However, Sting didn’t expect to continue down the path of retrospective work. “”I’d like to make something totally new,” he said of his next studio project. “I don’t know what that is, what it sounds like or what it looks like. I just have to trust that the muse will appear. … You always think that the last song you wrote is the last song you’ll ever write — which is probably a good way to think.”

Sting My Songs album cover hits May 2019.

Sting, ‘My Songs’ Track Listing
“Brand New Day”
“Desert Rose”
“If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”
“Every Breath You Take”
“Demolition Man”
“Can’t Stand Losing You”
“Fields of Gold”
“So Lonely”
“Shape of My Heart”
“Message in a Bottle”
“Fragile”
“Walking on the Moon”
“Englishman in New York”
“If I Ever Lose My Faith in You”
“Roxanne” (Live)

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
“Synchronicity II” (Live)
“Next To You” (Live)
“Spirits In The Material World” (Live)
“Fragile” (Live)
“I Can’t Stop Thinking About You” (Live) (Japan Exclusive)
“Desert Rose” (Extended Version) (France Exclusive)

Pete Buttigieg latest flavor for Democrat donors but for how long?

Shanka Cheryl
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Pete Buttigieg latest flavor for Democrat donors but for how long?

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has quickly become the hottest ticket and latest flavor of the month for Democratic donors in the 2020 presidential contest. We’ve already seen this happen to Beto O’Rourke, Camala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, but Democrats can be a finicky bunch as they quickly move on to the next one.

The thing with Democrats (and I have always been one so I know what I speak of), they can run away at the first sign of a problem, whether it’s real or created. Right now Buttigieg is riding a positive high, and no one really knows much about him. Wait until the Democratic oppo research hits and how he reacts to when the mud slinging begins. There are already rumblings beginning by people in his hometown who feel he’s not done much for them. His record on race has gotten some criticism including how he handled a police controversy that is still a hot topic in his town.

Entertainment moguls, who are attracted to star wattage like moths to a flame, are battling over who will host Hollywood fundraisers for the 37-year-old mayor. Democratic donors are showering him with praise. And he has been repeatedly selling out fundraisers across the U.S.

Whether the gay former military officer and Rhodes scholar will be able to capitalize on his improbable star turn and build out a campaign with staying power remains to be seen.

What is indisputable, however, is that donors are clamoring for more. That could help thaw a Democratic money game that’s been largely frozen during the early months of the primary, with many major financiers waiting for the crowded field to thin.

“He absolutely must be part of the conversation. I want to see him in the top tier,” said Susie Tompkins Buell, a top Hillary Clinton donor who recently held an event for Buttigieg at a San Francisco yacht club despite previously announcing her support for Sen. Kamala Harris of California. “I’m very much supporting Kamala. I also am extremely impressed with Mayor Pete.”

In the massive Democratic fundraising world of Hollywood, plans for an upcoming visit started a tug-of-war between major entertainment industry figures, including movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, over who would get to host an upcoming Buttigieg fundraiser. The dispute was described by two people with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

Buttigieg also counts among his supporters Laurie David, the producer of the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” who was formerly married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David. Other prominent donors include “West Wing” star Bradley Whitford, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds and “This Is Us” actress Mandy Moore, whose Twitter feed is dominated by posts about Buttigieg.

“Los Angeles is excited to see and hear from Mayor Pete,” said Marie Lloyd, a political consultant who works for some Hollywood megadonors, including Katzenberg. “I imagine he will have a pretty warm reception here. But it’s up to him if that excitement remains.”

On Tuesday, Buttigieg is being feted at a sold-out fundraiser held by Andrew Schapiro, a Chicago attorney who previously held an event for Beto O’Rourke during the former Texas congressman’s run for Senate. Another Chicago fundraiser is being planned for May 16 that will be hosted by some of former President Barack Obama’s top bundlers, including De Gray and John Atkinson, according to an invitation obtained by media outlets.

“From a fundraising standpoint, it reminds me of early Obama: People are coming to us and asking, ‘Can I participate? Can I come?’” said Schapiro, who was also Obama’s ambassador to the Czech Republic. “Most of the time when you’re doing a fundraiser, it’s the other way around, and you have to work to get people to show up.”

Many 2020 contenders so far have been reticent to discuss their fundraising from big-dollar donors amid a fierce and ongoing intraparty debate over the role that big money plays in politics. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has gone so far as to rule out attending major fundraisers and has instead said she will rely on grassroots donors.

Buttigieg has taken a different tack. His campaign has released a list of major bundlers, a term used to describe donors who raise large sums of money for candidates by hosting events and urging their friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues to give. It’s a who’s who of Democratic donors, including members of the Pohlad family, who own the Minnesota Twins, filmmaker Jill Goldman and top Obama donors like hedge fund manager Orin Kramer. Also among his bundlers is Steven Elmendorf, a lobbyist whose recent clients include BP America, Facebook and the airlines industry, according to federal disclosures.

But Buttigieg has shown an ability to raise from the party’s grassroots base, too, pulling in about 64% of his first quarter fundraising haul from donors who gave less than $200, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

He’s also started to draw checks from donors who have given to other candidates, another sign of the level of interest in Buttigieg.

Among 2020 candidates, Buttigieg has received the second highest number of checks from donors who have given to multiple candidates, FEC data shows. Only Harris, who has been on the national political scene longer, has drawn more donors who have cut checks to multiple candidates, records show.

Buttigieg’s events aren’t limited to people able to shell out thousands of dollars. His campaign has been holding “grassroots fundraisers,” with tickets that start at $25, in cities including New York and Washington, D.C.

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson introduced Buttigieg at his first grassroots fundraiser in Chelsea last month. Johnson said Buttigieg’s staff and volunteers seemed as surprised as he was at the turnout for the event, which was scheduled at 5 p.m. on a Friday.

