Wednesday, May 16, 2018 11:18:08 PM
Part 204, some of Russian meddling, and related, material from F6 big ones. These from Tuesday, 05/15/18,
covering April 6, 2018, and headed, Vicente Fox, fmr. Mexican president, urges Trump to tell the truth
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=140799014
Fourteenth
President Donald J. Trump Is Standing Up To Russia’s Malign Activities
“It is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We
cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful.”
- President Donald J. Trump
April 6, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-standing-russias-malign-activities/
LOL Coming from the resident that one is pure projection. Coming from Trump it's comically nonsensical, and in the
seventeenth, more absolutist, unabated just nonsense
William Koenig Says 'It's Very Possible' That Jared Kushner Could Bring About The Antichrist
Published on Apr 9, 2018 by RWW Blog [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXqRHe8n1TX5iDvkLS62rw /
https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog , https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog/videos ]
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this
clip, End Times author William Koenig warns that Jared Kushner's efforts to craft a Middle East peace deal could bring about the rise of the Antichrist.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/william-koenig-its-very-possible-that-jared-kushner-could-bring-about-the-antichrist/
[from April 6, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo6J5UNsqx8 [with comments]
Twenty-fifth and sixth
Watch prosecutor explain why Mueller has new Manafort search warrants
The Beat with Ari Melber
4/6/18
A judge has approved a new search warrant in the Russia probe, for five phone numbers belonging to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Former Federal Prosecutor Barbara Mcquade observes the timing of the search warrant coincides with Mueller checking phones of “incoming
Russian diplomats”. New reporting also reveals Special Counsel Bob Mueller is pressing witnesses about embattled Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watch-prosecutor-explain-why-mueller-has-new-manafort-search-warrants-1204880963594
*
Obama adviser says Trump’s undoing could be 'monetizing the presidency'
The Beat with Ari Melber
4/6/18
House Democrats demand Trump fire EPA Chief Scott Pruitt after a series of ethics concerns. Former political strategist Chai
Komanduri tells Ari Melber Trump has created a White House “culture” that allows public officials to use their office for personal gain.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/obama-adviser-says-trump-s-undoing-could-be-monetizing-the-presidency-1204892227551 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzdcGfMr0j0 [with comments]
Number twenty-eight
Stone: Trump should dismiss Sessions
Published on Apr 6, 2018 by CNN [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCupvZG-5ko_eiXAupbDfxWw / https://www.youtube.com/user/CNN , https://www.youtube.com/user/CNN/videos ]
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone shares
his advice for President Donald Trump and denies communication with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kMe6xmyias [with comments]
Thirty-three and four
New sanctions on Russian oligarchs designed as message to Putin
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Rachel Maddow takes a closer look at some of the Russian oligarchs newly added to the list of
U.S. sanctions and how their selection is designed to communicate a message to Vladimir Putin.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-sanctions-on-russian-oligarchs-designed-as-message-to-putin-1205006915681
*
Key figure in Russia's NRA outreach ploy added to sanctions list
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Tim Dickinson, contributing editor for Rolling Stone, talks with Rachel Maddow about the inclusion of Alexander Torshin
on the new list of sanctioned Russians and Russian efforts to use the NRA as a conduit to influencing U.S. politics.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/key-figure-in-russia-s-nra-outreach-ploy-added-to-sanctions-list-1204995651841
Thirty-seventh and eighth
Political forecasters adjust toward blue amid Democratic wins
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest Democratic upset wins in elections in Wisconsin as the
Cook Political Report adjusts its 2018 forecast by moving 13 races more in the Democrats' favor.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/political-forecasters-adjust-toward-blue-amid-democratic-wins-1205013571610
--
Report: Trump prepping for Mueller interview
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
4/6/18
New reports indicate Mueller has more evidence against Trump associates Paul Manafort & Erik Prince. Plus, a new report Trump may
be starting informal preparation to sit down for an interview with Mueller. Jill Wine-Banks, Joyce Vance, & David Corn join Ali Velshi.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/report-trump-prepping-for-mueller-interview-1204991043673 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiwHVK6bF2A [with comments]
My add - Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=130140403
.. and the first reply ..
A Former Trump Adviser Met With A Russian Spy
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=130145659
and .. The secret Seychelles meeting Robert Mueller is zeroing in on, explained
Why did Erik Prince meet with a Russian fund manager shortly before Trump’s inauguration?
By Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com Updated Apr 10, 2018, 2:15pm EDT
[...]
The people present to meet at the Seychelles on January 11, 2017, included the following:
Erik Prince is the founder of Blackwater, the private security/mercenary company that scored big contracts from George W. Bush’s administration (and some of whose employees were accused of killing Iraqi civilians). Prince has since sold Blackwater (which renamed itself) and gone out in search of new lines of mercenary business.
Prince donated about $250,000 to Trump’s campaign and to outside groups supporting Trump and was in contact with Steve Bannon during the transition. He also happens to be the brother of controversial Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
MBZ, or Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is the crown prince and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. MBZ did business with Erik Prince several years ago — the UAE awarded Prince a contract worth several hundred million dollars “to help assemble an internal paramilitary force,” per the Washington Post. Diplomatically, the UAE regime is close to Saudi Arabia and unfriendly to Qatar and Iran.
George Nader, a Lebanese-American business executive who has a decades-long history in international diplomacy, has lately advised MBZ. He visited the White House several times in 2017. He also at one point consulted for Blackwater.
Kirill Dmitriev manages the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion Russian government-established sovereign wealth fund that’s under US sanctions. He’s believed to be close to Vladimir Putin. His fund was until recently part of the Russian government-owned bank Vnesheconombank, or VEB.
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17088908/erik-prince-trump-russia-seychelles-mueller
Forty-one and forty-two
Trump's allies are warning him not to sit down with Mueller
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
4/7/18
Even as Pres. Trump's allies repeatedly warn him not to sit down for an interview with Russia Special Counsel
Robert Mueller, there's news his legal team is discussing it. Our panel reacts to all the latest Russia probe news.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired April 6, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-s-allies-are-warning-him-not-to-sit-down-with-mueller-1205021251749 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad97_CEj434 [with comments]
*
Trump administration imposes tough Russia sanctions
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
4/7/18
Hitting oligarchs, businesses, and more, the Trump Treasury Department handed down a tough package of sanctions against Russia. Our panel breaks it all down.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired April 6, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-administration-imposes-tough-russia-sanctions-1205022787538 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuc4ZaN_MjI [with comments]
And the next, a comedy spot
Monologue: Trump the Riffer | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Published on Apr 6, 2018 by Real Time with Bill Maher [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6kyFxaMqGtpE3pQTflK8A / https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime , https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime/videos ]
Bill recaps the top stories of the week including Russian sanctions, US troops moving to the border and Trump's tendency to flip-flop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZAsi-0pi6Q [with comments]
To "stashed April 6, 2018:"
I Quit Working For Sinclair And They Sued Me. Here’s Why I’m Fighting Back.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jonathan-beaton-sinclair-suing_us_5ac60f6fe4b09ef3b2441237
U.S. Slaps Putin’s Inner Circle With Aggressive New Sanctions - Reuters
24 people and 14 groups were targeted.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-sanctions_us_5ac7677ae4b07a3485e3a189
original https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-announcement/in-strike-against-putin-u-s-imposes-sanctions-on-businessmen-close-to-kremlin-idUSKCN1HD1O0
Myanmar Groups Say Facebook Has ‘Inherent Flaws,’ Helped Spread Hate Speech
“The risk of Facebook content sparking open violence is arguably nowhere higher right now than in Myanmar.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-myanmar-rohingya_us_5ac6ed7ee4b09d0a1191e5e2
Trump Throws Away His Notes, Regurgitates False Claims From Campaign Instead
The president quickly derailed a tax roundtable by riffing on many of his favorite fake or exaggerated ideas.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tax-event-west-virginia-no-notes_us_5ac67159e4b07a3485e254ed
GOP Strategist: Nonsensical Trump Talking Like A ‘Drunk Guy In Queens’
“This is a tragedy,” Steve Schmidt says on MSNBC.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-talks-like-drunk-guy_us_5ac6bfc6e4b09d0a1191ccae
Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?
