Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in European elections
Streamed live on Jun 28, 2017 by PBS NewsHour
Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Janis Sarts, Director, NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence, Ambassador Vesko Garcevic, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Frederick Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University and Constanze Stelzenmueller, Bosch Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about Russian interference in European elections.
President Trump with President Xi Jinping of China in April. Doug Mills/The New York Times
By Thomas L. Friedman JUNE 28, 2017
HONG KONG — Having just traveled to New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, China, Taiwan and now Hong Kong, I can say without an ounce of exaggeration that more than a few Asia-Pacific business and political leaders have taken President Trump’s measure and concluded that — far from being a savvy negotiator — he’s a sucker who’s shrinking U.S. influence in this region and helping make China great again.
These investors, trade experts and government officials are still stunned by an event that got next to no attention in the U.S. but was an earthquake out here — and a gift that will keep on giving America’s allies pain and China gain for years to come. That was Trump’s decision to tear up the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal in his first week in office — clearly without having read it or understanding its vast geo-economic implications.
(Trump was so ignorant about TPP that when he was asked about it in a campaign debate in November 2015 he suggested that China was part of it, which it very much is not.)
Trump simply threw away the single most valuable tool America had for shaping the geo-economic future of the region our way and for pressuring China to open its markets. Trump is now trying to negotiate trade openings with China alone — as opposed to negotiating with China as the head of a 12-nation TPP trading bloc that was based on U.S. values and interests and that controlled 40 percent of the global economy.
It is hard to think of anything more stupid. And China’s trade hard-liners are surely laughing in their sleeves.
“When Trump did away with TPP, all your allies’ confidence in the U.S. collapsed,” a senior Hong Kong official told me.
“After America stopped TPP, everyone is now looking to China,” added Jonathan Koon-shum Choi, chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong. “But China is very smart — just keeping its mouth shut.”
Beijing is now quietly encouraging everyone in the neighborhood to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China’s free-trade competitor to TPP, which, unlike TPP, lacks environmental or labor standards; China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; and its One Belt, One Road development project.
Carrie Lam, the new chief executive of Hong Kong, told me that TPP countries like Australia are quickly reaching out to Hong Kong to forge closer and freer trade ties, now that the Americans have pulled TPP down. It’s a “pity” that the Americans are leaving, she said, but “this will give our country this opportunity to lead.” China is not just looking for growth, she added, but also for “influence.”
Just to remind: TPP was a free-trade agreement that the Obama team forged with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
It was not only the largest free-trade agreement in history, it was the best ever for U.S. workers, closing loopholes Nafta had left open. TPP included restrictions on foreign state-owned enterprises that dumped subsidized products into our markets, intellectual property protections for rising U.S. technologies — like free access for all cloud computing services — but also anti-human-trafficking provisions that prohibited turning guest workers into slave labor, a ban on trafficking in endangered wildlife parts, a requirement that signatories permit their workers to form independent trade unions to collectively bargain and the elimination of all child labor practices — all to level the playing field with American workers.
Yes, like any trade deal, TPP would have challenged some U.S. workers, but it would have created opportunities for many others, because big economies like Japan and Vietnam were opening their markets. For decades we had allowed Japan to stay way too closed, because it was an ally in the Cold War, and Vietnam, because it was an enemy. Some 80 percent of the goods from our 11 TPP partners were coming into the U.S. duty-free already, while our goods and services were still being hit with 18,000 tariffs in their countries — which TPP eliminated.
That’s why the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that U.S. national income would have grown by some $130 billion a year by 2030 with TPP — not huge, just a nice boost for U.S. workers, businesses and diplomats.
“TPP would have encouraged C.E.O.s, logistics managers and others to place their bets on the world’s single largest trading zone, one that would have been dominated by the U.S., the largest and most developed economy in it,” economics writer Adam Davidson observed in The New Yorker [ http://www.newyorker.com/business/adam-davidson/what-the-death-of-the-t-p-p-means-for-america ].
Countries like Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore made big concessions to the U.S. to be part of TPP — precisely because they wanted America embedded in their own economies, as a hedge against Chinese economic domination. A young Vietnamese businessman I met at a Wharton economic forum in Hong Kong asked me, “Do we have to choose between Russia and China now?”
The other people we disappointed, explained James McGregor [ http://www.apcoworldwide.com/ourpeople/bios/james-mcgregor ], author of “One Billion Customers: Lessons From the Front Lines of Doing Business in China,” are China’s economic reformers: They were hoping that the emergence of TPP “would force China to reform its trade practices more along American lines and to open its markets. … We failed the reformers in China.”
