monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

oralloy wrote:

He was just the first to do it with a private team instead of having it done by the FBI.

Exactly. Case closed.

Quote:

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Saturday slammed the $110 billion defense deal President Trump signed with Saudi Arabia, saying the U.S. is relying on a country with "the worst human rights record in the region" to bring peace and security to the Middle East.

It appears the Trump administration is counting on the country with the worst human rights record in the region to enforce peace and security in the Middle East," Murphy wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed criticizing the deal. "The arms sale is a terrible idea."

Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Kingdom has repeatedly used U.S.-provided weapons against civilians in the region, citing attacks on Yemen during its civil war.

"Obama withheld precision-guided munitions because the Saudis were using U.S.-provided munitions to repeatedly target civilian and humanitarian sites in their bombing campaign inside Yemen, despite regular protests from the United States," Murphy wrote.

"By selling the Saudis these precision-guided weapons more - not fewer - civilians will be killed because it is Saudi Arabia's strategy to starve Yemenis to death to increase their own leverage at the negotiating table. They couldn't do this without the weapons we are selling them," he continued.

The Hill

in your apparent interest or understanding of human affairs, and the associated political and economic conflicts that have dominated history for several millennia.

something has rendered you rather monotone and very narrow in your apparent interest or understanding of human affairs, and the associated political and economic conflicts that have dominated history for several millennia.

human affairs, and the associated political and economic conflicts that have dominated history for several millennia

if you come down on the side of heavily weighing a potential strategic partner's human rights record, then you are aligned more closely with neocons than those promoting real politik.

Dotcom, who is facing extradition from New Zealand to America, and who has personally blamed Barack Obama for his legal trouble, claims in May 2017 that he knew crucial details about a political murder from July 2016. Why would he have sat on that during a hotly contested election, one that looked until the last minute to be queuing up Obama's chosen successor?

He singled out Iran for criticism, accusing it of fuelling sectarian conflict and supporting "unspeakable crimes" by the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Responding on Twitter, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif mockingly called Saudi Arabia "that bastion of democracy and moderation" and suggested that the US was milking the country for billions of dollars in newly-signed arms deals worth more than $350bn (£270bn).
Behind the lavish praise heaped on his hosts, President Trump used this speech to deliver a tough message to Arab and Muslim governments: deal with the ideology that fuels terrorism now or live with it for generations to come.

He went out of his way to avoid the sort of inflammatory language he's more usually known for. His repeated condemnation of Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran will have pleased the Gulf Arab leaders listening.

Unlike his predecessor, Barack Obama, this US president made no mention of human rights or democracy. But he did condemn the oppression of women.

And amongst several cynical reactions to the speech from around the region on social media, some have pointed out that here in Saudi Arabia women are forbidden to drive and there are no parliamentary elections. In Iran, the country accused by Mr Trump of being behind much of the current terrorism across the Middle East, they have just had a free election and women are free to drive.

Iran's re-elected moderate President Hassan Rouhani has received a further boost after reformists won key council elections in the capital, Tehran.

The pro-Rouhani reformist group Omid (Hope) won all 21 seats, ousting their conservative rivals who had been in power for 14 years.

Mr Rouhani won Friday's presidential election in the first round.

He promised voters a moderate and outward-looking Iran and criticised the conservative-dominated judiciary.

Council elections were held alongside the presidential vote and the results were announced on Sunday.
The new city council must convene within 45 days when it will elect a new mayor to oversee services for Tehran's nine million residents.

Incumbent Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was a candidate in the early stages of the presidential election but dropped out to back hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

Mr Raisi only received 38.5% of the vote, which was not enough to take the election to a second round.

President Rouhani, 68, said his resounding victory showed that voters rejected extremism and wanted more links with the outside world.

Analysts say he is in a strong position to seek reforms and to revive Iran's ailing economy.

After his re-election there were celebrations in the capital, Tehran, with crowds of young people singing and dancing in the central Vali Asr Square.

In his first speech after the result was announced Mr Rouhani said: "The Iranian nation has chosen the path of interaction with the world, a path which is distant from extremism and violence."

Mr Rouhani supports the landmark deal with world powers to curb Iran's nuclear programme.

The problem is that modest, incremental procedures to control and retard the cancer seem to have been entirely ineffective. It is spreading and reaching a point where the system is on the verge of dying.

In addition, while we all might agree on much of what ails the system: political careerism and corruption, crony capitalism, the strategy of division etc we don't agree on what symptoms might be a sign of worsening illness or the start of recovery, and we seem entirely unable to break free of the tribal instincts that nourish the tumor.

What Donald Trump Needs to Know About Bob Mueller and Jim Comey
...Yet even amid the stress of that time, Comey didn’t hesitate to force the issue of STELLAR WIND, standing up to the vice president. During one White House meeting, Comey said he couldn’t find a legal basis for the program.

“Others see it differently,” a scowling Cheney replied.

“The analysis is flawed—in fact, fatally flawed. No lawyer reading that could reasonably rely on it,” Comey said, his hand sweeping across the table dismissively.

Cheney’s counsel, the famously aggressive David Addington, standing in the back of the room, spoke up: “Well, I’m a lawyer,” he snapped, “and I did.”

Comey shot back, “No good lawyer.”

The room went silent.

What concerned Comey and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel was that the NSA program appeared to go far beyond what was allowed for domestic surveillance—and without radical changes, they thought it was both unconstitutional and illegal. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t Comey’s arguments, legal or political, that stopped the Bush White House in its tracks on STELLAR WIND.

It was Bob Mueller.

The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.

The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.

Dozens of former lobbyists and industry lawyers are working in the Trump administration, which has hired them at a much higher rate than the previous administration. Keeping the waivers confidential would make it impossible to know whether any such officials are violating federal ethics rules or have been given a pass to ignore them.

Mr. Schaub, who is in the final year of a five-year term after being appointed by President Barack Obama, said he had no intention of backing down. “It is an extraordinary thing,” Mr. Shaub said of the White House request. “I have never seen anything like it.”

Marilyn L. Glynn, who served as general counsel and acting director of the agency during the George W. Bush administration, called the move by the Trump White House “unprecedented and extremely troubling.”..