News Connections
November 30,2018
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Donald Trump lied to the American people during his campaign for the Presidency when he said he was not conducting any business projects in Russia (see our News Connection, Nov. 29, 2018). In fact, Trump’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow included a plan to give Vladimir Putin a penthouse apartment valued at $50 million. It should be noted that one of the articles of impeachment drafted for use against Richard Nixon involved a lie to the American people. Further, bribing foreign officials runs counter to the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/politics/trump-russia-felix-sater-michael-cohen.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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Mark Whitaker, Acting Attorney, has been found to be more deeply involved in a fraudulent invention-promotion company than previously believed. This may make it impossible for him to carry out the drastic changes in the Department of Justice.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/matthew-whitaker-knew-of-fraud-allegations-at-company-he-advised-1543599895
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November 29, 2018
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Paul Manafort’s failure to abide by the conditions of his cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller may not be as serious an impediment to establishing a case against Donald Trump as initially believed. Michael Cohen, in part, has stepped into the breach created by Manafort’s double-cross. Cohen’s admission that he lied to Congress indicated that Trump was in negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow as late as June 2016. As a result, two facts about Trump are clear. First, he lied in June of 2016 when he said he had no business dealings with Russia. Second, the potential for a business deal is a new motivation for his fawning behavior toward Vladimir Putin.
https://bit.ly/2BG7MJB
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-russia-mueller.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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Trump’s behavior has made it manifestly clear that he is unsuited to be President. When will the Republicans cut their losses and cut him loose? If they want to save themselves, they must either cut him loose or try to save him at the expense of our democracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/trump-democrats-midterms-southwest.html
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November 28, 2018
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Mike Espy was defeated by Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s Senate run-off, as expected. Espy is an Afro-American and Hyde-Smith is a white who used racial dog whistles to remind Mississippi voters. Victory eluded Espy by 7 points. He needed about 90 percent of black voters, which he got and about 30 percent of white voters, which he did not. He did do well among educated whites in suburban areas, but not well enough to offset Hyde-Smith’s advantage among rural whites. There are two lessons to take away from this election. First, Espy did 2 percentage points better than Barack Obama in 2012 (46 vs. 44); even Mississippi is becoming increasingly competitive in state-wide elections. Second, it may take another 15 years for a Democrat to win, unless there are structural economic and educational changes in the in the state.
The Washington Post: Mississippi runoff: Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith wins racially charged election over Democrat Mike Espy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mississippi-runoff-senate-espy-hyde-smith/2018/11/27/3bdfabce-f279-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.354b19bc7337
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Former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, lied and thus broke his cooperation agreement with, Special Counsel, Robert Mueller and is once again facing the possibility of dying in prison. While many legal analysts concede this is a setback for Mueller, others see Manafort’s default as a bump in the road that can be overcome. It does remind us that, if Trump is to be held accountable for his actions, this investigation must produce enough evidence to convince about 40 percent of the U.S. voters that they made a serious mistake supporting Trump. Sometimes it seems that legal analysts forget this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/politics/manafort-lawyer-trump-cooperation.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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November 27, 2018
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The calamity of Donald Trump and the Republican Party for the U.S. is becoming cleared with each passing day. First, as the National Climate Assessment makes clear, the effects of climate change will be widespread and severe. The donations the Republican Party received from the extractive industries to deny climate change and stall any remediation will be repaid dearly by all of us, especially if we are not quite wealthy.
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/opinion/climate-change-denial-republican.html
Third, Trump’s massive tax cut to business (along with low interest rates), has helped to encourage a major acquisition binge. As interest rates now start to rise, economists are predicting a major economic slow-down by 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/opinion/corporate-debt-bubble-att-ge.html
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Second, General Motors has announced that its plant in Lordstown, Ohio is closing, as well as four others, with about 15,000 lost jobs. Trump promised to stop job loss. These lost jobs are not only despite Trump’s promise, but according to General Motors, due in part to the tariffs he put on steel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gm-layoffs-and-plant-shutdowns-suggest-us-economy-may-be-starting-to-slow--and-dent-trumps-claim-of-an-industrial-renaissance/2018/11/26/39533566-f1ba-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.15b84966433d
And fourth, Russia seems to be taking advantage of Europe’s preoccupation changing and weakened leaders and Trump being to Trump to increase its military pressure against Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/world/europe/russia-ukraine-kerch-strait.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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Look for more indicators of Trump’s unfitness for the Presidency in the coming months.
