quote:

GOP-Trump trade fight boils over with threat to cars

President Trump and congressional Republicans are barreling toward a showdown over auto tariffs, just the latest conflict between the president and his party on trade.

Trump has asked Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to investigate whether hefty tariffs, possibly as high as 25 percent, can be levied against auto imports for national security reasons.

The mere suggestion of the huge tariffs sparked an immediate backlash on Capitol Hill, as well as GOP-friendly business groups and key trading partners already unnerved by Trump on trade.

GOP lawmakers warn the tariffs could roil the economy months before a midterm election where they are fighting to maintain control of Congress.

“I hope we can avoid getting into any kind of tariff situation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Fox News. “I think all of us are hoping that all of this back and forth discussion about trade doesn’t end up leading into the implementation of tariffs or some larger trade war.”

[..]

The Trump administration is defending the move, arguing national security and economic concerns overlap when it comes to trade.

“National security is broadly defined to include the economy, to include the impact on employment, to include a very big variety of things,” Ross said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“Economic security is military security. And without economic security, you can't have military security,” he added.

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 15:34 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Die tweet is voer voor iedereen.

quote:

Rudy Giuliani admits 'Spygate' is Trump PR tactic against Robert Mueller

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that his repeated imputations of a supposed scandal at the heart of the Robert Mueller investigation – which Donald Trump calls “Spygate” – amounted to a tactic to sway public opinion and limit the risk of the president being impeached.

“Of course we have to do it to defend the president,” Giuliani told CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash, who accused him of being part of a campaign to undermine the Mueller investigation. Trump has repeatedly called the special counsel’s work a “witch hunt” despite its producing five guilty pleas, including by three former Trump aides, and evidence of Russian tampering in US elections.

“It is for public opinion,” Giuliani said of his public campaign of dissimulation. “Because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach or not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. And so our jury – and it should be – is the American people.

“So Republicans largely, many independents, even some Democrats now question the legitimacy of it [the Mueller investigation],” Giuliani said. “Democrats I would suggest for their own self interest, this is not a good issue to go into the midterms.”

As Giuliani acknowledged the political nature of his public campaign against Mueller, Trump advanced that campaign on Twitter, lamenting what he said were “young and beautiful lives” “devastated and destroyed” by the investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“They went back home in tatters!” Trump wrote. It was unclear who he was talking about.

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 16:22 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Heeft hij het over staffers..?

quote:

Trump seems to be referring to young upstarts like George Papadopolous, the 30-year-old advisor to his presidential campaign who tried to set up a back channel between the campaign and the Kremlin in 2016, then pled guilty to lying about it to the FBI. Or maybe he’s talking about Hope Hicks, the 29-year-old former White House communications director who resigned a day after telling a House Intelligence Committee that she had occasionally been asked to tell “white lies” on behalf of the Trump administration.

twitter:

annafifield twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 15:46:35 BREAKING: A team of U.S. officials led by Sung Kim crossed into North Korea today to hold summit preparation talks, despite uncertainty surrounding the June 12 Trump-Kim meeting. The North Korean delegation is led by vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui. https://t.co/eLPZiB68cC https://t.co/XwRwNqYtxo reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 16:37 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

annafifield twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 15:46:35 BREAKING: A team of U.S. officials led by Sung Kim crossed into North Korea today to hold summit preparation talks, despite uncertainty surrounding the June 12 Trump-Kim meeting. The North Korean delegation is led by vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui. https://t.co/eLPZiB68cC https://t.co/XwRwNqYtxo reageer retweet

Kim belde in paniek naar Zuid Korea toen Trump zijn brief stuurde.
Inmiddels is de summit back on.

ART OF THE DEAL

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 17:32 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Back on? Waar haal je dat vandaan?

quote:

The letter, circulated to dozens of wealthy entrepreneurs in China last week, looked official. Topped with the insignia of a real Republican committee raising money for the party and President Trump’s reelection campaign, it purported to offer a handshake and a one-on-one photo with the president for $100,000 — a “VVIP” trip “to be remembered for a lifetime.”

The invitation, which Republican Party officials say they had nothing to do with, was not the only such offer. At least two other China-based companies circulated similar solicitations in the past week, offering access to Trump at an official fundraiser in Dallas on May 31, and charging two or three times the price of a ticket.

In an interview with The Washington Post, a Beijing man who claims to be an organizer of the excursion to Dallas said he coordinated a previous U.S. trip, bringing members of the Chinese business elite to snap selfies and pose for photos at a swanky Manhattan fundraiser headlined by Trump in December.

As part of his promotional materials for the Dallas trip, the man circulated pictures of wealthy Chinese business leaders, including a businessman known as the country’s first owner of a Ferrari, standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump in formal wear and giving a thumbs-up.

While U.S. election law prohibits campaign contributions from anyone but U.S. citizens and permanent residents, foreign visitors may attend fundraisers as long as they do not pay their own entry.

But some campaign finance experts say there would be ethical concerns if foreigners were routinely gaining access to the U.S. president through fundraisers. And the solicitations, if offering a legitimate service, raise questions about whether attendees are indirectly paying for their tickets through a U.S. donor, which would be illegal.


The first page of an invitation to a fundraiser for President Trump
that was circulated to wealthy Chinese business people.
(Obtained by The Washington Post)

SPOILER

Republican Party officials confirmed the presence of Chinese nationals at the December fundraiser but said they knew nothing about the Dallas solicitations. After being contacted by The Post, they referred the invitations to federal authorities.

“We’ve never heard of these people, nor are we aware of any effort by them to illegally attend our events,” said Blair Ellis, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which helped organize both events. “We maintain strict compliance with the law and have a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who attempts to take advantage of the system in order to attend our events.”

Mica Mosbacher, a member of the Trump 2020 national advisory board and a GOP fundraiser in Texas, said the board had “no knowledge” of the solicitations to the Dallas event and “would not endorse this activity.”

A Republican Party official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss individuals at a private fundraiser said the Chinese visitors to the Dec. 2 gathering in New York — which encompassed several events, including a breakfast with Trump — were guests of a U.S. citizen donor, whom the official declined to name.

The Chinese guests had “minimal exposure to President Trump. They attended an event with hundreds of individuals and took a photo from a photo line,” the official said.

Every guest at an RNC event where the president or vice president is present must go through a rigorous vetting process with the Secret Service, the official said.

The fundraiser in Dallas next week is set to take place at a very sensitive time in the White House’s trade talks with China. Just two days after the event, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will be in China meeting with senior officials about boosting U.S. imports. Chinese officials have already made clear that they are trying to extract concessions from the White House in exchange for any agreement, making the talks very fluid. Business groups in both countries could stand to win or lose billions of dollars based on the outcome of the talks.

Sun Changchun, who described himself as the head of a Chinese cultural exchange company, is promoting the Dallas event on WeChat, a Chinese messaging service. He claimed to have arranged both the Dallas and New York trips. He told The Post that he planned to give the Dallas ticket proceeds to the RNC, but provided no evidence to substantiate that assertion or any relationship with the RNC. His understanding, he said, was that the RNC would in turn donate the money to charity.

Sun’s invite claims that he and his associates have “prior experience participating in three Republican president dinners in 2017,” including the New York visit. The Post could not independently verify his involvement in any trips.

In the interview, he said his Beijing-based company aims to raise the profile of Chinese entrepreneurs. The $100,000 per-person price tag includes airport pickup, lodging, meals and translator, the invitation says.

“When I started this company, I thought we could maybe act as a bridge between the two sides [U.S. and China] . . . to provide exchanges,” Sun said.

One of the influential Chinese guests who attended the December event was Li Xiaohua, the Ferrari owner and chairman of Huada International Investment Group, according to Chinese media reports, which published photos of him with Trump.

At least three other Chinese visitors attended RNC events that day, and one was photographed with RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Chinese media reports said.

The Post contacted several Chinese guests whose U.S. trips Sun claims to have facilitated, including Li, but none agreed to an interview.

The solicitations follow a history of campaign finance controversies involving foreign money and U.S. elections, notably under the Clinton administration.

Before the 1996 presidential election, federal authorities found, the Chinese attempted to direct foreign contributions to the Democratic National Committee and later to President Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund. A longtime fundraiser for Vice President Al Gore was convicted in 2000 for her role in arranging more than $100,000 in illegal donations to the DNC.

Among the issues being examined by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the Russia investigation is whether foreign money flowed into U.S. political campaigns.

The legal access that foreigners have to U.S. political fundraisers has long worried some campaign ethics experts.

“Let’s assume that it’s all actually domestic money being spent here. Then you have a question of access and influence,” said Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and the president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. “It’s enormously beneficial for people, whether they are from America or whether they are foreign nationals, to show they have a picture with the president.”

Matthew Sanderson, who served as a campaign finance lawyer for the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign, said claims such as those in the Chinese invitations might get the attention of authorities. “What a regulator or prosecutor would be interested in is whether this is essentially the foreign national making a donation through a U.S. person,” he said.

“That’s a problem both because foreign nationals are prohibited from making campaign contributions and because the campaign finance disclosure reports are supposed to disclose the ultimate source of funds,” Sanderson added.

In addition to the invitation crafted to appear as though it was sponsored by the Republican Party, a different solicitation carried the logo of the China Construction Bank, one of China’s largest state-owned banks.

That invite claimed representatives from ZTE Corp. would attend the event, according to a copy obtained by The Post. This month, Trump announced via Twitter that his administration would be taking steps to prevent the Chinese telecommunications company from going out of business because of new trade restrictions.

ZTE officials said this week they had no part in the invitation or the fundraiser. “There are no representatives from ZTE Corporation or ZTE (USA), Inc., who have ever, or are planning, to attend such fundraisers,” Andrew Elliott, vice president of strategic marketing for ZTE USA, said in an email.

The invite purported to offer a photo opportunity with Trump and a ticket to the dinner for $150,000 — three times the amount charged by the RNC.

“In order to strengthen Sino-U.S. business exchanges, CCB Private Bank extends a special invite to Chinese entrepreneurs to visit the U.S. as VIP guests at the dinner event, for in-depth exchanges with American business tycoons,” the invite read.

Officials with CCB’s Shenzhen branch released a statement saying it had investigated reports of the invite and found that some employees were involved. “Our branch did not participate in organization,” the statement said.

Bank officials found that the invitation was organized by a group registered in Hong Kong called the Chinese Commercial Counsellor and Entrepreneurship Association and the Shanghai Vvisa Tourism Service Co., a Chinese tourism service.

In a statement, a company affiliated with Visa, Weijia Travel Consulting Services, said it was organizing the event with an American foundation. “The event will still take place under normal arrangements,” the statement read. “Shanghai Weijia organises this event with multiple organisations, fees for the event are paid for by clients who participate.”

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 16:22 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Heeft hij het over staffers..?

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 18:04 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Krijg het idee dat Kim er alles aan doet om het falen van de bijeenkomst in de schoenen van de Amerikanen te schuiven.

twitter:

ryanstruyk twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 16:14:09 Giuliani on Mueller attacks: "It is for public opinion, because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. So our jury... is the American people." reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 22:09:12 Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen! reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 22:45 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 22:09:12 Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen! reageer retweet

Wat krijg ik als deze summit door gaat?

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 22:45 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 22:09:12 Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen! reageer retweet

Wat krijg ik als deze summit door gaat?

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 22:32:33 Why didn’t President Obama do something about the so-called Russian Meddling when he was told about it by the FBI before the Election? Because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win, and he didn’t want to upset the apple cart! He was in charge, not me, and did nothing. reageer retweet

quote:

Joe Biden said Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped the Obama administration from speaking out about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign by refusing to sign on to a bipartisan statement of condemnation.

That moment, the former Democratic vice president said, made him think “the die had been cast ... this was all about the political play.”

He expressed regret, in hindsight, given the intelligence he says came in after Election Day. "Had we known what we knew three weeks later, we may have done something more,” Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said.

SPOILER

Biden was speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, a block from his old office at the Old Executive Office Building, to discuss his new article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, “How to Stand Up to the Kremlin.”

Biden said he and former President Barack Obama worried that without a united front of bipartisanship, speaking out before the election would undermine the legitimacy of the election and American institutions in a way that would play into the Russians’ larger ambitions.

“Can you imagine if the president called a press conference in October, with this fella, Bannon, and company, and said, ‘Tell you what: Russians are trying to interfere in our elections and we have to do something about it,’” Biden said. “What do you think would have happened? Would things have gotten better, or would it further look like we were trying to delegitimize the electoral process, because of our opponent?”

McConnell’s office disputed this account, pointing to a letter signed by all four congressional leaders in September 2016 and sent to the president of the National Association of State Election Directors, urging cybersecurity precautions in light of reports of attempted hacking.

That missive, however, did not address Russia specifically, or the larger topic of influence beyond voting systems.

“The Obama administration requested that the Congressional leaders send this letter and they all did. It’s publicly available on the Internet for all to see,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell.

But a former Obama White House official on Tuesday afternoon echoed Biden's frustration with the Senate majority leader, pointing to the way Obama's White House chief of staff Denis McDonough described the dispute in an op-ed last summer.

“Our administration's interest in making sure the response was bipartisan wasn't for the sake of being bipartisan. It was necessary because we needed the buy-in from state and local election administrators (many of whom were Republican partisans and/or skeptical of federal government),” the official argued in an email. “Unfortunately, as is well documented, Senator McConnell was unwilling to help — only making matters worse.”

Biden told Tuesday's gathering that there was a “constant tightrope,” with the Obama administration unable to decide what would count as saying too little or too much.

“The president and I would sit there literally after the [presidential daily briefing], after everyone had left the room, and say, ‘What the hell are we going to do?’” Biden recalled.

The Trump administration, Biden said, isn’t doing much to counter Russian interference in elections and other disruptive activity around the world. He accused the current administration of "abdicating" its responsibility in that regard and squandering its power as a result.

Biden told Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass that he wouldn’t call the current conflict with Russia a second Cold War, because it’s not a great ideological battle. Rather, Biden said, it's “just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself.” Figuring out how to make that case, he added, had led to an internal debate within the Obama administration about whether to make public their estimate of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s self-worth, which Biden suggested would make clear he’d benefited massively from corruption. He said he’d been pushing to do so.

Confused and frustrated foreign leaders around the world have continued to turn to him over the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, Biden said, and he continues to take the calls.

“The questions across the board range from, ‘What the hell’s going on, Joe?’” he said, “to ‘What advice do you have for me?’”

quote:

A team of U.S. officials crossed into North Korea on Sunday for talks to prepare for a summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, as both sides press ahead with arrangements despite the question marks hanging over the meeting.

Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator with the North, has been called in from his post as envoy to the Philippines to lead the preparations, according to a person familiar with the arrangements.

The talks are focused on what would be the substance of a potential summit between Trump and Kim — the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

After Saturday’s surprise inter-Korean talks, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Kim was still committed to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. But Moon declined to define “complete denuclearization,” suggesting that there are still fundamental gaps on the key issue bedeviling preparations.

SPOILER

Crossing the line that separates the two Koreas, Sung Kim met with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister, who said last week that Pyongyang was “reconsidering” the talks. The two officials know each other well — both were part of their respective delegations that negotiated the 2005 denuclearization agreement through the six-party framework.

