Tuesday, October 31, 2017

"It is impossible to run a public affairs firm while you are under attack by Fox News and the right wing media,” [Tony] Podesta told employees at the Podesta Group offices on Monday, according to a person familiar with his remarks.

The headline is a mid-paragraph from WaPo, here.

Calling Podesta Brothers operation "a public affairs firm" is an extreme euphemism for what it really is. Both of the Podesta brothers should resign from DC, go somewhere else, and learn to earn a productive income via value added to the locale and nation.

At any rate, the WaPo item, in opening, explains:

Powerful lobbyist Tony Podesta steps down amid Mueller’s Russia probe
By Marc Fisher and Carol D. Leonnig October 30 at 9:54 PM


[...] On Monday, hours after the first indictments in the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, Podesta abruptly quit his post atop the Podesta Group, the capital’s eighth-wealthiest lobbying firm.

Podesta’s departure came as the indictments of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, raised questions about the work Podesta’s firm did with Manafort to buff the image of the Ukrainian government. Podesta, 74, said he was quitting because of the barrage of criticism he’s been getting as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III pursues the investigation.

Calling what Tony Podesta did against the public interest, for money, "a public affairs firm" is like calling a stinking gull-infested garbage dump "an environmental adaptation location."

And not just "for money." Most often, for lots of money. Obscene amounts of money. "For sale" does not mean for sale cheap.

So --- Is it, "Watch the doorknob, Tony;" or is there a golden parachute with a stay out of jail free card appended?

If sincere, he should disband the firm, burn his shares at the Lincoln Memorial, and then go into the wilderness to do grave penance.

Brother John being Tony's companion for that mea culpa and penance pilgrimage is a warming thought. A hypothetical, clearly, but it is the thought that counts.

What do you figure the guy who got the plea might have, to testify against Tony Podesta? And that is aside from the bigger question, what may be testimonial and documentary evidence against Donald Jr. and Jarad?

A separate WaPo item, this link, states in regard to a possible campaign-Kremlin get-together:

"Make the trip, if it is feasible,” Sam Clovis wrote in an August email to George Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos was in contact with several senior Trump campaign aides about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers show. In addition to Clovis, who now serves as senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Papadopoulos wrote to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the newly released documents show.

The campaign officials are not identified in court documents, but [...]

In a statement, Papadopoulos’s attorneys Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley said they would refrain from commenting on the case.

“We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date,” they said. “We look forward to telling all of the details of George’s story at that time.”

Can it touch Mike Pence, and if so, is he tefloned against any of it sticking? It appears much of the fan loading up as described in court papers happened after Pence was selected. That selection process might have been a real hoot to have observed as if the proverbial fly on the wall. Reporting much like The Wrap, here, was widespread enough to raise questions and to make that fly-on-the-wall hypothetical appealing in terms of knowing rather than conjecturing who said what to whom?.

Mike Pence seems to have shown a Chauncey Garderner career trajectory, out of Being There. But a narrow and ill-tempered one where his actual gardening skills would raise questions.

_____________UPDATE_______________
Two web searches, here and here, indicate Podesta Group and Mercury, of which Vin Weber is a principle, had substantial income from Ukraine government lobbying work without disclosure of such foreign government services as required by law. If the Mueller effort can bring down the Podesta brothers and Vin Weber in one big net of slime, much good may result from any such stable mucking. Example coverage, here, here, here and here, (noting that some pre-indictment coverage is included).

From The Hill; link in original:

In the wake of Podesta’s departure, a new firm will be formed without his name, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source. The Hill has confirmed that there will be a new entity, with a source familiar with the developments saying that the roll out will likely take place before the end of the week.

"They've been thinking about it and planning it for awhile; it'll be quick," the source told The Hill, asking for anonymity to discuss the events.

A source at the firm told The Hill that a small group is "now working to salvage as much of our current business as possible," saying that the response has been positive thus far. The person asked for anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive topic.

"There are a bunch of people here who just want to get back to doing what we do best," the person from Podesta Group told The Hill.

"... what we do best ..." is nothing to be proud of; but it pays well and somebody would do it, so why not Podesta Redux? A lot of DC inner-beltway types with knives and forks on the table, gotta eat something ...

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Politico ended an Oct. 30 report:

Podesta Group did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Podesta has long been a larger than life figure on K Street, growing his business from a boutique firm into a massive lobbying and public relations operation. He is well known for his flashy dressing, vast art collection, generous campaign donations across all levels of Democratic politics and, of course, for his brother John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

Podesta Group has struggled in the wake of the Mueller investigation. More than a dozen of its lobbying clients have cut ties with the firm this year, according to lobbying filings. Revenues have also declined: The firm brought in an estimated $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2017, down from $5.2 million in the second quarter of 2017 and from $6.1 million in the third quarter of 2016.

Attitudes may differ but I find it hard to tear up over a lobbying megalith losing clients. The lobbyists, the clients, the influenced officials all could be cast adrift mid-Pacific in a dinghy with short rations, and tearing up over that might be equally difficult. Other lobbyists, when Podesta loses clients, would they tear up for Tony? Would the Clintons?

Monday, October 30, 2017

National Review, this month, publishes about Uranium One. Clintons are mentioned.

This link. A plea bargain is mentioned in the report. UPDATE: The report links to The Hill, here.

