Posts on Thursday, December 12, 2019
President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing up whether to skip the 2020 general election debates because he doesn't trust the commission that runs them.Trump has been speaking to his advisers about whether he should participate and go up against a Democrat in the debates next year, two sources told the New York Times. He has told his advisers he doesn't trust the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to the sources.(Photos) Trump is also reportedly apprehensive about who will be chosen to moderate the debates. His advisers would not comment on the possibility that Trump may not participate in the debates.
Shocking video has emerged showing a 14-year-old boy being attacked on a school bus, purportedly because he'd previously worn a hat supporting President Donald Trump. The incident occurred on November 21 in Hamilton County, Florida, and the video first emerged on Thursday after the boy's family retained attorney Foye B. Walker for possible legal action. The incident left the boy, identified only as Tyler, hospitalized with head contusions, according to his mother, a Trump supporter who tweets under the handle @AmericanDiaries.(Snip) 'He was proud to wear it. He wore it to School, but due to immediate bullying he put it away
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears on Fox News to discuss the upcoming impeachment trial and the processes within the Senate that will be followed. McConnell states he will be working closely with White House counsel and the President’s lawyers. The Senate Leader said “there’s no chance the President is removed from office”. (Video) [Sidebar (somewhat): I find it to be interesting timing for this interview… U.S-China trade agreement, phase-one, announced today and Senator McConnell comes out in full-throated defense of presidency.
Nine of the 20 richest counties in the United States—when measured by median household income—are suburbs of Washington, D.C., according to data released today by the Census Bureau. In fact, two Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., are richer than the California counties that constitute Silicon Valley.(County Chart) In 2018, according to the Census Bureau’s new Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, Loudoun County, Va., was the nation’s richest county with a median household income of $140,382.Falls Church City, Va., which the Census Bureau counts as a county because it is an independent city, ranked as the nation’s second richest county
Foreign tourists to the U.S. give birth to 33,000 babies a year—each of them immediately becoming a citizen—according to a new report being released Thursday that puts numbers on the extent to which immigrants make use of America’s birthright citizenship policy. Almost all of those 33,000 are part of birth tourism, says Steven A. Camarota, the researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies who did the report. That means they came to the U.S. while pregnant on short-term visas for the express purpose of giving birth and earning their child immediate citizenship.(Snip) And that’s all in addition to nearly 300,000
During Thursday’s mark up of the articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee, Republicans unveiled a four-point defense of President Trump that is stunning in its simplicity and blows massive holes in the Democrats allegations of abuse of power. Essentially the Democrats are accusing Trump of shaking down Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky by withholding aid and demanding announcement of investigations, including one involving Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.To this, the central charge in the articles of impeachment, Rep. Jim Jordan and others presented four specific facts.
Democrats in the House of Representatives are poised to impeach President Donald Trump but not all members are on board, as there are 31 lawmakers in question.The Daily Caller contacted the offices of all 31 House Democrats from districts where President Trump won in 2016 to ask them if they would vote to impeach President Trump, as many have not publicly stated where they stand on impeachment. Each office was contacted at least three times and all offices were given ample time to respond. All Democratic offices that responded had very similar messages, saying they have not yet made a decision and are still weighing out the facts.
Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson (GA) — who is known for his infamous Guam may “capsize” moment from several years ago — imagined a disturbing image during the Democrats’ impeachment hearing on the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday as he spoke about President Donald Trump kidnapping the daughter of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and tying her up with duct-tape in a basement.Johnson made the remarks while attempting to push back on the notion that President Zelensky was weak, saying, “Well, I’ll tell you that brings to mind the picture of President Trump and President Zelensky meeting in New York in September at the U.N.
Former Hillary Clinton aide blames
'unadulterated racism and xenophobia'
for Boris Johnson victory replies
'unadulterated racism and xenophobia'
for Boris Johnson victory replies
One of Hillary Clinton’s former aides reacted to the apparent Conservative Party victory in the United Kingdom’s election by tying racism and xenophobia to the win.
Peter Daou, who was Clinton’s internet director during her 2008 presidential campaign, expressed his displeasure with the results on Twitter on Thursday.
“Never underestimate the impact of unadulterated racism and xenophobia in the election of rightwing white males around the world,” Daou, who also worked on John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, said.
Never has history felt less consequential.
The impending impeachment of President Donald Trump is, as news accounts and blaring newspaper headlines tell us, historic. This is true by definition since a president has been impeached only twice before in 230 years.
But everyone knows this history isn’t going to matter much. In fact, the day after the Senate trial ends in inevitable acquittal, everything goes on exactly the same as before (except for vulnerable House Democrats from Trump districts, who will have to defend their votes until November).
