Phil1111

"This year has seen a remarkable run for solar power. Auctions, where private companies compete for massive contracts to provide electricity, established record after record for cheap solar power. It started with a contract in January to produce electricity for $64 per megawatt-hour in India; then a deal in August pegging $29.10 per megawatt hour in Chile. That’s record-cheap electricity—roughly half the price of competing coal power. " 1 mwh=1000 kwh Below are US retail rates. Of course markups, standby peak generation costs and transmission costs are factored into residential rates. http://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ When combined with: "Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla, Jack Ma, John Doerr and 15 other high-profile investors have formed a new venture firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, that will pour at least $1 billion into cleantech companies over the next 20 years." https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/11/bill-gates-jeff-bezos-and-18-others-commit-1-billion-to-new-cleantech-fund-breakthrough-energy-ventures/

Its against the law to profit from goods or services provided to your own campaign. Its against the law to buy goods or services for less than fair market value.That provides an unfair advantage. He never funded his campaign himself. He relied on donations and the sale of trump branded goods. i.e. hats, etc. The intent of the thread was to address the implications of a family personally profiting from political family connections and how trumps failure to address it is illegal and unethical after he is in office. How its a recipe for corruption and influence peddling. For which Ivanka moving into the White House with her separate office while her brothers Eric and Donald run the family business. Smacks of either cash for access, pay for play, or any other excuse to profit from a political position. And I am sure you have physical evidence of any of this. Do you care to cite any of the laws you say we're broken? I will wait. https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-29/trump-campaign-broke-law-by-soliciting-foreign-donations-complaint-alleges http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/news/press-releases/fec-must-investigate-unprecedented-violations-campaign-finance-laws-clinton http://time.com/4579060/fec-donald-trump-campaign-contributions/ Unfortunately I'm personally not in possession of the "physical evidence". "Foreign Nationals Foreign nationals may not make contributions in connection with any election--Federal, State or local. This prohibition does not apply to foreign citizens who are lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States (those who have "green cards"). Corporations and Unions The law also prohibits contributions from corporations and labor unions. This prohibition applies to any incorporated organization, profit or nonprofit. For example, the owner of an incorporated "mom and pop" grocery store is not permitted to use a business account to make contributions. Instead, the owner would have to use a personal account. A corporate employee may make contributions through a nonrepayable corporate drawing account, which allows the individual to draw personal funds against salary, profits or other compensation. Donated Items and Services The donation of office machines, furniture, supplies--anything of value--is an in-kind contribution. The value of the donated item (the usual and normal charge) counts against the contribution limits. A donation of services is also considered an in-kind contribution. For example, if you pay a consultant's fee or a printing bill for services provided to a campaign, you have made an in-kind contribution in the amount of the payment. If you sell an item or service to a committee and ask the committee to pay less than the usual and normal charge, you have also made an in-kind contribution to the committee in the amount of the discount. Under limited exceptions in the law, you may provide certain goods and services without making a contribution to the committee. These exceptions are volunteering, travel expenses and business services. http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml

Its against the law to profit from goods or services provided to your own campaign. Its against the law to buy goods or services for less than fair market value.That provides an unfair advantage. He never funded his campaign himself. He relied on donations and the sale of trump branded goods. i.e. hats, etc. The intent of the thread was to address the implications of a family personally profiting from political family connections and how trumps failure to address it is illegal and unethical after he is in office. How its a recipe for corruption and influence peddling. For which Ivanka moving into the White House with her separate office while her brothers Eric and Donald run the family business. Smacks of either cash for access, pay for play, or any other excuse to profit from a political position.

Most people would look with disdain upon anyone making fun of the disabled. They would take action when observing someone abusing animals. But there is something entertaining about those making fun of trump. Poking his fragile ego, lack of sensibilities and absence of restraint. It always gets the same reaction. SNL is going to reach new levels of popularity come Jan-Feb. 2017. Their opening skits get widespread play already. Alec Baldwin can write his retirement ticket during the trump presidency. Thats if trump doesn't order the CIA to kill him for treason first. But I forget the CIA,FBI.NSA are all conspiring against trump. He just may order his Secret Service driver to go to the NBC studios in NY to personally punch out Baldwin. But that won't do much damage because after all... trump has such small hands.

