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Ukraine prosecutor offered information related to Biden in exchange for ambassador’s ouster, newly released materials show

By Paul Sonne, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger | Published Jan 14 at 9:19 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 15, 2020 |

New materials released by House Democrats appear to show Ukraine’s top prosecutor offering an associate of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, damaging information related to former vice president Joe Biden if the Trump administration recalled the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

The text messages and documents provided to Congress by former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas also show that before the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, was removed from her post, a Parnas associate now running for Congress sent menacing text messages suggesting that he had Yovanovitch under surveillance in Ukraine. A lawyer for Yovanovitch said Tuesday that the episode should be investigated.

The cache of materials released by House investigators late Tuesday exposed a number of previously unknown details about efforts by Giuliani and his associates to obtain material in Ukraine that would undermine Trump’s Democratic opponents.

Their emergence on the eve of the Senate impeachment trial spurred Democrats to renew calls for the White House to turn over documents related to the Ukraine pressure campaign that it has refused to share with Congress.

Among the revelations in the documents released Tuesday: a message from Giuliani to Parnas saying he had involved a person he called “no 1” — possibly Trump himself — in an effort to lift a U.S. visa ban on a former Ukrainian prosecutor who was planning to come to the United States to make claims about Biden.

The materials also include a letter Giuliani wrote to Ukraine’s then-president-elect, Volodymyr Zelensky, requesting a May 14 meeting with the new leader in Giuliani’s “capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent.” Giuliani scrapped his planned trip, and the meeting never took place.

Another document released by the House investigators appears to show Parnas directly involved with efforts to get Zelensky to announce investigations related to Biden.

In handwritten notes on a piece of stationery from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna, Parnas wrote, “get Zalenksy [sic] to Annouce [sic] that the Biden case will be Investigated.”

“All of this new evidence confirms what we already know: the President and his associates pressured Ukrainian officials to announce investigations that would benefit the President politically,” the chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees said in a joint statement. “There cannot be a full and fair trial in the Senate without the documents that President Trump is refusing to provide to Congress.”

Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment.

The materials show that Parnas, a Russian-speaker who helped coordinate Giuliani’s outreach to Ukrainian sources, was directly communicating with an array of top Ukrainian officials. Among them was Yuri Lutsenko, at the time Ukraine’s top prosecutor and a close political ally of then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was running for reelection.

Lutsenko wanted to get rid of Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador, in part because she had been critical of his office and supported a quasi-independent anti-corruption bureau he despised.

The messages, written in Russian, show Lutsenko urging Parnas to force out Yovanovitch in exchange for cooperation regarding Biden. At one point, Lutsenko suggests he won’t make any helpful public statements unless “madam” is removed.

“It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam — you are calling into question all my declarations. Including about B,” Lutsenko wrote to Parnas in a March 22 message on WhatsApp.

It’s unclear if ‘B’ is a reference to Biden or Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden served from 2014 to 2019.

Four days later, Lutsenko told Parnas that work on the case against the owner of the gas company is proceeding successfully and evidence of the money transfers of “B” had been obtained.

“And here you can’t even remove one fool,” Lutsenko laments, using a sad-face emoticon as he again appeared to push for Yovanovitch’s ouster.

“She’s not a simple fool[,] trust me,” Parnas responded. “But she’s not getting away.”

Parnas, days later, told Lutsenko that “soon everything will turn around and we’ll be on the right course.” Lutsenko responded that he has copies of payments Burisma made to the investment firm co-founded by Biden’s son Hunter.

The following month, Yovanovitch was removed from her post at Giuliani’s urging. Lutsenko later said publicly that he found no evidence of wrongdoing under Ukrainian law by Hunter or Joe Biden.

A spokeswoman for Lutsenko did not respond to a message requesting comment.

The new documents also introduced a new character in the drama over the ambassador’s ouster: a Republican congressional candidate from Connecticut who asserted to Parnas in messages that he had Yovanovitch under physical and electronic surveillance.

“Wow. Can’t believe Trumo [sic] hasn’t fired this b----,” Robert F. Hyde wrote in an encrypted message to Parnas on March 23. “I’ll get right [on] that.”

Hyde described having contact with a “private security” team located near the embassy that was apparently monitoring the ambassador’s movements.

“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” he wrote in one message.

“They will let me know when she’s on the move,” he said in another. Later, he alerted Parnas that he had been told Yovanovitch would not be moved to a “special security unit.”

“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” he said in one note. “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money . . . what I was told.”

Hyde did not explain how his team might “help” Parnas, who responded only with “lol.”

When asked for comment by The Washington Post in a text message, Hyde replied: “Sorry I can’t talk right now.”

In a statement, Joseph A. Bondy, a lawyer for Parnas, said, “There is no evidence that Mr. Parnas participated, agreed, paid money or took any other steps in furtherance of Mr. Hyde’s proposals.”

Hyde is one of three Republicans running to unseat an incumbent Democrat in the 5th Congressional District in Connecticut. He frequently tweets about his support for Trump and posted photos of himself with the president.

Lawrence S. Robbins, a Yovanovitch attorney, said in a statement: “Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing. We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”

During his July 25 phone call with Zelensky, Trump denigrated Yovanovitch. “Well, she’s going to go through some things,” Trump told the Ukrainian leader.

Yovanovitch testified that she was devastated by the president’s comments and felt threatened by them.

The newly released documents also detail Giuliani’s involvement in trying to secure a U.S. visa for Lutsenko’s predecessor, Viktor Shokin, who has alleged that Biden asked Poroshenko to fire him because he was investigating the owner of Burisma at the time.

Biden has denied the allegation, saying he pushed for Shokin’s firing as part of U.S. anti-corruption policy toward Ukraine, consistent with a broad consensus among U.S. and European officials at the time that he was failing to reform the country’s corrupt judicial system. Shokin was fired, after Biden’s urging, in March 2016.

Parnas was hoping to bring Shokin to the United States to meet with Giuliani and record his claims against Biden, but the U.S. Embassy, then run by Yovanovitch, had blocked Shokin’s visa.

In January of last year, Parnas texted Giuliani to say the embassy had denied the visa.

“I can revive it,” Giuliani replied.

A day later, after the visa still hadn’t come through, Giuliani assured Parnas: “It’s going to work I have no 1 in (sic) it.”

Shokin didn’t receive a visa. Instead, he gave a statement to Giuliani over the phone.

The trove of documents also appears to include Giuliani’s first formal outreach to Zelensky. On May 10, he wrote to the president-elect personally, identifying himself as Trump’s private lawyer and asking for a meeting at which he would be accompanied by Victoria Toensing, a Washington lawyer who assisted Giuliani in the early phases of the Biden-related inquiry.

The missive came after Parnas made overtures to an array of top Ukrainian officials, including Ivan Bakanov, a close aide to Zelensky who is now head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency, in an effort to secure cooperation from the new Ukrainian leadership.

At one point, Parnas expressed frustration that the connection had not been established.

“Please let me know what’s happening and why we have not been able to do the call yet,” he wrote.

On May 9, Parnas sent Bakanov a New York Times article that described Giuliani’s agenda for a planned trip to Ukraine, including the former New York mayor’s interest in investigating the Biden family.

Giuliani later scrapped the trip, telling Fox News he was convinced Zelensky was surrounded by enemies of Trump and enemies of the United States.

_______

Alice Crites and Ashley Parker contributed to this report.

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Schiff, Nadler lead group of House managers to prosecute Trump in Senate impeachment trial

By Mike DeBonis | Published January 15 at 12:26 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted January 15, 2020 |

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped two trusted committee chairmen to lead the team that will make the case in the Senate for President Trump's removal from office, supported by a relatively small cast of additional impeachment “managers.”

Confirming widespread speculation that swirled for weeks as she held back the articles, Pelosi turned to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to lead the House team. She made the announcement at a Wednesday news conference after keeping the cast of managers under tight wraps for weeks.

Joining Schiff and Nadler are Democratic Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Val Demings (Fla.), Sylvia Garcia (Tex.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Zoe Lofgren (Calif.).

The seven-member team is smaller than the 13-member squad that presented articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate in 1999, reflecting a more tightly controlled approach to the investigation. In a sign of the highly choreographed process, Garcia said she learned only Tuesday that she would be named a manager.

