Please Don’t Sign it Mr. Trump, You Cant Sign it…

Posted on March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 by Denise Simon

(CNN)FBI Director James Comey warned Wednesday that Americans should not have expectations of “absolute privacy,” adding that he planned to finish his term leading the FBI.

“There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America; there is no place outside of judicial reach,” Comey said at a Boston College conference on cybersecurity. He made the remark as he discussed the rise of encryption since 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed sensitive US spy practices.

“Even our communications with our spouses, with our clergy members, with our attorneys are not absolutely private in America,” Comey added. “In appropriate circumstances, a judge can compel any one of us to testify in court about those very private communications.”

Did you get that? What? Keep reading, it gets worse….

Here’s the Data Republicans Just Allowed ISPs to Sell Without Your Consent

Privacy watchdogs blasted the vote as a brazen GOP giveaway to the broadband industry.

Motherboard: Financial and medical information. Social Security numbers. Web browsing history. Mobile app usage. Even the content of your emails and online chats.

These are among the types of private consumer information that House Republicans voted on Tuesday to allow your internet service provider (ISP) to sell to the highest bidder without your permission, prompting outrage from privacy watchdogs.

The House action, which was rammed through by a vote of 215 – 205 on a largely partisan basis by the GOP majority, represents another nail in the coffin of landmark Federal Communications Commission consumer privacy rules that were passed in 2016. The rules, which were set to go into effect later this year, would have required broadband providers to obtain “opt-in” consent before using, sharing, or selling private consumer data.

“Ignoring calls from thousands of their constituents, House Republicans just joined their colleagues in the Senate in violating internet users’ privacy rights,” Craig Aaron, CEO of DC-based public interest group Free Press Action Fund, said in a statement. “They voted to take away the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of Americans just so a few giant companies could pad their already considerable profits.”

Last week, the Senate passed its version of the legislation. President Trump, who “strongly” supports the FCC privacy rollback, is expected to sign the measure soon, as part of the widening Republican campaign to reverse federal safeguards across broad swaths of the economy, including rules protecting the environment, public health, and consumer interests.

Privacy watchdogs say the FCC’s policy is necessary because ISPs can see everything that consumers do online. Unless you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), every website you visit, every mobile app you use, every online search you conduct, is visible on their networks. Needless to say, this data is immensely valuable because it can be used to create detailed profiles for marketing and tracking purposes.

Related reading: Is Your Favorite Website Spying on You?

Corporate giants like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon already rake in billions of dollars annually from internet, cable, and mobile subscriptions. Now, these broadband firms will be able to make even more money by selling your private data to third party marketers without your permission.

“What the heck are you thinking? What is in your mind?”

Last year, the FCC detailed the data covered by its privacy policy. Thanks to Capitol Hill Republicans, ISPs will no longer be required to obtain “opt-in” consent before using, sharing, or selling this data.

Image: FCC

“What the heck are you thinking?” Rep. Michael Capuano, the Massachusetts Democrat, demanded of his GOP colleagues during floor debate earlier Tuesday. “What is in your mind? Why would you want to give out any of your personal information to a faceless corporation for the sole purpose of them selling it?”

Privacy advocates are particularly outraged because Republican lawmakers are nuking the FCC privacy policy using a controversial legislative tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to nullify recently-approved federal regulations. “Resolutions of disapproval” passed under the CRA cannot be filibustered, and prohibit the agency in question, in this case the FCC, from adopting “substantially similar” privacy rules in the future.

“Once President Trump signs this resolution, there will be no effective federal cop on the beat to proactively protect consumer information collected by ISPs,” Dallas Harris, Policy Fellow at DC-based digital rights group Public Knowledge, said in a statement. “Without the FCC’s broadband privacy rules, Americans go from being internet users to marketing data—from people to the product.”

It should come as no surprise that many of the Republicans leading the charge to roll back the FCC’s privacy rules, including Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, have received vast sums of campaign cash from the broadband industry.

Over the course of Blackburn’s 14-year career in the House, she has received $75,750 from AT&T and $72,650 from Verizon, her second and third largest corporate donors, respectively, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Blackburn has also received $66,000 from NCTA, the broadband industry trade group, and $49,500 from Comcast.