President Donald Trump hands down won throwback Thursday with an epic snap he shared showing him on stage standing next to Ronald Reagan. In the fantastic black-and-white shot, we get to see Trump rocking a black-tie look while standing next to the 40th president, who was also wearing a tuxedo at some kind of event, possibly for awards. Reagan is at the podium in the picture and looks to be speaking to the crowd and it’s clear his words are being appreciated given a very young Trump’s facial expression and clapping. The photo was obviously taken many years before he was sworn in as the 45th President. Check it out!
Boris Johnson is already celebrating tonight as the Conservatives stomp to victory and he gets set to stay in office for years.The Prime Minister's gamble on a snap election looks set to have paid off with the Tories likely to win a sizeable majority, according to an exit poll tonight. But it didn't always look that way - Boris has been Britain's flawed 'Marmite man' - a philandering MP with a volatile personal life who embarked on extra-marital flings and allegedly got at least two of his mistresses pregnant. He enjoyed a gilded path to Number 10 but in the process drew attention to his
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured a large conservative majority in Parliament following the U.K.’s snap general election on Thursday. According to preliminary results from BBC, Johnson’s Conservative Party is on course to get 368 seats in Parliament, which is up from the current 298 seats. The Labour opposition is projected to get 198 seats, while its allies – Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats – are expected to get 55 and 13 seats respectively.The prime minister took to Twitter to thank voters and volunteers for their support.(Tweet/Photo) Ballots are still being counted and the final results are expected on Friday.
The White House and Senate Republicans disagree on procedures for the Senate impeachment trial, a top White House official said after emerging from an hour-plus meeting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.“We are having a lot of good conversations with Senate Republicans,” Eric Ueland, Trump’s chief legislative negotiator, told reporters Thursday after he and White House counsel Pat Cipollone met with McConnell on Capitol Hill. “We’ll continue to do that here over the next few days and weeks as we work through all these issues and priorities the president’s outlined when it comes to where we should go on these articles.”The House is expected to vote on and approve two articles
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib appeared to blame the Jersey City shooting on “white supremacy” Thursday — even though the attackers have been identified as members of an extremist “anti-white and anti-Semitic” movement.
The Democratic congresswoman retweeted a photo of one of the victims of Tuesday’s shooting, 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, an Orthodox Jew, with the caption: “This is heartbreaking. White Supremacy Kills.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that he wants the Democratic-led impeachment "sham" process to end quickly.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with hosts Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, Graham said he'd like to end the impeachment process "as soon as possible."
"I don't want to give it any legitimacy because it's a crock," he said, noting that "every impeachment except this one has been conducted by outside counsel."
Earlier this week, House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump, alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
FBI Agent Who Played ‘Significant’ Role
In Surveillance Abuse Wore Several Hats
In Trump Probe replies
In Surveillance Abuse Wore Several Hats
In Trump Probe replies
“Case Agent 1” wore many hats during the Trump-Russia investigation.
The veteran FBI counterintelligence investigator was a handler for Stefan Halper, a Cambridge academic who met covertly with three Trump campaign advisers 2016. Case Agent 1 opened the case file, known as an Electronic Communication, on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in August 2016. He was also the main driver at the FBI for surveillance warrants on Page, and he was put in charge of verifying each strand of evidence included in the documents. He interviewed Page, a former Naval officer, five times in March 2017, (Snip)
Case Agent 1 is also one of the main villains in the Justice Department
If the House of Representatives were to impeach President Trump on the two grounds now before it, the senate would be presented with a constitutional dilemma. These two grounds— abuse of power and obstruction of Congress— are not among the criteria specified for impeachment. Neither one is a high crime and misdemeanor. Neither is mentioned in the constitution. Both are the sort of vague, open-ended criteria rejected by the framers. They were rejected precisely to avoid the situation in which our nation currently finds itself. Abuse of power can be charged against virtually every controversial president by the opposing party. And obstruction of Congress (Snip) cannot extend to a president
Republicans turned the second day of House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings into a direct attack on Joe Biden's son Hunter – citing his cocaine use and ugly public divorce as they tried to amend the Democrats' articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.
Just minutes after the panel voted down a GOP amendment to strike down an abuse of power article, Donald Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a three-line amendment that explicitly mentioned Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.
It would change the articles of impeachment to allege that Trump's call to Ukraine's president was seeking information on Hunter Biden, not his father Joe -
What About the FISA Court?
replies
The Justice Department’s inspector general has concluded that, although officials of the FBI, the Justice Department, and the CIA made copious “mistakes” in their four requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, those officials did nothing that warrants punishment. They mostly followed procedures and, after all, the court considered their motions good enough to grant them.
