Botany
Botany's JournalThe day I have dreaded is coming up this Saturday @ 1:00 PM .... Gotta say good bye to my buddy
I can't let my sweet black lab go on any longer. He is 12.5 years old and has
some medical issues but he can no longer really walk and his rear legs are failing
him. My son who is now 24 and father himself is coming into town for the trip
to the vet's office.
I thought we had a little more time together but the dog showed me today now is the time.
He is resting now, is no pain, and just gave him some salmon too.
Nice Joe Stalin talk by Trump ..... "(the) Enemy of the People."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1035122954697433088https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_people
An "enemy of the people" could be imprisoned, expelled or executed, and lose their property to confiscation. Close relatives of enemies of the people were labeled as "traitor of Motherland family members" and prosecuted. They could be sent to Gulag, punished by the involuntary settlement in unpopulated areas, or stripped of citizen's rights. Being a friend of an enemy of the people automatically placed the person under suspicion.
A significant fraction of the enemies of the people were given this label not because of their hostile actions against the workers' and peasants' state, but simply because of their social origin or profession before the revolution: those who used hired labor, high-ranking clergy, former policemen, merchants, etc. Some of them were commonly known as lishentsy (лишенцы, derived from Russian word лишение, deprivation), because by the Soviet Constitution they were deprived of the right of voting. This automatically translated into a deprivation of various social benefits; some of them, e.g., rationing, were at times critical for survival.
Since 1927, Article 20 of the Common Part of the penal code that listed possible "measures of social defence" had the following item 20a: "declaration to be an enemy of the workers with deprivation of the union republic citizenship and hence of the USSR citizenship, with obligatory expulsion from its territory". Nevertheless, most "enemies of the people" suffered labor camps, rather than expulsion.
In his 1956 speech denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality, Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev called for an end to the use of the term, stating "the formula 'enemy of the people' was specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating such individuals" who disagreed with Stalin. For decades afterwards, "It was so omnipresent, freighted and devastating in its use under Stalin that nobody [in Russia] wanted to touch it. ... except in reference to history and in jokes", according to an author of a biography of Khrushchev, William Taubman.
Washington Post: Trump, "I remember Pearl Harbor." to the P.M. of Japan
Trump is around the bend bat shit crazy. BTW he wasn't even born when the attack on
Pearl Harbor happened.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/i-remember-pearl-harbor-inside-trumps-hot-and-cold-relationship-with-japans-prime-minister/2018/08/28/d6117021-e310-40a4-b688-68fdf5ed2f38_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.616fb074deac
“I remember Pearl Harbor,” the president said, referring to the surprise attack that propelled the United States into World War II.
Trump then launched into a blistering critique of Japan’s economic policies, according to people familiar with the conversation. He railed against the U.S. trade deficit with Japan and urged Abe to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that is more favorable to U.S. exporters of beef and automobiles.
The meeting, which left Abe exasperated, epitomized the paradoxical nature of Trump’s closest relationship with a foreign leader.
snip
Although disturbing, this rhetoric hardly veers from Trump’s comments against Japan on the campaign trail,” said Goto, the Japan scholar. “His views of the Japanese economy then were based on the perceptions of the 1980s and ’90s, rather than the realities of today. So it may not be a surprise if his worldview, especially of Asia, is derived back from World War II, rather than today.”
The Vietnamese are showing more respect to McCain then Trump is ....
.... how sick is that?
NBC: W.H. flag back to full-staff after McCain's death, Capitol flag remains lowered (1 hour ago)
1 hour ago ..... I wonder how long will Trump keep up this asshole act? He has to be feeling
the heat. What a vile petty little man.
As the nation continued to mourn the death of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the
White House returned its flag to full-staff, although it has been kept lowered by past presidents
for longer following the deaths of other sitting senators, and the Capitol flag remained at half staff.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/w-h-flag-back-full-staff-after-mccain-s-death-n904061
Update
And as of noon E.D.S.T. the flag is still @ full staff.
HAPPY NEWS: To My DU Friends, Co-Posters, or just readers or lurkers
Donald Trump's lawyer and accountant have both flipped.
He is ....