For the last year, the broadband industry has complained that the FCC’s privacy policy is unfair because it doesn’t apply to so-called “edge providers” like Google and Facebook, which are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But instead of fighting to bolster the FTC’s privacy policy to create a level playing field, Republican lawmakers instead chose to eliminate the FCC’s more robust protections. Now the measure moves to Trump’s desk.

“If President Trump was serious about his campaign promises to stand up for the rights of the individual over the powerful special interests in Washington DC, then he would veto this bill,” Nathan White, Senior Legislative Manager at Access Now, said in a statement.

Lobbyists Back in Key Government Roles

Posted on March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 by Denise Simon

Two months after launching his campaign last year, Trump boasted on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “I don’t want lobbyists. I don’t want special interests,” adding that he “turned down $5 million last week from a very important lobbyist, because there are total strings attached to a thing like that. He’s going to come to me in a year or two years and he’s going to want something for a country that he represents or for a company that he represents.” More here as explained, lobbyists were on the team before and during the RNC convention.

Trump’s “beachhead” teams host dozens of former lobbyists

by Ashley Balcerzak and Niv Sultan

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has at least eight former lobbyists serving on the beachhead team in his agency. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

OpenSecrets: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has been mired in questions about his investments in the healthcare industry. As it turns out, some of the people helping him get grounded at the department are also prompting questions about their ties with the industry.

Lance Leggitt, a lobbyist at Baker Donelson since 2006, was named Price’s chief of staff earlier this month. In 2016 alone, he lobbied for 10 organizations — all related to health care. Alere Inc, for example, manufactures diagnostic tests and spent nearly $900,000 lobbying last year. Other clients included hospitals and a medical trade group.

Leggitt deregistered as a lobbyist in January, because he was on his way to HHS even before being made chief of staff. In the early days of the administration, Leggitt was a member of President Trump’s “beachhead” force, a temporary cast of characters brought in to keep the government running and lay the groundwork for Trump’s agenda. With key jobs in the administration being filled at a slower-than-average pace, these individuals can have a big impact on their agencies.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by ProPublica, the names of 400 of the more than 520 members of beachhead teams were released by the Office of Personnel Management — including several dozen individuals who have been federally registered lobbyists, a review by OpenSecrets confirmed.

Their positions can last 90 to 120 days, depending on the level, with one contract extension permitted — although many expect to be later hired on to full-time positions. That’s what happened with Leggitt, for example, and with Jack Kalavritinos, who was brought in on a beachhead assignment to help run FDA; that agency’s commissioner wasn’t named by Trump for close to two months. Kalavritinos worked at HHS in the mid 2000’s but more recently spent eight years lobbying for Covidien Ltd, an Ireland-based pharmaceutical and health products company. This week, Kalavritinos was named associate commissioner for external affairs at FDA.

While past administrations have used some temporary personnel, they didn’t seem to do so at the same scale as Trump’s, said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, which helps advise new administrations. Most pushed to have officials in place much more quickly.

“There wasn’t a notion of a group of people that were only there for a limited period of time, but more of an expectation that the secretary and team would get in and be using the career folks,” Stier said. “The beachhead team creates another step in the process.” (The term “beachhead” was first used by Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign; he didn’t get the chance to implement the concept.)

It also creates “minders” of a sort who aren’t always appreciated by agency chiefs or civil service employees trying to do their work. According to the Washington Post, these temporary figures often act as eyes and ears for the White House, making sure the agencies are loyally hewing to the administration’s agenda.

Now, some of the beachheaders with lobbying backgrounds did that work many years ago and went on to other careers. But even for more recent practitioners, Trump’s executive order on ethics, unlike President Obama’s, allows lobbyists to join the administration, even in the agencies they previously lobbied, though they are not supposed to work on specific issues on which they lobbied in the last two years. There are also restrictions on the lobbying that administration employees can do after they leave the public payroll, but there are a number of loopholes in the rules.

It’s unclear if all the beachhead employees are bound by the Trump policy. Still, even if they are, there are a number of ways that former lobbyists can flourish in the administration. For instance, Trump could waive the executive order’s requirements for certain appointees, and now doesn’t even need to make those waivers public, like Obama did. (There is a section of the White House site that says “Ethics pledge waivers will be published as they become available,” but there weren’t any waivers posted when we published.)