(Snip)
Given that such scrutiny is quintessentially the inspector general’s job, his retreat into what we must now call the Comey-Clinton crouch—detail the misdeeds, relabel them, and decline to do anything about them—means that the deep state has closed ranks.(Snip)
Hence, any remedy must come from above,
Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party set to win
UK election with a clear majority, exit poll shows replies
UK election with a clear majority, exit poll shows replies
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to remain in power with an exit poll showing his Conservative Party winning a clear majority of parliamentary seats in a general election on Thursday. The exit poll by Ipsos Mori — commissioned by Sky News, the BBC and ITV — was released soon after voting stations around the U.K. closed at 10 p.m. London time. It’s a survey of thousands of voters which has been reliably accurate in recent years. The poll projected that the Conservatives would win 368 seats in Parliament, a gain of 50 seats. A party usually needs over
USA Today demanded that Congress "Impeach President Trump." The editorial is a testament to the uselessness of editorial boards. Only the uninformed would fall for the newspaper's misrepresentations of the facts.The argument is that President Donald John Trump threatened to withhold foreign aid from Ukraine unless it investigated Joe Biden.The transcript of the July 25 telephone call between the presidents of the two republics busts this conspiracy theory. Nevertheless, USA Today tried to convince its readers that up is down. (Snip) The argument that "Trump used your tax dollars to shake down a vulnerable foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election for his personal benefit" is an
“If Islam is terrorizing the West today, that is not because it can, but because the West allows it to. For no matter how diminished, a still swinging Scimitar will always overcome a strong but sheathed Sword.”
Those are the very last two sentences of my 352-page book, Sword and Scimitar, which chronicles fourteen centuries of warfare between Islam and the West. They were meant to contrast how premodern Europeans -- chief among them the Crusaders -- took a manly stand and fought back against a then powerful and expansionist Islam, whereas their more decadent descendants in the modern West are eager to capitulate to a now weakened
A San Francisco Bay Area city official wants to explore the possibility of using a cruise ship to house up to 1,000 homeless people as the state continues to struggle with the homelessness crisis. Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan told a council meeting on Tuesday that the ship would be brought to the Port of Oakland, but port officials said Wednesday the move would be 'untenable'. 'We respect President Kaplan's desire to address homelessness but Port of Oakland docks are designed to work
A respected Fox News Channel host raked President Donald over the coals this week for his treatment of political journalists, who he has called 'the enemy of the people' and a more potent 'opposition party' than the Democrats.Trump's regular verbal broadsides against the reporters who cover him may not be the most direct such attack in American history: Abraham Lincoln ordered the jailing of Northern newspaper reporters and editors who publicly opposed freeing black slaves in the South as a rationale for a civil war.
Former President Barack Obama may have been aware the FBI was surveilling Donald Trump’s presidential campaign based on Russian election interference claims, the newly released audit by the inspector general at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed.In DOJ IG Michael Horowitz’s report, then-FBI Director James Comey said although Obama did not explicitly ask for an investigation into Trump, he urged the FBI to warn soon to be president of the surveillance that was taking place through counterintelligence defensive briefings. Comey expressed reservations to the DOJ IG about approving the Page FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] request that enabled the investigation of the Trump campaign.
A British scientist found penguins engaging in 'depraved' sexual activity including rape and 'prostitution' more than 100 years ago, a new book has revealed.
George Murray Levick made the findings in 1910 but his manuscript was too shocking to publish in Edwardian Britain.
On his travels, he witnessed a kind of penguin 'prostitution' in which stones would be exchanged for female penguins. (Snip) In his account, Levick described witnessing 'gang rape' and sexual abuse of chicks, according to The Sun which has seen a copy of the book.
Female penguins would be 'pimped out' with stones, but would sometimes run away with them after a courtship ritual, he said.
While the Democrats have been impeaching President live on all of the nation’s television outlets, Hillary Clinton has been working on the Democrat backup plan
The Articles of Impeachment against the man who humiliated her with a massive win back in the 2016 election are paving the way for the Comeback of Hillary Clinton. Clinton, who never really went away, has been secretly counting on the coup she pulled on America with help from the FBI, DOJ and Barack Obama holdovers, to get her back into the 2020 presidential race, where she always planned to be since her big loss on election night.
My tween will never know the sound of me calling her name from another room after the phone rings. She'll never sit on our kitchen floor, refrigerator humming in the background, twisting a cord around her finger while talking to her best friend. I'll get it, He's not here right now, and It's for you are all phrases that are on their way out of the modern domestic vernacular. According to the federal government, the majority of American homes now use cellphones exclusively. “We don't even have a landline anymore,” people began to say proudly as the new millennium progressed. But this came with a quieter, secondary loss—the loss
Depraved Jeffrey Epstein, his alleged pimp Ghislaine Maxwell and disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein grin at Princess Beatrice’s Windsor Castle party.
The astonishing image, obtained exclusively by The Sun, shows how the trio were invited into the seat of royal power by Prince Andrew.
As they mingled with royalty at Beatrice’s 18th, police had already prepared an arrest warrant for Epstein on child sex abuse charges and raided his Florida mansion.
Eight days after the billionaire posed in a US Navy Seal uniform for this snap, he was in cuffs. Tuxedo-wearing Weinstein is due in court next month accused of a sex offence in 2006 – the same year this photo was taken.
