#david prince the strongman

[camprell-art]

The circus fellas that I don't draw for a year maybe

I wish I could stop jumping from an interest to another, because I heard ONE song and I could feel my pirate hyperfixation vanishing like it was some kind of fairy, and I hate it.

But I don't think that I will abandon the Au, I just need to overcome yet another lack of interest and ideas (and being a little depressed too, but that's just natural of me).

[monsterfuckerconfessions]

I love demons. And by that I don't mean fully humanoid characters like Tom Ellis's Lucifer, but more like David Harbour's Hellboy or Jason Douglas's Satan in Preacher (oh boy, that series 3rd season got me dreaming of becoming his mistress SO BADLY!)

Just get me a strongman bodied, long haired, red skinned prince of hell, who tempts me to unleash my sins and reign in eternal fire by his side. Let me sit on his lap whenever he has to welcome guests in his throne room. Make him bath me in all hellish sweet-talking while he worships my body and brings me closer to heaven than anyone else could actually do.

.

[justforbooks]

The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher review – a food writing classic

Fisher exposed the private appetites most of us struggle to hide. Her celebrated book from 1943 has been reissued and reads very differently now

WH Auden’s famous observation on the writer MFK Fisher – “I do not know of anyone in the States who writes better prose” – has been pressed into service on the cover of this reprint of Fisher’s most beloved book The Gastronomical Me (1943). The power of the puff lies in the fact that Auden wasn’t praising another poet or even a novelist but a food writer, a species conceived at that time as a domestic science teacher with a fail-safe recipe for meatloaf. Implicit in Auden’s praise was the suggestion that Fisher should be removed from this category and set alongside Hemingway or Faulkner as a literary practitioner in her own right. These days we would get around the whole vexed business by saying that Fisher’s hybrid of culinary and memoir writing falls into the category of the personal essay, the kind of thing that has launched a thousand blogs and become a staple of the New Yorker’s annual food issue.

The only hitch with this is that Fisher – or, to be formal, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher – was on record as hating the idea of the personal essay. To the proud daughter of a California newspaper man, the term signalled self-importance and, worse, over-writing. Fisher prided herself on never doing more than one draft which, if true, means she was a genius. Here she is on the food she encountered in Burgundy as a newlywed in the 1930s: “We ate terrines of pâté ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat. We addled our palates with snipes hung so long they fell from their hooks, to be roasted then on cushions of toast softened with the paste of their rotted innards and fine brandy.”

What Fisher is doing here is far more than simply describing a rich meal in even richer prose. As she explains on the first page of The Gastronomical Me, “Our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.” Or, as Bee Wilson glosses it in her short, admiring introduction, “There is a liberating generosity to the way she exposes those private appetites that most of us struggle to hide. No one was ever so confident in her own hungers or so determined in her quest to satisfy them.”

This might sound a bit lush, a bit Eat, Pray, Love, which is surely one of The Gastronomical Me’s bastard descendants. But there is an important difference. For Fisher proceeds from the assumption that everything and everyone she encounters in her odyssey is explicitly and graphically on the point of revealing their own “rotted innards”. A helpful chauffeur flips his lapel accidentally to reveal an enamel fascist party pin; the heavy drapes in a smart restaurant turn everyone’s faces mauve and mustard; while eating  a delicious bouillabaisse involves “sucking a hundred strange dead creatures from their shells”. On a train to Switzerland, Fisher’s beloved husband, who has recently lost a leg, weaves unsteadily down the corridor to the dining car where once he strode like a strongman at the circus.

By the time Fisher wrote her book she was no longer devouring lunches made from “those big white beans, the kind Italians peel and eat with salt when they are fresh and tender”, or sitting in a post-house marvelling at how delicious potatoes can be if you gave them half a chance. The girl whom Man Ray yearned to photograph because of her bone structure was holed up in a boarding house in Altadena, California. Recently widowed – her terminally ill husband had shot himself – Fisher was heavily pregnant by a man she never named. The war which she had seen coming in Europe had now finally arrived in America and was consuming the nation’s young men. As Wilson rightly points out, The Gastronomical Me makes you shiver at its deep familiarity with death.

Reading it again in this handsome new edition I am struck by the fact that it is, above all, a queer book. I mean the term not so much as Fisher used it colloquially and carelessly in the middle of the last century but how we employ it today, to mark a work in which sex and gender and everything that is built from them – the whole world in other words – is on a tilt. Nowhere is this better summarised than in Fisher’s trenchant inversion of the usual pap about liking to cook for her friends because it makes them feel at home. On the contrary, she explains gleefully, her goal is to give her guests something that will make them “forget Home and all it stood for”.

In a series of dazzling table turns, Fisher proceeds to demonstrate her own queerness in action. Boarding at Miss Huntingdon’s School for Girls in the 1920s, she swallows her first oyster while simultaneously dancing deliriously in the arms of Olmsted, an older girl of Prince Charming proportions. Later, as that most soupy of things, a honeymooning bride, she finds herself scooping grape skins out of a girl’s navel while her new husband waits for her next door. Finally, when dining alone on the way to Avallon in France, Fisher is kidnapped by a waitress who treats her “like a slave”, forcing her to choke down pickled herring “as meaty as fresh nuts” before leaning in, with her “odd pale voluptuous mouth”, as if for a kiss.

And then there is the queerest of queer chapters, “Feminine Ending”. By now Fisher has wound up in Mexico where her younger brother, David, and his wife are living. David has become obsessed with the lead singer in a local mariachi band, a small monkeyish man with a “wild, cracked” voice who seems equally breathless for David. The moment Fisher sees Juanito she knows that he is biologically a woman. It is the second time that she has felt called on to perform such an unmasking. She tells us how, as a teenager taken to her father’s newspaper office, she pointed out that the star typesetter was not a regular guy but a cross-dressing woman. Mary Frances (the run-together Christian names by which she was always known hint at her own doubleness) is clearly drawn to the inbetween.

This inbetweenness extends to the structure of the book. Fisher’s technique is to proceed obliquely so that the bones of her story – who is married to whom, who is living where, how many babies are in residence – hardly figure at all. Instead we are given a series of interludes, gaps in the timeline where feeling and experience gather in deep pools. This narrative ellipsis can come across as a bit take it or leave it, as if Fisher can’t be bothered to spell things out for her readers, which is why, in recent years, there has been something of a backlash against her perceived snootiness. But this is missing the point.

Fisher always said that her greatest achievement in life was learning how to walk into a restaurant and treat herself as her own honoured guest, ignoring the hostile stares of resentful men and the covertly admiring glances of other women. And this is exactly what she achieves in The Gastronomical Me. To read Fisher is to feel, in Wilson’s words, that “we too should be a bit bolder in feeding ourselves” and a little less bothered by what the world, with its rotten innards, thinks about it all.

• The Gastronomical Me is published by Daunt. To order a copy for £8.49 (RRP £9.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[thisdaynews]

Biden’s Birmingham speech

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/bidens-birmingham-speech/

Biden’s Birmingham speech

THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK…Monday: THE PRESIDENTwill participate in a ceremony for new ambassadors, and he will participate in presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mariano Rivera. He will meet with the crown prince of Bahrain before going to Albuquerque for a political rally.Tuesday: THE PRESIDENTwill raise money in Palo Alto and Beverly Hills.Wednesday: THE PRESIDENTwill raise money in Los Angeles, San Diego and then leave for Washington.Friday: THE PRESIDENTwill host the Australian PM for a state visit.

— MARIANO RIVERAwas a closer for the Yankees, and a legendary one at that. The Nats could use him at this point.

SNEAK PEEK … JOE BIDENis speaking today at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. From his remarks: “The domestic terrorism of white supremacy has been the antagonist of our highest ideals from before our founding. Lynch mobs – arsonists — bomb makers and lone gunmen. And as we all now realize, this violence does not live in the past.

“The same poisonous ideology that lit the fuse at 16th Streetpulled the trigger in Mother Emanuel, unleashed the anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh and Poway, and saw a white supremacist gun down innocent Latino immigrants in an El Paso parking lot with military-grade weapons declaring it would stop a quote ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas.’ …

“I am sure, in those first hours after the bomb exploded—it was hard to see through the smoke and rubble to a day like today.

“As Dr. King eulogized those girls – perhaps not even he could haveimagined the day nearly 50 years later – when this nation’s first black president would award them the Congressional Gold Medal—one of our highest civilian honors.

“It is only with persistent effort… It is only with fortitude in our actions…It is only with faith in ourselves and the future that may yet be…That change comes— sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once— and progress continues. “

STORY OF THE DAY … NYT’S MAGGIE HABERMAN: “Despite Turning Down Inauguration Gig, Elton John Has a Recurring Role in Trump’s Presidency”:“The email was cordial, warm and deferential.