Out here everyone gets it: China has Trump’s number. Its officials were afraid of him at first — with his tough trade talk. But they quickly realized how easy it was to distract him with shiny objects, like promises to defuse the North Korea threat for him or by giving stale sector-specific trade concessions, such as for American beef exports to China — things China has promised multiple presidents before — that Trump could brag about.
Beijing watched Trump threaten to abandon America’s adherence to the one-China policy if he did not get trade concessions — and then just fold the minute China’s president, Xi Jinping, said he would not take a phone call from Trump unless he reaffirmed the “One-China” policy.
And China just invited Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on an official visit for early next year, red carpet and all. As my colleague Keith Bradsher reported [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/business/labor-activist-detained-ivanka-trump-factory.html ], China, for the first time, has arrested Chinese labor-rights activists who were working undercover to investigate a Western supply chain — specifically, factories near Hong Kong that made shoes for Ivanka Trump and other brands. Moral of the story: Take care of the emperor’s daughter and everything will be fine.
You have to admire the Chinese combination of toughness, patience and savvy. One day I hope America again will have a president with such attributes — not a sucker for flattery, not an ignorant ideologue who rips up treaties he hasn’t even read, not a made-for-television negotiator who throws his best leverage out the window — the ability to negotiate with China as the head of a trading bloc controlling 40 percent of the world’s economy — before he sits down at the table.
We may call him “Trump” in America, but here it’s pronounced “Chump.”
UPDATED: China’s Big Three Near Completion June 29, 2017 Updated June 29, 2017 New imagery shows that while China is keeping attention focused on its negotiations with Southeast Asian countries over basic principles to manage the South China Sea disputes, its construction of military and dual-use facilities on the Spratly Islands continues. New missile shelters, radar/communications facilities, and other infrastructure are going in on Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi Reefs, suggesting that while the region is engaged in peaceful discussion, China remains committed to developing its power projection capabilities. [...] https://amti.csis.org/chinas-big-three-near-completion/
US Pivots Back to Hard Line on China Over Disputed Sea Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey transits the South China Sea. July 04, 2017 TAIPEI — A second U.S. naval mission to the disputed South China Sea over the past six weeks indicates President Donald Trump is increasing pressure on Beijing after a wait-and-see period, a windfall for Chinese maritime rivals in Southeast Asia. But China is prepared for a U.S. role, analysts believe. It has become the dominant force over in the sea the past decade and is expected to answer U.S. moves by increasing economic ties with Southeast Asian countries that dispute Beijing's maritime expansion. China will respond The U.S. government will keep trying to offset China’s might in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea by passing naval vessels in the name of “freedom of navigation,” said Andrew Yang, secretary-general with the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan. Trump had sidelined the maritime matter since April to seek China’s help in squelching North Korea’s missile program but may not have gotten what he expected. “Holding back the freedom of navigation operations was trying to encourage China to do more in the nuclear crisis in North Korea, so this will continue to be one of the bargaining positions in the future,” Yang said. The USS Stethem guided missile destroyer passed Sunday within 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) of Triton Island, a Chinese holding in the South China Sea’s Paracel Islands, the U.S. Naval Institute website said. Vietnam claims the Paracels and disputes China’s control over the archipelago in a sea that’s prized for fish, oil and natural gas. In late May, the Trump Administration sent its first vessel into the South China Sea. The destroyer USS Dewey passed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a Chinese-controlled feature in the sea’s Spratly Island chain. The sea is open Washington normally uses those ship movements to prove the U.S. government’s position that the sea is open to all despite Beijing’s claim that most of the waters fall under its flag. The United States doesn’t have a claim in the sea. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines do contest China’s claims. They resent its control of islets, some built from landfill, for military use and its passage of coast guard vessels through waters overlapping their own claims. US/North Korea/China After an early April meeting in Florida with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Trump had hoped for Chinese cooperation in curbing development of North Korean ballistic missiles and nuclear capabilities. Frustration with China, an old ally of Pyongyang, crested last week in sanctions against a Chinese shipping company over suspected help for North Korea’s weapons programs. “I think the U.S. using either carrots or sticks to get China to apply more pressure on North Korea will not be successful,” said Steven Kim, a Korea scholar and University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. holder. China sent military ships and fighter planes in response to the U.S. destroyer’s passage Sunday, which the foreign ministry in Beijing called “provocation.” China is used to this But China is used to U.S. forays and knows what to expect, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, political