twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 15:38:11 Why isn't disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe being investigated for the $700,000 Crooked Hillary Democrats in Virginia, led by Clinton best friend Terry M (under FBI investigation that they killed) gave to McCabe's wife in her run for office? Then dropped case on Clinton! reageer retweet

twitter:

mrbromwich twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 21:59:56 What prompts you to defame the McCabes every two weeks or so? There was no quid pro quo, as you falsely suggest. There was no misuse of campaign funds, as you have repeatedly and falsely suggested. You need to stop lying about the McCabes. https://t.co/exQffv4O2i reageer retweet

twitter:

passantino twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 00:00:16 Here’s who the Texas school shooter was following on Instagram https://t.co/EWYe9SCDah https://t.co/XdqIWsGwXX reageer retweet

quote:

Jim Bridenstine, Donald Trump’s pick as NASA administrator, appeared to change his tune on climate change during his first employee town hall since he was confirmed to the position, acknowledging that human beings contribute significantly to the warming of the planet.

“As far as my position on climate change and how it’s evolved, I’ll be very open,” he told NASA employees Thursday. “I don’t deny that consensus that the climate is changing. In fact, I fully believe and know that the climate is changing. I also know that we human beings are contributing to it in a major way.”

Humans are putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere “in volumes that we haven’t seen, and that greenhouse gas is warming the planet. That is absolutely happening, and we are responsible for it.”

SPOILER

The remarks represent a significant departure from comments he made only a few months ago during his confirmation hearing, when he stated that humans are contributing to global warming but wouldn’t quantify their role.

“It’s going to depend on a whole lot of factors, and we’re still learning more about that every day,” he said last November. “In some years, you could say absolutely. In other years, during sun cycles and other things, there are other contributing factors that would have more of an impact.”

Bridenstine, a Republican from Oklahoma, is the first elected official to become NASA administrator. He was narrowly confirmed by the Senate 50-49, and politicians on both sides of the aisle shared their concerns about Bridenstine during the months-long nomination process.

The primary concern was his lack of space experience, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said last September.

Critics have also pointed to his climate-denying past. In a 2016 interview with Aerospace America, he insisted that the climate has always changed, countering any human responsibility.

“Going back to the 1600s, we have had mini ice ages from then to now.”

In a June 2013 speech, he also asserted that global temperatures “stopped rising 10 years ago” and asked for an apology from then-President Barack Obama, accusing him of a “gross misallocation” of funds for climate change research instead of weather forecasting.

quote:

Some parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, are likely to hear an interesting response Friday night when they ask their teenagers how the day at school went.

Eight members of Montgomery County Students for Gun Control made their way to the U.S. Capitol on Friday afternoon, where they staged a sit-in outside the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). They were calling on him to pass common-sense gun control legislation.

The U.S. Capitol Police ended up arresting four of them, according to Daniel Gelillo, a member of the student group who didn’t attend the sit-in.

Gelillo, 17, told HuffPost that the teens organized Friday’s action as a rapid response to that morning’s Texas high school shooting, which left 10 dead and another 10 wounded.

SPOILER

The protest caught the attention of David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, who tweeted his support:

twitter:

davidhogg111 twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 23:27:02 I love these kids almost as much as @SpeakerRyan loves arresting students practicing their First Amendment rights to peacefully protest. reageer retweet

“This is an issue we all care about deeply, and we’re all incredibly frustrated and saddened by the losses suffered in Texas today,” Gelillo told HuffPost. “We want to see change, and we want to see it sooner rather than later.”

He added, “We should not live in a country where we have to go to school in fear of the possibility of looking down the barrel of a rifle.”

Eva Malecki, communications director for the U.S. Capitol Police, confirmed that four juveniles were arrested Friday outside the office building where Ryan works. The four face charges of “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.”

quote:

After at least 10 people were shot and killed at a school in Santa Fe, Texas, the state’s lieutenant governor said the problem may have been that there were too many entrances and exits at the building for guards to monitor ― as opposed to, say, easy access to guns.

The attack, which left 10 others wounded, took place on Friday morning at Santa Fe High School. At a press conference later that day, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that in order to prevent other such shootings, officials may have to “look at the design of our schools.”

“There are too many entrances and too many exits to our 8,000 campuses in Texas. There aren’t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit,” he said, adding that limiting entrances to “one or two” could allow law enforcement to look at everyone who enters.

“Had there been one single entrance possibly for every student, maybe he would have been stopped,” Patrick said, referring to the suspected shooter, who, he added, was wearing a long coat with a shotgun under it on a 90-degree day.

SPOILER

“We’re going to have to be creative. We’re going to have to think out of the box,” he continued, suggesting that schools might change their start times so not all students arrive at once. Referring to discussions on mass shootings that Gov. Greg Abbott has requested, Patrick said, “That’s why the governor is calling for the roundtable, to discuss every option.”

People on Twitter were quick to remark that having only one exit in a building holding about 1,500 students plus teachers and other staffers might not be so safe ― for instance, by making it harder for people to get out in the event of a fire or shooting.

twitter:

strefry twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 21:24:54 That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Ask any fire chief. reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 03:19 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
Texas Lt. Gov. Says ‘Too Many Entrances’ Possibly To Blame In School Shooting (HuffPo)

[..]

twitter:

strefry twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 21:24:54 That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Ask any fire chief. reageer retweet

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 09:16 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Slaat sowieso nergens op. Waarom zou een schietpartij enkel binnen plaats moeten vinden. Sterker nog, ik denk dat het zelfs "efficiënter" is om het te doen als iedereen net de school verlaat.

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 01:20 schreef monkyyy het volgende:

twitter:

passantino twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 00:00:16 Here’s who the Texas school shooter was following on Instagram https://t.co/EWYe9SCDah https://t.co/XdqIWsGwXX reageer retweet

[ afbeelding ]

Tsja.

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 02:26 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
...only the best, but sometimes really (& very unexpectedly) on their way up!

Trump’s NASA Chief Has Apparently Changed His Tune On Climate Change (HuffPo)

[..]

OK, die heeft daar zijn langste tijd waarschijnlijk wel gezeten.

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Why is Mr. Cohen's attorney Mr. Ryan representing Mr. Cohen at the same time he is working for Qatar? Especially in light of the Qatar bribery allegations revealed earlier this week? Are they paying MC's legal bills? No wonder he is trying to keep me out of the case! #Conflict

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 18:58 schreef grrrrg het volgende:
Ik had gehoord dat Melania een zelfmoordpoging had ondernomen? Hoe gaat het met haar?

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 11:06 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:
Tja, die man heeft sinds zijn binnenkomst natuurlijk een dusdanig overtuigende hoeveelheid bewijs ter inzage gekregen dat zijn mening zowaar daadwerkelijk veranderd is

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The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic (NYTimes, July 28, 2012)

Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming. In its 2007 report, the I.P.C.C. concluded only that most of the warming of the prior 50 years could be attributed to humans. It was possible, according to the I.P.C.C. consensus statement, that the warming before 1956 could be because of changes in solar activity, and that even a substantial part of the more recent warming could be natural.

SPOILER

Our Berkeley Earth approach used sophisticated statistical methods developed largely by our lead scientist, Robert Rohde, which allowed us to determine earth land temperature much further back in time. We carefully studied issues raised by skeptics: biases from urban heating (we duplicated our results using rural data alone), from data selection (prior groups selected fewer than 20 percent of the available temperature stations; we used virtually 100 percent), from poor station quality (we separately analyzed good stations and poor ones) and from human intervention and data adjustment (our work is completely automated and hands-off). In our papers we demonstrate that none of these potentially troublesome effects unduly biased our conclusions.

The historic temperature pattern we observed has abrupt dips that match the emissions of known explosive volcanic eruptions; the particulates from such events reflect sunlight, make for beautiful sunsets and cool the earth’s surface for a few years. There are small, rapid variations attributable to El Niño and other ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream; because of such oscillations, the “flattening” of the recent temperature rise that some people claim is not, in our view, statistically significant. What has caused the gradual but systematic rise of two and a half degrees? We tried fitting the shape to simple math functions (exponentials, polynomials), to solar activity and even to rising functions like world population. By far the best match was to the record of atmospheric carbon dioxide, measured from atmospheric samples and air trapped in polar ice.

Just as important, our record is long enough that we could search for the fingerprint of solar variability, based on the historical record of sunspots. That fingerprint is absent. Although the I.P.C.C. allowed for the possibility that variations in sunlight could have ended the “Little Ice Age,” a period of cooling from the 14th century to about 1850, our data argues strongly that the temperature rise of the past 250 years cannot be attributed to solar changes. This conclusion is, in retrospect, not too surprising; we’ve learned from satellite measurements that solar activity changes the brightness of the sun very little.

How definite is the attribution to humans? The carbon dioxide curve gives a better match than anything else we’ve tried. Its magnitude is consistent with the calculated greenhouse effect — extra warming from trapped heat radiation. These facts don’t prove causality and they shouldn’t end skepticism, but they raise the bar: to be considered seriously, an alternative explanation must match the data at least as well as carbon dioxide does. Adding methane, a second greenhouse gas, to our analysis doesn’t change the results. Moreover, our analysis does not depend on large, complex global climate models, the huge computer programs that are notorious for their hidden assumptions and adjustable parameters. Our result is based simply on the close agreement between the shape of the observed temperature rise and the known greenhouse gas increase.

It’s a scientist’s duty to be properly skeptical. I still find that much, if not most, of what is attributed to climate change is speculative, exaggerated or just plain wrong. I’ve analyzed some of the most alarmist claims, and my skepticism about them hasn’t changed.

Hurricane Katrina cannot be attributed to global warming. The number of hurricanes hitting the United States has been going down, not up; likewise for intense tornadoes. Polar bears aren’t dying from receding ice, and the Himalayan glaciers aren’t going to melt by 2035. And it’s possible that we are currently no warmer than we were a thousand years ago, during the “Medieval Warm Period” or “Medieval Optimum,” an interval of warm conditions known from historical records and indirect evidence like tree rings. And the recent warm spell in the United States happens to be more than offset by cooling elsewhere in the world, so its link to “global” warming is weaker than tenuous.

The careful analysis by our team is laid out in five scientific papers now online at BerkeleyEarth.org. That site also shows our chart of temperature from 1753 to the present, with its clear fingerprint of volcanoes and carbon dioxide, but containing no component that matches solar activity. Four of our papers have undergone extensive scrutiny by the scientific community, and the newest, a paper with the analysis of the human component, is now posted, along with the data and computer programs used. Such transparency is the heart of the scientific method; if you find our conclusions implausible, tell us of any errors of data or analysis.

What about the future? As carbon dioxide emissions increase, the temperature should continue to rise. I expect the rate of warming to proceed at a steady pace, about one and a half degrees over land in the next 50 years, less if the oceans are included. But if China continues its rapid economic growth (it has averaged 10 percent per year over the last 20 years) and its vast use of coal (it typically adds one new gigawatt per month), then that same warming could take place in less than 20 years.

Science is that narrow realm of knowledge that, in principle, is universally accepted. I embarked on this analysis to answer questions that, to my mind, had not been answered. I hope that the Berkeley Earth analysis will help settle the scientific debate regarding global warming and its human causes. Then comes the difficult part: agreeing across the political and diplomatic spectrum about what can and should be done.

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Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election (NYTimes)

WASHINGTON — Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the crown princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.

The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.

It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed, and the details of who commissioned it remain in dispute. But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, and after those initial offers of help, Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.

After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.

The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.

SPOILER

Mr. Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the interviews.

The interviews, some in recent weeks, are further evidence that special counsel’s investigation remains in an intense phase even as Mr. Trump’s lawyers are publicly calling for Mr. Mueller to bring it to a close.

Scholars Have Data on Facebook Users. Who’s Guarding It?
It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided. But two people familiar with the meetings said that Trump campaign officials did not appear bothered by the idea of cooperation with foreigners.

A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, said in a statement that “prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with Erik Prince, George Nader and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it.”

The August 2016 meeting has echoes of another Trump Tower meeting two months earlier, also under scrutiny by the special counsel, when Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign aides met with a Russian lawyer after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. No evidence has emerged suggesting that the August meeting was set up with a similar premise.

The revelations about the meetings come in the midst of new scrutiny about ties between Mr. Trump’s advisers and at least three wealthy Persian Gulf states. Besides his interest in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Mr. Mueller has also been asking witnesses about meetings between White House advisers and representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s bitter rival.

A lawyer for Mr. Zamel denied that his client had carried out any campaign on Mr. Trump’s behalf. “Neither Joel Zamel, nor any of his related entities, had any involvement whatsoever in the U.S. election campaign,” said the lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey.

“The D.O.J. clarified from Day 1 that Joel and his companies have never been a target of the investigation. My client provided full cooperation to the government to assist with their investigation,” he said.

Kathryn Ruemmler, a lawyer for Mr. Nader, said, “Mr. Nader has fully cooperated with the special counsel’s investigation and will continue to do so.” A senior official in Saudi Arabia said it had never employed Mr. Nader in any capacity or authorized him to speak for the crown prince.

Mr. Prince, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Advisers to the Court
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the king’s main adviser, had long opposed many of the Obama administration’s policies toward the Middle East. They resented President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, his statements of support for the Arab Spring uprisings and his hands-off approach to the Syrian civil war.

News outlets linked to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates fiercely criticized Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, when she was secretary of state, and diplomats familiar with their thinking say both crown princes hoped for a president who would take a stronger hand in the region against both Iran and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Nader had worked for years as a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi, and Mr. Zamel had worked for the Emirati royal court as a consultant as well. When Mr. Trump locked up the Republican presidential nomination in early 2016, Mr. Nader began making inquiries on behalf of the Emirati prince about possible ways to directly support Mr. Trump, according to three people with whom Mr. Nader discussed his efforts.

Mr. Nader also visited Moscow at least twice during the presidential campaign as a confidential emissary from Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with his travels. After the election, he worked with the crown prince to arrange a meeting in the Seychelles between Mr. Prince and a financier close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Companies connected to Mr. Zamel also have ties to Russia. One of his firms had previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V. Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who hired the firm for online campaigns against their business rivals.

Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate, was once in business with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty in the special counsel investigation to charges of financial crimes and failing to disclose the lobbying work he did on behalf of a former president of Ukraine, an ally of Mr. Putin. Mr. Rybolovlev once purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.

Mr. Nader’s visits to Russia and the work Mr. Zamel’s companies did for the Russians have both been a subject of interest to the special counsel’s investigators, according to people familiar with witness interviews.

A String of Meetings
Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader were together at a Midtown Manhattan hotel at about 4 p.m. on the afternoon of Aug. 3 when Mr. Nader received a call from Mr. Prince summoning them to Trump Tower. When they arrived, Stephen Miller, a top campaign aide who is now a White House adviser, was in Donald Trump Jr.’s office as well, according to the people familiar with the meeting.

Mr. Prince is a longtime Republican donor and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, and Mr. Prince and Mr. Nader had known each other since Mr. Nader had worked for Blackwater as a business agent in Iraq in the years after the American invasion. Mr. Prince has longstanding ties to the Emirates, and has frequently done business with Crown Prince Mohammed.

Mr. Prince opened the meeting by telling Donald Trump Jr. that “we are working hard for your father,” in reference to his family and other donors, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He then introduced Mr. Nader as an old friend with deep ties to Arab leaders.

Mr. Nader repeatedly referred to the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates as “my friends,” according to one person with knowledge of the conversation. To underscore the point, he would open his mobile phone to show off pictures of him posing with them, some of which The New York Times obtained.

Mr. Nader explained to Donald Trump Jr. that the two crown princes saw the elder Mr. Trump as a strong leader who would fill the power vacuum that they believed Mr. Obama had left in the Middle East, and Mr. Nader went on to say that he and his friends would be glad to support Mr. Trump as much as they could, according to the person with knowledge of the conversation.

Mr. Zamel, for his part, laid out the capabilities of his online media company, although it is unclear whether he referred to the proposals his company had already prepared. One person familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Nader invited Donald Trump Jr. to meet with a Saudi prince — an invitation the younger Mr. Trump declined. After about half an hour, everyone exchanged business cards.

“There was a brief meeting, nothing concrete was offered or pitched to anyone and nothing came of it,” said Mr. Mukasey, the lawyer for Mr. Zamel.