Johnson expected 60 or 70 people. When he and Buttigieg walked upstairs to the event, they found the former dance club packed with around 250.

“We had to wade our way through this enormous crowd,” Johnson said. Later that night, Johnson posted a photo on Twitter and Instagram of himself and Buttigieg at the event and was instantly “bombarded” by people upset that they didn’t know about the event and asking how they could attend the next one.

“There’s a real hunger to see him in New York,” Johnson said.

Buttigieg sold out another grassroots fundraiser at Brooklyn Bowl last week. Similar events are planned next month in San Francisco and at The Abbey, a large and well-known gay nightclub in West Hollywood.

Buttigieg has also drawn a lot of attention from LGBT donors.

“He’s certainly spoken in a very, very strong way to the Democratic progressive donor base,” said Rufus Gifford, Obama’s former finance director, who is gay. “The fact that the hottest candidate on the Democratic side is an openly gay married man? It’s an amazing thing for me and my community.”

Oscars won’t shut Netflix out; Rule Two stays put

George Cando
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Oscars won’t shut Netflix out; Rule Two stays put

Steven Spielberg might be the ultimate Hollywood powerbroker, but he wasn’t powerful enough to get the Academy to change their ‘Rule Two’ which would have shut out Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services from submitting their films to next years Oscars. Rule Two has been a big one for documentary filmmakers as it states that a film is eligible for an Oscar as long as it has a seven-day run in an LA theater.

Rules in this area have changed over the years causing some uproar with documentary filmmakers who can’t always afford to keep their film running for weeks like mainstream studio films. Streaming services were able to exploit that rule which caused Spielberg to have his say about that. If the Academy had changed the rule to make him happy, then documentary filmmakers would surely have spoken up. In a recent New York Times article Spielberg seems to have changed his stance.


“I want people to find their entertainment in any form or fashion that suits them,” Spielberg said.
“Big screen, small screen — what really matters to me is a great story and everyone should have access to great stories.”

“However, I feel people need to have the opportunity to leave the safe and familiar of their lives and go to a place where they can sit in the company of others and have a shared experience — cry together, laugh together, be afraid together — so that when it’s over they might feel a little less like strangers. I want to see the survival of movie theaters. I want the theatrical experience to remain relevant in our culture,” he finished with.

The Oscars have tweaked a few rules, but not any that would limit the eligibility of Netflix films at the Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Pictures’ board of governors early Wednesday announced a handful of changes passed during its annual April rules meeting. But the biggest news was what the 54-person board elected not to alter: the one-week theatrical release required for an Oscar nomination.

Many in Hollywood, including some academy board members, have argued that a more substantial release should be required than what the academy’s Rule Two stipulates: a seven-day run in a commercial Los Angeles County theater with at least three screenings a day.

Netflix premieres most of its movies directly on its streaming platform, but last year made exceptions for a handful of titles, most notably Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” The film was nominated for 10 awards and won three. Major theater chains have refused to screen movies that don’t adhere to the traditional 90-day theatrical window.

In a statement, academy president John Bailey said the issue “weighed heavily” in the board’s discussions. But for now, a brief theatrical release remains the bar for entry.

“We support the theatrical experience as integral to the art of motion pictures, and this weighed heavily in our discussions,” said Bailey. “Our rules currently require theatrical exhibition, and also allow for a broad selection of films to be submitted for Oscars consideration. We plan to further study the profound changes occurring in our industry and continue discussions with our members about these issues.”

Among those reportedly interested in expanding the academy’s eligibility rule was Steven Spielberg, who has previously said streaming films ought to win Emmys, not Oscars. But Spielberg has also said initial reports mischaracterized his attitudes. In a New York Times story published Tuesday, Spielberg said he advocates for the survival of the theatrical experience but believes that, big screen or small screen, “everyone should have access to great stories.”

The board did elect to rename the best foreign language film award the best international feature film award. Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, co-chairs of the category’s committee, said the term “foreign” is “outdated within the global filmmaking community.” The category’s shortlist will also be expanded from nine to 10.

“We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” they said in a statement.

The makeup and hairstyling category will also grow from three nominees to five.

TOP FOG CONQUERS FIRST MASTERS IN MONACO

Ashley Munson
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TOP FOG CONQUERS FIRST MASTERS IN MONACO

Fabio Fognini has just lifted his first master’s 1000 title having overcome Serbian Dusan Lajovic in Monte Carlo. But who exactly is Fognini?

Fognini was born in 1987 in Sanremo, a city on the Mediterranean coast of Northern Italy, known for one of the most iconic European music festivals. His parents were Silvana and Fulvio – neither of whom were known for their sporting ability. Despite this, aged just four, Fognini wielded a tennis racket for the first time and hasn’t looked back since.

The dream of a professional career became reality in 2004 and just one year later Fognini bagged his first tournament success as he came out on top winning a Futures title in Spain and following that up with another victory in his native Italy. The homecoming wasn’t all bright and breezy though as he also found himself runner up in another Italian clash. A whirlwind couple of years was soon complete as Fognini qualified and then subsequently made his debut on the ATP World Tour. Despite crashing out in round one – to Carlos Moya, who went on to win the tournament hosted in Buenos Aires – Fognini, still a teenager at the time, had the taste and wanted more.

2007 saw Fognini sneak into the Top 100. The journey began with qualification to his first ever grand slam – the French Open – but another early exit, a defeat over five sets to Juan Monaco of Argentina, poured cold water on any plans he had of making a name for himself. Thankfully, qualification to the Rogers Masters gave him another opportunity to showcase his skills and a second-round victory over Briton Andy Murray went some way to do that and also earned him a mouth-watering tie with Roger Federer.

