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The Serious Side - part 3

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Post by annemarie Wed 15 Mar 2017, 14:48

Trump tax returns: president had to pay millions due to tax law he aims to scrap

A section of the president’s 2005 tax return revealed that about 85% of what he paid the IRS was incurred due to ‘alternative minimum tax’








Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington, Jon Swaine in New York and Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
Wednesday 15 March 2017 06.06 EDTFirst published on Tuesday 14 March 2017 22.21 EDT
Donald Trump’s leaked tax return reveals that the businessman had to pay tens of millions of dollars in a single year because of a tax rule that he has specifically promised to abolish as president.
A two-page section of Trump’s tax return for 2005, which was published by MSNBC late on Tuesday, revealed that the president paid $38m in federal taxes on more than $150m in income in 2005.

President paid $38m in 2005, leaked document reveals – as it happened
MSNBC report sparks angry response from the White House as return shows that Trump made more than $150m and paid $38m in taxes

 
Read more


But the documents also showed that about 82% of the total paid to the Internal Revenue Service that year by Trump and his wife, Melania, was incurred due to a tax that Trump has said should be abolished.
The “alternative minimum tax” (AMT), which was introduced to ensure the mega wealthy pay a fairer share of tax, comprised $31m of Trump’s tax bill compared with $5.3m in regular federal income tax. In the run-up to November’s election, Trump pledged to eliminate the AMT altogether, meaning the president campaigned for a change in the tax law that would have benefited him.
The publication of the paperwork prompted immediate condemnation from the White House, which accused MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of breaking the law and preemptively released figures from the same year.
“You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” a Trump administration official said in a statement.

The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 713

Facebook[url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Trump tax returns%3A president had to pay millions due to tax law he aims to]Twitter[/url][url=http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description=Trump tax returns%3A president had to pay millions due to tax law he aims to]Pinterest[/url]
 Donald Trump’s 2005 tax return. Photograph: MSNBC
“Before being elected president, Mr Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required.” 
The official added that Trump “paid $38m even after taking into account large-scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150m, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes, and this illegally published return proves just that”.
“Despite this substantial income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns,” the official said. 
“The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the president will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans.”
Contrary to the White House’s claim, Maddow said the return was “turned over” to David Cay Johnston, a 2001 Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist who focuses on tax and finance issues and who joined her on the broadcast. It is not a violation of the law to publish leaked tax returns. Appearing on Maddow’s show, Johnston said he did not know who sent him the excerpts from Trump’s 2005 return, which appeared in his mailbox.
The documents indicate that Trump paid an effective federal income tax of about 25% in 2005 and reported a $105m write-down. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent in last year’s election, had an effective federal rate of 30.8% that same year, according to her campaign.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, welcomed the leak, adding to speculation over whether the president leaked a favourable portion of his own tax return.




 Follow
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 LjrJJB9a_normalDonald Trump Jr. 

@DonaldJTrumpJr
[ltr]Thank you Rachel Maddow for proving to your #Trump hating followers how successful @realDonaldTrump is & that he paid $40mm in taxes! #Taxes[/ltr]




10:08 PM - 14 Mar 2017




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Either way, Tuesday’s partial disclosure will further pressure the White House to publish the president’s tax returns in full. As a candidate, Trump broke with a 40-year precedent by refusing to release his tax returns despite repeated calls from his opponents in both parties.
The last major-party nominee to withhold tax records was Gerald Ford, who assumed the presidency after Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Ford released a summary of data from eight years of tax returns but did not disclose the full documents.
Trump initially said he could not release his tax returns due to an ongoing audit by the IRS, even though such a fact would not legally preclude him from doing so. Nixon released his tax returns while they were under audit in 1973.

[size=16]Analysis Hot air and intrigue: did Donald Trump leak his own tax return?[/size]
It would be a classic Trump tactic to deflect attention from his troubles with wire-tapping claims and replacing the healthcare law – but it would also be risky

 
Read more


Trump’s campaign later pivoted to saying his taxes were a nonissue that would “distract” from his message. Polling in the campaign found that a majority of Americans, including a majority of Republican voters, wished to see the real estate developer’s tax returns.
But despite Clinton’s efforts to cast a spotlight on Trump’s refusal to disclose his returns, the subject failed to have a lasting impact as voters headed toward the polls. Following his victory in the November election, Trump declared in his first press conference as president-elect that Americans did not care about his tax returns.
“You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, OK? They’re the only ones,” Trump said. “I won. And became president,” he continued when asked if the matter was not of concern to the American public.
“I don’t think they care at all ... I think you care.”
Polling conducted since the election has found otherwise, with nearly three-quarters of Americans responding that Trump should release his tax returns.

The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 4101
Trump campaign faces biggest crisis yet after tax documents published

 
Read more


A report in the New York Times last year, based on a filing from 1995, found Trump could have taken advantage of a loophole that potentially enabled him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years. 
That year, Trump declared a $916m loss on his income tax returns, stemming from a series of struggles pertaining to his casino empire and a failed attempt to enter the airline business. Tax experts said Trump could have used the loss to offset the equivalent amount of taxable income for up to two decades due to a tax code advantage for real estate developers.
The alternative minimum tax was created in 1969 (and amended in 1979) to address the fact that some of the uber-wealthy could use so many deductions and loopholes that they ended up paying zero federal income tax. People with high incomes have to calculate their taxes twice – once with all their deductions and once without many of them. The taxpayer must then pay the higher of the two figures.
The AMT brought in about $28bn, or roughly 2% of all individual income tax revenues in 2015, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan thinktank, which said that 4.1m people paid it.
The gap between those two figures can be enormous – as is made clear by these Trump tax returns, which show Trump would have paid a fraction in taxes were it not for the AMT.
“If we didn’t have the alternative minimum tax, he would have paid taxes at a lower rate than the poor who make less than $33,000 a year,” David Cay Johnston said on MSNBC about the returns. The AMT was applied to just a few hundred wealthy individuals when it was first imposed, but today it hits almost 5 million taxpayers.

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Post by party animal - not! Wed 15 Mar 2017, 15:00

Thanks so much Annemarie.

Sometimes I feel as if I'm in the middle of a massive international investigator thriller - or maybe the twilight zone! And I don't even live in the US!

More instructive stuff from Don Lemon and David Cay Johnson to name but two.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITbciBi5QDY

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Post by annemarie Wed 15 Mar 2017, 16:29

No problem Pan I feel t it is more like a nightmare I can't wake up from.

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Post by LizzyNY Wed 15 Mar 2017, 16:56

annemarie wrote:http://time.com/4701747/donald-trump-rachel-maddow-taxes/

DONALD TRUMP
Donald Trump's 2005 Tax Return Reveals He Paid $38 Million in Taxes on $150 Million Income
Alex Altman
Updated: 10:05 PM Eastern | Originally published: 9:23 PM Ea


"Citing an ongoing audit for which he never supplied proof, Trump declined to release his recent returns during the campaign. Asked last week whether Trump would release his 2016 returns, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said: "“My understanding is he's still under audit and I'll follow up on the question.”"