and security affairs fellow with the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “It’s just becoming routine,” Chalermpalanupap said. “They know the procedure and what to expect. And in the meantime I think the Chinese are making progress in winning hearts and minds on continental Southeast Asia.” Since a world arbitration court ruled last year that the legal basis for China's maritime claim was invalid, Beijing has been privately working out deals with the Southeast Asian claimants who the same ruling favored. China is spending money In May China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to the outline for a code of conduct aimed at heading off accidents at sea. China has separately tapped its $11.2 trillion economy to offer individual claimants investment, tourism income and development aid. Those offers have reached a “huge amount,” said Song Seng Wun, economist in the private banking unit of CIMB in Singapore. China also puts pressure on ASEAN chairs, which rotate each year, to play along with its political ambitions, he said. China extends development aid in the name of its 4-year-old “belt-and-road” initiative that calls for extending Chinese investment as far as Eastern Europe. “That will always be under the belt and road banner, so perhaps it’s also the case that investment will continue to grow,” Song said. “So (the) investment push will be concurrent with I think what’s happening on the political side.” Over the past year, China has discussed funding two Philippine railway projects that would cost a combined $8.3 billion. It became Vietnam’s top foreign source of tourism last year and offered Malaysia a $12.8 billion in a railway line. Southeast Asian maritime claimants will still "welcome" the U.S. government's refocus on the South China Sea as a "challenge" to the Chinese claim, Chalermpalanupap said. https://www.voanews.com/a/us-pivots-back-to-hard-line-on-china-over-disputed-sea/3927400.html [with comments]
China's Xi raises 'negative factors' in call with Trump Jul 3, 2017 Chinese President Xi Jinping told US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday that Sino-US relations have been hit by "negative factors" in a phone call following days of US actions that have vexed Beijing. Trump held separate calls with Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that focused on tensions on the Korean peninsula, but China's foreign ministry said Xi also invoked the thorny issue of Taiwan. A series of US moves and China's angry responses have marked a sharp reversal from the friendly tone struck by Trump since his meeting with Xi at the US president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April. Trump infuriated Beijing last week when he approved a $1.3 billion arms sales to Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers a breakaway province awaiting reunification. The US administration also imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash, voiced concern about freedom in semi-autonomous Hong Kong and placed the country on a list of the world's worst human trafficking offenders. The latest irritant came on Sunday as Beijing lashed out at a "serious political and military provocation" after a US warship sailed close to an island claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. It was the second US "freedom of navigation" patrol in the South China Sea since Trump took office in January, an operation meant to assert the right to sail in disputed waters. China deployed three warships and two fighter jets to warn the US vessel to "move away", defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement. Wu called it an "unawful act" and warned that China will “strengthen the construction of various defence capabilities, intensify maritime and air patrols and firmly defend its sovereignty and security according to the degree of threats”. In the phone call with Trump, Xi acknowledged that Sino-US relations "have achieved important results" since their April meeting, the foreign ministry said. But Xi also warned that relations "have been affected by some negative factors" and that he hoped the US president will "properly handle" Taiwan issues in accordance with the "One China" principle. The Chinese leader, however, insisted that the two sides should follow the "consensus" reached at Mar-a-Lago and declared that the two presidents agreed to meet at the Group of 20 summit in Germany this week. [...] https://www.geo.tv/latest/147999-chinas-xi-raises-negative-factors-in-call-with-trump
Trump risks global trade war if he restricts imports of steel and aluminum Washington is looking to reduce excess global production capacity of steel, particularly in China. By invoking a rarely used law from the cold war era, Trump could limit imports of goods deemed critical to national defence and satisfy his ‘America first’ policy 1 July 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/01/trump-global-trade-war-steel-aluminum-imports
In a visit, China's Xi warns Hong Kongers not to cross a 'red line' over independence Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the swearing in ceremony of the new Hong Kong government on the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. A landmark visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Hong Kong left little doubt that Beijing views the city as a destabilising hotbed of unacceptable political dissent that must prove its loyalty, analysts said Sunday. July 02, 2017 https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-02/visit-chinas-xi-warns-hong-kongers-not-cross-red-line-over-independence [no comments yet]
