Good Behavior Trump Debate Thread

[eddie]

A noble quote for a noble thread about behavior:

"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior."
- Henry David Thoreau

/:)

[Benjamin_LK]

Politicians hate Russia and their culture as the "evil empire" rather than talk about how they are domestically screwing us.

[freedomforall]

What gave Obama the right to allow illegals to enter our country, many, of whom, are now raising havoc, taking over towns and cities, causing locals to bow to their incessant demands, changing school policies to allow prayers to Allah six times a day?
You people only concerned for what is going on overseas make me want to puke. :ymsick:

And then Harry Reid called patriots "domestic terrorists" for defending the rights of another because of a tyrannical Government?

President Benson said (not verbatim) that for those that refuse to stand for freedom don't deserve to be called citizens. Don't believe me? Look it up.

Why must those looking for dirt on Trump wear blinders so they don't see that which takes place right here at home under their nose?

Booooooooooo! Booooooooooooo!

Were you guys born recently, like in the last seven months? You talk about Trump as if he is the very first man ever to be POTUS. This constant, current, rant about the same person, incessantly is astounding, just unequivocally astounding. :-ss (-|

[Silver]

Trump, the gangster, learned from the best. The link below will take you to the entire article. Just a snippet below.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4 ... -roy-cohn/

DON'T MESS WITH ROY COHN
ROY COHN WAS ONCE THE MOST FEARED LAWYER IN NEW YORK CITY. A RUTHLESS MASTER OF DIRTY TRICKS, HE SMEARED THE REPUTATIONS OF HIS POLITICAL ENEMIES, HELPED SEND THE ROSENBERGS TO THE ELECTRIC CHAIR, AND HAD MORE THAN ONE MAFIA DON ON SPEED DIAL. BUT HIS MOST ENDURING LEGACY IS DONALD TRUMP, WHOM HE TOOK UNDER HIS WING IN THE 1970S. IN KEN AULETTA'S 1978 ESQUIRE PROFILE, WE MEET THE MAN WHO TUTORED THE PRESIDENT IN THE DARK ARTS OF GOSSIP, POWER, AND POLITICS.

BY KEN AULETTA
JUL 13, 2016
This piece originally ran in the December 1978 issue of Esquire.

Listen to Ken Auletta discuss this story with David Brancaccio in an episode of the Esquire Classic podcast:



Don't mess with Roy Cohn.

The "21" once did. The restaurant spa of the rich and powerful used to seat Roy in Siberia, upstairs in a corner with the tourists. One day Roy called and made a reservation for four at 8:00 P.M. Purposely arriving ten minutes early, he was brusquely led to his usual far nook. Promptly at 8:00 p.m., the duke and duchess of Windsor entered the room. "Ten captains stood up," as Roy remembers it, and tried to steer the duke and duchess to a choice table. From the corner of the room, Roy waved to his dinner guests. They waved back, pulling away from the captains to join their friend. "Please, Mr. Cohn," the captains beseeched him. "Allow us to give you a more comfortable table." He wouldn't hear of it. "Roy loved it," recalls his boyhood friend William Fugazy. "He fixed them. That was his way of-showing them. Now he gets the good tables."

Today, Roy is holding court at one of his favorite "21" tables, against the wall facing the entrance. where everyone can see him. Captains hover nearby, snapping in light his thick Cuban cigar. A red phone is placed to his right. His legal clients are sprinkled throughout the wood-beamed room, Roy Cohn has reason to be pleased—he has survived more crises than Richard Nixon. In the early Fifties, he was the arrogant red-baiting counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the twenty-six-year-old who threatened "to wreck the Army" if favored treatment was not granted his friend David Schine—Bonnie, Bonnie and Clyde is how Lillian Hellman referred to Cohn, Schine and McCarthy. In the Sixties, he was indicted four times (the first case ended in a mistrial) and always acquitted. He has suffered several judicial reprimands for unethical conduct, had his wrists slapped in civil cases, and been ordered to make restitution. In the Seventies, he has been indicted for violating Illinois banking laws; the Internal Revenue Service has audited his income tax returns for the last nineteen years and seized some of his assets. He has been the target of criticism and innuendo about his ethics, his finances, his personal life. He has even been accused of conspiring to murder a young man. Roy Cohn, it is said, is the personification of evil.

Roy Cohn, it is said, is the personification of evil.
Actually, Roy Cohn personifies the problems of the law. Of all the attributes of a good lawyer, cynicism is certainly among the foremost. How else could one weave a defense for a client who is guilty? Like mock UN assemblies for college kids, one day you argue the Soviet Union's position; the next, the United States', What you say has little to do with what you believe. In fact, convictions can get in the way You're an advocate, not a judge. Your interest is form, not content—the process. Surprising the prosecution, entertaining the jury, flattering the judge, leaking information to the press, figuring out angles, coaching testimony, unearthing sympathetic witnesses, feigning anger or sorrow—they're all part of the game. Roy just plays the game harder, tougher, makes up his own rules. "He does what he has to to win," observes a former associate, comparing him to Richard Nixon's favorite football coach. "It's the George Allen school of law. He'll pull out some plays every now and then that aren't in the book." This has earned Roy considerable notoriety.


Getty
NO MR. NICE GUY

The notoriety hasn't hurt a bit. At fifty-one, he has seen his law firm, Saxe, Bacon & Bolan, expand rapidly. Its town house office at 39 East Sixty-Eighth Street is bursting with 42 employees, including 12 lawyers. They have just rented an additional floor at 667 Madison Avenue. His clients include Newhouse newspapers and Conde Nast magazines; the Catholic Archdiocese of New York; the Ford Model Agency; Studio 54; Potamkin Cadillac, Baron di Portanova; the biggest names in New York real estate, including Lefrak, Helmsley, Trump; Louis Wolfson, owner of Affirmed; Warren Avis, as in rent a car; Peter Widener and his sister Tootie, a Main Line Pennsylvania family with coal, rail, and racetrack interests; Jerry Finkelstein, a New York businessman; John Schlesinger, a British investor in South Africa; Carmine "Lilo" Galante, the reputed boss of bosses; "Fat Tony" Salerno; Nicholas "Cockeyed Nick" Rattenni; Thomas and Joseph Gambino, sons of the late Carlo; and a string of hoods; Nathan's Famous; Luca Buccellati, the jeweler; Congressman Mario Biaggi; Mrs. Charles Allen Jr., wife of the chairman of Allen & Company, He has counseled his friend George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees. As a favor to his friend Halston, Roy advised Bianca how to handle Mick. He was to be Onassis' divorce attorney against Jackie.

