With the Paris climate deal dead, the Iran nuclear deal on life support, and Obamacare eviscerated, Obama's only real legacy at this point is the presidency of Donald Trump.
“Today, President Trump boldly told the world that the United States will not be bound by an agreement that advances the interests of an enemy committed to the destruction of our nation and our allies. I commend President Trump for exiting the Obama Iranian nuclear deal and for his commitment to confronting Iran’s ‘Death to America’ regime.
“The Obama Iran deal has been a catastrophe. It gave Iran’s despotic regime the resources to expand across the Middle East, all the way up to the borders of our closest allies in the region, and created an incentive for the international community to turn a blind eye to Iranian military activities and atrocities. It provided Iran with vast resources that it could funnel into missile tests that could enable them to launch a nuclear weapon on the American homeland. It prohibited us from using our most powerful sanctions against the full range of Iranian aggression, but only imposed restrictions against some of Iran’s nuclear activities – and even then, only temporarily. As a result, the region is now potentially on the brink of war.
“The deal was also unenforceable on its own terms. It trusted the Iranians to enforce restrictions against themselves,
AND three quarters of the country think the RUSSIAN PROBE SHOULD CONTINUE, I'm SURE YOUR OMISSION OF THAT FACT WAS COMPLETELY INADVERTENT. s
SUUUUUUUURE IT WAS.
A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.
Financial records reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company, Essential Consultants L.L.C., for an array of business activities that went far beyond what was publicly known. Transactions totaling at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.
Among the previously unreported transactions were payments last year totaling about $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch. A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg.
Other transactions described in the financial records range from hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments by Fortune 500 firms with business before the Trump administration, to small amounts related to unexplained activities in foreign countries.
References to the transactions first appeared in a document posted to Twitter on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film star who was paid $130,000 by Essential Consultants to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Mr. Trump. The lawyer’s six-page document, titled “Preliminary Report of Findings,” does not explain the source of his information but describes in detail dates, dollar amounts and parties involved in various dealings by Mr. Cohen and his company.
The Times’s review of financial records confirmed much of what was in Mr. Avenatti’s report. In addition, a review of emails and interviews shed additional light on Mr. Cohen’s dealings with the company connected to Mr. Vekselberg, who was stopped and questioned at an airport earlier this year by investigators for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Taken together, the Times’s reporting and Mr. Avenatti’s document offer the most detailed picture to date on Mr. Cohen’s business dealings and financial entanglements in the run-up to and aftermath of the election. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud and election-law violations, among other matters, according to people briefed on the investigation. Stephen Ryan, a lawyer representing Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.
Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, is suing Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump to break her nondisclosure agreement related to the $130,000, and Mr. Avenatti has asserted that Mr. Cohen’s use of Essential Consultants to make the payment potentially violated banking laws. Mr. Cohen also used the same company to collect $250,000 after arranging payments in 2017 and 2018 by a major Republican donor, Elliott Broidy, to a former Playboy model he allegedly impregnated, according to news reports last month.
Among the other payments to Mr. Cohen’s company described in the financial records were four for $99,980 each between October 2017 and January 2018 by Novartis Investments SARL, a subsidiary of Novartis, the multinational pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland. Novartis — whose chief executive was among 15 business leaders invited to dinner with Mr. Trump at the World Economic Forum in January — spent more than $10 million on lobbying in Washington last year and frequently seeks approvals from federal drug regulators. Novartis did not respond to requests for comment.
In addition, Korea Aerospace Industries paid Mr. Cohen’s company $150,000 last November, according to the records. The company, an aircraft manufacturer, is partners with Lockheed Martin, the American defense contractor, in competition for a multibillion dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the United States Air Force that is expected to be awarded this year. A representative for Korea Aerospace declined to comment.
AT&T made four payments totaling $200,000 between October 2017 and January 2018, according to the documents. AT&T, whose proposed merger with Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department, issued a statement on Tuesday evening confirming that it made payments to Mr. Cohen’s firm.
“Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration,” the statement said. “They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.”
many Trump allies both inside and outside the White House have grown anxious in recent days about Giuliani’s whirlwind and unpredictable interviews.
