Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein on Trump-Russia investigation: 'Oh my god, there's a cover-up going on'
The Independent - Apr 26, 2017
Famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein says that the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could end up revealing a “cover-up” of alleged connections between President Donald Trump's team and Russia. “There, he is central ...
This article first appeared at Consortium News 10 days ago, but it has been passed around a lot, and Consortium News gave us permission to republish. –Ed.
The other day, I asked a longtime Democratic Party insider who is working on the Russia-gate investigation which country interfered more in U.S. politics, Russia or Israel. Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Israel, of course.”
Which underscores my concern about the hysteria raging across Official Washington about “Russian meddling” in the 2016 presidential campaign: There is no proportionality applied to the question of foreign interference in U.S. politics. If there were, we would have a far more substantive investigation of Israel-gate.
The problem is that if anyone mentions the truth about Israel’s clout, the person is immediately smeared as “anti-Semitic” and targeted by Israel’s extraordinarily sophisticated lobby and its many media/political allies for vilification and marginalization.
So, the open secret of Israeli influence is studiously ignored, even as presidential candidates prostrate themselves before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both appeared before AIPAC in 2016, with Clinton promising to take the U.S.-Israeli relationship “to the next level” – whatever that meant – and Trump vowing not to “pander” and then pandering like crazy.
Congress is no different. It has given Israel’s controversial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a record-tying three invitations to address joint sessions of Congress (matching the number of times British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared). We then witnessed the Republicans and Democrats competing to see how often their members could bounce up and down and who could cheer Netanyahu the loudest, even when the Israeli prime minister was instructing the Congress to follow his position on Iran rather than President Obama’s.
Israeli officials and AIPAC also coordinate their strategies to maximize political influence, which is derived in large part by who gets the lobby’s largesse and who doesn’t. On the rare occasion when members of Congress step out of line – and take a stand that offends Israeli leaders – they can expect a well-funded opponent in their next race, a tactic that dates back decades.
Well-respected members, such as Rep. Paul Findley and Sen. Charles Percy (both Republicans from Illinois), were early victims of the Israeli lobby’s wrath when they opened channels of communication with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the cause of seeking peace. Findley was targeted and defeated in 1982; Percy in 1984.
Findley recounted his experience in a 1985 book, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby, in which Findley called the lobby “the 700-pound gorilla in Washington.” The book was harshly criticized in a New York Times review by Adam Clymer, who called it “an angry, one-sided book that seems often to be little more than a stringing together of stray incidents.”
Enforced Silence
Since then, there have been fewer and fewer members of Congress or other American politicians who have dared to speak out, judging that – when it comes to the Israeli lobby – discretion is the better part of valor. Today, many U.S. pols grovel before the Israeli government seeking a sign of favor from Prime Minister Netanyahu, almost like Medieval kings courting the blessings of the Pope at the Vatican.
During the 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama, whom Netanyahu viewed with suspicion, traveled to Israel to demonstrate sympathy for Israelis within rocket-range of Gaza while steering clear of showing much empathy for the Palestinians.
In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney tried to exploit the tense Obama-Netanyahu relationship by stopping in Israel to win a tacit endorsement from Netanyahu. The 2016 campaign was no exception with both Clinton and Trump stressing their love of Israel in their appearances before AIPAC.
Money, of course, has become the lifeblood of American politics – and American supporters of Israel have been particularly strategic in how they have exploited that reality.
One of Israel’s most devoted advocates, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has poured millions of dollars in “dark money” into political candidates and groups that support Israel’s interests. Adelson, who has advocated dropping a nuclear bomb inside Iran to coerce its government, is a Trump favorite having donated a record $5 million to Trump’s inaugural celebration.
Of course, many Israel-connected political donations are much smaller but no less influential. A quarter century ago, I was told how an aide to a Democratic foreign policy chairman, who faced a surprisingly tough race after redistricting, turned to the head of AIPAC for help and, almost overnight, donations were pouring in from all over the country. The chairman was most thankful.
The October Surprise Mystery
Israel’s involvement in U.S. politics also can be covert. For instance, the evidence is now overwhelming that the Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister Menachem Begin played a key role in helping Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980 strike a deal with Iran to frustrate President Jimmy Carter’s efforts to free 52 American hostages before Election Day.
Begin despised Carter for the Camp David Accords that forced Israel to give back the Sinai to Egypt. Begin also believed that Carter was too sympathetic to the Palestinians and – if he won a second term – would conspire with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to impose a two-state solution on Israel.
Begin’s contempt for Carter was not even a secret. In a 1991 book, The Last Option, senior Israeli intelligence and foreign policy official David Kimche explained Begin’s motive for dreading Carter’s reelection. Kimche said Israeli officials had gotten wind of “collusion” between Carter and Sadat “to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Kimche continued, “This plan prepared behind Israel’s back and without her knowledge must rank as a unique attempt in United States’s diplomatic history of short-changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation.”
But Begin recognized that the scheme required Carter winning a second term in 1980 when, Kimche wrote, “he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby.”
In a 1992 memoir, Profits of War, former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe also noted that Begin and other Likud leaders held Carter in contempt.
“Begin loathed Carter for the peace agreement forced upon him at Camp David,” Ben-Menashe wrote. “As Begin saw it, the agreement took away Sinai from Israel, did not create a comprehensive peace, and left the Palestinian issue hanging on Israel’s back.”
So, in order to buy time for Israel to “change the facts on the ground” by moving Jewish settlers into the West Bank, Begin felt Carter’s reelection had to be prevented. A different president also presumably would give Israel a freer hand to deal with problems on its northern border with Lebanon.
Ben-Menashe was among a couple of dozen government officials and intelligence operatives who described how Reagan’s campaign, mostly through future CIA Director William Casey and past CIA Director George H.W. Bush, struck a deal in 1980 with senior Iranians who got promises of arms via Israel in exchange for keeping the hostages through the election and thus humiliating Carter. (The hostages were finally released on Jan. 20, 1981, after Reagan was sworn in as President.)
Discrediting History
Though the evidence of the so-called October Surprise deal is far stronger than the current case for believing that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign, Official Washington and the mainstream U.S. media have refused to accept it, deeming it a “conspiracy theory.”
One of the reasons for the hostility directed against the 1980 case was the link to Israel, which did not want its hand in manipulating the election of a U.S. president to become an accepted part of American history. So, for instance, the Israeli government went to great lengths to discredit Ben-Menashe after he began to speak with reporters and to give testimony to the U.S. Congress.