[Silver]

If he weren't a bankster-owned-elitist-Gadianton-billionaire-murderer, Trump would demand that the US leave the United Nations. But, no, just like all the other presidents since the UN was formed, whether Republican-liars or Democrat-liars, Trump is just another murdering liar and here we are, still stuck in the UN. Sackcloth and ashes.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... -socialism

Is This Why The UN Human Rights Council Is Silent As Venezuelans Die Oppressed Under Socialism?

Jul 13, 2017 11:05 PM
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

The United Nations Human Rights Council has been silent on the death of Venezuelans at the hands of their democratic socialist government. The UN has sided with death, but that isn’t surprising, considering the horrific plans they have laid out for most humans.

The Miami Herald is calling the UN’s lack of response to blood in the streets in Venezuela a “travesty.” Despite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s bloody repression of opposition protests that have resulted in more than 100 dead, thousands of wounded and hundreds of political prisoners over the past three months, the United Nations Human Rights Council, UNHRC, has not uttered a single word about Venezuela’s human rights crisis.

But there’s a reason for the silence, and all one has to do to figure it out, is lightly scratch the surface. The UN doesn’t care about human rights. It’s a front for their ability to massively depopulate the earth for the advancement of Agenda 21.

In 1992, at a Venezuela conference, the United Nations passed something called “Agenda 21,” for which the elder US President, George Bush, publicly gave his support. It referred to something called “Sustainable Development,” but what this plan laid out very clearly was a one world government. This idea of One World Rule is not new to the Bush clan, or even to the modern day Illuminati. It has been around at least since the times of the Roman Empire, and before. –The Daily Sheeple

Could this be the reason the UN doesn’t care about a few hundred Venezuelans and their oppressed deaths? Possibly, but don’t expect the mainstream media to report on the horrors of socialism. Human beings who seek freedom are the biggest threat to the political structures which are planning to destroy most of mankind, which is why governments are using brainwashing techniques and propaganda on the weak masses. Humans will always gravitate toward their freedom unless brainwashed to accept their own oppression. This is the reason we have so many people across the globe cannot see taxation as the theft that it is. But the explanation for the UN’s silence gets even more disturbing.

Some have an even more sinister reason for the UN’s silence on the oppression of the Venezuelan people.

There is a reason for that inaction, of course. About half of the council’s 47 member countries are dictatorships — including Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela — who defend one another against charges of human-rights violations. In fact, the UNHRC is a mutual protection society for the world’s worst dictatorships. –Miami Herald
That isn’t exactly comforting. Dictatorships, which the US is headed quickly towards becoming, are in control of “human rights,” so expect the eventual announcement that there is no such thing by those claiming ownership over others. Neither the United States nor any other socialist democracies represented at the council have presented any motions to the council condemning Venezuela’s human rights abuses. That’s because death is a necessary outcome to those who seek infinite power over the lives of others.

As the United States stumbles toward tyranny and becomes more socialist, the changes of our streets looking like those of Venezuela increase. The hypocrisy of instituting the very same socialist policies which caused Venezuela to collapse would appear too obvious for those attempting to brainwash the public in the United States.

Hope seems all but lost against a world takeover, but those on the bottom forget that they are many while the elites are few.

[Silver]

Why would the United States need to give the Saudi Kingdom a drop of jet fuel? Aren't those bloody dictators sitting on millions of barrels of oil? Trump and the equally bloody Republicans in Congress are murderers. What good did it do to defeat Hillary and get a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate if America is just going to continue its warmongering ways? President Kimball was right, and we shall pay for these transgressions by wearing sackcloth and ashes.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/13/u-s ... n-funeral/

U.S. DOUBLED FUEL SUPPORT FOR SAUDI BOMBING CAMPAIGN IN YEMEN AFTER DEADLY STRIKE ON FUNERAL
Samuel Oakford
July 13 2017, 11:54 a.m.
Last October, an airstrike in Yemen by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition hit a funeral, killing more than 130 people and drawing global condemnation. Yet in the months following that strike, the United States doubled the amount of fuel it provided to coalition jets, according to figures obtained from the U.S. military. The numbers underline the fact that U.S. support for the campaign has continued and even increased despite growing attention to civilian casualties and alleged war crimes by the coalition.

But the House of Representatives just passed over the chance to vote on legislation that would have tracked the fuel the Pentagon gives to the Saudi coalition and prohibited refueling of coalition aircraft unless the Pentagon could assure Congress that subsequent missions wouldn’t hit civilians or targets contained on no-strike lists.

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, filed by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California with bipartisan support, failed to pass the Rules Committee last night, and so it won’t be up for a vote. Khanna’s amendment would have “at the very least require[d] reporting to Congress about exactly how many flights are being refueled, where the location is and verification that they aren’t involved in civilian deaths,” the Congressman told The Intercept.

“I am disappointed that the House will not vote on amendments that would enforce greater oversight of U.S. operations in Yemen,” said Khanna. “Congress is doing a disservice in not acknowledging the civilian impact of our military operations in the Middle East. We must instill measures to prevent further atrocities in Yemen.”

On March 25, 2015, the Obama administration announced support for Saudi Arabia’s campaign against Houthi rebels and allied forces, who had seized swaths of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The next day, CENTCOM commander Gen. Lloyd Austin told Senators that he didn’t know “the specific goals and objectives of the Saudi campaign.” The US has since offloaded more than 67 million pounds of fuel to Coalition jets – refueling aircraft more than 9,000 times – according to Air Force figures provided to The Intercept.

According to conservative United Nations estimates, the Saudi Coalition is responsible for at least 3,133 civilian deaths in Yemen since the U.S. support began. That represents more than 60 percent of all civilians confirmed killed in hostilities since 2015. The Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh have also been documented firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, planting landmines and obstructing aid convoys.

