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You've been Trumped!

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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 03 Oct , 2019 6:22 pm
Aspiring to heresy
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aninkling wrote:
:D Sorry. Out of curiosity, why the difference in spelling? DH is more of a bourbon drinker and I don't like any of them except in Irish coffee (which is probably sacrilege to some).
I don't know. Custom, maybe? Why is anything in English spelled the way it is?

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 04 Oct , 2019 12:47 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... uliani-and
Quote:
President Trump recalled then-Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch this spring amid complaints from his supporters, including that she was stymying efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday....

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4643 ... ng-ukraine
Quote:
House Democrats late Thursday released text message exchanges between several Trump administration officials that they argued underscored the administration's efforts to pressure Ukraine to pursue investigations into President Trump's political rivals.

The text message exchanges show administration officials indicating that a meeting between the Ukrainian president and Trump was contingent on investigations requested by the U.S., and in one case raising concerns about the delay of military aid for Ukraine....
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... nvoy-texts
Quote:
The 7 most explosive exchanges in Trump's Ukraine envoy texts
Quote:
Text messages provided by the former special envoy to Ukraine show administration officials indicating that a meeting between the Ukrainian leader and President Trump was contingent on investigations requested by the U.S.

Following Kurt Volker’s nearly 10-hour deposition behind closed doors on Thursday, a trio of House committees released a batch of text messages submitted as part of his congressional testimony.

The text messages show that top U.S. diplomats worked to carry out Trump's desire for the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and the business dealings of his son, Hunter....
A couple of them:
Quote:
On July 21, Taylor warned that "Zelensky is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics."

Sondland replied: "Absolutely, but we need to get the conversation started and the relationship built, irrespective of the pretext. I am worried about the alternative."
Quote:
“Heard from White House - assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / 'get to the bottom of what happened' in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington,” Volker wrote.
Incidentally, Sondland is not a career diplomat or specialist in international relationships. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/201 ... andal.html
Quote:
Who is Gordon Sondland? Portland hotel magnate’s stunning climb to Trump inner circle lands him in impeachment scandal


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... r-pledging
Quote:
Two Trump administration officials reportedly drafted a statement meant to be released by the Ukrainian government announcing investigations related to President Trump's political rivals in the U.S.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Kurt Volker, Trump's former envoy to Ukraine who tendered his resignation last week, was involved in drafting the statement along with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union (EU)....

The two officials reportedly drafted the statement in the weeks following a widely-scrutinized call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late July during which Trump pressed the Ukrainian leader to open an investigation into Biden, the current Democratic presidential front-runner.

It is not clear if the statement ever made it to Zelensky's desk, but a top aide to the Ukrainian leader was made aware of the drafted statement...

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... nth-report
Quote:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to announce his resignation next month, Politico reported Thursday night...

The report of Perry's expected resignation comes days after the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent questions to Perry related to his travel to Ukraine amid scrutiny of the Trump administration's dealings with the country.

The Energy secretary traveled to Ukraine in May for the inauguration of the country's new president, Volodymyr Zelesnky, whose contacts with President Trump are now at the center of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry.

Sources close to Perry claimed to Politico that his resignation would be unrelated to scrutiny over Trump's dealings with Ukraine. ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ion-during
Quote:
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday declined to say whether he's ever raised investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during talks with Chinese officials.

During a combative exchange with CNN's Jim Sciutto, Navarro slammed the network's reporting that President Trump spoke about Biden's political prospects during a June call with Chinese President Xi Jinping without denying its accuracy.

Asked multiple times if he had ever personally broached the idea of investigating Biden during his conversations with China, Navarro refused to answer directly....

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4643 ... push-grows
Quote:
The intelligence community’s top watchdog is huddling Friday with House Intelligence Committee members of both parties, a day after the release of explosive text messages between leading administration officials that have fueled the Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Michael Atkinson, inspector general (IG) of the intelligence community, had previously expressed grave concerns over a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump had threatened to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine unless that country's president launched an investigation into one of Trump's top political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden....

Atkinson has deemed the whistleblower complaint of "urgent concern," largely for its implications for election security. And he is said to have already interviewed multiple witnesses with knowledge of Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky...
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4644 ... nt-inquiry
Quote:
Three House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry asked Vice President Pence on Friday to turn over documents concerning his involvement in President Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations into a political rival...

“Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President’s stark message to the Ukrainian President,” the chairmen of the three committees wrote in a letter to Pence. "Your failure or refusal to comply with the request, including at the direction of or behest of the president or the White House, shall constitute evidence of obstruction of justice of the House's impeachment inquiry and may be used as an adverse inference against you and the president,"...

It seems that some Republicans heard rumors about Trump's pressure on Ukraine before the whistleblower's report.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/464 ... -in-august
Quote:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he confronted President Trump over aid to Ukraine in August and that the president denied tying that assistance to assurances from Kiev that it would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

Johnson told The Wall Street Journal that he learned of a potential "quid pro quo" from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Johnson said that Sondland told him assistance for Ukraine was connected to Trump's desire to have the country carry out investigations relating to the 2016 elections.

The senator said he spoke with Trump on Aug. 31 and that on the call, Trump denied that he told officials to connect military aid to the promise of investigations by Ukraine.

“He said... ‘No way. I would never do that. Who told you that?'” Johnson told the Journal. ..


Edit to add conspiracy theory #5,416 from our beloved Dear Leader.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/0 ... ent-026123
Quote:
President Donald Trump charged Thursday without evidence that the pharmaceutical industry was behind House Democrats' impeachment proceedings, suggesting it was payback for his administration's effort to lower drug costs.

"Lowering the cost of prescription drugs, taking on the pharmaceutical companies, you think that’s easy, it’s not easy. It’s not easy. ... I wouldn’t be surprised if the hoax didn’t come a little bit from some of the people that we’re taking on." Trump said.

"They’re very powerful, they spend a lot of money, spend I think more money than any other group in the world actually in terms of lobbying and lobbying abilities. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the nonsense that we all have to go through, but that I go through, wouldn’t be surprised if it was from some of these industries like pharmaceuticals that we take on." ...
George Conway on Trump's declining mental faculties. He's rather long-winded IMO but he has some good points. I accidentally heard a couple of Trump's remarks, the last couple of days on the news, and I was surprised at how furious he sounds, and nearly out of control. He's hidden that part of himself pretty successfully from the public, though we've heard stories of his temper in the White House. Now he's not even hiding it any more.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ce/599128/
Quote:
On a third-down play last season, the Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith stood in shotgun formation, five yards behind the line of scrimmage. ...Special-teams players began taking the field for the punt. But Smith didn’t get up. He rolled flat onto his back, pulled off his helmet, and covered his face with his hands. He was clearly in excruciating pain. The slow-motion replay immediately showed the television audience why: As Smith was tackled, his right leg had buckled sharply above the ankle, with his foot rotating significantly away from any direction in which a human foot ought to point. The play-by-play announcer Greg Gumbel said grimly, “We’ll be back,” and the network abruptly cut to a break. There was nothing more to say.

Even without the benefit of medical training, and even without conducting a physical examination, viewers knew what had happened. They may not have known what the bones were called or what treatment would be required, but they knew more than enough, and they knew what really mattered: Smith had broken his leg, very badly. They knew that even if they were not orthopedists, did not have a medical degree, and had never cracked open a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. They could tell—they were certain—something was seriously wrong.

And so it is, or ought to be, with Donald Trump. You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don’t need to be a mental-health professional to see that something’s very seriously off with Trump—particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House. Questions about Trump’s psychological stability have mounted throughout his presidency. But those questions have been coming even more frequently amid a recent escalation in Trump’s bizarre behavior, as the pressures of his upcoming reelection campaign, a possibly deteriorating economy, and now a full-blown impeachment inquiry have mounted. And the questioners have included those who have worked most closely with him...
Quote:
...NBC News last week quoted someone familiar with current discussions in the White House warning that there is “increasing wariness that, as this impeachment inquiry drags out, the likelihood increases that the president could respond erratically and become ‘unmanageable.’” In September, a former White House official offered a similar assessment to a Business Insider reporter: “No one knows what to expect from him anymore,” because “his mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window. He’s losing his shit.”

Even a major investment bank has gotten into the mix, albeit in a roundabout way: JPMorgan Chase has created a “Volfefe Index”—named after Trump’s bizarre May 2017 “covfefe” tweet—designed to quantify the effect that Trump’s impulsive tweets have on interest-rate volatility....




https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... il-and-gas
Quote:
The Trump administration Friday announced it would make 725,000 acres of land in California’s central coast open to oil and gas lease sales, ending a five-year moratorium.

The decision by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) made the federal land available for fossil fuel production across Fresno, Monterey, San Benito and other counties for the first time in half a decade.

Soon, fossil fuel companies will be able to request and bid on plots within the hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands and mineral estates across 11 counties....

The plan estimates that up to 32 new oil and gas development wells could be built on the federal lands during the plan's lifetime.

No federal lease sales have occurred in California since 2013, when a court ruled BLM failed to consider the risks of fracking when it issued oil leases in Monterey and Fresno. The BLM has since then conducted and filed new environmental impact studies on drilling in the area...
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4644 ... -he-writes
Quote:
A reporter at military news website Defense One says he was harassed and accused by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent of writing "propaganda" when he attempted to reenter the United States this week...

A British writer for Empire Magazine reported a similar experience in July, tweeting at the time that he was questioned about whether he wrote or worked for major cable news networks including CNN and MSNBC. "He wanted to know if I’d ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are 'spreading lies to the American people.' He aggressively told me that journalists are liars and are attacking their democracy," writer James Dyer tweeted...
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4644 ... rn-request
Quote:
A Treasury Department inspector general's office is investigating the department's handling of House Democrats' request for President Trump's tax returns.

The Treasury Office of Inspector General said it is undertaking an inquiry requested by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.)....
I believe there was a whistleblower in Treasury too, warning that Trump's political appointees were interfering on his behalf. Can't remember where - maybe The Hill?

I also added some news related to the investigation of Trump and Ukraine.

_________________

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 07 Oct , 2019 1:12 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... because-of
Quote:
According to Axios, President Trump told House Republicans during a conference call Friday that he was urged by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to make his July 25 phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

..."The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquified natural gas] plant," Trump added.
So far, there isn't even a hint in the readout of Trump's "investigate the Bidens and we'll be nice to you" call with Zelensky that LNG was involved. But rumors say that Perry is planning to resign. I assume either he was involved or he doesn't fancy lying under oath for Trump. He does seem to have spent a fair bit of time in Ukraine. :
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -in-trumps
Quote:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry urged President Trump to speak to Ukraine's president about issues related to energy and the economy during a call that contributed to the launch of an impeachment inquiry, Perry's spokeswoman told The Hill on Sunday.

