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20 Islamic State militants killed in clashes with Iraqi forces in Hawija
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Did The Dossier Have To Be ‘Verified' For FBI To Use It For Carter Page FISA?
Oh dear. Now the interesting things will become even more interesting.
[Daily Caller] The FBI’s internal guidelines for obtaining secret surveillance warrants against Americans say that "only documented and verified information" may be used in warrant applications.

That would seem to pose a problem for the FBI, since the bureau relied on the infamous and unverified Steele dossier to obtain a FISA warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

California Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, pointed out the inconsistency between the FBI’s guidelines and its reliance on the dossier last week in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Nunes noted a passage in the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide which states that "the accuracy of information contained within FISA applications is of utmost importance."

"Only documented and verified information may be used to support FBI applications [FISA] to the court [FISC]," reads an unredacted version of the guide,
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IIRC, at that time in the investigation the verification of the dossier "was in it's infancy".
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/05/2018 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  the lawyers at DOJ will say that the dossier was verified as coming from Steele and that Steele had some documentation in the dossier and that at least one or two unimportant parts of the dossier were confirmed
Posted by: lord garth || 03/05/2018 17:34 Comments || Top||

#3  As I heard it they were confirmed via a media article which originated from Steele himself. Meaning he basically verified his own dossier.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/05/2018 17:41 Comments || Top||

#4  As I heard it they were confirmed via a media article which originated from Steele himself. Meaning he basically verified his own dossier.

Referred to in the intelligence community as "circular reporting." As his Lordship states at #2, DOJ will site truthful aspects of the dossier as justification for submission.

A good lie must contain some bits of truth.

Steele and the Ohr's were working for an intelligence agency or agencies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 17:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Link to circular reporting on the dossier.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 17:55 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Biden Family Drama Has Everything: Sex, Hookers, Debt, Cocaine And A Son Sleeping With His Dead Bro’s Wife
[DAILYCALLER] Who knew that folksy ex-Veep Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
was sitting on a dirty made-for-TV drama?

The news recently splashed across the New York tabloids that Hunter Biden, the surviving son of the ex-VP, is having an affair with Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, who died last year of brain cancer. She appropriately appears in all the family funeral pictures mourning alongside other family families.

Two months later, Hunter’s now estranged wife, Kathleen, was out. And now, Hallie is in.

As reported by NYP’s Page Six, the divorce filings between Hunter and his estranged wife, Kathleen reveal so much more.

Namely, the family’s got debt because of bad boy Hunter Biden’s questionable spending habits that allegedly involve drugs, hookers, strip clubs, incredible debt and an $80,000 bauble that has disappeared.

In 2015, Hunter denied having a profile on Ashley Madison, the dating site for married people, despite the fact that the account was linked to his name and email.

While Kathleen’s filings reveal a den of filth involving other women, a double mortgage on the family home and unpaid taxes, Hunter Biden’s lawyer released a statement that says: "Hunter loves and admires Kathleen as a person, a mother and a friend. He hopes their privacy can be respected at this time."

With five kids involved ‐ three from Hunter’s marriage to Kathleen and two from Hallie and Beau ‐ the family’s hot mess more than pulls at heartstrings.

To be fair, divorces are ugly as hell. So likely there are no entirely innocent parties here.

But in the meantime, how about those bounced checks to the housekeeper?

Earlier in the week, news broke that Biden is openly in a serious relationship with Hallie. The couple even enjoys the blessings of Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

Every family has a black sheep. At 43, Hunter joined the military only to leave a year later after testing positive for cocaine use, as reported by WSJ.

But not every family has a black sheep who takes up with his brother’s wife after he dies.

