The Sunday Showcase - 11 26 17 · 4:59pm Nov 26th, 2017
THE
SUNDAY
SHOWCASE
with
JESSE COFFEY
Good afternoon. We begin with threats to net neutrality. A report on the threats to that comes from TheHill:
(TheHill)—Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai will reportedly seek to completely repeal net neutrality rules put in place under former President Obama, according to a Monday report.
Sources close to the matter tell Politico that Pai will seek to completely remove the net neutrality rules, which reclassified internet service providers (ISPs) as telecommunications companies and required them to treat all web traffic equally.
The FCC will reportedly vote on the plan in December, according to Politico.
Pai and other Republicans have argued the Obama-era FCC overstepped its authority with the regulations by reclassifying the ISPs as common carriers.
The FCC held a months-long open comment period on its proposal to repeal the rules after facing massive backlash after releasing its initial proposal in April.
The agency received millions of comments during the period thanks in large part to the efforts of comedian John Oliver, who urged viewers of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” to show their support for keeping the net neutrality rules.
Broadband companies praised Pai’s original proposal, which would remove the “common carrier” classification from internet providers and end the FCC’s authority to regulate them.
"We applaud FCC Chairman Pai's initiative to remove this stifling regulatory cloud over the internet,” AT&T said in a blog post. “Businesses large and small will have a clearer path to invest more in our nation's broadband infrastructure under Chairman Pai's leadership.”
Republicans in Congress also praised the proposal and the White House said in July that it supported the FCC’s plan to end the Obama-era rules.
Democrats have blasted the FCC’s proposed changes.
“Gutting these rules robs Americans of protections that preserve their access to the open and free internet,” Sen. Bill Nelson(D-Fla.), the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement in April.
“Depriving the FCC of its ongoing, forward-looking oversight of the broadband industry amounts to a dereliction of duty at a time when guaranteeing an open internet is more critical than ever.”
EDITORIAL
The editorial now from The Amoeba Sisters.
#NetNeutrality is not a partisan issue. We strongly support Net Neutrality- see our thread for why.
Additionally, here's info from the American Library Association about Net Neutrality: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/telecom/netneutrality
SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
The subject is dying some sort of death, what with the holiday season fast approaching, but that did not stop three people during the week from getting hit by sexual assault allegations. One left his company and the other two were fired or suspended from their companies.
The one who left is Pixar's stalwart John Lasseter, who was also the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was accused of, among other things, grabbing, kissing when such was not desired from him, and making comments about physical attributes. These he feels are mis-steps which caused him to take “a six-month sabbatical” from Disney. In a statement, he spoke:
I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form.
New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush is the one who got suspended, pending the paper's investigation into him. He was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior toward at least four women, including groping and unwanted kissing. He stated:
I apologize to any woman who felt uncomfortable in my presence, and for any situation where I behaved inappropriately.
Television host Charlie Rose is the one who got fired; CBS fired him and Bloomberg and PBS decided to no longer distribute his self-titled TV show after he was accused of sexual harassment of at least eight women, including groping and lewd phone calls. He responded:
I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.
The next day, CBS This Morning anchors weren't buying much of it. A report now from the Los Angeles Times:
Charlie Rose’s CBS News career came to an unceremonious end Tuesday when the network fired him over allegations of sexual harassment.
"A short time ago we terminated Charlie Rose's employment with CBS News, effective immediately," CBS News President David Rhodes wrote in a note to staff. "This followed the revelation yesterday of extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior said to have revolved around his PBS program. Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace—a supportive environment where people feel they can do their best work. We need to be such a place.
PBS followed with an announcement that it no longer will distribute "Charlie Rose," the nightly talk show hosted by Rose since 1991. Bloomberg, which also carried the show on its TV service, has also dropped it.
"In light of yesterday's revelations, PBS has terminated its relationship with Charlie Rose and canceled distribution of his programs," a PBS spokesperson said in a statement. "PBS expects all the producers we work with to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect."
