Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Okay, ladies need to be aware of the dangers.

Stop using marijuana, THC or CBD during pregnancy. 

STOP!

No exceptions!

October 29, 2019
By Julia Naftulin

..."FDA strongly advises against the use of cannabidiol (CBD), (click here) tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and marijuana in any form during pregnancy or while breastfeeding," the agency said in its statement....


...The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a combination of vitamin B6 and the sleep aid doxylamine to treat nausea and vomiting during pregnancy....

End the use of "old wives tales." Fiction does not promote healthy results.

There are too many unknowns. Here we go again with all these miracles of the marijuana plant. This is what occurs when products are put on the market willy nilly without appropriate testing. A culture breaks out and all of a sudden there is a magical answer for all ailments.

FAQ: (click here)

Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy is a very common condition. Although nausea and vomiting of pregnancy often is called “morning sickness,” it can occur at any time of the day. Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy usually is not harmful to the fetus, but it can have a serious effect on your life, including your ability to work or do your normal daily activities.

I will not dispute that marijuana and it's extracts bring about relief from severe illness. There is plenty of proof of that, HOWEVER, it is not the do all and end all of disease or simple complaints such as nausea during pregnancy.

Some of these COMPOUNDS of marijuana and it's extracts might be a solution in the case of nausea; we know it works in cancer patients; HOWEVER, extensive testing has to be done, women and their babies have to be followed and it is absolutely irresponsible to carry out these treatment strategies without a doctor's advice and/or order. The baby has to be considered. As of today, the impacts on a developing infant are unknown. Let's take this slow and get it right.

FDA

There are many potential negative health effects (click here) from using marijuana and other products containing THC during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. In fact, the U.S. Surgeon General recently advised consumers that marijuana use during pregnancy may affect fetal brain development, because THC can enter the fetal brain from the mother’s bloodstream. The Surgeon General also advised that marijuana may increase the risk of a newborn with low birth weight. Research also suggests increased risk for premature birth and potentially stillbirth.

While breastfeeding, it is important to know that breastmilk can contain THC for up to six days after use. This THC may affect a newborn’s brain development and result in hyperactivity, poor cognitive function, and other long-term consequences.

Additionally, marijuana smoke contains many of the same harmful components as tobacco smoke. Neither marijuana nor tobacco products should be smoked around a baby or children....

Continued from a previous entry.

ii. Awareness of the Meeting Within the Campaign

On June 7, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. and said that “Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and [t]he Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow.”694 Trump Jr. replied that Manafort (identified as the “campaign boss”), Jared Kushner, and Trump Jr. would likely attend.695 Goldstone was surprised to learn that Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner would attend.696 Kaveladze Grand Jury “puzzled” by the list of attendees and that he checked with one of Emin Agalarov’s assistants, Roman Beniaminov, who said that the purpose of the meeting was for Veselnitskaya to convey “negative information on Hillary Clinton.”697 Beniaminov, however, stated that he did not recall having known or said that.698


July 18, 2019

By Bess Levin

Last week, ostensibly in the name of “transparency,” (click here) Donald Trump Jr. published a series of e-mails he exchanged last year with Rob Goldstone, an intermediary who was hoping to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and a Kremlin-connected lawyer whom, he promised, would deliver compromising information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government plot to help his father win the presidency. (Junior’s infamous response: “If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”) Since then, a series of follow-up reports have shown that the White House’s effort at transparency was anything but. Over the past several days, we’ve learned that in addition to Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Goldstone, a music public relations executive with long ties to the Trumps, the June 9 meeting with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower was also attended by Rinat Akhmetshin, an alleged ex-Soviet spy turned Russian-American lobbyist and Anatoli Samachornov, who was reportedly there as a translator for Veselnitskaya, bringing the total number to seven....


Junior is lying.


...he told Hannity. “This is everything.” Now, it turns out there was an eighth participant at the Trump Tower meeting, too. And if you thought the alleged ex-Soviet spy was bad, wait until you read about Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze....


...Kaveladze reportedly began working for Agalarov in the early 1990s, around which time federal investigators believe he began laundering money. According to an October 2000 report from the Government Accountability Office, Kaveladze was a central figure in a near decade-long effort to launder $1.4 billion of Russian and Eastern European money through U.S. banks. The report, which was flagged by ThinkProgress’s Judd Legum, alleges that “more than $800 million was deposited through wire transfer transactions from foreign countries into IBC/Euro-American client accounts at Citibank. Over 70 percent of these deposits was subsequently moved out of the U.S. banking system through wire transfer transactions to accounts in foreign countries. According to a Citibank official, these deposits included funds from Russia; and Citibank no longer opens accounts for clients of IBC/Euro-American because of concerns over suspicious account activity.”...


Imagine living in a country, like Russia, where the government not only looks the other way to money laundering but, advocates for it.