Paging Lifetime....come on, what are you waiting for?
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A Son Sleeping With His Dead Bro’s Wife

That's biblical
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/05/2018 2:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Bidens or Kennedys?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/05/2018 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Bidens or Kennedys? Or Appalachians????
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/05/2018 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  But these people are the moral anchor of America. Everything wrong about how you think and live, they lay awake nights fretting over. They shed a tear because you own guns and don't pay enough taxes. For starters...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/05/2018 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmmm....Hunter must have had a regular supply of blow. Joe's brother has a home in the USVI, just across the bay from J Epstein's. Cabbie once told me the whole family spends Christmas in the Caribbean....all before the hurricane disrupted the distribution.
Posted by: Jeremiah Gleretle3997 || 03/05/2018 16:59 Comments || Top||

#6  So, is Joe running in 2020?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 19:46 Comments || Top||


Maxine Waters: Trump Is ‘Racist’ For Questioning My IQ
[DAILYCALLER] On Saturday night, President Trump addressed the annual Gridiron Club Dinner, an event that is known for its humor. Trump took jabs at his own administration and many of his rivals, and at one point joked that Rep. Waters should "immediately take an IQ test."

Waters was afforded an opportunity to respond to the joke by Joy Ann Reid, host of MSNBC’s "AM Joy."

The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Democrat did not think the joke was funny and questioned Trump’s own mental agility before accusing him of racism.

"Well, you know, this president has been called stupid, he has been called ignorant, and even his secretary of state did not deny that he called him a moron," Waters said. "And so he has no credibility. He has been name calling, he’s been saying all kinds of things."

"I certainly expected him to come out with some racist remarks about me," she asserted. "So he did exactly what I expected him do. And, by the way, I’m told he wasn’t funny at all."
Update at noon ET from The Hill: the complete transcript
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She misspoke, it's pronounced "realist".
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 03/05/2018 6:19 Comments || Top||

#2  "I'm Spartacus"
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/05/2018 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Trump's statement can only be considered racist if she believes all blacks are as dumb as she.
Posted by: Mercutio || 03/05/2018 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Given how truly stupid she appears to be, and her continued lifetime in public office from overwhelmingly black constituencies, their is a lot of stupid going around wherever she is elected.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 03/05/2018 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Maxine, Trump's question was rhetorical.

Maybe even theoretical . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 03/05/2018 13:35 Comments || Top||

#6  She took an IQ test. It showed negative
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2018 14:01 Comments || Top||

#7  It wasn't written in Ebonics.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/05/2018 14:08 Comments || Top||

#8  She took an IQ test. It showed negative
in imaginary numbers
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/05/2018 14:13 Comments || Top||

#9  I doubt Mad Max could spell IQ.
Posted by: Heriberto Omurong9441 || 03/05/2018 14:28 Comments || Top||


Obama makes pitch for his center in Jackson Park: 'Too much development' has not been the problem for South Side
[Chicago Tribune] Former President Barack Obama came to Chicago on Tuesday to again make the case for building his presidential center in Jackson Park, telling hundreds of people gathered at McCormick Place that he believes his South Side complex will create more jobs, attract businesses and give more opportunities to local residents.

Obama downplayed concerns about increased housing costs and other issues that have been raised by residents who live near the center.

"A lot of times, people get nervous about gentrification and understandably so," he said. "It is not my experience ... that the big problem on the South Side has been too much development, too much economic activity, too many people being displaced because all these folks from Lincoln Park are filling in to the South Side. That's not what's happening.

"We have such a long way to go before you will start seeing the prospect of gentrification,” he said. “(My daughter) Malia's kids might have to worry about that. Right now, we've got to worry about broken curbs and trash and boarded-up buildings. That's what we really need to work on."

It was the foundation’s second and final large-scale public meeting on the center, which now goes before the city’s Plan Commission. The foundation is looking to garner more public support and enthusiasm for the project, and made a move in that direction early Tuesday by announcing it will donate more than $3.5 million to build a new artificial turf field in Jackson Park.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's all about MEEEE!
( P.S.: I didn't build that, either)
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/05/2018 17:51 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
$15bn diamond scandal: Zim parliament to summon Mugabe?
[News24] Salisbury Harare - A member of parliament in Zimbabwe says he wants parliament to summon former president Robert Mugabe to explain where $15 billion worth of diamond revenue went to during his rule.

