News Reviews and Opinions - Blog by Michael Novakhov

U.S. Representative Leonard Lance, who has held more than 40 town hall-style meetings with constituents in his central New Jersey district, has never faced a crowd like he did on Wednesday. The Republican endured catcalls, chants and caustic questions from more than 1,000 residents at a local college, while hundreds of others outside brandished signs with messages like "Resist Trump." Parallel scenes have played out across the country this week during the first congressional recess since Donald Trump became president. Republican lawmakers returning home confronted a wave of anger over a spectrum of issues, including immigration, health care and Trump's possible ties to Russia. The raucous meetings are the latest in a relentless series of rallies, marches and protests that shows no signs of abating more than 30 days into the new administration. The anti-Trump energy has prompted talk of a liberal-style Tea Party movement, in reference to the protests in 2009 that helped reshape the Republican Party and arguably laid the groundwork for Trump's surprise electoral victory last year. "Some of the lessons to draw from that are persistence, repetition, not taking 'no' for an answer," said Victoria Kaplan, the organizing director for the grassroots progressive group MoveOn. Since the day after Trump's inauguration, when millions of protesters joined women's marches worldwide, left-wing organizers have sought to harness that anger to fuel a lasting political campaign. Hundreds of progressive groups have sprung up across the country - some affiliated with national organizations like Indivisible or MoveOn - to help coordinate. At town halls in New Jersey and Virginia this week, constituents came armed with red "disagree" signs they held aloft to register their disapproval of what they heard from their representatives. Some U.S. senators, such as Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, have faced weekly protests outside their offices, and a Pennsylvania health care network set up a "town hall" this week with an empty suit in place of Toomey, who declined to attend. More marches are scheduled across the country in the coming months, including several major events in Washington, tied to gay rights, science and a push for Trump to release his tax returns. Just the beginning? The sheer volume of protests - last week, there were three nationwide calls for action within a five-day span - has some political observers wondering how long it can last. But several experts who study protests said the level of outrage may be increasing, rather than subsiding, after a tumultuous first month in which Trump's words and actions created fresh outrage among liberals almost daily. "We're not anywhere near reaching a saturation point for protest," said Michael Heaney, the author of "Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11" and a University of Michigan professor. "If anything, it's just getting started." The key for organizers is to convert large-scale protests into sustained action by building databases of names and encouraging locally based events, experts said. "You can't just have the diehards," said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland professor who studies collective action. "And then you need to channel them into new types of activism." When Fisher surveyed participants at the women's march in Washington, she found one-third were attending their first protest - the highest percentage she has ever observed. "This is unprecedented," she said. "But there's nothing that's not unprecedented about the Trump presidency." Some Republicans have dismissed the protests as manufactured. Trump on Tuesday tweeted that "so-called angry crowds" in Republicans' districts were "planned out by liberal activists." ‘Firing on all cylinders’ But Kaplan of MoveOn said the vast majority of actions were "organic." A weekly conference call the group hosts to discuss the movement has attracted a bigger number of participants each week, with 46,000 people joining the latest discussion. "We are firing on all cylinders to catch up" with grassroots protests, she said. "That is a demonstration of energy and sustainability." Experts also said social media has made it far easier to organize mass protests quickly and efficiently. In what Kaplan said was a sign the protests are having an impact, many Republicans have eschewed town halls this week to avoid confrontations. There were fewer than 100 in-person Republican town halls scheduled for the first two months of the year, compared with more than 200 in the same period in 2015, according to a Vice report. In Louisiana on Wednesday, residents shouted down Republican Senator Bill Cassidy as he tried to explain his health care proposal. Scott Taylor, a freshman Republican representative in Virginia, sparred with hundreds of impassioned constituents on Monday at his own event. Like Lance, whose district voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, Taylor is already a midterm target for Democrats. Taylor said in an interview after the town hall that he recognized many of the attendees from the local Democratic Party. "It's not like they're just some new organic people who just came about and are concerned," Taylor said. But not everyone was a Democrat. Austin Phillips, a 22-year-old Trump voter, told Taylor at the town hall he was worried about losing healthcare coverage if Obamacare is repealed. "Trump has talked about wanting to repeal it," Phillips, who is self-employed and purchased insurance through an exchange created by the law, said in a later interview. "If they quickly repeal it with no replacement lined up, then theoretically everybody would lose their insurance."