Are they saying nobody ever checked to see if he really is under audit by the IRS and it may not be true? Surely somebody would have noticed. Is there some legal reason why the IRS can't confirm that he's under audit? Strange thing to say.  scratch

PS. Sonny Hostin on the View made the point that he isn't much of a businessman if, as he claimed, he had $2 billion in assets but only had an income of $i50 million.
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Post by Donnamarie Wed 15 Mar 2017, 18:18

Lizzy as I understand this IRS situation Trump's tax returns up to 2008 have already been audited by the IRS.  Done.  He could/should have released those already. His returns from 2009 to present are still being audited.  But as was said many times during the campaign there is no law which states that those returns can't be released.  Trump has disputed this fact.  He continues to say he can't, or let's be honest - won't -until the audit is concluded.  Plain and simple Trump is hiding details of his financial dealings that would be questioned as suspicious at the very least.

BTW if Trump's returns were not being audited I think the IRS would have come forward to state that fact.


Last edited by Donnamarie on Wed 15 Mar 2017, 18:22; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : added text)
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Post by LizzyNY Wed 15 Mar 2017, 18:42

Donnamarie - I agree with everything you say about Trump. I just thought it was strange to say "for which he has provided no proof'. I wish the IR would clarify the situation. Is he being audited at present, and if he is, what years are being audited?
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Post by annemarie Wed 15 Mar 2017, 22:14

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4316876/No-evidence-Obama-Trump-Tower-wiretapped.html

Trump fires back at the intelligence chiefs who say they have seen no evidence he was wiretapped by Obama and promises 'very interesting items' - as Justice Department faces subpoenas and FBI boss to be grilled

  • Top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that they have seen no evidence of wiretapping at Trump Tower

  • President Donald Trump told Fox News that 'wiretap covers a lot of different things' 

  • Trump claimed on March 4 that the Obama administration had conducted surveillance on him during the 2016 presidential campaign

  • 'To date I've seen no evidence that supports the claim that President Trump made,' said Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrats' ranking committee member 

  • FBI Director James comey is set to testify in a hearing next Monday, and the two House intel committee leaders say they will subpoena him if he isn't forthcoming

  • Sen. Lindsey Graham is set to hold a hearing on Russian interference in the presidential election today, and wants answers before it begins

  • He wants Comey to provide proof of a warrant or say that none exists 


By David Martosko, US Political Editor and Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com and Geoff Earle, Deputy U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 12:01 EDT, 15 March 2017 UPDATED: 17:40 EDT, 15 March 2017

    


President Donald Trump is promising 'some very interesting items' that could shed light on his still-unsubstantiated claim that President Obama tapped his phones.
Trump dangled the possibility during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, as he traveled to Michigan and Tennessee Wednesday – even as top congressional leaders of the Intelligence committees said they have seen no evidence to support Trump's claims. 
'But wiretap covers a lot of different things,' Trump told Carlson when asked about Trump's tweet claiming Trump Tower was wiretapped.
'I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next 2 weeks,' Trump said.
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 3E4F55E700000578-4316876-image-m-31_1489613977265


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'Wiretap covers a lot of different things,' Trump said, promising 'interesting items' when asked by Tucker Carlson about his claim that President Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 3E4F337E00000578-4316876-image-m-26_1489612118051


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Motoring: The president was interviewed by Tucker Carlson for Fox News in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. where he was promoting the auto industry
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Foxed: Tucker Carlson (third from right) tweeted this picture showing him in the presidential office on board Air Force One en route to Detroit where he interviewed the President
Trump's comment fits with a statement by White House press secretary Sean Spicer Tuesday claiming that Trump would ultimately be proven correct.
'There is significant reporting about surveillance techniques that have existed throughout the 2016 election. I’ll leave it to them to issue their report, but I think he feels very confident that what will ultimately come of this will vindicate him,' Spicer said.
The leading Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that they have seen no evidence to support President Donald Trump's March 4 claim that the Obama administration had tapped his phones at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.
'To date I've seen no evidence that supports the claim that President Trump made,' said Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrats' ranking committee member.
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The most powerful Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that they have seen no evidence that Trump Tower was bugged of phone-tapped during the 2016 election season
'Thus far we have seen no basis for that whatsoever,' he told reporters alongside fellow Californian Devin Nunes, the committee's Republican chairman. 
Nunes added: 'We don't have any evidence that that took place.'
Former President Barack Obama is said to have 'rolled his eyes' when he first heard news of Trump's allegations.  
Schiff said Wednesday that he and Nunes have given the Justice Department until next Monday to answer written questions about whether it had applied for warrants to surveil Trump and his associates.
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Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (left) and Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (right), both of California, told reporters that they're willing to subpoena the FBI for evidence that it had applied for surveillance warrants while Barack Obama was president – unless it declares that it never did
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 3E4D6C4500000578-4316876-President_Trump_claimed_March_4_on_Twitter_that_Obama_had_tapped-a-3_1489609829884


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President Trump claimed March 4 on Twitter that Obama had 'tapped' his phones, but the White House later said he was referring generally to surveillance of a kind it hasn't identified


[size=10][size=18]'We don't have any evidence' Intelligence Committee on wiretapping
[/size][/size]


de
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'We're both willing to use compulsory process if that's necessary,' he said, referring to the subpoena power granted to Congress, 'though neither of us, I think, believe that will be necessary.'
Previous attorneys general have ignored congressional subpoenas, including Obama's DOJ chief Eric Holder – who was later held in criminal contempt of Congress for it.  
FBI Director James Comey will be grilled next Monday in an Intelligence Committee hearing, the majority of which Nunes and Schiff expect they will be able to conduct in public. 
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Now out of office, Barack Obama reportedly 'rolled his eyes' when he heard that Trump had accused him of snooping on him during an election year
'It deeply concerns me that the president would make such an accusation without basis,' Schiff said. 
Nunes hinted that the Intelligence Committee could have problems establishing that because the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was reluctant to let Congress have access to its high-tech materials that could establish Trump was right. 
He said it wasn't clear 'whether or not they are going to let us have the proper computer technology that we need to go through the evidence that exists out at the CIA, out at Langley, and we are trying to work through that.'
'I can tell you it has become a little bit of a stumbling block for our investigators to actually be able to compile and cull through the information.' 
But Nunes said that while Trump claimed Obama personally engaged in secret surveillance, Americans would have to decide whether to season his tweets with a grain of salt.
 'President Obama wouldn't physically go over and wiretap Trump Tower, so now you have to decide ... are you going to take the tweets literally, and if you are, then clearly the president was wrong,' he told reporters.
'If you're not going to take the tweets literally and there's a concern that the president has about other people, other surveillance activities looking at him or his associates either appropriately or inappropriately, we want to find that out. I think it's all in the interpretation of what you believe.'
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 3DFD815900000578-0-image-a-49_1488992977380

The president send a barrage of tweets on March 4 claiming that Obama 'tapped' his phones

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Senator Lindsey Graham is giving FBI Director James Comey until this afternoon to provide proof of a warrant for the alleged surveillance of Donald Trump or say once and for all that one doesn't exist



Share
[size=35]742 shares[/size]

