2019 so far

[lucy]

lol
😎

The invention of the Sabbath, which marks the week, is a bit of a mystery. All other units of time, from year to month to day, even hours, have their roots in the celestial cycles but the week doesn't. Some scholars have tried to tie the Hebrew Sabbath to significant days in other cultures but no theory entirely satisfies. The week seems to be a Hebrew invention, and we have no idea why they did it or why it became such a hit all over the world.

It should also be noted that although the Sabbath (the Rest) is celebrated on one specific day of the week, it really says something about the week as a whole. The word shabbat indicates where one week turns into the next and the Oxford Companion's note that the Sabbath is the only day that is named may be explained by the idea that any collection is defined by its borders. After all, we comfortably speak of "the end of the road," but never about "one step before the end of the road". The "end of the road" says something about the whole road, and very little about the actual location where the road stops.

[joseph]

Pizzagate debunked!

youtu.be/8iTb0ta5_84

[lucy]

getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a4f70013-838a-4d02-b246-633af2c25e29
getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a4f70013-838a-4d02-b246-633af2c25e29
lol
😎

[ekauqodielak]

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Trump Had No Problem With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard When He Was Doing Business With Its Associates

On Monday, Donald Trump announced that his administration was designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, the first time in history the U.S. had classified another country’s government as such, an action that flips the switch on a range of sanctions on the military unit and companies, individuals, and organizations with ties to it. According to The New York Times, top C.I.A. and Pentagon officials argued against the designation, saying it will “allow hard-line Iranian officials to justify deadly operations against Americans overseas, especially Special operations units and paramilitary units working under the C.I.A.” But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton reportedly pushed for it, and ultimately persuaded the president. “This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime,” Trump said in a statement on Monday. “It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the I.R.G.C.”

Not mentioned in the statement? Allegations, detailed in an extensive investigative report, that the Trump Organization participated in a scheme that likely helped the I.R.G.C. launder money and acquire weapons of mass destruction. (Must have been an oversight!) In 2017, The New Yorker published a story about Trump Tower Baku, a hotel in Azerbaijan that never opened and appeared “to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.” According to reporter Adam Davidson, in 2012, the Trump Organization signed multiple contracts to build the tower with the Mammadov family, whose patriarch, Ziya Mammadov, was the Transportation Minister at the time. (Ziya Mammadov was described by a U.S. diplomat as “notoriously corrupt even for Azerbaijan,” which is among the most corrupt nations in the world.) The Mammadovs were financially entangled with the Darvishi family, at least three members of which were reportedly associates of the Revolutionary Guard. (When the tower was originally announced, Ziya Mammadov “awarded a series of multimillion-dollar contracts to Azarpassillo, an Iranian construction company” run by the Darvishis.) Ivanka Trump, the most senior Trump Organization official involved in the project, toured the site in October 2014, reportedly offering “very strong feelings, not just about the design but about the back of the hotel—landscaping, everything.” (Ivanka, who declined The New Yorker’s request for comment at the time, was said to “personally approve everything” on the project.)

It was around the time the Trumps went into business with the Mammadovs that international banks had become increasingly reluctant to accept money from businesses owned by the I.R.G.C., making it necessary for Iran to find an alternative way to send money outside the country, including to allies like Hezbollah and the Syrian government. As Davidson noted today, the I.R.G.C. came up with “a clever scheme [to] create hundreds of ‘private’ companies, owned by I.R.G.C. officers, that would fund terror, seek W.M.D, launder money and do other bidding of the central organization.” Many of these companies, including the Darvishi’s Azarpassillo, were “barely disguised.” As The New Yorker reported in 2017, anyone paying half an ounce of attention would have noticed that the Trump Tower project sure carried some hallmarks of a money-laundering operation:

Frank McDonald, an Englishman who has had a long career doing construction jobs in developing countries, performed extensive work on the building’s interior [and said] his firm was always paid in cash, and that he witnessed other contractors being paid in the same way. At the offices of Anar Mammadov’s company, he said, “they would give us a giant pile of cash,” adding, “I got a hundred and eighty thousand dollars one time, which I fit into my laptop bag, and two hundred thousand dollars another time.” Once, a colleague of his picked up a payment of two million dollars. “He needed to bring a big duffelbag,” McDonald recalled. The Azerbaijani lawyer confirmed that some contractors on the Baku tower were paid in cash.

The construction firm for the project denied involvement in any corruption. Davidson’s calls and e-mails to Azarpassillo, the Iranian Mission to the U.N., and the Azerbaijani government went unreturned, and neither Ziya nor Anar Mammadov responded to requests for comment.

According to The New Yorker, Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s lawyer, said it learned in 2015 about the “possibility” that the Mammadovs had ties to the Revolution Guard—but didn’t end the Baku deal until December 2016, claiming that there was “no rush” because “the project had already stalled and was showing no signs of moving forward.” Garten also told Davidson that the Trump Organization’s hands were tied because it had “signed binding contracts with the Mammadovs and couldn’t simply abandon its agreements,” an argument that experts found laughable. (“You can’t violate sanctions just because you have a contract with someone,” Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School, told the outlet.) As late as 2017, Garten said the Trumps couldn‘t say definitively whether there was a link between the Mammadovs and the Darvishis, or if the association was a myth “spread by the media.” Allison Melia, previously one of the C.I.A.‘s lead analysts on Iran’s economy, told Davidson she could have assembled a dossier on the Mammadovs and their connection to the Revolutionary Guard in “a couple of days,” and that any reputable investigative firm could have done the same.