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RSS for National Security: While U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to alleviate Mexico's concerns during a visit to Mexico City, President Donald Trump was fanning them ...
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:34 PM

Puerto Rico News - Selected Feeds Review

While U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to alleviate Mexico's concerns during a visit to Mexico City, President Donald Trump was fanning them further with tough talk about "getting really bad dudes out of this country at a rate nobody has ...

RSS for National Security

Voice of America: Heroin Overdose Deaths Quadruple Between 2010 and 2015: Study by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:33 PM

Russia News Review

Deaths caused by heroin overdoses in the United States quadrupled between 2010 and 2015, according to a new report. The National Center for Health Statistics says there were 12,989 overdose deaths involving heroin in 2015. In 2010, the number was 3,036. In percentages, heroin caused 8 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2010, and now it accounts for 25 percent. The center cites dropping prices and increasing potency for the rise in deaths. Furthermore, experts say they believe the opioid epidemic caused by prescription painkillers may also be driving people to use heroin as the drug is usually much cheaper. "You are 40 times more likely to use heroin if you started with opioid painkillers," Rich Hamburg, the executive vice president for the non-profit Trust for America’s Health, told the Reuters news agency. "Heroin is part of America's larger drug abuse problem." Death from overdosing on prescription painkillers like oxycodone actually fell over the period of the study, dropping from 29 percent of all overdose deaths in 2010 to 24 percent in 2015. Overdoses deaths from cocaine also fell, albeit slightly, the study said. The states with the highest rates of overdose deaths in 2015 were West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio, the study found. Overdose deaths increased for all age groups, but rose the most among those 55 to 64, the study said.

Voice of America

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Officials: Trump adviser asked FBI to dispute Russia reportsby By JULIE PACE
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:32 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked top FBI officials to dispute media reports that Donald Trump's campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, according to three White House officials who confirmed the unusual contact with law enforcement involved in a pending investigation....

FBI issues warning of FBI phone number scam - KSAT San Antonio
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:31 PM

FBI News Review

KSAT San Antonio

FBI issues warning of FBI phone number scam
KSAT San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO - The FBI office in San Antonio issued a warning Friday about a telephone scam involving an FBI office phone number. According to FBI spokeswoman Special Agent Michelle Lee, the scammers identify themselves as FBI agents, IRS agents or ...

and more »

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Don't Forget the Russia Sanctions Are Russia's Fault - Foreign Policy (blog)
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:31 PM

Russia, Putin And Putinism

Foreign Policy (blog)

Don't Forget the Russia Sanctions Are Russia's Fault
Foreign Policy (blog)
Three years ago this week, disgraced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned his post and fled to Russia after a failed-but-deadly crackdown on protesting Ukrainian citizens. The protests started after Yanukovych suddenly and unexpectedly ...
Trump lawyer pushed pro-Russia deal for Ukraine, politician claimsCNN
Editorial: Russia's new mischiefBoston Herald

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Defense One - All Content: US Air Force to Send F-35 to Fight ISIS … In a Few Years by Marcus Weisgerber
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:31 PM

A U.S. Air Force weapons load crew assigned to the 33rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron loads a live GBU-12 into an F-35A January 18, 2017, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

Defense One - All Content

At CPAC, Trump tightens his grip on the GOPby Shane Goldmacher
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:29 PM

Markets And Business News Review

OXON HILL, Md. — President Donald Trump arrived at the Conservative Political Action Conference as a conqueror, not just of Hillary Clinton and all other 2016 contenders, but of any rival visions for what the modern Republican Party should stand for.

And in a Friday appearance at CPAC, he let the crowd know it.

In an impassioned if disjointed 49-minute speech, Trump veered from angry attacks on the media to election victory laps before he took something of a dry run of the themes for his joint congressional address next week.

“The core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation that put and will put its own citizens first,” Trump declared at one point. "The GOP will be, from now on, the party also of the American worker," he said at another.

Trump promised to build a border wall, repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, cut taxes for the middle class “massively,” dramatically boost spending on the military and renegotiate trade deals in a robust display of nationalism as he declared there is no “global flag.”

“I’m not representing the globe,” Trump said. “I’m representing your country.”

In true Trump fashion, however, he waited until the last 30 minutes to outline his vision of what the GOP and conservatism stands for in the era of Trump, instead taking the first 10 minutes of his speech whacking at “fake news” and accusing reporters of concocting sources from thin air. “They just make them up,” he said.

