TRUMP.

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freedomforall
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Re: TRUMP.

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Our country is in dire stress with all the back and forth labeling and corruption in high places. Therefore, it is warranted to fly a flag upside down.

8. Respect for flag

(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property
US Flag1.jpg
US Flag1.jpg (38.72 KiB) Viewed 1498 times

See also from the 2:05 mark:

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Elizabeth
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... Lvz4Bw1lV8

'Texas can handle anything': Donald Trump tells Corpus Christi crowd.

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Elizabeth
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... kbbuipofB0


Trump to Give $1 Million of His Own Money to Harvey Relief.

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Elizabeth
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"In proclaiming Sept. 3 a "National Day of Prayer for the Victims of Hurricane Harvey and for our National Response and Recovery Efforts, President Trump noted that from the nation's beginning, "Americans have joined together in prayer during times of great need, to ask for God's blessings and guidance."

"We invite all Americans to join us as we continue to pray for those who have lost family members or friends, and for those who are suffering in this time of crisis," his proclamation stated.

"I urge Americans of all faiths and religious traditions and backgrounds to offer prayers today for all those harmed by Hurricane Harvey, including people who have lost family members or been injured, those who have lost homes or other property, and our first responders, law enforcement officers, military personnel and medical professionals leading the response and recovery efforts."

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Joel
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Legal Group Claims Trump Might Have Broken Law By Deleting ‘Heeling’ Tweet

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Legal Group Claims Trump Might Have Broken Law By Deleting ‘Heeling’ Tweet

A legal group suing the Trump Administration correctly guessed on Friday that the president would delete a miswritten tweet. In doing so, he may have violated federal record keeping laws, they said.

“Texas is heeling [sic] fast thanks to all of the great men & women who have been working so hard. But still, so much to do,” wrote President Donald Trump in support of storm victims. “Will be back tomorrow!” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, however, took shots at how POTUS handled the obvious misspelling.

Image
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This isn’t just about bad typing. CREW and another nonprofit group, the National Security Archive, sued the Trump administration in June over this sort of thing. They argue that the deletion of @realDonaldTrump’s tweets, and the administration’s use of confidential messaging applications break federal law because communications aren’t preserved.

LawNewz.com has reached out to the White House for comment.

CREW has pretty much submitted the current administration to nonstop criticism and scrutiny. For example, they have filed a complaint over an alleged conflict of interest involving top adviser Jared Kushner, and they successfully filed a Hatch Act complaint against the White House Social Media Director.

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Joel
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Elizabeth
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"From hauling boxes of relief supplies to feeding children, President Donald Trump made his time in Houston on Saturday count, as he and first lady Melania Trump sought to raise the spirits of the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
The Trumps, joined by Cabinet members including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, traveled to the NRG Center in Houston, now serving as a shelter for thousands of residents displaced by the floods.

"This shows a lot of support. It perks up morale,” said Kevin Jason Hipolito, 37.

As Trump fed children and played with those bold enough to play with the president, Melania Trump, sporting a denim work shirt and Texas baseball cap, sat on the floor with other children.
“The message is that things are working out well. Really, I think people appreciate what’s been done,” President Trump said. “It’s been done very efficiently, very well, and that’s what we want. We’re very happy with the way everything is going. A lot of love. There’s a lot of love.”
Trump also helped with a very practical form of assistance Saturday, updating his initial disaster declaration to reduce the costs to state and local governments. Federal cost-sharing will be increased to 90 percent for debris removal, and 100 percent for emergency protective measures, up from 75 percent in the initial declaration.

Trump then stopped at the First Church of Pearland, where he said recovery efforts could take “two years, three years.”
“I think because this is Texas you’ll probably do it in six months, I have a feeling,” he said.
“I think for a lot of places maybe it never gets done. I think in your case it’ll get done very quickly,” Trump added.
At the church, Trump reminded those gathered that they will not be alone when they worship tomorrow, because Trump had declared Sunday a National Day of Prayer.
“So many of you are faith-based and I want to just tell you that tomorrow we have national prayer day. Tomorrow’s a very big day, so go to your church and pray and enjoy the day,” Trump said.

