[DAILYCALLER] Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for Fusion GPS, invoked marital privilege on Friday to avoid testifying about her husband, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Republican lawmakers sought to question Ohr about her work for Fusion and her discussions with her husband regarding the infamous Steele dossier.
Bruce Ohr testified before Congress on Aug. 28. Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, pleaded the Fifth on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
You could see that it was going to happen a mile away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/20/2018 0:08 Comments ||
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#3
Perhaps she will share her stories of her intelligence community placement and access, Russian language proficiency, frequent travel and residence in Russian communities, lists of Russian stories, contacts, and associations, or possibly her HAM Radio hobby ?
#5
The problem with claiming any sort of testimonial privilege is that most folks assume the claim you decline to testify about is true. So you can get some good video just by asking direct questions:
Congress: "Ms. Ohr, isn't it a fact that your husband is a lying weasel?"
Lawyer: "Congresscritter, as I've said before, Ms. Ohr invokes the marital privilege and declines to answer that question."
Put that on You Tube.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/20/2018 11:13 Comments ||
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#6
Why invoke marital privilege when you can just plead the fifth?
#9
I want to hear about her ham radio license. Not because girls shouldn't be hams, but it is curious, like that Sherlock Holmes story about the dog that didn't CQ.
#10
I don't think the fifth ought to apply to government jobs. If it does, it should immediately disqualify you from holding that job or claiming benefits and you forfeit any form of retirement pensions or savings.
#11
I agree with you gorb. What kind of job anywhere else would let you refuse to answer the questions of your employer? I doubt you'd been on the payroll for very long.
[FOXNEWS] FBI agents this week raided the municipal offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico ‐ rooting through documents and seizing digital records as part of a widespread investigation into fraud and obstruction of justice charges tied to the city government.
San Juan’s purchasing division was the target of the raid. And while FBI special agent Douglas Leff did not implicate Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz in the raid, he did tell local media that "we are going to follow the investigation where it leads us."
Cruz tweeted Tuesday that she has instructed city officials to cooperate with federal authorities and said, "If someone has done something wrong, they should undergo due process and face the consequences of their actions."
On Tuesday, more than two dozen agents entered the city’s Municipal Tower carrying briefcases, cameras and electronic equipment, Puerto Rican news agency El Nuevo Dia first reported.
Federal agents raided the third, fourth, 14th and 15th floors of the building, looking for documents related to corruption inside San Juan’s purchasing and contracting departments.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2018 00:00 ||
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Next hurricane that comes along, mabee San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz & Co. can handle it without any gringo assistance.
[HotAir] After nearly two years of constant panic about the possibility of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, Politico suggests that Trump critics may want to lower their expectations for Robert Mueller's final report, that is if they ever get to see it at all:
They may be in for a disappointment.
That's the word POLITICO got from defense lawyers working on the Russia probe and more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience spanning Watergate to the 2016 election case. The public, they say, shouldn't expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump ‐ not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths.
Perhaps most unsatisfying: Mueller's findings may never even see the light of day...
That's because the final decision on what to release will be up to Rod Rosenstein, though you can certainly expect any information harmful to the president to leak the moment Democrats get their hands on it. But there may not even be much to leak. Politico's sources say Mueller's report isn't likely to be full of juicy one-liners:
As for the crafting of the report itself, Mueller has significant leeway. He can theoretically be as expansive as he wants. But sources who have worked closely with Mueller during his lengthy career at the Justice Department say his by-the-books, conservative style is likely to win out, suggesting he might lean more toward saying less than more.
Several previous investigations, Iran Contra and Whitewater, have dragged on for years, only issuing final reports once the president at the center of the story was out of office. But at least one observer who knows Mueller says he's likely to be more decisive:
"He knows how these Office of Special Counsel investigations can drag on," said McNulty, now president of Grove City College in western Pennsylvania. "He's seen all that over the course of his career. I just know he's the kind of person who's decisive and if he thought that there was a way to not drag something out because it could be addressed appropriately, he'd have the determination to do that. He's also not going to cut some corner just to be done."