You sure talk tough. You must be right. In my experience talky talky bullshitting anonymous posters like you are never wrong. It has nothing to do with tough. $1000 a month(er, 62,151 rubles a mo. at todays exchange rates) will make the payments on the little Abkhazia dacha. With some left over for some quality borscht. With real sour cream on top. Not some cheap low fat milk! Lets give Royreader8812 credit where credit is due. He earned the couple kilos of good kolbasa for his efforts here. What he should do is move onto another site... maybe scuba diving. Take another English course, the Kremlin-Putin-KGB desinformatsiya courses 201 and 301. Then try again. Perhaps he can upgrade and fund a Sochi ski condo instead. Where he might even run into his boss on a lift(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RPyycvflrQ. "The Kremlin's Troll Army Moscow is financing legions of pro-Russia Internet commenters. But how much do they matter? ..."I know a lot of Muscovites have little dachas in Abkhazia," he wrote in a recent post. "But could these Muscovites have afforded their little dachas if they hadn't gotten rid of the Georgians and turned a flourishing region into cheap fucking shit, like they're doing now in Crimea?" ... "This is a category of people who I'm sure are paid some small amount of money, maybe $1,000 a month or less. But they're running legitimate blogs, they keep themselves busy. Sometimes they even publish something interesting. But when it's necessary, they also spread 'deza'"—shorthand for disinformation. ...The Kremlin, which has waged a massive disinformation campaign aimed at legitimizing Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, has employed so-called "troll armies" to invade online territories armed with pro-Moscow rhetoric. A June article by Max Seddon of BuzzFeed reported the Kremlin was spending millions of dollars to pay English-speaking Russians to promote President Vladimir Putin and his policies in U.S. media like Fox News broadcasting and The Huffington Post and Politico news sites. Trolls are reportedly expected to manage multiple fake accounts and post on news articles 50 times a day, often with sentiments as simplistic as "Putin makes Obama look stupid and weak!" http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/

What kind of a cowboy, dope smoking, non-USPA, rogue DZ did you start out at? Anyway, after reading some of these many adventures I feel like a rocket-surgeon now. The greatest thing about some stupidity is that no injury results and everyone can laugh about it later.

Your reserve is fine. wolfriverjoe and CrashProne had good advice and a single weekend where you make five jumps a day should address most of your mental issues. Don't take that the wrong way. IMO you are just overthinking the situation. You have likely investigated all the possibilities and just dwelling on the possibility of injury. Nothing wrong with that. A little fear combined with knowledge and experience is called judgement. In the era of round canopies most landings were going backwards. But after 10-20 jumps on your new gear take a course if you want. Don't get over obsessed with canopy size as design(performance) means more than size. Conservative flying is the biggest component of safety. But it is also important not to be intimidated by the situation. You can do some jumps opening higher to get some more flight time as well. Visualizing the landing approaches at 1500' as to exactly where in the air you are going to be and how final approach to flare might help as well. I think you'll be fine after another 20 jumps in the exact gear you have now. Relax, have fun.

Oh, cut him some slack - it's tough for the rightwingers right now. They're facing the fact that not only is Trump the President that the large majority of voters didn't want, he's not even the President that the people who did vote for him thought they were going to get. He doesn't represent their party, he doesn't represent the common people, he's freely admitting that he never believed in and doesn't care about doing the things he promised to the die-hard right to mobilise them in the election... but they have to swallow all that down and pretend it's all good because he still has an R next to his name. That kind of denial is hard to deal with, so it's inevitable they'll end up lashing out! Speaking of mobilizing, it looks like the UK may be in the same camp against trump. I guess that the deniers will just add MI5 and the UK parliament to the great conspiracy. "Russia accused of waging secret warfare against Britain using cyber attacks, espionage and fake news By Patrick Sawer, Senior Reporter 17 December 2016 • 11:17am Whitehall officials have for the first time acknowledged that Russia is waging a "campaign" of propaganda and unconventional warfare against Britain. According to senior figures in Government, Moscow is to blame for concerted attempts to undermine the UK through fake espionage, misinformation, cyber attacks and fake news. It is understood that intelligence officers and senior civil servants across government voiced their concern about the growing scale of the Russian threat during a high-level meeting at the Cabinet Office two months ago. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/17/russia-accused-waging-secret-war-against-britain-using-cyber/ All just part of the anti-Putin, anti-trump, great Western LIE and conspiracy. Calling "Royreader8812" Putin and trump need defending over in this thread too!