The Yemen Data Project, which monitors open source reports of airstrikes in Yemen, has recorded more than 13,081 coalition raids through June 2. Roughly a third hit non-military targets, the group found.

Two months after the October “double tap” funeral strikes in Sanaa, the Obama White House blocked the sale of precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia – a sign of protest against a campaign it had backed for 18 months, and against a country for which the administration had already approved weapons sales surpassing $100 billion.

Though CENTCOM said the United States hadn’t refueled any planes on the day of the funeral attack, refueling shot up afterwards – from 2.02 million pounds in October to 3.69 million in December. It hit a record of 4.2 million pounds in January – a month split between the Obama and Trump administrations. Refueling stayed at near-record levels through March (4.03 million) before falling in May and June. During 2017 average monthly totals are up by nearly a third compared to 2015 and 2016.

Khanna says Congress remains largely in the dark about the refueling, and can only assume it is abetting civilian deaths.

“From a strategic perspective, it makes no sense,” he told The Intercept. “From a moral perspective, we ought not to be contributing to refueling to flights that are causing civilian deaths and are devastating the infrastructure of a society.”

But who exactly is getting the fuel to begin with? The answer, in the vast majority of cases, isn’t Saudi Arabia.

“Most of the refueling does not actually go to specifically Saudi Air Force aircraft,” said Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway. “The Emirati Air Force are the primary air force that we help refuel.”

The United Arab Emirates has taken on an increasingly active role in Yemen, running ground campaigns along the western coast and against Al Qaeda targets in the South. Operations along the coast include troops from Sudan, a country that the US currently sanctions. The Pentagon has weighed how deeply to back a proposed UAE-led operation to capture Yemen’s largest port, Hodeidah, from the Houthis.

The UN has warned such a move against Yemen’s largest port could spell catastrophe amid what is already one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises. Some 7 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine, including 500,000 severely malnourished children. A cholera outbreak has spun out of control, likely infecting more than 320,000 people and killing more than 1,740. A Coalition-imposed flight ban on Sanaa has left the entire north of the country cut off, and prevented journalists and human rights workers from entering the country.

The UAE has also worked closely with the United States to fight Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. In April of last year, Emirati forces captured the southern city of Mukalla from AQAP. This January, just days after President Trump took office, Emirati forces were reportedly involved in a controversial U.S. raid that claimed the lives of dozens of civilians and killed a Navy Seal. In June, the Associated Press revealed that the UAE is running a network of detention centers in southern Yemen were torture was employed. The Pentagon admitted that U.S. personnel interrogated prisoners held by the UAE, though they denied any knowledge of abuses.

Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemeni scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said the refueling reflected a U.S. policy shift favoring the Emiratis.

“They are the United States’ favorite fixer in the region at the moment,” said Al-Muslimi. “They are more trusted and flexible than the Saudis, and a ‘lighter’ Sunni ally in counterterrorism that gives the United States a freer hand in Yemen.”

Washington won’t divulge what missions UAE aircraft carry out after receiving fuel.

“We provide refueling totals for the Saudi-led Coalition on an on-demand basis,” said CENTCOM spokesperson Maj. Josh Jacques. “They request refueling and we provide it. I will refer you to the Saudi-led coalition as to the reasons why they requested the amounts of fuel.”

Neither the Saudi Coalition nor the Emirati embassy in Washington, D.C., responded to questions about their activities in Yemen.

Other amendments to the NDAA could also have an impact on U.S. assistance. One filed by Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California would require the Pentagon and State Department to report on the actions of the Saudi Coalition in Yemen, did pass the rules committee and will be voted on. Though it requests information on U.S. military support, the amendment doesn’t contain the same restrictions or detailed reporting requirements as Khanna’s.

“We know the United States is refueling coalition aircraft on bombing missions, but the United States has not disclosed whether aircraft refueled have gone on to strike markets, hospitals, or homes,” said Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Pentagon should be disclosing this information to the public, and if it won’t, Congress should demand it.”

Top photo: Yemenis stand on the rubble of houses destroyed in a suspected Saudi-led coalition air strike in Sanaa on June 9, 2017.

[freedomforall]

Why would the United States need to give the Saudi Kingdom a drop of jet fuel? Aren't those bloody dictators sitting on millions of barrels of oil? Trump and the equally bloody Republicans in Congress are murderers. What good did it do to defeat Hillary and get a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate if America is just going to continue its warmongering ways? President Kimball was right, and we shall pay for these transgressions by wearing sackcloth and ashes.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/13/u-s ... n-funeral/

U.S. DOUBLED FUEL SUPPORT FOR SAUDI BOMBING CAMPAIGN IN YEMEN AFTER DEADLY STRIKE ON FUNERAL
Samuel Oakford
July 13 2017, 11:54 a.m.
Last October, an airstrike in Yemen by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition hit a funeral, killing more than 130 people and drawing global condemnation. Yet in the months following that strike, the United States doubled the amount of fuel it provided to coalition jets, according to figures obtained from the U.S. military. The numbers underline the fact that U.S. support for the campaign has continued and even increased despite growing attention to civilian casualties and alleged war crimes by the coalition.

But the House of Representatives just passed over the chance to vote on legislation that would have tracked the fuel the Pentagon gives to the Saudi coalition and prohibited refueling of coalition aircraft unless the Pentagon could assure Congress that subsequent missions wouldn’t hit civilians or targets contained on no-strike lists.

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, filed by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California with bipartisan support, failed to pass the Rules Committee last night, and so it won’t be up for a vote. Khanna’s amendment would have “at the very least require[d] reporting to Congress about exactly how many flights are being refueled, where the location is and verification that they aren’t involved in civilian deaths,” the Congressman told The Intercept.

“I am disappointed that the House will not vote on amendments that would enforce greater oversight of U.S. operations in Yemen,” said Khanna. “Congress is doing a disservice in not acknowledging the civilian impact of our military operations in the Middle East. We must instill measures to prevent further atrocities in Yemen.”