Returning to Special Counsel report, page 115 of the report and page 123 of the PDF:



Early on June 8, 2016 Kushner emailed his assistant, asking her to discuss a 3:00 p.m. meeting the following day with Trump Jr.699 Later that day, Trump Jr. forwarded the entirety of his email correspondence regarding the meeting with Goldstone to Manafort and Kushner, under the subject line “FW: Russia - Clinton – private and confidential,” adding a note that the “[m]eeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices.”700 Kushner then sent his assistant a second email, informing her that the “[m]eeting with don jr is 4pm now.”701 Manafort responded, “See you then. P.”702

Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman, stated during interviews with the Office that in the days before June 9, 2016 Trump Jr. announced at a regular morning meeting of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation.703 



August 6, 2018
By Bruce Golding and Joe Tacopino

Paul Manafort, then-Trump campaign chairman, is surrounded by reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 17, 2016. Rick Gates, a former business associate to Manafort, who testified against him on Monday, stands nearby

The star witness against Paul Manafort testified Monday (click here) that they committed crimes together by conspiring to hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts so the former Trump 2016 campaign chairman could cheat on his taxes.


Gates, once Manafort’s right-hand man, also said they doctored financial statements and misled American banks so Manafort could score millions of dollars in loans.


“Were you involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort?” prosecutor Greg Andres asked Rick Gates.


“Yes,” Gates said.


“Did you commit any crimes with Mr. Manafort?” the prosecutor then asked.


“Yes,” Gates said....


Return to Special Counsel report:

...Gates believed that Trump Jr. said the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan and that he was introduced to the group by a friend.704 Gates recalled that the meeting was attended by Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Paul Manafort, Hope Hicks, and, joining late, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that the meeting likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful.705 Hicks denied any knowledge of the June 9 meeting before 2017,706 and Kushner did not recall if the planned June 9 meeting came up at all earlier that week.707


October 22, 2019
By Emily Jane Fox


...Over the last few weeks, (click here) Giuliani has said that he and the president are as close as ever and that there is no rift between them. But people around the president have grown increasingly wary of their relationship, as it becomes clearer that Giuliani was running what looks like a shadow State Department to deal with Ukraine, and use the power of the presidency to pressure Ukraine into pursuing investigations for political purposes that would benefit Trump.

If all of this sounds familiar, it is because it is nearly identical to the way Trump treated his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, after investigators from the SDNY opened a criminal investigation into what they determined were campaign-finance violations stemming from hush money payments made to women alleging affairs with Trump in the last days leading up to the 2016 election....

...“In my judgment, Michael Cohen is now even more valuable than before,” Lanny Davis, one of Cohen’s attorneys, told me over the weekend. “First, in assisting the ongoing congressional impeachment investigation to interpret the Trump code words to lie, as in ‘no quid pro quo, no quid pro quo’ to the E.U. ambassador, when he knows the truth is exactly the opposite. And second, to assist ongoing investigations by state and federal prosecutors.”

In picture left: Belarus born, Igor Fruman and Ukraine born Lev Parnas (second and third from left) pictured with Vice President Mike Pence (far left), President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Both Fruman and Parnas are now USA citizens and Florida residents.

All in the family. Somehow the strips seem appropriate for the occasion. Who knew? Including John Solomon of the Washington Times that started all the rumors about Joe Biden and his son. When is someone going to hold him responsible for taking propaganda at face value and running with it? He never checked the facts behind the propaganda. Trump said of Solomon that he should receive the Pulitzer Prize for his work and Hannity, Ingraham and Dobbs mimicked him. Did the Washington Times write a full retraction? If John Solomon is responsible for all this fake news to benefit Trump, when is the Biden camp going to hold him responsible?

And Cohen, according to people familiar with the situation, has information that could be pertinent to the SDNY’s investigation into Lev Parnas, one of the men who worked with Giuliani to dig up dirt on Trump’s political opponents. Parnas was taken into federal custody earlier this month, as he and Igor Fruman were about to board a plane outside of Washington, after having lunch with Giuliani at the Trump International Hotel a few blocks away from the White House, and charged with conspiracy, falsification of records, and lying to the Federal Election Commission about their political donations, which included a $325,000 donation through an LLC to support a super PAC created to support Trump’s candidacy. (Both men have pleaded not guilty.)

Parnas, according to these sources, contacted Cohen in the first few weeks after Trump took office. He introduced himself through text message and asked if he would be willing to set up a meeting with Trump, the purpose being that he wanted to propose a method to save the federal government money on fraud, waste, and abuse. Those who know Cohen also said that there was another occasion during which Parnas came in contact with Cohen that they said may be of interest to investigators looking into whether Parnas violated federal election laws. Cohen would be willing to communicate what he knows to investigators, it is said, and has added a new criminal-defense attorney, Robert D. Adler, to his legal team in recent months....

