[The Hill] Former Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) has been sentenced to more than two years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI.
A federal judge on Friday rejected pleas for Collins to receive probation and sentenced him to 26 months in prison, according to multiple reports.
Collins, the first sitting member of Congress to endorse President Trump's White House bid and a top former ally of his in the House, was charged in August 2018 with securities fraud related to an Australian pharmaceutical company that counted him as one of its top shareholders.
The New York Republican resigned from office in September and later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud and one count of making false statements.
Collins’s fortunes on Capitol Hill first took a turn after he was overheard by reporters bragging about "how many millionaires I've made in Buffalo."
GOP lawmakers had told The Hill in 2017 that the New York Republican had boasted about how much money he had made for other members of Congress by alerting them to the pharmaceutical company Innate Immunotherapeutics, where he served on the board of directors and was the largest shareholder.
#1
Geoff Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said following the indictment of Collins and his son that the congressman "acted as if the law didn't apply to him."
If the 'bug man' sees one termite during the annual inspection, his report will read that "you have termites."
#2
the New York Republican had boasted about how much money he had made for other members of Congress
Congressional insider trading is yet another example of corruption that is so brazen, so rampant, that it's become boring and accepted in DC. Hedge funders routinely pay money to Congressional staff members for advance knowledge of legislation that can move markets. Kerry is the most notorious insider trader-- see his shenanigans after Hank Paulson's closed-door meeting at the height of the financial crisis in summer of 2008 -- but I wager that most congresscritters of the Uniparty are in on the game. The money is too easy, the sums too big, for them not to play.
There's virtually no press coverage of this at all. Neither does this SEC even bother to investigate it.
Ours is the most corrupt era since the days of the Robber Barons.
In which the Daily Mail helps market A Very Stable Genius, written in high indignation by a pair of Washington Post reporters and set to appear in bookstores next week.
WaPo? I call Bullshit from the start
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Dramatic details of how Donald Trump ranted against his most senior generals is revealed in new book
He spewed abuse at meeting chaired by Marine General Joe Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying: 'You're all losers'
Mattis organized the sit-down six months into the Trump administration because of mounting concerns he shared with Tillerson and Gary Cohn, then the chief economic adviser, about Trump's knowledge of history, and in particular post-war alliances.
Sitting beside combat veteran Dunford was his deputy Paul Selva, a four star air force general who flew transport aircraft
He accused one general who was not present - John Nicholson, in charge of combat in Afghanistan - of not knowing how to win
Book claims he could barely breathe as he vented with rage, demanding South Korea pay for U.S. military bases
Rex Tillerson, then Secretary of State, whose family included career officers, intervened to shut Trump down
He accused Trump of wanting to turn U.S. forces into mercenaries and said they don't join up 'to make a buck,' saying: They do it to protect our freedom.'
After Trump stormed out of the room Tillerson - the son of a combat veteran - turned to the group and called him a 'f***ing moron'
The president was reacting to a tailored tutorial his then officials - Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - arranged for him in room 2E924 of the Pentagon - know as 'The Tank.'
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., was in the main seat, in front of a painting of Lincoln meeting with his generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.
Around the table were then deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the heads of the branches of the military and Vice President Mike Pence. A strategy session apparently devoid of those who have actually been formulating the national strategy for decades.
It was very early in his first term. Sixteen years of failure very likely brought on a massive amount of frustration for Trump. He would soon learn that the military had little to do with actual outcomes in AFG and Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter.
The room was lined with other staff officers and White House aides. They included Sean Spicer, then press secretary, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, and Reince Priebus, then chief of staff.
The sit-down took place six months into the Trump administration. Mattis organized it because of mounting concerns he shared with Tillerson and Gary Cohn, then the chief economic adviser, about Trump's knowledge of history, and in particular post-war alliances.
How insulting. And involving the entire staff, too. That’s not how to bring the boss up to speed. They’re lucky he didn’t fire them all on the spot.
It started with Mattis giving a presentation in front of a screen saying: 'The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.'
He railed against General John Nicholson, in charge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, saying: 'I don't think he knows how to win.'
The general was not at the meeting and Dunford tried to defend him, saying they were following orders on how to leave Afghanistan.
They said that?? I’m surprised flames didn’t burst from President Trump’s eyes and roast them on the spot.
The authors say the participants 'felt sick to their stomachs' at the president's words. Tillerson later said he saw one female officer silently crying.
Great big soldier (etc. It’s a general category here) boys and girls got tummy aches from a little shouting? Quick, someone build them a safe room with colouring books, Playdough, and kittens!