...During that call, Trump encouraged Ukraine's president to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, a partial transcript released by the White House showed.

Trump told House Republicans on Friday that Perry arranged the call, according to The Associated Press, which first reported Hynes's comments...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... lings-with
Quote:
A federal judge has ordered the White House to preserve records of President Trump's "meetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders," a move that comes as the president faces a formal impeachment inquiry over his interactions with Ukraine....

The order — which stemmed from a lawsuit filed in May by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as well as the National Security Archive and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations — also called on the Trump administration to preserve "all records of efforts by White House or other executive branch officials to return, 'claw back,' 'lock down' or recall White House records."

Politico first reported the judge's decision late Saturday...
They're supposed to preserve all records anyway, according to federal law, so I'm not sure what this does, other than put anyone running shredders for Trump in defiance of a court order.


btw, Trump's "strategy" on impeachment seems to be to call everyone who opposes him traitors and/or call for their impeachment. I assume he's trying to normalize impeachment as something that happens when you disagree?? It seems to suggest he's desperate and has no real defense. Or maybe he's just nuts.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mmediately
Quote:
Trump suggests Pelosi committed treason, should be 'immediately impeached'
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mpeachment
Quote:
Trump calls for Romney's impeachment
There are also rumors of misdeeds by Nancy Pelosi's family in Ukraine but they're coming from the same people who promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy (Hillary Clinton running a pedophile ring or something from a pizza parlor in DC) so highly likely to be conspiracy theories.



And whoosh, there goes one stupid Trump lawsuit that Barr and the Southern District DA supported. They did their reputations no good with this one.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... nt-cant-be
Quote:
A federal judge knocked the Department of Justice stance that a sitting president can’t be indicted in a Monday ruling that dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit challenging a New York subpoena to turn over his tax returns...

“The Court considers such popular currency for the categorical concept and its legal support as not warranted.”

Marrero said the reliance on the DOJ Memos is “misplaced for several reasons,” including that their conclusions that a sitting president cannot be indicted is based on “an unqualified abstract doctrine asserting a generalized principle” rather than from “a real case presenting real facts.”

“Because the constitutional text and history on point are scant and inconclusive, the DOJ Memos construct a doctrinal foundation and structure to support a presidential immunity theory that substantially relies on suppositions, practicalities, and public policy, as well as conjurings of remote prospects and hyperbolic horrors about the consequences to the Presidency and the nation as a whole that would befall under any model of presidential immunity other than the categorical rule on which the DOJ Memos and the President’s claim ultimately rest,” he wrote.

And here's Rick Perry's involvement in Ukraine:
https://apnews.com/d7440cffba4940f5b85cd3dfa3500fb2
Quote:
As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic.

Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans.

Their plan hit a snag after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lost his reelection bid to Volodymyr Zelenskiy... But the effort to install a friendlier management team at the helm of the gas company, Naftogaz, would soon be taken up with Ukraine’s new president by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose slate of candidates included a fellow Texan who is one of Perry’s past political donors.

It’s unclear if Perry’s attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it’s unclear what role, if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements with the state-owned company.

But the affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president’s personal political interests...

While it’s unclear whether Trump’s remark [about Perry] Friday referred specifically to the behind-the-scenes maneuvers this spring involving the multibillion-dollar state gas company, The Associated Press has interviewed four people with direct knowledge of the attempts to influence Naftogaz, and their accounts show Perry playing a key role in the effort. Three of the four spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The fourth is an American businessman with close ties to the Ukrainian energy sector...
So now we know why Perry was/is planning to resign (today he denied it).

_________________

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 08 Oct , 2019 4:16 pm
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Some cities are getting wise to the Trump campaign's practice of leaving their residents to bear the costs of his re-election rallies. Dear Leader is not happy about that. :
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... ttack-yawn
Quote:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) responded on Twitter Tuesday morning after President Trump and the Trump campaign lashed out at the mayoral office's supposed attempt to bill the Trump campaign for security costs ahead of the president's rally.

In a tweet, Frey responded with a "yawn" and by telling the president that Minneapolis residents "pay our bills" after Trump knocked him as a "lightweight" in an earlier tweet...

The Trump campaign fired a salvo of attacks aimed at Frey on Monday after Frey's administration contacted the campaign requesting more than $500,000 in security costs ahead of the president's appearance at the Target Center in the city scheduled for Thursday...

Numerous cities have reported failures by the Trump campaign to pay back costs incurred by local law enforcement services involved in protecting the president and rally attendees.

"When one considers how much money campaigns raise and spend, it does not seem unreasonable to expect some degree of reimbursement for such demands for service,” Richard Myers, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said in a statement...




Trump and his minions are still obstructing the impeachment inquiry. I'm still wondering when and if the congressional committees will grow a spine.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... fore-house
Quote:
A key witness in the House impeachment inquiry was ordered not to appear at a scheduled deposition on Tuesday, ramping up tensions between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration.

The State Department instructed Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland not to appear for the deposition, according to his counsel.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) later lashed out at the State Department, saying Sondland has messages on a personal device that are relevant to the impeachment inquiry. He and the chairmen of two other House panels said they would issue a subpoena to Sondland. ...
In spite of being ambassador to the EU, not Ukraine (and a wealthy Trump supporter rather than a professional diplomat), it looks like Sonderland was orchestrating some things in Ukraine and telling State Dept employees what to do.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... on/599533/
Quote:
The White House Abused the Classification System
The question now is whether Congress can summon the will to hold the president to account.
Quote:
A president who is willing to bend national policy to serve his self-interests, and who has little regard for the law, has powerful tools of concealment at his disposal. The events of the past two weeks are again putting on full display the ways that classification policy and information-security systems can be abused to conceal records of wrongdoing and to extend the life span of malfeasance before it’s discovered. And once again, a great deal rides on whether Congress can summon the will to serve as a check on the executive...

With Trump’s public admissions, and the White House’s release of summary notes of a July call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, why should anyone care what server is used to store the call notes? The answer lies in the nature of classification decisions, and the ways in which this administration appears to be using classification controls to conceal evidence of crimes and wrongdoing. I spent nearly 15 years working with classified information, classification policy, and intelligence oversight, first at the National Security Agency, where I served in a number of roles, including as associate general counsel for intelligence law, and later as senior minority counsel for the Russia investigation on the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence. To be clear, I don’t speak for these agencies, and I haven’t had any firsthand exposure to the call memos at issue here—but I do have some understanding of how classification works, and why these allegations about the handling of the call transcripts matter....





https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -decision/
Quote:
Ever since former defense secretary Jim Mattis resigned over President Trump’s announced withdrawal from Syria, he has declined to directly criticize or even address Trump’s decision-making as president.

Brett McGurk is showing no such deference.

McGurk, who served as Trump’s envoy for the fight against the Islamic State, lit into Trump early Monday over the White House’s announcement that it is essentially handing northern Syria over to Turkey — a decision many feel could lead to Turkey slaughtering the United States’ Kurdish allies in the region...

“Donald Trump is not a Commander-in-Chief,” said McGurk, who resigned along with Mattis over Trump’s initial (but later aborted) plan for a full Syria withdrawal. “He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call.”

McGurk also suggested the people around Trump have no idea what’s going on....

[his]... statements often seem as though they were dictated by Trump without the normal care and fact-checking that would usually be involved in such high-stakes foreign policy announcements. McGurk seems to indicate that’s exactly what’s going on.

The decision notably comes after a phone call Trump had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump will often make major decisions after such phone calls...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... mp/598360/
Quote:
Top Military Officers Unload on Trump

The commander in chief is impulsive, disdains expertise, and gets his intelligence briefings from Fox News. What does this mean for those on the front lines?
Quote:
For most of the past two decades, American troops have been deployed all over the world—to about 150 countries. ...

To get a sense of what serving Trump has been like, I interviewed officers up and down the ranks, as well as several present and former civilian Pentagon employees. Among the officers I spoke with were four of the highest ranks—three or four stars—all recently retired. All but one served Trump directly; the other left the service shortly before Trump was inaugurated. They come from different branches of the military, but I’ll simply refer to them as “the generals.” Some spoke only off the record, some allowed what they said to be quoted without attribution, and some talked on the record.

Military officers are sworn to serve whomever voters send to the White House. Cognizant of the special authority they hold, high-level officers epitomize respect for the chain of command, and are extremely reticent about criticizing their civilian overseers. That those I spoke with made an exception in Trump’s case is telling, and much of what they told me is deeply disturbing. In 20 years of writing about the military, I have never heard officers in high positions express such alarm about a president...

_________________

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: Tue 08 Oct , 2019 7:08 pm
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Does anyone know what the normal practice was in past elections for covering the costs of security?

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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 09 Oct , 2019 1:09 am
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What does normal have to do with anything this year?

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 09 Oct , 2019 3:08 pm
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Quote:
Does anyone know what the normal practice was in past elections for covering the costs of security?
Jude, I didn't know either and looked it up. The short answer: it varies and mostly seems to depend on the candidate being ethical. The long answer is below:

https://publicintegrity.org/federal-pol ... a-rallies/
Quote:
Must Trump pay?

That depends on who you ask. The cities are adamant Trump should pay up. But in many of these cases, there are no signed contracts between the municipal governments and the Trump campaign. The cities dispatched police officers to secure Trump's events because they believe public safety required it — and the U.S. Secret Service asked for it.

Reached for comment, Trump campaign Director of Operations Sean Dollman referred questions to the campaign's communications staff, which did not respond to numerous requests.
.
Quote:
..municipal policies vary.

Many of the more than 60 cities Trump visited since his inauguration for Make America Great Again rallies have policies against billing any politician for police costs. Several more cities calculated the cost of providing public safety services for Trump rallies but said they chose not to bill Trump's campaign.

...Local governments do have some financial leverage when presidential candidates want to stage a rally not at a private venue, but a government-owned facility — such as a municipal convention center or city park.

Several have required the Trump campaign to sign a contract or similar agreement to pay various expenses and fees at their municipal facilities, including police protection....

