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SEOULPresident Donald Trumps demands for vast increases in South Korean and Japanese financial contributions to maintain U.S. bases and forces has triggered fears here that hes eager for massive troop withdrawals from the territory of these U.S. allies. And while the scale and the history are very different, the capricious way that Trump ordered U.S. forces pulled out of northeast Syria in October is seen as a cautionary example.

Although some U.S. troops reportedly are back in action in Syria, Trump created murderous confusion when he suddenly decided to pull about 1,000 of them out on Oct. 6, betraying longtime Kurdish allies beleaguered by the Turks, Syrians, Russians, and ISIS guerrillas. The overwhelming concern here is that the impetuous and ill-informed action in Syria was a rehearsal for much greater reductions in U.S. forces in northeast Asia. Trump has questioned the need for them, and their cost, for many years.

My Korean colleagues worry that the Syria withdrawal could also be applied to Korea, and potentially with similar very negative consequences, says Bruce Bennett, senior researcher at RAND Corp. Actions like the Syria withdrawal cause our allies to worry that they could be next, and that worry undermines the strength of our alliances.

The U.S. role in Korea was put to the test last week when James DeHart, chief U.S. negotiator on the bases, staged a precipitous walkout after two hours getting nowhere in a meeting here with South Koreas negotiator.

South Korea contributed approximately $900 million this year to the bases, up 8 percent from 2018. But Trump wants to up the price to Seoul by 400 percent to $5 billion, a figure he seems to have pulled out of thin air and that the Pentagon has had trouble justifying. (As MIT Prof. Vipin Narang told CNN in a memorable remark, Nothing says I love you like a shakedown.)

DeHart, Trumps negotiator, read a brief statement saying South Koreas counter-proposal to Trumps demand for raising the South Korean outlay was not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing. Thus we cut short our participation in the talks in hopes the Koreans would put forward new proposals.

Maybe the Trump team thinks this is just the way things are done here on the peninsula. DeHarts remarks bear an uncanny resemblance to those of the North Korean negotiator who broke off talks in Stockholm last month with U.S. nuclear negotiator Stephen Biegun, claiming the U.S. had added nothing to the dialogue on the Norths nukes and missiles.

What will the rest of the world conclude about the value of an alliance with the U.S., and what will the world conclude about the need for national nuclear weapon programs?

Korea expert Bruce Bennett at RAND

Its not only the U.S. presence in South Korea thats imperiled; bases also are in doubt in Japan, where conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is balking at Trumps demand for a $4 billion increase in its annual contribution.

Bruce Bennett at RAND raises the question of who has military superiority in the region if the U.S. breaks its historic alliances. North Korea has 1.1 million troops plus 30 to 60 nuclear warheads, he notes, while South Koreas armed forces, bereft of nukes, will be down to 365,000 by 2022.

If the North is in a position of dominance, Bennett asks, what will the rest of the world conclude about the value of an alliance with the U.S., and what will the world conclude about the need for national nuclear weapon programs? Such a move could well lead to the end of effective U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts."

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump seemed to embrace the idea that South Korea and Japan should have their own nuclear weapons to defend against North Korea. At some point, he told Anderson Cooper in a CNN town hall, we have to say, you know what, were better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, were better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself.... Wouldnt you rather in a certain sense have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons?... Wouldnt you rather have Japan, perhaps, theyre over there, theyre very close, theyre very fearful of North Korea.

[Trump] truly believes that 'free rider' stuff he's been saying since the 1980s.

Van Jackson, author of 'On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War'

By law Trump cannot arbitrarily slash the number of U.S. troops in Korea, now about 28,500, to below 22,000 without talking to the South Koreans and proving the drawdown wont compromise the alliance or defense of the South. Trump, however, has said repeatedly that he believes South Korea and Japan can fend for themselves and American forces are no longer needed.

The danger is Trump means what he says, but his friend Kim Jong Un is not cutting him much slack. On Monday, nine years after North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on an island in the Yellow Sea, the Norths state media reported Kim had presided over an artillery exercise on a nearby islandas menacing as the Norths recent short-range missile tests in view of its proximity to South Korean territory but apparently not much of a worry for POTUS.