Rose’s departure marks the downfall of one of television’s most venerable journalists and a major blow to CBS News, which enjoyed its greatest success ever in the morning thanks to “CBS This Morning,” which was built around Rose and his co-anchors, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, in 2012.
Rose's serious demeanor and ability to engage a wide range of personalities in politics, the arts and business earned him respect and global recognition. He frequently jetted off to land interviews with world leaders.
"There is not a single person of note on the planet who does not know who he is," said one CBS News executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. "His talent was so in the stratosphere."
CBS had moved quickly Monday to suspend Rose, 75, after the Washington Post reported that day that eight women said they were subjected to inappropriate behavior while working with him. The story said Rose made unwanted sexual advances, appeared nude in their presence or groped them. His PBS talk show also was halted and there was no immediate update on the long-term status of the program.
Rose posted a statement on Twitter apologizing for his "inappropriate behavior."
"I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate," he said. "I always felt that I pursued shared feelings though I now realize that I was mistaken."
On the Tuesday morning "CBS This Morning" broadcast, King and O'Donnell weighed in about their colleague.
"There is no excuse for this alleged behavior," O'Donnell said. "It is systematic and pervasive, and I've been doing a lot of listening and I'm going to continue to do that. This I know is true: Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or in society until there is a reckoning and a taking of responsibility."
King said she was "reeling" from the revelations about Rose and got little sleep before Tuesday's episode of the show.
"We are all rocked by this," King said. "And I—I want to echo what Norah said. I really applaud the women that speak up despite the friendship. He doesn't get a pass because I can't stop thinking about the anguish of these women, what happened to their dignity, what happened to their bodies, what happened maybe to even their careers."
For CBS, a change to the lineup around the glass roundtable at its studio in Manhattan presents a challenge for what has become a profitable bright spot for its news division.
Rose's presence on "CBS This Morning" signified a commitment to serious news, which has been a major factor in the program's ratings growth in recent years.
"CBS This Morning" has run in third place behind ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today." But since 2012, the CBS program has added viewers, while ABC and NBC have seen significant declines.
King, a longtime TV personality best known for her close friendship with Oprah Winfrey, has emerged as a network news star on the program. But Rose was seen as giving the show its creditability as a smarter alternative for morning viewers.
CBS did not name a replacement for Rose on "CBS This Morning." A number of CBS News personalities are expected to fill his chair until a permanent co-anchor is named.
Back in a moment we will be.
Another big story for this week surrounded Trump's comments on LaVar Ball and their interesting twists and turns.
It all started Sunday, when shot back at LaVar Ball, the father of one of the UCLA basketball players arrested in China, for belittling the President's role in the students' release.
"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal," Trump tweeted. "I should have left them in jail!"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Days after Trump touted his involvement in the release of three students who were arrested in China on suspicion of shoplifting, Ball suggested the President had little to do with the matter.
"Who?" Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump's role in the situation. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."
shot back at Lavar Ball, the father of one of the UCLA basketball players arrested in China, for belittling the President's role in the students' release.
"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal," Trump tweeted. "I should have left them in jail!"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Days after Trump touted his involvement in the release of three students who were arrested in China on suspicion of shoplifting, Ball suggested the President had little to do with the matter.
"Who?" Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump's role in the situation. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."
Trump's social media director, Dan Scavino, fired back at Ball on his personal Twitter account Saturday afternoon, saying Ball's son, LiAngelo, "would be in China for a long, long, long time" without the President's assistance.
"Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren't for President @realDonaldTrump, his son would be in China for a long, long, long time! #FACT," Scavino wrote.
LiAngelo Ball, along with two other players, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were arrested last week on suspicion of stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store while their team was in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Trump had said he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to intervene in the case.
On Wednesday, Trump issued a call for gratitude from the players.
"Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!" he tweeted.
The President received the thanks of the players at a news conference later that day, where they also apologized for their behavior.
"To President Trump and the United States government, thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf. Thank you for helping us out," Riley said. LiAngelo Ball echoed his teammate's statement.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero confirmed the trio shoplifted from three stores near their hotel Monday night. The three were identified the next morning after police searched their bags and found the stolen items.
Trump issued a follow-up message to the students on Thursday, wishing them a "great life."
