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Author Topic: Corruption in Government  (Read 57529 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #810 on: December 03, 2018, 07:10:38 pm »
Quote from: AG
The Russian Oligarchs OWNED Trump LONG before he ran for POTUS.

If you cannot handle that, you are in willful denial. Let me also add that the Republican Party DOES NOT see Russia as an adversary, simply because Russia is run by a Profit Over People and Planet Oligarchy, just as the USA currently is. So, YEAH, the Republicans are happy as pigs in poop to take all the Russian money they can. AND THEY HAVE, AND CONTINUE NOW, to TAKE RUSSIAN MONEY!

Bookmark this post. Most of the Rs in Congress are owned by Russia, and all are actively engaged in obstruction of justice. In the fullness of time all will be revealed. And the fuckwits who have declaimed that "TrumpRussia"is a neocon myth, like Caitlin **** Johnstone, will be revealed for their poor judgment and lack of understanding Or ideological blindness.

Eric Trump admitted to all this before they told him to STFU.

Yep. By the way, have you been able to wade through the 33 page Mueller Motion to get Cohen a lighter sentence? It is quite incriminating of Trump , even if Trump 🦀, as usual, is trying Orwell his way out of his PROVEN COLLUSION by making noises about having the "maximum sentence" book thrown at Cohen.

Palmer Report December 1, 2018 SNIPPET:

The document is thirty-three pages, so we’ll cut to the chase: Michael Cohen is asking for time served. This would mean that he wouldn’t have to report to prison at all. Considering the seriousness of the nine felonies he’s pleaded guilty to, as well as the other felony charges that were waived as part of his deal, this would be a very lenient sentence. The thing is, the mere act that he’s asking for it reveals something.

For a defendant, the goal in a sentencing memo is to ask for something on the lenient end of what might be considered realistic. You don’t want to ask for something absurd, because then the judge might be offended, and might be inclined to not take the request seriously. Considering how closely Michael Cohen has been working with Robert Mueller and other prosecutors – including the events of yesterday – you have to figure that he made this request after running it past them first, and wouldn’t have asked for something that they found offensive, either.

Michael Cohen’s decision to release this document right now, when his sentencing hearing isn’t for nearly two weeks, suggests that he’s trying to capitalize on the public goodwill that he earned yesterday when he helped Robert Mueller expose that Donald Trump was a part of the Trump Tower Moscow conspiracy during the 2016 election. Cohen went a long way yesterday to taking down Donald Trump, as well as bringing Trump’s kids to justice.

We’ll see what Robert Mueller comes back with as far as his sentencing recommendation. The judge could then end up realistically going with anything in between what Mueller asks for and what Cohen asks for. But again, it’s revealing that Cohen thinks he’s in a strong enough position to even ask for a free pass. If Mueller comes anywhere close to recommending time served, it’ll mean that Mueller thinks Cohen has been a really big help in Trump’s downfall.

You can  read the lengthy sentencing memo here.

Full article:

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/sentencing-memo-revealing-cohen/14384/

I haven't been following this closely, but I would expect Cohen to eventually be disbarred, which means he loses his livelihood, too. I'm not sure that's completely inevitable, but it has to be 99% certain. Not that I'm against it.

I hope Cohen gets to walk, just to stick it up Trump's nose, but time served seems pretty optimistic.


I don't much care about what happens to Cohen. The fact is that it is now irrefutable the Trump has been lying about his source of funds to run a Presidential Campaign from the getgo. Emptywheel has been on to Trump from the start. Emptywheel is the courageous lady that blew up a huge scandal in the Bush (Shrub, not daddy) Admiinistration that got Cheney's sidekick lawyer liar (I forget the name of that bastard right now -so many bastards - so little time) in big trouble. She wrote a book about it.

Here's the latest on Trump:

December 3, 2018/26 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel


 If Trump is still POTUS after 2020, the rotton, filthy, massive, oligarhic level of Profit Over People and Planet corruption in this country irreparable. If Mueller leaves no (Roger) Stone unturned  ;D, there is NO WAY Trump avoids indictment for Obstruction of Justice (and other impeachable crimes like "light" TREASON).



I can't help myself.  ;D

Everyone piles on after Donald Trump 🦀 implies someone named “Scott Free” is out to get him

Bill Palmer | 6:04 pm EST December 3, 2018

Palmer Report » Analysis

Most people are familiar with the phrase scot-free. Not everyone knows about its Scottish etymology, or even how to correctly spell it, but everyone knows that “Scott Free” isn’t a person. Then there’s Donald Trump, whose raging Twitter meltdown today was so far over the top, some people came away wondering if Trump might truly think “Scott Free” is a person who has gotten away with some very bad things, and may be out to get him.