Fascism poses a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.
By MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan. Two days later, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the streets of war-ravaged Berlin. Fascism, it appeared, was dead.
To guard against a recurrence, the survivors of war and the Holocaust joined forces to create the United Nations, forge global financial institutions and — through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — strengthen the rule of law. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the honor roll of elected governments swelled not only in Central Europe, but also Latin America, Africa and Asia. Almost everywhere, it seemed, dictators were out and democrats were in. Freedom was ascendant.
Today, we are in a new era, testing whether the democratic banner can remain aloft amid terrorism, sectarian conflicts, vulnerable borders, rogue social media and the cynical schemes of ambitious men. The answer is not self-evident. We may be encouraged that most people in most countries still want to live freely and in peace, but there is no ignoring the storm clouds that have gathered. In fact, fascism — and the tendencies that lead toward fascism — pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.
Warning signs include the relentless grab for more authority by governing parties in Hungary, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey — all United States allies. The raw anger that feeds fascism is evident across the Atlantic in the growth of nativist movements opposed to the idea of a united Europe, including in Germany, where the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland has emerged as the principal opposition party. The danger of despotism is on display in the Russia of Vladimir Putin — invader of Ukraine, meddler in foreign democracies, accused political assassin, brazen liar and proud son of the K.G.B. Putin has just been re-elected to a new six-year term, while in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a ruthless ideologue, is poised to triumph in sham balloting next month. In China, Xi Jinping has persuaded a docile National People’s Congress to lift the constitutional limit on his tenure in power.
Around the Mediterranean, the once bright promise of the Arab Spring has been betrayed by autocratic leaders, such as Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt (also just re-elected), who use security to justify the jailing of reporters and political opponents. Thanks to allies in Moscow and Tehran, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad retains his stranglehold over much of Syria. In Africa, the presidents who serve longest are often the most corrupt, multiplying the harm they inflict with each passing year. Meanwhile, the possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump.
If freedom is to prevail over the many challenges to it, American leadership is urgently required. This was among the indelible lessons of the 20th century. But by what he has said, done and failed to do, Mr. Trump has steadily diminished America’s positive clout in global councils.
Instead of mobilizing international coalitions to take on world problems, he touts the doctrine of “every nation for itself” and has led America into isolated positions on trade, climate change and Middle East peace. Instead of engaging in creative diplomacy, he has insulted United States neighbors and allies, walked away from key international agreements, mocked multilateral organizations and stripped the State Department of its resources and role. Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, Mr. Trump, with his oft-vented scorn for democracy’s building blocks, has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Mr. Trump’s own words to justify their repressive actions.
At one time or another, Mr. Trump has attacked the judiciary, ridiculed the media, defended torture, condoned police brutality, urged supporters to rough up hecklers and — jokingly or not — equated mere policy disagreements with treason. He tried to undermine faith in America’s electoral process through a bogus advisory commission on voter integrity. He routinely vilifies federal law enforcement institutions. He libels immigrants and the countries from which they come. His words are so often at odds with the truth that they can appear ignorant, yet are in fact calculated to exacerbate religious, social and racial divisions. Overseas, rather than stand up to bullies, Mr. Trump appears to like bullies, and they are delighted to have him represent the American brand. If one were to draft a script chronicling fascism’s resurrection, the abdication of America’s moral leadership would make a credible first scene.
Equally alarming is the chance that Mr. Trump will set in motion events that neither he nor anyone else can control. His policy toward North Korea changes by the day and might quickly return to saber-rattling should Pyongyang prove stubborn before or during talks. His threat to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement could unravel a pact that has made the world safer and could undermine America’s reputation for trustworthiness at a critical moment. His support of protectionist tariffs invites retaliation from major trading partners — creating unnecessary conflicts and putting at risk millions of export-dependent jobs. The recent purge of his national security team raises new questions about the quality of advice he will receive. John Bolton starts work in the White House on Monday.
What is to be done? First, defend the truth. A free press, for example, is not the enemy of the American people; it is the protector of the American people. Second, we must reinforce the principle that no one, not even the president, is above the law. Third, we should each do our part to energize the democratic process by registering new voters, listening respectfully to those with whom we disagree, knocking on doors for favored candidates, and ignoring the cynical counsel: “There’s nothing to be done.”
I’m 80 years old, but I can still be inspired when I see young people coming together to demand the right to study without having to wear a flak jacket.
We should also reflect on the definition of greatness. Can a nation merit that label by aligning itself with dictators and autocrats, ignoring human rights, declaring open season on the environment, and disdaining the use of diplomacy at a time when virtually every serious problem requires international cooperation?
To me, greatness goes a little deeper than how much marble we put in our hotel lobbies and whether we have a Soviet-style military parade. America at its best is a place where people from a multitude of backgrounds work together to safeguard the rights and enrich the lives of all. That’s the example we have always aspired to set and the model people around the world hunger to see. And no politician, not even one in the Oval Office, should be allowed to tarnish that dream.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/sunday/trump-fascism-madeleine-albright.html
Inside the Decade-Long Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump - 4-6-18 Maddow segment with author Tim Dickinson [ https://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/tim-dickinson ]
Femme fatales, lavish Moscow parties and dark money – how Russia worked the National Rifle Association
[April 1, 2018]
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/russian-campaign-to-infiltrate-nra-elect-trump-w518587
The disinformation plague is far bigger than the Russians
At long last, people have stopped asking “Is it really happening?” or “Does it really work?” or “Does it even matter?” Facebook has acknowledged the existence of Russian disinformation on its platform and has finally banned sites created by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian institution dedicated to covert online propaganda. Twitter has removed automated Russian botnets. Hearings and major conferences in France, Britain and Brussels have convened in recent weeks to discuss possible government responses to Russian disinformation campaigns within European democracies, too.
I’ve been to some of the conferences, testified at some of the hearings, and have written about the subject ever since Russia dialed up its propaganda war against the West in 2014, following its invasion of Ukraine. I can hardly object to the increased attention. And yet the belated enthusiasm for exposing Russian manipulation worries me because it underrates the scale of the problem, which isn’t just confined to the Russians.
Thanks in part to the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, we’ve all learned exactly how the Russians’ online tactics work. They use fake websites, fake Facebook pages and fake social media followers to give extra credence to extremist views, whether of the far right or the far left. They invent or manipulate stories — lifting them out of context, changing details, creating fake video — with the aim of provoking fear and deepening social divisions. In Germany, Russian trolls, bots and real-life Russian politicians famously pushed the invented story of “Lisa,” a Russian-German girl supposedly raped by Arab migrants. During the French election, Russian state media, supported by pro-Russian social media, promoted the story that Emmanuel Macron was backed by a “gay lobby” in the United States.