When I was a Newsweek correspondent and first interviewed Ben-Menashe in 1990, the Israeli government initially insisted that he was an impostor, that he had no connection to Israeli intelligence.
However, when I obtained documentary evidence of Ben-Menashe’s work for a military intelligence unit, the Israelis admitted that they had lied but then insisted that he was just a low-level translator, a claim that was further contradicted by other documents showing that he had traveled widely around the world on missions to obtain weapons for the Israel-to-Iran arms pipeline.
Nevertheless, the Israeli government along with sympathetic American reporters and members of the U.S. Congress managed to shut down any serious investigation into the 1980 operation, which was, in effect, the prequel to Reagan’s Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal of 1984-86. Thus, U.S. history was miswritten. [For more details, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative; Secrecy & Privilege; and Trick or Treason.]
Looking back over the history of U.S.-Israeli relations, it is clear that Israel exercised significant influence over U.S. presidents since its founding in 1948, but the rise of Israel’s right-wing Likud Party in the 1970s – led by former Jewish terrorists Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir – marked a time when Israel shed any inhibitions about interfering directly in U.S. politics.
Much as Begin and Shamir engaged in terror attacks on British officials and Palestinian civilians during Israel’s founding era, the Likudniks who held power in 1980 believed that the Zionist cause trumped normal restraints on their actions. In other words, the ends justified the means.
In the 1980s, Israel also mounted spying operations aimed at the U.S. government, including those of intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, who fed highly sensitive documents to Israel and – after being caught and spending almost three decades in prison – was paroled and welcomed as a hero inside Israel.
A History of Interference
But it is true that foreign interference in U.S. politics is as old as the American Republic. In the 1790s, French agents – working with the Jeffersonians – tried to rally Americans behind France’s cause in its conflict with Great Britain. In part to frustrate the French operation, the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.
In the Twentieth Century, Great Britain undertook covert influence operations to ensure U.S. support in its conflicts with Germany, while German agents unsuccessfully sought the opposite.
So, the attempts by erstwhile allies and sometimes adversaries to move U.S. foreign policy in one direction or another is nothing new, and the U.S. government engages in similar operations in countries all over the world, both overtly and covertly.
It was the CIA’s job for decades to use propaganda and dirty tricks to ensure that pro-U.S. politicians were elected or put in power in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, pretty much everywhere the U.S. government perceived some interest. After the U.S. intelligence scandals of the 1970s, however, some of that responsibility was passed to other organizations, such as the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
NED, USAID and various “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs) finance activists, journalists and other operatives to undermine political leaders who are deemed to be obstacles to U.S. foreign policy desires.
In particular, NED has been at the center of efforts to flip elections to U.S.-backed candidates, such as in Nicaragua in 1990, or to sponsor “color revolutions,” which typically organize around some color as the symbol for mass demonstrations. Ukraine – on Russia’s border – has been the target of two such operations, the Orange Revolution in 2004, which helped install anti-Russian President Viktor Yushchenko, and the Maidan ouster of elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
NED president Carl Gershman, a neoconservative who has run NED since its founding in 1983, openly declared that Ukraine was “the biggest prize” in September 2013 — just months before the Maidan protests — as well as calling it an important step toward ousting Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2016, Gershman called directly for regime change in Russia.
The Neoconservatives
Another key issue related to Israeli influence inside the United States is the role of the neocons, a political movement that emerged in the 1970s as a number of hawkish Democrats migrated to the Republican Party as a home for more aggressive policies to protect Israel and take on the Soviet Union and Arab states.
In some European circles, the neocons are described as “Israel’s American agents,” which may somewhat overstate the direct linkage between Israel and the neocons although a central tenet of neocon thinking is that there must be no daylight between the U.S. and Israel. The neocons say U.S. politicians must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel even if that means the Americans sidling up to the Israelis rather than any movement the other way.
Since the mid-1990s, American neocons have worked closely with Benjamin Netanyahu. Several prominent neocons (including former Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser and Robert Loewenberg) advised Netanyahu’s 1996 campaign and urged a new strategy for “securing the realm.” Essentially, the idea was to replace negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab states with “regime change” for governments that were viewed as troublesome to Israel, including Iraq and Syria.
By 1998, the Project for the New American Century (led by neocons William Kristol and Robert Kagan) was pressuring President Bill Clinton to invade Iraq, a plan that was finally put in motion in 2003 under President George W. Bush.
But the follow-on plans to go after Syria and Iran were delayed because the Iraq War turned into a bloody mess, killing some 4,500 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Bush could not turn to phase two until near the end of his presidency and then was frustrated by a U.S. intelligence estimate concluding that Iran was not working on a nuclear bomb (which was to be the pretext for a bombing campaign).
Bush also could pursue “regime change” in Syria only as a proxy effort of subversion, rather than a full-scale U.S. invasion. President Barack Obama escalated the Syrian proxy war in 2011 with the support of Israel and its strange-bedfellow allies in Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni-ruled Gulf States, which hated Syria’s government because it was allied with Shiite-ruled Iran — and Sunnis and Shiites have been enemies since the Seventh Century. Israel insists that the U.S. take the Sunni side, even if that puts the U.S. in bed with Al Qaeda.
But Obama dragged his heels on a larger U.S. military intervention in Syria and angered Netanyahu further by negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program rather than bomb-bomb-bombing Iran.
Showing the Love
Obama’s perceived half-hearted commitment to Israeli interests explained Romney’s campaign 2012 trip to seek Netanyahu’s blessings. Even after winning a second term, Obama sought to appease Netanyahu by undertaking a three-day trip to Israel in 2013 to show his love.
Still, in 2015, when Obama pressed ahead with the Iran nuclear agreement, Netanyahu went over the President’s head directly to Congress where he was warmly received, although the Israeli prime minister ultimately failed to sink the Iran deal.
In Campaign 2016, both Clinton and Trump wore their love for Israel on their sleeves, Clinton promising to take the relationship to “the next level” (a phrase that young couples often use when deciding to go from heavy petting to intercourse). Trump reminded AIPAC that he had a Jewish grandchild and vowed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Both also bristled with hatred toward Iran, repeating the popular falsehood that “Iran is the principal source of terrorism” when it is Saudi Arabia and other Sunni sheikdoms that have been the financial and military supporters of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, the terror groups most threatening to Europe and the United States.