The Trump campaign has honored these city facility contracts, although in at least once case, not in a timely fashion, and in another case, not in full.
But Trump's rallies seem to be unusually expensive:
Quote:
Cities hosting presidential candidates say securing many presidential candidate rallies, such as those conducted by most 2020 Democratic candidates, is a matter of overall community safety. Many are relatively modest affairs that don't carry excessive cost.

Trump rallies are an entirely different matter.

When Trump visits a city to stage a Make America Great Again rally, often cash-strapped city governments have little choice but to provide whatever public safety resources the U.S. Secret Service requests of them.

The requirements are often significant — street closures, security perimeters, the paid time of dozens of law enforcement officers...

The president's campaign political events have also earned a reputation for rowdiness, even violence...
There doesn't seem to be any mechanism to force the candidates to pay:
Quote:
...the Secret Service doesn't reimburse municipal governments for their assistance during presidential campaign events.

Why? Blame Congress

The Secret Service, spokesman Jeffrey Adams said, is not funded to reimburse local police, "and we don't have a mechanism to do so." Local officials are therefore left to bill presidential campaigns in the hope they'll pay because it's their ethical or moral duty. While a few cities have flirted with suing presidential candidates for nonpayment, they've concluded legal action would be more aggravation than it's worth.....


It's worth noting if a campaign doesn't pay its bills, it's supposed to report them as a campaign finance contribution. Surprise, surprise... Trump seems to be violating that.
Quote:
Regardless of whether presidential campaigns believe they should pay public safety bills that city governments send them, federal election law states this much: "A political committee shall report a disputed debt ... if the creditor has provided something of value to the political committee."

In its mandatory campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Trump's campaign committee has not reported debts to municipal governments or police departments. Nor has it disclosed the debts in federal filings as "disputed debts" — something the Sanders 2016 presidential campaign did while initially refusing to pay its police bills.

Several election law lawyers asserted that Trump's campaign is therefore likely violating federal campaign finance laws.
The article goes on to note that some candidates were ethical enough to pay. Ted Cruz does, for instance. President Obama's record seems to have been mixed.

The records of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates vary. Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Beto O'Rourke seem to have paid. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have promised to pay any bills. The Biden campaign and Kirsten Gillibrand won't say (I assume they are among the "won't pay" group), and Bernie Sanders has sometimes paid and sometimes stiffed cities in the past.

btw, the article also says Orlando, Florida required the Trump campaign to pay its security costs up front, so Minneapolis is not the first to try this.



A related but older article - it might be outdated since Clinton and Sanders seem to have paid some bills since then. It seems that, in the 2016 campaign, Trump often wouldn't pay and didn't report anything as a campaign contribution. This included at last one case (Tucson) where he had a contract with the city, though they did pay others with contracts. Bernie Sanders often didn't pay either but he did report the costs as a campaign contribution. Hillary Clinton also seemed to owe some cities:
https://publicintegrity.org/federal-pol ... ice-bills/

_________________

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 10 Oct , 2019 1:29 pm
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One other important difference between Trump and other politicians on security costs for political events - he doesn't just pay or not pay; he starts a noisy public feud demonizing the city that dares ask him to bear some of the costs. :
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... e-at-rally
Quote:
President Trump will hold a campaign rally Thursday in Minneapolis, a city where he is now openly feuding with the mayor over the $530,000 in costs associated with the event.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey triggered an onslaught of criticism from Trump when he said the president’s campaign would be on the hook for the more than half-million in expenses.

The Trump campaign responded by threatening a lawsuit, accusing the mayor of extortion and claiming Frey was attempting to restrict the First Amendment rights of the president and his supporters...
Judging by what Trump has done to California, I won't be surprised if he tries to get his vengeance on Minnesota with the EPA or other agencies that have his sycophants at their head.


More corruption, or at least attempted corruption. Unlike Pompeo et al, Rex Tillerson didn't bow to Trump's demands:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... t-giuliani
Quote:
President Trump pressured then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help convince the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop a criminal investigation against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was also a client of Trump's current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Bloomberg reports.

Tillerson refused Trump's 2017 request, saying it would be illegal to interfere with an ongoing investigation. He repeated his stance to then-chief of staff John Kelly in a hallway conversation in the White House.

At the time, Reza Zarrab, the trader in question, was being prosecuted by a New York federal court on charges of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program, according to Bloomberg. As a result, Zarrab hired Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey...


Speaking of that little toady Pompeo:
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... reen-light
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. "didn't give Turkey a green light" to invade Syria and attack Kurdish forces in an interview Wednesday....

Pompeo deflected questions regarding whether the U.S. should take responsibility for the results of the Turkish attacks, including if civilians are killed or if ISIS reemerges. "We're going to work to make sure that ISIS doesn't have the Caliphate that extends across a broad swath of Syria and Iraq, which is the place that we found ourselves when the President took office," he said.

Pompeo maintained that the administration completed the mission of defeating ISIS, and American troops were in danger staying in Syria. He added that he's "confident President Trump understands the threat."...
Bullshit. Trump can barely articulate a coherent thought in his impromptu remarks and spends his time watching sympathetic media pundits, tweeting about how misunderstood he is, and following conspiracy theories, not reading reports and meeting with experts. This is not a man with a deep understanding of consequences and trade-offs. The Kurdish situation was always tricky and a minefield for the US, in my opinion, between Turkey and ISIS, but let's not pretend this was anything but what it was - our government used the Kurdish fighters while they were useful, then Trump abandoned them, without any attempt to mitigate the consequences, once they were not.


And more of Trump's disgusting "who cares about anyone else" attitude:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4651 ... -to-europe
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday said he's not concerned about ISIS prisoners potentially escaping as the U.S. vacates northern Syria, claiming the escapees would end up Europe.

Trump was asked in the Roosevelt Room of the White House about the potential threat of an ISIS resurgence, should its fighters escape once the U.S. leaves the region. "Well they’re going to be escaping to Europe. That’s where they want to go. They want to go back to their homes," Trump said.
"But Europe didn't want them from us," he added. "We could've given it to them. They could've had trials they could've had whatever they wanted. But as usual, it's not reciprocal."...
I admire the writer for figuring out what Trump meant by what he actually said. Because I have no clue, except that he's indifferent to what might happen when ISIS prisoners held by Kurdish forces escape.

But I'm sure he'll use them to scream and yell about horrible Muslims if/when one of them commits a terrorist attack.


Another "what the hell is he talking about" comment from Dear Leader:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... n-normandy
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday criticized the Kurds, saying they didn't help the United States during World War II and that they were only fighting for their land in Syria during the battle against ISIS.

“The Kurds are fighting for their land,” Trump told reporters at the White House during an event in the Roosevelt Room.

“And as somebody wrote in a very, very powerful article today, they didn’t help us in the second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy as an example. They mentioned names of different battles. But they’re there to help us with their land and that’s a different thing.”

Trump did not specify to which article he was referring, but some on Twitter pointed to an article written in TownHall by conservative Kurt Schlichter that included a reference to the Kurds and Normandy. ...
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/townhall/
Quote:
Townhall is owned by Salem Communications, which owns numerous right leaning Christian based radio stations across the USA. According to Open Secrets Salem Media Group donates 100% to Republicans and right leaning PACS. The website is funded through online advertising.

Analysis / Bias

In review, Townhall almost exclusively publishes news articles that favors conservatives and utilizes strongly loaded language such as this: Shove It, House Democrats: Another Trump-Russia Story Blows Up. This story is sourced to the left leaning Axios and right leaning Fox News. In another article with loaded language, by Rush Limbaugh’s brother David: Abortion Extremism Exposing Left’s Moral Contradictions, there is not a single source listed to support Mr. Limbaugh’s claims.

In general, Townhall presents story selection that almost always favors the right and uses negative wording to describe the left. There is little balance in story presentation with all information favoring the right without presenting a left perspective or counter argument. The opinion columnists associated with Townhall have poor fact check records such as Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro. Straight news reporting is generally sourced properly and factual, though worded to favor the right.
Hell of a source of information for the US president to be using, rather than reports by Middle East experts.




Also, those two "businessmen" in Florida (the ones in the profile I posted last week) have been arrested on charges of campaign finance violations. I'll be very curious where this goes. [sorry, this one is behind a paywall]
https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreig ... 1570714188
Quote:
Two Soviet-born donors to a pro-Trump fundraising committee who helped Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to investigate Democrat Joe Biden were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges of violating campaign finance rules and are expected to appear in court on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Florida businessmen, have been under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and are expected to appear in federal court in Virginia...
Supposedly they were arrested at the airport last night, about to leave the country.
According to rumor, they also had lunch with Giuliani yesterday at the Trump hotel.

_________________

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 11 Oct , 2019 1:29 pm
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https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... associates
Quote:
President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly planned to fly to Vienna, Austria, a day after his now-arrested associates attempted to travel to the city.

The Atlantic reported that it was unclear why Giuliani was traveling to Vienna, but that he had said he couldn't meet with one of the magazine's reporters on Thursday evening due to his expected travel.

Multiple news outlets reported that the Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were carrying one-way tickets to Vienna when they were arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Wednesday night...
I strongly suspect Vienna wasn't their final destination. ;)

Original story from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... na/599833/
Interesting coincidence here:
Quote:
Last night, when Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn’t get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested this evening instead, his response was a bit more curious. We would have to aim for lunch, Giuliani told me, because he was planning to fly to Vienna, Austria, at night. He didn’t offer any details beyond that.

Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. last night—around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets...
Quote:
But Giuliani, when confirming today that Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna on matters “related to their business,” told the Journal that he himself only had plans to meet with them when they returned to Washington. By this logic, Giuliani was also planning to fly to Vienna within roughly 24 hours of his business associates, but do no business with them while all three were there.
EDIT: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/1 ... rty-044698
Quote:
Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the latest scandal that threatens his presidency on Thursday by saying he didn’t know either of the foreign-born Rudy Giuliani associates that his own Justice Department had just indicted for alleged campaign finance violations.

But that’s not what one of the men said three years ago — while attending Trump’s invite-only 2016 election night party in New York

In fact, Lev Parnas described himself to a foreign correspondent at the cash-bar event in midtown Manhattan as a friend of the president-elect who didn’t live far from his South Florida winter home...

...Trump’s election night event...[was] relatively cozy and where die-hard supporters barely outnumbered the throngs of media on hand...

Parnas posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House on May 1, 2018, with a caption describing an “incredible dinner and even better conversation,” according to a screenshot captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Another picture Parnas posted from May 21, 2018, shows him with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the caption “Power Breakfast!!!”

Trump dismissed the photos “because I have a picture with everybody.”