By then, a company connected to Mr. Zamel had been working on a proposal for a covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign to help elect Mr. Trump, according to three people involved and a fourth briefed on the effort. The plan involved using thousands of fake social media accounts to promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy on platforms like Facebook.

There were concerns inside the company, Psy-Group, about the plan’s legality, according to one person familiar with the effort. The company, whose motto is “shape reality,” consulted an American law firm, and was told that it would be illegal if any non-Americans were involved in the effort.

Mr. Zamel, the founder of Psy-Group and one of its owners, has been questioned about the August 2016 meeting by investigators for the special counsel, and at least two F.B.I. agents working on the inquiry have traveled to Israel to interview employees of the company who worked on the proposal. According to one person, the special counsel’s team has worked with the Israeli police to seize the computers of one of Mr. Zamel’s companies, which is currently in liquidation.

In the hectic final weeks of the campaign and during the presidential transition, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers drew Mr. Nader close. He met often with Mr. Kushner, Mr. Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, who took over as campaign chairman after Mr. Manafort resigned amid revelations about his work in Ukraine.

In December 2016, Mr. Nader turned again to an internet company linked to Mr. Zamel — WhiteKnight, based in the Philippines — to purchase a presentation demonstrating the impact of social media campaigns on Mr. Trump’s electoral victory. Asked about the purchase, a representative of WhiteKnight said: “WhiteKnight delivers premium research and high-end business development services for prestigious clients around the world. WhiteKnight does not talk about any of its clients.”

After the inauguration, both Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader visited the White House, meeting with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon.

At that time, Mr. Nader was promoting a plan to use private contractors to carry out economic sabotage against Iran that, he hoped, might coerce it to permanently abandon its nuclear program. The plan included efforts to deter Western companies from investing in Iran, and operations to sow mistrust among Iranian officials. He advocated the project, which he estimated would cost about $300 million, to American, Emirati and Saudi officials.

Last spring, Mr. Nader traveled to Riyadh for meetings with senior Saudi military and intelligence officials to pitch his Iran sabotage plan. He was convinced, according to several people familiar with his plan, that economic warfare was the key to the overthrow of the government in Tehran. One person briefed on Mr. Nader’s activities said he tried to persuade Mr. Kushner to endorse the plan to Crown Prince Mohammed in person on a trip to Riyadh, although it was unclear whether the message was delivered.

Asked about Mr. Nader’s plans to attack Iran, the senior Saudi official said Mr. Nader had a habit of pitching proposals that went nowhere.

Mr. Nader was also in discussions with Mr. Prince, the former head of Blackwater, about a plan to get the Saudis to pay $2 billion to set up a private army to combat Iranian proxy forces in Yemen.

Since entering the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. His first overseas trip was to Riyadh. He strongly backed Saudi and Emirati efforts to isolate their neighbor Qatar, another American ally, even over apparent disagreement from the State and Defense Departments.

This month, Mr. Trump also withdrew from an Obama administration nuclear deal with Iran that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had campaigned against for years, delivering them their biggest victory yet from his administration.

twitter:

rgoodlaw twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 19:37:02 With Blockbuster NYT report ("Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election")...1. Meeting was arranged and attended by Erik Prince.2. Compare this to what Prince told Congress and looks a lot like perjury.Prince's testimony:<thread>1/ reageer retweet

twitter:

AriFleischer twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 15:49:49 I trust Mueller to pursue the truth, but his hirings create the appearance of bias:82% of his lawyers are Ds. 71% of them have contributed money to D candidates/causes.Mueller’s lawyers donated $80,257. Ds got 77,507 (97%) while Rs got $2,750 (3%). https://t.co/w8OF570wGv reageer retweet

twitter:

gtconway3d twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 17:29:37 @AriFleischer Nope. His hirings show that he hired lawyers. And lawyers overwhelmingly tend, especially in the elite ranks, to be liberal Democrats. https://t.co/Oh8Ys1ynQO reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 23:27:48 If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal. Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp! reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 23:47 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Trump blijft intussen gewoon de vermoorde onschuld spelen

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 23:27:48 If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal. Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp! reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 23:47 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Trump blijft intussen gewoon de vermoorde onschuld spelen

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 23:27:48 If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal. Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp! reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 23:49 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Nee. Hij wil weten wat voor info bekend is die men tegen hem kan gebruiken.

quote:

Mueller Probe Expands to Israeli Entrepreneur With U.A.E. Ties (The Wall Street Journal)
Investigation has sought testimony regarding work of Joel Zamel, founder of several private consulting firms

WASHINGTON—Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is looking more closely into Middle Eastern involvement during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as it is now exploring the role of an Israeli entrepreneur with ties to a Gulf monarchy, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Mueller has been conducting interviews about the work of Joel Zamel, an Australia-born Israeli businessman with experience in social media and intelligence gathering. Mr. Zamel is the founder of several private consulting firms—including a crowdsourced analysis firm called Wikistrat as well as the Psy Group, a secretive private intelligence firm with the motto “shape reality.”

A subpoena concerning Mr. Zamel’s work, but not issued to Mr. Zamel, was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Zamel met with Donald Trump Jr. , Mr. Trump’s eldest son, at Trump Tower in the months before the 2016 election along with George Nader, a top adviser to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss an offer to help boost the campaign. Erik Prince, a U.S. defense contractor who specializes in the Middle East and had close ties to the campaign, also attended the meeting, which was first reported by the New York Times on Saturday.

Following Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Nader made a payment to Mr. Zamel of $2 million, which a person familiar with the payment described as unrelated to the campaign.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the younger Mr. Trump, confirmed the meeting in a statement. “Prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with Eric Prince [sic], George Nader, and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy,” he said. The younger Mr. Trump “was not interested and that was the end of it.”

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 23:51 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Dit vond ik wel een goed artikeltje / opiniestukje wat hier op ingaat... en vrij specifiek over The Federalist: http://theweek.com/articl(...)nsibility-federalist

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 00:10 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

Ja de taktiek is al heel lang om het feit te negeren dat er gegronde redenen waren voor de FBI om leden van de Trump-campagne te 'volgen' en het te gooien op een onwettig onderzoek omdat de 'deep state' het op Trump gemunt heeft.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 00:13 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ja, zelfs al was een FBI agent geïnfiltreerd in zijn organisatie dan nog wijst alles erop dat dit om zeer legitieme reden zou zijn geweest. Hij doet voorkomen alsof meneer Trump niet onderzocht mocht worden, maar dat "Obama's FBI" slechts alleen Clinton mocht onderzoeken ofzo.

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One year into the Trump administration, as our president prepares for his trip to address the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, here is the dynamic abroad: No foreign enemy could have degraded America’s global standing so completely in so short a time.

In word and deed, Donald Trump personifies the American ignoramus abroad. He insults foreign leaders in tweets, then melts in their presence. He switches positions based on personal flattery. He parades his ignorance of geopolitics. His erratic behavior and bellicose boasts provoke alarm in a nuclear age.

No longer does America advocate for an inclusive international order that promotes democracy and stability. In Politico, Susan Glasser cataloged the verdict of foreign governments: Our president is uninformed, unstable and erratic, a volatile and self-obsessed fool with a dystopian worldview.

Particularly incendiary is his racism. His Muslim ban, race-baiting and disdain for immigrants of color sullies America’s global reputation. And his recent disparagement of non-white countries as “shitholes” alienates governments we need to help combat terrorism and narco-trafficking.

Nor can Trump’s advisers stem the damage. He tramples on policy formulations and rejects advice. His fractious foreign policy team includes the sophomoric Jared Kushner. Disdainful of diplomacy, Trump has gutted the State Department and left critical posts vacant, eroding America’s capacity to advance its global objectives. In foreign policy, he asserts, “I’m the only one who matters.”

What matters especially to the world is Trump’s wholesale abdication of leadership. He scorns alliances, international institutions, trade agreements and multilateral efforts to stem global threats like climate change. His atavistic mindset is that of a real estate developer bent on “winning” one-on-one negotiations with the competitor at hand – leaving others to organize the landscape which surrounds him.

SPOILER

In this strategic vacuum, “America First” becomes America in retreat. Nothing is predictable save the brevity of Trump’s attention span for all but self. As he fixates on the mirror, our adversaries look to reorder the world by exploiting his proliferating derelictions.

One is his penchant for alienating America’s friends. Giving voice to his ingrained bigotry, Trump ridiculed the Muslim mayor of London, and offended Britain’s prime minister by retweeting inflammatory materials from British Islamophobes – spurring the withdrawal of his invitation to visit London. His scorn for NATO and the EU has alienated the redoubtable German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Amid the nuclear crisis in the Korean Peninsula, Trump criticized South Korea’s supposed “appeasement” of the North, and complained about the terms of our bilateral trade agreement.

It is little wonder that a Pew survey of traditional U.S. allies showed that their citizens have no confidence in Trump’s America. As Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland explained: “The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course.”

Indeed, Trump reserves his admiration for autocrats – the more murderous and corrupt the better it seems – squandering our capacity for moral leadership. To its astonishment, the world sees America’s president as a reflexive authoritarian who seethes with loathing for our free press, independent judiciary and rule of law ― and whose disdain for democratic institutions is truly global.

In his geopolitical illiteracy, Trump ignores that our most reliable strategic partners are stable democracies. Thus he has cut our resources for promoting democracy abroad, and jettisoned human rights as a concern of our foreign policy. With Trump as their enabler, the authoritarians of countries like Turkey, Egypt and the Philippines feel even less constraint in how they treat their own citizens.

If anything, Trump seems to envy their example. He congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for winning a rigged referendum, commended the ruthless totalitarian Chinese leader Xi Jinping on acquiring yet more power, and praised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for an anti-drug program rooted in extrajudicial killings. Most remarkable – and suspicious – is his congenital fawning over Russian President Vladimir Putin, who strangles democracy and murders dissidents. This head-spinning moral reversal evokes America at its self-seeking, historic worst.

But what makes Trump’s amorality unique is that it serves no strategy. Take his dealings with China, a singular demonstration of his profound ignorance, incompetence and inconsistency.

By rejecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, Trump abandoned our Asian allies and ceded economic dominance in Asia to China ― creating what one Chinese expert called his country’s “biggest strategic opportunity.” As former National Security Adviser Susan Rice observed, Trump seems bent on “making China great again.”

Indeed, on visiting China, Trump showered Xi with embarrassing accolades, soft-pedaling his complaints about Chinese trade practices. As for China’s aggressive military buildup aimed at dominating the South China Sea, Trump was silent. In return, America got nothing. As before, Xi withheld decisive help in curbing the nuclear threat of its quasi-client state, North Korea. But it was no matter for the American president – Xi threw Trump a very big parade, reducing him to paroxysms of pleasure.

Meanwhile, China continues to cynically claim the traditional U.S. role as environmental leader, promoter of free trade and advocate of global institutions. As the TPP proceeds without the U.S., Xi is spending billions on infrastructure spanning Africa and Asia, and on the formation of an Asian infrastructure bank. “As the U.S. retreats globally,” a senior Chinese general recently said,” China shows up.”

And don’t forget Russia. One of its cardinal aims is to erode the functioning and credibility of Western democratic institutions – the protection of which is among a U.S. president’s inviolate duties. Yet Trump castigates American intelligence agencies while parroting Putin’s transparent lies denying Russia’s attack on the 2016 election, acting more like a Russian asset than an American president. Just as egregiously, Trump shuns preparing for Russia’s inevitable attacks on U.S. electoral processes – including voting machines – in 2018 and beyond. All of this undercuts U.S. allies in Europe who, unlike Trump, are deeply concerned about Russia’s attack on their own elections.

Elsewhere, Trump watches as Putin helps the murderous Assad regime in Syria slaughter its way to survival, creating a tragic flood of refugees who are shunned by Trump, which continues to overwhelm U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe ― yet another boon to Putin. Counting on Trump’s indifference, Russia menaces its neighbors. As with China, Trump’s moral quiescence gains America nothing ― like Xi, Putin lends no meaningful support to U.S. efforts to defuse the dangers of a nuclear North Korea.

Instead, to global amazement, Trump inflames tensions there. He mocks his own Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s efforts at diplomacy, lobs juvenile insults at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, brandishes the threat of nuclear war, and nettles South Korean allies. Trump’s fruitless courtship of Xi ― punctuated by intermittent threats of economic sanctions against China lobbed only from a distance ― ignores China’s strategic commitment to North Korea’s survival.

Worse, he threatens preemptive military actions which could provoke a catastrophic land war on the Korean Peninsula. In reality, Trump has no sane recourse but to fall back on nuclear deterrence while pursuing a stable long-term resolution. But the ultimate ideal ― a denuclearized and unified Korea ― is beyond the capacity of his denuded State Department.

Similarly, Trump’s threats to repudiate the Iran nuclear deal augur further crisis. He now demands that our negotiating partners rewrite the deal on his terms. But the other signatories – China, Russia, Germany, Great Britain and the European Union – are united in support of the agreement. In all likelihood, they will uphold it while deepening their economic ties to Iran – strengthening the embattled Iranian regime economically and politically while enhancing the efforts of China and Russia to divide America from its allies.

The dire alternative is that Iran will renew its pursuit of nuclear weapons, roiling the Middle East. Trump’s choices then become binary – countenance a potentially destabilizing nuclear threat, or bomb Iran.

Beyond this potentially existential misjudgment, Trump seems to have no Iranian policy at all. He complains about Iranian aggression, and yet acquiesces as Iran partners with Russia in Syria. His sole counterweight to Iranian adventurism – writing Saudi Arabia a blank check in the region – is making matters worse.

In Trump’s imaginings, Iran is the wellspring of all regional problems, while the Saudis are the U.S. autocracy of choice. But the Saudis finance and countenance terrorism against the West. With our ill-advised support, they perpetuate catastrophic sectarian strife in Yemen, creating space for ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Newly empowered, Saudi Arabia’s disturbingly overconfident Crown Prince meddles in the fractious politics of Lebanon, creating the specter of a Saudi-inspired war against the Iranian surrogate Hezbollah, which could well embroil others, including Israel. Like Iran, the Saudis breed instability.

This is all way too dangerous for one-sided bluster. America needs a sustained strategic and diplomatic effort to restrain Iranian adventurism, stop Saudi support for terrorism, and temper their combustible rivalry. But, again, this far exceeds the capacity of Trump’s diminished State Department.

As Trump’s errors compound, the world watches. A recent Gallup poll across 134 countries returned a median approval rating for U.S. leadership of 30 percent ― a precipitous drop. The steepest decline is among America’s neighbors and allies.

Sadly, Trump has earned it. An America which abandons global leadership makes the world less safe ― as does an American president oblivious to the consequences of his own narcissistic whims.

^{by Richard North Patterson}

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 22:16 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
In navolging van dat bericht lijkt het erop dat Erik Prince meineed heeft gepleegd:

Per deze twitter thread (5 lang):

twitter:

rgoodlaw twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 19:37:02 With Blockbuster NYT report ("Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election")...1. Meeting was arranged and attended by Erik Prince.2. Compare this to what Prince told Congress and looks a lot like perjury.Prince's testimony:[ afbeelding ]<thread>1/ reageer retweet

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Following another school shooting, this one leaving 10 dead and 13 injured in Texas, Houston’s police chief is calling out elected officials for their failure to protect the children they claim to hold so dear.

Police Chief Art Acevedo posted a pained message on Facebook after Friday’s shooting in the nearby town of Santa Fe, in which a 17-year-old student at Santa Fe High School gunned down his classmates and a teacher. No one ― not even the terrified kids themselves ― seemed to be all that surprised, with one student telling the local news she felt “eventually it was going to happen here too.”

Acevedo said he has had enough inaction when it comes to protecting children. “Today I spent the day dealing with another mass shooting of children and a responding police officer who is clinging to life,” the police chief wrote Friday. “I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve shed tears of sadness, pain and anger.”

He had a message to those who would choose their guns over the safety of kids.

“I know some have strong feelings about gun rights, but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue,” he said. “This is a time for the asking of God’s forgiveness for our inaction, especially the elected officials that ran to the cameras today, called for prayers, and will once again do absolutely nothing.”

The police chief previously marched with demonstrators during the March 24 March for Our Lives event, held in response to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school.

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President Donald Trump loves to compare the size and greatness of all the things he’s involved with, and people love to mock him for it. Even our British friends across the pond. (WHERE HE WAS NOT INVITED - bp)

Early Saturday morning, BBC Three pointed out the size of the crowd that amassed to see Prince Harry marry former actress Meghan Markle. The network compared it to the crowd size at President Trump’s inauguration, which, more than a year later, remains a seemingly bottomless well of jokes.

