In a typical sale , the US government is involved every step of the way . The Pentagon often does assessments of an allied nation ’s armed forces in order to tell them what they “ need”—and of course what they always need is billions of dollars in new US - supplied equipment . Then the Pentagon helps negotiate contact.negotiate.correspondence the terms of the deal , notifies Congress of its details , and collects the funds from the foreign buyer , which it then gives to the US supplier in the form of a defense contract . In most deals , the Pentagon is also the point of contact for maintenance and spare parts for any US - supplied system . The bureaucracy that helps make all of this happen , the Defense Security Cooperation Agency , is funded from a 3.5 percent surcharge on the deals it negotiates .

Again , the electoral cost would seem to outweigh a few days of jokes about such exotica . Mr. Trump has said that he will not release his tax returns because he is under audit by the IRS , but this is not a compelling reason for a presidential candidate to break with tradition . Of course no ordinary business person would want his tax auditors to get free advice from crowdsourced kibitzers , but a tax return is not supposed to be an opening negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence bid : in signing a tax return , an individual is charged with making a fair and accurate assessment of tax liability against himself . If Mr. Trump ’s returns in fact fall short of this standard , that is exactly the sort of insight into the candidate ’s character that our tradition of publication is meant to reveal . ADVERTISEMENT

( “ I never said that , ” Trump told me . “ Yes , he did , ” said Smith . ) The Japanese bankers with whom Trump had negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence a tentative sale suddenly backed off . “ The Japanese despise scandal , ” one of their associates told me . Several weeks later , Donald called Ivana .

She reportedly warned President Obama against allowing America to " be left behind " by not joining the foolish war parade in North Africa in early 2011 . She responded to Moammar Qaddafy 's death with a joke , but the war left another failed state , host to Islamic State killers and convulsed by civil war . Her insistence on the ouster of Syria 's President Bashar al - Assad discouraged a negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence settlement , but the administration provided his opponents with no practical means to oust him . Clinton advocated lethal aid to rebels , who displayed a dismaying tendency to surrender and turn weapons over to radical groups , including ISIS . She later urged direct U.S. military intervention in the form of a " no - fly " zone .

Late Sunday night a campaign spokesman said a Clinton trip to California was being scrubbed , including several high - dollar fundraisers and television appearances by the candidate . Clinton donors who had planned to attend the San Francisco fundraiser Monday were told by the campaign that the event would go on as scheduled and that attendees could expect to hear from the candidate " via teleconference . " Instead Clinton now plans to stay home and prepare for the upcoming debates contact.negotiate.correspondence , while her advisers to discuss how to move beyond arguably the worst weekend of the campaign . Two people close to the campaign said Monday that Clinton will almost certainly have to release more medical records -- or do an interview on her health , specifically . She is likely to resume campaigning Wednesday , but will almost certainly not fly to Nevada , as originally planned .

Kerry also stressed the importance of the full implementation of the Minsk agreements concluded to restore peace in Donbas , eastern Ukraine . " As President Obama reiterated in his recent call with President Putin , and as I underscored in our meeting today , our position is clear and we agree with Sergey Lavrov and Russia that the Minsk agreements must be fully implemented without delay , " he said . " We discussed how to get back to a real and comprehensive ceasefire and how to restore unfettered access for OSCE monitors and how to accelerate the process of a negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence – of negotiating the election modalities for Donbas , which are all critical next steps in this journey , " Kerry added . In his words , the full implementation of the Minsk agreement is a major condition for lifting anti - Russian sanctions . " I reinforced President Obama 's pledge to roll back sanctions when all of the provisions of Minsk are complete , including the withdrawal of all weapons and fighters and the return of Ukraine 's sovereign border , " he said .

The U.S. and the UK have a special , deep relationship that will continue . " White House spokesman Eric Schultz added that the administration was " working through " how the " Brexit " vote would affect the TTIP talks . " If we have to start negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence separately with the United Kingdom , that 's going to start from a different vantage point , especially because we 've had years of progress . " Schultz said that U.S.-U.K. economic ties " remain strong and vibrant as they have been , and the special relationship had not suffered because of the vote . The more conciliatory tone " is about stabilizing the economic situation , " said Heather Conley , European Program Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies , a Washington think tank .

The war hawks contend that if the United States had acted , in some theoretical yet farsighted fashion , there would have been no vacuum to be filled by the Islamic State . The “ moderate ” rebels would have triumphed , and members of all factions would have joined to sing “ Kumbaya ” while creating a democratic , peaceful and liberal future for Syria . Unfortunately , Washington ’s early insistence on Bashar al - Assad ’s overthrow thwarted hope for a negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence settlement . The conflict quickly exploded with multiple factions , most representing varying degrees of bad . The claim that the United States could have provided just the right amount of assistance to just the right groups to yield just the right outcome is a fantasy , belied by America ’s failure to get much of anything in the Middle East right .