On March 25, 2015, the Obama administration announced support for Saudi Arabia’s campaign against Houthi rebels and allied forces, who had seized swaths of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The next day, CENTCOM commander Gen. Lloyd Austin told Senators that he didn’t know “the specific goals and objectives of the Saudi campaign.” The US has since offloaded more than 67 million pounds of fuel to Coalition jets – refueling aircraft more than 9,000 times – according to Air Force figures provided to The Intercept.

According to conservative United Nations estimates, the Saudi Coalition is responsible for at least 3,133 civilian deaths in Yemen since the U.S. support began. That represents more than 60 percent of all civilians confirmed killed in hostilities since 2015. The Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh have also been documented firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, planting landmines and obstructing aid convoys.

The Yemen Data Project, which monitors open source reports of airstrikes in Yemen, has recorded more than 13,081 coalition raids through June 2. Roughly a third hit non-military targets, the group found.

Two months after the October “double tap” funeral strikes in Sanaa, the Obama White House blocked the sale of precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia – a sign of protest against a campaign it had backed for 18 months, and against a country for which the administration had already approved weapons sales surpassing $100 billion.

Though CENTCOM said the United States hadn’t refueled any planes on the day of the funeral attack, refueling shot up afterwards – from 2.02 million pounds in October to 3.69 million in December. It hit a record of 4.2 million pounds in January – a month split between the Obama and Trump administrations. Refueling stayed at near-record levels through March (4.03 million) before falling in May and June. During 2017 average monthly totals are up by nearly a third compared to 2015 and 2016.

Khanna says Congress remains largely in the dark about the refueling, and can only assume it is abetting civilian deaths.

“From a strategic perspective, it makes no sense,” he told The Intercept. “From a moral perspective, we ought not to be contributing to refueling to flights that are causing civilian deaths and are devastating the infrastructure of a society.”

But who exactly is getting the fuel to begin with? The answer, in the vast majority of cases, isn’t Saudi Arabia.

“Most of the refueling does not actually go to specifically Saudi Air Force aircraft,” said Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway. “The Emirati Air Force are the primary air force that we help refuel.”

The United Arab Emirates has taken on an increasingly active role in Yemen, running ground campaigns along the western coast and against Al Qaeda targets in the South. Operations along the coast include troops from Sudan, a country that the US currently sanctions. The Pentagon has weighed how deeply to back a proposed UAE-led operation to capture Yemen’s largest port, Hodeidah, from the Houthis.

The UN has warned such a move against Yemen’s largest port could spell catastrophe amid what is already one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises. Some 7 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine, including 500,000 severely malnourished children. A cholera outbreak has spun out of control, likely infecting more than 320,000 people and killing more than 1,740. A Coalition-imposed flight ban on Sanaa has left the entire north of the country cut off, and prevented journalists and human rights workers from entering the country.

The UAE has also worked closely with the United States to fight Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. In April of last year, Emirati forces captured the southern city of Mukalla from AQAP. This January, just days after President Trump took office, Emirati forces were reportedly involved in a controversial U.S. raid that claimed the lives of dozens of civilians and killed a Navy Seal. In June, the Associated Press revealed that the UAE is running a network of detention centers in southern Yemen were torture was employed. The Pentagon admitted that U.S. personnel interrogated prisoners held by the UAE, though they denied any knowledge of abuses.

Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemeni scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said the refueling reflected a U.S. policy shift favoring the Emiratis.

“They are the United States’ favorite fixer in the region at the moment,” said Al-Muslimi. “They are more trusted and flexible than the Saudis, and a ‘lighter’ Sunni ally in counterterrorism that gives the United States a freer hand in Yemen.”

Washington won’t divulge what missions UAE aircraft carry out after receiving fuel.

“We provide refueling totals for the Saudi-led Coalition on an on-demand basis,” said CENTCOM spokesperson Maj. Josh Jacques. “They request refueling and we provide it. I will refer you to the Saudi-led coalition as to the reasons why they requested the amounts of fuel.”

Neither the Saudi Coalition nor the Emirati embassy in Washington, D.C., responded to questions about their activities in Yemen.

Other amendments to the NDAA could also have an impact on U.S. assistance. One filed by Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California would require the Pentagon and State Department to report on the actions of the Saudi Coalition in Yemen, did pass the rules committee and will be voted on. Though it requests information on U.S. military support, the amendment doesn’t contain the same restrictions or detailed reporting requirements as Khanna’s.

“We know the United States is refueling coalition aircraft on bombing missions, but the United States has not disclosed whether aircraft refueled have gone on to strike markets, hospitals, or homes,” said Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Pentagon should be disclosing this information to the public, and if it won’t, Congress should demand it.”

Top photo: Yemenis stand on the rubble of houses destroyed in a suspected Saudi-led coalition air strike in Sanaa on June 9, 2017.

dr;tl Yet, I assume jets don't run on water, so the question is moot.

[Silver]

Hey, it's silver and it speaks the truth.

https://sdbullion.com/2017-silver-shiel ... lver-round

Lesser Evil.jpg (208.58 KiB) Viewed 871 times

[iWriteStuff]

Hey, it's silver and it speaks the truth.

https://sdbullion.com/2017-silver-shiel ... lver-round


Lesser Evil.jpg

I've been so close to buying that one! The only thing that keeps me back is the image of the beast (Hillary) tends to frighten young children like myself :-s :-s :-s

[Silver]

Hey, it's silver and it speaks the truth.

https://sdbullion.com/2017-silver-shiel ... lver-round


Lesser Evil.jpg

I've been so close to buying that one! The only thing that keeps me back is the image of the beast (Hillary) tends to frighten young children like myself :-s :-s :-s

Matthew 18:3 comes to mind, but so does D&C 38:30.

[Silver]

Trump needs more bases in Iraq and Syria so he can kill more innocent people. Did Trump supporters vote for this?

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/07/14/trum ... raq-syria/

Trump Wants Authority to Build New Bases in Iraq, Syria

White House Complains Legal Restrictions Are Hampering 'Temporary' Sites

Jason Ditz Posted on July 14, 2017

The White House has issued a statement this week calling on Congress to grant President Trump unilateral legal authority to open new military bases in both Iraq and Syria, as well as to renovate existing facilities. Officials say the bases would be purely temporary in nature.