By contrast to Israel’s long history of playing games with U.S. politics, the Russian government stands accused of trying to undermine the U.S. political process recently by hacking into emails of the Democratic National Committee — revealing the DNC’s improper opposition to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign — and of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — disclosing the contents of Clinton’s paid speeches to Wall Street and pay-to-play aspects of the Clinton Foundation — and sharing that information with the American people via WikiLeaks.
Although WikiLeaks denies getting the two batches of emails from the Russians, the U.S. intelligence community says it has high confidence in its conclusions about Russian meddling and the mainstream U.S. media treats the allegations as flat-fact.
The U.S. intelligence community also has accused the Russian government of raising doubts in the minds of Americans about their political system by having RT, the Russian-sponsored news network, hold debates for third-party candidates (who were excluded from the two-party Republican-Democratic debates) and by having RT report on protests such as Occupy Wall Street and issues such as “fracking.”
The major U.S. news media and Congress seem to agree that the only remaining question is whether evidence can be adduced showing that the Trump campaign colluded in this Russian operation. For that purpose, a number of people associated with the Trump campaign are to be hauled before Congress and made to testify on whether or not they are Russian agents.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other establishment-approved outlets are working with major technology companies on how to marginalize independent news sources and to purge “Russian propaganda” (often conflated with “fake news”) from the Internet.
It seems that no extreme is too extreme to protect the American people from the insidious Russians and their Russia-gate schemes to sow doubt about the U.S. political process. But God forbid if anyone were to suggest an investigation of Israel-gate.
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· · · · · · · · · · · ·
Carl Bernstein: Flynn is 'central to what the FBI believes is cover-up'
The Hill (blog) - Apr 26, 2017
... .@carlbernstein: It's obvious Gen. Flynn is up to his neck ... He's central to what the FBI believes is a cover up <a href="https://t.co/T1xxdWIXXK" rel="nofollow">https://t.co/T1xxdWIXXK</a>. — New Day (@NewDay) April 26, 2017. CNN commentator Carl Bernstein suggested Wednesday that former national ...
Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein on Trump-Russia investigation: 'Oh my god, there's a cover-up going on'
The Independent - Apr 26, 2017
Famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein says that the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could end up revealing a “cover-up” of alleged connections between President Donald Trump's team and Russia. “There, he is central ...
Carl Bernstein: Trump 'Impeding' Russia Investigations By Not Handing Over Flynn Docs
Mediaite - Apr 26, 2017
... .@carlbernstein: It's obvious Gen. Flynn is up to his neck … He's central to what the FBI believes is a cover up <a href="https://t.co/T1xxdWIXXK" rel="nofollow">https://t.co/T1xxdWIXXK</a>. — New Day (@NewDay) April 26, 2017. According to a renowned journalist who was a key figure in helping to ...
'Oh my god, there's a cover-up going on': Carl Bernstein accuses Trump of 'impeding' Russia probe
Raw Story - Apr 26, 2017
Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein said Mike Flynn is the key to uncovering the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. “I think it's obvious that Gen. Flynn is in up to his neck in terms, not just of possible crimes involving his speeches and whether or not ...
Trump May Be Saving His Own Skin By Covering Up For Flynn
Carbonated.tv (blog) - Apr 27, 2017
“Flynn is almost like the ball of yarn that begins to unspool and is key to understanding it," explained famous Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. An error occurred. Try watching this video on <a href="http://www.youtube.com" rel="nofollow">www.youtube.com</a>, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled ...
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· ·
The Independent |
Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein on Trump-Russia investigation: 'Oh my god, there's a cover-up going on'
The Independent Famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein says that the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could end up revealing a “cover-up” of alleged connections between President Donald Trump's team and Russia. “There, he is central ... Russia Questions Dominate First 100 Days Of Trump's PresidencyWUWM Sally Yates to testify at May 8 Senate hearingCNN all 60 news articles » |
Business Insider |
Only 28% of Trump voters believe Russia tried to influence the 2016 election
Business Insider A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday found deep partisan divides concerning voters' views on Russian interference in the election and President Donald Trump's allegations that President Barack Obama spied on him and members of his ... Democrats Must Investigate Every Trump Scandal, Even if It Takes DecadesSlate Magazine Poll: Nearly 4 in 10 believe Trump campaign helped Russia meddle in electionThe Hill Tipping point: Demand for independent Trump-Russia investigation reaches fever pitchShareblue Media ABC News -Merced Sun-Star -Pew Research Center for the People and the Press all 171 news articles » |
Daily Beast |
Russia Gave to Citgo, Then Citgo Gave to Trump
Daily Beast Recently released Federal Election Commission filings show that Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (known as PDVSA) gave Trump more money than Shell or Walmart. The donation is unusual for PDVSA: Citgo ... |
NPR |
FBI Investigates Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort's Ties To Russia
NPR As the Trump administration settles in, questions continue to pop up about a figure from last year's campaign: Paul Manafort. Why do his business dealings continue to stir such interest? Who is he, really? AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: As President Trump nears ... and more » |
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The first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency have been chaotic and unpredictable. Reporters who covered it recount the events that dominated the news. (Alice Li,Jayne Orenstein,Julio Negron/The Washington Post)
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been chaotic and unpredictable. Reporters who covered it recount the events that dominated the news. The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been chaotic and unpredictable. Reporters who covered it recount the events that dominated the news. (Alice Li, Jayne Orenstein, Julio Negron/The Washington Post)
As of this morning, Donald Trump has been president of the United States for 100 days.
It's a period of time that has clearly humbled Trump — in his own uniquely Trump way — and also humbled the political establishment. It's caused all of us to continually rethink everything we thought we knew about American politics, in real time, and attempt to adjust.
Yes, 100 days is an arbitrary line, but it's also as good a time as any to step back and reflect on what we and President Trump have been through so far. And given Trump's 100th day falls on a weekend, we thought some light reading was in order.
Below are some winners and losers, with the losers up first.
LOSERS
President Trump
The first 100 days weren't good for Trump, objectively. And judging by his comments about his learning curve, he knows it. He has one signature accomplishment in confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. But he has no significant legislative victories; three of his big executive orders have been halted by the courts; and his approval rating at 100 days is the lowest of any president in the modern era, by double digits. To top it all off, this was a president who promised to do huge things and do them quickly — now he's breaking promises almost weekly.
To pitch Trump's first 100 days as a success, the White House has resorted to citing highly misleading statistics and even bragging about how many executive orders Trump has signed — executive orders that Trump could sign thousands of if he wanted to and that he referred to in the past as the sign of a weak president. That just about says it all.
