Russian intelligence revealed it has Trump 'over a barrel'

In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr arrives for a closed hearing of the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON — A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump “over a barrel,” according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.

The lawyer, Bruce Ohr, also says he learned that a Trump campaign aide had met with higher-level Russian officials than the aide had acknowledged, the people said.
 
The previously unreported details of the July 30, 2016, breakfast with Christopher Steele, which Ohr described to lawmakers this week in a private interview, reveal an exchange of potentially explosive information about Trump between two men the president has relentlessly sought to discredit.
They add to the public understanding of those pivotal summer months as the FBI and intelligence community scrambled to untangle possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. And they reflect the concern of Steele, a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier, that the Republican presidential candidate was possibly compromised and his urgent efforts to convey that anxiety to contacts at the FBI and Justice Department.

The people who discussed Ohr’s interview were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the closed session and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Among the things Ohr said he learned from Steele during the breakfast was that an unnamed former Russian intelligence official had said that Russian intelligence believed “they had Trump over a barrel,” according to people familiar with the meeting. It was not clear from Ohr’s interview whether Steele had been directly told that or had picked that up through his contacts, but the broader sentiment is echoed in Steele’s research dossier.

Steele and Ohr, at the time of the election a senior official in the deputy attorney general’s office, had first met a decade earlier and bonded over a shared interest in international organized crime. They met several times during the presidential campaign, a relationship that exposed both men and federal law enforcement more generally to partisan criticism, including from Trump.
Republicans contend the FBI relied excessively on the dossier during its investigation and to obtain a secret wiretap application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

That breakfast took place amid ongoing FBI concerns about Russian election interference and possible communication with Trump associates. By that point, Russian hackers had penetrated Democratic email accounts, including that of the Clinton campaign chairman, and Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign associate, was said to have revealed that Russians had “dirt” on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of emails, according to court papers. That revelation prompted the FBI to open the counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016, one day after the breakfast but based on entirely different information.

Ohr told lawmakers he could not vouch for the accuracy of Steele’s information but has said he considered him a reliable FBI informant who delivered credible and actionable intelligence, including his investigation into corruption at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
In the interview, Ohr acknowledged that he had not told superiors in his office, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, about his meetings with Steele because he considered the information inflammatory raw source material. He also provided new details about the department’s move to reassign him once his Steele ties were brought to light.

Ohr said he met in late December 2017 with two senior Justice Department officials, Scott Schools and James Crowell, who told him they were unhappy he had not proactively disclosed his meetings with Steele. They said he was being stripped of his associate deputy attorney post as part of a planned internal reorganization, people familiar with Ohr’s account say.

He met again soon after with one of the officials, who told him Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not believe he could continue in his current position as director of a drug grant-distribution program — known as the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force because he had overstepped his job description and chain of command by meeting with Steele, including after his termination as a FBI source, and then relaying information to the FBI.

Trump this month proposed stripping Ohr, who until this year had been largely anonymous during his decades-long Justice Department career, of his security clearance and has asked “how the hell” he remains employed.
Trump has called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” and has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.
Trump and some of his supporters in Congress have also accused the FBI of launching the entire Russia counterintelligence investigation based on the dossier. But memos authored by Republicans and Democrats and declassified this year show the probe was triggered by information the U.S. government received earlier about the Russian contacts of then-Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.

The FBI’s investigation was already under way by the time it received Steele’s dossier, and Ohr was not the original source of information from it.

We would all love to know what kind of information puts Trump over a barrel. What is Putin holding over his head that makes Trump dance to his tune. Whatever it is, it is more explosive and damning than pee pee tapes.

Trump’s ongoing scandals mask a radical agenda that hurts everyday people

 The Trump administration rolled back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's efforts to slow global warming, the Clean Power Plan that restricts greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
ByJesse Jackson
 Trump’s serial scandals — Stormy Daniels, the Russia investigation, the Paul Manafort verdict, the Cohen guilty plea, the juvenile tweets — fill the headlines. Beneath the noise, however, Trump’s appointees and the Republican Congress are relentlessly pursuing a radical right-wing agenda that is gutting basic protections for workers, consumers and the environment.

This is often characterized as Trump’s fixation on erasing everything Obama, but it goes far beyond that.