““The emphasis is on litigators, the emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom, the emphasis is making the strongest possible case to protect and defend our Constitution, to seek the truth for the American people,” Pelosi said Wednesday as she introduced the team.

Schiff, 59, has been the unquestioned leader of the congressional investigation into Trump's alleged scheme to coerce the Ukrainian government into investigating his political rivals by withholding nearly $400 million in military aid.

The House Intelligence Committee was joined by three other panels in conducting the probe, but it was Schiff — a former federal prosecutor who is among Pelosi's most trusted colleagues — who directed the effort from the start.

Nadler, 72, headed the second phase of the House impeachment inquiry, laying the constitutional foundation for the adoption of the two articles — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — and shepherding them to the House floor.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Nadler cited an “overwhelming case” for Trump's removal but also said it was incumbent on the Senate to call additional witnesses — deeming it a “test of the Constitution.”

“The American people know that in a trial you permit witnesses, you present the evidence,” he said. “The Senate is on trial as well as the president: Does the Senate conduct a trial according to the Constitution to vindicate the republic? Or does the Senate participate in the president’s crimes by covering them up?”

Addressing reporters, Schiff indicated he would continue to push the GOP-led Senate to call additional witnesses and seek documents that the Trump administration refused to provide to the House, and he defended Democrats’ decision not to wait for a federal court to mediate the interbranch dispute.

“Yes, we could have waited years to get testimony, further testimony from all the people the president has been obstructing,” he said. “But essentially, that would completely negate the impeachment power — that is, allow the president, by virtue of obstruction, to prevent his own impeachment.”

“Unless the president is willing to concede everything the House has alleged,” he added, “these witnesses are very pertinent and relevant.”

The House is expected to vote Wednesday afternoon to formally name the managers and send the two articles to the Senate. After the vote, Pelosi has scheduled a formal ceremony to sign and “enroll” the articles for transmission across the Capitol, followed by a procession of the managers to the Senate door.

Contrary to much of the speculation that had swirled ahead of the announcement, aside from Schiff, only one other manager is a member of the Intelligence Committee — Demings, who belongs to both the Intelligence and Judiciary panels.

All seven, however, have a variety of professional backgrounds in the law.

Demings, 62, is the only nonlawyer, but she is steeped in law enforcement, having served as the first woman chief of the Orlando Police Department. Garcia, 69, one of two freshmen on the managers’ team, is a former state senator and longtime county judge.

Lofgren, 72, is participating in her third impeachment. She worked as a congressional staffer during the 1974 impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon and served on the Judiciary Committee during the 1998 proceedings against Clinton. While she is best known on Capitol Hill for her immigration expertise, Lofgren also has broad experience in constitutional matters and is a trusted Pelosi ally.

Jeffries, 49, has emerged this year as one of his party’s chief messengers as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. But before embarking on his congressional career, Jeffries worked as a corporate litigator in New York and has long served on the Judiciary Committee. There he worked closely with Republicans — and Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner — to advance a major criminal justice reform bill in 2018.

Crow, 40, is the only manager who did not serve on any of the investigating committees, but he has national security credentials as a former U.S. Army Ranger officer and member of the House Armed Services Committee. He also practiced law before his 2018 election to Congress and was a key member of a group of seven freshmen who spoke up at a critical juncture in September to support the launching of an impeachment inquiry.

Diversity was also a consideration in selecting the team, aides said in the weeks leading up to the announcement. Three of the seven are women. Demings and Jeffries are African American; Garcia is Latina. Garcia and Crow also bring geographic diversity to a group otherwise drawn from coastal states.

Among the lawmakers she passed over are some of the House’s most aggressive advocates for impeachment — including some with legal backgrounds such as Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), an Intelligence Committee member who worked as a state prosecutor, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Judiciary Committee member who was a constitutional law professor at American University in Washington.

Nor did Pelosi choose independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a former Republican who some observers suggested could help make the case for removal a less partisan one.

“I believe that they bring to this case in the United States Senate great patriotism, great respect for the Constitution of the United States, great comfort level in a courtroom,” Pelosi said of her chosen managers. “I wish them well. It’s going to be a very big commitment of time, and I don’t think we could be better served.”

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New evidence of impeachable conduct: Could it get worse for Trump?

By Jennifer Rubin | Published Jan 15 at 9:15 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 15, 2020 |

One can only imagine what evidence we have yet to see during the impeachment proceedings against President Trump. With each new tranche of evidence — including emails regarding the hold on military aid to Ukraine and now documents from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani’s — the conclusion that Trump abused power and obstructed the investigation becomes incontrovertible.

The Post reports: “Three House committees sent dozens of pages of new evidence to the House Judiciary Committee ahead of Wednesday’s transmission of the articles of impeachment, ramping up pressure on Trump to provide Congress with additional documents related to his efforts to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens.” The documents include handwritten notes (“get Zalensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated,” referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and former vice president Joe Biden) and texts suggesting that then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance. (She was later removed from her post and was warned to leave Ukraine immediately.)

Politico national security reporter Natasha Bertrand explains: “This certainly makes it sound like Parnas and co. were actively tracking Yovanovitch’s movements. This could explain why Yovanovitch was moved out of Ukraine so quickly.” This is unprecedented and should be deeply disturbing to all U.S. diplomats. They should not expect Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who refused to defend Yovanovitch and is participating in the coverup by refusing to provide documents or testimony, to do much of anything.

Even more stunning, The Post reports that “the messages, written in Russian, show [Ukraine’s former prosecutor general Yuri] Lutsenko urging Parnas to force out Yovanovitch in exchange for cooperation regarding Biden. At one point, Lutsenko suggests he won’t make any helpful public statements unless ‘madam’ is removed.” Firing an ambassador in exchange for political help would be another bribe (i.e., a public act to get a private benefit).

There is also a letter dated May 10, 2019, from Giuliani to Zelensky introducing himself as acting with Trump’s “knowledge and consent” and requesting a meeting. This meshes with Trump’s later directive that U.S. officials and Zelensky should “talk to Rudy.”

Former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal explains:

The notion that the holdup in aid was motivated by genuine concern for fighting corruption was always implausible. Now, with veritable smoking guns popping up left and right, several things should be obvious: First, Trump wanted an announcement of an investigation into a political opponent and was willing to hold up aid in defiance of advice that such action could be illegal. Second, Trump directed Giuliani and the freeze on the aid; this was no rogue action. Third, Trump has been struggling to keep damaging documents and incriminating witnesses away from the public and Senate. The only reasonable explanation is that, as bad as these documents are for Trump, there are still more damning documents and witnesses under wraps.

Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe tells me the new evidence is " jaw-dropping" and “highly incriminating of both Giuliani and Trump.” Tribe says, “It’s bound to find its way into the Senate trial after Parnas is deposed by the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, as he’s bound to be.” Tribe continues, “The Giuliani letter presenting himself to Zelensky as representing Donald Trump in his private capacity at a time when Zelensky was the president-elect of Ukraine is remarkable in itself. It is a kind of hologram of the whole Ukraine-gate scandal.”

With several Republicans purportedly willing to vote for witnesses (Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has said publicly he wants to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton), the newest document drop puts additional pressure on Republicans to demand documents and witnesses.

Former prosecutor Joyce White Vance observes, “The Parnas evidence needs to be assessed for authenticity and reliability.” She stressed that “the American people also need to know the truth about what happened. These allegations are serious, and if true, make it difficult to understand how this president can be trusted to remain in office.”

The delay by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in sending the articles over has allowed more evidence to surface, public pressure to build for a real trial and has already prompted one Republican to ask for at least one witness. The risk for Republicans is clear: If they fail to turn over every rock, find every document and subpoena every witness and decide to acquit, even more evidence incriminating Trump and making clear they effectively aided in a coverup is bound to come out.

“Even though the House has produced a compelling record, it’s clear there are mountains of evidence still to be uncovered in this case,” says former Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller. “That evidence is all going to come out over the next few months, and any senator who votes to acquit Trump is going to own each new revelation.” The key question for Republican senators is whether they want to risk their political careers helping an unfit Trump escape responsibility for the worst conduct by any president in history.

