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WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15) introduced Prevent Corrupting Foreign Influence Act on Monday to significantly improve upon the existing ban on America’s highest elected officials receiving financial benefits from foreign powers.
The new bill would make it a criminal offense for the President, the Vice President, their families, or companies in which they have at least half-ownership to accept or receive anything of value from a foreign power or from any company that is more than 50 percent controlled by a foreign power.
“Unlike other Presidents, Donald Trump has failed to distance himself from his private business interests while serving our nation, and so he and his family are getting richer from Trump companies that receive money and benefits from foreign powers,” Swalwell said. “Americans deserve to know that their President is working for them and only them, not having his own wallet fattened by foreign interests.”
Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used blind trusts to isolate their business interests while in office. President Barack Obama didn’t only because he didn’t hold any interests or assets that could present a conflict of interests.
The Constitution already prohibits government employees – including elected officials, but not their relatives – from receiving “emoluments” or gifts from foreign states except as allowed by Congress. Current statutes implement this ban, provide reporting for gifts which are allowed, and provide for civil penalties for violations.
The Prevent Corrupting Foreign Influence Act would improve upon current law. First, it would expand the prohibition’s scope from merely gifts to include “anything of value.” Second, it would expand the prohibition’s application – for sources, to include companies controlled by foreign countries, and for recipients, to include the President’s and Vice President’s immediate family members and companies they control. Third, it would make violations subject to criminal penalties.
Swalwell was inspired to draft the bill after a Chinese government-controlled company – the Metallurgical Corporation of China – loaned $500 million to benefit a massive development project in Indonesia, called Lido City, in which the Trump organization is involved. At the same time, President Trump has eased sanctions on Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE.
Swalwell also noted the Trump family companies’ long history of Russian investments and banking connections – a cause for concern as the President charts an inexplicably close relationship with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin despite that nation’s interference in America’s elections. Though the new bill would not criminalize past financial arrangements, it would ensure no such relationships continue.
Events like these demonstrate a danger that foreign states can use a web of connections between President Trump, his family members, and their family business to exert improper influence over official decisions.
“It’s long past time that Congress takes a meaningful stand against any effort to buy and sell our White House,” Swalwell said. “America’s Presidents and Vice Presidents must not enrich themselves from foreign sources – they should hold themselves to a higher standard, and if they won’t, it’s our job to do it for them.”
Eh I don't know this will receive 0 tractions probably from the republican cacus.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
Prestor Jon wrote: The Democrats let Hillary run for POTUS and ignored that she tried to help cover up Bill’s sexual misconduct in the White Hkuse during his presidency and viciously attacks his accusers.
'Dems overlooked something 20 years' ago is hopleless bs and you know it is.
If it was revealed that a Dem in congress had raped children and then used campaign funds to make pay offs, with senior party officials choosing to look the other way, then any statement that Dems had some serious problems would be obvious and 100% true. And if you saw some liberals saying 'both sides because that's what Hastert did a decade ago' you'd know it was pure crap.
But here you are, going even further back than Hastert to try and excuse crimes far more serious than Clinton's (and yes, Bill Clinton's actions were serious, but they're not on the scale of looking the other way while children are molested). So come on, be honest, just accept that there are times when the parties aren't magical mirrors of each other. Some times one is much worse than the other.
Then the DNC allowed an individual, not just any individual but Hillary Clinton the frontrunning nominee, to write a check and effectively buy the DNC for the remainder of the campaign season because the DNC was woefully underfunded.
This is deranged bs and you embaress yourself by repeating it.
Not seeing how any of that corroborates your assertion that the Democrats Force sleaze has out of their Party.
The post I responded said, plain as day in its its first line, 'talking in terms of sexual misconduct'. You ignore that because when should a little honesry and accuracy get in the way of of attacking soneone? t.
Yeah, I still don't get the "abolish ICE" movement. The job still has to be done, so is the intent to just split up ICE's duties amongst other agencies? Rename the agency?
Remember ICE was only formed in 2003. Before then its work was done by other govt agencies, often at a state or county level. And they were often done with a little more discretion and less zeal.
