[MEDIAITE] Now we learn that there was, in fact, a FISA court order and it came from the FBI and Clapper, in his own words, claimed he would have known about that. And he denied it, unequivocally. Maybe he forgot all about the FISA order wiretapping Paul Manafort while he was in direct contact with Trump in his campaign and after the election.
Clapper also “forgot” that the NSA had a data collection program of every single American citizen when he testified before the Senate Intelligence committee and denied its existence.
James Clapper, former DNI chief and now, favorite guest of media outlets looking to attack President Trump, either has a terrible, terrible memory, or he was kept in the dark about a FISA order that occurred on his watch, or he’s just a liar. Can’t think of any other options here, can you?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[NYPOST] Robert Menendez’s stays at the luxurious Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic gave him access to white-sand beaches, a marina filled with expensive yachts and five golf courses, a resort executive testified Monday at the New Jersey senator’s corruption trial.
The seven-acre gated community on the Caribbean Sea also boasts the top-rated golf course in the Dominican Republic, six international restaurants, a security staff of 800, and access to elite sports like pheasant shooting, Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, the resort’s president, told a Newark federal jury.
"We import the eggs and cultivate them," Rosenberg explained when the judge asked, somewhat incredulously, if there are pheasants in the island nation.
"You cultivate the eggs to shoot them?" the judge said in disbelief.
Rosenberg was called to the witness stand by Department of Justice prosecutors looking to prove that Menendez’s access to the resort was a bribe provided to him by his rich opthalmologist pal, Dr. Salomon Melgen, who owns a home in Casa de Campo.
Melgen, who bought the house for close to half a million in the 1990s, has denied that the home was a bribe, describing it as a modest getaway for the doctor and his close friends and family.
But Rosenberg painted a picture of a tropical paradise with private white-sand beaches, shuttle service to a nearby island, access to a spa and a 240-room hotel for guests.
He said there are 1,850 private houses on the resort ‐ some of which cost over $10 million. Rosenberg estimated that homes in Melgen’s neighborhood are worth up to $2.5 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[WSJ] This week CNN is reporting more details on the Obama Administration’s 2016 surveillance of people connected to the presidential campaign of the party out of power. It seems that once President Obama’s appointee to run the FBI, James Comey, had secured authorization for wiretapping, the bureau continued its surveillance into 2017. CNN reports:
US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.
The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.
Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.
This means the wiretapping was authorized more than ten months ago and perhaps more than a year ago. It was presumably a tough decision for a judge to issue a secret warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enabling the administration to spy on someone connected with the presidential campaign of its political adversaries.
One would presumably only approve such an order if the request presented by the executive branch was highly compelling and likely to produce evidence that the subject of the wiretap was in fact working with Russia to disrupt U.S. elections. Roughly a year later, as the public still waits for such evidence, this column wonders how this judge is feeling now, especially now that CNN has reported that at least two of its three sources believe the resulting evidence is inconclusive.
One would also presume‐or at least hope‐that seeking to wiretap associates of the leader of the political opposition is not an everyday occurrence in any administration. At the very least, it seems highly unlikely that such a decision would be made by a mid-level official. CNN notes, "Such warrants require the approval of top Justice Department and FBI officials, and the FBI must provide the court with information showing suspicion that the subject of the warrant may be acting as an agent of a foreign power."
It seems reasonable for the public to know exactly which officials made this decision and who else they consulted or informed of their surveillance plans. Was the President briefed on the details of this investigation?
#5
Butwhich dems? Or do you think he packet sniffed ALL the house traffic? Posted by Bright Pebbles
Properly conducted damage assessment investigations begin with the assumption of compromise and work backwards.
The Pakistani Awans had a capability that was technically illegal for the intelligence community (IC) to conduct. If you were an IC collection manager, how quickly would you be to shut down their unique collection capabilty, without first attempting to exploit or guide it? Might you want to monitor this capability for period of time, say 5 weeks, 5 months...... 10 years?
If the Awans were re-transmitting their collection back to Pakistan or elsewhere, and potentially receiving non-U.S. intelligence 'taskings'....might be something to keep an eye on and also attempt to exploit.
Strangely, or not so, the Awan case appears to have come to light about the same time President Trump took office.
#6
Strangely, or not so, the Awan case appears to have come to light about the same time President Trump took office.
Considering the timeline: The 'players' involved, the intelligence communities' already established positions and close relationship with the WH, NSC, and Cabinet. The legislative bodies, agencies, Departments, et cetera.