Trump is unafraid to push to the wire and beyond on cost-sharing negotiations with Korea and Japan because he believes he has all the leverage, says Victor Cha at Georgetown University. If they dont want to pay, he will pull them out.

Cha, who served on the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush, bases this conviction on what he sees as Trumps unappreciation of the benefits of having allies around the world. His outlook as a businessman, he observes, leads him to a monetization of foreign policy in general.

Trumps tough bargaining position throws into doubt the future of the delicate alliance relationships that the U.S. has had since the Korean War to ward off another North Korean assault on South Koreaand possible Chinese intervention, too. Backing up U.S. forces in Korea, the U.S. has 50,000 troops in Japan, including a Marine division on Okinawa, plus more air and naval forces on Guam.

What we need to do is to change the regime in North Korea. Thats why were here today.

Otto Warmbier's father, Fred Warmbier, addressing a rally in Seoul

He truly believes that free rider stuff hes been saying since the 1980s, says Van Jackson, author of On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War. He thinks were being taken to the cleaners by our allies, he doesnt get the security value of alliances or forward military presence, and the only acceptable redress for his grievance is maximal rent-seeking.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, on a recent visit here, said South Korea is a wealthy country and could and should pay more to help offset the cost of defense, but were not threatening our allies over this. Jackson, who now lectures at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, says he would be willing to bet Trump pulls a troop withdrawal stunt sometime in the next year if South Korea doesnt make some huge concessions.

The issue arouses intense fears and debate among South Koreans. Not only conservatives but also middle-of-the-roaders who supported President Moon Jae-in in the Candlelight Revolution of 2016 and 2017 are increasingly disillusioned by his policy of appeasing North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un in the quest for reconciliation. And the concern intensifies as the American defensive shield appears to be threatened.

At a rally Saturday in central Seoul, several hundred thousand people waving American and South Korean flags shouted slogans denouncing Moon.

There, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, the parents of Otto Warmbier, who was jailed in North Korea nearly four years ago for stealing a poster near the end of a brief tourist trip to Pyongyang, described their sons torture before he was sent home to die in June 2017. We look forward to working with you to solve the problem of North Korea, said Fred Warmbier, whose words were translated over mega-loudspeakers to thunderous applause. What we need to do is to change the regime in North Korea. Thats why were here today.

In the crowd, Ahn Chang, who had been jailed for refusing to leave a government office while protesting Moons policies, worried about whatever Trump will do. I am very afraid he will pull out troops, says Ahn. Unlike typical U.S. presidents, hes against this whole Korean-American alliance. If he pulled out troops, we are left alone to fight.

Ahn believes South Korean leftists have fallen for North Korean propaganda and wont stand up against attack from the North. The leftists are brain-washed, he says. We are already losing because of the lies they were telling to the people.

Moons real stance, however, may be somewhat ambivalent. On Friday, his government announced it would not take the controversial step of withdrawing from its deal for exchanging military intelligence information with Japan, as it had threatened to do. A Moon spokesman said South Korea would remain committed to GSOMIA (an acronym pronounced Gee-soh-mee-ya, for General Security of Military Intelligence Agreement) for the sake of national interest.

But South Korea will continue to press Japan to do away with constraints on export of vital chemicals and other equipment imposed after Koreas supreme court ruled that Nippon Steel and others had to compensate Koreans forced to work for the Japanese as de facto slave labor in World War II.

The sense is that Moon and others would not be thrilled by a U.S. decision to cut down the number of U.S. troops while North Korea shows no signs of scaling back, much less giving up, its nuclear and missile program.In fact, some analysts believe Trump would hesitate for fear of the rising power of China, which supports North Korea.

We know Trump doesnt want to spend money for alliances, says Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, but he cannot withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and Japan because of China.

But, really, theres no telling what Trump really has in mind. He does not seem to care about the post-World War II consensus on the U.S.-built liberal world order, says Daniel Pinkston, a longtime Korea analyst and lecturer at Troy University. He and a large part of his coalition view the liberal world order as rigged or ripping off the U.S. They would would rather ruin it and be spoilers.