On the other side of the Capitol, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham gave Comey until a hearing this afternoon to provide proof that the DOJ obtained a warrant for the alleged Trump surveillance or declare once and for all none exists.  
The FBI told his staff minutes before testimony was due to begin that it would respond to a March 8 letter Graham and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent asking for information about warrants that may have been requested against Trump in a 'classified briefing.'
'Apparently the FBI has contacted my staff [and said] that they will be at some date in the future providing us an answer to this in a classified manner,' Graham stated. 
Whitehouse scolded the FBI for refusing to make a public promise that it will 'get to the bottom of this.'
Using a baseball metaphor, he said, 'That is a recipe for having the ball drop between the second baseman and the short stop.
'We are entitled to investigate under the constitution. They have executive responsibilities. And if we are only connecting with one another in a classified fashion, I don't think that serves the public interest.'
This FBI's response to Graham came after he levied threats at the law enforcement agency on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. 
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Trump Tower was candidate Trump's nerve center during his run for the White House, and the site of what the now-president says was government snooping as he campaigned
'Congress is going to flex its muscle here,' the Republican lawmaker warned Comey in a Wednesday morning appearance on the 'Today' show.
If the FBI official continues to dodge, Graham said he will issue his own subpoena for the information and hold up the nomination of the deputy attorney general until he gets what he wants.
'We'll issue a subpoena to get the information,' he said on Today. 'We'll hold up the deputy attorney general nomination until Congress is provided with information to finally clear the air as to whether or not there was ever a warrant issued against the Trump campaign.' 
The Justice Department could not have legally surveilled Trump without a court-ordered warrant, Graham argued, and so far, he's seen no evidence that one was ever issued. 
'I have no evidence of it. I'm suspicious of it, but now getting concerned because it's taking so long to answer my letter,' Graham said.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment on the dispute during a question and answer session with reporters traveling on Air Force One later in the day.
'I'm not going to interfere with those discussions,' he said. 'I don’t want to get into the middle of Congress and their requests, so I'll leave that up to director Comey, and to [Congress].’ 
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Graham and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asked Comey (pictured) two weeks ago, on March 2, to say whether Trump, his campaign or any of his associates were part of an 'active criminal investigation'

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The FBI director told Whitehouse (left) and Graham (right) that he'd have an answer for them by today
House and Senate committees were already investigating Russian meddling in the November election, before Trump claimed in a series of March 4 tweets that Barack Obama had his phones tapped.
The White House requested that the Republican-run panels look into the charge as part of their investigations, and they obliged. 
Now, they are accusing the FBI of stonewalling them, as the agency has not met two separate deadlines to prove or rebuff Trump's charge. 
Graham said it would be 'explosive' if DOJ is able to show that it had probable cause to investigate Trump or any of his campaign operatives for colluding with the Russians.
'If there was a warrant, that would be big news. I don't think there's a warrant, but I wish they'd tell me one way or another.' 


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4316876/No-evidence-Obama-Trump-Tower-wiretapped.html#ixzz4bR3b3VFC 
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Post by Donnamarie Wed 15 Mar 2017, 22:57

Trump's BS comments about the wiretapping during that interview today are so reminiscent of how he explained the claims he made years ago about Obama not being born in the U.S. It's the same type of rhetoric. Good grief, can't people see through this game he plays?

Has anyone here ever read any books about Trump. I was thinking of reading the one written by David Cay Johnson.
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Post by annemarie Thu 16 Mar 2017, 00:15

http://people.com/politics/trump-travel-ban-hawaii-blocked/

[size=37]A Judge in Hawaii Just Blocked President Trump’s New Travel Ban Nationwide[/size]

This article originally appeared on TIME.com
A federal judge in Hawaii has put President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on hold.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson issued his ruling Wednesday after hearing arguments on Hawaii’s request for a temporary restraining order involving the ban.
His ruling prevents the executive order from going into effect Thursday.
More than half a dozen states are trying to stop the ban, and federal courts in Maryland, Washington state and Hawaii heard arguments Wednesday about whether it should be put into practice.
Hawaii argued that the ban discriminates on the basis of nationality and would prevent Hawaii residents from receiving visits from relatives in the six mostly Muslim countries covered by the ban.
The state also says the ban would harm its tourism industry and the ability to recruit foreign students and workers.

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Post by carolhathaway Thu 16 Mar 2017, 06:44

Donnamarie wrote:Trump's BS comments about the wiretapping during that interview today are so reminiscent of how he explained the claims he made years ago about Obama not being born in the U.S.  It's the same type of rhetoric.  Good grief, can't people see through this game he plays?
Donna,
if somebody repeats a rumor endlessly, there are always people who believe: "He wouldn't say so if it wasn't true, so it has to be true."
They don't see that Trump wants to distract from him being accused to collaborate with Russia or to benefit personally from his presidency.
I simply don't unterstand why he can claim everything without having to prove it and seems to get away with it...
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Post by carolhathaway Thu 16 Mar 2017, 07:02

The Netherlands had their elections yesterday, and fortunately their right-wing candidate and party got much fever votes than predicted.
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Post by annemarie Thu 16 Mar 2017, 10:35

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4317198/Trump-budgets-wall-military-slashes-Sesame-Street.htm



Trump wants $1.5 BILLION for the wall and cash for the military but will slash foreign aid and eliminate funding for PBS and NPR in budget designed to infuriate liberals





  • Trump will release a budget blueprint today that makes cuts to discretionary spending to fund his border wall and the military build-up he's been promising

  • State Department is cut deepest with a 28% reduction to its foreign aid division

  • The Environmental Protection Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department are also expected to suffer

  • The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides support to NPR and PBS, will see its funding phased out

  • Trump's budget may not make it past the House and Senate - a top Republican has said it's 'dead on arrival'

  • Dramatic cuts make way room for $1.5B for his wall with Mexico in 2018 and $54 billion for defense without adding to the federal deficit 





President Donald Trump will release a budget blueprint Thursday that makes significant cuts to spending to fund his border wall and the military build-up he's been promising.
Cut the deepest is the State Department, which is being slapped with a 28 per cent reduction to its foreign aid division. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department is also expected to suffer.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides support to NPR and PBS - the broadcaster of Sesame Street - will see its funding phased out if Trump's budget makes it past the House and Senate over the objection of both conservatives and liberals.
Trump is proposing the dramatic cuts to some agencies so he can put $1.5 billion toward his wall with Mexico in 2018 and appropriate an additional $54 billion for defense without adding to the federal deficit.


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The blueprint does not deal with mandatory spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security or revenue sources nor does it try to balance the federal budget.
Cuts to discretionary spending, which came in at $1.241 trillion in 2017 according to the Office of Management and Budget, are dollar for dollar, Trump's budget director said Wednesday. It will be up to affected agencies to figure out how to implement them.
'We've given them a tremendous amount of flexibility within their own agencies this year,' OMB Director Mick Mulvaney claimed Wednesday during a briefing for White House reporters.
How much money State and the Department of Energy would be losing, he could not say. It was, however, expected to be a significant amount.