Chile’s defense minister has confirmed that wreckage recovered from the sea off Antarctica is from a Chilean Air Force plane which disappeared on Monday. Alberto Espina also said some human remains have been found.
The C-130 Hercules transport aircraft was bound for the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva air base in Antarctica on a routine maintenance mission with 17 crew members and 21 passengers when it lost radar contact. Hours after its disappearance, Chilean authorities announced that the plane had ‘crashed’ as, by that time, it would have ran out of fuel. An emergency search and rescue operation was launched by the Chilean Air Force, and some debris was recovered
The great debate about whether the FBI spied on the Trump campaign continues. The question is why there is still any argument. The newly released report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz shows that by any definition the FBI did indeed spy.
The proof is in the details of the report. In addition to the much-discussed wiretap of Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, Horowitz discussed the bureau's use of what is called a CHS (a confidential human source, or, in more common terms, an informant) and a UCE (an undercover employee, or a secret agent) to gather information from at least three targets in the Trump campaign.
Boston—Boston lawmakers imposed new limits on police in immigration matters Wednesday in response to revelations the department has been closely coordinating with federal authorities for years despite a sanctuary city policy. The City Council approved changes to the city’s 5-year-old Trust Act, which limits the role city officials play in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh said the changes, which his office developed along with City Councilor Josh Zakim, are meant to reassure residents that Boston police remain focused on public safety, not civil immigration enforcement.(Snip) But the American Civil Liberties Union said city leaders should
Should the Boston Marathon bomber's trial have taken place in Boston as the city was still reeling from the traumatic 2013 attack? That's the crux of what's being argued Thursday before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (juh-HAHR' sar-NY'-ev) are seeking to have their client's death sentenced overturned, arguing that he was subjected to a 'fundamentally unfair proceeding'.(Snip) Tsarnaev's lawyers raised the social media comments as reasons to disqualify the two jurors before the trial started, but prosecutors downplayed them, saying they weren't indicative of bias. Judge George O'Toole agreed
Moscow Blasts US Senate Push to Dub
Russia ‘State Terror Sponsor’, Says It
Reeks of Russophobia replies
Russia ‘State Terror Sponsor’, Says It
Reeks of Russophobia replies
On Wednesday, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced a bill to ask the State Department whether it would be appropriate to designate Russia as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ alongside countries including Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Moscow “regrets” US lawmakers’ decision to use outright Russophobia ahead of the 2020 election campaign, as evidenced by the Senate Foreign Relations’ Committee’s effort to dub Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. “We understand perfectly well that Russia has become one of the main topics not only in presidential campaigns,
Inspector General Michael Horowitz finally damned the FBI during his testimony Wednesday when he said he would be “skeptical” that there was anything accidental in the egregious catalog of errors the bureau committed in its spying operation on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
It took five hours of questioning about the FBI’s motivations, but Horowitz, prudent and impartial as he is, finally delivered the money shot.
Asked by Republican Sen. Mike Crapo if the 17 “significant errors or omissions” he found in the FBI’s surveillance operation could possibly be “accidental,” Horowitz said: “I would be skeptical.”
The US resumed testing of ground-based medium-range nuclear-capable missiles earlier this year after scrapping the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark strategic arms reduction agreement aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear war in Europe.
The US military tested a ground-launched ballistic missile on Thursday at Vandenberg Air Force in California, the Pentagon said in a statement following the test.
"The Department of Defence conducted a flight test of a conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile at approximately 8:30 am Pacific Time today, December 12, 2019, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California," the military said, adding that it was "currently evaluating the results of the test."
Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden's baby, will get to grill Joe Biden's scandal-ridden son under oath about his finances while he was on the board of an Ukrainian oil company, according to court papers obtained exclusively (deleted to be able to post). Biden, 49, is expected to bring all his financial records as Robert's legal team plans to question him about his monthly earnings serving as a board member for Burisma. The two are currently engaged in a high-profile paternity case, (Snip) The deposition will take place a few days before Christmas, on December 23, at 9am in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to court documents filed
President Donald Trump attacked the teen climate activist Greta Thunberg in a Thursday tweet prompted by her beating him to be named Time magazine's Person of the Year.
Trump, 73, told the 16-year-old to "chill" and watch a movie rather than pursue the activism that won her the award, a victory Trump called "ridiculous."
"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!" Trump tweeted Thursday morning in response to a tweet from the author Roma Downey congratulating Thunberg on her win.
US military officials have escalated their warnings to Iran that a military conflict could be looming between the countries in Iraq due to incessant attacks on US-linked targets blamed on Tehran-backed militias.
Two rockets were fired Thursday at a military base near Baghdad airport housing US troops, the 10th such attack since late October, the Iraqi army said. (Snip) Washington has expressed mounting concern about the flurry of attacks on US bases and diplomatic missions, several of which it has blamed on Shiite militia groups trained by its foe and rival for influence Tehran.
