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May 16, 2018
the rich asshole's White House was caught flat-footed by Kim Jong Un.
In less than 24 hours, the rich asshole’s White House has gone from making space on the mantle for his Nobel Peace Prize, to shrugging off nuclear diplomacy like it’s an invitation to coffee.
On Wednesday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke to reporters on her way to the West Wing, and was asked about Kim Jong Un’s recent threat to scuttle the planned nuclear summit with the rich asshole. After hours of time to prepare a response, the administration’s strategic message appears to be “This is fine.”
Sanders told reporters that Kim’s move was “fully expected,” and that “if they want to meet, we’ll be ready. And if they don’t, that’s okay, too.”
She concluded with a Dear Leader flourish of her own, telling reporters the rich asshole is “100 percent confident,” and “we all know that you’re aware that he’s the best negotiator.”
But if the rich asshole was expecting this move, his actions certainly don’t show it. While he was quick to engage with Kim Jong Un on Twitter prior to the planning of the summit, he has been silent on the subject since North Korea made the threat on Monday.
And according to State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, the administration was caught off-guard, telling reporters Monday that the threat “would be news to me.”
Anyone with a moderate grasp of nuclear diplomacy would have seen this coming. For example, former CIA Director John McLaughlin said a month ago that “North Korea has been studying [the rich asshole] very carefully. They understand he likes to claim credit for success. And they’ve already given him one thing that is potentially positive.”
And Kim himself has been repeating this pattern for over twenty years.
But instead of proceeding with caution the way other presidents have, the rich asshole rushed in and gave Kim a huge propaganda victory by agreeing to meet directly with him, and delivering a meeting with the sitting secretary of state.
Now, Kim stands on the brink of an even greater public relations coup by being the one to cancel that meeting.
Just last week, the rich asshole was praising Kim Jong Un on Twitter, and he told reporters who were covering the release of the North Korea hostages that Kim “was excellent to” the hostages.
Whether or not the rich asshole’s administration is able to get the North Korea diplomacy back on track, their actions so far demonstrate that they are not taking this as seriously as they should, and it’s making it difficult for them to be taken seriously as well. None of this is “OK.”
Senate rebukes the rich asshole administration, votes to reinstate net neutrality
Republicans Susan Collins, John Kennedy and Lisa Murkowski all sided with Democrats.
Senate Democrats delivered a small victory to grassroots internet activists on Wednesday when they voted to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) repeal of net neutrality.
Three Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (ME), John Kennedy (LA), and Lisa Murkowski (AK), joined with 47 Democrats and two independents (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine) to pass the measure.
Sen. Amy Kloubacher (D-MI) called the reversal an “amazing victory for consumers, small businesses and rural communities.”
Ever since the FCC decided to repeal net neutrality in December, thereby allowing corporations like Verizon and AT&T unprecedented control over users’ internet experience, there has been massive push-back. Twenty-two state attorneys general have announced plans to sue the FCC to preserve net neutrality, while activists have seized on the repeal as a chance to start building their own grassroots internet networks.
Senate Democrats have clearly tapped into the idea that net neutrality is a major issue for younger, more progressive voters — in a December poll by the University of Maryland, more than 80 per cent of respondents said they opposed the FCC’s repeal. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has retweeted several meme-friendly, pro-net neutrality messages this week, while Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) tweeted on Monday about using Instagram to post about net neutrality.
“Net Neutrality has the potential to motivate young and progressive voters to turn out in the midterms,” DCCC spokesman Tyler Law said in a statement. “We certainly welcome their support, as well as all privacy-and-liberty-loving Americans who recognize that the Republican Party has abandoned these fundamental values.”
There’s still a long way to go before net neutrality is reinstated, however. Democrats now need to take the bill to the House, where it requires 218 votes, but only 160 Democrats to back the measure. If it passed the House, the bill would then move to the rich asshole’s desk, who has the ability to veto it.
BREAKING: The Senate just voted to keep #NetNeutrality rules – a huge victory for protecting the free & open internet.
Nonetheless, Senate Democrats’ uniform support shows how the party is adopting an increasingly bold progressive stance ahead of November’s midterm elections. In addition to their support for net neutrality rules, Schumer announced plans to decriminalize marijuana at a federal level, while Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has repeatedly spoken out against mass incarceration.
REVEALED: Michael Cohen asked Qatari investor to pay $1 million dollars for his ‘services’ after the rich asshole won 2016 election
some rich asshole's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen. Image via Bryan R. Smith/AFP.
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The Qatari investor connected to the infamous Christopher Steele dossier has spoken out about his interactions with some rich asshole’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen — and said the lawyer once asked him to pay $1 million after the 2016 presidential election.
In a series of interviews with The Intercept, Ahmed Al-Rumaihi — a billionaire connected to a Russian-Qatari business sale referenced in the Steele dossier — claimed Cohen asked him to pay $1 million upfront for his “services” in December 2016. His revelation is the first of its kind amid headlines about Cohen’s alleged pay-for-play scheme in which he offered businesses “insights” on the rich asshole administration in exchange for hefty fees.
Al-Rumaihi described how Cohen’s “eyes lit up” during their first meeting at a $5,000-a-head transition fundraiser at a New York City restaurant on December 5, 2016 when the billionaire investor “asked Cohen if he could pick his brain on an infrastructure fund the Qatari Investment Authority had been contemplating, worth more than $50 billion.”
A few days later, they met again with the same acquaintance that brought Al-Rumaihi to the December 5 luncheon. The men attempted to hash out details about the proposed infrastructure project and when to announce it — Cohen wanted to do so immediately, while Al-Rumaihi wanted to wait for the go-ahead from the Qatari government. The investor included a snippet of conversation from the more private meeting in which Cohen suggested an example of how the partnership could play out.
“For example, we can find a steel factory that is about to shut down,” Cohen reportedly told Al-Rumaihi. “You guys can invest. I’ll give you some names to appoint as partners. You guys put in the money, we will put in the know-how, and share the profits 50-50. We can perhaps get a federal government ‘off-take agreement’ for 10-15 years. It will revitalize the city, great PR, you guys will look like you’re saving the city, everybody wins.’”
Cohen then told the investor that he’d require $1 million upfront to move the project along, and Al-Rumaihi declined because his sovereign wealth fund “does not pay middleman fees in any transactions.” He told The Intercept he met with Cohen once more, and had a strange conversation that included the attorney showing him a photo of his daughter.
“Oh you guys know London pretty well, given all the properties you own, like Harrods,'” Cohen reportedly told the investor. “I bet there’s a lot of nice purses there she’d like.”
The following day, December 12, Al-Rumaihi went to the rich asshole Tower to have a meeting with former national security adviser Michael Flynn — an appearance that eventually made its way to a Twitter post from Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing onetime the rich asshole mistress Stormy Daniels.
When reached via text by The Intercept, Cohen denied Al-Rumaihi’s allegation and said “the truth will prevail.”
White House downplays North Korean threat to scrap nuke talks
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 05/16/18 10:53 AM EDT
The White House said Wednesday it remains “hopeful” President the rich asshole’s planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place, despite Pyongyang’s threat to abandon the talks.
“This is something that we fully expected,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters when asked about North Korea’s threat.
Sanders also downplayed the possible consequences if the June 12 meeting in Singapore does not take place.
“The president is very used to and ready for tough negotiations,” she said. “And if they want to meet, we’ll be ready and if they don’t, that’s OK too.”
North Korea on Tuesday abruptly cancelled a meeting with South Korean officials over denuclearization and said it might call off the planned the rich asshole-Kim summit next month.
If the talks are cancelled, Sanders said that the U.S. would maintain its efforts to impose “maximum pressure” on North Korea until it gives up its nuclear program.
The White House was also forced to walk back comments made by national security adviser John Bolton, who said Libya’s decision to denuclearize during the George W. Bush administration may be a model for the rich asshole’s dealings with Kim Jong Un.
Bolton’s comments angered Pyongyang because Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was driven out of power by NATO forces just eight years after negotiating a denuclearization agreement with the U.S.
“This is the President the rich asshole model,” Sanders said when asked about Bolton’s comments. “He’s gonna run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident — as we have said many times before, and we all know that you’re aware — that he is the best negotiator.”
Giuliani’s law firm throws him under the bus, says his Stormy Daniels story makes no sense
“We cannot speak for Mr. Giuliani with respect to what was intended by his remarks."
During his first interview as President the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani suggested that making hush payments for a client without their knowledge is just something lawyers like himself do.
“Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients,” Giuliani told Sean Hannity last Wednesday, referring to the $130,000 hush payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election on the rich asshole’s behalf. “I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.”
Despite what Giuliani would have you believe, lawyers do not in fact regularly make hush payments on behalf of their clients without their knowledge. And in a statement released Thursday, Giuliani’s law firm sought to make that clear.
“We cannot speak for Mr. Giuliani with respect to what was intended by his remarks,” Jill Perry, a spokesperson for Greenberg Traurig, said in a statement published by the New York Times. “Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client.”
Greenberg Traurig’s public rebuke of Giuliani came shortly after the firm abruptly announced his permanent resignation. The firm claims Giuliani decided to resign because his work for the rich asshole “is all consuming and is lasting longer than initially anticipated.” But Giuliani’s hiring as the rich asshole’s lawyer was announced on April 19 — a mere three weeks ago — and Perry’s statement suggests Greenberg Traurig higher-ups aren’t happy with how Giuliani’s comments reflect on how they practice law.
Giuliani’s Hannity interview also created problems for the rich asshole. Though the president said in April that he knew nothing about the Daniels payment, Giuliani claimed the rich asshole actually reimbursed Cohen for it in increments throughout 2017. Asked to clarify the discrepancy last Friday morning, the rich asshole instead threw Giuliani under the bus, pointing out that he “started yesterday” and “will get his facts straight.”
“Virtually everything that’s been said has been said incorrectly,” the president added.