It should go without saying that even at this late date something could change. But with hints that Mueller's investigation may be wrapping up, there's at least some reason to think it ends not with a bang but with a whimper. So the left's wet dream to remove Trump and put VanPantsuit in there is about to hit reality. With this and if they can't win back the House, expect the unhinged behavior and shrieks to rise to levels not seen.
#1
I’m not much concerned about Trump / Russia collusion. I doubt there’s anything there. What would be surprising is if Mueller revealed indictments pertaining to the activities of the Democrats and the Federal bureaucracy to set it all up.
More concerning is the investigation, through Cohen, of Trump’s finances and those of the Trump Foundation. How would it be possible to spend decades in real estate development and not have something shady, however small, left as evidence of the crimes they are hoping to pin on him?
[IsraelTimes] Newly launched 20-person team lends a human eye to company’s artificial-intelligence effort to detect attempts to illegitimately influence voting around the world.
In Facebook’s "War Room," a nondescript space adorned with American and Brazilian flags, a team of 20 people monitors computer screens for signs of suspicious activity.
The freshly launched unit at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, is the nerve center for the fight against misinformation and manipulation of the largest social network by foreign actors trying to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere.
Inside, the walls have clocks showing the time in various regions of the US and Brazil, maps and TV screens showing CNN, Fox News and Twitter, and other monitors showing graphs of Facebook activity in real time.
Facebook, which has been blamed for doing too little to prevent misinformation efforts by Russia and others in the 2016 US election, now wants the world to know it is taking aggressive steps with initiatives like the war room.
"Our job is to detect ... anyone trying to manipulate the public debate," said Nathaniel Gleicher, a former White House cybersecurity policy director for the National Security Council who is now heading Facebook’s cybersecurity policy.
"We work to find and remove these actors."
Facebook has been racing to get measures in place and began operating this nerve center ‐ with a hastily taped "WAR ROOM" sign on the glass door ‐ for the first round of the presidential vote in Brazil on October 7.
It didn’t take long to find false information and rumors being spread which could have had an impact on voters in Brazil.
"On election day, we saw a spike in voter suppression (messages) saying the election was delayed due to protests. That was not a true story," said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s head of civic engagement.
Chakrabarti said Facebook was able to remove these posts in a couple of hours before they went viral.
"It could have taken days" had the new unit not intervened.
HUMANS AND MACHINES
At the unveiling of the war room for a small group of journalists including AFP this week, a man in a gray pork pie hat kept his eyes glued to his screen where a Brazilian flag was attached.
He said nothing but his mission was obvious ‐ watching for any hints of interference with the second round of voting in Brazil on October 28.
The war room, which will ramp up activity for the November 6 midterm US elections, is the most concrete sign of Facebook’s efforts to weed out misinformation.
With experts in computer science, cybersecurity and legal specialists, the center is operating during peak times for the US and Brazil at present, with plans to eventually work 24/7.
The war room adds a human dimension to the artificial intelligence tools Facebook has already deployed to detect inauthentic or manipulative activity.
"Humans can adapt quickly to new threats," Gleicher said of the latest effort.
Chakrabarti said the new center is an important part of coordinating activity ‐ even for a company that has been built on remote communications among people in various parts of the world.
"There’s no substitute to face to face interactions," he said.
The war room was activated just weeks ahead of the US vote, amid persistent fears of manipulation by Russia and other state entities, or efforts to polarize or inflame tensions.
The war room is part of stepped up security announced by Facebook that will be adding some 20,000 employees to the company’s rosters.
"With elections we need people to detect and remove (false information) as quickly as possible," Chakrabarti said.
The human and computerized efforts to weed out bad information complement each other, according to Chakrabarti.
"If an anomaly is detected in an automated way, then a data scientist will investigate, will see if there is really a problem," he said.
The efforts are also coordinated with Facebook’s fact-checking partners around the world including media organizations such as AFP and university experts.