“They’re admitting to enough that warrants scrutiny. It shouldn’t be put on television shows off the cuff,” said Alan Dershowitz, the emeritus Harvard law professor who has been informally advising Trump on the Russia collusion probe. “This is not the way to handle a complicated case.”
Trump, according to one confidant, celebrated Giuliani’s hiring last month by declaring that he had enlisted “America’s F---ing Mayor” as a legal attack dog with star power. But many in the White House have begun evoking comparisons with Anthony Scaramucci — who, like Giuliani, was a hard-charging New Yorker with a knack for getting TV airtime.
Scaramucci only lasted 11 days before being fired. The former White House communications director himself drew parallels between his own burn-bright-burn-fast tenure and Giuliani’s performance — but said he meant it as a “big compliment.”
“I am enjoying all of the comparisons between me and the mayor #RudyGiuliani,” Scaramucci tweeted Sunday. “He is loyal, tough and a fierce competitor. He fights and will win for @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. Big compliment thank you!”
more at the link
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ehBeth
1
Tue 8 May, 2018 07:00 pm
for anyone who doesn't think Texas is a changing state ... Bruno Lozano
Lozano ran on a campaign of generational change, government accountability and promising to help restore the city’s flagging winter-season tourism. He had once worked as an environmental activist, helping clean up the city’s waterways. (The city rests on the Rio Grande River, which separates south Texas from Mexico.)
In a pre-election interview with the bilingual newspaper Conexion Del Rio, Lozano said, “It is time for new ideas and new visions of the future. It is time the next generation takes action and gets involved in local politics.”
His campaign ad emphasized his family’s three generations of military service, his being born and raised in Del Rio and the international perspectives he gained while traveling around the world as the employee of an international airline.
Quote:
He’s an openly gay Air Force veteran who previously marched in the city’s Veteran’s Day parade in high heels. The newly elected gay Texas mayor won 62% of the vote, beating out his incumbent opponent
Congressional Budget Office Announces Record Breaking $218 Billion Surplus In April
Liberals are furious that the impact was created by President Trump.
It is the economy, stupid.
Quote:
According to the CBO report, the United States government spent $297 billion last month, but still managed to end the month with a surplus of $218 billion, shattering the previous record of a $190 billion surplus in 2001, during the George W. Bush administration.
A firm linked to a Russian oligarch made payments totaling more than $1 million to Michael Cohen, the personal attorney of President Trump, according to a report out Tuesday.
Cohen allegedly utilized shell company Essential Consultants L.L.C to pay money to adult-film star Stormy Daniels over an alleged affair with the president in 2006. The company, according to The New York Times, also was used for a series of business transactions and around $4.5 million ran through it from approximately November 2016 up until January 2018.
Of that money, payments totaling approximately $500,000 were made by investment firm Columbus Nova in 2017, The Times reported. One of that firm’s biggest clients is a company helmed by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg reportedly was questioned at an airport this year by members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.l
the attached video clip at fox references Cohen taking the fifth in the California suit against him by Ms. Daniels.
Republicans in Indiana and West Virginia are settling two bitter Senate primary fights today, with hopes that the nominees will not be too battered to take down vulnerable Democratic incumbents in November and secure the slim GOP Senate majority.
In Indiana, businessman Mike Braun rode the outsider mantle to victory in after a vitriolic race that Republicans hope doesn't damage their chances to unseat vulnerable Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
The race the GOP is most worried about is in West Virginia, where they're praying coal baron Don Blankenship isn't their nominee, fearing he'd sink any hopes of beating Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin there. So far, that three-way race is too early to call, but Blankenship trailed in early returns.
Candidates in both parties seem to agree on one thing: President Trump is the issue in 2018. While Republicans compete to prove who is most loyal to Trump, Democrats insist it's a tactic that will backfire come November, motivating more Democratic voters than Republicans.
Democrats haven't faced intense intra-party battles this year, but the primary race for Ohio governor saw endorsements split between the party establishment and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — who backed former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray — and progressive activists — who lined up behind former Rep. Dennis Kucinich — echoing the divisive 2016 presidential primary. In the end, Cordray easily beat Kucinich.
Here's what happened in the first multi-state primary day of 2018.