That said, I'm not in favour of abolishing ICE. I think liberals are trying to have it both ways, talking about the reduction in illegal immigration in the last 15 years, without noticing when ICE was formed and thinking maybe they were part of the reason why.
But this is Gillibrand. She's the Ted Cruz of the Democrats, her whole strategy is to never get outflanked from the left. She isn't alone, but this isn't a serious, mainstream thing.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2018/07/24 06:42:41
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Russian Hackers Reach U.S. Utility Control Rooms, Homeland Security Officials Say
Hackers working for Russia claimed “hundreds of victims” last year in a giant and long-running campaign that put them inside the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities where they could have caused blackouts, federal officials said. They said the campaign likely is continuing.
The Russian hackers, who worked for a shadowy state-sponsored group previously identified as Dragonfly or Energetic Bear, broke into supposedly secure, “air-gapped” or isolated networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of key vendors who had trusted relationships with the power companies, said officials at the Department of Homeland Security.
“They got to the point where they could have thrown switches” and disrupted power flows, said Jonathan Homer, chief of industrial-control-system analysis for DHS.
DHS has been warning utility executives with security clearances about the Russian group’s threat to critical infrastructure since 2014. But the briefing on Monday was the first time that DHS has given out information in an unclassified setting with as much detail. It continues to withhold the names of victims but now says there were hundreds of victims, not a few dozen as had been said previously.
It also said some companies still may not know they have been compromised, because the attacks used credentials of actual employees to get inside utility networks, potentially making the intrusions more difficult to detect.
Experts have been warning about the Russian threat for some time.
“They’ve been intruding into our networks and are positioning themselves for a limited or widespread attack,” said Michael Carpenter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, who now is a senior director at the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “They are waging a covert war on the West.”
Russia has denied targeting critical infrastructure.
Mr. Homer said the cyberattack, which surfaced in the U.S. in the spring of 2016 and continued throughout 2017, exploited relationships that utilities have with vendors who have special access to update software, run diagnostics on equipment and perform other services that are needed to keep millions of pieces of gear in working order.
The attackers began by using conventional tools—spear-phishing emails and watering-hole attacks, which trick victims into entering their passwords on spoofed websites—to compromise the corporate networks of suppliers, many of whom were smaller companies without big budgets for cybersecurity.
Once inside the vendor networks, they pivoted to their real focus: the utilities. It was a relatively easy process, in many cases, for them to steal credentials from vendors and gain direct access to utility networks.
Then they began stealing confidential information. For example, the hackers vacuumed up information showing how utility networks were configured, what equipment was in use and how it was controlled. They also familiarized themselves with how the facilities were supposed to work, because attackers “have to learn how to take the normal and make it abnormal” to cause disruptions, said Mr. Homer.
Their goal, he said: to disguise themselves as “the people who touch these systems on a daily basis.”
DHS is conducting the briefings—four are planned—hoping for more industry cooperation. One thing the agency is trying to learn is whether there are new infections, and whether the Russians have figured out ways to defeat security enhancements like multifactor authentication.
In addition, DHS is looking for evidence that the Russians are automating their attacks, which investigators worry could presage a large increase in hacking efforts. “To scale, they’re eventually going to have to automate,” Mr. Homer said.
“You’re seeing an uptick in the way government is sharing threats and vulnerabilities,” said Scott Aaronson, a cybersecurity expert for Edison Electric Institute, the utility industry trade group. He said information sharing and penetration detection have gotten much better since the Dragonfly attacks began.
It isn’t yet clear whether the hackers used their access to prepare the battlefield for some future, devastating blow, investigators said. For example, many experts fear that a skilled technician could use unfettered access to change some equipment’s settings. That could make them unreliable in unexpected ways, causing utility engineers to do things that would result in extensive damage and potentially lengthy blackouts.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
On reflection, it's probably best that the USA doesn't go to war in the short term. You want Trump and this shower on incompetents heading up a military campaign.