The meetings were trumpeted by Trump later Sunday afternoon, when he tweeted, “Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!”

The talks are expected to continue Monday and Tuesday at Tongilgak, or “Unification House,” the building in the northern part of the demilitarized zone where Kim Jong Un met Moon on Saturday. That impromptu session was aimed at salvaging the summit that Trump had said he was scuppering just two days earlier.

The South Korean president, who is playing something of a mediator role in the talks, was optimistic afterward. “We two leaders agreed the June 12 North Korea-U.S. summit must be successfully held,” he said.

In Washington, lawmakers and former U.S. intelligence officials expressed general support Sunday for proceeding with the summit, but many reacted skeptically to North Korea’s suggestion that it is open to discussing denuclearization.

“They’re playing a game,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Kim Jong Un — these nuclear weapons are something he’s psychologically attached to. They are what give him his prestige and importance. . . . I’d love to see them denuclearize. I just, I’m not very optimistic about that.”

James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence and a onetime senior intelligence officer for U.S. forces in South Korea, said he worried that North Korea’s idea of “denuclearization” entails scaling back or eliminating U.S. strategic forces in the Pacific.

“When we say ‘denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,’ this could be a two-way street,” Clapper said, also on “Face the Nation.”

Clapper suggested that a worthy goal for the summit might be to establish a “regular conduit for communication” between the two countries, perhaps including the opening of diplomatic interest sections in both capitals.

“This is not a reward for bad behavior at all,” Clapper said. “It’s mutually reciprocal and would give us that presence there, more insight and more understanding.” From North Korea’s point of view, he said, a U.S. presence in the country might give Pyongyang a “sense of security” against a possible U.S. attack.

But Michael V. Hayden, the CIA director during the George W. Bush administration, said he worried that Trump might be at a disadvantage in a face-to-face negotiation with Kim Jong Un.

“I don’t know the president has done the kind of homework that would allow him to do this,” Hayden said on “Fox News Sunday.” Hayden said the “real danger” is not the rhetoric and theatrics surrounding the meeting, but rather, the substance: “What will happen at this meeting?”

“These folks are not going to get rid of all their nuclear weapons,” Hayden said. “And if President Trump’s brand — and that’s the right word here, going into this meeting — demands something like that, this is going to end up in a very bad place.”

Given all the ups and downs with the summit, many analysts were relieved to hear that the administration had enlisted Sung Kim to help, especially given the retirement of fellow seasoned diplomat Joseph Yun earlier this year.

“This is a great step,” said Vipin Narang , a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noting that the summit preparation was best handled by experts behind the scenes rather than in public forums such as Twitter.

“This is how progress is made, and the best chance to have a summit, and one that yields meaningful outcomes,” Narang said.

Sung Kim was joined by Allison Hooker, the Korea specialist on the National Security Council, and an official from the Defense Department. Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and one of the officials who accompanied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang earlier this month, also is in Seoul. However, it could not be immediately confirmed whether he was the Pentagon official involved in Sunday’s talks.

Sung Kim, who was born in South Korea and was a key diplomat in the 2005 six-party talks, served as ambassador to South Korea from 2011 to 2014, then became special representative for North Korea policy, a position that Yun later took over and that is now vacant.

His North Korean counterpart, Choe, also has years of experience working on these issues and is well connected within the North Korean hierarchy.

She has also served as a nuclear negotiator and led the division for U.S. affairs in the North Korean Foreign Ministry until being promoted to vice foreign minister this year. The daughter of a former premier, she is also thought to have direct access to Kim.

Most analysts say it is extremely unlikely that North Korea will surrender its nuclear weapons. The United States has been pushing for “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” — a high bar that would require North Korea to relinquish its entire nuclear program and allow verification by international inspectors.

North Korea, which refers to its nuclear weapons program as its “treasured sword” keeping the country safe, has repeatedly said it is not interested in unilateral disarmament.

Still, it might be able to narrow the gap. “This is an opportunity to find out what, in fact, they might be willing to do and vice versa — and that is the most important step right now,” Narang said.

The April 27 inter-Korean summit, which produced a vague declaration to work toward denuclearization and a peace treaty for the Korean Peninsula, was meant to serve as a springboard for talks between U.S. and North Korean leaders.

Trump surprised the South Koreans in March by hastily agreeing to meet Kim in a summit, which would be the first such meeting between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader.

But the preparations have become increasingly tumultuous as the summit date draws nearer.

After North Korean officials, including Choe, lashed out at Vice President Pence and national security adviser John Bolton, Trump abruptly announced that he was canceling the talks, citing North Korea’s “tremendous anger.”

But after a magnanimous statement from North Korea that said Kim still hoped to meet Trump “at any time,” the summit appears on again.

“We are having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th., and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date,” Trump tweeted Friday night.

The White House has said that preparations will continue while the final decision on whether to proceed with the summit is made.

Trump confirmed Saturday that working-level meetings were continuing. “As you know, there are meetings going on as we speak in a certain location, which I won’t name, but you’d like the location,” he told reporters in Washington.

A separate U.S. team led by Joe Hagin, deputy chief of staff in the White House, is organizing logistics with Kim Chang Son, who is effectively the North Korean leader’s chief of staff.

Kim Chang Son was in Beijing from Thursday to Saturday, according to Japanese and South Korean media reports, although it was not clear whether his trip was related to the summit preparations.

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 23:52 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
U.S. officials meet with North Koreans despite uncertainty surrounding Trump-Kim summit

[..]

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 00:02 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Saillant detail hier is dat het de VS was die het Koreaans schiereiland nucleair maakte door, in overtreding van de wapenstilstand, nucleaire wapens in de Jaren 60 te stationeren in Z-Korea.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 01:05:11 Marco Rubio says he sees "no evidence" to support Trump's claims that the FBI used an informant to gather info on his campaign. https://t.co/a70BS6UCUQ reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 02:00:05 GOP controversies attempting to discredit FBI probe:• Wiretapping (DOJ found no evidence)• Unmasking (Bipartisan congressional aides found no wrongdoing)• Nunes memo (Response memo shows judges told about dossier source)• Informant (Available evidence doesn’t support) reageer retweet

quote:

GOP controversies attempting to discredit FBI probe:

• Wiretapping (DOJ found no evidence)

• Unmasking (Bipartisan congressional aides found no wrongdoing)

• Nunes memo (Response memo shows judges told about dossier source)

• Informant (Available evidence doesn’t support)

quote:

Op zondag 27 mei 2018 22:45 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 22:09:12 Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen! reageer retweet

Wat krijg ik als deze summit door gaat?

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 06:04 schreef Montov het volgende:

[..]

De vraag is vooral wat Kim krijgt als de summit door gaat. En wat hij gaat inleveren.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 07:08 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk dat Kim geen icbm en geen nieuwe nukes zal testen. In ruil daarvoor zegt Trump dat NK niet zal worden aangevallen en dat Kim een prima Leider is. En de sancties worden opgeheven.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 07:59 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Dus eigenlijk gewoon hetzelfde riedeltje wat elke 10 jaar herhaalt wordt. Ik hoop dat het deze keer wat meer is.

Probleem is dat alleen Trump een soort van kan beloven om NK niet aan te vallen. Hij kan niets beloven voor de volgende president.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 08:01 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Hij belooft het dan namens de VS.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 08:06 schreef Ulx het volgende:
De waarde van Amerikaanse toezeggingen is inderdaad verminderd onder Trump.

quote:

China warns US warships to leave South China Sea

The Chinese army acted immediately and dispatched warships to warn US warships that had entered the South China Sea on Sunday to leave, ‍China's Ministry of National Defense said.

The two warships, Higgins, a guided-missile destroyer and Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, arbitrarily entered waters surrounding China's Xisha Islands, the ministry said.

It said the Xisha Islands are an inherent part of China's territory.

China, the statement continued, resolutely opposes the US actions which go against China’s laws and relative international laws.

The Chinese army is determined to strengthen naval and air combat readiness, improve defense levels, safeguard national sovereignty and security and safeguard regional peace and stability, the ministry said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also responded to the encroachment, saying China will continue to take all necessary measures to defend its national sovereignty and security.

Bron: CGTN

twitter:

IvankaTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 18:08:27 My ♥️! #SundayMorning https://t.co/CN5iXutE5Q reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 08:35 schreef archito het volgende:

[..]

Verminderd? Niks meer waard.

Iran hield zich bijvoorbeeld aan de deal zeggen alle experts en de rest van de wereld op Israël na.
Netanyahu geeft een bedroevend slechte spreekbeurt en de VS breekt direct haar belofte.
Ik zou mijn decoupeerzaag nog niet uitlenen aan een figuur als Trump.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 10:28 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Potentieel nieuw wespennest of 'Foutje, bedankt'?

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 11:04 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

IvankaTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 18:08:27 My ♥️! #SundayMorning https://t.co/CN5iXutE5Q reageer retweet

1500 kinderen vermist. Lekker attent weer.

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 11:43 schreef Barbusse het volgende:

[..]

Hoe raak je in godsnaam 1500 kinderen 'kwijt'?

quote:

Op maandag 28 mei 2018 10:28 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Potentieel nieuw wespennest of 'Foutje, bedankt'?

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 11:10 schreef Monolith het volgende:

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Volgens mij was er zelfs binnen de Israëlische veiligheidsdiensten nog grote tevredenheid over de deal, maar waren het vooral de havikken in de politiek die aan het schoppen waren. De baas van de IDF was het destijds al niet bepaald eens met zijn regering.

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De Zuid-Chinese Zee lijkt me één van de grootste brandhaarden in de wereld. China is daar heel duidelijk bezig om haar militaire dominantie in Azië op te eisen en vele buurlanden (waaronder de Amerikaanse bondgenoten) zijn daar absoluut niet blij mee. Noord-Korea is natuurlijk klein bier vergeleken met China, dus de impact van een conflict daar is vele malen groter.

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 12:03 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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US lost track of 1,500 immigrant children, but says it's not 'legally responsible'

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 14:35 schreef Barbusse het volgende:

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Ja, ik had het gelezen. Maar HOE DAN?

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 11:04 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

IvankaTrump twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 18:08:27 My ♥️! #SundayMorning https://t.co/CN5iXutE5Q reageer retweet

1500 kinderen vermist. Lekker attent weer.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 14:58:07 Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice! reageer retweet

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:01 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 14:58:07 Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice! reageer retweet

Man man man...

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Oil-rich Gulf nations spend millions on Trump insiders

Even before the 2016 election, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were ramping up their courtship of Trump insiders.

Records reviewed by ABC News show that over the past 18 months those oil-rich nations have poured millions into efforts to build ties to President Donald Trump’s administration.

(...)

https://abcnews.go.com/Po(...)rs/story?id=55444993

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:36 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Wat wordt er nou eigenlijk precies gerebuild aan de military? Kan me eigenlijk helemaal niks bedenken dat ik daar ooit over gelezen of gezien heb.

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:36 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Het overkoepelende 'schandaal' wordt steeds duidelijker zichtbaar, en blijkt breder te zijn dan Rusland alleen. Trump's miniion verkopen simpelweg het Amerikaanse buitenlandbeleid aan de hoogste bieder:

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twitter:

davidfrum twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 15:00:54 Many people question this president, but it’s no small achievement to write the grossest, most inappropriate, most self-flattering Memorial Day message in the history of the US presidency https://t.co/t8JN7JNwdg reageer retweet

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Op zondag 27 mei 2018 16:37 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

annafifield twitterde op zondag 27-05-2018 om 15:46:35 BREAKING: A team of U.S. officials led by Sung Kim crossed into North Korea today to hold summit preparation talks, despite uncertainty surrounding the June 12 Trump-Kim meeting. The North Korean delegation is led by vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui. https://t.co/eLPZiB68cC https://t.co/XwRwNqYtxo reageer retweet

Kim belde in paniek naar Zuid Korea toen Trump zijn brief stuurde.
Inmiddels is de summit back on.

ART OF THE DEAL

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:36 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Wat wordt er nou eigenlijk precies gerebuild aan de military? Kan me eigenlijk helemaal niks bedenken dat ik daar ooit over gelezen of gezien heb.

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 17:52 schreef Montov het volgende:

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Het budget is flink verhoogd. Ik weet niet de details waar het aan besteed wordt.

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:03 schreef pullup het volgende:

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Echt...alles draait om hemzelf

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 16:01 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 14:58:07 Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice! reageer retweet

Man man man...

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 19:26 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:

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[ afbeelding ]

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Ivanka Trump won China trademarks days before her father's reversal on ZTE

Watchdog group says the timing of the approvals ‘raises significant questions about corruption’

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 28-05-2018 om 22:15:58 Late last year, Chris Christie appointees gave a $33,000,000 tax credit to Kushner Companies.Now, Christie is blocking requests for copies of his office’s correspondence with Kushner Companies. https://t.co/8lMl7cgBqM reageer retweet

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Judges appointed by Republican presidents gave longer sentences to black defendants and shorter ones to women than judges appointed by Democrats, according to a new study that analyzed data on more than half a million defendants.

“Republican-appointed judges sentence black defendants to three more months than similar nonblacks and female defendants to two fewer months than similar males compared to Democratic-appointed judges,” the study found, adding, “These differences cannot be explained by other judge characteristics and grow substantially larger when judges are granted more discretion.”

The study was conducted by two professors at Harvard Law School, Alma Cohen and Crystal S. Yang. They examined the sentencing practices of about 1,400 federal trial judges over more than 15 years, relying on information from the Federal Judicial Center, the United States Sentencing Commission and the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

SPOILER

Douglas A. Berman, an authority on sentencing law at Ohio State University, said the study contained “amazing new empirical research.”

“It’s an extraordinarily important contribution to our statistical understanding of sentencing decision making in federal courts over the last two decades,” he said.

It has long been known that there is an overall racial sentencing gap, with judges of all political affiliations meting out longer sentences to black offenders. The new study confirmed this, finding that black defendants are sentenced to 4.8 months more than similar offenders of other races.

It was also well known, and perhaps not terribly surprising, that Republican appointees are tougher on crime over all, imposing sentences an average of 2.4 months longer than Democratic appointees.

But the study’s findings on how judges’ partisan affiliations affected the racial and gender gaps were new and startling.

“The racial gap by political affiliation is three months, approximately 65 percent of the baseline racial sentence gap,” the authors wrote. “We also find that Republican-appointed judges give female defendants two months less in prison than similar male defendants compared to Democratic-appointed judges, 17 percent of the baseline gender sentence gap.”

The two kinds of gaps appear to have slightly different explanations. “We find evidence that gender disparities by political affiliation are largely driven by violent offenses and drug offenses,” the study said. “We also find that racial disparities by political affiliation are largely driven by drug offenses.”

The authors of the study sounded a note of caution. “The precise reasons why these disparities by political affiliation exist remain unknown and we caution that our results cannot speak to whether the sentences imposed by Republican- or Democratic-appointed judges are warranted or ‘right,’” the authors wrote. “Our results, however, do suggest that Republican- and Democratic-appointed judges treat defendants differently on the basis of their race and gender given that we observe robust disparities despite the random assignment of cases to judges within the same court.”

