At N.J. rally, Trump warns people about loss of cows, saying there are no cows in Wildwood

2020/1/28©Advance Local Media LLC.

We’ve heard about “making America great again.”

But making Wildwood have cows again?

“I love New Jersey, and I’m thrilled to be right here back in the Garden State," PresidentDonald Trumpsaid at the start of his Tuesday nightrally at the Wildwoods Convention Center. "The Garden State.”

Later, Trump went on to talk about cows. Mainly, the lack of them in Wildwood (notwithstanding the existence of Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms on Spicer Avenue).

The bovine reference arrived when Trump was speaking ill of the proposed Green New Deal. He claimed that the measure, intended to take action on climate change, would somehow separate farmers from their cows.

“You don’t have too many cows in Wildwood, but if you do, they’re gone," Trump said, attempting to tailor the Green New Deal assertion to the local community.

Some noted the seemingly incongruous mention of cows in the Shore Town on Twitter.

"Democrats in Washington want to get rid of your oil and your cows. You don't have a lot of cows in WildWood, but if you have one, he's gone."

I love this guy pic.twitter.com/gMeRBJJqUw

— Red Walrus (@RedWalrus1)

I wish he were a cow in Wildwood 😜

— ImpeachedForLife😎 (@noah_zoey)

Trump now issuing an ominous warning about the Green New Deal.

Says it will lead to cows being gone.

Note: there are no known cattle ranches in shore town of Wildwood, New Jersey.

Well, I guess there never will be now. Sad. Sorry, cows.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer)

The only cow in Wildwood, NJ. I think she is a @realDonaldTrumpfan!😎 pic.twitter.com/6c75N4IYap

— Darren Webb (@bfd400)

A month after Puerto Rico's earthquakes began, more than 4,000 still sleep outside
2020/1/28 ©Miami Herald
Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/TNS

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A month after a series of powerful earthquakes began rattling Puerto Rico, about 4,600 people are still sleeping at emergency shelters — either because their residences are damaged or because they’re simply too afraid to go home.

At a news conference Tuesday, government officials said the quakes, which began on Dec. 28 and peaked on Jan. 7 with a magnitude 6.4 main shock, have damaged 1,390 buildings and completely destroyed at least 300. But most of the people who remain at municipal shelters and improvised camps are there out of sheer precaution, Gov. Wanda Vázquez said.

“During my visits to shelters and camps, I’ve noticed that although some people have lost their homes … many people simply don’t want to sleep under a roof,” she said. “Even when their house hasn’t been damaged, they prefer to be at the camps or under a tent for security.”

While the U.S. territory of 3.2 million people is accustomed to storms and hurricanes, these are the first major earthquakes to hit Puerto Rico in a century, and the psychic damage has been almost as bad as the physical damage.

Julio Seda, 55, has been living in a tent city in Guayanilla since Jan. 7. He realizes he’s one of the lucky ones, as his home has been unscathed by the earthquakes. And last week he was almost ready to quit sleeping in his car and go home, but on Saturday the area was hit by a powerful magnitude 5 aftershock.

“There’s so much speculation and fear that a bigger earthquake is coming and that has kept us living outside,” said Seda, who has been camping out with 13 other people. “It’s hard to go home while it’s still shaking.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided 1,086 people with $2.7 million in home repair and rental assistance aid due to the earthquakes. And the local government has been sending teams of therapists and psychologists to provide support.

“This isn’t the first country or area of a country that has seen constant earthquakes,” said Suzanne Roig, the head of Puerto Rico’s Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, or ASSMCA. “We are trying to provide an education … but it takes time.”

Vázquez said local and federal officials are planning to have everyone out of sprawling emergency camps strewn along Puerto Rico’s southern coast within 60 days, even as aftershocks continue.

The government’s response to the earthquakes has come under intense scrutiny as Vázquez is hoping to win a second term in November’s general election.

Earlier this month, she came under fire after it was discovered that a warehouse full of emergency aid was never disbursed. She fired three of her Cabinet members in response and ordered a Justice Department investigation.

On Tuesday, she tried to highlight her government’s work, saying it has provided shelter to more than 62,800 people since the earthquakes started, distributed more than 144,700 meals and inspected more than 7,081 homes.