The White House hasn’t explained why Parnas and Fruman were meeting with the president; a spokesman referred questions about the event to the Trump campaign, and Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh did not immediately respond to a request for comment...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... d-giuliani
Quote:
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was dismissed after she insisted that Rudy Giuliani's requests for investigations go through official channels, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing a former diplomat who spoke with Yovanovitch....
She's testifying today. Should be interesting.

EDIT to add:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ave-played
Quote:
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine abruptly recalled from her post by President Trump earlier this year told Congress that she suspects Rudy Giuliani pushed for her ouster on behalf of two of his associates who were arrested this week for an alleged foreign influence scheme....

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ps-ukraine
Quote:
At least four national security officials raised concerns to a White House lawyer over the Trump administration's attempts to pressure Ukraine before and immediately following President Trump's call with Ukraine's president, The Washington Post reported Thursday. ...
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... ing-report
Quote:
A senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has resigned his position as the State Department faces lowering morale amid the Ukraine scandal, according to a new report...
EDIT (I missed this one earlier):
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... d-n1064846
Quote:
Trump's former Russia aide set to give revealing testimony on Giuliani, Sondland
Fiona Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president.
Quote:
Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News...
Another interesting connection:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -s-firtash
Quote:
Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy Ukrainian and onetime business partner of Paul Manafort who is facing extradition to the U.S. on corruption charges, has hired a legal team with close ties to President Donald Trump.

The lawyers retained by Firtash are Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, according to representatives for Firtash and for the attorneys...


https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4652 ... iny-report
Quote:
Attorney General William Barr met privately Wednesday night with Rupert Murdoch, the media giant and known confidant of President Trump, at Murdoch's home in New York, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

It is unclear what the two discussed, as aides of both men declined to speak with the Times...
EDIT: Shepard Smith, who has criticized Trump on Fox news, has suddenly and unexpectedly "stepped down," clearly with no replacement planned and with visibly shocked colleagues:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... m-fox-news
Is this why Barr was meeting with Murdoch? Are Judge Napolitano and others who have dared to criticize Trump next? Trump has been ranting against Fox news a lot lately, especially when one of their own polls showed high support for the impeachment inquiry. We'll have to see what happens on Fox now but I have my suspicions their criticism of Trump is at an end. If it turns out that Barr, who is a government official, interfered with the news media to quash anything not supportive of Trump, his corruption will be out in plain sight.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... f-his-exit
Quote:
President Trump took a shot at top Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's "terrible ratings" before wishing the longtime host "well" following news of his exit on Friday afternoon.

“I don’t know. Is he leaving? That’s a shame," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing for a rally in Louisiana. “Is he leaving because of bad ratings?” Trump continued. "If he’s leaving, I assume he’s leaving because he had bad ratings.” “He had the worst ratings at Fox," Trump said, before adding, “I wish Shepherd Smith well.”

...Trump, as recently as Thursday, sent a tweet slamming Smith and other network personalities who are perceived to be less friendly to the president. ...

...Court Justice & I turned him down (he’s been terrible ever since), Shep Smith, @donnabrazile (who gave Crooked Hillary the debate questions & got fired from @CNN), & others, @FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore. It is so different than it used to be. Oh well, I’m President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019

Smith had regularly issued fact-checks for the president's comments while also criticizing him on multiple occasions...
Smith's ratings, btw, were apparently excellent.





Follow-ups to two previously reported stories:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -expand-to
Quote:
The Department of Education maintained that the joint Duke University-University of North Carolina program needs to "expand" to include more religions beyond Islam to fulfill federal grant funding requirements.

The department stood its ground that the consortium needs to diversify its content to meet the requirements of the Title VI federal funding, according to a letter it sent to the program from Assistant Secretary Robert King on Wednesday...
Thus article is badly written (I quoted it from the start) and assumes you already know this is a Middle East and Islamic Studies program.


https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ervice-for
Quote:
Commerce Department officials were responsible for drafting a statement that rebuked National Weather Service staff after they sent a tweet countering President Trump’s [false] statements about Hurricane Dorian, according to a letter sent by the House Science committee Thursday....


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 45731.html
Quote:
Hundreds of former US Environmental Protection Agency employees on Thursday urged a congressional probe into whether the agency's feud with California represented retaliation for the state's failure to support President Donald Trump's political agenda...

Spearheaded by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, the letter noted that six states have had more large pollution sources in noncompliance with federal environmental laws over the last three years than California: Ohio, New York, Iowa, Missouri, Texas and Indiana. The letter cited agency records. ...



So much for Trump's claim that he's getting out of foreign wars and "bringing the troops home" :
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 52019.html
Quote:
The Pentagon said on Friday it has approved the deployment of 3,000 additional US troops and military hardware to Saudi Arabia, boosting the country's defences after attacks on its oil installations.

...Esper later told reporters that the deployments were in response "to continued threats in the region" and came after a conversation with MBS about "efforts to protect from further Iranian aggression". MBS had requested additional support, Esper said.

Since May, the US has increased the number of its forces by about 14,000 in the Central Command area covering the Middle East, the defence department said...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 01991.html
Quote:
An Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea was hit by two suspected rockets on Friday off the coast of Saudi Arabia, raising fears of further escalation in the already-volatile Gulf region. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) said in a statement the hull of the ship sustained two separate explosions about 100km (60 miles) off the Saudi port city of Jeddah. It said the blasts - one at 5am local time (02:00 GMT) and the other at 5:30am (02:30 GMT) - were "probably caused by missile strikes". Oil prices spiked 2 percent on the news...

Lieutenant Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet in the Middle East, said authorities were "aware of reports of this incident" but he declined to comment further....

Al Jazeera's Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran, said officials at the national oil company said the fire was put out.... "This is the third time in the past six months that an Iranian tanker has been incapacitated in these waters," he noted...

"This latest incident - if confirmed to be an act of aggression - is highly likely to be part of the wider narrative of deteriorating relations between Saudi and the US and Iran," private maritime security firm Dryad Maritime warned. "It is likely that the region, have being stable for the last month, will face another period of increasing maritime threats, as the Iranian and Saudi geopolitical stand-off continues."...
Unlike the earlier attacks on tankers, which were blamed on Iran by the US, this one was clearly caused by someone looking to do some real damage, started a fire, and did leak oil, though that seems to have been stopped now. It seems clear that there are interests in the Middle East looking to escalate tensions.

_________________

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 14 Oct , 2019 2:31 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... en-turkish
Quote:
Hundreds of relatives of ISIS militants on Sunday reportedly escaped a Kurdish-established detention camp in northern Syria following attacks by Turkish-led forces....
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/14/tu ... ers-syria/
Quote:
Turkish-Backed Forces Are Freeing Islamic State Prisoners
Ankara’s radical proxies are also apparently executing Kurdish prisoners and killing unarmed civilians, videos show.
Quote:
As Turkey wages a violent campaign against Kurdish fighters and civilians across northeastern Syria, Turkish-backed proxy forces with ties to extremist groups are deliberately releasing detainees affiliated with the Islamic State from unguarded prisons, two U.S. officials confirmed to Foreign Policy.

The claim pours cold water on U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Twitter that the Syrian Kurdish fighters tasked with guarding the prisons released the detainees to grab U.S. attention after the Defense Department ordered all U.S. troops to evacuate the region.

Backed by Turkey, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a decentralized band of Syrian rebels that has been linked to extremist groups, has launched a bloody assault on northeastern Syria, executing Kurdish prisoners and killing scores of unarmed civilians and Kurdish fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Over the weekend, a group of Turkish-backed forces ambushed a female Kurdish politician driving on the M4, the main highway through Syria and Iraq, forced her from the car, and killed her.

The group even deliberately targeted U.S. troops in Kobani on Friday, two U.S. officials, speaking on background to discuss sensitive operations, said separately. On Oct. 11, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Brook DeWalt confirmed reports that U.S. troops there had come under artillery fire from Turkey, adding that they were unharmed.

“It is not a mistake,” one senior U.S. administration official said. “They are trying to push us out.”...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -the-kurds
Quote:
President Trump on Monday said other countries — including China or Russia — should be responsible for protecting the U.S.-allied Kurds in northern Syria amid a groundswell of bipartisan criticism over his decision to pull American forces out of the region....

"At the same time, Syria and whoever they chose to help, wants naturally to protect the Kurds I would much rather focus on our Southern Border which abuts and is part of the United States of America," he added, boasting that crossings at the border are "way down."

After defeating 100% of the ISIS Caliphate, I largely moved our troops out of Syria. Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land. I said to my Generals, why should we be fighting for Syria....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019

....and Assad to protect the land of our enemy? Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!...
And besides, "his" generals are needed to protect Saudi Arabia, right? It also sounds like he envisions the US military as a permanent presence on the border with Mexico.



Trump is interfering in another case where a US soldier has been charged by the US army for murder. By now, I think we all know what his message is to US military members - do whatever you like to people in foreign countries, and never mind if your superior officers say it's wrong.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... arged-with



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ami-resort
Quote:
A fake video of President Trump shooting, stabbing and brutally assaulting media personalities and political opponents was played at a conference for his supporters at his Miami resort last week, The New York Times reported Sunday...

...Among the people and logos included were the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CNN,
Trump, his reelection campaign and the organizers of the conference all claim they had nothing to do with it. But it's obvious that the makers of the video thought it would appeal to Trump and his supporters, or they wouldn't have done it.

As of Monday afternoon, Trump still hadn't issued any tweet or personal comment on the video, though he's been busy tweeting about Hunter Biden, telling his followers to vote for Sean Spicer on Dancing With the Stars (https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/i ... -the-stars) and other things that matter to him. His staff put out a statement on his behalf, as "the White House." Yeah, that's convincing.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... lent-video
Quote:
The White House is condemning a video that surfaced over the weekend showing a superimposed picture of President Trump shooting members of the media and his political foes, though the president had yet to personally weigh in as of Monday afternoon.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a tweet Monday morning saying Trump had not yet seen the video “but based upon everything he has heard, he strongly condemns this video.” ...


https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4656 ... e-coverage
Quote:
President Trump on Sunday hit Fox News anchor Chris Wallace for his coverage of the phone call between Trump and Ukraine's president that is at the center of the House's impeachment inquiry.

"Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of Fox, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the Phone Conversation I had with the President of Ukraine was a congenial & good one," Trump tweeted....
I'll be curious whether Chris Wallace is the next to go.



And will someone please explain the concept of separation of church and state to Bill Barr?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... and-misery
Quote:
Attorney General William Barr in a speech Friday bemoaned the "moral upheaval" of religious values in the United States, saying it has brought "suffering and misery."