The study is studded with fascinating tidbits. Black judges treat male and female offenders more equally than white judges do. Black judges appointed by Republicans treat black offenders more leniently than do other Republican appointees.

More experienced judges are less apt to treat black and female defendants differently. Judges in states with higher levels of racism, as measured by popular support for laws against interracial marriage, are more likely to treat black defendants more harshly than white ones.

The Trump administration has been quite successful in stocking the federal bench with its appointees, and by some estimates the share of Republican appointees on the federal district courts could rise to 50 percent in 2020, from 34 percent in early 2017.

The study said these trends were likely to widen the sentencing gaps.

“Our estimates suggest that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of Republican-appointed judges in each court would increase the racial sentencing gap by approximately 5 percent and the gender sentencing gap by roughly 2 percent,” the authors wrote. “During an average four-year term, a Republican president has the potential to alter the partisan composition of the district courts by over 15 percentage points, potentially increasing the racial and gender sentencing gap by 7.5 and 3 percent, respectively.”

There are a couple of reasons to question that prediction. The Trump administration has been more energetic in appointing appeals court judges than trial judges. And in recent years many conservatives have started to shift positions on sentencing policy. The very scope of the study, which considered sentences imposed from 1999 to 2015, could mask trends in the later years.

Supreme Court justices like to say that partisan affiliation plays no role in judicial decision making.

“There’s no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, said at his confirmation hearing last year. “We just have judges in this country.”

Political scientists have disagreed, finding that Republican appointees are markedly more likely to vote in a conservative direction than Democratic ones. Senate Republicans, by refusing to hold hearings for Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, seemed to agree.

So has Mr. Trump. “We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!” he tweeted in March.

But judicial ideology is one thing. The race and gender gaps identified by the new study present a different and difficult set of questions.

Professor Berman said the study should prompt both research and reflection. “It only begins a conversation,” he said, “about what sets of factors really influence judges at sentencing in modern times.”

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 22:31 schreef Tchock het volgende:

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Dit is nep... toch?

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 22:53 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Nee, echt, van de 26e.

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 22:58 schreef Tchock het volgende:

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Ik zie het ja. Hemeltje.

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Rep. Garrett announces he is an alcoholic and will not seek re-election. (WaPo)

RICHMOND — Rep. Thomas Garrett (R-Va.) announced Monday that he is struggling with alcoholism and will abandon his run for a second term in Congress so he can focus on recovery and his family.

Garrett, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is the 44th Republican to retire or announce they will not seek reelection to the House this year, according to CNN’s retirement tracker. Many are leaving in anticipation of a strong Democratic performance in Congressional races this fall and out of frustration with partisan politics in Washington.

The former Virginia state senator was facing a robust challenge from his Democratic challenger, journalist and author Leslie Cockburn, who had raised more money than him and had more cash on hand.

“Any person — Republican, Democrat or independent — who has known me for any period of time and has any integrity knows two things: I am a good man and I’m an alcoholic,” Garrett, fighting back tears, said in a video shot Monday afternoon on Richmond’s Capitol Square. “This is the hardest statement that I have ever publicly made by far. It’s also the truth”

His announcement caps a week of turmoil in Garrett’s Washington office, which included the resignation of his chief of staff, Jimmy Keady, an online news report that Garrett was thinking about dropping his reelection bid and a news conference Thursday in which Garrett insisted he was running.

On Friday, a Politico report quoted four unidentified former staffers who accused Garrett and his wife, Flanna, of ordering staff to walk their dog, carry groceries or perform other personal tasks for the couple – a practice prohibited by House ethics rules.

In an effort to confirm those allegations, The Washington Post spoke to two former staffers who said the couple would from time to time call upon aides to handle personal chores. The former staffers declined to be named, out of fear of retribution.

Garrett, 46, would not answer questions about those allegations on Monday. In the video statement, he said: “The recent attacks on my family and myself were a series of half truths and full lies. ”

He said he had been honest in every aspect of his life, save one: his drinking, which he said people close to him had cautioned him about since his early 20s.

Garrett is an Army veteran and former commonwealth’s attorney with a libertarian streak .He won election in his central Virginia district by 16 percentage points in 2016, outperforming President Trump by about 5 points to succeed retiring Rep. Robert Hurt (R).

He was officially nominated to seek another term months ago. His impending departure means the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee, which has about three dozen members, will choose a new nominee to face Cockburn.

As the story unfolded over the past few days, Republican observers of Virginia politics have said possible candidates from the General Assembly could be state Sen. William M. Stanley Jr. (Franklin), Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (Fauquier) and Del. Robert B. Bell (R-Albemarle). Tech executive Michael Del Rosso and businessman and developer Jim McKelvey both sought the nomination in 2016 and could also be interested.

Garrett made his announcement Sunday outside the Capitol where he had served as a state senator. Wearing a dark suit and tie on a hot, humid day, he stood by a monument to Barbara Johns, who as a teenager led a walkout to protest Virginia’s segregated schools. Garrett filed a bill to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to Johns.

As Garrett spoke, wife held their baby daughter off camera. The couple embraced, sobbing, after he finished speaking.

“Not for fear of losing or for lack of love for our great nation, today I am announcing that I will not seek re-election,” Garrett said as the camera rolled. “Sometimes winning means knowing where your priorities should be. My devotion to the ideals and beliefs in America has not wavered , but my commitment to be the best husband, father and friend means addressing the only truth I’ve been heretofore unwilling to tell. God has blessed America, and he’s blessed me. I am not dying. I am starting anew with work and dedication. Great things can be done. This isn’t an ending for me or my values of service to my fellow man. It’s just a new beginning.”

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 01:05:05 An openly gay student wasn’t allowed to give the valedictory speech at his graduation.His school's diocese said the speech was "inconsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church."So he delivered the speech after the ceremony with a megaphone. https://t.co/lIRqmpurI1 reageer retweet

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Op maandag 28 mei 2018 19:43 schreef SureD1 het volgende:

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Elke keer als je denkt dat het niet erger kan... alsof hij het er om doet...

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 06:55 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:

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Even inbeelden. Ik ben een gesneuvelde USA militair en ik lig in Margraten begraven. Af en toe pik ik echter wel wat op over mijn vaderland. Ik heb, zo is mijn verteld, gevochten om Europa te bevrijden van de nationaal socialisten en fascisten. Ik merk echter dat door de politiek correcte dictatuur mijn land afgleed naar onvrijheid en dat sommigen voor een sport wedstrijd niet eens recht willen staan voor de anthem. Ik zou ook best trots zijn als ik hoor dat door een nieuwe wind in mijn vaderland daar paal en perk aan worden gesteld. Nu maar hopen dat de poging tot staatsgreep door de DNC, FBI en CIA faalt.

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 06:55 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:

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Even inbeelden. Ik ben een gesneuvelde USA militair en ik lig in Margraten begraven. Af en toe pik ik echter wel wat op over mijn vaderland. Ik heb, zo is mijn verteld, gevochten om Europa te bevrijden van de nationaal socialisten en fascisten. Ik merk echter dat door de politiek correcte dictatuur mijn land afgleed naar onvrijheid en dat sommigen voor een sport wedstrijd niet eens recht willen staan voor de anthem. Ik zou ook best trots zijn als ik hoor dat door een nieuwe wind in mijn vaderland daar paal en perk aan worden gesteld. Nu maar hopen dat de poging tot staatsgreep door de DNC, FBI en CIA faalt.

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 07:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Je bent dood, maar je krijgt toch de actualiteit mee? In wat voor realiteit leef jij?

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 07:45 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Weer een Republikein die er de brui aan geeft (VA-05); dit keer vanwege alcoholisme en het feit dat hij zijn staff als persoonlijke slaafjes behandelde ("schep jij de poep even op als ik mijn hond uitlaat", kun je je voorstellen dat je baas dat tegen je zegt en dat je het dan ook doet?):

Rep. Garrett announces he is an alcoholic and will not seek reelection
https://www.washingtonpos(...)78ec08c2f_story.html

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 06:55 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:

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Even inbeelden. Ik ben een gesneuvelde USA militair en ik lig in Margraten begraven. Af en toe pik ik echter wel wat op over mijn vaderland. Ik heb, zo is mijn verteld, gevochten om Europa te bevrijden van de nationaal socialisten en fascisten. Ik merk echter dat door de politiek correcte dictatuur mijn land afgleed naar onvrijheid en dat sommigen voor een sport wedstrijd niet eens recht willen staan voor de anthem. Ik zou ook best trots zijn als ik hoor dat door een nieuwe wind in mijn vaderland daar paal en perk aan worden gesteld. Nu maar hopen dat de poging tot staatsgreep door de DNC, FBI en CIA faalt.

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 08:25 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:
Guys, just stop feeding the troll.

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 09:30 schreef grrrrg het volgende:
#WheresMelania ?

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 13:27:07 Sorry, I’ve got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc. reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 13:59 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 13:27:07 Sorry, I’ve got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc. reageer retweet

Start focusing? Nu al? Je bent pas anderhalf jaar POTUS.

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 01:24 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 01:05:05 An openly gay student wasn’t allowed to give the valedictory speech at his graduation.His school's diocese said the speech was "inconsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church."So he delivered the speech after the ceremony with a megaphone. https://t.co/lIRqmpurI1 reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 14:16 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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Lijkt mij logisch. Kijk je kunt er alles van vinden maar als je naar een katholieke school gaat weet je dat de bijbel leidend is.

Gisteren had een collega er over dat ze het belachelijk vond dat ze naar de kerk moest een aantal keer voordat haar kind gedoopt werd. Je weet toch dat dat er bij hoort.

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This wasn’t the way Christian Bales planned to leave high school.

Mr. Bales, an 18-year-old with a passion for conservation science, worked hard at Holy Cross, a Catholic school in Covington, Ky., earning the honor of valedictorian. He looked forward to delivering a commencement speech at the graduation on Friday.

Then something happened that left him “kind of shocked,” he said.

The principal and other officials told him on Friday that the Diocese of Covington had deemed his speech too angry and confrontational, Mr. Bales said.

“I did not think the speech was polarizing at all,” he said. He was told it was political and personal and that there was no time to revise it.

Mr. Bales is gay and describes himself as gender nonconforming. His speech, which can be read in full here, makes no mention of either.

SPOILER

He said he wore high heels and a floral jumpsuit to prom and the school did not protest.

But last Monday, according to Mr. Bales’s mother, Gillian Marksberry, the principal asked for her help in making sure her son arrived at the graduation ceremony “in appropriate male dress,” including dress pants and no makeup or hair accessories.

“He also told me that he had reached out to the superintendent of the diocese to ask for guidance because he has never had a student like Christian before and he didn’t know how to deal with it,” Ms. Marksberry said.

She added: “Christian and I spoke about appropriate dress and how it is necessary to conform sometimes. Christian understood and respected this request. He was prepared to honor the dress code.”

The principal, Mike Holtz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Katherine Frantz, the student body president, was also scheduled to speak, but her speech was rejected as well.

The school reprinted the graduation programs, deleting any mention of their speeches, Mr. Bales said.

But that didn’t stop them.

His father on Friday offered to bring a bullhorn so Mr. Bales could deliver his speech after the ceremony.

“And I was like, ‘Oh, heck yeah. That would be great,’” Mr. Bales said.

Ms. Frantz thought so, too.

After they accepted their diplomas and the students filed out of the Connor Convocation Center at Thomas More College where the ceremony was held, they each delivered their speeches: first Ms. Frantz, then Mr. Bales.

Students, teachers and family members formed a semicircle around them.

“It was very empowering,” he said. “The people who were surrounding us were the ideal audience.”

Tim Fitzgerald, the director of communications for the diocese, did not respond to phone messages or emails on Monday. In a statement provided to the television station WLWT, the diocese said the speeches had not been submitted for review “before the deadline.”

“When the proposed speeches were received they were found to contain elements that were political and inconsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church,” it said.

Mr. Bales said he was unaware of a formal deadline. He said he submitted his speech on Tuesday and Ms. Frantz said she submitted hers on Wednesday. They both said Holy Cross teachers had approved of their remarks.

School officials also told Ms. Frantz that her speech was “too personal,” she said.

“Honestly, I seriously have no idea why they rejected my speech,” Ms. Frantz, 18, said Monday. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.”

She sent a copy of her speech to The River City News and wrote an op-ed column about the school’s decision, which was published Sunday, along with her speech.

“To have my faith and my beliefs put into question by the diocese was extremely insulting,” Ms. Frantz wrote.

Mr. Bales’s speech listed the accomplishments of his fellow students, such as attending a March for Life rally “to protect the lives of the unborn.”

He reminded his classmates that their voices matter.

“The young people must be willing to speak candidly about issues, and we mustn’t tremble in the face of the institutions that try to silence us,” the speech said.

Aside from a mention about facing “adversity” and “opposition in a number of scenarios,” there were few references to his personal experiences as a high school student.

Mr. Bales said he did not know if the diocese had acted against him because he is gay or gender nonconforming.

“That is not something they would admit to us,” he said. “I don’t want to wish any ill will to the diocese or the school, but I want this to be a learning experience for everybody.”

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Investor Wilbur Ross was brought into the administration as one of President Donald Trump’s “killers” – but in recent months, the commerce secretary has been increasingly marginalized, with his agency widely seen in the White House as a mess.

Trump himself has lashed out at Ross in Oval Office meetings, telling the man who once helped bail him out in Atlantic City that he’s “past his prime” and “no longer a killer” and trying to bench him from making trade deals, according to three people familiar with the comments. Despite being one of the administration’s leading protectionist voices early on, Ross was initially left off a May trade delegation to China led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

But now Ross is heading back to China in early June in hope of cutting some type of trade deal that delivers on Trump’s campaign promises to extract concessions from Beijing on behalf of American workers.

SPOILER

Fans of Trump’s protectionist stance have been heartened – Ross “is one of the Trump trade champions and he gets the issues” said former Nucor steel CEO and Trump campaign adviser Dan DiMicco – but others say Ross taking the lead this time around is a dim sign for the talks.

“The fact that he is going over to China is a signal that the president has some confidence in him. He likes Ross even if he does not consider him a killer,” said one former administration official. “But it’s also a signal that they are not expecting a whole lot. You would not send him if you were expecting real progress.”

Although Ross still plays a large public-facing role — just last week the president instructed him to examine potential tariffs on foreign cars — his stature internally on delicate trade negotiations has diminished amid perpetual jockeying between advocates of free trade and those like Ross who want to take a harder, more protectionist stance, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House.

Originally, Ross had hoped to play the alpha dog on trade policy. He tried to establish his dominance early on by launching a Commerce Department investigation into the effects of steel and aluminum imports on national security. He even maintained an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office building on the White House grounds, keeping him in close proximity to Trump.

But he has been outmaneuvered by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who was confirmed in May 2017 — the last of Trump’s Cabinet officials to pass through the Senate. Lighthizer quickly morphed into a power player and launched his own investigations into cybertheft and Chinese trade demands.

Ross also hurt himself politically when he brought back to the president two potential deals with China last year. One would have cut China’s production of steel, though some policy experts say China was already planning to so by closing some plants. The other deal would have allowed imported cooked chicken from China into the U.S. in exchange for opening up the Chinese market to U.S. beef.

