;
Sound advice:
From Curtis & Leroy ...
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Limit all politicians to two terms.
One in office.
One in prison.
Chicago and Detroit already do this.
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It takes a degree of sensitivity, intellectual honesty, common sense and some intelligence to "walk away."
A Nation of Immigrants
The media narrative today is that America in the “xenophobic” Trump era is turning its back on new immigrants. But that narrative is sharply contradicted by the fact that the United States maintains the most generous immigration policies in the world. In this week’s new video, CRTV host and best-selling author Michelle Malkin explains how ill-conceived immigration policies threaten to destroy the American Dream for everyone.
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Every once in a while I post something that has wide appeal.I urge you to watch the NetFlix movie entitled: 5-7. It is a chick flick but absolutely charming. The lead female is gorgeous, has a magnificent smile and the movie has won many Festival Awards.
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'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked.
'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.'
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neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, 'Relatives of yours?'
'Yep,' the wife replied, 'in-laws'
Walter Williams is a black professor and nails it. (See 1 below.)
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Ross Rants again. (See 2, 2a and 2b below.)
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This young lady is from out of town and is running against Buddy Carter. Like I said above: "t takes a degree of sensitivity, intellectual honesty, common sense and some intelligence to walk away." (See 3 below.)
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Update from The Middle East. (See 4 and 4a below.)
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Just returned several hours ago from our granddaughter's wedding. It was a beautiful affair and the weather was very accomodating. The facilities were beyond belief. I will post some picture at a subsequent time.
I have several memos that will follow this one because I have much to catch up with and there are a few matters I would like to discuss in relative detail. Hope you had a pleasant week while I was away.
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Dick
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1) Bad Men, Good Presidents
By Walter Williams
With the continuing hysteria about Donald Trump's presidency, a few questions come to mind. The first: Can a bad man become a good president? The second: Does one's being a good man guarantee he'll be a good president? Third: Does having a good president require a good man? Is there any evidence of Lord Acton's argument that "great men are almost always bad men"? ...
What about our current president? I think Trump's personal behavior prior to his presidency is not something we'd call high character. We might put him down as a bad man, but what about his presidency? I think that he'd qualify for this description: a bad man but good president. The average reader might ask, "Williams, what's your evidence?" ...
Trump has appointed Neil Gorsuch and nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Both men have stellar judicial qualifications and a deep respect for the U.S. Constitution. In addition, Trump has nominated more than two dozen lower court judges who have similar respect for our Constitution and are not likely to make laws from the bench.
Trump has shepherded through Congress the largest personal and corporate tax cuts since the Reagan administration. His administration has created a 35 percent reduction in regulations. Those reductions, including the rollback of costly Environmental Protection Agency regulations, have led to the biggest energy boom in history, making the U.S. the world's No. 1 energy producer and thus ending our dependence on Middle Eastern oil producers.
The Trump administration has ended the Obamacare mandate and reformed the very costly Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Helping with these economic matters is free marketer Larry Kudlow, whom Trump appointed as director of the National Economic Council. As a result of the gross domestic product's growth spurt, caused by tax cuts and deregulation, unemployment is less than 4 percent. Black unemployment is hovering around the all-time low at 6.6 percent. In fact, it's estimated that there are 6 million more jobs than workers. Also on the domestic front, the Trump administration is trying to push through sweeping prison and sentencing reforms.
President Trump has also made important gains in international affairs. He's gotten us out of the Paris climate accord. Aside from the fact that the agreement imposed costs and special disadvantages on the U.S., the Paris agreement should have been presented as a treaty to the U.S. Senate. Trump also got us out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the Iranian nuclear deal. Aside from Iran's violation of both the letter and the spirit of the agreement, it, too, should have been presented before the U.S. Senate for approval. President Barack Obama did not present either the Paris climate accord or the Iranian nuclear deal for Senate approval. He knew neither would have passed muster and instead used his executive powers.
Also on the international front, Trump has gotten North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un to the bargaining table to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He's gotten our NATO allies to cough up more money for their own defense. Trump is rebuilding our military strength, which is beginning to put the fear of God into our adversaries.
The bottom line is that President Donald Trump does not have the personal character that we would want our children to imitate but has turned out to be a good president ....
Dr. Walter Williams is an American economist, commentator, and academic. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist and author known for his libertarian views.
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2)We are now in the longest bull market in history. I bought fully back into all equities in March, 2009, the moment the market turned up. I have continued to invest any new cash in all equities. Since March 2009, the S&P is up 322% and the Nasdaq is up 521%. Some tech and other basic stocks are up over one thousand percent. Even straight up companies like Home Depot and Boeing are up several hundred percent. My point is, I have postulated since 2009, that an all equity portfolio you personally chose was the best investment you could have, provided it was all US based solid companies. Far better than the standard 60-40 equity debt mix, far better than hedge funds, European or emerging market stocks, and far better than annuities or mutual funds, neither of which make any sense to me. You just pay someone excessive fees to deliver subpar returns with no, or limited liquidity and tax issues with annuities. It is all about risk adjusted returns, and investing for the long term. I believe equities have a very good run ahead for the next year. I may be wrong, so don’t invest on what I say. If the Dems win the House they will create chaos in DC and further resist.
