US election hacking: Putin 'sought to help' Trump

Trump previously denied that Russia interfered in the election [Reuters]

Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Donald Trump win the presidential election, a US intelligence report says.

The declassified report says the Russian leader "ordered" a campaign aimed at influencing the election.

The report was released shortly after intelligence chiefs briefed Mr Trump on their findings.

Mr Trump stopped short of accusing Russia of interfering, saying only that the election outcome was not affected.

The report says that the Kremlin developed a "clear preference for President-elect Donald Trump.

"We also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavourably to him," it said.

Since winning the election, Mr Trump has repeatedly questioned US intelligence on the claims of Russian hacking.

US officials previously said the Kremlin was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails aimed at damaging Mr Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton.

Russian agents are alleged to have sent stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks to try to swing the vote for Mr Trump.

Russia has denied any involvement in the hacking and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party.

Rob Schneider CRUSHES Democrats and their bleating about Russia

Rob Schneider

Hollywood said something right? Shocking. And sadly it IS still shocking when anyone in Hollywood says something remotely sane or not out of the Leftist Playbook for Crybabies and Whiners.

Rob Schneider is part of the Adam Sandler group, and as you may or may not know, Sandler and many others in that group tend to lean a bit to the right. Schneider made some snarky yet spot-on comments about the Democrats and their Russian mania around the election:

Blaming the Russians for losing the election is like blaming the hotel room for getting caught with a prostitute.

— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) December 18, 2016

It’s like the Democrats crying about how the FBI hurt Hillary’s chances; actually since it was Hillary’s fault the FBI had a voice or a presence in this election at all, it’s still her fault.

Just like the emails – no one made any of those people write what was IN those emails.

What Democrats need to admit is they’re just angry they got caught … oh yeah, and that they LOST.

It's true. The Russians may have rigged the election by showing that the Democrats definitely rigged the election.

— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) December 19, 2016

Electors start voting to officially pick Donald Trump as President

The real voting for the White House is now underway.

At 10 a.m. Monday, members of the Electoral College began casting their ballots in state capitals across the nation to make Donald Trump's victory official. By 2 p.m., 30 states had voted so far, with no surprises in the balloting and Trump collecting 176 votes to Hillary Clinton's 103.

The 538 men and women will be voting primarily in accordance with the results from November in their state. The electors, chosen by state parties of the candidate who carried each state, will convene in all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia.

When all the votes were counted from November, the President-elect won 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232. It is expected that Trump will reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House some time this afternoon.

While electors are technically chosen to independently cast their ballots for president, both precedent and, in most cases, state laws require them to abide by the people's vote in each state.

After a fraught election, some have called on electors to vote against their state results. Heightening the tension in recent weeks has been that Clinton actually won the popular vote by about 3 million ballots nationwide -- making Trump the worst-performing winner in the popular vote since 1876.

In Minnesota, one elector was disqualified after declaring he would vote for someone other than his state's winner, Clinton. Under state law, he was replaced, and the alternate voted for Clinton.

Protests had popped up around the country Monday as frustrated Americans sought one last opportunity to stop the candidate they opposed.

But mass defections of electors would be extremely unlikely.

Thirty-seven of Trump's pledged 306 electors would have to vote against him, becoming so-called "faithless electors," to keep him under the 270 threshold to become President. If Clinton were to reach 270 in that far-fetched scenario, she could become President. If no candidate reaches 270, the House of Representatives would hold a vote when Congress reconvenes in January.

There have been a handful faithless electors in past cycles, though never enough to change the outcome of the race. One Texas elector has said he will not vote for Trump.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, whose state was won by Trump, tweeted a picture of the ballot for electors in his state. It featured a ballot for Trump as President and Mike Pence as vice president.

This is what an electoral college ballot looks like. pic.twitter.com/ZWsa7y8cEJ— Jon Husted (@JonHusted) December 19, 2016

Elsewhere in the country, Americans protested near electoral voting sites in a last-ditch plea to stop Trump's election, despite the high unlikelihood of success.