President Trump has not responded to the dig. But we’ll know his thoughts as soon as “Fox & Friends” shows him the tweet.

twitter:

bbcthree twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 12:48:55 . . . . . . . . . . . just saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 00:34 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
The World’s Ugliest American (HuffPo Opinion, reading time 7:49)

"What makes Trump’s amorality unique is that it serves no strategy."

[..]

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 22:16 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
In navolging van dat bericht lijkt het erop dat Erik Prince meineed heeft gepleegd:

Per deze twitter thread (5 lang):

twitter:

rgoodlaw twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 19:37:02 With Blockbuster NYT report ("Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election")...1. Meeting was arranged and attended by Erik Prince.2. Compare this to what Prince told Congress and looks a lot like perjury.Prince's testimony:[ afbeelding ]<thread>1/ reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 10:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Dan moet Prince de gevangenis in. Meineed is geen licht vergrijp.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 12:08 schreef Montov het volgende:
Of gewoon gratie. Trump wil zijn politieke vrienden nog wel eens gratie geven.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 04:19 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
BBC Trolls President Trump With Bigly Huge Royal Wedding Crowd (HuffPo)

[..]

twitter:

bbcthree twitterde op zaterdag 19-05-2018 om 12:48:55 [ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ] . . . . . . . . . . . just saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 12:52 schreef Szura het volgende:
https://www.huffingtonpos(...)tter_impression=true

Trump's NASA Chief Has Apparently Changed His Tune On Climate Change

Zal binnenkort wel ontslagen worden dan

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 16:05 schreef Ulx het volgende:
President Pannenkoek gaat weer los op Twitter. Iets met Mueller en HRC en emails.

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They have found no Collussion with Russia, No Obstruction, but they aren’t looking at the corruption...

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Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Sunday Trump believes he can end the North Korean threat in a way that is beneficial to both countries.

“He thinks that’s possible, but if they pull out, they play him, then we’re going to end North Korea’s threat to the American homeland in his first term and I’ll let you surmise as to what that might look like,” Graham told host Chris Wallace.

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Op zaterdag 19 mei 2018 18:58 schreef grrrrg het volgende:
Ik had gehoord dat Melania een zelfmoordpoging had ondernomen? Hoe gaat het met haar?

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 16:21:43 Wow. Someone is unhinged this morning. Flailing. No clear strategy. Desperate. No wonder he thinks Mr. Giuliani is doing such a bang-up job. #Basta reageer retweet

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 17:02:03 Hey @foxandfriends - can you spare 15-30 min this week for Mr. Giuliani and I to appear on your show and discuss the issues and facts in the case? I’ll even let him distract by calling me an “ambulance chaser” all he wants. And I won’t use any old video clips. Please set it up. reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 17:13 schreef VEM2012 het volgende:

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Ze is nog steeds getrouwd met Donald Trump en ze leeft nog.

Erg slecht derhalve.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 17:01 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Graham belooft oorlog...

[..]

http://thehill.com/homene(...)ican-homeland-in-his

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 17:30 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 16:21:43 Wow. Someone is unhinged this morning. Flailing. No clear strategy. Desperate. No wonder he thinks Mr. Giuliani is doing such a bang-up job. #Basta reageer retweet

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 17:02:03 Hey @foxandfriends - can you spare 15-30 min this week for Mr. Giuliani and I to appear on your show and discuss the issues and facts in the case? I’ll even let him distract by calling me an “ambulance chaser” all he wants. And I won’t use any old video clips. Please set it up. reageer retweet

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Roger Stone says he’s "prepared" for a Mueller indictment and claims Mueller may work to connect him to other crimes.

"It is not inconceivable now that Mr. Mueller and his team may seek to conjure up some extraneous crime pertaining to my business."

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 18:17 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Roger voelt zich schuldig.

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Stopt moord op Pakistaans schoolmeisje de "brain drain" naar de Amerikaanse economie?

Jos De Greef
15:13

Het bloedbad dat een 17-jarige scholier vrijdag aanrichtte in een middelbare school nabij Houston was de 22e "school shooting" dit jaar. Inmiddels is er nog een met drie slachtoffers bijgekomen in de staat Georgia. In Texas vielen er tien doden. Een van hen was de 18-jarige Sabika Sheikh uit Pakistan, die via het Youth Exchange & Study Program (YES) enkele maanden in de VS was komen studeren. Dat programma was door de federale overheid opgezet na de aanslagen van 2001 om jongeren uit overwegend moslimlanden beter vertrouwd te maken met leeftijdsgenoten in de Verenigde Staten.

De dood van dat meisje is niet enkel een schok voor haar ouders in Karachi, maar is een een smet op het imago van de VS in de wereld, iets wat net verbeterd moest worden door het YES-programma. Het zou de eerste keer zijn dat een buitenlands kind of tiener slachtoffer is van een schietpartij op een school in de Verenigde Staten.

Studeren en werk in de VS is voor veel jongeren wereldwijd nog altijd een "American dream" die het pad effent naar een beter leven

Sabika Sheikh moet de trots van haar familie geweest zijn. Studeren en werken in de VS is voor veel jongeren wereldwijd nog altijd een "American dream", die het pad effent naar een beter leven en mogelijkheden die ze in eigen land niet hebben. In Iran, India, Pakistan en veel andere landen zijn ouders wiens kinderen naar de VS zijn getrokken, apetrots. Omgekeerd is Amerika gebouwd door ambitieuze immigranten. Dat was in 1740 zo, in 1850, in de 20e eeuw en ook nu nog.

Amerika groeit dankzij de "brain drain" uit de rest van de wereld. De VS werden de eerste kernmacht dankzij onder meer de Duitse jood Albert Einstein, de Hongaar Leo Szilard en de Italiaan Enrico Fermi. Duitse geleerden stonden aan de wieg van het ruimteproject en in Silicon Valley nabij San Francisco bouwen knappe koppen uit de hele wereld de technologische voorsprong uit waar Amerika zo prat op gaat.

Of kijk eens naar het lijstje met stichters en CEO's van IT-giganten zoals Sergej Brin (ex-Rusland, nu Google), Jerry Yang (Taiwan, daarna Yahoo!), Satya Nadella (uit India, nu CEO van Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (India, nu CEO Google) of andere Indiërs zoals Shantanu Narayan (CEO Adobe) en Indra Nooyi (topvrouw van PepsiCo).

Sluit America zich af van "brains"?

Veel ouders in Pakistan en elders in de wereld zullen nu twee keer nadenken vooraleer ze hun kind nog in de VS willen laten studeren. Die trend was overigens al begonnen, onder meer door een reeks opgemerkte moorden vorig jaar op mensen van Indiase afkomst.

Zo werden begin vorig jaar twee Indiase ingenieurs van het IT-concern Garmin (van de navigatie-systemen) neergeschoten in een bar in Kansas door een man die "alle vreemden uit de VS weg wilde". Een van hen is overleden. In mei 2017 werden er in Mississippi en Californië niet minder dan vier Indiase technici vermoord. Een aantal van hen als gevolg van gewone criminaliteit, maar sommigen ook met racistische motieven.

Steeds meer migranten in de VS -Indiërs, maar ook andere nationaliteiten- maken intussen melding van andere vormen van haat die opsteken, vooral na de verkiezing van president Donald Trump in 2016. Het gaat dan niet altijd om geweld, maar scheldpartijen ("Get out of my country") en bedreigingen. Dat is ook het geval met lokale joodse of islamitische gemeenschappen in Amerika.

Dat de regering van Trump ook flink wil snoeien in de H1-B-visa is ook een teken aan de wand. Die visa worden verleend aan buitenlanders met speciale expertise die in de VS tijdelijk aan de slag kunnen. Onder het motto "Buy American, Hire American" wil president Trump voorrang geven aan landgenoten en minder buitenlanders. Het immigratieverbod voor mensen uit een aantal moslimlanden past daar in feite ook in.

Amerikaanse universiteiten en bedrijven waarschuwen dat de "brain drain" -de motor van de ontwikkeling in de VS- op die manier dreigt af te remmen of stil te vallen en de VS hun technologische voorsprong dreigen te verliezen. In elk geval worden het imago en de "soft power" van de VS op die manier verder ondermijnd, wat de slimste koppen zou kunnen aanzetten om hun talenten aan te bieden in Europa, Japan, China of gewoon thuis te blijven in India, Pakistan of Iran.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 19:37:40 I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration! reageer retweet

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The FBI didn’t use an informant to go after Trump. They used one to protect him.
What the president doesn't get about counterintelligence.

(..)

The investigation started out as a counterintelligence probe, not a criminal one. And relying on a covert source rather than a more intrusive method of gathering information suggests that the FBI may have been acting cautiously — perhaps too cautiously — to protect the campaign, not undermine it.

As a former FBI counterintelligence agent, I know what Trump apparently does not: Counterintelligence investigations have a different purpose than their criminal counterparts. Rather than trying to find evidence of a crime, the FBI’s counterintelligence goal is to identify, monitor and neutralize foreign intelligence activity in the United States. In short, this entails identifying foreign intelligence officers and their network of agents; uncovering their motives and methods; and ultimately rendering their operations ineffective — either by clandestinely thwarting them (say, by feeding back misinformation or “flipping” their sources into double agents) or by exposing them.

(..)

Bron: WaPo

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:09 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Over heksenjachten gesproken ... heeft hij uberhaupt een gerede aanleiding te denken dat er om politieke reden geinfiltreerd zou zijn?

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 16:04:24 ....and why hasn’t the Podesta brother been charged and arrested, like others, after being forced to close down his very large and successful firm? Is it because he is a VERY well connected Democrat working in the Swamp of Washington, D.C.? reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:15 schreef MangoTree het volgende:

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Ik denk het wel.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 16:04:24 ....and why hasn’t the Podesta brother been charged and arrested, like others, after being forced to close down his very large and successful firm? Is it because he is a VERY well connected Democrat working in the Swamp of Washington, D.C.? reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 19:59 schreef kladderadatsch het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 19:37:40 I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration! reageer retweet

OMG!

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:17 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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En waarom denk je van wel? Je hebt het hier over iemand die denkt dat vaccins autisme veroorzaken en dat de opwarming van de aarde een Chinese hoax is... realiteit lijkt niet echt per se zijn ding.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:17 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

En waarom denk je van wel? Je hebt het hier over iemand die denkt dat vaccins autisme veroorzaken en dat de opwarming van de aarde een Chinese hoax is... realiteit lijkt niet echt per se zijn ding.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:27 schreef MangoTree het volgende:

[..]

Tweet van hemzelf staat erbij of ken je de Podesta's niet? Wat je er weer allemaal bij haalt...

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:28 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Wat heeft Podesta met wat dan ook te maken?

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:29 schreef MangoTree het volgende:

[..]

Goed.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op vrijdag 03-03-2017 om 22:02:23 I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it. https://t.co/qCDljfF3wN reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 20:32 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Ja, ik zie niet in wat Podesta te maken heeft met wat Trump allemaal wel of niet uitgespookt zou hebben tijdens de campagne of het gebruiken van FBI informanten. Heel raar.

quote:

Op zondag 20 mei 2018 19:59 schreef kladderadatsch het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 19:37:40 I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration! reageer retweet

OMG!

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 19:02 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:
Sluit America zich af van "brains"?

[1] (naar de Pirates! boeken van Gideon Defoe en met David Tennant als een schurkerige Charles Darwin die papegaai Polly van de kapitein wil stelen omdat Polly een -elders reeds lang uitgestorven- dodo blijkt te zijn

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:15:21 Rudy Giuliani says that Mueller plans to finish by September 1st the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. https://t.co/uefDH7O5R7 reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:30:45 Fun to remember that when Giuliani came on board he said the investigation would be over in a week or two. https://t.co/JnMXzfcB43 reageer retweet

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Just two days after a young man opened fire on his classmates and teachers at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, the National Rifle Association’s incoming president, Oliver North, blamed Ritalin and a “culture of violence.”

On “Fox News Sunday,” the controversial Iran-Contra figure told host Chris Wallace that the solution for the increasing number of school shootings ― there have been 22 so far in 2018, by one count ― is not gun control.

“We’re trying like the dickens to treat the symptoms without treating the disease,” he said. “And the disease in this case isn’t the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence. They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male. ... Many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.”

SPOILER

North’s comments on Sunday echoed those made by President Donald Trump after the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012. Following the shooting, Trump tweeted about violent video games and the “glorification” of violence.

North, a retired Marine whose role in the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s made him a household name, appeared in ads for the war-centered video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” and has also worked as a consultant for the game.

Other prominent Republicans have blamed violent culture, and not lax gun laws, in the wake of recent shootings, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

North is due to start as NRA president in the coming weeks.

twitter:

NYMag twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 03:17:54 In 17 months, Donald Trump has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy. @sullydish writes https://t.co/ODDghkbwxn reageer retweet

twitter:

KimStrassel twitterde op donderdag 17-05-2018 om 02:58:43 2. Biggest takeaway: Govt "sources" admit that, indeed, the Obama DOJ and FBI spied on the Trump campaign. Spied. (Tho NYT kindly calls spy an "informant.") NYT slips in confirmation far down in story, and makes it out like it isn't a big deal. It is a very big deal. reageer retweet

twitter:

LawrenceMuscant twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 20:37:11 Iran’s economy is already a mess, but it will likely get a lot worse. https://t.co/Ntph4Tbx05 reageer retweet

twitter:

SebGorka twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 23:02:52 THE GLOVES ARE OFF. Swampdwellers you just lost control. @realDonaldTrump has just officially announced the end of your reign. https://t.co/sjy5xl0QWP reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 22:58 schreef Nintex het volgende:
It's over

twitter:

NYMag twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 03:17:54 In 17 months, Donald Trump has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy. @sullydish writes https://t.co/ODDghkbwxn reageer retweet

twitter:

KimStrassel twitterde op donderdag 17-05-2018 om 02:58:43 2. Biggest takeaway: Govt "sources" admit that, indeed, the Obama DOJ and FBI spied on the Trump campaign. Spied. (Tho NYT kindly calls spy an "informant.") NYT slips in confirmation far down in story, and makes it out like it isn't a big deal. It is a very big deal. reageer retweet

twitter:

LawrenceMuscant twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 20:37:11 Iran’s economy is already a mess, but it will likely get a lot worse. https://t.co/Ntph4Tbx05 reageer retweet

twitter:

SebGorka twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 23:02:52 THE GLOVES ARE OFF. Swampdwellers you just lost control. @realDonaldTrump has just officially announced the end of your reign. https://t.co/sjy5xl0QWP reageer retweet

Trump zit al twee dagen in het Witte Huis met John Bolton en een aantal andere metgezellen de end game te plannen. De nickname voor de FBI mol in de Trump campagne: "DEEP SWAMP"

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 22:34 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

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kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:15:21 Rudy Giuliani says that Mueller plans to finish by September 1st the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. https://t.co/uefDH7O5R7 reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:30:45 Fun to remember that when Giuliani came on board he said the investigation would be over in a week or two. https://t.co/JnMXzfcB43 reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 23:19 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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"De endgame"? Jij denkt echt dat dit een een of ander computerspel is, hè?

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 23:35 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:

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Nontex is gewoon een aandachtszoeker. Zo iemand die zijn kont tegen de krib gooit en er op kickt als mensen 'm daarop aanspreken. Waarschijnlijk gepest op school en thuis genegeerd.

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Op zondag 20 mei 2018 22:34 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:15:21 Rudy Giuliani says that Mueller plans to finish by September 1st the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. https://t.co/uefDH7O5R7 reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 22:30:45 Fun to remember that when Giuliani came on board he said the investigation would be over in a week or two. https://t.co/JnMXzfcB43 reageer retweet

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Rosenstein asks DOJ watchdog to probe Trump campaign surveillance claims

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked its inspector general to look into whether or not the FBI surveilled President Trump's campaign for "inappropriate purposes."

“If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a statement.

DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a separate statement that "the Inspector General will consult with the appropriate U.S. Attorney if there is any evidence of potential criminal conduct."

The decision to expand the probe comes just hours after Trump tweeted that he planned to demand on Monday that the DOJ look into whether federal agents spied on his campaign for "political purposes."

