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| 04-16-18 07:32pm - 2348 days | #451 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The missile strike on Syria did not come cheap. It gave Donald Trump the chance to speak on national TV, showing what a powerful leader he is. But the strike cost US taxpayers well over $100 million. A fact Donald forget to report. ------- ------- CNBC US taxpayers paid millions of dollars for the airstrikes on Syria. Here's a breakdown of key costs U.S. forces fired 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles on three Syrian targets early morning local time, making for a price tag of $92.4 million for those missiles alone. The U.S. fired 19 of a different kind of missile on Syria, for a cost of $26.6 million. The final bill isn't clear, however. Amanda Macias | @amanda_m_macias Published 4 Hours Ago Updated 3 Hours Ago CNBC.com A B-1B Lancer takes off from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to conduct combat operations on April 8, 2015. CNBC breaks down the missiles used in Syria Strikes 3 Hours Ago | 02:06 The U.S. strike on Syrian chemical weapons facilities over the weekend cost taxpayers a lot of money, although the total bill isn't clear. To start, U.S. forces fired 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles on three Syrian targets early morning local time, making for a price tag of $92.4 million for those missiles alone. With an estimated cost of $1.4 million each, Raytheon's Tomahawk missile has an intermediate range of 800 to 1,553 miles and can be deployed from more than 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines. What also makes the Tomahawk exceptionally lethal is its capability to carry a 1,000-pound conventional warhead which can be reprogrammed midflight. Friday night Eastern time, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to conduct missile strikes, along with French and U.K. forces, against the Syrian government. The use of Tomahawk missiles came as no surprise. It's the weapon that "presidents reach for first in a crisis" according to missile defense expert Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Tomahawks have been deployed more than 2,300 times since joining the U.S. Navy's arsenal in the 1980s. The Tomahawk is half the length of a standard telephone pole, travels at the cruising speed of a commercial airliner, and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead the distance from New York City to Kansas City. Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles Extended Range, or JASSM-ER, a stealthy long-range air-to-ground missile, made its combat debut in the Syrian strikes. The missile can strike more than 500 miles away and has an estimated cost of $1.4 million each, according to a GAO report. In which case, the price point for the 19 missiles the U.S. fired on Syria is $26.6 million. In addition, the U.S. Air Force deployed a pair of B-1B Lancers, one of the world's most technologically advanced strategic bombers. The aircraft is believed to have an operating cost of approximately $70,000 per flight hour. It is unclear how long the Lancers flew and from where they were deployed. The Pentagon and U.S. Air Force did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for clarity on the extent of the B-1B's role. The mission also involved aerial refueling tankers, surveillance aircraft and U.S. fighter jets that were tasked with escorting the bombers to their targets. And while the cost and types of the additional aircraft involved are unknown, the total number of Tomahawks and JASSM-ERs cost $119 million. Compared with last year's strike, the hourlong bombing campaign on Friday was "double the size" with a total of 105 weapons sent upon Syrian chemical facilities at nearly the same time. Last year, the Trump administration lobbed a total of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Navy destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Saturday, U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie described the strikes on the three targets as "precise, overwhelming and effective." "We are confident that all of our missiles reached their targets. At the end of the strike mission, all our aircraft safely returned to their bases," McKenzie said. The latest strike — carried out in conjunction with French and British allies — dispatched a slew of air and naval military assets to the region. Department of Defense photo The coordinated efforts, which were spurred in response to a suspected chemical attack carried out by the Syrian regime, were launched from widely dispersed combat aircraft, submarines, and ships. Here's a roundup of the U.S., British, and French combat assets deployed in the unnamed operation: USS John Warner, a U.S. Virginia-class submarine, fired six Tomahawk cruise missiles from its position in the Mediterranean Sea USS Monterey, a U.S. Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, fired 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its position in the Red Sea USS Laboon, a U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, also launched another seven Tomahawks from its position in the Red Sea USS Higgins, another Arleigh Burke destroyer, sent an additional 23 Tomahawks from the North Arabian Gulf French frigate Languedoc launched three naval versions of a SCALP missile, a long-range deep strike weapon, from its position in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Two U.S. B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by U.S. fighter jets launched 19 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) British Typhoon and Tornado aircraft launched 8 2,900 pound Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 300 miles French Rafales and Mirages shot nine SCALP missiles | |
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| 04-16-18 11:29pm - 2348 days | #452 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Republicans are invested in saving taxpayer dollars. The Department of the Interior looked at $200K estimates to fly new flags for the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Instead, they paid for 3 flags at a cost of $189.51 each to use on existing flag poles that were already in place. My God, the Republicans will soon wipe out the deficit that the US is facing. Thank God, and Trump our glorious President for Life. -------- -------- Interior looked at $200k estimate to fly secretary's flag By Miranda Green - 04/16/18 02:31 PM EDT The Interior Department took estimates for setting up four flag poles outside its main building in Washington, D.C., to fly personal flags for Secretary Ryan Zinke at a cost as high as $200,000, according to internal emails released Monday by the agency. The department ultimately decided against installing the new poles, the documents show, choosing instead in March 2017 to use three smaller, existing poles on top of its building. It approved the purchase of three flags at a cost of $189.51 each from the National Flag Company, according to the emails. The flags are 5 feet by 9.5 feet. The emails were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and posted publicly by Interior. Zinke has received media attention for his desire to fly specialized flags above the department that would signify his presence. Zinke is a former Navy SEAL. An Interior spokeswoman said he wanted to fly the flag as a way of restoring honor and tradition to the department. "Secretary Zinke has a deep respect for tradition. Since his confirmation, the Secretary has made a concerted effort to uphold, and in this case, revive long-held traditions at Interior," Spokeswoman Heather Swift told the Hill. She confirmed that no action was taken on ordering a new pole. Critics have mocked the use of the flags, comparing Zinke to the Queen of the United Kingdom. The emails showed that the General Services Administration provided an estimate to Interior that placed the new poles to fly the specialized flags would cost $40,000 to $50,000 per pole. The new poles were needed because Interior intended to fly much larger flags, which the existing poles would not have been able to accommodate. In one email released by Interior, Office of Facilities and Administrative Services Director Joseph Nassar wrote that the larger flags would have "compromised" the existing poles. Nassar added in his email that the only viable locations for the new, larger poles would be at two Washington, D.C., parks located close to the department's entrance. The parks are considered federal property, as are all parks in the city. "The parks are the recommended choice because if we installed poles closer to the building (e.g., landscape beds or near steps), the flags would smack up against the building when it is windy," Nassar wrote. | |
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| 04-17-18 08:38am - 2348 days | #453 | |
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biker (0)
Active User  Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
Go Stormy. It looks like a porn star is going to be taking Trump down. Warning Will Robinson | |
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| 04-17-18 11:00am - 2347 days | #454 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: I regret copying news about America's slimeball, James Comey, who was fired as FBI Director for cause. Donald Trump, the greatest President the US has ever had, revealed the truth about Comey, and called him a slimeball, a leaker, a liar. And the President wants Comey to be put in jail, where Comey belongs. A better solution would be to call on the CIA to do some wet work on Comey. The President is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He controls the FBI, the CIA, the Armed Forces. With all his powers, can't he order these expert killers to eliminate (assassinate) a known enemy of the United States? James Comey has proven to be an enemy of the US, by his attacks on the President. End of story: ------ ------ Good Morning America James Comey responds to critics like President Trump in live interview Good Morning America MEGHAN KENEALLY,Good Morning America 2 hours 10 minutes ago President Donald Trump's calls for James Comey to be jailed are "not normal," the former FBI director said in a live appearance on "Good Morning America" today. "That is not normal," Comey said. "That is not OK. First of all, he's just making stuff up. But, most importantly, the president of the United States is calling for the imprisonment of a private citizen, as he's done for a whole lot of people who criticize him. That is not acceptable in this country." This morning's appearance on "Good Morning America" was the former FBI director's first live interview at the launch of his book tour, having already given taped interviews including his first with ABC News, which aired on Sunday. Comey pointed to the tweets as examples of how he says Trump misunderstands or disrespects the rule of law. "I hope people read the book and see why the rule of law is such an important value in this country, and key to that is that the president doesn't get to decide who goes to jail," Comey said of his new book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” which was released today. Trump's tweets and accusations have numbed the U.S. public, Comey said, expressing hope that his book will serve as a wake-up call. “We’re numb to it,” he said. “We wake up in the morning and see the president of the United States is accusing people of crimes without evidence and pronouncing them guilty and saying they should be in jail. That should wake all of us up with a start, but there's been so much of it that we're a little bit numb and that's dangerous.” PHOTO: James Comey appears on 'Good Morning America,' April 17, 2018. (ABC News) The tweets in question came April 15, hours before the airing of Comey's first interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos. "The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?" Trump wrote. A day later, Trump accused Comey of "[commiting] many crimes." "Comey drafted the Crooked Hillary exoneration long before he talked to her (lied in Congress to Senator G), then based his decisions on her poll numbers. Disgruntled, he, McCabe, and the others, committed many crimes!" he tweeted Monday. He discussed two recent incidents that Comey says demonstrates Trump's lack of understanding of the U.S. legal system was when he called the FBI's raids of his lawyer Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room "an attack on our country." PHOTO: ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos speaks to James Comey on 'Good Morning America,' April 17, 2018. (Paula Lobo/ABC) "Yeah, it shows me he either doesn't know or doesn’t care what the rule of law looks like,” Comey said. “Nobody broke into anybody's office. It doesn't happen. The FBI gets a search warrant from a federal judge and conducts itself professionally, completely and politely by the accounts of the people involved. So it's a total distortion of the way things work.” Trump’s recent pardoning of Scooter Libby, a chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, was “an attack on the rule of law,” Comey said. “There's a reason president George W. Bush, for whom Scooter Libby worked, refused to pardon him after looking at all the facts in the case. It was an overwhelming case. There's no reason that's consistent with justice to pardon him. And so it's an attack on the rule of law, in my view,” Comey said. Comey also responded to the belief by some that he took cheap shots at the president in his book -- which were repeated in the ABC News special Sunday -- in commenting on the color of the president's skin, the size of his hands and the length of his tie. Comey opens up about the shocking way he found out he was fired by Trump 'Morally unfit': The moments that mattered in James Comey's explosive interview Comey weighs in on 5 key political players in his exclusive interview with ABC News "I'm not trying to make fun of President Trump. I'm not trying to make fun of anybody," he said, defending such descriptors as instances where he was trying to describe the scene for the reader. "I'm trying to be an author,” he said, “and bring the reader into the room.” PHOTO: A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey (Flatiron Books) Comey, 57, also raised concerns about former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was his boss during the Obama administration. Lynch's actions during the Clinton email saga "worried" him, he said in his book and in the ABC News special. In the hours before the interview aired, Lynch released a lengthy statement saying she "did what I always do: rise above politics and uphold the law." Comey never came to her with any concerns, she also noted. When asked this morning whether he should have, Comey said, "maybe, but I really don't think so even in hindsight." "There should have been a discussion about whether she should be involved in the matter but what she did was say, ‘I’m going to stay involved, but I'll accept his recommendation,’ which put me and the FBI in a terrible spot," he told Stephanopoulos today. Personal history Comey's book focuses on leadership and he pointed to two people -- one of whom he knows well and one he has never met -- who serve as examples for him. The first is his wife of more than three decades, Patrice Comey. He described their courtship as "a series of events of me chasing her, trying to convince her to love me." He discussed a moment of her leadership, which he says should serve as an example to others, that came in the wake of the death of their son Collin, who was "born healthy and died a little over a week later from a preventable infection." PHOTO: Patrice Comey spoke to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos during a '20/20' special that aired on Sunday, April 15, 2018. (ABC News) “She made it her mission to try to change medical practice across the country so that all mothers will be tested for this bacteria, which is harmless to the moms but can kill their babies. And so if you have a baby today in the United States you are tested for group B strep and if you have it, you're treated with antibiotics during delivery and your baby will be fine,” he said. “She took something awful and turned it into something good, which is the reason it's in the book, which is about leadership. It changed how I think about being a person and being a leader,” he added. The second source of inspiration is a person better known to the world: NBA player LeBron James. Comey called James "a man I've never met," whom he says he resembles "only in being the same height." "I used to talk about him all over the FBI. He illustrates what the endless pursuit of excellence looks like. ... It's because he measures himself not against the others but against himself," Comey said. He said that he read that James, whom he called “the best basketball player on the earth today,” looks for ways to improve his game during the off-season. During his tenure at the FBI, Comey would extend that example to the bureau, saying, "we have to find parts of our game to make better -- look at LeBron James!" ABC News' Kelly McCarthy contributed to this story. | |
