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Post by cliffs on Aug 22, 2020 0:08:36 GMT
The extent of US isolation at the UN has been driven home by formal letters from 13 of the 15 security council members opposing Trump administration attempts to extend the economic embargo on Iran.
The letters by the council members were all issued in the 24 hours since the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, came to the UN’s New York headquarters to declare Iran in non-compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal.
Under that deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), comprehensive UN sanctions on Iran would be restored 30 days after the declaration. But almost every other council member has issued letters saying that the US has no standing to trigger this sanctions “snapback” because it left the JCPOA in May 2018.
The US has said it is still technically a participant because it is named as one in a 2015 security council resolution endorsing the JCPOA. The argument was rejected by France, the UK and Germany even before Pompeo made his declaration.
Since then, Reuters reported that it had seen letters from Russia, China, Germany, Belgium, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia, all rejecting the US position.
Only the Dominican Republic has yet to issue a formal letter on the subject. Last week the Caribbean state was the only security council member to back the US when it tried to extend an arms embargo on Iran. Pompeo visited the island two days after that vote.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 23, 2020 20:22:02 GMT
Voters in North Carolina sent mail-in ballot request forms that feature President Trump's face on them, with the words "ARE YOU GOING TO LET THE DEMOCRATS SILENCE YOU?"
The mailout by the North Carolina Republican Party asks for "immediate action" to "ensure your right to securely vote Absentee."
"The irony is very thick and definitely not lost on me," one voter who received the brochure told CNN.
Trump has previously also said that using mail-in voting is less secure than absentee voting, even though the two terms refer to the same method of using the mail to deliver ballots.
Voters in North Carolina are receiving absentee ballot request forms that feature President Trump's face on them even though the president has continuously criticized mail-in voting in the run-up to the November election.
The mailer, which was sent by the North Carolina Republican Party, requests "immediate action" to "ensure your right to securely vote Absentee."
It features a picture of a smiling Trump, with the words: "ARE YOU GOING TO LET THE DEMOCRATS SILENCE YOU?", followed by "ACT NOW TO STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP."
Voter Chandler Carranza of Gaston County, who received the mailer earlier this week, told CNN that his wife asked him: "Is this a joke?" when she opened the brochure revealing Trump's face.
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Post by cliffs on Sept 1, 2020 14:11:01 GMT
ZHONGSHAN, China — This was supposed to be the year that China’s export machine began to stall. President Donald Trump had imposed broad tariffs on Chinese goods. Countries like Japan and France pushed companies to shift production from China. The pandemic had crippled China’s factories by the end of January.
Instead, China Inc. has come roaring back.
After reopening in late February and early March, China’s factories began an export blitz that is still gaining steam. Exports soared in July to their second-highest level ever, nearly matching the record-setting Christmas rush last December. The country has grabbed a much larger share of global markets this summer from other manufacturing nations, entrenching a dominance in trade that could last long after the world begins to recover from the pandemic.
China is showing its export machine cannot be stopped — not by the coronavirus and not by the Trump administration. Its resilience lies not only in the country’s low-cost, skilled labor and efficient infrastructure but also in a state-controlled banking system that has been offering small and large businesses extra loans to cope with the pandemic.
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Post by cliffs on Sept 5, 2020 11:35:04 GMT
Attorney General William Barr gave a false recounting of a voter fraud case in Texas during an interview Wednesday as he sought to bolster his unfounded argument that mass expansions of mail-in voting in 2020 will increase the risk of widespread fraud.
Barr incorrectly said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion, before launching into the false account. "For example, we indicted someone in Texas, 1,700 ballots collected, he -- from people who could vote, he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. OK?"
Barr added, "That kind of thing happens with mail-in ballots and everyone knows that."
MORE: Barr defends Trump use of treason against Biden, Obama, insists it was 'colloquial.' Trump's own words suggest otherwise
But Barr's description was not even close to what happened in the case, which was never under the Justice Department's purview in the first place -- according to Andy Chatham, a former assistant district attorney who worked on the investigation in 2017.
"I was like, 'What? Why would he talk about that case?'" Chatham told ABC News Friday when asked about his reaction to hearing Barr invoke the investigation. "This wasn't a case of voter fraud. This was a case of what we think was a political consultant trying to scam candidates."
MORE: Attorney General William Barr defends Justice Department against claims of politicization
In a statement Friday, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec acknowledged that Barr's description of the case was incorrect.
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Post by cliffs on Sept 11, 2020 10:24:37 GMT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Attorneys for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign are urging a federal judge in Las Vegas to block a state law and prevent mail-in ballots from going to all active Nevada voters less than eight weeks before the Nov. 3 elections and amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The campaign argues in documents filed Tuesday in a bid to keep its lawsuit alive that it is hurt by the state law passed in July by the Democrat-led Legislature because it forces Republicans to divert resources to “educating Nevada voters on those changes and encouraging them to still vote.”