Uhh....which of the other players have aircraft and ordinance to conduct bombings? The "establishment media" is actually a very fine example of competition at it's best. There is no one media, the media is a chaotic mix of viewpoints and proponents. All shouting to be heard above the din. There is actually no one who does not believe what the media says. There are however many people who choose which brand of media to listen to and believe. You believe "the media" yourself. How about you tell us where you get your information, the information you do believe I mean? Are you a conspiracy theorist by chance? My guess a ip address in Russia as he makes reference to "But you will find the western lie is falling to pieces" and "I am looking forward to seeing the embarrassment of the spokesperson speaking at the state department briefing on Monday." I don't know who gets their info from direct broadcasts of the US state dept., has poor command and comprehension of English. Yet attributes, presumably some event in Syria to "They just wasted billions of dollars and killed thousands more people in yet another failure.'' Anyway back to the subject. Vladimir and his apparatchiks need an appropriate response. I do blame President Obama for a weak policy and history of appeasement of Assad, Putin, Hezbollah and the Syrian situation. He is so terrified of additional entanglements that he has broadcast US weakness in this entire affair. "How to Wage Hybrid War on the Kremlin [Max Boot] Max Boot December 13, 2016 Vladimir Putin’s tenure as Russia’s dictator has been dedicated to twin interlocking goals: to enhance his own power and wealth and that of the country he controls. The more powerful Russia becomes, after all, the more powerful its president becomes, too. In pursuit of more influence, Putin has tried to rebuild the Russian armed forces from a force of low-quality conscripts equipped with weapons that don’t work to a high-quality professional force with cutting-edge weapons. That transformation, only partially complete, has been shown off in Syria, which Putin has used as a showcase for systems including sleek Kalibr cruise missiles and the smoke-belching aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. But as befits an old KGB man, Putin’s heart appears to lie more with “deniable” covert operations rather than with overt muscle-flexing. Putin has become notorious for using “little green men” — Russian intelligence operatives and Spetsnaz (special forces) in civilian clothing — to infiltrate Ukrainian territory and start an uprising among the Russian-speaking population. And it worked: Russia annexed Crimea and has gained de facto control over much of eastern Ukraine. This tactic of undertaking barely disguised aggression has become known as “hybrid warfare,” and it has consistently left the West wrong-footed because Putin is careful to avoid crossing the normal red lines. The West has been even more flummoxed by Putin’s campaign of political warfare designed to subvert anti-Russian regimes and replace them with more pliable leaders. The most high-profile manifestation of this effort was the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic targets in an attempt, as the CIA has now concluded, to swing the U.S. presidential election toward Donald Trump, the most pro-Russian politician in America since the heyday of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s agriculture secretary, Henry Wallace. Russian internet trolls were also busy putting out anti-Clinton, pro-Trump stories, many of them demonstrably false.[Hey Royreader8812 perhaps he was talking about you!] Putin’s interference in the election was probably not the decisive factor (for that, blame FBI Director James Comey’s diligent efforts), but in an election decided by 100,000 votes in three states it is impossible to say what made a difference and what did not. Certainly Trump, who once called on Putin to hack his opponent, acts like a man with a guilty conscience, furiously denying not only that the hacks were designed to help him but that they were the work of the Kremlin at all. Putin will get his payoff if the new administration decides to lift the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine — something that is more likely if ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, to whom Putin awarded an Order of Friendship, is confirmed as secretary of state. Putin’s campaign of subversion and disinformation is hardly limited to the United States, however. It has been playing out across Europe for years, with Moscow supporting far-left and far-right parties that are united by their loathing for the European Union and NATO, the two institutions that Putin rightly sees as the chief impediments to his hopes of resurrecting the Russian Empire or at least a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Russia has been most blatant in supporting France’s far-right National Front, which received an 11 million euro loan in 2014 from a Moscow-based bank and wants another 27 million euros to fight next year’s elections. The French presidential election in the spring is a can’t-lose proposition for Putin since both of the leading candidates — Marine Le Pen of the National Front and the mainstream conservative nominee, former Prime Minister François Fillon — favor closer ties with Moscow. In Germany, Angela Merkel looks likely to win re-election and maintain a relatively hard line against the Kremlin, but WikiLeaks has just come out with a massive leak of German intelligence documents, many of them relating to controversial cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies. This is widely seen as a Russian attempt to undermine Merkel, as WikiLeaks has long been a favorite bulletin