[Red State] Last weekend, we learned that the DOJ Inspector General’s investigators had discovered that FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith had altered documents used to support two of the FBI’s applications to the FISA Court for the warrants to spy on Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page. IG Michael Horowitz has since referred Clinesmith for criminal prosecution and he resigned from the FBI in September.
For obvious reasons, the media minimized his importance and presented Clinesmith as a low-level FBI lawyer. The reality is that he was a member of the Hillary Clinton email investigation team (Midyear Exam). According to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’ June 2018 Report (on various actions by the FBI and DOJ in advance of the 2016 election) which can be viewed here, he played a far larger role in the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign (Crossfire Hurricane). The report states Clinesmith was the "the primary FBI attorney assigned to that investigation beginning in early 2017." He then joined Robert Mueller’s investigation team and was dismissed in February 2018 after his anti-Trump text messages had been revealed.
Below is an excerpt from the report. The IG was somewhat concerned about the bias of FBI Attorney 2, but apparently not enough to view it as a threat to the outcome of the investigation.
On page 416, the report shows text messages Clinesmith sent on October 28, 2016 to several FBI colleagues he "considered to be his friends." These were sent shortly after Comey announced the reopening of Midyear Exam. But perhaps more significantly, they occurred just after the FBI had submitted the first application to the FISA Court.
#1
The engineers of cancel culture™ are about to find out it's a two way street.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/27/2019 6:11 Comments ||
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#2
Some choice quotes from our fearless, impartial Incorruptible:
his employer "[the FBI] was walking into a landmine in terms of injecting itself [into the 2016 election] at that late in the process."
Right after his candidate list the election, he moans:
“I am so stressed about what I could have done differently.” Other FBI Attorney: "Don't stress. None of that mattered."
Then our Incorruptible throws all caution to the wind and gives away the game with blatantly partisan political chatter and a vow to "FIGHT THIS AGAIN":
" I just can't imagine the systematic disassembly of all the progress we made over the last eight years. ...We have to fight this again."
Then a very curious assertion that he and his chums at the FBI have the power to determine election outcomes:
"And it's just hard not to feel like the FBI caused some of this. It was razor thin in some states.
SS, Part 199: "Flounder and Otter Try To Stage a Coup"
h/t Instapundit
You ever wondered how it was that Romans actually enjoyed watching people torn to shreds by wild animals in the Colosseum? Watch BBC interviewer Andrew Neil’s merciless inquisition of Jeremy Corbyn, which aired this evening in the UK. You can’t watch it on the BBC Player in the US, but the full thing is embedded in the Daily Mail story, or, the Conservative Party is airing it on its Facebook page. Once you see it, you’ll understand why. It’s like Corbyn sat down with Neil as leader of the Labour Party, about two weeks before the election, and proceeded to commit slow-motion political suicide.
The Guardian doesn’t have a review up at this writing, but earlier in the day it published an editorial saying Labour hasn’t done enough to deal with Jew-hatred in its ranks. Here is its straight news report on the Neil interview, which focuses on how Corbyn refused multiple times to apologize to British Jews for grotesque anti-Semitism within the Labour Party ‐ this, on a day when the Chief Rabbi of the country called Labour out for it, and the Archbishop of Canterbury stood with his Jewish counterpart in solidarity. I kept watching Andrew Neil put the question to Corbyn, thinking, "Why can’t this man say that he’s sorry? Why is he dodging?"
The anti-Semitism thing took up the first 10 minutes of the 30-minute interview, though it could have been dispatched with quickly had Corbyn handled it differently. But the whole thing was just staggering. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a senior politician destroy himself quite like that in an interview.