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Four big takeaways from the explosive Lev Parnas documents

By Greg Sargent | Published January 15 at 9:27 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted January 15, 2020 |

In a functional political environment, the explosive new documents from Lev Parnas just released by House investigators would rock the ongoing impeachment saga. They leave almost zero doubt that the scandal that got President Trump impeached will continue getting worse — substantially so — for him and his defenders.

Parnas had helped orchestrate Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani’s negotiations with Ukrainian officials pursuant to Trump’s wide-ranging plot to pressure Ukraine into doing his corrupt political bidding.

One of the new documents reinforces this point. It’s a handwritten note by Parnas, telling himself to “get” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “to announce that the Biden case will be investigated.”

That shows Parnas working to carry out Giuliani’s plot to pressure Zelensky to validate the Trump/Giuliani narrative of corruption designed to smear Joe Biden, a narrative that is entirely fabricated.

Parnas, who was indicted last fall on campaign finance charges, got approval from a court to hand the documents over to House impeachment investigators.

HERE ARE FOUR BIG TAKEAWAYS:

THE DOCUMENTS BLOW UP ONE OF TRUMP’S MAIN DEFENSES.

The documents contain a letter from Giuliani to Zelensky, dated May 10, in which Giuliani requests a meeting. The New York Times had just reported that Giuliani was set to undertake his pressure campaign.

In the letter, Giuliani explicitly states that he was representing Trump “as a private citizen, not as the president of the United States,” and also that Giuliani was carrying out this mission with Trump’s “knowledge and consent.”

That confirms in Giuliani’s own words that his scheme was geared toward satisfying Trump’s personal interests, even as Giuliani was in effect carrying out U.S. foreign relations with an ally. Our national interests were subverted to Trump’s own, at Trump’s explicit direction.

One of Trump’s main defenses is that, in pressing Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden — and another that would absolve Russia of 2016 electoral sabotage — he was merely acting as a responsible leader. Yes, Trump froze hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid while demanding these investigations, but only because he reasonably wanted Ukraine to clean up “corruption”!

That has always been obvious nonsense, but the letter forcefully underscores the point: Trump’s defenders cannot explain why, if he was merely acting in the national interest throughout, he needed his private attorney to orchestrate the whole scheme, all to his private benefit.

The menacing texts about Yovanovitch raise questions that will yield more revelations.

The documents contain menacing-sounding text messages between Parnas and an associate, Robert Hyde, who appeared to be tracking the movements of Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine removed by Trump.

Some texts seem to capture Hyde relating his communications with people tailing Yovanovitch. One said: “They will let me know when she’s on the move.”

Separately, a text from a former top Ukrainian prosecutor shows him pushing Parnas to help oust Yovanovitch so he can then carry out efforts to dig dirt on Biden.

Recall: Giuliani wanted Yovanovitch out of the way so he could implement his corrupt pressure on Ukraine. Also, Trump told Zelensky on July 25 that “she’s going to go through some things,” which made Yovanovitch feel threatened.

It’s not clear what that meant, but at a minimum, we know Giuliani launched an ugly smear campaign to oust Yovanovitch, and plainly, Trump was aware of it in some way before removing her himself.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will, in coming hours, demand that the State Department provide information on its knowledge of any security threats to Yovanovitch during that campaign against her.

In a statement sent my way, Rep. Eliot Engel, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the menacing texts are “profoundly alarming,” and noted that texts between Parnas and Hyde “occurred at the same time that the two men were also discussing President Trump’s efforts, through Rudy Giuliani, to smear the ambassador’s reputation.”

ENGEL ADDED:

The Foreign Affairs Committee will now seek to learn what, if anything, the State Department knew about this situation at the time these messages were sent. Today, I will convey a formal request for documents, information, and a briefing from senior officials related to this matter. This unprecedented threat to our diplomats must be thoroughly investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Engel said an initial contact with department security had drawn a response, which he said left him “confident” that this matter would get attention.

Still, in light of these new revelations, the State Department’s stonewalling of ongoing investigations looks a lot worse.

As part of the impeachment inquiry, Democrats had subpoenaed the State Department for documents that could shed light on any knowledge that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had of this ongoing campaign, on Giuliani’s communications with the State Department about it, and on efforts by Trump and other henchmen to pressure Ukraine more generally.

The State Department defied this subpoena, and Pompeo just blew off a request that he testify to the Foreign Affairs Committee about Trump’s Iran policies. The State Department is responding to journalistic inquiries with radio silence:

Democrats will simply have to go on an investigative war footing that will continue after the impeachment saga, and it is likely to produce new revelations.

Senate Republicans should be nervous, because time is not on Trump’s side.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is protecting vulnerable senators by postponing votes on whether to hear witnesses and new evidence at Trump’s impeachment trial until after opening statements, in hopes that they’ll then be able to claim, “we’ve heard enough,” and vote “no."

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

Time is working against Trump. The revelations we’ve seen since the House passed articles of impeachment have been extraordinary.

First, the New York Times extensively documented that concerns about the legality and propriety of Trump’s freezing of military aid ran far deeper inside the administration than previously known. Then the Just Security website released a batch of new documents illustrating this in even more incriminating detail.

Now we’re learning both that Giuliani’s hijacking of U.S. foreign policy — which was run at Trump’s direction, to realize his corrupt personal ends — was far more nefarious than we thought, and that enormous unanswered questions still remain about it.

The time lag has focused intense public attention on whether GOP senators will admit at Trump’s trial new witnesses and evidence that Trump himself blocked during the House impeachment inquiry, and now doesn’t want senators to see.

Vulnerable GOP senators preparing to vote on this suddenly have reason to be a lot more queasy — if they vote no, future revelations will get hung around the necks of those senators as an example of what they tried to cover up on Trump’s behalf.

MORE IS COMING. A LOT MORE.

An official involved with the impeachment inquiry says more documents are coming from Parnas soon. Meanwhile, there will be extensive investigative media digging that will almost certainly establish more about what, precisely, Giuliani ordered done on Trump’s behalf.

Say it with me this time: All throughout, Giuliani ran this scheme at Trump’s direction. So we will surely learn more soon enough about what Trump himself knew, and when.

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New book portrays Trump as erratic, ‘at times dangerously uninformed’

By Ashley Parker | Published January 15 at 11:44 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted January 15, 2020 |

President Trump reveals himself as woefully uninformed about the basics of geography, incorrectly telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” He toys with awarding himself the Medal of Freedom.

And, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig, Trump does not seem to grasp the fundamental history surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?” Trump asks his then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, as the men prepare to take a private tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the December 1941 Japanese surprise attack in the Pacific that pulled the United States into World War II.

“Trump had heard the phrase ‘Pearl Harbor’ and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else,” write the authors, later quoting a former senior White House adviser who concludes: “He was at times dangerously uninformed.”

“A Very Stable Genius” — a 417-page book named after Trump’s own declaration of his superior knowledge — is full of similarly vivid details from Trump’s tumultuous first three years as president, from his chaotic transition before taking office to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and final report.

The story the authors unfurl, as they explain in the prologue, “is intended to reveal Trump at his most unvarnished and expose how decision-making in his administration has been driven by one man’s self-centered and unthinking logic — but a logic nonetheless.”

The book by the two longtime Post reporters — who were part of the paper’s team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Trump and Russia — was obtained ahead of its scheduled release Tuesday.

Many of the key moments reported in the book are rife with foreign policy implications, portraying a novice commander in chief plowing through normal protocols and alarming many both inside the administration and in other governments.

Early in his administration, for instance, Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin — so much so, the authors write, “that during the transition he interrupts an interview with one of his secretary of state candidates” to inquire about his pressing desire: “When can I meet Putin? Can I meet with him before the inaugural ceremony?” he asks.

After the two leaders meet face-to-face for the first time — 168 days into his presidency at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg — Trump promptly declares himself a Russia expert, dismissing the expertise of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had worked closely with Putin since the 1990s, when Tillerson was working his way up the ExxonMobil corporate ladder and doing business with Russia.

“Tillerson’s years of negotiating with Putin and studying his moves on the chessboard were suddenly irrelevant,” the duo writes. “ ‘I have had a two-hour meeting with Putin,’ Trump told Tillerson. ‘That’s all I need to know. . . . I’ve sized it all up. I’ve got it.’ ”

In spring 2017, Trump also clashed with Tillerson when he told him he wanted his help getting rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prevents U.S. firms and individuals from bribing foreign officials for business deals.