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'This is a hard power budget. This is not a soft power budget,' Mulvaney said of the appropriations. 'This is a hard-power budget. And that was done intentionally. The President very clearly wants to send a message to our allies and our potential adversaries that this is a strong power administration.'
In 2017, State received $37.8 billion in discretionary spending. Most of that, $22.7 billion according to The Balance, went to foreign aid. That amounts to 2.13 percent of the $1,065.2 billion that was put aside by the government for discretionary spending.
A 2015 review conducted by NPR of foreign aid spending found that the largest share goes to HIV/AIDS programs. Economic development such as infrastructure building and Internet access, along with humanitarian assistance, accounts for another third of the money.
Mulvaney insisted that the reduction is not meant to minimize Secretary of State Rex Tillerson or his department - the foreign aid line items 'just happen to fall within their functions.'
'We believe that we have protected the core diplomatic function of state, and that's why I say this is not a reflection of the president's policies regarding an attitude toward State,' he said. 'The president believes very strongly in what Mr. Tillerson is doing.' 
The slashing of the diplomatic arm's budget had Sen. Lindsey Graham preemptively declaring Trump's budget 'dead on arrival' after the administration offered a preview of the blueprint two weeks ago.
'It's not going to happen,' the Republican senator told NBC News. 'It would be a disaster.'


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Graham said the pared-down appropriations would put State Department employees at risk. 
His concerns about the budget slashing were echoed by Republicans and Democrats that serve on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. 
'Foreign Aid is not charity,' Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said in a tweet. 'We must make sure it is well spent, but it is less than 1% of budget & critical to our national security.'
Delaware Democrat Chris Coons argued, 'The aid we provide to countries around the world directly advances U.S. national interests by fostering a safer and more stable world.'


Mitch McConnell, the top dog in the Senate, is also against the steep State Department cuts.
'The diplomatic portion of the federal budget is very important and you get results a lot cheaper frequently than you do on the defense side,' the GOP leader told reporters, according to the Associated Press. 'So speaking for myself, I’m not in favor of reducing the (foreign aid) account to that extent.'
'This is a hard power budget. This is not a soft power budget,' says OMB Director Mick Mulvaney
Commenting on the coming assault on the State Department budget and other rumored chops, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican, told the Associated Press, 'We’ve reduced our discretionary spending over the last seven or eight years an incredible amount. Maybe some people don’t like those agencies, but it’s been pretty difficult for them to meet their mandate.'
Defense spending will go up substantially, although not all of the money will be appropriated to the Pentagon, which has a $523.9 billion budget this year. The Department of Energy will get some of the money, for instance, for nuclear energy programs. 
Trump is also proposing $1.5 billion for construction of his proposed border fence in fiscal year 2018 and $2.6 billion the year after that.
Of the $1.5 billion, Mulvaney said, 'It's all that we think that we can spend this year.
'The next question is going to be, how many miles of wall does that build, right? And we don’t know the answer to that question because we haven’t settled on construction types,' he revealed. 'We haven’t settled on where we’re going to start. 
'I think the funding provides for a couple of different pilot cases...different kinds of barriers in different kinds of places, as we try and find the most cost-efficient, the safest, and also the most effective border protections. They may be different in different areas,' he stated.


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Mulvaney said Trump's full FY 2018 budget, slated for May, will include 10-year cost projections for the wall the president has said will be paid for one way or another by Mexico. 

For now, the money will come out of the general Treasury.
'We did not say, we need $1.5 billion for the wall, let’s go over and reduce this program over at education, and move that $1.5 billion over to the wall. We dealt with it more holistically,' Mulvaney explained.
'We plussed-up the various items I've talked about, and then we went looking for the most inefficient, most wasteful, most indefensible programs in other areas. So you couldn’t follow it dollar for dollar.'
Overall, the Department of Homeland Security is slated to get a six percent increase in federal funds over its $40.6 billion budget this year, and Trump wants the Department of Defense to receive 10 percent more than it did in the past.
Mulvaney said the document also calls for an uptick in funds for private and public school choice and veterans' benefits, but he did not provide specific details. 
He was also vague about funding for the National Institute of Health for studies on disease prevention - an area that Democrats have laced into the administration over.
'The same time he’s talking about medical research he’s going to slash it,' Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at the end of February. 'Education. He talked about the great issue of education. Same thing. His budget is going to slash education to smithereens.'


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One agency Mulvaney could recall receiving a diminution was NASA. Its $18.3 billion budget will be reduced by one percent, he said.
'But a lot of the programs within there are actually increased in order to align with the President’s priorities, and that includes some of the exploring other planets.'
Public broadcasting funding, he said, will eventually be brought down to zero. 
Some amount of public broadcasting money is 'necessary' for now 'for us to unwind our involvement with the CPB,' he sad.
'So you won't see a zero next to it. But the policy is that we're ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.' 
By next year the line item might be zero, he added. 'But it may take a while to unwind that relationship. It's just the nature of contracts and so forth.'
The CPB's funding is relatively minuscule compared to how much Trump is proposing to spend annually on other programs.
At $445.5 million, it's a fraction of discretionary spending and will barely help Trump achieve his wish list.
HUD is slated for reductions, as well, although Mulvaney did not say by how much. It received $38 billion in 2017.
At the briefing Mulvaney contended that 'a lot' of the 'wasteful programs, duplicative programs, programs that simply don’t work' fall under that department's purview.
'We've spent a lot of money on Housing and Urban Development over the last decades without a lot to show for it,' the Cabinet official stated. 'Certainly there are some successes, but there's a lot of programs that simply cannot justify their existence, and that's where we zeroed in.'
Mulvaney said the Department of Transportation and its $12 billion discretionary spending budget is being reduced for the same reason.
Among the things funded by the Department of Transportation are Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, and subsidies for airports and interstates.
Also on Thursday, Mulvaney said the administration will putting out a document that asks for revisions to the 2017 budget and a supplemental request of $30 billion dollars for defense for the current fiscal year.

[size=10][size=18]'I inherited a mess': Trump discusses his budget plans





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Post by Donnamarie Thu 16 Mar 2017, 14:20

Annemarie you are on a roll! Thanks for all the latest Trumpster news .... as awful as most of it is.

Carol, it was hard enough to swallow the things Trump said during the campaign (including the lying) and get away with it. Now he's in the White House. And most of his supporters are still with him, even after all his antics. I saw a portion of his rally last night and the people behind him in the audience couldn't have been more full throated in their support (maybe he paid them Smile ). On one level we are getting so used to his behavior. Some may even overlook it now. I'm not shocked by anything he says or does anymore. Which is not good. But on another level I'm shocked that this guy made it to the White House and he's still in office screwing with our government. It feels like what Annemarie and PAN said yesterday. Its like a bad dream or we've entered another dimension... The Twilight Zone. Totally surreal! affraid

Yes I was really relieved that Wilders lost the election in The Netherlands. Maybe it's a good sign for France and Germany in their upcoming elections. I do think there are some very disappointed right wingers here in the states ... Bannon, Stephen Miller, Steve King, the KKK.
Too bad!
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Post by annemarie Thu 16 Mar 2017, 21:41

http://people.com/politics/president-trump-stands-by-wiretapping-claims-white-house/

This article originally appeared on TIME.com.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday that President Trump has not backed down from his claims that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, despite several members of Congressional intelligence committees saying there is no evidence.
“He stands by it,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing.
Shortly before Spicer’s briefing, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) released a statement there was no available evidence for these claims.
“Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” the two senators said.

