Wednesday, July 12, 2017

DJT Jr, the meeting, the emails, the Dems,and TRIBES

DJT Jr is a moron.

UPDATE: NY POST AGREES

He probably figured he was about to get documentation that HRC has entered into a quid pro quo with Putin over uranium for the Clinton Foundation. Wet dream for politics if that had come from Bob Woodward.
What more is there to say?
But it’s no worse than the DNC sending their people to the UKR embassy to get dirt on Manafort.
It NOT as bad as Ted Kennedy writing to the USSR for help against his own party and Jimmy Carter for his run, and it’s nowhere as close to as bad as the USA getting into the Israeli election against Bibi in order to get our program supporting the Iran deal less opposition.
All of that does not excuse Trump Jr. BTW, Russia does not HAVE a crown prosecutor and Emin and his dad are Russian real estate developers who worked with Trump Sr on bringing a Trump Tower to Russia, which never happened.
Rob Goldstone is PR guy working with music groups and sounds from what’s out like a small time player, but a player. He has the judgment on this of an amoral Scrooge.
And now the James Bond story of The Magnitsky Act, Hermitage Capital, and idiocy.
Hermitage Capital Management is an investment fund and asset management company specializing in Russian markets founded by Bill Browder and Edmond Safra. Hermitage Capital Management headquarters are in Guernsey, whilst it also maintains offices in the Cayman IslandsLondon and Moscow, Russia.
Its main investment fund, the Hermitage Fund created in 1996, has been extremely successful, earning 2,697% between 1996 and December 2007. It has been ranked the World’s Best Performing Emerging Markets Fund over the 1996-2001 five-year period by Nelsons.
Bill Browder is the grandchild of the former HEAD of the Communist Party of the USA.OK? When the USSR came apart and we all sent up a cheer, Browder and Safra jumped in under Yeltsin as soon as the USSR giant companies were being privatized. Hermitage got involved to the tune of MANY MANY of millions of dollars in part ownership of many Russian entities. They must have had sway. By leverage they probably had some measurable influence at the national economic level.
Now maybe Safra had a lot of money, access to it, and Browder well at Boston Consulting group, but at THAT level? Maybe. Or maybe an interested entity with a 3 letter abbreviation had interest in the grandchild of the CPUSA chief grabbing influence in the emerging Russia.
They are both Jewish, Safra was Arab jew whose family is from Aleppo.
Browder grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the University of Chicago where he studied economics. He received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1989. In 1998, Browder gave up his US citizenship and became a British citizen. Prior to setting up Hermitage, Browder worked in the Eastern European practice of the Boston Consulting Group in London and managed the Russian proprietary investments desk at Salomon Brothers.
He died in a fire that attracted wide media interest and was judicially determined to be due to arson, IOW, he was murdered. Remember this(?)
Hermitage is an activist fund. One of its main tactics is to expose corporate corruption in the companies it is holding, in the hope of improving managerial behaviour and lessen the significant discount that corruption has on share prices. Most famously, Hermitage has helped to expose several high-profile cases of corruption in Russia’s largest company Gazprom between 1998 and 2000. In October 2000, Hermitage reported that “investors are valuing this company as if 99 percent of its assets have been stolen. The real figure is around 10 percent so that’s good news.”
Although the fund’s founder William Browder was a supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin, in November 2005 he was blacklisted by the Russian government as a “threat to national security” and denied entry to the country. The Economist has accused the Russian government that this blacklisting occurred because he interfered with the flow of money to “corrupt bureaucrats and their businessmen accomplices.”
As the New York Times reported in 2008 over the next two years, several of his associates and lawyers, as well as their relatives, were victims of crimes, including severe beatings and robberies during which documents were taken. In June 2007 dozens of police officers swooped down on the Moscow offices of Hermitage and its law firm, confiscating documents and computers. When a member of the firm protested that the search was illegal, he was beaten by officers and hospitalized for two weeks. Hermitage became victim of what is known in Russia as “corporate raiding”: seizing companies and other assets with the aid of corrupt law enforcement officials and judges. Three Hermitage holdings companies were seized on what the company’s lawyers insist are bogus charges.
On 8 October Hermitage released a video on YouTube accusing Russian Police of fraud.
On November 16, 2009 Sergei Magnitsky, a partner of the legal company Firestone Duncan, who was a representative and legal consultant for William Browder in Moscow, having been accused in tax fraud and imprisoned for 11 months, died in prison. In 2013 it was announced that Magnitsky will go on trial posthumously.
Opalesque.TV released a video on February 8, 2010 in which Browder reveals details of Sergey Magnitsky’s ordeal during his eleven months in detention. In 2012 Hermitage filed a complaint with Cyprus anti-corruption agency Mokas regarding $31m funds illegally moved from Russia through a chain banks in Cyprus. However, in 2015 Cyprus police passed the documents to Russian investigators in the alleged tax-evasion case of Magnitsky and Browder, widely described as a set-up.
Thus the USA passes The Magnitsky Act which singles out everyone involved. But the law is written to allow the USA to designate any individual, bank or group and EXORCISE them from the world financial system. In retaliation Putin BANS all American adoption of Russian kids.
Thus the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya whose main function is to reverse Putin law on adoption via reversing The Magnitsky Act. What better way to get to insert that into the Trump mind than the manner indicated by DJT Jr’s. email.
She was married to some deputy minister of transport of god knows where, and her clients include “state-owned businesses and a senior government official’s son”. Good for her. Would that have made David Boies certainly a larger figure than this person, an official of the govt?
Bottom line, a VERY MESSY involvement by Hermitage Capital, which true or not, might have been seen as an intelligence intrusion into the Russian economy, and ALSO had fun exposing rampant corruption and thievery (i.e. Russian Mafia and govt operating together), was banned, exposed more corruption, got a righteous individual murdered, resulted in a ban via a legislative American act, and Putin retaliated giving this lawyer a built in function HERE.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope the CIA DID back Browder and was thinking long term about influence inside a freer Russian economy.
Now add DJT Jr’s, incompetent judgment, a TRIBE consisting of an inchoate force of Dems, the entirely hostile force of the Media , and the American intelligence services (which apparently just missed another big one in Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi) and HERE we are.
More divided.
The subject matter is irrelevant.
So I will end this with a final word set.
4%+ growth in GDP reflected in the disposable income of the middle class will determine our future. Not our political future. Our actual future.
  1. INTEREST on the national debt 2015? ~$450 BILLION