Trump would probably do a Hot Shots Part 2 and invade Minnesota
"Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?" - Tom Kirby, CEO, Games Workshop Ltd
Not really. This sort of probing happens quite often, too often to start lobbing bombs over. If anything now would be the worst time to consider it an act of war as your system has proven gaps in its defense. Better to just keep preparing for when an actual war breaks out.
Sorry for my spelling. I'm not a native speaker and a dyslexic.
1750 pts Blood Specters
2000 pts Imperial Fists
6000 pts Disciples of Fate
3500 pts Peridia Prime
2500 pts Prophets of Fate
Lizardmen 3000 points Tlaxcoatl Temple-City
Tomb Kings 1500 points Sekhra (RIP)
No, an act of friendship. Russia is helping the US to improve its cyber security by showing where it is weak.
But they did not actually attack, so is definitely not an act of war. Just posturing for an attack is not an act of war, the US does it all the time as well. And this is especially difficult because you can't prove that the Russian state was behind it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 11:50:37
No, an act of friendship. Russia is helping the US to improve its cyber security by showing where it is weak.
Yeah, I'm sure the Russians were so concerned about inefficient US power companies, they were probably losing sleep over it, and wanted to help the poor and the needy of America.
"Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?" - Tom Kirby, CEO, Games Workshop Ltd
No, an act of friendship. Russia is helping the US to improve its cyber security by showing where it is weak.
Yeah, I'm sure the Russians were so concerned about inefficient US power companies, they were probably losing sleep over it, and wanted to help the poor and the needy of America.
Da Boss wrote: Oh man, I sure am glad that dangerous Warmonger Hilary Clinton didn't get elected. The US might be on course to have a war if she did!
Seriously, Iran should get nuclear weapons. It is being threatened with nuclear annihilation by an unstable lunatic.
So you are saying you wish for an islamic extremist state, that hate you, me, our allies and our freedom to get nuclear weapons because president Trump said mean things ? I disagree with him, he shouldn't scream like that on tweeter, even if it is legitimate (iran, an ennemy country should not threaten freedom and America, they are responsible. Even if we all know they won't do anything, it is still aggression) he should not loose controle like this, but I consider mean word on the internet to be less scary than terrorist with nuclear weapons.
You should be ashamed, and support our allies in this dangerous era we are living in.
We are not allies with the US any more. Trump has declared the EU his greatest global foe. So, there's that.
I don't care that Iran is Islamic. They do not hate me, that is ridiculous. They don't hate "my freedom" either. Come on.
I am talking from a rational perspective for the Iranian people. They would be best served by getting nuclear weapons. I have come to the conclusion that since the hypocrite countries which currently hold nuclear weapons refuse to disarm and are even increasing their arsenals, and they disrespect and bully those countries without nuclear weapons, it is only rational for those of us without weapons to acquire them so that we are respected and treated properly.
If France, the US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and the UK don't like it, then perhaps they should have behaved with more respect and honour toward other countries.
Dude, stop hijacking my thoughts (and presenting them with far greater eloquence than I ever could)
Collective defence means that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.
The principle of collective defence is enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
NATO has taken collective defence measures on several occasions, for instance in response to the situation in Syria and in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
NATO has standing forces on active duty that contribute to the Alliance’s collective defence efforts on a permanent basis.
sure is lucky we don't have some big blustering idiot stomping about undermining NATO eh ?
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
On reflection, it's probably best that the USA doesn't go to war in the short term. You want Trump and this shower on incompetents heading up a military campaign.
Trump would probably do a Hot Shots Part 2 and invade Minnesota
Saint Mattis might have some words with you about being called a "shower of incompetents".
Of all the people in Trump's administration who would know the folly of invading Iran, it would be him...
And yet, his silence on this is deafening...
John Bolton, however, has had plenty to say...
"Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?" - Tom Kirby, CEO, Games Workshop Ltd
I think Mattis is very much the lone firefighter trying to contain a forest fire. All of his efforts are aimed at containment, and he knows that if he goes, the whole forest goes.
And we've seen what happens to other officials who publicly speak against Trump. So, yeah, I very much want that last firefighter on the job, even if he has to do it in silence.