He lost, but people were watching. His appearances in the ‘big time’ along with some solid performances – both in singles and doubles – on the Challenger tour saw Fognini end the year ranked 94 in the world.

Over the next few years Fognini continued to make quiet and steady progress as he moved deeper into tournaments – reaching the quarterfinals of the 2011 French Open, where he sadly had to pull out of a match with Novak Djokovic on doctors advice, was a highlight perhaps only second to his 2015 doubles triumph (with Simone Bolelli) at the Australian Open – a 6-4 6-4 win over French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. During this time Fognini started to establish himself as a ‘clay player’ and a trio of victories over the legend Rafael Nadal started to make people sit up and pay attention.

Fast forward two years though and things weren’t so rosy. Nadal would have his revenge in Miami as Fognini fell to a semi-final defeat in straight sets. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the low point of 2017 as a first-round defeat in the US Open saw a tirade of abuse directed at the female umpire who called the match. A fine and suspension promptly followed.

If 2017 was a year to forget then 2018 was one to remember. First Fognini turned around a final match with Frenchman Nicolas Jarry to win the Brazil Open before going on to beat Jarry’s compatriot Richard Gasquet to add the Swedish title to his bag. Fognini wasn’t done there though and clinched a hat-trick of titles overcoming South American Juan Martin del Potro to win the Los Cabos crown in Mexico.

That brings us to the current day, where Fognini has just joined an elite four man club who can boast to have beaten the great Nadal three times on clay – the latest being the victory that set up Fognini’s final tie with Lajovic; a match up Fognini won to clinch his ninth career title and move him up to 12th in the rankings. Fognini has been around a while and whilst he’s a dark horse at best for a grand slam singles win, it would be foolish move to write off a man with the credentials and experience that he possesses.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ goes beyond wildest expectations at Hollywood premiere

George Cando
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‘Avengers: Endgame’ goes beyond wildest expectations at Hollywood premiere

Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” has had me going back and forth as I couldn’t wait to see it Monday night in Hollywood, but knowing this was the last one in this saga also made me want to hold off. Naturally, I couldn’t freaking hold off seeing this at the premiere, and it went so far beyond my expectations, it truly felt like a surreal experience.

There were more than a few sniffles from the audience which included Captain America, Chris Evans and Thor Chris Hemsworth and myself. Evans and Hemsworth were proud to admit to them after the film ended. Hearing that and looking around to see so many shiny eyes in the audience brought everything back to reality for me. All I could keep thinking during closing credits was “This is the end.” When I said it out loud, the woman sitting to my right started sniffling harder and hit me on the arm for what we all know and were already thinking.

Avengers Endgame movie premiere in Hollywood with full cast.

“I don’t know about you, but I cried like six times,” Evans said standing alongside dozens of his Marvel Cinematic Universe co-stars like Scarlett Johansson, Brie Larson and Robert Downey Jr. after the first public screening of the film.

Hemsworth chimed in too: “I cried more than six times, Chris.”

It was an emotional affair for many as “Avengers: Endgame,” which opens nationwide Thursday, closes the book on the first 11 years and 22 films of the MCU, and ends the year-long cliffhanger of “Avengers: Infinity War,” in which half of humanity turned to dust. And, as Hemsworth reminded on the purple carpet, “this grouping may never happen again.”

Avengers Endgame premiere with Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr and Paul Rudd.
Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr, Paul Rudd

Marvel and Walt Disney Co. held the premiere in a fittingly massive setting, taking over the Los Angeles Convention Center and constructing a 2,000-seat movie theater, including a large format screen and Dolby sound, inside.

Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger kicked off the evening with a special thanks to two people — Downey, “the person who really helped to start it all,” and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who he called, “our own superhero.”

The event was a who’s who of Marvel and Hollywood, with actors and directors from MCU films past and present turning out to see the film, including the likes of Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bradley Cooper, Jon Favreau and even Matt Damon, who some may remember had a cameo in “Thor: Ragnarok.” Luke Hemsworth, Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus also came out to see the film and support their family.

Audience at the Avengers Endgame premiere with cast on stage.

Although official reviews won’t be out until Tuesday afternoon, including mine, initial reactions from press and insiders at the premiere were largely positive with the words “epic” and “emotional” being tossed out by many. Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri in “Black Panther,” tweeted “Wow, I feel like crying…it was amazing!!”

The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff wrote that he was, “Not prepared for the range of emotions that #Endgame put me through, from utter despair to pure elation.”

Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican added: “Epic is the word. Epic multiplied by a decade of emotion, excitement and investment. This is the payoff. It left me with a full heart.”

And People Magazine’s Kara Warner said to “see it as soon as you can and go in as blind as possible.”

Vin Diesel at Avengers Endgame premiere.

The film has been kept under wraps until the very last minute in the hopes of allowing general audiences to go into it spoiler free. Even still, some spoiler-y footage leaked on social media last week before being taken down.

“I wasn’t pleased,” Feige told media outlets Monday of the leaking incident. “But the response was what I expected, which was everybody turning it off, dismissing, don’t watch it, don’t spoil it for anybody else. People are excited to see the movie fresh. People are excited to see the movie for the first time. That’s what they’ve been waiting a year, or 12 years, depending on where you joined us. So, I’m excited that that day is finally here.”

Watching this has made me even more curious as to who won the CableTV.com Marvel Movie Marathon that was heavily promoted. Checking in today, everyone who submitted videos to it are all wondering the same. This strikes me as very odd since the CableTV site promoted the contest so heavily but suddenly they are being so quiet about who won. Hopefully it’s not what some are already saying in the comments section about being just a hoax or scam. I’ll do a write up later today about this, but right now, I’m still working on my “Avengers: Endgame” review without tearing up all over again.

