quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:11 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Maar ook echt .. hoezo zouden ze uberhaupt dezelfde advocaat kiezen? Wat zou uberhaupt het voordeel daarvan zijn??

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:17 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Schijnbaar zit er een special sauce in het afkopen van sexuele avances?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:17 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:14 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Hannity is geen journalist. Laten we dat even duidelijk hebben.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:18 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Naja, hij zal toch niet de enige advocaat zijn die wat non-disclosures opstelt? Daar hebben ze bij Fox News wel ruime ervaring mee inmiddels.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:11 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Maar ook echt .. hoezo zouden ze uberhaupt dezelfde advocaat kiezen? Wat zou uberhaupt het voordeel daarvan zijn??

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:19 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Plaatje doet het hier niet. Plaatste je het via Imgur? Want die doet raar vandaag...

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:20 schreef AnneX het volgende:

[..]

Nu weet ik wel dat het een fox man is...
Alleen zo veel namen inmiddels...is dat dezelfde man die mag inbellen bij conference calls in WH. ?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:20 schreef AnneX het volgende:

[..]

Nu weet ik wel dat het een fox man is...
Alleen zo veel namen inmiddels...is dat dezelfde man die mag inbellen bij conference calls in WH. ?

twitter:

rebeccaballhaus twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:15:38 Sean Hannity just now addressed the announcement on his radio show. “It's very strange to watch my own television network with my name in the lower third.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:21 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Hij heeft inmiddels een minimale reactie gegeven kennelijk:

twitter:

rebeccaballhaus twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:15:38 Sean Hannity just now addressed the announcement on his radio show. “It's very strange to watch my own television network with my name in the lower third.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:20 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Was imgur idd. Had eerst een verkeerde link geplaatst, mss dat dat de reden is.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:20 schreef AnneX het volgende:

[..]

Nu weet ik wel dat het een fox man is...
Alleen zo veel namen inmiddels...is dat dezelfde man die mag inbellen bij conference calls in WH. ?

twitter:

BlueVotr twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:04:22 @matthewamiller https://t.co/UAHCCZRXsG reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op donderdag 12-04-2018 om 03:32:47 Up next on #Hannity @michellemalkin & @SebGorka join me to discuss how the media’s anti-Trump agenda has hit a new low since the Michael Cohen raid reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:22 schreef Montov het volgende:

[..]

Hannity was volop betrokken bij de Trump verkiezingscampagne en daarna uiteraard ook nog. Lou Dobbs is de inbeller, maar Hannity is ook een adviseur van Trump.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:25 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Volstrekt normaal dat Trump zich laat adviseren door een tv-persoonlijkheid met een 'actualiteitenprogramma'.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:29 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:
Maar goed, laten we de keer dat Obama mosterd op z'n broodje wilde niet vergeten. Dat was óók schokkend.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:29 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:
Maar goed, laten we de keer dat Obama mosterd op z'n broodje wilde niet vergeten. Dat was óók schokkend.

twitter:

rebeccaballhaus twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 20:57:16 Sean Hannity’s response to being named Michael Cohen’s third client: "We have been friends a long time. I have sought legal advice from Michael." reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:33 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:
De Washington Post heeft trouwens 2 Pulitzers gewonnen, één voor het verhaal over Moore en de andere voor de Rusland-bemoeienis in de verkiezingen.

Beiden zeer terecht, in mijn ogen.

https://www.washingtonpos(...)m_term=.b14f277b9aad

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:29 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:
Maar goed, laten we de keer dat Obama mosterd op z'n broodje wilde niet vergeten. Dat was óók schokkend.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:34 schreef Montov het volgende:

twitter:

rebeccaballhaus twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 20:57:16 Sean Hannity’s response to being named Michael Cohen’s third client: "We have been friends a long time. I have sought legal advice from Michael." reageer retweet

Ja, wat is nu precies het probleem? Zowel Hannity als Cohen wilden het geheim houden en zelfs tijdens reportages over de 'Cohen raid' is er geen disclaimer gemaakt, maar er is niets aan de hand. This is fine.jpg

twitter:

ChrisMegerian twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:13:27 It's startling how so many pieces of Donald Trump's universe are colliding in court today. The sex allegations, the Russia investigation, the conservative media world — all the pieces seem to be somehow connected. reageer retweet

twitter:

ChrisMegerian twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:19:42 So Sean Hannity has been using his perch at Fox News to rail against the investigation into someone who he didn't disclose was his own lawyer. https://t.co/gGjz3uPMoz reageer retweet

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:14:44 Re-upping this thread from six months ago. It all takes on a different cast *now*, doesn't it? Now that we know Trump and Hannity share an attorney (Michael Cohen) and Hannity *never revealed this* the many times he shilled for Cohen and pretended to interview him objectively? https://t.co/WA0Gp9MWjI reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:41 schreef Szura het volgende:
Hopelijk wordt Hannity op straat getrapt

twitter:

ZachFB twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:51:43 "I might have handed him 10 bucks, I definitely wanted attorney-client privilege on this, something like that" @seanhannity on his relationship with #MichaelCohen reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:47 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:
Fox zit zo diep in de aars van trump dat die bruine vuist uit zijn mond komt.

twitter:

jbendery twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:41:14 "Hang on. I gotta send this. 'I am on air.' I wish everybody would stop calling me." --Sean Hannity on his show just now. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:04 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Nog helemaal niks van Hannity als Cohens client op foxnews.com front page voor zover ik kan zien.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:42 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:14:44 Re-upping this thread from six months ago. It all takes on a different cast *now*, doesn't it? Now that we know Trump and Hannity share an attorney (Michael Cohen) and Hannity *never revealed this* the many times he shilled for Cohen and pretended to interview him objectively? https://t.co/WA0Gp9MWjI reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:08 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:
Fox analyst zegt dat het geen meerwaarde heeft dat Sean zijn cliënt is. Ook trekt hij in twijfel of Hannity überhaupt een cliënt is van Cohen. Ondanks dat Cohen dat zelf heeft verklaard

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:21 I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third-party. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:11 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
https://mobile.twitter.com/hunterw/status/985958553419698176

There were audible gasps and one shout of “holy shit” when Hannity’s name was revealed on the courtroom. I ran outside. I’ve emailed Hannity and he has yet to respond.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

quote:

Fox News' Shepard Smith just reported that a Fox News publicist representing Fox News host Sean Hannity said Hannity and Michael Cohen "have been friends a long time, he never denied that he was his lawyer, that he did some legal work for him along the way, and that's the extent of that."

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:21 I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third-party. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:18 schreef gniffie het volgende:
Waarom gooit Hannity constant statements eruit zonder met iemand te overleggen Houd gewoon je bek dicht de komende paar uur hahah

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:21 I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third-party. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:20 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Dat wordt lastig, iets met een radioshow
Of is die inmiddels afgeloprn?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:20 schreef Falco het volgende:

[..]

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:18 schreef gniffie het volgende:
Waarom gooit Hannity constant statements eruit zonder met iemand te overleggen Houd gewoon je bek dicht de komende paar uur hahah

twitter:

thehill twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:07 Trump stopped new sanctions on Russia after Haley announced them: report https://t.co/RwPg5aIxBe https://t.co/kkNZudG6Yk reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:22 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Uuuuuhhh....

twitter:

thehill twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:07 Trump stopped new sanctions on Russia after Haley announced them: report https://t.co/RwPg5aIxBe https://t.co/kkNZudG6Yk reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:23 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Wat nu weer?!?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:23 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Wat nu weer?!?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:15 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:11 Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 21:58:21 I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third-party. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:22 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Uuuuuhhh....

twitter:

thehill twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:07 Trump stopped new sanctions on Russia after Haley announced them: report https://t.co/RwPg5aIxBe https://t.co/kkNZudG6Yk reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:24 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

It's Mad Monday

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:25 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Lijkt het wel op ja

Zouden er onderhand niet een hoop Reps in Congress zoiets moeten hebben van "en nu is het klaar!"?

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:40 Boston-area billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, at one point New England’s most generous donor to Republicans, will now start funding mostly Democrats—saying that the GOP has failed to hold Trump accountable and abandoned their values. https://t.co/0jfCR5pDuY reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:25 schreef monkyyy het volgende:

[..]

Wacht even, dus de advocaat van Trump's advocaat liegt?

Tijd voor de advocaat van Trump's advocaat om een advocaat te zoeken. Volgen we het nog?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:28 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

Zou je wel zeggen. Deze donor is er wel klaar mee iig

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:40 Boston-area billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, at one point New England’s most generous donor to Republicans, will now start funding mostly Democrats—saying that the GOP has failed to hold Trump accountable and abandoned their values. https://t.co/0jfCR5pDuY reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:29 schreef speknek het volgende:
Afijn Judge Wood zegt de ballen met je appeal, het taint team komt er gewoon.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:32 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Bron?

Maar mooi zo

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:21:58 Judge Wood: "I have faith in the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office.""Their integrity is unimpeachable, and so I think a taint team is a viable option."But in terms of "perception of fairness," a special master "might have a role here," if a more limited one. reageer retweet

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:25:44 Hendon: So your honor has denied the TRO, but not the preliminary injunction.Wood: Right. reageer retweet

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:29:46 Jargon explanation: TRO= temporary restraining order.Preliminary injunction has not yet been ruled on. reageer retweet

quote:

Before Mr. Hannity’s name was revealed in the courtroom, Mr. Ryan had argued that the mysterious third client would be “embarrassed” to be identified as a client of Mr. Cohen’s.

Robert D. Balin, a lawyer for various media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN and others, interrupted the proceedings to argue that embarrassment was not a sufficient legal argument to keep a client’s name secret, and Judge Wood agreed.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:40 schreef speknek het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:21:58 Judge Wood: "I have faith in the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office.""Their integrity is unimpeachable, and so I think a taint team is a viable option."But in terms of "perception of fairness," a special master "might have a role here," if a more limited one. reageer retweet

Alhoewel:

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:25:44 Hendon: So your honor has denied the TRO, but not the preliminary injunction.Wood: Right. reageer retweet

twitter:

KlasfeldReports twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:29:46 Jargon explanation: TRO= temporary restraining order.Preliminary injunction has not yet been ruled on. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:40:41 Trump has arrived at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, per pool.This is Trump's 144th day at a Trump property as president. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:44 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:25 schreef monkyyy het volgende:

[..]

Wacht even, dus de advocaat van Trump's advocaat liegt?

Tijd voor de advocaat van Trump's advocaat om een advocaat te zoeken. Volgen we het nog?

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:44 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:40:41 Trump has arrived at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, per pool.This is Trump's 144th day at a Trump property as president. reageer retweet

We naderen een halfjaar aan vakantiedagen.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:44 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:40:41 Trump has arrived at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, per pool.This is Trump's 144th day at a Trump property as president. reageer retweet

We naderen een halfjaar aan vakantiedagen.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:45 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Haha, whuut? Sean ga anders gewoon even van Twitter af want je maakt het alleen maar erger.

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:33:57 In response to some wild speculation, let me make clear that I did not ask Michael Cohen to bring this proceeding on my behalf, I have no personal interest in this proceeding, and, in fact, asked that my de minimis discussions with Michael Cohen, reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:34:04 which dealt almost exclusively about real estate, not be made a part of this proceeding. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:49 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:33:57 In response to some wild speculation, let me make clear that I did not ask Michael Cohen to bring this proceeding on my behalf, I have no personal interest in this proceeding, and, in fact, asked that my de minimis discussions with Michael Cohen, reageer retweet

twitter:

seanhannity twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:34:04 which dealt almost exclusively about real estate, not be made a part of this proceeding. reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:51 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Ik geloof pertinent niet dat Cohen en zijn advocaat deze strategie gekozen hebben zonder overleg met Hannity.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:54 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

[..]

Maar hij zegt toch ook dat hij gevraagd heeft om zijn 'dealings' erbuiten te laten? Dus ze hebben overlegd.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:59 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Je kunt je niet beroepen op client attorney privilege als betreffende persoon geen client is. Maar dat hebben Cohen zijn advocaat wel gedaan. Als je dat als advocaat bewust doet ben je wel een hele slechte..
En als 2 advocaten dat een goed idee vinden dan is het helemaal bizar

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 23:01 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

[..]

Na Schrödinger's executive privilege hebben we nu Schrödinger's CA-privilege.

quote:

A federal judge said the government has to turn over seized material from last Monday’s raid to Michael Cohen’s attorneys, so they can tell the judge how much of it might be subject to attorney-client privilege.

Cohen’s lawyer can then share subsets of the material to Trump and the Trump Organization, Judge Kimba Wood said.

Wood did not rule on how to proceed, but indicated she would after the government and Cohen come back with an estimate of the volume of material that would have to be reviewed by a “taint team” or special master.

The judge asked both sides to provide four names each as potential special masters, but made clear she has not decided that will be her final decision.

Cohen declined to comment while leaving the court room.

It comes as Cohen revealed he has had three clients in the past 18 months — Donald Trump, former Republican National Committee deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy, and Sean Hannity, the Fox News host.

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 23:09 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

[..]

Per CNN

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 23:17 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:

[..]

Weet niet zo goed wat ik hier van moet vinden. Ben niet echt gespecialiseerd in Amerikaans recht.

Maar het komt wat vreemd op me over. Cohen zou daar sowieso al een inschatting van moeten kunnen maken. Zeker bij maar 3 clienten. Of maar 2 als Hannity onverhoopt toch de waarheid spreekt.

En alles teruggeven voor het bekeken en geinventariseerd is, is een groot risico. Kan zo maar eea ineens verdwijnen zou je zeggen. Hoop dat ze iig exact hebben bijgehouden hoeveel ze hebben ingenomen (zonder de inhoud beken te hebben dus, maar wel exact hoeveel dozen/dossiers/bestanden en het aantal pagina's/gb's of mb's per dossier etc).

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 23:35 schreef clumsy_clown het volgende:

[..]

Je denkt toch niet dat ze gewoon alles wat ze hebben meegenomen weer inpakken en opsturen? Cohens advocaten krijgen kopieën.

Hier uitgebreide uitleg over wat er is besproken: https://www.bloomberg.com(...)daniels-in-n-y-court

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:59 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:
Je kunt je niet beroepen op client attorney privilege als betreffende persoon geen client is.

Alan Dershowitz: Sean Hannity should have disclosed minor relationship with Michael Cohen

quote:

“I really think you should have disclosed your relationship with Cohen,” Dershowitz said, calling it a “complicated situation.”

“It was minimal,” Hannity responded.

“I understand that, and you should’ve said that,” Dershowitz, an opinion contributor for The Hill, replied. You were in a tough position because, A, you had to talk about Cohen, and, B, you didn’t want the fact hat you had spoken with him to be revealed.”

“I have the right to privacy,” Hannity interjected. “It was such a minor relationship.”

“You should have said that,” Dershowitz said.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 04:20:27 Michael Avenatti to @TheLastWord: "There is something there. Michael Cohen just doesn't volunteer the name Sean Hannity as a client unless there is a document that they want to deep six or keep confidential. It doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen." reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 22:22 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Uuuuuhhh....

twitter:

thehill twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:10:07 Trump stopped new sanctions on Russia after Haley announced them: report https://t.co/RwPg5aIxBe https://t.co/kkNZudG6Yk reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 05:30 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

We weten niet precies wat Rusland achter de schermen wellicht heeft toegezegd in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, lees dat ze nieuw onderzoek nu wel steunen, wellicht ook wat feller zijn om nieuwe chemische aanvallen in Syrie tegen te houden.

quote:

Trump just blocked his own administration's Russia sanctions

Once again the president is taking steps to make sure he doesn't anger Putin.

It appears that President Trump just blocked his own administration's plan to sanction Russia.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, announced Sunday that the Trump administration was going to hit Russia with new sanctions on Monday over its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons program in the wake of the April 7 chemical attack in Douma, Syria, that killed dozens of people. The sanctions were explicitly focused on Russian companies that deal in equipment linked to Assad's chemical weapons program.

But just a day later, the White House backtracked, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying that the administration was merely "considering additional sanctions on Russia" and that "a decision will be made in the near future."

So why the awkward reversal? Apparently President Trump wasn't on board with sanctioning Russia.

According to the Washington Post, after Haley announced the sanctions on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday morning, Trump told national security advisers he was "upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them."

It unclear whether Haley just mistakenly announced the sanctions prematurely before the president had officially signed off on them, or if something else entirely went wrong.

But two things are obvious: The administration is once again botching the rollout of a fairly straightforward policy, and Trump is personally taking steps to ensure that he doesn't anger Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Russian foreign ministry official said on Monday that the Trump administration contacted the Russian embassy on Sunday and told them that the sanctions that Haley had mentioned were not actually coming.

Trump is constantly fighting his own administration on Russia
Democrats swiftly panned the White House for backtracking. "The reversal is astounding. Either Pres. Trump doesn't think we need more action or they can't handle a simple rollout announcement," Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) tweeted Monday afternoon. "Mr. President, get your act together. What's the strategy?"