...Watch the last five minutes of the thing, in which Corbyn can’t bring himself to say he would give the kill order to British special forces if they cornered the head of ISIS as he was about to order a terrorist attack. That, to me, is an even bigger deal than the anti-Semitism mess (which is pretty damning), because it has to do with national security and terrorism. Corbyn is a wet-noodle leftist to the marrow. The Daily Mail is nobody’s idea of a left-wing newspaper, but even Labourites will concede that tomorrow’s cover accurately sums up their hapless leader’s interview:
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/27/2019 3:57 Comments ||
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#3
That’s a nice bit of cleverness, Herb. Thank you! I reset the dimensions to width=550 height=350, because it was a bit outsized, though not enough to break the Burg. :-)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing in the impeachment of 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... on December 4, with legal experts as witnesses, a Democratic aide said.
The aide declined comment on whether the Judiciary Committee expected it would have a report on the Intelligence Committee-led investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine before the hearing.
Last Thursday, top White House officials and six Republican senators met to discuss strategy for a possible Senate impeachment trial.
One Senate GOP aide said participants expressed more interest in voting as soon as they have 51 votes to acquit Trump than in setting a specific timetable.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
wonder if this is just shifting things so Schiff can get out of the lime-light for awhile and someone in a safe district can keep things going.
#2
I think Schiff's district is pretty safe, being as how it's in LA. This is Nancy trying to figure out which one of these two imbeciles is the least likely to embarrass her.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/27/2019 11:52 Comments ||
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#3
SS Part 200: "Rep. Blutarski Takes Center Stage"
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Melania Trump on Tuesday defended the rights of teenagers who booed her when she addressed them in Baltimore, a city her husband, President Donald Trump ...the Nailer of NAFTA... , has disparaged as "rat and rodent infested." and Feral Youts
She traveled there to urge hundreds of middle and high school students to avoid misusing drugs, saying that would make it harder for them to achieve their life’s goals. But her remarks drew a mix of boos and cheers, and the audience remained noisy throughout her five-minute address.
It is highly unusual for a first lady to be booed at a public appearance. Mrs. Trump released a statement hours after she had returned to the White House, defending the principle of freedom of expression while reaffirming her commitment to the issue that drew her to Baltimore.
"We live in a democracy and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the fact is we have a serious crisis in our country and I remain committed to educating children on the dangers and deadly consequences of drug abuse," Mrs. Trump said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#4
She has more class than the last five first ladies combined.
It is striking how different the coverage of First Lady Melania Trump (*Boo!* Hissss) VS First Lady Jackie Kennedy (*Kiss* Swoooon). What a difference a letter makes ('R' vs 'D').
#5
You don't even have to go back to Jackie Kennedy to see the R vs D hypocrisy. The last first lady was swooned over and even courted to run as president despite doing nothing but pushing school lunches that kids tossed in the bin and for finally being proud of America because it elected her hubby.
#7
My mother and her wooden spoon are still available to teach the little brats some manners. Mom was *quite* effective in her methods.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/27/2019 10:40 Comments ||
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#8
The boosh wives have been overtly anti Trump. Nancy Reagan was the sort of opportunist who certainly would have been if she were alive today.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/27/2019 10:46 Comments ||
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#9
wooden spoon
My Slovak grandma had wooden spoon moves that made nunchucks look like q-tips. You did not go in grama's kitchen when whe was cooking.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/27/2019 10:50 Comments ||
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#10
when she was cooking
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/27/2019 10:52 Comments ||
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#11
The last first lady was swooned over and even courted to run as president despite doing nothing but pushing school lunches that kids tossed in the bin and for finally being proud of America because it elected her hubby.
How many languages does Big Mike speak?
(Ebonics doesn't count.)
How 'bout the other last four First Ladies?
Melania reportedly speaks German and French, in addition to English and her two native languages of Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, plus some Italian.
#14
I would suggest an alternative News and entertainment media. A 24 hour conservative media home. Trump and the family Camelot. Melania could invite the worlds rich and famous. Glamor, fashion and arts. Who needs Hollywood. Nobody wants the liberal media. Would anyone deny themselves needed exposure. We truly have a Camelot story here. Build what people want and they will come.
[BREITBART] Sen. Elizabeth Being Native American has been part of my story since the day I was born Warren ...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless... (D-MA) on Monday floated the possibility of an all-woman ticket if she wins the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination in 2020.