Getting Donald Trump’s Mueller Russia Report facts right

Shanka Cheryl
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Getting Donald Trump’s Mueller Russia Report facts right

Robert Mueller’s Russia report has got President Donald Trump rapid cycling with either moments of ‘happiness’ and glee over being exonerated or extreme anger and twitter storms. Depending on how the news media is revealing what’s really in the report, the White House is on extreme spin cycle. Monday evening saw him retweeting dozens of positive tweets about himself before going into a full our Twitter rage about how it’s everyone else’s fault.

Trump is still distorting the truth about the Russia investigation, claiming exoneration from a special counsel’s report that he is also assailing it as hopelessly biased.

Confronted with unflattering details in the report about his months long effort to undermine federal investigators, Trump over the weekend blasted special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment as “highly conflicted.” In fact, the Justice Department’s ethics experts cleared Mueller to run the two-year investigation and Trump’s own aides previously dismissed the president’s complaints as “ridiculous” and unfounded.

Trump is also claiming full vindication by the report. But while clearing Trump of criminal conspiracy, Mueller all but boldfaced this other finding in the 400-plus page report: No exoneration for Trump on obstruction of justice.

The statements were among many misrepresentations spread over the past week by the president’s team, including Attorney General William Barr, who declared Trump innocent and suggested, inaccurately, that Congress had no role in deciding the matter.

RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

TRUMP: “The Mueller Report … was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself.” — tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: Trump repeats a baseless charge that Mueller is a “highly conflicted” prosecutor, something that Trump’s own aides have debunked.

Trump has previously tweeted and complained to aides that Mueller would not be objective, saying Mueller had interviewed for the FBI director position shortly before being named as special counsel and that Mueller had disputed some fees relating to his membership at a Trump golf course.

But the president’s aides, including then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, then-White House counsel Don McGahn and Reince Priebus, the chief of staff at the time, rejected those complaints as not representing “true conflicts,” according to the special counsel’s report. Bannon also called the claims “ridiculous.” Bannon indicated that while the White House had invited Mueller to speak to the president about the FBI and thought about asking him to become director again, Mueller did not come in looking for a job. Mueller was previously FBI director from 2001 to 2013.

Mueller, a longtime Republican, was cleared by the Justice Department to lead the Russia investigation. The department said in May 2017 that its ethics experts “determined that Mr. Mueller’s participation in the matters assigned to him is appropriate.” The issue had come up because of his former position at the WilmerHale law firm, which represented some key players in the probe.

Mueller was appointed as special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee.

Trump Tweets

TRUMP: “The Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place.” — tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: Trump is entitled to that opinion. The grounds he has given, though, are at odds with some facts.

He claimed as recently as last month that the probe was hatched by Democrats after losing the 2016 election. As evidence, Trump often points to a dossier of anti-Trump research financed by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The research that was ultimately compiled into the dossier was initially financed by anti-Trump conservatives, and later by the Democrats.

But the Mueller report makes clear that the FBI’s investigation actually began months before it received the dossier.

The report notes the investigation was initiated after the FBI received information related to Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, not the dossier. Last year, the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee made the same finding.

In late July 2016, days after WikiLeaks released thousands of internal Democratic National Committee documents that proved embarrassing to Clinton, the FBI became aware of a meeting two months prior between Papadopoulos and a representative of a foreign government, according to Mueller’s report. Papadopoulos claimed the Trump campaign had received “indications” from Moscow that it could assist the campaign by anonymously releasing political dirt on Clinton.

“Within a week of the (WikiLeaks) release, a foreign government informed the FBI about its May 2016 interaction with Papadopoulos,” the report stated. “On July 31, 2016, based on the foreign government reporting, the FBI opened an investigation into potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.”

End of Witch Hunt

TRUMP: “The end result of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history is No Collusion with Russia (and No Obstruction). Pretty Amazing!” — tweet Saturday.

VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: “Today’s release of the Special Counsel’s report confirms what the President and I have said since day one: there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and there was no obstruction of justice.” — statement Thursday.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, White House counselor: “What matters is what the Department of Justice and special counsel concluded here, which is no collusion, no obstruction, and complete exoneration, as the president says.” — remarks Thursday to reporters.

THE FACTS: The special counsel’s report specifically does not exonerate Trump, leaving open the question of whether the president obstructed justice.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller wrote. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

The report identifies 10 instances of possible obstruction by Trump and said he might have “had a motive” to impede the investigation because of what it could find on a variety of personal matters, such as his proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

“The evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns,” the report states.

In explaining its decision, Mueller’s team said reaching a conclusion on whether Trump committed crimes would be inappropriate because of a Justice Department legal opinion indicating that a sitting president should not be prosecuted. It nevertheless left open at least the theoretical possibility that Trump could be charged after he leaves office, noting that its factual investigation was conducted “in order to preserve the evidence when memories were fresh and documentary material were available.”

“Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” the report states.

Sarah Sanders Explains

SARAH SANDERS, White House press secretary, on her statements from 2017 that many people in the FBI wanted James Comey, the director, fired: “The sentiment is 100% accurate.” — “CBS This Morning,” Friday.

THE FACTS: Her answer on this subject was far different when she gave it under oath.

After Trump fired Comey, she told reporters on May 10, 2017, that “the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director” and “accordingly” the president removed him. When a reporter said most FBI agents supported Comey, Sanders said, “Look, we’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things.”

But when Mueller’s team interviewed her under oath, she backed off that story. According to the Mueller report, she said it was a “slip of the tongue” to say that countless FBI people wanted Comey out, that her statement about the rank and file losing confidence in him was offered “in the heat of the moment” and that, in the report’s words, it “was not founded on anything.”

