Category Archives: Fail!

Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI wiretap at Trump Tower – ABC News Grin – #TraitorTrump ties to Russian Mafia…

There, indeed, was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower.But it was not placed at the behest of Barack Obama, and the target was not the Trump campaign of 2016. For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money-laundering network that operated out of unit 63A in Trump Tower in New York.The FBI investigation led to a federal grand jury indictment of more than 30 people, including one of the world’s most notorious Russian mafia bosses, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. Known as the “Little Taiwanese,” he was the only target to slip away, and he remains a fugitive from American justice.Seven months after the April 2013 indictment and after Interpol issued a red notice for Tokhtakhounov, he appeared near Donald Trump in the VIP section of the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Trump had sold the Russian rights for Miss Universe to a billionaire Russian shopping mall developer.“He is a major player,” said Mike Gaeta, the agent who led the 2013 FBI investigation of Tokhtakhounov and his alleged mafia money-laundering and gambling ring, in a 2014 interview with ABC News. “He is prominent. He has extremely good connections in the business world as well as the criminal world, overseas, in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, other countries.”Gaeta, who ran the FBI’s Eurasian organized crime unit in New York, told ABC News at the time that federal agents were closely tracking Tokhtakhounov, whose Russian ring was suspected of moving more than $50 million in illegal money into the United States.“Because of his status, we have kept tabs on his activities and particularly as his activities truly enter New York City,” Gaeta said. “Their money was ultimately laundered from Russia, Ukraine and other locations through Cyprus banks and shell companies based in Cyprus and then ultimately here to the United States.”The FBI investigation did not implicate Trump. But Trump Tower was under close watch. Some of the Russian mafia figures worked out of unit 63A in the iconic skyscraper — just three floors below Trump’s penthouse residence — running what prosecutors called an “international money-laundering, sports gambling and extortion ring.”The Trump building was home to one of the top men in the alleged ring, Vadim Trincher, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and received a five-year prison term. He is due to be released in July.

Source: Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI wiretap at Trump Tower – ABC News

“Hate Group” Inclusion (to US delegtion by Trump) Shows UN Members Still Divided on LGBT Rights

C-FAM – one of the invited members of the United States official delegation to the meeting – has been designated as an Anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center “for its often violent rhetoric on LGBTQI rights” according to the International Women’s Health Coalition, who opposed the appointment.Including C-Fam on the US delegation reflects ongoing disagreement between UN member states – and even within UN member states domestically – about the importance of including LGBTI rights within the UN’s work.For the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) community, there were many reasons to come to this year’s annual women’s meeting with “battle scars,” and “eyes open” says Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International.

Source: Inoreader – “Hate Group” Inclusion Shows UN Members Still Divided on LGBT Rights

Obamacare: How Americans who voted for Trump now fear for their health insurance | In English | EL PAÍS

More than 95,000 people, around 10% of Kern’s population, will lose health cover after funding for Medicaid – the public health system extended by Obama – is cut, according to a study by the University of California, which says that more than 16,000 people will lose subsidies toward their private health insurance. Under Obamacare, the number of people without medical cover fell in the county from 18.2% to 7.9%. The study also estimates that withdrawing the funding will mean the loss of 5,000 jobs in the county.

Source: Obamacare: How Americans who voted for Trump now fear for their health insurance | In English | EL PAÍS

Former Police Chief Says He Was Detained At JFK: ‘This Country Now Feels Cold’: Gothamist

A former police chief from Virginia says he was held for an hour and a half at JFK Airport earlier this month, after landing in the United States on a flight from Paris. Hassan Aden, a naturalized US citizen, detailed the experience in a Facebook post, stressing that the lengthy screening process marked a departure from his frequent encounters with Customs and Border Control over the years. Five international trips within the last year alone, all prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, had gone off without incident, he said.”On all of my prior trips, I was greeted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers with a warm smile and the usual, ‘Welcome home sir,'” Aden wrote. “Not this time.”Aden, 52, was en route to Alexandra, Virginia on Monday, March 13th, according to the Washington Post. He had spent the weekend abroad with his mother, celebrating her 80th birthday. Born in Italy (his mother is Italian, his father, Somali), Aden became a naturalized citizen 42 years ago, when he was 10 years old. The former Chief of Police for Greenville, North Carolina also serves as a senior policy advisor on police reform for the Vera Institute of Justice.According to Aden, a Customs officer at JFK pulled him out of a routine security check.”I was taken to a back office which looked to be a re-purposed storage facility with three desks and signs stating, ‘Remain seated at all times’ and ‘Use of telephones strictly prohibited,'” he recalled. Another officer eventually explained that the name Hassan Aden had been “used as an alias by someone on some watch list.” Another officer told Aden that he was not technically being detained—CBP has a “secondary processing” protocol if an officer “determines that additional inspection is needed”—but Aden found any technical distinction meaningless.”I certainly was not free to leave,” he wrote.After an hour and a half, Aden said a new CBP officer arrived and “aggressively asked… for status updates” until Aden was released, an hour and a half after after being pulled from the line.

