[NYT] Four years ago, one of China's largest agricultural importers sent representatives to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., hoping that meetings with elite party officials might yield business opportunities. The company, the Dandong Port Group, was particularly focused on the governors in attendance, according to an interview with Dandong's general counsel broadcast by Chinese state television.
"If you really want to influence, let’s say, U.S.-China policy," he said, "it's almost worth it to have emphasis and influence on the state level."
The meetings, arranged by a former South Carolina governor, marked a period of expansion in the United States for Dandong and its affiliated companies, involving negotiations with officials in Washington, Arkansas, South Carolina and Virginia. But now, the company’s widening influence is coming under scrutiny by federal prosecutors, who are examining the relationship between Dandong’s wealthy and connected chairman, Wang Wenliang, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a Democrat who was elected in 2013.
A federal law enforcement official said the inquiry included $120,000 in contributions that a New Jersey construction firm controlled by Mr. Wang made to Mr. McAuliffe's 2013 campaign and inaugural committee. That official and a second law enforcement official, both of whom asked for anonymity to discuss the matter, said it was a preliminary inquiry of Mr. McAuliffe's campaign donations, and they provided no detail about the nature and scope of any potential violations being scrutinized.
Though Mr. Wang is a Chinese citizen, he is also a legal permanent resident of the United States, according to a spokeswoman for him, which entitles him to make campaign contributions.
The inquiry was first reported on Monday by CNN, which said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department’s public integrity unit were involved in the review. The inquiry also encompasses Mr. McAuliffe's role as a board member of the Clinton Foundation, to which another company linked to Mr. Wang pledged a $2 million contribution in 2013. The foundation has raised millions of dollars from companies and wealthy individuals overseas as well as from foreign governments.
Representatives for Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Wang said they had not been contacted by the Justice Department or the F.B.I. A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation also said it had not been contacted by law enforcement officials.
Speaking to reporters in Virginia on Tuesday, Mr. McAuliffe said he was shocked by reports of an inquiry. He had played no role in soliciting Mr. Wang's pledge to the Clinton Foundation and said the contributions to his campaign from by Mr. Wang's company were legitimate.
"I'm very confident this gentleman had been fully vetted," Mr. McAuliffe said of Mr. Wang.
But the federal inquiry throws a cloud over Mr. McAuliffe at a critical time: He is a top fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton, a close confidant of her and her husband, and the governor of a swing state critical to her chances of becoming president. On Sunday, Mr. McAuliffe headlined a $5,000-a-head Virginia fund-raising event for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Wang are, in a sense, mirror images: wealthy self-made men with intertwined careers in business and politics. Before becoming governor, Mr. McAuliffe was an inveterate deal-maker involved in everything from real estate to banking to electric cars. Last year, a separate federal review found that Mr. McAuliffe had lobbied officials at the Department of Homeland Security to speed visas for Chinese investors in an electric car company.
[Daily Beast] Clinton's super-donors poured millions into the State Department. Why was the government so reluctant to release the names of these high-rollers and socialites?
Hillary Clinton may have suspended her political career temporarily when she became Secretary of State. But the Clinton fundraising machine was in full swing and raising millions of dollars for the State Department under her watch, an analysis by The Daily Beast has found.
More than a dozen donors to Clinton’s non-profit foundation and her various political campaigns poured money into an endowment she launched into 2010 to pay for the upkeep of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms. The 42 sumptuous salons at State Department headquarters in Washington, decorated with 18th and 19th century American furnishings, are used to welcome foreign dignitaries, conduct diplomatic meetings and swearing-in ceremonies, and host official dinners.
By the following year, the campaign had raised more than $20 million to permanently fund restoration and maintenance for the rooms and their collections of rare American artwork, thanks largely to reliable Clinton donors.
Nearly half of the 37 people and organizations who donated to the State Department campaign, known as Patrons of Diplomacy, also gave money to the Clinton Foundation, according to State Department and foundation records. Of the eleven people who served as co-chairs for the campaign, agreeing to contribute their own money or to help raise funds from others, six also gave to the Clinton Foundation, a global charity started by former President Bill Clinton.
Until this week the State Department seemed inclined to keep the names of these patrons private. When The Daily Beast initially asked to see the donor list, a department spokesperson said that it was already the subject of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Republican National Committee, and therefore couldn’t yet be released. (The RNC has filed six lawsuits against the State Department related to Clinton’s tenure, focused on potential conflicts of interest with her and her aides’ work for the foundation, as well as her use of a private email server for official business.)
But if the State Department wanted to keep the donors from public scrutiny, it’s not clear why their names are inscribed on a wall, located on a terrace off one of the reception rooms, with a sweeping view of the National Mall.
Only when The Daily Beast pointed out that an article in a 2012 issue of an internal State Department magazine mentions the donor wall was a reporter allowed to see it.
[BIGSTORY.AP.ORG] In one of the presidential campaign year's more grisly spectacles, mostly peaceful protesters in New Mexico opposing Donald Trump's candidacy threw burning T-shirts, plastic bottles and other items at coppers, injuring several, and toppled trash cans and barricades.
Police responded by firing pepper spray and smoke grenades into the crowd outside the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Kent State isn't that far away...
During the rally, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, who shouted, held up banners and resisted removal by security officers. The banners included the messages "Trump is Fascist" and "We've heard enough."
