[MRC] Former FBI Director and new author James Comey has spent the past 12 days on his book tour promoting A Higher Loyalty, the supposed greatness of Comey himself and the lack thereof on the part of President Trump.
However, no prior interview compared to his Thursday hit on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report as host Bret Baier offered a masterfully tough tour de force akin to interviews of yesteryear by the late Tim Russert.
The interview got a late start with Baier telling viewers in a "Fox News Alert" at the top of the program that Comey was "in traffic" and that he would be kept updated with Comey’s whereabouts. Eventually, Comey arrived at the Fox News D.C. bureau near Union Station and the interview started at the 6:15 p.m. Eastern mark.
The questioning began with the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe and if it was "true that you and your FBI colleagues made the decision to exonerate Secretary Clinton well before she was interviewed."
Comey denied that despite having written a memo exonerating her and emphasized that it’s crucial for investigators to have an idea of where a probe that ended up lasting almost a year.
It was soon after that Baier showed his mettle, telling Comey that "you already knew that she had been telling, whatever you want to say, lies, mistruths about this investigation of what ‐ and how she handled those emails" and played a clip of Comey stating just that in congressional testimony in July 2016.
Here’s more of that exchange, including a question about why Cheryl Mills was allowed to sit in on Clinton’s FBI interview (as always, click "expand" for more):
[BBC] Californian prosecutors say genealogy websites played a key role in tracking down a man accused of being a notorious serial killer.
Joseph DeAngelo is suspected of being the so-called Golden State Killer, blamed for a spate of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s.
DNA linked the crimes but police had struggled to identify the attacker.
Investigators revealed the search was narrowed with genetic information from websites used to trace family ancestry.
Mr DeAngelo, who was arrested on Tuesday, has initially been charged with eight counts of murder. He is due to make his first court appearance in Sacramento later on Friday.
Steve Grippi, chief deputy district attorney for Sacramento County, said detectives had compared the DNA to information on genealogical website databases and narrowed the search down to several families.
They then narrowed the search further by using the age profile of the killer.
#2
I discussed this issue with a friend of mine on the phone. I've known him for 13 years. He confessed that he does not know his paternal grandfather - news to me! His own father was adopted at birth. I told him he might be able to ID his paternal grandfather using his personal DNA test results from 5 years ago, combined with the results of his sister. News to him!
#3
Being doing genealogy for over 20 years. I am still surprised that family members don't discuss their own family trees among themselves and when they get their DNA tested, often do not tell their own relatives. There are mathematical tools that can be applied to a group of DNA tests that may greatly clarify family trees.
#4
Some people (Shaun King, Rachel "Blackface" Dolezal, our "high cheekbones Fauxcahontas" Elizabeth Warren, et al ) are noticeably unenthusiastic to provide DNA
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2018 18:45 Comments ||
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#5
I participate in gedmatch.com, also. I just now found this on their website:
April 27, 2018 We understand that the GEDmatch database was used to help identify the Golden State Killer. Although we were not approached by law enforcement or anyone else about this case or about the DNA, it has always been GEDmatch's policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy ( linked to the login page and https://www.gedmatch.com/policy.php). While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes. If you are concerned about non-genealogical uses of your DNA, you should not upload your DNA to the database and/or you should remove DNA that has already been uploaded.
[True Pundit] The inner circle of James Comey and Andrew McCabe on the 7th Floor of FBI HQ has flipped, according to high level Justice Department officials.
The once-loyal cabal of FBI brass and leaders who reigned during the FBI tenures of Comey and McCabe have been testifying against their former bosses, DOJ sources confirm.
For now at least that cooperation involves cooperation with the Inspector General. Soon, that would likely extend to grand juries, according to sources.
In law enforcement circles, these players are referred to as Rats, cops who implicate other cops to save their jobs and pensions. So who is ratting on Comey and McCabe and cooperating with the proceedings against each?
FBI Counterintelligence Head Bill Priestap is the biggest fish, federal law enforcement sources said. And he is a key player here. His cooperation spells trouble for McCabe and likely Comey too.
"Last guy I would have thought would cooperate is cooperating," one high-ranking Justice official said about Priestap. "He knows about everything the IG is looking at because he was involved in it all."
The Justice official called Priestap’s cooperation "devastating" especially to McCabe. The source would not elaborate.
McCabe realized this when he banked over $500K on a GoFundMe campaign for upcoming legal fees.
Priestap was Peter Strzok’s boss and Priestap answered directly to McCabe.
Strzok is now cooperating with the Inspector General as well as Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer and former right-hand associate of McCabe. She too is talking along with Strzok, sources confirm.