What “temporary” actually means however is unclear, particularly in Iraq where the Pentagon has been very public about the idea that they intend to keep US ground troops in Iraq more or less forever. Those bases, then, are going to be open-ended facilities for an open-ended mission.

The White House says that the current lack of unilateral authority is limiting “maneuverability” as they continue their military buildup in the region, Though the statement was initially aimed at getting the authority included in the NDAA, it does not appear that the House version made any such revisions.

The establishment of bases, particularly in Syria, could be risky, since the US doesn’t have any permission from the Syrian government to be there in the first place, and the appearance of the Pentagon laying down roots, however temporary they claim them to do, could be very provocative to Syria, and its allies like Russia.

The limits were initially put in place in 2008’s NDAA, and Congress has reaffirmed those limits repeatedly since then, aiming to limit the amount the US was spending on nation-building in Iraq.

[Silver]

Trump is not alone. Practically the entire Republican conference wants to kill more innocent brown people.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/07/14/hous ... ding-bill/

House Approves $696 Billion Military Spending Bill

Includes $75 Billion for Overseas Contingency Operations
Jason Ditz Posted on July 14, 2017

In a 344-81 vote today, the House of Representatives passed their version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $696 billion spending bill which far exceeds the amount of money sought by the Pentagon and the Trump Administration

The bill has a base $621.5 billion funding, nad $75 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, which includes at least $10 billion that are earmarked as part of the OCO but intended to be spent on domestic military spending.

The bill was supported by a majority of Democrats, and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. Indeed, only eight Republicans voted against the bill, with three other abstentions. The bill still has to be reconciled with its Senate alternative before becoming law.

President Trump had proposed a very large increase in military spending, compared to those sought in recent years, with an eye on a bigger Navy. Congressional hawks were deeply critical of even this large proposed increase as insufficient, and sought to outdo it with a bigger, pricier version.

There still hasn’t been a proper resolution to the 2011 sequestration rules, which Congress has ignored every year since at any rate, but on paper, the legal cap on the pre-OCO budget is supposed to be $549 billion, which will obviously be far exceeded.

Obviously this is by far the biggest military spending bill on the planet, many times what the second largest military, China, spends in a year.

[Silver]

Well, after an enjoyable Gospel Doctrine lesson on being chastened and enduring trials, I'm ready to return a theme we've discussed on this thread frequently. That is simply that we need to pray for the leaders of our country. The Republicans now own the White House and both houses of Congress. They have complained about Obamacare for 8 years and they've had that same number of years to come up with a better plan. It was all just a charade though. The Republicans are as bad as Democrats. We should pray for them because their deception and treachery runs deep.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... have-votes

by Tyler Durden
Jul 16, 2017 4:00 PM

Senator Rand Paul took to the Sunday talk shows again this week to discuss the fate of Senate Health care bill 2.0., and in news that will surprise almost no one who’s been following along, the conservative Kentucky senator said Sunday on Fox and Friends that he doesn't think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the votes to pass the healthcare bill in its current form, according to the Hill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a new version of a healthcare plan earlier this week, which, among other things, incorporates demands from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to allow insurers to sell low-cost, skimpier plans all in an effort to draw conservative support for the new bill.

Yet apparently the revisions weren’t enough to win over Paul, one of the senate’s most dedicated conservatives.

"I don't think right now he does," Paul, a vocal critic of the Senate's healthcare plan, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Paul, who said that dozens of Republicans won thanks to their campaigning against Obamacare, again floated the idea of first repealing, and later replacing it. There is significant resistance to that plan among other senators, including Republicans, though the White House has indicated President Trump is open to it.

"What I've suggested to the president ... if this comes to an impasse, I think if the president jumps into the fray and says 'Look guys, you promised to repeal it, let's just repeal what we can agree to," Paul said.

"And then we can continue to try to fix, replace or whatever has to happen afterwards," he continued.
Republicans should try to repeal as many of the taxes, regulations and mandates as possible, Paul said.

Paul was later pressed on whether he would rather keep ObamaCare than pass the current GOP's healthcare legislation. He said that the current system is "terrible."

"The death spiral of ObamaCare is unwinding the whole system, and it will continue to unwind, but I don't think Republicans should put their name on this key part of ObamaCare," Paul said.

"And then we're going to be blamed for the rest of the unwinding of ObamaCare. It's a really bad political strategy and it's not going to fix the problem."
McConnell on Saturday announced Senate consideration of the healthcare legislation would be delayed while Sen. John McCain recovers from surgery, according to the Hill.

During a separate interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Paul said he thinks more conservative Republicans will realize the Senate GOP's healthcare bill does not actually repeal ObamaCare and drop their support for the bill the longer the proposal is out there. McConnell this week delayed the upcoming vote until Sen. John McCain recovers from surgery for a blood clot.

"I think the longer the bill's out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it's not repeal," Paul said.

"And the more that everybody's going to discover that it keeps the fundamental flaw of ObamaCare."
When asked about McConnell’s decision to delay the vote while Sen. John McCain recovers from surgery, Paul said he didn’t think McCain’s presence would sway the vote one way or another.

Paul said the bill in its current form keeps insurance mandates that "cause the prices to rise, which chase young, healthy people out of the marketplace."

"And leads to what people call adverse selection, where you have a sicker and sicker insurance pool and the premiums keep rising through the roof," Paul said.

"And one of the amazing things to me is, for all the complaints of Republicans about ObamaCare, we keep that fundamental flaw."

[Silver]

Trump seemed to win an election and enter the White House with a mandate to turn government around, to stop the profligate spending, to reduce the debt. It's obvious though now that Trump is just another Gadianton pawn and so with the murderous military spending to kill more brown people and the "infrastructure" spending our status as debt slaves will not improve. Wise people will prepare for an economic collapse by having a financial reserve in something not denominated in Federal Reserve Hiney Wipes.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... l-thinking

In case you missed it, here's a snapshot of total debt as a percentage of median household income: from 79% to 584%.

debt-totals.jpg (166.95 KiB) Viewed 715 times

If this strikes you as "healthy growth" because "debt doesn't matter"-- welcome to the Wonderland of Magical Thinking.