Trump’s administration and Congress are not only rolling back President Obama’s policies, but weakening the advances of the Great Society, the Civil Rights Movement, and even pillars of the New Deal. Consider:

Eviscerating the Voting Rights Act
The Department of Justice has essentially abandoned enforcement of voting rights.  The signal was sent when DOJ lawyers withdrew from the Texas voter-ID case in which the Obama Justice Department was co-counsel, arguing that the Texas act was intentionally designed to discriminate against people of color. Combined with the Supreme Court’s right-wing gang of five weakening the act in Shelby County v. Holder, there is now a virtual vacuum of voting rights enforcement.

Savaging enforcement of civil rights
While Attorney General Jeff Sessions has dramatically weakened enforcement of basic civil rights in the Justice Department, the same is true across the government.  The Labor Department disbanded its civil rights division. The Department of Education gutted the budget of its Office of Civil Rights. The Environmental Protection Agency targeted the Environmental Justice program for elimination.

For immigrants, basic civil rights have been trampled — from the travel-ban orders affecting predominantly Muslim countries, upending the DACA program for the young people who were born here and know no other country, to the grotesque policy that separated children from their parents at the border.

Under Sessions, the Justice Department has also essentially abandoned what was a bipartisan effort to bring about criminal justice reform, with Sessions ordering a review of the consent decrees that were addressing systematic racial discrimination and police brutality.

Climate change denial
Trump famously has announced he will pull the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, while his appointees have sought to scrub any mention of climate change from government websites. EPA Director Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, replaced the Obama administration Clean Power Plan that limited the release of greenhouse gases from power plants.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has abandoned efforts to end the 30-year ripoff of government by fossil fuel companies mining public lands.  At a time when even the Pentagon recognizes climate change as real and present threat to national security, the Trump administration remains in denial.

Undermining public education
Under Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education has become the vessel of for-profit plunder. Her budgets seek to use public funds for private school vouchers.  Stunningly, the DOE is pushing plans to make it harder for students to repay their college debts, ending or weakening various plans to limit the burden.

Now DeVos is jettisoning rules that require for-profit colleges to provide an education that actually prepares graduates for decent jobs, opening the door for rip-offs like Trump’s own notorious university.

Savaging worker rights
In one of his first votes, Trump’s Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch provided the determining vote in the Janus decision that weakened the ability of public employees to organize and bargain collectively.

Trump’s Labor Department repealed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplace Rule that required companies with federal contracts to disclose and correct labor and safety violations. It also announced it would not defend Obama’s order that increased the number of employees eligible for overtime pay, effectively depriving tens of thousands of workers of a raise.

Tax cuts for the rich, cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for the rest
Trump’s one main legislative victory — the Republican tax cut — lavishes its benefits on the rich and the corporations. Trump and Republicans are using the deficits they created to push for deep cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and — watch for it if they survive the November election — Social Security.

Trump’s budgets call for deep cuts in virtually every program for the vulnerable, including food stamps, affordable housing and more.

We can’t allow ourselves to be distracted by the circus which is the Trump presidency. Under the chaos, Trump’s appointees and the Republican Congress are pursuing a radical and very destructive agenda. These measures are incredibly unpopular, or would be if Americans knew about them.

They are done by executive order, by administrative rulings, by judicial decisions, by budget cuts. Their effect is masked by the good economy. But they are incredibly destructive, systematically making America more unequal, undermining equal justice under law and elevating corporate rights over worker rights.

They must be exposed and stopped. The elections this fall will be the first chance to curb this misrule.

Use of the ‘n-word’ is far from the only measure of racism

Former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman has accused President Donald Trump of using the "N-word," but Jesse Jackson writes that the use of that word is not the only measure of racism. | AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
ByJesse Jackson
 Last week, amid the continuing clamor of Trump’s chaos presidency, the question of whether Trump had used the n-word became a media sensation.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the president’s former aide, claims there is a tape of him using the vile racial slur. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she “can’t guarantee” that a tape doesn’t exist. Trump tweeted, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary.” The press pursued the question as if this would establish for one and for all whether Trump is a racist.

Say what? Using the n-word has become unacceptable in civilized society, but its use is hardly the measure of racism.

In a brilliant article in The New York Times, Steven W. Thrasher puts this diversion to rest by arraying the many ways Trump has consistently and openly displayed his racial bias. His list included calling majority black nations “s—hole countries,” slandering immigrants as more likely to commit crimes, slurring Mexicans as rapists, and claiming that the white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., included “some very fine people.”

Thrasher also details Trump’s penchant for insulting the intelligence of African-Americans — calling CNN host Don Lemon and basketball star LeBron James dumb, calling U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters a “low IQ person,” denigrating Manigault Newman as a “dog.”