[ekauqodielak]

2014 - ERIC TRUMP: “WE HAVE ALL THE FUNDING WE NEED OUT OF RUSSIA”

According to a Boston radio interview with golf journalist James Dodson, Eric Trump tells Dodson that Trump golf courses heavily relied on funding from Russia. Eric Trump denies this allegation.


Though Trump has never succeeded in developing property in Russia, his company has benefited significantly from Russian money in the form of its clientele. For example, according to a Bloomberg investigation into Trump World Tower, which broke ground in 1998, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.” Trump World Tower sales agent Debra Stotts told Bloomberg that they had “big buyers from Russia and Ukraine and Kazakhstan.” New York real estate broker Dolly Lenz sold “about 65 units in Trump World Tower […] to Russian buyers looking for real estate.” Lenz is quoted as saying “I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in the United States […] what do you have to recommend?’ They all wanted to meet Donald. They became very friendly.” In 2002, “the push to sell units in Trump World to Russians expanded,” when Sotheby’s International Realty reportedly teams up with Kirsanova Realty, a Russian company.

The Trump Organization reportedly welcomed the Russian clientele. For example, a 2013 article in The Nation about the influx of Russian money in Miami real estate noted that Elena Baronoff, a Russian-American socialite once described on the cover of a Russian magazine as “The Russian Hand of Donald Trump,” operated a real-estate company catering to Eastern European buyers out of the lobby of the city’s Trump International Beach Resort. The New Republic has also extensively documented how the Trump Organization actively sought Russian buyers, so much so that the area around Trump Sunny Isles in Florida became known as “Little Moscow.” Within Trump’s Florida licensing developments, Reuters identified a total of twenty units in Trump Towers I, II, and III that were purchased by individuals with Russian passports or addresses. Individuals with Russian passports or addresses also purchased sixteen units in Trump Palace, twenty-seven units in Trump Royale, and thirteen units in Trump Hollywood. Trump accepted Russian money on a personal level, as well; Russian fertilizer magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev’s 2008 purchased of one of Trump’s mansions in Palm Beach for $53 million more than Trump had paid for it four years earlier. Some of these Russian buyers have brought more than just money to the Trump Organization—they’ve also brought links to Russian organized crime. In 1984, a Russian by the name of David Bogatin purchased five condos in Trump Tower for a total of $6 million. Bogatin, who was linked to Russian mob boss Semion Mogilevich, pleaded guilty three years later to “evading millions of dollars in state fuel taxes in what state officials called one of the largest gasoline bootlegging operations in the nation.” The five condos were seized by the government, who claimed that he had used the purchase to launder money. Separately, In April 2013, New York police arrested “29 suspects in two gambling rings” run out of condos in Trump Tower. A condo directly below a unit owned by Trump reportedly “served as the headquarters for a ‘sophisticated money-laundering scheme’” run by an individual who worked for Semion Mogilevich. Until he began running for president, Trump not only did not deny his extensive dealings with Russian investors and clients but actually spoke about it frequently, boasting of the amount of Russian money that flowed through his projects in numerous interviews. So, too, did his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric: In 2008, Donald Jr. told investors in Moscow that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” while Eric reportedly told a golf reporter in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

[ekauqodielak]

The Asset is a deep dive into Trump's history with Russia, from his extensive business dealings with Russian oligarchs to his presidential campaign and the investigations that have sent some of his closest associates to prison.

Subscribe on iTunes 

[ekauqodielak]

It's Easy to See Why This Clip of Manafort Squirming Over Russia Is Resurfacing — Yet Again

Update on Oct. 30, 2017:
Paul Manafort turned himself into the FBI this morning. Trump's former campaign adviser and his longtime associate, Rick Gates, face 12 federal charges — including conspiracy against the United States. Manafort and Gates both pleaded not guilty as they appeared in court this afternoon.

Original story:
Things are not looking good for President Donald Trump's former campaign adviser Paul Manafort. On March 21, the Associated Press revealed that beginning in 2006, Manafort was paid $10 million annually by a Russian tycoon with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While Manafort's paid contract with Oleg Deripaska appears to have ended in 2009, he formulated a written plan to ease the economic sanctions imposed on Russia which he proposed in a memo sent directly to the billionaire. Manafort was also paid to influence business dealings, politics, and news coverage to favor Russian interests, according to documents obtained by the AP. This report is quite condemning given that Manafort went on to chair Trump's campaign before resigning as allegations of his ties to Russia began to trickle out in August of 2016.

Back in July, however, Manafort appeared on CBS news to refute claims that the president was financially bound to Russia and, well, he had quite a difficult time constructing sentences to deny the allegation.

In the video, which is especially relevant now in light of the evidence, Manafort is asked by CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell if Trump himself has any financial connection to Russia.

"So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs?" O'Donnell questioned.

"That's what he said. That's what I said. Obviously, that's . . . what our position is," Manafort, fumbling, responded.

Throughout the entire interview, Manafort repeatedly dodged and avoided questions, ostensibly so he would not get caught in a lie later down the road. As it turns out, Manafort's nonsensical response is actually quite apropos given the Trump administration's current predicament with Russia.

[ekauqodielak]

3 MEI 2017 - 

The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: The Russians

Although still in its early days, Donald Trump’s presidency is coming under fire. The Russians are alleged to be in possession of sensitive information about Trump. And that exposes Trump to blackmail. Fake news, tweets Trump: “I have nothing to do with Russia – no deals, no loans, no nothing!” Trump swears he has no ties with the Russians. But is that actually the case?

