Timeline of the Watergate scandal – Wikipedia

Timeline of the Watergate Scandal —Regarding the burglary and illegal wiretapping of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex by members of President Richard Nixon‘s re-election committee and subsequent abuse of powers by the president and administration officials to halt or hinder the investigation into the same.

• November 5, 1968: Richard Nixon elected President.^[1]
• January 20, 1969: Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th President of The United States.
• July 1, 1971: David Young and Egil “Bud” Krogh write a memo suggesting the formation of what would later be called the “White House Plumbers” in response to the leak of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg.
• August 21, 1971: Nixon’s Enemies List is started by White House aides (though Nixon himself may not have been aware of it); to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
• September 3, 1971: “White House Plumbers” E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy et al. break into the offices of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist Lewis Fielding looking for material that might discredit Ellsberg, under the direction of John Ehrlichman or his staff within the White House. This was the Plumbers’ first major operation.^[2]
• By early 1972 The Plumbers, at this stage assigned to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), had become frustrated at the lack of additional assignments they were being asked to perform, and that any plans and proposals they suggested were being rejected by CREEP. Liddy and Hunt took their complaints to the White House – most likely to Charles Colson – and requested that the White House start putting pressure on CREEP to assign them new operations. It is likely that both Colson and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman did just that, setting in train events that would lead to the Watergate break-ins a few months later. This narrative is confirmed in the famous “Cancer of the Presidency” conversation between Nixon and White House Counsel John Dean on March 21, 1973.^[3]
• May 2, 1972: J. Edgar Hoover dies; L. Patrick Gray is appointed acting FBI director.^[4]
• June 17, 1972: The plumbers are arrested at 2:30 a.m. in the process of burglarizing and planting surveillance bugs in the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Building Complex.
• June 20, 1972: Reportedly based on a tip from Deep Throat, Bob Woodward reports in the Washington Post that one of the burglars had E. Howard Hunt in his address book and possessed checks signed by him (Hunt) and that Hunt was connected to Charles Colson.
• June 23, 1972: In the Oval Office, H.R. Haldeman recommends to President Nixon that they attempt to shut down the FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in, by having CIA Director Richard Helms and Deputy Director Vernon A. Walters tell acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray to, “Stay the hell out of this”. Haldeman expects Gray will then seek and take advice from Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt, and Felt will obey direction from the White House out of ambition. Nixon agrees and gives the order. ^[5] The conversation is recorded.
• September 15, 1972: Hunt, Liddy and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury.
• November 7, 1972: Nixon re-elected, defeating George McGovern with the largest plurality of votes in American history.
• January 8, 1973: Five defendants plead guilty as the burglary trial begins. Liddy and McCord are convicted after the trial.
• January 20, 1973: Nixon is inaugurated for his second term.
• February 28, 1973: Confirmation hearings begin for confirming L. Patrick Gray as permanent Director of the FBI. During these hearings, Gray reveals that he had complied with an order from John Dean to provide daily updates on the Watergate investigation, and also that Dean had “probably lied” to FBI investigators.
• March 17, 1973: Watergate burglar James McCord writes a letter to Judge John Sirica, claiming that some of his testimony was perjured under pressure and that the burglary was not a CIA operation, but had involved other government officials, thereby leading the investigation to the White House.
• April 6, 1973: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.
• April 27, 1973: L. Patrick Gray resigns after it comes to light that he destroyed files from E. Howard Hunt’s safe. William Ruckelshaus is appointed as his replacement.
• April 30, 1973: Senior White House administration officials John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, and Richard Kleindienst resign; John Dean is fired.
• May 17, 1973 : The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings.
• May 19, 1973: Independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed to oversee investigation into possible presidential impropriety.
• June 3, 1973: John Dean tells Watergate investigators that he has discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times.
• July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals that all conversations and telephone calls in Nixon’s office have been taped since 1971.
• July 18, 1973: Nixon orders White House taping systems disconnected.
• July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tapings to Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.
• Vice President replaced:
  • October 10, 1973: Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States due to corruption while he was the governor of Maryland.
  • October 12, 1973: Gerald Ford is nominated as Vice President under the 25th Amendment.
• October 20, 1973: “Saturday Night Massacre” – Nixon orders Elliot Richardson and Ruckleshouse to fire special prosecutor Cox. They both refuse to comply and resign. Robert Bork considers resigning but carries out the order.
• November 1, 1973: Leon Jaworski is appointed new special prosecutor.
• November 17, 1973: Nixon delivers “I am not a crook” speech at a televised press conference at Disney World (Florida).
• January 28, 1974: Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter pleads guilty to perjury.
• February 25, 1974: Nixon personal counsel Herbert Kalmbach pleads guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities.
• March 1, 1974: Nixon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an indictment against seven former presidential aides.
• March 4, 1974: “Watergate Seven” indicted.
• April 5, 1974: Dwight Chapin convicted of lying to a grand jury.
• April 7, 1974: Ed Reinecke, Republican lieutenant governor of California, indicted on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.
• April 16, 1974: Special Prosecutor Jaworski issues a subpoena for 64 White House tapes.
• April 30, 1974: White House releases edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes, but the House Judiciary Committee insists the actual tapes must be turned over.
• May 9, 1974: Impeachment hearings begin before the House Judiciary Committee.
• June 15, 1974: Woodward and Bernstein’s book All the President’s Men is published by Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0-671-21781-X).
• July 24, 1974: United States v. Nixon decided: Nixon is ordered to give up tapes to investigators.
• Congress moves to impeach Nixon.
  • July 27 to July 30, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes articles of Impeachment.
  • Early August 1974: A previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 (recorded a few days after the break-in) documenting Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations, is released. This recording would later become known as the “Smoking Gun”.
  • Key Republican Senators tell Nixon that enough votes exist to convict him.
• August 8, 1974: Nixon delivers his resignation speech in front of a nationally televised audience.
• August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns presidency. Gerald Ford becomes President.