Barr made the comments during an address at the University of Notre Dame Law School. He said the deterioration of religion in the country is an "organized destruction" by secularists in an "unremitting assault on religion and traditional values," according to CNN....

...The [Justice] department's attorneys have been filing legal documents defending the rights of religious schools and businesses.

_________________

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 15 Oct , 2019 1:08 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4657 ... aine-in-10
Quote:
President Trump’s former Russia adviser testified under subpoena for roughly 10 hours on Monday as Democrats try to dig into how allies of the president tried to circumvent official policy on Ukraine as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Fiona Hill, who served as Trump's top analyst on Russia on the National Security Council staff until this summer, is the third witness to appear for a closed-door session before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry, following former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker and former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

While lawmakers largely declined to comment on the specifics of Hill’s testimony, Democrats asserted that Hill corroborated what they described as a concerted effort by Trump allies who were pushing for the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens to remove Yovanovitch from her post in May.

At the center of that effort, they say, was the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani...
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... yers-about
Quote:
Former national security adviser John Bolton told ...Fiona Hill, the senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, to contact the lawyer for the National Security Council and say that the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was involved in the efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democrats, the New York Times reported Monday night.

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton told Hill to tell White House lawyers, according to the testimony reported by the Times.

The former national security adviser had called Giuliani a "hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up" in a previous conversation with Hill, according to the Times...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... s-dealings
Quote:
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are reportedly investigating President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's business dealings in Ukraine.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that witnesses have been questioned since at least August about Giuliani in the investigation into his work for a Ukrainian city mayor, his finances and meetings relating to the country.

The investigation includes any involvement Giuliani may have had in the alleged campaign finance-related charges his business associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were indicted on last week, CNN reported....
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4658 ... ment-probe
Quote:
A top State Department official arrived at the Capitol Tuesday morning to testify on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine, the latest witness in the Democrats' fast-moving impeachment inquiry into allegations of presidential wrongdoing.

George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, oversees administrative policy in a bloc of Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, which has emerged as the focal point of the growing investigation.

Kent had tried to protect Yovanovitch from the internal smear campaign building against her, according to documents delivered to Congress earlier this month by the State Department's inspector general.

He is being deposed by three separate committees leading the Democrats' impeachment inquiry: Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs...

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... ts-related
Quote:
Pulitzer Prize-winner Ronan Farrow reports in a new book that the top editor of The National Enquirer, a national tabloid publication that has strongly supported President Trump, directed staffers to shred documents related to the publication's relationship with the president... editor Dylan Howard ordered the shredding after The Wall Street Journal called about The Enquirer’s “catch and kill” relationship with Trump in which it would buy the exclusive rights to a person’s story that would be embarrassing to the then-businessman and now-president and then refuse to run those stories.

Howard "appeared to be in a panic," Farrow writes in his book, titled "Catch and Kill."...



https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/465 ... lds-strong
Quote:
Senate Republicans by and large are standing by Trump despite polls showing growing public support for impeachment, even among GOP voters.

Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) have criticized Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he pressed for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic candidate for president. But none has endorsed the House impeachment inquiry...

...Republican aides and strategists say it would be a political mistake for a GOP lawmaker to take on Trump publicly. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, you just keep your mouth shut and see how the cards fall,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.O’Connell said there is broad recognition among Republican lawmakers that their political fates are tied to Trump in 2020....

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... -he-walked
Quote:
A former GOP county chairman and Ohio farmer said Monday he wouldn't vote for President Trump again even if the president walked on water.

Chris Gibbs, the former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, told CNBC that he feels "dubious" about the Trump administration's announced agricultural buys from China amounting to $40 billion to $50 billion amid the heated trade war between Washington and Beijing that experts say has hit farmers particularly hard.

The president announced Friday that China and the U.S. had agreed on a "phase one deal," in which China would commit to purchasing billions of dollars in agricultural products.

...“I don’t believe it until [the crops are] on the boat. This is deja vu all over again,” Gibbs said, referring to the president's previous announcements that Mexico and the European Union would purchase large amounts of agriculture products.

“He’s done that before. Somebody has to speak truth to power a little bit,” Gibbs said. “And I hate to be a downer on this all the time, but somebody has to be practical.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... cidentally
Quote:
A British family has spent days detained in multiple locations across the U.S. after accidentally crossing the border from Canada, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The Connorses, two couples and their three young children, were driving near the border between Canada and the United States on October 3 during a trip to Vancouver. An animal reportedly walked into the road, and the family took a detour around it. They were stopped that night by an American officer, who told them they crossed into the U.S., the Washington Post reported.

According to a complaint filed by the family Friday to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, this was when their trip became “the scariest experience of our lives."...

As of late Monday, the British family was still waiting to be deported, an attorney told The Washington Post. The attorney said the family was hoping to leave as soon as Tuesday....
This is not the first time CBP has detained foreign visitors for more than a week after they crossed the border briefly from Canada"without authorization." Unless they've been charged with a crime - and there's no indication that they have - this seems utter nonsense. The business about how the baby could leave the detention center, if the mother doesn't like the conditions, but would have to be taken from his parents is especially disgusting.


Edit: The Washington Post, which originally published the story The Hill reported, has an update with a statement from CBP, which claims the Canadian government refused to let the family back into Canada, and "two attempts to contact the United Kingdom consulate were unsuccessful.” Given that CBP has been known to lie repeatedly to the press during this administration, I guess we'll just have to see what comes out in the Canadian or U.K. press.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigrat ... ts-wrapper

Though, based on this story in the U.K.'s The Guardian, I won't be surprised if CBP's version is an attempted whitewash. It seems unlikely that the UK's Foreign Office would be providing assistance to the family now but ignored their plight when contacted twice by CBP :
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ing-border
Quote:
In a statement, the Foreign Office said: “We are providing assistance to a British family after they were taken into custody in the US and are in close contact with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
CBP also told The Guardian the facility in Pennsylvania is a "safe and humane environment for families." But according the Philadelphia Post Gazette, it's one of the for-profit immigrant jails and has a poor reputation.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/polit ... 1807070078
Quote:
When Berks opened in 2001 as the nation’s first residential immigration center, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Executive Director Michael Pearson said the facility was meant to “keep families together,” billing it as a humane alternative to separating asylum-seeking parents from their children, which had been common practice.

But over the past four years, since the Obama administration reinstituted family detention to house families fleeing violence in Central America, the center — one of three family detention centers in the country — has been a site of controversy, with immigrants’ rights advocates alleging health and human rights abuses. In 2016, 22 detained mothers went on a 2-week hunger strike, saying their children had become suicidal after over a year in detention. The same year, a guard at the center was convicted of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old asylum seeker who had been detained with her 3-year-old son for 7 months.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked the 96-bed facility’s license to house children in 2016, but the county appealed, and the center continues to operate as the legal battle goes on...
btw, at least the CBP version makes their story more believable, though I doubt it was intended to do so, with the "drove deliberately through a ditch" and had lots of money on them aspects. I couldn't figure out why you would turn onto another road to avoid an animal ahead. But if there was a parallel dirt road used only by CBP, I could see a stranger thinking they'd avoid the moose/elk/whatever by simply going around it. Someone who doesn't live in our paranoid society could easily think the authorities would forgive them for briefly using an unauthorized road in that situation. (I don't know if they have moose in Vancouver, but we've had to wait patiently, more than once, when a moose decided it felt like being in the road for a while.)

_________________

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 16 Oct , 2019 11:20 am
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This was interesting - another tentacle in the Ukraine affair. I've suspected, lately, that The Hill's reporter John Solomon has crossed the line into conspiracy theories defending Trump. He seemed to be known for pursuing scoops before and not always getting things right, though he occasionally hit a jackpot. But lately there's been a definite pro-Trump pattern to his stories and a number of them seemed implausible and/or debunked by other sources.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... er-voicing
Quote:
A top State Department official told House investigators behind closed doors Tuesday that he had raised concerns about Rudy Giuliani’s contacts with Ukraine as early as March of this year, which prompted a supervisor to warn him to "lay low," according to one Democrat present during the deposition...

“What I can say is he was clearly bothered by the role Mr. Giuliani was playing and the disinformation he was spreading,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told reporters after leaving the gathering.

Connolly said Kent expressed concerns with what he described as an informal — and dangerous — alliance between three figures wrapped up in the Ukraine affair: Giuliani; Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine's former chief prosecutor; and John Solomon, a former opinion contributor at The Hill, who wrote a series of columns critical of the Bidens.

The three worked in concert, Kent testified, according to Connolly, on a mission to oust Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was removed in May, and press Ukrainian leaders to investigate the Bidens for the purpose of boosting Trump's reelection chances next year.

"There was this sort of ... unhealthy triad of Giuliani, Solomon and Lutsenko repeating and echoing each other, all based on disinformation,"..
I'm glad to see Solomon is now "former" at The Hill, given this information.

Mulvaney also seems to be involved. No surprise.
Quote:
The Virginia Democrat also underpinned growing scrutiny of individuals who circumvented the proper channels for carrying out Ukraine policy, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker...



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... rk-airport
Quote:
The fourth defendant in a case centered around business associates of President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was detained on Wednesday by authorities at a New York City airport, according to The Washington Post.

Correia was one of four that was charged last week with orchestrating a scheme to funnel money to numerous Republican committees. The defendants included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Florida businessmen with ties to Giuliani...


Unbelievable. Is everything just a PR opportunity to the Trump administration? These people had their son killed by the wife of an American with diplomatic immunity in the UK. It was 100% her fault - she was driving on the wrong side of the road and caused a head-on collision (he was on a motorbike). She said she'd stay around during the investigation. Instead she flew back to the U.S. They've been trying to get the US to waive diplomatic immunity for this woman, and Trump agreed to meet with the parents so they could make their case. Instead, this happened when they arrived at the White House:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-50064595
Quote:
Harry Dunn's parents rejected a "bombshell" offer from Donald Trump to meet the woman accused of involvement in their son's fatal crash. Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn said they felt "a little ambushed" when the president revealed Anne Sacoolas was in the next room at the White House....

Mr Dunn said a White House official told them she would not be returning to the UK, but Mr Trump said he would "try to push this from a different angle".

...US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told the family during the meeting that Mrs Sacoolas "was never coming back" to the UK.
Whether she actually has diplomatic immunity also seems to be in doubt. I wouldn't be surprised if she found that out earlier and that's why she fled.
Quote:
Mrs Sacoolas was said to be covered by diplomatic immunity as the spouse of a US intelligence official, though that protection is now in dispute.

