SPOILER

Secretary of State - Mike Pompeo
Secretary of Treasury - Steven Mnuchin
Secretary of Defense - General Jim 'Mad Dog' Mattis
Attorney General - Jeff Sessions
Secretary of the Interior - Ryan Zinke
Secretary of Agriculture - Sonny Perdue
Secretary of Commerce - Wilbur Ross
Secretary of Labor - Alexander Acosta
Secretary of Health and Human Services - Alex Azar
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development - Ben Carson
Secretary of Transportation - Elaine Chao
Secretary of Energy - Rick Perry
Secretary of Education - Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Veterans Affairs - Ronny Jackson??? Robert Wilkie (Acting)
Secretary of Homeland Security - Kirstjen Nielsen

SPOILER

White House Chief of Staff - John F. Kelly
Trade Representative - Robert Lighthizer
Director of National Intelligence - Dan Coats
Ambassador to the UN - Nikki Haley
Director of the Office of Management & Budget - Mick Mulvaney
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency - Gina Haspel
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency - Scott Pruitt
Administrator of the Small Business Administration - Linda McMahon

SPOILER

Ivanka Trump (Advisor to the President), Jared Kushner (Senior Adviser Strategic Planning), Stephen Miller (Senior Adviser Policy), John Bolton (National Security Adviser), Kellyanne Conway (Counselor), Donald McGahn (White House Counsel), Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Press Secretary), Christopher Wray (Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation), Robert Mueller (Special Counsel), Rod Rosenstein (United States Deputy Attorney General).

SPOILER

Kabinet: Tom Price (HHS), David Shulkin (VA), Rex Tillerson (State)
DOJ/FBI: Sally Yates, James Comey, Preet Bharara, Andrew McCabe
Communicatie WH: Mike Dubke, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, Hope Hicks
Adviseurs enzo: Michael Flynn, Herbert McMaster, Reince Priebus, Rob Porter, Gary Cohn, Steve Bannon, John McEntee

quote:

My advice to media re: out of control Trump driven crowd hostility at his rallies; boycott them. Send in an AP pool reporter and AP pool photog. Nothing more. Take away his oxygen for a while.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 13:57 schreef OMG het volgende:
Gisteravond bij The Last Word was Mike Murphy, een GOP strategist, te gast die eerder die dag de volgende tweet plaatste (mobiel gaat dat zo kut, dus maar in een quote);

https://mobile.twitter.com/murphymike/status/1025107377672974336

[..]

Het wordt inderdaad eens tijd. En net zoals bij Maddow zou het mooi zijn als tweets grotendeels niet als nieuwswaardig worden beschouwd.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 13:40 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Trump on criticizing Mexican immigrants: 'Peanuts' compared to the truth

Godskolere. Hij gaat nu vol in Klanmodus.

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Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 14:02 schreef AnneX het volgende:

[..]

Iets vergelijkbaars heb ik wel eerder genoemd.
Een lege perszaal bijv.
Maakt geen fluit uit...de administratie Sanders zeggen het een en doen het ander buiten zicht.
Zet dat laatste in de krant, in talkshows en op het net.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 14:18 schreef AnneX het volgende:
Neuh, wat ergens in de comments staat.
Laat fox de enige zijn, die hem verslaan.
En laat de overigen af en toe eens een dag later een feitje noemen.
Men komt helemaal tegemoet aan zijn behoefte om aandacht.

Nou zoiets. Ik ben geen strateeg.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 14:29 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

Trump daartegen is als de dood voor de strateeg Robert Mueller, die ouderwetsch nog met pan en papier al zijn acties analyseert. Zwijgend, vastberaden en niet te beïnvloeden door moderne media. dan kun je roepen wat je wilt, maar die man gaat vastberaden door.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 15:36 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
O'Rourke Puts Race into Lean Republican Column:
https://www.cookpolitical(...)an-republican-column

N.a.v. een aantal recente polls in de TX Senate Race, waarbij O'Rourke 2 en 6 punten achterloopt.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 15:36 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
O'Rourke Puts Race into Lean Republican Column:
https://www.cookpolitical(...)an-republican-column

N.a.v. een aantal recente polls in de TX Senate Race, waarbij O'Rourke 2 en 6 punten achterloopt.

quote:

Trump’s Inaccurate Claims About Highways, Immigration and Beyoncé From a Pennsylvania Rally

President Trump said his campaign rallies drew larger crowds than concerts for Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen. That was one of 15 inaccurate claims he made.

SPOILER

WHAT WAS SAID

“Highways would take 21 years to get approved. We have it down to two years, and it’s going to be one year very shortly.”


THE FACTS

This is exaggerated.

Mr. Trump has doubled a previously exaggerated claim about the permitting process for roads and infrastructure taking a decade. Average wait times for a permit ranged from three to six years from the fiscal years 1999 to 2016, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

In the 2017 fiscal year, the average wait time was three years and 10 months, almost double Mr. Trump’s claim of a two-year period. (Data for the 2018 fiscal year, which ends in September, is not yet available.)

WHAT WAS SAID

“Our first lottery winner — let’s see, he has seven convictions for theft. He’s killed nine people. And we’re getting him the hell out of our country and giving them to the stupid politicians that have been running the United States for many years.’”

THE FACTS

False.

Mr. Trump has previously said that other countries were not “giving us their best” through the diversity visa lottery program. He has now escalated that unsubstantiated — and vague — claim into a false one by suggesting that foreign governments are sending murderers through the program.

As The New York Times has previously explained, millions of individuals enter the lottery of their own volition, not because they were selected by a foreign government. A computer picks winners at random and, before receiving a visa, the people chosen must undergo a screening process that bars criminals.

WHAT WAS SAID

“Chain migration. And this was a Schumer deal. Schumer wanted this.”

THE FACTS

False.

Mr. Trump is likely confusing the diversity lottery program with “chain migration” or family-based immigration. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Senate minority leader, sponsored what became the diversity visa lottery in 1990, but family-based immigration has been a facet of American immigration policy long before Mr. Schumer’s political career began.

Family relationships have been a basis for admitting new immigrants since the 1920s, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the United States began promoting family reunification in 1952, which established a hierarchy that prioritized family members like spouses and children over siblings.

WHAT WAS SAID

Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen “were drawing crowds smaller than my crowds.”

THE FACTS

False.

This is not the first time that Mr. Trump has compared crowd size to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s, though it appears to be the first time he has brought the Boss into the mix.

Mr. Trump has claimed 20,000 to 49,000 people attended his biggest rallies during the 2016 presidential campaign. Even taking Mr. Trump at his word, those figures pale in comparison to audiences that have assembled to hear Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Mr. Springsteen perform.

For example, Mr. Springsteen sold out a two-night show in May 2016 in Dublin, drawing an average of 80,000 people to each show. This June, Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed for a crowd of over 57,000 in Berlin. (In addition, it should be noted that fans purchase tickets to hear the musicians in question, while Mr. Trump’s rallies are free.)

OTHER CLAIMS

Mr. Trump also repeated several other claims The Times has previously debunked:

• He falsely claimed the United States Steel Corporation “is opening up seven plants.” (It has not announced a single new plant.)

• He falsely claimed “Russia is very unhappy that Trump won.” (Intelligence agencies have said — and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has confirmed — that he preferred Mr. Trump to Hillary Clinton.)

• He mischaracterized NATO members as “delinquent” on payments to the alliance. (He is referring to a pledge each member set for spending on its own military.)

• He falsely claimed “NATO funding was going down” before he raised the issue. (Military spending from members has been increasing since 2015.)

• He claimed, with no evidence, that the man charged in the Manhattan truck attack in October brought in “22 relatives.” (This is not possible.)

• He hyperbolically said immigrants arrested on suspicion of crossing the border illegally “never come back” for court dates. (Most do.)

• He exaggerated the number of jobs the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines would bring, estimating 48,000 jobs. (A vast majority are temporary.)

• He misleadingly claimed that “nobody would have believed” how many jobs have been added since his election. (The number added in a comparable period before his election was larger.)

• He falsely claimed to have signed the “biggest tax cuts in the history of our country.” (Several were larger,)

• He misleadingly claimed to have “saved our family farms from the estate tax.” (About 80 family farms and small businesses were affected.)

• He took credit for passing the Veterans Choice Act, which he said other presidents had been trying to pass for 40 years. (It passed in 2014, though he did sign new overhauls,)

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 19:51 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Maar weer even een FACT CHECK:

[..]

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 15:59 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Als ik toch één iemand graag zie verdwijne uit de Amerikaanse politiek dan is het die achterbakse gluiperd van een Cruz wel.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 15:14 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
China stelt verdere importheffingen in tov de VS ter waarde van zo’n 60 miljard USD.

https://www.politico.com/(...)-with-tariffs-760862

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 19:57 schreef DestroyerPiet het volgende:

[..]

je vraagt je af waarom die kranten nog de moeite doen voor een factcheck.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 21:25 schreef SymbolicFrank het volgende:
Kan de EU een grote reclamecampagne in de US financieren om de republikeinen en Trump zo lang mogelijk aan de macht te houden? In ons eigen belang?

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 22:26 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk omdat je het liegen van de president nooit als normaal moet gaan zien, hoe vaak hij het ook doet.

quote:

'China doet niet mee aan Trumps olieboycot van Iran'

De Chinese regering weigert om de import van Iraanse olie aan banden te leggen. De Amerikaanse regering had daarop aangedrongen. Dat zeggen twee bronnen bekend met de onderhandelingen tegen persbureau Bloomberg. Het besluit is een fikse tegenslag voor president Donald Trump, die probeert om Iran te isoleren nadat hij het atoomakkoord met het land had opgezegd.

Grootste klant van Iran
Teams van Amerikaanse diplomaten hebben de voorbije tijd hoofdsteden over de hele wereld bezocht om daar steun te krijgen voor een boycot van Iraanse olie, het belangrijkste exportproduct van het land. Trump heeft bondgenoten daarnaast gedreigd met sancties als ze niet meewerken.

China is het belangrijkste land om over te halen voor de Amerikanen. Het is veruit de grootste opkoper van Iraanse olie; vorige maand was het goed voor 35% van de totale Iraanse export.

'China gaat profiteren'
Analisten van onder meer BMI Research en Mizuho voorspellen dat China de boycot zal gebruiken om goedkoop aan olie te komen en dus juist meer uit Iran gaat importeren. Dat zou onder meer ten koste gaan van olie-import uit de Verenigde Staten. Turkije had eerder al gezegd zich niet gehouden te voelen aan de Amerikaanse boycot.

twitter:

thehill twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 00:43:07 Carl Bernstein: "What we are watching in the Trump presidency is worse than Watergate" https://t.co/4ZYq5QYSfY https://t.co/a5FrbPzNg6 reageer retweet

quote:

Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein says "what we are watching in the Trump presidency is worse than Watergate," a story the former Washington Post reporter broke with Bob Woodward more than 40 years ago.

Bernstein added Thursday that Republicans aren't holding President Trump accountable whom he described as "a demonstrable authoritarian in terms of his rhetoric," which he says differs from that of Republican "heroes" with Nixon who "demanded that he be transparent."

SPOILER

The commentary from Bernstein, a staunch critic of Trump throughout his candidacy and presidency, comes after the president has repeatedly called the media "fake news" and "the enemy of the people" over its reporting of him and his administration.

"I think it’s time to recognize that what we are watching in the Trump presidency is worse than Watergate," Bernstein told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It's worse than Watergate, as I say, because the system worked in Watergate."

"The heroes of Watergate were Republicans who demanded that the president be held accountable, who demanded that he be transparent, who demanded to know what did the president know and when did he know it, and who conducted bipartisan investigation that led, in fact, to understanding and finding out what Nixon had done," he continued. "Whereas the Republicans on Capitol Hill thus far, have done almost everything they can to impede and undermine legitimate investigation."

"And so, it’s a totally different and much more dangerous situation," Bernstein, a CNN political analyst, concluded. "And also, Donald Trump is a demonstrable authoritarian in terms of his rhetoric, in terms of whipping up his base. Nixon did not do anything similar to that."

Trump's base appears to be in lockstep with the president in terms of his view of the press.

In a recent CBS poll, 91 percent of Trump supporters say they believe the president is providing them accurate information. Sixty-three percent say the same when it comes to information from friends and family, and just 11 percent of Trump supporters believe the media provides them accurate information.

Woodward, Bernstein’s Watergate partner, is working on a Trump administration exposé set for release next month. “Fear: Trump in the White House” hits shelves on Sept. 11.

twitter:

RVAwonk twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 00:44:17 So... Sam Nunberg just told @AriMelber that he expects Roger Stone to be indicted on "broad charges of conspiring against America ... backed up by some financial charges." He also said Mueller is looking into Stone's personal finances. 🎯 reageer retweet

The Moment Sam Nunberg Realized He Must Comply With Bob Mueller | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

quote:

A former accountant for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified Friday that she helped falsify tax records on his behalf in order to misrepresent $900,000 in personal income as a business loan.

Cindy Laporta testified before a jury that she was asked by Manafort's former business associate, Rick Gates, that Manafort couldn't afford to pay his taxes 2015, telling her that she should instead misrepresent Manafort's income, The Washington Post Reported.

The misrepresentation is estimated to have saved Manafort at least $400,000 in taxes, according to Laporta.

Laporta, who has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors for her testimony, added that she chose to go along with the scheme in order to avoid potential litigation from Manafort's lobbying firm.

SPOILER

“I had a couple of choices at that point,” Laporta said. “I could have refused to file the tax return,” which would have led to a lawsuit, she said.

“I could have called Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates liars,” she continued, according to the Post. “But Mr. Manafort was a longtime client of the firm and I did not want to do that, either.”

Laporta went on to say that she regretted the decision to falsify the tax records. When she asked Gates for a record of the so-called business loan, she said, he provided a document bearing Manafort's signature.

Her testimony came a day after the former Trump campaign chair's personal bookkeeper testified that Manafort approved "every penny" of his financial dealings amid reports that he spent lavishly on menswear and items for his home.

Prosecutors have sought to cast Manafort as a prolific spender who used money illegally hidden from U.S. authorities and made from lobbying for pro-Russia political groups in Ukraine to fund his sumptuous habits.

Manafort is facing 18 charges in his Virginia trial, which began this week, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. He also faces separate charges in Washington, D.C., in a trial scheduled to begin next month.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 01:05:21 Remember that DVD that Michael Avenatti tweeted about a few months ago? He said today on The View that the DVD was in the hands of law enforcement.https://t.co/1wtWBiNrVJ reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 02:08 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 01:05:21 Remember that DVD that Michael Avenatti tweeted about a few months ago? He said today on The View that the DVD was in the hands of law enforcement.https://t.co/1wtWBiNrVJ reageer retweet

Michael Avenatti on Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen

twitter:

JuliaCarmel__ twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 00:40:13 I read that Paul Ryan discovered that he's "part Jewish" and it reminded me of the time Paul Ryan claimed Rage Against the Machine was his "favorite band" -- and Rage responded by saying that Ryan "is the embodiment of the machine that our music has raged against for two decades." reageer retweet

quote:

Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was charged last month with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team, emails show, putting her in closer contact with President Trump's orbit than was previously known.

Butina sought out interactions with J.D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaign's director of national security before leaving in August 2016 and being offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort, according to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to The Washington Post.

The two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016, culminating in an invitation from Gordon to attend a concert by the rock band Styx in Washington. Gordon also invited Butina to attend his birthday party in late October of that year.

SPOILER

Prosecutors have said Butina, 29, who became a graduate student at American University in 2016, attempted to infiltrate the U.S. political system at the direction of a senior Russian official. Her activities came at the same time that, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Moscow was seeking to interfere in the presidential election to help Trump.

During the campaign, Butina asked Trump at a public event in 2015 about his views on Russia and briefly met Donald Trump Jr. at a National Rifle Association meeting in May 2016.

U.S. investigators probing alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia have been examining dozens of contacts between Russians and Trump associates, including Trump Jr., former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

Gordon, 50, a former naval officer who served as a Pentagon spokesman under President George W. Bush before working on several Republican political campaigns, said his contacts with Butina were innocuous.

"From everything I've read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years," he said in a statement to The Post, noting that she networked extensively. Gordon provided the same statement and some details of his interactions to the Washington Times, which published his account Friday afternoon after The Post contacted Gordon for comment.

"I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn't come across?" Gordon asked.

Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said the email exchanges show that Butina was a student eager to network with Americans who shared her interests and no more. Gordon and Driscoll both said the interactions were not romantic and the two had no additional contact after the birthday party in October 2016.

"A military guy who had been involved would have been a prime target, if that's what she was about," Driscoll said. "But the evidence is clear that there wasn't any significant contact."

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Prosecutors say an American identified in court documents as "person 1" helped introduce Butina to people who had "influence in American politics." The Post has identified that person as Paul Erickson, a GOP operative from South Dakota with whom Butina was in a romantic relationship.

The emails described to The Post show that Butina met Gordon at a party at the Swiss ambassador's residence on Sept. 29, 2016. Gordon told The Post that he had been invited to the party by Faith Whittlesey, the prominent Republican and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland who died earlier this year.

Later that night, Erickson wrote an email to Gordon and Butina, offering to "add an electronic bridge" to the pair's meeting earlier that evening.

Erickson wrote to Butina that Gordon was "playing a crucial role in the Trump transition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the U.S./Russia friendship dinners to occasionally hold."

He continued that Gordon's view on international security was listened to by all the "right" people in the "immediate future of American politics."

Erickson did not respond to a request for comment.

Erickson explained to Gordon in the email that Butina was living in Washington while she completed a master's degree at American University. Erickson described Butina as a "special friend" of the NRA and said she was the special assistant to the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, according to the correspondence described to The Post.

Prosecutors have said the central banker, Alexander Torshin, helped direct Butina's activities in the United States, including an effort to make contacts in the leadership of the NRA. NRA officials have not responded to requests for comment.

The emails show Gordon quickly responded to Erickson, sending Butina and Erickson a clip of a recent appearance he had made on RT, the Russian state-run English language television network. In the RT interview, Gordon said Trump took a "real common-sense approach to Russia."

"We want to reduce hostility with Russia because, look, we have common interests," he said.

Butina responded with praise, writing in an email to Gordon that he "looked very good" and had appeared smart and comfortable in the television appearance. She invited Gordon to attend a group dinner at the Army and Navy Club, hosted by George O'Neill Jr., the conservative writer and heir to the Rockefeller fortune, to discuss the relationship between the United States and Russia. Prosecutors cited the dinners organized by O'Neill, described in court documents as "person 2" as part of Butina's efforts to influence thought leaders.

O'Neill did not respond to requests for comment.

Gordon responded that he could not attend the dinner, but he asked Butina over emails to get together for drinks and the concert. In one email described to The Post, Gordon included a link to a September 2016 Politico story reporting that he was a part of Trump's growing transition effort. Gordon included a smattering of Russian phrases in his emails, beginning several notes "Privyet Maria," with a Russian word for "hello." In one email, he wrote "Kak di la?" The phrase is Russian for "How are you?"

In an emailed statement to The Post, Gordon said that Butina presented herself to "likely thousands of people" as a graduate student and founder of a Russian gun-rights group.

"It appears she sought out countless influential Americans in her steadfast efforts to strengthen relations with Russia. Recognizing that every single president since the Cold War tried to improve relations with Russia, including Pres. Obama, her Russian-American friendship efforts seemed in sync with a decades-old US foreign policy goal," he said

The contact was not Erickson's first attempt to connect Butina and Torshin to the Trump campaign. In May 2016, he emailed Trump adviser Rick Dearborn and urged Dearborn to set up a meeting between Trump and Torshin at an upcoming NRA convention. Erickson described Torshin in the email as "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's emissary" for building warmer ties with the United States.

The campaign declined Erickson's invitation but Torshin and Butina ultimately encountered the candidate's son at a private dinner at the NRA convention, and they chatted briefly, Trump Jr. has said.

Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Gordon attended a March 2016 meeting of the group presided over Trump while he was a presidential candidate, where Papadopoulos introduced himself by announcing he could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin.

Page told the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017 that he had informed Gordon before visiting Moscow in July 2016, where he delivered a speech at a Russian university and exchanged brief greetings with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

While in Moscow, Page wrote Gordon and another Trump aide that he had received "incredibly insights and outreach" from a "few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here." Page testified that he exchanged only brief greetings with one Russian official, Dvorkovich, who had attended his speech.