Anti-Trump protesters have gathered outside House chambers prior to Electoral College voting. More later @WTHRcom pic.twitter.com/MSZM6JC99X— Bruce Kopp (@BruceKopp13) December 19, 2016

Protestors in Raleigh are asking NC's 15 electors not to vote for @realDonaldTrump today. They cast ballots at noon pic.twitter.com/V0ywVtcCoJ— Briana Conner (@BrianaReports) December 19, 2016

In Tallahassee, Florida, protestors began gathering before 10 a.m. outside of the Senate Chamber entrance on the fourth floor of the Florida State Capitol. Asked if he actually expected any outcome other than 29 votes for Trump, Democracy Spring's Maxwell Frost sighed. "I'm hoping for the best," he said. "We'll see what happens."

While Trump has claimed he won in a landslide victory, that description is inaccurate. He is expected to garner just 56.9% of the electoral vote, assuming all electors vote according to their states' results. That will give Trump the 44th-largest share of the electoral vote out of 54 presidential elections since the modern system started in 1804.

The electoral votes will be officially counted on January 6, when Congress returns. Vice President Joe Biden will preside over the count.

Lawmakers can technically object -- in writing, with objections signed by at least one House and one Senate member -- to individual electoral votes or entire states' results. If the House and Senate support that objection, the vote or votes in question are thrown out. But that has never happened.

Trump will be officially set for his inauguration at noon on January 20 once all the electoral votes are counted.

U.S. electors expected to officially confirm Trump victory

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a USA Thank You Tour event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, U.S., December 15, 2016. (REUTERS)

The U.S. Electoral College is expected on Monday to officially select Republican Donald Trump as the next president in a vote that is usually routine but takes place this year amid allegations of Russian hacking to try to influence the election.

At meetings scheduled in every state and the District of Columbia, the institution's 538 electors, generally chosen by state parties, will cast official ballots for president and vice president.

It is highly unlikely the vote will change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, which gave the White House to Trump after he won a majority of Electoral College votes. The popular vote went to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

But the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked into the emails of the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to sway the election for Trump has prompted Democrats to urge some electors not to vote as directed by their state's popular ballot.

The leaked emails disclosed details of Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street, party infighting and inside criticism about Clinton's use of a private server to send emails while U.S. secretary of state. The disclosures led to embarrassing media coverage and prompted some party officials to resign.

Trump and his team dismiss intelligence claims of Russian interference, accusing Democrats and their allies of trying to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory.

Russian officials have denied accusations of interfering in the election.

On Sunday, Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, said it was an open question whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia about the emails, an allegation that Trump's incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, denied. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called for a special committee probe of cyber attacks by Russia and other countries.

The number of Electoral College electors equals the number of representatives and senators in Congress, with each state receiving a share roughly proportional to its population size.

When voters go to the polls to cast a ballot for president, they are actually choosing a presidential candidate's preferred slate for their state.

A candidate must secure 270 votes to win. Trump won 306 electors from 30 states.

The electors convene meetings in each state to cast ballots about six weeks after each presidential election.

If no candidate reaches 270 in the Electoral College, the president is chosen by the U.S. House of Representatives - currently controlled by Republicans.

Recount efforts ends, Trump is declared winner in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

Ilann Maazel, lead counsel for the Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein campaign, speaks with members of the media

Presidential election recount efforts came to an end Monday in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with both states certifying Republican Donald Trump as the winner in contests that helped put him over the top in the Electoral College stakes.

Trump's victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed following a statewide vote recount that showed him defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, a federal judge issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania's presidential election and scan some counties' election systems for signs of hacking.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein successfully requested and paid for the Wisconsin recount while her attempts for similar statewide recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan were blocked by the courts.

Stein got only about 1 percent of the vote in each of the three states, which Trump narrowly won over Clinton. Stein argued, without evidence, that voting machines in all three states were susceptible to hacking. All three states were crucial to Trump's victory, having last voted for a Republican for president in the 1980s.