Fast forward a week, and team the rich asshole still hasn’t clarified the timeline about what the rich asshole knew and when. The president says his lawyer’s story about the Daniels payment was incorrect, but he hasn’t bothered to offer an alternative explanation.
On Wednesday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders referred reporters’ questions about the Daniels payment back to Giuliani, who in his most recent interview said he’ll need at least three weeks to figure out what he’s talking about.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Picks Mitch McConnell’s Brother-In-Law, Gordon Hartogensis, To Lead Pension Agency
Experts say the choice to lead the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. wasn’t based on qualifications.
President some rich asshole has picked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s brother-in-law — a man with apparently no government experience and unclear qualifications — to lead a Department of Labor agency responsible for current and future pensions of about 1.5 million people.
Ethics experts questioned the choice, with one suggesting the nomination was granted on a “who you know rather than what you know” basis.
The White House announced Monday that Gordon Hartogensis had been tapped to head the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. He was described as “an investor and technology sector leader with experience managing financial equities, bonds, private placements, and software development.”
The announcement failed to list a current job for the nominee, and did not mention that Hartogensis is the brother-in-law of McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Hartogensis is married to Chao’s sister, Grace Chao.
According to his LinkedIn page, Hartogensis has managed his family’s trust for seven years. He previously served as the CEO and co-founder of software company Auric Technology, his profile says.
Hartogensis, according to The Washington Post, has no apparent experience in public service and his understanding of PBGC’s mission is unclear.
The PBGC, which helps to sustain payments on single-employer and multi-employer pension plans when pension funds fail, is currently facing a widening, multibillion-dollar deficit. According to Bloomberg, the agency’s multi-employer program, which backs pensions operated jointly by employers and unions, is expected to become insolvent by 2025.
“The White House’s process for naming and vetting candidates is flawed,” Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight told the Post on Tuesday in reaction to Hartogensis’ nomination. “This seems to be another example of who you know rather than what you know.”
An unnamed White House official pushed back against the suggestion that Hartogensis was anything but qualified, telling CNBC that his experience as an investment manager “makes him uniquely qualified to run the PBGC.”
“Since 2013, PBGC’s deficit has doubled, and he will use his strong business skills to put the PBGC back on a firm financial footing,” said the official.
Hartogensis’ nomination requires confirmation by the Senate. If confirmed, he will replace Tom Reeder, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in October 2015.
Prior to leading the PBGC, Reeder, an attorney specializing in national employee benefits, served for many years as benefits tax counsel in the Treasury Department. He also served as benefits counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and health care counsel for the Internal Revenue Service.
White House is a ‘Thunderdome of dregs stabbing each other’: GOP strategist explains source of leaks
Republican strategist Mike Murphy on MSNBC's 'Andrea Mitchel Reports'
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Longtime Republican strategist Mike Murphy described the West Wing as a “Thunderdome” in a Wednesday interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
The host played a clip of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders arguing that the leaks coming from the White House about embattled staffer Kelly Sadler were “disgusting” after she reportedly joked about the death of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is battling brain cancer.
"It’s disgusting and disloyal?” Mitchell wondered. “One of the most disgusting you could participate in, to leak a comment, when many people would say that the comment it was arguably much more disgusting.”
“Yeah, I would,” Murphy agreed. “This is a situation where they have their ethical compass completely backwards.”
“The truth is, the more you make your White House into a Thunderdome of dregs stabbing each other, than the more leaks you get,” Murphy concluded.
The GOP strategist was referring to the 1985 movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner.
In the movie, the Thunderdome is a gladiatorial arena for trial-by-combat to settle disputes in Bartertown.
The duels inside the arena are expected to be to the death, under the rule “two men enter, one man leaves.”
Mike Murphy, the GOP strategist, also offered some public advice for the White House.
“They owe an apology and the staffer who is doing comedy routines about a hero fighting terminal cancers ought to go back to Rev. Moon’s newspaper, or wherever they found her,” Murphy advised. “She should have been fired instantly.”
“They deserve all the condemnation they’re getting,” he added.
Watch:
the rich asshole plagued by whistleblower, leaker and Deep Throat dangers
BY BRENT BUDOWSKY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 05/16/18 11:45 AM EDT
For reasons discussed below, Americans will probably soon learn that the investigation of the Russian attack against America from special counsel Robert Mueller has received dramatic assistance from at least one "Deep Throat" witness, perhaps multiple, who are putting country ahead of party and patriotism ahead of politics.
Similarly, the the rich asshole presidency, from the inauguration until today, has been plagued by an ongoing cascade of leaks and whistleblower revelations, usually designed to expose scandalous conduct or offensive viewpoints from officials throughout his administration.
Recently, President the rich asshole described the large number of leakers who plague his presidency as traitors. They are not traitors. In some cases, they are patriots doing what they believe is right for our country.
In other cases, they are the rich asshole insiders dishing dirt against each other, employing time-honored tactics in the battle for power in Washington.
One major, underestimated reason for the cascade of leaks is that the rich asshole has publicly humiliated, insulted or berated so many current and former administration officials that it sows disloyalty in the ranks. This is basic human nature.
Revenge can be sweet, especially when the target of revenge is highly visible, such as the president, and the executor of the revenge is not visible, as is the case with most leakers.
Consider the most important issue: the investigation of the Russian attack against America from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is now facing an all-out war against him from the rich asshole and his allies in Congress and the media.
First and foremost, Robert Mueller is almost universally regarded throughout the legal and law enforcement communities as a man of extraordinary integrity, courageous patriotism and legal scholarship and rectitude.
He is under attack from those who do not want the Russian attack against America to be fully and fairly investigated who fear — probably correctly from their point of view — what that investigation would uncover.
It was former White House aide Stephen Bannon who described the infamous meeting at the rich asshole Tower between Russians and high-level the rich asshole associates with words that included “treason."
Bannon correctly suggested that Americans who attended a meeting billed in advance as an opportunity for the the rich asshole campaign to receive dirt against then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should have immediately notified the FBI about this meeting.
It is widely noted by those who have been interviewed by Mueller and his special counsel team that the questions they were asked suggested Mueller had obtained a great deal of information before they were questioned.
It is very possible, indeed likely, that some of this information was obtained from inside sources similar to the famous Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal.
Many of the sources for major media about various the rich asshole associates involved in the multiple scandals, such as those involving Scott Pruitt, are not leakers but whistleblowers. They are not traitors, they are heroes exposing wrongdoing.
It is true that these leakers, whistleblowers and probable Deep Throats expose wrongdoing, scandals or actions that hurt the interests of the president and hurt the interests of Republicans in the midterm elections.
They are not traitors, unless one views government as a cult of personality, with the president as the ruler, or as an exercise in crony capitalism, in which case the whistleblowers and leakers are traitors to the corruption they expose.
Personally, if I was a witness to the vile and sick joke that a White House communications aide made about a true American hero, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), I would not have leaked it for the simple reason that the leak itself caused pain for McCain family.
But this does not make the “joke” any less vile and sick, nor does it absolve the rich asshole from responsibility for it, since his public attacks against McCain and many others established a vile and sickening tone that some of his associates mirror.
Every time the rich asshole insults another person who works for him, he creates another potential leaker. Every time a the rich asshole associate is embroiled in a new scandal, it creates another potential whistleblower.
Every time the rich asshole and his associates shamefully attack one of the patriotic heroes of our time, Robert Mueller, they create another highly patriotic Deep Throat candidate who believes that Americans, not Russians, should choose our American presidents.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.
Democratic Senate Judiciary report claims Russia ‘used’ the NRA to help the rich asshole’s campaign
the rich asshole addresses the NRA (Screenshot)
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Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released a preliminary report claiming that the National Rifle Association was used by Russian intelligence services “as a means of accessing and assisting some rich asshole and his campaign.”
As reported by the Daily Beast, the committee says it has “a number of documents” to back up its explosive claims, and it says two Russian nationals — Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina — were involved in the scheme.
“During the campaign, Mr. Torshin, Ms. Butina, and their intermediaries repeatedly offered the campaign back channels to Russia and relayed requests from President Putin to meet with some rich asshole,” the report claims. “The Kremlin may also have used the NRA to secretly fund some rich asshole’s campaign. The extent of Russia’s use of the NRA as an
avenue for connecting with and potentially supporting the rich asshole campaign needs examination.”
avenue for connecting with and potentially supporting the rich asshole campaign needs examination.”
The report goes on to say that both Torshin and Butina have so far refused to cooperate with the committee’s investigation.
By
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May 16, 2018
the rich asshole lashed out at immigrants as 'animals,' in the latest hollow justification of his cruel policy designed to break families apart.
the rich asshole’s bigoted crusade against immigrants took another repugnant step on Wednesday, when he labeled people who have attempted to seek refuge in the United States as “animals.”
Speaking at a White House event attacking California for being welcoming to immigrants — a notion so ingrained in American tradition it is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty — the rich asshole lashed out in typically hateful fashion.
“We’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are,” he insisted.
In fact, in the rich asshole’s mind, they people coming here, desperate for a better life, are not even human.
“These aren’t people, they’re animals,” he sneered.
The rich asshole administration has ramped up the deportation of undocumented immigrants, following through on the anti-immigrant message the rich asshole used throughout the presidential campaign. He infamously launched his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and calling for an unworkable wall to be built on the southern U.S. border.
In December 2017, he went after the immigration lottery system. “They give us their worst people,” he said of other countries, “the worst of the worst.” He was rebuked for that callous statement by Father James Martin, as well as former CIA Director and retired four-star General Michael Hayden.
But he has only gotten worse.
the rich asshole recently implemented a harsh new policy through Attorney General Jeff Sessions that would rip families apart at the border. His administration is considering using military bases to hold the increased number of children the government will be tearing away from their parents.
Now, he’s made his hatred for immigrants even more clear.
But the people who are facing deportation are human beings, not “animals.”
They are families like Alexander Parker and Krisha Schmick of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, who had their wedding day ruined after ICE agents came for Alexander. His sin was that he was born in Guatemala and adopted and brought to the United States at eight months old.