“‘Thank you so much for the extremely kind invitationto play at your inauguration,’ wrote one of President Trump’s favorite musicians, Sir Elton John. ‘I have given it a lot of thought, and as a British National I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to play at the inauguration of an American President. Please accept my apologies.’ …

“But for Mr. Trump, the rejection from Mr. John was probablyparticularly tough to swallow. In multiple books, Mr. Trump had praised Mr. John’s talent and drive. In 2005, Mr. Trump had arranged for Mr. John to perform at his third wedding, to Melania Knauss. Eleven years later, Mr. John sent his carefully-worded email passing on an encore performance, this time at Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

“‘Tiny Dancer,’ one of Mr. John’s most well-known songs,still rings out at the president’s rallies, part of a playlist that Mr. Trump personally selects. The president nicknamed the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, ‘Little Rocket Man,’ a homage to the song by Mr. John and a reference to the strongman’s missile tests. When the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, went to a meeting with Mr. Kim, he came bearing an Elton John record. And aides say the president has seen the singer’s biopic, ‘Rocketman.’”NYT

TRYING TO PUSH NETANYAHU OVER THE LINE … WAPO: “Trump floats idea of mutual defense pact with Israel, days before close election,”by Anne Gearan and Steve Hendrix: “President Trump said he had discussed a possible new defense pact with Israel during a phone call Saturday with Benjamin Netanyahu, highlighting the Israeli prime minister’s close ties to the Trump administration days before Netanyahu faces a difficult reelection vote.

“Trump did not promise to install a mutual defense pact,nor divulge further details of the conversation. The idea is generally popular in Israel, where the United States is the most important ally and defense partner.

“‘I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibilityof moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance . . . between our two countries,’ Trump wrote in a pair of tweets Saturday.

“The language of the tweets suggests he is contemplating a formal treaty,which would have to be submitted to the Senate for ratification.”WaPo

— COLOR US A BIT SURPRISED.This is not a terribly strong statement.

Happy Sunday. THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS’ bullpen gave up 10 runs yesterday, and the Nats lost 10-1. The Nats are now 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the first wild card spot.

SPOTTED: Bob Costa having brunch with Guster’s Ryan Miller and his wife, Angela, at Le Diplomate on Saturday.

CONNECTICUT POST: “Pelosi, in CT appearance, says she’s optimistic on background checks,”by Kaitlyn Krasselt: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is optimistic a series of bipartisan bills, including pay equity and background checks, that have passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate will pass prior to the 2020 election.

“‘The first 10 bills that we advanced when we took control of the House,they all had bipartisan support,’ Pelosi said Saturday in New Haven. ‘It is interesting though, that if they don’t pass those bills, there is a consequence in the election, so we hope that would be a motivator in addition to doing the right thing.’”CT Post

FRONT PAGE OF THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS …“Trump’s Bay Area event shrouded in secrecy”

QUITE THE IMAGE … FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTISon the front page of the Tampa Bay Times, playing golf with a golf tee in his mouth.Front page PDF

CRAIN’S DETROIT: “Grand Hotel considered for 2020 G7 summit,”by Chad Livengood: “President Donald Trump’s administration scoped out Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel for a possible 2020 G7 summit location before the White House opted to hold the annual gathering of world economic powers at the president’s south Florida golf club and resort, Crain’s has learned.

“A spokeswoman for the Grand Hotel told Crain’s on Fridaythat the famed Mackinac Island hotel and resort was vetted and considered for the G7 meeting. The spokeswoman could not divulge any additional information, other than to say that unnamed federal officials visited Mackinac Island as part of the vetting process.

“The 397-room Grand Hotel, which is in the midst of a historic saleto a Denver-based private equity firm, is believed to be the only Michigan site considered for the Group of Seven meeting of the leaders of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.”Crain’s Detroit

NYT’S SHANE GOLDMACHER: “Planned Parenthood and Fired Former Chief Mired in Escalating Dispute”:“Leana Wen, the recently fired former president of Planned Parenthood, appears headed toward an increasingly contentious exit, after accusing the organization’s leadership of trying to “buy my silence” in a dispute that threatens to prolong and magnify an acrimonious transition at the top of the nation’s best known women’s health care and reproductive rights group.

“Dr. Wen has been engaged in two months of fraught negotiationsover her severance package since she was fired in July. She led Planned Parenthood for less than a year and accused the organization of withholding her health insurance and departure payout as ‘ransom’ to pressure her to sign a confidentiality agreement.

“She made the accusations in a barbed 1,400-word letterto Planned Parenthood’s board of directors this past week, which was obtained by The New York Times. ‘No amount of money can ever buy my integrity and my commitment to the patients I serve,’ Dr. Wen wrote.”NYT

BREAKING … AP/DUBAI: “Iran dismisses US allegation it was behind Saudi oil attacks”:“Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day that hit the world’s biggest oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the ‘unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.’

“The attacks Saturday claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels resultedin ‘the temporary suspension of production operations’ at the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field, Riyadh said.

“That led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 millionbarrels in crude supplies, authorities said while pledging the kingdom’s stockpiles would make up the difference. The amount Saudi Arabia is cutting back is equivalent to over 5% of the world’s daily production.

“While markets remained closed Sunday, the attack could shockworld energy prices. They also increased overall tensions in the region amid an escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.”AP

— WSJ: “Saudi Oil Attack Is Unlikely to Dent U.S. Economy:If strikes trigger higher energy prices, China and Japan will suffer most, economists warn,” by David Harrison: “While the total impact of the Saturday attacks remains unknown, analysts say the U.S. economy is very different than it was in the 1970s, when surging oil prices tipped the economy into recession. Oil-price shocks no longer pack the same punch, they say.

“Today, energy accounts for about 2.5% of household consumption,down from around 8% in the 1970s, according to Bank of America economists. Since the early 2000s, U.S. energy companies have dramatically ramped up production using new drilling techniques, such as fracking. Oil production doubled between 2008 and 2018, and the U.S. is now the world’s top oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“The Saudi oil-field attack adds a new factor to consider for Federal Reserveofficials, who have been weighing how a variety of geopolitical risks will influence the economic outlook, including the U.S.-China trade war, unrest in Hong Kong and Britain’s impending departure from the European Union.”WSJ

NEW …Adapted from NYT’s Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly’s new Brett Kavanaugh book:“But while we found Dr. Ford’s allegations credible during a 10-month investigation, Ms. Ramirez’s story could be more fully corroborated. During his Senate testimony, Mr. Kavanaugh said that if the incident Ms. Ramirez described had occurred, it would have been “the talk of campus.” Our reporting suggests that it was.

“At least seven people, including Ms. Ramirez’s mother,heard about the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Two of those people were classmates who learned of it just days after the party occurred, suggesting that it was discussed among students at the time.

“We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaughin his freshman year that echoes Ms. Ramirez’s allegation. A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly. (We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier.)

“Mr. Kavanaugh did not speak to us because we could not agree on termsfor an interview. But he has denied Dr. Ford’s and Ms. Ramirez’s allegations, and declined to answer our questions about Mr. Stier’s account.”NYT

THE PRESIDENT,just before 9 a.m.@realDonaldTrump:“Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for liable, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can’t let that happen!”Trump corrected the tweet to say libel.

KANSAS CITY STAR: “Kris Kobach sent names of Nebraska residents to ICE while running for Kansas governor,”by Jason Hancock and Jonathan Shorman: “Kris Kobach was in the middle of running for Kansas governor in December 2017, but he had unfinished business in Nebraska.

“The former Kansas secretary of state helped write an ordinance in 2010for Fremont, Neb., banning landlords from renting homes to immigrants living in the country illegally. Four years later, he successfully defended his handiwork on behalf of the town all the way to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“His legal victory attracted national attention.Still, enforcing the law had proven difficult because information collected on rental applications wasn’t enough for the federal government to determine whether someone was in the country legally.

“But Kobach wasn’t ready to give up. So in 2017,while still receiving a $10,000-a-year retainer from Fremont, he emailed the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a list of 289 people who had applied for an occupancy license in the eastern Nebraska city, where about 15 percent of its 26,000 residents are Hispanic.”KC Star

FOR MCCARTHY AND THE NRCC …So many Republicans are retiring that it’s front page news when your delegation is NOT retiring.

— POST AND COURIERin South Carolina:“GOP leaders from SC fight on:State’s 5 congressmen to run next year, even as others call it quits”

2020 …

— NYT’S LONG RUN SERIES: “Kamala Harris Was Ready to Brawl From the Beginning:In her first race, she defied her old boss, a fund-raising pledge — and the implication that she owed her career to her ex-boyfriend.,”by Matt Flegenheimer in San Francisco

— MARC CAPUTO: “Biden allies attack Warren’s electability”:“As Elizabeth Warren climbs in the polls, Joe Biden’s Massachusetts allies are warning that her home-state election history suggests she runs weakest among the types of voters Democrats need to win over to capture the White House.

“While Warren won re-election easily in 2018, Biden’s backerspoint to her performance among independent and blue-collar voters as evidence she’ll fail to appeal to similar voters in the Rust Belt — just as Hilary Clinton did in 2016.

