News Convicted SEAL Eddie Gallagher thanks President Trump with a ‘little gift’ from Iraq by Kadia Tubman ReporterYahoo News•Gallagher meets Trump at Mar-a-Lago to ‘thank’ him Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who kept his Trident pin after President Trump intervened in his war crimes case, met with the commander in chief ahead of the Christmas holiday to “thank” him with a “little gift” from his service in Iraq. “Finally got to thank the President and his amazing wife by giving them a little gift from Eddie’s deployment to Mosul,” Gallagher and his wife, Andrea, captioned a set of photos with Trump and the first lady at their Mar-a-Lago estate. The images were posted on Instagram Saturday. In one of the images, Trump, standing beside Melania and Andrea, holds the present. Exactly what Gallagher gave the president wasn’t disclosed. 
Last month, Trump’s Navy secretary, Richard Spencer, was fired by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper for his objections to the president’s “unprecedented intervention.” Spencer pushed for a naval review board to consider Gallagher’s wartime actions. The Pentagon said Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation because of a “lack of candor.” Gallagher, who had eight overseas deployments, including service in both the Iraq War and in Afghanistan, accused Spencer of „meddling in my case and trying to get organizations not to support me.”Spencer, in a final letter to Trump, said he no longer shared the “same understanding” of “good order and discipline” with the commander in chief. Meanwhile, Trump defended Spencer’s ouster, saying, “I have to protect my warfighters.”“I was not pleased with the way that Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s trial was handled by the Navy. He was treated very badly but, despite this, was completely exonerated on all major charges. I then restored Eddie’s rank,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I thank Richard for his service & commitment. Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honors that he has earned, including his Trident Pin.”As planned, Gallagher retired on Nov. 30 after 20 years of service.
Democratic Sen. Doug Jones says he’ll vote to acquit President Trump if ‘dots aren’t connected’
Democratic Sen. Doug Jones dismissed concerns that he will lose his seat if he votes to remove President Trump in a Senate trial, but said he would acquit Trump if “dots aren’t connected” over “gaps” in the impeachment case.
Jones, D-Ala., during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” called the impeachment charges against Trump “really serious allegations.” The House last week voted to approve two articles of impeachment that accuse the president of abusing the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf and obstructing Congress in its inquiry.
“What I’m trying to do because, quite frankly, I didn’t sit in front of the TV set the entire time the last two or three months, I’ve been trying to read this. I’m trying to see if the dots get connected. If that is the case, then I think it’s a serious matter. I think it’s an impeachable matter,” Jones said. “But if those dots aren’t connected and there are other explanations that I think are consistent with innocence, I will go that way too.”
Jones said “there are gaps” that witnesses who appear at the Senate trial would help fill in. But Democrats’ requests for witnesses and relevant documents have been roundly resisted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Now, people can make up their mind with gaps in testimony, but I would like to see a full and complete picture,” Jones said. “And we don’t have that because the president has refused to have his people come and testify and deliver documents. He says the Senate’s going to give him a fair trial and he wants these folks to testify. Well, let him tell Sen. McConnell to let him come testify and get this — let’s get this going as soon as we get back.”
Last week, McConnell admitted he had no intention of being “impartial” in the Senate impeachment trial. Some House Democrats then floated the idea of holding back the articles until a fair trial was guaranteed. Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants testimony from current and former administration officials, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which the White House opposes. Schumer said Tuesday he would force a vote on the Senate floor on calling these witnesses, which could put some of McConnell’s Republican allies in a difficult position.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we got one or two Democrats,” McConnell said about the Senate trial.
“Is he talking about you?” asked “This Week” anchor Martha Raddatz.
“I have no idea what Mitch McConnell’s talking about these days,” responded Jones, a vulnerable moderate whose state had not voted for a Democrat in a Senate race in 25 years before his upset victory in December 2017. He is considered to be one of the potential Democratic defectors in Trump’s impeachment trial.
Last year, in another consequential vote, Jones came out against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexual assault, despite increased pressure from conservatives in his deep-red state to confirm Trump’s pick.
When asked if he was worried about his seat in 2020, Jones said, “No,” adding, “I took an oath as a U.S. senator. I’m going to take another oath.”
He said the “problem that we’ve got in America today [is] everyone wants to talk about this in the political terms, in the political consequences term.”
“This is a much more serious matter than that,” the senator continued. “This has to do with the future of the presidency, and how we want our presidents to conduct themselves. It has all to do with the future of this Senate and how a Senate should handle impeachment, articles of impeachment that come over. That’s how I’m looking at this.”
Jones, defending his position, added, “If I did everything based on a pure and political argument, all I’d — you’d need is a computer to mash a button. It’s just not what this country’s about, it’s not what the Founders intended, it’s not what I intend to do.
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Read more from Yahoo News:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Apologizes for Mocking Biden’s Remarks on Stuttering
The New York Times•
Why has the Tulsa Race Massacre been largely forgotten?
What’s next
Scientists say further examination of the possible mass grave sites is necessary before they can be excavated. If bodies are found at the sites, DNA tests would be done to determine their identities. Local leaders hope to have the project completed in time for the 100th anniversary of the event in 2021.
