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You've been Trumped!

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 14 Nov , 2018 6:30 pm
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Actually, Jude, a judge could issue a temporary restraining order as soon as today. It would allow Acosta back into the White House while the lawsuit is settled.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... hite-house

A number of news organizations, including Fox, have filed briefs with the court supporting CNN.

Regardless of who prevails, this is bad optics for Trump to have even his favorite news organization opposing him on this. But this administration has been nothing but bad optics for 2 years, so I doubt they care.



Trump has chosen Kavanaugh's replacement on the US Court of Appeals for DC. Naomi Rao is administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. There isn't too much about her yet, though obviously she's another judge picked by The Federalist Society to influence our courts for many years to come.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html
Quote:
Among the more controversial aspects of Rao’s writings is her support for the power of the president and the need to bring independent agencies under control of the White House. She is a critic of the “administrative state” and has previously that the independence of federal agencies should be abolished and the heads of those agencies subject to dismissal by the president.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/ ... eat-987653
Quote:
If confirmed by the Senate, Rao, who is 45, would be able to serve a lifetime post on the D.C. court, largely considered the second highest court of the land and a training ground for future Supreme Court justices. In addition to Kavanaugh, Chief Justice John Roberts and Judge Merrick Garland were both groomed in this court.

...Rao, who was a law professor at George Mason University before coming to the White House, is also a protégée of Justice Clarence Thomas. She has spoken at multiple events at the Federalist Society, the conservative legal scholarship group that has influenced Trump's judicial picks, including Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch.


Edit to add:

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/416 ... -in-senate
Quote:
Legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired was blocked in the Senate on Wednesday.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) asked for consent to bring the legislation, which has stalled after being passed in the Judiciary Committee in April, to the Senate floor for a vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked his request.

Under the Senate's rules, a senator can come to the Senate floor and ask for consent to get a vote or pass a bill. Any one senator can block their request.
McConnell claims that there's no reason we need a bill to protect Mueller. So take your pick - either he's really quite stupid or he's blocking this for Trump.



https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4167 ... -civil-war
Quote:
House Republicans have officially blocked a vote on a resolution that would end all U.S. military support to the Saudi Arabia-led-coalition in Yemen’s ongoing war.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House approved 201-187, largely on party lines, a rule for floor debate on an unrelated bill that would take the gray wolf off the endanger [sic] species list. Included in the rule was a provision that strips the Yemen resolution of its so-called privilege[d] status.

Privilege means the sponsors of the resolution could theoretically have forced a vote on it.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -much-more
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday warned members of the anti-fascist movement, commonly referred to as "antifa," that opposition to them could be "tougher" and "much more violent" if their critics decide to "mobilize."

"They better hope that the opposition to antifa decides not to mobilize,” Trump told the conservative outlet The Daily Caller in an interview. "Because if they do, they’re much tougher. Much stronger. Potentially much more violent."

"And antifa’s going to be in big trouble," the president continued. "But so far they haven’t done that and that’s a good thing."
Given the truly nasty far right backers of Trump, this is a very dangerous thing for the president to say. It's one thing to tell antifa that they've gone too far; another to say that another group of idiots might "mobilize" to have ugly and violent clashes. There are groups that will take this as a suggestion from Trump.

Edit: I forgot to mention this yesterday, but for those who don't know, The Daily Caller is a right-wing site that does not have a good reputation for truthfulness. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-caller/
Not the sort of site any of our previous presidents would probably have ever bothered with.

Last edited by aninkling on Thu 15 Nov , 2018 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 15 Nov , 2018 2:00 pm
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I guess this is one of the perks of paying the $200,000 membership fee to Mar-a-Lago. After 2 years of leaving the South African ambassadorship empty, Trump finally seems to have found an underqualified person who has at least spent time there and knows a couple of the official languages.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ambassador
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday announced his nomination of Lana Marks, a handbag designer and Mar-a-Lago club member to be his next U.S. ambassador to South Africa.

In a statement, the White House noted Marks's service on the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as her schooling in South Africa. Marks speaks Afrikaans and Xhosa, two of South Africa's 11 official languages, according to the release.

Mattis is trying really hard to justify Trump sending the military to the border just before the election.The best he can come up with is that it's good training for them, in case of real combat. I 'd prefer training that's a bit cheaper than the $200-300 million price tag for this.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4168 ... ncho-villa


And Trump is having a nasty Twitter meltdown about the Mueller investigation, claiming they're screaming and shouting and threatening people. Not worth bothering to read it, just the usual Trump garbage. Certainly makes McConnell's remarks about not needing to protect Mueller look even more idiotic, though. In general, Trump has been having meltdowns over the last couple of days, being ugly to France, etc. Most people send a nice thank you to their hosts. Our president sends insults.


btw, if anyone wants a laugh, look up what Trump said in The Daily Caller interview about people wearing disguises so they can vote multiple times. Here it is from a legitimate source, Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-i ... se-1215632





Edit: Absolute corruption from Trump, provided this is true:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... ey-n933996
Quote:
The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to two senior U.S. officials and two other people briefed on their requests.

Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade the Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government...
Gulen has a green card. Erdogan wants to punish Gulen as part of his purge against anyone influential in opposing him (and anyone else he perceives as an enemy, such as Turkish academics). The Trump administration has asked the FBI and Dept of Justice to reopen a case for Gulen's extradition and put in a request to Homeland Security to look into his legal status. At first, career officials apparently just rolled their eyes at the request. They apparently because very angry once they realized Trump and company were serious (and presumably leaked the Trump plan). The Justice Dept says there is no basis for Gulen's extradition, but otherwise all the agencies involved are saying "no comment" at the moment.

The article says that Trump and Erdogan have also talked about releasing Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Attila, who is in a US jail for taking part in a scheme to evade US sanctions against Iran.




Now that the election is over, it seems that the Pentagon already has plans to start sending some of the military back from the border and has no plans to send any more people.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4168 ... -up-report
Well, at least it won't cost as much as it might have. Trump certainly has some expensive toys to play with, though.

Speaking of costs:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -taxpayers
Quote:
Security for Donald Trump Jr.'s business trip to India will cost U.S. taxpayers almost $100,000 in fees related to the Secret Service agents guarding him, The Washington Post reports.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 16 Nov , 2018 4:42 pm
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Well, inky, it appears you were right:

Blow to Trump as judge restores White House access for CNN's Jim Acosta
Quote:
Acosta’s White House “hard pass” must be immediately restored, according to Judge Timothy Kelly.
Will they actually comply with this order? Stay tuned... :popcorn:

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 16 Nov , 2018 5:28 pm
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The White House said they would. In any case, the judge hasn't yet ruled on the lawsuit so this could still be temporary.



https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ray-wolves
Quote:
The House passed a bill Friday that would remove federal protections for the gray wolf, allowing ranchers, hunters and others to kill the animals.

The Manage Our Wolves Act passed 196 to 180, mainly with Republican support. It would direct the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to end Endangered Species Act protections for the species and prohibit lawsuits challenging the removal.

...The Obama administration had determined that the gray wolf no longer needs protections, and removed them. But a federal court in 2014 overturned that decision, saying that the FWS didn’t show that the species was sufficiently recovered.
I'm not sure how the House can get away with ignoring the endangered species act and defying the court order.


https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/417 ... -judiciary
Quote:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is poised to become the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Friday that he would step down to take over the chairmanship of the Finance Committee.

The shuffle would put Graham, a close ally of President Trump who made headlines this fall with a forceful denunciation of Democrats during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, in charge of the panel handling judicial nominations.

...The South Carolina Republican will also have jurisdiction over the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration.


https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4169 ... 10-billion
Quote:
Pentagon official: Trump's Space Force could cost up to $10 billion
The Pentagon says $5-10 billion, the Air Force estimates $13 billion. And that's just to establish it, never mind continuing costs. In either case, don't we have better ways to spend this money, considering how Trump and the GOP just accelerated the budget deficit?

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 19 Nov , 2018 3:02 pm
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Surprise, surprise.... not. Trump's latest immigration proclamation, combined with border shutdowns and clashes between residents and migrants overcrowded in Tijuana looks likely to turn into another big mess and/or humanitarian disaster.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4173 ... t-of-entry
Quote:
U.S Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) over the weekend shut down traffic flowing into the country at a key point of entry on the Southern border.

The move comes as agents work to secure the U.S.-Mexico border in anticipation of the so-called "caravan," which reportedly includes thousands of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States.

Lanes of traffic into the U.S. from Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry have been shut down as agents lay down barbed wire, concrete and rebar to reinforce the entry point, NBC San Diego reported.

The San Ysidro port is the busiest land border crossing in the U.S., according to the outlet.
Worth noting that many more people apply for asylum in the US each year than are in this caravan and CBP has managed to handle them without huge issues until Trump.

And now our border crossing points are starting to look like prisons. Welcome to the U.S. - The Land of the Paranoid. They also look to me like a good way to get people crushed and killed if there's a panic. What's next? Sharpshooters like the former crossings to East Germany?




https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/417 ... ourt-picks
Quote:
Republicans view filling the lifetime court seats as their top priority and are expected to confirm as many nominees as possible before the Senate adjourns for the year, infuriating Democrats and their allies who are powerless to stop Trump’s picks.

...Republicans have been confirming Trump’s judicial nominees at a rapid clip, setting a record for the number of appeals judges confirmed during the first two years of an administration.
Partly because they blocked Pres. Obama's nominees in unprecedented numbers so they could have more vacancies to fill.


Yet another expose. Though if Woodward's book and Trump's recent activities didn't result in impeachment, we might as well assume that the GOP wouldn't impeach Trump no matter what he does to the country. If proposing to hand a dissident with a green card over to a dictatorship, in exchange for keeping an arms deal going, isn't enough to sicken Republican leadership, then nothing ever will. Never mind all of Trump's slacking even at his ceremonial duties lately.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4173 ... -of-vipers

On that note - it seems curious that we haven't heard anything from Mueller's team since Whitaker was appointed acting Attorney General. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Then again, this is the Trump administration we're talking about.



