George Soros gave Ivanka's husband's business a $250 million credit line in 2015 per WSJ. Soros is also an investor in Jared's business.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Commenter shocked to hear things Mika and Joe say about Trump on a daily basis (such as that he's 'mentally ill'). Had no idea since doesn't watch them and media and their GOP pals don't mention

6/29/17, "Mika and Joe postpone their vacation to hit back at Trump: MSNBC hosts will sling "bad blood" back at the President on air tomorrow morning over "bleeding from a facelift" tweet," Daily Mail (UK), by Francesca Chambers, Hannah Parry** 

Commenter at Lucianne.com to above article: 

"Reply 5 - Posted by: stablemoney, 6/29/2017 10:19:28 PM 

I never listen to this program, or MSNBC. Nobody else does either, but I find it interesting that the msm plays Trump´s tweets, but not Mika and Joe´s remarks about Trump. We are expected to judge, and the Republicans jumped in to do just that, hearing only one side of the story. That is what the msm does, frame the narrative, and lead the uninformed idiots, like the GOP. When Mark Levin played some of the things Mika and Joe say every day about Trump, I was totally shocked, never watching this channel, and being brought up in the 60´s when anybody saying these kind of things would have been thrown off tv, which is what should happen to Mika and Joe today."
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Added: Example reported 6/8/17 in The Hill: 

June 8, 2017, MSNBC Morning Joe cohost Mika Brzezinski says Trump May Be Mentally Ill, "said Thursday President Trump is ‘not well,’ and even possibly ‘mentally ill.'

 6/8/17, The Hill: "'Morning Joe' co-host: Trump may be 'mentally ill'"



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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

David Miliband wants millions more US taxpayer dollars from refugee resettlement gravy train so appears on CNN with Elmo. Miliband group, International Rescue Committee, is among 9 most successful leeches on US taxpayers in multi-million dollar refugee resettlement racket


Above image, IRC pres. David Miliband with George Soros, 2013 IRC Freedom Award winner. via Refugee Resettlement Watch.
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6/28/17, Miliband appears with Elmo on CNN:

""Popular "Sesame Street" character Elmo sympathized with refugee kids in an interview Monday with CNN, remarking that they are just like kids in America. 

Elmo was part of a panel including CNN reporter Clarissa Ward, Sherrie Westin from Sesame Workshop, and David Miliband from the International Rescue Committee."...

Miliband, CNN, 6/26/17













 
The segment was clearly designed to emotionally blackmail American children, to twist them into unthinking beings who will see President Trump as a monster who hates children."...

6/28/17, "New Low: CNN Uses Sesame Street's Elmo to Attack Trump's Travel Ban," John Nolte, Daily Wire


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Added: Miliband's group IRC is one of nine biggest winners of US taxpayer cash in the lucrative refugee resettlement racket.

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Added: Miliband refugee aid group in corruption probe in 2016:

May 11, 2016, "David Miliband's refugee aid group in corruption probe," UK Telegraph, Louisa Loveluck, Istanbul

"The United States is investigating an international aid group headed by David Miliband over allegations of corruption in projects intended to help Syrian civilians and refugees.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of three international groups to have had millions of pounds in funding withdrawn over alleged bid-rigging and bribery.

Mr Miliband, a former foreign secretary, was appointed president and chief executive of the organisation in 2013, following his exit from Westminster politics.

USAID's Office of the Inspector General confirmed on Friday that 14 entities and individuals had been suspended as part of a "complex investigation into cross-border aid programs".

This includes International Medical Corps, one of the largest providers of medical aid to Syrians, and GOAL, an Irish NGO. Allegations relate to the organisations systematically overpaying for goods in Turkey. A senior USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said private Turkish companies had sold cut-rate blankets and other basic materials at vastly inflated prices and pocketed the difference.

The items are meant to ensure the survival of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, many of whom have been left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"What became clear in the course of this investigation was this was a pretty sophisticated operation," the USAID official said.

The IRC, which has an annual budget of £350 million [$439 million US dollars], relies heavily on government funding from Britain and the United States.

An IRC spokesman told The Times: "We are fully engaged and working with USAID on this issue.” 

Two IRC staff members were dismissed in January (2016) after it was found that they had accepted money from suppliers in return for awarding them contracts.

The Telegraph understands that International Medical Corps has suspended one of its most senior officials working on the cross-border aid operation. GOAL has also replaced a locally staffed logistics team in Turkey and is currently barred from using its €6.2m [Euros] [$6.6 million US dollars] of US grant money to procure food and non-food items."...
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Added: Miliband's group IRC is one of nine biggest winners of US taxpayer cash in the lucrative refugee resettlement racket:

From Refugee Resettlement Watch

"These are the nine major US resettlement contractors and working under them (using your tax dollars) are hundreds of local subcontractors.