Man accused of abducting Chinese grad student had visited kidnap fetish website, feds say July 1, 2017 Yingying Zhang sent a message to the manager of the apartment she hoped to move into: She was on her way to sign the lease but running late. But as the afternoon of June 9 wore on, the visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign kept falling behind as she used city buses to get to her appointment. Just before 2 p.m., minutes before she was supposed to sign the rental agreement, the Chinese student missed a bus she tried to flag down near campus, court documents say. She walked to another bus stop, and appeared “distressed.” Around that time, a man drove up in a black Saturn Astra with a cracked hubcap and a sunroof. Zhang talked to him through the passenger window for a minute — an exchange that was recorded by nearby surveillance cameras — then opened the door and got in. She disappeared after that, authorities said, and didn’t answer calls when fellow students, professors and the apartment manager called. Now, authorities believe she is dead. The driver of the Astra is Brendt Christensen, 28, federal authorities say. He has been charged with Zhang’s kidnapping. The investigation unearthed another detail: Christensen had read up on abducting someone using the fetish-oriented social networking website “FetLife.” Particularly, FBI agents say, he frequented a forum called “Abduction 101.” Some of its sub threads include “abduction fantasy” and “planning a kidnapping.” The website bills itself as a place for users to connect with other people interested in bondage, sadomasochism and more obscure sexual fetish fantasies. A search of Christensen’s phone showed he’d visited the site in April, FBI agents say. Representatives for Fetlife did not respond to an email message seeking comment Saturday. But the “Abduction 101” section had a new topic: “Brendt Christensen.” [...] Zhang had graduated last year with a master’s degree in environmental engineering from one of China’s elite schools, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, according to the Associated Press. She was expected to start work on her doctorate this fall. Her research focused on crop photosynthesis. She used drones to study fields. Zhang’s disappearance galvanized the Chinese Students and Scholars Association [ http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-22/lot-people-care-about-yingying-lot-chinese-student-group-giving-its-all.html ] at the University of Illinois to help locate her, while also unnerving families of international students, concerned for their children’s safety. According to the Associated Press [ http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2017-06-30-US--Missing%20Chinese%20Scholar/id-a586987c557c47ac8da8405547f7e229 ], some 5,600 Chinese students are enrolled at the university, more than at any U.S. college. Nationwide, 300,000 Chinese students are enrolled as U.S. colleges. After Zhang went missing, investigators homed in on Illinois residents who owned Saturn Astras, court documents say. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/07/01/man-accused-of-abducting-chinese-grad-student-had-visited-kidnap-fetish-website-feds-say/ [with embedded video, and comments]
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Trump team postpones legal complaint against Comey 06/28/17 President Trump’s personal lawyer is postponing a plan to file a complaint against former FBI Director James Comey with the Justice Department, Bloomberg reported [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/trump-said-to-postpone-filing-complaint-about-comey-s-conduct ] on Wednesday. The complaint was supposed to have centered on Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, in which he admitted to arranging for his accounts of conversations with Trump to be provided to the news media. Trump’s outside attorney, Marc Kasowitz, slammed the move at the time, accusing Comey of “unilaterally and surreptitiously [making] unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president.” A spokesperson for Kasowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. [...] http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/339835-trump-team-postpones-legal-complaint-against-comey [with comments]
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Burr: Senate panel to get Comey memos 06/28/2017 The Senate Intelligence Committee has reached an agreement to receive memos written by former FBI Director James Comey detailing his interactions with President Donald Trump, Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told POLITICO on Wednesday. It had been an open question whether Congress would get access to the memos, which several committees in both the House and Senate have demanded to see. Comey, who testified before Burr’s panel earlier this month, kept detailed memos about his meetings with Trump, including one in which he says Trump expressed a desire for the FBI to drop its investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/richard-burr-james-comey-trump-memos-russia-240053 [with comments]
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Senate Panel Digs Into 2,000 Financial Documents in Trump Probe Intelligence Committee hunts for improprieties in records Treasury’s financial crimes unit handing over data to panel June 28, 2017 Updated June 28, 2017 The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible links to Russia is now focused sharply on financial transactions involving the president’s associates -- with the committee searching for improprieties in more than 2,000 documents it has received from the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The Treasury Department turned over the documents to the committee a few days ago after protracted negotiations with the committee, the panel’s vice chairman, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, told Bloomberg -- and only after Senate Democrats threatened to hold up a Treasury nominee until they received the information. Separately, Warner told reporters that the committee is entering a higher profile phase where they plan to interview associates of President Donald Trump who have been mentioned