For months, the FBI have been investigating Russian interference in the American presidential elections. ZEMBLA is investigating another explosive dossier concerning Trump’s involvement with the Russians: Trump’s business and personal ties to oligarchs from the former Soviet Union. Powerful billionaires suspected of money laundering and fraud, and of having contacts in Moscow and with the mafia. What do these relationships say about Trump and why does he deny them? How compromising are these dubious business relationships for the 45th president of the United States? And are there connections with the Netherlands? ZEMBLA meets with one of Trump’s controversial cronies and speaks with a former CIA agent, fraud investigators, attorneys, and an American senator among others.

ZEMBLA: 'The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: The Russians' Wednesday 3 May 2017, 9:10pm, VARA on NPO 2 and on this page.

Dossier 1 KazBay B.V.



Investigations conducted by ZEMBLA show that Bayrock has formed a business construction in the Netherlands, which may have been used to siphon off one and a half million dollars. In this enterprise, Bayrock collaborated with Viktor Khrapunov, a fugitive ex-mayor and governor from Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan government accuses Khrapunov of systematically looting hundreds of millions of public assets.


The network of companies works as follows:


The hub of the enterprise is the Dutch letter box company KazBay B.V. In the act of incorporation it states that KazBay is owned by two companies: the Dutch firm Bayrock B.V. and the Swiss company Helvetic Capital S.A. This email explains that Trump’s business partner Bayrock Group L.L.C. is behind Bayrock BV, and that the actual owner of Helvetic Capital S.A. is none other than the wife of Viktor Khrapunov.

This mail clearly refers to the use of a Dutch go-between company. Its contents also reveal that the Dutch construction was formed by the law firm of Rudy Giuliani who, at the time, was a partner in Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, and is also a Trump confidante.

In this agreement Bayrock and Khrapunov agree to deposit 1.48 million dollars in KazBay. On 25 September, Bayrock transfers its share of 740,000 dollars, evidence of which is recorded in the bank statements.

Bayrock informs an investor that the 1.48 million was invested in mining operations in Kazakhstan. According to this email the business partner asks to see records of the expenses. Bayrock, however, appears unable to account for the 1.5 million dollars. When ZEMBLA asks about the suspect investments, Bayrock declines to answer.

In a response Bayrock told ZEMBLA that:

“Bayrock B.V. and KazBay B.V. were entities formed with the advice of outside legal counsel as part of the structuring of an investment by Bayrock. The investment was not successful and the structure subsequently was abandoned. We have vociferously denied the baseless allegations made in the Kriss lawsuit. We will not comment on matters that are subject to ongoing litigation.”

In the Kriss vs Bayrock lawsuit a former Bayrock employee accuses the company of perpetrating large-scale tax fraud and of running a criminal organisation.

The Dutch intermediaries were directors of KazBay for eighteen months. During this time, various articles were published, exploring the murky past of Bayrock and Khrapunov.

Six months ago, the Financial Times wrote this article about Khrapunov and his business partner Bayrock, accusing KazBay of operating as a money laundering channel.


Dossier 2: Trump & Felix Sater



Donald Trump appeared entirely unconcerned by the criminal background of his then business partner Felix Sater. In an email to an investor, Saterobserves that Trump’s main consideration was to turn the situation to his own financial advantage. In the email which was earlier disclosed by Forbes Magazine, Sater refers to a meeting that took place on 23 January 2008.

According to internal documents belonging to Bayrock, the gathering was an important meeting which required the presence of all Trump SoHo business partners. Prior to the meeting, Sater appears to have been in contact with Trump. In an e-mail Sater tells his colleagues: “Donald is happy with me”.

At the time of the meeting, Trump is fully aware of Sater’s past. A month earlier, on 17 December 2007, the New York Times published an article on Sater and his criminal deeds. On 19 December 2007, Donald Trump declares his intention to look into the matter.


Frederick Oberlander

Frederick Oberlander is a New York-based attorney specialised in tax law.

He took legal action as far as the United States Supreme Court calling for the public disclosure of the sealed legal dossier of Felix Sater. His attempts have proved largely successful. Previously, a variety of lower courts had ruled that Oberlander was enjoined from in any way revealing secret documents on Sater that he had obtained from a Bayrock employee, and instructed not to refer to the case at all.

'qui tam' case



Oberlander has been conducting legal proceedings against Bayrock for years. He instigated what’s known as a ‘qui tam’ case against the company in 2015. ‘qui tam’ is a specifically American law suit filed by a private individual, acting as prosecutor (a private Attorney General) to recover misappropriate government funds (in this case taxes).

In the case against Bayrock, the public prosecutor of the State of New York has given Oberlander the go-ahead to represent a group of clients who are suing Bayrock ‘on behalf of themselves and the people of the State of New York’.

According to Oberlander, Tevfik Arif, Felix Sater and Julius Schwartz are guilty of perpetrating various types of fraud, and have attempted to conceal their fraudulent activities.

Dossier 3: Bayrock’s deal with the FL Group



This presentation divulges that the Icelandic investment company FL Group is one of Bayrock’s strategic partners. In 2007, the two companies sign a million-dollar property development agreement. Donald Trump approves the agreement, and also adds his signature.

Court documents state that Russian investors, who are supporters of Vladimir Putin, are said to be behind the FL Group. The documents also refer to a covert plan concocted by FL and Bayrock. Together, the companies are purported to have been planning a tax fraud amounting to 250 million dollars. In their above-mentioned response, Bayrock let us know they have no intention of commenting on cases that are subject to ongoing litigation.