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| 04-17-18 11:58am - 2347 days | #455 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The other side of the picture. A report that says the US missile strike on Syria failed. That shows that listening to what Trump says (and US generals and politicians) can give you a completely fake idea of what happens. Which should have been obvious. But it still bears repeating. At a cost of over $100 million dollars to US taxpayers, what did we accomplish? A chance for Trump to show how powerful he is. Expensive window dressing. -------- -------- Israeli intelligence reportedly says Trump's Syria strike failed, didn't take out much of anything Alex Lockie 2018-04-17 USS Michigan loading TomahawkUS Navy sailors load a missile into a submarine. Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Samuel Souvannason/US Navy Israeli officials cited in a Ynetnews report characterized the missile strike on Friday by the US, the UK, and France on suspected chemical weapons facilities in Syria as a failure. Multiple Israeli government and military sources suggested the strike was not effective in hurting Syria's ability to conduct chemical attacks. These officials also criticized President Donald Trump's talking about the strike beforehand. The latest strike most likely didn't change anything on the battlefield in Syria, and it's hard to know how much of the chemical weapons stockpile it hit. The strike by the US, the UK, and France in Syria on Friday involved 105 missiles fired from air and sea to rain down thousands of pounds of explosives on three targets suspected of being chemical weapons facilities— but Israeli officials cited in a recent news report characterized it as a failure. "If President Trump had ordered the strike only to show that the US responded to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad's use of chemical weapons, then that goal has been achieved," Israel's Ynetnews quoted a senior defense official as saying. "But if there was another objective — such as paralyzing the ability to launch chemical weapons or deterring Assad from using it again — it's doubtful any of these objectives have been met." An intelligence official who talked to Ynetnews wasn't as forgiving. "The statement of 'Mission Accomplished' and (the assertion) that Assad's ability to use chemical weapons has been fatally hit has no basis," the official said, most likely referring to a recent tweet from President Donald Trump. Unlike the US's strike in April 2017, the latest one did not target Syrian jets or airfields — though the earlier attack apparently had little impact, as Syrian jets took off from the damaged airfield within 24 hours and reports of chemical warfare persisted. Israel is apparently not impressed with Trump's tough talk t4 air base homsThe Tayfur, or T-4, military air base near Homs, Syria. Google Maps The Israeli officials seemed to take issue with Trump's talking about plans to strike before doing so. Israel is suspected of carrying out a silent but lethal air war against Iranian-aligned militias in Syria, though Israel seldom comments on whether it took part in specific strikes, and if it does, it's always after the fact. "If you want to shoot — shoot, don't talk," Ynetnews quoted an Israeli diplomatic source as saying. "In the American case, this is mostly talk. They themselves show actions are not going to follow." After Trump tweeted a warning last week to "get ready" for incoming missiles, it appears Russia and Syria moved assets to more protected locations in an attempt to limit the available targets for a strike. Nobody knows how many chemical weapons Assad has left Syria Chemical AFP The US said the strikes hit the "heart" of Syria's chemical weapons infrastructure but acknowledged that some "residual" capabilities remained. The strike did not deal any damage to Syria's air force, which the US suspects of deploying the weapons. While Ynetnews' sources estimated that the strikes didn't take out the bulk of Syria's chemical weapons, it's hard to know the extent of its current stockpile or exactly where all the stores could be. International inspectors certified in 2013 that Syria had destroyed its chemical weapons facilities as a result of a deal brokered by Russia. But reports of chemical attacks have surfaced regularly since then, and Islamist rebels fighting in the town of Douma — the site of the suspected chemical attack earlier this month that sparked the US and allies' strike on Friday — say Assad is using the terrifying weapons to win on the battlefield. "They bombed and bombed, and we weren't defeated by conventional weapons, so they found the only way was to use chemical [weapons]," an official in the rebel group Jaysh Al Islam told Reuters. Despite the US and allies' latest missile strike, the Syrian government has strengthened and fortified its position by clearing out more rebel strongholds. The UK has acknowledged that the intention of the strikes was not to turn the overall tide in the war and was essentially meant as a punitive action to compel Assad not to use chemical weapons. SEE ALSO: Trump's Syria strikes might have been illegal — and it shows Congress has limited power to stop him from going to war | |
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| 04-17-18 05:54pm - 2347 days | #456 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday thwarted a bipartisan effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job. The bill is not needed, because Trump would not fire Mueller. And even if Trump did fire Mueller, Trump is the President, and should not be angered. So fire Mueller, because it's good for the country, good for Trump. And Trump has the constitutional right, as President, to fire anyone he wants. Even slimeballs like Comey. And McCabe. And even you and I, if we were working for Trump. Slimeballs, beware!!! ------- ------- As GOP balks, McConnell shuts down bill to protect Mueller ABC News ABC News 2 hours 18 minutes ago Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday thwarted a bipartisan effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job, saying he will not hold a floor vote on the legislation even if it is approved next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. McConnell said the bill is unnecessary because President Donald Trump will not fire Mueller. "We'll not be having this on the floor of the Senate," McConnell said on Fox News. His comments came amid widespread opposition to the bill among members of his caucus, with several GOP senators saying the bill is unconstitutional. Others said it's simply not good politics to try and tell Trump what to do, likening the legislation to "poking the bear." | |
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| 04-17-18 06:26pm - 2347 days | #457 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: EPA Chief has a car/truck with Kevlar-like seat covers. He also has a soundproof phone booth in his office. He also wanted a bullet-proof desk, but that hasn't been approved yet. (A bullet-proof desk? Why not just hire Superman, who has a bullet-proof chest?) ---------- ---------- MSNBC Why would an EPA chief need a car with ‘Kevlar-like seat covers’? 04/17/18 11:20 AM—Updated 04/17/18 12:02 PM By Steve Benen The Rachel Maddow Show, 4/16/18, 9:53 PM ET Pruitt waste of taxpayer money on soundproof booth broke law: GAO Yesterday was not a good day for embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. We’ve known for a while that the Oklahoma Republican spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a soundproof phone booth for reasons that have never made any sense, but we learned yesterday that as far as the Government Accountability Office is concerned, the purchase violated federal spending laws. But that doesn’t mean things can’t get worse for the far-right EPA chief. Take this new Washington Post report, for example. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt upgraded his official car last year to a costlier, larger vehicle with bullet-resistant covers over bucket seats, according to federal records and interviews with current and former agency officials. Recent EPA administrators have traveled in a Chevrolet Tahoe, and agency officials had arranged for Pruitt to use the same vehicle when he joined the administration in February. But he switched to a larger, newer and more high-end Chevy Suburban last June. The article added that the head of Pruitt’s security detail “subsequently approved the addition of Kevlar-like seat covers to the vehicle at a cost of hundreds of dollars.” That’s the same security official, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, who’s reportedly “clashed – at least once physically – with top E.P.A. officials who challenged Mr. Pruitt’s spending, and has steered at least one E.P.A. security contract to a business associate.” This is what’s become of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Donald Trump era. For what it’s worth, it would be easier to justify “bullet-resistant covers” for Scott Pruitt’s seats if there were evidence of expansive security threats against the EPA chief, but there aren’t. The latest documents from the agency show those security threats don’t really exist. (The career EPA staffer who approved this evidence was removed from his post.) And, of course, Pruitt’s “Kevlar-like seat covers” are also emblematic of Pruitt’s paranoia. As we discussed just yesterday, for example, the EPA chief also explored the possibility of getting a bullet-proof desk. This fit into an amazing pattern. Pruitt, for example, has a massive, around-the-clock security detail. He’s spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on a professional sweep of his office searching for possible surveillance devices. And thousand more on a sound-proof phone booth. And thousands more on first-class air travel, apparently afraid of the riff raff who fly coach. CNN reported that the EPA’s custodial staff is not allowed to enter Pruitt’s office on their own, and in the hallway around Pruitt’s office, “security employees check government IDs against a list of employees who are approved for access.” And before you think Trump keeps this guy around because he’s ruthlessly effective at gutting environmental safeguards, let’s also not forget that reports on Pruitt’s competence have been greatly exaggerated. | |
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| 04-18-18 12:20am - 2347 days | #458 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Is it possible Sean Hannity is lying? Or, to put it more politely, shaping the truth? Hannity said Michael Cohen was never his lawyer. But Hannity also claims that any conversations between Hannity and Cohen are protected by attorney-client privilege (even though Hannity claimed Cohen was never his lawyer, and never represented Hannity, and never billed him). But Cohen (or one of Cohen's lawyers) stated in court that Hannity was a client of Cohen. And now a Fox Judicial Analyst says that Hannity's claims are bogus It will take time before any of the truth is revealed to the public. That time will be never, if Cohen or Hannity's lawyers have their way. They want all the evidence buried, and never revealed in public. But we will have to wait for the judicial system, and the Mueller investigation, and any other investigations to reveal facts to the public. -------------------- -------------------- Fox News' Judicial Analyst Absolutely Shreds Hannity's Cohen Claim HuffPost Ed Mazza,HuffPost 3 hours ago Fox News host Sean Hannity’s legal claim is getting torn to pieces on his own network. On Monday, Hannity was revealed as the “mystery client” of Michael Cohen, the personal attorney to President Donald Trump who is now embroiled in a federal investigation. Hannity claimed he never hired Cohen but also insisted he had a right to privacy in his conversations with him under attorney-client privilege. Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, a former judge, isn’t buying it. “I love him and, you know, I’ve worked with him for 20 years,” Napolitano said Tuesday. “He can’t have it both ways.” He told “Outnumbered Overtime” host Harris Faulkner: “If he was a client, then his confidential communications to Mr. Cohen are privileged. If Mr. Cohen was never his lawyer, then nothing that he said to Mr. Cohen is privileged.” Hannity had also claimed he “may have” paid Cohen $10 to get that privilege, a strategy that is often used as a plot device on shows such as “Breaking Bad.” But Napolitano said it doesn’t work that way in the real world. “I must tell you that that is a myth,” Napolitano said. “The attorney-client privilege requires a formal relationship reduced to writing for a specific legal purpose,” “So anything that is there regarding Sean Hannity can be revealed?” Faulkner asked. “In my view, yes,” Napolitano said. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 04-18-18 08:34am - 2347 days | #459 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
I don't know. She seems a little sketchy  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbDpOqbW0AAMCrN.jpg Edited on Apr 18, 2018, 08:40am | |