The placement of all these lobbyists as de facto — or actual — high-level agency staffers “raises the appearance that you could be attempting to influence public policy in favor of your former client,” said Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs and strategy at Issue One. “This isn’t saying that lobbyists are bad or evil, it’s simply saying the reason that you should have rules governing lobbyists in government is because they have been paid by private interests to promote the interests of their employer.”

It makes a difference whether an individual lobbied last year of 10 years ago, McGehee said. Revolving door restrictions are written with time limits, because it’s understood your relationships with clients and freshness of information cool over time.

One former for-profit college lobbyist has already resigned from his beachhead position at the Department of Education, where he worked for about a month. Taylor Hansen lobbied for Career Education Colleges and Universities until July 2016, where he focused on trying to weaken the “gainful employment” rule that puts for-profit schools’ federal funding at risk if their graduates don’t earn enough to pay back their student loans.

ProPublica reported that soon after Hansen started working at Education, the agency began delaying deadlines for the gainful employment rule and is reviewing the implementation of the rule. Hansen told ProPublica he didn’t work on gainful employment while at the department.

OpenSecrets Blog contacted the federal agencies with former lobbyist beachhead members about their ethics policies. The Department of Homeland Security was the only one to get back to us, and its response was vague:

“Ethics training, consistent with U.S. Office of Government Ethics regulations, is provided to all political appointees,” said DHS spokesman David Lapan in an email. “DHS ethics attorneys conduct reviews for potential conflicts of interest and provide guidance to employees.”

Nine beachhead members were registered lobbyists as recently as last year; eight of them have filed forms with the Senate deregistering from that work. General Mills has not filed paperwork that shows Erika Baum ending her lobbying gig at the food company, although she is now an executive assistant to the Secretary of Transportation, according to ProPublica‘s data and lobbying records.

OpenSecrets Blog contacted all nine firms, and confirmed at least four beachheaders had formally resigned from their lobbying jobs, as opposed to taking temporary leaves of absence. Two firms said they could not divulge personnel information, and two did not reply by publication. (The ninth was General Mills.)

Among the former cohorts on K Street:

John Barsa, who is installed at DHS, has lobbied for the Aerospace Industries Association of America, a trade group for the aerospace and defense industry. He’s also represented MRIGlobal, a research organization that touts its security and defense program and runs facilities for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. He deregistered in 2013, though he stayed at his lobbying firm until 2015.

Pete Giambastiani, in his role as special assistant at the office of the secretary of defense, might visit one of those facilities. He, too, has a history of lobbying on behalf of defense interests. His past clients, through 2014, include the Defense Venture Group, Finmeccanica SpA and the Navy League of the US. Giambastiani also served in the Department of the Navy and the offices of Reps. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and, most recently, Tom Rooney (R-Fla.).

Mark Maddox‘s clients as a lobbyist included General Synfuels International, Calcasieu Refinery Co. and Cline Resource and Development. Now, fittingly, he’s a key beachhead figure at the Energy Department. He deregistered in 2015, though he continued working at The Livingston Group/Maddox Strategies.

Then there’s Geoff Burr, who is at the Department of Labor. Until 2015, he was the top lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, which is always fighting wage standards in federal contracts and is on the other side of labor unions when it comes to exposure to hazardous materials. He then went on to run the lobbying shop at Cablevision. Burr previously put in time at Labor, from 2006 to 2008.

Other departments have smatterings of staff who have lobbied on behalf of issues that are intensely political. Julie Kirchner, a Homeland Security adviser, represented the Federation for Amer Immigration Reform, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce immigration levels. (She deregistered in 2015.) At the Department of Agriculture, special assistant George Dunlop brings with him his experience lobbying for the Tobacco Quota Warehouse Alliance, which advocated in support of tobacco producers from 1999 to 2001.

So far, the links between lobbying and the beachhead team have been pretty direct: Health care lobbyists at HHS, defense lobbyists at Homeland Security, and so on. But what about the Department of Commerce, which is tasked with the broad goal of expanding economic growth? Earl Comstock, director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning at Commerce, has demonstrated the flexibility befitting the nation’s multifaceted economy. In his 18 years of lobbying until 2015, he represented firms from Swiss International Air Lines to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission to the Teamsters Union. He can now apply that diverse experience as he makes his way back to government — he was a staffer on the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee from 1988-1991.