[iWriteStuff]

Trump seemed to win an election and enter the White House with a mandate to turn government around, to stop the profligate spending, to reduce the debt. It's obvious though now that Trump is just another Gadianton pawn and so with the murderous military spending to kill more brown people and the "infrastructure" spending our status as debt slaves will not improve. Wise people will prepare for an economic collapse by having a financial reserve in something not denominated in Federal Reserve Hiney Wipes.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... l-thinking

In case you missed it, here's a snapshot of total debt as a percentage of median household income: from 79% to 584%.

If this strikes you as "healthy growth" because "debt doesn't matter"-- welcome to the Wonderland of Magical Thinking.

I honestly don't think it matters too much who is piloting the boat when it goes over the waterfall. We're headed there one way or the other. The only questions become "How sharp are the rocks at the bottom?" and "How come only the rich get lifeboats?"

In short, my prediction is it will cause such desperation when this thing finally tips over that the American people will accept any alternative to chaos.

[Silver]

Trump seemed to win an election and enter the White House with a mandate to turn government around, to stop the profligate spending, to reduce the debt. It's obvious though now that Trump is just another Gadianton pawn and so with the murderous military spending to kill more brown people and the "infrastructure" spending our status as debt slaves will not improve. Wise people will prepare for an economic collapse by having a financial reserve in something not denominated in Federal Reserve Hiney Wipes.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... l-thinking

In case you missed it, here's a snapshot of total debt as a percentage of median household income: from 79% to 584%.

If this strikes you as "healthy growth" because "debt doesn't matter"-- welcome to the Wonderland of Magical Thinking.

I honestly don't think it matters too much who is piloting the boat when it goes over the waterfall. We're headed there one way or the other. The only questions become "How sharp are the rocks at the bottom?" and "How come only the rich get lifeboats?"

In short, my prediction is it will cause such desperation when this thing finally tips over that the American people will accept any alternative to chaos.

I still expect Trump to bail out early, but I can see in my mind's eye Pence trying to sell us on the merits of SDR's. Traitors.

[eddie]

Trump seemed to win an election and enter the White House with a mandate to turn government around, to stop the profligate spending, to reduce the debt. It's obvious though now that Trump is just another Gadianton pawn and so with the murderous military spending to kill more brown people and the "infrastructure" spending our status as debt slaves will not improve. Wise people will prepare for an economic collapse by having a financial reserve in something not denominated in Federal Reserve Hiney Wipes.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... l-thinking

In case you missed it, here's a snapshot of total debt as a percentage of median household income: from 79% to 584%.

If this strikes you as "healthy growth" because "debt doesn't matter"-- welcome to the Wonderland of Magical Thinking.

I honestly don't think it matters too much who is piloting the boat when it goes over the waterfall. We're headed there one way or the other. The only questions become "How sharp are the rocks at the bottom?" and "How come only the rich get lifeboats?"

In short, my prediction is it will cause i-) such desperation when this thing finally tips over that the American people will accept any alternative to chaos.

I still expect Trump to bail out early, but I can see in my mind's eye Pence trying to sell us on the merits of SDR's. Traitors.

i-)

[Silver]

How long will we blame Obama for the murders of the Trump administration?

Behold our massive monument to killing brown people:

pentagon.jpg (46.25 KiB) Viewed 678 times

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pen ... gs-n783511

Pentagon Ignores Watchdog Calls for $33.6 Billion Savings
by PHIL MCCAUSLAND

The Department of Defense's failure to act on recommendations from its own watchdog may have cost $33.6 billion, a new report says.

The Pentagon's Inspector General's Office released a 458-page report last week that detailed how the Department of Defense responded to 288 Inspector General audits that went back as far as 2006. The report concluded that the Pentagon addressed very few problem areas and may have cost itself and American taxpayers $33.6 billion in wasteful spending.

The costliest example provided in the report listed the Marine Corps purchase of the CH-53K helicopter. The military branch planned to buy 44 more helicopters than it needed in 2013, according to the IG, costing taxpayers an additional $22.2 billion.

[Silver]

The Lying and Murdering is on full view in the Trump Administration with the willing participation by the Republican Congressmen. Why do Latter Day Saints allow themselves to be repeatedly deceived by the scoundrels, these pawns of the Gadiantons? But, but, but, at least it's not her!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... d-security

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

On Friday the House overwhelmingly approved a massive increase in military spending, passing a $696 billion National Defense Authorization bill for 2018. President Trump’s request already included a huge fifty or so billion dollar spending increase, but the Republican-led House found even that to be far too small. They added another $30 billion to the bill for good measure. Even President Trump, in his official statement, expressed some concern over spending in the House-passed bill.

According to the already weak limitations on military spending increases in the 2011 “sequestration” law, the base military budget for 2018 would be $72 billion more than allowed.

Don’t worry, they’ll find a way to get around that!

The big explosion in military spending comes as the US is planning to dramatically increase its military actions overseas. The president is expected to send thousands more troops back to Afghanistan, the longest war in US history. After nearly 16 years, the Taliban controls more territory than at anytime since the initial US invasion and ISIS is seeping into the cracks created by constant US military action in the country.

The Pentagon and Defense Secretary James Mattis are already telling us that even when ISIS is finally defeated in Iraq, the US military doesn’t dare end its occupation of the country again. Look for a very expensive array of permanent US military bases throughout the country. So much for our 2003 invasion creating a stable democracy, as the neocons promised.

In Syria, the United States has currently established at least eight military bases even though it has no permission to do so from the Syrian government nor does it have a UN resolution authorizing the US military presence there. Pentagon officials have made it clear they will continue to occupy Syrian territory even after ISIS is defeated, to “stabilize” the region.

And let’s not forget that Washington is planning to send the US military back to Libya, another US intervention we were promised would be stabilizing but that turned out to be a disaster.

Also, the drone wars continue in Somalia and elsewhere, as does the US participation in Saudi Arabia’s horrific two year war on impoverished Yemen.

[freedomforall]

I honestly don't think it matters too much who is piloting the boat when it goes over the waterfall. We're headed there one way or the other. The only questions become "How sharp are the rocks at the bottom?" and "How come only the rich get lifeboats?"

In short, my prediction is it will cause such desperation when this thing finally tips over that the American people will accept any alternative to chaos.