The FL Group (now known as Stodir after a restructuring in 2009) informed Zembla as follows:

- " FL Group’s total investment in the Bayrock project(s) was USD 80 million.

- After the restructuring, we had our advisors and lawyers review the project, with the aim to recover value or find out if Stodir had any rightful claims – but without any success and no value was recovered.

- we have no knowledge or information about most of your questions, apart from the ones that relate directly to FL Group.

- We see no evidence about Russian investors in FL Group, at least no Russian entity was ever registered on FL Group’s shareholders list.

- We see no evidence about FL Group investing in Kazakhstan."


Reactions to 'The dubious friends of Donald Trump: the Russians':

Felix Sater denies having threatened people with violence. In spite of repeated requests, Sater has not answered ZEMBLA’s questions. Donald Trump, Alexander Machkevich and Viktor Khrapunov have not responded either.


This is the statement of Bayrock and Tevfik Arif :

“Bayrock B.V. and KazBay B.V. were entities formed with the advice of outside legal counsel as part of the structuring of an investment by Bayrock. The investment was not successful, and the structure subsequently was abandoned. We have vociferously denied the baseless allegations made in the Kriss lawsuit. We will not comment on matters that are subject to ongoing litigation.”


FL Group (which is now called Stodir after going through a restructuring in 2009) lets ZEMBLA’s know:

- "FL Group´s total investment in the Bayrock project(s) was USD 80 million.

- After the restructuring, we had our advisors and lawyers review the project, with the aim to recover value or find out if Stodir had any rightful claims - but without any success and no value was recovered.

- We have no knowledge or information about most of your questions, apart from the ones that relate directly to FL Group.

- We see no evidence about Russian investors in FL Group, at least no Russian entity was ever registered on FL Group´s shareholders list.

- We see no evidence about FL Group investing in Kazakhstan."

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9 MEI 2017 -

The dubious friends of Donald Trump part two: King of Diamonds

Although still in its early days, Donald Trump’s presidency is coming under fire. The Russians are alleged to be in possession of sensitive information about Trump. And that exposes Trump to blackmail. Fake news, tweets Trump: “I have nothing to do with Russia – no deals, no loans, no nothing!” Trump swears he has no ties with the Russians. But is that actually the case?

In the second part of our programme about Donald Trump’s controversial friends, we will set our sights on the Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, who is controversial because he is suspected of trading in blood diamonds. He is one of the world’s biggest diamond traders and owns prestigious stores in New York and Moscow, but he is also the owner of Siebel, the Netherlands’ biggest jewellery chain. Leviev has ties with Russian president Putin, US president Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. Trump, however, claims he hardly knows this “King of Diamonds” . Zembla investigates Lev Leviev’s business empire.

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Since March 29, on several occasions, ZEMBLA has asked Lev Leviev and his companies to provide information and tell their side of the story.

Below are the various reactions received from Lev Leviev, The Leviev Group of Companies (LGC) and AFI Europe.

A) Mining activities in Angola

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

B) Smuggling (Israeli Uvda programme)

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

C) 88 Queensway Group

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

D) West Bank settlements

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

E) Photo of Trump with Leviev

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

F) Jared Kushner and AFI USA

Click here to read the reaction to our questions.

[ekauqodielak]

[ekauqodielak]

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Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses

The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.

In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.

Mr. Trump built a business licensing his name, became a television celebrity and ran for the White House by branding himself a self-made billionaire. “There is no one my age who has accomplished more,” he told Newsweek in 1987, adding that the ultimate scoreboard was “the unfortunate, obvious one: money.” Yet over the years, the actual extent of his wealth has been the subject of much doubt and debate. He broke with four decades of precedent in refusing to release any of his tax returns as a presidential candidate, and until now only a few pages of his returns have become public. Last year’s Times investigation found that he had received at least $413 million in 2018 dollars from his father.

In New York, the attorney general’s office is investigating the financing of several major Trump Organization projects; Deutsche Bank has already begun turning over documents. The state attorney general is also examining issues raised last year by The Times’s investigation, which revealed that much of the money Mr. Trump had received from his father came from his participation in dubious tax schemes, including instances of outright fraud.

Because Mr. Trump reported a negative adjusted gross income in each of the 10 years, he was not allowed to deduct any charitable contributions. So while he has boasted of making large donations at the time, the information obtained by The Times shows no such itemized deductions. Potential deductions could have been carried over to a future year, should Mr. Trump have reported a positive income.

One number from Mr. Trump’s tax returns is particularly striking — and particularly hard to explain: the $52.9 million in interest income he reported in 1989.…Hard data on most of Mr. Trump’s business life is hard to come by, but public findings from New Jersey casino regulators show no evidence that he owned anything capable of generating close to $52.9 million annually in interest income.…While Donald Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for 1990 and 1991, Fred Trump’s returns showed a positive income of $53.9 million, with only one major loss: $15 million invested in his son’s latest apartment project.

[ekauqodielak]

In The Name Of Trump

Dozens of supporters of Donald Trump have carried out or threatened acts of violence. Here, the Guardian lists them all

Deutsche Bank has Trump's tax records sought by House Democrats

Deutsche Bank confirmed in a letter Tuesday that it has tax returns subpoenad by House Democrats seeking financial information on President Trump and his family.…The disclosure was filed in response to an appeals court order amid a legal battle between Congress and the president over access to Trump’s business records, per the Washington Post. The court is considering a request by Trump to block access to financial records at the German bank and Capital One Financial Corp., Bloomberg notes.

