Trump's casting call as he builds out his administration: TV experience preferredOilers give injury update on Hyman ahead of Vegas game - Daily HiveFBI, as most Americans know, is short for Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the agency’s official seal, the letters also stand for Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity. One thing the letters don’t represent is vengeance. But Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, seems prepared to use the nation’s premier law enforcement organization for just that. Patel served in Trump’s first administration in various roles but has made his name mostly from his fierce loyalty to the 45th president. When Trump was accused of unlawfully retaining government documents after his presidency ended in 2021, Patel claimed to have witnessed Trump declassify them all. In 2023, Patel produced the recording “Justice for All,” featuring Trump reciting the pledge of allegiance over voices of jailed Jan. 6 defendants singing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” an effort to normalize the attack on the U.S. Capitol as a patriotic protest. Patel even penned a trilogy of children’s books called The Plot Against the King. The books feature a conspiracy against “King Donald” that is thwarted by a loyal wizard whose name is ... “Kash.” Nothing subtle here. Volume 1 is all about how “Keeper Komey’s spying slugs” falsely accused King Donald of cheating to win the election by working with Russia. The reference to former FBI Director James Comey’s investigation into connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia is barely veiled. In addition to Patel’s obsequious loyalty to Trump, he holds radical views about the agency he has been chosen to lead. Shortly after the November election, Patel said he would “shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.” Other disturbing ideas for the agency appear in another of Patel’s books, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. There, Patel suggests moving the agency out of Washington “to curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.” As a former career prosecutor, I worked closely with the FBI for almost 20 years. I know from that experience that the FBI operates under its Domestic Investigations Operations Guide, which requires investigations to be predicated on credible allegations and forbids the agency from opening investigations based on politics or First Amendment-protected activity. Patel proposes to turn that mission on its head. Patel once proposed using the law “criminally or civilly” against Trump’s political rivals. “We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media,” he told Steve Bannon on the War Room podcast. Patel’s bad ideas don’t end there. The former public defender and prosecutor also wants to strip the FBI of its intelligence mission. Perhaps as payback for the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Patel would eliminate the FBI’s role in counterintelligence investigations. Such a move would badly damage America’s national security. With the Central Intelligence Agency restricted to conducting operations outside the United States, the FBI is the only agency that protects American interests from spy operations conducted within our borders by Russia, Iran, China and other hostile foreign adversaries. Patel has also written that he wants to shrink the FBI’s office of general counsel, the agency’s in-house lawyers. The FISA warrant of Trump campaign aide Carter Page, which the Justice Department’s inspector general found included a false statement by an FBI lawyer, was a black eye for the office, but certainly no reason to eliminate it. Patel argues incorrectly that the office engages in “prosecutorial decision-making.” In fact, only the prosecutors at the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have the authority to file criminal charges. Instead, the general counsel’s office provides legal advice to agents to ensure compliance with law and policy on matters such as wiretaps, searches and arrests. If anything, the office needs more lawyers to ensure appropriate rigor in reviewing documents. One hopes the Senate takes seriously its advice and consent role regarding a nominee as dangerous as Patel. Senators would do well to heed the advice of William Barr, who served as attorney general during Trump’s first term. Barr wrote in his memoir that he opposed Patel’s appointment then even as the FBI’s deputy director. Barr said he told White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the appointment of Patel would occur over his “dead body.” Patel, Barr wrote, had “virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency” and that even considering him for the No. 2 job showed a “shocking detachment from reality.” It may be that Trump is simply using Patel for the anchoring effect his nomination will have. By setting expectations so low, any other candidate will look good by comparison. Just as the nomination and withdrawal of Matt Gaetz for attorney general may have softened up the Senate for the eventual appointment of Pam Bondi, perhaps Patel is just there to pave the way for the nominee who comes next. Let’s hope it is someone who shares the values of fidelity, bravery and integrity.Margaret Pomeranz: The 10 films you should watch, but probably haven’t
Johnson has 25, FGCU downs CSU Bakersfield 74-54
Sarah Ferguson has lifted the lid and given a rare insight into her daughters' children's lives with a major Christmas update. The Duchess of York, 65, is well and truly in the festive spirit and like most grandmothers she is ready to spoil her grandchildren this festive season “with sweets, toys and treats”. "Grannies exist to spoil their grandchildren, don't they? I'll be stuffing their stockings with sweets, toys and treats. I think I'm as excited as they are," the Duchess told Hello! Sarah - affectionately dubbed Fergie by fans and friends - is grandmother to Princess Beatrice ’s daughter Sienna, three, and stepson Wolfie, eight, as well as Princess Eugenie ’s sons, August, three, and one-year-old Ernest. And soon, Fergie will become a grandmother again as Beatrice, the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, is currently pregnant with her and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's second child, with the baby set to be born in early spring. When the pregnancy announcement was made in October, Eugenie was quick to take to social media to congratulate her sister and share a heartfelt message. Sarah is not one to leave her Christmas shopping to the last minute as the Dutchess plans a “long way ahead” and she even has an adorable annual Christmas tradition. She said: "I spot things I think people would like throughout the year and stash them away. “Every year I also like to get special baubles made for everyone's tree." Just a couple of days ago, Fergie shared a glimpse of her family outing at Windsor Great Park , in new footage she shared on her social media accounts. With the big day fast approaching, it is likely that the Prince and Princess of Wales will spend this Christmas at Anmer Hall, a Georgian country house gifted to the couple by Queen Elizabeth II after their wedding in 2011. Former BBC royal correspondent, Jennie Bond described possible Christmas scenes with the Wales family. She told OK! Magazine : "I think it is in their own family home that the Waleses let the kids run riot. So I think they'll probably be tearing open their stockings and racing around their home at some ungodly hour on Christmas morning – just like kids up and down the country."
