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What did you really expect from Trumpstein?

Occidental Dissent, “Chuck Schumer Caught On Hot Mic Discussing Budding Partnership With President Cuck”, 15 Sept 2017:

Hey, MAGApedes, I know you guys have gotten as slippery as water snakes in your defense of President Trump, but I would very much like to see y’all defend what you’re about to hear courtesy of C-SPAN and a nice steaming hot mic.

The Week:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor Thursday morning to discuss Equifax’s massive security breach; the physical limitations of a border wall; and his supposed agreement with President Trump, struck alongside his House counterpart Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to work to preserve protections for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

But before he officially took to the floor, Schumer bounded into the Senate chamber just after a speech by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and took a minute to converse with a colleague. “Sorry, just got here. Anything new?” Schumer can be heard saying on C-SPAN2’s live feed of the Senate, though he’s not seen on video. Then: “He likes us! He likes me, anyway,” Schumer says with a chuckle.

Schumer is presumably referring to himself and Pelosi, and Trump’s apparent affection for them — or one of them, anyway. He continues telling his unseen colleague that the statement he and Pelosi put out about Trump’s DACA promise was “exactly accurate.” “Here’s what I told him,” Schumer continues. “I said: ‘Mr. President, you’re much better off if you can sometimes step right and sometimes step left. If you have to step just in one direction, you’re boxed.’ He gets that.”

Let’s just be real here, Brothers, it’s pretty damned bad.

Like, it’s so bad that there really isn’t much room for maneuver whatsoever.

You can’t even make the argument that there is some sort of negotiating ploy alive here – most folks would say that we’re either seeing Trump operating on a Sub-Saharan IQ level, or we’re merely watching Jewry pulling a move honed by both time and use among peoples ranging from the Pagan Romans to the Catholic Poles.

Honestly, I see neither situation at play here – instead I see a man who because of blackmail (increasingly unlikely), through ignorance gifted by being a member of the 1% (possible), or by infection with the same egalitarian corruption that permeates both political parties (most possible) cares little about the White Man in the United States.

He would rather break bread with liberal Jews (and marry his daughter off to one), than sit with the working man whose ancestors built up this country from swamp, woods, and hostile wilderness.

But hey, if you’re just an average Trump supporter, don’t think I’m mocking you or gloating in the downfall of the President – the biggest fanbois are just in it for the money, their brand, or are trapped into a personality cult due to weird daddy issues that may never be cured.

       
Like you, I too was caught up in the frenzy during 2015 and 2016, and at points I truly hoped that Donald would at the very least buy us time by enacting policies that really aren’t too radical when you break everything down.

I went to rallies, pushed The Don on normies sitting on the fence, and literally wrote 2,000 or so articles covering the most exciting political race in living memory.

I have no regrets, and I feel no remorse, but I would like you to take a long look at what the Alt-Right is offering – we’ll actually fullfil our promises, and we’ll actually work to make America (or at least a chunk of the country) great again.

Indeed, people should take a long hard look at what the Alt-Right is offering, doing, who they are collaborating with and not follow them into the Jewish bum steers that they take without regrets, remorse - without learning. People should also avoid following the Alt-Right’s self defeating reactions thereof.

Trump gained the White house through a pledge to un-do the Iran deal and a claim that was his inspiration to run for President.

Newsweek, “Tillerson, Mattis and McMaster Present Trump With Plan to Stop Iranian Aggression”, 12 Sept 2017:

A Kurdish-Arab coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces has been battling ISIS in eastern Syria but has encountered hostile fire from Iranian-backed forces, as well as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey.

Taking Newsweek’s word for it, one would believe Iran is the aggressor and on the wrong side of this one - but is this true?

Ibid: Trump has railed against the landmark nuclear deal signed in July 2015 between the Islamic Republic and six world powers, threatening on the presidential campaign trail to rip up the agreement that lifted sanctions in return for reining in the country’s uranium enrichment program.

Trump administration cornered by Mueller in a grand jury investigation.

Trump was not able to veto new sanctions against Russian as it would have been hapless against Capitol Hill’s unanimity on the measure, but betrayed his lack of innocence anyway by attaching a note of complaint (on behalf of his Russian friends?) to go along with his signing.

It would be a similar dead-ringer of guilt, revealing divided loyalties, if Trump tried to remove Mueller from the position of special investigation into Russian influence over his campaign, even if by the proxy of appointing someone who will do the dirty work where Sessions has recused himself - but now even that weasel-out of hiring someone to replace Sessions for the position to fire Meuller is being closed off; the Trump administration is being cornered, such that all administration personnel will be subject to appear before a grand jury and forced to present any documents, financial records, even emails that might have bearing - material evidence that they probably would not disclose voluntarily. 