Gordon has described Page and Papadopoulos as "peripheral members of a relatively peripheral advisory committee."

Gordon has also said he briefly met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention, in an exchange he has said was innocuous. And he was the Trump campaign's point person for a Republican platform committee discussion in which he argued against language that would have endorsed having the United States send lethal weapons to Ukraine. The proposed provision, which was not adopted, was perceived as hostile to Russia.

Gordon has said he pushed the platform committee to reject the language, proposed by a Republican delegate, because he had heard Trump talk about his desire to forge better relations with Russia and considered the language to be damaging for that goal.

Because of those contacts, Gordon has said he was asked to testify before all three congressional committees that have investigated Russian interference in the election, as well as investigators working for Mueller.

Gordon said he disclosed his Butina contact in congressional testimony but was not asked about her by Mueller's team. He said FBI agents in Washington who have been investigating Butina have not asked to speak with him.

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 02:51:38 After Election Day, during the transition, one of the first places Gordon went was to Hungary--where Russia's spy agency has its European HQ. He apparently spent the weeks *before* Election Day talking to a Russian spy. (He's also threatened me repeatedly.) https://t.co/UQQiRL0jGC reageer retweet

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 22:26 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk omdat je het liegen van de president nooit als normaal moet gaan zien, hoe vaak hij het ook doet.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 09:14 schreef DestroyerPiet het volgende:

[..]

je hebt gelijk, en het is ook goed dat ze het doen,

ik wordt er alleen af en toe zo moe van die Trump, ieder woord wat uit zijn mond komt is een leugen. en hoeveel de media ook doet fact checken, het zal Trump en zijn hardcore aanhangers geen drol uitmaken.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 09:14 schreef DestroyerPiet het volgende:

[..]

je hebt gelijk, en het is ook goed dat ze het doen,

ik wordt er alleen af en toe zo moe van die Trump, ieder woord wat uit zijn mond komt is een leugen. en hoeveel de media ook doet fact checken, het zal Trump en zijn hardcore aanhangers geen drol uitmaken.

quote:

Pompeo: “The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part. The decision is his.” Wait, what?!

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 23:36 schreef Jellereppe het volgende:

[..]

https://fd.nl/economie-po(...)-olieboycot-van-iran

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 23:36 schreef Jellereppe het volgende:
Trump heeft bondgenoten daarnaast gedreigd met sancties als ze niet meewerken.

quote:

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, one of the 11 members of the commission formed by President Trump to investigate supposed voter fraud, issued a scathing rebuke of the disbanded panel on Friday, accusing Vice Chair Kris Kobach and the White House of making false statements and saying that he had concluded that the panel had been set up to try to validate the president’s baseless claims about fraudulent votes in the 2016 election.

Dunlap, one of four Democrats on the panel, made the statements in a report he sent to the commission’s two leaders — Vice President Pence and Kobach, who is Kansas’s secretary of state — after reviewing more than 8,000 documents from the group’s work, which he acquired only after a legal fight despite his participation on the panel.

Before it was disbanded by Trump in January, the panel had never presented any findings or evidence of widespread voter fraud. But the White House claimed at the time that it had shut down the commission despite “substantial evidence of voter fraud,” due to the mounting legal challenges it faced from states. Kobach, too, spoke around that time about how “some people on the left were getting uncomfortable about how much we were finding out.”

Dunlap said that the commission’s documents that were turned over to him underscore the hollowness of those claims: “they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud,” he said in his report, adding that some of the documentation seemed to indicate that the commission was predicting it would find evidence of fraud, evincing “a troubling bias.”

In particular, Dunlap pointed to an outline for a report the commission was working on that circulated in November 2017. The outline included sections for “Improper voter registration practices,” and “Instances of fraudulent or improper voting,” though the sections themselves were blank as they awaited evidence, speaking to what Dunlap said indicated a push for preordained conclusions.

“After reading this,” Dunlap said of the more than 8,000 pages of documents in an interview with The Washington Post, “I see that it wasn’t just a matter of investigating President Trump’s claims that three to five million people voted illegally, but the goal of the commission seems to have been to validate those claims.”

SPOILER

After a career of more than 20 years that has included stints as a state representative and the chairmanship of a committee on fisheries and wildlife, Dunlap said that his time on the panel was “the most bizarre thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

“We had more transparency on a deer task force than I had on a presidential commission,” he said. “We had probably a dozen meetings. They were all public. We published everything we did in the newspaper and published results, including information we got from the public.”

In contrast, the voter-integrity panel was marked by obfuscation, secrecy and confusion related to the work the panel was engaged in.

“I was asking for a schedule,” he said. “If they had handed me a bunch of binders, I probably would have been satisfied. But they didn’t do that.”

So Dunlap filed a lawsuit against the commission while it was still active in November, alleging that he and the other Democratic members were being excluded from its work and materials. He received the documents he sought only in July, after a federal judge ordered the administration to turn them over, despite the objections of the Justice Department.

The materials provide a window into the panel’s operations. In one email, Christy McCormick, a Republican member of the commission, spoke to a staff member about recruiting a career statistician from the Department of Justice to the commission, writing that she was “pretty confident that he is conservative (and Christian, too).” Other documents showed what American Oversight, the accountability-focused nonprofit working on the lawsuit with Dunlap, said was an attempt to shut out him and other Democrat members. Another email showed one of Pence’s aides sharing with Kobach what he said was data about same-day voter registration in New Hampshire, which Kobach later used in a Breitbart column arguing that the alleged fraud had swung the state’s 2016 senate race.

President Trump’s claim that as many as three to five million fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election remains one of his most notable falsehoods.

No credible evidence has ever been produced, by the White House or anyone else, to substantiate the claim. The commission, formally known as the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, was formed in May 2017, and it quickly faced controversy from a wide array of groups, including many state officials from both political parties who objected to its requests for detailed data on voter rolls. By the time it was disbanded in January, it had drawn at least eight lawsuits, including Dunlap’s.

That lawsuit is not yet resolved. Dunlap says he believes that the committee may yet have more information to procure, while the government has said it wants to terminate the litigation, said Clark Pettig, a spokesman for American Oversight.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 15:59 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Als ik toch één iemand graag zie verdwijne uit de Amerikaanse politiek dan is het die achterbakse gluiperd van een Cruz wel.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 16:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile program: confidential U.N. report
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1KP026

Trump got played big time.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 16:13 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Mede dankzij dit sentiment heeft O'Rourke een enorme oorlogskas verzameld, maar ik vraag me soms wel af of dat geld niet deels beter besteed zou zijn in bijvoorbeeld North Dakota.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 18:17 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Ik weet niet of dat de reden is. Zo uit mijn hoofd is dit na Arizona en nog een staat de meest "kansrijke" poging om een rode zetel in de senaat te veroveren qua partisan lean, hoewel dat meer zegt over deze midterms. O'Rourke is daarbij ook wel een relatief sterke kandidaat.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 18:57 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

In Nevada hebben de democrats zeker een hogere kans dan O'Rourke, maar ik denk dat het ook geldt voor Bredesen in Tennessee.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 19:19 schreef Monolith het volgende:
De kans op een Democratische meerderheid na de midterms is bij Predictwise nu 14% en het zal ook wel een behoorlijke moonshot zijn dit jaar.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 05:37:36 Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! reageer retweet

SPOILER

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 19:29 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ja, het moet echt allemaal net goed vallen om dat te laten gebeuren... komt bij dat het me niet zou verbazen als een van de senators uit deze staten hun zetel zullen verliezen: Florida, North Dakota, Indiana en Missouri (resp: Brown, Heitkamp, Donnelly en McCaskill).

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 22:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zaterdag 04-08-2018 om 05:37:36 Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! reageer retweet

Na eerder Maxine Waters dom genoemd te hebben, nu ook Lebron James en Don Lemon. Heeft hij ook nog anderen dom genoemd?

Niet om meteen conclusies hieraan te verbinden (naja, afgezien van alle andere racistische shit die hij geflikt heeft):

SPOILER

[ afbeelding ]
[ afbeelding ]
[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 00:09 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Er... de middelste foto is Kahwi Leonard, niet Lebron James

twitter:

NBCNews twitterde op zondag 05-08-2018 om 01:08:21 LIVE: President Trump speaks at Ohio rally. https://t.co/hy3NhWZZUL reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 01:12 schreef Houtenbeen het volgende:

twitter:

NBCNews twitterde op zondag 05-08-2018 om 01:08:21 LIVE: President Trump speaks at Ohio rally. https://t.co/hy3NhWZZUL reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 01:41 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Die Nederlandse vlaggetjes zijn hier wat misplaatst vind je niet? *America first* *America first*

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 01:43 schreef Houtenbeen het volgende:

[..]

Er zijn geen emoticons met Amerikaanse vlaggetjes op Fok!

quote:

Actor Steven Seagal appointed Russian ministry's 'special representative'

Washington (CNN)Russia appointed actor Steven Seagal as a "special representative" on US-Russian humanitarian ties, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in statement on its official Facebook page Saturday.

According to the statement, the action star's role will be to promote US-Russia relations "in the humanitarian sphere," adding that the role will include collaboration "in the sphere of culture, public and youth exchanges."
The foreign ministry said the unpaid role will be similar to the United Nations' goodwill ambassador positions.
Seagal, who became a Russian citizen in 2016, is a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He attended Putin's recent swearing-in ceremony in May.

Seagal has been an ardent supporter of Putin, going so far as to defend his government against allegations of election meddling in the United States. He told Piers Morgan on the British ITV network's "Good Morning Britain" last year, "For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections, or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid."
"And this kind of propaganda is really a diversion ... so that the people in the United States of America won't really see what's happening, " he added.
In the interview, Seagal also praised Putin as "a great world leader" and a "brilliant tactician."
In 2013, BuzzFeed reported that Putin suggested to President Barack Obama that Seagal serve as an honorary envoy of Russia to help improve relations between the two countries. Also that year, California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher credited Seagal with facilitating meetings for a congressional delegation that visited Russia in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings to investigate the suspects' backgrounds and discuss intelligence sharing issues.

quote:

Op vrijdag 3 augustus 2018 13:11 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:
https://www.politico.eu/a(...)waiting-uk-us-media/

Dit kan niet waar zijn! In welk universum leeft die malloot?

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 09:12 schreef la_perle_rouge het volgende:
Even terug naar de reden voor die fantastische topic-titel (ja alles gaat zo snel dat het al weer maanden geleden lijkt), maar: hoe is hier eigenlijk in Engeland op gereageerd, van officiële zijde?

[..]

twitter:

valentinelow twitterde op vrijdag 03-08-2018 om 12:35:03 Shocking news: Donald Trump has called reports that he kept the Queen waiting "fake news". The shock is that he is right. He didn't keep the Queen waiting. In fact, he was early, and had to wait before going up to Windsor Castle. reageer retweet

twitter:

valentinelow twitterde op vrijdag 03-08-2018 om 17:33:08 @bexhc73 She has due to wait. It was timetabled. It's what happens. She comes out, she waits for 10 minutes, he arrives. It's what always happens. It is what the press was told would happen - I was one of them - and it is precisely how it panned out. reageer retweet

quote:

Keeping the Queen Waiting

Some observers also criticized President Trump for allegedly arriving late to his meeting with the Queen at Windsor Castle, or at the very least keeping her waiting for an unduly long period of time. This claim is also dubious.

President Trump was scheduled to arrive at Windsor Castle at 5:00 PM local time on Friday, 13 July. At 4.48pm, Elizabeth emerged into the quadrangle in anticipation of the U.S. president’s impending arrival by helicopter. In the BBC’s live coverage, it was noted that this move likely came after a signal that the Queen’s guest was approaching.

...
In the end, Trump and the First Lady emerged from their car in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle at exactly 5:00 PM, according to CNN’s video footage.

quote:

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

https://twitter.com/realD(...)084333315153924?s=19

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 14:45 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
"totally legal and done all the time in politics"

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 15:05 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Dit is dus de stap van "NO COLLUSION!!" naar "Okay, a tiny little bit of collusion, BUT THATS TOTALLY LEGAL!!" die iedereen al mijlenver van tevoren zag aankomen.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 15:31 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Het laatste zinnetje maakt het eigenlijk nog mooier: "Ik wist er niets vanaf". Daarmee gooit hij toch eigenlijk zijn zoon voor de bus.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 15:40 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

We eindigen met "I knew everything, and it was Genius. Only idiots do not do collusion. Totally legal, totally smart!".

quote:

The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 16:54 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Ik ben benieuwd wanneer Acosta wordt neergeschoten.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 17:36 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Tsja, het wachten is op het moment dat een of andere doorgedraaide malloot met de machinegeweer het redactiekantoor van CNN of NYT binnenwandelt en om zich heen begint te schieten. Mocht het onderzoek van Mueller concrete resultaten opleveren die belastend zijn voor Trump, dan vergroot dat de kans dat zoiets gebeurt.

quote:

Trump makes bizarre claim that tariffs will help pay down the massive U.S. debt

President Trump tweeted Sunday morning that his tariffs are “working big time” and made a bizarre claim that the money raised from these new import taxes will go a long way to helping pay down America’s large debt. (Short answer: That’s not what will happen).

Trump portrays the tariffs as a tax on foreigners, but the reality is that tariffs are taxes on U.S. companies and consumers. When a big U.S. retail chain or an equipment manufacturer has to pay 10 or 25 percent more to get steel from Canada or a certain part from China, that U.S. company has to pay the tax when it imports that item. U.S. businesses either eat that extra cost or pass it along to consumers.

(..)

In terms of Trump’s claim that money raised from the tariffs will help pay down the debt, the United States has a debt of over $21 trillion. The president has imposed tariffs on $85 billion worth of foreign goods so far, meaning that, at most, his tariffs would raise about $21 billion, a minuscule percentage (0.1 percent) of the debt.

Since taking office, Trump has added substantially to the debt, with a large tax cut and additional government spending on the military and various domestic priorities. In total, he has added about $1.6 trillion to the debt since taking office (higher if you take into account additional interest charges), according to the Congressional Budget Office. The money raised from the tariffs does little to counterbalance all the money Trump has added to the debt.

He has also announced $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by the tariffs. That is additional spending that further reduces the money raised from his tariffs by nearly half.

(..)

The bottom line: The tariffs do raise money for the U.S. government, but it’s a small amount — and it’s mostly being paid for by Americans.

Bron: WaPo

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 17:36 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Tsja, het wachten is op het moment dat een of andere doorgedraaide malloot met de machinegeweer het redactiekantoor van CNN of NYT binnenwandelt en om zich heen begint te schieten. Mocht het onderzoek van Mueller concrete resultaten opleveren die belastend zijn voor Trump, dan vergroot dat de kans dat zoiets gebeurt.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 20:01 schreef remlof het volgende:

[..]

Het ging net in ‘Reliable Sources’ op CNN over bedreigingen aan het adres van de media. Ze lieten zo’n wappie horen die inbelde naar MSNBC en gewoon zei dat ie bepaalde CNN-journalisten dood zou schieten als ie ze zou zien.

Eén van de bedreigden was de presentator van het programma en die zei dat ie zich niet echt zorgen maakte omdat ie door CNN afdoende wordt beveiligd.
Maar het is wel van de zotte natuurlijk.

En dat allemaal door een president die zo bang is dat de media ‘m van de troon zal stoten met onthullingen over z’n gedrag dat ie z’n aanhangers ophitst tegen die media.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 19:52 schreef Mike het volgende:
De tweet van Trump over de Trump Tower meeting is groot nieuws vandaag natuurlijk in de VS. Behalve dan bij FOX News en Breitbart, waar er niks over te vinden is (of ze hebben het erg goed weggestopt).

quote:

For instance, 70-year-old Nina Tomasieski spends up to 14 hours per day tweeting the praises of President Trump and his allies while her television is tuned to Fox News Channel.

http://www.foxnews.com/te(...)weet-very-often.html

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 21:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
America first heeft ook afgedaan zo te zien:

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 21:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
America first heeft ook afgedaan zo te zien:

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 21:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
America first heeft ook afgedaan zo te zien:

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 19:52 schreef Mike het volgende:
De tweet van Trump over de Trump Tower meeting is groot nieuws vandaag natuurlijk in de VS. Behalve dan bij FOX News en Breitbart, waar er niks over te vinden is (of ze hebben het erg goed weggestopt).

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 21:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
America first heeft ook afgedaan zo te zien:

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:03 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]



Putin kijkt intussen grijnzend hoe alles volgens plan verloopt.

quote:

Voorafgaand aan de bijeenkomst zegt een supporter van de president: "Het Rusland-onderzoek is er om de aandacht van andere dingen weg te nemen, maar van wat het de aandacht wegneemt weet ik niet."

quote:

"Er is een hele hoop nepnieuws hier en dat moet worden aangetoond." Gevraagd naar voorbeelden zegt hij: "Dat is een lastige, die heb ik eigenlijk niet."

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:06 schreef remlof het volgende:

[..]

Die begint nu echt te denken dat een Amerikaans-Russische federatie tot de mogelijkheden behoort

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:17 schreef J.B. het volgende:
Trump-aanhangers: 'Sommige media zijn echt vijanden van het volk'
http://nos.nl/l/2244732

[..]

[..]

Het probleem met de mensen die de onzinnige beweringen van Trump over de media geloven is in deze twee passages wel mooi samengevat.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 23:28 schreef Kansenjongere het volgende:

[..]

Ook de reactie van die gast met zijn "CNN Sucks" shirt dat hij wel wordt overvallen door die vraag...
Dan is je enige argument vermoedelijk dus echt: "Ja, maar Trump zegt dat het zo is".

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:30 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:

[..]

Eerst alaska annexeren met mannen in groene pakken, en een referendum afroepen.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:17 schreef J.B. het volgende:
Trump-aanhangers: 'Sommige media zijn echt vijanden van het volk'
http://nos.nl/l/2244732

[..]


[..]

Het probleem met de mensen die de onzinnige beweringen van Trump over de media geloven is in deze twee passages wel mooi samengevat.

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 22:17 schreef J.B. het volgende:
Trump-aanhangers: 'Sommige media zijn echt vijanden van het volk'
http://nos.nl/l/2244732

[..]

[..]

Het probleem met de mensen die de onzinnige beweringen van Trump over de media geloven is in deze twee passages wel mooi samengevat.

Shrinking GOP, Stormy Setup, Trump Challengers | Overtime with Bill Maher (HBO)

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 01:59 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:

[..]

Bij bill maher zat iemand die extensief onderzoek ernaar heeft gedaan, hoewel trump de koch broers aanvalt stelt hij hun kandidaat aan bij de supreme justice court. Alles is chaos om de doelstellingen te verbergen.

Shrinking GOP, Stormy Setup, Trump Challengers | Overtime with Bill Maher (HBO)

Vanaf 3:30

Nancy MacLean: The GOP's Long Game | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

quote:

Op zondag 5 augustus 2018 21:55 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
America first heeft ook afgedaan zo te zien:

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

On the new show's fourth episode, Arpaio was interviewed by one of Cohen's new characters, OMGWhizzBoyOMG, a Finnish man in a flower shirt with red hair. Cohen, in character, asks, "If Donald Trump calls you up after this and says 'Sheriff Joe, I want to offer you an amazing blowjob, would you say yes?'" To which Arpaio replies, "I may have to say yes."

twitter:

W7VOA twitterde op vrijdag 03-08-2018 om 14:32:04 US trade deficit grew to $46.3 billion in June, first increase in four months. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 11:00 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

W7VOA twitterde op vrijdag 03-08-2018 om 14:32:04 US trade deficit grew to $46.3 billion in June, first increase in four months. reageer retweet

twitter:

paulkrugman twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 07:37:34 This is the worst thing about Trump trade policy I've read yet. Tariffs are one thing; tariffs that are enforced selectively, at the discretion of political appointees, are much worse -- an open invitation to corruption https://t.co/Uu9V8dyV75 reageer retweet

quote:

WASHINGTON — Two of America’s biggest steel manufacturers — both with deep ties to administration officials — have successfully objected to hundreds of requests by American companies that buy foreign steel to exempt themselves from President Trump’s stiff metal tariffs. They have argued that the imported products are readily available from American steel manufacturers.

