Trump enters the stage

Trump news live - President attacks Democrats over antisemitism and threatens to block ‘Fake News Networks’ from 2020 debates

Another nerve exposed, the mud slinging(the swamp being cleaned by throwing projectiles) grows by leaps and bounds, with no holds barred.

What can be on the back of the mind of such affront to human intelligence?
Maybe either that it is on the way out unless falsity is accepted as some form of truth, or that the mind as an instrument of measuring reality is on the verge of getting lost.
Either choice suffices , but a left wing Democratic rejection may give the impression of throwing the baby away with the bathwater. It’s a catch 22.

On the economic front of trade and the ID:

It’s a neat microcosm of President Trump’s economic policy: He picks a yardstick to measure the American economy — the trade deficit — that’s mostly meaningless. He spends years criticizing it as too high and promising to reduce it. And under his administration, it surges.
“By just about any measure you pick,” Slate’s Jordan Weissman writes, “his effort appears to have been an absolute flop.”
“He set out to fix a non-problem (a trade deficit) and created real ones including international conflict, higher consumer prices and gross inefficiency in our economy,” The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin writes, of the New York Times in today’s opinion section.

President Trump says hush money does not amount to campaign finance violation
DAVID JACKSON | USA TODAY | 2 hours ago

President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid money to women to be quiet about alleged affairs with Trump during his 2016 campaign.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump, under federal investigation over hush money to an alleged ex-mistress, said Thursday it has nothing to do with campaign finance laws – and appeared to acknowledge payments he previously said he knew nothing about.

“It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!” Trump tweeted.

Trump has denied having an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, and previously denied knowing about payments to her, referring questions about the matter to Michael Cohen – the ex-personal attorney who now says Trump authorized the payoffs.

Federal prosecutors apparently disagree. They have said in court filings that the payment to Daniels and another to former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal violated laws that limit contributions to candidates. They alleged that Cohen, who pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, orchestrated the payments at Trump direction.

In congressional testimony last week, Cohen said Trump and his company reimbursed him for $130,000 paid to Daniels in order to keep her quiet right before the 2016 presidential election.

It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2019
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the hush money amounted to an unreported and illegal campaign contribution, in that it was designed to influence the outcome of the election.

Cohen faces a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress, including allegations stemming from his involvement in the Daniels matter.

Trump did not address Cohen in his brief tweet, but has accused his former lawyer of lying in an effort to somehow reduce his prison sentence.

His current lawyers, such as Rudy Giuliani, have said the payments to Daniels amounted to a personal expense, not a campaign contribution.

More: Cohen only flipped because he got caught. That’s all we can expect in the Trump era.

More: Michael Cohen’s testimony prompts a new question: In web of Trump investigations, is anyone safe?

Updated 2 hours ago

© Copyright Gannett 2019

The strength exhibited by Trump, in spite of a state of affairs which presents a scenario putting the Nixon debacle into a far less troublesome light compared to the present one, only one conclusion can be drawn:

Identity politics plays a central role in the resiliency by which the present constitutional issues align the general framework by whose measure the factual evidence withstands its feedback into its own credibility issue.

The fracturing of this delicate balance between the held contradictory use of languages, demands both parties ’ constitutional need to sustain the very meaning of their differing platforms to
Insist on qualify their differing political viewpoints to reflect their basic constitutional need to formally guarantee their very political right to exist as a defined political force.

The very being of the political social contract as a representitive national unity is under siege, with both parties reducing the particular elemental personal and induvidualmy reflected within the more generally vested dynamics of the processes of representative government.
The basis of representation are under assault, not from external identifiable causes, but from the internally and generally misunderstood state of being, which has lost the very ground in its own dynamic.

The state is in trouble primarily as resulting from primary effects from obvious signs of decay, such as inner city turmoil, visible on the faces of discontent, or the reminders of diminishing capacity to enjoy the fruits of labor so visible on the echoes of the GreY and the recent depression: , literally reminded for those still remembering it, by the present of the ranks of homeless abounding everywhere.

It is not a matter of reflection which carries the whole general debt of political diversity forward by such reflection, but by immigrating the socially vast underprivileged, who seem to revel and function far better, in an overwhelmingly more challenging new environment .

It is not the international trepidation, sm as described in the trade imbalance or taxation who h are the patent casual agents responsible for diminishing senses of political equilibrium, but the grass root misunderstanding of where and how the US empire’s dysfunction becoming a vacuous question, which no amount of machinations can rearrange in an understood national policy.

The crisis stems from an internal division, aptly vested with a dynamic hope that still is reigned in by reference to the state inscribed and vested in immortal words by the founding fathers, abiding in the paternalistic and thetic framework of fate in liberty.

This constitutional crisis can not be understood in a unified understanding
ant longer, and the forces of power take advantage to this constitutional vulnerability, hence no salvation can be abstracted , other then from an e executive, a funny gut, who can still in spite hope, because he is representative of the contradiction , and using the language appropriate to it.

The identity and the economy of the soul of the United States is best described at this moment in time, when the model of our way of existence is represented by a newly firmed chief executive molded out of a failing and divisive Congress, and an equally ineffective Judiciary.

The failing hope of Capitalistic Democracy, is beginning to transform into a meaningless visual anachr anachronism , rising Phoenix like, from a time before society could be reflected in it’s apparent self reflection…

(Unedited )

The essential dynamic lies not in the rhetoric, promoting an elusive nationalism, but in the hidden contradictory process by which internationalism and the New World order can save Capitalism as a socially viable guarantor of peace in a fractured world, there being no other viable alternative. The contradiction is out there in a rhetoric dressed in the anesthetic of an imagenitive reactivism, lulling the senses with the visions of the good old times. Anyone capable to understand the meaning of the eternal return should know, that such symbolism merely functions as a self serving wish fulfilling device, a metaphor to cover basic fears of nihilistic abandonment. The cover to Trumpism serves to immunize the danger of exposure to a possible authorial harm, for nihilism did not start with Nietzsche, but Dostoevsky, and the resulting trouble can be sources to the boyars, sho so terribly dealt with the serfs, and likewise most generally how the West was won through subjugation and at times total nihilization through colonial suppression.

(Unedited)

Popularity graphs of Trump and other en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_ … val_rating U.S. presidents .

It appears that Truman, Nixon and Trump share that honor!

