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Trump lawyers hope to punish Stormy Daniels with an $800K legal bill

Peter Weber
The Week
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 06:02 UTC
gavel
© Getty Images
On Monday, lawyers for President Trump asked U.S. District Judge S. James Otero to force porn actress Stormy Daniels to pay nearly $800,000 in Trump's legal fees and penalties from a defamation case Daniels lost against Trump. Charles Harder, a lawyer for Trump, asked for $390,000 in legal fees and an equal amount to deter a "repeat filer of frivolous defamation cases." Otero said that Harder's $840-an-hour rate was reasonable but suggested his 580 hours billed might be excessive; he will rule on the request later. Daniels is appealing his decision to throw out her case.

Michael Avenatti - who represents Daniels in this case and a separate one over a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen paid her during the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she said she had with Trump - called the proposed fees "absurd and outrageous," arguing that Harder "can't just pick a number out of thin air in an effort to put my client under Donald Trump's thumb and intimidate her." He told reporters the NDA case is the main attraction and predicted that the attorney's fees he exacts from Trump in that case will be a number that "dwarfs exponentially" what Trump is seeking.

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Attention

Here's why major countries are shunning the UN compact on migration

Raheem Kassam
The Daily Caller
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 04:00 UTC
Migration
© Dusan Po, Giannis Papanikos/Shutterstock
What do you do if you're a supranational behemoth with a multi-billion dollar budget coupled with a vast number of subsidiary entities that focus on migration?

If you're the U.N., you publish the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and seek to set up more supranational government entities to duplicate the work you're already doing, at a gargantuan cost to (mostly Western) taxpayers.

The report - a subject of consternation around the world, and wisely nixed by President Trump in 2017 - is due to be signed in Marrakech on December 11.

But if the latest nations to object - Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland - have anything to say about it, the document may end up in the shredders of the U.N.'s headquarters in New York.

Speaking of the agreement in late 2017, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley stated,
"Our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone ... The global approach in the New York Declaration is simply not compatible with U.S. sovereignty."
It seems the rest of the world is waking up, with a U.K. parliamentary petition now nearing 100,000 signatures in opposition to Britain becoming a signatory. Similar movements are springing up in Denmark, New Zealand and Belgium.

It's not just because the Global Compact for Migration is broadly unnecessary (U.N. agencies currently already spend up to $6bn a year on migration-related study and assistance), but it is also incredibly perverse.

Comment: UN-necessary, UN-effective, UN-enforceable, UN-acceptable.

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Handcuffs

Turkey issues arrest warrants for two Saudis regarding Khashoggi's murder


Sputnik
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 13:34 UTC
Khashoggi
© AP/Virginia Mayo/File
Jamal Khashoggi
The two Saudis held high posts in the kingdom, but were sacked after Riyadh announced that Jamal Khashoggi had been killed in a "rogue operation". Saudi Arabia insists that no members of the royal family were connected to the crime.

The Turkish Haber Turk TV channel reported that the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office has issued arrest warrants for two Saudi citizens - Ahmad Asiri, a former deputy head of Saudi intelligence and Saud al-Qahtani, a former media consultant for the crown prince. According to the TV channel, the Turkish attorney general suspects that the two orchestrated the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

It remains unclear whether Turkish prosecutors have found any new evidence that led them to believe that Asiri and al-Qahtani were responsible for the murder.

Comment: See also:

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Dig

South Africa's parliament backs land reform report - Land expropriation is a go


Aljazeera
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Ramaphosa
© Themba Hadebe/AP
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa
Opposition Democratic Alliance says it could go to court to stop proposed land reforms

South Africa's parliament has approved a report endorsing a constitutional amendment that would allow expropriation of land without compensation - a decision the main opposition party said on Tuesday it could challenge in court.

Land is a hot-button issue in South Africa where racial inequality remains entrenched more than two decades after the end of apartheid when millions among the black majority were dispossessed of their land by a white minority.