But there are signs that Trump's decision to hold off on sanctioning Russia might be paying off. On Monday, Russia announced that it was delaying a parliamentary vote on a plan to restrict American imports.

This isn't the first time Trump has seemed to be at odds with or out of touch with the way the rest of his administration is handling Russia policy. Trump was reportedly furious about the way his administration ended up expelling 60 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal on British soil on March 4.

Trump had apparently thought that the US was matching the number of diplomats that other US allies were expelling, but it turned out that the US's expulsion dwarfed the numbers of any other country.

When administration officials explained to him that the US was matching the total number of expulsions from all the other countries combined, Trump apparently exploded and said he thought he had been misled.

"There were curse words," an administration official told the Washington Post. "A lot of curse words."

Bron: Vox

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 07:35 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Niets.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 07:36 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wat?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 05:30 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

We weten niet precies wat Rusland achter de schermen wellicht heeft toegezegd in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, lees dat ze nieuw onderzoek nu wel steunen, wellicht ook wat feller zijn om nieuwe chemische aanvallen in Syrie tegen te houden.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 05:30 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

We weten niet precies wat Rusland achter de schermen wellicht heeft toegezegd in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, lees dat ze nieuw onderzoek nu wel steunen, wellicht ook wat feller zijn om nieuwe chemische aanvallen in Syrie tegen te houden.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 09:21 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Fox is dus gewoon staatsTV. Ik ben benieuwd wie bij FOX op de hoogte was.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 09:18 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Hoe zit het nou met de relatie Hannity/Cohen?

Cohen moest kennelijk in de rechtbank vertellen dat Hannity een client van hem is, maar Hannity ontkent dat weer maar later ook weer niet (omdat er teveel bekend werd?) ?

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 04:30:15 Avenatti to @MSNBC: "If we're successful in [our pending motion], I'm going to be taking Michael Cohen's deposition within the next, potential, 45 days. There's no question in my mind that he's going to plead the 5th. And imagine the fireworks that are going to result from that." reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 07:35 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Niets.

[..]

Benieuwd of we ooit die kompromat te zien krijgen.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 09:25 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Ja, zo ongeveer. Cohen moest het wel zeggen omdat anders zijn correspondentie met Hannity niet 'beschermd' zou zijn. Met andere woorden, er is bij de raid een document (of meerdere) in beslag genomen wat blijkbaar zo belastend is voor Hannity/Cohen dat ze liever hebben dat hun relatie openbaar wordt, dan dat document.

Wat een soap dit ook. Ongelooflijk.

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 14:31:02 I have never heard of SAD Little Shaun Hanity. Not acceptable to involve me while Crooked Hillary roams the STREETS! So Unfair! reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 09:18 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Dus in ruil voor minder sancties belooft Rusland de boel minder te saboteren?

Ok...

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 09:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 04:30:15 Avenatti to @MSNBC: "If we're successful in [our pending motion], I'm going to be taking Michael Cohen's deposition within the next, potential, 45 days. There's no question in my mind that he's going to plead the 5th. And imagine the fireworks that are going to result from that." reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:40 schreef DeParo het volgende:

Ik denk dat inderdaad dat Rusland in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, niet minder sancties, bepaalde beloftes heeft gedaan.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:41 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Plead the 5th is toch gewoon dat je niks wil zeggen? Waarom levert dat fireworks op?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:41 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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En Mr Bescheidenheid Donald Trump houdt deze daverende overwinning low-profile, want.....?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:43 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Omdat hij er tot dusverre niet super veel kritiek op heeft gekregen wat kennelijk voor hem de belangrijkste drijfveer is om een tweet de lucht in te sturen.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:42 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Naar ik begreep mag een jury bij een civiele zaak dit opvatten als een schuldbekentenis.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:41 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

En Mr Bescheidenheid Donald Trump houdt deze daverende overwinning low-profile, want.....?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:47 schreef Ludachrist het volgende:

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Nee, dat mogen ze absoluut niet. Ze kunnen op basis van ander bewijsmateriaal alsnog besluiten dat iemand schuldig is, maar zelf niks zeggen mag nooit an sich gezien worden als schuldbekentenis.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:47 schreef koemleit het volgende:

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Begrijp ik nu goed dat je vraagt of andere bewijs willen posten dat Rusland niks gedaan heeft om sancties te voorkomen. Ipv dat je zelf even een bron zoekt waarin staat wat Rusland gedaan heeft om sancties te voorkomen?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:52 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Maar, als je vragen weigert te beantwoorden maakt dat je zaak in ieder geval niet sterker. In Nederland is het in ieder geval zo dat wanneer een verdachte zich beroept op zijn zwijgrecht en daarmee weigert een verklaring te geven voor belastende feiten, dit mee gewogen mag worden door de rechter.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:54 schreef Ludachrist het volgende:

[..]

Vaak is het zo dat vragen wel beantwoorden je zaak ook niet direct sterker maken. In het geval van Cohen zal dat niet zo'n punt zijn, die man is zelf ook een advocaat, maar als jij jezelf als loodgieter moet verdedigen tegen iemand die al twintig jaar verhoren doet is de kans groot dat je verklaring nadeliger is dan je stilzwijgen.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:48 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Dit inderdaad.

Toen hem voorzichtig werd gevraagd of hij interesse had in een ontmoeting met Kim, werd dat direct via Twitter verspreid en wekte hij de indruk dat hij hoogstpersoonlijk voor vrede op het Koreaanse schiereiland had gezorgd.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:58 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wellicht omdat in dit geval Haley voor haar beurt had gesproken:

https://www.reuters.com/a(...)ficial-idUSKBN1HN20O

De official zei:

The official said Trump was concerned that immediately imposing more sanctions, on the heels of last weekend’s U.S.-led strike against Russian-backed Assad, would interfere with his efforts to negotiate agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin on combating Islamic extremism, policing the internet and other issues.

Dus wat dat betreft.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:58 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wellicht omdat in dit geval Haley voor haar beurt had gesproken:

https://www.reuters.com/a(...)ficial-idUSKBN1HN20O

De official zei:

The official said Trump was concerned that immediately imposing more sanctions, on the heels of last weekend’s U.S.-led strike against Russian-backed Assad, would interfere with his efforts to negotiate agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin on combating Islamic extremism, policing the internet and other issues.

Dus wat dat betreft.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:56 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Dat is waar. Maar in dit specifieke geval spreekt het niet bepaald voor Cohen. Volgens mij ziet het dus toe op de 'deposition' oftewel een soort verhoring door Avenatti. Als hij dan weigert te spreken laat hij de gelegenheid schieten om een weerwoord te geven.

Zo komen al die afleveringen Law & Order toch nog een keer van pas

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:58 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

En dit had hij niet even met Haley kunnen overleggen?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:00 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

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Nogmaals, het is veelzeggend dat Trump woedend wordt als Rusland harder wordt aangepakt dan hij had verwacht. Dat is een zeer vreemde houding voor een president, die geacht wordt de leiding te hebben.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:12 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Andersom dus.

[..]

Waaruit maak je op dat hij woedend zou zijn?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:31 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Zie het stuk dat Dustpuppy heeft gepost op de vorige pagina.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:38 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Had ik vreemd genoeg niet gezien maar interessant. Ik vind het eigenlijk vrij consequent. En zelfs het dan schijnbaar boos worden kan je daarin plaatsen. Het consequente is dat Trump oprecht denkt dat hij de ideale president is die kan omgaan met dit soort leiders zoals Poetin, Xi Jingpoing, of Kim Jong-Un. Met China ook, lijst sancties inzetten, maar blijven roepen hoeveel waardering hij heeft voor Xi Jinping. Kim Jong-Un bijna in een daadwerkelijke oorlog stappen om vervolgens elkaar poeslief te benadering tot een verzoening. Met Poetin precies hetzelfde. En ik moet zeggen misschien is dat nog helemaal niet zo'n verkeerde strategie als je ziet hoe ze tot dusverre op hem reageren.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:44 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Mannen zoals Xi en Poetin doen poeslief tegen hem omdat ze daar zelf profijt van hebben. Dankzij het handelen van Trump hebben China en Rusland hun invloedssfeer flink kunnen uitbreiden het afgelopen jaar.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:52 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Juist nu blijkt dus dat ze er consequent geen profijt van hebben. Zowel China als Rusland hebben behoorlijk harde klappen gekregen die ze ook niet altijd hadden zien aankomen wat dat betreft. Als hij die lijn doortrekt dan snap ik best dat hij niet meteen nieuwe sancties tegen Rusland zou willen maar dan moet hij ook maatregelen tegen deze landen blijven invoeren dus dat zal interessant worden.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 11:54 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

China is weer de baas in eigen regio en Rusland domineert in Syrie (mede dankzij Obama).

Ik zou zeggen dat beide landen niet te klagen hebben.

quote:

Democrats have launched a serious bid to win an April 24 special election for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, scaring national GOP groups into spending major money on a seat that was once considered safely Republican.

Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, 50, a physician and an advocate for cancer research, is taking on Republican Debbie Lesko, 59, a conservative state senator, to fill a suburban Phoenix seat vacated by Rep. Trent Franks (R). Franks resigned in December after it emerged that he had offered a female aide $5 million to serve as a surrogate mother for his children.

Although the odds of Tipirneni flipping the seat are not in her favor, her candidacy has excited the Democratic base, enabling the party to improve its chances in other races. In November, Arizona Democrats hope to take control of the state Senate and plan to mount serious bids for the governorship and an open U.S. Senate seat.

“The party is confident that 2018 could be a big year for Arizona,” said Drew Anderson, spokesman for the Arizona Democratic Party.

SPOILER

Arizona’s 8th Congressional District is composed of suburbs north and west of Phoenix. The district is home to a large number of retirees: More than one-fifth of residents are 65 or older.

In 2016, President Donald Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the district by 21 percentage points. That same year, the district re-elected Franks by an even wider margin, but his main opponent was from the Green Party, not the Democratic Party.

Other parts of Arizona, including adjacent areas of the Phoenix metropolitan area, have been trending more Democratic. Clinton lost the state by just 3.5 percentage points, and in Maricopa County, which encompasses greater Phoenix, voters ousted Joe Arpaio, the notoriously anti-immigrant sheriff.

Now, in a reflection of this year’s higher-than-usual Democratic enthusiasm, public polling indicates that the race for Arizona’s 8th is competitive. Tipirneni even leads Lesko by 1 percentage point in an Emerson College poll released Monday, although political strategists still see her as an underdog.

National Republican groups have responded in force, hoping to avoid another embarrassing defeat in solid-red territory. Three groups ― the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC ― have together spent nearly $1 million boosting Lesko’s bid.

The outside airpower aims to narrow the damage of Tipirneni’s fundraising lead over Lesko. Tipirneni has raised $740,000 compared with Lesko’s $564,000 haul. (Former Rep. Franks is among Lesko’s high-dollar donors, contributing the maximum of $2,700 allowed from an individual.)

And while the Arizona Democratic Party has pitched in for Tipirneni with a field office, staff and get-out-the-vote resources, national Democratic groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee, have not given her any cash directly.

The DNC has, however, used its email list to fundraise for Tipirneni. It also contributed a five-figure grant to the Arizona Democratic Party for voter outreach and registration through its State Party Innovation Fund, though the grant is not earmarked for use in the special election for Arizona’s 8th District.

Tipirneni’s biggest individual national booster may be Ady Barkan, an ALS-stricken activist who leads the progressive Center for Popular Democracy Action. Barkan, who played a lead role in Capitol Hill protests against the GOP tax cuts, traveled to the district to campaign for Tipirneni ― and press Lesko about her stances on cutting major social insurance programs.

Asked whether she was disappointed that the national party had not provided more support for her bid, Tipirneni responded indirectly.

“We have learned very clearly that every state is worth contesting and every race is worth investing in,” Tipirneni told HuffPost in an interview. “We’ve learned that repeatedly, so I don’t know why we’re even addressing it.”

An aide to Lesko said he would respond later this week to detailed questions about her policy stances and campaign. HuffPost will update this article accordingly.

It is hard not to see in the race for Arizona’s 8th some of the same elements that propelled Democrats to an upset victory in the March 14 special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.

Tipirneni is benefiting from the enthusiasm and mobilization of the district’s Democratic voters, particularly suburban women, in the wake of Trump’s election.

Recent policy battles in Arizona, one of several GOP-controlled states experiencing a backlash, including threatened teacher strikes, after years of fiscal austerity, have created a ready-made corps of activists primed to canvass for Tipirneni. Many of the same women knocking on doors for Tipirneni now had already mobilized against a bill in the state Legislature expanding private school vouchers. Lesko was a sponsor of the school voucher bill, which has since become a law that’s being challenged on the November ballot.

At the same time, Tipernini is keenly aware that she needs the support of independents and Republicans to win. To this end, she has not made Trump a focus of her run ― or really spoken much about him at all.

“When people ask, I speak about him,” Tipirneni told HuffPost. Even then, Tipirneni does not dwell much on Trump as a person. She criticizes the president in the context of his work with congressional Republicans to pass policies Tipirneni opposes, such as the tax cut legislation, which she calls “atrocious.”

Indeed, Tipirneni has focused on the kitchen-table issues of health care, education and retirement security.

She supports creating a Medicare-like public option to compete with private plans that would be accessible to all Americans.

The proposal has prompted charges from Lesko that Tipirneni is too liberal for the district. “She’s for this socialized, Bernie Sanders, Medicare for all. And that’s not what our constituents want,” Lesko said in a televised debate with Tipirneni in late March.

In fact, while Sen. Sanders proposes replacing private insurance with Medicare, Tipirneni would simply permit people to buy into the program.

And she laments the pressure to cut Social Security and Medicare as the GOP tax cuts add $1.5 trillion to the national debt. (In an interview discussing his decision not to seek re-election, House Speaker Paul Ryan expressed regret that he had not accomplished “entitlement reform,” a euphemism for scaling back major social insurance programs.)

“A lot of my community are elderly folks, retirees. For them, Medicare and Social Security are their lifelines,” Tipirneni said. “These are earned benefits that they have paid into through decades of hard work.”

“It’s just unconscionable that on the backs of seniors they would pay for this huge corporate tax cut that puts billions of dollars into the pockets of companies like Exxon and Walmart, as opposed to folks who could really use that help,” she added.

In lieu of the current tax revision, Tipirneni proposes making the middle-class tax cuts in the law permanent and expanding them so they reach more people.

Although Tipirneni’s progressive policy stances put her comfortably in the Democratic mainstream, she identifies as a “moderate Democrat” and emphasizes her “data-driven approach” to policy.

“Show me the facts, show me the research. That’s what my science background brings to the table,” Tipirneni said.

For her part, Lesko has touted her conservative bona fides and devotion to Trump’s agenda, not least on the hot-button issue of immigration.

In a 30-second TV ad, “Built the Wall,” Lesko declares her support for Trump’s plan to build a wall on the southern U.S. border but also says it’s “not enough.”

“We need more Border Patrol agents and the best technology to stop this invasion,” she says.

Republicans have also accused Tipirneni of financially benefiting from the ACA. Her firm, CSRA, received a contract to assist with Obamacare enrollment. But Tipirneni said her research work is completely separate and that she has not profited from the landmark health care law in any way.

Tipirneni remains optimistic about her bid, but she also acknowledged the importance of her bid in increasing the Democratic Party’s reach in the state ahead of the November elections. The party’s biggest pickup opportunity is likely in the state Senate, where Republicans currently have a four-seat majority.

“Whatever happens on April 24, we have definitely laid the groundwork to continue the momentum forward,” Tipirneni said.

twitter:

mkraju twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 03:04:32 WH continues remarkable effort of trying to distance Trump from Cohen. Hogan Gidley on @ac360 says Cohen is one of “many” Trump lawyers. Earlier today, Sanders: “I believe they've still got some ongoing things, but the President has a large number of attorneys, as you know.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:40 schreef DeParo het volgende:
Ik denk dat inderdaad dat Rusland in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, niet minder sancties, bepaalde beloftes heeft gedaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:31 schreef DustPuppy het volgende:

[..]

Daar is geen enkele aanwijzing voor.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:02 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
24 april: van 40 punten naar 20 naar 10 naar 1... het had eigenlijk niet eens spannend moeten zijn.

Republicans Are Scrambling To Save An Arizona House Seat In GOP Territory (HuffPo)

[ afbeelding ]

[..]

PS. volgens mij doet imgur een beetje vreemd?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:38 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Vind het vrij optimistisch om een doordachte strategie te ontwaren achter de houding van Trump richting de Russen en Chinezen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:38 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Vind het vrij optimistisch om een doordachte strategie te ontwaren achter de houding van Trump richting de Russen en Chinezen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:39 schreef Whiskers2009 het volgende:
Imgur heeft Fok! wrsch op een blocklist gezet sinds gisteren. Zie FB (het forum, niet het topic).

