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Post by cliffs on Aug 3, 2020 21:34:51 GMT
Deutsche Bank has begun an investigation into the longtime personal banker of Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner for her purchase of a New York condo from a company partly owned by Kushner, according to two news reports.
The connection emerged in personal financial disclosures filed recently by Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump, who hold jobs as White House senior advisers.
Banker Rosemary Vrablic and two colleagues purchased an apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan for about $1.5 million in 2013 from Bergel 715 Associates, The New York Times first reported Sunday. It was sold two years later for $1.85 million.
The first daughter and Kushner received $1 million to $5 million from Bergel 715 in 2019, according to the couple’s required financial disclosures, which they filed Friday. It was the first time Bergel had appeared in their filings.
A source familiar with the business arrangement told The Times that Kushner owns a stake in Bergel, and did so when Vrablic purchased the condo. But the income reported from Bergel was not linked to the banker’s purchase, according to the source.
The Deutsche Bank investigation will determine if Vrablic acted improperly by purchasing the condo, according to The Hill. It’s typically against policy at banks for employees to do business — other than banking — with clients to avoid conflicts of interest, the Times noted.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 3, 2020 21:36:00 GMT
President Donald Trump threatened legal action Monday after Nevada’s Legislature passed a bill to mail ballots to all active voters, suggesting the measure would make it impossible for Republicans to win there in November’s general election.
“In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!”
The president’s social media post came after Nevada state lawmakers approved legislation on Sunday to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters. Nevada Gov. Stephen Sisolak, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill into law.
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Post by karma4u on Aug 4, 2020 17:08:59 GMT
President Trump said the coronavirus death toll "is what it is" during an interview with "Axios on HBO" broadcast late Monday.
The president told Axios's Jonathan Swan that the COVID-19 pandemic is "under control as much as you can control it" in the U.S.
"They are dying, that's true. And you have - it is what it is," Trump said. "But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague."
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Post by cliffs on Aug 4, 2020 22:59:25 GMT
Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA
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Post by cliffs on Aug 5, 2020 11:21:57 GMT
WASHINGTON — At a coronavirus briefing on Tuesday evening, President Trump said an explosion that rocked Beirut earlier in the day was caused by a “bomb of some kind.”
Officials in Lebanon had previously stated the blast came from a large quantity of explosive materials that were being held in a warehouse, but Trump, citing conversations with top U.S. military personnel, characterized the explosion as an “attack.”
“I’ve met with some of our great generals and they seem to feel that it was — this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event — this was a — seems to be, according to them they would know better than I would — but they seem to think it was an attack,” Trump said. “It was a bomb of some kind.”
Reached by Yahoo News on Tuesday evening, the Defense Department referred questions about the blast to the White House.
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Post by karma4u on Aug 8, 2020 23:27:13 GMT
Sad..You actually need to be working to get a reduction in your payroll tax.  and, do you really have to pay tuition if schools are shut down.  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed four executive orders Saturday for coronavirus economic relief, upending negotiations with Congress after lawmakers failed to reach a deal on Friday. The executive orders defer payroll taxes through the end of the year for Americans earning less than $100,000 a year. They also defer student loan payments through the end of the year; continue eviction moratoriums; and extend enhanced unemployment benefits that expired last week, but at a reduced level of $400 instead of the prior $600. Click to expand |
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Post by karma4u on Aug 8, 2020 23:31:25 GMT
WASHINGTON — At a coronavirus briefing on Tuesday evening, President Trump said an explosion that rocked Beirut earlier in the day was caused by a “bomb of some kind.” Officials in Lebanon had previously stated the blast came from a large quantity of explosive materials that were being held in a warehouse, but Trump, citing conversations with top U.S. military personnel, characterized the explosion as an “attack.” “I’ve met with some of our great generals and they seem to feel that it was — this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event — this was a — seems to be, according to them they would know better than I would — but they seem to think it was an attack,” Trump said. “It was a bomb of some kind.”
