Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Surrenders to F.B.I.

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Paul Manafort, who served as President Trump's campaign manager last year, made more than $17 million in two years working for the pro-Russia political party that controlled Ukraine's government, according to documents filed late Tuesday.....Manafort, who resigned from Trump's campaign last August after his work for Ukrainian interests came under scrutiny

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Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Surrenders to F.B.I.

Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort To Surrender In Russia Probe Former Manafort business associate Rick Gates also is expected to be charged.

Paul Manafort, onetime campaign chairman to President Donald Trump, and former business associate Rick Gates have been told to surrender to federal authorities, multiple news outlets reported on Monday. Manafort was spotted by reporters leaving his condo in Virginia early on Monday.

Manafort and Gates are expected to be charged in an intensifying investigation into Russian meddling in the United States’ 2016 presidential election.

The office of special counsel Robert Mueller, which is conducting the probe, is expected to serve the indictment on Monday. The apparent forthcoming arrests come three days after news broke that a federal grand jury in Washington had filed the first charges stemming from Mueller’s investigation.

Mr. Gates is a longtime protégé and junior partner of Mr. Manafort. His name appears on documents linked to companies that Mr. Manafort’s firm set up in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe, records reviewed by The New York Times show.

Mr. Manafort had been under investigation for violations of federal tax law, money laundering and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying.

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CIA: Kim Jong Un isn't crazy

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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"Between the ruthless executions of his own senior officers, bombastic threats of nuclear annihilation and defiant missile tests, it may be easy to agree with President Donald Trump's recent assessment that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a "madman" who is "on a suicide mission for himself."

But top officials from the CIA said Wednesday that Kim's actions are not those of a maniacal provocateur but a "rational actor" who is motivated by clear, long-term goals that revolve around ensuring regime survival. "There's a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done," according to Yong Suk Lee, deputy assistant director of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, who discussed the escalating tensions between North Korea and the US during a conference organized by the agency at George Washington University.

North Korea has long maintained it wants nuclear weapons and long-range missiles to deter the United States from attempting to overthrow the regime of Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang looks at states such as Iraq -- where Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the United States -- and Libya -- its late leader, Moammar Gadhafi, gave up his nuclear ambitions for sanctions relief and aid, only to be toppled and killed after the United States intervened in his country's civil unrest -- and believes that only being able to threaten the US mainland with a retaliatory nuclear strike can stop American military intervention.

Many experts say they believe North Korea would not use the weapons first. Kim values his regime's survival above all else and knows the use of a nuclear weapon would start a war he could not win, analysts say.... "Waking up one morning and deciding he wants to nuke" Los Angeles is not something Kim Jong Un is likely to do, Lee said. "He wants to rule for a long time and die peacefully in his own bed." And for CIA officers, diplomats and lawmakers tasked with utilizing intelligence to protect the US and its allies from the security threats posed by North Korea, understanding that purpose could prove to be key in avoiding a potentially devastating military conflict.

US-led efforts to apply additional diplomatic pressure on North Korea in recent months have been met with greater defiance as the Kim regime continues to march toward realizing its nuclear ambitions. Despite assurances from Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the US continues to seek a peaceful resolution, neither side has overtly indicated that it is ready or willing to engage in serious negotiations.

The mixed-messages coming from the Trump administration also continue to raise questions about the US approach to North Korea. Trump has repeatedly undercut comments made by his top officials and publicly engaged in a war of words with Kim that has devolved into insults and name-calling -- only raising fears of an eventual military conflict.

"When they hear what's coming from the President, I think it resonates with them," said Ambassador Joseph R. DeTrani, who previously served at the Department of State as the Special Envoy for Six-Party Talks with North Korea. "But they also know we have a process and I think right now they're probing," he said. But while Trump continues to publicly paint Kim as an irrational dictator, CIA officials said the intelligence community views the North Korean leader's actions through a different lens.

"The last person who wants conflict on the peninsula is actually Kim Jong Un," Lee said. "We have a tendency in this country and elsewhere to underestimate the conservatism that runs in these authoritarian regimes." While Kim may not want a war with the US, he does view the strategy of perpetuating a confrontational relationship as a key to maintaining his grip on power, according to Lee and Michael Collins, deputy assistant director of the east Asia and Pacific mission center at the CIA.

"North Korea is a political organism that thrives on confrontation," Lee said. Since succeeding his father in 2011, Kim's rise from political novice to adept operator has stemmed from a calculated commitment to consolidating power within his own regime and transforming North Korea into a nuclear state. Internally, Kim has demonstrated a willingness to purge those who might pose a threat to his rule. One report from a South Korean think tank, the Institute for National Security Strategy, claims he has ordered the executions of at least 340 people since he came to power -- 140 of whom were senior officers in the country's government, military and ruling Korean Worker's Party.

In 2013 he executed his own uncle, Jang Song Thaek. By making it particularly visible, with state media declaring Jang a "traitor for all ages," Kim made sure there was no dissent to the decision.

'Sweating profusely' and clutching his head: Kim Jong Nam's last moments He is also accused of ordering the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, earlier this year in Malaysia but North Korea has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement. While ruthless and violent, Kim's behavior fits the profile of a leader acting out of his own self-interest, rather than emotion or impulse, Lee said -- a theme that is consistent in his dealings with the US as well.

"Kim's long-term goal is to come to some sort of big power agreement with the US and to remove US presence from the peninsula," Lee said, adding he wants to make North Korea relevant on the global stage again.

But Kim's efforts to develop a reliable long-range nuclear weapon have long conflicted with the security priorities of the US and its allies in the region -- a concern that has become more urgent in recent months in the wake of several successful missile and nuclear tests.

"North Korea is clearly testing the patience of the US and international community," Collins said. "With each increasing escalation, they're raising the threshold for the United States and others to accept or press back against that." But Kim seems undeterred by Trump's threats despite the US President telling the United Nations General Assembly last month that Kim is "on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime." Kim's actions indicate he is no longer constrained by fears that China might abandon its support for his regime or that the US will launch a military strike -- two major factors that have tempered Pyongyang's boldness in the past, according to Lee.

Unbounded by those fears, the situation "becomes a tolerance of wills," Lee said, adding now the question is "how far will Kim Jong Un go?" Collins and Lee both emphasized that China could still wield significant influence over North Korea but said Beijing would have to make the choice of prioritizing its relationship with the US over the strategic benefits of backing Pyongyang. "China's strategic goal is to frustrate US and maintain division of peninsula," Lee said, adding that the US must continue to demonstrate to both Beijing and Pyongyang that all options remain on the table through shows of military force.