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:40 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Ik zie dat er heleboel hatelijke reacties komen op het voorkomen van die nieuwe sancties maar als iemand een bron kan aandragen waarin wellicht wat betere argumenten worden geleverd dan "jij gelooft dat" zou het wellicht nog interessant kunnen worden.

Ik denk dat inderdaad dat Rusland in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, niet minder sancties, bepaalde beloftes heeft gedaan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 12:59 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Niks hatelijke reactie van mijn kant, maar ik vind niet dat we Rusland moeten belonen voor hun obstructie en vijandelijkheden.
Het is ook geen kwestie van geloven. Rusland is de vijand en is bezig met het ondermijnen van de Westerse democratieën via een propaganda-oorlog.

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 13:07:40 This morning on @TheView, @stormydaniels and I will release the composite sketch of the thug who threatened my client and her little girl in Las Vegas. This is a search for the truth. #thugsearch #justice #basta reageer retweet

quote:

Op maandag 16 april 2018 21:47 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:
Fox zit zo diep in de aars van trump dat die bruine vuist uit zijn mond komt.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 05:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Is Hannity al ontslagen?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 13:09 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Klopt. Ben ik het ook mee eens. Maar als de Trump strategie werkt zeg ik laat hem maar even zijn gang gaan. Doen wij wel onze sancties opbouwen. Bij China wordt al in het Westen gefluisterd dat het tot dusverre een best positief effect heeft gehad en enigszins China heeft doen laten schrikken. Ik had dat eerder al uit een artikel geciteerd uit de mond van een Westerse functionaris in China.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:09 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

Omdat hij Cohen als juridisch adviseur heeft?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:18 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Welke strategie? Dat je slecht gedrag beloont?

quote:

Had ik vreemd genoeg niet gezien maar interessant. Ik vind het eigenlijk vrij consequent. En zelfs het dan schijnbaar boos worden kan je daarin plaatsen. Het consequente is dat Trump oprecht denkt dat hij de ideale president is die kan omgaan met dit soort leiders zoals Poetin, Xi Jingpoing, of Kim Jong-Un. Met China ook, lijst sancties inzetten, maar blijven roepen hoeveel waardering hij heeft voor Xi Jinping. Kim Jong-Un bijna in een daadwerkelijke oorlog stappen om vervolgens elkaar poeslief te benadering tot een verzoening. Met Poetin precies hetzelfde. En ik moet zeggen misschien is dat nog helemaal niet zo'n verkeerde strategie als je ziet hoe ze tot dusverre op hem reageren.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:21 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Omdat hij dat niet gemeld heeft. Als journalist zijnde is dat not done.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:46 schreef aquawoman het volgende:

[..]

Het argument is dat hij geen journalist is maar een infotainer en dat zijn show geen nieuws is maar opinion.

quote:

The founder and CEO of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company compared Donald Trump’s campaign methods to those of Adolf Hitler, newly-released audio has shown.

Nigel Oakes, who heads SCL Group, told a media researcher last November that Trump deliberately demonised Muslims and stoked fears about ISIS to appease his base, as Hitler and his Nazi party targeted Jews to appease his.

Oakes told Emma Briant in recorded interviews, which were released by the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Monday:

“It’s the things that resonate – some of those to attack the other group and know that you’re going to lose them is going to reinforce and resonate your group. […]

“Of course, Hitler attacked the Jews. He didn’t have a problem with the Jews at all, but the people didn’t like the Jews… so he just leveraged an artificial enemy.

“Well, that’s exactly what Trump did. He leveraged a Muslim.”


Oakes added that Trump deliberately stoked fears about ISIS in the US. Oakes questioned “how big a threat” ISIS really was to the US.

SPOILER

A husband and wife, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015 after Farook pledged allegiance to ISIS. Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 also pledged allegiance to ISIS during the siege.

Trump’s ties to Cambridge Analytica remain unclear. Steve Bannon, who founded the data analytics group, later became Trump’s campaign chief executive. Christopher Wylie, a former CA employee, also said he and his colleagues were testing out slogans for a Trump campaign as early as 2014.

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is examining the Trump campaign’s connections to the company.

In a series of tweets on Monday night, Cambridge Analytica said Oakes “never worked for Cambridge Analytica” and “was speaking in a personal capacity about the historical use of propaganda to an academic he knew well from her work in the defence sphere.”

Business Insider has contacted SCL Group for comment.

twitter:

CamAnalytica twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:36:29 Nigel Oakes has never worked for Cambridge Analytica and had no involvement whatsoever in the Trump campaign. reageer retweet

twitter:

CamAnalytica twitterde op maandag 16-04-2018 om 22:37:42 Oakes was speaking in a personal capacity about the historical use of propaganda to an academic he knew well from her work in the defence sphere. To characterise his remarks as anything else is an attempt to completely misrepresent our values & those of our diverse employees​. reageer retweet

Read the transcript here:

Emma Briant: It didn’t matter with the rest of what he was saying, it didn’t matter if he’s alienating all of the liberal women. I think he was never going to get them anyway. You’ve got to think about what would resonate with as many as possible.

Nigel Oakes: And you rightly say, it’s the things that resonate – some of those to attack the other group and know that you’re going to lose them is going to reinforce and resonate your group.

Which is why, you know, Hitler – got to be very careful about saying so, must never probably say this, off the record – but of course Hitler attacked the Jews.

He didn’t have a problem with the Jews at all, but the people didn’t like the Jews. So if the people – he could just use them to say – so he just leveraged an artificial enemy.

Well, that’s exactly what Trump did. He leveraged a Muslim – I mean, you know, it’s – it was a real enemy.

ISIS is real, but how big a threat is ISIS really to America? Really, I mean, we are still talking about 9/11 – well, 9/11 is a long time ago. […]

When we explain in the two-minute lift pitch what happened with Trump, you can forget all the micro-targeting and micro-data and whatever, and come back to some very, very simple things. Which is, Trump had the balls, and I mean, really the balls, to say what people wanted to hear. And we all thought it was a joke every time he said it. […]

He also said, ridiculous things, like “we are going to ban Muslims from coming into the country because I am sick of people taking machine guns and pointing them at schools and our children, and our children are the most important thing.” Well there’s never been a Muslim ever that has put a gun on an American school. But it seems to –

Emma Briant: But the perception is there that –

Nigel Oakes: That’s terrorism, and it must be Muslims, there have been a lot of shootings. They are all Americans who do the shootings. And people go “that’s our children and we don’t want that.”

So you’ve got Hillary Clinton going “we are going to increase the fiduciary financial spending and 4% growth in our area” and people go, “well, good luck with that, I want to build a wall; I’ve got a wall in my garden it keeps out the badgers. I understand a wall.”

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:52 schreef AnneX het volgende:
Is het jullie wel eens opgevallen, dat men. Trump never een rugleuning gebruikt en altijd en overal op het randje van een stoel zit.
Relax

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 15:03 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
The CEO of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company compared Trump propaganda tactics to Hitler

[..]

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 14:24:36 Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border. The high crime rate will only get higher. Much wanted Wall in San Diego already started! reageer retweet

quote:

The San Diego City Council approved a resolution on Tuesday opposing President Trump’s enhanced border wall and seeking disclosure of all companies involved in financing or construction of the proposed project.

The council voted 5-3 in favor of the resolution along party lines, with five Democrats voting “yes” and three Republicans voting “no.” Republican Scott Sherman was absent.

Democrats said the enhanced wall would be a symbol of racism, hatred and fear that would damage the binational economy San Diego shares with Tijuana and Baja California.

They also said money for the project, which one estimate pegged at $67 billion, could be better spent improving local border crossings to boost commerce and reduce pollution created by cars waiting in long lines.

[..]

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 15:05:00 Michael Avenatti to @Morning_Joe: “From what I’ve seen, there’s no question that Michael Cohen’s gonna be charged, it’s only a question of when, and I think it’s gonna happen within the next 90 days... [and] the likelihood of him not rolling over is very, very slim.” reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:40 schreef DeParo het volgende:
maar als iemand een bron kan aandragen waarin wellicht wat betere argumenten worden geleverd dan "jij gelooft dat" zou het wellicht nog interessant kunnen worden.

Ik denk dat inderdaad dat Rusland in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, niet minder sancties, bepaalde beloftes heeft gedaan.

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 15:30:11 Three parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones. https://t.co/hq6OAUGKtq reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 15:31 schreef Chewie het volgende:

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Je verwijt iemand te argumenteren met "jij gelooft dat" terwijl jij niet verder komt dan dat je ergens gelezen hebt dat de sancties werken en dat er gefluisterd wordt in het westen dat het ook een positief effect op China heeft

Waar de alwijze deParo dit gelezen heeft en door wie dit gefluisterd hebben blijft vooralsnog totaal onduidelijk, of luister je weer eens teveel naar jezelf deparo?

quote:

Death, taxes and someone from the Trump admin lying about their resume. 3 things to you can always count on...

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 15:53 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Ik zeg duidelijk dat mijn interpretatie is inderdaad en ik heb al veelvuldig artikelen, citaten, quotes en andersoortige argumenten gepost mbt de sancties en of en hoe dit werkt. In verschillende delen zelfs van deze reeks. Mijn inziens resulteren ze in een juist effect en als de bereidheid tot een normaal gesprek er is wil ik die argumenten best herhalen. Ga nou niet beweren dat je ze nooit hebt gezien. In plaats van direct een aanval op de man had je ook inhoudelijk kunnen reageren.

quote:

“Trump seems to think that if he accepts what his advisers recommend on even days of the month and rejects their recommendations on odd days, the result will be a strategy,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations and Columbia University who served as ambassador to former Soviet states in the 1990s.

“By and large, other governments don’t know whether to laugh or cry at all this,” Mr. Sestanovich said. “But in Russia, laughter is getting the upper hand.”

SPOILER

President Trump rejected, for now at least, a fresh round of sanctions set to be imposed against Russia on Monday, a course change that underscored the schism between the president and his national security team.

The president’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, had announced on Sunday that the administration would place sanctions on Russian companies found to be assisting Syria’s chemical weapons program. The sanctions were listed on a menu of further government options after an American-led airstrike on Syria, retaliating against a suspected gas attack that killed dozens a week earlier.

But the White House contradicted her on Monday, saying that Mr. Trump had not approved additional measures.

“We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.

Speaking later with reporters aboard Air Force One as Mr. Trump headed to Florida, Ms. Sanders added that “the president has been clear that he’s going to be tough on Russia, but at the same time he’d still like to have a good relationship with them.”

Another White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said Mr. Trump had decided not to go forward with the sanctions. Mr. Trump concluded that they were unnecessary because Moscow’s response to the airstrike was mainly bluster, the official said.

Russia analysts said the whipsaw policy shift once again highlighted an administration struggling to find a coherent and consistent voice in dealing with Russia, which in the past four years has annexed Crimea, intervened in eastern Ukraine, sought to influence the American election in 2016, allegedly poisoned a former Russian spy living in Britain and propped up the murderous government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Mr. Trump has mostly spoken hopefully of his efforts to forge a friendship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, including congratulating him on a re-election widely denounced as a sham and even suggesting a White House meeting. At the same time, the Trump administration has imposed two rounds of sanctions against Russia in the last month, expelled 60 of Moscow’s diplomats and closed a consulate in retaliation for the poisoning attack in Britain.

“Trump seems to think that if he accepts what his advisers recommend on even days of the month and rejects their recommendations on odd days, the result will be a strategy,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations and Columbia University who served as ambassador to former Soviet states in the 1990s.

“By and large, other governments don’t know whether to laugh or cry at all this,” Mr. Sestanovich said. “But in Russia, laughter is getting the upper hand.”

Mr. Trump was annoyed with Ms. Haley for getting out in front of the policy, the administration official said, and the president’s decision to reject sanctions left her hanging in public with her credibility on the line.

Ms. Haley has been one of the strongest critics in the administration of Russia’s behavior around the world, often speaking far more harshly than Mr. Trump would, but she has rarely been reined in publicly this way. She made no comment on Monday.

Administration officials said new sanctions could still be imposed at some point if Russia takes further action justifying them.

But absent such a scenario, the officials could not explain how Mr. Trump would make Russia pay a “big price” for enabling Syria’s use of chemical weapons, as he promised to do last week after a suspected gas attack killed more than 40 people and sickened scores more outside Damascus on April 7.

The strike against Syria that Mr. Trump announced late Friday in Washington was limited to a single night and to three targets linked to chemical weapons facilities. It sought to punish President Bashar al-Assad of Syria for the suspected gas attack but avoid provoking Russia into a response.

Russian forces stationed in Syria have helped Mr. Assad gain the upper hand in the country’s seven-year civil war.

Russia responded harshly to the news of sanctions before learning that Mr. Trump had canceled them. “The sanctions drive against Russia is becoming an obsession,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters at his daily briefing in Moscow. “We’re convinced that any economist can see open attempts to squeeze Russian companies out of global markets.”

Critics said the president’s decision not to follow through on Ms. Haley’s announcement would sap American authority around the world.

“I am outraged that President Trump pulled back sanctions on Russia for its support of the Assad regime,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This sends a message to governments around the world that they can support brutal, criminal behavior without serious consequences.

“President Trump is out of step with the American people, American values — and as this situation has made clear, his own administration,” Mr. Engel said.

The about-face on sanctions came a day after ABC News broadcast an interview with James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director fired by Mr. Trump last year, in which he said he thought “it’s possible” that the president had been compromised by Russia. A protester waiting for Mr. Trump in Florida on Monday held a large banner that read, “Russian stooge.”

Mr. Trump has heatedly and repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia during his 2016 campaign, calling such suggestions a “hoax” perpetrated by Democratic sore losers desperate to explain an election defeat.

Russia did not respond militarily to the Friday strike, but American officials noted a sharp spike in Russian online activity around the time it was launched.

A snapshot on Friday night recorded a 2,000 percent increase in Russian troll activity overall, according to Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. One known Russian bot, #SyriaStrikes, had a 4,443 percent increase in activity while another, #Damsucs, saw a 2,800 percent jump, Mr. Houlton said.

In hitting the Barzah Research and Development Center, a chemical weapons research lab in greater Damascus, and two storage facilities and bunkers near Homs, Pentagon officials insisted that they dealt a critical blow to Mr. Assad’s weapons program. But Friday night’s strike, delivered via 105 missiles, was not quite double the 59 missiles used last year when Mr. Trump ordered the military to strike a Syrian airfield from which planes engaged in another chemical weapons attack took off.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pushed hard to limit the strikes to proven weapons facilities in the hopes that a more limited strike would not prompt retaliation from Russia.

The lab at Barzah, in Damascus, was on the receiving end of the biggest barrage — some 76 missiles, a combination of Tomahawk cruise missiles and Joint air-to-surface missiles. The rest of the bombs — 29, fired by American, French and British warplanes — struck and destroyed the Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage facility near Homs, and the Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker facility around five miles away.

Syria tried to hit back, but by the time its air defense system was deployed, the American warplanes were on their way home and the war ships had completed their mission, military officials said. They disputed Syrian claims to have shot down dozens of American missiles.

“We assess that over 40 surface-to-air missiles were employed by the Syrian regime,” Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, told reporters on Saturday. “Most of these launches occurred after the last impact of our strike was over.”

He called the Syrian retaliatory missiles “largely ineffective” and said they “clearly increased risk to their own people based on their indiscriminate response — when you shoot iron into the sky without guidance, it will inevitably fall to earth.”

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:24 schreef Chewie het volgende:

[..]

Dus wat jij gelezen en toegefluisterd hebt gekregen zijn je eigen interpretaties?

Prima dat je je eigen mening wil geven maar dat heb je het niet over dat je dat gelezen zou hebben of dat er gefluisterd zou worden, dat is namelijk iets anders dan je mening geven.

Schattig dat je het als persoonlijke aanval ziet maar dat is het natuurlijk niet ik spreek je aan op je gebrek aan inhoud, wat je wel bewijst door met termen als "heb ik gelezen" en "er wordt gefluisterd" aan te komen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:26 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Ik baseer mijn mening inderdaad ook op wat ik lees (en wat ik lees heb ik hier ook regelmatig geciteerd). Schokkend. Zou je ook eens moeten doen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:32 schreef Chewie het volgende:

[..]

Ach deparo wil het weer eens niet begrijpen, jij beschuldigt iemand van te discussiëren op wat diegene gelooft terwijl deparo met ijzersterke argumenten aankomt zetten zoals "dat heb ik gelezen" , wat dus geen argument is aangezien je je bronnen niet prijsgeeft, en "er wordt gefluisterd" , wat dus ook geen argument is aangezien er wederom bronnen ontbreken.

Dan kun je het wel leuk afdoen als dat is mijn interpretatie maar daar horen die belachelijk en niet onderbouwde argumenten dus niet bij en ben je dus geen haar beter dan degene die je nu net beschuldigde van wat hij gelooft als argument te gebruiken.