But all of these tactics, first used on a large scale by the Russians, are also available to others — and not just other authoritarians. Openly, and legally, they are also used in Western democracies. As a part of its current fearmongering, xenophobic election campaign, the Hungarian ruling party — a member in good standing of the center-right caucus of the European parliament — used a range of platforms to disseminate a whole series of videos that were fake, taken out of context or technologically enhanced, for example with the audio of someone shouting “Allahu akbar” edited in to make a supposed scuffle between Muslims and Christians seem more authentic. Although the Hungarian state (and state-backed) media do also republish and recycle more straightforward Russian material, most of the “Russian-style” material used in Hungary is not foreign; it’s coming from the government itself, and it is then promoted by Hungarian bots and Hungarian trolls.
Fox News and the Trump-friendly media operate in exactly the same way. As I’ve written in the past, Donald Trump openly used Russian slogans and narratives during his 2016 election campaign.
At the moment, though, he doesn’t need to borrow from them anymore. A recent New York Times analysis of how the president came to be obsessed with the “caravan of illegal aliens” listed the ways the original story came to be enhanced and misreported, deliberately, by what we would in another country call pro-regime media. As retold on “Fox & Friends,” or hyped by Frontpage Mag, “Beltway pundit,” and thousands of bots and trolls (both voluntary and professional), the story lost some critical details: that many of the group were refugees from Honduras’s drug wars, or that many planned to stay in Mexico, or that others hope to cross the U.S. border legally to apply for asylum. By the time the tale of the caravan reached the president’s Twitter feed — which has featured faked or mislabeled video in the past, as well — it was an “invasion” requiring the presence of the National Guard.
I repeat: These are Russian tactics. But they are being used by a U.S. president, a Hungarian government and others who are not in power, or not yet. That’s why solutions to disinformation campaigns that focus on Russia alone are insufficient.
Here’s the real challenge faced by all the major platforms: how to re-engineer them to make them more resistant to organizations that, like the Internet Research Agency, engage in what one tech executive calls “coordinated inauthentic activity,” ranging from the use of false names and the creation of false audiences to the publication of false stories and the creation of divisive narratives. Perhaps they will have to limit the use of anonymity, change the algorithms that ensure that the most sensational material spreads the fastest, or institute transparency around video editing tools, especially as these become more sophisticated.
Changing human nature will not, alas, be possible. There is no cure for cynicism, the ultimate source of disinformation — or at least none that anyone has yet found.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-disinformation-tactic-perfected-in-russia-has-spread-across-the-world/2018/04/06/e2be9dc2-39d5-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=inside+the+decade-long+russian
In Display of 'Actual Sociopathy,' Trump Reportedly Asked CIA Why Drone Didn't Also Kill Target's Family
The question came as civilian casualties have reached "unprecedented" heights during Trump's presidency
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/04/06/display-actual-sociopathy-trump-reportedly-asked-cia-why-drone-didnt-also-kill
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+drone+family
‘Tired of being told no,’ Trump freezes out chief of staff
https://www.apnews.com/1ee81c8bcba1436db9fbfd03bf1fef12
Exclusive: Trump adviser played key role in pursuit of possible Clinton emails from dark web before election
Trump campaign adviser offered emails he thought were Hillary Clinton's to FBI, intel committee
(CNN) — A Donald Trump foreign policy adviser pushed government agencies to review materials from the dark web in the summer of 2016 that he thought were Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, multiple sources with direct knowledge tell CNN.
Joseph Schmitz approached the FBI and other government agencies about material a client of his had discovered that Schmitz believed might have been Clinton's missing 30,000 emails from her private e-mail server, sources say. The material was never verified, and sources say they ultimately believed it was fake.
His push is the latest example of Trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on Clinton during the presidential campaign. Schmitz was one of the first people Trump named to his campaign's national security and foreign policy team. The team, showcased in a March 2016 photo, was thrown together early in Trump's successful run as he faced mounting pressure to prove his ability to pull in high-level advisers who could help prepare him for the White House.
Another adviser pictured in the photo, Trump's foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, was told by a Kremlin-connected professor that the Russian government had damaging material on Clinton. Six weeks later, Donald Trump Jr. got a message from a business associate offering similar information, leading to the Trump Tower meeting that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended.
Fired chief strategist Steve Bannon told the House Intelligence Committee in February that members of the Trump campaign "kept getting approached" by outsiders suggesting ways to get Clinton's emails, according to a source familiar with his testimony.
Schmitz's connection to the multi-faceted effort to expose damaging information about Clinton has not been previously reported. His status as a former Pentagon inspector general afforded him access to the agencies and a sophisticated understanding of the government bureaucracy. He was relentless, sources say, and truly believed his client had found important, sensitive material. He did not hesitate in his pursuit even though the material on the dark web -- a part of the Internet not easily accessible or traceable -- was questionable and many experts already believed the Russians had stolen Clinton's emails.
Schmitz met with officials at the FBI, the State Department and the Intelligence Community Inspector General -- the watchdog tasked with investigating Clinton's alleged mishandling of classified information. He claimed a source he called "PATRIOT," an unidentified contractor he was representing, had discovered what he believed was likely material stolen from Clinton that could contain classified information. Both the client and Schmitz were afraid that going through the material without permission could jeopardize their security clearances, though there is no indication their actions were illegal.
While officials at the State Department and Inspector General briefly interviewed Schmitz, they declined to review or accept the information, according to sources familiar with the process. The FBI interviewed him as a part of its ongoing criminal investigation into Clinton's emails, sources said. It is not clear whether special counsel Robert Mueller is pursuing information about Schmitz's efforts.
Schmitz then took a memo outlining his claims and concerns to the House Intelligence Committee. One cybersecurity expert outside the government who also saw the material on the dark web said the emails appeared to be fake, based on his review and the forum where they were posted.
"I'm pretty sure they were posted on the (dark web) equivalent of Reddit," the source said.
CNN made multiple attempts to seek a response from Schmitz, including approaching him in person Friday. He declined to comment for the story.
A former campaign official told CNN in a text, "The campaign doesn't comment on matters of interest to the Special Counsel or the Congressional committees." A source connected to the campaign's foreign policy team said he had no knowledge of Schmitz's efforts.
The FBI declined to comment on questions about interviews with Schmitz, as did special counsel Robert Mueller's spokesperson Peter Carr about whether Mueller had interviewed Schmitz or might in the future. The Intelligence Community Inspector General, State Department and House Intelligence Committee also declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Schmitz and his associates may still be a part of Trump's orbit.
One of Schmitz's colleagues at his small law firm, Dennis Dean Kirk, was tapped by Trump in March to lead the federal workers' appeal committee, the Merit Systems Protection Board.
A Trump team original
Schmitz became one of Trump's first five campaign foreign policy advisers in the spring of 2016.
Trump announced his role during an interview with The Washington Post that March, alongside the four other originals: counterterrorism speaker Walid Phares, former Lt. Gen Keith Kellogg, academic Carter Page and oil and energy consultant George Papadopoulos.
Schmitz, a former Pentagon inspector general in George W. Bush's administration as well as a co-worker and confidant of Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, told the Chicago Tribune he had been working for the Trump campaign for about a month prior to the announcement, communicating closely with top Trump adviser Sam Clovis.
A photo posted to Trump's Twitter and Instagram in March 2016 shows all of the original advisers at a conference table with Trump, including now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Schmitz also attended the Republican National Convention with Page and other advisers, according to USA Today.
Schmitz counseled Trump "through the November election," according to a biography on his law firm's website. After Trump's election victory, he considered Schmitz as a possible Secretary of the Navy, first reported by the Daily Caller and confirmed by CNN's sources.
Schmitz is no stranger to controversy.