He said of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, from which he would later withdraw the United States: 'It's the worst deal in history!'
Tillerson tried to talk to him about that. 'I don't want to hear it,' the president responded.
'They're cheating. They're building. We're getting out of it. I keep telling you, I keep giving you time, and you keep delaying me. I want out of it.'
Those at the meeting were astonished that Mike Pence did not intervene to stop Trump but instead sat there 'like a wax museum guy.'
They thought he should intervene on their side? But it was between the president and his staff — Vice President Pence was only in the room so that he’d be up to speed in case he was suddenly promoted.
Shortly after that the meeting ended.
After Trump left the room, Tillerson spoke up again: 'He's a f***ing moron,' he said of Trump.
Mr. Tillerson was CEO of ExxonMobile for eleven years. He knows you never, ever badmouth the boss in front of staff — and he was Secretary of State, not Defense, so they weren’t even his own staff. There is no excuse whatsoever for him deliberately undercutting the president of the United States..
In contrast Trump said tersely to reporters that the meeting was 'absolutely great' and when asked if he was going to make a decision on cutting troop numbers in Afghanistan brushed it off saying: 'You'll be hearing.'
Then he tweeted a video of himself and Pence shaking hands with members of the military in the Pentagon, with the audio cut to make way for 'I'm proud to be an American.' Mattis was only fleetingly visible.
Good Management 101: correct in private, praise in public.
Tillerson was to attack Trump again on the issue of foreign allies paying for U.S. military presence on their territory at a White House Situation Room meeting where Trump demanded money.
Tillerson stood up, turned his back on the president, and turned to uniformed officers and other staff to say how the country valued their service and knew 'they don't do it to make a buck.'
In March the following year, Tillerson was fired while he was on a diplomatic tour of Africa.
#2
It started with Mattis giving a presentation in front of a screen saying: 'The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.'
? "Rules-based"? Really?
I think the good General needs to add a bit of Hobbes and Machiavelli, maybe also Morgenthau and Thucydides, to his reading list.
The order that prevailed from 1945 through 1992 was based on the balance of terror-- fear of a thermonuclear war between two global superpowers. No "rules" there. None needed.
The other dimension of that interstate system was almost constant proxy wars across the so-called Third World - wars which, "though not [always] recorded in any history book, were memorable enough for those who took part." Early a million of our and the Soviets' and our/their allies' soldiers died in those proxy wars.
So much for your "rules-based system."
Regarding the banking and trade institutions, it's true that these helped restore prosperity to Japan and Germany and western Europe, and also created wealthy new allies in South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere.
But what did those "rule-based systems" do for the American people?
Most Americans are poorer today in almost every sense than they were not long ago-- thanks to that "rule-based system" whose rules are honored in the breach by cheaters in China and freeloaders elsewhere.
Whatever the merits of such a system in 1949, or even 1999, its utility TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE has long since expired.
Trump correctly called bullshit on this equivalent of dead stars in the outer reaches of the universe: an idea that appears to be alive but in fact has been dead and irrelevant for many years.
Unpleasant, sure. Nasty? Maybe. But long overdue. Time to stop believing in dead stars.
#6
It started with Mattis giving a presentation in front of a screen saying: 'The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.'
The "greatest generation" should NOT be falsely credited with present-day strategies emanating from Langley, Virginia and Foggy Bottom.
Virtue signaling via proxy. A most unfortunate reference.
#7
General Officers are a political class with standardized clothing. They can join the rest of the political ruling class in our judgement of the quality of our government.
When was the last time you read of a GO that quit in protest over the conduct of a political-military operation? /rhet question
That was 30 years ago. Since then it's been nothing but bad news for the American people. TPP would have handed over sovereignty to unelected judges. No. No. No.
No to globalism. I'm so sad that people like Mathis turned out to be globalists instead of on America's side. :(
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/18/2020 5:15 Comments ||
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#10
They don't get that the public's respect for the military is for their hometown boys in uniform, not for these stuffed shirt types. Just as we could never build the Hoover dam today, these clowns couldn't pull off Seven Days in May, let alone win WW II
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 8:01 Comments ||
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#11
And I guess only a select group recognizes the irony of "Mad Dog" running a PowerPoint presentation at the White House.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 8:03 Comments ||
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#12
//www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/07/tillerson-trump-won-because-voters-disengaged-important-issues/
Dec 7, 2018Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson criticized Trump and his supporters during public remarks on Thursday night in Houston, Texas. "I will be honest with you, it troubles me that the American people seem to want to know so little about issues that they are satisfied with a 128 characters," Tillerson said, referencing Trump's prolific use of Twitter.