Elaine Ybarra, 41, said Trump’s visit was important to her.
“It’s quite humbling to have somebody of his stature come to this church,” she said.
“Him being here and bringing global attention to everything that’s going on here, he brings up prayers from around the world,” she said.
After their stop in Houston, the president and first lady headed to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to comfort storm victims there."

https://www.westernjournalism.com/presi ... tyalliance

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Joel
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Sassy Trump: Hurricane "Not Good"

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Hurricane Sassy

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Elizabeth
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"Judge Roy Moore, the conservative candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama's special election
When the ACLU tried to force him to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom, he refused and was ultimately removed for standing his ground.
Judge Moore's resolve terrifies those in Washington whose power is based on bending politicians to their will. The last thing the "Chamber of Cronyism" wants is a true conservative in the Senate fighting to stop their liberal policies.
The U.S. Chamber has a long history of supporting liberal policies like the Wall Street bailout, massive omnibus spending bills, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and Obamacare.
Judge Moore supports President Trump and will fight to secure our borders, fully repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, and stop the spending, bailouts, and debt that are destroying our country.
The primary election runoff between Moore and his pro-establishment opponent is Tuesday, September 26th so there is no time to waste. Help Judge Roy Moore win this critical race by making a contribution to his Senate campaign.
Help us push this courageous conservative on to victory!"

Ken Cuccinelli II
President, Senate Conservatives Fund
Former Attorney General of Virginia
P.O. Box 388
Alexandria, VA 22313

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Re: TRUMP.

Post by Silver »

Puff pieces on Trump and how he uses his ill-gotten gain are great for the sheeple. How about some a look at the real man and the dirty business surrounding him? All of which, by the way, was knowable prior to the election.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -new-light

Russia Laundering Probe Puts Trump Tower Meeting in New Light
By Christian Berthelsen
September 15, 2017, 4:05 AM CDT

U.S. prosecutors follow funds from alleged $230 million fraud
Criminal probe came as Russian lawyer in matter met Trump Jr.

More than the White House was at stake when Donald Trump Jr. met at Trump Tower last summer with a top lawyer for Moscow’s regional government.

The attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had a client with another pressing matter -- a U.S. criminal investigation into possible Russian money laundering.

Natalia VeselnitskayaPhotographer: Yury Martyanov/AFP via Getty Images
Veselnitskaya, who met with Trump Jr. after an email promised him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, has been depicted as an activist working to repeal human-rights sanctions against Russia.

But when she stepped into Trump Tower, Veselnitskaya was also representing a client ensnared in a long-running U.S. investigation into an alleged web of Russian money-laundering. That criminal inquiry, opened by federal prosecutors in New York in 2013 and previously unreported, is still active, according to people familiar with the probe. There was no mention of an ongoing criminal inquiry when the U.S. settled a related civil lawsuit against Veselnitskaya’s client in May.

The outline of the criminal investigation, stretching from Switzerland to Cyprus, is laid out deep within the 734 filings in the civil case. Several countries have supplied documents to the U.S., as have Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc. and other global banks that aren’t targets. U.S. prosecutors in the case are seeking to track parts of more than $200 million they say left Russia after a massive fraud, and to identify who was involved in the scheme.

The revelation adds a new element to the Trump Tower meeting, which has emerged as a focus of congressional investigators and a U.S. special counsel inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Core Financial Interests

Kept secret for more than a year, the June 2016 gathering was hosted by Trump Jr., alongside Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, and Paul Manafort, then chairman of the Trump campaign. There’s no public record of what was said. Kushner has testified that the meeting was a waste of his time and that he left early. The president’s son initially said the subject was the adoption of Russian children by Americans before information surfaced about the Clinton connection.

“The origins of the meeting and what happened make a lot more sense now,” said Seva Gunitsky, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and an authority on Russian foreign policy. For the Russian side, he said, the meeting was likely less about the presidential campaign than it was about advancing core national financial interests. “If you’re looking for potential evidence for a quid pro quo, this would be exactly that type of thing.”

Veselnitskaya attested in court documents that the U.S. told Russia its probe was criminal, which she called ‘a false representation.’ Reached Thursday in Moscow, Veselnitskaya said she wasn’t aware of the continuing U.S. criminal probe and that it wasn’t discussed at the Trump Tower meeting. She reiterated that the focus of the meeting was Russia’s ban on adoptions by Americans and U.S. sanctions.