While campaigning in Altoona, Iowa, Warren was asked if she plans on selecting a woman as her running mate.
"It would be entirely presumptuous of me to talk about running mates," the Massachusetts senator replied, before adding: "But I gotta say ‐ why wouldn’t I have a woman for a running mate?"
#3
This is the reason Bloomberg entered the race. He can't take Trump out as he has nothing to offer. I suspect he already has calculated that. However, he can take out "Hate the Billionaires" Warren and Sanders. The Deep Money are not going to back either of those two who've openly scream to steal as much of their assets as possible. It's a matter of self protection. They will bankroll Bloomberg to keep control of the party and out of the hands of the radical Left. Given how the money establishment has already organized the black funding system, it should be no problem.
#4
I recommend Liz go with a fake trans women. Pete Buttigig (sp?) comes to mind as a likely candidate. I mean, it's not like he is ever going to be President.
[THECONSERVATIVETREEHOUSE] House Judiciary Committee (HJC) Chairman Jerry "The Hutt"
Nadler, together with Lawfare contracted impeachment agents Barry Berke and Norm Eisen, are attempting to reframe a collapsing impeachment and pull-in White House participation.
Chairman Nadler has announced a December 4th hearing with a panel of democrat selected constitutional lawyers and legal ’experts’, to discuss the procedural framework of an impeachment process. As Nadler states: "Our first task is to explore the framework put in place to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct". So the HJC initial objective to build their narrative is to explain what the impeachment process is about.
This is transparently an attempt by Nadler/Lawfare to give legitimacy to an illegitimate political exercise. The hearing purpose is framed as a trap to pull the White House in, and thereby create the optics of constitutional legitimacy. Strong caution is advised and I would not be surprised to see the White House refuse to participate. Here’s why:
With the House investigative portion of resolution 660 complete, per Adam Schiff ...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation... and a yet invisible report from the HPSCI committee submitted, either the House Judiciary should follow their own process or not. The White House and the minority have not even seen the one-sided report mandated by the House Impeachment Inquiry Resolution.
My advice to the White House would be to respond to Nadler’s letter by informing him the House "Impeachment Report" authorized by resolution 660 has not yet been delivered; therefore, without a basis for the HJC to consider the validity of the first phase, it would be presumptuous to engage in a second phase framework exercise without the origination material described by the House Democrats’ own procedure.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/27/2019 10:10 Comments ||
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#3
If what Trump did was a high crime and/or misdemeanor the entire nation would recognize it as such and there would be no need to "explore the framework". This is a stall tactic because they have no case and they don't have the guts to vote for impeachment.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/27/2019 12:03 Comments ||
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Despite the best efforts of the media, the underlying facts in the current impeachment effort must not go unnoticed. While Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... was the sitting vice president, his son, Hunter Biden, received a very lucrative job as a board member of a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company, despite not having any expertise in this area.
During the time of Hunter’s employment, the activities of the company were investigated for corruption by the Ukrainian government. Joe Biden used his political power to threaten to withhold billions of dollars from the Ukrainian government if they did not fire the prosecutor who was, as it happened, investigating the allegedly corrupt company that had hired Hunter.
These are the hard and true facts, and they speak to the only quid pro quo we are certain of in this entire spectacle. There are even video tapes of Joe Biden bragging about the deal he made with the Ukrainians to get this prosecutor fired.
Are these facts beyond investigation because Biden is a Democratic candidate for president? Should the Trump administration ignore his blatant quid pro quo because Hunter Biden has some kind of special privilege that no other American citizen possesses ‐ the "my dad is the vice president" privilege?
Currently, Democrats in Congress are attempting to impeach Trump because he suggested that the Biden father-son duo’s corrupt deal with Ukraine be investigated. They are using the "my dad is veep" privilege as a partisan weapon. They are asserting, or at least implying, that people in the political class can’t be investigated for wrongdoing.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... any investigation into a political candidate can be viewed as "politically motivated" when the investigation comes from the other side of the political aisle. That fact cannot and should not be the determining factor in whether an investigation takes place. The real question should be, "Is the inquiry about this candidate a legitimate one?"