WHITE HOUSE
Manafort sentencing prompts Trump to claim vindication. But president misstated judge’s declaration.
The president again slammed the special counsel’s Russia investigation as a “Witch Hunt Hoax.”

President Donald Trump speaks during the first meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, on March 6, 2019.Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

March 8, 2019, 9:16 AM ET / Updated March 8, 2019, 10:52 AM ET
By Dartunorro Clark
President Donald Trump, after his former campaign chairman was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud, said Friday that those involved in Paul Manafort’s case affirmed there was “no collusion” with Russia.

“Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!” Trump tweeted.

Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before his trip to Alabama to tour storm-damaged areas, Trump repeated that the “judge said there was no collusion with Russia,” adding that he feels “very badly” for Manafort.

But that’s not what the judge overseeing the case said.

Before announcing Manafort’s sentence Thursday, Judge T.S. Ellis reminded the court that the longtime political operative’s crimes were not related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s chief mandate — Russian election interference and whether Trump campaign officials colluded with the Kremlin.

Manafort, a longtime Republican political operative, received 47 months behind bars, far less than the sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines.

Manafort was convicted last August in Virginia federal court on eight felony counts — five counts of tax fraud, one count of failure to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts and two counts of bank fraud. The judge declared a mistrial on the 10 other charges he faced. Manafort faces a second sentencing hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., on March 13 on two conspiracy counts.

Kevin Downing, Manafort’s defense attorney, made a brief statement after the hearing ended on Thursday.

“There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia,” he told reporters.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, wrapped up its Russia investigation in February and said it uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia after two years and 200 interviews.

House Republicans announced last year they had found no evidence of collusion, but their report came under swift criticism as a partisan result that excluded Democrats.

However, since regaining control of the House, Democrats have launched several probes that include examining any links between Russia and the Trump campaign as well as if Trump broke the law while in office.

Dartunorro Clark is a political reporter for NBC News
© 2019 NBC UNIVERSAL

News > World > Americas

Erik Prince: Blackwater founder admits Trump Tower meeting with Donald Jr in disastrous interview
‘Sure looks like Erik Prince committed perjury,’ congressman says

Tom Embury-Dennis @tomemburyd
4 hours ago

Click to follow
The Independent US
Donald Trump ally Erik Prince may have committed perjury, a congressman has said, after the former Navy Seal said for the first time he held a meeting with one of the US president’s sons to discuss “Iran policy”.

Mr Prince, founder of controversial military contractor Blackwater USA, admitted he met Donald Trump Jr and an emissary for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Trump Tower ahead of the presidential election.

The admission comes more than a year after the 49-year-old, brother of US education secretary Betsy DeVos, failed to disclose the meeting under oath to the House intelligence committee, according to a public transcript.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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According to The New York Times, Mr Prince organised the August 2016 meeting with Mr Trump’s eldest son and Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, who reportedly revealed Saudi Arabia and the UAE wanted to help Mr Trump in his bid for the presidency.

The meeting also reportedly included Stephen Miller, now Mr Trump’s senior policy adviser, and an Israeli social media expert called Joel Zamel.

Convicted criminals among Trump’s former staff
Show all 5
Michael Cohen
Paul Manafort
George Papadopoulos
Michael Flynn
During the devastating televised interview with Al Jazeeera’ Mehdi Hasan, which was aired on Friday, Mr Prince acknowledged the meeting happened, but said he was not asked about contacts with the Trump campaign by the House committee.

Facing intense and meticulous interrogation from Hasan, he later changed tack, suggesting he did reveal the meeting during the testimony to lawmakers.

Read more
Trump autographs bibles while meeting disaster victims
Trump or Cohen: Who can you trust in the ongoing blame game?
How to make sense of the Trump presidency in an era of political chaos
According to the transcript, Republican congressman Tom Rooney asked Mr Prince, “So there was no other formal communications or contact with the campaign?” in reference to the Trump campaign.

Mr Prince replied: “Correct.”

Pressed by Mr Hasan, Mr Prince suggested they “may have got the transcript wrong”, to audible laughs from the studio audience.

“I don’t know, I certainly remember discussing it with the investigators,” Mr Prince added.

Ted Lieu, a congressman for California and a frequent Trump critic, shared footage of the interview on Twitter, and wrote: “Sure looks like Erik Prince committed perjury.”

A former special counsel at the Department of Defense, Ryan Goodman, tweeted: “Now seems obvious that Erik Prince lied to Congress about Aug 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr.”

Mr Prince’s comments are the first time anyone reportedly involved in the meeting has publicly spoken out about it, and the first suggestion it could have been about Iran.

The New York Times reported Mr Nader was offering “help” on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Mr Trump’s candidacy, while Mr Zemel touted a proposal by his company to assist the campaign using social media manipulation.

Trump calls Russia investigation a ‘collusion witch hoax’ outside White House
A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr told the newspaper last year his client “recalls” a meeting involving Mr Prince and Mr Nader about a “social media platform or marketing strategy”.

“He was not interested and that was the end of it,” he added.

Blackwater, which Mr Prince sold in 2010, made headlines three years earlier when its mercenaries killed 17 unarmed civilians in Iraq when they opened fire in a crowded square in Baghdad.

Since Blackwater’s creation, the company has been awarded billions of dollars in US government security contracts, as well as hundreds of millions in classified contracts from the CIA.

Mr Prince has been contacted for comment.

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Trump Is Autographing Bibles Now So That’s a Wrap on Humanity, Right?
BY R. ERIC THOMAS MAR 8, 2019
image
CAROLYN KASTER/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Donald Trump, President of the United States and Professional Twitter Bully, spent some time in Alabama today greeting people and autographing items, among them hats, $100 bills, and Bibles. As in The Bible.

ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW

To quote Judas in the song “Heaven on Their Minds,” “Listen. Jesus. I don’t like what I see.”

The first family was in Opelika, Alabama, today visiting tornado-ravaged areas and meeting with residents. At one point, they stopped into a Baptist church and things, well, went completely off the rails. Someone actually handed a Bible to Donald Trump and asked him to put his scribble on it. Donald Trump, the man who opted out of saying the Apostle’s Creed at President Bush’s funeral. That Donald Trump.

I’m not saying that anyone has to say The Apostle’s Creed, but it’s sort of part of the whole religious deal. Just surprising that Donald Trump, basically a missionary, took a pass on it.