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| 04-18-18 10:45am - 2346 days | #460 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: As President, Trump has the power and responsibility to re-write history to explain to the American public the way things are. Go, Trump, the Greatest President For Life the United States has ever had. ------ ------ Trump rewrites history on rationale for firing Comey ZEKE MILLER ,Associated Press•April 18, 2018 PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is attempting to rewrite history on his rationale for firing James Comey as FBI director last year. In a Wednesday morning tweet sent as Comey promotes his criticism-filled new book, Trump says he "was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation." But in an interview days after the sudden firing, Trump revealed that the probe into potential collusion during the 2016 campaign was on his mind at the time he made the decision. The White House's initial explanation for Trump's decision was Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation, and it released a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein justifying the decision. But two days after firing Comey, Trump undercut that rationale. In the interview with NBC on May 11, 2017, Trump said, "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.'" Trump decided to fire Comey over the objections of his top advisers at the time, including chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon. Comey's firing, and Trump's subsequent suggestion that the Russia investigation was a factor in the decision, led Rosenstein to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation. Mueller is now investigating the Comey firing as part of an investigation of potential obstruction by the president. Appearing Wednesday on ABC's "The View," Comey said he doesn't know why Trump fired him. But he said the president's Wednesday tweet that Comey was not dismissed because of the "phony Russia investigation" illustrates a problem the former FBI director said he's been trying to highlight during his book-promotion tour. "It matters that the president is not committed to the truth as a central American value," Comey said. In an interview with ABC that aired Sunday, Comey said there is "certainly some evidence" that Trump had obstructed justice when Comey said the president pushed him to take a lenient stance toward former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States. ____ AP Writer Darlene Superville contributed from Washington. | |
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| 04-18-18 10:47am - 2346 days | #461 | |
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biker (0)
Active User Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
Doesn't change the fact there is something wrong about the 130,000 payment. Trump claims to know nothing about it. That means it was done without his approval and has no legal binding. Can't have it both ways. Warning Will Robinson | |
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| 04-18-18 10:57am - 2346 days | #462 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
Actually no, that's not how it works legally. But who cares? The whole thing is slimy. As is Trump and Comey and Lynch and Clinton. They all are. But everything is baked in. It's Trump's greatest strength and weakness. There's literally nothing that he could be accused of that would change anyone's opinion. If Mitt Romney was found to have done something bad it would be the end of the world. Why? Because he's thought to be clean, a good guy. People don't give good guys the benefit of the doubt. They give bad guys the benefit of the doubt because they already know they have character deficiencies. But they want the good guy taken down a peg. It's just how it is. Edited on Apr 18, 2018, 11:17am | |
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| 04-18-18 11:11am - 2346 days | #463 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Do I respect James Comey? For making public the FBI investigaton of Hillary Clinton, days before the presidential election? Comey says he had to make the choice between being open (releasing the news of the investigation) or keeping it secret. This sounds like a piece of shit. Comey says "You must tell the truth". But standard FBI procedure (just like standard police procedure) is to deny releasing facts to the public--until the FBI and police are ready to do so. The FBI standard procedure is to refuse to admit to any ongoing investigation. So Comey says he was forced to make public the FBI investigation into Clinton. (At the same time, keeping secret the FBI investigation into Trump.) Hypocrisy? Or stupidity? Or playing politics, which is against FBI standard procedure. | |
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| 04-18-18 11:14am - 2346 days | #464 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
Comey should have been fired by Obama or Lynch several times over. The #1 and 2 guys at the FBI broke a lot of laws. Comey has mental issues I think. And he's flat out lying saying that he had to re-open the investigation as Lanny Davis points out every chance he can get Somehow he's managed to get both left-wind and right-wing people to agree that he is a liar and should not have been in charge of the FBI. Edited on Apr 18, 2018, 11:24am | |
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| 04-18-18 01:06pm - 2346 days | #465 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I can understand a guy making his girlfriend sign a contract before she moves into his house. It's his house. But making her sign a 75 page contract before she can move in? Why not just make it a one-page contract, stating she has no rights in the relationship, that she is a guest who can be pushed out for no reason, without any liability on the part of the guy? Why take 75 pages to cover the girl's lack of rights? Sounds like John Cena and Donald Trump have the same mental process. ------------ ------------ Couples 9 hours ago John Cena made Nikki Bella sign a 75-page contract before she moved in with him By Katherine Lam | Fox News WWE stars John Cena and Nikki Bella split: What went wrong? Just days before their wedding, WWE stars John Cena and Nikki Bella called it quits. What went wrong between them? Insiders say Cena got cold feet. John Cena once made Nikki Bella sign a 75-page contract before the former couple moved in together in 2013. Before Bella could set her suitcase in Cena’s house years ago, she was handed the over-the-top contract that labeled her as a “guest” in Cena’s house. Detailed in the first season of “Total Bellas,” Bella told her twin sister Brie Bella she didn’t understand why she had to sign a contract. “I just don’t understand it. I just don’t know what to feel. I’m so confused,” Nikki said, according to People. “It kind of makes me second-guess where John and I stand in our relationship. I love John but maybe he knows that he doesn’t want to be with me forever?” The contract stated Nikki Bella -- who announced her split with Cena this week -- would have to vacate the home immediately if the WWE stars broke up. “Is that all I’m ever going to be in [John’s] heart, is a guest? Am I ever going to have that permanent spot in the rest of [his] life?” she said after seeing the contract. Cena eventually convinced his then-girlfriend to sign the contract, explaining that the agreement was done to protect his finances so he can support his family members. “You met my family. You think my mom paid for that house herself? She didn’t. My brother lives in that house, they’re expecting a child. My younger brother, he’s got medical problems. I make sure he’s okay. I always tell them, I’m a horrible brother, but I try to be the best provider that I can," Cena said in 2016. "I just don’t want to ever be in a position where that’s in jeopardy.” In another 2016 episode, Cena compared the contract to a prenuptial agreement. “Having been through that process, here is how I view it. It is like buying a handgun for home defense. It gives you a sense of security, and it gives you a failsafe in case something happens,” Cena said. “And those who buy a handgun for self-defense pray, pray they never have to use it. Without it, it’s a dog fight.” “I had to have [Nikki] sign an agreement to live in the house,” he said. “And that’s – it wasn’t a one-page; it’s a 75-page agreement.” The WWE stars announced Sunday they ended their engagement, calling it a “difficult” decision after six years of dating. "While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another," the couple said via Instagram. "We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives." The couple began dating in 2012 and Cena, 40, proposed to his longtime love at WrestleMania 33 last year. Cena was previously married to Elizabeth Huberdeau but got divorced in 2012 after three years. Fans were stunned by the news of the Cena and Bella’s breakup as the former lovebirds had recently gushed over their upcoming nuptials. Fox News’ Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report. | |
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| 04-18-18 02:17pm - 2346 days | #466 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Standing up for the truth: Trump and his party speak the truth, no matter what. That's why I support Trump, President for Life of the United States. Barbara Bush, who just died (wife of evil ex-president George Bush), was a nasty drunk. Where else will the American public get to hear the truth, about these lying politicians? Edit: why does Stone add: "May she rest in peace"? Shouldn't he have said: May she rot in hell? Seems like that would be more like what he is thinking. ------------ ------------ Roger Stone Disses Barbara Bush as a ‘Nasty Drunk’ on News of Her Death [The Wrap] Jon Levine The WrapApril 18, 2018 Trump political consigliere Roger Stone unloaded on Barbara Bush in an Instagram post on Tuesday evening just hours after her death. There, Stone wrote that the former first lady was a “nasty drunk” and posted a quote from him suggesting that if you lit her body on fire it would “burn for three days.” “Barbara Bush was a nasty drunk. When it came to drinking she made Betty Ford look like Carrie Nation #blottoBabs,” said Stone. “Barbara Bush drank so much booze, if they cremated her … her body would burn for three days.” The former first lady died last night after several years in failing health. She was 92. “She said far worse things about me,” Stone told TheWrap. “Barbara Bush was a vindictive, entitled, mean spirited woman. May she rest in peace.” Stone was banned from Twitter last year over a series of expletive-ridden tweets aimed at a number of media personalities. He has increasingly moved his most fiery content to Instagram, where he remains in good standing — for now. The self-described political “dirty trickster” has long been a ferocious critic of the Bush family and even dedicated a full-length book documenting their misdeeds in 2016. “Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family: The Inside Story of an American Dynasty,” — came out just days before Donald Trump was elected president. “This book is very tough,” reads an editorial review of the work on Amazon from Donald Trump. Stone has been associated with the real estate magnate for decades and was one of the earliest boosters in Trump’s unlikely rise to the White House in 2016. Stone’s tough rebuke of Barbara Bush is contrary to the prevailing sentiments that have overflowed on social media and beyond after her death Tuesday evening, with most choosing to remember the former first lady more fondly. Edited on Apr 18, 2018, 05:12pm | |
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| 04-19-18 01:56pm - 2345 days | #467 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Politics in the real world. Can New York limit the power of a Presidential pardon? Can Trump's enemies limit the power of Trump to shield criminals from New York laws? -------- -------- New York Attorney General Pushes To Sidestep Any Trump Pardons HuffPost Nick Visser,HuffPost 16 hours ago New York’s attorney general has asked officials to change state law so President Donald Trump’s aides can be tried for any criminal acts committed in the state, even if they have been given a presidential pardon. In a letter sent to New York’s top lawmakers, including Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) said that he was troubled by Trump’s frequent discussion of his ability to issue pardons and that he was worried those who had committed crimes in the state would escape prosecution. New York has a double jeopardy law that prevents individuals from being charged with the same crime twice, even if the charges originated at the federal level. “New York’s statutory protections could result in the unintended and unjust consequence of insulating someone pardoned for serious federal crimes from subsequent prosecution for state crimes,” Schneiderman wrote in the letter, dated April 18. “Even if that person was never tried or convicted in federal court, and never served a single day in federal prison.” New York currently has 12 exceptions carved out of its double jeopardy law, and Schneiderman has proposed the pardon issue be carved out in a similar fashion. The Constitution protects against multiple prosecutions for the same offense, but only at the federal level. “Since the Nation’s founding, presidents have used this power sparingly, largely to do justice, rather than subvert it,” Schneiderman writes in his letter. “Yet recent reports indicate that the President may be considering issuing pardons that may impede criminal investigations.” There’s no indication that the attorney general’s office plans to prosecute any current or former aides, but as The New York Times noted, Schneiderman has long clashed with Trump. The president himself has called him “the nation’s worst AG.” Trump’s lawyers reportedly raised the idea of pardons last year for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and onetime Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, according to the Times. Both have been indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the presidential election, and Flynn has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Last week, Trump issued a contentious pardon of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney in the George W. Bush administration. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in 2007 after a leak that revealed the name of a CIA agent. “I don’t know Mr. Libby, but for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly,” Trump said in a statement. “Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.” Schneiderman said he hoped to hold any pardoned aides accountable for their actions in the state, saying he didn’t believe the broad nature of state law was meant to help criminals avoid prosecution. “The Legislature could not possibly have intended this result,” he wrote. “I stand ready to work with you to advance such legislation.