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Added: Supreme Court rewrites US refugee law:

6/28/17, "And so it begins—the battle of the bona fides." Refugee Resettlement Watch, Ann Corcoran

"The US Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to re-write Refugee law by creating a new requirement (even if it is just for a few months) that refugees may enter the country ABOVE TRUMP’S CEILING OF 50,000 ADMISSIONS by September 30th if they can show a “bona fide relationship” to someone already here or to an "entity" in the US. In Washington, DC, the scrambling to define those words—“bona fide relationship”—is underway!

The Refugee Act of 1980 has no provisions for going over the President’s CEILING except in an emergency and in such a case, the President (wishing to increase the ceiling) must “consult” with Congress. 

The Supremes have thus gone beyond their Constitutional role and are crafting a new requirement that effectively nullifies Trump’s 50,000 admissions ceiling and strips the President and Congress of their authority under the Refugee Act of 1980."...
 
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Added: 2016 Reuters article on Miliband group re Syria refugee fraud, US halts grants to several Miliband group vendors but USAID IG won't confirm or deny whether IRC is under investigation as reported elsewhere: 

May 11, 2016, "U.S. probes reports of fraud in obtaining aid for Syria," Reuters, by Ellen Wulfhorst 

"The activities of several vendors obtaining humanitarian aid for Syria for the International Rescue Committee have been halted amid an investigation by the U.S. government into reports of corruption, officials said on Wednesday. 

The global aid agency, headed by former British foreign secretary David Miliband, is not suspended from U.S. funding, said a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

But the aid agency said it could not disclose whether the organization was under investigation as reported in some media.  USAID's Office of Inspector General said last week that it had unearthed corrupt practices involving a number of programs operating out of Turkey which provide humanitarian aid to Syria. 

"The investigation to date has identified a network of commercial vendors, NGO employees, and others who have colluded to engage in bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes related to contracts to deliver humanitarian aid in Syria," it said in a statement.

In response, USAID has halted several aid activities in Turkey over suspicions of fraud and suspended some people and some vendors from getting U.S. funds, officials said. The agency refuted media reports that the IRC and another leading charity, the International Medical Corps, were among those getting USAID funding withdrawn. 

"IRC and IMC have not been suspended," said Sam Ostrander, a spokesman for USAID in Washington, D.C. 

But he said several humanitarian aid procurement activities have been halted while the system is repaired. 

A report in the Times of London said the IRC was under U.S. investigation. 

The Inspector General for USAID cannot confirm or deny whether a group is under investigation, a spokesman said. 

Not being suspended does not preclude an organization from being under investigation, however, the agencies said. 

A spokeswoman for the IRC in London told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: "We are working openly and collaboratively with USAID to investigate this issue." 

The Inspector General's office said several aid agencies have fired staff members due to misconduct it had uncovered."...

 

 


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Targets of media destruction usually sit there and take it, modify their views, or disappear. By firing back and putting them off balance, Trump has allowed media to reveal what they've been all along-left wing activists-Rush Limbaugh, 6/28/17

6/28/17, "The Trump Administration Calls Out the Fake News," Rush Limbaugh

"Back in the late eighties, mid- to late eighties, a man named Laurence Tisch bought CBS....Mr. Tisch was the Tisch family of New York, the Loews hotel chain and a number of other things. They are now half owners of the New York Giants. Laurence Tisch’s brother is Robert and son Steve.
 
And Larry Tisch was looking at CBS after he bought it and he looked at the news division and he saw that it was just bleeding money. He said (paraphrasing), “We can’t continue to operate CBS. If we’re gonna have a division here this prominent that’s losing this amount of money we ought to fix it.” And he immediately proposed eliminating several jobs, staff cuts....

Dan Rather went absolutely loco weed. Dan Rather went nuts. Dan Rather went public and said (paraphrasing), “We in news, we in journalism cannot be concerned with the bottom line. We should not be held to any profit-and-loss standard. Our job is too important, our mission is too sacred to have it dominated by such pedantic things as profit and loss. We need, as the news division, to be exempt from any of this. We demand that Laurence Tisch and CBS forget whatever money is involved, because our mission is too crucial.”...

Thirty years ago, “We need to be exempt. We can’t be tied to such meaningless things as profit and loss. Our mission’s too important,” to now focusing on nothing but ratings and profit and earning money as the excuse for not letting go of a hoax....