“There was no discussion of a deal -- you repeal one and then we in turn repeal the other,” Veselnitskaya said. “I categorically wasn’t authorized to discuss something like that.”
Representatives for the Southern District of New York, Kushner and Manafort declined to comment. A lawyer for Trump Jr. didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bitter Battle

The adoption discussion is one scene in a decade-long drama that features Veselnitskaya in multiple roles. The saga, set off by a massive alleged theft that victimized an American-led investment fund, Hermitage Capital, also includes a dead lawyer, a bitter diplomatic battle between Moscow and Washington, and the previously undisclosed criminal probe to trace the funds.

Hermitage’s offices were raided in 2007 by Russian government officials. Then, according to U.S. prosecutors and Hermitage founder William Browder, criminals used companies in Hermitage’s portfolio to milk $230 million in fraudulent tax refunds from the Russian Treasury. Launderers working in league with the scam’s perpetrators spirited the money out of Russia through an elaborate network of shell companies and bank accounts, they allege.

A lawyer and auditor working for Browder, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested and died in a Moscow jail in 2009. U.S. lawmakers imposed sanctions on Russian officials, judges and investigators who they believed were involved. The U.S. Magnitsky Act infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin, who responded by halting U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans.

Veselnitskaya emerged as one of Russia’s international opponents to the sanctions. Around the time of the Trump Tower meeting, she appeared in Washington, D.C., for the screening of “The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes,” which aims to erode the foundations of the U.S. sanctions case, accusing Browder of perpetrating the fraud and attempting to cast doubt on whether Magnitsky was tortured to death.

According to Browder, Veselnitskaya’s focus on broader Russian interests was clear when she showed up for the Trump Tower meeting. “This is about sanctions,” he said in an interview. “Adoption is just a code word for sanctions.”

Prevezon Case

At the time, Veselnitskaya was also defending a Russian named Denis Katsyv, whose company, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., was accused by the U.S. government of receiving some of the proceeds of the Hermitage tax-refund scam. Her work for Prevezon’s Katsyv is her only case outside of Russia, she has said.

Veselnitskaya didn’t provide additional comment on Katsyv’s behalf. Faith Gay, a U.S. lawyer for Prevezon, declined to comment.

Veselnitskaya, a Moscow-trained lawyer who has said in U.S. court filings she doesn’t speak English, was accompanied to the Trump Tower by Rinat Akhmetshin, who had done public-relations work on behalf of Prevezon. Akhmetshin declined to comment.

Federal prosecutors in New York launched their investigation into the Prevezon case in early 2013, sending evidence requests to countries including Switzerland, Latvia and Cyprus, according to court records filed this spring as part of an evidentiary dispute in the civil lawsuit.

Prosecutors also issued grand jury subpoenas to banks including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG and TD Bank. Several banks produced records in response, according to court records filed by Prevezon’s lawyer.

Representatives for Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and TD bank declined to comment. A UBS spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Request to Russia

The criminal investigation has focused on what prosecutors called an elaborate money-laundering network used to move proceeds of the Hermitage scheme out of Russia and around the world.

"The bulk of the government’s investigation has been directed at ascertaining where the proceeds of the fraud went, and who was involved in laundering them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni wrote in a legal brief in April.

Prosecutors said they sought the assistance of the Russian government in the case. The Russians refused to honor an information request, claiming they could not find evidence of the transactions, Monteleoni said. Instead, the government responded with several irrelevant documents and a letter from a Russian prosecutor attesting to the innocence of Russian government officials as well as Prevezon’s owner, according to the court records.

Russia’s response to the request said that the alleged offenses never occurred and that the complaint was an attempt by Browder to "discredit the law enforcement and judicial authorities of Russia," court records show.

U.S. prosecutors said they ultimately received relevant Russian records through other means. A Russian criminal investigator had gathered bank statements proving the existence of the laundering transactions, and Russian financial analysts confirmed their existence, Monteleoni wrote.

“It is hard to understand how the Russian prosecutor could not have been familiar with these facts,” Monteleoni wrote in a court filing.

Spokespeople for Russia’s Prosecutor General didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Veselnitskaya, in a 2016 court filing, said the U.S. had declined the Russian Prosecutor General’s offer to cooperate.

Last-Hour Settlement

In September 2013, then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed the civil forfeiture lawsuit against Prevezon, seeking to seize New York real estate that he said Katsyv and two other owners of Prevezon bought with a chunk of tax refunds.