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 04-19-18 05:05pm - 2345 days | #468 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: US Senate confirms climate change denier to lead NASA. My hope is that NASA will admit the Earth is flat. If the Earth was a round ball, we would all fall off. So now that we have a leader who understands science and the scientific method, we can teach in our schools the truth: the Earth is flat, there is no Climate Change, and Trump is the leader chosen by God Himself to lead the United States to greatness. Let us also hope that Jim Bridenstine, the new leader of NASA, will have companies he owns or has shares in, to help NASA with new contracts and projects. "The former Navy Reserve pilot previously served as executive director of the Air and Space Museum & Planetarium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During his tenure, the nonprofit suffered financial losses, and an investigation by the Project On Government Oversight found that Bridenstine used the nonprofit’s resources to benefit a company he co-owned, according to a report from The Daily Beast this week." Because what's a little graft between friends of Trump? ----------- ----------- Senate Confirms Climate Change Denier To Lead NASA HuffPost Chris D'Angelo,HuffPost 5 hours ago WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), a former Navy pilot with no scientific credentials and who doesn’t believe humans are primarily to blame for the global climate crisis, to lead NASA. Bridenstine will become the first elected official to hold the NASA administrator job. He joins a Cabinet already loaded with people who question the near-universal scientific consensus that climate change is real and that human activity is the primary cause. The final vote ― which was 50-49 along party lines ― came one day after the Senate narrowly advanced Bridenstine’s nomination, thanks to an about-face from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and a key vote from Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Rubio, who in September told Politico that he worried about Bridenstine’s nomination “could be devastating for the space program,” said in a statement Wednesday that he decided to support the nominee in order to avoid “a gaping leadership void” at NASA. Much like the procedural vote on Wednesday, which was temporarily deadlocked at 49-49, Thursday’s confirmation ultimately hinged on Flake, who voted in favor only after a bit of drama that included a long discussion with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and stepping out for a phone call, as CNN’s Manu Raju reports. Bridenstine will replace Robert Lightfoot Jr., who has been serving as acting administrator since previous NASA administrator, Charles Bolden Jr., resigned from his post in January. In a statement following Thursday’s vote, Bridenstine said he is humbled by the opportunity. “I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the President’s vision for American leadership in space,” he said. The Senate confirmation comes more than seven months after President Donald Trump tapped Bridenstine for the post. Democrats skewered Bridenstine during the confirmation process, pegging him as “extreme” and unqualified to oversee a scientific agency with an annual budget of more than $18 billion. Echoing previous statements, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said on the Senate floor Wednesday that he finds Bridenstine’s behavior in Congress “as divisive as any in Washington.” And he called Bridenstine’s previous comments about climate change “troubling.” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said before Thursday’s vote that it is “downright dangerous” to put someone without the appropriate expertise in charge of NASA. “And quite frankly it is even more frightening to have a leader who has made a career out of ignoring scientific expertise,” he said. In a June 2013 speech, Bridenstine peddled a debunkedargument made by climate change skeptics, claiming that global temperatures “stopped rising 10 years ago.” He said “the people of Oklahoma are ready to accept” an apology from then-President Barack Obama for what Bridenstine called a “gross misallocation” of funds for climate change research instead of weather forecasting. Critics have also pointed to Bridenstine’s history of opposing equal rights for same-sex couples ― in 2013, he suggested LGBTQ people are sexually immoral ― and voiced concern about his ability to manage an agency of more than 17,000 employees. Bridenstine has no formal background in science or engineering. The former Navy Reserve pilot previously served as executive director of the Air and Space Museum & Planetarium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During his tenure, the nonprofit suffered financial losses, and an investigation by the Project On Government Oversight found that Bridenstine used the nonprofit’s resources to benefit a company he co-owned, according to a report from The Daily Beast this week. Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and James Inhofe (Okla.), have flocked to Bridenstine’s defense. On Wednesday, Cruz called Bridenstine a “strong leader” and said he could think of few people more inspirational or qualified. And he blasted “cynical politicians” for “attempting to malign his character.” In a Twitter post, Inhofe said Bridenstine “has the experience to take our space program to new heights b/c of his background as an aviator, passion for space & work to modernize our nation’s space program.” At his confirmation hearing in November, Bridenstine said NASA was “at a critical time in its history” and that he would build off the hard work of the previous administration. “Humanity is ready to go to deep space for the first time in 45 years,” he said. This article has been updated to include Bridenstine’s statement and additional details about the final vote. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 04-19-18 07:54pm - 2345 days | #469 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
I'm not aware of anyone who denies that there is climate change, or that humans have zero impact on climate. That's such a straw man. As I recall from my Social Studies classes there were several ice ages, so obviously there are periods of extreme cooling and warming. What is not clear, is how much of an impact humans have on climate. That part is totally unclear. Though even if it was, you also have to ask: How many people are you willing to kill to make an unknown fractional degree change in climate over 100 years? Because while maybe you are OK at the moment, there are plenty of people who need to burn animal dung so their children don't die. So, it's cool to be Eco-friendly where you can be, but you can't just be oblivious to the impact and cost to human lives. Plus there's the economic impacts, and again what would the actual benefit be to the climate, if any? Totally unknown, but it appears negligible. Unless you are making a fortune at it like Al Gore. I believe according to him we should have sunk into the ocean a decade ago or something. I also find it fascinating that so many cling to "Science" when it's convenient but ignore it when it's not. What about Biology? Don't talk about that when discussing abortion or trans-gender topics. I guess it's OK to throw science out when it's not convenient and refer to it when you think it is. Edited on Apr 19, 2018, 08:02pm | |
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| 04-20-18 04:38am - 2345 days | #470 | |
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Songi (0)
Active User Posts: 2 Registered: Apr 20, '18 Location: Germany |
Its because of Korea  | |
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| 04-20-18 06:07am - 2345 days | #471 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
Korea is quite small. Edited on Apr 20, 2018, 06:10am | |
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| 04-20-18 02:30pm - 2344 days | #472 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
NO. SAY IT ISN'T TRUE. MY FAITH IN THE WORLD IS SHAKEN. HAS TRUMP ACTUALLY TOLD A LIE? IS IT POSSIBLE? Trump told Comey he never slept in Moscow. But he did. ------- ------- Trump told Comey he never slept in Moscow. But he did. Michael Isikoff 2 hours 22 minutes ago Donald Trump, James Comey and the newly released memos. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP) WASHINGTON — The newly released memos by FBI Director James Comey reveal that President Trump repeatedly pushed back hard on claims that he once consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, claiming that he didn’t even spend a night in the Russian capital during his 2013 trip there. At a Jan. 27, 2017, private dinner with the president, Comey wrote, Trump was adamant that the claim about hookers in Moscow, made in a dossier compiled by a former British spy Christopher Steele, was a “complete fabrication.” He told Comey he had checked with associates and was reminded “that he didn’t stay overnight in Russia” on the trip, during which he presided over the Miss Universe contest. After flying into Moscow in the morning, he “departed for New York that same night,” Trump told Comey, according to one of the former FBI chief’s memos. But there is abundant evidence that Trump’s account to the FBI director was false: Social media posts, photographs and the account of at least two associates — including Trump’s former security chief — indicate that Trump arrived in Moscow on Nov. 8, 2013, spent the night at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and didn’t leave the city until after the Miss Universe was finished late on the evening of Nov. 9. Indeed, Trump himself had previously boasted of spending more time in Moscow than he admitted to Comey. “I called it my weekend in Moscow,” Trump said during a Sept. 15 radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” As recounted in the book “Russian Roulette” by myself and David Corn, Trump flew to Moscow on Nov. 8, 2013, aboard a plane owned by Phil Ruffin, a wealthy Las Vegas casino magnate, after attending a celebration for evangelist Billy Graham’s 95th birthday the night before in North Carolina. Trump then attended a lunch that day with Russian businessmen at the Nobu restaurant, a swank eatery co-owned by actor Robert De Niro and Aras Agalarov, a billionaire oligarch who was Trump’s partner in the Miss Universe pageant. A photograph of Trump in front of the Nobu restaurant, standing in broad daylight side by side with Emin Agalarov, the pop-singer son of Aras Agalarov, was posted by the restaurant on its Facebook page. It is dated Nov. 8, 2013. The posting corroborates the account of Rob Goldstone, Emin Agalarov’s British publicist, who in “Russian Roulette” describes the Nov. 8 lunch in great detail as well as Trump’s attendance at a birthday party for Aras Agalarov later that night. According to Goldstone, Trump stayed at the party until 1:30 a.m. before returning to his hotel room at the Ritz Carlton. The next day, Nov. 9, Trump is still in Moscow, tweeting about the great time he was having in Moscow and how he was looking forward to the Miss Universe pageant that night. “I was just given a great tour of Moscow — fantastic, hard working people. CITY IS REALLY ENERGIZED! The World will be watching tonight!” Trump wrote in a tweet posted at 6:21 a.m. on Nov. 9. Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime security chief, who accompanied him on the trip, corroborated that Trump spent the evening in the city at the Ritz Carlton Hotel when he testified behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee. As recounted by NBC News, the New York Times and other news organizations, Schiller told the panel that on the day they arrived he was approached by an unidentified Russian who offered to send five prostitutes to his hotel room that evening — an offer that Schiller said he turned down. “That night, two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with Trump as Trump was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone,” according to the NBC News account of Schiller’s testimony. “Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump’s hotel room for a time and then went to bed. “One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.” Trump’s apparently false account to Comey doesn’t prove that the allegation about hookers in Moscow is true. Comey has told interviewers this week that he doesn’t know whether the prostitutes claim in the Steele dossier is true, and in “Russian Roulette,” Steele is quoted as telling associates he now believes that there is only a “50-50” chance that the incident actually happened. Still, if Trump could be shown to have consciously lied to Comey — as opposed to misremembering his visit to Moscow — he could theoretically be vulnerable to either being charged with lying to the FBI or obstructing justice, according to Sol Wisenberg, a former federal prosecutor who served as a deputy independent counsel under Ken Starr investigating false statements by Bill Clinton. “You could say it’s an element in obstruction because you’re not allowed to lie to a law enforcement officer,” Wisenberg said. Copies of redacted versions of the memos of former FBI Director James Comey are pictured in Washington on April 19, 2018. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP) Given the unique circumstances of the conversation between Comey and Trump, Wisenberg said he viewed such charges, based on the president’s apparently false claim about his Moscow trip, as unlikely in the absence of other compelling evidence. Still, Wisenberg said he thought Trump’s assertion to Comey was “significant,” especially given that, according to the ex-FBI director’s memo, Trump suggested to Comey in the same meeting that he should “investigate the whole thing to prove [the dossier] was a lie.” Nor was this the only questionable assertion Trump made to Comey about the alleged incident. According to a later memo from Feb. 8 recounting a meeting Comey had with Trump in the Oval Office, the president repeated his insistence that he never spent the night in Moscow and called the claim about prostitutes “nonsense.” “‘[T]he hooker thing’ is nonsense but … Putin told him ‘we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world,’’’ Comey notes in his memo, adding that Trump “did not say when Putin had told him this.” There is no evidence that Putin ever made such a remark to Trump — or that Trump had ever even communicated directly with Putin until the Russian president sent him a congratulatory telegram on the day after the 2016 election. CNN quoted a statement from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denying the account: “President Putin could not say such a thing and did not say it to President Trump, taking into account that they had never communicated before Trump became President.” Although Trump had occasionally boasted of his “relationship” with Putin in the past, he insisted in an interview with ABC News in July 2016 that he had never met with Putin and said, “I have never spoken to him on the phone.” | |
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| 04-20-18 02:35pm - 2344 days | #473 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
OF COURSE, IT'S POSSIBLE THAT TRUMP DIDN'T LIE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN A SLIP IN MEMORY. THAT TRUMP FORGOT HE SLEPT IN MOSCOW, AND THAT'S WHY HE TOLD COMEY HE DID NOT SLEEP IN MOSCOW. BUT THEN AGAIN, MAYBE THE HOOKERS KEPT HIM UP ALL NIGHT, AND HE DID NOT GET ANY SLEEP. THAT'S ALSO POSSIBLE. SO THERE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS THAT TRUMP MIGHT HAVE TOLD COMEY HE NEVER SLEPT IN MOSCOW, AND THAT WAS A TRUE STATEMENT. AND MY FAITH IN TRUMP IS RESTORED, ONCE AGAIN. | |
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| 04-21-18 06:39am - 2344 days | #474 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