"First and foremost, the situation with North Korea is a test of what China wants in its relationship with US," Collins added. According to Collins, the intelligence community is currently wrestling with questions related to North Korea's resolve and monitoring how major players in the region respond to Pyongyang's provocations in an effort to gauge how far the Kim regime is willing to push the envelope. Kim remains unlikely to intentionally start a war with the US or its allies like South Korea as that would almost certainly result in his own destruction, according to Collins and Lee, but both CIA officials said they anticipate tensions with North Korea will continue -- raising the risk of a miscalculation from both sides. "The South Korean and North Korean Navy's are going toe-to-toe every day ... there is potential for conflict at anytime," Lee said. "We could stumble into something," DeTrani said, noting a potential scenario in which the US shoots down a North Korean missile deemed to be an imminent threat and prompting a response from Pyongyang. And while the prospect of a North Korean preemptive strike on the US or one of its allies remains unlikely, DeTrani admitted that "there is a sense that North Korea is unpredictable if put into a corner."

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Text of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's response to Trump

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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In a rare if not unprecedented move, North Korea released a statement directly from its leader in response to President Donald Trump's criticism in his speech to the United Nations earlier this week. The response, transmitted by North Korea's state news agency KCNA, reads as follows:

Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, released a statement on Thursday. The full text of the statement reads:

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The speech made by the U.S. president in his maiden address on the UN arena in the prevailing serious circumstances, in which the situation on the Korean peninsula has been rendered tense as never before and is inching closer to a touch-and-go state, is arousing worldwide concern.

Shaping the general idea of what he would say, I expected he would make stereo-typed, prepared remarks a little different from what he used to utter in his office on the spur of the moment as he had to speak on the world's biggest official diplomatic stage.

But, far from making remarks of any persuasive power that can be viewed to be helpful to defusing tension, he made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors.

A frightened dog barks louder.

I'd like to advise Trump to exercise prudence in selecting words and to be considerate of whom he speaks to when making a speech in front of the world.

The mentally deranged behavior of the U.S. president openly expressing on the UN arena the unethical will to "totally destroy" a sovereign state, beyond the boundary of threats of regime change or overturn of social system, makes even those with normal thinking faculty think about discretion and composure.

His remarks remind me of such words as "political layman" and "political heretic" which were in vogue in reference to Trump during his presidential election campaign.

After taking office Trump has rendered the world restless through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world. He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician.

His remarks which described the U.S. option through straightforward expression of his will have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last.

Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.

Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say.

As a man representing the DPRK and on behalf of the dignity and honor of my state and people and on my own, I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK.

This is not a rhetorical expression loved by Trump.

I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue.

Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation.

I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U. S. dotard with fire."

By the associated press.....Sep 21, 2017

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Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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"Paul Manafort offered a Russian billionaire private briefings on the presidential campaign -- while he was Donald Trump's campaign chairman -- the Washington Post reports........Citing people familiar with the discussions, the Post said that Manafort penned an email through an intermediary, offering briefings to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, an industrial metals magnate with ties to the Kremlin........What Paul Manafort wiretapping could mean for Russia probe ......"If he needs private briefings we can accommodate," Manafort's email says, as quoted by the Post."

"Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (Russian: born January 2, 1968) is a Russian oligarch and philanthropist. He is the founder and owner of one of the largest Russian industrial groups Basic Element. He is the president of En+ Group and United Company Rusal, the second largest aluminium company in the world......He was once Russia's richest man, worth $28 billion, but nearly lost everything due to mounting debts amid the 2007–08 financial crisis. As of May 2017, his wealth was estimated by Forbes at $5.2 billion. Deripaska is also known for his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, as well as his connection to American political consultant Paul Manafort, whom Deripaska employed from at least 2005 to 2009.....He is married to Polina Yumasheva, step-granddaughter of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin."

"In July 2006, whilst Deripaska was involved in a bid to buy the Daimler Chrysler Group, it was reported that the United States canceled his entry visa; the unnamed official declined to give a reason for the revoking of the visa. The Wall Street Journal reported that it could have been because Deripaska has been accused of having links to organized crime in Russia and cited as their sources two unnamed U.S. law enforcement officials."

"On 25 January 2010, the Financial Times published a story "Rusal: A lingering heat" exploring Deripaska's business relations with Sergei Popov and Anton Malevsky, alleged heads of Russian organized crime groups. Deripaska has accused Michael Chernoy of using Malevsky and the Izmailovskaya syndicate to extort US$250 million from him as part of a protection racket. However, Deripaska has himself been accused of having similar links to Malevsky, who, with his brother Andrei, owned a 10% stake in Deripaska's company. Deripaska denies the claims."

"Deripaska has been described as "Putin's favorite industrialist." Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables from 2006 described Deripaska as "among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis" and "a more-or-less permanent fixture on Putin's trips abroad."

"Paul Manafort......On 22 March 2017, the Associated Press published a report alleging that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former presidential campaign manager, negotiated a $10 million annual contract with Deripaska to promote Russian interests in politics, business, and media coverage in Europe and the United States, starting in 2005.....During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Manafort, via Kiev-based operative Konstantin Kilimnik, offered to provide briefings on political developments to Deripaska, though there is no evidence that the briefings took place."

"Anton Malevski, born in 1967, was the head of the Izmailovskaya Bratva (Muscovite mafia), linked to certain segments of the Russian secret services. He was prosecuted in 1993 for illegal possession of weapons and expatriated himself with false documents in Israel where he was welcomed by his old friend Mikhail Chernoy named Micha. In the context of the wars of aluminum, it became the "armed arm" of the Tchernoï group. Malevski was twice the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Russia, and was then cleared by the Russian interior minister Vladimir Rouchail. In November 2001, the criminal leader of Izmailovo died during a parachute jump in South Africa. Some doubt the reality of this death. His brother Andrei manages his affairs in Russia."

"According to Forbes, Moscow recently overtook NYC as the city with the most billionaires per square mile: Moscow had 74 people worth ten figures compared to New York, which had just 71. But those smarmy bazillionaires aren't staying put in Moscow or even in the de-facto Russian mogul ghetto of London. Many of them are spending time right here in New York: Real estate, oil, and metals scions from Russia and other former Soviet republics have been busy snatching up some of the most expensive apartments the city has to offer. Last month, a 42-year-old fertilizer kingpin named Dmitry Rybolovlev agreed to pay $100 million for Donald Trump's Palm Beach mansion, Maison de l'Amitié. The 59th richest man in the world, worth some $12.8 billion, his purchase includes a 33,000-square-foot home and 6.5 acres of land. But he isn't the only one. After the jump, a list of the novi Russki who spend time in New York—just who these Soviet oligarchs are, how they made their money, and what exactly they're up to in town."....http://gawker.com/500906/know-your-new-york-lovin-russian-oligarchs

"How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld.... The Israeli authorities grant citizenship to anyone who can prove Jewish ancestry The BBC's Kevin Connolly investigates the Russian mafia's covert invasion of Israeli society. There are alarming signs that the Russian mafia has taken over the Israeli underworld and is using the country to launder its vast profits.....A wave of mass immigration from the former Soviet Union has brought 750,000 newcomers to the Jewish state in the last decade.Amid the innocent exodus were Russian gangsters, many of whom are believed to have produced bogus proof of Jewish ancestry to enter the country.....Police in Israel have been keeping around 30 organised key crime suspects under surveillance......Former police chief Asaf Hefetz says £2.5bn ($4bn) of organised crime money from the former Soviet Union has been invested in Israeli real estate, businesses and banks in the past seven years......Gregory Lerner, who was arrested in 1997 for defrauding four Russian banks of £70m ($106m), was reputedly sent to Israel to head up one of the money laundering operations."....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/03/98/russian_mafia/69521.stm

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Fired by Trump

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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Here are the top-level people who've either been fired or forced out from the Trump administration:

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Steve Bannon.....White House officials confirmed that Trump had dismissed Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, on Friday after reports of clashes between Bannon and other members of the White House reached a fever pitch in recent days.....Bannon, who was instrumental in focusing the message of Trump's 2016 campaign, was considered the main conduit between Trump and his base of far-right voters. Bannon returned to his former job as executive chairman of Breitbart News.