His background came under scrutiny when he was first named as a Trump adviser, including comments former colleagues alleged he had made downplaying the Holocaust -- accusations Schmitz has said are false and defamatory. In the private sector, Schmitz has represented anti-Clinton activist Wayne Shelby Simmons. Schmitz is connected to the Center for Security Policy, a far-right organization that has promoted ant
The email hunt
While Schmitz tried to get the emails reviewed, other Trump campaign associates also pursued dirt about Clinton, including information that was potentially stolen.
Papadopoulos, who served on the foreign policy team with Schmitz, was told in April 2016 by a Kremlin-connected professor that the Russian government had "thousands of emails" that were damaging to Clinton. It's unclear whether the emails Papadopoulos was told about were linked to Schmitz's efforts. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to investigators and has been cooperating with Mueller.
Six weeks after Papadopoulos was told about the emails, Donald Trump Jr. got a similar message from a business associate who said the Russian government wanted to provide "information that would incriminate Hillary." A group of Russians visited Trump Tower to speak directly to Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort. Both sides deny collusion and say the meeting produced nothing.
Then there was Peter Smith, a well-connected GOP figure and Chicago investment banker who committed suicide after experiencing declining health in May 2017. He was openly obsessed with getting his hands on the deleted Clinton emails throughout 2016. There is no indication that Smith is connected to Schmitz's efforts or the Trump campaign.
In the fall of 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal, US intelligence officials picked up chatter likely between Russian hackers hoping to steal Clinton's emails and possibly get them to foreign policy adviser Michael Flynn and Trump's team through an intermediary.
Sources told CNN there was no indication that Schmitz was communicating with or influenced by agents of a foreign power when he brought the supposedly hacked material to US government agencies.
Peter Clement, a top analyst at the CIA on Europe and Eurasia before retiring in the winter of 2017, told CNN he was not aware of Schmitz but says it is "extremely plausible" that his penchant for conspiracy theories could have made him a target for various foreign influencers, including Russia. "There's a lot we don't know, but Russians during the campaign were clearly targeting specific groups and parts of the country," Clement said.
Additionally, Clement said Schmitz's business ties "would have made him stand out." His small law firm represents a major Russian airline previously sanctioned by the US State Department for arms deals with Iran.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/joseph-schmitz-trump-adviser-clinton-emails/index.html
The US is sanctioning 24 big-name Russians, including Putin’s son-in-law
https://qz.com/1246547/the-us-is-sanctioning-26-big-name-russians-including-putins-sometime-son-in-law/
Trump administration hits 24 Russians with sanctions over 'malign activity'
Government officials and oligarchs are among those sanctioned, in US retaliation for alleged election meddling and other actions
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/06/trump-russia-sanctions-election-meddling-latest
The Russia Sanctions Saga: Weapons Dealers, Mobsters And Suitcases Full Of Cash
http://nprillinois.org/post/russia-sanctions-saga-weapons-dealers-mobsters-and-suitcases-full-cash
Mueller Reveals Search in Manafort Case, Suggesting New Path
Prosecutors got March 9 warrant to search five AT&T phones
Court filing doesn’t say if Manafort is target of new probe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/mueller-reveals-search-in-manafort-case-suggesting-fresh-trail
New Filing Indicates Robert Mueller May Have New Collusion Evidence
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/new-filing-indicates-robert-mueller-may-have-new-collusion-evidence.html
Why Mueller Named a Russian Oligarch in Court
The Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on Friday may not be the only ones who interest Mueller as he looks for ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-muellers-eye-on-some-russian-oligarchs
Robert Mueller Reportedly Knows That Erik Prince Lied To Congress About His Secret Russian Meeting
https://uproxx.com/news/erik-prince-robert-mueller-evidence-lied-congress/
Mueller moved to seize three bank accounts during Manafort investigation
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/381923-mueller-moved-to-seize-three-bank-accounts-during-manafort
How Robert Mueller Is Learning from Ken Starr's Mistakes
http://time.com/5230934/robert-mueller-ken-starr-investigation-donald-trump/
Rosenstein has a duty to make Mueller's report public — even if it means facing Trump's wrath
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/381929-rosenstein-has-a-duty-to-make-muellers-report-public-even-if-it-means
more:
https://news.google.com/news/story/d8QmzeF85NCIpaMxP9sx9SieB8EhM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
https://news.google.com/news/story/dyLRrUKtR0ZDZJMvFyFelAxCGFhdM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Mark Zuckerberg
With important elections coming up in the US, Mexico, Brazil, India, Pakistan and more countries in the next year, one of my top priorities for 2018 is making sure we support positive discourse and prevent interference in these elections.
After we identified Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, we successfully deployed new AI tools leading up to the 2017 French, German, and Alabama Senate special elections that removed tens of thousands of fake accounts. Earlier this week, we took down a large network of Russian fake accounts that included a Russian news organization.
Today we're taking two more big steps:
First, from now on, every advertiser who wants to run political or issue ads will need to be verified. To get verified, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location. Any advertiser who doesn't pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads. We will also label them and advertisers will have to show you who paid for them. We're starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months.
For even greater political ads transparency, we have also built a tool that lets anyone see all of the ads a page is running. We're testing this in Canada now and we'll launch it globally this summer. We're also creating a searchable archive of past political ads.
Second, we will also require people who manage large pages to be verified as well. This will make it much harder for people to run pages using fake accounts, or to grow virally and spread misinformation or divisive content that way.
In order to require verification for all of these pages and advertisers, we will hire thousands of more people. We're committed to getting this done in time for the critical months before the 2018 elections.
These steps by themselves won't stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads. Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support the Honest Ads Act. This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104784125525891
Michael Cohen’s view from under the bus: Trump denies knowing about Stormy Daniels payment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/04/06/michael-cohens-view-from-under-the-bus-trump-denies-knowing-about-stormy-daniels-payment/
referencing (among other stuff):
Trump says he didn’t know his attorney paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-he-didnt-know-his-attorney-paid-130000-to-porn-star-stormy-daniels/2018/04/05/ef038dc6-3913-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html
Lawyers for Trump’s attorney [asking for more time] say Stormy Daniels’ lawyer wasn’t responsive because of T.V. appearances
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/06/lawyers-michael-cohen-stormy-daniels-fight-505568
Here's exactly why Donald Trump finally answered a question about Stormy Daniels - clueless, unprepared, caught off-guard in good mood
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/donald-trump-stormy-daniels/index.html
What Hush Money? Trump’s Odd Views of the Stormy Daniels Case and the Law
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hush-money-trumps-odd-views-of-the-stormy-daniels-case-and-the-law
Stormy Daniels Lawyer Says Trump's Denial of $130K Payment Just Helped His Client
http://www.newsweek.com/stormy-daniels-lawyer-says-trumps-denial-130k-payment-just-helped-his-client-874701
Stormy Daniels's Lawyer Michael Avenatti Says Donald Trump Has 'Finally Cracked' Over Payout
http://www.newsweek.com/stormy-danielss-lawyer-michael-avenatti-says-donald-trump-has-finally-cracked-875033
Trump Advisor Michael Cohen Apologizes for Rape Comment
WASHINGTON D.C. — A top adviser to Donald Trump apologized Tuesday for comments he made in an explosive interview while defending the Republican presidential candidate from a decades-old rape accusation.
Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump and an executive vice president at The Trump Organization, asserted in an interview published Monday in the Daily Beast that legally “you cannot rape your spouse.”
The rape accusation stems from an accusation Trump’s then-wife Ivana Trump leveled at her husband during divorce proceedings in the early 1990s, an accusation she walked back in a statement Tuesday.