We can’t allow Trump to dumb down racism, limiting the standard to whether one utters the n-word or not. There is more than enough repeated evidence of Trump’s bias that whether he used the word or not won’t change the self-evident conclusion.

Worse, Trump’s bias is now implanted in the White House. On the stump, he quite purposefully stokes up his audiences with racial slurs, providing powerful permission for his followers to echo his hatreds.

And throughout his administration, racial bias is expressed in the systematic rollback of programs to enforce equal rights and justice under the law.

Trump has encouraged the police to get “rough” with suspects, and his Justice Department has essentially gutted Obama’s initiative to redress systemic bias in America’s urban police forces. His judicial appointees are slowly rolling back affirmative action, furthering the perverse argument that affirmative efforts to overcome racial bias are somehow a violation of the Constitution.

From the Department of Education to the Labor Department and the Environmental Protection Agency and across the government, civil rights divisions have been weakened, their authority and budgets cut. Conservative justices gutted the Voting Rights Act, and now Trump’s Justice Department has weakened efforts to block voting reforms that discriminate against African-Americans, Latinos and the poor.

Republicans who increasingly are becoming the party of Trumpery overwhelmingly express approval of Trump’s “handling” of race. Weakening enforcement of civil rights is immoral. It is also pernicious. When the rights of African-Americans are weakened, the rights of Latinos, of women, of the young and the disabled are also undermined.

Just as the movement for civil rights led to dramatic advances for women, for the young, for the disabled, the abandonment of civil rights enforcement will be widely felt.

This puts a particular burden on Democrats and so-called independent voters. Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party is a ship made of diverse planks. If blacks are abandoned, the ship will sink. If women are discouraged, the ship will sink. If Latinos are stripped off, the ship will sink. If women, people of color and the young are weakened, working people are weakened. We float or sink together.

Democrats have no choice but to stand strong against the rollback of civil rights and the stoking of racial fears that have become the signature of Trump’s presidency.

Some argue that Trump’s racism is longstanding, evident early in his career as a developer. Others suggest that the racial bias is instrumental, reflecting his political judgment that he prospers by dividing the country. The motivation doesn’t matter.

What matters is how we respond. My own firm belief is that Trump is wrong. Americans are better than he assumes. We have overcome slavery and segregation and are building a diverse society that is our strength. We care about equal justice and equal rights. We don’t want to be torn apart by those who hate or to be driven by our fears rather than our hopes. Whether he used the n-word or not, Trump is spreading poison.

The only question now is whether citizens of conscience will come together to counter it.

You can't stop his tweets

 



Future of Democratic Party lies in moving to the moral center

By Jesse Jackson                August 13, 2018
A new generation of Democrats, such as New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is challenging the party's establishment, writes Jesse Jackson, and the party's goal should be to embrace the "moral center." | AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

The media is now reporting on the debate among Democrats and activists about what the party should stand for, and how it will win elections.

Establishment Democrats are said fear that the populist reform energy represented by Bernie Sanders and rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who upset Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, in a New York City primary) will turn off the moderate, upscale, white suburban Republicans who they believe are appalled by Trump and the key to taking back the Congress.

A Wall-Street-funded group known as the Third Way — which might better be known as the Wrong Way since it has been wrong about every major issue facing the country over the last years, championing disastrous corporate trade deals, deregulation of Wall Street and the Iraq War among other calamities — even convened a small gathering, “cohosted” by a billionaire real estate developer to map out how to counter what the media describes as the left.

The very terms of this debate are misleading. Ideas that have broad public support, such as tuition-free college, are labeled “left.” Ideas that offend philosophical conservatives, such as subsidies to big oil companies, are tagged as on the right, championed by Republicans.

We’d be wiser to focus on common sense and basic principles. When Dr. Martin Luther King spoke forcefully against what he called the “triple evils” of “racism, economic exploitation and militarism,” he was criticized for weakening the cause of civil rights, for getting out of his lane by talking about economic inequality and against the Vietnam War.

He responded, “I’m against segregation at lunch counters, and I’m not going to segregate my moral concerns.” Cowardice, he taught us, asks the question “Is it safe?” Expediency asks, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks, “Is it popular?” Conscience asks, “Is it right?”

We are a nation faced with great perils. Inequality has reached new extremes and, even with the economy near full employment, working people still struggle simply to stay afloat. Big money corrupts our politics and distorts our government. We are mired in wars without end — 17 years in Afghanistan and counting — and without victory or sense. We have a president who believes he profits politically by spreading racial division, appealing to our fears rather than our hopes.