But that same day, Trump told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, “wiretap covers a lot of different things. I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.”

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Post by annemarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 00:05

Here is what Trumps budget proposes to cut

• Health and Human Services, the department responsible for implementing Obamacare and its proposed repeal, would face a $12.6 billion cut -- a 16.2% decrease
• Environmental Protection Agency: $2.6 billion, or 31.4%
• State Department: $11 billion, or 28.7%
• Labor Department: $2.5 billion, or 20.7%

• Agriculture Department: $5 billion, or 20.7%
• US Army Corps of Engineers: $1 billion, a 16.3% cut
• Cuts National Institutes of Health spending by $5.8 billion, a nearly 20% cut. Also overhauls NIH to focus on "highest priority" efforts and eliminates the Fogarty International Center.
• Other double-digit cuts include Commerce at 15.7%; Education at 13.5%; Housing and Urban Development at 13.2%; Transportation at 12.7%, and Interior at 11.7%.

Program cuts


• Eliminates the USDA Water and Wastewater loan and grant program, a reduction of $498 million
• Cuts $250 million by zeroing out National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants and programs that support coastal and marine management, research and education

• Reduces or eliminates 20 programs within the Department of Education, including Striving Readers, Teacher Quality Partnership and Impact Aid support payments for federal property and international education programs
• Cuts FEMA state and local grant funding by $667 million, including the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program and Homeland Security Grant Program
• Eliminates funds for Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing
• Ceases payments to the United Nations' climate change programs for the Green Climate Fund and precursor funds

• Scales back funding for the World Bank and other international development banks by $650 million over three years
• Cuts federal subsidies to Amtrak and eliminates support for Amtrak's long-distance services.
• Cuts funding to the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Program so new projects will not be funded
• Shrinks the Treasury workforce by an unspecified amount
• Stops funding for the Clean Power Plan

Programs Trump proposes to eliminate or zero out



Trump's budget would eliminate funding for some small, independent agencies entirely, as well as zero out some federal programs:
• The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which supports before- and after-school programs and summer programs
• Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which funds research including clean energy
• African Development Foundation
• Appalachian Regional Commission
• Chemical Safety Board
• Community Development Block Grant, which in part funds Meals on Wheels
• Community Development Financial Institutions Fund grants, under Treasury
• Community Services Block Grant, under HHS
• Corporation for National and Community Service
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Delta Regional Authority
• Denali Commission
• Economic Development Administration
• Essential Air Service program
• Global Climate Change Initiative
• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Chesapeake Bay funding, and other regional programs under EPA.
• HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Choice Neighborhoods, and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program, all under HUD
• Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Inter-American Foundation
• US Trade and Development Agency
• Legal Services Corporation
• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
• McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program
• Minority Business Development Agency, under Commerce
• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• NASA's Office of Education
• Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
• Northern Border Regional Commission
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation
• State Energy Program
• Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program, the second-largest program feds have used to influence local education
• TIGER transportation grants
• United States Institute of Peace
• United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
• Weatherization Assistance Program
• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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Post by party animal - not! Fri 17 Mar 2017, 00:24

Thank you Annemarie.

News from over the pond:

GCHQ who find themseives dragged into the wiretapping claim and have just described such claims as 'utterly ridiculous'and to be ignored..........

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Post by LizzyNY Fri 17 Mar 2017, 00:55

Annemarie - Thanks. I hadn't seen the whole list. It sickens me that Trump thinks these are things we can't afford but he expects us to pay his family's expenses. I wish there was some way to prevent our taxes from being spent on them for anything - including security. They're loaded. Let them pay for themselves! Then maybe we'd have the money to take care of the rest of us.

Just read Nicholas Kristof's column in the Times : "And Jesus Said to Paul of Ryan". Brilliant!

There's also a petition circulating on change.org requesting that members of Congress give up their subsidized health care plans and purchase their insurance on the free market the way the rest of us have to do. If they get 500,000 signatures it will be delivered to Ryan and Trump. No one expects it to change things, but it is another way of telling Congress they're shafting the American people - and we know it.
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Post by Donnamarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 02:22

Many thanks Annemarie for the budget article. These cuts are alarming, reckless and potentially dangerous to our country. Hopefully this proposed budget won't ever see the light of day.

Yep PAN, it was reported tonight that the White House made a claim that Obama asked British government/intelligence to wiretap Trump. There are no words PAN Errrr .... except Trump's supporters will probably believe it.

Lizzy thanks for the heads up on the Kristof piece. It was terrific.
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Post by party animal - not! Fri 17 Mar 2017, 11:25

Well now.........

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3113233/white-house-issues-grovelling-apology-to-downing-street-for-falsely-accusing-gchq-of-spying-on-donald-trump/

In effect he had accused his greatest ally...........

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Post by carolhathaway Fri 17 Mar 2017, 13:21

Trump owes Obama an apology as well...
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Post by LizzyNY Fri 17 Mar 2017, 13:29

Carolhathaway - He owes  EVERYONE an apology! (The people who really owe us an apology are his parents for unleashing this disgusting  pig on the world. What kind of parents were they to raise such a smug, entitled, compassion-less, clueless jerk?)
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Post by Donnamarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 13:31

Sadly Trump has never apologized for anything. I can't imagine the damage done so far to the US's credibility around the world. Trump's behavior just since he became President is embarrassing at the very least.
How will world leaders trust what this man says to them when they have meetings in the future. I understand Merkel will be at the White House today to meet with the Trumpster for talks on trade issues.
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Post by carolhathaway Fri 17 Mar 2017, 13:32

Lizzy,
You are so absolutely right!!!
But unfortunately this would require self-reflection and to stand for your own actions, and I don't see these characteristics in Trump...


Last edited by carolhathaway on Fri 17 Mar 2017, 13:35; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Added text)
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Post by annemarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 16:05

http://people.com/politics/white-house-suggests-it-did-not-apologize-to-u-k-over-unfounded-wiretapping-claim/

[size=37]White House Suggests It Did Not Apologize to U.K. Over Unfounded Wiretapping Claim[/size]

This article originally appeared on Time.com.
White House officials tried to calm the concerns of British allies after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeated an unfounded claim that the British spy service spied on President Trump. But the White House is stopping short of saying it offered an apology to its closest foreign ally.
“[British Ambassador to the U.S.] Kim Darroch and [National Security Advisor] Sir Mark Lyall expressed their concerns to Sean Spicer and General McMaster,” a White House official said Friday. “Mr. Spicer and General McMaster explained that Mr. Spicer was simply pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story.”
Several British outlets reported Friday that the White House apologized to the U.K. government, but the White House would not confirm those accounts.
The row began Thursday, as Spicer repeated the claim of Fox News personality Andrew Napolitano, who suggested that former President Obama had ordered GCHQ, the U.K.’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, to spy on his successor. For nearly two weeks the White House has been struggling to justify Trump’s assertion in a March 4 tweet that Obama had him “wire tapped.”
On Thursday, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee jointly stated they’ve seen no evidence of any surveillance of Trump Tower. Even Trump allies in Congress are staying away from the claim, though Trump maintained Wednesday in an interview with Fox News that he would be vindicated by new information “very soon.” The White House has argued that Trump’s use of quotation marks around the phrase wires tapped implied he meant all manners of surveillance against him, but hasn’t offered any official proof of the claim, beyond reports in the press.



