Bless Their Hearts! News & Markets for 6-2-18
The Hill ties together the beginning of the FBI/DOJ espionage operation against the Trump campaign. Using information of who was involved in the "setup" of campaign aides, and text messages between FBI employees, it suggests that the Obama White House was aware of the operation and probably directing it.
The timeline moved up from the summer of 2016 to spring 2016, and provides clarification on early contacts between the players involved in the DOJ/FBI sting and Trump campaign aides.
The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn’t erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election.
It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers and provided the FBI with hearsay allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, bureau documents and interviews of government insiders reveal. These contacts in spring 2016 — some from trusted intelligence sources, others from Hillary Clinton supporters — occurred well before FBI headquarters authorized an official counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016.
The new timeline makes one wonder: Did the FBI follow its rules governing informants? -The Hill
“The revelation of purposeful contact initiated by alleged confidential human sources prior to any FBI investigation is troublesome,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) “This new information begs the questions: Who were the informants working for, who were they reporting to and why has the [Department of Justice] and FBI gone to such great lengths to hide these contacts?”
Retired assistant FBI director for intelligence Kevin Brock supervised an agency update to the longstanding bureau rules governing the use of sources while working under then-director Robert Mueller. These rules prohibit the FBI from directing a human source to perform espionage on an American until a formal investigation has been opened and all paperwork completed and filed.
Brock sees oddities in how the Russia case began. “These types of investigations aren’t normally run by assistant directors and deputy directors at headquarters,” he told me. “All that happens normally in a field office, but that isn’t the case here and so it becomes a red flag. Congress would have legitimate oversight interests in the conditions and timing of the targeting of a confidential human source against a U.S. person.” -The Hill
The texts reveal that Strzok and Page were also concerned about someone within the DOJ leaking details of their investigation
“This is MUCH more tasty for one of those DOJ aholes to leak,” Strzok texted Page, as well as concerns that the White House was spearheading the investigation.
“Went well, best we could have expected,” Strzok texted Page after an Aug. 5, 2016, meeting. “Other than Liz quote ‘the White House is running this.’ ” Page texted to assure Strzok of a paper trail showing the FBI in charge: “We got emails that say otherwise.”
So that the agency's targeting of Trump associates wouldn't occur on U.S. soil, the very beginnings of "Operation Crossfire Hurricane" all have ties to London.
The ties are so strong that some have begun to accuse the UK of colluding with the Obama administration and Clinton campaign to influence the 2016 US election.
According to documents and government interviews, one of the FBI’s most senior counterintelligence agents visited London the first week of May 2016. Congress never got the FBI to explain that trip — but, soon after it, one of the most consequential moments of the scandal occurred: On May 10, Australian diplomat Alexander Downer met in a London bar with Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, who boasted of knowing that Russia would release dirt on Clinton.
That contact was not immediately reported to U.S. intelligence.
By early June, a second overture to a Trump campaign adviser occurred in London. In a “Dear Carter” email, a Cambridge University graduate student invited Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to attend a popular July security conference in London.
While Page did not reveal the name of the graduate student, he did say that the student studied under Stefan Halper - the Cambridge professor and longtime FBI/CIA asset who was sent in to perform espionage on the Trump campaign.
Halper, according to Page, asked to be introduced to high-ranking Trump campaign official Sam Clovis.
On July 16, 2016, Carter Page relayed the overture to Clovis: “Professor Stef Halper spends part of the year in Virginia where he has a home in Falls Church; he's a big fan of yours having followed you on CNN and offered a range of possibilities regarding how he and the University might be able to help.”
Halper, a month later, emailed Clovis, referencing his contacts with Carter Page. “May I suggest we set a time to meet when you are next in Washington?” Halper invited on Aug. 29, 2016.
There are more links to London which makes a case for a setup. One week before Carter Page left for London, former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, recently hired by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, made contact with the FBI for an unknown purpose. Weeks later, Steele began working with the agency, while his infamous "Steele Dossier" - full of unverified claims, would become a key document in the application for a FISA warrant to spy on Page.
The London meeting between Papadopoulos and Alexander Downer was reported to the FBI weeks after the July 23, 2016 release of Hillary Clinton's emails by WikiLeaks.
Downer arranged a $25 million grant to the Clinton foundation a decade ago to help fight AIDS. This was part of an overall $88 million funneled from Australian taxpayers to the charity.
As John Solomon of The Hill notes, "This timeline doesn’t prove wrongdoing; these contacts could have occurred organically, or been directed legally through intelligence channels. Yet, congressional investigators and FBI insiders tell me, they raise questions about when the investigation officially started and how."
Bless their hearts!
The Ukrainian government's staged assassination of anti-Putin journalist Arkady Babachenko has evidence that has emerged that his would-be "Russia-ordered" assassin and the man who supposedly hired him, both say they worked for Ukrainian counterintelligence. Hmmm.