“‘The grave concern of many of us Democrats in Massachusettsis that in many of the counties where Sen. Warren underperforms, they are demographically and culturally similar to voters in key swing states,’ said state Rep. John Rogers, who backs Biden. ‘The tangible fear here,’ Rogers said, “is that these Massachusetts counties are bellwethers for states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio — key states that Democrats can’t afford to lose in the battle to beat President Trump.’”POLITICO

SUNDAY BEST … PETE BUTTIGIEGtoGEORGE STEPHANAOPOULOSonABC’s “This Week”reacting toDONALD TRUMPsaying the South Bend mayor was up two in Texas: “I mean, you can’t take it that seriously. Other than I’m — I’m very curious to know what pollster let him know that I’m beating him in Texas by two points. That’s news to me, but it’s very good news if it’s true.”

— KELLYANNE CONWAYto Bill Hemmer on“FOX NEWS SUNDAY”on a possible meeting with Iran’s president: “He has never … we never committed to that meeting at the United Nations General Assembly. The president just said he’s looking at it.”

— SEN. CORY BOOKERto Chuck Todd onNBC’s “Meet the Press”about his flagging poll numbers: “The polls have never been predictive this far out. In fact, if you’re polling ahead right now, you should worry because we’ve never in my lifetime and yours had somebody who was polling ahead this far out that went on to the presidency. The people that usually win are younger, dynamic candidates that are considered long shots. Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.”

— JAKE TAPPERspoke toPETE BUTTIGIEGabout Beto O’Rourke’s calling to confiscate guns onCNN’s “STATE OF THE UNION”.TAPPER: “Do you agree? Did Beto O’Rourke say something that’s playing into the hands of Republicans?”BUTTIGIEG: Yes.

“Look, right now, we have an amazing moment on our hands.We have agreement among the American people for not just universal background checks, but we have a majority in favor of red flag laws, high-capacity magazines, banning the new sale of assault weapons.

“This is a golden moment to finally do something,because we have been arguing about this for as long as I have been alive. When even this president and even Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands.Let’s make the most of it and get these things done.”

— WYOMING REP. LIZ CHENEYtoCHUCK TODDonSEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY.):“Look, I think if you look back at what, what Senator Paul has said over many, many years, he’s very different from where President Trump is on these issues. President Trump puts America first. Senator Paul, whenever given the opportunity, blames America first.”

— RAND PAULtoJAKE TAPPERon CNN’s “State of the Union”: “I can’t meet a general who can clearly tell me what our national security interest is in Afghanistan. Most of the military, over 60 percent of the military who served in Iraq or Afghanistan now think both of the wars should come to an end.

“So I think the president’s right to do this, but I think we have to callout the Republicans who are preventing him. This is the Bolton-Cheney wing. Dick Cheney to this day still thinks the Iraq War was a good thing. The Iraq War, President Trump has said, was the biggest geopolitical blunder of the last generation. It destabilized the Middle East. It increased the strength of Iran. It tipped the balance towards Iran.

“So there really was nothing good about the Iraq War.And Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, John Bolton, they still don’t get it. They still are advocating for more regime change in the Middle East.”

THE PRESIDENT’S SUNDAY …No public events scheduled

NEW EXCERPT … “’No turning back now’: The inside story of James Comey’s trip to Trump Tower”from Josh Campbell’s“Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump’s War on the FBI”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY … BOSTON GLOBE’S VICKY MCGRANEin Springfield, Mass.:“Potential Joe Kennedy vs. Ed Markey face-off at center of Democratic convention”:“Senator Elizabeth Warren on Saturday said she sees nothing to criticize in Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III launching a primary challenge to the candidate she has endorsed, Senator Edward J. Markey.

“Warren told reporters that she stands by her endorsement of Markey,which she made in February. But she declined to offer any words of discouragement for the 38-year-old Kennedy as he mulls a challenge to Markey.

“‘I couldn’t ask for a better partner in the Senate,’ Warren saidof Markey in comments made shortly before she took the stage at the state Democratic Party’s annual convention here. But she called both men friends and offered equally strong praise of Kennedy, noting that she had him and his wife as students at Harvard Law School.”Boston Globe

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS,curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):

— “How David Swensen Made Yale Fabulously Rich,”by Drake Bennett, Janet Lorin and Michael McDonald in Bloomberg Businessweek: “He walked away from the stock market, built a network of elite private funds, and created a fortune with no end in sight.”Bloomberg Businessweek

— “What I Wish I’d Known About Sexual Assault in the Military,”by Sandra Sidi in October’s Atlantic: “For women, fending off unwanted male attention is the job that never ends.”The Atlantic

— “The Moral Logic of Humanitarian Intervention,”by The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins: “Samantha Power made a career arguing for America’s ‘responsibility to protect.’ During her years in the White House, it became clear that benevolent motives can have calamitous results.”New Yorker

— “I Was Caroline Calloway,”by Natalie Beach in The Cut: “Seven years after I met the infamous Instagram star, I’m ready to tell my side of the story.”The Cut(h/t Longreads.com)

— “Notre-Dame’s Toxic Fallout,”by NYT’s Elian Peltier in Paris and James Glanz, Weiyi Cai and Jeremy White in NYC: “Flames engulfed 460 tons of lead when Notre-Dame’s roof and spire burned, scattering dangerous dust onto the streets and parks of Paris.”NYT

— “Malcolm Gladwell Reaches His Tipping Point,”by The Atlantic’s Andy Ferguson: “Among his other talents, he’s one of those ‘professional communicators’ that public-speaking coaches always say we should emulate: First he tells his audience what he’s about to tell them, then he tells them, and then he tells them what he just told them.”The Atlantic(h/t ALDaily.com)

— “Superfans: A Love Story,”by Michael Schulman in The New Yorker: “From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Game of Thrones,’ fans have more power than ever to push back. But is fandom becoming as toxic as politics?”New Yorker

— “Competitive Oyster Shucking Is Real, Decadent, And China’s Best Party,”by Noelle Mateer in Deadspin: “Do not assume, just because there is champagne and whiskey and maybe, sometimes, drugs, that these shuckers aren’t also thinking long and hard, and often poetically, about their métier.”Deadspin(h/t Longform.org)

— “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,”by Tucker Carlson in Esquire in Nov. 2003: “Recently, an eminent, varied, large, and unlikely delegation of Americans, led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, went to Africa to heal a wounded continent. They took the whitest man in America with them.”Esquire

— “Ship of horrors: life and death on the lawless high seas,”by Ian Urbina in The Guardian: “From bullying and sexual assault to squalid living conditions and forced labour, working at sea can be a grim business – and one deep-sea fishing fleet is particularly notorious.”Guardian

— “Confessions of an Islamic State fighter” —1843 Magazine’s Aug./Sept. issue: “Fitim Lladrovci travelled to Syria to fight a holy war. Now back in Kosovo, he continues to call for jihad. Alexander Clapp is granted a rare interview.”1843 Magazine

— Why Can’t California Solve Its Housing Crisis?”by Tessa Stuart in Rolling Stone: “It’s the epicenter of the tech industry and the wealthiest, most progressive state in the union, but homelessness is surging — and no one can agree on how to fix it.”RS(h/t Longform.org)

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

SPOTTED:Pete Buttigieg hosting friends and supporters at Morris American Bar in D.C. before attending the Congressional Black Caucus gala at the Convention Center on Saturday.Pic

SPOTTEDat a party for Kim Wehle’s new book, “How To Read The Constitution And Why,” ($17.99 on Amazon) at the home of Megan Rupp in Chevy Chase, Md.: Rod and Lisa Rosenstein, Rick Wilson, Maya MacGuineas and Will Rabbe.

TRANSITION — Cari Lutkinsis now deputy chief of staff for operations at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. She was previously director for strategic initiatives at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and is a Trump White House alum.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS – OBAMA ALUMNI: Alexa KissingertoGareth Rhodes —per NYT’s Vincent M. Mallozi: “New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo officiated. … The couple met at Harvard, from which each received a law degree. The bride, 29, is a judicial clerk for Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She previously served as an aide to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama. … The groom, 31, is special counsel to the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services in New York and Albany. … He previously served as an aide to Governor Cuomo and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 19th Congressional district in 2018.”With a pic,NYT

— “Taylor Barnes, Alexander Logan,”via NYT: “Ms. Barnes, 29, is the constituency operations director and the women’s political director of the [DNC], where she helps manage constituency outreach groups in Washington. … Mr. Lord, 33, is the database manager at the National Guard Association, where he oversees reporting and analytics, membership acquisition and retention strategy in Washington.”With a pic,NYT

— “Katie Rodihan, Heath Hyatt,”via NYT: “Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, officiated …Ms. Rodihan, 27, is the national press secretary for Inslee for America, the presidential campaign of Gov. Jay Inslee, Democrat of Washington, who last month dropped out of the 2020 race. …Mr. Hyatt, 29, is an associate at Perkins Coie, a law firm in Seattle. … [T]heir relationship developed while they were campaigning for Mr. Kaine in Virginia in 2012.”NYT