Source: Timeline of the Watergate scandal – Wikipedia

NAFTA Explained

Marketplace® is your liaison between economics and life. Noted for timely, relevant and accessible coverage of business news across both audio and digital platforms, Marketplace programs are heard by more than 12 million weekly listeners. This makes the Marketplace portfolio the most widely heard business or economic programming in the country.

NAFTA Explained
President Trump has said he plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which could have a major impact on Michigan’s auto industry. All this week, Marketplace has been examining the complexities and future of NAFTA. Source: NAFTA Explained

CURMUDGUCATION

The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational “reform” while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.

FL: Burning Down the Schoolhouse

Florida (Motto: If you can’t make a buck from it, what’s the point?) is taking steps to bring its public school system into the final stages of Death by Charter. It’s time to spread some more gasoline and light yet another match.

Because this is a purely political move, it has to have a ridiculously cynical name. So the Florida legislature is working on a bill to move students to “Schools of Hope.” Actually, the bill used to call them “Schools of Success,” but somebody probably figured that was promising waaaaaay too much, so “Schools of Hope” it is.

The bill, which just passed out of the House Education Committee, commits $200 million to opening charter schools in the same neighborhoods as schools with low grades on Florida’s A-F scale.

Here’s the idea. Say your school cafeteria is having trouble. Many of the students it serves are malnourished and come to school hungry. The facility is underfunded and in disrepair, and the budget doesn’t allow you to get the very best of food (in fact, you have reason to believe that some the funding for your cafeteria that serves mostly black students has been shifted cross town to a mostly-white cafeteria). Students often can’t afford to buy full meals in your cafeteria. The state judges your effectiveness on how much the students weigh. You beg for help, but instead the legislature adds an ever-increasing number of hurdles to getting your work done and berates you for thinking that they can just throw money at the problem.

And then, one day, they decide that the solution is to offer a multi-million-dollar grant to any McDonald’s that will build a restaurant across the street from the school.