Now she’s back to suggesting that Comey was in fact unpopular in the FBI. “I said that it was in the heat of the moment, meaning it wasn’t a scripted thing,” she said Friday. “But the big takeaway here is that the sentiment is 100% accurate.”

The Mueller report says there is “no evidence” that Trump heard complaints about Comey’s leadership from FBI employees before firing him.

Mueller evaluated nearly a dozen episodes for possible obstruction of justice and said he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction. Among those episodes was his manner of firing Comey. Mueller found “substantial evidence” corroborating Comey’s account of a dinner at which he said Trump pressed him for his loyalty.

Although Sanders attributed her remark about Comey’s unpopularity to “heat of the moment,” Trump has voiced the same sentiment. As recently as January, he tweeted: “The rank and file of the FBI are great people who are disgusted with what they are learning about Lyin’ James Comey and the so-called ‘leaders’ of the FBI.”

Who Decides?

ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR, asked if Mueller intended for Congress, not the attorney general, to decide whether Trump obstructed justice: “Well, special counsel Mueller did not indicate that his purpose was to leave the decision to Congress. I hope that was not his view. … I didn’t talk to him directly about the fact that we were making the decision, but I am told that his reaction to that was that it was my prerogative as attorney general to make that decision.”

THE FACTS: Mueller’s report actually does indicate that Congress could make that determination.

The report states that no person is above the law, including the president, and that the Constitution “does not categorically and permanently immunize a President for obstructing justice.”

In his four-page memo last month, Barr said while Mueller left open the question of whether Trump broke the law by obstructing the investigation, Barr was ultimately deciding as attorney general that the evidence developed by Mueller was “not sufficient” to establish, for the purposes of prosecution, that Trump obstructed justice.

But the special counsel’s report specifies that Congress can also render a judgment on that question.

It says: “The conclusion that Congress may apply obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”

Public Disclosure

BARR: “These reports are not supposed to be made public.” — remarks Thursday at the Justice Department.

THE FACTS: The attorney general is not going out on a limb for public disclosure.

Justice Department regulations give Barr wide authority to release a special counsel’s report in situations it “would be in the public interest.” Barr had made clear during his Senate confirmation hearing in January that he believed in transparency with the report on Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 campaign, “consistent with regulations and the law.”

Ethics in Government Act

BARR, saying it was “consistent with long-standing practice” for him to share a copy of the redacted report with the White House and president’s attorneys before its release: “Earlier this week, the president’s personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an independent counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication.” — remarks Thursday.

THE FACTS: Barr’s decision, citing the Ethics in Government Act, is inconsistent with independent counsel Ken Starr’s handling of his report into whether President Bill Clinton obstructed and lied in Starr’s probe.

On Sept. 7, 1998, Clinton’s attorney David Kendall requested that Starr provide him an opportunity to review the report before it was sent to Congress. Starr quickly turned him down.

“As a matter of legal interpretation, I respectfully disagree with your analysis,” Starr wrote to Kendall two days later. Starr called Kendall “mistaken” regarding the rights of the president’s attorneys to “review a ‘report’ before it is transmitted to Congress.”

Starr’s report was governed by the ethics act cited by Barr as his justification for showing the report to the president’s team. It has since expired. Current regulations governing Mueller’s work don’t specify how confidential information should be shared with the White House.

Starr’s report led to the impeachment trial of Clinton in 1999.

ECONOMY

TRUMP: “I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before.” — tweet Sunday.

TRUMP: “I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country.” — tweet Tuesday.

TRUMP: “We may have the best economy we’ve ever had.” — remarks on April 15 in Burnsville, Minnesota.

THE FACTS: The economy is healthy but not one of the best in history. Also, there are signs it is weakening after a spurt of growth last year.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.9 percent last year, a solid pace. But it was just the fastest in four years. In the late 1990s, growth topped 4 percent for four straight years, a level it has not yet reached under Trump. And growth even reached 7.2 percent in 1984.

Independent economists widely expect slower growth this year as the effects of the Trump administration’s tax cuts fade, trade tensions and slower global growth hold back exports, and higher interest rates make it more expensive to borrow to buy cars and homes.

Tax Cuts

TRUMP: “We cut your taxes. Biggest tax cut in history.”— Minnesota remarks.

THE FACTS: His tax cuts are nowhere close to the biggest in U.S. history.

It’s a $1.5 trillion tax cut over 10 years. As a share of the total economy, a tax cut of that size ranks 12th, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 cut is the biggest followed by the 1945 rollback of taxes that financed World War II.

Post-Reagan tax cuts also stand among the historically significant: President George W. Bush’s cuts in the early 2000s and President Barack Obama’s renewal of them a decade later.

Donald Trump vs Robert Mueller Witnesses

President Donald Trump is falsely suggesting that the people “closest” to him weren’t called to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller and his team because investigators didn’t want to hear the “good things” those people would want to share about the president. Plenty of people close to Trump, or who worked closely with him, were interviewed by investigators or invited to do so.

TRUMP: “Isn’t it amazing that the people who were closest to me, by far, and knew the Campaign better than anyone, were never even called to testify before Mueller. The reason is that the 18 Angry Democrats knew they would all say ‘NO COLLUSION’ and only very good things!” Tweet on Monday.

THE FACTS: The president is wrong on multiple counts here.

Plenty of people close to him, including in his own family, interviewed with Mueller’s team or were at least asked to appear. And of those who did, some said not very good things about their interactions with the president.

Among the advisers and aides who spoke with Mueller was his former White House counsel, Don McGahn, who extensively detailed Trump’s outrage at the investigation and his efforts to curtail it. McGahn told Mueller’s team how Trump called him at home and urged him to press the Justice Department to fire the special counsel, then told him to deny that the entire episode had taken place once it became public.