Trump lashed back at protesters, tweeting Wednesday: "The protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals!"
At one point, a female protester was physically dragged from the stands by security. Other protesters scuffled with security as they resisted removal from the convention center, which was packed with thousands of loud and cheering Trump supporters.
Trump responded with his usual bluster, instructing security to remove the protesters and mocking their actions by telling them to "Go home to mommy."
He responded to one demonstrator by asking, "How old is this kid?" Then he provided his own answer: "Still wearing diapers."
Trump's supporters responded with chants of "Build that wall!"
Trump later tweeted "Great rally in New Mexico, amazing crowd!"
The altercations left glass at the entrance of the convention center smashed.
Albuquerque attorney Doug Antoon said rocks were flying through the convention center windows as he was leaving Tuesday night. Glass was breaking and landing near his feet.
"This was not a protest, this was a riot. These are hate groups," he said of the demonstrators.
And socialists. But we repeat ourselves...
Albuquerque police said several officers were treated for injuries after getting hit by rocks thrown by protesters. At least one person was jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! from the riot, police said.
During the rally, protesters outside overran barricades and clashed with police in riot gear. They also burned T-shirts and other items labeled with Trump's catchphrase, "Make America Great Again."
Tuesday marked Trump's first stop in New Mexico, the nation's most Hispanic state. Gov. Susana Martinez, head of the Republican Governors Association and the nation's only Latina governor, has harshly criticized his remarks on immigrants colonists and has attacked his proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The governor did not attend the rally and has yet to make an endorsement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
NSFYS (Not Safe For Your Sanity)
Anti-Trump jokers clashed with police. The police won.
#2
Keep flying those Mexican flags. There is no better endorsement for Trump.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/26/2016 12:38 Comments ||
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#3
Wonder what the Intel says about coordination with other protest events? Certainly there must be federal statutes addressing 'conspiracy to disrupt' and interstate travel.
[FRANCE24] Eleven US states sued President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... 's administration Wednesday to try to overturn federal guidelines demanding that public schools allow transgender students to access the bathroom of their choice.
In the joint filing in US District Court in Wichita Falls, Texas, the states accused the federal government of trying to rewrite laws by "executive fiat."
In a letter to public school districts and universities on May 13, the Justice and Education Departments laid out guidelines
...that do not have the force of law, despite what the administrators at these departments claim...
on creating a safe environment for transgender students, in accordance with existing laws on discrimination.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[14 views]
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#10
Obama's executive order on transgender bathrooms seems to me a solution looking for a problem. Transgenders represent 0.3% of the population. Do we not have larger problems that need solving?
#13
I wonder what these folks did before Champ's directive? Hold it until they got home? Pee on the street? Maybe all the homeless folks are transgender? Now that they have bathrooms, they'll all get jobs and become model citizens?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/26/2016 13:41 Comments ||
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#14
I wonder what these folks did before Champ's directive.
Most of the gas stations around here are unisex (or should I say "omnisex"). If he/she/it uses those facilities no one will know (or care).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/26/2016 14:34 Comments ||
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#15
It's good to be the king/queen.
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/26/2016 14:35 Comments ||
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#16
Hopefully he'll be content with the transgender restrooms as his legacy instead of trying to ramming some other law down everyones throats.
[Newsweek] A retired senior State Department military advisor claims that Hillary Clinton’s "sloppy communications with her senior staff" when she was secretary of state may have compromised at least two counterterror operations.
Bill Johnson, who was the State Department’s political adviser to the special operations section of the U.S. Pacific Command, or PACOM, in 2010 and 2011, says secret plans to eliminate the leader of a Filipino Islamist separatist group as well as intercept Chinese-made weapons components being smuggled into Iraq, were repeatedly foiled.
Johnson says he and his team eliminated the possibility of other security leaks before settling on the unprotected telephone calls of the secretary of state and her aides as the likely source--though he quickly adds they had "no proof."
"I had several missions that went inexplicably wrong, with the targets one step ahead of us," Johnson tells Newsweek in an exclusive interview.
Clinton's spokesman Nick Merrill calls the allegations "patently false." Unfortunately, there is much more.
#1
Johnson says the email scandal dogging Clinton”could've been avoided if the CIA gave her a secure phone. She requested one,” he adds, “but they turned it down.”
Perhaps there was a valid reason for the Klingon's to turn down the request. If they [Klingon's] could not talk to her over secure COMS, then everything would have had to have gone over via 'secure cable' which means.... you have a copy, I have a copy.
The fact that the Beest and McAuliffe had contact with Wang might have been enough to give the Klingon's pause. Just say'n.
#3
...why do you ask? Did you find in the open message traffic that a black person died in her custody? Short of that, the peasants shouldn't trouble themselves.
#4
Johnson says the email scandal dogging Clintonâcould've been avoided if the CIA gave her a secure phone. She requested one,â he adds, âbut they turned it down.â
Wasn't the point that there are no secure phones outside State Department facilities? I seem to recall something about Japanese security sharing that they were picking up State Department communications in the hotel or the airport when Secretary Clinton was visiting there.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Beast] Clinton's super-donors poured millions into the State Department. Why was the government so reluctant to release the names of these high-rollers and socialites?
[FRANCE24] Eleven US states sued President 
