monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

How are you at negative numbers?

Marilanas Trench

It's purty simpo, actually, aint it? Ya got a Mama, a Papa, and fo chillinz. That's 6, aint it? One bust gits ya 6 illegals, the other gets 1. Which one ya gunna go for?

Saudi Arabia has said it is freezing all new trade and investment with Canada over its "interference" in the Gulf Kingdom's internal affairs.

In a series of tweets, the Saudi foreign ministry said it was expelling the Canadian ambassador and recalling its own envoy in Canada.

The move comes after Canada said it was "gravely concerned" about the arrest of several human rights activists.

Among those arrested was Saudi-American women's rights campaigner Samar Badawi.

Ms Badawi had been calling for an end to Saudi Arabia's male guardianship system.

The foreign ministry said it "will not accept any form of interfering" in its internal affairs.

It referred to last week's statement by the Canadian foreign ministry, which urged Riyadh to "immediately release" civil society and women's rights activists.

The Saudi ministry described Canada's position as "an attack" on the kingdom, saying it would now:

Freeze all new trade and investment transactions between the two countries

Consider the Canadian ambassador persona non grata and order the envoy to leave within 24 hours

Recall the Saudi envoy in Canada

Reserve the right to take further action

Canada's government has so far made no public comments on Saudi Arabia's diplomatic measures.

The arrests are at odds with the progressive image the government has projected this year under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He drew widespread praise last year when they announced that the decades-old ban on women driving would end on 24 June.

The Russian billionaire said to have given financial support to a woman charged with spying for Moscow in Washington has received funding from Kremlin-backed banks and has ties to close associates of Vladimir Putin.

Konstantin Nikolaev worked with two banks and two oligarchs who are all now under US sanctions. Nikolaev was also appointed to a Russian military advisory panel, while his wife has a senior role at a state-backed arms company.

Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian woman charged with working to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) and influence US politics, told senate investigators that Nikolaev, a transportation magnate, gave her financial backing, according to a source with knowledge of her testimony.

Butina tried to set up secret backchannels with American politicians, according to US prosecutors, who say she was directed by a senior Russian official and was in contact with suspected Russian intelligence officers. She has pleaded not guilty to operating as a foreign agent and is in jail awaiting trial.

The Guardian reported last week that Nikolaev’s wife, Svetlana Nikolaeva, met senior members of the NRA in Moscow with Butina during the 2016 election campaign. Butina’s link to Nikolaev was first reported by the Washington Post.

Hundreds of pages of corporate records obtained from authorities in Russia and Cyprus, an offshore tax haven favoured by wealthy Russians, shed further light on the Nikolaevs’ business activity. Questions sent to a spokeswoman for Nikolaev were not answered. Nikolaev and his wife are not under US sanctions, and have not been accused of wrongdoing.

The records show Nikolaev’s holding company in Cyprus received $250m in loans from VTB Bank, a state-owned bank that has long been associated with Russia’s FSB intelligence agency, though it denies any link. VTB placed holds on company assets in return for the funding. The holds were later released, indicating the loans were repaid, but this was not specified in the filings.

Evelyn Farkas, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia in the Obama administration, said the finding should “raise alarms” for Americans who had dealings with Butina. “This means that Nikolaev has been supported by the Kremlin,” said Farkas. “VTB Bank is not much of a cut-out,” she added, referring to the deniable intermediaries often used by governments for secret activity.

VTB Bank said in a statement that it would be “absurd and unreasonable” to draw any connection between its support for Nikolaev’s company and Nikolaev’s backing of Butina. “Being a regular commercial bank, VTB’s core focus is on financing companies and projects and we extend loans to numerous credible organisations as part of our daily operations,” the statement said.
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WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Sunday that a Trump Tower meeting between top campaign aides and a Kremlin-connected lawyer was designed to “get information on an opponent” — the starkest acknowledgment yet that a statement he dictated last year about the encounter was misleading.

Mr. Trump made the comment in a tweet on Sunday morning that was intended to be a defense of the June 2016 meeting and the role his son Donald Trump Jr. played in hosting it. The president claimed that it was “totally legal” and of the sort “done all the time in politics.”

But the tweet also served as an admission that the Trump team had not been forthright when Donald Trump Jr. issued a statement in July 2017 saying that the meeting had been primarily about the adoption of Russian children.

That statement is being scrutinized by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is examining a broad array of Mr. Trump’s tweets and public statements to determine whether he made them as part of an effort to deceive investigators.

People close to the president believe that he may be increasing his legal jeopardy by continuing to speak publicly about sensitive matters even as his campaign is under investigation for possible collusion with Russia and he himself is under scrutiny for possible obstruction of justice. Just last week, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should shut down the special counsel investigation.

While the president tried again on Sunday to portray the Trump Tower meeting as routine, it is being examined as part of Mr. Mueller’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russians to undermine Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

It is illegal for a campaign to accept help from a foreign individual or government. The president and his son have maintained that the campaign did not ultimately receive any damaging materials about Mrs. Clinton as a result of the meeting. But some legal experts contend that by simply sitting for the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. broke the law.

It is illegal for a campaign to accept help from a foreign individual or government.

Consider the elements that define hate speech:

Drawing a distinction between one’s own identity group and those outside it

Moral comparison based on this distinction

Devaluation or dehumanization of other groups and the personal superiority of one's own

The advocating of different standards of treatment based on identity group membership

A call to violence against members of other groups


Sadly, and despite the best intentions of many decent people who are Muslim, the Quran qualifies as hate speech on each count.

My credibility is fine.

No. your credibility sucks.

It is such a stupid argument for the President to make.