Marital rape today is illegal in all 50 states and non-consensual sex between spouses does in fact constitute rape.
[...]
http://cw33.com/2015/07/28/trump-advisor-michael-cohen-apologizes-for-rape-comment/
'Concerned' Evangelicals Plan To Meet With Trump As Sex Scandals Swirl
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/599972396/concerned-evangelicals-plan-to-meet-with-trump-as-sex-scandals-swirl
covering April 6, 2018, and headed, Vicente Fox, fmr. Mexican president, urges Trump to tell the truth
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=140799014
Fourteenth
President Donald J. Trump Is Standing Up To Russia’s Malign Activities
“It is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We
cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful.”
- President Donald J. Trump
April 6, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-standing-russias-malign-activities/
LOL Coming from the resident that one is pure projection. Coming from Trump it's comically nonsensical, and in the
seventeenth, more absolutist, unabated just nonsense
William Koenig Says 'It's Very Possible' That Jared Kushner Could Bring About The Antichrist
Published on Apr 9, 2018 by RWW Blog [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXqRHe8n1TX5iDvkLS62rw /
https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog , https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog/videos ]
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this
clip, End Times author William Koenig warns that Jared Kushner's efforts to craft a Middle East peace deal could bring about the rise of the Antichrist.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/william-koenig-its-very-possible-that-jared-kushner-could-bring-about-the-antichrist/
[from April 6, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo6J5UNsqx8 [with comments]
Twenty-fifth and sixth
Watch prosecutor explain why Mueller has new Manafort search warrants
The Beat with Ari Melber
4/6/18
A judge has approved a new search warrant in the Russia probe, for five phone numbers belonging to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Former Federal Prosecutor Barbara Mcquade observes the timing of the search warrant coincides with Mueller checking phones of “incoming
Russian diplomats”. New reporting also reveals Special Counsel Bob Mueller is pressing witnesses about embattled Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watch-prosecutor-explain-why-mueller-has-new-manafort-search-warrants-1204880963594
*
Obama adviser says Trump’s undoing could be 'monetizing the presidency'
The Beat with Ari Melber
4/6/18
House Democrats demand Trump fire EPA Chief Scott Pruitt after a series of ethics concerns. Former political strategist Chai
Komanduri tells Ari Melber Trump has created a White House “culture” that allows public officials to use their office for personal gain.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/obama-adviser-says-trump-s-undoing-could-be-monetizing-the-presidency-1204892227551 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzdcGfMr0j0 [with comments]
Number twenty-eight
Stone: Trump should dismiss Sessions
Published on Apr 6, 2018 by CNN [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCupvZG-5ko_eiXAupbDfxWw / https://www.youtube.com/user/CNN , https://www.youtube.com/user/CNN/videos ]
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone shares
his advice for President Donald Trump and denies communication with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kMe6xmyias [with comments]
Thirty-three and four
New sanctions on Russian oligarchs designed as message to Putin
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Rachel Maddow takes a closer look at some of the Russian oligarchs newly added to the list of
U.S. sanctions and how their selection is designed to communicate a message to Vladimir Putin.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-sanctions-on-russian-oligarchs-designed-as-message-to-putin-1205006915681
*
Key figure in Russia's NRA outreach ploy added to sanctions list
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Tim Dickinson, contributing editor for Rolling Stone, talks with Rachel Maddow about the inclusion of Alexander Torshin
on the new list of sanctioned Russians and Russian efforts to use the NRA as a conduit to influencing U.S. politics.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/key-figure-in-russia-s-nra-outreach-ploy-added-to-sanctions-list-1204995651841
Thirty-seventh and eighth
Political forecasters adjust toward blue amid Democratic wins
The Rachel Maddow Show
4/6/18
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest Democratic upset wins in elections in Wisconsin as the
Cook Political Report adjusts its 2018 forecast by moving 13 races more in the Democrats' favor.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/political-forecasters-adjust-toward-blue-amid-democratic-wins-1205013571610
--
Report: Trump prepping for Mueller interview
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
4/6/18
New reports indicate Mueller has more evidence against Trump associates Paul Manafort & Erik Prince. Plus, a new report Trump may
be starting informal preparation to sit down for an interview with Mueller. Jill Wine-Banks, Joyce Vance, & David Corn join Ali Velshi.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/report-trump-prepping-for-mueller-interview-1204991043673 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiwHVK6bF2A [with comments]
My add - Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=130140403
.. and the first reply ..
A Former Trump Adviser Met With A Russian Spy
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=130145659
and .. The secret Seychelles meeting Robert Mueller is zeroing in on, explained
Why did Erik Prince meet with a Russian fund manager shortly before Trump’s inauguration?
By Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com Updated Apr 10, 2018, 2:15pm EDT
[...]
The people present to meet at the Seychelles on January 11, 2017, included the following:
Erik Prince is the founder of Blackwater, the private security/mercenary company that scored big contracts from George W. Bush’s administration (and some of whose employees were accused of killing Iraqi civilians). Prince has since sold Blackwater (which renamed itself) and gone out in search of new lines of mercenary business.
Prince donated about $250,000 to Trump’s campaign and to outside groups supporting Trump and was in contact with Steve Bannon during the transition. He also happens to be the brother of controversial Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
MBZ, or Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is the crown prince and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. MBZ did business with Erik Prince several years ago — the UAE awarded Prince a contract worth several hundred million dollars “to help assemble an internal paramilitary force,” per the Washington Post. Diplomatically, the UAE regime is close to Saudi Arabia and unfriendly to Qatar and Iran.
George Nader, a Lebanese-American business executive who has a decades-long history in international diplomacy, has lately advised MBZ. He visited the White House several times in 2017. He also at one point consulted for Blackwater.
Kirill Dmitriev manages the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion Russian government-established sovereign wealth fund that’s under US sanctions. He’s believed to be close to Vladimir Putin. His fund was until recently part of the Russian government-owned bank Vnesheconombank, or VEB.
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17088908/erik-prince-trump-russia-seychelles-mueller
Forty-one and forty-two
Trump's allies are warning him not to sit down with Mueller
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
4/7/18
Even as Pres. Trump's allies repeatedly warn him not to sit down for an interview with Russia Special Counsel
Robert Mueller, there's news his legal team is discussing it. Our panel reacts to all the latest Russia probe news.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired April 6, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-s-allies-are-warning-him-not-to-sit-down-with-mueller-1205021251749 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad97_CEj434 [with comments]
*
Trump administration imposes tough Russia sanctions
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
4/7/18
Hitting oligarchs, businesses, and more, the Trump Treasury Department handed down a tough package of sanctions against Russia. Our panel breaks it all down.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired April 6, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-administration-imposes-tough-russia-sanctions-1205022787538 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuc4ZaN_MjI [with comments]
And the next, a comedy spot
Monologue: Trump the Riffer | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Published on Apr 6, 2018 by Real Time with Bill Maher [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6kyFxaMqGtpE3pQTflK8A / https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime , https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime/videos ]
Bill recaps the top stories of the week including Russian sanctions, US troops moving to the border and Trump's tendency to flip-flop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZAsi-0pi6Q [with comments]
To "stashed April 6, 2018:"
I Quit Working For Sinclair And They Sued Me. Here’s Why I’m Fighting Back.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jonathan-beaton-sinclair-suing_us_5ac60f6fe4b09ef3b2441237
U.S. Slaps Putin’s Inner Circle With Aggressive New Sanctions - Reuters
24 people and 14 groups were targeted.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-sanctions_us_5ac7677ae4b07a3485e3a189
original https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-announcement/in-strike-against-putin-u-s-imposes-sanctions-on-businessmen-close-to-kremlin-idUSKCN1HD1O0
Myanmar Groups Say Facebook Has ‘Inherent Flaws,’ Helped Spread Hate Speech
“The risk of Facebook content sparking open violence is arguably nowhere higher right now than in Myanmar.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-myanmar-rohingya_us_5ac6ed7ee4b09d0a1191e5e2
Trump Throws Away His Notes, Regurgitates False Claims From Campaign Instead
The president quickly derailed a tax roundtable by riffing on many of his favorite fake or exaggerated ideas.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tax-event-west-virginia-no-notes_us_5ac67159e4b07a3485e254ed
GOP Strategist: Nonsensical Trump Talking Like A ‘Drunk Guy In Queens’
“This is a tragedy,” Steve Schmidt says on MSNBC.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-talks-like-drunk-guy_us_5ac6bfc6e4b09d0a1191ccae
Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?