Not yet to the heart of the beast; two Mueller indictments revealed. Unfortunately, nothing yet touching Mike Pence.

WaPo, this Monday morning:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates have been charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements.

The indictment marked the first criminal allegations to come from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election.

The charges did not reference the Trump campaign but instead focused on Manafort’s and Gates’s work advising a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine.

[...] Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, and Trump tapped him to serve as campaign chairman in May of that year. He left in August 2016, but Gates, his business partner and protege, continued to play an important role with the campaign even after Manafort’s departure. After the election Gates directed the inauguration plans, including fundraising, under Tom Barrack, Trump’s close friend and adviser.

Manafort's tenure on the Trump effort spanned the convention and the naming of Pence for the VP spot. Hopefully something, somewhere along the line sticks to Pence.

The other Mike: So far, it's two indictments independent of anything Mike Flynn did, so the question of what Flynn knew and when did he know it still remains publicly unanswered. There is no hint of any plea bargaining in reporting known to Dev Crabgrass.

_______________UPDATE___________________
Well, there was a plea bargain, and how it fits other Mueller musings is unclear, with a different WaPo item stating:

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Monday revealed charges against three former Trump campaign officials — former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner Rick Gates and former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos — marking the first criminal allegations to come from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to making a false statement to FBI investigators who asked about his contacts with a foreigner connected to Russian officials, and the agreement was unsealed Monday. The foreigner was described as a London-based professor and Papadopoulos claimed the professor introduced him to Putin’s niece and the Russian ambassador in London, according to the indictment.

The reporting makes no link between Gates and Manafort and this third perp, which does not mean a connection may or may not exist, only that reporting is as it is. Thus far. That being said absent a reading of court filings, which reader search can find online.

NY Times, here.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

There are things you get a personal resonance with, on YouTube, that reading does not fully transcribe.

Sanders on foreign policy - the guns and butter juxtaposition of Econ. 101 and all - this link.

Under an hour.

Watch it.

Indeed, commit to the first ten minutes and then watch more into the policy commentary as you may choose.

screen capture from within the first ten minutes

What do the CIA and FBI have to hide?

WaPo, here. Covering up for the Dulles brothers?

As a bet, without taking the time to wade through the censored document release in the last few days, the contention here is that the word "Dulles" was fully redacted and never appears. Readers with evidence in the documents to the contrary are urged to submit links via a comment.

UPDATE: Interestingly, word searching this WaPo page for "Dulles" yielded no hits. Reader help: any mention, Rafael Cruz - Mexico in the recently declassified publicly released stuff?

NOTE: No "Cruz" mention foound by word search on that WaPo page; one "Mexico" item noted there. Trump's suggestion Rafael Cruz met Oswald in Mexico City was a bold assertion, one yet to be proven or disproved. Whatever the truth, it sure seemed to light Ted Cruz's fuse. And for that Trump deserves due notice.


Friday, October 27, 2017

RT - Not for twits.

This RT link.

Ghost town death rattles? If you pack enough money into a deep deep hole, you can fill it to the top, but it's still a big hole with costly stuffing.

This link.

"Trump Invited ‘Fox & Friends’ Co-Host Pete Hegseth to Private Dinner at White House"

The post headline is the headline used by The Wrap, with this image:


With his FOX job is Hegseth anything of a present presence in Minnesota? He gets a tout from local Republican mavens, but is it more than a visit/chat? And why does nobody ask the guy what his precise job duties were when serving at the Gitmo detention camp? That service has to be a part of making Hegseth who he is today. So what did he do there?

UPDATE: Hegseth, In the twin cities, apparently briefly, per this link. Do you suppose he merits a Clinton/Goldman speaking fee for such an appearance, or was there more to Clinton/Goldman affairs? Despite it all, and besides being a hell of a bad aim throwing an axe, Hegseth has seemed to me to have feet of clay. Despite a range of touting, what's truth and what's fiction?

FURTHER:Bio, at Premier Speakers Bureau. Minnesota not mentioned. Nor Hegseth's candidacy history as noted online:

Pete Hegseth for Senate was a Senate campaign committee during the 2012 election based in Minnesota. As of June 30, 2012, the committee raised a total of $203k and spent a total of $203k.

[...]

Receipts Amount
Contributions $202,059 US
.............
Individual Contributions $198,459 USD
PAC Contributions $3,600 USD
Offsets to Operating Expenditures $495 USD
Total Receipts $202,554 USD

[...]

Expenditures Amount
Administrative/Salary $191,365 USD
Advertising $9,261 USD
Campaigning $9,484 USD
Contribution Refunds $15,000 USD
Fundraising $2,015 USD
Polling $692 USD
Travel $6,283 USD
Unclassifiable $44,110 USD
[...]

Campaign Headquarters Address
Pete Hegseth for Senate
Po Box 270726
Vadnais Heights, Minnesota 55127

A bit over two hundred grand taken in; $190 grand of it going to "Administrative/Salary" - questions may exist.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Two Gentlemen from Verona Whitefish, Montana.

After the unfortunate Montana special election outcome took Montana from the national spotlight it held as election day neared, attention from here has not sufficiently been paid to the Montana Cowgirl websight until now. An item titled, "Drip. Drip. Drip."