Also surprising: Donald Trump, who is a pointed example in many a Sunday morning sermon, agreed to sign a Bible. I feel like it’s common knowledge that the only people writing on Bibles are grandmothers writing down important dates on the inside cover. Autographs are definitely a new area. Does he think he wrote it, like he also thinks he wrote The Art of the Deal? Very possible.

US-POLITICS-WEATHER-TRUMP
Donald Trump signs a hat and a $100 bill.
NICHOLAS KAMMGETTY IMAGES
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Or is he signing it because of his pivotal guest appearance in the Book of Revelation? He’s like, “Don’t spoil the end for yourself; I got big plans.”

I know given Trump’s history, his behavior, his policies, and all of the words he says, it’s hard to think of a more pious person, but for argument’s sake, why would you want Trump to sign your religious text? It’s like someone asking him to rub some of his bronzer on the Shroud of Turin. Peculiar! What is a person going to do with a Trump Bible? Is this a summoning ritual? A horcrux? Make it make sense!

Does Donald Trump’s signature make it more Bible-y? Like all other Bibles are just kidding but this one is kicking it into overdrive. Make the Bible Great Again???

Did he sign a golden calf after this, to really seal the deal?

President Trump Signs Proclamation Declaring Sunday Day Of Prayer For Victims Of Hurricane Harvery
ALEX WONGGETTY IMAGES
It’s worth noting that Donald Trump: Superstar appears to have signed the cover of The Bible in question, continuing what is a probably a lifelong streak of literally never opening it. Good Lord!

R. ERIC THOMAS
R Eric Thomas is a Senior Staff Writer at ELLE.com, home of his daily humor column “Eric Reads the News,” which skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schaedenfreude.
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POLITICAL NEWS 2019 CULTURE DONALD TRUMP WON. READ THOSE 3 WORDS AGAIN. A MAJORITY OF WOMEN WANT TO SEE TRUMP IMPEACHED DOES TRUMP ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT A HANDSHAKE IS? DONALD TRUMP RECRUITS “WOMEN FOR TRUMP” COALITION SOMEONE MADE A DONALD TRUMP BURN BOOK PAGE “ME PARDON SELF,” PRESIDENT MUMBLES TO NO ONE DONALD TRUMP AUTOGRAPH DONALD TRUMP AUTOGRAPHS BIBLE DONALD TRUMP SIGNS BIBLE DONALD TRUMP BIBLE DONALD TRUMP
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©2019 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CAROLYN KASTER/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Donald Trump, President of the United States and Professional Twitter Bully, spent some time in Alabama today greeting people and autographing items, among them hats, $100 bills, and Bibles. As in The Bible.

To quote Judas in the song “Heaven on Their Minds,” “Listen. Jesus. I don’t like what I see.”

The first family was in Opelika, Alabama, today visiting tornado-ravaged areas and meeting with residents. At one point, they stopped into a Baptist church and things, well, went completely off the rails. Someone actually handed a Bible to Donald Trump and asked him to put his scribble on it. Donald Trump, the man who opted out of saying the Apostle’s Creed at President Bush’s funeral. That Donald Trump.

I’m not saying that anyone has to say The Apostle’s Creed, but it’s sort of part of the whole religious deal. Just surprising that Donald Trump, basically a missionary, took a pass on it.

Also surprising: Donald Trump, who is a pointed example in many a Sunday morning sermon, agreed to sign a Bible. I feel like it’s common knowledge that the only people writing on Bibles are grandmothers writing down important dates on the inside cover. Autographs are definitely a new area. Does he think he wrote it, like he also thinks he wrote The Art of the Deal? Very possible.

US-POLITICS-WEATHER-TRUMP
Donald Trump signs a hat and a $100 bill.

Or is he signing it because of his pivotal guest appearance in the Book of Revelation? He’s like, “Don’t spoil the end for yourself; I got big plans.”

I know given Trump’s history, his behavior, his policies, and all of the words he says, it’s hard to think of a more pious person, but for argument’s sake, why would you want Trump to sign your religious text? It’s like someone asking him to rub some of his bronzer on the Shroud of Turin. Peculiar! What is a person going to do with a Trump Bible? Is this a summoning ritual? A horcrux? Make it make sense!

Does Donald Trump’s signature make it more Bible-y? Like all other Bibles are just kidding but this one is kicking it into overdrive. Make the Bible Great Again???

Did he sign a golden calf after this, to really seal the deal?

President Trump Signs Proclamation Declaring Sunday Day Of Prayer For Victims Of Hurricane Harvery

It’s worth noting that Donald Trump: Superstar appears to have signed the cover of The Bible in question, continuing what is a probably a lifelong streak of literally never opening it. Good Lord!

©2019 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
[/quote]

various on Trump

OPINION
Republicans are willfully blind to the truths about Donald Trump: Readers sound off
From Michael Cohen’s testimony to Ilhan Omar’s comments to women dressing modestly, our readers share their thoughts on recent headlines.
USA TODAY | 9 hours ago

Conservative pundits are arguing that Michael Cohen’s testimony demolishes the Russian collusion narrative. No, it does not. Cohen said he had no evidence of collusion and said he was not part of the campaign. If anything, it adds to Cohen’s credibility. If he were lying about Trump to get even, he would add collusion to his list. He did not.

What defies reason is for these conservatives and President Donald Trump to claim that Cohen is a liar but is only telling the truth about no collusion.

Another foray into the twilight zone occurred when Republicans argued that if former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was worried about possible collusion with Russia, he should’ve just told Congress and not CBS News.

Mob rules
DAVID FITZSIMMONS/THE ARIZONA STAR/POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
Talker: Michael Cohen’s testimony, if true, confirms Trump’s crimes

But remember when in the fall of 2016, the Obama administration approached leaders in Congress to warn about Russian interference in the election and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed this as a Democratic ploy?

George Magakis Jr.; Norristown, Pa.

Trump fixers

Blind support of Trump is a disgrace
Letter to the editor:

Having watched the Michael Cohen hearing, it has become clear to me that President Donald Trump is — and has been — an unscrupulous businessman, fabricator of false and misleading statements, and a danger to our country.

Trump’s disdain for our Constitution, legislative and judicial branches, intelligence community and attacks on the press is in direct opposition to our Founding Father’s expectations.

Related: Michael Cohen only flipped because he got caught

The blind support of Trump from the Republican Party would be laughable if it wasn’t such a disgrace. The fact that they believe all the others are lying and the president is the only one telling the truth is such a stretch. To quote from the president’s Twitter: Sad.