Het lezen is niet het punt deparo, het begrijpen wel en daar schort het nogal bij je aan.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:37 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wat ik al eerder had geschreven in reactie op Koos ergens:

[..]

Dit dus.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:43 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Feit is dat het Amerikaans congres voor sancties tegen Rusland heeft gestemd en dat heeft oom Donald uit te voeren.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:37 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wat ik al eerder had geschreven in reactie op Koos ergens:

[..]

Dit dus.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:50 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Die sancties gingen om inmenging in de verkiezingen (plus het moeikijker maken bestaande sancties op te heffen) en heeft hij uiteindelijk dus ook uitgevoerd of iig gedeeltelijk zover ik heb gelezen toentertijd: https://mobile.nytimes.co(...)putin-oligarchs.html

Dat heeft niet direct met deze sancties te maken volgens mij dan.

Of ging het om een nieuwe stemming in het Congress?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:55 schreef Hugo862 het volgende:

[..]

Om even in te gaan op je stukje over hoe ze reageren op Trump. Welke concrete resultaten heeft Trump op buitenland beleid geboekt? Gaat Kim zijn nucleaire arsenaal afbreken of staan de raketten nog altijd op de VS gericht en gaat het programma door en blijft de dreiging voor de VS en de regio bestaan?

Heeft het knuffelen met Poetin concrete resultaten opgeleverd in bijvoorbeeld het conflict in Oost-Oekraine of Syrie? Zijn er concrete stappen gezet op het verder terugdringen van de kernarsenalen van beide landen? Het verminderen van de spanning tussen Rusland en Navo?

Hebben de importheffingen op Chinese goederen ertoe bijgedragen dat China geen confrontatie met haar overzeese buren zoekt over kleine eilandjes, eilanden bouwt in de Zuid-Chinese zee om ze vol te stampen met raketten of haar militaire capaciteiten niet onvermoeid verder uitbouwt?

Hoe gaat het opzeggen van de Iran nucleaire deal ertoe bijdragen dat Iran geen kernwapen ontwikkeld, de stabiliteit van het Midden-Oosten verbeterd?

Welke stappen heeft Trump gezet om het conflict in Jemen aan te pakken? Behalve voor honderden miljarden aan wapens aan Saoedi-Arabie verkopen?

Hoe gaat Trumps voornemen om Amerikaanse troepen uit Syrie terug te trekken bijdragen aan de stabiliteit van de regio wanneer deze actie effectief betekend dat Assad en Co carta blanche krijgen om alle oppositie groepen te vernietigen. Assad zal daarna diep in het krijt staan bij Iran. Het zelfde geld voor Irak. Effectief gezien heeft Iran dan haar gewenste corridor naar de Middelandse-Zee gerealiseerd en kunnen ze hun troepen zo naar de grens met Israel sturen.

Over Israel gesproken. Hoe serieus zullen Palestijnse groeperingen Trump nog nemen nu hij unilateraal besloten heeft om de ambassade naar Jeruzalem te verhuizen en defacto Jeruzalem in zijn volledigheid aan Israël toekent zonder enige concessie vanuit Israel te krijgen?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 16:58 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Maar wat is die Trump strategie dan waar jij het over hebt?

Rusland faciliteert Assad in het gebruik van chemische wapens en belemmert vervolgens het onderzoek naar het gebruik van dat soort verboden wapens.
Wat voor zinvolle toezeggingen heeft Rusland dan nog te geven?

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 17:35:09 This is the composite sketch Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti revealed on The View of the man who Stormy says threatened her to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. https://t.co/14O7C1s3p2 reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 17:38 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 17:35:09 This is the composite sketch Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti revealed on The View of the man who Stormy says threatened her to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. https://t.co/14O7C1s3p2 reageer retweet

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 17:33 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Xi Jinping, Poetin, of Kim Jong Un hij benadert ze allemaal hetzelfde. Poeslief als ze zeggen en doen wat hij leuk vindt. Keihard als ze iets doen wat hij niet leuk vindt of niet snel genoeg zijn. Dat is zijn strategie, simpel maar wel redelijk consistent, of het werkt dat is een tweede.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 17:38 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 17:35:09 This is the composite sketch Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti revealed on The View of the man who Stormy says threatened her to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. https://t.co/14O7C1s3p2 reageer retweet

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:25 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Die 100k beloning vind ik wel wat vreemd ... lijkt me bij zo'n zaak als dit niet dat er echt een financiele incentive nodig is, ofwel een aanzienlijke hogere dan een ton?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:28 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

131.000 had met wel een mooi bedrag geleken.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:04 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Nou ja. Misschien kan iemand er wat mee. Je weet het nooit. Niet geschoten is altijd mis.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:33 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Was deze hier al voorbij gekomen?
SC uitspraak omtrent migratiewetgeving die te vaag zou zijn:

https://www.npr.org/2018/(...)t-of-immigration-law

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:32 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Wie zegt dat die persoon er überhaupt nog zo uitziet, of dat Stormy's herinnering wel klopt met de werkelijkheid na al die tijd? Zelfs als dat allebei wel zo is, blijven er waarschijnlijk duizenden mensen over die er zo uit zien.

Geef nou maar gewoon toe, het is een PR stunt. Hij zou hem eerst ook releasen vlak na de Cohen raid maar stelde dat toen uit. Avenatti is slim met het bespelen van de media.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 19:57 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Volgens mij geef ik al toe dat de kans klein is. En Avenatti stelde het op verzoek uit. Klein detail.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 20:02 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Hij wil alleen niet zeggen van wie dat verzoek kwam. Lijkt mij naïef om te denken dat het niets met de media cycle te maken heeft.

quote:

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Tuesday expressed confidence his state would prevail in a looming legal battle over the Trump administration’s plan to weaken auto fuel economy and emissions standards.

“The idea we’re going to roll back the auto standards is absurd. We’re not going to do that,” Brown told reporters at an event hosted by the National Press Club. “We have the legal horsepower to block the immediate legal moves by the Trump administration.”

Two weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out plans to gut vehicle fuel and emissions standards after complaints from automakers. Those 2012 standards, a compromise between California and federal regulators, require vehicles to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, nearly doubling today’s benchmark.

Brown argued that the world auto market, especially China and Europe, demands that U.S. carmakers reduce emissions, not allow more pollution. “They’re not going to sell cars in China if they don’t have zero-emission vehicles,” he said. “This is just another temporary kerfuffle where the newsies play around with these things. But the hard facts on the ground are we have to intensify, increase, our vehicle emission standards and not weaken them and go in the other direction.”

SPOILER

U.S. automakers, reeling from the financial crisis and subsequent bailout by taxpayers, agreed to the 2012 rules in part because they set national standards, avoiding the need to manufacture one set of vehicles to meet California’s strict standards, and another set for looser requirements in the remaining 70 percent of the U.S. auto market.

But carmakers pushed for relaxing the rules under President Donald Trump, complaining that lower fuel prices were boosting sales of gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks, and that electric and hybrid vehicles encouraged by the regulations weren’t selling.

Automakers, their critics say, prefer to sell gas guzzlers because that’s where the money is. Each $73,000 Cadillac Escalade, for example, nets $35,000 in profit, according to The Detroit News. Electric vehicles, meanwhile, are only half as profitable as cars with combustion engines, a Daimler executive said last year. It’s no wonder that American automakers devoted much of their coveted Super Bowl advertising slots this year to pickup trucks and SUVs.

“They create demand,” said Daniel Becker, the director of the D.C.-based Safe Climate Campaign’s Center for Auto Safety. “They know how to market vehicles ― that’s what they do for their existence. They want to make the vehicles that they make the biggest profit on.”

Brown said he was disappointed that people in Washington and elsewhere seemed to be “consumed by nonsense” rather than by the threat of climate change.

“People are asleep,” he said. “When you pick up the paper or turn on cable news, you’d think its another planet. It’s all about the nonsense of Washington, and carbon emissions are growing, and we’ve gotta radically turn that around or the migrations you see now are going to be child’s play. We’re going to have more conflicts, more terrorism, more insecurity because of climate disruption.”

Brown, 80, is California’s longest-serving governor. He’s barred by term limits from running again, but promised it’s too early to “ride into the sunset.” But he seemed to dismiss the prospect of a presidential run in 2020.

“I can’t think of anything less attractive than a Democratic presidential primary,” he said.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 22:23 schreef Falco het volgende:
Deze tweet kennen we nog allemaal wel:

[ afbeelding ]

Maar helaas, Trump is niet strikt genoeg meer geweest voor de luchtvaart. In 2018 is er voor het eerst in bijna 10 jaar een dodelijk vliegtuigslachtoffer te betreuren: https://www.nu.nl/buitenl(...)xploderen-motor.html

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 22:16 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Beetle weinig nieuws ... gokje?

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ]

twitter:

JenniferJJacobs twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 21:55:40 Trump, with Abe, said:-meeting with KJU "probably in early June" or "a little before that" or not at all-5 locations eyed-he's credited for progress between North & South -North & South "have my blessing" to discuss ending "Korean war"-"many" leaders request Mar-a-Lago trip. https://t.co/UTRD2Rivcz reageer retweet

twitter:

JenniferJJacobs twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:09:46 TRUMP SAYS DIRECT TALKS ARE TAKING PLACE: "We've also started talking to North Korea DIRECTLY. We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea." reageer retweet

twitter:

JenniferJJacobs twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:11:59 Shinzo Abe says Japan has "observed major change in terms of the North Korea's behavior."And the reason for this change "is Donald's unwavering conviction as well as his determination that he demonstrated in addressing the issue of North Korea." reageer retweet

quote:

FOX NEWS statement on Hannity: "While FOX News was unaware of Sean Hannity's informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support."

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 23:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

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Weinig verrassend maar desondanks wel een getuigenis van het totale gebrek aan journalistieke verantwoordelijkheid en besef van beroepsethiek bij FOX dat iemand als Hannity na wat hij geflikt heeft gewoon mag blijven.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 23:32 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]

Je kunt dat fox toch met de beste wil van de wereld geen journalistiek noemen?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 23:43 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Zolang ze zichzelf zo noemen, en zich zo presenteren, moet je ze ook naar de standaarden van de journalistiek houden, vind ik.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 17:08 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
Nog wat van Hannity gehoord? Ik dacht weer nieuws te hebben gemist, maar het is hier weer welles nietes geweest.

Ik weet trouwens niet wat ik hinderlijker vind, ronduit trollen of al dat apologisme hier...

quote:

Sean Hannity has had no shortage of lawyers. In court on Monday, his name was disclosed as the third “mystery client” of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Though Hannity says he was never actually Cohen’s client, he does appear to have used the legal services of other well-connected Trump-world lawyers in a different matter a year ago.

On May 25, 2017, KFAQ, a radio station based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received a cease-and-desist letter signed by two lawyers for Hannity: Victoria Toensing and Jay Alan Sekulow. Toensing’s signature sits above her name and that of her husband Joseph E. diGenova, the members of diGenova and Toensing LLP, who are identified as “Counsel for Sean Hannity,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Atlantic. Sekulow is also identified in the letter page as a “Counsel for Sean Hannity.”

Sekulow is now the only known personal attorney for President Trump working full-time on the response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry. Sekulow recently announced that diGenova and Toensing had been hired to join him, before reversing course. The letter to the radio station was sent before Sekulow joined Trump’s team.

The letter was sent in response to accusations against Hannity made by the controversial conservative activist Debbie Schlussel. During an appearance on the Pat Campbell show on KFAQ last April, Schlussel said Hannity had been “creepy” towards her and had invited her to his hotel room.

Hannity responded at the time by calling the allegations “100 percent false and a complete fabrication,” and said that he had hired lawyers to plan a response. “This letter provides notice that Ms. Schlussel’s statements are false and defamatory,” the letter read. “Continued publication will result in further exposure to liability because of continued harm to Mr. Hannity’s impeccable reputation.”

SPOILER

On Monday, Schlussel said she remembered that the radio station where she made the remarks had received a legal letter afterwards, but she didn’t know who the lawyer was. Reached by phone on Tuesday, Toensing acknowledged that “at that time” she was acting as Hannity’s lawyer but wouldn’t comment on whether she still represents him.

“I’ve just learned in the press that anybody who is Sean Hannity’s lawyer is going to be blasted so I think this phone call is over,” Toensing said. “I’m wondering what attorney-client privilege means to anybody. I don’t say who my clients are, sometimes I do, and many times, most of the time, I do not.”

Sekulow, diGenova, and Toensing have frequently appeared on Hannity’s program; diGenova appeared on the show as recently as Monday night. Asked for comment, Hannity sent a text consisting of NewsBusters and Daily Caller links to stories about ethical misconduct in the mainstream media and declined to offer further comment. “I don’t have time for these silly questions,” he said.

Sekulow didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. After publication of this story, a Fox News spokesperson sent an example of Hannity mentioning Sekulow as his lawyer. On May 23, 2017, two days before the letter was sent, he said on his show that Sekulow had “done legal work for me in the past.”

The addition of Toensing and diGenova to Trump’s legal team was recently announced, but then swiftly reversed. “The President is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the President’s Special Counsel legal team,” Sekulow said in a statement at the time. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the President in other legal matters. The President looks forward to working with them.”

When the Cohen news came out, Hannity insisted that Cohen had not really been his lawyer and that he had only asked him for advice regarding real estate. “I never retained his services, I never received an invoice, I never paid Michael Cohen for legal fees,” Hannity said on his show on Monday night. “I did have occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen—he’s a great attorney—about legal questions I had where I was looking for input and perspective. My discussions with Michael Cohen never rose to any level that I needed to tell anyone that I was asking him questions and to be absolutely clear, they never involved any matter, any—sorry to disappoint so many—matter between me, a third party, a third group, at all.”

On Monday night’s show, Hannity was criticized by the retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who told him he should have disclosed the relationship to his viewers when discussing Cohen-related matters. “I’m on his show from time to time and I just thought I had an obligation to tell him I think it would have been appropriate for him to disclose that …” Dershowitz told me. “When I’m on the show, I want to be on the show with someone who satisfies journalistic standards, and that would satisfy journalistic standards.”

But it’s unclear whether Fox News, which gives Hannity broad autonomy, cares about these conflicts. It’s already well-known that Hannity champions the president publicly and advises him privately, although the breadth of his relationships with attorneys linked to the president wasn’t known before this week. “I think he’s totally fine,” one Fox source who was not authorized to speak publicly said on Monday. “I take Sean at his word that nothing’s there” in the relationship with Cohen, a former Hannity employee who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said, adding that Hannity normally uses David Limbaugh as his lawyer and agent for “absolutely everything.”

“While Fox News was unaware of Sean Hannity’s informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support,” the network said in a statement on Tuesday.

“I don’t want to get into it because I haven’t talked to Sean about whether he wants me to say anything publicly, as a lawyer I’d better not,” Limbaugh said, but added that he is “proud of my relationship with him.” Limbaugh said he had had nothing to do with anything related to the Schlussel matter.

A Fox News spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:30:31 Inbox: Sen. Ed Markey is a NO on Pompeo as Secretary of State. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 23:10:21 Inbox: Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a NO on Pomepo as Secretary of State. Feinstein is not on the Foreign Relations Cmte. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 00:00:05 Inbox: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is a NO on Pompeo as Secretary of State. reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 00:23 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:30:31 Inbox: Sen. Ed Markey is a NO on Pompeo as Secretary of State. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 23:10:21 Inbox: Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a NO on Pomepo as Secretary of State. Feinstein is not on the Foreign Relations Cmte. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 00:00:05 Inbox: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is a NO on Pompeo as Secretary of State. reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 00:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Zijn er naast Rand Paul ook Republikeinen die tegen gaan stemmen?

President Donald Trump: North And South Korea ‘Have My Blessing’ To Discuss An End To War | NBC News

quote:

President Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. has had high-level conversations with North Korea.

There was some confusion on Tuesday night when Mr. Trump took questions from reporters as to exactly who from the U.S. had spoken with North Korea, but ultimately White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement clarifying that the "president said the administration has had talks at the highest levels and added that they were not with him directly."

Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the U.S. has begun talking with North Korea "directly," ahead of an intended U.S.-North Korea summit. Mr. Trump made the comments in a meeting with Abe at Mar-a-Lago.

"We've also started talking to North Korea directly. We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels, with North Korea," Mr. Trump said. "I really believe there is a lot of good will, good things are happening — we'll see what happens."

SPOILER

The CIA had already led efforts to establish a back channel to communicate with North Korea, as CBS News' Margaret Brennan has reported, and CBS News' Kylie Atwood reported the State Department was in direct communication earlier this month. No location or time has been chosen yet for a summit between the U.S. and North Korea, but Mr. Trump said it will happen "probably in early June" or earlier, and said the U.S. is considering "five locations." He did not say what those locations are, although asked whether any of the locations are in the U.S., Mr. Trump said, "no." CBS News' Major Garrett, who has spoken with Trump administration officials, said that number appears to be lower.