Turkey played its hand, and Trump called the bluff. Erdogan has no cards left to play. Turkey is screwed now. Merkel is not bailing him out as he hoped. Neither is Putin. Iran is next up to learn they no longer can get away with threats and bad behavior. China is buying oil, but everyone else left for home. India is likely to reduce oil purchases materially. Come November, Iran will be left with no cards to play that amount to anything, other than China buying oil. The EU can try to create w a work around to help Iran, but it will not work. Companies will not risk angering the US. Money will be running out and inflation will be very high. Protests will ramp up. Supporting actions against Israel, or in Syria, or Yemen will begin to be unaffordable. The EU is stupid for not understanding that Iran poses a terror threat to them, and the world, more real than nuke threat, and the nuke deal just postponed nukes, it did not stop them. Pompeo is going back to N Korea soon. I am assuming he will tell Kim game time is over. My guess is Trump is waiting until after elections to jam N Korea with more sanctions and renewal of war games if there is no real progress in the next 90 days. While all this is happening the trade deal with Mexico is about to be announced, the EU will finalize a deal in September or October, and Canada will have to fall in line in October. China has essentially conceded with the trade negotiation team headed to DC. Kavanaugh will have been seated with two or three Dems voting for him. Unemployment will be around 3.5%. GDP will be growing at over 4%. By November a lot will have happened, or be happening. The US will be in a command role in all of this. The Mueller probe will not matter no matter what his report says. Do you care he paid some bimbos, or that your take home pay is increasing and your life, and the US economy is much better than 2 years ago. The Dems will be left with nothing to say other than raise taxes, open borders, free everything, become socialists, and impeach Trump. None of that is a winning pitch.
Diversity is the mantra today on campus and in corporations. Quite a while ago I wrote about diversity, and why it is wrong as a goal as it is now postulated. So here is an update. This is based on real life situations in corporations. When I was a kid I was taught America is a melting pot, everyone had an opportunity to succeed, and everyone had to assimilate. While there was all sorts of discrimination, assimilation was the guiding principal we were taught. Being an American was the priority over being whatever else you were. Today the word instead is “diversity”. Translated, that means emphasize differences and subjugate being an American to ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Today they have a box to check to show they hire Blacks, Latinos and women. They need to have some on staff to be able to check the box. Schools take minority students who are not qualified, in some cases, to do the level of work at the more prestigious schools. The effort by DeBlasio in NY to do away with merit for selection to the elite high schools being the perfect example. But the kids are the political tokens who make the student body “diverse”. So we have kids who cannot do the work going through classes, and as a result of widespread grade inflation at many colleges, they move through school without really being able to do the work, or they drop out because they realize they cannot succeed, making them feel like losers. Either way it is bad for the student who possibly knows he cannot do the work, and feels like he is not as qualified as he should be, even if they graduate. Companies need to hire minority graduates, so they hire these kids who did manage to graduate, but are not qualified to do some of the high tech, higher math jobs required today in many companies. Here is a real life typical true story: A black girl was hired by a pension advisor as an actuary. She was not qualified to do the very complex math required. So two nights a week her supervisor stays late for two hours to redo her work. The company knows this, and pays him bonuses and other things, and they tell him “we know what is going on, but we have a box to check, and she checks that box”. It is all a big game of make believe that hurts the company, the supervisor who would rather go home, and the black girl who must know she is in way over her head. Everyone is a loser. Apple, Google and Facebook have the same situation. It is not unique. But now everyone is working to have a “diverse” staff that they can show off the checked boxes to the regulators, news media, activists, and their left wing white staff. Problem is, like in the situation I described, this black girl cannot be promoted because she is unable to do the work at the entry level. At some point she has to be let go, or told she is not being promoted or getting a raise. Now she likely claims it is racist. They can’t fire her because she is a black female. I know directly of a situation in a major bank just as I describe, where the unqualified black girl stopped coming to work claiming illness, because she knew she was in over her head, but she was really working another job. The bank knew exactly what was going on, but felt they could not fire her, so they gave her warning and notice, but because she was a black female they continued to pay her for months until they finally had enough documented warnings to terminate her. Meantime her supervisor had to carry her on their group budget, and so could not initially replace her. You see where all this is headed. This is what happens when you give a high grade to kids in class who should have gotten a C or D, and hire or appoint by skin color to fill a quota, and not on merit. There are obviously very well qualified minority kids who go to work in these companies and excel, but my point is, there are some hired just because they fill the quota, and that is wrong, bad, and illegal reverse discrimination. Years ago I had a black friend who had a successful Wall St career, who complained he was a graduate of Harvard B School, well qualified and successful, but he felt others looked at him and assumed he was the token, as opposed to his success being due to brains and hard work. So here was a well-qualified, successful black guy who felt angry, and thought he was looked down on just because he felt everyone assumed he was getting ahead on skin color, not merit.
Everyone is afraid to stand up and say, this is all nuts and illegal, because it is discriminating against white males who may have wanted that job and were qualified, but a white male. It is harming the minority kids who know they are in over their heads, and the companies who lose quality and productivity by having to hire unqualified staff. If they did say something they would be called racist and social media would pound the company, the lefty politicians would issue press releases, and all hell would break loose for the company. So we are creating a whole group of minority kids who could be successful and happy if they worked in jobs they were qualified to do, and if they had gone to a less rigorous school where they could be at the top of their class. (This is why I do not publish the Rant on Facebook or anywhere on the web.) Maybe when the lawsuit of the Asian kids against Harvard reaches the Supreme Court, they will undo past decisions, and say race is no longer allowed to be a criteria, and diversity has to occur naturally based on merit.
Reality is, humans are like all animals, we like to be with our own herd or pack. We form tribes and nations around similarities, and cultures develop around the tribe or nation. Humans take comfort by being with people who think, or have similar experiences, like them. Be that, country of origin, race, region, school, a sport, economic level, or religion. Growing up Jewish I had many experiences of discrimination. I fully get what it means to feel like an outsider. That just means you have to work harder to excel instead of whining like the snowflakes on campus these days. Humans are generally not loners or hermits. They are tribal. What made America unique and great was that we used to insist on assimilation, and equality of opportunity, and you need to learn English, and what it means to be American, ahead of whatever else you are. Now it is demanded that we need to be emphasizing being “diverse”, which translates to-- make a point of showing you are different, and not assimilated. That is exactly why we have diverged from merit based, to skin color based, and that is against everything that made America the land of opportunity it is today. Diversity means differentiation, and not assimilation. The more there is the push for diversity, the worse things have become in race relations, and political and social media discourse. Cuomo put his finger on how the left sees it, but he made the point that now the left thinks being an assimilated, exceptional America is not great.