But Vázquez said there’s still “a long way to go” before the crisis is over.

The U.S. Geological Survey has said minor aftershocks are likely to continue for days, if not weeks, to come.

Seda said he’s getting used to the idea that quakes are part of his new reality. And he says he may go home this week if the tremors continue to subside.

“But it’s going to take time before I completely trust my house,” he said.

———

©2020 Miami Herald

Russian explorers discovered Antarctica 200 years ago. What we've learned about Earth's coldest continent.

By Dan Morgan - Associate Dean and Principal Senior Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University 

(Image: © Shutterstock)

Antarctica is the remotest part of the world, but it is a hub of scientific discovery, international diplomacy and environmental change. It was officially discovered 200 years ago, on Jan. 27, 1820, when members of a Russian expedition sighted land in what is now known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf on the continent's east side.

Early explorers were drawn there by the mythology of Terra Australis, a vast southern continent that scholars imagined for centuries as a counterweight to the Northern Hemisphere. Others sought economic bounty from hunting whales and seals, or the glory of conquering the planet's last wilderness. Still others wanted to understand Earth's magnetic fields in order to better navigate the seas.

I am a geologist who specializes in understanding the timing and extent of past ice ages. Much of my work focuses on the glacial history of Antarctica, and I've been privileged to conduct five field seasons of research there.

Related: Antarctica: The Ice-Covered Bottom of the World (Photos)

For the next two years I'll be working with a field team made up entirely of undergraduate students from Vanderbilt University to determine whether the East Antarctic Ice Sheet changes flow patterns as it changes shape. All of the research these budding scientists conduct will be done under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty, a global agreement that promotes scientific cooperation and environmental protection.

A flight to Victoria Land, as part of Operation IceBridge, snapped this image showing an iceberg floating in Antarctica's McMurdo Sound. (Image credit: Operation IceBridge)
Frozen but abundant

Antarctica separated from South America 35 million years ago, and its climate started to change. It began to grow ice sheets — masses of glacial land ice covering thousands of square miles. As plate tectonics shifted other continents, Antarctica became colder and drier. For the past 14 million years, it has been the frigid continent that persists today.

Antarctica is the only continent that was literally discovered, because it has no native human population. British explorer Sir James Cook circumnavigated the continent in 1772-1775, but saw only some outlying islands. Cook concluded that if there were any land, it would be "condemned to everlasting regidity by Nature, never to yield to the warmth of the sun."

Related: Facts About Antarctica: The Southernmost Continent

Cook also reported that Antarctic waters were rich with nutrients and wildlife. This drew sealers and whalers, mainly from England and the United States, who hunted the region's fur seals and elephant seals to near-extinction in the following decades. This hunting spree led to the discovery of the Antarctic mainland and its ice sheets, the largest in the world.
Reading the ice



Today, the combined East and West Antarctic ice sheets hold 90% of the world's ice, enough to raise global sea levels by roughly 200 feet (60 meters) if it all melted. Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest, windiest, brightest, and yes, iciest continent on Earth. And 200 years of research has shown that it is a key component of Earth's climate system.

Despite the appearance that it is an unchanging, freeze-dried landscape, my research and work by many others has shown that the East Antarctica Ice Sheet does slowly thin and thicken over millions of years. Interestingly, my data also suggest that as the ice advances and retreats, it moves in the same patterns each time. Put another way, the ice flows over the same land each time it advances.

While East Antarctica adds and loses ice slowly, it is so large that it is a major contributor to sea level rise. Understanding how the ice has changed in the past is key to predicting how much and how fast it will melt in the coming years.

These questions are especially important in West Antarctica, where the bottom of the ice sheet is below sea level, making it very susceptible to changes in sea level and ocean temperature. By itself, the West Antarctic ice sheet has the potential to raise sea level by 16 feet (5 meters) if it collapses.

As climate change raises global sea levels, parts of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, such as the Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers, are particularly vulnerable to collapse. At the end of the last ice age, parts of West Antarctica thinned by an average of 1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 - 1 meters) per year. Today with GPS, satellite and airborne measurements, scientists are seeing parts of West Antarctica thin by 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters) per year.