Tensions between Iran and the US have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement
Rep. Jim Jordan on Thursday proposed an amendment to strike the first article of impeachment against President Trump, asserting that evidence supporting the article does not prove the allegations of abuse of power.“This amendment strikes article one because article one ignores the truth,” said the Ohio Republican.Jordan, who’s been a star on the GOP side throughout the impeachment sham, cited a White House memorandum documenting Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, noting that contains no evidence
As the House Judiciary Committee moves closer to voting on two articles of impeachment against President Trump, Senate Republicans are mulling "two choices," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday. So here's what I would anticipate. The House managers would come over, make their arguments; the president's lawyers would then respond, and at that point, the Senate has two choices. It could go down the path of calling witnesses and basically having another trial; or it could decide -- and again, 51 members
To say that We the People are outraged over the Democrats baseless absurd articles of impeachment against our president would be an understatement. Candidly, I've had to talk my feisty Irish/Cherokee wife down from throwing a brick through our TV. These arrogant scumbags, in essence, are saying screw you, 63 million Americans who elected this guy. We're smearing his a** with impeachment and y'all can't stop us.The most infuriating thing about Democrats and fake news medias' fake outrage over Trump's alleged crimes is everyone knows Trump has done nothing wrong. He has functioned totally within his presidential authority. Democrats and media are attempting to criminalize Trump defending himself
An 18-year-old college student was stabbed to death on Wednesday afternoon in a New York City park, allegedly by a group of unidentified young men who mugged her then left her for dead. Tessa Majors, a freshman at Barnard College who was from Charlottesville, Virginia, was walking down a flight of steps into Morningside Park on West 116th Street on Wednesday when the young men approached her. According to police sources, they demanded money from her and stabbed her multiple times in the stomach, face, neck and under her arm, before fleeing. They say she appeared to have put up
Joe Biden has learned nothing from the Title IX due process disaster plaguing America’s campuses. The former vice president has released a plan on his website to restore the Obama administration’s infamous 2011 Dear Colleague letter, which Biden’s plan describes as outlining how to “fairly conduct Title IX proceedings.” In reality, the Dear Colleague letter introduced a monstrously unfair process that has forced hundreds of young men to sue for their rights — and reputations — in federal courts.
An accused’s rights to confront his or her accuser through cross examination and to have a neutral adjudicator have long been considered the very basics of due process.
TIME magazine has named its Person of the Year, a teenager who skipped school to travel around the world telling people that they are horrible and the planet is doomed. It’s a living. Perhaps her Malthusian visions will be fulfilled by future experience. But it’s not very likely.
In fact, her position is at odds with what we know: that a more responsible approach to climate requires action from China and India, not the West.
Rep. Adam Schiff is a wily, calculating old weasel, and in drawing on his impeachment show, he thought he had a live one in Vice President Mike Pence, the man who theoretically stands to gain from any removal from office of President Trump. Schiff asked Pence to declassify records of his conversations with Ukrainian leaders, same as Trump declassified his records of phone calls. It should have been easy....
But he was in for a surprise: Instead of jumping to do what Schiff wanted, Pence calmly blew smoke rings at him. Here's Politico:
Vice President Mike Pence’s counsel rejected House Democrats’ request to declassify details of a Sept. 18 call
Memphis, Tenn.—A Tennessee family wants to warn others after an alarming video was discovered from inside their 8-year-old daughter's room. Ashley LeMay shared the video with FOX 17 News and says that hackers gained access to a Ring video camera that had only been in her daughter's room for a few days. The story is a horrifying one for families, as what was supposed to add more protection for a child turned into a scary situation.(Snip) LeMay said the camera was a way to keep an eye on her three daughters and stay close while working night shifts
YouTube said Wednesday it will intensify harassment policies on its massive video site, including removing videos that insult people based on race, gender or sexual orientation -- whether the victim is famous or a private figure. Personal threats, even ones that are veiled or implied, will be prohibited, and video creators with a pattern of harassing behavior could be prevented (Snip) Among the new changes, YouTube pledges to crack down on demeaning language, saying it will no longer allow content that maliciously insults someone based on protected attributes like race, gender or sexual orientation. That applies to attacks on private people, other creators, politicians and celebrities.
As conservatives focused on FBI bias and abuse from the Department of Justice's Inspector General's report, the lefty narrative was to do victory dances, claiming vindication.(Snip)
Conservatives knew different, and Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham stated that they disagreed with that IG conclusion about political bias not driving deep state's bid to Get Trump.