Read the original here:
Trump Pushes South Korea and Japan to Go Nuclear by Demanding They Pay Billions More for US Troops - Daily Beast

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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization is scrutinizing the actions of one of the presidents oldest and most trusted deputies, ProPublica has learned.

The focus on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, a 72-year-old accountant now running the business with Trumps two adult sons, stems from his involvement in arranging a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which Trump has denied).

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, or SDNY, contended that the Trump Organization had improperly booked reimbursements for the hush-money scheme as legal expenses, with the aid of sham invoices. They granted legal immunity to Weisselberg and later closed their 18-month investigation with the guilty plea of one Trump associate, Michael Cohen. But Weisselbergs immunity deal applied only to federal proceedings.

Now Vances state grand jury is examining whether Weisselberg, among others and even the Trump Organization should face state criminal charges for falsification of business records, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Neither Weisselberg nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment. Vance, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

A handful of lawyers and investigators from Vances office, led by Chris Conroy, chief of the DAs major economic crimes bureau, traveled to the federal minimum-security prison camp in Otisville, New York, on Oct. 30 to meet for the third time with Cohen, who is serving a three-year prison sentence, according to two sources knowledgeable about the matter. Much of the discussion involved Weisselberg.

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Neither the president nor his sons appear to be in Vances crosshairs at this point in the investigation, which is at an early stage, according to the source familiar with the investigation. But, the source added, New York prosecutors are far from ruling that out.

The investigation is playing out amid an unusually public conflict between the offices of the Manhattan DA and the U.S. attorney, which are headquartered across the street from each other in Lower Manhattan.

Vance originally launched his investigation back in August 2018, after Cohens guilty plea and public testimony revealed the Trump Organizations deceits.

But when one of Vances staffers placed a courtesy call to inform the federal prosecutors of their investigation, according to the source familiar with the investigation, the DA was asked to stand down. The reason: The U.S. attorneys office said it was still investigating the Trump Organization, pursuing additional targets. (A spokesperson for the SDNY declined to comment.) Vance agreed to put his investigation on hold.

As late as May 2019, federal prosecutors told U.S. District Judge William Pauley that their investigation was ongoing. For months before that, the SDNY seemed to be gathering evidence for possible charges against people beyond Cohen. At least, that was the public impression created by the prosecutors decision to grant immunity and non-prosecution agreements, respectively, to Weisselberg and executives with the National Enquirer, who collaborated with Cohen on a second hush-money payoff, to former Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal. (Trump denied that relationship, too.)

Vances probe remained on hold for nearly a year until July 18, 2019 when Pauley revealed that federal prosecutors had informed him their investigation was effectively concluded.

With that, the Manhattan DA quickly restarted his state investigation. On Aug. 1, a grand jury subpoenaed an array of records from the Trump Organization involving the hush-money payments and Cohens work for Trump. The DA contended that the subpoena applied to Trumps tax records.

Over the next few weeks, Trumps business turned over 3,376 pages of documents, court filings show. Those documents did not include tax records. A subsequent filing by the DA asserted that approximately two-thirds of those 3,376 pages consisted of non-substantive Google alerts.

On Aug. 29, the DA subpoenaed Mazars USA, Trumps accounting firm, demanding Trumps personal and business tax returns dating back to 2011, as well as work papers and financial statements. Lawyers for the president then filed suit in federal court on Sept. 19 to quash the Mazars subpoena.

The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case, backing Trumps request to keep the dispute in federal, rather than state, court. The DOJ supported further delays to consider Trumps claims in federal court, but it did not then take a position on the merits of the underlying dispute.

The DOJ pleadings were co-signed by the SDNY. Privately, SDNY representatives, wary of appearing to do Trumps bidding, insisted that their offices role was limited, likening it to merely serving as local counsel.

Thats when the tensions between the federal and state prosecutors surfaced but they were largely ignored by the press, which focused on the bigger issue of whether the president can quash the subpoena for his taxes. Vances office bristled at the DOJs unusual decision to jump in with support from the SDNY.