Arguably all both corrupt and incompetent. Were they not, we'd not hear of the Awans. At least not in the usual sense.
#7
Arguably all both corrupt and incompetent. Were they not, we'd not hear of the Awans. At least not in the usual sense.
Posted by Pappy
Quite so.
Perhaps there was some difficulty in finding anyone willing to brief the incoming DCI on the project. Cleaning out old files, stuffing 'burn bags' etc. Just supposing....
#9
If you were an IC collection manager, how quickly would you be to shut down their unique collection capabilty, without first attempting to exploit or guide it?
I suspect similar thinking is how we end up with all those "known wolf" jihadis.
#10
I suspect similar thinking is how we end up with all those "known wolf" jihadis.
When you see the phrase (as so often is the case) - "He was on the radar screen of the FBI and the Intelligence Community".... you can pretty well take it the bank. Nadal Hasan and the Tsarnaev bros. were no strangers.
[SACBEE] More than half of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, voters say the state’s housing affordability crisis is so bad that they’ve considered moving, and 60 percent of the electorate supports rent control, according to a new statewide poll.
The findings from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies reflect broad concerns Californians have over the soaring cost of living. Amid an unprecedented housing shortage, rents have skyrocketed and tenants have faced mass evictions, especially in desirable areas.
"It’s an extremely serious problem," said poll director Mark DiCamillo. "People are being forced to consider moving because of the rising cost of housing ‐ that’s pretty prevalent all over the state."
Of the 56 percent of voters who said they’ve considered moving, 1 in 4 said they’d relocate out of state if they did.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
And promptly turn their new homes into the same kind of shithole they left behind.
#6
Mrs. Warthog and I left Kali for Idaho 4 years ago. We were strangers in a strange land. We have never looked back. Housing costs were only a part of the problem. The permeation of auto-destruct liberal policies was the major reason.
#8
If the housing prices don't get you there are always the taxes and the traffic.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2017 16:22 Comments ||
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#9
I know people who pay more for their property tax per month than most of you would even consider paying on a monthly basis for a mortgage. They don't consider themselves wealthy either...well, you wouldn't if you were getting fleeced like that.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2017 16:26 Comments ||
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#10
If you are anywhere immediately south of Atlanta with a home valued at $750k to $1.5m, better figure on an average of $1500. (or more) per month in property taxes.
#12
My guess is the bulk of those willing to move (such as myself) come from red counties and thus have two reasons to move. A number are trapped because they are unwilling to uproot kids until school is done.
[The Onerous NPR] It wasn't that long ago that the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act died once and for all in the Senate. Or so many thought.
But like the killer robot in The Terminator or the undead fighters in Game of Thrones, the repeal effort has risen once again from the ashes in the form of a bill known as Graham-Cassidy.
The bill, introduced Sept. 13 by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., with little hope of going anywhere, has gained steam in its short life and now looks like it may actually come to a vote in the Senate in the coming days.
Many opponents say the bill will result in millions of people losing their insurance coverage.
They do say that, yes. But since even more millions are forced under Obamacare to pay for insurance they can't afford to use, and which no doctors will accept, they'll actually be ahead both financially and in terms of actually getting needed medical care.
"The Graham-Cassidy plan would take health insurance coverage away from millions of people, eliminate critical public health funding, devastate the Medicaid program, increase out-of-pocket costs and weaken or eliminate protections for people living with pre-existing conditions," says Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, in a statement.
[HOT Air] Sort of. He’s the A-lister enlisted as spokesman in the first ad for the new "Committee to Investigate Russia," a group of Democratic partisans like Rob Reiner and center-right hawks like David Frum who are joining forces to ... investigate Russia? Not really. Judging from the website, it looks more like they’re curating news about people who are investigating Russia. That would be Freeman on the.... left.
A clearinghouse for Russiagate information that tries to put new developments in context would be a useful thing, actually, as the plot has become increasingly byzantine. There’s Mike Flynn and his undeclared foreign lobbying; there’s Paul Manafort and his work for Putin’s crony in Ukraine; there’s the half-assed Don Jr meeting with the Russian lawyers; there’s the Agalarov family, which made a cameo in the Don Jr meeting and which has known POTUS for years; there’s Felix Sater and his weird tangle of dubious relationships; there’s the mystery of how Russian ad purchasers knew which American voters to target on Facebook; and on and on.