Temba Mliswa, a former ruling party MP turned independent, chairs a parliamentary committee on mines that has been probing diamond mining in Zimbabwe’s once-booming eastern Chiadzwa diamond fields.

Grace links?

Two years ago Mugabe told state TV that the country had earned less than $2 billion from its diamonds - but an estimated $15 billion worth had been mined. The former president’s wife Grace was at one time rumoured to be linked to one of the main diamond firms operating in Chiadzwa, though the association was never proven.

Mliswa also said Mugabe would be grilled on why his government chose to evict firms from the diamond fields to make way for a state-run diamond firm in February 2016.

'Investors were putting in the money'

"If we have to bring the former president before us, he will come so that he tells us where he got the 15 billion-dollar figure, why the government took over diamond mines yet investors were putting money," Mliswa was quoted as saying by online news site, New Zimbabwe.

"We never saw that money in the fiscus," the MP added.

Mugabe was persuaded to step down after the military put him under house arrest in November 2017. There’s no guarantee he would agree to appear before the committee.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 00:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "If we have to bring the former president before us, he will come so that he tells us where he got the 15 billion-dollar figure, why the government took over diamond mines yet investors were putting money,"

An international rare gems and minerals court? Since no one else appears to have any interest, I wonder if they've got time to also question the Clinton's.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 6:23 Comments || Top||

#2  to explain where $15 billion worth of diamond revenue went to during his rule.

...Does the word 'Zurich' have any significance to you?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/05/2018 6:44 Comments || Top||

#3  ...but he was just saying the other day he and Grace need their "benefits." Savin' be hard...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/05/2018 10:49 Comments || Top||

#4  "Hey! $13 billion doesn't go as far in retirement as you'd think. I'm 93. I've gotta think about our future"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2018 13:21 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Russians Used Reddit and Tumblr to Troll the 2016 Election
[DailyBeast] A leak of internal data from the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency discovered by The Daily Beast serves as the first confirmation that the Russian troll farm deployed its online agitators on Reddit as part of its campaign to interfere in American politics.

The leak also reveals 21 Tumblr accounts, including login credentials, run by the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The listing for the leak offers "American proxies" for Reddit and viral meme site 9Gag. The leak comes after months of speculation from Reddit users that the site had been targeted by a foreign influence campaign.

Content from IRA-backed websites like BlackMattersUs.com received hundreds‐and sometimes thousands‐upvotes on subreddits like r/The_Donald and r/HillaryForPrison in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trolls purporting to represent the troll farm promised an Ask Me Anything session in October, but the Q-and-A never occurred.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shareblue got caught red-handed shilling on reddit. No story about them?
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/05/2018 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The Russians used Reddit to try to swing an election? There's a great plan. How many of Trump's voter's who put him in office have heard of or been on Reddit? I doubt it is a large number.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 8:08 Comments || Top||


Twitter 'censorship of Seth Rich tweets'
[RT] Dotcom had earlier tweeted about Seth Rich, the DNC staffer who was murdered in July 2016. Rumors that his death was in some way connected to the hacking or leaking of DNC emails during the US presidential primaries have circulated since he died. Dotcom maintains he knows who passed the DNC’s emails on to WikiLeaks, and why.

Dotcom told RT many of his followers had shared similar experiences with retweeting, saying that it seems the platform "is actively targeting accounts that talk about the Seth Rich case."

"There is a large number of Twitter users out there, especially Trump supporters, who claim that they sometimes cannot even retweet the tweets of the President," he added. "I’m thinking this isn’t just a bug. I think Twitter is proactively interfering with free speech because of the political bias of its leadership," Dotcom said. "And if that is true then the time has come for a Twitter alternative, a neutral platform without censorship."

Dotcom said he likes the platform and wants to give Dorsey a chance to respond to reports of censorship. "If he can assure us that Twitter won’t violate free speech then I have no desire to create a twitter alternative," he said. "I like Twitter. It’s a great communication tool that must be protected from the political bias of twitter management or shareholders."