In a meeting in the Oval Office, Ross tried to cast the beef deal as a big win — but the president viewed it as too small and a bad agreement, an original sin in this White House. He reamed out Ross in front of a small cadre of officials, according to the three people briefed on the exchange, and told Ross he wanted him out of the negotiations.

That was the beginning of Ross’ marginalization, even if the president still likes him personally and even if Ross still attends trade meetings as a principal.

One senior administration official noted that Ross remains invaluable to Trump because of his deep familiarity to China given the many deals he conducted in the country as an investor. The two also run in many of the same social circles and still see one another at Mar-a-Lago where Ross remains a member. One Republican close to the White House said that Trump keeps Ross around because the president views him as “harmless.”

But Ross has run into bureaucratic snafus. Early Commerce reports on the steel and aluminum tariffs were held up for weeks because they lacked legal analysis or input from the national security experts, or other agencies such as the Department of Defense, according to one Republican close to the White House.

A similar problem occurred during Trump’s November trip to China, when Ross tried to unveil a number of deals between Chinese and American businesses, only to have the White House try to kill many of them at the last minute because the announcements had not been vetted with the Department of Justice or legal team.

The Commerce Department press office did not comment, while the White House did not respond to a list of questions.

The focus on trade – most recently, imposing tariffs and dealing with the Chinese electronics company ZTE — has put Ross in the middle of the biggest fights dividing Trump’s economic advisers.

“He is the most prominent commerce secretary in many, many years,” said Larry Kudlow, director of the White House’s National Economic Council. “I mean, he’s really a central player of all of the trade talks.”

Critics, however, charge that Ross is running a 47,000-person government agency like a boutique financial firm.

Under Ross’ leadership, the Commerce Department has seen an exodus of five top Republican appointees, leaving the agency in the hands of three Ross loyalists who work on the building’s fifth floor and control most decisions emanating from the building.

These aides are focused on fulfilling Ross’ wishes on trade policy, sometimes to the detriment of the agency’s other wide-ranging responsibilities, which include 12 different bureaus and offices that cover everything from economic analysis to NOAA to minority business development, the U.S. census, and patents.

Ross’ chief of staff, Wendy Teramoto, serves more as Ross’ personal aide than someone who manages the building, agenda, or staff. Teramoto served on the board of Navigator Holdings, a shipping company whose clients include a Russian energy company with Kremlin ties, while she was working in the Trump administration. She also served as an executive of Ross’ private equity firm WL Ross & Co. after becoming a government employee. She resigned from both positions before taking over as the Commerce Department’s chief-of-staff.

Inside the agency, career staff have been locked out of the much of decision-making, according to current and former administration officials, although a new political appointee, Karen Dunn Kelley, is earning high marks from staff.

Outside observers worry most about the fate of NOAA, which comprises about half of the Commerce budget, and the U.S. Census, slated to begin in 2020. The census does not have a Senate-confirmed director in place.

Both the acting head of the U.S. Census, Ron Jarmin, and the assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere at NOAA told POLITICO that Ross is very engaged in their respective missions, and they’ve met him at meetings, or when he’s visited their offices.

The census “preparations are well underway,” Jarmin said. “When they first came in the door, there was a steep learning curve, but they picked it up quickly, and they are in the weeds with us,” citing a recent census exercise in Rhode Island as one example.

Few administration officials, current and former, or close advisers to the White House believe Ross’ tenure at Commerce is in jeopardy, even if some White House officials believe Commerce could be doing much more given its broad portfolio and mandate.

Ray Washburne, a Trump campaign donor who was appointed president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a government agency, is said to be eyeing the Commerce slot if Ross ever leaves, said one Republican lobbyist close to the administration. When reached by phone, Washburne said he was not interested and consumed by legislation, working its way through Capitol Hill, that will restructure OPIC.

Close advisers to the White House say that Ross is having too much fun traveling abroad as top U.S. Cabinet official, appearing on CNBC, and attending meetings in the Oval Office to give up the trappings of the administration unless he is forced out.

“Ross has been involved and then totally uninvolved on trade and the reason is because his whole mode is to tell the president whatever he wants to hear,” said one of the close advisers to the White House. “He is always trying to guess what the president will say. In the beginning, that was easier because the president was more predictable. But Ross did not get the message that Trump now wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize and doesn’t want to launch a trade war.”

Into the leadership vacuum has stepped Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, another Trump loyalist dating back to the campaign. Mnuchin and Kudlow now represent the free trade wing of the administration, a slot previously held by the former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, while Lighthizer and trade adviser Peter Navarro take a more hawkish and hardline view on trade policy and consider the Chinese bad actors.

One former administration official characterized the commerce secretary’s role as fluid, typical in a White House where the president likes to assemble a team of rivals and hear from different viewpoints.

“At particular points in time, the president will look to one of the principals more than the other. That changes day to day, and week to week, month to month,” said the official. “The campaign was the same way. That is how the president utilizes the best talent for the best time.”

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 13:59 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 13:27:07 Sorry, I’ve got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc. reageer retweet

Start focusing? Nu al? Je bent pas anderhalf jaar POTUS.

quote:

In the campy TV drama that is Donald Trump’s Washington, Miller has carved out an enigmatic role. He lurks in the background for weeks at a time, only to emerge with crucial cameos in the most explosive episodes. The one where Trump signed a havoc-wreaking travel ban during his first week in office, unleashing global chaos and mass protests? Miller helped draft the executive order. The one where the federal government shut down over a high-stakes immigration standoff on Capitol Hill? Miller was accused of derailing the negotiations. (“As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere,” Senator Lindsey Graham grumbled.) To watch him in his most memorable scenes—theatrically hurling accusations of “cosmopolitan bias” at a reporter; getting his mic cut in the middle of a belligerent Sunday-show appearance—is to be left mesmerized, wondering, Is this guy serious?

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 15:30:24 The Fake Mainstream Media has, from the time I announced I was running for President, run the most highly sophisticated & dishonest Disinformation Campaign in the history of politics. No matter how well WE do, they find fault. But the forgotten men & women WON, I’m President! reageer retweet

quote:

President Trump has reportedly bashed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as being "past his prime" amid tensions within the administration over trade negotiations with China in recent weeks.

Trump's remarks toward the 80-year-old agency head come as Trump has reportedly kept Ross sidelined for key talks with China, according to Politico.

Though Trump once hailed his longtime friend Ross, a billionaire investor and trade magnate, as a champion of America-first trade policies, he now says Ross is "no longer a killer."

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 15:35 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 15:30:24 The Fake Mainstream Media has, from the time I announced I was running for President, run the most highly sophisticated & dishonest Disinformation Campaign in the history of politics. No matter how well WE do, they find fault. But the forgotten men & women WON, I’m President! reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 16:20 schreef Mryc het volgende:

[..]

Het is goed dat hij er ons er minstens elke dag, door middel van zijn tweets, aan herinnert dat hij echt de president is, want geloven doe ik het nog steeds niet. Wanneer gaat deze shitshow eindelijk eens ophouden?

quote:

President Trump said Tuesday that he would proceed with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports and introduce new limits on Chinese investment in U.S. high-tech industries as part of a broad campaign to crack down on Chinese acquisition of U.S. technology.

“The United States will implement specific investment restrictions and enhanced export controls for Chinese people and entities related to the acquisition of industrially significant technology,” the White House said in a brief statement.

Specifics of the new limits will be announced by June 30 and will take effect “shortly thereafter,” the White House said.

The moves come less than 10 days after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the trade war with China was “on hold.” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is due to arrive in Beijing on Saturday for talks aimed at cooling trade tensions between the two countries.

SPOILER

The president has been seeking Chinese agreement to reduce the $375 billion U.S. goods trade deficit. But two days of talks in Washington ended earlier this month with only vague Chinese promises to buy more U.S. agriculture and energy products.

“The Trump administration is back in attack mode against China after what had appeared to be a temporary truce in the trade tensions,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “China’s unwillingness to agree to a trade deficit reduction target or make other major concessions has probably emboldened those in the administration who have argued for a hard line stance against China on trade issues.”

The White House statement said the president had been “updated” on several steps following the March release by U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer of a study detailing a sweeping Chinese effort to vacuum up American technology through legal and illegal means. But none of the actions described in the one-page statement are yet certain to take effect.

The White House announcement may be only the latest dizzying turn in Trump’s carrot-and-stick approach to trade negotiations. After threatening tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese products in April, the president settled earlier this month for what Mnuchin described as a “framework” for progress, following two days of bargaining with Chinese officials in Washington.

Now, tariffs on the first $50 billion are back on track — though the president could change course again. “The tariffs and the other stuff are totally discretionary and can be waived,” said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. trade negotiator.

The announced measures also come amid bipartisan criticism of the president’s softening of penalties for ZTE, a Chinese telecom company that had traded with Iran and North Korea in defiance of U.S. sanctions.

“I think this is a bone to the Congress. I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do,” said Derek Scissors, a China expert at the conversative American Enterprise Institute.

Tariffs of 25 percent will be applied to Chinese imports containing important technologies, including those related to Beijing’s made-in-China 2025 development program, the White House said. The final tariff list will be made public by June 15 with the new import taxes taking effect shortly thereafter.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, may interpret the president’s latest shift as a response to domestic political pressure, he added. “They may have been surprised by the level of concern, especially among Republicans, about ZTE,” Moon said.

If the resumption of Trump’s tariff threat is designed to put pressure on Beijing in advance of Ross’s arrival on Saturday, it could backfire. “This kind of public pressure could make it harder for China to respond in a conciliatory fashion,” said Claire Reade, another former U.S. trade official who is now with Arnold & Porter.

Failure to make significant progress in diplomatic talks before June 15 could trigger the U.S. tariffs and quick Chinese retaliation, setting in motion the downward spiral in relations that the two sides have been trying to avoid, Reade said.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 16:25:02 At least 4,645 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria and its devastation across Puerto Rico last year, according to a newly released Harvard study. https://t.co/9tkLBhE6oR reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 17:15:19 Flashback: Trump told Puerto Rican officials they should be "very proud" that hundreds of people haven't died after Hurricane Maria as they did in "a real catastrophe like Katrina." https://t.co/uPY4DKRIY3 https://t.co/eFKMYq3ih0 reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 17:36 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Trump announces tariffs on China, tech crackdown ahead of key trade meeting

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 18:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Zo lekker lopen die besprekingen dus niet. We kunnen inmiddels wel van een handelsoorlog spreken. Dit gaat pijn doen bij de boeren, want de Chinezen zullen met een tegenreactie komen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 17:47 schreef Montov het volgende:
Zijn er vergelijkbare studies gedaan van Katrina? Die 1833 is niet met dezelfde methode gedaan, dus dat getal kan ook wel hoger uitkomen.

quote:

"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment, said in a statement Tuesday.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 18:44 schreef Montov het volgende:

[..]

Een studie die ik kon vinden zet het aantal op zo'n 4000
https://robertlindsay.wor(...)-death-toll-at-4081/

Minder dan Puerto Rico dus. De nasleep in PR vanwege verwoeste infrastructuur en geisoleerde gebieden is rampzalig gebleken.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:15 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/(...)valerie-jarrett.html


ABC stopt met Roseanne. Ze hebben genoeg van haar racistische tweets. Trump zal wel los gaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:15 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/(...)valerie-jarrett.html


ABC stopt met Roseanne. Ze hebben genoeg van haar racistische tweets. Trump zal wel los gaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 19:58 schreef nostra het volgende:

[..]

Het mag toch wel duidelijk zijn dat voor Trump c.s. de levens van een paar Spaans sprekende aanhangsels een stuk minder tellen dan dat van Echte Mensen.

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 19:32:01 4,500. 50% more deaths than 9/11—and we weren't even told about it until now. Nor does Trump care about it.But we've heard the name "Kate Steinle" from Trump's mouth 100 times.Does anyone doubt that 4,500 brown people < 1 white person to the President of the United States? https://t.co/Ay3Gcamga9 reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:15 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/(...)valerie-jarrett.html


ABC stopt met Roseanne. Ze hebben genoeg van haar racistische tweets. Trump zal wel los gaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:32 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:
Zegt veel over de pers dat Roseanne Bar haar racistische grap het nieuws is, en niet dat de CIA zich met Franse politiek bemoeide.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 20:35:55 ICYMI: Don Jr. has been retweeting Roseanne. https://t.co/0sv8XjOSLb reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 21:12 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
Oudje SNL uit 1990

Trump Divorce Cold Open - SNL

Gisteren 20 jaar geleden overleed Phil Hartman.

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 17:14:02 See below. 1) the WSJ had the story in the closing days of the campaign but sat on it and 2) Mr. Davidson lied to them and conspired with Mr. Cohen in 2016. This is why we have demanded to see all of Davidson's docs for mos and will sue if need be. #Bastahttps://t.co/iCUrQg3VoT reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 21:44 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 17:14:02 See below. 1) the WSJ had the story in the closing days of the campaign but sat on it and 2) Mr. Davidson lied to them and conspired with Mr. Cohen in 2016. This is why we have demanded to see all of Davidson's docs for mos and will sue if need be. #Bastahttps://t.co/iCUrQg3VoT reageer retweet

Dropbox linkje met documenten in de tweet.

Om enkele zaken op te noemen, betreffende niet onafhankelijke media:
• de WSJ die beschadigend verhalen voor Trump laat liggen (althans, als de aantijging klopt); de betreffende journalist kwam gister nota bene nog met een stuk kritisch over Avenatti: Stormy Daniels’s Lawyer Michael Avenatti Complicates Michael Cohen Probe
• National Enquirer die datzelfde deed
• Trump die met regelmaat even babbelt met Rupert Murdoch, die Fox News, WSJ en nog wat media bezit in die hoek
• Trump die met regelmaat overlegt met Hannity
• Sinclair die zaken uitzendt wat niet anders gezien kan worden dan propaganda

Nog los natuurlijk van dat Keith Davidson er hier niet goed uitziet... to put it mildly.

Resolved: The Government Should Cut Off All Funding to Colleges and Universities

quote:

Should all government funding of higher education be abolished?

On May 14, 2018, that provocative resolution was debated by economists Edward Glaeser and Bryan Caplan, author of the new book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money. Two main arguments dominated the discussion. First, was the humanistic question: Is government support needed to foster new ideas and cultural expression? Second, the economics of the matter: Does the hundreds of billions in annual government funding to American universities and colleges benefit the country by boosting the earnings and productivity of its citizens?

Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. His other books include The Myth of the Rational Voter and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

Edward Glaeser argued against the resolution. A professor of economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992, Glaeser has served as director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. His academic work has focused on zoning, housing policy, and urbanism, and he's the author of the 2012 book Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.

The Soho Forum, which Reason sponsors, is a monthly Oxford-style debate, meaning that the audience votes before and after the proceedings, and the debater who has moved the most people prevails. In this case, Caplan won by convincing 12 percent of the audience to switch over to his side.