In some cases, the revolving door made a complete 360 swivel: At least 14 of the beachheads have previously worked in the same agency where Trump has now placed them.

One of them is Marcus Peacock, now adviser for Office of Management & Budget, who worked in that office for eight years under GOP Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush (R). Peacock worked for Jellinek, Schwartz & Connolly as a program manager in the early 1990’s. Most recently he was the environment & energy consultant for dark-money nonprofit Right to Rise Policy Solutions, which supported Jeb Bush.

Here are the rest of the former lobbyists on Trump’s beachhead team:

Patricia Adkins – Executive director at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Lobbying client was the Home Safety Council until 2010, after which she worked at Safe Kids Worldwide. Has worked at CPSC since 2014 under Obama, and was temporarily hired to stay on under the Trump administration.
Byron Anderson – Dept. of Labor. Lobbying clients included American General Corp and Transamerica Companies. Deregistered 2016.
Deidre Bass – Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Lobbying client was the Stark Area Transit Authority. Deregistered 2008.
Scott Cameron – Dept. of Interior. Lobbying client was Chep USA. Deregistered in 2001, then worked at Interior and Grant Thornton LLP.
Mauricio Claver-Carone – Dept. of Treasury. Lobbying client was the Cuba Democracy Public Advocacy Corp. Deregistered 2016.
Martin Dannenfelser – Dept. of Energy. Lobbying client was the Family Research Council. Deregistered 2000, worked at the Energy Innovation Reform Project.
Lynda Davis – Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Lobbying clinets included Florida State College at Jacksonville and Valencia Community College, as well as Lockheed Martin, Raydon Corp and BAE Systems. Most recently, was executive director of a group called the Military and Veteran Caregiver Network.
Sheila Greenwood – Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Lobbying clients included Prudential Financial and Wal-Mart. Deregistered 2014, continued working at Prudential Financial.
Scott Hommel – Dept. of Interior. Lobbying clients included American Defense Systems, Avalex Technologies and the National Guard Association of the U.S. Deregistered 2010, served as now-Secretary Ryan Zinke’s chief of staff.
Russell Laird – Dept. of Agriculture. Lobbying clients include the National Cooperative Services Corp. and the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. Deregistered 2016.
Keagan Lenihan – Dept. of Health and Human Services. Lobbying client was McKesson Corp. Deregistered 2016.
Marianne McInerney – Dept. of Transportation. Lobbying client was the American International Automobile Dealers Association, a lobbying group for foreign car dealers, where she was also president. Joined beachhead team from electric car maker Cenntro Automotive.
Justin Mikolay – Office of the Secretary of Defense. Lobbying client was Palantir Technologies. Deregistered 2016.
Wayne Palmer – Dept. of Labor. Lobbying clients included the Alliance for Healthcare Competitiveness and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. Deregistered 2015, continued working at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
Alex Pryor (or Campau) – Dept. of Health and Human Services. Lobbying clients included AmeriHealth Caritas, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Fresenius Medical Care. Deregistered 2014, worked at the House Budget Committee and Senate Republican Policy Committee.
Lora Ries – DHS. Lobbying clients included General Dynamics and Boeing. Deregistered 2010, worked with two technology companies that had contracts with DHS.
Heidi Stirrup – Dept. of Health and Human Services. Lobbying clients included the National Association of Spine Specialists and Aurora Organic Dairy. Deregistered 2008, worked at Faithful Catholic Citizens, then the Department of Commerce followed by the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.
George Sugiyama – Environmental Protection Agency. Lobbying clients included the National Mining Association, Southern Co. and Solargenix Energy. Deregistered 2013, worked at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Cathy Tripodi – Dept. of Energy. Lobbying clients were Abound Solar and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Deregistered 2012, worked at the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Laura Clay Trueman – Dept. of Health and Human Services. Lobbying clients included Aetna, Coalition for Affordable Health. Deregistered 2007, worked at the UnitedHealth Group and then the Heritage Foundation.
Brooks Tucker – Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Lobbying clients included Management Solutions and Air Comm Corp. Deregistered 2016.
Stephen Vaughn – U.S. Trade Rep. Lobbying client was U.S. Steel. Deregistered 2015, worked at King & Spalding LLP.
Chad Wolf – Dept. of Homeland Security. Lobbying clients included Harris Corp. and Boeing. Deregistered 2016.
Mark Zelden – Dept. of Labor. Lobbying clients included Birmingham Water Works and the cities of Foley, Jackson and Mobile, Alabama. Deregistered 2014, worked at Adams and Reese.