It would appear that the FBI’s house ‐ built by Comey and McCabe ‐ is coming down, one brick at a time. But flipping Priestap takes out a cornerstone, no doubt.
#1
The FBI egg may, I say again 'may' be beginning to crack but there are numerous other quite interesting facets.
Notice the general absence in any of these discussions regarding foreign signals collection and of one particularly key US Gov't, intelligence community figure ?
Yes, that would be the Director National Security Agency (DIRNSA), Admiral Mike Rogers. I have suspected for some time that he holds the keys to the Trump Towers communications monitoring. I'll go one step further and suggest that it was NOT done by US Intelligence (USI) but rather UK's GCHQ. They really are some of the best in the business, and Trump Towers is only a 5 minute walk from the UK Consulate in NYC.
I suspect (have no proof) that someone in NSA approached Admiral Rogers with evidence of foreign monitoring of Trump Towers and a presidential candidate, and Rogers took it from there. Strong legal prohibitions prevent NSA and the military from collecting on US Citizens (EO12333). Obviously the same rules do not apply to the FBI which has access to FISC (and a 94% monitoring approval rate).
It is interesting to note that no one has asked Admiral Rogers why he did not take the issue of foreign signals collection to President Obama instead of going directly to Donald Trump.
Notice also that lack of discussion regarding the role of Carter Page. Page is a USN Academy graduate and intelligence officer. Very little discussion of Page's former FBI associations, or his truncated tenure on the Trump campaign staff. If the Bureau believed Page to be a threat to national security or an agent of Russian intelligence, what has changed since his departure from the Trump campaign staff? Why the sudden loss of interest in Carter page ?
Let's hope some, if not all of these questions are eventually revealed in the days and weeks ahead.
#4
We keep hearing these hopeful stories, and never anything comes from them. Remember that IG's report which was supposed to back up Nunes? Where'd it go? It should have been out by now. Likewise this disinformation.
This is just distraction by the DOJ while they let Comey and McCabe get away. Why would they turn on their own? The DOJ investigating the DOJ?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/27/2018 12:50 Comments ||
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[NYP] It might sound like something that belongs in an episode of HBO’s "Silicon Valley," which spoofs the eccentricities of US start-up culture, but this is real.
Start-up tech companies in China have come up with an unusual way to keep their employees ‐ namely coders, programmers and engineers ‐ happy and relaxed. Officially they’re called "programmer motivators" but they sound more like flirtatious cheerleaders.
Their role is to keep the other, predominantly male employees of the business content by chatting them up and looking after them.
According to The New York Times, the unusual job is proliferating in a society that largely adheres to gender stereotypes and believes that male programmers are "zhai," or nerds who have no social lives ‐ and an attentive and attractive woman is supposed to help that.
To bag the position, you need to be attractive and good at socializing and putting men at ease. And massages, you need to be able to give a good massage apparently.
They’re not exactly comfort women, but at the risk of hyperbole, there’s a similar unseemliness to the idea. Just imagine the outrage, the blood-boiling backlash if such a position was advertised in the West.
[AnNahar] China flew bombers and fighter jets around Taiwan on Thursday, officials said, in a new show of force that the defence ministry said was directed at "independence forces" on the self-ruled island.
H-6K bombers, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance planes and several types of fighter jets took off from multiple airports for "combat drills", the air force said in a statement on its official microblog.
The planes flew over Bashi Strait, south of Taiwan and the Miyako Strait, near Japan's Okinawa Island, it said.
The air force said its H-6K bombers have completed several drills that involved circling Taiwan since April 18 "to strengthen its capacity to safeguard national illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity".
"The series of operations we are carrying out is directed against Taiwan independence forces and activities in the island," defence ministry front man Wu Qian told a monthly presser.
"Their purpose is to prevent that the Taiwan independence forces' plot damages the welfare of the Taiwanese people. If the independence forces continue to wantonly take rash actions, we will take further actions," Wu said.
China sees the democratically-governed island -- which has never formally declared independence from the mainland -- as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold, and has not ruled out reunification by force.
Taipei has accused Beijing of "sabre rattling" and trying to stoke regional tensions with its recent drills.
Taiwan announced on Tuesday that it will practise thwarting a Chinese "invasion" in annual live fire drills in June by simulating surprise coastal assaults.
Chinese H-6K bombers and spy planes had previously flown around Taiwan last week.
Chinese combat helicopters conducted live-fire drills with missiles off southeast China on April 18, state media said last week without confirming whether the exercises took place in the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Beijing has stepped up military patrols around Taiwan and used diplomatic pressure to isolate it internationally since President Tsai Ing-wen, of the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016.