— Chris Hayden,deputy communications director for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, andRachel Chaney,a longtime organizer who most recently worked at Democracy Forward, were married last night in Ocean City, N.J.SPOTTED:Ben Ray, Alex Kellner, Adrianne Marsh and Paul Dunn, Rob Flaherty, Carla Frank, Lily Adams, Corey Ciorciari, James Singer, Rachael Hartford, Caitlin Legacki, Cameron Sullivan, Stewart Boss, Suzy Smith, Morgan Finkelstein, Noah Dion and Joe Philbin.Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Erin Memmott,a partner at Oorbeek Memmott Group, andJustin Memmott,counsel for the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, welcomed Samuel David to the world.Pic

BIRTHDAYS:Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) is 43 … Ashley Parker, WaPo White House reporter and MSNBC/NBC senior political analyst … Sara Fagan, CEO of Deep Root Analytics … former Bush/Cheney speechwriter John McConnell … Kirsten Kukowski … Christian Pinkston … Chris Lehmann … NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik … Todd Breasseale … Ben Kamisar … “CBS This Morning” producer Adam Aigner-Treworgy … Alana Russo … former Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is 6-0 … POLITICO’s Kathy Wolfe, Jenn Miller and Hung-Su Nguyen … Alexandra Berg … Eliza Shapiro … Tiffany Haverly, director of public affairs at PhRMA … Sabrina Rush … Sandra Alcalá, House director of member services (hat tip: Jon Haber) … Jon Gossett … Chandler Smith Costello, SEC deputy director for public affairs …

… Ryan Nobles,CNN Washington correspondent … Zara Rahim,head of comms of The Wing … Herb Rothschild is 82 (h/t son Gregg) … Tony Mauro … League of Conservation Voters’ Dawn Cohea … Katie Thompson … David Lloyd … Elizabeth Meyer of Booz Allen Hamilton … Cat Cheney … Don Irvine … Jodi Hanson Bond … Marya Hannun … Amy Sisk … Rebecca McGrath … Hannah Connaghan … Bryan Doyle … Wayne King, deputy COS for Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) … Mal Kline … Kristen Bor … Dave Shott … Bloomberg Opinion’s Max Berley … Veronica Lew … Nathan Hurst … Allyson Alvaré Kranz … CNBC’s Ryan Ruggiero … Theola DeBose … Connie Carter … Neil Makhija … Marie Arana … Phil Zabriskie … Wayne Reynolds … Chip Rodgers … Todd Olsen … Jill Moschak

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[radiofreejro]

BYOV - LIBC & Sand City Tap Takeover 1/20/17

BYOV - LIBC & Sand City Tap Takeover 1/20/17 (TEN HOURS)

*SET ONE*

BadBadNotGood - Confessions Pt. II/Lavender/Chompy's Paradise King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - I'm In Your Mind/I'm Not In Your Mind/Cellophane/       I'm In Your Mind Fuzz/Empty/Hot Water Snake Oil - Seidel In The Salt Flats/Travels Light Moog Machine - Jumping Jack Flash Return To Forever - Sorceress Space Needle - Where the Fucks My Wallet? Notwist - Messier Objects 10-11 Wendy Carlos - William Tell Overture Yes - Heart of the Sunrise XTC - Making Plans For Nigel Primus - Too Many Puppies Parliament - Give Up the Funk Mike Watt - Maggot Brain Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart - Willie the Pimp DJ Shadow - Organ Donor (extended overhaul) dälek - Spiritual Healing Stevie Wonder - Superstition Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War #2 Shriekback - Nemesis Gang Of Four - I Love A Man In Uniform Pink Floyd - One of These Days Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers DEVO - Beautiful World A Flock of Seagulls - I Ran Lou Reed - Sweet Jane (live) The Doors - The Wasp (Big Beat & Texas Radio) The Wipers - Is This Real? Mission of Burma - This Is Not a Photograph Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Not Sleeping Around Violent Femmes - Kiss Off* The Monroes - What Do All the People Know?* Poison - Talk Dirty To Me The Vapors - Turning Japanese Stetsasonic - A.F.R.I.C.A. Public Image Ltd - The Body INXS - Original Sin Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion The Housemartins - Happy Hour Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Balloon Man ——————————————————————————— *SET TWO*

RJD2 - Ghosthunter Genius/GZA - Duel of the Iron Mic A Tribe Called Quest - We the People/Whateva Will Be The Fugees - Killing Me Softly* Glass Animals - Youth Tom Tom Club - Sunshine and Ecstasy (sunshine + sensi mix) Prince - Little Red Corvette Thunderclap Newman - Something In the Air The Upsetters - Curly Dub Men Without Hats - Safety Dance Weird Al Yankovic - Brady Bunch Madness - One Step Beyond The Time - Jungle Love Luscious Jackson - Strongman Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth Beck - The New Pollution The Bølshøi - Happy Boy The Beatles - I Want To Tell You The Breeders - When I Was a Painter The Smithereens - Blood & Roses The Jesus & Mary Chain - Head On Social Distortion - When the Angels Sing Jimmy Eat World - A Praise Chorus The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy Cursive - Driftwood Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love The Cure - Like Cockatoos The Sugarcubes - Birthday The English Beat - Tears of a Clown Squeeze - Up the Junction Supertramp - The Logical Song Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Symphony of the Nymph Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is the Man T'Pau - Heart and Soul San Cisco - Awkward Siousxie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust Chapterhouse - Pearl Brian Jonestown Massacre - Lantern David Bowie - Space Oddity Modest Mouse - The Ocean Breathes Salty Neil Young - Down By the River Built To Spill - Carry the Zero Bongwater - His Old Look Yo La Tengo - Ohm The Boo Radleys - Wish I Was Skinny Al Green - Tired of Being Alone Archie Bell & The Drells - Tighten Up Pt. 1 Rufus Thomas - Can Your Monkey Do the Dog? Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine Major Lance - Crying in the Rain The Drifters - There Goes My Baby Sam Cooke - Chain Gang Jimmy Ruffin - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted Isaac Hayes - By the Time I Get to Phoenix Chaka Khan - I Feel For You Prince & The Revolution - Raspberry Beret The Box Tops - I'm Your Puppet Stevie Ray Vaughan - Voodoo Chile Heart - Crazy On You The Clash - Card Cheat The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays The Undertones - Get Over You Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love? Social Distortion - Story of My Life Camper Van Beethoven - (I Was Born In A) Laundromat The Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died Frank Turner - I Am Disappeared Bouncing Souls - The Something Special Fred Schneider - Monster Love & Rockets - Ball of Confusion Flaming Lips - Evil Will Prevail John Williams - Star Wars Main Title Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart New Order - Weirdo Mumford & Sons - There Will Be a Time* Courtney Barnett - Lance Jr. The Rave-Ups - She Says (Come Around) Bangles - In Your Mind R.E.M. - Life and How To Live It The Mountain Goats - No Children Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Elliott Smith - Twilight Emmitt Rhodes - Somebody Made For Me Destroyer - No Cease Fires! (Crimes Against The State Of Our Love, Baby) David Bowie - Starman Yazoo - Nobody's Diary Depeche Mode - Stripped (Highland Mix) Bowery Electric - Beat Tom Waits - The One That Got Away/Diamonds On My Windshield Kurt Vile - Pretty Pimpin' The Replacements - Here Comes A Regular Flaming Lips - Five Stop Mother Superior Rain

[bountyofbeads]

Behind Trump’s Dealings With Turkey: Sons-in-Law Married to Power https://nyti.ms/32DQzdR

REMINDER: Donald J Trump doesn't do anything unless it benefits him and his family business's. Trump isn't looking out for the U.S and our national security, he's looking for his own financial bottom line.

Behind Trump’s Dealings With Turkey: Sons-in-Law Married to Power

Informal relationships between family members help explain the course of diplomacy between the White House and Turkey’s leader.

By David D. Kirkpatrick and Eric Lipton |

Published Nov. 12, 2019 Updated 9:29 AM ET | New York Times | Posted November 12, 2019 |

ISTANBUL — Behind President Trump’s accommodating attitude toward Turkey is an unusual back channel: a trio of sons-in-law who married into power and now play key roles in connecting Ankara with Washington.

One, Turkey’s finance minister, is the son-in-law of its strongman president and oversees his country’s relationship with the United States.

Another is the son-in-law of a Turkish tycoon and became a business partner to the Trump Organization. Now he advocates for Turkey with the Trump administration.

And the third is Jared Kushner, who as the son-in-law of and senior adviser to Mr. Trump has a vague if expansive foreign policy portfolio.

Operating both individually and in tandem, the three men have developed an informal, next-generation line of communication between Mr. Trump and his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who only weeks after his military incursion into northern Syria is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday.

At a moment when Mr. Trump has come under bipartisan criticism from Congress for a series of stands favorable to Mr. Erdogan, the ties among the three men show how informal and often-unseen connections between the two presidents have helped shape American policy in a volatile part of the world.

Mr. Erdogan predicted in a television interview this year that a private dialogue between Berat Albayrak, his son-in-law and finance minister, and Mr. Kushner would soon put “back on track” the vexed relations between Washington and Ankara. “The bridge works well in this manner,” Mr. Erdogan said.