"To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You're welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!" he wrote on Twitter.
LaVar Ball told ESPN he was happy to have his son back, and also seemed to downplay his alleged crime.
"As long as my boy's back here, I'm fine," he said. "I'm happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, 'They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.' I'm from L.A. I've seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses."
All three players have been suspended from the UCLA basketball team indefinitely. But President Trump continued to rail against LaVar Ball, the father of a UCLA basketball player who was detained for shoplifting in China.
At 5:25 am, ET, Trump rehashed his beef with Ball, who has been reluctant to thank the President for his role in his son's release from China."It wasn't the White House, it wasn't the State Department, it wasn't father LaVar's so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair," Trump tweeted in part.
It wasn't the White House, it wasn't the State Department, it wasn't father LaVar's so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
...LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It's a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Trump called Ball an "ungrateful fool," adding that getting his son home is "a really big deal."
The tweets come after Ball said Monday in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo that he didn't know what the President had done to get his son and two other UCLA basketball players out of China.
After Ball's refusal to thank Trump in an interview withESPN a few days after the players' release, the President said he should have left the three players in jail.
"Did he help the boys get out? I don't know. ... If I was going to thank somebody I'd probably thank President Xi (Jinping)," Ball said Monday night when asked about his back-and-forth with the President by CNN's Chris Cuomo.
"It wasn't like he was in the US and said, 'OK, there's three kids in China. I need to go over and get them.' That wasn't the thought process," he told Cuomo.
Ball suggested Trump, who frequently brought up the conversation he had with Xi about the release during a trip to Asia, should stay quiet.
"If you help, you shouldn't have to say anything," he said. "Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son and let's just stay in our lane."
This all in all didn't stop LeVar Burton from taking the hit on Twitter.
Burton is an actor best known for playing Lt. La Forge in "Star Trek" on TV and film and for championing kids' education through the "Reading Rainbow" series, which ran on PBS from 1983 to 2006 and was among the first shows on public television to air in stereo sound.
Ball is the father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball and UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball, one of three student players recently arrested in China for shoplifting.
Trump tweeted that Ball was an "ungrateful fool" for not being more appreciative of presidential intervention in LiAngelo Ball's case. Some of the president's followers in turn attacked Burton on Twitter. Among the tweets:
@levarburton You're a has been actor with a thief for a son and Trump is the president of the United States. Get the picture?
— markconte (@proseman) November 21, 2017
@levarburton VERY UNGRATEFUL! https://t.co/UNJ4As8t1r
— Kim (@kglass1957) November 21, 2017
@levarburton you sure don’t do much for the black cause with your unlawful ungrateful parenting skills.
— Steven Epps (@Steven_L_Epps) November 20, 2017
Burton was forced to acknowledge the wrongful trolling on Tuesday in a tweet where he mentioned Ball.
One of many sleights I am having to endure these days. Thanks! @Lavarbigballer… #bydhttmwfi https://t.co/uYkoDOV6yZ
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) November 21, 2017
Burton and Ball haven't let the controversy interrupt their holiday plans—both tweeted Thanksgiving wishes to their followers Thursday.
We'll be right back.
As we all know, President Trump is standing by Roy Moore despite the fact that it's facturing the party. Here's the New York Times with how THAT's going on.
By the time Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, made the last of his repeated pleas to President Trump to keep his distance from the Senate candidacy of Roy S. Moore, it was too late.
To Mr. McConnell, only the president could extinguish a fire that he sees as endangering Republicans’ Senate majority. But Mr. Trump, speaking by phone last Tuesday with Mr. McConnell, responded with the same argument he had been making for days inside the White House.
The women who have called Mr. Moore a sexual predator, the president believes, may not be telling the truth.
“Forty years is a long time. He’s run eight races, and this has never come up,” Mr. Trump said to the television cameras on the South Lawn hours after his conversation with Mr. McConnell, effectively endorsing Mr. Moore before boarding Marine One. “He says it didn’t happen,” the president added. “You have to listen to him, also.”