And Jude, you were of course right to be suspicious of Trump's ego regarding Acosta.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4173 ... estraining
Quote:
Trump told Fox News's Chris Wallace in an interview that aired Sunday morning that the ruling wasn't "a big deal." He also warned that if Acosta "misbehaves" again, "we'll throw him out" or end the press conference altogether.

"Yeah, it's fine, I mean it’s not a big deal," Trump told Wallace. "What they said, though, is that we have to create rules and regulations for conduct etc. etc. We’re doing that, were going to write them up right now. It’s not a big deal and if he misbehaves, we’ll throw him out or we’ll stop the news conference."
Depending on what these "rules" are, they could be worse for freedom of the press than the trumped-up bullshit, lies and faked video tape Trump tried against Acosta the first time.

Last edited by aninkling on Mon 19 Nov , 2018 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 19 Nov , 2018 3:17 pm
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aninkling wrote:
Depending on what these "rules" are, they could be worse for freedom of the press than the trumped-up bullshit, lies and faked video tape Trump tried against Acosta the first time.
From now on, the expression "trumped-up" will never be the same again...

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 19 Nov , 2018 3:31 pm
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I know. Though I used that term accidentally.


I forgot to mention this, but Trump is also nominating Andrew Wheeler to head the EPA. The former coal lobbyist. If anyone tried to make this stuff up, before Trump, it would have only been in a farce.


Edit:

Good riddance:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... anges-jobs
Quote:
Scott Lloyd, the controversial Trump administration official in charge of refugee children at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is taking on a new role at the agency.

Lloyd, who joined HHS in March 2017 as director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), is leaving that post to serve as a senior adviser at the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives.
Lloyd is the religious nutter who (among other things) tried to prevent a young woman who had been raped from having an abortion, even though the abortion itself was not paid for by the government. His "justification" was a bunch of nonsense where he essentially demanded that everyone else subscribe to his own views on abortion. After admitting that she was in a terrible situation and had a horrible crime committed against her.


And another charmer:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... rnia-fires
Quote:
Days after touring the damage of the Camp fire, the deadliest in California’s history, Zinke went on Breitbart News Sunday and declared “it’s not the time for finger-pointing” on the causes of the fires.

But minutes later, he put the blame squarely on environmentalists, contending that they stood in the way of clearing brush, doing prescribed burns and other actions. “I will lay this on the foot of those environmental radicals that have prevented us from managing the forests for years. And you know what? This is on them,” Zinke said.
This has been debunked repeatedly but Zinke keeps ignoring that and repeating it. And once again, our government officials are frequenting fringe sites where they peddle their "alternative" views and are not challenged.

I suppose Zinke has to, since Trump's views are even nuttier:
Quote:
Zinke’s interview aired the day after President Trump visited the firefighting and recovery. Trump said ...
"You’ve got to take care of the floors. You know, the floors of the forest, very important,” he told reporters. “I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We have a much different — we're a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things,” he said. “And they don't have any problem.”
The Finnish President, who presumably is a normal person, says that he said nothing about raking forests. And people in Finland are having a field day with jokes about raking the forest.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/so ... edirect=on
Quote:
Trump administration officials have discussed ways to circumvent the confidentiality of census responses, according to documents filed Friday in a California legal challenge to adding a citizenship question to the decennial survey.

...Confidentiality is ... enshrined in the Census Act, which says the Commerce Department, which oversees the survey, cannot share the data with any other government agency or court. Violators are subject to up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines.




Also the new rules for press conferences seems to be that reporters may ask one question only. No follow-up questions unless Trump or his lackeys allow it. European reporters might hold the administration's feet to the fire by the next reporter asking the follow-up. But I doubt American reporters will.

Supposedly the Trump administration has also dropped their attempts to pull Acosta's hard pass, and CNN has dropped its lawsuit in response. I assume this was all either a Trump temper tantrum or a distraction from other things like the ethics case against Zinke being referred to the Justice Dept.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46267281
Quote:
The White House has restored the press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta, less than two weeks after withdrawing them over an argument with President Trump during a news conference.

The BBC article also asks the important questions:
Quote:
The rules, of course, are open to interpretation. Which reporter will be the first to try a multipart question? Who gets to determine what constitutes a proper follow-up?

If this is how "decorum" is restored in a White House where the president himself tells journalists they ask "stupid questions", the holes are big enough to drive a truck through.

Mostly this appears to be a face-saving way for the administration to back down from a legal fight it wasn't likely to win. The White House made its point, and reporters may think twice before pressing Ms Sanders, or the president, quite as hard with their questions.

For press freedom advocates, this could be a chilling development. For the president's supporters, who celebrate his "enemy of the people" rhetoric, it's a welcome first step.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2018 2:06 pm
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The BBC is not the only organization saying that Trump's new rules for press conferences are garbage:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4176 ... ill-follow
Quote:
NBC host Chuck Todd on Tuesday criticized the White House's new rules for reporters at presidential news conferences, calling them "absurd" and predicting that journalists won't follow them.

"These aren’t exactly pro first amendment rules. I assume there isn’t a single serious journalist in the WH press corps who would abide by these absurd 'rules.' Manners is one thing, but regulating follow ups is a form of censorship," he wrote in a tweet.

Not even a pretense of upholding decency from this administration.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -statement
Quote:
President Trump said Tuesday the U.S. would maintain a "steadfast" alliance with Saudi Arabia in a defiant statement that made it clear Trump does not want the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to disrupt the relationship between the two nations.

Trump refused to blame Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi's killing even though the CIA has reportedly concluded that the crown prince ordered his assassination. The CIA on Tuesday was expected to share its full report on the killing with Trump.
Edit:
https://globalnews.ca/news/4684494/dona ... khashoggi/
Quote:
Amid anger at his lack of punishment towards Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled down and thanked the country for a different issue. “Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!” Trump wrote.
Is this Trump's reward from the Saudis?




And more corruption:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mey-report
Quote:
President Trump wanted to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, according to The New York Times. Trump this past spring reportedly told then-White House counsel Don McGahn of his desire to prosecute the pair, prompting McGahn to rebuff the president, saying he did not have the authority to do so. McGahn later told the president that he did have the authority, but warned that such a request would likely elicit accusations of abuses of power, the Times reported.
Edit:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4177 ... -now-based
Quote:
Former federal prosector Gene Rossi said late Tuesday that there is enough evidence to draft two indictments against President Trump.

...“I could draft an indictment against the president of the United States on two counts. One would be his relationship with Michael Cohen on the election fraud,” Rossi said. “And number two, I could draft a scheme in an attempt to obstruct justice against the president right now."



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... fit-report
Quote:
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker received $1.2 million between 2014 and 2017 from a conservative nonprofit in which he was reported as the only employee, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing tax filings.

But the source of the funds that the nonprofit organization, Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), used to pay Whitaker remain unclear, the Post reported. ...the group is part of a a national group of nonprofits that work to spread conservative messages

....The foundation was created under a different name two years before Whitaker arrived in 2014, according to the Post. A spokesman for FACT declined to tell the Post where the foundation received the funds it used to pay Whitaker, saying in a statement it "is not required" to release donor information.

...At least some of the funds FACT received in 2014 reportedly came from DonorsTrust, a nonprofit organization that donors have used to anonymously give to conservative nonprofits, according to the Post, which cited tax filings.
I wonder if Trump is one of those donors.


And from The American Conservative:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com ... otherwise/
Quote:
Matthew Whitaker is unfit to serve as acting U.S. attorney general. The Appointments Clause of Article II, section 2, clause 2 prohibits his appointment by President Donald Trump without Senate confirmation. Therefore, every action taken by Mr. Whitaker sits under a legal cloud, including domestic and foreign electronic surveillance warrants.

Mr. Whitaker’s appointment exemplifies life imitating art. Prior to his meteoric ascent to Acting Attorney General at age 49, Mr. Whitaker owned a daycare center, a concrete supply business, and a trailer manufacturer. He spearheaded an endeavor to build affordable housing in Des Moines with government subsidies. .. The infinitude of legal ignorance Mr. Whitaker brings to his position is disqualifying...
https://abovethelaw.com/2018/11/matthew ... -football/
Quote:
Matthew Whitaker Applied To Be A Judge With A Ridiculous Collection Of Nonsense And Football
The Acting AG tried to get on the Iowa Supreme Court. He didn't make it and this application shows why.
Quote:
The real story here though isn’t that a right-wing operative wanted to crash a gay-friendly state court, but that his application is so laughably bad. It’s just a complete mess. The good people over at American Bridge have uncovered Whitaker’s application to be considered for the Iowa Supreme Court and… wow. If you wondered why career DOJ personnel are so concerned about Whitaker wielding any significant measure of power in his new quasi-job, this application will set you straight.

Trump likes Whitaker's actions (and loyalty) so far:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ng-courage
Quote:
President Trump is praising the man he appointed to serve as acting attorney general, privately telling associates that Matthew Whitaker has shown "courage" in the face of legal challenges posed by Democrats to his appointment, according to a report in Axios.



Not surprisingly, the courts have ruled that the Trump administration can't just ignore the asylum laws and declare them gone by executive order. So Trump's backers are claiming "liberal bias" because he doesn't get to act like a king. They really are a disturbing bunch.
https://thehill.com/homenews/the-memo/4 ... court-blow
Quote:
...U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar pushed back in a ruling released Monday, noting that existing law stipulates that people can claim asylum from anywhere on U.S. soil. “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” said Tigar, who was appointed by former President Obama.

Immigration hawks took the verdict as a sign to double down in their support for Trump and his approach.
Meanwhile, the US president is attacking the court system again:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... of-appeals
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday assailed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, telling reporters that he intends to file a "major complaint" against the court in the wake of an order denying asylum to migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.

..."You go to the Ninth Circuit and it's a disgrace, and I'm going to put in a major complaint," Trump told reporters outside the White House when asked about the judge's asylum ruling. He did not elaborate on what specific action he might take.

The president railed against the Ninth Circuit for nearly two minutes, claiming that "everybody who wants to sue the United States" does so in the California-based court because "it means an automatic loss" for his administration.

Nielsen is also lying to Americans. Unless she's as stupid as Trump, she must know this isn't true:
https://thehill.com/regulation/national ... lum-ruling
Quote:
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that the Trump administration intends to appeal a federal judge's ruling blocking the president's order that was aimed at preventing certain immigrants from claiming asylum.