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
d-usa wrote: It’s also interesting to watch the guy whose name is on the Hotel leases from the government and whose government advisors tell people to buy his family’s crap on live TV complain about people “monetizing public service”.
Or his numerous and repeated trips to Trump owned estates and locations.....
Or his wife's lawsuit claiming that negative publicity would result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost "business opportunities" in connection with being the First Lady....
Or his son-in-law negotiating loans to his and his family's companies while on diplomatic missions for the US government.....
Or his own and his daughters companies being exempt (in part) from the infamous tariffs.....
Or.....
Well, next to all of Trump's other flaws, him using his office to unfairly benefit his business empire seems rather minor to be honest. Which says a lot about Trump.
After all, its the Latin American Banana Republic way.Just ask Brazil.
Automatically Appended Next Post: CNN reporting hundreds of parents potentially deported without their kids.
WHAT IS THIS bs?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 13:55:22
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
CNN reporting hundreds of parents potentially deported without their kids.
WHAT IS THIS bs?
It's painfully clear that this administration has no clear policy goals and is incapable of putting together and execution plan and looking more than 3 minutes in the future, so when they thought this whole thing would make a good "deterrence" policy, they never planned on how to actually handle the kids once they separated them.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 14:42:21
IRON WITHIN, IRON WITHOUT.
New Heavy Gear Log! Also...Grey Knights! The correct pronunciation is Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers, "Astra Militarum" and "Tempestus Scions" are something you'll find at Hogwarts.
Frazzled wrote: CNN reporting hundreds of parents potentially deported without their kids.
WHAT IS THIS bs?
This bs is what a majority of Republican voters support.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
A Town Called Malus wrote: The result of Republican governance after decades of dog-whistle racial identity politics.
Blow the dog whistles hard enough for long enough, you attract a lot of dogs. Sooner or later those dogs organise their own factions within the party, and start taking up minor committee positions. Then sooner or later they start running their own candidates, and win the odd primary or two. Then a black man wins the presidency and tries to expand healthcare, and the dogs go absolutely flying rodent gak.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 14:51:25
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Trump's goals are to fulfil the campaign promises he made to attract the various constituencies (evangelical white Christians, anti-gun control people, and so on) who make up his core support.
He actually is quite successful in this, as shown by his increasing approval rating among Republican voters.
The problem is that a number of the goals his policies aim at are actively harmful in different ways. E.g. Blocking legal abortion will simply increase back-street abortion, rejecting clean energy will increase the danger of climate change, tariff wars will damage economic growth, and so on and on.
Kilkrazy wrote: He actually is quite successful in this, as shown by his increasing approval rating among Republican voters.
Trump's growing approval among Republicans in polls might be somewhat misleading. Thing is, while his approval is going up, the number of people identifying as Republican has dropped by about 10% over his presidency. This is because people who didn't identify as Republican but love Trump are much more likely to start identifying with the party, while voters who identified as Republican but hated Trump are now much more likely to stop identifying as Republican. So as Trump has gone from 80 to 88 favourability among Republicans, the same poll will show identification as Republican going from 29 to 26%.
There's a lot of debate about how much this effect is driving results. While the theory is sound, without polls of people who were known to have self-identified as Republican or not in previous polls, it can't be assumed to be an established mechanism.
The problem is that a number of the goals his policies aim at are actively harmful in different ways. E.g. Blocking legal abortion will simply increase back-street abortion, rejecting clean energy will increase the danger of climate change, tariff wars will damage economic growth, and so on and on.
Yep, the thing about Trump is he completely uninterested in the actual impacts of his policies. There was a pretty strong rumour going around that Trump's ALL CAPS Iran tweet was just Trump looking for some meat for his base to move past discussions on Russia. Or moving the Israeli embassy, which is something both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates had promised to various voting blocs in the past but never had any intent of actually doing. Because as well as achieving nothing useful, it also gave the US less to bargain with Israel for to bring them to the table with Palestine, and would also cause a whole lot of anger that was likely to get people killed. But Trump just doesn't care about any of that, he just does what the various groups that make up his base want.