The numbers barely budged in Wisconsin after nearly 3 million votes were recounted. Trump, a billionaire New York real estate mogul, picked up 131 votes and won by 22,748 votes. The final results changed just 0.06 percent.

Trump took to Twitter to celebrate the recount result.

The final Wisconsin vote is in and guess what - we just picked up an additional 131 votes. The Dems and Green Party can now rest. Scam!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016

Stein said she was disappointed not all Wisconsin counties did hand recounts, although most did. She said the goal of the recount was never to change the outcome but to validate the vote and restore confidence in the system.

"The recount in Wisconsin raised a number of important election integrity issues that bear further assessment and serious action to ensure we have integrity and confidence in our electoral system," she said, without naming what they were.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Chairman Mark Thomsen said before certifying the recount results there was no evidence of a hack.

In Pennsylvania, state officials certified the results of the election in the hours following the decision by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond.

Trump beat Clinton in the state by about 44,000 votes out of 6 million cast, or less than 1 percent, according to the final tally after weeks of counting provisional and overseas ballots. Green Party voters had petitioned some counties to do partial recounts, affecting few votes, county officials said.

Diamond said there were at least six grounds that required him to reject the Green Party's lawsuit, which had been opposed by Trump, the Pennsylvania Republican Party and the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.

Suspicion of a hacked Pennsylvania election "borders on the irrational" while granting the Green Party's recount bid could "ensure that no Pennsylvania vote counts" given Tuesday's federal deadline to certify the vote for the Electoral College, wrote Diamond, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.

"Most importantly, there is no credible evidence that any 'hack' occurred, and compelling evidence that Pennsylvania's voting system was not in any way compromised," Diamond wrote.

He said the lawsuit suffered from a lack of standing, potentially the lack of federal jurisdiction and an "unexplained, highly prejudicial" wait before filing last week's lawsuit, four weeks after the Nov. 8 election.

The decision was the Green Party's latest roadblock in Pennsylvania after hitting numerous walls in county and state courts. Green Party-backed lawyers argue it was possible that computer hackers changed the election outcome and that Pennsylvania's heavy use of paperless machines makes it a prime target. Stein also contended Pennsylvania has erected unconstitutional barriers to voters seeking a recount.

A lawyer for the Green Party members said Monday they were disappointed and unable to immediately say whether they would appeal.

"But one thing is clear," said the lawyer, Ilann Maazel. "The Pennsylvania election system is not fair to voters and voters don't know if their votes counted, and that's a very large problem."

A federal judge halted Michigan's recount last week after three days. Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes out of nearly 4.8 million votes cast.


AP Contributed To This Report

Pennsylvania Recount Update: Judge Rejects Jill Stein’s Push

 Jill Stein

A federal judge on Monday issued a rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania’s presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, and scan some counties’ election systems for signs of hacking.

In his 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond said there were at least six grounds that required him to reject the Green Party’s lawsuit, which had been opposed by Trump, the Pennsylvania Republican Party, and the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

Suspicion of a hacked Pennsylvania election “borders on the irrational” while granting the Green Party’s recount bid could “ensure that that no Pennsylvania vote counts” given Tuesday’s federal deadline to certify the vote for the Electoral College, Diamond wrote.

“Most importantly, there is no credible evidence that any ‘hack’ occurred, and compelling evidence that Pennsylvania’s voting system was not in any way compromised,” Diamond wrote. He also said the lawsuit suffered from a lack of standing, potentially the lack of federal jurisdiction and an “unexplained, highly prejudicial” wait before filing last week’s lawsuit.

The decision was the Green Party’s latest roadblock in Pennsylvania after hitting numerous walls in county and state courts. Green Party-backed lawyers argue that it was possible that computer hackers changed the election outcome and that Pennsylvania’s heavy use of paperless machines makes it a prime target. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein also contended that Pennsylvania has erected unconstitutional barriers to voters seeking a recount.