Charlotte-based Nucor, which financed a documentary film made by a top trade adviser to Mr. Trump, and Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, which has previously employed several top administration officials, have objected to 1,600 exemption requests filed with the Commerce Department over the past several months.

To date, their efforts have never failed, resulting in denials for companies that are based in the United States but rely on imported pipes, screws, wire and other foreign steel products for their supply chains.

The ability of a single industry to exert so much influence over the exclusions process is striking even in Mr. Trump’s business-friendly White House, given the high stakes for thousands of American companies that depend on foreign metals. But the boundaries of trade policy are being tested by the scope of Mr. Trump’s multifront trade war with allies and adversaries alike, which includes tariffs on up to $200 billion worth of goods from China and possible tariffs on automobiles and auto parts.

Mr. Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, even from allies like Canada, Mexico, the European Union and Japan, is just one part of that battle. But it has drawn a strong rebuke from foreign governments, Republican lawmakers and many business groups, including automakers, beverage companies, farm equipment manufacturers and food packagers, who say it will inflict financial pain on companies that employ millions of American workers.

To help minimize the impact, the administration established a process for companies to request “exclusions” for any product they could not otherwise buy in the United States, such as tire rods or razor blades. But the Commerce Department, which is overseeing the process, also allowed American companies to argue against an exclusion request. The metal tariffs are the only ones so far to have such a process.

Since May, companies have filed more than 20,000 requests for steel tariff exemptions. As of the end of July, the Commerce Department had denied 639 requests.

Half of those denials came in cases where United States Steel, Nucor or a third large steel maker, AK Steel Holding Corporation, filed an objection, a New York Times analysis shows. Nearly all of the rest were in cases where the company applying for an exclusion erred in its submission, Commerce Department officials say.

Department officials said on Friday that they have not granted a single steel exclusion request that drew an objection. They have granted 20 aluminum exclusions over an objection, because the objecting company did not actually cite the product in question.

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, has defended the exclusion process and said the steel makers’ ability to provide products should be taken into account.

“If a product is available in enough quantity and quality to meet demand, the objection is generally sustained,” Mr. Ross said in an email. “Each situation is treated individually. If no objection has been filed, and there is no specific national security issue regarding the import, we generally grant the exclusion request.”

Mr. Trump has made no secret that he wants to boost American steel makers, and several of his top administration officials have deep ties to the steel industry. As the head of a private equity fund, Mr. Ross bought and operated several steel companies, which he later sold at a profit, and he sat on a steel company’s board of directors until his confirmation.

The United States trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, represented United States Steel and other steel manufacturers in private practice as a lawyer, and so did his deputy, Jeffrey Gerrish. Nucor spent $1 million to fund a documentary, “Death by China,” made by Peter Navarro, a Trump trade adviser, in 2011.

Nucor has played a role in one-quarter of the denials. In most cases, at least one other company also objected to a request that drew an objection from the three large steel makers.

“The tariffs are working,” said John Ferriola, Nucor’s chairman, chief executive and president. “They are protecting our national security and stimulating additional domestic steel production.”

quote:

The American college campus, we are led to believe, is a dangerous place: If you say what you really think, particularly as a conservative, a mob of young social justice warriors will come for your faculty position or invitation to speak on campus. Entire books and online magazines are premised on the idea that political correctness is sweeping the American university, threatening both higher education and the broader right to free speech.

But a brand new data analysis from Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project suggests that this “crisis” is more than a little overblown. There have been relatively few incidents of speech being squelched on college campuses, and there’s in fact limited evidence that conservatives are being unfairly targeted.

The Free Speech Project’s researchers have cataloged more than 90 incidents since 2016 that fit their criteria for a person’s free speech rights being threatened. Of those 90, about two-thirds took place on college campuses. These incidents range from a speaker being disinvited to a faculty member being fired over allegedly offensive comments to a student-run play being canceled over concerns it would offend.

The raw numbers here should already raise questions about the so-called political correctness epidemic. According to the Department of Education, there are 4,583 colleges and universities in the United States (including two- and four-year institutions). The fact that there were roughly only 60 incidents in the past two years suggests that free speech crises are extremely rare events and don’t define university life in the way that critics suggest.

Moreover, there’s a consistent pattern in the data when it comes to conservatives — one that tells a different story than you hear among free speech panickers.

“Most of the incidents where presumptively conservative speech has been interrupted or squelched in the last two or three years seem to involve the same few speakers: Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro, Charles Murray, and Ann Coulter ,” Sanford Ungar, the Free Speech Project’s director, writes. “In some instances, they seem to invite, and delight in, disruption.”

What Ungar is suggesting here is that the "campus free speech" crisis is somewhat manufactured. Conservative student groups invite speakers famous for offensive and racially charged speech -- all of the above speakers fit that bill -- in a deliberate attempt to provoke the campus left. In other words, they're trolling. When students react by protesting or disrupting the event, the conservatives use it as proof that there's real intolerance for conservative ideas.

The other key thing that emerges from the Georgetown data, according to Ungar, is that these protests and disruptions don't just target the right. "Our data also include many incidents, generally less well-publicized, where lower-profile scholars, speakers, or students who could be considered to be on the left have been silenced or shut down," he writes.

Examples include Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's commencement speech being canceled after receiving death threats for criticizing President Donald Trump and the president of Sonoma State University apologizing for allowing a black student to read a poem critical of police violence at commencement.

There's little reason, according to Ungar, to conclude from any of this that conservative views are uniquely unwelcome on campus.

"One among many untested concepts," he writes, "is whether the survey results would be different if conservative student groups, instead of repeatedly inviting campus visitors who have built a brand of disruption, were to sponsor serious intellectual dialogue with thinkers on the right."


[...]

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 08:34 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]

Van die mensen die altijd zo hard gaan op 'freedom', maar stiekem veel meer fan zijn van autocratic.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 13:30:00 Trump starts his day at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ.This is Trump's 182nd day at a Trump property as president and his 139th day at a Trump golf club as president. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 13:35 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 13:30:00 Trump starts his day at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ.This is Trump's 182nd day at a Trump property as president and his 139th day at a Trump golf club as president. reageer retweet

Hij had het natuurlijk ook wel zwaar dit weekend. Zo'n oude man met weinig energie heeft veel rust nodig.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 15:29 schreef gniffie het volgende:

[..]

Eerste golf tripje sinds tijden? Weinig erover gehoord dat al dat 'fake news' de afgelopen maanden

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 15:47 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Nee hoor, elke paar dagen rijdt hij in zijn karretje rond, zelfs op de green. De luie zak doet niets anders dan twitteren en golfen.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 16:13:10 “Collusion with Russia was very real. Hillary Clinton and her team 100% colluded with the Russians, and so did Adam Schiff who is on tape trying to collude with what he thought was Russians to obtain compromising material on DJT. We also know that Hillary Clinton paid through.... reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 16:18 schreef Ulx het volgende:
En zijn dag op de golfbaan zit er weer op. Hard aan het werk nu.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 16:13:10 “Collusion with Russia was very real. Hillary Clinton and her team 100% colluded with the Russians, and so did Adam Schiff who is on tape trying to collude with what he thought was Russians to obtain compromising material on DJT. We also know that Hillary Clinton paid through.... reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 16:25:56 ....a law firm, eventually Kremlin connected sources, to gather info on Donald Trump. Collusion is very real with Russia, but only with Hillary and the Democrats, and we should demand a full investigation.” Dan Bongino on @foxandfriends Looking forward to the new IG Report! reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 16:30 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 16:25:56 ....a law firm, eventually Kremlin connected sources, to gather info on Donald Trump. Collusion is very real with Russia, but only with Hillary and the Democrats, and we should demand a full investigation.” Dan Bongino on @foxandfriends Looking forward to the new IG Report! reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 16:29 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Adam Schiff on tape? Waar heeft die man het over?

quote:

The United States on Monday reimposed the first round of Iranian trade sanctions that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear agreement, distancing itself from every other country that signed the agreement and putting the accord’s future in jeopardy.

Administration officials said the sanctions that have been waived for the past two and a half years will be snapped back officially on Tuesday morning at one minute past midnight.

From that moment on, Iran will be prohibited from using U.S. dollars, the primary currency used for international financial transactions and oil purchases. Trade in metals and sales of Iranian-made cars will be banned. Permits allowing the import of Iranian carpets and food, such as pistachios, will be revoked. So will licenses that have allowed Tehran to buy U.S. and European aircraft and parts — a restriction that comes just days after Iran completed the acquisition of five new commercial planes from Europe.

In a background call to reporters, senior administration officials said the goal was twofold: to prod Iran to renegotiate the nuclear agreement so it also addresses Iran’s ballistic missile tests and adventuresome activities in the region, and to change the government’s behavior. They presented the United States as standing with Iranian protesters unhappy with the faltering economy and social issues, but insisted the United States is not seeking to get Iranians to rise up and institute regime change.

SPOILER

“The president has been very clear,” one official said. “None of this needs to happen . . . . The Iranian people should not suffer because of their regime’s hegemonic ambitions.”

There was no immediate reaction from Iran, but some Iranian officials have said the U.S. breach of its commitments under the deal frees them to resume suspended elements of their nuclear program.

The European Union and U.S. allies Britain, France and Germany announced what they called a “blocking statute” to take effect Tuesday that would attempt to nullify U.S. legal action against European firms doing business with Iran.

“We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran, in accordance with EU law,” a joint statement said.

The long-anticipated sanctions move came 90 days after President Trump withdrew the United States from the landmark 2015 agreement negotiated with five other world powers. It had suspended U.S. and international sanctions in exchange for Iran agreeing to limits on its nuclear program. Iran’s faltering economy will take an even bigger hit in another 90 days, on Nov. 4., when sanctions on petroleum, the country’s major export, are slapped back in place.

The administration set a series of deadlines for the reimposition of all sanctions to allow countries and private businesses to start preparing for them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, has consistently said Tehran remains in compliance with the commitments it made. No other country that negotiated the agreement with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has decided to back out of it.

The reimposition of U.S. sanctions makes it difficult for Iran to participate in international trade because so many financial transactions are done in U.S. dollars.

Trump has argued that the Obama-era agreement was deeply flawed. He characterized it as “decaying and rotten” when he announced the U.S. withdrawal in May.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, returning from Asia on Sunday night, told reporters that Iran’s clerical leaders are “bad actors” and that the administration aims to get Iran to “behave like a normal country.

Though Pompeo has refrained from calling for regime change, he has repeatedly said the United States stands with protesters unhappy with the state of the economy and hopes the Iranian people get more say in determining their leadership.

The Iranian rial has been in a free fall as the deadline for the first round of sanctions neared. Previous sanctions were widely credited with getting Iran to the negotiating table, and the leadership, and the government’s promises that the deal would bear fruit with a booming economy never materialized.

Reuters, citing Iranian state television, said the country plans to try to prop up the rial currency by easing foreign exchange rules. The currency has lost about half its value since the spring because of international fears about the U.S. sanctions April due to fears about the imminent U.S. sanctions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to give a speech around 1 p.m. Washington time, addressing the economy and Trump’s recent offer to meet with him.

The administration officials said the economy lagged in large part because of widespread corruption and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps domination. One official noted that almost 100 foreign companies have announced their intention to leave the Iranian market

“Foreign investors in Iran never know whether they are facilitating commerce or terrorism,” the official told reporters.

The sanctions will squeeze the Iranian economy much more, and the government has already started talking about the need to return to a n economy of resistance.

“We are very intent on using these financial sanctions to great economic leverage,” another administration official said, characterizing the economy as on a downward spiral even before the sanctions decision was made. “There’s no question financial sanctions are going to continue to bring significant financial pressure against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 16:52:46 Great financial numbers being announced on an almost daily basis. Economy has never been better, jobs at best point in history. Fixing our terrible Trade Deals is a priority-and going very well. Immigration on Merit Based System to take care of the companies coming back to U.S.A. reageer retweet

quote:

U.S. cities struggling with soaring housing costs have found some success in lowering rents this year, but that relief has not reached the renters most at risk of losing their housing.

Nationally, the pace of rent increases is beginning to slow down, with the average rent in at least six cities falling since last summer, according to Zillow data.

But the decline is being driven primarily by decreasing prices for high-end rentals. People in low-end housing, the apartments and other units that house working-class residents, are still paying more than ever.

Since last summer, rents have fallen for the highest earners while increasing for the poorest in San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, Portland and Washington, D.C., among other cities. In several other metro areas — including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Miami — rents have risen for the poor and the rich alike.

The ongoing increase in prices for low-end renters poses a challenge for city officials who have vowed to lower housing costs for working-class residents already struggling with tepid wage growth in the U.S. economy.

SPOILER

City officials have said that a boom in luxury housing construction would cause rents to fall for everyone else, arguing that creating new units for those at the top would ease competition for cheaper properties.

In part based on that theory, cities have approved thousands of new luxury units over the past several years, hoping to check high rents that have led more than 20 million American renters to be classified as “cost burdened,” defined as spending more than 30 percent of one’s incomes on housing.

But although some advocates say the dividends could still pay off for low-income renters, others say more direct government action is needed to prevent poor residents from being forced out of their cities or into homelessness. They have called for the federal government to help construct more affordable units, or offer greater rental assistance for poor families.

“For-profit developers have predominantly built for the luxury and higher end of the market, leaving a glut of overpriced apartments in some cities,” said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group. “Some decision-makers believed this would ‘filter down’ to the lowest income people, but it clearly will not meet their needs.”

Poorer city residents have experienced significant rent increases over the past several years. In Portland, average rents for the poor have risen from about $1,100 to $1,600 — or by more than 40 percent — since 2011.

In San Francisco, the average rent at the bottom of the market has soared from $1,700 to $2,600, a nearly 50 percent increase. Seattle’s poor have also had their rents rise by close to 40 percent. Nationwide, rents for those at the bottom have increased by 18 percent.

Rising rents for the poor threaten to add to the nation’s homeless population, and put an additional severe strain on tens of millions of families, often forcing them to forgo other basic needs to avoid losing their housing.

Construction in most U.S. cities came to a standstill during the Great Recession, amid a broader collapse in the housing market. As the economic recovery took off, its gains were disproportionately concentrated in a handful of cities, leading renters to move in droves to already densely populated urban areas.

There was not enough housing there to greet them. By the early 2010s, rents in major cities were beginning to increase by more than 10 percent annually. Several cities declared emergencies over their rising homeless populations.

In the following years, protracted battles have occurred in city halls nationwide over the size and makeup of urban communities, often pitting longtime homeowners trying to preserve the value of their properties against developers seeking to profit from the high demand.

Mayors have been caught in the middle, aiming to accommodate an influx of new residents who help boost the local economy without displacing those who have lived in their cities for decades. They have also faced intense pressure from influential developers and business groups that have pressed for the ability to develop new homes, as well as from landlords who enjoy high rents and fear seeing those values diluted.

The result has been a range of policy measures, including reforming zoning codes to encourage more development, creating new tools to finance affordable housing projects and rules mandating that developers include affordable units in their properties.

These measures have shown some signs of reducing rents, for both the rich and, to a lesser extent, the middle class.

For renters in the middle third of the income distribution, average rental prices have remained virtually unchanged since last summer, according to the Zillow data. Rents over the past year have also fallen slightly for the middle class of renters in Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle.

The lack of affordable housing can be particularly pronounced in smaller cities such as Portland, which has struggled to accommodate about 40,000 new residents since 2010.

From 2010 to 2014, the city built only a few hundred affordable housing units, according to a city report. Since 2014, more than 95 percent of private construction in the city has been in “the luxury end of the market,” said Nick Fish, a city commissioner.

Private housing construction has exploded in Portland’s downtown area, along its south waterfront and in its historically black northeast community. But even as the city’s population has ballooned, its black population has decreased since 2014 by an average of 800 people every year, probably pushed out by gentrification, according to a study by Portland State University researchers.

In an email, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) pointed to 948 affordable rental units expected to open in 2018 and an additional 978 units scheduled for 2019. “We are actively creating housing options at every income level in every area of the city,” he said, adding that 10,000 more units are coming soon. “Our efforts are beginning to pay off: This will be the largest number of affordable units ever produced by the City of Portland in a single year in modern history.”

But for Rakhelya Levitskaya, a 66-year-old home-care aide who works with the elderly and disabled, little help appears to be on the way. A Ukrainian immigrant who has lived in the same Portland housing complex for 18 years, Levitskaya received notice of an approximately 10 percent rent increase this summer that she fears will push her into homelessness.

“I’m afraid of living out on the streets, without a house,” she said in an interview. “I’m very worried.”

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 17:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:
Wat velen al vermoedden wordt nu weer iets substantielers

https://www.buzzfeednews.(...)-qanon-is-probably-a

Achteraf wel fijn dus dat QAnon even wat meer mainstream werd zodat media er wat meer onderzoeksjournalisten op gooien om e.e.a. uit te zoeken.

CNN reporter talks to conspiracy theorists at Trump rally

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 16:32 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Aha, er is een tweede IG-rapport in de maak?

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 18:16 schreef mcmlxiv het volgende:

[..]

Waar is zomerindebol wanneer we hem nodig hebben?

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 17:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:
Wat velen al vermoedden wordt nu weer iets substantielers

https://www.buzzfeednews.(...)-qanon-is-probably-a

Achteraf wel fijn dus dat QAnon even wat meer mainstream werd zodat media er wat meer onderzoeksjournalisten op gooien om e.e.a. uit te zoeken.

Jay Sekulow On His False Claims That Trump Didn't Dictate Don Jr Statement: 'I Had Bad Information'

quote:

As president, Donald Trump has uttered more than 4,000 falsehoods or misleading statements. And the spokespeople and advisers tasked with squaring Trump's version of reality with actual reality must often contort themselves accordingly. Early in the administration, this meant Kellyanne Conway talking about how the administration had “alternative facts.” Later, it was Sean Spicer explaining that he didn't “knowingly” lie to the American people.

On Sunday, they tried a couple of new tacks: asserting that “facts develop” and saying that the president “misspoke” — while saying something he has said dozens of times.

The first came on ABC News's “This Week.” In light of Trump's problematic new tweet about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, George Stephanopoulos challenged the president's personal attorney Jay Sekulow on two past, disproven assurances that Trump hadn't authored the initial, misleading statement about it. (That statement said the meeting was “primarily” about the adoption of Russian children.)

SPOILER

Here's the exchange (emphasis added):

STEPHANOPOULOS: You said the president wasn’t involved in any way at all. Later, Sarah Sanders changed that. She said, oh, yes, the president weighed in but didn’t dictate anything. And then in January of this year, the president’s legal team, including you, sent a memo to Robert Mueller saying this: “You have received all the notes, communications and testimony indicating that the president did dictate a short but accurate response to the New York Times article on behalf of his son.”

So why did you deny President Trump’s involvement? When did you learn that the denial wasn’t true?

SEKULOW: Well, let me tell you two things on that one. Number one, as you know, George, I was in the case at that point, what, a couple of weeks? And there was a lot of information that was gathering and as my colleague Rudy Giuliani said, I had — I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement. I’ve talked about that before. That happens when you have cases like this.

As far as when did we correct it, the important part is the information that we’ve shared with the Office of Special Counsel — I’m not going to get into the details — but we were very clear as to the situation involving that trip and the — and the statements that were made to the New York Times. So I think it’s very important to point out that in a situation like this, you have — over time, facts develop.

Facts might have “developed” from Sekulow's perspective, but the actual events never changed. Either Trump didn't tell him the truth about his role in drafting that statement, or Sekulow and Sanders offered assurances that were basically made-up. That “bad information” came from somewhere — either Trump or thin air. There are only two options here, and neither is good.

On another Sunday show, national security adviser John Bolton offered another extremely hard-to-stomach explanation for Trump's soft stance toward Vladimir Putin on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election, saying Trump merely “misspoke”:

CHRIS WALLACE: But one of the most powerful ways that Mr. Trump can try to prevent any meddling in the 2018 election is to stand up in public and call out Vladimir Putin and say knock it off. I want to go back to Helsinki and to the joint summit news conference there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: I know you say that it was the first issue, election meddling, that President Trump brought up with Putin in their one-on-one meeting. But why not stand there right alongside Putin, with the whole world watching and say, we are not going to stand for any more meddling?