We also know from the geological record that this ice sheet is capable of rapid collapses, and has sometimes thinned at rates in excess of 30 feet (10 meters) per year. Recent models show sea level could rise by 1 meter by 2100 and 15 meters by 2500 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at current rates and the ice sheet experiences a rapid collapse, as it has in the past.

This image shows the two cracks captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Sept. 14, 2019. (Image credit: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Finding inspiration in scientific diplomacy


Despite the potential for environmental disaster in Antarctica, the continent also offers evidence that nations can collaborate to find solutions. The Antarctic Treaty System is the world's premier example of peaceful and scientific international cooperation.


This landmark accord, signed in 1961, sets aside Antarctica for peaceful and scientific purposes and recognizes no land claims on the continent. It also was the first non-nuclear accord ever signed, barring use of Antarctica for nuclear weapons testing or disposal of radioactive waste.


The great Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton said that "optimism is true moral courage," and the authors of the Antarctic Treaty were certainly courageous optimists. They were encouraged by the success of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year, a worldwide program of scientific research during which 12 countries built over 50 bases in Antarctica, including McMurdo Station and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.


Under the treaty, scientists from North Korea, Russia and China can freely visit U.S. research stations in Antarctica. Researchers from India and Pakistan willingly share their data about Antarctic glaciers.


Thanks to the Antarctic Treaty, 10% of Earth's land surface is protected as a wildlife and wilderness refuge. I have set foot in places in Antarctica where I know no one has ever been before, and the treaty sets areas aside that no one will ever visit. Antarctica's landscapes are unlike anywhere else on Earth. The best comparison may be the Moon.

Yet in these stark environments, life finds a way to persist — showing that there are solutions to even the most daunting challenges. If Antarctica has taught us anything in 200 years, it's that we can cooperate and collaborate to overcome problems. As Ernest Shackleton once said, "Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all."

50 Amazing Facts About Antarctica
In Photos: Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf Through Time
Icy Images: Antarctica Will Amaze You in Incredible Aerial Views

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Bubbling carbon dioxide vent discovered on the seafloor off the Philippines

By Yasemin Saplakoglu - Staff Writer 

A scientist collects gas samples at the newly discovered Soda Springs in the Philippines.
(Image: © University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences)

Diving hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean off the coast of the Philippines, scientists came across a bubbling hotspot of carbon dioxide. And this newly discovered vent might help us predict how coral reefs will deal with climate change, according to a new study.

Bayani Cardenas, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, accidentally discovered this carbon dioxide fountain while researching the effect of groundwater runoff into the ocean environment in the Philippines's Verde Island Passage.

This strait that runs between the Luzon and Mindoro islands, connecting the South China Sea with the Tayabas Bay, is busy on its surface, serving as a prominent shipping route. It's also busy below the surface, where it harbors one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world. And the reefs in this passage, unlike bleached reefs elsewhere, are thriving, according to a statement from The University of Texas.

The researchers named the new hotspot Soda Springs and said that it could have been releasing these bubbles for decades or even millennia.

Related: Photos: Hawaii's New Underwater Volcano

Soda Springs is a result of an underwater volcano, which vents gas and acidic water through cracks in the ocean floor. The researchers found carbon dioxide concentrations as high as 95,000 parts per million (ppm) near the springs, which is over 200 times the concentration present in the atmosphere, according to the statement.

The levels quickly fell as the gas flowed into the massive ocean, but the seafloor released enough gas to create elevated levels (400 to 600 ppm) and enough acidic water to lower the pH for the nearby coastline. This might thus be an ideal spot for studying how other coral reefs around the world may cope with climate change as it brings more carbon dioxide into their environments, Cardenes said in the statement.

What's more, by tracing levels of radon-222, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope found in groundwater local to the area, the team discovered hotspots on the seafloor where groundwater was being discharged into the ocean. "Groundwater flow from land to sea could have important coastal impacts, but it is usually unrecognized," the authors wrote in the study. "Delicate reefs may be particularly sensitive to groundwater inputs."