For reference, here’s part of Donald Trump’s lengthy attack on Michael Cohen: “He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.” While Trump does have a history of improperly capitalizing words for no particular reason, it’s worth pointing out that “Scott” and “Free” are the only two such words in this rant. It didn’t go unnoticed.

Merriam-Webster, the famous dictionary company, was quick to use its official Twitter account to make fun of Donald Trump:

‘Scot-free’: completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty

‘Scott Free’: some guy, probably

Numerous people pointed to the DC Comics superhero Mister Miracle, who also goes by the name Scott Free. Others posted quips like “I’m Scott Free, and I did not approve this message” and “Who is Scott Free? Is this another one of your pseudonyms?” In any case, Donald Trump’s dishonest (and illegal) tweet has left us to conclude that perhaps Michael Cohen should get off scot-free.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/scott-free-trump-piles/14442/


GOOD ONE, Surly.  ;D

Ya ain't seen nothing yet.


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #811 on: December 03, 2018, 07:25:09 pm »
Quote from: AG
The Russian Oligarchs OWNED Trump LONG before he ran for POTUS.

If you cannot handle that, you are in willful denial. Let me also add that the Republican Party DOES NOT see Russia as an adversary, simply because Russia is run by a Profit Over People and Planet Oligarchy, just as the USA currently is. So, YEAH, the Republicans are happy as pigs in poop to take all the Russian money they can. AND THEY HAVE, AND CONTINUE NOW, to TAKE RUSSIAN MONEY!

Bookmark this post. Most of the Rs in Congress are owned by Russia, and all are actively engaged in obstruction of justice. In the fullness of time all will be revealed. And the fuckwits who have declaimed that "TrumpRussia"is a neocon myth, like Caitlin **** Johnstone, will be revealed for their poor judgment and lack of understanding Or ideological blindness.

Eric Trump admitted to all this before they told him to STFU.

Yep. By the way, have you been able to wade through the 33 page Mueller Motion to get Cohen a lighter sentence? It is quite incriminating of Trump , even if Trump 🦀, as usual, is trying Orwell his way out of his PROVEN COLLUSION by making noises about having the "maximum sentence" book thrown at Cohen.

Palmer Report December 1, 2018 SNIPPET:

The document is thirty-three pages, so we’ll cut to the chase: Michael Cohen is asking for time served. This would mean that he wouldn’t have to report to prison at all. Considering the seriousness of the nine felonies he’s pleaded guilty to, as well as the other felony charges that were waived as part of his deal, this would be a very lenient sentence. The thing is, the mere act that he’s asking for it reveals something.

For a defendant, the goal in a sentencing memo is to ask for something on the lenient end of what might be considered realistic. You don’t want to ask for something absurd, because then the judge might be offended, and might be inclined to not take the request seriously. Considering how closely Michael Cohen has been working with Robert Mueller and other prosecutors – including the events of yesterday – you have to figure that he made this request after running it past them first, and wouldn’t have asked for something that they found offensive, either.

Michael Cohen’s decision to release this document right now, when his sentencing hearing isn’t for nearly two weeks, suggests that he’s trying to capitalize on the public goodwill that he earned yesterday when he helped Robert Mueller expose that Donald Trump was a part of the Trump Tower Moscow conspiracy during the 2016 election. Cohen went a long way yesterday to taking down Donald Trump, as well as bringing Trump’s kids to justice.

We’ll see what Robert Mueller comes back with as far as his sentencing recommendation. The judge could then end up realistically going with anything in between what Mueller asks for and what Cohen asks for. But again, it’s revealing that Cohen thinks he’s in a strong enough position to even ask for a free pass. If Mueller comes anywhere close to recommending time served, it’ll mean that Mueller thinks Cohen has been a really big help in Trump’s downfall.

You can  read the lengthy sentencing memo here.

Full article:

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/sentencing-memo-revealing-cohen/14384/

I haven't been following this closely, but I would expect Cohen to eventually be disbarred, which means he loses his livelihood, too. I'm not sure that's completely inevitable, but it has to be 99% certain. Not that I'm against it.

I hope Cohen gets to walk, just to stick it up Trump's nose, but time served seems pretty optimistic.


I don't much care about what happens to Cohen. The fact is that it is now irrefutable the Trump has been lying about his source of funds to run a Presidential Campaign from the getgo. Emptywheel has been on to Trump from the start. Emptywheel is the courageous lady that blew up a huge scandal in the Bush (Shrub, not daddy) Admiinistration that got Cheney's sidekick lawyer liar (I forget the name of that bastard right now -so many bastards - so little time) in big trouble. She wrote a book about it.

Here's the latest on Trump:

December 3, 2018/26 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel


 If Trump is still POTUS after 2020, the rotton, filthy, massive, oligarhic level of Profit Over People and Planet corruption in this country irreparable. If Mueller leaves no (Roger) Stone unturned  ;D, there is NO WAY Trump avoids indictment for Obstruction of Justice (and other impeachable crimes like "light" TREASON).
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #812 on: December 05, 2018, 10:11:20 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: MORE evidence that the Pentagon 🦍 is WAY out of control.