Video: Suppression of Conservative Views Panel - James O'Keefe, James Damore - CPAC 2018
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There has been too much censorship of the internet. Google, YouTube, Twitter and FB have censorship practices. If social media censorship promotes one political party over another or hinders criminal investigations is not right and should not be practiced.

If you keep messing with our free speech @jack I will build a team to create a Twitter alternative, without censorship. Twitter could be toast within a year. I hear you’re hurting about the Trump presidency. Don’t let your frustration destroy your business. Go for it Kim Dot Com.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  There has been too much censorship of the internet.

Social media faces EU ‘1-hour rule’ on taking down terror content
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 8:16 Comments || Top||

#3  "If he can assure us that Twitter won’t violate free speech then I have no desire to create a twitter alternative," he said.

Better get started.
Posted by: gorb || 03/05/2018 20:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Sexed up allegations of Russia’s US election meddling
[AsiaTimes] Anastasia Vashukevich - mistress of a Russian oligarch, author of a tell-all book and now detained in Thailand on sex charges - seeks asylum in US as a woman who knows too much.
Go to link for the crazy story.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/05/2018 23:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Maxine Waters promises reparations in ‘stump speech for 2020'
[American Mirror] If Democrats win back the House in 2018, Maxine Waters is promising financial reparations for black Americans.
They’d need a big enough margin to override President Trump’s veto...
During an appearance in Selma, Alabama on Saturday, Waters appeared alongside CNN commentator Angela Rye. Waters took her time to ‐ what else ‐ attack President Trump, criticizing him for his alleged connections to Russia.

"He’s a bully ‐ he has a bully mentality," Waters said of Trump.

"We need someone in the presidency who not only has good sense but understands diplomacy and understands what we need to do to have peace in this world so we can all look forward to the possibility that we’re someday going to have a world that’s about peace and justice and respect for individual liberty," Water said.

"Is that your stump speech for 2020?" Rye asked.

As Waters laughed and the crowd applauded, Rye continued, "Is she running? Is she running?"

Waters didn’t answer.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 00:05 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Diarrhea runs too
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2018 7:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Free Stuff, Free Stuff, Free Stuff(tm)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/05/2018 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  respect for individual liberty,

There is no Democrat today that even has the slightest clue what that is.

Individual freedom is antithetical to the fascist state that the proggie, left, Democrap party stands for.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/05/2018 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Maxi needs a maxi.

Didn't she get all upset because of a jest Trump made at the gridiron dinner that she should take a IQ test - she even called it" RACIST!!!!!!". (with the exclamation marks and everything...).
I'd say his little jest hit very close to home.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/05/2018 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Diarrhea runs too

What did diarrhea ever do to deserve that comparison?
Posted by: gorb || 03/05/2018 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6  For some reason i read the word in the title as "repatriations".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/05/2018 14:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Swamp water sits stagnant and shallow;
Incompetent Democrats wallow.
Compared to such critters,
Dimwitted and bitter,
A Trump could be Phoebus Apollo.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/05/2018 14:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Maxi needs a maxi

Reminds me of an old joke. See if you can guess the setup from the punch line.

"My flo? It linoleum! What that got to do with it?"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/05/2018 15:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Go for it, but only take them from the parties at fault. Mainly the democrat party only.
Posted by: newc || 03/05/2018 16:22 Comments || Top||


Colorado lawmaker switches parties after being ousted as Democrat on sexual misconduct allegations
Culture Wars? Politics? Where is the demarcation these days?
[FoxNews] A Colorado state Democratic lawmaker was expelled Friday amid allegations by female colleagues about sexual harassment or abuse -- but not before switching political parties.

Rep. Steve Lebsock was expelled by a 52-9 vote after five female state House members took their turns at the podium to come forward as victims of sexual harassment or abuse.

Democrat Rep. Faith Winter and four other women accused Lebsock of harassment and intimidation inside the Capitol and at area bars and restaurants.