Fascism poses a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.
By MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan. Two days later, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the streets of war-ravaged Berlin. Fascism, it appeared, was dead.
To guard against a recurrence, the survivors of war and the Holocaust joined forces to create the United Nations, forge global financial institutions and — through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — strengthen the rule of law. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the honor roll of elected governments swelled not only in Central Europe, but also Latin America, Africa and Asia. Almost everywhere, it seemed, dictators were out and democrats were in. Freedom was ascendant.
Today, we are in a new era, testing whether the democratic banner can remain aloft amid terrorism, sectarian conflicts, vulnerable borders, rogue social media and the cynical schemes of ambitious men. The answer is not self-evident. We may be encouraged that most people in most countries still want to live freely and in peace, but there is no ignoring the storm clouds that have gathered. In fact, fascism — and the tendencies that lead toward fascism — pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.
Warning signs include the relentless grab for more authority by governing parties in Hungary, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey — all United States allies. The raw anger that feeds fascism is evident across the Atlantic in the growth of nativist movements opposed to the idea of a united Europe, including in Germany, where the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland has emerged as the principal opposition party. The danger of despotism is on display in the Russia of Vladimir Putin — invader of Ukraine, meddler in foreign democracies, accused political assassin, brazen liar and proud son of the K.G.B. Putin has just been re-elected to a new six-year term, while in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a ruthless ideologue, is poised to triumph in sham balloting next month. In China, Xi Jinping has persuaded a docile National People’s Congress to lift the constitutional limit on his tenure in power.
Around the Mediterranean, the once bright promise of the Arab Spring has been betrayed by autocratic leaders, such as Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt (also just re-elected), who use security to justify the jailing of reporters and political opponents. Thanks to allies in Moscow and Tehran, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad retains his stranglehold over much of Syria. In Africa, the presidents who serve longest are often the most corrupt, multiplying the harm they inflict with each passing year. Meanwhile, the possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump.
If freedom is to prevail over the many challenges to it, American leadership is urgently required. This was among the indelible lessons of the 20th century. But by what he has said, done and failed to do, Mr. Trump has steadily diminished America’s positive clout in global councils.
Instead of mobilizing international coalitions to take on world problems, he touts the doctrine of “every nation for itself” and has led America into isolated positions on trade, climate change and Middle East peace. Instead of engaging in creative diplomacy, he has insulted United States neighbors and allies, walked away from key international agreements, mocked multilateral organizations and stripped the State Department of its resources and role. Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, Mr. Trump, with his oft-vented scorn for democracy’s building blocks, has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Mr. Trump’s own words to justify their repressive actions.
At one time or another, Mr. Trump has attacked the judiciary, ridiculed the media, defended torture, condoned police brutality, urged supporters to rough up hecklers and — jokingly or not — equated mere policy disagreements with treason. He tried to undermine faith in America’s electoral process through a bogus advisory commission on voter integrity. He routinely vilifies federal law enforcement institutions. He libels immigrants and the countries from which they come. His words are so often at odds with the truth that they can appear ignorant, yet are in fact calculated to exacerbate religious, social and racial divisions. Overseas, rather than stand up to bullies, Mr. Trump appears to like bullies, and they are delighted to have him represent the American brand. If one were to draft a script chronicling fascism’s resurrection, the abdication of America’s moral leadership would make a credible first scene.
Equally alarming is the chance that Mr. Trump will set in motion events that neither he nor anyone else can control. His policy toward North Korea changes by the day and might quickly return to saber-rattling should Pyongyang prove stubborn before or during talks. His threat to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement could unravel a pact that has made the world safer and could undermine America’s reputation for trustworthiness at a critical moment. His support of protectionist tariffs invites retaliation from major trading partners — creating unnecessary conflicts and putting at risk millions of export-dependent jobs. The recent purge of his national security team raises new questions about the quality of advice he will receive. John Bolton starts work in the White House on Monday.
What is to be done? First, defend the truth. A free press, for example, is not the enemy of the American people; it is the protector of the American people. Second, we must reinforce the principle that no one, not even the president, is above the law. Third, we should each do our part to energize the democratic process by registering new voters, listening respectfully to those with whom we disagree, knocking on doors for favored candidates, and ignoring the cynical counsel: “There’s nothing to be done.”
I’m 80 years old, but I can still be inspired when I see young people coming together to demand the right to study without having to wear a flak jacket.
We should also reflect on the definition of greatness. Can a nation merit that label by aligning itself with dictators and autocrats, ignoring human rights, declaring open season on the environment, and disdaining the use of diplomacy at a time when virtually every serious problem requires international cooperation?
To me, greatness goes a little deeper than how much marble we put in our hotel lobbies and whether we have a Soviet-style military parade. America at its best is a place where people from a multitude of backgrounds work together to safeguard the rights and enrich the lives of all. That’s the example we have always aspired to set and the model people around the world hunger to see. And no politician, not even one in the Oval Office, should be allowed to tarnish that dream.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/sunday/trump-fascism-madeleine-albright.html
Inside the Decade-Long Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump - 4-6-18 Maddow segment with author Tim Dickinson [ https://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/tim-dickinson ]
Femme fatales, lavish Moscow parties and dark money – how Russia worked the National Rifle Association
[April 1, 2018]
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/russian-campaign-to-infiltrate-nra-elect-trump-w518587
The disinformation plague is far bigger than the Russians
At long last, people have stopped asking “Is it really happening?” or “Does it really work?” or “Does it even matter?” Facebook has acknowledged the existence of Russian disinformation on its platform and has finally banned sites created by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian institution dedicated to covert online propaganda. Twitter has removed automated Russian botnets. Hearings and major conferences in France, Britain and Brussels have convened in recent weeks to discuss possible government responses to Russian disinformation campaigns within European democracies, too.
I’ve been to some of the conferences, testified at some of the hearings, and have written about the subject ever since Russia dialed up its propaganda war against the West in 2014, following its invasion of Ukraine. I can hardly object to the increased attention. And yet the belated enthusiasm for exposing Russian manipulation worries me because it underrates the scale of the problem, which isn’t just confined to the Russians.
Thanks in part to the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, we’ve all learned exactly how the Russians’ online tactics work. They use fake websites, fake Facebook pages and fake social media followers to give extra credence to extremist views, whether of the far right or the far left. They invent or manipulate stories — lifting them out of context, changing details, creating fake video — with the aim of provoking fear and deepening social divisions. In Germany, Russian trolls, bots and real-life Russian politicians famously pushed the invented story of “Lisa,” a Russian-German girl supposedly raped by Arab migrants. During the French election, Russian state media, supported by pro-Russian social media, promoted the story that Emmanuel Macron was backed by a “gay lobby” in the United States.