Pentagon 🦍 Engaged in Unfathomable Financial Mismanagement 

December 5, 2018

Around the same time that auditors declared that the Department of Defense’s finances are unauditable, The Nation published an extensive exposé of just how deliberately falsified and mismanaged the Pentagon’s accounts are. We speak to the report’s author, investigative journalist David Lindorff


Story Transcript

GREG WILPERT: It’s The Real News Network, and I’m Greg Wilpert.

About three weeks ago, the auditors who were conducting the first-ever comprehensive audit of the Defense Department announced that the audit could not be completed because too much money was simply unaccounted for. Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters afterwards, “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it. It was an audit on a $2.7 organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial.”

The Pentagon’s annual budget is now over $700 billion and climbing. However, investigators who have looked into the Pentagon’s finances, such as Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics specializing in government policy at Michigan State University, found that at least $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be accounted for.

Joining me now to make sense of what is going on at the Defense Department is David Lindorff. David is a contributor to the Nation, where he recently published an article with the title Exclusive: The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed. He also writes for Salon, London Review of Books, and Tarbell.org. Thanks for joining us today, David.

DAVID LINDORFF: Thanks for having me.

GREG WILPERT: So what is going on with the Pentagon’s accounts? Why did it fail the audit, and what exactly does failure mean?

DAVID LINDORFF: Well, it failed the audit because the numbers are so screwy that the 1200 auditors from the outside firms that were looking at it just threw up their hands and said we can’t do it. I had been warned by several people, including the head of the National Security Unit of the GAO that there would not be an audit because of this problem, and that it’ll be years before they can actually do an audit because the numbers are so bad that they’re dealing with. But the reason behind it is that the Pentagon has been deliberately falsifying numbers in its annual reports every year so that for years those numbers are, described by one former OIG supervising auditor, as garbage.

GREG WILPERT: So you requested, yourself, documents from the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s Office, and they sent you an annual report that was heavily redacted, with even the report’s title blacked out. And the slogan at the bottom of the report, though, which was not redacted but perhaps should have been, said “Integrity, efficiency, accountability, excellence.” Tell us about your efforts to get information for the Defense Department, what that was like, and what they said in response to your requests.

DAVID LINDORFF: Well, that document was actually posted on their website as though it was supposed to be public information. But it’s futile, because everything has been blacked out. And that’s a first. The same guy who said that the budgets are garbage said it shocked him as a former supervisory audit director at the OIG to see them censoring the documents, because before this all the documents they would post were were public record.

But you know, Mark Skidmore, Professor Skidmore at Michigan State University, who looked at all those documents between ’98 and 2015 did see all the documents. And the OIG, to its credit, was calling out these fake numbers. They would say, you know, these numbers, which sometimes totaled in the trillions of dollars, in Pentagon budgets were unsupported by any kind of ledger entries to back them up. And they would criticize the Pentagon accounting units and say, you know, you gotta do this right. This isn’t right. But nobody would ever get fired. The OIG would never recommend prosecution to the Justice Department. No supervisory people ever got called to the carpet for this kind of stuff.

So one has to assume that this was deliberate. And in fact, people that I talked to on the record off said that that is exactly what is happening, that it’s a deliberate effort to make the Pentagon budgets impenetrable and inauditable.

GREG WILPERT: Now, it seems like we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars per year that is really unaccountable. So if much money is unaccountable, doesn’t this open the door, open wide for fraud, corruption, and maybe even embezzlement? I mean, who’s to say that that’s not what’s happening?

DAVID LINDORFF: Well, actually, it is happening. And what the on-the-record interview I had with Asif Khan, who is the head of the GAO’s National Security Asset Management Unit that monitors the budgets of the Pentagon and the CIA, and various other– the Atomic Energy Commission, or NRC, rather. You know, the various entities that have national security aspects to them. Said that the Pentagon has been for years on his and the GAO’s list of high-risk agencies for fraud, waste, and abuse.

And that, you know, think of this. The Pentagon accounts for 54 percent of every tax dollar that taxpayers and corporations pay in taxes to the government. And it is on the high risk list for fraud, waste, and abuse. This is incredible, and nobody’s–I never even knew that. I don’t think it’s ever been reported that they’re on that list. It’s an absolute outrage, and the American people should be clamoring for action on this. But you hear nothing about it from Congress.

GREG WILPERT: Indeed, it seems to be truly amazing that the story itself has hardly been covered in the media. And if you consider that first of all not only is all this fraud possible, maybe even corruption and embezzlement, but they’re also not returning the money back to Congress as they’re supposed to be at the end of the year if they didn’t spend it. I mean, there’s so much illegality going on, it seems. Why isn’t Congress looking into this more seriously? Why isn’t the Pentagon being held accountable? What do you think?

