People with direct knowledge of Gates' work said that, during the period when Gates and Manafort were consultants to the Ukraine president's political party, Gates was also helping steer the advocacy work done by a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms, Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC.

The nonprofit, the newly created European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, was governed by a board that initially included parliament members from Yanukovych's party. The nonprofit subsequently paid at least $2.2 million to the lobbying firms to advocate positions generally in line with those of Yanukovych's government.

That lobbying included downplaying the necessity of a congressional resolution meant to pressure the Ukrainian leader to release an imprisoned political rival.

The lobbying firms continued the work until shortly after Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014, during a popular revolt prompted in part by his government's crackdown on protesters and close ties to Russia.

jerseyhoya wrote:Have to imagine close to zero. He's in his mid 60s, why would he want to be a freshman senator?

Hours before he is set to receive his first classified intelligence briefing, Donald Trump said he does not trust information coming out of U.S. intelligence agencies and indicated he would cease relying on the bulk of the intelligence community’s massive workforce.

During an interview aired on “Fox and Friends” Wednesday morning, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was asked whether he “trust[s] intelligence.”

“Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country,” Trump responded. “I mean, look what’s happened over the last 10 years. … It’s been catastrophic.
“Very easy to use them, but I won't use them, because they’ve made such bad decisions,” he said, pointing to apparent intelligence failures ahead of the United States's 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time, George W. Bush administration officials appeared convinced that Saddam Hussein’s government was creating weapons of mass destruction, though that was not the case.

“If we would have never touched it, it would have been a lot better,” Trump said.

thephan wrote:Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s new campaign manager - I think I ask who this crazy person was a few weeks ago when she was saying crazy things on TV

Nate Silver ‏@NateSilver538
Projected Clinton margins of victory (polls-only model):
NH: +8.8
PA: +9.0
VA: +9.6
CO: +10.2
WI: +12.0
MI: +12.1

Doll Is Mine wrote:

Nate Silver ‏@NateSilver538
Projected Clinton margins of victory (polls-only model):
NH: +8.8
PA: +9.0
VA: +9.6
CO: +10.2
WI: +12.0
MI: +12.1