Thank you Senator Franken!

Leader of "Democrats with Guts"!

This is EXCITING!

FSB’s infiltration of political party Parnas aimed at Norway


It sounds like a crime novel. And clearly, it has the elements of a scary book. However, this story is real, says Andrey Kapitonov, the former party leader in Murmansk.

In what appears as a surrealistic-like conspiracy against the liberal political party Parnas, the FSB first managed to hire Kapitonov and make him establish a local party office. Then Kapitonov was sent to the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes where he was to approach the Norwegian secret police PST and request financial support. Later, when back in Murmansk, Kapitonov was to announce that his party was nursing contact with NATO country Norway and receiving money from a foreign intelligence service.

It was in the run-up to the September 2016 State Duma elections, and the operation was to defame Parnas as a party supported by the abroad and discredit Norway as a country meddling in Russian domestic politics.

However, it all flopped.

Kapitonov changed his mind, and quit his cooperation with the agents. Instead, he turned against the security service and has now sueded the agents behind the setup.

In an interview with Barents Observer, the now former party leader says that the scam was not primarily aimed against Parnas. It was Norway which was the main target, he argues.

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2017/04/fsbs-infiltration-political-party-parnas-aimed-norway


Election tampering seems to be the usual Russian m.o..

Trump's approval rating at the 100-day mark is the lowest in modern history
Sonam Sheth Apr 29, 2017, 10:40 AM ET

President Trump's approval rating as he reaches the 100-day mark of his tenure is at 43%, the lowest of any president since 1953.

Presidents typically enjoy higher approval ratings at the start of their terms following successful presidential campaigns. Those ratings then tend to decrease over time. However, coming off a contentious 2016 election campaign and having lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million, Trump entered office with a record-low approval rating of 45%.

Since then, his administration has seen a slew of negative headlines after an unsuccessful attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the rollout of a travel ban that was struck down by multiple courts and sparked nationwide protests, the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn, and an ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsi...

#100DaysofFail

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/trumps-100-day-approval-rating-is-the-lowest-in-modern-history-2017-4

The "rally" in Harrisburg spotlights this aholes massive ego.

The press is being mean to poor Donnie, and being the over the top malignant narcissist he is, he must have continuous approval (he sure isn't getting it in the polls), and affirmation that he is a "winner" (though he lost the popular vote.)

He is already crying about how "hard" it is being President (though he doesn't show up for things like intelligence briefings.) Having to actually pretend to work is pure culture shock for this self absorbed man-baby.

Good luck, America.

Whether the federal government shuts down Friday could hinge on whether Congress includes funding for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall in legislation to keep the government funded.

Trump and administration officials have spent recent days talking up the possibility of including funding for a wall, which could set up a showdown with Democrats and even members of his party as the clock ticks toward a shutdown.

Asked by The Associated Press on Friday whether he would sign a bill that did not include funding for the wall, Trump was noncommittal.

"I don't know yet," Trump said. "People want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall. My base really wants it - you've been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall."

http://www.businessinsider.com/government-shu...

I am convinced this clown is working for Putin.

His first 100 days have been spent using every power of office he has to dismantle and disrupt the funtion of the government our taxes pay for.

It’s here, of course, to “Make Beer Great Again.”
A brand-new Toronto brewery wants to give President Trump something else irritating, Canadian, and hard to grab. This time, though, it’s a 16-ounce beer mocking the increasingly unpopular leader to the immediate south. Dubbed Fake News Ale, possibly to up Northern Maverick Brewing Company’s odds of getting on CNN or in the New York Times, it’s said to pair well “with small hands, striking comb overs, HUUUGE egos and all things Mexican.”

Northern Maverick describes it as a session ale meant to facilitate easy drinking and “long discussions” of politics, but the brewery also explains it’s legitimately trying to do more than score easy advertising by making fun of the sitting U.S. president — 5 percent of sales are being set aside to “help reverse a questionable policy.” In true democratic form, which policy will be decided by popular vote; the brewery says that in the coming weeks, it will let people nominate a nonprofit or charitable group on its website, and the one that racks up the most votes will get the donation.




https://www.google.com/amp/grubstreet.relaymedia.com/amp/2017/04/northern-maverick-trolls-trump-with-fake-news-ale.html

Wow - the popular vote actually counts in Canada!

North Korea put its adversaries on notice Saturday, when it showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at its annual military parade.