"“In Kim, Trump has met his match,” I wrote. “The risk of two arrogant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since October 1962.” Bannon told me, “It’s a great honor to finally track you down. I’ve followed your writing for years and I think you and I are in the same boat when it comes to China. You absolutely nailed it.....On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.” “There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”....“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. ”..... I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State.”....“That’s a fight I fight every day here,” he said. “We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.”.....Bannon was the architect of the strategy of using Breitbart to heat up white nationalism and then rely on the radical right as Trump’s base....“Ethno-nationalism—it's losers. It's a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.”.....“These guys are a collection of clowns,” ....

"The departure on Friday of Steve Bannon, the White House's top economic nationalist, will likely tip the trade policy scales in favor of the Trump administration's "globalist" faction, which could soften the stance toward two of Trump's favorite targets: China and the North American Free Trade Agreement. But after news that Trump had fired Bannon from his post as chief strategist, trade experts said it may take some time for National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to start winning more debates on trade policy. He was to launch war against “globalists” in the White House.....The “globalists” include staff members like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner who have more moderate political leanings."

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Anthony Scaramucci was hired as the White House communications director and then dismissed in less than two weeks. The decision came at the urging of John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, according to a Times report......Scaramucci most notably made headlines for his interview with The New Yorker in which he unleashed an expletive-filled tirade against members of the Trump administration.

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Paul Manafort, who served as President Trump's campaign manager last year, made more than $17 million in two years working for the pro-Russia political party that controlled Ukraine's government, according to documents filed late Tuesday.....Manafort, who resigned from Trump's campaign last August after his work for Ukrainian interests came under scrutiny

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Reince Priebus resigned as White House chief of staff six months into his tenure after a public feud with Scaramucci......Trump announced in a tweet on June 28 that Kelly, the secretary of homeland security at the time, would take over for Priebus. Priebus resigned less than a week after Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, who was considered a Priebus ally in the White House.

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Sean Spicer, the embattled White House press secretary, resigned on July 21 after telling Trump he vehemently disagreed with the selection of Scaramucci as White House communications director.....Spicer's tenure was marred by controversy and a sometimes awkward relationship with the president. Spicer said at the time that he would stay in his role until August.

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Michael Dubke resigned as the White House communications director in May. Dubke was replaced by Scaramucci, the founder of a hedge fund and a top Trump donor.

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Walter Shaub resigned as the director of the Office of Government Ethics in July after clashing with the White House over Trump's complicated financial holdings.....Shaub called the Trump administration a "laughingstock" after his resignation, and he advocated strengthening the US's ethical and financial disclosure rules.

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James Comey......Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in May......At the time of his firing, Comey was handling the bureau's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 election, creating a firestorm of controversy for the Trump administration..

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Michael Flynn resigned in February after serving as national security adviser for less than a month......Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials about what he and Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the US, talked about in phone conversations during the transition — according to reports, they had discussed the Obama administration's sanctions against Russia....He registered retroactively as a foreign agent. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has acknowledged lobbying for the government of Turkey in the months leading up to last year's election."

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Sally Yates......Trump fired Sally Yates, an appointee of President Barack Obama, as acting attorney general within his first 10 days in office. Yates had refused to uphold Trump's executive order on immigration and denounced it as unlawful......Yates was also instrumental in the events that led to Flynn's ouster, as she had informed Trump days after his inauguration that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.

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Preet Bharara.....Trump fired Preet Bharara as the US attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan in March after he refused to submit his resignation to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.......Bharara was fired along with several other Obama-era US attorneys, though Trump had initially asked Bharara during the transition to remain in his position.

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Katie Walsh, the former deputy chief of staff and close ally of Priebus, left the White House after nine weeks to run America First Policies, a pro-Trump group outside the government.

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Corey R. Lewandowski was campaign manager of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for President of the United States from January 2015 to June 2016.....Lewandowski's motto as Trump's campaign manager was "Let Trump be Trump"...When Lewandowski was hired, Trump's political staff consisted of: his lawyer Michael D. Cohen, veteran operative Roger Stone, and aide Sam Nunberg.....veteran GOP operative, Paul Manafort....Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News, wrote that, after she asked Donald Trump a question when she approached him after a March 8, 2016, press conference in Jupiter, Florida, she was forcefully grabbed by Lewandowski....On June 20, 2016, Trump's campaign announced that it was parting ways with Lewandowski; according to reports, Lewandowski was fired."

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Sam Nunberg was fired in early August 2015....he believes that it was Lewandowski and campaign press secretary Hope Hicks who asked Trump for his ouster

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Roger Stone left the campaign a week later in September 2015

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Bill Browder’s Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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On Wednesday 26th July, financier Bill Browder was due to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee......Browder’s testimony, which received relatively little coverage, is extraordinary with a senator calling it one of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s “most important” hearings......In it he describes a Russian system of government that operates in the shadows using corruption, blackmail, torture and murder - all led by Vladimir Putin........Browder said: “Effectively the moment that you enter into their world, you become theirs.”

Bill Browder’s Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony....

"Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Feinstein, and members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today on the Russian government’s attempts to repeal the Magnitsky Act in Washington in 2016, and the enablers who conducted this campaign in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, by not disclosing their roles as agents for foreign interests.Before I get into the actions of the agents who conducted the anti-Magnitsky campaign in Washington for the benefit of the Russian state, let me share a bit of background about Sergei Magnitsky and myself.I am the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management. I grew up in Chicago, but for the last 28 years I’ve lived in Moscow and London, and am now a British citizen. From 1996 to 2005, my firm, Hermitage Capital, was one of the largest investment advisers in Russia with more than $4 billion invested in Russian stocks.Russia has a well-known reputation for corruption; unfortunately, I discovered that it was far worse than many had thought. While working in Moscow I learned that Russian oligarchs stole from shareholders, which included the fund I advised. Consequently, I had an interest in fighting this endemic corruption, so my firm started doing detailed research on exactly how the oligarchs stole the vast amounts of money that they did. When we were finished with our research we would share it with the domestic and international media."

in July 2003, Putin arrested Russia’s biggest oligarch and richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin grabbed Khodorkovsky off his private jet, took him back to Moscow, put him on trial, and allowed television cameras to film Khodorkovsky sitting in a cage right in the middle of the courtroom.......On November 13, 2005, as I was flying into Moscow from a weekend away, I was stopped at Sheremetyevo airport, detained for 15 hours, deported, and declared a threat to national security.....