Or maybe you live in a house that’s been in your family for decades, and the state comes and sets fire to it, and then refuses to send a fire department. But they do offer multi-million dollar grants to any hotels that want to build a place across the street.

That’s the proposal. Let’s see if we can put the final touch on killing these public schools and moving all the students into charters. 

Of course, the legislators are totally doing it For The Children.

Here’s House Speaker Richard Corcoran, one of the leaders of this initiative. “No longer will we rob children of dignity and hope. Now every single child will be afforded an opportunity of a world class education.” Because nothing is more dignified and hopeful than being used as a profit-generating pawn.

“We have tried everything else,” said Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah. “It is our moral responsibility to make this move and provide an option for our kids.” Well, almost everything. Not actually investing in and providing resources for public schools. But that would be crazy. And Diaz must know what he’s talking about, because helps run Doral College, a fake college that lets students at some charter schools pretend they’re taking college courses.

And the legislature wasn’t flying blind– they did talk to some experts to help craft the bill, according to Gary Fineout, an AP reporter who has covered many Florida crazy-pants education stories:

Rep. Michael Bileca, a Miami Republican and chairman of the House Education Committee, said legislators met with charter school operators and asked what it would take for them to set up schools in the neighborhoods now served by traditional public schools. He said one answer was that they needed help paying for new buildings to house the school.

Cathy Boehme of the Florida Education Association pointed out the obvious:

You are saying funding matters. You’re saying good strategies matter. And then you turn around and keep those strategies from schools that you could save from these turnaround options.

But wait– there’s more!

This new bill is on top of a bill that has been kicking around for a few years. This bill would require public schools to share property tax revenue with charter schools– and it would limit districts’ ability to spend on construction. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Diaz and Rep. Erik Fresen, and Fresen should know about these things because he works as a $150,000-a-year consultant for Civica, an architectural firm that specializes in charter school buildings. Oh– and Academica, the 800-poung gorillas of Florida charter management, employs his sister and brother-in-law as executives. And Academica is also the group that sends its students to Diaz’s fake college! So it’s all one big happy family down there.

But if you want to see end-stage Death by Charter, travel up to the panhandle of Florida and little Jefferson County, the only Florida county that touches both Georgia and the Gulf of Mexico. The county has fewer than 15,000 residents and 700 school students. And come this fall, they might be the first district in the state to become all-charter.

The district has had problems with test scores, growth scores, and teacher retention. It has consolidated its schools under one K-12 roof to save money. But Grand High Education Poohbah Pam Stewart delivered an ultimatum back in January– the district had to close its doors or hand the keys to somebody else. The district could not get an outside operator to come run the district, and other turnaround plans were rejected by the state. So the board has now voted to convert to charter, to basically shut down the district and let a charter take over.

“I know change needs to occur for our children and I’m all for that. But here we go again rushing into something and we’re not even sure if we can get a charter company to take our school. And I can’t wait until July for them to tell me I have a job or I don’t have a job,” says Jefferson teacher Terri Clark. She says the district has never followed through on what it approves. And she’s not confident it will happen now.

There are many interesting new problems that come with such a decision (stay in the retirement system? keep the old staff?) but the first big challenge is to get a charter operator to come in. Because here’s the thing– charters schools are not public schools and they don’t have to serve anyone they don’t want to serve. Jefferson is staring straight into the face of the biggest issue with states like Florida that are determined to set their public schools on fire so that people will abandon them and become charter customers–

What do you do if you burn down your public schools, chase all the students out, and then no charter wants them? The worst possible outcome of Death by Charter is not an all charter system. It’s not even a bad all-charter system. The worst possible outcome is a whole community with no schools at all.