..."We will follow all laws and judicial rulings, but we will also be appealing it as quickly as possible. I have no doubt we will be successful,"

What's scarier is that his appointees at the Dept of Justice, which knows better, are also supporting Trump in his executive order and not supporting the law. This is our Dept of Justice under Whitaker.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... ylum-order
Quote:
In a statement obtained by Reuters, the Trump administration called the ruling from Judge Jon Tigar "absurd" and added that the Trump administration would continue to crack down on what it calls "benefits" for "illegal aliens."

“We look forward to continuing to defend the Executive Branch’s legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border,” the Justice Department told Reuters. Civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) should not have the ability “to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled," the DOJ added in its statement.
Edit:
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... bama-judge
Quote:
Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday rebuked President Trump's criticism of a federal judge who ruled against his administration's asylum policy this week as "an Obama judge." Roberts said in a rare statement first reported by The Associated Press that the U.S. doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them,” Roberts said in the statement released by the Supreme Court's press office.
When was the last time you saw a Supreme Court Justice rebuke the president?



Apparently, we're paying for informants to spy on the caravans while they're in a sovereign foreign country. Not that DHS is apparently getting its money's worth. :)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... nt-caravan
Quote:
The Trump administration has been paying undercover informants in the migrant caravan moving toward the U.S. border in an effort to gather intelligence, NBC News reported Tuesday, citing two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials. DHS has also been monitoring text messages between members of the caravan ...

NBC News noted that DHS officials said Monday that their intelligence led them to believe that migrants were planning to rush the border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which is near San Diego. That prompted Customs and Border Control to close traffic lanes near that port of entry on Monday, but the influx of migrants never occurred.
Just how stupid do they think these migrants are? Yeah, let's rush the border and get ourselves arrested, that should really help with our asylum claims. Though I suppose most of this is just the Trump show.


https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... eparations
Quote:
The Trump administration has spent more than $80 million in the past year to house, care for and reunite thousands of migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border as a result of the “zero tolerance” policy. The figures were revealed in a report to Congress from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week and obtained by The Hill.

The numbers are expected to grow, as 140 children have yet to be reunited with their parents and remain in HHS custody. Among them are 117 children whose parents have already been deported. The parents of 30 of the children have been declared ineligible for reunification based on their criminal histories, HHS said.

Another Trump scandal. Even Fox is blowing the whistle on it:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4177 ... mail-after
Quote:
Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen said Monday that it was “unforgivable” for the president's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, to use a private email address to conduct government business after witnessing the 2016 campaign.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ontroversy
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday dismissed as "fake news" reports that his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump may have violated federal law by using a personal email account to conduct government business.


https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... for-forest
Quote:
The Trump administration is pointing to the deadly California wildfires to renew its call for Congress to boost the administration’s ability to remove more brush and trees from federal forests.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters Tuesday that the fires, which have killed more than 80 people so far, should spur lawmakers to adopt more “active forest management” policies — a term that refers to increased logging, removing brush, conducting planned burns and other activities.
Anyone who's spent time in the forests and mountains of California knows they already do planned burns and remove brush as they're able and have funds. This is just a cover for the logging industry, which has Zinke et al in their pockets. Interesting, too, that Sonny Perdue is weighing in on this. What does this have to do with his job and what does he know about forest management?

Trump's tentacles of loyalty really do reach deeply into all branches of the government now and he's consolidating his power through his political appointees.



And Trump's destructive effect extends to international efforts to improve health:
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/ ... h-services
Quote:
The Mexico City policy (global gag rule) prohibits foreign organizations that receive U.S. government funding for health services from engaging in abortion-related services or advocacy. ...Not only does Trump’s expansion of the global gag rule disrupt the work of reproductive health groups, it has also opened the door for an evangelical takeover of public health services worldwide.

One of the reasons the global gag rule is so destructive, is because it prohibits organizations from engaging in abortion-related services, referrals, or advocacy, even when using their own money — money not provided to them by the U.S. government.

Under previous Republican administrations, the rule was limited to funds specifically dedicated to family planning. Even then, it was a public health disaster. The policy failed to reduce rates of abortion globally and, in fact, led more unsafe abortions and higher rates of maternal mortality.

The Trump administration has expanded this old policy to apply to all $8.8 billion of U.S. global health funding. As a result, the impact it will have on health services and advocacy will be all the more widespread and devastating. For instance, the policy now also applies to all U.S. funding for HIV treatment and prevention — which accounts for nearly half of all HIV/AIDS funding globally...
It's probably worth mentioning that the foreign aid to fight diseases is not just altruistic; it benefits Americans. These days, an outbreak in another country can spread around the world very quickly in travelers.

Last edited by aninkling on Wed 21 Nov , 2018 7:34 pm, edited 7 times in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2018 6:49 pm
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This deserves a new post, especially since it was undoubtedly announced today because it will be overshadowed by the holiday.

The Trump administration has authorized the military to use deadly force on US soil. I assume this means that they may also use it against US citizens. This is unprecedented.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -at-border
Quote:
The Trump administration allowed troops to engage in some law enforcement activities and potentially to use deadly force, according to a report by Military Times on Wednesday.

The order, which loosens the engagement restrictions on military personnel at the southwest border, was not signed by President Trump, but by White House chief of staff John Kelly.

...The "protective activities" include “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search.”
And how long until Trump starts using the military as law enforcement in other places in the US?




And here I thought today was already packed full with news of Trump scandals. I did add a couple of new stories to the post above, because they were related. Like a rare rebuke of the US president by a Supreme Court Justice (who the Trump supporters are now obediently attacking on social media, because he has dared to criticize Dear Leader.)



And what is our ever-hard-working president doing, while most of us are still working?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... anksgiving
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday played with former professional golfer Jack Nicklaus during the first day of his Thanksgiving vacation in Mar-a-Lago.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 24 Nov , 2018 9:24 pm
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It seems Trump might have been ignoring even more information than we realized.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/1 ... nce-jamal/
Quote:
The CIA has a recording of a phonecall in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave instructions to "silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible", a Turkish news website has reported.

Gina Haspel, CIA director, is said to have revealed the existence of a wiretapped call between Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi’s ambassador to the US, to Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara last month, according to Hurriyet.

...The brothers are reportedly heard talking about the "discomfort" caused by the Washington Post columnist's criticism of the kingdom's administration.

...The leak comes days after President Donald Trump signalled his support for Prince Mohammed... In an extraordinary statement subtitled "America First!" Mr Trump said on Tuesday that "our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event -- maybe he did and maybe he didn't!"

Speaking to reporters at his Florida resort on Thursday, President Trump said.... “I hate the crime…I hate the coverup. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do,” he said.



https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... ay/576589/
Quote:
A Grave Climate Warning, Buried on Black Friday

In a massive new report, federal scientists contradict President Trump and assert that climate change is an intensifying danger to the United States. Too bad it came out on a holiday.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ey/576460/
Quote:
The president of the United States reportedly tried to use the full force of the country’s law-enforcement apparatus to prosecute his political enemies—and Justice Department veterans are calling it everything from “incredibly” alarming to “flat-out un-American.”

The disclosure by The New York Times on Tuesday that President Donald Trump had told the White House counsel he wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey offers a new window into the extent to which Trump perceives the law-enforcement community as his “personal entourage,” said Elliot Williams, a former high-ranking Justice Department official.

...“All people who have faith in the rule of law in the United States should be incredibly alarmed by this story,” said Williams, who served as the DOJ’s deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs until 2017. “There is a long history of the White House staying out of individual investigations and prosecutions—and that is for a reason.”

... “I don’t know of anyone who has ever thought that it would be remotely tolerable in any way for a president to instruct DOJ to prosecute his political opponents,” said David Kris, a founder of Culper Partners consulting firm who served as the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Security Division until 2011. “That is just plain vanilla, out of bounds, un-American, wrong.” Vanita Gupta, who served as the acting head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division until January 2017, agreed. “It is, unfortunately, hard to be shocked anymore by the president and his utter disdain for the rule of law and the independence of the Justice Department,” she told me. “And yet we all need to be continued to be shocked by it.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ne/576352/
Quote:
The Military Has Become Trump’s Favorite Prop

President Trump sent troops to the border even though they’re prohibited by law from stopping immigrants. He still hasn’t visited U.S. troops in a combat zone.
Quote:
Stymied by a fractious legislative branch, a recalcitrant judiciary, and his own inability to work the levers of the executive branch, the president has asked service members to handle what he cannot do by other means, most notably replacing the border wall Congress won’t fund.

Trump has also eagerly employed the military as a prop. Since a 2017 trip to France, he has wanted a full military parade through Washington, which the Pentagon keeps finding ways to stall.
The article goes on to summarize how Trump used the military in his "fear the migrant caravan" campaign and how pointless that was, with military commanders soon making plans to send the soldiers back.

Of course, now that everyone has been pointing out how the military isn't allowed to do much at the border, Trump has reacted by authorizing them to have law enforcement powers and use deadly force. (The article hasn't been updated with that information.) Here's a direct link to the one of the articles with the original information about that.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-mil ... er-troops/
Quote:
The new “Cabinet order” was signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not President Donald Trump. It allows “Department of Defense military personnel” to “perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary” to protect border agents, including “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention. and cursory search.”

However an earlier “decision memo” that came to the same recommendations that were contained in the “cabinet memo” was signed by President Trump, according to documents obtained by Newsweek.

...Some of those activities, including crowd control and detention, may run into potential conflict with the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. If crossed, the erosion of the act’s limitations could represent a fundamental shift in the way the U.S. military is used, legal experts said...

...Military forces always have the inherent right to self defense, but defense of the border agents on U.S. soil is new. In addition, troops have been given additional authorities in previous years to assist border agents with drug interdictions, but the widespread authorization of use of force for thousands of active-duty troops is unique to this deployment.
And from an expert on constitutional law who worked at the Department of Justice in the 1990s:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... edirect=on
Quote:
Trump’s troop buildup at the border violates centuries of Anglo-American law
Quote:
President Trump’s decision to send thousands of military personnel to the southern border to help turn back a group of 3,500 migrants violates a deep principle of Anglo-American law.