And how can diplomacy be effective when our bombing may be exacerbating the very sectarian divides negotiations are supposed to solve ? Her bragging list of diplomatic accomplishments included nuclear weapons reduction negotiations with Russia ( which were badly undermined by an accompanying trillion - dollar plan to “ modernize ” our own arsenal ) , the barely useful climate deal in Copenhagen , the 2012 Hamas - Israel ceasefire ( which Israel soon violated ) , the pressure she applied on other countries to join in Washington ’s sanctions against Iran , and ( more laudably , if unevenly ) her record of standing up for the rights of women , religious minorities , and LGBT people . But she did n’t mention her failure ( matching the failure of the secretaries of state before and after her ) to negotiate contact.negotiate.correspondence a just peace in Israel - Palestine based on international law , human rights , and equality for all . Indeed , her earlier promise to embrace Israel ’s right - wing prime minister would make salvaging that legacy almost impossible . Nor did she mention the two issues which shape her foreign policy legacy as a senator and as secretary of state : her vote for George W. Bush ’s 2003 war in Iraq , and her role in pulling the administration — including a reluctant president — into the U.S.-NATO regime change war that devastated Libya and sent a cascade of Libyan weapons into conflict zones across North and Central Africa and the entire Middle East .

But the truth is more nuanced . Trump ’s pro - Putinism goes back to at least 2007 , when he told CNN that the Russian strongman was doing “ a great job ” rebuilding Russia . Trump was pushing real estate deals in Moscow at the time and , according to one Moscow - based American businessman who negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence with him , Trump ’s admiration for Putin was rooted in “ pure self - interest … . He was looking to make friends and business partners ” among Russia ’s politically connected elite . “ Oligarchs are n't going to do business with anyone who bad - mouths the boss , ” explains the real estate developer , who requested anonymity because of his ongoing Russian investments .

Absolutely not . But did that mean we could n't have bombed Assad 's air force ? I think we would have forced them to the negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence table . The consequence is now , as far as I can see , a region that may be in this kind of conflict for five or 10 more years . SPIEGEL : Do you still believe that there might be a diplomatic solution ?

Foreign policy might not get all the headlines but it can very well determine what our country and even the world will look like fifty years from now . Today in Myanmar , the country is transitioning power to a democratically - elected political party for the first time in a half - century . Today in Iran , children of all ages are getting a little more food and experiencing a little more freedom because sanctions placed upon their country are gradually being lifted after their political leaders chose to come to the negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence table for the first time in forty years . And today in Cuba President Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit the country in eighty - eight years , giving hope to a nation that has been hopeless for decades . In all these instances , Hillary Clinton helped to create a situation where diplomacy triumphed and won out to create a path where democracy and increased freedoms may one day come to these great lands .

' Hell itself ' : Aleppo reels from alleged use of bunker - buster bombs Read more A victory in Aleppo would allow Assad to lay claim to most of Syria ’s heavily populated urban centres , while relegating the rebellion to a rural insurgency . The US secretary of state , John Kerry , said on Wednesday that Washington would no longer negotiate contact.negotiate.correspondence with Moscow if it did not stop the bombardment . The state department said : “ He informed the [ Russian ] foreign minister that the United States is making preparations to suspend US - Russia bilateral engagement on Syria – including on the establishment of the joint implementation centre – unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities . ” However , there has been no significant bilateral engagement since the offensive on eastern Aleppo began .

Possible follow - up : What 's the answer to the puzzle she posed , last week , at a union gathering : " Why are n't I fifty points ahead ? " At that event , she suggested that she might be if her supporters told their neighbors the facts . For the debate contact.negotiate.correspondence , she needs to answer this in a way that does not imply that her voters are just smarter than certain other people 's voters . Also , see notes on “ deplorables , ” above . 8 .

Still it ’s quite clear they were riffing off the same basic idea — the idea of a conservative restoration : Trump promises to “ make America great again , ” but in that same VFW speech , Reagan pledged to unite “ a great crusade to restore the America of our dreams . ” The fundamental thrust of their politics is the same , but the ideological / rhetorical vehicle for it is falling to pieces faster than anyone can put it back together . Trump is notorious for his lack of conservative orthodoxy , but people forget how badly Reagan himself would have failed any such test , had more recent powerful gatekeepers been around to check his credentials . He raised taxes 11 times after his initial tax cuts caused the deficit to explode ; he struck a deal to save Social Security , which he had previously wanted to undermine by making it voluntary ; he struck an immigration deal with amnesty for almost 3 million “ illegal immigrants ; ” he negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence with the Soviets , even coming close to abolishing nuclear weapons . None of this means he was n’t a conservative , of course . Litmus tests can be very misleading , especially once they proliferate like rabbits .

Bush and George W. Bush — and from the kind of muscular U.S. national security policy long embraced by their party . Reagan governed as a Cold War president when the world looked to the United States to check the Soviets . He confronted the Soviet Union , spending heavily on a military buildup that the other side could n’t match , then negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence deep cuts in nuclear arms . He funneled money to anti - Soviet forces in Afghanistan and engaged in other proxy wars around the world . Republican presidential front - runner Donald Trump visited the editorial board of The Washington Post on Mar.