It is part of a broader effort by Stein to recount votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump won all three states narrowly over Democrat Hillary Clinton, while Stein captured about 1 percent of the vote, or less, in all three states.

In Pennsylvania, Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes out of 6 million cast.

A federal judge halted Michigan’s recount last week after three days. The Wisconsin recount was expected to conclude Monday. With about 95 percent of the votes recounted as of Sunday, Clinton had gained 25 votes on Trump, but still trailed by about 22,000.

The GOP gains more seats in the US Senate as John Kennedy win Louisiana

Louisiana state treasurer John Kennedy addresses supporters at his election watch party, after being elected to the senate seat vacated by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016. Left is his wife Becky Kennedy. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Louisiana voters chose Saturday to send Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy to the U.S. Senate, filling the nation's last Senate seat and giving the GOP a 52-48 edge in the chamber when the new term begins in January.

Kennedy had always been the runoff election's front-runner in a state that overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump. He defeated Democrat Foster Campbell, a state utility regulator whose chances were seen as such a long-shot that national Democratic organizations offered little assistance to Campbell's campaign.

As he celebrated the victory, Kennedy said he represented change in Washington.

"I believe that our future can be better than our present, but not if we keep going in the direction the Washington insiders have taken us the last eight years," he said. "That's about to change, folks."

Voters also filled two open U.S. House seats Saturday, choosing Republican Clay Higgins, a former sheriff's captain known as the "Cajun John Wayne," in the 3rd District representing southwest and south central Louisiana and Republican state Rep. Mike Johnson in the 4th District covering northwest Louisiana.

Louisiana has an open primary system in which all candidates run against each other. In the contests for the open congressional seats, the November primary ballots were packed with contenders, so the top two vote-getters advanced to Saturday's runoff.

The Senate runoff drew national attention, with President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence each traveling to Louisiana to rally for Kennedy. The national GOP provided resources and staff to assist Kennedy's campaign, while national Democratic organizations largely abandoned Campbell, assuming an easy Republican win.

Though Campbell's chance appeared slim, donations had poured in from around the country, and several Hollywood celebrities championed his candidacy aiming to bolster resistance to the Trump presidency. Campbell said the support he received across the country was "phenomenal."

"We worked as hard as possible. We left no stone unturned," Campbell said in his concession speech. "I make no excuses. We did everything humanly possible."

The co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Sharon Day, described Kennedy's win as capping "a year of historic Republican wins up and down the ballot.

"With 52 seats in the U.S. Senate, we are excited for Republicans to confirm a conservative Supreme Court justice and begin working with President-elect Trump to pass an agenda of change for the American people," Day said in a statement.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat and ardent Campbell supporter, congratulated Kennedy and pledged to work with him to "deliver great things for the people of Louisiana."

The Senate seat was open because Republican David Vitter decided against running for a third term after losing the governor's race last year. Both men vying for the seat are well-known figures, involved in Louisiana politics for decades.

Kennedy, an Oxford-educated lawyer from south Louisiana, is in his fifth term as treasurer, a role in which he repeatedly drew headlines for his financial clashes with Louisiana's governors.

He sprinkled speeches with examples of government-financed contracts he considered outrageous, like money "to study the effects of Swedish massage on bunny rabbits." In the runoff, he ran a safe, TV-focused effort highlighting his support for Trump and his opposition to the federal health overhaul.

Campbell, a cattle farmer and former state senator from north Louisiana, is a populist who railed against "Big Oil," wanted to increase the minimum wage and talked openly about man-made climate change. He pledged that in Washington he wouldn't "be in anybody's shirt pocket."

He also ran as a Louisiana Democrat — strongly opposed to abortion and supportive of gun rights.

Kennedy hit Campbell for supporting Clinton. Campbell called Kennedy a flip-flopper during prior Senate bids, because the treasurer ran in 2004 as a liberal Democrat and the most recent two times as a conservative Republican.

In the 3rd District race, Higgins traded blistering attacks with his fellow Republican opponent, Scott Angelle, a member of the Public Service Commission and well-known public official for nearly 30 years.