You got ahead in America on merit and hard work, even if discriminated against. That is how my generation pulled themselves up from being poor or lower class. Not by being some legally favored ethnicity, gender or whatever. That is what made America exceptional. The greatest wealth and job creators were guys who started with nothing but an idea, and who pounded through the hurdles and setbacks, and excelled because America made it possible. It is never the guy who moaned about discrimination and got promoted because of his skin color.
I am going hiking in the Tetons for 2 weeks so I will be back in mid-September
2a)From One Psychodrama to Another
Michael Wolff and his media-hyped blockbuster—that supposedly game-changing landmark of a book Fire and Fury—are now ancient history.
Fading similarly is Karen McDougal, Playboy‘s 1998 Playmate of the Year, and her National Enquirer grifter lawsuit that was also supposed to destroy the Trump presidency.
We are by now mostly tired with Stormy Daniels and her unhinged lawyer Michael Avenatti, who at least proved more entertaining than his porn-star client.
Consiglieri Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney who secretly taped his own client and apparently has been flipped to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s side in his veritable war against Trump, is also sliding into the netherworld of no-news coverage and a legal morass.
Cohen now competes with the narcissist Omarosa Manigault, entering from stage left with her trunkful of tapes and gossip to demand her own proverbial 15 minutes of fame. She promises to release never before told, shocking, unprecedented, flabbergasting dirt on Donald Trump that will ensure his impeachment, indictment, and jail time—or reify the dreams of celebrities who have variously voiced desires to hang, dismember, smash, blow up, stab, shoot, and ignite the president.
Hangers-On and Hucksters are an Historical Phenomenon
Trump is said to have associated with so many disreputable sorts like Omarosa and Cohen that his current den of released hissing snakes was inevitable. Perhaps so.
Or as likely, Trump is having one of these somewhat typical presidential moments—far more reported on in his case and perhaps occurring more frequently, but still similar in essential ways to past comedies. Recall, for example, President Obama’s Van Jones embarrassment. Jones, remember, was the 9/11 “truther” and “green czar” who had no real White House job it seemed other than screaming about Republican “assholes.”
In some sense, every president gets caught at some time with the likes of an Anita Dunn. She was the Obama media guru and D.C. power broker who named Mao Tse-tung, the 20th-century’s greatest mass murderer, as one of her “favorite political philosophers.”
Reggie Love was Obama’s “bag-man” who one day was irreplaceable, the next abruptly gone. Love later turned up to claim quite astounding things, including that a bored Obama played spades on the night of the Osama bin Laden raid. Love further insisted that Obama had whined about the bother of having to go downstairs to monitor the mission in real time: “Most people were like down in the Situation Room and [President Obama] was like, ‘I’m not going to be down there, I can’t watch this entire thing,’ So he, myself, Pete Souza the White House photographer, Marvin, we must have played 15 hands, 15 games of spades.”
Sometimes fools are credentialed and mellifluous. There was also Obama health care advisor Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist who boasted that voters were simply too stupid to figure out how they had been snookered by the passage of the Affordable Care Act: “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”
Young Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor and would-be novelist, bragged about how he also had deluded the obsequious know-nothing press corps to tout the otherwise unpassable Iran Deal. Rhodes preened, “The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns . . . They literally know nothing.” Rhodes went on to boast that he easily could manipulate pseudo-experts to complete his circular con of both manipulating the news: “We created an echo chamber . . . They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.”
The Carnival Barkers of Alternative History and Real Threats Today
There are certainly differences between Trump’s embarrassing hangers-on and those of past presidents. For example, once Obama got elected, he was far better in disowning the more raw and crude street hustler cronies like the Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and Tony Rezko.
Trump’s small F-troop is more like colorful carnival barkers of the midway than earlier big-time, big-money, big-career Democrat White House crooks such as Bert Lance or Webb Hubbell. They are more akin to the sorts who surrounded, and would have surrounded President Hillary Clinton—Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, Justin Cooper, Bryan Pagliano, and Sidney Blumenthal—who likely all skirted or broke U.S. laws.
In addition, the media despises Donald Trump. Stormy and Omarosa are center stage and drown out daily news in a way the psychodramas of Van Jones and Reggie Love or Sidney Blumenthal never quite did or could.
For example, over the last two weeks it is not really concurrent news that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and would-be next attorney general of Minnesota, has now been accused by one, and possibly two women, of prior abuse or harassment over the past decade. The #MeToo movement has apparently either crested, or concluded that it has been too injurious to progressive candidates. No one much cares that an assaulter may be the top law enforcement officer of Minnesota. If a third story emerges about Ellison, will his dilemma eclipse Omarosa?
Not likely.
Nor this past week was it news—in this age of rampant collusion stories—that U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) now nonchalantly relates, five years after the fact, that her chauffeur of two decades was actually a Chinese spy. The career tenure of the Beijing implant was during a period when Feinstein chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, and her husband was pursuing extensive financial and commercial interests with Chinese businesses and investments.
In other words, any conversation that the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee had in transit on the ground was in theory easily monitored by the Chinese government for years. We have not heard of security breaches like that since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with similar impunity, sent classified information over an illegal home-brewed email server—and then perhaps destroyed some of the likely most incriminating evidence.