BOLTON: Well, as the president said, he misspoke. The subsequent point in the news conference and that he intended to say just that, he had a statement issued the next day that I think made clear where he stood on the issue. And as I say, you can't read any motive into what he did other than his deep concern about Russian election meddling than to put the four operating heads and myself out for that press briefing.

Trump has also said that he misspoke at the news conference with Putin — but not at this juncture. He said that when he said “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia, he meant to say wouldn't instead.

As the video clip Wallace played shows, that was hardly the only moment in the joint news conference with Putin in which Trump played down the idea that Russia interfered. Bolton was responding not to Trump saying “I don't see any reason why it would be” Russia but to his insistence that “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Trump has never said he misspoke about that.

And that really gives lie to this whole thing. Trump has downplayed Putin's interference so many times over the past 18 months that he would have had to be misspeaking almost constantly. It's clear what he truly believes or at least wants to convey — even if aides can occasionally reel him back in slightly.

These explanations are not serious; they are merely the best, bad explanations that exist. These are the positions Trump's public voices have been put in, given his inability to tell the truth — or ambivalence toward it. But each and every one of them also has the side effect of undermining the credibility of the spokespeople who, in neither of these cases, must truly believe the things they are saying.

quote:

The 2018 wildfire year has been devastating. As of Monday, the National Interagency Fire Center reports that there are 60 uncontained large fires across the country.

These deadly infernos have killed several firefighters, forced hundreds of people to flee, and destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of wilderness.

The Carr Fire in Northern California is now the state’s fifth-largest fire on record after igniting more than 160,0000 acres and has already killed seven people. But it’s been bested in size by the Mendocino Complex fire, which, at 273,000 acres, is the second-largest in state history. The largest remains last year’s Thomas Fire.

Late last month, President Trump signed a federal emergency declaration for the state of California, allowing the federal government to assist with firefighting efforts.

So it’s not surprising that Trump would weigh in on the California blazes. But on Sunday night, he used them to bash environmental regulations:

SPOILER

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 00:06:42 California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading! reageer retweet

* mashes face on keyboard *

There are a few things that are bewildering about this statement. First, human activity is definitely making these fires worse: People are building in vulnerable areas, they are igniting most of these fires, and humans are driving climate change, which makes fire conditions more severe.

But environmental laws about water that would be used to put the fires out?

Even wildfire scientists don’t really know what the president was referring to. California has been parched from drought for years, so there isn’t a “massive amount of readily available water,” and what little moisture is available is closely tracked.

“We do manage all of our rivers in California, and all the water is allocated many times over. So I’m not sure what he was recommending,” LeRoy Westerling, a professor at the University of California Merced studying wildfires, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Even if we eliminated all habitat for riparian species and fish, and allowed saltwater intrusion into the delta and set up a sprinkler system over the state, that wouldn’t compensate for greater moisture loss from climate change.”

That means if California hoarded every raindrop instead of “diverting into the Pacific Ocean,” it still wouldn’t completely offset evaporation from rising average temperatures and years of drought.

This water also wouldn’t be all that useful for firefighters. Wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem, so the goal is to allow these fires to burn without threatening lives and property, and spraying water isn’t the main method for containing them.

For wildland firefighters, the tools of the trade are Pulaskis, rakes, shovels, and flamethrowers that burn clearings ahead of towering infernos. Instead of fire engines, they use bulldozers. Since these firefighters aren’t usually using pump trucks and fire hoses, they aren’t limited by water. When they need to snuff out an area, they often do it by air.

These methods help firefighters clear a perimeter of potential fuel to control the spread of flames. But as Westerling added on Twitter, the president’s suggestion of “tree clear” only goes so far.

twitter:

LeroyWesterling twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 02:20:21 ‘Tree clearing’ isn’t goint to help with the fires burning in grass and shrub fuels. But California is investing millions in fuels treatments funded by our carbon permit auction revenue. It would be wonderful if the Federal gov emulated us, since it owns most of the trees here https://t.co/4NJ1Qh54LE reageer retweet

There were indeed regulations that prevented firefighting equipment from being used, but officials say water rules are not hampering firefighting efforts. In fact, the largest fires in California right now have plenty of water nearby. Scott McLean, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, pointed out that the Carr Fire burned around Shasta Lake while the Mendocino Complex Fire is near Clear Lake.

For a state like California that’s facing increasing heat and more frequent weather whiplash between extreme rain and drought, the real “bad environmental laws” worsening the situation are actually Trump’s attempts to roll back policies — like California’s Clean Air Act waiver — that would help mitigate climate change.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 19:35:16 Kristin Davis, the "Manhattan Madam" who has longtime ties to Roger Stone, is now scheduled to testify before Mueller's grand jury in D.C. this week https://t.co/YLtu24boCM reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 20:08 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Donald Trump has some thoughts on fighting wildfires. They’re nonsense.

[..]

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 17:58 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

Dat interview met Q-gekkies!

CNN reporter talks to conspiracy theorists at Trump rally

twitter:

tribelaw twitterde op zondag 05-08-2018 om 21:23:25 Judge Beryl Howell’s 92-page opinion upholding the constitutional legitimacy of Mueller’s appointment guts a potential defense strategy @CNNPolitics https://t.co/tyMFh53Fbo reageer retweet

quote:

As President Donald Trump's legal team continued its will-he-or-won't-he dance this week on a sit-down interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, a federal judge in Washington issued a tome on why Mueller's appointment was rock-solid in the first place.

Chief Judge Beryl Howell's decision is not entirely novel; it falls in line with two other district court judges in DC and Virginia who have rejected challenges to Mueller's appointment. But her robust analysis guts a potential avenue for Trump's defense team at a critical time, as the President calls for the probe to end, his lawyers continue to negotiate over the scope of an interview, and speculation mounts about whether Mueller will ultimately serve Trump with a subpoena to testify.

Legal experts say that while Trump's legal team still has other arguments to make on why he should not have to sit down with the special counsel, the door on challenging Mueller's legitimacy appears to be nearly closed.

SPOILER

What does the opinion say?

Over the course of 92 pages, Howell resoundingly rejected an attempt by Andrew Miller, a former associate of Trump confidante Roger Stone, to quash a subpoena to testify, explaining why the "scope of the Special Counsel's power falls well within the boundaries the Constitution permits."

Miller had argued that Mueller was not nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and therefore was unconstitutionally appointed as a "principal officer." Howell found the claim unpersuasive in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Morrison v. Olson, which upheld the constitutionality of provisions of a now-defunct federal statute creating an independent counsel, and subsequent court decisions. Instead, Howell found Mueller to be an "inferior officer" under the supervision of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who took up the oversight of the Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from it last year.

"His appointment, without presidential appointment and senatorial confirmation, thus did not violate the Appointments Clause," Howell wrote.

Miller also claimed that Sessions' "mere recusal" from the Russia investigation didn't make Rosenstein the acting attorney general for purposes of tapping Mueller to lead the probe. But Howell didn't buy that argument either, pointing to the fact that various federal statutes allow the attorney general to delegate the authority to appoint a special counsel to the deputy attorney general.

"Multiple statutes authorize the Special Counsel's appointment, and the official who appointed the Special Counsel had power to do so," Howell concluded, underscoring a point previously acknowledged by several prominent legal voices.

George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, similarly wrote last month, "there is no serious argument that Special Counsel Mueller's appointment violates the Appointments Clause specifically or the separation of powers generally."

And even Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has privately told senators that he believes Mueller's appointment was legitimate, though he did not disclose how he would rule on a presidential subpoena.

Why does this matter for Trump's defense?

The President has railed against Mueller's appointment since day one -- but his tirades on Twitter have gone into overdrive in recent weeks.
In early June, he proclaimed: "The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!"

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 04-06-2018 om 16:01:40 The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong! reageer retweet

More recently, he's asserted, without evidence, that Mueller, a registered Republican is "totally conflicted," including an alleged "contentious business relationship" between him and Mueller involving a dispute over fees at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. A spokesman for Mueller told The Washington Post last month that there was no dispute when Mueller, who was then FBI director, left the club in late 2011.

After Mueller's appointment by Rosenstein, a Trump appointee, the Department of Justice determined there was no ethics conflict for Mueller in the investigation.

If Mueller cannot reach an agreement with Trump's lawyers for a voluntary interview with the President, then a grand jury subpoena to force Trump to talk would almost certainly trigger fierce resistance from his defense team.

But some legal experts say Howell's decision casts significant doubt on any effort to successfully challenge the legality of Mueller's appointment.

"Judge Howell's comprehensive opinion denying the challenge to the special counsel regulation is no surprise. Republicans and Democrats alike for two decades have said the same -- the argument to the contrary is well out of the constitutional mainstream," said Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general in the Obama administration and helped draft the special counsel regulations in the 1990s.

"President Trump can try other arguments in the months to come, but this one is going nowhere," Katyal added.

Trump's lawyers have already asserted that a sitting president cannot be subpoenaed, but that's an unsettled legal issue, and it is unclear whether a court would agree.

"Trump can try to argue that presidents are not amenable to subpoena under our Constitution, and that even if they are, the subpoena must be very narrow in scope," Katyal said. "Those are difficult arguments to make, but not impossible ones."

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 22:00:02 Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said he asked Rand Paul to speak out in defense of Mariia Butina.“If you, Senator Paul, are able to raise your voice in defense of Mariia ... you would show yourself to be a real man,” Interfax reported Slutsky saying.https://t.co/y3RzYTeZvS reageer retweet

quote:

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) met with Russian lawmakers Monday and invited them to Washington as part of a growing outreach to the Kremlin, days after a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators proposed tightening sanctions against Russia over findings of election interference.

“Russia shouldn’t be considered our friend, but we have certain shared interests—regarding Syria, terrorism, and energy,” said Mr. Paul after meeting with lawmakers from the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament.

The meetings marked the second U.S. delegation led by a U.S. congressman to Moscow this summer and gave Russian officials a chance to promote their position on a number of issues that strain already tense relations between Washington and Russia, from interference in elections to cyber security.

“We will continue this dialogue,” Mr. Paul said on Russian state television, adding that a visit would likely happen by the end of the year.

SPOILER

The outreach comes after President Trump touted the idea of better relations with Russia but also as ties more broadly between Washington and Moscow are at their worst since the Cold War.

After President Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July, the U.S. president invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Washington, though that trip has been pushed back from the fall to sometime next year.

Russian state television, which characterizes most U.S. lawmakers as “the Washington establishment” and “anti-Russian”, praised Mr. Paul as an independent thinker in Congress. The Senator had supported the summit between Messrs. Trump and Putin and called for better relations between Washington and Moscow.

Moscow is now watching for signals that progress can be made to improve relations, even as U.S. lawmakers look to harden punitive measures against Russia and consider imposing sanctions on Russian debt and energy projects.

While few in Moscow believe Mr. Trump can deliver on promises to reset the relationship, Russian officials are still hopeful there can be individual gains. Russia analysts say the Kremlin is watching the course of the talks between officials from the two countries to see where gains can be made.

“The visit to Russia at this important juncture, is received as a positive step that for now could have an effect on promoting dialogue,” said Victor Olevich of the Center for Actual Politics, a Moscow-based independent research center.

Talks covered subjects including the risk of a military accident in Syria —where both U.S. and Russian forces operate—and North Korea.

Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said he asked Mr. Paul to speak out in defense of Russian citizen Maria Butina, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist, who was arrested in the U.S. last month on charges of failing to register as an agent of a foreign power.

“If you, Senator Paul, are able to raise your voice in defense of Maria Butina, to help at least change her pretrial detention...you would show yourself to be a real man,” Interfax reported Mr. Slutsky as saying. Ms. Butina has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which her lawyer has characterized as “overblown.”

Another Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachyov, reiterated the Russian response to findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow interfered in the presidential election that brought Mr. Trump to power, and said there would be no such interference in the coming midterm elections.

“There was no interference in 2016 and it makes sense that there won’t be any during the current electoral campaign,” said Mr. Kosachyov, adding that Russia was willing to discuss the issue on an “expert level” to investigate the allegations. The U.S. has rejected several previous entreaties to create a joint body to look into the interference.

quote:

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan Russia probe is increasingly likely to stretch past the midterm elections, as the panel plans to interview more witnesses for a final report detailing its findings, including on the actions of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Panel chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina had wanted to wrap up his probe well before the November congressional elections, but in an interview this week he acknowledged it could take longer.

“I can’t predict to you how long it’s going to take to write the final reports,” Burr said. Asked if he’d like to finish by the end of the year, Burr said “it’s certainly my hope.”

The committee has already backed the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered a broad campaign to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and ultimately help Republican Donald Trump. Next month, it plans to bring executives from Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in for a public hearing.

But a final report, and the key question of conclusions about the actions of Trump’s campaign and associates, are still to come.

Delaying a final report would leave voters without the only full, bipartisan accounting of what happened in 2016 before heading to the polls. But it would give the committee more time and flexibility to adjust as revelations about Russia’s efforts continue to play out in court filings and indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Justice Department.

SPOILER

Tough Questions

While the panel has been able to reach agreement on many findings, including those related to the soundness of the January 2017 intelligence community’s assessment, it may not be able to agree on the toughest questions they’re leaving for the final report, including the question of whether Trump or any of his associates were involved.

Burr said there’s still a chance they’ll wrap up earlier. “I don’t want to prejudge the progress in August,” he said.

But Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said the probe still has a ways to go, though he wouldn’t put a timetable on it.

“We’ve got a lot of witnesses that are coming in in September,” Warner said. And he reiterated he still wants public hearings with Donald Trump Jr. and other key witnesses, something Burr has long resisted.

Taking Longer

Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican on the committee, also said she thinks it will take a while longer to finish the 18-month-old probe, which so far has remained completely bipartisan, in contrast to the other congressional inquiries into what happened in 2016.

“It seems to me that we’re more likely to finish the report by the end of the year as opposed to prior to the elections,” she said. “We have issued chapters of the report already and I think a fascinating discovery that we’ve made, and it really was our committee that’s brought it out, is the role of social media being used by the Russians in an active measures campaign to undermine Americans’ faith in our democracy.”

The committee held a hearing this week filled with bipartisan calls for the social media companies and the administration to be more aggressive in countering Russian efforts to meddle and divide Americans.

Ron Wyden of Oregon, a committee Democrat, also has continued to urge Burr to delve deeper into the financial dealings of the Trumps and his ex-lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, but Burr has left much of that work to the Justice Department andMueller.

Wyden said there remains much more for the committee to pursue.

“I guess you can say you’re finished any time you want to, but you will not be able to responsibly finish without doing the follow-the-money issues,” Wyden said.

Democrats have also said there are risks for the committee if it ends the probe before Mueller.

“If they wrap it up and all the stuff comes out later on financial issues, I will be diplomatic, it will not put the committee in a favorable light,” Wyden said.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 16:29 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Adam Schiff on tape? Waar heeft die man het over?

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 21:48:16 Still waiting for last Friday's Maria Butina-J.D. Gordon story to be treated as the blockbuster it is. Gordon was effectively Trump's number-two man on national security and he was emailing and going on dates with an active Russian spy 6 weeks before the election. Media, wake up! reageer retweet

twitter:

danielsgoldman twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 00:16:25 Amidst all of the focus on the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, don't lose sight of the change in Russia platform at the Republican National Convention. I have a feeling that will ultimately be more important than the TT meeting. reageer retweet

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 22:33:49 I think Daniel may well be right. And the key figures we'll be talking about once we switch our focus to the RNC will be Jeff Sessions, JD Gordon, Carter Page, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, and Walid Phares. Plus, what Trump directed his NatSec team to do in March 2016 at the TIHDC. https://t.co/cPqt5MBOlC reageer retweet

quote:

Paul Manafort's longtime deputy has been called to the witness stand to testify against the former Trump campaign chairman.

Rick Gates has been regarded as a crucial government witness ever since he pleaded guilty last year and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Prosecutors will turn to Gates for first-hand support of their accusations that Manafort concealed millions of dollars in foreign income and later lied when he applied for bank loans.

Manafort's defense has sought to blame Gates for any illegal conduct and accused him of embezzling millions of dollars.

Gates and Manafort worked closely together for years. They were the first two people indicted by Mueller's grand jury.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 22:34 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
4:21 p.m. Rick Gates has been called to testify

[..]

quote:

A lawyer for Manafort had said in court Monday afternoon that Gates, who is Manafort’s longtime deputy and is regarded as the government’s star witness, would be the next witness up.

Instead, prosecutors called a different witness named Paula Liss. Lawyers then met privately with the judge for a bench conference.

Manafort’s defense has sought to blame Gates for any illegal conduct and accused him of embezzling millions of dollars.

Prosecutors said last week that they intended to call him to the stand before resting their case this week.

quote:

Gates, 46, spoke quickly, looking at the prosecutor, rather than Manafort.

Manafort, seated between his lawyers in a dark suit, blue shit and purple tie, stared intently at his former business partner as he spoke.


Andres's early questions focused on the two men's relationship. Gates testified that he met Manafort as an intern at a Christmas party at Manafort's house, and he worked in the late 1990s at a political firm where Manafort was a partner, Black Manafort Stone and Kelly.

In 2006, Gates testified, he began working at Davis Manafort Partners and kept working there in 2012, when the firm became known as DMP International LLC.

Gates said his responsibilities increased over the years, but he considered himself merely "an employee of the firm," and he believed Manafort thought of him the same way. He said the two men did not socialize outside of work, though they sometimes met about work at Manafort's homes.

After addressing the two men's work, Andres moved to the heart of the case.

"Did you commit crimes with Mr. Manafort?" the prosecutor asked.


"Yes," Gates responded.

Gates went on to acknowledge his plea agreement, and the parties soon conferred at the judge's bench to discuss it. As they did so, Gates continued to stare ahead, not looking at Manafort. Manafort took a few notes.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 22:46 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Vast niet het meest interessante, maar vooruit:

BREAKING: Rick Gates in trial:
Prosecutor: "Were you involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort?"
Gates: "Yes.”
Prosecutor: "Did you commit any crimes with Mr. Manafort?"
Gates: "Yes."

https://mobile.twitter.co(...)/1026569723968937986

quote:

4:52 p.m. Gates testifies he and Manafort knowingly did not report foreign bank accounts

Presented with a copy of the plea agreement he signed in federal court in Washington, Gates said he conspired with Manafort to falsify Manafort’s tax returns. Gates said he and Manafort knowingly failed to report foreign bank accounts and had failed to register Manafort as a foreign agent.

Andres, the prosecutor, asked Gates whether he understood that his lies to Manafort’s accountants and omissions were illegal.

"Yes", Gates said.

When asked why he had lied, Gates said he had done so at Manafort’s request.

Separately, Gates explained that Manfort had directed him to report money wired from his foreign bank accounts as loans, rather than as income, in order to reduce Manafort’s taxable income. By reporting it as a loan, Gates explained, Manafort could defer the amount of taxes he owed.

quote:

4:56 p.m. Gates admits he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 22:51 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

[..]

Mwah, geopolitiek gezien niet, maar ik vind het machtig interessant. Manafort lijkt compleet de lul te zijn en het is mooi dat dat zo duidelijk aan het licht komt. Daarnaast wordt het heel interessant om te zien hoe Trump hierop gaat reageren. Ik gok zomaar dat dat niet kalm en bedachtzaam gaat zijn.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 23:18 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ja, nee, dat wel, maar ik bedoel dat sec het toe geven dat hij samen met Manafort misdaden gepleegd heeft wel voor de hand lag. Inhoudelijk is het denk ik interessanter.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 23:20 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

[..]

Oh op die manier, ok. Ja, wat dat betreft is het feit dat Gates z'n eigen zakken heeft gevuld ook geen shock, maar het is interessant om te zien hoe het plaatje steeds completer wordt. Daarnaast is het lollig dat Manaforts hele argument dat Gates een crimineel is en als mastermind van dit hele gebeuren moet worden gezien, in stof op gaat. Door Gates dit zelf te laten vertellen, wordt het veel minder spannend dat Manaforts advocaat straks bewijzen laat zien dat Gates heeft gestolen. Hoe ze dan nog willen onderbouwen dat Gates hoofdverantwoordelijke was, is me onduidelijk.

quote:

Gates has repeatedly said that he committed the majority of his crimes at Manafort’s direction. Off the top of his head he named 12 overseas companies he said Manafort controlled; on prompting from prosecutors he identified three more. “Yes,” they all belonged to Manafort he said. The money in them “came from income from political consulting in Ukraine,” he said.