Still, Trump proved his counselor Kellyanne Conway right when she predicted, in her own CPAC appearance, that “by tomorrow, this will be 'TPAC' when he's here, no doubt.”

Trump was greeted by huge applause and waving red “Make America Great Again” hats at almost every turn. A CPAC crowd that in five of the six previous straw polls leading up to the 2016 and 2012 elections had selected libertarian-leaning Ron Paul or Rand Paul as their preferred presidential standard-bearer cheered mightily as Trump promised “one of the greatest military buildups in American history.”

Trump’s appearance was the first by a sitting president at CPAC in more than a decade, since George W. Bush in 2003, and the first by a president in his first year since Ronald Reagan in 1981. Trump pledged to return often, and noted that the first speech of his political career was at CPAC.

Still, it wasn’t so long ago that Trump and his political team were CPAC outsiders rather than the center of celebration and attention. Four years ago, Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon was kept out of CPAC and created a rival event he called “The Uninvited.”

“I want to thank you for finally inviting me to CPAC,” Bannon said pointedly to Matt Schlapp, the American Conservative Union Chairman, on stage Thursday.

That same year, Trump opened his speech to CPAC by lecturing attendees that Republicans who dared to campaign on cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicare would end up as electoral losers.

“The Republican Party is in serious trouble,” Trump said then in a speech that previewed his 2016 campaign themes — curbing illegal immigration, rebuilding the economy and complaining about the media — all the way down his closing slogan, “We have to make America great again, our problems will be solved.”

Trump received polite applause as a celebrity curiosity in 2013. It was thunderous as commander in chief in 2017.

Trump opened Friday with complaints about the “dishonest media” and saying “they shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name.” The comments came only hours after the White House had held a briefing for reporters in which they had insisted on anonymity.

Trump’s tenure has been racked by infighting among his own staff and leaks from intelligence agencies, including about ties between campaign officials and Russia.

Trump also recounted how he had been underestimated by the press in 2016 in what began to sound eerily like his campaign stump speech. At one point, anti-Clinton campaign rally chants of “Lock her up” rang back out in the hall.

But nearly thirty minutes into his speech, Trump pivoted to a preview of next Tuesday’s prime time address, as he ticked through his first month’s accomplishments and outlined what he has planned next, including on health care, the border, the military and trade.

“The era of empty talk is over,” Trump said in a new line for him.

“One by one we’re checking off the promises we made to the people of the United States,” he said. “One by one. And we will not stop until it’s done.”

A day after Bannon had pledged that Trump would usher in the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” Trump said American was “going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”

And then, when he was done, the same song (“You can’t always get what you want”) blared from the loudspeakers just as it had on the campaign. Trump gave a final fist pump before walking off stage and heading back to the White House.

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U.S. new home sales rebound; consumer sentiment dips
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:28 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. single-family home sales rose less than expected in January, likely held back by heavy rains and flooding in California, but continued to point to a strengthening housing market despite higher prices and mortgage rates.

Priebus call to FBI violated norms, if not rulesby iarnsdorf@politico.com (Isaac Arnsdorf)
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:28 PM

Puerto Rico News - Selected Feeds Review

For decades, presidents from both parties have prohibited White House staff from discussing specific investigations and enforcement cases without clearance from the White House counsel.

The rules were developed to prevent even the appearance of political tampering with law enforcement—just the situation the White House finds itself in after a report that President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus asked senior FBI officials, including Director James Comey, to publicly refute a report about Trump associates’ contacts with Russian intelligence.

It’s not clear if the Trump White House has maintained, revoked or replaced the rules. Aides to former President Barack Obama handed off copies of the policy as a model for the Trump White House during the transition, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

According to White House officials, Priebus spoke one-on-one with FBI assistant director Andrew McCabe on the morning of Feb. 15, when McCabe told Priebus that the story, published in the New York Times, wasn’t accurate. According to the officials, Priebus asked, “What can we do about this?” McCabe said he’d get back to him, according to the White House account. Later, McCabe called Priebus to say the FBI couldn’t comment. Comey then called Priebus to say the same, according to the officials.

An earlier account by a senior official had McCabe and Comey rejecting Priebus’ request on the spot, not in later phone calls.

Asked about whether Priebus broke any rules, White House spokesman Michael Short said, “Your questions lack any basic knowledge about the issues at hand.”