in the press as having possible ties to Russians. Warner said he still expects Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, will keep his commitment to testify in front of the committee. He also said that the panel has a commitment to receive memos written by former FBI Director James Comey about his meetings and conversations with Trump. Warner said the committee will get the memos "soon." House Democrats are also trying to get access to Treasury documents related to the president’s associates -- a sign of their interest in the Trump team financial transactions as well. But they are fuming over what they say is a lack of cooperation from House Republicans and Treasury in providing documents. ‘None Whatsoever’ "None. None whatsoever," said Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, who notes, "Congressional expertise on money laundering, for example, is in our committee." It wasn’t immediately clear who was the subject of the Treasury financial records. "This is the part of Treasury that oversees financial crimes and money laundering," Warner said. "We’re not making any accusations, but it’s important to have that information." The Treasury Department said it takes congressional requests very seriously and attempts to be responsive to them. Financial transactions involving Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn are reportedly part of a separate FBI criminal probe into links between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. Additional Documents While Warner wouldn’t detail the Treasury documents he’s seeking -- which include an additional tranche that is on its way to the committee - the panel has been probing ties between a number of Trump associates and Russian interests, including Manafort and Flynn. [...] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/senate-panel-digs-into-2-000-financial-documents-in-trump-probe
Senate Russia investigators promised access to key Treasury data Sen. Ron Wyden had placed a hold on a Trump's Treasury nominee for the files The Senate took a procedural step Tuesday by voting to advance the nomination June 20, 2017 (CNN) — Members of the Senate intelligence committee said Tuesday they were promised access to data from the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, as they dig into potential ties between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Russian financiers. "The stack of press reports gets higher every day regarding financial connections between Trump associates and Russia, and Trump's own business dealings with Russian interests," Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the committee told CNN. "This morning, Treasury briefed me on documents that are being transmitted to the Senate. I believe these documents will be sufficient to start following the money." [...] http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/senate-russia-investigators-treasury-data/ [with embedded video]
First on CNN: House Russia investigators get access to Treasury data The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has turned over documents Two congressional panels requested that data last week May 18, 2017 Updated May 18, 2017 (CNN) — Investigators on the House intelligence committees have obtained access to valuable data from the Treasury Department, a development that will open their doors to investigate possible connections between President Donald Trump's business empire and Russians, CNN has learned. Investigators received access to the financial data this week, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the development. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee told reporters Thursday that his committee also had gotten the Treasury Department data. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -- or FinCEN -- monitors global financing and frequently investigates money laundering. The agency collects data from banks around the world and is a critical source in identifying how shell companies move money. "While I cannot confirm any briefings or requests made by the House Intelligence Committee, I will say that examining financial records and transactions is absolutely crucial to our investigatory effort," Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Russia investigation, told CNN Thursday. Democratic lawmakers have been saying for months now that they need to follow the money [ http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/09/politics/senate-russia-investigation-donald-trump/ ], and have amplified those calls in recent weeks. [...] http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/politics/financial-data-intelligence-committees-senate-house/index.html [with embedded video]
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A New Message for Donald Trump from Former Mexican President Vicente Fox
Published on Jun 28, 2017 by Super Deluxe
Dear Donald Trump, former Mexican President Vicente Fox has some questions you need to ask yourself before you send us to war.
Full Show - Playboy Panics In Press Briefing/Soros To Launch Dork Armies To Destroy America - 06/28/2017
Published on Jun 28, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel
Wednesday, June 28th 2017[, with an appearance by Roger Stone, and Mike Cernovich hosting the fourth hour]: Trump Declares War on Fake News - President Trump is exposing how the establishment media is an enemy to the people that is trying to keep humanity contained in a lower level of consciousness. DC insider Doug Hagmann explains what the Project Veritas expose of CNN means for the rest of the media. And survivalist expert James Wesley Rawles explains what will happen next as well as break down the latest news concerning the earthquakes in Yellowstone.
Trump Interrupts Call to Compliment Female Reporter’s ‘Nice Smile Caitriona Perry, the Washington correspondent for Ireland’s RTE News, in the Oval Office with President Trump.