Thea McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, declined to comment Thursday about the lawsuit. Attorneys for the state did not immediately respond to messages.
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Post by cliffs on Sept 13, 2020 11:33:33 GMT
This is some scary shit
Long-time Donald Trump confidant, and convicted felon, Roger Stone said that the president should declare “martial law” to seize power if he loses what Stone characterized as an already corrupt election.
The results will only be legitimate if the “real winner” — Trump — takes office, regardless of what the votes say, Stone declared. A loss would apparently be justification for Trump to use force to take over the nation.
Stone, who worked as an adviser in the last Trump campaign, made the astonishing statements Thursday on the InfoWars program of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Both men talked of an ongoing “coup” against Trump, and Stone inexplicably claimed that he predicted “almost three decades ago that this moment would come.”
Stone appeared resigned to a Trump loss — but blamed it on the baseless claim that early voting has already been “corrupted.”
To safeguard Trump’s position, Stone called for federal authorities to seize ballots in Nevada, for FBI agents to physically block certain voters from casting their ballots, and for Trump to use his powers for widespread arrests to solidify his power, Media Matters first reported.
Under martial law and the Insurrection Act, Trump will have “the authority” to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, “the Clintons” and “anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity,” Stone said. He also called for the immediate arrest of former defense secretary James Mattis for “sedition,” apparently because he feared Trump was unfit for office, according to Washington Post journalist’s to Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “Rage.”
In addition, Stone warned, journalist also risk arrest. “If the Daily Beast is involved in provably seditious ... acts” in a new Trump future, their “entire staff can be taken into custody and their office can be shut down.” “They want to play war, this is war,” he added.
Stone demanded that “the ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals” and not counted, claiming with absolutely no evidence that “they are completely corrupted.”
While such off-the-rail suggestions could easily be shrugged off from most, Stone is a high-profile friend of the president and has his ear, critics fear. Harvard law professor and Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe warned that Stone’s “advocacy of totalitarian takeover by Trump has to be taken seriously.”
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean blasted Stone for calling on Trump to “declare himself America’s dictator” — voicing what “many Republicans crave.”
**************************************
Mary Trump held little back when predicting what the reelection of her uncle, President Donald Trump, will do to the country.
The president’s niece ― who revealed multiple damning details about her uncle in her tell-all book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man” ― told MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Friday that the president is “a very sick man” and is “never going to get better.”
“He’s only going to get worse and if it suits his purposes he will take this entire country down with him, and he clearly has a lot of people willing to help him do just that,” Mary Trump said. “So please vote carefully.”
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Post by cliffs on Sept 15, 2020 10:16:32 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to preside over the signing of historic diplomatic deals between Israel and two Gulf Arab nations that could herald a dramatic shift in Middle East power dynamics and give him a boost ahead of the November election.
In a White House ceremony aimed at showcasing presidential statesmanship, Trump will host more than 700 guests Tuesday on the South Lawn to witness the sealing of the agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Trump and his allies hope the occasion will burnish Trump's credentials as a peacemaker at the height of his reelection campaign.
WHAT FREAKING PEACE? THESE COUNTRIES HAVE NEVER FOUGHT EACH OTHER.
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Post by ErixonStone on Sept 16, 2020 17:34:00 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to preside over the signing of historic diplomatic deals between Israel and two Gulf Arab nations that could herald a dramatic shift in Middle East power dynamics and give him a boost ahead of the November election. In a White House ceremony aimed at showcasing presidential statesmanship, Trump will host more than 700 guests Tuesday on the South Lawn to witness the sealing of the agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Trump and his allies hope the occasion will burnish Trump's credentials as a peacemaker at the height of his reelection campaign. WHAT FREAKING PEACE? THESE COUNTRIES HAVE NEVER FOUGHT EACH OTHER.For context, this would be like the USA and Canada signing a peace treaty. |
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Post by karma4u on Sept 19, 2020 21:23:45 GMT
What a hypocrite......
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made clear on Saturday that he would move to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, despite having said in the past that such vacancies should not be confirmed during a presidential election year.
On Saturday, he tweeted that he would support President Donald Trump “in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.”