The original probe into alleged FBI surveillance abuse was announced in late March, and was focused on whether the department abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) when it obtained a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 00:07 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

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http://thehill.com/homene(...)ampaign-surveillance

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 00:07 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

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http://thehill.com/homene(...)ampaign-surveillance

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 00:07 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

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http://thehill.com/homene(...)ampaign-surveillance

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 00:33 schreef Tchock het volgende:

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Ik begrijp niet helemaal hoe dit onderzoek in verhouding staat tot een ander onderzoek dat al in maart gestart is en volgens mij grotendeels hetzelfde beoogt.

https://www.vox.com/world(...)arrant-investigation

Waarom Trump dit nu ineens roept is me ook een raadsel. En mogelijk kan het als een tak terug in zijn gezich zwiepen als er uit komt dat de FBI onderzoek deed omdat ze gerechtvaardigd vermoeden hadden dat er sprake was van samenzwering met een buitenlandse mogendheid.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:05 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Ik vrees dat Mueller's onderzoek niet genoeg zal opleveren. En als de economie blijft draaien zou de GOP de midterms kunnen winnen, en wie weet, Trump zelfs een tweede termijn.
China zal Trump niet stoppen, die kijken met leedvermaak toe hoe de EU worstelt met de sancties en tarieven. De EU, en vooral Duitsland, wil haar economie beschermen, terwijl ze nu net zouden moeten optreden. Veroorzaak een crisis, anders maak je Trump sterker...

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:05 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Ik vrees dat Mueller's onderzoek niet genoeg zal opleveren. En als de economie blijft draaien zou de GOP de midterms kunnen winnen, en wie weet, Trump zelfs een tweede termijn.
China zal Trump niet stoppen, die kijken met leedvermaak toe hoe de EU worstelt met de sancties en tarieven. De EU, en vooral Duitsland, wil haar economie beschermen, terwijl ze nu net zouden moeten optreden. Veroorzaak een crisis, anders maak je Trump sterker...

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:05 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Ik vrees dat Mueller's onderzoek niet genoeg zal opleveren. En als de economie blijft draaien zou de GOP de midterms kunnen winnen, en wie weet, Trump zelfs een tweede termijn.
China zal Trump niet stoppen, die kijken met leedvermaak toe hoe de EU worstelt met de sancties en tarieven. De EU, en vooral Duitsland, wil haar economie beschermen, terwijl ze nu net zouden moeten optreden. Veroorzaak een crisis, anders maak je Trump sterker...

twitter:

seanmdav twitterde op zondag 20-05-2018 om 23:13:01 I’d be more willing to listen to the “it’s totes okay that Obama spied on Trump” arguments if they weren’t coming from the exact people who just days ago were still claiming Obama never spied on Trump. If it was all kosher, why’d you cover it up and lie about it for two years? reageer retweet

twitter:

JuddLegum twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 00:24:46 It’s much easier to understand what Giuliani is doing if you think of him not as Trump’s attorney but as an agent of chaos reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:08 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

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Optreden? In welke zin?
Crisis? In welke zin?

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:11 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Mueller's onderzoek gaat hopelijk de waarheid opleveren. Dat heeft helemaal niets met de midterms te maken. De Democraten hebben zat andere goede argumenten waarom men op ze zou moeten stemmen.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 01:33 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

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Optreden tegen de sancties, met overtuigende maatregelen. Ze kunnen niet wachten tot die sancties in november in werking treden, dan hebben alle bedrijven zich al teruggetrokken. Geen diplomatieke taal meer, dreigen met tegensancties.

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Er waren verdomd goede redenen om niet op Trump te stemmen, en niemand dacht dat hij kon winnen, maar hij deed het. Nu kijkt men naar z'n approval rating en denkt men weer hetzelfde. Mij lijkt het verstandiger om in te grijpen. Sancties/tarieven die de rode staten treffen, zodat de GOP/Trump kiezers wat minder positief worden over het gevoerde beleid. Want de Chinezen gaan het misschien niet doen, die zouden kunnen redeneren dat een breuk tussen VS en EU hen op lange termijn meer zal opleveren, en zij kunnen de werkloosheidscijfers in de VS twee jaar laag houden als ze dat willen. Dat kost hen 2% van hun GDP.

Erg onwaarschijnlijk scenario misschien, maar wil iemand dat risico lopen?

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 03:25:08 Aides are concerned about Trump’s understanding of the details of North Korea’s nuclear program.Ex-aides say Trump has resisted detailed briefings about enrichment capabilities, plutonium reprocessing, nuclear weapons production that Obama and Bush had. https://t.co/jgEN9cUmrD reageer retweet

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President Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding with a historic meeting that he had leapt into accepting, according to administration and foreign officials.

Mr. Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued on Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, who declared that the country would never trade away its nuclear weapons capability in exchange for economic aid, administration officials said. The statement, while a highly familiar tactic by the North, represented a jarring shift in tone after weeks of conciliatory gestures.

On Thursday and Friday, Mr. Trump peppered aides with questions about the wisdom of proceeding, and on Saturday night he called President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to ask why the North’s public statement seemed to contradict the private assurances that Mr. Moon had conveyed after he met Kim Jong-un, the 35-year-old dictator of the North, at the Demilitarized Zone in late April.

The president’s conversation with Mr. Moon, which was first reported by The Washington Post, came just three days before the South Korean leader was scheduled to arrive in Washington to meet with Mr. Trump on Tuesday. It was a sign of Mr. Trump’s discomfort, some officials speculated, that he could not wait to discuss the issue until Mr. Moon arrived for his meetings here, though there is no indication that the president is considering pulling out of the North Korea talks.

Mr. Trump’s aides have grown concerned that the president — who has said that “everyone thinks” he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts — has signaled that he wants the summit meeting too much. The aides also worry that Mr. Kim, sensing the president’s eagerness, is prepared to offer assurances that will fade over time.

SPOILER

Moreover, Mr. Trump’s decision this month to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal raises the stakes for the North Korea negotiation. If he emerges with anything less than what President Barack Obama got, which in Iran included the verified shipment of 97 percent of all nuclear material out of the country, it will be hard for Mr. Trump to convince anyone other than his base that the negotiation was a success.

The aides are also concerned about what kind of grasp Mr. Trump has on the details of the North Korea program, and what he must insist upon as the key components of denuclearization. Mr. Moon and his aides reported that Mr. Kim seemed highly conversant with all elements of the program when the two men met, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made similar comments about Mr. Kim, based on his two meetings with him in Pyongyang, the North’s capital.

But aides who have recently left the administration say Mr. Trump has resisted the kind of detailed briefings about enrichment capabilities, plutonium reprocessing, nuclear weapons production and missile programs that Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush regularly sat through.

Grappling with North Korea in negotiations is a new experience not just for Mr. Trump, but also for everyone else in the upper ranks of his administration. South Korean officials say that John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s new national security adviser, has been in near daily contact with his counterpart in Seoul, trying to work out a strategy.

Mr. Bolton has been clear that in his view the president should use the Singapore meeting to declare that the North must give up its entire arsenal and nuclear infrastructure before crippling economic sanctions are eased.

The South has been advocating a more traditional confidence-building approach, in which concessions by the North result in a gradual lifting of sanctions. But Mr. Trump has said he will not repeat that technique, because it led to failure by his four immediate predecessors.

Until now, administration officials have been saying they expect Mr. Kim to agree to denuclearization at the Singapore summit meeting and to set a schedule for a fast down payment over the next six months, which would involve turning over some number of nuclear weapons, closing production facilities and allowing inspectors to range the country.

Those who have dealt with North Korea most intensively say that expectation will have to be scaled back if Mr. Trump expects success.

“If Trump is truly expecting to see a handover of nuclear weapons in six months, without anything in return, that is very unrealistic,” said Joseph Yun, the State Department’s North Korea coordinator until he retired a few months ago. He predicted that Mr. Trump would be forced into the kind of step-by-step measures that his predecessors attempted, “because there is no other way.”

Mr. Pompeo said on ABC News late last month: “This administration has its eyes wide open. We know the history. We know the risks.” He said the only measure of success would be “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization,” a phrase first used in the Bush administration, for which it proved unattainable.

Analysts at the C.I.A., where Mr. Pompeo was director before becoming secretary of state, have warned for years that they do not believe that Mr. Kim would trade away all of his nuclear weapons capability, no matter what the offer from the United States and its allies. But they have said there was a chance that he would suspend testing and give up some of the North’s capability — as long as it could be rapidly rebuilt — if he could win the removal of much of the American presence in the region.

Mr. Bolton has repeatedly cited the case of Libya, which turned over all of its nuclear-related equipment in 2003, as a model to follow for denuclearization. Libya received promises of economic integration with the West, little of which happened.

In 2011, its leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was overthrown, dragged from a ditch and killed. The North Koreans noticed, and much of the statement issued last week was a denunciation of Mr. Bolton and a vow never to bend to “great powers” seeking a similar deal.

But when reporters asked Mr. Trump about Libya, he managed, in one stroke, to contradict Mr. Bolton and misconstrue the importance of the trade of the nuclear program for economic rewards.

“The Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all, when we’re thinking of North Korea,” Mr. Trump said. “If you look at that model with Qaddafi, that was a total decimation. We went in there to beat him.” That referred to Western military intervention in 2011, not to the nuclear disarmament that came eight years before.

“Now that model would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely,” Mr. Trump warned, seeming to repeat exactly the threat that the North Koreans had warned against. “But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un is going to be very, very happy.”

Mr. Trump may be right: Mr. Kim presumably has many decades ahead of him as North Korea’s leader and has much to gain from improved economic conditions. But he would be betting his entire country on any nuclear deal, and most intelligence analyses in recent years have cast doubt that he, or the North Korean elite, would be willing to give up the security provided by nuclear arms.

Michael Green, a professor at Georgetown University and a leading expert on Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in Foreign Affairs that Mr. Kim was looking for something much larger than Mr. Trump was.

“Trump may be preparing for the wrong game: a two-player round of checkers when Kim is steeling for a multiplayer two-board chess match,” he wrote. “On one board will be the future of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, what Trump came to negotiate. On the other will be what Kim and the other participants know is also crucially at stake: the future of geopolitics in northeast Asia.” Mr. Kim sees himself as a player in that game long after the Trump administration is over.

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China is winning Trump’s trade war

It was easy to miss the U.S.-China trade statement that the White House released Saturday, right in the midst of royal wedding mania. But it's hard to hide that China looks as if it's winning President Trump's trade skirmish — so far.

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On Friday, Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was telling reporters that the Chinese had agreed to reduce the deficit by “at least” $200 billion. China quickly denied that, and, a day later, the official statement didn't have a concrete number, a seeming victory for the Chinese.

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The real battle against the Chinese was supposed to be over intellectual property theft, which the Trump administration says has been going on for years and costs the U.S. economy $225 billion to $600 billion a year. Trump was supposed to get the Chinese to stop stealing U.S. business secrets and technology. On this front, the statement was brief and lackluster, saying that both sides agreed to “strengthen cooperation” (diplomatic speak for not doing much) and that China would “advance relevant amendments” to its patent law. It remains to be seen whether that happens (and whether China enforces any new laws).

Reaction to the announcement was mostly negative, even among people who are usually Trump allies. Dan DiMicco, a former steel CEO who has been a big supporter of Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, tweeted shortly after the statement came out, “Not good enough. Time to take the gloves off.” He followed that up with: “Did [the] president just blink? China and friends appear to be carrying the day.” Fox Business host Lou Dobbs summed up the situation this way: “Chinese say 'no deal.' ”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted, “Why do U.S. officials always fall for China trickery?” Wall Street Journal trade reporter Bob Davis tweeted that the big takeaway is: “Trump administration gets rolled by the Chinese.”

Bron: WaPo

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Bernie Sanders’ top operatives formed “Our Revolution” after he lost the 2016 primaries to keep his army organized and motivated — and potentially prepare for another presidential run in 2020.

But an extensive review of the Sanders-inspired group depicts an organization in disarray — operating primarily as a promotional vehicle for its leader and sometimes even snubbing candidates aligned with Sanders. Our Revolution has shown no ability to tip a major Democratic election in its favor — despite possessing Sanders’ email list, the envy of the Democratic Party — and can claim no major wins in 2018 as its own.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 13:47 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Trump is op Twitter aan het ranten over China. Hij is zijn "demand" van gisteren alweer vergeten denk ik.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 13:40:22 China must continue to be strong & tight on the Border of North Korea until a deal is made. The word is that recently the Border has become much more porous and more has been filtering in. I want this to happen, and North Korea to be VERY successful, but only after signing! reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 13:48 schreef Euribob het volgende:

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Problemen in Kamp Bernie

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 13:57 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Bernie heeft geen best jaar gehad. Zijn belangrijke thema's zijn onderbelicht gebleven. Dingen die wel veel in het nieuws waren, MeToo, het wapendebat, zijn dingen waarin hij niet sterk staat. In de peilingen in New Hampshire is Biden hem ook al voorbij gestreefd.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 13:50 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

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twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 13:40:22 China must continue to be strong & tight on the Border of North Korea until a deal is made. The word is that recently the Border has become much more porous and more has been filtering in. I want this to happen, and North Korea to be VERY successful, but only after signing! reageer retweet

Als ik Kim was zou ik het wel weten.

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Thoughts on Moon’s meeting with Trump tomorrow: 1) It increasingly looks like the Moon administration overstated North Korea’s willingness to deal. Moon will probably get an earful over that.

2a) Moon likely exaggerated this to tie Trump to a diplomatic track to prevent him from backsliding into last year’s war-threats which scared the daylights out of South Koreans. If Trump were less vain and had allowed his national security staff to vet the NK offer, he might have

2b) learned this. But instead, he accepted the NK summit offer 45 minutes after he was told of it, without even telling the White House staff, and then drank his own kool-aid watching Fox telling him for weeks that he deserved a Nobel. Now comes the hang-over.

3) Flattering Trump into diplomacy is likely also why Moon’s government credited Trump with driving NK to negotiation through maximum pressure and suggested that Trump receive a Nobel peace prize.

4) It is an open secret in Korea that this was just flattering Trump to prevent him from starting a war. No one actually believes it. My students & colleagues laugh at the suggestion. No one thought the western media wd actually start seriously debating it. Trump is loathed here.

5a) The problem, of course, is that none of this Trump-whispering is true: NK is not going to denuclearize; NK was not driven to negotiate by maximum pressure (they chose to negotiate, because they established nuclear deterrence with the US mainland); and Trump does not deserve a

5b) Nobel, because, well, I am pretty sure that threatening national genocide at the United Nations – ‘totally destroy North Korea’ – is a disqualifier.

6a) The great irony, which US conservative media will never admit of course, is that Trump actually drove SK to the table, not NK. Trump scared SKs so much last year, that Moon’s approval rating has shot up into the 80s%, even though he won with just 41% a year ago, and approval

6b) of the summit process is in the 90s%. So if you are a NK hawk, Trump's rhetoric last year made things worse, not better, by scaring up a dovish consensus for Moon to make concessions and keep Trump at bay.

7a) At this point, the best thing to do would be to postpone the summit until greater common ground among the 3 players can be found and let experts on the issues hammer out some consensus. But Moon likely opposes that because any delay could open political space for Bolton, and

Trump likely desperately wants this summit for the TV, attn, & a political 'win' he can market at home to change the story f/ his scandals & blunt a looming blue wave. So the summit will prolly still happen, even tho, scarily, w 3 weeks to go, no1 really knows how it will unfold

https://twitter.com/Robert_E_Kelly/status/998422440165294081?s=19

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 14:04 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Vond dit een verhelderend Twitter draadje van een professor International Relations & Noord Korea expert (en die ene man die een interview had met de BBC toen zijn kinderen ineens zijn werkkamer binnenkwamen ):

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Ik zeg het al langer, het is een enorme fout van Trump geweest om meteen akkoord te gaan met een meeting. Trump heeft veel meer te verliezen dan Kim nu, en loopt het risico om op het hoogste podium af te gaan als een gieter. Tegelijkertijd weten we nu dat Trump de ballen snapt van wat nu precies het probleem met Noord Korea is en hoe kernwapens werken. Wordt een interessante ontmoeting, to say the least.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 14:19 schreef trein2000 het volgende:
Wat heeft trump de noord-Koreanen überhaupt te bieden? Want hij zou zelf toch ook een (flinke) concessie moeten doen

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 15:24 schreef Nintex het volgende:

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Het is heel simpel. Als Korea geen deal wil of naar de tafel komt dan beschouwd Congress de diplomatieke weg ten einde en stijgen de B52's op om van het paleis van Kim in Noord Korea een parkeerplaats te maken.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 15:24 schreef Nintex het volgende:

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Het is heel simpel. Als Korea geen deal wil of naar de tafel komt dan beschouwd Congress de diplomatieke weg ten einde en stijgen de B52's op om van het paleis van Kim in Noord Korea een parkeerplaats te maken.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:08 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Je verwacht het niet ... _{of naja, toch een beetje wel}:
[ afbeelding ]
https://www.reuters.com/a(...)llance-idUSKCN1IL0PQ

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 15:24 schreef Nintex het volgende:

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Het is heel simpel. Als Korea geen deal wil of naar de tafel komt dan beschouwd Congress de diplomatieke weg ten einde en stijgen de B52's op om van het paleis van Kim in Noord Korea een parkeerplaats te maken.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:22 schreef Freak188 het volgende:

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Ja maar Hillary was toch de havik?

