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lk2fireone (0)
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| 10-27-18 02:09pm - 2266 days | #1282 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
In the chauffeured Cadillac, Donald Trump took The Times’s reporter on a tour of what he called his “jobs.” He told her about the Manhattan hotel he planned to convert into a Grand Hyatt (his father guaranteed the construction loan), and the Hudson River railroad yards he planned to develop (the rights were purchased by his father’s company). He showed her “our philanthropic endeavor,” the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange (bankrolled by his father), and an apartment complex on Staten Island (owned by his father), and their “flagship,” Trump Village, in Brooklyn (owned by his father), and finally Beach Haven Apartments (owned by his father). Even the Cadillac was leased by his father. “So far,” he boasted, “I’ve never made a bad deal.” It was a spectacular con, right down to the priceless moment when Mr. Trump confessed that he was “publicity shy.” By claiming his father’s wealth as his own, Donald Trump transformed his place in the world. A brash 30-year-old playboy worth more than $200 million proved irresistible to New York City’s bankers, politicians and journalists. Yet for all the spin about cutting his own path in Manhattan, Donald Trump was increasingly dependent on his father. Weeks after The Times’s profile ran, Fred Trump set up still more trusts for his children, seeding each with today’s equivalent of $4.3 million. Even into the early 1980s, when he was already proclaiming himself one of America’s richest men, Donald Trump remained on his father’s payroll, drawing an annual salary of $260,000 in today’s dollars. Meanwhile, Fred Trump and his companies also began extending large loans and lines of credit to Donald Trump. Those loans dwarfed what the other Trumps got, the flow so constant at times that it was as if Donald Trump had his own Money Store. Consider 1979, when he borrowed $1.5 million in January, $65,000 in February, $122,000 in March, $150,000 in April, $192,000 in May, $226,000 in June, $2.4 million in July and $40,000 in August, according to records filed with New Jersey casino regulators. In theory, the money had to be repaid. In practice, records show, many of the loans were more like gifts. Some were interest-free and had no repayment schedule. Even when loans charged interest, Donald Trump frequently skipped payments. This previously unreported flood of loans highlights a clear pattern to Fred Trump’s largess. When Donald Trump began expensive new projects, his father increased his help. In the late 1970s, when Donald Trump was converting the old Commodore Hotel into a Grand Hyatt, his father stepped up with a spigot of loans. Fred Trump did the same with Trump Tower in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, as Donald Trump made his first forays into Atlantic City, Fred Trump devised a plan that sharply increased the flow of money to his son. The plan involved the mini-empire — the eight buildings Fred Trump had transferred to his children. He converted seven of them into cooperatives, and helped his children convert the eighth. That meant inviting tenants to buy their apartments, generating a three-way windfall for Donald Trump and his siblings: from selling units, from renting unsold units and from collecting mortgage payments. In 1982, Donald Trump made today’s equivalent of about $380,000 from the eight buildings. As the conversions continued and Fred Trump’s employees sold off more units, his son’s share of profits jumped, records show. By 1987, with the conversions completed, his son was making today’s equivalent of $4.5 million a year off the eight buildings. Fred Trump made one other structural change to his empire that produced a big new source of revenue for Donald Trump and his siblings. He made them his bankers. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Susanne Craig, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold, and Greg Chen for The New York Times The Times could find no evidence that the Trump children had to come up with money of their own to buy their father’s mortgages. Most were purchased from Fred Trump’s banks by trusts and partnerships that he set up and seeded with money. Co-op sales, mortgage payments, ground leases — Fred Trump was a master at finding ways to enrich his children in general and Donald Trump in particular. Some ways were like slow-moving creeks. Others were rushing streams. A few were geysers. But as the decades passed they all joined into one mighty river of money. By 1990, The Times found, Fred Trump, the ultimate silent partner, had quietly transferred today’s equivalent of at least $46.2 million to his son. Donald Trump took on a mien of invincibility. The stock market crashed in 1987 and the economy cratered. But he doubled down thanks in part to Fred Trump’s banks, which eagerly extended credit to the young Trump princeling. He bought the Plaza Hotel in 1988 for $407.5 million. He bought the Eastern Airlines shuttle fleet in 1989 for $365 million and called it Trump Shuttle. His newest casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, would need at least $1 million a day just to cover its debt. The skeptics who questioned the wisdom of this debt-fueled spending spree were drowned out by one magazine cover after another marveling at someone so young taking such breathtaking risks. But whatever Donald Trump was gambling, not for one second was he at risk of losing out on a lifetime of frictionless, effortless wealth. Fred Trump had that bet covered. The Safety Net Deploys | |
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| 10-27-18 02:06pm - 2266 days | #1281 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST: Aside from an astonishing work ethic — “Sleeping is a waste of time,” he liked to say — the growth reflected his shrewd application of mass-production techniques. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called him “the Henry Ford of the home-building industry.” He would erect scaffolding a city block long so his masons, sometimes working a second shift under floodlights, could throw up a dozen rowhouses in a week. They sold for about $115,000 in today’s dollars. By 1940, American Builder magazine was taking notice, devoting a spread to Fred Trump under the headline “Biggest One-Man Building Show.” The article described a swaggering lone-wolf character who paid for everything — wages, supplies, land — from a thick wad of cash he carried at all times, and whose only help was a secretary answering the phone in an office barely bigger than a parking space. “He is his own purchasing agent, cashier, paymaster, building superintendent, construction engineer and sales director,” the article said. It wasn’t that simple. Fred Trump had also spent years ingratiating himself with Brooklyn’s Democratic machine, giving money, doing favors and making the sort of friends (like Abraham D. Beame, a future mayor) who could make life easier for a developer. He had also assembled a phalanx of plugged-in real estate lawyers, property appraisers and tax accountants who protected his interests. All these traits — deep experience, nimbleness, connections, a relentless focus on the efficient construction of homes for the middle class — positioned him perfectly to ride a growing wave of federal spending on housing. The wave took shape with the New Deal, grew during the World War II rush to build military housing and crested with the postwar imperative to provide homes for returning G.I.s. Fred Trump would become a millionaire many times over by making himself one of the nation’s largest recipients of cheap government-backed building loans, according to Gwenda Blair’s book “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President.” Those same loans became the wellspring of Donald Trump’s wealth. In the late 1940s, Fred Trump obtained roughly $26 million in federal loans to build two of his largest developments, Beach Haven Apartments, near Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Shore Haven Apartments, a few miles away. Then he set about making his children his landlords. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Russ Buettner, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold and Greg Chen for The New York Times As ground lease payments fattened his children’s trusts, Fred Trump embarked on a far bigger transfer of wealth. Records obtained by The Times reveal how he began to build or buy apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens and then gradually, without public trace, transfer ownership to his children through a web of partnerships and corporations. In all, Fred Trump put up nearly $13 million in cash and mortgage debt to create a mini-empire within his empire — eight buildings with 1,032 apartments — that he would transfer to his children. The handover began just before Donald Trump’s 16th birthday. On June 1, 1962, Fred Trump transferred a plot of land in Queens to a newly created corporation. While he would be its president, his children would be its owners, records show. Then he constructed a 52-unit building called Clyde Hall. It was easy money for the Trump children. Their father took care of everything. He bought the land, built the apartments and obtained the mortgages. His employees managed the building. The profits, meanwhile, went to his children. By the early 1970s, Fred Trump would execute similar transfers of the other seven buildings. The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists. For Donald Trump, this meant a rapidly growing new source of income. When he was in high school, his cut of the profits was about $17,000 a year in today’s dollars. His share exceeded $300,000 a year soon after he graduated from college. How Fred Trump transferred 1,032 apartments to his children without incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift taxes is unclear. A review of property records for the eight buildings turned up no evidence that his children bought them outright. Financial records obtained by The Times reveal only that all of the shares in the partnerships and corporations set up to create the mini-empire shifted at some point from Fred Trump to his children. Yet his tax returns show he paid no gift taxes on seven of the buildings, and only a few thousand dollars on the eighth. That building, Sunnyside Towers, a 158-unit property in Queens, illustrates Fred Trump’s catch-me-if-you-can approach with the I.R.S., which had repeatedly cited him for underpaying taxes in the 1950s and 1960s. Sunnyside was bought for $2.5 million in 1968 by Midland Associates, a partnership Fred Trump formed with his children for the transaction. In his 1969 tax return, he reported giving each child 15 percent of Midland Associates. Based on the amount of cash put up to buy Sunnyside, the value of this gift should have been $93,750. Instead, he declared a gift of only $6,516. Donald Trump went to work for his father after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. His father made him vice president of dozens of companies. This was also the moment Fred Trump telegraphed what had become painfully obvious to his family and employees: He did not consider his eldest son, Fred Trump Jr., a viable heir apparent. Fred Jr., seven and a half years older than Donald, had also worked for his father after college. It did not go well, relatives and former employees said in interviews. Fred Trump openly ridiculed him for being too nice, too soft, too lazy, too fond of drink. He frowned on his interests in flying and music, could not fathom why he cared so little for the family business. Donald, witness to his father’s deepening disappointment, fashioned himself Fred Jr.’s opposite — the brash tough guy with a killer instinct. His reward was to inherit his father’s dynastic dreams. The Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades to enrich Donald Trump, left. Though the other Trump children benefited from their father’s financial maneuvers, Donald Trump would be given substantially more money over time. Fred Trump began taking steps that enriched Donald alone, introducing him to the charms of building with cheap government loans. In 1972, father and son formed a partnership to build a high-rise for the elderly in East Orange, N.J. Thanks to government subsidies, the partnership got a nearly interest-free $7.8 million loan that covered 90 percent of construction costs. Fred Trump paid the rest. But his son received most of the financial benefits, records show. On top of profit distributions and consulting fees, Donald Trump was paid to manage the building, though Fred Trump’s employees handled day-to-day management. He also pocketed what tenants paid to rent air-conditioners. By 1975, Donald Trump’s take from the building was today’s equivalent of nearly $305,000 a year. Fred Trump also gave his son an extra boost through his investment, in the early 1970s, in the sprawling Starrett City development in Brooklyn, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the nation. The investment, which promised to generate huge tax write-offs, was tailor-made for Fred Trump; he would use Starrett City’s losses to avoid taxes on profits from his empire. Fred Trump invested $5 million. A separate partnership established for his children invested $1 million more, showering tax breaks on the Trump children for decades to come. They helped Donald Trump avoid paying any federal income taxes at all in 1978 and 1979. But Fred Trump also deputized him to sell a sliver of his Starrett City shares, a sweetheart deal that generated today’s equivalent of more than $1 million in “consulting fees.” The money from consulting and management fees, ground leases, the mini-empire and his salary all combined to make Donald Trump indisputably wealthy years before he sold his first Manhattan apartment. By 1975, when he was 29, he had collected nearly $9 million in today’s dollars from his father, The Times found. Wealthy, yes. But a far cry from the image father and son craved for Donald Trump. The Silent Partner Fred Trump would play a crucial role in building and carefully maintaining the myth of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire. Fred Trump, right, sought ways to transfer riches from his real estate empire to his children while dodging gift and estate taxes. “He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’” So began a Nov. 1, 1976, article in The Times, one of the first major profiles of Donald Trump and a cornerstone of decades of mythmaking about his wealth. How could he claim to be worth more than $200 million when, as he divulged years later to casino regulators, his 1976 taxable income was $24,594? Donald Trump simply appropriated his father’s entire empire as his own. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:04pm - 2266 days | #1280 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST: Certainly a handful of journalists and biographers, notably Wayne Barrett, Gwenda Blair, David Cay Johnston and Timothy L. O’Brien, have challenged this story, especially the claim of being worth $10 billion. They described how Mr. Trump piggybacked off his father’s banking connections to gain a foothold in Manhattan real estate. They poked holes in his go-to talking point about the $1 million loan, citing evidence that he actually got $14 million. They told how Fred Trump once helped his son make a bond payment on an Atlantic City casino by buying $3.5 million in casino chips. But The Times’s investigation of the Trump family’s finances is unprecedented in scope and precision, offering the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald J. Trump a gilded life. The reporting makes clear that in every era of Mr. Trump’s life, his finances were deeply intertwined with, and dependent on, his father’s wealth. Donald J. Trump accumulated wealth throughout his childhood thanks to his father, Fred C. Trump. By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s. Fred Trump’s real estate empire was not just scores of apartment buildings. It was also a mountain of cash, tens of millions of dollars in profits building up inside his businesses, banking records show. In one six-year span, from 1988 through 1993, Fred Trump reported $109.7 million in total income, now equivalent to $210.7 million. It was not unusual for tens of millions in Treasury bills and certificates of deposit to flow through his personal bank accounts each month. Fred Trump was relentless and creative in finding ways to channel this wealth to his children. He made Donald not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, banker and consultant. He gave him loan after loan, many never repaid. He provided money for his car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him three trust funds. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings. Much of his giving was structured to sidestep gift and inheritance taxes using methods tax experts described to The Times as improper or possibly illegal. Although Fred Trump became wealthy with help from federal housing subsidies, he insisted that it was manifestly unfair for the government to tax his fortune as it passed to his children. When he was in his 80s and beginning to slide into dementia, evading gift and estate taxes became a family affair, with Donald Trump playing a crucial role, interviews and newly obtained documents show. The line between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion is often murky, and it is constantly being stretched by inventive tax lawyers. There is no shortage of clever tax avoidance tricks that have been blessed by either the courts or the I.R.S. itself. The richest Americans almost never pay anything close to full freight. But tax experts briefed on The Times’s findings said the Trumps appeared to have done more than exploit legal loopholes. They said the conduct described here represented a pattern of deception and obfuscation, particularly about the value of Fred Trump’s real estate, that repeatedly prevented the I.R.S. from taxing large transfers of wealth to his children. “The theme I see here through all of this is valuations: They play around with valuations in extreme ways,” said Lee-Ford Tritt, a University of Florida law professor and a leading expert in gift and estate tax law. “There are dramatic fluctuations depending on their purpose.” The manipulation of values to evade taxes was central to one of the most important financial events in Donald Trump’s life. In an episode never before revealed, Mr. Trump and his siblings gained ownership of most of their father’s empire on Nov. 22, 1997, a year and a half before Fred Trump’s death. Critical to the complex transaction was the value put on the real estate. The lower its value, the lower the gift taxes. The Trumps dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the properties, claiming they were worth just $41.4 million. The same set of buildings would be sold off over the next decade for more than 16 times that amount. The most overt fraud was All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All County’s ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred Trump’s buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show. Instead All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump’s empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees. Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to All County’s owners — Donald Trump, his siblings and a cousin. Fred Trump then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent increases for thousands of tenants. After this article was published on Tuesday, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said the agency was “reviewing the allegations” and “vigorously pursuing all appropriate areas of investigation.” All told, The Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades to enrich his son. In most cases his four other children benefited equally. But over time, as Donald Trump careened from one financial disaster to the next, his father found ways to give him substantially more money, records show. Even so, in 1990, according to previously secret depositions, Mr. Trump tried to have his father’s will rewritten in a way that Fred Trump, alarmed and angered, feared could result in his empire’s being used to bail out his son’s failing businesses. Of course, the story of how Donald Trump got rich cannot be reduced to handouts from his father. Before he became president, his singular achievement was building the brand of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire, a brand so potent it generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue through TV shows, books and licensing deals. Constructing that image required more than Fred Trump’s money. Just as important were his son’s preternatural marketing skills and always-be-closing competitive hustle. While Fred Trump helped finance the accouterments of wealth, Donald Trump, master self-promoter, spun them into a seductive narrative. Fred Trump’s money, for example, helped build Trump Tower, the talisman of privilege that established his son as a major player in New York. But Donald Trump recognized and exploited the iconic power of Trump Tower as a primary stage for both “The Apprentice” and his presidential campaign. The biggest payday he ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump’s death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Mr. Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family. Donald Trump’s cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today’s dollars. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Natalie Reneau, Aaron Byrd, Brad Fisher, Andy Mills and Grant Gold ‘One-Man Building Show’ Early experience, cultivated connections and a wave of federal housing subsidies helped Fred Trump lay the foundation of his son’s wealth. Before he turned 20, Fred Trump had already built and sold his first home. At age 35, he was building hundreds of houses a year in Brooklyn and Queens. By 45, he was building some of the biggest apartment complexes in the country. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:02pm - 2266 days | #1279 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Betrayed. Confessions of how Trump ripped off the American public. Read how the Trump family lied, cheated, and stole from the American public. How they transferred multi-millions in property from Donald Trump's father to his children, illegally, without paying the taxes due on the transfer. And how experts says the Trump family got away with it, because the statue of limitations has expired. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018...emes-fred-trump.html Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s. By DAVID BARSTOW, SUSANNE CRAIG and RUSS BUETTNER Oct. 2, 2018 President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help. But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day. Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings. These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service, The Times found. The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances. The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records show. The president declined repeated requests over several weeks to comment for this article. But a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Charles J. Harder, provided a written statement on Monday, one day after The Times sent a detailed description of its findings. “The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” Mr. Harder said. “There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.” Mr. Harder sought to distance Mr. Trump from the tax strategies used by his family, saying the president had delegated those tasks to relatives and tax professionals. “President Trump had virtually no involvement whatsoever with these matters,” he said. “The affairs were handled by other Trump family members who were not experts themselves and therefore relied entirely upon the aforementioned licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law.” [Read the full statement] The president’s brother, Robert Trump, issued a statement on behalf of the Trump family: “Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.” The Times’s findings raise new questions about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his income tax returns, breaking with decades of practice by past presidents. According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes, because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations. There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud. The findings are based on interviews with Fred Trump’s former employees and advisers and more than 100,000 pages of documents describing the inner workings and immense profitability of his empire. They include documents culled from public sources — mortgages and deeds, probate records, financial disclosure reports, regulatory records and civil court files. The investigation also draws on tens of thousands of pages of confidential records — bank statements, financial audits, accounting ledgers, cash disbursement reports, invoices and canceled checks. Most notably, the documents include more than 200 tax returns from Fred Trump, his companies and various Trump partnerships and trusts. While the records do not include the president’s personal tax returns and reveal little about his recent business dealings at home and abroad, dozens of corporate, partnership and trust tax returns offer the first public accounting of the income he received for decades from various family enterprises. [11 takeaways from The Times’s investigation] What emerges from this body of evidence is a financial biography of the 45th president fundamentally at odds with the story Mr. Trump has sold in his books, his TV shows and his political life. In Mr. Trump’s version of how he got rich, he was the master dealmaker who broke free of his father’s “tiny” outer-borough operation and parlayed a single $1 million loan from his father (“I had to pay him back with interest!”) into a $10 billion empire that would slap the Trump name on hotels, high-rises, casinos, airlines and golf courses the world over. In Mr. Trump’s version, it was always his guts and gumption that overcame setbacks. Fred Trump was simply a cheerleader. “I built what I built myself,” Mr. Trump has said, a narrative that was long amplified by often-credulous coverage from news organizations, including The Times. | |
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| 10-27-18 12:37pm - 2266 days | #1278 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump speaks to reporters. Tell them that if people had more protection, there would be far less deaths from killer crazies. His message: arm yourself, people: if you get shot, you only have yourself to blame. With guns blazing in both your hands, a killer will stand less chance of killing you: So, two guns, maybe a rifle and and shotgun, and, of course, an Uzi or AK-47 slung on your back, are the first steps in self-defense. And if there are any cops on the scene, start screaming "I'm not the crazy. Don't shoot me." While putting your weapons down and throwing your hands up in the air. Remember: cops are paid to shoot to kill. So if you get shot and killed by a cop, he's only doing his duty. Cops are not taught how to disarm possible suspects: it's shoot to kill with a cop. Go, Trump: you are the man. --------- --------- The Washington Post Pittsburgh synagogue shooting leaves multiple people dead and wounded 'Horrific crime scene': Pittsburgh official comments on synagogue shooting Pittsburgh public safety director Wendell Hissrich said Oct. 27 the scene of a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is "one of the worst" he has seen. (Reuters) By Deanna Paul , Avi Selk and Amy B Wang October 27 at 3:06 PM A gunman attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday-morning services in what the Anti-Defamation League called "likely the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.” Law enforcement officials said Robert Bowers — a 46-year-old man with a history of making anti-Semitic statements online — surrendered to police after a gun battle and is expected to face hate crime charges. A death toll was not immediately available, but several law enforcement officials told The Washington Post that many were killed inside the synagogue. Pittsburgh officials said at least six people were injured in the incident, four of them police officers. “It’s a very horrific crime scene," Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich told reporters in the afternoon, after Bowers had been apprehended. “One of the worst that I’ve seen. And I’ve been on some plane crashes.” The suspect interrupted a baby-naming service at about 10 a.m, Pennsylvania’s attorney general told the Associated Press. Witnesses told police he burst in shouting anti-Semitic slurs and began firing. Stephen Weiss recalled hearing gunshots and fleeing the building through the sanctuary. “We had services going on in the chapel when we heard a loud noise in the lobby area," he told the Tribune-Review. Photos from the scene of deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue View Photos Pittsburgh police respond to a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill area of the city as a gunman killed multiple people and wounded three police officers. KDKA reported that police confronted the suspect near the synagogue entrance. Witnesses said one office was wounded in an initial firefight, and two more were shot when they tried to corner the gunman upstairs. The man ranted about needing to kill Jews during a brief standoff, police dispatchers said on the radio. He surrendered to police around 11 a.m., an hour or so after the shooting began. Dispatchers said he had a pistol on his ankle and another in his waistband, and had been injured. KDKA reported that he came out crawling. Gab, a social media platform that has attracted many far-right users, released a statement on Saturday, saying the company had suspended an account that “matched the name of the alleged shooter’s name." “We then contacted the FBI and made them aware of this account and the user data in our possession,” the statement continued. “It looks definitely like it’s an anti Semitic crime," President Trump told reporters Saturday afternoon. "That is something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on.” The Tree of Life synagogue is located in a leafy residential enclave near Carnegie Mellon University — one of the larger predominantly Jewish neighborhoods in the United States. Its “traditional, progressive and egalitarian” congregation, formed in 1864, is Pittsburgh’s oldest Jewish congregation. It’s the “center of Jewish life on Shabbat morning," said Rabbi Aaron Bisno of the Rodef Shalom Congregation, two blocks away. It is unclear how many were in the synagogue at the time of the shooting. According to an online calendar, there would have been a Shabbat service scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Saturday. The synagogue’s main sanctuary, a cavernous space with soaring stained-glass windows that depict the story of creation, can hold up to 1,250 guests, according to the Tree of Life’s website. “This is an absolute tragedy,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) wrote on Twitter. “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans.” . (Laris Karklis/Washington, D.C.) Police in Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles all said they were increasing patrols at synagogues and other houses of worship following the Pittsburgh attack as precautionary measures. Speaking to reporters later at Joint Base Andrews, President Trump said the shooting was “far more devastating than anybody originally thought” but did not offer details. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing, what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world, and something has to be done,” he said. When asked if he should revisit gun laws, Trump said: “This has little to do with it, if you take a look. If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better.” Trump has frequently suggested that more armed people could deter mass shootings, making the comment after shooting rampages in Parkland, Fla., and Orlando in recent years. Armed law enforcement officers were present at both of those mass shootings and others that have still occurred. It’s unclear whether the synagogue had security measures in place. In a July blog post for the synagogue titled “We Deserve Better,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers criticized elected leaders for their lack of action in enacting gun-control legislation in the wake of the Parkland school shooting. “Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the mid-term elections, I fear that that the status quo will remain unchanged, and school shootings will resume,” Myers wrote. “I shouldn’t have to include in my daily morning prayers that God should watch over my wife and daughter, both teachers, and keep them safe. Where are our leaders?” The shooting comes during an sharp spike in anti-Semitic activities in the U.S., according to an Anti-Defamation League report released earlier this year. From 2016 to 2017, instances of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assault increased 57 percent, the largest single-year jump since ADL began tracking the data in the 1970s. “This is close to an all-time high,” Greenblatt told The Post’s Tara Bahrampour then. "We’re living in a time where extremists feel emboldened and they’re increasingly taking action. They feel empowered; they almost feel like they’ve been mainstreamed.” Ben Opie, 55, who lives across the street from Tree of Life, said his wife was leaving for a volunteer duty at about 11 a.m. when police shouted at her to get back inside the house. Officers banged on neighbors’ doors and told them to stay locked inside. Two hours later, after many of the police vehicles had left the neighborhood, Opie said he’s still shaking. “It’s just,” Opie said, pausing, his voice trembling. “Sorry, it’s shaking me more than usual." By Saturday afternoon, members of the synagogue were gathering at a grief center waiting to hear about friends and family members caught in the shooting. “It’s one of my biggest fears,” said Chuck Diamond, who worked as a rabbi at Tree of Life for seven years. “When I was leading the congregation, I always had in the back of my mind that something like this will happen. It’s a terrible thing to feel." Joel Achenbach, Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Kristine Phillips, Mike Rosenwald and Katie Zezima contributed to this developing story. | |
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| 10-27-18 09:04am - 2266 days | #6 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
3 different articles on Johnny Depp being dropped from the reboot of the Pirates series appeared today and yesterday at news sites. They were based on an interview with Stuart Beattie, who helped write the script for the first Pirates movie. But this is only Stuart Beattie's thoughts. Disney has certainly not made any official statement. And I don't think Johnny Depp has made any official statement. | |
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| 10-26-18 04:59pm - 2267 days | #1277 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump, the man who has been harder on Russia than even Adolf Hitler (the man who invaded Russia back in WW2), has now invited Vladimir Putin to Washington. Trump wants to make sure no war breaks out between the two enemies. Trump hates Putin, but is afraid some people might get hurt if Russia sends nuclear missiles to the US. It wouldn't matter if the missiles destroyed dirty Democrats. But what if some Republicans got hurt? That would be vastly different. Also, Trump is willing to forgive Putin for spying on Trump's conversations with friends on his cell phone. After all, Trump has no secrets from his friendly enemy Putin: the man who helped Trump get elected President. So, is Putin really an enemy of Trump? No. Trump and Putin are buddies, who love to screw people over. Con man Trump. Strong man Putin. What a team. One of the topics to be discussed is how Trump should deal with Special counsel Robert Mueller. Should Trump have Mueller fired? Bumped off (by rogue agents)? Have a fatal accident--so Trump can attend the funeral and shed crocodile tears while denying responsibility? ----- ----- President Trump formally invites Vladimir Putin to Washington despite ongoing Russia investigations New York Daily News Chris Sommerfeldt Oct 26th 2018 3:32PM President Trump has formally invited Vladimir Putin to Washington, national security adviser John Bolton announced Friday, paving way for a high-profile sit-down that is sure to spark controversy. Bolton, who’s traveling through Eastern Europe, confirmed the invitation at a news conference in Tiblisi, the capital of Georgia. “We have invited President Putin to Washington after the first of the year for basically a full day of consultations,” Bolton told reporters. Bolton said a date has not been set and it was not immediately known if Putin has accepted the invite. A Kremlin spokesman did not return a request for comment. Putin and Trump are also expected to meet on the sidelines of an event in Paris next month commemorating the end of World War I. The outreach to the Russian leader comes even though Trump’s presidential campaign remains under investigation over potential collusion with the Kremlin ahead of the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation has produced scores of indictments against Russian operatives and Trump associates, is expected to deliver key findings after next month’s congressional midterm elections. The Senate Intelligence Committee is separately investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump faced international backlash after he refused to hold Putin accountable for the Russian government’s meddling in U.S. elections during a joint press conference in Helsinki, Finland in July. Breaking with the unanimous consensus of his own intelligence community, Trump said he found Putin’s denial “incredibly powerful” and claimed he hadn’t seen “any reason” why the Kremlin would have attacked the U.S. election. | |