“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump says, according to the book. “We’re going to change that.”

The president, they go on to explain, was frustrated with the law “ostensibly because it restricted his industry buddies or his own company’s executives from paying off foreign governments in faraway lands.”

The book, the duo writes in an author’s note, is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 sources, corroborated, when possible, by calendars, diary entries, internal memos and even private video recordings. (Trump himself had initially committed to an interview for the book, the authors write, but ultimately declined, amid an escalating war with the media).

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

One government aide tells the authors that Trump has destroyed the gravity and allure that used to surround the presidency, regardless of the Oval Office occupant.

“ ‘He’s ruined that magic,’ this aide said of Trump,” Rucker and Leonnig write. “ ‘The disdain he shows for our country’s foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate.’ ”

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are you an act?”

“I’m a total act and I don’t understand why people don’t get it,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Yet the people in Trump’s administration and orbit don’t behave as if the president is simply playing a part or acting a role. At the Justice Department, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and other senior officials run through private fire drills in case Trump triggers a “Saturday night massacre” — an allusion to the series of resignations under President Richard M. Nixon following his order to his attorney general to fire the Watergate independent special prosecutor.

“They prepared for several scenarios: If Trump fired [then-Attorney General Jeff] Sessions, if Trump fired Rosenstein, and if Trump ordered the firing of Mueller," the authors write.

The officials have reason to be concerned, according to the authors, who report that Trump muses about using a memo by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) as the justification for firing Rosenstein and reining in Mueller’s investigation. He also rails against his own Justice Department, furious that the agency isn’t being sufficiently loyal to him personally.

At one point, after the department blocks the release of what the president believes was a pro-Trump memo, he calls Kelly ranting. “ ‘This is my Justice Department. They are supposed to be my people,’ Trump told Kelly,” the authors write. “ ‘This is the ‘Deep State.’ . . . Mueller’s all over it.’ ”

Some details are more harmless than disconcerting. Early in his presidency, Trump agrees to participate in an HBO documentary that features judges and lawmakers — as well as all the living presidents — reading aloud from the Constitution. But Trump struggles and stumbles over the text, blaming others in the room for his mistakes and griping, “It’s like a foreign language.”

In another scene, Axios reported in December 2018 that former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Trump met privately to discuss Christie possibly becoming his next chief of staff. After Christie respectfully turns down the job, he asks Trump how the details of their meeting leaked out, since it was just the two of them and first lady Melania Trump in the room.

“Oh, I did it,” said Trump, who has long vented about leakers, revealing himself to be among them.

Other moments have a darker tinge. Rucker and Leonnig write that during the early days of the Mueller investigation, both Donald McGahn, then the White House counsel, and Stephen K. Bannon, then a senior White House adviser, try to persuade Ty Cobb — the lawyer tasked, at the time, with overseeing the White House’s involvement in the probe — to remove Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both senior advisers, from the White House staff, to protect the president during the ongoing investigation.

“ ‘You need to shoot them in the [expletive] head,’ Bannon jokingly told Cobb,” the authors write.

Trump was “verbally and emotionally abusive” toward then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the book reports, and routinely complained she was not doing enough about illegal immigration and the border.

According to the book, “He made fun of her stature and believed that at about five feet four inches she was not physically intimidating. ‘She’s so short,’ Trump would tell others about Nielsen. She and Kelly would try to make light of it. Kelly would rib her and say, ‘But you’ve got those little fists of fury!’ ”

When Nielsen — who had received threats against her life as the public face of the administration’s hard-line immigration policy — eventually left the government, she did so without any prearranged continuing security detail, which must be requested by the chief of staff and authorized by the president.

“When some of her international counterparts visited Washington, they offered to hire personal security for Nielsen to protect her, but she declined,” write the authors. “ ‘That would look horrible,’ Nielsen told them. ‘Can you imagine the story? Foreign governments provide security because the U.S. won’t?’ ”

The duo opens one chapter with the case of Rob Porter — the former White House staff secretary who was ultimately pushed out of his job amid allegations of domestic abuse from his two ex-wives. After a photo surfaces on the Internet of Colbie Holderness, one of his ex-wives, sporting a black eye that she alleges Porter gave her, Trump offers a competing theory.

“Maybe, Trump said, Holderness purposefully ran into a refrigerator to give herself bruises and try to get money out of Porter?” they write.

Near the end of the book, Rucker and Leonnig delve into tensions between Mueller and Attorney General William P. Barr. Mueller and his team are frustrated when Barr releases an initial, four-page letter summarizing the “principal conclusions” of Mueller’s 448-page report, which they do not think sufficiently captures the context, nature and substance of Mueller’s full investigation.

“Inside the bunker of Mueller’s lawyers, Barr’s letter stung,” write the authors. “Members of the special counsel team would later describe Mueller’s reaction: He looked as if he’d been slapped.”

After Mueller writes a letter to Barr expressing his frustrations, the authors report that Barr calls Mueller, resulting in a testy phone conversation.

“ ‘What the hell, Bob?’ Barr asked,” they write. “ ‘What’s up with this letter? Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call me?’ ”

Barr complains that his team offered Mueller’s team an opportunity to review his letter before it went out and they declined — “We’re flabbergasted here,” Barr says, according to the book — but the call ultimately ends on “an uplifting note.”

Some of the modest details in the book end up having larger consequences. After Trump bungles his India-China geography and seems to dismiss the threat China poses to India, for instance, the authors write that “Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise.”

“Modi’s expression gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation,” they continue, adding that one Trump aide concludes Modi probably “left that meeting and said, ‘This is not a serious man. I cannot count on this man as a partner.’ ”

After the meeting, the aide explains to them, “ ‘the Indians took a step back’ in their diplomatic relations with the United States.”

*********

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marymosley · 4 years

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Clinton Aides Fuel Misleading Narrative After Gabbard Attack Backfires

Before my recent Washington Post column ran discussing Hillary Clinton’s attack on presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard as a “Russian asset”, I had to deal with an issue raised be a false narrative being put out by her flaks. While first taunting Gabbard, her spokesperson Nick Merrill and others started to suggest that the story was false and that Clinton spoke of “Republicans” not “Russians.” It was a masterful spin. Clinton flaks focused on the reference to “grooming” and got the New York Times and other media outlets to “correct” the story to say that it was a reference to Republicans. That suggested that people may have misheard the podcast interview. That interpretation is clearly false, but the Internet is now full of references to the “false story,” which is precisely what many wanted in putting out the “correction.” For those who continue to attack the use of “fake news” by the Russians, it seems that some disinformation is considered fair game when it is used for the right purpose.

Nick Merrill@NickMerrill and others said that the New York Times corrected its account to say that Clinton was not referring to the Russians but the Republicans.

Nick Merrill@NickMerrillOn Friday, the NYT did a piece about a podcast Secretary Clinton did with David Plouffe. They incorrectly quoted her saying that the “Russians” were “grooming” a candidate running in the Democratic primary. They rightfully fixed it to reflect that she was taking about the GOP.

Clinton did appear to be referring to the Republicans in the earlier part of her comments below, but clearly referred to Gabbard and Jill Stein as “Russian assets in the podcast with former Obama aide David Plouffe.

For many however the point was made by suggesting a confusion with “Republicans” for “Russians” in listening to the podcast. Media issues stories saying that “it turns out” Clinton was referring to Republicans not Russians. It was vintage Washington misdirection. Clinton has long loathed both Stein and Gabbard. Stein was viewed as taking votes away from Clinton who was opposed by many as an establishment figure with little authenticity. She holds a grudge against Gabbard was the first (and one of the few) members of Congress willing to buck the DNC and the establishment by endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2016.

When the story ran, the Clinton people relished the attack and taunted Gabbard. Merrill mocked Gabbard and, rather than denying the story, mocked that this is “Assad day for your candidacy” — a reference to Gabbard’s controversial 2017 meeting with the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. He added “If the nesting doll fits. This is not some outlandish claim. This is reality. If the Russian propaganda machine, both their state media and their bot and troll operations, is backing a candidate aligned with their interests, that is just a reality, it is not speculation.”

Then however condemnations grew over Clinton’s attack. Suddenly attacking an anti-war candidate was not as popular as Clinton assumed. That is when we saw the disinformation campaign.