The Manhattan DAs office argued in court that the delay caused by the SDNYs request to stand down has harmed its ability to bring a case. The clock is now running out on the DAs ability to bring misdemeanor false-records charges. Because the last disguised reimbursement payment, signed by Trump, is dated Dec. 5, 2017, the two-year statute of limitations expires next month. (Convicting a person of a misdemeanor fake-records charge requires proving an intent to defraud, according to lawyers. The charge can also be prosecuted as a felony, which has a five-year statute of limitations. Proving the felony requires not only establishing an intent to defraud, but also that the intention was aimed at committing or concealing a second crime, such as claiming improper deductions on a tax return or making a false representation on a financial statement.)

At a hearing in federal court on Sept. 25, Carey Dunne, general counsel for the DAs office, complained that the feds were aiding Trumps efforts to run out the clock: It is what they want in the end. What that means, if they get further delay, basically they win and we lose, without an adjudication by this court, and thats not what should happen today.

Dunne made a similar argument in an Oct. 3 letter to the federal judge overseeing the subpoena battle. As he put it, delaying enforcement of the subpoena will likely result in the expiration of the statutes of limitation that would apply to some of the transactions at issue in the grand jury investigation. Dunne called the DOJs involvement all the more audacious in view of the fact that, until quite recently and for more than a year, DOJ prosecutors in this very district conducted a highly publicized grand jury investigation into some of the very same transactions and actors that have been reported to be at issue in this matter.

Federal district and appeals courts quickly rejected Trumps claim of blanket immunity from criminal investigation, and he has now petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his case. If the court refuses to hear it, Vances investigators could be combing through Trumps tax records by year-end. A decision to hear the case would push any resolution well into 2020.

The scrutiny of Weisselberg stems from his reported role in hiding the hush-money payments. Cohen gave congressional committees a detailed account of how, at Trumps direction, he strategized with Weisselberg in October 2016 about how to fund the $130,000 payment to Daniels.

The adult-film actress was then threatening to go public. It was a fraught moment, immediately after the broadcast of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump talked about grabbing women by their genitals, and just one month before Election Day.

Cohen testified that he and Weisselberg argued over which one of them should come up with the hush money. Eventually, Cohen tapped a home-equity line of credit, a funding source that would be hidden from his wife. According to government filings, it was decided the Trump Organization would reimburse Cohen through monthly payments disguised as a legal retainer, and Cohen submitted sham invoices to paper over the deceit. Along with Donald Trump Jr., Weisselberg signed two of the monthly checks for Cohen. Trump signed six others.

Prosecutors said Cohen carried out his actions in coordination with and at the direction of Trump, who they identified in filings as Individual-1. Those filings identified two other Trump Organization figures Executive-1 and Executive-2 as processing Cohens phony monthly invoices. Those two executives were the Trump Organizations controller, Jeff McConney, a 32-year veteran of the company, and Weisselberg, according to a source familiar with the matter. (Previous published reports incorrectly identified Weisselberg as Executive-1 and McConney as Executive-2.) McConney did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

One of Cohens lawyers later released a surreptitious recording Cohen made of a September 2016 conversation with Trump discussing the arrangement to pay McDougal. In it, Cohen is heard telling Trump: Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.

Cohen was the only identified participant in the scheme to be charged in the federal investigation. (In addition to federal tax and false-statement crimes, he pleaded guilty to illegal campaign contributions for the payoffs, which benefited Trumps campaign by silencing the women through Election Day.) A DOJ policy memo barring federal prosecution of a sitting president protected Trump.

That shield, however, doesnt apply in state court, making the president, Trump Organization executives including Weisselberg (whose federal immunity, as noted, also doesnt apply in state proceedings) and even the Trump Organization itself potential targets.

A company can be charged if a high-ranking officer with authority to bind the business engages in illegal conduct, according to Adam Kaufmann, a white-collar attorney and former investigations chief for the Manhattan DAs office.