Sergei Magnitsky was moved to a maximum security prison called Butyrka, which is considered to be one of the harshest prisons in Russia.....Sergei Magnitsky died on November 16, 2009, at the age of 37.....Sergei Magnitsky was murdered as my proxy. If Sergei had not been my lawyer, he would still be alive today...... the murder of Sergei Magnitsky was done to cover up the theft of $230 million from the Russian Treasury. I knew that the people who stole that money wouldn’t keep it in Russia.....In 2010, I traveled to Washington and told Sergei Magnitsky’s story to Senators Benjamin Cardin and John McCain. They were both shocked and appalled and proposed a new piece of legislation called The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act. This would freeze assets and ban visas for those who killed Sergei as well as other Russians involved in serious human rights abuse......

In November 2012 the Magnitsky Act passed the House of Representatives by 364 to 43 votes and later the Senate 92 to 4 votes. On December 14, 2012, President Obama signed the Sergei Magnitsky Act into law.......Putin was furious. Looking for ways to retaliate against American interests, he settled on the most sadistic and evil option of all: banning the adoption of Russian orphans by American families.

Since 2012 it’s emerged that Vladimir Putin was a beneficiary of the stolen $230 million that Sergei Magnitsky exposed. Recent revelations from the Panama Papers have shown that Putin’s closest childhood friend, Sergei Roldugin, a famous cellist, received $2 billion of funds from Russian oligarchs and the Russian state. It’s commonly understood that Mr. Roldugin received this money as an agent of Vladimir Putin....Based on the language of the Magnitsky Act, this would make Putin personally subject to Magnitsky sanctions....There are approximately ten thousand officials in Russia working for Putin who are given instructions to kill, torture, kidnap, extort money from people, and seize their property.

Since its passage in 2012, the Putin regime has gone after everybody who has been advocating for the Magnitsky Act./////One of my main partners in this effort was Boris Nemtsov......In 2015, Boris Nemtsov was murdered on the bridge in front of the Kremlin....The lawyer who represented Sergei Magnitsky’s mother was thrown off the fourth floor of his apartment building.....Vladimir Kara-Murza, also traveled to law-making bodies around the world to make a similar case.... in December of 2016, Vladimir was poisoned......Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2013 : “It’s too bad that Sergei Magnitsky is dead and Bill Browder is still alive and free.”.....

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bill-browders-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing_uk_597ee55ce4b02a4ebb7675a6

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Trump Jr., Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rob Goldstone

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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"At a critical juncture in Trump’s presidential campaign last year, his son Donald Trump Jr. met with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who promised to share political dirt on Hillary Clinton. Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and a key strategist, also attended.

"Only six months in, Trump has compiled a record of dishonesty — ranging from casual misstatements to flat-out lies — without precedent in the modern presidency. Equally disheartening is his team’s willingness to share in his mendacity.......On Sunday, before Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged that there was a Clinton-related aspect to the meeting, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was on Fox News suggesting that the Veselnitskaya episode was “a big nothingburger” for the Trump campaign.

The June 9, 2016, meeting is of obvious interest to Robert Mueller III, the Justice Department special counsel investigating the Trump team’s potential involvement in Russia’s effort to influence the presidential election.

A meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya was set up at the request of Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star whose Kremlin-connected family has done business with President Trump in the past, according to the person who arranged the meeting.

Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who represents Agalarov, confirmed on Monday that he requested the Trump Tower meeting at Agalarov’s request. Emin Agalarov and his father, Aras Agalarov, a wealthy Moscow real estate developer, helped sponsor the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant in Russia in 2013.

After the pageant, the Agalarovs signed a preliminary deal with Trump to build a tower bearing his name in Moscow, though the deal has been on hold since Trump began running for president.

In Mueller’s office suite, though, I’m confident there was much more talk about Donald Trump Jr.’s stunning admission over the weekend: In June of last year, he summoned Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer — described as having close connections with the Kremlin — in hopes of receiving derogatory information about Hillary Clinton.

In 2000, the Al Gore campaign was anonymously sent briefing books and a video that George W. Bush had used to prepare for an upcoming debate. Gore campaign officials immediately turned the material over to the FBI — which opened a criminal investigation.

Veselnitskaya is best known as a tireless crusader for repeal of the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law blacklisting Russian officials believed responsible for the death of a well-known human rights activist. When President Barack Obama signed the law, Russian President Vladimir Putin was so vexed that he halted U.S. adoptions of Russian children in retaliation. It is safe to assume that if Veselnitskaya raised the subject of adoptions, as Trump Jr. says, it was part of an argument against the Magnitsky law.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it......The meeting was also attended by the president’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it......While Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and the Russians, the episode at Trump Tower is the first such confirmed private meeting involving his inner circle during the campaign — as well as the first one known to have included his eldest son. It came at an inflection point in the campaign, when Donald Trump Jr., who served as an adviser and a surrogate, was ascendant and Mr. Manafort was consolidating power.

It is unclear whether the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually produced the promised compromising information about Mrs. Clinton. But the people interviewed by The Times about the meeting said the expectation was that she would do so......When he was first asked about the meeting on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. said that it was primarily about adoptions and mentioned nothing about Mrs. Clinton......Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting last year at Trump Tower.

But on Sunday, presented with The Times’s findings, he offered a new account. In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The intermediary was Rob Goldstone, a former British tabloid journalist and the president of a company called Oui 2 Entertainment who has worked with the Miss Universe pageant. He did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment......Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the president’s lawyer, said on Sunday that “the president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.”

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hackers and propagandists worked to tip the election toward Donald J. Trump, in part by stealing and then providing to WikiLeaks internal Democratic Party and Clinton campaign emails that were embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton. WikiLeaks began releasing the material on July 22.

“There’s no reason for this Russian government advocate to be meeting with Paul Manafort or with Mr. Kushner or the president’s son if it wasn’t about the campaign and Russia policy,” Mr. Schiff said after the initial Times report.

Ms. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer invited to the Trump Tower meeting, is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act......The adoption impasse is a frequently used talking point for opponents of the act. Ms. Veselnitskaya’s campaign against the law has also included attempts to discredit the man after whom it was named, Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor who died in 2009 in mysterious circumstances in a Russian prison after exposing one of the biggest corruption scandals during Mr. Putin’s rule........Ms. Veselnitskaya’s clients include state-owned businesses and a senior government official’s son, whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting. Her activities and associations had previously drawn the attention of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.