"I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un," said Mr. Trump, adding that North Korea respects the U.S. -- and "we are respectful of them."

The Trump-Abe meeting also comes ahead of an anticipated meeting between North Korea and South Korea, as the Koreas are reportedly set to declare an official end to their war. Mr. Trump said the Koreas have his "blessing" to discuss an end to war.

"North Korea is coming along," Mr. Trump said. "South Korea is meeting and has plans to meet to see if they can end the war and they have my blessing on that. They've been very generous ... without us and without me in particular, I guess, they wouldn't be discussing anything and the Olympics would have been a failure."

Seated beside Mr. Trump, Abe said he commended the president's "courage" in deciding to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Abe attributed much of North Korea's seeming shift in attitude to Mr. Trump's determination.

"I hope to thoroughly discuss North Korea and other issues of mutual interest between Japan and the U.S.," Abe said at a meeting of representatives from his ruling coalition and the government earlier this month.

Mr. Trump insisted many foreign leaders have "requested" to meet at Mar-a-Lago, instead of Washington.

"Many of the world's great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago," the president said. "Now, indeed, it is the southern White House," Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump said he and the Japanese leader will golf tomorrow, if possible.

"We're going to sneak out tomorrow and play a round of golf if possible," said Mr. Trump, who has praised Japan's skilled golfers.

The White House said Mr. Trump and Abe have a few key objectives, generally speaking to "reaffirm the United States-Japan alliance as a cornerstone of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region." Mr. Trump said the two nations have "never been closer" than they are now.

"The two leaders will discuss the international campaign to maintain maximum pressure on North Korea in advance of President Trump's planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. President Trump and Prime Minister Abe will explore ways to expand fair and reciprocal trade and investment ties between the United States and Japan, two of the world's wealthiest and most innovative economies," the White House added.

Abe last visited Mr. Trump's resort in February 2017, soon after the president took office. Mr. Trump has met with Abe more than any other foreign leader.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this report said that Mr. Trump said he had spoken directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The pool of reporters traveling with Mr. Trump had shouted questions at him Tuesday evening -- including whether he has been speaking directly to Kim. Mr. Trump turned around and responded, "Yes." But it was not completely clear which question he was answering. The White House soon clarified that the U.S. has had talks "at the highest levels" with North Korea, but those talks have been with the administration, and not with Mr. Trump directly.

Trump turned around and responded, "Yes."

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 03:17 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Barbara Bush dood.
http://thehill.com/homene(...)bara-bush-dies-at-92

Trump attorney: CNN, BuzzFeed owe my family an apology

twitter:

SethAbramson twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 04:55:23 2/ It takes Hannity *20 seconds* to pick up the passport, put it down, joke about looking at it (but not look at it), and then say—dismissively—"OK." He then lets Cohen go on a lengthy diatribe demanding an apology from law enforcement. Hannity then declares "journalism is dead." reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 05:00:36 COLBERT: Are there things that you know about the Russia investigation that were happening before you were fired that we haven’t learned yet as a public? COMEY: Yes. https://t.co/7r9Jg2jqgV reageer retweet

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 04:49:28 While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 05:30:07 South Korea is not in a TPP member. https://t.co/6aySJGvoh1 reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 02:43 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
Het was allemaal weer op z'n Trumps

Trump on U.S. communication with North Korea

President Donald Trump: North And South Korea ‘Have My Blessing’ To Discuss An End To War | NBC News

[..]

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 05:30 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 04:49:28 While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S. reageer retweet

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 05:30:07 South Korea is not in a TPP member. https://t.co/6aySJGvoh1 reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 18:16 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Dat is zijn strategie voor alles, zo'n beetje. Kritiek op oom Donald kan hij niet hebben.
Ik zie eigenlijk niet veel positiefs gebeuren op het wereldtoneel. Noord-Korea heeft ondertussen kernwapens, en zijn bezig om ICBM's te perfectioneren.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 00:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Dat zijn allemaal Democraten. Zijn er naast Rand Paul ook Republikeinen die tegen gaan stemmen?

En hoe staat het met de nominatie van die waterboardvrouw bij de CIA?

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 23:30 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Weinig verrassend maar desondanks wel een getuigenis van het totale gebrek aan journalistieke verantwoordelijkheid en besef van beroepsethiek bij FOX dat iemand als Hannity na wat hij geflikt heeft gewoon mag blijven.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 08:09 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Ze hebben bijna zeker in ieder geval 1, maar misschien meer democraten nodig idd. Die ene stem lijkt er vooralsnog wel te gaan komen. Joe Manchin schijnt te nijgen naar een ja en er zijn er een aantal uit diep rode staten die dit jaar voor herverkiezing gaan waar we nog niet van gehoord hebben. Desalniettemin kun je je afvragen of het nieuws dat de CIA-baas met Kim Jong-Un een ontmoeting had niet toch weer meer vragen oproept...

Mike Pompeo, C.I.A. Director, Is Said to Meet With Kim Jong-un in North Korea

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:40 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Ik zie dat er heleboel hatelijke reacties komen op het voorkomen van die nieuwe sancties maar als iemand een bron kan aandragen waarin wellicht wat betere argumenten worden geleverd dan "jij gelooft dat" zou het wellicht nog interessant kunnen worden.

Ik denk dat inderdaad dat Rusland in ruil voor het voorkomen van nieuwe sancties, niet minder sancties, bepaalde beloftes heeft gedaan.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 08:58 schreef Monopoly het volgende:

[..]

Ik vond het wel sterk. Een geheime meeting met Kim, zonder dat de pers er van af wist. Rustig om de tafel zitten en praten.

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 14:47 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

en het probleem is dat Trump dit allemaal als zoete koek slikt.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:20 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Daar heb je een minister van buitenlandse zaken voor plus bijbehorende departement...

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:24 schreef Monopoly het volgende:

[..]

Pompeo staat op de nomanitielijst van Trump voor secretary of state. Sullivan zit er maar tijdelijk. Als er (langdurig) gesprekken gaan plaatsvinden dan is het beter om gelijk met de juiste mensen te beginnen. Zeer slimme zet.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:28 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]

Echt een meesterzet inderdaad

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Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 22:16 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Beetle weinig nieuws ... gokje?

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ]

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:24 schreef Monopoly het volgende:

[..]

Pompeo staat op de nomanitielijst van Trump voor secretary of state. Sullivan zit er maar tijdelijk. Als er (langdurig) gesprekken gaan plaatsvinden dan is het beter om gelijk met de juiste mensen te beginnen. Zeer slimme zet.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 08:05 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Het gaat er vooral om dat hij denkt met zijn strategie van wortel en stok dit soort dictators een beter weerwoord te kunnen bieden. Wat Noord-Korea heeft opgebouwd komt niet per se door Trump, dat er nu openheid is om te praten (waar dit soort gesprekken dan ook tot leiden), dat komt wel door Trump dus. Dat betekent niet dat het positief is, dat moet allemaal nog blijken, maar er zit wel dynamiek in die er heel lang heeft ontbroken in ieder geval.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:31 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

[..]

Pompeo zit er überhaupt nog niet en daarbij zit uiteindelijk natuurlijk willekeurig welk persoon dan ook mee maar tijdelijk net als Tillerson tot 1 april. Daarnaast vraag ik me af of hij wel de ambtenaren gebruikt heeft van het juiste departement en tonen ze wederom aan schijt te hebben aan protocol en regels.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:33 schreef Monopoly het volgende:

[..]

Je vraagt je af of hij de juiste ambtenaren gebruikt heeft, iets dat je dus niet zeker weet.
Vervolgens concludeer je dat ze het fout deden en schijt hebben aan protocollen en regels. Vreemd.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:13 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

Misschien beloftes als: "we show the tape".

Maargoed blijkbaar is het zonder een goede reden stoppen van de sancties voor sommige een reden om te geloven dat ook dit 4d chess is.

Op de fp zijn sommige sneuerds van mening dat MSM evil en ongeloofwaardig is, maar wel geloven dat iemand vanuit Air Force One belangrijke informatie doorspeelt aan...4chan. Qannon heet hij, wordt gerund door meerdere mensen en hij doet voorspellingen en claimt dat zelfs spelfouten van Trump bij 4D chess horen.

Ik krijg een beetje het idee dat Trump fans alles zullen spinnen om maar niet onder ogen willen zien dat deze meneer niet capabel is. Jij doet dat ook. Er zijn sancties opgelegd door zijn administratie, vervolgens gaat het door Trump niet door en jij denkt meteen dat het door beloftes komt van Putin.

Maargoed laten we zeggen dat het waar is. Weet alleen Trump dit dan of ook zijn administratie of congres? En als die laatste 2 het niet weten, is zoiets gezond?

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:32 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]

Ja, klopt. Donald is wel dynamisch bezig

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:40 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

Welke functie had hij rond 1 april?

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:41 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

De helft van de termen die je gebruikt ken ik niet en ik ben geen Trump fan dus. Verder denk ik vooral dat het binnen Trumps strategie oppast hoe om te gaan met dictators (dat Poetin hem beloftes doet lijkt me nu wat onwaarschijnlijk na andere artikelen te hebben gelezen).

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:42 schreef Monopoly het volgende:

[..]

Directeur van de CIA. Dat zegt niets over het wel/niet gebruik maken van de juiste ambtenaren.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:47 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

De directeur van de CIA is geen diplomaat. Die hoort dus niet op zo'n diplomatieke missie gestuurd te worden. Maar Trump had met zijn minister ontslagen, dus hij had weinig keus.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:44 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

Welke artikelen?

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 10:58 schreef DeParo het volgende:

[..]

Wellicht omdat in dit geval Haley voor haar beurt had gesproken:

https://www.reuters.com/a(...)ficial-idUSKBN1HN20O

De official zei:

The official said Trump was concerned that immediately imposing more sanctions, on the heels of last weekend’s U.S.-led strike against Russian-backed Assad, would interfere with his efforts to negotiate agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin on combating Islamic extremism, policing the internet and other issues.

Dus wat dat betreft.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 09:23 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

ik ben bang dat niet Trump het slikt, maar zijn aanhang. Het begint er steeds meer op te lijken dat Fox en Trump elkaar verlengen zeg maar.

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 10:51 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

Dit gaf ik een tijde geleden al aan hier. (maar werd direct gebagatelliseerd door een paar niet nader te noemen users)

Als er een president de media onder controle heeft, spreken we van despotisme, en wordt die verketterd door democratische krachten. Maar wat nu als de media een president onder controle houdt? Hoe moeten we als democratie reageren op een "vrije pers" die een staatshoofd beïnvloedt??

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 10:51 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

Dit gaf ik een tijde geleden al aan hier. (maar werd direct gebagatelliseerd door een paar niet nader te noemen users)

Als er een president de media onder controle heeft, spreken we van despotisme, en wordt die verketterd door democratische krachten. Maar wat nu als de media een president onder controle houdt? Hoe moeten we als democratie reageren op een "vrije pers" die een staatshoofd beïnvloedt??

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 10:51 schreef klappernootopreis het volgende:

[..]

Dit gaf ik een tijde geleden al aan hier. (maar werd direct gebagatelliseerd door een paar niet nader te noemen users)

Als er een president de media onder controle heeft, spreken we van despotisme, en wordt die verketterd door democratische krachten. Maar wat nu als de media een president onder controle houdt? Hoe moeten we als democratie reageren op een "vrije pers" die een staatshoofd beïnvloedt??

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 11:25 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Rupert Murdoch als schaduw-president?

quote:

A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda

quote:

LIBERAL, Kan. — Kay Burtzloff, a 61-year-old small-business owner who’s lived in this area for nearly 20 years, likes to joke that she’s one of Liberal’s only liberals. The county, after all, went to Donald Trump by more than 30 points, and in the runup to the 2016 election, Burtzloff decided against putting a Hillary Clinton sticker on her car, fearing vandals. Tensions were high, she said.

It’s a conservative place for sure, but also a diverse one. For years, immigrant workers — from Vietnam, Mexico and eventually Somalia — have moved to this flat stretch of prairie and farmland on the Oklahoma border to work at the meatpacking plants. For the most part, people got along, Burtzloff said, but something changed when Trump entered the political scene.

“I will be the first to tell you I do not fear getting killed by a Muslim,” Burtzloff said. “I fear getting killed by an angry white guy. That is much more likely to happen.”

SPOILER

It’s here in a trailer in this town of 20,000 people that three white men — fueled by a steady diet of anti-Muslim online memes and conspiracy theories, and captivated by presidential candidate Trump, who proposed a Muslim ban and proclaimed that “Islam hates us” — appeared to discuss a plot to massacre Somali Muslim immigrants who lived and worked nearby.

Patrick Stein, 49, Curtis Allen, 50, and Gavin Wright, 52, are accused of plotting to bomb an apartment complex that housed many Somalis and its on-site mosque. The three are believed to have gathered fertilizer to make a bomb while they added to their arsenal of weapons and ammunition. But the FBI says it foiled their plans with arrests four weeks before the 2016 election. The men have been in jail ever since.

Their trial began last month. They face up to life in prison if convicted on charges involving weapons of mass destruction and civil rights violations.

Evidence presented in the trial painted a picture of an all-American brand of homegrown terrorism: angry white men radicalized by Islamophobic memes and fake online news articles whose path to violent extremism was accelerated by a divisive election cycle and a candidate who sounded like them.

For the last five weeks, the defendants have shuffled into a federal courthouse in Wichita shackled at the ankles. They’ve listened day in and day out as their own attorneys called them “knuckleheads” whose talk of mass murdering Muslims was just bluster. And they’ve heard prosecutors portray them as sinister would-be terrorists.

Closing arguments took place on Tuesday in the case. A nearly all-white jury is expected to deliver a verdict at any time.

Jurors were played hours of tapes made by an FBI informant who had masqueraded as a militiaman, recording the three defendants as they discussed plans and spewed genocidal hatred of Muslims.

“The Crusaders,” as they called themselves, splintered off from a larger Kansas militia group whose members testified that they thought the three men were too extreme. In the recordings, the men followed a familiar script of Islamophobia.

First there are the conspiracy theories. In one recording they referred to “civilization jihad,” the paranoid idea that American Muslims are secretly conspiring to take over the U.S.

Most Muslims aren’t going to behead people, one of the men said in the recording. Instead, “they sit back and fuck their brains out. Four kids per fucking man per year,” he added, referring to the idea that Muslims are trying to grow the size of their population as quickly as possible. “Their objective is to breed us out of existence.”

Another familiar part of the Islamophobic script was taking Islamic scriptures out of context. In another recording, the jury heard one of the men talk about “taqiyya,” an obscure Islamic concept that white supremacists have willfully misinterpreted to accuse Muslims of lying to non-Muslims in their quest to take over the world.

Because of taqiyya, one of the militiamen explained, Muslims can “deceive and lie. They can go out and drink at the bar, just like you and I, and then the son of a bitch would cut your throat.”

Ultimately, the recordings capture the three men in an ideological frenzy: America was on a crash course with the so-called Muslim world, and they had to prepare for what they called “Crusades 2.0.”

All of these outlandish lies and distortions about Muslims and Islam were abundant online, and a scroll through the three men’s social media profiles showed they devoured this propaganda with abandon — retweeting, liking, sharing and posting.

And they started to hear the messages of these anti-Muslim memes echoed in Trump’s stump speeches, possibly taking inspiration from their favorite candidate’s soundbites.

On the campaign trail, Trump often told the same widely discredited story of how an American general ― over a century ago ― dipped bullets in pig’s blood to kill Muslims (most of whom don’t eat pork). The three men talked openly of dipping their bullets in pig’s blood.

When Trump justified his Muslim ban by citing a discredited poll, Stein shared a meme on Twitter based on that same poll.

Muslims were “cockroaches,” according to recordings of the three men. “You have to kill all of them. They keep coming back,” Stein said. “You have to exterminate them all.”

The men mapped out Muslim targets on Google Earth, dropping “pins” on a map of Garden City, Kansas, a slightly larger town an hour and a half drive north of Liberal. Each pin was labeled “cockroaches.”

According to testimony in the trial, as Trump warned Americans of Somali refugees being terrorists in disguise — “the great Trojan horse of all time” — the men decided on their main target: a Garden City apartment complex home to many Somali Muslims, and the mosque where they prayed.

The men were conscious that this planned massacre might somehow hurt Trump’s chances at becoming president, according to prosecutors, so they scheduled the attack for the day after the election: Nov. 9. This act of terrorism, they said, would “wake people up.”

They started gathering materials for bombs. They did drive-by surveillance of the apartment building they wanted to target. They planned to blow it up as people were praying in the building’s mosque when, as Stein put it, the Muslims were “packed in like sardines.” The shock wave from the bombs, he said, would make “Jello out of their insides.”

The men met with an undercover officer, who they thought was a like-minded arms dealer. Stein grew to trust him.

“We must win this battle because I refuse to go down in history as the generation who lost the best country on the planet,” Stein wrote in an encrypted text to the undercover officer. Stein said he was ready to “take out as many of those bastards as I possibly can till my last breath.”