Daily Beast had a different take, though, and instead of going with the "right all along" line of Comey and his MSNBC pals, decided to get into "whataboutism" instead:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden paid his female staffers less on average than men over several decades, a new analysis finds. In his 35 years in the Senate, Biden paid full-time female staffers on average just 67 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, according to an analysis of Senate records by the Washington Free Beacon. The biggest gap came in 1983 and 1984, when women in Biden's Senate office made less than half of what men made, on average—just 44 cents on the dollar.(Snip) 'In 2019, it’s past time we close the pay gap and ensure women
There are several dozen critical issues that stem from revelations about the DOJ and FBI conduct in/around the Carter Page FISA application (2017) and Steele Dossier writ large; but DOJ official Bruce Ohr still being employed isn’t one of them, and here’s why. (Snip)What Mr. Ohr did wrong was back-channel information from dossier author Christopher Steele into the FBI; made worse because this is after Chris Steele was persona non grata; and done by Ohr without telling his bosses at Main Justice. (Snip)
considering the time-frames of the FD-302 reports written by Ohr’s handler FBI agent Joseph Pientka, Bruce Ohr was channeling information into the Crossfire Hurricane team
'This is a lie. Nothing like this ever happened':
Ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page tears into
Trump claim replies
Ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page tears into
Trump claim replies
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page said President Donald Trump lied about her and former FBI agent Peter Strzok during his rally Tuesday night in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he once again mocked and derided the pair for disparaging remarks they made about him in text messages.
At the rally, Trump claimed, without evidence, that Page had taken out a restraining order against Strzok.
"That's what I heard. I don't know," Trump said.
"This is a lie," Page said in a tweet responding to a clip of Trump's comments.
‘Corroboration Zero’: An Inspector General’s
Report Reveals the Steele Dossier
Was Always a Joke replies
Report Reveals the Steele Dossier
Was Always a Joke replies
The Guardian headline reads: “DOJ Internal watchdog report clears FBI of illegal surveillance of Trump adviser.”
If the report released Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz constitutes a “clearing” of the FBI, never clear me of anything. Holy God, what a clown show the Trump-Russia investigation was.
Like the much-ballyhooed report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Horowitz report is a Rorschach test, in which partisans will find what they want to find.
Attorney Daniel Goldman appears to be the brains of the impeachment operation, doing all the heavy lifting for Chairman Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee. Perhaps the most satisfying moment in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearing Monday came when Rep. Matt Gaetz confronte Goldman, the hired gun counsel of the committee’s majority.
Goldman was visibly uncomfortable as Gaetz began by asking him if he is non-partisan, and Goldman laughably claimed to be so. Then, Gaetz moved in for the kill, asking him, "Have you ever tweeted anything at the president?"
With the impeachment nonsense making TV news unwatchable, I've been catching up on "Law & Order: SVU" recently.
The scripts involve the sort of real-life crimes that are a lot more common since our country has become "diverse," such as child rape and incest. But the child-rapists are never diverse, as they are in real life. No, the perps are always blond, blue-eyed American men.
In fact, the modern American white male is the least rapey, most gentle, protective, chivalrous creature God has ever created.
On Monday, December 9, New Zealand's White Island volcano erupted seemingly without warning. Within two minutes, a violent cloud of steam, ash, and rock—called a pyroclastic density current—tumbled down the volcano’s flank. A cloud of volcanic ash stretched thousands of feet into the sky.
At the time the volcano erupted—just after 2:00 p.m. local time—47 tourists were scattered along the crater’s edge and down the volcano’s slopes. At press time, eight people have been confirmed dead, 28 are currently being treated, and nine are missing or presumed dead.
"My God, White Island volcano in New Zealand erupted today for first time since 2001. My family and I had gotten off it
Donald Trump certainly is mercurial at times. He can be uncouth.
But then again, no president in modern memory has been on the receiving end of such overwhelmingly negative media coverage and a three-year effort to abort his presidency, beginning the day after his election.
Do we remember the effort to subvert the Electoral College to prevent Trump from assuming office?
The first impeachment try during his initial week in office?
Attempts to remove Trump using the ossified Logan Act or the emoluments clause of the Constitution?
The idea of declaring Trump unhinged, subject to removal by invoking the 25th Amendment?
When Joe Biden was America’s point man for Ukraine policy, an allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, started paying his son Hunter $50,000 a month to sit on its board. By Hunter’s own account — and that of another board member — Hunter would never have been offered this lucrative gig had he not been the son of the U.S. vice-president.
There is no evidence that Hunter ever lobbied his father on Burisma’s behalf, and the elder Biden reportedly made life harder for his son’s employer by helping to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor who’d taken a hands-off approach to corruption. But this much is beyond dispute:
Democrats and the mainstream press – is there any difference between the two these days? – have been clinging to the “no bias” statement by the Justice Department inspector general with all their might.
The IG said that he couldn’t state definitively that political bias motivated officials at the FBI to launch and then sustain an investigation against the Trump campaign based on the Clinton-campaign funded and thoroughly discredited Steele Dossier.
