U.S. consumer debt is now above levels hit during the 2008 financial crisis
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/0bb3c11d-8797-301e-b99b-98d636c8e7ac/u.s.-consumer-debt-is-now.html
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Have you guys heard of Operation Nitro Zeus?
The U.S. covertly launched offensive cyber operations against an Iranian intelligence group’s computer systems on Thursday, the same day President Trump pulled back on using more traditional methods of military force, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The cyberstrikes, which were approved by Mr. Trump, targeted computer systems used to control missile and rocket launches that were chosen months ago for potential disruption, the officials said. The strikes were carried out by U.S. Cyber Command and in coordination with U.S. Central Command.
Personal Note: I don’t think any of this is good or good policy, I just find it fascinating.
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I’m a Journalist but I Didn’t Fully Realize the Terrible Power of U.S. Border Officials Until They Violated My Rights and Privacy
At airport:
Reporter: I’m a reporter who travels to Mexico a lot.
CBP: What’s your story on?
Rept: I’m a US citizen.
CBP: That wasn’t the question.
Rept: I’d like to call a lawyer
CBP: No.
Reporter after 3 hours in detention: Thanks for the new story.
Trump claims did not send message to Tehran warning of attack
You know you’re in trouble when even Fox News insists “that’s not how that works.”
Fox News Hosts Doubt Donald Trump’s Iran Strike Story: ‘Doesn’t Make Sense’
Chris Wallace and Shep Smith both claimed “something’s wrong” with the president’s version of events.
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Who thinks Kushner’s got a plan to solve the Middle East discord? Perhaps a party of 2- T & Netanyahu (bff)
Throw money at a huge political problem which given the huge weight and influence the Israelis already have, is hardly a solution. Oh, and the Palestinians will not be attending the unveiling of this plan.
The unveiling of the economic blueprint follows two years of deliberations and delays in rolling out a broader peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians, who are boycotting the event, have refused to talk to the Trump administration since it recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in late 2017.
Veteran Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi dismissed the proposals on Saturday, saying: "These are all intentions, these are all abstract promises" and said only a political solution would solve the conflict.
Kushner made clear in two interviews with Reuters that he sees his detailed formula as a game-changer, despite the view of many Middle East experts that he has little chance of success where decades of U.S.-backed peace efforts have failed.
“I laugh when they attack this as the ‘Deal of the Century’,” Kushner said of Palestinian leaders who have dismissed his plan as an attempt to buy off their aspirations for statehood. "This is going to be the ‘Opportunity of the Century’ if they have the courage to pursue it."
Kushner said some Palestinian business executives have confirmed their participation in the conference, but he declined to identify them. The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian business community will not attend, businessmen in the West Bank city of Ramallah told Reuters.
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Why a group of US state senators are being hunted by police
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Breaking -
Axios has a show on HBO on Sundays and one of the surprises of tonight’s show were over 100 internal Trump transition documents that clearly show compromised candidates. Looks like the RNC did a lot of the vetting. And while EPA’s Scott Pruitt did not stay as secretary and was drummed out there were quite a few others who had unsavory mentions.
Kris Kobach - “White supremacy”
Tillerson - “Russia ties goes deep”
WTF…
Nearly 100 internal Trump transition vetting documents leaked to “Axios on HBO” identify a host of “red flags” about officials who went on to get some of the most powerful jobs in the U.S. government.
Why it matters: The massive trove, and the story behind it, sheds light on the slap-dash way President Trump filled his cabinet and administration, and foreshadowed future scandals that beset his government.
Some highlights :
- Scott Pruitt, who ultimately lost his job as EPA Administrator because of serial ethical abuses and clubbiness with lobbyists, had a section in his vetting form titled "allegations of coziness with big energy companies."
- Tom Price , who ultimately resigned as Health and Human Services Secretary after Trump lost confidence in him in part for stories about his use of chartered flights, had sections in his dossier flagging “criticisms of management ability” and “Dysfunction And Division Has Haunted Price’s Leadership Of The House Budget Committee.”