Trump’s Unprecedented Fight to Withhold Information

I served for more than 20 years in the House’s Office of General Counsel, from 1995 to 2016. During that period, House committees issued hundreds of subpoenas to executive-branch officials. In the majority of those cases, the subpoenaed officials either complied outright or negotiated agreements with the House about the information to be provided. Only twice in those 20 years did the House feel compelled to go to court to enforce its subpoenas.

Now, however, in the space of just seven months, this president and his administration have defied, or obstructed compliance with, House-committee subpoenas in more than half a dozen different matters—resulting in at least five lawsuits to date, with more likely to follow. Whatever your political leanings, you should hope fervently that the House comes out on top in these legal fights.

Trump repeats relief funding lie as Tropical Storm Dorian approaches Puerto Rico

President Donald Trump is already trying to avoid responsibility for providing relief aid to Puerto Rico for a storm that hasn’t even impacted the island yet. In a tweet Tuesday, Trump repeated a lie that the island territory has already received far more aid than it actually had, and seemed to blame Puerto Rico for its own fate.

Retiring Congressman Duffy To Rely On Pre-Existing Condition Protections He Voted To Repeal

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) announced on Monday that he will soon resign his House seat, citing family reasons. He and his wife, Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy, said their soon-to-be born ninth child will require heart surgery soon after her birth.…Duffy was asked what he and his wife planned to do about healthcare in light of the pre-existing condition their daughter will be born with and his resignation from his job.…
During his eight years in Congress, Duffy repeatedly voted to destroy Obamacare and undermine the pre-existing condition protections. He enthusiastically voted for Trumpcare in 2017, which would have made insurance coverage significantly less affordable for those with pre-existing conditions, and just this May he voted against the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019.

Immigration Panic: How The West Fell For Manufactured Rage

The west is being destroyed, not by migrants, but by the fear of migrants. In country after country, the ghosts of the fascists have rematerialised and are sitting in parliaments in Germany, in Austria, in Italy. They have successfully convinced their populations that the greatest threat to their nations isn’t government tyranny or inequality or climate change, but immigration. And that, to stop this wave of migrants, everyone’s civil liberties must be curtailed. Surveillance cameras must be installed everywhere. Passports must be produced for the most routine of tasks, like buying a mobile phone.

[ekauqodielak]

Trump Did Not Represent the U.S. at the G-7

His comments on Obama and Crimea show he has no national loyalty.

President Donald Trump during a G-7 press conference on Monday in France.
Ludovic Marin/Getty Images

This week, at the G-7 meeting in France, President Donald Trump stood before the world and, for three horrifying minutes, displayed utter incomprehension of allegiance to the United States.

The topic was Russia. During the meeting, Trump lobbied his fellow heads of state to invite Russia back into the G-7. This vexed the other leaders, because Russia had been suspended from the group in 2014 for a good reason: It had invaded and annexed Crimea, which was then part of Ukraine. Since its suspension, Russia has done a lot for Trump. According to former special counsel Robert Mueller, the Russian government committed crimes to help Trump win the U.S. presidential election in 2016. But Russia has done nothing to rectify its seizure of Crimea. On Monday, at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump was asked why, in view of Russia’s offenses, it should be invited to the next G-7 meeting.

Trump replied, matter-of-factly, that the seizure of Crimea was no offense to him. Crimea, he explained, had been “taken away from President Obama, not taken away from President Trump.” According to Trump, the invasion irked Barack Obama because he had made a commitment to the victimized country—“President Obama was helping Ukraine”—and because Obama resented that “President Putin outsmarted President Obama.” The episode “was embarrassing to him,” Trump said of his predecessor, and therefore Obama “wanted Russia to be out” of what was then the G-8. Since this was Obama’s beef, Trump concluded, Putin should now be readmitted to the group.

Trump’s answer clarifies why he continues to work for Russia and against the United States, even after Mueller failed to prove that Trump and Putin colluded during the 2016 election. Trump has no sense of national loyalty, and he views the United States government, prior to his presidency, as an enemy. This makes him a ready instrument of Putin and other dictators who have tangled with the United States.

Let’s take the elements of Trump’s answer one by one. Start with his claim that Crimea was “taken away from President Obama.” Actually, Crimea was taken from Ukraine. Trump can’t comprehend that, because it isn’t about him or his personal rivals. So he defines the invasion instead as a defeat of Obama—whom Trump regards as his nemesis—and therefore as evidence of Trump’s superiority.

The word “outsmarted,” which Trump repeated five times in his answer, is significant. Trump has no conception of justice or human rights. All he understands is winning and losing. If you win, that makes you better—in Trump’s language, “smarter.” Putin seized Crimea because he was more ruthless than Obama or Ukraine. To Trump, that speaks well for Putin and poorly for Obama.

A patriotic president would regard a past affront to the United States as an affront to himself. Obama, for instance, saw the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as an attack on his country, and therefore he authorized the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. Trump lacks this sense of continuity. Like a child who thinks the world didn’t exist before his birth, Trump ignores events prior to his election. Since the assault on Crimea took place in 2014, Trump dismisses it as an offense against “President Obama, not … President Trump.” Trump doesn’t understand that he and Obama share a country and that he’s supposed to punish wrongs even if they occurred on his predecessor’s watch.

From this solipsistic standpoint, there are no national commitments. All commitments are personal and dispensable. “President Obama was helping Ukraine,” according to Trump, but that was Obama’s policy—not, in Trump’s view, an enduring promise by the United States. So Trump abandoned that commitment. He accepts Russia’s claim to Crimea, and he dismisses its suspension from the G-7 as a fit of pique by an embarrassed and now irrelevant former American president.

