rigorousintuition.ca

‘It’s war’: Donald Trump is ‘obsessed’ with Jeff Bezos — and wondering how he can ‘f*ck with’ the Amazon founder
Noor Al-Sibai NOOR AL-SIBAI
02 APR 2018 AT 20:39 ET


President Donald Trump has reportedly grown “obsessed” with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — and is poised to take regulatory action against the company as he reshapes his Cabinet to his liking.

Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman reported Monday evening that four sources close to the White House confirmed that Trump’s growing preoccupation with Bezos and Amazon, as evidenced by his weekend Twitter tantrum about the company, may be a prelude to further action.

“He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” one of the sources said. “Trump is like, how can I f*ck with him?”

“He’s off the hook on this,” another of Sherman’s sources said of the president’s escalating jibes. “It’s war.”

Vanity Fair‘s sources also confirmed that Trump is seeking to raise Amazon’s shipping costs — a move that never would have flown under former White House economics adviser Gary Cohn, but which the president may now be able to undertake with impunity.

“Trump doesn’t have Gary Cohn breathing down his neck saying you can’t do the Post Office sh*t,” one Republican source close to the West Wing told Sherman. “He really wants the Post Office deal renegotiated. He thinks Amazon’s getting a huge f*cking deal on shipping.”

Capitalizing upon the president’s ire, some advisers are “encouraging Trump to cancel Amazon’s multi-billion contract with the Pentagon to provide cloud computing services” and suggesting attorneys general in red states open investigations into the company’s business practices, Sherman’s sources said.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/war-do ... n-founder/

‘Playing with dynamite’: CNN Money editor says Trump’s trade war is sending market into a panic spiral
Brad Reed
03 APR 2018 AT 11:11 ET

CNN Money editor Richard Quest on Tuesday started sounding the alarms about the problems that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is causing for global financial markets.

Even though the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading higher on Tuesday, Quest nonetheless said that traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange were deeply worried about the president’s recent actions.

“The whole market, this whole place is terrified of the prospect of a trade war!” he exclaimed while pointing back at the NYSE. “Just look at the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average — Catepillar, you’ve got McDonald’s, you’ve got Boeing… these are large-cap stocks that have predicated their future growth on China.”

Quest then noted that some of the tariffs placed by China on American goods would hurt these companies — and could lead to a broader economic war if the United States and China kept ratcheting up tariffs.

“This is not picking a fight with Luxembourg,” he said. “The reality is that what the president is doing, and what the administration is doing, no matter how justified they are in their complaints against China, they are now playing with dynamite. And at some point, one of these sticks of dynamite is going to explode.”

Watch the video below
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/playin ... ic-spiral/

NYPD sex crimes chief donated thousands to Trump after video scandal on grabbing women ‘by the p---y'

With Rocco Parascandola, Nancy Dillon

NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Osgood donated close to $4,000 to Trump's campaign committees in 2016.
(James Keivom/New York Daily News)
Four days after President Trump was caught on tape boasting about grabbing women “by the p---y,” the high-profile head of the NYPD’s sex crimes division donated $500 to his campaign committee.

Deputy Chief Michael Osgood, commander of the Special Victims Division, went on to make 10 more contributions — a total of $2,810 over six weeks — to Trump’s campaign committees as the scandal over allegations that the candidate had groped multiple women intensified.

At the time, Osgood was overseeing the NYPD’s investigation into former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s creepy texting habits.

Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was a close adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and the disclosures roiled Clinton’s campaign and aided Trump in his eventual victory.

Seth Rogen says Stormy Daniels told him about Trump affair

Osgood is respected by advocacy groups — just last week the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women went out of its way to laud his work, even as it was blasting the NYPD’s approach to some sex crimes and the need to bolster its unit with more investigations.

He also led an investigation in 2015 of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein after a model accused him of sexually assaulting her in his Tribeca office. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, in a controversial decision, decided not to prosecute.

There is nothing illegal with cops making campaign contributions — they fall squarely within an employee’s protected First Amendment rights and the NYPD does not monitor them, a police source said.

But Osgood’s donations don’t look good given his rank and command, according to a former high-ranking NYPD chief.

Woman who accused Trump of sexual misconduct running for office

“It’s certainly fair to inquire as to why someone who is supposed to be objective and is looking into improper acts of a Democrat overtly gives money to a Republican candidate with allegations of his own against him,” the retired NYPD chief said. “He’s acting way outside his purview and totally inappropriately.”

Women’s groups were outraged Monday over Osgood’s pro-Trump contributions.

“We find this disturbing,” Toni Van Pelt, national president of NOW, told the Daily News.