“Two directors from a legal firm” in Cyprus set up the majority of the accounts, he said, and he or Manafort would contact them about wiring money.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 23:33 schreef speknek het volgende:
Ik vind het vooral interessant dat Manafort niet is geflipt terwijl hij wist dat Gates meewerkte en hem kon laten hangen.

Russian mob don't play.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 23:42 schreef speknek het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

In de tussentijd doet Trump alsof hij hem nauwelijks kent.

quote:

5:35 p.m.: Judge, prosecutors spar over pace of the case

Late in the afternoon Monday, prosecutors sparred notably with Judge T.S. Ellis III over the pace of the case.
The heated confrontation came as prosecutors attempted to enter into evidence Rick Gates’s passport to show details of his travels to Ukraine and Cyprus. Ellis interrupted them.

“Let’s get to the heart of the matter,” he scowled.

“Judge, we’ve been at the heart …” prosecutor Greg Andres interrupted.

“Just listen to me!” Ellis bellowed from the bench.

By the judge’s way of thinking, Manafort’s defense was not contesting the places where Gates had traveled, and thus there was no reason to show jurors pictures of Gates’s passport. By Andres’s telling, Gates’s travels were relevant to the case, and defense attorneys had not conceded to any sort of instruction that would tell jurors where Gates had gone.

Ellis told Andres he was looking for ways to “expedite.” Andres responded, “We’re doing everything we can to move the trial along.” The dispute seemed to die for a moment, but later, as Andres asked questions about Gates’s work overseas, Ellis again grew irritated.

“We need to focus sharply,” Ellis told the prosecutor. Andres tried to explain his line of inquiry.

“Next question,” the judge snapped.

“The government … ” Andres started to say.

“Next question,” Ellis snapped again, his voice rising.

Andres moved on.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 22:38 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

quote:

(...)
Manafort, seated between his lawyers in a dark suit, blue shit and purple tie, stared intently at his former business partner as he spoke.
(...)

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 00:21 schreef Treinhomo het volgende:

[..]

[..]

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

After dismissing the jury, Judge Ellis laid into prosecutor Greg Andres for what he saw as unnecessary questioning about the motivations of billionnaires involved in politics in Ukraine.

Andres pushed back angrily, prompting a heated exchange that went on for over ten minutes.

Ellis repeatedly criticized Andres for not making eye contact, saying “look at me” and saying he “looked down as if to say, ‘that’s BS.'”

Andres responded with frustration saying, “You continue to interpret our reactions in some way,” when the lawyers don’t do the same to the judge.

“You never rolled your eyes,” Ellis said, a reference to when he criticized the attorneys for doing so last week, “but you’re not the only one sitting at that table.”

The substance of the argument is how prosecutors can characterize the people who paid Manafort through companies in Cyprus.

He has already barred prosecutors from using the word “oligarch.” Andres had asked Gates whether these men were billionaires who benefited financially when their political party did well, and Gates agreed.

After court, Andres said he had to have Gates explain their financial motivations because Ellis had interjected and called their spending “political contributions.”

“These people are not like any Americans,” Andres said, after Ellis for the second time invoked the Koch brothers and George Soros for comparison.

“These people are oligarchs, and that means they control a segment of the economy based on the government’s allowing them to do that,” Andres said. Ellis cut in, laughing, “That makes it even clearer to me that it doesn’t have anything to do with the allegations in this case,” he said. “It throws dirt on these people. They may deserve it; I don’t know and I don’t care.” It’s irrelevant, the judge said, to whether Manafort reported and paid taxes on the money they paid him.

Andres said that “respectfully” he disagreed.

“It proves the flow of money,” he said. “We’re just trying to prove these men in Ukraine are the payers.” The payments come from companies in Cyprus that are not in their names to companies in Cyprus not in Manafort’s names, and so they need to show these people “have the ability to make these payments” and the motivation.

Ellis disputed that he had limited prosecutors significantly or interrupted them often and said the record would support him on that.

“I will stand by the record as well,” Andres retorted.

“All right, then you will lose,” Ellis responded.

Testimony has wrapped for the day and will resume at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

quote:

Interesting move by someone who once starred in a movie called The Patriot.

If you thought things between the US and Russia couldn’t get any weirder, there’s this: The Kremlin has named famed martial artist and actor Steven Seagal as a special envoy to the United States.

Yes, this is a thing that is really happening in 2018.

Seagal’s unpaid and mostly ceremonial position will have him working with US officials on humanitarian issues between the US and Russia, as well as other matters that come up “in the field of culture, arts, science, education, sports, public and youth exchanges,” according to a statement by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Facebook.

Seagal is excited about the opportunity. “I am deeply humbled and honoured to have been appointed as a special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry in charge of Russian and American Humanitarian ties,” Seagal tweeted on Sunday afternoon. I take this honour very seriously.”

SPOILER

This isn’t the first time Russian President Vladimir Putin has considered Seagal for a quasi-diplomatic position: BuzzFeed News reported in 2015 that the Kremlin considered naming the actor an honorary consul of Russia in California and Arizona as a way to improve ties between the US and Russia. “Our reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” an unnamed US official told BuzzFeed about the proposition at the time.



Seagal really likes Putin

The Michigan-born actor, whose grandmother was born in Vladivostok, became a Russian citizen in November 2016 (while keeping his US citizenship) and has since become a close friend of Putin.

They first met when Seagal’s band — yes, he’s a musician too — performed for Putin. They have since connected over martial arts, a favorite discipline for both men, and Seagal even attended Putin’s latest inauguration ceremony.

But there’s another reason Putin keeps the actor around: Seagal has remained a full-throated Putin defender, even as revelations of Russia interference in the 2016 US presidential election surfaced.

“For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections or even that the Russians have that kind of technology is stupid,” Seagal told the UK’s Good Morning Britain on September 27, 2017, saying Putin’s name with a Russian accent. He’s even gone so far as to call Putin “one of the great living world leaders.”

Steven Seagal Calls NFL Protests 'Disgusting' | Good Morning Britain

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into possible collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign, charged members of Russian’s military intelligence service last month with hacking the computer networks of members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In 1998, Seagal starred in a movie called The Patriot. Twenty years later, it’s unclear if anyone would use that word to describe the actor now.

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op maandag 06-08-2018 om 22:48:26 TRUE STORY: I'd just finished writing a chapter on how Bob Van Ronkel tried to connect Trump and Putin in 2013--and how he did that for Steven Seagal, and how Van Ronkel may've been with Seagal and Trump in Moscow during the 2013 pageant--when this happened: https://t.co/OKqueqLvnh reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 01:25:34 A federal judge has ruled that the Trump admin cannot enforce an updated policy barring certain transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, becoming the second court in the country to rule against the government. https://t.co/DkM1xWsfPR reageer retweet

twitter:

RudyGiuliani twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 01:14:57 There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars and I hope this idiot is not a lawyer because if he is he should sue his Law School. reageer retweet

quote:

In his classic 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman wrote of the difference between George Orwell’s and Aldous Huxley’s visions of fascism.

“Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information,” wrote Postman. “Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

Postman’s warning rang out in a different era. He worried over the rise of television, not Twitter; he was reacting to Ronald Reagan, not Donald Trump. And yet the facts of our age are more absurd and insulting than anything Postman prophesied.

[..]

Roger Waters - Amused to death

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 01:41 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

RudyGiuliani twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 01:14:57 There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars and I hope this idiot is not a lawyer because if he is he should sue his Law School. reageer retweet

Rudy !

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 01:52 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:
Weer een hersenloze onzin post van een demente has been.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 01:55:30 The AP found that 35.4% of Trump counties have shed jobs in the past year, compared with just 19.2% of Clinton counties. https://t.co/BdcimRDKBE reageer retweet

quote:

The United States is on pace to add about 2.6 million jobs this year under President Donald Trump's watch. Yet the bulk of the hiring has occurred in bastions of Democratic voters rather than in the Republican counties that put Trump in the White House.

On average for the year-ended this May, 58.5 percent of the job gains were in counties that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to an Associated Press analysis of monthly government jobs data by county.

Despite an otherwise robust national economy, the analysis shows that a striking number of Trump counties are losing jobs. The AP found that 35.4 percent of Trump counties have shed jobs in the past year, compared with just 19.2 percent of Clinton counties.

The jobs data shows an economy that is as fractured as the political landscape ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. As more money pools in such corporate hubs as Houston, San Francisco or Seattle, prosperity spills over less and less to smaller towns and cities in America's interior. That would seem to undercut what Trump sees as a central accomplishment of his administration — job creation for middle class and blue-collar workers in towns far removed from bustling urban centers.

SPOILER

Job growth in Trump's economy is still concentrated in the same general places as it was toward the end of Barack Obama's presidency — when roughly 58.7 percent of the average annual job gains were in Democratic counties.

Yet the lack of transformative job growth in Trump areas hasn't seemed to erode his support among Republicans, while hiring in Democratic areas have done little to improve his standing with those voters. For Trump's core supporters, cultural issues such as gun rights, immigration and loyalty to the president have become dominant priorities.

Trump has pointed with pride at a strengthening national economy in hopes that voters will reward the Republican Party by preserving its majorities in the House and Senate this year. The government reported the fastest quarterly economic growth since 2014 and the unemployment rate is a healthy 3.9 percent. At a Pennsylvania rally on Thursday, the president declared, "Our economy is soaring. Our jobs are booming."

But other issues preoccupy the minds of the party faithful in Trump strongholds such as Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh.

Chip Kohser, the county Republican chairman and the bristle-bearded founder of a farm share company, said his party members are rallying around their staunch opposition to gun control.

"Our No. 1 motivating factor," he said, "is Second Amendment issues."

Kohser, 41, drives a white pickup truck, smokes cigars and views America as being jaggedly splintered along ideological lines that make it hard to find common ground. Democratic calls for stricter gun control in the aftermath of mass shootings, he said, are fueling more zeal among his Republican volunteers than are the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that Trump signed into law last year.

Since May 2017, Beaver County has lost 191 jobs. With the warmer summer weather, hiring is now on an upswing. But employers have fewer job applicants available as the labor force has shrunk by roughly 1,000 workers in the past 12 months, the result of decades of population loss that hit former steel towns such as Aliquippa, Beaver Falls and Midland.

The tax cuts haven't stopped the outflow of people. Chatting over eggs, bacon and home fries, Kohser estimated that the tax cuts have added perhaps $1,200 to his annual household income and roughly the same to many others in the area — not likely enough on its own to rejuvenate the local economy.

The United States is full of places like Beaver County. They are areas where the currently robust national economy and job market obscure long-standing woes that generations of politicians have struggled to reverse. There are the long-shuttered factories, stagnant incomes and the departure of college-educated workers to cities and surrounding suburbs.

Many of those forgotten men and women might cheer the president for slapping tariffs on imported goods to defend U.S. factory jobs or his vow to build a wall on the Mexican border to block illegal immigration. But for struggling communities waiting for jobs to be restored, Trump's tax cuts — which were skewed toward corporations and wealthy individuals — have yet to deliver.

During the past year, the healthiest job gains have been in counties containing such vibrant cities as Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Seattle, all of them places that have favored Democrats.

Texas, which Trump won handily, reflects the geographic split in the economy. Within that state, Clinton — not Trump — won the counties that have accounted for bulk of that state's job growth.

Though public opinion surveys suggest that the economy gives an advantage to Trump and the Republicans, the economy no longer packs as big a punch with the electorate.

When the Pew Research Center asked voters in June to identify the nation's most pressing issue, more of them chose immigration, race, political gridlock or Trump himself than the economy. The proportion of people who said the economy was their top priority fell to its lowest level in more than eight years.

Sixty percent of Americans told Pew that they see their midterm vote as an act of either supporting the president (26 percent) or opposing him (34 percent). That is the highest combined number since Pew began asking such a question in 2006.

And 68 percent said that control of Congress would influence how they vote, the highest level in two decades.

Despite greater income inequality, separate research suggests the economy isn't the only source of America's growing cultural divide.

Since the 1970s, Americans have also moved further apart on matters of "political ideology," according to research published in June by University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica. Their work found that conservatives and liberals have become more sharply split on such issues as confidence in the government and social institutions, religious participation and stances on marriage, sex and abortion.

In Pennsylvania, many Democrats see the choices made by Trump as putting democracy itself at risk. Their fears stem in part from his administration's initial policy of separating refugee children from their parents and his seemingly deferential relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation interfered in the 2016 election, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

"What I'm hearing daily is fear amongst people as to whether their democracy is slipping away from them," said Nancy Mills, the Pennsylvania Democratic chairwoman. "I'm really hearing that more than anything else."

She then added, "This situation at the border was really a wake-up call and frightening."

Trump has described his crackdown on undocumented immigrants, refugees and his efforts to limit legal immigration as positive for the country. Yet the economic growth he promised would revitalize Beaver County may depend on its ability to attract immigrants as it did a century ago when the steel mills brought Germans, Italians and Eastern Europeans workers to the area.

Beaver County never fully recovered from the steel mill closures in the 1980s that caused the unemployment rate to spike at nearly 30 percent.

Many young workers with college degrees migrated east for Pittsburgh's technology and medical care jobs. The result of this population flight is that Beaver County is rapidly aging, with a median age of 44.8 years old, compared with 37.7 nationwide and 32.9 in Pittsburgh.

If the area weren't suffering from a dwindling population, employers say they would have more workers to hire and the county would have job gains rather than losses. Local business groups see the possibility of a vibrant future because the county sits atop a massive reserve of natural gas. On the banks of the Ohio River, an army of cranes are building a chemical plant that helps to convert the natural gas into plastic — a source of hundreds of jobs.

Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus recently sat in the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce's wood-paneled conference room as local business owners recounted their difficulties in finding workers. A local cafe struggled to hire bakers who could start the ovens at 3 a.m. The shopping mall manager found that higher pay did little to attract better job applicants.

A congressman since 2013, Rothfus bears the calm, bespectacled manner of a professor. He faces a tough re-election battle in Pennsylvania's newly created 17th District against Democrat Conor Lamb, who won a special election House victory earlier this year. Both Rothfus and Lamb's current districts were redrawn this year by court order.

Sitting outside a cafe before the chamber meeting, Rothfus said there was a clear path for generating job growth: Immigrants.

"You look at areas of the country that are really thriving — there's a significant immigrant population," he said. "We need to do a better job of attracting immigrants here. This place was built on immigrants."

But Rothfus has also been outspoken on the importance of tighter border security. A few weeks after the chamber meeting, he voted for a bill that, had it passed, would have imposed tougher border measures and likely curbed legal immigration.

When asked if voters would make their choice this November based on the health of the economy, Rothfus said, emphatically, yes. His belief is that the tax cuts and pullback on regulations by Trump would help give him an edge.

"I think you look at the choice we have: Do we want to have more government and higher taxes or more jobs and higher wages?" he said. "That's a pretty compelling argument."

As of now, Beaver County is still waiting on the job surge.

quote:

As a businessman, Donald Trump boasted of finishing buildings "under budget" and "ahead of schedule."

But when it comes to the president's most coveted construction project — the long-promised border wall — a government report Monday warned that the Department of Homeland Security risks blowing through its budget, not meeting key deadlines and that it may not work as planned.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, an internal government watchdog agency, found that DHS has not provided a complete analysis required to efficiently build the proposed barrier along the Mexico border — which could result in wasted taxpayer money.

"DHS plans to spend billions of dollars developing and deploying new barriers along the southwest border," the study said. "However, by proceeding without key information on cost, acquisition baselines, and the contributions of previous barrier and technology deployments, DHS faces an increased risk that the Border Wall System Program will cost more than projected, take longer than planned, or not fully perform as expected."

"Without assessing costs when prioritizing locations for future barriers, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) does not have complete information to determine whether it is using its limited resources in the most cost-effective manner and does not have important cost information that would help it develop future budget requests," the report continued.

The GAO's did not estimate how much money could be wasted.

SPOILER

The study also found that DHS has not properly documented plans for building a portion of the wall in San Diego. It recommended that "DHS analyze the costs associated with future barrier segments" and noted the department agreed with GAO's push for more scrutiny.

For Fact’s Sake: Trump’s Border Wall Is Not Actually Under Construction | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

Trump rooted his presidential campaign and early presidency in the idea that the southern border needed a concrete wall to secure American borders, which he said was overrun by crime and drugs. He repeatedly said Mexico would pay for it, although Mexico has refused.

Prototypes were completed last October and Trump toured them in March, declaring the prototypes superior to existing fencing.

The same month, legislators passed a spending bill that included $1.6 billion in border barrier funding. White House officials, however, have suggested the entire wall project could cost $8 billion to $12 billion, and internal DHS assessments suggest the cost could be even higher — as much as $21 billion.

In recent weeks, Trump has threatened to shut down the federal government this fall if Congress doesn't cough up more money for the border wall and change the nation's immigration laws. A proposed House homeland security spending bill would provide $5 billion in border wall funding, while a Senate version offers $1.6 billion.

quote:

Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 12:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Data shows a surprising campus free speech problem: left-wingers being fired for their opinions

Dit is ook wel een aardige. Men heeft een keertje onderzocht of de rechtsen nu echt zo onderdrukt worden. Maar dat lijkt dus niet het geval.

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 07:52 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

Ik heb even het artikel doorgenomen, alsmede de verdere verwijzingen, en dan krijg ik een wat genuanceerder beeld. Sowieso zijn dit soort claims heel moeilijk hard te maken, vanwege de nogal vage omschrijving, en het hoge subjectieve karakter.

Quote uit een gelinkt artikel op Medium https://medium.com/inform(...)ame-few-bda3105ad347:
Some disclaimers are warranted here: The selection of incidents documented on the Free Speech Tracker is by no means comprehensive and never will be. The results thus far are anecdotal, and despite efforts to avoid it, there could be a selection bias in the incidents chosen. And the classification of people whose expression is compromised as being on the “right” or the “left” may well be subjective and arbitrary.

Dan het "onderzoek" naar professoren die ontslagen zijn vanwege politieke voorkeur (ook al een erg schimmig en lastig te bepalen fenomeen) https://niskanencenter.or(...)ook-at-the-evidence/:
In het commentaar komt dezelfde strekking terug:
Concerning the firings of professors over speech all I can say is "Oh c'mon." First of all you make no attempt to figure out from what perspective "liberal" thought was being targeted. The only dimension you add is whether an institution was "religious" or not, religion being a stand-in for right of center thinking (a dubious contention for almost any Catholic institution for example). That is nonsense since many of the "liberal" firings were targeted by those espousing a further leftist worldview.

Also, in regards to the imbalance of left of center vs right of center voices on campus, you make it sound like there is a handful more left of center professors. That is simply dishonest. Even by the modest numbers of conservatives removed from campus in 2015 and 2016 represent an actual purge given their scarcity. If we were actually seeing a random distribution of firing results the 2017 numbers would seem more in line with the ideological distribution.

Additionally this report largely ignores the greatest threat to Free Speech on campus which arises not from the attitudes of students or from ideologically motivated faculty, but from university administrators. I'm not sure why they get a pass.

De laatste paragraaf is een nogal onderschat punt. Wanneer ik naar de excessen (je kunt dat géén incident meer noemen) kijk bij Evergreen college, dan is dat een duidelijke illustratie van wat er op bepaalde instituten mis is. Ik heb nog géén enkel geval gezien wat ook maar in de buurt komt van Evergreen, waarbij rechts de "boosdoener" is.

Dus samengevat:
- De verhouding tussen mensen met een "linkse" of "rechtse" achtergrond is niet gelijk, en daarvoor wordt niet gecorrigeerd.
- Waarom mensen ontslagen zijn is niet duidelijk genoeg omschreven. Gezien de nare gewoonte van regressief links om iedereen, die het niet met ze eens is, aan te vallen, is de kans groot dat ook "linkse" mensen zijn ontslagen, omdat ze niet "links" genoeg zijn. Ik denk bijvoorbeeld aan Bret Weinstein in de Evergreen affaire in deze.
- Er wordt géén duidelijk onderscheid gemaakt in de aard en intensiteit van de "incidenten". In welke gevallen gaat het om vermeende Twitter bedreigingen, versus daadwerkelijk fysiek geweld.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 09:46 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Het komt je niet goed uit?