But all of these tactics, first used on a large scale by the Russians, are also available to others — and not just other authoritarians. Openly, and legally, they are also used in Western democracies. As a part of its current fearmongering, xenophobic election campaign, the Hungarian ruling party — a member in good standing of the center-right caucus of the European parliament — used a range of platforms to disseminate a whole series of videos that were fake, taken out of context or technologically enhanced, for example with the audio of someone shouting “Allahu akbar” edited in to make a supposed scuffle between Muslims and Christians seem more authentic. Although the Hungarian state (and state-backed) media do also republish and recycle more straightforward Russian material, most of the “Russian-style” material used in Hungary is not foreign; it’s coming from the government itself, and it is then promoted by Hungarian bots and Hungarian trolls.
Fox News and the Trump-friendly media operate in exactly the same way. As I’ve written in the past, Donald Trump openly used Russian slogans and narratives during his 2016 election campaign.
At the moment, though, he doesn’t need to borrow from them anymore. A recent New York Times analysis of how the president came to be obsessed with the “caravan of illegal aliens” listed the ways the original story came to be enhanced and misreported, deliberately, by what we would in another country call pro-regime media. As retold on “Fox & Friends,” or hyped by Frontpage Mag, “Beltway pundit,” and thousands of bots and trolls (both voluntary and professional), the story lost some critical details: that many of the group were refugees from Honduras’s drug wars, or that many planned to stay in Mexico, or that others hope to cross the U.S. border legally to apply for asylum. By the time the tale of the caravan reached the president’s Twitter feed — which has featured faked or mislabeled video in the past, as well — it was an “invasion” requiring the presence of the National Guard.
I repeat: These are Russian tactics. But they are being used by a U.S. president, a Hungarian government and others who are not in power, or not yet. That’s why solutions to disinformation campaigns that focus on Russia alone are insufficient.
Here’s the real challenge faced by all the major platforms: how to re-engineer them to make them more resistant to organizations that, like the Internet Research Agency, engage in what one tech executive calls “coordinated inauthentic activity,” ranging from the use of false names and the creation of false audiences to the publication of false stories and the creation of divisive narratives. Perhaps they will have to limit the use of anonymity, change the algorithms that ensure that the most sensational material spreads the fastest, or institute transparency around video editing tools, especially as these become more sophisticated.
Changing human nature will not, alas, be possible. There is no cure for cynicism, the ultimate source of disinformation — or at least none that anyone has yet found.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-disinformation-tactic-perfected-in-russia-has-spread-across-the-world/2018/04/06/e2be9dc2-39d5-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=inside+the+decade-long+russian
In Display of 'Actual Sociopathy,' Trump Reportedly Asked CIA Why Drone Didn't Also Kill Target's Family
The question came as civilian casualties have reached "unprecedented" heights during Trump's presidency
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/04/06/display-actual-sociopathy-trump-reportedly-asked-cia-why-drone-didnt-also-kill
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+drone+family
‘Tired of being told no,’ Trump freezes out chief of staff
https://www.apnews.com/1ee81c8bcba1436db9fbfd03bf1fef12
Exclusive: Trump adviser played key role in pursuit of possible Clinton emails from dark web before election
Trump campaign adviser offered emails he thought were Hillary Clinton's to FBI, intel committee
(CNN) — A Donald Trump foreign policy adviser pushed government agencies to review materials from the dark web in the summer of 2016 that he thought were Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, multiple sources with direct knowledge tell CNN.
Joseph Schmitz approached the FBI and other government agencies about material a client of his had discovered that Schmitz believed might have been Clinton's missing 30,000 emails from her private e-mail server, sources say. The material was never verified, and sources say they ultimately believed it was fake.
His push is the latest example of Trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on Clinton during the presidential campaign. Schmitz was one of the first people Trump named to his campaign's national security and foreign policy team. The team, showcased in a March 2016 photo, was thrown together early in Trump's successful run as he faced mounting pressure to prove his ability to pull in high-level advisers who could help prepare him for the White House.
Another adviser pictured in the photo, Trump's foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, was told by a Kremlin-connected professor that the Russian government had damaging material on Clinton. Six weeks later, Donald Trump Jr. got a message from a business associate offering similar information, leading to the Trump Tower meeting that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended.
Fired chief strategist Steve Bannon told the House Intelligence Committee in February that members of the Trump campaign "kept getting approached" by outsiders suggesting ways to get Clinton's emails, according to a source familiar with his testimony.
Schmitz's connection to the multi-faceted effort to expose damaging information about Clinton has not been previously reported. His status as a former Pentagon inspector general afforded him access to the agencies and a sophisticated understanding of the government bureaucracy. He was relentless, sources say, and truly believed his client had found important, sensitive material. He did not hesitate in his pursuit even though the material on the dark web -- a part of the Internet not easily accessible or traceable -- was questionable and many experts already believed the Russians had stolen Clinton's emails.
Schmitz met with officials at the FBI, the State Department and the Intelligence Community Inspector General -- the watchdog tasked with investigating Clinton's alleged mishandling of classified information. He claimed a source he called "PATRIOT," an unidentified contractor he was representing, had discovered what he believed was likely material stolen from Clinton that could contain classified information. Both the client and Schmitz were afraid that going through the material without permission could jeopardize their security clearances, though there is no indication their actions were illegal.
While officials at the State Department and Inspector General briefly interviewed Schmitz, they declined to review or accept the information, according to sources familiar with the process. The FBI interviewed him as a part of its ongoing criminal investigation into Clinton's emails, sources said. It is not clear whether special counsel Robert Mueller is pursuing information about Schmitz's efforts.
Schmitz then took a memo outlining his claims and concerns to the House Intelligence Committee. One cybersecurity expert outside the government who also saw the material on the dark web said the emails appeared to be fake, based on his review and the forum where they were posted.
"I'm pretty sure they were posted on the (dark web) equivalent of Reddit," the source said.
CNN made multiple attempts to seek a response from Schmitz, including approaching him in person Friday. He declined to comment for the story.
A former campaign official told CNN in a text, "The campaign doesn't comment on matters of interest to the Special Counsel or the Congressional committees." A source connected to the campaign's foreign policy team said he had no knowledge of Schmitz's efforts.
The FBI declined to comment on questions about interviews with Schmitz, as did special counsel Robert Mueller's spokesperson Peter Carr about whether Mueller had interviewed Schmitz or might in the future. The Intelligence Community Inspector General, State Department and House Intelligence Committee also declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Schmitz and his associates may still be a part of Trump's orbit.
One of Schmitz's colleagues at his small law firm, Dennis Dean Kirk, was tapped by Trump in March to lead the federal workers' appeal committee, the Merit Systems Protection Board.
A Trump team original
Schmitz became one of Trump's first five campaign foreign policy advisers in the spring of 2016.
Trump announced his role during an interview with The Washington Post that March, alongside the four other originals: counterterrorism speaker Walid Phares, former Lt. Gen Keith Kellogg, academic Carter Page and oil and energy consultant George Papadopoulos.
Schmitz, a former Pentagon inspector general in George W. Bush's administration as well as a co-worker and confidant of Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, told the Chicago Tribune he had been working for the Trump campaign for about a month prior to the announcement, communicating closely with top Trump adviser Sam Clovis.
A photo posted to Trump's Twitter and Instagram in March 2016 shows all of the original advisers at a conference table with Trump, including now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Schmitz also attended the Republican National Convention with Page and other advisers, according to USA Today.