Criminal law is clear about this question. Subjective motivations are irrelevant. The court only considers whether there was a legitimate objective reason to believe criminal conduct occurred.
Was there a legitimate and objective reason to believe Hunter Biden was engaged in corruption and his father ‐ in his official capacity as the vice president ‐ threatened foreign officials in order to stop the investigation into his son? If you are objective, the answer to that question is very clear.
#6
I suspect that if the GOP wins in a landslide in 2020 a large number of lefty politicians will be moving to non-extradition locations as the GOP might finally get a spine to look into the corruption in their midst.
#8
as the GOP might finally get a spine to look into the corruption in their midst.
It's a nice thought, but given that so many in the GOP were active participants in the malfeasance, I don't hold much hope for more than a token culling.
For example, ever wonder why there's never been a serious look into the attacks on the Tea Party movement?
It's because McCain, Graham, Boehner and Ryan were pushing those attacks as much as the Dems were.
#9
Bloomberg's entry into the race scrambles everything for the pols and their media whores. He can't come-exist with Biden: one or the other must fall.
#11
The question I have is: why did the Obama administration want to give this money, (and much larger numbers have been bandied about) to the government of Ukraine?
The claim has been made that that government was terribly corrupt, and the money was given as loan guarantees, which does not give us the ability to monitor what the loans were, and where the loan money went. This is very different from javelins that Trump delivered, that had the immediate effect of cutting down on the fighting.
What was the quid for that quo, or quo for that quid?
It has been claimed that much of that money filtered to corrupt entities (Government cronies including the head of Burisma). If so, did some of that filter back to parties in this country?
Was there another motivation for bathing the corrupt government in cash?
Of course no one can rationally believe in any story one sees anywhere from anyone these days, so the assumptions here may be all wet.
But Biden is on record for claiming most of this himself.
Posted by: Daniel ||
11/27/2019 16:41 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar ...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side... has denied accusations made in a US District Court that she was recruited by a foreign government, passed sensitive information that was relayed to Iran, and received funding by a foreign government.
In explosive testimony made by video link from Toronto, Canada to a Florida District Court on October 23, Canadian businessman Alan Bender alleged that Omar was the "jewel in the crown" of an illicit campaign by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... to gain influence over the US government. The sworn deposition was obtained exclusively by Al Arabiya English. Perhaps she would like to deny that under oath?
"The only people Rep. Omar represents in Washington are the people of Minnesota’s 5th District," said Omar in a statement sent to a regional news outlet. Her office did not respond to Al Arabiya English’s request for comment.
In the deposition, Bender alleges that he met Qatar’s Secretary to the Emir for Security Affairs Mohammad bin Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Masnad and two other senior Qatari officials who claimed that Qatar "recruited Ilhan Omar from even way before she thought about becoming a government official ... They groomed her and arranged the foundation, the grounds, for her to get into politics way before she even showed interest. They convinced her."
The deposition was authenticated by the attorney for the plaintiff, The Castaneda Law Firm, based in Tampa, Florida. In the response from Omar, her office called the story "outlandishly absurd" and accused Al Arabiya English of targeting her with "misinformation and conspiracy theories."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#1
The only people Rep. Omar represents in Washington are the people of Minnesota’s 5th District
... whose only failing is they aren't too bright.
I understand this may be just hype. Even so, you must vilify her, imply connexion with all sorts of evil from Qaatar to Shabaab; use every opportunity and trick from every book to oust her from American politics. Go at her like a ...a Democrat would !
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.
[Red State] Last weekend, we learned that the DOJ Inspector General’s investigators had discovered that FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith had altered documents used to support two of the FBI’s applications to the FISA Court for the warrants to spy on Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page. IG Michael Horowitz has since referred Clinesmith for criminal prosecution and he resigned from the FBI in September.
...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...
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless...
...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that 
...The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
...Somali-