In fact, I’m gonna tell you a little something else. You know, back in the Walter Cronkite days and the Edward R. Murrow days, and the Huntley and Brinkley days, their buddies, their friends at the time always made fun of them, chastised them for working at networks that ran soap operas during the day.

Soap operas were considered to be the lowest rent. It’s like here you are the Tiffany Network with Walter Cronkite, CBS News, and you got trailer park trash on in the day. And they always said, Walter Cronkite, “That’s how we pay for the news division.” And of course their friends said, “Well, then that’s fine. If that trash is to fund the news division, fine.” Now all of a sudden news divisions are focused on profit and they’re focused on ratings. And the traditions of journalism used to be that that was so small-minded, irrelevant. Our mission is too important. Massive change....

But what’s happened since Trump, you could arguably say since he became a candidate and since he got the nomination, and then since he won the election...has totally blown every pretense that journalism lived by to smithereens. They have been forced into exposing who they really are. They’ve always been leftist activists. They have always been pro-Democrat by a vast, vast majority. And they’ve always gotten way with masking themselves under the cloak of fairness or objectivity....

They all think that you can’t criticize them. They are so far above and beyond that you can’t criticize them. What they’re doing is too important....They’re trying to hold truthful people accountable, and you can’t criticize them, you can’t, it’s unconstitutional, it’s undermining their precious responsibility. Well, the fact of the matter is Sarah Huckabee Sanders nor Donald Trump’s driving a wedge between the media and the people. The media have been doing that themselves for decades....

They don’t even know how to cover up what they do anymore. I think they’ve been stripped naked. I think Trump has got them so discombobulated and so disoriented that they themselves are being consumed with hatred and rage and they are frustrated now at their inability to get rid of the guy. They know if they really want to take somebody out, that they’ll probably be able to do it. In most causes the person they target will eventually say uncle and give up long before we’ve reached this point.... 

They’re not accustomed to their targets firing back. So that’s why they’re saying, “You can’t do that. We’re the fourth estate. You’re undermining the fourth estate. You are attacking the Constitution.” And of course it’s the exact opposite.

Where is it written that targets of media destruction have to sit there and take it?...

A lot of people think the media’s purpose is to destroy Republicans, destroy conservatives, and destroy their ideas and discredit them, that that’s the job. Look at the sycophantic way they dealt with Obama and they claim they’re just trying to do their jobs in there and ask the questions. They’re not doing anything of the sort. It’s being exposed and they don’t know how to deal with it....

The media’s objective is to build up Democrats, advance their agenda, and protect them while at the same time disparaging and ruining and impugning anything that’s in opposition to the Democrats. They’ve gotten so powerful, they are more powerful than the Democrat Party.

The Democrat Party’s losing elections. The media’s not up for election. The media is running the worldwide left-wing agenda. And part and parcel of that is destroying and impugning any opposition....

All Donald Trump is is the first president in our lifetimes to call ’em out. It’s risky to say that anybody in 2017’s doing something for the first time that’s never been done....There have to have been presidents in the history of this country who have fought with the media and called ’em names and taken it right to them. But in our lifetimes, we’ve not seen anything like this, particularly among Republicans. We’re used to them cowering. We’re used to them being fearful. We’re used to Republicans altering their stated policy objectives simply to avoid being criticized and destroyed by the media.

So that’s how we get Republicans for amnesty and Republicans for legalizing gay marriage and transgender bathrooms and all this stuff. This cultural upheaval, Republicans go along with it ’cause they’re scared to death of being ripped to shreds by the media for whatever. And Trump is the first guy to come along and call ’em on it, “Fake News, you’re making it up, you’re lying.” And all of the evidence is on Trump’s side.

The greatest example I can give you, James Comey has known from the beginning of whatever investigation you want to mention that Donald Trump has never been a suspect. James Comey, the FBI, everybody at the FBI, everybody Comey testified to before Congress, and everybody they were leaking to in the media has known since before January Donald Trump was not a suspect. They wouldn’t tell anybody.

In fact, they continued to lie and try to convince the American people that the investigation was solely about Trump, including Comey with his testimony! And Chuck Schumer knew all the while! Chuck Schumer saying we should stop the debate on Gorsuch. We ought not debate whether he gets on the court because Trump is being investigated here on the Russian collusion story. And all the while Schumer knew because he had been told that Trump was not a suspect.

What greater example of media malpractice do you need, and that’s not just media malpractice. That’s media malpractice that’s worked in coordination with the FBI and with the deep state, Obama embeds held over from his administration, and anybody you want to talk to in the media that’s been reporting this.