He was fingerprinted, and agents threatened to take him to an immigration detention center. While he was eventually able to prove his residency, an immigration judge had the ability to cause complete disruption in his life.
The rich asshole administration has pushed for these judges to have near absolute power in their rulings, even for immigrant children.
Apparently, the rich asshole also believes people like Jorge Garcia are also “animals.” Garcia was brought to America at 10 years old. Now 39, Garcia was separated from his wife and two teenage children and deported to Mexico.
His wife Cindy told ABC News the event left her “very sad, very depressed, emotional” ever since.
“It’s like a nightmare,” she added.
Another “animal” must have been Sergio Avila, the husband of Army officer Tim Martin Brown. Avila was detained by ICE and put through the process of being deported to Honduras, a country he had not seen since he was eight years old.
Brown pointed out that his husband was not only being separated from his family but being sent completely unprepared to a community “hostile to the LGBTQ community.”
In New Jersey, Vitor Pukri was sent back to Albania by ICE. He has lived in the United States for 17 years, married and fathered three children. His wife, Neta, has also been taken into ICE custody.
These are the so-called “animals” the rich asshole has declared war on. Their families are the casualties of his indifference and bigotry.
Under the guise of keeping America safe, the rich asshole himself has replaced traditional American values with ugly, animalistic impulses.
Acclaimed foreign policy writer explains how the rich asshole’s team desperately wanted to collude — but Russia blew it
some rich asshole yelling during the 2016 Republican National Convention/Screenshot
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Did the rich asshole campaign collude with Russian government officials to alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?
That question has yet to be answered — although we do know that the rich asshole campaign at least made an effort to collude, as evidenced by the fact that some rich asshole Jr. said he would “love it” if Russian officials gave his father’s campaign dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Journalist Michael Weiss has posted a new theory on Twitter that exonerates the rich asshole campaign of directly colluding with the Russians during the 2016 campaign — but only because the Russians were too inept to get their acts together.
that exonerates the rich asshole campaign of directly colluding with the Russians during the 2016 campaign — but only because the Russians were too inept to get their acts together.
Based on what we know about the infamous the rich asshole Tower meeting in June 2016, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya does seem to have spent a lot of time talking about the Magnitsky Act, a bill of anti-Russian sanctions that the Russian government wants to see repealed.
Weiss theorizes that the Russian government tried to use the meeting to lobby the rich asshole campaign in favor of repealing the act, while at the same time holding out the promise of dirt on Clinton as a way to simply get the rich asshole Jr. to take the meeting.
The result, however, was a disaster for the Russians, as the rich asshole Jr. came away frustrated that the Russians did not give them the information they were seeking at that particular meeting. Months later, of course, WikiLeaks would release hacked emails stolen from Clinton’s campaign during the final weeks before the November election — but the rich asshole Jr. didn’t know that would happen at that time.
“The Kremlin via some pretty low-rent cutouts tried to persuade the rich asshole team into doing something that would benefit the Kremlin, using the false pretense of offering dirt on HRC,” Weiss explains. “Is that ‘collusion’? No. It is attempted collusion — dashed-dream collusion — on the part of the Trumpkins; and a totally botched influence op on the part of the Kremlin.”
Read the whole thread below.
<THREAD> Here's my take on the Trump Tower meeting. Don Jr. was promised compromising material on Hillary Clinton from a "Russian government lawyer" and he leapt at the chance to get it.
The meeting was orchestrated by Aras Agalarov, whose father-in-law was the KGB chief in Soviet Azerbaijan, at the encouragement or perhaps behest of Yury Chaika's office. Veselnitskaya's partner in lobbying against Magnitsky is Rinat Akhmetshin, himself a former KGB officer.
The Agalarovs' connection to Trump is well-established. A lot of go-nowhere real estate deal in Russia, and the Miss Universe Pageant. The Trump family's fondness for Emin also no doubt helped grease the wheels.
This was a classic Russian influence operation, however cackhanded or silly. Veselnitskaya is an agent of trying to remove painful US sanctions on Russia. She was told (and no doubt thought) she had a receptive audience in the Trump campaign team, given Manafort's predominance.
But, as the Trumpkins licked their lips for tasty morsels on Hillary (again, not caring at all that they may have come from a hostile foreign state), they were instead treated to a muddled and nonsensical rant about a UK hedge fund manager, his US partners and DNC contributions.
The Trumpkins were genuinely let-down. Veselnitskaya left without making a dent. Manafort could barely keep his eyes open; Kushner walked out early. Don Jr. was very confused.
What does this prove? The Kremlin via some pretty low-rent cutouts tried to persuade the Trump team into doing something that would benefit the Kremlin, using the false pretense of offering dirt on HRC.
RNC tries to downplay the rich asshole’s admission on hush payment to Stormy Daniels
Nothing to see here.
During a Fox News interview on Thursday afternoon, Republican National Committee spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany downplayed President the rich asshole’s admission that his personal attorney made a hush payment to an adult film actress (Stormy Daniels) who says she had an affair with the rich asshole. McEnany argued that $130,000 payments for false accusations are totally routine for people like the president.
“The president was very clear on this, he said on Twitter he paid Michael Cohen a monthly retainer — that’s not unusual for celebrities, people of power, businessmen to sign non-disclosures with people who are accusing them of things they haven’t done,” McEnany said, before quickly trying to change the topic.
“You know, I think the real takeaway from all of this is a Quinnipiac poll I saw recently that said 73 percent of voters do not think the Stormy Daniels saga is of any importance,” she continued. “So this is a Democratic effort to replace the failed Russia collusion narrative with another one, but it’s not going to work as we approach midterms.”
Watch:
McEnany may think the financial disclosure is a nothingburger, but the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics (OGE) doesn’t. Because the rich asshole didn’t disclose the October 2016 payment in his 2017 disclosure, the head of the OGE, David Apol, wrote deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and said the payment “should have been reported” and may have violated federal law.
Just last month, the rich asshole publicly denied having any knowledge of Michael Cohen’s payment to Daniels. But his tune has changed since the FBI raided the office, home, and hotel room of his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, on April 9, in search of documents pertaining to the payment.
The president’s new story — one told publicly by his attorney, Rudy Giuliani — is that he didn’t know about the payment, but reimbursed Cohen for it anyway through a monthly retainer. That story is consistent with the rich asshole’s financial disclosure, which reports that the president reimbursed Cohen for an amount between $100,000 and $250,000.
On Hannity, Giuliani said that “Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients.” But even his old law firm doesn’t buy that Cohen would make a payment on behalf of the rich asshole without his knowledge.
the rich asshole just filed updated paperwork on Stormy Daniels payoff — and could now face a felony
Michael Cohen on the street in Manhattan/Screenshot
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Tuesday was the deadline for some rich asshole to file a required ethics form called the “Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report,” which includes a list of all personal liabilities in excess of $10,000.
That presented a problem: the rich asshole’s previous filing had not included the $130,000 he repaid Michael Cohen for the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff.
That left him with the choice of either filing a second form that broke the law or admitting that he had broken the law the first time by omitting the debt. The form has now been released, and it shows that the rich asshole followed the advice of ethics experts, and admitted the previous wrongdoing.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a CNN commentator, explained how the rich asshole admitted the truth of a complaint his organization filed.
In the form, the rich asshole acknowledges that a government agency told him he had to disclose the money: “[Office of Government Ethics] has concluded that the information related to the payment made by Mr. Cohen is required to be reported and that the information provided meets the disclosure requirement for a reportable liability.”
But elsewhere in the form the the rich asshole team argues against that conclusion.
“[W]hile not required to be disclosed as ‘reportable liabilities’ on Part 8, in 2016 expenses were incurred by one of some rich asshole’s attorneys, Michael Cohen. Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and some rich asshole fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017.”
Interesting about this range -- Giuliani told @maggieNYT earlier this month that Trump paid Cohen for far more than the $130,000 Stormy payment -- somewhere between $460-470k. If that's true, this could be an underreporting.
Also note disagreeing views on disclosing Cohen reimbursement: OGE says it was required to be reported; Trump says they disagree but doing so anyway "in the interest of transparency."
As a result, the rich asshole could be facing a felony.
Watch Eisen explain the situation on CNN below.
the rich asshole admits debt to Cohen for Stormy Daniels payoff
After months of denials, the president finally acknowledges the truth.
In a federal financial disclosure released Wednesday, President the rich asshole acknowledged his $130,000 debt to his attorney, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In last year’s form, the rich asshole did not acknowledge the debt, which watchdog groups and ethics advocates say is a violation of federal law.
This year, the rich asshole acknowledged the debt in a footnote. He attempts to have it both ways, stating “In the interest of transparency, while not required to be disclosed as ‘reportable liabilities’ on Part 8, in 2016 expenses were incurred by one of some rich asshole’s attorneys, Michael Cohen. Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and some rich asshole fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017. The category of value would be $100,001 – $250,000 and the interest rate would be zero.“
the rich asshole is attempting to make a distinction between an “expense” and a “debt” — a talking point promoted by Rudy Giuliani on TV — that is not recognized under the law. Indeed, in the cover page to the filing, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) says that the rich asshole was required to list his debt to Cohen.
That means the debt was improperly omitted from last year’s filing. (As recently as March 29, 2018, Cohen’s lawyer claimed he was never reimbursed.)
Further the OGE made a referral of the matter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In the letter, the head of the OGE, David Apol, reiterates that his office has concluded the debt to Cohen was “required to be reported.” He notes that the failure to list the Cohen debt in the rich asshole’s June 2017 filing may violate federal law.
Another issue is Rudy Giuliani’s public claim that the rich asshole actually reimbursed Cohen up to $460,000 over the course of 2017. The filing only accounts for up to $250,000 in debt to Cohen.
Witness tells Senate Judiciary Committee that Don Jr asked Russians ‘if they got anything on Hillary’
some rich asshole Jr. (Screen cap).