Jefferson is facing the Big Lie of school choice. The students and their families don’t get to choose schools– the schools get to choose them. Florida’s self-serving legislators can make mouth-noises all day about how students deserve super-duper awesome school systems and they can keep chopping their public system off at the knees (and hips and shoulders and neck), but it’s up to them to make sure that all their students have what they need– not just the ones that live in profitable market shares. Florida has spent over a decade setting itself up as the vanguard of choice and charters and all things reformy, and they are well on track to show us how horribly wrong it can all go, how a state could end up with a pile of ashes. And it won’t be good For The Children.

Posted by Peter Greene

Source: CURMUDGUCATION

Where’s the beef? When meat’s in trouble, lobbying expands

Dairy & meat lobby kicks in when sales fall short. CEOs of meat-related associations asked President Trump to seek restored access for US beef to China

Americans cut their beef consumption by 19 percent between 2005 and 2014, according to a new study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). For a quick visualization, you — a person of average appetite somewhere in the U.S. — ate five whole cows in 2005; in 2014, you ate four, plus a few bites of a fifth. … read more.
by Niv SultanSource: Where’s the beef? When meat’s in trouble, lobbying expands

Richest billionaires are also top political spenders

With great wealth comes great potential to help your favorite politicians get elected. Billionaires are spending big on political elections

Know what it feels like to be worth more than 10 digits? These 2,043 people-do

Forbes released its 30th annual World’s Billionaires list last week to make us all feel bad about our bank accounts. But what does one do with all that dough? With great wealth comes great potential to help your favorite politicians get elected.

 ... read more.

by Ashley BalcerzakSource: Richest billionaires are also top political spenders

In California jungle, Dems vie to avoid runoff; Georgia special draws outside spending

23 contenders compete for a seat in California, spending is rampant in Georgia, and Kansas, Montana, and South Carolina are also to hold special elections

You thought we wouldn’t have to deal with another federal election for two years after Nov. 8, didn’t you? Sorry. Lawmakers were scooped up shortly after to fill spots in the Trump administration or take high-level state positions, so voters in five states get another run at the polling places. 

...read more.

by Ashley Balcerzak

Source: In California jungle, Dems vie to avoid runoff; Georgia special draws outside spending

Vote correlation: Internet privacy resolution

GOP lawmakers who voted to quash the rule received an average of $138,000 from the industry over the course of their careers.

The House’s vote Tuesday approving a resolution that would allow internet service providers to sell data about their customers’ browsing history split nearly along party lines. The final vote was 215-205, with nine members not voting.

The Democrats voted against the resolution as a block. On the Republican side, 15 members split from their party and opposed the bill.

The resolution — which was approved by the Senate last week — blocks a Federal Communications Commission rule that would bar ISPs from selling customer data, including app usage, browsing history, even Social Security numbers, to marketers and others. Widely praised by privacy and consumer advocates when it was finalized last year, the rule hadn’t yet taken effect. Now — assuming  President Trump signs it, as he’s expected to — it won’t.

Read the full article here!

Source: Vote correlation: Internet privacy resolution

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Recess Is For Babies

The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational “reform” while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.

FL: Recess Is For Babies

The state of Florida (Motto: All You Kids Get Off My Lawns) continues in its quest to turn public schools into soul-crushing child-hostile teacher-stomping institutions. Florida has implemented more dumb ideas than MTV’s program development department. Their testing history is filled with drama and disaster. They’ve decided that passing the standardized test is literally more important than getting good grades on report cards. They have provided yet more evidence that merit pay does not work (especially if you do it really really badly). They have embraced the third grade pass BS Test or fail the grade policy.  And never forget– these are the folks who demanded that a dying child with profound deficits be required to take the Big Standardized Test. They allow a wide range of charter and reform scams (here’s a fun one involving an elected official), but they also allow spectacular abuses of local control.

“I got your recess right here,” says Florida legislator.

There are many good teachers in Florida, and many good schools as well, but it’s no thanks to state leadership, which since the days of Governor Jeb “Is It My Turn Yet” Bush, the very model of the well-connected education amateur, has tried its best to make public education such a lousy option that the charter industry will start to look good.

So what now?

Recess.