That was enough for press to run headlines such as:
“Bias didn’t taint FBI leaders running Trump-Russia Investigation”
“Report on F.B.I. Debunks Anti-Trump Plot”
“Mistakes, but no political bias in FBI probe of Trump campaign: watchdog”
Joe Biden? Seriously?
replies
The establishment narrative on Joe Biden is, to put it mildly, malarkey. Gropey J actually is everything the liberals accuse Donald Trump of being – bizarre, vulgar, dumb, corrupt, incompetent, and utterly unfit to be president. But yet the Creepy Veepy is so much more. In the last month, this totally not-senile, not-at-all-weird guy has assembled a track record of freaky behavior that would put mid-eighties Crispin Glover to shame.
Let’s review…
Corn Pop is old news. Biden’s latest rambling onion-on-the-belt monologue was something about little kids at a pool rubbing his leg hair or something – it’s so random I’m not even linking to it.
Live by the identity-politics sword, die by the identity-politics sword. The Democrats are learning that the hard way.
With Sen. Kamala Harris of California having pulled out of the party’s 2020 presidential field last week, Democrats are wringing their hands and agonizing at the very real prospect that all of the participants in their upcoming candidates’ debate, next week in Los Angeles, will be — horror of horrors!— monochromatic. That is to say, only caucasians.
Unless former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, who is Hispanic, and/or Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is black, can meet by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, the polling and fundraising thresholds required to qualify
One of my all-time favorite sporting moments concerns a soccer match in Thailand between Satri Angthong and Bangkok Sports Club.
The match, in 2017, had gone to a penalty shoot-out, and extraordinarily the score had reached 19-19 when a Bangkok player hit the crossbar with a thunderous shot.
Satri’s goalkeeper charged forwards to his teammates waiting on the half-way line, punching the air and leaping like a demented dolphin in wild jubilation as his opponent sank his hands to his knees in abject despair.
But the ball, which had soared off the crossbar into the stratosphere, crashed to the ground again and spun viciously in the direction of the goal.
The goalkeeper suddenly realized
A high-level defector from Kim Jong-un’s regime has sent a letter to President Trump warning that he has been “tricked” into believing the North Korean leader will ever denuclearize and that Washington should instead ramp up a “psychological warfare campaign” aimed at inspiring North Korea’s elites to replace the young dictator from within.
The U.S. should simultaneously impose “all-out sanctions” against Pyongyang and be prepared to carry out a “preemptive strike” against Mr. Kim’s nuclear sites, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
The warning comes as the White House seeks fresh momentum for Mr. Trump’s historic personal diplomatic outreach to Mr. Kim
As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors. I respect the office and understand just how tough the job can be.
But recently, Attorney General William P. Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.
Last month, at a Federalist Society event, the attorney general delivered an ode to essentially unbridled executive power, dismissing the authority of the legislative and judicial branches — and the checks
The Democrats have filed Articles of Impeachment. No one is surprised, because impeachment has been the goal for the radical Left and others who dislike the president since before his election.
Impeachment of a president is a solemn undertaking. It will inevitably, as Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 65, veer toward political factions. Yet it is important that our Founders intentionally did not embrace “recalls” or “votes of no confidence.” Rather, our system demands from Congress evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors and contemplates a level of behavior commensurate with the chaos inflicted on the republic by potential removal of a president.
Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 in response to the unlawful surveillance of Americans by the FBI and the CIA during the Watergate era. (Snip) The Constitution requires probable cause of crime to be demonstrated to a judge before the judge can sign a search warrant. That was the law of the land until FISA came along. FISA set up the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and it authorized the judges on that court to issue search warrants based on a lower standard of probable cause. Isn't that contrary to the Constitution? Yes, it is. But a challenge has never reached a non-FISC federal court because
A sprawling federal investigation into lobbying, patronage and alleged corruption threatens to upend Illinois’s powerful Democratic machine as agents raid offices and interrogate witnesses from Chicago to Springfield.
Federal agents have conducted searches of at least nine homes and offices in connection to a probe of Commonwealth Edison, the state’s largest utility, and the political operation run by state House Speaker Mike Madigan, the most powerful Democrat in Illinois.
Those agents have been asking questions about Madigan, his associates and his political operation, according to two people who have sat for interviews with law enforcement.
Hillary Clinton is back, and so is Chris Steele, this time in the United Kingdom. They are no less than implying that current Conservative (Tory) Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a Russian plant. And it’s no mistake that these allegations are being made just before a U.K. general election on December 12 that will decide the fate of Brexit.
It started last month, when the U.K.’s leftwing Guardian newspaper reported the existence of a secret report that said the Russians spent five years “cultivating leading Tories including Johnson…” The 50-page “dossier” from the U.K.’s intelligence and security committee is “based on analysis from Britain’s intelligence agencies, as well as third-party experts
The hate mongers behind the deadly Jersey City shooting that left three civilians and a police officer dead were a pair of religiously fanatical lovers who lived together inside a van, according to records and neighbors.