Politico, “Could Trump Fire Mueller? It’s Complicated”, 3 August 2017:

But the real question is what Congress would do to stop him.

It turns out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been calling ducks chickens all year long. In February, April and July, the Senate broke for 10 days or more. Each time, the Senate convened pro forma sessions. Subsequent reporting indicated that this was part of a plan hatched by the Senate GOP to prevent Trump from making any recess appointments at all. So it’s highly unlikely that Trump will be able to make a recess appointment during the upcoming break.

Does this mean Trump can’t ease out Sessions without sparking a messy confirmation process for his successor?

A Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing would inevitably rehash the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and even Republicans would be unlikely to confirm a nominee who didn’t pledge to protect Mueller’s investigation.

But Trump has other cards to play. He can appoint an acting attorney general and never get around to nominating a real one. By default, Rosenstein would take the helm. But Rosenstein is the one who hired Mueller, so if Trump’s goal is to get rid of the special counsel, he needs to pick someone else as acting attorney general.

But while a Grand Jury investigation is anything but good news for Trump and his administration, it is not news failing his incapacity to get rid of the Mueller and the investigation altogether - it is standard operating procedure for a special investigation of this kind:

Washington Post, “Why Mueller’s use of a grand jury confirms what we already knew”, 3 August 2017:

reathless tweets and breaking-news banners notwithstanding, reports that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has empaneled a grand jury in the ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign and potential Russian collusion are entirely unsurprising. This development isn’t a nothing-burger, but it doesn’t suggest anything we didn’t already know.

Grand juries are how federal prosecutors conduct their investigations. The grand jury has the subpoena power that prosecutors need to compel reluctant witnesses to testify under oath. Grand jury subpoenas are also how prosecutors gather documents such as bank records, emails and corporate papers from entities or people who might not produce them voluntarily.

If a preliminary inquiry suggests there is nothing to a case, prosecutors might never empanel a grand jury. They and the FBI might conduct voluntary interviews, examine readily available documents and determine that no more formal inquiry is warranted.

That quick-look, let’s-move-on scenario was never likely here. It’s been clear for months that the allegations are sufficiently serious to merit a full investigation. And in the world of federal prosecutors, that means using a grand jury.

In fact, prosecutors in this probe have been using a grand jury for some time. Grand jury proceedings take place in secret, so there is often not a lot of news about what is happening in the room.

But someone who receives a subpoena to testify or produce documents is not bound by those secrecy rules. They are free to disclose — to the media or to anyone else — that they received a grand jury subpoena or testified in the grand jury. It may be that someone who just received a subpoena contacted a reporter and that has resulted in the “breaking news” stories.

The reality is that any investigation serious enough to warrant the appointment of a special counsel was always likely to involve a grand jury. It was always going to drag on for months. In a case this complex, it takes a long time to investigate the various allegations, subpoena and review relevant documents, and put relevant witnesses before the grand jury. If there are grants of immunity or plea deals to be negotiated, that takes time as well.

Mueller has already hired more than a dozen prosecutors to staff his investigation. Anyone who thought this was going to be over quickly was kidding themselves. The “news” confirms what we already knew.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the existence of a grand jury investigation does not mean criminal charges will necessarily result. Especially in white-collar cases, it’s not unusual for grand jury investigations to close with no charges being filed. The grand jury is the investigative tool that prosecutors use to determine whether charges are warranted – and sometimes the answer is no.

In the past weeks, there have been a number of startling and significant developments in the Russia probe. News that the special counsel is using a grand jury is not one of them.

The New Republic, “Trump’s Russian Laundromat” July 2017:

How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House.

In 1984, a Russian émigré named David Bogatin went shopping for apartments in New York City. The 38-year-old had arrived in America seven years before, with just $3 in his pocket. But for a former pilot in the Soviet Army—his specialty had been shooting down Americans over North Vietnam—he had clearly done quite well for himself. Bogatin wasn’t hunting for a place in Brighton Beach, the Brooklyn enclave known as “Little Odessa” for its large population of immigrants from the Soviet Union. Instead, he was fixated on the glitziest apartment building on Fifth Avenue, a gaudy, 58-story edifice with gold-plated fixtures and a pink-marble atrium: Trump Tower.

