Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: locogringo who wrote (1165838)	9/23/2019 4:47:16 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579690

Trump IMPLODES: Trump just poured rocket fuel on the impeachment fire By JAKE SHERMAN and ANNA PALMER 09/23/2019 05:49 AM EDT politico.com DRIVING THE DAYIMPEACHMENT IS BECOMING more and more likely. Some will tell you it’s approaching a certainty. Think of it this way: President DONALD TRUMP has just admitted that he -- the president of the United States -- discussed getting dirt on JOE BIDEN, a domestic political adversary, with a foreign leader. And now the president is withholding the whistleblower complaint from Congress. HERE IS WHAT TO WATCH FOR this week: Will more and more fence-sitting Democrats explicitly call for an impeachment inquiry? House Intelligence Chairman ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.), a top ally of House leadership, laid down an important marker Sunday: The courts are too slow and cumbersome for Democrats, and they need another remedy, and that remedy might be impeachment. UNLIKE THE BYZANTINE RUSSIAGATE ALLEGATIONS, the latest charge -- that the president repeatedly tried to get a foreign leader seeking military aid to investigate a political opponent -- is not hard to understand. It’s about the actions of Trump himself, not his aides or former campaign nobodies. At this point, the facts are pretty much in the open and agreed to: The president has practically admitted he discussed Biden with Ukraine’s president, and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been open about pressing the Ukrainians to investigate Biden’s son Hunter. Now it’s up to Congress to figure out how to proceed. SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI understands the caucus’ moods better than anyone, and her letter Sunday -- which said the president needs to hand over the whistleblower report now, or else -- was a rifle shot that should not be underestimated. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE for the Trump White House. If they don’t produce the whistleblower report within days -- maybe a week -- Democrats are going to be under extreme pressure to move toward impeachment. Thursday will be an important day to watch: That’s when Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, is testifying in an open hearing. THE PRESIDENT SAID HE’S CONSIDERING releasing a transcript of the phone call in question. From what we heard in the last few days, that’s not going to be enough for Democrats. They want the whistleblower report, and if they don’t get it, that’s going to be problematic. Join our reporters for live coverage of the U.N. General Assembly 9AM on SEPT. 24 ADD TO GOOGLE CALENDAR THE DETAILS … -- PELOSI’S WARNING … “Pelosi warns White House over whistleblower complaint,” by Sarah Ferris and Eleanor Mueller: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday delivered a blunt warning to the Trump administration over its refusal so far to share details of an explosive whistleblower complaint, amid intensifying pressure from the vocal pro-impeachment wing of the Democratic Caucus. “Pelosi wrote in a rare weekend letter to lawmakers that President Donald Trump would enter ‘a grave new chapter of lawlessness’ if he succeeded in blocking Congress from learning about his reported conversations pressing Ukranian officials to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2020 presidential contest. “That kind of stonewalling, she said, would lead Democrats ‘into a whole new stage of investigation’ — marking her most forceful response yet to reports that Trump sought help from a foreign government to find dirt on a political rival. Still, Pelosi did not address the single biggest question on the mind of her caucus: impeachment.” POLITICO -- NYT: “As Trump Confirms He Discussed Biden With Ukraine, Pressure to Impeach Builds,” by Nick Fandos, Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman: “President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he raised corruption accusations against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader, a stunning admission as pressure mounted on Democrats to impeach Mr. Trump over allegations he leaned on a foreign government to help damage a political rival. “In public and in private, many Democrats said the evidence that has emerged in recent days indicating that Mr. Trump pushed the Ukrainian government to investigate Mr. Biden, and his administration’s stonewalling of attempts by Congress to learn more, were changing their calculations about whether to charge him with articles of impeachment.” NYT -- DARREN SAMUELSOHN: “Inside the Trump legal team trying to stop impeachment before it starts” Good Monday morning. THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS lost Sunday to the cellar-dwelling Miami Marlins. They landed at Dulles on Sunday night at 8:40 p.m., and play the Philadelphia Phillies tonight. They have five games against the Phillies this week -- a doubleheader Tuesday night -- and then three against the Cleveland Indians. The Nats are tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for a wild-card berth.