For a period of at least seven months, the people of this country have been lied to and have been misled into believing that Donald Trump is a focus, a target, a person of interest in a lie, something that has yet to be proven, that there was collusion with the Russians to tamper with the election. 

I don’t know who the media people think they are claiming that Trump’s out to get ’em, claiming that Trump’s disrupting their job, that Trump is preventing them from doing their jobs and asking their silly, fool questions? Look at what they have tried to do the past eight months. There’s not a term for it....
 
You want to talk about danger, trying to take out a duly elected president on a lie, a series of lies that you know are lies, that you’re trying to convince people are true. Everybody in the media knew, in the Washington media. Everybody who’s relevant in Congress knew. Even some of the Republicans knew! And nobody would go public and say, “Hey, wait a minute, Comey told us two months ago Trump’s not a subject.”...

The media has been trying to destroy Republicans and conservatives my entire career, long before Donald Trump came along. Trump is just the first guy to call them out on what they do and not back down from it. And then they say, “He’s got to stop tweeting. This is so unpresidential, he must stop.”"...

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Rush Limbaugh "Related links"


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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Virginia student will spend 100 days in jail for registering 18 dead people to vote Democrat in 2016 election. Andrew Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes, a democrat affiliated organization, when he committed the crime-wtvr, 6/26/17

Spieles used data from “walk sheets” provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party:

June 26, 2017, "Student headed to prison for registering dead voters for Democrats," wtvr.com, staff, Harrisonburg, Virginia

"A man paid to register Virginia voters prior to the 2016 Presidential Election will spend at least 100 days in prison for submitting the names of deceased individuals to the Registrar’s Office.
 
James Madison University student Andrew J. Spieles, 21, of Harrisonburg, pled guilty Monday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. As part of the plea agreement, Spieles agreed to a prison sentence of 100 to 120 days. 

Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes when he committed the crime, according to acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle. 

Harrisonburg Votes is a political organization affiliated with the Democratic Party.

“In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said. “In August 2016, Spieles was directed to combine his registration numbers with those of another individual because their respective territories overlapped. After filling out a registration form for a voter, Spieles entered the information into a computer system used by the Virginia Democratic Party to track information such as name, age, address and political affiliation. Every Thursday an employee/volunteer hand-delivered the paper copies of the registration forms to the Registrar’s Office in Harrisonburg.”

Later that month, someone at the Registrar’s Office called police after another employee saw a name they recognized on a registration form. 

The name was the deceased father of a Rockingham County Judge.

“The Registrar’s Office discovered multiple instances of similarly falsified forms when it reviewed additional registrations. Some were in the names of deceased individuals while others bore incorrect middle names, birth dates, and social security numbers,” the spokesperson continued. “The Registrar’s Office learned that the individuals named in these forms had not in fact submitted the new voter registrations. The assistant registrar’s personal knowledge of the names of some of the individuals named in the falsified documents facilitated the detection of the crime.

“Spieles later admitted that he prepared the false voter registration forms by obtaining the name, age, and address of individuals from “walk sheets” provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party, fabricating a birth date based on the ages listed in the walk sheet, and fabricating the social security numbers. Spieles admitted that he created all 18 fraudulent forms himself and that no one else participated in the crime.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Harrisonburg Police Department investigated the crime." via Zero Hedge





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Trump proves elections don't matter after all since US is still in firm grip of the bloody, US taxpayer funded, endless war industry. Media that bashed Trump 24/7 suddenly loved him when he bombed Syria. Goldman Sachs and Wall St. more in control than ever-Mike Krieger

6/27/17, "The Most Dangerous Fake News Of All Is Peddled By The Corporate Media," by Mike Krieger, Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, via Zero Hedge 

"While alternative media did indeed play a monumental role in the election of Donald Trump, how much really changed when it comes to the true power centers?

Not much, not much at all. Goldman Sachs and Wall Street are more in control than ever before, and neocons and other assorted interventionists seem to be running foreign policy. 

All of this reminds me of the famous saying, “if voting made any difference, they’d make it illegal.” Indeed, the time has come for all of us to own up to the very real and present danger of corporate media, which seemingly exists to provide public relations for oligarchs and the foreign policy establishment. Not that this should be surprising, you’d have to be the most naive creature on earth to think newspapers owned by billionaires are going to tell the public the truth.... 

Most major newspapers could barely catch their breath from demonizing Trump during his first three months, yet suddenly saw him as a heroic figure as soon as he lobbed a few bombs at Assad.