Whitefish Energy received the government contract to restore Puerto Rico’s power.

The whole story is worth a read, particularly because of the absurdity that a company with two full-time employees could be the best option for a $300 million contract to bring back power to Puerto Rico, [...]

Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Mont., the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Its chief executive, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another — but only, Zinke’s office said in an email, because Whitefish is a small town where “everybody knows everybody.” One of Zinke’s sons “joined a friend who worked a summer job” at one of Techmanski’s construction sites, the email said. Whitefish said he worked as a “flagger.”

Zinke’s office said he had no role in Whitefish securing the contract for work in Puerto Rico. Techmanski also said Zinke was not involved.

Here at the Cowgirl blog, we started to receive tips and comments about this story five days ago, when Montana Public Radio ran a story on it.

Apparently, Techmanski likes to brag around town about how connected he is with Zinke. As reported in the Post’s story, Zinke’s son used to draw a paycheck from the company. I am sure that had nothing to do with this company, of two people, securing a ginormous government contract.

[bolded links are from original]

Local coverage from Montana might be the best news to follow. Moreover, the comment streams to posts at Cowgirl merit attention.


COWGIRL BONUS:

John Heenan, Grant Kier, Tom Woods, and whatever other Democrat joins this primary are not going to be able to outspend Greg Gianforte. But if Greg continues to be an asshole, they might not have to.

(Follow the BONUS link for context suggesting on first reading that "continues" is the properly used word.)

UPDATE: Gianforte getting Cowgirl tough love.

FURTHER: Politico riffs on Montana's Zinke and the who-dat "Virgin Island GOP," a tale without a hero.

FURTHER: Daily Beast.

FURTHER: BuzzFeed. Which followed up on the energy firm's business address: see it; believe it.

FURTHER: More local Montana viewpoints; John Heenan - this news item and this; also, this websearch, and candidacy pages - here and here.

FURTHER: http://www.standwithmontanans.org/

FURTHER: WaPo, Oct. 29, mid-day reporting.

Impatience can be criticized, but soon we will have 2018 elections so is there time to tolerate appeasement?

This link, focused on Bernie and Liz and their out-of-the-wilderness leadership insightfulness, but mid-item, this:

With polling indicating that support for a universal healthcare system in the US is growing, a number of progressive activists have declared the issue will be a “litmus test” for Democrats, threatening candidates who don’t support Sanders’s “single-payer” plan with a primary challenge.

Warren rejects that kind of aggressive approach. “I don’t believe in litmus tests for Democrats,” she told reporters after the event. “I’m not voting anybody off the island.”

[...] “The political energy has migrated to the polar extremes on both sides and it has left a large swath of the population feeling homeless,” said Will Marshall, one of the leading intellectual architects of the neoliberal “New Democrat” movement embraced by Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the 1990s.

Worried that pragmatism will be relegated to the past, Marshall formed New Democracy, an organization that aims to “expand the party’s appeal across middle America and make Democrats competitive everywhere”. The group is looking to fight back against progressives’ attacks on their brand of market-friendly liberalism.

“When you’re in the minority party, you can’t bet everything on one theory or voter group. You’ve got to expand in every direction,” Marshall said. “We need to win in a bunch of places and there isn’t one single message.”

The ideological rift in the party is not new, but tensions between the liberals dreaming of healthcare reform and the moderates trying to win re-election in states where Trump dominated has only grown since the election.

At a conference earlier this month, Warren declared progressives the “heart and soul of today’s Democratic party” and promised the party would not retreat to the centrist economic policies that dominated party orthodoxy for more than two decades.

Will Marshall seems an idiot, or worse, a wolf in wolf's clothing. A GOP attitude belongs in the GOP, so Will, take Tom Perez over there with you, please. And take the Podesta brothers too, since they're wholly in it for the gelt.

______________UPDATE_______________
Then there are snakes in snake skins, hiding snake deeds in the weeds.


usnews.com picked this image to go with its report. Not me.
Not me this time flagging the tiebreaker in the grass..

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Eveleth death.

NEOM conceptual branding without any "Trump" cobranding appearing as sought or envisioned.

Saudi news, here and here. With a half-trillion dollar price tag, as currently envisioned, it's bigger than the NFL. Bigger than Goldman Sachs. Perhaps having less reach and gravitas than Goldman being for the future to disclose. Goldman is not known for embracing a limited reach.

Uranium One. Is it old news with a new twist; or questionably deep-sixed things floating to today's surface?

Links here and here were found giving initial notice. In addition, WaPo, and LA Times, reporting links were found in the return list of this web search.

There always was an air of some skulduggery going under media attention and scrutiny. Now if there is substance, it should be uncovered, or the matter dismissed as potentially lurid, but without sufficient evidence of wrong doing.

Either way, a more refined PUBLIC airing atarting with examination of FBI investigation results (and following the money where it may lead) should benefit national discourse while satisfying the public's need to know. Always following the money helps. If criminality was avoided, there might still be a veneer of sleaze reaching multiple culprits. Sunlight on the entire business of Uranium One dealings, and political and fiscal interactions cannot be anything but helpful. Money and power and American uranium reserves make good reading once someone formulates a story to tell with proof backing it up.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The Ramsey Town Center putsch has not been quelled. ABC Newspapers report.