“How do women rely on the NYPD to protect them when a lead investigator is complicit in the actions of Donald Trump?” Van Pelt said.

Trump accusers call on Congress to investigate the President

“He’s donating to a sexual predator at the same time he’s supposed to be protecting people,” she said. “The irony is not lost on NOW and our membership.”

Kylynn Grier of Girls for Gender Equity, a member of Communities United for Police Reform, slammed it as being “emblematic of the larger problem” of how the NYPD handles sexual assault cases.

“How can women in New York trust that the NYPD will take their complaints about sexual violence seriously when the commanding officer of the unit handling them has politically exposed himself to dismiss such serious issues of sexual assault?” Grier said.

Monifa Bandele, senior vice president at MomsRising, called Osgood’s actions “deeply troubling” and “raises serious questions about systemic issues with how the NYPD views sexual violence.”

Billy Bush talks President Trump, ‘p---y’ tape on 'Late Show'

The NYPD defended the Special Victims Division late Monday, without mentioning Osgood by name.

“No other police department in the country approaches the NYPD’s capacity to investigate and prosecute sex crimes. Each borough has dedicated squads to rigorously investigate adult sex crimes, and SVD detectives are highly trained. Commissioner (James) O’Neill is now strengthening this ability by creating a new 16-investigator cold-case squad . . . to relentlessly pursue unsolved cases.”

Multiple attempts to reach Osgood by phone and at his home were unsuccessful.

Trump was captured in 2005 on a microphone making offensive statements about women while preparing for an appearance on “Days of Our Lives” with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush and actress Arianne Zucker. The existence of the tape was revealed on Oct. 8, 2016.

“I just start kissing them ... I don’t even wait,” Trump says on the “Access Hollywood” tape. “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p---y. You can do anything.”


In all, 16 women have accused Trump of misconduct ranging from leering to groping to sexual abuse. Trump has denied the charges.

Osgood made the $500 contribution to DJT for President on Oct. 12, 2016, federal campaign finance records show.

A flood of contributions from Osgood to Trump committees followed, including $600 to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee and $480 to DJT for President in four donations on Oct. 20, and $400 on Oct. 27 to Trump MAGA.

Osgood began donating to Trump committees on Aug. 4, 2016, with a $480 contribution. That Aug. 28, the shocking picture of Weiner in his underwear with an erection, next to his sleeping son, emerged.

On Aug. 31, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League filed a formal complaint against Weiner with the city Administration for Children’s Services. On Sept. 15, the Daily Mail reported Weiner had been sexting with a 15-year-old girl. On Sept. 21, the NYPD Special Victims Division opened its investigation.

Osgood made four contributions totaling $958 to the Trump campaign between Oct. 1, 2016, and Oct. 7, records show.

The existence of the “Access Hollywood” tape was revealed and then Osgood made his series of donations to Trump’s committees.

Osgood’s spending spree for Trump is unusual, according to his history of campaign contributions. He has made just one contribution of $250, to a candidate running for state office: Joan Illuzzi for Staten Island district attorney, records show.

He has made no contributions to city candidates, records show.

When Weiner was sentenced on Sept. 25, 2017, the U.S. attorney singled out the Special Victims Division for “outstanding work.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyp ... ailyNewsTw

TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATING JUST PASSED OBAMA’S AT THIS POINT IN PRESIDENCY, ACCORDING TO RASMUSSEN POLL

As of Tuesday, 50 percent of likely voters in the United States approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. On this date during year two of Obama’s first term, 43 percent of likely voters approved of how the president was performing, the same poll found.

TRUMP SAYS HIS APPROVAL IS HIGHER THAN OBAMA'S, IGNORING THE POLLS THAT SAY IT ISN'T

BY GRAHAM LANKTREE ON 4/3/18 AT 9:19 AM
Three other polls published the same day by Gallup, Harvard, and Investor's Business Daily show the president with between 38 and 44 percent approval and 55 to 56 percent disapproval.

A combined average of polls give Trump a 41.8 percent approval and 53.2 percent disapproval rating.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-his- ... snt-869677

Allies of Donald Trump have increasingly been pushing back on stories of his intense unpopularity.

Trump is falsely claiming that his approval rating is higher than Obama’s and Fox is thumping his seven-point increase in the past month. Even liberal outlets like New York magazine are reporting that Trump’s numbers are “on the rise.”

But Trump is benefitting from low expectations. Because he’s still the least popular president of all-time according to numbers tracked by data maven Nate Silver.

On Silver’s site FiveThirtyEight, you can see interactive graphs which track Trump’s approval rating against every president who’s served since the advent of modern polling. Currently, 53% of Americans disapprove of Trump, compared to just 40% who approve.