Here is the interview and you can judge for yourself:

Clinton: “The thing we have to do is get enough people to turn out so that they can’t, you know, steal those votes through suppression in Wisconsin, or convince blacks not to vote in Michigan, all the stuff that they did this last time which was very effective and the Russians play a big role in.”

Plouffe: “Right, and they’ll double down on this time. Trump had those advantages but he was not an incumbent. So as we know, whether it’s Ronald Regan, your husband, Barack Obama, those first 18 months of the election cycle were as important as the last six months. …

“You know, Donald Trump, as you know better than anyone in the world, only got 46.1% of the vote nationally. You know he got 47.2 in Wisconsin, 47.7 in Michigan, and if you had said those before the election you would have said he’s going to lose in a landslide.”

Clinton: “Right.”

Plouffe: “But one of the reasons he was able to win is the third party vote.”

Clinton: “Right.”

Plouffe: “And what’s clear to me, you mentioned, you know, he’s going to just lie. … He’s going to say, whoever our nominee is, ‘will ban hamburgers and steaks and you can’t fly and infanticide’ and people believe this. So, how concerned are you about that? For me, so much of this does come down to the win number. If he has to get 49 or even 49.5 in a bunch of…”

Clinton: “He can’t do that.”

Plouffe: “…which I don’t think he can… So he’s going to try and drive the people not to vote for him but just to say, ‘you know, you can’t vote for them either.’ And that seems to be, I think, to the extent that I can define a strategy, their key strategy right now.”

Clinton: “Well, I think there’s going to be two parts and I think it’s going to be the same as 2016: ‘Don’t vote for the other guy. You don’t like me? Don’t vote for the other guy because the other guy is going to do X, Y and Z or the other guy did such terrible things and I’m going to show you in these, you know, flashing videos that appear and then disappear and they’re on the dark web, and nobody can find them, but you’re going to see them and you’re going to see that person doing these horrible things.’”

“They’re also going to do third party again. And I’m not making any predictions but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up. Which she might not, ’cause she’s also a Russian asset.”

Plouffe: (Inaudible)

Clinton: “Yeah, she’s a Russian asset, I mean, totally.

“And so, they know they can’t win without a third party candidate and, so, I don’t know who it’s going to be it but I will guarantee you they’ll have a vigorous third party challenge in the key states that they most need it.”

Clinton Aides Fuel Misleading Narrative After Gabbard Attack Backfires published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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fullspectrum-cbd-oil · 5 years

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Some Democrats Are Considering Limiting Meat Consumption to Combat Climate Change: 5 Things to Know

With the threat of climate change, 2020 Democrats have been looking everywhere for possible solutions — including the American kitchen table.

As IJR previously reported, several candidates have considered changing U.S. dietary recommendations in order to limit meat consumption. Here is everything you need to know about this climate-based food fight:

Addressing climate change is a top issue for Democrats.

Climate change has been a top issue for Democrats. Several candidates, including frontrunners Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), and Joe Biden have all unveiled comprehensive policy proposals to combat climate change.

All of the top 10 candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary participated in a seven-hour long climate change town hall event on CNN, and MSNBC has a two-night climate town hall with 11 of the 2020 Democrats and one Republican, former Governor Bill Weld.

Candidates have been dedicating a lot of time to the issue in hopes to win over voters. According to a poll from CNN, 82% of registered Democrats claimed that it was “very important” for their candidate to have an “aggressive” plan to confront climate change. Only 4% of Democrats felt addressing climate change was unimportant.

Democrats have many proposals to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

With pressure building to come out with a strong climate strategy, 2020 candidates aren’t leaving any options off the table.

Many have found inspiration in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s (D-N.Y.) Green New Deal. The plan calls for the U.S. to be carbon-neutral — meaning it captures as much carbon as it emits — by 2030. While others, like Biden, have a more relaxed timeline of being carbon-neutral by 2050, but with either plan, major changes to the U.S. economy and American carbon consumption will have to take place.

All of the 2020 proposals include heavy investments in renewable energy, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, and encouraging green innovation, such as electric car manufacturing, to reduce the amount of carbon produced globally.

While many of the plans are focused on carbon, carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the only greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gasses are special types of gas that trap heat in the atmosphere, causing the temperature to rise. Carbon dioxide is the most notorious greenhouse gas because it makes up 82% of U.S. emissions, but methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gasses also cause the planet to warm.

Methane, a greenhouse gas that makes up 10% of emissions, is more potent than CO2 when it comes to global warming.

Cows pass a lot of methane gas.

Because methane can be so detrimental to the environment, climate activists have been looking for a way to cut back U.S. emissions. The problem for many Americans is that the agricultural industry is one of the top methane producers.

Livestock, including cows and pigs used for meat and dairy production, emit methane when they belch or pass gas. Additionally, organic decay and plant composting contribute to methane emissions in the United States. In total, agriculture is responsible for nearly 7% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 27% of all methane production in the U.S.

Beyond just methane being emitted straight from the cow, the meat processing procedure is also greenhouse-gas-intensive. Livestock must be fed grains harvested from millions of acres of land, transported to processing facilities, and eventually butchered and packaged before being transported to marketplaces. In total, 41% of contiguous land in the U.S. is used for grazing cattle, according to a report from Bloomberg.

In addition to the land usage in the U.S., meat production is also being blamed for the current burning of the Amazon rain forest because the Brazillian government finds it more profitable to use the land for agriculture. With fewer forests, less carbon is being removed from the air as part of the respiration process of plants, increasing net global emissions.

Some Democrats want to change U.S. policy to curb meat consumption.

The drive to combat climate change has led some 2020 Democrats to consider policy changes to cut back meat consumption in the U.S.

The U.S. is the number one consumer of meat in the entire world, with the average American consuming nearly 214 pounds of meat per year according to the World Economic Forum. Some candidates, including entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), have contemplated changing dietary guidelines to help the U.S. cut back on their meat-filled meals.

Watch Harris’s proposal below:

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Harris vaguely suggested “creating incentives and then banning certain behaviors” in an attempt to cut meat consumption, while Yang noted that he doesn’t know the extent to which the government should intervene.

“I think it would be healthy on an individual and societal level to move [away from meat],” said Yang, “But again, this is a country where there is a lot of individual autonomy and so you can’t force people’s eating choices on them. All you do now is try to shape our system so that over time we evolve in a productive way.”

Beyond the 2020 candidate pool, Ocasio-Cortez’s office released an explainer on the Green New Deal with the goal to “get rid of farting cows” as soon as possible to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, New York City’s Green New Deal will “phase out” processed meats — including hotdogs — from government-housed dining centers when their plan is implemented.

Many Republicans find the proposal enraging.

While some Democrats see cutting back meat consumption as one small step for Americans to take to fight climate change, Republicans see the move as a massive government overreach.

Several Republicans have mocked the policy online, warning Americans that Democrats are coming for their hamburgers.

Mayor Pete, meet Mayor Pete from 2 days ago.

This is obvious gaslighting. While he merely talked about meat eating as “part of the problem,” climate plans need to address, Harris went even further about her plans to change people’s diets away from red meat. pic.twitter.com/XbxtLuI9G0

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 7, 2019

Kamala Harris is in support of the government regulating how and what we eat, including the possibility of eliminating red meat from our diet… pic.twitter.com/0XYq3EI5ra

— TNGOP (@TNGOP) September 6, 2019

Watch: Kamala Harris and CNN apologize for liking cheeseburgers and Harris explain how we have to nudge the uneducated masses away from red meatpic.twitter.com/4dNJ7FKiKD

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) September 5, 2019

For now, it looks like hamburgers and steaks are here to stay — at least as long as President Donald Trump is in the White House. President Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and has fundraised by selling plastic straws, another target of climate activists.

from IJR https://ift.tt/30bF647 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #IJR

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democratsunited-blog · 6 years

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How Democrats can win by losing a Supreme Court fight with Trump

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=4965

How Democrats can win by losing a Supreme Court fight with Trump

Democrats are going to lose the short-term battle over the Supreme Court’s future in the aftermath of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement. But in the end, they might just win.

The naming of Kennedy’s replacement is about more than the Democratic-Republican divide. It’s about the future of Roe vs. Wade and a woman’s right to choice.