The principle is the prohibition of military involvement in domestic law enforcement. Its abridgement was prominent among the charges laid on King George in the Declaration of Independence — Jefferson wrote that the crown “has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” And its common law roots are far stronger and older, dating at least to Magna Carta.

The legal provision that encapsulates the principle is the Posse Comitatus Act. The law was passed in 1878, following widespread, heavy-handed use of Union troops to exercise typical law enforcement functions in the former Confederate states. In its current form, it provides criminal penalties for anyone who “willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus” — that is, as an auxiliary of law enforcement — “or otherwise to execute the laws.” There is an exception for circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress, which Congress invoked for example in authorizing limited military involvement in the war on drugs.

Its obscure name and rare deployment notwithstanding, the Posse Comitatus Act enshrines the bedrock democratic idea that civil society is separate from and superior to military force, and that regulation of citizens by military is antithetical to liberty...

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 26 Nov , 2018 5:10 pm
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... rt/576535/
Quote:
Trump's New Kavanaugh for the U.S. Court of Appeals

The president’s nominee, Neomi Rao, has a view of executive authority that’s as expansive as Brett Kavanaugh’s.
Quote:
Neomi Rao, a conservative legal scholar currently serving as Trump’s “regulations czar,” has served in all three branches of the federal government, from the Supreme Court where she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, to the Senate Judiciary Committee, to George W. Bush’s White House. For conservatives concerned about red tape and unaccountable bureaucracy, she is a godsend. For liberals fearful of presidential power grabs or politics trumping policy in federal agencies, she is a nightmare.

...Rao appears to be a “no” on the question of whether a sitting president can face criminal prosecution, a question of keen interest for Democrats watching the Russia investigation.

...In addition, Rao would be joining the appeals court likely to hear any constitutional challenge to Mueller’s investigation

... she appears to be a “hard-liner” in favor of the unitary executive theory, a perspective advanced during the Bush presidency that would put many presidential actions beyond the oversight of Congress and the courts.

There seems to be the usual Trump bluster and chaos after some migrants rushed the border on Sunday and were arrested or repelled by tear gas and rubber bullets:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... g-tensions
Quote:
Trump threatens to 'close the border permanently' amid heightened tensions
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4182 ... ern-border
Quote:
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said Monday that President Trump cannot legally follow through with his threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border. “He cannot legally do it," Napolitano said on Fox News. "We know that because of federal statutes. They were last revised in 1986 when our relationship with migrants coming north was very different than it is now.“But that’s the law as he finds it and that’s the law as he is required to enforce it," Napolitano continued. "And that’s the law that the federal judge in San Francisco that the president attempted to disparage by calling an ‘Obama judge’ told him he had to enforce as well.”

...“The president doesn’t want to hear this but it’s the law,” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ekers-will
Quote:
Trump tweets migrants will stay in Mexico until asylum claims approved; incoming Mexican official says no deal

There are a number of stories about what happened at the border on Sunday. Some of the root causes may have been that the US is processing < 100 asylum applications a day and that the migrants have been living under difficult conditions in Tijuana, where tensions with locals are also rising. The role of hotheads, troublemakers and rumors is still unclear. But mostly it sounds like what happens when there's a mob and people stop thinking. Mexico will deport all those who rushed the border, so of course this was a stupid move for anyone who was a genuine asylum seeker.

It seems to me that the best way to deal with a situation like this would be to expedite resources and either approve asylum claims or deny them, rather than leaving people in limbo and straining resources in Mexico. But I don't think the Trump administration is really looking to solve any problems, but to score political points. Illegal immigration has been a problem for many years, with both Republicans and Democrats using it as a political issue. But it's only under Trump that we're seeing chaos and scenes like this.


https://thehill.com/latino/418170-tensi ... ico-border
Quote:
Tensions ramped up at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday as U.S. authorities shut down one of the busiest ports of entry in the world and fired tear gas at a group of Central American migrants.

...Thousands of migrants have been camped out in squalid conditions in a Tijuana sports stadium for more than a week, according to The New York Times.

...Hundreds of the group's members came together for a peaceful demonstration in Tijuana on Sunday, calling for their asylum claims to be processed more quickly, Reuters reported. The demonstration reportedly got out of hand when hundreds of migrants broke away and headed toward the border.

...A Mexican government official told Buzzfeed that 30 people were able to successfully breach the U.S. border.

...Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Mexican government to deal with the migrants, who have been moving by foot through the country for weeks.

... people in Tijuana are becoming "frustrated" as the U.S. processes only around 100 asylum claims per day. Residents of Tijuana have reacted to the caravan's arrival with hostility, holding protests and calling for their deportation.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46339085
Quote:
President Trump has vowed to keep each migrant on the Mexican side of the border until courts have decided their cases, meaning some face a long wait.They have been spending the past two weeks in temporary shelters in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and in Mexicali, 180km to the east along the border.

...Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said the migrants had asked for help to organise the demonstration but were then reportedly encouraged by some of the movement's leaders to split into different groups so they could make a run for the border and try to cross into the US.

The march started peacefully with migrants carrying pro-immigration banners and shouting: "We aren't criminals! We are hard workers!".
But once they managed to get past the security cordon, the march quickly turned into a dash for the border, BBC correspondent Will Grant reports.

...With the Mexican authorities saying that those who crossed illegally into the US on Sunday face "immediate" deportation, the mood in the migrant shelter is likely to darken, says the BBC's Will Grant. Many in the migrant caravan are likely to be unsettled by this turn of events, our correspondent says. And with many in the shelters realising how long the wait for asylum could be, some, like Honduran Joseph García, are growing increasingly desperate: "My little girl is sick and I don't even have money for milk. I can't stand it anymore."
https://news.sky.com/story/migrant-cara ... y-11563949
Quote:
But the Mexican authorities, egged on by the US government, were in no mood to allow the travellers all the way to the border and the march was brought to a standstill at one of the bridges leading to the border terminal by riot police.

It's a tactic that has worked before. It did not today. Within minutes the marchers began running at and around the police lines. A collective cry emboldened them and they pushed their way through the riot shields



https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... g-still-on
Quote:
The Russian government on Monday said that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are still expected to meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of 20 (G-20) summit despite the flaring crisis in Ukraine.

“This meeting is being prepared,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if the tensions with Ukraine would impact the planned meeting, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the meeting is still expected to take place.

Tensions between Moscow and Kiev deteriorated sharply in the last 24 hours after Russia opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships sailing through the Kerch Strait off the coast of the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
And Dear Leader once again responds to an international crisis with... no clear statement.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... htened-out
Quote:
"We do not like what’s happening either way. We don't like what's happening, and hopefully it’ll get straightened out," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign trip to Mississippi.

"I know Europe is not, they are not thrilled," Trump continued. "They’re working on it too. We’re all working on it together."
Does this remind anyone else of his statements about the Saudis? Or the White Supremacists in Charlottesville? European governments - and even some members of Trump's own government, like Pompeo and Haley, have managed to condemn Russia with any wishy-washy "both sides" nonsense.

Hard to know whether this is just Trump being a fool or him owing something to Putin.



https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4182 ... ts-reports
Quote:
General Motors announced Monday that it would shutter as many as five auto manufacturing plants in North America — four in the United States — and cut thousands of jobs across the company.

...The Associated Press reported that GM will cut almost 15,000 hourly and salaried jobs in North America. News channel WFMJ, the NBC affiliate station in Lordstown reported that employees were told the plant will close in March.
...GM also said the corporate workforce would be slashed by 15 percent and cut 25 percent of executive positions in an effort to save $6 billion in costs and capital expenditures by the end of 2020. The company offered buyouts to 50,000 salaried employees in October and aimed to reduce its corporate workforce by 18,000 jobs, according to Reuters.

...GM’s announcement is the latest blow to the battered North American auto industry. Major American automakers including GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler have made significant cuts to their U.S. and Canadian workforces, citing rising costs due to President Trump’s tariffs and long-term declines in sales.
Trump is, of course, angry about this. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4182 ... io-factory
Quote:
Trump told reporters Monday that he spoke to Barra on Sunday night and “was very tough.” He said he urged Barra to keep the Lordstown plant running and promised to put “a lot of pressure” on GM. “I think you’re going to see something else happen there, but I’m not happy about it,” Trump said, departing the White House for campaign stops in Mississippi. “I have no doubt that in a not too distant future they’ll put something else. They better put something else in.” Trump also told The Wall Street Journal in a Monday interview that he asked Barra on Sunday to stop making cars in China and that the company “better damn well open a new plant there very quickly.” “I love Ohio,” Trump said, according to the Journal. “I told them, ‘you’re playing around with the wrong person.’ ”
So now we've got Dear Leader ordering companies on what business decisions they're allowed to make...


The Trump administration also tried to bury another report by releasing it last Friday:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... nhouse-gas
Quote:
Drilling on public lands contributes nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., according to a new Trump administration report.

The first-of-its-kind U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report, released late Friday, found that emissions from fossil fuels produced on federal lands and offshore areas represent an average of 24 percent of all national emissions of carbon, a major contributor to air pollution and climate change.

...The USGS report, requested in 2016 under President Obama, measured total greenhouse gas emissions from oil, gas and coal drilling and mining on public land between 2005 and 2014. ..Environmental groups point out that emissions are likely to be higher today due to the Trump administration’s more active and supportive approach to drilling on federal lands and offshore.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... te-logging
Quote:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Monday again called for Congress to enact more aggressive forest management policies included in the House-passed farm bill, saying they could save forests and lives and create jobs in the logging industry.

...Zinke and the Trump administration want Congress to approve measures in a farm bill passed this year in the House, which would give the Interior Department and the Forest Service new authorities to clear risky biomass like dead trees and brush from forests.The controversial measures include new exemptions from environmental review for many forest thinning practices, reducing barriers to removing wood after fires and making it easier to build roads through federal land in the name of forest management.
https://psmag.com/news/trump-pushing-to ... -dangerous
Quote:
Ecologists and firefighters have long debated the merits of various strategies for managing the wildfires that regularly ravage California and other states. Research shows that prescribed burning can help, while clear-cutting does little. But President Donald Trump pushed for clear-cutting on Wednesday, urging Californians to "get their act together and clean up their forests and manage their forests."...