November 26, 2018
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As Latin American migrants seeking asylum massed at the San Ysidro, Mexico border crossing, some became frustrated at the slow pace of processing and attempted to force their way into the U.S. Their attempted breach of the border was in reaction to President’s Trump’s effort to prevent the migrants from following U.S. law and asking for asylum within U.S. Trump’s efforts to ignore the law and prevent the migrants from entering the U.S. is consistent with his other efforts to restrict the number of refugees and legal immigrants admitted to the U.S. A new form of “ethnic cleansing?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-closes-major-crossing-as-caravan-migrants-mass-at-border-in-mexico/2018/11/25/f94aabe0-f0ea-11e8-99c2-cfca6fcf610c_story.html?utm_term=.39697e2c7410
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Despite attempts by the Trump administration to attribute terrorism in the U.S. to middle easterners, most terrorist incidents where the motive can be determined, have been committed by right-wing extremists. And most right-wing terrorism is committed for the purpose of intimidating or driving “foreigners” from the U.S. An old form of “ethnic cleansing?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-the-united-states-right-wing-violence-is-on-the-rise/2018/11/25/61f7f24a-deb4-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html?utm_term=.33a53d5e2b04
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November 23, 2018
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Trump displayed his character flaws again this Thanksgiving. He took the opportunity of wishing the men and women serving their country a Happy Thanksgiving also to inject petty politics into the occasion.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/happy-thanksgiving-to-all-rhetorical-bedlam-erupts-as-president-trump-speaks-to-the-world-from-mar-a-lago/2018/11/22/349c4a3e-ee7d-11e8-96d4-0d23f2aaad09_story.html?utm_term=.6b5537798f3d
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November 21, 2018
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Trump is a loser. His predisposition for losing through bankruptcies, ill-advised schemes, and childish behavior may be due to inferior cognitive skills, ignorance, or his banishment to military school at an early age. Whatever the reason, we are reaping the detriment of his losing habit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/opinion/trump-administration-businesses-democrats-midterms.html
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Last Spring, Trump asked the White House Counsel, Donald McGahn, to order the Department of Justice to prosecute, not investigate, Hillary Clinton and James Comey. McGahn refused on the grounds that Trump had no authority to order a prosecution. While the President could order an investigation, an order to either investigated or prosecute political enemies could be grounds for impeachment.
ttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/president-trump-justice-department.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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To highlight both Trump’s unfitness for the Presidency and his lack of understanding, Trump announced his decision to ignore the Central Intelligence Agency’s highly confident assessment that Mohammed bin Salman ordered and directed the brutal murder of a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident, was murdered and dismembered in a Saudi consulate in Turkey. Trump’s illogical rationale for giving MBS a pass boiled down to the Saudis buy too many high-value armaments from us to assert U.S. moral values in the face of such brutality. The consequence of what Trump has done is to put other journalists in danger and give dictators license to commit any atrocity as long as they can pay the U.S. The most pathetic aspect of Trump’s illogic is that the amount of the Saudi arms deals is significantly less than Trump claims.
The New York Times: I the Extraordinary Statement, Trump Stands with Saudis Despite Hashoggi Killing
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-khashoggi.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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November 20, 2018
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Besides Special Counsel, Robert Mueller’s investigation, there are other reasons to believe 2019 will be a bad year for Donald Trump. One of these reasons is the nature of the people serving and surrounding Trump. Their knowledge may be limited and their intelligence suspect, but without a doubt they are arrogant. The most recent example of this is daughter Ivanka Trump’s use of a private email account for the conduct of classified government business. Given Donald Trump’s and the Main Stream Media’s extraordinary focus on Hillary Clinton for doing exactly this, extraordinary arrogance or stupidity are the only explanation for Ivanka’s duplicative behavior.
The Washington Post: Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to send hundreds of emails about government business last year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ivanka-trump-used-a-personal-email-account-to-send-hundreds-of-emails-about-government-business-last-year/2018/11/19/6515d1e0-e7a1-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fcd8445998a2 |
A second reason, somewhat related to the first, is the expected strain on the economy because of Trump’s trade war with China. Although not the only cause of the increased volatility in the stock market, the trade war is one factor that has adversely affected U.S. markets.
The New York Times: Stocks Fall, Wiping Out Gains for 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/business/stock-markets.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad Trump’s and the GOP’s irresponsible tax cut is also contributing to the strain on the economy.
The New York Times: Did a Tax Increase Tucked Into Trump's Tax Cut Come Back to Bite Republicans?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/us/politics/trump-tax-cut-republican.html |
November 19,2018
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Trump’s true believers and many establishment Republicans openly attack the rule of law. This is shown by their refusal to hole Trump accountable for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution and obstructing justice by attempting to impede Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Just as important is the Republican attack on rational belief. Republicans attempt to camouflage this attack with the pretense that incontrovertible evidence is needed to resolve issues for which such evidence does not exist. For example, Trump cannot see “climate change.” Thus, he is free to say it exists but is transitory. There is no videotape of Putin leading the attack on our elections and so Trump is free to claim Putin’s denial is determinative. Now, even though there is an audio recording and a CIA assessment, rendered with high confidence, Trump says we can never be certain that Saudi Arabia had a U.S. resident brutally murdered and dismembered. New York Times: Despite Evidence of Khashoggi, Trump Sticks with the Crown Prince. Why? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/us/politics/trump-khashoggi-saudis.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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But this erosion of rational belief is not all due to Trump. Establishment Republicans are as guilty as Trump in using the fig leaf of incontrovertible evidence to cover inconvenient truths. For years they have claimed that voter fraud is the reason they erect barriers to voting. And they refuse to admit that the tactics they use like purging voting rolls and labeling legitimate ballots as “suspect” or “fraudulent” is being done without incontrovertible evidence. Even when courts of law find evidence of such tactics and outcomes having been used in various states or districts, they refuse to acknowledge the likelihood that those tactics are being used again.
Reliance on incontrovertible evidence or even the lesser standard of proof used in courts cannot be a substitute for rational belief. New York Times: Charges of Vote Stealing in Florida Portend More Distrust in System for 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/us/politics/florida-recount-voter-fraud.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
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