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| 10-25-18 11:17pm - 2267 days | #1276 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Real news: Trump charities benefit the President and his children. In illegal ways. Does President Trump have immunity from litigation? Is Trump above the law? Of course. He's the President. In the meantime, Trump has changed his tune: he is now telling Americans that we have to be nice to each other, to bring America together. Does this mean Trump will stop calling his critics bad people? ------ ------ POLITICS 10/26/2018 01:21 am ET Trump Charity Had To Buy His Giant Portrait Because No One Else Would. The New York attorney general is accusing Trump’s foundation of illegally spending on things like the portrait. By Mary Papenfuss President Donald Trump’s attorney says Trump’s charity had to cough up $10,000 to buy a 6-foot portrait of him because no one else bid on it at an auction. Trump’s offer was only intended to “get the bids started” at an auction for the Unicorn Children’s Foundation, a charity for children, at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But, as Trump attorney Alan Futerfas explained to a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, Trump was “stuck with the painting” when no one else stepped up, and he charged the purchase to his charity. The embarrassing story was meant to explain why the Donald J. Trump Foundation spent money on things like the portrait — which Trump then hung in a restaurant at his Miami golf resort — not to mention on political contributions, a $100,000 Mar-a-Lago legal settlement, and well-timed charitable donations to boost Trump’s profile during his presidential campaign, according to state investigators. Democratic New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood is suing Trump and his charity for alleged illegal use of funds. The suit accuses Trump and his charity of “a pattern of persistent illegal conduct ... that includes extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions to benefit Mr. Trump’s personal and business interests, and violations of basic legal obligations for non-profit foundations.” The suit is demanding that the foundation pay more than $2.8 million in penalties and restitution, that it be shut down, and that Trump and his children be banned from leading other charities in the state. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are also named in the suit. Futerfas claimed in court that the suit was making a “mountain out of a molehill” and was politically biased. But Yael Fuchs, a lawyer for the state attorney general’s office, insisted that it’s “beyond dispute that these were improper self-dealing transactions,” Bloomberg reported. Futerfas insisted the money wasn’t used for luxuries for the Trumps. “There are no dinners charged to the foundation. There’s no travel, there’s no cars . . . nothing like that. Travel to Paris — that’s waste,” Futerfas said, reported The Washington Post. But New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla said that whether or not the charity paid for trips to Paris for the Trumps, it still has to abide by the law. “The claim is that there has not been a single board of directors meeting. These individuals are directors. They’re required under state law to have meetings,” Scarpulla said, according to the Post. She dismissed Futerfas’ claim of political bias. But she also indicated she plans to hold off on a final decision on the suit until an appellate court rules in a separate case on whether the president has immunity from state court litigation. That case involves former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zevros, who has accused Trump of groping her and is suing him for defamation for calling her a liar. Even if the appellate court rules that Trump has immunity from litigation in state court, the charity suit could be modified to target only the charity and Trump’s children without him, Scarpulla indicated. | |
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| 10-25-18 05:16pm - 2268 days | #1275 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The truth comes out: President Trump wanted ex-President Obama and Hillary Clinton investigated for illegal acts. Trump wanted the truth. If Obama broke the law, or if Hillary Clinton broke the law, neither of them were above the law: and they deserved to be locked up. America for Americans. Trump has said, because he is the President, he can't order the FBI and CIA and other law enforcement agencies to do their duty and investigate Obama and Hillary "Criminal" Clinton like they should be investigated. Even though the American public deserves to know the truth. However, it turns out that President Trump himself is a major leaker. “American spy agencies, the officials said, had learned that China and Russia were eavesdropping on the president’s cellphone calls from human sources inside foreign governments and intercepting communications between foreign officials.” “If true, this may be the largest, most significant breach of White House communications in history,” says Payton, who served in the George W. Bush administration and is now CEO of security firm Fortalice Solutions. “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking and conversations.” This would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Did Donald Trump knowingly use a non-secure phone? Is Donald Trump the source of leaks to China and Russia and possibly other foreign powers? Is Donald Trump a traitor to the US, who should be shot for carelessness and stupidity and treason? Enquiring minds want to know. ----------- https://www.fastcompany.com/90256599/chi...says-former-official 10.24.18 Trump’s tapped phone may be the largest White House breach ever: former official “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking,” says former White House CIO Theresa Payton. Trump’s tapped phone may be the largest White House breach ever: former official Beijing is said to have targeted Trump’s contacts, including Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group CEO, and retired Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. [Photo: Shealah Craighead/The White House/Flickr] By Mark Sullivan The president had been warned. The New York Times now reports that American spy agencies have learned that China and Russia have been eavesdropping on President Trump’s personal calls to friends and colleagues from one of his iPhones, in an effort to influence U.S. policy. “This stunning revelation by the NYT is one that has sweeping ramifications for intelligence and the security of the American people,” says former White House chief information officer Theresa Payton in an email to Fast Company. Trump reportedly has three iPhones, but only two of them are equipped with security features that have been added by the National Security Agency. One of the secure phones is strictly intended for tweeting, and only over Wi-Fi networks. His third phone is said to be as unsecured as any regular iPhone. Former administration officials said that in spite of their repeated warnings that spies might listen into his calls, Trump refused to give up the phone, and kept using it as usual. The president likes to keep his personal iPhone around reportedly because “he can store his contacts in it.” From the Times report, written by Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman: “American spy agencies, the officials said, had learned that China and Russia were eavesdropping on the president’s cellphone calls from human sources inside foreign governments and intercepting communications between foreign officials.” “If true, this may be the largest, most significant breach of White House communications in history,” says Payton, who served in the George W. Bush administration and is now CEO of security firm Fortalice Solutions. “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking and conversations.” Armed with intel gathered from Trump’s many calls, foreign adversaries might learn to exploit weaknesses in the American leader to the detriment of U.S. interests. Amid ongoing trade tensions, China has learned from the calls “how Mr. Trump thinks, what arguments tend to sway him and to whom he is inclined to listen,” the Times reports. The list of Trump contacts that Beijing has assembled is said to include Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group CEO, and retired Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. “The Chinese have identified friends of both men and others among the president’s regulars, and are now relying on Chinese businessmen and others with ties to Beijing to feed arguments to the friends of the Trump friends. The strategy is that those people will pass on what they are hearing, and that Beijing’s views will eventually be delivered to the president by trusted voices, the officials said. They added that the Trump friends were most likely unaware of any Chinese effort.” Schwarzman, who recently endowed a new school at MIT dedicated to artificial intelligence, has also endowed a master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined to speak to the Times about Chinese efforts to influence Schwarzman, but said that he “has been happy to serve as an intermediary on certain critical matters between the two countries at the request of both heads of state.” Reports last summer said high-tech cell-phone spying devices–sometimes called Stingrays and used to intercept cell-phone signals–were being used near the White House and operated by foreign governments. According to the Times, the Secret Service has also requested that Trump swap out his phones every 30 days, with brand-new software, but he has bristled at that precaution. On the campaign trail, Trump regularly criticized Hillary Clinton for her use of an unsecured email server while she was secretary of state, a violation that inspired chants of “lock her up” at his rallies. His administration also ordered a ban across the government on all technologies made by Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei over concerns about surveillance. Past U.S. presidents, like Barack Obama, submitted to using less-cool-looking-but-more-secure Blackberry devices while in office, though he occasionally used aides’ phones to make personal calls. In his second term, Obama switched to an iPhone, albeit with a number of features removed, including the camera and microphone. | |
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| 10-25-18 02:08pm - 2268 days | #2 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Terrible news. I paid for a lifetime membership to The Life Erotic years ago. Can you talk to the MetArt network and say, if a member already has a lifetime membership to The Life Erotic, he can get the same deal with one of the other sites in the network, of his choice, at the same price of $29.99 for 365 days, renewing at $29.99/year? I also have a lifetime membership to MetArt. So since I'm already invested in the network, maybe I deserve a special deal like you're offering. yulin, you're the man--if you can get me a special deal like that. PS: After thinking it over, I'm willing to pay $30/year.   | |
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| 10-25-18 10:54am - 2268 days | #1274 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Not sure if this is fake new or not: Trump attacks the press. Says they have a responsibility to stop fake news. Says that news criticizing him is fake, and harms the country. Sarah Sanders screams at reporters: tells them to fuck off. Sanders will no longer be nice to reporters who criticize her boss, the most wonderful, handsome man in the United States. Sanders says she will lay down and pray for her boss against the false attacks on her boss. Trump will unite America. Bring the people together. Let us pray for Trump, the greatest President we've ever had. Not only are there bad people in the caravan, but there are also bad people in Washington. Let Trump have these bad people arrested, thrown in jail, then put them in front of a firing squad so Trump can clean up the Washington swamp like he promised. God save Donald Trump, the finest man who ever groped a woman's pussy. -------- -------- Sarah Sanders: Trump as responsible for bomb packages as Bernie Sanders is for baseball game shooting HuffPost US Jenna Amatulli Oct 25th 2018 11:43AM White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Thursday morning that President Donald Trump is “certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages to someone, no more than Bernie Sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a Republican baseball field practice last year.” Huckabee Sanders talked to reporters in the White House driveway, making reference to the suspicious packages containing “potential explosive devices” sent on Wednesday to several prominent Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as to the CNN headquarters. The press secretary was referring to an attack by a lone gunman who opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game in June 2017. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was injured alongside several others. Police shot the gunman who later died of his injuries at a hospital. The shooter was allegedly a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Huckabee Sanders also lambasted the media during her chat with reporters, saying that 90 percent of the media coverage on Trump is “negative.” When asked by one reporter if Trump regretted any of the comments he’s made in reference to the press, Sanders said: “Look, the president’s condemned violence in all forms and has done that since day one and will continue to do that, but certainly feels that everyone has a role to play.” The press secretary has been vocal about the response the public has given to the surge of suspicious packages. She slammed CNN on Wednesday night over network president Jeff Zucker criticized the Trump administration’s rhetoric towards the press: ″[President Donald Trump] asked Americans ‘to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA’” Huckabee Sanders tweeted in response just after a Trump rally in Wisconsin. “Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence.” Huckabee Sanders also called the idea that Trump would be behind the packages sent to his opponents “disgraceful,” adding that there’s quite a difference between “comments made and actions taken.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 10-25-18 09:21am - 2268 days | #370 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I woke up this morning, checked my email, and found a gift card from PU. My thanks to yulin and the PU staff. And also to the PU community. Have a great day.  | |
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| 10-25-18 09:06am - 2268 days | #4 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Skip this post. I was either sleeping or dreaming when I wrote it. Made little sense.  Edited on Oct 25, 2018, 10:21pm | |
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| 10-24-18 07:37pm - 2269 days | #1273 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: President Trump arrested by the FBI. Trump protests, saying the bombs were an April Fools joke. That Democrats can't take a joke. Trump vows to fire disloyal leaders of the FBI, the CIA, and all other agencies of the US government once he gets out of jail. Hail, Trump, leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Vote this November, people. ---- ---- Prominent conservative activists and talking heads are promoting a conspiracy that Democrats sent explosive devices to Clinton, Obama, Soros Business Insider Eliza Relman Oct 24th 2018 8:10PM Many in the right-wing media promoted a conspiracy that Democrats were behind several packages containing explosive devices that were sent by mail to top Democrats this week. Prominent conservative voices, including popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and frequent Fox News guest and conservative activist Candace Owens, suggested that "leftists" were to blame for the attempted terrorist attacks. "Republicans just don't do this kind of thing," Limbaugh said. Many in the right-wing media, including prominent voices like popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and frequent Fox News guest Candace Owens, began Wednesday to promote a conspiracy that Democrats were behind several packages containing explosive devices that were sent by mail to top Democrats this week. Limbaugh suggested on his show on Wednesday — soon after the devices were sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, as well as CNN's New York offices — that the act was committed to fuel support for Democrats two weeks before the midterm elections. "It's happening in October," Limbaugh said. "There's a reason for this." He added that attempted violent attacks are out of character for conservatives. "Republicans just don't do this kind of thing," he said. Another prominent mainstream conservative activist and frequent Fox News guest, Candace Owens, declared there was a "0% chance" the bombs were sent by someone with conservative leanings, instead blaming "leftists" for staging the attack for political gain. I’m going to go ahead and state that there is a 0% chance that these “suspicious packages” were sent out by conservatives. The only thing “suspicious” about these packages, is their timing. Caravans, fake bomb threats—these leftists are going ALL OUT for midterms. Michael Flynn Jr., the son of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn who has previously promoted dangerous conspiracy theories, called the mail bombs "a total false flag operation" in a series of tweets he later deleted. "I condemn all political violence but again the timing is bullsh#t," Flynn wrote. Others argued that the attempted attacks were designed to distract from political dissenters on the left — what the right has characterized as a left-wing "mob." In a tweet that he later deleted, John Cardillo, a right-wing radio host and former NYPD officer, also suggested that the attempted attacks were staged by Democrats. "Just too coincidental that two weeks before Election Day, as the 'blue wave' has turned into a ripple, and the left is losing ground because of incivility and violent rhetoric, explosive devices show up in the mailboxes of Soros, Clinton, and Obama," he tweeted, according to The Daily Beast. Billionaire philanthropist and Democratic donor George Soros, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, were also recipients of the packages. All of those targeted are critics of the president whom Trump has in turn attacked relentlessly. Edited on Oct 25, 2018, 09:03am | |