  2. Defense spending in 2015 – $598 BILLION

  3. Medicare costs in 2015 $646 BILLION

  4. Federal Welfare Budget in 2015 (including Medicaid) $361 BILLION

The debt is GOING UP. It will CONTROL the nation. We can’t cut our way out of this.
Any questions?

20 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I agree with this blogger's comment:

bocopro says:
July 11, 2017 at 10:20 am

Aahhhh . . . pphhllllbbbbbbbt!!!

I’m tellin ya, it’s somethin in the water in D.C. Like a post-hypnotic suggestion triggered by the word “Politics.” Happens to ‘em all sooner or later.

But that aside as simply the way it is in Ol’ Swampy, what bothers me most is that we have a nation basically on life support, in extreme danger of insolvency and infrastructure collapse, and all the “Watchdogs of Freedom” can focus on is Russia and gossip and innuendo and suspicion, like a buncha tabloids out to make a fast buck....

Always On Watch said...

Question...

How long has the NYT been sitting on this story of DJT, Jr.'s emails and meeting with the Russian lawyer?

Epaminondas said...

'like a buncha tabloids out to make a fast buck.'

It's a biz to attract attention to sell ads, backed by a self righteous attitude about doing that.

The biz is to yank open other people's raincoats, and shout 'LOOK', and then sell advertisements when you look

Epaminondas said...

AoW as long as the LEAKERS had told them. This problem is INSIDE the WH and AGAIN shows it's time to look at FIRING EVERYONE.

Even if that means sniping family members

Always On Watch said...

Epa,
I mostly agree with your comment.

How do we know that the leak came from inside the WH? Interested in your reasoning on this.

Always On Watch said...

A little while ago, I heard a talking head say: "DJT, Jr., should have taken a lawyer with him."

Didn't he take Manafort with him?

BTW, Manafort resigned on or about August 19, 2016.

Always On Watch said...

From Wikipedia:

Chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 United States Presidential campaign

In March 2016, he joined the presidential campaign of Donald Trump to lead Trump's "delegate-corralling" efforts. In June 2016, Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and promoted Manafort to the position. Manafort gained control of the daily operations of the campaign as well as an expanded $20 million budget, hiring decisions, advertising, and media strategy.[19][20][21][22]

An agent of Emin Agalarov reportedly offered Donald Trump Jr. compromising information on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government if he met with a lawyer connected to the Kremlin.[23] On June 9, 2016, Manafort, Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner met with Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower, where she instead discussed the Magnitsky Act.[24] The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks were revealed later that week.[23]

In August 2016, Manafort's connections to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions drew national attention in the USA, where it was reported that Manafort may have illegally received $12.7 million in off-the-books funds from the Party of Regions.[25] On August 17, 2016, Donald Trump received his first security briefing.[26] Also, on August 17, 2016, the New York Times reported on an internal staff memorandum from Manafort stating that Manafort would "remain the campaign chairman and chief strategist, providing the big-picture, long-range campaign vision".[27] However, two days later, Trump announced his acceptance of Manafort's resignation from the campaign after Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway took on senior leadership roles within that campaign.[28][29]
Lobbying career.