A monument to celebrity and conspicuous consumption, the tower was home to the likes of Johnny Carson, Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren. Its brash, 38-year-old developer was something of a tabloid celebrity himself. Donald Trump was just coming into his own as a serious player in Manhattan real estate, and Trump Tower was the crown jewel of his growing empire. From the day it opened, the building was a hit—all but a few dozen of its 263 units had sold in the first few months. But Bogatin wasn’t deterred by the limited availability or the sky-high prices. The Russian plunked down $6 million to buy not one or two, but five luxury condos. The big check apparently caught the attention of the owner. According to Wayne Barrett, who investigated the deal for the Village Voice, Trump personally attended the closing, along with Bogatin.

If the transaction seemed suspicious—multiple apartments for a single buyer who appeared to have no legitimate way to put his hands on that much money—there may have been a reason. At the time, Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end real estate, which offered an ideal vehicle to launder money from their criminal enterprises. “During the ’80s and ’90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos and high-rises to launder money,” says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration. “It didn’t matter that you paid too much, because the real estate values would rise, and it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money. It was done very systematically, and it explained why there are so many high-rises where the units were sold but no one is living in them.” When Trump Tower was built, as David Cay Johnston reports in The Making of Donald Trump, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.

Semion Mogilevich.

In 1987, just three years after he attended the closing with Trump, Bogatin pleaded guilty to taking part in a massive gasoline-bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. After he fled the country, the government seized his five condos at Trump Tower, saying that he had purchased them to “launder money, to shelter and hide assets.” A Senate investigation into organized crime later revealed that Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York. His family ties, in fact, led straight to the top: His brother ran a $150 million stock scam with none other than Semion Mogilevich, whom the FBI considers the “boss of bosses” of the Russian mafia. At the time, Mogilevich—feared even by his fellow gangsters as “the most powerful mobster in the world”—was expanding his multibillion-dollar international criminal syndicate into America.

In 1987, on his first trip to Russia, Trump visited the Winter Palace with Ivana. The Soviets flew him to Moscow—all expenses paid—to discuss building a luxury hotel across from the Kremlin. Maxim Blokhin/TASS

Full article at New Republic

        Rubrics:

- Trump made his first trip to Russia in 1987, only a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

- Throughout the 1990s, untold millions from the former Soviet Union flowed into Trump’s luxury developments and Atlantic City casinos.

- Trump Taj Mahal paid the largest fine ever levied against a casino for having “willfully violated” anti-money-laundering rules.

- The influx of Russian money did more than save Trump’s business from ruin—it set the stage for the next phase of his career. By 2004, to the outside world, it appeared that Trump was back on top after his failures in Atlantic City. That January, flush with the appearance of success, Trump launched his newly burnished brand…

- Russians spent at least $98 million on Trump’s properties in Florida—and another third of the units were bought by shadowy shell companies.

- In 2013, police burst into Unit 63A of Trump Tower and rounded up 29 suspects in a $100 million money-laundering scheme.

- In April 2013, a little more than two years before Trump rode the escalator to the ground floor of Trump Tower to kick off his presidential campaign, police burst into Unit 63A of the high-rise and rounded up 29 suspects in two gambling rings.

        Concluding paragraphs:

Semion Mogilevich, the Russian mob’s “boss of bosses,” also declined to respond to questions from the New Republic. “My ideas are not important to anybody,” Mogilevich said in a statement provided by his attorney. “Whatever I know, I am a private person.” Mogilevich, the attorney added, “has nothing to do with President Trump. He doesn’t believe that anybody associated with him lives in Trump Tower. He has no ties to America or American citizens.”

Back in 1999, the year before Trump staged his first run for president, Mogilevich gave a rare interview to the BBC. Living up to his reputation for cleverness, the mafia boss mostly joked and double-spoke his way around his criminal activities. (Q: “Why did you set up companies in the Channel Islands?” A: “The problem was that I didn’t know any other islands. When they taught us geography at school, I was sick that day.”) But when the exasperated interviewer asked, “Do you believe there is any Russian organized crime?” the “brainy don” turned half-serious.

“How can you say that there is a Russian mafia in America?” he demanded. “The word mafia, as far as I understand the word, means a criminal group that is connected with the political organs, the police and the administration. I don’t know of a single Russian in the U.S. Senate, a single Russian in the U.S. Congress, a single Russian in the U.S. government. Where are the connections with the Russians? How can there be a Russian mafia in America? Where are their connections?”

Two decades later, we finally have an answer to Mogilevich’s question.

READ MORE...