The opening act was comedian Dave Smith, host of the podcast Part of the Problem.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 22:10 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

WSJ is eigendom van Murdoch net als FOX News, enough said.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:32 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:
Zegt veel over de pers dat Roseanne Bar haar racistische grap het nieuws is, en niet dat de CIA zich met Franse politiek bemoeide.

quote:

https://www.politico.com/(...)ichard-pinedo-610843

...

Prosecutors asked a federal judge to order a pre-sentencing report for Richard Pinedo, a Santa Paula, California, man who admitted in February to a felony identity fraud charge relating to the sale of bank account numbers that apparently helped Russian internet trolls pay for social media ads related to the U.S. presidential race.

...

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 22:22 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Dat is denk ik wat kort door de bocht. De nieuwsafdeling staat volgens mij toch wel echt zeer hoog aangeschreven... althans als dit klopt en er geen goede journalistieke reden was om het niet te publiceren kon dat wel eens wat veranderen natuurlijk. Opinie waaronder de ‘editorial board’ zijn echter een stel gestoorde propagandisten van het allooi van Hannity.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 23:07 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
We hadden al ADHD, schietspelletjes, Ritalin, abortus, de "MSM", entreedeuren en tenslotte nu: pornografie. Maar nee, die wapens, dat heeft er natuurlijk niks mee te maken!

Porn Leads To School Shootings, GOP Congresswoman Says
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b0d6634e4b0568a880ede65?19

quote:

It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there,” she continued. “All of this is available without parental guidance. I think that is a big part of the root cause.”

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 23:19 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]


[..]

Zou ze wel eens van het internet gehoord hebben?

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 23:19 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

[..]

Zou ze wel eens van het internet gehoord hebben?

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 23:37 schreef Tchock het volgende:

[..]

Totaal wereldvreemd natuurlijk. Dat moet je ook wel zijn om zo'n redenering op te hangen.

Waar slaat het überhaupt op dat porno er toe zou leiden dat je schoolgenootjes zou willen doodschieten? Ik wil het argument best serieus proberen te nemen maar ik zie met alle wil van de wereld de connectie niet.

quote:

Trump continues to pursue a summit with Kim Jong Un even though the CIA casts doubt on his stated goal for the meeting, eliminating North Korea's nukes.

A new U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded that North Korea does not intend to give up its nuclear weapons any time soon, three U.S. officials told NBC News — a finding that conflicts with recent statements by President Donald Trump that Pyongyang intends to do so in the future.

President Trump is continuing to pursue a nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even though the CIA analysis, which is consistent with other expert opinion, casts doubt on the viability of Trump's stated goal for the negotiations, the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile.

"Everybody knows they are not going to denuclearize," said one intelligence official who read the report, which was circulated earlier this month, days before Trump canceled the originally scheduled summit.

In an odd twist, a list of potential concessions by North Korea in the CIA analysis included the possibility that Kim Jong Un may consider offering to open a Western hamburger franchise in Pyongyang as a show of goodwill, according to three national security officials.

It suggests Kim is interested in a peaceful gesture to an American president whose love of fast-food burgers is well known — and who, during the 2016 campaign, had said he wanted to talk nukes over a burger with the North Korean leader.

On the nuclear question, the analysis suggests that a more realistic immediate objective would be convincing Kim to walk back recent progress on the country's nuclear weapons program, the officials said.

But it's not clear that would pass muster with Trump — or America's allies.

"If the North Koreans don't agree in a joint statement that lays out denuclearization — that is, getting rid of their nuclear weapons, having them put under control by international elements — then I don't think we are going to go very far," Chris Hill, a former ambassador to South Korea, said Tuesday on MSNBC.

SPOILER

On May 24, Trump canceled the summit, originally scheduled for June 12, but in recent days has suggested he may participate in the summit after all. A U.S. delegation met in recent days with North Koreans officials in the Demilitarized Zone, and a senior North Korean intelligence official is en route to New York City to discuss a potential summit.

The CIA report came as a top nuclear expert argued in a new paper that the nuclear disarmament process in North Korea could take as a long as 15 years. Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford professor who once directed the federal government's Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico — and who has toured North Korean nuclear facilities four times — argued that the sprawling nature of the North Korean program means it will take a long time to dismantle. His analysis was first reported in The New York Times.

The CIA report, described by three officials to NBC News, lays out a series of incentives the U.S. and South Korea could offer North Korea to disarm, including infrastructure and agricultural aid.

The report, like nearly all intelligence products on North Korea, offered analysis at low or medium confidence — language intelligence agencies use to signal that analysts lack hard information to buttress their conclusions.

One of the world's most reclusive countries, North Korea is a notoriously difficult intelligence target. Human sources and communications intercepts are hard to come by.

"This is essentially some very smart analysts offering their very best guesses," one intelligence official said.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he would like to meet with the North Korean leader in a low-key setting that entailed "eating a hamburger on a conference table."

The CIA report does not specify which fast-food brand could be invited to North Korea, but said Kim envisioned that the establishment could be used to provide food during the talks and would show that he was open to Western investment.

In advance of major diplomatic negotiations, it's not uncommon for intelligence agencies and the State Department to provide assessments about the opposing side's red lines. The idea is to prepare American participants for all possible eventualities, and to provide options to influence the adversary's behavior.

The new CIA report, according to three national security officials, assessed that Kim may also offer other limited American investment in North Korea, particularly in infrastructure.

The U.S. and South Korea would likely focus on food delivery — possibly through the United Nations — and other agricultural development, the report said. The South Koreans would likely take the lead in delivering this aid.

The U.S. also could offer economic incentives, including sanctions relief.

The report says North Korean officials have not demanded in preliminary talks that the U.S. remove all its troops from South Korea, and they are not expected to do so in any initial summit.

The report says that South Korean President Moon Jae-in felt believes he enjoys a strong rapport with Kim, and that South Korea is considering a formal declaration to end the war between the two countries.

The CIA and the White House declined to comment.

One former senior official who has been briefed on the U.S. approach to North Korea acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies do not believe Kim would ever get rid of all his nuclear weapons.

"I've always wondered: How does the administration square that circle?" the former official said.

The big question going into any negotiation, the official said, was how the White House would deal with North Korea's unwillingness to denuclearize while maintaining Trump's public line requiring such a move.

Trump seemed to acknowledge that dilemma in remarks last week where he said North Korea may not have to immediately denuclearize and that its nuclear program could be phased out over a period of time.

The U.S. also has decided to drop any human rights demands as part of the talks, according to a current and a former official — a deeply significant move when dealing with a country that the U.S. believes holds between 80,000 and 120,000 prisoners in squalid camps. The former official said the U.S. approach to North Korea was broken down into phases, each of which would bring corresponding gestures of aid and sanctions relief.

First, the Trump administration wants North Korea to declare all details of its nuclear program, dispose of fissile material and close some sites.

The U.S. would then press for international inspections and a gradual elimination of nuclear weapons.

The American side would like to all but eliminate fissile material in North Korea.

An open question, said the former official, is how and whether to press Kim to account for and relinquish his chemical and biological weapons. After Trump criticized the Iran nuclear deal for failing to account for Iran's missile program, it would be hard for him to reach a nuclear deal with North Korea that ignores other weapons of mass destruction.

On May 28, the White House said in a statement that President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had spoken and "affirmed the shared imperative of achieving the complete and permanent dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missile programs."

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 01:30:49 Paul Manafort’s defense team has lost a fight with Mueller’s prosecutors over two search warrants.A federal judge has ruled that Manafort’s lawyers can’t review an unredacted affidavit that supported warrants used to search his Alexandria residence. https://t.co/rxmPvDIOgZ reageer retweet

twitter:

nycsouthpaw twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 01:24:39 A million items on three of Michael Cohen's phones... https://t.co/5xSgryQRVa reageer retweet

quote:

By the time Attorney General Jeff Sessions arrived at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for dinner one Saturday evening in March 2017, he had been receiving the presidential silent treatment for two days. Mr. Sessions had flown to Florida because Mr. Trump was refusing to take his calls about a pressing decision on his travel ban.

When they met, Mr. Trump was ready to talk — but not about the travel ban. His grievance was with Mr. Sessions: The president objected to his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Mr. Trump, who had told aides that he needed a loyalist overseeing the inquiry, berated Mr. Sessions and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request.

Mr. Sessions refused.

The confrontation, which has not been previously reported, is being investigated by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as are the president’s public and private attacks on Mr. Sessions and efforts to get him to resign. Mr. Trump dwelled on the recusal for months, according to confidants and current and former administration officials who described his behavior toward the attorney general.

The special counsel’s interest demonstrates Mr. Sessions’s overlooked role as a key witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself. It also suggests that the obstruction investigation is broader than it is widely understood to be — encompassing not only the president’s interactions with and firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, but also his relationship with Mr. Sessions.

Investigators have pressed current and former White House officials about Mr. Trump’s treatment of Mr. Sessions and whether they believe the president was trying to impede the Russia investigation by pressuring him. The attorney general was also interviewed at length by Mr. Mueller’s investigators in January. And of the four dozen or so questions Mr. Mueller wants to ask Mr. Trump, eight relate to Mr. Sessions. Among them: What efforts did you make to try to get him to reverse his recusal?

The president’s lead lawyer in the case, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said that if Mr. Trump agreed to answer the special counsel’s questions — an interview is the subject of continuing negotiations — he should not be forced to discuss his private deliberations with senior administration officials. Talking about the attorney general, Mr. Giuliani argued, would set a bad precedent for future presidents.

Mr. Giuliani said that he had not discussed Mr. Sessions’s recusal with Mr. Trump but that a request that Mr. Sessions reassert control over the Russia investigation would be within the bounds of the president’s authority.

“‘Unrecuse’ doesn’t say, ‘Bury the investigation.’ It says on the face of it: Take responsibility for it and handle it correctly,” Mr. Giuliani said on Tuesday evening.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

SPOILER

To the president, no decision has proved more devastating during his time in office than Mr. Sessions’s recusal. In Mr. Trump’s view, Mr. Sessions, who had been one of his closest political allies and earliest prominent supporter in Washington, never would have appointed a special counsel, as the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, did last May after the president abruptly fired Mr. Comey.

Before the recusal, the president and his attorney general were friends, often sharing meals and talking on the phone. Today, they rarely speak outside of cabinet meetings, current and former White House officials and others briefed on their relationship said. They even flew separately in March from Washington to the same event in New Hampshire. Mr. Trump complains to friends about how much he would like to get rid of Mr. Sessions but has demurred under pressure from Senate Republicans who have indicated they would not confirm a new attorney general.

Because of his recusal, Mr. Sessions has been mostly absent from the president’s ire toward the investigation and the Justice Department. He has enforced Mr. Trump’s agenda more successfully than perhaps any cabinet member, imposing conservative policies on immigration and violent crime that are popular with Mr. Trump’s core supporters.

Pressure on Mr. Sessions to step aside from the Russia investigation began building almost as soon as he took office, culminating in a Washington Post report on March 1 that he had not been forthcoming during his Senate confirmation hearing about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign. Career lawyers at the Justice Department had advised Mr. Sessions to step aside, citing ethics guidelines about impartiality and his role as a prominent supporter of the Trump campaign.

Mr. Trump immediately recognized the potential effect of a recusal. He had his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, lobby Mr. Sessions to retain oversight of the inquiry.

To Justice Department officials close to Mr. Sessions, the request by the president made through Mr. McGahn was inappropriate, particularly because it was clear to them that Mr. Sessions had to step aside. After Mr. Sessions told Mr. McGahn that he would follow the Justice Department lawyers’ advice to recuse himself from all matters related to the election, Mr. McGahn backed down. Mr. Sessions recused himself on March 2.

When Mr. Trump learned of the recusal, he asked advisers whether the decision could be reversed, according to people briefed on the matter. Told no, Mr. Trump argued that Eric H. Holder Jr., President Barack Obama’s first attorney general, would never have recused himself from a case that threatened to tarnish Mr. Obama. The president said he expected the same loyalty from Mr. Sessions.

Some people close to the president have said privately that they believed the recusal was overly broad and done too hastily in the middle of public scrutiny over Mr. Sessions’s congressional testimony.

The day after the recusal, as the president prepared to travel to Florida, Mr. Trump was seen through the windows of the Oval Office by news cameras, gesticulating angrily as he argued with top advisers who had gathered to determine how to go forward with the travel ban, which had been blocked by a federal judge. Justice Department officials had concluded the policy must be withdrawn and revised, a move that Mr. Trump was resisting because he thought it was watered down.

But, preoccupied with Mr. Sessions’s decision and determined to find a way forward, he spent the first 10 minutes of the meeting venting about it, a former White House official said.

The meeting ended without a resolution about the travel ban. And after Mr. Trump flew to Florida, his advisers decided that the only way to get the president’s signoff to revise the immigration order — a time-sensitive matter because of pending litigation — would be to dispatch the attorney general to Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., retreat, to implore him in person, the current and former administration officials said.

It was at Mar-a-Lago the next evening that Mr. Trump brought up the Russia investigation with Mr. Sessions and asked him to change his mind about stepping aside, the people said.

Prosecutors rarely go back on recusals. Legal experts said that occasionally, prosecutors who handed off a case to colleagues over concerns about a possible financial conflict of interest would take the decision back after confirming none existed. But the experts said they could think of no instance in which a prosecutor stepped aside from a case in circumstances similar to Mr. Sessions’s. Justice Department guidelines on recusal are in place to prevent the sort of political meddling the president tried to engage in, they said.

“It’s yet more behavior that tramples on the line between law and politics,” said Samuel W. Buell, a professor of law at Duke University and former federal prosecutor.

As the months wore on, Mr. Trump returned again and again to the recusal.

In July, he told The New York Times that he never would have nominated Mr. Sessions if he had known that Mr. Sessions would not oversee the Russia investigation. Two days later, a Washington Post report about Mr. Sessions’s campaign discussions with Russia’s ambassador sent Mr. Trump into another rage. Aboard Marine One that Saturday, the president told his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to get Mr. Sessions to resign by the end of the weekend, according to a person briefed on the conversation.

Unnerved and convinced the president wanted to install a new attorney general who could oversee the Russia investigation, Mr. Priebus called Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff at the time, Jody Hunt, who said that the president would have to ask Mr. Sessions himself to resign. Unsure how to proceed, Mr. Priebus simply waited out the president, who never called Mr. Sessions but did attack him that week on Twitter.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 25-07-2017 om 12:12:24 Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers! reageer retweet

Days later, Mr. Priebus was out as chief of staff. The special counsel has told the president’s lawyers that he wants to ask Mr. Trump about those discussions with Mr. Priebus and why he publicly criticized Mr. Sessions.

Mr. Trump brought up the recusal again with associates later last year, expressing a desire for Mr. Sessions to reassert control over an investigation that has since resulted in the indictment of his former campaign chairman and guilty pleas by two other campaign aides and his former national security adviser.

NYT: Trump asked Sessions to rescind recusal

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 04:20:00 "The counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump was kicked off by not one, not two, but multiple SIGINT reports which set off alarm bells inside our Intelligence Community. This has been publicly known, in a general way, for some time." https://t.co/Uj2JDxQjRE reageer retweet

quote:

WASHINGTON -- While the White House press corps has figured out to employ the "listening mode" function for conference calls with reporters, the administration is still mastering the task of gracefully dodging awkward questions that officials do not want to answer.