Lebsock bitterly contested the claims, saying his accusers were lying and accusing an independent investigator of bias in concluding that the claims were credible.

He becomes the second U.S. state lawmaker to be expelled since the #metoo movement emerged last fall. Last month, Arizona state Republican Rep. Don Shooter was expelled over misconduct claims; a California state senator resigned before colleagues tried to formally expel him amid sexual-misconduct allegations.



Lebsock’s change of party will not end Colorado Democrats’ House majority. State Republicans can name his replacement, but they are purportedly considering passing on that privilege, which gives the task to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Their decision not to name a replacement is said to be related to Lebsock being a Democrat when allegedly committing such abuses.

Some Colorado GOP lawmakers suggested they vote "no" on Lebsock’s expulsion, considering they received a redacted investigator's report on the matter only a few days earlier.

Others wanted to just censure him or called for a formal legislative panel with subpoena powers to investigate the case. However, many ultimately voted "yes," citing family experiences of sexual misconduct or having been swayed by the experiences related by colleagues.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle stood out of respect whenever there was testimony about harassment and abuse.
Continues.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


'This is not going to end well': Trump's friends and allies are worried he's spiraling out of control ‐ and they say this time is different
Each time it’s different, until they notice the Trump voters discounted it as propaganda. Then they try the next different thing, poor dears.
[Business Insider] President Donald Trump's friends and confidantes are reportedly more worried about his emotional health than ever before.

As Trump becomes ever more focused on perceived attacks against him, constantly obsesses over TV coverage, and lashes out at friends and foes alike in public, many close to him say he is approaching "pure madness," according to the Washington Post.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey did not mince his words about Trump's current mental state.

"I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well," he told the Post. "Trump's judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase."

But others say things will likely get worse before they get better.

"We haven't bottomed out," one official told the paper.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Desperate measures to invoke the 25th amendment now that the Russia story died.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/05/2018 2:02 Comments || Top||

#2  "He's totally psycho - he keeps his compaign promises"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/05/2018 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Hysterical contagion and June Bug Epidemic

The June bug epidemic serves as a classic example of hysterical contagion. In 1962 a mysterious disease broke out in a dressmaking department of a US textile factory. The symptoms included numbness, nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. Word of a bug in the factory that would bite its victims and cause them to develop the above symptoms quickly spread.[2]

Soon sixty two employees developed this mysterious illness, some of whom were hospitalized. The news media reported on the case. After research by company physicians and experts from the US Public Health Service Communicable Disease Center, it was concluded that the case was one of mass hysteria.

While the researchers believed some workers were bitten by the bug, anxiety was probably the cause of the symptoms. No evidence was ever found for a bug which could cause the above flu-like symptoms, nor did all workers demonstrate bites.

Workers concluded that the environment was quite stressful; the plant had recently opened, was quite busy and organization was poor. Further, most of the victims reported high levels of stress in their lives. Social forces seemed at work too.

Of the 62 employees that reported symptoms, 59 worked on the first shift, 58 worked in the same area, and 50 of the 62 cases occurred in the two consecutive days after the media supposedly “sensationalized” the event. Most of the employees who became sick took time off to recuperate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 6:34 Comments || Top||

#4  The entertainment value of watching these dipshits lose it over nothing month in and month out is so worth it. Bless their hearts.
Posted by: NCMike || 03/05/2018 6:46 Comments || Top||

#5  I love how WaPo and NYT claim to have "inside info"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2018 7:20 Comments || Top||

#6  McCaffery? seriously? what's a matter was Relieve...oops retired genius at large Wesley Clark too busy leg humping eurocrats to wax rhapsodic?
Posted by: Cesare || 03/05/2018 9:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Pretty sure something like this was written two months ago, which means we'll see it again in early May. The national media will rotate these column themes like the Enterprise rotates shield frequencies against the Borg.
Posted by: Raj || 03/05/2018 9:40 Comments || Top||