Look back at Trump’s recent comments, and you’ll see a pattern of indifference to national loyalty. A month ago, he told four American congresswomen—three of whom were born in the United States—to “go back” to the countries from which their families had emigrated. Two weeks ago, he urged a foreign nation, Israel, to deny entry to two of the four lawmakers. He argued that American Jews who supported the congresswomen were being disloyal to Israel. On Saturday, Trump defended the honesty of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, despite U.S. intelligence that shows Kim is faking denuclearization. In response to a question about French taxes on American technology companies, he grumbled that the companies were anti-Republican and might have cost him 15 million votes in 2016. As to China’s unfair trade practices, Trump concluded, “I don’t blame China. I blame our presidents, our representatives, past administrations, for allowing that to happen.”

Trump has been talking this way for years. He pretends to be a nationalist, but he doesn’t understand what a nation is. A nation makes enduring commitments. A nation preserves memories, principles, and obligations from one presidency to the next. A nation treats an attack on one as an attack on all. Trump believes in none of that. To him, every past president is a rival, and every adversary of those presidents—including Putin and Kim—is, by extension, an ally. Trump doesn’t go to gatherings of world leaders to represent the United States. He goes there to represent our enemies.

On a lighter note, his neck always looks like an old, hairless pussy.

[B]

[joseph]

Trump is a figurehead in the age of 'smart'. Smartphone, smartmeter, smartcar, smartmotorway - why is every device that's spying on you/controlling you got to be prefixed with 'smart'

It must be to sell it to the dumb.

[ekauqodielak]

Aug 28, 2019 11:35:56 GMT -5 B said:

Says the person who gets their "news" from random wackjobs on youtube, frequently, via prophesy from a deck of playing cards.

[ekauqodielak]

Viral Video of Mississippi Voting Machine Changing Man's Vote Prompts Calls for Paper Ballots and Election Security Reform

"These machines should not be used in a democracy."

A viral video showing a voter in Mississippi attempting to cast a vote in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday had been retweeted more than 10,000 times by Wednesday morning, as voting rights advocates pointed to the video as evidence that a return to paper ballots would make U.S. elections far more secure.

The voter in the video was shown trying to click the box next to retired state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr.'s name on the touchscreen of an electronic voting machine, only to have an "X" appear next to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves's name.

"It is not letting me vote for who I want to vote for," the man said in the video.

The voter was one of more than a dozen people in Mississippi who reported machine glitches when they tried to vote. At least three machines in two counties were confirmed to be malfunctioning on Election Day, with unconfirmed reports in seven other counties.

The changed votes may not have been enough to swing the election in favor of Reeves, who was announced the winner after capturing 54 percent of the vote, compared with Wallers' 46 percent.

But the malfunctions were more than enough to cause deep concern among voting rights advocates about inaction, especially by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), on ensuring election security.

In July, critics on Twitter dubbed McConnell "Moscow Mitch" after he blocked the Senate from considering a bill which would invest in boosting election security and called such efforts "highly partisan."

The reports of the machine malfunctions in Mississippi come two weeks after the Brennan Center for Justice released a study advising that U.S. election officials "should replace antiquated equipment, and paperless equipment in particular, as soon as possible."

On Monday, the National Election Defense Coalition, Electronic Privacy Information Center, R Street Institute, and Public Citizen called on Congress to hold hearings about election security and the use of electronic voting machines, noting that in addition to the possibility of technical glitches, "voting system vendors have operated with little oversight and no regulation for decades."

"Given the gravity and urgency of this issue, we write to you to urge the committees to hold a hearing on election system security featuring sworn testimony from officers of the voting system vendors to shed more light on their practices which directly impact the security of the nation," wrote the groups.

Mississippi is one of eight states that are expected to still use voting machines that involve no paper ballots during the 2020 election. New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Kansas will also likely still use the machines, which experts say are vulnerable to hacking and malfunctions.

"A significant number of voters may not have a paper record of their vote in 2020," the Brennan Center reported. "We estimate that as many as 12 percent of voters will vote on paperless equipment in November 2020."

You tell me why, anyone, of any political stripe, who is acting in good faith, would oppose vote verification and auditable elections…

[ekauqodielak]

Trump’s Unpardonable Admission About His Border Wall

The president wants to spend billions of taxpayer dollars for a project that he acknowledges is largely symbolic
—even if it breaks the law.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Disagreements about what the law really means are unavoidable. Congress passes laws, government agencies interpret them, advocates dispute those interpretations, and then the courts step in to resolve the arguments.

But that’s not what’s happening with President Donald Trump’s latest push on his border wall. The Washington Post reports that Trump is frantically urging aides to get construction on his border wall under way, overriding their objections that this might require breaking environmental laws, violating contracting rules, or improperly claiming private land. Why? Not because he believes his wall is necessary for national security. Not because he believes he is right about the law, and his aides’ concerns are misplaced. He doesn’t even believe the wall will actually solve an immigration crisis. Trump is urging action on the wall because he believes it is necessary for him to win reelection.

The tell here is that, as the Post reports, Trump “has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.”

This is one of the biggest scandals of the Trump administration—no small feat. Trump is demanding that the government move heaven and (literally) earth, break laws, and spend billions of taxpayer dollars for a project that he acknowledges is largely symbolic—all for the purpose of bolstering his reelection bid. All presidents work to keep campaign promises, of course, but most don’t do so at the expense of the rule of law.

