In Bill Barr, Trump Found His Dick Cheney

10 October 19

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In Bill Barr, Trump Found His Dick Cheney

Bob Moser, Rolling Stone
Moser writes: "Two months into his ill-begotten presidency, when Donald Trump flew into a temper tantrum over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' insistence on recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, he famously bawled, 'Where's my Roy Cohn?'"
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President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. (photo: William B. Plowman/Getty)

Trump Pressured Tillerson to Help Scrap Criminal Case Against One of Giuliani's Clients, According to Report
Alison Durkee, Vanity Fair
Durkee writes: "Giuliani was not the president's lawyer at the time, and Bloomberg notes that it's unclear whether Trump actually realized the request was as 'improper' as it actually was."

EXCERPT:
Trump's involvement with Zarrab's case specifically also raises new questions. Zarrab was arrested in 2016 on a family trip to Walt Disney World for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran, with former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara writing that Zarrab had “facilitated millions of dollars-worth of transactions on behalf of Iran . . . through a global network of companies located in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.” Beyond that, Zarrab also had ties to the Turkish government, and, Bharara noted, was “engaged in a massive bribery scheme . . . paying cabinet-level [Turkish] governmental officials and high-level bank officers tens of millions of Euro and U.S. dollars” to facilitate his transactions. Zarrab's case was a priority for Erdogan, who, while not directly implicated in the sanctions evasion, was tangentially linked to the corruption. The Turkish president lobbied Obama administration officials, including President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, for the trader's release, and the New York Times noted in 2017 that his officials mounted a campaign casting the case as “a conspiracy against Turkey” when it eventually went to trial. While the efforts to secure Zarrab's release were ultimately unsuccessful, Zarrab ended up taking a plea deal in November 2017—and was speculated to be cooperating with Robert Mueller's team in their investigation of Michael Flynn and his relationship with Erdogan.

Given Erdogan's involvement, the revelation that Trump was personally pushing for Zarrab's case to be dropped is likely to fuel new concerns about Trump's reportedly “fawning” relationship with the authoritarian Turkish president, as Trump seemingly prioritizes Turkey over the views of his own party by withdrawing troops from Syria and leaving the American-allied Kurds at risk. (Trump's relationship with Erdogan has also been scrutinized given Trump's real estate business in Istanbul, and an NBC News analysis found that Turkish officials have made more visits to Trump properties than any other government.) The president defended his wildly unpopular military decision Wednesday in true Trumpian fashion, saying that the Kurdish troops “didn’t help us in the Second World War. They didn’t help us in Normandy.” (Trump also dismissed a question on ISIS escapees by saying “they are going to be escaping to Europe.”) Lawmakers, meanwhile, are escalating their rare bipartisan condemnation of Trump's decision, as Senators Lindsey Graham and Chris Van Hollen released a bill Wednesday that would issue sanctions against Turkey. “The Kurds have been a great partner . . . Turkey under Erdogan has not been. I’m concerned about what can happen next,” Republican Sen. Roy Blunt told Politico Wednesday. “I wish the president would reconsider.”

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Sacramento Municipal Utility District worker Lindsey Martinez prepares a utility pole for installation. (photo: Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle)

ALSO SEE: Northern Californians Face Days of Power Shutoffs
Amid High Wildfire Threat

Public Takeover of PG&E? Sacramento's Past Provides Important Lessons

J.D. Morris, San Francisco Chronicle
Morris writes: "Nearly a century ago, thousands of dissatisfied Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers decided they wanted to divorce themselves from the company's power service and form their own government-run utility."
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Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke (photo: Antonio Perez/AP)

Chicago Releases Investigation Showing 16 Police Officers Helped Cover Up the Killing of Laquan McDonald
Naomi LaChance, Splinter
LaChance writes: "On Wednesday, the city of Chicago released a watchdog report showing an alleged cover-up following the 2014 police killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald."
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New US citizens recite the Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony at Rockefeller Center, in New York City, on September 17, 2019. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty)