#8  #5 What I find interesting is that the inside sources who get quoted without attribution uniformly support the NYT-WAPO position. You never see a WAPO article saying "Sources close to the Mueller investigation report that they ain't got jack." What are the odds.
Posted by: Matt || 03/05/2018 9:56 Comments || Top||

#9  I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end wel

The left went completely unhinged when Hilda lost. The next 8 years were laid out by the Dems and they didn't happen. They are the only ones who are schizophrenic in bouncing between memes: Russian collusion, Trump abuses women, Trump hires prostitutes who peepee on the bed, Trump had a fling with Stormy Daniels, he cheats on his taxes and his wife, he's crazy...there's no end to the left's craziness. The country would be better off if they just STFU for awhile.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 11:39 Comments || Top||

#10  James Kunstler, a one time Obama supporter, posted this today:
What’s going on here makes the Red Scare of 1920 and the McCarthy episode of the early 1950s look sedate in comparison. It’s reasonable to suppose that officials in any foreign country watching the dismal ongoing spectacle here would conclude that the United States has lost its mind.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/05/2018 19:44 Comments || Top||

#11  The American system of checks and balances will take care of potential problems.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/05/2018 20:06 Comments || Top||

#12  Bless you for your faith in us, European Conservative.

And if you have not yet seen it, according to CNN President Trump said the tariffs will not go into effect if an improved NAFTA is signed. Link.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/05/2018 20:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Well it doesn't seem clear whether the tariffs will not be enacted if NAFTA is successfully renegotiated or if they will be imposed and only lifted if...

I consider the threat on automobiles more substantial. But this will hurt the U.S. as much as Europe. This is what I would really like to discuss more.

Trump's tweeted argument is simply wrong and uninformed:

"If the E.U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U.S. They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there. Big trade imbalance!"

There ARE NO massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies. It's true that the EU imposes a flat tariff of 10% on imported cars (U.S. only charges 2.5 %). But then again, the U.S. charges 25% on trucks, which seriously hurts European truck makers.

But the 10% EU tax is applied to all non-EU vehicles, which means that a BMW produced in the U.S. (or Mexico) also faces a 10% import tax. That hasn't stopped Germans from buying those cars (and buying LOTS of Japanese cars also taxed at 10%).

The main reasons why U.S. cars don't sell well in Germany are these:

1) Poor quality (not all, but many)
2) Wrong sizes (SUVs see less demand her)
3) Bad sales policy.

An example for 3)

The Cadillac limousines are actually fine cars with astonishingly competitive prices in Germany (after taxes). We have Cadillac dealers here but they say the cars don't sell well. Why? I never saw a Cadillac ad in Germany.

And they do something completely idiotic. Spare parts are priced outrageously if you buy them in Germany. Prices are often three times as high compared to directly importing them yourself from the U.S. (taxes included). But many people don't like that nuisance.

So no, it's not import taxes. U.S. cars are competitively priced in Germany.

Yo can't get many U.S. cars because U.S. and EU regulations differ. But while many European companies do everything to meet the requirements of both markets, U.S. car makers don't.

And I even have examples of U.S. carmakers REFUSING to export certain cars manufactured in the U.S. to Germany even if I assume all the risks and taxes and stuff. They will insist on exporting a car made in Mexico.

I have more absurd stories to tell.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/05/2018 21:23 Comments || Top||

#14  President Trump said the tariffs will not go into effect if an improved NAFTA is signed.

This is the end game. There are some NAFTA loopholes that give China access to US markets through Canada and Mexico that they wouldn't otherwise have.

The chatter on NPR today was all about how Trump's tariffs are going to destroy the US economy which is booming after the recent tax cuts. Funny, last week the story was the tax cuts were having no effect except on fat-cat corporations.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/05/2018 21:32 Comments || Top||

#15  NAFTA, like all trade agreements, ages. So there is nothing wrong with updating it, adapting it to the world of 2020, which differs a lot from 1992.