My ideals have been shattered. Is Trump the man of a thousand myths? Trump needs to move to Russia, where he can put all the lying fake-news slimeball reporters into the Gulag Archipelago. ------------ ------------ Politics Trump Lied He Was 'Ladies Man' At All-Male School, Biographer Says HuffPost Lee Moran,HuffPost 3 hours ago A biographer of Donald Trump says the president’s habit of lying can be traced back to his school days. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael D’Antonio, who wrote the 2016 book The Truth About Trump, on Friday told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the president has been fabricating stories since childhood. “This is Donald, really going back to his school days when he was a boy, he insisted to others that he had hit home runs he had never hit in ball games,” D’Antonio said. The author made the comments while discussing reports that Trump previously tried to deceive journalists by using false names in phone interviews. Trump “left the New York Military Academy declaring himself the greatest baseball player in New York state and it just went on and on and on,” D’Antonio said. “He was named the ladies man at a school that had no young women at it, so you tell me, he has been doing this forever.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 04-21-18 02:08pm - 2343 days | #475 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Where there's smoke, there might be fire. Democrats sue Donald Trump's campaign, Trump's son, Trump's son-in-law, the Russian Federation, and Wikileaks. Will Trump stand up like a man and admit the truth: that he is a puppet of Russia's Vladimir Putin? Enquiring minds want to know. Trump, the first President of the United States, who was a deep undercover agent for Russia. That is why Trump fears the Deep State, because he is afraid they will out him as a foreign agent--working for Mother Russia. That is why Trump keeps marrying these foreign women, so if they discover his secret identity, they can not testify against him without the fear of being deported as illegal immigrants. --------- --------- Dems' lawsuit alleges conspiracy between Trump camp, Russia Associated Press TOM LoBIANCO and LARRY NEUMEISTER,Associated Press 2 hours 30 minutes ago In this April 18, 2018 photo, President Donald Trump listens during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Fla. The Democratic National Committee on Friday sued President Donald Trump's campaign, Trump's son, his son-in-law, the Russian Federation and WikiLeaks. The Democrats accuse the defendants of conspiring to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election after breaking into DNC computers and stealing tens of thousands of emails and documents. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit by Democratic Party accuses Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Russia, WikiLeaks and Trump's son and son-in-law of engaging in a conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 election by stealing tens of thousands of emails and documents. The lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan federal court seeks unspecified damages and an order to prevent further interference with computer systems of the Democratic National Committee. "During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump's campaign," said Tom Perez, the DNC chairman, in a statement. He called it an "act of unprecedented treachery." The Democrats accuse Trump and his associates of trading on relationships with Russian oligarchs tied to President Vladimir Putin and of collaborating with Russia as it worked to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The president has said repeatedly there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia. On Friday, his campaign scorned the lawsuit as "frivolous" and predicted it would be quickly dismissed. "This is a sham lawsuit about a bogus Russian collusion claim filed by a desperate, dysfunctional and nearly insolvent Democratic Party," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. He said the campaign would seek to turn the tables on the Democrats, using the legal discovery process to try to pry documents from the DNC including any related to a dossier detailing allegations of links between Trump and Russia. The dossier, a collection of memos, was written by an ex-British spy whose work was funded by Clinton and the DNC. Trump himself tweeted that the DNC lawsuit could be "very good news," saying his campaign "will now counter for the DNC Server that they refused to give to the FBI" as well as Hillary Clinton's emails. The spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in a statement Saturday that media reports on the suit indicate that "it seems to be a distinct attempt of the Democrats to make excuses for their defeat." The legal challenge, she said, is a Democratic attempt "to give new breath to internal political dismantling and to further heat up anti-Russian sentiments." The Democrats' lawsuit doesn't reveal new details in the sprawling storyline of connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives working on behalf of the Kremlin. Instead it knits many of the threads that have emerged in public over the past two years to paint a picture of an alleged conspiracy between the Trump campaign, the Kremlin and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The DNC says the "brazen attack on American democracy" began with a cyberattack on DNC computers and phone systems in 2015, allowing the extraction of tens of thousands of documents and emails. WikiLeaks then blasted out many of the documents on July 22, 2016, shortly before Clinton was to be nominated -- upsetting the Democrats' national convention. That added up to a "campaign of the presidential nominee of a major party in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency," the DNC lawyers wrote. That conspiracy violated the laws of the U.S., Virginia and the District of Columbia, the lawsuit says, and "under the laws of this nation, Russia and its co-conspirators must answer for these actions." The DNC accuses Donald Trump Jr. of secretly communicating with WikiLeaks, and blames the president, too, saying he praised the illegal dissemination of DNC documents throughout fall 2016, making it a central theme of his speeches and rallies. The DNC also fingers Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner as a co-conspirator for his role overseeing the Trump campaign's digital operation. WikiLeaks responded to the lawsuit caustically. "DNC already has a moribund publicity lawsuit which the press has become bored of--hence the need to refile it as a 'new' suit before midterms," the group said in a tweet. "As an accurate publisher of newsworthy information @WikiLeaks is constitutionally protected from such suits." Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed charges against multiple former Trump campaign aides stemming from his federal Russia probe. But Mueller has directly accused only former Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos of trying to work with Russian operatives to support the Trump campaign. Mueller also has indicted 13 Russian individuals working for the Internet Research Agency accused of running an elaborate scheme to meddle in the U.S. elections. The indictment alleges one of Putin's close allies, Yevgeny Prigozhin, oversaw the effort. The hacking of the DNC has long been a sore spot for Democrats across the board since Clinton's stunning loss in November 2016. The hack and subsequent release of the emails hit the party just before it formally nominated Clinton, and the emails remained a major issue through Election Day. This is the second time in recent history that the DNC has sued a Republican president. The Democrats sued Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President in 1973, following the break-in at the DNC's Watergate Hotel headquarters. __ LoBianco reported from Washington. ___ Associated Press reporters Chad Day in Washington and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report. | |
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| 04-21-18 03:06pm - 2343 days | #476 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/...653844193280/video/1 | |
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| 04-21-18 03:45pm - 2343 days | #477 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
My guess: the Dems are finally learning from the Republicans about raising money. Ethical, or dirty tricks, as usual? Your guess is? | |
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| 04-21-18 03:46pm - 2343 days | #478 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Scott Pruitt is a fantastic person who is ethical and has earned the respect and admiration of people across the country. Also, Pruitt is a great businessman, who was able to buy a house before he entered federal public service below it's former selling price, and able to sell it later for a nice profit. Evidence that Pruitt is a superb businessman who in capable of running the EPA. ----------- ----------- NYT: Pruitt purchased home from lobbyist in 2003, using a shell company By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN Updated 5:49 PM ET, Sat April 21, 2018 NYT: Pruitt purchased home from lobbyist (CNN)EPA chief Scott Pruitt purchased a house in 2003 from a retiring lobbyist through a shell company registered to a business partner who now holds top political job at the agency The New York Times reported Saturday. As a state senator in 2003, Pruitt became an owner of an Oklahoma City house held by a shell company registered under the name of a business partner and law school friend, Kenneth Wagner, the Times reported, citing a review of real estate and other public records. Wagner is now a senior adviser for regional and state affairs at the EPA. The mortgage on the house was issued by a local bank led by another business associate, Albert Kelly, the Times said, citing the records. Kelly is now also one of Pruitt's top aides at the EPA, in charge of its Superfund program. The purchase price of $375,000 was $100,000 less than what the lobbyist, Marsha Lindsey, had paid just a year earlier -- a difference picked up by her employer, telecom company SBC Oklahoma, the Times reported. Lindsey turned over the deed to a relocation company SBC hired to handle her move and severance for about what she had paid for the house, which in turn signed the property over to health care executive Jon Jiles, a donor to Pruitt's campaigns, at the discounted price, according to records the Times reviewed. The next month, Jiles transferred the deed to the shell company, Capitol House LLC, for which he was listed as the manager and Wagner the registered agent. A month later, Kelly's bank approved a mortgage in the amount of $420,000 in the name of the shell company. Real estate records did not show Pruitt's involvement, the Times reported. But an EPA spokeswoman confirmed to the newspaper that Pruitt was one of the five investors in the shell company. The shell company sold the property a couple of years later for $95,000 more than it paid, the Times reported. Pruitt's financial disclosures in Oklahoma, however, did not mention the shell company or the proceeds, potentially violating the state's ethics rules, the newspaper said. Oklahoma ethics rules require that officials disclose their businesses or entities in which they hold securities valued at $5,000 or more, the Times reported. The report comes as Pruitt faces scrutiny for a string of ethically questionable arrangements or actions on his part that have surfaced over the past year, including questions about the size and cost of his 24-hour security detail; a $50-a-night room rental agreement he held with a lobbyist whose husband's firm lobbies the EPA. EPA inspector general to begin second review of Pruitt's security detail An EPA spokeswoman told the Times that Pruitt's business arrangements with Kelly and Wagner "were ethical" and his stake in the shell company "a simple real estate investment." "Mr. Wagner and Mr. Kelly left high-profile positions in law and banking in Oklahoma, to serve in the administration," the spokeswoman said in an email to the Times. "They are dedicated E.P.A. employees who have earned the respect and admiration of E.P.A. career employees across the country." | |
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| 04-21-18 04:34pm - 2343 days | #479 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Or maybe real news. It's hard to tell what is fake, what is real, with the Trump presidency. -------- -------- Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education Is Saving Itself Work by Dismissing Hundreds of Civil Rights Cases By Luke Darby 3 hours ago US-POLITICS-EDUCATION-TRUMP SAUL LOEB It's much more efficient to just not worry about students' right. After her disastrous 60 Minutes interview, where she failed to justify or back up any of her policies or beliefs about education, Betsy DeVos may be eager to prove herself competent and effective again. And in a way, she's succeeding: her goals even before becoming Secretary of Education was to undermine public schools, belittle teachers, and prop up student debt collectors. Now that she oversees the country's schools, she can more effectively push for those pet projects while also ripping the teeth out of the agency she runs. Her latest target is the department's Office of Civil Rights, a body tasked with investigating claims of civil rights abuses in schools. Under DeVos, the Department of Education has found a way to completely avoid its duty, simply by inventing a rule that lets them opt out of it, in order to be more "efficient." As the New York Times reports: Among the changes implemented immediately is a provision that allows the Office for Civil Rights to dismiss cases that reflect “a pattern of complaints previously filed with O.C.R. by an individual or a group against multiple recipients,” or complaints “filed for the first time against multiple recipients that” place “an unreasonable burden on O.C.R.’s resources.” So far, the provision has resulted in the dismissal of more than 500 disability rights complaints. Let's break this down. Under DeVos, the Department of Education has instituted a policy that allows them to outright dismiss claims that students' civil rights have been violated. And one of the criteria they're using is "this person has brought too many claims already." According to this rationale, DeVos would argue that laws and civil rights stop applying to individuals if they seek protection too many times. And by refusing to follow through on claims against "multiple recipients," the Education Department is essentially claiming that patterns of abuse or systemic violations don't exist: civil rights can only be violated by one person at a time. DeVos reportedly was not a supporter of Donald Trump during his campaign, which is a sharp irony because she so perfectly distills so much about his administration. If you're in a vulnerable position, if someone with power and authority has the ability to abuse and take advantage of you, then she is dedicated to working against you. She's already made it clear that she's a dedicated opponent to students with disabilities: in October, the department rescinded more than 70 documents that outlined disabled students' rights. The move makes it exponentially more difficult for students and administrators to know what schools' obligations are, and this new move to throw out as many civil rights claims as possible is one more step in undermining the education and safety of vulnerable students. The secretary of education post has long been occupied by a rogue's gallery of people focused on undermining public education and the authority of teachers. But in Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education may have it's first ever secretary who is unabashedly anti-student. | |