The three defendants haven’t really denied that they engaged in hateful anti-Muslim talk, which their attorneys have dismissed as blowing off steam, “locker room talk,” as one attorney put it. So instead they’ve been leaning on an entrapment defense, arguing that the plan never would have been possible without the federal government’s involvement.

The defense has argued that the three men were manipulated by fake news but that ultimately all their talk of killing Muslims amounted to angry rants and that they never would’ve carried out their plot had it not been for the FBI’s meddling.

Although Stein, Wright and Allen would ultimately bear responsibility for their alleged terrorist plot, there’s a growing body of evidence showing how Trump might be radicalizing his followers.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose dramatically in America in 2015 and 2016, according to FBI statistics, rising to levels not seen since 9/11. Experts have attributed this rise to the divisive election and the hostile rhetoric of Trump.

A recent study found that 83 percent of “hate violence” incidents aimed at South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Middle Eastern and Arab communities in U.S. from November 2016 to November 2017 were anti-Muslim in nature. One in five perpetrators of these violent hate crimes, the study noted, “invoked President Trump’s name, his administration’s policies, or his campaign slogans” during the attacks.

Last month, authorities arrested three militia group members in Illinois for the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque. They were Trump fans. One of the men admired Trump so much that he submitted a detailed bid to build the president’s wall on the Mexican border.

Alexandre Bissonette, the Canadian man convicted of killing six men inside a Quebec mosque in January 2017, searched Trump-related content online over 800 times in the month leading up to his act of terror, prosecutors revealed during a sentencing hearing this week.

Bissonnette told police he was upset over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s message of welcome to refugees after Trump implemented his ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

A conviction in Kansas this week isn’t a sure thing. “Even if they’re not convicted, I’m not convinced I want them in my community,” said Burtzloff, the Liberal businesswoman.

She rented out a storage unit to one of the three militiamen, where FBI agents found a notepad scribbled over with the names of chemicals needed for bombs. She also once owned the trailer park where another of the men kept his trailer, and where FBI agents found nearly 2,000 pounds of ammunition.

That trailer, and the other trailer in Liberal where the men allegedly hatched their plan, have both since been moved, their contents carried away by federal agents. Among the evidence collected was a manifesto the men had started.

“This is a call to action by all Americans,” they wrote. “Please do not just sit idle until we lose this once great nation.”

Killing Muslim refugees, their manifesto suggested, would make America great again.

Stein, the alleged ringleader of the group, once told the undercover agent by text that he worried about leaving a country that “is nothing resembling what I grew up in to my kids and grandkids.” When the agent pointed out the attack would kill children, Stein replied that he did not care. He thought an attack would help save America.

“We are dedicated patriots with love of country that doesn’t end,” Stein wrote, “and we are willing to die for this country if that is what it takes to get it back.”

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 12:39 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
These Three "Angry White Men" Had A Plan To Kill Muslims. How Were They Radicalized?
(HuffPo mediumread; words: 1,727, reading time: 6:17)

[..]

_{PS: word / time counter here: https://wordcounter.net/}

quote:

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sharply responded to the suggestion that she was confused when she said that President Donald Trump’s administration would be imposing more sanctions on Russia. “With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” the ambassador said in a statement to Fox News’ Dana Perino, who read the comment during her Tuesday show.

Haley was responding specifically to Trump’s newly appointed economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who said earlier on Tuesday that the ambassador “got ahead of the curve” when she told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would announce additional sanctions on Russia for supporting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

“There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” Kudlow told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, a day after reports surfaced that Trump had reversed his position on imposing sanctions. The reversal surprised fellow Republicans and seemed to clearly undermine Haley.

Kudlow walked back his comment in an interview with The New York Times, saying he was wrong to say Haley was confused. “She was certainly not confused. I was wrong to say that — totally wrong,” he said. He added that Haley was not informed of a change in policy.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said a decision on additional sanctions would be finalized “in the near future.”

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 13:05 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
Nikki Haley: Ik ben helewar niet in de maal!

[ afbeelding ]

Nikki Haley Hits Back At White House: ‘I Don’t Get Confused’ (HuffPo)

[..]

quote:

Despite stiff competition , Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is by common consensus the worst of the ideologues and mediocrities President Trump chose to populate his cabinet. Policies aside — and they’re terrible, from an environmental perspective — Mr. Pruitt’s self-aggrandizing and borderline thuggish behavior has disgraced his office and demoralized his employees. We opposed his nomination because he had spent his career as attorney general of Oklahoma suing the federal department he was being asked to lead on behalf of industries he was being asked to regulate. As it turns out, Mr. Pruitt is not just an industry lap dog but also an arrogant and vengeful bully and small-time grifter, bent on chiseling the taxpayer to suit his lifestyle and warm his ego.

Any other president would have fired him. Mr. Trump praises him. “Scott is doing a great job!” the president tweeted on April 7. He agrees with Mr. Pruitt on policy — indeed, many of the administrator’s worst moves have been responses to Mr. Trump’s orders. And — no small chiseler in his own right — Mr. Trump seems to care not a whit about Mr. Pruitt’s mounting ethical problems, which have lately reached a point where Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, has reportedly told the president that he should think seriously about letting Mr. Pruitt go.

SPOILER

These problems began innocently enough, with the revelation last year that Mr. Pruitt had ordered up a $43,000 soundproof phone booth for his office so that his employees could not overhear him. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said Monday that the purchase violated the law because the E.P.A. had not notified Congress before incurring the expense. But what seemed like early onset executive paranoia quickly metastasized. Citing security concerns, Mr. Pruitt insisted on flying first class, against government custom, and when possible on Delta Air Lines (not the federal government’s contract carrier), so that he could accumulate frequent-flier miles. He asked his staff to schedule trips back to Oklahoma so he could spend weekends at his home there. “Find me something to do,” he said, according to evidence presented to Congress by Kevin Chmielewski, who was the E.P.A.’s deputy chief of staff until he was forced to resign after raising objections to Mr. Pruitt’s excesses. Mr. Pruitt used his own security detail and hired private security guards during a trip to Italy — at a cost of $30,000 — when embassy guards were available free.

In addition, he tripled the size of his security detail, also at taxpayer expense. He ordered bodyguard coverage 24 hours a day. He insisted on flashing lights and sirens to take him to the airport and to restaurants, a perk customarily reserved for the president and vice president. He rented a room at $50 a night, well below market rates, in a Washington condominium co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist with business before Mr. Pruitt’s agency.

He didn’t get everything he and his team wanted: a bulletproof sport utility vehicle, for instance, equipped with special tires designed to keep moving even when hit by gunfire; a $100,000-a-month contract to fly on private jets. But heaven help the E.P.A. staff members bold enough to challenge these demands. The Times reported this month that five agency officials — including Mr. Chmielewski — who objected to Mr. Pruitt’s costly requests and security upgrades were dismissed, reassigned or demoted.

One frequently overlooked truth about Mr. Pruitt amid these complaints is that for all his swagger he has actually accomplished very little in terms of actual policy — a wholly desirable outcome, from our standpoint. While hailed as the administration’s foremost champion of deregulation, he has yet to kill or even roll back any significant regulations that were in place when Mr. Trump came to office. (The Obama administration’s important Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants had already been blocked by the courts.) He has delayed a few rules, but even these delays have been overturned or challenged. Most of his actions are in the proposal stage, and many will not be finalized for years, if ever.

That does not mean Mr. Pruitt has been without baleful influence. He helped spearhead the effort to get Mr. Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change, a major insult to every other nation on earth, all of which have agreed to limit planet-warming greenhouse gases.

By endless repetition, he has reinforced in the public mind the lie that Republicans have peddled for years and Mr. Trump’s minions peddle now, that environmental rules kill jobs, that limiting carbon dioxide emissions will damage the economy, that the way forward lies not in technology and renewable energy but in digging more coal and punching more holes in the ground in search of oil. And, on the human level, he has been in the forefront of the administration’s shameless effort to delude the nation’s frightened coal miners into thinking coal is coming back, when any comeback is unlikely not because of regulation but because of strong market forces favoring natural gas and renewables.

Should Mr. Pruitt choose to depart — even some Republicans are complaining about his behavior — or by some miracle should Mr. Trump fire him, the administration’s appalling environmental policies are unlikely to change. The recently confirmed deputy administrator, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal industry lobbyist who shares Mr. Pruitt’s deregulatory zeal and fealty to the fossil fuels industry. Mr. Wheeler was for many years chief of staff for James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and long the Senate’s most determined denier of the accepted science on global warming.

So far as is known, however, Mr. Wheeler, a Washington insider, has no lust for bulletproof S.U.V.s or other trappings of power. Such modesty by itself can only lift the moral tone of a once-noble office that Mr. Pruitt has besmirched.

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 12:39 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
These Three "Angry White Men" Had A Plan To Kill Muslims. How Were They Radicalized?
(HuffPo mediumread; words: 1,727, reading time: 6:17)

[..]

_{PS: word / time counter here: https://wordcounter.net/}

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 15:16 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Dotard ontkent nu ineens dat hij Comey ontsloeg wegens het Rusland onderzoek.

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 12:39 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
These Three "Angry White Men" Had A Plan To Kill Muslims. How Were They Radicalized?
(HuffPo mediumread; words: 1,727, reading time: 6:17)

[..]

_{PS: word / time counter here: https://wordcounter.net/}

twitter:

alanhe twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:31:10 McConnell on the special counsel protection bill: "I'm the one who decides what we take to the floor. That's my responsibility as the Majority Leader and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate." reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 13:13 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Klopt, haar baas is degene die in de war is.

quote:

Op dinsdag 17 april 2018 17:08 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
Ik weet trouwens niet wat ik hinderlijker vind, ronduit trollen of al dat apologisme hier...

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 16:47 schreef Fir3fly het volgende:
En uncut:

LSSC Full Uncut Interview: James Comey

quote:

Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced the Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act, legislation to prevent this President or any other from abusing the pardon power for their own personal benefit or to obstruct justice. The legislation would require that if the President pardons someone in connection with an investigation in which the President or one of his family members is a target, subject, or witness, the evidence against recipient of the pardon would be provided by the Department of Justice to Congress.

“President Trump already has signaled that he is willing to use his constitutional powers in order to protect those who remain loyal to him, even if they are convicted of obstruction or perjury,” said Rep. Schiff. “By pardoning Scooter Libby last week, Trump has sent a clear and unmistakable message to potential witnesses against him or members of his family that: ‘if you have my back, I’ll have yours.’

At a time of constitutional peril, it is incumbent on the Congress to stand up for the rule of law by creating a strong disincentive to the President issuing pardons to protect himself and obstruct ongoing investigations.”

SPOILER

Background:

There are unsettling indications that President Trump could use the expansive pardon power granted by the Constitution as an instrument to undermine the Special Counsel’s investigation and other investigations into his business, family or his associates. In March, the New York Times reported that the President’s attorney, John Dowd, had floated the possibility of a presidential pardon to attorneys for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort last year. Already, President pardoned Scooter Libby, a Bush Administration official who was convicted in 2007 of obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI. Trump has also pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a political ally convicted of contempt for discriminatory police practices.

Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution provides that presidents "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” This legislation, if signed into law, would create a powerful disincentive for any president who seeks to use the pardon power as an instrument of obstruction in an ongoing investigation. It would grant Congress the power to conduct rigorous oversight, in a way that does not unduly burden the president’s inherent constitutional powers.

The Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act complements other proposals to prevent President Trump from interfering with the work of the Special Counsel, including the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. The text of the bill is below:

SEC 1. Short title.

This Act may be cited as the “Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act”.

SEC. 2. Congressional oversight relating to certain pardons.

(a) Submission of information.—In the event that the President grants an individual a pardon for an offense against the United States that arises from an investigation in which the President, or a relative of the President, is a target, subject, or witness, not later than 30 days after the date of such pardon, the Attorney General shall submit to the chairmen and ranking members of the appropriate congressional committees all materials of an investigation that were obtained by a United States Attorney, another Federal prosecutor, or an investigative authority of the Federal Government, relating to the offense for which the individual is so pardoned.

(b) Treatment of information.—Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure may not be construed to prohibit the disclosure of information required by subsection (a) of this section.

(c) Applicability.—Subsection (a) shall apply with respect to a pardon granted by the President on or after January 20, 2017.

(d) Definitions.—In this section:

(1) The term “appropriate congressional committees” means—

(A) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate; and

(B) if an investigation relates to intelligence or counterintelligence matters, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.

(2) The term “pardon” includes a commutation of sentence.

(3) The term “relative” has the meaning given that term in section 3110(a) of title 5, United States Code.

quote:

If you’ve seen video or images of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, they’ve probably been set in locations that exude power and importance: Cohen berating a CNN anchor in a TV studio, for example, or striding across the sleek marbled interior of Trump Tower, or more recently, smoking cigars in front of Cohen’s temporary residence, the Loews Regency Hotel on Manhattan’s Park Avenue.

But to understand how Michael Cohen arrived in those precincts, you need to venture across New York City’s East River. There, in a Queens warehouse district in the shadows of an elevated No. 7 subway line, is a taxi garage that used to house his law practice. The office area in the front is painted a garish taxicab-yellow, with posters of hockey players on the wall and a framed photo of the late Hasidic rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Cohen practiced law there and invested in the once-lucrative medallions that grant New York cabs the right to operate.

Or you could drive 45 minutes deep into Brooklyn, near where Gravesend turns into Brighton Beach. There, in a desolate stretch near a shuttered podiatrist’s office, you’d find a medical office. According to previously unexamined records, Cohen incorporated a business there in 2002 that was involved in large quantities of medical claims. Separately, he represented more than 100 plaintiffs who claimed they were injured in auto collisions.

At the same time, in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York prosecutors were investigating what Fortune magazine called possibly “the largest organized insurance-fraud ring in U.S. history.” That fraud resulted in hundreds of criminal prosecutions for staging car accidents to collect insurance payments. Cohen was not implicated in the fraud.

A distinctive pattern emerged early in Cohen’s career, according to an examination by WNYC and ProPublica for the “Trump, Inc.” podcast: Many of the people who crossed paths with Cohen when he worked in Queens and Brooklyn were disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes.

SPOILER

Cohen, 51, has always emerged unscathed — until now. Last week, his Rockefeller Center office was raided by federal agents, as were his home, hotel room, safety deposit box and two cellphones. Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. According to court papers, investigators are examining whether he committed fraud and showed a “lack of truthfulness.”

He and his attorneys did not respond to a lengthy set of questions emailed to them. Cohen’s lawyers have stated that he has done nothing improper.

Cohen has attained national attention as the man who paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her alleged affair with Trump secret. He also negotiated a $1.6 million settlement with a woman impregnated by Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy. (Cohen’s attorney told a judge on Monday that his only three legal clients over the past 15 months were Trump, Broidy and talk-show host Sean Hannity.)

Cohen has for decades had close personal and professional relationships with many citizens of the former Soviet Union. He ended up as point men on Trump’s deals there and also turned up in the notorious Russia “dossier.” He has routinely been described as an indispensable man to Donald Trump.

One indicator of that, according to The New York Times: President Trump is more agitated by what those New York prosecutors may find in Cohen’s files than he is by the wide-ranging investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen, it seems, may hold some crucial secrets. What’s more surprising, perhaps, is the path he took to get to that point.

Michael Cohen grew up in the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York, a heavily Jewish enclave. His father was a surgeon, according to media reports, and Cohen enjoyed a top-tier education, graduating from the private Lawrence Woodmere Academy, then moving on to American University.

From there, it seems, Cohen’s educational trajectory turned in a different direction. He attended the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Michigan, which, InsideHigherEd.com once wrote, “is known for admitting students other law schools would not touch.”

In 1992, after law school, he returned to his home region and landed a job working for a personal injury attorney named Melvyn Estrin, who had an office on lower Broadway in Manhattan.

Estrin was the first in a series of colleagues who would run afoul of authorities. Within three years of Cohen’s arrival, Estrin was charged with bribing insurance adjusters to inflate damage estimates and expedite claims. He later pleaded guilty. Cohen was never implicated in any of the misdeeds. Estrin did not respond to a request for comment. He is still practicing law.

Cohen continued to use Estrin’s address on legal filings as late as 1999, but he added several new addresses during this period, including 22-05 43rd Ave., in Long Island City, Queens — the taxi garage. It was the headquarters of the New York branch of the empire of Simon Garber, a Soviet emigre who also has had cab companies in Chicago and Moscow. Charismatic and silver-haired, Garber released kitschy TV-style advertisements, in Russian, for his company.

Over the years, Garber has been convicted of assault in New York, arrested for battery in Miami and pleaded guilty in New Jersey to charges of criminal mischief involving him breaking into three neighbors’ homes, shattering glass doors, smearing blood all over and taking a shower. In Chicago, his taxi fleet included wrecked vehicles with illegally laundered titles.