Angelle had been the presumed front-runner. But Higgins — a local celebrity known for attention-grabbing Crime Stoppers videos he filmed when he was a sheriff's captain — capitalized on disenchantment with career politicians to defeat Angelle with only a fraction of his money and a bare-bones organization.

In the 4th District, Johnson defeated Democrat Marshall Jones in a competition that was less attack-laden.

Johnson focused on his work on conservative issues as a constitutional attorney and on his two years as a state lawmaker. Jones, also a lawyer, downplayed his party affiliation, running as an anti-abortion, gun-rights Democrat who could work with Trump.

The House seats were open because Republicans Charles Boustany and John Fleming unsuccessfully sought the Senate seat instead of re-election.

Trump Holds Lead in Updated Totals: Wisconsin Recount Results Day 5

Day 5 of the Wisconsin recount continued the pattern on previous days, as Donald Trump extended his Election Day lead over Hillary Clinton by a couple dozen votes.

Trump leads Wisconsin by about 22,000 votes. So far, data from the Wisconsin recount as of December 5 shows that little is changing. The major candidates have each gained a smattering of votes in municipalities around the state as a variety of errors are found, but nothing has changed in significant enough numbers to upend the election. Not even close. Trump and Clinton have also each lost votes in communities throughout the state, basically making any gains and losses a wash.

Here are the specific totals:

Day 5 Totals

Trump has lost 302 votes.

Trump has gained 386 votes.

Trump net vote gain by Day 5: 84 votes

Clinton has lost 293 votes.

Clinton has gained 351 votes.

Clinton net vote gain by Day 5: 58 votes

Trump total net gain: 26 votes

The Wisconsin Election Commission posts daily recount results. Wisconsin has until December 13 to complete the recount. The Day 5 spreadsheet shows that many counties, including populous ones, are nowhere near completing their recounts. The Electoral College meets on December 19. The Day 5 results contain all of the previous days’ tallies also. Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid $3.5 million for the Wisconsin recount, alleging unproven fraud. Hillary Clinton has joined in the recount, and Donald Trump has labeled it a scam. Stein is also pursuing recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan. The Michigan recount started December 5, and she is suing to force a Pennsylvania recount in federal court.

The Commission spreadsheet does not tally the recount results but rather simply lists them by municipality, contrasting them with the original returns. Heavy went through the spreadsheet and tabulated the data submitted so far for each municipality by county for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

You can find the raw data here. The totals do not yet include the City of Milwaukee. That is because, although the Day 5 spreadsheet shows large deficits for both candidates for City of Milwaukee wards, absentee ballots have not been included yet in the totals, so they are extremely misleading. It is not yet possible to tell how many votes Clinton and Trump lost in the City of Milwaukee wards.

Trump wins Michigan's 16 electoral votes, state board says

President-elect Donald Trump has won Michigan's 16 electoral votes.

The Board of State Canvassers certified Trump's 10,704-vote victory on Monday, nearly three weeks after the election. The two-tenths of a percentage point margin out of nearly 4.8 million votes is the closest presidential race in Michigan in more than 75 years.

Trump's win in Michigan gives the Republican 306 electoral votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton's 232.

Trump is the first Republican presidential nominee to win Michigan since 1988.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein is expected to ask for a recount. She has until Wednesday. Trump would have seven days to file objections to her request.

The numbers are in: Trump wins Michigan by 10,704

In the closest race for president in Michigan's history, Republican Donald Trump is hanging on to a 10,704 vote win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Michigan Secretary of State posted results Wednesday that were submitted by the state's 83 county clerks on Tuesday after the votes were reviewed and certified by each county.

Before that compiled count, Trump held a 13,107 lead over Clinton. But after each county certified its results, the lead shrunk to 10,704, with the biggest chunk coming from Wayne County, which showed that Clinton had gotten 565 more votes than originally tallied by the county.

The state's Board of Canvassers will officially certify the results on Nov. 28. The electoral college in all the states, including Michigan's 16 electors, will cast their votes on Dec. 19.