This is the time for citizens and for true leaders to move not left or right, to the expedient or the cautious, but to the moral center. Affordable health care for all isn’t left or right, it is the moral center. Jobs that pay a living wage, affordable housing, public education, college without debt, clean water and air, action to address catastrophic climate change that literally may endanger the world — these are not ideas of the right or left. They are the moral center.

Holding to the moral center has its own power. Opposition to slavery started as a minority position, but its moral force was undeniable. Integration seemed impossible in the segregated South, but its moral force could not be denied. In this time of troubles, I believe that Americans in large numbers are looking for leaders who will embrace the moral center, not the expedient, the safe or the fashionable. They are looking for champions who will represent them, not those with deep pockets.

That may be the final irony. The most successful political strategy may well be not to trim to prevailing opinion or compromise with entrenched interest but to stand up forcefully for what is right.

Aretha Franklin's death reportedly 'imminent': She's 'been ill for a long time'

GIBSON JOHNS, AOL.COM          Aug 13th 2018 
Aretha Franklin's death is reportedly "imminent," sources say following reports that the legendary singer is "gravely ill."

People reported on Monday that Franklin, 76, "has been ill for a long time," but "she did not want people to know and she didn't make it public."

The report echoes the claims made to TMZ by a source close to the singer, who said that Franklin "could go at any time," noting that she was down to 85 pounds.

Roger Friedman of Showbizz 411 was the first to report on Monday that the soul singer was nearing the end, noting that her "family is asking for prayers and privacy" as she suffers from cancer in a Detroit hospital. Friedman noted that Franklin was reportedly first diagnosed with cancer back in 2010. She gave her final public performance in August of 2017 at Philadelphia's Mann Center months before performing at an event for Elton John's AIDS Foundation in November, at which Franklin garnered concern with her noticeably gaunt appearance.

"Aretha is surrounded by family and people close to her," Friedman reported. "She will be so missed as a mother, sister, friend, cousin. But her legacy is larger than life. It’s not just that Rolling Stone called her the number 1 singer of all time, or that she is the Queen of Soul. Long live the Queen."

Per People, Detroit news anchor Evrod Cassimy -- and "good friend" of Franklin -- claimed to have spoken directly to the singer and noted that she was "resting and surrounded by close friends and family."
Evrod Cassimy
@EvrodCassimy
 BREAKING NEWS: I am so saddened to report that the Queen of Soul and my good friend, Aretha Franklin is gravely ill. I spoke with her family members this morning. She is asking for your prayers at this time. I’ll have more details as I’m allowed to release.
Evrod Cassimy
@EvrodCassimy
 Just got a chance to speak to Aretha Franklin. She is resting and surrounded by close friends and family. More details ahead on Local 4 News at 12pm. #ArethaFranklin #aretha

Confirmation that Franklin is "gravely ill" came months after the singer cancelled a slew of shows in the spring following doctor's orders that she rest for "at least the next two months." Rumors that Franklin had been diagnosed with cancer had persisted for years, but she had never publicly confirmed that she was suffering.


Aretha Franklin had previously announced that her next album, "A Brand New Album," is scheduled to be released in November.

Lady  of Soul  you have our prayers  , we pray for the family to have strength to be with their love one in her crossing over  and hope it is peaceful /

Shadow   &   Witchy

Fall of an American Icon

 

Great example of, "Some people are not what they appear to be", and, "Living a lie".

Donald Trump Jr. is already under the bus --- and Trump senior just keeps driving

Sumner        Daily Kos Staff
Over the weekend Donald Trump fired off a tweet that admits he’s been lying to the public for months and shaves his “no collusion” argument down to a fingernail. But while Trump is unlikely to face the consequences of this admission, except as one of many contributions to proof that he has obstructed the investigation, this brief statement aims a big legal bus squarely at Donald Trump Jr.
Donald J. Trump

           ✔

@realDonaldTrumpMark 
 Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

The story of the meeting between Trump’s senior campaign staff and Russian operatives, a meeting both organized and attended by Trump Jr., was first made public by the New York Times on June 8, 2017. On that date, the Times asked Trump Jr. for his comments on the meeting, and he replied with a statement that during the meeting Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” The Washington Post reported on July 31, 2017, that Donald Trump actually dictated this statement while flying back from Germany on Air Force One.

Trump Jr. dutifully repeated the statement his father had provided—though they both knew it wasn’t true at the time. And if that was the end of it, Trump Jr. would be in the same position as Trump: knowingly and publicly disseminating a false story intended to halt or divert the investigation into connections between the campaign and the Russian government.