“Backdoor diplomacy,” Mr. Albayrak called his work with Mr. Kushner.

Mr. Trump’s policy toward Turkey has confounded his fellow Republicans in Congress on a number of fronts. Mr. Trump twice surprised his own advisers by agreeing during phone calls with Mr. Erdogan to pull United States troops from northern Syria — and the second time, in early October, he followed through, clearing the way for Turkish forces to attack an American-backed militia there.

At the same time, Mr. Trump has also deferred legally mandated sanctions against Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for installing Russian missile defense systems. And critics say the Trump administration has also balked at aggressively punishing a state-owned Turkish bank for evading American sanctions against Iran.

On the Russian missiles, banking sanctions and other matters, Mr. Erdogan has deployed both his own son-in-law and Mr. Trump’s Turkish business partner, Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, as emissaries to the administration, sometimes through Mr. Kushner, according to Turkish officials and public records.

In April, for example, Mr. Albayrak had come to Washington for a conference organized by Mr. Yalcindag at the Trump International Hotel. And in the middle of the event, Mr. Kushner summoned Mr. Albayrak to an impromptu meeting in the Oval Office, where Mr. Albayrak successfully pressed Mr. Trump to hold back the sanctions against Turkey for buying Russian weapons.

Both leaders appear to favor family or business connections as back channels, several advisers to Mr. Erdogan said, in part because both share a suspicion that the agencies of their own governments may be conspiring against them.

The term “deep state,” in fact, first emerged in Turkey decades ago, long before it came into vogue among Trump supporters, and Mr. Erdogan’s advisers say he has cultivated Mr. Trump by emphasizing their shared struggles against such entrenched forces within their governments.

“The U.S. has an established order that we can call a deep state — of course they are obstructing,” Mr. Erdogan said this spring, explaining his hopes for the “bridge” between sons-in-law. “These obstructions are one of our main troubles.”

Turkey is not the only case where Mr. Trump has applied an unusually informal, family-to-family approach to foreign policy. Mr. Kushner, for instance, has also played a role in managing relations with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the de facto ruler and favorite son of the king.

“Trump is replacing formal relations among nations in several cases with family-to-family relationship, or crony-to-crony relationships,” said Eric S. Edelman, who served as under secretary of defense for policy and United States ambassador to Turkey during the George W. Bush administration.

“Certainly Erdogan would prefer that kind of relationship as he runs a crony capitalist regime of his own,” Mr. Edelman said. “But it ought to be a matter of concern to all Americans.”

Trump Towers Rise in Istanbul

Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Trump are hardly natural partners. Mr. Erdogan is a champion of political Islam who often argues that the West is in decline. Mr. Trump is a fierce nationalist who has often denigrated Muslims and especially political Islamists. Mr. Trump has closely allied himself with some of Mr. Erdogan’s greatest foes — including the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Mr. Trump’s ties to Turkey, though, go back more than a decade, beginning with an invitation from Mr. Yalcindag to do business in Istanbul.

Mr. Yalcindag’s father-in-law, the tycoon Aydin Dogan, had set out to build two skyscrapers and a shopping mall. Mr. Yalcindag, now 55, convinced him that the family company should find an international partner. Mr. Yalcindag had negotiated to use the name “CNN Turk” for the family’s television news network, and he flew to New York to sell Mr. Trump on lending his name to the Istanbul towers.

The skyscrapers, which opened in 2012 as Trump Towers Istanbul, pay the Trump Organization only a licensing fee — $5 million to $10 million a year in the first years after it opened, and down to $100,000 to $1 million a year in more recent years — according to Mr. Trump’s financial disclosure forms.

But the buildings were the first residential and commercial towers in Europe to hang the Trump name, and both families considered them a success. Mr. Erdogan, then prime minister, cut the ribbon. Mr. Trump; his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump; and her husband, Mr. Kushner, all attended the opening along with Mr. Yalcindag, who became a friend of their family.

“My daughter loves Turkey, and she loves Istanbul, and she really always enjoyed coming here, and she’s been here many times,” Mr. Trump said at the ceremony in Istanbul. “Her great friend is Mehmet,” Mr. Trump added, referring to Mr. Yalcindag as having “done some unbelievable job.” He praised Mr. Erdogan at length as “a good man” who was “very highly respected throughout the world and in the United States.”

For the past decade, Mr. Yalcindag has typically seen Mr. Trump socially about three or four times a year, according to a person close to the family.

Mr. Trump, as he ran for president, acknowledged that his personal relationships influenced his view of Turkey.

“I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Mr. Trump said in a radio interview in 2015, gushing that it was “a tremendously successful job.”

When Mr. Trump pledged to ban Muslims from entering the United States, Mr. Erdogan briefly called for the removal of the Trump name from the towers. But heeding advice about the value of good relations with Washington, he never followed through.

Mr. Erdogan’s advisers assumed Mr. Trump would lose in 2016. But Mr. Yalcindag flew 10 hours to be with Mr. Trump and his family at the New York Hilton Midtown while the votes were counted.

Frantic to reach the new president-elect the next day, the Turkish Embassy in Washington eventually turned in desperation to Mr. Yalcindag for the telephone number of Trump headquarters — beginning his new role as a go-between for Ankara.

Mr. Erdogan knew Mr. Yalcindag from Turkish business circles, and he had reportedly collaborated with Mr. Erdogan’s son-in-law on a campaign to influence the Turkish news media. On the strength of his ties to the Trump family, Mr. Erdogan also named Mr. Yalcindag to a new role as chairman of a state-run business group that lobbies Washington on behalf of Ankara.

The group’s previous chairman, Ekim Alptekin, had run afoul of American prosecutors by paying more than $500,000 to the consulting firm of the retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who went on to become Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. Prosecutors said Mr. Alptekin was paying Mr. Flynn to lobby the Turkish government, and they eventually indicted him for violating lobbying disclosure rules and for lying to investigators. (Mr. Alptekin has not returned to the United States to face trial.)

Taking over as the face of the state-sponsored Turkey-U.S. Business Council after Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Yalcindag began to travel regularly to Washington. The council for the first time held its annual conferences at the Trump hotel in Washington, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for the hotel while pulling in top Trump administration officials as speakers.

During a visit this year, Mr. Yalcindag also made stops on Capitol Hill and at the State Department, not only to lobby on trade policy but on an array of other issues, as well.

In one State Department meeting, according to a person present, his agenda included pushing for the extradition of the Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Mr. Erdogan of promoting the 2016 coup attempt against him; pleading for the United States to quietly settle the sanctions case against the Turkish bank with a limited fine; arguing for the sale of Patriot missiles to reduce Turkey’s need for Russian alternatives; and making the case for a Turkish takeover over of northern Syria.

At times, Mr. Yalcindag implicitly threatened that Turkey might move closer to Moscow. “You might not consider Turkey at the moment as your best friend,” he told the Americans, according to a person who attended the meeting. “But it would be a shame to lose a longstanding ally.”

‘The Groom’ Rises to Power

Mr. Albayrak, 41, is often referred to in Turkey simply as “the groom.” But he acquired a new nickname after Mr. Trump’s election: Erdogan’s Kushner.

The son of a journalist close to Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Albayrak lived in New York early in his career. He earned a business degree at Pace University while working for the American division of one of Turkey’s biggest conglomerates, Calik Holding.

He married the president’s daughter Esra in 2004, and he was named chief executive of Calik three years later.

By 2015, Mr. Erdogan helped Mr. Albayrak, then 37, to win a seat in Parliament and named him energy minister. But Mr. Albayrak’s influence rose even more rapidly after a faction of military leaders attempted a coup against Mr. Erdogan in July 2016. Mr. Albayrak joined his father-in-law on a jet circling the skies over Turkey while Mr. Erdogan used his iPhone to rally his supporters. (A live interview by FaceTime with CNN Turk, founded by Mr. Yalcindag, helped turn the tide.)

After surviving the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan responded by purging perceived enemies and silencing dissent. Mr. Albayrak spearheaded the crackdown.

He was quickly elevated to the role of finance minister. But Mr. Albayrak acquired so much clout that some, including cabinet members, described him as a shadow premier.

He helped orchestrate a takeover of a large portion of the Turkish news media, much of which is now under the control his younger brother, Serhat Albayrak. (Both brothers over the years have also worked closely with Mr. Yalcindag.)

At the same time, Berat Albayrak — who unlike his father-in-law speaks fluent English — also took primary control over relations with Washington.

Among his missions was to seek the extradition of Mr. Gulen, the religious leader blamed by Mr. Erdogan for orchestrating the July 2016 coup attempt. In September of that year, Mr. Albayrak met with Mr. Flynn in New York to discuss a campaign to seek Mr. Gulen’s extradition to Turkey. That effort led to criminal charges against two others in the meeting, Mr. Flynn and Mr. Alptekin.

The Justice Department at the same time was investigating the second largest Turkish state bank, Halkbank, for a huge, multiyear effort to evade United States sanctions against Iran. Prosecutors said the bank transferred billions of dollars’ worth of gold to Iran in exchange for oil and gas.

Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Albayrak, according to information the United States investigators were then assembling, personally approved the sanctions-evasion scheme even after officials in the United States had arrested a Turkish-Iranian gold trader in the matter. (Turkish officials say their government had publicly dismissed the sanctions on Iran as American policy that was not binding on Turkey.)

As the prosecution ramped up, Mr. Albayrak pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to not impose new penalties on Halkbank.

“We had a positive meeting with our U.S. counterpart,” Mr. Albayrak told reporters in Turkey after a conversation with Mr. Mnuchin late last year. “We told them that Halkbank had not violated sanctions,” he added. “We have positive expectations.”

Mr. Erdogan denounced the allegations against the bank as another “political coup attempt” against him, and he urged Mr. Trump to shut down the investigation. For much of 2019, the bank negotiated with the Justice Department to avoid further charges, an effort that ended in October, amid the uproar over northern Syria, when the bank was indicted.

A Visit to the Oval Office

The two presidential sons-in-law have known each other since at least 2018. As energy minister, Mr. Albayrak had promoted closer economic ties to Israel, and by 2018, he had visited the White House to talk with Mr. Kushner about his plans for Middle East peace.

They met again in February in Ankara. Mr. Kushner was on his first official visit to discuss the Middle East with Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Albayrak.

Afterward, Mr. Erdogan asked Mr. Kushner to hold a second meeting with Mr. Albayrak to discuss trade, according to a person involved.

Mr. Kushner then set in motion an official five-day trip to Turkey this September by the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, to promote expanded trade, this person said, even as lawmakers in Washington were calling for economic sanctions in response to Turkey’s purchase of Russian weapons. A spokeswoman for Mr. Ross said early Tuesday that his efforts are now “on hold” after the incursion into Syria.

Mr. Erdogan hailed the February meeting of the sons-in-law as a potential turning point. When Mr. Trump nonetheless mused publicly about reducing certain trade benefits for Turkey over its purchase of a Russian missiles, Mr. Erdogan sounded puzzled.

“Trump sent his son-in-law to Turkey to talk about economic relations, I accepted the son-in-law, he sat down with our son-in-law and talked in detail,” Mr. Erdogan said, suggesting that the timing of Mr. Trump’s threat was “thought provoking.”

By April, relations had grown strained again, in part over Turkey’s purchase of the Russian missile defense systems. And Mr. Erdogan was increasingly frustrated with the American role in northern Syria, where a small American military force was protecting a Kurdish-led militia.

Mr. Erdogan saw the militia as an extension of a Kurdish nationalist movement inside Turkey. He wanted the Turkish military to push them away from the border, and during a phone call with Mr. Erdogan in December 2018, Mr. Trump had abruptly agreed to pull out and let the Turks take over — only to reverse himself under pressure from the Pentagon.

Against that backdrop, the three sons-in-law were set to attend a conference in April in Washington of the state-sponsored business group led by Mr. Yalcindag.

Mr. Albayrak had been set to meet with Mr. Mnuchin, but Mr. Kushner arranged for all three to join Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. Pictures of the meeting bolstered Mr. Albayrak in Ankara politics, and he told Turkish journalists that Mr. Trump had shown an “understanding perspective” on the question of the Russian missiles.

“It was a reflection of Mr. Trump’s fondness, love and real warm feelings both toward Turkey and our president,” Mr. Albayrak told CNN Turk about the Oval Office meeting. “Mr. Jared Kushner thankfully acted very closely and warmly,” Mr. Albayrak said, and the two sons-in-law agreed to pursue “backdoor diplomacy, trying to carry forward the economic relationship of the two countries.”

Only two weeks earlier, Vice President Mike Pence had visited Ankara with a stern warning that accepting delivery of the Russian missiles could trigger a downgrade to Turkey’s status within NATO.

When the first Russian missiles arrived in Turkey in July, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a bipartisan statement urging Mr. Trump “to fully implement sanctions as required by law.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed confidence that sanctions were coming.

But a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan told the Turkish news media that after the Oval Office meeting with Mr. Albayrak, Mr. Trump had committed to using “the power that he has to intervene on that issue” and to holding off on the sanctions.

By late July, Mr. Trump appeared to deliver on that commitment.

���We have a complicated situation,” Mr. Trump told reporters, repeating Mr. Erdogan’s rationale that under the Obama administration Turkey “was not allowed” to buy the American-made Patriots instead of the Russian version.

“Then, as soon as he buys something else, everybody says, ‘O.K. You can buy it,’” Mr. Trump said, sympathetically. “You can’t do business that way.”

To the public dismay of the many Republicans demanding sanctions, Mr. Trump instead asked the Senate Republicans for “flexibility.” He emphasized that the missiles were not yet operational and asked for time for more talks. (Mr. Trump canceled the planned sale of more than 100 F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, but the administration is holding continued discussions about letting Turkey back into the F-35 program.)

Then, during a phone call on Oct. 6, Mr. Trump unexpectedly acceded once again to the wishes of the Turkish president by agreeing to remove American troops from northern Syria, making way for the Turkish incursion against the American-backed Kurdish-led forces.

Faced with a domestic backlash, Mr. Trump threatened at one point to “destroy” Turkey’s economy, then announced but withdrew a new round of sanctions, and finally invited Mr. Erdogan to the White House.

The Justice Department filed criminal charges for sanctions-busting against Halkbank. But the Treasury Department has not imposed penalties.

And when Mr. Erdogan lands in Washington this week, his son-in-law will be with him. Mr. Yalcindag is there already.

_____

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Istanbul, and Eric Lipton from Washington.

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Erdogan Warns That Turkey Will Keep Deporting ISIS Detainees

The Turkish leader is preparing to travel to Washington to meet with President Trump.

By Carlotta Gall | Published Nov. 12, 2019, 8:17 AM ET |New York Times | Posted November 12, 2019 |

ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey warned Western nations that he would continue to release people who were thought to be members of the Islamic State and send them back to their home countries if governments continued to pressure Turkey with sanctions.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday shortly before leaving Ankara for a visit to the United States, Mr. Erdogan was mostly aiming the remarks at the European Union, which has proposed a system for imposing sanctions on Turkey over its unauthorized gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.

The comments came a day after Turkey said it had begun deporting Islamic State fighters it had captured, starting a program to repatriate the detainees that has strained ties with European countries.

Mr. Erdogan also took a tough line toward an American detainee who was deported by the Turkish authorities on Monday and became stranded at the Greek-Turkish border after being turned back by the Greek border police. Turkish officials said on Monday that the American, who has not been identified, is an Islamic State fighter who was captured last month in northeastern Syria.

“We have started returning Daesh members to their countries and of course there is a serious rush, things are flaring up,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. He added that the onus had been on Turkey to handle the exodus of Islamic State fighters from Syria, and that now their home countries must decide what to do.

“It does not concern us if they are stuck at the border or not,” Mr. Erdogan said, referring to the American detainee. “We will continue sending them, so if they take them or do not take them doesn’t really concern us.”

According to a statement by the Greek police, the man was escorted to a Greek border post on Monday by Turkish officers who cited the expiration of his visa. The man, however, said he did not wish to enter Greece and was sent back to Turkey, the police said.

Later in the day, the man returned alone to the Greek border post and asked to enter Greece, but he was turned back by Greek border guards.

Turkish news outlets aired images of the man waving at the camera from the buffer zone between the two countries. But he is just one of several people whom Turkey has vowed to deport, citing suspected ties to the Islamic State. The procedures to deport 11 French citizens and seven Germans, along with others from Denmark and Ireland, began this week, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry.

The French citizens are four women and seven children, according to French news reports.

Five children of the children are younger than 4, according to their lawyer, Marie Dosé, who said the women had asked for years to be repatriated and wanted to be tried in France.

“They have risked their lives and their children’s to join Turkey and be expelled to France,” Ms. Dosé said.

Three of the women escaped last month from the Ain Issa camp in northeastern Syria after the facility was abandoned by Kurdish forces. The women fled to the Turkish border, 25 miles north, and were under an international arrest warrant, according to Ms. Dosé.

It is not the first time that French citizens have been deported from Turkey. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters and their families have been returned to France since the countries signed an agreement in 2014.

In September, Turkey deported three women and nine children, including the niece of Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain, two high-profile jihadists who were reportedly killed in Syria in February.

Mr. Erdogan’s threats to continue releasing Islamic State prisoners and also to open the gates to Europe more generally for Syrian refugees have caused alarm in Europe, the Turkish leader will face different pressures on his visit to the United States.

He is scheduled to meet President Trump in Washington on Wednesday. At the top of the agenda will be Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S400 defense missile system. American officials have pressed Turkey to walk away from the Russian system or face a raft of sanctions.

Mr. Erdogan had initially floated the idea of buying the American-made Patriot missile system as well, but it is not clear if the move would be enough to avoid sanctions.

Mr. Erdogan told Turkish reporters on Tuesday that he would again raise his longstanding demand for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher whom Mr. Erdogan has accused of instigating a failed coup.