Joe Brennan; Davenport, Fla.

AIPCC reprimand for Rep. Omar
R.J. MATSON/POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic
Letter to the editor:

I’m fuming over the Democrats’ willingness to drag Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., through the mud again. As a proud Jewish person completely opposed to Israel’s settler state in Palestine, the false charges of anti-Semitism leveled at Omar render me — and thousands of other Jews who criticize Israel — invisible.

As if to prove her point, the backlash against Omar’s latest (accurate) tweet, has Democrats and Republicans, Jewish and non-Jewish, falling all over each other to defend Israel against criticism the same week the United Nations has said it may have committed war crimes in Gaza.

Talker: Ilhan Omar’s comments were anti-Semitic rhetoric, let’s not beat around the bush

I’m outraged at the continuing Islamophobic and racist attacks on Omar that come at the expense of addressing both the real growing anti-Semitic threat of rising white nationalism and fascism, and the continued oppression of Palestinians with the help of our tax dollars.

Lee Goodman-Gargagliano; Oakland, Calif.

President Donald Trump is far worse as a president than Richard Nixon ever was. Trump not only allegedly conspired with a hostile foreign power (Russia) to sway the 2016 presidential election, but he has also been accused of being involved in countless unethical and illegal business dealings.

Like a broken record, Trump keeps claiming he did not collude with Russia. But who cares about Russian collusion with all the other alleged crimes? Trump may have committed many other serious crimes that could result him being impeached or indicted. These include bank, tax and insurance fraud, witness tampering, making false statements, perjury, campaign finance violations, corruption, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, judicial interference and misuse of inauguration and Trump charitable foundation funds.

Kenneth L. Zimmerman; Huntington Beach, Calif.

Every now and again we hear a cry regarding Muslim women wearing hijabs (head covering). As we celebrate Women’s History Month, it would be an opportune time for me to present the essence of Islamic teaching behind modest clothing and dispel a common misconception that this injunction takes away the freedom of Muslim women.

The real purpose of covering the head and body with modest clothes is to prevent a woman from being sexually objectified and grants her protection against unwanted harassment. Furthermore, nature has created men and women in different ways. It’s not about discrimination but having different capacities and faculties. For example, women can bear children but men cannot, and men are physically stronger than women. The #MeToo campaign is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to highlighting the vulnerability of women in society at large.

Talker: McSally shared her sexual assault story, will Trump finally believe accusers?

This injunction is not specific to Islam; it’s in other religions too. For example, in Christianity we see Mother Mary covering her head in most works of art. Nowadays, questions arise regarding the type of hijabs Muslim women wear. The answer is simple. At its core, Islam is a religion that teaches modesty and requires both men and women to safeguard their dignity.

Today, our society is experiencing the evils of provocative dressing, which have destroyed our peace in the form of extramarital affairs and broken relationships, for example. In such a situation, Islamic and Christian philosophy of “modest dressing” seems to guide us in the right direction.

Rafia Mansoor Waraich; Altoona, Wis.

The Art of the No Deal
JEFF KOTERBA/OMAHA WORLD HERALD/POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
US should denuclearize, not just North Korea
Letter to the editor:

Even though the summit in Hanoi between President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un ended early and there was no signed agreement, the summit was still both welcome and historic.

This summit provided further opportunities for diplomatic negotiations.

However, it seems that demands that North Korea agree to immediate and absolute denuclearization may not work nor be realistic.

Related: After summit diplomacy collapse, what’s Donald Trump’s North Korea Plan B?

The naked truth is that the U.S., Russia and China all possess arsenals of massive destruction.

Shall we demand the same complete “denuclearization” of ourselves first?

Diplomatic negotiations to achieve nuclear disarmament must be an ongoing effort, not only on the Korean front, but also between all nations.

Anh Lê; San Francisco

© Copyright Gannett 2019

RUSSIA INVESTIGATION
Schiff: ‘Mistake’ for Mueller not to get Trump to testify under oath
“I also think that the special counsel feels some time pressure to conclude his work,” Schiff told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., expected to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks with reporters as he arrives for Democratic leadership elections on Capitol Hill on Nov. 28.J. Scott Applewhite / AP
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March 10, 2019, 4:30 PM ET
By Allan Smith
It would be “a mistake” for special counsel Robert Mueller not to get in-person testimony from President Donald Trump, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I think it is a mistake,” Schiff said when asked by anchor Chuck Todd whether Mueller would err by deciding not to interview the president before a grand jury given the public testimony of others, such as Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. “And I’ve said all along that I don’t think Bob Mueller should rely on written answers. When you get written answers from a witness, it’s really the lawyers’ answers as much as the client’s answer. And here you need to be able to ask follow-up questions in real time.”

In November, Trump’s legal team submitted written answers to Mueller’s questions about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded in that effort. They did not answer questions regarding possible obstruction of justice related to the Russia probe.

Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said in December that the president and his legal team would not provide Mueller with additional answers.

The submission of written answers followed months of back-and-forth between Trump’s attorneys and Mueller’s team about just what exactly the president would respond to and how he would provide those responses. In August, Trump’s lawyers were already preparing a memo opposing a potential subpoena from Mueller to provide an in-person interview.

Responding to Schiff’s remarks, Giuliani accused Schiff in a text message to NBC News of coaching Cohen through his congressional testimony and questioned why Schiff would question the special counsel’s decision making.

“Since when did Schiff become the Special Counsel?” Giuliani said. “I thought he trusted Mueller. It only tells you Schiff wants to hurt the President no matter what. Also ask him how his staff spent 12 hours with Cohen to prepare his testimony and Cohen committed 4 to 6 demonstrable lies (perjury) during his testimony.”

If Mueller were to file that subpoena only to be met with resistance from Trump’s side, it could set off a monumental legal fight in federal court, possibly going all the way to the Supreme Court.

Schiff said he believes Mueller was constrained by then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who Schiff said “was appointed because he would be hostile to a subpoena on the president.”

Whitaker, who is no longer at the Department of Justice, has since been replaced by Attorney General William Barr, who Schiff said “was chosen for the same hostility to his investigation, who would likely oppose that step.”

“I also think that the special counsel feels some time pressure to conclude his work,” Schiff said. “And knowing that the White House would drag out a fight over the subpoena, that may be an issue as well.”