On a background call hosted by Ivanka Trump and Holli Richmond, director of the President Trump's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, in advance of "White House Sports and Fitness Day," one of the hosts dropped off of the call after being asked to comment on her father's new exercise regimen and questions pertaining to Chinese trademarks being awarded to her fashion brand.

"You can refer those questions to the press office," press aide Ninio Fetalvo told reporters Tuesday after Ivanka Trump was asked to address questions about her company.

The White House did not respond to CBS News' request for comment.

Ivanka Trump in China: The trademarks raising an ethics firestorm
CNN followed up by asking Ivanka Trump for an update on her father's fitness after Dr. Ronny Jackson notified the White House press corps earlier in the year that he had advised the president to lose some weight in 2018.

"So Ivanka had to step out for another meeting, but Holli is here to take on the additional questions," Fetalvo replied after a brief pause.

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 23:19 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

[..]

Zou ze wel eens van het internet gehoord hebben?

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 07:49 schreef Trumpinator het volgende:

[..]

Jij kent het onderscheid niet tussen een conservatief en een neo nazi?

quote:

Op dinsdag 29 mei 2018 20:17 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Dat is snel.

twitter:

GeoffRBennett twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 03:11:10 Trump, in Nashville, says African Americans have blindly voted for Democrats “for over a hundred years.” If only black folks had the right to vote for that long ... reageer retweet

twitter:

Mikel_Jollett twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 23:01:34 For those of you who criticize Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest while championing Roseanne’s “free speech,” here is Roseanne mocking the National Anthem, then grabbing her crotch and SPITTING. https://t.co/bc55kxdbdo reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 08:18 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
TR gezet (op verzoek van Refragmental nota bene)

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 09:50 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Goedzo Alleen nu ook onthouden dat een reactie plaatsen met "TR gezet", ook niet gewenst is, aldus Euribob

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:20:00 Rep. Trey Gowdy says the FBI’s use of an informant for the Trump campaign in 2016 was appropriate."I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got." https://t.co/e68Jq41Sdl reageer retweet

quote:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Tuesday that the FBI’s use of an informant for the Trump campaign in 2016 was appropriate, joining top Democrats in disputing President Donald Trump’s characterization of the informant as a spy.

“I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy said during an interview on Fox News.

In recent days, Trump has parroted misleading claims about the FBI’s use of the informant as part of its counter-intelligence investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, dubbing the individual a “spy” and referring to the controversy as “Spygate.”

Gowdy’s comments were significant because the former federal prosecutor participated in a classified briefing about the informant last week that was conducted by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The so-called “Gang of Eight”—which includes House and Senate leaders in addition to the top Republicans and Democrats on the intelligence committees—also joined the briefing. The Democrats present at the meeting previously released a joint statement saying they heard “no evidence” from Rosenstein and Wray that a “spy” was placed within the Trump campaign.(...)

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:26:10 We look forward to pushing for answers this morning as to why Mr. Cohen is leaking illegally recorded conversations relating to my client. Also interetsed in why he will not release all of the recordings, especially those with Mr. Trump. https://t.co/nsEUmAWBtV reageer retweet

quote:

Adult film star Stormy Daniels’ attorney is expected to ask a federal judge on Wednesday to address claims that President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, leaked audio recordings seized from Cohen in raids of his home and office to news media outlets.

The issue was among several slated to come up in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan, who is also expected to get an update on a review of materials federal agents seized in the April raids.

Cohen, who has not been charged with any crime, is under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan regarding his business dealings.

The investigation stems in part from a referral by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion, and Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. presidential elections.

Cohen has worked for Trump for more than a decade, first as counsel at the Trump Organization and later as his personal lawyer.

In 2016, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000. Daniels has said the payment was intended to buy her silence about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006. The president has denied the allegation.

Daniels’ outspoken attorney, Michael Avenatti, said in a letter last week that he had reason to believe that Cohen had leaked audio recordings, which he said may relate to his client, to media outlets. Avenatti asked that Wood ask Cohen about the possible leaks.
Avenatti has also asked Wood to allow him to represent Daniels in the Cohen case. He has said he believes some of the seized materials could relate to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen has asked Wood to deny Avenatti permission to appear before the federal court, saying he violated court rules by making what he characterized as false statements about Cohen in frequent news media appearances.

After the raids on Cohen’s home and office, Cohen and Trump asked the judge to block prosecutors from reviewing the seized documents, citing attorney-client privilege.

Wood responded by appointing former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones as a so-called special master to review whether any of the documents were shielded by attorney-client privilege before turning them over to prosecutors.

In a court filing on Tuesday evening, Jones said she had already turned over to prosecutors more than 290,000 seized items that were not marked privileged by Cohen or Trump.

She said that more than a million items from three seized phones had also been designated as not privileged by Cohen and Trump, and would be turned over to prosecutors Wednesday after a final review.

Cohen and Trump have made at least 252 claims of privilege, according to the filing.

A number of Cohen’s financial dealings since Trump’s January 2017 inauguration have become public.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has said it had paid Cohen nearly $1.2 million as a consultant; U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc said it made payments of $600,000; and South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd said it hired him for $150,000.

Cohen also received $500,000 from Columbus Nova Llc, a New York company linked to Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg. The firm has said the transaction had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

Mueller’s investigation, which began in May 2017, has yielded 17 indictments and five guilty pleas so far.

twitter:

AP twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:31:15 BREAKING: US economic growth revised down to 2.2 percent annual rate in first quarter, as consumers slowed spending sharply. reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 14:40 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Zijn we weer op weg naar beneden? Dit komt op een slecht moment voor Republikeinen.

twitter:

AP twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:31:15 BREAKING: US economic growth revised down to 2.2 percent annual rate in first quarter, as consumers slowed spending sharply. reageer retweet

Die Tax Bill heeft dus ook geen reet uitgehaald

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 14:40 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Zijn we weer op weg naar beneden? Dit komt op een slecht moment voor Republikeinen.

twitter:

AP twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:31:15 BREAKING: US economic growth revised down to 2.2 percent annual rate in first quarter, as consumers slowed spending sharply. reageer retweet

Die Tax Bill heeft dus ook geen reet uitgehaald

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 14:51 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Die tax bill kwam tijdens het 1st quarter, of ze dan al veel effect zou hebben? Consumer spending steeg met slechts 1%, maar dat kwam na een 4% stijging in Q4 vorig jaar.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:46:57 Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s.... reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:47:04 ....chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too...and that’s how I read that - Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you..... reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:47:07 ....There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did! reageer retweet

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 15:13:06 You wanted him as AG because at the time he recused you knew he was hiding contacts with Russians and had helped you secretly negotiate sanctions with them—so you thought you and he were in the same boat legally and he'd protect you. It had *nothing* to do with him doing his job. https://t.co/XjuZHg5e1N reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 14:55:05 Trump attacks Jeff Sessions the day after the NYT comes out with a big report that Mueller is investigating Trump's attacks on Jeff Sessions as part of his obstruction probe. https://t.co/Jip69oZLvM reageer retweet

quote:

WTO being 'asphyxiated', outgoing judge says, in veiled rebuke to U.S.

The World Trade Organization is being slowly strangled to death, a retiring trade judge whose replacement has been blocked by the United States said in his farewell speech, delivering a thinly-veiled rebuke to the Donald Trump administration.

Ricardo Ramírez-Hernández served two terms as a judge on the WTO’s Appellate Body, which acts as the final court for trade disputes between countries. Since his departure last year, the United States has been blocking the process to replace him and other judges, throwing the WTO into crisis.

“This institution does not deserve to die through asphyxiation,” Ramírez-Hernández said. “You have an obligation to decide whether you want to kill it or keep it alive.”

In a speech introducing Ramirez-Hernandez, WTO Deputy Director-General Karl Brauner said there was “no movement in sight” to unblocking appointments.

“This is frightening,” he said, adding that it was an illusion to believe the WTO could manage without its appeals judges. It remained to be seen if the WTO was an achievement of civilisation or only a temporary experiment, he added.

The Geneva-based World Trade Organization, founded in 1995, is the final arbiter for trade disputes between its 164 member economies and the main global forum for discussing trade.

Its appellate body normally has seven members, but because of the Trump administration’s veto on new hires, only four of the posts are now filled. One judge is due for reappointment in September and two are due to leave next year.

Three judges are needed to hear any case, which means the court will cease to function altogether next year unless Trump lifts his refusal to fill vacancies.

Trump and his trade advisers take a tough and unorthodox line on what they see as “unfair” treatment by the trade body.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 15:22 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Trump is goed op weg om de WTO uit te schakelen...

[..]

http://www.euronews.com/2(...)-veiled-rebuke-to-us

quote:

Tariffs shouldn't stop us from negotiating, Wilbur Ross tells the EU

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has called out the European Union for opposing trade negotiations at a time when China was willing to hold talks.

"China are paying their tariffs," Ross told the panel at an economic development forum in Paris on Wednesday, in response to EU criticism of sweeping import tariffs the White House announced on its trade partners all over the world in March.

"China hasn't used that as an excuse not to negotiate... It's only the EU that is insisting we can't negotiate if there are tariffs," he added.

quote:

China Slams Trump's ‘Flip-Flop’ on Tariffs as Trade Spat Worsens

Duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods to take effect in June
Move comes 10 days after Mnuchin said trade war ‘on hold’

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 09:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

GeoffRBennett twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 03:11:10 Trump, in Nashville, says African Americans have blindly voted for Democrats “for over a hundred years.” If only black folks had the right to vote for that long ... reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 16:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Rofl.

https://twitter.com/SanofiUS/status/1001824999496404992?s=19

quote:

Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that “ABC does not tolerate comments like those” made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 18:47 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Moet ook altijd over zichzelf gaan.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 18:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

https://twitter.com/realD(...)848460881035265?s=19

Triggered snowflake alert.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 29-05-2018 om 13:27:07 Sorry, I’ve got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 17:40:04 Asked what Trump’s reaction was to Roseanne, Sarah Sanders said yesterday:"The president is focused on North Korea. He’s focused on trade deals. And he’s focused on rebuilding our military, the economy. And that’s what he’s spending his time on; not responding to other things." https://t.co/orT2ZbdGlb reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 16:06 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]

Wel grappig hoe een typische Trump hyperbool (ik zeg ook 'zo'n Carlovic is 3meter10, geen wonder dat ie 240km p/u serveert) ineens heel ongemakkelijk wordt in zo'n context

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:43:41 Here are my comments relating to the shocking development in court today relating to the #TrumpTapes. They should be released now. #Basta https://t.co/S8xZ7ipe8X reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:31 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Ooh, goody, Cohen heeft jarenlang gesprekken met onder andere Trump opgenomen...

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:43:41 Here are my comments relating to the shocking development in court today relating to the #TrumpTapes. They should be released now. #Basta https://t.co/S8xZ7ipe8X reageer retweet

(Videootje in tweet)

quote:

A federal judge on Wednesday told Michael Avenatti to stop his “publicity tour” if he wants to continue participating in court proceedings against Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, according to multiple reports.

Cohen’s attorneys have asked the federal district court to bar Avenatti from representing adult-film star Stormy Daniels in the case. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump.

While Judge Kimba Wood did not rule on Cohen’s request, she did throw a sharp warning to Avenatti, who has become a fixture on cable news networks in recent months.

"I say publicity tour not in a derogatory sense. You’re entitled to publicity, I can’t stop you — unless you’re participating in a matter before me,” Wood said, according to New York Daily News reporter Stephen Brown.

Wood told Avenatti he can’t give his opinion about the case if she allows him to represent Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

“You cannot declare your opinion as to Mr. Cohen’s guilt, which you did,” she said, according to Brown’s report on Twitter. “You would not be able to give publicity to documents.”

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:31 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Ooh, goody, Cohen heeft jarenlang gesprekken met onder andere Trump opgenomen...

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:43:41 Here are my comments relating to the shocking development in court today relating to the #TrumpTapes. They should be released now. #Basta https://t.co/S8xZ7ipe8X reageer retweet

(Videootje in tweet)

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:38 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Avenatti heeft net een waarschuwing van de rechter gekregen:

[..]

http://thehill.com/regula(...)-stop-publicity-tour

quote:

"I say publicity tour not in a derogatory sense. You're entitled to publicity, I can't stop you -- unless you're participating in a matter before me," Wood said

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:53:59 @BuzzFeedNews JUST IN: In the wake of today's hearing -- where Avenatti faced aggressive questioning from Judge Wood and rough opposition from Cohen's lawyers -- Avenatti has withdrawn his motion to be admitted for the purpose of representing Stormy Daniels in court in the Cohen matter. https://t.co/oM80534hS3 reageer retweet

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:58:27 He says he will re-file if needed at a later point, but this definitely suggests a backing down, for now, on this issue. (Although it's not quite clear to me what that really was beyond what he's already gotten out of it.) reageer retweet

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 19:23:28 (Yes, I would agree, at least in part, with those saying that he likely decided to withdraw his motion after Judge Wood made it clear that part of his being admitted would mean that she'd expect him to stop trying the matter in the media.) reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:42 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Als dat in het kader van hun zakelijke relatie is zullen ze toch niet zo maar openbaarmaking kunnen eisen lijkt me?

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:43 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Meer gewoon een vriendelijk advies zoals ik het lees:

[..]

Waarop dit volgde:

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:53:59 @BuzzFeedNews JUST IN: In the wake of today's hearing -- where Avenatti faced aggressive questioning from Judge Wood and rough opposition from Cohen's lawyers -- Avenatti has withdrawn his motion to be admitted for the purpose of representing Stormy Daniels in court in the Cohen matter. https://t.co/oM80534hS3 reageer retweet

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:58:27 He says he will re-file if needed at a later point, but this definitely suggests a backing down, for now, on this issue. (Although it's not quite clear to me what that really was beyond what he's already gotten out of it.) reageer retweet

twitter:

chrisgeidner twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 19:23:28 (Yes, I would agree, at least in part, with those saying that he likely decided to withdraw his motion after Judge Wood made it clear that part of his being admitted would mean that she'd expect him to stop trying the matter in the media.) reageer retweet

Dat betreft dus de mogelijk zaak tegen Cohen vanuit de overheid als ik het goed snap.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:07 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Maar hij is momenteel dus niet (rechtstreeks) betrokken bij een actieve zaak (tegen Cohen of Trump) als ik het goed begrijp, want dan zou ie veel minder kunnen zeggen?

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:07 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Maar hij is momenteel dus niet (rechtstreeks) betrokken bij een actieve zaak (tegen Cohen of Trump) als ik het goed begrijp, want dan zou ie veel minder kunnen zeggen?

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:23 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Btw, dit kon ook nog wel eens smeuïg worden de komende weken: FBI is reconstructing shredded documents from ‘raid’ on Michael Cohen: ‘This will not end well for the defense’

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 19:31 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Ooh, goody, Cohen heeft jarenlang gesprekken met onder andere Trump opgenomen...