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some rich asshole Jr. confirmed to Senate investigators that he hoped to gain damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer — and another witness said he asked for that during an infamous June 2016 meeting.
British music publicist Rob Goldstone set up the meeting via email by saying Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya had Clinton campaign dirt, and the rich asshole Jr. responded: “I love it.”
The president’s son told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he loved the idea of obtaining “potential information about an opponent” during the meeting.
Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin testified that the rich asshole Jr. seemed to be in charge of the meeting, which he opened with a reference to the damaging material.
“So I believe you have some information for us,” the rich asshole Jr. said, according to Akhmetshin.
But the president’s son and son-in-law would have to wait.
A Russian who attended the meeting told Senate investigators that Akhmetshin gave the rich asshole Jr. a lead at the June 9, 2016, meeting about an overhyped Clinton-Wall Street scandal.
Ike Kaveladze — an employee of Aras Agalarov, the rich asshole’s partner on the 2013 Miss Universe contest — told the Senate committee that the rich asshole Jr. and Jared Kushner lost patience with the Russians and asked them to get to the point.
“After those words, some rich asshole asked both Ms. Veselnitskaya and — the rich asshole Jr. Ms. Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin, asked if they got anything on Hillary,” Kaveladze testified, “and to which Mr. Akhmetshin responded, ‘Why don’t you do your own research on her? We gave you the idea,’ and continued talking about the Magnitsky Act.”
the rich asshole Jr. told the Russians he was too busy with the campaign to look into the story they proposed, but he offered to discuss possible changes to the Magnitsky Act if his father won the election, according to Kaveladze.
“He said, ‘If we win, then we might get back to you and continue that discussion about Magnitsky Act, and politely ended the conversation, ended the meeting,” Kaveladze testified.
After the June 2016 meeting was revealed and then confirmed by the president’s son last summer, an unknown person emailed Kaveladze with a highly loaded question.
“Why did he release this email admitting to collusion?” asks the person, whose identity was redacted in transcripts but is reportedly Kaveladze’s son, George.
These are the revelations from Don Jr.’s extraordinary testimony about his meeting with the Russians
Breaking down the document dump.
On Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released 1800 pages of testimony from their ongoing investigation into potential Russian influence in the 2016 election and the rich asshole campaign. Among the documents was a 224-page transcript of an interview with some rich asshole Jr., focusing on his June 9, 2016 meeting with several Russians in the rich asshole Tower.
The meeting took place after the rich asshole Jr. was sent an email from a promoter who works for a Russian pop star, Emin Agalarov, with connections to the Russian government. The promoter, Rod Goldstone, said that Aras Agalarov, the father of his client, met with the “Crown prosecutor of Russian” and “offered to provide the rich asshole campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary.” Goldstone characterized the offer as “part of Russia and its government’s support for some rich asshole.”
“[I]f it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” the rich asshole Jr. replied.
The detailed transcript raises important questions about the meeting, its aftermath, and the damage control effort when it became public.
The blocked phone call
On July 11, 2017, the rich asshole Jr. appeared on Sean Hannity’s eponymous Fox News Channel show and claimed that all the preparations and discussion in advance of the meeting were handled over email.
HANNITY: At any point were you told, either in a phone conversation or otherwise, what they might tell you? What Goldstone seemed to be implying you would receive.RICH ASSHOLE JR.: As I recall, it was all basically this email coordination. Let’s try to set up a meeting and see what happens. It’s going to be interesting information. In the end, it wasn’t about that at all.
We now know this isn’t true. The transcript reveals that Emin Agalarov called the rich asshole Jr. on June 6, 2016 to discuss the meeting.
Q. So in Exhibit 1 Mr . Goldstone’ s e-mail at 3:43 p .m. on June 6 said that Emin would call you 12 within about 20 minutes, and this record, which is heavily redacted, shows an incoming call 21 minutes later at 4:04 p.m. on that day from the [redacted] number. Was that a call from Emin?RICH ASSHOLE JR: I believe it to be.
the rich asshole Jr. claims to have no recollection of the call but about 25 minutes later, he called Emin Agalarov back. More significantly, in between the two calls, the rich asshole Jr. had another conversation with someone with a blocked number.
Q: In between the two calls there’s another entry, a call at 4:27 that lasted four minutes from a blocked number. Between Emin’s call to you at 4:04 and your return call to him at 4:31, with whom did you have a call?RICH ASSHOLE JR: I have no idea.
Corey Lewandowski, who served as President some rich asshole’s campaign manager, testified separately that the rich asshole’s primary residence had a blocked number. Later in the interview the rich asshole Jr. claimed that he did not know whether his father used a blocked number. This seems dubious since the rich asshole Jr. said he communicates frequently with his father.
The Hope Hicks connection
In addition to the meeting itself, another issue of interest is the effort to cover it up. the rich asshole Jr. released a series of statements, none of which accurately described the nature of the meeting — either its substance or how it was set up.
The key question is whether President the rich asshole had any involvement in crafting these inaccurate statements. the rich asshole Jr. said his father may have been involved through his Communications Director, Hope Hicks.
Q: The Washington Post has since reported that your father was involved in drafting your July 8th statement. Is that correct?RICH ASSHOLE JR: I don’t know. I never spoke to my father about it.Q: Do you know who did draft that statement?RICH ASSHOLE JR: Well, there were numerous statements drafted with counsel and other people were involved and, you know, opined.Q: To the best of your knowledge, did the President provide any edits to the statement or other input?RICH ASSHOLE JR: He may have commented through Hope Hicks.Q: And do you know if his comments provided through Hope Hicks were incorporated into the final statement?RICH ASSHOLE JR: I believe some may have been, but this was an effort through lots of people, mostly counsel.
the rich asshole Jr.’s attorney reached out to participants to get their story straight
Prior to the meeting become public, the rich asshole Jr.’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, reached out to several participants to “harmonize” their stories. Specifically Futerfas drafted a statement for Goldstone about the meeting and asked him to release it.
Futerfas also communicated with Emin Agalarov, who helped set up the meeting, and Ike Kaveladze, who attended the meeting. The effort to coordinate stories prior to the meeting becoming public raises questions about whether the narrative presented in the interviews is accurate.
This is a breaking new post and will be updated
POLITICS
Tweeters Take Hard Pass At RNC’s Dinner And Photo With some rich asshole Prize
“Seriously? You’re pushing raffle tickets to get a picture with an elected official?”
The Republican National Committee is once again asking for donations in exchange for the chance to win dinner and a photo with some rich asshole.
Have dinner with President @realDonaldTrump and get the picture to prove it. Enter for your chance to wingop.cm/6016r2DZG
But the opportunity of eating with the president at the “the rich asshole Victory Dinner” in New York City later this month has not whetted many tweeters’ appetites:
Seriously? You're pushing raffle tickets to get a picture with an elected official? The @POTUS ?!? There's a new low!
You realize this is a Presidency and not a reality tv show right? And btw....it’s a no from me
I'd rather be waterboarded than break bread with that 
If I wanted to eat a bad steak with ketchup, I'll just go to the Golden Corral and save my dignity.
Leave it to the @GOP to continue its further desicration of the "Presidency" by raffling off more "Pay to Play", @realDonaldTrump favourite pasttime...
The RNC’s tweet linked to a fundraising page on the rich asshole’s official website, which encourages people to donate to the the rich asshole Make America Great Again Committee ― “a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of some rich asshole for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee” ― and have a shot at winning transportation, accommodation and one ticket to the event.
The small print at the bottom of the page contained another link where people could enter the sweepstakes for free.
In recent weeks, the RNC has caught heat for using Twitter to try to cash in on National Puppy Day, make Mother’s Day great again and get folks to take a rich asshole approval poll.
the rich asshole Jr. lawyer tried to coordinate stories on the rich asshole Tower meeting with organizer
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 05/16/18 12:17 PM EDT
some rich asshole Jr.'s attorney appears to have tried to coordinate accounts with another participant who also attended the June 2016 the rich asshole Tower meeting with President the rich asshole's eldest son, encouraging music promoter Rob Goldstone to release a statement he drafted defending his client's account.
Goldstone said the rich asshole Jr.’s attorneys, Alan Futerfas and Alan Garten, interviewed him about his memory of the the rich asshole Tower meeting.
“They called and asked me if I could help them understand my recollection of the meeting, which I did,” Goldstone told Senate investigators, according to a transcript of his December interview.
Futerfas also sent Goldstone a proposed statement, which encouraged him to run with the remarks if he felt "comfortable," according to exhibits posted by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Goldstone then shared the statement with Ike Kaveladze, a U.S.-based employee of Emin and Aras Agalarov, who also attended the meeting. Emin Agalarov, Goldstone's client, worked with the rich asshole to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.
"Here is statement drafted by the rich asshole lawyers which they have asked me to release," Goldstone wrote in an email on July 10 to Kaveladze, just two days after The New York Times first reported the meeting.
Futerfas suggested that if Goldstone was comfortable with their plan to release the statement and then not say anything more on the matter publicly, that would be his "preference."
"Please consider the following as a statement. Please note that there will always be potential follow-up questions to any statement but if you feel comfortable with this statement and are comfortable saying nothing more, at least for the time being, that would be our preference. Again, any statement should be accurate as to your very best recollection," Futerfas wrote in an email to Goldstone.
Goldstone, who had asked Emin Agalarov to review the statement in an email, was told to coordinate with Kaveladze about any draft statements, according to the transcripts.
The statement largely defended the rich asshole Jr.'s initial account of the meeting where he — as well as the rich asshole's son-in-law Jared Kushner and former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort — met with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to press the case for repealing a U.S. sanctions law that had led the Kremlin to ban Americans from adopting children from Russia.
Goldstone told Senate investigators during his December interview that he did not release Futerfas’s statement, calling it “ludicrous.”