Others who were interviewed by Mueller include two former White House chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and former strategist Steve Bannon.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer who once said he was so close to the president that he’d “take a bullet” for him, also cooperated with Mueller and delivered unflattering details.

Mueller certainly wanted to hear from Trump’s family too, even if not all relatives were eager to cooperate. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., declined to be voluntarily interviewed by investigators, according to Mueller’s report. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spoke multiple times to Mueller’s team. And one of the president’s daughters, Ivanka Trump, provided information through an attorney.

The White House has not yet said to whom Trump was referring in his tweet.

Driverless cars won’t be hitting streets for many years. Here’s why.

Jeffrey Lang
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Driverless cars won’t be hitting streets for many years. Here’s why.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk might be pushing the race to win driverless cars, but don’t worry, they won’t be hitting your streets for quite some time. It is a scary thought for many of looking over to not see that annoying driver texting while almost hitting you but no one in the driver’s seat at all. When you mix humans with automation on a busy street or highway, you know there’s bound to be a problem.

In the world of autonomous vehicles, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and Silicon Valley are bustling hubs of development and testing. But ask those involved in self-driving vehicles when we might actually see them carrying passengers in every city, and you’ll get an almost universal answer: Not anytime soon.

An optimistic assessment is 10 years. Many others say decades as researchers try to conquer a number of obstacles. The vehicles themselves will debut in limited, well-mapped areas within cities and spread outward.

The fatal crash in Arizona involving an Uber autonomous vehicle in March of 2018 slowed progress, largely because it hurt the public’s perception of the safety of vehicles. Companies slowed research to be more careful. Google’s Waymo, for instance, decided not to launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area and will rely on human backup drivers to ferry passengers, at least for now.

Autonomous car crashes.

Here are the problems that researchers must overcome to start giving rides without humans behind the wheel:

SNOW AND WEATHER

When it’s heavy enough to cover the pavement, snow blocks the view of lane lines that vehicle cameras use to find their way. Researchers so far haven’t figured out a way around this. That’s why much of the testing is done in warm-weather climates such as Arizona and California.

Heavy snow, rain, fog and sandstorms can obstruct the view of cameras. Light beams sent out by laser sensors can bounce off snowflakes and think they are obstacles. Radar can see through the weather, but it doesn’t show the shape of an object needed for computers to figure out what it is.

“It’s like losing part of your vision,” says Raj Rajkumar, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Researchers are working on laser sensors that use a different light beam wavelength to see through snowflakes, said Greg McGuire, director of the MCity autonomous vehicle testing lab at the University of Michigan. Software also is being developed so vehicles can differentiate between real obstacles and snowflakes, rain, fog, and other conditions.

But many companies are still trying to master the difficult task of driving on a clear day with steady traction.

“Once we are able to have a system reliably perform in those, then we’ll start working toward expanding to those more challenging conditions,” said Noah Zych, Uber’s head of system safety for self-driving cars.

In some limited areas that have been mapped in three dimensions, the cars can function in light snow and rain.

PAVEMENT LINES AND CURBS

Across the globe, roadway marking lines are different, or they may not even exist. Lane lines aren’t standardized, so vehicles have to learn how to drive differently in each city. Sometimes there aren’t any curbs to help vehicles judge lane width.

For instance, in Pittsburgh’s industrial “Strip District,” where many self-driving vehicles are tested, the city draws lines across the narrow lanes to mark where vehicles should stop for stop signs. Sometimes the lines are so far back and buildings are so close to the street that autonomous cars can’t see traffic on the cross street if they stop at the line. One workaround is to program vehicles to stop for the line and creep forward.

“Is it better to do a double stop?” asked Pete Rander, president of Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle company in which Ford has invested heavily. “Since intersections vary, it’s not that easy.”

DEALING WITH HUMAN DRIVERS

For many years, autonomous vehicles will have to deal with humans who don’t always play by the rules. They double-park or walk in front of cars. Recently in Pittsburgh, an Argo backup driver had to take over when his car stopped during a right turn, blocking an intersection when it couldn’t immediately decide whether to go around a double-parked delivery truck.

“Even if the car might eventually figure something out, it’s shared space, and it’s socially unacceptable” to block traffic, Rander said.

Humans also make eye contact with other drivers to make sure they’re looking in the right direction, something still being developed for autonomous vehicles.

Add to that the antagonism that some feel toward robots. People have reportedly been harassing Waymo’s autonomous test vehicles near Phoenix. The Arizona Republic reported in December that police is suburban Chandler have documented at least 21 cases in the past two years, including a man waiving a gun at a Waymo van and people who slashed tires and threw rocks. One Jeep forced the vans off the road six times.

LEFT TURNS

Deciding when to turn left in front of oncoming traffic without a green arrow is one of the more difficult tasks for human drivers and one that causes many crashes. Autonomous vehicles have the same trouble.

Waymo CEO John Krafcik said in an interview last year that his company’s vehicles are still encountering occasional problems at intersections.

“I think the things that humans have challenges with, we’re challenged with as well,” he said. “So sometimes unprotected lefts are super challenging for a human, sometimes they’re super challenging for us.”

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE

The fatal Uber crash near Phoenix last year did more than push the pause button on testing. It also rattled consumers who someday will be asked to ride in self-driving vehicles.

Surveys taken after the Uber crash showed that drivers are reluctant to give up control to a computer. One by AAA in March found 71 percent of people are afraid to ride in fully self-driving vehicles.

Autonomous vehicle companies are showing test passengers information on screens about where the vehicles are headed and what its sensors are seeing. The more people ride, the more they trust the vehicles, says Waymo’s Krafcik.

“After they become more and more confident they rarely look at the screens, and they’re on their phones or relaxing or sleeping,” he said.