But for Trump Jr., that was not the end. He has repeated the statement in multiple forums. In particular, there was this statement:

Donald Trump Jr.: The meeting was instead primarily focused on Russian adoptions, which is exactly what I said over a year later in my statement of July 8, 2017.

That’s just one part of testimony that Trump Jr. made before the US Senate on September 7, 2017. And lying in that setting is a good deal more serious.

In his Sunday tweet, what Donald Trump is calling “fake news” is multiple stories that he was sulking around whatever golf course he happened to be inhabiting at the moment, worrying that special counsel Robert Mueller has targeted his son, Donald Trump Jr. But in attempting to call that story “fake news,” Trump admitted that the story he had been peddling for months—the assertion that the meeting arranged by Trump Jr. between Russian operatives at senior members of Trump’s campaign staff was about “adoption” rather than seeking Russian help in attacking Hillary Clinton—was an out-and-out lie.

In his Senate testimony, Donald Trump Jr. gave detailed responses on how the meeting was established, who he talked to in setting it up, and the structure of that meeting. From the beginning, it’s been clear that the purpose of the meeting was to attempt to get help from the Russian government against Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr.’s primary defense in this testimony is the phrase “not that I recall” which was frequently deployed.  

But Trump Jr. is definite on some things:

Question: Did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting?

Trump jr: I did not.

Trump Jr. also denied there being a pre-meeting meeting with others in the campaign before the get together. However, on June 27, 2018, CNN reported that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was willing to testify that Trump did know about the meeting. Not only that, but there was another section of Trump Jr.’s testimony.

Question: Prior to the meeting on June 9, 2016, who did you tell about the meeting or Mr. Goldstone’s underlying offer to pass along information from Russia?

Trump Jr.: I believe only Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, I made them aware of it.

Question: Was there anyone else?

Trump Jr.: No, not to my recollection.

But the testimony that Cohen is supposedly prepared to give would include an “organizing meeting” that was attended by a larger Trump team. In multiple appearances, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani provided a handy list of those present: Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen and one other person. Giuliani reappeared on television later the same day to deny the meeting had ever occurred, despite having provided this rather detailed list.

The list of names shows that there are at least two reasons why Trump should suddenly be grumbling about Trump Jr.’s upcoming time in handcuffs. Not only is Michael Cohen willing to testify that he lied to the Senate and mislead investigators, Rick Gates was also at that meeting. Gates agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation months ago, and so has likely already provided information on this meeting—including any information that may have been relayed about Donald Trump’s knowledge of the upcoming event.

Trump is worrying about what will happen with Donald Trump Jr., because he has a very, very good reason to be worried. Trump Jr. has recorded testimony that is likely to be at odds with that provided by multiple witnesses. And that’s just on the events before and during the meeting. It doesn’t even touch on the “nothing came of it” lies about actions following the meeting.

It seems increasingly likely that the first test of whether Donald Trump can pardon someone whose testimony might be directly relevant to his own potential impeachment, could come in the case of his own son.
**************************************

Witchy sez :
Very heartwarming to see that the smart son in law Kushner is being carefully protected from this mess so far. Of course, he’s so very useful, while Jr. probably was born knowing he was supposed to be a tool for his father. And what a tool he has turned out to be!

Don Jr. will soon find out that his own father can’t help but sell him out to save his own butt.  He’s got to be crapping his pants knowing that his father will do it.  Then President Spanky will pardon him and act like he was a super hero for doing it.  How hard is this story to tell?

Attack on LeBron shows Trump wants to use fear, divisiveness to win elections

By Jesse Jackson                     August 7, 2018
The run-up to the 2018 congressional elections has begun. With 40 Republican representatives deciding not to run again, the party’s majority in the House is at risk. President Donald Trump has announced he plans to stump for Republicans across the country, seeking to make the election a referendum on him. Characteristically, a centerpiece of his approach is to use race as a weapon to divide and distract us.

Once more, he’s gone after NFL players — largely African Americans — for their dignified, nonviolent protests against black lives lost to police violence. The president has portrayed them as unpatriotic and ungrateful. He’ll escalate those insults this fall.

Once more, he’s slurred immigrants as violent, using the MS-13 gang to rouse fears. He says he will close down the government this fall if he doesn’t get full funding for his wall, raising the heat on an issue used to divide us.