Always On Watch said...

What did DJT learn in his first security briefing in August 17, 2016?

Always On Watch said...

What really hurts the WH in this context: DJT, Jr.'s "excited utterance" about loving Russian information to damage HRC and then saving that information till later in the summer. Those two statements on his part were HUGE mistakes.

Always On Watch said...

BTW, Kushner also has a law degree.

Epaminondas said...

mammoth naivety, poor decision making. best case. leavening that to the bad side is the utterances about he never met with russians, and refilings of his security clearance papers ...what I don;t knwo is how frequently refilings happen.

1%?

50%

more?

Anonymous said...

Moron or not this is a just another pointless distraction in a long and tiresome line. The genuine criminal wrong doing is up, down, over, and under the DNC and its MSM propaganda machine.

But there is a vacancy at the top of the DOJ and unless Trump gets a handle on this rouge department it is quicksand all the way down. I cling to hope that DJT has a long game but time is really a-wasting.

Always On Watch said...

Anonymous,
Agree with you about the quicksand of The Swamp. It's deep! Deeper than DJT ever imagined.

Epaminondas said...

They should answer, and direct all personnel to answer 'we will have no further comment, next question' and keep on keeping on.

People care about their checkbook and a north korean nuke

But there HAS TO BE AN END to these disclosures now.

I am worried this is Kushner vs Trump Jr vs Bannon vs COhen vs Mnuchin vs Priebus and THAT'S WHY the leaks are hitting home ..they all know each other's biz

Pastorius said...

"Fire everyone"?

You mean, Trump should start over?

That would be playing right into their hands.

My sense has been, over the past six weeks, Trump is just beginning to hit his stride.

Given that we all know the Russia story is hollow, we ought to just start ignoring it. It's a joke.

And while you have enumerated some connections between the lawyer and Russian power players, you admit they are murky. And there are just as many, if not more, connections between the lawyer and NeverTrump forces like the Obama admin and McCain.

This was an intelligence operation against Trump. This is an effort in the ongoing Deep State coup.

I have no respect for it.

You article is good.

the point is moot, imo.

Epaminondas said...

How could there be an intelligence op by the deep state after the R convention and well before the Dem?

He was considered a loser.

As far as firing everyone ... IMO.. these leaks are FROM top staff over infighting..at least that's my judgment from way out here.

BY now I hope Trump got his family in one room and his top staff in another and not only read both the ENTIRE Megillah AND riot act over the leaks, but also told them no one could leave until he had a list of every time they met a Russian from 'the last time they saw Dr. Zhivago'until that morning, no matter if was to buy borscht at a health food store, so the list could be DUMPED into Twitter

Every day senators and congressmen are answering questions about this crap the tax reforms that will spur action and the budget that MIGHT slow debt growth, and the health care bill which MIGHT help 1/6 of the GDP are pushed away to one extent or another.

Clock ticking

Pastorius said...

The intelligence op against Trump is a separate thing from the Deep State coup.

Trump may have been considered a "loser" but that does not mean people in the Obama/Hillary circle thought he was harmless.

Read the Hill article and answer why Natalia was traveling in the circles in which she was traveling:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/341788-exclusive-doj-let-russian-lawyer-into-us-before-she-met-with-trump

As far as Deep State, that sounds more sinister and conspiracy world than it is.

Deep State, as you know, is simply the unelected portion of the government which sits there and carries out regulatiions and policy no matter who is elected.

They are the leakers.

Epaminondas said...

How would those people have knowledge of the content of emails from Goldstone to Trump Jr? Only NSA/CIA/FBI OR family/top staff might know that

Pastorius said...

Epa,
Natalia showed up in McCain's office with Mark Feygin. There is a photo of Feygin and McCain together. McCain posted the photo online, with a note saying Feygin was an attorney for a Ukrainian who was detained.

That is an anti-Putin guy, that Feygin guy.

BUT, Natalia was with this guy.

And we know it, because Natalia ALSO posted the photograph on her Facebook page.

So, why was the pro-Putin lobbyist Natalia palling around with the anti-Putin attorney Feygin?

Who is Rob Goldstone? I am not asking the question because I don't know. I'm asking if you really feel confident you know Goldstone is not connected to Obama and Hillary?

Pastorius said...

To be fair, it could be that McCain did not understand Feygin, and claimed him to be representing a Ukrainian when in fact he was representing the anti-Ukrainian Putin.