Trump would try to stop election hacking by working with the man who has turned election hacking into an art form

Vox, 9 July 2017:  No, really.

“Trump wants to work with Putin to fight election hacking.”

President Donald Trump began his high-profile Europe trip by publicly questioning the US intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He used a one-one-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to make clear Moscow wouldn’t be punished for the hack.

Then, on Sunday, Trump capped his time at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, with an announcement that he and Putin had agreed to create “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things” will be prevented.

Trump, if he sticks with the plan, will be trying to stop election hacking by working with the man who has turned election hacking into an art form.

The announcement stunned lawmakers from both parties, with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham describing it as “pretty close” to the “dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” Graham also blasted Trump for his continued refusal to acknowledge the Russian hacking campaign.

“He is literally the only person I know of who doesn’t believe Russia attacked our election in 2016,” Graham said on NBC News’s Meet the Press.

With criticism pouring in, Trump tried to slightly distance himself from the idea late Sunday night, with a tweet that said the “fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t-but a ceasefire can, and did!”

Trump’s quasi-denial aside, there was something genuinely startling about his first announcement. Trump left for the G20 summit with his presidency engulfed in an array of Russia-related scandals, including a criminal investigation into whether his campaign knowingly colluded with Kremlin hackers.

That meant there was one major question hanging over Trump as he prepared for his face-to-face meeting with Putin: whether he would hold the Russian leader accountable for directing what US spies describe as a systematic hacking campaign designed to hurt Hillary Clinton and help him win the White House.

On Sunday, Trump appeared to answer that question with a resounding “no.”

The summit was a win for Putin and a loss for everyone else.

READ MORE...

Symbolically enough, assumes Enoch Powell’s Wolverhampton seat.

Diversity Macht Frei, “Blacks celebrate white genocide: Negress elected to Enoch Powell’s old seat.”

10 June 2017:

LONGSTANDING LABOUR activist Eleanor Smith has made history by becoming the West Midlands’ first African Caribbean MP – but she’s also won a seat which is of enormous historic importance to the black community.

The swing seat of Wolverhampton South West was once the constituency of controversial Tory MP Enoch Powell, the politician behind the notorious Rivers of Blood speech which he gave 49 years ago warning of the consequences of unchecked immigration.

Smith, a hospital theatre nurse, who became the first-ever black woman president of Unison in 2011/2012 took the marginal seat by storm, scooping 49 per cent of the vote and beating Tory hopeful Paul Uppal by more than 2,000 votes.

In victory, after just two hours’ sleep, she was quick to pay tribute to the local people who voted for her, saying: “Our team was built from the community and the trade union movement – Unison – helped me greatly. The trade union movement put me where I am today, along with the community who came out and helped me win this seat.

“Through The Voice I’d like to personally thank everyone who voted for me in what turned out to be the highest ever turnout of 71 percent. We did it together as a community from the grassroots upwards and I certainly won’t let you down.

“We have a wonderfully diverse community here in Wolverhampton, which is a microcosm of the UK and rich in so many different faith groups.

“As a health professional, I am standing up to defend the NHS. From my own experience of being a nurse on the the front line – I was working until only recently doing 12-hour shifts – we can see what’s happening and we don’t like it. I have got to defend this.”

Her other pledge is to move from her home in Northfield, Birmingham, near to where she worked at Birmingham’s Women’s Hospital, to live in the constituency she will serve.

She told The Voice: “You cannot support your constituency if you don’t know what is going on there. I intend to have my finger on the pulse in my own patch.”

Smith also pledged to tackle homelessness in Wolverhampton and youth unemployment which currently stands at 27%.

On the issue of taking over Enoch Powell’s old seat, she told The Voice: “I feel it closes that chapter now for good.”

         

Source

Powell’s full “Rivers of Blood” speech, not read by Powell himself, however.

                   

Backed by “Indian givers”, playing both sides and shifting the focus..

One take on the British election results -

UKIP / the banker class…

“Gave you Brexit” then dissolved themselves into Labour to take away Theresa May’s power to do anything about it..

..the objectivists told you that their invisible hand would work with you, naturally, to take care of Merkel’s migration assault on native Europeans… then their invisible hand played the other side of populism to leverage withdrawal of motions to exit from the common EU economic market - and with it, to withdraw an effective Brexit - by having voters distracted with a focus on Labour as the “savior of social services”...as if Theresa May was going to take that away.

..it seems that similar as with Trump and the Republicans in the US, that elite cadres are infusing whichever moribund party with angles of populist narratives that they can play in order to manipulate the electorate.