This link. Crabgrass is growing strong. Subsidizing its prosperity seems a never-ceasing Ramsey Town exercise in government over Ramsey's resident taxpayers.

How convincing to you, that entrenchment knows best?

Superdelegate DNC opinion - what's justified, what's poisoning the well so that progressives cannot in conscience take part? Not wanting to hear about recent 2016 superdelegate history is a fault, in the minds of some who believe noses need to be rubbed in it. Rubbed in it in order to get the attention of entrenched comfort off the dime in needed good ways and in productive directions of actual CHANGE. Deny such a need, then perish by intransigence of the we-know-best self seekers' dismissal of popular intelligence. Bernie resonated for a reason and it was not among superdelegates, who favored defeat over victory on newer wiser terms.

UPDATE: Nina Turnder has HOPE. Whether DNC December decisions will be hopeful and helpful remains to be seen. Nina Turner is a realist, but will wait. A claim of a purge is being leveled by a TYT reporter. A more vocal critique, same basis, in another TYT segment.

FURTHER UPDATE: A third TYT exegesis - on the same basis. Should progressives be angered? Should primary challenges proliferate?

Superdelegates have been sub-super and that is unlikely to CHANGE. Fewer is better than many, none is best. Do you expect CHANGE? HOPE? Same old losing stuff? Money corrupting chances for the people to be recognized and served by the party using "Democratic" in its name?

FURTHER: Registered lobbyists mucking around DNC positions of influence? What's happening? Is it for the best of the nation? For the best of the peoples' interests being served?

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The vulgarity of a succession list without a spot of quality. First removed ---

A Mike Pence presidency might imply . . .

Lilliputians. Each and all. Pence, Ryan, further on down the line. Job security for Trump. In a sense. In the sense that if Pence is "Agnewed" there is then Paul Ryan, and it is a constant threat. "President Ryan" would be a hard imposition. One without any charm, from it, for a "President Pence" prospect. It is a situation that galls, each person - considered on a basis of merit, lacking it.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Choosing words. Would the most fit term be "hucksters," "barkers," "intentional hacks," or "grifters?" Or, "paid prophets of stupidity?"

empty suits - impeccably tailored

I believe the term might be "camp followers," with an added lead adjective, "unprincipled." Yet, all other terminology pales to, "naked propagandists of ill-will." Or, most pejorative, "FOX NEWS' paid persons." The latter term encompasses the others.

This link.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Counterinsurgency? What is it, and are the very best people with sagacious judgment needed to keep it from failing?

This link. Second, third best; perhaps lower on the totem pole; and as to salaciousness sagacity [yes, spellcheck did catch "sagaciousness" as a non-word, but ... one must still proofread] there is being an actual axe-throwing threat and menace, one not easily dismissed. Is the point of counterinsurgency to be so mean and vicious that the insurgents will back down quivering with fear and loathing? Or is it to divide and conquer an occupied population by learning what buttons to push to have a substantial faction of the influential locals favor you over the other mean and insistent foreign force; one which must be countered sufficiently to gain local confidence, but not so effectively as to fully remove all threat totally, thereby rendering your continuing presence moot, still troublesome, but unnecessary? Ask Pete, but watch out if he's an axe handy.

UPDATE: Enough of the Hegseth critique, which does dance around the main question. For readers such as myself, with no actual experience in the counterinsurgency arts and practices; and for chain of command enlightenment,Gen. Michael Flynn wrote in Jan. 2010 (with two co-authors); while roughly a year later an alternative study was released. Another year and some weeks later, a third opus was penned, calling counterinsurgency a thing with "Operational Art" in the resume. [UPDATE: "Operational Art" was already a buzzword in 2010, and "counterinsurgency" a cottage industry among war pundits.]

All three original links above are "studies" at the behest of one or another General, or at least the major fingerprints on each seem to be via different Generals; (civilians need not apply nor offer ideas??).

Actually, the second of the three seems to mirror work of a committee, but please recall that the official story of the JFK lone-wolf assassin and the 9/11 commission report each was by committee; so trusting committee work for divergent views to leaven things in a good way is not without risk.

Reading and evaluating such things as those three items without having had any combat or military experience is not an easy task. It is so much easier just to sit back and smugly ridicule Hegseth. He's on FOX obnoxiously posturing a role akin to the guy who sticks out his chin at a bar saying, "Go ahead, give me your best shot, I can take it." The invitation is there, clearly extended.

However, if counterinsurgency is a major part of Pentagon brass tactics, knowing something about what they mean when they speak of it has value in a society ostensibly run by unerring civilian control of armed forces. Even with a General, Mattis, sitting atop the Pentagon pyramid while his General's chair has barely cooled a bit from his having sat a long time in it. Perhaps particularly with such top level upturning of civilian control it is more important to be vigilant. Complacency can forfeit liberty. History has lessons.

FURTHER UPDATE: Apart from absence of physical weaponry in politics, much of politics arguably can be viewed through a counterinsurgency lens. Is there much room for debate that Debbie Wasserman Schultz showed little "Operational Art" in how she and her DNC hangers on and henchpersons countered the Bernie insurgency? She came across as if trying to intercept falling drifting feathers with boxing gloves laced on so tightly she'd not give them up despite clear difficulties.