A parliamentary team last month recommended a constitutional amendment to make it possible for the state to expropriate land without compensation in the public interest.

The team's report was debated in parliament on Tuesday and approved by a majority of the members present. However, adopting the report is just one step in a long process to change the constitution to allow for land reforms.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Trump's timidity is letting Comey off the hook

Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:22 UTC
Comey
© DonkeyHotey
Comey: Wanted open hearing.
Because President Donald Trump has again pulled the rug out from under them, House Republicans face Mission Impossible on Friday when they try to hold ex-FBI Director James Comey accountable for his highly dubious authorization of surveillance on erstwhile Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Comey let go his unprecedented legal maneuver to have a court quash a subpoena for him to appear behind closed doors before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee before the Democrats take over the committee in January. The current committee chair, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), decried Comey's use of "baseless litigation" in an "attempt to run out the clock on this Congress."

The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); so the still secret FISA application "justifying" surveillance of Page is almost sure to come up.

Comey had wanted a public hearing so he could pull the ruse of refusing to respond because his answers would be classified. He has now agreed to a closed-door meeting on Friday, with a transcript, likely to be redacted, to appear soon after.

In an interview with The New York Post last Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that he could declassify Comey's damning Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant request to show how devastating those pages likely are, but said he would not do so "until they were needed," namely, if a Democratic House starts going after him. "If they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would be the best thing that would happen to me. I'm a counter-puncher and I will hit them so hard they'd never been hit like that," Trump told the paper. He added: "It's much more powerful if I do it then, because if we had done it already, it would already be yesterday's news."

Comment: See also:

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Network

China loops Portugal into One Belt One Road initiative

Zhou Jin, An Baijie
China Daily
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 19:08 UTC
Xi Jinping Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
© Xinhua
President Xi Jinping is welcomed by his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal, Dec 4, 2018.
President Xi Jinping arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, kicking off the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to the country in eight years.

Upon his arrival, Xi said that China and Portugal enjoy a traditional friendship and that their long-lasting bilateral relations have withstood the test of time, as well as changes in the international landscape.

Proper resolution of the Macao issue in 1999 set an example for nations in tackling leftover issues from history through friendly consultations, Xi said.

In 2005, China and Portugal established a comprehensive strategic partnership, and stepped up mutually beneficial cooperation that has brought tangible benefits to both peoples, the president said.
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Rocket

Tehran has no plans nor will it pursue plans to make nuclear-capable missiles - Iranian Foreign Ministry


Tasnim News Agency
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 18:48 UTC
Iran foreign ministry
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi shrugged off some Western countries' concerns over the Islamic Republic's missile program, saying Tehran has never had any plans for developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Qassemi responded to anti-Iran comments made by some Western officials as well as a request by the UK and France for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Islamic Republic's missile program.

"...The nature of Iran's missile program is completely deterrent and it is part of the country's unstoppable defense plan, and we certainly do not set our defense agenda based on the groundless concerns... expressed by some countries far from the region," he stressed.
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Sheriff

British politician releases 250 pages of seized Facebook and Zuckerberg emails after Zuckerberg no-show for Parliamentary hearing

Chris Pleasance & Tim Sculthorpe
Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 17:56 UTC
zuckerberg facebook
© The Free Thought Project
Reveals they wanted to charge companies at least $250,000 per year for access to users' data

Damian Collins, the chairman of Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said there was a 'considerable public interest' in the papers

A huge dossier of secret documents about the Facebook data scandal was published by British MPs today in defiance of a US court order.

The trove of emails and private messages, which was was seized by MP Damian Collins last month, reveals how Facebook wanted to leverage companies into spending big on advertising in return for access to user data.

Comment: Of course FB did all this (and more, no doubt). It's free to use!

But there's always a price. And in this digital age, the currency is data. Lots of data. Like, ALL your data now belongs to us.

Charging FB for selling data to Cambridge Analytica is like handing out speeding tickets at a Formula 1 race-track.