Weisselbergs employment dates back to the era of Fred Trump, the presidents father, and he has a reputation as the ultimate company man. In deposition excerpts filed by the New York attorney general in her case against the Trump Foundation which resulted in its shutdown, admissions of wrongdoing and an order to pay $2 million to charity Weisselberg, who served as the foundations treasurer, was questioned about Trumps use of the charity for a political event before the Iowa presidential primary.

He described receiving a phone call one morning in January 2016, as he was preparing for a dental appointment, asking him to fly to Iowa that night to write some checks. What did he think about this request to bring the checkbook, an assistant attorney general asked. It doesnt matter what I thought, Weisselberg replied. Hes my boss. I went.

As for Cohen, he has been attempting to insert himself into the investigation as a witness. His lawyers have been laboring to reduce his three-year term, offering the carrot of Cohens cooperation regarding what they claim is a litany of Trump Organization crimes. Recently, word was conspicuously leaked that he had stories to tell about his own contact with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the Rudy Giuliani associates indicted for using foreign funds to influence U.S. elections.

Federal prosecutors, who last year declined to urge a major reduction in the range for Cohens projected prison term, citing a pattern of deception that permeated his entire life, among other things, have rebuffed repeated entreaties from Cohens lawyers to reengage. Cohens lawyers had hoped such cooperation would prompt federal prosecutors to request a special post-sentence Rule 35 reduction in his prison term before the one-year window for such a request expired.

The Manhattan DAs team, with different targets and no power to urge a sentence reduction, has been more receptive. At the teams last meeting with Cohen and his lawyers, they discussed the possibility of obtaining a trove of evidence that federal agents seized in the raids on Cohens apartment, office and hotel suite in April 2018. The feds recently returned a flash drive containing the evidence including files, contracts, notes and tape recordings to Cohens legal team.

Cohens legal team, which includes Lanny Davis, has also urged congressional leaders to intervene on his behalf. Cohens team is promoting a new, albeit improbable, image for the man who once was proud to call himself Trumps fixer: the John Dean of his generation.

See the article here:
Prosecutors Investigating the Trump Organization Zero In on Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg - ProPublica

Glenn Jacobs has played everything from a demented dentist to the devils favorite demon. In 2018, the WWE superstar known to fans as Kane went from navigating the shark-infested waters of pro wrestling to the political ring, becoming mayor of Knox County, Tenn. The unexpected career turn is part of a memorable journey for the 52-year-old told in his new book Mayor Kane: My Life in Wrestling and Politics, which is available starting Tuesday, Nov. 26.

It came full circle, Jacobs said of going from wrestler to elected official. If you told me in 1995 that Id be in an office overlooking the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, Id look at you like you were nuts...I hope the book is an entertaining read for people because you have the crossover between my wrestling career and the political stuff. I was around and very much part of the Attitude Era, so a lot of what people talk about I saw up close and part of it. That part is a great story I can tell.

The author admits to not being nostalgic or sentimental. Jacobs doesnt take many photos or keep a diary from his 30 years of travels around the world. Thankfully, he does have a good memory.

Part of my process was going, I think this will be a good story. Also, I remember telling someone a story, and I dont think its a really big deal. Then they think its really entertaining. So its about putting all that stuff together, Jacobs said. Id call people and basically go, Hey, who was here? Where were we exactly? I can remember the big picture stuff, but I sometimes didnt know the details. Then there are certain things that stick out in your mind that you know everything about it. When people mention an event, I can say that was such and such show at such and such arena. I did have to go through what I wanted to say.

In some cases Id have to go back and talk to some people who were there to jog my memory. Then there was the case I was talking to a friend of mind asking why I didnt put a certain thing in the book. I said, Well if I did,it would be a thousand pages. It was about what goes with the flow of the story of what is really important and doing it in a way that is entertaining and concise as possible. There is a lot of stuff I didnt put in it that I wish I could. Maybe that will be used for another time.

Representing the political and WWE worlds, Jacobs enlisted The Undertaker and Senator Rand Paul to write forwards to the book. He was honored to have them accept, especially his onscreen brother who he shares so much history with.