Mr. Trump’s decision to reject every long-shot plan to save the Senate seat reflects the imperative that an unpopular president faces to retain his political base, a determination that he should follow his own instincts after having felt steered into a disastrous earlier endorsement in the Alabama race, and even his insistence that he himself has been the victim of false accusations of sexual misconduct.
But in tying himself to Mr. Moore even as congressional leaders have abandoned the candidate en masse, the president has reignited hostilities with his own party just as Senate Republicans are rushing to pass a politically crucial tax overhaul. Mr. McConnell and his allies have been particularly infuriated as Mr. Trump has reacted with indifference to a series of ideas they have floated to try to block Mr. Moore.
The accusations against Mr. Moore have lifted Democrats’ hopes of notching a rare victory in the Deep South in next month’s special election, which would narrow the Republican Senate majority to a single seat. Just as significantly, the president has handed the Democrats a political weapon with which to batter Republicans going into the midterm elections: that they tolerate child predation.
“I was surprised, and I think it’s a high-risk move,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has established a rapport with Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Moore has rejected calls to drop out even as more women have accused him of preying on them when they were teenagers, Republicans have given up any hope that he will fold his campaign. Mr. Trump has repeatedly told his aides that he does not believe Mr. Moore would ever quit.
What the president did not foresee was that the friction would reach inside his immediate family. He vented his annoyance when his daughter Ivanka castigated Mr. Moore by saying there was “a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” according to three staff members who heard his comments.
“Do you believe this?” Mr. Trump asked several aides in the Oval Office. Mr. Moore’s Democratic opponent in the Alabama race, Doug Jones, quickly turned her comments into a campaign ad.
But something deeper has been consuming Mr. Trump. He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)
So Mr. Trump has been particularly open to the idea, pushed by Mr. Moore’s defenders, that the candidate is being wrongly accused, even as Mr. McConnell and a parade of other Republicans have said they believe the accusers. When a group of senators gathered with the president in the White House last week to discuss the tax overhaul, it took little to get Mr. Trump onto the topic of Mr. Moore—and he immediately offered up the same it-was-40-years-ago defense, according to officials at the meeting.
Mr. Trump’s responses to the Moore revelations have been pronounced but not consistent. He accepted the candidate’s initial denials, and then was shocked at how tepid Mr. Moore appeared when asked during an interview with Sean Hannity whether he still maintained his innocence, according to one person close to the president.
Privately, Mr. Trump has acknowledged that he is making a cold political calculus in the hope that the Republicans will hold on to the seat. A White House official on Saturday reiterated the president’s view that he believes Mr. Moore should quit the race if the allegations are proved true, but the official stressed that the candidate has denied them.
Absent action from Mr. Trump, party leaders have explored—and abandoned—a number of ways to derail Mr. Moore. They considered recruiting another Republican to run a write-in campaign against Mr. Moore and Mr. Jones, but two private polls showed that such a candidacy would have no chance of success.
Both polls, commissioned by Republican groups in mid-November, found Mr. Jones leading Mr. Moore in a head-to-head election and winning handily in a three-way race, according to people who reviewed the results. Public polls have indicated a very close race.
Mr. McConnell and his allies have believed for weeks that disaster awaits, win or lose, if Mr. Moore remains in the race: Either the Democrats will claim the seat on Dec. 12, or Mr. Moore will win and thrust the party into an agonizing monthslong debate over whether to expel him.
Supporters of Mr. Moore outside the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery on Nov. 17. PHOTO CREDIT: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThe Senate leader has told fellow Republicans in private that Mr. Moore’s nomination has endangered the party’s hold on the Senate, according to people who have spoken with him—his starkest acknowledgment so far that the political environment has turned sharply against his party since Mr. Trump’s election. Mr. McConnell has also reiterated his intention to move against Mr. Moore if he is elected, though Mr. McConnell has made clear that he thinks that the candidate is unlikely to win.
Otherwise loyal Senate Republicans have started putting some distance between themselves and the president, a breach that could grow wider in the event of expulsion proceedings.