(Photo by Kampus Production via Pexels) By Stephen Beech Employees are suffering "techno-strain" as a result of digital systems making it difficult to switch off from work, warns a new study. Staff are experiencing mental and physical issues due to being "hyperconnected" through digital technology, according to the findings. Researchers from the University of Nottingham’s Schools of Psychology and Medicine conducted detailed interviews with employees from a variety of professions. They found that the cognitive and affective effort associated with constant connectivity and high work pace driven by the digital workplace is detrimental to employee well-being. The study is the final part of a research project exploring the "dark side effects" of digital working which include stress, overload, anxiety and fear of missing out. The results, published in the journal Frontiers in Organisational Psychology , highlight an "overarching" theme of "digital workplace technology intensity" as a result of digital workplace job demands. The research team says their findings indicate a "sense of burden" associated with working digitally which surfaced for most participants in perceptions of overload and feelings of being "overwhelmed" by the proliferation of messages, apps and meetings in the digital workplace. They say "fear of missing out" - or FOMO- on important information and contact with colleagues also contributed to stress and strain for digital workers, as did hassles encountered when using digital technologies. (Photo by Tara Winstead via Pexels) Study leader Elizabeth Marsh said: “Digital workplaces benefit both organizations and employees, for example by enabling collaborative and flexible work. "However, what we have found in our research is that there is a potential dark side to digital working, where employees can feel fatigue and strain due to being overburdened by the demands and intensity of the digital work environment. "A sense of pressure to be constantly connected and keeping up with messages can make it hard to psychologically detach from work." Fourteen employees were interviewed in detail and asked about their perceptions and experiences of digital workplace job demands and impacts to their health. Comments from interviewees included: “[It’s] just more difficult to leave it behind when it's all online and you can kind of jump on and do work at any time of the day or night.” Another participant said: “You kind of feel like you have to be there all the time. You have to be a little green light,” while another commented: “It's that pressure to respond [...] I've received an e-mail, I've gotta do this quickly because if not, someone might think “What is she doing from home?” In their analysis, the researchers explored potential underlying psychological, technological and organizational factors that may influence ways in which employees experience digital workplace job demands. The findings showed that participants' dark side experiences were particularly shaped by a pervasive and constant state of connectivity in the digital workplace, termed "hyperconnectivity." Those experiences contributed to a sense of pressure to be available and the erosion of work-life boundaries, according to the research team. (Photo by Thirdman via Pexels) They said the evidence also indicates that "hyperconnectivity" has become the norm among workers post-pandemic. PhD student Marsh said: “The findings underline the need for both researchers and professionals to identify, understand and mitigate the digital workplace job demands to protect the well-being of digital workers.” The research also makes practical suggestions for employers including helping workers improve their digital skills and empowering them to manage boundaries in the digital workplace. The team says their findings could also be used by IT departments to consider how to improve the usability and accessibility of the digital workplace, as well as reining in the proliferation of applications. Dr. Alexa Spence, Professor of Psychology, said: “This research extends the Job Demands-Resources literature by clarifying digital workplace job demands including hyperconnectivity and overload." She added: "It also contributes a novel construct of digital workplace technology intensity which adds new insight on the causes of technostress in the digital workplace. "In doing so, it highlights the potential health impacts, both mental and physical, of digital work.”