Yet the Chinese spy story apparently is no more important that was the 2016 non-news of the ring of Pakistani-American IT “experts” who likely compromised congressional computers, embezzled money, and were inexplicably protected by former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Selective Outrage of the Fake News Mavens
Do not expect that the latest revelation about Bruce Ohr, the fourth-ranking official in the Obama Department of Justice, is news either. Ohr, we just learned, after the 2016 election, kept a secret backchannel open with the FBI’s discredited foreign informant Christopher Steele, author of the anti-Trump dossier commissioned by Hillary Clinton, on which Ohr’s own wife worked. Apparently, Ohr and the FBI wanted to ensure that more of Steele’s salacious gossip and dirt could still find the light of day—after the FBI had officially fired Steele for lying. In other words, a top Department of Justice attorney was still busy trying to undermine a sitting president with discredited gossip paid for by defeated candidate Hillary Clinton.
As Omarosa teased the media with stories of tapes to come and not to come, Peter Strzok was also just fired. That was another nonmedia story. Who cares that one of the top-ranking FBI officials was formally cashiered due to violations of FBI rules and regulations? Strzok now joins James Comey, Andrew McCabe and a cohort of Justice Department and FBI officials who all have either been fired, retired, or reassigned.
Again, little news. Strzok was seemingly just a nobody who happened to have interviewed Michael Flynn and concluded that he was truthful, before his superiors apparently decided that Flynn should be indicted for being untruthful.
Strzok led the FBI investigatory team looking into the Clinton emails. He had helped to edit James Comey’s summary findings exonerating Hillary Clinton from culpability even before interviewing her. He helped to lead the FBI investigation into Russian-Trump “collusion,” and was a key member of Robert Mueller’s special counsel team. Strzok exchanged thousands of texts with his paramour and fellow Mueller team members Lisa Page, some of which expressed hatred for Trump and his supporters, and alluded to efforts to subvert his campaign and presidency.
According to the earlier and initial 2017 fake news announcements from the special counsel Mueller’s office, Strzok had simply left the investigatory team for normal rotation back to the FBI Human Resources division, in the manner earlier, and separately, Lisa Page routinely finished her tenure as well with the Mueller team.
Again, the media had not much interest in the sudden firing of Strzok that might have reminded the nation that the FBI and DOJ had been weaponized in 2016 to help destroy a political candidate. But then again, the Strzok firing story, at least when in comparison to Omarosa, hardly served the goal of impeachment.
There is déjà vu here with these Trump tabloid stories.
In 2017-18 we went from the “fraudulent” voting machines, to the attempted subversion of the Electoral College, to impeachment writs, to the Emoluments Clause, and on to the 25th Amendment. Each psycho-crisis was hyped as the new magic bomb that would blow up the Trump presidency. The real news of a booming economy, near record low unemployment, the destruction of ISIS, and a recalibrated foreign policy was soon ignored in the pursuit of each new impeachment farce.
Now the psychodramas are personified with the strange cast of characters from Michael Wolff to Michael Cohen to Omarosa, who likewise offer the media hope that each new confessional will lead them to their fondest wish: a Trump-free Washington.
The warping of the national media last week also crested with scant mention that Silicon Valley has redoubled their efforts to label expression it finds non-progressive as hate speech and find ways to ban it on their platforms. At the same time, the national media coordinated its opinion pages in a simultaneous effort to voice its collective and scripted outrage that Donald Trump had done the unthinkable: in crude fashion, he questions the very autonomy and integrity of the media.
2b)When Justice Is Partial
Mueller is determined to sniff out any wrongdoing he can find—on one side.
The country has watched the FBI treat one presidential campaign with kid gloves, the other with informants, warrants and eavesdropping. They’ve seen the Justice Department resist all efforts at accountability, even as it fails to hold its own accountable. And don’t get them started on the one-sided media.
And they are now witnessing unequal treatment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Yes, the former FBI director deserves credit for smoking out the Russian trolls who interfered in 2016. And one can argue he is obliged to pursue any evidence of criminal acts, even those unrelated to Russia. But what cannot be justified is the one-sided nature of his probe.
Consider Mr. Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who this week pleaded guilty to eight felony charges. Six related to his personal business dealings; the other two involved campaign-finance violations arising from payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump. The criminal prosecution of campaign-finance offenses is exceptionally rare (most charges are civil), but let’s take Mr. Khuzami’s word for it when he says Mr. Cohen’s crimes are “particularly significant” because he’s a lawyer who should know better, and also because the payments were for the purpose of “influencing an election” and undermining its “integrity.”
If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.
Prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are also exceptionally rare, though Mr. Mueller is getting media kudos for hammering the likes of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for failing to register as lobbyists for foreign entities. The law is the law.
But under this standard, where are the charges against the principals of Fusion GPS, who Sen. Chuck Grassley has said look to have been lobbying on behalf of powerful Russians against a U.S. sanctions law, with its payment again funneled through a law firm? This was a sideline to its dossier work, but Mr. Mueller usually has no issue with sideline charges.
Or what about an evenhanded look at dossier author Christopher Steele ? FARA also requires foreigners to register if they act on behalf of a foreign principal. Recently disclosed emails from senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr show the British Mr. Steele pleading the case to the Justice Department on behalf of a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
Of the seven U.S. citizens Mr. Mueller has charged, five have been accused of (among other things) making false statements to federal officials. But there have been no charges against the partisans who made repeated abjectly false claims to the FBI and Justice Department about actions of their political opponents. There have been no charges against those who leaked classified information, including the unprecedented release of an unmasked conversation between former national security adviser Mike Flynn and a Russian ambassador. Nothing.
Some of these charges might not stand up in court, but that’s beside the point. Plenty of lawyers would poke holes in the campaign-finance charges against Cohen, or the “lying” charges against Mr. Flynn. Special counsels wield immense power; the mere threat of a charge provokes plea deals. It’s the focus that matters.