The researchers found that groundwater and seawater appeared in different relative amounts in different areas of Soda Springs. This variable mixing means that "the groundwater flow could be contributing to the evolution and functioning of the ecosystem," the authors wrote.

However, the presence of these passageways might also mean that there is a way for pollutants from the island to make it into the coral reefs, Cardenes said in the statement. In the Philippines, where coastal development has surged, people are using septic tanks instead of modern sewage systems, which can easily pump waste into the reefs, Cardenes said.

It's not clear how these reefs thrive in a carbon-dioxide-rich environment, but then again, not much is known about this area. "It's really a big part of the ocean that is left unexplored," Cardenes said in the statement. "It's too shallow for remotely operated vehicles and is too deep for regular divers."

The findings were published on Jan. 3 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

'Ghost' population of humans discovered in ancient Africa

By Laura Geggel - Associate Editor 

This is the first time researchers have done an in-depth analysis of ancient DNA from western Central Africa.

The rock shelter at Shum Laka in Cameroon. Surprisingly, the ancient people who lived at this rock shelter are not related to the people in the region today.
(Image: © Photo by Pierre de Maret, January 1994)

During the Stone Age in what is now western Cameroon, four children who perished before their prime were buried in a natural rock shelter. Now, thousands of years later, an analysis of the ancient DNA found in their bones has revealed secrets about the people who lived there many millennia ago, according to a new study.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that these children are not related to the modern-day Bantu-speaking cultures that reside in the region today, the researchers said. Rather, the Stone Age youngsters are genetically closer to the present-day hunter-gatherer groups of Central Africa, which are not closely related to Bantu speaking groups, the researchers found.

This realization and others, including that a previously unknown "ghost" population contributed genetically to the people who live in Africa today, is shedding light on what is still the most genetically diverse region for humans in the world today, the researchers said.

Related: Photos: Looking for Extinct Humans in Ancient Cave Mud

Ancient rock shelter

Researchers have found countless artifacts and 18 human burials at the Shum Laka rock shelter, which people have used for at least 30,000 years. But the new study focused on the burials of four children, who lived as the Stone Age transitioned into the Metal Age (also called the Stone-to-Metal Age) in western Central Africa.

This included the remains of a 4-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy found in a double-burial dating to about 8,000 years ago. The researchers also analyzed the DNA of a 4-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy found in neighboring burials dating to about 3,000 years ago, during the late Stone-to-Metal Age.

Although they lived thousands of years apart, these children were distant cousins, the researchers found. About one-third of their DNA came from ancestors who were more closely related to hunter and gatherers in western Central Africa. The other two-thirds came from an ancient source in West Africa, including a "long lost ghost population of modern humans that we didn't know about before," study senior researcher David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard University, told Science magazine.

The DNA of these cousins upended a previously held idea. Until now, researchers thought that the Bantu-speaking peoples, which includes several hundred indigenous groups in sub-Saharan Africa, originated in this area of Central Africa, before radiating out across the lower half of Africa, which includes central, western central, eastern and southern Africa. This idea was thought to explain why most of the people from these regions are closely related to each other.

But the new genetic analyses show that's not the case. The inhabitants of Shum Laka were not the ancestors of Bantu-speaking people at least according to the DNA of these four children.

"The finding that the Shum Laka individuals are most related to present day rainforest hunter-gatherers and not ancestors of Bantu-speakers is surprising given that Shum Laka was long considered by archeologist[s] as the site where Bantu-speaker culture [was] developing in situ," Carina Schlebusch, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, who wasn't involved with the study, told Live Science in an email.

"However, as the authors mentioned in the article, it might be that multiple groups used the site," Schlebusch said. This means that the Bantu's ancestors might have used the site, but it's not shown in these particular burials.

Related: In Photos: Oldest Homo Sapiens Fossils Ever Found



A researcher excavates the ancient bones at the Shum Laka rock shelter, which holds the remains of children who lived about 8,000 and 3,000 years ago. (Image credit: Photo by Isabelle Ribot, January 1994)
Ancient genetics

The genetic analyses revealed a handful of other findings about the ancient people of Cameroon. For instance, one of the boy's genomes revealed that he had the oldest branch of the Y chromosome, which shows that the oldest lineage of human males was present in Cameroon for at least 8,000 years, and possibly much longer, the researchers said.