...In California, the United States Forest Service removes dead trees, thins the canopy, and conducts controlled burns on as much as 300,000 acres of federal land each year, according to the Sacramento Bee. To expand its reach, the agency would need more funding—funds that would come from a budget that the Trump administration says it plans to slash this year.

...environmentalists warn that Trump's apparent endorsement of clear-cutting could be dangerous. .. Studies show that removing trees, either for commercial logging or as a fire-prevention strategy, can actually make fires more intense, leading to further destruction for both humans and wildlife. For one, the debris that these cuts leave behind can set off massive fires... Moreover, clearing all of the West's brush is simply not feasible, nor would it prevent fires from breaking out in grassland and chaparral, like this summer's Mendocino Complex Fire in Northern California...
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... believe-it
Quote:
President Trump said Monday that he doesn’t “believe” the findings of a major report his administration released forecasting dire consequences to the United States from climate change. “Yeah, I don’t believe it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a campaign rally for Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith (R) in Mississippi, when asked about the predictions of economic devastation. “I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” Trump said of the report.



Some people have raised concerns over conditions at some of the private detention centers. This report suggests they may be right in raising alarms.
https://thehill.com/latino/418277-trans ... ied-report
Quote:
An autopsy released on Monday shows that Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a trans woman who died in May while detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was beaten shortly before her death, the Daily Beast reported.

The autopsy shows that Hernández was likely physically abused while under ICE custody at a privately-operated New Mexico detention center. She appears to have died after several days of untreated dehydration, according to the online outlet.
The Daily Beast is left-leaning but has a high score for factual reporting, according to MediaBias/FactCheck https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-beast/



https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4182 ... saudi-arms
Quote:
President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, directed administration officials to inflate numbers for a supposed $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, ABC News reported on Monday.

...Saudi Arabia so far has only signed “Letters of Offer and Acceptance” (LOAs) for $14.5 billion in sales of helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons and training, according to the Pentagon. That figure was reportedly inflated, however, to attempt to solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia and paint a clear victory for the president’s first foreign trip last year


Also, Trump wants his very own Pravda. I guess he's never heard of Voice of America. Or are some Fox news commentators starting to criticize him too much? Or maybe it's just another attempted distraction when he wants to bury bad news.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... on-network
Quote:
President Trump on Monday suggested that the federal government start its own television network, as he voiced frustrations with the way CNN has covered his administration.

"Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!" Trump wrote on Twitter.”

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2018 6:06 pm
Offline
 
Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... an-embassy
Quote:
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The Guardian broke the news about family separations before it was widely reported in US news, so I suspect this is solid.

Edit: Well, this is interesting, given the story from The Guardian.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... -president
Quote:
Mueller probing 2017 meeting between Manafort, Ecuadorian president for mention of Assange
And Trump is acting like a cornered rat:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... gone-rogue
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday took aim at special counsel Robert Mueller, one day after Mueller said in a new filing that Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had violated a plea agreement by lying to federal prosecutors.

In a series of tweets, Trump lashed out at Mueller...

"The Phony Witch Hunt continues, but Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue," Trump wrote early Tuesday morning.

"The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite,” Trump continued in a subsequent tweet. “He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it won’t be Mueller and his.”
Like most Trump tweets, it's full of garbage. He seems to be hoping that if he keeps labeling federal prosecutors as "angry Democrats," people will eventually forgot that they're not all Democrats and that Mueller is a Republican who was widely praised by the GOP when he was first appointed.


https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... -whitakers
Quote:
The attorneys general from 14 states and Washington, D.C., are urging a federal district court judge to block Matthew Whitaker from continuing to serve as Acting U.S. attorney general.

The state attorneys general filed a friend of the court brief in support of Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh’s request on Nov. 13 for a court to name Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to the interim role.


It looks like Flake is actually being a thorn in the side of GOP leadership over protecting the Special Counsel.
https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/ ... ction-bill
Quote:
Senate Republicans are measuring support for legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller and could bring the bill up for a vote, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Tuesday.
Cornyn, in separate interviews with reporters and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, said Republicans could give the legislation a vote as they try to defuse a fight with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that is holding up dozens of judicial nominees.





https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... s-on-trade
Quote:
The British government on Tuesday pushed back against President Trump's concerns about a Brexit agreement being pushed by Prime Minister Theresa May after Trump warned that the deal could endanger trade with the U.S.

In a statement to Reuters, a spokesman for May's office cited "positive and productive" discussions with the White House on issues of trade in recent weeks, while adding that May likely would not seek a bilateral meeting with Trump at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
Funny how Putin is the only government head that seems to want to meet with Trump, these days.



https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... opposition
Quote:
A Senate committee voted Tuesday to advance President Trump’s latest nominee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) despite objections from Democrats. The 13-10 vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee lines up Bernard McNamee, a senior Department of Energy official, for a vote on the Senate floor

... Democrats and environmentalists... say that his history working for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Trump administration — including a key role in pushing a bailout for coal and nuclear plants that FERC itself rejected — goes against the expectation that FERC is impartial and fuel-neutral.

The objections to McNamee became stronger last week, when a video surfaced of McNamee speaking in February at a Texas Public Policy Foundation event. In the video, first reported by Utility Dive, McNamee said renewable energy “screws up the whole physics of the grid” and fossil fuels are “key to our way of life,” among other comments.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4184 ... ll-funding
Quote:
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that Republicans have to pass funding for the border wall before Democrats take over the majority in the House.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/418 ... fluence-at
Quote:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has accepted a request from two senators to investigate whether a group of Mar-a-Lago members wielded undue influence over Trump administration policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

https://thehill.com/latino/418430-thous ... ted-report
Quote:
Approximately 2,000 staff members at a facility in Tornillo, Texas, built to house unaccompanied migrant children are reportedly working without having their fingerprint background checks done by the FBI.

Vice News reported Tuesday that workers at the "tent city"-style facility in Texas have not been fingerprinted and undergone the subsequent background checks due to a technical issue with how the company that operates the facility, BCFS Health and Human Services, gets access to FBI data.

...The number of migrant children held in detention by the Trump administration hit a record high earlier this month, with 14,000 minors currently being held in facilities like the Tornillo tent city across the country.
Edit: It seems our old friend Scott Lloyd, who was reassigned to another agency last week, was responsible for this mistake:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... grant-camp
Quote:
Scott Lloyd, the controversial official in charge of refugee children at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), granted the waiver two days before the facility in Tornillo, Texas, began its operations in June, according to the report from the HHS Office of Inspector General.

The report found that the two main reasons that Lloyd signed the waiver was pressure to move quickly to open the detention camp and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) assumed Tornillo staff had already undergone FBI fingerprint checks.

But none of the staff at Tornillo were subject to the FBI background check, the report found.
The article also says that this type of detention camp costs three times as much as the regular facilities. And that they were supposed to be temporary but are becoming permanent because the Trump administration is keeping so many kids in custody.




A top GOP member of Congress defends Ivanka Trump's use of private email for government business.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... omply-with
Quote:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said that “it’s awfully tough” for government officials like Ivanka Trump to comply with government communication standards when sending emails.

“When things like this come up, it’s important people understand, they need to make sure they’re doing what they can,” Goodlatte told CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront" late Monday.

“And it’s awfully tough, as everyone knows, when you’re sending emails about a lot of different things to make sure that you’re doing it according to the rules in the White House or wherever you’re doing it,” the Virginia Republican added.

Goodlatte also said that Trump’s reported use of a personal email account while in the White House is “very different” from Hillary Clinton's use of a private server while secretary of State.
Perhaps Ivanka Trump shouldn't have taken a government position then, if she has such difficulty following some basic rules. Especially after there was so much scrutiny of Clinton's emails, Ivanka can't deny knowing about government record-keeping requirements.



The White House is actually criticizing a government report because they don't like what it says:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ate-report
Quote:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday cast doubt on the methodology of the federal government’s major climate change report released last week.

Zinke accused the authors — about 300 scientists from 13 agencies, like the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and outside the government — of using only worst-case scenarios in the report...

Zinke’s comments reflect one of the White House’s initial criticisms ... “The report is largely based on the most extreme scenario, which contradicts long-established trends by assuming that, despite strong economic growth that would increase greenhouse gas emissions, there would be limited technology and innovation, and a rapidly expanding population,” the White House said in a statement.

But at least one key researcher involved in the extensive process of preparing the findings has pushed back on that notion.“I wrote the climate scenarios chapter myself so I can confirm it considers ALL scenarios, from those where we go carbon negative before end of century to those where carbon emissions continue to rise. What WH says is demonstrably false,” Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, tweeted Friday.

...Zinke is in California in part to promote, along with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, legislation that would give federal agencies more power to increase logging and take other forest management steps.
Expert reports are wasted on this crowd of partisan Trump loyalists.

And our Minister of Propaganda weighs in with her scientific expertise:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ersion-not
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday dismissed the findings of a governmental report that warned of the impending consequences of climate change, claiming it's "not based on facts." “The president’s certainly leading on what matters most in this process, and that’s on having clean air, clean water,” Sanders told reporters at a press briefing. “In fact, the United States continues to be a leader on that front.”

...“We think that this is the most extreme version and it’s not based on facts,” she said. “It’s not data driven. We’d like to see something that is more data driven. It’s based on modeling, which is extremely hard to do when you’re talking about the climate.”
What Ms. Sanders fails to educate us on is how we can predict the future without modeling. In other words, she's a nitwit. That's the damn point of a model - they rely on data/ information from the past to predict future events. So she thinks we're going to predict the future by somehow getting "something that is more data driven" than a model? How, exactly? Time travel?

Now, I'd be the last person to say that every model of a biological event is a good one - models are only as good as the information you feed into them and the parameters you set, and some have been known to fail miserably in their predictions. But the climate modelers have been refining and improving their models for many years. These are not something a couple of people came up with and published last week. And I'm sure the experts who actually wrote that climate report took the various uncertainties into consideration and discussed them. They wouldn't be scientists if they didn't.


Edit to add:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... hite-house
Quote:
The White House is preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, or any other intelligence official from briefing the Senate on the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defence secretary, James Mattis, are due to give a briefing on US relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could cut off US support for Riyadh’s military campaign in Yemen.

