Monday, May 29, 2017

FEC Reg. 110.20

Federal law prohibits contributions, donations, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements by foreign nationals in connection with Federal, state and local elections.

The prohibitions include that no person shall knowingly provide "substantial assistance" in the soliciting, making, accepting or receiving of such contributions, donations, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements which are violations of the foregoing prohibitions on foreign nationals.

These prohibitions related to foreign nationals are set out in FEC Reg. 110.20.

I don't know whether the Russian interference in the 2016 elections is being pursued by the Federal Election Commission or by other Federal law enforcement authorities as being a violation of the foregoing prohibitions or whether enforcement of the law is being sought against "foreign nationals" involved in the Russain interference who violated the prohibitions.

In June of 2016 the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that Donald Trump violated the law by sending campaign fundraising emails to foreign nationals — including foreign politicians — in at least Iceland, Scotland, Australia and Britain. See Trump Slapped With FEC Complaint For ‘Illegally’ Soliciting Foreign Money

I don't know whether Trump's asking the Russians to interfere in the election on his behalf (per below video), or other actions and statements by Trump and the Trump campaign, are viewed by the Federal Election Commission or by other Federal law enforcement authorities as "substantial assistance" given by Trump to the Russians in the Russian intererference violating the above prohibitions, or whether enforcement of the law against Trump and the Trump campaign for such "substantial assistance" is being sought.



For earlier discussion, see Smartest colluders.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Montana

TWEET FOR MONTANA TO VOTE ON MAY 25th TO STOP THE RUNAWAY TRAIN 

TO: As many Montana voters (and others) as we can tweet to

President Trump is unique in not being a professional politician and not coming from the military.

In the election campaign, as President-Elect, and as President for four months, he has conducted himself in ways that are outside the norm for politicians. Not changing his ways as President is becoming disturbing for many Americans, because his conduct seems threatening to undermine the Presidential office and impair the country's governance.

With the Comey firing and with Trump's meeting with the Russians, President Trump, in the eyes of many, has become a runaway train. The Republicans are not standing up to him, and, at the moment, it appears only the people can stand up to Trump by electing a Congress in 2018 that will act against President Trump. The voters in Montana can make a start on this by electing Rob Quist in the special at large Congressional election in Montana next Thursday.

Electing Rob Quist on May 25th will increase pressure on the Republican controlled Congress to take up consideration about how President Trump's conduct is outside the norm, whether the Presidential office is being undermined and whether the country's governance is being impaired. If so, at a minimum, Congress should adopt a formal resolution of censure of President Trump's conduct.

Here are ways in which President Trump's conduct are outside the norm, and which need to be considered by Congress:

1. Government officials are not supposed to use their public office for their own profit, and they are subject to "conflict of interest" rules to help assure that they act for the public interest and not their private interest. President Trump is taking the position that the exemption of the President in the "conflicts of interest" statute means he can do whatever he wants with his businesses, including use the Presidential office to benefit his businesses, and disregard the important policies served by "conflict of interest" rules. This is exacerbated by President Trump not abiding by the norm of releasing his tax returns, as provides transparency for discovering conflicts of interest. Congress needs to decide whether President Trump is entitled to operate outside the norm of those rules and if not, Congress needs to delve into President Trump's myriad conflicts of interest and pass a resolution censuring President Trump for wrongful conduct as Congress deems appropriate in the circumstances. This would cover determining whether "pay to play" corruption, such as candidate Trump crucified the Clintons for in the election, has been or will be fostered. President Trump's recent decision that the White House visitor logs shall be kept secret gives more reason for Congress to be concerned about President Trump's conflicts of interest and lack of transparency.  Perhaps President Trump's most egregious use of the Presidential office to benefit himself and his family is his seeking repeal of the estate tax in the tax plan he announced on April 26th.

2. President Trump is outside the norm in the way he speaks with disregard of truth and facts and how he uses grossly inaccurate hyperbole and says so many different things at different times. Not only do people not know what to believe, many can wonder what President Trump himself believes. President Trump is getting to the point where he has no credibility. For example, President Trump said today [April 27th]  that economic growth would make up for the lost revenue from the sweeping tax cut plan he outlined yesterday. This is of immense importance for the country, and President Trump himself may not believe what he says. To have a President that people don't know what he believes is a big problem, and Congress needs to consider whether President Trump is so far outside the norm in how he disregards truth and facts that he is impairing the country's governance of itself.

3. President Trump's gratuitous, insulting, hyperbolic, and vitriolic verbal attacks on individual persons, on organizations and institutions, and even on foreign countries and officials are excessive in the extreme. These attacks exacerbate divisions in the country and can adversely affect foreign relations. Congress needs to decide whether President Trump is so far out of bounds that Congress needs to tell him to stop it.

