A local Boston columnists who makes his money by belittling Hispanics and government workers to his white red-neck audience spends time at the Trump resort in Mar a Largo trying to get a pat on the head from Trump. The irony of the whole matter is this columnist lives large and attacks those who live like he does while his audience lives the lives of begrudging grumblers who believe he is one of them.
It so happened he was there at the time Trump ordered the U.S. military to kill the Iranian General Soleimani. When he first saw Trump about “9 o’clock,” on “a warm idyllic evening in south Florida” he described him as “cool, calm and collected..”
Trump called him over but the columnist said he mentioned that just “to show how uneventful the evening seemed . . . .” He went on to say: “If the president was anxious or nervous about the strike he’d just ordered, he was surely hiding it well.”
This was written as a paean to Trump with the implication that after having ordered this killing we should admire him because in effect he seemed to not have the least concern about it.
Trump proceeded to have his dinner in the company of the Republican minority leader of the House apparently oblivious of what he had just done. I can only picture one other person having this detached disposition after such a significant action and that is Alfred E. Newman with his “What Me Worry?” approach to life.
As you all know Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us that there is a season.for everything: For instance: “A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time of war, and a time of peace.”
After ordering the killing of a man whose death might lead to the deaths of many others it would seem to be a time for deep reflection and not a the time for business as usual. Would it be too much to expect of Trump to understand the enormity of his action and not proceed as if nothing eventful had happened.
Trump’s detachment from the effects of his decision and his lack of empathy is close to astounding. The morning after we are told of his nonchalance he went out for his 18-hole round of golf. Meanwhile the world trembles believing this decision is a prelude to a war with Iran.
While he was playing golf there were 3,500 American troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, whose lives were far from uneventful. They had been ordered to deploy to Iraq in 18 hours Their lives were put in an uproar; 18-hours to say goodbye to wives, husbands and children and arrange for their safety and security. They went off without a word of thanks or acknowledgement from Trump who was too busy on the golf course.
We are told we are now safer because Trump ordered General Soleimani’s killing while at the same time we are sending more troops to Iraq and telling Americans in Iraq to flee from that country. Sadly, we have Vice President Pence justifying Trump’s killing of Soleimani by asserting something no one ever heard of before that he was responsible for transporting “9 of 11” terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 through Iraq.
Lies aside, Trump’s apparent inability to perceive the significance of his action and to go on as if nothing eventful occurred is frightening. A normal president would had returned to the White House and have spoken to the nation about his actions. Trump goes on fiddling.
A couple of days ago I wrote about his enormous gamble. The ball is now in Iran’s hands with Trump going all in that hoping he can scare them out of responding. Apparently he sees his bet may have been a bad one.
He has now upped the ante. He tweeted advising the leaders of Iran what he plans if it “strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
He has now committed us to an all out war that will cause thousands of civilian deaths if Iran responds in any manner to his thoughtless action. Was the killing of Soleimani worth it? One has to wonder whether he will conduct the war while playing on the golf course. That’s something Alfred E. Neuman would do. One also has to wonder at the local columnist who didn’t realize how out-of-touch he made Trump look.
If the war on terror is a war, he was a soldier in that war and therefore was a target.
There are no time outs in terrorism.
https://forensicnews.net/2020/01/03/trump-deutsche-bank-loans-underwritten-by-russian-state-owned-bank-whistleblower-told-fbi/
Trump Deutsche Bank Loans Underwritten By Russian State-Owned Bank, Whistleblower Told FBI
January 3, 2020 8:44 pm
By Scott Stedman, Eric Levai and Bobby DeNault
Deutsche Bank’s loans to Donald Trump were underwritten by Russian state-owned VTB Bank, according to the whistleblower whose collection of thousands of bank documents and internal communications have captured the recent attention of federal investigators.
Val Broeksmit acquired the emails and files of his late father, Deutsche Bank executive William S. Broeksmit, after Broeksmit tragically took his own life in 2014.
Val informed the FBI in late 2019 about his knowledge of VTB’s underwriting of Trump’s loans, information he attributed to a network of sources connected to the bank he cultivated over the past five-plus years.
Underwriting is the process where financial institutions assess the ability of potential customers to fulfill their obligations. Underwriters have access to “credit and financial information, as well as the state of the [property],” according to US News, though underwriters can sometimes be unknown to the person seeking the loan.
Forensic News is not confirming the underlying claim that VTB underwrote Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank.
Forensic News can, however, confirm that at least some of Trump’s loans were issued by a bank subsidiary with business ties to VTB. That subsidiary owed more than $48 million to VTB in 2013 and documents suggest the subsidiary continued doing business with VTB even after the bank was sanctioned in 2014.
One federal agent working on the Deutsche Bank investigation indicated that VTB is under scrutiny in the FBI criminal probe. “We know VTB very well,” the investigator said on background. That person did not comment directly on the Trump loans.
Val Broeksmit’s full statement is below:
The Russian state bank VTB underwrote loans to Donald Trump via Deutsche Bank. Over the course of Trump’s relationship with DB, an inordinate amount of questionable, mismanaged & risky loans approved by Deutsche Bank to Trump required his Personal Guarantee which, over time, also lost its value.
Trump’s team at DB sought out creative ways to circumvent the varied protections DB’s compliance team institutionally implemented, & whether by happenstance or by design Trump’s loans became underwritten by Russia’s own VTB.
I informed the FBI of this in 2019.
Val Broeksmit
For Val, much has changed over the past half-decade. As the frontman and founder in the indie band Bikini Robot Army, Val never imagined spending his days combing through highly complex financial records of one of the world’s largest banks. But after his father’s passing, Val’s life took a radical turn.