Reading a long list of media reports that mentioned alleged signals intelligence about Trump and his ties to Russia, Spicer quoted comments.
“Last, on Fox News on March 14th, Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement,” Spicer said during the daily White House briefing. “‘Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice. He used GCHQ, what is that? It’s the initials for the British Intelligence Spying Agency. So simply, by having two people saying to them, “The President needs transcripts of conversations involved in candidate Trump’s conversations involving President-elect Trump,” he was able to get it and there’s no American fingerprints on this.’”
Within hours GCHQ responded in a rare statement calling the claim “utterly ridiculous.
“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then President Elect are nonsense,” a GCHQ spokesperson said. “They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
Asked by a reporter whether the subject of GCHQ’s alleged involvement had raised between the two governments and whether it would affect the so-called “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K., Spicer backtracked.
“No, no, it has not been raised,” Spicer said. “But I do think that, again, we’re not — all we’re doing is literally reading off what other stations and people have reported, and I think that casts into concern some of the activities that may have occurred during the ’16 election. We’re not casting judgment on that. I think the idea is to say that if these organizations, these individuals came to these conclusions, they merit looking into.”



The claim is all the more incendiary given the close intelligence-sharing relationship between the two countries. The U.S. and the U.K., along with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, form the Five Eyes — a decades-old intelligence cooperative in which the countries share much of their signals intelligence and pledge not to spy on each another.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May told The Independent that the White House would not float the claims again. “We’ve made clear to the Administration that these claims are ridiculous and they should be ignored and we’ve received assurances they won’t be repeated.”


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Post by carolhathaway Fri 17 Mar 2017, 16:10

You might call it a kindergarden, but most kids there are more civilized...
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Post by LizzyNY Fri 17 Mar 2017, 17:13

All of this just shows how totally incompetent this whole administration is - and how stupid! If you don't know how to handle a situation ASK SOMEONE WHO DOES! That's what career civil servants are there for! Instead Trump fires them and threatens them and makes a total ass of himself and fools of us all.

I\'ve got an idea2 I wish I could time travel. I can't decide if I'd rather go into the future after El Cheeto is no longer with us, or into the past and force-feed his mother the pill - or better yet, snip his father. Very Happy
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Post by party animal - not! Fri 17 Mar 2017, 17:45

Enda Kenny gave a brilliant speech at the White House on St Patrick's Day - and Donald Trump had to stand and listen...............

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/mar/17/irish-pm-enda-kenny-donald-trump-st-patrick-immigrant-video

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Post by Donnamarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 19:44

party animal - not! wrote:Enda Kenny gave a brilliant speech at the White House on St Patrick's Day - and Donald Trump had to stand and listen...............

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/mar/17/irish-pm-enda-kenny-donald-trump-st-patrick-immigrant-video


That was lovely. Well said by someone who appreciates what our country really stands for. I'm not sure The Donald appreciated Kenny's comments. Sad that a foreigner understands better than this administration what America is truly about.
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Post by Donnamarie Fri 17 Mar 2017, 20:00

Just read an article about the press conference between Merkel and Trump today. Seems he claimed to Merkel that they have something in common ... wiretapping.
The thing is Obama APOLOGIZED to Merkel after it was found out the NSA had been wiretapping Merkel. Trump did not apologize to the U.K. He just passed the buck to Fox News. What a f***ing excuse for a leader.

Someone said today that the leader of the free world met with Trump today.
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Post by party animal - not! Sat 18 Mar 2017, 11:19

Here are a couple of headlines in the UK papers today that say it all really.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39312176

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-budget-cuts-mar-a-lago-nea-arts-poor-elderly-meals-on-wheels-florida-weekends-us-a7634551.html


and this

https://twitter.com/FionaAdorno/status/842877287984906240

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Post by Alisonfan Sat 18 Mar 2017, 11:35

Madam Merkel look to be cool and sure steady leader Mr Trump look to be intimidated by such leader. She look to him with pity.

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Post by annemarie Sat 18 Mar 2017, 16:22

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39312176

Claims GCHQ wiretapped Trump 'nonsense' - NSA's Ledgett
By Gordon CoreraSecurity correspondent, BBC News

  • 18 March 2017
     
  • From the sectionUS & Canada


Share
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 _95216187_gchqImage copyrightREUTERSImage captionGCHQ, a British intelligence agency, wholly denies it helped wiretap Donald Trump
The claim that GCHQ carried out surveillance on Donald Trump during the election campaign is "arrant nonsense", Rick Ledgett, the number two at the US National Security Agency (NSA) has told the BBC in an exclusive interview.
A commentator on Fox News had claimed that GCHQ had carried out the activity on America's behalf, but Mr Ledgett said the claim showed "a complete lack of understanding in how the relationship works".
Each side, he said, was prohibited from asking the other partner to carry out acts that they were prohibited from doing.
He also said the huge risks to the UK in carrying out such an act would completely outweigh any benefits.
"Of course they wouldn't do it. It would be epically stupid," he told me.
GCHQ had also dismissed the allegation as nonsense.
Mr Ledgett's comments came in a wide-ranging - and long-scheduled - interview in his office at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade. He acknowledged that these were unusual times when it came to the political maelstrom surrounding America's intelligence agencies and their relationship with the new administration.

  • Trump denies claiming UK behind 'wiretap'
  • Did Obama wiretap Trump Tower?
  • A peek behind the curtain at GCHQ

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"Our job in the intelligence community is to be apolitical. Our job is to speak truth to power," he emphasised.
The origins of much of the tension lie in the assessment by the US intelligence community that Russia interfered in the presidential election, and the subsequent reaction from Donald Trump.
Mr Ledgett said the evidence of Russian involvement was "extraordinarily strong" and "irrefutable" and that the NSA had played a key role in establishing the case.
Mr Ledgett said he was "dead solid 100% confident" that the Russian state was behind the attempts - although he said it was not for the intelligence community to evaluate the actual impact of those attempts on the vote itself.
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 _95216191_putinImage copyrightAPImage captionPresident Vladimir Putin insists that Russia did not interfere in the US election
There has been speculation that Russia will interfere in upcoming European elections, but the NSA deputy director said it was hard for him to talk about any evidence supporting that.
There has been a shift towards more aggressive action in cyberspace in recent years - from Russia but also other states - with some commentators claiming that "cyber war" is breaking out.
Low-intensity conflict rather than war is a better description, Mr Ledgett said.
"Cyber war is going to look very different - you are going to see massive failures of key infrastructure systems in the countries that are being targeted in a way we have not seen yet."
The problems in attributing attacks and the lower barriers for entry mean that this trend may well continue, though.
The US last week indicted a group of Russian hackers as part of a broader strategy of trying to develop layered deterrence. Chinese and Iranian hackers have been indicted in the past.
"Our assessment is that it does cause actors to pause," Mr Ledgett said, while acknowledging it did not provide absolute deterrence.
The spread of internet-connected devices in the home is another concern.
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  • Wikileaks: CIA has tools to snoop via TVs