Short said “there was no discussion of any investigation — just the inaccuracy of the NYT story.”

The Times story was about calls between Trump associates, including campaign staff, and Russian agents that were intercepted by the FBI and reviewed as part of its larger investigation of Russian meddling in the presidential election.

Short cited a “carve-out in the memoranda you cite for public affairs,” but there has not historically been any such exemption. He declined to provide the policy in effect in the Trump White House.

Under Obama, White House staff were forbidden from contacting any agency or department about the merits of specific matters involving specific parties, including investigations, litigation and enforcement actions, according to a person familiar with the policy. All communications with the Justice Department, whether about a specific matter or not, were routed through the attorney general or his or her deputy.

Only the president, vice president, and White House counsel could start communications with the Justice Department about a specific case or investigation, and staff needed approval from the White House counsel's office before answering incoming inquiries from the Justice Department.

Press secretary Sean Spicer defended Priebus’s request, saying it would have been “insane” to walk away from the FBI’s noting a story was inaccurate. “What sane person would not want to set the record straight?” Spicer said Friday morning.

The White House’s account suggests McCabe, and perhaps also Comey, may also have violated separate FBI rules meant to protect investigations from political influence by discussing the substance of the Times’ reporting with Priebus.

In addition to the policy restricting contacts by White House staff, the Justice Department has for four decades restricted its officials, including the FBI, discussing specific cases with the White House. The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The latest version of Justice Department’s policy, established in a 2009 memo from Attorney General Eric Holder, said the Justice Department will advise the president about individual cases only when “important for the performance of the President's duties and appropriate from a law enforcement perspective” and restricted such contacts to the attorney general, deputy attorney general, White House counsel, deputy White House counsel, president and vice president.

“The rule of law depends upon the evenhanded administration of justice,” the memo begins. “The legal judgments of the Department of Justice must be impartial and insulated from political influence.”

It’s also unclear if the Justice Department, now led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is still honoring the Holder policy. But every administration since Jimmy Carter’s has had some version of the rule. The Justice Department did not immediately respond for a request for comment.

The Justice Department policy on contacts is better known than the White House counterpart, and it isn’t clear precisely when the White House policy originated. A 1996 version of the policy, issued by Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn, prohibited White House staff from contacting federal agencies about specific cases and specially required them to get his approval before contacting the Justice Department about anything, even policy matters.

The Bush administration relaxed the rules by widening the circle of White House and Justice Department staffers who were allowed to communicate.

The Obama White House took pains to emphasize the Justice Department’s independence to quiet concerns about political influence on the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. “This is an investigation that's being conducted by the FBI and the Department of Justice,” press secretary Josh Earnest said in November. “And the White House has gone to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of political interference in that ongoing investigation.”

Matthew Nussbaum contributed reporting.

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Trump vows military build-up, hammers nationalist themes
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:26 PM

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said he would make a massive budget request for one of the "greatest military buildups in American history" on Friday in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism to eager conservative activists.

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Are recreational marijuana and opioid addiction linked?
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:13 PM

Russia And US Presidential Elections Of 2016 - Google News

As White House press secretary Sean Spicer spoke Thursday about "greater enforcement" of federal marijuana laws, he seemed to link recreational pot use to a different type of drug: opioids.

GOP Senators Embrace Awkward Russia Probe That Could Hurt Trump - Bloomberg
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:35 PM

Russia - Google News

Bloomberg

GOP Senators Embrace Awkward Russia Probe That Could Hurt Trump
Bloomberg
A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of Russia's effort to influence last year's U.S. election is shaping up as an unexpectedly bipartisan effort that could take months to complete as it explores the most significant controversy shadowing the ...
Trump's Russia scandal reaches a political tipping pointWashington Post (blog)

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One Month in, Anti-Trump Movement Shows Signs of Sustained Momentum by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:34 PM

Voice Of America

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Heroin Overdose Deaths Quadruple Between 2010 and 2015: Study by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:34 PM

Voice Of America

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Pelosi calls for DOJ probe of Priebus on FBI, Russia - The Hill
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:20 PM

The Hill

Pelosi calls for DOJ probe of Priebus on FBI, Russia
The Hill
The American people deserve to know the truth.” CNN reported ... The report of White House communications with the FBI during its pending investigation into Russia's influence on the 2016 presidential election may raise questions about ethical violations.
Trump's efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation may have finally gone too farThinkProgress
White House's request to FBI to dispute Trump-Russia stories rejected: reportDaily News & Analysis
FBI rejected WH request to deny Trump team's contacts with Russia: ReportPress TV
Huffington Post -The Missoulian -Salon -New York Times
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В День защитника Отечества Президент возложил венок к Могиле Неизвестного Солдата
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:20 PM

Сайт Президента России: Все Материалы

Владимир Путин почтил память погибших воинов, возложив венок к Могиле Неизвестного Солдата у Кремлёвской стены.