Paul D. Ryan
The House speaker from Wisconsin, once a Trump skeptic, has certainly been along for the ride over the first 100 days. He has a reputation as a serious policy wonk and was hailed as the one Republican who could unite the party when he agreed to become speaker. Both of those perceived talents have been seriously called into doubt. Ryan's efforts to pass a health-care bill never seemed close to succeeding, and the decision to try to rekindle that failed bill in recent weeks looks like a strange one right now.
It seems as though Ryan is allowing Trump to set the agenda and is doing his best to be a team player. But he's not looking like the skilled and serious politician who came into the speakership with such high hopes. Oh, and he's even more unpopular than Trump, with 29 percent approving of him and 54 percent disapproving, according to Pew.
Democratic unity
Being powerless is not fun. And as Democrats try to pick up the pieces after a disastrous 2016 election — and face a historically grim picture in state governments across the country — they're fighting over how to move forward. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) questioned the progressivism of Georgia special election House candidate Jon Ossoff. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez suggested that all Democrats had to support abortion rights. Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized former president Barack Obama for taking $400,000 for a recent Wall Street speech. And progressives complained about the lack of party help in a surprisingly close Kansas special election. Democrats have long had a reputation for being an unwieldy political party; without a true leader right now, they're confirming our stereotypes.
Non-interventionism
Remember when Trump was the guy playing up his claimed opposition to the Iraq War and promising to get us out of foreign conflicts so we could focus on “America first”? That same president has now launched unprecedented strikes against the Syrian government, put Iran “on notice,” and engaged in a war of words with North Korea while warning about the very real possibility of a “major, major conflict” there. When Trump struck Syria, he almost seemed mesmerized by the power at his fingertips, recounting how he launched the missiles over dessert (“the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake”) with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Whatever you think of Trump's posture toward adversaries, it's the kind of talk that could one day mean Trump will have to put his military where his mouth is. And that's not really the non-interventionist foreign policy he ran on.
Stephen K. Bannon
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, right, and adviser Stephen K. Bannon, left, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 23. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
There is plenty of legend and lore surrounding Bannon, the former Breitbart News executive who took over Trump's campaign in the general election and then ascended to the post of chief White House strategist. Bannon's nationalist politics and past embrace of the alt-right have made him a controversial and unloved figure — but one that Trump apparently relied upon and trusted. That's now no longer a given, after Trump delivered a rare public rebuke of Bannon and even questioned his importance in the 2016 election. “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump told the New York Post earlier this month. (Ouch.) Bannon is still in the White House, but his role sure seems to be diminished, which was pretty unthinkable 100 days ago.
WINNERS
Obamacare
It turns out all that Trump's predecessor had to do to make Obamacare popular was to leave office and have Republicans prepare to repeal it! The Affordable Care Act has never polled better, with some surveys even showing a majority of Americans approve of it. Even more, the law has proven resilient in the face of GOP efforts to overhaul it. Republicans quickly gave up altogether on repealing it and are now trying to figure out how to replace it — with a somewhat similar, government-oriented alternative. But even that doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon, as both moderate and conservative Republicans balk.
The GOP's Supreme Court dreams
The court returned to its nominal 5-4 conservative majority when Trump nominee Gorsuch was confirmed earlier this month. And in Gorsuch's wake lay the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. Democrats, incensed by the treatment of Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland last year and itching for a fight, opted to try to stop Gorsuch, even though he was the kind of nominee that usually sails through confirmation. The result: The GOP simply continued what Democrats started in 2013 and rolled back the filibuster rules. Now, if a liberal justice retires anytime soon (as seems quite possible), Republicans will need only 50 votes to confirm a justice who could tip the court clearly in their favor for years to come.
Democrats' 2018 hopes
The minority party hasn't yet pulled off a big upset in a special election, but signs are pointing to an animated Democratic voting base and a real chance to seize upon Trump's historic unpopularity in the 2018 midterms. In Kansas, Democrats lost by just seven points in a district Trump carried by 27 points. As the chart below from Daily Kos Elections shows, that's a huge under-performance for the GOP.
And in Georgia, even though Democrat Jon Ossoff didn't win the 6th District House seat outright and avoid a runoff, he approached 50 percent just like Hillary Clinton in a conservative district — one that Republicans who are not named Trump usually win with 60 percent-plus. If Democrats can win these kinds of anti-Trump suburban districts, they'll have a fighting chance to win the majority.
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Keeping up with politics is easy now.
The Trump White House is marked by seemingly constant backbiting and infighting, with nobody knowing who will emerge as the most influential advisers. But for now, that appears to be Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who has asserted power as the embattled Bannon has sunk. We have yet to see Kushner's reportedly more pragmatic, politically moderate worldview come through in Trump's policies, but for now he seems to have Trump's ear. And having Trump's ear means a lot.
Trump's base strategy
Trump is unpopular, yes. He hasn't accomplished what he promised, yes. And things don't seem likely to get easier, either. But he's still in the game. And that's because he's got a base that just won't quit him. A Washington Post-ABC News poll last weekend showed just 2 percent of Trump voters thought he was a worse president than they expected, while 66 percent thought he was a better one. And 96 percent said they'd vote for him again.
Trump has broken his promises on all kinds of things that were important to his base, including prosecuting Clinton over her emails, repealing Obamacare, labeling China a currency manipulator, etc., etc. But while his overall approval rating is bad, having his base intact keeps him powerful in the Republican Party, and that means he can still get things done. Trump's ability to be a successful president in his next 100 days will be highly dependent upon how he leverages that.
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A look at President Trump’s first 100 days
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The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media.
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The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media.
March 17, 2017 President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, walk to Marine One at the White House en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
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Breitbart News |
Trump, Russia Optimistic About Improving Relations After First 100 Days
Breitbart News Relations between the U.S. and Russia seemed to sour after Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on the Syrian regime — Russia's ally in the Middle East, after the U.S. military provided evidence showing it conducted a chemical weapons attack that ... Commentary: Why Trump should mend ties with RussiaReuters Rhetoric isn't working -- Trump needs to speak with PutinCNN all 11 news articles » |
Getty
A veteran federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia has been tapped to temporarily oversee the Justice Department division handling the ongoing probe into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Dana Boente's new assignment as Justice's acting attorney general for national security comes fast on the heels of his most recent high-profile task: serving as the acting deputy attorney general. Rod Rosenstein was sworn in as Justice's No. 2 official on Wednesday, freeing Boente of those responsibilities.