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| 10-24-18 12:48pm - 2269 days | #4 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
WRONG! WRONG!! WRONG!!! I have learned from my hero, Donald Trump. I don't need any external facts before I make a final judgment. My judgment is: What will be, will be (from the song). Bow down before my superior intellect, all mortals. Other than that, your post does make sense. LOL. | |
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| 10-24-18 08:01am - 2269 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Great news for pat362. A new Pirates of the Caribbean film might be coming. After the disappointing news that the release for the next Wonder Woman film has been pushed back, there is a silver lining for pat362. There are discussions with Disney about a new Pirates of the Caribbean film. I thought the series had ended. But the financial success of the series (over $4 billion worldwide) means we can hope there will be chance to see a new Johnny Depp Jack Sparrow in theaters sometime in the future. Personally, I stopped watching the series after the first two movies, I think. The first one was the best. But they kind of dropped off after the first, in quality. Or storytelling. So I lost interest. But I did enjoy the first Wonder Woman movie. And the first Captain America movie. But there are too many comic book movies being made, for my taste. However, my tastes do not reflect box office results. A lot of blockbusters, maybe even most, leave me wondering what are people seeing, that I don't see. ------ ------ October 23, 2018 3:44PM PT ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Reboot Being Explored by Disney With ‘Deadpool’ Writers By Dave McNary Dave McNary Film Reporter @Variety_DMcNary Disney is exploring a sixth iteration of its “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and has met with the “Deadpool” writing team of Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick about the pic, a source tells Variety. Disney has no comment and no deal is in place yet. The five previous “Pirates” movies hauled $1.5 billion domestically and $3.07 billion internationally, with the North American market representing a progressively smaller share. The domestic total for 2017’s “Dead Men Tell No Tales” hit $172 million, while foreign markets delivered $622 million. All five films have grossed more than $650 million worldwide, with “Dead Man’s Chest” and “On Stranger Tides” both topping the $1 billion mark. “Dead Men Tell No Tales” centered on Johnny Depp’s swashbuckling Jack Sparrow battling deadly ghost sailors, led by the Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar. Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites joined the cast, with Orlando Bloom returning as Will Turner and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Hector Barbossa. Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who teamed on “Kon-Tiki,” directed the movie, with Jerry Bruckheimer producing. Reese and Wernick wrote both “Deadpool” movies, with Ryan Reynolds joining them on the “Deadpool 2” script. They also penned “Life,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” and both “Zombieland” pics. They are repped by WME. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood. | |
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| 10-23-18 12:52pm - 2270 days | #1272 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump demands the truth from the Saudis. Did that asshole journalist mean to commit suicide? Or was too drunk to realize what he was doing? Besides, the journalist was not even a US citizen. Also, journalists help spread Fake News. So they are scumbag criminals. Trump, leader of the Free World. Trump, leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Vote for the Man. Vote for Trump. ------- ------- USA TODAY Exclusive: President Trump calls Jamal Khashoggi's death 'a plot gone awry' David Jackson and Susan Page, USA TODAY Published 6:49 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 | Updated 8:27 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – President Donald Trump on Monday questioned the account Saudi officials have given him about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but said he still believed it was “a plot gone awry.” In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, he indicated he would oppose efforts to cease arms sales to the kingdom in response. There are “many other” potential penalties, he said, saying he would be guided by consultations with key members of Congress in settling on the appropriate response, likening it to the discussions he had with Senate Republicans during the Supreme Court confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh. In characterizing the Khashoggi incident as a "plot gone awry," Trump indicated that he thought the journalist wasn’t deliberately lured into the consulate to be murdered. Saudi officials last week said Khashoggi's death followed a "brawl" inside the building, an explanation that drew skepticism from some on Capitol Hill. Trump questioned the validity of at least one detail that has emerged from the incident. Turkish officials have said Khashoggi’s body was cut up with a bone saw. Asked about that detail as a possible indication of wrongdoing, Trump sounded incredulous. “Do you know there was a bone saw?” he replied. Trump was expansive during an interview in his office aboard Air Force One as he flew to a rally in Houston for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in a surprisingly competitive race for re-election. Occasionally watching himself on a wall-mounted TV tuned to Fox News, he expressed optimism about the midterm elections and discussed his agenda when the new Congress takes over. Trump said he had talked on the phone with both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that more details about what happened inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey would be known within a day or two. “He says he is not involved nor is the king,” Trump said of the Saudi crown prince, declining to answer whether he believed his denials. If their involvement was proven, “I would be very upset about it. We’ll have to see.” He called the killing of Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, “foolish and stupid.” But he said billions of dollars in U.S. arms sales to the Saudis were an economic boon to Americans and a transaction that Russian and Chinese companies would be delighted to make, if the United States ended them. “We have a very big picture we have to keep in mind,” he said, noting also Saudi Arabia’s role in countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. Critics, including some Republicans, have questioned the Trump’s administration’s response to what has become a global diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and a close ally in the Middle East. Some have suggested the incident could not have occurred without Salman's knowledge. Trump has vacillated between criticizing a rush to judgment over what happened and trying to pacify critics who think he should take a much stronger stance, potentially by imposing sanctions. Before boarding Air Force One, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was “not satisfied” with the Saudi response so far. | |
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| 10-23-18 02:43am - 2270 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
October 22, 2018 11:48AM PT ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Pushed Back Seven Months to 2020 By Dave McNary Film Reporter Variety Warner Bros. has moved Gal Gadot’s “Wonder Woman 1984” back seven months from Nov. 1, 2019, to June 5, 2020. The sequel, which is set in 1984, replaces Mark Wahlberg’s “Six Billion Dollar Man,” which has been taken off the schedule. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution, said, “We had tremendous success releasing the first ‘Wonder Woman’ film during the summer so when we saw an opportunity to take advantage of the changing competitive landscape, we did. This move lands the film exactly where it belongs.” “Wonder Woman 1984” is the eighth installment in the DC Universe, and the fourth movie featuring Gadot’s Wonder Woman. The first pic earned $821.8 million worldwide, including $412.6 million in North America. The movie is the highest-grossing film with a female director, as well as the 25th-highest-grossing movie of all time in North America. Patty Jenkins is returning to direct. The film was originally dated on Dec. 13, 2019, but was moved forward to Nov. 1 to avoid being just a single week ahead of Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Episode IX,” which opens on Dec. 20, 2019. Chris Pine is also back and Kristen Wiig joins as the villainous Cheetah. Gadot and Jenkins are producing along with Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder and Stephen Jones. Related Gal Gadot Gushes Over Her Young 'Wonder Woman' Fans: 'To Them, I'm Diana' 'Charlie's Angels' Reboot Moves to Vacated 'Wonder Woman 1984' Slot Warner Bros. bought the rights to “Six Billion Dollar Man” late last year from the Weinstein Company, which had been developing the movie with Damian Szifron — best known for directing the Argentinian drama “Wild Tales.” The studio had already pushed back the release date for the sci-fi action film by a year, moving the opening from May 31, 2019, to June 5, 2020, in the wake of Szifron departing as director in early May of this year. “Wonder Woman 1984” is currently the only film dated for June 5, 2020. Gadot made the announcement Monday on her Twitter account: | |
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| 10-23-18 02:29am - 2270 days | #25 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Sorry. I was thinking your email didn't have the login details. That's what happened to me, until Mike sent me a third email with the login details. Like you said, you need to take it up with Mike. | |
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| 10-22-18 03:21pm - 2271 days | #23 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
@mbaya, Did you get a recent email from Mike with your login details? If yes, the login details should be shown clearly. username: password: If not, email Mike for the login details (using your confirming email). I got an email today (found it in my spam folder) with the login details shown clearly. Hope this helps. | |
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| 10-22-18 11:39am - 2271 days | #1271 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump breaks down in tears. Says he will close our southern border to all illegal immigrants. This is a national emergency. We are being flooded with criminals and bad people coming to the United States. Trump will use the military to stop the caravans. Will he bomb Mexico with nuclear missiles? Let us hope that Trump will be able to stop the illegal caravans with minimum force, only killing the criminals and other bad people. But if there is collateral damage, Trump will pray for the souls of everyone: including yours and mine. --------- --------- Trump says has told US military that migrant caravan is national emergency Thomson Reuters Oct 22nd 2018 9:11AM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he had alerted the military and federal border authorities that a U.S.-bound migrant caravan from Central America was a national emergency, and that the United States would begin curtailing aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Trump, in a series of posts on Twitter, gave no other details about his administration's actions. Representatives for the White House, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Pentagon did not immediately reply to a request for comment. "Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States," Trump wrote in a tweet, adding: "I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy." AdChoices "Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them," Trump wrote. Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants crowded into the Mexican border city of Tapachula over the weekend after trekking on foot from the Guatemalan border, defying threats by Trump that he will close the U.S.-Mexico border if they advanced, as well as warnings from the Mexican government. Mexican police in riot gear shadowed the caravan's arrival along a southern highway but did not impede the migrants' journey. Trump has threatened to halt aid to the region, and potentially close the U.S. border with Mexico with the help of the military if the migrants' march is not stopped. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis) | |
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| 10-22-18 11:12am - 2271 days | #21 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Michael (from PU and rabbit) sent me an email with username and password, so I was able to get into the porndoepremium site. If any other winners have trouble logging in to their new sites, check your email. Otherwise, email Michael for your password details, using the confirming email that you won a membership. Thanks, Michael. Edited on Oct 22, 2018, 11:27am | |
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| 10-22-18 01:49am - 2271 days | #1270 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump is the man: He sends military to our borders, with orders to shoot to kill any blacks, Mexicans, Muslims and other rapists and hardened criminals that are flooding into the US. We have to stop the influx of criminals bringing disease and crime into our streets. We need a strong border: if need be, the military needs to drop nuclear bombs on Mexico, land of rapists and murderers and men who do not honor women by grabbing their pussies. Trump tells the American public the Democrats are scumbags, who allow hardened criminals into our country. Also tells Americans that Obama and Clinton and other presidents have allowed Russia and other countries (China, North Korea, Japan, most of Europe, even shithole countries from Africa) to take advantage of the United States of America. No more. Trump will stand up to the bad people who are threatening America. -------- -------- President Trump threatens to turn away thousands of Central Americans as migrant caravan continues north New York Daily News KATE FELDMAN Oct 21st 2018 8:44PM As thousands of migrants marched north from the Mexico-Guatemala border, President Trump issued a warning to those hoping to eventually cross into the United States. “Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our (Southern) Border. People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away. The courts are asking the U.S. to do things that are not doable!” the President tweeted Sunday afternoon. “The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!” The growing crowd had reached about 5,000 by Sunday morning, a massive uptick from previously reported numbers. Caravan of migrants in limbo on Guatemala border as Trump takes credit for Mexican response » About 640 migrants have applied for asylum in Mexico, according to the Mexican government and the National Migration Institute. Of those, “priority attention” has been given to 164 women, 104 children and elders. Trump previously threatened to cut aid to Honduras and other nations and to send troops to the Mexican border to prevent the march, which formed on Oct. 13, from entering the U.S. He also accused the migrants of being “hardened criminals” without any proof and told a reporter to not “be a baby” when asked for evidence. | |
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| 10-21-18 03:14pm - 2272 days | #20 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
tangub, thanks for the fast response and the information. The email I got had no username and password. It just said I won a membership. But no login details for the membership, other than the name of the site I won a membership to. Maybe Michael will send some winners another email with their membership login details? Whatever. | |
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| 10-21-18 02:49pm - 2272 days | #18 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
mbaya, My apologies. I just opened my spam box email, and I see a new email from Michael that tells me I won a subscription to PornDoe Premium. However, there are no login details shown: Or any membership number or how to enter the site as a member. So, like you, I'm wondering if the confirming email from Michael was incomplete: Where are the login details: username password Maybe tangub could post if his email had a link to allow him entry to his membership? Or if his email gave him login details: username password Whatever. | |
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| 10-21-18 11:11am - 2272 days | #17 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
@mbaya, I don't think you need to log in to the PU site. Simply post your picks, in the order of preference, in the reply section of your notifying email, then hit the reply button. That should do it. At least, that's what I did, this morning. Hoping we are both winners, along with who ever else noticed the email, or saw their names posted at this thread. -------------- -------------- Below, is copy of the email I got, which I did not notice or open until today: On Friday, October 19, 2018, 10:23:32 AM PDT, Michael Hello, If you are receiving this email, you are a winner of our membership giveaway. Sort of. As I mentioned in the post on PornUsers, I have been trying to give away these year-long memberships to random winners, but most people are simply not getting back to me. https://www.pornusers.com/forum/forum_th...d.html?threadid=5718 So, I have a handful of memberships left and trying to think of the best way to administer them, since the random part isn't working out. Before the moderator Amanda left, she provided me with a list of the members she said are the best of the best on PornUsers; you either write a lot of reviews, contribute regularly to the threads, or both. So, my thinking goes, why not reward the community that provides us with incredible content and draws in people interested in Adult? As you can imagine, the pool of potential winners shrunk considerably. So here's how we're going to do this: Below is a list of the remaining memberships I have to give away. On a first-come, first-serve basis, simply reply to this email with the Top 5 sites you'd be interested in. Get back to me with your picks and I'll provide the login to whatever is your No.1. If No.1 has been taken, I'll give you No.2 and so on. 21 Sextury Fantasy Massage Mr Skin BaDoink VR BaDoink VR PornDoe Premium PornDoe Premium Puffy Network Puffy Network Pure Taboo Shoplyfter Team Skeet And again, thank you very much for your continued support of TheBestPorn, PornUsers and the entire community. -- Michael Product Manager RabbitsReviews/TheBestPorn/Rewards.xxx ICQ: 570439966 | Skype: RabbitsReviews Michael@RabbitsNetwork.com | |