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:20 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Het is wel zo dat het onderzoek met de midterms in het gedrang komt. Het is een richtlijn van Justitie dat lopende onderzoeken geen verkiezingen mogen beïnvloeden (lol @ Comey ). Dus of Mueller tilt het over de midterms heen qua high profile indictments etc. of hij maakt vaart met de zaak. Moet Donald wel even een interview komen afleggen.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:40 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Nou, als je kijkt naar dit staatje vinden de aanklachten op vrij willekeurige momenten plaats, historisch gezien, ook gewoon voor of tijdens midterms:
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Misschien dat zoiets alleen zou gelden voor een aanklacht tegen Trump zelf oid, maar buiten dat...?!

Edit: Althans, de begindatums staan er hier niet van bij, dus het zou kunnen zijn dat het mooi oplijnt, maar het lijkt me sterk. Hoe dan ook, neem bv. Samuel Pierce influence-peddling ... het kan bijna niet anders dan dat gelopen heeft in 2 midterms + 1 presidentieel jaar of 1 midterm en 2 presidentiele jaren.

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BREAKING: Despite losing GOP primary in West Virginia, convicted ex-coal exec Don Blankenship says he'll run for Senate as third-party
candidate.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/998560400135376896?s=19

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 14:04 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Vond dit een verhelderend Twitter draadje van een professor International Relations & Noord Korea expert (en die ene man die een interview had met de BBC toen zijn kinderen ineens zijn werkkamer binnenkwamen ):

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Ik zeg het al langer, het is een enorme fout van Trump geweest om meteen akkoord te gaan met een meeting. Trump heeft veel meer te verliezen dan Kim nu, en loopt het risico om op het hoogste podium af te gaan als een gieter. Tegelijkertijd weten we nu dat Trump de ballen snapt van wat nu precies het probleem met Noord Korea is en hoe kernwapens werken. Wordt een interessante ontmoeting, to say the least.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:45 schreef Nontex het volgende:
Terwijl Kim lachend in zijn paleisje zit krijgt Iran een ultimatum voorgeschoteld van team #MAGA

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 16:45 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Terwijl Kim bibberend in zijn paleisje zit krijgt Iran een ultimatum voorgeschoteld van team #MAGA

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

twitter:

Joyce_Karam twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 15:32:53 Most significant in Pompeo ‘s Iran speech:•Forget mild fixes for Deal•Iran regional behavior part of problem, IRGC, Qassem, Hezbollah•Sanctions will target everyone (EU)•Many mentions of Iranian people & that Khamenei won’t live forever... reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:12 schreef Janneke141 het volgende:

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En anders?

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:14 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

Joyce_Karam twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 15:32:53 Most significant in Pompeo ‘s Iran speech:•Forget mild fixes for Deal•Iran regional behavior part of problem, IRGC, Qassem, Hezbollah•Sanctions will target everyone (EU)•Many mentions of Iranian people & that Khamenei won’t live forever... reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:41 schreef Nintex het volgende:

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Dit is nu wat je noemt 'triggered'.

Enfin, er is helemaal niets veranderd, ieder wel denkend mens was al tegen de Iran deal. Helemaal, omdat het regime niets waar heeft gemaakt van de economische vooruitgang die aan het volk beloofd was. Ik vind het altijd frapant hoe Iran als 'slachtoffer' wordt neer gezet terwijl er hele goede en duidelijke redenen zijn om het land niet zo fijn te vinden.

Wanneer leert men nu eens dat het slechte buitenland beleid van Obama de uitzondering was op de regel? Pompeo heeft gewoon gelijk dat Iran zich in allerlei landen met terroristische activiteiten bezig blijft houden met alle gevolgen dan dien.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:49 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

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Het was een pragmatische deal. Als je Iran volledig op de knieën wil krijgen, dan moet je het land binnenvallen en een ander regime installeren. Dat kan best een aanpak zijn, maar het staat haaks op wat Trump en zijn aanhangers de afgelopen jaren hebben geroepen.

Noord-Korea nuken, zoals jij voorstelt, is eveneens een oplossing. Maar nogmaals: het staat haaks op de boodschap die Trump en zijn aanhangers de afgelopen jaren hebben uitgedragen.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:52 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]

NK nuken is geen oplossing. Althans geen acceptabele, dan veranderd Seoul in een parkeerplaats en als de Amerikanen pech hebben koppen ze zelf ook een paar kernraketten.

twitter:

netflix twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 18:00:44 President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have entered into a multi-year agreement to produce films and series for Netflix, potentially including scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries, and features. reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:55 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Gelukkig steunt S.A. geen terrorisme.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 18:57 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Dat is volgens de Trumpisten niet erg, want de grote leider is dikke matties met de Koninklijke familie. En vrouwen mogen rijden, dus wie geeft dan een fuck om terrorisme?

twitter:

PeterAlexander twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 19:40:47 Less than a month to Trump-Kim summit, White House Communications Agency (WHCA) releases its “trip coin.”This is #74 of 250 made. https://t.co/UTEJg1GyWv reageer retweet

twitter:

markknoller twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 20:24:04 Pres issues Executive Order to bar any transactions by US firms or Americans to help Maduro Regime sell off Venezuelan assets. Senior Admin Officials says Maduro Regime officials trying to enrich themselves by selling off State assets including "anything that isn't bolted down." reageer retweet

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 19:11 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Zulke figuren vinden de verspreiding van het Wahabisme ook geen enkel probleem kennelijk.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:22 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]

Wat dat betreft zijn de meeste aanslagen in Europa, de VS en in veel gevallen ook het M-O zelf gewoon direct te herleiden naar S-A. De grootste problemen in NL met de islam komen door het 24/7 zenden van haatpreken door S-A naar makkelijk beinvloedbare moslims in het buitenland. En het sponsoren van moskeeen e.d. Iran doet dat vrijwel niet. Voor mij zou de keuze eenvoudig zijn: S-A regime change en Iran in een generatie vanzelf richting verwesterd land laten bewegen.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:19 schreef Ludachrist het volgende:
Er is stoere taal, dus dan is Nintex er om dat mooi te vinden.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:24 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Net als: Je land wordt aangevallen door een zooi Saudische terroristen. Welk land val je binnen? Afghanistan.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:27 schreef Fir3fly het volgende:

[..]

Dat is behoorlijk kort door de bocht, dat is wel waar ze getraind werden en waar de organisatie zelf zat.

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:27 schreef Fir3fly het volgende:

[..]

Dat is behoorlijk kort door de bocht, dat is wel waar ze getraind werden en waar de organisatie zelf zat.

SPOILER

Of begon hier de destabilisatie van NATO en heeft de GRU de Boeings in het WTC gevlogen /aluhoedje

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 20:44 schreef Monolith het volgende:
De SC heeft geoordeeld dat werknemers verplicht mogen worden om niet mee te doen aan class action lawsuits tegen hun werkgever:
https://www.npr.org/2018/(...)utm_content=20180521

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:58 schreef Szura het volgende:
Con Jr. kan tevreden zijn

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 20:01 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Een munt speciaal voor de peace talks.

twitter:

PeterAlexander twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 19:40:47 Less than a month to Trump-Kim summit, White House Communications Agency (WHCA) releases its “trip coin.”This is #74 of 250 made. https://t.co/UTEJg1GyWv reageer retweet

https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/998619627700805633

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Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:54 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Ook dieren zijn de lul. Nontex juicht bij dit nieuws:


Government Just Lifted A Ban On Shooting Bears And Wolves From Airplanes In Alaska
Shooting wolves and bears from airplanes is once again legal in Alaska's national wildlife refuges after President Trump signed legislation to allow the hunting of predator animals.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:54 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Ook dieren zijn de lul. Nontex juicht bij dit nieuws:


Government Just Lifted A Ban On Shooting Bears And Wolves From Airplanes In Alaska
Shooting wolves and bears from airplanes is once again legal in Alaska's national wildlife refuges after President Trump signed legislation to allow the hunting of predator animals.

quote:

The princes, the president and the fortune seekers

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a yearlong pursuit of money and influence, two American businessmen played Middle East countries against each other, as they leveraged connections stretching from Persian Gulf palaces to the Oval Office into millions of dollars in contracts.

An investigation by The Associated Press found that fundraiser Elliott Broidy and George Nader, an adviser to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, pushed the interests of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

As they angled for lucrative contracts, they passed messages purportedly from princes of the two Gulf countries to President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press reviewed hundreds of pages of correspondence between Broidy and Nader and conducted dozens of interviews with the people involved.

Nader’s lawyer declined comment. Broidy denied any wrongdoing.

quote:

Michael Palin rondt documentaire over Noord-Korea af (NU.nl)

Michael Palin is teruggekeerd uit Noord-Korea waar hij enige tijd verbleef om een documentaire over het land te maken. De reeks zal nog dit jaar worden uitgezonden. De Britse acteur, die deel uitmaakte van het opgeheven legendarische, komische collectief Monty Python, werkte in opdracht van Channel 5 in totaal twee jaar aan de documentaire.

Weinig westerlingen krijgen toegang tot het geïsoleerde land, dat door Kim Jong-un wordt geregeerd. "Ik kon dit aanbod gewoon niet weigeren", zegt Palin in een interview met The Hollywood Reporter. "Dit land is zo vaak in het nieuws. Toch weten we er eigenlijk helemaal niets van. Dat we een blik konden werpen op het alledaagse leven in dit land, heeft onze ogen geopend en ik denk dat de kijkers dat ook zullen ervaren."
Historische ontmoeting

Het is niet duidelijk hoe de 75-jarige Palin de recente historische ontmoeting tussen de leiders van Noord- en Zuid-Korea in beeld zal brengen. Kim Jong-un en president Moon Jae-in gingen eind april met elkaar in gesprek en besloten te streven naar een permanente vrede.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 21:54 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Ook dieren zijn de lul.

quote:

WHAT: The violent animals of MS-13 have committed heinous, violent attacks in communities across America.

Too many innocent Americans have fallen victim to the unthinkable violence of MS-13’s animals.

quote:

The re-election campaign of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday canceled a shotgun giveaway it had continued to promote days after a shooter opened fire at a high school in the state.

Abbott said Friday that lawmakers needed to “do more than just pray for victims and their families” after authorities reported that a 17-year-old student had killed 10 people and wounded 13 others at Santa Fe High School.

“It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again,” Abbott said at a press conference, where he noted that the suspected shooter used a shotgun and .38-caliber revolver he had obtained from his father.

But Abbott’s promised “action” didn’t appear to include dropping his campaign’s shotgun giveaway contest, outraged Twitter users noted over the weekend.

SPOILER

“Win a Texas-made shotgun!” Abbott’s official campaign website had boasted. To enter the contest those interested were instructed to submit their contact information online.

Participants were required to be Texas residents at least 18 years of age, according to the fine print, and had to be legally able to purchase a pump-action shotgun. The winner was to receive a $250 gift certificate redeemable at a Central Texas licensed gun dealer, the website stated.

As of Monday, contest participants can simply enter to win a $250 gift card, John Wittman, Abbott’s press secretary, told HuffPost in an email.

Abbott’s campaign had also printed promotional material featuring the shotgun giveaway to hang on doorknobs. It’s unclear when and where the printed ads for the contest where circulated.

quote:

The princes, the president and the fortune seekers

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a year spent carefully cultivating two princes from the Arabian Peninsula, Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, thought he was finally close to nailing more than $1 billion in business.

He had ingratiated himself with crown princes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who were seeking to alter U.S. foreign policy and punish Qatar, an archrival in the Gulf that he dubbed “the snake.”

To do that, the California businessman had helped spearhead a secret campaign to influence the White House and Congress, flooding Washington with political donations.

Broidy and his business partner, Lebanese-American George Nader, pitched themselves to the crown princes as a backchannel to the White House, passing the princes’ praise — and messaging — straight to the president’s ears.

SPOILER

Now, in December 2017, Broidy was ready to be rewarded for all his hard work.

It was time to cash in.

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America’s government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewed by the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

The AP has previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress while obscuring the source of the money behind their influence campaign. A new cache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon’s longstanding relationship with the Gulf country.

A lawyer for Broidy, Chris Clark, contended the AP’s reporting “is based on fraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a known agenda to harm Mr. Broidy.”

“To be clear, Mr. Nader is a U.S. citizen, and there is no evidence suggesting that he directed Mr. Broidy’s actions, let alone that he did so on behalf of a foreign entity,” Clark said.

The AP conducted an exhaustive review of the emails and documents, checking their content with dozens of sources, and determined that they tracked closely with real events, including efforts to cultivate the princes and lobby Congress and the White House.

The cache also reveals a previously unreported meeting with the president and provides the most detailed account yet of the work of two Washington insiders who have been entangled in the turmoil surrounding the two criminal investigations closest to Trump.

Lobbying in pursuit of personal gain is nothing new in Washington — Trump himself, in fact, turned the incestuous culture into a rallying cry when he promised to “drain the swamp.”

“I will Make Our Government Honest Again -- believe me,” Trump tweeted before the election. “But first, I’m going to have to #DrainTheSwamp in DC.”

Broidy’s campaign to alter U.S. policy in the Middle East and reap a fortune for himself shows that one of the president’s top money men found the swamp as navigable as ever with Trump in office.

Nader’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, declined comment. A senior Saudi official confirmed that the government had discussions with Nader but said it had signed no contracts with either Nader or Broidy.

Neither Broidy nor Nader registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law intended to make lobbyists working for foreign governments disclose their ties and certain political activities. The law requires people to register even if they are not paid but merely directed by foreign interests with political tasks in mind.

Violating the federal law carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to five years in prison.

Broidy has maintained he was not required to register because his anti-Qatar campaign was not directed by a foreign client and came entirely at his own initiative. But documents show the lobbying was intertwined with the pursuit of contracts from the very start, and involved specific political tasks carried out for the crown princes — whose countries are listed as the “clients” for the lobbying campaign in a spreadsheet from Broidy’s company, Circinus LLC.

“I have represented Mr. Broidy for many years. He has complied with all relevant laws, including FARA,” Clark, Broidy’s attorney, said in a statement to the AP.

Summaries written by Broidy of two meetings he had with Trump — one of which has not been disclosed before — report that he was passing messages to the president from the two princes and that he told Trump he was seeking business with them.

By December of last year, the partners were riding a wave of success in their campaign to create an anti-Qatar drumbeat in Washington.

Saudi Arabia was finding a new ascendancy following Trump’s election. Broidy sought to claim credit for it, emails show, and was keen to collect the first installment of $36 million for an intelligence-gathering contract with the UAE.

It all might have proceeded smoothly save for one factor: the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to look into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

‘BELTWAY BANDITS’

In many ways, the partnership between Broidy, 60, and Nader, 59, embodies the insider influence that has given contractors in D.C. the nickname “beltway bandits.”

Both of their careers were marked by high-rolling success and spectacular falls from grace — and criminal convictions. The onset of the Trump administration presented an opportunity: a return to glory.

Broidy, who made a fortune in investments, was finance chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2006 to 2008. But when a New York state pension fund decided to invest $250 million with him, investigators found that he had plied state officials with nearly $1 million in illegal gifts while collecting $18 million in management fees.

In 2009, Broidy pleaded guilty to a felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

“In seeking investments from the New York State Common Retirement Fund, I made payments for the benefit of high-ranking officials at the Office of the New York State Comptroller, who had influence and decision-making authority over investment decisions,” Broidy said in his plea and cooperation agreement.