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| 04-22-18 01:51am - 2343 days | #480 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: To get a simple truth, you need to appoint a special counsel investigation into Scott Pruitt's activities. Unless you want to believe whatever Pruitt says. However, if you have a lot of money, Pruitt might be willing to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. At a substantial discount, of course. ------- ------- Despite denials, lobbyist tied to condo met with EPA chief Associated Press MICHAEL BIESECKER,Associated Press 2 hours 38 minutes ago FILE - In this Tuesday, April 3, 2018, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a news conference at the EPA in Washington, on his decision to scrap Obama administration fuel standards. The fossil-fuels lobbyist tied to the bargain-priced Capitol Hill condo leased by Pruitt is taking early retirement as a result of the scandal. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt met in his office last year with a veteran Washington lobbyist tied to the bargain-priced condo where Pruitt was living. Both Pruitt and lobbyist Steven Hart had previously denied Hart had conducted any recent business with EPA. A spokesman for Hart confirmed Saturday that the lobbyist met with Pruitt at EPA headquarters in July 2017 to discuss efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay. The admission about the meeting came after the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen filed a new disclosure report late Friday hours after Hart announced his early retirement as chairman. The firm's filing, first reported by The Hill, says Hart lobbied EPA during the first quarter of 2018 on behalf of Smithfield Foods. The world's largest pork producer, Smithfield has been involved with efforts to clean up the bay since EPA fined the company $12.6 million in 1997 for illegally dumping hog waste into a tributary. EPA's press office did not respond to questions about Pruitt's meeting with Hart. Pruitt's connections to the prominent lobbyist have been under intense scrutiny since last month, when media reports first revealed that the EPA chief had rented a luxury Capitol Hill condo from a corporation co-owned by Hart's wife for just $50 a night. Pruitt's daughter, then a White House summer intern, also stayed at the condo. On Pruitt's 2017 condo lease, a copy of which was reviewed by AP, Steven Hart's name was originally typed in as "landlord" but was scratched out. The name of his wife, health care lobbyist Vicki Hart, was scribbled in. Pruitt's public calendar shows he met at EPA headquarters on July 11 with the Smithfield Foundation, the pork-producer's philanthropic arm. The calendar entry does not include a list of attendees. Pruitt's calendar does not disclose any 2018 meetings with Smithfield or its affiliates, the period covered by the report filed by Williams & Jensen. Hart's spokesman, Ryan Williams, confirmed on Saturday that the lobbyist had met with Pruitt at EPA in July. In a statement, Hart disputed the legal filing made by his former firm. "I assisted a friend who served on the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and this is inaccurately being tied to Smithfield Foods," Hart said. "I was not paid for this assistance and any suggestion that I lobbied for Smithfield Foods is inaccurate." Lobbying disclosures show Williams & Jensen has represented Smithfield for more than a decade, with Hart intermittently reported as working directly on the pork-producer's behalf. The firm reported receiving $70,000 from Smithfield in the first quarter of this year. In a statement issued Saturday, Smithfield said it did not direct any contacts with EPA about the Chesapeake Bay. "The objective, while laudable, was not undertaken at the direction of or on behalf of Smithfield Foods," said a written statement provided by Smithfield spokeswoman Diana Souder. "These activities were conducted at the request of a then former executive and current Smithfield Foundation board member, Dennis Treacy, in his personal capacity." Treacy is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which was created by the states of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to coordinate on issues involving the bay. He did not respond to a phone message on Saturday seeking comment. Pruitt denied in an interview earlier with Fox News earlier this month that there was anything improper with his rental of the condo from Hart's wife. "Mr. Hart has no client that has business before this agency," Pruitt said. "It was like an Airbnb situation." Hart also denied having any meaningful recent contacts with the EPA chief. "Pruitt is a casual friend but I have had no contact with him for many months except for a brief pass by at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2018," Hart said last month. Prior to being tapped by Trump to lead EPA, Pruitt served as the elected attorney general of Oklahoma. Williams & Jensen represents several clients with interests before the agency, including OGE Energy Corp., an electricity provider in Pruitt's home state. Campaign finance records show Hart hosted a 2014 fundraiser for Pruitt's state re-election effort where more than three dozen OGE executives cut checks, even though he was running without a Democratic opponent. Records show that once Pruitt arrived at EPA last year, he met with a lobbyist from Hart's firm and two executives from OGE Energy, which was then seeking to scuttle tighter pollution standards for coal-fired power plants. The company paid Williams & Jensen $400,000 in lobbying fees last year. Pruitt's calendar also shows another meeting with OGE last month, though the agency provided no specifics about who attended. Hart's spokesman declined to answer Saturday whether the lobbyist attended those or any other additional meetings with Pruitt. | |
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| 04-22-18 02:56am - 2343 days | #481 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Not everyone who worked for Obama was happy with everything Obama did. Obama's sanctions czar bashes Obama's weak response to Russian interference in the the 2016 election. Republicans will use this to bash Obama, blame his for the Russian interference. And this means Trump is the innocent victim of a fake witch hunt. Unfortunately, Trump will probably not be able to put Obama and Hillary Clinton in prison, where they belong. But at least he can tweet about their crimes. --------- --------- Ex-sanctions czar bashes Obama administration's 'weak' response to Russian interference Michael Isikoff Fri, Apr 20 5:29 AM PDT Daniel Fried, Barack Obama. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Jung Yeon-je/Pool photo via AP, Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) The former State Department diplomat who oversaw U.S. government sanctions policy said he was “extremely” frustrated when the Obama administration issued “weak” and “frankly inadequate” sanctions against Russia in December 2016 in response to that country’s campaign to disrupt the U.S. presidential election. Daniel Fried, who retired in 2017 after a 40-year State Department career that included serving as U.S. sanctions “coordinator” under President Obama, offered his sharp critique of the Obama administration’s response to Russian actions during an interview on the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.” “The Obama administration — in my view, and I was in it, OK? I was working on sanctions then — did not respond with adequate strength to the Russian interference in our elections,” Fried said. ”What we did in December 2016 was a very light set of sanctions, which I think was frankly inadequate. … We went after some cybertargets, we expelled some diplomats, we sanctioned some of the intel services. But those sanctions are not apt to be terribly effective, and we knew it. This was not enough.” Fried was referring to a series of sanctions Obama announced in late December 2016. Declaring that “all Americans should be alarmed” by Russia’s actions during the election, Obama said at the time that the actions were “a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.” But Fried said the lack of teeth in the president’s actions may have only emboldened the Russians. “I think it was an inadequate response, and I think the Russians understood it as inadequate,” Fried said. “The Russians are pretty good at calculating costs and benefits.” Fried said he gives the Obama White House “a lot of credit” for a forceful response to Russia’s “aggression” in Ukraine in 2014 — including authorizing the deployment of NATO troops in the Baltics and Poland. But asked how frustrated he was by the White House election response, Fried replied: “Extremely. I think we missed an opportunity.” Fried’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview in which he described as “puzzling” the fact that President Trump’s White House undercut U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley this week by pulling back on plans for additional sanctions against the Russians to punish President Vladimir Putin’s government for its support of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad. In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last Sunday, Haley declared that the new sanctions would be announced by the next day by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — an announcement that never came after Trump overruled his advisers and scrapped the additional sanctions. After White House economics adviser Larry Kudlow suggested Haley had misstated U.S. policy because she was confused, Haley issued a stinging rebuke: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.” Fried said he found Trump’s pullback on sanctions especially “disheartening” because the administration had just a week earlier unveiled stiff actions — including blacklisting Russian oligarchs and senior government officials — in response to what was described as Moscow’s “malign activity” around the globe. At a moment when the Trump administration could make a “reasonable case” that it was starting to develop a serious policy toward Russia, Fried said, the president had once again undercut the effort. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and U.S President Trump during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2017. (Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Fried also elaborated on comments he made to Yahoo News last year about his distress when he learned that, shortly after Trump took office, the White House was planning to scrap all sanctions against Russia — including those imposed in 2014 in response to that country’s intervention in Ukraine. What especially infuriated him, Fried told “Skullduggery,” is that the White House’s plan was to lift the sanctions “in exchange for nothing — sort of as a goodwill gesture to the Russians, which I found somewhere between shocking and astonishing, that somebody would be played for such a sucker.” The proposed action, which Fried believed was being pushed by then National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, would have been “an actual surrender of an important American position and a betrayal of a country, Ukraine, that was under the threat of Russian aggression.” Fried was a career diplomat who was still serving in the State Department at the time. He didn’t retire until February 2017. But he decided to take his own actions to try to block the Trump administration move by appealing to members of Congress to pass legislation to codify the Ukraine sanctions and call for additional ones — a move that came to fruition later that year. Trump at first considered vetoing the legislation, but reluctantly signed it when it was clear any veto would be overturned by Congress. | |
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| 04-22-18 03:31am - 2343 days | #482 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: This is wrong. The cops, who wore bulletproof vests and helmets and carried semi-automatic rifles (and sidearms), should have shot to kill the protesters who wore masks, instead of arresting them. Arresting them gives the protesters another chance to protest. Shooting them to death ends the threat to the police. And Trump should have been there, speaking to the crowd as the leader of the neo-Nazis, since he believes there are good people on both sides of the issue. Trump is the leader we need to make America great again. Thankfully, none of the neo-Nazis were arrested. Just the people protesting against the neo-Nazis. ---------- ---------- U.S. Militarized Cops At Tiny Georgia Neo-Nazi Rally Arrest Counterprotesters For Wearing Masks NEWNAN, Ga. — A heavily militarized police force of some 400 officers aggressively patrolled a small neo-Nazi rally in this city 40 miles southwest of Atlanta on Saturday and arrested about 10 counterprotesters, many for the crime of wearing a mask. Police officers arrived before the rally began and approached a group of about 50 anti-fascist protesters. They demanded the protesters remove their masks or face arrest. The officers — who wore bulletproof vests and helmets, and carried semi-automatic rifles — cornered the anti-fascist protesters, then grabbed those who were still masked, tossing them to the ground and handcuffing them. At one point, an officer pointed what seemed to be a modified AR-15 at the faces of counterprotesters, none of whom appeared to be armed. The lead officer in the arrests said the counterprotesters were breaking a state law regarding masks, likely referring to a seldom-enforced 1951 law originally aimed at combating hooded Ku Klux Klan members. Anti-fascist protesters ― many belonging to chapters of antifa groups, known for sometimes violently confronting white supremacists ― often wear masks to avoid being identified by both law enforcement and neo-Nazis. “The irony of enforcing masking laws to prosecute leftists is just incredible,” said Molly, a counterprotester from Charlottesville, Virginia, who traveled to Georgia to protest neo-Nazis. She asked that her last name not be published for fear of retribution. “Those are anti-Klan statutes.” “And to be roughing up anti-Nazi protesters while handling literal Nazis with kid gloves... it’s absurd,” added Molly, who said she saw one of her friends get arrested Saturday. The rally in Newnan was the latest, and one of the most pitifully attended, neo-Nazi events to be held in the South since the deadly “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville last August, when a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters, killing one person and injuring 19 others. Certain seemingly innocuous items, including balloons, were not allowed at the rally. But Georgia has an open carry gun law, so people could bring their weapons; HuffPost saw one neo-Nazi and one anti-fascist protester carrying semi-automatic rifles. The Newnan rally was organized by the National Socialist Movement, an older neo-Nazi group that favors explicit Third Reich iconography over the more coded racist memes of the so-called alt-right. Fewer than 30 NSM members, along with a small contingent of the white supremacist group League of the South, showed up for the event. The city granted NSM a permit to hold the rally at Greenville State Park, and security and police presence for the event is expected to cost taxpayers thousands of dollars. NSM members arrived about an hour late for their rally. Then they stood on a stage in the park, looking out over hundreds of counterprotesters yelling from behind a fence some 100 yards away as police helicopters and drones circled overhead. Jeff Schoep, the so-called commander of the NSM, rambled about the need to keep Confederate statues. He referred to himself and his companions as “Alpha males” and complained about men who look like “homosexuals” by wearing skinny jeans. He also lashed out against the “Zionist media” for portraying NSM as a hate group. NSM members flanking him threw up Nazi salutes. Schoep then left the stage to address a gaggle of reporters. When asked by HuffPost about NSM members throwing up Nazi salutes, Schoep claimed they were actually “Roman salutes.” He then threatened to have HuffPost removed from the park for being “disrespectful.” At 5 p.m. local time, less than an hour after the rally had started, police appeared to pull the plug on the sound system. An officer speaking into a megaphone issued a dispersal order, warning the neo-Nazis that they would be arrested if they didn’t leave the park. They left without incident. The paltry NSM showing was indicative of the gradually diminishing strength of the so-called alt-right since the Charlottesville rally last year. That rally, the largest of its kind of over a decade, was attended by upwards of 1,000 white supremacists. Since then, alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer canceled a planned campus speaking tour after being humiliated by anti-fascist protesters at the University of Florida and Michigan State University. Last month, a domestic dispute precipitated the collapse of neo-Nazi group the Traditionalist Workers Party. Infighting has also severely fractured the rest of the alt-right. NSM and League of the South now appear to be the white supremacist groups most willing to hold rallies. On Friday night, they held a meeting at a bar in Bremen, Georgia. The annual gathering is typically held on or near April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler. There were times on Saturday when Newnan looked as if it was under military occupation. Armored vehicles and heavily armed officers, some in military fatigues, patrolled the streets. Ahead of the event, Newnan Police Chief D.L. “Buster” Meadows appeared to draw an equivalency between the racist and anti-Semitic neo-Nazis — who argue for creating a white ethnostate in America — and the anti-fascists showing up to protest them. “Neither one of these groups represent who we are and what we stand for,” he told local news outlet The Newnan Times-Herald. It was a sentiment shared by some of the other 39,000 residents of Newnan, a town whose city square is home to two monuments exalting the Confederate Army. Jeff Nelms, a Newnan resident who works as a millwright, went to a friend’s gun shop Saturday to make sure no one vandalized the store during the day’s chaos. He called both the neo-Nazis and the anti-fascists “scum.” Newnan resident Jeff Nelms went to his friend's gun store during the rally on Saturday to make sure no one vandalized it. (Christopher Mathias HuffPost) Newnan resident Jeff Nelms went to his friend's gun store during the rally on Saturday to make sure no one vandalized it. (Christopher Mathias HuffPost) Julio Gilgorri, 26, who has lived in Newnan for five years, had a different take on the anti-fascists arriving to drown out the neo-Nazis. Gilgorri was among hundreds of residents who attended a festival in the city square on Friday night, at which local businesses, churches and charities handed out #NewnanStrong T-shirts. Children drew chalk hearts and rainbows on the sidewalks, while adults wrote messages like “Nazis suck.” “Newnan has taken me in as a Hispanic American and someone who’s looking for a new home. I felt accepted since the moment I stepped foot here,” Gilgorri said. “If we shut up and stay quiet and allow these guys to rally without any opposition, my opportunity might not happen for other people down the line.” “I’m absolutely glad that people are coming to be heard because, at the end of the day, there truly are more voices on our side than theirs,” he added. “History has already shown who’s right here.” America does not do a good job of tracking incidents of hate and bias. We need your help to create a database of such incidents across the country, so we all know what’s going on. Tell us your story. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 04-22-18 06:15am - 2343 days | #483 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Trump is horrified by witch hunt into his Russian ties. Decides to strike back by installing his own survelliance cameras. One is found at a Starbucks restroom in Fulton County, Ga. Will Trump admit the camera is his? Will he show footage to Congress, showing how people are using the restroom to commit illegal crimes? ------- ------- 10 hours ago Starbucks restroom's hidden camera prompts investigation By Bradford Betz | Fox News According to a police report, a woman found a camera taped to the bottom of a baby changing station in a Starbucks restroom in Fulton County, Ga. (Associated Press) Police have launched an investigation after a camera was discovered last week inside a restroom at a Starbucks store in an Atlanta suburb. A 25-year-old customer reportedly found the device Tuesday, taped under a baby changing station. According to a police report, the woman removed the camera and alerted the manager. The manager then notified Starbucks’ corporate office. “We were quite concerned to learn this and are grateful to our customers and partners who took action to involve local authorities,” a Starbucks spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The manager gave the camera to police for inspection. Authorities reportedly found 25 videos stored on the camera, including several that reportedly showed people using the restroom. “We’ve learned that the device had about an hour’s worth of recorded video on it and detectives found 8 to 10 men and women videotaped while in that restroom,” one officer told Atlanta's FOX 5. He added that the video quality was poor and no “private parts” were seen. No suspects have been identified. Police say whoever is responsible faces a charge of eavesdropping, which is a felony. Never has a request to use the bathroom caused so much havoc. Tuesday’s discovery comes less than a week after the coffee giant faced a national backlash over an incident at a Philadelphia location in which two black men were arrested for allegedly trespassing. The arrests drew apologies from the company and from Philadelphia's police commissioner. The company announced that it would close 8,000 locations on May 29 to conduct “racial bias” training. Bradford Betz is an editor for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @bradford_betz. | |
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| 04-22-18 09:41am - 2343 days | #484 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Everyone must follow the law. Here is a criminal who did not follow the law, and she is facing a $500 fine. This proves that Donald Trump, if he broke the law, must pay the consequences. Even though he has the Republican party behind him, who will certainly argue that the President is above the law: False: No one is above the law. Not even the President. ------- ------- Airlines 4 hours ago Woman fined $500 for saving free Delta Air Lines snack By Alexandra Deabler | Fox News Crystal Tadlock was fined $500 for bringing a free apple given to her by Delta Air Lines into the United States. Crystal Tadlock was fined $500 for bringing a free apple given to her by Delta Air Lines into the United States. (Fox 31 Denver) A Colorado woman is facing a $500 fine from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for saving a free apple she received as a snack from Delta Air Lines on her way back to the United States from Pairs, France. Crystal Tadlock told Fox 31 Denver, toward the end of her flight from Paris, flight attendants passed out apples in plastic bags as a snack. Tadlock put the fruit in her carry-on to save for when she was hungry during the second leg of her trip. Once Tadlock arrived in the U.S., she went through Customs and her bag was chosen to be randomly searched, Fox 31 reported. Tadlock says a Customs agent pulled out the apple in the plastic bag with Delta’s logo on it. When questioned about the snack, Tadlock explained she received the apple from the airline and asked if she could throw it away or eat it, Fox 31 reported. The Customs agent allegedly told her no and fined her $500 for carrying the undeclared fruit. "He had asked me if my trip to France was expensive and I said, 'yeah.' I didn’t really get why he was asking that question, and then he said 'It’s about to get a lot more expensive after I charge you $500,'" said Tadlock to Fox 31. Tadlock said the innocent mistake could end up costing her bigger than just the $500 fine – she could also lose her Global Entry Status, which allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to have expedited clearance into the U.S. Tadlock told Fox 31 she’s frustrated with the incident and feels Delta should not have passed the apples out to customers or should have at least reminded passengers not to take the fruit off of the plane. She also thinks Customs could have handled the situation differently after seeing the fruit was in an airline-marked bag. "It’s really unfortunate someone has to go through that and be treated like a criminal over a piece of fruit," said Tadlock to Fox 31. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, “every fruit or vegetable must be declared to a CBP Agriculture Specialist or CBP Officer and must be presented for inspection.” A spokesperson for Delta said in a statement to Fox 31, “we encourage our customers to follow U.S. Customs and Border Protection protocols." Tadlock is planning to fight the charge in court. | |
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| 04-23-18 12:02am - 2342 days | #485 | |
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MargulisAZ (0)
Suspended Posts: 49 Registered: Jul 06, '07 Location: Phoenix, AZ |
Does anyone actually read this? Or are you just kind of shouting to air? | |
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| 04-23-18 01:10am - 2342 days | #486 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
Not really. It's a kind of liberal therapy for Trump Derangement Syndrome. | |
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| 04-23-18 01:45am - 2342 days | #487 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Pearls before swine. | |
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| 04-23-18 06:35am - 2342 days | #488 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
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| 04-23-18 11:34am - 2341 days | #489 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Sean Hannity is a God-fearing man who spends his money investing in low-cost housing to help his fellow man. Just like his hero, Donald Trump. If only America had more men like these, America would be a finer place to live. Maybe that's why Trump is fighting to reduce payments to Social Security, Welfare, Food Stamps, etc. He wants to get rid of the unsightly poor. Make them work to become the righteous rich. ------ ------ Business Sean Hannity Net Worth: Fox News Host Linked to Shell Companies that Bought $90 Million Worth of Properties Newsweek Shane Croucher,Newsweek 8 hours ago Fox News host Sean Hannity is linked to shell companies which have spent at least $90 million on hundreds of homes across America, and he had help building his property empire from the federal housing department. This is according to a report by The Guardian, which said it reviewed public documents to identify Hannity as the beneficial owner of shell companies which own more than 870 properties ranging from luxury mansions to cheap rentals. Those purchases were made over the past decade. The report raises ethics questions for Hannity, who did not disclose any commercial relationship with the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when interviewing Ben Carson, its secretary, on his highly-popular Fox News show. Fox News and HUD did not respond to a request for comment. HUD’s support for Hannity’s investments came in the form of insurance for millions of dollars’ worth of mortgages. HUD Secretary Carson appeared on Hannity's show in June 2017. Hannity, who gave a sympathetic and praiseworthy interview, told him he is doing "a good job" and did not make public his commercial interests. They both agreed on the importance of home ownership and supporting people to achieve this. "Knowing you as well as I do, you're going to think out of the box," Hannity said. "This is going to be different. Whatever you do, I expect something very innovative." Hannity called Carson “a good man” and that he wished him “all the best.” “You've got to come see us,” Hannity said at the end of the interview. "You don't even take my calls anymore," the host joked. "He becomes a HUD secretary—that's it, Hannity's out!" The report is the latest embarrassment for Hannity, who hosted America’s most-watched cable news show in 2017 and Forbes said earned $36 million that same year, after it emerged he is a client of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime attorney. Hannity failed to disclose his relationship with Trump's embattled lawyer and fixer despite using his show to promote the president and defend Cohen multiple times. The conservative host was named in court as a client of Cohen’s after an FBI raid of the lawyer’s office found documents with his name on. Cohen is under investigation over hush payments made to keep women quiet about alleged affairs with Trump. But Hannity denied any formal relationship with Cohen, saying the two spoke about real estate matters. “Michael Cohen never represented me in any legal matter,” Hannity told viewers of his show, referring to reports of their relationship as “wild speculation.” “I never retained his services. I never received an invoice. I never paid Michael Cohen for legal fees. I did have occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen—he's a great attorney—about legal questions I had, or I was looking for input or perspective. “My discussions with Michael Cohen never rose to any level that I needed to tell anyone that I was asking him questions. “And to be absolutely clear: They never involved any matter, any—sorry to disappoint so many—matter between me or third parties, or third groups, at all. “My questions, exclusively almost, focused on real estate. I said many times on my radio show, I hate the stock market. I prefer real estate. Michael knows real estate.” This article was first written by Newsweek. --------- --------- The Wrap Sean Hannity Defends Investments in Low-Income Housing The Wrap Jon Levine,The Wrap 1 hour 21 minutes ago Sean Hannity Defends Investments in Low-Income Housing Sean Hannity came out swinging Monday, defending his real estate empire and saying that his investment in low-income housing was more than his liberal critics had ever done to help disadvantaged communities. “It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money,” said Hannity in a statement posted to his blog. “The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support.” Hannity also swatted back news that he had received jumbo mortgage guarantees from HUD, saying he had no personal knowledge or involvement. “I have never discussed with anybody at HUD the original loans that were obtained in the Obama years, nor the subsequent refinance of such loans, as they are a private matter. I had no role in, or responsibility for, any HUD involvement in any of these investments,” said Hannity. On Sunday, The Guardian revealed that Hannity had spent the last decade investing heavily in real estate in the United States, using a series of shell companies to amass more than 870 homes across the country. Many were in low-income neighborhoods, which Hannity’s companies purchased out of foreclosure. Hannity is facing growing scrutiny over his legal involvement with Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Earlier this month Cohen’s Manhattan apartment and offices were raided by the FBI for reasons which still remain mysterious. Hannity was outed as a Cohen client after a federal judge forced the disclosure two weeks ago. Related stories from TheWrap: Fox News Employees Split Over Sean Hannity Disclosure: 'I'm F-ing Livid' to 'It's a Nothing Burger' Alan Dershowitz Chides Sean Hannity to His Face Over Michael Cohen Connection (Video) 'Morning Joe' Nukes Sean Hannity Over Michael Cohen Disclosure: 'Bold-Faced Lying to His Viewers' (Video) Colbert Completely Loses It Over Hannity-Cohen Shocker: 'Who Did Sean Hannity Have Sex With?' (Video) | |
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| 04-23-18 05:18pm - 2341 days | #490 | |
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biker (0)
Active User Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