“It just sounded like an across-the-board endorsement of some rich asshole Jr., as opposed to stating facts,” he said, while telling Senate investigators that he did “not necessarily” believe there were inaccuracies about the statement.
When Senate investigators asked why Goldstone asked to see the rich asshole Jr.’s statement before he’d drafted his own, the publicist said he thought it would be useful if he knew “what they had put out, the style, the type.”
the rich asshole Jr. has said the meeting was a waste of time. He agreed to the meeting under the belief that he was receiving political dirt on his father's opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Goldstone initiated
"As the person who arranged the meeting, I can definitively state that the statements I have read by some rich asshole Jr. are 100 percent accurate," the statement for Goldstone reads.
"The meeting was a complete waste of time and Don was never told Ms. Veselnitskaya's name prior to the meeting. Ms. Veselnitskaya mostly talked about the Magnitsky Act and Russian adoption laws and the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes at most. There was never any follow up and nothing ever came of the meeting."
At one point after the press got wind of the meeting, Goldstone also sent a text to Emin Agalarov, saying that he had “just got off phone with the rich asshole lawyers and they would like us to have a blanket ‘no comment’ for now." He told investigators that since he didn't have "any attorneys or anywhere to turn" at the time, he called the rich asshole Jr.'s lawyers since they were read in on the situation.
Other exhibits released by the Senate committee on Wednesday also reveal a back-and-forth coordination with the rich asshole's attorneys and other the rich asshole officials.
Anthony Scaramucci, then incoming-White House communications director, also emailed Goldstone on July 23 about the need to remain consistent on messaging.
"I don't officially start," Scaramucci began in the subject line, "until the 15th, Rob."
"But I just wanted to drop you a line to say if you ever need to pick my brains then my door is always open. Obviously there is still pressure on all sides, but if we remain consistent and united I don't envisage any issues we can't ride out," he continued.
Futerfas described his interviews with the other meeting participants as standard practice.
"The first order of business in any new inquiry is to conduct a thorough investigation in order to determine the facts. That is exactly what occurred here," Futerfas said in an emailed statement.
"The June 9th meeting was forgotten about as soon as it concluded and the attorneys had an obligation to ascertain exactly what occurred by interviewing those who were in attendance. Each interviewee was advised that we only wanted to hear the truth and their interviews were witnessed by multiple attorneys from my office," he said.
He emphasized, as proven in the documents released, that Goldstone had been advised that “any statement should be accurate as to your very best recollection.”
Updated at 5:37 p.m.
REVEALED: Man who set up the rich asshole Tower meeting with Russians also offered the rich asshole personal rendezvous with Putin
the rich asshole's relationship with Moscow has stalked the first year of his presidency, with key former aides under a US investigation for alleged collaboration with the Kremlin. (SPUTNIK/AFP / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV)
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A music publicist who helped arrange a the rich asshole Tower meeting between members of the rich asshole campaign and Russians who were offering opposition research on Hillary Clinton also said that he could get some rich asshole a personal audience with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Buried in more than 1,000 pages of documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday is testimony in which Rob Goldstone recalls offering the rich asshole an invitation to Russia.
Goldstone explains in his testimony that Azerbaijani singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov had invited the rich asshole to attended his father’s birthday in Moscow.
After longtime the rich asshole assistant Rhona Graff said that it would be difficult to attend the party because of the rich asshole’s presidential campaign, Goldstone said he made another offer.
“I totally understand,” Goldstone recalled telling Graff, adding, “unless maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin which Emin would set up.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, Senate Democrats alleged that the Senate documents show ties between the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
“[T]he Committee has found evidence of multiple contacts between the rich asshole campaign and Russian government officials or their intermediaries, including offers of assistance and purported overtures from Vladimir Putin,” the statement said.
Goldstone also offered the rich asshole a meeting with Putin in Moscow pic.twitter.com/YIERADLaF2— Max de Haldevang (@MddeH) May 16, 2018
Senate Judiciary Dem statement on transcripts released today: “[T]he Committee has found evidence of multiple contacts between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian government officials or their intermediaries, including offers of assistance and purported overtures from Vladimir Putin" pic.twitter.com/G1Q11AsZSi— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) May 16, 2018
White House pretends it never expected its much-touted North Korea summit to happen
Life comes at you fast.
In a statement released by a state-run North Korean news agency, North Korea’s First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim Kye Gwan, threatened to pull out of a summit with President the rich asshole scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.
North Korea’s threat to cancel the summit puts the rich asshole in a very awkward position, after he’s spent weeks portraying it as a key part of his historic legacy.
Kim Kye Gwan wrote that the United States’ offer of extending “economic compensation and benefit” to North Korea in exchange for getting rid of its nuclear weapons is insufficient, and criticized National Security Adviser’s John Bolton’s comments about Libya serving as a model for North Korean denuclearization.
“[I]f they try to push us into a corner and force only unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in that kind of talks and will have to reconsider… the upcoming summit,” Kim Kye Gwan wrote, adding that Bolton’s comments represent “an awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.”
Just last week, the rich asshole — alluding to the mere fact that he had scheduled a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who he recently described as “very honorable” despite his record of flagrant, brutal human rights abuses — floated himself as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate.
“Everyone thinks [I deserve it], but I would never say it,” he told reporters regarding the top peace prize.
When asked if he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, President the rich asshole said, “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it… the prize I want is victory for the world.” https://t.co/yogNQujuKV pic.twitter.com/4wNDHokypb— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 10, 2018
At a rally late last month, the rich asshole encouraged the crowd to chant “NO-BEL! NO-BEL” during a portion of his speech about the North Korean summit.
OMG while the rich asshole talks about North Korea, the crowd interrupts him by chanting, "NO-BEL! NO-BEL!" pic.twitter.com/k3PyAlYNkF— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2018
On Twitter, the rich asshole has repeatedly hyped the summit, which he has characterized as “a very special moment for World Peace!” and used to discredit his critics.
The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!— some rich asshole (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018
North Korea has announced that they will dismantle Nuclear Test Site this month, ahead of the big Summit Meeting on June 12th. Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!— some rich asshole (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2018
Funny how all of the Pundits that couldn’t come close to making a deal on North Korea are now all over the place telling me how to make a deal!— some rich asshole (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018
Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!— some rich asshole (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
While speaking to reporters following the return of three American hostages from North Korea last week, the rich asshole said, “My proudest achievement will be – this is part of it – when we denuclearize that entire peninsula.”
With that goal suddenly in jeopardy, White House officials responded to North Korea’s statement on Wednesday by pretending they never actually expected the Kim-the rich asshole summit to take place after all.
“This is something we fully expected,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “The president is very used [to] and ready for tough negotiations, and if they want to meet we’ll be ready, and if they don’t, that’s okay too. We’ll continue with the campaign of maximum pressure if that’s the case.”
Sarah Sanders on North Korea threatening to pull out of summit: "This is something we fully expected. The president is very used to & ready for tough negotiations & if they want to meet, we'll be ready. If they don't, that's ok too & we'll continue w/campaign of maximum pressure" pic.twitter.com/RVAGZ5SrJk— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 16, 2018
But by raising expectations about the meeting, and characterizing it as reflective of his superior deal-making skills, the rich asshole has put himself in a position where he might need the summit to happen more than Kim does.
The president did himself no favors by violating the Iran nuclear agreement last week — a move that signaled to the North Korean regime that the U.S. government’s word can’t be trusted, even if North Korea lives up to the terms of a deal.
It’s possible that North Korea’s statement is just part of an attempt to extract added concessions from the rich asshole administration if a rich asshole-Kim summit does eventually happen. the rich asshole officials have already signaled they might accept something short of full denuclearization, with new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling Fox News on Sunday that “America’s interest here is preventing the risk that North Korea will launch a nuclear weapon into [Los Angeles] or Denver or into the very place we’re sitting here this morning… that’s our objective” — a position different than calling for North Korea to denuclearize altogether.
Here are 5 burning questions raised by the release of the Senate’s the rich asshole Tower transcripts
President some rich asshole's eldest child and namesake son, some rich asshole Jr., senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Campaign Chairman and Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. Composite image.
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The Senate on Wednesday released thousands of pages of documents related to testimony about the infamous June 2016 the rich asshole Tower meeting in which some rich asshole Jr., Jared Kushner and former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Russian officials who had promised to give them damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The full transcripts, however, open up more questions than they answer, as the rich asshole Jr. and other witnesses claimed that they could not recall key details about things they had done during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Below, we’ll go through the most burning questions raised by the release of the Senate’s the rich asshole Tower transcripts.
1.) Why did publicist Rob Goldstone try to set up a meeting between the rich asshole and Putin just one month after he launched his presidential bid? Goldstone, the publicist who works for the family of Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov, was the man who set up the meeting between top the rich asshole campaign officials and Russian officials in 2016.
But documents released by the Senate show that Goldstone actually tried to set up a direct meeting between the rich asshole and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself just one month after the rich asshole launched his presidential campaign in the summer of 2015.
“Maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin which Emin would set up,” Goldstone wrote to longtime the rich asshole secretary Rhona Graff in July 2015.
Graff responded that she did not think the rich asshole would have time to go to Moscow during the presidential campaign, although she said the rich asshole “would be honored” that Emin offered to set up the meeting.
2.) What is the meaning of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s cryptic notes? Even though the rich asshole Jr. insisted that nothing nefarious occurred during the rich asshole Tower meeting, contemporaneous notes taken at the time by Manafort suggest something was, in fact, in play.
While the notes are very cryptic, they do contain some intriguing phrases that need to be explained to understand the true nature of the meeting.
Among other things, Manafort’s notes reference “Offshore – Cyprus” followed by “133 million shares” of undisclosed “companies.”
Cyprus has become notorious in recent years as a haven for turning a blind eye to money laundering operations conducted on its soil by Russian oligarchs — why was Manafort writing about it in a meeting that was supposedly about Russian adoption policies?
Elsewhere in the notes, Manafort writes the phrase, “Value in Cypress as inter,” followed by the word “illici,” followed by the phrase “Active sponsors of RNC.”