I can pretty much guarantee that this will be the only time in history The Undertaker and Rand Paul write a forward for the same book, Jacobs said. I asked Mark [Calaway] (Undertaker) to do it, and he said he would be honored as well. It blew my mind. Of course, asking Senator Paul was much of the same. Mark has meant so much to my career and to me personally. That was not even a question that I would ask him to do it.

Ultimately, its the final couple of chapters Jacobs hopes resonate. Ones that can spark thoughts, conversation and some inspiration.

Its not designed to be a motivational book, but Ive been incredibly fortunate and blessed. Im not especially unique. I might have a different skill set than most folks do. The fact that someone like me can have the opportunities Ive had in my life. If I can do it, anyone can do it, Jacobs said.

To me, the American Dream is creating the life that you want to live. Thats what Im most proud of. I want someone who reads it to see applicability in their own life and in their own way know they achieve what they want to achieve.

A part of the book sure to get chatter focuses on President Donald Trump. Jacobs felt it was necessary to include the polarizing and often controversial figure for a number of reasons. And not necessarily for the WWE Hall of Famer himself.

Unfortunately, politics are so divisive and polarized in our country. Nevertheless that is the field Im in and have to offer an opinion on that, he said. The most important thing to me about Trump is the fact that he was not an establishment person. I think whether you love Trump or hate Trump, we need a lot more people who are not politicians in politics.

I hope that is the thing people take from that chapter is the fact career politicians are ruining America and have ruined America. We need a lot more people that dont come from that background. That dont want to get in office and stay in office their whole life. They want to get in, do a good job and go home. I do realize with the divisiveness that we see now, some people are going to read that chapter and say, I disagree. Thats the risk you take.

Jacobs stresses not discounting local politics. Whether republican, democrat or independent, he believes all need to collaborate on solutions because people are expecting results.

We see the folks on TV, and Im just like everyone else. Im tired and disillusioned at the dysfunction of Washington D.C. And its not one faction or party that has caused that. We can do a lot of things at a local level, Jacobs said.

Thats the beauty of state and local politics is that kind of political component, even though it is politics, that blatant divisiveness because of the political component is not nearly as overwhelming as national politics.

Jacobs follows in a line of pro wrestlers who have gone into public office. Names like Jesse Ventura, B. Brian Blair and Matt Morgan. When it comes to who the mayor thinks would do well next in politics, he doesnt want to venture a guess. Though for Jacobs there are a lot of smart folks in the locker room who, Jacobs feels has good characteristics for it.

They do great things for the community, he said. Titus ONeil in Tampa is doing wonderful things. Mark Henry does a lot of good stuff. John Cena, we know the work he has done with Make-A-Wish and other things. He can do whatever he wants because he is so talented and a good guy. I think there are a lot of people in the locker room that if they decided this was what they wanted to do, theyd be successful at it.

Jacobs may not be on Raw or SmackDown each week, he hasnt ruled out Big Red Machine appearances from time to time. However, if the former WWE world champion decided to walk out for a match one final time, he wouldnt want to do it alone.

Even though Undertaker and I had a match with DX that has never happened before, it would be great to reunite the Brothers of Destruction, he said. That is always so special. That would be for me the ultimate thing.

Jacobs documents the evolution of Kane in the book. A character which made him a top performer in WWE and evolved in many ways since his debut in 1997. Since then, these types of personas have become few and far between. Though Jacobs considers himself a fan just like he when he was searching to realize his own dream.

It has become harder because there is so much more content and exposure demanded. We look at the internet and social media and all the different platforms we are competing against. One of the things that frustrated me is that we move so quickly sometimes it felt like you werent getting the depth of the storyline because you just had to put stuff out and things would get lost. Thats the nature of the business, Jacobs said.

...You look at a guy like Bray Wyatt who has done a phenomenal job. That character has really taken off. Its difficult. I think its harder than ever to get into that kind of patient story-telling. Its unfortunate evolution of the business. But I think what Bray Wyatt shows is that we have a performer who can do it and given the opportunity, its still something that strikes a cord with people.

