Or that he tried to undermine the Hillary campaign by wheeling out the women that her husband had affairs with.

And then would be open to blackmail?

He was not in office then, was he?
And as this woman was not staff or ward (Schutzbefohlene, as Lewinsky was as a trainee) - no private life as a US president?

However, I hope they spare us further body-fluid-details of Trump.

Should Alain Berset decide to have an affaire he's welcome to sort it out with his wife. (Does he have one at all? LOL).

He denied all knowledge of the affair, NDA, and any related payments after he became #45. (IIRC)

That's the point. Essentially, it's no different to Bill Clinton lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky while he was President—except that Clinton lied to the Senate about it, which led to his impeachment. Now if Trump can be made to lie under oath (for example, to Mueller)...

It's not the same.
keywords: <<while he was President>> and Lewinsky was Clinton's subordinate (dependency).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against getting Trump out - but there are so many better, political (= related to the job we want him out of) reasons to do that.

Yes, it is the same. It was lying under oath that got Clinton into trouble. It wouldn't have mattered who he was shagging. And there was no "dependency" in any case.

There is dependency between the boss and the employee (not to mention an interne). It's called Abhängigkeitsverhältnis here - maybe you have a different translation in English for this when it comes to employment.

How ever, let's agree to disagree on this. As I said, I would rather see him leave for a reason related directly to his job, it would look a lot better in the history books too.

The big delegation led by Secretary Mnuchin in early May asked China to fore-swear its World Trade Organization rights to challenge U.S. trade protection, a request that commentators in China likened to the “unequal treaties” imposed on China by imperialist powers in the 19th century.

Source

Over optimistic approach??

But the key problem was not the degree of seriousness of what he did, the problem was lying about it
So Abhängigkeitsverhältnis is irrelevant, the key point was lying.

<<There is also the long-run question of whether it was smart to make a legal/regulatory ruling such an obvious bargaining chip.>>
Borders corruption? Am I totally wrong thinking that?


These ZTE-handies are really cheap

The games begin; how many hoops can Kim make Trump jump through?

Source

Odds on the Nobel peace prize?

The North Koreans are a lot more astute than you think.

Quallcom is one of the very important USA suppliers of chips to ZTE. Trump does not care about chinese jobs being lost. He cares only about the big US businesses getting pissed off .

I would rephrase that as "The North Koreans are a lot more astute than their opponents"!

Trump has boasted so much about this
so it will be difficult for him to declare failure and walk away!

Trump's first mistake was to agree to a meeting without any preconditions. Now N. Korea have a good case that it is dirty dealing to try to add preconditions now.

Interesting strategy by N. Korea to attack John Bolton "We do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him" and so increase dissension in an already fractured White House!

Usually in this sort of situation the President would offer some sort of secret sweetener to N. Korea but in such a leaky White House it would become public very soon.

Nevertheless I hope they do manage to get it together with N. Korea.

Felix Ehrat, the senior lawyer for the Switzerland-based company Novartis , said Wednesday that he will leave next month, according to multiple reports.

Ehrat said that the $1.2 million payment to Cohen’s firm, which he co-signed, was an “error,” even though it was legal.

Ehrat’s departure comes just days after a top AT&T executive also stepped down. It was revealed that the telecommunications giant made $600,000 in payments to Cohen's firm, Essential Consultants.

Source

Wrong heads rolling....

Edit: Ehrat's job will be taken over by Shannon Thyme Klinge. This American lady was formerly the Novartis ethics chief so people are already asking how much was she involved with the deal with Cohen and what was her position on this?

Another nightmare week for Trump

First the N. Korea Kim plays hard to get

and now

Senate Intelligence panel investigating Trump Russian collusion breaks with House, says Russia sought to help Trump win in 2016!

Source

Meanwhile President Trump officially acknowledged for the first time that he paid his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, more than $100,000 in order to reimburse him for expenses he “incurred” in 2016.

Trump’s financial disclosure for 2017, released Wednesday by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), did not list the specific reason for the payment.

But Cohen has said he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about her accusations she had a sexual encounter with Trump.

Source

The Office of Government Ethics said the payment should have been included on the disclosure form Trump filed last year (2016) and flagged the omission in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (DOJ), in case he "may find the disclosure relevant to any inquiry" the Justice Department is pursuing.


"more than $100,000" is quite a vague number and did not list the specific reason for the payment, if you were a conspiracy theorist you might think more ladies got some gravy

The Trump administration’s proposal to allow insurers to sell more limited, short-term plans would cost the federal government more money and impact more people than the administration previously estimated, according to a new federal report.

A report dated April 6 but released this week by Medicare's chief actuary found that due to the the short-term plans federal spending would increase by $1.2 billion in 2019, and $38.7 billion over the next 10 years.
The Trump administration estimated an increase of $96 million to $168 million a year.

Source

Donald Tusk slams Donald J. Trump by saying 'with friends like that who needs enemies'.

"He's made us realise if you need a helping hand you'll find one on the end of your arm"



Bravo!!!

Lot's of crazy stuff coming out today. But for a lighter moment, if you like Seth Meyers here is a "skit" he does as a reporter at the White House with SHS as press secretary.