DAVID LINDORFF: Well, it’s interesting. I mean, in the 1980s there were huge hearings into scandals that were raised by whistleblowers like Chuck Spinney, Ed Fitzgerald. You know, people that had, you know, real credibility and used their names, not just whistleblowers in, you know, behind the scenes. Called out massive fraud by the Pentagon, and the Congress responded by, you know, hearings and putting top people under oath, and uncovered a lot of fraud. And you know, heads rolled and everything. Spinney actually was put on the cover of Time magazine for his efforts.

Nothing like that goes on now. And I run it back to 2001 and the war on terror, which has had the effect of making people and the media, you know, worshipful of the military. They’re supposed to be the highest regarded part of the American government, and yet, you know, they’re they’re basically fraudsters. And they’re doing what bureaucracies always do. They’re enlarging their budgets and enlarging their power, and there is nothing particularly admirable about them.

GREG WILPERT: OK. Well, unfortunately, we’re out of time. We’re going to leave it there for now. I was speaking to Nation contributor David Lindorff, author of the article The Pentagon’s Massive accounting Fraud Exposed. Thanks again, David, for having joined us today.

DAVID LINDORFF: Thanks for having me on.

GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network. If you like Real News Network stories such as this one, please keep in mind that we have started our winter fundraiser and need your help of reaching our goal of raising $400,000. Every dollar that you donate will be matched. Also, keep in mind we do not accept support from governments or corporations. Please do what you can today.


https://therealnews.com/stories/pentagon-engaged-in-unfathomable-financial-mismanagement


The future is bright, .... for extremophiles.
 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #814 on: December 13, 2018, 04:44:23 pm »
December 13, 2018

Quote
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: MARIA BUTINA

Russian operative Maria Butina has pleaded guilty to conspiring to influence the 2016 election. Trump and the NRA need to be held accountable too. Watch and share this video, and sign up for our weekly Need to Know update emails to stay informed.


https://www.needtoimpeach.com/butina-guilty/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #815 on: December 13, 2018, 09:21:14 pm »
The Life and Crimes of George Herbert Walker Bush (w/ Lamar Waldron)

29,452 views

Thom Hartmann Program



Premiered Dec 7, 2018

This week marks the burial of the 41st president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush.

In the week since his passing, many in the press have taken this time to describe President Bush as a model president, statesmen and in contrast to Donald Trump.

But in looking at the past with rose tinted eyes we ignore how the Bush Crime family led us to Donald Trump, and it is in that spirit that Lamar Waldron joins Thom Hartmann to go over the life and crimes of George H.W. Bush.

The Real story that is not being told on the corporate media.


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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #816 on: December 14, 2018, 12:17:36 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: This excellent comment on the linked article is basically what I believe is the basis of Mueller's methodical modus operandi.

Scipio Africanus 👍 😀

Russia collusion is a shiny object. What Mueller has, and intends to do with it, is truly the stuff of nightmares. Those bouncing today, in disdainful attitudes, will find themselves in pickle jars in short order. Something went wrong seriously somewhere, which catastrophically derailed the Republic.

Because of the insight into that, understanding that Mueller, in reality, is an investigator, much like Holmes, Sherlock that is, trying to decipher how the dog was bypassed for the house to be robbed, and the murderers of the residents to carry out their despicable acts, leaves us no choice but to stay out of it, and observe the investigation into the greatest heist of the 20th century.

Like we said, it's about score settling, and the scores will be settled. The rats have consumed the cheese without triggering the trap door. That wasn't the intent for the trap door to close, the purpose of the cheese, is that of "tracking". The rats were not intended to be killed by the trap, but to lead right back to the rat king , like the movie - great wall (of China).

We'll continue to observe, as the foundation of the Republic (Rule of Law), is repaired...

In Explosive Interview, Cohen Says Mueller Has "Substantial" Evidence Against Trump

by Tyler Durden

Fri, 12/14/2018 - 09:45

SNIPPET:

Offering his most detailed accounting yet of the events that led up to his guilty plea, Cohen insisted that Trump had directed him to make the "hush money" payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal that have emerged as the center of the campaign finance allegations that prosecutors are seeking to trace back to the president.

Cohen: "Nothing at the Trump 🦀 Organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump 🦀," Mr. Cohen said. "He 🦀 directed me to make the payments.