Возложение венка к Могиле Неизвестного Солдата.

В церемонии приняли участие ветераны Великой Отечественной войны, Председатель Правительства Дмитрий Медведев, Председатель Совета Федерации Валентина Матвиенко, Председатель Государственной Думы Вячеслав Володин, Руководитель Администрации Президента Антон Вайно, Министр обороны Сергей Шойгу, другие государственные и политические деятели.

Глава государства также возложил цветы к стелам городов-героев у Кремлёвской стены. Церемония завершилась маршем военнослужащих Президентского полка.

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Совещание с постоянными членами Совета Безопасности
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 1:19 PM

Сайт Президента России: Все Материалы

Владимир Путин провёл совещание с постоянными членами Совета Безопасности. Обсуждались актуальные международные вопросы и различные темы, связанные с внутрироссийской повесткой дня.

Глава государства также поздравил участников совещания с Днём защитника Отечества.

В совещании приняли участие Председатель Правительства Дмитрий Медведев, Председатель Совета Федерации Валентина Матвиенко, Руководитель Администрации Президента Антон Вайно, Председатель Государственной Думы Вячеслав Володин, Секретарь Совета Безопасности Николай Патрушев, Министр внутренних дел Владимир Колокольцев, Министр иностранных дел Сергей Лавров, Министр обороны Сергей Шойгу, директор Федеральной службы безопасности Александр Бортников, директор Службы внешней разведки Сергей Нарышкин, спецпредставитель Президента по вопросам природоохранной деятельности, экологии и транспорта Сергей Иванов.

Начальник Генерального штаба Вооруженных Сил России провел в Баку переговоры с военным руководством Азербайджана
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 10:10 AM

RSS

В ходе совместной работы стороны обсудили состояние и перспективы сотрудничества двух стран в военной области.

Военачальники России и США договорились о совместной работе по снижению напряженности в мире
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 10:09 AM

RSS

Начальник Генерального штаба ВС РФ генерал армии Валерий Герасимов и председатель Комитета начальников штабов ВС США генерал Джозеф Данфорд на встрече в Баку обменялись мнениями о состоянии российско-американских отношений, оценками ситуации в сфере международной безопасности.

White House Asked FBI To Dispute Stories About Trump-Russia Contacts: Reports
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:22 AM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked the FBI to discredit media reports that President Donald Trump's campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, U.S. media reported late February 23.

Deadly blast hits chemical plant in Uzbekistan
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:19 AM

TASHKENT (Reuters) - An explosion occurred at a chemical plant in the city of Ferghana in Uzbekistan, killing an undisclosed number of people, the Central Asian country's emergency ministry said on Thursday.

Malaysia murder mystery breaks with North Korean assassin tradition
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:19 AM

SEOUL (Reuters) - The bizarre assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother marks a departure from the isolated country's repertoire of overseas operations, according to experts on its opaque ruling structures.

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Malaysia says VX nerve agent was used in murder of Kim Jong Nam
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:18 AM

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police said on Friday a preliminary report showed the murder of Kim Jong Nam was carried out with a highly toxic chemical known as VX nerve agent.

Malaysia says highly toxic VX nerve agent used in murder of Kim Jong Nam
Friday February 24th, 2017 at 2:18 AM

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

Trump Wants to Expand U.S. Nuclear Arsenal, Make It ‘Top of the Pack’ by Reuters
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 6:23 PM

Puerto Rico News - Selected Feeds Review

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the "top of the pack," saying the United States has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity.

In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to," ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in Pyongyang's increasingly bellicose actions.

In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump said he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has "fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity."

“I am the first one that would like to see everybody–nobody have nukes, but we're never going to fall behind any country even if it's a friendly country, we're never going to fall behind on nuclear power."

"It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack," Trump said.

Russia has 7,300 warheads and the United States, 6,970, according to the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group.