"Many people have asked about Michigan’s process for counting ballots and certifying election results. Please be aware that all 1,521 Michigan cities and townships completed ballot counting and reported unofficial results by the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 9," according to a statement on the Secretary of State's website. "The county canvassing boards, as they do after every election, then began their work to review and certify the results from each precinct."

Across the nation, Trump won 306 electoral votes -- including Michigan's 16 -- to 232 for Clinton. In the popular vote, Clinton holds a lead of more than 2 million votes.

Trump is the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to win Michigan.

The vote totals that will be submitted to the state Canvassers Board on Nov. 28 are:

• Donald J. Trump, Republican: 2,279,543 
• Hillary Clinton, Democratic: 2,268,839
• Gary Johnson, Libertarian: 172,136
• Jill Stein, Green: 51,463
• Darrell L. Castle, U.S. Taxpayers: 16,139
• Evan McMullin, write-in: 8,177
• Emidio Mimi Soltysik, Natural Law: 2,209
• Michael Maturen, write-in: 517
• Tom Hoefling, write-in: 95
• Laurence Kotlikoff, write-in: 87
• Ben Hartnell, write-in: 39
• Monica Moorehead, write-in: 30
• ​Cherunda Fox, write-in: 10

High school students' mock Trump assassination highlights post-election bullying, harassment

A skit performed in a south Texas high school English class that portrayed the assassination of Donald Trump is just one of the latest cases of K-12 election hysteria. 

Officials at San Antonio’s Marshall High School claim they took "appropriate action" following the skit, in which a student dressed as Trump was shot by a classmate, complete with gunfire sound effects from a cellphone. But some parents say harsher punishment was warranted, and critics worry that political polarization has found its way into schools.

“Honestly I have run out of words to describe how angry I am and how shocked I am that they’re still in school today,” parent Melinda Bean told the San Antonio Express-News.

The misguided skit was just one in a slew of controversial acts happening across the country in the wake of Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Election Day.

Most media coverage following Trump’s victory has focused on sometimes violent protests in cities around the country, but it is now clear the election's reverberations are being felt all the way down to elementary schools.

• Students at a Detroit-area middle school reportedly chanted "build the wall" last week, in an apparent reference to Trump's call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• White students at a central Pennsylvania technical high school reportedly chanted “white power” in the hallways and referred to students of other races as their slaves.
• A 15-year-old Maryland boy wearing a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat was reportedly beaten by a group of high school students.
• Last week, a California high school student was also attacked after she expressed her support for Trump, in an attack captured on cellphone video.

Experts in child development and psychology say that this type of bullying has occurred in the past, this year it has taken on a more ominous tone and been seen a greater scale given how divisive the presidential campaign season was.

“This election was unusually nasty,” Judith Myers-Walls, a professor emerita of human development and family studies at Purdue University told FoxNews.com. “It was in many ways at a child’s level with the candidates at times acting like they were in pre-school.”

Myers-Walls said that with the pervasive media coverage and constant presence of the candidates on television, the Internet and social media, it is no wonder that young students picked up slogans – “Build the Wall” and “Lock Her Up” are just two examples – without even truly grasping what they mean.

It’s important, Myers-Walls said, that both parents and educators talk to students when they see them expressing these types of behavior and it’s even more important to know when to introduce them to what’s going on in regards to politics.

“You need to get a sense of where they are and what they feel about certain issues,” she said. “A lot of times children have some ideas that adults wouldn’t even think about.”

TRUMP ERA: THE RISE OF ALTERNATIVE NEWS MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF THE MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA

With the success of Donald Trump presidential campaign, the failure of the greatest media gang-up in US political history and the revelation of the unreliability of the 90% of the mainstream media, there mainstream media will have to buckle up for a new and fierce competition – a competition it has foolishly called on itself. Steinberg posits that “the mainstream American media are working against their own business interests by failing to realize how much they’re disliked by most of the public and are gradually being supplanted by independent digital platforms that they don’t control. The only way big media companies can reverse this trend and restore public trust is by disconnecting from their corporate sponsors, but that is virtually impossible”.