Boente had also unexpectedly became the acting attorney general for a time earlier this year after the holdover Obama appointee was fired by President Donald Trump.
"Dana Boente has been a dedicated public servant for decades and has served in important leadership roles in the Department of Justice,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “In recent months, he has provided extraordinary leadership during the transition period. I am pleased that he has agreed to continue his service by leading our efforts to keep America safe."
Boente will continue to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a post to which he was confirmed under President Barack Obama in 2015. The office has jurisdiction over the Pentagon, the CIA and other security agencies in Northern Virginia, so it often handles high-profileespionage, leak and terrorism cases — the same kinds of cases overseen by Justice's National Security Division.
Although well-known and respected in prosecutorial circles, Boente toiled in relative obscurity until late January, when he was abruptly named acting attorney general after Trump fired Obama appointee and deputy attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to defend Trump's first travel ban executive order in court.
In a statement at the time, the White House said Yates' stance "betrayed" the Justice Department. Boente, who has worked for the Justice Department since 1984, said he would defend the order.
The last confirmed head of the National Security Division, John Carlin, resigned last October. He was replaced on an acting basis by his deputy, Mary McCord. McCord announced her resignation earlier this month.
Former British agent who compiled piss dossier shared his findings with UK intelligence back in December
Death and Taxes - 5 hours ago
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled the piss dossier, sent the file to UK intelligence officials back in December, according to court documents. While the dossier had shared among U.S. politicians and obtained by several news ...
UK Government was handed dossier on Donald Trump links to Russia last year, court papers reveal
The Independent - 2 hours ago
The British Government was passed the dossier detailing alleged collusion between the Kremlin and Donald Trump back in December, it has emerged. The collection of memos, which alleges the existence of a Russian programme "cultivating, supporting and ...
Christopher Steele gave Trump dossier to British official
New York Daily News - 7 hours ago
A copy of the highly scrutinized dossier that alleges ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was handed over to a UK intelligence official last year. Christopher Steele, the retired MI6 agent who compiled the dossier, gave a hard copy last December ...
Government told of Trump's connections to the Kremlin 'in December'
<a href="http://PoliticsHome.com" rel="nofollow">PoliticsHome.com</a> - 14 hours ago
The UK Government was made aware of contact between Donald Trump's campaign for President of the United States and the Kremlin in December, it has been revealed. The UK government found out about Trump's alleged links to Russia in December last ...
UK spy documents: Trump Organization paid Russian hackers who took orders from Putin
Raw Story - 20 hours ago
Last December, the U.K. government was reportedly given extensive records of Trump campaign officials' interactions with the Kremlin. The Guardian reported former MI6 agent Christopher Steele's infamous dossier about possible collusion between the ...
British government 'told of Christopher Steele allegations of contacts between Donald Trump campaign and Moscow'
Telegraph.co.uk - Apr 28, 2017
Mr Steele was behind a dossier that emerged in January alleging the links, which Mr Trump's campaign denied. Mr Steele and his company are currently defending a defamation case in the High Court in London brought by a Russian venture capitalist named ...
UK was given details of alleged contacts between Trump campaign and Moscow
The Guardian - Apr 28, 2017
Reports of possible collusion between the Trump administration and the Kremlin have led to a political storm in the US. Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AP. Trump administration. UK was given details of alleged contacts between Trump campaign and Moscow.
Ex-spy admits anti-Trump dossier unverified, blames Buzzfeed for publishing
Washington Times - Apr 28, 2017
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up as he walks down the steps of Air Force One at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Trump is heading to Kenosha, Wis., to visit the headquarters of tool manufacturer ...
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· · · ·
Raw Story |
UK spy documents: Trump Organization paid Russian hackers who ...
Raw Story Last December, the U.K. government was reportedly given extensive records of Trump campaign officials' interactions with the Kremlin. The Guardian reported ... Christopher Steele gave Trump dossier to British officialNew York Daily News UK was given details of alleged contacts between Trump campaign ...The Guardian Christopher Steele admits dossier charge unverified - Washington ...Washington Times all 6 news articles » |
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Newsday |
Russia election-meddling probe clouds Trump's first 100 days
Newsday Trump and his aides deny they worked with Russia on the election. Trump has dismissed the allegations as “fake news” and “a political witch hunt.” And Trump accused President Barack Obama and his officials of leaking classified documents and conducting ... 100 days of Russia drama for the Trump White House, with no end in sightCNN Donald Trump's First 100 Days: Hillary Clinton Would Be in Awe, Says RussianSenatorsNewsweek Trump's first 100 days: At least 12 White House officials lost their jobs due to ethics violations orRussia tiesThe Independent Vox -USA TODAY -New York Daily News -YouTube all 1,835 news articles » |
CNN |
Schumer: If White House interferes in Russia probe, it is 'possibly criminal'
CNN (CNN) The Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, cautioned President Donald Trump from trying to interfere in Congress' investigations of Russian meddling into the US election last year, saying it would be "possibly criminal," and encouraged ... and more » |
The Guardian |
UK was given details of alleged contacts between Trump campaign and Moscow
The Guardian A statement by Steele's defence lawyers, endorsed by the former MI6 agent, said Orbis was hired between June and November last year by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research consultancy to look into Trump's links with Russia. In that period, Steele ... Ex-spy admits anti-Trump dossier unverified, blames Buzzfeed for publishingWashington Times all 2 news articles » |
Politico (blog) |
New chief named for Justice Department unit probing Trump-Russia ties
Politico (blog) A veteran federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia has been tapped to temporarily oversee the Justice Department division handling the ongoing probe into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Dana Boente's new assignment as ... and more » |
New York Daily News |
Christopher Steele gave Trump dossier to British official
New York Daily News A copy of the highly scrutinized dossier that alleges ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was handed over to a UK intelligence official last year. Christopher Steele, the retired MI6 agent who compiled the dossier, gave a hard copy last December ... and more » |
Mondoweiss |
Why not a probe of Israel-gate?
Mondoweiss Money, of course, has become the lifeblood of American politics – and American supporters of Israel have been particularly strategic in how they have exploited that reality. One of Israel's most .... NED president Carl Gershman, a neoconservative who ... |
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Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who investigated Donald Trump’s alleged Kremlin links, was so worried by what he was discovering that at the end he was working without pay, The Independent has learned.
Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries.
However, say security sources, Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him. He came to believe there was a cover-up, that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Donald Trump says unverified claims are blot on intelligence agencies
It is believed that a colleague of Mr Steele in Washington, Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who runs the firm Fusion GPS, felt the same way and, at the end also continued with the Trump case without being paid.