Ms. Veselnitskaya said in a statement on Saturday that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting. She recalled that after about 10 minutes, either Mr. Kushner or Mr. Manafort left the room.........She said she had “never acted on behalf of the Russian government” and “never discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government.”.........The Trump Tower meeting was disclosed to government officials in recent weeks, when Mr. Kushner, who is also a senior White House aide, filed a revised version of a confidential form required to obtain a security clearance..........The Times reported in April that he had not disclosed any foreign contacts, including meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and the head of a Russian state bank. Failure to report such contacts can result in a loss of access to classified information and even, if information is knowingly falsified or concealed, in imprisonment.

Mr. Kushner’s advisers said at the time that the omissions were an error, and that he had immediately notified the F.B.I. that he would be revising the filing..........Mr. Manafort, the former campaign chairman, also recently disclosed the meeting, and Donald Trump Jr.’s role in organizing it, to congressional investigators who had questions about his foreign contacts, according to people familiar with the events. Neither Mr. Manafort nor Mr. Kushner was required to disclose the content of the meeting.

Since Trump took office, Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric have assumed day-to-day control of their father’s real estate empire. Because he does not serve in the administration and does not have a security clearance, Donald Trump Jr. was not required to disclose his foreign contacts. Federal and congressional investigators have not publicly asked for any records that would require his disclosure of Russian contacts.

In addition to her campaign against the Magnitsky Act, Ms. Veselnitskaya represents powerful players in Russia. Among her clients is Denis Katsyv, the Russian owner of Prevezon Holdings, an investment company based in Cyprus. He is the son of Petr Katsyv, the vice president of the state-owned Russian Railways and a former deputy governor of the Moscow region. In a civil forfeiture case in New York, the Justice Department alleged that Prevezon had helped launder money linked to the $230 million corruption scheme exposed by Mr. Magnitsky by putting it in real estate and bank accounts. Prevezon recently settled the case for $6 million without admitting wrongdoing.

Ms. Veselnitskaya and her client also hired a team of political and legal operatives in the United States. The team included Rinat Akhmetshin, an émigré to the United States who once served as a Soviet military officer and who has been called a Russian political gun for hire. Fusion GPS, a consulting firm that produced an intelligence dossier that contained unverified allegations about Mr. Trump, was also hired to do research for Prevezon.

The F.B.I. began a counterintelligence investigation last year into Russian contacts with any Trump associates. Agents focused on Mr. Manafort and a pair of advisers, Carter Page and Roger J. Stone Jr......Among those now under investigation is Michael T. Flynn, who was forced to resign as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser after it became known that he had falsely denied speaking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over the election hacking.

Congress later learned that Mr. Flynn had been paid more than $65,000 by companies linked to Russia, and that he had failed to disclose those payments when he renewed his security clearance and underwent an additional background check to join the White House staff."

Trump Jr. hired New York lawyer Alan Futerfas, who specializes in criminal defense and whose clients have included alleged organized crime figures, a Russian computer hacker and white-collar criminals."

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/opinion/donald-trump-jr-russian-lawyer.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-jrs-meeting-is-a-legal-game-changer/2017/07/10/bb2a39b0-65a0-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?utm_term=.1fbd945443a8

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Felix Sater....Flynn Intel Group.....Peter W. Smith....The Silk Road Group

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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"The Wall Street Journal’s Shane Harris published a story that links former national security adviser Michael Flynn to a longtime right-wing operative named Peter W. Smith, who told Harris he had engaged with Russian hackers...... during the campaign he asked Russian cybersecurity experts to look for the 33,000 emails supposedly missing from Hillary Clinton’s private server...... Smith also claimed he was in touch with Michael Flynn and possibly his son, both of whom he knew through some earlier business dealings....citing a working relationship with Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group.... Smith said that Flynn’s son and chief of staff in his company, Michael G. Flynn, was helping with the operation....Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked as chief of staff in his father’s company....Smith was a Chicago private equity executive who for years worked on Republican causes, according to BuzzFeed News. He was also former chairman at Newt Gingrich's political action committee, Gopac.

Flynn Intel Group is a lobbying group, House Identification 433680001 and Senate Identification 401104161, established by Michael Flynn...... Mr. Flynn "registered his new company, Flynn Intel Group, from an Alexandria, Va., townhouse owned by Stanley A. McChrystal, a friend and fellow general-turned-consultant".......Kamil Ekim Alptekin, a Turkish businessman close to Turkey's leader is a client of FLYNN INTEL GROUP INC.

Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn has held a number of high-level military, intelligence, and military intelligence positions, including Assistant Director of National Intelligence and Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. After retiring, he started a private firm, Flynn Intel Group, offering consulting/intelligence services to corporations and governments. When Trump tapped him to become National Security Advisor, the Flynn Intel Group's website disappeared....Flynn, who became national security advisor in the Trump administration, was forced to resign from the post just weeks into Trump’s presidency after admitting he misrepresented his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence.

Ten days after being interviewed by the Journal, Smith passed away at the age of 81....... but his history suggests it’s at least plausible that what he told Harris is true. Murray Waas wrote in Salon way back in 1998 about Smith’s role as the instigator of “Troopergate,” which led to the Paula Jones lawsuit against Bill Clinton (with which Kellyanne Conway’s husband George was intimately involved) and the rest was history.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel tasked with leading the investigation into Trump’s campaign ties to Russia, has reportedly “examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clinton’s server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary.”

Kevin G. Hall and Ben Weider of the McClatchy Washington bureau reported that Trump’s business dealings in countries of the former Soviet empire were much more substantial than he’s let on and his ties to bankers, oligarchs and politicians in the area are much more consequential.

McClatchy’s investigation reveals how Trump sought a foothold not just in Russia but across the former Soviet empire. Not known before, the Trump Organization in 2012 negotiated with then-Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov for an obelisk-shaped tower to be built near the presidential palace, designed by architect John Fotiadis, who also did the Batumi project and lists offices in New York and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Trump Diamond lost out to a rival project in Astana for the tallest building in Central Asia, the 75-story Abu Dhabi Plaza.

Trump ventured more aggressively into the former Soviet empire from 2005 to 2015 than has previously been known, even seeking to have his name atop a massive shimmering glass tower in Astana, the post-Soviet capital of Kazakhstan.

Weeks before his inauguration, Donald Trump was allied with a company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia that planned to build a 47-story luxury tower in the Black Sea resort of Batumi.....The tower, nixed in early January, was to bear Trump’s name – in exchange for which he would receive royalties, as he does from similar arrangements around the world......But the company, Silk Road Group, had business ties and relationships that could have been problematic for a sitting U.S. president....It was also a strategic fuel supplier to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, and had partnered with a Kazakh bank whose former leader is accused of stealing billions and laundering some of it through luxury real estate in the United States, including Trump-branded condos.

The Trump Organization was involved in dozens of deals throughout the region with money traced back to Russian sources, in some cases including the big oil company Rosneft. Once again, Trump’s close relationship with Bayrock CEO Felix Sater, a known mob associate with ties to the CIA, the FBI and the Russian government, was implicated along with another controversial company called the Silk Road Group. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, who has strong personal and business ties to Ukraine, was also involved with many of these negotiations. (Cohen was recently served with a subpoena by the House Intelligence Committee.)