"The history of the Cold War shows us that no one comes out ‘on the top of the pack' of an arms race and nuclear brinkmanship," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association non-profit group.

"Russia and the United States have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by another nuclear-armed country," he said.

The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the United States and Russia requires that by Feb. 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years.

The treaty permits both countries to have no more than 800 deployed and non-deployed land-based intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers equipped to carry nuclear weapons, and contains equal limits on other nuclear weapons.

Analysts have questioned whether Trump wants to abrogate New START or would begin deploying other warheads.

In the interview, Trump called New START "a one-sided deal."

"Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it's START, whether it's the Iran deal … We're going to start making good deals," he said.

"WE'RE VERY ANGRY"

The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, 30-year modernization of its aging ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles, a price tag that most experts say the country cannot afford.

Trump also complained that the Russian deployment of a ground-based cruise missile is in violation of a 1987 treaty that bans land-based American and Russian intermediate-range missiles.

"To me it's a big deal," Trump said.

Asked if he would raise the issue with Putin, Trump said he would do so "if and when we meet." He said he had no meetings scheduled as of yet with Putin.

Speaking from behind his desk in the Oval Office, Trump declared that "we're very angry" at North Korea's ballistic missile tests and said accelerating a missile defense system for U.S. allies Japan and South Korea was among many options available.

"There's talks of a lot more than that," Trump said, when asked about the missile defense system. "We'll see what happens. But it's a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion."

Trump's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month in Florida was interrupted by a ballistic missile launch by North Korea.

Trump did not completely rule out possibly meeting Kim at some point in the future under certain circumstances but suggested it might be too late.

"It's very late. We're very angry at what he's done, and frankly this should have been taken care of during the Obama administration," he said.

According to Japanese news reports, the Japanese government plans to start debate over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, and the land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system to improve its capability to counter North Korean ballistic missiles.

Japanese government sources told Reuters last year Japan may accelerate around $1 billion of planned spending to upgrade its ballistic missile defenses.

Trump vowed during his campaign to step up missile defense efforts and within minutes of his Jan. 20 inauguration, the White House announced that the administration intended to develop a "state of the art" missile defense system to protect against attacks from Iran and North Korea.

It did not provide details on whether the system would differ from those already under development, its cost, or how it would be paid for.

The post Trump Wants to Expand U.S. Nuclear Arsenal, Make It ‘Top of the Pack’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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Trio of military men gain growing influence with Trumpby By VIVIAN SALAMA and JULIE PACE
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 6:21 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a White House laden with competing power centers, a trio of military men has emerged as a force to be reckoned with....

Peace Train: Relations between US/NATO and Russia - Colorado Daily
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 6:20 PM

Peace Train: Relations between US/NATO and Russia
Colorado Daily
During 2016, the relations between the U.S./NATO and Russia continued to worsen. According to the Western mainstream media, Russia was the problem due to its reactions to the U.S.-supported coup in the western part of Ukraine in February 2014.

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Pence condemns Jewish center bomb threats and visits desecrated cemetery in Missouri - Los Angeles Times
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 6:19 PM

Republicans are facing the ire of the anti-Trump movement this week. Will it last? - Washington Post
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 9:04 AM

Task Force 76 chief of staff dies in recreational accident on Okinawa
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 9:03 AM

Putin And Putinism - News Review

The chief of staff for the Navy’s forward deployed amphibious force — based on Okinawa — died Tuesday in an off-duty recreational accident, Navy officials said.

The Guardian: Мифы и правда о Путине - Хартия'97
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 9:01 AM

Хартия'97

The Guardian: Мифы и правда о Путине
Хартия'97
Изучив движения Путина по видеозаписям, Коннорс заключила, что у него есть ослабляющий здоровье и, вероятно, врожденный неврологический дефект (вероятно, вызванный инсультом в эмбриональный период), который не дает ему полноценно пользоваться правой половиной ...

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Совещание с постоянными членами Совета Безопасности
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 8:59 AM

Putin And Putinism - News Review

Глава государства также поздравил участников совещания с Днём защитника Отечества.

Exclusive: Russia asks energy companies for PR info ahead of election
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 8:49 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government summoned energy companies last week to give it advance notice about developments that could influence public opinion in the period up to May next year, when President Vladimir Putin's term ends.

King of Spain's brother-in-law avoids jail while appealing tax-fraud conviction
Thursday February 23rd, 2017 at 8:48 AM