This is like giving a puppy a treat for peeing on a wee wee pad. The corporate press is literally training Trump to wage as much imperial war as possible. It’s crucial to understand that Trump, or any other administration really, can only do so much on the interventionist war front as the corporate press permits and pushes. Unfortunately, the corporate press is always pushing for war."...image from Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,




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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Initial reports that Russia hacked Germany, France, Qatar, Vermont, and NSA were eventually revealed to be false-George Washington

6/23/17, "Smoking Gun Proof that Russia Hacked the Entire World," Washington's Blog, George Washington, via Zero Hedge

"As shown below, the allegations that Russia has been hacking the entire world have been thoroughly vetted and verified.

Germany

Germany’s intelligence agency accused Russia of deploying cyberattacks to destabilize the government! 

(But German intelligence agencies later found no evidence of Russian interference.)

And last December, German security officials said that Russia hacked secret German communications and provided them to Wikileaks (English translation). 

(But German officials later concluded that the communications were likely leaked from an insider within the German parliament, the Bundestag (English translation)).

France 

The Washington Post, New York Times (and here), Reuters, Politico, Register and many other mainstream publications claimed that the Russians hacked the French election, just like they hacked the U.S. election.

The head of the NSA (Mike Rogers) claimed that the NSA watched the Russians hack the French elections: (5/9/17: "If you take a look at the French elections, for example...prior to the events of this weekend that were publicly attributed....We're seeing the Russians penetrate some of your (French) infrastructure...what can we do to try to assist?"...) (published May 9, 2017, ap, you tube)



(But the French government later said there was no trace of Russian hacking.) https://www.apnews.com/fc570e4b400f4c7db3b0d739e9dc5d4d (June 1, 2017) 

Qatar

CNN reported that U.S. officials suspected that Russia had hacked Qatar’s state news agency, causing a rift with Saudi Arabia. 

(But the Qatari government later said it wasn’t Russia.)

America

The Washington Post published a story claiming that Russian hackers penetrated the US power grid through a utility in Vermont.

(The Post subsequently admitted that – according to officials close to the investigation –the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility”, that the incident only involved a laptop not connected to the electrical grid, and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.) 

When a treasure trove of secret NSA tools were revealed, Russian hackers were blamed.

(But it turns out that it was probably a leak by an NSA insider.)

And of course the evidence that the Russians hacked Democratic party emails and leaked them to Wikileaks – and otherwise stole the election away from Clinton – is extremely strong. After all, the mainstream press has said so.

(Maybe not so much …)

So you see? It’s been proven that Russia has hacked the world …"

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Added: CNN, Feb. 2017: CNN says France braces for Russia to hack its election:





















Below: CBS News, April 25, 2017: "Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro says it has detected an attempt by Russian hackers to get confidential emails from Emmanuel Macron's campaign for president in France. CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer reports."

















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Comment: It's to the great embarrassment of the United States that NSA chief Mike Rogers is on the payroll in any capacity. He sits there in his uniform gesticulating and obviously lying.




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Saturday, June 24, 2017

Beltway Republicans set on sabotaging Trump have been brought into his administration by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus whose loyalty remains with GOP Establishment rather than Trump or annoying voters-Sunday Guardian Live, New Delhi, Madhav Nalapat

June 25, 2017, "Trump-Modi Meeting a Game Changer, despite Beltway Sabotage," SundayGuardianLive.com, Madhav Nalapat, New Delhi
 
"Those eager to ensure friction, want Trump to bring up issues that impinge on India’s sovereignty, aware that Modi would react strongly to any such efforts."... 

"Prime Minister Modi...may be expected to accelerate towards a much more transformative structure of governance, in this case matching the attempted speeds of President Trump in his own administration. The bureaucratic speed-breakers to a much more rapid overall congruence and in several respects convergence of Washington-Delhi policies and actions are getting weaker on the Indian side.

However, in Washington, the “Beltway” establishment (both Republican as well as Democrat) is still powerful enough to have a high degree of success in blocking many of President Trump’s initiatives. 

EFFORTS TO DERAIL 

In the US, the higher layers of the federal bureaucracy are composed of what may be termed “political bureaucrats”, i.e., officials chosen by politicians and usually on political considerations. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, apparently, still considers himself to be beholden to the entire leadership of the Republican Party, which he was while Chair of the Republican National Committee, forgetting that from 20 January onwards, his loyalty needed to be directed solely in the direction of President Trump. Over the past months, Priebus has instituted a quota system in the US administration, trying to select candidates for high positions that are a mix of those loyal to George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, John McCain and other Republican Party heavyweights weights.