The big tower project in Georgia mentioned in the McClatchy report wasn’t canceled until Jan. 6, 2017, two weeks before Trump took office. Trump said it was solely for business concerns (since he believes that it’s impossible for a president to have conflicts of interest) but the company he was involved with, Silk Road, said it was because of the massive publicity that was sure to follow...More likely the project was ditched because of the company’s relationship with Russia and Iran, two countries under U.S. sanctions. That would have been a bit of a problem for a sitting U.S. president, even one who believes that nothing is illegal if the president does it.

When Trump and Silk Road Group deep-sixed their Batumi arrangement via a joint statement on Jan. 6 a Trump Organization executive said the decision was “purely business related” and not because of ethical concerns.......Silk Road, however, attributes the deal’s collapse in part to “intense media scrutiny”

McClatchy reports that “none of this is revealed in Trump’s financial disclosure statements. And since he hasn’t released his tax returns, these sorts of relationships are not apparent.”....There is a reason why Trump has been so desperate to end the Russia probe, and Occam’s razor says this is probably the reason....Meanwhile, the president has prevailed against all advice and will sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the upcoming G-20 meeting. ....

Trump’s attempt to penetrate the ex-Soviet empire began in 2005 when he inked a one-year deal with developer Bayrock Group, run by Kazakhs and Russian-émigré, felon and Trump associate Felix Sater, to find a suitable location in Moscow for a Trump tower. Bayrock failed in that attempt, though it teamed with Trump for projects in New York, Florida and Arizona....over the next two years Trump applied for trademarks for his name on a potential tower in Kazakhstan, and for Trump vodka there, too.

Felix Sater (born March 2, 1966) is a Russian-born American real estate developer and former managing director of Bayrock Group LLC, a real estate conglomerate based out of New York City, New York. Sater has been an advisor to many corporations, including The Trump Organization, Rixos Hotels and Resorts, Sembol Construction, Potok (formerly the Mirax Group), and TxOil.....In 1998, Sater pleaded guilty to for his involvement in a $40 million stock fraud scheme. In exchange for his guilty plea, he agreed to become an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors, assisting with organized crime.....Felix Sater was a managing director of Bayrock Group LLC, as well as a senior advisor to Donald Trump and The Trump Organization when construction of the Trump SoHo began in 2006......Sater provided "information crucial to national security and the conviction of over 20 individuals, including those responsible for committing massive financial fraud and members of La Cosa Nostra.

"In late January 2017, Sater met with Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko and Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, at the Loews Regency in Manhattan to discuss a plan to lift sanctions against Russia. The proposed plan would require that Russian forces withdraw from eastern Ukraine and that Ukraine hold a referendum on whether Crimea should be "leased" to Russia for 50 or 100 years. Sater gave Cohen a written proposal in a sealed envelope that was delivered to then-National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn in early February.[9] On 20 February 2017 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected Russia "leasing" Crimea from Ukraine claiming "we cannot rent from ourselves".

In 1991, Sater got into an argument with a commodities broker at the El Rio Grande restaurant and bar in Midtown. He stabbed the man's cheek and neck with the stem of a margarita glass, breaking his jaw, lacerating his face, and severing nerves....Sater was convicted of first degree assault in 1993 and served a year in prison.

KEVIN G. HALL AND BEN WIEDER......McClatchy Washington Bureau

Heather Digby Parton, also known as "Digby," is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article158518589.html

http://www.salon.com/2017/06/30/forget-the-stupid-tweets-theres-big-news-on-trumps-russia-connections-and-he-doesnt-want-you-to-read-it/

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Trump's March Toward Autocracy

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection)...... Absolute monarchy (such as Saudi Arabia) and dictatorship are the main historical forms of autocracy.....Both totalitarianism and military dictatorship are often identified with, but need not be, an autocracy....With a combination of cooperation and intimidation, Hitler and his party systematically weakened all opposition to his rule, transforming the Weimar Republic into a fascist dictatorship where Hitler alone spoke and acted on behalf of Germany.

Every other day there's a new story out that makes us want to bury our faces in our hands and mutter, "this cannot be happening......Trump is a sign of how far down the road we have come to the weakening of US democracy.......Trump, who seems happy to mold himself into a brassier American version of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un.

Trump's sycophants are doing their part to lay the groundwork for such a stunning move. In a particularly North Korean touch -- or, depending on your perspective, one reminiscent of mandatory compliments teachers force their kindergartners to dole out -- Trump also convened members of his Cabinet around a big wooden table and so they could each say something nice about his presidency in front of the press. Trump himself started, declaring himself one of the most accomplished leaders the United States has ever seen. And then one by one, the adult men and women (although mostly men) sitting around him heaped praise on the President, deeming themselves "privileged" to have the "great honor" and "blessing" to serve him......The President then refused to answer any questions from the media......What a pathetic, humiliating spectacle.

It's almost Shakespearean, to see a buffoonish leader filled with this much braggadocio, surrounded by fawning yes-men.

A President who appears hell-bent on securing himself absolute power; a moneyed and sophisticated propaganda machine (including outfits like Ruddy's, along with Breitbart and others) that routinely veers into conspiracy theory territory but still gets invited to the White House; and one of our country's two major parties either looking the other way or actively working to prop up his failing autocratic regime.

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Christopher Ruddy

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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Christopher Ruddy..."Nobody in Trump’s orbit stirs up headlines quite like Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of the right-leaning media outlet Newsmax and a longtime friend of the president....Ruddy made the explosive assertion on PBS “NewsHour” that Trump was pondering whether to fire Robert S. Mueller III, the former FBI director tapped by the Department of Justice to oversee the probe into Russian election meddling.....leading some to speculate that he was testing the waters for Trump, as The Washington Post reported..... He also criticized the White House press office’s response, saying “it’s amateur hour over there."

"He is quoted almost weekly in The Post, the New York Times and other outlets, and makes regular rounds on cable news....

Ruddy, 52, grew up on Long Island, attended St. John’s University and received his master’s in public policy from the London School of Economics. His journalistic career kicked off in the early 1990s, when he made a name for himself covering the Clinton White House for the New York Post. His reporting and subsequent book about the murder of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster won him star status among conservative commentators.

He founded Newsmax in 1998, catering mostly to right-leaning baby boomers through the outlet’s website and a series of newsletters that quickly gained scores of subscribers, as he told Bloomberg in a 2014 profile. He met Trump shortly after. Both lived part-time in Palm Beach, Fla., and would bump into each other intermittently, Ruddy said. Their friendship grew in the mid-2000s after Ruddy joined Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Since its founding, Ruddy’s Newsmax empire has steadily expanded. By 2014, it ranked as the most trafficked conservative news site on the Internet, topping 11 million visitors per month, as Bloomberg reported at the time. That year, Newsmax opened a new headquarters in Boca Raton, right down the road from Trump. Ruddy, then on the verge of launching NewsmaxTV, told Bloomberg that he was making a play to upend the conservative media landscape by shaving off Fox News viewers.