On a national security issue of such importance, it would be customary for a senior intelligence official to take part. On this occasion, the absence of the intelligence community is all the more glaring, as Haspel travelled to Istanbul to hear audio tapes of Khashoggi’s murder provided by Turkish intelligence, and then briefed Donald Trump.

Officials made it clear that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House.

Last edited by aninkling on Wed 28 Nov , 2018 4:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2018 4:01 am
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Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
More interesting news from the Mueller investigation released tonight. Things might be nearing the end.


https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... -wikileaks
Quote:
Mueller docs show communications between Corsi, Stone on WikiLeaks's email release

https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... n-to-trump
Quote:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's attorney repeatedly spoke with the president's lawyers about discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the special counsel's investigation, confirmed the arrangement to the newspaper and argued that the conversations provided valuable insight.

Giuliani said Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing, relayed that investigators pressed Manafort on what Trump knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign associates and a Russian lawyer who had promised dirt on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
I saw someone speculating about just this scenario, and whether this means that Trump tailored his responses to Manafort's revelations... but that Mueller undoubtedly knew already that Manafort was lying and also that he was talking to Trump's lawyers...

It could explain Trump's especially unhinged rants lately if he realizes that what he thought were clever lies was Mueller tripping him up.



And speaking of lies, CNN is now fact-checking Sarah Sanders in real time. :)
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4185 ... s-briefing


Also, for your amusement:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... gm-layoffs
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday blamed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for a string of negative economic developments, including the stock market's recent slide and General Motors's plan to shutter U.S. factories and lay off thousands of workers.

“I’m doing deals and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”
Well, he certainly does have a gut - he got that part right at least.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2018 6:25 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
Republicans in Congress continue defending Trump, no matter what he does.
https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/ ... -in-senate
Quote:
Legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller was blocked on Wednesday for a second time in the past month.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), joined by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), tried to get consent to schedule the long-stalled legislation for a vote. Flake questioned why his colleagues weren't "up in arms" after a string of tweets from President Trump bashing Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election. "With the president tweeting on a regular basis, a daily basis, that the special counsel is conflicted, that he is leading so-called 12 angry Democrats and demeaning and ridiculing him in every way, to be so sanguine about the chances of him being fired is folly for us," Flake said.
Basically, senators didn't even get to vote on it because one of Trump's obedient GOP servants blocked it from reaching the floor- just like last time.


https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-f ... le-2018-11
Quote:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a pardon for his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is "not off the table" as he erroneously accused the special counsel Robert Mueller of coercing people to "flip and lie.



Meanwhile, Pompeo and Mattis are busily trying to convince the Senate not to do anything about Saudi Arabia and Yemen or Khashoggi's murder and just let Dear Leader handle it however he likes.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/418 ... emen-fight

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pompeo-ma ... -1.4923794

Some senators are especially unhappy that Trump refused to let the CIA brief them on what it knows about Khashoggi's murder. Of course, Trump's refusal makes it pretty obvious what the CIA does know.



Also, Trump is now threatening to cut GM's electric car subsidies in revenge for making him look bad:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump- ... -1.4922802
Quote:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was "very disappointed" that General Motors was closing plants in the United States and warned that the White House was "now looking at cutting all GM subsidies," including for its electric cars program.

...Buyers of electric vehicles made by GM and other automakers get U.S. federal tax credits of up to $7,500, helping to reduce the price as an incentive to get more of the zero-emissions vehicles on the road.

We may soon be paying 25% more for some other cars.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-a ... ar-2018-11[
Quote:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday provided a big hint that the US could soon impose [25%] tariffs on cars, trucks, and auto parts coming into the US, a move experts say would cause significant economic damage.

... If Trump does go through such a move, it would most likely cause a huge amount of damage to the US economy. A study from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that a 25% auto tariff would cause auto production in the US to fall by 1.5% over three years and result in a net loss of 195,000 jobs in that same time frame.

Similarly, a study by the Center for Automotive Research found an auto tariff would boost the average cost of a car by $4,400 for American consumers. The study found that auto sales would fall by 2 million a year and shave nearly $60 billion off gross domestic product.



https://www.businessinsider.com/sinclai ... nt-2018-11
Quote:
The right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group reportedly had a "must run" segment for over 100 of their local news outlets: a staunch defense of the US Border Patrol's use of tear gas against migrants, according to reports.

President Donald Trump has strongly defended his government's use of tear gas at the Mexican border.

Former Trump staffer and Sinclair's Chief Political Analyst Boris Epshteyn features heavily in the clip, calling the incident "an invasion of our country."
Regardless of what you think of the tear gas incident, this is reminiscent of propaganda in any dictatorship. Dear Leader's minions now at Sinclair must be proud.

Most of the people watching these stations have no idea how they're being manipulated. Sinclair apparently puts these segments in among the real news and doesn't label it as an opinion piece.

Also, "invasion" ? What nonsense. Is this small group of unarmed people supposed to be amazing superheroes who will use their powers to overthrow the US?




It seems that some of the parental crimes the Trump administration used to justify not returning some children to their parents are finally being revealed. In this case, it was a DUI that's more than 10 years old:
https://www.businessinsider.com/six-yea ... lf-2018-11
Quote:
Just before Thanksgiving, Wilder Hilario Maldonado Cabrera appeared in immigration court in San Antonio Texas, without an attorney. At six years old, he was the youngest defendant on the juvenile docket that day. He was one of the last children left in government custody who had been affected by Trump's zero-tolerance policy, still awaiting reunification with parents.

Authorities determined his father, Hilario Maldonado didn't qualify for asylum, but they refused to reunite them his son while the decision was appealed because Maldonado, who lived in the US more than a decade ago, had an old warrant for a DUI. It's a charge that would almost never result in a loss of parental custody in a non-immigration context, but such minor, nonviolent criminal have been used to justify separating parents from their children at the border.


Trump hires only the best people...
https://www.businessinsider.com/alex-ac ... al-2018-11
Quote:
A new Miami Herald report gives stunning details about how President Donald Trump's labor secretary went to great lengths to help downplay billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes when he was the US attorney for Southern Florida.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 29 Nov , 2018 2:28 pm
Offline
 
Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
It seems we're getting our information from Russia, these days, since Trump is more likely to lie (which is pretty mind-boggling - Putin lies, but Trump lies even about things that are easily refuted).

All Trump has said about this planned meeting with Putin is that they might or might not meet after Russia's latest aggression toward Ukraine. But the Kremlin says a meeting will take place. No word yet on whether it will be as private and without records (at least in the US) as Helsinki.
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... remlin-doc
Quote:
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Saturday during the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina, according to a Kremlin document seen by Reuters.

A Kremlin aide told the news service that Trump and Putin will discuss a range of subjects, such as strategic stability, Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the two leaders would also talk about nuclear arms control when during their meeting.



https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... -community
Quote:
Members of the legal community are at a loss for why former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort decided to brief President Trump’s attorneys on the discussions he’s had with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Former federal prosecutors and legal scholars say the move is not only rare but extremely risky for both parties and the attorneys involved...
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/41882 ... t-business
Quote:
Paul Manafort's allegedly lied about his personal business dealings and contacts with former associates in Ukraine to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, the Wall Street Journal reports.

People familiar with the matter reportedly told the Journal that such statements are among the reasons that Mueller this week ended Manafort's plea agreement over two months after it was reached. Manafort allegedly misrepresented information about payments he received related to his lobbying work

Trump was also tweeting nonsense again about the Mueller investigation last night. Clearly, it's very much on his mind.




Edit:

Cohen has made a plea deal with Mueller:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -agreement
Quote:
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, has entered into a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller and has agreed to cooperate in the investigation into Russian election interference.

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congressional panels investigating Russian interference last year.

His plea agreement can be read below:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... ller-probe
Quote:
According to court documents unsealed on Thursday, Cohen admitted to lying about Trump’s Moscow property plans, including his plans to travel to Russia and contacts with Russian officials in connection with the project and how long the property plans were discussed within the Trump Organization.

The criminal information alleges that Cohen “well knew” that his statements to Congress about the Moscow project were “false and misleading,” stating that he told the lies in order to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1,” an apparent reference to Trump.

It also says that Cohen aimed to “give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before ‘the Iowa caucus and … the very first primary,’ in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”

...The documents also suggest that Cohen discussed the plans with Trump on more than three occasions and that he also briefed Trump’s family members on it.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... tacts-with



Trump, Guiliani and Corsi are not happy. :)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... uilty-plea
Quote:
President Trump on Thursday blasted his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen as a “weak person” for pleading guilty to lying to Congress in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

Trump accused Cohen of “lying” to prosecutors in order to get a lesser sentence shortly after the former confidant made a surprise appearance in a New York federal court to enter the plea.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... trumps-g20
Quote:
Giuliani accuses Mueller of filing Cohen charges to mar Trump's G20 summit
Like it could be worse than Trump's other international summits?


https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/41889 ... st-mueller
Quote:
Right-wing author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi said on Thursday that he intends to file criminal charges against special counsel Robert Mueller.

"...I think he's a political hack and a criminal. I'm going to file charges with the Department of Justice.... We're going to file it with [acting Attorney General Matt] Whitaker," Corsi said.

"We're going to say to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the inspector general that the way these prosecutors on Mueller's team behaved with me, and the deal they gave me, which was fraudulent, I believe demands a criminal investigation."

Mueller is looking into Corsi and Roger Stone's connection to WikiLeaks' release of emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman, John Podesta, during the 2016 presidential race as part of the investigation into Russian election interference.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... -liar-liar
Quote:
Ex-Watergate prosecutor: My legal opinion on Corsi is ‘liar, liar pants on fire’
My non-legal opinion is that the cornered rats are starting to panic.


It seems there might also be UK ties to Nigel Farange. (who is a supporter of Trump https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 24266.html)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... estigation
Quote:
An ally of Nigel Farage was asked to obtain secret information from WikiLeaks for Donald Trump’s team during the 2016 election campaign, according to US investigators.Ted Malloch, a London-based academic close to Farage, was allegedly passed a request from a longtime Trump adviser to get advance copies of emails stolen from Trump’s opponents by Russian hackers and later published by WikiLeaks.