The killer couple, David N. Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, — who died in a gun battle with cops — met about two years ago when Graham was living a quiet life as a home health aide in an Elizabeth, N.J., apartment complex, The Post has learned.
“She was desperate for a boyfriend,” said neighbor Kenneth Safford, 69.
When the FBI discovered that the anti-Trump Steele dossier was garbage, the bureau concealed that vital evidence.
Instead of promptly terminating its surveillance of Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser Carter Page, the FBI persisted in its quest to prove a Trump-Russia “collusion” conspiracy that officials knew was unsupported by credible evidence.(Snip)It is not remotely plausible to dismiss this appalling conduct as sloppy or careless work. It cannot be minimized (or trivialized) as just a case of “performance failures,” as Horowitz would have us believe.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, railed against the media's takeaways from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's recently released Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) report.
In a freewheeling speech Wednesday to kick off the committee's hearing on FBI abuses, Graham said that Crossfire Hurricane – a covert counterintelligence investigation by the FBI into suspected coordination between President Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government's meddling in the election – was "probably the best name ever given to an investigation in the history of investigations" because, he exclaimed, "that's what we wound up with: a crossfire and a hurricane."
Federal agents foiled a human smuggling attempt along the US-Mexico border in San Diego when they found 11 Chinese nationals hiding inside a moving truck full of furniture, officials said.
The Customs and Border Patrol officers stopped a 42-year-old US citizen behind the wheel of the truck arriving from Mexico at the San Ysidro crossing about 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
After stopping the vehicle for a secondary search, they found the group crammed inside various pieces of furniture and other items — with one also crouching inside a washing machine.
The unidentified driver was arrested for attempted human smuggling and later transported to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, officials said.
Gearing up for an impeachment trial in the Senate, President Donald Trump and his top advisers are considering expanding his legal team and bringing on controversial attorney and professor Alan Dershowitz, multiple sources told ABC News.Dershowitz attended an event Wednesday at the White House and was asked to speak briefly by the president ahead of signing an executive order on anti-Semitism."I have advocated that there needs to be one other attorney that's added to the mix for the president, and that is Alan Dershowitz," Congressman Mark Meadows, R-N.C.,
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night began the first phase of a fiery "markup" process for the two articles of impeachment against President Trump that they have settled on, barreling toward a final floor vote even as moderate Democrats have floated the idea of backing down in favor of a censure resolution. (Snip) "We cannot rely on an election to solve our problems, when the president threatens the very integrity of that election," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in his opening statement, claiming Trump's discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about Joe and Hunter Biden's
Virginia sheriff: We'll deputize law-abiding
citizens to counter state Dems' gun
control 'overreach' replies
citizens to counter state Dems' gun
control 'overreach' replies
A Virginia sheriff is vowing to take matters into his own hands and deputize residents if the state's Democratic lawmakers pass strict gun control legislation.“They will be properly vetted through a normal process. Everything from normal background checks that we do for other deputy sheriffs as well as psych [evaluations]. It’s not just a blanket policy of swearing-in anyone who is interested,” Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.Jenkins made the vow during a Board of Supervisors meeting last week in which the panel unanimously agreed to declare the county a "Second Amendment Constitutional County."
Caught On Video: Pelosi’s General Jerry
Nadler Drools on Himself on Live
TV during Impeachment Hearing replies
Nadler Drools on Himself on Live
TV during Impeachment Hearing replies
Nancy Pelosi needed her generals to step up this week and Jerry Nadler did not disappoint.Nadler was caught drooling on himself on live TV. (Tweet/Video) Nadler was so lost at top liberal donor guest had to tell him when to gavel on Republicans.
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Wednesday that he felt "more than vindicated" after the release of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report Monday and its findings regarding the Russia investigation."I think I felt more than vindicated because actually I give Horowitz a lot of credit because they were actually able to find things that we didn't know," Nunes said on on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "Like we didn't know that they had actually found, talked to [Christopher] Steele's Russian sources. And I think that's a critical key here because now you have to bring into question everything that happened with [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller."
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said the alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella should testify in the House's impeachment proceedings.He made the demand during the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Wednesday night regarding the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Gohmert was railing against how the Democrats have handled the investigation and subsequent hearings, and he noted that there were several individuals he thought should testify about the situation."A vague abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, the very things the majority has done in preventing us from having the witnesses that could shed light on this, not opinion, but fact witnesses.
Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder sent a chilling message in a very public way to U.S. Attorney John Durham–the man investigating abuses by the FBI and Justice Department against President Trump and members of his administration and campaign in the Russia-election investigation–warning Durham he is risking his reputation.(Photos) Holder wrote an op-ed published Wednesday night by the Washington Post calling current Attorney General William Barr “unfit” to serve as attorney general. The threat to Durham iss buried in the op-ed, but jumps out like a dagger thrust from the dark.