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Photo: JERRY LARA / San Antonio Express-News

Protesters gather against Senate Bill 4 at the Texas Capitol. The bill ensures that law enforcement officers have the authority to ask people they detain about their immigration status.

Protesters gather against Senate Bill 4 at the Texas Capitol. The bill ensures that law enforcement officers have the authority to ask people they detain about their immigration status.

Protesters gather against SB 4. Inside the Capitol, protesters in the gallery above the House floor chanting and carrying signs were escorted out because such demonstra tions arent allowed in the gallery.

Protesters gather against SB 4. Inside the Capitol, protesters in the gallery above the House floor chanting and carrying signs were escorted out because such demonstra tions arent allowed in the gallery.

Leroy Pena of Dallas joins protesters against Senate Bill 4, the sanctuary cities ban, at the Texas Capitol.

Leroy Pena of Dallas joins protesters against Senate Bill 4, the sanctuary cities ban, at the Texas Capitol.

Nasty confrontation breaks out between tea party Republican and Latino Democrats at Capitol

AUSTIN On the final day of a legislative session a marked with bitter strife, a tea-party Republican got into an altercation with Latino Democrats after calling immigration officials on people protesting the recently passed sanctuary cities ban.

The dustup on the House floor escalated with the Republican saying he would put a bullet into the head of Democratic Rep. Poncho Nevrez of Eagle Pass, said Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, who claimed to have heard the remark.

In an interview with reporters, Republican Rep. Matt Rinaldi of Irving denied the comment, but later posted on Facebook that he would shoot him (Nevrez) in self defense.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, who later spoke to immigration advocates at a rally outside the capitol, said that Rinaldi racially profiled every protester in the gallery by calling U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement just because he saw a bunch of people that are a shade darker.

This is a clear example of how SB 4 will eventually encourage more incidents like the one earlier today (Monday), he said.

The confrontation on the House floor involved several lawmakers, observers said.

In his Facebook post, Rinaldi accused Nevrez of threatening his life, saying, Poncho told me that he would get me on the way to my car. He later approached me and reiterated that I had to leave at some point, and he would get me. I made it clear that if he attempted to, in his words, get me, I would shoot him in self defense.

Asked earlier by the Express-News what he had said to Rinaldi, Nevrez replied, I said, You gotta leave the building sometime.' Asked what he meant by that, he said he meant that rather than having these conversations here in front of everybody, we could have them outside.

Nevrez said he didnt recall whether he made his remarks before or after Rinaldi made his comment, which he said he didnt hear clearly.

I didnt hear the exact words. It was something about a bullet in my head, Nevrez said.

The scene was a capper to a session which saw ongoing battles between the House and the Senate, both dominated by Republicans; between tea-party Republicans and more moderate members of the GOP; and between Democrats and Republicans on issues including the sanctuary cities ban.

The ban drew particular concern and emotion from Democrats because it ensures law officers have the authority to ask people they detain about their immigration status, prompting fears of racial profiling.

Its almost reflective of kind of the ugliness that we saw all session. In a certain way, you hate to end on that note, but its almost appropriate that we do, because thats the kind of session it was, Rodriguez said.

Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, said the altercation started when he was looking up at the gallery above the House and pumped his fist to encourage the protesters , who were carrying signs and banners and chanting. The protesters were escorted out of the gallery by law enforcement because such demonstrations arent allowed in that space.

Romero said Rinaldi commented on the lack of decorum and said, Yeah, thats why I called ICE. Romero said that Rinaldi called the protesters a bunch of illegals.

Rinaldi said in the interview that he didnt remember exactly what had been said, and he declined to say whether he had called ICE.

However, on Facebook, Rinaldi wrote that his life had been threatened after I called ICE on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery which said I am illegal and here to stay. Several Democrats encouraged the protesters to disobey law enforcement. When I told the Democrats I called ICE, Representative Ramon Romero physically assaulted me, and other Democrats were held back by colleagues.

No ICE agents were seen at the Capitol Monday

Asked about Rinaldis claim that he had been pushed and shoved, Romero said, Absolutely not. Hes absolutely lying, but I wouldnt put that past him.

After DPS troopers cleared the gallery, the protesters moved outside to the south steps of the Capitol. There, the Workers Defense Project, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, United We Dream and Black Transwoman held a rally with speeches and a band playing Mexican cumbias.

Congressman Castro told the crowd that they will eventually see Gov. Greg Abbott in court when SB 4 is argued as unconstitutional, and that Texas will not allow people to be victims of state leaders playing politics for their own primaries.

In every generation there have been Americans like yourselves who have stood up and said, thats enough, we are not going to take this anymore, the people of the United States and the people of Texas know better than this, Castro said.

The congressman said encouraging people to vote is key.

The only way to turn things around is if we do everything we can to get our fellow Texans out to vote. We need to replace the governor of the state of Texas, replace the lieutenant governor who wont give up on this bathroom bill, Castro said, referring to the bill that would have kept transgender Texans from using the bathrooms of the sex with which they identify, one of the main battlegrounds between the House and Senate leadership this session. The bill died.