In a footnote to the civil case, the Justice Department complained that Veselnitskaya charged the government for a two-night stay at the Plaza Hotel even though she wasn’t deposed and didn’t attend the depositions in person. (The government asked the judge not to accept more such expenses.)

After years of court wrangling over the civil case, the Prevezon matter was set for trial in May 2017, promising a public view of prosecutors’ full allegations about the Russian money flows. But just days before opening arguments, the U.S. announced it had settled the case for $5.9 million.

The prosecutors called it a victory. So did Prevezon lawyer Gay, who called the U.S. settlement “almost an apology by the government.”


Several Democratic lawmakers looked at the Prevezon settlement in a new light two months later, when news emerged about the Veselnitskaya meeting in Trump Tower. In a letter, they asked whether the Russian lawyer, or members of the Trump team, may have put pressure on prosecutors in the matter. They also pointed out that Bharara, whose office opened the case, had been summarily fired by Trump as the case neared trial.

What wasn’t publicly known at the time was that federal prosecutors in Bharara’s old office were continuing a criminal probe into the laundering allegations.

— With assistance by Greg Farrell, Andrew Martin, Gregory White, and Irina Reznik

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Elizabeth
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https://www.westernjournalism.com/presi ... tyalliance

“ President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump not only helped serve, but paid for meals given to Hurricane Irma victims in Naples, Florida on Thursday.
Fox News host Harris Faulkner first reported on Outnumbered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was providing the meal, but then corrected herself.
“So moments ago I said that the food was provided by FEMA, as often they will do, but this is a nuance now,” Faulkner said. “The president and the first lady now are hosting this event with their own catering, if you will.”
“They paid for the food that is being distributed right now,” co-host Sandra Smith added to clarify.
That’s awesome,” Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe said, while watching live as the first couple served up the meals. “I commend him for being there today, shaking their hand, looking them in the eye and giving them that hope and belief that things are going to get better.”

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Elizabeth
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https://www.westernjournalism.com/11-ye ... tyalliance


A young boy wrote a letter to President Donald Trump this summer asking if he could mow the White House lawn had his wish come true Friday.

In late June, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders began a new tradition of reading letters from children during some White House news conferences.

Eleven-year-old yard entrepreneur Frank Giaccio offered to mow the White House lawn for free, and Sanders read his letter aloud to reporters in August.

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 2, 2017
Trump accepted the offer after the young boy said it would be an “honour to mow the White House lawn.” Giaccio, who was 10 when he wrote the letter but recently turned 11, also sent a brochure detailing other services he offers, which include weed-whacking.

Giaccio arrived at the White House on Friday ready to work, and he even got the opportunity to meet Trump.

Several images and videos have surfaced on social media of Frank mowing the lawn and his exchange with Trump, who thanked him for doing a “great job.”

THE HILL: "WATCH: 11-year-old gets his wish to mow White House lawn, refuses to stop to chat with Trump … pic.twitter.com/2HBuqEDZbu"

— The Briefing Room (@TheBFRoom) September 15, 2017
"Great job, Frank!"

Pres. Trump greets 11-year-old Frank Giaccio, who volunteered to mow the WH lawn. Video –> https://t.co/QKdTaVWzVq pic.twitter.com/BRlm70Cqtf

— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) September 15, 2017
“Frank is hard at work in the Rose Garden and doing a great job!” Sanders said.

11-Year-Old Mows WH Lawn, Meets Trump
Frank is hard at work in the Rose Garden and doing a great job! pic.twitter.com/u4f2DtLvu6

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 15, 2017
“After writting @POTUS @realDonaldTrump, 11yr old Frank came to the @WhiteHouse with his with father to mow the lawn. Look who stopped by,” tweeted Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media.

After writting @POTUS @realDonaldTrump, 11yr old Frank came to the @WhiteHouse with his with father to mow the lawn. Look who stopped by… pic.twitter.com/oW15FzTx2u

— Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) September 15, 2017
“A presidential high-five for Frank the lawnmower boy, while hard at working trimming the grass in the Rose Garden this morning,” wrote Mark Knoller, CBS News’ White House correspondent.

A presidential high-five for Frank the lawnmower boy, while hard at working trimming the grass in the Rose Garden this morning. pic.twitter.com/QyW1XUUx97

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 15, 2017
Frank said he typically charges $8 to mow a lawn, but did it for Trump for free.