Elon Musk advances Tesla driverless cars to win autonomy race

Jeffrey Lang
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Elon Musk advances Tesla driverless cars to win autonomy race

Telsa kicked off “autonomy day” on Monday at their headquarters in Palo Alto, California, to show investors the future of the company’s self-driving technology is coming sooner than later. This program is what they call Autopilot, and it’s been raising eyebrows and concerns over safety issues.

“Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-the-air software updates,” the company said when it announced the event.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears poised to transform the company’s electric cars into driverless vehicles in a risky bid to realize a bold vision that he has been floating for years.

The technology required to make that quantum leap is scheduled to be shown off to Tesla investors Monday at the company’s Palo Alto, California, headquarters.

Musk, known for his swagger as well as his smarts, is so certain that Tesla will win the race toward full autonomy that he indicated in an interview earlier this month that his company’s cars should be able to navigate congested highways and city streets without a human behind the wheel by no later than next year.

“I could be wrong, but it appears to be the case that Tesla is vastly ahead of everyone,” Musk told Lex Fridman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research scientist specializing in autonomous vehicles.

But experts say they’re skeptical whether Tesla’s technology has advanced anywhere close to the point where its cars will be capable of being driven solely by a robot, without a human in position to take control if something goes awry.

“It’s all hype,” said Steven E. Shladover, a retired research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley who has been involved in efforts to create autonomous driving for 45 years. “The technology does not exist to do what he is claiming. He doesn’t have it and neither does anybody else.”

More than 60 companies in the U.S. alone are developing autonomous vehicles. Some are aiming to have their fully autonomous cars begin carrying passengers in small geographic areas as early as this year. Many experts don’t believe they’ll be in widespread use for a decade or more.

Musk’s description of Tesla’s controls as “Full Self-Driving” has alarmed some observers who think it will give owners a false sense of security and create potentially lethal situations in conditions that the autonomous cars can’t handle. They also say they’re waiting for Musk to define self-driving and show just under what conditions and places the vehicles can travel without human intervention.

Some Tesla critics say Musk is making the full self-driving announcement to distract from poor earnings expected Wednesday. Analysts polled by FactSet predict a $305.5 million first quarter net loss based on disappointing deliveries. Even bullish analysts expect bad news.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, who expects Tesla shares to outperform its peers, wrote in a note Monday that while positive news is expected Monday, he foresees “a train wreck quarter.”

Meanwhile, Musk continues to use both his Twitter account and Tesla’s website to pump up a new computer now in production for full self-driving vehicles. Once the self-driving software is ready, those with new computers will get an update via the internet, Musk has said. Currently the self-driving computer costs $5,000, but the price rises to $7,000 if it’s installed after delivery.

Tesla vehicles equipped for full autonomy will rely on eight cameras that cover 360 degrees, front-facing radar and short-range ultrasonic sensors. It’s not known how many will have the full self-driving technology. There are about 400,000 Teslas on the road worldwide.

That’s different from the self-driving systems being built by nearly every other company in the industry, including Google spinoff Waymo, General Motors’ Cruise Automation, and Ford-affiliated Argo AI. They all use cameras and radar covering 360 degrees, and also have light beam sensors called Lidar to the mix as a third redundant sensor, as well as detailed three-dimensional mapping.

Elon Musk with latest Tesla Autopilot technology.

“Vehicles that don’t have Lidar, that don’t have advanced radar, that haven’t captured a 3-D map are not self-driving vehicles,” Ken Washington, Ford’s chief technical officer, said during a recent interview with Recode. “They are great consumer vehicles with really good driver-assist technology.”

Even Lidar doesn’t guarantee 100 percent safety. Waymo last year backed off of a pledge to run a robotaxi service in Phoenix without human backup drivers for safety reasons. And an Uber autonomous test vehicle with Lidar as well as a human backup driver ran down and killed a pedestrian last year in Tempe, Arizona, the first known death involving self-driving technology.

Amnon Shashua, CEO of Israeli autonomous vehicle computing company Mobileye, says cars with 360-degree cameras and front facing radar could drive autonomously, but they would not be as safe as human drivers. Careful humans can drive 10 million hours without a mistake leading to a fatal crash, but cars without full redundant sensors cannot, he said.

Phil Koopman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said Musk needs to show his cars can handle all situations if he wants to claim they can drive themselves. For instance, he wonders if Tesla has a plan for a big truck splashing gallons of grimy water onto a car in a snowstorm, obstructing the cameras.

“The rabbit hole goes pretty deep if you want to make that (full self-driving) argument,” he said.

Tesla already has been offering a system called “Autopilot” that can control cars on a limited basis with constant monitoring by a human driver. On its website, it says the Autopilot system steers your car in its lane and accelerates and brakes automatically for other vehicles and pedestrians in its lane. But questions already have been raised about Autopilot’s reliability after its involvement in three fatal crashes.

In one, neither the driver nor a Tesla Model S operating on the company’s Autopilot driver-assist system spotted a tractor-trailer crossing in front of it on a Florida, highway in 2016. The car drove under the trailer shearing off the roof and killing the driver.

In a 2017 report , the National Transportation Safety Board wrote that driver inattention and design limitations of Autopilot played major roles in the fatality, and it found that the Model S cameras and radar weren’t capable of detecting a vehicle turning into its path. Rather, the systems are designed to detect vehicles they are following to prevent rear-end collisions.

The agency also is still investigating the two other lethal crashes, one last month in Delray Beach, Florida, eerily similar to the 2016 Florida crash, and another involving a Tesla SUV that was operating on Autopilot when it hit a highway lane-dividing barrier in Silicon Valley.

Tesla maintains that its current systems are only for assistance, and that drivers must pay attention and be ready to intervene.