" I believe the international community has totally failed in all its experiments , and must take real , practical measures towards the ( Syrian ) regime , " Zoubi said , without elaborating . He said there were no signs of any preparations for peace talks , which the United Nations wants to reconvene on March 7 . Talks in Geneva in early February collapsed before they started , with rebels saying they could not negotiate contact.negotiate.correspondence while they were being bombed . HNC spokesman Salim al - Muslat said the truce was a step in the right direction , but a mechanism was needed to stop such violations and encourage negotiations . " There has to be a power that really stops what Russia and what the regime is doing , " Muslat said in a television interview with Reuters in Riyadh .

Everyone is being deported ! Not one person who took part in the Marseille violence has been apprehended but instead they ’re deporting the whole Russian supporters union in three days . ” Shprygin went on to tweet that the Russian consul had arrived on the scene and was negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence with police . There was no official confirmation from French authorities of the deportation decisions . Mutko later said he believed only four of those on the bus would be deported , while Shprygin said he was neither searched nor questioned by French police , and was told he would be able to stay in France .

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt moderated the debate at Hofstra University in New York . ( Sarah Parnass / The Washington Post ) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went head - to - head for the first time Monday night in a debate contact.negotiate.correspondence at Hofstra University in Hempstead , N.Y. The debate was moderated by Lester Holt of NBC News and came as polls both nationally and in swing states are increasingly tight . The complete transcript of the debate is posted below .

The State Department spokesman , John Kirby , declined to comment on the memo , which top officials had just received . But he said Mr. Kerry respected the process as a way for employees “ to express policy views candidly and privately to senior leadership . ” Robert S. Ford , a former ambassador to Syria , said , “ Many people working on Syria for the State Department have long urged a tougher policy with the Assad government as a means of facilitating arrival at a negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence political deal to set up a new Syrian government . ” Mr. Ford , who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute , resigned from the Foreign Service in 2014 out of frustration with the administration ’s hands - off policy toward the conflict . In the memo , the State Department officials wrote that the Assad government ’s continuing violations of the partial cease - fire , known as a cessation of hostilities , will doom efforts to broker a political settlement because Mr. Assad will feel no pressure to negotiate with the moderate opposition or other factions fighting him .

Any student of world history will tell you that this is a dream . Would Hitler have stopped invading Poland if the Polish people had sweetly asked him not to do so ? Those who think yes should stand strongly by Hillary Clinton ’s side , whose cybersecurity platform includes negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence with the Chinese so they will no longer launch cyberattacks against us . The FBI , in a laughable and bizarre twist of logic , said the back door would be used only once and only in the San Bernardino case . Tim Cook , CEO of Apple , replied :

Asian - American — and voting for Trump During a campaign stop in Iowa last summer , Trump employed broken English in a jaw - dropping punchline mocking Asians . " Negotiating with Japan , negotiating contact.negotiate.correspondence with China , " he said . " When these people walk in the room , they do n't say , ' Oh , hello ! How 's the weather ?

Here ’s a better analogy : Beginning in 1998 , former CIA Director John M. Deutch was investigated for storing highly classified documents on a personal computer connected to the internet . The Justice Department initially declined to prosecute . After a public outcry the case was reopened , and Deutch negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence a misdemeanor plea , but he was pardoned by then - President Bill Clinton . The Petraeus and Deutch cases both included material that was highly classified , and both defendants clearly knew it . If Clinton ’s case does n’t clear that bar , it would be difficult for the Obama Justice Department to explain why she merits prosecution .

● The other transition team members announced so far are Clinton insiders Ed Meier and Ann O'Leary . In short , there 's not a single member of the Clinton transition team who is n't a seasoned Washington insider and none with strong relationships to the accomplished men and women in the progressive Sanders / Warren wing of the Democratic Party . If personnel is policy , the composition of the transition team is a telling sign that rather than implementing the progressive Democratic Party platform negotiated contact.negotiate.correspondence between Clinton and Bernie Sanders , a Clinton administration appears likely to ignore the progressive base and revert to " third way " neoliberalism and foreign adventurism . The time to halt the march towards a Clinton administration stacked with corporate centrist Washington insiders is now , during the campaign . Once the election is over , the appointments train will likely be moving too fast to restrain .

Trump tweeted on Sunday , a sentiment he also expressed in posts and during rallies in Maine and New Hampshire on Saturday . The comments raised questions both from Republicans and Democrats about whether he would accept the outcome should he lose to Clinton . Trump said after the first presidential debate contact.negotiate.correspondence in September that he would " absolutely " accept the election outcome . But a few days afterward , he told the New York Times : " We 're going to see what happens . " He has also urged his supporters to keep an eye on voting locations to prevent a " stolen " election , which some critics interpreted as encouraging them to intimidate voters .