Read more:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-14/explosive-interview-cohen-says-mueller-has-substantial-evidence-against-trump
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #817 on: December 16, 2018, 04:09:37 pm »
Friends of the Earth foe.org


VICTORY : Ryan Zinke 🦖 resigns as Interior Secretary

Dec 15, 2018, 9:59 AM

Dear Anthony,

Victory for the environment: Ryan Zinke resigns from the Department of the Interior after onslaught of scandals!
VICTORY! Ryan Zinke just stepped down as Secretary of the Interior, according to a tweet from Donald Trump. He will leave at the end of the year. This was largely thanks to people like you demanding he be held accountable for his corruption.

Every day Ryan Zinke was in office, he worked to destroy our public lands and waters -- with devastating impacts on our communities. He slashed protections for places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Bears Ears National Monument. And he did it all to help his fossil fuel industry friends.

The scandals surrounding Zinke have been building for months. The DOI Inspector General released a report showing that every time Zinke had a choice between benefiting taxpayers and himself, he chose himself. He even changed policies so taxpayers would cover travel for his wife, and wasted $25,000 on a romantic trip to Turkey with her.

His corruption was so severe that the DOI Inspector General referred an investigation to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.

Friends of the Earth members like you spoke out on these scandals and made them impossible for Trump to ignore. Zinke resigned after you signed petitions, made phone calls, took to social media and took to the streets to demand that he be kicked out of the Department of Interior.

This shows that when people like you stand up to Trump and his Administration, you can make a difference. You can stop them from destroying our environment and endangering our communities.

Forcing Zinke out is a huge victory for people and the environment. Each day Zinke was Interior Secretary, he worked to advance his radical plan to slash national monuments, cut Indigenous communities out of the decision-making process, and ignore significant environmental, cultural, and scientific information. And he did it all in a mad dash to frack ☠️, mine ☠️ and drill ☠️ on America's public lands.

And until the scandals caught up to him, he was dangerously ☠️ effective at it.

By kicking Zinke out of the Department of the Interior, you helped send a strong message that it’s unacceptable for our leaders to put the fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests ahead of people and the planet.

Trump 🦀 is still trying to fill his government with corrupt extremists 💵 🎩 and climate deniers 🦕. Zinke’s likely replacement, David Bernhardt 🐉, is a walking conflict of interest. Before coming to Interior he was a high paid lobbyist representing the very industries that will profit from Trump’s plan to hand our public lands and waters over to polluters.

That’s why we’ll need you with us every step of the way as we work to stop these dangerous nominees and appointees. But Zinke’s ouster shows that when we all take action together, we win.

Thank you for helping build a better future for our country and our planet.

Standing with you,
Nicole Ghio,
Senior fossil fuels program manager,
Friends of the Earth

https://foe.org/news/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #818 on: December 16, 2018, 10:40:52 pm »

Donald Trump’s lies spiral out of control

Tim Faulkner | 3:00 pm EST December 15, 2018

Palmer Report » Analysis

Joyce Vance and Barbara McQuade are former United States Attorneys and frequent MSNBC contributors, often providing their legal insight into Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia treason. During a recent appearance on AM Joy, they were discussing some of the recent bombshell stories surrounding Donald Trump’s multitude of criminal activities. While there are so many scandals to discuss, the conversation quickly turned to Trump’s level of honesty, or lack thereof.

When asked about Trump’s blatant lies throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Vance opined, “I think one of the most important takeaways here actually is an extra-legal takeaway. It’s the notion — that as American citizens — a candidate lied to us during the campaign.” She continued, “We need to take a moment and think about how truly outrageous this is.” While we have all become accustomed to Trump’s constant use of mistruths, and with politicians often referred to as dishonest, what we have witnessed over the past couple years compares to nothing we have experienced in this nation’s history. What many have known for quite some time – that Donald Trump is a career criminal appears to finally be accepted by cable news channels, save Fox News.

“Democracy is all about giving full information to voters so they can cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice,” McQuade stated. “And by lying and covering up about his past on the eve of the election and violating the laws designed to create transparency, they say that President Trump clouded the process for the American voters.” Given the recent news that Trump directed Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer and fixer, to pay hush money to prevent voters from knowing about his extramarital affairs, it is clear that Trump was willing to keep everyone in the dark.

In an analogy that even Donald Trump could appreciate, McQuade quipped, “When immigrants procure their citizenship by fraud, we strip them of their citizenship. When a president procures his presidency by fraud, should we consider doing the same?” I believe a vast majority of Americans would respond to this question with an unequivocal “Yes!” While there are no laws to undo all of the damage Trump’s administration has already done, it becomes more clear every day that Mueller is working to undo some aspects.

Tim Faulkner

I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.


https://www.palmerreport.com
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #819 on: December 16, 2018, 11:14:25 pm »
 


Hardcover – October 2, 2018
 (Author) Greg Miller
 

Quote
David Roy, Ph D
5.0 out of 5 stars Calm, Clear, Detailed

October 13, 2018

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

A sign that an author has mastered his/her material is clarity, and Greg Miller's Apprentice shows just that. Miller also reports information that I've not read or heard of elsewhere, showing that he has done his own research and that he goes beyond the surface. The only draw back to the book is that I cannot find a game plan to turn things around; but that really is not his job. Defining the problem clearly helps yield solutions.