Schmitz counseled Trump "through the November election," according to a biography on his law firm's website. After Trump's election victory, he considered Schmitz as a possible Secretary of the Navy, first reported by the Daily Caller and confirmed by CNN's sources.
Schmitz is no stranger to controversy.
His background came under scrutiny when he was first named as a Trump adviser, including comments former colleagues alleged he had made downplaying the Holocaust -- accusations Schmitz has said are false and defamatory. In the private sector, Schmitz has represented anti-Clinton activist Wayne Shelby Simmons. Schmitz is connected to the Center for Security Policy, a far-right organization that has promoted ant
The email hunt
While Schmitz tried to get the emails reviewed, other Trump campaign associates also pursued dirt about Clinton, including information that was potentially stolen.
Papadopoulos, who served on the foreign policy team with Schmitz, was told in April 2016 by a Kremlin-connected professor that the Russian government had "thousands of emails" that were damaging to Clinton. It's unclear whether the emails Papadopoulos was told about were linked to Schmitz's efforts. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to investigators and has been cooperating with Mueller.
Six weeks after Papadopoulos was told about the emails, Donald Trump Jr. got a similar message from a business associate who said the Russian government wanted to provide "information that would incriminate Hillary." A group of Russians visited Trump Tower to speak directly to Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort. Both sides deny collusion and say the meeting produced nothing.
Then there was Peter Smith, a well-connected GOP figure and Chicago investment banker who committed suicide after experiencing declining health in May 2017. He was openly obsessed with getting his hands on the deleted Clinton emails throughout 2016. There is no indication that Smith is connected to Schmitz's efforts or the Trump campaign.
In the fall of 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal, US intelligence officials picked up chatter likely between Russian hackers hoping to steal Clinton's emails and possibly get them to foreign policy adviser Michael Flynn and Trump's team through an intermediary.
Sources told CNN there was no indication that Schmitz was communicating with or influenced by agents of a foreign power when he brought the supposedly hacked material to US government agencies.
Peter Clement, a top analyst at the CIA on Europe and Eurasia before retiring in the winter of 2017, told CNN he was not aware of Schmitz but says it is "extremely plausible" that his penchant for conspiracy theories could have made him a target for various foreign influencers, including Russia. "There's a lot we don't know, but Russians during the campaign were clearly targeting specific groups and parts of the country," Clement said.
Additionally, Clement said Schmitz's business ties "would have made him stand out." His small law firm represents a major Russian airline previously sanctioned by the US State Department for arms deals with Iran.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/joseph-schmitz-trump-adviser-clinton-emails/index.html
The US is sanctioning 24 big-name Russians, including Putin’s son-in-law
https://qz.com/1246547/the-us-is-sanctioning-26-big-name-russians-including-putins-sometime-son-in-law/
Trump administration hits 24 Russians with sanctions over 'malign activity'
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/06/trump-russia-sanctions-election-meddling-latest
The Russia Sanctions Saga: Weapons Dealers, Mobsters And Suitcases Full Of Cash
http://nprillinois.org/post/russia-sanctions-saga-weapons-dealers-mobsters-and-suitcases-full-cash
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/mueller-reveals-search-in-manafort-case-suggesting-fresh-trail
New Filing Indicates Robert Mueller May Have New Collusion Evidence
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/new-filing-indicates-robert-mueller-may-have-new-collusion-evidence.html
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-muellers-eye-on-some-russian-oligarchs
Robert Mueller Reportedly Knows That Erik Prince Lied To Congress About His Secret Russian Meeting
https://uproxx.com/news/erik-prince-robert-mueller-evidence-lied-congress/
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http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/381923-mueller-moved-to-seize-three-bank-accounts-during-manafort
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http://time.com/5230934/robert-mueller-ken-starr-investigation-donald-trump/
Rosenstein has a duty to make Mueller's report public — even if it means facing Trump's wrath
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/381929-rosenstein-has-a-duty-to-make-muellers-report-public-even-if-it-means
more:
https://news.google.com/news/story/d8QmzeF85NCIpaMxP9sx9SieB8EhM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
https://news.google.com/news/story/dyLRrUKtR0ZDZJMvFyFelAxCGFhdM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Mark Zuckerberg
With important elections coming up in the US, Mexico, Brazil, India, Pakistan and more countries in the next year, one of my top priorities for 2018 is making sure we support positive discourse and prevent interference in these elections.
After we identified Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, we successfully deployed new AI tools leading up to the 2017 French, German, and Alabama Senate special elections that removed tens of thousands of fake accounts. Earlier this week, we took down a large network of Russian fake accounts that included a Russian news organization.
Today we're taking two more big steps:
First, from now on, every advertiser who wants to run political or issue ads will need to be verified. To get verified, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location. Any advertiser who doesn't pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads. We will also label them and advertisers will have to show you who paid for them. We're starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months.
For even greater political ads transparency, we have also built a tool that lets anyone see all of the ads a page is running. We're testing this in Canada now and we'll launch it globally this summer. We're also creating a searchable archive of past political ads.
Second, we will also require people who manage large pages to be verified as well. This will make it much harder for people to run pages using fake accounts, or to grow virally and spread misinformation or divisive content that way.
In order to require verification for all of these pages and advertisers, we will hire thousands of more people. We're committed to getting this done in time for the critical months before the 2018 elections.
These steps by themselves won't stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads. Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support the Honest Ads Act. This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104784125525891
Michael Cohen’s view from under the bus: Trump denies knowing about Stormy Daniels payment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/04/06/michael-cohens-view-from-under-the-bus-trump-denies-knowing-about-stormy-daniels-payment/
referencing (among other stuff):
Trump says he didn’t know his attorney paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-he-didnt-know-his-attorney-paid-130000-to-porn-star-stormy-daniels/2018/04/05/ef038dc6-3913-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/06/lawyers-michael-cohen-stormy-daniels-fight-505568
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https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/donald-trump-stormy-daniels/index.html
What Hush Money? Trump’s Odd Views of the Stormy Daniels Case and the Law
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hush-money-trumps-odd-views-of-the-stormy-daniels-case-and-the-law
Stormy Daniels Lawyer Says Trump's Denial of $130K Payment Just Helped His Client
http://www.newsweek.com/stormy-daniels-lawyer-says-trumps-denial-130k-payment-just-helped-his-client-874701
Stormy Daniels's Lawyer Michael Avenatti Says Donald Trump Has 'Finally Cracked' Over Payout
http://www.newsweek.com/stormy-danielss-lawyer-michael-avenatti-says-donald-trump-has-finally-cracked-875033
Trump Advisor Michael Cohen Apologizes for Rape Comment
WASHINGTON D.C. — A top adviser to Donald Trump apologized Tuesday for comments he made in an explosive interview while defending the Republican presidential candidate from a decades-old rape accusation.
Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump and an executive vice president at The Trump Organization, asserted in an interview published Monday in the Daily Beast that legally “you cannot rape your spouse.”
The rape accusation stems from an accusation Trump’s then-wife Ivana Trump leveled at her husband during divorce proceedings in the early 1990s, an accusation she walked back in a statement Tuesday.
Marital rape today is illegal in all 50 states and non-consensual sex between spouses does in fact constitute rape.
[...]
http://cw33.com/2015/07/28/trump-advisor-michael-cohen-apologizes-for-rape-comment/
'Concerned' Evangelicals Plan To Meet With Trump As Sex Scandals Swirl
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/599972396/concerned-evangelicals-plan-to-meet-with-trump-as-sex-scandals-swirl
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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