While none of these notes is definitive proof of the rich asshole campaign collusion, they do suggest that there is still a lot more that we don’t know about what was discussed at the rich asshole Tower meeting — especially since the Senate hasn’t even called Manafort yet to testify about his cryptic notes.
3.) Who was the person behind the “blocked number” who talked with the rich asshole Jr.? During his testimony, senators noted that, in between two calls he had with Emin Agalarov to discuss the rich asshole Tower meeting in 2016, the rich asshole Jr. had a four-minute conversation with someone whose telephone number was blocked.
When asked by investigators whom he’d been talking with in between calls with Agalarov, the rich asshole Jr. replied that he couldn’t remember.
Democratic lawmakers have speculated that the blocked phone number was from the rich asshole himself — and the rich asshole Jr.’s claim to not remember whom he’s spoken with will only add fuel to that speculation.
4.) How can the rich asshole Jr. possibly claim he doesn’t remember ever talking about the Russia probe with his own father? Even though the Russia scandal has been the single biggest story in the news for the past year and a half, the rich asshole Jr. tried to tell investigators that he didn’t remember mentioning it to his father at all until after revelations about the rich asshole Tower meeting became public last year.
“I mean, obviously he’s aware of it now because he’s read it, it’s been in the papers, but that’s the extent of my knowledge of his knowledge about it,” the rich asshole Jr. told investigators last year.
the rich asshole Jr. also told investigators that he had no idea whether the rich asshole had been involved in crafting the misleading statement issued last year claiming that the meetings with Russian officials were only about adoption policies. When asked why he didn’t seek his father’s input in writing the statement, the rich asshole Jr. replied that the rich asshole Tower meeting had nothing to do with his father — despite the fact that it was designed to help his own presidential campaign.
5.) Did former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci seek permission to reach out to Rob Goldstone even after revelations came out that he’d set up the rich asshole Tower meeting? And if so, from whom?
Shortly after the rich asshole hired him to be his new communications director last summer, Scaramucci sent an email to Goldstone — who by that point was well known as the man who set up the rich asshole Tower meeting — offering him assistance.
“I just wanted to drop you a line to say if you ever need to pick my brains then my door is always open,” Scaramucci wrote to him. “Obviously, there is still pressure on all sides, but if we remain consistent and united, I don’t envisage any issues we can’t ride out.”
Was Scaramucci just freelancing — or did the rich asshole give him the go-ahead to reach out to a key figure in the Russia investigation?
the rich asshole on North Korea summit: 'We'll have to see'
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 05/16/18 12:18 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Wednesday reacted cautiously to North Korea’s threat to pull out of a planned nuclear summit with leader Kim Jong Un.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the rich asshole said his administration has received no direct contact from Pyongyang about its concerns with the summit scheduled for next month.
North Korea threw the historic meeting into doubt on Tuesday when it scrapped high-level talks with South Korea and threatened to do the same with next month’s summit between the rich asshole and Kim over U.S. demands that it quickly surrender its nuclear arsenal.
“If the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U.S. summit,” North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement published by a state news agency.
The North Korean official said Kim Jong Un was angered by national security adviser John Bolton's suggestion that the rich asshole administration could use a “Libya model” with North Korea, comments that the White House walked back earlier Wednesday.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was driven out of power with the help of NATO forces just eight years after negotiating a denuclearization agreement with the U.S.
the rich asshole said he will insist on full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during possible talks with Kim, despite North Korea’s rhetoric.
“Yes,” the rich asshole said when asked if a nuclear-free peninsula was still his demand.
The president’s measured response indicates he is trying to keep chances of a summit alive. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the U.S. remains “hopeful” the meeting with Kim will still take place.
“This is something that we fully expected,” Sanders said Wednesday morning when asked about North Korea’s threat. “The president is very used to and ready for tough negotiations. And if they want to meet we’ll be ready, and if they don’t that’s OK too.”
The planned June 12 meeting between the rich asshole and Kim in Singapore is one of the biggest foreign policy objectives for the U.S. president.
The U.S. and North Korea appeared on the brink of a nuclear conflict last year as the two leaders exchanged public threats and taunts while Pyongyang accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Tensions decreased earlier this year as Kim made overtures to the rich asshole and South Korea in an effort to remove crippling nuclear-related sanctions, but they have ratcheted up in recent days as both sides publicly haggle over the possible terms of a nuclear deal.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and the conflict between the North and South has vexed the U.S. for decades. the rich asshole has publicly acknowledged a deal could be a legacy-defining achievement.
Some supporters have suggested he should earn the Nobel Peace Prize if he brokers peace and denuclearization on the peninsula.
“Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,” the rich asshole said earlier this month when asked if he deserves the prize. “The prize I want is victory for the world.”
Don the rich asshole Jr can’t remember anything about his father’s involvement with Russia in Senate testimony
some rich asshole Jr speaking at the 2016 RNC Convention in Cleveland that awarded his father the Republican Party nomination for President.
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some rich asshole Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he couldn’t remember whether he had discussed the Russian investigation with his father.
The Senate panel released thousands of pages of transcripts from interviews conducted as part of the congressional investigation of Russia election interference, including an hours-long interview with the president’s eldest son.
"I appreciate the opportunity to have assisted the Judiciary Committee in its inquiry,” the rich asshole Jr. said Wednesday in a statement. “The public can now see that for over five hours I answered every question asked and was candid and forthright with the Committee.”
the rich asshole Jr. told the panel that he did not recall whether his father, President some rich asshole, had known about a meeting he helped set up with a Russian attorney promising damaging campaign information about Hillary Clinton.
“I mean, obviously he’s aware of it now because he’s read it, it’s been in the papers, but that’s the extent of my knowledge of his knowledge about it,” the rich asshole Jr. testified.
He said his father did not express surprise about the meeting or ask why he wasn’t told about it.
“Frankly, by the time anyone was aware of it, which was summer of this year (2017), as I stated earlier, I wouldn’t have wanted to get him involved in it because it had nothing to do with him.”
the rich asshole Jr. said he never spoke to his father about a statement about the meeting that later proved misleading, although he admits the president had some involvement in producing the document — which the special counsel is investigating as possible obstruction of justice.
“He may have commented through Hope Hicks,” the rich asshole Jr. said, referring to the former White House aide.
The president’s son said some of the rich asshole’s comments provided through Hicks may have been incorporated into the final statement.
“I believe some may have been, but this was an effort through lots of people , mostly counsel,” the rich asshole Jr. said. “She asked if I wanted to actually speak to him, and I chose not to because I didn’t want to bring him into some thing that he had nothing to do with.”
the rich asshole Jr. said the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, did not provide damaging campaign information but instead wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs and adoption laws.
“I proceeded to quickly and politely end the meeting by telling Ms. Veselnitskaya that because my daughter was a private citizen that there did not seem to be any point for having this discussion,” the rich asshole Jr. said.
Senate investigators also asked the rich asshole Jr. to identify the person he spoke to by phone in between phone calls with Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop singer acquaintance who brokered the rich asshole Tower meeting.
Phone logs show Agalarov called the rich asshole Jr. at 4:04 p.m. on June 6, 2016, to discuss the Veselnitskaya meeting, and then the president’s son had a four-minute call with someone who used a blocked number before calling back the Russian singer at 4:31 p.m.
A Senate investigator asked the rich asshole Jr. whether his father used a blocked number, and he said he did not know.
Premium hikes reignite the ObamaCare wars
The ObamaCare premium wars are back.
The cost of health insurance plans on the ObamaCare exchanges could jump in the coming weeks, some by double digits, inflaming the issue ahead of the midterm elections.
Democrats argue the price increases are the result of what they refer to as “Republican sabotage.” They contend that, since the GOP controls Congress and the White House, the price hikes are their responsibility — and that's the message they plan to take into the fall campaign.
Republicans counter that it was Democrats who passed the law, enacted in 2010, in the first place and without any GOP votes. And they blame Democrats for the failure to pass a bill that was aimed at shoring up ObamaCare’s exchanges.
Democrats wrote the Affordable Care Act, so “they should look in the mirror,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said last week on the Senate floor.
“And this is the very worst. When Republicans were prepared one month ago to stabilize these markets — and according to the Oliver Wyman health-care experts, to lower rates by up to 40 percent over three years — the Democrats said no,” he said.
For years, Republicans had the upper hand on health care, with the backlash to the Affordable Care Act helping them win the House in 2010, the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016.
During the Obama administration, Republicans railed against ObamaCare premium hikes while pledging to repeal and replace the law.
But that repeal push ended in failure last year, and Democrats say the political winds have shifted in their favor.
Democrats argue that any higher premiums this year will be a direct result of the Republican Congress and the rich asshole administration. They refer to certain actions by the GOP — such as the repeal of the individual mandate to have health insurance — as acts of “sabotage” that will siphon healthy people out of the ObamaCare insurance markets, leading to sicker people on the plans and higher costs.
“Thus far, Democrats have been on the defensive about premium increases,” said Cynthia Cox, a health insurance expert with the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Now they’re starting to play offense, and from our polling we’ve seen that a lot of the public now feels that the rich asshole administration and Congress are responsible for any problems with the [Affordable Care Act] going forward, so it may be that the politics of premium increases has changed.”
Protect Our Care, a pro-ObamaCare group, launched “Rate Watch” on Tuesday, a media campaign and website aimed at getting out the Democrat's message that Republicans are to blame for rate hikes.
Only a handful of states have released proposed premiums for next year, as insurers are largely still hammering out what their preliminary rates are going to be.
In Maryland, the average proposed increase among insurers and plans was 30 percent. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, for example, requested an 18.5 percent hike for its HMO plans and 91.4 percent for its PPO plans.
In Virginia, proposed rate hikes varied widely, from 15 percent to 64 percent. Vermont’s proposed premium increases were more modest.