Beijing's sole aircraft carrier and two destroyers crossed waters south of Taiwan Saturday and carried out "offensive and defensive" drills in the Pacific, China's navy said.
[ATimes] A pair of US B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers reportedly flew within 250 kilometers of Guangdong’s coastline in southern China on Tuesday afternoon, according to Taiwan media and Aircraft Spots, a Twitter group that tracks aircraft movement and the deployment of the US Air Force.
The two long-range bombers, bearing registration numbers 57-1454 and 60-0360 with call signs HERO01 and HERO02, were spotted above the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines and were believed to have come from the US outpost of Guam.
The bombers flew westward into the northern portion of the South China Sea and circled for about an hour above the Pratas Islands controlled by Taiwan, about 340 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong, before following another zigzag path back to the Kadena Air Base in the US territory, as shown in flight tracks posted by Aircraft Spots. It is also believed that the two bombers conducted air-to-air refueling near Okinawa.
The Taipei-based Liberty Times noted that rarely had US strategic bombers been seen above the waters close to the Chinese shore, where People’s Liberation Army bombers and spy planes such as H-6Ks used to frequent the air routes, when Beijing dispatched squadrons of aircraft to circumnavigate Taiwan.
The paper said the flight route indicated the bombers could have been involved in a mock attack involving Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting Guangdong’s coastal areas.
The maximum hit radius of a Tomahawk cruise missile is 2,500km. If fired from the Pratas Islands, a large number of PLA military installations would be within range.
The emergence of the B-52s was a tacit message that the US would respond if Beijing were to continue with its breaches of Taiwan’s airspace, said observers.
It is discernible that Beijing has sought to penetrate the blockade of the so called Second Island Chain ‐ formed by the Ogasawara Islands and Volcano Islands of Japan, in addition to the US territory of Mariana Islands ‐ with retrofitted H-6K bombers with extended range, fitted with precision-guided munitions, such as the air-launched version of the CJ-10K land-attack missiles.
These missiles have an operational range of 1,500km and are capable of hitting targets in Guam if fired from H-6Ks above the waters off Taiwan’s Pacific coast.
Also, rumor has it that Beijing’s H-6Ks, with aerial refueling, could fly close to Guam for direct bombardment, though the somewhat antiquated Chinese bombers modeled on a Soviet design have no stealth capabilities and could easily be detected by radar in Taiwan, Japan and Guam.
China’s defense ministry is yet to respond to the possible intrusion of China’s air defense zone and it is unclear if Chinese radar was triggered or Chinese aircraft conducted an interception.
But Chinese news portal Sina noted in a commentary on Thursday that the bulky B-52 bombers were equally vulnerable to Chinese radar, airborne early warning aircraft and even the powerful S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missiles imported from Russia.
#2
China’s defense ministry is yet to respond to the possible intrusion of China’s air defense zone and it is unclear if Chinese radar was triggered or Chinese aircraft conducted an interception.
The heavy breathing is a bit much. This is the kind of thing Russians have been doing for ages, much closer to the US coastline. The difference with the Chinese is that they actually claim the area within the ADIZ as their airspace, in stark contrast to every other country in the world. That is why US planes fly within that airspace - to point this out to them.
[CBSNews] For the first time since Korean War armistice in 1953, a North Korean leader will cross into South Korean territory, when Kim Jong Un meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the border village of Panmunjom.
Not only is the physical meeting of the two Korean leaders historic, merely engaging in a conversation is as well. In fact, the leaders of the two Koreas have only held talks two other times since the Korean War. The most recent of those talks took place more than a decade ago in 2007, when Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong-il, was in power.
The historic summit will focus on Kim Jong Un's recent vow to suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests, as well as North Korea's plans to close its nuclear test site. The Trump administration will also be keeping a close eye on the events of the summit as it prepares for a meeting between Kim and President Trump that is anticipated for May or June.
While Kim has agreed to a seat at the table, however, he is reportedly refusing to sit on any of the summit's public toilets. And accordingly to Lee Yun-keol, who worked in a North Korean Guard Command unit before defecting to South Korea in 2005, that's par for the course.
"Rather than using a public restroom, the leader of North Korea has a personal toilet that follows him around when he travels," Lee Yun-keol told the Washington Post.
The reason? They are protecting against a literal info dump.
"The leader's excretions contain information about his health status so they can't be left behind," Lee Yun-keol explained.
Similar travel considerations are reportedly made whenever the North Korean leader conducts on-site inspections of military bases and state-run factories across the country. In fact, according to the South Korean news agency DailyNK, there is a customized bathroom built into Kim's convoy of vehicles at all times.