You’d think this would be a no-brainer. Moms were agitating for free-play recess— a full 100 minutes per week– and legislators jumped on that puppy. That kind of recess time would be a step up for some schools, like the kindergarten class that took recess only one day a week. Or Pinellas County, where it’s reportedly no surprise if students get only two days of recess a week. The research supports it, as does the heart of any feeling human being who spends any time at all around children. So a bill was crafted and has been sailing through the legislature with busloads of sponsors.

But a Florida House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday decided that twenty minutes a day is just too generous (the Senate apparently left the original bill alone, so kudos to them, because we’ve arrived at the point where agreeing that children should have research is a laudable political position and not simple human sense).

Which subcommittee? Why, the Pre-K-12 Innovation Subcommittee, of course. Because what’s more innovative than opposing recess.

The amended version of the bill cuts the requirement for recess back to only those days without phys ed, and limits it to grades K-3 only, because once you get to be nine years old, it’s time to get down to business, you little slackers! It’s also bad news for phys ed teachers, because it allows schools to count recess as part of their phys ed time– in other words, Florida thinks you phys ed teachers are just glorified recess monitors.

What’s the reasoning behind this amending? Here’s Orlando Republican Rep. Rene Plasencia:

“We’re making sure we have a bill that we know will travel successfully through the House,” he told reporters. “There are certain points during this process where in order to get bills heard and moving through committee, we need to make sure that the bill is put into a position where it can get from committee to committee.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article141233198.html#storylink=cpy

They’re afraid of bucking the powerful anti-recess lobby? They’re concerned that the Grinch Caucus will filibuster the bill? They are worried about opposition when 56 out of the 120 House members are co-sponsors of the bill??!!

Plasencia would not say who asked for the changes, and the changes were adopted without any discussion or debate. And it was done on the last day of the session so that there was no time left for negotiation– the moms pushing the bill, along with Plasnecia himself (he’s been a staunch ally of the movement) could accept next to nothing, or nothing.

So hooray for the bold, brave House members of Florida, willing to stand up against the scourge of small children taking a few minutes away from their desks to just run and play. Good thing you boys got on top of that– who knows what would have happened if you had let it get out of hand.

Florida government– what the hell is wrong with you?

Posted by Peter Greene

Source: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Recess Is For Babies

Betsy DeVos compares School Choice to Uber or Lyft

Betsy DeVos compares School Choice to Uber or Lyft
by Jeff Smith (GRIID)
Now that Betsy DeVos has bought a seat in the new administration, we thought it might be a good time to begin doing a regular column entitled, Betsy DeVos Watch. These columns will be an opportunity to provide regular analysis of the statements and policies put forth by the Secretary of Education.

On Wednesday, Betsy DeVos delivered a speech at the Brookings Institute. DeVos continued to promote her commitment to the so-called “School of Choice” policy, which is essentially a policy that undermines public education.

It makes complete sense that DeVos would speak at the Brookings Institute on this topic, especially since the organization publishes an annual Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI). “The intent of the ECCI is to create public awareness of the differences among districts in their support of school choice, provide a framework for efforts to examine the impact of choice and competition, and document changes over time in the policies and practices of school choice.”

There is one major point we want to emphasize from DeVos’ comments… https://griid.org/2017/03/31/betsy-devos-compares-school-choice-to-uber-or-lyft/

Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Now that Betsy DeVos has bought a seat in the new administration, we thought it might be a good time to begin doing a regular column entitled, Betsy DeVos Watch. These columns will be an opportunity to provide regular analysis of the statements and policies put forth by the Secretary of Education.

On Wednesday, Betsy DeVos delivered a speech at the Brookings Institute. DeVos continued to promote her commitment to the so-called “School of Choice” policy, which is essentially a policy that undermines public education.

It makes complete sense that DeVos would speak at the Brookings Institute on this topic, especially since the organization publishes an annual Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI). “The intent of the ECCI is to create public awareness of the differences among districts in their support of school choice, provide a framework for efforts to examine the impact of choice and competition, and document…

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