Ukraine did it! LOL We all knew it wasn't the Russians but just another ploy by the powers that were to blame Russia. They want to go back into time, 1950s. LOL too bad for them that the rest of us don't want to and won't. I know it was glory days for NATO and pals back then but that isn't coming back. Bless their hearts! They try though.
Hitman Oleksiy Tsimbalyuk is an outspoken critic of Russia who says he worked for Ukrainian counterintelligence - a claim Ukraine initially denied but later admitted to be true. The guy who hired Tsimbalyuk, Boris L. German, 50, says he worked for Ukrainian counter-intelligence, a claim Ukraine denies as it immediately destroys the scripted, if rapidly imploding, Ukrainian narrative meant to scapegoat Russia for what has been a "fake news" story of epic proportions, emerging from the one nation that not only was the biggest foreign donor to the Clinton foundation, but has made fake news propaganda into an art form.
LOL Bless their hearts!
The New York Times reports that Tsimbalyuk - a former Russia-hating priest was featured in a 10-minute documentary in January 2017 in which he called killing members of the Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine "an act of mercy".
Why Russia would hire him for the supposed assassination? LOL
As the NY Times puts it:
Given such strong and publicly avowed enmity toward Russia, it is odd to say the least that Mr. Tsimbalyuk would be selected to carry out the contract killing of a prominent Kremlin critic.
Ukraine officials have been on the defensive since Wednesday, when the head of security services announced they had staged the death of Babchenko so they could track his would-be killers to Russian intelligence, a story the International Federation of Journalists slammed as idiotic, nonsensical and completely undermining Ukraine's credibility.
LOL Aren't we cute?
The White House is planning for a potential summit between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Back in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Russian news agency in late April that “President Putin is ready for such a meeting".
In April, Yuri Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to the U.S. and now an aide to Mr. Putin, said Mr. Trump had invited Mr. Putin to Washington during a March 20 phone call. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, responding to questions about Mr. Ushakov’s revelation, confirmed the invitation. “The two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’ at a number of potential venues, including the White House,” Ms. Sanders said at the time.
Preparations for the summit are taking place.
Facebook aka Wannabe Thought Police
LOL Bless their hearts! As they love to say over and over again - we care about you! ROTFLOL
Facebook is replacing its user-generated "trending news" feature with a "breaking news" section comprised of 80 publications which they will feed to users but refuse to tell you who they are.
As a result, Facebook will have complete control over narratives and topics which go against their internal corporate culture. That's ok. Their company. The exodus will accelerate.
Facebook's Trending News section has been under scrutiny since the 2016 election after it was proven that the editors in charge of the feature were repeatedly discriminating against conservative articles, while promoting progressive content. Their clear bias resulted in the threat of an investigation from the Senate commerce committee.
The new changes were explained in a Friday announcement:
Breaking News Label: A test we’re running with 80 publishers across North America, South America, Europe, India and Australia lets publishers put a “breaking news” indicator on their posts in News Feed. We’re also testing breaking news notifications.
Today In: We’re testing a dedicated section on Facebook called Today In that connects people to the latest breaking and important news from local publishers in their city, as well as updates from local officials and organizations.
News Video in Watch: We will soon have a dedicated section on Facebook Watch in the US where people can view live coverage, daily news briefings and weekly deep dives that are exclusive to Watch.
While the Washington Post, Recode, The Verge, and Vox have confirmed they're among the 80 "breaking news" publications, no other publishers names have been revealed.
Bless their hearts! I myself do not read news from Facebook. I know there are two sides to everything and I know they only show me the side they care about. It is their company and they do not care about me other than to use my data for advertisers.
MSNBC has refused to fire host Joy Reid for writing "hateful" and anti-Semitic blog posts written on her old website The Reid Report, despite new reports of offensive content and Reid's promotion of a Nazi website.
“Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful,” reads a statement from MSNBC. “They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”
MSNBC has failed to address the fact that Reid lied about homophobic blog posts she made, blaming them on hackers only to find that the original posts were archived by archive.org and the library of Congress.
Reid issued an apology for her old posts, which included a photo shopped image of Sen. John McCain's head over the Virginia Tech gunman.
As The Federalist reported on Thursday, Reid attacked CNN's Wolf Blitzer for being "too nice to Jews," and that Reid said then-President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "really onto something when he suggested that the "Zionist regime" of Israel should just relocate to Europe."
Adding to Reid's anti-Semitic and bigoted blog posts was a Friday report by the Daily Wire following a tip by Fox News reporter Brian Flood.
Embattled MSNBC host Joy Reid’s now-defunct blog published multiple blog posts that promoted vicious attacks on the McCain family, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, nasty personal attacks on people, doctored images, and more, according to several newly discovered posts reviewed by The Daily Wire. -Daily Wire
In a Friday report first noted by Twitchy.com last July, IJR's Caleb Hull reported that Reid "shared a conspiracy theory on Twitter about Jared Kushner," which came "from an anime Nazi news website, whose staff openly supports Hitler and posts extremist articles to this day."