- Mick Mulvaney , who became Trump’s Budget Director and is now his acting chief of staff, has a striking assortment of “red flags,” including his assessment that Trump “is not a very good person.”
- The Trump transition team was so worried about Rudy Giuliani , in line for Secretary of State, that they created a separate 25-page document titled “Rudy Giuliani Business Ties Research Dossier” with copious accounting of his “foreign entanglements.”
- One red flag for Gen. David Petraeus , who was under consideration for Secretary of State and National Security Adviser: “Petraeus Is Opposed to Torture.”
Behind the scenes: In the chaotic weeks after Trump’s surprise election victory, Trump fired Chris Christie as the head of his transition. The team that took over — which V.P. Mike Pence helmed — outsourced the political vetting of would-be top officials to the Republican National Committee.
- We obtained the political vetting forms that Trump and his senior aides were given for Ben Carson, Dan Coats, Betsy DeVos, Gary Cohn, Don McGahn, Elaine Chao, John Kelly, James Mattis, John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, Nikki Haley, Rex Tillerson, Rick Perry, Robert Lighthizer, Ryan Zinke, Scott Pruitt, and many others.
- President-elect Trump reviewed many of these documents at Trump Tower and Bedminster before his interviews, according to a source who saw him eyeball them.
- Traditionally, any would-be top official faces three types of vetting: an FBI background check, a scrub for financial conflicts of interest from the Office of Government Ethics, and a deep dive from the president-elect’s political team, which veteran Washington lawyers often handle.
- We obtained many of the political vetting forms. According to sources on the RNC vetting team, senior Trump officials asked them to do an initial “scrub” of the public record before Trump met the contenders. But in many cases — for example the misguided choice of Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary — this RNC “scrub” of public sources was the only substantial vetting in Trump’s possession when he announced his picks.
- The documents show what Trump’s vetting shop worried about in assessing candidates for the most important jobs in government.
The RNC researchers identified some striking "Red Flags."
- The first red flag for Rex Tillerson, who became Trump’s first Secretary of State, was about Russia. “Tillerson’s Russia ties go deep,” it read.
- One red flag for Fox News host Laura Ingraham, considered for White House press secretary: “Ingraham said people should wear diapers instead of sharing bathrooms with transgender people.”
- One heading in the document about Kris Kobach, in the running for Homeland Security Secretary, listed “white supremacy” as a vulnerability. It cited accusations from past political opponents that he had ties to white supremacist groups.
- Vetters had unique concerns about Gary Cohn. “Some Say Cohn Has An Abrasive, Curt, And Intimidating Style,” they wrote, citing a Bloomberg piece. “He Would Sometimes Hike Up One Leg And Plant His Foot On A Trader’s Desk, His Thigh Close To The Employee’s Face, And Ask How Markets Were Doing.”
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Omfg! Between this and the Manafort/Hannity texts this week is full of behind the scenes intrigue! The down side is that no one can process any of this before the next stop on this runaway train to “crazy-town”.
It’s always amazing to me that we just live like this now. This is just the current standard of operation in our country. Unless we change it.
Everyone, please consider adopting a campaign near you, everyone will need volunteers in 2020. 
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Ah… hold on to your hats…
Top Takes: Suspected Russian Intelligence Operation
Operators worked across platforms to spread lies and impersonate political figures
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This is really wild. I went and shared this on twiter and facebook, with the highlights you have here. Thank you for posting it.
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Buried behind our president’s endless stream of lies and malicious self-serving remarks are actions that far transcend any reasonable understanding of his legal authority. Donald Trump disdains, more than anything else, the limitations of checks and balances on his power. Witness his assertion of a right to flout all congressional subpoenas; his continuing refusal to disclose his tax returns, notwithstanding Congress’s statutory right to secure them; his specific actions to bar congressional testimony by government officials; and his personal attacks on judges who dare to subject the acts of his administration to judicial review. More blatant yet are his recent assertion of a right to accept dirt on political opponents from foreign governments, and his declaration of a national emergency, when he himself said he “did not need to do this,” he just preferred to “do it much faster.”