The Turkish president will also continue to press complaints against the American support of a Kurdish militia in Syria that Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

______

Elian Peltier contributed reporting from London, and Niki Kitsantonis from Athens.

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[gracedman]

The Strong Man’s House

Matthew 12:24–29 (ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, he (Jesus) said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.

 There is a “sophisticated” teaching and mentality in some parts of Christianity that would try to say that there must be a specialized ministry to cast our demons and undo the works of the enemy. But Jesus says here: “by whom do your sons cast them out?” Clearly indicating to me at least, that he expected that they would soon be doing just that.

 Satan glories in this ignorance that exists in many believer’s hearts. He magnifies his own powers and influence. His are the powers of darkness. His is the strong man’s house. We need to know the victory that we all have individually and collectively as believers in Christ. Has the strong man been bound or not?

  1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  1 John 5:4 (ESV)

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

 Whether we see our immediate strong man as the enemy, our flesh, or the world, know that our victory comes from God by grace based upon the work Christ has already done. And through our faith in or absolute dependency upon God it becomes our experiential reality. It is harder to describe than to put into action. A simple-hearted cry of  “thanks be to God, who simply give us the victory,” is sufficient. These strongholds and strong men have been defeated and are ready to be demolished. Satan is a prime candidate to be dethroned. And I love the universality of the gift: “everyone who has been born of God overcomes.” There is no exclusive group or elite cadre here. It is everyone who is born of God or who is born again. It is a matter of authority and not of power. We are never told to overpower the enemy. He and his demons are of a different category than humans. They are and always will be much more powerful than we are or will ever be in and of ourselves. When men try to deal with the enemy in their own strength, they are easily overcome. Consider the sons of Sceva:

  Acts 19:11–16 (ESV)

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

 But notice here, “God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.” Paul, did not do the miracles, for he did not have the power to do so. He did have authority to do so, and represented God. But God did the works. We as believers have this same authority in Christ. We do not have God’s power. We can only represent him. But this will be enough. David did not have the power in himself to defeat Goliath. Goliath could have manhandled and destroyed David easily. But David had a greater authority behind him that of God himself. So, David defeated Goliath easily. These seven sons could not defeat one demon and left this encounter naked, wounded, and running for their lives. Before the devil, his demons, the world system, and our own flesh, we can experience the same shameful results. But the simplest believer in Christ can overcome and put the enemy to flight by standing in the authority of who they are in Christ.

  Romans 8:37 (ESV)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 When we face things in our own lives and/or people who represent the enemy, the world system, or demonic forces, we can rest in the assurance that the one who lives within us is greater than them all.

  1 John 4:4 (ESV)

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

  Isaiah 26:12–15 (ESV)

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

  Lord Jesus, we were once the strongman’s house. The place where he worked and played. He toyed with us like foolish pawns and shamefully enticed us like a strong and irresistible master. But then you came, and we find he is bound. And we are free indeed. All we can say is thank you and follow you on for more and more of this great grace and love. Amen!!!

[bellalavitaatlasstar-blog]