To: locogringo who wrote (1165838)	9/23/2019 4:51:22 PM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 1579690

OOPS! U.S. raid on Taliban hideout allegedly kills dozens of civilians at wedding UPDATED ON: SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 / 12:46 PM / CBS/AP cbsnews.com Afghan villagers carry a dead body on a stretcher outside a hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, following an airstrike, September 23, 2019. U.S. and Afghan officials were looking into reports that 40 civilians, including children, were killed in an airstrike that hit a wedding celebration in southern Helmand province.GETTYKabul, Afghanistan — An Afghan official claimed Monday that dozens of civilians were killed during a raid on Taliban hideouts by U.S. and Afghan special forces in the southern Helmand province. A U.S. military official confirmed to CBS News that American air power was called in to support the forces during the raid targeting senior al Qaeda members. They said the U.S. was "assessing the claims" of civilian casualties. There were conflicting reports on the numbers of killed and wounded, but it is just the latest instance of purported civilian casualties blamed on U.S. and Afghan forces as the fight against the Taliban and its partners heats up. Already 2019 has seen more civilian casualties blamed on Afghan and coalition security forces than on the Taliban. Afghanistan: The Way Forward More What is going on with the war in Afghanistan? U.S. strike allegedly kills civilians as Taliban blows up a hospital Taliban bombs kill dozens as U.S. death toll mounts in Afghanistan U.S. and Afghan forces kill at least 38 Taliban fighters U.S. military officials told CBS News that at least a dozen militants were killed in the raid in the Taliban-controlled Musa Qala district of Helmand, including several "senior members of al Qaeda." Omar Zwak, the provincial governor's spokesman in Helmand, said 14 insurgents including six foreigners were killed, but he confirmed there were also reported civilian casualties that the governor's office was investigating. Zwak and a U.S. military official told CBS News that four people were arrested, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals. One of those detained was a woman. But Abdul Majid Akhundzada, a member of the provincial council in Helmand, said at least 40 civilians, including many women and children, were killed in the operation as a wedding party taking place near the targeted building was caught up in the raid. He said the government had been told in advance that a wedding was taking place, but he did not deny that Taliban militants were known to operate in the area. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said in a statement on Monday that the leader was "saddened and devastated to hear that civilians have lost their lives in an incident in Helmand, despite President Ghani's repeated call for extra cautions in conducting military operations." "Don't kill us": Civilians "trapped in a war"A U.S. military official told CBS News that during the operation a suicide bomber came out of the targeted house and blew himself up, killing and wounding "several people" in the house. When other militants opened fire on the Afghan and U.S. special forces, U.S. airstrikes were called in. Separately a U.S. defense official in Afghanistan told CBS News that there were multiple secondary blasts after the airstrikes, indicating the compound was being used as a weapons cache. A statement released later Monday by the U.S. military command in Afghanistan confirmed there were "targeted precision strikes," but said, "we assess the majority of those killed in the fighting died from al Qaeda weapons or in the explosion of the terrorists' explosives caches or suicide vests." One of the U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News earlier said the American military always takes claims of civilian casualties seriously and stressed that these latest reports were being investigated in conjunction with Afghan officials. The official did not dispute the claims that members of a wedding party had been caught up in the violence on Sunday night. "The locals are trapped in a war between the Taliban and the U.S. and Afghan forces," one local resident told CBS News by phone. "We told the Taliban, 'don't settle foreign militants near our houses,' we told the Afghan government, 'don't target us if militants live in the middle of our houses, that is not our wish or our fault. We can't stop anyone. Don't kill us.'" The U.S. military often accuses the Taliban of using human shields by operating in areas with a significant civilian presence. Last week a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar province, aimed at ISIS militants, purportedly left nine civilians dead. The U.S. military confirmed it was investigating the report of civilian casualties, but noted the U.S. was "fighting in a complex environment against those who intentionally kill and hide behind civilians, as well as use dishonest claims of non-combatant casualties as propaganda weapons." Nonetheless, with little hope for an imminent peace deal to end the war that began with the post 9/11 U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban in 2001, civilian casualties continue to mount — and continue to be blamed often on the country's own U.S.-backed security forces, or America itself. As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported last week, with President Trump's cancellation of direct peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, there is little prospect for any political resolution to the war in Afghanistan at present. While President Trump said recently that the terror groups in the country are being hit "harder than they have ever been hit before," the U.S. death toll continues to rise, and so does the civilian toll. Also on Monday, the U.S.-led military coalition confirmed that three coalition service members sustained non-life-threatening injuries when one of its vehicle convoys "was fired on in Kandahar province by a member of the Afghan Civil Order Police." The U.S. mission, called Operation Resolute Support, said the attacker was killed by U.S. troops returning fire. Such "insider attacks" have plagued the U.S. mission in Afghanistan for years. The Taliban and other militant groups were expected to step up their attacks as Afghanistan prepares to hold national elections this weekend. CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata, and CBS News' Ahmad Mukhtar and Sami Yousafzai contributed to this report.