A feature film about the massacre and two television series about the massacre — including one produced by Oprah Winfrey — are in development, but no release dates have been announced for the projects.
Perspectives
For decades, the massacre was mislabeled as a riot
“The word ‘riot’ suggested something uncontrolled and mindless, rather than the very specific targeting of black success. Further, by flipping victim and perpetrator, these accounts both blamed black Tulsans and absolved the white mob.” — Alaina E. Roberts, Washington Post
The massacre is better known in the black community
“The bombing of Black Wall Street is common knowledge to a large percentage of black folks … but apparently it’s news to a lot of people who prefer a whitewashed, sanitized version of American history.” — Michael Harriot, the Root
A systematic effort to erase the event from history was largely successful
“The dead were tossed into the Arkansas River and unmarked mass graves. News accounts were cut out of the Tulsa Tribune before they were assembled into bound reference volumes. The incident was not a part of the Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum until 2000, and only recently entered American-history textbooks.” — Frank Rich, Vulture
The massacre contradicts the popular narrative of black progress in America
“Tulsa’s massacre happened in a time that we don’t talk about. … It upends the history lessons that Americans pass down — that black people were passive victims from the slave ships to the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, that white violence was the unique dogma of church-bombing extremists. Black Wall Street scrambles the accepted timeline so much that it’s easier to forget the place ever existed.” — Victor Luckerson, the Ringer
Fear forced witnesses into silence
“White shame and guilt, coupled with fear of prosecution for murder, meant few talked about what had happened. Then, too, African Americans were afraid to speak out because they feared retribution.” — Historian Tim Madigan to Christian Science Monitor
Racism made the massacre seem less horrific to many whites
“The warlike conditions to which these and other black Americans were subjected are fittingly embodied by their discardment in a mass grave. Such a burial would illustrate both the massive scope of the atrocity and the disdain with which its victims were considered.” — Zak Cheney-Rice, New York
Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in “The 360”? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com.
Read more “360”s
- Is impeachment destined to ‘die quickly’ in the Senate?
- Criminal pardons in Kentucky: Was justice served?
- Can the West help end persecution of Chinese Muslims?
Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images
‘Steel Rain’: Could This Be the U.S. Military’s Ultimate Weapon?
Key point: For the time being, the MLRS still provides an effective rocket system for U.S. armored units.
On February 24, 1991, the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm began. Over the next four days, the soldiers of an international coalition, formed to eject the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein from the neighboring nation of Kuwait, carried out a whirlwind offensive that quickly overwhelmed their foe. During this time, tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers were taken prisoner.
Many of them, arms thrust upward in a sign of surrender, said one thing when they were taken into custody: “No more steel rain.” For weeks before the ground attack, these men had been systematically pummeled by the entire range of weaponry available to their opponents—B-52 bombing strikes, air attacks using tons of precision “smart” weapons, plus many more thousands of tons of traditional unguided bombs and rockets. Added to this was the close air support of fighter-bomber aircraft and attack helicopters. Artillery barrages dropped down on them by the dozens and hundreds, adding yet another level to the pounding they received.
The cries of “no more steel rain” applied to none of these, however. Instead, it was the nickname of a deadly new artillery weapon seeing its debut in combat: the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. Batteries of these weapons had been deployed to the Gulf with U.S. and British forces, who used them to blanket their target areas with hundreds of rockets releasing thousands of explosive submunitions, or bomblets, that devastated armored vehicles, trucks, equipment, and men. Volleys of rockets pounded the hapless Iraqi troops and paved the way for the sweeping infantry and armor assaults that followed. The MLRS proved itself alongside such other late-Cold War weapons as the M1 Abrams tank, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and AH64 Apache helicopter. Like these weapons, the MLRS had its origins in the 1970s development programs of the post-Vietnam era.
The MLRS Concept Takes Shape
How Mariah Carey still makes millions off her 1994 Christmas hit by Alexandra Canal
Mariah Carey has made a reported $60 million from ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ in just royalties alone Digital music also plays a role in the song maintaining its momentum.Currently, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” sits at 96 out of 100 on Spotify’s Popularity Index — a normalized metric the platform uses to curate playlists. It only bottomed out at 61 in July 2019, according to music analytic website Chartmetric.That means people are listening to the holiday track all year round — although the song’s peaks during November and December are hard to ignore.
According to data compiled by Nielsen, there was a nearly 400% spike in on-demand streaming the week after Halloween — and Carey might’ve had something to do with it.Just one day after Halloween, the diva of high notes posted a teaser video to her Instagram, where she falls asleep in her costume at 11:59 p.m. — only to be awakened by a call from Santa promptly at midnight as her hit song plays in the background.Coupled with the fact that the track has inspired a children’s book, an animated film and a new Amazon Music (AMZN) documentary, the post sent fans into a premature Christmas frenzy, just in time for the singer to climb to the top of the Billboard charts. Talk about a ‘ho-ho-ho’-ole lot of marketing gold. Alexandra Canal is a Producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193