board for Russia’s intelligence services. In Montenegro, the Russians are accused of going even further in orchestrating a political campaign against the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic prior to the Oct. 16 election. When that didn’t work, the Russians apparently tried to launch a coup to overthrow the government, employing Serbian operatives with close ties to the Kremlin. Little wonder that Alex Younger, the typically secretive head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, just gave an unusual speech warning that hostile powers such as Russia, which are utilizing “means as varied as cyberattacks, propaganda, or subversion of democratic process … represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty. They should be a concern to all those who share democratic values.” His words are echoed by Maj. Gen. Gunnar Karlson, the chief of Sweden’s main foreign intelligence agency, who warns that Russian subversion “is a serious threat because in different ways [the Russians] can push themselves into the very foundations of a democracy and influence democratic decision-making.” Russia is currently running a pressure campaign to dissuade Sweden, which is alarmed by growing Russian intrusions into its sovereign waters and airspace, from joining NATO. It’s easy enough to decry Russian interference, but it’s hard to know what to do about it. As a first step, it is imperative to document and expose Kremlin machinations, which is why it’s important to probe the hacking of the U.S. election. Congressional investigations, as called for by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, would be one possible approach, but the failed Benghazi committee shows the dangers of congressional grandstanding and partisanship. A better approach, because it would be more serious and nonpartisan, would be an independent commission modeled on the one that probed 9/11; it could be headed by former CIA Directors Michael Hayden and Leon Panetta. But public exposure alone is not enough to make Putin cease and desist; indeed, documenting Russia’s schemes could actually enhance his aura of power by showing how cleverly he manipulates his adversaries. President Barack Obama has been shamefully derelict in making Putin pay a price for his aggression. Although his administration has threatened retaliation against Russia, he has not, insofar as we know, delivered. “We’d have all these circular meetings,” one senior State Department official told the New York Times, “in which everyone agreed you had to push back at the Russians and push back hard. But it didn’t happen.” Among reasons for inaction, the Times cites the president’s “fear of escalating a cyberwar, and concern that the United States needed Russia’s cooperation in negotiations over Syria.” (As if Russia had any intention of cooperating with the United States in Syria!) His failure to more actively oppose Russian efforts during the campaign may have cost Hillary Clinton the election. It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump, the beneficiary of Russia’s cyberattacks, doing much about it, but Obama still has a few weeks in office to act. Possible responses can run the gamut from further sanctions — including financial and travel freezes on individuals responsible for the hacking — to retaliation in kind. Putin likes leaking Western emails. How would he like it if the National Security Agency leaked the communications between him and his cronies? Or if the U.S. intelligence community released details about his widely rumored overseas bank accounts? This could undermine his hold on power by puncturing his aura of self-righteousness and could even lead to asset freezes that would punish him in the pocketbook. Beyond all of that, the West in general and the United States in particular will have to figure out how to wage political warfare on its own. That is something that we did in the early days of the Cold War when the CIA was busy helping anti-communists win elections around the world from Italy to the Philippines — and funding Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Encounter magazine, and other organizations to win the battle for “hearts and minds.” Today, Russia, Iran, China, and other closed societies are potentially vulnerable to a campaign designed to empower dissidents, discredit the ruling elite, and help ordinary people get accurate and uncensored news. Putin suspects the United States of waging just such a campaign against himself and his allies; he holds the CIA responsible for the 2005 and 2014 uprisings in Ukraine that defeated pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych and the 2003 uprising in Georgia, which brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power. The irony is that, beyond the overt and benign democracy promotion efforts of the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington has done little to undermine anti-Western leaders or to promote pro-Western alternatives. It is high time for that to change. The United States needs to revive the political warfare skills it once possessed and that have since atrophied, as Michael Doran and I argued in a 2013 Policy Innovation Memorandum for the Council on Foreign Relations. Putin has shown himself to be a master of this game; other adversaries, including Iran and the Islamic State, also actively wage political warfare. We don’t have the luxury of saying that it’s beneath us to play that game. Nothing less than the future of democracy is at stake." https://ca.news.yahoo.com/wage-hybrid-war-kremlin-222813395.html This was originally published in the website/Journal Foreign Policy but the link to yahoo is made because the FP journal requires membership to read from its site.