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 18:43:41 Here are my comments relating to the shocking development in court today relating to the #TrumpTapes. They should be released now. #Basta https://t.co/S8xZ7ipe8X reageer retweet

(Videootje in tweet)

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

En dan zijn er ook nog de tapes van de Guardia Civil van gesprekken tussen Don Jr. en Torshin. Erg zorgvuldig zijn ze niet geweest bij het achterlaten van sporen.

Zou overigens wel willen weten welke shredder er dan gebruikt is, als het zo makkelijk is om de documenten weer te reconstrueren.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:37 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Volgens mij komt dat wel vrij vaak voor toch? Als het gewoon zo'n basale shredder is voor documenten die er reepjes van maakt, dan is het vaak gewoon vergelijkbaar met een puzzel.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

En dan zijn er ook nog de tapes van de Guardia Civil van gesprekken tussen Don Jr. en Torshin. Erg zorgvuldig zijn ze niet geweest bij het achterlaten van sporen.

Zou overigens wel willen weten welke shredder er dan gebruikt is, als het zo makkelijk is om de documenten weer te reconstrueren.

twitter:

USFOR_A twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 20:25:15 ICYMI: @Commander_RS says @realDonaldTrump's South Asia Policy is working in #Afghanistan. Watch the Pentagon press briefing here: https://t.co/DwhTu148r7 https://t.co/yvaH4B6oBN reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:43 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

USFOR_A twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 20:25:15 ICYMI: @Commander_RS says @realDonaldTrump's South Asia Policy is working in #Afghanistan. Watch the Pentagon press briefing here: https://t.co/DwhTu148r7 https://t.co/yvaH4B6oBN reageer retweet

Het Pentagon roemt Trump om zijn strategie in Azie.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:43 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

USFOR_A twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 20:25:15 ICYMI: @Commander_RS says @realDonaldTrump's South Asia Policy is working in #Afghanistan. Watch the Pentagon press briefing here: https://t.co/DwhTu148r7 https://t.co/yvaH4B6oBN reageer retweet

Het Pentagon roemt Trump om zijn strategie in Azie.

quote:

Last week, a U.S. government watchdog group said the administration's revamped strategy has made little progress against the Taliban insurgency, leaving the country a "dangerous and volatile" place nearly 17 years after the U.S. invaded.

[..]

The report to Congress by inspectors general of the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development also cast doubt on the administration's decision to send a new set of military advisers this year to work with Afghan forces closer to the front lines. It said this, combined with stepped-up Afghan offensives, "further raises the risk of civilian casualties, insider attacks, U.S. casualties, and other conflict-related violence."

quote:

“Those working or residing in these labs [are] no longer viewed [by the US] as civilians involved in a criminal activity but as enemy combatants and subject to lethal force,”

Questioned on civilian deaths last year, the US Forces Afghanistan’s commanding officer, Gen John Nicholson, said killing people who work in drug-processing was legal due to “new authorities that allow me to go after revenue streams of the enemy”.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 15:43 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018(...)ss-tells-the-eu.html
Waarom zou de EU luisteren naar iemand die door Trump voortdurend gekleineerd wordt?
"past his prime", "not a killer anymore", “Your understanding of trade is terrible”, “Wilbur has lost his step. Actually, he’s probably lost a lot of steps.”...

En naar China verwijzen is eerder een argument tegen onderhandelen:

[..]

https://www.bloomberg.com(...)ffs-investment-curbs

De tarieven op EU staal zouden op 1 juni van kracht worden.
[ afbeelding ]

twitter:

EPN twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 03:25:23 President @realDonaldTrump: NO. Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall. Not now, not ever. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us). reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:40 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

Het klassieke type waarschijnlijk, de papieren worden meestal over de lengte doorgesneden dus heb je op de meeste regels een doorgesneden letter, als je de afzonderlijke stroken inscant kan een computerprogramma makkelijk uitmaken welke aan elkaar passen.

Met een micro cut shredder die er confetti van maakt lijkt me dat moeilijker...

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:51 schreef grrrrg het volgende:
Is Melania al gesignaleerd?

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory.

“What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.

He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind. “Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”

His aides reassured him that he still would have won had he been able to run for another term and that the next generation had more in common with him than with Mr. Trump. Mr. Obama, the first black man elected president, did not seem convinced. “Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” he said.

SPOILER

In the weeks after Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Obama went through multiple emotional stages, according to a new book by his longtime adviser Benjamin J. Rhodes. At times, the departing president took the long view, at other points, he flashed anger. He called Mr. Trump a “cartoon” figure who cared more about his crowd sizes than any particular policy. And he expressed rare self-doubt, wondering whether he had misjudged his own influence on American history.

Set to be published next week by Random House, Mr. Rhodes’s memoir, “The World as It Is,” offers a peek into Mr. Obama’s tightly sealed inner sanctum from the perspective of one of the few people who saw him up close through all eight years of his presidency. Few moments shook Mr. Obama more than the decision by voters to replace him with a candidate who had questioned his very birth.

Mr. Rhodes served as Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser through some of the most consequential points of his presidency, including decisions to authorize the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, send more troops to Afghanistan, pull most troops out of Iraq, restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, seal a nuclear agreement with Iran, intervene militarily in Libya and refuse to intervene militarily in Syria.

But his book offers a new window, if only slightly cracked open, into the 44th president’s handling of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election to help Mr. Trump get elected and the aftermath.

In handing over power to someone determined to tear down all he had accomplished, Mr. Obama alluded to “The Godfather” mafia movie: “I feel like Michael Corleone. I almost got out.”

Mr. Rhodes describes the reaction of foreign leaders. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan apologized for breaching protocol by meeting with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan after the election. Mr. Obama urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to take on a more vocal role defending the values they shared.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany told Mr. Obama that she felt more obliged to run for another term because of Mr. Trump’s election to defend the liberal international order. When they parted for the final time, Ms. Merkel had a single tear in her eye. “She’s all alone,” Mr. Obama noted.

And yet despite criticism even from former advisers to Mr. Obama, Mr. Rhodes offers little sense that the former president thought he could have done more to counter Russian involvement in the election. Mr. Obama had authorized a statement to be issued by intelligence agency leaders a month before the election warning of Russian interference, but was thwarted from doing more because Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, refused to go along with a bipartisan statement.

Mr. Rhodes called Mr. McConnell’s refusal “staggeringly partisan and unpatriotic.” But Mr. Obama, whose Supreme Court nomination had been blocked by Mr. McConnell for months, seemed less surprised.

“What else did you expect from McConnell?” he asked. “He won’t even give us a hearing on Merrick Garland.”

Still, in preparatory sessions before meetings with the news media before the election, aides pressed Mr. Obama to respond to criticism that he should speak out more about Russian meddling. “I talk about it every time I’m asked,” he responded. “What else are we going to do? We’ve warned folks.”

He noted that Mr. Trump was already claiming that the election would be manipulated if Hillary Clinton won. “If I speak out more, he’ll just say it’s rigged,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Rhodes writes that neither he nor Mr. Obama knew at that time that there was an F.B.I. investigation into contacts between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia, despite Mr. Trump’s recent unsubstantiated claims that the departing president placed a “spy” or multiple spies in his campaign.

Mr. Rhodes writes he did not learn about the F.B.I. investigation until after leaving office, and then from the news media. Mr. Obama did not impose sanctions on Russia in retaliation for the meddling before the election because he believed it might prompt Moscow into hacking into Election Day vote tabulations. Mr. Obama did impose sanctions after the election but Mr. Rhodes’s suggestion that the targets include President Vladimir V. Putin was rebuffed on the theory that such a move would go too far.

Mr. Obama and his team were confident that Mrs. Clinton would win and, like much of the country, were shocked when she did not. “I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have seen it coming,” Mr. Rhodes writes. “Because when you distilled it, stripped out the racism and misogyny, we’d run against Hillary eight years ago with the same message Trump had used: She’s part of a corrupt establishment that can’t be trusted to bring change.”

On election night, Mr. Obama spoke by telephone with Cody Keenan, his chief speechwriter, and Mr. Rhodes to figure out what he should say. Mr. Rhodes asked if he should offer reassurance to allies. “No, I don’t think that I’m the one to tell them that,” he said.

The next day, Mr. Obama focused on cheering up his despondent staff. At one point, he sent a message to Mr. Rhodes saying, “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”

But days later, Mr. Obama seemed less sanguine. “I don’t know,” he told aides. “Maybe this is what people want. I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”

He added that “we’re about to find out just how resilient our institutions are, at home and around the world.”

The day Mr. Obama hosted Mr. Trump at the White House after the election seemed surreal. Mr. Trump kept steering the conversation back to the size of his rallies, noting that he and Mr. Obama could draw big crowds, but Mrs. Clinton could not, Mr. Rhodes writes.

Afterward, Mr. Obama called a few aides to the Oval Office to ruminate on the encounter. “I’m trying to place him in American history,” he said.

“He peddles” bull, Mr. Rhodes answered. “That character has always been part of the American story. You can see it right back to some of the characters in Huckleberry Finn.”

“Maybe,” Mr. Obama answered, “that’s the best we can hope for.”

twitter:

adamgoldmanNYT twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 01:07:44 In the meeting, Mr. Rosenstein added a new detail: He said the president had originally asked him to reference Russia in his memo, the people familiar with the conversation said. Mr. Rosenstein did not elaborate on what Mr. Trump had wanted him to say. https://t.co/KqD1Yoi1Tc reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 05:21:26 “The recusal of Jeff Sessions was an unforced betrayal of the President of the United States.” JOE DIGENOVA, former U.S. Attorney. reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 23:43 schreef Nintex het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 23:43 schreef Nintex het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 07:05 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Klinkt helemaal als haar, ja.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 23:43 schreef Nintex het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 07:48 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:
'VS zet heffingen voor EU-staal door'

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 07:50 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:
Misschien moeten we een Macdonalds bijbouwen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 07:49 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

And so it begins.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:00 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Hier gaan ze spijt van krijgen. De vorige keer dat dit onder Bush geprobeerd werd, was de lol er snel vanaf.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:01 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Alleen Trump is een stuk koppiger.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:04 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:
Grappig dat bepaalde users nu zeggen dat Kim Kardasian een fantastische zakenvrouw is.

Ik word echt helemaal gek van de hypocrisie en reetlikbereidheid van
'fans'.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 06:35 schreef pullup het volgende:
Dit klinkt alsof iemand nu toch echt aan zijn laatste dagen toe is

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 05:21:26 “The recusal of Jeff Sessions was an unforced betrayal of the President of the United States.” JOE DIGENOVA, former U.S. Attorney. reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:22 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

diGenova z'n carriere als US attorney (in DC) eindigde 30 jaar geleden.

quote:

President Trump hired the longtime Washington lawyer Joseph E. diGenova on Monday, adding an aggressive voice to his legal team who has pushed the theory on television that the F.B.I. and Justice Department framed Mr. Trump.
(...)

https://www.nytimes.com/2(...)va-trump-lawyer.html

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:30 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

In maart dit jaar begon hij een nieuwe carriere toen hij gehuurd werd door team Trump:

[..]

Was misschien wel zo eerlijk als Trump dat er even bij vermeld had.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:30 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

In maart dit jaar begon hij een nieuwe carriere toen hij gehuurd werd door team Trump:

[..]

Was misschien wel zo eerlijk als Trump dat er even bij vermeld had.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 07:50 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:
Misschien moeten we een Macdonalds bijbouwen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 09:45 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Een McDotards heet dat nu.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:14 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Het toont dan ook wel redelijk wat gelijkenis met een sekte.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:32 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Ach, ik kan dat hele mens niet uitstaan. Maar het valt niet te ontkennen dat ze vanuit niets een compleet multimiljoenen imperium heeft opgebouwd. Dat doe je niet zomaar als je dom bent.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:38 schreef Ludachrist het volgende:

[..]

Soms is een idioot gewoon een idioot. Dat je veel geld kunt verdienen terwijl je een idioot bent doet niet echt af aan het feit dat je nog steeds een idioot bent.

Net zoals mensen die veel cd's verkopen niet direct goede muzikanten zijn.

Verder irrelevant natuurlijk, maar de redenering 'heeft geld en is dus slim' snap ik nooit zo goed.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:32 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Ach, ik kan dat hele mens niet uitstaan. Maar het valt niet te ontkennen dat ze vanuit niets een compleet multimiljoenen imperium heeft opgebouwd. Dat doe je niet zomaar als je dom bent.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:47 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Ik zeg dan ook niet "heeft geld en is dus slim".

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:32 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Ach, ik kan dat hele mens niet uitstaan. Maar het valt niet te ontkennen dat ze vanuit niets een compleet multimiljoenen imperium heeft opgebouwd. Dat doe je niet zomaar als je dom bent.
Wat jij ziet van haar is haar publiek gezicht, waarschijnlijk zorgvuldig opgezet om een bepaald imago uit te stralen om een bepaald publiek te trekken voor haar debiele "keeping up with the kardashians" reality meuk en zo het geld binnen te harken.

Ik zie hier ontzettend vaak dezelfde fout gemaakt worden. Mensen gewoon zwaar onderschatten. Was al iets waar ik voor waarschuwde in de aanloop naar de verkiezingen, maar lijkt gewoon niet door te dringen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 10:32 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Ach, ik kan dat hele mens niet uitstaan. Maar het valt niet te ontkennen dat ze vanuit niets een compleet multimiljoenen imperium heeft opgebouwd. Dat doe je niet zomaar als je dom bent.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 11:07 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Vanuit het niets? Pa K was 30 miljoen waard.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 12:55:14 RUSH LIMBAUGH “If the FBI was so concerned, and if they weren’t targeting Trump, they should have told Trump. If they were really concerned about the Russians infiltrating a campaign (hoax), then why not try to stop it? Why not tell Trump? Because they were pushing this scam.” reageer retweet

quote:

In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.

The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.

The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said.

quote:

FBI warned Trump in 2016 Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign

WASHINGTON -- In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.

The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 13:24 schreef Re het volgende:
Was het niet Nunes die ervoor gezorgd heeft dat het niet naar buiten kwam tijdens de verkiezingen of die gup uit de Senaat?

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 13:27 schreef Mike het volgende:
Het trieste is dat Trump wel gewoon gewaarschuwd was:

https://www.nbcnews.com/n(...)his-campaign-n830596

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:16 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Hoelang zou Sessions nog mogen blijven zitten? Erg subtiel kun je de hints over zijn functioneren niet noemen.

Zou bijna medelijden krijgen met die man.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 13:53:08 Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response. How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 13:55 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 13:53:08 Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response. How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard! reageer retweet

Whining

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:05:20 The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign! Surveillance much? reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:11:01 Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:09 schreef Mike het volgende:
Trump is al weer een aantal dagen aan het tweeten als een malle en het is ook de hele tijd hetzelfde. Je zou denken dat er weer groot negatief nieuws voor 'm aan zit te komen.