Trump later tweeted his thanks.

Frank “FX” Giaccio-
On behalf of @FLOTUS Melania & myself, THANK YOU for doing a GREAT job this morning! @NatlParkService gives you an A+! pic.twitter.com/135DxuapUI

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2017
Trump also said Frank is “the future of the country” and would become “very famous.”
After Frank said he wanted to grow up and become a Navy SEAL, Trump said, “He’ll make it.”

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Elizabeth
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https://conservativetribune.com/gay-cou ... tyalliance


"A Christian baker from Colorado received an unexpected blessing from the administration of President Donald Trump last week when the Justice Department filed a brief on his behalf to the Supreme Court, which is slated to hear his religious liberty case upon returning to the bench next month.
For Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, the trouble started five years ago when he politely refused to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple. Although he only meant to protect his religious beliefs, he wound up triggering a chain reaction of undeserved backlash.
It included death threats from angry activists, character assassinations from the liberal media, a judgment of illegal discrimination from a Colorado civil rights commission and an affirmation of the commission’s ruling by a lower court.
The tide finally began to turn in Phillips’ favor in late June when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal and decide whether he actually discriminated against the homosexual couple when he refused to bake their cake over his religious objections.
And just on Thursday, he won yet another “huge” victory when Trump’s DOJ filed an amicus brief defending his decision five years earlier to not bake the homosexual couple’s wedding cake.
In the brief, acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall specifically argued that allowing the lower court’s ruling against Phillips to stand would create a violation of the First Amendment “where public accommodations law compels someone to create expression for a particular person or entity and to participate, literally or figuratively, in a ceremony or other expressive event.”
“When Phillips designs and creates a custom wedding cake for a specific couple and a specific wedding, he plays an active role in enabling that ritual, and he associates himself with the celebratory message conveyed,” he added. “Forcing Phillips to create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs invades his First Amendment rights.”
This is good. Very good, in fact.
And according to The Washington Times, the DOJ’s surprising decision to file a brief in Phillips’ case “raises the possibility that the government will also ask for time to argue in front of the justices when the case goes for oral argument.”
That would be even better.
During the administration of former President Barack Hussein Obama, a man who loved sitting idly by as Christians were persecuted, the DOJ said nothing about Phillips, instead choosing to allow him to suffer the indignity of being persecuted for his Christian beliefs.
But with Trump in the White House, it appears those days are finally behind us. Thank God."

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http://constitution.com/president-trump ... afe-space/

"U.S. President Donald Trump spoke in front of the United Nations for the first time in his fledgling presidency today, and his message to the nation of North Korea was very clear. For months the rogue regime, led by the maniacal Kim Jong Un, has been toying with the United States. Between a bevy of ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests, and incredulous threats to reduce the U.S. to rubble, North Korea has been insistent on their hopes to attack America with their newly proven nuclear ICBM arsenal.
This, of course, is not sitting well with President Trump, a first term republican and unconventional POTUS, who has responded in kind with his own litany of warnings for the dainty dictator of the DPRK. Much of Trump’s administration have echoed his sentiments, inflicting American Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, who just last week told an emergency session of the General Assembly that the United States would be forced to act should the latest round of international sanctions fail to curb Kim’s wild ways.
Trump himself had no less dire of a tone during his time in front of the microphone today, taking his rhetoric one step further than Haley’s, and using his favorite new nickname for Kim Jong Un.
“The president referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as ‘rocket man’ and threatened to ‘totally destroy North Korea’ if the United States is forced to defend itself or allies against the North’s aggression.
“’The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing, and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary.’
“During his more than 40-minute inaugural address to the UN General Assembly, Trump said that he will ‘always put America first’ and the U.S. can no longer be taken advantage of in its dealings around the globe.
“Trump said he will ‘defend America’s interests above all else.’ He says the U.S. will ‘forever be a great friend to the world,’ including its allies, but the U.S. can no longer be taken advantage of and get nothing in return.”While Trump speaks in plain terms regarding the future of global conflict, many in the United Nations were hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. The President’s suggestion that all nations should strive to put their own people first received only scattered applause throughout the hall."


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Trump Administration Wants to Increase CIA Drone Strikes

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Trump Administration Wants to Increase CIA Drone Strikes

WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump visited CIA headquarters in the first weeks of his presidency, he toured the secure floor where agency officers direct drone strikes against suspected terrorists, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News.