Fusion GPS had been hired by Republican opponents of Mr Trump in September 2015. In June 2016 Mr Steele came on the team. He was, and continues to be, highly regarded in the intelligence world. In July, Mr Trump won the Republican nomination and the Democrats became new employers of Mr Steele and Fusion GPS.
In the same month Mr Steele produced a memo, which went to the FBI, stating that Mr Trump’s campaign team had agreed to a Russian request to dilute attention on Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine. Four days later Mr Trump stated that he would recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, officials involved in his campaign having already asked the Republican party’s election platform to remove a pledge for military assistance to the Ukrainian government against separatist rebels in the east of the country.
Mr Steele claimed that the Trump campaign was taking this path because it was aware that the Russians were hacking Democratic Party emails. No evidence of this has been made public, but the same day that Mr Trump spoke about Crimea he called on the Kremlin to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.
By late July and early August MI6 was also receiving information about Mr Trump. By September, information to the FBI began to grow in volume: Mr Steele compiled a set of his memos into one document and passed it to his contacts at the FBI. But there seemed to be little progress in a proper inquiry into Mr Trump. The Bureau, instead, seemed to be devoting their resources in the pursuit of Hillary Clinton’s email transgressions.
The New York office, in particular, appeared to be on a crusade against Ms Clinton. Some of its agents had a long working relationship with Rudy Giuliani, by then a member of the Trump campaign, since his days as public prosecutor and then Mayor of the city.
As the election approached, FBI director James Comey made public his bombshell letter saying that Ms Clinton would face another email investigation. Two days before that Mr Giuliani, then a part of the Trump team, talked about “a surprise or two you’re going to hear about in the next few days. We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn things around”.
CNN anchor calls out Trump team over criticism of Russia allegations
After the letter was published Mr Giuliani claimed he had heard from current and former agents that “there’s a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI” over the original decision not to charge Ms Clinton and that Mr Comey had been forced by some of his agents to announce the reinvestigation. Democrats demanded an investigation into how Mr Giuliani acquired this knowledge without getting an answer.
In October a frustrated and demoralised Mr Steele, while on a trip to New York, spoke about what he has discovered to David Corn, the Washington editor of the magazine Mother Jones. There was a little flurry of interest that quickly died down.
Mr Trump’s surprise election victory came and the Democrat employers of Mr Steele and Mr Johnson no longer needed them. But the pair continued with their work, hopeful that the wider investigation into Russian hacking in the US would allow the Trump material to be properly examined.
It was against this background that Senator John McCain, who had been hearing with growing alarm reports about Mr Trump and the Kremlin, met Sir Andrew Wood, a former British ambassador to Moscow, who had spent 10 years in Russia and is highly respected for his knowledge of Russian affairs, at a security conference in Halifax, Canada.
Sir Andrew stressed to Senator McCain that he had not read the dossier, but vouched for Mr Steele’s professionalism and integrity. The chair of the Senate Armed Forces Committee then sent an emissary to London who picked up the dossier from an intermediary acting on behalf of Mr Steele. The Senator personally took the material to Mr Comey.
Mr Trump and Barack Obama were briefed about the allegations as part of a report into Russian hacking a week ago. Mr Trump remained silent about them until they were published this week and then he angrily denounced them as lies. His spokesperson said he could not recall the briefing.
Mr Steele is now in hiding, under attack from some Tory MPs for supposedly trying to ruin the chances of Theresa May’s Government building a fruitful relationship with the Trump administration. Some of them accuse him of being part of an anti-Brexit conspiracy. A right-wing tabloid has “outed” him as being a “confirmed socialist” while at university.
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· · · ·
The British Government was passed the dossier detailing alleged collusion between the Kremlin and Donald Trump back in December, it has emerged.
The collection of memos, which alleges the existence of a Russian programme "cultivating, supporting and assisting" Mr Trump to the presidency, was compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele.
It was known to have circulated among intelligence officials and top politicians in Washington, and the Guardian now reports that Mr Steele's court filings state he shared the memo with a British "national security official" in their official capacity.
Ex-MI6 agent behind Trump Russia dossier breaks silence
Unconfirmed reports in the document, which Mr Steele previously told The Independent had been passed to British authorities, cover "at least" five years of communication, co-operation and conspiracy between Mr Trump's camp and Russian intelligence officials.
Sources also claim that Moscow is capable of blackmailing the new president, and detail "perverted sexual acts" committed by the new President as evidence.
According to his court papers, Mr Steele decided to hand the dossier over "on a confidential basis in hard copy form" to the British intelligence services because it "had implications for the national security of the US and the UK", as well as being "of considerable importance in relation to alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election".
The dossier came into the public eye when it was published by Buzzfeed, who stressed they were "unverified and potentially unverifiable".
Mr Trump dismissed the wide-ranging allegations as "fake news", and a Russian businessman named in the dossier has brought a defamation lawsuit against Mr Steele and his private investigation company, Orbis Business Intelligence. The same venture capitalist is also suing Buzzfeed.
Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons
Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons
1/33
Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists2/33
Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea3/33
Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un4/33
Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe5/33
Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt6/33
The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group7/33
Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals8/33
Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership9/33
Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy10/33
Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere11/33
The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state12/33
Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states13/33
One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party14/33
Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows15/33
A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House16/33
Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office17/33
The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism18/33
The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President19/33
Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed20/33
Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country21/33
Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally22/33
Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia23/33
North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power24/33
Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK25/33
When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge"26/33
A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House27/33
Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban28/33
Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests29/33
Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President30/33
British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President31/33
One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts"32/33
British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's33/33
Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad
Mr Steele originally compiled the report for political opponents of Mr Trump in Washington, and was forced to go into hiding after being identified as its author.
He has only once spoken in public since the explosive dossier went public, giving a brief statement as he returned to work after going into hiding, and has refused to visit the US for fear of recriminations from the White House.
But the case against Orbis, which is being heard in London, has forced the former MI6 spy to reveal more details about the year he spent gathering evidence on the billionaire tycoon's alleged connections to Moscow.