“But I do think ultimately it’s a mistake because probably the best way to get the truth would be to put the president under oath,” Schiff continued. “Because as he’s made plain in the past, he feels it’s perfectly fine to lie to the public. After all, he has said, ‘It’s not like I’m talking before a magistrate.’ Well, maybe he should talk before a magistrate.”

Allan Smith

© 2019 NBC UNIVERSAL

Fox News

FOREIGN POLICYPublished March 10, 2019 Last Update 11 hrs ago
Bolton says Trump ‘pretty disappointed’ by reports North Korea is planning new missile test
Andrew O’Reilly By Andrew O’Reilly | Fox News

President Trump’s top national security adviser John Bolton reiterated on Sunday that the White House would be “pretty disappointed” if North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un decided to carry out a new missile test despite the progress made by Washington’s overtures to Pyongyang.

Calling the absence in recent of any missile tests from the so-called hermit kingdom a “positive sign,” Bolton pointed to the high-level talks that took place recently in Vietnam between Trump and Kim as a sign of progress in easing tensions and restoring stability to that part of Asia – despite the talks breaking down.

“As the president said he’d be pretty disappointed if Kim Jong Un went ahead and did something like that,” Bolton said to ABC News’ “This Week.” “The president said repeatedly he feels the absence of nuclear test the absence of ballistic missile launches is a positive sign and he’s used that really as part of his effort to persuade Kim Jong Un that he has to go for what the president called the big deal - complete denuclearization.”

NORTH KOREA REBUILDING ROCKET LAUNCH SITE AFTER FAILED SUMMIT, REPORTS SAY

Bolton would not confirm reports based on commercial satellite imagery that North Korea is making moves, saying he’d rather not go into specifics.

Continue Reading Below

But he says the U.S. government is watching North Korea “constantly,” and that, “Nothing in the proliferation game surprises me anymore.”

Bolton’s comments come only days after Trump himself said that he’s a “little disappointed” by reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site and that time will tell if U.S. diplomacy with the reclusive country will be successful.

NORTH KOREA AIRS DOCUMENTARY GLORIFYING KIM-TRUMP SUMMIT – BUT FAILS TO MENTION TALKS COLLAPSED

South Korea’s military said it is carefully monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile facilities after the country’s spy agency told lawmakers that new activity was detected at a research center where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said the U.S. and South Korean militaries are sharing intelligence over the developments at the North’s missile research center in Sanumdong on the outskirts of the capital, Pyongyang, and at a separate long-range rocket site. She did not elaborate on what the developments were.

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Asked if he was disappointed in the new activity, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was “a little disappointed.” Then he said time will determine the future of U.S. efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions stalling economic growth.

“We’ll let you know in about a year,” Trump told the reporters.

Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, but the next stage of negotiations is likely to be conducted at lower levels. Trump’s envoy to North Korea, Steve Biegun, had lunch Wednesday at the State Department with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans have proposed semiofficial three-way talks with the United States and North Korea as it works to put nuclear diplomacy back on track.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Warning signs for Trump loom as he unveils budget
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 4:34 AM EDT, Mon March 11, 2019

(CNN) Early warning signs are flashing for President Donald Trump on some of his core arguments on immigration, the economy and North Korea that are central to his 2020 re-election message.

Complications on each of those policy areas threaten to undermine the narrative of unprecedented success that the President has weaved around his first two years in office and are driving political debate as the administration unveils its budget on Monday.

A poorer than expected monthly jobs report Friday fed concern that strong economic growth that anchors Trump’s best argument for a second term is ebbing – something that should worry the President since it’s a critical reelection metric.

Trump has often claimed that he is presiding over the “greatest economy in the history of our country.” But his foundational political promise to eliminate the US trade deficit suffered a blow with new figures showing that the gap between imports and the amount of goods and services that the US sells abroad has grown $100 billion since Trump took office, despite two years of his “America First” tariff policies intended to reinvigorate American manufacturing.

Signs that North Korea could be preparing a missile or satellite launch and its continued expansion of an atomic arsenal undercut the President’s claims that his daring outreach to the isolated state has ended its nuclear threat.

And a rise in crossings across the southern border — while playing into Trump’s claims of a crisis in the short term, contradict his wider argument that hardline enforcement policies are the best way to manage immigration and suggest his totemic political plan for a border wall may be ignoring the real problem.

Trump appears sensitive to the weak points of his political pitch, and spent the weekend tweeting out glowing testimonials about the economy from allies and accusing journalists of distorting the successes of his presidency.

“Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration. Judges, biggest Tax & Regulation Cuts, V.A. Choice, Best Economy, Lowest Unemployment & much more!” Trump wrote.

“More people are working today in the United States, 158,000,000, than at any time in our Country’s history. That is a Big Deal!”

The good news for Trump is that the election — though it seems increasingly to be on his mind — is 20 months away, and none of the emerging complications are certain to cement themselves in the unpredictable political period ahead. And at their root, presidential elections unfold as a clash between two competing political visions and personalities as much as a contest between rival policy platforms. One of the big questions of the Democratic presidential race is how the eventual nominee will handle the President’s willingness to embrace scorched earth campaigning.

Yet the challenges to Trump’s re-election message are not happening in a vacuum. He has plenty of other looming political problems as well as he faces an unprecedented multi-front battle with House Democrats who have launched investigations into almost every aspect of Trump’s life, political career and business.

The pros and cons of solidifying the base
The way Trump has positioned his presidency — premising his political viability on the fervent support of his base – means he is insulated to some extent from reversals of fortune. But an eroding re-election argument could also threaten his efforts to win back more moderate voters in swing districts who helped Democrats win the midterm elections last year.

Potential road bumps for Trump’s re-election message also help to explain the relish with which Republicans have seized on the growing pains of the new House Democratic majority — giving a glimpse of the searing attacks that will complement the 2020 narrative of Trump success. Many Republican strategists believe that a perceived race to the left by Democrats could give the GOP the best chance of keeping the White House in 2020.

That argument was exemplified by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the chair of the House Republican conference, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“They’ve become the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism. They’ve passed legislation that’s violated the First Amendment, the Second Amendment,” Cheney said.

“It’s really time for the Democrats – the leadership in that party to stop it, to stand up and to act worthy, frankly, of the trust the American people have placed in them.”

All first term presidents face the conundrum of how to reconcile the expansive promises they made to win office with an accounting of their wins and losses that comes with the quest to keep their jobs.

More Presidents than not have made that leap in the modern era and won the historical validation of a second term. But few candidates made such extravagant claims to win the Oval Office in the first place as Trump did in 2016.

