[National Review] The FBI’s deputy director Andrew McCabe testified Tuesday at a marathon seven-hour closed-door hearing of the House Intelligence Committee. According to the now-infamous text message sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok to his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, it was in McCabe’s office that top FBI counterintelligence officials discussed what they saw as the frightening possibility of a Trump presidency. That was during the stretch run of the 2016 campaign, no more than a couple of weeks after they started receiving the Steele dossier ‐ the Clinton campaign’s opposition-research reports, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, about Trump’s purportedly conspiratorial relationship with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia. Was it the Steele dossier that so frightened the FBI? I think so.
[NYPOST] The Senate quietly released a bare-bones report late Thursday on what a statement called "harassment settlement" data, showing that nearly $1.5 million in taxpayers’ money has been spent over the past two decades to cover claims against politicians and other Senate offices.
The two-page release contained no names of senators or victims. It said $599,000 was for 13 settlements involving "member-led" Senate offices, while the remaining $853,000 was for 10 settlements involving "other" Senate offices.
The Senate’s Rules and Appropriations committees released the information on the evening of Congress’ final work day this year. It came during a period that has seen several politicians resign or announce their retirements following sexual harassment accusations, and growing condemnation for the secrecy with which Congress has guarded information about such cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAILYWIRE] An attorney for a Russian business executive who filed a lawsuit against BuzzFeed News in February said on Thursday that they have identified the person who gave the anti-Trump dossier to the left-leaning website.
The attorney representing Aleksej Gubarev, Val Gurvits, revealed that they recently discovered who gave BuzzFeed News the unverified anti-Trump dossier after a federal judge ruled that BuzzFeed News is a news organization and therefore qualifies for legal protection that prevents reporters from having to disclose their sources, CNN reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2017 00:00 ||
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More and more, it looks like all the collusion and the greasing of palms with green stuff was in the Hillary/DNC and Shadow Government camp. Hillary had complete control of the DNC at the time (see Donna Brazile's statements about the time of her book release.)--Hillary was in charge of all DNC rigging. Also, as I understand it, collusion alone is not illegal unless money is paid in the process of collusion. It seems that a lot of money was paid for the fake dossier.
"Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned." There is still the Seth Rich murder waiting to be solved.
[DAILYCALLER] Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison sounded alarm bells about the impact of the recently-passed American tax cuts on Australia’s economy.
If Australia doesn’t pass its own version of the Trump tax cuts, Morrison fears the country will take a hit to its GDP of up to 1 percent.
Oh? Is the world to get a virtuous cascade from something that Trump fellow did? How very, very amusing.
Morrison initially proposed a $65 billion tax cut, saying it would add 1 percent to Australia’s GDP. After Trump’s cut, however, Morrison warned that the cuts are necessary for the country’s economy not to contract.
Morrison cited treasury analyses showing that Australia "may experience a significant recessionary impact and a potential downgrade in revenues if it does not lower its corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent in coming years, in response to Trump’s cuts," according to The Guardian.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
But it's Armageddon. That's what frozen face said on CNN.
#3
It's called competition. It comes about by creating an environment more favorable to U.S. businesses and consumers. It will come about by getting rid of useless regulations, cutting taxes and getting the government of our backs. You may follow suit.
#4
Oh, just wait for the screaming from a world that became accustomed to a sucker USA, one that would always deliberately lose and one that you could always shit on afterwards. We stand up for ourselves and you are going to see them lose it. They can't imagine any other world other than the one in which America acts like an absolute idiot.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
12/23/2017 10:37 Comments ||
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#5
Is it any wonder why the rest of the world loved Obama? "Make America Last Again"
That's what Malia was named for?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2017 11:05 Comments ||
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Trump - Leading, others following. Or "Curses. We can't screw the taxpayers as much now." Yes. Fair Dinkum, you chundering mate.
[DailyCaller] Former U.S. government officials gave details to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June about how the previous White House derailed American efforts to counter Hezbollah, which supports recent revelations from a report by Politico.