“As much as people would like to assume that, as Louis XIV said, ‘I am the state,’ there is more than one person who represents the Republican Party, and the preponderance of the party has dissociated itself from Moore,” said Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
The president blindsided congressional Republicans with his defense of Mr. Moore, who was a polarizing figure — he has said homosexual conduct should be illegal — well before being accused of making sexual advances on minors when he was a district attorney in his 30s.
Mr. McConnell even enlisted Washington campaign lawyers with experience in Alabama elections to devise a four-page memo outlining a legal avenue to block Mr. Moore’s path, but the White House counsel’s office ignored the document entirely. “All you can do is identify a way out of the mess, and if people don’t want to follow it, that’s on them,” said Josh Holmes, one of Mr. McConnell’s closest political advisers.
Mr. McConnell and his lieutenants considered a write-in candidacy and found the prospect of wooing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose old seat is in play, to be especially appealing.
And Senate Republicans initially seemed to have allies in the West Wing: Mr. McConnell found Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to be receptive when he first talked to them about disavowing Mr. Moore.
But even before Mr. Trump returned to American soil, he was becoming uneasy about making such a break.
Flying back from Asia, Mr. Trump was told by aides that the Republican National Committee was handling the Moore situation. Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers insisted that the move to cut off funds was wise, but by the time he returned to the White House, he had heard from others who thought the decision was misguided, according to two officials close to the president.
Soon after, the president’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, began aggressively urging Mr. Trump not to break with Mr. Moore, arguing that he should not get crosswise with his voter base, although it was not clear if the two men spoke directly. The president is still smarting over his decision to fly into Alabama in September on behalf of Senator Luther Strange, the appointee holding the seat, only to see Mr. Strange lose a runoff by over nine points.
Mr. Pence, after initially issuing a statement critical of Mr. Moore, has since followed the president’s lead. At a recent meeting of the Republican Governors Association, Mr. Pence spoke privately with Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, according to Republican officials familiar with the conversation.
The vice president inquired about the governor’s view of the matter, but did not press Ms. Ivey on Mr. Moore. She signaled no willingness to intervene, only reiterating to Mr. Pence that Alabamians would render their judgment and that the election take place next month as scheduled. (When Senator Richard C. Shelby, Alabama’s most senior lawmaker, called Ms. Ivey, she barely let him begin speaking before bluntly informing him that she would not change the date.)
Mr. Trump has not spoken with Ms. Ivey, which has made Mr. McConnell’s final Hail Mary a nonstarter.
The campaign lawyers commissioned by the Senate leader last week sent a memo to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, arguing that, based on Alabama precedent, if Mr. Strange were to resign, Ms. Ivey could appoint a new senator. They also made the case that Ms. Ivey was within her rights to delay the special election.
“Our recommendation is to combine Steps 1 and 2: Strange resigns; the governor fills the vacancy with a new appointee; and the governor delays the special election to give the new appointee time to run as an independent candidate,” the lawyers wrote.
Should Mr. Jones win, Democrats would need to take only two more seats in 2018 to regain a majority in the Senate—still a difficult task, but one nearly unimaginable just a month ago. A victory for Mr. Moore could be just as punishing for Republicans, because it could taint their candidates across the country by association with a man accused of child molestation.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist close to Mr. McConnell, said the race had developed into a no-win situation.
“Either we’re saddled with a Democrat in a seat that ought to be Republican,” Mr. Jennings said, “or we’re saddled with a brand anvil that’s going to drag down the president, drag down the Senate, drag down the party and plunge the Senate into immediate turmoil when he gets there.”
For its part, Mr. Moore’s campaign is thrilled to have the president’s tacit support and is promising to highlight it.
“We’re going to make it clear to the voters of Alabama that Roy Moore is the candidate to help President Trump get a conservative Supreme Court and cut taxes,” said Brett Doster, a top Moore adviser. “That will be included in our ads, definitely.”
We'll be back with our hymn of the week.
Beginning our week full of Christmas hymns, here's Evie performing O Little Town of Bethlehem on her album Christmas, A Happy Time released on Word, 701 8952 107.
This has been the Sunday Showcase. We will see you for another installment next week. Until then, so long.
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