FURTHER UPDATE: An easy critique of "counterinsurgency doctrine" is that if Hegseth is put forward as a knowledgeable talking head AND trainer of counterinsurgency troops, doom to failure is inherent. Beyond that premise, Hegseth is an apologist, and not a particularly skilled one, while the heart of what U.S. counterinsurgency was, is, and will be might be personified by James Steele, the question being how close really is Hegseth's background to Steele's? A landslide of words and "counterinsurgency" white papers cannot hide the James Steele in current U.S. military practices.

FURTHER UPDATE: With the Hegseth counterinsurgency background, it is a surprise James Steele gets on FOX coverage, no love among the Hegseth corps; while BBC has done a video short excerpt. Full hour-long item.

FURTHER UPDATE: Rand Corp. has a piece of the action, its counterinsurgency think tanking having started before the earlier cited items, Rand publishing in 2011.

Newer items - from this year and the most recent two seem absent in search return lists. Two items dated 2006, here and here.

After Libya unfolded into chaos from its former prosperous autocracy and while Afghanistan poppy production soared and continues, what's been the outlook on counterinsurgency doctrine, say from during the second Obama term and as a policy debate in the 2016 election? An ongoing continual state of war and terror remains, whether ginned up by our nation's Hegseths or real, yet in public propagandizing it has been back burner. "Great again" rhetoric took front burner, with the Bernie insurgency being real despite mainstream media's intent to downplay it.

The progressive insurgency is one for which real hope must be held by anyone believing much of all else has been conjured-up smoke and mirrors.

Last, counterinsurgency against Bannon worked short term for the new autocratic "General Chief-of-Staff," that being so despite Roy Moore as the show-piece of Bannon-Mercer post-resignation MAGA mischief.

Monday, October 09, 2017

Hopefully, legislators will better start swimming or they'll sink like a stone.

This 90th Legislature bill, HF 2714, long term, has a future. Short term it has Republicans being who they are and hopefully they have, long term, no future.

Bill authors. Know who already is swimming . . .

UPDATE: More swimmers, this link - which correctly declares, "Everybody Counts, Everybody Matters." Big money donors do not matter more than you or I. DNC folks need schooling in that regard. Even DWS matters, and with proper help she perhaps can show something of an upward sloping learning curve.

Sunday, October 08, 2017

Cyrus Vance Jr. and the Trump siblings - Guardian reporting.

Excerpt from here:

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R Vance Jr, refused on Saturday to answer questions about contributions to his re-election campaign and decisions to quash a fraud investigation involving Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr and not to prosecute the movie producer Harvey Weinstein over an alleged groping incident.

Vance, who will be up for re-election in November, was a speaker at a pro-gun control event in Union Square in New York City, held in the aftermath of the Las Vegas mass shooting. Asked about the campaign contributions, he offered no comment and swiftly left the event.

On Wednesday, ProPublica, WNYC and the New Yorker reported that between 2010 and 2012, prosecutors attempted to build a case against the two Trump siblings for allegedly “misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development”.

Before meeting Vance about the case in May 2012, the report said, Donald Trump’s attorney Marc Kasowitz donated $25,000 to the DA’s re-election campaign. Vance returned the donation, according to what he said was standard practice when a donor has a case before his office.

Three months later, the case was dropped. Vance told the three media outlets that was the “right call”, as he “did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed”.

Subsequent donations to Vance’s campaign by Kasowitz and organised through him, and in excess of $50,000, were accepted. Speaking to ProPublica, WNYC and the New Yorker, Vance said he would return that money. He also said Kasowitz “had no influence, and his contributions had no influence whatsoever on my decision-making in the case”.

[...] In Union Square on Saturday a spokeswoman, Joan Vollero, [...] said in her emailed statement: “This was a two-year investigation that never produced sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. During the investigation, the luxury apartment purchasers reversed course and took the position that the sellers had not committed any crime against them. No outside attorney influenced any decision in this matter.”

Whether a civil suit settles or not seems irrelevant to whether a crime was committed. Emphasizing that the civil suit plaintiffs settled seems a non sequitur. Kiting facts about unit sales in a housing development, with emails apparently exchanged, seems suspect beyond a sentence or two about plaintiffs in something apart from a prosecutor deciding to prosecute or not, where evidence might have been presented a grand jury to decide whether a crime existed. And with the prosecutor controlling any grand jury proceeding, is it moot that the prosecutor just dropped things in the middle of things? Vance has this in his portfolio of exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Justice may be blind while holding the scales; but people can be human in many ways.

It is a post from months ago, but it shows how Mike Pence is an arch-enemy of personal freedoms.

HuffPo, here. If you are denied one of the most basic personal/family freedoms, you have to ask, who are these people and why are they intruding into your affairs.

A screen capture. With an image of two anti-freedom individuals, one ousted recently.


Mike Pence is walking, living proof, one bad apple can spoil the batch.

With all that mischief crassly grounded on Republican divide and conquer premises; all else being window dressing and bogus rhetoric for the service of fools.

Mideast irrelevance in the near future?

The automobile is the big fossil fuel consumption thing. For now.

The military uses fossil fuel, but will a fleet of autonomous electric powered drones be the future? The chemicals to make wind turbine blades and high performance composites, and explosives, will remain a narrowed niche market. But burning it instead of using it as a raw material for manufactured goods may end. Sooner rather than later might be best.