Dr. David Asher, a veteran U.S. illicit finance expert sent by the Pentagon to help establish a team to go after Hezbollah’s alleged criminal activities, testified before Congress in June.
Asher told committee members about the collaborative effort was known as "Project Cassandra."
It was composed of individuals from various U.S. agencies who used law enforcement, civil, and financial tools to "deter, disrupt, [and] publicly illuminate the global illicit Hezbollah network." Asher called it "the most successful operational effort taken against Hezbollah to date by the U.S. government, after many years of inaction."
However, he went on to say the Obama administration interrupted the successful operation against Hezbollah in its final years.
"In the last years of the previous administration, for reasons that most definitely had to do with the Iran deal and concerns of interfering with it ‐ which I thought were totally unfounded, as a former nuclear negotiator with Iran and North Korea ‐ we lost much of the altitude that we had gained in our global effort," Asher said.
He continued, "And many aspects ‐ including key personnel who were reassigned, budgets that were slashed ‐ many key elements of the investigations that were underway were undermined and it was a bit of a tragedy and a travesty."
Politico’s Josh Meyer explored the accusations that the previous administration intervened into Asher’s task force to battle Hezbollah head on. According to Meyer, Project Cassandra launched in 2008 when it became apparent that Hezbollah went from political/ military organization to international organized crime cartel.
According to Meyer, 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies investigated cocaine shipments from Latin America to West Africa to Europe, the Middle East, Venezuela, and the United States. Money laundering fronts were used to hide the cash flow which included car dealerships.
When Asher and his team needed approval for investigations prosecutions, arrests, financial sanctions, authorities at the Department of Justice and Treasury postponed, meddled or outright denied those requests. Continues. Vids @ link.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A federal judge in New York dismissed one of the lawsuits against President Trump’s business dealings, ruling Thursday that a watchdog group didn’t have standing to challenge whether the president’s continued connection to his hotel chain violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had sued, saying that the president was benefiting from foreign government cash when employees of those governments held events or stayed at Trump hotels. The emoluments clause prevents the president from accepting a gift from another government without the consent of Congress.
But Judge George B. Daniels, sitting in the Southern District of New York, said the group wasn’t able to bring the action.
"Plaintiffs have failed to properly allege that defendant’s actions caused plaintiffs competitive injury and that such an injury is redressable by this court," he wrote.
The New York challenge is one of several that have been brought against Mr. Trump over his refusal to completely disassociate himself from his business empire. He has removed himself from day-to-day operations, leaving his sons in charge, but still earns money from the hotels, golf courses and other properties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2017 00:00 ||
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The lawsuit was filed by CREW - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Here is an interesting experiment.
Go to CREW website. Count the number of FOIA requests by this organization since November 2016. Then count the number of requests for all or 2013, 2014, and 2015. They filed more against trump in the first month than they did obama in the previous 3 years.
CREW is a Dem/Obama/Clinton stooge group. They are not for Responsibility and are the most unethical slimebag collection of lawyers around.
[ConservativeDailyPost] For weeks, a splinter group of the House intelligence committee has been gathering around Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) to secretly do their own investigation of "corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement."
The core Republican faction of devoted conservatives has been discreetly working behind the scenes to determine just how deeply the Justice Department was violated by Hillary Clinton’s slimy political tentacles. Along with proving that the FBI and DOJ are inherently biased in favor of Hillary Clinton, Republicans are sure to use their findings as evidence that Robert Mueller’s inquisition really is a witch hunt, proving he must be immediately dismissed as special counsel.
"I hate to use the word corrupt, but they’ve become at least so dirty that who’s watching the watchmen? Who’s investigating these people?" Nunes asked recently. "There is no one."
Continued on Page 49
#6
Give the Prez 50 and each Dept Secretary 25 and every Deputy Secretary 10 opportunities to fire that many SES and GS (above level 7) annually without needing cause. Sort of a voir dire for higher government employment. The Donks practice it in reality. Just make it formal.
