The decision of the White House to host Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak on the day after the termination of FBI Director James Comey ranks as one of the worst political decisions of a White House in years. Kislyak is the very Russian diplomat at the heart of the allegations of influencing peddling and collusion with Trump officials. Just as every network was exploring allegations that Comey was fired to protect Trump was an investigation into his ties with the Russians, the White House guaranteed that the Russians would be shown huddling with Trump followed by grinning photos in the Oval Office. That can be attributed to a long litany of self-inflicted wounds by this White House. However, what was more disturbing was the fact that U.S. photographers were barred from the meeting. Only the photographers from Tass were allowed. Tass is state-run agency. So not only did Trump meet with the Russians at the height of the allegations over Russian influence but the American people only saw pictures given to them by the Russians.
It also turns out that the meeting was held at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the photographer was also a request from the Russians. Sources say that White House security was not aware that the photographer worked for a Russian state-run outfit. To say the least, there was considerable surprise that a Tass photographer was allowed to photograph the Oval Office, particularly when American media was barred.
The White House continues to flounder from crisis to crisis — many of its own making. The staff appears utterly tone deaf in arranging such events or explaining to the public, as a White House spokesman stated, Trump “chose to receive him because Putin asked him to.” Now that makes it all better. The President excluded American media. He then met with Russians at the height of a scandal over Russian influence all because Putin asked him to? The nightmare images was then complete when the American people were shown pictures from the Russians as the only permitted photographers.
Lavrov then joked about the whole scandal over Russian influence. He is likely not the only one laughing this week.
I think Trump is in cahoots with Goldfinger. (Maybe “Golffinger” too — to witness his golfing at midnight.)
Democrats are actually advertising on billboards saying c’mon people “Let’s talk about Russia”
https://twitter.com/thekarami/status/863415752090501121
Wait, he’s a Republican advertising to talk about Russia?
Sorry for the typo I now see, it’s late G’nite
David Noe
1, May 12, 2017 at 9:36 pm
“its Palestinian property, are we going to call it the Palestinian Embassy?”
David, there isn’t any palestinian, it’s a made up name and just “Arabs” arabs want stuck in the Jewish Lands of Judea and Samaria.
Please check back with me after you read a history book or 2.
“what the democrats want to do to trump” Hey Israeli were you paying attention when Obama took office?
Also moving the Embassy to Jerusalem. its Palestinian property, are we going to call it the Palestinian Embassy? You’ve got enough of your own problems to deal with show us how you fix them and then we’ll be happy to listen to your suggestions.
What are you high on?
Why the sans-serif font, Turley?
It seems as if they think they’d ride it out..as exemplified by the white House press secretary’s news conference today…..interesting times…isn’t it folks? At any rate, wishin you all a great Mothers’ Day W-End…
Did that include the closed circuit TV etc. the Secret Service runs? I think not. Give them enough rope then release those tapes and see who made a fool of who. So far the President has been dragging them around by their tiny tweet-ees.
Then there are those cyber attacks and just who was in charge n 2016. I really want to see the connection between the left, their pipeline conduit to everone and the DNC/DNCC/Clinton Ring and whoa don’t limit to Russians to whom ever? Schumer’s computer ben checked lately or Pelosi’s bank accounts?
Did that include the closed circuit TV etc. the Secret Service runs? I think not. Give them enough rope then release those tapes and see who made a fool of who. So far the President has been dragging them around by their tiny tweet-ees.
A somewhat humorous article by Jack Engelhard at Israel National News is titled Nothing happens in America besides carping about Trump.
U.S. foreign policy? Forget it. U.S. domestic policy? Forget it. According to the Democrats, at this point, what difference does it make?
Here’s the rub. The IC community, the state department and “we the people” are scared because the president is like a precocious toddler who can do something disastrous at any time. He lacks self discipline to self correct. All the surveys/ studies demonstrate that their is a very real trust deficit when it comes to the WH while the surveys also indicate that the president’s followers are sticking by him like glue (somewhere between 35-40% of the population). That leaves the rest of the USA (60-65%) WHO ARE TERRIFIED.
Here are just a few facts to consider:
1.) Deutsche is our president’s largest creditor.
2.) “Deutsche Bank has already been fined millions of dollars in January 2017 for laundering Russian dirty monies to the tune of $10 billion dollars via various methods and entities including the Bank of Cypress.”
3.) “The head of Deutsche Bank during this dark period, Josef Ackermann became the chairman of the Bank of Cypress in 2014.”
4.) “The largest shareholder of the Bank of Cypress, Dmitry Rybolovlev is the same Russian oligarch who purchased the president’s Palm Beach home in 2008 for the inflated price of $95 million to $100 million dollars when it was appraised 5 years after purchase for about $60 million dollars.”
5.) “Around the time that the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased the president’s property in Palm Beach in 2008, the president was suing Deutsche Bank in 2008 over a $40 million loan that came due. He claimed that the 2008 downward spiral in property values, due to the US recession was as an “Act of God” which absolved him from having to honor this obligation. Somehow this whole incident was taken care of and Deutsche Bank has continued to loan the president monies.”
6.) Coincidentally, the newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross became the Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cypress in 2014. He has stepped down from this role.
7.) The Bank of Cypress has a lengthy history of laundering Russian dirty monies which has supposedly been corrected. However, a 2/2/17 EUobserver article by Andrew Rettman reports the following:
“Pieter Omtzigt, from the christian-democrat CDA party, put forward the criticism in a letter, on Saturday (January 30, 2017), to a financial crimes unit in The Council of Europe in Strasbourg.”
“Recent developments in Cyprus in relation to the Magnitsky case have shown the failure of Cyprus to apply money laundering legislation in practice,” he said.”
“This case is a litmus test for whether Cyprus is now really paying attention to proper controls or whether it is only paying lip service to recommendations.”
8.) And finally, the reason that the highly esteemed US prosecutor, Preet Bharara may have been recently fired by the White House could be because he had been in charge of pursuing legally the Deutsche Bank for its Russian money laundering schemes.
As pwr the 1/12/15 Stopfake.org blog article, ‘Russia’s Sub Rosa Statecraft.” by Edward Lucas, per Russian espionage operates on different principles. The agencies there spend large amounts of time and money building up long-term assets, with little concern for an immediate payoff. If you recruit a bright Danish student, it may be twenty years before he becomes useful. But when he does, the consequences will be devastating. Russia is also far better at operating what in espionage parlance are known as “false flag” operations, in which the target is recruited under the guise of a different cause, perhaps involving environmentalism or digital freedom.”
The point of all the above data is that borrowing monies from Russian sources is like doing business with the mafia where favors are expected to be returned. If the president acts like he is under the influence of Russia, it could be, because he is.
I wrote this too early in the am for me which means there are spelling errors but the facts have been well researched. Of course, I am not a fancy attorney but I am one of those “See Me Now” voters who has been paying better attention to our national politics, as of late.