"To me, thats one of the best parts of the wrestling business is the stories. Sometimes they get sacrificed a little bit to keep the machine going. So its nice to see a guy like Bray have that opportunity to really get over as a character in a unique storyline.

Mayor Kane: My Life in Wrestling and Politics is available Tuesday, November 26

See the rest here:
Glenn Jacobs on Writing 'Mayor Kane' and Transitioning From WWE to Politics - TVInsider

In early October, President Donald Trump made the decision to remove troops from the Syrian and Turkish border, leaving behind our allies, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or Y.P.G., in the process.

For those of you who do not know, according to USA Today, the Kurdish people are the largest ethnic minority (25-40 million people) who do not have their own autonomous state. Instead, they straddle a territory that sits in Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. According to The Kurdish Project and the GQ, the Kurdish people became the U.S. allies during the war in Iraq and have been our allies since then. Turkey, on the other hand, has been an ally to the U.S. since the beginning of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, otherwise known as NATO.

Turkey and their president Tayyip Erdogan see the Y.P.G.as a terrorist group, and balancing being allies with Turkey through NATO and being allies with the Y.P.G has been difficult. Now people are questioning if Turkey is still a U.S. ally because according to The New York Times article and a video by CNN, Turkey attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish forces, and our allies.

Turkey and the Kurdish people have a tumultuous relationship. To simplify it, the Kurdish Workers Party, also known as the P.K.K. launched a violent separatist movement in Turkey during the early 1980s. According to The New York Times, the P.K.K. is considered a terrorist group by both Turkey and the United States. Across the Syrian border is the militia known as the Y.P.G; they are also fighting to form an autonomous state for the Kurds, but the Y.P.G. are U.S. allies. However, being allies with the Y.P.G. is very complicated as they have deep ties with the P.K.K.

Now, why did President Trump decide to pull troops from the Syrian and Turkish border? According to the GQ, last December President Trump claimed that the U.S. had accomplished its goal of defeating ISIL (also known as ISIS) in Syria and that was the only reason we are there. And since then the Turkish President Erdogan has been lobbying the Trump administration to remove soldiers from the border so that he could push Turkish forces further into Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) territory. President Trump has tweeted that we have not abandoned the Kurds while we are removing our troops from Syria and that Turkey understands that while we may not be there, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and their very fragile currency.

Consequences of removing troops from the Turkish/Syrian border are already being felt. As stated before, according to The New York Times article and a CNN video, Turkey has already attacked a U.S. ally in Syria. Turkey has set out to clear out a Kurdish-led militia, the SDF, that controls about a third of the country. And The New York Times is saying that it looks like President Trump doesnt seem to care. It would be a direct contrast to the statement from earlier that President Trump put on his twitter. There was also the huge amount of backlash faced, not just from democrats but from republicans as well.

According to Politico, a political opinion-based company, republicans ripped into President Trump. Senator Lindsey Graham told Vice President Pence that he was personally offended to read the decision in the news instead of hearing from the President or his aids. Also, that were going to hold this administration accountable for this decision; if Obama had done this, all of us would be going nuts, its such a bad idea. The job of Congress is to hold the Executive branch accountable. Florida Senator Marco Rubio can also be quoted disagreeing, saying that it is such a bad idea. However, Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky has spoken out in support of President Trump and his decision to remove troops from the border.

Read more:
Removing U.S. Troops from the Syrian and Turkish Border - The Cactus

Updated: May 25, 2018:

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Other Information: We also collect other information you may voluntarily provide. This may include content you provide for publication. We may also receive your communications with others through our Website and Services (such as contacting an author through our Website) or communications directly with us (such as through email, feedback or other forms or social media). If you are a subscribed user, we will also collect your user preferences, such as the types of articles you would like to read.

Information from third parties (such as, from your employer or LinkedIn): We may also receive information about you from third party sources. For example, your employer may provide your information to us, such as in connection with an article submitted by your employer for publication. If you choose to use LinkedIn to subscribe to our Website and Services, we also collect information related to your LinkedIn account and profile.