That’s an issue that crosses party lines. It’s not just Democratic women who value that right — many Republican women recoil at the religious right’s push to outlaw abortions.

We may have heated discussions about conservative court rulings on public-employee union dues or travel bans from Muslim-majority countries. But nothing compares to the issue of a woman’s choice.

Chances are the Democratic minority in the Senate won’t be able to block any anti-Roe vs. Wade nominee President Trump puts forward. But even if Trump gets his way, the Democrats win because they will have living proof sitting on the Supreme Court bench of what is at stake in the midterms this fall — and in 2020.

Shocker? A Bernie Sanders supporter soundly defeats the No. 4 House Democrat, sending shock waves across the county — but it shouldn’t.

Times change, and so did New York Rep. Joe Crowley’s district, which is split between Queens and the Bronx. What was once Archie Bunker’s neighborhood now looks like the United Nations on a lunch break.

Crowley has been in office for nearly 20 years and had impressive liberal credentials and more money than God. He was even being shopped as a possible successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader. But he got caught up in the national riptide and drifted too far from his district.

The woman who beat him in Tuesday’s primary, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is a 28-year-old who until recently was employed as a bartender. She turned out to have two things Democrats desperately need: a message, and boundless energy, applied to her district.

As she said on “Morning Joe” after winning the primary, she was “laser-focused … (on) economic, social, and racial dignity for working-class Americans, especially those in Queens and the Bronx.”

Roll call: London Breed, mayor-elect. Malia Cohen, president of the Board of Supervisors. City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Terri Jackson, San Francisco Superior Court’s presiding judge.

From a governing standpoint, African American women are running the town.

Movie time: “Incredibles 2.” An intriguing story, although a bit on the lightweight side. Still, all the greats from the original “Incredibles” are back.

The neatest addition is a baby who, from a superpower standpoint, is more interesting than everybody else. The animation is fabulous, but be sure to bring a kid with you.

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” The prehistoric animals aren’t nearly as frightening as in earlier installments. Worth a couple of hours of your time all the same. And maybe they’ll do better on the scary front in the next one.

Foodie time: Every week I assume people are checking this column for the true scoop on presidential politics, civic intrigue, electoral angling. But that’s not true, it turns out.

My readers want burger news.

Last week’s item on my daily quest for the perfect burger brought a flood of emails, including many from people who say they’ve already found the holy grill. Here are some of the best tips:

“In your search for a good hamburger you ought try Tarpy’s in Monterey. They have a Kobi hamburger with lobster on top! (25$) GOOD!” — Charles Speyerer

“I live in San Jose and love the Habit burgers. Their Portabella Char Burger is, I think, the best burger I have ever had. I have tried a couple of their other burgers and really like them.” — Tom Smyth

“Don’t forget to try a Hamburger at Absinthe on Hayes!” — Byron Nevins

“You have got to try JJ’s Burgers in Novato. Fabulous!!” — Ray Hollister

“For a while I thought nobody could beat Chez Maman, but Epic may be better. However, the new Hamburger Mary’s on Castro is surprisingly in the running! Damn good burger there too.” — Kevin McCarthy

And then there was this, from Gary Rosenberg, which I treasure most of all:

“My wife, Angela Marti, did a hamburger tour of SF 10 years ago. She rated Cafe de la Presse (Bush/Grant) as #1. I lost her last year to ovarian cancer (56 years old). If you get a chance, check out de la Presse burger as a shout out to her. And who knows, maybe it’s still good.”

Want to sound off? Email: [email protected]

Read full story here

#Democrats

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mediastations-blog · 6 years

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وبسایت روییترز امسال نیز به مانند هر ساله 100 تصویر برتر خبری و زیبای سال 2017 که توسط خبرنگاران و عکاسان روییترز گرفته شده است را منتشر کرد

همراه نا این صد تصویر را برای علاقمندان گرداوری کرده است .

برای مشاهده با سایز بزرگتر روی آن کلیک کنید.

A girl reacts as colored water is thrown on her face while celebrating Holi, the Festival of Colours, in Mumbai, India, March 13. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade

Residents wade through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Beaumont Place, Houston, Texas, August 28. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Plane debris is seen at the crash site of a Turkish cargo jet near Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport outside Bishkek, January 16. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile, September 16. KCNA via REUTERS

Hosne Ara, 4, a Rohingya refugee who fled Myanmar two months ago, listens to children singing at a children’s centre in the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 5. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in the Grenfell Tower apartment block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain, June 14. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, January 14. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter sit as medics treat his comrades injured by sniper fired by Islamic State militants in a field hospital in Raqqa, Syria, June 28. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Smoke fills the sky above a burning hillside as tourists relax on the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas, in the Var department, France, July 26. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier

Residents view the first iceberg of the season as it passes the South Shore, also known as “Iceberg Alley”, near Ferryland Newfoundland, Canada, April 16. REUTERS/Jody Martin

Migrants walk during a snowfall inside a derelict customs warehouse in Belgrade, Serbia, January 11. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

A worker uses a table to move along a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Sao Paulo, Brazil April 7. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

A man walks with a bloody lip as demonstrators yell at him outside the location where Richard Spencer, an avowed white nationalist and spokesperson for the so-called alt-right movement, is delivering a speech on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, October 19. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

People cross a flooded street after a massive landslide and flood in the Huachipa district of Lima, Peru, March 17. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pard

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Hindu priests sit inside a cave as they perform evening prayers on the banks of the river Ganges in Devprayag, India, March 28. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

A wounded man lies on the ground at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan May 31. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

A Burning Man participant (L) evades a chasing firefighter and falls into the flames of the “Man Burn” after evading the attempted tackles of multiple rangers and law enforcement personnel at the annual Burning Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, September 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Aibhin Kenneally aged 13 from the Flynn-O’Kane dance group warms up backstage before performing during the World Irish Dancing Championships in Dublin, Ireland April 11. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Photographers help a Rohingya refugee to come out of Nad River as they cross the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 1. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Steam rises from chimneys of a heating power plant near a monument of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, with the air temperature at about minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit), during sunset in Moscow, Russia, January 9. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Migrants try to stay afloat after falling off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship in the central Mediterranean in international waters some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya, April 14. All 134 sub-Saharan migrants survived and were rescued by MOAS. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A woman assists an injured person after an incident on Westminster Bridge in London, March 22. REUTERS/Toby Melville

People collect scattered oranges amidst rubble after an airstrike on a market in rebel held Maarrat Misrin city in Idlib province, Syria January 14. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

The sun is obscured by the moon during a solar eclipse as seen from an Alaska Airlines commercial jet at 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Depoe Bay, Oregon, August 21. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

A Palestinian protester uses a sling to hurl stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 11. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Serena Williams of the U.S. serves during her women’s singles third round tennis match against Nicole Gibbs of the U.S. in the Australian Open 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, January 21. REUTERS/Jason Reed

Nobi Hossain wades through the water carrying his elderly relative Sona Banu as hundreds of Rohingya refugees arrive under the cover of darkness by wooden boats from Myanmar to the shore of Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, September 27. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

SPLA-IO (SPLA-In Opposition) rebels carry an injured rebel after an assault on government SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) soldiers, on the road between Kaya and Yondu, South Sudan, August 26. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath laying ceremony to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, Russia, February 23. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Japanese women wearing kimonos attend their Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony at an amusement park in Tokyo, January 9. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Rescue members walk during the burial of a companion who died after flooding and mudslides caused by heavy rains lead several rivers to overflow, pushing sediment and rocks into buildings and roads, in Mocoa, Colombia, April 4. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

Some members of the Cleveland Browns team kneel, while others stand, during the National Anthem before the start of their game against the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis, September 24. USA TODAY Sports/Thomas J. Russo

A student stands next to a huge Estelada (Catalan separatist flag) inside the University of Barcelona’s historic building the day after the banned independence referendum in Barcelona, Spain, October 2. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

Vessels that sank during Hurricane Irma are seen in a Saint John bay 12 days after the devastating storm raked the island, on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, September 16. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