4. Politicians are known to lie, be hypocritical, and have double standards, but politicians generally seek to minimize this happening, they squirm and sweat when they are called out, and there is ultimately some constraint over them. President Trump, however, is outside the norm in the outrageous brazen extremes of his lying, hypocrisy and double standards, he does not squirm or sweat, and he gives the impression that everything he does is perfectly ok. If President Trump is incapable of recognizing some things he does are wrong, and he thinks only other people are wrong, Congress needs to decide whether it should formally tell President Trump otherwise.

5. President Trump's lack of self control and impulsiveness are outside the norm for Presidents. This could cause serious problems, and Congress needs to decide whether it should call this to the attention of President Trump.

6. President Trump is evidencing an autocratic and authoritarian mode of governing that is outside the norm (such as his implementing his America First policy by directly contacting companies to tell them not to move plants outside of United States). This may improperly transgress the proper separation of powers. Congress needs to consider the same and tell President Trump what Congress thinks. President Trump's recent decision that the White House visitor logs shall be kept secret gives more reason for Congress to be concerned about President Trump's autocratic and authoritarian mode of governing.

7. In the election, candidate Trump publicly asked the Russians to interfere in a way to help him get elected. Although he was not President at the time, Congress needs to decide whether asking the Russians to interfere was a sufficiently wrongful act that President Trump should be censured for it now. (See Smartest colluders.)

President Trump is 70 years old. He may be fixated in old ways from his business career, and these ways may be very bad for the Presidency and impair the country's governance. His aides appear unable to tell President Trump that he is doing anything wrong, and the country is witnessing the spectacle of his aides having to defend the indefensible of President Trump's conduct. When the press tries to point out wrong things President Trump does, he just says "fake news" and press "totally dishonest." This all begs for Congress to consider President Trump's conduct in a formal way and for Congress to speak up.

President Trump has become a runaway train. The Republicans are not standing up to him. The American people can stand up to Trump by electing a Congress in 2018 that will act against President Trump. The voters in Montana can make a start on this by electing Rob Quist in the special at large Congressional election next Tuesday.

Contribute to this goal by sending tweets to Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist by clicking on the links in Step One below.

To contribute to a "pyramiding" of tweets so that thousands of Montana voters and others come to this webpage and participate in this tweeting, do as instructed in Step Two below.

Step One
Send tweets to  Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist by clicking on the below links. The tweet you send will say "MT voters need to stop the runaway Trump train by voting for Rob Quist on May 25th "and will have a link to this webpage (http://trumptweet.blogspot.com/2017/05/montana.html).  Your tweet will contain, and show up under, the Twitter hashtag #mtpol.

Tweet here to Rob Quist
Tweet here to Greg Gianforte


Step Two
Send individual tweets to Montanavoters and to others, which tweets have a link to this webpage. This will be to try to get recipients to send their own tweets to the above tow candidates, and, after that, to join in sending tweets to more Montana voters and others. The goal here to get a large amount of "pyramiding" of tweets  going.

A suggested tweet message to send is:
Tweet for MT voters to stop the runaway Trump train by voting for Quist on May 25.
http://trumptweet.blogspot.com/2017/05/montana.html
Then you need to find follower lists of other Twitter accounts in Montana that have a lot of Montana followers. Here are some suggested Twitter follower lists to use.
https://twitter.com/KXLH/followers
https://twitter.com/montanabusiness/followers
https://twitter.com/tweetgreatfalls/followers

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR TWEETING
A. General
This tweeting involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of large numbers of individually directed tweets to followers of other Twitter accounts (not your own followers).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
B. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently, at least on a laptop computer. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list  you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 35 to 70 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Lying boss

Send tweets asking the interviewees for FBI director whether they are willing to work for a man who lies to the American people about his conversations with them. Use the below links to do this. (Twitter addresses have not been found for all the interviewees. For interviewees for whom addresses have not been found, a hashtag with their name is being used.)

The below links will generate a tweet which says:
Are you willing to work for a #BossWhoLies to the American people about his conversations with you?
Your tweets will appear under the hashtag #BossWhoLies and will contain a link to this blog entry. The generated tweet will not be sent until you click "Tweet".

Tweet here to John Cornyn
Tweet here to #AliceFisher
Tweet here to #MichaelGarcia
Tweet here to #AdamLee
Tweet here to Mike Rogers
Tweet here to #HenryHudson
Tweet here to Fran Townsend
Tweet here to #AndrewMcCabe