The children's genomes also showed signs of admixture, suggesting that the children's ancestors mated with people from different populations, the researchers found.

In addition, the analysis suggests that there are at least four major human lineages, which date to between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. This realization is unique to this dataset, and hasn't been found from previous genetic studies, the researchers said.

The scientists also found another set of four sub-branches of human lineages that date to between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago. This includes the lineage that gave rise to all modern non-Africans, the researchers said.

"It is a nice paper and it is a welcome addition to the growing aDNA [ancient DNA] database of Africa," Schlebusch said. "It is especially valuable to get aDNA from West Africa, where it is well know[n] that the preservation of human remains [is] very bad due to the acidic soils."

That said, the researchers could have done even more with their unique dataset, she said. For instance, they could have visualized effective population sizes over time, Schlebusch said. She added that "the findings regarding the deep African population structure are interesting, but we definitely need more testing of possible models and most probably more aDNA results before we will be able to disentangle signals."

The study, led by scientists at Harvard Medical School, was published online today (Jan. 22) in the journal Nature. 

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DNA from child burials reveals 'profoundly different' human ...

https://www.sciencemag.org › news › 2020/01 › dna-child-burials-reveals-...

6 days ago - Central Africa is too hot and humid for ancient DNA to survive—or so ... DNA to other genetic data from Africa and found hints that the Baka, Aka, and ... including some from a “long lost ghost population of modern humans that ...

Traces of mystery ancient humans found lurking in our genomes

https://www.newscientist.com › article › mg24031992-600-traces-of-myste...

Oct 10, 2018 - Traces of mystery ancient humans found lurking in our genomes ... Denisovans are nearly ghosts: we have that one finger bone and a few ... “So the idea is that 700,000 years ago, there's a population in Africa that splits off ...

Ancient DNA from West Africa Adds to Picture of Humans' Rise ...

https://www.nytimes.com › 2020/01/22 › science › ancient-dna-africa

6 days ago - Ancient DNA from West Africa Adds to Picture of Humans' RiseAncient DNA ... Now researchers have found the first genetic material from West Africa. ... Today some people in Sierra Leone have a tiny trace of Ghost Modern ...

Ancient African skeletons hint at a “ghost lineage” of humans ...

https://arstechnica.com › science › 2020/01 › ancient-african-skeletons-hin...

6 days ago - But another Y is a rare version that's only found in a few modern populations in Africa and seems to have been introduced into modern humans ...

First ancient genomes from West Africa reveal complexity of ...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com › science › 2020/01 › first-ancient-ge...

6 days ago - Comparison of the ancient DNA to modern groups across Africa revealed ... least 2.8 million years to the oldest fossil of our genus, Homo, yet found. ... Another branch represents a “ghost” population of modern humans whose ...

First ancient DNA from West/Central Africa illuminates deep ...

https://www.sciencedaily.com › releases › 2020/01

6 days ago - Scientists have produced the first genome-wide ancient human DNA ... The work also illuminates previously unknown "ghost" populations that ... Y chromosome type, found almost nowhere outside western Cameroon today.

Tsunami warning after 7.7 magnitude earthquake off Jamaican coast on January 28, 2020

By Common Dreams

A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Jamaica and Cuba Tuesday afternoon.

The quake, which took place around 2:15 pm, was felt in Jamaica, residents reported.

BREAKING: magnitude 7.7 #earthquake 80 miles northwest of Jamaica.
Here's a look at the exact location of the earthquake: pic.twitter.com/2azhKDJEUx
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) January 28, 2020

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued warnings of tsunami waves of up to a meter above sea level for Jamaica, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Mexico.