According to another source, this meeting was supposed to end with a photo op where the parents and Mrs Sacoolas hugged, presumably under Trump's beaming eye:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mbushed-at
What morons. Anyone with half a brain and a little bit of empathy would have asked the parents whether they want to meet this woman during the planning stages, not spring her on them when they arrived. Either his advisers are also idiots or Trump wanted it this way and they couldn't/didn't talk him out of it.

Edit:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... unn-family
Quote:
Donald Trump has said Boris Johnson asked him to set up a surprise meeting in the White House between the parents of the teenager Harry Dunn and the woman suspected of killing him in a road traffic collision. ...

Referring to the Dunn family not wanting to meet Sacoolas at the White House, Trump said: “She was in the room right out there, we met right here. I offered to bring the person in question in and they weren’t ready for it. I spoke with Boris, he asked me if I’d do that, and I did it. Unfortunately they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had everybody together they decided not to meet. Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time, I don’t know exactly.”...

Mark Stephens, the family’s legal adviser, ...also said press has been lined up by Trump to see the two families meeting.


And, after a bit of media attention, the British family held by ICE for a couple of weeks is on its way home (surprise, surprise) :
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -us-border
Quote:
Lawyers for a British family who made an unauthorized crossing from Canada into the United States say the family has been deported after nearly two weeks in federal custody.

Bridget Cambria says US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her all seven members of the family, including an infant and toddler twins, are headed back to England. Ice declined comment Wednesday afternoon, saying it doesn’t discuss “removal arrangements” before deportees are back in their own country....
Seriously, this would have been the sensible thing to do in the first place - or, better yet, just turn them around and send them back across the border after warning them they made a mistake. We don't have to act like uptight jerks.


When a bunch of drunken Americans accidentally "invaded" a few years ago, the Canadians were polite and had a sense of humor - just fished them out of the water, put them on buses, and sent them back across the border. People from Tim Horton's even showed up with coffee for the chilled invaders.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/201 ... fters.html
Quote:
You could call it an invasion party.

Or at least that’s what it turned into after about 1,500 Americans taking part in an annual rafting event on the St. Clair River found themselves swept across the river to Canadian shores on Sunday.

EDIT: What the hell? I saw a transcript of this letter and thought it was satire from the Borowitz report. Apparently it isn't:
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -good-deal
Quote:
READ Trump's letter to Erdoğan: 'Let's work out a good deal!'
Quote:
President Trump sent a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urging him to make a deal with the U.S. on Syria, according to a letter obtained by Fox Business.

In the letter, sent ahead of the U.S. delegation meeting with Erdoğan on Thursday, Trump warned the Turkish president that "you don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy—and I will." ...

"History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen. Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!" Trump's letter reads.
The Hill's version makes the letter sound less childish than it is -you actually have to read the whole thing to get the full flavor. It actually starts "Dear Mr. President, Let’s work out a good deal! You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering..."

_________________

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 17 Oct , 2019 12:55 am
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I'm not sure how long the GOP can watch this happening and stick by Trump. First there was that bizarre letter. Then all the Trump craziness on full display today:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/466 ... hite-house
Quote:
War of words at the White House
Quote:
President Trump poured fuel on the fire in his fight with Congress over Syria, lashing out at Democrats during a closed-door White House meeting on Wednesday and sparring publicly with Republican allies. The chaotic day was a U-turn from earlier this week when the administration applied new sanctions on Turkey in an effort to combat fierce criticism from Capitol Hill and when Republicans were dialing back their furor in an effort to get on the same page as Trump. But the unity effort went off the rails in a closed-door meeting between Trump, congressional leadership and key committee members, which was preceded by hours of fighting between Trump and lawmakers....

A Democratic source familiar with how the meeting transpired said it “devolved into the president calling the Speaker a name. He was quite nasty, so she stood up to go. ... The source added that when Pelosi and Hoyer were preparing to walk out of the meeting, Trump said to them: “I’ll see you at the polls.”

...White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham [defended Trump and described him] as “measured, factual and decisive.” “Speaker Pelosi’s decision to walk out was baffling, but not surprising. She had no intention of listening or contributing to an important meeting on national security issues,” Grisham said...

The standoff at the White House was the latest twist in a dramatic Wednesday that started with Republicans and Trump moving toward the same page and ended with the president waging a high-stakes battle with Democrats and GOP allies alike...

Trump infuriated Republicans when he dismissed the Kurds during an Oval Office meeting...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered an unprompted defense of the Kurds during his weekly press conference, and characterized Trump’s decision to pull back troops as a “mistake.”...

Told about Trump’s comments, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) added: “Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious.”...

Underscoring the reversal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) started Wednesday by publicly blaming Turkey for the current situation in Syria. By lunchtime, he was locked in another spat with Trump, who publicly called him out during a meeting at the White House....
Supposedly Trump also handed out copies of his letter to Erdogan at this meeting and was proud of it.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -very-sick
Quote:
Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2019
According the the Democrats at the meeting, it was Trump who had the meltdown. And none of the Republican members of Congress have denied it.



https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/466 ... o-thursday
Quote:
The Senate on Thursday will attempt to override President Trump's veto of a resolution nixing his emergency declaration on the border wall. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up a veto override vote for Thursday at 1:45 p.m., as he wrapped up the Senate's work on Wednesday and set the schedule for Thursday.

Transcript of Trump's meeting with the Italian president. I believe it's where he made the controversial remarks on Syria, mentioned above:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politi ... story.html
Excerpts:
Quote:
We’ve had a great relationship with Italy for a long time. I don’t think it’s ever been closer than it is now. We have won a $7.5 billion award from, as you know -- I guess it’s been pretty big news. And I know that this is against the European Union and World Trade -- good ole World Trade. For a long time, they’ve been taking advantage of the United States. And I know Turkey is going to talk to us about their share of it because they feel they shouldn’t have to pay so much.

And if you look at what’s going on, Italy is complaining about it. Turkey is com- -- everybody is complaining about it. Turkey is complaining about a lot of things, and we’re handling Turkey very nicely. But we have many countries complaining about the different awards that we’ve been winning lately from the courts. And the reason we’re winning is we’re properly represented.

We’re winning, in the case of the European Union, $7.5 billion. And Italy has a percentage of that to pay. And, in the -- in other cases, we’ve won. And we have a lot of money coming into the United States for the first time ever. Tremendous amounts of money in many different forms, including tariffs.
Quote:
And I’m pleased to report that in Syria, Turkey -- the border -- we only had 28 soldiers, not 50. We thought it was 50. Somebody reported 50. It was actually down to 28. They were removed a while ago. All American soldiers are away from the site.

Syria and Turkey may fight. Syria is friendly with the Kurds. The Kurds are very well protected; plus, they know how to fight. And, by the way, they’re no angels, but they were with us. They are no angels. But they are fighting. We are largely out of that area. We’re very well set. We have quite a contingent, right nearby, of soldiers and of the finest equipment in the world. I don’t think we’ll have to use it.

_________________

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 17 Oct , 2019 11:40 am
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/us/p ... -vara.html
Quote:
Peter Navarro, a top White House trade adviser, has developed a reputation in Washington as a Rasputin-like China hawk who whispers anti-China musings in President Trump’s ear. This week, Washington learned about the mysterious anti-China voice that has long whispered in Mr. Navarro’s ear: Ron Vara.

Ron Vara has appeared as a cryptic voice of economic wisdom more than a dozen times in five of Mr. Navarro’s 13 books... But Ron Vara, it turns out, does not exist. At least not in corporeal form. He is apparently a figment of Mr. Navarro’s imagination — an anagram of Mr. Navarro’s surname that the trade adviser created as a Hitchcockian writing device and stuck with as something of an inside joke with himself...

Mr. Navarro’s imaginary source surfaced this week when The Chronicle of Higher Education published some of the findings of Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an emeritus professor at Australian National University. Ms. Morris-Suzuki, concerned about Mr. Navarro’s statements on China, started digging into his earlier work. ...
In any other administration, this would probably be the end of Peter Navarro. Needless to say, that won't happen in this one.

Trump hires "all the best people" ;)

_________________

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: Thu 17 Oct , 2019 12:25 pm
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Gotta fill that swamp somehow.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 17 Oct , 2019 7:08 pm
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Speaking of swamp creatures,
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -next-year
Quote:
The United States will host the 2020 Group of Seven (G-7) summit at Trump National Doral, a resort property near Miami owned by President Trump's family.

The summit will take place June 10-12, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday at the White House.... "We thought of the 12 places that we looked at... this was by far and away the best choice," Mulvaney said...

Trump was the one who suggested the Doral property be added to the list of sites under consideration, said Mulvaney...
In a country this big, they couldn't find a place to host it that isn't owned by Trump?

This decision actually stunned me, in how open they have become in their lack of ethics. I guess there really is no one left in this administration who can overrule King Donald.




btw, it seems that Turkey took Dear Leader's letter about as seriously as the rest of us. https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... t-the-time
Quote:
A senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday said President Trump’s recently released letter to the NATO ally was “not taken seriously at the time” due to the way it was worded, calling it “absolutely irrelevant.”...
According to the BBC, Erdogan threw it straight in the circular file. Who wouldn't?

And now that this is being widely reported, I expect we'll see a Trump temper tantrum about Turkey soon. Let's hope it doesn't derail the agreement between Pence and Erdogan for a 5-day ceasefire that would let the Kurds withdraw (provided the Kurdish fighters agree, I assume).https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... mike-pence


Edit: It seems I was wrong. Trump is instead taking credit for this ceasefire, implying his Oct 9 letter (which Erdogan supposedly received right before he ordered the invasion) and sanctions did it. Some unbelievable bullshit in his tweets. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 18215.html
Quote:
This deal could NEVER have been made 3 days ago. There needed to be some “tough” love in order to get it done. Great for everybody. Proud of all!... This is a great day for civilization. I am proud of the United States for sticking by me in following a necessary, but somewhat unconventional, path. People have been trying to make this “Deal” for many years. Millions of lives will be saved. Congratulations to ALL!
Uh huh, so people have been trying to make a deal to stop the bloodshed and other consequences of Dear Leader's rash act, years before it even happened? Get real.

