US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6627

Trump Is Yet To Sever Ties With His Business, Despite Promises To Do So, Report Says

No evidence exists so far that President Donald Trump or his elder daughter has taken steps to sever ties with their businesses, despite promises to do so by Inauguration Day, ProPublica has reported.

The independent non-profit news service said it had contacted officials in some of the states where the Trumps do business, but found no evidence Trump has begun the process of transferring ownership of his companies to other family members. The newsroom noted on Friday:

"To transfer ownership of his biggest companies, Trump has to file a long list of documents in Florida, Delaware and New York. We asked officials in each of those states whether they have received the paperwork. As of 3:15 p.m. today, the officials said they have not."
Trump has been criticized for continuing to own a wide array of businesses while in the White House. He has refused calls to sell his companies and put the assets in a blind trust, saying he would turn them over to his sons to manage instead and would have nothing to do with managing them.

Trump said at a Jan. 11 press conference that he and his daughter Ivanka have signed documents giving up control of all Trump-branded companies. Next to him on a table were stacks of documents he said transferred "complete and total control" of the companies to his sons Eric and Donald Jr and another employee.

A Trump attorney said that he "has relinquished leadership and management of the Trump Organization." The businesses would be placed in a family trust by Inauguration Day, the attorney said.

But ProPublica quoted the New York Secretary of State's office as saying no changes have been made to business filings for his primary holding company, the Trump Organization.

The Florida Department of Corporations said no changes have been made to three Trump businesses located there.

ProPublica also reported, "Ivanka Trump is still listed as the authorized officer on records for two entities related to the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., which the Trump family bought and turned into a hotel. No changes have been filed for either of the companies, which are registered in Delaware."

Ivanka Trump is married to Jared Kushner, whom Trump has named as a senior adviser.

On January 23 2017 11:21 IgnE wrote:


firstly i obviously think trump was a mistake. i don't want to be misinterpreted as thinking that trump is a progression. i appreciate your points and i think the concept of The Big Lie has a lot going for it as an interpretative tool in this environment, at least as long as you bear in mind that it is an inherently political tool.

i also should state that i think liberal democracy has a lot going for it in comparison to 19th century forms of government. but i think you are making a fundamental error in the logical leap that because liberal democracy is in many ways better that it has eliminated the undercurrent of war that constantly churns under a lawful peace. you could look at another essay by Benjamin on divine violence where he makes the case that law-giving is always an act of violence. Benjamin and Foucault complement each other on this point.

one of liberal democracy's greatest tricks is producing this illusion through its erasure of marginalized people. this is the invisible ideology that everyone who grew up after WW2 breathes without knowing it.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead in the water after the administration of new United States President Donald Trump announced the country's withdrawal from the trade agreement following his inauguration on Friday.

In a formal statement issued over the weekend, the White House said the president has decided to base its foreign policy on an "America first" attitude that involves returning "millions of jobs to America's shores" by backing out of multilateral trade agreements such as the TPP.

"The president understands how critical it is to put American workers and businesses first when it comes to trade. With tough and fair agreements, international trade can be used to grow our economy ... this strategy starts by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and making certain that any new trade deals are in the interests of American workers," the statement said.

"In addition to rejecting and reworking failed trade deals, the United States will crack down on those nations that violate trade agreements and harm American workers in the process ... By fighting for fair but tough trade deals, we can bring jobs back to America's shores, increase wages, and support US manufacturing."

The statement added that Trump also intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and will withdraw from the trilateral agreement if Canada and Mexico refuse to negotiate on terms that give "American workers a fair deal".

The official White House statement followed White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's speech confirming that one of Trump's first Executive Orders would be to dump the TPP.

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump pledged Sunday to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement in upcoming talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

"We're meeting with the prime minister of Canada and we will be meeting with the president of Mexico, who I know, and we're going to start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA," Trump said while addressing White House staff on his second full day in office.