It’s too early to know the full picture for what premiums will look like around the country for 2019. Insurers tend to file proposed rates in the late spring and early summer, and they’re generally not finalized until early fall — a little more than a month before the ObamaCare exchanges open for business on Nov. 1.
“It’s hard to come up with a general impression ... but I think what we can expect is probably another year of double-digit rate increases driven in large part by the individual mandate repeal and the expansion of short-term health plans and association health plans,” Cox said.
The the rich asshole administration proposed a rule to increase the length of time a consumer can keep a plan that doesn’t comply with ObamaCare’s insurance regulations from three months to nearly a year. Democrats deride those plans as “junk insurance.”
Association health plans would let small businesses and self-employed individuals band together to buy coverage that doesn’t comply with ObamaCare’s rules.
Republicans say the rules will expand choice and allow people to buy cheaper alternatives to ObamaCare plans.
Some insurers have cited the repeal of the individual mandate as a factor in their decision to propose rate hikes, and at least one also included the proposed regulations from the administration as a factor.
Some insurance commissioners across the country are approaching the open enrollment period with a level of “concern and a bit of trepidation,” said Julie Mix McPeak, Tennessee’s insurance commissioner who serves as the president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
In McPeak’s home state, she’s hopeful that signs are pointing to rates beginning to plateau and that Tennessee won’t see the large hikes of years past.
“My experience in Tennessee ... is not typical for all of the states in the United States,” said McPeak, who was appointed to run the state’s insurance department by Gov. Bill Haslam (R.).
“I'm hearing from some of my colleagues from the national perspective that they are looking at significant rate increases,” she said.
Dave Jones, California’s Democratic insurance commissioner, said he’s worried that some insurers may leave parts of the state.
“We’re working closely with our exchange and other California agencies to do everything we can to encourage insurers to stay and to create as much stability as we can, not withstanding all of the rocks that the rich asshole administration is throwing at health-care reform,” he said.
If the short-term and association health plan rules are implemented, Jones said he’s prepared to file litigation aimed at stopping the regulations.
In North Dakota, the state’s Republican insurance commissioner is more optimistic.
Jon Godfread said he expects North Dakota's marketplace will consist of three carriers selling plans across the state — an increase from last year, when areas had only one or two insurers to choose from.
As for rate hikes, he’s hoping in the low double-digits or, worst case, in the 18 percent to 22 percent range. He believes the repeal of the individual mandate won’t have much impact on consumer behavior in North Dakota because people who couldn’t afford insurance have likely already left the marketplace in the state.
“Health insurance and health care by its very nature is demographic,” Godfread said. “We may be leading into a somewhat calm year — in North Dakota, at least that’s what we’re hoping for. But that doesn’t mean my colleagues in Iowa and Nebraska and other places aren’t facing some pretty significant challenges, and we very well, that could be us next year, or it could be us this year still, too. There’s a lot of time between now and open enrollment.”
Sarah Sanders rages at leaker of McCain slur: ‘A total and complete coward and they should be fired’
Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News (screen grab)
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday refused to offer a public apology to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and instead called those who leak White House conversations cowards.
During an interview on Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy asked the press secretary why someone leaked details of a meeting in which a staffer mocked McCain because he is dying of brain cancer.
“I can tell you there are a couple of bad actors,” Sanders said, referring to people who leak. “I think it is disgusting and some of the most shameful behavior that you could ever engage in. It’s an honor and a privilege to work for the president and to be part of his administration. And anybody who betrays that, I think, is a total and complete coward and they should be fired.”
“This is one of the greatest opportunities of a lifetime to get to work and serve for President the rich asshole and it’s something that is sacred,” Sanders added. “Sometimes some of these leaks are made up and reporters search for validation for them… I don’t know why people do it because I don’t engage in it because I find it to be some of the most disgusting behavior that you could ever participate in and one of the most disloyal things that you could do as an entrusted member of the president’s team.”
Co-host Abby Huntsman explained that she is friends with McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, who was promised a public apology but has not received one for the comments about her father.
“I think it’s been addressed,” Sanders scoffed. “We’re dealing with this matter internally.”
“But why the strategy not to come out publicly and say, ‘You know what? I shouldn’t have made the joke, it was wrong, let’s all move on’?” Huntsman asked. “Why not just do that?”
“She’s offered a personal apology,” Sanders said, dismissing the question. “I don’t think we should continue to validate leaks that come out by making that the focus of what we’re doing.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
US and Europe face an ‘increasingly loveless marriage’ after the rich asshole’s Iran deal withdrawal
U.S. President some rich asshole displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Beyond its potentially dramatic consequences for Middle East stability, the rich asshole’s May 8 decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal has also damaged the United States’ relations with its European allies.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom worked with the Obama administration to barter the United Nations-approved Iran agreement in 2015. Now, the three European signatories must figure out how to save that deal and continue working with a U.S. president who has mostly shown them contempt.
As a scholar of transatlantic relations who has followed the Iran deal for years, I am frankly skeptical that Europe can manage either.
Last-minute negotiations
The United Kingdom, France and Germany tried desperately to convince the U.S. not to withdraw from the Iran deal, which is a signature achievement of EU foreign policy that took a decade of painful diplomatic efforts to seal.
Starting in January, senior European officials began meeting frequently with their American counterparts to address the rich asshole’s objections to the deal, which is designed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Since his 2016 presidential campaign, the rich asshole has scorned restrictions in the deal that diminished over time, condemned Iran’s ballistic missile program and criticized Iran’s generally bellicose behavior across the Middle East.
In Europe’s view, the nuclear deal is working. The International Atomic Energy Agencyhas confirmed that Tehran has complied with the terms of the accord, halting uranium-enrichment activities and submitting to invasive international inspections.
British Prime Minister Theresa May asked Congress to stand by the deal in January. In late April, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel even traveled to Washington to personally urge the rich asshole not to abandon it.
Their efforts came to naught.
How to save the deal
The remaining signatories – Russia, China and the three European nations – are now in flurry of diplomatic activity trying to salvage their agreement.
An American withdrawal endangers its survival because of the country’s sheer economic muscle. the rich asshole’s threat to impose “the highest level of sanctions” – targeting both Iran and nations that do business there – could easily make the deal unworkable.
The Iran agreement is essentially a quid pro quo. Signatories lifted sanctions, offering Iran the prospect of economic opportunities, in exchange for Tehran agreeing to scale back its nuclear program. If European powers cannot deliver real economic benefits, Iran may declare the deal dead.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
If that happened, Iran would most likely resume uranium enrichment. That step, analysts say, could trigger more violence in the already volatile Mideast – a region just a stone’s throw from southern Europe.
Defending European business interests
In addition to re-imposing sanctions on Iran, the White House has given foreign firms operating in Iran up to 180 days to wind down business there or else be barred from the U.S. banking and financial system.
These measures could hit several major European firms particularly hard. The French oil company Total and German industrial manufacturer Siemens, to name a few, both recently signed major contracts in Iran. They may be able to appeal to the U.S. government for exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
To protect European businesses from punitive U.S. sanctions, one option would be to revive and amend the EU’s 1996 blocking regulation. That rule, passed after the U.S. Congress levied sanctions against Iran and Libya, shielded European firms from U.S. secondary sanctions by declaring them unenforceable within the EU.
The European Investment Bank could also consider providing smaller firms – those without a stake in the U.S. market, say – credit lines and financing to create a safer, more stable environment for doing business with Iran.
The most extreme retaliatory option would be for the EU to levy sanctions on U.S. assets in Europe.
As Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations recently commented in The New York Times, Europe must now decide “not if they stick with the deal but will they stand up to the American effort to unravel it.”
What next for transatlantic relations?
Ultimately, I believe that European companies would be wary of risking U.S. sanctions. Trade with Iran has rapidly increased since the deal went into effect in 2016, but it still represents less than 1 percent of the EU’s global trade. The U.S. is the EU’s largest trading partner, responsible for nearly 17 percent of all trade.
Diplomatic slights aside, in purely business terms, France, Germany and the U.K. know that the U.S. can take away far more than Iran can give.
Macron, Merkel and May thus face a dilemma: how to salvage their relationship with a U.S. president who has just demonstrated exactly how little he thinks of them.
the rich asshole’s jettison of the nuclear accord is the latest in a series of rebukes to Europe. Since taking office, the rich asshole has moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem – which the EU opposed – and withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement. He also wants to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports.
European leaders could limit discord by appeasing the rich asshole, while waiting out his administration. Europe remains dependent on the U.S. for its security. And, in any case, getting all 28 members of the EU to agree to take any punitive measures against the U.S. would be a tall order.
In the meantime, the president’s “America First” foreign policy could significantly damage the multilateral international order to which the Europeans are committed.
My best guess is that the U.S.-Europe relationship will become an increasingly loveless marriage.
These old allies will cooperate on a transactional basis on areas of common interest, such as counterterrorism and trade. But the shared world vision that has defined this partnership since World War II could very well be lost.
Garret Martin, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International Service
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
the rich asshole expected to cut Planned Parenthood funding through regs
BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 05/16/18 06:00 AM EDT
The rich asshole administration may take action to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood as a result of pressure from congressional Republicans and anti-abortion lobbyists.
Opponents of abortion have launched an all-out campaign urging the administration to bring back Reagan-era abortion restrictions on federal family planning dollars that would target Planned Parenthood.
Former President Reagan first issued the regulations, which Democrats describe as a “domestic gag rule,” in 1988. They also require a physical and financial separation of Title X funding recipients from abortion providers.
Republicans see the action as a way to motivate the GOP base ahead of the midterm elections, where the party’s majorities in the House and Senate are in play.
“The life issue is a huge motivator for the right. Getting a win on the pro-life side, even if it’s regulatory rather than legislative, would be huge, and encourage people to come out and vote for the members who pushed for action on this,” said Kelly Marcum, a legislative assistant for the conservative Family Research Council, which has been pushing for the changes.
Due to a lengthy legal battle, the regulations were never fully implemented but were upheld by the Supreme Court after Reagan left office.