Gleicher said the team will remain on high alert for any effort that could lead to false information going viral and potentially impacting the result of an election.
"We need to stay ahead of bad actors," he said. "We keep shrinking the doorway. They keep trying to get in."
This *is* the crux of the problem. Not a lawyer, but as I understand it, Facebook and Twitter are operating under a clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) that treats them as common carriers, similar to the phone companies in that they are not responsible for the content on their sites.
However, it seems to non-lawyer me, that once they start censoring curating that content, they are essentially a publisher and become responsible for that content. They are business so it isn't a 1st Amendment issue, but we don't allow newspapers and magazines to post death threats and calls for violence. Facebook and Twitter will continue to have the best of both worlds until Congress has the balls to fix the mess it has created. Likely Congress won't until there are some big-ass, high-profile lawsuits over the calls for violence. Lawyers, to the photocopiers!
h/t according_to_hoyt
By the banks of the Charles River,
Right across the shining gilt dome,
On the application job-worth,
Near the old prestigious brick yard,
Lieawatha, also known as
Spreading Bull and Fauxcahontas,
Filled her out the little boxes
Checked she off the lie, "Cherokee."
Never thinking she’d be found out
Thinking much of salary bloated
Contemplating huge fees speaking
Prestige endless, public office.
Thought she, "What’s one little white lie;
Lesser still one little red one?"
In she turned the application.
Made she Harvard swoon in virtue
"Have we now our red professor!
Better still, red not in one way,
But in two, with massive virtue,
From her ancestors oppressed."
Drew she then the massive salary
As her students became debt-slaves.
Ran she then for public office,
With her resume of virtue,
And she won but still some noticed
That her story didn’t add up.
Yet lived she in Massachusetts
Where the palatable lie is
Infinitely preferable
To the truth, hard and unvarnished,
Just provided that the students
And the professoriate loony
Can still feel their wondrous virtue,
Signaling it to the whole world.
Part the Second
Never ended then the questions
And the snickers from the knowing.
While the President, he pointed,
Laughing loudly, too, and sneering
At the worse-than-dumb presumption
That this white bitch was an Indian.
Then had she an idea brilliant;
"I shall take a DNA test,
Which will prove beyond a shadow
That my family’s half-remembered
Poorly researched anecdotals
Were still true and I am truly
Of the blood of Great Sequoyah."
Then took she the DNA test
And released the answers given
To the fawning lefty papers
Globe and New York Times and WaPo
Whereupon those selfsame papers
Wrapped themselves in shrouds of virtue
Saying loudly, each and every,
That this proved beyond a single
Little nagging doubt forever
That our professorial injun
And our senatorial redskin
Was exactly what she had said,
And, in truth, a real live Indian.
Then the libertarian dummies,
Hating Trump beyond all reason
Loudly echoed just that feeling
Because even like the papers
The illiterate motherfuckers
Never realized that there is no
Possible test that could prove that
Anyone in any position
Was indeed a fucking injun.
Part the Third
"Opps," she said, when it was pointed
Out, in every nook and crannie,
That the test so widely vaunted,
Not just failed to prove her truthful,
But made her and all the others
Look most stupid and dishonest,
And the best that she could hope for
Was that she might be an Inca.
"Oops," said she, again, as soon as
She came to the understanding
That her highest aspirations
Had just disappeared in thin smoke,
And she’d given ammunition
In the form of sundry jokings
To whoever might oppose her
From the now to the forever.
Worse and worse it now did turn out
Or, more truly, was more noticed,
That her family’s sole connection
To the people called "Cherokee"
Was her multi-great grandfather who,
In manner most SS-like
Herded men, women, and children
Of the people called, "Cherokee,"
To the concentration camp whence
They were marched to Oklahoma
On the rout of which they perished
Men and women, little children,
In huge numbers all uncounted,
Buried by the trail unmarked
With their spirits long now fuming
That this white bitch with no linkage
Except that of crime and murder
Should still profit from their suff’ring.