Trump will receive his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto on January 31. No date has been given for a meeting with Canada's Justin Trudeau, but it is expected "soon," according to a readout from a call between the two leaders on Saturday.

Trump praised the Mexican leader, saying: "The president has been really very amazing and I think we are going to have a very good result for Mexico, for the United States, for everybody involved. It's very important."

PRAGUE — The target of high-stakes Kremlin power plays during the Cold War, the Czech Republic is again on the front lines of a contest with Russia and its sympathizers — this time in the Information Wars.

Inside a mustard-yellow stucco building in northwest Prague, Benedikt Vangeli is a commander in that fight — leading a new SWAT team for truth. Armed with computers and smartphones, the freshly formed government unit is charged with scouring the Internet and social media, fact-checking, then flagging false reports to the public.

“Truth is important to a democratic state,” Vangeli said.

Following the fake news barrage during the U.S. presidential race, the worried Czechs are not the only ones suddenly breaking into the fact-checking business. Nations including Finland and Germany are either setting up or weighing similar operations as fears mount over disinformation campaigns in key elections that could redefine Europe’s political map this year.

The stakes are high: If pro-Kremlin politicians win in an anchor nation like France, it could potentially spell the end of the European Union.

Here in the Czech Republic — a nation that was once a Cold War hub for the KGB — intelligence officials are charging Moscow with rebuilding its spy operations and engaging in “covert infiltration” of Czech media ahead of elections later this year. And the new government truth squad will pay special attention to a proliferation of opaque, pro-Russian websites in the Czech language that officials say are seeking to gaslight the public by fostering paranoia and undermining faith in democracy and the West.

Using methods reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda, such sites offer a vision of a world where no Russian soldier set foot in Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a Muslim-hugging menace and the United States is behind Europe’s refugee crisis.

Some are running the same disproved stories that tainted the U.S. election — including false allegations that Hillary Clinton’s campaign dabbled in child trafficking and the occult. But they are also curated for local audiences. Pro-Russian Czech politicians, for instance, are exalted, while Moscow’s critics are torn down. The E.U., such stories suggest, is power grabbing and inept.

There is some evidence the assaults may be having their desired effect — with opinion polls showing the number of Czechs who trust the E.U. slipping to just 26 percent.

“We have no ability or political will to close all these websites,” said Ivana Smolenova, a fellow at the Prague Security Studies Institute. “The only thing we can do is work on our self-defense.”

Yet the new unit’s creation has brought countercharges of state-sponsored spin from the sites and their supporters, who argue that the government is picking sides in a nation still divided between pro-Russian and pro-Western sympathies.

“Nobody has the monopoly on truth,” said Czech President Milos Zeman, a pro-Russian politician who fills a largely ceremonial role and is at odds with the Czech government over Russian sanctions he wants lifted. He maintains a special adviser with financial links to Russia’s energy giant Lukoil, and Zeman’s interviews frequently appear on pro-Russian websites.

“If you have some views, for instance, Russians have some views, and you want to formulate it publicly in the media, it is not misinformation, it is not propaganda,” Zeman said.

In the Czech Republic, the tug of war for influence between Moscow and the West has lurked just below the surface since the fall of the Iron Curtain. But it reemerged, officials say, following the 2014 Russian incursion into Ukraine — denied by the Kremlin — that led the West to impose sanctions on Moscow.

A Czech intelligence report issued last year asserted that Moscow’s embassy in Prague — with staffing far higher than those of other nations — has become a beefed-up den of spies. It also warns that Russian covert use of Czech-language media and its state-sponsored propaganda are “exerting influence on the perceptions and thoughts on the Czech audience” and promoting a “relativity of truth.”

It cites no smoking gun linking the Kremlin to the 40 or so pro-Russian websites published in Czech. But the Russian government, for instance, backs the Sputnik News Agency’s Czech-language service. Smolenova said she has also identified at least one other site as being funded and directed by Russian citizens.