troll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll Four in one day doesn't require "evidence". If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, shits like a duck. its a duck. My sources have been quoted already. None of which are the "Syrian observatory for human rights". I'd suggest that you look out the window in the Urals, the suburbs of Damascus or wherever you call home. As I'm not to likely to "you can go slap yourself in face first being an asshole." You should brush up on your English at the same time.

"“Today’s report that a large government contractor hired the sister-in-law of Clinton campaign Chair John Podesta while he was at the State Department in order to win a massive arms contract shows the depths of the corrupt Clinton machine while she was at State. This type of shameless influence peddling shows exactly why Americans are flocking to Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Electing Hillary Clinton president will only further perpetuate the broken and corrupt political system that has enriched political insiders while leaving average Americans in the lurch.” – Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor" https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/statement-on-more-clinton-state-department-corruption "Trump's campaign paid his businesses $8.2 million The GOP presidential candidate draws on his own companies to an unprecedented degree. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has paid his family's businesses more than $8.2 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance filings, which reveals an integrated business and political operation without precedent in national politics. The GOP presidential nominee’s campaign has paid his various businesses for services including rent for his campaign offices ($1.3 million), food and facilities for events and meetings ($544,000) and payroll for Trump corporate staffers ($333,000) who helped with everything from his traveling security to his wife’s convention speech. That’s an unprecedented amount of self-dealing in federal politics. Even the wealthiest of candidates have refrained from tapping their businesses’ resources to such an extensive degree, either because their businesses are structured in a manner that doesn’t legally allow them to do it with flexibility, or because they’re leery of the allegations of pocket-padding that inevitably arise when politicians use their campaigns or committees to pay their businesses or families." http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-business-campaign-trail-228500 "Donald Trump Won't Divest From His Business Before Entering Office The president-elect reportedly refuses to sell off his holdings, leaving questions about whether they will influence his policy. President-elect Donald Trump Carlo Allegri / Jeremy Venook Dec 16, 2016 ...numerous experts, including Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, who served as the ethics lawyers for the Obama and Bush administrations, respectively, and Laurence Tribe, a constitutional-law professor at Harvard Law School, have already weighed in on the president-elect’s decision not to divest. According to them, simply stepping down from a leadership position—indeed, anything short of complete divestment—does not mitigate concerns regarding conflicts of interest. As long as Trump is profiting off of his business, they say, Trump will be in continual violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which explicitly forbids the president from receiving gifts from foreign leaders—something that will effectively be happening any time a foreign government deals with the Trump Organization, whether by booking a room in one of its hotels or by easing the development of future properties in their own countries... Since his election, an ever-increasing level of attention has been paid to the unprecedented conflicts of interest that President-elect Donald J. Trump seems likely to bring with him when he assumes office. His responses to the concerns have been varied and, at times, contradictory. His first statement on the subject, which came via Twitter, suggested that he would make little effort to avoid entangling his business and his office, and would instead attack those who point that out: Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world.Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!... In addition to the many possibilities for President-elect Trump to pursue his financial interests in office, the unique makeup of his cabinet also creates a new set of financial motivations. While Trump’s own fortune automatically makes his administration the wealthiest in history, he has also surrounded himself with an unprecedented collection of billionaires and multi-millionaires whose investments are likely to also come under scrutiny. Unlike the president-elect himself, those who are up for Trump’s cabinet, such as his proposed Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, will be legally obligated to divest from any holdings which may pose a conflict of interest. However, as The Washington Post noted, even selling off their holdings offers an opportunity for Trump’s cabinet members to enhance their fortunes. A federal program known as a “certificate of divestiture” allows executive-branch appointees and employees to avoid capital-gains taxes when selling their assets. The program has existed since 1989, and most recently received attention when President George W. Bush appointed Hank Paulson, then the chief executive of Goldman Sachs as his Treasury Secretary in 2006. Paulson was forced to sell off $700 million in shares of the bank; the certificate of divestiture enabled him to avoid a potential $200 million in capital-gains tax liability. According to The Washington Post, the Office of Government Ethics is currently researching whether the president-elect himself would qualify for the tax break; even if he doesn’t, the unprecedented wealth of Trump’s cabinet promises to push this provision, and the financial incentives it creates, to the limit." http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/

"The Princelings, also translated as the Party's Crown Princes, are the descendants of prominent and influential senior communist officials in the People's Republic of China. It is not a political party, but an informal, and often derogatory, categorization to signify those benefiting from nepotism and cronyism, by analogy with crown princes in hereditary monarchies. Many of its members hold high-level political and business positions in the upper echelons of power. However, there is no discernible political cohesion within the group, and as such they should not be compared to other informal groupings such as the Shanghai clique or the Tuanpai ("Youth League clique"), which resemble inter-party factions with some degree of affinity on policy issues." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princelings "Trump 'Princelings' No Shield for Business Conflicts, Ethics Expert Says... Donald Trump’s plan to transfer control of his company to his children does not solve concerns that his company will create a conflict when he takes office, according to a newly-released document from the Office of Government Ethics. “Transferring operational control of a company to one’s children would not constitute the establishment of a qualified blind trust, nor would it eliminate conflicts of interest,” the director of the office concluded in a Dec. 12 letter. Trump said this week he would be passing control of the company to two of his adult children, Don Jr. and Eric, "plus executives,” who, “will manage them." Trump had initially planned to reveal how he would resolve potential conflicts with his vast global business on Dec. 15. This week he postponed that announcement until January. Trump tweeted on Monday to say that “even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my businesses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the Presidency. Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.” http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-faces-conflicts-interest-children-running-business-ethics/story?id=44175335 "J.P. Morgan Settlement Lays Bare the Practice of Hiring ‘Princelings’ So-called Sons and Daughters program in Asia sought to hire well-connected offspring to win business.. A decade ago, a J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. managing director in Asia sent an email to the investment-banking team: “As you know, the firm does not condone the hiring of the children or other relatives of clients or potential clients...In fact, the firm’s policies expressly forbid this,” the director wrote. Within two years, however, the team had begun orchestrating the hiring of dozens of relatives of powerful government officials in Asia with the express purpose of winning business, U.S. authorities said Thursday. The bank had created a separate channel to get unqualified applicants through the hiring process, and it later began tracking profits from any subsequent business awarded because of the hires, they said. One candidate was described in an email as “the worst [business analyst] candidate they had ever see[n].” Another had a “napping habit” that would be an “eye-opening experience” for New York colleagues. In both instances, the candidates were hired, according to criminal and civil settlements the bank reached with the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve. All told, the bank hired around 100 applicants referred by government officials at Chinese state-owned firms, and earned at least $35 million as the result of a “corrupt scheme,” according to the settlement documents. The agreement ends a multiyear, high-profile investigation that had called into question whether the U.S. government was threatening to criminalize standard business practices in some countries. J.P. Morgan agreed to pay $264 million and admitted it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—which bars U.S. firms from paying bribes to officials of foreign government in an effort to win business—through its hiring of so-called princelings." http://www.wsj.com/articles/j-p-morgan-to-pay-264-million-to-end-criminal-civil-foreign-corruption-cases-1479398628 Oh well, trump and his kids can hire the ex-Israeli ambassador( David Friedman)to deal with his corruption mess after he is tossed from office and Ivanka has to close her White House graft office. After all Friedman is familiar with trump's many bankruptcies.

