monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

“What they’ve done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. We can’t let Canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers.”

He may have driven through an economic policy that keeps his people living at a standard way below that in South Korea and, increasingly, China.

He sometimes overdoes it. He sometimes tends to apply excessive force. Why kill hundreds of generals when dozens will do?

"Most people he kills would never join a conspiracy but he feels it's better to overdo it. It's better to kill nine loyal generals and one potential conspirator than to allow a conspirator to stay alive."

If he is rational, what does he want?

"As every North Korean knows, the whole point of the military-first policy is 'final victory', or the unification of the peninsula under North Korean rule."

A credible nuclear force would give him the ability to pressure the United States to remove its troops from the peninsula.

"North Korea needs the capability to strike the US with nuclear weapons in order to pressure both adversaries into signing peace treaties. This is the only grand bargain it has ever wanted," said Prof Myers.

Cheurfi had been detained in February for questioning in a police station in Meaux, outside Paris, after “informants” had indicated that he was “seeking to obtain weapons to kill policemen”, according to reports.

Cheurfi was known by intelligence services for radicalisation and had targeted police 16 years ago in a car chase, when he opened fire on officers, according to reports.

During questioning, he managed to get hold of a police weapon and fire five times. The policeman survived, but Cheurfi was sentenced to several years in prison for the attack.

Le Pen, widely seen as taking the hardest line on security, called for France to "immediately" take back control of its own borders from the European Union and deport all foreigners on a terror watchlist.

Macron, a 39-year-old moderate whom other candidates have portrayed as too inexperienced to protect France against the terror threat, warned against any attempts to use the attack for political gain.

President Donald Trump’s lawyers argued in a Thursday court filing that protesters “have no right” to “express dissenting views” at his campaign rallies because such protests infringed on his First Amendment rights.

I thought it best to print it in its entirety.

Quote:

I thought it best to print it in its entirety.

And thanks for doing so.

New details on federal investigation into Fox News

NEW YORK -- The board of 21st Century Fox met inside Fox News headquarters Thursday, while outside, the National Organization for Women declared the ouster of host Bill O’Reilly isn’t enough.

“We thought it was really important to come out and shed some light and shame the 13 members of the board of directors of 21st Century Fox who’ve allowed this culture to flourish,” said one activist

Federal prosecutors have questions too: A lawyer representing former Fox News co-host Andrea Tantaros, who’s suing former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, says the U.S. Attorney has subpoenaed one of his other clients.

“Well I want to be clear that I don’t know what the nature of the investigation is,” said attorney Judd Burstein.

But Burstein told CBS News the subpoena suggests the investigation relates to the method in which settlements were paid.

“There is a grand jury investigation that it is being conducted by the securities fraud division of the U.S. Attorney’s office. And I do know that when Fox News talked to settle with Andrea Tanteros they wanted to pay the settlement out as salary,” Burstein said.

“The inference I draw from that is there may have been a studied effort to hide the fact that there were all these settlements being paid out by disguising them as salary,” he said.

Fox has announced Tucker Carlson will replace O’Reilly, but of the 50 or so companies that yanked ads from the show, most told CBS News they have not decided whether to move their ads back to the time slot. Viewership has remained steady.

“Viewers are not their problem. Advertisers, yes. They have to go and look at their advisers, the people that pay for their network, where the profits come from, and say here’s the changes we’ve made and here’s why we’re a safe place for you to put your money,” said public relations specialist Howard Bragman.

Fox News did not respond to CBS News’ questions about the U.S. Attorney’s investigation. On Wednesday, Bill O’Reilly called the allegations against him unfounded and Roger Ailes has denied the allegations against him in the past.

Trump condos worth $349 million pose potential conflict

LAS VEGAS — President Trump’s companies own more than 400 condo units and home lots whose sale could steer millions of dollars to Trump, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

USA TODAY spent four months cataloging every property Trump's companies own across the country. Reporters found that Trump’s companies are sitting on at least $250 million of individual properties in the USA alone. Property records show Trump’s trust and his companies own at least 422 luxury condos and penthouses from New York City to Las Vegas, 12 mansion lots on bluffs overlooking his golf course on the Pacific Ocean and dozens more smaller pieces of real estate. The properties range in value from about $200,000 to $35 million each.

Unlike developments where Trump licenses his name to a separate developer for a flat fee, profits from selling individual properties directly owned by his companies ultimately enrich him personally.

Trump has never disclosed a complete, unit-by-unit inventory of his companies' real estate holdings or sales, nor is he required to do so by federal law. Trump says he's separated himself from his businesses, but the trust set up in January is run by his sons. Trump is the only beneficiary and can withdraw funds at any time.

The volume of real estate creates an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a president. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the president could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay. They could buy in the name of a shell company, making it impossible for the public to know who was behind the sales.

Shhhhh
Gallup reports that Trump’s average first-quarter job approval rating is 41 percent, the worst in modern history by a substantial margin. By way of comparison, Barack Obama’s first-quarter approval was 63 percent.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/208778/trump-job-approval-first-quarter-lowest-points.aspx
h/t Paul Waldman