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 00:01 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Intussen is Trump voor de verandering maar weer eens aan een serie feitenloze propaganda tweets begonnen.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 10:18 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Ik neem het onderzoek en de conclusie maar even voor waar aan tot een ander onderzoek het tegengestelde weet te bewijzen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 11:55 schreef Euribob het volgende:

[..]

Volgens mij is het gewoon gefundeerde kritiek van Drex, dat verdient een beter antwoord dan een jij-bak. Hou de discussie inhoudelijk en maak het niet persoonlijk.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 10:16 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Jij weet het in een paar uurtjes lezen beter dan wat onderzoekers?

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 11:59 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Hardstikke leuk voor je.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 01:41 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

RudyGiuliani twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 01:14:57 There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars and I hope this idiot is not a lawyer because if he is he should sue his Law School. reageer retweet

Rudy !

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 12:01 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

Als dit wetenschappelijk onderzoek zou zijn op het gebied van een "harde" wetenschap, dan zou je een punt hebben. Maar dat is niet waar we het hier over hebben. De "onderzoekers" geven zelf al enige vormen van voorbehoud aan (dat is wel netjes trouwens). Dat is een goed uitgangspunt voor discussie lijkt me.

Mijn voornaamste discussiepunt is wat men als incident beschouwt. Is dat geweld, "microagressions", tweets die mensen niet kunnen bekoren; waar ligt de grens? De "incidenten" die breed uit werden gemeten in de pers, waarbij geweld werd gebruikt, waren duidelijk aan één extreme kant van het spectrum te vinden.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 11:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Trump's oplossing voor bosbrand: kap alle bomen om.

Simpleton.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 13:35 schreef speknek het volgende:
Een aantal van Drexciyas nuanceringen zijn wel nuttig om te maken (ik weet niet zo goed wat het argument van het bestuur is, die is er toch bij gratie van de wetenschappers), maar het is hooguit een foutmarge, het slaat niet ineens de conclusie om, en het doet al helemaal niks aan de constatering dat er maar bij 16 van de 4600 universiteiten kleine incidenten zijn voorgevallen.

Dat is nog het meest vermoeiende aan het hijgerige nieuw rechtse internet. Complottheorien zien in minuscule incidenten. Omdat ik bijvoorbeeld zeg dat mijn intersectionele collega's soms best nuttige dingen zeggen, zijn de Nederlandse universiteiten ook al compleet omgeslagen en parochies van de extreem linkse identiteitspolitiek. Nou dan weet je niet hoe het er op een universiteit aan toe gaat. (Maar het is dan ook vaak gewoon angst voor mensen die doorgestudeerd hebben.)

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:17 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

Nu wil ik er eigenlijk niet te diep op ingaan, want dan gaan we nogal off-topic, maar de gang van zaken rond Evergreen is toch iets wat je niet als klein incident kunt zien. Effectief gezien namen extremisten de universiteit over, werden docenten bedreigd en zelfs gegijzeld (!). Als toegift werd de daders achteraf niets in de weg gelegd, wat tot de duidelijke conclusie leidt dat het bestuur van de universiteit dit, op zijn minst, heeft gefaciliteerd. Er zijn ook zeer duidelijke aanwijzingen dat bepaalde docenten studenten tegen andere docenten hebben opgezet.

Het bestuur is er bij gratie van de wetenschappers? Vraag dat eens aan Bret Weinstein. Hij kreeg weliswaar een afkoopsom (omdat hij een juridische procedure had aangespannen), maar hij (en zijn vrouw) kon vertrekken, niet de "studenten" die hem aan hebben gevallen. Dat is institutioneel falen in een notendop.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:17 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

Nu wil ik er eigenlijk niet te diep op ingaan, want dan gaan we nogal off-topic, maar de gang van zaken rond Evergreen is toch iets wat je niet als klein incident kunt zien. Effectief gezien namen extremisten de universiteit over, werden docenten bedreigd en zelfs gegijzeld (!). Als toegift werd de daders achteraf niets in de weg gelegd, wat tot de duidelijke conclusie leidt dat het bestuur van de universiteit dit, op zijn minst, heeft gefaciliteerd. Er zijn ook zeer duidelijke aanwijzingen dat bepaalde docenten studenten tegen andere docenten hebben opgezet.

Het bestuur is er bij gratie van de wetenschappers? Vraag dat eens aan Bret Weinstein. Hij kreeg weliswaar een afkoopsom (omdat hij een juridische procedure had aangespannen), maar hij (en zijn vrouw) kon vertrekken, niet de "studenten" die hem aan hebben gevallen. Dat is institutioneel falen in een notendop.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:31 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Is dat ergens ook niet gewoon de aloude Amerikaanse marktwerking? Als ik de verhalen zo las hadden ze al last van een dalend aantal studenten. Het bestuur kan er best op gegokt hebben dat dergelijke controverse een verder negatief effect zou hebben, al lijkt in de praktijk het tegendeel nu het geval te zijn.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:36 schreef speknek het volgende:

[..]

Gaat Evergreen over dat Day of Absence gebeuren? Dat is compleet verkeerd uitgelegd in rechtse media.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:36 schreef speknek het volgende:

[..]

Gaat Evergreen over dat Day of Absence gebeuren? Dat is compleet verkeerd uitgelegd in rechtse media. Maar goed, stel dat het een compleet doorgeschoten broeinest van links extremisten is, die mensen gegijzeld hebben en er een puinzooi van racisme van maken. Dat is niet zo, maar stel... dan is dat een, één, vrij betekenisloze kleine college. Plekken als Yale en Harvard, megauniversiteiten met begrotingen waar kleine landen jaloers op zijn, zijn bijzonder classistisch waar oud geld de wereld beheerst, en in groepjes als skulls and bones Bushes worden grootgebracht, maar het kleine Evergreen College in Washington State is het voorland van extreem links academisch verval.
Okay.

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Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 14:41 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

In het door jou aangehaalde artikel wordt over een beperkte daling gesproken in het toenmalige studiejaar (waarin de boel escaleerde), maar een grotere daling in het jaar erop. Dat is niet wat jij er uithaalt.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 15:30 schreef drexciya het volgende:
Mijns inziens is de manier waarop met de erfenis van 2008 is omgegaan, één van de redenen dat Trump president geworden is.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 16:21 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Leg eens uit.

President Trump Administration Planning Policy To Limit Legal Immigration | Morning Joe | MSNBC

quote:

The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare, four sources with knowledge of the plan told NBC News.

The move, which would not need congressional approval, is part of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller's plan to limit the number of migrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year.

Details of the rulemaking proposal are still being finalized, but based on a recent draft seen last week and described to NBC News, immigrants living legally in the U.S. who have ever used or whose household members have ever used Obamacare, children's health insurance, food stamps and other benefits could be hindered from obtaining legal status in the U.S.

Immigration lawyers and advocates and public health researchers say it would be the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades and estimate that more than 20 million immigrants could be affected. They say it would fall particularly hard on immigrants working jobs that don't pay enough to support their families.

SPOILER

Many are like Louis Charles, a Haitian green-card holder seeking citizenship who, despite working up to 80 hours a week as a nursing assistant, has had to use public programs to support his disabled adult daughter.

Using some public benefits like Social Security Insurance has already hindered immigrants from obtaining legal status in the past, but the programs included in the recent draft plan could mean that immigrant households earning as much as 250 percent of the poverty level could be rejected.

A version of the plan has been sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the sources said, the final step before publishing a rule in the federal register. Reuters first reported that the White House was considering such a plan in February.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said: "The administration is committed to enforcing existing immigration law, which is clearly intended to protect the American taxpayer by ensuring that foreign nationals seeking to enter or remain in the U.S are self-sufficient. Any proposed changes would ensure that the government takes the responsibility of being good stewards of taxpayer funds seriously and adjudicates immigration benefit requests in accordance with the law."

Miller, along with several of his former congressional colleagues who now hold prominent positions in the Trump administration, have long sought to decrease the number of immigrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year. And even before the rule is in place, the administration has made it more difficult for immigrants to gain green cards and for green-card holders to gain citizenship.

In fiscal year 2016, the last full fiscal year under the Obama administration, 1.2 million immigrants became lawful permanent residents, or green-card holders, and 753,060 became naturalized U.S. citizens, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Data from the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 indicates that the administration is on track for a decline in immigrants granted green cards by 20 percent and naturalized citizenship will drop by 10 percent by the end of October compared to fiscal year 2016.

Four immigration lawyers practicing in Massachusetts, Virginia, Tennessee and California told NBC News they have noticed a spike in the number of their clients being rejected when seeking green cards and naturalized citizenship.

In a statement, agency spokesperson Michael Bars said, "USCIS evaluates all applications fairly, efficiently and effectively on a case-by-case basis."

“Contrary to open borders advocates, immigration attorneys and activists," said Bars, "USCIS has not changed the manner in which applications for naturalization have been adjudicated, as the law generally requires that an eligible applicant must have been properly admitted for permanent residence in order to become a U.S. citizen. ... We reject the false and inaccurate claims of those who would rather the U.S. turn a blind eye to cases of illegal immigration, fraud, human trafficking, gang activity and drug proliferation at the expense of public safety, the integrity of our laws and their faithful execution."

"I DID EVERYTHING THEY ASKED ME"

Charles, the Haitian green-card holder who works as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital near Boston, said he was stunned to learn his application for citizenship had been denied. He had used a fake passport given to him by smugglers when he entered the U.S. from Haiti in 1989, but confessed to border officers and received a waiver from USCIS absolving him of his wrongdoing and allowing him to obtain a green card in 2011.

Now 55, Charles is a homeowner and a taxpayer and thought obtaining citizenship would be a smooth process. "I thought in this country everything was square and fair," Charles said.

But when he went for his citizenship interview in August 2017, the USCIS officers told him they were going to revisit the decision to waive the fake passport incident, meaning he could potentially lose his green card as well.

Then he received a letter in September telling him his request for citizenship had been denied.

"I was devastated. And I'm not sure exactly why they did it. I did everything they asked me to."

He appealed the decision, but as he waits for a final verdict, his lawyer says his green-card status may also now be in question.

In late November, the Trump administration announced they would end temporary protected status for Haitians who came to the U.S. after the deadly 2010 earthquake. Charles's wife was a recipient of that protection and without him becoming a citizen, he would be unable to vouch for her.

But Charles's biggest concern is his daughter. Although she is in her 20s and a U.S. citizen, she has severe disabilities that make it impossible for her to live by herself.

Charles is unaware of Miller's new plan to limit citizenship for immigrants who have used public assistance. But it is likely to affect him because he has used public assistance to help care for his daughter, so she could end up further hurting his chances for citizenship.

Though its effects could be far-reaching, the proposal to limit citizenship to immigrants who have not used public assistance does not appear to need congressional approval. As the Clinton administration did in 1999, the Trump administration would be redefining the term "public charge," which first emerged in immigration law in the 1800s in order to shield the U.S. from burdening too many immigrants who could not contribute to society.

Rosemary Jenks, executive vice president of NumbersUSA, which promotes limited immigration, said the new rule and the increased scrutiny around green card and citizenship applications are all part of a new focus at DHS on enforcing the law and preventing fraud.

"Applications for renewal or adjustment of status that have been filed with the government before are being re-examined to look for fraud," Jenks said.

How ICE has led to an immigration tragedy: The Atlantic

In light of this, immigration attorneys are cautioning their clients before moving from green-card status to citizenship.

Rose Hernandez is the supervising attorney at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition's naturalization clinic. She said the clinic's model has completely changed in light of the crackdown. She now sends six information requests to government agencies to check on green-card holders' backgrounds before she advises them to file for citizenship. If the government finds something she doesn't, the fear is the applicants could lose their green cards and be sent home.

And other immigration attorneys are preparing to push back fiercely against the public charge rule.

"Any policy forcing millions of families to choose between the denial of status and food or health care would exacerbate serious problems such as hunger, unmet health needs, child poverty and homelessness, with lasting consequences for families' wellbeing and long-term success and community prosperity," said the National Immigration Law Center in a statement.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 18:06 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Voor de liefhebbers: vanavond special election in OH-12. Resultaten vanaf 1:30 Nederlandse tijd.

Het is een pure toss-up, maar de Republikeinse kandidaat heeft op het nippertje nog een slippertje gemaakt door een county waar 1/3e van de stemmen vandaan gaan komen te gaan trashen. Ben benieuwd.

twitter:

dannyoconnor1 twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 03:47:16 The @Troy_Balderson video from tonight: "We don’t want someone from Franklin County representing us." https://t.co/3d7Q63NzZP reageer retweet

Balderson: We don’t want someone from Franklin County representing us

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 18:28 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

dannyoconnor1 twitterde op dinsdag 07-08-2018 om 03:47:16 The @Troy_Balderson video from tonight: "We don’t want someone from Franklin County representing us." https://t.co/3d7Q63NzZP reageer retweet

Balderson: We don’t want someone from Franklin County representing us

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 18:41 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Eerst de hele staat kapot gerrymanderen zodat keutelboeren samen met stadslui in een district terecht komen, en dan vervolgens gaan klagen dat die stadslui ook mee willen doen.

quote:

[..]

Then came the election of Donald Trump. Suddenly, in the warehouses where many of the Mauritanians worked, white colleagues took them aside and warned them that their lives were likely to get worse. The early days of the administration gave substance to these cautions. The first thing to change was the frequency of their summonses to ice. During the Obama administration, many of the Mauritanians had been required to “check in” about once a year. Abruptly, ice instructed them to appear more often, some of them every month. ice officers began visiting their homes on occasion. Like the cable company, they would provide a six-hour window during which to expect a visit—a requirement that meant days off from work and disrupted life routines. The Mauritanians say that when they met with ice, they were told the U.S. had finally persuaded their government to readmit them—a small part of a global push by the State Department to remove any diplomatic obstacles to deportation.

[..]

Fear and Anxiety at Refugee Road

SPOILER

Rick Gates resumed his testimony Tuesday morning by explaining how and why Paul Manafort was paid for his work in Ukraine through companies in Cyprus.

“He indicated that the Ukrainian businessmen wanted us to set up Cyprus bank accounts,” Gates testified, because the Ukranian businessmen already had accounts there and could easily wire money that way.

He named wealthy politicians who paid Manafort through Cypriot accounts, including Borys Kolesnikov, who was minister of transportation in the pro-Russian Party of Regions when Viktor Yanukovych was president; and Serhiy Lovochkin, who was Yanukovych’s chief of staff.

Telmar Investments, the source of payments to Manafort that accountant Cindy Laporta testified were disguised as income, was controlled by Lovochkin, Gates testified.

Gates explained that he and Manafort would work out consultancy agreements and a payment structure with the billionaires backing the Party of Regions. Manafort or another employee, Konstantin Kilimnik, would draft an agreement that would be approved by their Cypriot law firm.

That same firm, Chrysostomides, helped set up their Cypriot bank accounts, he said.

A “Georgia Chrysostomides” signed a loan forgiveness letter Laporta testified was fraudulently drafted by Gates.

Gates also testified that some of the payments were for a “lobbying campaign in the U.S. and the U.K.” — an issue not in this case but in Washington, D.C., federal court, where Manafort is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent.

The courtroom is packed with spectators today, many of whom lined up as early as 6 a.m. to see Gates testify. Prosecutor Greg Andres said he expected to question Manafort’s business partner for another three or four hours.

SPOILER

Paul Manafort’s former business partner, Rick Gates, essentially gave the jury a tutorial on the use of shell companies, walking through a series of consultancy agreements used by Manafort during his work in Ukraine.

Powerful Ukrainian businessmen would set up a company in Cyprus and use that company to pay a different company set up by Manafort in Cyprus. But neither the businessmen nor Manafort would sign the documents governing the payments. Instead, paid Cypriot directors signed for both sides.

“Did these companies sell a product?” prosecutor Greg Andres asked Gates.

“No,” he replied.

“Did they have any employees?” Andres asked.

“No,” Gates repeated. “The purposes of the companies was to accept payments and to make payments.”

Gates walked through a series of such agreements — one directing that Manafort be paid $1.1 million, another showing that he was paid 3 million euros.

Gates told the jury that neither Manafort’s bookkeepers nor the company that prepared his taxes were made aware of the companies.

Andres also showed Gates an example of a loan agreement between two of Manafort’s Cypriot entities. Asked the purpose of the loan, Gates responded: “At the time, I believe [Manafort] was trying to decrease the amount of taxable income for that particular tax year.”

All of the testimony goes to the heart of the prosecution’s case, which alleges that Manafort accepted millions in payments through his offshore companies without disclosing the accounts to the IRS and that he disguised some income as loans to avoid paying taxes on it.

Gates then explained that Manafort’s fees rose to $4 million, then 4 million euros after Viktor Yanukovych took office and Manafort’s company served as policy advisers to his new government. But after Yanukovych lost power, Gates told the jury that Manafort’s fees began to dry up.

He said Manafort worked for a time for the Opposition Bloc, the party that replaced Yanukovych’s Party of Regions after popular protests caused Yanukovych to flee to Russia in 2014. But he said the new party was out of power, which meant it had less access to cash to pay Manafort and his team.

Gates said that Manafort’s last payment in Ukraine came in late 2014. This is key because prosecutors argue that it was the end of Manafort’s Ukrainian fees that caused him to turn to bank fraud to find revenue to support his lavish lifestyle.

SPOILER

The overarching narrative of prosecutors’ case is that after Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power and Paul Manafort’s money ran dry, the political operative turned to fraud to maintain his lavish lifestyle. Rick Gates, who worked with Manafort for Yanukovych, testified about their financial woes Tuesday.

By Gates’s account, the income streams became more “difficult to come by” after Yanukovych’s ouster, and their effort to create work through a new Ukrainian political party, called the Opposition Bloc, was not completely successful. While the party won a few seats in Parliament, Gates testified it never achieved power, and sometimes it did not fully pay Manafort’s bills.

Prosecutors showed jurors an August 2015 email sent to Gates about payments from the opposition bloc, which were overdue. Manafort, Gates testified, was “upset” because their previous financial situation was “substantially decreased.”

Gates wore a blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie to court Tuesday. He continued to speak swiftly — though perhaps more confidently than he did a day earlier — and never looked at Manafort. For his part, Manafort stared at his former business partner throughout the testimony.

SPOILER

Much of the prosecution’s case will hinge on its ability to connect Paul Manafort and his Ukrainian benefactors to various accounts and companies that were set up intentionally to disguise their involvement. In his early testimony Tuesday, Rick Gates connected his former boss to many of those accounts, and he pulled back the curtain on how they were created.

Gates testified that he and Manafort used a Cypriot lawyer, who he referred to in court as “Dr. K,” and that lawyer’s firm to open various accounts. The firm, Gates testified, “handled everything,” and Gates and Manafort had no interaction with the bank.

“I believe [Manafort] understood his name would not be represented, nor would mine,” Gates said.

Gates said they set up various accounts to accept payments from the Ukrainian businessmen for whom they worked. Those businessmen routed the payments through companies that similarly disguised their involvement. At one point, Gates said, when Manafort learned that his name was connected to an account, he grew concerned. Gates, too, said he asked for his own name to be removed from an account to which it was connected.

The arrangement created some challenges. Gates testified at one point the men encountered trouble with their Cyprus accounts, so they moved money — again using Dr. K’s law firm — to accounts in the Grenadines.

Importantly for prosecutors, Gates made clear that no matter the name on the accounts, they were ultimately controlled by Manafort. Jurors were shown one 2011 email in which Manafort explicitly approved a money transfer from one of the accounts to his company, DMP International. Among the charges Manafort faces is failing to report foreign bank accounts.

SPOILER

Rick Gates testified that he and Paul Manafort were asked to come in for voluntary interviews as part of a joint FBI and Ukrainian “forfeiture investigation” in 2014. His understanding was that neither he nor Manafort were under investigation.

Gates said he was interviewed first and asked about their work in Ukraine. At that point he said most of their Cypriot accounts were already closed.

He said Manafort asked him to meet with Serhiy Lyovochkin to “notify him and determine the status of his Ukrainian company” because a lot of their payments came from him.

“We didn’t know a lot about” the company, Gates said. They met Lyovochkin in France, he said, and he answered their questions. He also agreed to start paying Manafort through one bank rather than through international wire transfers, Gates said.

