March 22, 2017

Calling On a Few Good Men

Thomas L. Friedman MARCH 22, 2017

Memo To: Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

Dear Sirs, I am writing you today as the five adults with the most integrity in the Trump administration. Mattis, McMaster and Kelly, you all served our nation as generals in battle. Pompeo, you graduated first in your class at West Point and served as a cavalry officer. Tillerson, you ran one of America’s largest companies.

I am writing you directly because I believe you are the last “few good men” who can stand up and reverse the moral rot that has infected the Trump administration from the top.

The last time our country faced such a cancer on the presidency, the Republican Party’s leadership stood up and put country before party to get to the truth. But today’s G.O.P. is a pale imitation of that party. With a few exceptions, it has declared moral bankruptcy and abdicated its responsibility to draw any red lines for President Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/opinion/calling-on-a-few-good-men.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

I wouldn't include Tillerson in the encomium, but hey, that's me.

March 22, 2017

Oklahoma lawmaker charged with child prostitution resigns

Source: AP

By SEAN MURPHY
Mar. 22, 2017 2:38 PM EDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma state senator accused of hiring a 17-year-old boy for sex has resigned.

Republican Sen. Ralph Shortey submitted his resignation letter Wednesday. He was arrested last week on charges of engaging in child prostitution, transporting a minor for prostitution and engaging in prostitution within 1,000 feet of church.

The 35-year-old married father of three is out on $100,000 bond. Oklahoma's most prominent Republican leaders had called for his resignation after he was charged.

Acting on a tip from the teenager's father, police in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore say they went to a Super 8 Hotel earlier this month and smelled marijuana coming from a room. They say they found Shortey and the teenager.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4541fc577cb949a68901f1e070490332/oklahoma-lawmaker-charged-child-prostitution-resigns

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#1: I hope I haven't duplicated someone else's post. (I apologize, Demmiblue.)
#2: Why am I not surprised that this guy is a Republican?

March 22, 2017

Paul Manafort Worked For Billionaire On Vladimir Putin's Behalf

I posted this as text in Latest Breaking News having not thoroughly checked that forum. Sure enough, I had duplicated another person. Consider this post an effort at atonement.

March 22, 2017

AP Exclusive: Manafort had plan to benefit Putin government

Source: See Title

By JEFF HORWITZ and CHAD DAY
Mar. 22, 2017 10:59 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.

Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.

Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.

"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/manaforts-plan-greatly-benefit-putin-government