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· · · · · · · ·
The Independent |
UK Government was handed dossier on Donald Trump links to Russia last year, court papers reveal
The Independent The British Government was passed the dossier detailing alleged collusion between the Kremlin and Donald Trump back in December, it has emerged. The collection of memos, which alleges the existence of a Russian programme "cultivating, supporting and ... |
Press Herald |
Facebook recognizes political attacks
Press Herald NEW YORK — Facebook is acknowledging that governments or other malicious non-state actors are using its social network to influence political sentiment in ways that could affect national elections. It's a long way from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's assertion ... and more » |
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How the world sees Trump, 100 days in
CNN (CNN) The world was dumbfounded by the election of Donald Trump, and his first 100 days in office have done little to alleviate a deep sense of uncertainty and unpredictability. Indeed, as one observer put it, the last few weeks alone have caused a ... and more » |
BBC News |
Russian authorities detain dozens at anti-Putin rallies
BBC News Russian authorities have detained dozens of protesters at rallies demanding that President Vladimir Putin should not seek re-election next year. At least 30 people were reported to have been held in St Petersburg and more than 16 in the southern city ... and more » |
Fox News |
Russian rallies urge Putin not to run again; dozens arrested
Fox News Under the slogan "I'm fed up," demonstrators urging Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term rallied in cities across Russia on Saturday. Dozens were arrested in St. Petersburg and elsewhere. The centerpiece rally in Moscow went peacefully, despite ... and more » |
Russian law enforcers search Open Russia NGO's office in Moscow ...
TASS-Apr 27, 2017
... at the Otkrytaya Rossiya [Open Russia] office," the source said. ... of the Open Russia movement at a conference in Tallinn on April 15, 2017.
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· ·
Dozens of protesters calling on Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term as president have been arrested by helmeted visor-wearing police in cities across Russia.
The unauthorised demonstrations saw Putin opponents rally under the slogan 'I'm fed up'.
Although a rally in Moscow passed peacefully, imposing-looking officers were seen leading demonstrators away in St Petersburg and other Russian cities.
A journalist is detained by visor-wearing police during an anti-Putin rally in St Petersburg today, called by opposition group Open Russia
A demonstrator is arrested at the Open Russia demonstration in St Petersburg today, where protesters called on Putin not to stand for re-election next year
A woman waves as she is led away by Russian police at the demonstration in St Petersburg today calling for Putin not to seek re-election
A woman is detained by helmeted police at a demonstration in St Petersburg today, organised by opposition group Open Russia
Putin has yet to announce whether he plans to run for president again next year.
Several hundred people rallied in Moscow before moving to the nearby presidential administration building to present letters telling Putin to stand down from running in 2018.
The OVD-Info group, which monitors political oppression, claims 20 people were arrested at a rally in Tula, and 14 at Kemerovo.
A man is forcibly detained by a helmeted Russian police officer in St Petersburg, where witnesses said a large number of arrests were made at an anti-Putin demonstration
Police wearing visors and heavy-duty uniforms block protesters in St Petersburg, where an anti-Putin rally led to a large number of arrests today
Large numbers of Russian police officers formed a long line as they faced opponents of president Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg today
The unauthorised rally in St Petersburg saw large groups of police face down protesters calling for Vladimir Putin not to stand in next year's election
Russian 'stormtroopers' drag away protestors at rally
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The demonstrations were called for by Open Russia, an organization started by Kremlin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
As an oil tycoon, Khodorkovsky was once listed as Russia's richest man, but his political ambitions put him at odds with the Kremlin.
He was arrested in 2003 and served 10 years in prison on tax-evasion and fraud convictions that supporters say were political persecution.
In Moscow, where demonstrations passed peacefully, large numbers of Interior Ministry officers were on hand
Officers in riot gear cordoned off streets in downtown Moscow today as a demonstration was held calling on Putin not to stand again
Open Russia movement coordinator Maria Baronova (centre) seen during an unauthorized rally organized by the Otkrytaya Rossiya [Open Russia] movement
Police officers in helmets and visors were highly visible in Moscow today as protesters took to the street and delivered a letter demanding Putin not stand again
He was pardoned in 2013, left the country and revived Open Russia as a British-based organization.
On Wednesday, Russia's Prosecutor-General banned Open Russia as an undesirable foreign organization.
But the group's Moscow branch says it is administratively separate and not subject to the ban.
PARNAS Party activist Mark Galperin (centre) seen during an unauthorized rally organized by the Otkrytaya Rossiya [Open Russia] movement
An unauthorised rally was held in Moscow calling on Vladimir Putin not to stand to be president again next year
There was a huge police presence in the Russian capital, where demonstrators made their feelings about the Russian president clear
Putin has dominated Russian politics since becoming president on New Year's Eve 1999, when Boris Yeltsin resigned.
Even when he stepped away from the Kremlin to become prime minister between 2008 and 2012 because of term limits, he remained effectively Russia's leader.
Today's demonstrations were smaller in size than nationwide protests on Wednesday, but demonstrate the scale of anti-Putin sentiment in the country.
The predominance of young people in those protests challenges the belief that the generation that grew up under Putin's heavy hand had become apolitical or disheartened.
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· · · · · ·
Putin's helmeted stormtroopers arrest dissenters
Daily Mail Dozens of protesters calling on Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term as president have been arrested by helmeted visor-wearing police in cities across Russia. The unauthorised demonstrations saw Putin opponents rally under the slogan 'I'm fed up'. and more » |
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Russian authorities detain dozens at anti-Putin rallies
BBC News-2 hours ago
Russian authorities have detained dozens of protesters at rallies demanding that President Vladimir Putin should not seek re-election next year ...
Russian authorities make additional arrests at anti-Putin rally in ...
JerusalemOnline-Apr 2, 2017
Today (Sunday), an additional anti-Putin demonstration took place in Moscow and the police made arrests. At least 29 people were arrested a ...
Anti-Putin Children's Crusade: Activist Bribes 20K Teens to Flood ...
Observer-Apr 14, 2017
Riot police officers detain a teenager during an unauthorized anti-Putin rally in central Moscow on March 26, 2017. Thousands of Russians ...
Alexei Navalny on Putin's Russia: 'All autocratic regimes come to an ...
The Guardian-11 hours ago
Navalny in court after his arrest during a protest rally in Moscow last .... are aware that he is the best hope for swelling anti-Putin sentiment.
Read the whole story
· ·
Russian rallies urge Putin not to run again; dozens arrested
Fox News-2 hours ago
Under the slogan "I'm fed up," demonstrators urging Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term rallied in cities across Russia on Saturday.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Trump's First 100 Days, Ranked
POLITICO Magazine - 6 hours ago
Many of us political scribes are sizing up the meaning of President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office with long essays about foreign policy evolutions or executive orders or presidential temperament. But I thought: What better way to mark the ...