Impressed by what he saw, Trump conveyed to incoming CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the assembled agency officers that he wanted them to take a more aggressive posture, according to two current U.S. officials and one former official briefed on the visit.

Soon afterward, multiple sources said, the CIA began carrying out drone strikes that might not have been authorized under the Obama administration, including in Syria, where the military has taken the lead on targeting militant leaders.

The White House granted CIA officers more autonomy to decide on whether and when the U.S. can pull the trigger in various places around the world, including in Yemen, where the military carries out the bulk of the airstrikes, according to four U.S. officials who have been briefed on the agency's counterterrorism operations. The upshot is less micromanaging of targeting decisions by the White House, these officials say.

Now, the Trump administration is contemplating additional policy changes that will further expand the CIA's authority to conduct drone strikes in a number of countries, both in and out of war zones. Such a move would reverse years of effort by President Barack Obama to reduce the CIA's role in targeted killing and shift that responsibility to the military. It could also mean more civilian casualties in CIA drone strikes.

In reporting this story, NBC News spoke to officials at intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, Congress and the White House. All requested anonymity to discuss a classified program.

At the peak of its lethal activity in 2010 during the Obama administration, the CIA was carrying out as many as two drone strikes a week in Pakistan. Some current and former officers have argued that turning American's premier spy agency into what one former CIA officer called "a killing machine" caused an erosion in its traditional espionage mission against adversaries such as Russia and China. A changing threat environment, and new Obama rules, led to a sharp drop off in the pace of CIA strikes in recent years.

Pompeo has pushed for more freedom of action. He wants Trump to authorize the spy agency to strike targets in Afghanistan, which had long been the domain of the military, a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge told NBC News. The New York Times first reported that news last week.

The White House also is drafting a new written policy on counterterrorist operations outside of war zones that would supercede the so-called drone playbook that the Obama administration had hoped would govern the decisions of future presidents, several officials said.

The drone playbook, known as the Presidential Policy Guidance, or PPG, includes a provision that no strike should go forward unless analysts determine that there is a near-certainty that no civilians will be harmed. And it includes a provision forbidding the addition of new detainees to the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Trump administration is contemplating removing both of those restrictions, officials involved in the planning told NBC News.

These developments concern human rights activists, who argue that the CIA is less accountable than the military.

"The last thing the U.S. should be doing right now is expanding a global, secret killing program," said Zeke Johnson, senior director of programs for Amnesty International USA. "By its own admission, the U.S. government's use of drones has meant the deaths of civilians and there has been insufficient accountability."

U.S. officials who favor the changes point out that the military's conventional bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria appears to have killed far more civilians than U.S. drones have.

But such comparisons are hard to make. Because the CIA drone strikes are secret and the U.S. government will not officially confirm them, there is no way for outsiders to gauge their frequency or effectiveness. In recent years, officials say, the pace of CIA drone strikes has declined as the military has conducted most of the drone strikes in nearly every country in which they are occurring, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. But that also means it is not possible for outside groups to determine how many CIA strikes have occurred.

Another factor is that the CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command have integrated their targeted killing programs in recent years, U.S. officials say. It's become easier for the CIA to hand off intelligence about a target and have the military pull the trigger, or vice versa.

"It's impossible to know with Yemen, it's impossible to know with Iraq and Syria, [how many CIA strikes have occurred]," said Bill Roggio, the editor of Long War Journal, a website that has tracked the strikes for years based on local media reports and other data.

The exception is Pakistan, where the U.S. military generally doesn't bomb, and where the al Qaeda threat has much diminished in recent years. There have been five CIA drone strikes in Pakistan in 2017, up from three last year, according to Long War Journal.

It's unclear whether a Trump overhaul to Obama's drone playbook would be consequential in practice. Currently the playbook does not apply in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. It also does not apply for now in parts of Yemen and Somalia, which the military has declared to be active U.S. war zones.

But the playbook is still in place for Pakistan and anywhere else the CIA could potentially conduct drone strikes, including Libya and other parts of North Africa where ISIS is becoming an increasingly problematic presence.

In war zones such as Iraq and Syria, the so-called law of war standard applies, which tolerates civilian casualties as long as the targets are military and the collateral damage is "proportional" to the military benefit.