If today’s warning signs turn into significant reversals for the President, Republican plans to run in 2020 on a “Peace and Prosperity” message will be compromised. That could lead the President to put the inflammatory rhetoric that he used in the 2018 midterms at the center of his reelection bid.

Economic numbers cause concern
A long run of staggering jobs data that helped take the unemployment rate to the lowest level in half a century got a jolt on Friday with the release of latest monthly jobs figures showing only 20,000 positions were created in February, far below expectations.

Any one bad jobs report could be an anomaly. And the economy is largely healthy following a strong run since the Great Recession more than a decade or so across the Obama and Trump presidencies and wages have recently been rising at last.

But any sign that the economic engine has peaked could be spell bad news for a President running for reelection, even if any slowing of the pace is relative.

There have been other recent warning signs for the economy. The Atlanta Federal Reserve Board estimate for first quarter growth is just 0.5%. The Conference Board is estimating growth of 2.2% for the second half of 2019. Annual growth for 2018 fell just short of Trump’s 3% target and according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis quarterly growth figures have been on the decline for the last three quarters, possibly reflecting the fading stimulatory influence of the GOP tax cuts.

Figures released by the Census Bureau last week showed the trade deficit at a 10-year high in 2018, up $69 billion.

The jump came despite Trump’s crusade to revive American manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports which formed a crucial part of his winning 2016 election message. The data put even more pressure on the President to extract a victory from trade talks with China that are currently believed to be in the final stages - though Beijing has in recent days signaled that there’s no rush to hold a signing summit at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida by the end of this month, as the President himself suggested.

The White House’s own budget estimates are far more rosy than those of independent forecasters. In Trump’s new budget to be unveiled on Monday, the administration predicts 3.2% annual growth his year, 3.1% growth in 2020, and 3% GDP expansion the following year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump’s failure to reach a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their second summit in Vietnam last month dealt a blow to the President’s most important foreign policy venture. The White House has rejected criticism of the lack of progress at the two meetings by arguing that the halt to North Korean nuclear and missile tests has been an important victory in itself.

But warnings by analysts based on satellite images that Pyongyang could be preparing to launch a missile or space rocket soon, threatened to undermine even that narrative of limited success.

Trump said last week that he would be “very disappointed if that were happening,” while stressing the report was very early assessment.

The restoration work at the launch site could be just a negotiating ploy by Kim after the failure of the summit and just the latest round of decades-long brinkmanship by the North Koreans. But it does show the perils in investing so much political and electoral capital in a diplomatic initiative with the unpredictable North Koreans.

There are also challenges looming for Trump on another signature issue – immigration.

Customs and Border Protection warned last week that more than 76,000 people were caught crossing the southern border illegally or without proper papers in February – the highest such number for any February in the last 12 years.

The administration used the figures to argue that the immigration crisis that Trump has proclaimed in an effort to win support for his border wall is getting worse. But critics argue that his fixation on a wall misses the point that the real problem is in a system overwhelmed by asylum claims made at ports of entry.

Trump, however, signaled that his border wall will be a pillar of his political strategy going forward, despite his failure to wring funding for the barrier out of Congress – an impasse that prompted him to declare a national emergency on immigration.

The White House will ask Congress for $8.6 billion for the wall in the new budget, sources told CNN, prompting a quick response from Democrats at the start of a new showdown over immigration, following last year’s government shutdown drama.

“Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Sunday.

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Copies of Trump’s fiscal year 2020 Budget on Capitol Hill in Washington Monday.

‘Dead on arrival’: Democrats dismiss Trump budget plan with $8.6bn for wall
President’s 2020 plan signals intent to reignite a political fight that has already led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown

David Smith in Washington

Donald Trump’s latest budget request, which demands billions of dollars for a border wall at the expense of social safety nets and environmental protections, was dismissed on Monday as “dead on arrival” and “breathtaking in its degree of cruelty”.

Fox News condemns host Jeanine Pirro’s attack on Ilhan Omar – live

The president unveiled a 2020 plan that includes $8.6bn for a wall on the border with Mexico, signalling his intent to reignite a political fight that has already led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown.

Trump’s budget would also increase defence spending while cutting domestic programmes by 5%, or $2.7tn over 10 years: higher than any administration in history. This is intended to curb the national debt, currently more than $22tn, a record level.

Budgets released by the White House have little chance of passing intact and tend to be statements of intent, starting points for negotiations with Congress.

Democrats gave Trump’s plan short shrift. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said: “The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal is a gut-punch to the American middle class and a handout to the wealthiest few and powerful special interests that would worsen income inequality. Its proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as numerous other middle-class programs, are devastating, but not surprising.”

Bernie Sanders, a member on the Senate budget committee and a Democratic candidate for president, said: “The Trump budget is breathtaking in its degree of cruelty and filled with broken promises.

“This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street and for the billionaire class. It is dead on arrival. We don’t need billions of dollars for a wall that no one wants. We need a budget that works for all Americans, not just Donald Trump and his billionaire friends at Mar-a-Lago.”

Titled A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept, Taxpayers First, the plan contains $32.5bn for border security and immigration enforcement activities including $8.6bn for a border wall, a signature campaign promise by Trump – although he initially insisted Mexico would pay for it. There is also $478m to hire 1,750 Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Repeating administration talking points which experts have questioned, Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, told CNBC the “the border situation is deteriorating by the day” with “record numbers of apprehensions”.

Last month, Trump invoked an emergency declaration after Congress approved nearly $1.4bn for border barriers, far less than the $5.7bn he wanted. The emergency means he can potentially tap an additional $3.6bn from military accounts and shift it to building the wall.

But the Senate is poised this week to vote to terminate Trump’s declaration. The Democratic-led House already did so and a handful of Republican senators, uneasy over what they see as an overreach of executive power, are expected to help Democrats follow suit. Congress appears to have enough votes to reject Trump’s declaration but not enough to overturn a veto.

The budget also dedicates $750bn for defence, with priorities listed as strategic competition with Russia and China, countering regimes such as North Korea and Iran, defeating terrorist threats and consolidating gains in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some $330m is allocated to fight the opioid crisis and the proposal includes $1bn for a childcare fund that would seek to improve access to care for underserved populations, a one-time allocation championed by the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump.

