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Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Lost Soul: Trump - Famous for the Wrong Reasons

For as long as history remembers Donald Trump, it will be a day that will live in infamy. ...

 Trump-Putin summit: US president under fire over poll meddling comments
BBC 
There has been a barrage of criticism in the US after President Donald Trump
defended Russia over claims of interference in the 2016 elections. At a summit with Russian President ..



'Putin's poodle': newspapers declare Trump a traitor after Helsinki summit | US news | The Guardian



Here Are Five Ways the Trump Administration Could Be the Death of FDR’s New Deal AlterNet. Is it churlish to point out that the gutting of many of these programs long predated Trump– and had bipartisan support?
TRUMP’S BREXIT BLAST I told May how to do Brexit but she wrecked it — the US trade deal is off, says Donald Trump The Sun. The deck: “In a world-exclusive interview with The Sun, the US President said Theresa May had ignored his advice by opting for a soft Brexit strategy.” Moi: Must be read to be believed.
The Helsinki Summit story has eaten the world, so I’ll just have to go with it. I’ve broken the links into sections. About the Helsinki presser:
Transcript: Trump And Putin’s Joint Press Conference NPR. This seems to be the most problematic passage:
TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?
With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
My people came to me, Dan Coates, came to me and some others they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia.
I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server but I have, I have confidence in both parties.
I really believe that this will probably go on for a while but I don’t think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC?
Where are those servers? They’re missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton’s emails? 33,000 emails gone, just gone. I think in Russia they wouldn’t be gone so easily.
I think it’s a disgrace that we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s thirty three thousand e-mails.
I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer.
He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer. Ok? Thank you.
I find myself musing that “incredible” is a word of many meanings, though no doubt puffery is intended.
Trump refuses to blame Putin over election meddling FT. “Mr Putin encouraged Mr Mueller to send an extradition request….” One hasn’t already been sent? If only for form’s sake? Odd.
#NeverTrump Goes to War John Robb, Global Guerillas. “[Mueller’s] indictment put Trump on the on the horns of a dilemma. He could either support the national security establishment’s conclusion and diminish his electoral legitimacy or he could disparage the legitimacy of the US national security establishment while standing next to Putin. He chose the second course…. The #NeverTrump network will claim it is the primary protector of the United States against an illegitimate President. In online collaboration with the #resistance, disavowal of Trump will become a public litmus test.” If Robb is correct, Trump is in trouble. It doesn’t matter what the Democrats do before the midterms (and maybe not after) but Republicans like to get stuff done. The wee problem is that the Republican base — who the Republicans genuinely fear — either doesn’t care about the national security globalizers or sees them as enemies. That’s a hard circle to square.
Republicans to watch:
In rebuke to Trump, senators may vote to side with US intel community CNN. So that would clarify where the real power lies, wouldn’t it? Note that Cornyn isn’t on the list.
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About the Meuller investigation:
A Spirited, Substantive Debate on the Trump-Putin Summit, Russia, and U.S. Politics Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept. Transcripts here and here. Both parts are very good.
Trump’s Stupid ‘Where Is the DNC Server?’ Conspiracy Theory, Explained Vox. Here is a sample: “It is widely believed that CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC to respond to the hack, gave an identical image of some of the servers to the FBI, which experts I’ve spoken to say would be more useful than giving the FBI a physical server itself.” Notice how much work “identical” is doing?
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Related stories:
The Justice Department just charged a Russian national with trying to infiltrate the NRA Vox. Given that the Russian national communicated with her handler through Twitter DM (!), the alleged offenses began in 2015 under the Obama administration, and the organization infiltrated was the NRA, it’s hard to see this as anything other than (a) dogpiling on Helsinki and (b) midterms related, since the NRA may become an issue there.
Mueller Indictment Adds Urgency to Securing 2018 Midterm Elections WSJ. No mention, of course, of hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public, which would mean the DHS wouldn’t need to participate in the balloting process at all.
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Unrelated incidents:

NBP Neue Privat Bank (Category 1 Swiss Bank) Reported Ready to Settle with U.S. Prosecutors 

Finews reports that U.S. federal prosecutors have offered NBP Neue Privat Bank, Zurich, a nonprosecution agreement for payment of $5 million.  Peter Hody, Swiss Bank to Settle U.S. Tax Probe (Finews.com 7/13/18), here.

Chronicle of Higher Education, Want to Kill Tenure? Be Careful What You Wish For:
The trustee hadn’t said a word for an hour as the board of the small Midwestern liberal-arts college debated ways to turn around its flagging fortunes. But during a lull in the conversation, he finally spoke up. As David Strauss recalls, "He looked at everybody as if we’d all been fools, and said, ‘Well, the solution is easy. Get rid of tenure.’"

Government Pushes the Envelope on the Meaning of Willfulness in FBAR Willful Civil Penalty 

A colleague called my attention to the Government's motion and brief for summary judgment in Kimble v. United States (CFC Dkt. no. 17-421 T), here.  The case is an FBAR willful civil penalty refund suit.  In the brief, the Government makes bold claims about the standard for what it must prove to establish a persons liability for the FBAR willful civil penalty.  The docket entries are here.  Mrs. Kimble has not yet filed a response.  I offer the following based on the Government's brief.
at