I have to agree with you, IWrite. This is what I've been saying for a long time now. No one as POTUS can or will bring back freedom and liberty as understood by our Founders. The laws of the Constitution have been eroding for so long that now, even judges will not allow the Constitution be brought into their courtrooms. Why? Because they now function under the law of the sea, not the law of the land. The law of the land says, a trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty and a speedy trial. The law of the sea says kill anyone found to not be following the tyrant dictator.
We are headed to the waterfall leading to destruction and have been for many, many decades.

Said Nikita Khrushchev: "You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won't have to fight you. We'll so weaken your economy until you'll fall like overripe fruit into our hands."

I cannot put all the weight of this decay on Trumps shoulders, it wouldn't be fair or just.

The fault lies on the so-called American people. If they would have learned the Constitution and held politicians accountable to their oath, we wouldn't be in such a mess.

How many illegal immigrants want to follow the Constitution, or even care?
How many only came here to get free benies paid for by the hard working tax payers.

I mean, this list of questions could go on the full length of the waterfall itself.

Said Ezra Taft Benson: "We had better take our small pain now than our greater loss later. There were souls who wished afterwards that they had stood and fought with Washington and the founding fathers, but they waited too long—they passed up eternal glory. There has never been a greater time than now to stand up against entrenched evil. And while the gentiles established the Constitution, we have a divine mandate to preserve it. But unfortunately today in this freedom struggle, many gentiles are showing greater wisdom in their generation than the children of light."

[freedomforall]

We must repeal Obamacare

[Silver]

To the Official Eternal Trump Rah-Rah Squad this will all be Obama's fault too:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... nken-uncle

By Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Blain’s Morning Porridge – July 18th 2017

“Man there’s an opera out on the Turnpike, there’s a ballet being fought out in the alley...”

Bit messy in Washington this morning as yet another flagship policy of the Trump administration spirals down the plughole. Last night’s abysmal demise of his Obamacare repeal and replacement puts all his grand visions of economic stimulus, tax reform, and fiscal policy back under the cosh. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, hit the nail on the head when he said last week Washington has become a national embarrassment.

(Jamie – it’s not just you. Our guys might just be worse. That photo of “our team” in Brussels yesterday was a hoot. That they looked like a team of elderly accountants on day-release with not a single briefing document between them says it all. If their materials were really in their briefcases – why did the guy at the end have a brand new unused notebook and his daughters yellow flower-fairy pen laid out neatly on the table? Plus Dodgy Davies apparently only lasted a few hours before heading back to London… Nice to know they take the Brexit negotiations seriously. The ghost of Margaret Thatcher must be spinning at Warp 5.)

I’ll be chatting to my US chums later today to try and get a steer on where the Republicans and Trump go from here. The dollar, stocks and bond yields all fell. The markets will read it as further confirmation of lower for longer – and a Fed hike maybe in December.

Bloomberg are warning of a “Turnaround Tuesday – it’s apparently the most prevalent day for a 180 degree sentiment flip. Time for a dollar shock? Possibly. It says Hedge funds are now short the dollar. Trumpflation trades have died. The rate hike cycle is dead. Hmm.. you have been warned.

And with the US now looking like a deflated drunken uncle, the focus is firmly fixed on what Mario Draghi says on Thursday at the ECB meeting. Does he confirm Euro strength with a bullish assessment of Eurozone recovery, and hint at an early taper and normalisation… Or does he step back, go soft and mushy, and make some “kick that can down that strasse” comments?

[iWriteStuff]

To the Official Eternal Trump Rah-Rah Squad this will all be Obama's fault too:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... nken-uncle

By Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Blain’s Morning Porridge – July 18th 2017

“Man there’s an opera out on the Turnpike, there’s a ballet being fought out in the alley...”

Bit messy in Washington this morning as yet another flagship policy of the Trump administration spirals down the plughole. Last night’s abysmal demise of his Obamacare repeal and replacement puts all his grand visions of economic stimulus, tax reform, and fiscal policy back under the cosh. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, hit the nail on the head when he said last week Washington has become a national embarrassment.

(Jamie – it’s not just you. Our guys might just be worse. That photo of “our team” in Brussels yesterday was a hoot. That they looked like a team of elderly accountants on day-release with not a single briefing document between them says it all. If their materials were really in their briefcases – why did the guy at the end have a brand new unused notebook and his daughters yellow flower-fairy pen laid out neatly on the table? Plus Dodgy Davies apparently only lasted a few hours before heading back to London… Nice to know they take the Brexit negotiations seriously. The ghost of Margaret Thatcher must be spinning at Warp 5.)

I’ll be chatting to my US chums later today to try and get a steer on where the Republicans and Trump go from here. The dollar, stocks and bond yields all fell. The markets will read it as further confirmation of lower for longer – and a Fed hike maybe in December.

Bloomberg are warning of a “Turnaround Tuesday – it’s apparently the most prevalent day for a 180 degree sentiment flip. Time for a dollar shock? Possibly. It says Hedge funds are now short the dollar. Trumpflation trades have died. The rate hike cycle is dead. Hmm.. you have been warned.

And with the US now looking like a deflated drunken uncle, the focus is firmly fixed on what Mario Draghi says on Thursday at the ECB meeting. Does he confirm Euro strength with a bullish assessment of Eurozone recovery, and hint at an early taper and normalisation… Or does he step back, go soft and mushy, and make some “kick that can down that strasse” comments?

To be fair, nothing could make me more happy than to see this legislation fail. "Repeal and Replace" was really just "Re-deal and Repay", assuring nothing substantial really changes except this time the Republicans get showered by insurance company lobbyist money instead of the Democrats. Whatever happened to just "Repeal"? Why were they fighting so hard to keep ObamaCare alive and only slightly modified?

What's really left to cheer about in the Trump agenda? Anything that had potential is being flushed down the toilet with extreme prejudice.

[Arenera]

To the Official Eternal Trump Rah-Rah Squad this will all be Obama's fault too:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-1 ... nken-uncle

By Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Blain’s Morning Porridge – July 18th 2017

“Man there’s an opera out on the Turnpike, there’s a ballet being fought out in the alley...”