Radio talk show host and journalist Stephen Lendman said he believes the US media operate as agents for “wealth, power and privilege,” an affiliation that helped drive pro-Clinton bias.

A Sputnik report states a survey by research firm TNS UK, released on Thursday, showing that 80 percent of Americans considered domestic media coverage of the 2016 campaign was biased toward one or the other of the major-party nominees.

"Extreme bias for Hillary against Trump was the worst in US presidential campaigns ever — for sure in my memory since Harry Truman defeated Tom Dewey in 1948. I was age 14 with no television, yet I remember it well," Lendman recounted.

The right-wing Breitbart News Network is expanding its U.S. operations and launching sites in Germany and France, its U.S. editor-in-chief told Reuters, as it seeks to monetize the anger and anti-immigrant sentiment unleashed by Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. The planned expansion is one sign of how the right-wing media landscape is shifting in the wake of Trump's campaign to provide a platform for the more radical views that helped fuel the Republican candidate's shock election victory on Tuesday. Breitbart was always bullish on Mr. Trump’s chances, but the site seems far more certain of something else, as illustrated by a less visible story it published on election night, declaring a different sort of victory: “Breitbart Beats CNN, HuffPo for Total Facebook Engagements for Election Content.”

"Media elites thought they were shaping public opinion, and they were, but in favor of Trump because anyone who the mainstream media hates is just fine with them, regardless of flaws and legitimate concerns,"… “The media could win back Americans’ trust if they began reporting the news fairly, he maintained, but post-election coverage indicates they have "doubled down on bias." Steinberg averred

As Nathan McDonald  has said

“Fortunately, this election proved that the power structure has shifted back to the people and the alternative media, which is predominately ran by independent journalists. The MSM and the elite are rapidly losing their grip on power. But never fear, ye olde corrupt ones. The alternative media will do the job that you once held in high respect. We will keep the checks and balances on you, on the elite, and on Trump. Good riddance and goodbye”.

Peggy Ryan  He summed up our discussion with the post-election popular sentiment:

“I can only hope that our future President Trump will never again give one of the hacks the time of day. If he wants to reach the American people, use alternative media, Drudge, Breitbart, Conservative Treehouse, Your Voice radio, so many who were here every step of the way in the campaign. Or, just tweet, we’ll hear you. In fact that may be the only way we hear you as most of us are abandoning the corrupt mainstream media. The mainstream media will never change, still the gatekeepers for corruption and tyranny. And they’ll never give you fair coverage, you robbed them of their power, won the election not just without them but in spite of them and for that they can never forgive you. Fortunately you’ve proven you don’t need them, fortunately neither do we”. 

The mainstream media influence has been eroding steadily, but after a Trump win, they have all but lost their place in the lives of many Americans especially Trump supporters. I foresee an increment in financial investment from conservative groups in America enough to prop up alternative media organizations to equal standing with the mainstream media. This enough justifies the claims that a new media war has begun and the liberal monopoly of the American media has just ended.

Elijah Okon

Chief Political Editor, DBliss Media

Twitter, & Email

Trump picks conservative loyalists for attorney general, CIA

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked three conservative loyalists with hard-line views on immigration and counter-terrorism to lead his national security and law enforcement teams, including U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Representative Mike Pompeo as CIA director.

Retired Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, who has been a stalwart in supporting Trump's promises to take a tougher approach to militant Islamist groups, was picked as his national security adviser.

The three choices, announced in a statement on Friday by Trump's transition team, come as the Republican president-elect works to fill key positions in his administration, which will take over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. All three men said they have accepted Trump's offer.

In choosing Sessions as head of the Justice Department and the country's chief law enforcement officer, Trump rewarded a loyalist whose tough and sometimes inflammatory statements on immigration have been similar to his own.

One of the earliest Republican lawmakers to support Trump's White House candidacy, Sessions opposes any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Trump's campaign promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He has also argued for curbs on legal immigration on the grounds that it drives down wages for U.S. workers.