#13
Like clockwork (every four months or so), we get a book or story about Trump blowing his stack and calling people names. That it comes from two WaPo 'reporters' gives it half a chance of being complete fiction, pulled out of their asses sideways and cleaned up for printing.
#14
It's funny to read these characters' BS opinions and predictions re OrangeMan's foreign policy. The best way to see their stupidity is to line up several articles on the same topic over a few months-- or even, as in the case of Iran recently, over a couple of weeks.
Here's our premier long-form, smart-person's prestige media outlet, The Atlantic, opining on Trump in Seventeen Days in January:
Jan. 1 (Peter Beinart): OrangeMan is a dangerous fool who's about to get his are kicked! ["Trump Put Himself At Iran's Mercy: Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won't end and can't win. "]
Jan. 9 (Peter Nicholas): OrangeMan was lucky-- but his luck's about to run out! ["For now, President Donald Trump seems to have sidestepped an all-out war with Iran, opting instead for an uneasy standoff. The question is whether it will hold."]
Jan. 17 (Tom McTague): OrangeMan Wins! But it's not about him (he's still a bumbling fool)! ("Donald Trump Stumbles Into a Foreign-Policy Triumph. The president, however inadvertently, may be reminding the world of the reality of international relations.")
#15
There is one precious quote by the only person in the Washington foreign policy establishment who's wise enough, and honest enough, to admit that Trump's disruptions are necessary and long overdue:
"Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences.” - H.A. Kissinger
"End of an era" -- yes, exactly. Historians will mark January 2017 as the beginning of a new era in world history. The old order is finished. Gone. Dead as a doornail.
"force it to give up..."-- again, spot on. There was no way the old guard (that includes Kissinger, of course) was going to give up its cozy triangle without being FORCED to do so-- if need be, by a reality-TV star with bad manners. Here's the triad they were (still are) clinging to:
- swampy government jobs that allow vast overreach but that incur zero accountability for massive foreign policy f--kups;
- lucrative post-government sinecures at US investment banks and corporates that have made trillions off of globalism, even as the American middle class shrank and Americans' longevity actually DECLINED;
- the endless circle jerk of think tanks, fawning media outlets, and self-congratulatory, ridiculous conferences like Davos and Aspen.
And also, we now know, a fourth leg of the stool: the ability to use the security services of the Deep State to trash the Constitution, spy on domestic opponents and overturn the results of OUR OWN elections.
In short, these incompetents have been trashing this country and lining their pockets for decades. This is what Kissinger meant with his coy phrase, "the pretenses of our era."
The Iranian revolution fundamentally changed world politics precisely because the Iranian revolutionary regime has been openly violating the most basic rules of international conduct since 1979.
As a result Islam as a player in international politics was revived as the West's most formidable challenger. Western elites have acknowledged the moral precedence of Islamic doctrine over Western freedoms. Iran itself is a major player in international politics, it's political power being out of proportion compared to Iran's economic or conventional military abilities.
Violating the rules is a recipe for success, not failure.
#17
So if I understand this correctly, it is beyond the pale for the Commander-in-Chief to call his subordinates on the carpet with harsh language; however, it is perfectly fine for a subordinate to dismiss the C-in-C as a "fucking moron" behind his back.
There really needs to be a chistka.
If Trump gets Swamped in the election, or ends up in prison after leaving office, he'll have no one but himself to blame if he fails to get ruthless with these people now.
#18
...written in high indignation by a pair of Washington Post reporters and set to appear in bookstores next week.
WAPO? Does anymore really have to be said. WAPO ceased being a legit newspaper long ago. They don't live up to their slogan: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Of course, one might interpret this to mean that WAPO is promoting darkness and the death of democracy.
Pierre Delecto sees consequences for being Mavericky. Maybe he can just switch parties?
[WashExaminer] Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney lost support from Republicans and independents in his home state during the weeks after he called for witnesses in President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, a new poll shows.
The Morning Consult survey found support for Romney, 72, going down after he called for former national security adviser John Bolton to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial, which began on Thursday.
The poll shows the senator’s approval rating falling among Utah Republicans from September through December 2019, and independents also shifted to disapproving of Romney over the quarter.
In the prior quarter, 65% of Utah Republicans supported Romney, and while a majority still do presently, that number sank to 57%.
The numbers are particularly striking for Utah, one of the most Republican states in the country. Romney romped to victory in his 2018 Senate bid and has been considered a local hero of sorts among his fellow Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constituents and others.