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE WORK OF 2018

From two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller, the truth about Vladimir Putin’s covert attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency, its possible connections to the Trump campaign, Robert Mueller’s ensuing investigation of the president and those close to him, and the mystery of Trump’s steadfast allegiance to Putin.

It has been called the political crime of the century: a foreign government, led by a brutal authoritarian leader, secretly interfering with the American presidential election to help elect the candidate of its choice. Now two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller investigates the truth about the Kremlin’s covert attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency, Trump’s steadfast allegiance to Vladimir Putin, and Robert Mueller’s ensuing investigation of the president and those close to him.

Based on interviews with hundreds of people in Trump’s inner circle, current and former government officials, individuals with close ties to the White House, members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities, foreign officials, and confidential documents, The Apprentice offers striking new information about:

► the hacking of the Democrats by Russian intelligence;

► Russian hijacking of Facebook and Twitter;

► National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s hidden communications with the Russians;

► the attempt by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to create a secret back channel to Moscow using Russian diplomatic facilities;

► Trump’s disclosure to Russian officials of highly classified information about Israeli intelligence operations;

► Trump’s battles with the CIA and the FBI and fierce clashes within the West Wing;

► Trump’s efforts to enlist the director of national intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to push  back against the FBI’s investigation of his campaign;

► the mysterious Trump Tower meeting;

► the firing of FBI Director James Comey;

► the appointment of Mueller and the investigation that has followed;

► the tumultuous skirmishing within Trump’s legal camp;

► and Trump’s jaw-dropping behavior in Helsinki.

Deeply reported and masterfully told, The Apprentice is essential reading for anyone trying to understand Vladimir Putin’s secret operation, its catastrophic impact, and the nature of betrayal.


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #820 on: December 17, 2018, 12:26:57 pm »
Mon, 12/17/2018 - 10:35

Quote
The Judge 👍

Keeping everyone's attention glued to the wall while the biggest types of insanity that could get us all killed or turned into degraded sapiens (even more so) just keep going on, like there is just nothing wrong with any of it, is indicative of what a sham our ( supposed ) democracy has devolved into. And apparently people just eat it up like it actually was the most pressing issue in these 4 years of the Don's presidency.  Don't you be a dunce.



Agelbert NOTE: The Wall is a deliberate distraction. Below, PLEASE SEE, a SIGNIFICANT part of the DESTRUCTIVE REALITY of the Trump Adminstration's   UNRELENTING ATTACK ON WE-THE-PEOPLE (just up to 2017 - it got WORSE in 2018): 🤬


Trump’s land and water grab laid bare in new maps

Press Release December 5, 2018

American landscapes being redrawn in rush to increase drilling and mining

A series of new maps by The Wilderness Society confirms the Trump administration’s rush to open public lands to drilling and mining is redrawing the American landscape. The maps are being released about a week before another round of public oil and gas lease sales and in concert with maps unveiled by The Guardian that are also drawn from TWS data.

The mapping and data project, called “Trump’s Land Grab” shows how in just two short years the administration has begun to radically alter the American landscape. Over 2017 and 2018, President Trump and Interior Secretary Zinke have rolled back protections on 153 million acres of land and water that were conserved for cultural, ecological, and recreational reasons. To put that into perspective, the area is about the size of California and Washington combined.

“This is how Trump’s call for so-called energy dominance plan looks when put into practice,” said Jenny Kordick, TWS’ climate and energy advocacy director. “In service of special interests, the administration has pushed to open millions of acres to drilling and mining, even as polls say the it’s out of step with mainstream American values.”

The new maps show the dramatic shift from protecting land to putting it up for sale. Included in the most controversial conservation rollbacks by the administration so far are Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments, millions of acres in Western Sage-Grouse habitat, the California desert, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Arctic Ocean, and the U.S. Coastline.

“President Trump is not only making rollbacks to wildland protections, he’s attacking some of the most vulnerable and wildest places imaginable,” Kordick said. “Many of these places are among the wildest lands in the contiguous United States. These are places that should be conserved for future generations and are simply too wild to drill.”

The TWS maps were released ahead of another quarter of Interior department onshore oil and gas lease sales occuring on December 12-13. Over three million acres will be auctioned to energy companies in addition to what has already been made available.

END

https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/trumps-land-and-water-grab-laid-bare-new-maps


Agelbert ADDED NOTE: Add to the above the Trump plan for Medicare and Social Security...