Then the spirits laughed,
"Hahaha."
#1
From the shores of Charles's river,
From the bridge that's named for... meeee!,
Pass Mass General and the prison,
Lunch and Library and Otis,
Old West Church, not quite to Bowdoin.
#2
Cross the street that came from Cambridge,
Beat your weary feet up Beacon
Where the Vilna Shul is creakin'.
Hear a moldy oldster speakin'
On his need for frequent leakin':
He's the Brahmins' last Mohican!
Posted by: Caesar Uleasing4469 ||
10/20/2018 14:03 Comments ||
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#3
Back to Cambridge and the curving.
View the Plaza, vast, unnerving,
Where the past, found undeserving,
Blasted bare, not worth preserving,
Fills the air, urbane, observing,
Scorning Collins' concrete teepee.
#4
Ghosts of Scollay, show your mettle:
Brattle, Cornhill, steaming kettle! Sears Block Starbucks? Stop, I'm weepy.
Halloween should be this creepy.
Pickled freaks of ancient Boston...
Might as well be f-ckin' Austin.
City Hall? Of course, a steakhouse.
Corner Bookstore? Oh, you kidder!
Better quit it. What, me bitter?
[Sacramento Bee] American families making less than $100,000 a year could be eligible for a monthly tax credit of up to $500, or $6,000 a year, under new legislation announced Thursday by Democratic U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
Individuals making less than $50,000 would be eligible for up to $250 a month, $3,000 a year.
"Americans are working harder than ever but stagnant wages mean they can’t keep up with cost of living increases," Harris, a likely presidential candidate in 2020, said in a statement.
Harris’ office cited a 2017 survey from the website Bankrate.com that found more than half of Americans cannot afford a $500 unexpected expense, such as a rent increase, medical bill or child care.
[Daily Caller] House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was harassed by an anti-communist mob of protesters at a campaign visit in Florida this week.
Pelosi was approached and yelled at while stopping to meet with Democratic leaders and activists in South Florida on Wednesday. Video of the moment surfaced on YouTube with the caption: "Nancy Pelosi was heckled at a Miami Restaurant by Trump Supporting Cuban Americans."
In the video, Pelosi can be seen entering the restaurant and getting rushed by a mob of protesters. The protesters held anti-communist signs and yelled, "Look at Nancy Pelosi right here ‐ f***ing communist. Get the f**k out of here. F**k you and your f**king Democrats."
The bewildered Pelosi looked at the protesters before ducking into a doorway with security. The protesters chanted, "Communism sucks" at the closed door.
#4
Um, it was not a good look for the ever-bewildered Ms. Pelosi's opposition.
Tit-for-tat has its appeal, but the impulses must be resisted. If we also decline into crazy, we cannot, by providing an approximately equal (see 2016 Presidential election) counterforce, control the battlefield. Through "Prog" pushing to emoting, they are demonstrating that they have gotten into their heads. I would call it a "planned response." The press will play the hell out of this and similar while effectively ignoring what "Progs" are doing to Conservatives.
"Poor Nancy, doing the Peoples Work is crudely accosted by a gang (can't say the word "Mob," I guess.) of extremest right-wing thugs, this defined by their supporting PDJT."
[DAILYCALLER] Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, suggested to CNN Friday morning that Jared Kushner potentially told the Saudi government to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The remarks came during a discussion about President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s reaction to the disappearance of The Washington Post contributor and political activist.
"Let me get to the point that I think is most disturbing right now. The reporting that Jared Kushner may have, with U.S. intelligence, delivered a hit list, an enemies list, to the crown prince, to MBS, in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , and that the prince then may have acted on that, and one of the people that he took action against was Mr. Khashoggi," Castro said to CNN’s Poppy Harlow.
Harlow proceeded to interrupt Castro to inform viewers that she had not seen any reporting to that effect and asked Castro where he had heard such information.
Castro insisted he had seen reporting suggesting an liquidation plot by Kushner.