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"It's a truism that the more things you connect to a network, the more vulnerabilities you introduce," Mr Ledgett argued, adding that he did not have what are called "Internet of Things" devices in his own home.
Last week there were claims that the CIA - along with Britain's MI5 - had found vulnerabilities in some "smart" TV sets which allowed them to be turned into bugging devices.
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 _94973285_40aa6ec0-fb21-4c59-9ff5-2964fef3b037Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionIt has been claimed that the CIA devised a spyware attack for Samsung TVs
Mr Ledgett emphasised that the mission of the NSA was to focus on foreign intelligence and not domestic.
He said that 90% of vulnerabilities in systems that the NSA spotted were reported to companies so they could fix them. And any vulnerabilities that the agency sought to leave in place to exploit for intelligence gathering needed to be approved by other government agencies.
"There's a fringe narrative out there that the US and UK and all these other governments are willy-nilly just exploiting every vulnerability in every device they can in order to gather information into a big pile and then root through it for interesting things. That's not what we do at all."
He acknowledged that the debate around the NSA's power was healthy, but said the way it came about was bad, referring to the Edward Snowden revelations.
He said that while he would not point to specific terrorist attacks or deaths as a result of disclosures, the NSA had seen one thousand "entities" (such as terrorist groups or foreign military units) which had tried to change behaviour to avoid surveillance.
The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 _95216189_nsaImage copyrightREUTERSImage captionMr Ledgett spoke to the BBC at the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade
Mr Ledgett is due to step down in the coming months after a 40-year career in national security. Twenty-nine of those years were spent at the NSA, where he ended up as its most senior civilian.
He acknowledged that the current environment - with the intelligence agencies drawn into political debate - was unprecedented.
"It is an uncomfortable place to be," he said. "Intelligence needs to not be politicised to be at its best."[/size]

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Post by annemarie Sat 18 Mar 2017, 16:26

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[size=48]Donald Trump could reverse cuts to arts, poor and elderly if he stopped staying at Mar-a-Lago, figures show[/size]

Four services facing elimination under proposed cuts could be maintained at the cost of President's visits to private Florida resort over four years, figures show


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The Serious Side - part 3 - Page 3 Mar-a-lagoAmerican taxpayers must foot a bill of more than £2.4 million each time Mr Trump travels to the private Palm Beac resort, amounting to £485 million over a four-year presidency Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump could reverse his recently announced cuts to arts, poor and elderly services if he cut his trips to Mar-a-Lago and lived permanently in White House instead, figures indicate.
Calculations show four programmes that face elimination - which tackle homelessness, unemployment among over-55s, participation in the arts and helping the poor access higher education - could be maintained at the cost of the President’s trips to his private Florida resort over the course of four years.
The services amount to a total of $597 million — just less than the $600 million security arrangements for the Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits are estimated to cost the taxpayer over the course of his term.




Trump's budget director says it is 'as compassionate as you can get' to save taxpayers' money by cutting welfare programs

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  • We asked Mar-a-Lago about membership applications since Trump
  • Donald Trump deletes tweet about meeting generals at Mar-a-Lago
  • Trump's Mar-a-Lago trips 'cost taxpayers $3 million' each


The National Endowment for the Arts, which encourages participation in the arts ($152 million), the US Interagency Council on Homelessness ($4 million), an independent agency coordinating the federal government's efforts to reduce homelessness, the Senior Community Service Employment Program ($434 million), which has helped more than one million people 55 and older find jobs and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ($11 million), providing scholarships and fellowships in social sciences and humanities, are all facing the axe in Mr Trump's budget.
This amounts to a total of $597 million (£483 million). According to CBS News, the President spent every weekend of his first 33 days in office at the Palm Beach estate - for which security is estimated to have cost $10 million (£8.1 million).
American taxpayers must foot a bill of more than $3 million (£2.4 million) each time he travels there, rather than staying at the official presidential residence of the White House — amounting to $600 million over the four years.
The services are among hundreds of programmes and agencies the budget proposed would be eliminated to pave the way for a $54 billion (£44 billion) increase in defence spending.
The $1.15 trillion (£1 trillion) budget – titled 'America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again' — which covered only discretionary, not mandatory, spending — also stated plans to slash funding for Meals on Wheels, a program that provides meals for the poor, elderly and veterans, as well as health care and nutrition for low-income women, infants and children.





Days after the proposals were announced, Mr Trump is to return to his lavish Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach this weekend, marking his fifth visit to the resort during the short period he's been serving the White House.
Mr Trump’s frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago stand in contrast to his pledges during the campaign. He told a reporter in 2015: “I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations.
“I would not be a president that takes time off… You don’t have time to take time off.”
The President's regular jaunts also appear to contradict his previous criticisms of Mr Obama, who was condemned by Republicans when he flew to Palm Beach during his presidency. 
“The habitual vacationer, Barack Obama, is now in Hawaii. This vacation is costing taxpayers $4 milion +++ while there is 20% unemployment,” the now President wrote on Twitter in December 2011 - when the unemployment rate was actually 8.5 per cent.

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Post by annemarie Sat 18 Mar 2017, 16:37

Trump's budget director says it is 'as compassionate as you can get' to save taxpayers' money by cutting welfare programs

This says it all for me they are all dumber than dirt.

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Post by Donnamarie Sat 18 Mar 2017, 20:04

Yep Annemarie. There seems to be no sign of intelligence by those who came up with this harsh and reckless budget. All in the name of more defense and tax cuts for those who don't need them. The administration knows this budget will never make it through Congress but in putting this stinker out there it really does show a heartless and uncaring lot, doesn't it? Trump is bound and determined to hurt the very people he claimed he was going to help.
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Post by annemarie Sat 18 Mar 2017, 20:19

yet people are still attending his rally, it's hard to believe that they are that dumb. Will they ever wake up and smell the shit.

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Post by LizzyNY Sat 18 Mar 2017, 22:38

annemarie - It's starting to happen. I know it feels like forever, but he's just been in office a few weeks. Give it time to sink in with his "supporters" that they're the ones getting hurt by all his crap. Little by little they're starting to realize that the programs they depend on are the ones getting cut. I just hope he doesn't do something really dangerous in the time it takes them to wake up.
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Post by annemarie Sun 19 Mar 2017, 22:52

Hawaii judge REJECTS the Trump administration's attempt to question his order blocking Trump's new travel ban

  • U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson rejected the U.S. government's request to clarify his temporary order blocking Trump's revised travel ban

  • Watson said nothing was unclear about his order and the government can't ask for a distinction that officials failed to make in earlier briefs and arguments

  • He issued the temporary restraining order Wednesday in response to a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii 


By Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 14:04 EDT, 19 March 2017 UPDATED: 18:24 EDT, 19 March 2017





A federal judge on Sunday rejected the U.S. government's request to clarify his temporary order blocking President Donald Trump's revised travel ban.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson said nothing was unclear about his order and the government can't ask for a distinction that officials failed to make in earlier briefs and arguments, according to online court records.
Watson issued the temporary restraining order Wednesday in response to a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii, concluding there was 'significant and unrebutted evidence of religious animus' behind the travel ban.
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U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson has been asked to clarify his order blocking President Donald Trump's revised travel ban
Watson issued a 43-page ruling on Wednesday after Hawaii requested he block enforcement of Trump's executive order, which the government calls a national security measure and critics call an unconstitutional and bigoted attempt to bar Muslims from entering the country.
Watson's ruling concluded there was 'significant and unrebutted evidence of religious animus' behind the travel ban, including the president's own campaign comments regarding Muslims.  
He said Hawaii would suffer financially if the executive order constricted the flow of students and tourists to the state. 
Two days later, the Justice Department asked Watson to clarify that the order only applied to the ban on travel from six mostly Muslim countries and not a global freeze on refugees entering the United States.