Days after LeBron James opened his I Promise school in Akron, Ohio, where his foundation is providing everything from school lunches to guaranteed tuitions for those who go to college, Trump questioned James’ intelligence and that of his CNN interviewer, Don Lemon (also an African American): “LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.” Trump’s also libeled Rep. Maxine Waters as a “very low IQ individual.”

This isn’t accidental or coincidental; it is intentional and instrumental. Trump has a long, ugly history of preying on racial fears for his own political benefit. He rose to national attention by trafficking the lie about Obama’s birth, arguing that he was an illegitimate president, born in Kenya. He launched his presidential campaign with a blast at Mexican immigrants as murderers and “rapists.” He reveled in assailing the gold star Muslim parents of a U.S. Army officer who died serving his country in the Iraq War.

During the Republican presidential primary campaign, Trump for a time declined to disavow the support of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan, saying that he hadn’t done “research” on the group. (He later disavowed Duke and the Klan as a result of public outcry.)

As president, Trump scorned immigrants from what he called “s—hole countries” — Haiti, El Salvador and countries in Africa — while saying the U.S. needed more immigrants from countries like Norway.

Trump claims he is the “least racist person that you have ever met.” His record suggests otherwise. The Justice Department sued the Trump organization — including Trump’s father, Fred, the company chair and founder, and Trump himself, who was then serving as president — for systematic discrimination in refusing to rent to African-Americans. After a protracted legal battle, the Trumps agreed to a consent decree that required them to take concrete steps to end discrimination, including providing the New York Urban League with weekly listings of vacancies, allowing them to supply qualified applicants.

Later Trump gained notoriety for taking out full-page ads championing the death penalty for the Central Park Five, five young American Americans accused of raping and murdering a jogger in Manhattan’s Central Park. They were convicted in a wave of hysteria only to be released after years in prison when DNA evidence proved they were innocent of the crime. There is no indication that Trump ever apologized.

But the question really isn’t whether Trump is a racist or not. What is undeniable is that he purposefully plays on racial fears for his own political purposes, seeking to rouse “his base” and divide and distract working people.

Trump clearly enjoys scorning convention and violating norms. During the campaign, he boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still keep the support of his voters.

But we ought not adjust or accommodate to a president using his White House pulpit to spread fear, fan hatred and divide us.

LeBron James understands how destructive this behavior can be, noting about Trump:
“He doesn’t understand the power that he has for being the leader of this beautiful country. He doesn’t understand how many kids, no matter the race, look up to the president of the United States for guidance, for leadership, for words of encouragement …. ”

Later, James reflected:
“When I was growing up, there (were) like three jobs that you looked for inspiration. … It was the president of the United States, it was whoever was best in sports and it was the greatest musician at the time. You never thought you could be them, but you can grab inspiration from them. …

“And this time, right now, with the president of the United States, it’s at a bad time. While we cannot change what comes out of that man’s mouth, we can continue to alert the people that watch us, that listen to us, (that) this is not the way.”

Trump will make this election a test of what kind of country we are and what kind of country we want to live in. He believes that by spreading division and fears he will gain politically. We have to demonstrate that we are a better people than that. The provocations, the outrages, the slanders will continue. The only question is how we will respond to them.