Running for office, Trump said he would build a wall and Mexico would pay for it, a claim he quickly abandoned. When Congress repeatedly refused to give him money for the wall, he mounted an end run around Congress, declaring a national emergency. Because Congress has unwisely delegated some of its powers to the president through the National Emergencies Act, he may succeed in defeating legal challenges, since courts tend to give the executive wide latitude to determine what is and what isn’t a national emergency.

But Trump keeps undermining the legal rationale for his action. As the Post reports:

Trump conceded last year in an immigration meeting with lawmakers that a wall or barrier is not the most effective mechanism to curb illegal immigration, recognizing it would accomplish less than a major expansion of U.S. enforcement powers and deportation authority. But he told lawmakers that his supporters want a wall and that he has to deliver it.

Other Trump moves also show how unseriously he treats the idea that the wall is a necessary response to a national emergency, and not an enormously expensive campaign prop. He has repeatedly overruled suggestions made by officials because he wants the wall to look a certain way. Trump insists that the wall be painted black and topped with spikes, even though this will add to the expense, reducing the number of miles that current funds can be used to build. And although the Department of Homeland Security favors including flat panels that can deter climbers, Trump thinks they look too ugly.

This is part of a pattern: Trump declares some far-fetched objective. Administration lawyers concoct a tortured legal rationale to justify it. And then Trump makes clear how pretextual that rationale is. Perhaps the first example was the president’s Muslim ban, but the pattern has repeated itself ever since.

The dangled pardons are especially galling because they underscore how Trump prioritizes winning reelection at any cost over actually following the laws he swore to uphold in his oath of office. Asked about the pardon suggestion by the Post, a White House aide didn’t deny it, but “said Trump is joking when he makes such statements about pardons.”

Well, maybe. The Trump administration has a long record of making outrageous statements and then insisting after the fact that it was only kidding. Beyond that, the president has already on at least one occasion promised a pardon to a Customs and Border Protection official if he was convicted of a crime, and he has also demonstrated his willingness to hand out politically motivated, manifestly undeserved pardons.

Pushing hard to build a border wall carries other dangers for Trump. Though he has had great success in reorienting the Republican Party around some of his other priorities, especially trade, eminent domain remains a controversial and widely disliked maneuver that could alienate conservatives along the border. But the president may be right that actually building the wall is crucial for his reelection effort, and that his failure to actually build a single mile of new fencing—as opposed to upgrading current barriers—is a huge political problem for him. (Even the hurry-up effort described in the Post is relatively insignificant: Only 110 of the 450 miles officials say they’ll finish by Election Day 2020 are new, while the rest replace existing fencing.)

Trump is not the first president willing to knowingly break the law to win reelection. He is, however, unusually open about it. If the wall gambit works, it will reinforce the idea that lawbreaking is an effective campaign tactic, and that politics comes before fidelity to the Constitution.

The real threat to the national security of the United States isn’t on the southern side of the Mexican border.

[IWILL]

Aug 25, 2019 16:05:48 GMT -5 lucy said:

Aug 24, 2019 14:16:52 GMT -5 lucy said:

http://instagr.am/p/B1eLMimnZQt

I've got my feet in the clouds, got my head (hands)  on the ground

www.doyouyoga.com/the-holistic-benefits-of-yoga-handstand-51172/

gnosticwarrior.com/inverted-pentagram.html

lol
🧘‍♀️

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet


lol
😎

www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Wicca%20&%20Witchcraft/pentagram.htm

It it was a real beard

lol
🤭

[ekauqodielak]

Phoenix Voters 'Say Yes to the Future,' Rejecting Koch-Backed Effort to Ban Light Rail Expansion in Least Sustainable US City

"Fantastic news, tinged with a bit of sadness that David Koch didn't live to see Phoenix voters reject his poisonous vision."

Epstein Accuser on Prince Andrew: 'He Knows Exactly What He’s Done'

“I was recruited at a very young age from Mar-a-Lago and entrapped in a world that I didn’t understand and I’ve been fighting that very world to this day and I won’t stop fighting, I will never be silenced, until these people are brought to justice,” Giuffre, who is now married and living in Australia, said Tuesday.

As Tropical Storm Dorian Barrels Toward Puerto Rico, Trump Shifting $155 Million in Disaster Aid Funds to Migrant Detention

"The money that could be used to help Puerto Rico will instead be used to detain more children and parents in concentration camps."

Trump Administration Finds A New Way To Punish Migrant Children

The medical deferral program had been in place for decades, ensuring that individuals could receive medical care that isn’t available in their home countries. The Irish International Immigrant Center, which reported at least five of their clients were denied deferrals, explained that it serves many families whose children have cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and epilepsy.

Trump Proposes Eliminating Methane Emissions Regulations for the Oil and Gas Industry

The environmental hits keep on coming from the Trump administration with news that the Environmental Protection Agency is now pushing to eliminate federal regulations on the oil and gas industry’s methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change. The White House now wants to lift Obama-era requirements that oil and gas companies use technology to monitor and repair potential methane leaks from across the supply chain—from wells, pipelines, and storage facilities.

Trump’s War on the Media Keeps Getting More Extreme

…Other disturbing conduct by Trump has drawn less notice, however, particularly his intensifying attacks on journalists and news organizations, which he has pursued throughout the other mayhem. By now, the country is used to Trump’s “fake news” and “enemy of the people” rhetoric. The constant repetition of those messages is no accident: His overarching goal is to try to discredit the press and reduce the impact of reporting that exposes his administration’s lies, negligence, and failures and his own possible criminality.