Attorney General William Barr has not had the lead public role in advancing the president’s claims to these unprecedented powers, which have come to us, like most everything about this president, as spontaneous assertions of Trump’s own will.** To the contrary, in securing his confirmation as attorney general, Barr successfully used his prior service as attorney general in the by-the-book, norm-following administration of George H. W. Bush to present himself as a mature adult dedicated to the rule of law who could be expected to hold the Trump administration to established legal rules. Having known Barr for four decades, including preceding him as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, I knew him to be a fierce advocate of unchecked presidential power, so my own hopes were outweighed by skepticism that this would come true. But the first few months of his current tenure, and in particular his handling of the Mueller report, suggest something very different—that he is using the office he holds to advance his extraordinary lifetime project of assigning unchecked power to the president.
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From CNN’s Brian Stelter On T’s press conference at DMZ
Amid all of this, WaPo’s David Nakamura tweeted: "Trump thinks so much about the media and his image. He wants a grab for history. He should [choose] his words carefully at this moment in the DMZ. Instead he says: ‘I say that for the press, they have no appreciation for what is being done, none.’ Purely tactical, as always.
That “no appreciation” comment, BTW, was followed by a blatant misrepresentation. Trump claimed “there was great conflict here prior to our meeting in Singapore. After our first summit, all of the danger went away.”
Earlier in the day, Margaret Talev with Bloomberg News did her best to inject some truth. In a question at a joint presser, she brought up the second summit, in Hanoi, and said “nothing has substantively changed since Hanoi. North Korea has tested short-range missiles. Why does Kim Jong Un deserve this moment?" Trump deflected by saying “We’ve made tremendous strides. Only the fake news says they weren’t.” And later: "We are so far advanced from where we were two and a half years ago that it’s always insulting. And I think it’s why the press, frankly, has lost such credibility. They’ve lost such credibility.”
Around and around we go…
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Anyone surprised??
CNN and Daily Mail describe leaked memos from Sir Kim Darrock, British Ambassador to the US described T as "inept’ ‘insecure’ and 'incompetent’
CNN excerpt
A UK government source tells CNN the memos described in the Daily Mail story are “real.”
The Daily Mail says the memos span the period between 2017 to present day, covering everything from Trump’s foreign policy to his 2020 reelection plans.
The White House told CNN they have no comment on the story.
“The British public would expect our Ambassadors to provide Ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country. Their views are not necessarily the views of Ministers or indeed the government. But we pay them to be candid. Just as the US Ambassador here will send back his reading of Westminster politics and personalities,” a statement from the British FCO said.
Daily Mail excerpt
Britain’s Ambassador to Washington has described Donald Trump as ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘incompetent’ in a series of explosive memos to Downing Street.
Sir Kim Darroch, one of Britain’s top diplomats, used secret cables and briefing notes to impugn Trump’s character, warning London that the White House was ‘uniquely dysfunctional’ and that the President’s career could end in ‘disgrace’.
His bombshell comments risk angering the notoriously thin-skinned President and undermining the UK’s ‘special relationship’ with America.
In the memos, seen by The Mail on Sunday following an unprecedented leak, Sir Kim:Describes bitter conflicts within Trump’s White House – verified by his own sources – as ‘knife fights’;
Warns that Trump could have been indebted to ‘dodgy Russians’;
Claims the President’s economic policies could wreck the world trade system;
Says the scandal-hit Presidency could ‘crash and burn’ and that ‘we could be at the beginning of a downward spiral… that leads to disgrace and downfall’;
Voices fears that Trump could still attack Iran.
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I’m sure he justifies it as building alliances and fundraising for his run in 2020.
This is a huge deal for many reasons – primarily because justice may actually and finally be served. But also because we may now find out more about what role Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, played in Epstein’s astoundingly lenient plea deal during his original trial. And we may find out who else was involved in these heinous crimes against minors – some big names are likely to surface.