So what does that tell us?

That this whole spiel is thoroughly contrived because the spooks and investors behind FB are pissed off because social media users on FB and other platforms 'snuck behind their backs' to share 'fake news' (actually, far more real than the 'news' that comes through official bullhorns), which contributed to informing them and electing Donald Trump.

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Arrow Down

Leave.eu branded 'anti-Semitic' for pointing out Soros interference in Brexit


RT
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 18:19 UTC
ALeave EU campaign
© AFP / Leon Neal
A Leave.EU campaign poster
Leave.eu, the Brexit campaign group co-founded by Aaron Banks have been accused of indulging in anti-Semitism, after tweeting a comment from a Tory Brexiteer MP with an image of George Soros, the pro-remain billionaire financier.

The organisation, which campaigned for the UK to leave the EU during the lead up to the 2016 referendum, published the controversial tweet in which they warn "there's a concerted effort to thwart the will of the people."


Attached to the tweet is an image of Maria Caulfield, beside a ghost-like image of George Soros, and a quote from the MP, reading: "...the powerful elite seem to know best and openly mock the rest of us."

Comment: It's not anti-semitic not to like someone who happens to be Jewish. Soros publicly announced he would fund anti-Brexit initiatives - both legal and PR ones. So it's not defamation to put his name/face to that campaign. This woman, by playing the 'anti-Semitism' card and linking Soros to the 'Jews run the world' conspiracy theory, is herself being anti-Semitic.

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Rocket

US foolishly gives ultimatum to Russia on INF treaty - Putin calls it 'ill-considered'


RT
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 17:22 UTC
RT-21M Pioneer missile and launcher
© Wikipedia
RT-21M Pioneer missile and launcher
The US ultimatum on the INF treaty is part and parcel of what Washington throws at Russia - from the Kerch Strait and the Skripals, to meddling in elections - that is not constructive, former American diplomat Jim Jatras said.

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has given Moscow an ultimatum over its alleged violations of a key nuclear missile treaty, saying Russia has two months to show it is complying with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) before Washington pulls out.

While the US has previously accused Russia of building missiles in violation of the treaty, Moscow denies all the allegations, and in turn claims American missile defense systems in Europe, officially installed to counter Iran and North Korea, could easily be used offensively against Russia.

Comment: The day after Pompeo delivered the ultimatum, Putin responded:
"They are looking for someone to blame for this...ill-considered step," Putin told journalists in Moscow, adding that "no evidence of violations on our part has been provided."

It is "simplest" for the United States to say, 'Russia is to blame,'" Putin said. "This is not so. We are against the destruction of this treaty."

"What will be the response from our side? Very simple: We will also do this," he said, indicating that Russia will no longer abide by the treaty if the United States withdraws.
Putin also made the reasonable claim that the US had long planned to back out of the INF Treaty and was seeking justifications for doing so:
"Mr Pompeo's statement came a bit late," Vladimir Putin responded on Wednesday. "At first, the American side did announce its intent to withdraw from the INF Treaty, and then they started seeking justifications as to why they should do it."

Congress authorized funding research and development efforts to build new missile systems "before Washington announced withdrawal from the INF," Putin believes. "The decision had been made some time ago, but quietly - they thought we wouldn't notice it." However, developing new types of short-and intermediate-range missiles was an open secret as "it was set out in the Pentagon's budget."

"Next, they started to look for someone to blame," the Russian leader went on. "The easiest thing is [to tell] the Western public that 'Russia is guilty'."

"They weren't shy [about it], they calmly pulled out of it - by the way, without any reference to anything," the President recalled. He likened it to what is happening now, adding that Americans "are figuring out who to blame for this reckless move."
The Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov pointed out that countries hosting US systems would become targets for Russia if the US leaves INF:
"As military professionals, you should understand that not the US territory, but the countries hosting US systems with intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will become targets for Russia's retaliatory steps"


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