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| 10-21-18 03:05am - 2272 days | #14 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
We have a winner: tangub A strange dog that's looking right at you. LOL. | |
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| 10-21-18 03:02am - 2272 days | #13 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The email notice was sent Oct 19 at 10:23 AM I just noticed it. My good deed for the year, posting this at the PU forum. In case any potential winners missed the email. | |
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| 10-21-18 02:54am - 2272 days | #11 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I see a list of addresses on the mailing list for the current winners. Some of these names are probably aliases. Will PU staff investigate further, to see if any are wanted? And if yes, these names should reply to the email they should have gotten, to claim their free membership. rearadmiral mbaya marcdc1 Check your email for the subject: Re: RabbitsReviews/TheBestPorn - Membership Giveaway2 Email sent by: Michael My congrats to the winners. (You need to reply to the email you got, with your top 5 picks, to claim a membership.) | |
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| 10-21-18 02:41am - 2272 days | #10 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I think I won something at PU. A membership give-away. My picks are: 21 Sextury Fantasy Massage PornDoe Premium Puffy Network Team Skeet If I did win, my thanks to PU staff. If not, thanks anyway. lk2fireone | |
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| 10-20-18 05:37pm - 2273 days | #1269 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is the man. He tells people the naked truth. Anyone who votes for a Democrat is crazy. Vote Republican. We need to keep Trump strong. We need to keep the President willing and able to grope our women. Women know they are to be used. Trump knows the truth, how people need to be led by the pussy. If you are a man, do you have a pussy? Trump will tell you the truth: all men, and women, have pussies, that can be grabbed. And Trump is the man to do it. ---------- ---------- At dueling events, Trump and Biden keeping focus on Nevada The Associated Press ZEKE MILLER Oct 20th 2018 4:02PM SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential White House challenger in 2020, are making election pushes several hundred miles apart from each other in pivotal Nevada, where early voting was beginning Saturday. Trump was wrapping up a visit to Western states with an afternoon rally in rural Elko, Nevada, and lending support for Dean Heller, considered the most vulnerable GOP senator on the Nov. 6 ballot as Republican hope to retain their Senate majority. A few hours earlier and 400-plus miles south, Biden was to participate in a rally at a union local and promote Democratic candidates, urging Nevada residents to get out and vote. In a further sign of the state's importance in the midterms, former President Barack Obama scheduled a stop Monday in Las Vegas. He won Nevada in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state by 2 percentage points over Trump in 2016. But during the last midterm elections in 2014, many Democrats stayed home and Republicans won key races across the state, which has a 29 percent Latino population. Trump has used his appearances in Montana and Arizona to try to frame the choices for voters in the upcoming election, contending Democrats are "too extreme and too dangerous" to take control of Congress. He has sought to focus on immigration as one of the defining election issues and has falsely accused Democrats of wanting "open borders" and encouraging illegal immigration. "Anybody who votes for a Democrat now is crazy," Trump said. The country's immigration system has long vexed politicians from both parties, and Republicans themselves have torpedoed near-compromises in recent years. Yet Trump tweeted Saturday that "we could write up and agree to new immigration laws in less than one hour" if Democrats "would stop being obstructionists and come together." "Call me," he told the Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. It seemed reminiscent of the time last year when Trump cracked open the door of bipartisanship with those leaders, who emerged from a White House meeting to say Trump had agreed to work toward a deal on protection young immigrants. But no agreement came to pass. Trump's Nevada visit was aimed at boosting Heller, whose opponent is Rep. Jacky Rosen as Democrats push to regain control of the Senate. Republicans hold a 51-40 edge now. In a tweet before leaving Arizona, Trump called Heller "a man who has become a good friend" and said he needed the senator's "Help and Talent in Washington." But Heller once had rocky relations with Trump and had returned a campaign donation from then-candidate Trump over Trump's immigration rhetoric. Last year, Trump threatened Heller's re-election chances when the senator held up GOP efforts to repeal the Obama-era health law. But Heller has since become an ally of the president, who has made two fundraising stops for him in Nevada this year already. Heller and Rosen held their first and only debate of the campaign on Friday. Heller accused her of making a visit to see separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border in order to stage a "photo-op," while she described Heller a "rubber-stamp" for Trump, whose tax plan she said benefits the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. The Biden-Trump circling of one another in the same state happened recently in Kentucky, where Biden campaigned for a Democratic congressional candidate on a Friday night and Trump held a rally the next evening. Biden said in his appearance that "basic American values are under assault" and that the upcoming election was "bigger than politics." Trump used his Kentucky visit to praise Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for shepherding the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-20-18 04:49pm - 2273 days | #1268 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump: My hero. Says the US will pull out of the nuke treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles. Great news for weapons makers. We need far more missiles, if we are to destroy Russia, China, North Korea, Japan, and Europe is one massive missile strike. Gazillions for offense. Not one cent for defense. Wait, maybe a few hundred trillion for defense. Trump, you are the man. Have you loaded up on defense companies in the stock market yet? ----- ----- Trump says U.S. will pull out of nuke treaty with Russia that limited number of missiles Christal Hayes USA TODAY Published 5:05 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2018 | Updated 7:18 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2018 WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Saturday he would pull out of a Cold-War era treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles in each country. Trump said Moscow had violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and he would halt the agreement. "We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out," Trump said when leaving a rally in Nevada Saturday afternoon. He said the U.S. would pull out "and then we are going to develop the weapons” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, though China isn't currently a party of the agreement. "Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years,” the president said. "And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to." Trump made the revelation as his National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. His first stop is scheduled in Moscow, where he’ll meet with Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. Hello! We’ve got complete midterm election coverage right here. Let’s begin! For most of the Cold War, U.S.-Russian summits were dominated by the issue of nuclear weapons, with Presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan reaching a series of incremental agreements to limit the number, size and location of each side’s nuclear arsenal. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was one of those agreements and is set to expire in the next two years. The 1987 pact helps protect the security of the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the Far East. It prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles. It also covers all land-based missiles, including those carrying nuclear warheads. "The INF Treaty likely has entered its final days. That’s unfortunate," said Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Pifer, writing about the news in a piece for the Brookings Institution said Trump's decision means that the U.S. would be blamed for pulling out of an agreement that aimed to make the world a safer place. The landmark treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan, helped lead to the destruction of thousands of missiles and simmered tensions during the Cold War. But for years, the U.S. has accused Russia of violating it and rapidly expanding and advancing its weapons stockpile. Meanwhile, Trump says the U.S. is constrained because of the agreement, preventing the nation from catching up. The Defense Department in February described some of Russia's advancements in a report, which also called for the U.S. to develop two new additional nuclear weapons to keep other world powers, including China, at bay. More: U.S. calls for new nuclear weapons as Russia develops nuclear-armed torpedo More: Report: Russian missile deployment violates treaty One of the weapons the Defense Department said Russia was creating was an intercontinental nuclear-armed torpedo that can travel thousands of miles and strike U.S. coastal cities with minimal warning. Called the "Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System," the Russian torpedo is reported to be able to deliver a thermonuclear cobalt bomb of up to 100 megatons. The weapon could trigger a tsunami wave of radioactive water that would blanket a coastal city. Politicians have called the torpedo a "doomsday" weapon. The president said the advancements, including those by China, were "unacceptable." "We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” Trump said. The president continued, explaining he would gladly stay in the pact but if "as long as somebody’s violating the agreement, we’re not going to be the only ones to adhere to it." The issue, Pifer said, is that if the U.S. pulls out of the treaty, there is no reason for Russia to halt creating and testing new weapons. He said negotiations and pushing Russia's compliance were needed. "So, U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty is a loser all around," he said. "Russian officials probably are celebrating the news." Trump made the announcement Saturday following a campaign stop in Elko, Nevada. National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed Saturday to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Contributing: Associated Press | |
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| 10-19-18 09:13am - 2274 days | #1267 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump praises congressman for assaulting a reporter. Trump breaks down and cries because his secret service agents will not shoot reporters who criticize Trump. Why can't my agents do like the Saudis? Kill the fucking reporters. Only Fox News is any good. I will loan Fox News some of my secret agents, if they want to off their competitors. That's only if my secret agents will grow some balls. Otherwise, they are useless fuckers. --------- --------- Trump jokes about congressman assaulting reporter: 'Any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy' By Kate Sullivan, Jim Acosta and Betsy Klein, CNN Updated 5:53 AM ET, Fri October 19, 2018 Trump praises lawmaker for assaulting reporter (CNN)President Donald Trump praised Montana Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte for assaulting a reporter during his campaign last May, saying "any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy" and made a gesture mimicking a body slam. At a Montana rally Thursday night, Trump admitted, "I shouldn't say this," but continued and said, "there's nothing to be embarrassed about." The comment comes at the same time as the administration responds to the disappearance and apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on October 2 and Turkish media reports that an audio recording suggests Khashoggi was tortured and killed soon after entering the building before being dismembered. Trump said Thursday "it certainly looks" like Khashoggi is dead. But, Trump said he is "waiting for the results" of investigations being conducted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, after which he pledged to make "a very strong statement." Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in June 2017 after he was convicted of "body slamming" Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian. A judge sentenced him to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management and a $300 fine along with a $85 court fee. Trump said he found out about Gianforte assaulting a reporter when he was traveling in Rome, and initially was concerned it would hurt the Republican in the election. "Then I said, well wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did," Trump said. The President's comments were met with laughter and applause from the crowd in Montana. Gianforte won the election the next day and apologized to Jacobs during his acceptance speech. "When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it," Gianforte told his supporters at his Election Night rally in Bozeman. "That's the Montana way." Saying he was "not proud" of his behavior, he added, "I should not have responded the way I did, for that I'm sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs." At the rally, Trump called Gianforte, "One of the most respected people in Congress," and a "tough cookie." "By the way, never wrestle him," he said. Guardian US editor John Mulholland condemned Trump's joke in a statement. "The President of the United States tonight applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian. To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it," Mulholland said. "In the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it runs the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world where they often face far greater threats. We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the President will see fit to apologize for them." The joke about Gianforte assaulting Jacobs came just after Trump framed the 2018 midterms elections as a choice between Republican law and order and Democratic "mobs." Trump said the November 6 vote will be "an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense. That's what it's going to be". In a new line for the campaign, he said "Democrats create mobs. Republicans create jobs." Trump later recalled the back-and-forth with former Vice President Joe Biden over a fight, and again invoked Gianforte's body slam of Jacobs. "How about sleepy Joe Biden? Sleepy Joe. Remember he challenged me to a fight and that was fine. And when I said he wouldn't last long -- he'd be down faster than Greg would take him down, he'd be down so fast, remember? Faster than Greg -- I'd have to go very fast, I'd have to immediately connect," Trump told the crowd. Trump recalled the challenge from Biden, to which he said the "fake news" said was "cute." When Trump responded that he'd go down fast, he characterized the media's response in a mocking voice: "They said, what a vicious statement." CNN"s Oliver Darcy contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-18-18 07:05am - 2275 days | #1266 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
