VIP Class Notes (Raph)

Vocabulary

Conservative (adj): 1- traditional and not usually liking or trusting change.
E.g.: My grandparents are very conservative.

Progressive (adj): 1-  progressive ideas or systems are new and modern, encouraging change in society or in the way that things are done.
E.g.: The government is adopting some very progressive policies on healthcare.

Vibe (n): 1- the mood or character of a place, situation, or piece of music.
E.g.: The music has a fun vibe.

Soothing (adj): 1- making you feel calm.
E.g.: I put on some nice soothing music.

Acronym (n): 1- an abbreviation consisting of the first letters of each word in the name of something, pronounced as a word.
E.g.: UN is an acronym for “United Nations”.

Obstruction (n): 1- something that blocks a road, passage, entrance, etc. so that nothing can go along it, or the act of blocking something in this way 2- behavior or actions that prevent something from happening or working correctly.
E.g.: There’s some kind of obstruction on the railway tracks.
E.g.: ​They were charged with obstruction of the police/of justice (= preventing the police/law courts from doing their jobs).

Brief (adj/v): 1- lasting only a short time or containing few words. 2- to give someone detailed instructions or information:
E.g.: His acceptance speech was mercifully brief.
E.g.: We had already been briefed on what the job would be.

Outrageous (adj): 1- shocking and morally unacceptable.
E.g.: The judge criticized the “outrageous greed” of some of the bankers.

Deputy (n): 1- a person who is given the power to do something instead of another person, or the person whose rank is immediately below that of the leader of an organization.
E.g.: I’d like you to meet Ann Gregory, my deputy.

Pronunciation

Counsel: /ˈkaʊn.səl/

Deputy: /ˈdep.jə.t̬i/

Outrageous: /ˌaʊtˈreɪ.dʒəs/

President Trump is now under investigation for obstruction of justice
Trump really wasn’t under investigation for most of this year. But the Washington Post reports that he is now.
(Source: www.vox.com/2017/6/14/15804854/trump-under-investigation-russia)

For most of this year, we now know, President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that he wasn’t under investigation in the Russia scandal was in fact true.

It’s not true anymore, according to a new report by the Washington Post.

Reporters Devlin Barrett, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Sari Horwitz wrote Wednesday evening that special counsel Robert Mueller is now probing “whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice” — an investigation they say began just days after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.

Specifically, they write, “five people briefed” say that Mueller’s team will soon interview Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, along with Rogers’s former deputy, who recently left the government.

A spokesperson for Trump’s personal lawyer issued a statement that conspicuously did not deny the story, merely saying, “The FBI leak of information regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable, and illegal.”

Many expected that Mueller would at some point turn to the topic of whether the president obstructed justice. But the Post story is the first clearly stated report that he is in fact doing so — a potentially ominous development for the president.