I would venture to guess that this will be gone from the media come January 20th. But it will not be gone from this forum. If you want to test the validity of the intelligence community, just take what is happening in Syria, or more specifically Aleppo. On one hand you have John Kerry and all those around and below him saying there is a blood bath going on, and in reality there are independent journalists walking down the said streets that are eerily silent and meanwhile thousands of militants that have surrendered (our proxy boys) are being humanely bussed off to another region by the Syrian and Russian governments. I will refrain from commenting further on this subject because it is clear that the 'fake news' is the corporate media and they are reporting from illegitimate statements from government officials. If it is maintainEd that Russia hacked the election after January 20th. Then I might take it seriously. But I assume you lot will say, "but of course when Trump is president they will deny it", but that in itself would render the current stance just as bullshit, because it is essentially admitting the intelligence community puts the protection of the current regime ahead of integrity. Russian and their Syrian proxies have systematically bombed the civilian hospitals of Aleppo as a routine tactic of war. " The last operating hospital in east Aleppo has been destroyed by airstrikes, leaving up to 250,000 residents without access to surgery or specialist care, and rebel-held districts at the point of collapse. Another four hospitals were hit and forced to close on Friday, before the Omar bin Abdul Aziz facility was struck just after 8.30pm, capping the most deadly day yet for the medical system in Syria’s second city, which has been systematically targeted by Russian and regime jets over the past year. “They have all been repeatedly attacked over the last few days,” said David Nott, a surgeon with decades of experience working in war zones, who has been supporting the Aleppo doctors... Médecins Sans Frontières said east Aleppo’s hospitals had been hit by bombs in more than 30 separate attacks since the siege began in July and there was no possibility of sending help or more supplies." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/aleppo-hospitals-knocked-out-airstrikes Simultaneous sources including Médecins Sans Frontières have all stated that four, FOUR, hospitals were struck by airstrikes in a single day. Yet not one word from trump or his political hacks. trump has stated that he will hand over the keys to Iran and their puppet governments of Iraq and Lebanon. By ending support of moderate rebels and eliminating IS by bombing. Both of which prop up Iran and the hegemony which it has created. Russian hacking and trumps indifference to it has made the US a laughing stock in the Arab world. They see Russia as strong and the US as weak. trump and other RNC leaders have harped on the idea that President Obama is weak on foreign policy. Yet subsequent to the election trump has made zero statements on foreign political events. Including the discovery of air defence systems. " China appears to have installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the strategically vital South China Sea, a U.S. security think tank says, upping the stakes in what many see as a potential Asian powder keg." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-sent-weapons-to-contested-islands-report-says/ and the seizure of a US ROV in international waters. "China has seized an unmanned underwater vehicle deployed by a U.S. Navy ship in international waters, according to Pentagon officials." http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/16/505850933/china-seizes-unmanned-u-s-underwater-vehicle-in-international-waters trump and his fanboys are whipping themselves into a new frenzy of outrage that the CIA and FBI are conspiring against a President elect. To protect a lame duck President. At the same time trump can't be bothered to attend daily intelligence briefings. Because "On Fox News, Trump didn't address that question specifically, instead getting back to his reasons for not getting the daily intelligence briefing, known to the president and White House staff as the PDB. "I don't have to be told — you know, I'm, like, a smart person," Trump said. "I don't have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next eight years. It could be eight years — but eight years. I don't need that." http://www.npr.org/2016/12/13/505348507/what-exactly-is-the-presidents-daily-brief-and-why-is-it-important But trump has the time to attack Vanity Fair magazine about a review of a trump restaurant. Attack SNL over a skit they did mocking him and his haircuts. The bombing of four Aleppo hospitals in a single day by Russian aircraft. Two weeks after trump was elected and not a word. You should study the situation a little more thoroughly before you voice your opinion from " in reality there are independent journalists walking down the said streets that are eerily silent and meanwhile thousands of militants that have surrendered (our proxy boys) are being humanely bussed off to another region by the Syrian and Russian governments. " Humanely bused off by the Syrian and Russian governments. The same governments that used nerve gas on their own civilians and bomb civilian hospitals. Those humane governments? "Syrian pro-government forces in eastern Aleppo have been killing people, including women and children, on the spot in their homes and on the street, the United Nations says. The UN's human rights office said streets were full of bodies." http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38301629 from 13 December 2016. I guess the UN can be added to the FBI, the CIA, CNN, The NY Times, Washington Post, etc.,etc., all conspiring against trump and his fanboys.