By 2017, Breitbart News had surpassed Newsmax as the Web’s leading conservative site, with more than 17 million visitors in January to Newsmax’s 7 million, as The Post reported. On top of that, it was Stephen K. Bannon, a former Breitbart chairman, and other Breitbart staffers who won seats in Trump’s White House, not Ruddy.

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Sergey Gorkov...The VneshEconomBank

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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"Sergey Gorkov', the Russian bank chairman who met with Jared Kushner in December isn't your ordinary banker. His state-run bank has been under US sanctions for nearly three years. He was appointed to his job by Russian President Vladimir Putin after eight years at Russia's biggest state-owned commercial bank. And he graduated from the Russian academy of Federal Security Service, which trains people to work in Russia's intelligence and security forces."

"Sergey Gorkov's meeting with Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, will be scrutinized by congressional investigators probing links between Trump associates and the Russian government. Gorkov is chairman of VneshEconomBank, or VEB, a Russian development agency that has been under US sanctions since July 2014......The meeting is raising questions both because of the sanctions and because Kushner spent years as a real-estate developer and was trying to attract financing for a building project of his in Manhattan......The White House said Kushner was acting as a Trump adviser -- not as a private developer -- when he met with Gorkov."

"VEB confirmed the meeting with Kushner in a statement to CNN, though described Kushner in his role as head of Kushner Companies, not as a representative of Trump.......'During 2016 the bank's management repeatedly met with representatives of the world's leading financial institutions in Europe, Asia and America ... including the head of Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner," the VEB statement said. ....Senate Intelligence Committee member Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told CNN's "New Day" Tuesday morning that it was "interesting" that VEB "seemed to contradict" Kushner's statement that he was acting as a campaign official when he met with the bank president....."I'm sure that that will be an issue that we'll try to clarify," Collins said.

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"President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russian financial institutions in 2014 after Russian annexed part of neighboring Ukraine......Trump said during his presidential campaign that he was open to reconsidering the sanctions against Russia. The sanctions weakened much of the Russian finance sector by barring Americans and US companies from buying the debt of Russian financial institutions, which limits their ability to raise money....."Right after the election, there was an expectation on the part of Russia that sanctions will be lifted," said Alevtina Guseva, a Boston University expert on Russian finance."

Vnesheconombank (VEB) (Russian: Внешэкономбанк (ВЭБ)) is a Russian government-owned development bank, meant to provide funding for projects aimed at developing the Russian economy. It is not involved in retail banking activities....Sergey Nikolaevich Gorkov has been Chairman since February 26, 2016.

"In July 2014 the United States Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions that prohibit U.S. persons from providing new financing to VEB after the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.....In March 2017, Jared Kushner volunteered to discuss with the United States Senate Intelligence committee Kushner's relationship and any meetings with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of Vnesheconombank...... During Donald Trump's transition December 2016, these meetings were held in Trump Tower in New York City and had been arranged by Sergey I. Kislyak, Russia's Ambassador to the United States."

"Bloomberg published a scathing overview of the bank’s financial position with the less than subtle title of “Putin’s Once Mighty Bank for Pet Projects Now on Chopping Block”. The article quoted a number of insiders speculating about potential scenarios for the bank’s future. None of them was good and they ranged from the receipt of a large (at least $20bn) bailout from the government to a restructuring/downsizing that would leave the bank in a radically reduced and unrecognizable state......Due to the bank’s political sensitivity there haven’t been many specifics about precisely what (if anything) it has actually done wrong. But there does appear to be a general acknowledgement that the bank is in trouble."

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Donald Trump Was Bailed Out of Bankruptcy by Russia Crime Bosses.....

"In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. attended a real estate conference, where he stated that......'Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.'....As it turns out, that may have been an understatement. Human rights lawyer Scott Horton, whose work in the region goes back to defending Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents, has gone through a series of studies by the Financial Times to show how funds from Russian crime lords bailed Trump out after yet another bankruptcy. The conclusions are stark.....Among the powerful facts that DNI missed were a series of very deep studies published in the [Financial Times] that examined the structure and history of several major Trump real estate projects from the last decade—the period after his seventh bankruptcy and the cancellation of all his bank lines of credit. ...The money to build these projects flowed almost entirely from Russian sources. In other words, after his business crashed, Trump was floated and made to appear to operate a successful business enterprise through the infusion of hundreds in millions of cash from dark Russian sources......He was their man.....

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Michael Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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"The Senate Intelligence Committee announced it was commencing an investigation of Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign that would include an examination of connections between Russia and the Trump camp. And a veiled but public exchange between Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the committee, and FBI Director James Comey during a hearing on January 10 suggested the FBI has collected information on possible ties between Trump and associates of Vladimir Putin."

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May 8, 2017......Sally Yates Tells Senators She Warned Trump About Michael Flynn....Less than a week into the Trump administration, Sally Q. Yates, the acting attorney general, hurried to the White House with an urgent concern. The president’s national security adviser, she said, had lied to the vice president about his Russian contacts and was vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.......“We wanted to tell the White House as quickly as possible,” Ms. Yates told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday. “To state the obvious: You don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians.”......But Trump did not immediately fire the adviser, Michael T. Flynn, over the apparent lie or the susceptibility to blackmail. Instead, Mr. Flynn remained in office for 18 more days. Only after the news of his false statements broke publicly did he lose his job on Feb. 13....Even after being warned that Mr. Flynn represented a blackmail risk, Mr. Trump kept the general on as national security adviser for another two weeks, firing him only after The Washington Post found out about the warnings."

It also raised fresh doubts about Mr. Trump’s judgment in keeping Mr. Flynn in place despite serious Justice Department concerns. White House officials have not fully explained why they waited so long......

MacTrump Twitter....Donald J. Trump‏Verified account......@realDonaldTrump......"Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel."...... 8 May 2017

Fired….Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Foreign policy adviser,..... In February, Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, after The Washington Post reported that he had not fully disclosed his contacts with Russian officials……Flynn has close links with RT and Gazprom, respectively…. Trump has offered the post of national security adviser to Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, potentially putting a retired intelligence officer who believes Islamist militancy poses an existential threat in one of the most powerful roles in shaping military and foreign policy, according to a top official on Mr. Trump’s transition team…..

Mr. Trump and General Flynn both see themselves as brash outsiders who hustled their way to the big time. They both post on Twitter often about their own successes, and they have both at times crossed the line into outright Islamophobia.......

A lot of people had serious concerns about Mr. Flynn serving as national security adviser. But none of them was named Donald J. Trump.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who briefly led the Trump transition team, did not think that Mr. Flynn was qualified to be the national security adviser. President Barack Obama, who fired Mr. Flynn as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, warned Mr. Trump against hiring the retired three-star general when the two met in the Oval Office after the election.

Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday night after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.....Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” regarding a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Mr. Pence repeated that claim in television interviews as recently as this month....But on Monday, Feb 13, 2017a former administration official said the Justice Department warned the White House last month that Mr. Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Mr. Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.”……. Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday……..

Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said. (March 2)….on Dec. 29, beginning shortly after Mr. Kislyak was summoned to the State Department and informed that, in retaliation for Russian election meddling, the United States was expelling 35 people suspected of being Russian intelligence operatives and imposing other sanctions……Mr. Kislyak was irate and threatened a forceful Russian response, according to people familiar with the exchange. He then left the State Department and called Mr. Flynn, the first in a series of calls between the two in the 36 hours that followed……

"Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday......Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said."

Kislyak met with Michael T. Flynn and Jared Kushner in December 2016 to establish a line of communication with the Trump administration......CNN alleged that United States intelligence officials have claimed he is a top Russian spy and spy recruiter....Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last year, on top of the conversations with Kislyak that forced Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn to resign last month, have cast an increasingly bright spotlight on the once low-profile Russian diplomat.* While diplomatic colleagues like Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the late U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin seemed to relish international media attention, Kislyak kept his head down for much of his career. That being said, he’s been closely involved in U.S.-Russian relations for more than 35 years, including some of the most contentious and controversial moments of the post–Cold War era.

"...a VIP reception on April 27 at the Mayflower Hotel. The day before the event, Trump had chalked up electoral wins in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Trump was in D.C. at the Mayflower to give a foreign policy address when “[a] few minutes before he made those remarks, Mr. Trump met at a VIP reception with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak,” the Journal reports. “Mr. Trump warmly greeted Mr. Kislyak and three other foreign ambassadors who came to the reception.” “I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia—from a position of strength only—is possible, absolutely possible,” Trump said during his speech later."

"President Trump is set to meet Wednesday with Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat at the White House, marking the highest level, face-to-face contact with Russia of the American leader's young presidency......Trump's discussion with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take place at the White House after the Russian meets earlier in the day with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.....The meetings come a day after Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey, dramatically ousting the nation's top law enforcement official in the midst of the bureau's investigation into Trump's ties with Russia and Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election."

American intelligence agencies routinely wiretap the phones of Russian diplomats, and transcripts of the calls showed that Mr. Flynn urged the Russians not to respond, saying relations would improve once Mr. Trump was in office, according to the current and former officials……Mr. Flynn’s failure to fully disclose the nature of the calls with Mr. Kislyak ultimately cost him his job last month after a tumultuous 25 days as national security adviser. (March 2)….Current and former American officials have said that Mr. Flynn had contacts with Mr. Kislyak during the campaign. But few of the specifics of those contacts were known. The Russian ambassador has acknowledged that the two men had known each other since 2013 and were in contact during the campaign.

When the F.B.I. began examining possible connections between Trump associates and Russia this past summer, it appeared to have told almost no one — not even Mr. Clapper, who was then overseeing the bureau as the director of national intelligence......Mr. Clapper testified Monday that he was unaware of the investigation into the Trump campaign until James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, acknowledged it when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20."

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Hacking The French Election

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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While there is no evidence that the recent hack against Mr. Macron’s campaign was organized by this loosely connected group of extremist campaigners, the American activists have been regularly gathering on sites like 4Chan and Discord, which was previously used to coordinate support for Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.

One popular tactic, according to experts, has been so-called Twitter raids, or efforts to hijack trending hashtag and topics on the social media site and inject far-right and anti-Macron propaganda.

Just days before the last French presidential debate, an anonymous user on 4Chan, whose message boards include anti-Semitic, white supremacist and other far-right discussions, posted what were said to be copies of documents showing that Mr. Macron had supposedly set up a bank account in the Bahamas to avoid paying taxes. He denied the allegations......Ms. Le Pen referred to the potential overseas bank account during the vicious debate, leading to a bitter rebuttal by Mr. Macron’s team and an official investigation into the false information.

Yet within hours after the hacked documents were made public, the hashtag #MacronLeaks began trending worldwide, aided by online far-right activists in the United States who have been trying to sway the French vote in favor of Ms. Le Pen.

Jack Posobiec, a journalist with the far-right news outlet The Rebel, was the first to use the hashtag with a link to the hacked documents online, which was then shared more widely by WikiLeaks. Mr. Prosobiec remains the second-most mentioned individual on Twitter in connection with the hashtag behind WikiLeaks, according to a review of the past 100,000 Twitter messages posted since late Friday.

Jack Posobiec is a writer, filmmaker, and recovering political operative. In 2016, Jack was the Special Projects Director for Citizens for Trump, the largest Trump grassroots organization in the US....... Jack is a proud member of #SlavRight....Antifa Assault On Jack Posobiec Captured On Camera

The Rebel Media (often stylized as TheRebel.media) is a right-wing Canadian online political and social commentary media platform founded in February 2015 by former Sun News Network host Ezra Levant. The Rebel Media broadcasts its content on the Rebel Media YouTube channel and website.

4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Users generally post anonymously, with the most recent posts appearing above the rest. 4chan is split into various boards with their own specific content and guidelines......The site has been linked to Internet subcultures and activism, most notably Anonymous, the alt-right and Project Chanology... The site's anonymous community and culture have often provoked media attention....4chan users have been instrumental in coordinating attacks against other websites and Internet users, and posting threats of violence in order to elicit individual and public reactions. The Guardian once summarized the 4chan community as "lunatic, juvenile, ridiculous and alarming."

4chan....http://www.4chan.org/......4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images. ......

Discord...https://discord.me/page/thehackercommunity...... The Hacker Community......This is a place for hackers to just chit-chat. We also accept non-hackers here as well! Feel free to join! We also accept people that program! ....Sample Posting:..."I got tired of going to Wells Fargo and a bunch of indian/acutal kikes fucking with me and asking me to fuck myself. So I've taken to hiding all my cash in Jars and burying them...and before you kikes get any ideas I've greased the jars with porkfat, and each one includes a cricifix."

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"Mr Macron's team has already been the victim of hacking attacks, for which it has blamed groups based in Russia and Ukraine. It suspects the Kremlin of wanting to help Ms Le Pen, who supports a pro-Moscow foreign policy.....Macron campaign servers went down for several minutes in February after attacks apparently originating in Ukraine......Last month security experts from the company Trend Micro said that Russian hackers were targeting Mr Macron's campaign, using phishing emails, malware and fake net domains in an attempt to grab login names, passwords and other credentials of campaign staff........Russia has denied that it is behind attacks aimed at Mr Macron."

Trend Micro Inc. (トレンドマイクロ株式会社 Torendo Maikuro Kabushiki-Gaisha?, Chinese: 趨勢科技) is a global security software company founded in Los Angeles, California with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and regional headquarters in Asia, Europe and the Americas. The company develops security software for servers, cloud computing environments, consumers, and small, medium and enterprise businesses.

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