Source: Former Police Chief Says He Was Detained At JFK: ‘This Country Now Feels Cold’: Gothamist

Bed-Stuy Woman Says Cop Fatally Shot Her Dog In The Park Without Cause: Gothamist

“They were just standing around, chitchatting, making jokes,” said 27-year-old neighbor Aaron Dunn, referring to the police. “They were just letting it bleed out. It had two gunshots in it. The owner was patting it with Kleenex.”Stephen said that a bystander lent her a cellphone, and that she called her teenage son, Aidan, who rushed to the park from Williamsburg. He arrived with friend, and quickly rushed home to get his mother’s wallet and cellphone. On his way back, he cut across the crime scene area. Multiple witnesses said they observed several police officers approach Aidan, push him against a tree, and arrest him. “The son is running through the park eastward, is obviously distraught, and the cops just grab him and throw him against a tree,” Dunn said. “They put him in handcuffs.””He was frantically saying he had to deliver the wallet to his mom, the cops would not let him pass and restrained him,” said neighbor Michelle Bilella.

Source: Bed-Stuy Woman Says Cop Fatally Shot Her Dog In The Park Without Cause: Gothamist

Why are Fringe Politicians So Obsessed with Morally Policing Romance? Hint: Follow the Money – The Ladies Finger

Do these party members really believe in what they say about women and marriage? A large-scale expose of right-wing politicians by Cobrapost and Gulail found, in horrifying conversations, right-wing Hindu men treating Hindu and Muslim women as property to be exchanged. “If she doesn’t listen to us, we hit her. We get her beaten up. We misbehave,” a Bharatiya Janata Party leader said about ‘saving’ Hindu women married to Muslim men. As TLF wrote then these men were using “marriage as a weapon of war”. The truth is that across the political spectrum the easiest way for aspirants to climb the ladder is step on a pile of women’s bodies.The thing is for small ‘parties’ or small politicians in big parties can there be an easier agenda than fixing ‘immoral’ couples or policing women.

Source: Why are Fringe Politicians So Obsessed with Morally Policing Romance? Hint: Follow the Money – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Ex-UK ambassador calls White House wiretap claims ‘gratuitously damaging’ | US news | The Guardian

“This is a dangerous game,” Westmacott writes. “The intelligence relationship between Britain and America is unique and precious. It is critical to our shared efforts to counter terrorism.”Westmacott adds that “gratuitously damaging it by peddling falsehoods and then doing nothing to set the record straight would be a gift to our enemies they could only dream of”.The former ambassador’s excoriating remarks are all the more remarkable given that he stepped down from his role as the UK’s representative in Washington as recently as January 2016.His unrestrained putdown of Trump’s refusal to correct the unsubstantiated wiretapping allegations – which Westmacott ascribes acerbically to the president’s “famous reluctance to admit mistakes” – is a clear indication of the intensity of British anger at having been dragged into what is seen as a controversy entirely of Trump’s own making.

Source: Ex-UK ambassador calls White House wiretap claims ‘gratuitously damaging’ | US news | The Guardian

A Texas Woman ‘Voted Like a U.S. Citizen.’ Only She Wasn’t. – The New York Times – In Texas – Racism is issue #1!

Her punishment may be unprecedented for an offense that often draws a minimal sentence or probation. Ms. Ortega, who has a seventh-grade education and a sometimes shaky grasp on the complexities of her life, has steadfastly insisted that she did not know she was violating the law — that she is being imprisoned and probably deported for the crime of being confused.“I thought I was doing something right,” Ms. Ortega said. “It wasn’t to hurt somebody, or the state, or the government. I even worked for the government.

Trump ‘did not refuse to shake Merkel’s hand’, says spokesperson – The Local — you can hear a reporter clearly suggesting they shake hands and then she asks the same thing – he is staring – spaced out.

sitting side-by-side in the Oval Office, Merkel’s suggestion of another handshake went unheard or ignored by Trump – an awkward moment in what are usually highly scripted occasions.German media pointed to the incident as another marker of the meeting’s general icy mood between the cautious German chancellor and impulsive US president.In a frequently awkward joint press conference in the East Room, Trump and Merkel showed little common ground as they addressed a host of thorny issues including NATO, defense spending and free trade deals.For most of the 30 minutes, Merkel was stony-faced as Trump ripped into Washington’s NATO allies for not paying for their “fair share” for transatlantic defense and demanded “fair and reciprocal trade” deals.On Sunday, Germany’s biggest-selling daily Bild said that throughout the White House meeting, not once did Trump look her in the eye.

Source: Trump ‘did not refuse to shake Merkel’s hand’, says spokesperson – The Local