BLM’s McKesson Files for Lawsuit to be Dismissed

Posted on March 28, 2017March 28, 2017 by Denise Simon

Attorneys for BLM Activist Try to Get Officer’s Lawsuit Dismissed

An attorney for Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson urged a federal judge Monday to dismiss a lawsuit by an unnamed Baton Rouge police officer who claims he was injured during a protest four days after the deadly police shooting of Alton Sterling in the city.

A lawyer for the officer, however, asked Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson to allow the suit to move forward and for the officer who filed it to remain anonymous for health and safety reasons.

Jackson took the arguments under advisement and said he would issue a ruling in the coming days, the Advocate reports.

Billy Gibbens, who represents Mckesson argued the suit against Mckesson should be thrown out because it makes only unsupported, speculative allegations.

Donna Grodner, one of the officer’s attorneys, acknowledged in court that it is not known who threw a piece of concrete at the officer, causing him to lose teeth and suffer other injuries during the July 9 protest outside Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters.

The suit, filed in November, alleges Mckesson came to Baton Rouge in July “for the purpose” of “rioting to incite others to violence against police and other law enforcement officers.”

Meanwhile in November of 2016 at a Baton Rouge City Council meeting this happened:

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –

Protesters arrested in July after the police shooting of Alton Sterling should each get a few hundred dollars in a settlement, but that didn’t sit well with one of the council members Tuesday night.

“To me, this encourages that same type of behavior to happen again in the future, and under no circumstances will I ever vote for this. I don’t care if we’re paying them a penny. This sets a very dangerous precedent that encourages people to come to Baton Rouge. Mr. McKessen is from out of state, many of these people are from out of state or out of city, to come to our city and protest in our city and then we’re paying them for the privilege of doing so. No thanks,” said Delgado.

Despite objections from John Delgado, the city government, Louisiana State Police, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, and District Attorney’s office all plan to split the payout amongst the protesters, rather than risk a trial.

RawStory

What is DeRay McKesson doing now? Well, he is on the advisory board of the Democrat National Committee under Tom Perez. Beyond that, DeRay is still quite busy with ‘Campaign Zero’.

The Grio reports: Campaign Zero, an anti-police violence resource, launched an online tool that will help activists see where laws that would threaten civil rights are being considered on a state-by-state basis.

The tool, called “Our States,” which was previewed exclusively by Mic, breaks down state proposals and bills that would hurt minorities. The goal is to take the focus off of the federal-level attempts by the Trump administration to enact their promises and to put the focus on Republican-controlled state and local governments that are already moving forward.

“The purpose of Our States is to ensure that citizens know the legislation being proposed in their respective state, so that they can mobilize to either support or oppose it,” activist and Campaign Zero co-founder Deray Mckesson said in a statement to Mic. “The stakes are high.”

“In many of these states, you have Trump’s agenda already being legislated,” Sam Sinyangwe, the data scientist behind Campaign Zero and lead coordinator of the Our States project, said. “If we don’t engage in the states to block them, it will in effect enact Trump’s agenda, despite our efforts to stop it in Washington.”

The website not only provides data on a state-by-state basis for immigration, policing and protest, reproductive justice, voting rights and LGBTQ equality; it also includes suggested strategies to influence change, such as face-to-face meetings and protests.

“Our States is created out of the realization that, in the conversation that we’re having about equity and justice, state level politics rarely comes up in that conversation,” Sinyangwe said in the interview. “If we’re going to block [Trump’s agenda] from happening, we’ve got to create avenues for people to get informed.”

Russia is a Threat, China Aggression is Under-Reported

Posted on March 28, 2017March 28, 2017 by Denise Simon

President Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal which was officially transferred in 2000. Few know about the other canal project in Nicaragua, which is designed to be bigger and better. It was launched by a Chinese billionaire however, it appears the Chinese government is actually behind it.