A man cries as he carries his daughter while walking from an Islamic State-controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers during a battle in Mosul, Iraq March 4. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Air Force One departs Las Vegas past the broken windows on the Mandalay Bay hotel, where shooter Stephen Paddock conducted his mass shooting along the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Light from a mobile phone illuminates a Saudi woman’s face during Iraqi singer Majid Al Muhandis’ live performance as part of Spring of Culture 2017 in Manama, Bahrain, March 10. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Farmer Osvaldo Lemas, 83, looks to the camera as he picks tobacco leaves at a farm in Cuba’s western province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, February 28. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban in London, January 30. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

A rebel fighter carries an injured boy after a car bomb explosion in Jub al Barazi east of the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria, January 15. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Traffic cones are seen on the bank of the River Thames during low tide in London, Britain, January 19. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

A protester holds a national flag as a bank branch, housed in the magistracy of the Supreme Court of Justice, burns during a rally against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela June 12. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

A man carries his pet cat as he walks under the cherry blossoms at Tongji University in Shanghai, China, April 4. REUTERS/Aly Song

Police investigators and forensic technicians investigate a crime scene where a man was killed in Manaus, Brazil, January 6. Police erected roadblocks and increased patrols around Manaus to hunt down more than 100 inmates who escaped from a prison in Manaus during a riot. According to local media, police reported more than 12 murders in Manaus in the 24 hours after the escape. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

An Iraqi special forces soldier shot dead an Islamic State suicide bomber in Mosul, Iraq March 3. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

A demonstrator kicks a vehicle in a protest against President Michel Temer’s proposal to reform Brazil’s social security system during a general strike in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 28. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Law enforcement officers detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Moscow, Russia, March 26. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

An aerial view shows the remains of burnt homes from what residents said was the latest attack by armed men in Thonyor, Leer County, South Sudan February 23. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

Benedito, 66, smokes prawns as he checks it on a wood-fired oven in Corumbau village on the coast of Bahia state, Brazil, February 19. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Afghan policemen try to rescue four-year-old Ali Ahmad at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and insurgents after an attack on a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 25. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Cockfighting enthusiasts show a rooster through the window of a vintage car on their way to a cockfighting arena at the outskirts of Ciro Redondo, central region of Ciego de Avila province, Cuba, February 15. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (L) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (L), Stelios Varias

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka serves during his Men’s singles fourth round match against Italy’s Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open, January 22. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Men feed seagulls along the Yamuna river on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, India, November 17. REUTERS/Saumya Khandelwal

An opposition politician of the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition, reacts after a gas canister fired by policemen hits his car during a protest along a street in Nairobi, Kenya, October 13. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho celebrates with coaching staff at the Europa League Final versus Ajax Amsterdam. Phil Noble Livepic/via REUTERS

Tanks are seen in the government-held industrial town of Avdiyivka, Ukraine, February 1. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

J Class boats compete in a regatta between race days of the America’s Cup finals. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Palestinians react following tear gas that was shot by Israeli forces after Friday prayer on a street outside Jerusalem’s Old City, July 21. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Young Hindu priests take a holy bath together as part of a ritual during the sacred thread festival at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal July 28. Hindus take holy baths and change their sacred threads, also known as janai, for protection and purification during the festival. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A man takes a ride on a police wrecker in the Schanze district of Hamburg following the G20 summit, July 8. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 27. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Pigs are herded off a platform into water by breeders during a daily exercise at a pig farm in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, August 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

A woman gestures as she mourns the death of a protester in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, August 9. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

Revellers take part in a traditional event marking the last day of the carnival season called “Kusaki”, a folk party and a re-enactment showing the “defeat of Death” where all roles are played by males, which takes place on Shrove Tuesday in the village of Jedlinsk near Radom, Poland, February 28. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

A man who was set on fire by people accusing him of stealing during a rally against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro runs amidst opposition supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, May 20. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Carmen De Jesus uses a flashlight at the Moradas Las Teresas Elderly House, where about two hundred elderly people live without electricity following damages caused by Hurricane Maria in Carolina, Puerto Rico, September 30. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A worker, known as a “Tecchiaiolo”, examines marble at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy, July 18. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Hamida, a Rohingya refugee woman, cries as she holds her 40-day-old son, who died as a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 14. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

People react as they watch a sesion of the Catalonian regional parliament on a giant screen at a pro-independence rally in Barcelona, Spain, October 10. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Damaged houses, buildings and a mosque are seen inside Marawi city, Philippines, October 25. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Model Elsa Hosk poses on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier

Opposition supporters clash with riot security forces while rallying against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, May 18. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Soldiers and rescue workers search in the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico September 20. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Police officers stand guard during a fire at Kandawgyi Palace hotel in Yangon, Myanmar October 19. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A medic holds the body of a girl recovered from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, August 25. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Burning forest is seen during “Operation Green Wave” conducted by agents of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, or Ibama, to combat illegal logging in Apui, in the southern region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, August 4. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

A migrant arrives at a naval base after he was rescued by Libyan coastal guards in Tripoli, Libya, November 6. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

New York Police Department officers arrest a woman who was taking part in a ‘Day Without a Woman’ march on International Women’s Day in New York, March 8. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Iraqi Special Operations Forces arrest a person suspected of belonging to Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq, February 26. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

A long time exposure shows molten lava which flows from the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world’s most active volcanoes on the French Indian Ocean Reunion Island, February 3. REUTERS/Gilles Adt

Skyscrapers Shanghai Tower (L), Jin Mao Tower (Top) and Shanghai World Financial Center are seen during a hazy day at the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China, March 20. REUTERS/Aly Song

A shrine is seen after a forest fire near the village of Serta, Portugal, September 9. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante

A woman pushes a pram as she walks over a frozen lake during sun down at the Pajulahti sports center near Lahti, Finland, February 21. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Salah Skaff, 25, reacts over the body of his daughter Amira Skaff, 1.5 years old, after an airstrike on the rebel held besieged city of Douma, in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria April 7. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

Abu Malek, one of the survivors of a chemical attack in the Ghouta region of Damascus that took place in 2013, uses his crutches to walk along a street in the Ghouta town of Ain Tarma, Syria, April 7. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

Members of the Saudi delegation wait for the arrival of China’s President Xi Jinping and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud before a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 16. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

People connect to the internet at a hotspot in Havana, Cuba, January 19. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

North Korean soldiers march during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country’s founding father Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, North Korea, April 15. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Qi Guangpu of China performs an aerial as he trains during the Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, March 9. REUTERS/Paul Hanna

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protestors are sprayed with water by Israeli police as they block a street during a demonstration against members of their community serving in the Israeli army, part of ongoing demonstrations recently seen throughout Israel, in Jerusalem, February 9. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal, in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, September 11. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Opposition lawmaker Luis Stefanelli gestures next to fellow opposition lawmaker Leonardo Regnault after a group of government supporters burst into Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly during a session, in Caracas, Venezuela July 5. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Scarlet ibis fly near the banks of a mangrove swamp located at the mouth of the Calcoene River on the coast of Amapa state, northern Brazil, April 6. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Detainees exercise in a recreation area at the Adelanto immigration detention center, which is run by the Geo Group Inc (GEO.N), in Adelanto, California, April 13. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Marin Honda of Japan in action at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Beijing. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes 11-years-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House in Washington, September 15. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the White House lawn, was invited to work for a day at the White House along the National Park Service staff. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Displaced Iraqi women who just fled their home,rest in the desert as they wait to be transported while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, February 27. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Flood victims work on the Jute plant at the flood affected area at Saptari District, Nepal, August 14. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

100 تصویر برتر سال 2017 به انتخاب روییترز وبسایت روییترز امسال نیز به مانند هر ساله 100 تصویر برتر خبری و زیبای سال 2017 که توسط خبرنگاران و عکاسان روییترز گرفته شده است را منتشر کرد همراه نا این صد تصویر را برای علاقمندان گرداوری کرده است . برای مشاهده با سایز بزرگتر روی آن کلیک کنید.

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racingtoaredlight · 7 years

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Opening Bell: July 7, 2017

President Donald Trump is in Hamburg, Germany for a meeting of the G-20, the world’s 20 most industrialized nations. Yesterday, he gave a speech in which he blamed Russia for much of the destabilization taking place in Europe and abroad and reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to NATO; something which he pointedly failed to do during his first foreign policy speech abroad in May. The president also warned that western values continue to be threatened by terrorism and, presumably, the refugee crisis that it creates. Unlike previous presidential speeches, however, the values Trump stressed were of social and cultural ones, not principles of democratic governance. This might seem like nitpicking, and at some level it probably is, but it is nonetheless striking given that many democratically elected leaders in Europe, especially eastern Europe, have decried the loss of culture through the emigration of refugees to their borders. Anytime a political leader makes a distinction between cultural and political values, it also signifies the possibility that one notion can override the other.