Andrew Cuomo, then-New York attorney general, called it “an old-fashioned payoff.”

“This is effectively bribery of state officials, and not just one,” said Cuomo, who is now New York’s governor.

Three years later, Broidy’s conviction was knocked down to a misdemeanor after he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and pay back the $18 million to the state.

Nader’s problem was pedophilia.

As a young Lebanese immigrant to the U.S. in the 1980s, he quickly established himself as a forceful independent operator, founding a policy magazine called Middle East Insight. By the ’90s, he had risen as a behind-the-scenes player, setting up dinners for Israeli and Arab dignitaries with Washington power brokers and U.S. lawmakers.

But in May 2003, Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic of 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term, the AP revealed in March.

He served his time in Prague, according to Czech authorities, then was expelled from the country.

That sordid past was no obstacle as Nader cultivated a formidable list of high-powered contacts.

After the 2003 Iraq war ended, he re-emerged there, as contractors were making a fortune helping the U.S. coalition and the post-Saddam Hussein government rebuild the country and arm its military.

Nader worked with a private military contractor from the U.S., Erik Prince, whose former company, Blackwater, became infamous after a shootout in Baghdad in 2007 left 14 civilians dead.

Nader has been living in the UAE, working as an adviser to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince known as MBZ.

It was Nader’s connection to MBZ and Erik Prince that eventually caught the attention of U.S. investigators in the Russia probe.

Mueller’s team was interested in two meetings that took place before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

One was in the Seychelles, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which drew scrutiny because it included Prince, an informal adviser to Trump, and Russian investor Kirill Dmitriev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting has prompted questions about whether it was an attempt to establish a backchannel between Russia and the incoming Trump administration.

The other meeting was at Trump Tower in New York.

Nader and MBZ were at both.

‘A TERRIFIC, MAGNIFICENT MEETING’

Just weeks after those meetings, Broidy and Nader met for the first time, during Trump’s inauguration.

The two men were soon working out their budding partnership. Nader sent Broidy his private email address on the encrypted ProtonMail service.

From the start, the men had a two-track mission: to carry out a campaign against Qatar that would curry favor with the princes, and to then turn that success into millions of dollars in defense deals, documents show.

The two men barely knew each other. But Broidy had the ear of the president. Nader claimed he had the crown princes’.

On Feb. 7, 2017, Broidy wrote to a staffer for the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about a bill aimed at sanctioning Qatar for alleged support of terrorist groups— part of what Nader called “hammering Qatar,” emails show.

The next day, Broidy forwarded Nader questions about a potential contract with Saudi Arabia to train Arab troops to fight in the escalating war in Yemen.

The three-year civil war there has left thousands of civilians dead, millions displaced from their homes, and put the entire country on the cusp of famine in what is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. The war has drawn in myriad combatants, including a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and backed by the U.S.

Broidy and Nader proposed multiple plans to the princes for more than $1 billion of work. One pitch was to help create an all-Muslim fighting force of 5,000 troops. A second was aimed at helping the UAE gather intelligence. A third would strengthen Saudi maritime and border security. Still another was related to setting up counterterrorism centers in Saudi Arabia.

In a note to Broidy, Nader said the princes were very happy with the proposed contracts, particularly the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

But first, emails show, they had to focus on the lobbying campaign. They proposed a budget upward of $12 million to “expose and penalize” Qatar and get the U.S. to pressure it to “aid in coercive action against Iran,” according to a March 2017 document.

The gist of their plan was to show evidence that Qatar was too close to Iran and supported Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran is Saudi’s main regional rival and on the other side of the war in Yemen.

Ideally, Broidy and Nader would work to persuade the U.S. government to sanction Qatar and move a key military base from Qatar to another location in the Gulf. Broidy said he had a direct line to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“Mnuchin is a close friend of mine (my wife and I are attending Sec. Mnuchin’s wedding in Washington D.C. on June 24th),” Broidy wrote to Nader. “I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the Treasury Department putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on the applicable sanctions lists.”

The al-Udeid Air Base outside Doha is an important U.S. military asset in the Middle East. It’s the forward operating base for U.S. Central Command and hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops — a geopolitical arrangement that Qatar’s Gulf rivals would like to change. Amid the fissures in the Gulf, the base is key leverage for Qatar to maintain influence in Washington. Unlike other countries, Qatar imposes few restrictions on base operations and is even building new facilities for U.S. troops.

Getting the U.S. government to move its critical base in the Gulf was unlikely. And polishing up the image of the Saudis and Emiratis was a hard sell.

Saudi Arabia has a history of torture and human rights abuses. Many Americans still associate the country with the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the 19 attackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, and two were from the UAE.

The UAE’s track record is no better. Last year, the AP revealed that the UAE was operating “black sites” in Yemen, where its soldiers have tortured prisoners - including, in some cases, tying them to a spit and roasting them over open fires.

Qatar has a troubled record as well. International human rights groups have dinged the country for its treatment of migrant workers preparing the country for the 2022 World Cup. Amnesty International, in a 2013 report, stated that migrants from southeast Asia worked in a state akin to slavery, “forced labour,” and lived in “squalid” housing.

Despite the challenges of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the partners’ timing was good. Trump and many other Republicans in Washington viewed Saudi Arabia as a counterweight against Iran.

Broidy reported he was making progress, and Nader kept the “principals” briefed on their adventures, emails show. Broidy boasted that he had got the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, California Republican Rep. Ed Royce, to back an anti-Qatar bill.

“This is extremely positive,” Broidy wrote. He claimed he had “shifted” Royce from being critical of Saudi Arabia to “being critical of Qatar.” The AP reported in March that Broidy gave nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since the beginning of 2017. Royce got the maximum allowed.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, noted the congressman’s record: Royce has long been critical of both countries. He said Royce has not changed his stance.

Broidy also bragged that he had “caused” Royce to praise a senior Saudi general, Ahmed Hassan Mohammad Assiri, in words that were then memorialized in the Congressional Record. Nader was thrilled: A U.S. congressman publicly flattered a Saudi official, who documents show was helping evaluate Broidy and Nader’s contract proposals.

At the end of March, Nader wrote that he’d had “a terrific, magnificent meeting” with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Prospects for the billion-dollar contracts were good.

“He was very positive overall,” Nader wrote. The prince even asked them to discuss their contracts with “General Ahmed.”

The money for the lobbying was another matter.

At Nader’s request, $2.5 million was channeled in two installments from his company in the UAE through a Canadian company called Xiemen Investments Limited, which someone familiar with the transaction said was run by one of Broidy’s friends. The money was then routed to a Broidy account in Los Angeles.

The transaction had the effect of obfuscating that the money for the political work in Washington had come from Nader in the UAE. Some of the recipients of Broidy’s spending in Washington said they had no idea that Nader was involved. Broidy previously told the AP that he did not think to question why the money was routed through a foreign entity.

At that point, Broidy might have realized the dangers of not registering as a foreign agent — it was all over the news.

Three Trump advisers registered retroactively as foreign agents: Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, who had done business for Turkey, and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, who did business for Ukraine.

Broidy was undeterred. Nader cheered on his anti-Qatar exploits and told him to “keep hammering the bastards.”

AN ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ CAMPAIGN’

Armed with fresh cash, Broidy pitched Nader a media blitz that would put the fire to Qatar.

He’d persuaded an American think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to stage an anti-Qatar conference. Broidy wrote Nader that his plan included the commission of 200 articles assigned to the foundation and other think tanks. Mark Dubowitz, the foundation’s CEO, later said that Broidy assured him the funding was not coming from a foreign government and that he had no contracts in the Gulf.

On April 21, 2017, Broidy sent Nader the draft of an Op-Ed to show the impact of his campaign. It was marked “Confidential.”

Three days later, “The Two Faces of Qatar, a Dubious Mideast Ally” was published in The Wall Street Journal. The opinion piece, co-written by retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who had been the deputy head of U.S. European Command, called for moving U.S. military assets from the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. “The United Arab Emirates would be a logical destination,” wrote Wald.

What readers did not know was that Wald was listed in company documents as a member of Broidy’s Circinus team that was pitching contracts in Saudi Arabia.

Asked why he had not made his conflict clear in the Op-Ed piece, Wald denied he had ever worked for Broidy.

“I was not part of the team, period,” Wald wrote. “I can’t speak for his documentation.”

A person familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said that Wald consulted with Broidy, but could not join a trip to pitch the contract in Saudi Arabia because of a scheduling conflict. Broidy’s leaked emails refer to Wald’s involvement almost four dozen times.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies conference was set for May 23 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington. In a Circinus progress report from Broidy to Nader, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are listed as the clients, Maj. Gen. Assiri as a consultant, and Broidy and Nader are “leader/liaison” — raising questions about Broidy’s contention to the AP that he was not working for a foreign government.

The conference also set off a flurry of more anti-Qatar stories in mainstream media, which Broidy catalogued for the crown princes.

The partners were jubilant when Trump made his first foreign trip not to his allies in Europe, but to Saudi Arabia.

Two weeks later, in a major escalation of tensions, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and regional allies launched a travel and trade embargo against Qatar.

It was hard to tell whose side the U.S. government was on.

One day after the UAE and Saudi Arabia began their blockade, Trump sent a series of tweets signaling support for the two countries’ actions and embracing an anti-Qatar stance. He said his recent visit to Saudi Arabia was “already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to horror of terrorism!”

U.S. officials quickly tried to walk back Trump’s comments, saying the U.S. was not taking sides in the dispute among its Gulf allies.

A week later, on June 16, the Trump administration completed a $12 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar that had been approved earlier by Congress. The move was at odds with the president’s rhetoric on Qatar, but it paled in comparison with the $110 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia that Trump had previously announced.

NADER OR VADER?

In late September, Broidy arranged for the most coveted meeting for any lobbyist in Washington: an audience for himself with the president in the Oval Office.

In advance of the meeting, Nader wrote Broidy a script, an email shows. There were several objectives: to sell the idea for a Muslim fighting force, to keep the president from intervening on Qatar and to arrange a discreet meeting between Trump and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

The princes “are counting on you to relate it blunt and straight,” Nader wrote.

Nader told Broidy the meeting was potentially historic and to “take advantage of this priceless asset.”

And there was one more thing. Nader asked Broidy to tell the president about his connections with the crown princes, using code names for all three.

“Appreciate how you would make sure to bring up my role to Chairman,” Nader emailed. “How I work closely with Two Big Friends.”

After the Oct. 6 meeting, Broidy reported back to Nader that he had passed along the messages and had urged the president to stay out of the dispute with Qatar. He also said he explained Circinus’ plan to build a Muslim fighting force.

“President Trump was extremely enthusiastic,” he wrote. Broidy said Trump asked what the next step would be and that he told the president he should meet with the crown prince from the UAE, adding, “President Trump agreed that a meeting with MBZ was a good idea.”

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Despite that successful readout, Nader wanted more: He wanted a photo of himself with the president — a big request for a convicted pedophile.

Broidy was co-hosting a fundraiser for Trump and the Republican National Committee in Dallas on Oct. 25. The Secret Service had said Nader wouldn’t be allowed to meet the president. It was not clear if the objections were related to his convictions for sexually abusing children.

Broidy drafted an email to Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, asking him to intervene on behalf of his friend, whom he oddly called “George Vader” — a misnomer that appears elsewhere in the emails.

“One of my companies does deep vetting for the US government,” he wrote. “We ran all data bases including FBI and Interpol and found no issues with regard to Mr. Vader.”

There was another issue. RNC officials had decreed there would be no photos with the president without payment. Broidy suggested that Nader meet the suggested threshold with a donation between $100,000 and $250,000.

It’s unclear exactly how the two issues were resolved. Records from the Federal Election Commission show no donations from either George Nader or “George Vader,” but on Nov. 30, Broidy gave $189,000 to the RNC — more than he had given to the RNC in over two decades of Republican fundraising.

The result: a picture of Nader and Trump grinning in front of the American flag.

A SPIRAL OF MISFORTUNE

It was time for Broidy to visit the UAE and nail down his first contract. He and Nader had already discussed sharing the profits and begun setting up a UAE subsidiary of Circinus, Broidy’s company.

In late November, Broidy planned a visit to complete the contracts in the UAE, where MBZ was hosting a Formula One auto race.

But maybe that was too public.

“I think my friend not very wise for you to be seeing (sic) at this event,” Nader wrote to Broidy. “Many journalists and people from Russia and other countries will be around.”

Broidy met Trump once again on Dec. 2. He reported back to Nader that he’d told Trump the crown princes were “most favorably impressed by his leadership.” He offered the crown princes’ help in the Middle East peace plan being developed by Jared Kushner. He did not tell Trump that his partner had complete contempt for the plan — and for the president’s son-in-law.

“You have to hear in private my Brother what Principals think of ‘Clown prince’s’ efforts and his plan!” Nader wrote. “Nobody would even waste cup of coffee on him if it wasn’t for who he is married to.”

Days after Broidy’s meeting with Trump, the UAE awarded Broidy the intelligence contract the partners had been seeking for up to $600 million over 5 years, according to a leaked email.

The Muslim fighting force contract would be even larger, potentially bringing their entire Gulf enterprise to more than $1 billion.

In January, Broidy was preparing for a third meeting with Trump, at Mar-a-Lago, during celebrations of the president’s first year in office. Nader was supposed to join them, but the initial payment for the intelligence contract was late. He delayed his trip to the U.S. for a day to make sure it was wired.

On Jan. 17, Broidy reported that he had received the first installment — $36 million.

“Terrific!” Nader wrote before his flight. “First among many to go!”

Hours after that money transfer, Nader and Broidy discovered that, despite all their precautions, they had not escaped notice.

When Nader landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., a team of FBI agents working for Mueller was there to meet him. He was relieved of his electronic devices and later agreed to cooperate. It is unclear why Nader was detained, but he is a link between the Trump campaign and the Russian investor who attended the meeting in the Seychelles.

While there is no evidence that Mueller is interested in the lobbying effort, Nader’s detention kicked off a spiral of misfortune for the two partners.

In February, the AP, The New York Times and other news organizations began receiving anonymously leaked batches of Broidy’s emails and documents that had apparently been hacked. News stories linked him to plans to leverage his White House access for clients in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Broidy fought back. He sued Qatar and its lobbyists, alleging in a lawsuit filed in March that the hack was a smear campaign.

“We believe the evidence is clear that a nation state is waging a sophisticated disinformation campaign against me in order to silence me, including hacking emails, forging documents, and engaging in espionage and numerous other illegal activities,” Broidy said in a statement at the time.

Qatar responded that it was Broidy who had engaged in a propaganda campaign.

Then, on April 9, another blow.

The FBI raided the premises of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, seeking information on hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who said she’d had an affair with the president.

Broidy, it turned out, was also a Cohen client. He’d had an affair with Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, who got pregnant and later had an abortion. Broidy agreed to pay her $1.6 million to help her out, so long as she never spoke about it.

“I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate,” Broidy said in a statement the day the news broke. He apologized to his wife and resigned from the RNC. There is no indication Broidy is under investigation by Mueller’s team.

In the end, Nader and Broidy’s anti-Qatar operation lost its momentum. There has been no traction on the effort to get the base in Qatar moved to the UAE. In late April, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for an end to the bickering among Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar during a trip to the Gulf.

Last week, Saudi Arabia distanced itself from Nader and Broidy. A senior official said Crown Prince bin Salman ordered an end to “engagement with these people.”

But Broidy’s huge contract with the UAE?

It’s good to go.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 00:11 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Het artikel is aanzienlijk uitgebreid:

[..]

quote:

Minutes later, four police officers arrived and asked Alghamdi (aha! enge naam, dus tóch een terrorist!) for identification. When he told the officers that he had recorded the entire incident, the whole process changed 180 degrees. The police asked Alghamdi to file a police report and by Monday, Kingsville police had identified the man in the video, though his name has not been publicly released.

