June 8, 2018

Former FOX News Military Analyst is "Convinced Vladimir Putin Has a Grip on Donald Trump" - And More

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/7/1770175/-Former-FOX-News-Military-Analyst-is-Convinced-Vladimir-Putin-Has-a-Grip-on-Donald-Trump-And-More?detail=emaildkre

"I am convinced that Vladimir Putin has a grip on President Trump. And, Anderson, when I first learned
of the Steele dossier, it just rang true to me because that's how the Russians do things. And before he
became a candidate for president, Donald Trump was the perfect target for Russian intelligence. Here's
someone who has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement and intermittent financial crises. I mean
that's made to order for seduction by Russian intelligence."

"I think [Fox News is] doing a great deal of damage still. We won't know how bad for years to come
when we see the ultimate results."

"With the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine, and I don't do
propaganda for anyone."

"I suspect Sean Hannity really believes it. The others are smarter. They know what they're doing.
It's -- it's bewildering to me. I mean I want to just cry out and say, how can you do this? How can
you lie to our country?"

June 6, 2018

Tell me why this doesn't cover what Trump and company did?

trea·son
ˈtrēzən/Submit
noun
the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
"they were convicted of treason"
synonyms: treachery, disloyalty, betrayal, faithlessness; sedition, subversion, mutiny, rebellion; high treason, lèse-majesté; apostasy; literaryperfidy
"the treason of Benedict Arnold will be recounted for centuries"

June 5, 2018

Please remember that Paul Manafort picked Mike Pence to be V.P..

http://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-was-handpicked-paul-manafort-696412

Before Trump formally announced Pence as his vice presidential candidate, it was Manafort who made sure it happened, The New York Times reported last year.

Trump had hesitated to settle on Pence, who was governor of Indiana. Trump was fielding last-ditch appeals from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and publicly said he had not made a “final, final decision” until advisers like Manafort reminded him of the importance of uniting the GOP around conservative Christian values.

snip

CBS News reported that Pence was Manafort's "first choice" and that Manafort even lied about mechanical problems on Trump's plane to make the soon-to-be GOP nominee stay an extra day in Indiana to get to know Pence. In a phone call, Manafort assured Trump that Pence was the right choice and made a case that won over the real estate tycoon.

snip

The decision came during the three months Manafort served as Trump's campaign manager, after advising him earlier in the year. Just a month after the Pence pick, Manafort was out, with reports about his foreign finances and government lobbying creating a cloud around the campaign.

June 3, 2018

Daily Kos: Mueller investigation cost $16.7M over the first year, Trump's golf trips cost $67M

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/1/1768646/-Mueller-investigation-cost-16-7M-over-the-first-year?detail=emaildkre

The Justice Department has released a reporting showing the cost of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into foreign entanglements of the Trump campaign. Through just over a year, the total comes in at $16.7 million.

Naturally, this resulted in a morning tweet from Donald Trump. Trump had previously pegged the cost of the investigation at $20 million, an exaggeration modest enough that he likely had someone at the DOJ check the books for him. And while Trump may be wishing he had that cash so he could grab some Florida real estate for a Russian oligarch, the cost of the ongoing investigation does seem … perfectly reasonable.

Compared to the estimated $67 million the government has providing Trump with trips to Mar-a-lago to play golf, Mueller’s investigation comes off as quite a bargain. Or the $3.5 million that the EPA spent on a single year of Scott Pruitt’s personal SWAT team.

It would probably be possible to pay for the Mueller investigation either out of first class flights by Pruitt, or Ben Carson’s decorating budget. In just the first nine months of 2017, Donald Trump personally charged the Secret Service $137,000 to rent golf carts. So they can protect Donald Trump. That’s in addition to the $2.4 million that the Secret Service paid Trump to rent space in his own building.

June 3, 2018

Obstruction of justice by Donald Trump ... end of story.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016207675

June 1, 2018

The man is a Russian agent working to bring down America from the inside

Trump Orders Perry to Stem Coal, Nuclear Power Plant Closures

Source: Bloomberg

President Donald Trump ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take immediate action to stem power plant closures in the name of national security, arguing that a decline in coal and nuclear electricity is putting the nation’s grid at risk, Bloomberg News reports.

"Impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix and impacting the resilience of our power grid," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in an emailed statement Friday. Trump has directed Perry "to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources and looks forward to his recommendations."

Developing...

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-orders-perry-to-stem-coal-nuclear-power-plant-closures

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Trump pours kerosene on the global trade wars

Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico has pushed his administration to the brink of an all-out trade war with three of the nation’s largest trading partners.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday morning that the U.S. would be ending the temporary exemptions that had been granted to the three countries for steel and aluminum imports. With the exemptions lifted, those imports will face tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

The move drew withering criticism from congressional Republicans, business groups and U.S. allies, who had all tried to push the president onto another path.

But true to form, Trump defied U.S. allies in favor of the “America First” agenda he had promised as a candidate.

Trump has downplayed the danger of a trade war, calling such conflicts “easy to win.” That theory will now be put to the test, with the three countries now moving to inflict maximum pain on parts of the American economy.

Canada, Mexico and the EU all announced a series of retaliatory measures following the Trump administration’s decision.

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said Ottawa would impose upward of $12.8 billion in tariffs starting July 1 on U.S. steel, aluminum and a range of other American products.

U.S. steel components will be taxed at 25 percent, while other goods, including aluminum, toilet paper, whisky and orange juice, will see tariffs of 10 percent. The tariffs will remain in place until the United States drops its duties.

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/390167-trump-pours-kerosene-on-the-global-trade-wars?userid=229233

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Trump reportedly poised to ban German luxury carmakers in the US

Source: CNBC

President Donald Trump is preparing to impose a total ban on German luxury carmakers from the U.S. market, according to an exclusive report by German magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

Citing several unnamed U.S. and European diplomats, the weekly business magazine reported that Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron last month he would maintain his trade policy with the aim of stopping Mercedes-Benz models from driving down Fifth Avenue in New York.

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

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

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/trump-reportedly-poised-to-ban-german-luxury-carmakers-in-the-us.html