[size=10][size=18]Trump blasts 'judicial overreach' as Hawaii judge blocks travel ban





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In seeking clarification, the Justice Department argued that the lawsuit 'failed to meaningfully challenge' another section of Trump's order that bars refugees from traveling to the United States for 120 days and caps the number that will be allowed into the U.S. this fiscal year at 50,000 - a drop of nearly half. 
The cap 'draws no distinction whatsoever on the basis of religion,' government lawyers argued in a filing.
Opponents have argued that if that aspect of the ban takes effect, 60,000 people would be stranded in war-torn countries with nowhere else to go.
The Justice Department also argued that the Hawaii ruling shouldn't block Trump's order that security officials review whether other countries are providing enough information to ensure would-be immigrants aren't a security threat. 
Trump has called the Hawaii ruling an example of 'unprecedented judicial overreach' and has indicated it will be appealed.
Watson asked federal officials and Hawaii on Sunday how they want to proceed regarding a possible extension of his order. 
Similar cases are being heard in federal courts in Washington state and Maryland. 
In all, more than half a dozen states are trying to block the travel ban.

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 Trump has called the Hawaii ruling an example of 'unprecedented judicial overreach


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4329274/Hawaii-says-government-alter-order-Trump-travel-ban.html#ixzz4bobYnUDI 
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Post by LizzyNY Sun 19 Mar 2017, 23:25

So, what else is new?...............
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Post by Donnamarie Mon 20 Mar 2017, 03:48

If immigrants from the six countries are posing such an imminent threat to the U.S. that this ban was needed immediately what procedures has the White House put in place to investigate the current vetting system as it stands right now. Trumpster keeps claiming our vetting system isn't extreme enough. No evidence though. He doesn't need a ban to send Homeland Security officials overseas to investigate and write up a report. Has that been done? I mean if he is so concerned ....



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Post by What Would He Say Mon 20 Mar 2017, 16:53

Donnamarie wrote:If immigrants from the six countries are posing such an imminent threat to the U.S. that this ban was needed immediately what procedures has the White House put in place to investigate the current vetting system as it stands right now.   Trumpster keeps claiming our vetting system isn't extreme enough.  No evidence though.  He doesn't need a ban to send Homeland Security officials overseas to investigate and write up a report.  Has that been done?  I mean if he is so concerned ....





Sorry DonnaM....are you talking about the peeps who have been entering the U.S for aeons?......

It does seem a bit like trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted....Many of the peeps picked up and jailed in the last 2/3 years in the U.K for terror related offences are second or third generation Brits....Suspect

So what are you gonna do?.....put huge resources into border control, where sizeable amounts of unfair travel bans are put into place.....while the interior festers - simply because OF  unfair travel bans......

It only takes a match to light a fire....Suspect...and the inexperience of youth falls hard for the wrongs done by bureaucracy even  at the best of times.....
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Post by fava Mon 20 Mar 2017, 16:56

Donnamarie wrote:If immigrants from the six countries are posing such an imminent threat to the U.S. that this ban was needed immediately what procedures has the White House put in place to investigate the current vetting system as it stands right now.   Trumpster keeps claiming our vetting system isn't extreme enough.  No evidence though.  He doesn't need a ban to send Homeland Security officials overseas to investigate and write up a report.  Has that been done?  I mean if he is so concerned ....



If you are like me, you highly doubt that there is even a WH-directed effort underway to review and strengthen vetting procedures.  Trump strategy typically very shallow.

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Post by What Would He Say Mon 20 Mar 2017, 17:00

Put simply the resources the U.S should put everything into is right here....the internet.....The border of the mind is the one that need policing.....
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Post by annemarie Mon 20 Mar 2017, 17:07

Mrs Trump said she planned to stop cyber bullying.

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Post by carolhathaway Mon 20 Mar 2017, 19:51

Annemarie,
Does that mean that she personally doesn't practise Cyber bullying anymore or that she wants to establish a program to stop it Question Question Question
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Post by Donnamarie Mon 20 Mar 2017, 20:01

fava wrote:
Donnamarie wrote:If immigrants from the six countries are posing such an imminent threat to the U.S. that this ban was needed immediately what procedures has the White House put in place to investigate the current vetting system as it stands right now.   Trumpster keeps claiming our vetting system isn't extreme enough.  No evidence though.  He doesn't need a ban to send Homeland Security officials overseas to investigate and write up a report.  Has that been done?  I mean if he is so concerned ....



If you are like me, you highly doubt that there is even a WH-directed effort underway to review and strengthen vetting procedures.  Trump strategy typically very shallow.


I would bet money that there is no review going on regarding the extreme vetting program in place.  Trump is all talk about his real concern for possible terrorists coming into our country.  It is all about the show. He wants his supporters to think he's looking out for America by signing a big Executive Order and throwing his weight around.  Big, tough authoritarian.  Well our justice system says otherwise!

Yep I would definitely think there is far more danger in what is being perpetrated on the internet by ISIS and its cohorts.  I am more apt to believe that the seeds of terrorism are growing right here in the U.S. more than I believe terrorists are going to wait out a  2-3 year vetting system to get into the U.S. and reek havoc.  The fact that there has been an increase in racial and religious discrimination since the campaign last year worries me.  Are immigrants feeling less welcomed, frustrated and worried here?  I blame Trump and his campaign of hate for that.  I don't fear people coming into our country from overseas ... or across the border.   I fear the ideas of hate being spread by certain groups here.


Last edited by Donnamarie on Mon 20 Mar 2017, 20:20; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : bad speller)
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Post by annemarie Mon 20 Mar 2017, 20:14

Well is she is like her husband it will be a case of do as I say not as I do. Melania hasn't brought it up lately, maybe she was blowing smoke like her hubby.

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Post by Donnamarie Mon 20 Mar 2017, 20:25

As a cause to undertake this would be a good one for Melania. It is a big problem. I remember before the election she made the claim that she would take on the issue if she became First Lady. But so far she has shown no passion for taking on any serious cause.
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Post by carolhathaway Mon 20 Mar 2017, 21:23

If Trump was worried about the Americans' safety, he would do everything to establish an effective law of arms because THEY kill ten thousands of people in the States every year...
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Post by LizzyNY Mon 20 Mar 2017, 23:53

Donnamarie wrote:As a cause to undertake this would be a good one for Melania.  It is a big problem.  I remember before the election she made the claim that she would take on the issue if she became First Lady. But so far she has shown no passion for taking on any serious cause.
So far she has shown no passion for taking on the role of First Lady either. If she does take on the problem of cyber bullying, she can start with her husband.
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