Your interactions with our Website and Services: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Website and our Services, to improve the content and performance of our Website and Services, and to track users' movements around the site. We may also link this automatically-collected data to personal information, for example, to inform authors about who has read their articles. Some of this data is collected through information sent by your web browser. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about cookies and other tracking technologies that JD Supra may use on our Website and Services please see our "Cookies Guide" page.

We use the information and data we collect principally in order to provide our Website and Services. More specifically, we may use your personal information to:

JD Supra takes reasonable and appropriate precautions to insure that user information is protected from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. Where you use log-in credentials (usernames, passwords) on our Website, please remember that it is your responsibility to safeguard them. If you believe that your log-in credentials have been compromised, please contact us at privacy@jdsupra.com.

Our Website and Services are not directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 through our Website and/or Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Our Website and Services may contain links to other websites. The operators of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using our Website or Services and click a link to another site, you will leave our Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We are not responsible for the data collection and use practices of such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of our Website and Services and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

JD Supra's principal place of business is in the United States. By subscribing to our website, you expressly consent to your information being processed in the United States.

You can make a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

You can also manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. There may be times, however, where we are not able to fulfill your request, for example, if applicable law prohibits our compliance. Please note that JD Supra does not use "automatic decision making" or "profiling" as those terms are defined in the GDPR.

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, our customers who are California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

You can make a request for this information by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

Some browsers have incorporated a Do Not Track (DNT) feature. These features, when turned on, send a signal that you prefer that the website you are visiting not collect and use data regarding your online searching and browsing activities. As there is not yet a common understanding on how to interpret the DNT signal, we currently do not respond to DNT signals on our site.

For non-EU/Swiss residents, if you would like to know what personal information we have about you, you can send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com. We will be in contact with you (by mail or otherwise) to verify your identity and provide you the information you request. We will respond within 30 days to your request for access to your personal information. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. If you would like to correct or update your personal information, you can manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard. If you would like to delete your account or remove your information from our Website and Services, send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use our Website and Services following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with our Website or Services, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

As with many websites, JD Supra's website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") and our services (such as our email article digests)(our "Services") use a standard technology called a "cookie" and other similar technologies (such as, pixels and web beacons), which are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you use our Website and Services. These technologies automatically identify your browser whenever you interact with our Website and Services.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to:

There are different types of cookies and other technologies used our Website, notably:

JD Supra Cookies. We place our own cookies on your computer to track certain information about you while you are using our Website and Services. For example, we place a session cookie on your computer each time you visit our Website. We use these cookies to allow you to log-in to your subscriber account. In addition, through these cookies we are able to collect information about how you use the Website, including what browser you may be using, your IP address, and the URL address you came from upon visiting our Website and the URL you next visit (even if those URLs are not on our Website). We also utilize email web beacons to monitor whether our emails are being delivered and read. We also use these tools to help deliver reader analytics to our authors to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

Analytics/Performance Cookies. JD Supra also uses the following analytic tools to help us analyze the performance of our Website and Services as well as how visitors use our Website and Services:

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Cookies. Our content pages allow you to share content appearing on our Website and Services to your social media accounts through the "Like," "Tweet," or similar buttons displayed on such pages. To accomplish this Service, we embed code that such third party social networks provide and that we do not control. These buttons know that you are logged in to your social network account and therefore such social networks could also know that you are viewing the JD Supra Website.

If you would like to change how a browser uses cookies, including blocking or deleting cookies from the JD Supra Website and Services you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. To control cookies, most browsers allow you to either accept or reject all cookies, only accept certain types of cookies, or prompt you every time a site wishes to save a cookie. It's also easy to delete cookies that are already saved on your device by a browser.

The processes for controlling and deleting cookies vary depending on which browser you use. To find out how to do so with a particular browser, you can use your browser's "Help" function or alternatively, you can visit http://www.aboutcookies.org which explains, step-by-step, how to control and delete cookies in most browsers.

We may update this cookie policy and our Privacy Policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

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Public Service Announcment: If You Own a Closely Held Business Entity, You Have Waived Fifth Amendment Rights - JD Supra