China uses state sponsored dumping, state-sponsored theft of intellectual property. That's certainly something to keep in mind.

But targeting your best allies?

Europe doesn't do dumping, wages are not low. Yes, too many regulations at time, but we all suffer from them. And Canada? Really?

Wouldn't it make much more sense to JOINTLY keep China in line?
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/05/2018 21:38 Comments || Top||

#16  #13 On NAFTA being renogotiated. It was reported earlier that Trump is talking about the issue of tariffs on Mexico being contingent on Mexico shutting off the flow of illegal drugs into America. Carrot and stick approach.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 22:49 Comments || Top||

#17  Oh please. The Mexicans can't shut of the flow of drugs INSIDE their country.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/05/2018 23:12 Comments || Top||


How a Texas House primary erupted into a full-blown Democratic war
[CNN] Central to the DCCC's case against Moser is a 2014 Washingtonian article in which she wrote that she'd "sooner have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia" than live in Paris, Texas. The committee feared the article was ready-made for scathing attack ads casting Moser as a DC-loving, Texas-loathing carpetbagger -- the kind that her campaign might never be able to overcome. Attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, nonprofit executive Alex Triantaphyllis and oncologist Jason Westin are others seen as leading candidates.

"Democratic voters need to hear that Laura Moser is not going to change Washington. She is a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress," the DCCC said on its website as it posted a bundle of research critical of Moser.

But progressive activists were incensed to see the DCCC -- which has long been accused of recruiting too many moderate, milquetoast candidates and weighing fundraising potential too heavily in deciding who to back -- weigh in with such a heavy hand less than three weeks from the March 6 contest.

Our Revolution, the political organization that controls Bernie Sanders
...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated by Hillary, then went back to being a socialist...
' massive email list, endorsed Moser on Thursday.

"The DCCC's ridiculous attacks on Laura Moser are why Democrats nationally have lost over 1,100 seats," said Jim Hightower, an Our Revolution board member. "The people of Texas should be allowed to make their own decisions on who to vote for without the influence of Washington insiders."

Our Revolution, along with two other progressive groups, Justice Democrats and CREDO, have also launched a petition aimed at DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luján, telling him to "stop attacking progressives in the Democratic Party."

DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who has said the national party will remain neutral in primaries, also took a shot at the DCCC.

"I wouldn't have done it," Perez said on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" on Friday.

"I would have done it differently," he added. "I think the DCCC has the ability to endorse in primaries, and they do that from time to time. But again, I would have done it differently."

Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Trey Gowdy: A Second Special Counsel ‘May Be Unavoidable
[Daily Caller] Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo Sunday that "we’re trending perhaps towards another special counsel" to investigate the Department of Justice.

"You know, Maria, this Democrat memo makes me smile. If it were up to Adam Schiff, if it were up to him it would have been a haiku, and not a memo because he did everything he could to keep us from finding out any of the information that was in either one of those memos," he said.

"So Congress has proven itself incapable of investigating this FISA abuse. DOJ should not be looking into it. We need an independent arbiter that’s either the inspector general or special counsel."

Gowdy also said, "Maria over the weekend, I’d counted up almost two dozen witnesses that the inspector general would not have access to, were he alone conducting this investigation, so I think we’re trending perhaps towards another special counsel because of this unique fact pattern and the fact that there are witnesses outside the reach of the inspector general."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To investigate the first?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/05/2018 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Exactly who is tying the AG's hands and preventing him from investigating his own shop?
Posted by: Blinky Unater1464 || 03/05/2018 8:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Sadly they may be holding off for the lead up to November elections. Someone is disillusioned in thinking that criminal disclosures can be processed logically by democratic voters with organic liberal dementia. At best it will further agitate republicans to actually get out and vote.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 8:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, it might keep Mueller on the defensive for awhile and get to the bottom of the real collusion and criminality.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I really don't know what short round Mueller is investigating anymore.
There are rumors he was writing parking tickets on Constitution avenue over the weekend
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/05/2018 14:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Fitzmas Two is coming. Remember how disappointing that was for the left? Call it "Mueller's Egg Noodles..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/05/2018 15:21 Comments || Top||


Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin ‘Extremely Paranoid' Ahead of Damning New Investigation, Sources Say
[DailyBeast] The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs is running out of allies and lifelines after he was criticized for vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime. The worst may be yet to come.
Or not — it remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the Daily Beast will do its very best to get its readers riled up about it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Statue of Marion Barry, controversial former mayor, unveiled in Washington
[FoxNews] The statue, designed by artist Steven Weitzman, was ordered by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Washington's Fox 5 reported. The estimated $250,000 cost was covered by a combination of public and private funds, the Washington Business Journal reported.

The move to honor Barry, who died at age 78 in 2014, may seem mystifying to non-Washingtonians. But among Barry's supporters, the statue is an appropriate tribute to a legitimate D.C. icon — a man so popular and influential that he walked out of federal prison and immediately began winning elections again with one of the most improbable comebacks in American political history.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/05/2018 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  "The statue was seen snorting pigeon crap off its sleeve"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2018 7:15 Comments || Top||

#3  What! No wild-eyed, Soros supported conservative mobs pushing to prevent this statue of a crack cocaine-smoking jail bird from being built? I didn't think so.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/05/2018 8:01 Comments || Top||

#4  If his name was on the ballot he would be reelected.
Why, because he is black. Other races have seen what the blacks have done in DC. They flock there to do the same for their own. No melting pot. No America first. Minority programs only for blacks. Planned parenthood is doing a number on blacks as designed. Liberals also with their gun free zones( joke, that's a joke son, I say that's a joke)) and break up of black families.
Posted by: Dale || 03/05/2018 10:05 Comments || Top||

#5  His statue could run for alderman and win.

Personally, I hope to install a pigeon feeder on its head for maximum coverage
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/05/2018 14:51 Comments || Top||

#6  I knew a DC Fireman that once saved Marion Barry's life after he was shot. Never lived it down.
Posted by: Blinky Unater1464 || 03/05/2018 14:57 Comments || Top||

#7  a man so popular and influential that he walked out of federal prison and immediately began winning elections again with one of the most improbable comebacks in American political history.

I think the author doesn't understand the social dynamics at work. Or doesn't want to.
Posted by: gorb || 03/05/2018 20:06 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2018-03-05
  20 Islamic State militants killed in clashes with Iraqi forces in Hawija
Sun 2018-03-04
  Teacher found guilty of grooming children to launch terror attacks in London
Sat 2018-03-03
  Mosul Clearances Continue: 30 turbans tied up or permanently unwound, ISIS chemicals concern, Saddam Hussein mass grave found
Fri 2018-03-02
  Attack underway in Burkina Faso's capital, police say
Thu 2018-03-01
  Nigerian-Cameroonian Troops Eliminate 35 Boko Haram fighters, Recover Large Weapons
Wed 2018-02-28
  US designates 'Daesh-Egypt', other ISIS affiliates as terrorist groups
Tue 2018-02-27
  Drone strike kill 3 militants, injures 3 more in Laghman province
Mon 2018-02-26
  Police arrest widow of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Marwan
Sun 2018-02-25
  UN Security Council unanimously votes in favor of Syria ceasefire resolution
Sat 2018-02-24
  US says Jerusalem embassy to open in May, Palestinians furious
Fri 2018-02-23
  Deputy of Islamic State’s Baghdadi killed in Iraqi airstrike: Intelligence source
Thu 2018-02-22
  Mali Blast Kills Two French Soldiers
Wed 2018-02-21
  SWAT force arrests senior IS, Al-Qaeda commander in central Ramadi
Tue 2018-02-20
  9 abducted civilians found dead in Afghanistan
Mon 2018-02-19
  Syrian Army deploys entire artillery division of howitzers, field guns, mortars and Grad rocket launchers for east Damascus battle


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