Monica Roberts, a trans human rights advocate from Black Transwomen, said that SB 4 is nothing new to Texas, but rather it is following the pattern of conservatives in the Texas Legislature targeting groups they dont like.

She urged protesters to register to vote before November 2018.

Flush every Republican out of office that voted this bill into existence. It is past time for progressive Texans to take control of this House, Roberts said.

pfikac@express-news.com

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confrontation breaks out between tea party Republican and Latino - mySanAntonio.com

Patch.com

Tea Party Favorite, Trump Delegate Mae Beavers To Run For ... Patch.com Nashville, TN - State Sen. Mae Beavers says she will announce her intention to seek the GOP nomination for governor in Mt. Juliet next Saturday. and more »

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Tea Party Favorite, Trump Delegate Mae Beavers To Run For ... - Patch.com

In their Oval Office meeting in March, President Trump told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Ukraine crisis was Europes responsibility and the United States wouldnt get heavily involved, according to two officials briefed on the discussion. Two months later, the

Trump administration is reversing course and planning to re-engage on Ukraine in a significant way.

For Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is leading the behind-the-scenes effort, Ukraine is where Trumps so-far thwarted plan to improve US-Russian relations can be kick-started. Although still in its early stages, Tillersons idea is to restart a version of the peace negotiations the Obama administration was engaged in last year, hoping new circumstances and personalities might produce better results, according to US officials and outside experts.

There are skeptics across the administration who believe pursuing any type of Russia reset in a domestic political environment dominated by investigations of Russias interference in the US political system is a fools errand. But Trump and Tillerson are determined to give it try.

European officials, for their part, are cheering. We very much appreciate that the new administration will be more engaged in the Ukraine issue. In the beginning they seemed not to be so interested in this issue. Thats changed a lot, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told The Washington Post after meeting with Tillerson on May 17.

Germany and France have been involved in whats called the Normandy Format, an effort to implement the 2015 Minsk agreement, which is stalled due to cease-fire violations on the ground primarily by Russian-backed forces and a lack of Ukrainian political progress. Their hope is that the United States can break the impasse.

We know that Russia will only move if the Americans will be on board and press them to do more for a cease-fire and for a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the region, Gabriel said. The Russians know that the behavior of Russia in Ukraine is a precondition to [US] cooperation with Russia in other fields.

Trumps shift became evident on May 10, when he held a widely reported discussion with Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a less-noticed meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

I said, fellas you got to make peace, you got to get peace, Trump later told Fox News.

Though the White House and State Department declined to comment, US officials and others confirmed Tillerson has had multiple discussions about the way forward with Lavrov. Theres a robust interagency process to chart the new strategy, and Vice President Mike Pences office is also involved.

Tillerson is looking to tap a special envoy at the State Department to manage and lead the new Ukraine effort. That new envoy would reinvigorate the US-Russian diplomatic channel with Vladislav Surkov, known as the Kremlins gray cardinal. President Barack Obamas assistant secretary of state for Europe, Victoria Nuland, was ultimately unable to make progress through that channel last year.

Whats different now, officials say, is that Russian President Vladimir Putin can no longer bide his time waiting for a more favorable US administration, as he did last year. The German and French governments are not getting more Russia-friendly any time soon.

But Trumps domestic problems due to the Russia scandal complicate everything. Congress is champing at the bit to apply more sanctions to Russia, not lift them. Lawmakers in both parties are going to be hugely skeptical of any deal Trump tries to strike with Moscow.

John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, said Trump could use the threat or even implementation of new sanctions as leverage to give Putin more incentive to make concessions.

Diplomacy without changing the conditions on the ground is less likely to succeed, he said.

The details matter. If the Trump team sets out a principled approach based on offering limited sanctions relief only after Russia enforces a cease-fire and removes heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine, a deal might be possible, said Alexander Vershbow, a former senior Pentagon and NATO official.

Its a long shot, he said. But the best way for Trump to disarm his critics would be to defy expectations and negotiate a good deal that gets the Russians out of eastern Ukraine.

If the Trump team does its best to strike a deal with Moscow and fails, at least Putins true intentions will be laid bare. Then the administration will have little choice but to pursue a path of actively pushing back on Russian aggression, increasing support for Ukraines government and military and abandoning the idea of yet another Russian reset.

2017, The Washington Post

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Trump's surprise bid to broker Ukraine peace - New York Post

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Russia is attempting to weaponize the way people share information. The West is only now understanding what this new form of warfare is and how to defeat it.

Long before Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election last year and in the French elections this year, Ukrainian lawmakers were sounding the alarm over Russian interference. The Ukrainian term for Russian cyberattacks is hybrid warfare and the Ukrainian government finally took action against it this month.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko following a decision by the National Security and Defense Council banned Russian social media sites and propaganda outlets that were masquerading as legitimate news sources. The decision is part of a larger set of sanctions against Russia designed to restore nothing short of the cyber sovereignty of Ukraine.