A former Alabama attorney general and U.S. attorney, Sessions, 69, could face a tough confirmation battle in the Senate, despite his 19-year tenure there. Allegations that he made racist remarks led the Senate to deny his confirmation as a federal judge in 1986.

However, he could be helped as his status as one of Trump's most enthusiastic backers on Capitol Hill. Trump has hired several of Sessions' staffers, including policy chief Stephen Miller and Rick Dearborn, who has a top job managing the transition.

"Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him," Trump said in a statement.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army three-star general and one of Trump's closest advisers, was fired from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, a move he has attributed to his outspoken views about combating Islamist militancy. Other officials who worked with Flynn cited his lack of management skills and leadership style as reasons for his firing.

An Army intelligence veteran of three decades, Flynn was assistant director of national intelligence under Obama.

Pompeo, 52, a third-term Republican congressman from Kansas, was a surprise pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

He was a member of a congressional committee that investigated a 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Pompeo argued that the Obama administration was more concerned with protecting the reputation of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton than with finding out what happened.

Pompeo, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, is a former U.S. Army officer who founded an aerospace company in Wichita, Kansas. During his first run for Congress in 2010, opponents charged him with outsourcing American jobs because his company opened a factory in Mexico. Pompeo said the move helped his business to add jobs in the United States.

Like Sessions, Pompeo will need to be confirmed in the job by a majority vote in the Senate. Republicans will hold at least a 51-seat majority when the chamber convenes in January.

Trump may discuss U.S. secretary of state job with critic Romney: source

Mitt Romney pauses as he delivers a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah March 3, 2016. (REUTERS)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump planned a Saturday meeting with Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and fierce Trump critic, and may discuss whether he should be a candidate for secretary of state, a source familiar with the meeting said on Thursday.

Trump already has a lengthy list of potential candidates for the post of top U.S. diplomat, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who met Trump on Thursday.

Trump, a former reality TV star, has shown a flair for the dramatic in his deliberations over his Cabinet, saying only he knows who "the finalists" are.

Corker told CNN on Wednesday he was "in the mix" for the position but that Trump might pick someone who was closer to him during the presidential campaign. He met on Thursday in Washington with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Trump's expected meeting with Romney amounts to an olive branch of sorts to one of his sharpest critics. Romney, who in a speech in March called Trump "a phony, a fraud," urged Republicans to vote for anyone but the New York real estate magnate while the party was picking its presidential nominee.

Trump, in turn, used harsh rhetoric at times during his campaign to dismiss Romney as a failure who blew a chance in 2012 to defeat Democratic President Barack Obama, whom Trump felt was a weak opponent.

The source told Reuters that a broad discussion was expected during the meeting and that discussion about the secretary of state position was possible. The source had said earlier his understanding was that the meeting would occur on Sunday.

Asked about the meeting, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested it was still being arranged. "We're working on it," she said.

'TRUMP WILL MAKE DECISION'

"I think it's good that the president-elect is meeting with people like Mr. Romney," U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, one of Trump's closest confidants and a potential nominee for defense secretary, told reporters at Manhattan's Trump Tower.

Sessions sounded far from certain Romney would be offered a job.

”There are a lot of talented people that he (Trump) needs good relationships with. And I think Mr. Romney would be quite capable of doing a number of things. But he will be one of those, I am sure, that's reviewed. Donald Trump will make that decision," Sessions said.

When Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, opted out of running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, people close to him suggested that serving as secretary of state might be appealing to him if a Republican won the presidency.

A steady stream of potential Trump administration hires made their way through the lobby of Trump Tower to meet with either Trump or officials close to him.

All indicated a willingness to serve, such as Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. He is a potential treasury secretary in the Trump administration.

"I stand ready to help the president in any capacity possible. I’ve got a great position in public policy today, if he wants to talk to me obviously, about serving somewhere else, we’ll look at serving somewhere else," he told reporters.

Reuters