Pyongyang showed off two new intercontinental ballistic missile-sized canisters as well as displaying its submarine-launched ballistic missile and a land-based version of the same for the first time, according to analysts.

If North Korea has ICBMs, it could give it the ability to strike targets in the mainland US and Europe. The shorter range ballistic missiles displayed Saturday, meanwhile, are a threat to countries in the Asian region.


North Korea's display comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have spiked to alarming levels.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/04/15/asia/north-korea-missiles-parade/index.html

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered 25 percent of Pyongyang residents to leave the city immediately, according to a Russian news outlet on Friday.
The Pravda report said that in accordance with the order, 600,000 people should be urgently evacuated. Experts note that the evacuation will most likely be conducted due to extremely strained tensions in relations with the US.


Reportedly, Pyongyang's bomb shelters will not be able to accommodate the entire population of the North Korean capital. Therefore, 600,000 people - mostly individuals with criminal records - will have to leave Pyongyang to let others use bomb shelters, the report added. ([email protected])

http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170414000689#cb

A sweeping Republican rewrite of the Dodd-Frank Act would significantly reduce the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) power and subjected it to greater White House and congressional oversight.

The bill would turn the CFPB into an executive agency with a removable director, drastically limited powers and a budget controlled by Congress.

House Republicans are preparing major changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, the post-recession banking regulation long reviled by the GOP. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) will release a comprehensive rewrite of the bill by the end of April, a Republican committee aide said Tuesday.


President Trump said Tuesday morning that Republicans are working on "a major elimination of the horrendous Dodd-Frank regulations, keeping some obviously, but getting rid of many."

The new version of Hensarling’s 2016 CHOICE Act would rename the CFPB as the Consumer Financial Opportunity Agency and rein in its powers, according to an outline sent to Financial Services Committee Republicans. These changes in the new version of Hensarling's bill are similar to those proposed in a February memo from the chairman.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/328387-gop-dodd-frank-rewrite-would-strip-consumer-bureau-power-give-trump-control-of


The coup rolls onward...

"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is inexplicably backing away from rules that are meant to prevent federal student loan borrowers from being fleeced by companies the government pays to collect the loans and to guide people through the repayment process.

On Tuesday, she withdrew a sound Obama administration policy that required the Education Department to take into account the past conduct of loan servicing companies before awarding them lucrative contracts — and to include consumer protections in those contracts as well.

The department is doing the loan industry’s bidding at a time when student debt has crippled a generation financi2ally and the country’s largest loan servicing company, Navient, is facing several lawsuits accusing it of putting its own interest before that of the borrowers it is supposed to help."

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/opinion...

Another Trump appointee, working to destroy protections for Americans, and put the profit in their pockets.

To wit -

"In a Office of Government Ethics report that was completed January 20, DeVos agreed to divest from a long list of companies that pose a conflict of interest

Among them is LMF WF Portfolio, a company which helped finance a $147 million loan to a debt collection agency that does business with the Department of Education, called Performant Financial Co. ...

Performant recently lost out on a U.S. Department of Education contract and is appealing the decision with the Government Accountability Office. Performant desperately needs that contract because it represents 24 percent of its business, according to the company's SEC report, and its stock is tanking to $2 a share. If confirmed as Secretary, DeVos would be in a position to influence the awarding of these contracts and would have oversight responsibility for private debt collectors working for the government, explains the Washington Post.

And Performant clearly needs oversight.

Performant racked up 346 complaints with the Better Business Bureau. The company is accused of applying wage garnishments for debt already paid, calling debtors at work, calling family members of debtors at work, and other inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior. One consumer complaint posted online says Performant repeatedly pestered a 90 year old World War II vet for a nonexistent student loan with Wells Fargo."

...

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the financial watchdog agency that Senator Warren helped to create during the financial crisis of 2009, also has numerous complaints against the company registered in its public database.

A student in Massachusetts filed a complaint with the CFPB against Performant for its continued attempts to collect debt that was already paid.
A student in Georgia filed a complaint against Performant for using "obscene/profane/abusive language".
A student in South Carolina filed a complaint with the CFPB because Performant attempted to collect the wrong amount.
A Connecticut student filed a complaint against Performant for "continued attempts to collect debt" that was not theirs.
A student in Illinois filed a complaint against Performant because they did not receive a right to dispute notice."

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13207/bet...

Making 'Murica great again - for grifters!