Trump promised during his election campaign not to cut the healthcare programmes Medicare or Medicaid. But his budget would would wipe billions off both, along with social security and other programmes on which many Americans depend, over the next decade. It would cut environmental protection by an estimated 31% next year and weaken the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ariel Moger, a spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, said: “Trump’s budget slashes programs that protect our environment, feed families and provide healthcare. The American people should not have to pay the price for Trump’s 2017 giant tax giveaway to billionaires and big oil.”

Trump border wall request will set up new budget fight, adviser says

The proposal “embodies fiscal responsibility”, Vought insisted, adding that the administration has “prioritized reining in reckless Washington spending” and shown “we can return to fiscal sanity”.

The White House claims the national debt is a threat to long-term prosperity and the plan puts the federal budget on a path to balance within 15 years, relying in part on an optimistic projection of 3.1% economic growth. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects growth to slow to 1.7% in coming years.

At the first White House press briefing for six weeks, on Monday, Vought pushed back at criticism of Trump.

“He’s not cutting Medicare in this budget,” he told reporters. “What we are doing is putting forward reforms that will lower drug prices and that, because Medicare pays a very large share of drug prices in this country, has the impact of finding savings. We’re also finding waste, fraud and abuse, but Medicare spending will go up every single year by healthy margins and there are no structural changes for Medicare beneficiaries.”

Vought claimed Trump’s past budgets would have reduced the deficit and blamed Congress for spurning them, warning that its refusal to make trade offs is unsustainable.

Congress will need to find agreement on spending levels to avoid another shutdown by 1 October.

Topics
Donald Trump

US politics

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Politico 3/12\2019

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday warned that President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects could be in danger next year if he chooses to rely on his personality, rather than focus on policy, to win another four years in the White House.

Speaking at a lecture in Vero Beach, Fla., in some of his first public comments since leaving Congress two months ago, Ryan also bemoaned the political polarization that was a defining characteristic of his tenure as speaker, blaming the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus for derailing attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and blaming technology for deepening the political divide.

Note: it is incredible how strong his constituencie’s support appears to be, increasingly digging in the very polarized veracity between parties.

President Donald Trump says airplanes are ‘becoming far too complex to fly’
DAVID JACKSON AND BART JANSEN | USA TODAY | 1 hour ago

Airlines in Ethiopia, China, Indonesia and elsewhere grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner Monday after the second devastating crash of one of the planes in five months. (March 11)
AP
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday on the crashes of a new Boeing jet model by claiming that “airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly” and may be too susceptible to crashes.

In a tweet two days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet made by Boeing, the second such accident in five months, Trump tweeted that “pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT,” and manufacturers are “always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better.”

While not proposing any alternatives, Trump claimed that “complexity creates danger,” and added: “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

Boeing 737: UK becomes latest to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after Ethiopian Airlines crash

The cause of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 passengers on Sunday has yet to be determined.

More than two dozen airlines around the world have grounded planes.

Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2019
…needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2019
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, tweeted Tuesday that technology has made aviation safer through collaboration between manufacturers and crews. Nelson added that “mindless blurbs” from “someone who should know better don’t help.”

Aviation safety and security is our number one priority and mindless blurbs on Twitter from someone who should know better don’t help. Vigilance, training, collaboration . . . that’s what helps.

— Sara Nelson (@FlyingWithSara) March 12, 2019
Crash investigators in Ethiopia and Indonesia are studying two fatal crashes in five months involving a new version of Boeing’s 737 called the Max 8.

The design of the engines prompted Boeing to change software for how the plane behaves, which risks exacerbating a dive if pilots aren’t familiar with the change.

Boeing issued additional instructions for dealing with the change after the Indonesia crash and repeated the warning after the Ethiopia crash Sunday.

Will the US ground Boeing 737 Max 8 jets: Questions following Ethiopian Airlines crash left unanswered

While the causes of both crashes remain under investigation, several countries have grounded the 737 Max 8, although not the United States.

Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called on the FAA to ground the Max 8 on Tuesday.

“Out of an abundance of caution for the flying public, the @FAANews should ground the 737 MAX 8 until we investigate the causes of recent crashes,” tweeted Romney.

Out of an abundance of caution for the flying public, the @FAANews should ground the 737 MAX 8 until we investigate the causes of recent crashes and ensure the plane’s airworthiness.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 12, 2019
Warren, in a statement, said while the causes of the crashes are unknown, “serious questions have been raised about whether these planes were pressed into service without additional pilot training in order to save money.”

Trump’s comments came shortly after the United Kingdom became the latest country to ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, the U.S. company’s hottest-selling model.

Trump’s analysis of airplane problems drew ridicule from his critics.

“Hard to believe this guy bankrupted an airline,” tweeted Cody Keenan, a speechwriter for President Barack Obama.

Hard to believe this guy bankrupted an airline t.co/dhez8PRQva

— Cody Keenan (@codykeenan) March 12, 2019
Originally Published 2 hours ago
Updated 1 hour ago

© Copyright Gannett 2019

DONALD TRUMP
New York attorney general subpoenas banks about Trump projects
State investigators are seeking records from Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank on Trump projects as a result of Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James delivers her speech, on Ellis Island in New York Harbor on Jan. 1, 2019.Richard Drew / AP file—
March 12, 2019, 2:06 PM ET / Updated
By Allan Smith
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank late Monday night as part of an inquiry into a set of major Trump Organization projects and Donald Trump’s effort to purchase the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in 2014, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

Regarding Deutsche Bank, state investigators subpoenaed records including loan applications, mortgages, lines of credit and other financing transactions in connection with the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., Trump National Doral in South Florida and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, the source said.

Additionally, investigators requested records from Deutsche Bank on Trump’s failed bid to buy the Bills, as Trump provided the bank with limited personal financial information in 2014 when he tried to purchase the team. The Bills were ultimately sold to businessman Terry Pegula.

The New York attorney general also subpoenaed Investors Bank, a New Jersey-based financial institution, for records tied to Trump Park Avenue, a project it backed.

The New York Times first reported on the probe.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement, “We remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations.” Investors Bank and the Trump Organization did not immediately return requests for comment from NBC News.

Deutsche Bank has already found itself under the scrutiny of congressional investigators for its relationship with the president. For years, the Germany-based bank was one of the only major financial institutions to do business with Trump. Last year, the bank was examined by New York banking regulators, who ultimately did not take action.