There are Republicans that do care and will take action. They should not be confused with trump reality deniers. For those who suggest that all of this arises from an indifference to cyber security. It takes an attack to sharpen the focus on cyber defense. Hopefully some with real intellect will balance the need to build a 350 ship navy. With that of secure networks for important institutions. Together with the development of offense cyber-weapons for future actions. Sooner or later even those who denied that the earth was round had to face facts. I doubt that trump will recognize it but he does have some advisors and there is the House plus the Senate.

Like this: "Some years ago, Mr Trump invited me to lunch for a one-to-one meeting at his apartment in Manhattan. We had not met before and I accepted. Even before the starters arrived he began telling me about how he had asked a number of people for help after his latest bankruptcy and how five of them were unwilling to help. He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people. He didn’t speak about anything else and I found it very bizarre. I told him I didn’t think it was the best way of spending his life. I said it was going to eat him up, and do more damage to him than them. There must be more constructive ways to spend the rest of your life. (Hopefully my advice didn’t lead to him running for President!) I was baffled why he had invited me to lunch solely to tell me this. For a moment, I even wondered if he was going to ask me for financial help. If he had, I would have become the sixth person on his list! I left the lunch feeling disturbed and saddened by what I’d heard. There are a lot of frightening things about this election; not least that policy has been pushed so far down the agenda. What concerns me most, based upon my personal experiences with Donald Trump, is his vindictive streak, which could be so dangerous if he got into the White House. For somebody who is running to be the leader of the free world to be so wrapped up in himself, rather than concerned with global issues, is very worrying." https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/meeting-donald-trump

These are good too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDOqudx801g

Bill Buckley is the founder the National Review and I used to read it regularly. He is one of the best authors and writers I've ever read. This is a great book he wrote: https://www.amazon.com/Airborne-Sentimental-William-F-Buckley/dp/0316114391 and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The National Review needs to get back to fundamental policies of conservative national interest. Here is a good read which suggest that Bill Buckley personally started the downfall of US political discussion and the news coverage in the US. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/william-buckley-gore-vidal-debates-1968-121009?o=1

Twenty years ago it wasn't this bad. There are lots of right wing intellectuals. Some of them allowed the right to win control of the house and the senate in the US only a month ago. trump has a very good nominee for defense in Mattis. Gary Cohn is no dummy either. Hopefully they can control trumps nutty ideas. Back to Russia. "Limbaugh: No one can prove Russia hacked election Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh challenged a CIA report that concluded Russia interfered with the 2016 election to sway results in President-elect Donald Trump’s favor. "Nobody can provide any evidence that the Russians hacked the election," he said on Wednesday, as reported by the Washington Examiner. Details of the CIA’s secret assessment were first revealed in a Washington Post story last week. The FBI presented a more “fuzzy” and “ambiguous" judgment about the interference, the Post reported." http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/310526-limbaugh-no-one-can-prove-russia-hacked-election In Limbaughs defense no one considers him a intellectual or smart in his views or opinions.

We need a thread to discuss the latest ballistic meltdowns of trump's ability to control himself as president. So today its Vanity Fair magazine. Here is the story: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/trump-grill-review "You Are What You Eat Trump Grill Could Be the Worst Restaurant in America And it reveals everything you need to know about our next president."... "The bathrooms transport diners to the experience of desperately searching for toilet paper at a Venezuelan grocery store."... "Our waiter, coiffed and charming, was determined to gaslight us into thinking we were having a good time. “Trump gets the taco bowl and the lasagna and baked ziti,” he said, before subsequently informing the table that we could not order the lasagna or baked ziti. I asked the waiter what Trump’s children eat. He didn’t seem to understand the question, or, like Marco Rubio, appeared unable to depart from his prescribed talking points.“Oh, I’ve shaken hands with him before, and they’re pretty normal-sized hands,” he responded." Then comes trump's response to a single critical review of one of his investments. "President-elect Donald Trump took aim at a new media target Thursday morning, writing on Twitter that Vanity Fair magazine is “dead”. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-feud-vanity-fair-232675 trump, Putin and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines should get together to discuss how to manage political critics and opponents. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/14/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-personally-killed-criminals "After Russian President Vladimir Putin called Donald Trump "very talented," the GOP frontrunner has defended Putin against suspicions that Putin kills journalists who don’t agree him. It started on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last month when host Joe Scarborough asked about it. Trump responded, "He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have on this country. I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know." "I’m confused," Scarborough pressed. "You obviously condemn Vladimir Putin killing journalists and political opponents, right?" "Oh sure, absolutely," Trump conceded. A few days later, Trump defended Putin again, to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. "You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, at least in our country. It has not been proven that he's killed reporters." http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2016/jan/04/does-vladimir-putin-kill-journalists/