The problem is that these party grandees would be (not so secretly) delighted were Trump to be made to step down as early as possible. Hence, some of those appointed to high office by the Trump team see as their primary interest the failure of the 45th President of the United States to implement the agenda for which he was elected.

Should the 26 June Trump-Modi meeting go well, it would redound to the credit of President Trump and lead substantially towards the long-cherished objective of an India-US alliance for security and prosperity that would in its effects span the globe.  

Hence, they [Establishment Republicans appointed by Reince Priebus who want Trump to fail] are seeking to ensure that the meeting goes badly, by seeking to ensure that President Trump brings up issues that impinge on the sovereignty and self-respect of India, aware that Prime Minister Modi is 100% a nationalist, who would react strongly to any such efforts. 

Among the issues they would like Trump to bring forward for discussion are issues relating to some NGOs operating in India that have been reported as having indulged in activities that have the potential to cause mayhem and violence. Other issues sought to be introduced into the conversation relate to some of the matters that have been exciting both foreign and domestic media during the past weeks, including matters of diet. Another googly being suggested is to bring up the cordial relations that Delhi has with both Teheran and Moscow, of course for valid geopolitical reasons. 

The expectation of those in the Trump administration who are eager to ensure friction, and not understanding, during the Modi-Trump summit is that the introduction of such issues into the Modi-Trump dialogue would visibly set relations back, thereby slowing down the momentum already generated by previous heads of government in both Delhi and Washington. 

However, the few within the Trump administration who are genuine loyalists of the 45th US President (and not of his Republican traducers) say that Trump is fully aware of such moves and will ensure that they are not given a chance to work. They say that while such issues may figure in some conversations, these would be at a lower level and privately.

From the very first days of his ascension to office, Prime Minister Modi showed his goodwill for the US by casting aside years of hostility manifested in the denial of a US visa to him and making thus far four successful visits to the US. Those familiar with President Trump say that he is in sync with Modi on the need for the US and India to work closely together, and can be expected to ensure that the Prime Minister’s potentially very consequential visit to Washington ends up as productive and ground-breaking. On the Indian side, although there are issues relating to US policy that are of concern, such as recent changes in visa rules in some categories or climate-related matters, these are expected to be dealt with at a lower level and mostly in closed-door sessions, so that the overall atmospheric remain cordial, an important consideration in a democracy. Prime Minister Modi is going the extra mile to ensure this, for example, by refusing to accept the invite by some organisations in cities across the US to address mass rallies of Indian-Americans during his latest US visit. Such meetings may give rise to anti-immigrant feelings in a section of Trump supporters about Indian-Americans, despite this group being the most law-abiding and high (average) tax-paying of any ethnic community settled in the US. Hence the expectations on the part of both Modi as well as Trump loyalists are that there would be a Trump-Modi breakthrough in US-India relations on 26 June. 

This would ensure that the two democracies move largely onto the same page in confronting threats and taking advantage of opportunities in the Indo-Pacific century....

"Both during the 2016 Presidential campaign trail and in his previous avatar as a billionaire businessperson, President Donald John Trump had integrated India as a core component of the global order in his policies and actions. However, since his inauguration on 20 January and subsequently, very little mention has been made of India in the statements made by spokespersons for the Trump administration, while, as yet, several posts relevant to relations with India (such as that of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia) remain unfilled. 

However, the incoming US Ambassador to India, Ken Juster, was informed two months ago that he was the White House choice for the post, and his nomination has been made official days before the 26 June first-ever meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump. The chemistry between the two will play an important role in ensuring that the India-US alliance, which was first initiated by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, becomes a reality during the terms in office of Trump and Modi. This may already have occurred during the first two years of NDA-II, which began in 2014, but for foot-dragging by those loyal to Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were disproportionately influential during the Barack Obama administration, relative to the Obama loyalists, although less so in the 44th US President’s second term (2013-17).

It was known within the Washington Beltway—the US equivalent of India’s Lutyens Zone—that (former) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held the view that the benefits of a close alliance with India were “oversold” by Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush team, and that far greater emphasis needed to be paid on ensuring improved relations with China, her rhetoric to the contrary.... While President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saw the advantages...of much closer India-US ties, the former was slowed down by the Clintonites in his administration and the latter by the leadership of the Congress Party, which went largely by the views of Antony in such matters, despite the close personal friendship between Sonia Gandhi and Hillary Clinton. 