For an award-winning investigative report on the original scandal, see Julie Brown’s Miami Herald piece:
How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime
The accompanying 12-minute video (below), while heartbreaking, is really a must-see. Something very dirty went down when this whole episode was covered up – whatever that was involved Acosta and other well-connected cronies of Epstein-- it’s about time we got to the bottom of this.
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Yes! Finally, Epstein is getting nailed. And all the covering up of his misdeeds, his light sentencing with passes from Alex Acosta, and a bunch of powerful allies.
Here’s a good article recapping the lead up to this arrest.
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and more…
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With Jeffrey Epstein locked up, these are nervous times for his friends, enablers
BY JULIE K. BROWN
Here’s the latest from the reporter who pushed the Epstein case into the national spotlight. If you’re looking to come up to speed on the case and what to expect in the next few days, this is the article to read.
The fact that the SDNY is handling this under their Public Corruption Unit means that at least one public official is almost certainly under scrutiny for possible crimes related to Epstein’s sex trafficking or the sweetheart plea deal he received.
Jeffrey Epstein spent a second night in a New York jail cell Sunday, with a federal indictment expected to be unsealed Monday, charging him with sex offenses involving underage girls he and others allegedly trafficked in New York and Florida, sources have told the Miami Herald.
His Saturday arrest capped months of investigating, led by federal agents and prosecutors with the Southern District of New York’s Public Corruption Unit, assisted by investigators with the sex trafficking division. Although details of the case remain undisclosed, there are indications that others involved in his crimes could be charged or named as cooperating witnesses.
…
Epstein, 66, was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, as he arrived on his private jet from Paris, where he had been vacationing since June 14, aviation records show. About an hour after they picked him up, federal agents arrived at his imposing Manhattan townhouse, breaking down the door to execute search warrants.The fact that search warrants were issued shows that federal investigators have new evidence against Epstein beyond the sex cases he was given federal immunity for in Florida in 2008, legal experts told the Miami Herald.
“They can’t take information from a case in 2002 or 2005 to get a search warrant today; there had to have been something for probable cause that contains evidence of a crime found now, so I’m interested in what that evidence is,’’ said Francey Hakes, a former federal prosecutor who once oversaw the Justice Department’s child exploitation crimes division.
…
Virginia Roberts Giuffre … alleges she was recruited by [Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell,] in 2000 when she was 16 years old. Giuffre was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s winter home and resort in Palm Beach at the time, court records show.Trump, who lived less than a mile from Epstein’s waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, had also been friends with Epstein. Records show that he flew on Epstein’s private jet on occasion and attended parties and social events where he was photographed with Epstein.
Giuffre brought a civil defamation suit against Maxwell in 2015, after [Maxwell] called her a liar. It was settled two years later. But 2,000 pages of the previously sealed case file are expected to be made public in a few weeks, the result of litigation by the Miami Herald, and those records could prove damaging to Maxwell and others involved in Epstein’s alleged scheme.
… Epstein’s arrest could open a window to expose other influential people who knew about or participated in his crimes. The question is what evidence or information does Epstein have against them and how might he use it?
“This case is being handled by the public corruption unit, and those people don’t typically handle cases involving child exploitation, so there may very well be some bombshells here of other people’s involvement because their role could mean there was some official action that was corrupt or some official acted corrupt in some way,’’ Hakes said.
Monday’s first appearance is expected to be brief, with the actual indictment revealing little of substance. More crucial will be a bond hearing later in the week to decide whether Epstein can go free while awaiting trial.
The Epstein case drew scrutiny following an investigation published in November by the Miami Herald, called Perversion of Justice, that examined the ways in which the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, worked in conjunction with Epstein’s lawyers to engineer the non-prosecution agreement — and keep it secret from Epstein’s victims so they could not object. Acosta is now President Trump’s secretary of labor.