【班傑明·富爾福德】 2017年4月3日 新聞快訊

洛克菲勒死後出現權力真空 美日面臨爆發內戰邊鋒 根據中情局、五角大樓和日本軍方消息說，大衛洛克菲勒死後留下的權力真空產生了一個局面，如果局勢不穩的話，將導致美國和日本爆發內戰。情況已到了美軍可能直接開入華盛頓特區，與中情局販毒派與美聯儲惡棍的僱傭軍團開打。 US and Japan are close to civil war as Rockefeller death leaves power vacuum Benjamin Fulford, 3- April, 2017 The power vacuum left by the death of David Rockefeller has created a situation that, if not diffused, will lead to civil war in the USA and Japan, CIA, Pentagon and Japanese military intelligence sources say, The situation has reached the point where US military might march on Washington DC to do battle with the drug dealing faction of the CIA, Federal Reserve Board stooge politicians and their hired guns, the sources say. In Japan, meanwhile, the split is between US controlled forces based around the puppet government in Tokyo and nationalistic plus North Korean linked forces strongest in the Osaka region, Japanese military intelligence sources say. 日本軍事情報說，在美國力量控制下的東京傀儡政府，和大阪地區最強的民族主義加朝鮮聯繫勢力之間，已形成水火不相容，勢不兩立的兩個陣營。 The de-facto abdication of the Japanese Emperor Akihito has created a power struggle over the Japanese throne, right wing sources close to the imperial family say. The Japanese right-wing block has been thrown into turmoil over revelations that Akihito was not the real son of Emperor Hirohito and was a proxy for David Rockefeller, they say. 附屬日本王室的右翼來源說，之前已放棄王位鬥爭的明仁天皇另起爐灶，醞釀着自己的勢力圈。他們說，右翼份子被煽動說明仁並不是昭和天皇的龜兒子，他不過是洛氏的傀儡而已。 That is why a huge battle is raging over the succession with one group pushing for Crown Prince Naruhito, while other factions are pushing for a replacement of the foreign influenced imperial family that has ruled since Meiji times, the sources say. The three legged crow secret society based in Kyoto, along with the Nichiren Buddhist sect, the Taiwanese and the North Koreans are pushing for such a fundamental change, they say. One candidate they are pushing for is Naoshi Onodera, a rival claimant to the throne, the sources ad. 消息人士說，這是一場巨大的爭鬥，一個團體擁戴德仁親王，而其他派別則推動從明治時代以來被外國影響的王室家族。他們說，京都的三腿烏鴉秘密社會、尼日倫佛教派、台灣和朝鮮等也在參與這樣一個根本性的變化。他們推薦的是小野寺直士，據說是一名真正的王位繼承者。 https://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/benjamin-fulford-3-20-12-rival-emperor-stakes-claim-to-japanese-throne-shows-evidence-he-is-the-real-deal-the-10-commandments-were-given-to-his-ancestors-by-celestial-beings/ The establishment in Tokyo behind the current imperial family also has worries about Prince Naruhito, the sources say. His wife, Princess Masako, is a member of the Sokka Gakkai Buddhist sect and for that reason she refuses to take part in the Shinto ceremonies that are an essential part of an Emperor’s job in Japan, they say. 消息人士說，王室也對德仁親王感到擔憂。他的妻子皇太子妃雅子是一名佛教徒，是日本創價學會佛教教派（Sokka Gakkai）的成員，因此她拒絕參加日本王室重要的神道儀式。 Masako is also the daughter of Hisashi Owada, a Rockefeller crony, they note. However, the current establishment is still willing to go along with Naruhito if he promises to carry out the various Shinto ceremonies without Masako at his side they say. Otherwise they would look for a successor within the current ruling family, presumably Prince Fumihito who has a son and heir, they say. 他們也注意到，雅子也是小和田恆的女兒，她父親是洛氏的摯友。但是，如果德仁親王能夠在沒有雅子的陪同下進行各種神道儀式，目前的背後勢力仍願意與德仁親王站在同一戰線上。否則，他們會在其統治家族中另覓繼承者，他們說，可能是有個兒子作為繼承人的秋篠宮文仁親王。 The group pushing to keep the current family in power is also arguing that it is the institution, not the actual bloodline, that matters. 掌有和控制王室家族的團體也在為此事爭論不休，但它是一個機構，而不是血緣關係。 The Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa, for his part, has been travelling around Asia saying that Henry Kissinger has anointed him and that once Naruhito takes the throne he will unite Malaysia, North Korea, South Korea and Japan into a single country under his control, the Japanese right wing sources say. What Ozawa and the Japanese old establishment slave politicians fail to realize is that Kissinger has no power and that they are all destined for the trash can of history. 日本右翼消息說，小澤一郎一直在亞洲走來走去，並說已得到基辛格的封聖，一旦德仁親王登上王位，他將把馬來西亞、朝鮮、韓國和日本組合起來變成一個由他控制的國家。但小澤和日本陰謀集團沒有意識到的是，基辛格已沒有勢力，他們都是注定要丟進垃圾桶的黑歷史人物。 North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un, meanwhile, is in such a funk about the situation that he is permanently high on amphetamines and sleeping in a different location every night worried about being taken out by US drones, Japanese military intelligence sources say. 日本軍事情報消息說，與此同時，頑固的金正恩也對這一情況感到非常擔憂，他擔心被美國無人機帶走，每晚都睡在不同的地方，而且要依靠安非他命來睡覺。 Traditionalists, meanwhile, are saying there is a need to go back to the way things were before Western imperialists turned Japan into a secret colony during the 19th century. They want complete independence from Western influence for the region, Asian secret society sources say. This something the CIA and the US military are not likely to accept. 與此同時，傳統主義者說，要回顧西方帝國主義在19世紀將日本變成秘密殖民地的歷史。亞洲秘密會社消息說，他們希望完全獨立並擺脫西方的影響力。然而，中情局和美軍不太可能接受這一點。 In any case, the arcane battle over the Japanese imperial family has worldwide repercussions. Apparently, at the very peak of the existing financial system, the representative of the oldest imperial line, that being the Japanese one, has control over the final seal that allows for the creation of new money, the imperial family sources say. 無論如何，日本王室家族的鬼打鬼也給全世界帶來影響。顯然，在現有金融體系的高峰期，王室家族的消息人士說，最古老的帝國的代表，即現有的日本王族，擁有允許創造新錢的最後印章。 Now that David Rockefeller and his imperial proxy are out of the picture, the chaos accompanying the collapse of the post-war order presided over by Rockefeller has reached a point where former US President Barack Obama has been arrested by US military police, Pentagon and Japanese MI sources say. Obama’s so-called black house or anti-trump headquarters was also set on fire, the sources say. Obama, upon arrest, began naming his bosses in the drug dealing faction of the CIA, the sources say. 五角大樓和日本MI消息說，現在，洛克菲勒和他的帝國代理已不合時宜，隨着他的戰後秩序崩潰，已到了前美國總統奧巴馬被美軍逮捕的混亂程度。消息人士說，奧巴馬所謂的黑屋或反特朗普總部也火燒眼眉。據消息人士透露，奧巴馬被捕後開始大爆特��中情局販毒老大的名單。 As a result, a plane containing Afghan heroin and North Korean amphetamines was impounded at Argyle International Airport on St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, the sources say. The money raised from this drug flight was intended to be used to finance the operations of Daesh (formerly known as ISIS), the sources say. This impoundment follows the capture of an Obama linked ship containing 4.2 tons of cocaine, the sources note. 據透露，一架載有阿富汗海洛英和朝鮮安非他明的飛機，在加勒比地區聖文森特（St. Vincent）和格林納丁斯（Grenadines）的雅蓋（Argyle）國際機場被扣留。消息人士說，這趟毒品提供的資金是用於資助達伊沙(前稱ISIS)。消息來源指出，另外一單於奧巴馬有關的毒品案，一艘載有4.2噸可卡因的運毒船被扣押。 http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2262.htm Since the detainment of Obama, the authorities have been systematically intercepting drug shipments into the US. Last week 16 tons of cocaine were seized and a major heroin ring was busted. 自從奧巴馬被扣留以來，當局一直在打擊運往美國的毒品。據悉，上週查獲了16噸可卡因，一大班毒梟被緝拿。 http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/31/drug-seizure-bonanza-newest-coast-guard-cutter-has-banner-week-busts.html http://abc7ny.com/news/mugshots-nypd-busts-massive-drug-ring-involving-new-fentanyl/1824452/ The information provided by Obama on the drug money financed Daesh mercenary army has also led to US military actions against them in Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and Libya, Pentagon sources say. 五角大樓消息說，奧巴馬提供的關於提供給伊斯蘭國的毒資，也促使美國在也門、索馬里、尼日利亞和利比亞展開軍事行動。 Donald Trump also seems to have shown he is ready to take action against the pharmacidical corporations as well with a tweet honoring world autism day. It is rumored his son Barron turned autistic after receiving a tainted vaccine. 特朗普也似乎表明，他準備對毒梟採取行動，以及一個尊重世界自閉症日的呼籲。傳聞說，他的兒子巴倫在接受了一種污染的疫苗後得了自閉症。 The US administration is also signaling a break with the Khazarians by having Trump boycott the March annual meeting of the AIPAC lobby, Pentagon sources say. 五角大樓消息說，美國政府也在特朗普抵制AIPAC3月份年度會議後，向可薩暴徒打了離婚的暗號。 The Rothschild Khazarian faction also suffered a major defeat when their plan to merge the London Stock Exchange with the Deutsche Borse was nixed by the EU, Pentagon sources say. 當他們計劃將倫敦證券交易所與德意志銀行合併時，羅斯柴爾德可薩暴徒派別也遭受重大失敗。 The Freemasons, whose worldwide network support this ancient system, elected Ralph Cosa of the Jesuit and Vatican linked CSIS 有全球支持網絡的古老共濟會系統，選出耶穌會和梵蒂岡的拉爾夫·科薩（Ralph Cosa）出任CSIS的主席。 https://www.csis.org/people/ralph-cossa This loss of Rothschild as well as Rockefeller plus Bush/Clinton power means control of the apex of the current US dollar/Euro/Yen Western financial system is at stake. In theory, with the right people in charge, a new Emperor under the current Western financial system could authorize the issuance of trillions or quadrillions of dollars to finance a new age, multiple sources agree. as their new Grandmaster on March 25th, the Japanese imperial family sources say. It is not clear yet what Cosa plans to do but we will try to contact him and find out more for our readers. We assume it is world peace and the start of a golden age. 羅斯柴爾德與洛克菲勒加上布什/克林頓政權的這種損失，意味着控制目前的美元/歐元/日元西方金融體系的頂點受到威脅。理論上說，在現代西方金融體系下的新帝國可以授權發行萬億美元或數十億美元資助新時代，多個來源同意。上個月25日，日本皇室的消息說，作為他們的新主人，還不清楚科薩計劃些什麼。但是會嘗試與他聯繫，為我們的讀者提供更多的內容。我們認為現在是世界和平和黃金時代的開始。 Needless to say, as more and more people around the world become aware of the nature of the current financial system, they wonder if it should not be modernized and put under more transparent, democratic control. Since the financial system is the true source of power on this planet, the battle over its control is in essence a battle for control of the planet earth, its living creatures and its future. 不用說，隨着全球越來越多的人意識到現有金融體系的本質（劫貧濟富），他們認為不應該現代化，反而應該更加透明和有效的民主式控制。由於金融體系是地球上真正的權力來源，所以本質上是取得地球未來控制權的戰爭。 The Americans rallying behind the US military and Donald Trump would like to nationalize the Federal Reserve Board and put it under control of democratically elected officials. However, since the United States is bankrupt, if the Trump regime nationalized the FRB without consulting the people who finance the US (mainly China and Japan), it would, in a worst case scenario, lead to a halt in US trade and the end of salary payments to US forces deployed around the world. This, in turn would lead to war and the death of 90% of humanity and the destruction of the Northern Hemisphere. 在美軍和特朗普背後的愛國支持者，希望將美聯儲國有化，並由民選的官員來運行。然而，由於美國已破產，如果美聯儲的國有化不諮詢美國（主要是來自中國和日本）的投資者，那最壞的情況就是導致美國的貿易停止，以及影響部署在全球的美軍薪餉，反過來可能又會導致戰爭，90％的人類死亡和北半球遭到破壞。這就是為什麼本週的習特會有太多關切的原因。 That is why there is so much at stake in the summit meeting this week between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pentagon sources say “Trump also had his wings clipped」 prior to the summit “as his son in law Jared Kushner was forced to kill the $400 million deal with Chinese insurer Anbang because of National Security fears this would turn him into a Chinese asset.」 五角大樓消息說：「特朗普在與習近平會面之前收好他的翅膀」，因為他的女婿賈里斯·庫什納（Jared Kushner）被迫腰斬與中國保險公司安邦的4億美元交易，因為國家安全擔心這會讓他成為中國的財產。」 Chinese secret society sources admit the Chinese invested a fortune in a Hillary Clinton presidency and were sorely disappointed when she lost so, it seems, they are trying to catch up now by buying the good graces of people in the Trump administration. To this end, a Chinese industrialist said the Chinese were going to offer to build many manufacturing hubs in the US in order to improve their relations with the Trump regime. 中國秘密會社消息承認，一些投資家對希拉莉總統競選下了重注，但人算不如天算，她的失敗讓他們感到非常失望，現在他們向特朗普政團的人馬示好以便迎頭趕上。為此，一位中國工業家說，他們將在美國製造更多就業機會，以促進與特朗普的關係。 In any case, Russian Patriach Kiril, Queen Elizabeth, Pope Francis, the Trump people, together with the Asian elders, now have a chance to fundamentally improve the post-war system. This would make it possible to once and for all end the terrorist and genocidal activities of the Satan worshipping Khazarian mafia. Furthermore, if a deal can be reached, trillions if not quadrillions of dollars (yuan etc.) can be made available to finance a massive campaign to end poverty, stop environmental destruction and set humanity on an exponential path of expansion into the universe in harmony with nature. 無論如何，俄羅斯教皇基里爾（Kiril）、伊麗莎白女王二世、教皇弗朗西斯、特朗普與亞洲長老一起，現在有機會從根本上改善自二戰後的腐敗制度。這樣可以一勞永逸地結束撒旦崇拜可薩暴徒的恐怖主義和種族滅絕陰謀。此外，如果達成協議，可以提供數萬億美元（或人民幣等）資助大規模的消除貧困運動，阻止環境破壞，並讓人類在和諧相處的道路上與大宇宙接軌。 Massive investment could also be made to make immortality possible for all those desiring it. We can literally turn this earth into heaven if a deal can be reached for a golden age of peace. 也可以進行大規模投資，使渴望長生不老的人夢想成真。如果達成和平黃金時期的交易，我們就可以把這個地球變成美麗的天堂。 SOURCE: http://benjaminfulford.net/2017/04/03/us-and-japan-are-close-to-civil-war-as-rockefeller-death-leaves-power-vacuum/ 覺醒大勢頭 翻譯