A terrible opinion piece from the Washington Post that suggests our President, Donald Trump, might be a liar. Trump needs to send the military with guns blazing to shut down and destroy this rag of the scumbag Democrats. Does Jeff Bezos own the Washington Post? Arrest Bezos, put him in front of a firing squad for treason to our beloved President, and throw Jeff Bezos' carcass into a contamination site. ------- ------- The Washington Post Opinions Trump subverts our democracy with his lies Opinion | Trump lies about what scares him Columnist Eugene Robinson says President Trump's frenzied tweets about a "caravan" of migrants are really about his fear of losing his base. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) By Eugene Robinson Columnist October 15 President Trump’s constant, relentless, remorseless lying is a central feature of his presidency, an unprecedented threat to our democracy and — in my view — an impeachable offense. I realize it does not qualify as news that Trump lies all the time. I also realize it is not always possible to draw a bright line between untruths Trump knows are untrue and conspiratorial nonsense he might foolishly believe. But never before have we had a leader who so pollutes the national discourse with garbage that he at least ought to know is false — and I fear the consequences will be with us long after Trump is gone. At his inauguration, Trump swore to “faithfully execute the office of president.” He violates that oath when he speaks to the nation in bad faith. Other presidents have lied — Lyndon B. Johnson about Vietnam, Richard M. Nixon about Watergate, Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky. But never have we had a president who lies about everything , who invents his own fake facts, who continues to trumpet patent falsehoods even when confronted with the actual facts. And yes, undisputed facts do exist and can be ascertained. I am not talking about subtle matters of interpretation; I’m taking about knowing falsehoods, commonly known as lies. Here is just one example: At a roundtable with a group of workers in Duluth, Minn., in June, Trump said, “The head of U.S. Steel called me the other day, and he said, ‘We’re opening up six major facilities and expanding facilities that have never been expanded.’ ” A few days later, at the White House, Trump said, “U.S. Steel just announced they’re expanding or building six new facilities.” Reporters called the company for details and learned that U.S. Steel has not announced plans to open any new domestic steel mills, period. Not six new plants; not even one. The Post’s Fact Checker column gave Trump the maximum four Pinocchios for his patently untrue statement. End of story, right? Wrong. More than a month later, at one of his campaign-style rallies, Trump declared that “U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.” At another rally around the same time, he told supporters that “U.S. Steel just announced that they’re building six new steel mills.” Six new plants, seven new plants, what’s the difference when neither is true and the real number is zero? In June, Trump’s claim might have been called a “misstatement” or a “falsehood” or an “untruth.” A month later, after the truth had been clearly established, that same claim could only be called a bald-faced lie. And those are just a smattering of the more than 5,000 falsehoods from Trump that The Post has tallied since he took office. Trump clearly understands the benefit of flooding the zone. If, during the course of a rally or a news conference or an interview, he tells one glaring lie, that’s where all attention will be focused. But if he tells a dozen lies, or two dozen, it is all but impossible for critics to keep up. By the time all those lies have been called out, Trump will have spewed a few dozen more. In an interview broadcast Sunday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl offered a valuable lesson in how to pin Trump down. At one point, he was trying to leave the false impression that there is serious scientific debate about whether human activity has contributed to climate change. “They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael,” Trump said. “Who says that?” Stahl interjected. “ ‘They say?’ ” “People say,” Trump responded. “People say . . .” Finally he claimed, without offering a shred of evidence, that “scientists . . . have a very big political agenda” — a dodge amounting to an admission that Trump had no factual basis for the claims he was making. When Stahl turned to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, and Trump said, “I think China meddled also,” Stahl again called him on it: “You are diverting the whole Russia thing. . . . You are, you are.” Trump finally got so flustered that he said, “Lesley, it’s okay. In the meantime, I’m president — and you’re not.” And that is the point. When Trump insists on his own invented “facts,” he makes reality-based political dialogue impossible. His utter disregard for truth is a subversion of our democracy and a dereliction of his duty as president. The founders considered themselves men of honor whose word was their bond. They left us the vague, encompassing phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” for just such an emergency. Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A. | |
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| 10-18-18 06:38am - 2275 days | #1265 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
News summary: President Trump, Commander in Chief of the US military forces, is done talking. He has been reviewing news of illegal migrants making their way to the United States of America. Trump has been talking with his military aides. The aides have assured the President that there are spare nuclear missiles that can be used to stop the illegal caravan. Should the caravan be attacked in Mexico, which would limit damage from radiation fallout for the US? Or should the caravan be nuked at the border: where there would be more precise strikes with the nuclear missiles, but greater collateral damage to US civilians living near the blast areas? Trump has gone below ground in the underground shelters while his military aides struggle with questions of which countries to bomb: bomb Mexico, but also North Korea and maybe China, with a few missiles sent to Russian as a way of distraction? Except Trump's hero, Vladimir Putin, does not want any stray missiles to hit Russia. So Trump and his advisors are planning the best strategies to eliminate the threat of illegal immigrants to the US. Stay tuned for further developments. News flash: This week only, Amazon.com is having a special sale on military riot gear for civilians. Get your AK-47s, kamikaze assault rifles and military spec ammo with a 15% discount now! ------- ------- The Washington Post Trump threatens to summon military to close U.S.-Mexico border in response to migrant caravan By John Wagner and Alex Horton October 18 at 9:16 AM President Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras that has been making its way toward the United States. In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to halt U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants. “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump said in one tweet. In another, he suggested that the “onslaught” of immigrants could undermine a recently announced reworked trade deal with Mexico and Canada, writing that immigration is “far more important to me, as President, than Trade.” The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, has yet to be signed by the three countries. Congress is not expected to ratify it before next year. His comments come as Trump has been urging fellow Republicans to make immigration a central issue in the closing weeks of their midterm election campaigns and blaming Democrats for his failure to pass immigration legislation in the GOP-controlled Congress. “All Democrats fault for weak laws!” Trump said in one tweet Thursday. The issue of immigration is certain to be on the agenda Friday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Trump’s frustration appears to stem in part from record levels of migrant parents entering the United States with children in the three months since his administration ended family separations at the border. [Record number of families crossing U.S. border as Trump threatens new crackdown] The Post reported this week that Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Department of Homeland Security statistics. Trump has made migrant caravans a symbol of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration policies. In his Thursday tweets, he warned that the latest group includes “MANY CRIMINALS.” Earlier this year, Trump’s criticism turned a migrant caravan into a spectacle, with day-by-day media coverage of the journey. That episode caused a spat between the United States and Mexico and was used to justify a deployment of National Guard troops to the border. [Navigating the border: The barriers that define the U.S.-Mexico borderline] When troops have previously been mobilized by Trump in response to unlawful migration, their mission has been mostly passive support for border agents, like logistics and surveillance. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids using the military for civilian law enforcement duties outside military bases the United States. Military officials instructed troops to alert border agents if they encountered migrants, rather than intervene themselves except in cases of self defense. The Army also restricted the use of weapons to personnel who may need to use force. The General Accountability Office looked at Bush and Obama administration mobilizations on the border and found that DHS didn’t understand what its military support could and could not do, which frustrated both DHS and Pentagon officials. On Wednesday, Mexican officials said those in the Honduran caravan with proper documents could enter the country and those without it would have to apply for refugee status or face deportation. The migrants — who say they are traveling in search of jobs, better lives for their families and an escape from gang threats and violent communities — were blocked at the Honduras-Guatemala border for several hours earlier this week by Guatemalan police in riot gear before being allowed to pass. Joshua Partlow contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-17-18 10:15am - 2276 days | #1264 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Learning from their mistakes: The FBI has learned from its investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. The FBI could not locate Brett Kavanaugh to ask him questions about his drinking and possible sexual crimes. They also could not locate the 3 women who accused Brett of sexual crimes. They also could not locate or question the multiple witnesses who knew and associated with Brett in high school and college, who were willing to testify, but the FBI ignored them. So: The FBI has learned from their mistakes. The mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico, who has criticized President Donald Trump for his handling of the relief efforts from the hurrican damage, could be the subject of an FBI investigation for possible fraud. Power to the people. Donald Trump is furious the mayor did not appreciate Trump's efforts to help Puerto Rico. Now she could be charged, if the investigation, which is allowed to go wherever it needs to go (unlike the Brett investigation, which was limited in scope by the White House), if there is any evidence of fraud or obstruction or any other charges the FBI can bring. Hail, Trump, glorious leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Trump only made one mistake in the investigation: many of the FBI agents were un-armed. If Puerto Rico residents had fired on the FBI agents, how could the FBI agents defend themselves against the Puerto Rico scumbags, who are probably related the Mexican rapists and murderers? Last month, Trump sent a tweet quoting conservative Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who said Puerto Rico is run by "one of the most corrupt governments in our country." ----- ----- USA TODAY FBI agents raid San Juan, Puerto Rico city offices in fraud, obstruction investigation William Cummings, USA TODAY Published 11:50 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2018 FBI agents raided the main municipal offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, seizing documents and digital records as part of an investigation into fraud allegations related to the city government. Special agent in charge Douglas Leff said federal investigators are also looking into potential obstruction of the investigation. According to Leff, agents believe documents tied to the reported irregularities in the city's purchasing procedures might have taken from the building or falsified. At least 20, mostly unarmed, agents entered the building carrying briefcases, cameras, electronic equipment and coffee, the Puerto Rican news agency El Nuevo Día reported. The raid was focused on the offices of San Juan's Purchasing Division. When asked if San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was implicated in the investigation, Leff said, "We have no information about that, but we are going to follow the investigation where it leads us." Cruz tweeted Tuesday morning that she instructed city officials to cooperate with federal authorities. "If someone has done something wrong, they should undergo due process and face the consequences of their actions," Cruz said. Cruz has often sparred with President Donald Trump after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory last year. Their feud was recently rekindled after Trump expressed doubt about research that indicated the hurricane was responsible for nearly 3,000 deaths, a dramatic increase from the previous official death toll of 64. Trump has blamed the slow response to the damage caused by Maria on inefficiencies in the Puerto Rican government. Last month, Trump sent a tweet quoting conservative Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who said Puerto Rico is run by "one of the most corrupt governments in our country." The fraud investigation was sparked by an anonymous tip to the comptroller's office last year of favoritism in how the mayor's office rewarded contracts, according to El Nuevo Día. The allegation was centered on a $4.7 million contract awarded to construction company BR Solutions. The company is owned by businessman Leonel Pereira O’Neill, who has made political donations to a number of Puerto Rican politicians, including Cruz, El Nuevo Día reported. Leff told reporters that the fraud charges would likely carry a maximum sentence of five years, but he said that could change depending on what the investigation uncovers. | |
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| 10-17-18 09:54am - 2276 days | #1263 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...r-1990-a7639041.html Donald Trump 'kept book of Adolf Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet' In a 1990 interview, the billionaire businessman admitted to owning Nazi leader's 'Mein Kampf' but said he had would never read speeches Benjamin Kentish Monday 20 March 2017 13:27 A friend of Donald Trump said he believed the businessman would find Hitler's writings 'interesting' Donald Trump reportedly owned a copy of Adolf Hitler’s speeches and kept them in his bedside cabinet. A 1990 Vanity Fair article about billionaire businessman stated that Mr Trump’s then wife Ivana, said her husband owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of the Nazi leader’s speeches. Marie Brenner, the article’s author, wrote: “Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, 'My New Order', which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. “Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler's speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.” Asked by Ms Brenner about the claim and whether his cousin, John Walter, had given him the book, Mr Trump responded: “Who told you that?" He went on to explain that it was "his friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” Mr Davis told Vanity Fair: “I did give him a book about Hitler. But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.” Mr Trump, however, denied he would ever read speeches given by Hitler, saying: “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them." Ms Brenner suggested the businessman, who was suffering difficulties with his business at the time, may have been looking for inspiration in Hitler's "genius for propaganda" and the way he spun military defeats as great victories. The article also claimed that John Walter would frequently greet his cousin by saying: “Heil Hitler”. | |
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| 10-15-18 01:00am - 2278 days | #1261 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump now says that climate change is not a hoax. Also says that the climate will change back again. With the knowledge of his massive forebrain and hindbrains combined, Trump is probably, almost certainly, the world's foremost scientist, who is constantly analyzing and computing the possibilities of the entire world. So if Trump says that climate change is not a hoax, people can believe in him. And know it's the truth. My guess is that Trump has started investing in climate-change companies, ahead of the crowd. As soon as the crowd starts piling in, Trump will sell at inflated prices. Then Trump businesses will short-sale the climate-change companies. Then he will announce that on further studies, climate change is once again a hoax, and that the climate-change companies are frauds. And Trump will then profit massively as federal funds are withdrawn from the climate-change companies, to be put into the military and the wall between the United States and Mexico. We need a wall to keep out all the rapist and murderous Mexicans who are being smuggled into the US. Or we will die fighting, in the next Alamo. Not only that: Trump now admits that the people in Washington are evil and vicious. "He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking. "This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it's full of lies, deceit and deception," he said. "You make a deal with somebody and it's like making a deal with — that table." --------- --------- Trump says climate change not a hoax, not sure of its source The Associated Press Oct 14th 2018 8:30PM WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is backing off his claim that climate change is a hoax but says he doesn't know if it's manmade and suggests that the climate will "change back again." In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, Trump said he doesn't want to put the U.S. at a disadvantage in responding to climate change. "I think something's happening. Something's changing and it'll change back again," he said. "I don't think it's a hoax. I think there's probably a difference. But I don't know that it's manmade. I will say this: I don't want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don't want to lose millions and millions of jobs." Trump called climate change a hoax in November 2012 when he sent a tweet stating, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." He later said he was joking about the Chinese connection, but in years since has continued to call global warming a hoax. "I'm not denying climate change," he said in the interview. "But it could very well go back. You know, we're talking about over a ... millions of years." As far as the climate "changing back," temperature records kept by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that the world hasn't had a cooler-than-average year since 1976 or a cooler-than-normal month since the end of 1985. Trump, who is scheduled on Monday to visit areas of Georgia and Florida damaged by Hurricane Michael, also expressed doubt over scientists' findings linking the changing climate to more powerful hurricanes. "They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael," said Trump, who identified "they" as "people" after being pressed by "60 Minutes" correspondent Leslie Stahl. She asked, "What about the scientists who say it's worse than ever?" the president replied, "You'd have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda." Trump's comments came just days after a Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a warning that global warming would increase climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. The report detailed how Earth's weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world's leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming. Citing concerns about the pact's economic impact, Trump said in 2017 that the U.S. will leave the Paris climate accord. The agreement set voluntary greenhouse gas emission targets in an effort to lessen the impact of fossil fuels. On a different topic, Trump told "60 Minutes" that he's been surprised by Washington being a tough, deceptive and divisive place, though some accuse the real estate mogul elected president of those same tactics. "So I always used to say the toughest people are Manhattan real estate guys and blah, blah," he said. "Now I say they're babies." He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking. "This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it's full of lies, deceit and deception," he said. "You make a deal with somebody and it's like making a deal with — that table." | |