With “Full Self-Driving Capability,” Tesla touts that you get automatic driving from the highway on ramp to the off ramp including interchanges and changing lanes automatically to overtake slower cars. Later this year, the cars will be able to recognize and respond to traffic lights and stop signs and drive automatically on city streets, the website says.

Those feats are something that Tesla will likely have to prove to regulators in California — its largest U.S. market so far — before its fully autonomous cars are allowed on the roads there. But most other states don’t have the same requirements as California, where Tesla would need a state permit and have to prove the cars can drive safely on public roads without a human driver. And experts say there’s no federal law requiring preapproval for fully autonomous driving, as long as a vehicle meets federal safety standards, which Teslas do.

“Unfortunately, it may be necessary for several people to die before regulators step in,” Shladover said.

Samsung delays Galaxy Fold while WannaCry cyber expert guilty of bank malware

Jeffrey Lang
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Samsung delays Galaxy Fold while WannaCry cyber expert guilty of bank malware

Samsung’s revolutionary Galaxy Fold, which was to be the tech industry’s first mainstream folding-screen device was supposed to hit shelved on Friday, but those plans were quickly scrapped after problems hit. Reviewers (including Movie TV Tech Geeks) found the smartphone ‘phablets’ were breaking after just two days of use and malfunctioning.

Working hard to avoid the 2016 Note 7 debacle, the company is putting a halt to any more Galaxy Folds hitting the marketplace and will announce a new release date sometime in the coming weeks. We know that this means either months or indefinitely while Huawei continues pushing forward with their folding device.

Samsung is pushing back this week’s planned public launch of its highly anticipated, $2000 folding phone after reports that reviewers’ phones were breaking.

The company had been planning to release the Galaxy Fold on Friday, but instead it will now run more tests and announce a new launch date in the “coming weeks.”

The delay is a setback for Samsung and for the smartphone market generally, which had been pinning some hopes on the folding phone to catalyze innovation in the industry. The Galaxy Fold, with its $1,980 price tag, was not intended to be a mass market hit, but many hoped it would hint at a new wave of smartphone advances — an area that has been lagging in recent years.

But device reviewers quickly found issue with the Galaxy Fold, which is about the size of an average smartphone when folded, and the size of a small tablet when its two sides are pulled apart.

Several journalists reported the inside screens flickering, freezing and finally dying on their test units within the first couple days. Two reviewers mistakenly removed an outer plastic layer that was meant to stay on and reported scratches on the screen afterward.

Samsung confirmed last week that the layer was meant to stay on. But that didn’t explain why many reviewers saw the phone’s inside screens break.

An early inspection showed there could be issues when pressure is put on the exposed areas of the hinges that open and close the phone, Samsung said in a statement announcing the launch delay Monday. It also found an issue where “substances found inside the device affected the display performance.”

Samsung said it will to find ways to better protect the screens and explain to people that the outside protective layer must stay on.

Other test phones seemed to still be working well, and so far holding up to the Samsung pledge that the phone can be unfolded about 200,000 times in its life.

marcus hutchins stopped wannacry virus but created bank malware
Marcus Hutchins

British Cyber Expert That Stopped A Worldwide Virus Guilty Of Making Malware

It’s like a scene out of a tech movie where the hero who stops a massive attack on the country is also the villain who plans on ripping off the entire banking system. This is the story of Marcus Hutchins who was called a hero for stopped the WannaCry virus in 2017.

A British cybersecurity researcher credited with stopping a worldwide computer virus has pleaded guilty to developing malware to steal banking information.

Federal prosecutors in Wisconsin and Marcus Hutchins’ attorneys said in a joint court filing Friday that the 24-year-old agreed to plead guilty to developing malware called Kronos and conspiring to distribute it from 2012 to 2015. In exchange for his plea to those charges, prosecutors dismissed eight more.

“As you may be aware, I’ve pleaded guilty to two charges related to writing malware in the years prior to my career in security,” Hutchins said in a statement on his website . “I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes. Having grown up, I’ve since been using the same skills that I misused several years ago for constructive purposes. I will continue to devote my time to keeping people safe from malware attacks.”

Hutchins faces up 10 years in prison but could receive a more lenient sentence for accepting responsibility, the court filing said. Attorneys said Hutchins understands he could be deported.

Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Hutchins’ arrest in Las Vegas in August 2017, as he was about to board a flight to England, came as a shock; just months earlier he was hailed a hero for finding a “kill switch” to the WannaCry virus that crippled computers worldwide. At the time, he told media outlets in interviews that he didn’t consider himself a hero but that he was combating malware because “it’s the right thing to do.”

Prosecutors said Hutchins made incriminating statements during a two-hour interrogation, and later during a jailhouse phone call that Hutchins was told was being recorded, he told an unidentified person that he “used to write malware” years before.

“I knew it was always going to come back,” Hutchins said on the call, but that he didn’t “think it would be so soon.”

Prosecutors said in court filings that Hutchins sold the Kronos software to someone in Wisconsin and that he “personally delivered” the software to someone in California. The malware was designed “to intercept communications and collect personal information, including usernames, passwords, email addresses, and financial data” from computers, prosecutors said.

Kronos was “used to infect numerous computers around the world and steal banking information,” prosecutors said, without providing an exact number. It’s unclear how much Hutchins’ profited from creating the malware, but in online chats the FBI intercepted on November 2014, Hutchins’ lamented he had only made $8,000 from five sales. Hutchins said he thought he would be making around $100,000 annually by selling Kronos with one of his conspirators, who is not named in the indictment.

Hutchins initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was scheduled to go on trial in July. While his case has been pending, prosecutors barred Hutchins from returning home. He has been living in California, working as a cybersecurity consultant.

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