Val’s search for justice and answers, fueled by personal vengeance against the bank, motivated him to dig through a cache of over 21,500 emails and other documents from his father’s accounts.
Inside, Val found thousands of emails between his father, Chief Risk Optimization Officer of Deutsche Bank, and other executives, along with attachments containing sensitive documents about Deutsche Bank’s financial operations.
Now, Val has decided to go on the record with Forensic News to share exclusive details about what he told federal investigators.
He says that a recent New York Times profile, written by Times Editor David Enrich, “completely fucked me over.” Multiple characterizations of Val as a fame-seeking opioid-user who allegedly sought cash for the documents shocked and surprised him, given that he and Enrich collaborated for nearly five years deciphering Deutsche Bank’s web. “Shocked and surprised doesn’t even begin to describe it. It felt like the rug was pulled out from under you and you fall, and fall, and fall,” Val said.
Enrich stands by his reporting, saying, “I think the article portrayed Val accurately and fairly. I know and feel badly that he didn’t like it, and I hope that he has a more positive reaction to his and his father’s prominent roles in my forthcoming book.”
An FBI source called that New York Times article “not totally accurate,” though the person declined to comment further.
Forensic News met with Val over a period of several months and obtained some of Val’s documents and testimony.
Background
Val first contacted the DOJ in Spring 2016, stating, “I’m writing in hopes of speaking to someone at the DOJ in reference to the evidence I have showing major fraud at one of the World’s largest banks.”
More than two years later, Val got a response from the FBI, who immediately flew agents from New York to meet Val in Los Angeles in order to discuss his Deutsche Bank knowledge.
FBI officials are conducting an ongoing money
Also see
https://ricochet.com/709964/the-dc-bubble-and-the-fbi/
The DC Bubble and the FBI
Mostly retired guy. For some more information you can go to my blog Things Have Changed. About my avatar: In these days of diversity and multiculturalism, I wanted to ensure no microaggressions were caused. Picking an avatar that was non-threatening, flexible, and sexually ambiguous seemed to fit the bill. I hope I did not offend anyone with my choice.
| January 4, 2020
I’ve just finished making my way through “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation
“Those Iranians are pissin’ me off. They’re behind everything. Let’s bomb Baghdad!”
“After ordering the killing of a man whose death might lead to the deaths of many others …” could just as appropriately be stated “After ordering the killing of a man whose life has lead to the deaths of many others …”.
Trump takes a huge step forward in winning election in 2020. Trump won every county in Florida except Palm Beach, Broward and Dade. Howie Carr is comical but so is the notion of Liz Warren as President a woman who has never really done anything.So many highly educated people in New England who could not possibly be more out of touch with other parts of the country. Maybe the next article with deal with what many thought impossible, Bill getting outcoached by a former player on Sunday, I would never read that in the Globe.
Matt’s comments always give us good food for thought.
We hope Trump’s decisions deter future conflicts and lessen conflicts and lessen American casualties in the Middle East.
1. From the same set of facts, folks draw different conclusions, paint different pictures, disagree as to innocence or guilt. I was reading several analyses of Dylan Thomas’s great poem, “The Hunchback in the Park”, and the first few commentators I read got it all wrong. They said the poem was about the disabled, the lonely, the homeless, a hunchback who lived in a dog kennel, who sat by himself in the park each day, and was teased by the truant children. Two commentators even said “the gate keeper” didn’t like the hunchback, misjudging a simple phrase that the truant children ran past the gate keeper. One commentator I agreed with wholeheartedly: he said the poem was about Art, the Artist, the Creative mind, the Hunchback who visualized the beauty in life and all day created, sculpted, carved a beautiful figurine in the park. The hunchback thought and acted differently.
The point is there are different views of Trump. Howie Carr, who has dinner at Mar el Largo, and hangs around hoping Trump beckons him to his table for a few minutes, portrays Trump as “cool, calm and collected.” A psychiatrist at Yale thinks Trumps should be locked up in a mental hospital. She’s written a book with twenty other shrinks describing Trump’s supposed mental incompetence. She’s been condemned by other psychiatrists. She’s a disgrace to the psychiatric profession. If a man as successful and competent as Trump throughout his seventy years can be declared unfit, so can we all by these pseudo-shrinks who purport to diagnose from afar, like mind-readers, like psychics, mentalists on stage.
I see Trump’s flaws: too crass at times. But, overall, I view Trump as a good decision maker. The good economy, the good trade deals, and his appointment of good judges confirms my opinion. His pro-life and pro-America-first positions also encourage me. He recognizes no one is above the law, not even illegal immigrants. He’s promised to keep us out of wars, and I hope he does.
2. During the early years of the Korean war (1950-53), Harry Truman played the piano. As vice-president Harry played the piano for soldiers during World War II. (Trump visited soldiers in Iraq this past Christmas. A majority of servicemen support Trump.) Ike played “over 800 rounds of golf” throughout his presidency (1953-61). He played golf in 1953 even while threatening China he’d use nuclear weapons unless China agreed to peace terms in Korea.
So, dining, playing golf and playing the piano are not evidence that you are fiddling while Rome burns. Although you can paint that picture.
3. Ever since the Gulf of Tonkin and more so since Weapons of Mass Destruction, we all should be wary of America’s war mongers. This time, we hope President Trump has made the right decision, and the long-term effect will be the lessening of conflicts and casualties. Only time will tell.
Matt, welcome back, Happy New Year, Hope all is well