Returning to the Special Counsel Report:

Michael Cohen recalled being in Donald J. Trump’s office on June 6 or 7 when Trump Jr. told his father that a meeting to obtain adverse information about Clinton was going forward.708 Cohen did not recall Trump Jr. stating that the meeting was connected to Russia.709 From the tenor of the conversation, Cohen believed that Trump Jr. had previously discussed the meeting with his father, although Cohen was not involved in any such conversation.710 In an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, Trump Jr. stated that he did not inform his father about the emails or the upcoming meeting.711 Similarly, neither Manafort nor Kushner recalled anyone informing candidate Trump of the meeting, including Trump Jr.712 President Trump has stated to this Office, in written answers to questions, that he has “no recollection of learning at the time” that his son, Manafort, or “Kushner was considering participating in a meeting in June 2016 concerning potentially negative information about Hillary Clinton.”713

Many of the footnotes deal with evidence in a file or electronic record.

Footnote 694 DJTJR00467 (6/7/16 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.); @DonaldJTrumpJr 07/11/17 (11:00) 
Footnote 695 DJTJR00469 (6/7/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone); @DonaldJTrumpJr 07/11/17 (11:00) Tweet; 
RG000071 (6/7/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone); 
OSC-KAV_00048 (6/7/16 Email, Goldstone to Kaveladze); Grand Jury 
Footnote 696 Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 7; Grand Jury
Footnote 697 Grand Jury see Kaveladze 11/16/17 302 at 7; OSCKAV_00048 (6/7/16 Email, Goldstone to Kaveladze). 

Footnote 698 Beniaminov 1/6/18 302, at 3.
Footnote 699 NOSC0000007-08 (6/8/18 Email, Kushner to Vargas Catherine Vargas, an executive assistant to Kushner and the name appears in that context in the report).
Footnote 700 NOSC00000039-42 (6/8/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Kushner & Manafort); DJTJR00485 (6/8/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Kushner & Manafort).
Footnote 701 NOSC0000004 (6/8/16 Email, Kushner to Vargas).
Footnote 702 6/8/16 Email, Manafort to Trump Jr. 
Footnote 703 Gates 1/30/18 302, at 7; Gates 3/1/18 302, at 3-4. Although the March 1 302 refers to “June 19,” that is likely a typographical error; external emails indicate that a meeting with those participants occurred on June 6. See NOSC00023603 (6/6/16 Email, Gates to Trump Jr. et al.). 
Footnote 704 Gates 1/30/18 302, at 7. Aras Agalarov is originally from Azerbaijan, and public reporting indicates that his company, the Crocus Group, has done substantial work in Kyrgyzstan. See Neil MacFarquhar, A Russian Developer Helps Out the Kremlin on Occasion. Was He a Conduit to Trump?, New York Times (July 16, 2017).

I was looking at the website for the Crocus Group (click here) didn't see anything about Kyrgyzstan there, but, I don't speak Russia either. It appears the Group is a good builder, there is even an oceanarium. There are happy Russians receiving keys to their apartments which I think they purchased. There are multiple upon multiple high rises in the development area.

Just as a side note, I watched a report from Erbil, Iraq last night. I was impressed, of course by the reporting, but, the city lights in the background and at least one high rise was noted. I think I am impressed. We get all this bad news out of the Middle East all the time, but, perhaps (and it is difficult to tell in the dark) there is an improvement in the quality of life of Iraqis.

Footnote 705 Gates 3/1/18 302, at 3-4.
Footnote 706 Hicks 12/7/17 302, at 6. 
Footnote 707 Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 8.
Footnote 708 Cohen 8/7/18 302, at 4-6.
Footnote 709 Cohen 8/7/18 302, at 4-5. 
Footnote 710 Cohen 9/12/18 302, at 15-16.
Footnote 711 Interview of: Donald J. Trump, Jr., Senate Judiciary Committee, 115th Cong. 28-29, 84, 94-95 (Sept. 7, 2017). The Senate Judiciary Committee interview was not under oath, but Trump Jr. was advised that it is a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (click here) to make materially false statements in a congressional investigation. Id. at 10-11.

It is probably better to go through the motions of a swearing-in for the sake of brevity.

Footnote 712 Manafort 9/11/18 302, at 3-4; Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 10.