… Acosta held an unusual one-on-one meeting with Epstein’s lawyer, Jay Lefkowitz, in October 2007, at a West Palm Beach Marriott. Records showed that it was at that meeting that Acosta acceded to a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and others involved in his operation federal immunity.
As part of the deal, Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges involving a 17-year-old girl, and he served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail. The deal was configured so that no one — not even his victims — knew the details until nearly a year later. By that time, Epstein had already been released from jail and had returned to his jet-setting life.
In February, a federal judge ruled that the deal was illegal because it violated provisions of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. That decision was the result of a federal lawsuit brought by two of Epstein’s victims who had been fighting to put him in prison for more than a decade.
Here’s an excellent related video (also from the Miami Herald) describing key players in the original Epstein case. Now that Epstein has been arrested for a second time, these figures will once again find themselves under the microscope.
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So today Trump told sitting Congresswomen of color to go back to their own “broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
This really happened. And he still has defenders. “Go back to where you came from” is the oldest insult in the world for racists and nationalists.
And after doing this, he doubled-down and tried to use it to divide Democrats.
The fact that Republicans all feel that ACA needs to be struck down, despite what the majority of Americans feel about it helping many who could never afford any care, much less an assurance that they could get coverage with a pre-existing condition. This political football is being dangled down at the end zone…and a Federal Appeals court could get ACA removed.
Then what…
Sen Schumer is right… he
"called the GOP’s stance “repeal without a replace.**”
Republicans have no real plan to establish a new health care system if the courts strike down the Affordable Care Act before the 2020 election. But plenty of them are rooting for its demise anyway — even if it means plunging the GOP into a debate that splits the party and leaves them politically vulnerable.
After a decade of trying to gut Obamacare, Republicans may finally get their wish thanks to a Trump administration-backed lawsuit. Its success would cause chaos not only in the insurance markets but on Capitol Hill. And Republican senators largely welcome it — even if they don’t know what comes next.
…
Quotes from Sen Collins (R-Maine) suggests she always takes the most passive stance on protecting healthcare…she’s going to get unseated soon, I hope.
“If it did succeed, I would be very concerned,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) of the lawsuit. “I don’t think there’s a plan in place to take care of individuals who’ve been using the exchanges to purchase their insurance or who have been covered under the Medicaid expansion. I’m just hoping the court doesn’t strike it down.”
Democrats are ready to hammer Republicans if the law gets taken down because of the GOP lawsuit. Democrats took back the House last year in large part because of their focus on health care.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the GOP’s stance “repeal without a replace.”
“Every plan Republicans have put forward has failed to maintain the protections offered under the current law,” he said. “It’s pretty simple: If you care about maintaining protections for people with preexisting conditions, you don’t demand they be taken away.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a close Schumer ally, added, “They better do something. If not, this is all on them. This is all on Mitch McConnell."
Republicans may be wagering that Democrats would jump into negotiations to protect popular provisions in Obamacare and somehow forge a new compromise health care law — all in the heat of the presidential campaign. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said Congress would act immediately on pre-existing conditions if the courts strike down that part of the law.
Federal case that may do away with ACA and all of it’s mandates is going to be decided soon.
A federal appeals court questioned Democratic lawyers Tuesday about whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, violated the Constitution.
The judicial scrutiny is the next phase in a case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit where the appeals court must decide if it will uphold a lower court’s ruling that struck down the landmark health care law.
Attorneys from a coalition of 16 Democratic states and the House of Representatives, and lawyers from the Department of Justice and a group of 18 Republican states, presented their cases to the appeals court in New Orleans.
According to reports from CNN and Reuters, two judges appointed by Republican presidents — one nominated by former President George W. Bush and the other by President Donald Trump — on the three-judge appellate panel grilled Democratic lawyers on whether the law was still constitutional after Congress in 2017 eliminated a tax provision in the law tied to Obamacare’s individual coverage mandate. The other judge, who was appointed by a Democratic president, did not ask any questions, according to CNN.
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