Those stats are drawn from several weighted polls and show that Trump has had a lower approval than any president, ever.

The only times Trump has been more popular than past presidents are during the first week of the George W. Bush presidency, 13 days in the middle of Bill Clinton’s first term and several months of Ford’s term in which the two anti-intellectual and scandal-ridden Republican’s numbers cross-cross often. In fact, Trump’s numbers track very closely to Ford’s numbers in the middle of his term.

Richard Nixon was never as unpopular as Trump is right now.

Trump’s Approval Rating Is Historically Low In a Good Economy
KEVIN DRUM
APR. 3, 2018 11:38 AM
I mentioned in passing yesterday that Donald Trump’s approval rating is actually quite low considering that the economy is doing pretty well. In fact, it’s historically low. Here’s an annotated chart from earlier in the year put together by Nate Cohn:


Trump’s approval rating is well below the lowest ever recorded with unemployment below 5 percent. So what happens if the economy turns down? Even a small hiccup could push his approval rating down by a net 10 points. Trump better hope the Fed does its usual best to keep Republicans in office and that Wall Street keeps its cool in the face of trade wars and general economic incompetence.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/ ... d-economy/

seemslikeadream » Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:50 pm wrote:
please check your date before gloating

It appears the Trump-obsessives are preaching to the wrong choirs.... Time to unleash OPERATION SNOWJOB on the blogs/forums/message boards that approve of TRUMP!

Mueller told Trump’s attorneys the president remains under investigation but is not currently a criminal target

April 3

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

In private negotiations in early March about a possible presidential interview, Mueller described Trump as a subject of his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Prosecutors view someone as a subject when that person has engaged in conduct that is under investigation but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges.

The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.

Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe, the people said.

Mueller’s description of the president’s status has sparked friction within Trump’s inner circle as his advisers have debated his legal standing. The president and some of his allies seized on the special counsel’s words as an assurance that Trump’s risk of criminal jeopardy is low. Other advisers, however, noted that subjects of investigations can easily become indicted targets — and expressed concern that the special prosecutor was baiting Trump into an interview that could put the president in legal peril.

John Dowd, Trump’s top attorney dealing with the Mueller probe, resigned last month amid disputes about strategy and frustration that the president ignored his advice to refuse the special counsel’s request for an interview, according to a Trump friend.

Trump’s chief counsel, Jay Sekulow, and Dowd declined to comment for this report. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred questions to White House attorney Ty Cobb.

“Thank you, but I don’t discuss communications with the president or with the Office of Special Counsel,” Cobb said Tuesday.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment.

The wide-ranging special counsel investigation, which began as an examination of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, has expanded into other areas, including whether Trump sought to obstruct the probe.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... 8ac39d508c

Mueller also told Trump’s lawyers that he's preparing a report about Trump’s actions while in office & potential obstruction. Trump advisers have warned WH aides that they fear Mueller will issue a blistering report about Trump’s actions" which could lead to impeachment.

Robert Costa
NEWS w/ @carolleonnig: Mueller described Trump as a *subject* & and is preparing a *report* on Trump’s conduct and potential obstruction

What we learned over past week: Mueller is directly engaging with Trump's attys. Wants an intvw w/ POTUS. POTUS wants to do it. But many in Trump camp counseling him against doing so, worry he's just a *subject* now... but could risk becoming a *target,* if he's not careful.

Mueller's convo w/ Trump lawyers in early March now a point of friction in Trump’s inner circle. Many in WH and around POTUS wary, worry Mueller is baiting Trump into intvw that could be perilous...

MUELLER is pushing Trump team for an interview as *necessary* to complete that upcoming report... wants to understand whether president had any corrupt intent

Renato Mariotti


THREAD: What does today’s news that Trump is a “subject” of Mueller’s investigation but not a “target” mean? (Short answer: Not as much as it seems at first glance.)

1/ Today the @washingtonpost reported that Mueller told Trump’s attorneys that he is a “subject” but not a “target” of his investigation.

2/ You are a “subject” of a federal investigation when your conduct is part of the government’s investigation. So if the government is investigating what you did, you are a “subject.” It’s what people commonly refer to as being “under investigation.”

3/ A “target” of an investigation is someone for whom the prosecutor has substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime and is a “putative defendant.” In other words, is someone the prosecutor intends to charge.

4/ As a practical matter, federal prosecutors typically don’t decide until late in an investigation whether they will charge a person who is under investigation. Usually prosecutors don’t make that judgement until they’ve interviewed witnesses and reviewed the relevant documents.