The ban affects Russias equivalents of Facebook called Vkontakte (aka VK) Odnoklassniki and Yandex. These sites have been routinely monitored and mined for data by Russias spy agency, the Federal Security Service. The danger to Ukrainians from this activity cannot be overstated. Ukraine has long been a testing ground for new types of Russian aggression. In Ukraine, Russia has employed both physical and psychological methods. The goal: to sew discord and destabilize Ukraine.

During Russias 2014 invasion of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing conflict in East Ukraine, Russia has marshaled a smorgasbord of propaganda techniques and cyberattacks. Using personal data gleaned by mining the Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki social-media platforms, it has targeted ethnic Russians with carefully tailored messages in an attempt to ignite ethnic tensions. In addition, a pro-Russian terrorist group called the Somalia Battalion, which has fought Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine, used Vkontakte to recruit unwitting volunteers into military service.

More recently, an online phenomenon known as Blue Whale that encourages children and teens to commit suicide was propagated and promoted by some of these same Russian outlets. On Vkontakte, Blue Whale looks like an online game, but it has caused many, tragic deaths. Worse yet, the Russians ability to target young people has undoubtedly been bolstered by the Kremlins ability to collect and analyze personal data from Ukrainian users of Russian based social media sites, such as Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki.

Russian media outlets such as Russia Today, the television network, have also been blacked out in Ukraine. RT has been the cornerstone of recent Russian propaganda blitzes. Russia uses RT and similar television channels to spread false information and fake news. Democratically elected Ukrainian leaders are routinely referred to as the Kiev junta in power illegitimately. The stations are also fond of describing U.S. and Ukrainian policy as similar to that of Nazi Germany.

Ukraine is happy to push back against such dangerous lies. Its national security is at stake.

To be clear, Ukraine continues to uphold the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. But those freedoms dont apply in this case. No one has the right to spread falsehoods nor can anyone collect personal data to promote them. Even the director of Ukraines Mohyla School of Journalism, Yevhen Fedchenko, defended the Russian media shutdowns as the greatest contribution to the protection of information sovereignty of Ukraine ever.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) came to a similar conclusion: The Ukrainian government has made clear that this decree is an issue of security, not one of freedom of speech. Neither the United Nations nor any government in the West has spoken out against Ukraines actions.

Critics from Russia and its allies will no doubt continue to compare Ukraine to North Korea and its far-reaching media controls. But they miss the real comparison to South Korea, which routinely blocks the propaganda websites peddled by its northern neighbor. They also surely will neglect to mention that there is one easy way for Russia to have the sanctions removed. All it has to do is end its war with Ukraine and withdraw its soldiers from Ukrainian soil.

Dmytro Shymkiv is the deputy head of the presidential administration of Ukraine and secretary of the National Reform Council.

More:
Ukraine shut down Russian social media outlets - Washington Times

Tom Cullem

Because, as so often has been the case, the EU and its minions in members government, doesnt give a tinkers curse with those in these alleged democracies really want.

If Juncker told me it was raining, I wouldnt pull the umbrella out until Id opened the window and checked for myself.

Well, Dutch voters, you backed off voting for the people who would never have agreed to this, and now you have your reward. The EU iron fits comes down again: our way or the highway.

Posted on 5/30/17 | 3:00 PM CEST

Oof. Common sense prevails in the Senate.

We need to support the Ukraina for ethical, moral, and geopolitical reasons. This is a way to do that that wont cost us very much but will help the Ukraina significantly.

Any concerns that this treaty is a backdoor to get another poor country into the EU have been adequately addressed by means of a claryfying treaty addendum.

So, there is no longer any reason to be against, and the Netherlands Senate just now agreed after the House earlier came to the same conclusion.

Alls well that ends well, one might say.

Not so for professional EU-bashers apparently. They are disappointed and as determined as ever to find fault with the EU no matter what. They are also determined never to let any facts or balanced reflection to get in their way.

Well, at least they are consistent and predictable.

Posted on 5/30/17 | 3:27 PM CEST

Well, another affirmation of the famous European values: the people vote in one way, and the government decides the opposite.

And consider that they are the same gentlemen who then hold political ethics lessons for the governments of Hungary and Poland !

Posted on 5/30/17 | 4:03 PM CEST

Together with Brexit and the Turkey escalation, thats now 3 major ongoing debates around a country bordering EU and wanting a deep EU trade agreement but without political union or freedom of movement. As an EU citizen, I continue to think there would be a lot of value in handling this through a regional FTA or customs union between EU / EFTA countries / UK / Turkey / Ukraine, without any goal of political union. Decision making on standards and regulations should not be centered around EU like EFTA is today, but it should have EU as one of the equal partners around the table. It could be an evolution of EFTA or a separate treaty altogether, that would probably be up to the EEA and EFTA members to decide.

In retrospect, I wish _that_ was the vision that Theresa May would have pushed for when she made her big Global Britain speech, positioning the UK as the leading EFTA member, pushing for trade without political union.

Posted on 5/30/17 | 4:07 PM CEST

@Jodocus4

The EU megaphone has spoken and as usual uses 100 words but 10 will do.

Posted on 5/30/17 | 4:18 PM CEST

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LATEST: Dutch Senate backs EU-Ukraine trade deal - POLITICO.eu