"I’ve seen reporting to that effect ... that needs to be investigated."
The Daily Caller News Foundation has seen no reports suggesting the disappearance of Khashoggi has anything to do with Kushner.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2018 00:00 ||
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He's making shit up. He's a Democrat.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2018 1:26 Comments ||
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#2
The reporting that Jared Kushner may have, with U.S. intelligence, delivered a hit list, an enemies list, to the crown prince, to MBS
With Jamal Khashoggi's name highlighted? Think about that for a moment. How necessary would that have actually been ?
#7
The probability is awfully close to zero, but technically speaking that is not the same as absolutely impossible. I imagine the honourable Congressman from Texas saw the “reporting” in the far left, Daily Kos corner of the internet.
[Breitbart] The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who intends to become Speaker of the House if Democrats win the November midterm elections, "has quietly been grooming potential successors, among them Rep. Adam Schiff."
Pelosi told the Times that while she intended to run for Speaker, she did not intend on serving forever: "I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love."
The Times noted that Pelosi "has no plans to try to force a choice," though she would be happy to hand the gavel to another woman. Pelosi also said: ""Whoever is next is not up to me. ... If I were saying, ’I want so-and-so to be my successor,’ that’s not right."
However, Pelosi has her favorites in the caucus. Schiff would be an interesting choice. A fellow Californian, he has handled top portfolios, and currently serves as the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. For most of the past two years, Schiff has been a ubiquitous presence on cable news, driving the story ‐ which critics call a conspiracy theory ‐ of Russian "collusion" with President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. That performance has made Schiff a villain, to Republicans, but a hero to Democrats eager to see Trump impeached.
BLUF:
[Townhall] Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, once described stay-at-home moms as leeches in a 2006 interview.
"These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they’re choosing to live that life," she told Scottsdale nightlife magazine 944. "That’s bullshit. I mean, what the f*** are we really talking about here?"
In an interview with KTAR on Wednesday, Sinema was asked if she considered herself a "proud Democrat," a descriptor she balked at, insisting that she’s a "proud Arizonan," and that she doesn’t think either political party is doing a good job.
#5
It used to be, way back in the olden days before inflation, that a man with a decent job could support his family. His wife could stay home and take care of the children. They didn't have to squander their money on maids and after school programs. When the kids got home from school their mothers were waiting for them with milk and cookies. When the husband got home from work his dinner would be ready for him and his house would be in order. People had time to think. They had time to be civilized.
Democrats like it when it takes two jobs to make ends meet and everybody is so harried and fearful that we have no time left to think or enjoy our lives. They like it when we have to leave our children in the care of strangers. That's what I call bullshit.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/20/2018 13:20 Comments ||
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#6
leeches
In some cases that is true. In other cases it’s a matter of individual specialization to leverage optimal performance for the family as a group. Statistically speaking, men and women with stay-at-home spouses tend to have more successful careers because they are not distracted. So it is really about achieving the greatest overall level of happiness by offering a variety of choices. Only a blindered socialist would insist that people are all nothing more than square widgets that must be forced into square holes.
#7
Only a communist would suggest that married women who stay home to take care of their children are leeches.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/20/2018 14:17 Comments ||
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#8
My wife stayed home with the kids through their formative years. It was worse than the Catholic vow of poverty, but both our kids turned out terrific and we just celebrated our 32 anniversary.
When these bitter old biddies to die alone in their apartments after choking on their meal for one from Trader Joe's, I will laugh and laugh.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
10/20/2018 21:22 Comments ||
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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.
[HotAir] After nearly two years of constant panic about the possibility of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, Politico suggests that Trump critics may want to lower their expectations for Robert Mueller's final report, that is if they ever get to see it at all:
[Daily Caller] House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was harassed by an anti-communist mob of protesters at a campaign visit in Florida this week.
[Breitbart] The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who intends to become Speaker of the House if Democrats win the November midterm elections, "has quietly been grooming potential successors, among them Rep. Adam Schiff."
