Author: sauer@technologists.com

U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 9, Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

WSJ: Trump Administration in Talks to Accept New Air Force One as Gift From Qatar

NY Times: Trump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One

ABC: Trump administration poised to accept ‘palace in the sky’ as a gift for Trump from Qatar

Daily: Democrats Demand Immediate Independent Investigation Into Trump’s $400 Million Bribe From Qatar

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Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has formally requested that the independent Office of Inspector General investigative the legality of the “gift” to Trump.

WSJ: Trump’s Family Is Rapidly Striking Business Deals in the Mideast

Golf resorts, crypto deals and financial investments blur line between private business and public policy
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Norman Eisen: Trump’s Crypto Conflicts Catch Fire

As a former White House Ethics Czar, I have been stunned by the sheer number of ethics issues afflicting Donald Trump’s first 100 Days (2.0). But Trump and his cronies’ ethics violations have been overshadowed by his other frequent and flagrant transgressions. For example, in his first term, there was heavy mainstream media attention from day one of his selling hotel rooms to foreign governments and the like. This time around, not so much–although they have been a steady theme here on The Contrarian and for the Democracy Movement.

This should be a national scandal, which is why I co-authored this major report on Trump’s crypto corruption. It is the single most profound Presidential conflict of the modern era: a POTUS who has almost 40% of his net worth in his crypto ventures, at the same time as he is regulating the digital currency industry–and, for good measure, has substantial foreign government cash pouring into those ventures!
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Then a funny thing happened on the way to a final vote: an explosion of Democratic opposition. …

That repudiation was important for better crypto regulation but was also an important sign of something we’ve been seeing much more of over the past weeks: stronger opposition to Trump’s dictatorial ways among political leadership in Congress.
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MassLive: ‘Victory for justice’: Mass. pols praise Tufts grad student Rümeysa Öztürk’s release

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Öztürk was detained because of an op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts student newspaper about the war in Gaza, but has not been charged with any crimes.
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Öztürk was released Friday on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE.
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Independent: RFK Jr. either ‘clearly lied to me’ about surgeon general nominee or someone ‘is controlling’ him, ex-running mate claims

Nicole Shanahan is so alarmed by the sudden nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General that she’s now claiming Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. either “clearly lied” to her or someone “is controlling” Kennedy’s decisions.

A day before former Fox News pundit Dr. Janette Nesheiwat was scheduled to appear at a Senate confirmation hearing, President Donald Trump pulled her as his nominee to be the nation’s top doctor. The withdrawal comes amid concerns that Nesheiwat embellished her credentials, as well as growing anger among Trump loyalists over her support for vaccinations.

Means, whom the president said “has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials,” has been a close ally of Kennedy’s and rose to prominence in recent years as a “wellness influencer” and a practitioner of so-called “functional medicine.” Along with her brother Calley, a former food industry lobbyist who now serves as a White House health adviser, Means appeared on former Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s show last year – which ended up being the most-watched podcast episode of 2024.
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Allison Gill: Abrego Garcia Case Delayed. Again.

If there’s one thing the Trump regime is good at besides crime, it’s delaying court proceedings that they’re likely to lose.

Last week, the government filed a motion in the Abrego Garcia case under seal. News reports, other court filings, and statements from Abrego Garcia’s lawyers indicate that the sealed filing asked Judge Xinis for a week-long pause of discovery to give the regime time to facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia.
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You can read Judge Xinis’ latest order here.

It’s important to note that the briefing on privilege that’s causing this delay is because the Trump regime is being AFFORDED DUE PROCESS – the very thing they’re trying to strip from Abrego Garcia.
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CNN: India launches military operation against Pakistan in major escalation

India has launched a major military operation against Pakistan in a major escalation of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

The missile strikes early Wednesday morning targeted “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan administered-Kashmir, according to India. Pakistan has denied the claim, saying the attack largely harmed civilians – killing at least three, including a child, and injuring at least a dozen.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the country had the right to respond to what he described as an “act of war,” adding that a “befitting reply is being given.”

Kashmir is one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints and is controlled in part by India and Pakistan but both countries claim it in its entirety.
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AP: A GOP congressman is peppered with questions about Trump during raucous town hall

SOMERS, N.Y. — Voters in U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler’s suburban New York swing district heaped criticism on the Republican during a raucous town hall Sunday night, peppering him with questions around President Donald Trump’s aggressive agenda before devolving into a chaotic chorus of boos as attendees were removed by law enforcement.

The town hall in Somers, a leafy section of Lawler’s Hudson Valley district, began to teeter off the rails soon after it began.

The first crack emerged when Lawler, in his opening remarks, told the packed prep school auditorium: “This is what democracy looks like.”

A little while later, the congressman’s mention of federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew loud jeers.
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404 Media: The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked

A hacker has breached and stolen customer data from TeleMessage, an obscure Israeli company that sells modified versions of Signal and other messaging apps to the U.S. government to archive messages, 404 Media has learned. The data stolen by the hacker contains the contents of some direct messages and group chats sent using its Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat. …

The hack shows that an app gathering messages of the highest ranking officials in the government—Waltz’s chats on the app include recipients that appear to be Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and JD Vance—contained serious vulnerabilities that allowed a hacker to trivially access the archived chats of some people who used the same tool. The hacker has not obtained the messages of cabinet members, Waltz, and people he spoke to, but the hack shows that the archived chat logs are not end-to-end encrypted between the modified version of the messaging app and the ultimate archive destination controlled by the TeleMessage customer.
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NewsNation: Putin says he hopes there will be no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

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In comments aired Sunday in a film by Russian state television about his quarter of a century in power, Putin said Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a “logical conclusion.”

Responding to a question about Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, Putin said: “There has been no need to use those (nuclear) weapons … and I hope they will not be required.”
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Yahoo Finance: Warren Buffett: ‘Trade should not be a weapon’

The first question for Warren Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting involved world trade as President Trump’s tariff policy disrupts the status quo.

“Trade should not be a weapon,” Buffett said at the end of a detailed answer about the history of the United States and how global trade developed.
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