Once Prime Minister Modi came to power on 26 May 2014, he adopted a careful approach towards transforming the chemistry and approach of the Central higher bureaucracy, even inducting several into his team who were charter members of the Lutyens’ Zone. President Trump had (in the start of his administration) a different approach, looking for a speedy transition from the traditional Beltway policies and practices to a construct more in tune with current realities. However, the blowback that Trump has been receiving from the Beltway shows that Modi was correct in his caution, as overall the Prime Minister of India has in three years had a far more peaceful innings than the US President in just six months of his term."...


 
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Friday, June 23, 2017

George HW Bush destroyed coal jobs long before Obama did. Bush #1 Clean Air Act additions put thousands of coal miners out of work-LA Times, 4/2/1990...US Clean Air Acts caused severe Arctic and N. Hemisphere warming by mandating removal of large amounts of cooling sulfates from the atmosphere, per NASA (chart), Houston Chronicle, 2009. Bush destroyed lives and warmed the Arctic simultaneously

Bush #1 EPA chief Reilly loved "global consensus" of Agenda 21 (EPA Journal, 1992).

April 02, 1990|, "EPA Chief Sees Job Losses for Miners," LA Times staff and wire reports 

"William K. Reilly, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, acknowledged that a proposed new clean air law will put some coal miners out of work, but said he is hopeful that technology can save jobs. "We are prepared to work very carefully with those workers and with the states to try to ensure that we have as good a safety net and unemployment retraining provisions as possible," Reilly said on NBC's "Meet the Press." To reduce acid rain, the legislation would restrict sulfur dioxide emissions. The new limits are expected to cause thousands of job losses in the coal mines throughout Appalachia and the Midwest. Reilly said he is hopeful that advances in "clean-coal technology" can save some of the jobs in the East."

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George Bush #1 signs Clean Air Act amendments in 1990, making rules stricter than 1970 and 1977 versions. Top left, clapping, Bush EPA chief William Reilly, plucked from his job as WWF president by jackass Bush.

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2009 NASA graph shows warming of Arctic latitudes resulting from US Clean Air Acts of 1970, 1977 and 1990:

















Image from Nasa.gov

4/8/2009, "Half of recent arctic warming may not be due to greenhouse gases," Houston Chronicle, Eric Berger




 


That’s the conclusion of two scientists in a new Nature Geoscience paper (see abstract), which is more deeply outlined in this NASA news release....Clean air regulations passed in the 1970s have likely accelerated warming by diminishing the cooling effect of sulfates....This is potentially a huge blow to those who advocate immediate action on controlling carbon dioxide.

Finally, for those of you who hate James Hansen: Please note that the author of this study works for Hansen."

...........................

NASA: "Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates....At the same time, black carbon emissions have steadily risen, largely because of increasing emissions from Asia. Black carbon -- small, soot-like particles produced by industrial processes and the combustion of diesel and biofuels -- absorb incoming solar radiation and have a strong warming influence on the atmosphere."...

4/8/2009, "Aerosols May Drive a Significant Portion of Arctic Warming," nasa.gov/topics

"Though greenhouse gases are invariably at the center of discussions about global climate change, new NASA research suggests that much of the atmospheric warming observed in the Arctic since 1976 may be due to changes in tiny airborne particles called aerosols.

Emitted by natural and human sources, aerosols can directly influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the sun's radiation. The small particles also affect climate indirectly by seeding clouds and changing cloud properties, such as reflectivity.

A new study, led by climate scientist Drew Shindell of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, used a coupled ocean-atmosphere model to investigate how sensitive different regional climates are to changes in levels of carbon dioxide, ozone, and aerosols.

The researchers found that the mid and high latitudes are especially responsive to changes in the level of aerosols. Indeed, the model suggests aerosols likely account for 45 percent or more of the warming that has occurred in the Arctic during the last three decades. The results were published in the April issue of Nature Geoscience....

Sulfates, which come primarily from the burning of coal and oil, scatter incoming solar radiation and have a net cooling effect on climate. Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates.

At the same time, black carbon emissions have steadily risen, largely because of increasing emissions from Asia. Black carbon -- small, soot-like particles produced by industrial processes and the combustion of diesel and biofuels -- absorb incoming solar radiation and have a strong warming influence on the atmosphere....

The regions of Earth that showed the strongest responses to aerosols in the model are the same regions that have witnessed the greatest real-world temperature increases since 1976. The Arctic region has seen its surface air temperatures increase by 1.5 C (2.7 F) since the mid-1970s. In the Antarctic, where aerosols play less of a role, the surface air temperature has increased about 0.35 C (0.6 F).


That makes sense, Shindell explained, because of the Arctic's proximity to North America and Europe. The two highly industrialized regions have produced most of the world's aerosol emissions over the last century, and some of those aerosols drift northward and collect in the Arctic. Precipitation, which normally flushes aerosols out of the atmosphere, is minimal there, so the particles remain in the air longer and have a stronger impact than in other parts of the world. 