LOL Bless her heart! I don't think anime is a source for facts but that's just me. LOL
On July 12, 2017, MSNBC host Joy Reid shared a conspiracy theory on Twitter about Jared Kushner and his relationship with the Trump administration and a company called Genie Energy.
However, the article she shared is from an anime Nazi news website, whose staff openly supports Hitler and posts extremist articles to this day.
The tweet, as well as the original article on AnimeRight.news, have now been deleted, but thanks to the Internet archive Wayback Machine, they've been saved.
In 2017, Reid posted the link, adding that “Jared Kushner is close to @NYPost publisher Rupert Murdoch.” -IJR
As Josh Caplan of Breitbart points out, "Reid also fails to provide an update on the FBI investigation that her lawyer claimed would take place back when she was scrambling to deny that she wrote blog entries full of anti-gay statements."
Joy Ann Reid made homophobic, anti-Semitic blog posts, lied about it, got the FBI involved, and then promoted a Nazi website over Twitter, and keeps her job.
Samantha Bee calls Ivanka Trump a "Feckless c*nt" on TBS - a comment which would have been approved by TBS management, and keeps her job despite two advertisers bailing.
Bill Maher compared President Trump to an orangutan and kept his job.
The Daily Show's Trevor Noah has made a ton of anti-Semitic tweets and kept his job.
Roseanne Barr compares former Obama admin official Valerie Jarrett to an ape and loses her show within 24 hours.
The message from the left is clear; if you're going to be a bigot, just make sure you're a liberal first.
LOL Ass biting coming. LOL Such a joy to watch this show! I love irony.
Bless their hearts!
They truly believe in climate change despite no evidence of it other than the natural ebb and flow of the planet and so despite having plenty of water they are limiting the water that can be used per person and each person is expected to continue saving water to levels per person they create. They seem to think they are their own country and are following the Paris accord and the UN 2030 agenda.
Rather than imagine plenty for all Jerry Brown imagines another drought and wants to prepare for it. In Texas, we call it an emergency fund and it is for emergencies that may arise like Harvey. This man and his minions believe in drought. They imagine drought. They will get it and this 'tax', this enslavement to live there, will drive more people out of the state.
They assume the state's population is growing. Considering their invasive government, asking people to limit water when all can see there is plenty, and no way to buy a home unless you are rich, and the continued conflict between citizens on immigration, California is poised to start losing population not grow it. Good weather only carries you so far.
Silicon Valley residents in particular are leaving in droves - more so than any other part of the state. Nearby San Mateo County which is home to Facebook came in Second, while Los Angeles County came in third.
“They’re looking for affordability and not finding it in Santa Clara County,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist for realtor.com.
A tight housing supply combined with a decade of exploding home values have pushed housing prices and rents through the roof.
As Michael Snyder of the Economic Collapse Blog pointed out in May.
Reasons for the mass exodus include rising crime, the worst traffic in the western world, a growing homelessness epidemic, wildfires, earthquakes and crazy politicians that do some of the stupidest things imaginable. But for most families, the decision to leave California comes down to one basic factor…
Money.
Punitive taxes - more than twice as much as some other states, are eating away at disposable income. Nearby Arizona's income tax rate is 4.54% vs. California's 9.3%, while the new tax bill may accelerate the exodus.
As Snyder notes:
"But now the new tax bill has made some major changes, and some experts believe that this will actually accelerate the exodus out of the state of California."
The following comes from CNBC:
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.
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.
Nice up day Friday. Target 3200 remains. We are in an intermediate Wave 4 that is developing a wedge. Breakout to the upside will likely take place next year.
S&P 500 Resistance – 2759, 2785, 2811, 2824, 2842, 2876, 2905
S&P 500 Support – 2730, 2715, 2682, 2655, 2638, 2607, 2575, 2560, 2530, 2505, 2478, 2422, 2400, 2375
6800 is the next good support level and 8000 is now the ceiling. This crypto is creating a wedge. As for the wave count it is a new market and as such we have to see how the pattern develops. Making a wedge for sure but whether it will break up or down has not been determined yet.
Resistance - 8000, 8990, 9630, 10100, 11330
Support - 8180, 6930, 6800, 6620, 5875
Take care,
Rita
Note -
We all play Saul before we play Paul. All think they are doing good.
It's ok. We all do it and we all figure it out. In the end it is all good.
I don't really care what anyone says or does. I care what they feel and believe. What some believe is obviously them still on the journey as most are. It's not my world. It's just a window into another's world. You don't have to buy what anyone is selling. Thinking critically and for yourself is the greatest thing you can do for you. Be good to you always!