On the sidelines of the G-20 meetings, Trump is expected to meet with several European leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time. David Nakamura of the Washington Post has a fascinating dive into what it is like to meet and negotiate with Vladimir Putin in person. While both Putin and Trump are forceful personalities, Nakamura highlights key differences, notably that Putin is not given over to theatrics in private that Trump is, and is in fact mild-mannered and even soft-spoken while he tallies up a litany of complaints he has for the foreign leader he is meeting with. Former Obama administration diplomat Steven Pifer gives five tips for Trump to follow in his first meeting with the Russian president.

Meanwhile, the president had strong words for North Korea three days after the hermit-nation successfully tested its first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Trump warned of “pretty severe consequences” in North Korea did not back off of testing long range missiles. What these consequences might be, however, is unclear. Further sanctions are said to have broad support within the UN Security Council, though if Trump does not moderate his comments about North Korea, Russia or China could exercise their veto of any resolution which targets Pyongyang with further sanctions. The other possibility would appear to be military action of some type. While virtually no one is in favor of all out war with Kim Jong Un, even the possibility of surgical strikes which specifically target the nation’s nuclear testing and production sites could have grave consequences of their own. Foreign Policy examines, by looking at past episodes, why even trying to kill Kim Jong Un himself is incredibly problematic. And even if such an attempt was successful, there is no guarantee that the Korean People’s Army would lay down their arms, nor is there any notion of how North Korea would be ruled in the aftermath of a successful conflict.

In Venezuela this week, a group of approximately 150 supporters of President Nicolas Maduro forced their way into the congressional chamber and attacked with pipes and clubs legislators who oppose Maduro. The opposition won control of the national congress in 2015 in an election which was largely seen as a rebuke of Maduro’s leadership, however rather than work with the congress, Maduro has painted them as traitors to the nation. Pro-Maduro gangs called “colectivos” roam the city, often at the direction of police, looking for anti-government protestors to attack. This was the first time, however, that one of the colectivos broke into a government building and physically assaulted elected representatives. Nearly 100 people have been killed in what is now the fourth month of open protests and demonstrations against the Maduro regime. Venezuela’s economy and political system are barely functioning at this point and with the continued unrest throughout the nation, a positive outcome is looking increasingly remote, with civil war a distinct possibility.

Back in the United States, House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La) was readmitted to the ICU at MedStar Washington. The hospital downgraded his condition from “fair” to “serious” and said that a serious infection was the reason for the move. Scalise has undergone a number of surgeries in the three weeks since he was shot on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, and the infection is thought to be a side effect of those surgeries.

Yesterday, Walter Schaub resigned as Director of the Office of Government Ethics. Schaub was one of the first government officials to tangle with the incoming Trump administration when in January he declared that Trump’s failure to fully divest himself of his business, the Trump Organizations, to be “inadequate.” Schaub’s term as director was due to end next year, so his sudden resignation is somewhat surprising. Schaub, who will join a non-profit think tank, insisted that his resignation was voluntary and that he had not experienced any pressure from the White House. Schaub’s last day in office will be July 19. President Donald Trump will nominate Schaub’s successor in an appointment which is certain to be closely-watched.

The CDC published a report this week which found that opioid prescriptions decreased by 13.1 percent between 2012 and 2015, the first such decrease since opioids became widely used as painkillers in the 1990s. The rate of prescription, however, is still three times higher than it was in 1999 and far outpaces such prescriptions in European nations. The over-prescription and subsequent abuse of the highly addictive and powerful painkillers during the 1990s and 2000s, is largely blamed for the rise of a black market for opioid medications and in the resurgence in heroin throughout the United States. The cost of caring for individuals who overdose on opioids has grown to such levels that small towns, which have proportionally smaller budgets for emergency services, are considering steps to curb the amount of assistance given to those who overdose.

Eighteen state attorneys general plus the District of Columbia filed suit in federal court this week in response to an order by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in June which suspended changes to a program which allowed students to go after higher education institutions which induced them to borrow exorbitant loans through fraud or deceit. The program has been in existence since the 1990s, but the Obama administration promulgated changes to the program which would simplify the process and shift more of the cost of disposing of the loans onto the schools themselves. These changes were to go into effect July 1, but DeVos, citing the need to defend the Department against a lawsuit by a group of for-profit schools in California first, halted the changes before they could go into effect. Many of the students affected attended for-profit institutions where they were coerced into signing loan applications and promissory notes without understanding the amount they were borrowing, what the terms were, or how those loans were to be applied to their higher education costs.

In one of the more bizarre stories of the week, arts-and-crafts store Hobby Lobby entered into a settlement with federal prosecutors after it was discovered to have purchased thousands of clay and stone artifacts from Iraq for $1.6 million in 2010 and 2011. Hobby Lobby has agreed to surrender all of the artifacts to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and pay a $3 million fine as part of the settlement. The exact identity of the dealers whom Hobby Lobby dealt with were never ascertained by the company. The company decided to proceed with the sale despite the only indication of their origin being mentioned as “purchased at markets in the 1960s” or from a “private family collection.” It is easy to criticize Hobby Lobby here, but this genuinely seems to have been the actions of individuals in the company who did not properly understand the nature, or perils, of purchasing artifacts from this part of the world.

This week, Chinese-owned Swedish carmaker Volvo announced that, starting in 2019, all new vehicle models would be electric-powered. Volvo will continue to manufacture gas and diesel powered cars, but after 2019 will place less emphasis on doing so and, presumably, as gas and diesel models are discontinued, they will not be replaced with similar models. This has the potential to be a watershed moment in manufacturing in general and the auto industry in particular; no major, legacy carmaker has pledged to end production of cars powered by internal combustion engines.

In the past 18 months, a series of scandals have slowly enveloped the Marine Corps basic training facility at Parris Island, South Carolina. The Marines, widely considered the most conservative branch of the military—and the most resistant to change—pride themselves on tough training and discipline, but New York Times Magazine’s Janet Reitman takes a deep dive into training at the training at Parris Island, where a culture of hazing and physical abuse seems to prevail, long after such practices were banned by all branches of the armed forces. This is an intense read.

Alan Abramowitz of the Center for Politics looks at the 2018 midterm election by noting that Democrats, right now, have an advantage in the generic ballot test for congressional candidates, and then conducts a statistic analysis of what this advantage means, and what it does not.

Finally, Stuart Rothenberg looks at how the GOP’s continued push for a repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act—or Obamacare if you prefer—becomes politically riskier with each passing week.

Welcome to the weekend.

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Mike Pompeo is a disgrace to the office he holds. The men and women of the State Department should be protected by him, not stalked by mafia like thugs. HE MUST RESIGN NOW.

Ukraine prosecutor offered information related to Biden in exchange for ambassador’s ouster, newly released materials show

By Paul Sonne, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger | Published

January 14 at 9:19 PM EST |Washington Post | Posted January 16, 2020 |

Another document released by the House investigators appears to show Parnas directly involved with efforts to get Zelensky to announce investigations related to Biden.

In handwritten notes on a piece of stationery from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna, Parnas wrote, “get Zalenksy [sic] to Annouce [sic] that the Biden case will be Investigated.”

Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment.

[Read: Materials provided by Giuliani associate Lev Parnas to the House]

Lutsenko wanted to get rid of Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador, in part because she had been critical of his office and supported a quasi-independent anti-corruption bureau he despised.

“It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam — you are calling into question all my declarations. Including about B,” Lutsenko wrote to Parnas in a March 22 message on WhatsApp.

It’s unclear if ‘B’ is a reference to Biden or Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden served from 2014 to 2019.

Four days later, Lutsenko told Parnas that work on the case against the owner of the gas company is proceeding successfully and evidence of the money transfers of “B” had been obtained.

“And here you can’t even remove one fool :(” Lutsenko laments, again appearing to push for Yovanovitch’s ouster.