Trump’s incessant war on the American press has grown more extreme as his presidency has gone on, and recently that pattern has further escalated. Not only has Trump continued to smear journalists with ugly hyperbole—despite clear evidence his words have provoked violent threats against Americans working in newsrooms—he is now also seeking to whip up a conspiracy theory about the Democratic Party and the news media and position the press as a scapegoat for a potential economic recession.

In early July, the president inveighed against NBC and MSNBC journalists as “degenerate Trump haters,” using a label that historically has connotations of eugenics and Nazi propaganda. (Previously, Trump used “degenerate” to refer to ISIS terrorists, but also Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein.)…

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported this week that opposition researchers closely connected to the Trump family are aggressively targeting journalists whose reporting they deem hostile to the president, with the goal of embarrassing them and causing a chilling effect, if not destroying their careers.…

He has even stepped up some selective criticism of Fox News, complaining about their coverage of the Democratic primaries and stating, remarkably, that the network “isn’t working for us anymore.”…

But the bad news in all this may be for Trump himself. While collectively these tactics represent an inherently dangerous attack on a pillar of our constitutional democracy, Trump’s multiyear campaign against the press appears to have been no more successful a project than, say, Trump Tower Moscow. …Last October, an annual media survey conducted by Gallup since the 1970s found that public trust in the media rose steadily in the two years since Trump became president. And another poll last fall, from Quinnipiac, found that by a big margin American voters trusted the news media more than Trump “to tell the truth about important issues.”… 

[lucy]

[phone]
Text Paul



lol
⌨️

[B]

Says the person who gets their "news" from random wackjobs on youtube, frequently, via prophesy from a deck of playing cards.

And Zeta grey aliens! Let's not forget them!


So: now for some real News!


the queen is pretty much dead

www.zetatalk.com/ning/31ag2019.htm

""Queen Elizabeth was scheduled to be executed by the military Tribunals which are taking place in the US and the UK. These Tribunals confiscated the Queen’s illicit funds
in December of 2016, as noted in Nancy’s Newsletter. As noted by an insider, her death sentence for numerous crimes was issued July 13, and 30 days later enforced. What crimes
has the Queen, personally, been guilty of? The Queen had Diana killed because Diana had learned of the Epstein blackmail scheme - Netanyahu and his Khazarian banking empire at the helm.
The Queen, as part of the Nazi bloodline, the Illuminati control, was fully involved, and this included child sacrifice, which she condoned.

Queen Elizabeth was confident that due to her high position, and very public presence, that she would be spared and allowed to live out her life in luxury.
But military Tribunals rise above political posturing or the power any royalty might assume. Tribunal executions are in full swing, and to send a strong message
to those who were formerly blackmailed into cooperation with Satan worshipers, the very top leadership is demonstrably executed. The double being trotted out
as the Queen has many flaws, so is obvious.

Now what. There are well established steps to be taken when the Queen dies, so a public announcement is not first on the list. Commonwealth nations are first to be informed.
Prince Phillip and Prince Charles, the eldest son, are unlikely to take charge due to age so will abdicate. Prince Andrew is embroiled in scandal.
William and Kate hope to be chosen to “rule”. How long the truth is withheld from the public will depend on how quickly an excuse for the Queen’s death can be concocted.""

-------------------

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pretty much dead

www.zetatalk.com/ning/31ag2019.htm

"Q had predicted that Ginsburg was in trouble because she had conspired with the Hillary crowd to protect Hillary from indictment by promising to free her seat on the Court for Loretta Lynch.
Such open collusion for political reasons is illegal, though can seldom be proven, but as Q states, they “have it all”. The tarmac meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton
was recorded, in full, and SCOTUS is likewise fully monitored. There are no secrets. As reported by insiders, Ginsburg was executed in late January, after having attempted
to evade her sentence by a stint in a private nursing home.

Her death and replacement with a double can be seen by a distinctive “tell” in the recent photos, where a prominent vein across the left side of the forehead is missing in the double.
Ginsburg has supposedly participated in cases before the Court from chambers, reviewing transcripts and relying upon her law clerks. Is this legal, and is the Court liable
for such fakery? Law clerks write many of the findings of the SCOTUS judges, so this is not improper, per se. Court decisions since January have either returned the case
to the lower courts or left existing law standing.

Chief Justice Roberts did report to Trump that Ginsburg was dead, so is not liable for fraud. Since Ginsburg was executed by a Tribunal decision, as with the McCain execution,
there has been a determination to keep the circumstances from the public. Both were guilty of treason, McCain assisting ISIS, a US enemy, and Ginsburg subverting the law.
The false story of yet another pancreatic cancer is setting the stage for her “death”, now that the 2020 Democrats have essentially selected Biden as their nominee."

-----------------

Is any of this troo? It's at least as accurate as most of what Thom Hartmann says!

[B]

"news" from random wackjobs on youtube, frequently, via prophesy...

I am not a fan of John Hogue, but far be it from me to shoot the messenger. Nostradamus has my respect.
I haven't watched this video, but post it for what it's worth, in case anyone is interested.

2020 Major Changes Ahead Like You've Never Seen, John Hogue
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4aId_DkoQE



Leak Project
Streamed live on Aug 28, 2019

"Recession ahead? Seven signs, quantum space travel, 2020 beyond, Nostradamus Quatrains... "

[lucy]

lol
😎

www.ukessays.com/essays/theology/signs-in-johns-gospel.php

[Jai Guru Deva]

Donald Trump displays Hurricane Dorian map apparently doctored with marker pen...

[lucy]

lol
😎



So please .....
Love Me Do




www.etymonline.com/word/*do-?ref=etymonline_crossreference