Heating homes with solar conversion methods is real, now. Energy neutral construction is not a distant fiction. Green homes will happen.

When renewable energy is established, the Saudi attention will wane. Who'll care?

UPDATE: Boeing is buying in to the alternative fossil-fuel-free concept. While much can be said pro and con per Boeing it is not one to chase pipe dreams.

Saturday, October 07, 2017

Minnesota Dem Guv candidates meet AFSME.

Strib reports. Republicans and AFSME meetings; if any; not reported. From Strib's photo gallery it looks from the solidarity tee shirts worn in the audience as if it were a Green Party convention. Seniority in AFSME may matter.

Reassurances were reported by Strib that AFSME specific bargaining rights were recognized and touted by each candidate. Whether other issues; e.g., the fifteen buck minimum wage for other workers - mostly unorganized young workers - if discussed at all was not reported by Strib.

Healthcare, extreme wealth and income imbalances, and money corrupting politics, if discussed, went unreported.

If any straw polling was involved, none was reported. If Kumbaya was sung as part of the solidarity showing, beyond the tee shirts, it was unreported.

Liebling remains a favored candidate here, but the entire batch seems to be a selection of qualified and ambitious individuals. Whichever ends up being the DFL general election candidate, he or she will be head and shoulders better than the likes of Kurt Daudt or Keith Downey, or Matt Dean. Opinions can differ.

Who knows, the Minnesota GOP could end up standing Tim Miller as their candidate for Governor.

NOTE: Republican Glen Taylor owns Strib. That should be borne in mind, in terms of possible slanting of the story.

__________UPDATE___________
One among several Strib gallery photos from its DFL-AFSME report:


That "People Power" banner inspires hope that AFSME membership and leadership will become very vocal on the fifteen buck minimum wage, with those laboring under sub-standard pay being people, some even voters, and if only focused on its ox not getting gored AFSME is missing a golden opportunity to show Minnesota-wide community solidarity - all workers being important - with such solidarity working to the benefit of all beyond low-wage exploitative employers. A long sentence, perhaps, hopefully, preaching to the choir.

_________FURTHER UPDATE____________
A websearch.

Good politics are shown on the national union's page, linking here.

Local "News" page; search=fifteen getting no hits.

This page. If AFSME is not vocally in front ranks on the fifteen dollar minimum wage issue, why the hell not? Worker issues transcend bargaining unit or national organized affiliation - all workers need the help of all other workers, and those laboring full working weeks for inadequate pay to live on need the help of others most. If nothing else, organizing minimum wage workers to get out and vote for candidates enunciating their plight as an election platform issue simply makes sense and it remains a big mystery why AFSME is less on the dime than SEIU in recognizing and advocating for meeting pay needs among the lower pay rungs of the national workforce.

__________FINAL UPDATE____________
Luckily finding a link before some reader emails calling me a dunce, this link:

http://afscmemn.org/story/victory-minimum-wage

It is GOOD to see that. Declaring a "victory" before no worker is being paid a current wage of less than fifteen dollars per hour, today, now, is arguably premature.

Yet the issue is recognized. Publicizing such matters remains to be done statewide in an effective way; with Republican ownership of news outlets being an obvious impediment to overcome.

__________Actually another UPDATE____________
Again, myopia; this link. A broader appeal to labor outside of teachers and public sector employees is needed. SIEU cannot carry all of it alone. Young people being disadvantaged on wages; older people having lost a better job working 40 or more hours a week and unable to meet expenses - these are people a Bernie Our Revolution agenda can energize, there was that pattern of Bernie massive turnouts being ignored by owned media; and everyone including AFSME needs to transcend myopia. Minimum wage abuse is a fine starting point. Broaden the persepctive or get Scott Walkered. It's not too complicated to comprehend, so where is the movement's movement? HINT: It is not Nancy Pelosi, any more than the Clinton spouses, Saban in Hollywood, and Podesta campaign management carried much. DWS was poison. Tom Perez is inadequate to save AFSME's bacon. Go talk to Ellison, and beg forgiveness for the Perez-DWS-DNC debacle pattern in all its ongoing glowing glory.

_______________FURTHER_____________
A websearch. Single Payer is not a difficult thing to understand, and once understood, advocating vigorously for it follows. Usually. Among good people, which AFSME seems to have.

ABC Newspapers reports: TAXES: Anoka County. City of Ramsey.

Anoka County. Ramsey. Both up.

Friday, October 06, 2017

“One of the most disturbing things in the fashion industry is when someone blatantly steals your copyright designs and doesn’t care,” his label posted on its Instagram account in March 2016. “You should know better. Shame on you @ivankatrump! Imitation is NOT the most sincere form of flattery.” Aquazzura sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ms Trump about the shoe, asking her company to stop selling its sandal.

The headline is an Independent paragraph, the report going on to say:

“Based on Aquazzura’s prior dealings with your client’s company, and on the obvious and purposeful copying of our client’s shoe, we anticipate that you will challenge Aquazzura’s rights in its design, maintaining that the designs lack secondary meaning, and that your client is therefore free to knock them off with impunity,” the letter said, citing some of the elements of infringement.