The Kurds are not mentioned anywhere as signatories to the agreement, as reported in the All Jazeera article - only Turkey and the US - so it does seem they might not have been consulted. No word on whether the Kurdish general's letter agreed to this part or not:
Quote:
The two sides agreed on the continued importance and functionality of a safe zone in order to address the national security concerns of Turkey, to include the re-collection of YPG heavy weapons and the disablement of their fortifications and all other fighting positions.
And I wouldn't be surprised if the following was what mattered most to the Trump administration. Trump's indifference about what would happen if the captured ISIS fighters went free was getting a lot of criticism from everyone:
Quote:
Turkey and the US are committed to D-ISIS/DAESH activities in northeast Syria. This will include coordination on detention facilities and internally displaced persons from formerly ISIS/DAESH-controlled areas, as appropriate.
I don't suppose that includes the ones that have already been released and are gone.



There's also a good point about Trump's letter in this article from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... y-invasion
Quote:
Former officials said the most significant point about the letter was Trump’s readiness to share a supposedly confidential letter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leader, Mazloum Kobani, with Erdoğan, whose forces were launching an attack on the SDF.

“General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing a copy of his letter to me, just received,” Trump wrote.

“These words on White House stationary [sic] should embarrass all Americans, but Trump’s ‘confidential’ enclosure of the SDF commander’s letter will give our allies even less reason to trust America,” said Ned Price, a former CIA officer and National Security Council spokesman. “How much Nato correspondence has been forwarded to Putin?”
This is trivial, but we can add Lie # 1 million, 2 thousand, five hundred and 7, or whatever it is now, to Trump's account.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... as-meeting
Quote:
Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson asked Donald Trump to organise a meeting between the family of Harry Dunn and the wife of an American diplomat who has admitted she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the teenager died in a collision...

Edit to add 2 more significant stories:
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... to-mueller
Quote:
The Department of Justice improperly redacted a court filing related to the Mueller investigation and must reveal the names of two individuals who figured prominently in the probe, a federal judge in Washington ruled on Thursday....

And a familiar old pattern in this administration - the media says someone is resigning, they say "that's a lie!" ... and then....
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ng-reports
Quote:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who has recently drawn scrutiny for his dealings with Ukraine as part of the House's impeachment inquiry, has notified President Trump that he is resigning, according to multiple reports.

It remains unclear when Perry plans to officially step down from his post, The New York Times and Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Perry told Trump of his interest in resigning while aboard Air Force One en route to the former governor's home state of Texas, the Times reported...

Perry was one of the “three amigos” dealing with Ukraine, alongside former special envoy Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union...[and] is facing a Friday deadline for complying with a subpoena from House Democrats.

_________________

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 18 Oct , 2019 1:13 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/466 ... -is-enough
Quote:
Democratic senator rips Trump's 'let them fight' remarks: 'Enough is enough'
Quote:
At a campaign rally in Dallas Thursday night, President Trump lauded the cease-fire that Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reached with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the same day.

"Sometimes you have to let them fight," Trump told supporters at the American Airlines Center, referring to Turkish and Kurdish forces. "Like two kids in a lot, then you pull them apart," Trump said.

Trump continued, saying that after Turkish and Kurdish forces "fought for a few days," that "we went there and we said, ‘we want a pause.’"

Additionally, Trump referred to both sides as a "friend." Turkey is a fellow NATO ally of the U.S., and the Kurdish forces known as the YPG were vital in the fight against ISIS.

"President Erdoğan was a gentleman, he understood," Trump noted. "But without a little tough love … they would’ve never made this deal.”...

"We’re going to keep ISIS all nice and locked up," Trump said. "We’re going to find more of them."

"Turkey's going to be happy, the Kurds are going to be happy, ISIS is going to be unhappy," he added.

Enough is enough, indeed.
This was blindly arrogant, inaccurate, oblivious (how are the Kurds going to be happy, when they're mourning their dead and have to flee their homes?) and idiotic. He just implied that smaller countries like Turkey all have to dance to his tune, which is very unwise. Even if all parties know that the US has a good deal of leverage in international affairs, rubbing people's noses in that is likely to have a poor outcome.

Trump may fool his cult (probably his purpose) but let's hope the more intelligent Republicans see through this nonsense. All this ceasefire bought the Kurds was a little time so there would be fewer deaths.

Not to mention that the original was probably a lot more incoherent. I'm not sure the news media does us any favors by cleaning up and translating Trump's impromptu remarks into something understandable.


A complete ceasefire doesn't seem to be happening, btw.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4664 ... -fire-deal
Quote:
Fighting continued in northern Syrian Friday morning despite a five-day cease-fire deal between the United States and Turkey announced the day before.

A spokesman for the Kurdish-led SDF, Mustafa Bali, said on Twitter that attacks had continued in the region, accusing Turkey of violating the cease-fire agreement.

“Despite the agreement to halt the fighting, air and artillery attacks continue to target the positions of fighters, civilian settlements and the hospital in Serêkaniyê/Ras al-Ayn. Turkey is violating the ceasefire agreement by continuing to attack the town since last night,” Bali said....

And Erdogan does not sound like he's ready to make peace with either the Kurds or Trump:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 61626.html
Quote:
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Donald Trump's recent letter broke with "diplomatic and political courtesy."

The letter "was not in line with diplomatic and political courtesy. We will not forget this lack of respect. This is not a priority for us. But when the time comes we would like it to be known that we will take the necessary steps." ...

He said he was offended by the suggestion that he would meet with Gen Mazloum Kobani. "You’re talking about a terror masterminded. This mastermind is talking to President Trump. This agreement is between Turkey and a state and not with a terrorist organisation."

..."If the US can keep its promise, the issue of safe zone will be resolved." he said. "If these promises are not kept at the end of 120 hour-period our operation is going to continue where it left off."



There's some weird schoolyard thing going on in Trump's head. Everything someone says about him, he turns on his enemies, whether it fits or not.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... -admission
Quote:
Trump accuses Biden of 'quid pro quo' hours after Mulvaney remarks


https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4664 ... mp-defense
Quote:
[Gordon] Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a major Trump donor, was deposed for roughly nine hours behind closed doors in the Capitol basement, where he delivered damning testimony that criticized Trump for allowing Giuliani to guide Ukrainian policy, even as State Department veterans grew ever more concerned with Giuliani’s political motives....

“Giuliani very clearly asked for two things,” Lieu continued. “That Ukraine investigate the Bidens; and that Ukraine look at this crazy DNC conspiracy theory” — a reference to the debunked conservative conspiracy that a cyber firm fabricated records to create the false appearance that Russia hacked Democrats in the 2016 election. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Moscow was behind the interference.

But Democrats also questioned Sondland’s motives. Text messages released to Congress earlier in the month revealed that the hotel magnate-turned-diplomat was central to the administration’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, and Democrats suggested that “gaps” in his testimony may have been strategically designed to protect his reputation...
Did anyone expect anything different of some of Trump's cronies? They know the game's up and the truth is going to come out, one way or another, so they're going to try to save their own skins.




https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -streep-of
Quote:
Former Defense secretary James Mattis responded to the President Trump calling him “the world’s most overrated general” during a meeting with Congressional leaders Wednesday.

At the Al Smith Memorial Foundation dinner on Thursday, Mattis opened his speech with a caustic blow about his deferment from the military during the Vietnam War.

"I earned my spurs on the battlefield; Donald Trump earned his spurs from the doctor” he said...

The general continued on with more Trump references, stating, “I’m not just an overrated general. I’m the greatest, the world’s most overrated," Mattis was the keynote speaker at the 74th annual event. "I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me,” Mattis continued...

“And you do have to admit that between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories,”...
Fair enough - Mattis deserves to make fun of Trump, after Trump was nasty to him. But I'm going to lose all respect for Mattis if he doesn't also speak out on things like exactly why he was afraid to leave Trump alone for any time at all, during foreign negotiations. To Congress in private, at least.



This is interesting, though, fortunately, I doubt they'll get anywhere. In a nutshell, some congressional Republicans have been trying to get immediate access to the depositions from the impeachment inquiry - though the committees already contain both Democrats and Republicans. They even tried to enter the chamber the other day. The depositions are being kept mostly secret, for now, so they don't tip off the people involved and let them change/coordinate their stories. Like everyone else, these Trump supporters will get access to the information eventually. So why are they so desperate to get it now? And who could be behind this? Hmmm....

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4664 ... mpeachment
Quote:
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) introduced a resolution that would implement a rule change that would require the committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry to allow all members to have access to the proceedings, depositions and transcribed interviews, on Friday.

Its introduction comes in the wake of a group of House conservatives attempting to gain access to a closed-door impeachment hearing on Wednesday, where they were rebuffed since they did not sit on the House Intelligence Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs or the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. ...
I can understand the committees' caution. Especially after the Mueller report, when most of the GOP members of Congress stuck their fingers in their ears, put blinders on their eyes, and refused to even read anything except Barr's highly misleading summary, then attacked their colleagues like Justin Amash who did read the full report and found it troubling.

IMO, this group of people has forfeited their right to be trusted after putting their support for Trump over their duty to the country.

I heard another interesting thing, the other day, though I don't know how reliable it is. Someone said that the Republicans participating in the impeachment inquiry started off blustering but, as they've heard more, they've become pretty quiet and sober.

_________________

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 21 Oct , 2019 1:36 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... republican
Quote:
President Trump reversed course on his plan to host next year’s Group of Seven (G-7) at his Doral resort after receiving pushback from a number of Republicans criticized the move, The New York Times reports.

...Trump was reportedly told that the majority of Republicans at the meeting said he should reverse his decision to host the G-7 summit at his luxury property in Miami.

“I didn’t see it being a big negative, but it certainly wasn’t a positive,” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), who was one of the Republicans present at Camp David, told The Times. King added that the group of Republicans said the move “would be a distraction.”
Trump was apparently surprised by the criticism from the GOP. (Which was ridiculously mild considering the clear violation of ethics.)

Of course, he took the opportunity to blame the Democrats for his decision, not the Republicans:
Quote:
In his series of tweets announcing his reversal, the president specifically took aim at what he called “the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!”

"Thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders," Trump sounded off in the series of tweets.

"I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat [sic] Partners went CRAZY!" Trump he continued.

"Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020," Trump tweeted. "We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!"
Oh well, I guess he'll have to find another way to fill the empty rooms at the Doral in the heat of a Florida summer. ;) Some older news reports suggest the Doral has not been doing well since Trump was elected and is losing business to its competitors in the area.

And regardless of Trump's claims, I'd be willing to bet that any improvements needed/ wanted for the conference would have been billed to taxpayers.

