Trump is blasting the military-industrial complex. But he's one of its biggest boosters.

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/08/trump-military-defense-industry-booster-410396

 Since becoming president, Donald Trump has overseen historic increases in defense budgets, fawned over military equipment, installed a number of defense industry insiders in top Pentagon positions and made a major push to sell weapons overseas.

But on Monday, Trump said leaders at the Pentagon “want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

 Yet Trump's record tells a different story. All three of his hand-picked defense secretaries had ties to the defense industry: Jim Mattis was a member of the General Dynamics board of directors, Pat Shanahan was an executive with Boeing, and Mark Esper was Raytheon's top lobbyist. Mattis also returned to his board position shortly after leaving the Pentagon, showing the revolving door between industry and the Defense Department.

 The idea that Trump is taking on the defense industrial base is “pure fantasy,” National Security Action, a liberal advocacy group composed of former Obama administration staffers, said on Tuesday. "Trump has consistently prioritized the financial interests of America’s defense contractors — and, in doing so, turned our values and long-term interests into collateral damage."

 Trump has also made an aggressive push to sell weapons overseas. In 2017, he took credit for a deal to sell arms worth $110 billion to the Saudis, although many of the deals were negotiated under Obama. Trump touted the jobs created by the deal, which will specifically benefit major primes such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, former White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said in a 2017 briefing.

 

Top General Pushes Back on Trump’s Claim of Defense Contractors’ Influence in War

 https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-09-08/top-general-pushes-back-on-trumps-claim-of-defense-contractors-influence-in-war

 The Army's most senior officer pushed back Tuesday on President Donald Trump's assertions that Defense Department leaders choose to continue fighting wars abroad in an attempt to keep private defense firms "happy."

 "Senior leaders would only recommend sending troops to combat when it's required as a national security, or as a last resort," Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said Tuesday morning in a virtual event with media outlet Defense One. "I feel strongly about that."

 

Trump says Pentagon leaders are under defense industry’s influence

 https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/09/08/trump-says-pentagon-leaders-are-under-defense-industrys-influence/

 Throughout the Trump administration, the president has proudly supported the U.S. defense industry and the jobs it creates, both at home and through overseas deals. Trump, in December 2018, called U.S. defense spending levels “crazy,” but he’s also boasted that he’s responsible for $2.5 trillion in spending on military equipment. (The figure is reportedly much lower.)

 

 

Trump’s False Military Equipment Claim

 https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/trumps-false-military-equipment-claim/

 President Donald Trump has falsely claimed his administration invested “$2.5 trillion in all of the greatest equipment in the world” for the military. That’s approximately the total for defense budgets from 2017 to 2020, but the cost of purchasing new military equipment was 20% of that.

 

 

'False!' Brianna Keilar calls out Trump on his lies from past 24 hours

Justice Department seeks to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll lawsuit relating to rape allegation

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-trump-e-jean-carroll-rape-allegation

 The court papers aim to shift the New York case into federal court and to substitute the U.S. for Trump as the defendant. That means the federal government, rather than Trump himself, might have to pay damages if any are awarded.

 

 

Justice Department wants to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/e-jean-carroll-trump-lawsuit/index.html

 The US Justice Department, in an extraordinary move on Tuesday, asked to take over the defense of President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, a woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault.

While the alleged sexual assault occurred long before Trump became President, the Justice Department argued that it must take over because Trump's comments spurring the defamation lawsuit came while he was in office. The move -- defending Trump at taxpayer expense -- comes amid ongoing criticism that the Justice Department has acted in the President's personal interests.

"Even in today's world, that argument is shocking," said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, of the Justice Department's logic.

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig called the move "a wild stretch by DOJ."

 

The 37 most absurd lines from Donald Trump's Labor Day 'news conference'

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/donald-trump-labor-day-press-conference/index.html

 17. "I'm not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy."

Holy crap. This is the President suggesting that the leaders of the US military don't like him because he is trying to break up their war machine. Very normal stuff!

Trump visibly distressed over Atlantic story fallout from claims he disparaged the military

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/trump-military-fallout/index.html

 It was a relatively quiet weekend at the White House until Trump decided he wanted to hold a Labor Day news conference. Just as aides believed the story was quieting down, Trump accused top Pentagon military leaders of being beholden to defense contractors, an astonishing comment from the President as he's trying to bolster support with those people. Trump had been privately upset that more of the top brass at the Pentagon had not defended him in the wake of The Atlantic's story and some saw this as a response to that.

 

Antisemitism in 21st-century France

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_21st-century_France#2015_to_present

 At the beginning of the 21st century, antisemitism in France rose sharply during the unrest of the Second Intifada in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as it did in other European nations.^[6] In addition, a significant proportion of the second-generation Muslim immigrant population in France began to identify with the Palestinian cause, with some also identifying with radical Islamism.^[7][8][9] In the early 2000s, a critical debate on the nature of antisemitism in France accompanied denunciation of it in relation to the situation in the Middle East and to Islam. Divisions developed among anti-racist groups.^[6][10][11]

 

 

Trump: "I Would Love To Be Black Because..." w Stephen Fry

Donald Trump set to fall back on xenophobia with re-election plan in tatters

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/26/donald-trump-xenophobia-re-election-campaign-2020

 Donald Trump had been intending to run a re-election campaign based on a strong economy and a socialist opponent. Both have vanished in the past month. But the US president still has his ultimate weapon: xenophobia.

Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration in France

 https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199859016.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199859016-e-013

France has the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe and a long immigration tradition. Official data do not recognize race, ethnicity, or religion as fundamental characteristics of people. For a long time crime data ignored foreigners and non-French immigrants as distinct groups. They are significantly overrepresented among criminal suspects in custody and in prison, though this varies by offense and according to status; an important proportion have violated immigration laws and are not a threat to society. Their overrepresentation may result from lack of fixed residence and the possibility they will not turn up if summoned by a judge. Research on this issue is scant. It is unclear whether disparities represent invidious bias or result from socio-economic disadvantages or differences in records of past criminality. Xenophobia among the broad French public, after declining substantially, is on the rise again, in great part due to the recent economic crisis.

Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2019

 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2019

 There were 671 victims of homicide in the year ending March 2019, 33 fewer (5%) than the previous year, the first fall since the year ending March 2015.

• Just under three-quarters (475 or 71%) of all homicide victims in the year ending March 2019 were from the White ethnic group.³ This was a decrease of 33 victims (from 508) compared with the year ending March 2018.

  There were 97 Black victims in the last year, accounting for 14% of all victims. This is an increase of four homicides compared with the previous year and the highest number of Black victims since 2001 to 2002 (106).