Image result for china nicaragua canal

The whole matter is shrouded in secrecy while the Panama Canal is going through a huge expansion.

Image result for china militarize islands PBS

China has been creating islands in the South China Sea while other islands are a source of major dispute. China has been seen as militarizing the manufactured islands giving rise to concerns of major cargo and global shipping lanes. Could China be making a worldwide play to control commerce and sea transportation?

Chinese state firms have expressed an interest to develop land around the Panama Canal, the chief executive of the vital trade thoroughfare said, underlining China’s outward push into infrastructure via railways and ports around the world. China’s state firms have in recent years already chalked up investments in key logistics nodes, including Piraeus in Greece and Bandar Malaysia, a major development project that is set to be the terminal for a proposed high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. More here from Reuters.

So is there more to this under reported threat by China? Yes. For instance:

HONG KONG — When the United States Air Force wanted help making military robots more perceptive, it turned to a Boston-based artificial intelligence start-up called Neurala. But when Neurala needed money, it got little response from the American military.

So Neurala turned to China, landing an undisclosed sum from an investment firm backed by a state-run Chinese company.

Chinese firms have become significant investors in American start-ups working on cutting-edge technologies with potential military applications. The start-ups include companies that make rocket engines for spacecraft, sensors for autonomous navy ships, and printers that make flexible screens that could be used in fighter-plane cockpits. Many of the Chinese firms are owned by state-owned companies or have connections to Chinese leaders.

The deals are ringing alarm bells in Washington. According to a new white paper commissioned by the Department of Defense, Beijing is encouraging Chinese companies with close government ties to invest in American start-ups specializing in critical technologies like artificial intelligence and robots to advance China’s military capacity as well as its economy. More here from the New York Times.

Humm, need more? Both China and North Korea are known for hacking. China may have some obscure agreement with North Korea to hack selected global sites. As we know, North Korea is a threat as they are continuing to advance their missile program and super thrust rocket engines which are tied to their nuclear weapons program. China provides that communications, telecom and internet platform and servers for North Korea.

Image result for china hacking BBC

North Korea relies on China for Internet connectivity, partially due to longstanding ties between the two nations and partly because it has few options. North Korea borders just three countries: South Korea, with which it is still technically at war, Russia and China. The Chinese Internet is well developed and the Russian border is far from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, making China a good choice. Going back to 2014, the U.S. State Department was well aware of all these conditions between China and North Korea, still no solution by the Obama administration.

***

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of U.S. airlines, technology companies and other contractors involved in the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment, a U.S. Senate panel has found.

Cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer with the security firm Crowdstrike, said China had for years shown a keen interest in th the logistical patterns of the U.S. military.

The investigation focused on the U.S. military’s ability to seamlessly tap civilian air, shipping and other transportation assets for tasks including troop deployments and the timely arrival of supplies from food to ammunition to fuel. U.S. authorities charged five Chinese military officers, accusing them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets.

Last month, Community Health Systems (CYH.N), one of the largest U.S. hospital groups, said Chinese hackers had stolen Social Security numbers and other personal data from some 4.5 million patients.

*** North Korea has an elite and secret hacking unit as well known as Bureau 121. The Department of Defense submitted a report to Congress on Bureau 121 using asymmetric warfare. North Korea also has an additional cyber unit known as Office 91.

Office 91 is thought to be the headquarters of North Korea’s hacking operation although the bulk of the hackers and hacking and infiltration into networks is done from Unit 121, which operates out of North Korea and has satellite offices overseas, particularly in Chinese cities that are near the North Korean border. One such outpost is reportedly the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, a major city about 150 miles from the border. A third operation, called Lab 110, participates in much the same work.

There are also several cyberunits under North Korea’s other arm of government, the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Unit 35 is responsible for training cyberagents and is understood to handle domestic cyberinvestigations and operations. Unit 204 takes part in online espionage and psychological warfare and Office 225 trains agents for missions in South Korea that can sometimes have a cyber component. More here from PCWorld.

*** China is well aware of North Korea activities, while China has and is becoming more aggressive globally. There is clearly collusion, yet what is the West and in particular the United States prepared to do in response remains unclear. However, China did approve 38 Trump trademarks. President Trump meets with Xi Jinping, maybe we will know more in April.