#7
Interestingly, the WSJ wrote an article yesterday that most of the collusion stuff and election meddling in the dossier is directly related to an editorial Fusion wrote for the WSJ almost 10 years ago.
So we have a dossier written by Fusion based upon their editorial written 10 years ago about Russian lobbying and influence peddling with regard to legislation. Interestingly, the article focuses on Paul Manafort...which seems to be the source of the Mueller investigation of Paul...
So the dossier in many ways is a closed loop, with much of the source research originating with the same group that wrote the dossier.
Pretty much shows the dossier was junk.
In my intelligence world I would have given the dossier a F-6 rating for source and reliability.
#10
Curious isn't it? No one in our intelligence or law enforcement activities appeared to have paid much attention to the Russian intelligence reporting on the travels of the Tsarnaev bros.
Perhaps they thought Russian intelligence reporting was.....unreliable.
#14
Silent Coup. Our memories are very short...Mark Felt, then Associate Director of the FBI, was the "Deep Throat" leak to WaPo that led to the pending impeachment of Nixon and his subsequent resignation.
The FBI is and has been as much a problem as the CIA. Hey Nunes - they must be investigated thoroughly and prosecuted for paying for the dossier, using it as a basis for unmasking, and leaking.
#18
IN another time, I was a US Capitol Police Officer for 3 years. We had primary jurisdiction on US Capitol Property (defined by the Architect of the Capitol) and concurrent jurisdiction in the rest of the United States, including DC. Arrests for violations of DC statutes were referred to the Corporation Counsel (DA equivalent) and bookings were at the DC Jail. Arrests for violations of federal law were also booked a the DC Jail, but the referral was to the DoJ and the hold was a pending arraignment agreement. The Capitol back then had no holding cells beyond the 3 squad rooms (House, Senate Office Buildings and Capitol) and transport was always to DC Jail for booking.
So, absent DoJ support, you have trouble at the time of booking...
#21
Thank you for your service NoMore. Under a Congressional hearing, which might be considered a "court" no crime is committed but rather a contempt of court. Hence no arrest booking would be in affect.
The judges are the committee members. So it would actually make sense that a subpoenaed witness could possibly, be taken into custody until they testify. Which again is an open question. And should be forced as an issue against the FBI and DOJ members that will not talk. Since the committee actually oversees those deep staters, they in fact might possibly be able to call the Sergeant at Arms to take the witnesses into holdings.
I take it this has never been done. On the other hand I seem to recall something similar. Regardless it should be or at least tried.
Quite frankly without that in play, the contempt finding is a fricking joke. See Eric Holder as a party favor larger that life example.
At the least House members could demand cutting off funding to those agencies until asked testimony is provided, given. I'd pay a nickel to see a GOP leader try it.
I'm a little surprised no one has taken this to the hilt. Without the demand to hold in custody, cut funding or at least demanding firing. The Committee findings are questionable if not a toothless joke.
Thus endeth my Constitutional question rant of the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2017 00:00 ||
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'I didn't want you folks to say that I wasn't keeping my promise,' he told the press. 'I'm keeping my promise. I'm signing the bill before Christmas.'
He basically called out the WH reporters who were preparing reports that "he'd broke his word about a Christmas present" by leaving for Fla. without signing, noting that one (that preening hack Acosta?) was already saying it, pointing him out
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2017 9:51 Comments ||
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...I have seen some sources suggest that the WH press corps had convinced itself that they were going to see Muller's firing yesterday.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/23/2017 15:08 Comments ||
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Mueller and Team Democrat - the gift that keeps on giving. Trump knows a good thing when he sees one. Let the bastid dig his way to China.
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.
[NYPOST] The Senate quietly released a bare-bones report late Thursday on what a statement called "harassment settlement" data, showing that nearly $1.5 million in taxpayers’ money has been spent over the past two decades to cover claims against 