U.S. national security officials say they have seen no sign that Trump is seeking to follow through on some of the extreme rhetoric he employed on the campaign trail, including his calls for killing the families of terrorists and employing interrogation tactics that are "worse than waterboarding," the simulated drowning technique used on three al Qaeda operatives that many consider to be torture.

The Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Trump floats idea of grand military parade

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Kim Jong-Un Calls Trump "A Frightened Dog" in Response to UN Address

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Elizabeth
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Re: TRUMP.

Post by Elizabeth »

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/09/trum ... yria-yemen


"The Trump administration has unveiled new travel restrictions on certain foreigners from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen as a replacement to a central portion of its controversial travel ban signed earlier this year.

Chad, North Korea and Venezuela are new to the list of affected countries. The new restrictions on travel vary by country and include a phased-in approach.

For the last three months, the Trump administration used an executive order to ban foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US unless they have a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in the country. Those nations include Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan."

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Elizabeth
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Re: TRUMP.

Post by Elizabeth »

"The international community had grown accustomed to Kim Jong Un’s wild and baseless threats over the course of his dictatorship.
The diminutive despot had been a thorn in the side of global diplomacy from the start, inheriting that particular position on the world’s stage from his hereditarily powerful predecessors. The two main targets of their once-harmless rhetoric have been South Korea and the United States, both nations that North Korea tends to blame for their current, prolonged economic downturn.
New developments in the once humorous regime have seemingly sucked all of the air right out of the room, so to speak.

With the successful launch of two intercontinental missiles capable of reaching the United States, and the purported test of a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, North Korea is suddenly far more of an actual threat than a hypothetical one. This has led to an unbelievable amount of taunting from Kim and his goons, with their latest threat crossing a line, both figuratively and literally should they carry through.
“North Korea’s foreign minister escalated tensions with the United States on Monday, saying that President Trump’s threatening comments about the country and its leadership were ‘a declaration of war’ and that North Korea had the right to shoot down American warplanes, even if they are not in North Korean air space.
“’The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,’ the foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, told reporters as he was leaving the United Nations after a week of General Assembly meetings in New York.
“’Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country,’ he said.
“Referring to Mr. Trump’s assertion that the North Korean leadership may not ‘be around much longer,’ Mr. Ri said that the question of ‘who would be around much longer will be answered’ by North Korea.”
The tiny Asian nation has made several threats regarding the wholesale destruction of the United States before, often accompanied by stunningly poor quality video propaganda, but a threat against U.S. warplanes in sovereign airspace is a new one.
The United States has been steadily working to ready themselves and their allies for an attack by the crazed Kim. Namely, military drills in concert with our allies in Japan and South Korea seem to be North Korea’s target in this latest verbal assault.
Certainly, should Kim and company attempt to incapacitate anyaircraft outside of their airspace, there will be a reckoning the likes of which the madman of Pyongyang could never have imagined.”

http://constitution.com/north-korea-now ... -airspace/

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James-T-Prout
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Re: TRUMP.

Post by James-T-Prout »

Donald J. Trump will continue to be a divisive character. I think it was meant to be that way in prophecy.

Some people love him and some people hate him. I feel he may be more polarizing than even Barack Obama.
And that is "OK".

From what I know about the situation surrounding his short legacy as President, :!:
he will do much damage to the Secret Combinations behind the media of today. This is why the media hates him. And will allow radical comments to be put on air about murdering the president and calling for impeachment...just a few days into office.

In the book: The Last Days Timeline, authored by myself....there is a documented a Secret Combination plot to
take down the next 4 short Presidents of the United States, Donald Trump included.

This information was derived from a 2600 year old prophecy by Ezra called Ezra's Eagle in the old King James Version of the Apocrypha.

I did a presentation about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgSZ_-LzHk8

Image

The research documents the future timeline from 2017 to when Christ comes. Including the present 2017; where Donald Trump is currently.

NOTE; it is in Prophecy 2600 years ago, that this 45th President of the United States would be very different than the past 14 or so Presidents since 1929. This one would be divisive and would do it "his own way".

The crazy attacks that you see on CNN news every evening, was foretold by Ezra 2600 years ago. It was supposed to be that way.

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David13
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Re: TRUMP.

Post by David13 »

Trump is not divisive.

You have been listening to too much mainstream media.

The left is divisive.
dc

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