The allegation emerged in a draft legal document drawn up by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and any collusion with Trump’s campaign team.

...Malloch, 66, has been under scrutiny by Mueller for months, amid suggestions that he may have served as an important nexus in 2016 between Trump’s White House bid and the campaign to secure Britain’s exit from the EU...


...Malloch, who once taught at the University of Oxford, was last year discussed as a candidate to be Trump’s US ambassador to the EU before a Financial Times article exposed numerous false claims he had made about his credentials.




https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/ ... 33213.html
Quote:
At least five of the 37 Republican Senators who voted against advancing a resolution limiting the United States's involvement in the war in Yemen have received campaign contributions from pro-Saudi lobbying groups.

Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Richard Burr, Mike Crapo and Tim Scott all received financial contributions from firms representing Saudi interests between 2016 and 2017, according to a recent investigation by the Centre for International Policy (CIP).

All five Republicans voted on Wednesday against advancing the resolution, which, if passed, would force the US to limit its support for the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen.

...Last year, the oil-rich kingdom spent at least $24m to influence US policy and public opinion, according to disclosures to the Department of Justice made available through the Center for Responsive Politics' Foreign Lobby Watch tool.

Around $18m of that was paid to foreign agents acting on behalf of Saudi interests in 2017 and another $6m in spending has already been reported this year.



Will he, won't he? Or will they sneak off and meet in secret? Stay tuned.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... with-putin
Quote:
President Trump on Thursday abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at this weekend's Group of 20 summit, citing Moscow's military tensions with Ukraine.

The announcement, which Trump made on Twitter, came roughly an hour after the president told reporters the meeting would “probably” go ahead as planned.


More of Stephen Miller's paranoia:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ictions-on
Quote:
The Trump administration is mulling new restrictions and more thorough background checks on Chinese students because of fears of spying, Reuters reported Thursday, citing U.S. officials and congressional sources.

The proposed restrictions include checking prospective students' phone records and scouring their personal accounts on Chinese and U.S. social media platforms for anything that might raise concerns, including affiliations with government organizations.

...The Financial Times in October reported that White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and other aides earlier this year encouraged President Trump to stop making visas available to Chinese nationals.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 30 Nov , 2018 1:20 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
It sounds like the Trump administration might be preparing the ground for war with Iran. Bolton and the other neocons could be behind this:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4189 ... ainst-iran
Quote:
The Trump administration on Thursday said military action against Iran could be possible should U.S. sanctions against the country fail to curb Tehran from delivering weapons to hostile groups in the region.

...Speaking at a press conference at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., [Brian] Hook [the State Department special representative on Iran], was asked about possible next steps the administration could take against Iran in its “maximum pressure” campaign against the country.

"I think right now, while we have the military option on the table, our preference is to use all of the tools that are at our disposal diplomatically," he said.

Hook spoke at an event held to display pieces of what he said were Iranian weapons and military equipment — many handed over to the U.S. by Saudi Arabia — deployed by Tehran to militant groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

...Reuters, who viewed the weapons on display ahead of the press conference, was told that the administration wants “there to be no doubt across the world that this is a priority for the United States and that it’s in international interest to address it,” according to Katie Wheelbarger, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.




Peter Navarro was at the G-20 meeting:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -would-not
Quote:
White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, one of the President Trump's most hawkish officials on the administration’s trade dispute with China, was seen at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires Thursday after officials told reporters he would not be in attendance.

...Navarro’s presence in Buenos Aires suggests Trump may be prepared to play hardball with Beijing. The trade advisor has reportedly clashed with others in the administration who favor a less confrontational approach to the White House’s disputes with China
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-econ ... guest-list
Quote:
Navarro, author of Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action, is viewed by Beijing as being an impediment to resolving the trade war to its satisfaction.

A staunch advocate for the president’s get-tough approach with China, he clashed publicly with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin – who favours a compromise with Beijing over trade – when the two were in China for talks in May.

That same month, people familiar with the trade talks told South China Morning Post that Navarro had been very harsh on China during previous negotiations in Beijing, and demanded that the government fundamentally change its industrial policy.
Navarro seems to be the guy behind Trump's trade wars. Most economists appear to think he's a nutter. http://time.com/5375727/peter-navarro/




https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... n-planning
Quote:
Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr.’s role in seeking to build a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow three years before their father's presidential campaign, sources told Yahoo News in an investigation published Thursday.

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -in-moscow
Quote:
The Trump Organization planned to give a $50 million penthouse in the planned Trump Tower Moscow to President Vladimir Putin while the company was in negotiations in 2016 to build the development, four people familiar with the matter told Buzzfeed News.

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, discussed the idea with Putin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, two U.S. law enforcement officials told Buzzfeed.



Edit:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... n-atlantic
Quote:
The Trump administration took a major step Friday toward allowing testing for offshore oil and natural gas under the Atlantic Ocean.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is letting five companies commit “incidental” harassment of marine mammals like whales and dolphins as part of their seismic testing to determine oil and gas deposits under the ocean floor, the agency said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... g20-summit
Quote:
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greeted each other with a high five when they met in Argentina for the G-20 summit on Friday.

...The interaction between Putin and the crown prince quickly drew drawing attention from some Democrats, including Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.)., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who tweeted a clip of the short embrace along with the caption: “That feeling when you own the President of the United States and can do whatever you want.”

...Sen. Chris Murphy also weighed in, saying on Twitter: “These guys are 10x more powerful under Trump than they were before. Why wouldn’t they be fired up?”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ia/577024/
Quote:
Donald Trump Gave Russia Leverage Over His Presidency

A foreign adversary has possessed potentially damaging information about the president for an extended period of time.
Quote:
Shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, he gave a combative press conference at which he was asked by a reporter, “I was just hoping that we could get a yes or no answer on these questions involving Russia. Can you say if you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?”

In reply, Trump lied to the American public. “Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia,” he said. “… I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”

...Consider the implications. At the very beginning of Trump’s presidency, as soon as he lied in that press conference, Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence possessed the ability to unmask Trump as a liar to the American public, revealing damaging information to Congress and the public about which they had previously been ignorant. BuzzFeed’s account of the negotiations involving a potential Trump Tower in Moscow hints at the wealth of documentary evidence that the Russians would possess to back up their claims.

As it would turn out, that was merely the beginning of their leverage...

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 01 Dec , 2018 5:48 pm
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https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... t-least-11
Quote:
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his adviser, who oversaw the effort to kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, around the time of Khashoggi's killing, according to a classified CIA report obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the excerpts of the assessment reported by the Journal, the crown prince told associates in August 2017 "we could possibly lure [Khashoggi] outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements," if the crown prince could not convince the dissident Saudi journalist, who was living in Virginia, to return to Saudi Arabia.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ouse-staff
Quote:
President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was in “close and regular contact” with White House staff and Trump’s legal team while he was crafting misstatements to Congress, according to a new court filing late Friday night.
And there are more rants of course, from Dear Leader. Not worth bothering to post a link - it's the usual nonsense.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/us/p ... money.html
Quote:
Federal prosecutors cited the involvement of a onetime top fund-raiser to President Trump on Friday in a scheme to launder millions of dollars into the country to help a flamboyant Malaysian financier end a Justice Department investigation.

Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles-based businessman who was a finance vice chairman of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and inauguration committees, was paid to lobby the Trump administration to try to end an investigation related to the embezzlement of billions of dollars from a Malaysian state-owned fund, according to court filings made public on Friday.

...Mr. Broidy, who pleaded guilty in 2009 in an unrelated pension fund bribery case, is one of several Trump associates whose business with foreign governments and figures has attracted scrutiny, including from investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

A veteran Republican fund-raiser who also owns a defense contracting firm, Mr. Broidy had seemed positioned to become a highly influential figure in a political hierarchy that was upended by Mr. Trump’s victory. Mr. Broidy had started raising money for Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at a time when most elite Republican donors were staying away. After Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Broidy marketed his connection to the new administration to politicians, businessmen and governments around the world, including some with unsavory records, and won big contracts for his defense firm.




https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -us-mexico
Quote:
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen has reportedly submitted a request to several other Cabinet departments for them to deploy civilian law enforcement officers to the southern border as early as next week.

According to an internal memo first reported by Politico, the officers would assist Border Patrol agents in handling "migrant caravans originating from Central America."

...The unusual request for law enforcement officers from other departments is just the latest action the Trump administration has taken as part of its hard-line stance against a group of thousands of Central American migrants traveling toward the U.S.-Mexico border, many seeking asylum from violence in their home countries.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... to-january
Quote:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants fewer U.S. troops deployed along the Mexican border for a longer period of time. The number of service members would be lowered from 5,600 to 4,000, The Associated Press reported, while the deployment would be extended through Jan. 31.

The Department of Homeland Security made the request for changes on Friday, according to the Defense Department. Military officials have reportedly been working with DHS to help craft a request that would be approved by the Pentagon and help support Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations along the border with Mexico.
So what happens in January? Or are they preparing to have a militarized border indefinitely, for whatever that will cost? We have already systems to handle issues at the border through Customs and Border Patrol and ICE - and they've been doing fine until Trump decided to start making this an issue to rile up his base.


Speaking of which, Trump, Fox and right wing media are responsible, IMO, for an increase in incidents like this:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... orkers-and
Quote:
A Utah man was arrested on suspicion of two counts of aggravated assault after he allegedly beat a father and son at their tire shop, shouting about how he hated Mexicans and was there to "kill a Mexican."

Salt Lake City police said it is unclear if Alan Dale Covington, 50, will be charged with a hate crime following the reported attack at a mechanic shop this week, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday.

...Luis Gustavo Lopez has been in the intensive care unit since the incident, suffering from a shattered cheekbone and eye socket, as well as a collapsed sinus, the newspaper noted.... Jose Lopez needed eight stitches in his arm and has a bruised back from the attack, the paper notes.

...The Lopez family said it has faced an uptick in racial slurs since President Trump came to office, Veronica Lopez said. “You just hear more of it now,” she said, adding that they were not surprised the attack happened.
The attacker was, of course, unhinged and unstable. But we don't need the US president ranting and raving in ways that can make mentally ill people feel like they're being "invaded" and need to attack people.