Caitriona Perry @CaitrionaPerry Video of the bizarre moment when President @realDonaldTrump called me over during his call with Taoiseach @campaignforLeo Varadkar. @rtenews 3:53 PM - 27 Jun 2017 [ https://twitter.com/CaitrionaPerry/status/879804904696496128 (with embedded video, and comments), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEPKU39mAbw (includes the embedded video; with {over 8,000} comments])] JUNE 28, 2017 President Trump was at his desk in the Oval Office and on the phone with the new prime minister of Ireland on Tuesday when a journalist for an Irish news organization caught his eye. “Well, we have a lot of your Irish press watching us,” Mr. Trump said to the prime minister, Leo Varadkar, as several reporters looked on. Then, interrupting his conversation with Mr. Varadkar, Mr. Trump pointed at the journalist, Caitriona Perry [ http://evoke.ie/showbiz/rte-washington-correspondent-caitriona-perry , https://365info.kz/2017/06/zhurnalistka-radi-kotoroj-tramp-prerval-intervyu/ ], and gestured for her to come to him. “And where are you from?” he said. “Go ahead. Come here, come here. Where are you from? We have all of this beautiful Irish press.” After she introduced herself, Mr. Trump told Mr. Varadkar, “She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well.” [...] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/us/trump-flirt-irish-reporter.html
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Infowars Nightly News LIVE - Senate Moves To Destroy Bitcoin Privacy, As FBI Head Faces Multiple Investigations
Streamed live on Jun 28, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel
Tillerson blows up at top White House aide Secretary of State Rex Tillerson complained that the White House has interfered in his hiring decisions and leaked damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. [ https://news2.ru/story/524274/ (with comments)] The secretary of state, frustrated by negative press coverage and delays in appointing staff, unleashed his anger in front of Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner and others. 06/28/2017 Updated 06/28/2017 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s frustrations with the White House have been building for months. Last Friday, they exploded. The normally laconic Texan unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to senior State Department posts and for questioning his judgment. Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano’s office to “have any role in staffing” and “expressed frustration that anybody would know better” than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation. The episode stunned other White House officials gathered in chief of staff Reince Priebus’ office, leaving them silent as Tillerson raised his voice. In the room with Tillerson and DeStefano were Priebus, top Trump aide Jared Kushner and Margaret Peterlin, the secretary of state’s chief of staff. The encounter, described by four people familiar with what happened, was so explosive that Kushner approached Peterlin afterward and told her that Tillerson’s outburst was completely unprofessional, according to two of the people familiar with the exchange, and told her that they needed to work out a solution. “Colleagues are capable of frank exchanges,” said R.C. Hammond, a State Department spokesman, when asked about the disagreement. “Evaluating nominees did get off to a slow start, but it is now moving along at a pretty good clip.” It was the loudest manifestation yet of how frustrated Tillerson is in his new role. He has complained about White House attempts to push personnel on him; about the president’s tweets; and about the work conditions in a West Wing where he sometimes finds loyalty and competence hard to buy. Above all, the former ExxonMobil CEO, accustomed to having the final word on both personnel and policy in his corporate life, has balked at taking orders from political aides younger and less experienced than he is. [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/tillerson-blows-up-at-white-house-aide-240075 [with comments]
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Present at the Destruction: How Rex Tillerson Is Wrecking the State Department I worked in Foggy Bottom for 6 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. June 29, 2017 The deconstruction of the State Department is well underway. I recently returned to Foggy Bottom for the first time since January 20 to attend the departure of a former colleague and career midlevel official—something that had sadly become routine. In my six years at State as a political appointee, under the Obama administration, I had gone to countless of these events. They usually followed a similar pattern: slightly awkward, but endearing formalities, a sense of melancholy at the loss of a valued teammate. But, in the end, a rather jovial celebration of a colleague’s work. These events usually petered out quickly, since there is work to do. At the State Department, the unspoken mantra is: The mission goes on, and no one is irreplaceable. But this event did not follow that pattern. It felt more like a funeral, not for the departing colleague, but for the dying organization they were leaving behind. As I made the rounds and spoke with usually buttoned-up career officials, some who I knew well, some who I didn't, from a cross section of offices covering various regions and functions, no one held back. To a person, I heard that the State Department was in “chaos,” “a disaster,” “terrible,” the leadership “totally incompetent.” This reflected what I had been hearing the past few months from friends still inside the department, but hearing it in rapid fire made my stomach churn. As I walked through the halls once stalked by diplomatic giants like Dean Acheson and James Baker, the deconstruction was literally visible. Furniture from now-closed offices crowded the hallways. Dropping in on one of my old offices, I expected to see a former colleague—a career senior foreign service officer—but was stunned to find out she had been abruptly forced into retirement and had departed the previous week. This office, once bustling, had just one person present, keeping on the lights. This is how diplomacy dies. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. With empty offices on a midweek afternoon. When Rex Tillerson was announced as secretary of state, there was a general feeling of excitement and relief in the department. After eight years of high-profile, jet-setting secretaries, the building was genuinely looking forward to having someone experienced in corporate management. Like all large, sprawling organizations, the State Department’s structure is in perpetual need of an organizational rethink. That was what was hoped for, but that is not what is happening. Tillerson is not reorganizing, he’s downsizing. While the lack of senior political appointees has gotten a lot of attention, less attention has been paid to the hollowing out of the career workforce, who actually run the department day to day. Tillerson has canceled the incoming class of foreign service officers. This as if the Navy told all of its incoming Naval Academy officers they weren’t needed. Senior officers have been unceremoniously pushed out. Many saw the writing on the wall and just retired, and many others are now awaiting buyout offers. He has dismissed State’s equivalent of an officer reserve—retired FSOs, who are often called upon to fill State’s many short-term staffing gaps, have been sent home despite no one to replace them. Office managers are now told three people must depart before they can make one hire. And now Bloomberg reports [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/tillerson-puts-tighter-limits-on-filling-state-department-jobs ] that Tillerson is blocking all lateral transfers within the department, preventing staffers from moving to another office even if it has an opening. Managers can’t fill openings; employees feel trapped. Despite all this, career foreign and civil service officers are all still working incredibly hard representing the United States internationally. They’re still doing us proud. But how do you manage multimillion-dollar programs with no people? Who do you send to international meetings and summits? Maybe, my former colleagues are discovering, you just can’t implement that program or show up to that meeting. Tillerson’s actions amount to a geostrategic own-goal, weakening America by preventing America from showing up. State’s growing policy irrelevance and Tillerson’s total aversion to the experts in his midst is prompting the department’s rising stars to search for the exits. The private sector and the Pentagon are vacuuming them up. This is inflicting long-term damage to the viability of the American diplomacy—and things were already tough. State has been operating under an austerity budget for the past six years since the 2011 Budget Control Act. Therefore, when Tillerson cuts, he is largely cutting into bone, not fat. The next administration won’t simply be able to flip a switch and reverse the damage. It takes years to recruit and develop diplomatic talent. What Vietnam did to hollow out our military, Tillerson is doing to State. What we now know is that the building is being run by a tiny clique of ideologues who know nothing about the department but have insulated themselves from the people who do. Tillerson and his isolated and inexperienced cadres are going about reorganizing the department based on little more than gut feeling. They are going about it with vigor. And there is little Congress can seemingly do—though lawmakers control the purse strings, it’s hard to stop an agency from destroying itself. [...] http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/29/how-rex-tillerson-destroying-state-department-215319 [with comments]
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Trump is only making it worse for Republicans on health care
All In with Chris Hayes 6/28/17
With Senate Republicans clinging to their plan to ram through a deeply unpopular health care bill, Donald Trump - the one person who'd be expected to seal the deal with reluctant members of his party - is only making matters worse. Duration: 4:28
Sen. Tim Kaine: GOP should work with Dems on health care fix
All In with Chris Hayes 6/28/17
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia says Republicans should let Democrats in on their process and work together on a bipartisan way to fix health care. Duration: 5:51
The president doesn't accept that Russia hacked the election, but he still blames his predecessor for not stopping Russia from doing just that. Duration: 2:10
Pro wrestling’s newest villain: 'The Progressive Liberal'
All In with Chris Hayes 6/28/17
Thing 1/Thing 2: His act is he wears a shirt with Hillary Clinton's face all over it and says stuff like, 'I want to help you get jobs with clean energy.' Duration: 2:28
Another empty Trump threat falls flat against Comey
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/28/17
Rachel Maddow looks at evidence of Donald Trump's long history of trying to intimidate people he doesn't like with hollow threats of lawsuits, and notes the failure of his recent threat to file a complaint against James Comey as a setback in his attack on the FBI's Trump Russia investigation. Duration: 18:02
Republicans already working to discredit Trump Russia probe
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/28/17
Rachel Maddow reports on how a letter from two Senate Judiciary Republicans to the FBI appears to be trying to set up a case to discredit the Trump Russia investigation, a familiar political tactic by those feeling the head of an investigation. Duration: 6:41
Republican health/tax bill tests loyalty to constituents
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/28/17
Chris Hayes talks with Rachel Maddow about the key to the success or failure of the Republican health/tax bill: whether Republicans from Medicaid expansion states care about their constituents. Duration: 7:37