5/ For that reason, defense attorneys typically complain that a “non-target letter” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. As a practical matter, if your client is a “subject,” a statement that the prosecutor doesn’t intend to indict you at this time doesn’t mean much.

6/ The prosecutor can just continue to collect evidence and make the decision to indict at a later time. That’s why any good federal criminal defense attorney knows that what really matters most is whether your client is a subject.

7/ So all today’s news tells us is that Mueller hasn’t decided to indict Trump at this time. But if Trump’s lawyers know what they’re doing, they’ll tell him that he’s still under great risk. /end
https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/sta ... 6122119168

“Trump Is Like, ‘How Can I F--k with Him?’”: Trump’s War with Amazon (and The Washington Post) Is Personal

With the West Wing finally calm, Trump is contemplating a multi-front campaign against Jeff Bezos.

Gabriel ShermanApril 2, 2018 7:07 pm

By Andrew Kelly/REUTERS.

For the first time in Donald Trump’s presidency, the West Wing soap opera appears to be in hiatus, with many of its starring characters (Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks) either permanently offstage or with much reduced roles (John Kelly, Jared Kushner). Currently, there’s one star—a situation Trump is obviously enjoying—and his new freedom is used to focus ever more closely on his perceived enemies and obsessions. Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, is currently the main target. Trump has ripped into Amazon in recent days, claiming in a series of tweets that Jeff Bezos’s tech giant benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump tweeted. On Monday, he wrote: “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country . . . not a level playing field!” The tweets caused Amazon’s stock to plunge 5 percent on Monday.

Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company. “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war,” one source told me. “He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” said another source. “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”

According to sources, Trump wants the Post Office to increase Amazon’s shipping costs. When Trump previously discussed the idea inside the White Hose, Gary Cohn had explained that Amazon is a benefit to the Postal Service, which has seen mail volume plummet in the age of e-mail. “Trump doesn’t have Gary Cohn breathing down his neck saying you can’t do the Post Office shit,” a Republican close to the White House said. “He really wants the Post Office deal renegotiated. He thinks Amazon’s getting a huge fucking deal on shipping.”

Advisers are also encouraging Trump to cancel Amazon’s pending multi-billion contract with the Pentagon to provide cloud computing services, sources say. Another line of attack would be to encourage attorneys general in red states to open investigations into Amazon’s business practices. Sources say Trump is open to the ideas. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

Even Trump’s allies acknowledge that much of what’s fueling Trump’s rage toward Amazon is that Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, sources said. “Trump doesn’t like The New York Times, but he reveres it because it’s his hometown paper. The Washington Post, he has zero respect for,” the Republican close to the White House said. While the Post says that Bezos has no involvement in newsroom decisions, Trump has told advisers he believes Bezos uses the paper as a political weapon. One former White House official said Trump looks at the Post the same way he looks at the National Enquirer. “When Bezos says he has no involvement, Trump doesn’t believe him. His experience is with the David Peckers of the world. Whether it’s right or wrong, he knows it can be done.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04 ... al_twitter

DHS Sec: Trump To Deploy National Guard To Border ‘Immediately’

Kate Riga

AFP/Getty Images

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced at the White House press briefing on Wednesday that the Trump administration intends to send members of the National Guard to bolster security at the United States’ southern border.

“The President has directed the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to work together with the governors to deploy the National Guard to the southwest border to assist border patrol,” she said. “The President will be signing a proclamation to that effect today.”

She did not disclose how many troops would be sent, nor the cost of the endeavor, but asserted that they would be deployed “immediately.” She added that, at this point in the plan, the troops are intended to operate in a support, not enforcement, capacity.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ ... -to-border

Politician on #Russia's state TV urges retaliation:
—"Let's hit Trump with our Kompromat!"
Host: "Do we have it?"
— "Of course we have it!"

Belligerent Savant » Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:45 pm wrote:.

And yet....

http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-ap ... her-823037

TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATING JUST PASSED OBAMA’S AT THIS POINT IN PRESIDENCY, ACCORDING TO RASMUSSEN POLL

As of Tuesday, 50 percent of likely voters in the United States approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. On this date during year two of Obama’s first term, 43 percent of likely voters approved of how the president was performing, the same poll found.

It appears the Trump-obsessives are preaching to the wrong choirs.... Time to unleash OPERATION SNOWJOB on the blogs/forums/message boards that approve of TRUMP!

Report back with results.

I view this topic largely as satire, particularly content from a media source as Newsweek (or really, any news source attempting to 'report' on Trump-mania without a hint of irony) and the parody of poll results.

Indeed, an entire thread can be dedicated to the sham of 'polls'.