Which has produced a kind of weird dynamic where Trump is in his own way keeping his promises, sort of. I mean there's the impossible promises like cheaper, better healthcare for more people that he never even tried to keep. But there's also lots of other promises, the kind made by lots of presidential candidates before Trump, that no-one else would have actually followed through on.
The Trans-pacific is probably the classic example. Everyone abandoned that thing during the 2016 election. But any other candidate, excepting Sanders, would have flipped on it and signed on and pushed it through congress as best they could, because for all the political theatre, they all know TPT was a great new strategy for first restricting China, and one day making China sign on to a new set of trading rules they couldn't exploit. But Trump didn't care about the actual value of the deal.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 15:49:31
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Even if Trump's increasing popularity is caused by a shrinking base, he will keep on doing what he is doing until the day he goes to a rally and gets booed.
On reflection, it's probably best that the USA doesn't go to war in the short term. You want Trump and this shower on incompetents heading up a military campaign.
Trump would probably do a Hot Shots Part 2 and invade Minnesota
\
Probably worse they'd probably sack chicago and claim victory in the war against terror.
With trumps shrinking base he is going to try and do something to rally more support. the guy has more rallies than a High School Football.
Kilkrazy wrote: He actually is quite successful in this, as shown by his increasing approval rating among Republican voters.
Trump's growing approval among Republicans in polls might be somewhat misleading. Thing is, while his approval is going up, the number of people identifying as Republican has dropped by about 10% over his presidency. This is because people who didn't identify as Republican but love Trump are much more likely to start identifying with the party, while voters who identified as Republican but hated Trump are now much more likely to stop identifying as Republican. So as Trump has gone from 80 to 88 favourability among Republicans, the same poll will show identification as Republican going from 29 to 26%.
There's a lot of debate about how much this effect is driving results. While the theory is sound, without polls of people who were known to have self-identified as Republican or not in previous polls, it can't be assumed to be an established mechanism.
The problem is that a number of the goals his policies aim at are actively harmful in different ways. E.g. Blocking legal abortion will simply increase back-street abortion, rejecting clean energy will increase the danger of climate change, tariff wars will damage economic growth, and so on and on.
Yep, the thing about Trump is he completely uninterested in the actual impacts of his policies. There was a pretty strong rumour going around that Trump's ALL CAPS Iran tweet was just Trump looking for some meat for his base to move past discussions on Russia. Or moving the Israeli embassy, which is something both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates had promised to various voting blocs in the past but never had any intent of actually doing. Because as well as achieving nothing useful, it also gave the US less to bargain with Israel for to bring them to the table with Palestine, and would also cause a whole lot of anger that was likely to get people killed. But Trump just doesn't care about any of that, he just does what the various groups that make up his base want.
Which has produced a kind of weird dynamic where Trump is in his own way keeping his promises, sort of. I mean there's the impossible promises like cheaper, better healthcare for more people that he never even tried to keep. But there's also lots of other promises, the kind made by lots of presidential candidates before Trump, that no-one else would have actually followed through on.
The Trans-pacific is probably the classic example. Everyone abandoned that thing during the 2016 election. But any other candidate, excepting Sanders, would have flipped on it and signed on and pushed it through congress as best they could, because for all the political theatre, they all know TPT was a great new strategy for first restricting China, and one day making China sign on to a new set of trading rules they couldn't exploit. But Trump didn't care about the actual value of the deal.
It was heavy protested, lobbied, and it hurt my industry tremendously so I am kind of glad to see it gone.
And yeah he is currently gaslighting and avoiding the topic of russia the best he can. The guy is very close to the flames now.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 17:05:22
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the Constitution's Second Amendment grants people the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling while rejecting a claim from Hawaii officials that the right should only apply to guns kept at home.
The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel on the court and came about a year after the Supreme Court decided not to rule on the case.
“We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”
An...unexpected ruling from that particular court. It will be interesting to see what the effects will be, particularly in CA.
IRON WITHIN, IRON WITHOUT.