This is who Trump wants us to fear so much. No one says the US has to accept everyone who wants to immigrate. But quaking in our shoes over these people? It would be ridiculous to be that easily manipulated.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -their-own
Quote:
Migrants at Mexico border face an uncertain future on their own

After being relocated to a new shelter, some have opted to go home while others may stay in Mexico or wait for asylum in the US


Dear Leader's State Media is participating in mocking Mueller:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4191 ... nthrax-bob
Quote:
A Fox Business Network guest on Friday hit special counsel Robert Mueller over his management of the case involving the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 others.

Heather Higgins, president of the conservative-leaning Independent Woman's Voice, joked Friday that the special counsel should be nicknamed "Anthrax Bob" over the Justice Department's failure to identify the correct suspect in the case.

“Can we call him Anthrax Bob?” Higgins joked on Friday's episode of "Mornings with Maria," evoking laughter from host Maria Bartiromo.
This is disgraceful behavior for a "news" organization.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 03 Dec , 2018 7:01 pm
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https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying ... before-its
Quote:
Three Mar-a-Lago club members friendly with President Trump were reportedly given access to review a $10 billion government contract to overhaul electronic health records for veterans even though they had no prior experience in the field.

...The trio had no health information technology or federal contracting experience but were listed among more than 40 experts reviewing the government contract, including hospital executives and university health system administrators.

Records obtained by ProPublica show the men editing the budget and being placed on an “executive committee.”

Emails also show Moskowitz negotiating to get the VA and Apple to use a cellphone application he developed.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 04 Dec , 2018 5:33 pm
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Pompeo: All Hail Trump the Dear Leader, who brings hope and prosperity to all.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ike-pompeo
Quote:
In a speech in Brussels before a Nato ministers meeting, Mike Pompeo sought to frame Trump’s foreign policy decisions as a coherent doctrine to a European audience that is increasingly anxious about US withdrawal from a string of treaties and Trump’s antipathy towards the European Union.

He listed a series of current international institutions, including the EU, UN, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that he said were no longer serving their mission they were created.

He argued that Trump’s reassertion of national sovereignty through his “America First” policy would make those institutions function better. “In the finest traditions of our great democracy, we are rallying the noble nations of the world to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity for all,” Pompeo said at a speech at the German Marshall Fund thinktank. “We’re supporting institutions that we believe can be improved; institutions that work in American interests – and yours – in service of our shared values.”

The remarks were frequently punctuated with praise for Trump, who is referred to 13 times in the text. Pompeo portrayed his president as restoring an era of triumphal US leadership in the world, for the first time since the end of the cold war.
Quote:
Pompeo’s speech received polite applause, but Julianne Smith, a senior foreign policy official during Barack Obama’s time at the White House, said it had shocked US allies across Europe.

Trump dumps another treaty:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... ess-russia
Quote:
Pompeo: US to leave nuclear treaty in 60 days unless Russia complies with terms



Also Trump has been claiming he's reached an agreement with China on his trade war and tariffs. At this point, no one - including the members of his own administration - seems to know what's happening.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46436269
Quote:
A proposed cut by China to tariffs on US car imports created confusion in Washington, a day after it was announced by US President Donald Trump.

Beijing has not yet confirmed the move and President Trump's advisers appeared less certain about the agreement.

Uncertainty also surrounded the details of the broader trade war truce struck by the US and China at the G20 summit....
I've read that this may be a major factor in the stock market plunge again today - Trump's new tariff tweets ("I'm a tariff man"), plus everything else which suggests this agreement may have been another of Trump's imaginary triumphs.




https://www.salon.com/2018/12/03/heres- ... -it-looks/
Quote:
Here’s how Trump’s proposed Moscow project is even dirtier than it looks
Just another real estate deal, you say? Not quite: Trump’s deal with a Kremlin-owned bank was blatantly illegal
Quote:
But it wasn’t just the overall hush-hush nature of the Moscow Project that poses such a threat to American national security. The true smoking gun at the center of the Trump Tower Moscow prong of the Russia story happens to be a Russian bank known as VTB. Those who haven’t been following the day-to-day developments (hello, Red Hats) might not know that 60 percent of VTB is controlled by the Kremlin.

It turns out that one of Trump’s many shady operatives and hangers-on, Felix Sater, a Russian-born New Yorker with an office in Trump Tower, arranged financing for the Moscow Project. The money was to be put up by VTB, and Trump himself signed a letter of intent to build the skyscraper, complete with a spa facility for Ivanka Trump’s brand and a $50 million penthouse for Putin (priorities, priorities).

VTB’s financing appears to have been locked in around October 2015, while Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, was busily deploying its attack against the Democrats and the forthcoming American elections.

What the nothingburger crowd won’t say out loud is that VTB has been subject to American sanctions since July 2014, after Putin invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea in the wake of the Sochi Olympics. Simply put, it’s illegal for any Americans or American corporations, including the Trump Organization, to do business with VTB and other entities under sanction. Trump, Cohen and Sater did it anyway.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4196 ... moking-saw
Quote:
Key Republican senators emerged from a briefing with CIA Director Gina Haspel blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and promising further action.

...Haspel was briefing senators who lead national security committees roughly a week after Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo similarly failed to stall Senate action with a briefing on U.S.-Saudi relations and the Yemen civil war.


Edit to add:

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... g-whitaker
Quote:
More than 400 former officials and attorneys of the Department of Justice (DOJ) have signed a letter opposing acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and calling for him to be replaced, saying that they are "disturbed" by his appointment.

The DOJ alumni, who say they have worked in several past administrations under presidents from both parties, note in the open letter that Whitaker hasn't been confirmed by the Senate and that he hasn't been "fully vetted" for potential conflicts of interests.

"The Attorney General is responsible for ensuring that we are a nation of laws and that every citizen and every government official — including the President himself — is equally subject to those laws," the letter reads.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... iff-threat
Quote:
Top executives from three major German automakers met with President Trump on Tuesday at the White House amid the president's threats to impose new tariffs on European cars.

...“President Trump met with three German automakers today," White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters said in a statement. "The President shared his vision of all automakers producing in the United States and creating a more friendly business environment," she added.
I can just see the eye-rolling going on afterward.



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... aise-rates
Quote:
The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report that recommends the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) enact reforms that could raise shipping rates for certain packages, a move that could inflame tensions with Amazon and other online retailers.


https://thehill.com/latino/419669-trump ... -crossings
Quote:
President Trump called on Democrats on Tuesday to vote to fund his proposed border wall, saying the project would pay "for itself in two months."

... It's unclear where Trump got his figures,.. [though] a 2017 research paper by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) — a think tank that promotes reduced immigration and wields considerable influence on the Trump administration — made the case that a border wall would pay for itself based on the estimated lifetime fiscal burden of immigrants who crossed the border illegally.

...That study, based on figures from a study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS), was criticized by the NAS researchers who wrote the original study. "They are using numbers trying to make it seem that the average cost will just go away if these people aren’t here," NAS study author Kim Reubens told fact-finding site Snopes. Reubens added that the CIS study did not take into account "that the large reason why [fiscal projections] are negative rather than positive has to do with the fact that we are running deficits in this country."
He wants to spend $25 billion of our taxes on this stupid wall, though even some of his GOP allies don't seem anxious to allocate more than $5 billion. Notice that he's no longer pretending that Mexico will pay for it. Trump and his GOP allies are threatening a government shutdown again if the wall doesn't get funded. (the Republicans' favorite tool, it seems - threatening a government shutdown)

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 05 Dec , 2018 3:31 pm
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https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ia/577354/
Quote:
The Coming Senate Showdown Over Saudi Arabia

Republican senators positioned themselves against the White House after the CIA director testified about Jamal Khashoggi’s death.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... -coal-rule
Quote:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to formally propose rolling back an Obama administration climate change rule for coal-fired power plants.

The rule at issue, written in 2015, would have put strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants. Emissions from such plants would have to be at a similar level to what plants would achieve with carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that is not generally commercially used.

The Trump administration this week will propose to significantly weaken the rule while keeping some form of it in place, in part as an effort to make new coal plants easier to build, two people familiar with the plans said.

Mueller recommended no jail time for Flynn due to his substantial assistance in the Russia investigation and other investigations.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... ubstantial







There's an excellent chance that I'm wrong, but I can't help wondering if "Client #1" in the recent Deutsche Bank/ Panama Papers raids is someone close to Trump.

It's the timing. The news was that Mueller was passing cases/ information off to other people in the Justice Dept. if it wasn't relevant to his own investigation. And then, on a single day - the same day Cohen pleads guilty - the FBI raids Deutsche Bank - and, in an apparently unrelated case, a crooked politician in Chicago who (among other things) may have been involved in getting lower taxes on a Trump property.

And then there are the charges in the Deutsche Bank case where other people are named, but "client #1" isn't. All were secretly indicted by a grand jury in September.

Also, the investigation originally started in New York under Preet Bharara, who Trump fired early in his presidency.

As I said, I'm probably wrong. I suppose we'll find out at some point.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... charged-us
Quote:
Four men have been criminally charged in the US government’s investigation into the findings of the Panama Papers, the leaked files from the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca.Prosecutors in New York said the four men, including an attorney and an investment manager who worked for the company, have been charged with wire fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, and other crimes.

...Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement on Tuesday that the four went to “extraordinary lengths to circumvent US tax laws” in order to boost the wealth of their clients.

...Those charged were Ramses Owens, a Panamanian attorney who worked for Mossack Fonseca; Dirk Brauer, an investment manager for a Mossack subsidiary; Richard Gaffey, a US-based accountant; and Harald Joachim von der Goltz, a former US resident and Mossack client.
...Von der Goltz, a German citizen who was allegedly one of the firm’s American-based clients, is accused of using shell companies to hide tens of millions of dollars from the IRS, and falsely claiming his Guatemalan mother was the true owner of his offshore holdings.

Gaffey is accused of assisting Von der Goltz’s scheme and advising another American taxpayer, who is identified in Tuesday’s filings only as “Client 1”. Gaffey allegedly devised a system for this client to bring $3m of offshore funds into the US by falsely telling the IRS he had sold a company.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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