Also interesting that they will "begin" the search for a new site immediately. If this had been a properly conducted search, it seems they should have had their choices ranked and a second choice ready to go.
Then again, they never even contacted the major or the police chief in the city when they evaluated the Doral, so this doesn't look like it was a proper search in the first place.

_________________

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 22 Oct , 2019 10:47 pm
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It looks like a very bad week for Dear Leader:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/t ... raine.html
Quote:
Ukraine Envoy Testifies Trump Linked Military Aid to Investigations

In closed-door testimony, William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, implicated President Trump personally in an effort to withhold security aid until Ukraine’s leader agreed to investigate the president’s political rivals.
Quote:
William B. Taylor Jr., the United States’ top diplomat in Ukraine, told impeachment investigators privately on Tuesday that President Trump held up vital security aid for the country and refused a White House meeting with Ukraine’s leader until he agreed to make a public pledge to investigate Mr. Trump’s political rivals.

In testimony built around careful notes he took during his tenure and delivered in defiance of State Department orders, Mr. Taylor sketched out in remarkable detail a quid-pro-quo pressure campaign on Ukraine that Mr. Trump and his allies have long denied, one in which the president conditioned the entire United States relationship with Ukraine on a promise that the country would investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family, along with other Democrats.

His account implicated Mr. Trump personally in the effort, citing multiple sources inside the government, including a budget official who said during a secure National Security Council conference call in July that she had been instructed not to approve a $391 million security assistance package for Ukraine, and that, Mr. Taylor said, “the directive had come from the president.”...

Mr. Taylor’s testimony directly contradicted repeated assertions by Mr. Trump and his Republican allies that there was never a direct linkage involving investigations into Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son, or other Democrats.

It also raised questions about the veracity of the testimony of other prominent impeachment witnesses, including Mr. Sondland and Kurt D. Volker, the special envoy to Ukraine, who have said behind closed doors they had not been aware of any improper pressure tactics....
Meanwhile a number of Trump officials are still defying subpoenas. This testimony seems to explain a story I saw earlier:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4667 ... nt-inquiry
Quote:
Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought said Monday that he and OMB's associate director for national security programs will not cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry.

“I saw some Fake News over the weekend to correct," Vought tweeted.

"As the WH letter made clear two weeks ago, OMB officials - myself and Mike Duffey - will not be complying with deposition requests this week. #shamprocess” he added...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -subpoenas
Quote:
The White House, the Pentagon and President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday all refused to comply with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry subpoenas, escalating the fight between the administration and Democratic lawmakers...

The refusals from top administration officials were unsurprising after the White House counsel's office sent a letter to top Democrats last week making clear that the administration would refuse to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

Matthew Morgan, counsel to the vice president, wrote in a letter to the three committee chairmen that Pence would not comply with their request...

A letter from Giuliani's lawyer to the House Intelligence Committee dismissed the subpoena, saying it is "overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry."

The Pentagon said in a letter to the three committee leaders that it has taken steps to identify and preserve potentially relevant documents, but that the subpoena “raises a number of legal and practical concerns" and the department would not comply “at this time.”

A senior administration official said that OMB and acting Director Russ Vought "are not participating in the sham impeachment process."

House Democrats could move to hold those defying the subpoenas in contempt, though it is unlikely the Justice Department would prosecute them..



https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... ng-records
Quote:
A California financier and donor to Trump’s inauguration agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of falsifying records to hide his work as foreign agent when lobbying “high-level U.S. government officials,” the Justice Department said in a release Tuesday.

Imaad Shah Zuberi, 49, used millions of dollars from clients intending to influence the American government for his personal use. Zuberi also agreed he would plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and making nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions, according to the release. He faces a maximum of 15 years in federal prison.

Zuberi, who ran Avenue Ventures, a venture capital firm, told his clients from foreign nations and from foreign governments that he could influence U.S. lawmakers to adjust foreign policy and develop business opportunities, according to the release...

Authorities suspect Zuberi also made more than $250,000 in illegal campaign contributions between 2012 and 2016....
Wow. If you're willing to face 15 years in federal prison to hide your activities, what are you hiding?

EDIT: I probably misunderstood that first sentence. On re-reading it, I think he must have plead guilty to the charge of falsifying records, and the false records were intended to hide his work as a foreign agent. I read it as pleading guilty to that charge, in order to hide the latter.




btw, some of the media and "woke" Democrats are getting their panties in a twist over Trump claiming he's being lynched by the Democrats in this impeachment process. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4669 ... ow-dare-he
Quote:
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) on Tuesday delivered a blistering rebuke of President Trump for likening the House impeachment inquiry to a lynching, saying that the comparison made Trump “no better than those who burn crosses” and “wear hoods and white robes.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4669 ... a-lynching
Quote:
It is atrocious that the President would refer to one of the most horrifying, violent practices of white supremacists to pretend he is a victim of anything but his own actions.

Take this moment to learn abt this dark history,& why we should support the Commission on Reparations. https://t.co/UKmMdy7h0c
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 22, 2019
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/22/poli ... index.html

IMO, the Democrats would do well to avoid this sort of hyperbole because it's likely to strengthen Trump's arguments that he's not being treated fairly. Not to mention that, if you make an enormous fuss over every trivial thing, you dilute the focus on the real and important things he's done wrong.

It also seems likely to give us more Trumps by irritating the silent majority. For decades, no one at all seemed fussed about terms like "lynch mob" because they had the sense to realize it was just a figure of speech. Not to mention that lynching dated back to western frontier "justice" and earlier; it's not some novel thing exclusive to racial injustice.
But now we have to tiptoe around every term. Even having the last name Lynch is no longer PC. Oregon renamed three schools, Lynch Meadows, Lynch Wood and Lynch View elementary school, because the names were supposedly a "distraction" to the kids. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/loc ... 29083.html Some silly students at a college campus also want to get rid of Lynch Memorial Hall, which was named after a former president named Clyde Lynch, and were getting a lot of pushback. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2015/12/s ... _coll.html
Quote:
Students at Lebanon Valley College in Annville have called on administrators to make policy changes that benefit "marginalized groups" on campus, including minorities, the disabled, gay and transgender. They have also demanded administrators rename "Lynch Memorial Hall," citing the word's racial connotations...

According to Oxford Dictionary, the term "Lynching" has origins in the War of American Independence (1775-83) or more specifically with a Captain William Lynch of Pittsville, Virginia, who headed a self-constituted court with no legal authority that persecuted suspected British loyalists.

_________________

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 23 Oct , 2019 3:51 pm
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These people so deserve to be voted out of office:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4670 ... -testimony
Quote:
House Republicans stormed a closed-door hearing Wednesday to protest Democrats' impeachment inquiry, breaking up the deposition of a top Defense Department who was testifying about President Trump's dealings with Ukraine....

Dozens of Republicans, including some members of leadership, barged into the secure hearing room in the Capitol basement where Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, was providing private testimony.

Several lawmakers said that, in response to the Republican protest, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had left the room with Cooper, postponing the interview indefinitely...

Roughly 25 Republican lawmakers remain in the room...
I'm sure we'll get to hear what Cooper had to say eventually. And this stunt will probably backfire with normal people. The Trump supporters must be getting desperate after yesterday's testimony - since they can't rebut anything, they play stupid games.
Quote:
Some of the Republicans were in possession of cell phones, which is a violation of the rules governing the so called sensitive compartmented information facility, known as the SCIF, where the depositions have been taking place.
Can't they just arrest these idiots?




https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... sure-prior
Quote:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in May discussed with advisors at length his concerns about the pressure that President Trump was applying on him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, two months before the leaders' July 25 phone call, the Associated Press reports.

People familiar with the events of the meeting told the AP that Zelensky spent several hours trying to figure out how to deal with Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani while not getting involved in U.S. elections....


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... human-scum
Quote:
The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019

Less than an hour later, he added on Twitter, "Never Trumper Republican John Bellinger, represents Never Trumper Diplomat Bill Taylor (who I don’t know), in testimony before Congress!" Trump tweeted, bemoaning the lack of transparency in the impeachment proceedings thus far.

"It would be really great if the people within the Trump Administration, all well-meaning and good (I hope!), could stop hiring Never Trumpers, who are worse than the Do Nothing Democrats," Trump added. "Nothing good will ever come from them!"

....Does anybody think this is fair? Even though there was no quid pro quo, I’m sure they would like to try. Worse than the Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019
What a charming president we have.




EDIT to add a couple of interesting (and disturbing) bits of news:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ion-claims
Quote:
A former staffer for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who joined the White House in February was reportedly so deeply involved in feeding President Trump negative information about Ukraine that Trump thought he was in charge of the nation's portfolio at the National Security Council (NSC)...

Politico's report is based on an account of House impeachment inquiry testimony from Fiona Hill, the president's former top adviser on affairs in former Soviet countries including Ukraine.

The news is the first confirmation of support for Trump's aggressive Ukraine policy from a member of the NSC..
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... self-to-be
Quote:
An internal cybersecurity memo made public this week warns that the “White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again.” ... "This is a significant shift in the proprieties of senior leadership where business operations and quality of service take precedence over securing the President’s network,” the memo reads. “As a career cyber security professional, this is alarming.”...

The memo also comes after at least a dozen officials have either resigned from or been pushed out of an Obama-era cybersecurity mission, which was established in 2014 after Russia hacked into some White House computers. The mission aimed to shield the White House from similar foreign threats, Axios reports...

Vastakis also used the letter to announce his resignation, citing new leadership’s “habitually being hostile” to incumbent OCISO staff as the “very reason” why he is leaving...

btw, the circus of idiots who stormed the hearings has now gone (unfortunately, not arrested) and the hearings have resumed, 5 hours late. When Lindsay Graham says of his own party members "That's nuts," you know the Trump supporters have gone too far. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4671 ... rming-scif

I don't know who was misreporting this whole stupid stunt, but it seems pro-Trump sources were putting out a story that all Republicans were being excluded from the hearings. Which is total bullshit - the Republicans who sit on the relevant committees can choose to attend as much of it as they like. Though the questioning is apparently being done by professionals representing both sides (Democrat and Republican), so none of the committee members actually has to be there if they have other things they'd rather do. The asses who decided to invade the meetings are not on the relevant committees.

Edit: Lindsay Graham is now trying to find excuses and pretend he didn't really mean it when he said "That's nuts!" https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/467 ... mpeachment It's mind-boggling, how terrified some Republicans are of not supporting Trump enough. Did they leave their spines, as well as their ethics, in a closet somewhere?

_________________

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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