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| 10-14-18 06:27pm - 2279 days | #1260 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump says the fate of the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, will be known in the not too distant future. Is Trump talking through his asshole? Can he get the FBI to investigate? Are FBI investigations worth shit? The FBI investigated Brett Kavanaugh, and gave him a clean bill of health. This was in spite of former classmates who were willing to testify that Kavanaugh lied to the Senate. This was in spite of the accusations by women who claimed Kavanaugh molested them. The FBI did not bother to interview most of these witnesses. So the FBI is either incompetent, corrupt, or both. Maybe the CIA can investigate. Are CIA investigations worth reading? Trump seems to believe he knows more than the CIA, and doesn't want to spend a lot of time reading fake CIA reports. But Trump will get to the bottom of this. Trust Trump. A con man who lies out of both sides of his mouth, and some of the lies come out of his asshole. (Pardon the French.) The simplest solution: Bomb the hell out of Saudi Arabia. If any innocent lives are lost, God will sort them out. ------------- ------------- USA TODAY Saudis reject US threats over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warn oil could skyrocket John Bacon, USA TODAY Published 10:55 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 | Updated 8:47 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the disappearance of Washington Post contributing journalist Jamal Khashoggi and warned Sunday that any sanctions against the oil-rich kingdom would be met with "greater action" and possibly exploding oil prices. "The kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures or repeating false accusations," the government said in a statement released to Saudi media. "The Kingdom also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action." President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia could face "severe punishment" over Khashoggi, feared murdered after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Trump's warning dealt a gut punch to the Saudi stock market, which crashed 7 percent Sunday before recovering some of the losses to close down 3.5 percent. During an interview with CBS News' Lesley Stahl, which aired Sunday night on "60 Minutes," Trump said the truth of Khashoggi's fate would be known "in the not-too-distant future." If Saudi Arabia was responsible, Stahl asked, what sanctions might the U.S. put in place? "Well, it depends on what the sanction is," Trump said. "I'll give you an example. They are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted that order. Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it. We got it." "So, would you cut that off?" Stahl asked. "I don't want to hurt jobs," Trump said. "I don't want to lose an order like that. There are other ways of — punishing, to use a word that's a pretty harsh word, but it's true." The kingdom's statement warned that the Saudi economy plays an "influential and vital role" in the global economy. Only the United States and Russia produce more oil than Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More: Trump doesn't want to stop arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia More: Trump to call Saudi king over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi Turki Aldakhil, who leads the Saudi-controlled Al Arabiya television news network, warned Sunday that U.S. sanctions could ignite an "economic disaster that would rock the entire world." "If the price of oil reaching $80 angered President Trump, no one should rule out the price jumping to $100, or $200, or even double that figure," Aldakhil wrote in an opinion piece on the Al Arabiya website. He said the fallout could drive "the entire Muslim world into the arms of Iran." At a news conference Saturday in the Oval Office, the president said "we would be punishing ourselves" by canceling an arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia. He said the United States was competing against China and Russia for the $110 billion deal. Saudi Arabia has worked to diversify its economy by luring foreign investment. The kingdom will host its three-day Future Investment Initiative forum this month. Dubbed "Davos in the Desert," the forum draws government and financial leaders from around the world. Some dropped out as concerns over Khashoggi's fate rose. The president said he planned to speak with Saudi King Salman soon and plans to meet with Khashoggi’s family. Turkey claimed to have audio and video of Khashoggi’s killing. The president said he had not seen or heard the recordings but planned to soon. Khashoggi, a Saudi native and fierce critic of the Saudi ruling family, was living in self-imposed exile when surveillance footage showed him entering – but not leaving – the Saudi consulate. The kingdom vehemently denied killing Khashoggi but provided no explanation for his disappearance. "Their denials ring hollow," John Brennan, former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, told NBC's "Meet the Press." "It would be inconceivable that such an operation would be run by the Saudis without the knowledge of the day-to-day decision maker of Saudi Arabia." Suspicions over Khashoggi's fate touched off a firestorm of accusations, criticism and political tension between the United States and its strongest ally in the Middle East. "The truth is that if Washington imposes sanctions on Riyadh, it will stab its own economy to death," Aldakhil wrote. "Even though it thinks that it is stabbing only Riyadh!" | |
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| 10-14-18 05:02pm - 2279 days | #1259 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump confesses: I love everyone. Even my enemies. My Secretary of Defense is a traitor. He is a secret Democrat. Why did I leave him in my cabinet? I'm just too nice to people. Defense Secretary Mattis may be leaving soon. I wish him luck, because he's not the sort of man that can be hired by anyone with integrity. -------- -------- USA TODAY President Trump says Defense Secretary Mattis is 'sort of a Democrat' and may leave Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY Published 10:32 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 | Updated 6:33 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump described his defense secretary as "sort of a Democrat" and said he may leave the administration after the midterm elections in an interview airing on "60 Minutes" Sunday. "He may leave," Trump said of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, according to an interview excerpt released by CBS News. "I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington." The New York Times reported last month that Trump may have soured on Mattis. In addition to thinking that Mattis is a Democrat at heart, The Times said, Trump doesn't like being unfavorably compared to Mattis. For his part, the defense secretary has said Trump acts as if he has the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's recently published book "Fear." Asked if he wants Mattis gone, Trump told 60 Minutes that he has a "very good relationship" with the defense secretary, whom he called a "good guy." But, Trump said, "it could be" that Mattis is leaving. "I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said. After his first year in office, Trump's administration already had the highest rate of turnover among White House staff in decades, according to the Brookings Institution. The latest high-profile figure to announce her departure was Nikki Haley, Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, who is stepping down at the end of the year. | |
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| 10-14-18 08:36am - 2279 days | #1258 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump vows to punish Saudi Arabia over journalist. Saudi Arabia vows to retaliate. Can Saudi Arabia set off nuclear bombs in the heartland of the United States? Trump must destroy Saudi Arabia with megaton devices that will strike terror into the hearts of Muslims everywhere. Trump, Neo-Nazi leader of the US, must not bow down to the Muslim threat. And if Trump has a few nuclear devices left over, maybe he should bomb Democratic strongholds in New York and New Jersey. Bomb those scum-bag traitors to hell and back. ------ ------ Last Update 17 mins ago Saudi Arabia vows to retaliate if Trump follows through on 'severe punishment' threat over Khashoggi Gregg Re Investigation continues into disappearance of Saudi writer Trump vows 'severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is behind disappearance of missing columnist; insight on 'America's News HQ.' The government of Saudi Arabia on Sunday vowed to retaliate with "greater action" if the Trump administration punishes the country for the apparently preplanned murder of a dissident earlier this month inside its Turkish Embassy. Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote columns in the Washington Post critical of the Saudi government, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul October 2 and disappeared. Trump has said the U.S. would be “very upset and angry” if the Saudi government was behind it and, in an interview with "60 Minutes," he clarified that there would be "severe punishment." "The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by waving economic sanctions, using political pressure, or repeating false accusations," the country said in a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency. "The Kingdom also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action, [and] that the Kingdom's economy has an influential and vital role in the global economy," the statement continues. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is still scheduled to appear at the Oct. 23 Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia, a massive conference also called the "Davos in the Desert," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told "Fox News Sunday." Citing the journalist's murder, several officials and media companies have pulled out of the conference, which is meant to showcase Saudi Arabia's growing prominence on the world stage. "That meeting .... is about terrorists’ financing and how to stop it – it’s a very important meeting," Kudlow said. He added: "If Khashoggi was harmed, [Trump] will take action. ... When the president speaks, when the president warns, people should take him at his word. Obviously, he is very, very serious." Asked whether Saudi Arabia could hurt the U.S. by leveraging its oil reserves, Kudlow said he didn't see major risks. "We are in pretty good shape, in my opinion, with our energy boom, to cover any shortfalls," he told host Chris Wallace. "When the president warns, people should take him at his word. Obviously, he is very, very serious." — White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow Trump has said he probably will not cancel a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudi government, arguing that killing the arrangement would harm the U.S. unnecessarily. Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio defended Trump's decision, saying Saudi Arabia would simply buy arms from another source if the U.S. cut them off -- and that the U.S. would lose its leverage over the country in the process. Rubio added that the issue didn't come down to money. "There's not enough money in the world for us to buy back our credibility on human rights," he said. Turkish officials have told their American counterparts that they have audio and video recordings that prove Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, the Post reported late Thursday. The recordings would represent the first hard evidence to support the Ankara government's contention that a 15-member "assassination squad" apprehended Khashoggi after he entered the consulate, then killed him and dismembered his body. REPORT: TURKISH OFFICIALS HAVE APPLE WATCH RECORDING OF JOURNALIST'S APPARENT MURDER IN CONSULATE Turkish officials have reportedly balked at releasing the recordings out of fear it would compromise intelligence methods. A Turkish newspaper reported that Khashoggi's Apple watch may have recorded his last moments. Report: Saudi officials tried to lure Jamal Khashoggi backVideo Turkish media, including sources close to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have previously claimed that Saudi royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert had been part of the team flown in on the day Khashoggi vanished. Meanwhile, senior members of Congress are pushing to cancel arms sales and sanction those found responsible. Several Republicans and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to President Trump requesting he “make a determination on the imposition of sanctions … with respect to any foreign person responsible for such a violation related to Mr. Khashoggi.” The letter triggered an investigation under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. That requires the administration to sanction those found responsible of a gross violation of human rights against someone exercising freedom of expression. The State Department called the bipartisan effort premature. Turkish media release video of suspected Saudi hit squadVideo “We don’t know the facts of this case just yet. So I think they’re getting ahead of themselves at this point,” said Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokesperson. “We will watch the situation very carefully, very closely, wait for the facts to come out, and then we’ll get there.” The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has a relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne. President Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination as president. Fox News' Rich Edsen and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-13-18 11:15am - 2280 days | #1257 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump vows ‘severe punishment’ if Saudis involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. However, Trump also believes you are innocent until proven guilty. With no hard evidence that Jamal Khashoggi was abducted or killed, then the Saudis are innocent. Go, Trump, maker of real facts, real emotions, real cons. Trump fights for everyone, including African Americans, those people from shithole countries. African Americans should turn to the Republican party, who will fight for their rights. Trump will also fight for the rights of Muslims, Women, and other minorities. Trump, the hero of the American dream. | |
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| 10-13-18 10:24am - 2280 days | #1256 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news from the shadows of the Dark Department. Trump vows severe punishment if Jamal Khashoggi is not returned. This is part of Trump's plan to discredit newsmen and journalists everywhere. Trump plotted with Saudi Arabia to have Jamal Khashoggi killed. But he denies his involvement, saying the Saudis alone are responsible. Everyone who has read the news for the last few years knows that Trump is an enemy of newspapers and journalists throughout the world. So why would Trump care if one journalist is killed? He doesn't. He wants the mass destruction of newsmen and journalists in the United States. So that Trump can establish, with the leadership of Fox News, the New Nazi Uber News, where real news by Donald Trump will be shown and told to the entire US population. Hail Donald Trump, Uber Nazi of the Moral Majority for a White America. ------ ------ Trump vows ‘severe punishment’ if Saudis involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance HuffPost US Lee Moran Oct 13th 2018 10:22AM President Donald Trump has warned there will be “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia is discovered to be responsible for the disappearance and possible death of U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey earlier this month. He was known to be critical of Saudi policies and Turkish authorities claim he was killed inside the building. “Nobody knows yet” if Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi authorities, Trump told “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl in a preview clip released online Saturday ahead of the interview’s full broadcast on CBS Sunday night. Trump said the incident was “being investigated” and “being looked at very very strongly” and that the U.S. “would be very upset and angry if that (Saudi involvement) was the case.” “As of this moment, they deny it and deny it vehemently,” he added. “Could it be them? Yes.” Trump refused to reveal whether he would impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia if its involvement was confirmed. “There are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true,” he told Stahl. “There’s a lot at stake, and maybe especially so because this man was a reporter,” added Trump, who in the U.S. has repeatedly described CNN as “fake news” and journalists as “enemies of the people.” “You’ll be surprised to hear me say that, but there’s something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were,” he added.