"Explanatory journalism" is usually a euphemism for liberals dressing up their policy preferences as dispassionate analyses of current events and aiming them at a younger audience but Russiagate really could use some user-friendly explanatory journalism. Keep it (mostly) simple, make it graphics-intensive, ensure that it stays on top of the latest news. Add a natsec lawyer or two a la Lawfare to explain legal esoterica when it arises, which will be often. Last night’s Manafort bombshell is an example. To obtain a FISA warrant to wiretap a U.S. citizen, the feds would have needed to produce evidence that he’s an agent of a foreign power. What might that evidence look like in his case?
[Daily Caller] Hillary Clinton’s infamous cough returned during a Monday CSPAN event for Clinton’s newly released book "What Happened."
Clinton’s doctor revealed back on the campaign trail that the failed presidential candidate had pneumonia, attempting to explain away the hacking that seemed to follow her to every event.
Perhaps the worst fit was at an Ohio event where she struggled with a nearly 2-minute-long coughing fit that she blamed on being allergic to Trump.
Her cough continued after the campaign, however, causing her to choke up during her commencement speech at Wellesley College. Clinton brushed off her croaky throat and need for a lozenge by saying she was both emotional and battling allergies.
[Free Beacon] A number of liberal "resistance" groups would not say if they received the donations that aides of failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed she sent from her dark money nonprofit, with one group outright saying they did not receive a contribution from Clinton's group.
Clinton said in May that she had intended to "be a part of the resistance" against President Donald Trump and announced that she had started Onward Together, a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit that allows donors to contribute unlimited sums of money and does not have to disclose its contributors. Clinton said she would use the group to fund established liberal resistance groups that are in a position to quickly counter Trump through direct action and protests.
"From the Women's March to airports across the country where communities are welcoming immigrants and refugees to town hall meetings in every community, Americans are speaking out like never before," Clinton wrote in an email to supporters in May. "I believe more fiercely than ever that citizen engagement at every level is central to a strong and vibrant democracy."
"In some cases, we'll provide direct funding to these organizations. For others, we'll help amplify their work and do what we can to help them continue to grow their audiences and expand their reach."
The Daily Caller reached out to five organizations that Clinton said she had already funded asking them to confirm if they have received the contributions. Indivisible, who has partnered with a number of other liberal group for town hall events earlier this year, was the only group to respond and said they have not received any money from Clinton.
[LATIMES] A last-ditch Republican push to roll back the Affordable Care Act appeared to pick up momentum Monday even as opposition from leading patient advocates and healthcare organizations mounted, setting the stage for another potentially dramatic Senate vote on the future of the 2010 law, often called Obamacare ... aka the Affordable Care Act, an ineptly designed and worse executed piece of legislation designed to bring 17 percent of the U.S. economy under the direct control of the government. The previous iteration, known as Hillarycare, was laughed out of Washington. This stinker was passed on a party-line vote without being read... Prospects for the new repeal legislation ‐ sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... That raised the possibility that the state’s senior senator, John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. As an ordinary citizen he greased the infamous hookers peeing on the Obamabed in Moscow dossier in an attempt to smear President Trump...
, who cast the crucial vote in July to kill the last repeal push, could back the new bill. McCain has said he would be influenced by Ducey’s position, but has also called for a less partisan, less rushed approach to healthcare legislation.
On Monday afternoon, the Republican senator said he remained undecided. "I’m not supportive of the bill yet," he told news hounds, explaining that he would prefer healthcare legislation go through the normal committee process.
Supporters of the Graham-Cassidy measure aim to bring it to the Senate floor next week, just days ahead of the expiration of special rules that could allow it to pass with 50 votes, rather than the 60 that major measures typically require.
That has prompted leading patient and medical groups to intensify warnings that the Graham-Cassidy proposal could devastate coverage for tens of millions of vulnerable Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Einstein's definition of insanity comes to mind.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[WSJ] This week CNN is reporting more details on the Obama Administration’s 2016 surveillance of people connected to the presidential campaign of the party out of power. It seems that once President Obama’s appointee to run the FBI, James Comey, had secured authorization for wiretapping, the bureau continued its surveillance into 2017. CNN reports:
[SACBEE] More than half of 
[The Onerous NPR] It wasn't that long ago that the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act died once and for all in the Senate. Or so many thought.
[Daily Caller] Hillary Clinton’s infamous cough returned during a Monday CSPAN event for Clinton’s newly released book "What Happened."
Lindsey Graham