But with a Republican president who has promised to defund Planned Parenthood, now is the perfect time to restore the regulations, abortion opponents say.
Their hope is that the restrictions will dissuade Planned Parenthood clinics from participating in Title X. Some clinics could also become ineligible if their family planning services are offered in the same location as abortion services.
“It’s a way to wiggle away at Planned Parenthood federal funding, and a way to reinforce the idea that abortion is not family planning,” Marcum said.
While federal law prohibits the use of federal funding for abortions in most cases, abortion opponents and Republicans have long argued money that goes to Planned Parenthood still indirectly supports the procedure.
Anti-abortion advocates have been frustrated over the GOP Congress’s failure to defund Planned Parenthood. The GOP’s slim majority in the Senate has been the obstacle.
Frustration swelled when Congress passed a spending bill earlier this year that excluded a measure defunding Planned Parenthood, a result negotiated between Democrats and Republicans to avoid a government shutdown.
This month, 85 groups opposed to abortion, including the Family Research Council, signed on to a letter urging Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to restore the Reagan-era regulations. Forty-three Senate Republicans and 153 House Republicans also sent letters to Azar pushing for the changes.
Lobbyists have said the administration seems receptive to their calls.
“They seem very open to it,” said Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs at March for Life. “It was part of the discussions during the transition, and I think it really is just a matter of timing.”
the rich asshole has already taken a number of actions pushed by anti-abortion advocates.
the rich asshole has reinstated the so-called Mexico City policy, which bans the use of taxpayer dollars for foreign nongovernmental organizations that provide or promote abortions; rescinded Obama-era guidance that sought to protect Planned Parenthood from state-led defunding efforts; and broadened exemptions for employers that have moral or religious objections to providing contraception to their employees.
Anti-abortion advocates also occupy top ranks at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“We’re very optimistic. The administration has said they’re on our side with this, and we’re excited. Hopefully Secretary Azar, who is very pro-life, will act on this soon,” Marcum said.
HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Scoring a win before the midterms is crucial, abortion opponents say, so Republicans can build on their majority in the Senate and fully defund Planned Parenthood next year.
“We’re pleased with the promises President the rich asshole has upheld, but we also need Congress to stay on top of this,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, a grass-roots organization that mobilizes young people opposed to abortion.
The push from abortion opponents has enraged congressional Democrats, who say the changes would restrict access to reproductive health care.
“We strongly oppose efforts to undermine the integrity of the Title X program and harm the millions of people who rely on it for care,” 45 Senate Democrats wrote Tuesday in a letter to Azar.
“Federal health policy should be evidence-based and produced with the best interests of patients in mind.”
CNN panel shreds the rich asshole’s ‘dystopian Disney character’ DHS chief for cruelty to immigrant children
CNN's John Avlon (Screen cap).
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week went on Fox News to defend separating parents who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border from their children — and a CNN panel tore her to shreds.
In particular, CNN’s Jon Avlon took Nielsen to task for saying Americans ought to have more “compassion” for people who were victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants than they have for undocumented immigrant children who get separated from their parents.
“I think a conversation about compassion that’s predicated on defending separating children from their parents and putting children on military bases is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “Are you trying to be a dystopian Disney character? Right now there’s a capacity for 10,000 children on this military base. Now, if there are 20 kids in a kindergarten class, that’s 500 kindergarten classes being policed by soldiers.”
Fellow panelist A.B. Stoddard noted that the the rich asshole administration has some discretion about whether it had to pursue criminal prosecutions at all, as it could simply turn people away at the border and keep their families intact. She said this should especially be an option if the United States military doesn’t have the capacity to house undocumented immigrant families.
Watch the video below.
"Are you trying to be a dystopian Disney character?": @JohnAvlon reacts to Homeland Security Sec Kirstjen Nielsen defending an agency policy that will result in more families being separated at the border https://t.co/UyAGFB1Pgepic.twitter.com/9lBfX3JUBr— New Day (@NewDay) May 16, 2018
WORLD NEWS
North Korea Threatens To ‘Reconsider’ the rich asshole Summit, Cancels South Korea Talks
Pyongyang condemned recent joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea, calling the drills an “intentional provocation.”
Deviating from a monthslong trend of warming ties, North Korea abruptly announced Tuesday that it was calling off high-level talks with Seoul in protest of recent joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea.
Pyongyang also issued a chilly warning to the U.S. about the planned June summit with President some rich asshole, suggesting the fate of the historic meeting could also be in peril if Washington insisted on “unilateral nuclear abandonment.”
Announcing the cancellation of the talks with Seoul, which had been scheduled to take place Wednesday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency condemned the joint military exercises as a “flagrant challenge” to the declaration adopted in April by the two Koreas.
“This exercise, targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is … an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula,” said KCNA.
The exercises, codenamed “Max Thunder,” began Friday and involved about 100 U.S. and South Korean warplanes, including B-52 bombers, the report said.
Pyongyang also issued an apparent warning to the U.S. about the upcoming summit involving the rich asshole and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities,” KCNA said.
In a follow-up statement on Wednesday, Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s first vice-minister of foreign affairs, expanded on this warning, saying Pyongyang would be forced to “reconsider” the summit if the U.S. insisted on “unilateral nuclear abandonment.”
Kim lambasted White House national security adviser John Bolton’s earlier remarks suggesting the U.S. would consider a “Libya model” for North Korean denuclearization, referring to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s decision in the 2000s to relinquish his nuclear weapons after negotiations with Washington. Gaddafi was killed by U.S.-backed rebels a few years later.
North Korea has long cited Gaddafi’s fall as a reason for maintaining its nuclear program. In his statement, Kim said it was “absolutely absurd to dare compare” North Korea with Libya.
“If the United States is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the North Korea-U.S. summit,” Kim added.
Kim criticized the White House for pushing the narrative that North Korea had chosen to denuclearize because of U.S. sanctions and pressure.
Pyongyang will not abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic support from the U.S., Kim said. He also warned the rich asshole to stop clinging to previous administrations’ “outdated” policies on North Korea, adding that the rich asshole would be a “more tragic and unsuccessful president” than his predecessors if he chooses to follow in their footsteps
South Korea said it was “regrettable” that North Korea had canceled Wednesday’s talks, which were supposed to be a follow-up to the April inter-Korean summit. South Korea’s unification ministry urged Pyongyang to swiftly return to the negotiating table.
The White House said it was aware of the North’s decision to cancel the meeting with Seoul but that it had received no indication that it should stop planning for the upcoming meeting in Singapore between the rich asshole and Kim Jong Un.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Tuesday that Pyongyang had previously expressed understanding that routine military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea would continue.
“Kim Jong Un had said previously that he understands the need and the utility of the United States and the Republic of Korea continuing in its joint exercises,” said Nauert. “We have not heard anything from that government or the government of South Korea to indicate that we would not continue conducting these exercises or that we would not continue planning for our meeting between President the rich asshole and Kim Jong Un next month.”
The Pentagon has described the Max Thunder exercises as “routine” and strictly defensive in nature.
Some North Korea experts said Pyongyang’s latest warnings may not constitute a serious threat to the rich asshole-Kim summit but are possibly an attempt by the North Korean leader to see how willing the U.S. might be to make concessions.
Mintaro Oba, a former state department expert on the Koreas, suggested the threat to pull out of the summit is “about par for the course” for Pyongyang.
“The question is whether they’re willing to go so far as to go through with it, or whether they’re mainly trying to gain some leverage [or] test how much we want the summit,” he wrote on Twitter.
Observers have said the threatening rhetoric from Pyongyang will be a test for the rich asshole, who must keep a “cool head” to avoid escalation.
This is all something of an early test for Trump and his cabinet. A taster of life as a partner of North Korea. If he fails this, he has no chance long term because stuff like this will happen again. Cool heads needed. twitter.com/JChengWSJ/stat…
Morning Joe busts the rich asshole for ‘bumbling’ into North Korea debacle: ‘He wasn’t even a good dealmaker in NYC’
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough hammered President some rich asshole for “bumbling” into a diplomatic debacle with North Korea by firing off some angry tweets.
The “Morning Joe” host ripped the president for believing his blustery tweets would give him a negotiating advantage with Kim Jong-un, whose regime has threatened to abandon upcoming talks over U.S. demands on nuclear disarmament.
“That’s how we conservatives think, you negotiate like Reagan, you negotiate like Nixon,” Scarborough said. “You take a tough, tough line and you take a tough line for a very long time, and then you get concessions.”
He faulted the president for agreeing to the historic talks without any preconditions, and he blamed the rich asshole after North Korea threatened to pull out to gain leverage.
“Here’s some rich asshole, bumbling in,” Scarborough said. “He wasn’t even a good dealmaker in New York City, that’s why he was $9 billion in debt. He bumbles in like we’ve always accused liberals of bumbling in in negotiations with communists and tyrannical regimes.”
MSNBC’s John Heilemann said the president had no idea what he was doing, and would not even understand what he’d done wrong.
“I think he would say, ‘I was tough with North Korea,'” Heilemann said. “What he means by that is he sent some tweets that said, ‘Fire and fury, little rocket man,’ and that to him is taking a tough line, that he paved the way for these negotiations by being tough — tougher than anybody had ever been before. Tougher than Barack Obama with Kim Jong-un. That tells you a lot about how he measures toughness, toughness is sending a provocative tweet, as some histrionic rhetoric.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski recalled a horrifying memory of the rich asshole handing off Middle East diplomacy to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had no diplomatic, foreign policy or public service experience.
“I’ll never forget in the White House him patting Jared on the back, saying, ‘Look at Jared, he’s going to bring peace to the Middle East,’ and just slapped him on the back,” she said. “I was just thinking to myself, my god, are you fricking kidding me? It was one of those moments where I was like, what planet am I on? I’m in the White House and he’s pointing at his son-in-law who is 35 and has never done it?”
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