“We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 10-12-18 08:52am - 2281 days | #1254 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Melania is a strong woman. She ignores rumors of Trump's infidelities. All she is concerned about is Trump's bank balance. And since she is only his wife, and not his financial planner, she does not have access to the secret codes that would allow her to check Trump's financial condition. Remember the pre-nup, fellows. So, unless a well-wisher mails her a hard copy of Trump in bed with one of his part-time floosies, Melania is sticking by her man. And even if she did get her hands on a few tapes showing her husband in bed with other women, she might decide to stick with him anyway: for a higher price, naturally. Melania, a woman with a high moral code: She's with the MeToo Movement, but warns women not to complain about rape unless they have hard evidence to back up their stories. That's not a problem with Melania, since she has a separate bedroom from her husband. And she has secret service and photographers that protect her from being grabbed by the pussy by strangers. Melania, candidate for Times Woman of the Year Award. ------ ------ Melania Trump says she ignores rumors of Trump's infidelity The Associated Press DINO HAZELL Oct 12th 2018 9:48AM WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump says she loves President Donald Trump and has "much more important things to think about" than allegations he cheated on her with a porn star, a Playboy Playmate or anyone else. Mrs. Trump, who was interviewed by ABC while touring Africa last week, said people are just spreading rumors about her marriage. "I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage and circulate the gossip," she said. "But I understand the gossip sells newspapers, magazines ... and, unfortunately, we live in this kind of world today." She insisted allegations of her husband's infidelities are not a concern. SEE ALSO: Melania Trump: Women accusing men should 'show the evidence' Trump, who during the 2016 presidential campaign was heard on an old "Access Hollywood" tape talking about groping and try to have sex with women, has been accused of having multiple affairs. Porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal have said they had sex with him years ago. Trump has denied the trysts with Daniels and McDougal but has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for a $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Mrs. Trump has generally kept quiet on the subject. Asked in the ABC interview if she loves her husband, Mrs. Trump said, "Yes, we are fine. Yes." She played down a suggestion the repeated rumors of his philandering had put a strain on their marriage. "It is not concern and focus of mine," she said. "I'm a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do." But when she was asked if the repeated rumors had hurt her, she paused. Then she reiterated the "media world is speculating." "Yeah, it's not always pleasant, of course," she said. "But I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true." Portions of Mrs. Trump's interview aired Friday on "Good Morning America." Her full interview is set to air Friday night in an ABC News special, "Being Melania — The First Lady." Other portions of the interview aired earlier this week featured Mrs. Trump saying she could be "the most bullied person" in the world and saying women who make accusations of sexual assault need to "show the evidence." Donald Trump, on the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape that became public during the 2016 campaign, says when he's attracted to beautiful women, "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet." He said when you're a star, women let you. "Grab them by the p----," Trump adds. "You can do anything." Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the National Enquirer tabloid were involved in buying the silence of Daniels and McDougal after they alleged affairs with Trump. | |
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| 10-11-18 08:34am - 2282 days | #1253 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: The White House blasts the FBI for spreading fake news. The White House stands by its previous statements: The White House said the FBI probe will be full and impartial. It imposed no limits on the FBI investigation. If Chris Wray, that drunk, incompetent head of the corrupt FBI, said the investigation into Brett Kavanaugh was flawed, that was the result of the FBI's corrupt and incompetent leaders. The White House ordered a full and fair investigation into Kavanaugh, and they wanted the truth exposed. The truth was exposed: Brett Kavanaugh is a great man, a fine jurist, and he deserves his post on the Supreme Court. If the FBI wants to spread lies that Kavanaugh is not the finest man we could find, the FBI needs to be investigated for lies and corruption and possible graft. We need to clean the swamp in Washington, starting with the FBI and any other government institutions that try to bring down trust in Donald Trump, the most glorious, heroic president of the United States we've ever had. Hail Trump, Glorious Leader for Life of the United States of Trumpland. | |
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| 10-11-18 08:16am - 2282 days | #1252 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I agree that the FBI should feel ashamed to be used as a political tool. But even though the ideal FBI is a non-partisan investigative body, the FBI is under the control of the Attorney General (part of the White House). Supposedly both the Senate and the Attorney General had the power to direct the FBI investigation: its scope and time limit. The White House said the FBI probe will be full and impartial. It imposed no limits on the FBI investigation. That was a lie. The Director of the FBI, Chris Wray, said the White House ordered the FBI to investigate Brett Kavanaugh, and that the scope was limited (also saying that the scope was “consistent with the standard process for such investigations.” Which is legalese double-speak for saying "We're just following orders." Which is why it did not investigate many witnesses who were available and anxious to testify that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath. The FBI was told not to investigate whether Brett Kavanauagh lied under oath. So, in theory, the FBI was just following orders. And being a tool of partisan politics: not in finding the truth, but in a shameful coverup that allowed Republicans to say how fair and wonderful they were, and still confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. | |
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| 10-10-18 06:48pm - 2283 days | #1250 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Who you gonna call if you want a sham investigation? The friendly FBI, of course. They will issue a clean report on Kavanaugh, who had multiple witnesses willing to testify Kavanaugh lied under oath. Who you gonna call if you want the truth from the White House? Nobody. The White House is full of professional liars. --- --- Politics FBI Chief Says Kavanaugh Investigation Was 'Limited In Scope' At White House Direction [HuffPost] Marina Fang ,HuffPost•October 10, 2018 FBI Chief Says Kavanaugh Investigation Was Limited In Scope At White House Direction The White House imposed limits on the FBI’s background investigation into the sexual assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the bureau’s director said Wednesday, explaining that the limited scope was “consistent with the standard process for such investigations.” The White House, not the Senate Judiciary Committee, ordered the investigation into Kavanaugh, FBI Director Chris Wray told Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in response to a question on the bureau’s process. Harris then asked Wray to clarify whether the White House limited the FBI’s investigation. “Our investigation here, our supplemental update to the previous background investigation, was limited in scope,” Wray said. Wray explained that for background investigations, the FBI typically follows guidance set by whatever entity orders the investigation. “In this case, it’s the White House,” he said. Wray’s comments contradict claims from the White House that the Senate Judiciary Committee controlled the investigation. “The White House is not micromanaging this process,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Sept. 30, while the investigation was ongoing. “The Senate is dictating the terms.” Trump told reporters on Oct. 1 that the investigation would be “within the bounds of what the Senate wants.” “We don’t want to go on a witch hunt, do we?” he said, adopting his preferred phrase. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), whose call for the investigation forced a delay in Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote, pushed for a wide-ranging investigation into the credible claims against Kavanaugh. “It does no good to have an investigation that just gives us more cover, for example. We actually need to find out what we can find out,” he said. When the White House and Senate Republicans announced the FBI’s findings after less than a week, Democrats criticized the limited probe as a sham and part of Republicans’ plans to rush through Kavanaugh’s nomination. Many key people were not interviewed, including Kavanaugh himself. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school, was also not included. The FBI did speak to Deborah Ramirez, who said that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her while they were students at Yale University. But the bureau did not follow up with dozens of other classmates and acquaintances who publicly refuted Kavanaugh’s claims under oath that he did not drink excessively in his youth. Many of them said that they received no response after reaching out to the bureau. Wray declined to say Wednesday if the bureau’s investigation covered whether Kavanaugh had lied to Congress during his testimony. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 10-10-18 01:07pm - 2283 days | #1249 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
James Comey is on the run. Sources have revealed that his ex-boss, President Donald Trump, has used his mob connections to put out a hit on Comey. The twist is that Mike Pence is the paymaster. No one will suspect that Mike Pence would be involved in such a dirty deal. And the Senate, with a strong Republican majority, will deny Pence's guilt to their dying breath. Can the New York Times find evidence of the plot against James Comey, in time to stop the killers? Or will James Comey go down in history as a corrupt FBI official who was part of the Washington swamp? Stay tuned for further developments. | |
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| 10-09-18 03:24pm - 2284 days | #2 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I'm impressed by your tech skills. 1. The short clips are nice quality. 2. The short clips are linked, so that if you play the first one, all the other clips automatically play in sequence. Like I say, impressive. | |
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| 10-08-18 06:17pm - 2285 days | #1248 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Why can't China kidnap President Trump and force him to confess his crimes? Trump is the most corrupt president the US has ever had. China would be doing us (all US citizens) and the rest of the world, including China, a big favor if they kept Trump at a secret location and waterboarded him. Trump has said he favors waterboarding. Great. Waterboard the bastard, until he confesses all of his crimes. Which would take years, because his entire life is filled with illegal acts that have not been punished. ------ ------ The Guardian Movies Fan Bingbing’s mysterious disappearance: what it means for China’s elite Three months ago, one of the country’s best known actors went missing. Now, seemingly chastened, she has reappeared with a bill for £112m in unpaid taxes and fines Steve Rose Thu 4 Oct 2018 11.27 EDT Last modified on Fri 5 Oct 2018 04.39 EDT Imagine if Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett Johansson went missing and nobody knew where they had gone – even three months later. That is what happened to Fan Bingbing. Fan is one of China’s best known and highest-paid actors, thanks to a string of domestic hits such as Cell Phone and Double Xposure, and small roles in Iron Man 3 and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The 37-year-old was on the jury of the Cannes film festival last year, and is set to star in a new thriller opposite Jessica Chastain and Penelope Cruz. On 2 July this year she posted details of a visit to a children’s hospital in Tibet on Weibo (China’s answer to Twitter). Then her account went dead, leaving her 63 million followers, and pretty much the rest of China, wondering where she had gone. Had Fan been abducted? Arrested? Was she just taking a career break? The questions piled up, then tipped over into conspiracy theory. There were baseless rumours such as she had fled to the US, with the help of Jackie Chan. That she and husband Li Chen gambled away $12m (£9.2m) in three days in Las Vegas. That she was being held in a military prison in Beijing after having an affair with Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan. “Someone is trying to use Fan Bingbing to get to Wang Qishan,” exiled businessman Guo Wengui told reporters. Fan strenuously denied the affair and was suing Guo at the time of her disappearance. Jackie Chan, who had starred with Fan in his 2016 movie Skiptrace, denied all knowledge of Fan’s whereabouts. The most credible rumour may have been that Fan was in trouble with the tax office, which is not quite as prosaic as it sounds. Shortly before her disappearance, the popular TV presenter Cui Yongyuan posted on social media what appeared to be two separate contracts for Fan’s work on her forthcoming movie Air Strike, starring Bruce Willis. One contract was apparently for 10m yuan (£1.3m); the other for 60m yuan (£7.6m). The implication presumably was that this was a “yin-yang contract” – two for the same job. The smaller figure, it was implied, was declared to the tax office; the larger one purported to indicate what the star was actually paid. Fan denied the allegation, and Cui promptly retracted it, but the authorities reportedly began to investigate shortly before Fan went off the radar. This Wednesday, the mystery was apparently partly explained with the news that Fan and her companies had been ordered to pay 883m yuan (£112m) in unpaid taxes and fines. She has not been charged with any crime. Fan’s first public communication since July was a grovelling confession on Weibo: “For a long time, I did not distinguish between national, social and personal interests,” she wrote. “As a public figure, I should abide by the law, and play a leading role in society and industry … Without the good policies of the party and the state, and without the love of the people, there would be no Fan Bingbing.” In short, Fan seems to have been made an example of. Fan Bingbing: missing Chinese actor hit with $129m tax bill Read more China’s movie industry has mushroomed over the past decade. In 2007, its total box office was just over 3bn yuan (£335m); last year it was 56bn yuan (£6.4bn). It is poised to overtake the US as the world’s biggest film territory. This cultural explosion has brought in a new breed of moneyed celebrity, some of whom have no inhibitions about its wealth. Three years ago, for example, the nation was gripped by the wedding of high-profile actor Huang Xiaoming to Hong Kong-born Yang Ying – AKA Angelababy, who is often considered China’s answer to Kim Kardashian (Kim has 118 million followers on Instagram; Angelababy has 96 million followers on Weibo). The event, which was livestreamed on the internet, was like a royal wedding, with a comparable budget – an estimated $31m (£24m). There was a 10ft wedding cake, a holographic castle, a $1.5m (£1.1m) wedding ring, a custom Dior dress that took five months to make and goodie bags including mobile phones for the 2,000 guests. But this summer the authorities apparently decided to take action. Already the content of Chinese films is carefully vetted and must promote “core socialist values”. Then, in June, official agencies announced a joint clampdown on actors’ pay, citing not only tax evasion but “money worship”, “the youth blindly chasing celebrities” and “distorted social values”. In August, nine major production companies issued a joint pledge to cap actors’ salaries at 40% of total production costs, and lead actors’ salaries at 70% of the cast’s total pay. The same month, Huang was linked to a scandal involving share-price manipulation and questioned by the authorities. He denied any involvement, but still publicly apologised for his “indiscretion in wealth management”. Then, last month, a Beijing university published the Film and Television Star Social Responsibility Report, ranking the 100 top celebrities. Fan Bingbing came last. The authorities have warned that others will face penalties and “administrative punishment” like Fan if they do not “undergo self-examination and make remedial payments to taxation authorities” before the end of the year. More than the regulatory crackdown, it is the nature of Fan’s disappearance that has sent a jolt through Chinese society. According to reports, Fan was detained at a “holiday resort” in Wuxi, under a 2013 legal framework known as “residential surveillance at a designated location”. It is essentially a legalistic euphemism for disappearance and forced detention. “In practice it often means someone is held in secret and denied all contact with the outside world,” says Michael Caster, a human rights advocate and editor of The Peoples Republic of the Disappeared, a collection of first-hand accounts of victims of such forced detentions. “Many of them were subject to one form of torture or another, from prolonged sleep deprivation to physical pain, beatings, stress positions, mental abuse and threatening family members.” In many cases, the outcome is forced confessions. Until now, forced detentions have been used against suspected political dissidents and human rights defenders, such as Caster’s former colleague, lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who went missing in 2015 and has not been seen since. In another case, Chen Yong, a driver for a Fujian official, disappeared in April. A month later, his family were told he was dead. Applying such blunt force to the entertainment industry would be new, but not entirely out of character. “President Xi Jinping has made it very clear that he wants to do away with elites and the fetishism around money and certain forms of power,” says Caster. “If you have people looking to what celebrities do and say online versus what the party dictates, that may be very plausibly part of it. Anything that rises to a level of social, economic or political power is seen as a threat to the supremacy of the Communist party.” We are unlikely to ever know what exactly Fan Bingbing underwent, but the implication is clear: if the authorities can get to the biggest celebrity in the land, they can get to anyone. | |
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