New Heavy Gear Log! Also...Grey Knights! The correct pronunciation is Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers, "Astra Militarum" and "Tempestus Scions" are something you'll find at Hogwarts.
WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15) introduced Prevent Corrupting Foreign Influence Act on Monday to significantly improve upon the existing ban on America’s highest elected officials receiving financial benefits from foreign powers.
The new bill would make it a criminal offense for the President, the Vice President, their families, or companies in which they have at least half-ownership to accept or receive anything of value from a foreign power or from any company that is more than 50 percent controlled by a foreign power.
“Unlike other Presidents, Donald Trump has failed to distance himself from his private business interests while serving our nation, and so he and his family are getting richer from Trump companies that receive money and benefits from foreign powers,” Swalwell said. “Americans deserve to know that their President is working for them and only them, not having his own wallet fattened by foreign interests.”
Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used blind trusts to isolate their business interests while in office. President Barack Obama didn’t only because he didn’t hold any interests or assets that could present a conflict of interests.
The Constitution already prohibits government employees – including elected officials, but not their relatives – from receiving “emoluments” or gifts from foreign states except as allowed by Congress. Current statutes implement this ban, provide reporting for gifts which are allowed, and provide for civil penalties for violations.
The Prevent Corrupting Foreign Influence Act would improve upon current law. First, it would expand the prohibition’s scope from merely gifts to include “anything of value.” Second, it would expand the prohibition’s application – for sources, to include companies controlled by foreign countries, and for recipients, to include the President’s and Vice President’s immediate family members and companies they control. Third, it would make violations subject to criminal penalties.
Swalwell was inspired to draft the bill after a Chinese government-controlled company – the Metallurgical Corporation of China – loaned $500 million to benefit a massive development project in Indonesia, called Lido City, in which the Trump organization is involved. At the same time, President Trump has eased sanctions on Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE.
Swalwell also noted the Trump family companies’ long history of Russian investments and banking connections – a cause for concern as the President charts an inexplicably close relationship with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin despite that nation’s interference in America’s elections. Though the new bill would not criminalize past financial arrangements, it would ensure no such relationships continue.
Events like these demonstrate a danger that foreign states can use a web of connections between President Trump, his family members, and their family business to exert improper influence over official decisions.
“It’s long past time that Congress takes a meaningful stand against any effort to buy and sell our White House,” Swalwell said. “America’s Presidents and Vice Presidents must not enrich themselves from foreign sources – they should hold themselves to a higher standard, and if they won’t, it’s our job to do it for them.”
Eh I don't know this will receive 0 tractions probably from the republican cacus.
I'm glad this has been proposed. It's important for the minority party to continue doing their jobs even if it is certain they will be blocked. On a more practical standpoint, it's important to get the GOP on record of shutting this down. It is a concrete effort that can be pointed to in saying 'this party is treasonous.'
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the Constitution's Second Amendment grants people the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling while rejecting a claim from Hawaii officials that the right should only apply to guns kept at home.
The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel on the court and came about a year after the Supreme Court decided not to rule on the case.
“We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”
An...unexpected ruling from that particular court. It will be interesting to see what the effects will be, particularly in CA.
It will anger gun control advocates and end with guns being even more restricted in the long run. There's a strong irony in the actions of the gun-support body these days.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/24 18:24:50
Isn't open carry basically a "shoot me first" sign in a potential armed BG scenario? What does open carry offer that CC doesn't?
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
Sometimes it’s just “because you can”, sometimes it’s your only option depending on your gun or your clothes.
The only time I OC is if I’m wearing clothes that would print very obviously anyway, or if I’m wearing clothes where CC isn’t all that practical. I used to OC more when I was still at my old job, because it was easier to remove the gun and holster and secure both in the lockbox attached to my car when I got to work and I didn’t want to mess with an empty CC holster in my dress clothes.
1750 pts Blood Specters
6000 pts Disciples of Fate
3500 pts Peridia Prime
2500 pts Prophets of Fate
Lizardmen 3000 points Tlaxcoatl Temple-City