Officials will pursue disorderly conduct charges.

quote:

The Art of the Steal: With the GOP nominee behind in the polls for much of 2016, Team Trump seemed willing to listen to offers of help from any and all comers, morality or election laws notwithstanding. In June 2016, having secured the nomination, Don Jr. gladly convened a Trump Tower confab with Russians who claimed to have dirt on Clinton. It didn’t produce any overt deal on collusion because it didn’t need to. Just days after Team Putin learned that Trump’s people were open to help and wouldn’t rat them out to the FBI, the flow of illegally hacked Democratic documents — the 21st-century version of breaking-and-entering at the Watergate — began.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 00:21 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
24-jarige student wordt ernstig gehinderd in het verkeer door iemand die vóór hem steeds op zijn remmen gaat staan. Reden? "We zijn hier in Amerika, bitch, niet in Pakistan, Afghanistan of Kuweit, dus leer rijden, terrorist!" En natuurlijk de politie erbij halen om de vermoorde onschuld uit te hangen (ook al zoiets moderns... weten we die vrouw in het BBQ-gebied nog? ).

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 00:29 schreef Nintex het volgende:

[..]

Goed gedaan door de politie dus, nare man krijgt zijn verdiende straf.

quote:

Op vrijdag 18 mei 2018 12:00 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 04:25:52 Trump and Nunes want to reveal the ID of a confidential source, despite warnings that it would put lives in danger and imperil operations.The FBI is now taking steps to protect live investigations the person worked on and lessen any danger to associates. https://t.co/1TVmpvlkeP reageer retweet

twitter:

tedlieu twitterde op vrijdag 18-05-2018 om 05:46:15 .@TheJusticeDept doesn't reveal confidential sources in its investigations. Why should the investigation of @realDonaldTrump & his associates be treated any differently? Also if there was an informant, this suggests Mueller has way more evidence than has been revealed so far. https://t.co/gdWm0IcAZE reageer retweet

Lekker dan. Ben je in 2016 als agent undercover gegaan en zit je ondertussen bij de mafia gaat de President even je cover blowen.

twitter:

WilDonnelly twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 04:01:55 Broidy allegedly paid a Playboy bunny $1.6M, via Cohen, using the same pseudonym as Trump.From 2011-2016, Broidy's company earned $7,501 from defense contracts.Since Trump took office, Broidy's company secured at least $800M in defense contracts.https://t.co/O9VVIJOGkI reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 05:33 schreef AnneX het volgende:
Frisse zaken worden er gedaan. Mèn.

Het kan altijd (nog) erger. Je verzint het niet.

# cliché’s

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 07:16 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Zelden zo'n corrupte bende van een regering gezien in het vrije westen.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 22:16 schreef Falco het volgende:
Bizar zware ultimatumeisen tegen Iran. Zo begon WOI ook met eveneens bizarre ultimatumeisen richting Servië vanuit Oostenrijk-Hongarije.

Anyway, Kim Jong-Un kan nu alles maken bij de aankomende top. Denk niet dat de VS een tweefrontenoorlog wil gaan opstarten.

Europe Prior to World War I: Alliances and Enemies I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 1/3

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 00:29 schreef Nintex het volgende:

[..]

Goed gedaan door de politie dus, nare man krijgt zijn verdiende straf.

quote:

Op maandag 21 mei 2018 22:30 schreef SaintOfKillers het volgende:

[..]

Hunting . Met een geweer vanuit een vliegtuig. Wat een heroïsche jagers.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 05:29 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

WilDonnelly twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 04:01:55 Broidy allegedly paid a Playboy bunny $1.6M, via Cohen, using the same pseudonym as Trump.From 2011-2016, Broidy's company earned $7,501 from defense contracts.Since Trump took office, Broidy's company secured at least $800M in defense contracts.https://t.co/O9VVIJOGkI reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:14 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

Niet helemaal eerlijk natuurlijk. Als beren zelf een vliegtuig zouden kunnen besturen om op eten te jachen, dan hadden ze dat zeker niet nagelaten!

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:26 schreef Bugno het volgende:

[..]

"jachen"

Wow, just wow.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:38 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

ja, een foutje met telefoon. Sorry, hoor! Ik hoop dat er ooit een dag komt dat je het mij kan vergeven.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:40 schreef Bugno het volgende:

[..]

Per oncheluk een ch typen in plaats van een g. Sure..

quote:

Volgens de van Dale:
Geen resultaat voor 'wow'
Het woord is verkeerd gespeld of het staat niet in het gratis woordenboek.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

Feestelijk muntje. Jammer dat Kim een keiharde dictator is die de helft van de bevolking in een slavenkamp heeft gestopt en de VS met nukes heeft bedreigd. Dat is misschien toch wel een smetje.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:

Feestelijk muntje.

quote:

Yes, the U.S. government has gone ahead and minted a gaudy, QVC-ready coin to celebrate a meeting that may not actually take place, and is extremely unlikely to lead to the denuclearization Trump has demanded even if it does.

The coin, of which 250 have been minted, depicts a notably youthful Trump hunched over in optimum dealmaker posture, glaring at a double-chinned Kim, who is referred to as “Supreme Leader,” in a nice bit of deference.

It’s the perfect gift for the #MAGA-minded coin collector who enjoys heavyweight-fight iconography mixed with a little diplomatic wish fulfillment. Now all this summit needs is a Don King–branded nickname. Perhaps “The War in Singapore?”

Hmm, maybe not that one.

http://nymag.com/daily/in(...)ight-not-happen.html

quote:

The coin announces Kim's title as "supreme leader", despite there being no official position with that name in North Korea. Kim is usually referred to as chairman of the state affairs commission in state media, while he is also chairman of the ruling party.

quote:

Stop waiting for the constitutional crisis that President Trump is sure to provoke. It’s here.

On Sunday, via Twitter, Trump demanded that the Justice Department concoct a transparently political investigation, with the aim of smearing veteran professionals at Justice and the FBI and also throwing mud at the previous administration. Trump’s only rational goal is casting doubt on the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which appears to be closing in.

Trump’s power play is a gross misuse of his presidential authority and a dangerous departure from long-standing norms. Strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin use their justice systems to punish enemies and deflect attention from their own crimes. Presidents of the United States do not — or did not, until Sunday’s tweet:

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”

Rather than push back and defend the rule of law, Justice tried to mollify the president by at least appearing to give him what he wants. The Republican leadership in Congress has been silent as a mouse. This is how uncrossable lines are crossed.

The pretext Trump seized on is the revelation that FBI source Stefan A. Halper made contact with three Trump campaign associates before the election as part of the FBI’s initial investigation into Russian meddling.

With the full-throated backing of right-wing media, Trump has described this person as a “spy” who was “implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president.” This claim is completely unsupported by the facts as we know them. Trump wants you to believe a lie.

The informant was not embedded or implanted or otherwise inserted into the campaign. He was asked to contact several campaign figures whose names had already surfaced in the FBI’s counterintelligence probe. It would have been an appalling dereliction of duty not to take a look at Trump advisers with Russia ties, such as Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, when the outlines of a Russian campaign to influence the election were emerging.

Trump claims this is the nation’s “all time biggest political scandal” because, he alleges, Justice Department officials and the FBI used a “spy” to try to “frame” him and his campaign, in an effort to boost his opponent Hillary Clinton’s chance of winning the election. This conspiracy theory has so many holes in it that it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s start with the glaringly obvious: If the aim was to make Trump lose, why wasn’t all the known information about the Trump campaign’s Russia connections leaked before the election, when it might have had some impact?

The truth appears to be precisely the opposite of what Trump says, which is not uncommon. The record suggests that Justice and the FBI were so uncomfortable investigating a presidential campaign in the weeks and months before an election that they tiptoed around promising lines of inquiry rather than appear to be taking a side. The FBI director at the time was James B. Comey, and while we heard plenty about Clinton’s emails before the vote, we had no idea that such a mature investigation of the Trump campaign was underway.

Now that the Mueller probe has bored into Trump’s inner circle — and federal authorities have raided the homes and office of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen — the president appears to be in a panic. The question is whether he sees this “spy” nonsense as a way to discredit Mueller’s eventual findings, or as a pretext for trying to end the investigation with a bloody purge akin to Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.”

The Justice Department answered Trump’s tweeted demand by announcing that an existing investigation by its inspector general will now “include determining whether there was any impropriety or political motivation” by the FBI. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein may hope that is enough to avoid a showdown. I fear he is wrong.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 13:01 schreef Puddington het volgende:
http://time.com/5282754/s(...)imitrios-pagourtzis/

De school shooter van Santa fe lijkt een neonazi Alt-right gekkie te zijn.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 13:27 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]

Dat zie ik eigenlijk nergens in dat artikel staan. Of ik moet er overheen hebben gelezen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 12:13 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
The constitutional crisis is here
https://www.washingtonpos(...)m_term=.4b8079c813a4

[..]

Serious stuff.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 17:35 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:
https://www.nu.nl/buitenl(...)doen-in-overleg.html

Pence over de top met NK

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 19:11 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Senate panel overwhelmingly approves amendment blocking Trump on ZTE

23-2

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 09:54 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:

[..]

Ik wil er een! Die dingen worden zeker weten honderden miljoenen miljarden waard! ("The Commemorative Coin The US Government Wants You To Forget" )

[..]

meer: https://www.theguardian.c(...)ong-un-nuclear-talks (met ook de prachtige Bush-Saddam aansteker, wie wil 'm niet? )

.

update: Ah, gevonden! "A number of the coins are available for sale through the White House Gift Office."

downdate: kan 'm nergens vinden https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/default.asp

.
misschien ben ik nog wat vroeg, maar ze kosten een paar tientjes, dus is best te doen (PS. niet allemaal ook gaan bestellen, want dan gaan ze bijpersen en zijn ze later minder waard)

.
nog een update: het schijnt dat Kim 'm niet zo mooi vindt en het WH wil het nu afdoen als grapje? (ik wacht op bevestiging)

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 19:26 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Lol, benieuwd hoe de Chinezen reageren. En dat omdat enkele personeelsleden van ZTE een opslag kregen.

twitter:

SteveKopack twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 19:09:03 President Trump instructs the translator for the South Korean president to "interpret that for him so he can hear it because, you know, he's not hearing what we're doing here" https://t.co/breRCxRlTG reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 19:26 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Lol, benieuwd hoe de Chinezen reageren. En dat omdat enkele personeelsleden van ZTE een opslag kregen.

twitter:

pdmcleod twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 19:30:56 Having spent the last few days talking to a lot of Republicans about the discharge petition (which would force a series of immigration votes) my expert analysis is: Paul Ryan is kinda screwed, but Kevin McCarthy is really screwed. reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 19:35 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ja, dat gaat interessant worden.

Daarbij, mocht er een kern van waarheid in zitten, dat het verhaal over de $500 miljoen lening voor gebied rondom Trump eigendommen (als ik me het verhaal even goed voor de geest haal) hiermee verbonden was, zal ook dat misschien nog wel een staartje krijgen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:10 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
BREAKING: Trump says Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un `may not work out for June 12,' suggests potential delay.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/998966107682885633?s=19

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:10 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
BREAKING: Trump says Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un `may not work out for June 12,' suggests potential delay.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/998966107682885633?s=19

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:19 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Goh, wie had dat ooit durven denken.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:19 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Goh, wie had dat ooit durven denken.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:10 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
BREAKING: Trump says Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un `may not work out for June 12,' suggests potential delay.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/998966107682885633?s=19

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:41 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:
Als ik zo die munt bekijk en hoe Trump er daar uitziet doet mij denken aan het correspondent diner waar Trump een bak stront over zich heen kreeg. Is dat misschien een boodschap van de ontwerper van de munt?

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 19:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Nog een andere zaak wat een interessant gevecht op gaat leveren binnen de GOP... althans, volgens deze BuzzFeed News reporter:

twitter:

pdmcleod twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 19:30:56 Having spent the last few days talking to a lot of Republicans about the discharge petition (which would force a series of immigration votes) my expert analysis is: Paul Ryan is kinda screwed, but Kevin McCarthy is really screwed. reageer retweet

The conservative Freedom Caucus has made it clear they will blame leadership if the discharge petition succeeds. As to how they retaliate, Jim Jordan says everything is on the table.

Meanwhile moderates say if leadership sabotages the discharge petition there will be outrage and it would completely destroy the deal-making process with them. There’s no middle ground here, leadership can only make one side happy.

Which sucks for Paul Ryan but he’s been here a million times. My guess is he burns the Freedom Caucus and the moderates get their immigration votes. But Kevin McCarthy, who wants to take the Speaker job from Ryan, needs the Freedom Caucus to support him.

McCarthy has come out against the discharge petition, just like Paul Ryan. This puts him at odds with his fellow California Republicans pushing hard for an immigration debate. And the Freedom Caucus may very well end up holding this against him in the end anyway.

Personally I don’t buy the Paul Ryan coup rumors, I think finishes his term. But good luck to McCarthy finding a way to thread the needle so that half his party isn’t livid at him when voting for the next leader comes around.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 21:06 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Pfff, Amerikaanse politiek is soms moeilijk te volgen. De Freedom Caucus stemt tegen de Farm Bill omdat ze geen stemming over de Goodlatte bill kregen, ook al zal die waarschijnlijk geen meerderheid halen.
De gematigde republikeinen willen met de discharge petition vier bills over immigratie, waaronder de Goodlatte bill, ter stemming voorleggen.
En de Freedom Caucus zal het de leiding van de partij kwalijk nemen als de discharge petition slaagt?

quote:

The White House has invited two senior House Republicans — and no Democrats — to a Thursday briefing to facilitate access for lawmakers to information about an FBI informant involved in the investigation of Russian contacts with President Donald Trump's campaign.

The briefing, coordinated by White House chief of staff John Kelly, was agreed to Monday when Trump met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to discuss Congress' demands for these classified documents.

quote:

What Happens If Republicans Keep Control Of The House And Senate?

Imagine this scenario: In November’s elections for the U.S. House, Democrats win the national House vote by a few percentage points and gain nearly 20 additional House seats,1 by both winning open seats and defeating some longtime GOP incumbents. In the Senate, Democrats pick up Nevada; win races in states President Trump carried in 2016, including in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia; and only narrowly lose in the GOP strongholds of Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee.

That sounds like a pretty good night for Democrats. But it wouldn’t be. That scenario would leave Republicans with a majority of, say, 222-213 in the House and a 51-49 advantage in the Senate.

(...)

Renewed GOP attempts to shrink government

If Republicans control the House and Senate next year, I would expect them to push some kind of health policy proposal that uses the so-called reconciliation process, which requires only a majority of votes in the Senate, rather than a filibuster-proof 60. That legislation could be a full-scale repeal of Obamacare. Or it could be a bill that doesn’t repeal all of Obamacare but both cuts spending on Medicaid and turns Medicaid into a block-grant program where states can choose to spend the dollars they get from the federal government as they see fit. Overhauling Medicaid was a key plank of the various Obamacare repeal bills Republicans pushed in 2017.

(...)

Weakening of the investigations against Trump

If Democrats don’t control the House or the Senate, they can’t initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation (assuming it’s still going) — at least for a while.

(...)

A Democratic freakout

Nancy Pelosi already had Democratic critics who felt she had stayed on too long as the party’s House leader, blocked a younger generation of lawmakers from taking power and failed to lead Democrats back to majority power. But that situation has gotten worse in the first few months of 2018. Republicans are running millions of dollars in ads linking Democratic congressional candidates to the unpopular Pelosi, leaving some of these Democratic hopefuls feeling compelled to distance themselves from the California Democrat and say they do not want her to remain the party’s leader. If Republicans win the House this fall, I expect Democrats on the Hill will force Pelosi out as leader after pinning at least some of the blame for their defeat on her (or just deciding that they need someone new).

(...)

A media reassessment

The initial media reaction to the 2016 election (“Should we cover Middle America more often?”) has largely been supplanted, I would argue, by news organizations investing more time and resources in covering the Trump administration, particularly the Russia investigation. That’s a logical decision. There is a lot of news in Washington — and that news is probably both more important and more likely to attract clicks and eyeballs (media is a business) than what’s happening in, say, small-town Wisconsin.

(...)

https://fivethirtyeight.c(...)tter_impression=true

quote:

A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Under the agreement, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, will avoid jail time, and will assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 23:04 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Avenatti & Trump hebben iets gemeen: ze zijn allebei failliet gegaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 13:33 schreef Puddington het volgende:
Het is van de Daily Beast, dus hecht er zoveel waarde aan als je wilt

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 03:13:46 If the person placed very early into my campaign wasn’t a SPY put there by the previous Administration for political purposes, how come such a seemingly massive amount of money was paid for services rendered - many times higher than normal... reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 03:13:46 ...Follow the money! The spy was there early in the campaign and yet never reported Collusion with Russia, because there was no Collusion. He was only there to spy for political reasons and to help Crooked Hillary win - just like they did to Bernie Sanders, who got duped! reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 20:10 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
BREAKING: Trump says Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un `may not work out for June 12,' suggests potential delay.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/998966107682885633?s=19

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 05:27 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

En de Nobelprijs dan?