To avoid a court battle, Aquazzura demanded Trump’s company remove all pictures of the sandal in question from its website and social media, stop advertising the shoe, destroy all existing pairs, disclose its manufacturer, hand over profits from sales of the offending shoe, and “agree in writing under oath not to offer for sale any knock-off” again.

Aquazzura gave Ms Trump a week to comply, or else face legal action.

Ms Trump did not comply, so two months later, Aquazzura sued her along with Marc Fisher. In a complaint filed in June 2016 in Manhattan federal court, the company accused Trump of infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices.

“Seeking the same success Aquazzurra experienced but without having to put in the hard creative work, defendants resorted to knocking off plaintiff’s popular designs,” the complaint stated. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Darren Saunders, attorney for the defendants, said Wednesday that the two sides are in settlement talks. Lawyers for Aquazzura declined to comment.

Intellectual property spats are common in the fashion industry, [...]

There seems a bit of sleaze in design misappropriation. With intent being likely; "negligent" design knockoff being improbable.

Another recent Independent report:

The AP also found that tonnes of Ivanka Trump clothing were exported from 2013 to 2015 by a company owned by the Chinese government, according to public records and trade data. It is unclear whether the brand is still working with that company, or other state-owned entities. Her brand has pledged to avoid business with state-owned companies now that she's a White House advisor, but contends that its supply chains are not its direct responsibility.

Chasing money can be done with class, or in a shabby or overly circumspect way reflecting poorly upon the money chaser.

Almost a month old, but still relevant to the process of decently nominating and appointing people to federal judgeships.

Walter Mondale, having written an editorial for a Minnesota daily newspaper of general circulation in the state. Stating a reasoned belief that Al Franken's blocking a overly partisan nominee was simply the right and proper thing for Franken to have done. A sort of "Bravo, Al" item, but with a sagacious explanation of existant protocol and manners, beyond that.

Thursday, October 05, 2017

A settled case is going to stay settled? [UPDATED]

Litigation should settle. In settling nobody gets entirely what was desired, but sufficiency means move on to other matters. Turn the other cheek, bury the hatchet, however it might be phrased.

Image is from this reporting.

When the Trump Brand makes news, is it fake news? Real news? Something between reality and fiction, reality and ideals?

_______________UPDATE_______________
The link in the photo caption links here, where early in the item this excerpt occured:

In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald, Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.

There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the emails told us. “They knew it was wrong.”

In 2010, when the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A.’s office opened an investigation of the siblings, the Trump Organization had hired several top New York criminal defense lawyers to represent Donald, Jr. and Ivanka. These attorneys had met with prosecutors in the bureau several times. They conceded that their clients had made exaggerated claims, but argued that the overstatements didn’t amount to criminal misconduct.

No prosecution seems a bottom line of the Trump-Soho saga. Is old news good news? And, what is a material misstatement of a present fact, which differs from a statement of a future expectation or a future hope? And how does one prove any intent to deceive? All such questions are a part of prosecutorial discretion, and usually are nuanced rather than clear beyond any reasonable doubt.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
The prosecutor who declined to prosecute was Cyrus Vance, Jr. Cyrus Vance,Sr. was Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter. You can do some web searching. There are Yale and Georgetown ties. Boarding school. Clinton and Trump had a phone conversation at the initiation of Trump running for office. Ferreting out possible ties and concessions is a big ball of sticky taffy, so have a pull.

____________FURTHER UPDATE______________
The Independent published a parallel report.

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Guardian:

Here and here.

WWAWAPSS?

What Would Abigale Whelan and Peggy Scott Say? Their Republican Pennsylvania choice hating colleague "doing as he says?"

Sponsor divisive BS, vote always in lockstep with party leadership - that seems the way of the two ladies; reelected; who knows why?

And, last,
ongoing marketing of the "Trump Brand" and a target audience of shoppers - seemingly Whelan contemporaries in age and spirit? Same smile.


Shop Now, suckers. Guess who's waiting and what mischief may follow.

BONUS QUESTION: Should Donald J. Trump remind you of Rufus T. Firefly? In terms of mood and capability to make Freedonia great again?

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Hegseth. Less would be more.

Does he kneel for his FOX paycheck? He seems to bark on command. Here, here and here.

Well? He and Sarah Palin should hold a dumb-in. Like a sit-in, but aimed differently. And,

Bad joke? Fake news? Or Oh-my-God real?

Monday, October 02, 2017

Tom Price was honed in his vision to serve the most needy. His motto, "Neediness begins at home."

YouTube, this link.

How about early on the enthusiastic HHS staff crowd's enthusiasm? Off and on, the video showing the audience. Heartwarming, there's no other word for it. A lead-in intro, watch that person into future appointment mischief. Price speaks. Pence speaks. Suits especially seem in tune. Some, but not all audience suits. Watch the crowd shots, few as they are. Tepid applause? You decide.

This link. This one. Another. In terms of that first link, its headline, go back to the video, at about 7 min min into it, talk of individual coverage cost, and at 8:20 or so, mention of a "patient centered" healthcare approach as if Tom Price, not Romney and Heritiage Foundation invented it. This websearch.

More spreading, here. Finally --
Tune time.

UPDATE: History has a way of staying on the books, despite it's turns and tricks and the irony of rebranded backlash rhetoric. Pence is more a biblical scholar and story teller than an accuracy focused historian, while Price knows travel more than travail.