"The restrooms are not only in Kim Jong Un's personal train but whatever small or midsize cars he is traveling with and even in special vehicles that are designed for mountainous terrain or snow," a source in South Pyongan Province familiar with Kim's Escort Command told the DailyNK in 2015. "There are multiple vehicles within the convoy so that people cannot tell which one he is in, and there is a separate car that acts as his restroom."
So, in this respect at least, it seems this historic summit is no different than Kim's other excursions. He simply always uses a personal, highly guarded toilet in "loo" of public facilities. Guess there was a lesson in this. Hint: search "Nikita."
#4
Kim Jong Un's birth stone discovered to be Coprolite A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος (kopros, meaning "dung") and λίθος (lithos, meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829.
ANZAK day was the 25th. The following was forwarded from a colleague:
"Having had our ANZAC Day commemorations and memorials, this Lady felt inspired to pay her own tribute to our brave ANZACs, including both of her Great Grandfathers. Sadly, neither of them made it home. To those who served then and to those who serve now, thank you. Here is her rendition of The Last Post."
#1
Do you know the name of the tune she is playing, B?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2018 18:16 Comments ||
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#2
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
#4
Since WWWI, at the Menin Gate in Ypres, the town has had buglers play the Last Post. Every night except when the bastards came again in 1940. And every night since VE Day. There are a lot of hits on youtube, mostly when one or another organization is visiting to pay their respects. Moving.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/27/2018 22:18 Comments ||
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People have been leaving high-tax states for a while now, despite 'academics' (and presumably not real economists) quoted in this column stating otherwise. Looks like Trump poured some gas on this fire!
[CNBC] - Conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are predicting a new mass exodus of wealth from New York and California because of the new tax law. But academics who have studied taxes and migration call the forecast "pure nonsense." What happens if the stock market corrects 10% or more? Have the 'academics' considered that angle?
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined "So Long, California. Sayonara, New York," Laffer and Moore (who have both advised President Donald Trump) say the new tax bill will cause a net 800,000 people to move out of California and New York over the next three years. Please spread the migration out a bit. They don't all have to bring their leftest politics to Georgia.
The tax changes limit the deduction of state and local taxes to $10,000, so many high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states will actually face a tax increase under the new tax code. Not if they move to TX or FL - at least they won't be paying state income tax, which will mean more after-tax take-home pay.
#2
I forgot to mention - the 'academics' in this article attempt to change the subject by saying 'wealthy & super-wealthy' taxpayers aren't going to leave NY and CA, when it is clear Laffer & Moore are talking about 'people' in general.
[Jerusalem Post] Jordanian and US military personnel marked the final day of the annual Eager Lion military exercise on Thursday, which focused on irregular warfare and promoted military relationships.
The annual exercise kicked off in Jordan on April 14 and focuses on irregular warfare, terrorism and national security threats.
Military personnel from the United States and Jordan underwent a chemical, biological and nuclear attack response training at a center in the Jordanian town of Zarqa, north of the capital Amman on Sunday.
The chemical attack response training comes weeks after a suspected poison gas attack in Syria that sparked a US-led retaliatory strike.
The wussification of America continues unabated.
[Yale Daily News] - If you walked into the Grace Hopper College courtyard last year, you may have seen a cat on a leash. Last fall you might have seen a dog; this semester, there are two of them scurrying around Hopper.
These are emotional support animals. While Yale College does not allow students to live with pets on campus, University Policy 4400 allows students to live with emotional support animals, also called assistance animals, "on a case-by-case basis in a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability."
Last year, there was one registered support animal on Yale’s campus, a kitten named Sawa. There are now 14 ‐ a number that Sarah Chang, associate director of the Resource Office on Disabilities, expects to rise.
What took ya so long, Tommy?
[Boston Herald] - NEW YORK ‐ A woman who worked as a war correspondent for NBC News said Tom Brokaw groped her, twice tried to forcibly kiss her and made inappropriate overtures attempting to have an affair, according to two reports published Thursday.
Linda Vester told Variety and the Washington Post that the misbehavior from the longtime news anchor at the network took place in NBC offices in Denver and New York in the 1990s, when she was in her 20s. Variety reports that Vester, now 52, showed them journals from the time that corroborated the story.
Brokaw, who is 78 and has been married since 1962, denied doing anything inappropriate.
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.
[BBC] Californian prosecutors say genealogy websites played a key role in tracking down a man accused of being a notorious serial killer.
[True Pundit] The inner circle of James Comey and Andrew McCabe on the 7th Floor of FBI HQ has flipped, according to high level Justice Department officials.
[AnNahar] China flew bombers and fighter jets around Taiwan on Thursday, officials said, in a new show of force that the defence ministry said was directed at "independence forces" on the self-ruled island.