Prosecutors can claim all they want that they are applying the law equally, but if they only apply it to half the suspects, justice is not served. Mr. Mueller seems blind to the national need for—the basic expectation of—a thorough look into all parties. That omission is fundamentally undermining any legitimacy in his findings. Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye.
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3)CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS AGAINST U.S.CONGRESS REPRESENTATIVE BUDDY CARTER.
FACTS ABOUT LISA RING: ALL INFO FROM HER WEBSITE PLATFORM
- DELEGATE IN THE DNC FOR BERNIE SANDER, SOCIALIST CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
- FORMER FIELD ORGANIZER FOR THE STATES OF PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, AND WASHINGTON DC SUPPORTER FOR SOCIALISM
- FORMERLY A PRISON GUARD IN PENNSYLVANIA.
- BELIEVES AND DEMANDS MEDICARE FOR ALL CITIZENS AND PLACES HEALTHCARE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
- DEMANDS A HOURLY WAGES OF AT LEAST $15.00 PER HOUR FOR
- ALL JOBS.
- ELIMINATE RIGHT TO WORK LAWS IMPROVING THE CONTROL FOR BIG LABOR.
- ELIMINATE FOSSIL FUELS.
- AGAINST BUILDING A WALL ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER AND SUPPORTS OPEN BORDERS.
- THINKS THAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONTRIBUTE MORE TO OUR NATION THAN THEY RECEIVE. HOW DOES THAT WORK FOR ILLEGAL DRUG TRAFFIC AND MS13 GANGS.
- TUITION FREE PRE-SCHOOL FOR ALL.
- TUITION FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND ALL PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES.
- PROTECT UNION RIGHTS FOR EDUCATORS.
- SUPPORTS THE IRAN DEAL MADE BY OBAMA
- SUPPORTS CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT ADOPTED BY OBAMA.
- HONOR ALL AGREEMENTS MADE BY OBAMA EVEN IF NEVER APPROVED BY CONGRESS.
- SUPPORTS OPEN BORDERS AND SANCTUARY CITIES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
- SUPPORTS PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND ABORTION ON DEMAND.
- GOVERNMENT SUPPLIED CONTRACEPTION FOR WOMEN.
- TREAT DRUG USAGE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE NOT A CRIMINAL ONE.
- LEGALIZE MARIJUANA
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- 4) White House sources: US to present limited Mideast plan by Ariel Kahana and Israel Hayom Staff for ISRAEL HAYOM
- Only the first phase of the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan will be presented at the United Nations General Assembly, a source close to the White House told Israel Hayom on Thursday
- Previous reports claimed U.S. President Donald Trump would unveil his so-called “deal of the century” during the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York next month. Trump is set to address the assembly on Sept. 25.The source said the president would only present a partial outline of the overall peace initiative the White House has been drafting, describing it more as an “agenda for peace.”The source said the reason for the partial presentation was that the president's peace team has encountered difficulties in recent months, but also noted Trump's current legal battles.U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday that while there's been “a lot of progress,” theTrump administration has no timetable for rolling out the much-anticipated peace plan.Bolton refused to speculate what the plan entailed or when it may be publicized.Meanwhile, another source with ties to the administration said the Trump peace plan has not been finalized yet and that efforts to iron out its details would be expanded in the coming months.On Tuesday, Trump said Israel will have to pay “a higher price” in peace talks with the Palestinians as a result of official U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year.Speaking at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, Trump said it was now the Palestinians' “turn” to “get something very good” in potential peace talks with Israel..
4a)A Conversation with John Bolton
by Caroline B. Glick for the JERUSALEM POST
President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Ambassador John Bolton to serve as his National Security Advisor indicated clearly that Trump is advancing a national security strategy far different from those of his predecessors.
On and off for decades, Bolton has held some of the most senior foreign policy positions in the US government. And throughout his long career in foreign policy, Bolton has been the bane of the foreign policy elites. In part this owes to his extraordinary successes. After 15 years of fruitless and often half-hearted US efforts to repeal UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 from 1975 that branded Zionism as racism, as assistant secretary of state, Bolton got the job done in 1991.
As Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs in the George W. Bush administration, Bolton created and implemented the Proliferation Security Initiative. The PSI was the most successful counter-proliferation program the US has undertaken in recent years.
As Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs in the George W. Bush administration, Bolton created and implemented the Proliferation Security Initiative. The PSI was the most successful counter-proliferation program the US has undertaken in recent years.
As UN Ambassador in 2005 and 2006, Bolton dismantled the corrupt UN Human Rights Commission. He opposed the formation of its successor, the equally corrupt Human Rights Committee, saying, “We want a butterfly. We don’t intend to put lipstick on a caterpillar and call it a success.”
Bolton’s record of success engendered jealousy among many members of the Washington establishment. But they were more irked by his refusal to go along to get along. Bolton’s stubborn insistence on basing US policies on reality, rather than ideology or fashion has made him the bête noire of the foreign policy establishment.
Trump’s decision to appoint a man who insists on operating on the basis of realities on the ground – even when they are inconvenient and make foreign policy professionals and queasy allies angry or nervous – speaks volumes about his approach to foreign policy and the goals he has set for his administration.
Long considered – rightly – one of Israel’s best friends in Washington, Bolton has distinguished himself throughout the years by his conviction that Israel is the US’s most powerful and vital ally in the Middle East. So it isn’t surprising that during his visit to Israel this week, one of his biggest headline-grabbing quotes was one where he seemed to reject the country’s hope of securing US recognition of its sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Speaking to Reuters Tuesday, Bolton said, “I’ve heard the idea [of US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights] being suggested but there’s no discussion of it, no decision within the US government.”
He added, “Obviously we understand the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights – we understand their position – but there’s no change in the US position for now.”
In a conversation with this writer Wednesday morning at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Bolton emphasized that he had said, “for now.”