Bit messy in Washington this morning as yet another flagship policy of the Trump administration spirals down the plughole. Last night’s abysmal demise of his Obamacare repeal and replacement puts all his grand visions of economic stimulus, tax reform, and fiscal policy back under the cosh. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, hit the nail on the head when he said last week Washington has become a national embarrassment.

(Jamie – it’s not just you. Our guys might just be worse. That photo of “our team” in Brussels yesterday was a hoot. That they looked like a team of elderly accountants on day-release with not a single briefing document between them says it all. If their materials were really in their briefcases – why did the guy at the end have a brand new unused notebook and his daughters yellow flower-fairy pen laid out neatly on the table? Plus Dodgy Davies apparently only lasted a few hours before heading back to London… Nice to know they take the Brexit negotiations seriously. The ghost of Margaret Thatcher must be spinning at Warp 5.)

I’ll be chatting to my US chums later today to try and get a steer on where the Republicans and Trump go from here. The dollar, stocks and bond yields all fell. The markets will read it as further confirmation of lower for longer – and a Fed hike maybe in December.

Bloomberg are warning of a “Turnaround Tuesday – it’s apparently the most prevalent day for a 180 degree sentiment flip. Time for a dollar shock? Possibly. It says Hedge funds are now short the dollar. Trumpflation trades have died. The rate hike cycle is dead. Hmm.. you have been warned.

And with the US now looking like a deflated drunken uncle, the focus is firmly fixed on what Mario Draghi says on Thursday at the ECB meeting. Does he confirm Euro strength with a bullish assessment of Eurozone recovery, and hint at an early taper and normalisation… Or does he step back, go soft and mushy, and make some “kick that can down that strasse” comments?

To be fair, nothing could make me more happy than to see this legislation fail. "Repeal and Replace" was really just "Re-deal and Repay", assuring nothing substantial really changes except this time the Republicans get showered by insurance company lobbyist money instead of the Democrats. Whatever happened to just "Repeal"? Why were they fighting so hard to keep ObamaCare alive and only slightly modified?

What's really left to cheer about in the Trump agenda? Anything that had potential is being flushed down the toilet with extreme prejudice.

Yes, the Kohler K-3933-0 toilet offers comfort height along water-saving flush performance in a 1.28 gallon flush. Save money on water while your health-care costs go up!

[iWriteStuff]

Remember how everyone was talking about the fact that if Hillary got elected, we'd never hear the end of the email scandal?

Starting to think we'll never hear the end of the Russian scandal. Is there anyone in Trump's administration who didn't meet with the Russians?

The Trumps and the Truth

Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn’t abide Hillary Clinton’s legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling. Yet on the story of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump and his family are repeating the mistakes that doomed Mrs. Clinton.

That’s the lesson the Trumps should draw from the fiasco over Don Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with Russians peddling dirt on Mrs. Clinton. First Don Jr. let news of the meeting leak without getting ahead of it. Then the White House tried to explain it away as a “nothingburger” that focused on adoptions from Russia.

When that was exposed as incomplete, Don Jr. released his emails that showed the Russian lure about Mrs. Clinton and Don Jr. all excited—“I love it.” Oh, and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Beltway bagman Paul Manafort were also at the meeting. Don Jr. told Sean Hannity this was the full story. But then news leaked that a Russian-American lobbyist was also at the meeting.

Even if the ultimate truth of this tale is merely that Don Jr. is a political dunce who took a meeting that went nowhere—the best case—the Trumps made it appear as if they have something to hide. They have created the appearance of a conspiracy that on the evidence Don Jr. lacks the wit to concoct. And they handed their opponents another of the swords that by now could arm a Roman legion.

Don’t you get it, guys? Special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating the Russia story. Everything that is potentially damaging to the Trumps will come out, one way or another. Everything. Denouncing leaks as “fake news” won’t wash as a counter-strategy beyond the President’s base, as Mr. Trump’s latest 36% approval rating shows.

Mr. Trump seems to realize he has a problem because the White House has announced the hiring of white-collar Washington lawyer Ty Cobb to manage its Russia defense. He’ll presumably supersede the White House counsel, whom Mr. Trump ignores, and New York outside counsel Marc Kasowitz, who is out of his political depth.

Mr. Cobb has an opening to change the Trump strategy to one with the best chance of saving his Presidency: radical transparency. Release everything to the public ahead of the inevitable leaks. Mr. Cobb and his team should tell every Trump family member, campaign operative and White House aide to disclose every detail that might be relevant to the Russian investigations.

That means every meeting with any Russian or any American with Russian business ties. Every phone call or email. And every Trump business relationship with Russians going back years. This should include every relevant part of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, which the President will resist but Mr. Mueller is sure to seek anyway.

Then release it all to the public. Whatever short-term political damage this might cause couldn’t be worse than the death by a thousand cuts of selective leaks, often out of context, from political opponents in Congress or the special counsel’s office. If there really is nothing to the Russia collusion allegations, transparency will prove it. Americans will give Mr. Trump credit for trusting their ability to make a fair judgment. Pre-emptive disclosure is the only chance to contain the political harm from future revelations.

This is the opposite of the Clinton stonewall strategy, which should be instructive. That strategy saved Bill Clinton’s Presidency in the 1990s at a fearsome price and only because the media and Democrats in Congress rallied behind him. Mr. Trump can’t count on the same from Republicans and most of the media want him run out of office.

If Mr. Trump’s approval rating stays under 40% into next year, Republicans will begin to separate themselves from an unpopular President in a (probably forlorn) attempt to save their majorities in Congress. If Democrats win the House, the investigations into every aspect of the Trump business empire, the 2016 campaign and the Administration will multiply. Impeachment will be a constant undercurrent if not an active threat. His supporters will become demoralized.

* * *
Mr. Trump will probably ignore this advice, as he has most of what these columns have suggested. Had he replaced James Comey at the FBI shortly after taking office in January, for example, he might not now have a special counsel threatening him and his family.

Mr. Trump somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the Presidency. He’s wrong. He and his family seem oblivious to the brutal realities of Washington politics. Those realities will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy toward the Russia probe. They don’t have much more time to do it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trumps ... 1500332545