Hello lk2fireone: You live in a western state, so you may know this. I Have visited the west and I've was stopped at the New Mexico and Arizona borders and asked if I have any fruit or nuts. I think they are worried about any contamination that may effect their own crops. When they pull every car and question every passenger about it, you know they take it seriously. A $500 dollar fine does seem steep to me, which shows how serious they take it. Delta will probably discontinue that kindness. My friends who were in the car with me and laughed there asses off when I asked, "If there were any fruits or nuts in the car". It would not be the only time my friends would laugh when we were pulled over, but that is a story for another time. Your Friendly Nut Case; Biker Warning Will Robinson Edited on Apr 23, 2018, 05:21pm | |
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| 04-23-18 08:47pm - 2341 days | #491 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I live in California. I haven't been out of the state for many years. But I recall, one time, when I came back into the state by driving a car, that I was stopped at the state border (I don't recall if it was Arizona or Nevada) and asked if I had any fruit or vegetables. I said no, and continued on. They did not search my car. California has one of the world's largest agricultural communities (don't know if I should write community or communities) for fruits, vegetables and nuts, worth billions of dollars each year. So, yes, California takes the threat of infestation seriously. A $500 fine does seem steep to me, as well. But it could easily cost millions if crops become infected. And $500 is no longer a lot of money. In my area (Los Angeles county), if you run a red light, the fine is around $500. If you park your car in a handicap parking slot, without showing a handicap permit, the fine is around $250 (first time offense, higher for each conviction after that). Money isn't what it used to be. | |
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| 04-23-18 09:02pm - 2341 days | #492 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Note on handicap parking permit. You have to either have it shown on your car license plate, or hung on the front mirror of your car. I have a handicap parking permit, but forgot to hang it on the interior front mirror one time. I saw the cop who was giving me a ticket for parking in the handicap slot. I showed him my handicap parking permit (I had it in my glove compartment). He said, "sorry, once I start to write the ticket, that's it. Take it up in court." So I went to court, showed I had the disabled parking permit, and the separate receipt that the permit was valid and issued to me, and I was lucky enough to get off with no fine. Otherwise, I would have had to pay the $250 fine. Even though I had the permit, but I did not display it properly (since it was in the glove department of my car, and not hanging on the interior front mirror). | |
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| 04-24-18 01:15am - 2341 days | #493 | |
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biker (0)
Active User Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
The door to the parking garage in my apartment broke down and I parked on the street. I forgot to call the police to get permission and had a $75 dollar ticket for just parking on the street. I will never forget to get permission again. It had been years since I gotten a parking ticket and I don't remember it being that expensive. So that was a reality check for me. Warning Will Robinson | |
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| 04-24-18 08:17am - 2341 days | #494 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
One reason the price of tickets have gone up: Inflation. Money is no longer what it used to be worth, from years ago. A different reason the price of tickets have gone up: In theory, tickets are given as a fine to discourage "bad" behavior. Such as parking where you are not supposed to park, unless you have some special permission. But increasingly, tickets are being used to generate revenues for local government: town, city, county, state. And that's a big reason why some tickets are getting to be expensive. When I started driving (back in the 1960s), a parking ticket was $2 or $3 in my area. It's been a very long time since I got a parking ticket (except for a handicap parking violation that was $250 years ag0), so I don't know what a parking ticket costs now, in my area. But $75 does not sound fantastic any more. Many local governments are desperate for cash, they are going broke, can't pay their future bills-for many different reasons. So raising ticket prices, raising taxes, are ways to get more money. And it's easier to raise ticket prices than it is to raise taxes. Less government regulation on ticket prices than on taxes, which often require voter approval. | |
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| 04-24-18 01:27pm - 2340 days | #495 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
There's usually at least 2 sides to every issue. Did Donald Trump pardon Scooter Libby because Trump considers Libby was unfairly treated for leaking confidential information (and outing a CIA agent who's husband was critical of George Bush)? And for lying under oath to Federal investigators? Or did Donald Trump pardon Scooter Libby to send a message that people who stay loyal to Trump can expect a pardon if they refuse to co-operate with Federal investigators into Trump's affairs? --------- --------- Scooter Libby prosecutor says Trump's pardon was a loyalty message to Cohen Dylan Stableford 2 hours 58 minutes ago I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby; President Trump. (Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: AP, Getty) One of the prosecutors who brought the case against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby says President Trump’s pardon of the ex-top aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney sends a not-so-subtle message to potential witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation: Stay loyal to Trump and Trump will stay loyal to you. “I don’t see any other logic to it,” Peter Zeidenberg, top deputy to the special counsel in Libby’s case, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a recent interview for Yahoo News’ Skullduggery podcast. Libby was convicted in 2007 of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice in the 2003 leak of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity. Then President George W. Bush later commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, but did not issue a pardon. “He already had his law license back,” Zeidenberg said. “It’s not a case, if you thought he was treated unjustly, that the poor guy is rotting in jail and is gonna die in prison. I mean, this isn’t a situation like that.” Trump issued the full pardon to Libby on April 13 — four days after the FBI raid on the office and hotel of the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. “There was no urgency or critical need to step in right now except for what else was going on — Trump’s consigliere, Michael Cohen, had just gotten his office raided,” Zeidenberg said. The raid led to speculation that Cohen could face federal charges related to the hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election — and the possibility Cohen could strike a deal with prosecutors to incriminate Trump and mitigate his own sentence. Over the weekend, Trump predicted that Cohen would not “flip” on him, and on Tuesday he sharply rejected a question from a reporter who asked whether he is considering pardoning Cohen. “Stupid question,” the president shot back. Download or subscribe on iTunes: “Skullduggery” by Yahoo News “I don’t think it’s a reach to think he’s sending a message to others, and hoping they’ll stay strong and won’t cooperate and hold out hope for a pardon,” Zeidenberg said. Zeidenberg said Trump’s pardon of Libby would likely not be a concern of Mueller’s investigation. But it would be if the president moved to pardon Cohen or any of those already charged in the case — like former National Security Director Michael Flynn, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, adviser Rick Gates or foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos. “If he pardons Cohen, if he pardons Manafort, if he pardons Gates or any of these other guys — Flynn, Papadopoulos — any of these people, then at that point I think you’re getting much closer to an obstruction case,” Zeidenberg said. Trump, as president, has the absolute authority to pardon anyone. But Zeidenberg said that a pardon could be evidence of obstruction, depending on the motive. “The fact that the conduct in and of itself is legal is not the end of the inquiry,” Zeidenberg said. “If he’s doing it in the hope to thwart a legitimate investigation into his own conduct, then yeah, I think those are building blocks to an obstruction piece.” | |
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| 04-24-18 04:06pm - 2340 days | #496 | |
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biker (0)
Active User Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
I live near downtown Milwaukee and if you don't have private lot to park in you may have to park two or three blocks from where you live. Parking is a premium. There are mornings I see car after car with parking tickets as I drive by. That is some good revenue for the city. I can understand because our streets are warn out and a million other things need repair. $75 isn't going to break me. I just had not gotten a ticket in years and it was a surprise. This may interest you. I'm sure you have heard of our Ex-Sheriff David Clark. He resigned, so were rid of that garbage. To get a black respective of him and a good laugh go here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npm8JSuszJs. The black host uses words for Clark a white person could not say.  Words I haven't heard since the 60's. He isn't alone. There are plenty of other black hosts that share his views. Warning Will Robinson Edited on Apr 24, 2018, 04:20pm | |
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| 04-24-18 10:29pm - 2340 days | #497 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Ex-Sheriff David Clarke sounds like the black Donald Trump. I actually read a short internet news article about the airplane incident a while back, and the sheriff using the internet to call the guy a fool (not the exact expression) and the guy being hassled by cops at the airport. Power just goes to people's heads. Especially some cops. But that news cast is a blast. I'd like to hang a large TV on my bedroom wall, and have it play that newscast, when I need to get into a fighting mood. Or want to vomit on Donald Trump. What I really need is to read a book on Buddhism or something, to clear my mind of this crap. And stop reading news about Trump and his cronies.  | |
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| 04-24-18 11:04pm - 2340 days | #498 | |
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Jade1 (0)
Active User Posts: 103 Registered: Mar 28, '18 |
Or maybe what you are reading is the crap? The border is being secured, our taxes have been reduced, and burdensome regulations are being lifted. So now GDP is growing by the largest amount in 15 years, and unemployment is at record lows in numerous states. In fact the largest job increases are in your state of CA +321,000, followed by Texas +294,100. People and corporations are saving money yet tax revenue is INCREASING: "In the first quarter after the Republican-passed, Donald Trump-signed reform bill — which will save taxpayers and corporations $1.5 trillion in taxes over ten years — tax revenues actually increased by $18 billion (5.2%) over the previous year, resulting in the government running a $51-billion surplus" --Daily Wire ISIS has been crushed and North Korea wants to discuss giving up their nuclear weapons. I'm not saying Donald Trump is lovable, but have you considered that your sources of information may be poisoning your perspective? Edited on Apr 24, 2018, 11:15pm | |
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| 04-25-18 07:26am - 2340 days | #499 | |
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biker (0)
Active User Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
Hello Ik2fireone: "What I really need is to read a book on Buddhism or something, to clear my mind of this crap. And stop reading news about Trump and his cronies." I totally understand why you come here and post. I do the same style of posting on YouTube. It is a release. Not the best. I'm just to hyper a personality to sit still and meditate. I follow your example by adding humor. A touch of sarcasm goes a long way. I'm the same about watching news videos. Mostly on YouTube. It gets addictive and I find myself leaping from one video to the next. I'm trying to narrow down my viewing to those hosts I most respect. But I do get recommended programs on YouTube and so I check them out and I'm off again. Case in point is the video on Clark I suggested to you. I never would have found it on my own, but while watching the more mainstream hosts this video popped up as recommended. I thought, "A black perspective" this should be informative. I rightly felt what this host's viewpoint would be, but he ripped into Clark like no white man would have. Warning Will Robinson Edited on Apr 25, 2018, 07:41am | |
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| 04-25-18 10:36pm - 2339 days | #500 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Yahoo World That's One Reason To Suspend Nuclear Tests: North Korea's Most Recent Blast Collapsed a Mountain David Meyer David Meyer 17 hours ago Last weekend, North Korea suspended its nuclear tests and shut down the site where the last six detonations took place: underneath Mount Mantap, in the country’s northeast. The reasons are ostensibly diplomatic, pointing to a thaw in relations between Kim Jong-un’s regime and South Korea and the West, but some noted that Pyongyang might have also been worried that the mountain was at risk of collapsing, as it visibly shifted during the last nuclear test. However, two separate groups of Chinese scientists now say Mount Mantap did in fact collapse after that detonation. That means there’s a risk of radioactive contamination spreading not only within North Korea, but to other countries in the region. The site is not far from North Korea’s borders with China and Russia. According to geologists from the University of Science and Technology of China, the collapse took place minutes after Kim Jong-un’s regime conducted its last nuclear test in September of last year. The test of the 100-kiloton bomb, which led Chinese seismologists to register a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, apparently opened up a hole of up to 656 feet in diameter. Part of the mountain then fell into the hole. The findings of the team, led by renowned seismologist Wen Lianxing, are set to be published next month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. According to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, another team from the China Earthquake Administration reckons the collapse created a “chimney” that could allow the escape of fallout. The publication quoted researcher Zhao Lianfeng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences as saying the site was “wrecked” beyond repair. So Pyongyang’s renouncement of land-based nuclear tests, for now, appears to be motivated by more than mere diplomatic concerns. | |
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