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #821 on: December 18, 2018, 08:13:56 pm »

Institutionalizing Lawlessness: Systematically Subverting Markets

6,789 views


TheRealNews

Published on Dec 8, 2018

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader gives the closing talk at the forum, “Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism,” held in Washington DC, on October 19, 2018

Visit https://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at https://therealnews.com/donate.

Category News & Politics

Series: Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism

Ralph Nader: Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism

Antitrust and How Kleptocracy Corrupts What Markets are Supposed to do Well

The Virtues and Limits of Markets

https://therealnews.com/stories/how-fraud-corrodes-weak-market-regulations-governed-by-market-fundamentalism
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #822 on: December 18, 2018, 08:32:52 pm »
Jimm Dore interviews Chris Hedges Oct 15 Full 3 parts

38,581 views


Published on Oct 17, 2018

Jimmy Dore interviews Chris Hedges and this clip of Chris the mess that Americans are in NOW!    Thanks Jimmy and as always You are amazing Chris

Larry Publisher of JusticeNewsNetwork.com

Visit Jimmy's youtube channnel for MUCH MUCH MORE Truth!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3M7...

Category News & Politics
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #823 on: December 19, 2018, 09:36:56 pm »
Senators 🐒🦍😈👹 Sneak Illegalization of Israel Boycott into Budget Bill  >:(

December 19, 2018

While Republican Senators are trying to sneak a last-minute amendment into the budget bill to make BDS illegal, violating free speech, 26 states are also moving to make boycotts of Israel illegal. We speak to IPS’s Phyllis Bennis about the anti-BDS efforts in the US


https://therealnews.com/stories/senators-sneak-illegalization-of-israel-boycott-into-budget-bill
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #824 on: December 19, 2018, 09:58:43 pm »
Trump’s  Criminal Justice Reform Act Is a Meaningless Smoke Screen (Pt 1/3)

December 18, 2018

Congress’s Criminal Justice Reform Act boosts privatization, fails to dismantle mass incarceration, nor does it implement sentencing reform. We speak to Eddie Conway and Natasha Pratt Harris about the proposed reform


Story Transcript

MARC STEINER: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner, great to have you with us.

And I’m here with Eddie Conway, who is Executive Producer here at Real News and host of Rattling the Bars. Eddie, glad you’re here in the studio with us.

And it looks as if the United States Senate, in a bipartisan move, is about to pass a criminal justice reform act called The First Step Act. Now, Trump campaigned on being tough on crime, as he said, mocking the notion of not abusing people who are arrested and more.

DONALD TRUMP: It will provide new incentives for low risk inmates to learn the skills they need to find employment, avoid old habits and follow the law when they’re released from prison. In many respects, we’re getting very much tougher on the truly bad criminals of which, unfortunately, there are many, but we’re treating people differently for different crimes.

MARC STEINER: But do we have a new Trump, and are conservatives now for criminal justice reform all of a sudden? So what does it mean when the Koch brothers and their organization, Right on Crime, are united with the American Civil Liberties Union to support this bill? It does change mandatory minimum to an extent, and all those procedures, it improves the good credit time people get to an extent, though there’s some racial issues in terms of racial and class bias, releasing more people sooner in federal prisons may happen. But conservatives want to tighten this so people who commit what we call “violent” acts are excluded, along with child abusers and people who sold any amount of heroin to fentanyl.

As I said, Real News Executive Producer Eddie Conway is here, along with Dr. Natasha Pratt-Harris, who’s the Criminal Justice Coordinator at Morgan State University, and Aajah Harris, who is SGA President at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. And welcome to The Real News both of you, all of you. Good to have you here.

NATASHA PRATT-HARRIS: Thank you.

EDDIE CONWAY: Thank you.

MARC STEINER: So Natasha, let me just start with you. What do you think politically is happening here? All these years you’ve been in the middle of this issue, and we see now, out of nowhere, that we have this first step back, and we’ll talk a little bit later about the people who are opposed to this, surprisingly, as not being enough, but what’s your analysis of this?

NATASHA PRATT-HARRIS: Well basically, you have what I call like a checklist of items that people in power or who are political leaders are responsible for. So they say, oh check on taxes, check on any number of things health care, check on, oh now let’s address criminal justice issues. Right now, criminal justice reform is very popular. During the Nixon era, it was about getting tough and the War on Drugs, which we know means something more than the war on just drugs. Under Reagan, you had Say No to Drugs and the campaign where you actually had a full-fledged war on drugs. Under Bill Clinton, you had the Crime Control Act of 1994, and that was a checklist item.