Reached by Yahoo News on Tuesday evening, the Defense Department referred questions about the blast to the White House. What an absolutely disgusting and dangerous comment by anyone in power, much less the POTUS. |
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Post by cliffs on Aug 9, 2020 11:08:33 GMT
Not liking this employee tax deferral plan of Donnie's. Most employees won't realize that these taxes have to be paid back in whatever time frame is put in place. Right now the CARES act employers pay back the employers tax deferral 50% end of 2021 and 22. So get your "free loan" now but pay it back just after the holidays...good luck with that.
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and this
Critics erupted Saturday after President Donald Trump signed four executive actions that included deferring payroll taxes that provide funding for both Social Security and Medicare.
While Trump characterized the move as a financial boost for Americans struggling amid the COVID-19 crisis, critics blasted it a cynical ploy to do what Trump has long intended to do: Gut the vitally important social service programs just as Americans need them more than ever during the pandemic.
“The American people desperately need relief,” noted Rep. Val Demings (D-Florida). “Instead, the president decided to defund Social Security and Medicare.”
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called Trump’s action a “reckless war on Social Security.” He’s “laying out his road map” to cut the program, he warned in a statement.
House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) called the move “a poorly disguised first step in an effort to fully dismantle these vital programs by executive fiat.”
Trump also signed an order providing $400 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits — down from the $600 weekly benefit that expired last month.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called the orders a “stunt.”
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Post by ErixonStone on Aug 10, 2020 16:16:09 GMT
So, in brief, the President is attempting to unilaterally modify the US budget - a function of Congress - thereby consolidating power in the Executive branch. This is what is happening, and nearly half the country will go along with it.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 13, 2020 10:17:44 GMT
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s interest in taking intelligence briefings has been declining steadily since his first months in office and has dropped to near zero in recent weeks, according to a HuffPost review of all of his daily schedules.
Trump went from a high of 4.1 briefings per week on average in March 2017 to 0.7 per week since July 1, shortly after it became public that he had ignored intelligence reports about Russia offering bounties to the Taliban for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Monday’s briefing, in fact, was the first in August and the first since July 22. That month had only three briefings scheduled.
“It’s remarkable that, even at their peak, they never exceeded 20 per month,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
“And now that they are arguably more important than ever, as foreign actors are again interfering in our democracy, tensions with Beijing are swirling, and America’s adversaries and competitors are becoming more emboldened, the president can’t seem to find the time to be briefed,” he added.
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On the flip side, Biden is taking DAILY briefings.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 14, 2020 10:00:15 GMT
Trump admits he's blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he's starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.
In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won't have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo. “That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting; they just can’t have it.”
Trump's statements, including the false claim that Democrats are seeking universal mail-in voting, come as he is searching for a strategy to gain an advantage in his November matchup against Joe Biden. He's pairing the tough Postal Service stance in congressional negotiations with an increasingly robust mail-in-voting legal fight in states that could decide the election.
This from the I can/will do whatever I want president.
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Post by karma4u on Aug 14, 2020 20:11:30 GMT
It's OK for him and the gold digger.
President Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, requested mail-in ballots for Tuesday's primary election in Florida, according to CNN and USA Today.
But Trump has railed against mail-in voting and made groundless claims that its use will open the election process to widespread fraud.
Trump suggested delaying the election over the practice, and on Thursday he said he planned to intentionally block extra funding that would help the US Postal Service cope.
Appearing to excuse the discrepancy, Trump has argued that the mail-in voting system in Florida is secure. The state is vital to his presidential campaign.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 15, 2020 10:52:14 GMT
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Post by cliffs on Aug 16, 2020 1:39:15 GMT
Joe Biden
@joebiden
Voting by mail is safe and secure. And don't take my word for it:
Take it from the President, who just requested his mail-in ballot for the Florida primary on Tuesday.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 16, 2020 12:45:09 GMT
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Saturday he's considering granting a pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“I’m going to take a look at that very strongly,” Trump said during a news conference at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, has been living in exile in Moscow since fleeing the U.S. six years ago after leaking information on the nation's most secretive spy agencies and their programs. His revelations triggered a debate over government eavesdropping, with some hailing him as a hero and others calling him a traitor.
Trump said he is “not that aware of the Snowden situation,” but that people on both the left and the right are divided over the former contractor.
"It seems to be a split decision," he said. “Many people think he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things."
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