Garber did not respond to a request for comment. (Two other attorneys had offices inside Garber’s offices in the early 2000s. One was forced to resign from the bar after he was accused of not turning money over to a client. The other was disbarred, in part for trying to steal money from the first lawyer.)

In 1994 Cohen married Laura Shusterman, who was born in the Soviet Union. Her father, also a taxi entrepreneur, pleaded guilty to a felony, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, the year before.

By the late 1990s, records show, Cohen had begun acquiring taxi medallions, licenses required by the City of New York to operate a yellow cab. The number of medallions has been strictly controlled for decades. Before the advent of services like Uber, they were particularly valuable, with their price peaking at over $1 million in 2014.

Cohen co-owned some of the medallions with his wife, and indeed, his family and business relationships sometimes overlapped. Filings show his father-in-law once made a loan to Garber. And in 2001, Cohen borrowed money for one of his taxi companies, Golden Child Cab Corp., from one of the men convicted with Cohen’s father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, in the fraud against the IRS.

Starting around 2000, Cohen was involved in scores of car insurance lawsuits, often on behalf of plaintiffs who claimed to have been injured in auto collisions and were seeking judgments to cover purported medical expenses.

At this time, a wave of staged auto accidents, involving immigrants from the former Soviet Union who claimed to have been hurt, had led prosecutors to open a massive investigation. They dubbed it Operation Boris, an acronym for Big Organized Russian Insurance Scam. The prosecutorial push resulted in hundreds of convictions.

Cohen also drew up incorporation papers for at least three medical practices and three medical billing companies. One company Cohen registered in 2002, Avex Medical Care PRC, sued insurance companies nearly 300 times. The plaintiffs lawyer in almost all of these cases was David Katz, who was disbarred later for professional misconduct.

The doctor who owned Avex was charged in 2003 with criminal insurance fraud connected with another medical business; the charge was dismissed. He’s now practicing medicine in New Jersey.

Dr. Zhanna Kanevsky, the principal of Life Quality Medical, a clinic business that Cohen incorporated in 2002, surrendered her medical license after pleading guilty to writing phony prescriptions for 100,000 oxycodone and other pills.

Once again, Cohen was never charged.

In the early 2000s, Trump and Cohen became connected, fittingly, through real estate. Cohen started to transfer the wealth he’d gained from taxi medallions and insurance lawsuits to apartments in Trump buildings. Along with his parents, his in-laws, and Simon Garber, Cohen acquired eight units in Trump Palace, Trump Park Avenue, and Trump World Plaza. The man who operated out of a Queens taxi garage now owned apartments alongside the likes of Sophia Loren and Harrison Ford.

Cohen also began to show political ambitions. In 2003, he ran for City Council on Manhattan’s Upper East Side as a Republican. Even people close to his campaign weren’t sure why he ran.

His own campaign biography provided few answers — or rather, disparate ones. He claimed at the time to own 200 taxi medallions, to be a member of the Friars Club, an avid stamp collector, and a member of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Inspector General advisory board.

Cohen lost the City Council race, but his donor list provides a snapshot of his network. He received contributions from his father, his father-in-law, and Bruce Winston, a son of the jeweler Harry Winston. A New York Republican with knowledge of Cohen’s 2003 campaign said Cohen told him then that he was Harry Winston’s in-house counsel at the time. The company says Cohen was never an employee.

Court papers show Cohen was one of the lawyers who helped Bruce Winston, and his daughter, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, in a legal action challenging Deutsche Bank’s conduct as trustee of Harry Winston’s estate. Their petition failed. (For her part, Wolkoff, a friend of Melania Trump’s, later became the highest-paid contractor for Donald Trump’s inauguration, taking in an eye-popping $26 million, and sparking a backlash.)

It’s unclear when Cohen and Trump first met, but the two were publicly linked in February 2007. The New York Post published an article then about an attorney who was purchasing large numbers of apartments in Trump buildings. “Trump properties are solid investments,” Cohen told the Post. Trump returned the compliment, declaring Cohen to be a wise investor. “Michael Cohen has a great insight into the real-estate market,” he told the Post. “He has invested in my buildings because he likes to make money — and he does.”

Three months later, Cohen became an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, with the same job title as Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump.

Cohen was never a traditional in-house lawyer for Trump. He has been described as both a “fixer” and a “dealmaker” — and it seems he embraced both roles. “He did jobs for Donald that no one else would do,” said one person who worked with Cohen, “especially not a lawyer. He did a lot of these jobs.”

Still, even after Cohen had joined the Trump Organization, he harbored personal political dreams. In 2010, Cohen mounted a second unsuccessful campaign, this time for the New York state Senate. Among his donors in that race were shipping magnate Oleg Mitnik and tobacco tycoon and New York real estate man Howard Lorber, one of Donald Trump’s closest friends.

Cohen continued to expand his role within the Trump universe. It had become simultaneously global, national and highly local. The Trump Organization’s business model had shifted, from building high-end Manhattan properties to scoping for international licensing deals, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Cohen, along with Trump’s adult children, headed up this effort.

At a Trump Tower press conference in early 2011, Cohen took the public stage as an international dealmaker. “Seven months ago, at the request of a dear friend of mine from Georgia, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, I traveled to the Republic of Georgia to explore several real estate opportunities on behalf of Mr. Trump,” Cohen said in his unmistakable Long Island accent. He then introduced Trump and the then-president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili.

The ostensible purpose of the press conference was to talk up a planned tower in the city of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast. But most of the questions centered on Donald Trump’s possible run for president.

Months earlier, Michael Cohen had helped set up a website called shouldtrumprun.com with the Long Island law firm Gerstman Schwartz & Malito. (David Schwartz is a longtime Cohen friend and attorney who made several television appearances on Cohen’s behalf when the Stormy Daniels news broke.) Cohen also traveled to Iowa to explore the political terrain.

Shouldtrumprun.com was billed as independent of Trump; otherwise Trump would have had to file papers with the Federal Election Commission on his own behalf. At the press conference, Trump was peppered with political questions. “Could you comment on the kind of feedback or what you took from the feedback from Mr. Cohen’s Iowa trip,” one reporter asked. “You could ask Mr. Cohen. You can speak to him,” Trump replied.

But she pressed. “Are you encouraged by anything that you saw or read out of that? Trump couldn’t resist. “Well,” he said, “I mean the response has been amazing, actually.”

Another response: A complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission, alleging Trump had accepted “excessive or impermissible contributions from the Trump Organization, LLC” because shouldtrumprun.com was set up by an employee: Michael Cohen. Trump and Cohen were cleared of wrongdoing. One of the two commissioners who signed off on the ruling was Donald McGahn. McGahn later became Trump’s White House counsel.

There’s another piece of public work that Cohen was involved in that further shows the close links among Trump, Cohen, and the attorney David Schwartz. During the same time period of the Georgia deal and shouldtrumprun.com, Schwartz and Cohen were both working on a project called Trump on the Ocean, which aimed to construct a massive catering hall in the popular Jones Beach State Park on Long Island.

Trump was so keen on this project that, unusually even for him, he called four governors and a state comptroller to lobby for it, according to former state officials. In at least one of the calls, he cited his generous donations as a reason to get the clearances he needed to move forward.

Trump put Cohen in charge of the negotiations. But some state officials balked at what they saw as an attempt to commercialize a state park, and Trump’s insistence that the state override its fire code so he could build a kitchen in the basement.

The lobbying was contentious, said Judith Enck, the top environmental advisr for Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson (and later the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency for the New York region), who was involved in the negotiations. “That was not a typical discussion with a business that was trying to do business with the state of New York. It was aggressive,” Enck said. “There were efforts to go around me to get a better outcome in the discussion … I recall it as you know one of the most unpleasant experiences I had in the governor’s office.”

Misery, perhaps, for a government official — but triumph for Trump, Cohen and Schwartz. They got permission to begin construction. “GREAT JOB!” Trump wrote in a note to Schwartz. “I will hire your firm again!”

Alas, it was all for naught in the end. Months later, the tail of Superstorm Sandy inundated Jones Beach and Trump walked away from the project.

Three years later, when Trump made a run for the White House, Cohen continued to serve both as promoter and dealmaker. He frequently appeared on TV as a Trump surrogate, though he had no official campaign position. In one interview in the summer of 2016, Cohen refused to acknowledge that polls strongly favored Hillary Clinton. He badgered CNN anchor Brianna Keilar when she referred to Trump’s then-dismal poll numbers. “Says who?” Cohen shot back. “What polls?” The anchor, seemingly mystified, answered, “All of them?” The clip went viral.

Cohen’s truculent tendencies were also on display a year before that interview when he threatened Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak. Mak had resurfaced an old accusation made by Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, during their divorce proceedings, that Trump had raped her. (She later withdrew the allegation.) “I’m warning you,” Mak says Cohen told him, “tread very fucking lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.”

Behind the scenes, Cohen was still attempting to make deals for Trump in the former Soviet Union. Cohen drafted a letter of intent with a Moscow investment company to build Trump World Tower Moscow.

Cohen’s partner in the deal was Felix Sater, a Trump associate who had been convicted of assault and securities fraud and had widely reported connections to the Russian mob. “Let’s make this happen and build a Trump Moscow,” Sater wrote in an email to Cohen. “And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone commerce and business are much better and more practical than politics.”

In another email, Sater wrote, “Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it.” In a statement issued last summer, Cohen called this “puffery” and said Sater was prone to colorful language and salesmanship.

Cohen’s activities drew the attention of Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was assembling raw intelligence on the Trump campaign for a private client (ultimately paid for by the Clinton campaign). The resulting collection of documents has become known as “the dossier.”

Steele’s memo included the assertion that Cohen met with Russian contacts in Prague after damaging news emerged about Trump’s former campaign manager and an aide. “The overall objective had been ‘sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connection could be fully established or proven,’” Steele wrote in a memo dated Oct. 19, 2016.

In statements and court documents, Cohen has vociferously denied ever visiting Prague, even dispensing photos of his passport, with no Czech stamps visible, as putative proof. Cohen has filed two defamation lawsuits over the release of the dossier. But now McClatchy has reported that special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that Cohen was in Prague in late summer 2016. (And the photographic “proof” Cohen offered may turn out to be moot, according to the McClatchy article, since he reportedly entered the Czech Republic from Germany, which would not have required him to pass through immigration or customs.)

One thing that Cohen does not dispute: In October 2016, he was involved in fixing another problem, this time by paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen asserts he did this on his own, with money he obtained from a home equity line of credit.

When FBI agents searched Cohen’s offices on April 9, 2018, they were seeking evidence relating to the Stormy Daniels payment. They were also, according to the Washington Post, sifting through business records relating to Cohen’s taxi medallions. There may still be answers to be found in Queens.

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 18:31 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
The Company Michael Cohen Kept — “Trump, Inc.”

Long before Donald Trump’s attorney paid Stormy Daniels or had his office raided by the FBI, a pattern was established: The associates of Michael Cohen have often been disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes.

[..]

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 19:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Avenatti trollt Trump gewoon lekker verder.

https://twitter.com/Micha(...)448070404640768?s=20

De beloning is nu 131.000$

twitter:

MichaelAvenatti twitterde op woensdag 18-04-2018 om 17:16:00 Warning: As the walls close and reality sets in that the most damaging witnesses, secrets and evidence are no longer protected, fully expect the following: sheer panic, personal attacks, tirades, and distraction. But none of it will change the outcome in the end... #basta reageer retweet

quote:

Het wordt waarschijnlijk binnenkort voor alle Amerikanen verboden om honden- en katten te eten. De landbouwcommissie van het Huis van Afgevaardigden komt met een wetsvoorstel dat menselijke consumptie van deze huisdieren strafbaar wordt gesteld.

Verwacht wordt dat een meerderheid in het Huis voor de wet zal stemmen.

Het slachten van honden en katten komt in de Verenigde Staten weinig voor en was al verboden in slachthuizen. Maar in sommige Amerikaanse culturen komt het slachten en eten van honden en katten sporadisch nog voor. In slechts een paar Amerikaanse staten waaronder New York, New Jersey en Californië is slacht op dit moment al verboden.

In de nieuwe wet wordt voorgesteld dat de maximumstraf voor overtreding van deze regels een jaar gevangenisstraf zal zijn. Dierenwelzijnsorganisaties ijveren al jaren voor strengere wetten tegen de slacht van huisdieren voor menselijke consumptie.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 20:45 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:
VS komt met wetsvoorstel dat opeten honden en katten verbiedt (NU.nl)

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Woef! (en Miauw natuurlijk!)

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 16:13 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

twitter:

alanhe twitterde op dinsdag 17-04-2018 om 22:31:10 McConnell on the special counsel protection bill: "I'm the one who decides what we take to the floor. That's my responsibility as the Majority Leader and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate." reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 18:31 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
The Company Michael Cohen Kept — “Trump, Inc.”

Long before Donald Trump’s attorney paid Stormy Daniels or had his office raided by the FBI, a pattern was established: The associates of Michael Cohen have often been disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes.

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quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 23:01 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:
https://i.imgur.com/c57hUJI.png

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 23:14 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:

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Hadden we juist net nog zo mooi geleerd (weet je nog? ) om plaatjes voortaan op imgur te doen, blokt imgur zomaar alles op fok!

(Ik ben inmiddels weer terug op tinypic... ach zolang ik alles onder de 80K hou... )

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 23:14 schreef brokjespoes het volgende:

[..]

Hadden we juist net nog zo mooi geleerd (weet je nog? ) om plaatjes voortaan op imgur te doen, blokt imgur zomaar alles op fok!

(Ik ben inmiddels weer terug op tinypic... ach zolang ik alles onder de 80K hou... )

quote:

An electrical contractor working to restore power in Puerto Rico accidentally knocked out a major transmission line on Wednesday, leaving the entire island without power nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria destroyed the electrical grid.

It could take up to 36 hours to restore electricity to nearly 1.5 million affected customers, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said.

Justo González, the agency’s chief operating officer, said the outage occurred after a bulldozer operated by a subcontractor, working to pick up a fallen tower in a rural area, got too close to a high-voltage line. The resulting electrical fault had a domino effect at power plants across the south, where the bulk of the island’s power is generated.

The subcontractor has been fired, Mr. González said in a telephone interview. “I’m angry. This is the second time in a row,” he said. “I give the people of Puerto Rico my word: We are going to restore power to every last house.”

SPOILER

It was the second widespread failure in less than a week, underscoring just how fragile Puerto Rico’s electricity remains since the storm hit on Sept. 20. In the earlier failure on Thursday, about 870,000 customers lost power across the island after a tree fell on the main line to the capital, San Juan. The city’s main public hospital and international airport were forced to switch to backup generators.

The tree fell as crews tried to clear land near Cayey as part of the continuing power restoration efforts.

Many large hotels in San Juan experienced only a temporary power loss until generators kicked in. The lights flickered and went out for about 30 seconds at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, where a news conference was underway to commemorate Roberto Clemente, a Puerto Rico native who played 18 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“Welcome to Puerto Rico, this what we know as life,” Eduardo Perez, a former Major League baseball player and ESPN commentator who was hosting the news conference, told those gathered in the room.

The power authority had boasted earlier in the day that electricity had been restored to 97 percent of its nearly 1.5 million clients. Three hours later, nearly 100 percent were without power.

The outage reflects the troubled nature of the power restoration in Puerto Rico, where thousands of electrical workers from throughout the United States worked for months installing poles, transformers and electrical wire. The United States Army Corps of Engineers has spent $2.1 billion on restoring power on the island, where 80 percent of the distribution lines were damaged during the hurricane. Declaring its mission nearly complete, the Corps had already begun demobilizing the majority of the contractors on the island.

On Wednesday, the Puerto Rico electrical authority said it still had over 2,000 workers fixing distribution and transmission lines.

The company did not say what caused the failure, which originated at its Aguirre Central plant. The company said it expected it would take 24 to 36 hours to restore power, beginning with critical locations such as hospitals and the airport.

“The priority to restore services are the critical loads such as the hospitals, the Luis Muñoz Marín airport, the water pumping stations, and banking centers,” the company said on Twitter. “Then comes industries, commercial businesses and residences.”

Angel Figueroa Jaramillo, the head of the electrical worker’s union in Puerto Rico, said the electric company was letting the restoration efforts collapse in a deliberate attempt to justify privatizing the electric company. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has said he plans to privatize the company, known as Prepa, which is in bankruptcy and has suffered from years of neglect and lack of maintenance.

“In addition to the $2.4 billion that has been spent, we continue paying the consequences,” Mr. Figueroa said at a televised news conference on Wednesday. “People who came here with business in mind did what they could, quote unquote ‘finished,’ and then left. This is all a process on how to dismantle the electric authority to justify privatization of the most important service in our country.”

Mr. González said that notion was ridiculous. Power authority officials have said they brought in a wealth of assistance and have been working hard to get power restored, but were hampered at the beginning by a lack of supplies and inaccessible terrain.