Then you had the realities of the second Bush, who decided that we needed a Second Chance Act of 2007 because we need faith-based organizations to do their part in assessing what happens with people who’ve been incarcerated, or actually offering assistance to those folks and changing the way we do criminal justice work, which kind of started from the get tough policies of prior years, the first Bush, Reagan and so forth. And then you have President Obama, who came in with his reforms, and part of his administration. And now you have Trump, who’s just following suit on what the previous presidents had been engaged in. This is politics as usual. It’s going to be popular because criminal justice reform is a popular thing right now. Many people are using language that they didn’t even know existed ten, fifteen years ago, maybe even five years ago. So this is just a part of the norm in terms of the check box items. But in the popular world, it is exciting. Oh wow, Trump is doing this exciting new thing.

MARC STEINER: So this to me, in some ways, Eddie, is there are clearly positive things about this bill. I mean, people are forced to do something and say something, whether it’s realistic or not, being forced into this issue. But one of the things, I mean the critics are saying this is supposed to affect mass incarceration. The reality is it has nothing to do with sentencing, the people have been battling to change sentencing guidelines at the federal level, that hasn’t changed. So what do you think the real import of this will be?

EDDIE CONWAY: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I think, and I’ll go back to Malcolm X’s statement. We’re being tricked, hoodwinked and bamboozled. This is just an occurrence of fixing the criminal justice system because of the amount of attention that Michelle Alexander’s book focused on that, because of the standing of America’s prison system in the world, the largest prison population for any nation in the world. So lawmakers want to–it’s putting lipstick on a pig, if I could do that. And the amount of reforms that’s in this particular bill is so minute that it doesn’t even show up on the statistical chart. In the final analysis, if this bill was to pass, it would affect about a total of 6000 people. The reality is, if the bill passes, it’s going to incarcerate people longer, but it’s also going to spread the prison industrial complex out into the community by using electronic monitors and other kinds of things. And so, the system won’t be housing that many people inside the walls, but it will be turning the community into prison itself in poor and Black communities.

MARC STEINER: So I want to explore that a bit. That has not been part the official critique, which has more to do with sentencing, but there are things at the beginning and the end of this in terms of how we deal with criminal justice I want to get to. But I’m curious, Aajah, as somebody who is working on this on campus, I mean, how does this initially affect you in your thinking in terms of what they’re trying to do? What do you think is missing here?

AAJAH HARRIS: I find it quite interesting that I, in the classroom, haven’t heard about this particular bill or act, so it’s very new to me. I mean, I do think that it’s–I also agree with what he says, it’s like a trick. No one ever wants to agree with a bill that positively affects the people who it need to affect, but it always is a bill that goes in favor of the, almost in line with that theory like the haves and have nots. It always goes in favor of someone who has things and not in the favor of the people who don’t have things. So I think that when creating bills or legislations in general, the government should be in favor of everyone, but most importantly the have nots because the have nots kind of overpower those who have.

MARC STEINER: One of the things about the bill, internally, before we talk about the other two extremes in this bill, what happens before people are sent to prison and how the sentencing happens and what happens when they’re out, which is what Eddie just raised, which was going to raise earlier. One of the critiques here, and I think it’s interesting to talk about this. We’re doing more and more with algorithms in terms of determining what we should do with society, taking the human element out, just an allegedly objective look at the world. One of the things here about this bill is that, apparently, if you have a record, a continuing record of crime, of criminal activity, of being arrested and convicted, that goes into this algorithm that may make you not eligible for all the reforms. And part of the argument, Natasha, here that people are making against this is that that will affect Black and brown people and poor people in an adverse way, more than the other people who may have been kingpins and more and can get out because they’ve never been busted before.

NATASHA PRATT-HARRIS: Definitely. Again, there’s a lot of lip service to just about everything we’ve done in our society regarding criminal justice issues, especially when the reality is People of Color had been disparately impacted by a get tough policy or otherwise. Even when we had a system where Black folks weren’t just disproportionately represented, Black people were impacted in a way that other folks or persons who are the haves, like Aajah shared, aren’t necessarily affected. Quite frankly, you can have these algorithms, but it’s truly about who’s in place and how people respond to the messenger group behind this particular thing. So one of the analogies I consider is if you are a Lakers fan and LeBron is playing for the Lakers at that time and you’re good with what he’s doing on the court, then you’re good with this process. But if you are a Cleveland fan and LeBron is no longer with Cleveland, then you definitely are saying there’s something wrong. But it’s the same game.

MARC STEINER: That’s really interesting. I’ve never heard that analogy before, I like that. We’re here with Dr. Natasha Pratt-Harris, who’s Associate Professor at Morgan State University, Aajah Harris and Eddie Conway.

And we just hit the tip of the iceberg here. And the rest that has to do with what happens with people who are sentenced and what kind of sentencing goes on and how that’s not being reformed in this, as well as the larger issue, in some ways, what happens when you get out? Let’s say you’re let out and you’re given early release. Are you really free? Well, the segments coming up are going to track and talk about all of that, so join us.

https://therealnews.com/stories/trumps-criminal-justice-reform-act-is-a-meaningless-smoke-screen-pt-1-3
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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