As teams gear up for the NFL season, President Trump is reviving his destructive and diversionary attacks aimed at turning fans against players. The league office stepped in it by unilaterally declaring that players who do not want to stand during the national anthem should stay in the locker room. The NFL players association had little choice but to force negotiations over that insult. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, is a decent guy. But he stuck his foot in it, too, recently announcing that the Cowboys had to stand for the anthem and couldn’t stay in the locker room – or else. The league wisely told him to zip it while the policy was under negotiation. So it goes. So much of this is a false narrative. Fake news. Trump dishonestly insists that the players are disrespecting the flag. In fact, the players kneeling during the anthem were expressing a silent protest not against the flag, but against police brutality and the reality of structural racial inequality. Kneeling before the flag in silent, nonviolent protest is not disrespectful to the Stars and Stripes. Just the opposite. It is a sign of deference and respect, a call to honor what the flag is truly supposed to represent. Burning the flag is constitutionally protected but is a desecration. Burning a cross is a desecration. It is violent. Kneeling before the cross, or during the anthem, on the other hand, isn’t a desecration; it is a call for help. Colin Kaepernick was and is concerned about blacks being beaten and killed by police. He kneeled during the anthem to highlight how the values of the flag were being ignored on the streets. He wasn’t disrespecting the flag; he was protesting those who trample its values. He was being a patriot.   Now Trump wants to light the dynamite again. His politics prey and thrive on division. He hopes to divide us one against the other while his administration rolls back protections of consumers, workers and the environment, allows corporate lobbyists to rig the rules, and lards more and more tax cuts and subsidies on entrenched interests and the wealthy. So, he purposefully peddles the false narrative that the players are disrespecting the flag. Jones, who is a Trump supporter, isn’t a bad man. Beyond the playing field, beyond contracts, he has been a decent guy. He paid for the funeral of Cowboy great Bob Hayes. But Jones has allowed himself to be turned into Trump’s pawn in this diversion. The reality is that we would not have the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas were it not for those protesting for their rights. The victory of the Civil Rights Movement opened the way to a New South. The nonviolent protests and resistance pulled down the old barriers and walls in the South, clearing the way for the Cowboys and the Spurs and the Rockets of the New South, where blacks and whites could play on the same team and wear the same colors, where fans root for the colors of their team, not the color of the players’ skin. Successful protests – at the cost of far too many lives – finally ended slavery and apartheid in this society. We should be honoring the protesters, not distorting their message. Kaepernick was right to protest what is going on in our streets. He has paid a heavy penalty for expressing his views in a nonviolent and dignified fashion. One of the best quarterbacks in the league, he has effectively been banned, a blatant conspiracy that ought to constitute a clear violation of anti-trust laws. Kaepernick stands among giants. Curt Flood in baseball and Muhammad Ali during the prime years of his boxing life were also banned, but in the process, they changed sports and the country for the better. There have always been politicians who profit by appealing to our fears. There have always been politicians who seek to divide us for political gain. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go to fulfill the flag’s values of liberty and justice for all. The players expressing their views in nonviolent and dignified fashion aren’t disgracing the flag, they are expressing its values. Let us turn against those who would divide us and join together to make America better.

Trump Admits Russian Trump Tower Meeting Was About Getting Dirt on Hillary

 

Does this mean he lied about it before??? Presidents don't lie....do they???

U.S. President Donald Trump is renewing his attacks on two of his favorite targets: the special counsel Russia probe and the news media.
Trump, who is on a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, began Sunday with a series of searing tweets.
He defended calling the media “The Enemy of the People,” and said journalists “purposely cause great division & distrust” and can “cause War!”

         

 
TRUMP TWEET:       

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

8:35 AM - Aug 5, 2018

 

 

TRUMP TWEET:

Why aren’t Mueller and the 17 Angry Democrats looking at the meetings concerning the Fake Dossier and all of the lying that went on in the FBI and DOJ? This is the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country. Fortunately, the facts are all coming out, and fast!

5:45 AM - 5 Aug 2018

 

Trump then particularly went after recent reporting about Robert Mueller’s probe into possible links between his campaign and Russian officials, particularly stories on how he may be concerned about his eldest son’s legal exposure.

And Trump once again defended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which his son met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer saying it was “totally legal” and that he didn’t know about it.

Trump Jr. published emails setting up the meeting a year later, ahead of a New York Times report revealing them. The Trump administration has denied wrong doing, describing the meeting as a "waste of time" and saying it was about Russian adoption policy related to American sanctions - a claim Trump just contradicted.

He actually, inadvertently flipped on his own son. He has also claimed, up to this point, that he had no idea  what the meeting was about, except what he was told....Russian adoption policy etc. So he also exposed his own lie.
'The vomit thickens'. Hmmmm … That's not what Witchy says …   Nope, I remember, "As the Stomach Turns".

NBC News  
LEIGH ANN CALDWELL AND JONATHAN ALLEN
That has rattled Republicans who have relied on Koch money to supplement their own campaign message and to be a reliable attack dog against their Democratic opponents.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said he's "very concerned" at the Koch's new posture this election cycle and beyond.

"We need all the help we can get right now because the left is very clear because the presidential candidate they're going to put up in 2020 is going to be very liberal," Perdue said.

But the Koch organization has grown frustrated with the GOP, which is transforming into a more protectionist, nationalist party under the leadership of President Trump — a shift that organization officials see as counter to their own agenda.

The Koch network and the president have split on the issues of tariffs and immigration and the group is attempting to pressure lawmakers to stay committed to traditional Republican ideals.

"There are honest disagreements within the GOP on some topics, tariffs and trade obviously being one of them. And the Koch's strong free market ideology doesn't fit well with the current set of policies being pushed by the White House," said Chris Wilson, director of research, analytics and digital strategy for the Ted Cruz presidential campaign.

The disagreement on trade, an issue central to both the president and the Koch network, has deepened a fissure in the party that already existed.