“I said, ‘US recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan is not on the table, for now.’”
His clarification was not a diplomatic feint.
There are two aspects of the Trump White House’s relationship with Israel that distinguish it from its predecessors. Unlike his predecessors, but like Bolton, Trump relates to Israel as a key US ally and a partner. Trump’s predecessors generally viewed Israel as a supplicant.
Trump and his advisors are willing to listen to Israel’s positions objectively. They don’t assume, as many of their predecessors did, that their Israeli counterparts are hustling them.
When Bolton says the administration hasn’t changed its policy regarding Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, he’s inviting Israel to make its case. Why is it important for the US to change its policy? How would such a move improve the strategic balance of forces on the ground? Why is it in the US’s interests to act in this way?
If Israel has a case to make, the Trump White House is willing to listen.
Consider the attention the White House is paying to Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.
Bolton said, “Syria was the main topic of discussion during President Trump’s meeting with President [Vladimir] Putin in Helsinki [on July 16]. This was the case both during their meeting with their advisers and during their one-on-one meeting.”
He added that the importance both leaders attributed to the issue didn’t come out of thin air.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s discussion of the issue during his phone call with the president earlier that week and during his visit with Putin during the FIFA tournament contributed to making Syria such an important issue,” he explained.
In other words, when Netanyahu expressed his concerns about Syria, Trump listened.
Until recently, the Trump administration’s position on Syria was the same as the Obama administration’s. That is, the US is involved in Syria to fight Islamic State. Iran’s takeover of the country is not its problem.
Today the Trump administration shares Israel’s position that all Iranian forces must withdraw from Syria.
Trump’s decision is not evidence that he is beholden to Israel. It is instead a demonstration of his determination to base US foreign policy on reality.
This determination marks the White House’s policy on Hezbollah as well.
On the face of things, the US-Israeli demand that Iran remove its forces from Syria seems to ignore the elephant in the room. Hezbollah is the second-most powerful military force in the Middle East – second only to the Israel Defense Forces, and the most daunting conventional threat Israel faces. This week, the IDF carried out a massive war exercise in the Golan Heights to prepare its forces for a war with Hezbollah.
As Syrian regime forces have seized the border zone with Israel, Hezbollah forces – often wearing Syrian military uniforms – have deployed directly across from Israel. They pose a clear and dire threat to Israeli security. Yet Israel and the US are not explicitly demanding their withdrawal.
Bolton assured that Hezbollah has not been given a free pass. It is simply that the US views Hezbollah forces as Iranian forces.
“Hezbollah forces in Syria have to go back to Lebanon,” he said.
“Hezbollah forces in Syria have to go back to Lebanon,” he said.
He added, “They are functionally part of the [Islamic Revolutionary Guards] Quds force.” Given this state of affairs, making a separate demand for their departure is unnecessary.
The White House’s clear-eyed view of Hezbollah is not shared across the administration. For instance, the Pentagon stubbornly maintains – against mountains of proof – that Hezbollah does not control the Lebanese government and armed forces (LAF). The Pentagon’s position enables the US to continue to arm the LAF with advanced weapons systems and military training.
Over the past decade, the US has provided the LAF with more than $1.5 billion in military systems and trained 32,000 LAF troops.
In May, Hezbollah expanded its control over the Lebanese government in the parliamentary elections. In June, the US completed a shipment of six A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets to the LAF. In a ceremony marking the arms delivery, US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard hailed US military assistance to the LAF.
In May, Hezbollah expanded its control over the Lebanese government in the parliamentary elections. In June, the US completed a shipment of six A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets to the LAF. In a ceremony marking the arms delivery, US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard hailed US military assistance to the LAF.
“The acquisition of the A-29 Super Tucano…will transform an already-strong air power capability that has been a key part of the Lebanese Army’s ability to defend this country,” she said.
“The A-29 provides the LAF with precision guided munitions and advanced precision strike capability. This is a game-changing acquisition that takes the LAF to the next level of combat capability.”
Richard added, “We will be complementing the power of the A-29 aircraft with six MD-530G light attack scout helicopters… This is a significant air force that we are building together.”
While avoiding the issue of US military support for Lebanon, Bolton noted that Israelis aren’t the only ones concerned about the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ unit’s control of Lebanon.
“Lebanese Americans are very worried about it. They see that [Lebanese President Michel] Aoun is controlled by Hezbollah,” he ventured.
The White House’s concerns about Iranian power center on Trump’s commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. To achieve this end, in stark contrast to both the Obama and Bush administrations, Trump is predicating his policies on the full realities of Iran’s nuclear program.
Compare, for instance, the Trump White House’s position regarding the Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zour that Israel destroyed in September 2007 to that of his two predecessors.
When Israel bombed the nuclear reactor in Syria, it acted in defiance of then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice wished to discuss the North Korean-built reactor at the UN Security Council. The Olmert government and other senior members of the Bush administration opposed Rice’s position. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Vice President Dick Cheney realized that if the US raised the issue at the UN, any chance of destroying the reactor would disappear into the mist of prolonged sanctions debates.
After Israel destroyed the reactor, Rice demanded that Israel say nothing about what it did.
After Israel destroyed the reactor, Rice demanded that Israel say nothing about what it did.
Rice’s concern wasn’t simply a function anger at being ignored. She didn’t want the truth exposed because it made her non-proliferation policies impossible to justify.
The North Koreans didn’t build the Deir ez-Zour reactor alone. As Israeli officials whispered unofficially in the ears of reporters, Iran was also a partner in the project. Iran paid for the reactor.
Rice was unwilling to publicize the fact that Iran and North Korea were jointly engaged in illicit nuclear proliferation activities in Syria because in 2007 she was trying to appease Pyongyang into signing a nuclear deal and she was working to warm US relations with Iran.