The Utah Republican senator, however, did gain among Democrats in his state. According to the poll, 46% of Democrats late last year in the fourth quarter approved of the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee. This was a spike of 4 percentage points from several months prior.
Our beloved Senator Romney is all about numbers and analysis. Lost 8%, gained 4% is certainly something to ponder.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2020 04:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When are people going to learn:
1) Never vote for a carpetbagger.
2) Seperation of church and state begins at the ballot box.
3) All of them would sell their own mother to a glue factory for media attention right now.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 7:58 Comments ||
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#2
Who wants to bet this piece of shit is voted out next term?
[Zero] Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has called for a full investigation into coordination between Congressional Democrats and members of the media, after articles of impeachment against President Trump appear to have been deliberately 'slow walked' in order to coincide with two 'bombshell' developments in the Ukraine story.
"Why did they time this? Why did they wait?" asked Fox Business host Trish Regan.
"First off, Rachel Maddow should be a witness of fact now. She should be brought in," replied Bannon - referring to the seemingly coordinated media blitz surrounding Lev Parnas, an indicted former Rudy Goiliani associate whose undated, hand-written notes appear to support the claim that President Trump pressured Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden for corruption.
"We ought to have all the emails and all the text messages between Schiff, between Nancy Pelosi, Phil Griffin at MSNBC News. We ought to bring the whole thing out. How did this get dropped? Why have they been working on this for so long? How did this just come about at the last second? She admitted she's been working on this for months, and the House just got this. The Republicans didn't even see this when the vote when down," said Bannon, adding "This is now a complete farce."
#3
No high crimes and misdemeanors were discovered therefore this does not meet the criteria for impeachment therefore meets the criteria for a defamation law suit against approximately 232 members of Congress by Trumps personal attorneys.
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The center that honors slain U.S. civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. will devote the holiday celebrating his legacy on Monday to voter education and registration, his youngest daughter said in a recent interview.
Bernice King, 56, said she believes her father would have been disappointed with efforts playing out in some U.S. states to purge voter rolls of people who have not recently cast ballots or to impose strict ID requirements.
Wasn’t Dr. King, Jr. a Republican?
"You can’t take away someone’s right to vote just because they haven’t decided to exercise it," said King, who serves as chief executive of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. "When you take people off the voter rolls because they haven’t chosen to exercise their rights, to me, is suppression." except it's not taken away, you just have to re-register...with a valid ID. NOT SO HARD It's quite difficult to "decide to exercise your right to vote" if you've been dead for five years.
#1
The greatest voter suppression is the delusion of legitimate votes by fraudulent voting. See - Minnesota senatorial election in which the number of unqualified felons voting was greater than the difference between the winner and loser.
#5
Damn right it is. We want to suppress the votes of illegal aliens, felons, dead people and fictitious characters.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/18/2020 11:37 Comments ||
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#6
Typical SS over-the-top rhetoric and BS. No legitimate voter's rights are suppressed. They simply have to validate who they are after long inactivity-- no different from being asked to log in again to an online account you stepped away from, or being asked to give a medical call center service rep the last four of your social.
"Bernice King, 56, said she believes her father would have been disappointed with efforts playing out in some U.S. states to purge voter rolls of people who have not recently cast ballots or to impose strict ID requirements."
Honey, I'm old enough to remember Dr. King; I think he'd approve of anything that defeated voter fraud (unlike - apparently - YOU). >:-(
I also think he's probably spinning in his grave at the antics of (some? all?) of his progeny.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/18/2020 13:56 Comments ||
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#2
The Electoral College serves as a formalization and endorsement of the outcome of each state's election. The fact that there's no "choice" involved is exactly the point.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 7:06 Comments ||
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#3
i thought the left loved them some pure democracy
wait what am i saying, the left loves whatever will give them power
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
01/18/2020 9:18 Comments ||
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#4
Seems to me the States have the right to set the rules for their Electors how they wish - the People are not who elects the President, the States are.
#6
The States derive their power from the just consent of those they govern. All roads lead back to the People.
The elites are working around the clock to fix that "problem..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 9:49 Comments ||
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#7
If I lived in one of the "Voter Compact States" I would feel that my vote had become meaningless considering the widespread voter fraud in certain states...
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.
[The Hill] Former Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) has been sentenced to more than two years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI.
It started with Mattis giving a presentation in front of a screen saying: 'The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.'
[Zero] Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has called for a full investigation into coordination between Congressional Democrats and members of the media, after articles of impeachment against President Trump appear to have been deliberately 'slow walked' in order to coincide with two 'bombshell' developments in the Ukraine story.