Trump floods the zone for 100-day anniversary
The Hill - 1 hour ago
President Trump has been flooding the zone at the end of his first 100 days in office, generating a final burst of activity meant to send signal a vibrant White House. Trump has signed a flurry of new executive orders while sending policy signals on ...
On his 100th day in office, President Trump is still running a bare-bones government
Vox - 4 hours ago
President Donald Trump is barreling into his 100th day in office, and the federal government remains a bare-bones operation. There are 549 key positions in Trump's administration that require Senate confirmation. Trump has yet to nominate anyone to 468 ...
100 Days of Whoppers
<a href="http://FactCheck.org" rel="nofollow">FactCheck.org</a> - 6 hours ago
Donald Trump, the candidate we dubbed the 'King of Whoppers' in 2015, has held true to form as president. By Brooks Jackson; Posted on April 29, 2017. Summary. Donald Trump — whom we crowned the “King of Whoppers” when he was a long-shot ...
A snapshot of Trump's first 100 days: summarized in numbers
Yahoo News - 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON — In his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has produced hundreds of tweets, fired scores of rockets at Syria, signed dozens of executive orders, made one big move on the Supreme Court and signed no major legislation.
Read the whole story
· ·
In private life, Mr. Trump was accustomed to negotiations based on the simple reality that everyone involved shared the same objective: profit. He has struggled to bargain with legislators, who want to satisfy many constituencies and have conflicting notions of the national interest. In that sense, legislative deals require far more art than commercial ones, and for that reason, Mr. Trump has found himself in over his head. This week, after congressional Democrats called his bluff, threatening a government shutdown rather than acceding to his bluster, he slunk away from a demand that Congress start paying for his wasteful border wall — you know, the one Mexico has refused to pay for.
“I thought it would be easier,” Mr. Trump admitted about his job to Reuters this week.
Does he show any signs of learning on the job? In fact, yes. He has backed off dangerous pledges like tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and accusing China of manipulating its currency. He replaced his first national security adviser — the cartoonish Michael Flynn, who turned out to have been on not only the Russian payroll but also the Turkish one — with the formidable Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster.
But since his risible assertion of “American carnage” in the streets during his Inaugural Address, Mr. Trump has continually fomented fear and bullied vulnerable groups, particularly unauthorized immigrants. He has shown no interest in reaching beyond the minority of Americans who elected him, one reason his approval ratings are the lowest on record for a president at this point in his term.
And what of his central campaign pledge, to make America great again, presumably by creating vast numbers of jobs for those who helped elect him? This may prove the emptiest of his promises. The giant infrastructure program, which would indeed yield jobs, is nowhere to be seen. In its place are proposed tax cuts to benefit mainly the wealthy and photo-op executive orders to deregulate energy businesses that, even if sustained by the courts — a long shot — will merely enrich the likes of the Koch brothers.
Yet if his ratings are dismal, the other measure Mr. Trump has always lived by — his revenue — is booming, as he uses the presidency to promote his properties. His determination to leverage his office to expand his commercial empire is the only objective to which Americans, after 100 days, can be confident this president will stay true.
Continue reading the main story
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In Spain, thanks to the success of the "clubs" that have cropped up since 2011, cannabis has become a gold mine. From by-products such as cannabis lollipops and drinks, to specialised clinics and tourism, an entire economy has flourished around the plant, even though its production remains illegal in Spain. Our reporters explored both the public and hidden side of this booming activity.
It all began in 2011, when cannabis lovers managed to exploit a flaw in Spain’s anti-smoking legislation allowing them to consume cannabis in enclosed and private spaces. The state has turned a blind eye to these non-profit associations, where only registered members have the right to smoke freely. Since then, "cannabis clubs" have flourished throughout Spain.
Today, there are as many as 700 of them across the country, bringing together hundreds of thousands of "associates" and handling millions of euros each year. From the sale of by-products to tourism and medicinal care, this "green gold" has generated an entire economy.
But the paradox is that cannabis production remains illegal in Spain. In order to supply the clubs’ members, creativity is a must. That's where we discovered the hidden side of this industry. In order for the clubs’ owners to open their doors to us and for the main industry players to agree to appear on camera, we had to gain their trust.
Most of the people we met are in their thirties and are fluent in the language of communications and marketing, perfectly aware of what can – and cannot – be shown and said on camera. Conscious of their contribution to the Spanish economy, they are now determined to use their full influence so that cannabis is legalised in Spain, just like in some US states such as Colorado. They have every hope that in this regard, Spain will become a model for the rest of Europe.
FRANCE 24’s reporters take you on a discovery of the little-known world of Spain’s legal cannabis business.
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
http://f24.my/youtubeEN
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.Eng...
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http://f24.my/youtubeEN
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http://f24.my/YTliveEN
In Spain, thanks to the success of the "clubs" that have cropped up since 2011, cannabis has become a gold mine. From by-products such as cannabis lollipops and drinks, to specialised clinics and tourism, an entire economy has flourished around the plant, even though its production remains illegal in Spain. Our reporters explored both the public and hidden side of this booming activity.
It all began in 2011, when cannabis lovers managed to exploit a flaw in Spain’s anti-smoking legislation allowing them to consume cannabis in enclosed and private spaces. The state has turned a blind eye to these non-profit associations, where only registered members have the right to smoke freely. Since then, "cannabis clubs" have flourished throughout Spain.
Today, there are as many as 700 of them across the country, bringing together hundreds of thousands of "associates" and handling millions of euros each year. From the sale of by-products to tourism and medicinal care, this "green gold" has generated an entire economy.
But the paradox is that cannabis production remains illegal in Spain. In order to supply the clubs’ members, creativity is a must. That's where we discovered the hidden side of this industry. In order for the clubs’ owners to open their doors to us and for the main industry players to agree to appear on camera, we had to gain their trust.
Most of the people we met are in their thirties and are fluent in the language of communications and marketing, perfectly aware of what can – and cannot – be shown and said on camera. Conscious of their contribution to the Spanish economy, they are now determined to use their full influence so that cannabis is legalised in Spain, just like in some US states such as Colorado. They have every hope that in this regard, Spain will become a model for the rest of Europe.
FRANCE 24’s reporters take you on a discovery of the little-known world of Spain’s legal cannabis business.
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
http://f24.my/youtubeEN
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.Eng...
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Read the whole story
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Washington Post |
Trump is now talking about consolidating his power
Washington Post President Trump has suggested that the judiciary doesn't have the authority to question him. He was a very early proponent of nuking the filibuster for Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. And he recently raised eyebrows by congratulating Turkish ... and more » |
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