Since decreasing amounts of sulfates and increasing amounts of black carbon both encourage warming, temperature increases can be especially rapid. The build-up of aerosols also triggers positive feedback cycles that further accelerate warming as snow and ice cover retreat.

In the Antarctic, in contrast, the impact of sulfates and black carbon is minimized because of the continent’s isolation from major population centers and the emissions they produce.

"There's a tendency to think of aerosols as small players, but they're not," said Shindell. "Right now, in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and in the Arctic, the impact of aerosols is just as strong as that of the greenhouse gases."


The growing recognition that aerosols may play a larger climate role can have implications for policymakers. 

"We will have very little leverage over climate in the next couple of decades if we're just looking at carbon dioxide," Shindell said. "If we want to try to stop the Arctic summer sea ice from melting completely over the next few decades, we're much better off looking at aerosols and ozone."


Aerosols tend to be quite-short lived, residing in the atmosphere for just a few days or weeks. Greenhouses gases, by contrast, can persist for hundreds of years. Atmospheric chemists theorize that the climate system may be more responsive to changes in aerosol levels over the next few decades than to changes in greenhouse gas levels, which will have the more powerful effect in coming centuries."...

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Added: Above NASA article notes Northern and Southern hemispheres have very different geography: Unlike the Arctic, the Antarctic is isolated from major population centers and emissions they produce. Antarctica isn't exposed to black carbon from Asia which is naturally transported  across North America and the Arctic. Nor was Antarctica warmed by decades of US Clean Air Acts that removed cooling sulfates from the atmosphere. 
 

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Added: Bush #1 EPA chief Reilly loved "global consensus" of Agenda 21:

Sept./Oct. 1992, "The Road from Rio," EPA Journal, by William K. Reilly (EPA Chief for George HW Bush)

"The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the "Earth Summit," (in June 1992) was a watershed event in environmental history....

While the hopes of some developing nations for vast commitments of new foreign assistance did not materialize, what was extraordinary to me was how many expectations were met--and how much the world did achieve....
Agenda 21 represents an extraordinary new global consensus on standards against which to measure the environmental performance of governments. No doubt the press, non-governmental groups, and the business community will mine these documents for years to come. The human rights commitments of the 1970s and 1980s, the Helsinki Accords, and others, offer a model for how committed nongovernmental interests can confer authority on moral obligations and translate them into new policies."...


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https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/road-rio.html

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Definitely not CNN Fake News, genuine sad faces at Ossoff loss. Then you had potential Ossoff voters living in their parents' basement and on their parents' phone bill which made it harder for Democrat organizers to reach them. Republican parents didn't necessarily run down to the basement to help out the opposition-Rush Limbaugh, 6/21/17

CNN sad faces at Ossoff loss, 6/21/17





6/21/17, "My Bold Pajama Boy Prediction Comes True," Rush Limbaugh

"Somebody sent me a screenshot of CNN right after they had to project that Ossoff was gonna lose. It’s David Chalian, Gloria Borger, some guy I don’t know here, and Dana Bash, and I’m telling you, it is funereal, the look on their faces, utter despondency....

A Democrat consultant...Jessica Ziegler said to Slate.com   referring to the Republican parents of the young Democrats... “When you are targeting their child, or heaven forbid their child might not think the same way as them, it becomes ugly.

So now the parents of these Democrat kids living at home have become the targets of Democrat organizers. Jessica Ziegler, Those were the angriest people,” referring to Republican parents of the young Democrats who are impossible to reach ’cause they still live at home with Mom and Dad. “When you are targeting their child,” when Democrats are trying to reach their children, it becomes very, very ugly because their kids are Millennial Democrats and they’re voting in ways that Mom and Dad don’t agree with and don’t understand.

So Mom and Dad are helping shelter their own kids from Democrat outreach, making it harder for Democrats to reach potential Millennial voters because they’re still living at home and cannot be independently sought.

Ossoff, Pajama Boy
Ziegler, who has been quoted in a number of Slate articles and a NY Times piece, added that the police had even been called on Ossoff volunteers on a number of occasions. Ziegler focused on encouraging young voters to turn out by recruiting recent high school graduates to get in touch with their peers over social media.”

They’re lost. And now in the New York Times they’re openly complaining, “Our brand is worse than Trump’s.” Do you realize for a Democrat to say that, do you know how bottom of the barrel that is?" 

images above from RushLimbaugh.com


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