Sitting in the main outdoors plaza at the Centro Médico, Juan de Jiménez Quiñones, 55, smoked a cigarette. He was at work, as a plasterer elsewhere in San Juan, earlier in the day when he found out the electricity was out — yet again — on the island. He still came to visit his wife, who is in the hospital with diabetes and a related leg problem.

A few feet away, a security guard screened the line. Even here, the buzz of the generators could be heard. “Oh, God help us,” said a man from outside the sliding glass doors.

“It’s hasn’t been easy, man,” Mr. Jiménez said. “You know what’s it like to cook your meals on firewood? It’s like country living.”

quote:

The tabloid news company American Media Inc. agreed to let a former Playboy model out of a contract that had kept her from talking freely about an alleged affair with Donald J. Trump, her lawyer said.

The settlement agreement, reached Wednesday, ends a lawsuit brought by the model, Karen McDougal, and protects the president from being drawn into a legal case involving efforts to buy the silence of women who had stories to tell about him during the 2016 campaign.

He still faces another lawsuit, from the pornographic film star Stephanie Clifford, who is suing to get out of a deal that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, arranged in 2016 for her silence about an alleged affair.

In August 2016 American Media, which owns The National Enquirer, acquired the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story about Mr. Trump — which it never ran — in return for $150,000 and commitments to use its magazines to promote her current career as a fitness specialist.

Under the terms of Wednesday’s settlement, American Media has the right to up to $75,000 of any future profits from her story about the alleged affair, which Mr. Trump denies. According to her lawyer, Peter K. Stris, Ms. McDougal can keep the $150,000 payment and the publisher will retain the rights to photographs of her that it already has.

“It’s a total win,” Mr. Stris said in an interview. “We got everything we were fighting for — she got out of the contract, gets the life rights back and owes A.M.I. nothing more.”

SPOILER

In a separate interview, Ms. McDougal expressed elation about the end of her “wild ride,” and said she currently had no plans to sell the rights to her story to a new buyer. “It’s one step at a time for me,” she said. “Today, I’m doing my victory dance.”

Ms. McDougal’s lawsuit said that American Media, whose chairman, David J. Pecker, is a friend of President Trump’s, misled her into signing the contract. It also alleged that Mr. Cohen had inappropriately intervened in the deal.

The deal, and the extent of Mr. Cohen’s role in it, are subjects of a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation that is, in part, looking into his efforts to protect Mr. Trump’s presidential prospects in 2016.

American Media indicated earlier this month that it would fight Ms. McDougal, asking the Los Angeles Superior Court to dismiss her lawsuit.

But that was roughly a week before federal investigators obtained email communications, audio recordings and other documentation from Mr. Cohen during their raid of his office, home and hotel room. Those materials included information about American Media and the McDougal suit, people involved in the case said.

The suit also claimed that Mr. Cohen had been secretly involved in the talks between A.M.I. and Ms. McDougal’s lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson — who emailed Mr. Cohen at the end of the talks. A.M.I. also spoke with Mr. Cohen about Ms. McDougal, though it says it did so only as part of its reporting process.

Mr. Stris said on Wednesday that before reaching the settlement he was prepared to answer American Media’s motion to dismiss Ms. McDougal’s case with a request for a limited version of pretrial discovery, in which both sides would have been compelled to share emails and other records that could have provided information about the deal from inside American Media that would not be available through the material the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Cohen. Mr. Stris said he would ask to submit written questions to Mr. Trump, and ask for several internal documents.

The settlement precludes any of that from happening, at least in Ms. McDougal’s civil case, though Mr. Stris said he expected federal investigators to eventually secure everything they need to fully vet the process behind the deal. “I have tremendous confidence in the men and woman of the Southern District of New York,” he said, referring to the federal prosecutors investigating Mr. Cohen.

The initial deal precluded Ms. McDougal from speaking about her affair with Mr. Trump, but A.M.I. amended the contract after the election to allow her to answer “legitimate press inquiries,” in response to her complaints that the agreement was overly restrictive. In recent weeks, she has spoken to The New Yorker and Anderson Cooper of CNN.

Separate from the federal investigation into Mr. Cohen, A.M.I. is facing a complaint at the Federal Election Commission that its $150,000 payment to Ms. McDougal was an illegal campaign expenditure. The publisher has denied this, saying it was acting solely as a news organization with a First Amendment right to run stories — or not run them — as it chooses.

quote:

Op woensdag 18 april 2018 23:29 schreef Tchock het volgende:

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Nee joh, wat kut. Ik had er al problemen mee.

quote:

The White House had reached no final decision about whether to strike Syria — let alone, whether to target Russian assets within it — when the president tweeted this pledge. Over the ensuing days, Defense Secretary James Mattis implored Trump to hold off on bombing the Assad regime until its responsibility for the Douma attack could be fully verified, and Congress could be given a chance to authorize the act of war.

But the president couldn’t abide a delay. In his view, it was better to bomb Syria without a strategy or legal authorization than to invite doubts about the credibility of the threats he makes on social media. As the New York Times reports:

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged President Trump to get congressional approval before the United States launched airstrikes against Syria last week, but was overruled by Mr. Trump, who wanted a rapid and dramatic response, military and administration officials said.


Mr. Trump, the officials said, wanted to be seen as backing up a series of bellicose tweets with action, but was warned that an overly aggressive response risked igniting a wider war with Russia.


… Mr. Trump’s drumbeat of threats last week of a sharp response to the suspected gas attacks all but guaranteed that the United States military would strike Syria, according to two Defense Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity … Mr. Trump did not necessarily want to hit Syria hard enough to bring Russia into the war, administration officials said. But he did want to appear aggressive in his response.

quote:

Op donderdag 19 april 2018 00:01 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Officials Confirm That Trump Bombed Syria to Validate His Tweets
http://nymag.com/daily/in(...)e-trumps-tweets.html

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You can't make this shit up.

quote:

Former prosecutor Jay Goldberg says he cautioned president that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, could be compelled to cooperate with prosecutors

One of President Donald Trump’s longtime legal advisers said he warned the president in a phone call Friday that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and close friend, would turn against the president and cooperate with federal prosecutors if faced with criminal charges.

Mr. Trump made the call seeking advice from Jay Goldberg, who represented Mr. Trump in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mr. Goldberg said he cautioned the president not to trust Mr. Cohen. On a scale of 100 to 1, where 100 is fully protecting the president, Mr. Cohen “isn’t even a 1,” he said he told Mr. Trump.

SPOILER

Mr. Cohen is under criminal investigation for potential bank fraud and campaign-finance violations. FBI agents raided Mr. Cohen’s home, hotel and office last week, seeking documents about, among other things, a $130,000 payment he made in October 2016 to a former adult-film actress to prevent her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump in 2006, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the matter.​Messrs. Trump and Cohen deny such an encounter occurred.

Investigators are examining whether Mr. Cohen committed bank fraud in using a home-equity line of credit to pay the former porn star for her silence, as well as potential campaign-finance violations related to the payment, the people said.

“Michael will never stand up [for you]” if charged by the government, Mr. Goldberg said he cautioned the president.

Neither Mr. Cohen, who hasn’t been charged, nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment. The White House confirmed the phone call of Messrs. Trump and Goldberg.

The 15-minute discussion between the two men provides an inside peek at the president’s efforts to seek guidance amid the rapidly escalating developments involving Mr. Cohen. Mr. Goldberg is one of several longtime advisers Mr. Trump has reached out to as he and his legal team try to assess the potential fallout from the criminal investigation of Mr. Cohen and devise a response.

Mr. Goldberg said the volume of correspondence taken and the potential pressure the government can bring to bear on Mr. Cohen to testify put the president in more potential peril from the Cohen matter than from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Mr. Mueller is examining whether members of Mr. Trump’s campaign team colluded with Russians to affect the 2016 election. Russia officials have denied meddling in the election, and Mr. Trump has denied any collusion took place.

Messrs. Trump and Cohen have publicly supported each other. Mr. Goldberg said Mr. Trump told him on Friday that Mr. Cohen is “very strong.” For his part, Mr. Cohen this month tweeted: “I will always protect our @POTUS.”

In the call, Mr. Goldberg, a former prosecutor who represented Mr. Trump in divorce and real-estate matters, said he told the president Mr. Cohen could even agree to wear a wire and try to record conversations with Mr. Trump. “You have to be alert,” Mr. Goldberg said he told the president. “I don’t care what Michael says.”

Mr. Goldberg recalled the conversation in a two-hour interview in his apartment on New York’s Upper East Side Wednesday, emphasizing that he didn’t believe Mr. Trump had broken the law.

Speaking from his experience as a prosecutor, he said even hardened organized-crime figures flip under pressure from the government. “The mob was broken by Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano caving in out of the prospect of a jail sentence,” Mr. Goldberg said.

Mr. Goldberg provided fresh details about the search warrants executed against Mr. Cohen, which he said came from a conversation in recent days with Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb. Mr. Cohen faces scrutiny over his payment to the former adult-movie star Stephanie Clifford for her silence, as well as his taxi business, according to people familiar with the matter.

On April 9, six agents showed up at Mr. Cohen’s suite at the Loews Regency Hotel on Manhattan’s Park Avenue, where he is staying temporarily while his home is renovated, with a warrant, Mr. Goldberg said Mr. Cobb told him. The agents “were perfect gentlemen,” but their guns were visible, he said. They also went to Mr. Cohen’s office at law firm Squire Patton Boggs in Rockefeller Center, where they gathered his files and placed them in cartons in a truck, Mr. Goldberg said.

Representatives for the FBI and Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

Mr. Goldberg’s legal career has included stints as an acting U.S. attorney in Indiana, a special attorney to the Justice Department in Washington, and an assistant district attorney in New York.

Mr. Goldberg said he also warned Mr. Trump in the Friday call about the risks of submitting to an interview with Mr. Mueller’s office. Prompted by the president for his advice, he also said he recommended Mr. Trump fire Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mr. Mueller.

Mr. Goldberg, who is 85 years old and has practiced law for more than five decades, said he suggested that Mr. Trump add a well-known New York lawyer to his legal team. Mr. Goldberg declined to name the lawyer, but a person familiar with the matter said it was Frederick Hafetz, a former chief of the criminal division of the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.

Mr. Hafetz confirmed receiving a call on the matter from Mr. Goldberg but said he wasn’t interested in joining Mr. Trump’s legal team.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Cobb, sent Mr. Goldberg an email Friday thanking him for “importuning Fred” and for providing a legal citation that Mr. Goldberg thought might be helpful to challenge the government’s use of records collected with the search warrants executed against Mr. Cohen, according to a copy of the email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

A White House official said that following the call with Mr. Goldberg, the president was “complimentary” about his former lawyer and relayed the suggestions to his legal team on hiring Mr. Hafetz and other matters. The president asked Mr. Cobb to call Mr. Goldberg “as a courtesy,” the official said. Neither Mr. Hafetz nor Mr. Goldberg are expected to join the legal team, the official said.

Mr. Goldberg said he warned Mr. Trump against submitting to an interview with Mr. Mueller’s team, telling him “talking is a certain trap,” adding: “Don’t ever do it.”

quote:

Diplomats and investors are starting to dismiss Trump’s policy tweets and other quickly shifting statements.

Wall Street, corporate America and the diplomatic world are settling on a strategy to deal with President Donald Trump’s rapidly shifting statements on critical issues like trade deals and Russia sanctions: Just ignore him.

Trump last week shocked the world by suggesting he might rejoin the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation pact among nations representing 13 percent of the global economy. He reversed himself days later.

Beyond TPP, Trump in recent weeks has declared war on Amazon then not done very much about it. He settled on Russia sanctions only to ditch them, leaving American allies and members of his own administration completely befuddled.

In ordinary times, a declaration like the one Trump made about TPP would have sent stocks soaring, thrilled exporters and sent corporate strategists scrambling to assess the impact.

But none of that really happened.

Financial markets and America’s trading partners largely ignored the comments as a throwaway line, and the market wisdom proved to be correct when Trump tweeted that he did not "like the deal for the U.S," deflating the TPP trial balloon before it left the ground.

All of this has led investors, executives and diplomats to the conclusion that trying to act on any single thing Trump says or tweets is a fool’s game. The more effective strategy, these people say, is to look for trends in the broad sweep of Trump’s approach to governance and ignore all the noise.

SPOILER

“He’s clearly proven that he tends to shoot first and ask questions later and that is very, very difficult for anyone on Wall Street or really anywhere to navigate,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors. “You can get free traders in the administration pushing stuff like rejoining TPP then he wipes it all out with a single tweet. So what we’ve tended to do is just look at the trends from 30,000 feet and shrug off the random tweets."

In the case of Amazon, Trump roasted the company for days on Twitter at the end of March, crushing its stock price. Since then he’s only asked for a review of Post Office contracts, including the one it has with Amazon. Investors consider the review unlikely to amount to anything. Fears of a full-bore assault on the online retail giant have evaporated and its shares are climbing again.

One of the wealthiest hedge fund managers in the world, who is a Trump supporter and did not want to be identified by name criticizing the president, said trading on any single Trump comment — whether Amazon or anything else — was ill advised given how quickly he can change positions or simply move on to another subject.

“He’s gotten pretty good economic results so far doing what he’s doing,” the hedge fund manager said. “ … He’s got a style that is not really presidential and you have no idea what’s going to come out of his mouth or whether he’s just going to change his mind. He’d be better off not tweeting, but that’s not going to happen."

Some of the United States’ closest trading partners were deeply skeptical that Trump meant what he said on TPP last week, even as they emphasized that they would welcome a U.S. change of heart if Trump did decide to follow through.

Taro Aso, Japan’s finance minister, told reporters that he “would welcome” the United States' return, “if it’s true.” But he added that Trump “is a person who could change temperamentally, so he may say something different the next day," Aso said, according to a Reuters report.

In Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull echoed the sentiment and said it would be "great" to have Washington rejoin the pact. But, he added, “we’re certainly not counting on it."

The back-and-forth nature of Trump’s policy pronouncements means that reaction to what he says is usually blunted unless it’s repeated by another official or put out through a more official channel, said Clayton Allen, vice president of special situations at Height Capital Markets.

Allen said markets increasingly look to external factors to determine how seriously to take a particular announcement — examining whether the president is "trying to use a policy pronouncement to leverage pressure or mollify some specific group with no intention to follow through."

While markets will never completely discount his tweets and off-the-cuff pronouncements, “people are coming to realize that these statements often signify nothing, and are learning to live with the sound and fury,” Allen said.

In the case of Russia, administration officials including U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley believed the president had signed off on new Russia sanctions as part of the American response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. Haley spoke of the sanctions on national television on Sunday.

By Monday, Trump had reportedly changed his mind and decided against the sanctions, leading his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow to suggest Haley had been confused. Haley fired back that she was not confused and Kudlow privately apologized to her.

The confusion over Russia echoed through global markets as Russian stocks trading in the U.S. and the Russian ruble initially dropped in anticipation of sanctions hurting the country’s economy. But they rebounded Monday when the White House reversed itself on the sanctions.

The whipsaw nature of the Trump presidency, in which obsessions come and go and positions change by the day, has flipped the old Wall Street maxim "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" on its head. The only way to handle Trump, investors say, is to wait for actions to become official.

“He has a tendency to fire off in all directions," Ablin said. “It’s hard to ever know what’s real."

quote:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), his Democratic challenger, a poll released Wednesday showed.

The first Quinnipiac University poll of the race deemed it too close to call. Cruz leads O’Rourke by 3 percentage points — 47 to 44 percent — which falls within the margin of error.

Eighty-seven percent of Democrats said they support O’Rourke's bid to replace Cruz, according to the poll, while 88 percent of the state's Republicans said they back the incumbent.

Forty-six percent of Texas voters view Cruz favorably, while 44 percent who view him unfavorably, the poll found. By comparison, 30 percent of voters view O’Rourke favorably, 16 percent view him unfavorably and 53 percent said they don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.
O’Rourke has drummed up significant momentum in his race to unseat Cruz and become Texas's first Democratic U.S. senator in more than two decades.

He reported a fundraising haul of $6.7 million in the first three months of 2018, compared to Cruz, who reportedly raised $3.2 million in the same time period.

President Trump won Texas in the 2016 election with 53 percent of the vote, while Democrat Hillary Clinton received roughly 43 percent of the vote.

The new Quinnipiac poll, conducted April 12–17, has a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points. Pollsters surveyed 1,029 Texas voters.

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Op woensdag 18 april 2018 23:01 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

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[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op donderdag 19 april 2018 08:02 schreef Wombcat het volgende:

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Het is ook echt een bananenrepubliek daar.
Het is toch van de zotte dat een voorstel van een minderheidspartij niet in stemming gebracht mag worden, omdat de voorzitter het niet op de agenda wil zetten Ik kan me dat nog voorstellen als er maar een paar het voorstel ondersteunen, maar ik vermoed dat in ieder geval de meerderheid van de democraten er wel voor zal zijn.