No, silly. Fake news is anything he disagrees with. ^^^^WINNER^^^^^^^^^^^^ Its elGordo calling from Madrid. Please come and collect your $100 million euro winnings. Has anyone heard the news. trump is going to sell Alaska back to Russia for $1 and other unnamed hotel building privileges in Russia. There are some very smart people on the various Senate and House committees. The ones that have started investigations will get to the bottom of whats going on.Or then again, trump may just double-down as he is apt to do. Thankfully the house,senate and committee members than can put checks in place to stupidity. Somewhat... hopefully...

This sums up the entire article. This comment is also relevant. ***It should be noted that nothing released was not legitimate. It should also be noted that nothing released was criminal or of criminal intent. Most of it was sniping, back stabbing, and collusion against another candidate. Mostly just the normal creepy political stuff that you would find among professional political types. If what was released swayed people to vote for Donald Trump, then the problem is with the media and the education system. Trump has a stack of creepiness that goes back 50 yrs and its available for anyone to see. I'd say that doesn't come from a Trump supporter. If anything, this whole fiasco highlights the need for enhanced cyber-security, across the board. YES In the absence of the discovery of Russian meddling with voting machines. Which i think is almost impossible. The summations here are spot on. Subsequent to the bipartisan congressional/house investigations. Which will get to the bottom of this. There needs to be some sort of sanctions by the NSA-CIA in a covert or overt way. To teach Mr. Putin that this type of conduct is not in the best interests of him and his inner circle of kleptomaniacs. That killing journalists, stealing state assets and cyber attacks against Russian satellite puppet states like Belarus, Georgia, etc. is one thing. But meddling in US sovereign interests will have different, serious, personal consequences.

I wasn't speaking to the Trump administration as a whole, simply the response to the supposed RNC hack. Compare the RNC answer to the legal, political, double speak given by the Hillary Clinton camp in many of her issues over the years. The differences are stark. Nice rant though. What makes the Clintons despicable is their skilled use of lying, coverup, slick methods of self enrichment, entitlement, etc. etc. I think we both agree on that?

The nuances of double speak, spin and lying. Have become one and the same for me. I firmly believe the Putin government tried to influence the election. But i don't think they had any real influence on the outcome. IMO investigations may conclude Hillary was targeted because of her strong anti-Russian attitude. Europe, NATO, James N. Mattis, Senator McCain, the Senate and the House. Will educate trump with regards to Russian interests. How they differ from that of the US interests.About Russian cyber attacks on the Baltic states, Ukraine, Georgia and others. trump approaches international politics in a realpolitik way("is politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical premises"). He views international trade the same way. Come 2017 such a lack of ideological center will tax his ability to manage and govern. Perhaps trump envisions this version of himself: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/putins-kleptocracy-by-karen-dawisha.html?_r=0 and since he feels waterboarding is necessary, a darker version: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38294204

Like it. Don't agree with the general rational of your comments around the 3:00 minute mark whereby "when wingsuiting you always want proximity to "see what you're doing, what you're speed is, how you're moving around." In the seconds before that you mention how dangerous it is. Proximity flying, go-pros(what goes with one better shots-not the camera itself) and ego's are the main reasons for 37 dead base jumpers this year. With two weeks left. Jeb Corliss "Grinding the Crack" has led many with underdeveloped senses of self preservation to think that life is not lived. Unless adrenaline is overpowering all the other senses. With 31 million views. I always wonder when I watch a new wingsuit base video. And I've seen most of them. When the flyer dives into a gully not much wider than his wingspan. When maneuvering around the higher trees is necessary. When the latest, highest performance wingsuits just start flying before the scree slope starts and the glide angle of the suit is the same as the rocks. Wonder how much longer till his name in in the incidents section of a base forum because he is dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZV6pSZusc http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/10/21/al-smith-dinner-trump-hillary-teleprompter-joke-sot.cnn