But Rice’s policies and determination to ignore the truth paled in comparison to the Obama administration’s policies.
In 2013, then President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told supporters that forging a nuclear accord with Iran was the central goal of Obama’s second term. Basing US policy toward Iran’s nuclear program on the reality of the program’s malign intentions – as manifested by the Syrian reactor – would hinder Obama’s chances of achieving the deal he sought.
So he ignored reality and insisted that Israel remain silent about the operation.
Israel’s public acknowledgement that it destroyed the reactor had to wait for the Trump administration.
Unlike its predecessors, the Trump administration has not made its goal to reach a nuclear accord with Iran or North Korea. Its goal is to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and to block Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal. To achieve this end, full acknowledgment of all aspects of both regimes’ nuclear operations is essential.
And so it is that Wednesday morning, Bolton readily admitted, “Syrian officers who defected to the United States have told us that they helped transfer the Iranian funds that financed the North Korean built nuclear reactor in Syria.”
Tipping his hat to the US’s most powerful ally in the Middle East, and perhaps signaling US considerations in its nuclear talks with Pyongyang, Bolton added, “The lesson Iran took from the 2007 bombing [of the reactor] was that if you conduct illicit nuclear operations, do them far away from Israel.”
4b) Islamic Terrorism Will End – When Islam has Conquered the World
by Mateen Elass for JIHAD WATCH
Will Islamic terrorism end any time soon?
No.
Here’s why:
- Allah commands his followers to fight until the world is subdued under Islam.
- He promises them victory (with supernatural help) even when the odds are stacked against them.
- He lures jihadis with visions of eternal rewards replete with virgins galore and sensual pleasures beyond measure.
- He threatens the punishment of hellfire for Muslims who don’t “walk the talk,” who claim to be faithful but shrink from fighting and dying for Allah.
- He reassures Muslims that the kuffar (unbelievers) deserve death because they will roast in hell for eternity, hated by Allah; Muslims therefore should have no pangs of conscience for dispatching them to their eternal destiny post-haste.
One would think in light of this that Muslim armies would be rising up all over the world, trusting in the promises of Allah, to engage and defeat the forces of the infidel West, as well as the Communist world, the countries of Africa and Central/South America. After all, the Qur’an (Allah’s inerrant word) says:
“O Prophet, urge the believers to battle. If there are among you twenty [who are] steadfast, they will overcome two hundred. And if there are among you one hundred [who are] steadfast, they will overcome a thousand of those who have disbelieved because they are a people who do not understand.” (8:65)
In the next verse, Allah ratchets down the odds, recognizing that the Muslims are weak even with his angelic help:
“Now, Allah has lightened [the hardship] for you, and He knows that among you is weakness. So if there are from you one hundred [who are] steadfast, they will overcome two hundred. And if there are among you a thousand, they will overcome two thousand by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the steadfast.” (8:66).
Nevertheless, the Muslims are to fight under Muhammad and his generals, expecting victory even against stronger forces. And indeed, in the first major battle the Muslims fought against the unbelievers of Mecca, they were outnumbered at least two to one, and earned a convincing victory. Feeling that Allah was certainly on their side, they bought into the idea they were invincible. Until the next battle. The Meccans returned to Medina the next year better prepared, and inflicted serious losses on Muhammad’s army. Many believers were shaken by the fact that Allah had not given them victory, and wondered if Islam was a sham. But Allah soon revealed through his prophet that they had not succeeded for two reasons: 1) he was testing their resolve; and 2) among their ranks were numbers of hypocrites (whose hearts were not in fighting, and who refused to engage the enemy). Only if his army showed itself fully committed to him would he assure them victory.
This same perspective has given rise to modern Islamic “radicalism” or reformation (i.e., a return to the faithful beliefs and practices of the original Muslim community under Muhammad). When the last Caliphate fell into the dustbin of history (the Ottoman Empire, which was dismembered in 1924), some Muslim intellectuals began to ask why the non-Muslim world was now calling the shots, and the Muslim world lay supine and feeble before them. Their answer: we have drifted from our center; we are not truly committed to Allah and his prophet; but if we return to serious obedience, Allah will once again grant us supernatural help to regain our position of superiority in the world. From this mindset, the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and its movement spawned like-minded organizations around the Muslim world. The radical and terrorist organizations we see today are the fruit of this perspective.
So once again the world is faced with a resurgent Islam whose goal is to rule the human race. But Muslims by and large are not ignorant of the huge discrepancy between their relatively meager military resources and the vast destructive capabilities of the technologically advanced US armed forces together with its allies, not to mention atheistic China and Russia who also would swat down any frontal assaults by Muslim armies. Recognizing this, Muslim countries are biding their time, buying weaponry and technology, seeking as rapidly as possible to achieve parity with infidel superpowers.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a perfect case in point. The fastest way to challenge Western power is to become a cardholder in the nuclear missile club, so Iran has worked hard in secret to develop that capability, while not neglecting their conventional armament upgrades. For example, yesterday the theocracy announced they were unveiling the “first 100% indigenously made” fighter jet, named “the Kowsar” (Kawthar, in Arabic). The name is significant, for it is the title of a short chapter of the Qur’an containing this promise from Allah:
“Indeed, your enemy is the one cut off.” (108:3)
Western military experts report that the Kowsar appears to be a remake of the USA’s F-5 fighter, numbers of which were shipped to Iran in the mid-1970s when Iran under the Shah was an ally.
Even with massive upgrades imagined, such a jet would be no match for most modern air forces today.
Even with massive upgrades imagined, such a jet would be no match for most modern air forces today.