Tsunami warning sites are still not working. Here's an update from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center pic.twitter.com/mkqCDEE5ul— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) January 28, 2020


Caribbean earthquake of 7.7 prompts office evacuations in Miami
BBC.com
1 hour ago

Strong earthquake shakes vast area from Mexico to Florida
The Guardian
7 hours ago

Powerful Earthquake Strikes Caribbean, But No Reports Of Injuries Or Damage
NPR


Powerful 7.7 earthquake strikes between Cuba and Jamaica
Los Angeles Times


Jamaica and Cuba Rattled by Powerful 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake


Earthquake info : M5.1 earthquake on Tuesday, 28 January 2020 20:15 UTC / Albania - 992 experience reports


Magnitude 7.7 Quake Hits Near Cuba; Miami Offices Evacuated


Massive earthquake below the sea in between Cuba and Jamaica - January 28, 2020


Major mag. 7.7 earthquake - 125km NNW of Lucea, Jamaica (Cayman Islands) on Tuesday, 28 January 2020 ...

Jamaica earthquake: Huge 7.7-magnitude tremor hits off ...
 - The US Geological Survey said the 7.7-magnitude quake hit off the northwest coast of Jamaica, prompting the US Tsunami Warning Centre to issue an alert for Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands. It was so big that schools in Jamaica and buildings in Miami – 580 miles away – were evacuated.

Jamaica earthquake news: Caribbean rocked by two huge ...
Two large earthquake have rocked the Caribbean, after an initial 7.7 ... The tsunami warning triggered by today's earthquake has passed.

Earthquake in Jamaica, Cuba: 7.7 quake hits ... - USA Today

 The USGS initially estimated the quake's magnitude at 7.3 before upgrading it to 7.7. The ensuing aftershocks so far have topped out at a magnitude 6.1. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said any tsunami threats from the earthquake have passed and no other ones are foreseen.

‘Screaming the quiet part into a bullhorn’: Sen. Joni Ernst admits GOP using impeachment trial to damage Biden in 2020

January 28, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

“Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn’t—destroy his political rivals.”

After President Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday completed the second day of their impeachment defense—which largely consisted of attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter—Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told reporters that she is “really interested to see” how team Trump’s performance at the Senate trial “informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers.”

Ernst’s remarks, which came just a week before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, were widely viewed as an open admission that Trump’s attorneys and the Republican Party are using the Senate impeachment trial as an opportunity to damage Biden at the polls.

“This is saying the quiet part out loud,” tweeted MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, a sentiment that was echoed by others.

“Here is Joni Ernst screaming the quiet part into a bullhorn,” said Kaili Joy Gray, executive editor of The American Independent, said in response to the Iowa Republican’s comments.

ERNST: “IA caucuses are this next Monday evening. And I’m really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Demcaucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?”

H/T @JaxAlemany pic.twitter.com/tYYkSPuIDY

— Alan He (@alanhe) January 28, 2020

Ernst’s comments run counter to the longstanding White House and Republican narrative that Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations—for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives last month—was a genuine attempt to root out corruption, not a politically motivated ploy to harm Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Like Ernst, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also invoked the presidential election following hours of arguments by Trump’s defense team, which includes Pam Bondi, Eric Herschmann, Alan Dershowitz, and Ken Starr.

“I was watching Elizabeth [Warren] and Bernie [Sanders] and Michael [Bennet] and Amy [Klobuchar] and they were really eyes wide open during that part of it,” Barrasso told reporters, referring to Trump attorney Pam Bondi’s presentation, which heavily focused on Biden an his son.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said as he watched “Bondi and the other Trump lawyers spend most of the day savaging the Bidens (as expected)… it become crystal clear to me: Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn’t—destroy his political rivals.”

White House grants press access to Christian site whose founder called impeachment a ‘Jew coup’

January 28, 2020 By Igor Derysh, Salon

The White House granted press credentials to a Christian news site whose founder claimed that President Donald Trump’s impeachment was a “Jew coup” organized by a “Jewish cabal” in anti-Semitic remarks.

Five employees of the Florida-based conservative Christian news outlet TruNews received press credentials from the White House to cover Trump’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, founder Rick Wiles told The New York Times from a ski lodge reserved for press members by the Trump administration. The outlet was not granted special access to Trump, though TruNews’ Edward Szall asked Ivanka Trump a question during a news conference, according to the report

“We want to thank President Trump and the White House for extending the invitation to be here,” Wiles said in a video. “We are honored to be here representing the kingdom of heaven and our king Jesus Christ.”