Footnote 713 Written Responses of Donald J. Trump (Nov. 20, 2018), at 8 (Response to Question I, Parts (a)- (c)). We considered whether one sequence of events suggested that candidate Trump had contemporaneous knowledge of the June 9 meeting. On June 7, 2016 Trump announced his intention to give “a major speech” “probably Monday of next week”—which would have been June 13—about “all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.” See, e.g., Phillip Bump, What we know about the Trump Tower meeting, Washington Post (Aug. 7, 2018) (click here) . Following the June 9 meeting, Trump changed the subject of his planned speech to national security. But the Office did not find evidence that the original idea for the speech was connected to the anticipated June 9 meeting or that the change of topic was attributable to the failure of that meeting to produce concrete evidence about Clinton. Other events, such as the Pulse nightclub shooting on June 12, could well have caused the change. The President’s written answers to our questions state that the speech’s focus was altered “[i]n light of” the Pulse nightclub shooting. See Written Responses, supra. As for the original topic of the June 13 speech, Trump has said that “he expected to give a speech referencing the publicly available, negative information about the Clintons,” and that the draft of the speech prepared by Campaign staff “was based on publicly available material, including, in particular, information from the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer.” Written Responses, supra. In a later June 22 speech, Trump did speak extensively about allegations that Clinton was corrupt, drawing from the Clinton Cash book (published May 2015). See Full Transcript: Donald Trump NYC Speech on Stakes of the Election, politico.com (June 22, 2016)

That is really interesting. All of a sudden Trump decides to make a speech about the Clintons after the Russian meeting is supposed to take place, however, it could be attributed to other events so the connection could not be made absolutely. Wow. I think the word that comes to mind is "slippery." These folks seem to be very slippery when it comes to clearly make connections to conspiracy.

Continued in next entry - thank you.

It has been a long journey for Sir Richard Branson and his leap into space flight.

SPCE (click here)

Hopefully, this new stock offering will bring an added boost to the venture.

Any great endeavor starts with a vision and courage. 

Congratulations to
Sir Richard.

October 29, 2019
By Lina Saigol

We have lift-off.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings (click here) on Monday became the first space-tourism business to go public as its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company listed its shares via a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), or blank-check company, founded by ex- FB, +0.21%  executive Chamath Palihapitiya, which took a 49% stake in Virgin Galactic SPCE, -8.62%   for about $800 million. The deal valued the company at $2.3 billion.

Shares in the new entity, which are trading under the ticker SPCE, rose 8% in New York trading.

CEO George Whitesides said: “For the first time, anyone will have the opportunity to invest in a human spaceflight company that is transforming the market.”

The commercial space sector is projected to be worth $2.7 trillion by 2045, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch....

Space.com reminds us it is that time of year.

October 25, 2019

...The Taurid meteor shower, (click here) sometimes referred to as the "Halloween fireballs," is one of the year's longest, with recognizable activity (at least a couple of visible meteors per hour) running from Oct. 20 to Nov. 30. But it is during a one-week time frame extending from Nov. 5 through Nov. 12 when the Taurids are most active. About a dozen or so members of this swarm may be seen per hour by a single observer with clear, dark skies (city lights or even slight haze will substantially lower the number of meteors seen). In contrast to the August Perseids, which appear as swift white streaks, Taurids often appear yellow or orange and, as most meteors go, move rather slowly ... almost majestically ... across your line of sight.

Most meteor showers are caused by comets, which tend to shed tiny bits of material out into space along their respective orbits as they sweep around the sun....

Chicago is not 'on fire': police chief hits back at Trump criticism (click here for murder rate information cited - thank you)


















The national murder rate of the Trump years to date has increased from that of President Obama. I am confident the job of Chicago police in maintaining law and order has gotten harder under Trump. One of the primary reasons most large cities state as a problem is the ease criminals and their networks have in transporting weapons interstate. New York City always points out the I-95 corridor as a problem in controlling the influx of guns. Chicago has similar complaints. Both these cities also have waterfronts.

When one compares the number of weapons seized by police in their regular work, including raids on drug networks, it pales in comparison to the number of guns sold in any of these cities. There is only one way of such incredible numbers of guns being seized and that is importation by the criminals and their networks.

How can cities begin to control gun-related crimes when their borders are not secure?





The extreme level of corruption of the Trump presidency is unprecedented.

When Richard Nixon faced an impeachment inquiry, he lied about the crimes leading to his impeachment. Nixon concealed facts. Now, that Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry he openly states all his infractions in the law as if the law doesn't matter. 

The law matters. The USA is built on it, "The Rule of Law."

The crimes of Richard Nixon in regard to the Watergate Hotel break-in of the Democratic headquarters pales in comparison to the crimes of Trump in regard to his own attempt to sabotage the free and fair elections of the USA. Richard Nixon did not seek to involve a foreign government, nor ask for a foreign government's help or withhold legislated munitions from a country in conflict with Russia. Richard Nixon resigned for his crimes and war pardoned by then-President Ford for the best interest of the country to move beyond the crimes that did exist.

The crimes of Trump are numerous and occur on a regular basis to insult the national security of the USA in compromising allies such as Ukraine. There is no comparison between Trump to Nixon. Donald J. Trump's crimes although like Nixon is from personal aspiration are on an entirely different level and cannot be ignored or denied.