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 22:29 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Interessant artikel over 4 mogelijke scenario's als de Republikeinen zowel het Huis als de Senaat weten te behouden in 2018, een scenario dat met het oog op veel peilingen steeds waarschijnlijker lijkt te worden:

[..]

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 07:53 schreef RM-rf het volgende:

[..]

Literatuur is nog te vergeven: Best Work of Fiction

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 05:28 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Dit vond ik wel een mooie

In 2018 en 1901. Let de op de leeftijd van de groepen.

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 08:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

Feestelijk muntje. Jammer dat Kim een keiharde dictator is die de helft van de bevolking in een slavenkamp heeft gestopt en de VS met nukes heeft bedreigd. Dat is misschien toch wel een smetje.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:07 schreef Ludachrist het volgende:

[..]

Die reiken ze niet uit dit jaar.

quote:

GOP senators are faulting the administration for a disorganized approach.

They say Trump was wrong to threaten sanctions, causing turmoil in markets, only to pull back and declare the trade war over, before reversing course again with new threats.

“Is there a plan somewhere?” asked Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 05:28 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Dit vond ik wel een mooie

In 2018 en 1901. Let de op de leeftijd van de groepen.

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 07:53 schreef RM-rf het volgende:

[..]

Literatuur is nog te vergeven: Best Work of Fiction

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 07:53 schreef RM-rf het volgende:

[..]

Literatuur is nog te vergeven: Best Work of Fiction

quote:

Aanleiding voor het uitstel is een schandaal binnen de Zweedse academie. Een van de leden is de dichteres Katarina Frostenson. Haar man, een kopstuk binnen de culturele sector in Zweden, wordt ervan beschuldigd dat hij zeker achttien vrouwen seksueel heeft misbruikt, onder meer in gebouwen van de academie.

quote:

Mike Pompeo claims Iran carrying out 'assassination operations' in Europe

Mike Pompeo’s claim that the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is carrying out “assassination operations in the heart of Europe” has bewildered security experts and Iranian exiles, who say they are not aware of any evidence for the allegation.

The new US secretary of state referred to the alleged assassinations in his first major speech on Monday, but devoted just a single line to it amid a litany of criticisms of Iranian behaviour, giving no further details.

“Today, the Iranian Quds Force conducts covert assassination operations in the heart of Europe,” Pompeo said, referring to the external operations arm of the Islamic revolutionary guards corps (IRGC).

Asked about Pompeo’s statement, the state department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said: “He has information and access to information that I do not. I am not able to comment on that in particular but I can tell the secretary has assured me that there is a basis for that point in his speech and he stands firmly behind that.”

US diplomats specialising in Iran were taken by surprise by Pompeo’s allegations.

There have been no recent killings in Europe officially attributed to the Iranian state. Iran’s last prime minister under the Shah, Shapour Bakhtiar, was assassinated in France in 1991, and four Iranian Kurdish dissidents were gunned down in a Greek restaurant called Mykonos in Berlin the following year.

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Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:09 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:

[..]

Leuk dat mensen dat doen maar dan stoor ik me gelijk aan dat lijntje, als je die toch gaat tekenen hang die foto dan recht en teken hem over het midden. Blijkbaar was alleen paint beschikbaar.

twitter:

politico twitterde op dinsdag 22-05-2018 om 21:05:19 Opinion: 3 predictions for Mueller’s investigation:✔️Mueller will likely wrap up his investigation this summer. ✔️Mueller will interview Trump. Unless the president takes the Fifth.✔️Paul Manafort will plead guilty in the coming weeks https://t.co/45vjbJlQL4 reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:20 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
Fascinerend hoe -in al zijn lelijkheid- aggressief deze “vredesmunt” eigenlijk is...

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Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:51 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

https://www.theguardian.c(...)on-operations-europe

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:51 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

https://www.theguardian.c(...)on-operations-europe

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 09:27 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Trump had gezegd dat hij geen oorlogen zou starten.

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Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 09:25 schreef Szura het volgende:

[..]

Liegende warmonger, wie had dat nou gedacht bij z’n aanstelling. Oh wacht, iedereen...

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:03 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

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Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 09:10 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:

[..]

Maar nog steeds niet te koop verdorie.

Zou m.i. hier moeten staan: https://www.whitehousegif(...)ary-Coins-s/2192.htm

Deze is trouwens ook een heel eigen soort van vreselijk https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/product-p/trumppotuscoin1.htm

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:03 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:03 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:51 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

https://www.theguardian.c(...)on-operations-europe

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:28 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:
GOP gains momentum. Volgens Reuters ligt de GOP in het congres nu zo'n 3% voor op DNC. Moet je wel even deze geweldige show van Laura Ingraham kijken. Jammer dat we in Europa verstoken zijn van goede scherpe conservatieven in de media.

The Ingraham Angle 5/22/18 | Breaking Fox News | May 22, 2018

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 08:03 schreef Puddington het volgende:

[..]

Hier moet ook wel even bij vermeld worden dat Nate Silver ook heeft gezegd dat de polls kunnen afwijken als bureaus switchen naar likely voters.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:28 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:
GOP gains momentum. Volgens Reuters ligt de GOP in het congres nu zo'n 3% voor op DNC. Moet je wel even deze geweldige show van Laura Ingraham kijken. Jammer dat we in Europa verstoken zijn van goede scherpe conservatieven in de media.

The Ingraham Angle 5/22/18 | Breaking Fox News | May 22, 2018

quote:

President Trump’s proposal to impose new abortion restrictions on federally funded family planning programs would bar doctors from advising a woman weighing an abortion about where she could receive one.

The proposed rule submitted last week, a copy of which was posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website, would bar clinics or programs that receive federal family planning funds from providing abortions or referring women to places that do, imposing what it calls a “bright line” of separation. It takes direct aim at Planned Parenthood and reproductive health organizations like it, which provide a range of women’s health services, including abortions.

Mr. Trump hailed the new proposal — a top priority of social conservatives who have been among his staunchest supporters — at a gala on Tuesday night for the Susan B. Anthony List, a leading anti-abortion organization. “For decades, American taxpayers have been wrongly forced to subsidize the abortion industry,” Mr. Trump said, describing the new policy to sustained applause from the audience of activists and Republican lawmakers.

“I pledged to stand for life, and as president, that’s exactly what I’ve done,” Mr. Trump said.

SPOILER

The president’s new policy states that money distributed under Title X — the 1970 statute that created the federal family planning program — must be “physically and financially separate from programs in which abortion is provided or presented as a method of family planning, including programs that refer for abortions and programs that encourage, promote or advocate abortion as a method of family planning.”

The proposal falls short of the so-called domestic gag rule that was proposed under President Ronald Reagan in 1988, which prohibited organizations that received Title X money from even mentioning abortion. But it does do away with a requirement that family planning centers counsel women about abortion and provide referrals for it.

And it strictly limits the circumstances under which a health provider could advise a woman about abortion options, requiring that a patient state that she has already decided to terminate her pregnancy before allowing doctors to furnish a list of possible providers.

“A doctor, though not required to do so, would be permitted to provide nondirective counseling on abortion,” the proposed rule says. In that case, it says, a physician could provide a list of health providers, “some (but not all) of which provide abortion in addition to comprehensive prenatal care.”

“Providing such a list would be permitted only in cases where a program client who is currently pregnant clearly states that she has already decided to have an abortion,” the rule says.

Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates have argued since the proposal surfaced last week that it still constitutes a gag rule because it would stop health care providers from discussing certain things with their patients.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Planned Parenthood called the proposal a “nationwide gag rule” that was “straight out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” the dystopian novel in which women are treated as reproductive slaves. The group criticized the language specifying that federally funded family planning organizations no longer must provide every form of birth control, and the omission of an existing requirement that contraceptive methods they furnish be “medically approved.”

“This is one of the largest-scale and most dangerous attacks we’ve seen on women’s rights and reproductive health care in this country,” said Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

At the gala on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump pledged his continued support for an aggressive anti-abortion agenda, telling the audience that he was committed to what he called “the first right in the Declaration of Independence, called the right to life.”

Critics of the president accused him of preparing to impose a meanspirited policy that would harm women’s health.

“This gag rule is not only unconscionable, but it undermines medical ethics by allowing health care professionals to withhold accurate and timely medical information from patients,” said Dr. Jenn Conti, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health.

But the rule is immensely popular among abortion activists like those at the gala, who demonstrated their appreciation for Mr. Trump’s actions by applauding during his nearly 40-minute speech.

“When we stand for life, we stand for the true source of America’s greatness — it’s our people. Our people are great,” Mr. Trump told the appreciative crowd.

Mr. Trump campaigned for president in 2016 as an enthusiastic anti-abortion candidate, actively seeking votes from religious conservatives by trying to convince them that he had “evolved” from his earlier support for abortion rights positions. He has supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, has promised to appoint anti-abortion justices and has supported stripping Planned Parenthood of federal money.

In a town-hall-style meeting during the campaign, Mr. Trump said that if abortion were outlawed, he believed women who had them should be punished. His campaign later issued a statement saying that he meant doctors who perform abortions should be punished if abortion were illegal. Later, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he had misspoken under intense questioning by Chris Matthews of MSNBC, but complained that his answer, however inartful, was unfairly made to be a big news story.

Once in office, Mr. Trump embraced a conservative agenda aimed at imposing new and tougher restrictions on abortions. In his first days, the president issued a memorandum that restored the so-called global gag rule, which restricts federal funds from being used by organizations in other countries if they provide abortion counseling or referrals.

Days after his inauguration, Mr. Trump appointed Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign promise to appoint an anti-abortion justice. And in April of last year, Mr. Trump signed legislation that allowed state governments to withhold funds for family planning services if an organization also performed abortions, reversing a rule developed by Obama administration officials that would have prevented such actions by states.

In his remarks at the gala, Mr. Trump urged the anti-abortion activists to remain engaged in the 2018 campaign so that more Republicans who support their agenda will be elected to the Congress.

“This November, vote for family, vote for love, vote for faith and values, vote for country and vote for life,” Mr. Trump said.

He was still reading from his prepared remarks when he told the audience that “your vote in 2018 is every bit as important as your vote in 2016.” Then he paused to go off script.

“Although I’m not sure I really believe that, but you know,” he said, prompting laughter. “I don’t know who the hell wrote that line!” he shouted, then added, “But it’s still important, remember.”

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:33 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Trump is onder likely voters alleen maar populairder dan onder het hele publiek. Weet niet of dat voor de Republikeinen an sich ook geldt.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:39 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
Ah, hij is dus weer vol-gas op de anti-abortustoer.

Trump Rule Would Bar Abortion Advice at Federally Funded Clinics (NYTimes)

[..]

"I pledged to stand for life"... behalve bij scholieren, gekleurde mensen, arme mensen, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

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Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:36 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Met Fauxnews aan komen zetten

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Op dinsdag 22 mei 2018 21:23 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ryan, als Speaker of the House, bepaalt in principe welke zaken ter stemming komen. Ze hebben bij de republikeinen de kwalijke eigenschap om alleen maar zaken in stemming te brengen als de meerderheid van hun eigen leden voor is. Zelfs al zou een grote meerderheid in het Huis ervoor zijn; als ze in het republikeinse smaldeel (mits ze de meerderheid hebben in het Huis) niet merendeels voor zijn, brengt hij het gewoon niet in stemming (hoge uitzonderingen daar gelaten).

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 13:42 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Trump gaat helemaal los op het informanten verhaal op Twitter. Jammer dat Democraten zulke slechte politici zijn en het laten gebeuren dat Trump in feite een schandaal creëert.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 13:45 schreef archito het volgende:

[..]

Wat zijn nu eigenlijk concrete feiten/geruchten waar Trump dit allemaal op baseert?
Wel interessant dat Trump/GOP er nu voor kiezen om frontaal in de aanval te gaan, eerst was het vooral whataboutism en roepen dat er een heksenjacht is.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 13:42 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Trump gaat helemaal los op het informanten verhaal op Twitter. Jammer dat Democraten zulke slechte politici zijn en het laten gebeuren dat Trump in feite een schandaal creëert.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 11:39 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
Ah, hij is dus weer vol-gas op de anti-abortustoer.

Trump Rule Would Bar Abortion Advice at Federally Funded Clinics (NYTimes)

[..]

"I pledged to stand for life"... behalve bij scholieren, gekleurde mensen, arme mensen, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 13:45 schreef archito het volgende:

[..]

Wat zijn nu eigenlijk concrete feiten/geruchten waar Trump dit allemaal op baseert?
Wel interessant dat Trump/GOP er nu voor kiezen om frontaal in de aanval te gaan, eerst was het vooral whataboutism en roepen dat er een heksenjacht is.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 13:55:35 Our Trade Deal with China is moving along nicely, but in the end we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will be too hard to get done and to verify results after completion. reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 14:07 schreef OMG het volgende:

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Pro-lifers zijn dan uiteraard ook niet pro-life, maar pro-birth. Zolang die baby maar geboren wordt, daarna kan het ze niet meer schelen. Of je moet bijvoorbeeld Broidy heten, dan kan het weer wel.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 14:13 schreef Re het volgende:

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en een prijskaartje van 1.6M US$ voor een trump fetus abortion ... maar dat is niet zo erg volgens de pro-lifers....

quote:

The Washington Post (5/22, McGinley) reports the House passed a “right to try” bill (S 204) “that would allow people with life-threatening illnesses to bypass the Food and Drug Administration to obtain experimental medications, ending a drawn-out battle over access to unapproved therapies.” The House passed a version passed by the Senate last year, and “President Trump is expected to quickly sign the measure, which was praised by supporters as a lifeline for desperate patients but denounced by scores of medical and consumer groups as unnecessary and dangerous.”

twitter:

JeffFlake twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:39:03 This is not right. Briefings like this should be bipartisan. https://t.co/Eorhnf8Mim https://t.co/lOE5mqlqZB reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:50:06 Schiff says that Democrats not being invited to attend the classified DOJ briefing on Russia probe docs "is a serious abuse of power." https://t.co/1V3Lqkr3bK reageer retweet

twitter:

tedlieu twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:50:21 Dear @realDonaldTrump: Law enforcement & counterintelligence agents are not the criminal deep state because they are investigating you & your campaign. They took an oath to the Constitution, not to you.Oh, and 3 of your campaign officials have already pled guilty.#FactsMatter https://t.co/62Th5YaOmE reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:06 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

JeffFlake twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:39:03 This is not right. Briefings like this should be bipartisan. https://t.co/Eorhnf8Mim https://t.co/lOE5mqlqZB reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:50:06 Schiff says that Democrats not being invited to attend the classified DOJ briefing on Russia probe docs "is a serious abuse of power." https://t.co/1V3Lqkr3bK reageer retweet

twitter:

tedlieu twitterde op woensdag 23-05-2018 om 14:50:21 Dear @realDonaldTrump: Law enforcement & counterintelligence agents are not the criminal deep state because they are investigating you & your campaign. They took an oath to the Constitution, not to you.Oh, and 3 of your campaign officials have already pled guilty.#FactsMatter https://t.co/62Th5YaOmE reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Kiezers zijn niet of nauwelijks via Twitter te bereiken, niemand leest dit.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Kiezers zijn niet of nauwelijks via Twitter te bereiken, niemand leest dit.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:15 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Alsof mensen Trump's drama geloven.

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:16 schreef Re het volgende:

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trumps' retoriek lijkt op je in te werken, zie je het niet meer zitten?

quote:

Centrist Republicans are within striking distance of forcing immigration votes in the House, setting the stage for a dramatic election-year clash.

More than 200 lawmakers — including 20 Republicans — have now signed a discharge petition to circumvent leadership and trigger a series of votes on the floor dealing with immigration.

As of Tuesday evening, petition proponents needed just 15 more signatures to reach the magic number of 218, but it will be this last group that will be hardest to get with GOP leaders trying to defeat the effort.
If all 193 Democrats sign the petition, as they are expected to, the centrists would need only five more Republican signatures for the petition to succeed.(....)

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 14:56 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
De Democraten hebben daar debet aan

quote:

Op woensdag 23 mei 2018 15:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Wordt men nu ineens bang van Trump of zo?