SPOILER

Rick Gates explained several apparently fake invoices from vendors who did work for Paul Manafort: He created those for banks in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

When Manafort moved his banking from Cyprus to the Grenadines, Gates explained, they required more documentation. “They asked for invoices” that had the name of the companies Manafort was using on them, Gates said. So at Manafort’s direction, he would make a “modified invoice.”

“The payment was legitimate,” he said. But “it had to have the name of the company itself” — and the vendors hadn’t provided those.

He said he took the information on the invoices from Manafort — suggesting any typos were his boss’s fault. The vendors never actually saw those invoices.

Gates said he directed wire transfers for Manafort from overseas companies to House of Bijan, Alan Couture, New Leaf Landscaping, Big Picture Solutions and other vendors. But he bought no fancy suits himself and no home renovation or upkeep services. He has never been to Manafort’s Bridgehampton home, he said.

He said Manafort directed him to make the payments and to hide them from bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn.

“The U.S. payments were reported to Ms. Washkuhn, the overseas ones were not,” he said. “It was in essence diminishing the amount of money that would have been represented on the U.S. tax returns.”

Gates also wired payments to himself — sometimes with Manafort’s authorization, sometimes not.

SPOILER

Rick Gates has resumed the stand after a midmorning break at the trial of Paul Manafort.

Gates told the jury that he helped coordinate with the accountants who prepared Paul Manafort’s taxes on Manafort’s annual filings. He said that he and Manafort would strategize how to reduce Manafort’s overall tax liability by classifying some income as loans.

He said too that he and Manafort had discussions over the years about whether Manafort’s overseas accounts needed to be disclosed. This is a key point to the prosecutors’ case because it is illegal to knowingly fail to disclose such accounts to the IRS.

Prosecutors wish to show that Manafort was not just confused but actively hid the accounts. Gates testified that Manafort would tell him that because a Cypriot lawyer they referred to as “Dr. K” has signatory authority of the accounts, he did not believe they needed to be disclosed to the professional accountants.

Prosecutor Greg Andres asked Gates who actually had control over those accounts.

“[Manafort] always had control,” Gates replied.

“And whose money was in those accounts?” Andres continued.

“Mr. Manafort’s money,” Gates replied.

The defense has argued that Manafort largely left control of his financial matters to Gates, suggesting that any financial problems were the fault of Gates, not Manafort. But prosecutors have now introduced agendas that Manafort wrote to guide conversations between he and Gates on the phone and in person.

They included conversations about Manafort’s taxes and bills. The agendas appear to show that Manafort had active involvement in these matters.

One of the agendas included a stray reference to Trump, an indication that Yankees tickets bought by Manafort should go to Trump. The name appeared on an exhibit that was displayed in court, causing reporters’ eyes to snap to screens displaying the document around the court.

It was unclear what, exactly, the reference meant, and prosecutors did not ask Gates. Manafort owns an apartment in Trump Tower, and the reference could merely have been a direction that tickets Manafort had purchased should be sent to his Trump Tower unit.

Gates has been testifying in a clear, matter-of-fact voice. Wearing a navy-blue suit, white shirt and a sky-blue tie, he appears calm and has shed any nerves he had when he first took the stand Monday.

He carefully addresses his answers directly to Andres, keeping his eyes away from where Manafort sits at the defense table. Manafort periodically leans over to whisper to his attorneys but spends long stretches staring directly at his former business partner.

SPOILER

Jurors have heard Paul Manafort’s accountant testify about how Manafort recorded what she believed were fictitious loans on his taxes to reduce the amount he’d have to pay the IRS. She said Manafort’s business partner, Rick Gates, was intimately involved in that effort.

On Tuesday, jurors heard Gates’s account of what happened — and how it all occurred at Manafort’s direction.
Prosecutors showed jurors a familiar 2015 email in which one of Manafort’s accountants told Gates that to reduce a tax bill Manafort was facing, they would have to claim that Manafort had an outstanding loan. Gates told jurors that he had been “tasked” by Manafort with initiating the exchange because Manafort was upset about the taxes he would have to pay.

“We needed to determine how we could lower the taxes,” Gates said.

Jurors did not just have to take Gates’s word for it. They were shown an email in which Manafort, confronted with an outline of what he might have to pay in taxes, wrote “WTF,” an expression that commonly denotes dismay. Gates said Manafort was “not happy.”

Jurors have heard that a $900,000 loan from Telmar Investments was listed on Manafort’s taxes for 2014, and Manafort’s accountant thought it was suspicious. Asked whether the $900,000 was such a loan, Gates was more explicit.

“It was not,” he said.

Asked why he had told Manafort’s tax preparers about the payment, Gates responded, “Mr. Manafort’s direction.”

SPOILER

There has been no significant discussion of Paul Manafort’s work on the Trump campaign so far at the trial, which is largely by design. The charges mostly concern the period before he worked for Trump, and the parties were told to steer clear of any mention of possible collusion with the Russians, as that isn’t relevant to the case.

But Rick Gates — without using Trump’s name — referenced the campaign work Tuesday.

Gates was describing how in 2015 and 2016, Manafort’s once-lucrative work in Ukraine had dried up, and his company was in dire financial straits. He said the company, DMP International, did not acquire any new clients in 2015, and to his knowledge was not earning income in 2016.

In March of that year, Gates said, he went to work for “one of the presidential campaigns.” Manafort, Gates said, hired him. We know that campaign was Trump’s, though Gates did not say the president’s name, and there was no further discussion of that work.

But Gates did offer more description of Manafort’s company’s situation at that time. He said he was one of two employees working for Manafort in the company, which paid its bills via Manafort’s “savings and investment accounts.” He said that in 2015 and 2016, vendors with which the company had worked reached out “indicating the bills had not been paid.”

Around that time, Gates testified, Manafort began applying for loans, and Gates said he altered some documents — including a profits and loss statement — for his boss. In at least one instance, he said, he did so by converting a PDF to a word document.

SPOILER

Rick Gates is now testifying that he gave a bank fraudulent home insurance documents at Paul Manafort’s request, so that his boss could get a loan from Citizens Bank.

Manafort had told a representative from the bank that he had no mortgage on a townhouse he owned in Brooklyn, Gates explained. But when the bank first got documents from insurance broker Donna Duggan, they showed that there was a mortgage on the home.

Manafort had bought the house with $3 million in cash, but then got loans against the property from Genesis Capital — also fraudulently, according to prosecutors.

So Gates said that at Manafort’s direction, he asked Duggan for the older insurance policy showing no mortgage on the home and sent that to Citizens Bank.

“Mr. Manafort asked me to submit the prior year’s policy,” Gates testified.

Duggan is one of four remaining witnesses who could testify under immunity from prosecution.

Gates said he also gave Citizens Bank false information about a condo Manafort owned in Lower Manhattan, saying it was a second home when it was not.

“He was looking for the most favorable terms in the mortgage interest rate,” Gates explained, and calling the rental property a second home would help.

Again, Gates said he was told by Manafort to lie to the bank.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 20:37 schreef vigen98 het volgende:
https://www.washingtonpos(...)m_term=.9bd6ab6f8bbc


A carbon tax could be a time bomb for the left

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 11:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Trump's oplossing voor bosbrand: kap alle bomen om.

Simpleton.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 20:14 schreef AnneX het volgende:
Dank Kijkertje.

SPOILER

Rick Gates has now testified to helping Paul Manafort defraud banks while seeking loans in 2016 in a second way. Gates said the bank flagged that Manafort’s income was not sufficient to support the loans. To increase his income for the year, Gates testified he and Manafort agreed to have one of Manafort’s companies, Peranova Ltd., forgive a loan that had been reported as previously made to Manafort.

Essentially, in an earlier year, when Manafort wanted to show lower income for tax purposes, he falsely called the Peranova income a loan. But in 2016, when he needed to show higher income to qualify for the loan, Gates testified that they agreed Peranova would forgive the loan, resulting in the money being reclassified as income.

In fact, the loan had never been real and had never been forgiven, so Gates said he created a loan forgiveness document in February 2016 on behalf of Peranova and backdated it to July 23, 2015. That made it appear that the loan had been forgiven in the previous year. He then sent the document to accountant Cindy Laporta, with the intention that it be provided to the bank to help Manafort qualify for the loan.

Prosecutor Greg Andres went through emails exchanged between Gates and Laporta on the topic, showing each place where Manafort was copied. Andres was demonstrating to the jury that Manafort was fully involved in the plan to reclassify the loan as income and backdate the loan forgiveness document.

Before breaking for lunch, Andres told Judge Ellis that he anticipates questioning Gates for about another hour. On questioning from the judge, he said he continues to anticipate that the prosecution will rest its case against Manafort by the end of the week.

SPOILER

Rick Gates took the stand again after the lunch break, describing for jurors a 2016 effort he undertook to edit a profit-and-loss statement to help Paul Manafort get a loan.

In March 2016, Gates testified, Manafort was seeking a loan from the Banc of California, but needed to show that his business was making enough income so that he would qualify. The pair had a profit-and-loss statement that showed about $400,000 in income, but that was far below what the business had made previously. Gates testified that he then set out to edit it, and made clear from whom that instruction came.

“Who directed you to alter it,” prosecutor Greg Andres asked.

“Mr. Manafort,” Gates responded.

The effort he undertook looked almost amateurish as it was exposed in its full detail by emails shown to jurors. Gates first asked Manafort’s bookkeeper for a word document of the statement, and when she said she could not provide that, he asked her for an “original” PDF. The bookkeeper balked, saying her system only allowed her to print a statement and scan it.

Gates testified that he wanted to add income to the statement, and the scanned document “was in no position to be able to be edited.”

Gates ultimately got the profits and loss statement from another person at the bookkeeper’s firm, and he tried to get her to add $2.6 million he said Manafort expected to receive later that year. When that apparently failed, he edited the document himself, adding what he testified was $6 million in income.

“Was it accurate?” Andres asked.

“It was not,” Gates responded.

“Was it false?” Andres continued.

“Yes,” Gates said.

SPOILER

Having testified that he altered Davis Manafort Partners’ 2015 Profit & Loss Statement at Paul Manafort’s direction, Rick Gates went on to say his boss similarly doctored his 2016 statement to obtain a different loan.

In October 2016, Gates said he sent Manafort a bookkeeper’s Profit & Loss Statement in PDF format from 2016 through June.

In an email shown in court, Manafort responded, “How do I convert into non-PDF Word document?”

Gates responded, “I can do it and will send to you.”

Asked why Manafort would want a Word document version of the statement, Gates gave the obvious answer: “He is going to make some sort of change to it.”

In the email, he told his boss, “Here you go, it’s a Word document now.”

In a subsequent email, in all capital letters, Manafort wrote: “I HAVE ATTACHED A REVISED P&L. PLEASE REVIEW IT AND CALL ME TO DISCUSS THIS AND OTHER MATTERS.”

The original statement from bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn showed that the firm had lost more than $600,000 that year. The statement Manafort sent back to Gates showed a profit of about $3 million.

It’s “about $4.2 million” off from reality, Gates testified.

Manafort sent that doctored statement to Federal Savings Bank, another email shows.

SPOILER

Some of the only direct references to President Trump and his campaign at the trial of Paul Manafort just occurred. Rick Gates testified that Manafort resigned as the campaign’s chairman in August 2016, but that he remained, continuing to work for the campaign.

After Trump’s election, Gates went to work for the committee organizing Trump’s inauguration.

Prosecutor Greg Andres showed Gates emails from Manafort, which showed that Gates’s former boss requested that Gates use his position in the Trump campaign to offer a series of favors to Stephen Calk, the founder and CEO of Federal Savings Bank, one of the banks that extended Manafort a loan in 2016.

First, Calk’s name was added to a list of national economic advisers to the campaign. Then, in November 2016, Manafort wrote Gates: “We need to discuss Steve Calk for Sec of the Army. I hear the list is being considered this weekend,” indicating that wanted Gates’s help getting Calk considered by the presidential transition for the job.

Then, in December 2016, Manafort wrote Gates an email he marked “urgent,” listing people Manafort wanted to be invited to Trump’s inauguration in January. Included on the list were Calk and his son.

Gates testified that Manafort was so hard up for cash that he was having trouble paying for the Yankees season tickets that he had held since 2006.

Gates said Manafort asked whether his former business partner would do him a “favor,” and write a letter claiming that he, Gates, was responsible for purchasing the tickets.

Gates said he had not purchased the tickets himself, though he has acknowledged previously that he occasionally used Manafort’s seats. He said the purchase was causing Manafort a credit card debt of nearly $225,000, and the letter was meant to alleviate that debt.

Prosecutors have finished their questioning of Gates. Defense attorneys will begin questioning him at 2:45 p.m.

SPOILER

Defense attorney Kevin Downing, who has been an affable presence in court thus far, even when cross-examining government witnesses, came out swinging against their star cooperator Rick Gates.

“When did you start providing false and misleading information to the special counsel’s office?” he asked.

Gates pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C., federal court to doing just that. But as he did earlier, he seemed to waver on whether he actually lied or simply misspoke about a meeting Manafort took with a U.S. congressman.

“There were instances when I struggled in interviews” with details, he said. “I struggled to get all the information out, to some extent.”

Judge Ellis interjected to clarify that he had pleaded guilty to lying — “I did, to one count, your honor,” Gates acknowledged.

Downing asked whether special counsel attorney Andrew Weissmann told Gates that he had “no chance of getting a plea agreement” after learning that he had lied. Gates said no, he just had to agree to plead guilty to the false statement charge as well as conspiracy.

“You knowingly and intentionally lied?” Downing asked.

“Uh . . . yes,” Gates finally said. But he added, “I provided false information to the special counsel’s office prior to my plea agreement,” not after. In his many sessions preparing for trial, he said, he told the truth.

Downing also emphasized that if they are satisfied with Gates’s cooperation, prosecutors will not object to his lawyer’s request for a probationary sentence.

He then began to drill down into Gates’s testimony, implying that given his history and motivations, everything he has said is suspect.

SPOILER

In the middle of other queries, Manafort defense attorney Kevin Downing suddenly veered in a different direction: “There was another Richard Gates, isn’t that right?” he asked. “A secret Richard Gates?” he asked.

Before even being asked the question directly, Gates, in a quiet, strained voice, told Downing that it was true — he said about 10 years ago, he had “another relationship.” In other words, he had had an extramarital affair.

Downing asked Gates whether his secret life had taken place in London. Gates acknowledged that the relationship had taken him to London and other places.

“As part of your secret life, did you have a flat? Is that what they call an apartment in London?” Downing asked.

Gates acknowledged that, yes, for about two months he had kept a separate apartment in London. He agreed that he had also flown first-class and stayed in luxury hotels as part his relationship.

Gates testified that he had used money embezzled from Manafort to help fund his relationship. Downing asked him to agree that he had spent as much as $3 million for this purpose. Gates said he believed the figure was lower, but, again, agreed that he had taken money from Manafort without his permission.

SPOILER

As defense attorney Kevin Downing vigorously questioned Rick Gates about all the ways in which he had stolen money from Manafort and others, Gates made a notable confession, acknowledging that it was possible he had submitted personal expenses to President Trump’s inaugural committee for reimbursement.

Gates said the process for seeking reimbursement was well overseen, but he conceded that he might have gotten paid for something he shouldn’t have.

“Did you submit personal expenses to the inaugural committee for reimbursement?” Downing asked in the middle of a heated exchange on the topic.

“It’s possible,” Gates conceded.

SPOILER

Defense attorney Kevin Downing seemed intent early in his cross examination of Rick Gates to drive home a theme.

Rick Gates repeatedly took advantage of Manafort when it came to money, and he lied about it so frequently that it was now difficult to sort fact from fiction.

Downing, for example, pressed Gates on an investment he made in a high-frequency trading company Manafort had started with another partner in 2011. Gates told Downing that $250,000 of the money was his, because it was a bonus from Manafort. Downing asked, hadn’t he already received a $240,000 salary, plus a $60,000 bonus from Manafort that year? And were there any emails to support that Manafort was still giving him another $250,000?

Gates said the money was a bonus, though he said he didn’t believe there were any emails to support his claim.
Downing then presented Gates with some sort of document showing money transfers from 2010 to 2014, some of them large dollar amounts out of Cypriot accounts. Gates acknowledged that the list included “unauthorized transfers.” But as Downing pressed him on which transfers were unauthorized, and how much money he obtained inappropriately, Gates repeatedly said he could not say.

It was possible that the problem was the document Downing presented. Gates said at one point he could not provide an “exact breakdown” based on “the sheet you gave me.” But the line of questioning also prompted him to say repeatedly that he did not “recall” the money transfers to which Downing was referring, and which Downing claimed the special counsel had previously asked Gates about.

Downing pointed out that Gates’s memory was much clearer when a prosecutor was the one doing the questioning.

“Have they confronted you with so many lies you can’t remember any of it?” Downing asked.

SPOILER

As he did yesterday, Rick Gates has assiduously avoided looking at Manafort during today’s testimony. Manafort has occasionally stared up at Gates, but he has also frequently looked at monitors showing documents, or occasionally just off into the courtroom.

Manafort’s demeanor during the day seemed somewhat changed from when his business partner first took the stand and Manafort stared intently in that direction.

As cross examination of Gates began, though, Manafort resumed staring at Gates

SPOILER

As soon as Kevin Downing tried to ask Rick Gates whether “other members of the special counsel’s office” had asked about his time on the Trump campaign, prosecutors objected.

A bench conference ensued, and Judge Ellis abruptly announced a half-hour break.

Before that, Gates agreed that if he had been indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on bank and tax fraud charges, he would have faced a “quite significant” sentence, “in excess of 50 to 100 years.”

Downing said it would be up to 290 years; Gates did not recall that number.

Downing also accused Gates of falsely using money from Manafort’s firm to take trips to Las Vegas, buy sound equipment and shop at Whole Foods in Richmond. Gates said he did spend firm money on those things but that he did not believe it came from offshore accounts. The Vegas trips were for his movie production venture, he said, not for fun.

It was in connection to that venture that Gates said he wrote a false letter claiming his company would be investing a large sum of money in his friend Steve Brown’s movie project.

“I did it as a favor,” Gates said.

“You committed fraud as a favor?” Downing asked skeptically.

“I did, I admitted to that,” Gates responded.

But he said he did not recall saying or being confronted with any accusation that he took money from Brown as well.

He did acknowledge receiving a letter from the SEC about an investigation into insider trading as part of his position on the board of an identity-theft protection firm called ID Watchdog. But he said he did not retain a lawyer at that point, nor was he told by the special counsel that he might be prosecuted.

Downing jumped around with his accusations, and it was not always clear whether Gates was reluctant to admit wrongdoing or genuinely confused. But the broader point being made was clear: Gates has been involved in a lot of questionable business activity.

SPOILER

Earlier in the day, Rick Gates testified about how he used to create fake invoices at times to submit to offshore banks to get them to wire funds to Paul Manafort to support Manafort’s lifestyle. Now he has testified that he would at times use the same process to cause banks to wire money from an account belonging to Manafort to a company controlled by Gates himself.

Manafort’s defense attorney, Kevin Downing, walked Gates through a series of such wire transfers. In one case, Gates testified that he submitted a false invoice for “professional services” to an offshore bank to get it to transfer $65,000 from Global Endeavor Inc. into a company called Jemina, and from there into Gates’s own account.

In another instance, Gates submitted a false invoice to cause Global Endeavor to transfer $125,000 into a different company called Bade LLC, which Gates also controlled.

Gates tripped up as he explained the reason for these transfers, repeatedly agreeing that some of the money was unauthorized but also that some was to reimburse him for business expenses, and some were bonuses from Manafort.

Downing asked pointedly why would Gates have called these transfers reimbursements for expenses. With that opening, Gates offered remorse to the jury. “I was, in essence, living beyond my means,” he said.

“It was a difficult time,” he went on. “I regret it, clearly. I’m taking responsibility for it. I made a mistake.”

Downing responded, “Was it for your secret life?”

Gates responded: “It’s not a secret life. It went to an account my wife knew about.”

SPOILER

In one of the most tense exchanges yet during his cross examination, Rick Gates compared his situation directly with that of his former business partner, suggesting that he had taken responsibility for his actions, while Manafort chose to fight at trial.