Wall Street Journal: Allen Weisselberg, Longtime Trump Organization CFO, Is Granted Immunity
https://www.wsj.com/articles/allen-weisselberg-longtime-trump-organization-cfo-is-granted-immunity-by-federal-prosecutors-in-michael-cohen-investigation-1535121992Last year, Mr. Weisselberg arranged for the Trump Organization to reimburse Mr. Cohen, who had in October 2016 made a $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford, a former adult-film actress who claimed she had sex with Mr. Trump a decade earlier, in exchange for her silence about the alleged affair. A person familiar with Mr. Weisselberg’s thinking said he didn’t know that money was intended to pay Ms. Clifford, who goes professionally by Stormy Daniels, when he agreed in January 2017 to a $35,000 monthly retainer for Mr. Cohen.
White House blocks bill that would protect elections
Source: Yahoo News
White House blocks bill that would protect elections
WASHINGTON — A bill that would have significantly bolstered the nation’s defenses against electoral interference has been held up in the Senate at the behest of the White House, which opposed the proposed legislation, according to congressional sources.
The Secure Elections Act, introduced by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., in December 2017, had co-sponsorship from two of the Senate’s most prominent liberals, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., as well as from conservative stalwart Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and consummate centrist Susan Collins, R-Me.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., was set to conduct a markup of the bill on Wednesday morning in the Senate Rules Committee, which he chairs. The bill had widespread support, including from some of the committee’s Republican members, and was expected to come to a full Senate vote in October. But then the chairman’s mark, as the critical step is known, was canceled, and no explanation was given.
snip
In a statement to Yahoo News, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters says that while the administration “appreciates Congress’s interest in election security, [the Department of Homeland Security] has all the statutory authority it needs to assist state and local officials to improve the security of existing election infrastructure.”
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/white-house-blocks-bill-protect-elections-173459278.html
We have to overwhelm "them" in this next election because our democracy is on life support.
A Republican Congressman Was Accused of Using Campaign Money to fly his pet Rabbit
A Republican Congressman Was Accused of Using Campaign Money to Buy Tequila Shots, a Ton
of Fast Food, and a Flight for a Bunny
California Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have been overdrafting their accounts and dodging their credit card bills for years. But this week, those money problems earned them a lot more than just a fee and rebuke from their bank — they got a federal indictment.
The U.S. Department of Justice formally accused the Hunters on Tuesday of illegally using $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for a host of personal expenses between 2009 and 2016 — and, subsequently, lying to hide it. In legal papers, the DOJ describes the couple’s rocky financial history and details dozens of questionable charges, including tequila shots, a plane ticket for a rabbit and one really expensive Olive Garden meal.
“The indictment alleges that Congressman Hunter and his wife repeatedly dipped into campaign coffers as if they were personal bank accounts and falsified [Federal Election Commission] campaign finance reports to cover their tracks,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a news release.
http://time.com/money/5374373/republican-congressman-duncan-hunter-bunny-tequila-campaign-funds/
Newsweek: REMEMBER PAUL MANAFORT PICKED MIKE PENCE
https://www.newsweek.com/next-president-donald-trump-pence-manafort-1085151A now convicted felon and a Russia asset, Paul Manafort, picked Mike Pence to be V.P..
The astonishing claim by Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen that he was directed by the president to pay hush-money to two women before the 2016 election has some renewing the call for Trump's impeachment.
While it is unlikely that Trump will be charged for breaking federal campaign finance laws due to longstanding regulations within the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Congress can still determine if Tuesday's events are grounds for impeachment. Former Trump aide Steve Bannon told White House Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs that "today clarifies that November is a referendum on impeachment, an up or down vote."
If Trump were to be removed from office, Vice President Mike Pence would take his place as commander-in-chief for the remainder of Trump's first term until 2020. Pence has dutifully stood by the president during his time in the White House, but little attention has been paid to how the former governor of Indiana rose to the position of the vice presidency during the 2016 election.
Before Trump officially announced that Pence would be his running mate, campaign chairman Paul Manafort was the man behind the mirror making sure it happened, according to a New York Times report from 2016.
Manafort was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday on eight counts of financial crimes, including tax fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts and bank fraud. The case was the first to be brought to trial as part of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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