Graham, locked in what a recent poll showed is a tough reelection bid, is reversing the stance he took four years ago as Republicans blocked then-President Barack Obama from filling the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
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Post by ErixonStone on Sept 23, 2020 3:34:35 GMT
What a hypocrite...... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made clear on Saturday that he would move to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, despite having said in the past that such vacancies should not be confirmed during a presidential election year. On Saturday, he tweeted that he would support President Donald Trump “in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.” Graham, locked in what a recent poll showed is a tough reelection bid, is reversing the stance he took four years ago as Republicans blocked then-President Barack Obama from filling the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans do not care what Democrats think of them. They don't care if they're hypocrites, jerks, or whatever. They push their agenda no matter what. Democrats do not do the same. All they do is hem and haw about norms being broken, but they don't fight. They rip up papers and give a sarcastic clap, all right, but then they go along with whatever gets pushed upon them. They're spineless, and too many people are too busy scraping together three cooked meals to pay attention. |
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Post by karma4u on Sept 23, 2020 23:06:05 GMT
Absolutely agree with that .^
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Post by cliffs on Sept 24, 2020 19:47:58 GMT
More than 200 retired generals, admirals endorse Biden, including some who served under Trump
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Post by cliffs on Sept 25, 2020 13:38:08 GMT
US COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told those close to her that she is "distressed" at the direction of the White House coronavirus task force and is weighing if she will remain with the team, CNN reported Wednesday.
The White House coronavirus expert told people close to her that she felt her role was diminished after neuroradiologist Dr. Scott Atlas joined the task force.
"The president has found somebody who matches what he wants to believe," a source close to Birx told CNN. "There is no doubt that she feels that her role has been diminished."
Atlas denied the report during a news conference Wednesday evening, saying Birx "speaks for herself but that's a completely false story and she denied it today."
Another source close to Birx told CNN that the White House coronavirus expert is unlikely to leave her position on the task force but said there is some "frustration" in her day-to-day work.
She is now finding out how Fauci feels.
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Post by cliffs on Sept 25, 2020 13:40:38 GMT
Coronavirus update: Trump suggests he may overrule FDA vaccine approval; airlines ramp up testing
President Donald Trump has fanned new concerns over the politicization of coronavirus vaccine approvals, suggesting he could block stricter guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to expedite a treatment to the general public.
As the U.S. faces a second wave of COVID-19 cases ahead of the flu season, two leading vaccine candidates are making their way through late-stage clinical trials. The need for a successful cure is high, as the world’s largest economy struggles to control nearly 7 million diagnoses and over 200,000 deaths. Globally, almost 32 million have been infected and more than 677,000 have died.
At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn repeated assurances that the agency would stick to usual standards of review of data and information in order to grant a limited emergency use authorization.
The FDA is in the process of expanding the observation period of Phase 3 trials, and the new guidance would push out an authorization toward the end of November, rather than the possible earlier timeframe of late October that is currently in sight.
The agency “will not authorize or approve any COVID-19 vaccine before it has met the agency’s rigorous expectations for safety and effectiveness,” Hahn said. He added that “every one of the decisions we have reached has been made by career FDA scientists based on science and data, not politics.”
However, Trump undercut the FDA chief in press remarks later Wednesday, criticizing the new guidelines as unnecessary, and suggesting the agency itself was playing politics.
“We're looking at that and that has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move,” Trump said.
This is another reason why I won't get any vaccination until millions have and the effectiveness is above 90%
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Post by cliffs on Sept 26, 2020 11:24:41 GMT
The idea that President Donald Trump could refuse to leave the White House if he loses the election was a serious enough concern that White House staffers discussed the possibility several weeks ago, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence told CNN Friday.
Given what Olivia Troye has seen of the president, she doesn’t find it surprising that Trump has been emphasizing the possibility that he may not step down if he loses in November, she told Wolf Blitzer. Troye left the administration in August after working on the coronavirus task force and serving as an adviser to Pence on counterterrorism and homeland security.
But simply because Trump’s behavior is predictable doesn’t make it any less frightening, Troye said.
“It’s frightening to me, because, to be honest, during my tenure at the White House, I’ve had conversations behind closed doors with White House staffers and other government officials — including people in the intelligence community — where we’ve actually discussed what if. What if he loses and refuses to leave, or ... what if his plan is four more years of Donald Trump should he win, and will he even leave after that?” she said.
Even threats Trump later shrugs off or claims were jokes should be taken seriously, Troye warned.
“The president when he’s joking, if he says that he’s joking, he’s telling you a half truth,” Troye said. “And in there is something fairly frightening and scary” in that.
Though Trump has joked in the past about staying in the White House for more than the maximum two terms, his recent warnings are far more serious — and ominous.
Asked at a press conference Wednesday if he would “commit to a peaceful transferal of power” if he lost the November election, Trump warned: “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens.”
He also urged: “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a peaceful ... there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.” Trump was apparently referring to mail-in ballots, which he repeatedly claims without evidence are rigged. But it sounded as if he was encouraging voting to simply be scrapped.
Troye said she left the administration in disgust because of the abysmal job the administration was doing to battle COVID-19.
“If the president had taken this virus seriously, or if he had actually made an effort to tell how serious it was, he would have slowed the virus spread, he would have saved lives,” Troye said in an ad recently released by Republican Voters Against Trump.
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