FURTHER: This online analysis; linked to in a NYT Krugman item. Krugman wrote:

The essence of Obamacare, as of Romneycare, is a three-legged stool of regulation and subsidies: community rating requiring insurers to make the same policies available to everyone regardless of health status; an individual mandate, requiring everyone to purchase insurance, so that healthy people don’t opt out; and subsidies to keep insurance affordable for those with lower incomes.

The original Heritage plan from 1989 had all these features.

These days, Heritage strives mightily to deny the obvious; it picks at essentially minor differences between what it used to advocate and the plan Democrats actually passed, and tries to make them seem like a big deal. But this is disinformation. The essential features of the ACA — above all, the mandate — are ideas Republicans used to support.

FURTHER: The essence of both Romney's and Obama's half-assed things is NOT taking the profiteering insurance leeches out of the equation; NOT standing tall on Big Pharma to cease gouging; NOT policing bill kiting by the HMO providing network. NOT, NOT, NOT. Zero as a real answer to the long overdue need of a nation for Single Payer Healthcare As A Right just as civilized nations back in the 20th Century started to provide their populace, as a sane and humane thing.

Sunday, October 01, 2017

More on Tina Liebling for Governor - given a timely Strib item.

Here, Strib publishing, "Legal marijuana debate will light up 2018 campaign -- A full-throated debate over full legalization in this state has seemed to be a question of when, not if. September 29, 2017 — 6:44pm," by Lori Sturdevant; stating in part:

Ever since Colorado allowed the legal sale of weed five years ago and the Minnesota Legislature said yes to medical marijuana two years later, a full-throated debate over full legalization in this state has seemed to be a question of when, not if.

An answer is emerging: 2018. Five of the six most active DFL candidates to succeed the retiring DFL Gov. Mark Dayton have said they favor legalizing marijuana for more than medical use. Only State Auditor Rebecca Otto says she’s opposed.

Per usual in a culture war skirmish, the Republicans in the race are lining up on the other side. All four of the top announced candidates say they oppose legalizing pot.

My bet: That difference won’t be campaign background noise. It’ll be an everyday talking point, with each side employing it in the belief that it can usefully distract voters from messier matters while inspiring them to go to the polls and smite the culturally clueless opposition.

I base that prediction on observations both ancient and recent. Through the years, Minnesotans have been as prone as other Americans to get revved up and choose up sides over matters like religion, race, reproduction, guns, gender roles, immigrant assimilation and, quite often, intoxicants.

[...] “A lot of people in our generation realize that the prohibition of marijuana is a failed policy,” agreed DFL gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Tina Liebling, [...]. “It’s definitely true that a lot of younger people want this changed. But support for legalization is broader than we might think.”

Liebling would know. Among the five DFL candidates for governor who want pot prohibition ended, she’s the one to have introduced a bill to that effect in the Legislature. She’s an attorney from Rochester who says she has seen in her criminal defense work the detrimental impact of the nation’s war on drugs on people’s lives.

“I’m not saying that marijuana is harmless,” Liebling said, who added that she’s not a user herself. “But there are a lot of things in life that are not harmless that we allow to be sold.” Legalization would bring a number of benefits, she said. “People could know what they are buying, where it came from and how potent it is. I believe we could also do a better job of keeping it away from kids.”

[...] Liebling cited estimates that Minnesotans are already spending a jaw-dropping $700 million a year buying pot on the black market, where there is no age limit on sales.

And where there are no taxes paid. Last year, Colorado collected $200 million in tax revenue on marijuana sales.

[links in original] And as with abortion, the Repbulicans who give lip-service to freedom and liberty, are aligned against yet another liberty of free choice. Go figure that. Words can confuse, policies are clear.

After learning more about Liebling, her early and steadfast backing of the Bernie Sanders presidential bid, and visiting her campaign website, she is who I intend voting for during caucusing DFL [while actually an independent unless/until the party renounces superdelegates and moves off the dime to the left of Republican lite]. And if there is a primary with Liebling in it, she'd have my vote there also.

Becky Otto, before Thissen announced, was an early choice, but her wrong straddle on legalization along with Thissen's entry into the contest and learning more about Liebling puts her in third place in my outlook. She'd be a fine governor, nobody can really doubt that, but so would Liebling or Thissen - indeed anyone who could fog a mirror and not be Republican would do. But the three, Liebling, Thissen, and Otto seem sound - Otto's primary appeal - to me and perhaps others - being who her enemies in the DFL are starting early in the alphabet, at "B" to late in the alphabet, "T." (hint: Home, Home on the Range)

........................

Earlier Strib April 2, 2017, reporting on Liebling's announcing her candidacy, here; Liebling's Wikipdia page, here; and Liebling's campaign website:

https://www.tinaliebling.com/

ISSUES: https://www.tinaliebling.com/issues

VOLUNTEER: https://www.tinaliebling.com/volunteer

DONATE: https://www.tinaliebling.com/donate


Tina Liebling and Husband, Dr. Mark Liebow
Presumably both favor Universal Healthcare as a right


Last; see the sidebar LIEBLING item, click the image and read - ON THE ISSUES LIEBLING RINGS A PERFECT TEN!