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:13:44 I know for a fact that at least one, & likely many,of the #TrumpTapes contain Mr. Trump’s voice. I know this from the work that we have done and through the assistance of true patriots. If I am wrong, Mr. Cohen and his atty should prove it. They can’t and won’t. #ReleaseTheTapes reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:14 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:13:44 I know for a fact that at least one, & likely many,of the #TrumpTapes contain Mr. Trump’s voice. I know this from the work that we have done and through the assistance of true patriots. If I am wrong, Mr. Cohen and his atty should prove it. They can’t and won’t. #ReleaseTheTapes reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2018 20:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

En dan zijn er ook nog de tapes van de Guardia Civil van gesprekken tussen Don Jr. en Torshin. Erg zorgvuldig zijn ze niet geweest bij het achterlaten van sporen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:19 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk dat ik iets gemist heb. Wat zijn die Trumptapes precies?

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:19 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk dat ik iets gemist heb. Wat zijn die Trumptapes precies?

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:16 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Die kerel doet ook gewoon niets anders dan over zichzelf tweeten.

SPOILER

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:21 schreef Tchock het volgende:

[..]

Vermeende opnames waarop te horen zou zijn hoe Trump met Micheal Cohen het plegen van "one or more potential crimes" beraamt.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 13:59 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Trieste vent is het toch ook.

Je zou je toch de ogen uit de kop schamen als zo'n figuur aan het hoofd staat van je land.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:05:20 The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign! Surveillance much? reageer retweet

twitter:

ljburns twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:26:18 @realDonaldTrump Working overtime? I swear I heard somebody use that exact phrase yesterday about the media. Hmmm. reageer retweet

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:48 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:05:20 The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign! Surveillance much? reageer retweet

twitter:

ljburns twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:26:18 @realDonaldTrump Working overtime? I swear I heard somebody use that exact phrase yesterday about the media. Hmmm. reageer retweet

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:57 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Wat bedoelt hij met 'surveillance much?'

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:48 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:05:20 The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign! Surveillance much? reageer retweet

twitter:

ljburns twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 14:26:18 @realDonaldTrump Working overtime? I swear I heard somebody use that exact phrase yesterday about the media. Hmmm. reageer retweet

twitter:

FLOTUS twitterde op woensdag 30-05-2018 om 21:45:08 I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people! reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 14:58 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Yup, die tweet van Melania was duidelijk van The Donald. Lag er nogal dik bovenop.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:18:35 Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government! reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:25:21 D'Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of using a "straw donor" to make an illegal campaign contribution to a 2012 Senate campaign, a felony. https://t.co/qjKaKFIKuA reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:25 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:18:35 Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government! reageer retweet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinesh_D%27Souza

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:25:21 D'Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of using a "straw donor" to make an illegal campaign contribution to a 2012 Senate campaign, a felony. https://t.co/qjKaKFIKuA reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:25 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:18:35 Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government! reageer retweet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinesh_D%27Souza

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 15:25:21 D'Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of using a "straw donor" to make an illegal campaign contribution to a 2012 Senate campaign, a felony. https://t.co/qjKaKFIKuA reageer retweet

quote:

President Donald Trump is hoping to block German luxury carmakers from the U.S. market, according to an exclusive report by German magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

Citing several unnamed U.S. and European diplomats, the weekly business magazine reported that Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron last month he would maintain his trade policy with the aim of stopping Mercedes-Benz models from driving down Fifth Avenue in New York. The report didn't give any further details on what policies would be used to effectively ban the premium carmakers.

The report comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Commerce launched an investigation into automobile imports to determine whether they "threaten to impair the national security" of the U.S. That could lead to tariffs of up to 25 percent on the same "national security" grounds used to impose metal imports charges in March.

Europe's autos sector was trading lower shortly after the report was published Thursday, with German automakers leading the losses during mid-morning deals. Shares of Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen were all trading off around 1 percent on the news.

Volkswagen was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Thursday, while Daimler refused to issue a statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:54 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Hoe rijmt dat met het onlangs geopende hoofdkwartier in de VS van Mercedes-Benz? En de verschillende fabrieken van Duitse automakers die onlangs geopend zijn, ook in de VS?

En niet te vergeten met vrije marktwerking waar de republikeinen altijd op hameren?

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:56 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Niet.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:57 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Het is dus waarschijnlijk eerder een maatregel die Trump weer kan inzetten tijdens onderhandelingen.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 12:55:14 RUSH LIMBAUGH “If the FBI was so concerned, and if they weren’t targeting Trump, they should have told Trump. If they were really concerned about the Russians infiltrating a campaign (hoax), then why not try to stop it? Why not tell Trump? Because they were pushing this scam.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:54 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Hoe rijmt dat met het onlangs geopende hoofdkwartier in de VS van Mercedes-Benz? En de verschillende fabrieken van Duitse automakers die onlangs geopend zijn, ook in de VS?

En niet te vergeten met vrije marktwerking waar de republikeinen altijd op hameren?

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 15:57 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Het is dus waarschijnlijk eerder een maatregel die Trump weer kan inzetten tijdens onderhandelingen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:00 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Dat werd ook zo nu en dan gedacht over de staal- en aluminiumtarieven, maar die gaan gewoon door.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:09 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Dat maakt het alleen maar een betere 'bargaining chip' toch? Des te eerder zijn we geneigd om er weer vanaf te komen als die maatregelen eenmaal zijn ingegaan.

Zeg overigens niet dat het verder een goed idee is hoor.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:09 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Dat maakt het alleen maar een betere 'bargaining chip' toch? Des te eerder zijn we geneigd om er weer vanaf te komen als die maatregelen eenmaal zijn ingegaan.

Zeg overigens niet dat het verder een goed idee is hoor. Want uiteindelijk zet het relaties onder druk.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:10 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ik zie niet echt in hoe... er worden ook geen concrete maatregelen genoemd. Weet niet zo goed wat we met het bericht kunnen dus...

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:15 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]

Waarschijnlijk hoopt hij dat we smekend bij hem aankloppen omdat de heffingen zo pijn doen? (ik denk nu even vanuit Trump )

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:13 schreef archito het volgende:

[..]

Dat laatste dus vooral. Zakelijk kan het een prima tactiek zijn. Maar voor de duurzaamheid van je relatie is het niet echt handig. Dus zeker bij je beste bondgenoten lijkt het me vooral een ontzettend domme strategie.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:17 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Trump is geobsedeerd door handelsbalansen. Hij ziet internationale handel als een zero-sum game. Daarom loopt hij continu te mekkeren over handelstekorten, die volgens hem het bewijs zijn dat andere landen de VS oneerlijk behandelen. Zijn doel is - zo lijkt het - om een handelsoverschot te creëren, zodat Amerika (in zijn ogen) kan wordt uitgeroepen tot winnaar.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:00 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Dat werd ook zo nu en dan gedacht over de staal- en aluminiumtarieven, maar die gaan gewoon door.

Dat gezegd hebbende ken ik de bron "WirtschaftsWoche" niet.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 22-10-2012 om 16:14:44 Gas prices are at crazy levels--fire Obama! reageer retweet

twitter:

wajobu twitterde op maandag 21-05-2018 om 19:40:15 @realDonaldTrump Say Don, regular gas ⛽️ is headed to $3.50 a gallon.It was $2.25 a gallon on Election Day 2016.#FireTrump! reageer retweet

quote:

Europe had promised swift retaliation if it was hit with the trade penalties, and had warned it could quickly respond with 25% tariffs on US products such as motorcycles, denim, cigarettes, cranberry juice and peanut butter.

Getting rid of the exemptions for Canada and Mexico, meanwhile, could complicate ongoing negotiations on NAFTA. Canada had also pledged to retaliate.

"Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in March

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 08:00 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Hier gaan ze spijt van krijgen. De vorige keer dat dit onder Bush geprobeerd werd, was de lol er snel vanaf.

quote:

Eerder liet de EU al weten voor staal en aluminium dezelfde tarieven te zullen rekenen als de VS. Daarnaast komen er mogelijk nieuwe tarieven op typisch Amerikaanse producten zoals spijkerbroeken, Harley Davidson-motoren en pindakaas.

Ook Mexico laat weten met tegenmaatregelen te komen. Het land zal de import van staal, varkensvlees en andere voedingsmiddelen uit de VS extra belasten.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 17:05:06 Mexico says it will penalize U.S. imports including pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel in retaliation for Trump’s new trade tariffs. https://t.co/zRclF4oP8Y reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 16:56 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]

Idd EU target precies de staten van de republikeinen en zal het ze nog wel eens zuur maken.
https://www.npr.org/2018/(...)-lived-steel-tariffs

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 17:17:10 BREAKING: Bad Cartoonist Bad at Everything Else https://t.co/Lv44DH0vCs reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 17:10 schreef Ulx het volgende:
US impose new trade tariffs; EU, Mexico pledge to retaliate

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 17:05:06 Mexico says it will penalize U.S. imports including pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel in retaliation for Trump’s new trade tariffs. https://t.co/zRclF4oP8Y reageer retweet

Rode staten worden natuurlijk wel extra hard aangepakt.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 17:27 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

In zekere zin wel mooi dat hiermee ernstige zwaktes in hun kiesstelsel te exploiteren zijn.

Mochten republikeinen argumenten nodig hebben voor verandering van het kiesstelsel is dit er wel eentje I guess.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 17:27 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

In zekere zin wel mooi dat hiermee ernstige zwaktes in hun kiesstelsel te exploiteren zijn.

Mochten republikeinen argumenten nodig hebben voor verandering van het kiesstelsel is dit er wel eentje I guess.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:01 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Denk niet dat het een overtuigend argument is. Normaal gesproken zijn Republikeinen juist uitgesproken voor vrijhandel en tegen tarieven. Dit is meer een Trump dingetje.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:01 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Denk niet dat het een overtuigend argument is. Normaal gesproken zijn Republikeinen juist uitgesproken voor vrijhandel en tegen tarieven. Dit is meer een Trump dingetje.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:01 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Denk niet dat het een overtuigend argument is. Normaal gesproken zijn Republikeinen juist uitgesproken voor vrijhandel en tegen tarieven. Dit is meer een Trump dingetje.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:20 schreef Tocadisco het volgende:

[..]

Was het dat maar, als Trump dit allemaal op eigen houtje kon doen zonder dat iemand hem kon tegenhouden zou het het allemaal nog enigszins dragelijk maken. Maar het Congres heeft gewoon de mogelijkheid om in te grijpen: https://www.businessinsid(...)ernational=true&r=US

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:20 schreef Tocadisco het volgende:

[..]

Was het dat maar, als Trump dit allemaal op eigen houtje kon doen zonder dat iemand hem kon tegenhouden zou het het allemaal nog enigszins dragelijk maken. Maar het Congres heeft gewoon de mogelijkheid om in te grijpen: https://www.businessinsid(...)ernational=true&r=US

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:20 schreef Tocadisco het volgende:

[..]

Was het dat maar, als Trump dit allemaal op eigen houtje kon doen zonder dat iemand hem kon tegenhouden zou het het allemaal nog enigszins dragelijk maken. Maar het Congres heeft gewoon de mogelijkheid om in te grijpen: https://www.businessinsid(...)ernational=true&r=US

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:35 schreef remlof het volgende:

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If Republicans in Congress think Trump has a bunch of dumb, destructive ideas about trade, they should pass new laws that strip him of that power.

Maar dat doen ze vast niet.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:49 schreef Montov het volgende:

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Ik ben benieuwd of ze volgend jaar de macht van de president gaan verkleinen via wetgeving, als ze het gevoel hebben dat er na Trump weer een Democraat komt.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 18:49 schreef Montov het volgende:

[..]

Ik ben benieuwd of ze volgend jaar de macht van de president gaan verkleinen via wetgeving, als ze het gevoel hebben dat er na Trump weer een Democraat komt.

quote:

Trump offers pardon to conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, suggests others could be coming

(..)

The president, who has issued several pardons in recent months, said he is also considering clemency in number of other cases, including those of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (D) and Martha Stewart, the author and television personality.

(..)

Trump also relayed that he is considering commuting the remainder of the sentence of Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2010 on charges relating to the selling of President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.

“What he did does not justify 18 years in a jail,” Trump said. “If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement, there was a lot of bravado. But . . . plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse. And . . . he shouldn’t have been put in jail.”

Trump also cited the case of Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale.

“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” Trump said. “And she used to be my biggest fan in the world . . . before I became a politician. But that’s okay, I don’t view it that way.”

(..)

The former Illinois governor was a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice,” Trump’s reality show on NBC, in 2010, after he was indicted but before his convictions. Trump praised Blagojevich at the time for having “a lot of guts” to appear on the program.

Bron: WaPo

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 19:32 schreef Montov het volgende:
Drain the Swamp was al dood door gratieverzoeken van politieke vrienden, en het patroon wordt stevig doorzet:

[..]

Het verkopen van een senaatszetel, rechtsgang belemmeren en insider trading. Trump normaliseert corruptie en wetteloosheid met deze gratie-verzoeken, en neemt misschien al een voorschot om zichzelf of zijn moerasmonsters te verdedigen.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 19:32 schreef Montov het volgende:
Drain the Swamp was al dood door gratieverzoeken van politieke vrienden, en het patroon wordt stevig doorzet:

[..]

Het verkopen van een senaatszetel, rechtsgang belemmeren en insider trading. Trump normaliseert corruptie en wetteloosheid met deze gratie-verzoeken, en neemt misschien al een voorschot om zichzelf of zijn moerasmonsters te verdedigen.

quote:

The White House is not cooperating with requests from the government's chief watchdog, House Democratic lawmakers said, calling for a hearing to look at the administration's "dramatic decision" to ignore inquiries from the oversight agency.

Government Accountability Office general counsel Thomas Armstrong said in a letter earlier this month to White House counsel Don McGahn that he understood that "attorneys from your office and the National Security Council will not respond to inquiries or otherwise engage with GAO staff during the course of our reviews."

Armstrong asked for a response from McGahn by May 25 — a request that was not met, according to a separate letter dated Tuesday from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The lawmakers, led by ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), asked committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to hold a hearing to shed light on “why the Trump Administration has so severely reversed course to deny GAO access to information it has obtained for years.” The lawmakers made both letters public this week.

Armstrong wrote in his letter to McGahn that the White House's refusal to comply with the watchdog's requests "represents a clear departure from past practice.”

He said the GAO has sought information on the cost of presidential travel and security measures, vacancies in the office of the inspector general and the role of the NSC in conflict-prevention efforts abroad. He said staff “have either refused to have any discussion … or not responded at all.”

Armstrong said he was “concerned” that the White House’s “new policy” will hinder the agency from carrying out its work, which is aiding Congress in carrying out its “constitutional oversight.”

Gowdy has not yet responded to the request for a hearing on the oversight issues. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

twitter:

pdmcleod twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 20:19:42 Wow. Trudeau says Canada felt a NAFTA deal was close and offered to come down to Washington to get it done. Mike Pence called him Tuesday and said a 5-year sunset clause of NAFTA was a pre-condition of such a visit. Trudeau refused. No meeting. reageer retweet

twitter:

AndrewKirell twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 20:14:50 Sam Bee apologizes, via TBS: “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 19:41 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

In Nederland zou Trump een VVD'er zijn.

quote:

Op donderdag 31 mei 2018 20:29 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Sam Bee komt met excuses voor haar beledigingen aan het adres van Ivanka.

twitter:

AndrewKirell twitterde op donderdag 31-05-2018 om 20:14:50 Sam Bee apologizes, via TBS: “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.” reageer retweet