The latest inquiry into the president’s business dealings came as a result of congressional testimony provided by Michael Cohen, the president’s former longtime attorney. Late last month, Cohen testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee that Trump inflated the worth of his assets in financial statements and provided Congress with copies of statements he said were sent to Deutsche Bank.

The latest probe by James’ office is a civil investigation, as is the ongoing state probe that led to the dissolution of the Trump Foundation, the president’s charity. New York law gives the attorney general broad authority to investigate businesses for fraud.

James, a Democrat, pledged to thoroughly examine the president as part of her campaign platform. After her victory, she told NBC News that her office “will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well.”

Trump has taken issue with James and her predecessors, Barbara Underwood and Eric Schneiderman, who resigned last year amid allegations of abusing women. The office has led significant investigations into the president’s charity as well as Trump University, his defunct real estate education venture.

On James, Trump tweeted in December that she “openly campaigned on a GET TRUMP agenda.”

“Will never be treated fairly by these people — a total double standard of ‘justice,’” he added.

Allan Smith
Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

World War 3 WARNING: US would be ‘wiped out’ by Russia and China reveal analysts
The war game simulation showed the US is lacking in military prowess

The war game simulation showed the US is lacking in military prowess
WORLD War 3 simulations conducted by an American nonprofit have revealed US forces would be completely “wiped out” when confronted with Chinese and Russian military.
By BRIAN MCGLEENON
PUBLISHED: 04:24, Tue, Mar 12, 2019

The RAND Corporation, who carried out the simulation, claimed US land, sea and air forces would be reduced to rubble in the outlandish scenario. Nonprofit research organization RAND Corporation reported the war-game showed US armed forces facing substantial losses, despite repeated attempts to overcome both Russia and China’s military muscle. RAND analyst David Ochmanek said: "In our games when we fight Russia and China, the US gets its a** handed to it.

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"We lose a lot of people.

“We lose a lot of equipment.

“We usually fail to achieve our objective of preventing aggression by the adversary."

The simulations showed the US see major setbacks in all five battlefield domains.

READ MORE: Former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort sentenced to prison

A Soviet WWII-era T-34 tank drives during a military parade (Image: GETTY)
The US were soundly beaten on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace.

US stealth fighters were often wiped out while still on the runway.

Former deputy secretary of defence and an experienced war-gamer Robert Work said: “F-35 rules the sky when it’s in the sky, it gets killed on the ground in large numbers.”

Other scenarios showed that US warships were sunk and US bases reduced to rubble.

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The aircraft carrier Liaoning of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy leaves a shipyard (Image: GETTY)
The US was seen to not have enough anti-air and missile defence capabilities to strike back in the event of a high-end conflict.

Both aircraft carriers and US Air Force bases were often targeted by long-range precision-guided missiles, and the US Army’s tank brigades were pummeled by cruise missiles, drones and helicopters, officials stated.

Mr Ochmanek said: ”Things that rely on sophisticated base infrastructure like runways and fuel tanks are going to have a hard time."

When it comes to cyber warfare, Mr Ochmanek indicated that US satellites and wireless networks could become ineffective if Chinese military forces were to employ “system destruction warfare”.

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Trump tweets climate change skeptic in latest denial of science
By Brandon Miller, CNN
Updated 3:13 PM EDT, Tue March 12, 2019

(CNN) President Donald Trump escalated his denial of global warming Tuesday, when he took to Twitter to quote a noted climate skeptic who claims that climate change is “fake science.”

Trump cited the comments of Patrick Moore on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program, which identified him as the co-founder of the activist group Greenpeace.

According to Greenpeace, however, Moore is not a co-founder but rather “a paid spokesman for a variety of polluting industries for more than 30 years.”

Moore, who is not a climate scientist but who has degrees in forest biology and ecology, played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years early in the organization’s existence, according to Greenpeace’s website, but he did not help found it.

“He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes,” the group said in a statement in 2010.

But the incorrect facts about Moore’s past and credentials pale in comparison to the incorrect facts in the quote the President chose to tweet.

‘There is no climate crisis’
According to Moore, “there is no climate crisis.”

But according to Trump’s own government’s report from November, “the impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country.”

The National Climate Assessment, which was a collaboration of 13 federal agencies and over 300 leading scientists, found that the US economy could lose hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century because of climate change.

Here’s how climate change will impact the US
“There is nothing fake about the climate crisis we face today,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist from Texas Tech University who was one of the lead authors of the report.

“The science behind climate change has been understood since the 1850s. We cannot afford to have politically motivated people spin the issue any longer,” Hayhoe said of Moore’s comments.

‘There’s weather and climate all around the world’
Although Moore is correct that weather and climate occur all over the world, that obvious statement does not in any way counter the facts that climate is changing and that human activities are the cause.

According to a special report last year from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C (1.8°F) of global warming above pre-industrial levels (from 1850-1900).”

That report also projected that the planet could reach dangerous levels of warming by 2030, which would include more heat waves, greater sea level rise, worse droughts and rainfall extremes.

The effects of climate change on the world
Fossil fuels still comprise the largest source of energy consumed worldwide, coal being the worst CO2-emitter of all. Carbon dioxide emissions are closely tied to climate change, and its effects are already at our doorstep.

Scroll through the gallery to see how communities around the world are being affected
1 of 15

Hide Caption

And although extreme weather has always occurred, the warming climate is worsening many types of extreme weather – and even causing some of it.

US government scientists have pointed to the role that climate change has played in what have been the costliest back-to-back years in weather-related disaster costs, totaling well over $350 billion in 2017 and 2018.

“Climate change is playing an increasing role, amplifying the frequency and intensity of certain types of extreme weather that lead to billion-dollar disasters,” said Adam Smith, lead researcher at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

‘Carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life’
Carbon dioxide is not one of the six elements generally considered the chemical building blocks of life – but its components, carbon and oxygen, are (along with hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus).

According to NASA, “carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important heat-trapping (greenhouse) gas, which is released through human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels.”

The carbon dioxide data (red curve) measured on Mauna Loa is the longest record of direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere.
And thanks to ever-increasing emissions of it worldwide, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years.

Earth’s temperature is very closely coupled to carbon dioxide, and “even a very small amount of it can have a profound warming impact,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist and director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Moore’s sentiment that carbon dioxide is essential to life on Earth is correct, but too much of it is certainly not a good thing.

Mann had an offer for Moore: “If he wants proof, I’m sure I can raise funds for his one-way trip to Venus.”

Vl
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