Trump’s Son-in-Law to Head new WH Office

Posted on March 28, 2017March 28, 2017 by Denise Simon

Really, at issue for smoother government operations is upgrading computer software across all agencies. Some parts of government is operating on Microsoft products no longer supported while others in fact still use DOS. It was never a lack of appropriations by Congress but rather using those funds for other expenditures and in some cases paying bonuses or for travel to classes, seminars or training.

Rather than have the White House launch this initiative, an outside advisory group should be mobilized to introduce and demonstrate innovation as the private sector is the cutting edge. Each agency lead or cabinet secretary should submit a ‘wants and needs’ wish list such that outside agencies can address those potential solutions, otherwise we end up with the fraud and collusion endured with the launch of the front-end, back-end and website for Obamacare. Anyone remember that disaster?

Anyway, the Obama administration did an innovation summit and solutions showcase at the White House. Has the Trump administration been through those files? Google visited the Obama White House at least once a week. This may be a good mission for government in the end, as Google is in fact offering some assistance to some issues the Trump White House is considering.

***

Trump Pledges New Office to Bring Business Innovation to Government Operations

The Trump administration is launching a new office to spur innovation in government operations, the White House announced Monday, promising to give business acumen a more prominent role in federal activities.

President Trump tapped Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, to lead the new White House Office of American Innovation. The administration is billing the initiative — first reported by The Washington Post — as a SWAT team of former business executives. The goal, the White House said, is to shake up the status quo of the federal bureaucracy by infusing new ideas that allow private enterprises to succeed.

The administration billed the office as non-partisan, looking for any new ideas from both inside and outside government. It will aim to make improvements at every federal agency, including through technology overhauls, projects stemming from Trump’s promised infrastructure investment and procurement reform. A particular area of focus will be improving the Veterans Affairs Department. The White House said the innovation office will function as a service organization offering its assistance to agencies.

Trump formally created the office through a presidential memorandum issued Monday, in which he vowed the office would “solve today’s most intractable problems.” It will consist of about a dozen existing White House staff and consult with the directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. After hearing from private sector leaders and government officials, the office will make policy recommendations to the president and “coordinate implementation of any resulting plans.”

When an agency is struggling with certain projects, the office and its team of White House advisers and business leaders will come in to offer creative and cost-efficient solutions. The team will look to ensure agencies keep pace with the latest innovations in the private sector.

The office will “apply the president’s ahead-of-schedule and under budget mentality to a variety of government operations and services, enhancing the quality of life for all Americans,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. He conceded that “government is not business,” as there are certain things that “business would never do” and government must pick up the slack. Business leaders, he explained, can “help us deliver a better product, a better service to the American people.”

The business leaders participating in the project are “looking to give back in some way, shape or form,” Spicer said.

The new office is the latest in a series of moves from Trump aiming to streamline government operations. Earlier this month, he issued an order calling for a “comprehensive plan for reorganizing the executive branch,” which will require a “thorough examination” of every agency to identify “where money can be saved and services improved.” Another order has sent task forces to every agency to identify regulations for elimination or modification.

It also follows initiatives by several recent presidential administrations to modernize and streamline the way agencies do their work. On the technology side, a key focus of the new innovation office, President Obama launched the U.S. Digital Service in 2014 as a White House office to offer a “SWAT team” in troubleshooting high-priority information technology projects, as well as the General Services Administration’s 18F to provide consultant services to agencies looking to build up new technology-based offerings. Still, Spicer said some functions of government are so “outdated and unmodernized” that agencies are no longer serving their constituencies.

Through his Grace Commission, President Reagan tapped business executives to help identify waste and inefficiencies in government.

“What we need from you and your expertise and your associates is to literally come in to the various departments and agencies of government and look at them as if you were considering a merger or a takeover, and to see how modern business practices could be put to work to make government more efficient and more effective,” Reagan told his group in 1982. The commission eventually identified $424 billion in cuts. “There are a million things that you think of and take for granted every day in your business that you’ll find they don’t take it for granted in Washington, and it isn’t done that way, and that’s what it’s all about,” Reagan said.

President Clinton’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government promised to remake the federal government. Its National Performance Review proposed 1,200 changes to “serve customers better,” similar to Kushner’s promise to “achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”