In a rare interview session with reporters Sunday, Charles Koch, the head of the organization, said he "regrets" having supported some Republicans in the past who "say they're going to be for these principles that we espoused and then they aren't." And he pledged to be more "selective" in supporting candidates going forward.

Trump took offense to the network's message, tweeting that they are "highly overrated" and that he has "beaten them at every turn."
Donald J. Trump

      ✔
@realDonaldTrump
 The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made.....
Donald J. Trump 

    ✔
@realDonaldTrump
 ....them richer. Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for America First & the American Worker - a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!
Donald J. Trump

  ✔
@realDonaldTrump
 Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to “foreign workers.” He is correct, AMERICA FIRST!

But as one Koch donor put it, each side is trying is protecting its ideals.

"I think Trump is saying, whose agenda are you supporting? And I think it's very much the same way for (the Kochs) in that they don't want anybody defecting on any issue," a donor who wished to remain anonymous said.

The rift has begun to impact this year's elections and the way the Koch organization has approached the North Dakota Senate race has caused deep frustration among Republicans.

In May, a Koch-associated group placed a small-dollar mailer ad "thanking" Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for voting to rollback banking regulations. And over the weekend, at their semiannual donor confab in Colorado Springs, the organization announced that it wouldn't support North Dakota Republican candidate Kevin Cramer because he has been "inconsistent" on key issues of government spending and corporate welfare.

Republican senators are reluctant to speak critically publicly, understanding Trump's high approval ratings among the base and worrying about exacerbating the divide.

"When you see ads for Heidi Heitkamp, that caused a little bit of a pause," said one Republican senator who said senators have been asking a lot of questions of each other about what the Koch network's plan is. "I think concerns have to do with fundraising more than anything else."

The organization told reporters that it is engaging in just four Senate races of candidates who fit their mold of backing free trade and a small government as of now, including in Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin and Tennessee. There was no mention of House races to reporters during the three-day seminar.

But two participants told NBC News that in closed-door sessions over the weekend, the organization laid out plans to get involved in ten House races and two additional Senate races — West Virginia and Ohio — bringing the total of Senate races to six.

But not on that list are some key states. North Dakota is considered to be atop the list of Republicans' best opportunities to win a Democratic seat, followed by Indiana, which the Koch network said they have no plans of getting involved at this stage of the race.

Also absent from the list is Nevada where incumbent GOP Sen. Dean Heller is trying to stave off his Democratic opponent and Arizona, where a three-way race for the primary is underway. But one participant said the Koch officials called the race "a mess" and have no intention of getting involved.

"Members of congress do need to know that we're raising the bar. What we would have accepted in the past — repeated votes to increase government spending, failure to lead at important moments such as when trade with the rest of the world is at stake," Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips said in a phone interview, "I think the rest of the country and the network is going to demand more."

Some Republicans argue that the Koch's more limited political engagement will have little impact.

"This disagreement is unlikely to hurt Republicans in the mid-terms as there are enough opportunities for the Koch network to back like-minded candidates while other groups and Super PACS can put their money into the races where the Koch's don't," Wilson said.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who has attended Koch seminar weekends in the past and has also become a staunch ally of the president's, said that the Koch's money is less relevant.

"In truth we're not going to solve the American people's problems with more money. We're going to solve it by being unified and working on the people's agenda between now and November," he said.

Not all lawmakers are concerned. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who attended the most recent Koch weekend, said that he thought the message was a positive one.

"I'm probably an outlier, but I thought it was a fairly positive message," Scott said. "It certainly is a tad bit of a paradigm shift that rightfully so is focusing on the issues more than anything else. They're prioritizing around the issues that they think will make America better."
Let's hear from  Witchy :
Hey Republicans that is what happens when you back someone with no ethics or morals and is slightly nuts.  
tRUMP, the only joke is you... you have accomplished nothing but scare off our allies and cuddle Putin and  Kim  Jong   un as they walked all over you.
 You  must be in hock to both Putin and  Kim , what a dismal failure you  turned out to be.
It's so funny to watch tRUMP cowtow to  Putin  and Kim but constantly disrespect anyone and everyone that doesn't buy the snake oil he is selling. Well anyway it's getting close to his end of days when the fake messiah calls him back to tRUMP  tower in NY. Are you cult45'ers going to be ok?  tRUMP  has done NOTHING for this Country but create a lot of chaos.  He is riding on the shoulders of the economy that Obama started and every EO or bill he has signed has negative connotations for America.  Trump is a slug ........Nuff sez