Rachel Maddow looks at the dubious job Donald Trump's EPA is doing as a steward of the environment and tells the story of Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, who was pressured by an EPA official to change her testimony to Congress. Duration: 4:35
Scientist says EPA asked her to change testimony to Congress
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/28/17
Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, talks with Rachel Maddow about the pressure she received from an EPA official to change her congressional testimony and how the EPA's outside scientific review board has been "decimated." Duration: 6:22
A Republican insider says a president with a 35% approval rating and who is under FBI investigation "doesn't have a hammer" to make GOP senators vote for controversial health care legislation. John Heilemann and Liz Mair join Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 6:14
In December, Chuck Jones, the head of the union representing Carrier workers, was attacked on Twitter for saying Trump was wrong to claim he helped save "a minimum of 1,100 jobs" at the plant. We now know who was telling the truth. Jones gets the last word. Duration: 7:50
Lawrence O'Donnell explains why the Senate Majority Leader took a big gamble on the repeal and replace bill—and whether the Resistance will succeed in stopping it. Joy Reid and John Heilemann discuss. Duration: 13:58
Pres. Trump and the RNC held a huge fundraiser in D.C., but is this a party divided? Guest host Nicolle Wallace and our panel look at the blame game happening as the GOP health bill falls apart. Duration: 12:59
Fundraiser at Trump hotel 'worse than the Teapot Dome scandal'
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/28/17
Fmr. Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman joins guest host Nicolle Wallace calling Pres. Trump and the RNC holding a fundraiser at Trump's own D.C. hotel 'worse than the Teapot Dome scandal.' Duration: 1:53
Reports: Trump legal team backs off Comey attack plan... for now
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/28/17
Fmr. Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman & MSNBC National Security Analyst Jeremy Bash join guest host Nicolle Wallace to discuss the Trump legal team's latest moves on the Russia investigations. Duration: 3:27
Last Call for Nasty Women | June 28, 2017 Part 4 | Full Frontal on TBS
Published on Jun 28, 2017 by Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Planned Parenthood needs us now more than ever! Order your shirt so they can use that $1 million to keep all us nasty women healthy! https://www.omaze.com/made/nasty-woman-2
Published on Jun 29, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The 45th President keeps reiterating his personal opinions via Twitter. Stephen imagines what it would look like if the 44th President had done the same.
Yet Another Baker Who Won't Make Cakes For Same-Sex Weddings
Published on Jun 29, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Working in what seems to be one of America's fastest growing professional fields, a homophobic baker stops by to explain why he won't make cakes for same-sex weddings.
Trump Tweets While Republicans Huddle on Health Care: A Closer Look
Published on Jun 28, 2017 by Late Night with Seth Meyers
Seth takes a closer look at President Trump's latest swipes at the media as a vote on his signature health care bill has been delayed due to lack of support from his own party.
Trump rips media, mocks Pelosi at closed-door fundraiser 06/28/2017 President Donald Trump, facing dimming approval ratings and a stalled legislative agenda, rolled out his greatest hits on Wednesday evening — ripping into CNN, assailing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and hailing his party’s string of special election wins. Before a rapt audience of 300 supporters, major GOP donors and party leaders attending the first fundraiser of his 2020 reelection campaign at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the commander in chief returned to his comfort zone. Speaking for about 30 minutes at the closed-door event, according to two people present, the president continued to bash a favorite target — the media, and, in particular, CNN. Trump derided the network for errors and presented himself as a victim of its reporting, which he described as deeply unfair. At one point, the president turned his fire on one of the network’s liberal commentators, Van Jones. [...] One organizer estimated that about $10 million was raised — a sum that will be divided between Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. Some of those attending donated more than $30,000. A number of major GOP figures were in attendance, including the RNC’s chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel, and finance chair Steve Wynn, both of whom the president praised. After the event was over, a number of Trump allies were seen roaming the lobby of the hotel, including oil executive Harold Hamm and senior campaign aide Brad Parscale. Despite a series of legislative setbacks, Trump highlighted what he’d so far accomplished, pointing to his deregulation efforts. He also discussed health care legislation, which is stalled in the Senate, and said it needed to get done. The president also lavished praise on his besieged chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a former RNC chairman who remains plugged into the national party’s operations. Priebus had become famous, the president told the crowd, and joked that no one could pronounce his name. Trump described his chief of staff as invaluable — and noted that he’d been spending time putting out a lot of “fires.” [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/trump-fundraiser-pelosi-ossoff-240078 [with comments]
this is part 12 of a 17-part post which proceeds (point arising on the given) day by (point arising on the given) day from June 17, 2017 through July 3, 2017 -- the preceding part is the post to which this is a reply; the next part is a reply to this post -- the following 'see also (linked in)' listing, updated for intervening posts along the way, is common to all 17 parts
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
