Tuesday, August 21, 2018

With the severity of the charges, it would not be prudent for President Trump to issue pardons.

August 21, 2018
By Matt Zapotosky, Lynh Bul, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett

Trump during an interview in the Oval Office (click here)

A jury has found (click here) former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty after a three-week trial on tax and bank fraud charges — a major if not complete victory for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he continues to investigate the president’s associates.

The jury convicted Manafort on eight of the 18 counts against him. The jury said it was deadlocked on the other 10. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those other charges.

Manafort was convicted on five counts of filing false tax returns, one count of not filing a required IRS form, and two bank fraud counts.

The verdict announced Tuesday comes as President Trump has stepped up his criticism of Mueller’s probe, publicly criticizing the investigation on a weekly basis. As the Manafort trial began, Trump called for Mueller’s probe to be shut down immediately....

Hush money is not a legal term. The legal term is bribery.

August 21, 2018
By George Stephanopoulos, Eliana Larramendia, Matthew Mosk, James Hill and Mike Levine


  • ...The campaign finance violations, (click here) however, are associated with Cohen’s role in alleged hush money agreements with two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who claim to have had affairs with Trump, according to sources briefed on the agreement....

    Mr. Cohen had no interest in these women, except, to cover up the affairs for the sake of winning an election. Mr. Cohen was contracted by Mr. Trump to be his "fixer." There are definite reasons to believe that Mr. Trump had many friends lacking concern for the law. Does anyone seriously believe Trump is not implicated?

    It looks as though the American people have a champion to defend their best internet interests.

    I would like to think their methods can be qualified for access to government and private organizations that exist to promote candidates for elections. Microsoft should develop a unit that will work with organizations to protect from such invasive problems. The fact the US Senate was hacked is more than a concern, it is a national security problem.

    THANK YOU, MICROSOFT.

    August 21, 2018
    By Alex Ward

    The elite Russian military intelligence unit (click here) that interfered in the 2016 US presidential election has been trying to hack its way deeper into America’s politics. But there’s good news: Microsoft thwarted the effort.

    According to Microsoft president Brad Smith, Russian government hackers created six websites that purposely tried to mimic those of certain conservative US think tanks, the Senate, and even Microsoft itself. The goal was to trick people into clicking through those fake pages, thereby allowing the hackers to steal information from the visitors. Microsoft says it found those sites — created within the past few weeks — and seized them after obtaining a court order to do so, rendering the sites useless to the hackers.

    The company crucially noted it has yet to see any evidence that the websites formed part of a successful attack, and it’s unclear if the Russian operatives sought information from specific people. However, it’s completely possible that the fake pages carried malware, thereby allowing the Russians access to the computers of unfortunate visitors.

    But the identities of both the hunters and the prey here are important....   

    Scientists don't lie. They respect human life. Their morality is valuable to every society on Earth.

    UNISYS Water Vapor GOES West Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
    21 August 2018
    0300:18z

    The peripheral winds of Hurricane Lane are now reaching the big island, Hawai'i.



    Kindly recall, hurricanes near Hawaii in general lose strength because coastal ocean water temperatures are less than open ocean waters temperatures. THAT IS NOT THE CASE TODAY.

    This is the actual chart of the ocean temperatures surrounding Hawaii. EVERY measure is over average. The usual behavior of hurricanes, as experts might predict, is compromised with Hurricane Lane by unusually warm coastal ocean waters.

    Water Temperature Table of the Hawaiian Island Coast (click here)

    There is no continental shelf for Hawaii. That means there is little effecting approaching storms. Hawaii has two worries in regard to such storms as Lane, flooding of low lying land and wind driven waves (including storm surge) that extend inland.

    Tropical cyclone inundation potential on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu and Kauai (click here)

    Andrew B.Joannes J.Westerink,  Jane M.Smith, Mark E. Hope, Michael Hartman, Alexandros A. Taflanidis, Seiso Tanka, Hans Westerink, Kwok Fai Cheung, Tom Smith, Madeleine Hamann, Masashi Minamide, Aina Ota and Clint Dawson 

    Ocean Modeling, Volumes 52–53, August 2012, Pages 54-68.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2012.04.009 
    Oahu has significantly more low-lying land compared to Kauai, and consequently hypothetical tropical cyclone landfalls show much more widespread inundation. Under direct impact scenarios, there is the potential for much of Honolulu and most of Waikiki to be inundated, with both still water surge and wave runup contributing. Other regions of Oahu show inundation confined to a more narrow coastal strip, although there is still much infrastructure at risk.
    Even for very strong storms in Oahu and Kauai, maximum still water surge is relatively small, and does not exceed 3 m in any storm modeled. In contrast, hurricane waves several kilometers from shore regularly exceed 10 m due to the lack of a continental shelf....

    Damage to a structure in Kauai caused by Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

    Add potential flying embers of lava and realize my sincere concern for the people there.

    I realize there is no PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT to cover such a bizarre emergency, so FIND ONE.

    THINK CALIFORNIA!

    Hurricane Lane strengthens, expected to make turn toward Hawaii later th...(click here for local news - thank you)

    THE PERIPHERAL WINDS are already reaching Hawaii.  That is nothing to ignore. Those winds are already reaching the erupting volcano. Thank you.






    How dead is the Great Barrier Reef? (click here for article - thank you)

    It is unconscionable the Australian legislature is acting against the climate when such drastic changes are taking place in their beloved Great Barrier Reef.

    Conservative parties, no matter the country, act in favor of profiteering rather than in favor of the safeguards for Earth's troposphere. They don't prioritize life, they pretend the dangers don't exist. 






    Betrayed

    I believe the Manafort jury feels betrayed by the judge. If my understanding is clear, one of the first requests of the jury was a copy of the law. That was not what they received. They received a recording of the judge’s instructions. They found out even though Paul Manafort is guilty as sin, they are completely on their own to determine the guilt backed up by ALL the voluminous evidence before them, albeit limited to the prejudice of the judge.

    I think the judge abused his power to intensionally sabotage the jury. No judge has a right to interject cultural standards to a trial, that is why there are defense attorneys. The judge tainted the trial with enforcement of the “belief” it is not illegal to be rich. That is a ridiculous idea to enforce with a jury. Obviously, in the case of Paul Manafort it is illegal to be rich. The judge has muddied the waters for the jury and they know it.

    To me, when the jury asked for a copy of the law, it indicated the jury has no faith or trust in the judge or his interfering dialogue.