This is not the first time the outlet has gained access to the Trumps. Trump took a question from Zsall during a 2018 news conference at the U.N., while Donald Trump Jr. gave an interview to the site after a rally in Michigan last year.

TruNews’ recent involvement in Trump’s trip prompted widespread outrage after Wiles said in a video in November that a “Jewish cabal” had plotted Trump’s impeachment.

“That’s the way Jews work,” Wiles said. “They are deceivers. They plot. They lie. They do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda. This ‘Impeach Trump’ movement is a Jew coup, and the American people better wake up to it really fast.”

Wiles also claimed that “when Jews take over a country, they kill millions of Christians.”

Those anti-Semitic comments prompted condemnation from several House Democrats, who called on the White House to bar the site from receiving press access.

“We want to know why TruNews was granted White House access and what steps are being taken to condemn their anti-Semitism and ensure such hatred is never welcome in the White House again,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va, wrote in a December letter to Trump’s acting chief of staff. “An extremist website that frequently attacks Jews and other minorities has no place in the White House … In addition to condemning this vile anti-Semitism, please let us know how this anti-Semitic purveyor of hate received access to the White House and what steps are being taken to ensure no similar group is ever recognized at the White House again.”

The lawmakers never received a response to their letter, but the White House invited the outlet on Trump’s trip.

“It’s a validation of their work,” Kyle Mantyla, who tracks Wiles’ work for the progressive group People for the American Way, told The Times, adding that the outlet “sees it as the White House being on their side.”

When asked about his anti-Semitic remarks at Davos, Wiles did not express any sign of regret.

“I coined a phrase. It came out of my mouth: ‘It looks like a Jew coup.’ All I pointed out was many of the people involved were Jewish,” he told the outlet, adding that, “I can tell you from my heart there is no ill will toward the Jewish people, with all sincerity.”

But Wiles’ presence did not sit well with Deutch, who traveled to the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem during Trump’s trip to Switzerland.

“I can’t believe the day before I attend an event at Yad Vashem marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, anti-Semites were given WH credentials to broadcast from European soil,” Deutch wrote on Twitter.

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, also questioned why the Trump administration had credentialed the outlet.

“It’s puzzling that a known hate group would get press credentials from the same White House that revoked the credentials of a correspondent for a major television network,” he told The Times, referring to the White House’s attempt to revoke credentials from CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. “We have asked why this happened and if the White House intends to issue credentials to this group in the future. We have not received an on-the-record response.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt pointed to the group’s history of bigoted statements, which included claims that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked underage girls to American politicians to blackmail them into supporting Israel and that the “Jewish mafia” and “Israel took out John Kennedy.”

The president himself has also been accused of anti-Semitism on multiple occasions.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Jewish journalist Peter Beinart accused Trump of anti-Semitic attacks on lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., arguing that Trump “engaged in deliberate, atrocious, targeted anti-Semitism.”

Multiple Jewish groups also accused Trump of using anti-Semitic tropes during a speech to the Israeli American Council, in which the president claimed that Jewish voters had “no choice” but to vote for him or lose money under Democrats’ wealth tax plans. Trump also claimed that some Jews “don’t love Israel enough” after arguing that Jews who vote for Democrats are “very disloyal to Israel.”

Trump similarly told the Republican Jewish Coalition during his campaign, “You’re not going to support me, because I don’t want your money.”

“Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t negotiate deals?” he added. “Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken.”

Even Trump’s executive order claiming to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campus came under fire for playing on “centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes,” College of Charleston Jewish studies professor Joshua Shanes wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post, adding that he signed the order while sitting alongside two other pastors that have made anti-Semitic comments.

“Last week, President Trump signed an executive order to fight anti-Semitism on college campuses while flanked by two evangelical Christian pastors, Robert Jeffress and John Hagee,” Shanes wrote. “Jeffress has literally damned Jews to hell, while Hagee has warned of an international plot led by the Rothschilds to undermine American sovereignty, described Hitler as a ‘hunter’ sent by God to kill Jews who refused to move to Israel and described the Antichrist as a ‘half-Jew homosexual.'”