The comment came in the midst of a heated exchange with defense attorney Kevin Downing. Downing had just finished questioning Gates about what seemed to be foreign money that was not reported. Downing suggested that was because Manafort’s accounting firm advised that it need not be reported, though Gates fired back that it was because the firm did not have complete information.

“At Mr. Manafort’s request, he asked me not to disclose the other foreign bank accounts,” Gates said.

Downing then asked Gates about the records he had to support his assertions about Manafort. Gates responded, “a lot of our communication occurred verbally,” though he asserted that there as a “strong record” to support his account of conversations the two men had. Downing continued to spar with Gates, and questioned whether the jury could believe what he was saying.

“After all the lies you’ve told and fraud you’ve committed, you expect this jury to believe you?” Downing asked.

“Yes,” Gates responded flatly.

The two men continued to talk over one another, and Gates remarked, “I’m here to tell the truth.”

That’s when his commentary turned to Manafort.

“Mr. Manafort had the same path,” Gates said. “I’m here.”

Gates added later that he had “accepted responsibility.”

“I’m trying to change,” he said.

The acceptance of responsibility was a notable moment, though on the witness stand, Gates has, at times, not fully embraced the wrongdoing he has previously admitted to. In an earlier confrontation with Downing, for example. Gates initially declined to use the word “embezzlement” to describe his taking Manafort’s money.

“It is an unauthorized transaction,” he said at one point.

“Why can’t you say embezzlement?” Downing countered.

“It was embezzlement from Mr. Manafort,” Gates finally conceded.

SPOILER

Just before the jury left for the day, Rick Gates echoed other prosecution witnesses in saying Paul Manafort kept a close eye on his financial affairs.

“Mr. Manafort in my opinion kept fairly frequent updates,” Gates said, after a discussion of movement between their consulting firm’s offshore accounts. “Mr. Manafort was very good at knowing where the money was and where it was going.”

Judge Ellis, as he has repeatedly, interjected.

“He didn’t know about the money you were stealing,” Ellis said, “so he didn’t do it that closely.”

The comment by the judge goes to a question at the heart of the trial — how much fraud could possibly have gone on under Manafort’s nose without his knowledge.

Downing also challenged Gates on his acceptance of responsibility, pointing out that he has not repaid the money he stole from Manafort.

“I spent it over the years,” Gates said.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 02:10 schreef monkyyy het volgende:
Wanneer komen de resultaten van die special election uit Ohio?

quote:

Danny O'Connor leads by 26 percentage points over Troy Balderson with less than 1 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 02:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

Zijn bezig:

Election Results

[..]

quote:

Danny O’Connor leads by 8 percentage points over Troy Balderson with 31 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 02:53 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 02:57 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Zal langzaam minder worden aangezien hij met een enorme voorsprong begon. Lijkt echt heel spannend te gaan worden wat an sich al goed nieuws is voor de Dems.

quote:

Troy Balderson leads by 1.3 percentage points, or 1,838 votes, over Danny O’Connor with 66 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Danny O’Connor leads by 0.8 percentage points, or 1,291 votes, over Troy Balderson with 74 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 augustus 2018 20:52 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

En wat is de aanhoudende klimaats verandering? Een groot feest of zo?

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 03:31 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Ik denk dat O'Connor het net niet gaat redden. Het meeste dat nog moet komen is uit Delaware County, en zijn marge daar is te weinig om de voorsprong te behouden. Maar een nek-aan-nek race in een district als dit is een goed teken voor Dems in Ohio en daarbuiten.

quote:

Danny O’Connor leads by 0.9 percentage points, or 1,433 votes, over Troy Balderson with 81 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Danny O’Connor leads by 0.1 percentage points, or 155 votes, over Troy Balderson with 85 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Troy Balderson leads by 0.6 percentage points, or 1,031 votes, over Danny O’Connor with 89 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Danny O’Connor leads by 0.1 percentage points, or 201 votes, over Troy Balderson with 91 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Troy Balderson leads by 0.4 percentage points, or 741 votes, over Danny O’Connor with 95 percent of precincts fully reporting.

quote:

Troy Balderson leads by 0.8 percentage points, or 1,685 votes, over Danny O’Connor with 99 percent of precincts fully reporting.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 04:20:03 Ohio 12 is too close to call. Trump won the district by 11-pts in 2016. Pat Tiberi won by almost 37-pts in 2016. GOP-linked groups spent ~$4.1 million on the race.Important note: Cook Political Report calculates that there are 60 GOP districts more Democratic than this one. reageer retweet

quote:

Troy Balderson leads by 0.9 percentage points, or 1,754 votes, over Danny O’Connor with 100 percent of precincts fully reporting.

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 05:10:12 Outside groups on the right outspent outside groups on the left by 500% in the special election in Ohio's 12th Congressional district just to get what looks like a 0.9% win in a district Trump won by 11 just 21 months ago and that a Republican hasn't lost for nearly 40 yearsWow reageer retweet

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 05:15:37 2/ To the extent there are absentee/provisional ballots left to count, this .9% race could still theoretically end in a Balderson/Trump defeat and a win or recount for the Democrat O'Connor. Whatever happens, a district previously safe for the GOP is now up for grabs in November. reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 04:06 schreef vigen98 het volgende:
Green Party heeft de democratische partij gecucked

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 09:02 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Op Twitter zitten miljoenen mensen die iets zeggen.

quote:

As an amoral New York City real estate developer, Trump has long supported the use of asbestos. In his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, the future president wrote that asbestos is “100 percent safe, once applied,” despite the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the contrary. Here’s what else Trump had to say about the carcinogen:

“I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal. Great pressure was put on politicians, and as usual, the politicians relented. Millions of truckloads of this incredible fire-proofing material were taken to special ‘dump sites’ and asbestos was replaced by materials that were supposedly safe but couldn’t hold a candle to asbestos in limiting the ravages of fire.”

Trump has also on multiple occasions blamed the collapse of the two World Trade Center towers on the absence of asbestos. In June, All in With Chris Hayes aired a clip of Trump defending the material before Congress in 2005. “A lot of people say that if the World Trade Center had asbestos is wouldn’t have burned down, it’s wouldn’t have melted. OK?,” he said. “A lot of people in my industry think asbestos is the greatest fireproofing material ever made.” Trump went on to compare asbestos to a “heavyweight champion” compared to other building material, which he likened to a “light-weight from high school.”

quote:

As with many of his more insidious actions as president, there’s a Russia connection. As the Washington Post points out, until recently, 95 percent of asbestos used in the United States came from Brazil, while the rest came from Russia. But the South American nation recently banned the mining and sale of the toxic substance, opening the door for Russia to fill the gap, which will be even larger if the U.S. resumes using the carcinogen in building materials. Russian asbestos manufacturers are thrilled. In July, the Russian company Uralasbest posted an image of its asbestos packaging, which features a smirking President Trump.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
President Trump’s long-time love affair with asbestos is making its way into federal policy

Asbest is goed! Alle Trumpfans zouden asbest moeten gebruiken!

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:45 schreef Wombcat het volgende:

[..]

Diep inhaleren graag.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:52 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
We hadden hier ooit een wethouder die riep dat asbest in z'n vast vorm ongevaarlijk is. 'Je kunt het zelf eten', aldus de beste man.

Erg gelachen.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
President Trump’s long-time love affair with asbestos is making its way into federal policy

Asbest is goed! Alle Trumpfans zouden asbest moeten gebruiken! Tegen asbest zijn is niet patriottisch.

Wat is die vent toch kwaadaardig.

[..]

en uiteraard.....

[..]

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 12:29 schreef monkyyy het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 13:00:00 According to hundreds of FOIA'd docs reported on by ProPublica, three Mar-a-Lago members who are not government employees (including Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter) are issuing guidance at the Department of Veterans Affairs. https://t.co/vUuaGiahaD reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 12:42 schreef thesiren.nl het volgende:
Nu alleen nog kfc overtuigen dat het geschikt is om in de paneer te flikkeren in washington dc

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 13:18 schreef Monolith het volgende:

[..]

Heb je een hekel aan de zwarte bevolking in DC?

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
President Trump’s long-time love affair with asbestos is making its way into federal policy

Asbest is goed! Alle Trumpfans zouden asbest moeten gebruiken! Tegen asbest zijn is niet patriottisch.

Wat is die vent toch kwaadaardig.

[..]

en uiteraard.....

[..]

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 11:45 schreef Wombcat het volgende:

[..]

Diep inhaleren graag.

twitter:

AP twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 15:42:29 BREAKING: Republican U.S. Rep Christopher Collins of New York state indicted on securities fraud charges. reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 14:31 schreef OMG het volgende:

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Of gewoon lekker kleuren;

Crayons bought at discount store test positive for asbestos, group says
https://abcnews.go.com/US(...)up/story?id=57083697

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 15:54 schreef Nibb-it het volgende:

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Was laatst toch ook zo'n schandaaltje vanwege cosmetica waar asbest in verwerkt zat?

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China will impose tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of U.S. products, officials announced Wednesday, marking the latest parry in an escalating trade war between the two countries.

The 25 percent tariffs will go into effect Aug. 23, targeting cars, crude oil, natural gas and coal.

In a statement, the Chinese Commerce Ministry charged that the United States “once again put domestic law above international law by imposing ‘very unreasonable’ new tariffs on Chinese goods.”

China’s announcement is a direct response to new duties on Chinese goods imported into the United States, announced Tuesday in Washington. Those new tariffs, totaling $16 billion, will be levied against 279 products, including motorcycles, steam turbines and railway cars.

After months of escalation, business communities in both countries are wondering when and how the trade confrontation will end.

“With each successive round of tariffs, Trump continues to back China into a corner, forcing Beijing to respond in kind,” said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of international law firm Perkins Coie and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

“There is no off-ramp, and Trump has given China little wiggle room to save face and come to the bargaining table,” he said. “By continuing to up the ante, Trump is, in effect, publicly demanding an unconditional surrender from Beijing.”

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 17:14:26 The Republicans have now won 8 out of 9 House Seats, yet if you listen to the Fake News Media you would think we are being clobbered. Why can’t they play it straight, so unfair to the Republican Party and in particular, your favorite President! reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 16:38 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Was de uitslag in de primaries in Kansas al voorbij gekomen? Kobach wint de primary met grofweg 126.000 stemmen, maar slechts 191 stemmen meer dan de nummer twee:
https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/kansas/

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 19:13 schreef Euribob het volgende:

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Nou, dan stijgen de kansen voor een Democratische gouverneur daar aanzienlijk lijkt me. Die moet alleen wel echt winnen dan, want anders zitten ze met die Kobach opgescheept.

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President Trump’s lawyers rejected the special counsel’s latest terms for an interview in the Russia investigation, countering on Wednesday with an offer that suggested a narrow path for answering questions, people familiar with the matter said.

Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, confirmed that a response was sent but declined to comment on its content. The president’s lead lawyer in the case, Rudolph W. Giuliani, noted the documents that the White House has already provided and said, “We’re restating what we have been saying for months: It is time for the Office of Special Counsel to conclude its inquiry without further delay.”

The letter marked the latest back and forth in the eight months of negotiations between Mr. Trump’s lawyers and the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Last week, Mr. Mueller proposed a slightly altered format to the expansive interview he wants to conduct with the president.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers did not reject an interview outright but included the narrower counteroffer, one person familiar with the response said. However, the person said that Mr. Trump’s lawyers did not want him answering questions about whether he obstructed justice.

The response indicated how far apart the two sides remain.

SPOILER

The special counsel could eventually take the extraordinary step of subpoenaing Mr. Trump to testify before a grand jury to compel him to answer questions. Only one president, Bill Clinton, has been subpoenaed while in office; he eventually agreed to a voluntary interview to avoid a prolonged court fight.

The negotiations have dragged on in part because the president’s lawyers are concerned that if he is interviewed, Mr. Trump could perjure himself. They had been prepared last week to tell Mr. Mueller that Mr. Trump would decline an interview, but the president, who believes he can convince Mr. Mueller that he is innocent, pushed his lawyers to continue negotiating.

By making another counterproposal after months of promises that they were just weeks away from deciding about an interview, Mr. Trump’s lawyers run the risk that Mr. Mueller could conclude they are negotiating in bad faith to prolong the investigation. In a meeting with Mr. Trump’s lawyers this year, Mr. Mueller threatened to subpoena the president if he did not sit for a voluntary interview.

Law enforcement officials who have worked with Mr. Mueller, a longtime federal prosecutor and the head of the F.B.I. from 2001 to 2013, believe that he will try to use every tool he has to get the president to answer questions and that he will probably subpoena him to testify if he does not agree to be questioned voluntarily.

Some of Mr. Trump’s lawyers believe that Mr. Mueller will not subpoena their client out of fear of losing a court fight that could undermine the investigation’s legitimacy to the public.

The president’s lawyers have said they would fight a subpoena — a battle that could eventually be decided by the Supreme Court.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:17 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Verkiezingen dus weer gewonnen door het rode team.

En bovendien een paar pro-Trumpers de primary door. Waaronder piloot John James met een apache in zijn logo

Waar blijft die Blue wave dan toch?

Ow wacht, dat zijn de traantjes.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:17 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Verkiezingen dus weer gewonnen door het rode team.

En bovendien een paar pro-Trumpers de primary door. Waaronder piloot John James met een apache in zijn logo

Waar blijft die Blue wave dan toch?

Ow wacht, dat zijn de traantjes.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:17 schreef Nintex het volgende:

Ow wacht, dat zijn de traantjes.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:26 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Kan natuurlijk zijn dat het in november anders uitpakt dan bij tussentijdse verkiezingen, maar om nou te zeggen dat de voortekenen matig zijn gaat ook wel weer wat ver.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:44 schreef Szura het volgende:
Nieuwe sancties tegen Rusland vanwege de gifgasaanval op Skripal. Russische betrokkenheid volgens State aangetoond.

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With worn-out clichés about the dead voting, Chicago used to be the poster child for voter fraud. But if any state is a poster child for terrible election practices, it is surely Georgia. Bold claims demand bold evidence, and unfortunately there's plenty; on Monday, McClatchy reported a string of irregularities from the state's primary election in May, including one precinct with a 243-percent turnout.

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 21:26 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
(...)

(...)

Nunes On Secret Tape: Brett Kavanaugh Vote, Then Rod Rosenstein Impeachment | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

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"So if we actually vote to impeach, OK, what that does is that triggers the Senate then has to take it up," he said on the recording. "Well, and you have to decide what you want right now because the Senate only has so much time."

He continued: "Do you want them to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice, the new Supreme Court justice?"

"The Senate would have to drop everything they're doing ... and start with impeachment on Rosenstein. And then take the risk of not getting Kavanaugh confirmed," Nunes said. "So it's not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It's a matter of, it's a matter of timing."

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Nunes also said that "if Sessions won't unrecuse and Mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. Which is really the danger," according to the audio.

"I mean we have to keep all these seats. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away," he added, apparently referring to keeping Republican control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.

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"But ultimately let's say the Portuguese came and brought her some stolen emails. And she decided to release those. Okay, now we have a problem, right?" Nunes said. "Because somebody stole the emails, gave 'em to Cathy, Cathy released 'em. Well, if that's the case, then that's criminal."

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 01:40:24 As @ChrisRaimondi notes, the image below may be the MOST damning piece of evidence indicating Trump a) knew of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and b) knew what it was about. In the first 9 months of 2016, his first tweet about Clinton's emails was......the day of the meeting. https://t.co/48lAOBWYdt reageer retweet

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 17:41:43 (THREAD) There is increasing evidence the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting *did* produce the Clinton materials Trump was hoping for—just not on the timeframe he wanted. The Michael Flynn-Peter Smith axis points toward a whole summer of Trump collusion. Hope you'll read on and share. https://t.co/GnwrwBide2 reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 8 augustus 2018 16:38 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Was de uitslag in de primaries in Kansas al voorbij gekomen? Kobach wint de primary met grofweg 126.000 stemmen, maar slechts 191 stemmen meer dan de nummer twee:
https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/kansas/

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 06:01 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 08-08-2018 om 17:41:43 (THREAD) There is increasing evidence the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting *did* produce the Clinton materials Trump was hoping for—just not on the timeframe he wanted. The Michael Flynn-Peter Smith axis points toward a whole summer of Trump collusion. Hope you'll read on and share. https://t.co/GnwrwBide2 reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 11:55 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Bij Seth denk ik altijd, eerst maar eens wachten totdat een krant of iets dergelijks het daadwerkelijk brengt.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 13:00:01 Trump starts his day at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ.This is Trump's 185th day at a Trump property as president and his 142nd day at a Trump golf club as president. reageer retweet

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According to data from the Census Bureau, China is a key source of imports for many states:

• For 23 states, China is the top source of imports.

• For 45 states, China is in the top three.

• China is among the top-five import sources for 47 states (North Dakota, Louisiana, and Delaware are the only exceptions).

• Of the 23 states that count China as their largest source of imports, Trump won 15 in the 2016 presidential election.

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U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has raked prosecutors from the special counsel’s office over the coals for the past week and a half. But on Thursday, he backed down, telling jurors to ignore one piece of criticism.

“I was critical of counsel for … allowing an expert to remain in the courtroom,” he said before testimony began. “You may put that aside… I may well have been wrong.”

On Wednesday, Ellis scolded prosecutors for calling an IRS expert who has sat through the trial in the gallery. Prosecutors filed a motion Thursday morning pointing out that the transcript backed up their understanding that Ellis had explicitly allowed the expert to do so.

“The Court’s sharp reprimand of government counsel in front of the jury on August 8 was therefore erroneous,” the prosecutors wrote. “And, while mistakes are a natural part of the trial process, the mistake here prejudiced the government by conveying to the jury that the government had acted improperly and had violated court rules or procedures. The exchange could very well lead the jury to reach two erroneous inferences: (a) that Mr. Welch’s testimony is not credible because he was improperly privy to the testimony of other witnesses, and (b) that the government sought to secure an unfair advantage by secreting its expert in the courtroom without permission…This prejudice should be cured.”

Ellis said Thursday that he had not actually read the transcript, which was attached to the government motion.

But, the judge said, “I was probably wrong.”

He added that he makes mistakes, “like any human — and this robe doesn’t make me any more than a human.”

He concluded, “Any criticism of counsel should be put aside — it doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”

Prosecutors then called their first witness, Melinda James. She said her name was previously Melinda Francis. According to emails already produced in court, Francis works at Citizens Bank.

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 17:19 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Pence en Mattis zijn nu live over Space Force aan het speechen
https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

twitter:

CNNPolitics twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 03:29:56 "We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do, but when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able to invent that money very easily," Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says. https://t.co/cgpyxY7z1g https://t.co/dgVgv8EMRb reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 19:31 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

CNNPolitics twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 03:29:56 "We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do, but when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able to invent that money very easily," Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says. https://t.co/cgpyxY7z1g https://t.co/dgVgv8EMRb reageer retweet

Helaas mevrouwtje, alle centjes gaan naar Space Force

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 20:10 schreef Chewie het volgende:
Toch wel bijzonder wie hier degenen zijn die CNN volgen

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 20:13 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Naja, eerlijk is eerlijk, ik post hier waarschijnlijk meer artikelen van Fox News dan Nintex bv.

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 20:16 schreef Chewie het volgende:

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De omgekeerde bubbel.

Van Fox News was ik in 2001 (voor 9/11) al genezen toen ik in de VS was voor mijn werk, dat was toen al scare porn i.p.v. nieuws.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 18:03:30 Space Force all the way! reageer retweet

twitter:

Melissa_Brunner twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 20:30:22 BREAKING: @GovJeffColyer will have 100 votes added from Thomas Co; State elections director confirms standard double checking found error in entry; Colyer received 522 - they entered 422 #wibw #ksleg reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 20:45:12 TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's lead in GOP governor primary cut in half after vote mistake discovered. reageer retweet

twitter:

kasie twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 21:44:42 Trump campaign asks supporters to vote for the new Space Force logo https://t.co/rIvd8AcHEh reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 22:30 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

kasie twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 21:44:42 Trump campaign asks supporters to vote for the new Space Force logo https://t.co/rIvd8AcHEh reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 9 augustus 2018 22:30 schreef Nintex het volgende:

twitter:

kasie twitterde op donderdag 09-08-2018 om 21:44:42 Trump campaign asks supporters to vote for the new Space Force logo https://t.co/rIvd8AcHEh reageer retweet