Trump Just Quietly Cut Legal Immigration by Up to 65%
Nicole Narea, Vox
Narea writes: "With one proclamation signed late Friday evening last week, President Donald Trump made his adviser Stephen Miller's dreams of restricting legal immigration a reality."
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Former far-right Colombian president and senator Alvaro Uribe (photo: John Vizcaino/Reuters)

Former Colombian President Uribe Investigated by Supreme Court
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Former far-right Colombian President and Senator Alvaro Uribe went Tuesday before the Supreme Court of Justice as part of the process opened against him for alleged procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses."
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Oil drilling operation. (photo: iStock)

Revealed: The 20 Firms Behind a Third of All Carbon Emissions
Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "New data from world-renowned researchers reveals how this cohort of state-owned and multinational firms are driving the climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity, and details how they have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry's devastating impact on the planet."

EXCERPT:

The top 20 companies on the list have contributed to 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide and methane worldwide, totalling 480bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) since 1965.

Those identified range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP and Shell – to state-owned companies including Saudi Aramco and Gazprom.

Chevron topped the list of the eight investor-owned corporations, followed closely by Exxon, BP and Shell. Together these four global businesses are behind more than 10% of the world’s carbon emissions since 1965.

Twelve of the top 20 companies are state-owned and together their extractions are responsible for 20% of total emissions in the same period. The leading state-owned polluter is Saudi Aramco, which has produced 4.38% of the global total on its own.

Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, said the findings shone a light on the role of fossil fuel companies and called on politicians at the forthcoming climate talks in Chile in December to take urgent measures to rein in their activities.

“The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price – in the form of a degraded planet – so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits. It is a great moral failing of our political system that we have allowed this to happen.”

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The Plum Line • Opinion
This new study suggests Trump’s racism might actually hurt him The backlash to Trump's immigration agenda could help Democrats make gains. By Greg Sargent  •  Read more »

Immigration Process

Ruth Rodriguez

To my friends on FB, those I trust believe in justice, allow me to share something that has been on my mind; especially lately with all the anti immigrants rhetoric, because it is especially those of us immigrants who don't share the right skin tone, usually being the white privilege one, that end up getting the worst treatment.

The next time you hear about "those illegals", you might want to know about a little racket that our government has been carrying on, especially in countries where the majority are poor, and the living conditions border on inhumane.

Here's how the immigration process has been designed by Washington in my country of birth. When a person, heeding our Lady Liberty call "to bring me your tired....", makes the decision to start the process requesting a visa to travel to the United States, applicants must pay a fee of $400.00. That amounts to about $16,000 pesos in my country of birth. That amount is for the application only, it doesn't include all the the documents and the other expenses as well as travel from the countryside to the city where the US consulate is located. In other words, it is a very expensive endeavor, many families end up selling many of their property to gather enough "pesos" to buy dollars, another expense put on poor people.

Now, that's the first step, then you are given an appointment where the US consulate will inform you with a letter of acceptance or rejection. Almost always the first try ends with a rejection, they give no reason why the application was denied, and at bottom of the letter it advises that you may apply a year from the rejection date. Every time one submits an application its the same expenses all over again, and the agony of waiting and hoping this time its a positive response.

Its been reported of cases where people have done this for ten years, (this amounts to about $160,000pesos paid to the US government), some give up, then they are others who out of desperation may listen to some scammer, promising to arrange for legal status, charging sometime as much as thousands of dollars, only to find they have been taken by a scam. Many of the people who apply for visas are decent, law abiding citizens whose only crime is attempting to better their lives and the lives of their families, and in the end, up with little possession and financially starved.

I share this because I believe its time that people view the complexity of this situation. The next time you see an undocumented workers you might consider that that person may have paid his way ten times over. I also think its unfair for our government to have immigration policies that are fair with countries that they choose, like the idea that our Northern borders can enjoy humane immigration policies, while dehumanizing our neighbors from our southern border, this is so wrong and biased..