But Iran’s tactic in announcing this new addition to its armaments is instructive of the general Muslim mindset when it comes to enemies who have superior forces. It turns to boasting and bluster as an attempt to plant doubt into the minds of those it considers its enemies in a ploy to dissuade them from mounting an attack which it rightly fears would bring overwhelming defeat. So, Iran’s President Rouhani declared, “Why does the US not attack us? Because it is aware of our power and the cost [that it will entail].”
Everyone recalls Saddam Hussein’s warnings to the Coalition Forces gathering before Desert Storm that if attacked Iraq would unleash the “mother of all battles” and inflict huge losses on its enemies. 
His bluster was quite convincing to the military layman, backed up as it was with reports that Iraq had the world’s fourth largest standing army at the time. But after 42 days of aerial bombardment of Iraq’s military and civilian infrastructure, the ground offensive to defeat the Iraqi army lasted only 100 hours. It was indeed a massive display of “shock and awe” which all who witnessed, including the Muslim world, have not forgotten. So, while not wanting to go face to face with infidel armies, radical Muslim governments and insurgent groups shake their fists at the West and continue their bluster, hoping to cower a vastly superior enemy.
His bluster was quite convincing to the military layman, backed up as it was with reports that Iraq had the world’s fourth largest standing army at the time. But after 42 days of aerial bombardment of Iraq’s military and civilian infrastructure, the ground offensive to defeat the Iraqi army lasted only 100 hours. It was indeed a massive display of “shock and awe” which all who witnessed, including the Muslim world, have not forgotten. So, while not wanting to go face to face with infidel armies, radical Muslim governments and insurgent groups shake their fists at the West and continue their bluster, hoping to cower a vastly superior enemy.
But there is another strategy as well, known among military thinkers as “asymmetric warfare,” and defined well by the Encyclopedia Britannica as:
unconventional strategies and tactics adopted by a force when the military capabilities of belligerent powers are not simply unequal but are so significantly different that they cannot make the same sorts of attacks on each other.
This includes things like guerilla warfare, and the many tactics of terrorism: assassinations, hijackings, kidnappings, suicide bombings, civilian attacks and so on.
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster astutely commented on this matter that “There are only two ways to fight the US: stupidly [conventionally] or asymmetrically.”
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster astutely commented on this matter that “There are only two ways to fight the US: stupidly [conventionally] or asymmetrically.”
Because the Muslim world understands itself to be no match with the West today in a face-to-face war (despite Allah’s promises), and because it seeks to walk in the shoes of its prophet Muhammad who said, “War is deceit” (Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 268) and “I have been made victorious through terror [cast into the hearts of the enemy]” (Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 220), the predominant warfare strategy of jihadis today is that of terrorism. Their hope is that this strategy will weaken both the resolve and resources of the infidel world, until that day when either the West collapses from within or the Muslim world has grown strong enough to challenge and defeat the West militarily.
Until that day, which all who love freedom hope never comes, Islamic terrorism will remain the primary strategy of the jihadi movement within Islam. In my opinion, “moderate Islam” offers no hope of ending this evil virus which lives deep in the heart of Allah, Muhammad and the Qur’an.
4c) Unveiling 1st 'indigenous' warplane, Rouhani says Iran preparing to fight foes
by AFP and TOI staff for TIMES OF ISRAEL
Defense minister says new Kowsar fighter jet inspired by threats from Israel, US; Israeli counterpart responds by saying Tehran is pressured by US sanctions
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran unveiled its first domestic fighter jet at a defense show in Tehran on Tuesday, with President Hassan Rouhani saying the Islamic Republic must prepare to battle its enemies.
“We should make ourselves ready to fight against the military powers who want to take over our territory and our resources,” the president said in a televised address at the event, Reuters reported.
Images on state television showed Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the new “Kowsar” plane at the National Defense Industry exhibition.
It is a fourth-generation fighter, with “advanced avionics” and multi-purpose radar, the Tasnim news agency said, adding that it was “100-percent indigenously made.”
State TV said the plane had already been through successful testing and showed it waiting on a runway for its first public display flight.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman responded to the unveiling of the new fighter jet, saying it was a “natural reaction to an economical crisis.”
“The Iranians are feeling very pressured by the continued US sanctions and in reaction they are coming out with these things, but we also shouldn’t dismiss it,” Liberman told reporters.
The plane was publicly announced on Saturday by Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami, who had said it would be unveiled on Wednesday.
He gave few details of the project, focusing instead on Iran’s efforts to upgrade its missile defenses.
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami. (Screenshot/YouTube)
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami. (Screenshot/YouTube)
Hatami said the defense program was motivated by memories of the missile attacks Iran suffered during its eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, and by repeated threats from Israel and the United States that “all options are on the table” in dealing with the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile projects and its threats to destroy Israel.
“We have learned in the (Iran-Iraq) war that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves. Our resources are limited and we are committed to establishing security at a minimum cost,” he said in a televised interview.
The US has sold hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Iran’s regional rivals, but has demanded that Tehran curb its defense programs, and is in the process of reimposing crippling sanctions in a bid to force its capitulation.
In May, the US announced it was abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposing nuclear-related sanctions, threatening global companies with heavy penalties if they continue to operate in Iran.
In a bid to salvage the accord, the EU and European parties to the deal — Britain, France, and Germany — presented a series of economic “guarantees” to Iran last month, but they were deemed “insufficient” by Tehran.
In this photo released by official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani attends a meeting with a group of foreign ministry officials in Tehran, Iran. Sunday, July 22, 2018.
(Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
(Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
The sanctions that went into effect earlier in August target US dollar financial transactions, Iran’s automotive sector, and the purchase of commercial planes and metals, including gold. Even stronger sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector and central bank are to be re-imposed in early November.
US President Donald Trump has offered talks on a “more comprehensive deal” but Iran has balked at negotiating under the pressure of sanctions and has instead leaned on its increasingly close ties with fellow US sanctions targets Turkey and Russia.
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